Pat's bookshelf: all en-US Sat, 23 Nov 2024 11:20:46 -0800 60 Pat's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings]]> 5338 An alternate cover for this isbn can be found here.

'Merry Christmas!...every idiot who goes about with "Merry Christmas" on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding'

Dickens' story of solitary miser Ebenezer Scrooge, who is taught the true meaning of Christmas by a series of ghostly visitors, has proved one of his most well-loved works. Ever since it was published in 1843 it has had an enduring influence on the way we think about the traditions of Christmas. Dickens' other Christmas writings collected here include 'The Story of the Goblins who Stole a Sexton', the short story from The Pickwick Papers on which A Christmas Carol was based; The Haunted Man, a tale of a man tormented by painful memories; along with shorter pieces, some drawn from the 'Christmas Stories' that Dickens wrote annually for his weekly journals. In all of them Dickens celebrates the season as one of geniality, charity and remembrance.

This new selection contains an introduction by distinguished Dickens scholar Michael Slater discussing how the author has shaped ideas about the Christmas spirit, an appendix on Dickens' use of The Arabian Nights, a further reading list and explanatory notes.]]> 288 Charles Dickens Pat 0 currently-reading 4.15 1843 A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings
author: Charles Dickens
name: Pat
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1843
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/23
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Mansfield Park 45031 419 Jane Austen 0786885246 Pat 5 3.75 1814 Mansfield Park
author: Jane Austen
name: Pat
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1814
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
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]]> <![CDATA[Down to the Bone: A Missing Family's Murder and the Elusive Quest for Justice]]> 138378617
On February 15, 2010, Joseph McStay, his wife Summer, and their two young sons were reported missing from their new home in San Diego County. They left eggs and fruit rotting on the counter. Their Dodge truck sat in the driveway. Their dogs were abandoned outside without food. But investigators found no blood, signs of a struggle, or clues to their whereabouts. Did the family take an unannounced vacation? Were they running away from personal problems? Or were they victims of foul play?

Nearly four years later, a motorcyclist found the McStays� remains in and around two shallow graves, one hundred miles away in the Mojave Desert. Their skulls showed signs of blunt-force trauma, likely due to the sledgehammer buried with them. Authorities focused on Charles "Chase" Merritt, a close friend and subcontractor for Joseph’s company. Despite a lack of physical evidence, scenarios that defied logic, and numerous unanswered questions, prosecutors convinced a jury of Merritt’s guilt. After an emotional sentencing hearing, the judge imposed the death penalty. But did another possible suspect, who was ignored by investigators and ducked a subpoena to testify, get away with murder?

In this twisting, deeply researched true-crime mystery, New York Times bestselling investigative journalist Caitlin Rother hunts for answers to reveal the truth behind a heinous crime that became a nation’s obsession, with a controversial trial in its wake, and lingering questions of justice.]]> 384 Caitlin Rother 0806542624 Pat 0 to-read 4.11 Down to the Bone: A Missing Family's Murder and the Elusive Quest for Justice
author: Caitlin Rother
name: Pat
average rating: 4.11
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/06/30
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle]]> 60647674
A president who governed a divided country has much to teach us in a twenty-first-century moment of polarization and political crisis. Abraham Lincoln was president when implacable secessionists gave no quarter in a clash of visions inextricably bound up with money, power, race, identity, and faith. He was hated and hailed, excoriated and revered. In Lincoln we can see the possibilities of the presidency as well as its limitations.

At once familiar and elusive, Lincoln tends to be seen in popular minds as the greatest of American presidents—a remote icon—or as a politician driven more by calculation than by conviction. This illuminating new portrait gives us a very human Lincoln—an imperfect man whose moral antislavery commitment was essential to the story of justice in America. Here is the Lincoln who, as a boy, was steeped in the sermons of emancipation by Baptist preachers; who insisted that slavery was a moral evil; and who sought, as he put it, to do right as God gave him light to see the right.

This book tells the story of Lincoln from his birth on the Kentucky frontier in 1809 to his leadership during the Civil War to his tragic assassination at Ford’s Theater on Good Friday 1865: his rise, his self-education through reading, his loves, his bouts of depression, his political failures, his deepening faith, and his persistent conviction that slavery must end. In a nation shaped by the courage of the enslaved of the era and by the brave witness of Black Americans of the nineteenth century, Lincoln’s story illuminates the ways and means of politics, the marshaling of power in a belligerent democracy, the durability of white supremacy in America, and the capacity of conscience to shape the maelstrom of events.

Lincoln was not all he might have been—few human beings ever are—but he was more than many men have ever been. We could have done worse. And we have. And, as Lincoln himself would readily acknowledge, we can always do better. But we will do so only if we see Abraham Lincoln—and ourselves—whole.]]> 676 Jon Meacham 0553393960 Pat 5 4.44 2022 And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle
author: Jon Meacham
name: Pat
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/02/09
date added: 2023/02/09
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Maybe the best contemporary book on Lincoln, and I've read a few.
]]> <![CDATA[All in the Day's Work: An Autobiography]]> 1088025
Tarbell was the only woman in her class of forty students at Allegheny College, and upon graduation she began an internship at The Chautauquan, which was the start of a lifelong immersion in the world of journalism. She further honed her skills during a three-year stint in Paris, but the breakthrough came in 1894 when she was hired as a full-time writer for McClure's Magazine .

It was at McClure's --where, again, she was the only woman on staff--that Tarbell made her name as a determined journalist, one of the fearless brigade of truth-seekers famously chastised by Theodore Roosevelt, who coined the term ‘muckraker' in order to discredit those who attacked senators in print. Tarbell wrote serialized biographies of Napoleon and Abraham Lincoln, as well as a landmark series of articles on Standard Oil and John D. Rockefeller.

In All in the Day's Work , Tarbell turns her keen eye on herself, recalling the events of her fascinating life with the same honesty, verve, and scrupulous accuracy she brought to her journalistic work, offering insight along the way into the people, places, and issues of her time.
]]> 448 Ida Tarbell 0252071360 Pat 5 3.93 1975 All in the Day's Work: An Autobiography
author: Ida Tarbell
name: Pat
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1975
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/08/21
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Worlds Apart: Why Poverty Persists in Rural America]]> 646061 256 Cynthia M. Duncan 0300084560 Pat 0 to-read 3.89 1999 Worlds Apart: Why Poverty Persists in Rural America
author: Cynthia M. Duncan
name: Pat
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/10/23
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Lincoln on the Verge: Thirteen Days to Washington]]> 50842619 As a divided nation plunges into the deepest crisis in its history, Abraham Lincoln boards a train for Washington and his inauguration—an inauguration Southerners have vowed to prevent by any means necessary. Drawing on new research, this account reveals the President-Elect as a work in progress, showing him on the verge of greatness, foiling an assassination attempt, and forging an unbreakable bond with the American people.

On the eve of his 52nd birthday, February 11, 1861, the President-Elect of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, walked onto a train, the first step of his journey to the White House, and his rendezvous with destiny.

But as the train began to carry Lincoln toward Washington, it was far from certain what he would find there. Bankrupt and rudderless, the government was on the verge of collapse. To make matters worse, reliable intelligence confirmed a conspiracy to assassinate him as he passed through Baltimore. It is no exaggeration to say that the fate of the Republic hung in the balance.

How did Lincoln survive this grueling odyssey, to become the president we know from the history books? Lincoln on the Verge tells the story of a leader discovering his own strength, improvising brilliantly, and seeing his country up close during these pivotal thirteen days.

From the moment the Presidential Special left the station, a new Lincoln was on display, speaking constantly, from a moving train, to save the Republic. The journey would draw on all of Lincoln’s mental and physical reserves. But the President-Elect discovered an inner strength, which deepened with the exhausting ordeal of meeting millions of Americans.

Lincoln on the Verge tells the story of America’s greatest president and the obstacles he overcame, well before he could take the oath of office and deliver his inaugural address.]]> 624 Ted Widmer 1476739439 Pat 5 4.40 2020 Lincoln on the Verge: Thirteen Days to Washington
author: Ted Widmer
name: Pat
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2021/05/23
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]]> Villette 298309 teacher at Madame Beck's school in Villette.
This new edition features the definitive Clarendon edition of Villette which is derived from the earliest printings of Brontë's great work. The text is supplemented with a newly commissioned introduction, which gives a thorough and in depth analysis of the context of this fine example of the
nineteenth century novel.]]> 592 Charlotte Brontë 0192839640 Pat 4 3.85 1853 Villette
author: Charlotte Brontë
name: Pat
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1853
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2021/05/22
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]]> Wuthering Heights 12703

This edition has an introduction by Alice Hoffman.]]> 322 Emily Brontë 0451529251 Pat 5 3.66 1847 Wuthering Heights
author: Emily Brontë
name: Pat
average rating: 3.66
book published: 1847
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/12/08
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Yellow Wallpaper and Other Writings]]> 99306 348 Charlotte Perkins Gilman 0613501438 Pat 0 to-read 3.92 2000 Yellow Wallpaper and Other Writings
author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman
name: Pat
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/01/11
shelves: to-read
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]]> Jeff Weaver 41303359 146 Jesse Russell 551097589X Pat 5 5.00 Jeff Weaver
author: Jesse Russell
name: Pat
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/09/13
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]]> <![CDATA[The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism]]> 17334495 Team of Rivals, captures the Progressive Era through the story of the broken friendship between Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, culminating in their running against one another for president in 1912.]]> 910 Doris Kearns Goodwin Pat 5 4.12 2013 The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism
author: Doris Kearns Goodwin
name: Pat
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2016/07/02
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]]> Victorian Cakes 2261913 0 Caroline B. King 0671623117 Pat 0 to-read 4.33 1986 Victorian Cakes
author: Caroline B. King
name: Pat
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1986
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/04/14
shelves: to-read
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]]> If I Stay 4374381 Just listen, Adam says with a voice that sounds like shrapnel.

