Eddy's bookshelf: all en-US Wed, 22 Jan 2025 04:12:04 -0800 60 Eddy's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg On Tyranny 60762110
This edition includes the bestselling original essay collection On Tyranny, read by the author.

In this exclusive audiobook edition, which includes eight hours of new content, Snyder combines the original essays from On Tyranny with twenty new lessons that answer the questions everyone is asking about this war. With forays into history, he clarifies the causes of the Russian invasion and the meaning of Ukrainian resistance, and explains the war's connections to threats to democracy here in the United States and around the world. Linking past and present, speaking only from notes, he guides the listener into the larger moral universe of On Tyranny.

This edition also includes On Tyranny, the bestselling essay collection that illustrates how various countries and governments have managed to protect against totalitarianism throughout history despite ever-present threats from many factions. Snyder cautions that unless we learn from these disruptive and disturbing occurrences, they will continue. This important call to arms and roadmap for resistance provides invaluable ideas for how we can preserve our freedoms in the uncertain years to come.

Read by the author.]]> 10 Timothy Snyder 0593666542 Eddy 3 4.61 2017 On Tyranny
author: Timothy Snyder
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/29
date added: 2025/01/22
shelves:
review:

]]> Nuclear War: A Scenario 182733784
Every generation, a journalist has looked deep into the heart of the nuclear military establishment: the technologies, the safeguards, the plans, and the risks. These investigations are vital to how we understand the world we really live in—where one nuclear missile will beget one in return, and where the choreography of the world’s end requires massive decisions made on seconds� notice with information that is only as good as the intelligence we have.

Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A Scenario explores this ticking-clock scenario, based on dozens of exclusive new interviews with military and civilian experts who have built the weapons, have been privy to the response plans, and have been responsible for those decisions should they have needed to be made. Nuclear War: A Scenario examines the handful of minutes after a nuclear missile launch. It is essential reading, and unlike any other book in its depth and urgency.]]> 400 Annie Jacobsen 0593476093 Eddy 4 4.36 2024 Nuclear War: A Scenario
author: Annie Jacobsen
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves:
review:

]]> Tremendous 61656367 New York Times Bestseller

Outsider. Misfit. Criminal. Convict. . . . Movie star. Family man. Comedy legend.

Joey Diaz has been called every name in the book (and then some). Now, for the first time, he shares the story of his unlikely rise to fame in his own words—with no punches pulled.

Today, he stars in hit films, headlines sold-out tours, hosts the popular Uncle Joey’s Joint podcast, and is a devoted father—but his life wasn’t always so picture-perfect. Joey “Coco� Diaz credits his success to his “immigrant mentality,� the work ethic his mother modeled for him and on which countless others have depended to survive the harsh landscape of being an outsider.

Diaz wasn’t always a star, but he was always a comedian—it just took him a while to figure it out. To be fair, he was pretty busy while he was young: helping his tough-as-nails mother in her bar, holding a gun for the first time at the age of six, and later dealing drugs and serving time.

Tremendous is the story of Diaz’s life, from grueling childhood and misspent youth to finding his true calling in comedy. Immigrants, fans of celebrity tales, and comedy enthusiasts alike will be enthralled by this incredibly true, foul-mouthed, and funny memoir.

It’s not a story for the faint of heart, or for prudes who’ve never spent a week sleeping in a piece of playground equipment. From finding his mom’s body to high stakes crime, addiction and depression, there are plenty of dark episodes in this saga. Diaz shares it all with brutal honesty and humor, in the same inimitable voice he’d use talking to you from the stage or in a bar. He also shares the story of his improbable rise to the top and the bumpy road that led him there.

An inspiration to misfits everywhere, Tremendous is storytelling at its finest—and a reminder that the direst of circumstances can change in unimaginable, unpredictable ways.]]> 280 Joey "Coco" Diaz 1637742614 Eddy 0 4.44 Tremendous
author: Joey "Coco" Diaz
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.44
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/06
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Meat Eater: Adventures from the Life of an American Hunter]]> 13330600 An exploration of humanity’s oldest pursuit and its relevance today

Steven Rinella grew up in Twin Lake, Michigan, the son of a hunter who taught his three sons to love the natural world the way he did. As a child, Rinella devoured stories of the American wilderness, especially the exploits of his hero, Daniel Boone. He began fishing at the age of three and shot his first squirrel at eight and his first deer at thirteen. He chose the colleges he went to by their proximity to good hunting ground, and he experimented with living solely off wild meat. As an adult, he feeds his family from the food he hunts.

Meat Eater chronicles Rinella’s lifelong relationship with nature and hunting through the lens of ten hunts, beginning when he was an aspiring mountain man at age ten and ending as a thirty-seven-year-old Brooklyn father who hunts in the remotest corners of North America. He tells of having a struggling career as a fur trapper just as fur prices were falling; of a dalliance with catch-and-release steelhead fishing; of canoeing in the Missouri Breaks in search of mule deer just as the Missouri River was freezing up one November; and of hunting the elusive Dall sheep in the glaciated mountains of Alaska.

Through each story, Rinella grapples with themes such as the role of the hunter in shaping America, the vanishing frontier, the ethics of killing, the allure of hunting trophies, the responsibilities that human predators have to their prey, and the disappearance of the hunter himself as Americans lose their connection with the way their food finds its way to their tables. Hunting, he argues, is intimately connected with our humanity; assuming responsibility for acquiring the meat that we eat, rather than entrusting it to proxy executioners, processors, packagers, and distributors, is one of the most respectful and exhilarating things a meat eater can do.

A thrilling storyteller with boundless interesting facts and historical information about the land, the natural world, and the history of hunting, Rinella also includes after each chapter a section of “Tasting Notes� that draws from his thirty-plus years of eating and cooking wild game, both at home and over a campfire. In Meat Eater he paints a loving portrait of a way of life that is part of who we are as humans and as Americans.

“Chances are, Steven Rinella’s life is very different from yours or mine. He does not source his food at the local supermarket. Meat Eater is a unique and valuable alternate view of where our food comes from—and what can be involved. It’s a look both backward, at the way things used to be, and forward, to a time when every diner truly understands what’s on the end of the fork.”—Anthony Bourdain

“An engaging, sharp-eyed writer whose style fuses those of John McPhee and Hunter S. Thompson.”�Minneapolis Star Tribune]]> 256 Steven Rinella 0385529813 Eddy 5 4.37 2012 Meat Eater: Adventures from the Life of an American Hunter
author: Steven Rinella
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/12/06
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Surprise, Kill, Vanish: The Secret History Of CIA Paramilitary Armies, Operators, And Assassins]]> 41716921 The definitive, character-driven history of CIA covert operations and U.S. government-sponsored assassinations, from the author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Pentagon's Brain

Since 1947, domestic and foreign assassinations have been executed under the CIA-led covert action operations team. Before that time, responsibility for taking out America's enemies abroad was even more shrouded in mystery. Despite Hollywood notions of last-minute rogue-operations and external secret hires, covert action is actually a cog in a colossal foreign policy machine, moving through, among others, the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, the House and Senate Select Committees. At the end of the day, it is the President, not the CIA, who is singularly in charge.

When diplomacy fails and overt military action is not feasible, the President often calls on the Special Activities Division, the most secretive and lowest-profile branch of the CIA. It is this paramilitary team that undertakes dramatic and little-known assignments: hostage rescues, sabotage, and, of course, assassinations.

For the first time, Pulitzer Prize finalist and New York Times bestselling author Annie Jacobsen takes us deep inside this top-secret history. With unparalleled access to former operatives, ambassadors, and even past directors of the Secret Service and CIA operations, Jacobsen reveals the inner workings of these teams, and just how far a U.S. president may go, covertly but lawfully, to pursue the nation's interests.]]> 560 Annie Jacobsen 0316441430 Eddy 5 4.25 2019 Surprise, Kill, Vanish: The Secret History Of CIA Paramilitary Armies, Operators, And Assassins
author: Annie Jacobsen
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/12/06
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[In My Time of Dying: How I Came Face to Face with the Idea of an Afterlife]]> 199798896 A near-fatal health emergency leads to this powerful reflection on death—and what might follow—by the bestselling author of Tribe and The Perfect Storm.

For years as an award-winning war reporter, Sebastian Junger traveled to many front lines and frequently put his life at risk. And yet, the closest he ever came to death was the summer of 2020 while spending a quiet afternoon at the New England home he shared with his wife and two young children. Crippled by abdominal pain, Junger was rushed to the hospital by ambulance. Once there, he began slipping away. As blackness encroached, he was visited by his dead father, inviting Junger to join him. “It’s okay,� his father said. “There’s nothing to be scared of. I’ll take care of you.� That was the last thing Junger remembered until he came to the next day when he was told he had suffered a ruptured aneurysm that he should not have survived.

This experience spurred Junger—a confirmed atheist raised by his physicist father to respect the empirical—to undertake a scientific, philosophical, and deeply personal examination of mortality and what happens after we die. How do we begin to process the brutal fact that any of us might perish unexpectedly on what begins as an ordinary day? How do we grapple with phenomena that science may be unable to explain? And what happens to a person, emotionally and spiritually, when forced to reckon with such existential questions?

In My Time of Dying is part medical drama, part searing autobiography, and part rational inquiry into the ultimate unknowable mystery.]]> 176 Sebastian Junger 1668050838 Eddy 4 3.76 2024 In My Time of Dying: How I Came Face to Face with the Idea of an Afterlife
author: Sebastian Junger
name: Eddy
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/12/06
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Hunting the Jackal: A Special Forces and CIA Soldier's Fifty Years on the Frontlines of the War Against Terrorism]]> 355941 368 Billy Waugh 0060564105 Eddy 5 4.08 Hunting the Jackal: A Special Forces and CIA Soldier's Fifty Years on the Frontlines of the War Against Terrorism
author: Billy Waugh
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.08
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/12/06
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold (Stephen Fry's Great Mythology, #1)]]> 35074096 Mythos is a modern collection of Greek myths, stylishly retold by legendary writer, actor, and comedian Stephen Fry. Fry transforms the adventures of Zeus and the Olympians into emotionally resonant and deeply funny stories, without losing any of their original wonder.

This stunning book features classical artwork inspired by the myths, as well as learned notes from the author. Each adventure is infused with Fry's distinctive wit, voice, and writing style. Connoisseurs of the Greek myths will appreciate this fresh-yet-reverential interpretation, while newcomers will feel welcome. Retellings brim with humor and emotion and offer rich cultural context.

Celebrating the thrills, grandeur, and unabashed fun of the Greek myths, Mythos breathes life into ancient tales—from Pandora's box to Prometheus's fire.

