Neha's bookshelf: all en-US Sun, 20 Sep 2026 08:56:25 -0700 60 Neha's bookshelf: all 144 41 https://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Norwegian Wood 11297
A magnificent blending of the music, the mood, and the ethos that was the sixties with the story of one college student's romantic coming of age, Norwegian Wood brilliantly recaptures a young man's first, hopeless, and heroic love.]]> 296 Haruki Murakami Neha 0 currently-reading 3.99 1987 Norwegian Wood
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Neha
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1987
rating: 0
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]]> The Stranger 49552 The Stranger has long been considered a classic of twentieth-century literature. Le Monde ranks it as number one on its "100 Books of the Century" list. Through this story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on a sundrenched Algerian beach, Camus explores what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd."]]> 123 Albert Camus Neha 0 currently-reading 4.04 1942 The Stranger
author: Albert Camus
name: Neha
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1942
rating: 0
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]]> A Quiet Place 27134643
When Tsuneo goes to apologize to the boutique owner for the trouble caused by his wife’s death he discovers the villa Tachibana near by, a house known to be a meeting place for secret lovers. As he digs deeper into his wife's recent past, he must eventually conclude that she led a double life...]]> 235 Seichō Matsumoto 1908524634 Neha 4 3.54 1975 A Quiet Place
author: Seichō Matsumoto
name: Neha
average rating: 3.54
book published: 1975
rating: 4
read at: 2026/09/03
date added: 2026/09/03
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]]> Yellowface 62047984
So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? This piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller. That is what June believes, and The New York Times bestseller list agrees.

But June cannot escape Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens her stolen success. As she races to protect her secret she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.]]> 319 R.F. Kuang Neha 3 3.67 2023 Yellowface
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Neha
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2026/08/23
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]]> Thinking, Fast and Slow 11468377 Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. Kahneman exposes the extraordinary capabilities—and also the faults and biases—of fast thinking, and reveals the pervasive influence of intuitive impressions on our thoughts and behavior. The impact of loss aversion and overconfidence on corporate strategies, the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, the challenges of properly framing risks at work and at home, the profound effect of cognitive biases on everything from playing the stock market to planning the next vacation—each of these can be understood only by knowing how the two systems work together to shape our judgments and decisions.

Engaging the reader in a lively conversation about how we think, Kahneman reveals where we can and cannot trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking. He offers practical and enlightening insights into how choices are made in both our business and our personal lives—and how we can use different techniques to guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble. Thinking, Fast and Slow will transform the way you think about thinking.]]> 499 Daniel Kahneman 0374275637 Neha 0 did-not-finish 4.16 2011 Thinking, Fast and Slow
author: Daniel Kahneman
name: Neha
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2026/08/15
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]]> The Casual Vacancy 13497818 503 J.K. Rowling 0316228532 Neha 1 did-not-finish 3.28 2012 The Casual Vacancy
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Neha
average rating: 3.28
book published: 2012
rating: 1
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date added: 2026/08/15
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]]> <![CDATA[Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window]]> 328802 232 Tetsuko Kuroyanagi 4770020678 Neha 2 4.38 1981 Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window
author: Tetsuko Kuroyanagi
name: Neha
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1981
rating: 2
read at: 2026/08/05
date added: 2026/08/05
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]]> <![CDATA[The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty (Sleeping Beauty, #1)]]> 26582 253 A.N. Roquelaure Neha 0 to-read 3.23 1983 The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty (Sleeping Beauty, #1)
author: A.N. Roquelaure
name: Neha
average rating: 3.23
book published: 1983
rating: 0
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]]> The Necklace 420275 48 Guy de Maupassant 1568461933 Neha 0 to-read 3.84 1884 The Necklace
author: Guy de Maupassant
name: Neha
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1884
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas]]> 92625 Some inhabitants of a peaceful kingdom cannot tolerate the act of cruelty that underlies its happiness.

The story 'Omelas" was first published in 'New Dimensions 3' (1973), a hard-cover science fiction anthology edited by Robert Silverberg, in October 1973, and the following year it won the prestigious Hugo Award for best short story.

The work was subsequently printed in Le Guin's short story collection 'The Wind's Twelve Quarters' (1975).

Ursula K Le Guin (1929–2018) was an American writer who published twenty-two novels, eleven volumes of short stories, four collections of essays, twelve books for children, six volumes of poetry & four of translation, and has received many awards: Hugo, Nebula, National Book Award, PEN-Malamud, and more. She was known for her treatment of gender ('The Left Hand of Darkness' (1969), 'The Matter of Seggri' (1994)), political systems ('The Telling' (2000), 'The Dispossessed' (1974)) and difference/otherness in any other form.]]> 32 Ursula K. Le Guin 0886825016 Neha 0 to-read 4.38 1973 The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
author: Ursula K. Le Guin
name: Neha
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1973
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[An Artist of the Floating World]]> 28922
Now, as the mature Ono struggles through the aftermath of that war, his memories of his youth and of the “floating world”—the nocturnal world of pleasure, entertainment, and drink—offer him both escape and redemption, even as they punish him for betraying his early promise. Indicted by society for its defeat and reviled for his past aesthetics, he relives the passage through his personal history that makes him both a hero and a coward but, above all, a human being.]]> 206 Kazuo Ishiguro 0571225365 Neha 0 to-read 3.79 1986 An Artist of the Floating World
author: Kazuo Ishiguro
name: Neha
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1986
rating: 0
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date added: 2026/07/25
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]]> The Correspondent 223001257 “Imagine, the letters one has sent out into the world, the letters received back in turn, are like the pieces of a magnificent puzzle. . . . Isn’t there something wonderful in that, to think that a story of one’s life is preserved in some way, that this very letter may one day mean something, even if it is a very small thing, to someone?”

Filled with knowledge that only comes from a life fully lived, The Correspondent is a gem of a novel about the power of finding solace in literature and connection with people we might never meet in person. It is about the hubris of youth and the wisdom of old age, and the mistakes and acts of kindness that occur during a lifetime.

Sybil Van Antwerp has throughout her life used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. Most mornings, around half past ten, Sybil sits down to write letters—to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter.

Sybil expects her world to go on as it always has—a mother, grandmother, wife, divorcee, distinguished lawyer, she has lived a very full life. But when letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life, she realizes that the letter she has been writing over the years needs to be read and that she cannot move forward until she finds it in her heart to offer forgiveness.

Sybil Van Antwerp’s life of letters might be “a very small thing,” but she also might be one of the most memorable characters you will ever read.]]> 285 Virginia Evans 0593798430 Neha 4 4.41 2025 The Correspondent
author: Virginia Evans
name: Neha
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2026/07/18
date added: 2026/07/17
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]]> Zen in the Art of Archery 103758
This book is the result of the author’s six year quest to learn archery in the hands of Japanese Zen masters. It is an honest account of one man’s journey to complete abandonment of ‘the self’ and the Western principles that we use to define ourselves. Professor Herrigel imparts knowledge from his experiences and guides the reader through physical and spiritual lessons in a clear and insightful way.

Mastering archery is not the key to achieving Zen, and this is not a practical guide to archery. It is more a guide to Zen principles and learning and perfect for practitioners and non-practitioners alike.]]> 81 Eugen Herrigel 0375705090 Neha 3 3.99 1948 Zen in the Art of Archery
author: Eugen Herrigel
name: Neha
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1948
rating: 3
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]]> <![CDATA[The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity]]> 51187677 In the spirit of On Bullshit and Assholes: A Theory, an economist explores the five laws that confirm our worst fears: stupid people can and do rule the world

Since time immemorial, a powerful dark force has hindered the growth of human welfare and happiness. It is more powerful than the Mafia or the military. It has global catastrophic effects and can be found anywhere from the world's most powerful boardrooms to your local pub. This is the immensely powerful force of human stupidity.

Seeing the shambolic state of human affairs, and sensing the dark force at work behind it, Carlo M. Cipolla, the late, noted professor of economic history at the University of California, Berkeley, created a vitally important economic model that would allow us to detect, know, and neutralize this threat: The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity.

If you've ever found yourself despairing at the ubiquity of stupidity among even the most 'intellectual' of people, then this hilarious, timely, and slightly alarming little book is for you. Arm yourself in the face of baffling political realities, unreasonable colleagues, or the unbridled misery of Christmas day with the in-laws with the first and only economic model for stupidity.

"A masterly book" --Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan

"A classic" --Simon Kuper, Financial Times

"Cipolla's subtle tongue-in-cheek humor made this book an underground classic in Italy. Today, under current worldwide political trends, it reads more like black humor. Keep in mind: reliable statistical data shows that 98% of the people seriously believe that they are far less stupid than the average." --Carlo Rovelli, author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics]]> 96 Carlo M. Cipolla 0385546483 Neha 3 3.93 1976 The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity
author: Carlo M. Cipolla
name: Neha
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1976
rating: 3
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date added: 2026/07/05
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]]> 1Q84 (1Q84, #3) 7717482
そして2009年、『1Q84』は逆の方向から1984年を描いた近過去小説である。

そこに描かれているのは「こうであったかもしれない」世界なのだ。

私たちが生きている現在が、「そうではなかったかもしれない」世界であるのと、ちょうど同じように。]]> 473 Haruki Murakami 4103534257 Neha 5 3.91 2010 1Q84 (1Q84, #3)
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Neha
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2026/07/04
date added: 2026/07/04
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]]> The Denial of Death 2761 The Denial of Death is Ernest Becker's brilliant and impassioned answer to the "why" of human existence. In bold contrast to the predominant Freudian school of thought, Becker tackles the problem of the vital lie -- man's refusal to acknowledge his own mortality. In doing so, he sheds new light on the nature of humanity and issues a call to life and its living that still resonates more than twenty years after its writing.]]> 336 Ernest Becker Neha 0 to-read 4.05 1973 The Denial of Death
author: Ernest Becker
name: Neha
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1973
rating: 0
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date added: 2026/07/01
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]]> Orphan X (Orphan X, #1) 40874079 Who is Orphan X?

The Nowhere Man is a legendary figure spoken about only in whispers. It’s said that when he’s reached by the truly desperate and deserving, the Nowhere Man can and will do anything to protect and save them. But he’s not merely a legend.

