Curtis's bookshelf: all en-US Mon, 06 May 2024 06:12:19 -0700 60 Curtis's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Homeland (Forgotten Realms: The Dark Elf Trilogy, #1; Legend of Drizzt, #1)]]> 50027 Discover the origin story of one of the greatest heroes of the Realms—Drizzt Do’Urden—in this thrilling first installment of the Dark Elf Trilogy

Drow ranger Drizzt Do’Urden, first introduced in The Icewind Dale Trilogy, quickly became one of the fantasy genre’s standout characters. With Homeland, Salvatore pulls back the curtain to reveal the startling tale of how this hero came to be—how this one lone drow walked out of the shadowy depths of the Underdark; how he left behind an evil society and a family that wanted him dead.

As the third son of Mother Malice and weaponmaster Zaknafein, Drizzt Do’Urden is meant to be sacrificed to Lolth, the evil Spider Queen, per drow tradition. But with the unexpected death of his older brother, young Drizzt is spared—and, as a result, further ostracized by his family. As Drizzt grows older, developing his swordsmanship skills and studying at the Academy, he begins to realize that his idea of good and evil does not match up with those of his fellow drow. Can Drizzt stay true to himself in a such an unforgiving, unprincipled world?

Homeland is the first book in the Dark Elf Trilogy and the Legend of Drizzt series.]]> 343 R.A. Salvatore Curtis 4 4.26 1990 Homeland (Forgotten Realms: The Dark Elf Trilogy, #1; Legend of Drizzt, #1)
author: R.A. Salvatore
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1990
rating: 4
read at: 2017/03/11
date added: 2024/05/06
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]]> <![CDATA[Summer Knight (The Dresden Files, #4)]]> 91478 For the 1st printing edition of this ISBN, see here.

HARRY DRESDEN -- WIZARD

Lost items found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates.
No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or Other Entertainment

Ever since his girlfriend left town to deal with her newly acquired taste for blood, Harry Dresden has been down and out in Chicago. He can't pay his rent. He's alienating his friends. He can't even recall the last time he took a shower.

The only professional wizard in the phone book has become a desperate man.

And just when it seems things can't get any worse, in saunters the Winter Queen of Faerie. She has an offer Harry can't refuse if he wants to free himself of the supernatural hold his faerie godmother has over him--and hopefully end his run of bad luck. All he has to do is find out who murdered the Summer Queen's right-hand man, the Summer Knight, and clear the Winter Queen's name.

It seems simple enough, but Harry knows better than to get caught in the middle of faerie politics. Until he finds out that the fate of the entire world rests on his solving this case. No pressure or anything...]]> 446 Jim Butcher 0451458923 Curtis 4 4.26 2002 Summer Knight (The Dresden Files, #4)
author: Jim Butcher
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2022/12/28
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]]> <![CDATA[Thrawn: Alliances (Star Wars: Thrawn, #2)]]> 36385830 "I have sensed a disturbance in the Force."

Ominous words under any circumstances, but all the more so when uttered by Emperor Palpatine. On Batuu, at the edges of the Unknown Regions, a threat to the Empire is taking root—its existence little more than a glimmer, its consequences as yet unknowable. But it is troubling enough to the Imperial leader to warrant investigation by his most powerful agents: ruthless enforcer Lord Darth Vader and brilliant strategist Grand Admiral Thrawn. Fierce rivals for the emperor's favor, and outspoken adversaries on Imperial affairs—including the Death Star project—the formidable pair seem unlikely partners for such a crucial mission. But the Emperor knows it's not the first time Vader and Thrawn have joined forces. And there's more behind his royal command than either man suspects.

In what seems like a lifetime ago, General Anakin Skywalker of the Galactic Republic, and Commander Mitth'raw'nuruodo, officer of the Chiss Ascendancy, crossed paths for the first time. One on a desperate personal quest, the other with motives unknown . . . and undisclosed. But facing a gauntlet of dangers on a far-flung world, they forged an uneasy alliance—neither remotely aware of what their futures held in store.

Now, thrust together once more, they find themselves bound again for the planet where they once fought side by side. There they will be doubly challenged—by a test of their allegiance to the Empire . . . and an enemy that threatens even their combined might.]]> 342 Timothy Zahn 052548048X Curtis 3 3.94 2018 Thrawn: Alliances (Star Wars: Thrawn, #2)
author: Timothy Zahn
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2022/12/28
date added: 2022/12/28
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]]> <![CDATA[Hollywood Heroes: How Your Favorite Movies Reveal God]]> 60037771 Think about it. What if Batman knew your name and wanted to be friends with you? What if you were the one that Tony Stark died to save? What if it was you that Luke Skywalker would stop at nothing to redeem? Hollywood Heroes will awaken you to these questions and help you to see a God who stops at nothing to redeem you. And it will strengthen you to invite others into conversations of faith and life in Jesus.

Fictional stories about heroes help us realize that there is evil to fight, souls to be won, and growth to be achieved. It helps us recognize―regardless of religious or cultural beliefs―that sacrificing your life for another’s is a powerful and beautiful display of love.

Fictional heroes help us to reconsider what is tangibly in front of us through the lens of story rather than simply as just another day in our ordinary lives. Appealing straight to the heart, the stories bypass artificial barriers that we would normally block them with because our worldview has been threatened.

When we examine out-of-this-world qualities like idealism, genius, a willingness to sacrifice, discipline, loyalty, humility, courage, wisdom, focus, power, and love, we discover that Jesus practices them perfectly.]]> 243 Frank Turek 1641583541 Curtis 0 to-read 4.41 Hollywood Heroes: How Your Favorite Movies Reveal God
author: Frank Turek
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.41
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/08/15
shelves: to-read
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]]> Couplehood 232336
In "Couplehood," Reiser reflects on what it means to be half of a couple-- everything from the science of hand holding, to the technique of tag-teamstorytelling, to the politics of food and why it always seems to come down tochicken or fish.

Cited by "Time" magazine as "the season's best new sitcom" in its 1992debut,]]> 348 Paul Reiser 0553573136 Curtis 0 to-read 3.73 1994 Couplehood
author: Paul Reiser
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1994
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/08/03
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[100 Deadly Skills: The SEAL Operative's Guide to Eluding Pursuers, Evading Capture, and Surviving Any Dangerous Situation]]> 25111028
In today’s increasingly dangerous world, threats to your personal safety are everywhere. From acts of terror to mass shootings, and from the unseen (and sometimes virtual) matrix of everyday crime, danger is no longer confined to dark alleys or unstable regions. Potentially life-threatening circumstances can arise anywhere, anytime, and Clint Emerson—former Navy SEAL—wants you to be prepared.

100 Deadly Skills contains proven self-defense skills, evasion tactics, and immobilizing maneuvers—modified from the world of black ops—to help you take action in numerous “worst case� scenarios from escaping a locked trunk, to making an improvised Taser, to tricking facial recognition software. With easy-to-understand instructions and illustrations, Emerson outlines in detail many life-saving strategies and teaches you how to think and act like a member of the special forces.

This complete course in survival teaches you how to prevent tracking, evade a kidnapping, elude an active shooter, rappel down the side of a building, immobilize a bad guy, protect yourself against cyber-criminals, and much more—all using low-tech to “no-tech� methods. Clear, detailed, and presented in an easy-to-understand and execute format, 100 Deadly Skills is an invaluable resource. Because let’s face it, when danger is imminent, you don’t have time for complicated instructions.]]> 272 Clint Emerson 147679605X Curtis 0 to-read 3.79 2015 100 Deadly Skills: The SEAL Operative's Guide to Eluding Pursuers, Evading Capture, and Surviving Any Dangerous Situation
author: Clint Emerson
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/07/10
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis]]> 27161156 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780062300546.

Hillbilly Elegy recounts J.D. Vance's powerful origin story...

From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate now serving as a U.S. Senator from Ohio and the Republican Vice Presidential candidate for the 2024 election, an incisive account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America's white working class.

Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis—that of white working-class Americans. The disintegration of this group, a process that has been slowly occurring now for more than forty years, has been reported with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck.

The Vance family story begins hopefully in postwar America. J. D.'s grandparents were "dirt poor and in love," and moved north from Kentucky's Appalachia region to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. They raised a middle-class family, and eventually one of their grandchildren would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of success in achieving generational upward mobility. But as the family saga of Hillbilly Elegy plays out, we learn that J.D.'s grandparents, aunt, uncle, and, most of all, his mother struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, never fully escaping the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of their part of America. With piercing honesty, Vance shows how he himself still carries around the demons of his chaotic family history.

A deeply moving memoir, with its share of humor and vividly colorful figures, Hillbilly Elegy is the story of how upward mobility really feels. And it is an urgent and troubling meditation on the loss of the American dream for a large segment of this country.]]> 264 J.D. Vance Curtis 3 3.81 2016 Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
author: J.D. Vance
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2016
rating: 3
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date added: 2022/03/26
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]]> <![CDATA[Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary, together with Sellic Spell]]> 23198296 Beowulf by J.R.R. Tolkien was an early work, very distinctive in its mode, completed in 1926: he returned to it later to make hasty corrections, but seems never to have considered its publication.

This edition is twofold, for there exists an illuminating commentary on the text of the poem by the translator himself, in the written form of a series of lectures given at Oxford in the 1930s; and from these lectures a substantial selection has been made, to form also a commentary on the translation in this book.

From his creative attention to detail in these lectures there arises a sense of the immediacy and clarity of his vision. It is as if he entered into the imagined past: standing beside Beowulf and his men shaking out their mail-shirts as they beached their ship on the coast of Denmark, listening to the rising anger of Beowulf at the taunting of Unferth, or looking up in amazement at Grendel’s terrible hand set under the roof of Heorot.

But the commentary in this book includes also much from those lectures in which, while always anchored in the text, he expressed his wider perceptions. He looks closely at the dragon that would slay Beowulf "snuffling in baffled rage and injured greed when he discovers the theft of the cup"; but he rebuts the notion that this is "a mere treasure story", "just another dragon tale". He turns to the lines that tell of the burying of the golden things long ago, and observes that it is "the feeling for the treasure itself, this sad history" that raises it to another level. "The whole thing is sombre, tragic, sinister, curiously real. The ‘treasure� is not just some lucky wealth that will enable the finder to have a good time, or marry the princess. It is laden with history, leading back into the dark heathen ages beyond the memory of song, but not beyond the reach of imagination."

Sellic spell, a "marvellous tale", is a story written by Tolkien suggesting what might have been the form and style of an Old English folk-tale of Beowulf, in which there was no association with the "historical legends" of the Northern kingdoms.]]> 679 J.R.R. Tolkien 0007590083 Curtis 5 4.04 2014 Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary, together with Sellic Spell
author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2022/03/26
date added: 2022/03/26
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]]> <![CDATA[Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World]]> 40086702 Forget what you know about the world of work

You crave feedback. Your organization's culture is the key to its success. Strategic planning is essential. Your competencies should be measured and your weaknesses shored up. Leadership is a thing.