I open my eyes wide now.
I sit up as much as I can.
And I listen.

Stay, he says.

Choices. Seventeen-year-old Mia is faced with some tough ones: Stay true to her first love—music—even if it means losing her boyfriend and leaving her family and friends behind?

Then one February morning Mia goes for a drive with her family, and in an instant, everything changes. Suddenly, all the choices are gone, except one. And it's the only one that matters.

If I Stay is a heartachingly beautiful book about the power of love, the true meaning of family, and the choices we all make.]]> 5 Gayle Forman 0143144456 Pat 5 teen 3.73 2009 If I Stay
author: Gayle Forman
name: Pat
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2009/11/17
date added: 2015/04/07
shelves: teen
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic, #1)]]> 22055262
Kell was raised in Arnes—Red London—and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see.

Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they'll never see. It's a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand.

After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.

Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they'll first need to stay alive.]]> 400 Victoria E. Schwab 0765376458 Pat 0 to-read 4.04 2015 A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic, #1)
author: Victoria E. Schwab
name: Pat
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2015/03/22
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Pearl 231813
Today, nearly forty years after his death, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck remains one of America's greatest writers and cultural figures. Over the next year, his many works published as black-spine Penguin Classics for the first time and will feature eye-catching, newly commissioned art. Penguin Classics is proud to present these seminal works to a new generation of readers and to the many who revisit them again and again.]]> 90 John Steinbeck 014017737X Pat 5 3.40 1947 The Pearl
author: John Steinbeck
name: Pat
average rating: 3.40
book published: 1947
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/01/02
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]]> <![CDATA[A Swiftly Tilting Planet (A Wrinkle in Time Quintet, #3)]]> 317523 278 Madeleine L'Engle 0374373620 Pat 2 childrens 3.98 1978 A Swiftly Tilting Planet (A Wrinkle in Time Quintet, #3)
author: Madeleine L'Engle
name: Pat
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1978
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2014/08/25
shelves: childrens
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle]]> 19625483 321 Fiona Carnarvon Pat 3 3.76 2011 Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle
author: Fiona Carnarvon
name: Pat
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2014/07/27
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Goblin Emperor (The Chronicles of Osreth, #1)]]> 17910048 A lush tale of deadly court intrigue and a modern classic of fantasy by Locus award winner and Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award finalist Katherine Addison

The youngest, half-goblin son of the Emperor has lived his entire life in exile, distant from the Imperial Court and the deadly intrigue that suffuses it. But when his father and three half brothers in line for the throne are killed in an "accident," he has no choice but to take his place as the only surviving rightful heir.

Entirely unschooled in the art of court politics, he has no friends, no advisors, and the sure knowledge that whoever assassinated his father and brothers could make an attempt on his life at any moment.

Surrounded by sycophants eager to curry favor with the naïve new emperor, and overwhelmed by the burdens of his new life, he can trust nobody. Amid the swirl of plots to depose him, offers of arranged marriages, and the specter of the unknown conspirators who lurk in the shadows, he must quickly adjust to life as the Goblin Emperor. All the while, he is alone, and trying to find even a single friend . . . and hoping for the possibility of romance, yet also vigilant against the unseen enemies that threaten him, lest he lose his throne–or his life.]]> 446 Katherine Addison 076532699X Pat 0 to-read 4.04 2014 The Goblin Emperor (The Chronicles of Osreth, #1)
author: Katherine Addison
name: Pat
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/07/09
shelves: to-read
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]]> Longbourn 17380041
If Elizabeth Bennet had the washing of her own petticoats, Sarah often thought, she’d most likely be a sight more careful with them.

In this irresistibly imagined belowstairs answer to Pride and Prejudice, the servants take center stage. Sarah, the orphaned housemaid, spends her days scrubbing the laundry, polishing the floors, and emptying the chamber pots for the Bennet household. But there is just as much romance, heartbreak, and intrigue downstairs at Longbourn as there is upstairs. When a mysterious new footman arrives, the orderly realm of the servants� hall threatens to be completely, perhaps irrevocably, upended.

Jo Baker dares to take us beyond the drawing rooms of Jane Austen’s classic—into the often overlooked domain of the stern housekeeper and the starry-eyed kitchen maid, into the gritty daily particulars faced by the lower classes in Regency England during the Napoleonic Wars—and, in doing so, creates a vivid, fascinating, fully realized world that is wholly her own.]]> 332 Jo Baker 0385351232 Pat 0 currently-reading 3.63 2013 Longbourn
author: Jo Baker
name: Pat
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/07/09
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Midnight in Europe (Night Soldiers, #13)]]> 18490852
Cristián Ferrar, a brilliant and handsome Spanish émigré, is a lawyer in the Paris office of a prestigious international law firm. Ferrar is approached by the embassy of the Spanish Republic and asked to help a clandestine agency trying desperately to supply weapons to the Republic’s beleaguered army—an effort that puts his life at risk in the battle against fascism.

Joining Ferrar in this mission is a group of unlikely men and women: idealists and gangsters, arms traders and aristocrats and spies. From shady Paris nightclubs to white-shoe New York law firms, from brothels in Istanbul to the dockyards of Poland, Ferrar and his allies battle the secret agents of Hitler and Franco. And what allies they are: there’s Max de Lyon, a former arms merchant now hunted by the Gestapo; the Marquesa Maria Cristina, a beautiful aristocrat with a taste for danger; and the Macedonian Stavros, who grew up “fighting Bulgarian bandits. After that, being a gangster was easy.� Then there is Eileen Moore, the American woman Ferrar could never forget.

In Midnight in Europe, Alan Furst paints a spellbinding portrait of a continent marching into a nightmare—and the heroes and heroines who fought back against the darkness.

]]> 251 Alan Furst 1400069491 Pat 0 3.51 2014 Midnight in Europe (Night Soldiers, #13)
author: Alan Furst
name: Pat
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at: 2014/07/09
date added: 2014/07/09
shelves:
review:
Could not finish this book. It did not engage me. :( May try it again sometime but for now it's a fail.
]]> Infinite Jest 75786 A gargantuan, mind-altering tragi-comedy about the Pursuit of Happiness in America.

Infinite Jest is the name of a movie said to be so entertaining that anyone who watches it loses all desire to do anything but watch. People die happily, viewing it in endless repetition. The novel Infinite Jest is the story of this addictive entertainment, and in particular how it affects a Boston halfway house for recovering addicts and a nearby tennis academy, whose students have many budding addictions of their own. As the novel unfolds, various individuals, organizations, and governments vie to obtain the master copy of Infinite Jest for their own ends, and the denizens of the tennis school and halfway house are caught up in increasingly desperate efforts to control the movie—as is a cast including burglars, transvestite muggers, scam artists, medical professionals, pro football stars, bookies, drug addicts both active and recovering, film students, political assassins, and one of the most endearingly messed-up families ever captured in a novel.

On this outrageous frame hangs an exploration of essential questions about what entertainment is, and why it has come to so dominate our lives; about how our desire for entertainment interacts with our need to connect with other humans; and about what the pleasures we choose say about who we are. Equal parts philosophical quest and screwball comedy, Infinite Jest bends every rule of fiction without sacrificing for a moment its own entertainment value. The huge cast and multilevel narrative serve a story that accelerates to a breathtaking, heartbreaking, unforgettable conclusion. It is an exuberant, uniquely American exploration of the passions that make us human and one of those rare books that renew the very idea of what a novel can do.]]> 1079 David Foster Wallace 0316066524 Pat 0 to-read 4.30 1996 Infinite Jest
author: David Foster Wallace
name: Pat
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/06/06
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[At Home: A Short History of Private Life]]> 7507825
Bill Bryson and his family live in a Victorian parsonage in a part of England where nothing of any great significance has happened since the Romans decamped. Yet one day, he began to consider how very little he knew about the ordinary things of life as he found it in that comfortable home. To remedy this, he formed the idea of journeying about his house from room to room to “write a history of the world without leaving home.� The bathroom provides the occasion for a history of hygiene; the bedroom, sex, death, and sleep; the kitchen, nutrition and the spice trade; and so on, as Bryson shows how each has figured in the evolution of private life. Whatever happens in the world, he demonstrates, ends up in our house, in the paint and the pipes and the pillows and every item of furniture.
(front flap)]]> 497 Bill Bryson 0767919386 Pat 0 to-read 3.98 2010 At Home: A Short History of Private Life
author: Bill Bryson
name: Pat
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/06/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Stories I Only Tell My Friends]]> 10211494 320 Rob Lowe 080509329X Pat 5 3.85 2011 Stories I Only Tell My Friends
author: Rob Lowe
name: Pat
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2014/06/06
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review:

]]> Hyperbole & A Half 17999159
Touching, absurd, and darkly comic, Allie Brosh’s highly anticipated book Hyperbole and a Half showcases her unique voice, leaping wit, and her ability to capture complex emotions with deceptively simple illustrations.

This full-color, beautifully illustrated edition features more than fifty percent new content, with ten never-before-seen essays and one wholly revised and expanded piece as well as classics from the website like, “The God of Cake,� “Dogs Don’t Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving,� and her astonishing, “Adventures in Depression,� and “Depression Part Two,� which have been hailed as some of the most insightful meditations on the disease ever written.

Brosh’s debut marks the launch of a major new American humorist who will surely make even the biggest scrooge or snob laugh. We dare you not to.

Warning signs
The Simple Dog
Motivation
The God of Cake
The Helper Dog Is an Asshole
Depression Part One
Depression Part Two
Lost in the Woods
Dogs Don't Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving
The Hot Sauce Debacle
This is why I'll never Be an Adult
The Parrot
Dinosaur (The Goose Story)
Thoughts and Feelings
Dogs' Guide to Understanding Basic Concepts
The Party
Identity Part One
Identity Part Two]]> 369 Alexandra Brosh 0224095374 Pat 0 to-read 4.40 2013 Hyperbole & A Half
author: Alexandra Brosh
name: Pat
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/06/06
shelves: to-read
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]]> Winter Solstice 116054 Winter Solstice Rosamunde Pilcher brings her readers into the lives of five very different people....

