Daniel's bookshelf: all en-US Sat, 24 May 2025 23:13:55 -0700 60 Daniel's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg James 173754979 A brilliant reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—both harrowing and satirical—told from the enslaved Jim's point of view

When Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he runs away until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck has faked his own death to escape his violent father. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

Brimming with nuanced humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a literary icon, this brilliant and tender novel radically illuminates Jim's agency, intelligence, and compassion as never before. James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first-century American literature.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780385550369.]]> 303 Percival Everett 0385550367 Daniel 0 to-read 4.45 2024 James
author: Percival Everett
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/05/24
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]]> House of Leaves 24800
Of course, neither Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Will Navidson nor his companion Karen Green was prepared to face the consequences of that impossibility, until the day their two little children wandered off and their voices eerily began to return another story—of creature darkness, of an ever-growing abyss behind a closet door, and of that unholy growl which soon enough would tear through their walls and consume all their dreams.]]> 710 Mark Z. Danielewski Daniel 0 to-read 4.11 2000 House of Leaves
author: Mark Z. Danielewski
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2000
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/27
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]]> <![CDATA[The Vanished: The "Evaporated People" of Japan in Stories and Photographs]]> 28695789 johatsu, or the 'evaporated', they are often driven by shame and hopelessness leaving behind lost jobs, disappointed families and mounting debts.

In The Vanished, journalist Léna Mauger and photographer Stéphane Remael uncover the human faces behind the phenomenon through reportage, photographs and interviews with those who left, those who stayed behind and those who help orchestrate the disappearances.

Their quest to learn the stories of the johatsu weaves its way through:

A Tokyo neighborhood so notorious for its petty criminal activities that it was literally erased from the maps.

Reprogramming camps for sub-par bureaucrats and businessmen to become 'better' employees.

The charmless citadel of Toyota City with its iron grip on its employees.

The 'suicide' cliffs of Tojinbo patrolled by a man fighting to save the desperate.

The desolation of Fukushima in the aftermath of the tsunami.

And yet, as exotic and foreign as their stories might appear to an outsider’s eyes, the human experience shared by the interviewees remains powerfully universal.]]> 272 Léna Mauger 151070826X Daniel 0 to-read 3.68 2014 The Vanished: The "Evaporated People" of Japan in Stories and Photographs
author: Léna Mauger
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/12
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]]> <![CDATA[One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This]]> 213870084 From award-winning novelist and journalist Omar El Akkad comes a powerful reckoning with what it means to live in the heart of an Empire which doesn’t consider you fully human.

On Oct 25th, after just three weeks of the bombardment of Gaza, Omar El Akkad put out a tweet: “One day, when it’s safe, when there’s no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it’s too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.� This tweet was viewed over 10 million times.

One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This chronicles the deep fracture which has occurred for Black, brown, indigenous Americans, as well as the upcoming generation, many of whom had clung to a thread of faith in western ideals, in the idea that their countries, or the countries of their adoption, actually attempted to live up to the values they espouse.

This book is a reckoning with what it means to live in the west, and what it means to live in a world run by a small group of countries—America, the UK, France and Germany.� It will be The Fire Next Time for a generation that understands we’re undergoing a shift in the so-called ‘rules-based order,� a generation that understands the west can no longer be trusted to police and guide the world, or its own cities and campuses. It draws on intimate details of Omar’s own story as an emigrant who grew up believing in the western project, who was catapulted into journalism by the rupture of 9/11.

This book is his heartsick breakup letter with the west. It is a breakup we are watching all over the U.S., on college campuses, on city streets, and the consequences of this rupture will be felt by all of us. His book is for all the people who want something better than what the west has served up. This is the book for our time.]]> 208 Omar El Akkad 0593804147 Daniel 0 to-read 4.68 2025 One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
author: Omar El Akkad
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.68
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/18
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]]> Shuri #1 42376696 25 Nnedi Okorafor Daniel 4 3.99 2018 Shuri #1
author: Nnedi Okorafor
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2018
rating: 4
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date added: 2025/02/09
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]]> Forest Hills Bootleg Society 51041565 Set in 2005, this gorgeously illustrated, funny, and honest graphic novel follows four teens who stumble into an illicit anime DVD-burning business that shakes up their conservative small town…and their friendship.

When Brooke, Kelly, Maggie, and Melissa buy a bootleg anime DVD at a gas station, they get much more than they bargained for with Super Love XL, a risqué move featuring—among other things—a giant mecha who shoots lasers out of her chest. The four girls are horrified (and maybe a little fascinated). It’s so unlike anything they’ve seen, would probably shock everyone else in their town, and definitely would take over their extremely conservative Christian school. That’s when they have the idea to sell copies to local boys…for twenty dollars a pop.

At first, everything goes perfectly, with the friends raking in cash—pretty soon they’ll even have enough money to buy the matching jackets they’ve always dreamed of! But as the market for mildly titillating anime DVDs grows, the girls realize they’ll need new material. On top of figuring out how to replicate their first success, there’s growing tension within the group. Brooke and Kelly’s romance is on its last legs, and hurt feelings are guaranteed when Melissa starts falling for one of them.

Will the four girls� shared history be strong enough to see them through this upheaval? Or will they learn that some things can only end in heartbreak?]]> 230 Dave Baker Daniel 3 3.37 2022 Forest Hills Bootleg Society
author: Dave Baker
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/19
date added: 2025/01/19
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]]> <![CDATA[Welcome to Pawnee: Stories of Friendship, Waffles, and Parks and Recreation]]> 200298052 260 Jim O’Heir 0063293501 Daniel 5 3.69 2024 Welcome to Pawnee: Stories of Friendship, Waffles, and Parks and Recreation
author: Jim O’Heir
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/19
date added: 2025/01/19
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]]> <![CDATA[They Both Die at the End (Death-Cast, #1)]]> 39320556 Adam Silvera reminds us that there’s no life without death and no love without loss in this devastating yet uplifting story about two people whose lives change over the course of one unforgettable day.

New York Times bestseller *4 starred reviews *A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year * A Kirkus Best Book of the Year * A Booklist Editors' Choice of 2017 * A Bustle Best YA Novel of 2017 * A Paste Magazine Best YA Book of 2017 * A Book Riot Best Queer Book of 2017 * A Buzzfeed Best YA Book of the Year * A BookPage Best YA Book of the Year

On September 5, a little after midnight, Death-Cast calls Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio to give them some bad news: They’re going to die today.

Mateo and Rufus are total strangers, but, for different reasons, they’re both looking to make a new friend on their End Day. The good news: There’s an app for that. It’s called the Last Friend, and through it, Rufus and Mateo are about to meet up for one last great adventure—to live a lifetime in a single day.

In the tradition of Before I Fall and If I Stay, They Both Die at the End is a tour de force from acclaimed author Adam Silvera, whose debut, More Happy Than Not, the New York Times called “profound.”]]> 389 Adam Silvera 0062457802 Daniel 0 to-read 3.83 2017 They Both Die at the End (Death-Cast, #1)
author: Adam Silvera
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/22
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]]> <![CDATA[Meditations: A New Translation]]> 61354484 Nearly two thousand years after it was written, Meditations remains profoundly relevant for anyone seeking to lead a meaningful life.

Few ancient works have been as influential as the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, philosopher and emperor of Rome (A.D. 161�180). A series of spiritual exercises filled with wisdom, practical guidance, and profound understanding of human behavior, it remains one of the greatest works of spiritual and ethical reflection ever written. Marcus’s insights and advice—on everything from living in the world to coping with adversity and interacting with others—have made the Meditations required reading for statesmen and philosophers alike, while generations of ordinary readers have responded to the straightforward intimacy of his style. For anyone who struggles to reconcile the demands of leadership with a concern for personal integrity and spiritual well-being, the Meditations remains as relevant now as it was two thousand years ago.

In Gregory Hays’s new translation—the first in thirty-five years—Marcus’s thoughts speak with a new immediacy. In fresh and unencumbered English, Hays vividly conveys the spareness and compression of the original Greek text. Never before have Marcus’s insights been so directly and powerfully presented.

With an Introduction that outlines Marcus’s life and career, the essentials of Stoic doctrine, the style and construction of the Meditations, and the work’s ongoing influence, this edition makes it possible to fully rediscover the thoughts of one of the most enlightened and intelligent leaders of any era.]]> Marcus Aurelius Daniel 0 to-read 4.49 180 Meditations: A New Translation
author: Marcus Aurelius
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.49
book published: 180
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]]> Cibola Burn (The Expanse, #4) 18656030 The fourth novel in James S.A. Corey’s New York Times bestselling Expanse series

The gates have opened the way to thousands of habitable planets, and the land rush has begun. Settlers stream out from humanity's home planets in a vast, poorly controlled flood, landing on a new world. Among them, the Rocinante, haunted by the vast, posthuman network of the protomolecule as they investigate what destroyed the great intergalactic society that built the gates and the protomolecule.

But Holden and his crew must also contend with the growing tensions between the settlers and the company which owns the official claim to the planet. Both sides will stop at nothing to defend what's theirs, but soon a terrible disease strikes and only Holden - with help from the ghostly Detective Miller - can find the cure.]]> 581 James S.A. Corey Daniel 0 currently-reading 4.19 2014 Cibola Burn (The Expanse, #4)
author: James S.A. Corey
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/22
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]]> <![CDATA[Abaddon’s Gate (The Expanse, #3)]]> 16131032
For generations, the solar system - Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt - was humanity's great frontier. Until now. The alien artefact working through its program under the clouds of Venus has emerged to build a massive structure outside the orbit of Uranus: a gate that leads into a starless dark.

Jim Holden and the crew of the Rocinante are part of a vast flotilla of scientific and military ships going out to examine the artefact. But behind the scenes, a complex plot is unfolding, with the destruction of Holden at its core. As the emissaries of the human race try to find whether the gate is an opportunity or a threat, the greatest danger is the one they brought with them.]]> 539 James S.A. Corey Daniel 5 4.26 2013 Abaddon’s Gate (The Expanse, #3)
author: James S.A. Corey
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/22
date added: 2024/06/22
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]]> <![CDATA[Eight Billion Genies: Deluxe Edition]]> 63850522
Eight seconds after magical genies grant every person on earth one wish, the world is transformed forever…and that’s just the beginning!

From #1 New York Times-bestselling author CHARLES SOULE (UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY, Light of the Jedi) and superstar artist RYAN BROWNE (CURSE WORDS, GOD HATES ASTRONAUTS) comes the most thought-provoking, hilarious, terrifying, and emotional ride of the year.

