Daniel's bookshelf: all en-US Wed, 01 Nov 2023 11:10:08 -0700 60 Daniel's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg The Night Circus 10339954
But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.

(c) 2011 Random House Audio]]> 14 Erin Morgenstern 0307938905 Daniel 0 3.84 2011 The Night Circus
author: Erin Morgenstern
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at: 2013/03/21
date added: 2023/11/01
shelves:
review:

]]> Remarkable 11286074
Everyone in Remarkable is remarkable. Everyone except Jane, that is. While the rest of the town is busy being talented, gifted, or just plain extraordinary, she's never been anything but ordinary. Then Jane finds herself in school with the mischievous Grimlet twins, and her life suddenly gets a whole lot more interesting. And when a strange pirate captain appears in town, setting of a series of adventures that put the whole town in danger, it's up to Jane to save the day. Along the way, she might just find that she can be pretty remarkable after all.

* "A rich, unforgettable story that's quite simply - amazing." � Kirkus Reviews, starred review

* " Filled with clever word play, wholly unique situations, outlandish characters...Foley's novel is a remarkable,middle-grade gem." � Booklist , starred review]]> 334 Lizzie K. Foley 1101575336 Daniel 0 to-read, apocalypsies 3.98 2012 Remarkable
author: Lizzie K. Foley
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/27
shelves: to-read, apocalypsies
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The House of Silk (Sherlock Holmes, #1)]]> 13528377
Once again, THE GAME’S AFOOT�

London, 1890. 221B Baker St. A fine art dealer named Edmund Carstairs visits Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson to beg for their help. He is being menaced by a strange man in a flat cap � a wanted criminal who seems to have followed him all the way from America. In the days that follow, his home is robbed, his family is threatened. And then the first murder takes place.

Almost unwillingly, Holmes and Watson find themselves being drawn ever deeper into an international conspiracy connected to the teeming criminal underworld of Boston, the gaslit streets of London, opium dens and much, much more. And as they dig, they begin to hear the whispered phrase-the House of Silk-a mysterious entity that connects the highest levels of government to the deepest depths of criminality. Holmes begins to fear that he has uncovered a conspiracy that threatens to tear apart the very fabric of society.

The Arthur Conan Doyle Estate chose the celebrated, #1 New York Times bestselling author Anthony Horowitz to write The House of Silk because of his proven ability to tell a transfixing story and for his passion for all things Holmes. Destined to become an instant classic, The House of Silk brings Sherlock Holmes back with all the nuance, pacing, and almost superhuman powers of analysis and deduction that made him the world’s greatest detective, in a case depicting events too shocking, too monstrous to ever appear in print…until now.
--mulhollandbooks.com]]> 296 Anthony Horowitz 0316197017 Daniel 0 to-read 4.04 2011 The House of Silk (Sherlock Holmes, #1)
author: Anthony Horowitz
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/01/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Unquiet 12971678
Fans of films like Black Swan will be fascinated by this psychological thriller.]]> 400 Jeannine Garsee 1599907232 Daniel 0 to-read 3.80 2012 The Unquiet
author: Jeannine Garsee
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/12/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War]]> 117991
The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years.

Ranging from the now infamous village of New Dachang in the United Federation of China, where the epidemiological trail began with the twelve-year-old Patient Zero, to the unnamed northern forests where untold numbers sought a terrible and temporary refuge in the cold, to the United States of Southern Africa, where the Redeker Plan provided hope for humanity at an unspeakable price, to the west-of-the-Rockies redoubt where the North American tide finally started to turn, this invaluable chronicle reflects the full scope and duration of the Zombie War.

Most of all, the book captures with haunting immediacy the human dimension of this epochal event. Facing the often raw and vivid nature of these personal accounts requires a degree of courage on the part of the reader, but the effort is invaluable because, as Mr. Brookssays in his introduction, “By excluding the human factor, aren’t we risking the kind of personal detachment from history that may, heaven forbid, lead us one day to repeat it? And in the end, isn’t the human factor the only true difference between us and the enemy we now refer to as ‘the living dead�?�

Note: Some of the numerical and factual material contained in this edition was previously published under the auspices of the United Nations Postwar Commission.
Eyewitness reports from the first truly global war

“I found ‘Patient Zero� behind the locked door of an abandoned apartment across town. . . . His wrists and feet were bound with plastic packing twine. Although he’d rubbed off the skin around his bonds, there was no blood. There was also no blood on his other wounds. . . . He was writhing like an animal; a gag muffled his growls. At first the villagers tried to hold me back. They warned me not to touch him, that he was ‘cursed.� I shrugged them off and reached for my mask and gloves. The boy’s skin was . . . cold and gray . . . I could find neither his heartbeat nor his pulse.� —Dr. Kwang Jingshu, Greater Chongqing, United Federation of China


“‘Shock and Awe�? Perfect name. . . . But what if the enemy can’t be shocked and awed? Not just won’t, but biologically can’t! That’s what happened that day outside New York City, that’s the failure that almost lost us the whole damn war. The fact that we couldn’t shock and awe Zack boomeranged right back in our faces and actually allowed Zack to shock and awe us! They’re not afraid! No matter what we do, no matter how many we kill, they will never, ever be afraid!� —Todd Wainio, former U.S. Army infantryman and veteran of the Battle of Yonkers


“Two hundred million zombies. Who can even visualize that type of number, let alone combat it? . . . For the first time in history, we faced an enemy that was actively waging total war. They had no limits of endurance. They would never negotiate, never surrender. They would fight until the very end because, unlike us, every single one of them, every second of every day, was devoted to consuming all life on Earth.� —General Travis]]> 6 Max Brooks 0739340131 Daniel 3 3.89 2006 World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
author: Max Brooks
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2013/03/01
date added: 2017/11/02
shelves:
review:
The abridged version was a bit choppy, random. Might have enjoyed it more had I not read the book previously.
]]> Divergent (Divergent, #1) 8306857 In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue--Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is--she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are--and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

]]> 487 Veronica Roth 0062024027 Daniel 4 4.28 2011 Divergent (Divergent, #1)
author: Veronica Roth
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2011/07/04
date added: 2016/05/27
shelves:
review:
Damn this book got a lot of hype. I did enjoy it a great deal, though. Pretty cool premise, intriguing characters and a unique setting made for a quick read. Definitely a series book, lots of loose ends here.
]]> Servants of the Storm 19695718 “An urban fantasy that could rival some of Holly Black’s most imaginative and creepy fare� (BCCB).A year ago, Hurricane Josephine swept through Savannah, Georgia, leaving behind nothing but death and destruction—and taking the life of Dovey’s best friend, Carly. Since that night, Dovey has been in a medicated haze, numb to everything around her. But recently she’s started to believe she’s seeing things that can’t be real…including Carly at their favorite café. Determined to learn the truth, Dovey stops taking her pills. And the world that opens up to her is unlike anything she could have imagined. As Dovey slips deeper into the shadowy corners of Savannah—where the dark and horrifying secrets lurk—she learns that the storm that destroyed her city and stole her friend was much more than a force of nature. And now the sinister beings truly responsible are out to finish what they started.]]> 385 Delilah S. Dawson 1442483806 Daniel 0 to-read 3.73 2014 Servants of the Storm
author: Delilah S. Dawson
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/06/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The House of Dead Maids 7942858
As Tabby struggles to escape the evil forces rising out of the land, she watches her young charge choose a different path. Long before he reaches the old farmhouse of Wuthering Heights, the boy who will become Heathcliff has doomed himself and any who try to befriend him.]]> 146 Clare B. Dunkle 0805091165 Daniel 4 3.38 2010 The House of Dead Maids
author: Clare B. Dunkle
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.38
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2011/06/12
date added: 2015/03/04
shelves:
review:
Creepy prequel to Wuthering Heights with echoes of The Wicker Man. Super quick read and grimly fun!
]]> 14 (Threshold, #1) 15062217
There are some odd things about Nate’s new apartment.

Of course, he has other things on his mind. He hates his job. He has no money in the bank. No girlfriend. No plans for the future. So while his new home isn’t perfect, it’s livable. The rent is low, the property managers are friendly, and the odd little mysteries don’t nag at him too much.

At least, not until he meets Mandy, his neighbour across the hall, and notices something unusual about her apartment. And Xela’s apartment. And Tim’s. And Veek’s. Because every room in this old Los Angeles brownstone has a mystery or two. Mysteries that stretch back over a hundred years. Some of them are in plain sight. Some are behind locked doors. And all together these mysteries could mean the end of Nate and his friends.

Or the end of everything...]]> 372 Peter Clines Daniel 0 to-read 3.96 2012 14 (Threshold, #1)
author: Peter Clines
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/01/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Yellow Wall-Paper 286957
In a private journal, the woman records her growing obsession with the “horrid� wallpaper. Its strange pattern mutates in the moonlight, revealing what appears to be a human figure in the design. With nothing else to occupy her mind, the woman resolves to unlock the mystery of the wallpaper. Her quest, however, leads not to the truth, but into the darkest depths of madness.

A condemnation of the patriarchy, The Yellow Wallpaper explores with terrifying economy the oppression, grave misunderstanding, and willful dismissal of women in late nineteenth-century society.

First published in January 1892 in The New England Magazine.

Excerpt:
Out of another I get a lovely view of the bay and a little private wharf belonging to the estate. There is a beautiful shaded lane that runs down there from the house. I always fancy I see people walking in these numerous paths and arbors, but John has cautioned me not to give way to fancy in the least. He says that with my imaginative power and habit of story-making a nervous weakness like mine is sure to lead to all manner of excited fancies, and that I ought to use my will and good sense to check the tendency. So I try.]]> 62 Charlotte Perkins Gilman 1558611584 Daniel 0 to-read 4.11 1892 The Yellow Wall-Paper
author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1892
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/10/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Crazy Rich Asians (Crazy Rich Asians, #1)]]> 16085481
When Rachel Chu agrees to spend the summer in Singapore with her boyfriend, Nicholas Young, she envisions a humble family home, long drives to explore the island, and quality time with the man she might one day marry. What she doesn't know is that Nick's family home happens to look like a palace, that she'll ride in more private planes than cars, and that with one of Asia's most eligible bachelors on her arm, Rachel might as well have a target on her back.