This gorgeous volume invites you to explore a captivating world with the brilliant storyteller Stephen Fry as your guide.]]> 416 Stephen Fry 0718188721 Eddy 5 4.27 2017 Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold (Stephen Fry's Great Mythology, #1)
author: Stephen Fry
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/06
date added: 2024/12/06
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence]]> 32276 271 Carl Sagan 0345346297 Eddy 4 4.20 1977 The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence
author: Carl Sagan
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1977
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/03
date added: 2024/12/03
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence]]> 660518 Better Never to Have Been argues for a number of related, highly provocative, views: (1) Coming into existence is always a serious harm. (2) It is always wrong to have children. (3) It is wrong not to abort fetuses at the earlier stages of gestation. (4) It would be better if, as a result of there being no new people, humanity became extinct. These views may sound unbelievable--but anyone who reads Benatar will be obliged to take them seriously.]]> 237 David Benatar 0199296421 Eddy 0 to-read 3.90 2006 Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence
author: David Benatar
name: Eddy
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[In the Dust of This Planet (Horror of Philosophy, #1)]]> 11944741
In the Dust of This Planet explores these relationships between philosophy and horror. In Thacker’s hands, philosophy is not academic logic-chopping; instead, it is the thought of the limit of all thought, especially as it dovetails into occultism, demonology, and mysticism. Likewise, Thacker takes horror to mean something beyond the focus on gore and scare tactics, but as the under-appreciated genre of supernatural horror in fiction, film, comics, and music. This relationship between philosophy and horror does not mean the philosophy of horror, if anything, it means the reverse, the horror of philosophy: those moments when philosophical thinking enigmatically confronts the horizon of its own existence. For Thacker, the genre of supernatural horror is the key site in which this paradoxical thought of the unthinkable takes place.]]> 179 Eugene Thacker 184694676X Eddy 0 to-read 3.68 2011 In the Dust of This Planet (Horror of Philosophy, #1)
author: Eugene Thacker
name: Eddy
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Conspiracy Against the Human Race]]> 8524528
"There is a signature motif discernible in both works of philosophical pessimism and supernatural horror. It may be stated Behind the scenes of life lurks something pernicious that makes a nightmare of our world."**

His fiction is known to be some of the most terrifying in the genre of supernatural horror, but Thomas Ligotti's first nonfiction book may be even scarier. Drawing on philosophy, literature, neuroscience, and other fields of study, Ligotti takes the penetrating lens of his imagination and turns it on his audience, causing them to grapple with the brutal reality that they are living a meaningless nightmare, and anyone who feels otherwise is simply acting out an optimistic fallacy. At once a guidebook to pessimistic thought and a relentless critique of humanity's employment of self-deception to cope with the pervasive suffering of their existence, The Conspiracy against the Human Race may just convince readers that there is more than a measure of truth in the despairing yet unexpectedly liberating negativity that is widely considered a hallmark of Ligotti's work.]]> 240 Thomas Ligotti 098242969X Eddy 0 to-read 4.04 2011 The Conspiracy Against the Human Race
author: Thomas Ligotti
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Metamorphosis 485894 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 0553213695 / 9780553213690

"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. He was laying on his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his domelike brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes."

With it's startling, bizarre, yet surprisingly funny first opening, Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetle-like insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. A harrowing—though absurdly comic—meditation on human feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and isolation, The Metamorphosis has taken its place as one of the most widely read and influential works of twentieth-century fiction. As W.H. Auden wrote, "Kafka is important to us because his predicament is the predicament of modern man."]]> 201 Franz Kafka 0553213695 Eddy 0 to-read 3.90 1915 The Metamorphosis
author: Franz Kafka
name: Eddy
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1915
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Love Is a Dog from Hell 23534 A classic in the Bukowski poetry canon, Love Is a Dog from Hell is a raw, lyrical exploration of the exigencies, heartbreaks, and limits of love.

Charles Bukowski was a man of intense emotions, someone an editor once called a “passionate madman.� Alternating between tough and gentle, sensitive and gritty, Bukowski lays bare the myriad facets of love—its selfishness and its narcissism, its randomness, its mystery and its misery, and, ultimately, its true joyfulness, endurance, and redemptive power.]]> 312 Charles Bukowski 0876853629 Eddy 0 to-read 4.01 1977 Love Is a Dog from Hell
author: Charles Bukowski
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1977
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Thus Spoke Zarathustra 51893 Thus Spoke Zarathustra is translated from the German by R.J. Hollingdale in Penguin Classics.

Nietzsche was one of the most revolutionary and subversive thinkers in Western philosophy, and Thus Spoke Zarathustra remains his most famous and influential work. It describes how the ancient Persian prophet Zarathustra descends from his solitude in the mountains to tell the world that God is dead and that the Superman, the human embodiment of divinity, is his successor. Nietzsche's utterance 'God is dead', his insistence that the meaning of life is to be found in purely human terms, and his doctrine of the Superman and the will to power were all later seized upon and unrecognisably twisted by, among others, Nazi intellectuals. With blazing intensity and poetic brilliance, Nietzsche argues that the meaning of existence is not to be found in religious pieties or meek submission to authority, but in an all-powerful life passionate, chaotic and free.]]> 327 Friedrich Nietzsche Eddy 0 currently-reading 4.10 1883 Thus Spoke Zarathustra
author: Friedrich Nietzsche
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1883
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/20
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[In the Blood (Terminal List, #5)]]> 58438630 The #1 New York Times bestselling Terminal List series continues as James Reece embarks on a global journey of vengeance.

A woman boards a plane in the African country of Burkina Faso having just completed a targeted assassination for the state of Israel. Two minutes later, her plane is blown out of the sky.

Over 6,000 miles away, former Navy SEAL James Reece watches the names and pictures of the victims on cable news. One face triggers a distant memory of a Mossad operative attached to the CIA years earlier in Iraq—a woman with ties to the intelligence services of two nations…a woman Reece thought he would never see again.

Reece enlists friends new and old across the globe to track down her killer, unaware that he may be walking into a deadly trap.]]> 459 Jack Carr 1982181656 Eddy 0 4.43 2022 In the Blood (Terminal List, #5)
author: Jack Carr
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/17
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[I'd Like to Play Alone, Please: Essays]]> 57007950
From a massively successful stand-up comedian and co-host of chart-topping podcasts �2 Bears 1 Cave� and “Your Mom’s House,� hilarious real-life stories of parenting, celebrity encounters, youthful mistakes, misanthropy, and so much more.

Tom Segura is known for his twisted takes and irreverent comedic voice. But after a few years of crazy tours and churning out podcasts weekly, all while parenting two young children, he desperately needs a second to himself. It’s not that he hates his friends and family � he’s not a monster � he’s just beat, which is why his son’s (ruthless) first full sentence, “I’d like to play alone, please,� has since become his mantra.

In this collection of stories, Tom combines his signature curmudgeonly humor with a revealing look at some of the ridiculous situations that shaped him and the ludicrous characters who always seem to seek him out. The stories feature hilarious anecdotes about Tom's time on the road, including some surreal encounters with celebrities at airports; his unfiltered South American family; the trials and tribulations of parenting young children with bizarrely morbid interests; and, perhaps most memorably, experiences with his dad who, like any good Baby Boomer father, loves to talk about his bowel movements and share graphic Vietnam stories at inappropriate moments. All of this is enough to make anyone want some peace and quiet.

I’D LIKE TO PLAY ALONE, PLEASE will have readers laughing out loud and nodding in agreement with Segura's in a world where everyone is increasingly insane, sometimes you just need to be alone.


]]> 229 Tom Segura 1538704633 Eddy 0 3.99 2022 I'd Like to Play Alone, Please: Essays
author: Tom Segura
name: Eddy
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/05/20
shelves:
review:

]]> Savage Son (Terminal List #3) 49700206 In this third high-octane thriller in the “seriously good� (Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Past Tense) Terminal List series, former Navy SEAL James Reece must infiltrate the Russian mafia and turn the hunters into the hunted.

Deep in the wilds of Siberia, a woman is on the run, pursued by a man harboring secrets—a man intent on killing her.

A traitorous CIA officer has found refuge with the Russian mafia with designs on ensuring a certain former Navy SEAL sniper is put in the ground.

Half a world away, James Reece is recovering from brain surgery in the Montana wilderness, slowly putting his life back together with the help of investigative journalist Katie Buranek and his longtime friend and SEAL teammate Raife Hastings. Unbeknownst to them, the Russian mafia has set their sights on Reece in a deadly game of cat and mouse.

In his most visceral and heart-pounding thriller yet, Jack Carr explores the darkest instincts of humanity through the eyes of a man who has seen both the best and the worst of it.]]> 416 Jack Carr Eddy 4 4.49 2020 Savage Son (Terminal List #3)
author: Jack Carr
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/05/20
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon]]> 2595763
A hunt for the American buffalo—an adventurous, fascinating examination of an animal that has haunted the American imagination.

In 2005, Steven Rinella won a lottery permit to hunt for a wild buffalo, or American bison, in the Alaskan wilderness.Despite the odds—there’s only a 2 percent chance of drawing the permit, and fewer than 20 percent of those hunters are successful—Rinella managed to kill a buffalo on a snow-covered mountainside and then raft the meat back to civilization while being trailed by grizzly bears and suffering from hypothermia. Throughout these adventures, Rinella found himself contemplating his own place among the 14,000 years� worth of buffalo hunters in North America, as well as the buffalo’s place in the American experience. At the time of the Revolutionary War, North America was home to approximately 40 million buffalo, the largest herd of big mammals on the planet, but by the mid-1890s only a few hundred remained. Now that the buffalo is on the verge of a dramatic ecological recovery across the West, Americans are faced with the challenge of how, and if, we can dare to share our land with a beast that is the embodiment of the American wilderness.

American Buffalo is a narrative tale of Rinella’s hunt. But beyond that, it is the story of the many ways in which the buffalo has shaped our national identity. Rinella takes us across the continent in search of the buffalo’s past, present, and to the Bering Land Bridge, where scientists search for buffalo bones amid artifacts of the New World’s earliest human inhabitants; to buffalo jumps where Native Americans once ran buffalo over cliffs by the thousands; to the Detroit Carbon works, a “bone charcoal� plant that made fortunes in the late 1800s by turning millions of tons of buffalo bones into bone meal, black dye, and fine china; and even to an abattoir turned fashion mecca in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, where a depressed buffalo named Black Diamond met his fate after serving as the model for the American nickel.

Rinella’s erudition and exuberance, combined with his gift for storytelling, make him the perfect guide for a book that combines outdoor adventure with a quirky blend of facts and observations about history, biology, and the natural world. Both a captivating narrative and a book of environmental and historical significance, American Buffalo tells us as much about ourselves as Americans as it does about the creature who perhaps best of all embodies the American ethos.]]> 288 Steven Rinella 0385521685 Eddy 0 4.28 2008 American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon
author: Steven Rinella
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/05/20
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America]]> 17333289 The “remarkable� story of America's secret post-WWII science programs (The Boston Globe), from the New York Times bestselling author of Area 51.

In the chaos following World War II, the U.S. government faced many difficult decisions, including what to do with the Third Reich's scientific minds. These were the brains behind the Nazis' once-indomitable war machine. So began Operation Paperclip, a decades-long, covert project to bring Hitler's scientists and their families to the United States.

Many of these men were accused of war crimes, and others had stood trial at Nuremberg; one was convicted of mass murder and slavery. They were also directly responsible for major advances in rocketry, medical treatments, and the U.S. space program. Was Operation Paperclip a moral outrage, or did it help America win the Cold War?

Drawing on exclusive interviews with dozens of Paperclip family members, colleagues, and interrogators, and with access to German archival documents (including previously unseen papers made available by direct descendants of the Third Reich's ranking members), files obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, and dossiers discovered in government archives and at Harvard University, Annie Jacobsen follows more than a dozen German scientists through their postwar lives and into a startling, complex, nefarious, and jealously guarded government secret of the twentieth century.

