Ryan's bookshelf: all en-US Fri, 16 May 2025 21:39:02 -0700 60 Ryan's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment]]> 6708 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781577314806.

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

A word-of-mouth phenomenon since its first publication, The Power of Now is one of those rare books with the power to create an experience in readers, one that can radically change their lives for the better.]]> 229 Eckhart Tolle Ryan 0 currently-reading 4.16 1997 The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
author: Eckhart Tolle
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/16
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Practicing the Power of Now: Essential Teachings, Meditations, and Exercises from the Power of Now]]> 6709 The Power of Now, showing us how to free ourselves from "enslavement to the mind." The aim is to be able to enter into and sustain an awakened state of consciousness throughout everyday life. Through meditations and simple techniques, Eckhart shows us how to quiet our thoughts, see the world in the present moment, and find a path to "a life of grace, ease, and lightness."]]> 142 Eckhart Tolle Ryan 5 favorites 4.26 1997 Practicing the Power of Now: Essential Teachings, Meditations, and Exercises from the Power of Now
author: Eckhart Tolle
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at: 2025/05/16
date added: 2025/05/16
shelves: favorites
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Judas Unchained (Commonwealth Saga, #2)]]> 45251 1008 Peter F. Hamilton 0345461673 Ryan 0 4.18 2005 Judas Unchained (Commonwealth Saga, #2)
author: Peter F. Hamilton
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/14
shelves: 2024-tentative-tbr, 2025-tentative-tbr, currently-reading
review:

]]> The Devils (The Devils, #1) 212276037 Brother Diaz has been summoned to the Sacred City, where he is certain a commendation and grand holy assignment awaits him. But his new flock is made up of unrepentant murderers, practitioners of ghastly magic, and outright monsters, and the mission he is tasked with will require bloody measures from them all in order to achieve its righteous ends.

Elves lurk at our borders and hunger for our flesh, while greedy princes care for nothing but their own ambitions and comfort. With a hellish journey before him, it's a good thing Brother Diaz has the devils on his side.]]> 565 Joe Abercrombie Ryan 0 to-read 4.37 2025 The Devils (The Devils, #1)
author: Joe Abercrombie
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Outstretched Shadow (Obsidian, #1)]]> 6432787
Then he found the forbidden Books of Wild Magic--or did they find him? The three slim volumes woke Kellen to the wide world outside the City's isolating walls. Their Magic was not dead, strangled by rules and regulations. It felt like a living thing, guided by the hearts and minds of those who practiced it and benefited from it.

Questioning everything he has known, Kellen discovers too many of the City's dark secrets. Banished, with the Outlaw Hunt on his heels, Kellen invokes Wild Magic--and finds himself running for his life with a unicorn at his side.

Kellen's life changes almost faster than he can understand or accept. Rescued by a unicorn, healed by a female Wild Mage who knows more about Kellen than anyone outside the City should, meeting Elven royalty and Elven warriors, and plunged into a world where the magical beings he has learned about as abstract concepts are flesh and blood creatures-Kellen both revels in and fears his new freedom.

Especially once he learns about Demons. He'd always thought they were another abstract concept-a stand-in for ultimate evil. But if centaurs and dryads are real, then Demons surely are as well. And the one thing all the Mages of the City agreed on was that practicing Wild Magic corrupted a Mage. Turned him into a Demon. Would that be Kellen's fate?

Deep in Obsidian Mountain, the Demons are waiting. Since their defeat in the last great War, they've been biding their time, sowing the seeds of distrust and discontent between their human and Elven enemies. Very soon now, when the Demons rise to make war, there will be no alliance between High and Wild Magic to stand against them. And all the world will belong to the Endarkened.]]> 740 Mercedes Lackey Ryan 0 to-read 4.15 2003 The Outstretched Shadow (Obsidian, #1)
author: Mercedes Lackey
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sweeping Changes: Discovering the Joy of Zen in Everyday Tasks]]> 504546
In Sweeping Changes, Gary Thorp shows how the principles of Zen can bring harmony and peace to your life at home. You don’t need special surroundings or to sit quietly in a formal posture to achieve the tranquillity of Zen; you can find it anywhere–in the action of dusting a shelf, organizing your closet, or feeding your cat. As Thorp conveys in sparkling prose, many everyday activities provide an opportunity for Zen practice, satisfaction, and spiritual growth. Whether you live in a small room, an apartment, or a palace, this delightful, insightful book will not only change your feelings toward housekeeping, it will help you see your home, and your place in it, in a new and nurturing light.]]> 159 Gary Thorp 0767907736 Ryan 0 to-read 3.96 2000 Sweeping Changes: Discovering the Joy of Zen in Everyday Tasks
author: Gary Thorp
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> White Noise 923693
Jack and his fourth wife, Babette, bound by their love, fear of death, and four ultramodern offspring, navigate the usual rocky passages of family life to the background babble of brand-name consumerism, sleepwalking through a world where "Coke Is It!" and the TV is always on.

Then a lethal black chemical cloud floats over their lives, an "airborne toxic event" unleashed by an industrial accident. The menacing cloud is a more urgent and visible version of the "white noise" engulfing the Gladney family—radio transmissions, sirens, microwaves, ultrasonic appliances, and TV murmurings—pulsing with life yet heralding the danger of death.

With its ironic, satirical telling vision of the anxieties, absurdities, and mysteries of modern American life, White Noise is a masterpiece at once illuminating and darkly prophetic.]]> 326 Don DeLillo 0140077022 Ryan 0 currently-reading 3.79 1985 White Noise
author: Don DeLillo
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1985
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/05
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Out of the Ashes 228237219
Following the destruction of the capital city of Percepliquis, this question plagued every Imperial citizen, but the choices made by three simple people will change the future forever. One decided she didn’t deserve to die. Another resolved to be the ruler he was meant to be. And the third went in search of a nefarious wizard named, Esrahaddon.

Return to the world of Elan in the last days of the dying Novronian Empire. Come back to the destruction and turmoil of a dying dream but stay because there is one last hope that is trying to crawl . . . out of the ashes.

In this debut novel, a devotee of the New York Times, USA Today, and Washington Post bestselling author Michael J. Sullivan proves why it was wise to trust a complete unknown with his cherished world of Elan. Through this first book in the After the Fall series, you’ll learn the truth about the day Percepliquis fell and witness the birth of a new literary star.]]> 326 Michael J. Sullivan Ryan 0 to-read 4.85 Out of the Ashes
author: Michael J. Sullivan
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.85
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Moby-Dick 402777

Far ahead of its own time, Moby Dick was largely misunderstood and unappreciated by Melville's contemporaries. Today, however, it is indisputably a classic.

As D.H. Lawrence wrote, Moby Dick commands a stillness in the soul, an awe . . . [It is] one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the world.

]]> 594 Herman Melville 0553213113 Ryan 0 tbr-bd, finish-later, to-read 3.56 1851 Moby-Dick
author: Herman Melville
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.56
book published: 1851
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/26
shelves: tbr-bd, finish-later, to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Theft of Swords (The Riyria Revelations, #1-2)]]> 10790290
Can a self-serving thief and an idealistic swordsman survive long enough to unravel the first part of an ancient mystery that has toppled kings and destroyed empires?

And so begins the first tale of treachery and adventure, sword fighting and magic, myth and legend.

When author Michael J. Sullivan self-published the first books of his Riyria Revelations, they rapidly became ebook bestsellers. Now, Orbit is pleased to present the complete series for the first time in bookstores everywhere.]]> 691 Michael J. Sullivan 0316187747 Ryan 5 4.23 2011 Theft of Swords (The Riyria Revelations, #1-2)
author: Michael J. Sullivan
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/23
date added: 2025/04/23
shelves:
review:

]]> A Song of Legends Lost 202251782
In the Nine Lands, only those of noble blood can summon the spirits of their ancestors to fight in battle. But when Temi, a commoner from the slums, accidentally invokes a powerful spirit, she finds it could hold the key to ending a centuries-long war. But not everything that can be invoked is an ancestor. And some of the spirits that can be drawn from the ancestral realm are more dangerous than anyone can imagine.]]> 640 M.H. Ayinde 0356525309 Ryan 0 to-read 4.16 2025 A Song of Legends Lost
author: M.H. Ayinde
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Shroud 220522768 Children of Time.

They looked into the darkness. The darkness looked back . . .

A commercial expedition to a distant star system discovers a pitch-black moon alive with radio activity. Its high-gravity, high-pressure, zero-oxygen environment is deadly to human life, but ripe for exploitation. They named it Shroud.

Under no circumstances can a human survive Shroud’s inhospitable surface – but a catastrophic accident forces Juna Ceelander and Mai Ste Etienne to make an emergency landing in a barely adequate escape vehicle. Alone, and fighting for survival, the two women embark on a gruelling journey across land, sea and air in search of salvation.

But as they travel, Juna and Mai begin to understand Shroud’s unnerving alien species. It also begins to understand them. If they escape Shroud, they’ll somehow have to explain the impossible and translate the incredible. That is, if they make it back at all . . .

Praise for Adrian Tchaikovsky

‘The smartest evolutionary worldbuilding you’ll ever read’ – Peter F. Hamilton, author of Salvation on Children of Time

‘Compelling on human and cosmic levels, and unputdownable’ – Stephen Baxter, author of Proxima on Alien Clay

‘Heart-in-the-mouth fantastic’ – New Scientist on Alien Clay]]> Adrian Tchaikovsky Ryan 0 to-read 4.64 2025 Shroud
author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.64
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Cello's Gate (The Sky Pirates of Imperia, #1)]]> 223008147 “Cello’s Gate truly was the wickedly wild and uniquely imaginative adventure I didn’t know I needed in my life. It’s epic yet intimate, dark yet light-hearted, playful yet emotional, and it’s got a fun factor that just soars higher than the sky. Ghandammit frens, this is how you write one hell of a debut!” Esmay Rosalyne (Grimdark Magazine)

Captain Grey and his crew of sky pirates have a reputation for doing the impossible. From breaking into high-security military research facilities to conning the iCity elite—there isn’t a lock they can’t pick, a safe they can’t break, or a hidden treasure they can’t find. Until now.

Returning from a harrowing heist involving a neon battery and a trash chute, Grey and his crew are approached by Dalia, the immortal daughter of the infamous ArchGovernor—and she has an offer.

The job? Locate and steal the Stones of Indigo—seven fabled rocks invested with godlike power. The search for the first stone is a bona fide treasure hunt, guided by an ancient map to a deadly, uncharted island that’s protected by a mysterious guardian. The score? One million credits per crew member, per stone. The catch? Well, that’s where things get a little complicated.

The stones don’t exist. They’re a myth. A bedtime story told to little pirates to make them believe that power and wealth are attainable if you just work hard enough.

And to make matters infinitely worse, Grey’s never trusted immortals, and Dalia’s definitely hiding something. Something bad. And if they don’t figure out what it is, it might cost them their lives.

ONE CREW OF SKY PIRATES
SEVEN MYTHOLOGICAL STONES
A RACE TO FIND THEM ALL]]> 588 Maurice Africh Ryan 0 to-read 4.32 Cello's Gate (The Sky Pirates of Imperia, #1)
author: Maurice Africh
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.32
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Crimson Fire (Memories of Kenjir Book 1)]]> 223046103 Gods walk among men, but the empire they have forged is on the brink of collapse.

As whispers of rebellion grow louder, Ensin Andik uncovers a sinister plot that threatens the very foundation of the divine reign. Every discovery pulls him deeper into a dangerous web, forcing him to confront truths that could shatter his unshakeable loyalty.

On the other side, Eshfen , a ruthless rebel with a cunning mind and a thirst for chaos, stokes the flames of dissent. He sows doubt in the hearts of the people, challenging the gods' right to rule and sparking a dangerous game of shadows that could bring down empires.

Caught between loyalty and self-discovery, Shadi , a young noblewoman, grapples with the weight of family honor and the desire for independence. With her fiercely devoted bodyguard, Darjin , by her side, Shadi must navigate the treacherous waters of loyalty, love, and betrayal, where every choice could be their last.

As destinies intertwine and alliances shift, these four must face the gods themselves — or watch the world they know crumble to ashes.

In THE CRIMSON FIRE, loyalties will be tested, truths will be unmasked, and power will be up for grabs. Will the gods’ reign endure, or is the age of mortals ready to rise?

THE CRIMSON FIRE is a sweeping tale of rebellion, sacrifice, and the unrelenting clash between power and destiny. Packed with gripping political intrigue, high-stakes action, and unforgettable characters, it’s a saga that will ignite your imagination and keep you turning pages late into the night. ]]> 424 Abel Montero Ryan 0 to-read 4.35 2025 The Crimson Fire (Memories of Kenjir Book 1)
author: Abel Montero
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How to Read a Tree: Clues & Patterns from Roots to Leaves]]> 229621107 THE LATEST GUIDE TO THE HIDDEN MEANING OF NATURE FROM THE NATURAL NAVIGATOR, TRISTAN GOOLEY

--------------

Do two trees ever appear identical? No, but why? Every small difference is a clue.

