en-US Sun, 21 Jun 2026 12:15:26 -0700 60 144 41 https://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 18297494
What makes a society tick? What do its people really believe? Can it adapt? In spare, unflinching prose that eschews political correctness, he describes a China that remains obsessed with control from the centre on its way to an unstoppable rise; an America that will have to share its pre-eminence despite its never-say-die dynamism; and a Europe that struggles with the challenges of keeping its union intact. His candid and often startling views on why Japan is closed to foreigners, why the Arab Spring won't bring one man, one vote to the Middle East, and why preventing global warming is not going to be as fruitful as preparing for it; make this a fresh and gripping read. Lee completes the book by looking into the future of Singapore, his enduring concern and by offering the reader a glimpse into his personal life and his view of death.

The book is interspersed with a Q&A section in each chapter, gleaned from conversations he had with journalists from The Straits Times.]]> 400 Lee Kuan Yew Walnut 0 to-read 4.52 2013
author: Lee Kuan Yew
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2026/06/21
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]]> 168787
This book is dedicated to this task. Bauman selects five of the basic concepts which have served to make sense of shared human life - emancipation, individuality, time/space, work and community - and traces their successive incarnations and changes of meanaing.

Liquid Modernity concludes the analysis undertaken in Bauman's two previous books Globalization: The Human Consequences and In Search of Politics. Together these volumes form a brilliant analysis of the changing conditions of social and political life by one of the most original thinkers writing today.]]> 240 Zygmunt Bauman 0745624103 Walnut 0 to-read 4.17 1999
author: Zygmunt Bauman
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1999
rating: 0
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date added: 2026/06/15
shelves: to-read
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]]> 23493509 146 Amit Ray 9382123318 Walnut 0 to-read 4.72 2010
author: Amit Ray
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.72
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/06/14
shelves: to-read
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]]> 11987 212 Albert Camus Walnut 0 to-read 4.22 1942
author: Albert Camus
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1942
rating: 0
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date added: 2026/06/14
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]]> 205054
Toward the End of Time "is the journal of a 66-year-old man, Ben Turnbull . . . [which] reveals not only the world but the wanderings of his wits. . . . So what if he jumps from a United States in the next century, disintegrating after a war with China, to ancient Egypt, or to virtual reality? So what if characters appear and disappear like phantoms in a dream? . . . Turnbull's journal is like Walden gone haywire. . . . If Ben's ruthlessness is evenhanded, so is his alarming intelligence; it falls on every scene, person, object, and thought in the book, giving it an eerie ambiance."
--The New York Times Book Review

"A BOOK AIMED NOT TO RESOLVE BUT TO AROUSE A READER'S WONDER . . . Vintage Updike: marital angst worked out against the chilly backdrop of privilege, rendered with a lyricism and insight and eye for detail reminiscent of the work of Jane Austen."
--The Miami Herald

"WONDERFUL RUSHES OF NEAR-MELVILLEAN PROSE . . . Toward the End of Time has a force that gets under your skin."
--New York Review of Books

A Main Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club


From the Trade Paperback edition.]]> 0 John Updike 0517370301 Walnut 0 to-read 3.27 1997
author: John Updike
name: Walnut
average rating: 3.27
book published: 1997
rating: 0
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date added: 2026/03/28
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]]> 497499 262 Magda Szabó 1843431939 Walnut 0 to-read 4.09 1987
author: Magda Szabó
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1987
rating: 0
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date added: 2026/03/27
shelves: to-read
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]]> 592850 575 Irwin Allan Sealy 0394563646 Walnut 0 to-read 3.67 1988
author: Irwin Allan Sealy
name: Walnut
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1988
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/10/08
shelves: to-read
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]]> 21409466 Marguerite Duras Walnut 0 to-read 3.54 1950
author: Marguerite Duras
name: Walnut
average rating: 3.54
book published: 1950
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/07/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> 22726900 256 Clara Zetkin 9350021323 Walnut 0 to-read 4.00 1984
author: Clara Zetkin
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1984
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/06/20
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]]> 164019 The Theory of the Leisure Class is in the tradition of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations and Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan, yet it provides a surprisingly contemporary look at American economics and society.

Establishing such terms as "conspicuous consumption" and "pecuniary emulation," Veblen's most famous work has become an archetype not only of economic theory, but of historical and sociological thought as well. As sociologist Alan Wolfe writes in his Introduction, Veblen "skillfully . . . wrote a book that will be read so long as the rich are different from the rest of us; which, if the future is anything like the past, they always will be."]]> 320 Thorstein Veblen 0375757872 Walnut 0 to-read 3.90 1899
author: Thorstein Veblen
name: Walnut
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1899
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/23
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]]> 14981008 488 Nina Bhadreshwar 1434386317 Walnut 0 to-read 2.62 2008
author: Nina Bhadreshwar
name: Walnut
average rating: 2.62
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> 6403619 64 Ashok Mahajan 0195619129 Walnut 0 to-read 4.80 1986
author: Ashok Mahajan
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.80
book published: 1986
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/06/03
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]]> 2508
-Includes a newly established text, a full biographical essay on Wells, a list of further reading, and detailed notes
-Edward Mendelson's introduction explores the many ways in which Tono-Bungay satirizes the fictions and delusions that shape modern life]]> 414 H.G. Wells Walnut 0 to-read 3.45 1909
author: H.G. Wells
name: Walnut
average rating: 3.45
book published: 1909
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/04/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> 112206517 This is a lovely notebook / journal with a simple themed cover design. perfect for anyone to record ideas, or to use for writing and note-taking. It can be used by Men and women, school and college students,..
This notebook is ideal ]]> 100 Walnut 0 to-read 0.0
author: JustaManZ177 by Cynthia R McCray vol1 Sa78
name: Walnut
average rating: 0.0
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/03/20
shelves: to-read
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]]> 23014868 The Lord God Made Them All is the bestselling sequel to All Things Wise and Wonderful and the fourth volume in James Herriot's classic collections of animal stories. In this newly repackaged volume, after serving in the RAF in World War II, Herriot gladly returns home to Yorkshire to his beloved family and multitude of patients, with many more tender, funny, sad and wise stories to share with us and warm our hearts.

Animal lovers of all ages, and fans of Herriot's original classics, won't want to miss this beautiful treasure.]]> 373 James Herriot 1250068657 Walnut 5 4.52 1981
author: James Herriot
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.52
book published: 1981
rating: 5
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]]> 801573 A hilarious record that no Durrell fan will want to miss. - Sunday Telegraph

If you looked you would think that his mind was full of beautiful and poetic thoughts...A ball of food would make its appearance at the base of the long neck and would travel upwards with all the majesty of a department store lift. The ball was generally the size of a coconut and would end its travels by rolling into his mouth. A satisfied expression would replace the look of thoughtful genius and Peter's lower jaw would recommence its monotonous movement.

