find new books to read, put your reading list online

  & 6 users

• Current

Type: scientific

Status: to read

Author: Mary Roach

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

  & 21 users

• Current

Type: fiction

Status: to read

Author: Philip Pullman

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

• Current

Type: fiction

Status: to read

Author: Jessica Barksdale Inclan

Description: "Running from three thugs, Miranda Stead seeks safety, plunging through the first unlocked"Running from three thugs, Miranda Stead seeks safety, plunging through the first unlocked doorway she finds,into a place she should never have been able to enter. Surrounded by a room full of suspicious, robe-wearing people intent on remaining secret, Miranda recognizes a new danger - one she is only able to avoid when Sariel steps in to protect her. He must now use the power of his touch to erase her memory of all she has seen that evening, but first he'll use his magical powers in another way."...

2007-02-26

  & 2 users

• Current

Type: fiction

Status: to read

Author: Jodi Picoult

Description: "Police chief of a small Massachusetts town, Cameron McDonald makes the toughest arrest"Police chief of a small Massachusetts town, Cameron McDonald makes the toughest arrest of his life when his own cousin Jamie comes to him and confesses outright that he has killed his terminally ill wife out of mercy.

Now, a heated murder trial plunges the town into upheaval, and drives a wedge into a contented marriage: Cameron, aiding the prosecution in their case against Jamie, is suddenly at odds with his devoted wife, Allie — seduced by the idea of a man so in love with his wife that he'd grant all her wishes, even her wish to end her life. And when an inexplicable attraction leads to a shocking betrayal, Allie faces the hardest questions of the heart: when does love cross the line of moral obligation? And what does it mean to truly love another?"...

2007-02-26

  & 2 users

• Current

Type: fiction

Status: to read

Author: Jodi Picoult

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

• Current

Type: fiction

Status: to read

Author: Jessica Barksdale Inclan

Description: "They live among us and look like ordinary people but the Croyant are powerful sorcerers"They live among us and look like ordinary people but the Croyant are powerful sorcerers who can walk through matter (teleport) and they are strong telepaths. They are able to weave spells and use their powers as weapons although they don’t because the leadership’s dearest wish is to come out of the closet to the Moyenne (non magical people) who have killed them throughout the ages. The leadership thinks the time is right to work with the Moyenne however Quain, the most powerful sorcerer of them all doesn’t agree with the plan. --- He sees a world where he is the leader, the Croyant are in control or enchanted into obeying him and the Moyenne their extendible slaves Sayblee Safipour and Felix Valasay go to France where Quain is gathering new members in his power in another attempt to take control of the Croyant leadership. Sayblee and Felix believe they have found him and walk into a trap. They both get separated for a while. Sayblee is under Quain’s control and Felix will do whatever it takes to get her back but he doesn’t know where she is or how to find her. --- This is the third and final tale in Jessica Inclan’s superb romantic fantasy. Felix was a lothario until he saw Sayblee with a lover’s eye and knows that his roaming days are over. Sayblee fears she is just another notch in his belt when they realize that they love each other. They both are powerful sorcerers and have the power to do what must be done in the leadership’s overall plan. The author has created great characters and a world so much like ours except that it has magic. An excellent worldbuilder, Ms Inclan has created a believable society hidden within a larger society."...

2007-02-26

• Current

Type: fiction

Status: to read

Author: Jessica Barksdale Inclan

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

• Current

Type: fiction

Status: to read

Author: Judy Reene Singer

Description: "When Judy Van Brunt catches her husband, Marshall, in his third infidelity, she decides"When Judy Van Brunt catches her husband, Marshall, in his third infidelity, she decides she has had enough. But she does more than just leave him; she quits her teaching job and heads south to a North Carolina farm owned by a horse trainer named Katarina, for whom Judy hopes to work. Soon she is living in an apartment above the barn with three other women and an unruly teenager, and slaving away as a groom during the daytime. The work is hard, but Judy loves riding (even if she has to try to manage the ornery Ivan) and soon finds herself being courted by Speed Easton, the most eligible bachelor in town. And though she is plagued by both her husband and a snotty socialite who might have designs on Speed, the happiness Judy gets from working with horses and her friends on the farm far outweighs any problems. Some of the secondary characters are cliched to the point of caricature, but readers who love horses and light, funny reads will enjoy this debut."...

2007-02-26

• Current

Type: fiction

Status: to read

Author: Sara Gruen

Description: "Anxiety rules Annemarie Zimmer's days—the fear that her relationship with the man"Anxiety rules Annemarie Zimmer's days—the fear that her relationship with the man she loves is growing stagnant; the fear that equestrian daughter Eva's dreams of Olympic glory will carry her far away from her mother . . . and into harm's way. For five months, Annemarie has struggled to make peace with her past. But if she cannot let go, the personal battles she has won and the heights she has achieved will have all been for naught.

It is a time of change at Maple Brook horse farm, when loves must be confronted head-on and fears must be saddled and broken. But it is an unanticipated tragedy that will most drastically alter the fragile world of one remarkable family—even as it flings open gates that have long confined them, enabling them all to finally ride headlong and free."...

2007-02-26

  & 3 users

• Current

Type: fiction

Status: to read

Author: Jennifer Crusie

Description: "or Nina Askew, turning 40 means freedom--from the ex-husband whose career always came"or Nina Askew, turning 40 means freedom--from the ex-husband whose career always came first, from their stuffy suburban home--but with every silver-haired stiff she dates, the more she suspects it's her young, dog-loving neighbor that she wants to sit and stay!"...

2007-02-25