In this definitive, controversial look at one of America's most strategic, and disturbing, government programs, Jacobsen shows just how dark government can get in the name of national security.]]> 575 Annie Jacobsen 031622104X Eddy 0 4.13 2014 Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America
author: Annie Jacobsen
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/05/20
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS, Britain's Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War]]> 28503837
Despite intense opposition, Winston Churchill personally gave Stirling permission to recruit the toughest, brightest and most ruthless soldiers he could find. So began the most celebrated and mysterious military organisation in the world: the SAS.

Now, 75 years later, the SAS has finally decided to tell its astonishing story. It has opened its secret archives for the first time, granting historian Ben Macintyre full access to a treasure trove of unseen reports, memos, diaries, letters, maps and photographs, as well as free rein to interview surviving Originals and those who knew them.

The result is an exhilarating tale of fearlessness and heroism, recklessness and tragedy; of extraordinary men who were willing to take monumental risks. It is a story about the meaning of courage.]]> 400 Ben Macintyre 110190416X Eddy 4 4.31 2016 Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS, Britain's Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War
author: Ben Macintyre
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/04/05
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Short History of Nearly Everything]]> 21 544 Bill Bryson 076790818X Eddy 4 4.21 2003 A Short History of Nearly Everything
author: Bill Bryson
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/10
date added: 2023/03/10
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands]]> 58999198 Bad Mexicans tells the dramatic story of the magonistas, the migrant rebels who sparked the 1910 Mexican Revolution from the United States. Led by a brilliant but ill-tempered radical named Ricardo Flores Magón, the magonistas were a motley band of journalists, miners, migrant workers, and more, who organized thousands of Mexican workers—and American dissidents—to their cause. Determined to oust Mexico’s dictator, Porfirio Díaz, who encouraged the plunder of his country by U.S. imperialists such as Guggenheim and Rockefeller, the rebels had to outrun and outsmart the swarm of U. S. authorities vested in protecting the Diaz regime. The U.S. Departments of War, State, Treasury, and Justice as well as police, sheriffs, and spies, hunted the magonistas across the country. Capturing Ricardo Flores Magón was one of the FBI’s first cases.

But the magonistas persevered. They lived in hiding, wrote in secret code, and launched armed raids into Mexico until they ignited the world’s first social revolution of the twentieth century.

Taking readers to the frontlines of the magonista uprising and the counterinsurgency campaign that failed to stop them, Kelly Lytle Hernández puts the magonista revolt at the heart of U.S. history. Long ignored by textbooks, the magonistas threatened to undo the rise of Anglo-American power, on both sides of the border, and inspired a revolution that gave birth to the Mexican-American population, making the magonistas� story integral to modern American life.]]> 372 Kelly Lytle Hernández 1324004371 Eddy 0 currently-reading 4.16 2022 Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands
author: Kelly Lytle Hernández
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/03
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Project Hail Mary 54493401
Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone.

Or does he?]]> 476 Andy Weir 0593135202 Eddy 5 4.49 2021 Project Hail Mary
author: Andy Weir
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/06
date added: 2023/01/06
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Terminal List (Terminal List, #1)]]> 35297106
On his last combat deployment, Lieutenant Commander James Reece’s entire team was killed in a catastrophic ambush that also claimed the lives of the aircrew sent in to rescue them. But when those dearest to him are murdered on the day of his homecoming, Reece discovers that this was not an act of war by a foreign enemy but a conspiracy that runs to the highest levels of government.

Now, with no family and free from the military’s command structure, Reece applies the lessons that he’s learned in over a decade of constant warfare toward avenging the deaths of his family and teammates. With breathless pacing and relentless suspense, Reece ruthlessly targets his enemies in the upper echelons of power without regard for the laws of combat or the rule of law.

An intoxicating thriller that cautions against the seduction of absolute power and those who would do anything to achieve it, The Terminal List is perfect for fans of Vince Flynn, Brad Thor, Stephen Hunter, and Nelson DeMille.]]> 407 Jack Carr 1501180819 Eddy 4 4.24 2018 The Terminal List (Terminal List, #1)
author: Jack Carr
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2022/11/20
date added: 2022/11/20
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly, and the Making of the Modern Middle East]]> 17262206 A thrilling and revelatory narrative of one of the most epic and consequential periods in 20th century history � the Arab Revolt and the secret “great game� to control the Middle East

The Arab Revolt against the Turks in World War One was, in the words of T.E. Lawrence, “a sideshow of a sideshow.”� Amidst the slaughter in European trenches, the Western combatants paid scant attention to the Middle Eastern theater. As a result, the conflict was shaped to a remarkable degree by a small handful of adventurers and low-level officers far removed from the corridors of power.

Curt Prüfer was an effete academic attached to the German embassy in Cairo, whose clandestine role was to foment Islamic jihad against British rule. Aaron Aaronsohn was a renowned agronomist and committed Zionist who gained the trust of the Ottoman governor of Syria. William Yale was the fallen scion of the American aristocracy, who traveled the Ottoman Empire on behalf of Standard Oil, dissembling to the Turks in order gain valuable oil concessions. At the center of it all was Lawrence. In early 1914 he was an archaeologist excavating ruins in the sands of Syria; by 1917 he was the most romantic figure of World War One, battling both the enemy and his own government to bring about the vision he had for the Arab people.

The intertwined paths of these four men � the schemes they put in place, the battles they fought, the betrayals they endured and committed � mirror the grandeur, intrigue and tragedy of the war in the desert. Prüfer became Germany’s grand spymaster in the Middle East. Aaronsohn constructed an elaborate Jewish spy-ring in Palestine, only to have the anti-Semitic and bureaucratically-inept British first ignore and then misuse his organization, at tragic personal cost. Yale would become the only American intelligence agent in the entire Middle East � while still secretly on the payroll of Standard Oil. And the enigmatic Lawrence rode into legend at the head of an Arab army, even as he waged secret war against his own nation’s imperial ambitions.

Based on years of intensive primary document research, Lawrence in Arabia definitively overturns received wisdom on how the modern Middle East was formed. Sweeping in its action, keen in its portraiture, acid in its condemnation of the destruction wrought by European colonial plots, this is a book that brilliantly captures the way in which the folly of the past creates the anguish of the present.]]> 577 Scott Anderson 038553292X Eddy 0 to-read 4.05 2013 Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly, and the Making of the Modern Middle East
author: Scott Anderson
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/11/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Death of Dulgath (The Riyria Chronicles, #3)]]> 24683898 Three times they tried to kill her. Then a professional was hired. So was Riyria.

When the last member of the oldest noble family in Avryn is targeted for assassination, Riyria is hired to foil the plot. Three years have passed since the war-weary mercenary Hadrian and the cynical ex-assassin Royce joined forces to start life as rogues-for-hire. Things have gone well enough until they're asked to help prevent a murder. Now they must venture into an ancient corner of the world to save a mysterious woman who knows more about Royce than is safe and cares less about herself than is sane.

From the best-selling author of The Riyria Revelations comes the third installment of The Riyria Chronicles. Although part of a series, it's designed to thrill both new readers looking for fun, fast-paced fantasy and Riyria veterans wishing to reunite with old friends.]]> 448 Michael J. Sullivan 1943363005 Eddy 0 to-read 4.38 2015 The Death of Dulgath (The Riyria Chronicles, #3)
author: Michael J. Sullivan
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/12/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Doors of Stone (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #3)]]> 21032488 896 Patrick Rothfuss 0575081449 Eddy 0 to-read 3.51 The Doors of Stone (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #3)
author: Patrick Rothfuss
name: Eddy
average rating: 3.51
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident]]> 17557470 288 Donnie Eichar 1452112746 Eddy 0 to-read 3.94 2013 Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident
author: Donnie Eichar
name: Eddy
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS 25241317 Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Joby Warrick reveals how the strain of militant Islam now raising its banner across Iraq and Syria spread from a remote Jordanian prison with the unwitting aid of American military intervention.

When he succeeded his father in 1999, King Abdullah of Jordan released a batch of political prisoners in the hopes of smoothing his transition to power. Little did he know that among those released was Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a man who would go on to become a terrorist mastermind too dangerous even for al-Qaeda and give rise to an Islamist movement bent on dominating the Middle East.
Zarqawi began by directing hotel bombings and assassinations in Jordan from a base in northern Iraq, but it was the American invasion of that country in 2003 that catapulted him to the head of a vast insurgency. By identifying him as the link between Saddam and bin Laden, the CIA inadvertently created a monster. Like-minded radicals saw him as a hero resisting the infidel occupiers and rallied to his cause. Their wave of brutal beheadings and suicide bombings continued for years until Jordanian intelligence provided the Americans with the crucial intelligence needed to eliminate Zarqawi in a 2006 airstrike.
But his movement endured, first called al-Qaeda in Iraq, then renamed Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, seeking refuge in unstable, ungoverned pockets on the Iraq-Syria border. And as the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011, ISIS seized its chance to pursue Zarqawi's dream of a sweeping, ultra-conservative Islamic caliphate.
Drawing on unique access to CIA and Jordanian sources, Joby Warrick weaves together heart-pounding, moment-by-moment operational details with overarching historical perspectives to reveal the long trajectory of today's most dangerous Islamic extremist threat.


From the Hardcover edition.]]> 368 Joby Warrick 0385538227 Eddy 5 4.29 2016 Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS
author: Joby Warrick
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror]]> 23846387
Initially dismissed by US President Barack Obama, along with other fledgling terrorist groups, as a “jayvee squad� compared to al-Qaeda, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has shocked the world by conquering massive territories in both countries and promising to create a vast new Muslim caliphate that observes the strict dictates of Sharia law.

In ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror, American journalist Michael Weiss and Syrian analyst Hassan Hassan explain how these violent extremists evolved from a nearly defeated Iraqi insurgent group into a jihadi army of international volunteers who behead Western hostages in slickly produced videos and have conquered territory equal to the size of Great Britain. Beginning with the early days of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the founder of ISIS’s first incarnation as “al-Qaeda in Iraq,� Weiss and Hassan explain who the key players are—from their elusive leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to the former Saddam Baathists in their ranks—where they come from, how the movement has attracted both local and global support, and where their financing comes from.

Political and military maneuvering by the United States, Iraq, Iran, and Syria have all fueled ISIS’s astonishing and explosive expansion. Drawing on original interviews with former US military officials and current ISIS fighters, the authors also reveal the internecine struggles within the movement itself, as well as ISIS’s bloody hatred of Shiite Muslims, which is generating another sectarian war in the region. Just like the one the US thought it had stopped in 2011 in Iraq. Past is prologue and America’s legacy in the Middle East is sowing a new generation of terror.]]> 270 Michael Weiss 1941393578 Eddy 5 3.66 2015 ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror
author: Michael Weiss
name: Eddy
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> The Martian 18007564
Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there.

After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.

Chances are, though, he won’t have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old “human error� are much more likely to kill him first.

But Mark isn’t ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills � and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit � he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

]]> 384 Andy Weir 0804139024 Eddy 5 4.41 2011 The Martian
author: Andy Weir
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive, #1)]]> 7235533 From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings, book one of The Stormlight Archive begins an incredible new saga of epic proportion.

Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter.

It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars were fought for them, and won by them.