A loving chronicle of jitter-bugging gnus, singing duets with a bear, stealing eggs to feed the Arctic foxes, practising tiger sniffs...Highly entertaining and informative. - The Times

Durrell manages to convey not only that he loves animals, but that he enjoys life too - and wants you to enjoy it with him. - Daily Mirror

Cover Illustration: Arthur Robins]]> 189 Gerald Durrell Walnut 0 4.12 1970
author: Gerald Durrell
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1970
rating: 0
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]]> 948395 816 H.L. Mencken 0394400755 Walnut 0 to-read 4.13 1919
author: H.L. Mencken
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1919
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/01/13
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]]> 300842 240 H.L. Mencken 0679728953 Walnut 0 to-read 4.08 1955
author: H.L. Mencken
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1955
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/01/13
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]]> 2081704 244 H.L. Mencken 0548134308 Walnut 0 to-read 3.60 1916
author: H.L. Mencken
name: Walnut
average rating: 3.60
book published: 1916
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/01/13
shelves: to-read
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]]> 6720421 100 Dharamvir Bharati 8126314869 Walnut 0 to-read 4.16 1952
author: Dharamvir Bharati
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1952
rating: 0
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]]> 44003688 A controversial bestseller from one of Norway's most intelligent and highly-regarded novelists

Four siblings. Two summer houses. One terrible secret. A woman walks her dog in the snow, drinks wine by the fire and considers the inheritance dispute that's dragging her back towards the family she fled years ago, and the degree to which the horrors and conflicts of the past should be allowed shake her present.

This emotionally searing novel is at once a wrenching look at a family fractured and a meditation on the nature of trauma and memory.]]> 336 Vigdis Hjorth 178873310X Walnut 0 to-read 3.94 2016
author: Vigdis Hjorth
name: Walnut
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/01/11
shelves: to-read
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]]> 13574526 56 Jarod Kintz 1475901755 Walnut 0 to-read 4.50 2012
author: Jarod Kintz
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/01/04
shelves: to-read
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]]> 20518872 472 Liu Cixin Walnut 0 to-read 4.07 2006
author: Liu Cixin
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/01/04
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]]> 25499718
WHO WILL INHERIT THIS NEW EARTH?

The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age—a world terraformed and prepared for human life.

But all is not right in this new Eden. In the long years since the planet was abandoned, the work of its architects has borne disastrous fruit. The planet is not waiting for them, pristine and unoccupied. New masters have turned it from a refuge into mankind's worst nightmare.

Now two civilizations are on a collision course, both testing the boundaries of what they will do to survive. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, who are the true heirs of this new Earth?]]> 600 Adrian Tchaikovsky 1447273281 Walnut 0 to-read 4.28 2015
author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/01/04
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]]> 1330324 513 Amitav Ghosh 071956896X Walnut 5 3.97 2008
author: Amitav Ghosh
name: Walnut
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2008
rating: 5
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date added: 2023/01/04
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]]> 12612 Hegemony or Survival demonstrates how, for more than half a century the United States has been pursuing a grand imperial strategy with the aim of staking out the globe. Our leaders have shown themselves willing-as in the Cuban missile crisis-to follow the dream of dominance no matter how high the risks. World-renowned intellectual Noam Chomsky investigates how we came to this perilous moment and why our rulers are willing to jeopardize the future of our species.

With the striking logic that is his trademark, Chomsky tracks the U.S. government's aggressive pursuit of "full spectrum dominance" and vividly lays out how the most recent manifestations of the politics of global control-from unilateralism to the dismantling of international agreements to state terrorism-cohere in a drive for hegemony that ultimately threatens our existence. Lucidly written, thoroughly documented, and featuring a new afterword by the author, Hegemony or Survival is a definitive statement from one of today's most influential thinkers.]]> 304 Noam Chomsky 0805076883 Walnut 5 3.98 2003
author: Noam Chomsky
name: Walnut
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2003
rating: 5
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date added: 2022/12/24
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]]> 55789067
Julian Jessop, an eccentric, lonely artist and septuagenarian believes that most people aren't really honest with each other. But what if they were? And so he writes--in a plain, green journal--the truth about his own life and leaves it in his local café. It's run by the incredibly tidy and efficient Monica, who furtively adds her own entry and leaves the book in the wine bar across the street. Before long, the others who find the green notebook add the truths about their own deepest selves--and soon find each other in real life at Monica's café.

The Authenticity Project's cast of characters--including Hazard, the charming addict who makes a vow to get sober; Alice, the fabulous mommy Instagrammer whose real life is a lot less perfect than it looks online; and their other new friends--is by turns quirky and funny, heartbreakingly sad and painfully true-to-life. It's a story about being brave and putting your real self forward--and finding out that it's not as scary as it seems. In fact, it looks a lot like happiness.

The Authenticity Project is just the tonic for our times that readers are clamoring for--and one they will take to their hearts and read with unabashed pleasure.]]> 400 Clare Pooley 1984878638 Walnut 0 to-read 3.87 2020
author: Clare Pooley
name: Walnut
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/11/23
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]]> 21569870
Mihir Srivastava is a journalist. He lives in Delhi.]]> 224 Mihir Srivastava 935029673X Walnut 0 to-read 4.06 2013
author: Mihir Srivastava
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/11/10
shelves: to-read
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]]> 5986375
How does one keep from going through their comfortable, prosperous adult life unconsciously? How do we get ourselves out of the foreground of our thoughts and achieve compassion? The speech captures Wallace's electric intellect as well as his grace in attention to others. After his death, it became a treasured piece of writing reprinted in The Wall Street Journal and the London Times, commented on endlessly in blogs, and emailed from friend to friend.

Writing with his one-of-a-kind blend of causal humor, exacting intellect, and practical philosophy, David Foster Wallace probes the challenges of daily living and offers advice that renews us with every reading.]]> 138 David Foster Wallace 0316068225 Walnut 0 to-read 4.51 2009
author: David Foster Wallace
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/10/30
shelves: to-read
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]]> 149411 240 M.S. Kohli 0700612238 Walnut 0 4.02 2003
author: M.S. Kohli
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at: 2022/10/15
date added: 2022/10/15
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]]> 36809135
But Kya is not what they say. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life's lessons from the land, learning the real ways of the world from the dishonest signals of fireflies. But while she has the skills to live in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world—until the unthinkable happens.

In Where the Crawdads Sing, Owens juxtaposes an exquisite ode to the natural world against a profound coming of age story and haunting mystery. Thought-provoking, wise, and deeply moving, Owens’s debut novel reminds us that we are forever shaped by the child within us, while also subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.