Each tree we meet is filled with signs that reveal secrets about the life of that tree and the landscape we stand in. The clues are easy to spot when you know what to look for, but remain invisible to most people.

In How to Read a Tree, you'll discover the simple principles that explain the shapes and patterns you can see in trees and what they mean. And you'll learn rare skills that can be applied every time you pass a tree, whether you are in a town or a wilder spot.

As the author of the international bestsellers The Walker's Guide and How to Read Water, Tristan Gooley knows how to uncover the phenomena worth looking for. He has been instructing people in the art of reading trees for two decades and this book includes signs that will not be found in any other book in the world.

Once you have learned to see these things it is impossible to unsee them. We will never look at a tree the same way again.

-----------------

'An important book and a pleasure to read.' - Raynor Winn, author of The Salt Path

'You will never look at a tree in the same way again after reading this mesmerising book. Gooley drops learning as lightly as blossom falls in spring.' - John Lewis-Stempel

'Tristan Gooley has done trees the greatest service.' - Isabella Tree

'Will undoubtedly leave you with a deeper appreciation of trees...your country walks will never be quite the same again' - Daily Mail ]]> Tristan Gooley Ryan 0 to-read 0.0 2023 How to Read a Tree: Clues & Patterns from Roots to Leaves
author: Tristan Gooley
name: Ryan
average rating: 0.0
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Book of Tea 9380780 The Book of Tea is also a sardonic and insightful examination of the Western view of Japan and its civilization, from a Japanese citizen who was given such a thoroughly Western education that he learned nothing of his traditional culture until he was eleven. This book also suggests a deep connection between beauty and war, and between flowers and social mores. When first published, The Book of Tea fascinated foreign audiences with the major role of tea and its many ceremonies have played in the culture of Japan.

This edition is accompanied by an introduction by Christopher Benfey, which explores Okakura's career in the arts establishment, his flair for the English language and his relationship with the United States, and includes suggested further reading.]]> 89 Kakuzƍ Okakura 0141191848 Ryan 0 to-read 3.79 1906 The Book of Tea
author: Kakuzƍ Okakura
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1906
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Aesop’s Fables 58770937 Aesop’s Fables! The fox can’t reach his grapes, then gets attacked by biting flies and loses his tail in a trap. And things don’t go much better for the hare, who is chased relentlessly by a hound, barely escaping with his life—only to be beaten in a race by a lowly tortoise. Misfortune turns to mayhem when a wolf is killed by his sweetheart’s father, a sheepdog preys on his own flock, and the mouse and his friend the frog are eaten by a hawk. On the brighter side, a tiny ant saves her new friend the dove from a hunter’s arrow, a bat persuades two different weasels not to eat her, and a kid goat uses his wits to escape from the jaws of a hungry wolf...
Ìę
For nearly three thousand years, the fables of Aesop have amused people of all ages as they provide commonsense lessons in the conduct of everyday life. The colorful characters and brief tales, by turns amusing and frightening, deliver a how-to course in applied moral philosophy. This edition features more than forty illustrations by the celebrated artist Ernest Griset.
Ìę]]> 288 Aesop 1435171527 Ryan 4
However, since this is a review of "Aesop's" Fables I don't want to be too harsh in my judgement because that isn't his fault. Most all of his fables were very good. Simple, concise, and with easy to grasp little morals. I wish I had grabbed a better version, but it is what it is.]]> 3.92 Aesop’s Fables
author: Aesop
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.92
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/27
date added: 2025/03/27
shelves:
review:
The edition I have, while charming in some ways, is also frustrating in others. There are lovely drawings every few pages that pertain to certain stories. And pithy little "explanations" at the end of each fable. Which are...iffy at best. Some of them seem outright baffling actually. And also, many of these fables are clearly not Aesopic. They mention Great Britain, Shakespeare, and American birds...bitch how Aesop gonna know about America? He died in 564 BC! It was also very obvious which ones were not Aesop because of the dramatic prose and verbage differences. I normally wouldn't be bothered by this but there is no indication of that on the cover or flaps. That shit frustrated me more than it should have.

However, since this is a review of "Aesop's" Fables I don't want to be too harsh in my judgement because that isn't his fault. Most all of his fables were very good. Simple, concise, and with easy to grasp little morals. I wish I had grabbed a better version, but it is what it is.
]]> Demian 16171233
A young man awakens to selfhood and to a world of possibilities beyond the conventions of his upbringing in Nobel Prize winner Hermann Hesse’s beloved novel Demian. Emil Sinclair is a quiet boy drawn into a forbidden yet seductive realm of petty crime and defiance. His guide is his precocious, mysterious classmate Max Demian, who provokes in Emil a search for self-discovery and spiritual fulfillment. A brilliant psychological portrait, Demian is given new life in this translation, which together with James Franco’s personal and inspiring foreword will bring a new generation to Hesse’s widely influential coming-of-age novel.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.]]> 176 Hermann Hesse 0143106783 Ryan 0 to-read 4.05 1919 Demian
author: Hermann Hesse
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1919
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Black Hills 6505519
Seamlessly weaving together the stories of Paha Sapa, Custer, and the American West, Dan Simmons depicts a tumultuous time in the history of both Native and white Americans. Haunted by Custer's ghost, and also by his ability to see into the memories and futures of legendary men like Sioux war-chief Crazy Horse, Paha Sapa's long life is driven by a dramatic vision he experienced as a boy in his people's sacred Black Hills.

In August of 1936, a dynamite worker on the massive Mount Rushmore project, Paha Sapa plans to silence his ghost forever and reclaim his people's legacy-on the very day FDR comes to Mount Rushmore to dedicate the Jefferson face.]]> 487 Dan Simmons 031600698X Ryan 0 to-read 3.58 2010 Black Hills
author: Dan Simmons
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Malpertuis 57129771
A reinvention of the Gothic novel and an established classic of fantastic literature, Malpertuis is as inventive and gripping today as when it first appeared in French in the dark year of 1943.

Malpertuis is a puzzle box of nested narratives wrested from a set of manuscripts stolen from a monastery. A bizarre collection of distrustful relatives has gathered together in the ancient stone mansion of a sea-trading dynasty for the impending death of the occult scientist, Uncle Cassave, and the reading of his will. Forced to dwell together for the remainder of their lives within the stifling walls of Malpertuis for the sake of a cursed inheritance, their banal existence gradually gives way to love affairs and secret plots, as the building slowly exposes a malevolence that eventually leads to a series of ghastly deaths.

The eccentric personalities it houses―which include an obsessive taxidermist, a hypochondriac, a trio of vengeful sisters and a former paint store manager who has gone mad―begin to shed like skins to reveal yet another hidden story buried in the novel’s structure, one that turns the haunted-house tradition on its head and culminates in an apocalyptic denouement.]]> 256 Jean Ray 1939663709 Ryan 0 to-read 4.13 1943 Malpertuis
author: Jean Ray
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1943
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Insectopolis: A Natural History]]> 218569864 Award-winning cartoonist Peter Kuper transports readers through the 400-million-year history of insects and the remarkable entomologists who have studied them.


This visually immersive work of graphic nonfiction dives into a world where ants, cicadas, bees, and butterflies visit a library exhibition that displays their stories and humanity’s connection to them throughout the ages. Kuper’s thrilling visual feast layers history and science, color and design, to tell the remarkable tales of dung beetles navigating by the stars, hawk-size prehistoric dragonflies hunting prey, and mosquitoes changing the course of human history.


He also illuminates pioneering naturalists, from well-known figures like E. O. Wilson and Rachel Carson to unheralded luminaries like Charles Henry Turner, the Black American scholar who documented arthropod intelligence, and Maria Sybilla Merian, the seventeenth-century German regarded as the mother of entomology.


Galvanized by the sixth extinction and the ongoing insect crisis, Kuper takes readers on an unforgettable journey.]]> 256 Peter Kuper 1324035714 Ryan 0 to-read 4.82 Insectopolis: A Natural History
author: Peter Kuper
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.82
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Louis Pasteur Condemns Big Pharma: Vaccines, Drugs, and Healthcare in the United States]]> 220200476 Goals for this Book:

- To inform parents and create awareness of what is happening regarding science, medicine, and healthcare, so that they will be able to make better choices for their children.

- To expose the collusion and corruption of Big Pharma, Big Government, and Big Tech to the public, and to propose changes within the system, and/or create new laws, so that the system promotes health and safety and is not focused primarily on profits.


The Book
This book is divided into five chapters. The first part of this book shows where we are currently in this country with our beliefs, and how these beliefs were shaped by the history of science and medicine, government health organizations, and Big Tech and its related media. In the second chapter a perfect example for science and medical research was sought and found in the life of Louis Pasteur. He provides methods of how scientific research should be done, and what its purpose in humanity should be for, which is the progress of science for the betterment of humanity. As we look at Pasteur and his life, his methods are compared with those of our modern scientists. This comparison exposes many of the problems with our modern scientific methods. In chapter three, solutions are proposed for these problems. Chapter four goes deeper into these sixteen solutions and provides research material and supporting evidence that these problems do exist, and how they can be solved. The final chapter, chapter five, shows how we can all become a part of the solution for these problems.

Stephen Heartland's Blog can be found on ÀÏ»ą»úÎÈÓź·œ·š.]]> 295 Stephen Heartland Ryan 0 to-read 3.58 Louis Pasteur Condemns Big Pharma: Vaccines, Drugs, and Healthcare in the United States
author: Stephen Heartland
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.58
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Buffalo Hunter Hunter 214565614 A chilling historical horror novel set in the American west in 1912 following a Lutheran priest who transcribes the life of a vampire who haunts the fields of the Blackfeet reservation looking for justice.

A diary, written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered within a wall. What it unveils is a slow massacre, a chain of events that go back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow. Told in transcribed interviews by a Blackfeet named Good Stab, who shares the narrative of his peculiar life over a series of confessional visits. This is an American Indian revenge story written by one of the new masters of horror, Stephen Graham Jones.]]> 448 Stephen Graham Jones 1668075083 Ryan 0 to-read 4.19 2025 The Buffalo Hunter Hunter
author: Stephen Graham Jones
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Floating World (The Floating World, #1)]]> 215149209 From Axie Oh, the New York Times-bestselling author of The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea, Final Fantasy meets Shadow and Bone in this romantic fantasy reimagining the Korean legend of Celestial Maidens.

Sunho lives in the Under World, a land of perpetual darkness. An ex-soldier, he can remember little of his life from before two years ago, when he woke up alone with only his name and his sword. Now he does odd-jobs to scrape by, until he comes across the score of a lifetime—a chest of coins for any mercenary who can hunt down a girl who wields silver light.

Meanwhile, far to the east, Ren is a cheerful and spirited acrobat traveling with her adoptive family and performing at villages. But everything changes during one of their festival performances when the village is attacked by a horrific humanlike demon. In a moment of fear and rage, Ren releases a blast of silver light—a power she has kept hidden since childhood—and kills the monster. But her efforts are not in time to prevent her adoptive family from suffering a devastating loss, or to save her beloved uncle from being grievously wounded.

Determined to save him from succumbing to the poisoned wound, Ren sets off over the mountains, where the creature came from—and from where Ren herself fled ten years ago. Her path sets her on a collision course with Sunho, but he doesn't realize she's the girl that he—and a hundred other swords-for-hire—is looking for. As the two grow closer through their travels, they come to realize that their pasts—and destinies—are far more entwined than either of them could have imagined...]]> 368 Axie Oh 1250853087 Ryan 0 to-read 4.08 2025 The Floating World (The Floating World, #1)
author: Axie Oh
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Outsider 36124936
An eleven-year-old boy’s violated corpse is found in a town park. Eyewitnesses and fingerprints point unmistakably to one of Flint City’s most popular citizens. He is Terry Maitland, Little League coach, English teacher, husband, and father of two girls. Detective Ralph Anderson, whose son Maitland once coached, orders a quick and very public arrest. Maitland has an alibi, but Anderson and the district attorney soon add DNA evidence to go with the fingerprints and witnesses. Their case seems ironclad.

As the investigation expands and horrifying answers begin to emerge, King’s propulsive story kicks into high gear, generating strong tension and almost unbearable suspense. Terry Maitland seems like a nice guy, but is he wearing another face? When the answer comes, it will shock you as only Stephen King can.]]> 561 Stephen King 1501180983 Ryan 0 to-read 3.98 2018 The Outsider
author: Stephen King
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Blue World 11555 435 Robert McCammon 0671695185 Ryan 0 to-read 3.95 1989 Blue World
author: Robert McCammon
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1989
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Grave Empire (The Great Silence, #1)]]> 213681638 Blood once turned the wheels of empire. Now it is money.

A new age of exploration and innovation has dawned, and the Empire of the Wolf stands to take its place as the foremost power in the known world. Glory and riches await.

But dark days are coming. A mysterious plague has broken out in the pagan kingdoms to the north, while in the south, the Empire's proxy war in the lands of the wolfmen is weeks away from total collapse.