One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear to protect his little brother, has been reduced to slavery. In a war that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe, he struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendable.

Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Like his brother, the late king, he is fascinated by an ancient text called The Way of Kings. Troubled by over-powering visions of ancient times and the Knights Radiant, he has begun to doubt his own sanity.

Across the ocean, an untried young woman named Shallan seeks to train under an eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar's niece, Jasnah. Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan's motives are less than pure. As she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war.

The result of over ten years of planning, writing, and world-building, The Way of Kings is but the opening movement of the Stormlight Archive, a bold masterpiece in the making.

Speak again the ancient oaths:

Life before death.
Strength before weakness.
Journey before Destination.

and return to men the Shards they once bore.

The Knights Radiant must stand again.]]> 1007 Brandon Sanderson 0765326353 Eddy 4 4.66 2010 The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive, #1)
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.66
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State]]> 18213403 By Glenn Greenwald, star of Citizenfour, the Academy Award-winning documentary on Edward Snowden

In May 2013, Glenn Greenwald set out for Hong Kong to meet an anonymous source who claimed to have astonishing evidence of pervasive government spying and insisted on communicating only through heavily encrypted channels. That source turned out to be the twenty-nine-year-old NSA contractor Edward Snowden, and his revelations about the agency's widespread, systemic overreach proved to be some of the most explosive and consequential news in recent history, triggering a fierce debate over national security and information privacy.

Now Greenwald fits all the pieces together, recounting his high-intensity eleven-day trip to Hong Kong, examining the broader implications of the surveillance detailed in his reporting for The Guardian, and revealing fresh information on the NSA's unprecedented abuse of power with documents from the Snowden archive. Fearless and incisive, No Place to Hide has already sparked outrage around the globe and been hailed by voices across the political spectrum as an essential contribution to our understanding of the U.S. surveillance state.]]> 260 Glenn Greenwald 162779073X Eddy 5 4.05 2014 No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State
author: Glenn Greenwald
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> The God Delusion 14743
With rigor and wit, Dawkins examines God in all his forms, from the sex-obsessed tyrant of the Old Testament, to the more benign (but still illogical) Celestial Watchmaker favored by some Enlightenment thinkers. He eviscerates the major arguments for religion, and demonstrates the supreme improbability of a supreme being. He shows how religion fuels war, foments bigotry, and abuses children, buttressing his points with historical and contemporary evidence.

The God Delusion makes a compelling case that belief in God is not just wrong, but potentially deadly. It also offers exhilarating insight into the advantages of atheism to the individual and society, not the least of which is a clearer, truer appreciation of the universe's wonders than any faith could ever muster.]]> 374 Richard Dawkins 0618680004 Eddy 4 3.89 2006 The God Delusion
author: Richard Dawkins
name: Eddy
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Remaining (The Remaining, #1)]]> 13431827
To Rescue and Rebuild.]]> 220 D.J. Molles Eddy 3 4.12 2012 The Remaining (The Remaining, #1)
author: D.J. Molles
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Reaper: Autobiography of One of the Deadliest Special Ops Snipers]]> 21853661 Preorder REAPER: GHOST TARGET now, Nick Irving's debut thriller that Brad Thor calls "one hell of a read"!

The Instant New York Times Bestseller by Co-Star of Fox's American Grit and Legendary Ranger Nick Irving

Groundbreaking, thrilling and revealing, The Reaper is the astonishing memoir of Special Operations Direct Action Sniper Nicholas Irving, the 3rd Ranger Battalion's deadliest sniper with 33 confirmed kills, though his remarkable career total, including probables, is unknown.

Irving shares the true story of his extraordinary military career, including his deployment to Afghanistan in the summer of 2009, when he set another record, this time for enemy kills on a single deployment. His teammates and chain of command labeled him "The Reaper," and his actions on the battlefield became the stuff of legend, culminating in an extraordinary face-off against an enemy sniper known simply as The Chechnian.

Irving's astonishing first-person account of his development into an expert assassin offers a fascinating and extremely rare view of special operations combat missions through the eyes of a Ranger sniper during the Global War on Terrorism. From the brotherhood and sacrifice of teammates in battle to the cold reality of taking a life to protect another, no other book dives so deep inside the life of an Army sniper on point.

]]> 320 Nicholas Irving 1250045444 Eddy 3 4.14 The Reaper: Autobiography of One of the Deadliest Special Ops Snipers
author: Nicholas Irving
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.14
book published:
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> Letter to a Christian Nation 51299 The End of Faith, Sam Harris received thousands of letters from Christians excoriating him for not believing in God. Letter to A Christian Nation is his reply. Using rational argument, Harris offers a measured refutation of the beliefs that form the core of fundamentalist Christianity. In the course of his argument, he addresses current topics ranging from intelligent design and stem-cell research to the connections between religion and violence. In Letter to a Christian Nation, Sam Harris boldly challenges the influence that faith has on public life in our nation.]]> 96 Sam Harris 0307265773 Eddy 4 3.98 2006 Letter to a Christian Nation
author: Sam Harris
name: Eddy
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Gardens of the Moon (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #1)]]> 55399 Vast legions of gods, mages, humans, dragons and all manner of creatures play out the fate of the Malazan Empire in this first book in a major epic fantasy series from Steven Erikson.

The Malazan Empire simmers with discontent, bled dry by interminable warfare, bitter infighting and bloody confrontations with the formidable Anomander Rake and his Tiste Andii, ancient and implacable sorcerers. Even the imperial legions, long inured to the bloodshed, yearn for some respite. Yet Empress Laseen's rule remains absolute, enforced by her dread Claw assassins.

For Sergeant Whiskeyjack and his squad of Bridgeburners, and for Tattersail, surviving cadre mage of the Second Legion, the aftermath of the siege of Pale should have been a time to mourn the many dead. But Darujhistan, last of the Free Cities of Genabackis, yet holds out. It is to this ancient citadel that Laseen turns her predatory gaze.

However, it would appear that the Empire is not alone in this great game. Sinister, shadowbound forces are gathering as the gods themselves prepare to play their hand...

Conceived and written on a panoramic scale, Gardens of the Moon is epic fantasy of the highest order--an enthralling adventure by an outstanding new voice.]]> 666 Steven Erikson 0765348780 Eddy 4 3.91 1999 Gardens of the Moon (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #1)
author: Steven Erikson
name: Eddy
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Cocaine Explosion]]> 455652
Winner of the 1999 PEN/Oakland Censorship Award

Winner of the 1999 Firecracker Alternative Bookseller (FAB) Award, Politics category

Finalist for the 1999 Bay Area Book Reviewers Awards

Dark Alliance is a book that should be fiction, whose characters seem to come straight out of central the international drug lord, Norwin Meneses; the Contra cocaine broker with an MBA in marketing, Danilo Blandon; and the illiterate teenager from the inner city who rises to become the king of crack, "Freeway" Ricky Ross. But unfortunately, these characters are real and their stories are true.

In August 1996, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary Webb stunned the world with a series of articles in the San Jose Mercury News reporting the results of his year-long investigation into the roots of the crack cocaine epidemic in America, specifically in Los Angeles. The series, titled "Dark Alliance," revealed that for the better part of a decade, a Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to Los Angeles street gangs and funneled millions in drug profits to the CIA-backed Nicaraguan Contras.

Gary Webb pushed his investigation even further in his book, Dark The CIA, The Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion . Drawing from then newly declassified documents, undercover DEA audio and videotapes that had never been publicly released, federal court testimony, and interviews, Webb demonstrates how our government knowingly allowed massive amounts of drugs and money to change hands at the expense of our communities.

Webb's original article spurred an immediate outcry. Within days of publication, both of California's senators made formal requests for investigations of the U.S. government's relationship with the cocaine ring. As a result, public demonstrations erupted in L.A., Washington D.C., and New York. Then-chief of the CIA, John Deutsch, made an unprecedented attempt at crisis control by going to South Central L.A. to hold a public forum. Representative Maxine Waters later said in George magazine, "I was shocked by the level of corruption and deceit and the way the intelligence agencies have knowledge of big-time drug dealing."
The allegations in Webb's story blazed over the Internet and the Mercury News' website on the series was deluged with hits—over a million in one day. A Columbia Journalism Review cover story called it "the most talked-about piece of journalism in 1996 and arguably the most famous—some would say infamous—set of articles of the decade."

Webb's own stranger-than-fiction experience is also woven into the book. His excoriation by the media—not because of any wrongdoing on his part, but by an insidious process of innuendo and suggestion that in effect blamed Webb for the implications of the story—had been all but predicted. Webb was warned off doing a CIA expose by a former Associated Press journalist who lost his job when, years before, he had stumbled onto the germ of the "Dark Alliance" story. And though Internal investigations by both the CIA and the Justice Department eventually vindicated Webb, he had by then been pushed out of the Mercury News and gone to work for the California State Legislature Task Force on Government Oversight. He died in 2004.

The updated paperback edition of Dark Alliance features revelations in just-released reports from the Department of Justice, internal CIA investigations, and a new cache of recently declassified secret FBI, DEA, and INS files—much of which was not known to Webb when writing the first edition of this book. Webb further explains the close working relationship that major drug traffickers had with U.S. Government agencies—particularly the DEA—and recounts the news of the past year regarding this breaking story.

After more than two years of career-damning allegations leveled at Webb, joined in the past year by glowing reviews of the hardcover edition of Dark Alliance from shore to shore, the core findings of this courageous investigative reporter's work—once fiercely denied—are becoming matters of public record. The updated paperback edition of Dark Alliance adds yet another layer of evidence exposing the illegality of a major CIA covert operation.]]> 592 Gary Webb 1888363932 Eddy 5 4.26 1998 Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Cocaine Explosion
author: Gary Webb
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Selous Scouts: Rhodesian Counter-Insurgency Specialists (Africa@War)]]> 12156468
Formed in 1973 by the legendary Lieutenant-Colonel Ron Reid-Daly at the behest of Rhodesian military supremo General Peter Walls, the Selous Scouts were to write their name into the annals of military history as one of the finest counterinsurgency units of all time, through their innovative pseudo-guerrilla tactics, brilliant reconnaissance operations into Zambia and Botswana and daring flying-column raids into Mozambique.

Feared and hated by the liberation movements ZIPRA and ZANLA, the Scouts wreaked untold havoc and destruction on their Soviet- and Chinese-backed enemies, accounting for 68% of guerrilla casualties within Rhodesia alone during the bitter bush war of the 1970s. Uniquely ahead of its time, the regimen - a brotherhood of men that traversed cultural and racial barriers; their Shona motto was 'Pamwe Chete' (together only) - was to produce the type of soldier that earned for the unit one Grand Cross of Valour, nine Silver Crosses and 22 Bronze Crosses of Rhodesia.]]> 80 Peter Baxter 1907677380 Eddy 4 3.96 2011 Selous Scouts: Rhodesian Counter-Insurgency Specialists (Africa@War)
author: Peter Baxter
name: Eddy
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Mistborn: The Final Empire (Mistborn, #1)]]> 68428 What if the whole world were a dead, blasted wasteland?