Initiated into a world of dynastic splendor beyond imagination, Rachel meets Astrid, the It Girl of Singapore society; Eddie, whose family practically lives in the pages of the Hong Kong socialite magazines; and Eleanor, Nick's formidable mother, a woman who has very strong feelings about who her son should—and should not—marry.

Uproarious, addictive, and filled with jaw-dropping opulence, Crazy Rich Asians is an insider's look at the Asian JetSet; a perfect depiction of the clash between old money and new money; between Overseas Chinese and Mainland Chinese; and a fabulous novel about what it means to be young, in love, and gloriously, crazily rich.]]> 403 Kevin Kwan 0385536976 Daniel 0 to-read 3.91 2013 Crazy Rich Asians (Crazy Rich Asians, #1)
author: Kevin Kwan
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/09/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Death Note: Black Edition, Vol. 1]]> 9267091
Light Yagami is an ace student with great prospects—and he’s bored out of his mind. But all that changes when he finds the Death Note, a notebook dropped by rogue Shinigami death god. Any human whose name is written in the notebook dies, and now Light has vowed to use the power of the Death Note to rid the world of evil. But when criminals begin dropping dead, the authorities send the legendary detective L to track down the killer. With L hot on his heels, will Light lose sight of his noble goal…or his life?

Contains Volumes 1 and 2 of Death Note !

Light Yagami is an ace student with great prospects—and he’s bored out of his mind. But all that changes when he finds the Death Note, a notebook dropped by a rogue Shinigami death god. Any human whose name is written in the notebook dies, and now Light has vowed to use the power of the Death Note to rid the world of evil. Will Light’s noble goal succeed, or will the Death Note turn him into the very thing he fights against?]]> 392 Tsugumi Ohba 1421539640 Daniel 0 currently-reading 4.42 2003 Death Note: Black Edition, Vol. 1
author: Tsugumi Ohba
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/09/22
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Rage Against the Dying (Brigid Quinn, #1)]]> 16065353 You have never met an (ex) FBIagent like Brigid Quinn Brigid Quinn’s experiences hunting sexual predators for the FBI have left her with memories she wishes she didn’t have and lethal skills she hopes never to need again. Having been pushed into early retirement by events she thinks she’s put firmly behind her, Brigid keeps telling herself she’s settling down nicely in Tucson with a wonderful new husband, Carlo, and their dogs.

But the past intervenes when a man named Floyd Lynch confesses to the worst unsolved crime of Brigid’s career—the disappearance and presumed murder of her protege, Jessica. Floyd knows things about that terrible night that were never made public, and he offers to lead the cops to Jessica’s body in return for a plea bargain.

Itshould finally be the end of a dark chapter in Brigid’s life. Except... the new FBI agent on the case, Laura Coleman, thinks the confession is fake, and Brigid finds she cannot walk away from violence and retribution after all, no matter what the cost.]]> 320 Becky Masterman 0143182668 Daniel 0 to-read 3.71 2012 Rage Against the Dying (Brigid Quinn, #1)
author: Becky Masterman
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/09/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Mind of Winter 18081146 Something followed them from Russia. Thirteen years ago, she and her husband Eric adopted baby Tatty, their pretty, black-haired Rapunzel, from the Pokrovka Orphanage #2. Now, at fifteen, Tatiana is more beautiful than ever—and disturbingly erratic.

As a blizzard rages outside, Holly and Tatiana are alone. With each passing hour, Tatiana’s mood darkens, and her behavior becomes increasingly frightening, until Holly finds she no longer recognizes her daughter.]]> 276 Laura Kasischke 0062284398 Daniel 0 to-read 3.29 2013 Mind of Winter
author: Laura Kasischke
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.29
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/08/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Bird Box (Bird Box, #1) 18498558 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780062259653

Something is out there, something terrifying that must not be seen. One glimpse of it, and a person is driven to deadly violence. No one knows what it is or where it came from.

Five years after it began, a handful of scattered survivors remains, including Malorie and her two young children. Living in an abandoned house near the river, she has dreamed of fleeing to a place where they might be safe. Now that the boy and girl are four, it's time to go, but the journey ahead will be terrifying: twenty miles downriver in a rowboat—blindfolded—with nothing to rely on but her wits and the children's trained ears. One wrong choice and they will die. Something is following them all the while, but is it man, animal, or monster?

Interweaving past and present, Bird Box is a snapshot of a world unraveled that will have you racing to the final page.]]> 262 Josh Malerman Daniel 0 to-read 4.02 2014 Bird Box (Bird Box, #1)
author: Josh Malerman
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/08/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6)]]> 1 652 J.K. Rowling Daniel 5 4.57 2005 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2014/04/29
shelves:
review:

]]> The One I Left Behind 15818278
The summer of 1985 changed Reggie's life. Thirteen, awkward, and without a father, she finds herself mixed up with her school's outcasts-Charlie, the local detective's son, and Tara, a goth kid who has a mental hold over Reggie and harbors a dark secret. That same summer a serial killer called Neptune begins kidnapping women. He leaves their severed hands on the police department steps and, five days later, displays their bodies around town. Just when Reggie needs her mother Vera-an ex-model with many "boyfriends" and a thirst for gin-the most, Vera's hand is found on the steps. But after five days, there's no body and Neptune disappears.

Now a successful architect who left her hometown behind after that horrific summer, Reggie doesn't trust anyone and lives with few attachments. But when she gets a call from a homeless shelter saying that her mother has been found alive, Reggie must confront the ghosts of her past and find Neptune before he kills again.

With her signature style, Jennifer McMahon portrays the dark side of adolescent friendship and introduces characters who haunt the imagination, along with a disturbing web of secrets, betrayals, and murder.]]> 422 Jennifer McMahon 006212255X Daniel 0 currently-reading 3.77 2013 The One I Left Behind
author: Jennifer McMahon
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/03/16
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> The Interestings 15815333
The summer that Nixon resigns, six teenagers at a summer camp for the arts become inseparable. Decades later the bond remains powerful, but so much else has changed. In The Interestings, Wolitzer follows these characters from the height of youth through middle age, as their talents, fortunes, and degrees of satisfaction diverge.

The kind of creativity that is rewarded at age fifteen is not always enough to propel someone through life at age thirty; not everyone can sustain, in adulthood, what seemed so special in adolescence. Jules Jacobson, an aspiring comic actress, eventually resigns herself to a more practical occupation and lifestyle. Her friend Jonah, a gifted musician, stops playing the guitar and becomes an engineer. But Ethan and Ash, Jules's now-married best friends, become shockingly successful—true to their initial artistic dreams, with the wealth and access that allow those dreams to keep expanding. The friendships endure and even prosper, but also underscore the differences in their fates, in what their talents have become and the shapes their lives have taken.

Wide in scope, ambitious, and populated by complex characters who come together and apart in a changing New York City, The Interestings explores the meaning of talent; the nature of envy; the roles of class, art, money, and power; and how all of it can shift and tilt precipitously over the course of a friendship and a life.]]> 468 Meg Wolitzer 1594488398 Daniel 0 to-read 3.58 2013 The Interestings
author: Meg Wolitzer
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/03/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (Inheritance, #1)]]> 6437061 427 N.K. Jemisin 0316043915 Daniel 0 to-read 3.88 2010 The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (Inheritance, #1)
author: N.K. Jemisin
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/03/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day]]> 9669765 Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day draws us into a world of delightfully wicked recognitions, and introduces us to a writer of uncommon talent and imagination.

Contains 40 stories, including "The Duck," "The Man and the Moose," and "Death and the Fruits of the Tree," as heard on NPR's This American Life, "The Book," as heard on Selected Shorts, and "The TV," as found in The New Yorker.

A selection of the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Program and the Starbucks Coffee Bookish Reading Club.

Winner of the 2011 Nobbie Award for Best Book of the Year.

"This guy can write!"
–Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451]]> 210 Ben Loory 0143119508 Daniel 0 to-read 3.73 2011 Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day
author: Ben Loory
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/03/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Life After Life (Todd Family, #1)]]> 15790842
On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in a variety of ways, while the young century marches on towards its second cataclysmic world war.

Does Ursula's apparently infinite number of lives give her the power to save the world from its inevitable destiny? And if she can - will she?]]> 544 Kate Atkinson 0316176486 Daniel 0 to-read 3.76 2013 Life After Life (Todd Family, #1)
author: Kate Atkinson
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/03/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Bitter Seeds (The Milkweed Triptych, #1)]]> 6881685
It's 1939. The Nazis have supermen, the British have demons, and one perfectly normal man gets caught in between

Raybould Marsh is a British secret agent in the early days of the Second World War, haunted by something strange he saw on a mission during the Spanish Civil War: a German woman with wires going into her head who looked at him as if she knew him.

When the Nazis start running missions with people who have unnatural abilities--a woman who can turn invisible, a man who can walk through walls, and the woman Marsh saw in Spain who can use her knowledge of the future to twist the present--Marsh is the man who has to face them. He rallies the secret warlocks of Britain to hold the impending invasion at bay. But magic always exacts a price. Eventually, the sacrifice necessary to defeat the enemy will be as terrible as outright loss would be.

Alan Furst meets Alan Moore in the opening of an epic of supernatural alternate history, the tale of a twentieth century like ours and also profoundly different.
]]> 352 Ian Tregillis 0765321505 Daniel 0 to-read 3.74 2010 Bitter Seeds (The Milkweed Triptych, #1)
author: Ian Tregillis
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/03/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Ocean at the End of the Lane]]> 15783514
Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what.