These may sound like basic truths of our work lives today. But actually, they're lies. As strengths guru and bestselling author Marcus Buckingham and Cisco Leadership and Team Intelligence head Ashley Goodall show in this provocative, inspiring book, there are some big lies--distortions, faulty assumptions, wrong thinking--that we encounter every time we show up for work. Nine lies, to be exact. They cause dysfunction and frustration, ultimately resulting in workplaces that are a pale shadow of what they could be.

But there are those who can get past the lies and discover what's real. These freethinking leaders recognize the power and beauty of our individual uniqueness. They know that emergent patterns are more valuable than received wisdom and that evidence is more powerful than dogma.

With engaging stories and incisive analysis, the authors reveal the essential truths that such freethinking leaders will recognize that it is the strength and cohesiveness of your team, not your company's culture, that matter most; that we should focus less on top-down planning and more on giving our people reliable, real-time intelligence; that rather than trying to align people's goals we should strive to align people's sense of purpose and meaning; that people don't want constant feedback, they want helpful attention.

This is the real world of work, as it is and as it should be. Nine Lies About Work reveals the few core truths that will help you show just how good you are to those who truly rely on you.]]> 332 Marcus Buckingham 1633696316 Curtis 4 4.11 2019 Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World
author: Marcus Buckingham
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2022/03/26
date added: 2022/03/26
shelves:
review:

]]> This Is Your Brain on Music 141565 This Is Your Brain on Music unravels a host of mysteries that affect everything from pop culture to our understanding of human nature, including:
� Are our musical preferences shaped in utero?
� Is there a cutoff point for acquiring new tastes in music?
� What do PET scans and MRIs reveal about the brain’s response to music?
� Is musical pleasure different from other kinds of pleasure?

This Is Your Brain on Music explores cultures in which singing is considered an essential human function, patients who have a rare disorder that prevents them from making sense of music, and scientists studying why two people may not have the same definition of pitch. At every turn, this provocative work unlocks deep secrets about how nature and nurture forge a uniquely human obsession.]]> 314 Daniel J. Levitin 0525949690 Curtis 0 to-read 3.90 2006 This Is Your Brain on Music
author: Daniel J. Levitin
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/03/26
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less]]> 18077875 Do you simultaneously feel overworked and underutilized?
Are you often busy but not productive?
 Do you feel like your time is constantly being hijacked by other people’s agendas?

If you answered yes to any of these, the way out is the Way of the EssentialistThe Way of the Essentialist isn’t about getting more done in less time. It’s about getting only the right things done.  It is not  a time management strategy, or a productivity technique. It is a systematic discipline for discerning what is absolutely essential, then eliminating everything that is not, so we can make the highest possible contribution towards the things that really matter. 

By forcing us to apply a more selective criteria for what is Essential, the disciplined pursuit of less empowers us to reclaim control of our own choices about where to spend our precious time and energy � instead of giving others the implicit permission to choose for us.

Essentialism is not one more thing � it’s a whole new way of doing everything. A must-read for any leader, manager, or individual who wants to learn how to do less, but better, in every area of their lives, Essentialism  is a movement whose time has come.]]> 260 Greg McKeown 0804137382 Curtis 3 4.05 2011 Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
author: Greg McKeown
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2022/03/26
date added: 2022/03/26
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Thrawn (Star Wars: Thrawn, #1)]]> 31140332
After Thrawn is rescued from exile by Imperial soldiers, his deadly ingenuity and keen tactical abilities swiftly capture the attention of Emperor Palpatine. And just as quickly, Thrawn proves to be as indispensable to the Empire as he is ambitious; as devoted as its most loyal servant, Darth Vader; and a brilliant warrior never to be underestimated. On missions to rout smugglers, snare spies, and defeat pirates, he triumphs time and again—even as his renegade methods infuriate superiors while inspiring ever greater admiration from the Empire. As one promotion follows another in his rapid ascension to greater power, he schools his trusted aide, Ensign Eli Vanto, in the arts of combat and leadership, and the secrets of claiming victory. But even though Thrawn dominates the battlefield, he has much to learn in the arena of politics, where ruthless administrator Arihnda Pryce holds the power to be a potent ally or a brutal enemy.

All these lessons will be put to the ultimate test when Thrawn rises to admiral and must pit all the knowledge, instincts, and battle forces at his command against an insurgent uprising that threatens not only innocent lives but also the Empire’s grip on the galaxy—and his own carefully laid plans for future ascendancy.]]> 427 Timothy Zahn 1780894848 Curtis 5 4.30 2017 Thrawn (Star Wars: Thrawn, #1)
author: Timothy Zahn
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2022/03/15
date added: 2022/03/15
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]]> <![CDATA[Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)]]> 9969571 Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

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

But when Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's going to survive, he'll have to win—and confront the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.]]> 480 Ernest Cline 030788743X Curtis 4 4.21 2011 Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)
author: Ernest Cline
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2011
rating: 4
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date added: 2022/01/10
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]]> The Road 6288
A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don’t know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other.

The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, “each the other’s world entire,� are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation.]]> 241 Cormac McCarthy 0307265439 Curtis 4 3.99 2006 The Road
author: Cormac McCarthy
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2006
rating: 4
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date added: 2022/01/10
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]]> <![CDATA[Fool Moon (The Dresden Files, #2)]]> 91477 Harry Dresden � Wizard

Lost Items Found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or Other Entertainment.

Business has been slow. Okay, business has been dead. And not even of the undead variety. You would think Chicago would have a little more action for the only professional wizard in the phone book. But lately, Harry Dresden hasn't been able to dredge up any kind of work � magical or mundane.

But just when it looks like he can't afford his next meal, a murder comes along that requires his particular brand of supernatural expertise.

A brutally mutilated corpse. Strange-looking paw prints. A full moon. Take three guesses--and the first two don't count...]]> 424 Jim Butcher 0451458125 Curtis 2 3.98 2001 Fool Moon (The Dresden Files, #2)
author: Jim Butcher
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2001
rating: 2
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date added: 2022/01/10
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]]> <![CDATA[Grave Peril (The Dresden Files, #3)]]> 91476 This an alternate cover for 9780451458445

Harry Dresden - Wizard
Lost Items Found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or Other Entertainment.

Harry Dresden has faced some pretty terrifying foes during his career. Giant scorpions. Oversexed vampires. Psychotic werewolves. It comes with the territory when you're the only professional wizard in the Chicago-area phone book.

But in all Harry's years of supernatural sleuthing, he's never faced anything like this: The spirit world has gone postal. All over Chicago, ghosts are causing trouble - and not just of the door-slamming, boo-shouting variety. These ghosts are tormented, violent, and deadly. Someone - or something - is purposely stirring them up to wreak unearthly havoc. But why? And why do so many of the victims have ties to Harry? If Harry doesn't figure it out soon, he could wind up a ghost himself....]]> 378 Jim Butcher Curtis 4 4.14 2001 Grave Peril (The Dresden Files, #3)
author: Jim Butcher
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2001
rating: 4
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date added: 2022/01/10
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]]> <![CDATA[Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action]]> 7108725 Why do you do what you do?

Why are some people and organizations more innovative, more influential, and more profitable than others? Why do some command greater loyalty from customers and employees alike? Even among the successful, why are so few able to repeat their success over and over?

People like Martin Luther King Jr., Steve Jobs, and the Wright Brothers might have little in common, but they all started with why. It was their natural ability to start with why that enabled them to inspire those around them and to achieve remarkable things.

In studying the leaders who've had the greatest influence in the world, Simon Sinek discovered that they all think, act, and communicate in the exact same way—and it's the complete opposite of what everyone else does. Sinek calls this powerful idea The Golden Circle, and it provides a framework upon which organizations can be built, movements can be lead, and people can be inspired. And it all starts with WHY.

Any organization can explain what it does; some can explain how they do it; but very few can clearly articulate why. WHY is not money or profit—those are always results. WHY does your organization exist? WHY does it do the things it does? WHY do customers really buy from one company or another? WHY are people loyal to some leaders, but not others?

Starting with WHY works in big business and small business, in the nonprofit world and in politics. Those who start with WHY never manipulate, they inspire. And the people who follow them don't do so because they have to; they follow because they want to.

Drawing on a wide range of real-life stories, Sinek weaves together a clear vision of what it truly takes to lead and inspire. This book is for anyone who wants to inspire others or who wants to find someone to inspire them.]]> 256 Simon Sinek 1591842808 Curtis 5 4.10 2009 Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
author: Simon Sinek
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2009
rating: 5
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date added: 2022/01/10
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]]> <![CDATA[The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)]]> 51901147
The odds are against him. He's been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined -- every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute... and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.]]> 541 Suzanne Collins Curtis 3 3.99 2020 The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2022/01/10
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]]> <![CDATA[Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging]]> 28119237 War and The Perfect Storm, takes a critical look at post-traumatic stress disorder and the many challenges today’s returning veterans face in modern society.

There are ancient tribal human behaviors-loyalty, inter-reliance, cooperation-that flare up in communities during times of turmoil and suffering. These are the very same behaviors that typify good soldiering and foster a sense of belonging among troops, whether they’re fighting on the front lines or engaged in non-combat activities away from the action. Drawing from history, psychology, and anthropology, bestselling author Sebastian Junger shows us just how at odds the structure of modern society is with our tribal instincts, arguing that the difficulties many veterans face upon returning home from war do not stem entirely from the trauma they’ve suffered, but also from the individualist societies they must reintegrate into.

A 2011 study by the Canadian Forces and Statistics Canada reveals that 78 percent of military suicides from 1972 to the end of 2006 involved veterans. Though these numbers present an implicit call to action, the government is only just taking steps now to address the problems veterans face when they return home. But can the government ever truly eliminate the challenges faced by returning veterans? Or is the problem deeper, woven into the very fabric of our modern existence? Perhaps our circumstances are not so bleak, and simply understanding that beneath our modern guises we all belong to one tribe or another would help us face not just the problems of our nation but of our individual lives as well.

Well-researched and compellingly written, this timely look at how veterans react to coming home will reconceive our approach to veteran’s affairs and help us to repair our current social dynamic.]]> 168 Sebastian Junger 1455566381 Curtis 3 4.01 2016 Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging
author: Sebastian Junger
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2016
rating: 3
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date added: 2022/01/10
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]]> Thinking, Fast and Slow 11468377 Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. Kahneman exposes the extraordinary capabilities—and also the faults and biases—of fast thinking, and reveals the pervasive influence of intuitive impressions on our thoughts and behavior. The impact of loss aversion and overconfidence on corporate strategies, the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, the challenges of properly framing risks at work and at home, the profound effect of cognitive biases on everything from playing the stock market to planning the next vacation—each of these can be understood only by knowing how the two systems work together to shape our judgments and decisions.