Worse still is the message brought to the Empress by two heretic monks, who claim to have lost contact with the spirits of the afterlife. The monks believe this is the start of an ancient prophecy heralding the end of days-the Great Silence.

It falls to Renata Rainer, a low-ranking ambassador to an enigmatic and vicious race of mermen, to seek answers from those who still practice the arcane arts. But with the road south beset by war and the Empire on the brink of supernatural catastrophe, soon there may not be a world left to save . .]]> 545 Richard Swan Ryan 0 to-read 4.26 2025 Grave Empire (The Great Silence, #1)
author: Richard Swan
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Essays: A Selection (Penguin Classics)]]> 44326359 474 Michel de Montaigne 024141234X Ryan 3 4.11 The Essays: A Selection (Penguin Classics)
author: Michel de Montaigne
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.11
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/14
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves:
review:
I found some of the essays to be quite profound and full of wisdom while others bored me to tears. It felt like a very mixed bag and took some time to get through. I mostly liked it, but it was far from a favorite.
]]> Letters from a Stoic 97411 No man can live a happy life, or even a supportable life, without the study of wisdom

Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BC-AD 65) is one of the most famous Roman philosophers. Instrumental in guiding the Roman Empire under emperor Nero, Seneca influenced him from a young age with his Stoic principles. Later in life, he wrote Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium, or Letters from a Stoic, detailing these principles in full.

Seneca’s letters read like a diary or a handbook of philosophical meditations. Often beginning with observations on daily life, the letters focus on many traditional themes of Stoic philosophy, such as the contempt of death, the value of friendship, and virtue as the supreme good.

Using Gummere’s translation from the early twentieth century, this selection of Seneca’s letters shows his belief in the austere, ethical ideals of Stoicism – teachings we can still learn from today.]]> 254 Seneca 0140442103 Ryan 4
"A man is as unhappy as he has convinced himself he is... What's the point of dragging up sufferings which are over, of being unhappy now just because you were then?"

The stoics never dissapoint when it comes to wise pithy sayings and getting straight to the point.]]> 4.33 64 Letters from a Stoic
author: Seneca
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.33
book published: 64
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/12
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves:
review:
While, for me, not as consistently profound as the work of Epictetus, Seneca's letters are still a mountain of wisdom.

"A man is as unhappy as he has convinced himself he is... What's the point of dragging up sufferings which are over, of being unhappy now just because you were then?"

The stoics never dissapoint when it comes to wise pithy sayings and getting straight to the point.
]]> <![CDATA[Those Left Behind (The Waystations Trilogy, #1)]]> 79332496 A dying planet. A desperate mission. A crew facing impossible odds. Humanity’s last hope lies with them


Time is running out for the people of New Pallas. Nobody knows that better than Alvera Renata, a tenacious captain determined to scout past the stars with nothing but a handpicked crew and the promise she made: to find a new home for humanity.

But between navigating the dangers of dark space and playing first contact politics with a galactic civilisation already on the brink of war, Alvera soon realises keeping her word might not be as easy as she thought.

Her only hope may be the secrets of the ancient alien waystations scattered across the galaxy. The mysterious technology could be the key to humanity’s survival—or bring the unwanted attention of the long-forgotten beings who built them.

But remaining united in the face of annihilation is a lot to ask from a crew already splintering under the weight of their differences. A jaded pilot wrestling with his family’s blood-stained legacy looks for a place he can start over. A young translator desperate to leave her mark on the galaxy searches for meaning out in its lawless frontier. And Alvera reckons with the aftermath of betrayal as she fights for a way to save them all.

As they break apart to forge their own paths, Alvera and her crew all face the same question: what are they willing to sacrifice to save those left behind?]]> 403 N.C. Scrimgeour Ryan 0 to-read 3.82 2021 Those Left Behind (The Waystations Trilogy, #1)
author: N.C. Scrimgeour
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Esrahaddon (The Rise and Fall, #3)]]> 43453386 A hero to some. A villain to many. The truth forever buried.

The man who became known as Esrahaddon is reported to have destroyed the world’s greatest empire—but there are those who believe he saved it. Few individuals are as divisive, but all agree on three facts: He was exiled to the wilderness, hunted by a goblin priestess, and sentenced to death by a god—all before the age of eight. How he managed to survive and why people continued to fear his name a thousand years later has always been a mystery...until now.

From the three-time New York Times best-selling author Michael J. Sullivan, Esrahaddon is the final novel in the Rise and Fall trilogy. This latest set of stories sits snugly between the Legends of the First Empire series and the Riyria books (Revelations and Chronicles). With this tale, Michael continues his tradition of unlikely heroes who must rise to the call when history knocks, demanding to be let in. This is the 19th full-length novel in a body of work that started in 2008 and spans four series.]]> 713 Michael J. Sullivan Ryan 5
Having chosen to read the main storyline books of Elan chronologically instead of in publication order, I am very eager to find out where this goes in Revelations and tie up 6+ years of me reading these novels.]]> 4.62 2023 Esrahaddon (The Rise and Fall, #3)
author: Michael J. Sullivan
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.62
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/10
date added: 2025/02/10
shelves: 2024-tentative-tbr, 2025-tentative-tbr
review:
I'm very impressed with the way Sullivan has woven, pun intended, this story. An excellent end to an excellent trilogy. Even at the end I was kept invested and wanting more.

Having chosen to read the main storyline books of Elan chronologically instead of in publication order, I am very eager to find out where this goes in Revelations and tie up 6+ years of me reading these novels.
]]> <![CDATA[Legends & Lattes (Legends & Lattes, #1)]]> 61219635 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781250886088.

A Novel of High Fantasy and Low Stakes.

After a lifetime of bounties and bloodshed, Viv is hanging up her sword for the last time.

The battle-weary orc aims to start fresh, opening the first ever coffee shop in the city of Thune. But old and new rivals stand in the way of success—not to mention the fact that no one has the faintest idea what coffee actually is.

If Viv wants to put the blade behind her and make her plans a reality, she won't be able to go it alone.

But the true rewards of the uncharted path are the travelers you meet along the way. And whether drawn together by ancient magic, flaky pastry, or a freshly brewed cup, they may become partners, family, and something deeper than she ever could have dreamed.]]> 304 Travis Baldree Ryan 0 to-read 4.17 2022 Legends & Lattes (Legends & Lattes, #1)
author: Travis Baldree
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Saturation Point 199798188
Doctor Jasmine Marks is going back into hell.

The Hygrometric Dehabitation Region, or the “Zone,” is a growing band of rainforest on the equator, where the heat and humidity make it impossible for warm-blooded animals to survive. A human being without protection in the Zone is dead in minutes.

Twenty years ago, Marks went into the rainforest with a group of researchers led by Doctor Elaine Fell, to study the extraordinary climate and see if it could be used in agriculture. The only thing she learned was that the Zone was no place for people. There were deaths, and the programme was cut short.

Now, they’re sending her back in. A plane crash, a rescue mission, a race against time and the environment to bring out the survivors. But there are things Marks’s corporate masters aren’t telling her. The Zone keeps its secrets, and so does Doctor Fell
]]> 165 Adrian Tchaikovsky 1837861749 Ryan 0 to-read 3.73 2024 Saturation Point
author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Infinity Gate (Pandominion, #1)]]> 61237044
The Pandominion: a political and trading alliance of a million worlds - except that they're really just the one world, Earth, in many different realities. And when an AI threat arises that could destroy everything the Pandominion has built, they'll eradicate it by whatever means necessary, no matter the cost to human life.

Scientist Hadiz Tambuwal is looking for a solution to her own Earth's environmental collapse when she stumbles across the secret of inter-dimensional travel. It could save everyone on her dying planet, but now she's walked into the middle of a war on a scale she never dreamed of.

And she needs to choose a side before it kills her.]]> 499 M.R. Carey 0316504386 Ryan 0 to-read 4.06 2023 Infinity Gate (Pandominion, #1)
author: M.R. Carey
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Alien Clay 195443798
On the distant world of Kiln lie the ruins of an alien civilization. It’s the greatest discovery in humanity’s spacefaring history – yet who were its builders and where did they go?

Professor Arton Daghdev had always wanted to study alien life up close. Then his wishes become a reality in the worst way. His political activism sees him exiled from Earth to Kiln’s extrasolar labour camp. There, he’s condemned to work under an alien sky until he dies.

Kiln boasts a ravenous, chaotic ecosystem like nothing seen on Earth. The monstrous alien life interacts in surprising, sometimes shocking ways with the human body, so Arton will risk death on a daily basis. However, the camp’s oppressive regime might just kill him first. If Arton can somehow escape both fates, the world of Kiln holds a wondrous, terrible secret. It will redefine life and intelligence as he knows it, and might just set him free . . .]]> 396 Adrian Tchaikovsky 1035013770 Ryan 0 to-read 3.98 2024 Alien Clay
author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Laughter in the Dark 38105167
Alternate Cover Edition for ISBN-10: 0679724508 ISBN-13: 978-0679724506]]> 292 Vladimir Nabokov Ryan 0 to-read 4.05 1932 Laughter in the Dark
author: Vladimir Nabokov
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1932
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Gospel Singer 58536096
A Penguin Classic


Golden-haired, with the voice of an angel and a reputation as a healer, the Gospel Singer appeared on the cover of LIFE and brought thousands to their knees in Carnegie Hall. But for all his fame, he is a man in mortal torment that drives him back to his obscure and wretched hometown of Enigma, Georgia. But by the time his Cadillac pulls into Enigma, he discovers an old friend is being held at tenuous bay from a lynch mob. As Harry Crews’s first novel unfolds, the Gospel Singer is forced to give way to his torment, and in doing so he reveals to the believers who have gathered at his feet just how little he is God’s man, and how much he has contributed to the corruption of each of them.]]> 224 Harry Crews 0143135090 Ryan 5 favorites 4.22 1968 The Gospel Singer
author: Harry Crews
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1968
rating: 5
read at: 2023/08/25
date added: 2025/01/18
shelves: favorites
review:
Incredible and disturbing depiction of southern evangelism, desperation, racism, and guilt. As someone who grew up in southern Appalachia, parts of this book were upsettingly all too familiar. I can particularly relate to the desperate need to escape from southern small town life, which makes the motivations of the main character and others real and, at times, uncomfortably understandable to say the least. If you grew up in the south, especially if you are familiar with the influence of Southern Christian Evangelism, small town desperation, jealous guilt tripping, and the tragic, yet particularly difficult to articulate, mindset that is overwhelming evident in many poor southern towns (If you know, you know).
]]> Ego Is the Enemy 27036528
Many of us insist the main impediment to a full, successful life is the outside world. In fact, the most common enemy lies within: our ego. Early in our careers, it impedes learning and the cultivation of talent. With success, it can blind us to our faults and sow future problems. In failure, it magnifies each blow and makes recovery more difficult. At every stage, ego holds us back.

The Ego is the Enemy draws on a vast array of stories and examples, from literature to philosophy to history. We meet fascinating figures like Howard Hughes, Katharine Graham, Bill Belichick, and Eleanor Roosevelt, all of whom reached the highest levels of power and success by conquering their own egos. Their strategies and tactics can be ours as well.

But why should we bother fighting ego in an era that glorifies social media, reality TV, and other forms of shameless self-promotion?Ìę Armed with the lessons in this book, as Holiday writes, “you will be less invested in the story you tell about your own specialness, and as a result, you will be liberated to accomplish the world-changing work you’ve set out to achieve.”]]> 226 Ryan Holiday 1591847818 Ryan 2 4.12 2016 Ego Is the Enemy
author: Ryan Holiday
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2016
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/13
date added: 2025/01/13
shelves:
review:
I dont think this book was written for me. I love Ryan's other books. I have read several of them and they've all been great, including the other 2 in this series. But this one was a complete miss for me. It feels forced and off in a way that the others don't, I took away basically nothing, and it felt like a waste. I will continue to read more from Mr. Holiday, because, as I said, I have loved nearly every other book I've read of his, however this one left me dissapointed.
]]> <![CDATA[Same as Ever: A Guide to What Never Changes]]> 125116554
— Arthur C. Brooks, Professor, Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School, and #1 New York Times bestselling author


From the author of the international blockbuster, THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MONEY, a powerful new tool to unlock one of life’s most challenging puzzles.

Every investment plan under the sun is, at best,Ìęan informed speculation of what may happen in the future, based on a systematic extrapolation from the known past.

Same as Ever reverses the process, inviting us to identify the many things that never, ever change.