The story asks how isolation influences the behavior of a young woman, who like all of us, has the genetic propensity to belong to a group. The clues to the mystery are brushed into the lush habitat and natural histories of its wild creatures.]]> 384 Delia Owens 0735219117 Walnut 0 4.34 2018
author: Delia Owens
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at: 2022/10/15
date added: 2022/10/15
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]]> 622143 196 Alfred Adler 0393300196 Walnut 0 to-read 4.06 1978
author: Alfred Adler
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1978
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/09/18
shelves: to-read
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]]> 255260 224 Alfred Adler 1851681566 Walnut 0 to-read 3.87 1964
author: Alfred Adler
name: Walnut
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1964
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/09/18
shelves: to-read
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]]> 255262 528 Alfred Adler 0061311545 Walnut 0 to-read 4.15 1920
author: Alfred Adler
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1920
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/09/18
shelves: to-read
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]]> 255263 224 Alfred Adler 0449308332 Walnut 0 to-read 4.00 1927
author: Alfred Adler
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1927
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/09/18
shelves: to-read
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]]> 3636 208 Lois Lowry 0385732554 Walnut 0 to-read 4.12 1993
author: Lois Lowry
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1993
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/09/05
shelves: to-read
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]]> 31018755 113 Mahip Chadha 9383793430 Walnut 4 4.00
author: Mahip Chadha
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2022/07/11
date added: 2022/07/11
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]]> 94667 Sister of My Heart comes a spellbinding tale of mothers and daughters, love and cultural identity. Rakhi, a young painter and single mother, is struggling to come to terms with her relationship with ex-husband Sonny, a hip Bay Area DJ, and with her dream-teller mother, who has rarely spoken about her past or her native India. Rakhi has her hands full, juggling a creative dry spell, raising her daughter, and trying to save the Berkeley teahouse she and her best friend Belle own. But greater challenges are to come. When a national tragedy turns her world upside down and Rakhi needs her mother’s strength and wisdom more than ever, she loses her in a freak car accident. But uncovering her mother’s dream journals allows Rakhi to discover her mother’s long-kept secrets and sacrifices–and ultimately to confront her fears, forge a new relationship with her father, and revisit Sonny’s place in her heart.]]> 352 Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni 1400030447 Walnut 0 3.58 2004
author: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
name: Walnut
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at: 2022/07/11
date added: 2022/07/11
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]]> 1389597
The book throws new light on many historical events and the role of political leaders during India`s fight for independence and the partitioning of the subcontinent. The author gives an overview of India`s military history after independence, including major operations such as the wars with China in 1962, and with Pakistan in 1947, 1965 and 1971. He describes many hitherto unknown or little known facts and incidents concerning smaller operations like Nathu La in 1967 and Goa in 1962.]]> 417 V.K. Singh 0761933220 Walnut 4 4.22 2005
author: V.K. Singh
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2022/07/11
date added: 2022/07/11
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]]> 99944 Mahabharata incorporates Bhagavad-Gita, a sacred Hindu text that takes the form of a philosophical dialogue in which Krishna instructs Arjuna, the prince, in ethical matters and the nature of God.

Krishna expounds the nature and the way that humans can come to know God to Arjuna, the warrior prince in the Bhagavad-Gita.

Mahabharata, a Sanskrit epic, contains the text of the Bhagavad-Gita.

This early epic poem recounts the conversation between the warrior and his charioteer, the divine manifestation. It sets out the important lessons to learn to change the outcome of the war in the moments before a great battle that the warrior fights, and culminates in revealing the true cosmic warrior and counselling him to search for the universal perfection of life. This most important work ranges from yoga postures to dense moral discussion and serves as a practical guide to living well.]]> 160 Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa 0140449183 Walnut 0 4.13 -400
author: Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.13
book published: -400
rating: 0
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]]> 60731552
Enter Gita Ramaswamy, thirty years old. In her teens, Gita had escaped the brahminical clutches of her family that tried to cure her of Naxalism with shock treatment and sedation. She has endured the horrors of the Emergency. She is disillusioned. But not without hope. Gita starts living with the agricultural labourers. They are in bondage, cheated out of land and all rights. They are in the mood to fight. Together, they take on the tyrannical landlords who brutalized the villages for generations. A revolution without a gun is in the making.

Gita writes with relentless self-reflexivity. This is as much a story of struggles and victories as it is a testimony of personal failings and regrets.

Gita Ramaswamy is best known for her work with Hyderabad Book Trust that has published over four hundred titles since 1980. HBT pioneered low-cost books and translations from across the world—from Alex Haley to Mahasweta Devi. She was earlier associated with the Marxist–Leninist movement in Telangana. Going underground during the Emergency in 1975 with her husband Cyril Reddy, she taught English in a dalit basti in Ghaziabad, near Delhi. Starting in 1984, she worked for a decade with the dalits of Ibrahimpatnam and helped them in their fight against bonded labour and landlessness. Gita has authored several books and has translated extensively from Telugu into English.]]> 432 Gita Ramaswamy 8194865417 Walnut 0 to-read 4.36
author: Gita Ramaswamy
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.36
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date added: 2022/07/06
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]]> 29779617 152 Gita Ramaswamy 8190737775 Walnut 0 to-read 4.35
author: Gita Ramaswamy
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.35
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/07/06
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]]> 55585992
Deep in the California woods on an evening in late August, Jane Pearson is camping with her husband Leo and their five-year-old son Benjamin. As dusk sets in, she drifts softly to sleep in a hammock strung outside the tent where Leo and Benjamin are preparing for bed. At that moment, every single person with a Y chromosome vanishes around the world, disappearing from operating theaters mid-surgery, from behind the wheels of cars, from arguments and acts of love. Children, adults, even fetuses are gone in an instant. Leo and Benjamin are gone. No one knows why, how, or where.

After the Disappearance, Jane forces herself to enter a world she barely recognizes, one where women must create new ways of living while coping with devastating grief. As people come together to rebuild depopulated industries and distribute scarce resources, Jane focuses on reuniting with an old college girlfriend, Evangelyne Moreau, leader of the Commensalist Party of America, a rising political force in this new world. Meanwhile, strange video footage called “The Men” is being broadcast online showing images of the vanished men marching through barren, otherworldly landscapes. Is this just a hoax, or could it hold the key to the Disappearance?

From the author of The Heavens, The Men is a gripping, beautiful, and disquieting novel of feminist utopias and impossible sacrifices that interrogates the dream of a perfect society and the conflict between individual desire and the good of the community.]]> 272 Sandra Newman 0802159672 Walnut 0 to-read 2.93 2022
author: Sandra Newman
name: Walnut
average rating: 2.93
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/06/13
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]]> 176883 The Politics of Reality includes essays that examine sexism, the exploitation of women, the gay rights movement and other topics from a feminist perspective.]]> 192 Marilyn Frye 089594099X Walnut 0 to-read 4.16 1983
author: Marilyn Frye
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1983
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/05/31
shelves: to-read
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]]> 1294974 175 Karen Davis 1570670323 Walnut 0 to-read 3.90 1996
author: Karen Davis
name: Walnut
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/05/29
shelves: to-read
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]]> 13714835 208 Gyanendra Pandey 0415665485 Walnut 0 to-read 5.00 2011
author: Gyanendra Pandey
name: Walnut
average rating: 5.00
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/05/29
shelves: to-read
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]]> 1961738 346 Partha Chatterjee 1850655804 Walnut 0 to-read 3.89
author: Partha Chatterjee
name: Walnut
average rating: 3.89
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/05/29
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]]> 17467430
In comparing the historical struggles of two geographically disparate populations—Indian Dalits (once known as Untouchables) and African Americans—Gyanendra Pandey, the leading subaltern historian, examines the multiple dimensions of prejudice in two of the world's leading democracies. The juxtaposition of two very different locations and histories and, within each of these, of varying public and private narratives of struggle, allows for an uncommon analysis of the limits of citizenship in modern societies and states.