Evan Smoak is a man with skills, resources, and a personal mission to help those with nowhere else to turn. He’s also a man with a dangerous past. Chosen as a child, he was raised and trained as an Orphan, an off-the-books black box program designed to create the perfect deniable intelligence asset: An assassin. Evan was Orphan X—until he broke with the program and used everything he learned to disappear. But now someone is on his tail. Someone with similar skills and training who will exploit Evan’s secret new identity as the Nowhere Man to eliminate him.]]> 367 Gregg Hurwitz Neha 1 4.15 2016 Orphan X (Orphan X, #1)
author: Gregg Hurwitz
name: Neha
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2016
rating: 1
read at: 2026/06/14
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]]> Bel-Ami 780581 416 Guy de Maupassant 0140443150 Neha 0 to-read 3.86 1885 Bel-Ami
author: Guy de Maupassant
name: Neha
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1885
rating: 0
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date added: 2026/05/27
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]]> 84, Charing Cross Road 368916 106 Helene Hanff Neha 0 to-read 4.17 1970 84, Charing Cross Road
author: Helene Hanff
name: Neha
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1970
rating: 0
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date added: 2026/05/24
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]]> 1Q84 #1-2 (1Q84, #1-2) 12254379
A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 —“Q is for ‘question mark.’ A world that bears a question.” Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled.

A love story, a mystery, a fantasy, a novel of self-discovery, a dystopia to rival George Orwell’s—1Q84 is Haruki Murakami’s most ambitious undertaking yet: an instant best seller in his native Japan, and a tremendous feat of imagination from one of our most revered contemporary writers]]> 805 Haruki Murakami Neha 5 4.08 2009 1Q84 #1-2 (1Q84, #1-2)
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Neha
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2026/04/30
date added: 2026/04/30
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]]> <![CDATA[The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary]]> 25019 The Professor and the Madman, masterfully researched and eloquently written, is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary -- and literary history. The compilation of the OED, begun in 1857, was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, discovered that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light: Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.]]> 242 Simon Winchester 0060839783 Neha 0 to-read 3.84 1998 The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
author: Simon Winchester
name: Neha
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1998
rating: 0
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date added: 2026/04/01
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]]> <![CDATA[Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son]]> 1221559 364 George Horace Lorimer 0766161803 Neha 0 to-read 4.05 1902 Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son
author: George Horace Lorimer
name: Neha
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1902
rating: 0
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date added: 2026/03/05
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]]> What Makes Sammy Run? 101191
Everyone of us knows someone who runs. He is one of the symp-toms of our times—from the little man who shoves you out of the way on the street to the go-getter who shoves you out of a job in the office to the Fuehrer who shoves you out of the world. And all of us have stopped to wonder, at some time or another, what it is that makes these people tick. What makes them run?

This is the question Schulberg has asked himself, and the answer is the first novel written with the indignation that only a young writer with talent and ideals could concentrate into a manuscript. It is the story of Sammy Glick, the man with a positive genius for being a heel, who runs through New York’s East Side, through newspaper ranks and finally through Hollywood, leaving in his wake the wrecked careers of his associates; for this is his tragedy and his chief characteristic—his congenital incapacity for friendship.

An older and more experienced novelist might have tempered his story and, in so doing, destroyed one of its outstanding qualities. Compromise would mar the portrait of Sammy Glick. Schulberg has etched it in pure vitriol, and dissected his victim with a precision that is almost frightening.

When a fragment of this book appeared as a short story in a national magazine, Schulberg was surprised at the number of letters he received from people convinced they knew Sammy Glick’s real name. But speculation as to his real identity would be utterly fruitless, for Sammy is a composite picture of a loud and spectacular minority bitterly resented by the many decent and sincere artists who are trying honestly to realize the measureless potentialities of motion pictures. To this group belongs Schulberg himself, who has not only worked as a screen writer since his graduation from Dartmouth College in 1936, but has spent his life, literally, in the heart of the motion-picture colony. In the course of finding out what makes Sammy run (an operation in which the reader is spared none of the grue-some details) Schulberg has poured out everything he has felt about that place. The result is a book which the publishers not only believe to be the most honest ever written about Hollywood, but a penetrating study of one kind of twentieth-century success that is peculiar to no single race of people or walk of life.]]> 320 Budd Schulberg 0375508317 Neha 0 to-read 4.08 1941 What Makes Sammy Run?
author: Budd Schulberg
name: Neha
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1941
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[On the Shortness of Life: Life Is Long if You Know How to Use It (Penguin Great Ideas)]]> 97412
The Stoic writings of the philosopher Seneca offer powerful insights into the art of living, the importance of reason and morality, and continue to provide profound guidance to many through their eloquence, lucidity and timeless wisdom.]]> 106 Seneca 0143036327 Neha 0 to-read 4.18 49 On the Shortness of Life: Life Is Long if You Know How to Use It (Penguin Great Ideas)
author: Seneca
name: Neha
average rating: 4.18
book published: 49
rating: 0
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date added: 2026/03/04
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]]> Gift from the Sea 77295
With great wisdom and insight Lindbergh describes the shifting shapes of relationships and marriage, presenting a vision of life as it is lived in an enduring and evolving partnership. A groundbreaking, best-selling work when it was originally published in 1955, Gift from the Sea continues to be discovered by new generations of readers. With a new introduction by Lindbergh’s daughter Reeve, this fiftieth-anniversary edition will give those who are revisiting the book and those who are coming upon it for the first time fresh insight into the life of this remarkable woman.

The sea and the beach are elements that have been woven throughout Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s life. She spent her childhood summers with her family on a Maine island. After her marriage to Charles Lindbergh in 1929, she accompanied him on his survey flights around the North Atlantic to launch the first transoceanic airlines. The Lindberghs eventually established a permanent home on the Connecticut coast, where they lived quietly, wrote books and raised their family.

After the children left home for lives of their own, the Lindberghs traveled extensively to Africa and the Pacific for environmental research.]]> 130 Anne Morrow Lindbergh 0394724550 Neha 0 to-read 4.13 1955 Gift from the Sea
author: Anne Morrow Lindbergh
name: Neha
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1955
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Courage Under Fire: Testing Epictetus's Doctrines in a Laboratory of Human Behavior (Hoover Essays)]]> 196158 32 James B. Stockdale 0817936920 Neha 0 to-read 4.23 1993 Courage Under Fire: Testing Epictetus's Doctrines in a Laboratory of Human Behavior (Hoover Essays)
author: James B. Stockdale
name: Neha
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1993
rating: 0
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]]> The Picture of Dorian Gray 489732 'The horror, whatever it was, had not yet entirely spoiled that marvellous beauty'

Enthralled by his own exquisite portrait, Dorian Gray exchanges his soul for eternal youth and beauty. Influenced by his friend Lord Henry Wotton, he is drawn into a corrupt double life, indulging his desires in secret while remaining a gentleman in the eyes of polite society. Only his portrait bears the traces of his decadence. The Picture of Dorian Gray was a succès de scandale. Early readers were shocked by its hints at unspeakable sins, and the book was later used as evidence against Wilde at the Old Bailey in 1895.

This definitive edition includes a selection of contemporary reviews condemning the novel's immorality, and the introduction to the first Penguin Classics edition by Peter Ackroyd.]]> 253 Oscar Wilde 0141439572 Neha 5 4.19 1890 The Picture of Dorian Gray
author: Oscar Wilde
name: Neha
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1890
rating: 5
read at: 2026/02/27
date added: 2026/02/27
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]]> <![CDATA[The Story of a New Name (Neapolitan Novels, #2)]]> 17465515 My Brilliant Friend introduced readers to the unforgettable Elena and Lila, whose lifelong friendship provides the backbone for the Neapolitan Novels. The Story of a New Name is the second book in this series. With these books, which the New Yorker's James Wood described as "large, captivating, amiably peopled ... a beautiful and delicate tale of confluence and reversal," Ferrante proves herself to be one of Italy's most accomplished storytellers. She writes vividly about a specific neighborhood of Naples from the late-1950s through to the current day and about two remarkable young women who are very much the products of that place and time. Yet in doing so she has created a world in which readers will recognize themselves and has drawn a marvelously nuanced portrait of friendship.

In The Story of a New Name, Lila has recently married and made her entrée into the family business; Elena, meanwhile, continues her studies and her exploration of the world beyond the neighborhood that she so often finds stifling. Love, jealousy, family, freedom, commitment, and above all friendship: these are signs under which both women live out this phase in their stories. Marriage appears to have imprisoned Lila, and the pressure to excel is at times too much for Elena. Yet the two young women share a complex and evolving bond that is central to their emotional lives and is a source of strength in the face of life's challenges. In these Neapolitan Novels, Elena Ferrante, the acclaimed author of The Days of Abandonment, gives readers a poignant and universal story about friendship and belonging.]]> 471 Elena Ferrante Neha 0 to-read 4.48 2012 The Story of a New Name (Neapolitan Novels, #2)
author: Elena Ferrante
name: Neha
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2026/02/23
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]]> <![CDATA[The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession]]> 62873378 One of the most remarkable true-crime narratives of the twenty-first the story of the world’s most prolific art thief, Stéphane Breitwieser.

In this spellbinding portrait of obsession and flawed genius, the best-selling author of The Stranger in the Woods brings us into Breitwieser’s strange world—unlike most thieves, he never stole for money, keeping all his treasures in a single room where he could admire them.

For centuries, works of art have been stolen in countless ways from all over the world, but no one has been quite as successful at it as the master thief Stéphane Breitwieser. Carrying out more than two hundred heists over nearly eight years—in museums and cathedrals all over Europe—Breitwieser, along with his girlfriend who worked as his lookout, stole more than three hundred objects, until it all fell apart in spectacular fashion.

In The Art Thief, Michael Finkel brings us into Breitwieser’s strange and fascinating world. Unlike most thieves, Breitwieser never stole for money. Instead, he displayed all his treasures in a pair of secret rooms where he could admire them to his heart’s content. Possessed of a remarkable athleticism and an innate ability to circumvent practically any security system, Breitwieser managed to pull off a breathtaking number of audacious thefts. Yet these strange talents bred a growing disregard for risk and an addict’s need to score, leading Breitwieser to ignore his girlfriend’s pleas to stop—until one final act of hubris brought everything crashing down.

This is a riveting story of art, crime, love, and an insatiable hunger to possess beauty at any cost.]]> 226 Michael Finkel 0525657320 Neha 0 to-read 3.88 2023 The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession
author: Michael Finkel
name: Neha
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2026/02/20
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]]> <![CDATA[The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment]]> 6708 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781577314806.

To make the journey into the Now we will need to leave our analytical mind and its false created self, the ego, behind. From the very first page of Eckhart Tolle's extraordinary book, we move rapidly into a significantly higher altitude where we breathe a lighter air. We become connected to the indestructible essence of our Being, “The eternal, ever present One Life beyond the myriad forms of life that are subject to birth and death.” Although the journey is challenging, Eckhart Tolle uses simple language and an easy question-and-answer format to guide us.