Collects EIGHT BILLION GENIES #1-8]]> 275 Charles Soule 1534326723 Daniel 5 4.32 2023 Eight Billion Genies: Deluxe Edition
author: Charles Soule
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/01
date added: 2024/05/01
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]]> <![CDATA[Bluefishing: The Art of Making Things Happen]]> 30753662
Steve Sims’s day job is to make the impossible possible. With his help and expertise, his clients� fantasies and wildest dreams come true. Getting married in the Vatican, being serenaded by Andrea Bocelli, and connecting with powerful business moguls like Elon Musk are just a few of the many projects he has worked on. He rarely reveals how he accomplishes the feats that make his clients so happy. But now for the first time, Steve shares his practical tips, techniques, and strategies to help readers break down any obstacle and turn their dreams into reality.

The core of his philosophy focuses on simple, yet effective ways to sharpen the mind and gain practical skills that can help you learn a new perspective and accomplish anything. Whether it’s climbing Mount Everest, launching a business, or applying for a dream job, you can make incredible things happen for yourself by applying his insightful advice such

-Ask Why Three Times
-Never be the First Call
-Don’t be Easy to Understand, be Impossible to Misunderstand

With colorful and enlightening stories of people driven to achieve the impossible, this book will inspire you to transform your life and aim for the unthinkable.]]> 224 Steve Sims 1501152513 Daniel 0 to-read 3.93 2017 Bluefishing: The Art of Making Things Happen
author: Steve Sims
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/04/24
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]]> <![CDATA[Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America]]> 55959466 From acclaimed columnist and political commentator Michael Harriot, a searingly smart and bitingly hilarious retelling of American history that corrects the record and showcases the perspectives and experiences of Black Americans.

America’s backstory is a whitewashed mythology implanted in our collective memory. It is the story of the pilgrims on the Mayflower building a new nation. It is George Washington’s cherry tree and Abraham Lincoln’s log cabin. It is the fantastic tale of slaves that spontaneously teleported themselves here with nothing but strong backs and negro spirituals. It is a sugarcoated legend based on an almost true story.

It should come as no surprise that the dominant narrative of American history is blighted with errors and oversights—after all, history books were written by white men with their perspectives at the forefront. It could even be said that the devaluation and erasure of the Black experience is as American as apple pie.

Black AF History, Michael Harriot presents a more accurate version of American history. Combining unapologetically provocative storytelling with meticulous research based on primary sources as well as the work of pioneering Black historians, scholars, and journalists, Harriot removes the white sugarcoating from the American story, placing Black people squarely at the center. With incisive wit, Harriot speaks hilarious truth to oppressive power, subverting conventional historical narratives with little-known stories about the experiences of Black Americans. From the African Americans who arrived before 1619 to the unenslavable bandit who inspired America’s first police force, this long overdue corrective provides a revealing look into our past that is as urgent as it is necessary. For too long, we have refused to acknowledge that American history is white history. Not this one. This history is Black AF.ձ> 432 Michael Harriot 0358439167 Daniel 0 to-read 4.60 2023 Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America
author: Michael Harriot
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.60
book published: 2023
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]]> Yellowface 62047984
So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? This piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller. That is what June believes, and The New York Times bestseller list agrees.

But June cannot escape Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens her stolen success. As she races to protect her secret she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.]]> 319 R.F. Kuang 000853277X Daniel 0 to-read 3.69 2023 Yellowface
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/02/10
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]]> The Midnight Library 102189586 The #1 New York Times bestselling WORLDWIDE phenomenon

Winner of the ŷ Choice Award for Fiction A Good Morning America Book Club Pick Independent (London) Ten Best Books of the Year

The dazzling reader-favorite about the choices that go into a life well lived, from the acclaimed author of How To Stop Time and The Comfort Book.

Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?

In The Midnight Library, Matt Haig's enchanting blockbuster novel, Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.]]> 304 Matt Haig 0525559493 Daniel 0 to-read 4.01 2020 The Midnight Library
author: Matt Haig
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/02/06
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]]> <![CDATA[The Destroyer of Worlds: A Return to Lovecraft Country (Lovecraft Country, 2)]]> 158651458 320 Matt Ruff 0063256908 Daniel 0 to-read 3.90 2023 The Destroyer of Worlds: A Return to Lovecraft Country (Lovecraft Country, 2)
author: Matt Ruff
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/23
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]]> <![CDATA[Eternal Warrior: Scorched Earth]]> 199585804 120 Tres Dean 1962201082 Daniel 2 3.41 Eternal Warrior: Scorched Earth
author: Tres Dean
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.41
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rating: 2
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date added: 2024/01/08
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]]> I Am Not Who You Think I Am 49192398
Wayland Maynard is just eight years old when he sees his father kill himself, finds a note that reads I am not who you think I am, and is left reeling with grief and shock. Who was his father if not the loving man Wayland knew? Terrified, Wayland keeps the note a secret, but his reasons for being afraid are just beginning.

Eight years later, Wayland makes a shocking discovery and becomes certain the note is the key to unlocking a past his mother and others in his town want to keep buried.

With the help of two friends, Wayland searches for the truth. Together they uncover strange messages scribbled in his father's old books, a sinister history behind the town's most powerful family, and a bizarre tragedy possibly linked to Wayland's birth. Each revelation raises more questions and deepens Wayland's suspicions of everyone around him. Soon, he'll regret he ever found the note, trusted his friends, or believed in such a thing as the truth.

I Am Not Who You Think I Am is an ingenious, addictive, and shattering tale of grief, obsession, and fate as eight words lead to lifetimes of ruin.]]> 229 Eric Rickstad 1094000337 Daniel 4 3.39 2021 I Am Not Who You Think I Am
author: Eric Rickstad
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/04
date added: 2024/01/04
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]]> <![CDATA[The Courage to Be Disliked: How to Free Yourself, Change your Life and Achieve Real Happiness]]> 43306206
The Courage to Be Disliked shows you how to unlock the power within yourself to become your best and truest self, change your future and find lasting happiness. Using the theories of Alfred Adler, one of the three giants of 19th-century psychology alongside Freud and Jung, the authors explain how we are all free to determine our own future free of the shackles of past experiences, doubts and the expectations of others. It’s a philosophy that’s profoundly liberating, allowing us to develop the courage to change, and to ignore the limitations that we and those around us can place on ourselves.

The result is a book that is both highly accessible and profound in its importance. Millions have already read and benefited from its wisdom. Now that The Courage to Be Disliked has been published for the first time in English, so can you.]]> 288 Ichiro Kishimi Daniel 0 to-read 3.89 2013 The Courage to Be Disliked: How to Free Yourself, Change your Life and Achieve Real Happiness
author: Ichiro Kishimi
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/12/30
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]]> <![CDATA[Directing Actors: Creating Memorable Performances for Film & Television]]> 254807 314 Judith Weston 0941188248 Daniel 0 to-read 4.34 1996 Directing Actors: Creating Memorable Performances for Film & Television
author: Judith Weston
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1996
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/11/26
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]]> <![CDATA[Scattered Minds: The Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder]]> 39899253 Scattered Minds explodes the myth of attention deficit disorder as genetically based � and offers real hope and advice for children and adults who live with the condition.

Gabor Maté is a revered physician who specializes in neurology, psychiatry and psychology � and himself has ADD. With wisdom gained through years of medical practice and research, Scattered Minds is a must-read for parents � and for anyone interested how experiences in infancy shape the biology and psychology of the human brain.

Scattered Minds:
- Demonstrates that ADD is not an inherited illness, but a reversible impairment and developmental delay
- Explains that in ADD, circuits in the brain whose job is emotional self-regulation and attention control fail to develop in infancy � and why
- Shows how ‘distractibility� is the psychological product of life experience
- Allows parents to understand what makes their ADD children tick, and adults with ADD to gain insights into their emotions and behaviours
- Expresses optimism about neurological development even in adulthood
- Presents a programme of how to promote this development in both children and adults]]> 368 Gabor Maté 1785042211 Daniel 0 to-read 4.27 1999 Scattered Minds: The Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder
author: Gabor Maté
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1999
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/11/02
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]]> Black Cake 154605152 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

We can’t choose what we inherit. But can we choose who we become?

In present-day California, Eleanor Bennett’s death leaves behind a puzzling inheritance for her two children, Byron and Benny: a black cake, made from a family recipe with a long history, and a voice recording. In her message, Eleanor shares a tumultuous story about a headstrong young swimmer who escapes her island home under suspicion of murder. The heartbreaking tale Eleanor unfolds, the secrets she still holds back, and the mystery of a long-lost child challenge everything the siblings thought they knew about their lineage and themselves.

Can Byron and Benny reclaim their once-close relationship, piece together Eleanor’s true history, and fulfill her final request to “share the black cake when the time is right�? Will their mother’s revelations bring them back together or leave them feeling more lost than ever?

Charmaine Wilkerson’s debut novel is a story of how the inheritance of betrayals, secrets, memories, and even names can shape relationships and history. Deeply evocative and beautifully written, Black Cake is an extraordinary journey through the life of a family changed forever by the choices of its matriarch.]]> 416 Charmaine Wilkerson 059335835X Daniel 0 to-read 4.11 2022 Black Cake
author: Charmaine Wilkerson
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/10/03
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]]> Out There Screaming 142392376 Get Out, Us, and Nope, and founder of Monkeypaw Productions, curates this groundbreaking anthology of all-new stories of Black horror, exploring not only the terrors of the supernatural but the chilling reality of injustice that haunts our nation.

A cop begins seeing huge, blinking eyes where the headlights of cars should be that tell him who to pull over. Two freedom riders take a bus ride that leaves them stranded on a lonely road in Alabama where several unsettling somethings await them. A young girl dives into the depths of the Earth in search of the demon that killed her parents. These are just a few of the worlds of Out There Screaming, Jordan Peele’s anthology of all-new horror stories by Black writers. Featuring an introduction by Peele and an all-star roster of beloved writers and new voices, Out There Screaming is a master class in horror, and—like his spine-chilling films—its stories prey on everything we think we know about our world . . . and redefine what it means to be afraid.

Featuring stories by: Erin E. Adams, Violet Allen, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Maurice Broaddus, Chesya Burke, P. Djèlí Clark, Ezra Claytan Daniels, Tananarive Due, Nalo Hopkinson, N. K. Jemisin, Justin C. Key, L. D. Lewis, Nnedi Okorafor, Tochi Onyebuchi, Rebecca Roanhorse, Nicole D. Sconiers, Rion Amilcar Scott, Terence Taylor, and Cadwell Turnbull.]]> 387 Jordan Peele 059324379X Daniel 0 to-read 3.77 2023 Out There Screaming
author: Jordan Peele
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/10/03
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]]> <![CDATA[The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph]]> 18668059 “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.� � Marcus Aurelius

We are stuck, stymied, frustrated. But it needn’t be this way. There is a formula for success that’s been followed by the icons of history—from John D. Rockefeller to Amelia Earhart to Ulysses S. Grant to Steve Jobs—a formula that let them turn obstacles into opportunities. Faced with impossible situations, they found the astounding triumphs we all seek.