Engaging the reader in a lively conversation about how we think, Kahneman reveals where we can and cannot trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking. He offers practical and enlightening insights into how choices are made in both our business and our personal lives—and how we can use different techniques to guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble. Thinking, Fast and Slow will transform the way you think about thinking.]]> 499 Daniel Kahneman 0374275637 Curtis 4 4.17 2011 Thinking, Fast and Slow
author: Daniel Kahneman
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2022/01/10
date added: 2022/01/10
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]]> <![CDATA[The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz]]> 51187948
On Winston Churchill's first day as prime minister, Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next twelve months, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons. It was up to Churchill to hold the country together and persuade President Franklin Roosevelt that Britain was a worthy ally-and willing to fight to the end.

In The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson shows, in cinematic detail, how Churchill taught the British people "the art of being fearless." It is a story of political brinkmanship, but it's also an intimate domestic drama set against the backdrop of Churchill's prime-ministerial country home, Chequers; his wartime retreat, Ditchley, where he and his entourage go when the moon is brightest and the bombing threat is highest; and of course 10 Downing Street in London.

Drawing on diaries, original archival documents, and once-secret intelligence reports-some released only recently-Larson provides a new lens on London's darkest year through the day-to-day experience of Churchill and his wife, Clementine; their youngest daughter, Mary, who chafes against her parents' wartime protectiveness; their son, Randolph, and his beautiful, unhappy wife, Pamela; Pamela's illicit lover, a dashing American emissary; and the cadre of close advisers who comprised Churchill's "Secret Circle," including his lovestruck private secretary, John Colville; newspaper baron Lord Beaverbrook; and the Rasputin-like Frederick Lindemann.

The Splendid and the Vile takes readers out of today's political dysfunction and back to a time of true leadership, when-in the face of unrelenting horror-Churchill's eloquence, courage, and perseverance bound a country, and a family, together."--]]> 546 Erik Larson 038534872X Curtis 4 4.30 2020 The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz
author: Erik Larson
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2022/01/10
date added: 2022/01/10
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones]]> 40121378 Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving—every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.

If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Here, you'll get a proven system that can take you to new heights.

Clear is known for his ability to distill complex topics into simple behaviors that can be easily applied to daily life and work. Here, he draws on the most proven ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to create an easy-to-understand guide for making good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible. Along the way, readers will be inspired and entertained with true stories from Olympic gold medalists, award-winning artists, business leaders, life-saving physicians, and star comedians who have used the science of small habits to master their craft and vault to the top of their field.

Learn how to:
- Make time for new habits (even when life gets crazy);
- Overcome a lack of motivation and willpower;
- Design your environment to make success easier;
- Get back on track when you fall off course;
...and much more.

Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits--whether you are a team looking to win a championship, an organization hoping to redefine an industry, or simply an individual who wishes to quit smoking, lose weight, reduce stress, or achieve any other goal.]]> 319 James Clear Curtis 4 4.34 2018 Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
author: James Clear
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2021/11/07
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change]]> 36072 372 Stephen R. Covey 0743269519 Curtis 4 4.16 1989 The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
author: Stephen R. Covey
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1989
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2021/10/08
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Night School (Jack Reacher, #21)]]> 28077464
Two other men are in the classroom—an FBI agent and a CIA analyst. Each is a first-rate operator, each is fresh off a big win, and each is wondering what the hell they are doing there.

Then they find out: A Jihadist sleeper cell in Hamburg, Germany, has received an unexpected visitor—a Saudi courier, seeking safe haven while waiting to rendezvous with persons unknown. A CIA asset, undercover inside the cell, has overheard the courier whisper a chilling message: “The American wants a hundred million dollars.�

For what? And who from? Reacher and his two new friends are told to find the American. Reacher recruits the best soldier he has ever worked with: Sergeant Frances Neagley. Their mission heats up in more ways than one, while always keeping their eyes on the prize: If they don’t get their man, the world will suffer an epic act of terrorism.

From Langley to Hamburg, Jalalabad to Kiev, Night School moves like a bullet through a treacherous landscape of double crosses, faked identities, and new and terrible enemies, as Reacher maneuvers inside the game and outside the law.

Listening Length: 13 hours and 7 minutes]]> 14 Lee Child 0804192979 Curtis 3 3.89 2016 Night School (Jack Reacher, #21)
author: Lee Child
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2021/09/13
date added: 2021/09/13
shelves:
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]]> My Utmost for His Highest 175510 400 Oswald Chambers 1586608290 Curtis 0 to-read 4.38 1926 My Utmost for His Highest
author: Oswald Chambers
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1926
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/09/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Biblical Ethics / The Moral Foundations of Life / The Philosophy of Sin: Ethical Principles of the Christian Life (OSWALD CHAMBERS LIBRARY)]]> 1631247 368 Oswald Chambers 1572930357 Curtis 0 to-read 4.22 1998 Biblical Ethics / The Moral Foundations of Life / The Philosophy of Sin: Ethical Principles of the Christian Life (OSWALD CHAMBERS LIBRARY)
author: Oswald Chambers
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/09/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Master and Apprentice (Star Wars)]]> 40917496 An unexpected offer threatens the bond between Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi as the two Jedi navigate a dangerous new planet and an uncertain future.

A Jedi must be a fearless warrior, a guardian of justice, and a scholar in the ways of the Force. But perhaps a Jedi’s most essential duty is to pass on what they have learned. Master Yoda trained Dooku; Dooku trained Qui-Gon Jinn; and now Qui-Gon has a Padawan of his own. But while Qui-Gon has faced all manner of threats and danger as a Jedi, nothing has ever scared him like the thought of failing his apprentice.

Obi-Wan Kenobi has deep respect for his Master, but struggles to understand him. Why must Qui-Gon so often disregard the laws that bind the Jedi? Why is Qui-Gon drawn to ancient Jedi prophecies instead of more practical concerns? And why wasn’t Obi-Wan told that Qui-Gon is considering an invitation to join the Jedi Council—knowing it would mean the end of their partnership? The simple answer scares him: Obi-Wan has failed his Master.

When Jedi Rael Averross, another former student of Dooku, requests their assistance with a political dispute, Jinn and Kenobi travel to the royal court of Pijal for what may be their final mission together. What should be a simple assignment quickly becomes clouded by deceit, and by visions of violent disaster that take hold in Qui-Gon’s mind. As Qui-Gon’s faith in prophecy grows, Obi-Wan’s faith in him is tested—just as a threat surfaces that will demand that Master and apprentice come together as never before, or be divided forever.]]> 330 Claudia Gray 0525619372 Curtis 5 4.16 2019 Master and Apprentice (Star Wars)
author: Claudia Gray
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2021/08/31
date added: 2021/08/31
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]]> The Haunting of Hill House 89717 182 Shirley Jackson 0143039989 Curtis 4 3.85 1959 The Haunting of Hill House
author: Shirley Jackson
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1959
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2021/08/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Canticle for Leibowitz (St. Leibowitz, #1)]]> 164154 334 Walter M. Miller Jr. 0060892994 Curtis 0 to-read 3.99 1959 A Canticle for Leibowitz (St. Leibowitz, #1)
author: Walter M. Miller Jr.
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1959
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/08/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Rogue Squadron (Star Wars: X-Wing, #1)]]> 513176
Its very name strikes fear into enemy hearts. So when Rebel hero Wedge Antilles rebuilds the legendary Rogue Squadron, he seeks out only the best -- the most skilled, the most daring X-wing pilots. Through arduous training and dangerous missions, he weeds out the weak from the strong, assembling a group of hard-bitten warriors willing to fight, ready to die. Antilles knows the grim truth: that even with the best X-wing jockeys in the galaxy, many will not survive their near-suicidal missions. But when Rogue Squadron is ordered to assist in the assault on the heavily fortified Imperial stronghold of Black Moon, even the bravest must wonder if any at all will survive. . . .Ìý±Õ±Õ> 386 Michael A. Stackpole 0553568019 Curtis 0 to-read 4.05 1996 Rogue Squadron (Star Wars: X-Wing, #1)
author: Michael A. Stackpole
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/08/26
shelves: to-read
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]]> Dooku: Jedi Lost (Star Wars) 44643629 Listening Length: 6 hours and 21 minutes

Delve into the history of the sinister Count Dooku in this audio original set in a galaxy far, far away�.

Darth Tyranus. Count of Serenno. Leader of the Separatists. A red saber, unsheathed in the dark. But who was he, before he became the right hand of the Sith? As Dooku courts a new apprentice, the hidden truth of the Sith Lord’s past begins to come to light.

Dooku’s life began as one of privilege—born within the stony walls of his family’s estate, orbited by the Funeral Moon where the bones of his ancestors lie interred. But soon his Jedi abilities are recognized and he is taken from his home to be trained in the ways of the Force by the legendary Master Yoda.

As he hones his power, Dooku rises through the ranks, befriending fellow Jedi Sifo-Dyas and taking a padawan of his own, the promising Qui-Gon Jinn—and tries to forget the life that he once led. But he finds himself drawn by a strange fascination with the Jedi Master Lene Kostana, and the mission she undertakes for the Order: finding and studying ancient relics of the Sith, in preparation for the eventual return of the deadliest enemies the Jedi have ever faced.

Caught between the world of the Jedi, the ancient responsibilities of his lost home, and the alluring power of the relics, Dooku struggles to stay in the light—even as the darkness begins to fall.]]> 7 Cavan Scott 0593102827 Curtis 2 3.85 2019 Dooku: Jedi Lost (Star Wars)
author: Cavan Scott
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2021/08/24
date added: 2021/08/24
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[The End of Alzheimer's: The First Program to Prevent and Reverse Cognitive Decline]]> 32829667 The End of Alzheimer's outlines 36 metabolic factors (micronutrients, hormone levels, sleep) that can trigger "downsizing" in the brain. The protocol shows us how to rebalance these factors using lifestyle modifications like taking B12, eliminating gluten, or improving oral hygiene.

The results are impressive. Of the first ten patients on the protocol, nine displayed significant improvement with 3-6 months; since then the protocol has yielded similar results with hundreds more. Now, The End of Alzheimer's brings new hope to a broad audience of patients, caregivers, physicians, and treatment centers with a fascinating look inside the science and a complete step-by-step plan that fundamentally changes how we treat and even think about AD.

]]> 320 Dale E. Bredesen 0735216207 Curtis 4 4.18 2017 The End of Alzheimer's: The First Program to Prevent and Reverse Cognitive Decline
author: Dale E. Bredesen
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2021/08/21
date added: 2021/08/21
shelves:
review:

]]> The Institute 43798285
In this most sinister of institutions, the director, Mrs. Sigsby, and her staff are ruthlessly dedicated to extracting from these children the force of their extranormal gifts. There are no scruples here. If you go along, you get tokens for the vending machines. If you don’t, punishment is brutal. As each new victim disappears to Back Half, Luke becomes more and more desperate to get out and get help. But no one has ever escaped from the Institute.

As psychically terrifying as Firestarter, and with the spectacular kid power of It, The Institute is Stephen King's gut-wrenchingly dramatic story of good versus evil in a world where the good guys don't always win.
--front flap]]> 561 Stephen King Curtis 3 4.17 2019 The Institute
author: Stephen King
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2021/08/21
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]]> The Last Days of Jack Sparks 28765598
It was no secret that journalist Jack Sparks had been researching the occult for his new book. No stranger to controversy, he'd already triggered a furious Twitter storm by mocking an exorcism he witnessed.