Mistborn
For a thousand years the ash fell and no flowers bloomed. For a thousand years the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years the Lord Ruler, the "Sliver of Infinity," reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Then, when hope was so long lost that not even its memory remained, a terribly scarred, heart-broken half-Skaa rediscovered it in the depths of the Lord Ruler's most hellish prison. Kelsier "snapped" and found in himself the powers of a Mistborn. A brilliant thief and natural leader, he turned his talents to the ultimate caper, with the Lord Ruler himself as the mark.

Kelsier recruited the underworld's elite, the smartest and most trustworthy allomancers, each of whom shares one of his many powers, and all of whom relish a high-stakes challenge. Then Kelsier reveals his ultimate dream, not just the greatest heist in history, but the downfall of the divine despot.

But even with the best criminal crew ever assembled, Kel's plan looks more like the ultimate long shot, until luck brings a ragged girl named Vin into his life. Like him, she's a half-Skaa orphan, but she's lived a much harsher life. Vin has learned to expect betrayal from everyone she meets. She will have to learn trust if Kel is to help her master powers of which she never dreamed.

Brandon Sanderson, fantasy's newest master tale-spinner and author of the acclaimed debut Elantris, dares to turn a genre on its head by asking a simple question: What if the prophesied hero failed to defeat the Dark Lord? The answer will be found in the Mistborn Trilogy, a saga of surprises that begins with the book in your hands. Fantasy will never be the same again.]]> 541 Brandon Sanderson Eddy 3 4.48 2006 Mistborn: The Final Empire (Mistborn, #1)
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Rose and the Thorn (The Riyria Chronicles, #2)]]> 17163514 TWO THIEVES WANT ANSWERS. RIYRIA IS BORN.

For more than a year Royce Melborn has tried to forget Gwen DeLancy, the woman who saved him and his partner Hadrian Blackwater from certain death. Unable to get her out of his mind, the two thieves return to Medford but receive a very different reception --- Gwen refuses to see them. The victim of abuse by a powerful noble, she suspects that Royce will ignore any danger in his desire for revenge. By turning the thieves away, Gwen hopes to once more protect them. What she doesn't realize is what the two are capable of --- but she's about to find out.]]> 347 Michael J. Sullivan 0356502287 Eddy 5 4.40 2013 The Rose and the Thorn (The Riyria Chronicles, #2)
author: Michael J. Sullivan
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Crown Tower (The Riyria Chronicles, #1)]]> 16043804 TWO MEN WHO HATE EACH OTHER. ONE IMPOSSIBLE MISSION. A LEGEND IN THE MAKING.

A warrior with nothing to fight for is paired with a thieving assassin with nothing to lose. Together they must steal a treasure that no one can reach. The Crown Tower is the impregnable remains of the grandest fortress ever built and home to the realm’s most valuable possessions. But it isn’t gold or jewels the old wizard is after, and this prize can only be obtained by the combined talents of two remarkable men. Now if Arcadius can just keep Hadrian and Royce from killing each other, they just might succeed.

The Riyria Revelations and The Riyria Chronicles are two separate, but related series, and you can start reading with either Theft of Swords (publication order) or The Crown Tower (chronological order).]]> 384 Michael J. Sullivan 031624371X Eddy 5 4.33 2013 The Crown Tower (The Riyria Chronicles, #1)
author: Michael J. Sullivan
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Heir of Novron (The Riyria Revelations, #5-6)]]> 11100431 A FORCED WEDDING. A DOUBLE EXECUTION. TWO THIEVES HAVE OTHER PLANS.

The New Empire intends to celebrate its victory over the Nationalists with a day that will never be forgotten. On the high holiday of Wintertide, they plan to execute two traitors (Degan Gaunt and the Witch of Melengar) as well as force the Empress into a marriage of their own design. But they didn’t account for Royce and Hadrian finally locating the Heir of Novron—or the pair’s desire to wreak havoc on the New Empire’s carefully crafted scheme.]]> 932 Michael J. Sullivan 0316187712 Eddy 5 4.49 2012 Heir of Novron (The Riyria Revelations, #5-6)
author: Michael J. Sullivan
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Rise of Empire (The Riyria Revelations, #3-4)]]> 10790277 A PUPPET IS CROWNED. THE TRUE HEIR REMAINS HIDDEN. A ROGUE'S SECRET COULD CHANGE EVERYTHING.

War has come to Melengar and once more Royce and Hadrian are hired to make a desperate gamble and form an alliance with the Nationalists whom are fighting the Imperialists in the south. As the power of the Nyphron Empire grows, so does Royce's suspicion that the wizard Esrahaddon is using the thieves as pawns in his own grab for power. To find the truth, he must unravel the secret of Hadrian's past--what he discovers may end their friendship and break Riyria in two.]]> 786 Michael J. Sullivan 0316187704 Eddy 5 4.37 2010 Rise of Empire (The Riyria Revelations, #3-4)
author: Michael J. Sullivan
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Theft of Swords (The Riyria Revelations, #1-2)]]> 10790290
Can a self-serving thief and an idealistic swordsman survive long enough to unravel the first part of an ancient mystery that has toppled kings and destroyed empires?

And so begins the first tale of treachery and adventure, sword fighting and magic, myth and legend.

When author Michael J. Sullivan self-published the first books of his Riyria Revelations, they rapidly became ebook bestsellers. Now, Orbit is pleased to present the complete series for the first time in bookstores everywhere.]]> 691 Michael J. Sullivan 0316187747 Eddy 5 4.23 2011 Theft of Swords (The Riyria Revelations, #1-2)
author: Michael J. Sullivan
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Tower Lord (Raven's Shadow, #2)]]> 18138189
Vaelin Al Sorna, warrior of the Sixth Order, called Darkblade, called Hope Killer. The greatest warrior of his day, and witness to the greatest defeat of his nation: King Janus’s vision of a Greater Unified Realm drowned in the blood of brave men fighting for a cause Vaelin alone knows was forged from a lie. Sick at heart, he comes home, determined to kill no more.

Named Tower Lord of the Northern Reaches by King Janus’s grateful heir, he can perhaps find peace in a colder, more remote land far from the intrigues of a troubled Realm. But those gifted with the blood-song are never destined to live a quiet life. Many died in King Janus’s wars, but many survived, and Vaelin is a target, not just for those seeking revenge but for those who know what he can do.

The Faith has been sundered, and many have no doubt who their leader should be. The new King is weak, but his sister is strong. The blood-song is powerful, rich in warning and guidance in times of trouble, but is only a fraction of the power available to others who understand more of its mysteries. Something moves against the Realm, something that commands mighty forces, and Vaelin will find to his great regret that when faced with annihilation, even the most reluctant hand must eventually draw a sword.]]> 608 Anthony Ryan 0425265625 Eddy 5 4.14 2014 Tower Lord (Raven's Shadow, #2)
author: Anthony Ryan
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Blood Song (Raven's Shadow, #1)]]> 13569581 “The Sixth Order wields the sword of justice and smites the enemies of the Faith and the Realm.�

Vaelin Al Sorna was only a child of ten when his father left him at the iron gate of the Sixth Order. The Brothers of the Sixth Order are devoted to battle, and Vaelin will be trained and hardened to the austere, celibate, and dangerous life of a Warrior of the Faith. He has no family now save the Order.

Vaelin’s father was Battle Lord to King Janus, ruler of the unified realm. Vaelin’s rage at being deprived of his birthright and dropped at the doorstep of the Sixth Order like a foundling knows no bounds. He cherishes the memory of his mother, and what he will come to learn of her at the Order will confound him. His father, too, has motives that Vaelin will come to understand. But one truth overpowers all the rest: Vaelin Al Sorna is destined for a future he has yet to comprehend. A future that will alter not only the realm, but the world.]]> 591 Anthony Ryan 1466085665 Eddy 5 4.42 2011 Blood Song (Raven's Shadow, #1)
author: Anthony Ryan
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Patriots (The Coming Collapse)]]> 8488492 America faces a full-scale socioeconomic collapse—the stock market plummets, hyperinflation cripples commerce and the mounting crisis passes the tipping point. Practically overnight, the fragile chains of supply and high-technology infrastructure fall, and wholesale rioting and looting grip every major city.

As hordes of refugees and looters pour out of the cities, a small group of friends living in the Midwest desperately tries to make their way to a safe-haven ranch in northern Idaho. The journey requires all their skill and training since communication, commerce, transportation and law enforcement have all disappeared. Once at the ranch, the group fends off vicious attacks from outsiders and then looks to join other groups that are trying to restore true Constitutional law to the country.

Patriots is a thrilling narrative depicting fictional characters using authentic survivalist techniques to endure the collapse of the American civilization. Reading this compelling, fast-paced novel could one day mean the difference between life and death.]]> 384 James Wesley, Rawles 156975229X Eddy 2 3.63 1998 Patriots (The Coming Collapse)
author: James Wesley, Rawles
name: Eddy
average rating: 3.63
book published: 1998
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> Tales of the Far West 13432114
A fantasy world that mixes the inspirations of Django and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon... The Good, The Bad & The Ugly and House of Flying Daggers... Fistful of Dollars and Fist of Legend.

A fantasy world that's explored through a book series, a constantly-updated website, a tabletop role-playing game, comics, artwork, webseries and much, much, more.

This is FAR WEST.

Tales of the Far West is the first book in Adamant Entertainment's Wuxia-Western mash-up, featuring a dozen all-new tales written by critically-acclaimed and award-winning fantasy, science-fiction, horror and adventure authors,

"He Built The Wall To Knock It Down" by Scott A master teaches an unforgettable lesson in the pursuit of excellence in all things.

"In Stillness, Music" by Aaron A wandering musician is all that stands between a village and a cattle baron.

"Riding The Thunderbird" by Chuck A herd of giant, flightless birds, a young girl, and a sudden lesson.

"Purity of Purpose" by Gareth-Michael Who seeks the secret of the Unsurpassed Weapons?

"Paper Lotus" by Tessa A strange girl tasks a wounded man to deliver a crucial message.

"In the Name of the Empire" by Eddy A sheriff is charged with the murder of an Imperial Magistrate.

"Errant Eagles" by Will A gunslinger faces the consequences of his past.

"Railroad Spikes" by Ari A bandit finds that he's robbed the wrong train.

"The Fury Pact" by Matt An inventor's son faces the responsibility of his name.

"Seven Holes" by T.S. An apprentice learns the true nature of demons.

"Local Legend" by Jason L. Red Phoenix was dead, and the bounty hunter tells the tale.

"Crippled Avengers" by Dave A band of fighters seek to take revenge on the steam baron who crippled them.]]> 226 Gareth-Michael Skarka 1937936023 Eddy 2 3.66 2012 Tales of the Far West
author: Gareth-Michael Skarka
name: Eddy
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2012
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil]]> 83500 Crossing the Rubicon discovers and identifies key suspects—finding some of them in the highest echelons of American government—by showing how they acted in concert to guarantee that the attacks produced the desired result.

Crossing the Rubicon is unique not only for its case-breaking examination of 9/11, but for the breadth and depth of its world picture—an interdisciplinary analysis of petroleum, geopolitics, narcotraffic, intelligence and militarism—without which 9/11 cannot be understood.

The US manufacturing sector has been mostly replaced by speculation on financial data whose underlying economic reality is a dark secret. Hundreds of billions of dollars in laundered drug money flow through Wall Street each year from opium and coca fields maintained by CIA-sponsored warlords and US-backed covert paramilitary violence. America’s global dominance depends on a continually turning mill of guns, drugs, oil and money. Oil and natural gas—the fuels that make economic growth possible—are subsidized by American military force and foreign lending.