Pandey, with his characteristic delicacy, probes the histories of his protagonists to uncover a shadowy world where intolerance and discrimination are part of both public and private lives. This unusual and sobering book is revelatory in its exploration of the contradictory history of promise and denial that is common to the official narratives of nations such as India and the United States and the ideologies of many opposition movements.]]> 255 Gyanendra Pandey 1107609380 Walnut 0 to-read 3.67 2013
author: Gyanendra Pandey
name: Walnut
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/05/29
shelves: to-read
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]]> 52620146 238 Patricia Hughes 0244519307 Walnut 0 to-read 4.00
author: Patricia Hughes
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/05/23
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]]> 1550785 216 Saadat Hasan Manto 0140275967 Walnut 0 to-read 3.63 1953
author: Saadat Hasan Manto
name: Walnut
average rating: 3.63
book published: 1953
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/05/16
shelves: to-read
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]]> 304485 On Lies, Secrets, and Silence is a sort of travel diary, documenting Adrienne Rich's journeys to the frontier and into the interior. It traces the development of one individual consciousness, "playing over such issues as motherhood, racism, history, poetry, the uses of scholarship, the politics of language".
A. Rich has written a headnote for each essay, briefly discussing the circumstances of its writing. "I find in myself both severe and tender thoughts toward the women I have been, whose thoughts I find here".]]> 310 Adrienne Rich 0393312852 Walnut 0 to-read 4.36 1979
author: Adrienne Rich
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.36
book published: 1979
rating: 0
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]]> 60044804
With forty-five original pieces by some of India's leading writers, outstanding new voices and individuals who have dedicated their lives to animal welfare, The Book of Dog is a testament to how deeply dogs touch us, to the special bond we have with them and the unique place they hold in our hearts and our lives. Through a series of unforgettable real-life stories-funny, poignant, warm and joyous -- the authors celebrate the remarkable dogs they have known and loved.

This book is a must-read for everyone who cherishes dogs and the perfect gift for a dog-lover friend. It will engross and delight readers of all ages as they go through one memorable story after another.

--

The Book of Dog is a project to which the editor and all the authors have contributed for free. All royalties will go to registered animal welfare charities.

CONTRIBUTORS

Aanchal Malhotra, Abhishek Joshi, Amitava Kumar, Ananya Vajpeyi, Anindita Ghose, Anita Nair, Anuja Chauhan, Arunava Sinha, Ashok Ferrey, Ashwin Sanghi, Atul Sarin, Bulbul Sharma, Cyrus Broacha, Devdutt Pattanaik, Divya Dugar, Fiona Fernandez, Geetan Batra, Gillian Wright, Gulzar, Jai Arjun Singh, Jerry Pinto, Keshava Guha, Mahesh Rao, Maneka Gandhi, Manjula Narayan, Manu Bhattathiri, Mark Tully, Meenakshi Alimchandani, Naomi Barton, Nilanjana S. Roy, Orijit Sen, Paro Anand, Prerna Singh Bindra, Rajdeep Sardesai, Ruskin Bond, Sarnath Banerjee, Shobhaa De, Shrutkeerti Khurana, Sian Morton, Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi, Sooni Taraporevala, Sumita Mehta, Tandrali Kuli, Tishani Doshi, Vikas Khanna.]]> 352 Hemali Sodhi 9354893562 Walnut 4 4.30 2022
author: Hemali Sodhi
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2022
rating: 4
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]]> 54500278
Exploring the meanings and powers of love from ancient Greece to the present day, Richard Gilman-Opalsky argues that what is called “love” by the best thinkers who have approached the subject is in fact the beating heart of communism—understood as a way of living, not as a form of government. Along the way, he reveals with clarity that the capitalist way of assigning value to things is incapable of appreciating what humans value most. Capitalism cannot value the experiences and relationships that make our lives worth living and can only destroy love by turning it into a commodity. The Communism of Love follows the struggles of love in different contexts of race, class, gender, and sexuality, and shows how the aspiration for love is as close as we may get to a universal communist aspiration.]]> 336 Richard Gilman-Opalsky 1849353913 Walnut 0 to-read 4.32 2020
author: Richard Gilman-Opalsky
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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]]> 29537164 You Took the Last Bus Home is the first and long-awaited collection of ingeniously hilarious and surprisingly touching poems from Brian Bilston, the mysterious ‘Poet Laureate of Twitter’.

With endless wit, imaginative wordplay and underlying heartache, he offers profound insights into modern life, exploring themes as diverse as love, death, the inestimable value of a mobile phone charger, the unbearable torment of forgetting to put the rubbish out, and the improbable nuances of the English language.

Constantly experimenting with literary form, Bilston’s words have been known to float off the page, take the shape of the subjects they explore, and reflect our contemporary world in the form of Excel spreadsheets, Venn diagrams and Scrabble tiles.

This irresistibly charming collection of his best-loved poems will make you question the very essence of the human condition in the twenty-first century.


YOU TOOK THE LAST BUS HOME

you took
the last bus home
don’t know how
you got it through the door


you’re always doing amazing stuff


like the time
when you caught that train]]> 256 Brian Bilston 1783523050 Walnut 0 to-read 4.23 2016
author: Brian Bilston
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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]]> 48635408
Men Who Hate Women examines the rise of secretive extremist communities who despise women and traces the roots of misogyny across a complex spider web of groups. It includes eye-opening interviews with former members of these communities, the academics studying this movement, and the men fighting back.

Women's rights activist Laura Bates wrote this book as someone who has been the target of many hate-fueled misogynistic attacks online. At first, the vitriol seemed to be the work of a small handful of individual men... but over time, the volume and consistency of the attacks hinted at something bigger and more ominous. As Bates went undercover into the corners of the internet, she found an unseen, organized movement of thousands of anonymous men wishing violence (and worse) upon women.
In the book, Bates explores:

Extreme communities like incels, pick-up artists, MGTOW, Men's Rights Activists and more
The hateful, toxic rhetoric used by these groups
How this movement connects to other extremist movements like white supremacy
How young boys are targeted and slowly drawn in
Where this ideology shows up in our everyday lives in mainstream media, our playgrounds, and our government

By turns fascinating and horrifying, Men Who Hate Women is a broad, unflinching account of the deep current of loathing toward women and anti-feminism that underpins our society and is a must-read for parents, educators, and anyone who believes in equality for women.]]> 366 Laura Bates Walnut 0 to-read 4.33 2020
author: Laura Bates
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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]]> 11787752
Alice is a candidate for the position of junior nurse, grade 4. It is only a few weeks since her release from Borstal. She has returned to her childhood home in the French Colony, where her father, recently retired from his position as chief janitor, continues as part-time healer, and full-time headache for the local church. It seems she has inherited some of his gift.With guidance from the working nurse’s manual, and some tricks she picked up in prison, Alice brings succour to the thousands of patients littering the hospital’s corridors and concrete courtyard. In the process she attracts the attention of a lovesick patient, Teddy Bunt, apprentice to the nefarious ‘Gentleman Squad’ of the Karachi police. They fall in love; Teddy with sudden violence, Alice with cautious optimism.Their love is unexpected, but the consequences are not.