Elfrida Phipps, once of London's stage, moved to the English village of Dibton in hopes of making a new life for herself. Gradually she settled into the comfortable familiarity of village life -- shopkeepers knowing her tastes, neighbors calling her by name -- still she finds herself lonely.

Oscar Blundell gave up his life as a musician in order to marry Gloria. They have a beautiful daughter, Francesca, and it is only because of their little girl that Oscar views his sacrificed career as worthwhile.

Carrie returns from Australia at the end of an ill-fated affair with a married man to find her mother and aunt sharing a home and squabbling endlessly. With Christmas approaching, Carrie agrees to look after her aunt's awkward and quiet teenage daughter, Lucy, so that her mother might enjoy a romantic fling in America.

Sam Howard is trying to pull his life back together after his wife has left him for another. He is without home and without roots, all he has is his job. Business takes him to northern Scotland, where he falls in love with the lush, craggy landscape and set his sights on a house.

It is the strange rippling effects of a tragedy that will bring these five characters together in a large, neglected estate house near the Scottish fishing town of Creagan.

It is in this house, on the shortest day of the year, that the lives of five people will come together and be forever changed. Rosamunde Pilcher's long-awaited return to the page will warm the hearts of readers both old and new. Winter Solstice is a novel of love, loyalty and rebirth.]]> 720 Rosamunde Pilcher 0340752483 Pat 5 4.16 2000 Winter Solstice
author: Rosamunde Pilcher
name: Pat
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2014/06/06
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]]> The Glass Room 2694539 405 Simon Mawer 1408700778 Pat 3 3.89 2009 The Glass Room
author: Simon Mawer
name: Pat
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2014/06/06
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles, #1)]]> 11235712
She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.]]> 390 Marissa Meyer 0312641893 Pat 0 to-read 4.14 2012 Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles, #1)
author: Marissa Meyer
name: Pat
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/06/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Discovery of Witches (All Souls, #1)]]> 8667848
Deep in the stacks of Oxford's Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell.

Debut novelist Deborah Harkness has crafted a mesmerizing and addictive read, equal parts history and magic, romance and suspense. Diana is a bold heroine who meets her equal in vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont, and gradually warms up to him as their alliance deepens into an intimacy that violates age-old taboos. This smart, sophisticated story harks back to the novels of Anne Rice, but it is as contemporary and sensual as the Twilight series-with an extra serving of historical realism.]]> 592 Deborah Harkness 0670022411 Pat 2 4.01 2011 A Discovery of Witches (All Souls, #1)
author: Deborah Harkness
name: Pat
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2011
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2014/06/06
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Dear Cary: My Life with Cary Grant]]> 10788566 344 Dyan Cannon 006196140X Pat 4 3.50 2011 Dear Cary: My Life with Cary Grant
author: Dyan Cannon
name: Pat
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2014/06/06
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review:

]]> Death Comes to Pemberley 12875355
It is 1803, six years since Elizabeth and Darcy embarked on their life together at Pemberley, Darcy’s magnificent estate. Their peaceful, orderly world seems almost unassailable. Elizabeth has found her footing as the chatelaine of the great house. They have two fine sons, Fitzwilliam and Charles. Elizabeth’s sister Jane and her husband, Bingley, live nearby; her father visits often; there is optimistic talk about the prospects of marriage for Darcy’s sister Georgiana. And preparations are under way for their much-anticipated annual autumn ball.

Then, on the eve of the ball, the patrician idyll is shattered. A coach careens up the drive carrying Lydia, Elizabeth’s disgraced sister, who with her husband, the very dubious Wickham, has been banned from Pemberley. She stumbles out of the carriage, hysterical, shrieking that Wickham has been murdered. With shocking suddenness, Pemberley is plunged into a frightening mystery.

Inspired by a lifelong passion for Austen, P. D. James masterfully re-creates the world of Pride and Prejudice, electrifying it with the excitement and suspense of a brilliantly crafted crime story, as only she can write it.]]> 291 P.D. James 0307959856 Pat 2 3.32 2011 Death Comes to Pemberley
author: P.D. James
name: Pat
average rating: 3.32
book published: 2011
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2014/06/06
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]]> <![CDATA[The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock]]> 13119 508 Donald Spoto 030680932X Pat 4 3.87 1983 The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock
author: Donald Spoto
name: Pat
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1983
rating: 4
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]]> The Bully Pulpit 2184355 320 Andrew Goldblatt 0553299069 Pat 5 3.76 1992 The Bully Pulpit
author: Andrew Goldblatt
name: Pat
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1992
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Code Name Verity (Code Name Verity, #1)]]> 11925514
When "Verity" is arrested by the Gestapo, she's sure she doesn't stand a chance. As a secret agent captured in enemy territory, she's living a spy's worst nightmare. Her Nazi interrogators give her a simple choice: reveal her mission or face a grisly execution.

As she intricately weaves her confession, Verity uncovers her past, how she became friends with the pilot Maddie, and why she left Maddie in the wrecked fuselage of their plane. On each new scrap of paper, Verity battles for her life, confronting her views on courage and failure and her desperate hope to make it home. But will trading her secrets be enough to save her from the enemy?

Harrowing and beautifully written, Elizabeth Wein creates a visceral read of danger, resolve, and survival that shows just how far true friends will go to save each other. Code Name Verity is an outstanding novel that will stick with you long after the last page.]]> 452 Elizabeth Wein 1405258217 Pat 4 3.99 2012 Code Name Verity (Code Name Verity, #1)
author: Elizabeth Wein
name: Pat
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2012
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[The Dark Unwinding (The Dark Unwinding, #1)]]> 11733187
Katharine is now torn between protecting her own inheritance and preserving the peculiar community she grows to care for deeply. And her choices are made even more complicated by a handsome apprentice, a secretive student, and fears for her own sanity.

As the mysteries of the estate begin to unravel, it is clear that not only is her uncle's world at stake, but also the state of England as Katharine knows it. With twists and turns at every corner, this heart-racing adventure will captivate readers with its intrigue, thrills, and romance.]]> 318 Sharon Cameron Pat 2 3.78 2012 The Dark Unwinding (The Dark Unwinding, #1)
author: Sharon Cameron
name: Pat
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2012
rating: 2
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]]> The Flight of Gemma Hardy 12002819
To Gemma's delight, the school goes bankrupt, and she takes a job as an au pair on the Orkney Islands. The remote Blackbird Hall belongs to Mr. Sinclair, a London businessman; his eight-year-old niece is Gemma's charge. Even before their first meeting, Gemma is, like everyone on the island, intrigued by Mr. Sinclair. Rich (by Gemma's standards), single, flying in from London when he pleases, Hugh Sinclair fills the house with life. An unlikely couple, the two are drawn to each other, but Gemma's biggest trial is about to begin: a journey of passion and betrayal, redemption and discovery, that will lead her to a life of which she's never dreamed.

Set in Scotland and Iceland in the 1950s and '60s, The Flight of Gemma Hardy--a captivating homage to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre--is a sweeping saga that resurrects the timeless themes of the original but is destined to become a classic all its own.]]> 443 Margot Livesey 0062064223 Pat 4 3.60 2012 The Flight of Gemma Hardy
author: Margot Livesey
name: Pat
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2012
rating: 4
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]]> <![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 Pat 2 3.96 2011 The House of Silk (Horowitz's Holmes, #1)
author: Anthony Horowitz
name: Pat
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2011
rating: 2
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]]> The House at Riverton 1278752 The House at Riverton is a gorgeous debut novel set in England between the wars. Perfect for fans of "Downton Abbey," it's the story of an aristocratic family, a house, a mysterious death, and a way of life that vanished forever, told in flashback by a woman who witnessed it all.

The novel is full of secrets - some revealed, others hidden forever, reminiscent of the romantic suspense of Daphne du Maurier. It's also a meditation on memory and the devastation of war and a beautifully rendered window into a fascinating time in history.]]> 599 Kate Morton 0330448447 Pat 1 3.95 2006 The House at Riverton
author: Kate Morton
name: Pat
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2006
rating: 1
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]]> Poison Study (Study, #1) 60510 Choose: A quick death� or slow poison...

About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She'll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace—and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia.

And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly's Dust—and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonizing death from the poison.

As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can't control. Her life is threatened again and choices must be made. But this time the outcomes aren't so clear...]]> 427 Maria V. Snyder 0778324338 Pat 2 4.09 2005 Poison Study (Study, #1)
author: Maria V. Snyder
name: Pat
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2005
rating: 2
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]]> Matched (Matched, #1) 7735333
Cassia has always trusted their choices. It’s hardly any price to pay for a long life, the perfect job, the ideal mate. So when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is the one…until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible choices: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s known and a path no one else has ever dared follow—between perfection and passion.

Matched is a story for right now and storytelling with the resonance of a classic.]]> 369 Ally Condie 0525423648 Pat 3 3.62 2010 Matched (Matched, #1)
author: Ally Condie
name: Pat
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2010
rating: 3
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]]> <![CDATA[The Mapping of Love and Death (Maisie Dobbs, #7)]]> 6553733 In the spring of 1932, after Michael’s remains are discovered in France, his wealthy parents hire Maisie Dobbs to find the woman—identified only as “The English Nurse”—who wrote a series of love letters discovered among Michael’s belongings.
The investigation takes Maisie from London’s most exclusive drawing rooms to its most downtrodden neighborhoods, forcing her to wrestle with memories of serving as a nurse in the Great War and of the passionate wartime romance that ended in tragedy. But as she delves into what she discovers to be a long-hidden crime, the investigator realizes unearthing buried secrets can lead to present-day danger.]]> 338 Jacqueline Winspear 0061727660 Pat 4 4.20 2010 The Mapping of Love and Death (Maisie Dobbs, #7)
author: Jacqueline Winspear
name: Pat
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2010
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[Naughty in Nice (Her Royal Spyness Mysteries, #5)]]> 10634238 The national bestselling author of Royal Blood whisks her heroine away to the French Riviera for fun-and danger. Lady Georgiana Rannoch has once again been called into service by Her Majesty the Queen. This time she's sent to Nice on a secret assignment that's nothing to sneeze at-recover the Queen's stolen snuff box.