A groundbreaking work from a master, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out. It is a stirring, terrifying, and elegiac fable as delicate as a butterfly's wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark.]]> 181 Neil Gaiman 0062255657 Daniel 0 to-read 4.00 2013 The Ocean at the End of the Lane
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/03/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Croning 13279700
Donald Miller, geologist and academic, has walked along the edge of a chasm for most of his nearly eighty years, leading a charmed life between endearing absent-mindedness and sanity-shattering realization. Now, all things must converge. Donald will discover the dark secrets along the edges, unearthing savage truths about his wife Michelle, their adult twins, and all he knows and trusts. For Donald is about to stumble on the secret...

...of The Croning.

From Laird Barron, Shirley Jackson Award-winning author of The Imago Sequence and Occultation, comes The Croning, a debut novel of cosmic horror.
]]> 245 Laird Barron 1597802301 Daniel 0 to-read 3.72 2012 The Croning
author: Laird Barron
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/03/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Please Ignore Vera Dietz 6665671
So when Charlie dies in dark circumstances, Vera knows a lot more than anyone—the kids at school, his family, even the police. But will she emerge to clear his name? Does she even want to?

Edgy and gripping, Please Ignore Vera Dietz is an unforgettable smart, funny, dramatic, and always surprising.]]> 327 A.S. King 0375865861 Daniel 5 3.88 2010 Please Ignore Vera Dietz
author: A.S. King
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2011/04/22
date added: 2014/01/03
shelves:
review:
Absolutely amazing. King had me from the get-go with this quirky and original story. Insightful, hilarious and powerful.
]]> Slide (Slide, #1) 9542582
Vee knows this because she was there. Everyone believes Vee is narcoleptic, but she doesn't actually fall asleep during these episodes: When she passes out, she slides into somebody else's mind and experiences the world through that person's eyes. She's slid into her sister as she cheated on a math test, into a teacher sneaking a drink before class. She learned the worst about a supposed "friend" when she slid into her during a school dance. But nothing could have prepared Vee for what happens one October night when she slides into the mind of someone holding a bloody knife, standing over Sophie's slashed body.

Vee desperately wishes she could share her secret, but who would believe her? It sounds so crazy that she can't bring herself to tell her best friend, Rollins, let alone the police. Even if she could confide in Rollins, he has been acting distant lately, especially now that she's been spending more time with Zane.

Enmeshed in a terrifying web of secrets, lies, and danger and with no one to turn to, Vee must find a way to unmask the killer before he or she strikes again.]]> 250 Jill Hathaway 0062077902 Daniel 5 apocalypsies 3.69 2012 Slide (Slide, #1)
author: Jill Hathaway
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2011/11/12
date added: 2013/12/30
shelves: apocalypsies
review:
Hathaway's debut, SLIDE, grabs the reader and pushes them down the stairs. It's a mad tumble of weird, wrapped up in a tight murder mystery that never seems to follow the path you expect. Unputdownable is a word I've seen bandied about. If it describes any book, it's certainly SLIDE.
]]> <![CDATA[The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, #14)]]> 17345190
Precious Ramotswe has taken on two puzzling cases. First she is approached by the lawyer Mma Sheba, who is the executor of a deceased farmer’s estate. Mma Sheba has a feeling that the young man who has stepped forward may be falsely impersonating the farmer’s nephew in order to claim his inheritance. Mma Ramotswe agrees to visit the farm and find out what she can about the self-professed nephew. Then the proprietor of the Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon comes to Mma Ramotswe for advice. The opening of her new salon has been shadowed by misfortune. Not only has she received a bad omen in the mail, but rumors are swirling that the salon is using dangerous products that burn people’s skin. Could someone be trying to put the salon out of business?

Meanwhile, at the office, Mma Ramotswe has noticed something different about Grace Makutsi lately. Though Mma Makutsi has mentioned nothing, it has become clear that she is pregnant . . . But in Botswana—a land where family has always been held above all else—this may be cause for controversy as well as celebration.

With genuine warmth, sympathy, and wit, Alexander McCall Smith explores some tough questions about married life, parenthood, grief, and the importance of the traditions that shape and guide our lives.

This is the fourteenth installment in the series.]]> 242 Alexander McCall Smith 0307378411 Daniel 4 4.09 2013 The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, #14)
author: Alexander McCall Smith
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2013/12/20
date added: 2013/12/23
shelves:
review:

]]> The Wicked Girls 11940384
Twenty-five years later, journalist Kirsty Lindsay is reporting on a series of attacks on young female tourists in a seaside town when her investigation leads her to interview funfair cleaner Amber Gordon. For Kirsty and Amber, it's the first time they've seen each other since that dark day when they were just children. But with new lives � and families � to protect, will they really be able to keep their secret hidden?]]> 378 Alex Marwood 1847445209 Daniel 0 to-read 3.44 2008 The Wicked Girls
author: Alex Marwood
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/12/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Winger (Winger, #1) 11861815
With the help of his sense of humor, rugby buddies, and his penchant for doodling comics, Ryan Dean manages to survive life’s complications and even find some happiness along the way. But when the unthinkable happens, he has to figure out how to hold on to what’s important, even when it feels like everything has fallen apart.

Filled with hand-drawn info-graphics and illustrations and told in a pitch-perfect voice, this realistic depiction of a teen’s experience strikes an exceptional balance of hilarious and heartbreaking.]]> 439 Andrew Smith 1442444924 Daniel 0 currently-reading 4.04 2013 Winger (Winger, #1)
author: Andrew Smith
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/12/18
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> The Shining Girls 16131077 The girl who wouldn't die hunts the killer who shouldn't exist.

"The future is not as loud as war, but it is relentless. It has a terrible fury all its own."

Harper Curtis is a killer who stepped out of the past. Kirby Mazrachi is the girl who was never meant to have a future.

Kirby is the last shining girl, one of the bright young women, burning with potential, whose lives Harper is destined to snuff out after he stumbles on a House in Depression-era Chicago that opens onto other times.

At the urging of the House, Harper inserts himself into the lives of the shining girls, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. He's the ultimate hunter, vanishing into another time after each murder, untraceable—until one of his victims survives.

Determined to bring her would-be killer to justice, Kirby joins the Chicago Sun-Times to work with the ex-homicide reporter Dan Velasquez, who covered her case. Soon Kirby finds herself closing in on the impossible truth. . . .

The Shining Girls is a masterful twist on the serial killer tale: a violent quantum leap featuring a memorable and appealing heroine in pursuit of a deadly criminal.]]> 368 Lauren Beukes 0316216852 Daniel 4 3.53 2013 The Shining Girls
author: Lauren Beukes
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2013/12/01
date added: 2013/12/18
shelves:
review:

]]> Grasshopper Jungle 18079719
To make matters worse, Austin's hormones are totally oblivious; they don't care that the world is in utter chaos: Austin is in love with his girlfriend, Shann, but remains confused about his sexual orientation. He's stewing in a self-professed constant state of maximum horniness, directed at both Robby and Shann. Ultimately, it's up to Austin to save the world and propagate the species in this sci-fright journey of survival, sex, and the complex realities of the human condition.]]> 388 Andrew Smith 0525426035 Daniel 0 to-read 3.65 2014 Grasshopper Jungle
author: Andrew Smith
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/12/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Where'd You Go, Bernadette 13526165
When her daughter Bee claims a family trip to Antarctica as a reward for perfect grades, Bernadette, a fiercely intelligent shut-in, throws herself into preparations for the trip. But worn down by years of trying to live the Seattle life she never wanted, Ms. Fox is on the brink of a meltdown. And after a school fundraiser goes disastrously awry at her hands, she disappears, leaving her family to pick up the pieces--which is exactly what Bee does, weaving together an elaborate web of emails, invoices, and school memos that reveals a secret past Bernadette has been hiding for decades. Where'd You Go Bernadette is an ingenious and unabashedly entertaining novel about a family coming to terms with who they are and the power of a daughter's love for her mother.]]> 330 Maria Semple 0316204277 Daniel 4 3.87 2012 Where'd You Go, Bernadette
author: Maria Semple
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2013/12/01
date added: 2013/12/01
shelves:
review:
A comic whirlwind take on the epistolary novel. Over-the-top, insightful and ultimately uplifting. I dug it.
]]> Dust (Silo, #3) 18467150 Listening Length: 12 hours and 34 minutes

In a time when secrets and lies were the foundations of life, someone has discovered the truth. And they are going to tell.

Jules knows what her predecessors created. She knows they are the reason life has to be lived in this way.

And she won't stand for it.

But Jules no longer has supporters. And there is far more to fear than the toxic world beyond her walls.

A poison is growing from within Silo 18.

One that cannot be stopped.

Unless Silo 1 step in.]]> 13 Hugh Howey Daniel 0 to-read 4.01 2013 Dust (Silo, #3)
author: Hugh Howey
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/11/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[John Dies at the End (John Dies at the End, #1)]]> 15813026
©2007 David Wong and Permuted Press. All rights reserved.; (P)2011 BBC Audiobooks America]]> 15 David Wong Daniel 0 currently-reading 3.59 2007 John Dies at the End (John Dies at the End, #1)
author: David Wong
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/11/18
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[To Die For (Slumber Party & Weekend)]]> 7883494 416 Christopher Pike 0545264340 Daniel 0 3.75 2010 To Die For (Slumber Party & Weekend)
author: Christopher Pike
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at: 2013/11/18
date added: 2013/11/18
shelves:
review:

]]> Gone Girl 8442457 What have we done to each other?

These are the questions Nick Dunne finds himself asking on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary when his wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they weren't made by him. And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone.

So what did happen to Nick's beautiful wife?]]> 399 Gillian Flynn Daniel 4 3.93 2012 Gone Girl
author: Gillian Flynn
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2013/11/16
date added: 2013/11/16
shelves:
review:
Impressively manipulative, tightly woven and indicative of the foul fracture between the truth and hand-wringing public opinion, Gone Girl interacts with the reader's belief system in a way that is at once infuriating and entertaining. Another win for Flynn!
]]> The Coldest Girl in Coldtown 12813630
One morning, after a perfectly ordinary party, Tana wakes up surrounded by corpses. The only other survivors of this massacre are her exasperatingly endearing ex-boyfriend, infected and on the edge, and a mysterious boy burdened with a terrible secret. Shaken and determined, Tana enters a race against the clock to save the three of them the only way she knows how: by going straight to the wicked, opulent heart of Coldtown itself.