With his usual elan, Morgan Housel presents a master class on optimizing risk, seizing opportunity, and living your best life. Through a sequence of engaging stories and pithy examples, he shows how we can use our newfound grasp of the unchanging to see around corners, not by squinting harder through the uncertain landscape of the future, but by looking backwards, being more broad-sighted, and focusing instead on what is permanently true. ÌęÌę

By doing so, we may betterÌęanticipate the big stuff, andÌęachieve the greatest success, not merely financial comforts, but most importantly, a life well lived.]]> 240 Morgan Housel Ryan 5 2025-tentative-tbr 4.12 2023 Same as Ever: A Guide to What Never Changes
author: Morgan Housel
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/09
date added: 2025/01/09
shelves: 2025-tentative-tbr
review:
Housel writes in a way that is just so goddamned readable and straight forward that you just can't put the book down. He is able to distill complex and nuanced insights into a form that is immediately understandable and sticks with you. While not as imminently impactful as The Psychology of Money is/would be, for most people, this book still has plenty of useful insights into human behavior & psychology as well as demonstrating several, often overlooked, realities of how humanity & individuals behave as a whole throughout history. It's pretty fucking good.
]]> Wool - Holston (Wool, #1) 12287209
Or you'll get what you wish for.]]> 56 Hugh Howey Ryan 0 to-read 4.14 2012 Wool - Holston (Wool, #1)
author: Hugh Howey
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Science of Fear: Why We Fear the Things We Shouldn't--and Put Ourselves in Greater Danger]]> 3242100
In this fascinating, lucid, and thoroughly entertaining examination of how humans process risk, journalist Dan Gardner had the exclusive cooperation of Paul Slovic, the world renowned risk-science pioneer, as he reveals how our hunter gatherer brains struggle to make sense of a world utterly unlike the one that made them. Filled with illuminating real world examples, interviews with experts, and fast-paced, lean storytelling, The Science of Fear shows why it is truer than ever that the worst thing we have to fear is fear itself.]]> 339 Daniel Gardner 0525950621 Ryan 0 to-read 3.98 2008 The Science of Fear: Why We Fear the Things We Shouldn't--and Put Ourselves in Greater Danger
author: Daniel Gardner
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living]]> 29093292 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780735211735.

A beautifully packaged daily devotional of Stoic wisdom, featuring new translations of the most celebrated Stoics with historical context and practical tips from bestselling author Ryan Holiday.

Stoic philosophy has long been the secret weapon of history’s greatest and wisest leaders--from emperors to artists, activists to fighter pilots. Today, people of all stripes are seeking out Stoicism’s unique blend of practicality and wisdom as they look for answers to the great questions of daily life.

Where should they start? Epictetus? Marcus Aurelius? Seneca? Which edition? Which translator? Presented in a page-per-day format, this daily resource combines all new translations done by Stephen Hanselman of the greatest passages from the great Stoics (including several lesser known philosophers like Zeno, Cleanthes and Musonius Rufus) with helpful commentary.

Building on the organizational structure in Ryan Holiday’s cult classic The Obstacle is the Way, this guide also features twelve monthly themes (and helpful glossary) for clarifying perception, improving action, and unlocking the power of will. Aimed at the high-octane, action-oriented doers of our wired world, this book brings new daily rituals and new perspectives to produce balanced action, insight, effectiveness, and serenity.]]> 416 Ryan Holiday Ryan 5 favorites 4.33 2016 The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living
author: Ryan Holiday
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/31
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves: favorites
review:

]]> Freedom from the Known 143877 124 J. Krishnamurti 0060648082 Ryan 5
"There is nowhere at which to arrive."

The present moment is all there is and there is nothing more important to your freedom than the passive acceptance of what is. Without trying to change it, judge it, add to it, or subtract from it in any way. Simply being with what is. Thats really fuckin it. A "choiceless awareness", which is instantaneous and thus has no process or method attached to it. There is nothing to change, nowhere to go, and nothing to achieve. Your problems, desires, anxieties, and neuroticism are all part of your experience, your expression of life, and therefore are part of what is. Trying to change or get rid of these imply a lack of acceptance, which is the whole problem to begin with. If you cannot be happy now, you cannot be happy. There is nothing you can get or achieve that will not, over time, wane. Relatively quickly one discovers, if they're willing to pay attention, that desire and dissatisfaction perpetuate themselves. Chasing shit always leads to chasing other shit.

I was discussing with GPT about these ideas and the below says it better than I could:

"When you truly see this, you realize there was never anything wrong with the striving, the wanting, or the desire—they, too, are just expressions of life. By letting them be and observing without judgment, a quiet, effortless clarity emerges. That clarity is freedom."

This philosophy fucks hard.]]> 4.29 1969 Freedom from the Known
author: J. Krishnamurti
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1969
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/05
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves:
review:
Man, fuck. I am floored by how profound and yet how simple this philosophy is. It's so simple it seems like bullshit at first, but its only within the simplicity that the profundity can be found. It fucks your mind, but also frees it. These ideas are life changing, and I don't say that lightly.

"There is nowhere at which to arrive."

The present moment is all there is and there is nothing more important to your freedom than the passive acceptance of what is. Without trying to change it, judge it, add to it, or subtract from it in any way. Simply being with what is. Thats really fuckin it. A "choiceless awareness", which is instantaneous and thus has no process or method attached to it. There is nothing to change, nowhere to go, and nothing to achieve. Your problems, desires, anxieties, and neuroticism are all part of your experience, your expression of life, and therefore are part of what is. Trying to change or get rid of these imply a lack of acceptance, which is the whole problem to begin with. If you cannot be happy now, you cannot be happy. There is nothing you can get or achieve that will not, over time, wane. Relatively quickly one discovers, if they're willing to pay attention, that desire and dissatisfaction perpetuate themselves. Chasing shit always leads to chasing other shit.

I was discussing with GPT about these ideas and the below says it better than I could:

"When you truly see this, you realize there was never anything wrong with the striving, the wanting, or the desire—they, too, are just expressions of life. By letting them be and observing without judgment, a quiet, effortless clarity emerges. That clarity is freedom."

This philosophy fucks hard.
]]> <![CDATA[The Return of the King (The Lord of the Rings, #3)]]> 61215384
The inspiration for the upcoming original series on Prime Video, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

The Return of the King is the third part of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic adventure The Lord of the Rings.

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

The Dark Lord has risen, and as he unleashes hordes of Orcs to conquer all Middle-earth, Frodo and Sam struggle deep into his realm in Mordor.

To defeat Sauron, the One Ring must be destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom. But the way is impossibly hard, and Frodo is weakening. The Ring corrupts all who bear it and Frodo’s time is running out.

Will Sam and Frodo succeed, or will the Dark Lord rule Middle-earth once more?]]> 432 J.R.R. Tolkien Ryan 0 2025-tentative-tbr, to-read 4.67 1955 The Return of the King (The Lord of the Rings, #3)
author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.67
book published: 1955
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/24
shelves: 2025-tentative-tbr, to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings, #2)]]> 61215372
The inspiration for the upcoming original series on Prime Video, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

The Two Towers is the second part of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic adventure The Lord of the Rings.

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

Frodo and his Companions of the Ring have been beset by danger during their quest to prevent the Ruling Ring from falling into the hands of the Dark Lord by destroying it in the Cracks of Doom. They have lost the wizard, Gandalf, in a battle in the Mines of Moria. And Boromir, seduced by the power of the Ring, tried to seize it by force. While Frodo and Sam made their escape, the rest of the company was attacked by Orcs. Now they continue the journey alone down the great River Anduin—alone, that is, save for the mysterious creeping figure that follows wherever they go.]]> 448 J.R.R. Tolkien Ryan 0 2025-tentative-tbr, to-read 4.60 1954 The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings, #2)
author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.60
book published: 1954
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/24
shelves: 2025-tentative-tbr, to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Last Watch (The Divide, #1)]]> 53205794 The Expanse meets Game of Thrones in J. S. Dewes's fast-paced, sci-fi adventure The Last Watch, where a handful of soldiers stand between humanity and annihilation.

The Divide.

It’s the edge of the universe.

Now it’s collapsing—and taking everyone and everything with it.

The only ones who can stop it are the Sentinels—the recruits, exiles, and court-martialed dregs of the military.

At the Divide, Adequin Rake commands the Argus. She has no resources, no comms—nothing, except for the soldiers that no one wanted. Her ace in the hole could be Cavalon Mercer--genius, asshole, and exiled prince who nuked his grandfather's genetic facility for “reasons.”

She knows they’re humanity's last chance.]]> 480 J.S. Dewes 1250236347 Ryan 0 to-read, 2025-tentative-tbr 3.89 2021 The Last Watch (The Divide, #1)
author: J.S. Dewes
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/24
shelves: to-read, 2025-tentative-tbr
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Exiled Fleet (The Divide, #2)]]> 55077639 J. S. Dewes continues her fast paced, science fiction action adventure with The Exiled Fleet, where The Expanse meets The Black Company--the survivors of The Last Watch refuse to die.



The Sentinels narrowly escaped the collapsing edge of the Divide.

They have mustered a few other surviving Sentinels, but with no engines they have no way to leave the edge of the universe before they starve.

Adequin Rake has gathered a team to find the materials they'll need to get everyone out.

To do that they're going to need new allies and evade a ruthless enemy. Some of them will not survive.]]> 432 J.S. Dewes 1250236363 Ryan 0 to-read 4.18 2021 The Exiled Fleet (The Divide, #2)
author: J.S. Dewes
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Dune Messiah (Dune #2) 44492285
Dune Messiah continues the story of Paul Atreides, better known--and feared--as the man christened Muad'Dib. As Emperor of the Known Universe, he possesses more power than a single man was ever meant to wield. Worshipped as a religious icon by the fanatical Fremens, Paul faces the enmity of the political houses he displaced when he assumed the throne--and a conspiracy conducted within his own sphere of influence.

And even as House Atreides begins to crumble around him from the machinations of his enemies, the true threat to Paul comes to his lover, Chani, and the unborn heir to his family's dynasty...

Includes an introduction by Brian Herbert]]> 336 Frank Herbert 0593098234 Ryan 0 to-read, 2025-tentative-tbr 3.89 1969 Dune Messiah (Dune #2)
author: Frank Herbert
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1969
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/24
shelves: to-read, 2025-tentative-tbr
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Rise and Reign of the Mammals: A New History, from the Shadow of the Dinosaurs to Us]]> 58986604 528 Steve Brusatte 0062951513 Ryan 0 to-read, 2025-tentative-tbr 4.35 2022 The Rise and Reign of the Mammals: A New History, from the Shadow of the Dinosaurs to Us
author: Steve Brusatte
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/24
shelves: to-read, 2025-tentative-tbr
review:

]]> Empire of the Sun 56674 The classic, award-winning novel, made famous by Steven Spielberg's film, tells of a young boy's struggle to survive World War II in China.

Jim is separated from his parents in a world at war. To survive, he must find a deep strength greater than all the events that surround him.

Shanghai, 1941 — a city aflame from the fateful torch of Pearl Harbor. In streets full of chaos and corpses, a young British boy searches in vain for his parents. Imprisoned in a Japanese concentration camp, he is witness to the fierce white flash of Nagasaki, as the bomb bellows the end of the war...and the dawn of a blighted world.

Ballard's enduring novel of war and deprivation, internment camps and death marches, and starvation and survival is an honest coming-of-age tale set in a world thrown utterly out of joint.]]> 351 J.G. Ballard 0743265238 Ryan 0 to-read, 2025-tentative-tbr 3.98 1984 Empire of the Sun
author: J.G. Ballard
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1984
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/24
shelves: to-read, 2025-tentative-tbr
review:

]]> <![CDATA[We Who Wrestle with God: Perceptions of the Divine]]> 207611500 A revolutionary new offering from Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, renowned psychologist and author of the global bestseller 12 Rules for Life.In We Who Wrestle with God, Dr. Peterson guides us through the ancient, foundational stories of the Western world. In riveting detail, he analyzes the Biblical accounts of rebellion, sacrifice, suffering, and triumph that stabilize, inspire, and unite us culturally and psychologically. Adam and Eve and the eternal fall of mankind; the resentful and ultimately murderous war of Cain and Abel; the cataclysmic flood of Noah; the spectacular collapse of the Tower of Babel; Abraham’s terrible adventure; and the epic of Moses and the Israelites.Ìę What could such stories possibly mean? What force wrote and assembled them over the long centuries? How did they bring our spirits and the world together, and point us in the same direction?ÌęÌęIt is time for us to understand such things, scientifically and spiritually; to become conscious of the structure of our souls and our societies; and to see ourselves and others as if for the first time.ÌęÌęÌęJoin Elijah as he discovers the Voice of God in the dictates of his own conscience and Jonah confronting hell itself in the belly of the whale because he failed to listen and act. Set yourself straight in intent, aim, and purpose as you begin to more deeply understand the structure of your society and your soul. Journey with Dr. Peterson through the greatest stories ever told.ÌęÌęDare to wrestle with God.]]> 576 Jordan B. Peterson 0593542533 Ryan 0 to-read, 2025-tentative-tbr 3.91 2024 We Who Wrestle with God: Perceptions of the Divine
author: Jordan B. Peterson
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/24
shelves: to-read, 2025-tentative-tbr
review:

]]> Shƍgun (Asian Saga, #1) 52382796
Powerful and engrossing, capturing both the rich pageantry and stark realities of life in feudal Japan, Shƍgun is a critically acclaimed powerhouse of a book. Heart-stopping, edge-of-your-seat action melds seamlessly with intricate historical detail and raw human emotion. Endlessly compelling, this sweeping saga captivated the world to become not only one of the best-selling novels of all time but also one of the highest-rated television miniseries, as well as inspiring a nationwide surge of interest in the culture of Japan. Shakespearean in both scope and depth, Shƍgun is, as the New York Times put it, "...not only something you read--you live it." Provocative, absorbing, and endlessly fascinating, there is only one: Shƍgun.]]> 1152 James Clavell 1982603844 Ryan 0 to-read, 2025-tentative-tbr 4.42 1975 Shƍgun (Asian Saga, #1)
author: James Clavell
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.42
book published: 1975
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/24
shelves: to-read, 2025-tentative-tbr
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Forsworn (The Forsworn Oath, #1)]]> 218657032 Do not fear the shadows, but what lives inside them.