A word-of-mouth phenomenon since its first publication, The Power of Now is one of those rare books with the power to create an experience in readers, one that can radically change their lives for the better.]]> 229 Eckhart Tolle Neha 4 4.16 1997 The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
author: Eckhart Tolle
name: Neha
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at: 2026/02/05
date added: 2026/02/05
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]]> Middlemarch 19089 "People are almost always better than their neighbours think they are"

George Eliot’s most ambitious novel is a masterly evocation of diverse lives and changing fortunes in a provincial community. Peopling its landscape are Dorothea Brooke, a young idealist whose search for intellectual fulfillment leads her into a disastrous marriage to the pedantic scholar Casaubon; the charming but tactless Dr Lydgate, whose pioneering medical methods, combined with an imprudent marriage to the spendthrift beauty Rosamond, threaten to undermine his career; and the religious hypocrite Bulstrode, hiding scandalous crimes from his past. As their stories interweave, George Eliot creates a richly nuanced and moving drama, hailed by Virginia Woolf as "one of the few English novels written for grown-up people".]]> 912 George Eliot 0451529170 Neha 0 to-read 4.02 1872 Middlemarch
author: George Eliot
name: Neha
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1872
rating: 0
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date added: 2026/01/28
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]]> The Collected Stories 493311 The Collected Stories - a stunning volume of William Trevor's unforgettable short stories

William Trevor is one of the most renowned figures in contemporary literature, described as 'the greatest living writer of short stories in the English language' by the New Yorker and acclaimed for his haunting and profound insights into the human heart. Here is a collection of his short fiction, with dozens of tales spanning his career and ranging from the moving to the macabre, the humorous to the haunting. From the penetrating 'Memories of Youghal' to the bittersweet 'Bodily Secrets' and the elegiac 'Two More Gallants', here are masterpieces of insight, depth, drama and humanity, acutely rendered by a modern master.

'A textbook for anyone who ever wanted to write a story, and a treasure for anyone who loves to read them' Madison Smartt Bell

'Extraordinary... Mr. Trevor's sheer intensity of entry into the lives of his people...proceeds to uncover new layers of yearning and pain, new angles of vision and credible thought' The New York Times Book Review]]> 1262 William Trevor 0140232451 Neha 0 to-read 4.45 1992 The Collected Stories
author: William Trevor
name: Neha
average rating: 4.45
book published: 1992
rating: 0
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date added: 2026/01/27
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]]> The Shortest History of AI 220817927 Six ideas to understand artificial intelligence today
Since Alan Turing first posed the question, ‘Can machines think?’, artificial intelligence has evolved from a speculative idea to a transformative force. The Shortest History of AI traces this evolution, from Ada Lovelace’s visionary work to IBM’s groundbreaking defeat of the chess world champion and the revolutionary emergence of ChatGPT. It also explores AI’s cultural journey, touching on classics such as Frankenstein, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and 2001: A Space Odyssey.


Revealing how many ‘overnight’ successes were decades in the making, this accessible and illuminating book simplifies AI into six key ideas, equipping readers to understand where we’ve been – and where we’re headed.


‘This history of AI in six simple ideas is so informative and easy to digest. Essential reading’—Dr Karl Kruszelnicki


‘One of the world’s brightest minds takes on one of the world’s biggest topics … Delicious!’—Adam Spencer]]> 210 Toby Walsh 1743823991 Neha 0 to-read 3.84 2025 The Shortest History of AI
author: Toby Walsh
name: Neha
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2026/01/26
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]]> Is This Anything? 50722115 The first book in twenty-five years from Jerry Seinfeld features his best work across five decades in comedy.

Since his first performance at the legendary New York nightclub “Catch a Rising Star” as a twenty-one-year-old college student in fall of 1975, Jerry Seinfeld has written his own material and saved everything. “Whenever I came up with a funny bit, whether it happened on a stage, in a conversation, or working it out on my preferred canvas, the big yellow legal pad, I kept it in one of those old school accordion folders,” Seinfeld writes. “So I have everything I thought was worth saving from forty-five years of hacking away at this for all I was worth.”

For this book, Jerry Seinfeld has selected his favorite material, organized decade by decade. In page after hilarious page, one brilliantly crafted observation after another, readers will witness the evolution of one of the great comedians of our time and gain new insights into the thrilling but unforgiving art of writing stand-up comedy.]]> 480 Jerry Seinfeld 1982112697 Neha 0 to-read 3.71 2020 Is This Anything?
author: Jerry Seinfeld
name: Neha
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2026/01/25
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]]> Essays in Love 23427 249 Alain de Botton 0330334360 Neha 3 3.91 1993 Essays in Love
author: Alain de Botton
name: Neha
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1993
rating: 3
read at: 2026/01/23
date added: 2026/01/23
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]]> Madame Bovary 2175 329 Gustave Flaubert 0192840398 Neha 0 to-read 3.71 1856 Madame Bovary
author: Gustave Flaubert
name: Neha
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1856
rating: 0
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date added: 2026/01/23
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]]> <![CDATA[Waste Wars: The Wild Afterlife of Your Trash]]> 214175143 A globe-trotting work of relentless investigative reporting, this is the first major book to expose the catastrophic reality of the multi-billion-dollar global garbage trade.

Dumps and landfills around the world are overflowing. Disputes about what to do with the millions of tons of garbage generated every day have given rise to waste wars waged almost everywhere you look. Some are border skirmishes. Others hustle trash across thousands of miles and multiple oceans. But no matter the scale, one thing is true about almost all of few people have any idea they're happening.

Journalist Alexander Clapp spent two years roaming five continents to report deep inside the world of Javanese recycling gangsters, cruise ship dismantlers in the Aegean, Tanzanian plastic pickers, whistle-blowing environmentalists throughout the jungles of Guatemala, and a community of Ghanaian boys who burn Western cellphones and televisions for cents an hour, to tell listeners what he has figured out: While some trash gets tossed onto roadsides or buried underground, much of it actually lives a secret hot potato second life, getting shipped, sold, re-sold, or smuggled from one country to another, often with devastating consequences for the poorest nations of the world.

Waste Wars is a jaw-dropping exposé of how and why, for the last forty years, our garbage—the stuff we deem so worthless we think nothing of throwing it away—has spawned a massive, globe-spanning, multi-billion-dollar economy, one that offloads our consumption footprints onto distant continents, pristine landscapes, and unsuspecting populations. If the handling of our trash reveals deeper truths about our Western society, what does the globalized business of garbage say about our world today? And what does it say about us?]]> 391 Alexander Clapp 031645902X Neha 0 to-read 4.17 2025 Waste Wars: The Wild Afterlife of Your Trash
author: Alexander Clapp
name: Neha
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2026/01/06
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]]> Ham on Rye 38501 288 Charles Bukowski 006117758X Neha 3 4.16 1982 Ham on Rye
author: Charles Bukowski
name: Neha
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1982
rating: 3
read at: 2026/01/02
date added: 2026/01/02
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]]> <![CDATA[The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves]]> 7776209
Yet Matt Ridley does more than describe how things are getting better. He explains why. Prosperity comes from everybody working for everybody else. The habit of exchange and specialization—which started more than 100,000 years ago—has created a collective brain that sets human living standards on a rising trend. The mutual dependence, trust, and sharing that result are causes for hope, not despair.

This bold book covers the entire sweep of human history, from the Stone Age to the Internet, from the stagnation of the Ming empire to the invention of the steam engine, from the population explosion to the likely consequences of climate change. It ends with a confident assertion that thanks to the ceaseless capacity of the human race for innovative change, and despite inevitable disasters along the way, the twenty-first century will see both human prosperity and natural biodiversity enhanced. Acute, refreshing, and revelatory, The Rational Optimist will change your way of thinking about the world for the better.]]> 448 Matt Ridley 006145205X Neha 4 3.93 2010 The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves
author: Matt Ridley
name: Neha
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2025/12/06
date added: 2025/12/06
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]]> <![CDATA[Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow]]> 58784475 In this exhilarating novel, two friends—often in love, but never lovers—come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.

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

Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.]]> 399 Gabrielle Zevin 0735243344 Neha 0 to-read 4.09 2022 Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
author: Gabrielle Zevin
name: Neha
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/11/24
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]]> <![CDATA[The Creative Act: A Way of Being]]> 60965426 From the legendary music producer, a master at helping people connect with the wellsprings of their creativity, comes a beautifully crafted book many years in the making that offers that same deep wisdom to all of us.

"A gorgeous and inspiring work of art on creation, creativity, the work of the artist. It will gladden the hearts of writers and artists everywhere, and get them working again with a new sense of meaning and direction. A stunning accomplishment." --Anne Lamott

"I set out to write a book about what to do to make a great work of art. Instead, it revealed itself to be a book on how to be." --Rick Rubin

Many famed music producers are known for a particular sound that has its day. Rick Rubin is known for something else: creating a space where artists of all different genres and traditions can home in on who they really are and what they really offer. He has made a practice of helping people transcend their self-imposed expectations in order to reconnect with a state of innocence from which the surprising becomes inevitable. Over the years, as he has thought deeply about where creativity comes from and where it doesn't, he has learned that being an artist isn't about your specific output, it's about your relationship to the world. Creativity has a place in everyone's life, and everyone can make that place larger. In fact, there are few more important responsibilities.

The Creative Act is a beautiful and generous course of study that illuminates the path of the artist as a road we all can follow. It distills the wisdom gleaned from a lifetime's work into a luminous reading experience that puts the power to create moments--and lifetimes--of exhilaration and transcendence within closer reach for all of us.]]> 406 Rick Rubin 0593652886 Neha 0 to-read 3.93 2023 The Creative Act: A Way of Being
author: Rick Rubin
name: Neha
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Only Dull People Are Brilliant at Breakfast]]> 29081916 'It would be unfair to expect other people to be as remarkable as oneself'

Wilde's celebrated witticisms on the dangers of sincerity, duplicitous biographers, the stupidity of the English - and his own genius.

