Genre
Title
Purchase Date
Bookseller
B&N Net Rank
The Book
(Reading Status)
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Magic
Magicians
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Declared Unreadable
July 20th, 2006
 
Jonathan
Strange
& Mr. Norrell
Susanna Clarke
ISBN 1582344167
Published 2004
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January 2006
science fiction
bookclub.com
8,428 |
From the Publisher:
"Centuries ago, when magic still existed in England, the greatest magician of them all was the Raven King. A human child brought up by fairies, the Raven King blended fairy wisdom and human reason to create English magic. Now, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, he is barely more than a legend, and England, with its mad King and its dashing poets, no longer believes in practical magic ... "
The Reviewers:
"What kind of magic can make an 800-page novel seem too short? Whatever it is, debut author Susanna Clarke is possessed by it." ~ USA Today on Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
"Ravishing…A chimera of a novel that combines the dark mythology of fantasy with the delicious social comedy of Jane Austen into a masterpiece of the genre that rivals Tolkien ... What really sets Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell apart is its treatment of magic. Clarke's magic is a melancholy, macabre thing, confabulated out of snow and rain and mirrors and described with absolute realism ... Clarke has another rare faculty: she can depict evil ... [she] reaches down into fantasy's deep, dark, twisted roots, down into medieval history and the scary, Freudian fairy-tale stuff. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell reminds us that there's a reason fantasy endures: it's the language of our dreams. And our nightmares." ~ Time
"Clarke's imagination is prodigious, her pacing is masterly and she knows how to employ dry humor in the service of majesty." ~ The New York Times on Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
"Unquestionably the finest English novel of the fantastic written in the last seventy years. It's funny, moving, scary, otherworldly, practical and magical, a journey through light and shadow—a delight to read, both for the elegant and precise use of words, which Ms. Clarke deploys as wisely and dangerously as Wellington once deployed his troops, and for the vast sweep of the story, as tangled and twisting as old London streets or dark English woods. Closing Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell after 800 pages, my only regret was that it wasn't twice the length.... From beginning to end, a perfect pleasure." ~ Neil Gaiman, author of Anansi Boys, American Gods, and the Sandman series
"Immense, intelligent, inventive…Clarke is a restrained and witty writer with an arch and eminently readable style."
~ Entertainment Weekly on Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
"Over the course of nearly 800 pages Clarke channels the world of Jane Austen, the Gothic tale, the Silver-Fork Society novel, military adventure à la Bernard Sharpe or Patrick O'Brian, romantic Byronism and Walter Scott's passion for the heroic Northern past. She orchestrates all these fictive elements consummately well…Many books are to be read, some are to be studied, and a few are meant to be lived in for weeks. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is of this last kind." ~ The Washington Post on Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
"Combining folklore and fantasy with horror-story imagination, [Clarke] creates a Napoleonic-era England alive with the promise—and danger—of uncontrollable forces…Clarke’s sober style keeps the fantasy grounded, and meticulous historical research brings the magical episodes to terrifying life." ~ People (Critic's choice, four stars) on Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
"The most sparkling literary debut of the year." ~ Salon on Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Begun: 03/16/2006
Gave up: 7/20/2006
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Classic Novel
Pulitzer Prize 1960
|
Declared Unreadable
August 19th, 2005
Advise and Consent
by Allen Drury
Copyright © 1960
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2004
Phoenix Public Library
NA |
Courtesy allreaders.com:
"The President of the United States nominates a questionable candidate for the position of Secretary of State that's being vacated under suspicious circumstances. The Majority Leader is given the responsibility to ramrod the nomination through the Senate. A southern Senator has different ideas. And so do others...but their pasts catch up with them. An evil occupant sits in the White House who's used to getting his own way, at whatever the cost to himself, or others! A haunted past leads to the death of a revered colleague, and the Senate rebels. The issue of advise and consent comes to a head in a devastating way. A novel that reminds one of the contemporary times we live in, where democracy has lost its meaning. Power rules the roost, not the majority's will and desires. An epic and classic tale of the legislative and executive branches of government colliding on different paths, both seeking what's best for the country...and themselves."