As much of an honor as it is to be trusted by Her Majesty, an even greater honor awaits Georgie in Nice-as Coco Chanel herself asks Georgie to model her latest fashion. But when a necklace belonging to the Queen is stolen on the catwalk, Georgie has to find two priceless items-and solve a murder. How's a girl to find any time to go to the casino?]]> 328 Rhys Bowen 0425243494 Pat 3 4.01 2011 Naughty in Nice (Her Royal Spyness Mysteries, #5)
author: Rhys Bowen
name: Pat
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2011
rating: 3
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]]> <![CDATA[Her Royal Spyness (Her Royal Spyness Mysteries, #1)]]> 383514
So far she has managed to light a fire and boil an egg... She's gate-crashed a wedding... She's making money by secretly cleaning houses... And she's been asked to spy for Her Majesty the Queen.

Everything seems to be going swimmingly until she finds a body in her bathtub... and someone is definitely trying to kill her.]]> 324 Rhys Bowen 0425215679 Pat 3 3.79 2007 Her Royal Spyness (Her Royal Spyness Mysteries, #1)
author: Rhys Bowen
name: Pat
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2007
rating: 3
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]]> <![CDATA[The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)]]> 2767052
Winning means fame and fortune. Losing means certain death. The Hunger Games have begun. . . .

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before-and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.]]> 374 Suzanne Collins Pat 5 4.34 2008 The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Pat
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2014/06/06
date added: 2014/06/06
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]]> <![CDATA[Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century]]> 7625089
He was a tough-guy Welshman softened by the affections of a breathtakingly beautiful woman; she was a modern-day Cleopatra madly in love with her own Mark Antony. For nearly a quarter of a century, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were Hollywood royalty, and their fiery romance—often called "the marriage of the century"—was the most notorious, publicized, and celebrated love affair of its day.

For the first time, Vanity Fair contributing editor Sam Kashner and acclaimed biographer Nancy Schoenberger tell the complete story of this larger-than-life couple, showing how their romance and two marriages commanded the attention of the world. Also for the first time, in exclusive access given to the authors, Elizabeth Taylor herself gives never-revealed details and firsthand accounts of her life with Burton.

Drawing upon brand-new information and interviews—and on Burton's private, passionate, and heartbreaking letters to Taylor—Furious Love sheds new light on the movies, the sex, the scandal, the fame, the brawls, the booze, the bitter separations, and, of course, the fabled jewels. It offers an intimate glimpse into Elizabeth and Richard's privileged world and their elite circle of friends, among them Princess Grace, Montgomery Clift, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Peter O'Toole, Michael Caine, Marlon Brando, Rex Harrison, Mike Nichols, Laurence Olivier, Robert Kennedy, Tennessee Williams, Noël Coward, John Huston, Ava Gardner, the Rothschilds, Maria Callas, and Aristotle Onassis. It provides an entertaining, eye-opening look at their films, their wildly lucrative reign in Europe and in Hollywood—and the price they paid for their extravagant lives.

Shocking and unsparing in its honesty, Furious Love explores the very public marriage of "Liz and Dick" as well as the private struggles of Elizabeth and Richard, including Le Scandale, their affair on the set of the notorious epic Cleopatra that earned them condemnation from the Vatican; Burton's hardscrabble youth in Wales; the crippling alcoholism that nearly destroyed his career and contributed to his early death; the medical issues that plagued both him and Elizabeth; and the failed aspirations and shame that haunted him throughout their relationship. As Kashner and Schoenberger illuminate the events and choices that shaped this illustrious couple's story, they demonstrate how the legendary pair presaged America's changing attitudes toward sex, marriage, morality, and celebrity. Yet ultimately, as the authors show, Elizabeth and Richard shared something priceless beyond the drama: enduring love.

Addictive and entertaining, Furious Love is more than a celebrity biography; it's an honest yet sympathetic portrait of a man, a woman, and a passion that shocked and mesmerized the world.]]> 500 Sam Kashner 006156284X Pat 4 3.86 2010 Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century
author: Sam Kashner
name: Pat
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2014/06/06
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]]> Nancy Wake 1504838 'Freedom is the only thing worth living for. While I was doing that work I used to think that it didn't matter if I died, because without freedom there was no point in living'.
Nancy Wake

In the early 1930's, Nancy Wake was a young woman enjoying a bohemian life in Paris. By the end of the Second World War she was the Gestapo's most wanted person.

As a naive, young journalist, Nancy Wake witnessed a horrific scene of Nazi violence in a Viennese street. From that moment, she declared that she would do everything in her power to rid Europe of the Nazi presence. What began as a courier job here and there, became a highly successful escape network for Allied soldiers, perfectly camouflaged by Nancy's high-society life in Marseille. Her network was soon so successful - and so notorious - that he had to flee France to escape the Gestapo who had dubbed her 'the white mouse' for her knack of slipping through its traps.

But Nancy was a passionate enemy of the Nazis and refused to stay away. She trained with the British Special Operations Executive and parachuted back into France behind enemy lines. Again, this singular woman rallied to the cause, helping to lead a powerful underground fighting force, the Maquis. Supplying weapons and training the civilian Maquis, organising Allied parachute drops, cycling four hundred kilometres across a mountain range to find a new transmitting radio - nothing seemed too difficult in her fight against the Nazis.

Peter FitzSimons reveals Nancy Wake's compelling story, a tale of an ordinary woman doing extraordinary things.]]> 297 Peter FitzSimons 0732269199 Pat 4 4.09 2001 Nancy Wake
author: Peter FitzSimons
name: Pat
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2001
rating: 4
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date added: 2014/06/06
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]]> <![CDATA[Mr. Churchill's Secretary (Maggie Hope Mystery, #1)]]> 10161216 For fans of Jacqueline Winspear, Laurie R. King, and Anne Perry, Mr. Churchill’s Secretary captures the drama of an era of unprecedented challenge—and the greatness that rose to meet it.

London, 1940. Winston Churchill has just been sworn in, war rages across the Channel, and the threat of a Blitz looms larger by the day. But none of this deters Maggie Hope. She graduated at the top of her college class and possesses all the skills of the finest minds in British intelligence, but her gender qualifies her only to be the newest typist at No. 10 Downing Street. Her indefatigable spirit and remarkable gifts for codebreaking, though, rival those of even the highest men in government, and Maggie finds that working for the prime minister affords her a level of clearance she could never have imagined—and opportunities she will not let pass. In troubled, deadly times, with air-raid sirens sending multitudes underground, access to the War Rooms also exposes Maggie to the machinations of a menacing faction determined to do whatever it takes to change the course of history.

Ensnared in a web of spies, murder, and intrigue, Maggie must work quickly to balance her duty to King and Country with her chances for survival. And when she unravels a mystery that points toward her own family’s hidden secrets, she’ll discover that her quick wits are all that stand between an assassin’s murderous plan and Churchill himself.

In this daring debut, Susan Elia MacNeal blends meticulous research on the era, psychological insight into Winston Churchill, and the creation of a riveting main character, Maggie Hope, into a spectacularly crafted novel.]]> 384 Susan Elia MacNeal 0553593617 Pat 4 3.70 2012 Mr. Churchill's Secretary (Maggie Hope Mystery, #1)
author: Susan Elia MacNeal
name: Pat
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2012
rating: 4
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]]> Steven Spielberg: A Biography 1012668 544 Joseph McBride 0306809001 Pat 2 3.96 1997 Steven Spielberg: A Biography
author: Joseph McBride
name: Pat
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1997
rating: 2
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]]> Steve Jobs 11084145 630 Walter Isaacson 1451648537 Pat 1 4.15 2011 Steve Jobs
author: Walter Isaacson
name: Pat
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2011
rating: 1
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]]> <![CDATA[The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists]]> 921359 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists tells the story of a group of working men who are joined one day by Owen, a journeyman-prophet with a vision of a just society. Owen's spirited attacks on the greed and dishonesty of the capitalist system rouse his fellow men from their political quietism. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists is both a masterpiece of wit and political passion and one of the most authentic novels of English working class life ever written.]]> 590 Robert Tressell 0586090363 Pat 5 4.00 1914 The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
author: Robert Tressell
name: Pat
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1914
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Best-Kept Secret]]> 12129983 Winner of the Oregon Book Award for General Nonfiction and Los Angeles Times bestseller

"It makes good music sound better."--Janet Maslin in The New York Times

"A fascinating look into the West Coast recording studio scene of the '60s and the inside story of the music you heard on the radio. If you always assumed the musicians you listened to were the same people you saw onstage, you are in for a big surprise!"--Dusty Street, host of Classic Vinyl on Sirius XM Satellite Radio

If you were a fan of popular music in the 1960s and early '70s, you were a fan of the Wrecking Crew--whether you knew it or not.

On hit record after hit record by everyone from the Byrds, the Beach Boys, and the Monkees to the Grass Roots, the 5th Dimension, Sonny & Cher, and Simon & Garfunkel, this collection of West Coast studio musicians from diverse backgrounds established themselves in Los Angeles, California as the driving sound of pop music--sometimes over the objection of actual band members forced to make way for Wrecking Crew members. Industry insider Kent Hartman tells the dramatic, definitive story of the musicians who forged a reputation throughout the business as the secret weapons behind the top recording stars.