In reality, 9/11 and the resulting “war on terror� are parts of a massive authoritarian response to an emerging economic crisis of unprecedented scale. Peak Oil—the beginning of the end for our industrial civilization—is driving the élites of American power to implement unthinkably draconian measures of repression, warfare and population control. Crossing the Rubicon is more than a story. It is a map of the perilous terrain through which, together and alone, we are all now making our way.

Michael C. Ruppert is the publisher and editor of From the Wilderness, a newsletter read by more than 16,000 subscribers in 40 countries. A former Los Angeles Police Department narcotics investigator, he is widely known for his groundbreaking stories on US involvement in the drug trade, Peak Oil and 9/11.]]> 696 Michael C. Ruppert 0865715408 Eddy 5 4.06 2003 Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil
author: Michael C. Ruppert
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Hell's Angel: The Life and Times of Sonny Barger and the Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club]]> 51550
Narrated by the visionary founding member, Hell's Angel provides a fascinating all-access pass to the secret world of the notorious Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club. Sonny Barger recounts the birth of the original Oakland Hell's Angels and the four turbulent decades that followed. Hell's Angel also chronicles the way the HAMC revolutionized the look of the Harley-Davidson motorcycle and built what has become a worldwide bike-riding fraternity, a beacon for freedom-seekers the world over.

Dozens of photos, including many from private collections and from noted photographers, provide visual documentation to this extraordinary tale. Never simply a story about motorcycles, colorful characters, and high-speed thrills, Hell's Angel is the ultimate outlaw's tale of loyalty and betrayal, subcultures and brotherhood, and the real price of freedom.]]> 288 Ralph Barger 0060937548 Eddy 3 3.72 1975 Hell's Angel: The Life and Times of Sonny Barger and the Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club
author: Ralph Barger
name: Eddy
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1975
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Doctor Dealer: The Rise and Fall of an All-American Boy and His Multimillion-Dollar Cocaine Empire]]> 55319 352 Mark Bowden 0802137571 Eddy 4 4.05 1987 Doctor Dealer: The Rise and Fall of an All-American Boy and His Multimillion-Dollar Cocaine Empire
author: Mark Bowden
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1987
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Fatal Alliance (Star Wars: The Old Republic, #3)]]> 7493770 bestselling author Sean Williams brings the world of the game to life in his latest novel, Star Wars: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance.

Tassaa Bareesh, a matriarch in the Hutt crime cartel, is holding an auction that’s drawing attention from across the galaxy. Representatives of both the Republic and the Sith Empire are present, along with a Jedi Padawan sent to investigate, a disenfranchised trooper drummed out of the Republic’s elite Blackstar Squad, and a mysterious Mandalorian with a private agenda. But the Republic’s envoy is not what he seems, the Empire’s delegate is a ruthless Sith apprentice, the Jedi Padawan is determined to do the right thing and terrified that he can’t, the trooper hopes to redeem her reputation, and the Mandalorian is somehow managing to keep one step ahead of everyone.

None of these guests—invited or uninvited—have any intention of participating in the auction. Instead they plan to steal the prize, which is locked inside an impregnable vault: two burned chunks of an exploded star cruiser, one of which may hold the key to the wealth of an entire world.

But the truth about the treasure is dangerous and deadly. And in the end, Sith and Jedi, Republic and Empire, must do something they’ve never done before, something that all the agents of good and evil could never make them do: join together to stop a powerful threat that could destroy the galaxy.]]> 417 Sean Williams 0345511328 Eddy 3 3.74 2010 Fatal Alliance (Star Wars: The Old Republic, #3)
author: Sean Williams
name: Eddy
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
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 Eddy 5 4.52 2007 The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1)
author: Patrick Rothfuss
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Wise Man's Fear (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #2)]]> 1215032 There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man.�

My name is Kvothe.
I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep.
You may have heard of me.

So begins the tale of a hero told from his own point of view � a story unequaled in fantasy literature. Now in The Wise Man's Fear, an escalating rivalry with a powerful member of the nobility forces Kvothe to leave the University and seek his fortune abroad. Adrift, penniless, and alone, he travels to Vintas, where he quickly becomes entangled in the politics of courtly society. While attempting to curry favor with a powerful noble, Kvothe uncovers an assassination attempt, comes into conflict with a rival arcanist, and leads a group of mercenaries into the wild, in an attempt to solve the mystery of who (or what) is waylaying travelers on the King's Road.

All the while, Kvothe searches for answers, attempting to uncover the truth about the mysterious Amyr, the Chandrian, and the death of his parents. Along the way, Kvothe is put on trial by the legendary Adem mercenaries, is forced to reclaim the honor of the Edema Ruh, and travels into the Fae realm. There he meets Felurian, the faerie woman no man can resist, and who no man has ever survived ... until Kvothe.

In The Wise Man's Fear, Kvothe takes his first steps on the path of the hero and learns how difficult life can be when a man becomes a legend in his own time.

]]> 994 Patrick Rothfuss 0756404738 Eddy 5 4.55 2011 The Wise Man's Fear (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #2)
author: Patrick Rothfuss
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Republic of Thieves (Gentleman Bastard, #3)]]> 2890090
Magi political elections are imminent, and the factions are in need of a pawn. If Locke agrees to play the role, sorcery will be used to purge the venom from his body - though the process will be so excruciating he may well wish for death. Locke is opposed, but two factors cause his will to crumble: Jean's imploring - and the Bondsmage's mention of a woman from Locke's past: Sabetha. She is the love of his life, his equal in skill and wit, and now, his greatest rival.

Locke was smitten with Sabetha from his first glimpse of her as a young fellow orphan and thief-in-training. But after a tumultuous courtship, Sabetha broke away. Now they will reunite in yet another clash of wills. For faced with his one and only match in both love and trickery, Locke must choose whether to fight Sabetha - or to woo her. It is a decision on which both their lives may depend.

]]> 650 Scott Lynch 0553804693 Eddy 5 4.21 2013 The Republic of Thieves (Gentleman Bastard, #3)
author: Scott Lynch
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Red Seas Under Red Skies (Gentleman Bastard, #2)]]> 887877
This time, however, they have targeted the grandest prize of all: the Sinspire, the most exclusive and heavily guarded gambling house in the world. Its nine floors attract the wealthiest clientele � and to rise to the top, one must impress with good credit, amusing behavior... and excruciatingly impeccable play. For there is one cardinal rule, enforced by Requin, the house's cold-blooded master: it is death to cheat at any game at the Sinspire.

Brazenly undeterred, Locke and Jean have orchestrated an elaborate plan to lie, trick, and swindle their way up the nine floors... straight to Requin's teeming vault. Under the cloak of false identities, they meticulously make their climb � until they are closer to the spoils than ever.

But someone in Tal Verrar has uncovered the duo's secret. Someone from their past who has every intention of making the impudent criminals pay for their sins. Now it will take every ounce of cunning to save their mercenary souls. And even that may not be enough...

]]> 558 Scott Lynch 0553804685 Eddy 5 4.23 2007 Red Seas Under Red Skies (Gentleman Bastard, #2)
author: Scott Lynch
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Lies of Locke Lamora (Gentleman Bastard, #1)]]> 127455 Ocean's Eleven, and entirely enthralling...

An orphan's life is harsh � and often short � in the island city of Camorr, built on the ruins of a mysterious alien race. But born with a quick wit and a gift for thieving, Locke Lamora has dodged both death and slavery, only to fall into the hands of an eyeless priest known as Chains � a man who is neither blind nor a priest.

A con artist of extraordinary talent, Chains passes his skills on to his carefully selected "family" of orphans � a group known as the Gentlemen Bastards. Under his tutelage, Locke grows to lead the Bastards, delightedly pulling off one outrageous confidence game after another. Soon he is infamous as the Thorn of Camorr, and no wealthy noble is safe from his sting.

Passing themselves off as petty thieves, the brilliant Locke and his tightly knit band of light-fingered brothers have fooled even the criminal underworld's most feared ruler, Capa Barsavi. But there is someone in the shadows more powerful � and more ambitious � than Locke has yet imagined.

Known as the Gray King, he is slowly killing Capa Barsavi's most trusted men � and using Locke as a pawn in his plot to take control of Camorr's underworld. With a bloody coup under way threatening to destroy everyone and everything that holds meaning in his mercenary life, Locke vows to beat the Gray King at his own brutal game � or die trying...

]]> 499 Scott Lynch 0553804677 Eddy 5 4.28 2006 The Lies of Locke Lamora (Gentleman Bastard, #1)
author: Scott Lynch
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Ravnica: City of Guilds (Magic: The Gathering: Ravnica Cycle, #1)]]> 759971

This is the first title in an exciting trilogy dealing with the new The Gathering expansion sets. It will give players a sneak peek at the upcoming card releases.]]> 320 Cory J. Herndon 0786937920 Eddy 3 3.74 2005 Ravnica: City of Guilds (Magic: The Gathering: Ravnica Cycle, #1)
author: Cory J. Herndon
name: Eddy
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> The Dude and the Zen Master 13593539
Zen master Bernie Glassman compares Jeff Bridges’s iconic role in The Big Lebowski to a Lamed-Vavnik: one of the men in Jewish mysticism who “are simple and unassuming, and so good that, on account of them, God lets the world go on.� His buddy Jeff puts it another way. The wonderful thing about the Dude, he says, is that he’d always rather hug it out than slug it out.

For more than a decade, Academy Award–winning actor Jeff Bridges and his buddhist teacher, renowned Roshi Bernie Glassman, have been close friends. Inspiring and often hilarious, The Dude and the Zen Master captures their freewheeling dialogue about life, laughter, and the movies with a charm and bonhomie that never fail to enlighten and entertain. Throughout, their remarkable humanism reminds us of the importance of doing good in a difficult world.]]> 288 Jeff Bridges 0399161643 Eddy 2 3.66 2012 The Dude and the Zen Master
author: Jeff Bridges
name: Eddy
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2012
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> Into the Wild 1845 Librarian's Note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

In April, 1992, a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, a party of moose hunters found his decomposed body. How McCandless came to die is the unforgettable story of Into the Wild.

Immediately after graduating from college in 1991, McCandless had roamed through the West and Southwest on a vision quest like those made by his heroes Jack London and John Muir. In the Mojave Desert he abandoned his car, stripped it of its license plates, and burned all of his cash. He would give himself a new name, Alexander Supertramp, and, unencumbered by money and belongings, he would be free to wallow in the raw, unfiltered experiences that nature presented. Craving a blank spot on the map, McCandless simply threw away the maps. Leaving behind his desperate parents and sister, he vanished into the wild.]]> 207 Jon Krakauer 0385486804 Eddy 4 4.01 1996 Into the Wild
author: Jon Krakauer
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Outlaw Platoon: Heroes, Renegades, Infidels, and the Brotherhood of War in Afghanistan]]> 12990404 374 Sean Parnell Eddy 4 4.35 2012 Outlaw Platoon: Heroes, Renegades, Infidels, and the Brotherhood of War in Afghanistan
author: Sean Parnell
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> Animal Farm / 1984 5472 This edition features George Orwell’s best-known novels�1984 and Animal Farm—with an introduction by Christopher Hitchens.