F. Scott Sinclair
Resident Scholar
Begun: 05/07/2005
Gave Up: 08/19/2005
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Science Fiction
|
Declared Unreadable
March 7th, 2006 &
Thrown in the Fireplace
 
The Quiet Invasion
Sarah Zettel
ISBN 0446524891
Copyright © 2003
|
January 2006
HamiltonBook.com
NA |
From the Publisher:
"Everyone wants something from Venus. Dr. Helen Failia wants her orbital research city, Venera, to become a permanent Venusian colony. Dr. Grace Meyer wants to vindicate her theory of alien life. Techno-artist Dr. Veronica Hatch wants an inspiration. The U.N. wants to keep space colonies under its control, while covert rebels on Venera want to liberate the Moon and Mars from the U.N. All any of them need is a miracle, which is unlikely on an uninhabitable world of lethal heat, deadly pressure, and poison winds. But that's exactly what Venus yields, when a robot probe discovers on its surface a ruined building that promises proof of ancient extraterrestrial life." "Then the humans are contacted by other, quite living, aliens. And for these avian beings known as the People, Venus is a true miracle ... "
Begun: 02/22/2006
Declared Unreadable
03/07/2006
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Books History
Library Science
|
A Splendor of Letters:
The Permanence of Books in an Impermanent World
Nicholas A. Basbanes
ISBN 0060082879
Copyright © 2003
|
Feb. 21, 2006
Reader's Subscription
158,849 |
From the Publisher:
"Nicholas A. Basbanes offers a consideration of the many pressing issues that surround the role of books in contemporary society, such as the willful destruction of books and libraries in Sarajevo, Tibet, and Cambodia, and the spirited efforts to restore them. The matter of "discards" at various libraries takes on an entirely new dimension as well, with fully researched stories about the kind of attitudes that may lead to the loss of "last copies" of important works. In vivid detail, Basbanes examines the many materials that have been used over the centuries to record information - among them clay tablets, papyrus scrolls, slabs of stone, palm leaves, animal skins, and hammered sheets of gold and copper. Also discussed are the various debates that continue to rage about preservation, which may mean saving and storing books on paper indefinitely, or as electronic data, which are by nature ephemeral."
(On Shelf)
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History
|
Queen of Scots:
The True Life of
Mary Stuart
John Guy
ISBN 0618619178
Copyright © 2004
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Feb. 6, 2006
qpb.com
16,821 |
From the Publisher:
"The Eminent Historian John Guy has unearthed a wealth of evidence that upends the popular notion of Mary Queen of Scots as a femme fatale and establishes her as the intellectual and political equal of Elizabeth I. Guy draws on sources as varied as the secret communiques of English spies and Mary's own letters (many hitherto unstudied) to depict her world and her actions with stunning immediacy. Here is a revelatory reappraisal of her multifaceted character and prodigious political skill. Guy dispels the ingrained popular image of Mary as a romantic leading lady, achieving her ends through feminine wiles, driven by love to murder, undone by passion and bad judgment. ... "
(On Shelf)
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History
Astronomy
|
The Book Nobody Read
Chasing the Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus
Owen Gingerich
ISBN 0802714153
Copyright © 2004
|
Jan. 20, 2006
Reader's Subscription
551,704 |
From the Publisher:
"In the spring of 1543, as astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus lay on his deathbed, his fellow clerics brought him a long-awaited package: the final printed pages of the book he had worked on for many years, De revolutionibus (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres). Though Copernicus would not live to hear of its extraordinary impact, his book, which first suggested that the Sun, not the Earth, is the center of the universe, is recognized as one of the most influential scientific works of all time - thanks in part to astro-physicist Owen Gingerich ... "
(On Shelf)
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Writing
|
The Complete Guide
to Writing Fiction
Barnaby Conrad
ISBN 0898793955
Copyright © 1990
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January 2006
HamiltonBook.com
NA |
From the Publisher:
"A complete, concise guide to writing and selling long and short fiction, including outlining, description and more."
Mr.Wonderful Comments:
Perhaps James Frey, author of the supposedly non-fiction, A Million Little Pieces, should have purchased and learned from this book.
