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  & 6 users

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Type: scientific

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Status: to read

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Author: Mary Roach

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Description: "Roach made an exceptional debut two years ago with Stiff—it might seem a hard act to"Roach made an exceptional debut two years ago with Stiff—it might seem a hard act to follow. Yet she has done it again: after her study of what becomes of our mortal coil after death, she now presents an equally smart, quirky, hilarious look at whether there is a soul that survives our physical demise. Roach perfectly balances her skepticism and her boundless curiosity with a sincere desire to know. She ranges into the oddest nooks and crannies of both science and belief (and scientists who believe), regaling the reader with tales of Duncan Macdougall, a respected surgeon who weighed consumptives at their moment of death to see if the escaping soul could be measured in ounces, and of female mediums who, during séances, extruded a substance called ectoplasm from their private parts (she even examines a piece of alleged ectoplasm archived at Cambridge University). She goes to school to learn to be a medium, subjects her brain to electromagnetic waves to see if they induce the experience of seeing ghosts and joins a group trying to record sounds made by the spirits of the Donner party. The text is littered with footnotes: tangential but delicious tidbits that Roach clearly couldn't bear to leave out. She is an original who can enliven any subject with wit, keen reporting and a sly intelligence."...

2007-03-21

  & 22 users

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Type: fiction

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Status: to read

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Author: Philip Pullman

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Description: "With The Golden Compass Philip Pullman garnered every accolade under the sun. Critics"With The Golden Compass Philip Pullman garnered every accolade under the sun. Critics lobbed around such superlatives as "elegant," "awe-inspiring," "grand," and "glittering," and used "magnificent" with gay abandon. Each reader had a favorite chapter--or, more likely, several--from the opening tour de force to Lyra's close call at Bolvangar to the great armored-bear battle. And Pullman was no less profligate when it came to intellectual firepower or singular characters. The dæmons alone grant him a place in world literature. Could the second installment of his trilogy keep up this pitch, or had his heroine and her too, too sullied parents consumed him? And what of the belief system that pervaded his alternate universe, not to mention the mystery of Dust? More revelations and an equal number of wonders and new players were definitely in order.
The Subtle Knife offers everything we could have wished for, and more. For a start, there's a young hero--from our world--who is a match for Lyra Silvertongue and whose destiny is every bit as shattering. Like Lyra, Will Parry has spent his childhood playing games. Unlike hers, though, his have been deadly serious. This 12-year-old long ago learned the art of invisibility: if he could erase himself, no one would discover his mother's increasing instability and separate them."...

2007-03-20

  & 25 users

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Type: fiction

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Status: I recommend

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Author: Philip Pullman

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Description: "If Pullman's imagination dazzled in the Victorian thrillers that culminated with"If Pullman's imagination dazzled in the Victorian thrillers that culminated with The Tin Princess, in this first volume of a fantasy trilogy it is nothing short of breathtaking. Here Earth is one of only five planets in the solar system, every human has a daemon (the soul embodied as an animal familiar) and, in a time similar to our late 19th century, Oxford scholars and agents of the supreme Calvinist Church are in a race to unleash the power that will enable them to cross the bridge to a parallel universe. The story line has all the hallmarks of a myth: brought up ignorant of her true identity, 11-year-old Lyra goes on a quest from East Anglia to the top of the world in search of her kidnapped playmate Roger and her imprisoned uncle, Lord Asriel. Deceptions and treacheries threaten at every turn, and she is not yet certain how to read the mysterious truth-telling instrument that is her only guide. After escaping from the charming and sinister Mrs. Coulter, she joins a group of "gyptians" in search of their children, who, like Roger, have been spirited away by Mrs. Coulter's henchmen, the Gobblers. Along the way Lyra is guided by friendly witches and attacked by malevolent ones, aided by an armored polar bear and a Texan balloonist, and nearly made a victim of the Gobblers' cruel experiments. As always, Pullman is a master at combining impeccable characterizations and seamless plotting, maintaining a crackling pace to create scene upon scene of almost unbearable tension."...

2007-03-20

 

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Type: fiction

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Status: I recommend

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Author: Lisa Carey

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Description: "In her graceful, affecting fourth novel, Carey (Love in the Asylum) revisits themes from"In her graceful, affecting fourth novel, Carey (Love in the Asylum) revisits themes from her previous books—family, tragedy, grief and resilience—with visceral drama and pathos. In the mid-'80s, on the outskirts of Boston, 15-year-old Lena and 10-year-old Owen Furey are coming of age in the aftermath of their older brother Hugh's disappearance. Two years on, Hugh is presumed dead, and the Furey parents have buried themselves in their work: mother Elizabeth as a medical student, father Henry as an editor of religious books. Left to their own devices, the Furey children flirt with self-destruction, giving flesh to the mythic symbolism of their last name. While Lena pursues a dangerous search for proof of Hugh's fate, tracking his movements through images from his old camera, Owen calls on Hugh as a protecting angel to help him deal with his stirring sexual attraction to best friend Danny (and with Danny's harsh reprisals). Though the novel suffers from an unwieldy structure, switching between Lena's first person and a third-person portrayal of Owen, the play between sections devoted to each child proves rewarding, suffused in lucid grief and delicate longings."...