These men and women were not exceptionally brilliant, lucky, or gifted. Their success came from timeless philosophical principles laid down by a Roman emperor who struggled to articulate a method for excellence in any and all situations.

This book reveals that formula for the first time—and shows us how we can turn our own adversity into advantage.]]> 201 Ryan Holiday 1591846358 Daniel 4 4.12 2014 The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph
author: Ryan Holiday
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/22
date added: 2023/09/22
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]]> <![CDATA[On the Shortness of Life: Life Is Long if You Know How to Use It (Penguin Great Ideas)]]> 97412 106 Seneca 0143036327 Daniel 0 to-read 4.20 49 On the Shortness of Life: Life Is Long if You Know How to Use It (Penguin Great Ideas)
author: Seneca
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.20
book published: 49
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]]> Letters from a Stoic 97411 No man can live a happy life, or even a supportable life, without the study of wisdom

Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BC-AD 65) is one of the most famous Roman philosophers. Instrumental in guiding the Roman Empire under emperor Nero, Seneca influenced him from a young age with his Stoic principles. Later in life, he wrote Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium, or Letters from a Stoic, detailing these principles in full.

Seneca’s letters read like a diary or a handbook of philosophical meditations. Often beginning with observations on daily life, the letters focus on many traditional themes of Stoic philosophy, such as the contempt of death, the value of friendship, and virtue as the supreme good.

Using Gummere’s translation from the early twentieth century, this selection of Seneca’s letters shows his belief in the austere, ethical ideals of Stoicism � teachings we can still learn from today.]]> 254 Seneca 0140442103 Daniel 0 to-read 4.33 64 Letters from a Stoic
author: Seneca
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.33
book published: 64
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]]> Dead Silence 57693184 A woman and her crew board a decades-lost luxury cruiser and find the wreckage of a nightmare that hasn't yet ended.

A GHOST SHIP.
A SALVAGE CREW.
UNSPEAKABLE HORRORS.

Claire Kovalik is days away from being unemployed—made obsolete—when her beacon repair crew picks up a strange distress signal. With nothing to lose and no desire to return to Earth, Claire and her team decide to investigate.

What they find at the other end of the signal is a shock: the Aurora, a famous luxury space-liner that vanished on its maiden tour of the solar system more than twenty years ago. A salvage claim like this could set Claire and her crew up for life. But a quick trip through the Aurora reveals something isn’t right.

Whispers in the dark. Flickers of movement. Words scrawled in blood. Claire must fight to hold onto her sanity and find out what really happened on the Aurora, before she and her crew meet the same ghastly fate.]]> 343 S.A. Barnes 1250819997 Daniel 5 3.75 2022 Dead Silence
author: S.A. Barnes
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/11
date added: 2023/09/11
shelves:
review:

]]> Godfall 107525631
As the sheriff of Little Springs, David Blunt thought he’d be keeping the peace among the same people he’d known all his life, not breaking up chanting crowds of conspiracy theorists in tiger masks or struggling to control a town hall meeting about the construction of a mosque. As a series of brutal, bizarre murders strikes close to home, Blunt throws himself into the hunt for a killer who seems connected to the Giant. With bodies piling up and tensions in Little Springs mounting, he realizes that in order to find the answers he needs, he must first reconcile his old worldview with the town he now lives in—before it’s too late.]]> 308 Van Jensen 1496235215 Daniel 0 to-read 3.84 2023 Godfall
author: Van Jensen
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Whisper Valley 198361063 Cynthia Beals Daniel 5 4.50 Whisper Valley
author: Cynthia Beals
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/09/03
shelves: lost-without-you, christian-fiction, fiction, romance, horses, ranch, military, veterans, rehabilitation
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Risk Forward: Embrace the Unknown and Unlock Your Hidden Genius]]> 55403620 Some people in life know exactly what they want to achieve. This is a book for the rest of us. - Victoria Labalme

If you sense there's something more but you're not yet sure what it is...

If you wish you had the courage to try something new...

If you're struggling to figure out your next steps on a project, plan or path...

Risk Forward will help you find your way.

In this brief, easy-to-read, full color book experience, acclaimed keynote speaker and performance coach Victoria Labalme shares a series of strategies that are practical, reassuring, and radically freeing.

Through these uniquely designed, whimsical, and thought-provoking pages, you'll learn:

- How to navigate through uncertainty
- The #1 question to identify what matters
- Four insights to help you find your way
- Why your disparate talents are essential to your path
- How to handle moments of indecision
- 3 key questions to ask when you get advice
- How to stay on course and know that what you do makes a difference]]> 176 Victoria Labalme 1401961800 Daniel 0 to-read 3.72 2021 Risk Forward: Embrace the Unknown and Unlock Your Hidden Genius
author: Victoria Labalme
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America's Heartland]]> 40697553
In the era of Donald Trump, many lower- and middle-class white Americans are drawn to politicians who pledge to make their lives great again. But as Dying of Whiteness shows, the policies that result actually place white Americans at ever-greater risk of sickness and death.

Physician Jonathan M. Metzl's quest to understand the health implications of "backlash governance" leads him across America's heartland. Interviewing a range of everyday Americans, he examines how racial resentment has fueled pro-gun laws in Missouri, resistance to the Affordable Care Act in Tennessee, and cuts to schools and social services in Kansas. And he shows these policies' costs: increasing deaths by gun suicide, rising dropout rates, and falling life expectancies. White Americans, Metzl argues, must reject the racial hierarchies that promise to aid them but in fact lead our nation to demise.]]> 341 Jonathan M. Metzl 1541644980 Daniel 0 to-read 4.10 2019 Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America's Heartland
author: Jonathan M. Metzl
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Standing My Ground: A Capitol Police Officer's Fight for Accountability and Good Trouble After January 6th]]> 64000401
Walking the halls of democracy as a Capitol Police officer, Harry Dunn was a man slowly experiencing an awakening. It sparked after the election of our first Black president. It grew as his belief in the bravery and honor of law enforcement was shaken by Ferguson and countless other cases of police brutality towards the Black community. It continued to burn brighter as he watched members of Congress, many of whom he had befriended, lose their way to partisanship, as political extremism intensified. And it exploded into a blaze when he fought side by side with his fellow officers on January 6th, when democracy and their lives were threatened.

Standing My Ground provides a crucial, definitive firsthand account of what happened on that day our country was shocked to its core. But it will also share the story of a man who refused to stay quiet when he learned that some of the men and women he had risked his life protecting, who knew him by name, would deny the horrors they faced. That’s when he chose to speak up and to seek out what his hero John Lewis once termed “good trouble.� Dunn’s ongoing story as a witness willing to meaningfully engage with the media, lawmakers, and the public provides a backdrop for examining the political and racial divide in this country—one that we must overcome in order to demand accountability and preserve our precious democracy.]]> 256 Harry Dunn 0306831139 Daniel 0 to-read 4.21 Standing My Ground: A Capitol Police Officer's Fight for Accountability and Good Trouble After January 6th
author: Harry Dunn
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.21
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/13
shelves: to-read
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]]> Norwegian Wood 9651654
This stunning and elegiac novel by the author of the internationally acclaimed Wind-Up Bird Chronicle has sold over 4 million copies in Japan and is now available to American audiences for the first time. It is sure to be a literary event.

Toru, a quiet and preternaturally serious young college student in Tokyo, is devoted to Naoko, a beautiful and introspective young woman, but their mutual passion is marked by the tragic death of their best friend years before. Toru begins to adapt to campus life and the loneliness and isolation he faces there, but Naoko finds the pressures and responsibilities of life unbearable. As she retreats further into her own world, Toru finds himself reaching out to others and drawn to a fiercely independent and sexually liberated young woman.

A poignant story of one college student's romantic coming-of-age, Norwegian Wood takes us to that distant place of a young man's first, hopeless, and heroic love.]]> 389 Haruki Murakami 0307744663 Daniel 0 to-read 3.85 1987 Norwegian Wood
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1987
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood]]> 62365904 An exposé of patterns of harassment and bias in Hollywood, the grassroots reforms under way, and the labor and activist revolutions that recent scandals have ignited

It is never just One Bad Man.

Abuse and exploitation of workers is baked into the very foundations of the entertainment industry. To break the cycle and make change that sticks, it's important to stop looking at headline-making stories as individual events. Instead, one must look closely at the bigger picture, to see how abusers are created, fed, rewarded, allowed to persist, and, with the right tools, how they can be excised.

In Burn It Down, veteran reporter Maureen Ryan does just that. She draws on decades of experience to connect the dots and illuminate the deeper forces sustaining Hollywood's corrosive culture. Fresh reporting sheds light on problematic situations at companies like Lucasfilm and shows like Saturday Night Live, The Goldbergs, Lost, Sleepy Hollow, Curb Your Enthusiasm , and more. Interviews with actors and famous creatives like Evan Rachel Wood, Harold Perrineau, Damon Lindelof, and Orlando Jones abound. Ryan dismantles, one by one, the myths that the entertainment industry promotes about itself, which have allowed abusers to thrive and the industry to avoid accountability--myths about Hollywood as a meritocracy, what it takes to be creative, the value of human dignity, and more.

Weaving together insights from industry insiders, historical context, and pop-culture analysis, Burn It Down paints a groundbreaking and urgently necessary portrait of what's gone wrong in the entertainment world--and of how we can fix it.]]> 348 Maureen Ryan 0063269279 Daniel 0 currently-reading 3.86 2023 Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood
author: Maureen Ryan
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/31
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow]]> 58784475 In this exhilarating novel, two friends—often in love, but never lovers—come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.

On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn't heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won't protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.

Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.]]> 401 Gabrielle Zevin 0735243344 Daniel 5 4.12 2022 Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
author: Gabrielle Zevin
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/29
date added: 2023/07/29
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]]> Not Forever, But For Now 101145468 From the bestselling author of Fight Club comes a hilarious horror satire about a family of professional killers responsible for the most atrocious events in history and the young brothers that are destined to take over.Meet Otto and Cecil. Two brothers growing up privileged in the Welsh countryside. They enjoy watching nature shows, playing with their pet pony, impersonating their Grandfather...and killing the help. Murder is the family business after all. Downton Abbey, this is not. However, it’s not so easy to continue the family legacy with the constant stream of threats and distractions seemingly leaping from the hedgerow. First there is the matter of the veritable cavalcade of escaped convicts that keep showing up at their door. Not to mention the debaucherous new tutor who has a penchant for speaking in Greek and dismembering sex dolls. Then there’s Mummy’s burgeoning opioid addiction. And who knows where Daddy is. He just vanished one day after he and Mummy took a walk in the so called “Ghost Forest.� With Grandfather putting pressure on Otto to step up, it becomes clear that this will all end in only two a nuclear apocalypse or just another day among the creeping thistle and tree peonies. And in a novel written by Chuck Palahniuk, either are equally possible.]]> 256 Chuck Palahniuk 1668021412 Daniel 0 to-read 3.09 2023 Not Forever, But For Now
author: Chuck Palahniuk
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.09
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Black Agenda: Bold Solutions for a Broken System]]> 58902147 "The Black Agenda mobilizes top Black experts from across the country to share transformative perspectives on how to deploy anti-racist ideas and policies into everything from climate policy to criminal justice to healthcare. This book will challenge what you think is possible by igniting long overdue conversations around how to enact lasting and meaningful change rooted in racial justice." —Ibram X. Kendi, #1 New York Times bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist and Stamped From the BeginningFrom ongoing reports of police brutality to the disproportionate impact COVID-19 has had on Black Americans, 2020 brought a renewed awareness to the deep-rootedness of racism and white supremacy in every facet of American life. Edited by Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman, The Black Agenda is the first book of its kind—a bold and urgent move towards social justice through a profound collection of essays featuring Black scholars and experts across economics, education, health, climate, and technology. It speaks to the question "What's next for America?" on the subjects of policy-making, mental health, artificial intelligence, climate movement, the future of work, the LGBTQ community, the criminal legal system, and much more. Essayists including Dr. Sandy Darity, Dr. Hedwig Lee, Mary Heglar, and Janelle Jones present groundbreaking ideas ranging from Black maternal and infant health to reparations to AI bias to inclusive economic policy, with the potential to uplift and heal not only Black America, but the entire country.]]> 264 Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman 1250276888 Daniel 0 to-read 4.53 2022 The Black Agenda: Bold Solutions for a Broken System
author: Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.53
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Mimicking of Known Successes (The Investigations of Mossa and Pleiti, #1)]]> 60784309 The Mimicking of Known Successes presents a cozy Holmesian murder mystery and sapphic romance, set on Jupiter, by Malka Older, author of the critically-acclaimed Centenal Cycle.

On a remote, gas-wreathed outpost of a human colony on Jupiter, a man goes missing. The enigmatic Investigator Mossa follows his trail to Valdegeld, home to the colony’s erudite university—and Mossa’s former girlfriend, a scholar of Earth’s pre-collapse ecosystems.

Pleiti has dedicated her research and her career to aiding the larger effort towards a possible return to Earth. When Mossa unexpectedly arrives and requests Pleiti’s assistance in her latest investigation, the two of them embark on a twisting path in which the future of life on Earth is at stake—and, perhaps, their futures, together.]]> 169 Malka Ann Older 1250860504 Daniel 4 3.56 2023 The Mimicking of Known Successes (The Investigations of Mossa and Pleiti, #1)
author: Malka Ann Older
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/04/15
date added: 2023/04/15
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Come On Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All: A New Zealand Story]]> 1776437
Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All is the story of the cultural collision between Westerners and the Maoris of New Zealand, told partly as a history of the complex and bloody period of contact between Europeans and the Maoris in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and partly as the story of Christina Thompson's marriage to a Maori man. As an American graduate student studying literature in Australia, Thompson traveled on vacation to New Zealand, where she met a Maori known as "Seven." Their relationship was one of opposites: he was a tradesman, she an intellectual; he came from a background of rural poverty, she from one of middle-class privilege; he was a "native," she descended directly from "colonizers." Nevertheless, they shared a similar sense of adventure and a willingness to depart from the customs of their families and forge a life together on their own.

In this extraordinary book, which grows out of decades of research, Thompson explores the meaning of cross-cultural contact and the fascinating history of Europeans in the South Pacific, beginning with Abel Tasman's discovery of New Zealand in 1642 and James Cook's famous circumnavigations of 1769-79. Transporting us back and forth in time and around the world, from Australia to Hawaii to tribal New Zealand and finally to a house in New England that has ghosts of its own, Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All brings to life a lush variety of characters and settings. Yet at its core, it is the story of two
people who, in making a life and a family together, bridge the gap between two worlds.]]> 288 Christina Thompson 1596911263 Daniel 0 to-read 3.50 2008 Come On Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All: A New Zealand Story
author: Christina Thompson
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/04/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> GUNDOG 62976962 In the near future, Earth has been conquered by a race of brutal alien machines known as the Mek, and an entire generation has grown up under their oppressive rule.

When Dakota Bregman, a rebellious young woman imprisoned in a Mek labor camp stumbles across a mysterious map that may hold the secret to humanity’s liberation, she escapes and embarks on a dangerous odyssey across an alien-occupied America that leads her to an amazing discovery � a long-lost prototype war machine known as a Gundog. Created by the last defenders of Earth, it has lain dormant for decades, hidden away. Waiting for someone to wake it up.

Now Dakota must confront a legacy she never knew she had, and embrace the warrior she was meant to be, facing down impossible odds and an overwhelmingly superior enemy in the hope of sparking a new flame of human resistance...]]> Gary Whitta Daniel 0 to-read 3.75 2023 GUNDOG
author: Gary Whitta
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/21
shelves: to-read
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]]> Black Cake 57926137 We can’t choose what we inherit. But can we choose who we become?

In present-day California, Eleanor Bennett’s death leaves behind a puzzling inheritance for her two children, Byron and Benny: a black cake, made from a family recipe with a long history, and a voice recording. In her message, Eleanor shares a tumultuous story about a headstrong young swimmer who escapes her island home under suspicion of murder. The heartbreaking tale Eleanor unfolds, the secrets she still holds back, and the mystery of a long-lost child challenge everything the siblings thought they knew about their lineage and themselves.

Can Byron and Benny reclaim their once-close relationship, piece together Eleanor’s true history, and fulfill her final request to “share the black cake when the time is right�? Will their mother’s revelations bring them back together or leave them feeling more lost than ever?

Charmaine Wilkerson’s debut novel is a story of how the inheritance of betrayals, secrets, memories, and even names can shape relationships and history. Deeply evocative and beautifully written, Black Cake is an extraordinary journey through the life of a family changed forever by the choices of its matriarch.]]> 385 Charmaine Wilkerson Daniel 0 to-read 4.06 2022 Black Cake
author: Charmaine Wilkerson
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/03/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Devil House 57693663
Now, he is a true crime writer, with one grisly success--and movie adaptation--to his name, along with a series of subsequent lesser efforts that have paid the bills but not much more. But now he is being offered the chance for the big break: To move into the house--what the locals call "The Devil House"--in which a briefly notorious pair of murders occurred, apparently the work of disaffected 1980s teens. He begins his research with diligence and enthusiasm, but soon the story leads him into a puzzle he never expected--back into his own work and what it means, back to the very core of what he does and who he is.]]> 403 John Darnielle 0374212236 Daniel 0 to-read 3.21 2022 Devil House
author: John Darnielle
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.21
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/03/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Anthem 57941459 An epic literary thriller set where America is right now, in which a band of unlikely heroes sets out on a quest to save one innocent life—and might end up saving us all.

Something is happening to teenagers across America, spreading through memes only they can parse.

At the Float Anxiety Abatement Center, in a suburb of Chicago, Simon Oliver is trying to recover from his sister’s tragic passing. He breaks out to join a woman named Louise and a man called The Prophet on a quest as urgent as it is enigmatic. Who lies at the end of the road? A man known as The Wizard, whose past encounter with Louise sparked her own collapse. Their quest becomes a rescue mission when they join up with a man whose sister is being held captive by the Wizard, impregnated and imprisoned in a tower.

Noah Hawley’s new novel is anadventure that finds unquenchable lights in dark corners. Unforgettably vivid characters and a plot as fast and bright as pop cinema blend in a Vonnegutian story that is as timeless as a Grimm’s fairy tale. It is a leap into the idiosyncratic pulse of the American heart, written with the bravado, literary power, and feverish foresight that have made Hawley one of our most essential writers.]]> 427 Noah Hawley 1538711516 Daniel 4 3.43 2022 Anthem
author: Noah Hawley
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/14
date added: 2023/03/14
shelves:
review:

]]> Red Rising (Red Rising, #1) 52880778
Darrow is a Red, a miner in the interior of Mars. His mission is to extract enough precious elements to one day tame the surface of the planet and allow humans to live on it.
The Reds are humanity's last hope.

Or so it appears, until the day Darrow discovers it's all a lie.

That Mars has been habitable - and inhabited - for generations, by a class of people calling themselves the Golds.

A class of people who look down on Darrow and his fellows as slave labour, to be exploited and worked to death without a second thought. Until the day that Darrow, with the help of a mysterious group of rebels, disguises himself as a Gold and infiltrates their command school, intent on taking down his oppressors from the inside.

But the command school is a battlefield - and Darrow isn't the only student with an agenda.

Break the chains.

Live for more.

This edition contains a preview of Golden Son, Book II of the Red Rising trilogy.]]> 400 Pierce Brown 034553980X Daniel 0 to-read 4.21 2014 Red Rising (Red Rising, #1)
author: Pierce Brown
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Babel 57945316 From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a historical fantasy epic that grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British Empire

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

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

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

Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?]]> 544 R.F. Kuang 0063021420 Daniel 0 to-read 4.16 2022 Babel
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/02/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America]]> 53056522 From the author of the New York Times bestseller So You Want to Talk About Race, a history of white male America and a scathing indictment of what it has cost us socially, economically, and politically

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

In this ambitious survey of the last century of American history, Oluo answers that question by pinpointing white men's deliberate efforts to subvert women, people of color, and the disenfranchised. Through research, interviews, and the powerful, personal writing for which she is celebrated, Oluo investigates the backstory of America's growth, from immigrant migration to our national ethos around ingenuity, from the shaping of economic policy to the protection of sociopolitical movements that fortify male power. In the end, she shows how white men have long maintained a stranglehold on leadership and sorely undermined the pursuit of happiness for all.]]> 278 Ijeoma Oluo 1580059511 Daniel 0 to-read 4.40 2020 Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America
author: Ijeoma Oluo
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/02/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Memory's Legion 36130437
Contents:

Drive (2012)
The Butcher of Anderson Station (2011)
The Churn (2014)
Gods of Risk (2012)
The Vital Abyss (2015)
Strange Dogs (2017)
Auberon (2019)
The Sins of our Fathers (2022)

*does not include The Last Flight of the Cassandra]]> 423 James S.A. Corey Daniel 0 to-read 4.33 2022 Memory's Legion
author: James S.A. Corey
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Leviathan Falls (The Expanse, #9)]]> 28335699
In the dead system of Adro, Elvi Okoye leads a desperate scientific mission to understand what the gate builders were and what destroyed them, even if it means compromising herself and the half-alien children who bear the weight of her investigation. Through the wide-flung systems of humanity, Colonel Aliana Tanaka hunts for Duarte’s missing daughter. . . and the shattered emperor himself. And on the Rocinante, James Holden and his crew struggle to build a future for humanity out of the shards and ruins of all that has come before.