One of 46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. Each book gives readers a taste of the Classics' huge range and diversity, with works from around the world and across the centuries - including fables, decadence, heartbreak, tall tales, satire, ghosts, battles and elephants.]]> 60 Oscar Wilde Neha 0 to-read 3.94 2016 Only Dull People Are Brilliant at Breakfast
author: Oscar Wilde
name: Neha
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/11/13
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]]> <![CDATA[The Hallmarked Man (Cormoran Strike, #8)]]> 210081845
The eighth book sees Strike and Robin take the case of identifying a dismembered corpse discovered in the vault of a silver shop. The police initially believe it to be that of a convicted armed robber – but not everyone agrees with that theory…

A gripping, wonderfully complex novel which takes Strike and Robin’s story to a new level, The Hallmarked Man is an unmissable read for any fan of this unique series.]]> 32 Robert Galbraith Neha 4 4.10 2025 The Hallmarked Man (Cormoran Strike, #8)
author: Robert Galbraith
name: Neha
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/10/24
date added: 2025/10/24
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]]> Exhalation 41160292
In "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate," a portal through time forces a fabric seller in ancient Baghdad to grapple with past mistakes and second chances. In "Exhalation," an alien scientist makes a shocking discovery with ramifications that are literally universal. In "Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom," the ability to glimpse into alternate universes necessitates a radically new examination of the concepts of choice and free will.

Including stories being published for the first time as well as some of his rare and classic uncollected work, Exhalation is Ted Chiang at his best: profound, sympathetic—revelatory.]]> 368 Ted Chiang Neha 0 to-read 4.27 2019 Exhalation
author: Ted Chiang
name: Neha
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/09/29
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]]> Notes on a Nervous Planet 40404801 A follow-up to Matt Haig's internationally bestselling memoir, Reasons to Stay Alive, a broader look at how modern life feeds our anxiety, and how to live a better life.

The societies we live in are increasingly making our minds ill, making it feel as though the way we live is engineered to make us unhappy. When Matt Haig developed panic disorder, anxiety, and depression as an adult, it took him a long time to work out the ways the external world could impact his mental health in both positive and negative ways. Notes on a Nervous Planet collects his observations, taking a look at how the various social, commercial and technological "advancements" that have created the world we now live in can actually hinder our happiness. Haig examines everything from broader phenomena like inequality, social media, and the news; to things closer to our daily lives, like how we sleep, how we exercise, and even the distinction we draw between our minds and our bodies.]]> 288 Matt Haig 014313342X Neha 2 3.93 2018 Notes on a Nervous Planet
author: Matt Haig
name: Neha
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2018
rating: 2
read at: 2025/09/28
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]]> Look Closer 59316367 448 David Ellis 0399170928 Neha 0 to-read 4.12 2022 Look Closer
author: David Ellis
name: Neha
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/09/21
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]]> <![CDATA[In the Shadow of the Sword: The Birth of Islam and the Rise of the Global Arab Empire]]> 12376830 526 Tom Holland 0385531354 Neha 1 3.88 2012 In the Shadow of the Sword: The Birth of Islam and the Rise of the Global Arab Empire
author: Tom Holland
name: Neha
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2012
rating: 1
read at: 2023/12/25
date added: 2025/09/20
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]]> The Covenant of Water 180357146 From the New York Times-bestselling author of Cutting for Stone comes a stunning and magisterial epic of love, faith, and medicine, set in Kerala, South India, following three generations of a family seeking the answers to a strange secret

Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala's Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time. From this unforgettable new beginning, the young girl—and future matriarch, Big Ammachi—will witness unthinkable changes over the span of her extraordinary life, full of joy and triumph as well as hardship and loss, her faith and love the only constants.

A shimmering evocation of a bygone India and of the passage of time itself, The Covenant of Water is a hymn to progress in medicine and to human understanding, and a humbling testament to the hardships undergone by past generations for the sake of those alive today. Imbued with humor, deep emotion, and the essence of life, it is one of the most masterful literary novels published in recent years.]]> 715 Abraham Verghese 0802162177 Neha 0 to-read 4.32 2023 The Covenant of Water
author: Abraham Verghese
name: Neha
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/09/13
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]]> <![CDATA[My Brilliant Friend (Neapolitan Novels, #1)]]> 38457091

Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighborhood, a city, and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between two women.]]> 387 Elena Ferrante Neha 4 4.04 2011 My Brilliant Friend (Neapolitan Novels, #1)
author: Elena Ferrante
name: Neha
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2025/09/06
date added: 2025/09/06
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]]> Be Here Now 41580312 116 Ram Dass Neha 0 4.37 1971 Be Here Now
author: Ram Dass
name: Neha
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1971
rating: 0
read at: 2025/08/14
date added: 2025/08/14
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]]> Kim Ji-young, nacida en 1982 50020616
«Ni siquiera yo sé si me casaré o si tendré hijos. O puede que me muera antes. ¿Por qué tengo que renunciar a lo que quiero ser o hacer por un futuro que no sé si llegará o no?»

Esta novela ha pasado de ser la breve historia de una joven coreana a convertirse en un terremoto que ha sacudido a las mujeres de medio mundo. Kim Ji-young (que lleva el nombre más común entre las mujeres coreanas nacidas en 1982) es aparentemente una mujer como cualquier otra, con una juventud sin pena ni gloria, siempre a la sombra. Todo se retuerce cuando, de repente, Kim empieza a hablar con las voces de su madre, de una amiga desaparecida, de otras muchas mujeres. Lo que parecía una broma adquiere el tono de una respuesta, de una insurrección y, para los demás, el tono de una enfermedad.

Este libro ha sido una embestida para el panorama literario de todos los países en los que se ha publicado. Bajo su aparente sencillez, hay una sensación de peligro que palpita a lo largo de todas sus páginas y que ha abierto una grieta en los estándares de la literatura contemporánea.]]> 157 Cho Nam-Joo 8420437921 Neha 0 to-read 4.18 2016 Kim Ji-young, nacida en 1982
author: Cho Nam-Joo
name: Neha
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/07/23
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]]> Perfection 203200544 137 Vincenzo Latronico 1804271055 Neha 0 to-read 3.70 2022 Perfection
author: Vincenzo Latronico
name: Neha
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/07/21
shelves: to-read
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]]> Notes from a Small Island 28 "Suddenly, in the space of a moment, I realized what it was that I loved about Britain-which is to say, all of it."

After nearly two decades spent on British soil, Bill Bryson - bestselling author of The Mother Tongue and Made in America-decided to return to the United States. ("I had recently read," Bryson writes, "that 3.7 million Americans believed that they had been abducted by aliens at one time or another, so it was clear that my people needed me.") But before departing, he set out on a grand farewell tour of the green and kindly island that had so long been his home.

Veering from the ludicrous to the endearing and back again, Notes from a Small Island is a delightfully irreverent jaunt around the unparalleled floating nation that has produced zebra crossings, Shakespeare, Twiggie Winkie's Farm, and places with names like Farleigh Wallop and Titsey. The result is an uproarious social commentary that conveys the true glory of Britain, from the satiric pen of an unapologetic Anglophile.]]> 324 Bill Bryson Neha 4 3.93 1995 Notes from a Small Island
author: Bill Bryson
name: Neha
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at: 2025/07/20
date added: 2025/07/20
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]]> <![CDATA[Daily Rituals: How Artists Work]]> 15799151
Franz Kafka, frustrated with his living quarters and day job, wrote in a letter to Felice Bauer in 1912, “time is short, my strength is limited, the office is a horror, the apartment is noisy, and if a pleasant, straightforward life is not possible then one must try to wriggle through by subtle maneuvers.”
 
Kafka is one of 161 minds who describe their daily rituals to get their work done, whether by waking early or staying up late; whether by self-medicating with doughnuts or bathing, drinking vast quantities of coffee, or taking long daily walks. Thomas Wolfe wrote standing up in the kitchen, the top of the refrigerator as his desk, dreamily fondling his “male configurations”.... Jean-Paul Sartre chewed on Corydrane tablets (a mix of amphetamine and aspirin), ingesting ten times the recommended dose each day ... Descartes liked to linger in bed, his mind wandering in sleep through woods, gardens, and enchanted palaces where he experienced “every pleasure imaginable.”

Here are: Anthony Trollope, who demanded of himself that each morning he write three thousand words (250 words every fifteen minutes for three hours) before going off to his job at the postal service, which he kept for thirty-three years during the writing of more than two dozen books ... Karl Marx ... Woody Allen ... Agatha Christie ... George Balanchine, who did most of his work while ironing ... Leo Tolstoy ... Charles Dickens ... Pablo Picasso ... George Gershwin, who, said his brother Ira, worked for twelve hours a day from late morning to midnight, composing at the piano in pajamas, bathrobe, and slippers....

Here also are the daily rituals of Charles Darwin, Andy Warhol, John Updike, Twyla Tharp, Benjamin Franklin, William Faulkner, Jane Austen, Anne Rice, and Igor Stravinsky (he was never able to compose unless he was sure no one could hear him and, when blocked, stood on his head to “clear the brain”).]]> 278 Mason Currey 0307273601 Neha 0 to-read 3.67 2013 Daily Rituals: How Artists Work
author: Mason Currey
name: Neha
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/07/15
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]]> Lifting the Veil 1933658 'Gloriously provocative... female sexuality within a patriarchal world is Chughtai's central concern' Kamila Shamsie, winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction 2018, from the introduction

Lifting the Veil is a bold and irreverent collection of writing from India's most controversial feminist writer. These stories celebrate life in all its complexities: from a woman who refuses marriage to a man she loves to preserve her freedom, to a Hindu and a Muslim teenager pulled apart by societal pressures, to eye-opening personal accounts of the charges of obscenity the author faced in court for stories found in this book.

Wickedly funny and unflinchingly honest, Lifting the Veil explores the power of female sexuality while slyly mocking the subtle tyrannies of middle-class life. In 1940s India, an unlikely setting for female rebellion, Ismat Chughtai was a rare and radical storyteller born years ahead of her time.