Mining invaluable interviews, the author follows the careers of such session masters as drummer Hal Blaine and keyboardist Larry Knechtel, as well as trailblazing bassist Carol Kaye--the only female in the bunch--who went on to play in thousands of recording sessions in this rock history. Readers will discover the Wrecking Crew members who would forge careers in their own right, including Glen Campbell and Leon Russell, and learn of the relationship between the Crew and such legends as Phil Spector and Jimmy Webb. Hartman also takes us inside the studio for the legendary sessions that gave us Pet Sounds, Bridge Over Troubled Water, and the rock classic "Layla," which Wrecking Crew drummer Jim Gordon cowrote with Eric Clapton for Derek and the Dominos. And the author recounts priceless scenes such as Mike Nesmith of the Monkees facing off with studio head Don Kirshner, Grass Roots lead guitarist (and future star of The Office) Creed Bratton getting fired from the group, and Michel Rubini unseating Frank Sinatra's pianist for the session in which the iconic singer improvised the hit-making ending to "Strangers in the Night."

The Wrecking Crew tells the collective, behind-the-scenes stories of the artists who dominated Top 40 radio during the most exciting time in American popular culture.]]> 292 Kent Hartman 031261974X Pat 3 3.96 2012 The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Best-Kept Secret
author: Kent Hartman
name: Pat
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2012
rating: 3
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]]> Unsinkable 16075986
In the closing pages of her 1988 autobiography Debbie: My Life, Debbie Reynolds wrote about finding her "brave, loyal, and loving" new husband. After two broken marriages, this third, she believed, was her lucky charm. But within a few years, Debbie discovered that he had betrayed her emotionally and financially, nearly destroying her life.

Today, she writes, "When I read the optimistic ending of my last memoir now, I can't believe how naive I was when I wrote it. In Unsinkable, I look back at the many years since then, and share my memories of a film career that took me from the Miss Burbank Contest of 1948 to the work I did in 2012. . . . To paraphrase Bette Davis: Fasten your seatbelts, I've had a bumpy ride."

Unsinkable shines a spotlight on the resilient woman whose talent and passion for her work have endured for more than six decades. In her engaging, down-to-earth voice, Debbie shares private details about her man and money troubles, including building and losing her Las Vegas dream hotel and her treasured Hollywood memorabilia collection. Yet no matter how difficult the problems, the show always goes on.

Debbie also invites us into the close circle of her family, speaking with deep affection and honesty about her relationships with her children, Carrie and Todd Fisher. She looks back at her life as an actress during Hollywood's Golden Age�"the most magical time you could imagine"—including her lifelong friendship with (and years-long estrangement from) the legendary Elizabeth Taylor. Here, too, are stories that never reached the tabloids about numerous celebrities, such as Ava Gardner, Clark Gable, Frank Sinatra, Mick Jagger, Gene Kelly, and many more. She takes us on a guided tour through her movies with delightful, often hilarious behind-the-scenes anecdotes about every film in which she was involved, from 1948 to the present.

Frank and forthright, and featuring dozens of previously unseen photos from Debbie's personal collection, Unsinkable is a poignant reminder that there is light in the darkest times. It is a revealing portrait of a woman whose determination is an inspiration.]]> 320 Debbie Reynolds 0062213687 Pat 4 3.70 2013 Unsinkable
author: Debbie Reynolds
name: Pat
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2013
rating: 4
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]]> Shirley Jones 17864514 319 Shirley Jones 1611738687 Pat 3 3.11 2013 Shirley Jones
author: Shirley Jones
name: Pat
average rating: 3.11
book published: 2013
rating: 3
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]]> Love Life 18144064 Rob Lowe is back with stories he only tells his best friends.

When Rob Lowe's first book was published in 2011, he received the kind of rapturous reviews that writers dream of and rocketed to the top of the bestseller list. Now, in Love Life, he expands his scope, using stories and observations from his life in a poignant and humorous series of true tales about men and women, art and commerce, fathers and sons, addiction and recovery, and sex and love.

In Love Life, you will find stories about:

� Kissing Unexpectedly
� The secrets they don't teach you in acting school
� His great, great, great, great, great-grandfather's role in the American revolution
� Parks and Recreation, Behind the Candelabra, and Californication
� Trying to coach a kids' basketball team dominated by helicopter parents
� The hot tub at the Playboy mansion
� Starring in and producing a flop tv series
� Camping at Sea World
� Playing saxophone for president Bill Clinton
� The first journey to college with his son
� Warren Beatty
� The benefits of marriage

Throughout this entertaining book, you will find yourself in the presence of a master raconteur, a multi-talented performer whose love for life is as intriguing as his love life.]]> 259 Rob Lowe 1451685718 Pat 3 3.65 2014 Love Life
author: Rob Lowe
name: Pat
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2014
rating: 3
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date added: 2014/06/06
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]]> We Were Liars 16143347 A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.

We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from New York Times bestselling author, National Book Award finalist, and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart.

Read it.

And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.]]> 242 E. Lockhart 0385741278 Pat 5 3.65 2014 We Were Liars
author: E. Lockhart
name: Pat
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2014
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6)]]> 1 652 J.K. Rowling Pat 5 childrens 4.57 2005 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Pat
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2005
rating: 5
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date added: 2014/04/28
shelves: childrens
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]]> <![CDATA[A Fatal Grace (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #2)]]> 352921
No one liked CC de Poitiers. Not her quiet husband, not her spineless lover, not her pathetic daughter—and certainly none of the residents of Three Pines. CC de Poitiers managed to alienate everyone, right up until the moment of her death.

When Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, of the Sûreté du Québec, is called to investigate, he quickly realizes he's dealing with someone quite extraordinary. CC de Poitiers was electrocuted in the middle of a frozen lake, in front of the entire village, as she watched the annual curling tournament. And yet no one saw anything. Who could have been insane enough to try such a macabre method of murder—or brilliant enough to succeed?

With his trademark compassion and courage, Gamache digs beneath the idyllic surface of village life to find the dangerous secrets long buried there. For a Quebec winter is not only staggeringly beautiful but deadly, and the people of Three Pines know better than to reveal too much of themselves. But other dangers are becoming clear to Gamache. As a bitter wind blows into the village, something even more chilling is coming for Gamache himself.]]> 311 Louise Penny 0312352565 Pat 0 to-read 4.04 2006 A Fatal Grace (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #2)
author: Louise Penny
name: Pat
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/12/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Goldfinch 17333223
Aged thirteen, Theo Decker, son of a devoted mother and a reckless, largely absent father, survives an accident that otherwise tears his life apart. Alone and rudderless in New York, he is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. He is tormented by an unbearable longing for his mother, and down the years clings to the thing that most reminds him of her: a small, strangely captivating painting that ultimately draws him into the criminal underworld. As he grows up, Theo learns to glide between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love - and his talisman, the painting, places him at the centre of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle.

The Goldfinch is a haunted odyssey through present-day America and a drama of enthralling power. Combining unforgettably vivid characters and thrilling suspense, it is a beautiful, addictive triumph - a sweeping story of loss and obsession, of survival and self-invention, of the deepest mysteries of love, identity and fate.]]> 771 Donna Tartt 0316055433 Pat 5 3.94 2013 The Goldfinch
author: Donna Tartt
name: Pat
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2013
rating: 5
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date added: 2013/12/01
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Enthralling characters, vivid time and place. Lots of heart and humanity. Worth the wait.
]]> <![CDATA[The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe]]> 37687 Don’t miss one of America’s top 100 most-loved novels, selected by PBS’s The Great American Read.

A full-color paperback edition of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, book two in the classic fantasy series The Chronicles of Narnia. This edition is complete with full-color cover and interior art by the original illustrator, Pauline Baynes.

Four adventurous siblings—Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie—step through a wardrobe door and into the land of Narnia, a land frozen in eternal winter and enslaved by the power of the White Witch. But when almost all hope is lost, the return of the Great Lion, Aslan, signals a great change . . . and a great sacrifice.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the second book in C. S. Lewis's classic fantasy series, which has been drawing readers of all ages into a magical land with unforgettable characters for over sixty years. This is a stand-alone read, but if you would like to explore more of the Narnian realm, pick up The Horse and His Boy, the third book in The Chronicles of Narnia.]]> 0 C.S. Lewis 0060793333 Pat 5 childrens 4.22 1950 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
author: C.S. Lewis
name: Pat
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1950
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/11/23
shelves: childrens
review:

]]> Bridge to Terabithia 2836
That's not a very promising beginning for a friendship, but Jess and Leslie Burke become inseparable. Together they create Terabithia, a magical kingdom in the woods where the two of them reign as king and queen, and their imaginations set the only limits.]]> 191 Katherine Paterson 0060734019 Pat 3 childrens 4.12 1977 Bridge to Terabithia
author: Katherine Paterson
name: Pat
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1977
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2013/05/30
shelves: childrens
review:

]]> I'll Take Care of You 17802763
Eric Naposki, her NFL linebacker lover, fulfilled Nanette's wilder cravings. Together they schemed to make her fiance's fortune their own. When McLaughlin was gunned down, authorities had suspicions - but no proof. Pulitzer prize-nominated writer Caitlin Rother explores this chilling story of a woman who seemed to have it all - until justice finally had its day.]]> 432 Caitlin Rother 0786032553 Pat 0 to-read 3.73 2014 I'll Take Care of You
author: Caitlin Rother
name: Pat
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/04/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Seven Up (Stephanie Plum, #7) 40334
#1 New York Times
#1 Wall Street Journal
#1 Entertainment Weekly
#1 Publishers Weekly
#1 Booksense
#1 Los Angeles Times

BLOWN UP
All New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum has to do is bring in semi-retired bail jumper Eddie DeChooch. For an old man he's still got a knack for slipping out of sight--and raising hell. How else can Stephanie explain the bullet-riddled corpse in Eddie's garden? Who else would have a clue as to why two of Stephanie's friends suddenly vanished? For answers Stephanie has the devil to her mentor, Ranger. The deal? He'll give Stephanie all the help she needs--if she gives him everything he wants . . .