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown is a wholly original story of rage and revenge, of guilt and horror, and of love and loathing from bestselling and acclaimed author Holly Black.]]> 419 Holly Black 0316213101 Daniel 0 3.84 2013 The Coldest Girl in Coldtown
author: Holly Black
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at: 2013/11/07
date added: 2013/11/07
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Doctor Sleep (The Shining, #2)]]> 16130549 WHSmith Collector's Edition

Stephen King returns to the characters and territory of one of his most popular novels ever, The Shining, in this instantly riveting novel about the now middle-aged Dan Torrance (the boy protagonist of The Shining) and the very special 12-year-old girl he must save from a tribe of murderous paranormals.

On highways across America, a tribe of people called The True Knot travel in search of sustenance. They look harmless - mostly old, lots of polyester, and married to their RVs. But as Dan Torrance knows, and spunky 12-year-old Abra Stone learns, The True Knot are quasi-immortal, living off the "steam" that children with the "shining" produce when they are slowly tortured to death.

Haunted by the inhabitants of the Overlook Hotel where he spent one horrific childhood year, Dan has been drifting for decades, desperate to shed his father's legacy of despair, alcoholism, and violence. Finally, he settles in a New Hampshire town, an AA community that sustains him, and a job at a nursing home where his remnant "shining" power provides the crucial final comfort to the dying. Aided by a prescient cat, he becomes "Doctor Sleep."

Then Dan meets the evanescent Abra Stone, and it is her spectacular gift, the brightest shining ever seen, that reignites Dan's own demons and summons him to a battle for Abra's soul and survival. This is an epic war between good and evil, a gory, glorious story that will thrill the millions of hyper-devoted fans of The Shining and wildly satisfy anyone new to the territory of this icon in the King canon.]]> 531 Stephen King 1476727651 Daniel 3 4.11 2013 Doctor Sleep (The Shining, #2)
author: Stephen King
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2013/11/07
date added: 2013/11/07
shelves:
review:

]]> The Shining (The Shining, #1) 11588 497 Stephen King 0450040186 Daniel 4 4.28 1977 The Shining (The Shining, #1)
author: Stephen King
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1977
rating: 4
read at: 2013/10/16
date added: 2013/10/16
shelves:
review:

]]> Ship of Ghouls 18620366 TBD Mark Henry Daniel 0 to-read 2.00 Ship of Ghouls
author: Mark Henry
name: Daniel
average rating: 2.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/10/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Night to Dismember 18620364 TBD Mark Henry Daniel 0 to-read 3.50 A Night to Dismember
author: Mark Henry
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.50
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/10/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Beach Blanket Bloodbath 18620347
In Beach Blanket Bloodbath, Amanda, Wendy and Gil descend on an idyllic seaside village for some rest, relaxation and consumption of cute coastal townsfolk but their plans are derailed when they become embroiled in a mystery at the Miss Sand Flea Pageant involving overtly perky go-go dancers, the inevitable wereshark attack and an annoying octogenarian sleuth/writer.]]> 160 Mark Henry Daniel 0 to-read 4.26 2014 Beach Blanket Bloodbath
author: Mark Henry
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/10/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> NOS4A2 15729539 NOS4A2 is a spine-tingling novel of supernatural suspense from master of horror Joe Hill, the New York Times bestselling author of Heart-Shaped Box and Horns.

Victoria McQueen has a secret gift for finding things: a misplaced bracelet, a missing photograph, answers to unanswerable questions. On her Raleigh Tuff Burner bike, she makes her way to a rickety covered bridge that, within moments, takes her wherever she needs to go, whether it’s across Massachusetts or across the country.

Charles Talent Manx has a way with children. He likes to take them for rides in his 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith with the NOS4A2 vanity plate. With his old car, he can slip right out of the everyday world, and onto the hidden roads that transport them to an astonishing � and terrifying � playground of amusements he calls “Christmasland.�

Then, one day, Vic goes looking for trouble—and finds Manx. That was a lifetime ago. Now Vic, the only kid to ever escape Manx’s unmitigated evil, is all grown up and desperate to forget. But Charlie Manx never stopped thinking about Victoria McQueen. He’s on the road again and he’s picked up a new passenger: Vic’s own son.]]> 692 Joe Hill 0062200577 Daniel 4 4.06 2013 NOS4A2
author: Joe Hill
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2013/10/01
date added: 2013/10/01
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)]]> 9969571 Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

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

But when Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's going to survive, he'll have to win—and confront the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.]]> 480 Ernest Cline 030788743X Daniel 0 4.21 2011 Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)
author: Ernest Cline
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at: 2013/09/26
date added: 2013/09/26
shelves:
review:

]]> Dare Me 12982393 "Tense, dark, and beautifully written" (Gillian Flynn), this novel of friendship and betrayal from an Edgar Award-winning author is a harrowing glimpse into the dark heart of the all-American girl.

Addy Hanlon has always been Beth Cassidy's best friend and trusted lieutenant. Beth calls the shots and Addy carries them out, a long-established order of things that has brought them to the pinnacle of their high-school careers. Now they're seniors who rule the intensely competitive cheer squad, feared and followed by the other girls—until the young new coach arrives.

Cool and commanding, an emissary from the adult world just beyond their reach, Coach Colette French draws Addy and the other cheerleaders into her life. Only Beth, unsettled by the new regime, remains outside Coach's golden circle, waging a subtle but vicious campaign to regain her position as "top girl"—both with the team and with Addy herself.

Then a suicide focuses a police investigation on Coach and her squad. After the first wave of shock and grief, Addy tries to uncover the truth behind the death—and learns that the boundary between loyalty and love can be dangerous terrain.

The raw passions of girlhood are brought to life in this taut, unflinching exploration of friendship, ambition, and power. Writing with "total authority and an almost desperate intensity" (Tom Perrotta), award-winning novelist Megan Abbott delivers a story as unnerving and thrilling as adolescence itself.

"Spectacular . . . It's Heathers meets Fight Club good."
—Chelsea Cain, the New York Times Book Review]]> 290 Megan Abbott 0316097772 Daniel 5 3.22 2012 Dare Me
author: Megan Abbott
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.22
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2013/09/15
date added: 2013/09/15
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Naked Truth About Self-Publishing]]> 18104002 Jana Deleon Daniel 5 Lots of great information! 4.56 2013 The Naked Truth About Self-Publishing
author: Jana Deleon
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2013/09/12
date added: 2013/09/15
shelves:
review:
Lots of great information!
]]> Night Film 10112885
For McGrath, another death connected to this seemingly cursed family dynasty seems more than just a coincidence. Though much has been written about Cordova's dark and unsettling films, very little is known about the man himself.

Driven by revenge, curiosity, and a need for the truth, McGrath, with the aid of two strangers, is drawn deeper and deeper into Cordova's eerie, hypnotic world. The last time he got close to exposing the director, McGrath lost his marriage and his career. This time he might lose even more.]]> 599 Marisha Pessl 140006788X Daniel 0 to-read 3.75 2013 Night Film
author: Marisha Pessl
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/08/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking]]> 567650 'Mesmerizing' Time

An art expert instantly spots a fake. A cop decides whether to shoot. A psychologist accurately predicts a couple's future in minutes. This book is about those moments when we 'know' something without knowing why. It shows that honing your instincts could change the way you think about thinking forever.

'Trust my snap judgement, buy this book: you'll be delighted' David Brooks, The New York Times

'Fiendishly clever' Evening Standard

'Provocative, fascinating, radical' Fergal Byrne, Financial Times]]> 7 Malcolm Gladwell 1586217194 Daniel 5 3.78 2005 Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
author: Malcolm Gladwell
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at: 2013/07/14
date added: 2013/07/14
shelves:
review:

]]> Eleanor & Park 15745753 "So did Jerry Lee Lewis," Eleanor answers.
"I'm not kidding," he says.
"You should be," she says, "we're 16."
"What about Romeo and Juliet?"
"Shallow, confused, then dead."
"I love you," Park says.
"Wherefore art thou," Eleanor answers.
"I'm not kidding," he says.
"You should be."

Set over one school year in 1986, Eleanor & Park is the story of two star-crossed misfits—smart enough to know first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.]]> 328 Rainbow Rowell 1250012570 Daniel 4 ]]> 3.92 2012 Eleanor & Park
author: Rainbow Rowell
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2013/07/03
date added: 2013/07/09
shelves:
review:
Hmm. Mixed feelings about this one. The romance feels fresh to the YA genre but something about it doesn't resonate. I was a high school senior in '86 and very much into bands that are "lovingly" discussed in the book, and that's what feels off to me. We don't love How Soon is Now because of "I am the son and heir," but because of the second stanza, "of a shyness that is criminally vulgar." I'd wait for that to be the punch, for Eleanor to find the pieces of the lyrics that worked with her history and it just didn't happen. I suppose it could be that the author had to work within the limited confines of copyright law. Regardless. Fantastic book, otherwise and the ending really rang true as to the tenuousness of adolescent connection. Good stuff.

]]> The Uninvited Guests 13091295
The cook toils over mock turtle soup and a chocolate cake covered with green sugar roses, which the hungry band of visitors is not invited to taste. But nothing, it seems, will go according to plan. As the passengers wearily search for rest, the house undergoes a strange transformation. One of their number (who is most definitely not a gentleman) makes it his business to join the birthday revels.

Evening turns to stormy night, and a most unpleasant parlor game threatens to blow respectability to smithereens: Smudge Torrington, the wayward youngest daughter of the house, decides that this is the perfect moment for her Great Undertaking.

