![]() ![]() But where Poe kept his most vicious blows relatively oblique, VanderMeer drives them deep-albeit in a corkscrewing way that is not less cruel and exquisite. “More than just a horror novel there’s something Poe-like in this tightening, increasingly paranoid focus. KAREN JOY FOWLER, BookPage, on Annihilation “Unsettling and un-put-down-able-like an old-fashioned adventure story, only weirder, beautifully written and not at all old-fashioned.” NISI SHAWL, The Seattle Times, on Annihilation STEPHEN KING, on The Southern Reach Trilogy COLSON WHITEHEAD, author of Nickel Boys “Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach Trilogy was an ever-creeping map of the apocalypse with Borne he continues his investigation into the malevolent grace of the world, and it’s a thorough marvel.” "For any adventurous fan of sci-fi, fantasy, and/or horror, this book offers not only a rewarding read but, like, a thing to possess." VanderMeer is doing that, here, narratively and poeticallyshowing the falsity of the separation and the deep, physical, real experience of the flesh. "VanderMeer is a master of literary science fiction, and this may be his best book yet." In this shattered landscape, VanderMeer explores urgent ideas about capitalism, greed, and natural destruction." "A Mobius strip of a novel, with each chapter containing worlds upon nested worlds, all of them dreamlike and dark. ![]() CHELSEA LEU, The New York Times Book Review " darkly transcendent novel filled with phantasmagoric visions, body horror and tortured beings traversing a blasted desert hellscape. ![]()
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![]() ![]() Abandon rates increase the newer a book is, and the lower the average rating. I also consider a model adjusting for covariates (author/average-rating/year), to see what books are most surprisingly often-abandoned given their pedigrees & rating etc. ![]() The Witches: Salem, 1692, Stacy Schiff.I fix that to see what more correct rankings look like.Ĭorrecting for both changes the top-5 ranking completely, from ( raw counts): There is also residual error from the winner’s curse where books with fewer ratings are more mis-estimated than popular books. This conflates popularity with probability of being abandoned: a popular but rarely-abandoned book may have more abandoned tags than a less popular but often-abandoned book. The default GoodReads tag interface presents only raw counts of tags, not counts divided by total ratings ( = reads). What books are hardest for a reader who starts them to finish, and most likely to be abandoned? I scrape a crowdsourced tag, abandoned, from the GoodReads book social network on to estimate conditional probability of being abandoned. ![]() ![]() ![]() Hell-or the closest thing to it-invades Little Heaven. The escape routes are gradually cut off as events spiral towards madness. Paranoia and distrust grips the settlement. Stirrings in the woods and over the treetops-the brooding shape of a monolith known as the Black Rock casts its terrible pall. ![]() Shortly after they arrive, things begin to turn ominous. An all-new epic tale of terror and redemption set in the hinterlands of midcentury New Mexico from the acclaimed author of The Troop -which Stephen King raved "scared the hell out of me and I couldn't put it down.old-school horror at its best." From electrifying horror author Nick Cutter comes a haunting new novel, reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian and Stephen King's It, in which a trio of mismatched mercenaries is hired by a young woman for a deceptively simple task: check in on her nephew, who may have been taken against his will to a remote New Mexico backwoods settlement called Little Heaven. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() His first step? To seek out the mentorship of Viktor Fleischmann, a Russian player. If the team is to survive, Mose knows he’ll need to bring the members closer together. And Zamir Hoxha is a recently arrived Albanian immigrant who is being bullied at school. Esther Toussaint is a self-driven overachiever with little time for the game. (He will wander off midcompetition and forfeit games.) Maggie Wang has problems with a creepy uncle at home. “Personality Disorder” Morales is a genius underachiever with truancy issues that frequently extend to chess. Mose is prone to concentration lapses, often the result of focusing too much on his opponent. Though united by a desire to prove themselves, Mose and his friends have difficulties that prevent them from giving their best. Mose is a keen amateur chess player and has organized a team to compete in tournaments run by the NYC Chess in the Schools program. This debut YA novel sees a Black chess enthusiast commit more fully to his high school teammates and-through their camaraderie-tackle problems away from the board.įourteen-year-old Moses “Mose” Middleton attends Q722, a public school in Jackson Heights, Queens. ![]() ![]() ![]() Set in a small coastal town in Oregon, Zumas builds a world strikingly similar to our own: Strangers still gawk in grocery stores, teenage boys are still mean to their girlfriends, and children are still bored in history class. Zumas’ novel opens with the tagline, “Five women, one question: What is a woman for?” For the rest of the novel, Zumas attempts to answer that question. ![]() I’m kept awake by the idea of a post-Roe world. I’m kept awake by news reports of at-home abortion deaths and black-and-white protest pictures and Instagram Story activism. From conversations with family members to the way I consume media, everything about my life seems to have flipped on its head overnight. ![]() As someone who has always known the protection of this ruling, the sudden loss of a right I’d been told since birth was constitutional is devastating. Since this overturn was leaked back in May, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what it means to live in a “post-Roe” world. 