Then there was that video: forty seconds of chilling footage that Jack repeatedly claimed was not of his making, yet was posted from his own YouTube account.

Nobody knew what happened to Jack in the days that followed - until now.]]> 336 Jason Arnopp 0356507181 Curtis 1 3.83 2016 The Last Days of Jack Sparks
author: Jason Arnopp
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2016
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2021/08/18
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]]> <![CDATA[Smarter Workouts: The Science of Exercise Made Simple]]> 40075023
Smarter The Science of Exercise Made Simple gives you the solution you need with efficient and effective workout programs that use only one piece of equipment. You can work out in a short period of time without spending a lot of money on expensive equipment or gym memberships—all while targeting your personal goals.

Exercise doesn’t have to be difficult to figure out. In Smarter Workouts , fitness expert Pete McCall explains the effects of exercise on your body so you can identify what will work best for you. He gives you access to fat-burning workouts that help you work smarter to produce real results. First, choose your improving mobility for better balance and coordination, strengthening your core for better functional movement, or amping up your metabolism with sweat-inducing conditioning work. Then select one of seven equipment options to perform your Armed with a variety of exercises and organized plans, you’ll flow quickly through your workouts, saving precious time and experiencing real results. Put an end to your frustration and let Smarter Workouts be your go-to guide for smart, effective workouts.

Earn continuing education credits/units! A continuing education exam that uses this book is also available. It may be purchased separately or as part of a package that includes both the book and exam.]]> 312 Pete McCall 1492567884 Curtis 0 to-read 4.00 Smarter Workouts: The Science of Exercise Made Simple
author: Pete McCall
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/07/15
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[A Monk’s Guide to A Clean House & Mind]]> 35656221 Cleanliness is next to enlightenment. In this Japanese bestseller a Buddhist monk explains the traditional meditative techniques that will help cleanse not only your house - but your soul.

Live clean. Feel calm. Be happy.

We remove dust to sweep away our worldly cares. We live simply and take time to contemplate the self, mindfully living each moment. It's not just monks that need to live this way. Everyone in today's busy world needs it.

In Japan, cleanliness is next to enlightenment. This bestselling guide by a Zen Buddhist monk draws on ancient traditions to show you how a few simple changes to your daily habits - from your early morning routine to preparing food, from respecting the objects around you to working together as a team -will not only make your home calmer and cleaner, but will leave you feeling refreshed, happier and more fulfilled.]]> 130 Shoukei Matsumoto 184614969X Curtis 0 to-read 3.58 2011 A Monk’s Guide to A Clean House & Mind
author: Shoukei Matsumoto
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/05/28
shelves: to-read
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]]> Mythology 23522 The world-renowned classic that has enthralled and delighted millions of readers with its timeless tales of gods and heroes.

Edith Hamilton's Mythology succeeds like no other book in bringing to life for the modern reader the Greek, Roman, and Norse myths that are the keystone of Western culture--the stories of gods and heroes that have inspired human creativity from antiquity to the present. We meet the Greek gods on Olympus and Norse gods in Valhalla. We follow the drama of the Trojan War and the wanderings of Odysseus. We hear the tales of Jason and the Golden Fleece, Cupid and Psyche, and mighty King Midas. We discover the origins of the names of the constellations. And we recognize reference points for countless works of art, literature, and cultural inquiry--from Freud's Oedipus complex to Wagner's Ring Cycle of operas to Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra. Praised throughout the world for its authority and lucidity, Mythology is Edith Hamilton's masterpiece--the standard by which all other books on mythology are measured.

]]> 497 Edith Hamilton 0316341517 Curtis 0 to-read 4.03 1942 Mythology
author: Edith Hamilton
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1942
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/03/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Fool's Talk: Recovering the Art of Christian Persuasion]]> 24043186 270 Os Guinness 0830836993 Curtis 0 to-read 4.20 2015 Fool's Talk: Recovering the Art of Christian Persuasion
author: Os Guinness
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/02/10
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Stormfront (Dresdenfilerne, #1)]]> 16142563 HARRY DRESDEN � WIZARD

Lost Items Found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or Other Entertainment.

Harry Dresden is the best at what he does. Well, technically, he's the only at what he does. So when the Chicago P.D. has a case that transcends mortal creativity or capability, they come to him for answers. For the "everyday" world is actually full of strange and magical things—and most don't play well with humans. That's where Harry comes in. Takes a wizard to catch a—well, whatever. There's just one problem. Business, to put it mildly, stinks.

So when the police bring him in to consult on a grisly double murder committed with black magic, Harry's seeing dollar signs. But where there's black magic, there's a black mage behind it. And now that mage knows Harry's name. And that's when things start to get interesting.

Magic - it can get a guy killed.]]> 285 Jim Butcher 8758808426 Curtis 4 3.62 2000 Stormfront (Dresdenfilerne, #1)
author: Jim Butcher
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2021/02/10
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]]> <![CDATA[Dragons of Autumn Twilight (Dragonlance: Chronicles, #1)]]> 259836 This Dungeons & Dragons-inspired fantasy adventure is the first installment in the beloved Dragonlance Chronicles, set in the magical world of Krynn.

Once merely creatures of legend, the dragons have returned to Krynn. But with their arrival comes the departure of the old gods—and all healing magic. As war threatens to engulf the land, lifelong friends reunite for an adventure that will change their lives and shape their world forever . . .

When Tanis, Sturm, Caramon, Raistlin, Flint, and Tasslehoff see a woman use a blue crystal staff to heal a villager, they wonder if it's a sign the gods have not abandoned them after all. Fueled by this glimmer of hope, the Companions band together to uncover the truth behind the gods' absence—though they aren't the only ones with an interest in the staff. The Seekers, a new religious order, wants the artifact for their own ends, believing it will help them replace the gods and overtake the continent of Ansalon. Now, the Companions must assume the unlikely roles of heroes if they hope to prevent the staff from falling into the hands of darkness.

Lifelong friends, they went their separate ways. Now they are together again, though each holds secrets from the others in his heart. They speak of a world shadowed with rumors of war. They speak of tales of strange monsters, creatures of myth, creatures of legend. They do not speak of their secrets. Not then. Not until a chance encounter with a beautiful, sorrowful woman, who bears a magical crystal staff, draws the companions deeper into the shadows, forever changing their lives and shaping the fate of the world.

No one expected them to be heroes.

Least of all, them.]]> 444 Margaret Weis 0786915749 Curtis 0 to-read 4.01 1984 Dragons of Autumn Twilight (Dragonlance: Chronicles, #1)
author: Margaret Weis
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1984
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/01/06
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Death Comes for the Archbishop]]> 545951 297 Willa Cather 0679728899 Curtis 0 to-read 3.93 1927 Death Comes for the Archbishop
author: Willa Cather
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1927
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/11/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Mosquito Coast 130520 384 Paul Theroux Curtis 0 to-read 3.80 1981 The Mosquito Coast
author: Paul Theroux
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.80
book published: 1981
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/09/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity]]> 44667183
We are living through a postmodern era in which the grand narratives of religion and political ideology have collapsed. In their place have emerged a crusading desire to right perceived wrongs and a weaponization of identity, both accelerated by the new forms of social and news media. Narrow sets of interests now dominate the agenda as society becomes more and more tribal--and, as Murray shows, the casualties are mounting.]]> 293 Douglas Murray 1635579988 Curtis 0 to-read 4.18 2019 The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity
author: Douglas Murray
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/09/23
shelves: to-read
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]]> Dune (Dune, #1) 44767458
When House Atreides is betrayed, the destruction of Paul’s family will set the boy on a journey toward a destiny greater than he could ever have imagined. And as he evolves into the mysterious man known as Muad’Dib, he will bring to fruition humankind’s most ancient and unattainable dream.]]> 658 Frank Herbert 059309932X Curtis 5 4.33 1965 Dune (Dune, #1)
author: Frank Herbert
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1965
rating: 5
read at: 2020/09/10
date added: 2020/09/10
shelves:
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]]> Thunderstruck 40067
A true story of love, murder, and the end of the world’s “great hush�

In Thunderstruck, Erik Larson tells the interwoven stories of two men—Hawley Crippen, a very unlikely murderer, and Guglielmo Marconi, the obsessive creator of a seemingly supernatural means of communication—whose lives intersect during one of the greatest criminal chases of all time.

Set in Edwardian London and on the stormy coasts of Cornwall, Cape Cod, and Nova Scotia, Thunderstruck evokes the dynamism of those years when great shipping companies competed to build the biggest, fastest ocean liners, scientific advances dazzled the public with visions of a world transformed, and the rich outdid one another with ostentatious displays of wealth. Against this background, Marconi races against incredible odds and relentless skepticism to perfect his invention: the wireless, a prime catalyst for the emergence of the world we know today. Meanwhile, Crippen, “the kindest of men,� nearly commits the perfect crime.

With his superb narrative skills, Erik Larson guides these parallel narratives toward a relentlessly suspenseful meeting on the waters of the North Atlantic. Along the way, he tells of a sad and tragic love affair that was described on the front pages of newspapers around the world, a chief inspector who found himself strangely sympathetic to the killer and his lover, and a driven and compelling inventor who transformed the way we communicate. Thunderstruck presents a vibrant portrait of an era of séances, science, and fog, inhabited by inventors, magicians, and Scotland Yard detectives, all presided over by the amiable and fun-loving Edward VII as the world slid inevitably toward the first great war of the twentieth century. Gripping from the first page, and rich with fascinating detail about the time, the people, and the new inventions that connect and divide us, Thunderstruck is splendid narrative history from a master of the form.]]> 463 Erik Larson 1400080665 Curtis 0 to-read 3.73 2006 Thunderstruck
author: Erik Larson
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/09/05
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Star Wars: Dark Force Rising (The Thrawn Trilogy, #2)]]> 216442
Yet most dangerous of all is a new Dark Jedi, risen from the ashes of a shrouded past, consumed by bitterness� and scheming to corrupt Luke Skywalker to the Dark Side.]]> 439 Timothy Zahn 0553560719 Curtis 4 4.18 1992 Star Wars: Dark Force Rising (The Thrawn Trilogy, #2)
author: Timothy Zahn
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1992
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2020/08/28
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]]> Moby-Dick or, The Whale 153747 "It is the horrible texture of a fabric that should be woven of ships' cables and hawsers. A Polar wind blows through it, and birds of prey hover over it."

So Melville wrote of his masterpiece, one of the greatest works of imagination in literary history. In part, Moby-Dick is the story of an eerily compelling madman pursuing an unholy war against a creature as vast and dangerous and unknowable as the sea itself. But more than just a novel of adventure, more than an encyclopaedia of whaling lore and legend, the book can be seen as part of its author's lifelong meditation on America. Written with wonderfully redemptive humour, Moby-Dick is also a profound inquiry into character, faith, and the nature of perception.