The Uninvited Guests is the bewitching new novel from the critically acclaimed Sadie Jones. The prizewinning author triumphs in this frightening yet delicious drama of dark surprises—where social codes are uprooted and desire daringly trumps propriety—and all is alight with Edwardian wit and opulence.]]> 272 Sadie Jones 0062116509 Daniel 0 3.02 2012 The Uninvited Guests
author: Sadie Jones
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.02
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at: 2013/03/29
date added: 2013/07/07
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How to Talk to Girls at Parties]]> 13378509
"Come on," said Vic. "It'll be great."

"No, it won't," I said, although I'd lost this fight hours ago, and I knew it.

"It'll be brilliant," said Vic, for the hundredth time. "Girls! Girls! Girls!" He grinned with white teeth.]]> 11 Neil Gaiman Daniel 5 3.66 2007 How to Talk to Girls at Parties
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 2013/06/20
date added: 2013/06/20
shelves:
review:

]]> Phoenix 17380711
Rachel married Ted because he was uncomplicated and loyal. But he was also devoted to his wretched house (done up in black granite, black appliances, even black dishware) and his first love, an old, flatulent cat named Belinda Carlisle. Once Rachel becomes pregnant, Ted reluctantly agrees to move and give up the cat. But the house doesn't sell, and Belinda Carlisle still haunts their home: every day the creature becomes fatter and more malodorous. When the house burns to the ground in a freak conflagration and the couple's daughter, April, is born blind soon thereafter, the marriage is never the same again. Only on a business trip three years later does Rachel begin to reckon with the damage.

In an Orlando motel room far from Ted and April, Rachel wonders: Is her simple-minded husband more vindictive and manipulative than even Rachel could have imagined? How far will she go to keep the upper hand—a bit of emotional and physical torture, perhaps? Will she win the battle, only to lose so much else?

If all is fair in love and war, there are few contemporary writers better equipped than Palahniuk to travel the extremes, right to the chilling intersection of "I do" and "I'm damned."]]> 32 Chuck Palahniuk Daniel 4 3.73 2013 Phoenix
author: Chuck Palahniuk
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2013/06/20
date added: 2013/06/20
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal]]> 446535 Lamb, you, too, can find out what really happened between the manger and the Sermon on the Mount. And, in a new afterword written expressly for this edition, Christopher Moore addresses some of the most frequently asked questions he's received from readers since Lamb's initial publication, about the book and himself.

Fresh, funny, poignant, and wise, this special gift edition of Lamb is cause for rejoicing among readers everywhere.]]> 417 Christopher Moore 0061438596 Daniel 5 4.45 2002 Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
author: Christopher Moore
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2002
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/06/14
shelves:
review:

]]> Linked (Linked #1) 14999965
Finally, she’s promised a cure: minor surgery to burn out the overactive area of her brain. But on the eve of the procedure, she discovers the shocking truth behind her hallucinations: she’s been seeing the world through another girl’s eyes.

Elissa follows her visions, and finds a battered, broken girl on the run. A girl—Lin—who looks exactly like Elissa, down to the matching bruises. The twin sister she never knew existed.

Now, Elissa and Lin are on the run from a government who will stop at nothing to reclaim Lin and protect the dangerous secrets she could expose—secrets that would shake the very foundation of their world.

Riveting, thought-provoking and utterly compelling, Linked will make you question what it really means to be human.]]> 368 Imogen Howson 1442446560 Daniel 0 to-read 3.71 2013 Linked (Linked #1)
author: Imogen Howson
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/06/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife]]> 934321


In an attempt to find out, Mary Roach brings her tireless curiosity to bear on an array of contemporary and historical soul-searchers: scientists, schemers, engineers, mediums, all trying to prove (or disprove) that life goes on after we die. She begins the journey in rural India with a reincarnation researcher and ends up in a University of Virginia operating room where cardiologists have installed equipment near the ceiling to study out-of-body near-death experiences. Along the way, she enrolls in an English medium school, gets electromagnetically haunted at a university in Ontario, and visits a Duke University professor with a plan to weigh the consciousness of a leech. Her historical wanderings unearth soul-seeking philosophers who rummaged through cadavers and calves� heads, a North Carolina lawsuit that established legal precedence for ghosts, and the last surviving sample of “ectoplasm� in a Cambridge University archive.]]> 8 Mary Roach 159737881X Daniel 0 to-read 3.06 2005 Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife
author: Mary Roach
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.06
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/06/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir]]> 12868761 318 Jenny Lawson 0399159010 Daniel 0 3.89 2012 Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir
author: Jenny Lawson
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at: 2013/06/06
date added: 2013/06/06
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Lonely Planet's Food Lover's Guide to the World]]> 16182590 320 Lonely Planet 1743210205 Daniel 0 to-read 3.69 2012 Lonely Planet's Food Lover's Guide to the World
author: Lonely Planet
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/05/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls: Essays, Etc.]]> 15790837
From here the story could take many turns. When this guy is David Sedaris, the possibilities are endless, but the result is always the same: he will both delight you with twists of humor and intelligence and leave you deeply moved.

Sedaris remembers his father's dinnertime attire (shirtsleeves and underpants), his first colonoscopy (remarkably pleasant), and the time he considered buying the skeleton of a murdered Pygmy.

With Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, David Sedaris shows once again why his work has been called "hilarious, elegant, and surprisingly moving" (Washington Post).

Machine generated contents note: Dentists Without Borders
Attaboy
Think Differenter
Memory Laps
A Friend in the Ghetto
Loggerheads
If I Ruled the World
Easy, Tiger
Laugh, Kookaburra
Standing Still
Just a Quick E-mail
A Guy Walks into a Bar Car
Author, Author
Obama!!!!!
Standing By
I Break for Traditional Marriage
Understanding Understanding Owls
#2 to Go
Health-Care Freedoms and Why I Want My Country Back
Now Hiring Friendly People
Rubbish
Day In, Day Out
Mind the Gap
A Cold Case
The Happy Place]]> 275 David Sedaris 0316154695 Daniel 4 3.84 2013 Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls: Essays, Etc.
author: David Sedaris
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2013/05/17
date added: 2013/05/17
shelves:
review:
Not my favorite of his collections of essays, but definitely some fun to be had here. Laughed out loud during many!
]]> <![CDATA[Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities]]> 6106482
Menacing botanical illustrations and splendidly ghastly drawings create a fascinating portrait of the evildoers that may be lurking in your own backyard. Drawing on history, medicine, science, and legend, this compendium of bloodcurdling botany will entertain, alarm, and enlighten even the most intrepid gardeners and nature lovers.]]> 236 Amy Stewart 1565126831 Daniel 5 3.83 2009 Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities
author: Amy Stewart
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2013/05/13
date added: 2013/05/13
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review:

]]> The Magicians 4548601 A thrilling and original coming-of-age novel about a young man practicing magic in the real world

Quentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. A senior in high school, he’s still secretly preoccupied with a series of fantasy novels he read as a child, set in a magical land called Fillory. Imagine his surprise when he finds himself unexpectedly admitted to a very secret, very exclusive college of magic in upstate New York, where he receives a thorough and rigorous education in the craft of modern sorcery.

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

At once psychologically piercing and magnificently absorbing, The Magicians boldly moves into uncharted literary territory, imagining magic as practiced by real people, with their capricious desires and volatile emotions. Lev Grossman creates an utterly original world in which good and evil aren’t black and white, love and sex aren’t simple or innocent, and power comes at a terrible price.]]> 14 Lev Grossman 0143144391 Daniel 0 currently-reading 3.27 2009 The Magicians
author: Lev Grossman
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.27
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/04/23
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference]]> 2612 The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire. Just as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a small but precisely targeted push cause a fashion trend, the popularity of a new product, or a drop in the crime rate. This widely acclaimed bestseller, in which Malcolm Gladwell explores and brilliantly illuminates the tipping point phenomenon, is already changing the way people throughout the world think about selling products and disseminating ideas.]]> 301 Malcolm Gladwell 0316346624 Daniel 4 4.01 2002 The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
author: Malcolm Gladwell
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at: 2013/04/23
date added: 2013/04/23
shelves:
review:

]]> The Humans 16130537
He is disgusted by the way humans look, what they eat, and the wars they witness on the news, and is totally baffled by concepts such as love and family. But as time goes on, he starts to realize there may be more to this weird species than he has been led to believe. He drinks wine, reads Emily Dickinson, listens to Talking Heads, and begins to bond with the family he lives with, in disguise. In picking up the pieces of the professor's shattered personal life, the narrator sees hope and redemption in the humans' imperfections and begins to question the very mission that brought him there--a mission that involves not only thwarting human progress...but murder.]]> 285 Matt Haig 1476727910 Daniel 0 to-read 4.05 2013 The Humans
author: Matt Haig
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/04/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Outliers: The Story of Success]]> 3264344 Learn what sets high achievers apart � from Bill Gates to the Beatles � in this #1 bestseller from "a singular talent" (New York Times Book Review).

In this stunning book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers"--the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different?

His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band.

Brilliant and entertaining, Outliers is a landmark work that will simultaneously delight and illuminate.]]> 7 Malcolm Gladwell 1600243916 Daniel 5 4.10 2008 Outliers: The Story of Success
author: Malcolm Gladwell
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2013/04/14
date added: 2013/04/14
shelves:
review:
Wow. I can only speak to the audiobook version, but this was fantastic. I'm grabbing his other stuff pronto!
]]> Another Little Piece 12665819
A year later, Annaliese is found wandering down a road hundreds of miles away. She doesn't know who she is. She doesn't know how she got there. She only knows one thing: She is not the real Annaliese Rose Gordon.

Now Annaliese is haunted by strange visions and broken memories. Memories of a reckless, desperate wish . . . a bloody razor . . . and the faces of other girls who disappeared. Piece by piece, Annaliese's fractured memories come together to reveal a violent, endless cycle that she will never escape—unless she can unlock the twisted secrets of her past.]]> 419 Kate Karyus Quinn 0062135953 Daniel 0 to-read 3.68 2013 Another Little Piece
author: Kate Karyus Quinn
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/04/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Near Witch (The Near Witch, #1)]]> 6931344 The Near Witch is only an old story told to frighten children.