When Ludo Vica was only eight years old, he lost his twin brother and his eye when a horrific fire turned his village to ash. The last thing he remembers is a dark figure, wreathed in flames, stalking toward his childhood home. His brother, Gado, was still inside. Then came the explosion, the burning pain where his eye should've been, followed by blessed oblivion.

The man deemed responsible for it all was Cainan, a dark sorcerer known as the Fire Eater, who was brought to justice and imprisoned in the legendary fortress known as Comman Dur. In the two decades that have passed since that fateful night, Ludo's every waking moment has been focused on the only thing he has left to live revenge. So when the Fire Eater escapes, Ludo is determined to hunt him down and avenge his brother's death, a path that leads him into the shadows and mysteries of Lostwood.

What awaits him in the shadows will change everything.

Fans of A Game of Thrones, The Stormlight Archives, The Kingfall Histories and The Fatemarked Epic will enjoy The Forsworn Oath. Start your 5,000+ page epic adventure today.]]> 928 David Estes Ryan 0 to-read 4.41 Forsworn (The Forsworn Oath, #1)
author: David Estes
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.41
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> We 76171 The exhilarating dystopian novel that inspired George Orwell's 1984 and foreshadowed the worst excesses of Soviet Russia

Yevgeny Zamyatin's We is a powerfully inventive vision that has influenced writers from George Orwell to Ayn Rand. In a glass-enclosed city of absolute straight lines, ruled over by the all-powerful 'Benefactor', the citizens of the totalitarian society of OneState live out lives devoid of passion and creativity - until D-503, a mathematician who dreams in numbers, makes a discovery: he has an individual soul. Set in the twenty-sixth century AD, We is the classic dystopian novel and was the forerunner of works such as George Orwell's 1984 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. It was suppressed for many years in Russia and remains a resounding cry for individual freedom, yet is also a powerful, exciting and vivid work of science fiction. Clarence Brown's brilliant translation is based on the corrected text of the novel, first published in Russia in 1988 after more than sixty years' suppression.]]> 256 Yevgeny Zamyatin 0140185852 Ryan 0 to-read 3.91 1924 We
author: Yevgeny Zamyatin
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1924
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life]]> 14096 304 Jon Kabat-Zinn 1401307787 Ryan 0 to-read 4.13 1994 Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
author: Jon Kabat-Zinn
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1994
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Tao Te Ching 57854 Tao Te Ching, the esoteric but infinitely practical book written most probably in the sixth century B.C. by Lao Tsu, has been translated more frequently than any work except the Bible. This translation of the Chinese classic, which was first published twenty-five years ago, has sold more copies than any of the others. It offers the essence of each word and makes Lao Tsu's teaching immediate and alive.

The philosophy of Lao Tsu is simple: Accept what is in front of you without wanting the situation to be other than it is. Study the natural order of things and work with it rather than against it, for to try to change what is only sets up resistance. Nature provides everything without requiring payment or thanks, and also provides for all without discrimination—therefore let us present the same face to everyone and treat all men as equals, however they may behave. If we watch carefully, we will see that work proceeds more quickly and easily if we stop "trying," if we stop putting in so much extra effort, if we stop looking for results. In the clarity of a still and open mind, truth will be reflected. We will come to appreciate the original meaning of the word "understand," which means "to stand under." We serve whatever or whoever stands before us, without any thought for ourselves. Te—which may be translated as "virtue" or "strength"—lies always in Tao, or" natural law. In other words: Simply be.]]> 184 Lao Tzu 0679776192 Ryan 5 4.33 -350 Tao Te Ching
author: Lao Tzu
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.33
book published: -350
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/17
date added: 2024/12/17
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Will of the Many (Hierarchy, #1)]]> 217379416 At the elite Catenan Academy, where students are prepared as the future leaders of the Hierarchy empire, the curriculum reveals a layered set of mysteries which turn murderous in this new fantasy by bestselling author of The Licanius Trilogy, James Islington.

Vis, the adopted son of Magnus Quintus Ulcisor, a prominent senator within the Hierarchy, is trained to enter the famed Catenan Academy to help Ulciscor learn what the hidden agenda is of the remote island academy. Secretly, he also wants Vis to discover what happed to his brother who died at the academy, further, he’s sure the current Principalis of the academy, Quintus Veridius Julii, a political rival, knows much more than he’s revealing.

The Academy’s vigorous syllabus is a challenge Vis is ably suited to meet, but it is the training in the use of Will, a practice that Vis finds abhorrent, that he must learn in order to excel at the Academy. Will—a concept that encompasses their energy, drive, focus, initiative, ambition, and vitality—can be voluntarily “ceded” to someone else. A single recipient can accept ceded Will from multiple people, growing in power towards superhuman levels. Within the hierarchy your level of Will, or legal rank, determines how you live or die. And there are those who are determined to destroy this hierarchal system, as well as those in the Academy who use it to gain dominance in international bestselling author James Islington’s wonderfully crafted new epic fantasy series.]]> 720 James Islington 1668093294 Ryan 0 to-read 4.70 2023 The Will of the Many (Hierarchy, #1)
author: James Islington
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.70
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Fair Play 8915857 Fair Play is the type of love story that is rarely told, a revelatory depiction of contentment, hard-won and exhilarating.

Mari is a writer and Jonna is an artist, and they live at opposite ends of a big apartment building, their studios connected by a long attic passageway. They have argued, worked, and laughed together for decades. Yet they’ve never really stopped taking each other by surprise. Fair Play shows us Mari and Jona’s intertwined lives as they watch Fassbinder films and Westerns, critique each other’s work, spend time on a solitary island (recognizable to readers of Jansson’s The Summer Book), travel through the American Southwest, and turn life into nothing less than art.]]> 100 Tove Jansson 1590173783 Ryan 0 to-read 3.98 1989 Fair Play
author: Tove Jansson
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1989
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Lost World of the Dinosaurs: Uncovering the Secrets of the Prehistoric Age]]> 203647815 320 Armin Schmitt 1335081216 Ryan 0 to-read 3.87 2024 The Lost World of the Dinosaurs: Uncovering the Secrets of the Prehistoric Age
author: Armin Schmitt
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Autocracy, Inc. 183932735 224 Anne Applebaum 0241627893 Ryan 0 to-read 4.21 2024 Autocracy, Inc.
author: Anne Applebaum
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> On Freedom 203956715 A brilliant exploration of freedom—what it is, how it’s been misunderstood, and why it’s our only chance for survival—by the acclaimed Yale historian and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller On TyrannyTimothy Snyder has been called “the leading interpreter of our dark times.” As a historian, he has given us startling reinterpretations of political collapse and mass killing. As a public intellectual, he has turned that knowledge toward counsel and prediction, working against authoritarianism here and abroad. His book On Tyranny has inspired millions around the world to fight for freedom. Now, in this tour de force of political philosophy, he helps us see exactly what we’re fighting for.Freedom is the great American commitment, but as Snyder argues, we have lost sight of what it means—and this is leading us into crisis. Too many of us look at freedom as the absence of state We think we're free if we can do and say as we please, and protect ourselves from government overreach. But true freedom isn’t so much freedom from, as freedom to—the freedom to thrive, to take risks for futures we choose by working together. Freedom is the value that makes all other values possible.On Freedom takes us on a thrilling intellectual journey. Drawing on the work of philosophers and political dissidents, conversations with contemporary thinkers, and his own experiences coming of age in a time of American exceptionalism, Snyder identifies the practices and attitudes—the habits of mind—that will allow us to design a government in which we and future generations can flourish. We come to appreciate the importance of traditions (championed by the right) but also the role of institutions (the purview of the left). Intimate yet ambitious, this book helps forge a new consensus rooted in a politics of abundance, generosity, and grace.]]> 368 Timothy Snyder 0593728726 Ryan 0 to-read 4.29 2024 On Freedom
author: Timothy Snyder
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Slaves of Solitude 176964
Overwhelmed by the terrors and rigors of the Blitz, middle-aged Miss Roach has retreated to the relative safety and stupefying boredom of the suburban town of Thames Lockdon, where she rents a room in a boarding house run by Mrs. Payne. There the savvy, sensible, decent, but all-too-meek Miss Roach endures the dinner-table interrogations of Mr. Thwaites and seeks to relieve her solitude by going out drinking and necking with a wayward American lieutenant. Life is almost bearable until Vicki Kugelmann, a seeming friend, moves into the adjacent room. That’s when Miss Roach’s troubles really start to begin.

Recounting an epic battle of wills in the claustrophobic confines of the boarding house, Patrick Hamilton’s The Slaves of Solitude, with a delightfully improbable heroine, is one of the finest and funniest books ever written about the trials of a lonely heart.]]> 242 Patrick Hamilton 1590172205 Ryan 0 to-read 4.08 1947 The Slaves of Solitude
author: Patrick Hamilton
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1947
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Wisdom of Insecurity 5986505 136 Alan W. Watts 0091210712 Ryan 4
"By holding his breath, he loses it. By letting go he finds it."]]> 4.14 1951 The Wisdom of Insecurity
author: Alan W. Watts
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1951
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/20
date added: 2024/11/20
shelves:
review:
"Sometimes when resistence ceases, the pain simply goes away or dwindles to an easily tolerable ache. At other times it remains, but the absence of any resistance brings about a way of feeling pain so unfamiliar as to be hard to describe. The pain is no longer problematic. I feel it but there is no urge to get rid of it, for I have discovered that pain and the effort to be separate from it are the same thing. Wanting to get out of pain is the pain; it is not the 'reaction' of an 'I' distinct from the pain. When you discover this, the desire to escape 'merges' into the pain itself and vanishes."

"By holding his breath, he loses it. By letting go he finds it."
]]> <![CDATA[Things Fall Apart (The African Trilogy, #1)]]> 37781 Things Fall Apart is written with remarkable economy and subtle irony. Uniquely and richly African, at the same time it reveals Achebe's keen awareness of the human qualities common to men of all times and places.]]> 215 Chinua Achebe Ryan 0 to-read 3.73 1958 Things Fall Apart (The African Trilogy, #1)
author: Chinua Achebe
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1958
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Black Farm (The Black Farm, #1)]]> 35396201 But when Nick wakes up, he soon realizes that death isn't the gentle darkness he expected. Panicked and horrified, he struggles to understand the twisted abominations and hellish world he's now trapped in.
Driven by desperation and a sudden will to survive, he sets out to find Jess and is unable to cope with the thought of her having to suffer through the terrors this new reality holds.
But nothing could prepare him for the nightmares he found... nothing could prepare him for The Black Farm.]]> 325 Elias Witherow Ryan 0 to-read 3.93 2017 The Black Farm (The Black Farm, #1)
author: Elias Witherow
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001]]> 71984 Ghost Wars is the most accurate and revealing account yet of the CIA's secret involvement in al-Qaeda's evolution. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005.

Prize-winning journalist Steve Coll has spent years reporting from the Middle East, accessed previously classified government files and interviewed senior US officials and foreign spymasters. Here he gives the full inside story of the CIA's covert funding of an Islamic jihad against Soviet forces in Afghanistan, explores how this sowed the seeds of Bin Laden's rise, traces how he built his global network and brings to life the dramatic battles within the US government over national security. Above all, he lays bare American intelligence's continual failure to grasp the rising threat of terrorism in the years leading to 9/11 - and its devastating consequences.]]> 712 Steve Coll 0143034669 Ryan 0 to-read 4.31 2004 Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001
author: Steve Coll
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Tales from the Perilous Realm 3772535
The book is the perfect opportunity for fans of Middle-earth to enjoy some of Tolkien’s often overlooked yet most creative storytelling. With dragons and sand sorcerers, sea monsters and hobbits, knights and dwarves, this collection contains all the classic elements for Tolkien buffs of all ages.

Roverandom is the story of a toy dog who becomes enchanted by a sand sorcerer. He gets to explore the world and encounter strange and fabulous creatures.

Farmer Giles of Ham is the tale of a fat, unheroic farmer who, having unwittingly managed to scare off a short-sighted giant, is called upon to do battle when the dragon Chrysophylax comes to town.

The Adventures of Tom Bombadil tells, in verse, of Tom's many adventures with hobbits, princesses, dwarves and trolls.

Smith of Wootton Major takes us on a journey to the Land of Faery, thanks to the magical ingredients of the Great Cake of the Feast of Good Children.