MESSED UP
As if things weren't complicated enough, Stephanie's just discovered her Grandma Mazur's own unmentionable alliance with Eddie. Add a series of unnerving break-ins, not to mention the bombshell revelation leveled by Stephanie's estranged sister, and Stephanie's ready for some good news. Unfortunately, a marriage proposal from Joe Morelli, the love of her life, isn't quite cutting it. And now--murder, a randy paramour, a wily mobster, death threats, extortion, and a triplie kidnapping aside--Stephanie's really got the urge to run for her life . . .
SEVEN UP]]> 337 Janet Evanovich 0312984510 Pat 3 mysteries 3.89 2001 Seven Up (Stephanie Plum, #7)
author: Janet Evanovich
name: Pat
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2012/07/24
shelves: mysteries
review:

]]> Main Street 11373 Sinclair Lewis, recipient of the Nobel Prize and rejecter of the Pulitzer, prefaces his novel Main Street. Lewis is brutal in his depictions of the self-satisfied inhabitants of small-town America, a place which proves to be merely an assemblage of pretty surfaces, strung together and ultimately empty.]]> 526 Sinclair Lewis 1593080360 Pat 5 3.51 1920 Main Street
author: Sinclair Lewis
name: Pat
average rating: 3.51
book published: 1920
rating: 5
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date added: 2012/05/24
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]]> <![CDATA[Selected Speeches and Writings]]> 20552
For the first time, the authoritative editions of works by major American novelists, poets, scholars, and essayists collected in the hardcover volumes of The Library of America are being published singly in a series of handsome paperback books. A distinguished writer has contributed an introduction for each volume, which also includes a chronology of the author's life and career, an essay on the text, and notes.]]> 552 Abraham Lincoln 0679737316 Pat 5 non-fic 4.29 1992 Selected Speeches and Writings
author: Abraham Lincoln
name: Pat
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1992
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2011/08/23
shelves: non-fic
review:

]]> The Life of Elizabeth I 111222
Като използвала ловко “слабостт� на своя пол�, Елизабет я преобразила в сила, с която да успее в един свят, принадлежащ на мъжете. Преодоляла многобройните предразсъдъци на епохата си, с острия си ум и неизчерпаема енергия тя манипулирала всички � както собствените си поданици, така и монарсите на Испания, Франция и Германия.

Основавайки се на изключително прецизните си проучвания на документи и исторически източници, Алисън Уиър създава най-детайлната, богата и интригуваща биография на Елизабет I. “Таймс� я определя като много по-увлекателна от всички романи, писани за великата кралица.

Вижте как Елизабет се превръща в кралицата дева, разигравайки до съвършенство играта с прословутата си женитба, което подхранва безброй спекулации в продължение на векове. Открийте докъде са стигнали отношенията с фаворита й Робърт Дъдли и дали кралицата е замесена в смъртта на съпругата му. Разплетете мрежата от интриги, оплела големите европейски кралства, и открийте истината за великата неудачница Мария Стюарт.]]> 532 Alison Weir 0345425502 Pat 0 to-read 4.02 1998 The Life of Elizabeth I
author: Alison Weir
name: Pat
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/03/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine]]> 6463967
Michael Lewis creates a fresh, character-driven narrative brimming with indignation and dark humor, a fitting sequel to his #1 bestseller Liar's Poker. Out of a handful of unlikely-really unlikely-heroes, Lewis fashions a story as compelling and unusual as any of his earlier bestsellers, proving yet again that he is the finest and funniest chronicler of our time.]]> 264 Michael Lewis 0393072231 Pat 5 4.20 2010 The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine
author: Michael Lewis
name: Pat
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2010/09/04
date added: 2010/09/04
shelves:
review:
Michael Burry is an extraordinary character, brilliantly depicted by Lewis. It's fascinating reading for this layperson.
]]> <![CDATA[Maisie Dobbs (Maisie Dobbs, #1)]]> 462033 Years later, in 1929, having apprenticed to the renowned Maurice Blanche, a man revered for his work with Scotland Yard, Maisie sets up her own business. Her first assignment, a seemingly tedious inquiry involving a case of suspected infidelity, takes her not only on the trail of a killer, but back to the war she had tried so hard to forget.]]> 292 Jacqueline Winspear 0142004332 Pat 5 3.90 2003 Maisie Dobbs (Maisie Dobbs, #1)
author: Jacqueline Winspear
name: Pat
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at: 2010/09/04
date added: 2010/09/04
shelves:
review:
There's a quiet depth and complexity to this period mystery.
]]> <![CDATA[The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That is Connecting the World]]> 7518289
In little more than half a decade, Facebook has gone from a dorm-room novelty to a company with 500 million users. It is one of the fastest growing companies in history, an essential part of the social life not only of teenagers but hundreds of millions of adults worldwide. As Facebook spreads around the globe, it creates surprising effects—even becoming instrumental in political protests from Colombia to Iran.

Veteran technology reporter David Kirkpatrick had the full cooperation of Facebook’s key executives in researching this fascinating history of the company and its impact on our lives. Kirkpatrick tells us how Facebook was created, why it has flourished, and where it is going next. He chronicles its successes and missteps, and gives readers the most complete assessment anywhere of founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the central figure in the company’s remarkable ascent. This is the Facebook story that can be found nowhere else.

How did a nineteen-year-old Harvard student create a company that has transformed the Internet and how did he grow it to its current enormous size? Kirkpatrick shows how Zuckerberg steadfastly refused to compromise his vision, insistently focusing on growth over profits and preaching that Facebook must dominate (his word) communication on the Internet. In the process, he and a small group of key executives have created a company that has changed social life in the United States and elsewhere, a company that has become a ubiquitous presence in marketing, altering politics, business, and even our sense of our own identity. This is the Facebook Effect.]]> 384 David Kirkpatrick 1439102112 Pat 4 3.86 2010 The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That is Connecting the World
author: David Kirkpatrick
name: Pat
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2010/09/02
shelves:
review:

]]> Barrymore: A Play 1604367 57 William Luce 1568654391 Pat 3 3.84 1996 Barrymore: A Play
author: William Luce
name: Pat
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1996
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2010/09/02
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Spoken from the Heart Collector's Edition]]> 7770554
Born in the boom-and-bust oil town of Midland, Texas, Laura Welch grew up as an only child in a family that lost three babies to miscarriage or infant death. She vividly evokes Midland's brash, rugged culture, her close relationship with her father, and the bonds of early friendships that sustain her to this day. For the first time, in heart-wrenching detail, she writes about the devastating high school car accident that left her friend Mike Douglas dead and about her decades of unspoken grief.

When Laura Welch first left West Texas in 1964, she never imagined that her journey would lead her to the world stage and the White House. After graduating from Southern Methodist University in 1968, in the thick of student rebellions across the country and at the dawn of the women's movement, she became an elementary school teacher, working in inner-city schools, then trained to be a librarian. At age thirty, she met George W. Bush, whom she had last passed in the hallway in seventh grade. Three months later, "the old maid of Midland married Midland's most eligible bachelor." With rare intimacy and candor, Laura Bush writes about her early married life as she was thrust into one of America's most prominent political families, as well as her deep longing for children and her husband's decision to give up drinking. By 1993, she found herself in the full glare of the political spotlight. But just as her husband won the Texas governorship in a stunning upset victory, her father, Harold Welch, was dying in Midland.

In 2001, after one of the closest elections in American history, Laura Bush moved into the White House. Here she captures presidential life in the harrowing days and weeks after 9/11, when fighter-jet cover echoed through the walls and security scares sent the family to an underground shelter. She writes openly about the White House during wartime, the withering and relentless media spotlight, and the transformation of her role as she began to understand the power of the first lady. One of the first U.S. officials to visit war-torn Afghanistan, she also reached out to disease-stricken African nations and tirelessly advocated for women in the Middle East and dissidents in Burma. She championed programs to get kids out of gangs and to stop urban violence. And she was a major force in rebuilding Gulf Coast schools and libraries post-Katrina. Movingly, she writes of her visits with U.S. troops and their loved ones, and of her empathy for and immense gratitude to military families.

With deft humor and a sharp eye, Laura Bush lifts the curtain on what really happens inside the White House, from presidential finances to the 175-year-old tradition of separate bedrooms for presidents and their wives to the antics of some White House guests and even a few members of Congress. She writes with honesty and eloquence about her family, her public triumphs, and her personal tribulations. Laura Bush's compassion, her sense of humor, her grace, and her uncommon willingness to bare her heart make this story revelatory, beautifully rendered, and unlike any other first lady's memoir ever written.]]> 464 Laura Bush 1439195617 Pat 5 3.99 2009 Spoken from the Heart Collector's Edition
author: Laura Bush
name: Pat
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2010/09/02
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't]]> 97905 The definitive guide to working with -- and surviving -- bullies, creeps, jerks, tyrants, tormentors, despots, backstabbers, egomaniacs, and all the other assholes who do their best to destroy you at work.

What an asshole!