In 1984, London is a grim city where Big Brother is always watching you and the Thought Police can practically read your mind. Winston Smith joins a secret revolutionary organisation called The Brotherhood, dedicated to the destruction of the Party. Together with his beloved Julia, he hazards his life in a deadly match against the powers that be.

Animal Farm is Orwell’s classic satire of the Russian Revolution - an account of the bold struggle, initiated by the animals, that transforms Mr. Jones’s Manor Farm into Animal Farm - a wholly democratic society built on the credo that All Animals Are Created Equal. But are they? AUTHOR: George Orwell (1903-1950) was born in India and served with the Imperial Police in Burma before joining the Republican Army in the Spanish Civil War. Orwell was the author of six novels as well as numerous essays and nonfiction works.]]> 400 George Orwell Eddy 4 4.29 1949 Animal Farm / 1984
author: George Orwell
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1949
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End (Apocalypse Z, #1)]]> 16103129
A mysterious incident in Russia, a blip buried in the news—it’s the only warning humanity receives that civilization will soon be destroyed by a single, voracious virus that creates monsters of men.

Humanity falls�

A lawyer, still grieving over the death of his young wife, begins to write as a form of therapy. But he never expected that his anonymous blog would ultimately record humanity’s last days.

The end of the world has begun�

Governments scramble to stop the zombie virus, people panic, so-called “Safe Havens� are established, the world erupts into chaos; soon it’s every man, woman, and child for themselves. Armed only with makeshift weapons and the will to live, a lone survivor will give mankind one last chance against�

Apocalypse Z]]> 397 Manel Loureiro 1612184340 Eddy 2 3.83 2007 Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End (Apocalypse Z, #1)
author: Manel Loureiro
name: Eddy
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2007
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Worst Journey in the World]]> 48503 The Worst Journey in the World recounts Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated expedition to the South Pole. Apsley Cherry-Garrard, the youngest member of Scott's team and one of three men to make and survive the notorious Winter Journey, draws on his firsthand experiences as well as the diaries of his compatriots to create a stirring and detailed account of Scott's legendary expedition. Cherry himself would be among the search party that discovered the corpses of Scott and his men, who had long since perished from starvation and brutal cold. It is through Cherry's insightful narrative and keen descriptions that Scott and the other members of the expedition are fully memorialized.

First published in 1922.]]> 693 Apsley Cherry-Garrard 0143039385 Eddy 3 4.17 1922 The Worst Journey in the World
author: Apsley Cherry-Garrard
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1922
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster]]> 1898
Into Thin Air is the definitive account of the deadliest season in the history of Everest by the acclaimed journalist and author of the bestseller Into the Wild. On assignment for Outside Magazine to report on the growing commercialization of the mountain, Krakauer, an accomplished climber, went to the Himalayas as a client of Rob Hall, the most respected high-altitude guide in the world. A rangy, thirty-five-year-old New Zealander, Hall had summited Everest four times between 1990 and 1995 and had led thirty-nine climbers to the top. Ascending the mountain in close proximity to Hall's team was a guided expedition led by Scott Fischer, a forty-year-old American with legendary strength and drive who had climbed the peak without supplemental oxygen in 1994. But neither Hall nor Fischer survived the rogue storm that struck in May 1996.

Krakauer examines what it is about Everest that has compelled so many people -- including himself -- to throw caution to the wind, ignore the concerns of loved ones, and willingly subject themselves to such risk, hardship, and expense. Written with emotional clarity and supported by his unimpeachable reporting, Krakauer's eyewitness account of what happened on the roof of the world is a singular achievement.]]> 368 Jon Krakauer Eddy 5 4.24 1997 Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster
author: Jon Krakauer
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History]]> 11887020
A native Texan who learned to shoot on childhood hunting trips with his father, Kyle was a champion saddle-bronc rider prior to joining the Navy. After 9/11, he was thrust onto the front lines of the War on Terror, and soon found his calling as a world-class sniper who performed best under fire. He recorded a personal-record 2,100-yard kill shot outside Baghdad; in Fallujah, Kyle braved heavy fire to rescue a group of Marines trapped on a street; in Ramadi, he stared down insurgents with his pistol in close combat. Kyle talks honestly about the pain of war—of twice being shot and experiencing the tragic deaths of two close friends.

American Sniper also honors Kyles fellow warriors, who raised hell on and off the battlefield. And in moving first-person accounts throughout, Kyles wife, Taya, speaks openly about the strains of war on their marriage and children, as well as on Chris.

Adrenaline-charged and deeply personal, American Sniper is a thrilling eyewitness account of war that only one man could tell.]]> 502 Chris Kyle 0062107062 Eddy 4 4.00 2012 American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History
author: Chris Kyle
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Suddenly, the Cider Didn't Taste So Good: Adventures of a Game Warden in Maine]]> 13212544 218 John Allen Ford Sr. 1934031941 Eddy 4 3.95 2012 Suddenly, the Cider Didn't Taste So Good: Adventures of a Game Warden in Maine
author: John Allen Ford Sr.
name: Eddy
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Ranger Confidential: Living, Working, And Dying In The National Parks]]> 7872176
Hell yeah, it was the best job in the world! Fortunately, Andrea survived it.

In this graphic and yet surprisingly funny account of her and others� extraordinary careers, Lankford unveils a world in which park rangers struggle to maintain their idealism in the face of death, disillusionment, and the loss of a comrade killed while holding that thin green line between protecting the park from the people, the people from the park, and the people from each other. Ranger Confidential is the story behind the scenery of the nation’s crown jewels—Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Great Smokies, Denali. In these iconic landscapes, where nature and humanity constantly collide, scenery can be as cruel as it is redemptive.]]> 246 Andrea Lankford 0762752637 Eddy 4 3.98 2010 Ranger Confidential: Living, Working, And Dying In The National Parks
author: Andrea Lankford
name: Eddy
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> AWOL on the Appalachian Trail 610470 236 David "Awol" Miller 1595940561 Eddy 5 3.96 2006 AWOL on the Appalachian Trail
author: David "Awol" Miller
name: Eddy
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> Washington: A Life 8255917
Despite the reverence his name inspires Washington remains a waxwork to many readers, worthy but dull, a laconic man of remarkable self-control. But in this groundbreaking work Chernow revises forever the uninspiring stereotype. He portrays Washington as a strapping, celebrated horseman, elegant dancer and tireless hunter, who guarded his emotional life with intriguing ferocity. Not only did Washington gather around himself the foremost figures of the age, including James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, he orchestrated their actions to help realise his vision for the new federal government, define the separation of powers, and establish the office of the presidency.

Ron Chernow takes us on a page-turning journey through all the formative events of America's founding. This is a magisterial work from one of America's foremost writers and historians.]]> 904 Ron Chernow 1594202664 Eddy 4 4.14 2010 Washington: A Life
author: Ron Chernow
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> Out Bad 13114606 254 Donald Charles Davis 1467950831 Eddy 5 3.60 2011 Out Bad
author: Donald Charles Davis
name: Eddy
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing]]> 11337189
“Where did the universe come from? What was there before it? What will the future bring? And finally, why is there something rather than nothing?�

One of the few prominent scientists today to have crossed the chasm between science and popular culture, Krauss describes the staggeringly beautiful experimental observations and mind-bending new theories that demonstrate not only can something arise from nothing, something will always arise from nothing. With a new preface about the significance of the discovery of the Higgs particle, A Universe from Nothing uses Krauss’s characteristic wry humor and wonderfully clear explanations to take us back to the beginning of the beginning, presenting the most recent evidence for how our universe evolved—and the implications for how it’s going to end.

Provocative, challenging, and delightfully readable, this is a game-changing look at the most basic underpinning of existence and a powerful antidote to outmoded philosophical, religious, and scientific thinking.]]> 204 Lawrence M. Krauss 145162445X Eddy 4 3.94 2012 A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing
author: Lawrence M. Krauss
name: Eddy
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> Free Will 13259270
In this enlightening book, Sam Harris argues that this truth about the human mind does not undermine morality or diminish the importance of social and political freedom, but it can and should change the way we think about some of the most important questions in life.]]> 96 Sam Harris 1451683405 Eddy 3 3.86 2012 Free Will
author: Sam Harris
name: Eddy
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The 50th Law: Overcoming Adversity Through Fearlessness]]> 6043946 The 50th Law, hip hop and pop culture icon 50 Cent (aka Curtis Jackson) joins forces with Robert Greene, bestselling author of The 48 Laws of Power, to write a bible for success in life and work based on a single principle: fear nothing.

With intimate stories from 50 Cent's life on the streets and in the boardroom as he rose to fame after the release of his album Get Rich or Die Tryin, as well as examples of others who have overcome adversity through understanding and practicing The 50th Law, this deeply inspirational book is perfect for entrepreneurs as well as anyone interested in the extraordinary life of Curtis Jackson.]]> 291 50 Cent 006177460X Eddy 1 4.16 2008 The 50th Law: Overcoming Adversity Through Fearlessness
author: 50 Cent
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2008
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes, and the Man Who Makes War Possible]]> 1033695 —Peter L. Bergen, author of The Osama bin Laden I Know ""Viktor Bout is like Osama bin a major target of U.S. intelligence officials who time and again gets away. Farah and Braun have skillfully documented how this notorious arms dealer has stoked violence around the world and thwarted international sanctions. Even more appalling, they show how Bout ended up getting millions of dollars in U.S. government money to assist the war in Iraq. A truly impressive piece of investigative reporting.""
—Michael Isikoff, coauthor of The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War ""Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun are two of the toughest investigative reporters in the country. This is an important book about a hidden world of gunrunning and profiteering in some of the world's poorest countries.""
—Steve Coll, author of Ghost The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 ""In Merchant of Death , two of America's finest reporters have performed a major public service, turning over the right rocks that reveal the brutal international arms business at the dawn of the twenty-first century. In Viktor Bout, they have given us a new Lord of War, a man who knows no side but his own, and who has a knack for turning up in every war zone just in time to turn a profit. As Farah and Braun uncover and document his troubling role in the Bush Administration's Global War on Terror, his ties to Washington almost seem inevitable.""
—James Risen, author of State of The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration ""An extraordinary and timely piece of investigative reporting, Merchant of Death is also a vividly compelling read. The true story of Viktor Bout, a sociopathic Russian gunrunner who has supplied weapons for use in some of the most gruesome conflicts of modern times--and who can count amongst his clients both the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan and the U.S. military in Iraq--is a stomach-churning indictment of the policy failures and moral contradictions of the world's most powerful governments, including that of the United States.""
—Jon Lee Anderson, author of The Fall of Baghdad Two respected journalists tell the incredible story of Viktor Bout, the Russian weapons supplier whose global network has changed the way modern warfare is fought. Bout’s vast enterprise of guns, planes, and money has fueled internecine slaughter in Africa and aided both militant Islamic fanatics in Afghanistan and the American military in Iraq. This book combines spy thrills with crucial insights on the shortcomings of a U.S. foreign policy that fails to confront the lucrative and lethal arms trade that erodes global security.]]> 320 Stephen Braun 0470048662 Eddy 5 3.71 2007 Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes, and the Man Who Makes War Possible
author: Stephen Braun
name: Eddy
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Under and Alone: The True Story of the Undercover Agent Who Infiltrated America's Most Violent Outlaw Motorcycle Gang]]> 104522
Nor did Queen suspect that he would penetrate the gang so successfully that he would become a fully "patched-in" member, eventually rising through their ranks to the office of treasurer, where he had unprecedented access to evidence of their criminal activity. After Queen spent twenty-eight months as "Billy St. John," the bearded, beer-swilling, Harley-riding gang-banger, the truth of his identity became blurry, even to himself.