Leaf by Niggle recounts the strange adventures of the painter Niggle, who sets out to paint the perfect tree.
Ìę
Also includes, as an appendix, Tolkien's essay On Fairy Stories.]]> 403 J.R.R. Tolkien 0547154119 Ryan 0 to-read 4.21 1997 Tales from the Perilous Realm
author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Nightfall 18297094 40 Isaac Asimov Ryan 0 to-read 4.16 1941 Nightfall
author: Isaac Asimov
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1941
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> When the Moon Hits Your Eye 211004190
It's a whole new moooooon.

One day soon, suddenly and without explanation, the moon as we know it is replaced with an orb of cheese with the exact same mass. Through the length of an entire lunar cycle, from new moon to a spectacular and possibly final solar eclipse, we follow multiple characters -- schoolkids and scientists, billionaires and workers, preachers and politicians -- as they confront the strange new world they live in, and the absurd, impossible moon that now hangs above all their lives.]]> 326 John Scalzi 0765389096 Ryan 0 to-read 3.83 2025 When the Moon Hits Your Eye
author: John Scalzi
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Shadows of Carcosa: Tales of Cosmic Horror by Lovecraft, Chambers, Machen, Poe, and Other Masters of the Weird]]> 21408743 315 D. Thin 1590178734 Ryan 0 to-read 3.71 2002 Shadows of Carcosa: Tales of Cosmic Horror by Lovecraft, Chambers, Machen, Poe, and Other Masters of the Weird
author: D. Thin
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Month in the Country 609478 104 J.L. Carr Ryan 5
"It is now or never; we must snatch at happiness as it flies."]]> 4.11 1980 A Month in the Country
author: J.L. Carr
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1980
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/15
date added: 2024/10/15
shelves:
review:
Time waits for no one. Appreciate what you have and where you are in life now. Things will not always be that way, nothing lasts forever. Cherish what is, seize opportunities as they present themselves, and do not be afraid, because everything comes to an end, you may never get a second chance, and regret is always worse than fear. Happiness is experienced now, we cannot hold on to it indefinitely and we cannot guarantee it later.

"It is now or never; we must snatch at happiness as it flies."
]]> <![CDATA[When We Cease to Understand the World]]> 62069739
Shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize and the 2021 National Book Award for Translated Literature

A fictional examination of the lives of real-life scientists and thinkers whose discoveries resulted in moral consequences beyond their imagining.

When We Cease to Understand the World is a book about the complicated links between scientific and mathematical discovery, madness, and destruction.Ìę

Fritz Haber, Alexander Grothendieck, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger—these are some of luminaries into whose troubled lives BenjamĂ­n Labatut thrusts the reader, showing us how they grappled with the most profound questions of existence. They have strokes of unparalleled genius, alienate friends and lovers, descend into isolation and insanity. Some of their discoveries reshape human life for the better; others pave the way to chaos and unimaginable suffering. The lines are never clear.

At a breakneck pace and with a wealth of disturbing detail, Labatut uses the imaginative resources of fiction to tell the stories of the scientists and mathematicians who expanded our notions of the possible.]]> 193 BenjamĂ­n Labatut Ryan 0 to-read 4.10 2020 When We Cease to Understand the World
author: BenjamĂ­n Labatut
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Singapore Grip (Empire Trilogy, #3)]]> 256274
A love story and a war story, a tragicomic tale of a city under siege and a dying way of life, The Singapore Grip completes the “Empire Trilogy” that began with Troubles and the Booker prize-winning Siege of Krishnapur.]]> 584 J.G. Farrell 1590171365 Ryan 5 2024-tentative-tbr, favorites
A big reason why I enjoyed this so much was because I didnt absolutely hate everyone like I did in The Siege of Krishnapur. Having at least a few redeemable characters goes a long way I think. (Speaking of, I was pleasantly surprised to see The Major make a return to the cast.) That being said, it does not apply to Walter, the bastard, who is effectively the villain of the story, alongside his truly awful daughter Joan. Seriously, fuck these people. Walter also acts as a metaphore on top of a metaphore for the British Empire in its final days. The fact that he's the villain speaks for itself I guess. Starting the story prosperous, haughty, and controlling. Only to end it ruined and broken, wandering the streets and grounds of his bombed out empire wondering what the hell happened.

No matter how strong you are, how well entrenched, and how well connected, sometimes things just fall apart. The more you desperately hold on to what was and what could of been, the more likely you are to burn along with it.

As for the ambiguous ending, I'm actually ok with it. Suprising, because I usually hate that shit. Given that the narrative is merely an allegory for the British Empire anyway, an ending like this makes sense. It's as if Farrell is saying, the fate of these characters isn't the point, you pick the ending you want them to have, because ultimately it doesn't matter. The story is told.]]> 3.95 1978 The Singapore Grip (Empire Trilogy, #3)
author: J.G. Farrell
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1978
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/24
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: 2024-tentative-tbr, favorites
review:
I think this was my favorite book of The Empire Trilogy. Which is difficult to call because of how much I enjoyed Troubles. The book is funny, intelligent, and entertaining.

A big reason why I enjoyed this so much was because I didnt absolutely hate everyone like I did in The Siege of Krishnapur. Having at least a few redeemable characters goes a long way I think. (Speaking of, I was pleasantly surprised to see The Major make a return to the cast.) That being said, it does not apply to Walter, the bastard, who is effectively the villain of the story, alongside his truly awful daughter Joan. Seriously, fuck these people. Walter also acts as a metaphore on top of a metaphore for the British Empire in its final days. The fact that he's the villain speaks for itself I guess. Starting the story prosperous, haughty, and controlling. Only to end it ruined and broken, wandering the streets and grounds of his bombed out empire wondering what the hell happened.

No matter how strong you are, how well entrenched, and how well connected, sometimes things just fall apart. The more you desperately hold on to what was and what could of been, the more likely you are to burn along with it.

As for the ambiguous ending, I'm actually ok with it. Suprising, because I usually hate that shit. Given that the narrative is merely an allegory for the British Empire anyway, an ending like this makes sense. It's as if Farrell is saying, the fate of these characters isn't the point, you pick the ending you want them to have, because ultimately it doesn't matter. The story is told.
]]> Black Wings Has My Angel 25489208
When Tim Sunblade escapes from prison, his sole possession is an infallible plan for the ultimate heist. Trouble is it’s a two-person job. So when he meets Virginia, a curiously well-spoken “ten-dollar tramp,” and discovers that the only thing she cares for is “drifts of money, lumps of it,” he knows he’s met his partner. What he doesn’t suspect is that this lavender-eyed angel might just prove to be his match.Ìę

Black Wings Has My Angel careens through a landscape of desperate passion and wild reversals. It is a journey you will never forget.]]> 209 Elliott Chaze 1590179161 Ryan 5 4.15 1953 Black Wings Has My Angel
author: Elliott Chaze
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1953
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/07
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves:
review:

]]> Waiting for the Fear 197522384
Adored in Turkey for his post-modern fiction and regarded internationally as one of Turkey’s greatest writers, Oğuz Atay remains largely untranslated into English. First published in 1975, Waiting for the Fear is Atay's only collection of short stories, a book that is routinely praised in Turkey, by, among others, the Nobel Prizewinner Orhan Pamuk, for having transformed the art of short fiction.

The eight stories that the book contains, all of them focused on characters living on the margins of society, are dramatic and even tragic, while also being shot through with irony and a humor. In the title story, a nameless young man, of a thoughtful and misanthropic turn of mind, returns to his home on the outskirts of a enormous nameless city to find waiting for him a letter in a foreign language of which he has no knowledge at all, and from this anomalous, if seemingly trivial, turn of events, one thing after another unfolds with with stark inevitablity. Another story nods to Gogol's "The Overcoat": its hero is a speechless beggar wandering around the back streets of Istanbul dressed in a woman’s fur coat who will end up stuck in a shop window like a manikin. Elsewhere, a professional story peddler lives in a hut beside a train station in a country that is at war--unless it isn't. He can't remember. What do such life and death realities matter, however, so long as there are stories to tell? Atays' stories are full of a vivid sense of life's absurdities while also being psychologically true to life; his characters, oddballs and losers all, are also utterly individual with distinctive voices of their own, now plainspoken, wistful, womanly, now sophisticated and acerbic, with a dangerous swagger. And if Atay is a brilliant examiner of the inner life, he is no less aware of the flawed social world in which his people struggle to make their way

Waiting for the Fear is a book that, page by beguiling page, holds the reader's attention from beginning to end, the rare collection of short stories that not only reflects a unique authorial vision but reads like a pageturner. Ralph Hubbell's new translation will introduce readers of English to a still insufficiently known giant of modern Turkish and world literature.]]> 240 Oğuz Atay 1681377969 Ryan 0 to-read 3.89 1973 Waiting for the Fear
author: Oğuz Atay
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1973
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Nightmare Alley 7140096 Nightmare Alley begins with an extraordinary description of a carnival-show geek—alcoholic and abject and the object of the voyeuristic crowd’s gleeful disgust and derision—going about his work at a county fair. Young Stan Carlisle is working as a carny, and he wonders how a man could fall so low. There’s no way in hell, he vows, that anything like that will ever happen to him.

And since Stan is clever and ambitious and not without a useful streak of ruthlessness, soon enough he’s going places. Onstage he plays the mentalist with a cute assistant (before long his harried wife), then he graduates to full-blown spiritualist, catering to the needs of the rich and gullible in their well-upholstered homes. It looks like the world is Stan’s for the taking. At least for now.]]> 275 William Lindsay Gresham 1590173481 Ryan 5 favorites 3.87 1946 Nightmare Alley
author: William Lindsay Gresham
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1946
rating: 5
read at: 2023/04/20
date added: 2024/09/25
shelves: favorites
review:
Really dark and weird (in a good way). A brilliant depiction of Stan's egotistical rise as a spook show religious leader and subsequent fall into madness and worse. Loved this book, and the movie is fantastic as well.
]]> <![CDATA[Illborn (The Illborn Saga, #1)]]> 57480478
Over eight hundred years later, in a medieval world which is threatened by war and religious persecution, four young men and women begin to develop supernatural abilities. These forbidden and secret powers will shatter the lives that they have known, and will force each of them to confront the mystery of the ethereal Gate which haunts their dreams. What does the dream mean, and how is it connected to their burgeoning abilities?

As they experience conflict, love, lust and betrayal, in lands which are being overtaken by war, they must try to stay ahead of and to survive the sinister forces which are now pursuing them. For they are being hunted


ILLBORN is Daniel T. Jackson's powerful and gritty debut novel, and is the thrilling opening chapter in the epic fantasy story of The Illborn Saga.]]> 713 Daniel T. Jackson 1800468962 Ryan 0 to-read 4.12 2021 Illborn (The Illborn Saga, #1)
author: Daniel T. Jackson
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Thousand Names (The Shadow Campaigns, #1)]]> 15810910
Captain Marcus d’Ivoire, commander of one of the Vordanai empire’s colonial garrisons, was resigned to serving out his days in a sleepy, remote outpost. But that was before a rebellion upended his life. And once the powder smoke settled, he was left in charge of a demoralized force clinging tenuously to a small fortress at the edge of the desert.

To flee from her past, Winter Ihernglass masqueraded as a man and enlisted as a ranker in the Vordanai Colonials, hoping only to avoid notice. But when chance sees her promoted to command, she must win the hearts of her men and lead them into battle against impossible odds.

The fates of both these soldiers and all the men they lead depend on the newly arrived Colonel Janus bet Vhalnich, who has been sent by the ailing king to restore order. His military genius seems to know no bounds, and under his command, Marcus and Winter can feel the tide turning. But their allegiance will be tested as they begin to suspect that the enigmatic Janus’s ambitions extend beyond the battlefield and into the realm of the supernatural—a realm with the power to ignite a meteoric rise, reshape the known world, and change the lives of everyone in its path.]]> 513 Django Wexler 0451465105 Ryan 0 to-read 4.03 2013 The Thousand Names (The Shadow Campaigns, #1)
author: Django Wexler
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Down Below 31171199 A stunning work of memoir and an unforgettable depiction of the brilliance and madness by one of Surrealism's most compelling figures

In 1937 Leonora Carrington—later to become one of the twentieth century’s great painters of the weird, the alarming, and the wild—was a nineteen-year-old art student in London, beautiful and unapologetically rebellious. At a dinner party, she met the artist Max Ernst. The two fell in love and soon departed to live and paint together in a farmhouse in Provence.

In 1940, the invading German army arrested Ernst and sent him to a concentration camp. Carrington suffered a psychotic break. She wept for hours. Her stomach became “the mirror of the earth”—of all worlds in a hostile universe—and she tried to purify the evil by compulsively vomiting. As the Germans neared the south of France, a friend persuaded Carrington to flee to Spain. Facing the approach “of robots, of thoughtless, fleshless beings,” she packed a suitcase that bore on a brass plate the word Revelation.