'Ismat Chughtai is known for her iconoclastic, feminist writings which explored the inner workings of women's lives' Huffington Post ]]> 262 Ismat Chughtai 0143027867 Neha 3 4.09 2001 Lifting the Veil
author: Ismat Chughtai
name: Neha
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at: 2025/06/01
date added: 2025/06/01
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]]> <![CDATA[The Manual: A Philosopher's Guide to Life]]> 34946912 Life's Missing Instruction ManualEpictetus (c. 50-135 CE) was brought as a slave to Rome, where he became a great teacher, deeply influencing the future emperor Marcus Aurelius among many others. His philosophy, Stoicism, was practical, not theoretical--aimed at relieving human suffering here and now.And Epictetus knew suffering. Besides being a former slave, he was lame in one leg and walked with a crutch. After a decade of teaching in Rome, he was banished by Emperor Domitian; undaunted, he established a school in Greece. The Manual is a collection of Epictetus' essential teachings and pithy sayings, compiled by his closet student. It is the most accessible and actionable guide to Stoic philosophy, as relevant today as it was in the Roman Empire.This new edition is rendered in contemporary English, with a foreword, by Sam Torode (based on a translation by Thomas Wentworth Higginson). A companion volume, The An Emperor's Guide to Mastery by Marcus Aurelius, is also available from Ancient Renewal. A revised and further simplified edition of this book is now available, The 21st Century Edition (ASIN B09HP7C1M6). Read the sample pages of each translation to see which you prefer. ]]> 70 Epictetus Neha 0 to-read 4.37 125 The Manual: A Philosopher's Guide to Life
author: Epictetus
name: Neha
average rating: 4.37
book published: 125
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/05/11
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]]> <![CDATA[The Secret Pulse of Time: Making Sense of Life's Scarcest Commodity]]> 2007791 this minute, to accomplish everything you need and want to get done today? Or wondered why time flies when you are thoroughly engrossed in something? Or why minutes pass so slowly when you’re standing in line at the store or airport, or on hold waiting for a customer service rep to answer your call? Or how, simply, to find more time to relax and unwind?Now, with The Secret Pulse of Time, already a longstanding best seller in Germany, internationally best-selling and award-winning science writer Stefan Klein has crafted what amounts to “operating instructions” for time. “We are all taking part in a giant experiment in dealing with time,” Klein writes-and his aim with this book is to help us each to understand “the degree to which our experience of time hinges on our outlook on life.” With his journalist’s unerring eye for the telling detail, Stefan Klein effortlessly combines original investigation and reportage, personal revelation, and a wide-ranging, commanding presentation of scientific research among disciplines including brain physiology, social psychology, philosophy, and Einsteinian physics-with the goal of guiding us not only to better master time but also to understand why we so often fail to do so. Woven into his narrative are dozens of practical ways to make sense of and gain control over time, including: How not to lose your head when a deadline is quickly approaching How the present becomes a memory-and vice versa How to attune to your inner clock for more productive, satisfying days How to avoid becoming worn out by the fast tempo of modern life Popular science at its very best, The Secret Pulse of Time awakens us to and empowers us with the idea that time is far more at our disposal than we have ever before realized.]]> 368 Stefan Klein 160094017X Neha 0 to-read 3.93 2006 The Secret Pulse of Time: Making Sense of Life's Scarcest Commodity
author: Stefan Klein
name: Neha
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/05/04
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]]> James 173754979 A brilliant reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—both harrowing and satirical—told from the enslaved Jim's point of view

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

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

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780385550369.]]> 303 Percival Everett 0385550367 Neha 4 4.38 2024 James
author: Percival Everett
name: Neha
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/05/04
date added: 2025/05/04
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]]> <![CDATA[Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI]]> 204927599 From the author of Sapiens comes the groundbreaking story of how information networks have made, and unmade, our world.

For the last 100,000 years, we Sapiens have accumulated enormous power. But despite all our discoveries, inventions, and conquests, we now find ourselves in an existential crisis. The world is on the verge of ecological collapse. Misinformation abounds. And we are rushing headlong into the age of AI—a new information network that threatens to annihilate us. For all that we have accomplished, why are we so self-destructive?

Nexus looks through the long lens of human history to consider how the flow of information has shaped us, and our world. Taking us from the Stone Age, through the canonization of the Bible, early modern witch-hunts, Stalinism, Nazism, and the resurgence of populism today, Yuval Noah Harari asks us to consider the complex relationship between information and truth, bureaucracy and mythology, wisdom and power. He explores how different societies and political systems throughout history have wielded information to achieve their goals, for good and ill. And he addresses the urgent choices we face as non-human intelligence threatens our very existence.

Information is not the raw material of truth; neither is it a mere weapon. Nexus explores the hopeful middle ground between these extremes, and in doing so, rediscovers our shared humanity.]]> 528 Yuval Noah Harari 059373422X Neha 1


Nexus is my third Harari — after Sapiens (obviously) and 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. I really do admire the guy. He’s sharp, articulate, and has a knack for making big-picture stuff sound deceptively simple. But honestly? It feels like Sapiens was him at full power. The rest kind of reads like bonus content or extended commentary — smart, but not exactly fresh.]]> 4.12 2024 Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI
author: Yuval Noah Harari
name: Neha
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
rating: 1
read at: 2025/04/16
date added: 2025/04/20
shelves:
review:
So, my hypothesis is confirmed: reading too many books by the same author is usually a mistake. Most writers have one or two solid books in them, and after that, it’s just the same ideas playing dress-up in different outfits. (Matt Ridley is still holding strong, weirdly enough — let’s see how long that lasts.)



Nexus is my third Harari — after Sapiens (obviously) and 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. I really do admire the guy. He’s sharp, articulate, and has a knack for making big-picture stuff sound deceptively simple. But honestly? It feels like Sapiens was him at full power. The rest kind of reads like bonus content or extended commentary — smart, but not exactly fresh.
]]> <![CDATA[The Haywire Heart: How Too Much Exercise Can Kill You, and What You Can Do to Protect Your Heart]]> 33815178 Too much exercise can kill you. The Haywire Heart is the first book to examine heart conditions in athletes. Intended for anyone who competes in endurance sports like cycling, triathlon, running races of all distances, and cross-country skiing, The Haywire Heart presents the evidence that going too hard or too long can damage your heart forever. You’ll find what to watch out for, what to do about it, and how to protect your heart so you can enjoy the sports you love for years to come.

The Haywire Heart shares the developing research into a group of conditions known as “athlete’s heart”, starting with a wide-ranging look at the warning signs, symptoms, and how to recognize your potential risk. Leading cardiac electrophysiologist and masters athlete Dr. John Mandrola explores the prevention and treatment of heart conditions in athletes like arrhythmia, atrial fibrillation and flutter, tachycardia, hypertrophy, and coronary artery disease. He reviews new research about exercise intensity and duration, recovery, inflammation and calcification, and the ways athletes inflict lasting harm.

These heart problems are appearing with alarming frequency among masters athletes who are pushing their bodies harder than ever in the hope that exercise will keep them healthy and strong into their senior years. The book is complete with gripping case studies of elite and age-group athletes from journalist Chris Case—like the scary condition that nearly killed cyclist and coauthor Lennard Zinn—and includes a frank discussion of exercise addiction and the mental habits that prevent athletes from seeking medical help when they need it.

Dr. Mandrola explains why many doctors misdiagnose heart conditions in athletes and offers an invaluable guide on how to talk with your doctor about your condition and its proven treatments. He covers known heart irritants, training and rest modifications, effective medicines, and safe supplements that can reduce the likelihood of heart damage from exercise.

Heart conditions affect hardcore athletes as well as those who take up sports seeking better health and weight loss. The Haywire Heart is a groundbreaking and critically important guide to heart care for athletes. By protecting your heart now and watching for the warning signs, you can avoid crippling heart conditions and continue to exercise and compete for years to come.

]]> 323 Chris Case Neha 3 4.12 The Haywire Heart: How Too Much Exercise Can Kill You, and What You Can Do to Protect Your Heart
author: Chris Case
name: Neha
average rating: 4.12
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/02
date added: 2025/04/18
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]]> The Glass Palace 77103 The Glass Palace tells the story of Rajkumar, a poor boy lifted on the tides of political and social chaos, who goes on to create an empire in the Burmese teak forest. When soldiers force the royal family out of the Glass Palace and into exile, Rajkumar befriends Dolly, a young woman in the court of the Burmese Queen, whose love will shape his life. He cannot forget her, and years later, as a rich man, he goes in search of her. The struggles that have made Burma, India, and Malaya the places they are today are illuminated in this wonderful novel by the writer Chitra Divakaruni calls “a master storyteller.”]]> 486 Amitav Ghosh 0375758771 Neha 0 to-read 3.99 2000 The Glass Palace
author: Amitav Ghosh
name: Neha
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/16
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity—and Will Determine the Fate of the Human Race]]> 38728977 Why is addiction "perfectly logical" to an addict?
Why does love change so quickly from passion to indifference?
Why are some people diehard liberals and others hardcore conservatives?
Why are we always hopeful for solutions even in the darkest times--and so good at figuring them out?

The answer is found in a single chemical in your brain: dopamine. Dopamine ensured the survival of early man. Thousands of years later, it is the source of our most basic behaviors and cultural ideas--and progress itself.

Dopamine is the chemical of desire that always asks for more--more stuff, more stimulation, and more surprises. In pursuit of these things, it is undeterred by emotion, fear, or morality. Dopamine is the source of our every urge, that little bit of biology that makes an ambitious business professional sacrifice everything in pursuit of success, or that drives a satisfied spouse to risk it all for the thrill of someone new. Simply put, it is why we seek and succeed; it is why we discover and prosper. Yet, at the same time, it's why we gamble and squander.

From dopamine's point of view, it's not the having that matters. It's getting something--anything--that's new. From this understanding--the difference between possessing something versus anticipating it--we can understand in a revolutionary new way why we behave as we do in love, business, addiction, politics, religion - and we can even predict those behaviors in ourselves and others.

In The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity--and will Determine the Fate of the Human Race, George Washington University professor and psychiatrist Daniel Z. Lieberman, MD, and Georgetown University lecturer Michael E. Long present a potentially life-changing proposal: Much of human life has an unconsidered component that explains an array of behaviors previously thought to be unrelated, including why winners cheat, why geniuses often suffer with mental illness, why nearly all diets fail, and why the brains of liberals and conservatives really are different.]]> 240 Daniel Z. Lieberman 1946885118 Neha 0 to-read 4.10 2018 The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity—and Will Determine the Fate of the Human Race
author: Daniel Z. Lieberman
name: Neha
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: to-read
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]]> Verity 59344312
Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity's notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn't expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity's recollection of what really happened the day her daughter died.

Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents would devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen's feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife's words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue to love her.]]> 336 Colleen Hoover Neha 2 4.27 2018 Verity
author: Colleen Hoover
name: Neha
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2018
rating: 2
read at: 2025/02/23
date added: 2025/02/23
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]]> <![CDATA[The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion]]> 28024 The Sacred and the Profane, famed historian of religion Mircea Eliade observes that even moderns who proclaim themselves residents of a completely profane world are still unconsciously nourished by the memory of the sacred. Eliade traces manifestations of the sacred from primitive to modern times in terms of space, time, nature, and the cosmos. In doing so he shows how the total human experience of the religious man compares with that of the nonreligious.