Alice soon finds that her new life is built on foundations as unstable as those of her home. A Catholic snubbed by other Catholics, who are in turn hated by everyone around them, she is also put at risk by her husband, who does two things that no member of the Gentlemen Squad has ever done – fall in love with a working girl, and allow a potentially dangerous suspect to get away. Can Teddy and Alice ever live in peace? Can two people make a life together without destroying the very thing that united them? It seems unlikely, but then Alice Bhatti is no ordinary nurse...

Filled with wit, colour and pathos, Our Lady of Alice Bhatti is a glorious story of second chances, thwarted ambitions and love in unlikely places, set in the febrile streets of downtown Karachi. It is the remarkable new novel from the author of A Case of Exploding Mangoes.]]> 240 Mohammed Hanif 0224082051 Walnut 4 3.43 2010
author: Mohammed Hanif
name: Walnut
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2010
rating: 4
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]]> 55101918 247 Shashi Tharoor 9353059518 Walnut 0 to-read 4.18
author: Shashi Tharoor
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.18
book published:
rating: 0
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]]> 51291 142 Darrell Huff 0393310728 Walnut 0 currently-reading 3.82 1954
author: Darrell Huff
name: Walnut
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1954
rating: 0
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]]> 292745
The authors engage in a systematic examination of the politics, production, content, and consumption of contemporary mass-market heterosexual pornography, thereby contributing to a fuller understanding of pornography's role in the cultural construction of gender, racial and sexual identities, and relations. They begin with an overview of the social and political history of the feminist anti-pornography movement and the debate over pornography within feminism. Then they address the various rhetorical dodges--definitional, legal, and causal--used to distort the fact that institutionalized pornography helps maintain the sexual and social oppression of women within a patriarchal system.

Exploring the beginnings of the commercial pornography industry, the book focuses in part on the history of Playboy magazine. It also analyzes the content of contemporary mass-market videos. Dines, Jensen, and Russo argue that the sexual ideology of patriarchy eroticizes domination and submission, with pornography playing a significant role in how these values are mediated and normalized in American society. They discuss the effects of pornography on the lives of those who use it and those against whom it is used. In so doing, the authors hope to contribute to creating a world in which sex is not a site of oppression but of liberation.]]> 200 Gail Dines 0415918138 Walnut 1 3.86 1997
author: Gail Dines
name: Walnut
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1997
rating: 1
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]]> 18197163 148 Slavoj Žižek 0262026716 Walnut 5 3.58 2014
author: Slavoj Žižek
name: Walnut
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2014
rating: 5
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]]> 54898389 244 Eric Jorgenson Walnut 0 4.35 2020
author: Eric Jorgenson
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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]]> 134353 An enormously popular (7-million copies sold) and insightful classic of popular psychology based on Eric Berne’s theory of Transactional Analysis that has helped millions of people who never before felt OK about themselves find the freedom to change, to liberate their ADULT effectiveness, and to achieve joyful intimacy with the people in their lives.

Transactional analysis delineates three ego-states (parent, adult and child) as the basis for the content and quality of interpersonal communication. “Happy childhood” notwithstanding, says Harris, most of us are living out the not ok feelings of a defenseless child wholly dependent on ok others (parents) for stroking and caring. At some stage early in our lives we adopt a “position” about ourselves which very significantly determines how we feel about ourselves, particularly in relation to other people. And for a huge portion of the population, that position is that I’m Not OK-You’re OK. This negative Life Position, shared by successful and unsuccessful people alike, contaminates our rational adult potential, leaving us vulnerable to the inappropriate, emotional reactions of our child and the uncritically learned behavior programmed into our parent. By exploring the four basic “life positions,” we can radically change our lives.]]> 320 Thomas A. Harris 0060724277 Walnut 0 3.74 1967
author: Thomas A. Harris
name: Walnut
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1967
rating: 0
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]]> 28815
You'll learn the six universal principles, how to use them to become a skilled persuader—and how to defend yourself against them. Perfect for people in all walks of life, the principles of Influence will move you toward profound personal change and act as a driving force for your success.]]> 320 Robert B. Cialdini 006124189X Walnut 0 currently-reading 4.21 1984
author: Robert B. Cialdini
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1984
rating: 0
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]]> 3700151 94 Chagdud Khadro 1881847101 Walnut 3 4.00 1981
author: Chagdud Khadro
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1981
rating: 3
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It's a well written book coming from deep understanding of the subject. I wish it was more detailed for newbies ' assimilation.
]]> 722231 272 John Gray 1565845927 Walnut 0 to-read 3.91 1998
author: John Gray
name: Walnut
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1998
rating: 0
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]]> 6371641 480 John Gray 1846141915 Walnut 0 to-read 3.91 2009
author: John Gray
name: Walnut
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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]]> 124546 John Gray's new book gives post-liberal theory a more definite content. It does so by considering particular thinkers in the history of political thought, by criticizing the conventional wisdom, liberal and socialist, of the Western academic class, and most directly by specifying what remains of value in liberalism. The upshot of this line of thought is that we need not regret the failure of foundationalist liberalism, since we have all we need in the historic inheritance of the institutions of civil society. It is to the practice of liberty that these institutions encompass, rather than to empty liberal theory, that we should repair.]]> 372 John Gray 0415135532 Walnut 0 to-read 3.89 1993
author: John Gray
name: Walnut
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1993
rating: 0
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]]> 16059367
In a book by turns chilling and beautiful, John Gray continues the thinking that made his Straw Dogs such a cult classic. Gray draws on an extraordinary array of memoirs, poems, fiction, and philosophy to re-imagine our place in the world. Writers as varied as Ballard, Borges, Conrad, and Freud have been mesmerized by forms of human extremity―experiences that are on the outer edge of the possible or that tip into fantasy and myth. What happens to us when we starve, when we fight, when we are imprisoned? And how do our imaginations leap into worlds way beyond our real experiences? The Silence of Animals is consistently fascinating, filled with unforgettable images and a delight in the conundrum of human existence―an existence that we decorate with countless myths and ideas, where we twist and turn to avoid acknowledging that we too are animals, separated from the others perhaps only by our self-conceit. In the Babel we have created for ourselves, it is the silence of animals that both reproaches and bewitches us.]]> 240 John Gray 0374229171 Walnut 0 to-read 3.89 2013
author: John Gray
name: Walnut
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2013
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]]> 114496 Washington Post Book World as "a modern classic," Robertson Davies’s acclaimed Deptford Trilogy is a glittering, fantastical, cunningly contrived series of novels, around which a mysterious death is woven. The Manticore—the second book in the series after Fifth Business—follows David Staunton, a man pleased with his success but haunted by his relationship with his larger-than-life father. As he seeks help through therapy, he encounters a wonderful cast of characters who help connect him to his past and the death of his father.]]> 288 Robertson Davies 014303913X Walnut 0 to-read 4.03 1972
author: Robertson Davies
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1972
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/03/26
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]]> 117047 ***30th Anniversary Edition***

Cover note: Each copy of the anniversary edition of The Blind Watchmaker features a unique biomorph. No two covers are exactly alike.