(On Shelf)
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Political
Intellectuals
General
History & Theory
Criticism
Politics and Literature
|
The Edward Said Reader
Edited by:
Moustafa Bayoumi
Andrew Rubin
ISBN 0375709363
Copyright © 2000
|
Dec. 12, 2005
Reader's Subscription
132,654 |
From the Publisher:
"Edward Said, the renowned literary and cultural critic and passionately engaged intellectual, is one of our era's most formidable, provocative, and important thinkers. For more than three decades his books, which include Culture and Imperialism, Peace and Its Discontents, and the seminal study Orientalism, have influenced not only our worldview but the very terms of public discourse.
The Edward Said Reader includes key sections from all of Said's books, from the ground breaking 1966 study of Joseph Conrad to his new memoir, Out of Place. Whether he is writing of Zionism or Palestinian self-determination, Jane Austen or Yeats, music or the media, Said's uncompromising intelligence casts urgent light on every subject he undertakes. The Edward Said Reader will prove a joy to the general reader and an indispensable resource for scholars of politics, history, literature, and cultural studies: in short, of all those fields that his work has influenced and, in some cases, transformed."
(On Shelf)
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Science Fiction
|
The Number of the Beast
Robert A. Heinlein
ISBN 0449130703
Copyright © 1980
|
Nov. 12, 2005
Borders
61,688 |
From the Publisher:
"When two male and two female supremely sensual, unspeakably cerebral humans find themselves under attack from aliens who want their awesome quantum breakthrough, they take to the skies — and zoom into the cosmos on a rocket roller coaster ride of adventure and danger, ecstasy and peril."
(On Shelf)
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Biography
Royalty
|
Queen Victoria
Lytton Strachey
ISBN 0156027569
Copyright © 1921
Reprinted 2003
|
September 2005
Daedalus Books & Music
62,492 |
From the Publisher:
"Hailed as a "brilliant masterpiece" by the London Times, Lytton Strachey's classic work gives the most comprehensive and delightful look at Queen Victoria and her reign. The book that changed the style of biographical writing is now expanded with historical illustrations. Here is the full panorama of Victoria's life, her childhood, her marriage to Albert, and her majestic domination of a colorful court circle. Illustrated spreads beautifully depict the great men and women of her time, Balmoral Castle, The Great Exhibition of 1851, and scenes of the Empire at its finest moment. Originally published in 1921, this prose timelessly portrays the details of the royal family that fascinated readers in the Victorian era and continue to intrigue us in the present day. Strachey's flair for throwing "a sudden revealing searchlight into obscure recesses, hitherto undivined," places Queen Victoria as one of the literary landmarks of the century."
(On Shelf)
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Writing-Fiction
|
Wallace Stegner
On Teaching and Writing Fiction
Edited by Lynn Stegner
ISBN 0142001473
Published March 2002
|
September 2005
Powells.com
237,412 |
From the Publisher:
"This unique collection of previously uncollected work addresses every aspect of fiction writing, from the writer's vision to his or her audience; from the use of symbolism to swear words; from the mystery of the creative process to the recognizable truth it seeks finally to reveal. Stegner explores the process of composition as it relates to the writer's evolving character, what demands he makes on himself both as a member of the species and as a citizen of culture, his responsibilities as a serious artist and the spiritual rigors of the life it describes."
(On Shelf)
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Writing
|
Mortification:
Writers' Stories of Their Public Shame
Edited by
Robert Robertson
ISBN 0007170580
Published March 2004
|
September 2005
HamiltonBook.com
352,874 |
From the Publisher:
"A writer's public life is not -- as is often thought -- a round of glamorous parties, prize-acceptance speeches, and triumphant readings to amphitheatres full of loyal, cheering fans; it is, in fact, a grim treadmill of humiliation and neglect. Mortification sets the record straight, once and for all. A collection of seventy specially commissioned contributions -- true stories of public indignity by some of our finest living writers -- this is a celebration of defeat, and a chance to indulge in that most malicious of pleasures: schadenfreude.