This book of great originality and scholarship serves as an excellent introduction to the history of religion, but its perspective also encompasses philosophical anthropology, phenomenology, and psychology. It will appeal to anyone seeking to discover the potential dimensions of human existence.]]> 256 Mircea Eliade Neha 0 to-read 4.12 1957 The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion
author: Mircea Eliade
name: Neha
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1957
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/29
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]]> <![CDATA[The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World]]> 61758482 'The Chaos Machine is an essential book for our times' - Ezra KleinThe Chaos Machine is the story of how the world was driven mad by social media. The election of populists like Trump and Bolsonaro; strife and genocide in countries like Myanmar; the rampant spread of COVID-19 conspiracy theories as deadly as the pandemic itself; all of these are products of a breakdown in our social and political lives, a breakdown driven by the apps, companies and algorithms that compete constantly for our attention.Max Fisher is a leading New York Times technology reporter whose work has covered the way that social media sites - driven increasingly by artificial intelligence rather than human ingenuity - push users towards more and more extreme positions, deepening the divisions in society in pursuit of greater engagement and profit. With extraordinary access to the most powerful players in Silicon Valley, and with testimonies from around the world of the havoc being wreaked by our online selves, The Chaos Machine shows us how we got to this uniquely perilous moment - and how we might get out of it.]]> 503 Max Fisher 1529416388 Neha 1 4.37 2022 The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World
author: Max Fisher
name: Neha
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2022
rating: 1
read at: 2025/01/23
date added: 2025/01/23
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]]> <![CDATA[The Disappearance of Rituals: A Topology of the Present]]> 51650768
Avoiding saccharine nostalgia for the rituals of the past, Han provides a genealogy of their disappearance as a means of diagnosing the pathologies of the present. He juxtaposes a community without communication — where the intensity of togetherness in silent recognition provides structure and meaning — to today's communication without community, which does away with collective feelings and leaves individuals exposed to exploitation and manipulation by neoliberal psycho-politics. The community that is invoked everywhere today is an atrophied and commoditized community that lacks the symbolic power to bind people together. For Han, it is only the mutual praxis of recognition borne by the ritualistic sharing of the symbolic between members of a community which creates the footholds of objectivity allowing us to make sense of time.

This new book by one of the most creative cultural theorists writing today will be of interest to a wide readership.]]> 186 Byung-Chul Han 1509542752 Neha 0 to-read 3.98 2019 The Disappearance of Rituals: A Topology of the Present
author: Byung-Chul Han
name: Neha
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Thursday Murder Club (Thursday Murder Club, #1)]]> 46000520
But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves.

Can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer before it's too late?

Alternate cover edition can be found here .]]> 382 Richard Osman Neha 3 3.84 2020 The Thursday Murder Club (Thursday Murder Club, #1)
author: Richard Osman
name: Neha
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/16
date added: 2024/12/16
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]]> The Glass Castle 11343642
After pursuing the education and civilisation her parents sought to escape, Jeanette eventually succeeds in her quest for the 'mundane, middle class existence' she had always craved. In her apartment, overlooked by 'a portrait of someone else's ancestor' she recounts poignant remembered images of star watching with her father, juxtaposed with recollections of irregular meals, accidents and police-car chases and reveals her complex feelings of shame, guilt, pity and pride toward her parents.]]> 352 Jeannette Walls 0748115560 Neha 5
It’s remarkable how the book portrays the duality of hardship and love, making it both heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time.
]]> 4.37 2005 The Glass Castle
author: Jeannette Walls
name: Neha
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/06
date added: 2024/11/07
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The true beauty of The Glass Castle lies in its small, powerful moments. The little brother’s determination to contribute so that his sisters could escape a troubled childhood and seek a brighter future, or an unexpected act of kindness from a former bully who helps grant access to a space otherwise closed off—these details stand out vividly against an overarching backdrop of struggle.

It’s remarkable how the book portrays the duality of hardship and love, making it both heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time.

]]> Elon Musk 122765395 From the author of Steve Jobs and other bestselling biographies, this is the astonishingly intimate story of the most fascinating and controversial innovator of our era—a rule-breaking visionary who helped to lead the world into the era of electric vehicles, private space exploration, and artificial intelligence. Oh, and took over Twitter.

When Elon Musk was a kid in South Africa, he was regularly beaten by bullies. One day a group pushed him down some concrete steps and kicked him until his face was a swollen ball of flesh. He was in the hospital for a week. But the physical scars were minor compared to the emotional ones inflicted by his father, an engineer, rogue, and charismatic fantasist.

His father’s impact on his psyche would linger. He developed into a tough yet vulnerable man-child, prone to abrupt Jekyll-and-Hyde mood swings, with an exceedingly high tolerance for risk, a craving for drama, an epic sense of mission, and a maniacal intensity that was callous and at times destructive.

At the beginning of 2022—after a year marked by SpaceX launching thirty-one rockets into orbit, Tesla selling a million cars, and him becoming the richest man on earth—Musk spoke ruefully about his compulsion to stir up dramas. “I need to shift my mindset away from being in crisis mode, which it has been for about fourteen years now, or arguably most of my life,” he said.

It was a wistful comment, not a New Year’s resolution. Even as he said it, he was secretly buying up shares of Twitter, the world’s ultimate playground. Over the years, whenever he was in a dark place, his mind went back to being bullied on the playground. Now he had the chance to own the playground.

For two years, Isaacson shadowed Musk, attended his meetings, walked his factories with him, and spent hours interviewing him, his family, friends, coworkers, and adversaries. The result is the revealing inside story, filled with amazing tales of triumphs and turmoil, that addresses the are the demons that drive Musk also what it takes to drive innovation and progress?]]> 688 Walter Isaacson 1982181281 Neha 4 4.25 2023 Elon Musk
author: Walter Isaacson
name: Neha
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/27
date added: 2024/10/27
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Having read the biography by Ashlee Vance (and rating it 5/5), this leaves you a bit underwhelmed. Even if I discount the monotony of repetition (esp his early years etc) and judging the book purely independently, it seems like cars and mars will be the biggest impact Musk will leave behind. The Twitter chapters and everything that followed seemed like a waste of time.
]]> <![CDATA[The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers―Straight Talk on the Challenges of Entrepreneurship]]> 18176747
In The Hard Thing About Hard Things, Ben Horowitz, cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz and one of Silicon Valley's most respected and experienced entrepreneurs, draws on his own story of founding, running, selling, buying, managing, and investing in technology companies to offer essential advice and practical wisdom for navigating the toughest problems business schools don't cover. His blog has garnered a devoted following of millions of readers who have come to rely on him to help them run their businesses. A lifelong rap fan, Horowitz amplifies business lessons with lyrics from his favorite songs and tells it straight about everything from firing friends to poaching competitors, from cultivating and sustaining a CEO mentality to knowing the right time to cash in.

His advice is grounded in anecdotes from his own hard-earned rise—from cofounding the early cloud service provider Loudcloud to building the phenomenally successful Andreessen Horowitz venture capital firm, both with fellow tech superstar Marc Andreessen (inventor of Mosaic, the Internet's first popular Web browser). This is no polished victory lap; he analyzes issues with no easy answers through his trials, including demoting (or firing) a loyal friend;
whether you should incorporate titles and promotions, and how to handle them;
if it's OK to hire people from your friend's company; how to manage your own psychology, while the whole company is relying on you; what to do when smart people are bad employees; why Andreessen Horowitz prefers founder CEOs, and how to become one; whether you should sell your company, and how to do it.

Filled with Horowitz's trademark humor and straight talk, and drawing from his personal and often humbling experiences, The Hard Thing About Hard Things is invaluable for veteran entrepreneurs as well as those aspiring to their own new ventures.]]> 304 Ben Horowitz 0062273205 Neha 0 to-read 4.18 2014 The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers―Straight Talk on the Challenges of Entrepreneurship
author: Ben Horowitz
name: Neha
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/21
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]]> <![CDATA[Don't Sweat the Small Stuff ... and It's All Small Stuff: Simple Ways to Keep the Little Things From Taking Over Your Life]]> 170548 248 Richard Carlson 073380084X Neha 0 to-read 3.99 1997 Don't Sweat the Small Stuff ... and It's All Small Stuff: Simple Ways to Keep the Little Things From Taking Over Your Life
author: Richard Carlson
name: Neha
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/12
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will]]> 83817782 One of our great behavioral scientists, the bestselling author of Behave, plumbs the depths of the science and philosophy of decision-making to mount a devastating case against free will, an argument with profound consequences.

Robert Sapolsky's Behave, his now classic account of why humans do good and why they do bad, pointed toward an unsettling conclusion: we may not grasp the precise marriage of nature and nurture that creates the physics and chemistry at base of human behavior, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Now, in Determined, Sapolsky takes his argument all the way, mounting a brilliant (and in his inimitable way, delightful) full-frontal assault on the pleasant fantasy that there's some separate self telling our biology what to do.

Determined offers a marvelous synthesis of what we know about how consciousness works--the tight weave between reason and emotion, and between stimulus and response, in the moment and over a life. One by one, Sapolsky tackles all the major arguments for free will and takes them out, cutting a path through the thickets of chaos and complexity science and quantum physics, as well as touching ground on some of the wilder shores of philosophy. He shows us that the history of medicine is in no small part the history of learning that fewer and fewer things are somebody's "fault"; for example, for centuries we thought seizures were a sign of demonic possession. Yet as he acknowledges, it's very hard, and at times impossible, to uncouple from our zeal to judge others, and to judge ourselves. Sapolsky applies the new understanding of life beyond free will to some of our most essential questions around punishment, morality, and living well together. By the end, Sapolsky argues that while living our daily lives recognizing that we have no free will is going to be monumentally difficult, doing so is not going to result in anarchy, pointlessness and existential malaise. Instead, it will make for a much more humane world.]]> 528 Robert M. Sapolsky 0525560971 Neha 4 4.22 2023 Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will
author: Robert M. Sapolsky
name: Neha
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2023
rating: 4
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date added: 2024/10/05
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]]> <![CDATA[Scientific Healing Affirmations]]> 818324 86 Paramahansa Yogananda 087612144X Neha 0 4.30 1957 Scientific Healing Affirmations
author: Paramahansa Yogananda
name: Neha
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1957
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/15
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]]> <![CDATA[Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters & Seymour: An Introduction]]> 5114
"Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters" is a story about the Glass family, narrated by Buddy, the second oldest brother. Buddy is attending his brother Seymour's wedding to a gal named Muriel, but he's on Army leave during active duty in World War II. At the wedding, everyone is stunned when Seymour does not show up.