Acclaimed as the most influential work on evolution written in the last hundred years, The Blind Watchmaker offers an inspiring and accessible introduction to one of the most important scientific discoveries of all time. A brilliant and controversial book which demonstrates that evolution by natural selection - the unconscious, automatic, blind yet essentially non-random process discovered by Darwin - is the only answer to the biggest question of all: why do we exist?]]> 466 Richard Dawkins 0141026162 Walnut 0 4.09 1986
author: Richard Dawkins
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1986
rating: 0
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]]> 32175526 WINNER OF THE 2017 PETER KATZENSTEIN BOOK PRIZE"BEST OF BOOKS IN 2017" BY FOREIGN AFFAIRSWINNER OF THE 2018 VIVIAN ZELIZER PRIZE BEST BOOK AWARD IN ECONOMIC SOCIOLOGY"How China Escaped the Poverty Trap truly offers game-changing ideas for the analysis and implementation of socio-economic development and should have a major impact across many social sciences."― Zelizer Best Book in Economic Sociology Prize Committee

Acclaimed as "game changing" and "field shifting," How China Escaped the Poverty Trap advances a new paradigm in the political economy of development and sheds new light on China's rise.

How can poor and weak societies escape poverty traps? Political economists have traditionally offered three "stimulate growth first," "build good institutions first," or "some fortunate nations inherited good institutions that led to growth."

Yuen Yuen Ang rejects all three schools of thought and their underlying linear causation, a mechanistic worldview, and historical determinism. Instead, she launches a new paradigm grounded in complex adaptive systems, which embraces the reality of interdependence and humanity's capacity to innovate.

Combining this original lens with more than 400 interviews with Chinese bureaucrats and entrepreneurs, Ang systematically reenacts the complex process that turned China from a communist backwater into a global juggernaut in just 35 years. Contrary to popular misconceptions, she shows that what drove China's great transformation was not centralized authoritarian control, but "directed improvisation"—top-down directions from Beijing paired with bottom-up improvisation among local officials.

Her analysis reveals two broad lessons on development. First, transformative change requires an adaptive governing system that empowers ground-level actors to create new solutions for evolving problems. Second, the first step out of the poverty trap is to "use what you have"—harnessing existing resources to kick-start new markets, even if that means defying first-world norms.

Bold and meticulously researched, How China Escaped the Poverty Trap opens up a whole new avenue of thinking for scholars, practitioners, and anyone seeking to build adaptive systems.]]> 342 Yuen Yuen Ang 1501706403 Walnut 0 to-read 4.34 2016
author: Yuen Yuen Ang
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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]]> 49105000 Since market opening, corruption in China has evolved toward access money. Using a range of data sources, the author explains the evolution of Chinese corruption, how it differs from the West and other developing countries, and how Xi's anti-corruption campaign could affect growth and governance.
In this formidable yet accessible book, Ang challenges one-dimensional measures of corruption. By unbundling the problem and adopting a comparative-historical lens, she reveals that the rise of capitalism was not accompanied by the eradication of corruption, but rather by its evolution from thuggery and theft to access money.
In doing so, she changes the way we think about corruption and capitalism, not only in China but around the world.]]> 274 Yuen Yuen Ang 1108478603 Walnut 0 to-read 4.17 2021
author: Yuen Yuen Ang
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/03/07
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]]> 50053432 The Decadent Society explains what happens when a rich and powerful society ceases advancing—how the combination of wealth and technological proficiency with economic stagnation, political stalemates, cultural exhaustion, and demographic decline creates a strange kind of “sustainable decadence,” a civilizational malaise that could endure for longer than we think..]]> 272 Ross Douthat 1476785244 Walnut 0 to-read 3.73 2020
author: Ross Douthat
name: Walnut
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/03/05
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]]> 38748983 A major theoretical statement by a distinguished political scholar explains why a policy of liberal hegemony is doomed to fail

It is widely believed in the West that the United States should spread liberal democracy across the world, foster an open international economy, and build international institutions. The policy of remaking the world in America’s image is supposed to protect human rights, promote peace, and make the world safe for democracy. But this is not what has happened. Instead, the United States has become a highly militarized state fighting wars that undermine peace, harm human rights, and threaten liberal values at home.

In this major statement, the renowned international-relations scholar John Mearsheimer argues that liberal hegemony—the foreign policy pursued by the United States since the Cold War ended—is doomed to fail. It makes far more sense, he maintains, for Washington to adopt a more restrained foreign policy based on a sound understanding of how nationalism and realism constrain great powers abroad. The Great Delusion is a lucid and compelling work of the first importance for scholars, policymakers, and everyone interested in the future of American foreign policy.]]> 328 John J. Mearsheimer Walnut 0 to-read 4.07 2018
author: John J. Mearsheimer
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2018
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]]> 2411841
Essentially, this involved the establishment of a political system that was more Islamic in character, either nationally or within a specific territory of a national state. This book analyzes the increasing Talibanization of Southeast Asia, a relatively new phenomenon that involves the adoption of Islamist doctrines, ideologies, and values that are largely militant in character, and that for some groups includes the adoption of violence to achieve their goals.

This has succeeded in posing one of the most serious security challenges to the region since the end of the Cold War. Jihadists are operating in small and localized cells even though the broad goals remain the same, namely, to spread sharia, establish an Islamic state, and bring down secular regimes. As most governments do not have the credibility or the expertise to diminish the threat posed by Islamist extremism, Wahhabism, and Salafism, Southeast Asia is in danger of being Talibanized in the near future.]]> 264 Bilveer Singh 0275999955 Walnut 4 4.67 2007
author: Bilveer Singh
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.67
book published: 2007
rating: 4
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date added: 2022/02/22
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]]> 32898197 Ashok Mahajan 8187583207 Walnut 5 4.00
author: Ashok Mahajan
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2021/07/07
date added: 2021/07/07
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]]> 31196 314 W. Somerset Maugham 1400034205 Walnut 4 4.20 1944
author: W. Somerset Maugham
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1944
rating: 4
read at: 2021/07/07
date added: 2021/07/07
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]]> 30257963 What does everyone in the modern world need to know? Renowned psychologist Jordan B. Peterson's answer to this most difficult of questions uniquely combines the hard-won truths of ancient tradition with the stunning revelations of cutting-edge scientific research.

Humorous, surprising, and informative, Dr. Peterson tells us why skateboarding boys and girls must be left alone, what terrible fate awaits those who criticize too easily, and why you should always pet a cat when you meet one on the street.

What does the nervous system of the lowly lobster have to tell us about standing up straight (with our shoulders back) and about success in life? Why did ancient Egyptians worship the capacity to pay careful attention as the highest of gods? What dreadful paths do people tread when they become resentful, arrogant, and vengeful? Dr. Peterson journeys broadly, discussing discipline, freedom, adventure, and responsibility, distilling the world's wisdom into 12 practical and profound rules for life. 12 Rules for Life shatters the modern commonplaces of science, faith, and human nature while transforming and ennobling the mind and spirit of its listeners.]]> 409 Jordan B. Peterson 0345816021 Walnut 4 3.89 2018
author: Jordan B. Peterson
name: Walnut
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2021/07/07
date added: 2021/07/07
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]]> 457264 746 Simone de Beauvoir 0679724516 Walnut 5 4.17 1949
author: Simone de Beauvoir
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1949
rating: 5
read at: 2021/07/07
date added: 2021/07/07
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]]> 33585392 A few years ago, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie received a letter from a dear friend from childhood, asking her how to raise her baby girl as a feminist. Dear Ijeawele is Adichie's letter of response.
Here are fifteen invaluable suggestions–compelling, direct, wryly funny, and perceptive–for how to empower a daughter to become a strong, independent woman. From encouraging her to choose a helicopter, and not only a doll, as a toy if she so desires; having open conversations with her about clothes, makeup, and sexuality; debunking the myth that women are somehow biologically arranged to be in the kitchen making dinner, and that men can "allow" women to have full careers, Dear Ijeawele goes right to the heart of sexual politics in the twenty-first century. It will start a new and urgently needed conversation about what it really means to be a woman today.]]> 63 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Walnut 0 to-read 4.51 2017
author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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]]> 22738563 We Should All Be Feminists, a personal, eloquently-argued essay—adapted from her much-viewed TEDx talk of the same name—by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the award-winning author of Americanah and Half of a Yellow Sun.