As nearly unimaginable forces prepare to annihilate all human life, Holden and a group of unlikely allies discover a last, desperate chance to unite all of humanity, with the promise of a vast galactic civilization free from wars, factions, lies, and secrets if they win.

But the price of victory may be worse than the cost of defeat.]]> 528 James S.A. Corey 0356510395 Daniel 0 to-read 4.48 2021 Leviathan Falls (The Expanse, #9)
author: James S.A. Corey
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/02/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Tiamat's Wrath (The Expanse, #8)]]> 28335698
In the dead systems where gates lead to stranger things than alien planets, Elvi Okoye begins a desperate search to discover the nature of a genocide that happened before the first human beings existed, and to find weapons to fight a war against forces at the edge of the imaginable. But the price of that knowledge may be higher than she can pay.

At the heart of the empire, Teresa Duarte prepares to take on the burden of her father's godlike ambition. The sociopathic scientist Paolo Cortázar and the Mephistophelian prisoner James Holden are only two of the dangers in a palace thick with intrigue, but Teresa has a mind of her own and secrets even her father the emperor doesn't guess.

And throughout the wide human empire, the scattered crew of the Rocinante fights a brave rear-guard action against Duarte's authoritarian regime. Memory of the old order falls away, and a future under Laconia's eternal rule -- and with it, a battle that humanity can only lose - seems more and more certain. Because against the terrors that lie between worlds, courage and ambition will not be enough...]]> 534 James S.A. Corey 0316332879 Daniel 0 to-read 4.54 2019 Tiamat's Wrath (The Expanse, #8)
author: James S.A. Corey
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.54
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/02/07
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]]> <![CDATA[Persepolis Rising (The Expanse, #7)]]> 28335696 In the vast space between Earth and Jupiter, the inner planets and the Belt have formed a tentative and uncertain alliance, still haunted by a history of wars and prejudices. On the lost colony world of Laconia, a hidden enemy has a new vision for all of humanity � and the power to enforce it.
New technologies clash with old, as the history of human conflict returns to its ancient pattern of war and subjugation. But human nature is not the only enemy, and the forces being unleashed have their own price. A price that will change the shape of humanity � and of the Rocinante � unexpectedly and for ever �

The seventh novel in James S. A. Corey's New York Times bestselling Expanse series--now a major television series.
The Expanse Leviathan Wakes, Caliban's War, Abaddon's Gate, Cibola Burn, Nemesis Games, Babylon's Ashes, Persepolis Rising,
The Expanse Short Fiction The Butcher of Anderson Station, Gods of Risk, The Churn, The Vital Abyss, Strange Dogs.]]> 608 James S.A. Corey 0316332828 Daniel 0 to-read 4.34 2017 Persepolis Rising (The Expanse, #7)
author: James S.A. Corey
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/02/07
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]]> <![CDATA[Babylon’s Ashes (The Expanse, #6)]]> 25877663 The sixth book in the New York Times bestselling Expanse series.

NOW A MAJOR TV SERIES

A revolution brewing for generations has begun in fire. It will end in blood.

The Free Navy - a violent group of Belters in black-market military ships - has crippled the Earth and begun a campaign of piracy and violence among the outer planets. The colony ships heading for the thousand new worlds on the far side of the alien ring gates are easy prey, and no single navy remains strong enough to protect them.

James Holden and his crew know the strengths and weaknesses of this new force better than anyone. Outnumbered and outgunned, the embattled remnants of the old political powers call on the Rocinante for a desperate mission to reach Medina Station at the heart of the gate network.

But the new alliances are as flawed as the old, and the struggle for power has only just begun. As the chaos grows, an alien mystery deepens. Pirate fleets, mutiny and betrayal may be the least of the Rocinante's problems. And in the uncanny spaces past the ring gates, the choices of a few damaged and desperate people may determine the fate of more than just humanity.

]]> 532 James S.A. Corey 0356504263 Daniel 0 to-read 4.22 2016 Babylon’s Ashes (The Expanse, #6)
author: James S.A. Corey
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Nemesis Games (The Expanse, #5)]]> 22886612
A thousand worlds have opened, and the greatest land rush in human history has begun. As wave after wave of colonists leave, the power structures of the old solar system begin to buckle.

Ships are disappearing without a trace. Private armies are being secretly formed. The sole remaining protomolecule sample is stolen. Terrorist attacks previously considered impossible bring the inner planets to their knees. The sins of the past are returning to exact a terrible price.

And as a new human order is struggling to be born in blood and fire, James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante must struggle to survive and get back to the only home they have left.]]> 536 James S.A. Corey 031621759X Daniel 0 to-read 4.44 2015 Nemesis Games (The Expanse, #5)
author: James S.A. Corey
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road]]> 57789644
It won six Oscars and has been hailed as the greatest action film ever, but it is a miracle Mad Max: Fury Road ever made it to the screen� or that anybody survived the production. The story of this modern classic spanned nearly two decades of wild obstacles as visionary director George Miller tried to mount one of the most difficult shoots in Hollywood history.

Production stalled several times, stars Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron clashed repeatedly in the brutal Namib Desert, and Miller’s crew engineered death-defying action scenes that were among the most dangerous ever committed to film. Even accomplished Hollywood figures are flummoxed by the accomplishment: As the director Steven Soderbergh has said, “I don’t understand how they’re not still shooting that film, and I don’t understand how hundreds of people aren’t dead.�

Kyle Buchanan takes readers through every step of that moviemaking experience in vivid detail, from Fury Road’s unexpected origins through its outlandish casting process to the big-studio battles that nearly mutilated a masterpiece. But he takes the deepest dive in reporting the astonishing facts behind a shoot so unconventional that the film’s fantasy world began to bleed into the real lives of its cast and crew. As they fought and endured in a wasteland of their own, the only way forward was to have faith in their director’s mad vision. But how could Miller persevere when almost everything seemed to be stacked against him?

With hundreds of exclusive interviews and details about the making of Fury Road, readers will be left with one undeniable conclusion: There has never been a movie so drenched in sweat, so forged by fire, and so epic in scope.]]> 384 Kyle Buchanan 0063084341 Daniel 5 4.31 2022 Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road
author: Kyle Buchanan
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/02/06
date added: 2023/02/06
shelves:
review:

]]> Inferno Girl Red, Vol. 1 63349376
Inferno Girl Red is a series in the Massive-Verse.]]> 136 Mat Groom 153432481X Daniel 3 3.61 2023 Inferno Girl Red, Vol. 1
author: Mat Groom
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2023/02/05
date added: 2023/02/05
shelves:
review:

]]> Echolands, Vol. 1 59709169
The multiple award-winning Batwoman team, J. H. WILLIAMS III (Promethea, The Sandman: Overture, Batman) and W. HADEN BLACKMAN (Star Wars, Elektra), reunites for an all-new ongoing series! They’re joined once again by colorist supreme DAVE STEWART and master letterer TODD KLEIN.

In a bizarre future world that has forgotten its history, a reckless thief, Hope Redhood, holds the key to excavating its dark, strange past―if only she and her crew can escape a tyrannical wizard and his unstoppable daughter. But fate will send them all on a path leading to a war between worlds.

ECHOLANDS is a landscape format, mythic-fiction epic where anything is possible―a fast-paced genre mashup adventure that combines everything from horror movie vampires to classic mobsters and cyborg elves, to Roman demigods and retro rocket ships. It’s going to be a helluva ride!]]> 272 J.H. Williams III 1534321136 Daniel 5 3.79 2022 Echolands, Vol. 1
author: J.H. Williams III
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2022/11/09
date added: 2022/11/09
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]]> Beneath an Alien Sky 59365922
Appi, a remnant of the old world, plots to ruin the world by introducing the universe’s most violent and invasive species into the fragile, recovering ecosystem. Standing in his way is Kopa, a cop. Appi and the creature’s destructive ambition and Kopa’s naïve ambition collide with the fate of the domed city and the struggling natural world outside hanging in the balance.]]> 136 Sid Kotian 1952126266 Daniel 3 3.76 2022 Beneath an Alien Sky
author: Sid Kotian
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2022/11/05
date added: 2022/11/05
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]]> <![CDATA[Sewer, Gas and Electric: The Public Works Trilogy]]> 71846 464 Matt Ruff 0802141552 Daniel 0 to-read 3.94 1994 Sewer, Gas and Electric: The Public Works Trilogy
author: Matt Ruff
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1994
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/10/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Destroyer of Worlds (Lovecraft Country, #2)]]> 61190257 305 Matt Ruff 0063256894 Daniel 0 to-read 3.87 2023 The Destroyer of Worlds (Lovecraft Country, #2)
author: Matt Ruff
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/10/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Blacksad: They All Fall Down · Part One]]> 61941831 64 Juan Díaz Canales 1506730647 Daniel 4 4.30 2021 Blacksad: They All Fall Down · Part One
author: Juan Díaz Canales
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2022/08/23
date added: 2022/09/09
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Caliban’s War (The Expanse, #2)]]> 12591698
On Ganymede, the station that represents the main food source for exoplanets, a Martian marine sergeant watches her entire platoon being slaughtered before her eyes by a supernatural monster. On Earth, a high-ranking politician struggles to defuse an interplanetary war. Meanwhile, an alien protomolecule sweeps across Venus, causing profound and mysterious changes and threatening to spread and sweep across the solar system.

In the vastness of space, James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante maintain the stability of the exoplanetary alliance. When he and his crew agree to help a scientist search for his missing daughter on war-torn Ganymede, the fate of humanity hinges on whether one craft can prevent an alien invasion that may already be underway.

"Corey spins his novel with elegant, old-fashioned threads while maintaining a fast-paced pace." -- Charles Stross, one of Britain's most acclaimed science fiction authors.

"It's like watching a Hollywood blockbuster come to life in a paperback." -- io9]]> 624 James S.A. Corey 1841499900 Daniel 4 4.36 2012 Caliban’s War (The Expanse, #2)
author: James S.A. Corey
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2022/08/30
date added: 2022/08/30
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]]> The Measure 58884736
"A story of love and hope as interweaving characters display: how all moments, big and small, can measure a life. If you want joy, love, romance, and hope—read with us." —Jenna Bush Hager
A luminous, spirit-lifting blockbuster that asks: would you choose to find out the length of your life?

Eight ordinary people. One extraordinary choice.

It seems like any other day. You wake up, drink a cup of coffee, and head out.

But today, when you open your front door, waiting for you is a small wooden box. The contents of this mysterious box tells you the exact number of years you will live.

From suburban doorsteps to desert tents, every person on every continent receives the same box. In an instant, the world is thrust into a collective frenzy. Where did these boxes come from? What do they mean? Is there truth to what they promise?

As society comes together and pulls apart, everyone faces the same shocking choice: Do they wish to know how long they’ll live? And, if so, what will they do with that knowledge?