The action of the story picks up when several characters end up carpooling together following the failed wedding. The others (the Matron of Honor and her husband, and a couple of stragglers) are talking about Seymour and the disappointment of his not showing up, and Buddy never tells them that he is secretly Seymour's brother, so they talk more openly with him than they otherwise would.

They criticize Seymour and speculate about his character flaws and deficiencies, but Buddy finds their assessments quite judgmental and biased. He then decides to tell the car who he really is, shaming them for their loose criticisms.

He finds Seymour's journal, and he discovers a strange message from their sister Boo Boo for Seymour on their bathroom mirror: "Raise high the roof beam, carpenters. Like Ares comes the bridegroom/ taller far than a tall man." This is a fragment from the Greek poet Sappho.

"Seymour: An Introduction" is a kind of elegy for Seymour from Buddy, told in the form of an introduction to the reader. The reader makes Seymour's acquaintance while knowing that Seymour technically isn't alive when the story is published, having killed himself in 1948.

This portion of the story is told in stream of consciousness, and it discusses Eastern religious mysticism.]]> 256 J.D. Salinger 0316766941 Neha 0 to-read 4.13 1963 Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters & Seymour: An Introduction
author: J.D. Salinger
name: Neha
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1963
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/28
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]]> <![CDATA[The Science of Enlightenment: Teachings and Meditations for Awakening Through Self-Investigation]]> 1663855 656 Shinzen Young 1591792320 Neha 0 to-read 4.24 1998 The Science of Enlightenment: Teachings and Meditations for Awakening Through Self-Investigation
author: Shinzen Young
name: Neha
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1998
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/13
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]]> <![CDATA[Coming to Wholeness: How to Awaken and Live with Ease (The Wholeness Work Book 1)]]> 42348332 266 Connirae Andreas 0911226524 Neha 0 to-read 4.39 Coming to Wholeness: How to Awaken and Live with Ease (The Wholeness Work Book 1)
author: Connirae Andreas
name: Neha
average rating: 4.39
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/13
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]]> <![CDATA[The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World]]> 44074254 553 Iain McGilchrist 0300247451 Neha 0 currently-reading 4.42 2009 The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World
author: Iain McGilchrist
name: Neha
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/13
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> The Silent Patient 211422402 Only I can make her speak.

I love him so totally, completely, sometimes it threatens to overwhelm me.
Sometimes I think-
No. I won't write about that.

ALICIA
Alicia Berenson writes a diary as a release, an outlet - and to prove to her beloved husband that everything is fine. She can't bear the thought of worrying Gabriel, or causing him pain.

Until, late one evening, Alicia shoots Gabriel five times and then never speaks another word.

THEO
Forensic psychotherapist Theo Faber is convinced he can successfully treat Alicia, where all others have failed. Obsessed with investigating her crime, his discoveries suggest Alicia's silence goes far deeper than he first thought.

And if she speaks, would he want to hear the truth?

]]> 340 Alex Michaelides Neha 5 4.15 2019 The Silent Patient
author: Alex Michaelides
name: Neha
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/12
date added: 2024/08/12
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]]> The Phantom Tollbooth 378 Librarian's Note: For an alternate cover edition of the same ISBN, click here.

This beloved story—first published more than fifty years ago—introduces readers to Milo and his adventures in the Lands Beyond.

For Milo, everything's a bore. When a tollbooth mysteriously appears in his room, he drives through only because he's got nothing better to do. But on the other side, things seem different. Milo visits the Island of Conclusions (you get there by jumping), learns about time from a ticking watchdog named Tock, and even embarks on a quest to rescue Rhyme and Reason! Somewhere along the way, Milo realizes something astonishing. Life is far from dull. In fact, it's exciting beyond his wildest dreams. . . .]]> 256 Norton Juster 0394820371 Neha 1 4.19 1961 The Phantom Tollbooth
author: Norton Juster
name: Neha
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1961
rating: 1
read at: 2024/08/09
date added: 2024/08/09
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]]> Autobiography of a Yogi 639864
Autobiography of a Yogi is at once a beautifully written account of an exceptional life and a profound introduction to the ancient science of Yoga and its time-honored tradition of meditation. The author clearly explains the subtle but definite laws behind both the ordinary events of everyday life and the extraordinary events commonly termed miracles. His absorbing life story thus becomes the background for a penetrating and unforgettable look at the ultimate mysteries of human existence.

Considered a modern spiritual classic, the book has been translated into more than twenty languages and is widely used as a text and reference work in colleges and universities. A perennial bestseller since it was first published sixty years ago, Autobiography of a Yogi has found its way into the hearts of millions of readers around the world.]]> 503 Paramahansa Yogananda 0876120834 Neha 5 4.22 1946 Autobiography of a Yogi
author: Paramahansa Yogananda
name: Neha
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1946
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/25
date added: 2024/07/25
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]]> <![CDATA[Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men]]> 41104077
Celebrated feminist advocate Caroline Criado Perez investigates the shocking root cause of gender inequality and research in Invisible Women​, diving into women’s lives at home, the workplace, the public square, the doctor’s office, and more. Built on hundreds of studies in the US, the UK, and around the world, and written with energy, wit, and sparkling intelligence, this is a groundbreaking, unforgettable exposé that will change the way you look at the world.]]> 448 Caroline Criado Pérez 1419729071 Neha 2 4.34 2019 Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men
author: Caroline Criado Pérez
name: Neha
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2024/06/17
date added: 2024/06/17
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]]> <![CDATA[Atmamun: The Path To Achieving The Bliss Of The Himalayan Swamis. And The Freedom Of A Living God.]]> 30008981 137 Kapil Gupta Neha 0 to-read 4.44 Atmamun: The Path To Achieving The Bliss Of The Himalayan Swamis. And The Freedom Of A Living God.
author: Kapil Gupta
name: Neha
average rating: 4.44
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/05/29
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]]> Uncle Fred in the Springtime 13707721 242 P.G. Wodehouse 0393343065 Neha 5 PG Wodehouse at his best! 4.21 1939 Uncle Fred in the Springtime
author: P.G. Wodehouse
name: Neha
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1939
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/25
date added: 2024/05/25
shelves:
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PG Wodehouse at his best!
]]> <![CDATA[An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us]]> 59575939 A grand tour through the hidden realms of animal senses that will transform the way you perceive the world --from the Pulitzer Prize-winning, New York Times bestselling author of I Contain Multitudes.

The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every animal is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of an immense world. This book welcomes us into a previously unfathomable dimension--the world as it is truly perceived by other animals.

We encounter beetles that are drawn to fires, turtles that can track the Earth's magnetic fields, fish that fill rivers with electrical messages, and humans that wield sonar like bats. We discover that a crocodile's scaly face is as sensitive as a lover's fingertips, that the eyes of a giant squid evolved to see sparkling whales, that plants thrum with the inaudible songs of courting bugs, and that even simple scallops have complex vision. We learn what bees see in flowers, what songbirds hear in their tunes, and what dogs smell on the street. We listen to stories of pivotal discoveries in the field, while looking ahead at the many mysteries which lie unsolved.

In An Immense World, author and acclaimed science journalist Ed Yong coaxes us beyond the confines of our own senses, allowing us to perceive the skeins of scent, waves of electromagnetism, and pulses of pressure that surround us. Because in order to understand our world we don't need to travel to other places; we need to see through other eyes.]]> 464 Ed Yong Neha 0 currently-reading 4.45 2022 An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us
author: Ed Yong
name: Neha
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/05/24
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> Reality is Not What it Seems 29767627 From the best-selling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics comes a new book about the mind-bending nature of the universe

What are time and space made of? Where does matter come from? And what exactly is reality? Scientist Carlo Rovelli has spent his whole life exploring these questions and pushing the boundaries of what we know. Here he explains how our image of the world has changed throughout centuries. From Aristotle to Albert Einstein, Michael Faraday to the Higgs boson, he takes us on a wondrous journey to show us that beyond our ever-changing idea of reality is a whole new world that has yet to be discovered.]]> 256 Carlo Rovelli 5268439022 Neha 0 to-read 4.33 2014 Reality is Not What it Seems
author: Carlo Rovelli
name: Neha
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/05/19
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]]> <![CDATA[Swamplands of the Soul: New Life in Dismal Places (Studies in Jungian Psychology by Jungian Analysts, 73)]]> 976211
Perhaps not, says this author. The Jungian perspective, by encompassing both the meadow and the bog, asserts that the goal of life is not happiness but meaning. And meaning, though it may not be all sunlight and blossoms, is real.

Swamplands of the Soul explores the quicksands where we have all floundered. It lights a beacon by showing what they mean in terms of our individual journey and the engendering of soul. For it is precisely where we encounter the gravitas of life that we also uncover its purpose, its dignity and its deepest meaning.]]> 157 James Hollis 0919123740 Neha 0 to-read 4.45 1996 Swamplands of the Soul: New Life in Dismal Places (Studies in Jungian Psychology by Jungian Analysts, 73)
author: James Hollis
name: Neha
average rating: 4.45
book published: 1996
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/05/16
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]]> When Breath Becomes Air 28670512
'Rattling. Heartbreaking. Beautiful,' Atul Gawande, bestselling author of Being Mortal

What makes life worth living in the face of death?

At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade's training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, the next he was a patient struggling to live.

When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi's transformation from a medical student asking what makes a virtuous and meaningful life into a neurosurgeon working in the core of human identity - the brain - and finally into a patient and a new father.

Paul Kalanithi died while working on this profoundly moving book, yet his words live on as a guide to us all. When Breath Becomes Air is a life-affirming reflection on facing our mortality and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a gifted writer who became both.

'A vital book about dying. Awe-inspiring and exquisite. Obligatory reading for the living' Nigella Lawson]]> 150 Paul Kalanithi Neha 4 4.50 2016 When Breath Becomes Air
author: Paul Kalanithi
name: Neha
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/07
date added: 2024/05/07
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]]> <![CDATA[Trauma: The Invisible Epidemic: How Trauma Works and How We Can Heal From It]]> 61114794 'I can say with certainty that this man saved my life. He made life worth living. But most importantly, he empowered me to find and reclaim myself again' Lady Gaga

Do the work to heal yourself and find a path through trauma.

Trauma is everywhere and so many of us are silently affected by it. Stressful, challenging and frightening events can happen to anyone, at any age, leaving us feeling overwhelmed, anxious and exhausted. Left unchecked, difficult experiences can have a lasting psychological effect on our wellbeing.

In The Invisible Epidemic, leading psychiatrist Dr Paul Conti sets out a unique set of tools anyone can access to help recognise the signs of trauma, heal from past hurt and find the road to recovery.