This was only the beginning of a journey into madness that was to end with Carrington confined in a mental institution, overwhelmed not only by her own terrible imaginings but by her doctor’s sadistic course of treatment. In Down Below she describes her ordeal—in which the agonizing and the marvelous were equally combined—with a startling, almost impersonal precision and without a trace of self-pity. Like Daniel Paul Schreber’s Memoirs of My Nervous Illness, Down Below brings the hallucinatory logic of madness home.]]> 112 Leonora Carrington 1681370603 Ryan 0 to-read 3.77 1945 Down Below
author: Leonora Carrington
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1945
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Marshlands 53248464 A slim but powerful work of metafiction by a Nobel Prize-winning French writer and intellectual.

AndrĂ© Gide is the inventor of modern metafiction and of autofiction, and his short novel Marshlands shows him handling both forms with a deft and delightful touch. The protagonist of Marshlands is a writer who is writing “Marshlands,” which is about a reclusive character who lives all alone in a stone tower. The narrator, by contrast, is anything but a recluse: He is an indefatigable social butterfly, flitting about the Paris literary world and always talking about, what else, the wonderful book he is writing—Marshlands. He tells his friends about the book, and they tell him what they think, which is not exactly flattering, and of course those responses become part of the book in the reader’s hand. Marshlands is both a poised satire of literary pretension and a superb literary invention, and Damion Searls’s new translation of this early masterwork by one of the key figures of twentieth-century literature brings out all the sparkle of the original.]]> 144 AndrĂ© Gide 1681374722 Ryan 0 to-read 3.79 1895 Marshlands
author: André Gide
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1895
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Liar (New York Review Books Classics)]]> 79273890
One of the greatest works of modern Scandinavian fiction, The Liar tells the story of Johannes Lye, a teacher and parish clerk on tiny Sand Island off the coast of Denmark, a place that in winter is entirely cut off from the world at large by ice. It is winter when the book begins, and for years now Johannes has lived alone, even as he nurses a secret passion for Annemari, a former pupil. Annemari is engaged to a local man, Olaf, who has left the island but is due to return come spring. She is also being courted by a young engineer from the mainland. Such are the chief players in a compact drama, recorded in Johannes’s ironic, self-lacerating, and anything but reliable diary.

Martin A. Hansen’s novel beautifully evokes the stark landscape of Sand Island and the immemorial circuit of the seasons as well as the mysterious passage of time in the human heart, all the while proceeding to a supremely suspenseful conclusion.]]> 226 Martin A. Hansen 1681377187 Ryan 0 to-read 3.53 1950 The Liar (New York Review Books Classics)
author: Martin A. Hansen
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.53
book published: 1950
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Samskara: A Rite for a Dead Man (New York Review Books Classics)]]> 29496322 Ìę
Praneshacharyah finds himself unable to provide the answer, though an answer is urgently needed since as he wonders and the villagers wait and the body festers, more and more people are falling sick and dying. But when Praneshacharyah goes to the temple to seek a sign from God, he discovers something else entirely—unless that something else is also God.
Ìę
Samskara is a tale of existential suspense, a life-and-death encounter between the sacred and the profane, the pure and the impure, the ascetic and the erotic.]]> 176 U.R. Ananthamurthy 1590179129 Ryan 0 to-read 3.76 1965 Samskara: A Rite for a Dead Man (New York Review Books Classics)
author: U.R. Ananthamurthy
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1965
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Stinger 11556 538 Robert McCammon 0671737767 Ryan 0 to-read 3.86 1988 Stinger
author: Robert McCammon
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1988
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Godfather (The Godfather #1)]]> 51876297 50th ANNIVERSARY EDITION—WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA

Mario Puzo’s classic saga of an American crime familyÌęthat became a global phenomenon—nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’sÌęThe Great American Read.

With its brilliant and brutal portrayal of the Corleone family, The Godfather burned its way into our national consciousness. This unforgettable saga of crime and corruption, passion and loyalty continues to stand the test of time, as the definitive novel of the Mafia underworld.

A #1ÌęNew York Times bestseller in 1969, Mario Puzo’s epic was turned into the incomparable film of the same name, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. It is the original classic that has been often imitated, but never matched. A tale of family and society, law and order, obedience and rebellion, it reveals the dark passions of human nature played out against a backdrop of the American dream.

With a Note from Anthony Puzo and an Afterword by Robert J. Thompson]]> 596 Mario Puzo 1101043113 Ryan 0 to-read 4.64 1969 The Godfather (The Godfather #1)
author: Mario Puzo
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.64
book published: 1969
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Gods of the Wyrdwood (Forsaken, #1)]]> 62874007 In a world locked in eternal winter and haunted by prophecy, a young boy trains for years to become the Chosen One, only for another to rise and claim his place in the start of an unmissable epic from a rising star in fantasy.Ìę

The northlands of Crua are locked in eternal winter, but prophecy tells of the chosen child – who will rule in the name of their God, and take warmth back from the South. Cahal du Nahere was raised to be this person: the Cowl-Rai, the saviour. Taken from his parents and prepared for his destiny.

But his time never came

When he was fifteen he ceased to matter. Another Cowl-Rai had risen, another chosen one, raised in the name of a different God. The years of vicious physical and mental training he had endured, the sacrifice, all for nothing. He became nothing.

Twenty years later, and Cahal lives a life of secrecy on the edges of Crua’s giant forests – hiding what he is, running from what he can do. But when he is forced to reveal his true nature, he sets off a sequence of events that will reveal secrets that will shake the bedrock of his entire world, and expose lies that have persisted for generations.]]> 640 R.J. Barker 0316401587 Ryan 0 to-read 3.99 2023 Gods of the Wyrdwood (Forsaken, #1)
author: R.J. Barker
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Siege of Krishnapur (Empire Trilogy, #2)]]> 256280 The Siege of Krishnapur, widely considered one of the finest British novels of the last fifty years.

Farrell's story is set in an isolated Victorian outpost on the subcontinent. Rumors of strife filter in from afar, and yet the members of the colonial community remain confident of their military and, above all, moral superiority. But when they find themselves under actual siege, the true character of their dominion--at once brutal, blundering, and wistful--is soon revealed.

The Siege of Krishnapur is a companion to Troubles, about the Easter 1916 rebellion in Ireland, and The Singapore Grip, which takes place just before World War II, as the sun begins to set upon the British Empire. Together these three novels offer an unequaled picture of the follies of empire.

Winner of the Booker Prize.]]> 344 J.G. Farrell 159017092X Ryan 4 2024-tentative-tbr
That said however, it does seem as if you aren't really supposed to like anyone or take any side. Simply observe them. Most of the characters in this book are shitty vain assholes and I hate them. They justify the manipulation and oppression of the natives by claiming to bring science, Christian morals, and civilization. They spend so much time "civilizing" all over the goddamned place that they fail to realize, or more accurately, fail to care, that they've caused irreparable harm.

The truly ironic thing, which the book captures very well, is that generally the "reason" they tout so highly is more often than not total nonsense. They simply espouse the rhetoric of "reason" and "civilization" in order to justify their shitty feelings. Narratively, it works perfectly. They're in a mess of their own making essentially and their behavior feels damned realistic given the kind of people they are, rich 19th century upper class British people.

There are a few characters that actually do speak reasonably, though. They have good ideas and justify themselves quite well. But, just like often happens in real life, people find them tiresome, unchristian, ridiculous, or even dismiss them entirely for even daring to think something that isn't approved by some kind of "authority". The book seemed at one point to go out of its way to show that it doesn't matter what the truth is, or what real reason looks and sounds like, it matters how you say shit. It's truly incredible what one can accomplish if they're good at talking. Especially if people already want to believe certain things. One character even dies because he refuses to see what's directly in front of him, stubbornly adhering to his views even as they are disproven before his eyes, even though the alternative would save his life. He ultimately chose death over changing his mind. Disturbingly realistic, I think we all know someone like that.

Despite all of that, the book knows that these people suck and near the end we get to see some of the philosophical implications of these ways of thinking. We see one character become irrevocably scarred by the events of the book. Spending the rest of his life trying to make sense of this devastating upending of his worldview. Without this I think the book would have a much weaker impact.

While I did not personally enjoy this book as much as I did the first one, I think Troubles just caters more to my tastes. I struggled to get through like 70% of it because of how distasteful everyone was. I found it difficult to get over just how much I did not care about these people. I can certainly see, near the end especially, why it tends to get praise. Worth the read but didn't live up to my expectations, especially after the first book.]]> 3.93 1973 The Siege of Krishnapur (Empire Trilogy, #2)
author: J.G. Farrell
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1973
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/08
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves: 2024-tentative-tbr
review:
The beauty of this book is in the details and how disturbingly real the characters seem. Their personalities are generally awful but damn true to life. The horror of the Indian Mutiny is clear and evident throughout, however the novel shines in character work and social psychology.

That said however, it does seem as if you aren't really supposed to like anyone or take any side. Simply observe them. Most of the characters in this book are shitty vain assholes and I hate them. They justify the manipulation and oppression of the natives by claiming to bring science, Christian morals, and civilization. They spend so much time "civilizing" all over the goddamned place that they fail to realize, or more accurately, fail to care, that they've caused irreparable harm.

The truly ironic thing, which the book captures very well, is that generally the "reason" they tout so highly is more often than not total nonsense. They simply espouse the rhetoric of "reason" and "civilization" in order to justify their shitty feelings. Narratively, it works perfectly. They're in a mess of their own making essentially and their behavior feels damned realistic given the kind of people they are, rich 19th century upper class British people.

There are a few characters that actually do speak reasonably, though. They have good ideas and justify themselves quite well. But, just like often happens in real life, people find them tiresome, unchristian, ridiculous, or even dismiss them entirely for even daring to think something that isn't approved by some kind of "authority". The book seemed at one point to go out of its way to show that it doesn't matter what the truth is, or what real reason looks and sounds like, it matters how you say shit. It's truly incredible what one can accomplish if they're good at talking. Especially if people already want to believe certain things. One character even dies because he refuses to see what's directly in front of him, stubbornly adhering to his views even as they are disproven before his eyes, even though the alternative would save his life. He ultimately chose death over changing his mind. Disturbingly realistic, I think we all know someone like that.

Despite all of that, the book knows that these people suck and near the end we get to see some of the philosophical implications of these ways of thinking. We see one character become irrevocably scarred by the events of the book. Spending the rest of his life trying to make sense of this devastating upending of his worldview. Without this I think the book would have a much weaker impact.

While I did not personally enjoy this book as much as I did the first one, I think Troubles just caters more to my tastes. I struggled to get through like 70% of it because of how distasteful everyone was. I found it difficult to get over just how much I did not care about these people. I can certainly see, near the end especially, why it tends to get praise. Worth the read but didn't live up to my expectations, especially after the first book.
]]> <![CDATA[The Winter King (The Warlord Chronicles, #1)]]> 68520 431 Bernard Cornwell Ryan 0 to-read 4.27 1994 The Winter King (The Warlord Chronicles, #1)
author: Bernard Cornwell
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1994
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Tainted Cup (Shadow of the Leviathan #1)]]> 200972804
Assigned to investigate is Ana Dolabra, a detective whose reputation for brilliance is matched only by her eccentricities. Rumor has it that she wears a blindfold at all times, and that she can solve impossible cases without even stepping outside the walls of her home.

At her side is her new assistant, Dinios Kol, magically altered in ways that make him the perfect aide to Ana’s brilliance. Din is at turns scandalized, perplexed, and utterly infuriated by his new superior—but as the case unfolds and he watches Ana’s mind leap from one startling deduction to the next, he must admit that she is, indeed, the Empire’s greatest detective.

As the two close in on a mastermind and uncover a scheme that threatens the Empire itself, Din realizes he’s barely begun to assemble the puzzle that is Ana Dolabra—and wonders how long he’ll be able to keep his own secrets safe from her piercing intellect.]]> 406 Robert Jackson Bennett 1399725351 Ryan 0 to-read 4.35 2024 The Tainted Cup (Shadow of the Leviathan #1)
author: Robert Jackson Bennett
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI]]> 204927599 From the author of Sapiens comes the groundbreaking story of how information networks have made, and unmade, our world.

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

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

Information is not the raw material of truth; neither is it a mere weapon. Nexus explores the hopeful middle ground between these extremes, and in doing so, rediscovers our shared humanity.]]> 528 Yuval Noah Harari 059373422X Ryan 0 to-read 4.14 2024 Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI
author: Yuval Noah Harari
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Black Rain 15893420
lbuse tempers the horror of his subject with the gentle humor for which he is famous. His sensitivity to the complex web of emotions in a traditional community torn asunder by this historical event has made Black Rain one of the most acclaimed treatments of the Hiroshima story.]]> 300 Masuji Ibuse 1568364172 Ryan 4
"I hated war. Who cared, after all which side won? The only important thing was to end it all as soon as possible: rather an unjust peace, than a 'just' war!"]]> 3.94 1965 Black Rain
author: Masuji Ibuse
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1965
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/13
date added: 2024/09/13
shelves:
review:
This is the best account, fictionalized or othwerwise, of the Hiroshima bombing Ive read so far. Told over a series of diary entries mostly, just one of these scenarios is so horrific that it would haunt a person the rest of their lives, if seen in isolation. However, in the context of several hundred thousand of them all at once, and in combination with the shock and pain of your own suffering, one becomes numb to the horror quite quickly. Death and destruction on such a massive scale is impossible to imagine and impossible to fully comprehend even for those whom experienced it first hand.