The Measure charts the dawn of this new world through an unforgettable cast of characters whose decisions and fates interweave with one another: best friends whose dreams are forever entwined, pen pals finding refuge in the unknown, a couple who thought they didn’t have to rush, a doctor who cannot save himself, and a politician whose box becomes the powder keg that ultimately changes everything.

Enchanting and deeply uplifting, The Measure is an ambitious, invigorating story about family, friendship, hope, and destiny that encourages us to live life to the fullest.]]> 353 Nikki Erlick 0063204207 Daniel 0 to-read 3.96 2022 The Measure
author: Nikki Erlick
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/08/26
shelves: to-read
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]]> Cosmic Detective 59604140 168 Jeff Lemire Daniel 5 3.43 2023 Cosmic Detective
author: Jeff Lemire
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2022/08/23
date added: 2022/08/23
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[TUKI: Fight for Family (TUKI, #2)]]> 60103144 162 Jeff Smith 1888963778 Daniel 5 4.07 2022 TUKI: Fight for Family (TUKI, #2)
author: Jeff Smith
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/08/15
shelves:
review:

]]> Tuki: Fight for Fire 57975873 144 Jeff Smith 1888963751 Daniel 5 3.97 2021 Tuki: Fight for Fire
author: Jeff Smith
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/08/15
shelves:
review:

]]> RASL (RASL #1-4) 17465735 New York Times best selling author of BONE comes a stark, gritty sci-fi series about a dimension-jumping art thief, a man who races through space and time searching for his next big score and trying to escape his past. Known only by the four letter word found spray-painted at the scene of a crime, RASL stumbles across a mystery that spans centuries, and not only threatens to expose his illicit activities, but could uncover one of the world's most dangerous secrets.

Award-winning cartoonist Jeff Smith explores a world of violence and corruption, mixing murder, passion, and folklore, with cutting-edge physics.]]> 468 Jeff Smith 1888963379 Daniel 4 3.72 2013 RASL (RASL #1-4)
author: Jeff Smith
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2022/08/11
date added: 2022/08/11
shelves:
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I love anything to do with Nikola Tesla and if I’d known that he was the subject of the story, I would’ve read it years ago. I should’ve anyway. It’s a Jeff Smith book!
]]> Neverlanders: A Graphic Novel 60621108 Neverland has become a war zone and it's up to a new group of lost teens to set things right in this gritty young adult graphic novel series from #1 New York Times bestselling author Tom Taylor (Nightwing, Superman: Son of Kal-El, DCeased, Injustice) and powerhouse illustrator Jon Sommariva (Harley Quinn)!

Bee and her fellow runaways are their own found family. So when a stranger named Paco saves her life, Bee invites him to join their crew, thinking he's another lost teen. Someone else the world has overlooked. The truth is Paco's not just a lost teen, he's a Lost Boy from Neverland. And he needs Bee and the others to come back with him.

When the group is then spirited away by a foul-mouthed Tinker Bell, they discover that Neverland is not some fun-filled hideaway. It's a war zone under siege by a horde of pirates with a merciless new leader who will stop at nothing to steal the land's magic. Tink leads a fairy army that barely holds them at bay. Peter Pan is gone. And rest of the Lost Boys have been killed. Paco is all that remains . . . but he hopes that this group of teens will become the new Lost Ones. These young runaways may be Neverland's only hope--but they're about to learn that it'll take a lot more than happy thoughts to win a war.

Award-winning and worldwide bestselling author Tom Taylor (Marvel's Dark Ages, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Dark Knights of Steel) and artist Jon Sommariva (Marvel Action: Avengers, Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) take readers back to the world of Peter Pan, but this explosive reimagining is not your parents' Neverland.]]> 192 Tom Taylor 0593351754 Daniel 0 to-read 3.95 2022 Neverlanders: A Graphic Novel
author: Tom Taylor
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/06/16
shelves: to-read
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]]> Children of Dune (Dune #3) 53169183
The Children of Dune are twin siblings Leto and Ghanima Atreides, whose father, the Emperor Paul Muad’Dib, disappeared in the desert wastelands of Arrakis nine years ago. Like their father, the twins possess supernormal abilities—making them valuable to their manipulative aunt Alia, who rules the Empire in the name of House Atreides.

Facing treason and rebellion on two fronts, Alia’s rule is not absolute. The displaced House Corrino is plotting to regain the throne while the fanatical Fremen are being provoked into open revolt by the enigmatic figure known only as The Preacher. Alia believes that by obtaining the secrets of the twins� prophetic visions, she can maintain control over her dynasty.

But Leto and Ghanima have their own plans for their visions—and their destinies…]]> 496 Frank Herbert 0593201744 Daniel 5 3.94 1976 Children of Dune (Dune #3)
author: Frank Herbert
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1976
rating: 5
read at: 2022/06/09
date added: 2022/06/09
shelves:
review:

]]> Killtopia, Vol. 1 42234946
Shinji wants to save his sister. Crash wants to be more than a machine. They both want to make it out alive.


Dave Cook is a writer who hails from Scotland. He's spent the best part of a decade as an award-winning games journalist before setting up his comics label Card Shark Comics. He is the creator of Dark Souls inspired fantasy saga Vessels and post-apocolyptic road trip series Bust.

Craig Paton is a comics artist and professional illustrator working on video games and movies. His work for commercial clients, like Edinburgh Gin, Holland & Sherry and BBC Scotland.]]> 48 Dave Cook Daniel 5 3.96 2018 Killtopia, Vol. 1
author: Dave Cook
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2022/05/25
date added: 2022/05/25
shelves:
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]]> Exit West 38233301
Exit West follows these characters as they emerge into an alien and uncertain future, struggling to hold on to each other, to their past, to the very sense of who they are. Profoundly intimate and powerfully inventive, it tells an unforgettable story of love, loyalty, and courage that is both completely of our time and for all time.]]> 231 Mohsin Hamid 0735212201 Daniel 0 to-read 3.82 2017 Exit West
author: Mohsin Hamid
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/05/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1)]]> 186074
The intimate narrative of his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, his years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-ridden city, his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a legendary school of magic, and his life as a fugitive after the murder of a king form a gripping coming-of-age story unrivaled in recent literature.

A high-action story written with a poet's hand, The Name of the Wind is a masterpiece that will transport readers into the body and mind of a wizard.]]> 662 Patrick Rothfuss 075640407X Daniel 0 to-read 4.52 2007 The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1)
author: Patrick Rothfuss
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/04/11
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1)]]> 15839976 "I live for the dream that my children will be born free," she says. "That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them."

"I live for you," I say sadly.

Eo kisses my cheek. "Then you must live for more."

Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations.

Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.

But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity already reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.

Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity's overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society's ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies... even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.]]> 382 Pierce Brown 0345539788 Daniel 0 to-read 4.26 2014 Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1)
author: Pierce Brown
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/04/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question]]> 58484901 From the creator of The Good Place and the cocreator of Parks and Recreation, a hilarious, thought-provoking guide to living an ethical life, drawing on 2,500 years of deep thinking from around the world.

Most people think of themselves as “good,� but it’s not always easy to determine what’s “good� or “bad”—especially in a world filled with complicated choices and pitfalls and booby traps and bad advice. Fortunately, many smart philosophers have been pondering this conundrum for millennia and they have guidance for us. With bright wit and deep insight, How to Be Perfect explains concepts like deontology, utilitarianism, existentialism, ubuntu, and more so we can sound cool at parties and become better people.

Schur starts off with easy ethical questions like “Should I punch my friend in the face for no reason?� (No.) and works his way up to the most complex moral issues we all face. Such as: Can I still enjoy great art if it was created by terrible people? How much money should I give to charity? Why bother being good at all when there are no consequences for being bad? And much more. By the time the book is done, we’ll know exactly how to act in every conceivable situation, so as to produce a verifiably maximal amount of moral good. We will be perfect, and all our friends will be jealous. OK, not quite. Instead, we’ll gain fresh, funny, inspiring wisdom on the toughest issues we face every day.]]> 304 Michael Schur 1982159316 Daniel 5 4.14 2022 How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question
author: Michael Schur
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2022/03/28
date added: 2022/03/28
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]]> <![CDATA[The Butcher of Anderson Station (The Expanse, #1.5)]]> 11570653
This is his story.

Word ~9,000 words
]]> 40 James S.A. Corey Daniel 4 3.99 2011 The Butcher of Anderson Station (The Expanse, #1.5)
author: James S.A. Corey
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2022/03/23
date added: 2022/03/23
shelves:
review:

]]> Drive (The Expanse, #2.7) 25899877 The Expanse series.

The Expanse, premiering in December 2015 on Syfy, is based on The New York Times best selling book series by James S.A. Corey. Set two hundred years in the future, where man has colonized the outer asteroid belt, The Expanse follows the case of a missing girl that brings together a hardened detective and a rogue ship captain in a race across the solar system to expose the greatest conspiracy in human history. "Drive" highlights a key moment in The Expanse universe whose ramifications set the foundation for the show.
The story is a prequel taking place approximately 150 years prior to the main series, concerning Solomon Epstein and his invention of the Epstein drive.]]> 30 James S.A. Corey Daniel 4 4.04 2012 Drive (The Expanse, #2.7)
author: James S.A. Corey
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2022/03/08
date added: 2022/03/08
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents]]> 51152447 The Warmth of Other Suns examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows how our lives today are still defined by a hierarchy of human divisions.

“As we go about our daily lives, caste is the wordless usher in a darkened theater, flashlight cast down in the aisles, guiding us to our assigned seats for a performance. The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power—which groups have it and which do not.�

In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings.

Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people’s lives and behavior and the nation’s fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people—including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball’s Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others—she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. She documents how the Nazis studied the racial systems in America to plan their out-cast of the Jews; she discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against; she writes about the surprising health costs of caste, in depression and life expectancy, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and politics. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity.]]> 544 Isabel Wilkerson 0593230256 Daniel 5
This is an integral wide lens view of American history and the fundamentals that our country are built upon. IMO, It should be on every bookshelf and discussed in every classroom in America. I bounced back and forth between reading Isabel Wilkerson’s words and hearing them read divinely by Robin Miles. I’d recommend the audio book for anyone who may find the subject matter challenging to self-motivate through.

From the epilogue:
“The more I feel an American, the more this situation [the treatment of black Americans] pains me,� Einstein wrote [after defecting from nazi-led Germany and landing in the US]. “I can escape the feelings of complicity in it only by speaking out.�
—ĔĔĔĔ�
“The separation of the races is not a disease of the colored people,� Einstein told the graduates [of Lincoln University in 1946] at commencement, “but a disease of the white people. I do not intend to be quiet about it.� ]]> 4.52 2020 Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
author: Isabel Wilkerson
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2022/03/07
date added: 2022/03/07
shelves:
review:
You know when you watch a movie that’s so spectacular you immediately immerse yourself into behind-the-scenes features, devouring every detail of how that movie was made and the BTS end up being even more enthralling than the movie?? That’s this book. And the movie� is America.