Drawing on the most recent scientific research, Dr Conti breaks down the topic into clear sections, looking at why trauma happens, how it manifests in the body and what we can do to move past it. In the book, you'll discover the three different types of trauma you might face, as well as practical exercises and solutions for getting to the root of the problem.

This is an important, life-affirming book, one that invites you to empower yourself against trauma, own your life experiences and learn to thrive, not just survive, in the wake of life's difficulties.]]> 167 Dr Paul Conti 1529193192 Neha 2 4.00 2021 Trauma: The Invisible Epidemic: How Trauma Works and How We Can Heal From It
author: Dr Paul Conti
name: Neha
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2021
rating: 2
read at: 2024/04/22
date added: 2024/04/22
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]]> <![CDATA[The Likeness (Dublin Murder Squad, #2)]]> 5941114
“[Tana French is] required reading for anyone who appreciates tough, unflinching intelligence, and ingenious plotting.” —The New York Times

A New York Times bestseller and “pitch perfectˮ (Entertainment Weekly) follow-up to Tana French’s runaway bestseller In the Woods, Cassie Maddox has transferred out of the Dublin Murder Squad—until an urgent telephone call brings her back to an eerie crime scene.

The victim looks exactly like Cassie and carries ID identifying herself as Alexandra Madison, an alias Cassie once used as an undercover cop. Suddenly, Cassie is back undercover, to find out not only who killed this young woman, but, more importantly, who she was.

The Likeness is a supremely suspenseful story exploring the nature of identity and belonging.]]> 466 Tana French 0143115626 Neha 0 to-read 4.05 2008 The Likeness (Dublin Murder Squad, #2)
author: Tana French
name: Neha
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/04/15
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]]> <![CDATA[The Running Grave (Cormoran Strike, #7)]]> 139399948 In the seventh installment in the Strike series, Cormoran and Robin must rescue a man ensnared in the trap of a dangerous cult.

Private Detective Cormoran Strike is contacted by a worried father whose son, Will, has gone to join a religious cult in the depths of the Norfolk countryside.

The Universal Humanitarian Church is, on the surface, a peaceable organization that campaigns for a better world. Yet Strike discovers that beneath the surface there are deeply sinister undertones, and unexplained deaths.

In order to try to rescue Will, Strike's business partner, Robin Ellacott, decides to infiltrate the cult, and she travels to Norfolk to live incognito among its members. But in doing so, she is unprepared for the dangers that await her there or for the toll it will take on her. . .

Utterly pulse-pounding, The Running Grave moves Strike's and Robin's story forward in this epic, unforgettable seventh installment of the series.]]> 960 Robert Galbraith 0316572101 Neha 5 4.56 2023 The Running Grave (Cormoran Strike, #7)
author: Robert Galbraith
name: Neha
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/07
date added: 2024/04/07
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]]> <![CDATA[The Body: A Guide for Occupants]]> 43582376 A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson achieved the seemingly impossible by making the science of our world both understandable and entertaining to millions of people around the globe.

Now he turns his attention inwards to explore the human body, how it functions and its remarkable ability to heal itself. Full of extraordinary facts and astonishing stories, The Body: A Guide for Occupants is a brilliant, often very funny attempt to understand the miracle of our physical and neurological make up.

A wonderful successor to A Short History of Nearly Everything, this book will have you marvelling at the form you occupy, and celebrating the genius of your existence, time and time again.]]> 450 Bill Bryson 0385539304 Neha 4 4.29 2019 The Body: A Guide for Occupants
author: Bill Bryson
name: Neha
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/27
date added: 2024/02/27
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]]> The Sisters Brothers 12282351 Now a major film starring Jaoquin Phoenix, John C. Reilly, Jake Gyllenhal and Riz Ahmed.

Shortlisted for the 2011 Man Booker Prize, deWitt's dazzlingly original second novel is a darkly funny, offbeat western about a reluctant assassin and his murderous brother.

Hermann Kermit Warm is going to die. Across 1000 miles of Oregon desert his assassins, the notorious Eli and Charlies Sisters, ride - fighting, shooting, and drinking their way to Sacramento. But their prey isn't an easy mark, the road is long and bloody, and somewhere along the path Eli begins to question what he does for a living - and whom he does it for.The Sisters Brothers pays homage to the classic Western, transforming it into an unforgettable ribald tour de force. Filled with a remarkable cast of losers, cheaters, and ne'er-do-wells from all stripes of life-and told by a complex and compelling narrator, it is a violent, lustful odyssey through the underworld of the 1850s frontier that beautifully captures the humor, melancholy, and grit of the Old West and two brothers bound by blood, violence, and love.]]> 338 Patrick deWitt Neha 4 4.01 2011 The Sisters Brothers
author: Patrick deWitt
name: Neha
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/26
date added: 2024/01/26
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]]> <![CDATA[Ritual: Daily Practices for Wellness, Beauty & Bliss]]> 63095483 RITUAL is a collection of practices aimed at optimizing, harmonizing and maximizing the natural energies of the day and night

Renew your mind, body and spirit with activities such as sunbaths, sound healing, cleansing kriyas, beautifying masks, massages, breathwork and navel therapy. From sunrise to sunset, nightfall to dawn, these exercises will help you find moments of clarity, relaxation and bliss.

Inspired by long-standing traditions, this book presents a system of daily rites to create a bespoke routine that works for modern living. Vasudha Rai invites you to play and experiment with old practices so that you can indulge in the magic of Ritual.]]> 265 Vasudha Rai 9354927912 Neha 4 3.73 Ritual: Daily Practices for Wellness, Beauty & Bliss
author: Vasudha Rai
name: Neha
average rating: 3.73
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/27
date added: 2023/12/27
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]]> Memories, Dreams, Reflections 612188 Memories, Dreams, Reflections is that book, composed of conversations with his colleague and friend Aniela Jaffé, as well as chapters written in his own hand, and other materials. Jung continued to work on the final stages of the manuscript until shortly before his death on June 6, 1961, making this a uniquely comprehensive reflection on a remarkable life. Fully corrected, this edition also includes Jung's VII Sermones ad Mortuos.]]> 430 C.G. Jung 0679723951 Neha 0 to-read 4.17 1962 Memories, Dreams, Reflections
author: C.G. Jung
name: Neha
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1962
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/10/22
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]]> <![CDATA[How to Be an Adult in Relationships: The Five Keys to Mindful Loving]]> 500901
   1.  Attention to the present moment; observing, listening, and noticing all the feelings at play in our relationships.
   2.  Acceptance of ourselves and others just as we are.
   3.  Appreciation of all our gifts, our limits, our longings, and our poignant human predicament.
   4.  Affection shown through holding and touching in respectful ways.
   5.  Allowing life and love to be just as they are, with all their ecstasy and ache, without trying to take control.


When deeply understood and applied, these five simple concepts—what Richo calls the five A's—form the basis of mature love. They help us to move away from judgment, fear, and blame to a position of openness, compassion, and realism about life and relationships. By giving and receiving these five A's, relationships become deeper and more meaningful, and they become a ground for personal transformation.]]> 265 David Richo 1570628122 Neha 0 to-read 4.10 2002 How to Be an Adult in Relationships: The Five Keys to Mindful Loving
author: David Richo
name: Neha
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2002
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/10/18
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]]> Rebecca 17899948 Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again...

The novel begins in Monte Carlo, where our heroine is swept off her feet by the dashing widower Maxim de Winter and his sudden proposal of marriage. Orphaned and working as a lady's maid, she can barely believe her luck. It is only when they arrive at his massive country estate that she realizes how large a shadow his late wife will cast over their lives--presenting her with a lingering evil that threatens to destroy their marriage from beyond the grave.

First published in 1938, this classic gothic novel is such a compelling read that it won the Anthony Award for Best Novel of the Century.]]> 449 Daphne du Maurier 0316323705 Neha 0 to-read 4.28 1938 Rebecca
author: Daphne du Maurier
name: Neha
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1938
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/10/15
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]]> <![CDATA[Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals]]> 54785515 The average human lifespan is absurdly, insultingly brief. Assuming you live to be eighty, you have just over four thousand weeks.

Nobody needs to be told there isn’t enough time. We’re obsessed with our lengthening to-do lists, overfilled inboxes, work-life balance, and ceaseless battle against distraction; we’re deluged with advice on becoming more productive and efficient and life hacks to optimize our days. But such techniques often end up making things worse. The sense of anxious hurry grows more intense, and still the most meaningful parts of life seem to lie just beyond the horizon. Still, we rarely make the connection between our daily struggles with time and the ultimate time management problem: the challenge of how best to use our four thousand weeks.

Drawing on the insights of both ancient and contemporary philosophers, psychologists, and spiritual teachers, Oliver Burkeman delivers an entertaining, humorous, practical, and ultimately profound guide to time and time management. Rejecting the futile modern obsession with “getting everything done,” Four Thousand Weeks introduces readers to tools for constructing a meaningful life by embracing finitude, showing that many of the unhelpful ways we’ve come to think about time aren’t inescapable, unchanging truths, but choices we’ve made as individuals and as a society—and that we could do things differently.]]> 245 Oliver Burkeman 0374159122 Neha 0 to-read 4.15 2021 Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
author: Oliver Burkeman
name: Neha
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/10/14
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]]> <![CDATA[The Book of Life: Daily Meditations with Krishnamurti]]> 10813967 353 J. Krishnamurti Neha 0 to-read 4.43 1995 The Book of Life: Daily Meditations with Krishnamurti
author: J. Krishnamurti
name: Neha
average rating: 4.43
book published: 1995
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/10/14
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]]> <![CDATA[The Devotion of Suspect X (Detective Galileo, #1)]]> 16060443
When Detective Kusanagi of the Tokyo Police tries to piece together the events of that night, he finds himself confronted by the most puzzling, mysterious circumstances he has ever investigated. Nothing quite makes sense...

One of the biggest-selling Japanese thrillers ever, and the inspiration for a cult film, The Devotion of Suspect X is now being discovered across the world. Its blend of page-turning story, evocative Tokyo setting and utterly surprising ending make it a must-read for anyone interested in international fiction.]]> 379 Keigo Higashino Neha 4 4.29 2005 The Devotion of Suspect X (Detective Galileo, #1)
author: Keigo Higashino
name: Neha
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2023/10/12
date added: 2023/10/12
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]]> The Way of Intelligence 20649593 242 J. Krishnamurti 8187326476 Neha 0 to-read 4.75 1985 The Way of Intelligence
author: J. Krishnamurti
name: Neha
average rating: 4.75
book published: 1985
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/10/11
shelves: to-read
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]]>