If the wind calls at night, you must not listen. The wind is lonely, and always looking for company.

And there are no strangers in the town of Near.

These are the truths that Lexi has heard all her life.

But when an actual stranger-a boy who seems to fade like smoke-appears outside her home on the moor at night, she knows that at least one of these sayings is no longer true.

The next night, the children of Near start disappearing from their beds, and the mysterious boy falls under suspicion. Still, he insists on helping Lexi search for them. Something tells her she can trust him.

As the hunt for the children intensifies, so does Lexi's need to know-about the witch that just might be more than a bedtime story, about the wind that seems to speak through the walls at night, and about the history of this nameless boy.

Part fairy tale, part love story, Victoria Schwab's debut novel is entirely original yet achingly familiar: a song you heard long ago, a whisper carried by the wind, and a dream you won't soon forget.]]> 284 Victoria E. Schwab 1423137876 Daniel 0 to-read 3.65 2011 The Near Witch (The Near Witch, #1)
author: Victoria E. Schwab
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/04/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Vampires in the Lemon Grove: Stories]]> 13531832 Swamplandia! � a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize � comes a magical and uniquely daring collection of stories that showcases the author’s gifts at their inimitable best.

Within these pages, a community of girls held captive in a Japanese silk factory slowly transmute into human silkworms and plot revolution; a group of boys stumble upon a mutilated scarecrow that bears an uncanny resemblance to a missing classmate that they used to torment; a family’s disastrous quest for land in the American West has grave consequences; and in the marvelous title story, two vampires in a sun-drenched lemon grove try to slake their thirst for blood and come to terms with their immortal relationship.

Vampires in the lemon grove --
Reeling for the Empire --
Seagull army descends on Strong Beach, 1979 --
Proving up --
Barn at the end of our term --
Dougbert Shackleton's rules for Antarctic tailgating --
New veterans --
Graveless doll of Eric Mutis]]> 243 Karen Russell 0307957233 Daniel 0 currently-reading 3.68 2013 Vampires in the Lemon Grove: Stories
author: Karen Russell
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/04/03
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee]]> 7100313 I Smile Back Sarah Silverman comes a memoir—her first book—that is at once shockingly personal, surprisingly poignant, and still pee-in-your-pants funny. If you like Sarah’s television show The Sarah Silverman Program, or memoirs such as Chelsea Handler’s Are You There Vodka? It’s Me Chelsea and Artie Lange’s Too Fat to Fish, you’ll love The Bedwetter.]]> 5 Sarah Silverman 006195327X Daniel 4 3.28 2010 The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee
author: Sarah Silverman
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.28
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2013/03/24
date added: 2013/03/24
shelves:
review:
I expected irreverent humor and oversharing. I was not disappointed. Multiple laugh out loud moments and some key insights on the development of her specific humor.
]]> <![CDATA[Unusual Uses for Olive Oil (Portuguese Irregular Verbs, #4)]]> 12735945 226 Alexander McCall Smith 0748117105 Daniel 3 3.65 2011 Unusual Uses for Olive Oil (Portuguese Irregular Verbs, #4)
author: Alexander McCall Smith
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2013/03/18
date added: 2013/03/18
shelves:
review:
Not my favorite in the series, but still a solid read with some genuine laughs.
]]> Seafoam 17660651
In this short tale of aliens, foot fetishism and life choices gone horribly awry, Mark Henry returns to his roots, stirring up comedy and horror, muddling in a little sex and serving it up ice cold.

Mark Henry is the author of the Amanda Feral series of comedic urban fantasies (HAPPY HOUR OF THE DAMNED, ROAD TRIP OF THE LIVING DEAD and BATTLE OF THE NETWORK ZOMBIES), as well as the young adult fantasy novel, VELVETEEN (as Daniel Marks).]]> 26 Mark Henry Daniel 0 4.03 2013 Seafoam
author: Mark Henry
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/03/18
shelves:
review:

]]> The Killing Jar 17608898
Seventeen-year-old Kenna Marsden has a secret.

She’s haunted by a violent tragedy she can’t explain. Kenna’s past has kept people—even her own mother—at a distance for years. Just when she finds a friend who loves her and life begins to improve, she’s plunged into a new nightmare. Her mom and twin sister are attacked, and the dark powers Kenna has struggled to suppress awaken with a vengeance.

On the heels of the assault, Kenna is exiled to a nearby commune, known as Eclipse, to live with a relative she never knew she had. There, she discovers an extraordinary new way of life as she learns who she really is, and the wonders she’s capable of. For the first time, she starts to feel like she belongs somewhere. That her terrible secret makes her beautiful and strong, not dangerous. But the longer she stays at Eclipse, the more she senses there is something malignant lurking underneath it all. And she begins to suspect that her new family has sinister plans for her…]]> 352 Jennifer Bosworth 0374341370 Daniel 0 to-read 3.49 2016 The Killing Jar
author: Jennifer Bosworth
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/03/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements]]> 7247854
The periodic table is a crowning scientific achievement, but it's also a treasure trove of adventure, betrayal, and obsession. These fascinating tales follow every element on the table as they play out their parts in human history, finance, mythology, conflict, the arts, medicine, and in the lives of the (frequently) mad scientists who discovered them. "The Disappearing Spoon" masterfully fuses science with the classic lore of invention, investigation, discovery, and alchemy, from the big bang through the end of time.


* Though solid at room temperature, gallium is a moldable metal that melts at 84 degrees Fahrenheit. A classic science prank is to mold gallium spoons, serve them with tea, and watch guests recoil as their utensils disappear.]]> 394 Sam Kean 0316051640 Daniel 0 to-read 3.92 2010 The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements
author: Sam Kean
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/03/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Night Eternal (The Strain Trilogy, #3)]]> 10646450
Now, at this critical hour, there is evidence of a traitor in their midst. . . And only one man holds the answer to the Master's demise, but is he one who can be trusted with the fate of the world? And who among them will pay the ultimate sacrifice--so that others may be saved?]]> 14 Guillermo del Toro 0062097881 Daniel 4 3.49 2011 The Night Eternal (The Strain Trilogy, #3)
author: Guillermo del Toro
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2013/02/23
date added: 2013/02/23
shelves:
review:

]]> Swamplandia! 8584686
The Bigtree alligator-wrestling dynasty is in decline, and Swamplandia!, their island home and gator-wrestling theme park, formerly #1 in the region, is swiftly being encroached upon by a fearsome and sophisticated competitor called the World of Darkness. Ava’s mother, the park’s indomitable headliner, has just died; her sister, Ossie, has fallen in love with a spooky character known as the Dredgeman, who may or may not be an actual ghost; and her brilliant big brother, Kiwi, who dreams of becoming a scholar, has just defected to the World of Darkness in a last-ditch effort to keep their family business from going under. Ava’s father, affectionately known as Chief Bigtree, is AWOL; and that leaves Ava, a resourceful but terrified thirteen, to manage ninety-eight gators and the vast, inscrutable landscape of her own grief.

Against a backdrop of hauntingly fecund plant life animated by ancient lizards and lawless hungers, Karen Russell has written an utterly singular novel about a family’s struggle to stay afloat in a world that is inexorably sinking. An arrestingly beautiful and inventive work from a vibrant new voice in fiction.]]> 315 Karen Russell 0307263991 Daniel 0 to-read 3.22 2011 Swamplandia!
author: Karen Russell
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.22
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/02/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The End Games 13228537 It happened on Halloween.

The world ended.

And a dangerous Game brought it back to life.

Seventeen-year-old Michael and his five-year-old brother, Patrick, have been battling monsters in The Game for weeks.

In the rural mountains of West Virginia, armed with only their rifle and their love for each other, the brothers follow Instructions from the mysterious Game Master. They spend their days searching for survivors, their nights fighting endless hordes of “Bellows”—creatures that roam the dark, roaring for flesh. And at this Game, Michael and Patrick are very good.

But The Game is changing.

The Bellows are evolving.

The Game Master is leading Michael and Patrick to other survivors—survivors who don’t play by the rules.

And the brothers will never be the same.

T. Michael Martin’s debut novel is a transcendent thriller filled with electrifying action, searing emotional insight, and unexpected romance.]]> 369 T. Michael Martin 0062201808 Daniel 0 to-read 3.50 2013 The End Games
author: T. Michael Martin
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/02/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Lady of Ashes (Lady of Ashes, #1)]]> 15768795
Unbeknownst to his wife, Graham, who has nursed a hatred of America since his grandfather soldiered for Great Britain in the War of 1812, becomes involved in a scheme to sell arms to the South. Meanwhile, Violet receives the commission of a lifetime: undertaking the funeral for a friend of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. But her position remains precarious, especially when Graham disappears and she begins investigating a series of deaths among the poor. And the closer she gets to the truth, the greater the danger for them both…]]> 404 Christine Trent 0758265913 Daniel 0 to-read 3.44 2013 Lady of Ashes (Lady of Ashes, #1)
author: Christine Trent
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/02/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Hunger (Gone, #2) 5047880
Three months since all the adults disappeared. GONE.

Food ran out weeks ago. Everyone is starving, but no one wants to figure out a solution. And each day, more and more kids are evolving, developing supernatural abilities that set them apart from the kids without powers. Tension rises and chaos is descending upon the town. It's the normal kids against the mutants. Each kid is out for himself, and even the good ones turn murderous.

But a larger problem looms. The Darkness, a sinister creature that has lived buried deep in the hills, begins calling to some of the teens in the FAYZ. Calling to them, guiding them, manipulating them.

The Darkness has awakened. And it is hungry.]]> 590 Michael Grant Daniel 0 currently-reading 4.02 2009 Hunger (Gone, #2)
author: Michael Grant
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/02/10
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Warm Bodies (Warm Bodies, #1) 9475392
After experiencing a teenage boy's memories while consuming his brain, R makes an unexpected choice that begins a tense, awkward, and strangely sweet relationship with the victim's human girlfriend. Julie is a burst of vibrant color in the otherwise dreary and gray landscape that R lives in. His decision to protect her will transform not only R, but his fellow Dead, and perhaps their whole lifeless world...