This is an integral wide lens view of American history and the fundamentals that our country are built upon. IMO, It should be on every bookshelf and discussed in every classroom in America. I bounced back and forth between reading Isabel Wilkerson’s words and hearing them read divinely by Robin Miles. I’d recommend the audio book for anyone who may find the subject matter challenging to self-motivate through.

From the epilogue:
“The more I feel an American, the more this situation [the treatment of black Americans] pains me,� Einstein wrote [after defecting from nazi-led Germany and landing in the US]. “I can escape the feelings of complicity in it only by speaking out.�
—ĔĔĔĔ�
“The separation of the races is not a disease of the colored people,� Einstein told the graduates [of Lincoln University in 1946] at commencement, “but a disease of the white people. I do not intend to be quiet about it.�
]]> The Midnight Library 52578297
When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change.

The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren't always what she imagined they'd be, and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger.

Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?]]> 288 Matt Haig 0525559477 Daniel 0 to-read 3.96 2020 The Midnight Library
author: Matt Haig
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/03/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Churn (The Expanse, #3.5) 20981355 New York Times bestselling author James S.A. Corey...
Before his trip to the stars, before the Rocinante, Amos Burton was confined to a Baltimore where crime paid you or killed you. Unless the authorities got to you first.

Set in the hard-scrabble solar system of the Expanse, The Churn deepens James S. A. Corey's acclaimed series.

The Expanse (a major SyFy Channel television series)
Leviathan Wakes
Caliban's War
Abaddon's Gate
Cibola Burn
Nemesis Games

The Expanse Short Fiction
The Butcher of Anderson Station
Gods of Risk
The Churn]]> 60 James S.A. Corey 1478929693 Daniel 4 4.09 2014 The Churn (The Expanse, #3.5)
author: James S.A. Corey
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2022/02/21
date added: 2022/02/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse, #1)]]> 8855321
Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, the Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for—and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why.

Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to the Scopuli and rebel sympathizer Holden, he realizes that this girl may be the key to everything.

Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries, and secretive corporations—and the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe.]]> 592 James S.A. Corey 1841499889 Daniel 5 4.30 2011 Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse, #1)
author: James S.A. Corey
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2022/02/07
date added: 2022/02/07
shelves:
review:
I burned through this book at 12 g’s and can’t wait to dive into the rest of the series!
]]> <![CDATA[Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History (Maus, #1)]]> 15196
A brutally moving work of art—widely hailed as the greatest graphic novel ever written—Maus recounts the chilling experiences of the author’s father during the Holocaust, with Jews drawn as wide-eyed mice and Nazis as menacing cats.

Maus is a haunting tale within a tale, weaving the author’s account of his tortured relationship with his aging father into an astonishing retelling of one of history's most unspeakable tragedies. It is an unforgettable story of survival and a disarming look at the legacy of trauma.]]> 159 Art Spiegelman 0394541553 Daniel 0 to-read 4.39 1986 Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History (Maus, #1)
author: Art Spiegelman
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1986
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/01/31
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Nightwing, Vol. 1: Leaping into the Light]]> 57515859 The New York Times bestselling Injustice team of Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo take on Nightwing!

Nightwing is back—and his drive to keep Blüdhaven safe has never been stronger! But his adoptive city has elected a new mayor with the last name Zucco. When Nightwing enlists Batgirl’s help in investigating the politician bearing the same name as the man who murdered his parents, she unearths details that will shock and fundamentally change the hero.

Dick Grayson’s big heart has protected those persecuted by bullies in his youth, combated evil alongside Batman as Robin, and pledged his newly inherited wealth to enriching Blüdhaven as Nightwing. His kindness and generosity have always guided his life. But now a new villain stalks the back alleys, removing the hearts of the city’s most vulnerable. Who is this terrifying new menace named Heartless, and will he be able to resist plucking out the biggest heart in all of Blüdhaven?

Collected in this Infinite Frontier Nightwing evolution are issues #78-83.]]> 160 Tom Taylor 1779512783 Daniel 5 4.48 2021 Nightwing, Vol. 1: Leaping into the Light
author: Tom Taylor
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2022/01/23
date added: 2022/01/23
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]]> Dune Messiah (Dune, #2) 53169182
Dune Messiah continues the story of Paul Atreides, better known—and feared—as the man christened Muad’Dib. As Emperor of the known universe, he possesses more power than a single man was ever meant to wield. Worshipped as a religious icon by the fanatical Fremen, Paul faces the enmity of the political houses he displaced when he assumed the throne—and a conspiracy conducted within his own sphere of influence.

And even as House Atreides begins to crumble around him from the machinations of his enemies, the true threat to Paul comes to his lover, Chani, and the unborn heir to his family’s dynasty…]]> 283 Frank Herbert 0593201736 Daniel 4 3.89 1969 Dune Messiah (Dune, #2)
author: Frank Herbert
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1969
rating: 4
read at: 2022/01/23
date added: 2022/01/23
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]]> Saga, Book Three 42835851
Collects SAGA #37-54]]> 504 Brian K. Vaughan 1534312218 Daniel 5 4.71 2019 Saga, Book Three
author: Brian K. Vaughan
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.71
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2022/01/16
date added: 2022/01/16
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]]> Saga, Book Two 32926680
Collecting 18 issues of the smash-hit comic, this massive edition features a striking original cover from Fiona Staples, as well as a brand-new gallery of exclusive, never-before-seen SAGA artwork from legendary creators including CLIFF CHIANG, PIA GUERRA, FAITH ERIN HICKS, KARL KERSCHL, JASON LATOUR, SEAN GORDON MURPHY, STEVE SKROCE, and MORE!

Collects: Saga #19-36.]]> 464 Brian K. Vaughan 1632159031 Daniel 5 4.66 2017 Saga, Book Two
author: Brian K. Vaughan
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.66
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2022/01/16
date added: 2022/01/16
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]]> <![CDATA[Make Comics Like the Pros: The Inside Scoop on How to Write, Draw, and Sell Your Comic Books and Graphic Novels]]> 20262569 Every aspiring comic book creator wants to know: what separates the beloved comics of major publishers like Marvel, DC, Valiant, and Image from all the rest? Fan-favorite comic book writers Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente reveal the secrets of comics' top talents in "Make Comics Like the Pros." The authors take readers step by step through the comics creation process from idea to finished work, and along the way offer examples and insights from their own careers as well as their collaborators'. Not only that, but Pak and Van Lente also join forces with Eisner Award-winning cartoonist Colleen Coover to produce an original comic inside the book! With its unprecedented level of insider access, "Make Comics Like the Pros" gives comic book hopefuls the tools they need to reach the next level of sequential arts stardom.]]> 160 Greg Pak 0385344635 Daniel 5 4.08 2014 Make Comics Like the Pros: The Inside Scoop on How to Write, Draw, and Sell Your Comic Books and Graphic Novels
author: Greg Pak
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2022/01/09
date added: 2022/01/09
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]]> <![CDATA[The Little Book of Stoicism: Timeless Wisdom to Gain Resilience, Confidence, and Calmness]]> 43786829 � Epictetus, Stoic philosopher Where can you find joy? Gain strength? How should we face our fears? Deal with the death of a loved one? And what about those reoccurring depressing thoughts? While traditional schooling doesn’t address such questions, it’s exactly what ancient schools of philosophy were all about: They taught you how to live. Even though these schools don’t exist anymore, you and I and most people are in as much need of a philosophy that guides us through life as we ever were. This compelling, highly actionable guide shows you how to deal more effectively with whatever life throws at you and live up to your best self. A mix of timeless wisdom and empowering advice, The Little Book of Stoicism will point the way to anyone seeking a calm and wise life in a chaotic world.]]> 285 Jonas Salzgeber 3952506907 Daniel 0 to-read 4.30 2019 The Little Book of Stoicism: Timeless Wisdom to Gain Resilience, Confidence, and Calmness
author: Jonas Salzgeber
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/01/03
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Black Kids 45800564
Everything changes one afternoon in April, when four LAPD officers are acquitted after beating a black man named Rodney King half to death. Suddenly, Ashley’s not just one of the girls. She’s one of the black kids.

As violent protests engulf LA and the city burns, Ashley tries to continue on as if life were normal. Even as her self-destructive sister gets dangerously involved in the riots. Even as the model black family façade her wealthy and prominent parents have built starts to crumble. Even as her best friends help spread a rumor that could completely derail the future of her classmate and fellow black kid, LaShawn Johnson.

With her world splintering around her, Ashley, along with the rest of LA, is left to question who is the us? And who is the them?]]> Christina Hammonds Reed Daniel 4 4.03 2020 The Black Kids
author: Christina Hammonds Reed
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2021/12/15
date added: 2021/12/15
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]]> BRZRKR, Volume 1 55169755 Keanu Reeves makes his comic book writing debut alongside New York Times bestselling co-writer Matt Kindt and acclaimed artist Ron Garney in a brutally violent new series about one immortal warrior’s fight through the ages.

A WAR WITH NO END. The man known only as B. is half-mortal and half-God, cursed and compelled to violence…even at the sacrifice of his sanity. But after wandering the world for centuries, the Berzerker may have finally found a refuge � working for the U.S. government to fight the battles too violent and too dangerous for anyone else. In exchange, B. will be granted the one thing he desires � the truth about his endless blood-soaked existence…and how to end it.

Keanu Reeves makes his comic book writing debut alongside New York Times bestselling co-writer Matt Kindt (Folklords, Grass Kings) and legendary artist Ron Garney (Captain America, The Amazing Spider-Man) in a brutally violent new series about one immortal warrior's fight through the ages.

Collects: BRZRKR #1-4.]]> 144 Keanu Reeves 1684156858 Daniel 0 3.72 2021 BRZRKR, Volume 1
author: Keanu Reeves
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/12/13
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]]> <![CDATA[White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism]]> 43708708 7 Robin DiAngelo 0807071161 Daniel 0 to-read 4.14 2018 White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism
author: Robin DiAngelo
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/12/06
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party's Promise to the People]]> 50180355 With passion and precision, Kekla Magoon relays an essential account of the Black Panthers—as militant revolutionaries and as human rights advocates working to defend and protect their community.

In this comprehensive, inspiring, and all-too-relevant history of the Black Panther Party, Kekla Magoon introduces readers to the Panthers� community activism, grounded in the concept of self-defense, which taught Black Americans how to protect and support themselves in a country that treated them like second-class citizens. For too long the Panthers� story has been a footnote to the civil rights movement rather than what it was: a revolutionary socialist movement that drew thousands of members—mostly women—and became the target of one of the most sustained repression efforts ever made by the U.S. government against its own citizens.