With humor and levity, here Adichie offers readers a unique definition of feminism for the twenty-first century—one rooted in inclusion and awareness. She shines a light not only on blatant discrimination, but also the more insidious, institutional behaviors that marginalize women around the world, in order to help readers of all walks of life better understand the often masked realities of sexual politics. Throughout, she draws extensively on her own experiences—in the U.S., in her native Nigeria, and abroad—offering an artfully nuanced explanation of why the gender divide is harmful for women and men, alike.

Argued in the same observant, witty and clever prose that has made Adichie a bestselling novelist, here is one remarkable author’s exploration of what it means to be a woman today—and an of-the-moment rallying cry for why we should all be feminists.]]> 52 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Walnut 0 to-read 4.41 2012
author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/07/07
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]]> 1399740 K. Lakshmana Sarma 8188018201 Walnut 0 to-read 4.43 2002
author: K. Lakshmana Sarma
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2002
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/07/07
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]]> 25111093
Travel the world with Eric Weiner, the New York Times bestselling author of The Geography of Bliss, as he journeys from Athens to Silicon Valley—and throughout history, too—to show how creative genius flourishes in specific places at specific times.

In The Geography of Genius, acclaimed travel writer Weiner sets out to examine the connection between our surroundings and our most innovative ideas. He explores the history of places, like Vienna of 1900, Renaissance Florence, ancient Athens, Song Dynasty Hangzhou, and Silicon Valley, to show how certain urban settings are conducive to ingenuity. And, with his trademark insightful humor, he walks the same paths as the geniuses who flourished in these settings to see if the spirit of what inspired figures like Socrates, Michelangelo, and Leonardo remains. In these places, Weiner asks, “What was in the air, and can we bottle it?”]]> 368 Eric Weiner 1451691653 Walnut 0 currently-reading 3.75 2016
author: Eric Weiner
name: Walnut
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/04/02
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]]> 7170627 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here and here.

The Emperor of All Maladies is a magnificent, profoundly humane "biography" of cancer—from its first documented appearances thousands of years ago through the epic battles in the twentieth century to cure, control, and conquer it to a radical new understanding of its essence.

Physician, researcher, and award-winning science writer, Siddhartha Mukherjee examines cancer with a cellular biologist's precision, a historian's perspective, and a biographer's passion. The result is an astonishingly lucid and eloquent chronicle of a disease humans have lived with—and perished from—for more than five thousand years.

The story of cancer is a story of human ingenuity, resilience, and perseverance, but also of hubris, paternalism, and misperception. Mukherjee recounts centuries of discoveries, setbacks, victories, and deaths, told through the eyes of his predecessors and peers, training their wits against an infinitely resourceful adversary that, just three decades ago, was thought to be easily vanquished in an all-out "war against cancer."

The book reads like a literary thriller with cancer as the protagonist. From the Persian Queen Atossa, whose Greek slave cut off her malignant breast, to the nineteenth-century recipients of primitive radiation and chemotherapy to Mukherjee's own leukemia patient, Carla, The Emperor of All Maladies is about the people who have soldiered through fiercely demanding regimens in order to survive—and to increase our understanding of this iconic disease.

Riveting, urgent, and surprising, The Emperor of All Maladies provides a fascinating glimpse into the future of cancer treatments. It is an illuminating book that provides hope and clarity to those seeking to demystify cancer.]]> 472 Siddhartha Mukherjee Walnut 0 currently-reading 4.32 2010
author: Siddhartha Mukherjee
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/04/02
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]]> 31423245 In the tradition of How to Live and How Proust Can Change Your Life, a philosopher asks how ancient Stoicism can help us flourish today

Whenever we worry about what to eat, how to love, or simply how to be happy, we are worrying about how to lead a good life. No goal is more elusive. In How to Be a Stoic, philosopher Massimo Pigliucci offers Stoicism, the ancient philosophy that inspired the great emperor Marcus Aurelius, as the best way to attain it. Stoicism is a pragmatic philosophy that focuses our attention on what is possible and gives us perspective on what is unimportant. By understanding Stoicism, we can learn to answer crucial questions: Should we get married or divorced? How should we handle our money in a world nearly destroyed by a financial crisis? How can we survive great personal tragedy? Whoever we are, Stoicism has something for us–and How to Be a Stoic is the essential guide.]]> 288 Massimo Pigliucci 0465097952 Walnut 0 to-read 4.00 2017
author: Massimo Pigliucci
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2017
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]]> 8682 Jitterbug Perfume is an epic, which is to say, it begins in the forests of ancient Bohemia and doesn't conclude until nine o'clock tonight [Paris time]. It is a saga, as well. A saga must have a hero, and the hero of this one is a janitor with a missing bottle. The bottle is blue, very, very old, and embossed with the image of a goat-horned god. If the liquid in the bottle is actually is the secret essence of the universe, as some folks seem to think, it had better be discovered soon because it is leaking and there is only a drop or two left.]]> 342 Tom Robbins 1842430351 Walnut 0 to-read 4.24 1984
author: Tom Robbins
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1984
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/04/06
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]]> 1925120 238 Th.N. Pelegrinis 0722800207 Walnut 5 5.00
author: Th.N. Pelegrinis
name: Walnut
average rating: 5.00
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rating: 5
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date added: 2017/03/19
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]]> 14653660 264 Plato 1936828065 Walnut 0 to-read 5.00 -400
author: Plato
name: Walnut
average rating: 5.00
book published: -400
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]]> 18749 A masterly, haunting new novel from a writer heralded by The Washington Post Book World as “the 21st-century daughter of Chinua Achebe,” Half of a Yellow Sun re-creates a seminal moment in modern African history: Biafra’s impassioned struggle to establish an independent republic in Nigeria in the 1960s, and the chilling violence that followed.

With astonishing empathy and the effortless grace of a natural storyteller, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie weaves together the lives of three characters swept up in the turbulence of the decade. Thirteen-year-old Ugwu is employed as a houseboy for a university professor full of revolutionary zeal. Olanna is the professor’s beautiful mistress, who has abandoned her life of privilege in Lagos for a dusty university town and the charisma of her new lover. And Richard is a shy young Englishman in thrall to Olanna’s twin sister, an enigmatic figure who refuses to belong to anyone. As Nigerian troops advance and the three must run for their lives, their ideals are severely tested, as are their loyalties to one another.