2007-02-26

  & 4 users

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Type: fiction

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Status: to read

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Author: Jodi Picoult

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Description: "The discovery of a dead infant in an Amish barn shakes Lancaster County to its core."The discovery of a dead infant in an Amish barn shakes Lancaster County to its core. But the police investigation leads to a more shocking disclosure: circumstantial evidence suggests that eighteen-year-old Katie Fisher, an unmarried Amish woman believed to be the newborn's mother, took the child's life. When Ellie Hathaway, a disillusioned big-city attorney, comes to Paradise, Pennsylvania, to defend Katie, two cultures collide — and, for the first time in her high-profile career, Ellie faces a system of justice very different from her own. Delving deep inside the world of those who live "plain," Ellie must find a way to reach Katie on her terms. And as she unravels a tangled murder case, Ellie also looks deep within — to confront her own fears and desires when a man from her past reenters her life."...

2007-02-26

  & 2 users

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Type: fiction

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Status: to read

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Author: Jodi Picoult

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Description: "Jodi Picoult earned rave notices for her debut novel, Songs of the Humpback Whale. Now"Jodi Picoult earned rave notices for her debut novel, Songs of the Humpback Whale. Now this gifted young writer turns her considerable literary talents to the story of a young woman overcome by the demands of having a family. Written with astonishing clarity and evocative detail, convincing in its depiction of emotional pain, love, and vulnerability, Harvesting the Heart recalls the writing of Alice Hoffman and Sue Miller. Paige has only a few vivid memories of her mother, who left when she was five. Now, having left her father behind in Chicago for dreams of art school and marriage to an ambitious young doctor, she finds herself with a child of her own. But her mother's absence, and shameful memories of her past, make her doubt both her maternal ability and her sense of self worth. Out of Paige's struggle to find wholeness, Jodi Picoult crafts an absorbing novel peopled by richly drawn characters and explores issues and emotions readers can relate to."...

2007-02-26

 

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Type: fiction

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Status: to read

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Author: Jessica Barksdale Inclan

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Description: "When the life of Jenna's daughter is cut short in a matter of seconds, the forty-five-year-old"When the life of Jenna's daughter is cut short in a matter of seconds, the forty-five-year-old professor must survive the grief that threatens to consume her, and come to terms with her relationship with her ex-husband and a newfound attraction to a younger colleague. And when events again take an unexpected turn, Jenna is blessed with another chance to correct the mistakes of the past, open her heart more fully, and embrace the fragility and miracle of life made new."...

2007-02-26

 

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Type: fiction

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Status: to read

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Author: Jessica Barksdale Inclan

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Description: "Mia thought she had everything-a thriving career, a wonderful husband, and two beautiful"Mia thought she had everything-a thriving career, a wonderful husband, and two beautiful sons. But illness shakes her out of her comfort zone when her mother is diagnosed with breast cancer. At her mother's bedside, she meets someone whose presence seems to fill a void in her, a void she wasn't even aware existed.

Robert is happily convinced he's going to spend his life alone until he meets Mia, who makes him question everything. As a surgeon, he's helped many women put their lives back together. And despite his compelling feelings about Mia, he doesn't want to make hers fall apart."...

2007-02-26

 

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Type: fiction

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Status: to read

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Author: Sara Gruen

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Description: "Annemarie, 18, is a world-class equestrienne who is sure to be a contender in the next"Annemarie, 18, is a world-class equestrienne who is sure to be a contender in the next Olympics. Then, a terrible jumping accident causes the death of her magnificent horse, Highland Harry, as well as severe injuries to Annemarie herself. Damaged as much in spirit as in body, she marries Roger, moves to another state, and gets a degree in English, vowing never to ride again. Twenty years of a more or less emotionally empty life go by until one fateful day when Annemarie loses both her job and her husband. With her defiant 15-year-old daughter in tow, Annemarie returns to her parents' riding school in New Hampshire, where her father is dying from ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). Suddenly, Annemarie is bombarded with all sorts of emotions and responsibilities, including the rekindling of an old romance and the discovery of a broken-down horse that looks remarkably like Highland Harry."...

2007-02-26

 

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Type: fiction

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Status: I recommend

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Author: Kit Ehrman

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Description: "At the start of Ehrman's engaging fourth outing for barn manager Steve Cline (after"At the start of Ehrman's engaging fourth outing for barn manager Steve Cline (after 2005's Cold Burn), Steve visits Louisville for the Kentucky Derby, courtesy of his newly found biological father, trainer Chris Kessler, who yearns to have his talented son work full-time. But Steve, who lives in Maryland, is considering getting a PI license and uses the time in Louisville to complete a class assignment: find out all you can about someone. He chooses as his research subject Nicole Austin, a Churchill Downs employee he met only once. When Nicole's corpse turns up, Steve quickly becomes the primary suspect. While working to clear his name, Steve is invited into the rarefied world of wealthy racehorse owners by Rudi Sturgill, a cheerful playboy who may be the killer. Though Ehrman has yet to master the tightly focused plotting of jockey-turned-author Dick Francis, equine-minded readers will enjoy her capable, savvy young protagonist and authentic depiction of the gritty world of horse racing."...

2007-02-26