Revolution in Our Time puts the Panthers in the proper context of Black American history, from the first arrival of enslaved people to the Black Lives Matter movement of today. Kekla Magoon’s eye-opening work invites a new generation of readers grappling with injustices in the United States to learn from the Panthers� history and courage, inspiring them to take their own place in the ongoing fight for justice.]]> 400 Kekla Magoon 1536214183 Daniel 0 to-read 4.45 2021 Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party's Promise to the People
author: Kekla Magoon
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/12/04
shelves: to-read
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]]> Dune (Dune, #1) 44767458
When House Atreides is betrayed, the destruction of Paul’s family will set the boy on a journey toward a destiny greater than he could ever have imagined. And as he evolves into the mysterious man known as Muad’Dib, he will bring to fruition humankind’s most ancient and unattainable dream.]]> 658 Frank Herbert 059309932X Daniel 5 4.33 1965 Dune (Dune, #1)
author: Frank Herbert
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1965
rating: 5
read at: 2021/11/24
date added: 2021/11/24
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]]> <![CDATA[Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom]]> 57862380
In Becoming Abolitionists, Purnell draws from her experiences as a lawyer, writer, and organizer initially skeptical about police abolition. She saw too much sexual violence and buried too many friends to consider getting rid of police in her hometown of St. Louis, let alone the nation. But the police were a placebo. Calling them felt like something, and something feels like everything when the other option seems like nothing.

Purnell details how multi-racial social movements rooted in rebellion, risk-taking, and revolutionary love pushed her and a generation of activists toward abolition. The book travels across geography and time, and offers lessons that activists have learned from Ferguson to South Africa, from Reconstruction to contemporary protests against police shootings.

Here, Purnell argues that police can not be reformed and invites readers to envision new systems that work to address the root causes of violence. Becoming Abolitionists shows that abolition is not solely about getting rid of police, but a commitment to create and support different answers to the problem of harm in society, and, most excitingly, an opportunity to reduce and eliminate harm in the first place.]]> 288 Derecka Purnell 1662600526 Daniel 0 to-read 4.36 2021 Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom
author: Derecka Purnell
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/11/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> Lost Without You 53244197 234 Cynthia Beals 1973686643 Daniel 5 5.00 2020 Lost Without You
author: Cynthia Beals
name: Daniel
average rating: 5.00
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2020/11/20
date added: 2021/11/14
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]]> <![CDATA[Secret Identity (Secret Identity #1)]]> 57693604 Secret Identity, a rollicking literary mystery set in the world of comic books.

It’s 1975 and the comic book industry is struggling, but Carmen Valdez doesn’t care. She’s an assistant at Triumph Comics, which doesn’t have the creative zeal of Marvel nor the buttoned-up efficiency of DC, but it doesn’t matter. Carmen is tantalizingly close to fulfilling her dream of writing a superhero book.

That dream is nearly a reality when one of the Triumph writers enlists her help to create a new character, which they call “The Lethal Lynx,� Triumph's first female hero. But her colleague is acting strangely and asking to keep her involvement a secret. And then he’s found dead, with all of their scripts turned into the publisher without her name. Carmen is desperate to piece together what happened to him, to hang on to her piece of the Lynx, which turns out to be a runaway hit. But that’s complicated by a surprise visitor from her home in Miami, a tenacious cop who is piecing everything together too quickly for Carmen, and the tangled web of secrets and resentments among the passionate eccentrics who write comics for a living.

Alex Segura uses his expertise as a comics creator as well as his unabashed love of noir fiction to create a truly one-of-a-kind novel--hard-edged and bright-eyed, gritty and dangerous, and utterly absorbing.]]> 358 Alex Segura 1250801745 Daniel 0 to-read 3.63 2022 Secret Identity (Secret Identity #1)
author: Alex Segura
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/11/02
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Design of Everyday Things 840 257 Donald A. Norman 0465067107 Daniel 0 to-read 4.14 1988 The Design of Everyday Things
author: Donald A. Norman
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1988
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/10/28
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Gamer's Brain: How Neuroscience and UX Can Impact Video Game Design]]> 34627659 Fortnite and Assassin's Creed invest both time and money perfecting their UX strategy. These top video game creators know that a bad user experience can ruin the prospects for any game, regardless of its budget, scope, or ambition.

The game UX accounts for the whole experience players have with a video game, from first hearing about it to navigating menus and progressing in the game. UX as a discipline offers guidelines to assist developers in creating the optimal experience they want to deliver, including shipping higher quality games (whether indie, triple-A or "serious" games) and meeting business goals -- all while staying true to design vision and artistic intent.

At its core, UX is about understanding the gamer's brain: understanding human capabilities and limitations to anticipate how a game will be perceived, the emotions it will elicit, how players will interact with it, and how engaging the experience will be. This book is designed to equip readers of all levels, from student to professional, with cognitive science knowledge and user experience guidelines and methodologies. These insights will help readers identify the ingredients for successful and engaging video games, empowering them to develop their own unique game recipe more efficiently, while providing a better experience for their audience.

"The Gamer's Brain: How Neuroscience and UX Can Impact Video Game Design"

Is written by Celia Hodent -- a UX expert with a PhD in psychology who has been working in the entertainment industry for over 10 years, including at prominent companies such as Epic Games (Fortnite), Ubisoft, and LucasArts.



Major themes explored in this book:

Provides an overview of how the brain learns and processes information by distilling research findings from cognitive science and psychology research in a very accessible way. Topics covered include: "neuromyths", perception, memory, attention, motivation, emotion, and learning. Includes numerous examples from released games of how scientific knowledge translates into game design, and how to use a UX framework in game development. Describes how UX can guide developers to improve the usability and the level of engagement a game provides to its target audience by using cognitive psychology knowledge, implementing human-computer interaction principles, and applying the scientific method (user research). Provides a practical definition of UX specifically applied to games, with a unique framework. Defines the most relevant pillars for good usability (ease of use) and good "engage-ability" (the ability of the game to be fun and engaging), translated into a practical checklist. Covers design thinking, game user research, game analytics, and UX strategy at both a project and studio level. This book is a practical tool that any professional game developer or student can use right away and includes the most complete overview of UX in games existing today.]]> 272 Celia Hodent 1138089966 Daniel 4 4.31 The Gamer's Brain: How Neuroscience and UX Can Impact Video Game Design
author: Celia Hodent
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.31
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2021/10/15
date added: 2021/10/15
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]]> <![CDATA[They Both Die at the End (Death-Cast, #1)]]> 33385229
Mateo and Rufus are total strangers, but, for different reasons, they’re both looking to make a new friend on their End Day. The good news: There’s an app for that. It’s called the Last Friend, and through it, Rufus and Mateo are about to meet up for one last great adventure—to live a lifetime in a single day.

Adam Silvera reminds us that there’s no life without death and no love without loss in this devastating yet uplifting story about two people whose lives change over the course of one unforgettable day.]]> 389 Adam Silvera 0062457799 Daniel 0 to-read 3.76 2017 They Both Die at the End (Death-Cast, #1)
author: Adam Silvera
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/10/06
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life]]> 28257707 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780062457738

In this generation-defining self-help guide, a superstar blogger cuts through the crap to show us how to stop trying to be "positive" all the time so that we can truly become better, happier people.

For decades, we’ve been told that positive thinking is the key to a happy, rich life. "F**k positivity," Mark Manson says. "Let’s be honest, shit is f**ked and we have to live with it." In his wildly popular Internet blog, Manson doesn’t sugarcoat or equivocate. He tells it like it is—a dose of raw, refreshing, honest truth that is sorely lacking today. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k is his antidote to the coddling, let’s-all-feel-good mindset that has infected American society and spoiled a generation, rewarding them with gold medals just for showing up.

Manson makes the argument, backed both by academic research and well-timed poop jokes, that improving our lives hinges not on our ability to turn lemons into lemonade, but on learning to stomach lemons better. Human beings are flawed and limited�"not everybody can be extraordinary, there are winners and losers in society, and some of it is not fair or your fault." Manson advises us to get to know our limitations and accept them. Once we embrace our fears, faults, and uncertainties, once we stop running and avoiding and start confronting painful truths, we can begin to find the courage, perseverance, honesty, responsibility, curiosity, and forgiveness we seek.

There are only so many things we can give a f**k about so we need to figure out which ones really matter, Manson makes clear. While money is nice, caring about what you do with your life is better, because true wealth is about experience. A much-needed grab-you-by-the-shoulders-and-look-you-in-the-eye moment of real-talk, filled with entertaining stories and profane, ruthless humor, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k is a refreshing slap for a generation to help them lead contented, grounded lives.]]> 212 Mark Manson Daniel 4 3.87 2016 The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life
author: Mark Manson
name: Daniel
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2021/09/14
date added: 2021/09/14
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]]> <![CDATA[How To Be A Games User Researcher: Run better playtests, reveal usability and UX issues, and make videogames better]]> 57074591 Games user researchers run playtests to ensure games are understandable and enjoyable, and are a key part of making games that people love. The video games industry is full of passionate people who care about making fun experiences. If you love games, and want to make them better, consider a career in games user research.
Drawing upon ten years of experience working on top games and helping people start their career in games How To Be A Games User Researcher is the essential guide on how to run professional quality playtest studies and get a job in the games industry. Discover This book is Steve Bromley led research studies for many of PlayStation's top European games including Zero Dawn , SingStar and the PlayStation VR launch lineup. He continues to work with games and VR studios to improve the player experience of their games.
For the last five years, Steve Bromley has run a games user research mentoring scheme, which has partnered over one hundred students with more than fifty industry professionals from top companies such as Sony, EA, Valve, Ubisoft, and Microsoft, and helped many people get their first job in games. This book covers many of the topics that mentees have asked as they start their games user research career.]]> 183 Steve Bromley Daniel 5 4.22 How To Be A Games User Researcher: Run better playtests, reveal usability and UX issues, and make videogames better
author: Steve Bromley
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.22
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2021/09/11
date added: 2021/09/11
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Whether you want to know more about the gaming industry or User research methodologies or BOTH, Steve Bromley has written an effortlessly accessible book. He lays out the workings of User research for games in a way that's easy to digest for newbies while also offering a clean chapter-by-chapter resource guide that's easy to go back to anytime one needs a particular piece of information. If you're looking to get into GUR, start here, and then keep this book close as you elevate in your field.
]]> The Fire Next Time 464260 The Fire Next Time galvanized the nation and gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement. At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin’s early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the book is an intensely personal and provocative document. It consists of two “letters,� written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, that exhort Americans, both black and white, to attack the terrible legacy of racism. Described by The New York Times Book Review as “sermon, ultimatum, confession, deposition, testament, and chronicle…all presented in searing, brilliant prose,� The Fire Next Time stands as a classic of our literature.]]> 106 James Baldwin 067974472X Daniel 5 4.55 1963 The Fire Next Time
author: James Baldwin
name: Daniel
average rating: 4.55
book published: 1963
rating: 5
read at: 2021/08/26
date added: 2021/08/26
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]]>