Scary, funny, and surprisingly poignant, Warm Bodies is about being alive, being dead and the blurry line in between.]]> 256 Isaac Marion 1439192316 Daniel 0 3.86 2010 Warm Bodies (Warm Bodies, #1)
author: Isaac Marion
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at: 2013/02/10
date added: 2013/02/10
shelves:
review:

]]> The Fall 7881844
Ephraim Goodweather, director of the New York office of the Centers for Disease control, is one of the few humans who understands what is really happening. Vampires have arrived in New York City, and their condition is contagious. If they cannot be contained, the entire world is at risk of infection.

As Eph becomes consumed with the battle against the total corruption of humanity, his ex-wife, Kelly, now a vampire herself, is ever-more determined to claim their son, Zack.

As the Biblical origins of the Ancient ones are gradually revealed, Eph learns that there is a greater, more terrible plan in store for the human race � worse even than annihilation…]]> 0 Guillermo del Toro 0007357745 Daniel 0 3.51 2010 The Fall
author: Guillermo del Toro
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at: 2013/02/10
date added: 2013/02/10
shelves:
review:

]]> The Family Fang 10149142
Their children called it mischief.

Performance artists Caleb and Camille Fang dedicated themselves to making great art. But when an artist’s work lies in subverting normality, it can be difficult to raise well-adjusted children. Just ask Buster and Annie Fang. For as long as they can remember, they starred (unwillingly) in their parents� madcap pieces. But now that they are grown up, the chaos of their childhood has made it difficult to cope with life outside the fishbowl of their parents� strange world.

When the lives they’ve built come crashing down, brother and sister have nowhere to go but home, where they discover that Caleb and Camille are planning one last performance -� their magnum opus -� whether the kids agree to participate or not. Soon, ambition breeds conflict, bringing the Fangs to face the difficult decision about what’s ultimately more important: their family or their art.]]> 320 Kevin Wilson 0061579033 Daniel 0 3.62 2011 The Family Fang
author: Kevin Wilson
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at: 2013/01/30
date added: 2013/01/30
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Strain (The Strain Trilogy, #1)]]> 6192961 14 Guillermo del Toro 0061715204 Daniel 4 3.65 2009 The Strain (The Strain Trilogy, #1)
author: Guillermo del Toro
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2013/01/24
date added: 2013/01/24
shelves:
review:

]]> Gun Machine 14739231 308 Warren Ellis 0316187404 Daniel 0 to-read 3.81 2012 Gun Machine
author: Warren Ellis
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/01/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story]]> 1410890
On a hillside near the cozy Irish village of Glennkill, the members of the flock gather around their shepherd, George, whose body lies pinned to the ground with a spade. George has cared for the sheep, reading them a plethora of books every night. The daily exposure to literature has made them far savvier about the workings of the human mind than your average sheep. Led by Miss Maple, the smartest sheep in Glennkill (and possibly the world), they set out to find George' s killer.

The A-team of investigators includes Othello, the "bad-boy" black ram; Mopple the Whale, a merino who eats a lot and remembers everything; and Zora, a pensive, black-faced ewe with a weakness for abysses. Joined by other members of the richly talented flock, they engage in nightlong discussions about the crime and wild metaphysical speculations, and they embark on reconnaissance missions into the village, where they encounter some likely suspects. There' s Ham, the terrifying butcher; Rebecca, a village newcomer with a secret and a scheme; Gabriel, the shady shepherd of a very odd flock; and Father Will, a sinister priest. Along the way, the sheep confront their own all-too-human struggles with guilt, misdeeds, and unrequited love.

Three Bags Full is already an international hit. Funny, fresh, and endearing, it introduces a wonderful breed of detectives to American audiences.]]> 9 Leonie Swann 1400105013 Daniel 0 3.50 2005 Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story
author: Leonie Swann
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at: 2013/01/16
date added: 2013/01/16
shelves:
review:

]]> The Ritual 12063443 432 Adam L.G. Nevill 0312641842 Daniel 5 3.57 2011 The Ritual
author: Adam L.G. Nevill
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2013/01/11
date added: 2013/01/11
shelves:
review:
Oh damn. I read this on the rec of the awesome Jenn Bosworth (author of Struck) and am a new Nevill fan. Creepy as shit tale of four friends hunted through an ancient nordic wood by a terrifying evil. Also...hooves. ::shudder::
]]> The Colony 13538815
The desperate mayor turns to the greatest ant expert in the world, Paul O’Keefe, a Pulitzer Prize–winning scientist in an Armani suit. But Paul is baffled by the ants.They are twice the size of any normal ant and have no recognizable DNA. They’re vicious in the field yet docile in the hand. Paul calls on the one person he knows can help destroy the colony, his ex-wife Kendra Hart, a spirited entomologist studying fire ants in the New Mexico desert. Kendra is taken to a secret underground bunker in New York City, where she finds herself working side by side with her brilliant but arrogant ex-husband and a high-ranking military officer hell-bent on stopping the insects with a nuclear bomb.

When the ants launch an all-out attack, Paul and Kendra hit the dangerous, panic-stricken streets of New York, searching for a coveted queen. It’s a race to unlock the secrets of an indestructible new species, before the president nukes Manhattan.

A.J. Colucci's debut novelis a terrifying mix of classic Michael Crichton and Stephen King.A thriller with the highest stakes and the most fascinating science, The Colony does for ants whatJawsdid for sharks.]]> 294 A.J. Colucci 1250001293 Daniel 0 to-read 3.30 2012 The Colony
author: A.J. Colucci
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.30
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/01/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Murmurings 13260536
As Sophie starts to piece together Nell’s last days, every lead ends in a web of lies. And the deeper Sophie digs, the more danger she’s in—because now she’s hearing the same haunting whispers. Sophie’s starting to think she’s going crazy too. Or worse, that maybe she’s not�.]]> 370 Carly Anne West 1442441798 Daniel 0 to-read 3.61 2013 The Murmurings
author: Carly Anne West
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/01/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Beautiful Ruins 11447921
A #1 New York Times bestseller, this “absolute masterpiece� (Richard Russo) is the story of an almost-love affair that begins on the Italian coast in 1962 and resurfaces fifty years later in Hollywood. From the lavish set of Cleopatra to the shabby revelry of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival to the back lots of contemporary Hollywood, this is a dazzling, yet deeply human roller coaster of a novel.

The acclaimed author of the national bestseller The Financial Lives of the Poets returns with his funniest, most romantic, and most purely enjoyable novel yet. Hailed by critics and loved by readers of literary and historical fiction, Beautiful Ruins is gloriously inventive and constantly surprising—a story of flawed yet fascinating people navigating the rocky shores of their lives while clinging to their improbable dreams.]]> 337 Jess Walter 0061928127 Daniel 5
Definitely my favorite book of 2012. At once light and dense with social commentary, romantic, funny and deeply sad. Spellbinding! ]]> 3.67 2012 Beautiful Ruins
author: Jess Walter
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2012/09/07
date added: 2013/01/06
shelves:
review:


Definitely my favorite book of 2012. At once light and dense with social commentary, romantic, funny and deeply sad. Spellbinding!
]]> 11/22/63 10757450
In 2011, Jake Epping, an English teacher from Lisbon Falls, Maine, sets out on an insane � and insanely possible � mission to prevent the Kennedy assassination.

Leaving behind a world of computers and mobile phones, he goes back to a time of big American cars and diners, of Lindy Hopping, the sound of Elvis, and the taste of root beer.

In this haunting world, Jake falls in love with Sadie, a beautiful high school librarian. And, as the ominous date of 11/22/63 approaches, he encounters a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald...]]> 31 Stephen King 1442344288 Daniel 5 4.21 2011 11/22/63
author: Stephen King
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2013/01/05
date added: 2013/01/05
shelves:
review:
Intricate, chilling and surprisingly romantic time-travel tale that never goes where you suspect, with the exception of 11/22/63, obviously it covers that grim date. Additionally, as I listened to the audiobook version, I must comment that the voicework by actor Craig Wasson was fantastic.
]]> Stung (Stung, #1) 13517444
Fiona doesn’t remember going to sleep. But when she awakens, her world no longer exists. Her house is abandoned and broken. Her neighborhood is barren and dead. And there is a tattoo on her right hand. A tattoo Fiona doesn’t remember getting…but somehow she must conceal at any cost. Because humanity has been divided.

Those bearing the tattoo have turned into mindless, violent beasts that roam the streets and sewers, preying upon the unbranded, while a select few live protected inside a fortresslike wall, their lives devoted to rebuilding society and killing all who bear the mark.

And Fiona has awoken branded, on the wrong side of the wall, and…normal.

From the author of Shifting comes this remarkable reimagining of Sleeping Beauty, where the sting of a bee, rather than the prick of a needle, can destroy the world.]]> 304 Bethany Wiggins 0802734189 Daniel 0 to-read 4.01 2013 Stung (Stung, #1)
author: Bethany Wiggins
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/01/03
shelves: to-read
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]]> Orleans 15721624 First came the storms.
Then came the Fever.
And the Wall.

After a string of devastating hurricanes and a severe outbreak of Delta Fever, the Gulf Coast has been quarantined. Years later, residents of the Outer States are under the assumption that life in the Delta is all but extinct� but in reality, a new primitive society has been born.

Fen de la Guerre is living with the O-Positive blood tribe in the Delta when they are ambushed. Left with her tribe leader’s newborn, Fen is determined to get the baby to a better life over the wall before her blood becomes tainted. Fen meets Daniel, a scientist from the Outer States who has snuck into the Delta illegally. Brought together by chance, kept together by danger, Fen and Daniel navigate the wasteland of Orleans. In the end, they are each other’s last hope for survival.