During his initial "prospecting" phase, Queen was at the mercy of crank-fueled criminal psychopaths who sought to have him test his mettle and prove his fealty by any means necessary, from selling (and doing) drugs, to arms trafficking, stealing motorcycles, driving getaway cars, and, in one shocking instance, stitching up the face of a Mongol "ol' lady" after a particularly brutal beating at the hands of her boyfriend.

Yet despite the constant criminality of the gang, for whom planning cop killings and gang rapes were business as usual, Queen also came to see the genuine camaraderie they shared. When his lengthy undercover work totally isolated Queen from family, his friends, and ATF colleagues, the Mongols felt like the only family he had left. "I had no doubt these guys genuinely loved Billy St. John and would have laid down their lives for him. But they wouldn't hesitate to murder Billy Queen."

From Queen's first sleight of hand with a line of methamphetamine in front of him and a knife at his throat, to the fearsome face-off with their decades-old enemy, the Hell's Angels (a brawl that left three bikers dead), to the heartbreaking scene of a father ostracized at Parents' Night because his deranged-outlaw appearance precluded any interaction with regular citizens, Under and Alone is a breathless, adrenaline-charged read that puts you on the street with some of the most dangerous men in America and with the law enforcement agents who risk everything to bring them in.]]> 260 William Queen 0345487524 Eddy 3 4.15 2005 Under and Alone: The True Story of the Undercover Agent Who Infiltrated America's Most Violent Outlaw Motorcycle Gang
author: William Queen
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[American Desperado: My Life--From Mafia Soldier to Cocaine Cowboy to Secret Government Asset]]> 11161428
Roberts, in fact, seemed to be a prodigy of criminality � but one with a remarkable self-awareness and a fierce desire to protect his son from following the same path.

American Desperado is Roberts� no-holds-barred account of being born into Mafia royalty, witnessing his first murder at the age of seven, becoming a hunter-assassin in Vietnam, returning to New York to become -- at age 22 -- one of the city’s leading nightclub impresarios, then journeying to Miami where in a few short years he would rise to become the Medellin Cartel’s most effective smuggler.

But that’s just half the tale.

The roster of Roberts� friends and acquaintances reads like a Who’s Who of the latter half of the 20th century and includes everyone from Jimi Hendrix, Richard Pryor, and O.J. Simpson to Carlo Gambino, Meyer Lansky, and Manuel Noriega.

Nothing if not colorful, Roberts surrounded himself with beautiful women, drove his souped-up street car at a top speed of 180 miles per hour, shared his bed with a 200-pound cougar, and employed a 6�6� professional wrestler called “The Thing� as his bodyguard. Ultimately, Roberts became so powerful that he attracted the attention of the Republican Party’s leadership, was wooed by them, and even was co-opted by the CIA for which he carried out its secret agenda.

Scrupulously documented and relentlessly propulsive, this collaboration between a bloodhound journalist and one of the most audacious criminals ever is like no other crime book you’ve ever read. Jon Roberts may be the only criminal who changed the course of American history.]]> 560 Jon Roberts 0307450422 Eddy 5 4.26 2011 American Desperado: My Life--From Mafia Soldier to Cocaine Cowboy to Secret Government Asset
author: Jon Roberts
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Old Man and the Wasteland (The Wasteland Saga, #1)]]> 11168429
What follows is an incredible tale of survival and endurance.
One man must survive the desert wilderness and mankind gone savage to discover the truth of Hemingway’s classic tale of man versus nature.
Part Hemingway, part Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, a suspenseful odyssey into the dark heart of the Post-Apocalyptic American southwest.

A book lover’s action flick.]]> 125 Nick Cole 1257629220 Eddy 2 3.85 2011 The Old Man and the Wasteland (The Wasteland Saga, #1)
author: Nick Cole
name: Eddy
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2011
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire, #3)]]> 62291 An alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here

Here is the third volume in George R.R. Martin's magnificent cycle of novels that includes A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings. Together, this series comprises a genuine masterpiece of modern fantasy, destined to stand as one of the great achievements of imaginative fiction.

Of the five contenders for power, one is dead, another in disfavor, and still the wars rage as alliances are made and broken. Joffrey sits on the Iron Throne, the uneasy ruler of the Seven Kingdoms. His most bitter rival, Lord Stannis, stands defeated and disgraced, victim of the sorceress who holds him in her thrall. Young Robb still rules the North from the fortress of Riverrun. Meanwhile, making her way across a blood-drenched continent is the exiled queen, Daenerys, mistress of the only three dragons still left in the world. And as opposing forces manoeuver for the final showdown, an army of barbaric wildlings arrives from the outermost limits of civilization, accompanied by a horde of mythical Others—a supernatural army of the living dead whose animated corpses are unstoppable. As the future of the land hangs in the balance, no one will rest until the Seven Kingdoms have exploded in a veritable storm of swords...]]> 1177 George R.R. Martin 055357342X Eddy 4 4.54 2000 A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire, #3)
author: George R.R. Martin
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.54
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Wretched, Pitiful, Poor, Blind and Naked]]> 10791453 Gene Elliott Thornton Jr. 0615441998 Eddy 2 3.80 Wretched, Pitiful, Poor, Blind and Naked
author: Gene Elliott Thornton Jr.
name: Eddy
average rating: 3.80
book published:
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> The Selfish Gene 61535
Chapters:
1. Why are people?
2. The replicators
3. Immortal coils
4. The gene machine
5. Aggression stability and the selfish machine
6. Genesmanship
7. Family planning
8. Battle of the generations
9. Battle of the sexes
10. You scratch my back, I'll ride on yours
11. Memes: the new replicators
12. Nice guys finish first
13. The long reach of the gene]]> 360 Richard Dawkins 0199291152 Eddy 4 4.15 1976 The Selfish Gene
author: Richard Dawkins
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1976
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, #2)]]> 10572
It is a tale in which brother plots against brother and the dead rise to walk in the night. Here a princess masquerades as an orphan boy; a knight of the mind prepares a poison for a treacherous sorceress; and wild men descend from the Mountains of the Moon to ravage the countryside. Against a backdrop of incest and fratricide, alchemy and murder, victory may go to the men and women possessed of the coldest steel...and the coldest hearts. For when kings clash, the whole land trembles.

Here is the second volume in George R.R. Martin magnificent cycle of novels that includes A Game of Thrones and A Storm of Swords. As a whole, this series comprises a genuine masterpiece of modern fantasy, bringing together the best the genre has to offer. Magic, mystery, intrigue, romance, and adventure fill these pages and transport us to a world unlike any we have ever experienced. Already hailed as a classic, George R.R. Martin stunning series is destined to stand as one of the great achievements of imaginative fiction.]]> 1009 George R.R. Martin 0553381695 Eddy 4 4.42 1998 A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, #2)
author: George R.R. Martin
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.42
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[My Infamous Life: The Autobiography of Mobb Deep's Prodigy]]> 10330001
In this often violent but always introspective memoir, Mobb Deep’s Prodigy tells his much anticipated story of struggle, survival, and hope down the mean streets of New York City. For the first time, he gives an intimate look at his family background, his battles with drugs, his life of crime, his relentless suffering with sickle-cell anemia, and much more. Recently released after serving three and a half years in state prison due to what many consider an unlawful arrest by a rumored secret NYPD hip hop task force, Prodigy is ready to talk about his life as one of rap’s greatest legends.

My Infamous Life is an unblinking account of Prodigy’s wild times with Mobb Deep who, alongside rappers like Nas, The Notorious B.I.G., Tupac Shakur, Jay-Z, and Wu-Tang Clan, changed the musical landscape with their vivid portrayals of early �90s street life. It is a firsthand chronicle of legendary rap feuds like the East Coast–West Coast rivalry; Prodigy’s beefs with Jay-Z, Nas, Snoop Dogg, Ja Rule, and Capone-N-Noreaga; and run-ins with prodigal hit makers and managers like Puff Daddy, Russell Simmons, Chris Lighty, Irv Gotti, and Lyor Cohen.

Taking the reader behind the smoke-and-mirrors glamour of the hip hop world, so often seen as the only way out for those with few options, Prodigy lays down the truth about the intoxicating power of money, the meaning of true friendship and loyalty, and the ultimately redemptive power of self. This is the heartbreaking journey of a child born in privilege, his youth spent among music royalty like Diana Ross and Dizzy Gillespie, educated in private schools, until a family tragedy changed everything. Raised in the mayhem of the Queensbridge projects, Prodigy rose to the dizzying heights of fame and eventually fell into the darkness of a prison cell.

A truly candid memoir, part fearless confessional and part ode to the concrete jungles of New York City, My Infamous Life is written by a man who was on the front line of the last great moment in hip hop history and who is still fighting to achieve his very own American Dream.]]> 320 Albert Johnson 1439103186 Eddy 4 4.15 2011 My Infamous Life: The Autobiography of Mobb Deep's Prodigy
author: Albert Johnson
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)]]> 13496
Sweeping from a harsh land of cold to a summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, A Game of Thrones tells a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens. Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; a child is lost in the twilight between life and death; and a determined woman undertakes a treacherous journey to protect all she holds dear. Amid plots and counter-plots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, allies and enemies, the fate of the Starks hangs perilously in the balance, as each side endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.]]> 835 George R.R. Martin 0553588486 Eddy 5 4.44 1996 A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)
author: George R.R. Martin
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.44
book published: 1996
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War]]> 8908
Ranging from the now infamous village of New Dachang in the United Federation of China, where the epidemiological trail began with the twelve-year-old Patient Zero, to the unnamed northern forests where untold numbers sought a terrible and temporary refuge in the cold, to the United States of Southern Africa, where the Redeker Plan provided hope for humanity at an unspeakable price, to the west-of-the-Rockies redoubt where the North American tide finally started to turn, this invaluable chronicle reflects the full scope and duration of the Zombie War.

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

Note: Some of the numerical and factual material contained in this edition was previously published under the auspices of the United Nations Postwar Commission.]]> 342 Max Brooks 0307346609 Eddy 5 4.02 2006 World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
author: Max Brooks
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Crown Conspiracy (The Riyria Revelations, #1)]]> 4345290 They killed the king. They pinned it on two men. They chose poorly.

There is no ancient evil to defeat, no orphan destined for greatness, just two guys in the wrong place at the wrong time. Royce Melborn, a skilled thief, and his mercenary partner, Hadrian Blackwater make a profitable living carrying out dangerous assignments for conspiring nobles until they become the unwitting scapegoats in a plot to murder the king. Sentenced to death, they have only one way out...and so begins this tale of treachery and adventure, sword fighting and magic, myth and legend.]]> 296 Michael J. Sullivan 0980003431 Eddy 4 4.21 2008 The Crown Conspiracy (The Riyria Revelations, #1)
author: Michael J. Sullivan
name: Eddy
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]>