This edition of Moby-Dick, which reproduces the definitive text of the novel, includes invaluable explanatory notes, along with maps, illustrations, and a glossary of nautical terms.]]> 720 Herman Melville 0142437247 Curtis 4 3.53 1851 Moby-Dick or, The Whale
author: Herman Melville
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.53
book published: 1851
rating: 4
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date added: 2020/08/28
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]]> The Forever War 940996 Series Info:
This is the first part of the "Forever War" series, however it can be read as a standalone.

Book Description:
Private William Mandella is a hero in spite of himself -- a reluctant conscript drafted into an elite military unit, and propelled through space and time to fight in a distant thousand-year conflict. He never wanted to go to war, but the leaders on Earth have drawn a line in the interstellar sand -- despite the fact that their fierce alien enemy is unknowable, unconquerable, and very far away. So Mandella will perform his duties without rancor and even rise up through the military's ranks... if he survives. But the true test of his mettle will come when he returns to Earth. Because of the time dilation caused by space travel the loyal soldier is aging months, while his home planet is aging centuries -- and the difference will prove the saying: you never can go home...]]> 218 Joe Haldeman 0345289145 Curtis 0 to-read 4.03 1974 The Forever War
author: Joe Haldeman
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1974
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/08/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> White Noise 28251250
White Noise tells the story of Jack Gladney, his fourth wife, Babette, and four ultra­modern offspring as they navigate the rocky passages of family life to the background babble of brand-name consumerism. When an industrial accident unleashes an "airborne toxic event," a lethal black chemical cloud floats over their lives. The menacing cloud is a more urgent and visible version of the "white noise" engulfing the Gladneys—radio transmissions, sirens, microwaves, ultrasonic appliances, and TV murmurings—pulsing with life, yet suggesting something ominous.

Part of the Penguin Orange Collection, a limited-run series of twelve influential and beloved American classics in a bold series design offering a modern take on the iconic Penguin paperback

Winner of the 2016 AIGA + Design Observer 50 Books | 50 Covers competition]]> 320 Don DeLillo 0143129554 Curtis 0 to-read 3.88 1985 White Noise
author: Don DeLillo
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1985
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/08/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Two Years Before the Mast: A Sailor's Life at Sea]]> 335397 Two Years Before the Mast is a book by the American author Richard Henry Dana, Jr. written after a two-year sea voyage starting in 1834.

While at Harvard College, Dana had an attack of the measles, which affected his vision. Thinking it might help his sight, Dana, rather than going on a Grand Tour as most of his fellow classmates traditionally did (and unable to afford it anyway) and being something of a non-conformist, left Harvard to enlist as a common sailor on a voyage around Cape Horn on the brig Pilgrim. He returned to Massachusetts two years later aboard the Alert (which left California sooner than the Pilgrim).

He kept a diary throughout the voyage, and after returning he wrote a recognized American classic, Two Years Before the Mast, published in 1840, the same year of his admission to the bar.]]> 292 Richard Henry Dana Jr. 1402179626 Curtis 0 to-read 3.99 1840 Two Years Before the Mast: A Sailor's Life at Sea
author: Richard Henry Dana Jr.
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1840
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/08/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Star Wars: The Last Command (The Thrawn Trilogy, #3)]]> 216422
Features a bonus section following the novel that includes a primer on the Star Wars expanded universe, and over half a dozen excerpts from some of the most popular Star Wars books of the last thirty years!]]> 467 Timothy Zahn 0553564927 Curtis 0 to-read 4.26 1993 Star Wars: The Last Command (The Thrawn Trilogy, #3)
author: Timothy Zahn
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1993
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Watership Down (Watership Down, #1)]]> 76620 Librarian's note: See alternate cover edition of ISBN13 9780380395866 here.

Set in England's Downs, a once idyllic rural landscape, this stirring tale of adventure, courage and survival follows a band of very special creatures on their flight from the intrusion of man and the certain destruction of their home. Led by a stouthearted pair of friends, they journey forth from their native Sandleford Warren through the harrowing trials posed by predators and adversaries, to a mysterious promised land and a more perfect society.]]> 478 Richard Adams 038039586X Curtis 0 to-read 4.08 1972 Watership Down (Watership Down, #1)
author: Richard Adams
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1972
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Naming the Elephant: Worldview as a Concept]]> 432503 163 James W. Sire 083082779X Curtis 0 to-read 3.82 2004 Naming the Elephant: Worldview as a Concept
author: James W. Sire
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2004
rating: 0
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]]> Catch-22 168668
Set in Italy during World War II, this is the story of the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy—it is his own army, which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to excuse himself from the perilous missions he’s assigned, he’ll be in violation of Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes a formal request to be removed from duty, he is proven sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved.

This fiftieth-anniversary edition commemorates Joseph Heller’s masterpiece with a new introduction by Christopher Buckley; a wealth of critical essays and reviews by Norman Mailer, Alfred Kazin, Anthony Burgess, and others; rare papers and photos from Joseph Heller’s personal archive; and much more. Here, at last, is the definitive edition of a classic of world literature.]]> 453 Joseph Heller 0684833395 Curtis 0 to-read 3.99 1961 Catch-22
author: Joseph Heller
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1961
rating: 0
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]]> The October Country: Stories 1091582
This classic collection

The The faithful dog was the sick boy’s only connection with the world outside—and beyond . . .
The Small A fine, healthy baby boy was the new mother’s dream come true—or her worst nightmare . . .
The  Just when his luck had run out, Drew Erickson inherited a farm from a stranger; and with the bequest came deadly responsibilities . . .
The  A chilling story that combines love, death . . . and a matter of identity in a bottle of fear.
The Wonderful Death of Dudley  A most remarkable case of murder—the deceased was delighted . . . 

Plus fourteen more unforgettable tales!

“An author whose fanciful imagination, poetic prose, and mature understanding of human character have won him an international reputation.â€â€� The New York Times]]> 336 Ray Bradbury 0345407857 Curtis 0 to-read 4.10 1955 The October Country: Stories
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1955
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Killing Floor (Jack Reacher #1)]]> 78129 474 Lee Child 0515141429 Curtis 0 to-read 4.08 1997 Killing Floor (Jack Reacher #1)
author: Lee Child
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1997
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Lies of Locke Lamora (Gentleman Bastard, #1)]]> 29588376 ASIN B000JMKNJ2 moved to the more recent edition

An orphan’s life is harsh—and often short—in the mysterious island city of Camorr. But young Locke Lamora dodges death and slavery, becoming a thief under the tutelage of a gifted con artist. As leader of the band of light-fingered brothers known as the Gentleman Bastards, Locke is soon infamous, fooling even the underworld’s most feared ruler. But in the shadows lurks someone still more ambitious and deadly. Faced with a bloody coup that threatens to destroy everyone and everything that holds meaning in his mercenary life, Locke vows to beat the enemy at his own brutal game—or die trying.]]> 752 Scott Lynch Curtis 0 to-read 4.32 2006 The Lies of Locke Lamora (Gentleman Bastard, #1)
author: Scott Lynch
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Wait: The Art and Science of Delay]]> 13237713
In this counterintuitive and insightful work, author Frank Partnoy weaves together findings from hundreds of scientific studies and interviews with wide-ranging experts to craft a picture of effective decision-making that runs counter to our brutally fast-paced world. Even as technology exerts new pressures to speed up our lives, it turns out that the choices we make -- unconsciously and consciously, in time frames varying from milliseconds to years -- benefit profoundly from delay. As this winning and provocative book reveals, taking control of time and slowing down our responses yields better results in almost every arena of life -- even when time seems to be of the essence.

The procrastinator in all of us will delight in Partnoy's accounts of celebrity "delay specialists," from Warren Buffett to Chris Evert to Steve Kroft, underscoring the myriad ways in which delaying our reactions to everyday choices -- large and small -- can improve the quality of our lives.]]> 304 Frank Partnoy 1610390040 Curtis 0 to-read 3.60 2012 Wait: The Art and Science of Delay
author: Frank Partnoy
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[What's Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done]]> 13700537 352 Matt Perman 0310494222 Curtis 0 to-read 4.16 2014 What's Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done
author: Matt Perman
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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]]> A Confederacy of Dunces 310612
His mother thinks he needs to go to work. He does, in a succession of jobs. Each job rapidly escalates into a lunatic adventure, a full-blown disaster; yet each has, like Don Quixote's, its own eerie logic.

His girlfriend, Myrna Minkoff of the Bronx, thinks he needs sex.

Ignatius is an intellectual, ideologue, deadbeat, goof-off, glutton, who should repel the reader with his gargantuan bloats, his thunderous contempt, and one-man war against everybody: Freud, homosexuals, heterosexuals, Protestants, and the assorted excesses of modern times.

A tragicomedy, set in New Orleans.]]> 394 John Kennedy Toole 0802130208 Curtis 0 to-read 3.89 1980 A Confederacy of Dunces
author: John Kennedy Toole
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1980
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Before They Are Hanged (The First Law, #2)]]> 902715
Northmen have spilled over the border of Angland and are spreading fire and death across the frozen country. Crown Prince Ladisla is poised to drive them back and win undying glory. There is only one problem � he commands the worst-armed, worst-trained, worst-led army in the world.

And Bayaz, the First of the Magi, is leading a party of bold adventurers on a perilous mission through the ruins of the past. The most hated woman in the South, the most feared man in the North, and the most selfish boy in the Union make a strange alliance, but a deadly one. They might even stand a chance of saving mankind from the Eaters. If they didn't hate each other quite so much.

Ancient secrets will be uncovered. Bloody battles will be won and lost. Bitter enemies will be forgiven � but not before they are hanged.]]> 441 Joe Abercrombie 0575077883 Curtis 0 to-read 4.35 2007 Before They Are Hanged (The First Law, #2)
author: Joe Abercrombie
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Welcome to Night Vale (Welcome to Night Vale, #1)]]> 23129410 Welcome to Night Vale podcast comes an imaginative mystery of appearances and disappearances that is also a poignant look at the ways in which we all struggle to find ourselves...no matter where we live.

Located in a nameless desert somewhere in the great American Southwest, Night Vale is a small town where ghosts, angels, aliens, and government conspiracies are all commonplace parts of everyday life. It is here that the lives of two women, with two mysteries, will converge.

Nineteen-year-old Night Vale pawn shop owner Jackie Fierro is given a paper marked "King City" by a mysterious man in a tan jacket holding a deer skin suitcase. Everything about him and his paper unsettles her, especially the fact that she can't seem to get the paper to leave her hand, and that no one who meets this man can remember anything about him. Jackie is determined to uncover the mystery of King City and the man in the tan jacket before she herself unravels.

Night Vale PTA treasurer Diane Crayton's son, Josh, is moody and also a shape shifter. And lately Diane's started to see her son's father everywhere she goes, looking the same as the day he left years earlier, when they were both teenagers. Josh, looking different every time Diane sees him, shows a stronger and stronger interest in his estranged father, leading to a disaster Diane can see coming, even as she is helpless to prevent it.