5 Top Smartphones for Music and Movies Right Now ![]() ![]() ![]() Her mother died giving birth to Emmi and ever since then, her Pa has not been the same. ![]() Saba is a scrawny young girl who is content to live in the dry, dust bowl of a place called Silverlake with her Father, her twin brother, Lugh and their younger sister Emmi. Saba's twin brother has been kidnapped and she embarks on a quest to find him, a quest which takes her far away from her home in Silverlake and forces her to face challenges on her own. ![]() To rescue her kidnapped twin brother from the grasp of a mad King, Saba travels across treacherous terrain, encounters all sorts of abominable characters, becomes enslaved and trained into a fighting machine, falls in love and ends up rescuing her people from a corrupt ruler. ![]() ![]() ![]() I kind of expected him to make bricks out of straw or something. I thought The Year of Living Biblically would be more about living primitively. It was a fast, entertaining read but the humor didn’t quite blow me away. I was entertained by his writing and I surprisingly learned a few things. ![]() That being said, the humor wasn’t that hilarious. The cover kind of says “See how ridiculous religion is? LOL.” While there is humor, it’s more self-deprecating instead of mocking. When I first saw it, it seemed like it was mocking religion. I read this book on a recommendation from a friend. The resulting spiritual journey is at once funny and profound, reverent and irreverent, personal and universal and will make you see history's most influential book with new eyes. ![]() But also to obey the hundreds of less publicized rules: to avoid wearing clothes made of mixed fibers to play a ten-string harp to stone adulterers. Jacobs decides to dive in headfirst and attempt to obey the Bible as literally as possible for one full year. Raised in a secular family but increasingly interested in the relevance of faith in our modern world, A.J. The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possibleįrom the bestselling author of "The Know-It-All" comes a fascinating and timely exploration of religion and the Bible. ![]() ![]() ![]() The only way for Rose to compete is for her to find magical ingredients of her own. ![]() ![]() well, the consequences are too ugly to think about.īut Lily isn’t playing fair-she’s using a magical ingredient to cheat. That’s why she challenges Aunt Lily to an international baking competition in Paris: If Rose wins, Lily agrees to return the Cookery Booke that she stole. Rosemary Bliss will do anything to get back her family’s magical Cookery Booke. Kathryn Littlewood’s culinary caper blends rich emotional flavor with truly enchanting wit, yielding one heaping portion of hilarious family adventure. A few Love Muffins and Cookies of Truth couldn’t cause too much trouble. So Rose and her siblings experiment with just a couple of recipes from the forbidden Cookery Booke. Soon boring, non-magical recipes feel like life before Aunt Lily-a lot less fun. ![]() “Aunt” Lily rides a motorcycle and also whips up exotic (but delicious) dishes for dinner. Rose and her siblings are supposed to keep the Cookery Booke locked away while their parents are out of town, but then a mysterious stranger shows up. It’s the Bliss Cookery Booke-an ancient, leather-bound volume of enchanted recipes like Singing Gingersnaps. ![]() ![]() ![]() Kisi ek dil ke kaaran, you saari duniya tyaag ke. Kaha chala ae jogi jeevan se tu bhaag ke, ![]() It might sound a bit preachy in places, but is one of the rare gems from Bollywood that are an ode to survival and perseveranc e. After translating several romantic songs and poetry, these words were the fresh perspective that one often needs in the middle of heartbreaks and other regrets. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. This song penned by Indeevar form the 1968 film Saraswatichandra (based on Govardhanram Madhavram Tripathi’s novel by the same name), is a testimony that Bollywood also believes in empirics of letting go of the past and moving forward with the world. Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Saraswatichandra (Gujarati Edition) at. The songs often urge you to never give up on love, but moving on from disappointments is also very important. Release: 1968 Original Lyrics Chhod De Saari Duniya Kaha chala ae jogi jeevan se tu bhaag ke, Kisi ek dil ke kaaran, you saari duniya tyaag ke. Bollywood-land promises love ballads for every kind of romantic emotion. ![]() ![]() Her best friend Margaret has a strong personality, too. I know there are some who find her a bit cloying, but I love that she has such a strong personality. ![]() Frazee's illustrations weren't final in the galley I read, but the rough sketches look to be spot-on, as always. This final book in the series is no exception. Pennypacker has a knack for capturing the day-to-day interactions and concerns of childhood without making them feel mundane or inconsequential-in fact, she's great at getting her readers to feel 100% on Clementine's side, no matter what. The Review: True to form, Clementine rocks her kid logic and her prone-to-light-mischief flair. That's a lot for a girl to handle during the last week of school! Meanwhile, her mother is close to giving birth to her new sibling she's giving her dad the silent treatment and her best friend Margaret is a bit wedding crazy. ![]() The Synopsis: Clementine is about to wrap up her year in third grade, a transition that she doesn't quite feel ready for. ![]() The Stats: Completely Clementine by Sara Pennypacker and illustrated by Marla Frazee, released Mafrom Disney-Hyperion This review marks the first in a series of posts on books I'm looking forward to in 2015. ![]() |