"I hated war. Who cared, after all which side won? The only important thing was to end it all as soon as possible: rather an unjust peace, than a 'just' war!"
]]> <![CDATA[The Pillars of the Earth (Kingsbridge, #1)]]> 5043 Ken Follett is known worldwide as the master of split-second suspense, but his most beloved and bestselling book tells the magnificent tale of a twelfth-century monk driven to do the seemingly impossible: build the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has ever known.

Everything readers expect from Follett is here: intrigue, fast-paced action, and passionate romance. But what makes The Pillars of the Earth extraordinary is the time the twelfth century; the place feudal England; and the subject the building of a glorious cathedral. Follett has re-created the crude, flamboyant England of the Middle Ages in every detail. The vast forests, the walled towns, the castles, and the monasteries become a familiar landscape.

Against this richly imagined and intricately interwoven backdrop, filled with the ravages of war and the rhythms of daily life, the master storyteller draws the reader irresistibly into the intertwined lives of his characters into their dreams, their labors, and their loves: Tom, the master builder; Aliena, the ravishingly beautiful noblewoman; Philip, the prior of Kingsbridge; Jack, the artist in stone; and Ellen, the woman of the forest who casts a terrifying curse. From humble stonemason to imperious monarch, each character is brought vividly to life.

The building of the cathedral, with the almost eerie artistry of the unschooled stonemasons, is the center of the drama. Around the site of the construction, Follett weaves a story of betrayal, revenge, and love, which begins with the public hanging of an innocent man and ends with the humiliation of a king.

For the TV tie-in edition with the same ISBN go to this Alternate Cover Edition
]]> 976 Ken Follett 045122213X Ryan 0 to-read 4.34 1989 The Pillars of the Earth (Kingsbridge, #1)
author: Ken Follett
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1989
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Berlin Alexanderplatz 35886439 The inspiration for Rainer Werner Fassbinder's epic film and that The Guardian named one of the "Top 100 Books of All Time," Berlin Alexanderplatz is considered one of the most important works of the Weimar Republic and twentieth century literature.

Franz Biberkopf, pimp and petty thief, has just finished serving a term in prison for murdering his girlfriend. He's on his own in Weimar Berlin with its lousy economy and frontier morality, but Franz is determined to turn over new leaf, get ahead, make an honest man of himself, and so on and so forth. He hawks papers, chases girls, needs and bleeds money, and gets mixed up in spite of himself in various criminal and political schemes. This is only the beginning of our modern everyman's multiplying misfortunes.

Berlin, Alexanderplatz is one of great twentieth-century novels. Taking off from the work of Dos Passos and Joyce, Doblin depicts modern life in all its shocking violence, corruption, splendor, and horror. Michael Hofmann, celebrated for his translations of Joseph Roth and Franz Kafka, has prepared a new version, the first in over 75 years, in which Doblin's sublime and scurrilous masterpiece comes alive in English as never before.]]> 458 Alfred Döblin 1681371995 Ryan 0 to-read 4.06 1929 Berlin Alexanderplatz
author: Alfred Döblin
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1929
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War]]> 10900047 A Library Journal Top Ten Best Books of 2011
A Boston Globe Best Nonfiction Book of 2011

Bestselling author Tony Horwitz tells the electrifying tale of the daring insurrection that put America on the path to bloody war

Plotted in secret, launched in the dark, John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry was a pivotal moment in U.S. history. But few Americans know the true story of the men and women who launched a desperate strike at the slaveholding South. Now, Midnight Rising portrays Brown's uprising in vivid color, revealing a country on the brink of explosive conflict.

Brown, the descendant of New England Puritans, saw slavery as a sin against America's founding principles. Unlike most abolitionists, he was willing to take up arms, and in 1859 he prepared for battle at a hideout in Maryland, joined by his teenage daughter, three of his sons, and a guerrilla band that included former slaves and a dashing spy. On October 17, the raiders seized Harpers Ferry, stunning the nation and prompting a counterattack led by Robert E. Lee. After Brown's capture, his defiant eloquence galvanized the North and appalled the South, which considered Brown a terrorist. The raid also helped elect Abraham Lincoln, who later began to fulfill Brown's dream with the Emancipation Proclamation, a measure he called "a John Brown raid, on a gigantic scale."

Tony Horwitz's riveting book travels antebellum America to deliver both a taut historical drama and a telling portrait of a nation divided―a time that still resonates in ours.]]> 384 Tony Horwitz 080509153X Ryan 0 to-read 3.98 2011 Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War
author: Tony Horwitz
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Farilane (The Rise and Fall, #2)]]> 43087664
Some truths are dangerous, certain secrets best concealed, and one story never should have been written at all.

Being an unwanted twin in the imperial line of succession, Farilane becomes a scholar, an adventurer, and—in a time when reading is forbidden—a hunter of books. Her singular obsession is finding the mythical Book of Brin, a tome not just lost but intentionally buried. Although she is respected and beloved by the Teshlor Knights, not even their legendary skills can protect her, for what she finds is more dangerous than what she sought.

From the three-time New York Times best-selling author Michael J. Sullivan, Farilane is the second novel in The Rise and Fall trilogy. This latest set of stories sits snugly between the Legends of the First Empire series and the Riyria books (Revelations and Chronicles). With this tale, Michael continues his tradition of unlikely heroes who must rise to the call when history knocks, demanding to be let in. This series will conclude in the summer of 2023 with the release of Esrahaddon, the final piece in a narrative that began in 2008 and contains nineteen full-length novels spread across four series.

What people are saying about the book

"Another Character that I Fell in Love With"

"Such a great story from beginning to end! I couldn't stop listening! Ten stars!"

"What an incredible book!"

"In my opinion, it’s the best book he’s written so far."

"SUPERB!"

"I found myself laughing so hard and so much and I want to be her!!"

"Sullivan does a masterful job of weaving in elements and creating a story arch that is worth reading and then reading again to find what you've missed."

"WOW!"

"There are no words to prepare you for what comes at the end."

"As a huge fan of Michael J Sullivan’s works, this book did not disappoint."]]> 440 Michael J. Sullivan 1943363277 Ryan 5 2024-tentative-tbr
Fantastic. I'm devestated. I loved it. But also fuck it and fuck you Sullivan. 5 stars.

"Understanding changes the reality of a thing—at least insofar as we perceive it—even if that thing itself doesn’t change.”]]> 4.56 2022 Farilane (The Rise and Fall, #2)
author: Michael J. Sullivan
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/09
date added: 2024/09/09
shelves: 2024-tentative-tbr
review:
“Life is a gamble, isn’t it?” Kile told her. “The trick is to wager wisely, to balance risk with reward. Isn’t that right?”

Fantastic. I'm devestated. I loved it. But also fuck it and fuck you Sullivan. 5 stars.

"Understanding changes the reality of a thing—at least insofar as we perceive it—even if that thing itself doesn’t change.”
]]> Patient Zero (Joe Ledger, #1) 3993839 421 Jonathan Maberry 0312382855 Ryan 0 to-read 4.00 2009 Patient Zero (Joe Ledger, #1)
author: Jonathan Maberry
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think]]> 28369102 Moral Politics was first published two decades ago, it redefined how Americans think and talk about politics through the lens of cognitive political psychology. Today, George Lakoff’s classic text has become all the more relevant, as liberals and conservatives have come to hold even more vigorously opposed views of the world, with the underlying assumptions of their respective worldviews at the level of basic morality. Even more so than when Lakoff wrote, liberals and conservatives simply have very different, deeply held beliefs about what is right and wrong.

Lakoff reveals radically different but remarkably consistent conceptions of morality on both the left and right. Moral worldviews, like most deep ways of understanding the world, are unconscious—part of our “hard-wired” brain circuitry. When confronted with facts that don’t fit our moral worldview, our brains work automatically and unconsciously to ignore or reject these facts, and it takes extraordinary openness and awareness of this phenomenon to pay critical attention to the vast number of facts we are presented with each day. For this new edition, Lakoff has added a new preface and afterword, extending his observations to major ideological conflicts since the book's original publication, from the Affordable Care Act to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the recent financial crisis, and the effects of global warming. One might have hoped such massive changes would bring people together, but the reverse has actually happened; the divide between liberals and conservatives has become stronger and more virulent.

To have any hope of bringing mutual respect to the current social and political divide, we need to clearly understand the problem and make it part of our contemporary public discourse. Moral Politics offers a much-needed wake-up call to both the left and the right.
Ìę]]> 512 George Lakoff 022641129X Ryan 0 to-read 4.30 1996 Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think
author: George Lakoff
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Thirty Years War 287542 520 C.V. Wedgwood 1590171462 Ryan 0 to-read 4.17 1938 The Thirty Years War
author: C.V. Wedgwood
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1938
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Nolyn (The Rise and Fall, #1) 34807427
After more than five hundred years of exile, the heir to the empyre is wary about his sudden reinstatement to active duty on the Goblin War’s front lines. His assignment to rescue an outpost leads to a dead-end canyon deep inside enemy territory, and his suspicion turns to dread when he discovers the stronghold doesn't exist. But whoever went to the trouble of planning his death to look like a casualty of war didn't know he would be assigned to the Seventh Sikaria Auxiliary Squadron. In the depths of an unforgiving jungle, a legend is about to be born, and the world of Elan will never be the same.

From Michael J. Sullivan, the three-time New York Times, two-time USA Today, and three-time Washington Post bestselling author, a new adventure begins with the first book in The Rise and Fall trilogy. Although this series is set in the same world as the Riyria novels and the Legends of the First Empire books, no prior knowledge of the other works is required to enjoy this tale to its fullest.]]> 480 Michael J. Sullivan 1944145648 Ryan 5 2024-tentative-tbr
"'She told me that the feelings we sometimes have is Elan telling us what we need to know.'

'You mean like how you get a cold shiver when someone is aiming an arrow at your back?' Myth asked.

'Well, yeah, I guess so, but it can be more complicated than that. It's a way of knowing things with your heart that you couldn't possibly work out with your head. Sometimes you get it wrong, just like you make any other mistake, but that doesn't make it false. Suri taught me to trust that voice even when it's painful.'"]]> 4.15 2021 Nolyn (The Rise and Fall, #1)
author: Michael J. Sullivan
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/29
date added: 2024/08/29
shelves: 2024-tentative-tbr
review:
Goddamn I missed this. The world of Elan is comforting to me at this point, and all of these novels are so fun and readable. Even when shits kinda fucked it still feels right. Dont ask me. I dont know, it makes no sense. I just know that I blew through this book way faster than expected and I am eager to get to the next one.

"'She told me that the feelings we sometimes have is Elan telling us what we need to know.'

'You mean like how you get a cold shiver when someone is aiming an arrow at your back?' Myth asked.

'Well, yeah, I guess so, but it can be more complicated than that. It's a way of knowing things with your heart that you couldn't possibly work out with your head. Sometimes you get it wrong, just like you make any other mistake, but that doesn't make it false. Suri taught me to trust that voice even when it's painful.'"
]]> The Enchiridion of Epictetus 16255653 26 Epictetus 1617207985 Ryan 5 4.22 125 The Enchiridion of Epictetus
author: Epictetus
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.22
book published: 125
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/28
date added: 2024/08/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Bhagavad Gita: A New Translation]]> 9142013 The Bhagavad Gita is universally acknowledged as one of the world's literary and spiritual masterpieces. It is the core text of the Hindu tradition and has been treasured by American writers from Emerson and Thoreau to T. S. Eliot, who called it the greatest philosophical poem after the "Divine Comedy." There have been more than two hundred English translations of the Gita, including many competent literal versions, but not one of them is a superlative literary text in its own right.
Now all that has changed. Stephen Mitchell's "Bhagavad Gita" sings with the clarity, the vigor, and the intensity of the original Sanskrit. It will, as William Arrowsmith said of Mitchell's translation of "The Sonnets to Orpheus," "instantly make every other rendering obsolete." "From the Hardcover edition."]]> 224 Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa 0307419894 Ryan 5
"Your commitment is to action alone, not to the fruits of action. That must never be: you must not be motivated by the fruits of your actions. Yet you must not become attached to inaction. Perform your duties as a warrior and cast off attachment, Arjuna, indifferent alike whether you gain or gain not."]]> 4.08 -400 Bhagavad Gita: A New Translation
author: Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.08
book published: -400
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/28
date added: 2024/08/28
shelves:
review:
Beautifully written philosophy of life, depicted in a wonderfully dramatic and over the top way.

"Your commitment is to action alone, not to the fruits of action. That must never be: you must not be motivated by the fruits of your actions. Yet you must not become attached to inaction. Perform your duties as a warrior and cast off attachment, Arjuna, indifferent alike whether you gain or gain not."
]]>