Diane's search to reconnect with her son and Jackie's search for her former routine life collide as they find themselves coming back to two words: "King City". It is King City that holds the key to both of their mysteries, and their futures...if they can ever find it.]]> 401 Joseph Fink 0062351427 Curtis 0 to-read 3.84 2015 Welcome to Night Vale (Welcome to Night Vale, #1)
author: Joseph Fink
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/08/15
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]]> <![CDATA[First and Only (Gaunt's Ghosts, #1)]]> 220741 320 Dan Abnett 1841542687 Curtis 0 to-read 4.23 1999 First and Only (Gaunt's Ghosts, #1)
author: Dan Abnett
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1999
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/08/03
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]]> House of Leaves 24800
Of course, neither Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Will Navidson nor his companion Karen Green was prepared to face the consequences of that impossibility, until the day their two little children wandered off and their voices eerily began to return another story—of creature darkness, of an ever-growing abyss behind a closet door, and of that unholy growl which soon enough would tear through their walls and consume all their dreams.]]> 710 Mark Z. Danielewski Curtis 1 4.11 2000 House of Leaves
author: Mark Z. Danielewski
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2000
rating: 1
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date added: 2020/08/02
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]]> <![CDATA[For the Love of Physics: From the End of the Rainbow to the Edge of Time - A Journey Through the Wonders of Physics]]> 7841672 The New York Times declared, “Walter Lewin delivers his lectures with the panache of Julia Child bringing French cooking to amateurs and the zany theatricality of YouTube’s greatest hits.� For more than thirty years as a beloved professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Lewin honed his singular craft of making physics not only accessible but truly fun, whether putting his head in the path of a wrecking ball, supercharging himself with three hundred thousand volts of electricity, or demonstrating why the sky is blue and why clouds are white. Now, as Carl Sagan did for astronomy and Brian Green did for cosmology, Lewin takes readers on a marvelous journey in For the Love of Physics, opening our eyes as never before to the amazing beauty and power with which physics can reveal the hidden workings of the world all around us. “I introduce people to their own world,� writes Lewin, “the world they live in and are familiar with but don’t approach like a physicist—yet.� Could it be true that we are shorter standing up than lying down? Why can we snorkel no deeper than about one foot below the surface? Why are the colors of a rainbow always in the same order, and would it be possible to put our hand out and touch one? Whether introducing why the air smells so fresh after a lightning storm, why we briefly lose (and gain) weight when we ride in an elevator, or what the big bang would have sounded like had anyone existed to hear it, Lewin never ceases to surprise and delight with the extraordinary ability of physics to answer even the most elusive questions. Recounting his own exciting discoveries as a pioneer in the field of X-ray astronomy—arriving at MIT right at the start of an astonishing revolution in astronomy—he also brings to life the power of physics to reach into the vastness of space and unveil exotic uncharted territories, from the marvels of a supernova explosion in the Large Magellanic Cloud to the unseeable depths of black holes. “For me,� Lewin writes, “physics is a way of seeing—the spectacular and the mundane, the immense and the minute—as a beautiful, thrillingly interwoven whole.� His wonderfully inventive and vivid ways of introducing us to the revelations of physics impart to us a new appreciation of the remarkable beauty and intricate harmonies of the forces that govern our lives.]]> 320 Walter Lewin 1439108277 Curtis 0 to-read 4.24 2011 For the Love of Physics: From the End of the Rainbow to the Edge of Time - A Journey Through the Wonders of Physics
author: Walter Lewin
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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]]> The Outsider 36124936
An eleven-year-old boy’s violated corpse is found in a town park. Eyewitnesses and fingerprints point unmistakably to one of Flint City’s most popular citizens. He is Terry Maitland, Little League coach, English teacher, husband, and father of two girls. Detective Ralph Anderson, whose son Maitland once coached, orders a quick and very public arrest. Maitland has an alibi, but Anderson and the district attorney soon add DNA evidence to go with the fingerprints and witnesses. Their case seems ironclad.

As the investigation expands and horrifying answers begin to emerge, King’s propulsive story kicks into high gear, generating strong tension and almost unbearable suspense. Terry Maitland seems like a nice guy, but is he wearing another face? When the answer comes, it will shock you as only Stephen King can.]]> 561 Stephen King 1501180983 Curtis 1 3.98 2018 The Outsider
author: Stephen King
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2018
rating: 1
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]]> And Then There Were None 16299
"Ten little boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there were nine. Nine little boys sat up very late; One overslept himself and then there were eight. Eight little boys traveling in Devon; One said he'd stay there then there were seven. Seven little boys chopping up sticks; One chopped himself in half and then there were six. Six little boys playing with a hive; A bumblebee stung one and then there were five. Five little boys going in for law; One got in Chancery and then there were four. Four little boys going out to sea; A red herring swallowed one and then there were three. Three little boys walking in the zoo; A big bear hugged one and then there were two. Two little boys sitting in the sun; One got frizzled up and then there was one. One little boy left all alone; He went out and hanged himself and then there were none."

When they realize that murders are occurring as described in the rhyme, terror mounts. One by one they fall prey. Before the weekend is out, there will be none. Who has choreographed this dastardly scheme? And who will be left to tell the tale? Only the dead are above suspicion.]]> 264 Agatha Christie 0312330871 Curtis 0 4.28 1939 And Then There Were None
author: Agatha Christie
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1939
rating: 0
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]]> Mere Christianity 11138 191 C.S. Lewis 0684823780 Curtis 0 4.32 1952 Mere Christianity
author: C.S. Lewis
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1952
rating: 0
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]]> Intellectuals and Society 7285385
Intellectuals and Society not only examines the track record of intellectuals in the things they have advocated but also analyzes the incentives and constraints under which their views and visions have emerged. One of the most surprising aspects of this study is how often intellectuals have been proved not only wrong, but grossly and disastrously wrong in their prescriptions for the ills of society—and how little their views have changed in response to empirical evidence of the disasters entailed by those views.]]> 416 Thomas Sowell 046501948X Curtis 0 to-read 4.26 2009 Intellectuals and Society
author: Thomas Sowell
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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]]> The Explicit Gospel 12915261

Too few people attending church today, even those in evangelical churches, are exposed to the gospel explicitly. Sure, many will hear about Jesus, and about being good and avoiding bad, but the gospel message simply isn't there--at least not in its specificity and its fullness. Inspired by the needs of both the overchurched and the unchurched, and bolstered by the common neglect of the explicit gospel within Christianity, Matt Chandler has written this punchy treatise. He begins with the specifics of the gospel--outlining what it is and what it is not--and then switches gears to focus on the fullness of the gospel and its massive implications on both personal and cosmic levels. Recognizing our tendency to fixate on either the micro or macro aspects of the gospel, Chandler also warns us of the dangers on either side--of becoming overly individualistic or syncretistic. Here is a call to true Christianity, to know the gospel explicitly, and to unite the church on the amazing grounds of the good news of Jesus!

]]> 237 Matt Chandler 1433530031 Curtis 4 4.17 2012 The Explicit Gospel
author: Matt Chandler
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2020/08/02
date added: 2020/08/02
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]]> <![CDATA[The Broken Hearth: Reversing the Moral Collapse of the American Family]]> 240444
Our recent economic prosperity has masked the devastation of the American family, which is now under seige as never before. From the dramatic rise in illegitimacy, divorce, and single parenthood to the call for the recognition of gay marriages, the traditional nuclear family is being radically challenged and undermined, along with the moral and legal consensus that once supported it.

Now in The Broken Hearth , William Bennett, America's foremost conservative spokesperson on matters of family values, presents a strong, well-reasoned, and informed defense of the traditional family. Interweaving history, anthropology, law, social science, and the teachings of Western religions, he argues that marriage between a man and a woman and the creation of a permanent, loving, and nurturing environment for children is a great historical achievement, one that should not be lightly abandoned in favor of more "progressive" arrangements. Bennett displays his ability to combine fearless conviction, acute insight, and respect for his adversaries in thorough, balanced, and enlightening discussions of single parenthood, cohabitation, gay marriage, and other trends that are undercuttingthe ideal of the family as the essential foundation of society.

Looking closely at the concerns and questions that divide America, Bennett provides a powerful affirmation of family life and the values and benefits it bestows on individuals and on society as a whole.]]> 208 William J. Bennett 076790513X Curtis 0 to-read 3.61 2001 The Broken Hearth: Reversing the Moral Collapse of the American Family
author: William J. Bennett
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2001
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Seven Sisters (London Below, #2)]]> 34330383 Neil Gaiman Curtis 0 to-read 3.95 The Seven Sisters (London Below, #2)
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.95
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/08/02
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]]> Neverwhere (London Below, #1) 14497
"Neverwhere" is the London of the people who have fallen between the cracks.

Strange destinies lie in wait in London below - a world that seems eerily familiar. But a world that is utterly bizarre, peopled by unearthly characters such as the Angel called Islington, the girl named Door, and the Earl who holds Court on a tube train.

Now a single act of kindness has catapulted young businessman Richard Mayhew out of his safe and predictable life - and into the realms of "Neverwhere." Richard is about to find out more than he ever wanted to know about this other London. Which is a pity. Because Richard just wants to go home...]]> 370 Neil Gaiman 0060557818 Curtis 4 4.17 1996 Neverwhere (London Below, #1)
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1996
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist]]> 40985 c-5 447 Norman L. Geisler 1581345615 Curtis 0 to-read 4.17 2004 I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist
author: Norman L. Geisler
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2004
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/07/29
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]]> <![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 Curtis 0 to-read 4.26 2019 Surprise, Kill, Vanish: The Secret History Of CIA Paramilitary Armies, Operators, And Assassins
author: Annie Jacobsen
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/07/20
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]]> Psych 17568010
If you desire to align your chakra with your Zodiac sign or wish to figure out why it is your parents' fault, you have picked up a wrong book.

PSYCH is 100% psychobabble free. It is the step-by-step manual to athletic superiority for men and women who take charge. The author became a world champion and record holder in a sport for which he had zero genetic predisposition--using the meticulously researched and professionally applied strategies he reveals on the pages of PSYCH.

PSYCH and be awesome.

--Pavel Tsatsouline, Chairman, StrongFirst

From the Introduction to PSYCH by Dr. Judd Biasiotto

"When I first started powerlifting, I was at best a joke. In my first seven meets I finished dead last. I wasn't just beaten either, at times, I was absolutely destroyed. It wasn't uncommon for me to find myself two or three hundred pounds behind the leaders going into the deadlift. After the deadlift, well, the leaders weren't even in sight. I hate to admit this, but some guys could have beaten me without even benching. Their squat and deadlift totaled more than I totaled on all three lifts. Heck, at that time, even women and children could beat me. There was even a joke going around that the U.S.P.F. [powerlifting federation] was going to revoke my lifting card because I was impersonating a powerlifter. At least I think it was a joke. My little sister Mary Jean would say, 'Judd, you have to quit competing you are embarrassing the family.' She was serious.

Obviously, I've come a long way in the sport. During my career, I had literally gone full circle-from one of the worst lifters to ever step on a lifting platform, to one of the best. And I did all that with a body that is not genetically constructed for powerlifting. In fact, it's been said that I have the body of an 11-year-old stamp collector and that my legs are so skinny they look like a pair of pliers in shorts.