(On Shelf)
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Writing
|
Writer Tells All:
Insider Secrets to Getting Your Book Published
Robert Masello
ISBN 0805065512
Published March 2001
|
September 2005
HamiltonBook.com
NA |
From the Publisher:
"In this frank, funny, and highly informative book, professional writer Robert Masello takes you through the whole publication process, step-by-step, from the moment of inspiration to publication day and beyond. Whether you're writing a novel or nonfiction, a murder mystery or a memoir, Masello knows exactly what you're going through. He's not an editor, an agent, or a publisher -- he's working writer, the author of thirteen previous books. He knows the doubts and fears, the questions and quandaries that every new author experiences -- and he also knows how to overcome them. Writer Tells All gives you everything you need to know to get your own book successfully written, published, and promoted. Masello spares no one -- least of all himself -- in this absolutely candid, and often hilarious, account of how the book business really works."
(On Shelf)
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U.S. Federal Government
|
The Pig Book:
How Government Wastes Your Money
ISBN: 0312343574
Published April 2005
|
July 2005
conservative
bookclub.com
74,140
|
From the Publisher:
"The 1984 Grace Commission uncovered that the Department of Defense spent $640 for a toilet seat and $436 for a hammer. Twenty years later things weren't much better. In 2004 Congress spent a record-breaking $22.9 billion of your money on 10,656 of their pork-barrel projects."
(On Shelf)
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Authors Biography
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Final Drafts:
Suicides of
world-famous authors
ISBN: 1573927414
Pub.Date 1999
|
May 2005
HamiltonBook.com
NA
|
From the Publisher:
"In Final Drafts Suicides of World-Famous Authors writer Mark Seinfelt examines in depth the lives and deaths of twenty-five authors who killed themselves between 1894 and 1991.. "The list is long. Each of the artists who took his or her life did so for unique reasons. But distinct patterns do emerge: several questioned their own abilities as writers; some felt guilt at being gay or lesbian; others suffered debilitating illnesses or believed they were going mad; still others succumbed to manic depression."
(On Shelf)
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English Language
|
The Brief
Bedford Reader
Sixth Edition
ISBN: 0312136331
Pub.Date 1997
|
May 2005
HamiltonBook.com
109,712
|
From the Publisher:
"A compact version of one of the most widely adopted composition readers of all time — at a significant savings to students — The Brief Bedford Reader continues to engage and inspire with 50 remarkable selections, all the outstanding instructional material of the full-length text, and a unique "Writers on Writing" feature in which 32 of the book's writers comment on their process and their work."
(On Shelf)
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Hollywood - Social Life and Customs
|
Inside Hollywood
A Writer's Guide to Researching the World of Movies and TV
John Morgan Wilson
ISBN: 0898798329
Pub.Date 1998
|
May 2005
HamiltonBook.com
676,626
|
From the Publisher:
"Open this book and uncover the real Hollywood. From the stars to the studio heads, award-winning writer John Morgan Wilson cuts through the cliches and the hype to give you an insider's perspective on living and working in Tinseltown. Whether you want to write about or pursue a career in Hollywood, you'll learn the lingo, business protocol and physical geography that characterize this famed city..."
(On Shelf)
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UFOs &
Extraterrestrials
Religion &
Science
|
Alien Intrusion :
UFOs and the Evolution Connection
|
February 2005
answersingenesis.org
18,092 |
From the Publisher:
"UFOs have been seen throughout the centuries. But in our enlightened technological age, are we any closer to solving the mystery? This book revisits the most famous events that have defined UFO culture, such as Roswell and alien autopsies . . . "
(On Shelf)
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Historical
Biography
|
Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code:
A Historian Reveals What We Really Know about Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Constantine
|
February 2005
barnesandnoble.com
2,094 |
From the Publisher:
"As historian Bart D. Ehrman shows in this book, The Da Vinci Code is filled with numerous historical mistakes. Did the ancient church engage in a cover-up to make the man Jesus into a divine figure? Did Emperor Constantine select for the New Testament - from some 80 contending Gospels - the only four Gospels that stressed that Jesus was divine? Was Jesus Christ married to Mary Magdalene . . . "
(On Shelf)
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U.S. History
18th Century
|
America's First Dynasty :
The Adamses, 1735-1918
|
January 2005
conservative
bookclub.com
268 |
From the Publisher:
"Richard Brookhiser has won a wide and loyal following for his stylish, pointed, and elegant biographies of George Washington and Alexander Hamilton. In America's First Dynasty, Brookhiser tells the story of America's longest and still greatest dynasty -- the Adamses, the only family in our history to play a leading role in American affairs for nearly two centuries."
(On Shelf)
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