How many times have you said that about someone at work? You're not alone! In this groundbreaking book, Stanford University professor Robert I. Sutton builds on his acclaimed Harvard Business Review article to show you the best ways to deal with assholes...and why they can be so destructive to your company. Practical, compassionate, and in places downright funny, this guide offers:

Strategies on how to pinpoint and eliminate negative influences for good
Illuminating case histories from major organizations
A self-diagnostic test and a program to identify and keep your own inner jerk from coming out


The No Asshole Rule is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Business Week bestseller.]]> 224 Robert I. Sutton 0446526568 Pat 4 3.59 2007 The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't
author: Robert I. Sutton
name: Pat
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2010/09/02
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Mallory's Oracle (Kathleen Mallory, #1)]]> 191148 0 Carol O'Connell 0517166151 Pat 5 mysteries 4.33 1994 Mallory's Oracle (Kathleen Mallory, #1)
author: Carol O'Connell
name: Pat
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1994
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2010/08/05
shelves: mysteries
review:

]]> Cary Grant: A Biography 226145 435 Marc Eliot 0307209830 Pat 5 3.71 2004 Cary Grant: A Biography
author: Marc Eliot
name: Pat
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 2010/05/18
date added: 2010/05/18
shelves:
review:

]]> Clint Eastwood: A Biography 1900824 --The New York Times

From the moment The Man With No Name first fixed the screen with his murderous squint, from the first time audiences heard Dirty Harry Callahan growl "Make my day," Clint Eastwood has been an icon of American manhood in all its coolness and ferocity. But that icon is also an actor of surprising subtlety, a filmmaker of vast intelligence and originality--and an intensely private man who eludes the stereotypes with which his fans and critics try to label him.

In this in-depth biography, the distinguished film critic Richard Schickel talks with Eastwood's family, friends, and colleagues--and, above all, with his notoriously reticent subject--to produce a portrait more astute and revealing than any we have ever had.

Following Eastwood from his unstable childhood through his turbulent love affairs, assessing films from A Fistful of Dollars to the Oscar-winning The Unforgiven, and locating the subversive streak of rage and solitude that runs through all his work, Clint Eastwood is candid and endlessly fascinating, an unerring closeup of one of our brightest stars.

"Exhilarating . . . substantial, insightful, and right."
--Newsday]]> 576 Richard Schickel 0679749918 Pat 4 3.79 1996 Clint Eastwood: A Biography
author: Richard Schickel
name: Pat
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at: 2010/05/18
date added: 2010/05/18
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake]]> 375789 277 Frank W. Abagnale 0767905385 Pat 4 3.99 1980 Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake
author: Frank W. Abagnale
name: Pat
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1980
rating: 4
read at: 2009/12/22
date added: 2009/12/23
shelves:
review:
Proving once again that fact is stranger than fiction. I wanted to know if the movie was true to the book, and it was--amazingly.
]]> The Westing Game 902 182 Ellen Raskin 014240120X Pat 3 childrens 4.00 1978 The Westing Game
author: Ellen Raskin
name: Pat
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1978
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2009/12/11
shelves: childrens
review:

]]> Rose Daughter 8089
Twenty years ago, Robin McKinley dazzled readers with the power of her novel Beauty. Now this extraordinarily gifted novelist returns to the story of Beauty and the Beast with a fresh perspective, ingenuity, and mature insight. With Rose Daughter, she presents her finest and most deeply felt work--a compelling, richly imagined, and haunting exploration of the transformative power of love.]]> 304 Robin McKinley 0441005837 Pat 3 teen 3.78 1997 Rose Daughter
author: Robin McKinley
name: Pat
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1997
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2009/12/11
shelves: teen
review:

]]> The Watcher 342220 264 Margaret Buffie 1550748319 Pat 3 teen 3.82 2000 The Watcher
author: Margaret Buffie
name: Pat
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2009/12/11
shelves: teen
review:

]]> <![CDATA[New Moon (The Twilight Saga, #2)]]> 49041 There is an alternate cover edition for ISBN13 9780316160193 here.

I knew we were both in mortal danger. Still, in that instant, I felt well. Whole. I could feel my heart racing in my chest, the blood pulsing hot and fast through my veins again. My lungs filled deep with the sweet scent that came off his skin. It was like there had never been any hole in my chest. I was perfect - not healed, but as if there had never been a wound in the first place.

I FELT LIKE I WAS TRAPPED IN ONE OF THOSE TERRIFYING NIGHTMARES, the one where you have to run, run till your lungs burst, but you can't make your body move fast enough.... But this was no dream, and, unlike the nightmare, I wasn't running for my life; I was racing to save something infinitely more precious. My own life meant little to me today.

FOR BELLA SWAN THERE IS ONE THING more important than life itself: Edward Cullen. But being in love with a vampire is even more dangerous than Bella could ever have imagined. Edward has already rescued Bella from the clutches of one evil vampire, but now, as their daring relationship threatens all that is near and dear to them, they realize their troubles may be just beginning....

LEGIONS OF READERS ENTRANCED BY THE New York Times bestseller Twilight are hungry for the continuing story of star-crossed lovers Bell and Edward. In New Moon, Stephanie Meyer delivers another irresistible combination of romance and suspense with a supernatural spin. passionate, riveting, and full of surprising twists and turns, this vampire love saga is well on its way to literary immortality.]]> 563 Stephenie Meyer 0316160199 Pat 3 teen 3.61 2006 New Moon (The Twilight Saga, #2)
author: Stephenie Meyer
name: Pat
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2009/12/11
shelves: teen
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Wind in the Door (A Wrinkle in Time Quintet, #2)]]> 317522 Every time a star goes out, another Echthros has won a battle.

Just before Meg Murry's little brother, Charles Wallace, falls deathly ill, he sees dragons in the vegetable garden. The dragons turn out to be Proginoskes, a cherubim composed out wings and eyes, wind and flame. It is up to Meg and Proginoskes, along with Meg's friend Calvin, to save Charles Wallace's life. To do so, they must travel deep within Charles Wallace to attempt to defeat the Echthroi—those who hate—and restore brilliant harmony and joy to the rhythm of creation, the song of the universe.]]> 211 Madeleine L'Engle 0374384436 Pat 3 childrens 3.94 1973 A Wind in the Door (A Wrinkle in Time Quintet, #2)
author: Madeleine L'Engle
name: Pat
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1973
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2009/12/11
shelves: childrens
review:

]]> Tom's Midnight Garden 9478 Philippa Pearce 0192717774 Pat 3 childrens 4.00 1958 Tom's Midnight Garden
author: Philippa Pearce
name: Pat
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1958
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2009/12/11
shelves: childrens
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Ruby in the Smoke (Sally Lockhart, #1)]]> 114982
When her dear father is drowned in suspicious circumstances in the South China Sea, Sally is left to fend for herself, an orphan and alone in the smoky fog of Victorian London. Though she doesn't know it, Sally is already in terrible danger. Soon the mystery and the danger will deepen - and at the rotten heart of it all lies the deadly secret of the ruby in the smoke...]]> 230 Philip Pullman 0394895894 Pat 3 teen 3.78 1985 The Ruby in the Smoke (Sally Lockhart, #1)
author: Philip Pullman
name: Pat
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1985
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2009/12/11
shelves: teen
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Twilight (The Twilight Saga, #1)]]> 41865
First, Edward was a vampire.

Second, there was a part of him - and I didn't know how dominant that part might be - that thirsted for my blood.

And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.

Deeply seductive and extraordinarily suspenseful, Twilight is a love story with bite.]]> 498 Stephenie Meyer 0316015849 Pat 5 teen 3.66 2005 Twilight (The Twilight Saga, #1)
author: Stephenie Meyer
name: Pat
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2009/12/11
shelves: teen
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Moon Came Down on Milk Street]]> 2756018 Shh-shhh, shh-shhhhh, in pieces on the ground.

A compelling story with a strong message of
community and togetherness

When the moon suddenly falls on Milk Street, a little boy wonders, "Who will make it right again and set it in the air?" His question is soon answered, as firefighters, rescue workers, and the entire neighborhood of Milk Street come together to restore the moon in the sky.

Jean Gralley's dynamic images and spare text brilliantly illustrate the power of the human spirit during difficult times. This is a story of community, comfort, and brave men and women everywhere.]]> 32 Jean Gralley 0805072667 Pat 5 childrens 3.67 2004 The Moon Came Down on Milk Street
author: Jean Gralley
name: Pat
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2009/12/11
shelves: childrens
review:
Perhaps my all-time favorite picture book. Dedicated to Mr. Rogers, it's about helpers and community. This one's going to my 2 1/2 year old twin grandbabies in Texas this Christmas. They are just old enough for it.
]]> Wag! 6525666 40 Patrick McDonnell 0316045489 Pat 5 childrens 4.14 2009 Wag!
author: Patrick McDonnell
name: Pat
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2009/12/11
shelves: childrens
review:
My second favorite picture book of the year. Similar to the Mo Willem Pigeon books, in that it's playful, but its much sweeter. The fact that it features dogs doesn't hurt.
]]> Meeow and the Little Chairs 6767587 32 Sebastien Braun 190625088X Pat 5 childrens 3.68 2009 Meeow and the Little Chairs
author: Sebastien Braun
name: Pat
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2009/12/11
shelves: childrens
review:
My favorite picture book of the year, a cross between This is not a box by Portis (but a bigger, more storytime friendly version) and Maisy by Cousins. Brilliant in its simplicity.
]]> Joan of Arc: Warrior Saint 2161104 Could any story be more inspiring than that of Joan of Arc, the courageous maiden who fought for the glory of France and God? Guided by what she firmly believed were visions of saints, this young Frenchwoman—still just 16 years old—led her people in battle against the British occupiers. Though she proved victorious in war, Joan ultimately became a martyr when some of her own countrymen betrayed her to the English. Jay Williams captures all the tragedy and pathos of the fearless country girl who was finally recognized as a saint herself.]]> 126 Jay Williams 1402751206 Pat 4 childrens, biography 3.67 1963 Joan of Arc: Warrior Saint
author: Jay Williams
name: Pat
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1963
rating: 4
read at: 2009/12/11
date added: 2009/12/11
shelves: childrens, biography
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, #1)]]> 5899779 “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.�

So begins Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an expanded edition of the beloved Jane Austen novel featuring all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie mayhem. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton—and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she’s soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers—and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield. Can Elizabeth vanquish the spawn of Satan? And overcome the social prejudices of the class-conscious landed gentry? Complete with romance, heartbreak, swordfights, cannibalism, and thousands of rotting corpses,]]> 320 Seth Grahame-Smith 1594743347 Pat 4 3.32 2009 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, #1)
author: Seth Grahame-Smith
name: Pat
average rating: 3.32
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2009/11/26
date added: 2009/11/26
shelves:
review:
It was diverting but I will not be reading the sequel--sea monsters, indeed.
]]> <![CDATA[Going Postal (Discworld, #33; Moist von Lipwig, #1)]]> 64222
It was a tough decision.