Sherri L. Smith delivers an expertly crafted story about a fierce heroine whose powerful voice and firm determination will stay with you long after you’ve turned the last page.]]> 324 Sherri L. Smith 0399252940 Daniel 0 to-read 3.71 2013 Orleans
author: Sherri L. Smith
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/01/03
shelves: to-read
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]]> Crap Kingdom 15780282
HE WILL BRING DOWN THE WALL AND RESTORE THE KINGDOM TO GLORY

HIS NAME IS TOM PARKING

With this mysterious yet oddly ordinary-looking prophecy, Tom's fate is sealed: he's been plucked from his life and whisked away to a magical kingdom to be its Chosen One.

There's just one problem: The kingdom is mostly made of garbage from Earth. Okay, well, two problems: the king hates Tom. Also, the princess likes to wear fake mustaches. And being Chosen One seems to consist mainly of cleaning out rats' noses at the Royal Rat-Snottery.

So, basically, the kingdom sucks.

When Tom turns down the job of Chosen One, he thinks he's making a smart decision. But when Tom discovers he's been replaced by his best friend Kyle, who's always been cooler, more athletic, and better with girls, Tom wants Crap Kingdom back—at any cost. And the hilarity that ensues will determine the fate of the universe.]]> 360 D.C. Pierson 067001432X Daniel 0 to-read 3.17 2013 Crap Kingdom
author: D.C. Pierson
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.17
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/01/03
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]]> Charm & Strange 16045088 When you’ve been kept caged in the dark, it’s impossible to see the forest for the trees. It’s impossible to see anything, really. Not without bars . . .

Andrew Winston Winters is at war with himself.

He’s part Win, the lonely teenager exiled to a remote Vermont boarding school in the wake of a family tragedy.The guy who shuts all his classmates out, no matter the cost.

He’s part Drew, the angry young boy with violent impulses that control him. The boy who spent a fateful, long-ago summer with his brother and teenage cousins, only to endure a secret so monstrous it led three children to do the unthinkable.

Over the course of one night, while stuck at a party deep in the New England woods, Andrew battles both the pain of his past and the isolation of his present.

Before the sun rises, he’ll either surrender his sanity to the wild darkness inside his mind or make peace with the most elemental of truths—that choosing to live can mean so much more than not dying.]]> 216 Stephanie Kuehn 1250021944 Daniel 0 to-read 3.76 2013 Charm & Strange
author: Stephanie Kuehn
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/01/03
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]]> In the Shadow of Blackbirds 13112915
Featuring haunting archival early-twentieth-century photographs, this is a tense, romantic story set in a past that is eerily like our own time.]]> 387 Cat Winters 141970530X Daniel 0 to-read 3.85 2013 In the Shadow of Blackbirds
author: Cat Winters
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/01/03
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]]> <![CDATA[In the After (In the After, #1)]]> 12157407
Amy Harris's life changed forever when They took over. Her parents—vanished. The government—obsolete. Societal structure—nonexistent. No one knows where They came from, but these vicious creatures have been rapidly devouring mankind since They appeared. With fierce survivor instincts, Amy manages to stay alive—and even rescues "Baby," a toddler who was left behind. After years of hiding, they are miraculously rescued and taken to New Hope. On the surface, it appears to be a safe haven for survivors. But there are dark and twisted secrets lurking beneath that could have Amy and Baby paying with not only their freedom... but also their lives.]]> 455 Demitria Lunetta 0062105450 Daniel 0 to-read 4.06 2013 In the After (In the After, #1)
author: Demitria Lunetta
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/01/03
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]]> <![CDATA[Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (Between, #1)]]> 12930909 You stop fearing the devil when you’re holding his hand�

Nothing much exciting rolls through Violet White’s sleepy, seaside town� until River West comes along. River rents the guest house behind Violet’s crumbling estate, and as eerie, grim things start to happen, Violet begins to wonder about the boy living in her backyard.

Is River just a crooked-smiling liar with pretty eyes and a mysterious past? Or could he be something more?

Violet’s grandmother always warned her about the Devil, but she never said he could be a dark-haired boy who takes naps in the sun, who likes coffee, who kisses you in a cemetery... who makes you want to kiss back.

Violet’s already so knee-deep in love, she can’t see straight. And that’s just how River likes it.

Blending faded decadence and the thrilling dread of gothic horror, April Genevieve Tucholke weaves a dreamy, twisting contemporary romance, as gorgeously told as it is terrifying—a debut to watch.]]> 360 April Genevieve Tucholke 0803738897 Daniel 0 to-read 3.59 2013 Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (Between, #1)
author: April Genevieve Tucholke
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/01/03
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]]> Dead River 9774362
I thought it was going to be just us.

I was wrong.

Nothing is what it seems in this creepy paranormal thriller by Cyn Balog.]]> 242 Cyn Balog 0385741588 Daniel 0 to-read 3.48 2013 Dead River
author: Cyn Balog
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/01/03
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]]> Icons (Icons, #1) 11861715 Your heart beats only with their permission.

Everything changed on The Day. The day the windows shattered. The day the power stopped. The day Dol's family dropped dead. The day Earth lost a war it didn't know it was fighting.

Since then, Dol has lived a simple life in the countryside—safe from the shadow of the Icon and its terrifying power. Hiding from the one truth she can't avoid.

She's different. She survived. Why?

When Dol and her best friend, Ro, are captured and taken to the Embassy, off the coast of the sprawling metropolis once known as the City of Angels, they find only more questions. While Ro and fellow hostage Tima rage against their captors, Dol finds herself drawn to Lucas, the Ambassador's privileged son. But the four teens are more alike than they might think, and the timing of their meeting isn't a coincidence. It's a conspiracy.

Within the Icon's reach, Dol, Ro, Tima, and Lucas discover that their uncontrollable emotions—which they've always thought to be their greatest weaknesses—may actually be their greatest strengths.

Bestselling author Margaret Stohl delivers the first book in a heart-pounding series set in a haunting new world where four teens must piece together the mysteries of their pasts—in order to save the future.]]> 428 Margaret Stohl 0316205184 Daniel 0 to-read 3.41 2013 Icons (Icons, #1)
author: Margaret Stohl
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/01/03
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]]> <![CDATA[Insomnia (The Night Walkers, #1)]]> 12260608 Her dreams released his darkness.

After four years of sleeplessness, high school junior Parker Chipp can't take much more. Every night, instead of sleeping, he enters the dreams of the last person he's made eye contact with. If he doesn't sleep soon, Parker will die.

Then he meets Mia. Her dreams, calm and beautifully uncomplicated, allow him blissful rest that is utterly addictive. But what starts out as a chance meeting turns into an obsession; Parker's furious desire for what he needs pushes him to extremes he never thought he'd go. And when someone begins to terrorizing Mia with twisted death threats, Parker's memory blackouts leave him doubting his own innocence.]]> 351 J.R. Johansson Daniel 0 to-read 3.84 2013 Insomnia (The Night Walkers, #1)
author: J.R. Johansson
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/01/03
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]]> Pivot Point (Pivot Point, #1) 11988046 Knowing the outcome doesn’t always make a choice easier . . .

Addison Coleman’s life is one big “What if?� As a Searcher, whenever Addie is faced with a choice, she can look into the future and see both outcomes. It’s the ultimate insurance plan against disaster. Or so she thought. When Addie’s parents ambush her with the news of their divorce, she has to pick who she wants to live with—her father, who is leaving the paranormal compound to live among the “Norms,� or her mother, who is staying in the life Addie has always known. Addie loves her life just as it is, so her answer should be easy. One Search six weeks into the future proves it’s not.

In one potential future, Addie is adjusting to life outside the Compound as the new girl in a Norm high school where she meets Trevor, a cute, sensitive artist who understands her. In the other path, Addie is being pursued by the hottest guy in school—but she never wanted to be a quarterback’s girlfriend. When Addie’s father is asked to consult on a murder in the Compound, she’s unwittingly drawn into a dangerous game that threatens everything she holds dear. With love and loss in both lives, it all comes down to which reality she’s willing to live through . . . and who she can’t live without.]]> 343 Kasie West 0062117378 Daniel 0 to-read 4.07 2013 Pivot Point (Pivot Point, #1)
author: Kasie West
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/01/03
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]]> <![CDATA[Doctor Sleep (The Shining, #2)]]> 15800656 WHSmith Collector's Edition

Stephen King returns to the characters and territory of one of his most popular novels ever, The Shining, in this instantly riveting novel about the now middle-aged Dan Torrance (the boy protagonist of The Shining) and the very special 12-year-old girl he must save from a tribe of murderous paranormals.

On highways across America, a tribe of people called The True Knot travel in search of sustenance. They look harmless - mostly old, lots of polyester, and married to their RVs. But as Dan Torrance knows, and spunky 12-year-old Abra Stone learns, The True Knot are quasi-immortal, living off the "steam" that children with the "shining" produce when they are slowly tortured to death.

Haunted by the inhabitants of the Overlook Hotel where he spent one horrific childhood year, Dan has been drifting for decades, desperate to shed his father's legacy of despair, alcoholism, and violence. Finally, he settles in a New Hampshire town, an AA community that sustains him, and a job at a nursing home where his remnant "shining" power provides the crucial final comfort to the dying. Aided by a prescient cat, he becomes "Doctor Sleep."

Then Dan meets the evanescent Abra Stone, and it is her spectacular gift, the brightest shining ever seen, that reignites Dan's own demons and summons him to a battle for Abra's soul and survival. This is an epic war between good and evil, a gory, glorious story that will thrill the millions of hyper-devoted fans of The Shining and wildly satisfy anyone new to the territory of this icon in the King canon.]]> 544 Stephen King 1451698844 Daniel 0 to-read 4.04 2013 Doctor Sleep (The Shining, #2)
author: Stephen King
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/01/03
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]]> Joyland 13596166
A riveting story about love and loss, about growing up and growing old - and about those who don't get to do either because death comes for them before their time. It is at once a mystery, a horror story, and a bittersweet coming-of-age novel, one that will leave even the most hard-boiled reader profoundly moved.]]> 285 Stephen King 1781162646 Daniel 0 to-read 3.90 2013 Joyland
author: Stephen King
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/01/03
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]]>