How did I do it? Well it wasn't the way I stacked or staggered some anabolic drug. In fact, I've never taken any drugs. The way I achieved world class status was through my mind. I learned to play the game of powerlifting above my shoulders. Through scientific means, I learned to take control of my environment, the people in it, and best yet; I've learned to take control of myself. The secret to my success and strength lies in these abilities.

The best part of all this is that you can achieve these abilities just as I have. That's what this book is all about. It's designed as a learning manual and was written with the intent of presenting a systematic approach to prepare you for powerlifting competition.

The methods in this book are based on scientifically validated research. They will work whether you believe in them or not. The only thing that is required is understanding and practice. If you apply the concepts outlined for you in this book, I flat guarantee you that your competition results will increase significantly. I'm not just blowing smoke here either; I'm speaking straight from the stone tablets."

About the author

Dr. Judd Biasiotto has worked as a sports psychologist with numerous amateur and professional athletes and sports teams, including the Kansas City Royals, the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the Cincinnati Reds.

Built, by his own admission, "as an eleven year old stamp collector", Biasiotto took on the sport of powerlifting. For a long time he finished dead last in every meet he entered.]]> 226 Judd Biasiotto 0933079931 Curtis 0 to-read 3.86 2012 Psych
author: Judd Biasiotto
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/05/05
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]]> Ghostwritten 6819
A writer of pyrotechnic virtuosity and profound compassion, a mind to which nothing human is alien, David Mitchell spins genres, cultures, and ideas like gossamer threads around and through these nine linked stories. Many forces bind these lives, but at root all involve the same universal longing for connection and transcendence, an axis of commonality that leads in two directions—to creation and to destruction. In the end, as lives converge with a fearful symmetry, Ghostwritten comes full circle, to a point at which a familiar idea—that whether the planet is vast or small is merely a matter of perspective—strikes home with the force of a new revelation. It marks the debut novel of a writer with astonishing gifts.]]> 426 David Mitchell 0375724508 Curtis 0 to-read 4.06 1999 Ghostwritten
author: David Mitchell
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1999
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/04/26
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]]> <![CDATA[The Necessary Nine: How to Stay Happily Married for Life!]]> 650026 of The Necessary How to Stay Happily Married for Life! Dan Seaborn
and Peter Newhouse are proud to be regular guys turned professional marriage
and family experts who have determined that the following nine actions will
help couples stay (1) Establish Cherishing Attitudes, (2) Pursue Financial Security,
(3) Discover Sexual Satisfaction, (4) Spend Time Together, (5) Develop
Genuine Friendship, (6) Value Physical Attraction, (7) Cultivate Emotional
Oneness, (8) Guard Home Harmony, and (9) Build Spiritual Fusion. Indeed, these are the “must-do’s� for anyone who has said “I do.� And
although the list may look simple enough, Seaborn and Newhouse make sure
readers understand the “how to� part every step of the way. Based on their
popular marriage seminar of the same name, The Necessary Nine is written for
men and women and is appropriate for couples in any season of marriage.]]> 224 Dan Seaborn 0805444319 Curtis 0 to-read 3.85 2007 The Necessary Nine: How to Stay Happily Married for Life!
author: Dan Seaborn
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/03/08
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]]> <![CDATA[The Art of War for Writers: Fiction Writing Strategies, Tactics, and Exercises]]> 19262791 Successfully starting and finishing a publishable novel is often like fighting a series of battles. You not only have to work hard to shape memorable characters, develop gripping plots, and craft dazzling dialogue, but you also have to fight against self-doubts and fears. And then there's the challenge of learning to navigate the ever-changing publishing industry.

That's why best-selling novelist James Scott Bell, author of the Write Great Fiction staples Plot & Structure and Revision & Self-Editing, came up with the ultimate novel-writing battle plan: The Art of War for Writers.

You'll find tactics and strategies for idea generation and development, character building, plotting, drafting, querying and submitting, dealing with rejection, coping with unrealistic expectations, and much more.

With timeless, innovative, and concise writing reflections and techniques, The Art of War for Writers is your roadmap to victory.

]]> 272 James Scott Bell 159963368X Curtis 0 to-read 4.39 2009 The Art of War for Writers: Fiction Writing Strategies, Tactics, and Exercises
author: James Scott Bell
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/02/26
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]]> The 4-Hour Workweek 368593
Join Tim Ferriss as he teaches you:
- How to outsource your life to overseas virtual assistants for $5 per hour and do whatever you want?
- How blue-chip escape artists travel the world without quitting their jobs?
- How to eliminate 50% of your work in 48 hours using the principles of a forgotten Italian economist?
- How to trade a long-haul career for short work bursts and freuent "mini-retirements"?
- What the crucial difference is between absolute and relative income?
- How to train your boss to value performance over presence, or kill your job (or company) if it's beyond repair?
- What automated cash-flow "muses" are and how to create one in 2 to 4 weeks?
- How to cultivate selective ignorance-and create time-with a low-information diet?
- What the management secrets of Remote Control CEOs are?
- How to get free housing worldwide and airfare at 50-80% off?
- How to fill the void and create a meaningful life after removing work and the office]]> 308 Timothy Ferriss 0307353133 Curtis 0 to-read 3.93 2007 The 4-Hour Workweek
author: Timothy Ferriss
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/01/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Becoming a Supple Leopard: The Ultimate Guide to Resolving Pain, Preventing Injury, and Optimizing Athletic Performance]]> 13594266 LEARN HOW TO HACK HUMAN MOVEMENT

Join the movement that has reached millions of athletes and coaches; learn how to perform basic maintenance on your body, unlock your human potential, live pain-free…and become a Supple Leopard.

Improve your athletic performance, extend your athletic career, treat body stiffness and achy joints, and rehabilitate injuries—all without having to seek out a coach, doctor, chiropractor, physical therapist, or masseur. In Becoming a Supple Leopard, Kelly Starrett—founder of MobilityWod.com—shares his revolutionary approach to mobility and maintenance of the human body and teaches you how to hack your own human movement, allowing you to live a healthy, happier, more fulfilling life.

Performance is what drives the human animal, but the human-animal can be brought to an abrupt halt by dysfunctional movement patterns. Oftentimes, the factors that impede performance are invisible to not only the untrained eye but also the majority of athletes and coaches. Becoming a Supple Leopard makes the invisible visible. In this one-of-a-kind training manual, Starrett maps out a detailed system comprised of more than two hundred techniques and illuminates common movement errors that cause injury and rob you of speed, power, endurance, and strength. Whether you are a professional athlete, a weekend warrior, or simply someone wanting to live healthy and free from restrictions, Becoming a Supple Leopard, will teach you how to maintain your body and harness your genetic potential.

Learn How to:
Prevent and rehabilitate common athletic injuries
Overhaul your movement habits
quickly identify, diagnose, and fix inefficient movement patterns
Problem solve for pain and dysfunction in austere environments with little equipment
Fix poor mechanics that rob power, bleed force, and dump torque
Unlock reservoirs of athletic capacity you didn't know you had
Identify and fix poor movement patterns in children
Reverse the aging process
Develop strategies that restore function to your joints and tissues
Accelerate recovery after training sessions and competition
Create personalized mobility prescriptions to improve movement efficiency
Improve your quality of life through regained work capacity
Run faster, jump higher, and throw farther]]> 400 Kelly Starrett 1936608588 Curtis 0 to-read 4.35 2013 Becoming a Supple Leopard: The Ultimate Guide to Resolving Pain, Preventing Injury, and Optimizing Athletic Performance
author: Kelly Starrett
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/01/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Oddjobs (Oddjobs #1) 30519186
It’s the end of the world as we know it, but someone still needs to do the paperwork.

Morag Murray works for the secret government organisation responsible for making sure the apocalypse goes as smoothly and as quietly as possible.
Trouble is, Morag’s got a temper problem and, after angering the wrong alien god, she’s been sent to another city where she won’t cause so much trouble.
But Morag’s got her work cut out for her. She has to deal with a man-eating starfish, solve a supernatural murder and, if she’s got time, prevent her own inevitable death.

If you like The Laundry Files, The Chronicles of St Mary’s or Men in Black, you’ll love the Oddjobs series."If Jodi Taylor wrote a Laundry Files novel set it in Birmingham…]]> 296 Heide Goody Curtis 0 to-read 4.02 2016 Oddjobs (Oddjobs #1)
author: Heide Goody
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/09/11
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[A Little Hatred (The Age of Madness, #1)]]> 35606041
On the blood-soaked borders of Angland, Leo dan Brock struggles to win fame on the battlefield, and defeat the marauding armies of Stour Nightfall. He hopes for help from the crown. But King Jezal's son, the feckless Prince Orso, is a man who specializes in disappointments.

Savine dan Glokta - socialite, investor, and daughter of the most feared man in the Union - plans to claw her way to the top of the slag-heap of society by any means necessary. But the slums boil over with a rage that all the money in the world cannot control.

The age of the machine dawns, but the age of magic refuses to die. With the help of the mad hillwoman Isern-i-Phail, Rikke struggles to control the blessing, or the curse, of the Long Eye. Glimpsing the future is one thing, but with the guiding hand of the First of the Magi still pulling the strings, changing it will be quite another...

]]> 480 Joe Abercrombie 031618716X Curtis 0 to-read 4.45 2019 A Little Hatred (The Age of Madness, #1)
author: Joe Abercrombie
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/08/27
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems]]> 43852758 The world's most entertaining and useless self-help guide, from the brilliant mind behind the wildly popular webcomic xkcd and the #1 New York Times bestsellers What If? and Thing Explainer

For any task you might want to do, there's a right way, a wrong way, and a way so monumentally complex, excessive, and inadvisable that no one would ever try it. How To is a guide to the third kind of approach. It's full of highly impractical advice for everything from landing a plane to digging a hole.

Bestselling author and cartoonist Randall Munroe explains how to predict the weather by analyzing the pixels of your Facebook photos. He teaches you how to tell if you're a baby boomer or a 90's kid by measuring the radioactivity of your teeth. He offers tips for taking a selfie with a telescope, crossing a river by boiling it, and powering your house by destroying the fabric of space-time. And if you want to get rid of the book once you're done with it, he walks you through your options for proper disposal, including dissolving it in the ocean, converting it to a vapor, using tectonic plates to subduct it into the Earth's mantle, or launching it into the Sun.

By exploring the most complicated ways to do simple tasks, Munroe doesn't just make things difficult for himself and his readers. As he did so brilliantly in What If?, Munroe invites us to explore the most absurd reaches of the possible. Full of clever infographics and amusing illustrations, How To is a delightfully mind-bending way to better understand the science and technology underlying the things we do every day.]]> 308 Randall Munroe 0525537090 Curtis 0 to-read 4.14 2019 How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems
author: Randall Munroe
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/08/27
shelves: to-read
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]]> In a Dark, Dark Wood 39664819 Librarian’s note: This is an updated cover image for Kindle.
See previously published cover here.