Epic, ambitious, and triumphantly realized, Half of a Yellow Sun is a remarkable novel about moral responsibility, about the end of colonialism, about ethnic allegiances, about class and race—and the ways in which love can complicate them all. Adichie brilliantly evokes the promise and the devastating disappointments that marked this time and place, bringing us one of the most powerful, dramatic, and intensely emotional pictures of modern Africa that we have ever had.]]> 435 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 1400044162 Walnut 5 4.34 2006
author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 2017/03/19
date added: 2017/03/19
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]]> 9771 really means when it talks about “compassionate conservativism” and “the war on terror.” Roy has characteristic fun in these essays, skewering the hypocrisy of the more-democratic-than-thou clan. But above all, she aims to remind us that we hold the essence of power and the foundation of genuine democracy—the power of the people to counter their self-appointed leaders’ tyranny.

First delivered as fiery speeches to sold-out crowds, together these essays are a call to arms against “the apocalyptic apparatus of the American empire.” Focusing on the disastrous US occupation of Iraq, Roy urges us to recognize—and apply—the scope of our power, exhorting US dockworkers to refuse to load materials war-bound, reservists to reject their call-ups, activists to organize boycotts of Halliburton, and citizens of other nations to collectively resist being deputized as janitor-soldiers to clear away the detritus of the US invasion.

Roy’s Guide to Empire also offers us sharp theoretical tools for understanding the New American Empire—a dangerous paradigm, Roy argues here, that is entirely distinct from the imperialism of the British or even the New World Order of George Bush, the elder. She examines how resistance movements build power, using examples of nonviolent organizing in South Africa, India, and the United States. Deftly drawing the thread through ostensibly disconnected issues and arenas, Roy pays particular attention to the parallels between globalization in India, the devastation in Iraq, and the deplorable conditions many African Americans, in particular, must still confront.

With Roy as our “guide,” we may not be able to relax from the Sisyphean task of stopping the U.S. juggernaut, but at least we are assured that the struggle for global justice is fortified by Roy’s hard-edged brilliance.]]> 156 Arundhati Roy 0896087271 Walnut 0 3.85 2003
author: Arundhati Roy
name: Walnut
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2003
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]]> 579954 260 Doris Lessing 0007233434 Walnut 3 2.94 2007
author: Doris Lessing
name: Walnut
average rating: 2.94
book published: 2007
rating: 3
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]]> 17262100
From Subhash's earliest memories, at every point, his brother was there. In the suburban streets of Calcutta where they wandered before dusk and in the hyacinth-strewn ponds where they played for hours on end, Udayan was always in his older brother's sight. So close in age, they were inseparable in childhood and yet, as the years pass - as U.S tanks roll into Vietnam and riots sweep across India - their brotherly bond can do nothing to forestall the tragedy that will upend their lives.

Udayan - charismatic and impulsive - finds himself drawn to the Naxalite movement, a rebellion waged to eradicate inequity and poverty. He will give everything, risk all, for what he believes, and in doing so will transform the futures of those dearest to him: his newly married, pregnant wife, his brother and their parents. For all of them, the repercussions of his actions will reverberate across continents and seep through the generations that follow.

Epic in its canvas and intimate in its portrayal of lives undone and forged anew, The Lowland is a deeply felt novel of family ties that entangle and fray in ways unforeseen and unrevealed, of ties that ineluctably define who we are. With all the hallmarks of Jhumpa Lahiri's achingly poignant, exquisitely empathetic story-telling, this is her most devastating work of fiction to date.]]> 340 Jhumpa Lahiri 0307265749 Walnut 4 3.87 2013
author: Jhumpa Lahiri
name: Walnut
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2015/03/13
date added: 2016/01/13
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]]> 7073 A Prayer for Owen Meany, Irving's characters transcend nationality. They are misfits—coming from everywhere, belonging nowhere. Set almost entirely in India, this is John Irving's most ambitious novel and a major publishing event.]]> 680 John Irving 0345915623 Walnut 0 3.66 1994
author: John Irving
name: Walnut
average rating: 3.66
book published: 1994
rating: 0
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]]> 165090 267 Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni 0349119457 Walnut 0 3.57
author: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
name: Walnut
average rating: 3.57
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]]> 4825070 173 Harold Bloom 0791081206 Walnut 0 4.25
author: Harold Bloom
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.25
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read at: 2013/12/16
date added: 2015/11/18
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]]> 333063 320 Desmond Morris 0099482118 Walnut 0 4.03 1969
author: Desmond Morris
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1969
rating: 0
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]]> 24100 640 Doris Lessing 006093140X Walnut 0 3.79 1962
author: Doris Lessing
name: Walnut
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1962
rating: 0
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]]> 5617966 A Guide to the Good Life, William B. Irvine plumbs the wisdom of Stoic philosophy, one of the most popular and successful schools of thought in ancient Rome, and shows how its insight and advice are still remarkably applicable to modern lives.
In A Guide to the Good Life, Irvine offers a refreshing presentation of Stoicism, showing how this ancient philosophy can still direct us toward a better life. Using the psychological insights and the practical techniques of the Stoics, Irvine offers a roadmap for anyone seeking to avoid the feelings of chronic dissatisfaction that plague so many of us. Irvine looks at various Stoic techniques for attaining tranquility and shows how to put these techniques to work in our own life. As he does so, he describes his own experiences practicing Stoicism and offers valuable first-hand advice for anyone wishing to live better by following in the footsteps of these ancient philosophers. Readers learn how to minimize worry, how to let go of the past and focus our efforts on the things we can control, and how to deal with insults, grief, old age, and the distracting temptations of fame and fortune. We learn from Marcus Aurelius the importance of prizing only things of true value, and from Epictetus we learn how to be more content with what we have.
Finally, A Guide to the Good Life shows readers how to become thoughtful observers of their own life. If we watch ourselves as we go about our daily business and later reflect on what we saw, we can better identify the sources of distress and eventually avoid that pain in our life. By doing this, the Stoics thought, we can hope to attain a truly joyful life.]]> 326 William B. Irvine 0195374614 Walnut 0 to-read 4.18 2008
author: William B. Irvine
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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]]> 17456652 46 Mohammed Hanif Walnut 0 to-read 4.19 2013
author: Mohammed Hanif
name: Walnut
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2013
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date added: 2015/07/19
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]]> 2153793
Ali Shigri, Pakistan Air Force pilot and Silent Drill Commander of the Fury Squadron, is on a mission to avenge his father's suspicious death, which the government calls a suicide. Ali's target is none other than General Zia ul-Haq, dictator of Pakistan. Enlisting a rag-tag group of conspirators, including his cologne-bathed roommate, a hash-smoking American lieutenant, and a mango-besotted crow, Ali sets his elaborate plan in motion. There's only one problem: the line of would-be Zia assassins is longer than he could have possibly known.]]> 323 Mohammed Hanif 0307268071 Walnut 4 3.79 2008
author: Mohammed Hanif
name: Walnut
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2015/07/19
date added: 2015/07/19
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Unputdownable, intelligent, marinated in sarcasm and dark humour.Truly an insider's take on Zia's assassination.Note to self : Read more of Md Hanif's works.
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