But he has to see that the mail gets through, come rain, hail, sleet, dogs, the Post Office Workers' Friendly and Benevolent Society, the evil chairman of the Grand Trunk Semaphore Company, and a midnight killer.

Getting a date with Adora Bell Dearheart would be nice, too.

Maybe it'll take a criminal to succeed where honest men have failed, or maybe it's a death sentence either way.

Or perhaps there's a shot at redemption in the mad world of the mail, waiting for a man who's prepared to push the envelope...]]> 394 Terry Pratchett 0060502932 Pat 0 to-read 4.40 2004 Going Postal (Discworld, #33; Moist von Lipwig, #1)
author: Terry Pratchett
name: Pat
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2009/11/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Help 4667024
Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women, mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends, view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't.


Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here]]> 464 Kathryn Stockett 0399155341 Pat 0 to-read 4.46 2009 The Help
author: Kathryn Stockett
name: Pat
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2009/11/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Stitches: A Memoir 6407014
One day David Small awoke from a supposedly harmless operation to discover that he had been transformed into a virtual mute. A vocal cord removed, his throat slashed and stitched together like a bloody boot, the fourteen-year-old boy had not been told that he had cancer and was expected to die.

In Stitches, Small, the award-winning children's illustrator and author, re-creates this terrifying event in a life story that might have been imagined by Kafka. As the images painfully tumble out, one by one, we gain a ringside seat at a gothic family drama where David—a highly anxious yet supremely talented child—all too often became the unwitting object of his parents' buried frustration and rage.

Believing that they were trying to do their best, David's parents did just the reverse. Edward Small, a Detroit physician, who vented his own anger by hitting a punching bag, was convinced that he could cure his young son's respiratory problems with heavy doses of radiation, possibly causing David's cancer. Elizabeth, David's mother, tyrannically stingy and excessively scolding, ran the Small household under a cone of silence where emotions, especially her own, were hidden.

Depicting this coming-of-age story with dazzling, kaleidoscopic images that turn nightmare into fairy tale, Small tells us of his journey from sickly child to cancer patient, to the troubled teen whose risky decision to run away from home at sixteen—with nothing more than the dream of becoming an artist—will resonate as the ultimate survival statement.

A silent movie masquerading as a book, Stitches renders a broken world suddenly seamless and beautiful again. Finalist for the 2009 National Book Award (Young Adult); finalist for two 2010 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards (Best Writer/Artist: Nonfiction; Best Reality-Based Work).]]> 329 David Small 0393068579 Pat 4 biography 4.05 2009 Stitches: A Memoir
author: David Small
name: Pat
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2009/11/07
shelves: biography
review:

]]> Life with My Sister Madonna 4619630 256 Christopher Ciccone 0743580044 Pat 3 biography 3.00 2008 Life with My Sister Madonna
author: Christopher Ciccone
name: Pat
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2009/11/07
date added: 2009/10/20
shelves: biography
review:

]]> Pieces of My Heart 4402890 0 Robert J. Wagner 0061664626 Pat 4 biography 4.00 2008 Pieces of My Heart
author: Robert J. Wagner
name: Pat
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2009/09/01
date added: 2009/10/18
shelves: biography
review:
I love memoirs / autobiographies read by the subject. Of course he does a wonderful job. I am a huge Barbara Stanwyck fan so I was fascinated to hear how completely in love with her he was--for many years. As far as celebrity gossip goes, hHe clearly had some scores to settle so who knows if his version is reliable--but it sure was fun.
]]> A. Lincoln 4059448 NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
The Washington Post•�The Philadelphia Inquirer �The Christian Science Monitor � St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

WINNER OF THE CHRISTOPHER AWARD

Everyone wants to define the man who signed his name “A. Lincoln.� In his lifetime and ever since, friend and foe have taken it upon themselves to characterize Lincoln according to their own label or libel. In this magnificent book, Ronald C. White, Jr., offers a fresh and compelling definition of Lincoln as a man of integrity–what today’s commentators would call “authenticity”–whose moral compass holds the key to understanding his life.

Through meticulous research of the newly completed Lincoln Legal Papers, as well as of recently discovered letters and photographs, White provides a portrait of Lincoln’s personal, political, and moral evolution. White shows us Lincoln as a man who would leave a trail of thoughts in his wake, jotting ideas on scraps of paper and filing them in his top hat or the bottom drawer of his desk; a country lawyer who asked questions in order to figure out his own thinking on an issue, as much as to argue the case; a hands-on commander in chief who, as soldiers and sailors watched in amazement, commandeered a boat and ordered an attack on Confederate shore batteries at the tip of the Virginia peninsula; a man who struggled with the immorality of slavery and as president acted publicly and privately to outlaw it forever; and finally, a president involved in a religious odyssey who wrote, for his own eyes only, a profound meditation on “the will of God� in the Civil War that would become the basis of his finest address.

Most enlightening, the Abraham Lincoln who comes into focus in this stellar narrative is a person of intellectual curiosity, comfortable with ambiguity, unafraid to “think anew and act anew.�

A transcendent, sweeping, passionately written biography that greatly expands our knowledge and understanding of its subject, A. Lincoln will engage a whole new generation of Americans. It is poised to shed a profound light on our greatest president just as America commemorates the bicentennial of his birth.]]> 816 Ronald C. White Jr. 1400064996 Pat 5 biography 4.30 2009 A. Lincoln
author: Ronald C. White Jr.
name: Pat
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2009/06/01
date added: 2009/10/18
shelves: biography
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Life As We Knew It (Last Survivors, #1)]]> 2170567
Everything else in Miranda’s life fades away as supermarkets run out of food, gas goes up to more than ten dollars a gallon, and school is closed indefinitely. But what Miranda and her family don’t realize is that the worst is yet to come.

Told in Miranda’s diary entries, this is a heart-pounding account of her struggle to hold on to the most important resource of all–hope–in an increasingly desperate and unfamiliar time.]]> 0 Susan Beth Pfeffer 0739336835 Pat 5 teen 3.63 2006 Life As We Knew It (Last Survivors, #1)
author: Susan Beth Pfeffer
name: Pat
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 2009/10/20
date added: 2009/10/18
shelves: teen
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Sweet Far Thing (Gemma Doyle, #3)]]> 127459
Now, as Gemma approaches her London debut, the time has come to test these bonds. The Order - the mysterious group her mother was once part of - is grappling for control of the realms, as is the Rakshana. Spence's burned East Wing is being rebuilt, but why now? Gemma and her friends see Pippa, but she is not the same. And their friendship faces its gravest trial as Gemma must decide once and for all what role she is meant for.]]> 819 Libba Bray 0385730306 Pat 4 teen 3.98 2007 The Sweet Far Thing (Gemma Doyle, #3)
author: Libba Bray
name: Pat
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2009/10/05
shelves: teen
review:

]]> Keturah and Lord Death 331830 216 Martine Leavitt 1932425292 Pat 4 3.90 2006 Keturah and Lord Death
author: Martine Leavitt
name: Pat
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2009/10/05
shelves:
review:

]]> Nation 2855034 Daphne, sole survivor of the wreck of the Sweet Judy, almost immediately regrets trying to shoot the native boy. Thank goodness the powder was wet and the gun only produced a spark. She’s certain her father, distant cousin of the Royal family, will come and rescue her but it seems, for now, that all she has for company is the boy and the foul-mouthed ship’s parrot, until other survivors arrive to take refuge on the island. Together, Mau and Daphne discover some remarkable things (including how to milk a pig, and why spitting in beer is a good thing), and start to forge a new nation.

Encompassing themes of death and nationhood, Terry Pratchett’s new novel is, as can be expected, extremely funny, witty and wise. Mau’s ancestors have something to teach us all. Mau just wishes they would shut up about it and let him get on with saving everyone’s lives!]]> 367 Terry Pratchett 0061433012 Pat 4 teen 4.08 2008 Nation
author: Terry Pratchett
name: Pat
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2009/10/05
shelves: teen
review:

]]> Deadline 275844 Had big things planned. Now what he has is some very bad news and only one year left to make his mark on the world.

How can a pint-sized, smart-ass seventeen-year-old do anything significant in the nowheresville of Trout, Idaho?

First, Ben makes sure that no one else knows what is going on—not his superstar quarterback brother, Cody, not his parents, not his coach, no one. Next, he decides to become the best 127-pound football player Trout High has ever seen; to give his close-minded civics teacher a daily migraine; and to help the local drunk clean up his act.

And then there's Dallas Suzuki. Amazingly perfect, fascinating Dallas Suzuki, who may or may not give Ben the time of day. Really, she's first on the list.

Living with a secret isn't easy, though, and Ben's resolve begins to crumble . . . especially when he realizes that he isn't the only person in Trout with secrets.]]> 316 Chris Crutcher 0060850892 Pat 5 teen 3.93 2007 Deadline
author: Chris Crutcher
name: Pat
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2008/08/04
shelves: teen
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Daughter of Time (Inspector Alan Grant, #5)]]> 77661 206 Josephine Tey Pat 0 to-read 3.89 1951 The Daughter of Time (Inspector Alan Grant, #5)
author: Josephine Tey
name: Pat
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1951
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2007/11/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>