An NPR Best Book of the Year * An Entertainment Weekly Summer Books Pick * A Buzzfeed �31 Books to Get Excited About this Summer� Pick * A Publishers Weekly “Top Ten Mysteries and Thrillers� Pick * A Shelf Awareness Best Book of the Year * A BookReporter Summer Reading Pick * A New York Post “Best Novels to Read this Summer� Pick * A Shelf Awareness “Book Expo America 2015 Buzz Book� Pick

What should be a cozy and fun-filled weekend deep in the English countryside takes a sinister turn in Ruth Ware’s suspenseful, compulsive, and darkly twisted psychological thriller.

Sometimes the only thing to fear…is yourself.

When reclusive writer Leonora is invited to the English countryside for a weekend away, she reluctantly agrees to make the trip. But as the first night falls, revelations unfold among friends old and new, an unnerving memory shatters Leonora’s reserve, and a haunting realization creeps in: the party is not alone in the woods.]]> 375 Ruth Ware Curtis 1 3.85 2015 In a Dark, Dark Wood
author: Ruth Ware
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2015
rating: 1
read at: 2019/08/10
date added: 2019/08/10
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]]> Christianity and Liberalism 156871 199 J. Gresham Machen 0802811213 Curtis 0 to-read 4.28 1922 Christianity and Liberalism
author: J. Gresham Machen
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1922
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/07/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> How To Be Your Own Bodyguard 37119049
Unlike most self defense books which begin with someone choking you or coming at you with a knife, "How To Be Your Own Bodyguard" takes a page from the bodyguard's playbook by avoiding trouble in the first place.

Written by a former French Foreign Legionnaire and former bodyguard to the rich and famous the book is full of hundreds of techniques to recognize trouble as it's brewing and leave before it does, adhering to the bodyguard's role of "cover and evacuate."

The section on hard skills i.e. what to do when all attempts to avoid trouble have failed, covers techniques that have been pressure tested by the author during his career as a bouncer, bodyguard and military police officer.]]> 314 Nick Hughes 0985856513 Curtis 0 to-read 3.98 2011 How To Be Your Own Bodyguard
author: Nick Hughes
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/06/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Word is Murder (Hawthorne & Horowitz, #1)]]> 36204075 SHE PLANNED HER OWN FUNERAL. BUT DID SHE ARRANGE HER OWN MURDER?

New York Times bestselling author of Magpie Murders and Moriarty, Anthony Horowitz has yet again brilliantly reinvented the classic crime novel, this time writing a fictional version of himself as the Watson to a modern-day Holmes.

One bright spring morning in London, Diana Cowper � the wealthy mother of a famous actor - enters a funeral parlor. She is there to plan her own service.

Six hours later she is found dead, strangled with a curtain cord in her own home.

Enter disgraced police detective Daniel Hawthorne, a brilliant, eccentric investigator who’s as quick with an insult as he is to crack a case. Hawthorne needs a ghost writer to document his life; a Watson to his Holmes. He chooses Anthony Horowitz.

Drawn in against his will, Horowitz soon finds himself a the center of a story he cannot control. Hawthorne is brusque, temperamental and annoying but even so his latest case with its many twists and turns proves irresistible. The writer and the detective form an unusual partnership. At the same time, it soon becomes clear that Hawthorne is hiding some dark secrets of his own.

A masterful and tricky mystery that springs many surprises, The Word is Murder is Anthony Horowitz at his very best.]]> 400 Anthony Horowitz 0062676784 Curtis 0 to-read 3.89 2017 The Word is Murder (Hawthorne & Horowitz, #1)
author: Anthony Horowitz
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/06/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Revolutionary Paul Revere 7881900 “Quick in the saddle and fast out of town.� Watch one of America’s most remarkable heroes come alive through fast-paced prose and gripping storytelling.

He’s Famous for his Ride.  He’s Essential for So Much More.

The story of Paul Revere is the story of the American Revolution.

Always smack dab in the thick of things, he was an ordinary citizen living in extraordinarily turbulent times. Revere played key roles in colonial tax fights and riots, the infamous Boston Massacre, the Tea Party, the Battle of Lexington and Concord, and even the rati?cation of the U.S. Constitution. In this fast-paced, dramatic account, Paul Revere’s life pulses with energy as author Joel J. Miller explores his family and church life along with his revolutionary contribution as a spy, entrepreneur, express rider, freemason, and commercial visionary.

“The story of Paul Revere—a hero of Massachusetts, a hero of America—was never more timely. Nor has it ever been better told than by Joel J. Miller. The Revolutionary Paul Revere gallops along with all the drama and intrigue of a great novel, highlighting what makes Revere so essential in the story of America’s founding and its growth as a force for freedom in the world. This is a vibrant, vital, and wonderful story.�

WILLIAM J. BENNETT, Author, America: The Last Best Hope and A Century Turns


Ìý±Õ±Õ> 320 Joel J. Miller 1595550747 Curtis 0 to-read 3.79 2010 Revolutionary Paul Revere
author: Joel J. Miller
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/06/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Traveling Light: Releasing the Burdens You Were Never Intended to Bear]]> 56636 220 Max Lucado 0849913454 Curtis 0 to-read 4.23 2001 Traveling Light: Releasing the Burdens You Were Never Intended to Bear
author: Max Lucado
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2001
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/05/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood]]> 29780253
Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents� indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.

Born a Crime is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. It is also the story of that young man’s relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother—his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life.]]> 289 Trevor Noah 0385689225 Curtis 0 to-read 4.48 2016 Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood
author: Trevor Noah
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/05/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The House of Silk (Horowitz's Holmes, #1)]]> 11093329
Once again, THE GAME’S AFOOT�

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

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

The Arthur Conan Doyle Estate chose the celebrated, #1 New York Times bestselling author Anthony Horowitz to write The House of Silk because of his proven ability to tell a transfixing story and for his passion for all things Holmes. Destined to become an instant classic, The House of Silk brings Sherlock Holmes back with all the nuance, pacing, and almost superhuman powers of analysis and deduction that made him the world’s greatest detective, in a case depicting events too shocking, too monstrous to ever appear in print…until now.
(front flap)]]> 294 Anthony Horowitz 0316196991 Curtis 0 to-read 3.96 2011 The House of Silk (Horowitz's Holmes, #1)
author: Anthony Horowitz
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/05/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Abraham: One Nomad's Amazing Journey of Faith]]> 21539470 288 Charles R. Swindoll 1414380631 Curtis 0 to-read 4.43 1988 Abraham: One Nomad's Amazing Journey of Faith
author: Charles R. Swindoll
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.43
book published: 1988
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/05/30
shelves: to-read
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]]> One Second After (After, #1) 4922079 New York Times best-selling author William R. Forstchen now brings us a story which can be all too terrifyingly real ... a story in which one man struggles to save his family and his small North Carolina town after America loses a war, in one second, a war that will send America back to the Dark Ages ... A war based upon a weapon, an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP). A weapon that may already be in the hands of our enemies.

Months before publication, One Second After has already been cited on the floor of Congress as a book all Americans should read, a book already being discussed in the corridors of the Pentagon as a truly realistic look at a weapon and its awesome power to destroy the entire United States, literally within one second. It is a weapon that the Wall Street Journal warns could shatter America. In the tradition of On the Beach, Fail Safe, and Testament, this book, set in a typical American town, is a dire warning of what might be our future ... and our end.]]> 352 William R. Forstchen 0765317583 Curtis 0 to-read 3.92 2009 One Second After (After, #1)
author: William R. Forstchen
name: Curtis
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/05/30
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]]> The Pilgrim's Progress 29797 Along a road filled with monsters and spiritual terrors, Christian confronts such emblematic characters as Worldly Wiseman, Giant Despair, Talkative, Ignorance, and the demons of the Valley of the Shadow of Death. But he is also joined by Hopeful and Faithful.
An enormously influential 17th-century classic, universally known for its simplicity, vigor, and beauty of language, The Pilgrim's Progress remains one of the most widely read books in the English language.]]> 324 John Bunyan Curtis 0 to-read 4.05 1678 The Pilgrim's Progress
author: John Bunyan
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1678
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/05/30
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]]> <![CDATA[The Maze Runner (The Maze Runner, #1)]]> 6186357 There are alternate cover editions for this ASIN here and here.

If you ain’t scared, you ain’t human.

When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his name. He’s surrounded by strangers—boys whose memories are also gone.

Nice to meet ya, shank. Welcome to the Glade.

Outside the towering stone walls that surround the Glade is a limitless, ever-changing maze. It’s the only way out—and no one’s ever made it through alive.

Everything is going to change.

Then a girl arrives. The first girl ever. And the message she delivers is terrifying.

Remember. Survive. Run.]]> 384 James Dashner 0385737947 Curtis 0 to-read 4.05 2009 The Maze Runner (The Maze Runner, #1)
author: James Dashner
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/05/30
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time, #1)]]> 228665
Moiraine Damodred arrives in Emond’s Field on a quest to find the one prophesized to stand against The Dark One, a malicious entity sowing the seeds of chaos and destruction. When a vicious band of half-men, half beasts invade the village seeking their master’s enemy, Moiraine persuades Rand al’Thor and his friends to leave their home and enter a larger unimaginable world filled with dangers waiting in the shadows and in the light.]]> 800 Robert Jordan 0812511816 Curtis 0 to-read 4.19 1990 The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time, #1)
author: Robert Jordan
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1990
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/05/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sports Nutrition for Health Professionals]]> 18290475 432 0803629559 Curtis 4 4.07 2014 Sports Nutrition for Health Professionals
author: Natalie Digate Muth MD MPH RD CSSD FAAP
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2019/05/28
date added: 2019/05/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Blade Itself (The First Law, #1)]]> 944073
Nobleman Captain Jezal dan Luthar, dashing officer, and paragon of selfishness, has nothing more dangerous in mind than fleecing his friends at cards and dreaming of glory in the fencing circle. But war is brewing, and on the battlefields of the frozen North they fight by altogether bloodier rules.

Inquisitor Glokta, cripple turned torturer, would like nothing better than to see Jezal come home in a box. But then Glokta hates everyone: cutting treason out of the Union one confession at a time leaves little room for friendship. His latest trail of corpses may lead him right to the rotten heart of government, if he can stay alive long enough to follow it.

Enter the wizard, Bayaz. A bald old man with a terrible temper and a pathetic assistant, he could be the First of the Magi, he could be a spectacular fraud, but whatever he is, he's about to make the lives of Logen, Jezal, and Glokta a whole lot more difficult.

Murderous conspiracies rise to the surface, old scores are ready to be settled, and the line between hero and villain is sharp enough to draw blood.

]]> 515 Joe Abercrombie 0575079797 Curtis 5 4.21 2006 The Blade Itself (The First Law, #1)
author: Joe Abercrombie
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 2019/05/28
date added: 2019/05/28
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 Curtis 0 to-read 4.48 2006 Mistborn: The Final Empire (Mistborn, #1)
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Curtis
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/05/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>