A helpful and/or enlightening book that combines two or more noteworthy strengths, e.g. presents the latest findings in a topical field and is written by a renowned expert but lacks a bit in style.ħ – Good. A helpful and/or enlightening book that has a substantial number of outstanding qualities without excelling across the board, e.g. A helpful and/or enlightening book that is extremely well rounded, has many strengths and no shortcomings worth mentioning.Ĩ – Very good. Often an instant classic and must-read for everyone.ĩ – Superb. A helpful and/or enlightening book that, in addition to meeting the highest standards in all pertinent aspects, stands out even among the best. Here's what the ratings mean:ġ0 – Brilliant. Books we rate below 5 won’t be summarized. Our rating helps you sort the titles on your reading list from solid (5) to brilliant (10). We rate each piece of content on a scale of 1–10 with regard to these two core criteria. Helpful – You’ll take-away practical advice that will help you get better at what you do. Whatever we select for our library has to excel in one or the other of these two core criteria:Įnlightening – You’ll learn things that will inform and improve your decisions. At getAbstract, we summarize books* that help people understand the world and make it better.
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She ended up moving to Washington state with her mother in 1978 where she would attend school. This lead to them living in a hippie commune outside of Iowa City for much of her early life. Her father dodged the Vietnam draft which sent the family underground for several years. That book, her first thriller, was actually written while she was pregnant with her daughter.Ĭain was born in February of 1972 in Iowa City, Iowa to Mary Cain and Larry Schmidt. The book was also named as a Barnes & Noble Developing Writer pick and a New York Times Book Review editor’s choice pick. It was heavily praised upon release as it was named as the 6th best book of 2008 by Stephen King. The first book in the Archie Sheridan & Gretchen Lowell series is called Heartsick. She is best known for the Archie Sheridan & Gretchen Lowell series of books and the Kick Lannigan series of books. Chelsea Cain is an American author out of Iowa. How on earth did all this happen? Will she ever remember? And what will happen when she does? Her new life, it turns out, comes complete with secrets, schemes, and intrigue. Suddenly Lexi is scrambling to catch her balance. That is, until an adorably disheveled architect drops the biggest bombshell of all. And who is this gorgeous husband-who also happens to be a multimillionaire? With her mind still stuck three years in reverse, Lexi greets this brave new world determined to be the person she.well, seems to be. Somehow Lexi went from a twenty-five-year-old working girl to a corporate big shot with a sleek new loft, a personal assistant, a carb-free diet, and a set of glamorous new friends. Having survived a car accident-in a Mercedes no less-Lexi has lost a big chunk of her memory, three years to be exact, and she’s about to find out just how much things have changed. When twenty-eight-year-old Lexi Smart wakes up in a London hospital, she’s in for a big surprise. With the same wicked humor and delicious charm that have won her millions of devoted fans, Sophie Kinsella, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Shopaholic & Baby, returns with an irresistible new novel and a fresh new heroine who finds herself in a life-changing and utterly hilarious predicament. But I liked him enough to feel sorry for him when massive amounts of excrement hit the industrial-sized fan. He should also be writing a rather detailed guide on "How to be a Heartbreak. He is narcissistic, egotistical, revengeful and too mouthy for his own bloody good. Fletcher can be a real gargantuan arsehole. Review 2: I'm typing this mere seconds after finishing the book, so this is fresh, if slightly livid stuff. I got about half way through and what I read was well written and the character development was good.I didn't rate the book because I don't want to give an unsatisfactory rating for something that is probably a good read to specific age groups. Maybe I'm older than the intended group of readers but I don't see the joy in going out every night (even in inclement weather) and spray painting graffiti. Review 1: I just couldn't get into this story. As the earlier works have fallen out of copyright into the public domain (including all of L. Other books were printed later, by different publishing houses. Most of the books in the "Famous Forty" were published by Reilly and Britton (later Reilly and Lee). Frank Baum, another nineteen by Ruth Plumly Thompson, and another seven books by various other authors comprise the "Famous Forty", which is considered the classic original series (though many inconsistencies make it difficult to call it canonical). The first fourteen books by the original author, L. Many other authors have put their own twists on Oz, notably Gregory Maguire's revisionist Wicked. Later authors wrote 26 other "official" books after Baum's death. Although most of the Oz books are strictly adventures, Baum-as well as many later Oz authors-styled themselves as "Royal Historians" of Oz. Frank Baum, who went on to write fourteen Oz books. The Oz books form a book series that begins with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and that relates the "history" of the Land of Oz. These works are then promoted with contributions of stories, plot synopses, and rules in the White Dwarf magazine and at the official Games Workshop website. The authors of these novels, graphic novels, and comics created original storylines and characters that are based on playable armies in the main Warhammer 40,000 game and its many spin-offs (such as Inquisitor or Epic). Some of Black Library's best known titles include the Gaunt's Ghosts and Eisenhorn series of novels by Dan Abnett and the Gotrek and Felix series by William King and Nathan Long. The Black Library is a division of Games Workshop (formerly a part of BL Publishing) which is devoted to publishing novels and audiobooks (and has previously produced art books, background books, and graphic novels) set in the Warhammer Fantasy Battle, Warhammer Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40,000 fictional universes. Taking into consideration the mean of observations made at divers times-rejecting the timid estimate of those who assigned to this object a length of two hundred feet, equally with the exaggerated opinions which set it down as a mile in width and three in length-we might fairly conclude that this mysterious being surpassed greatly all dimensions admitted by the ichthyologists of the day, if it existed at all. If it was a cetacean, it surpassed in size all those hitherto classified in science. The facts relating to this apparition (entered in various log-books) agreed in most respects as to the shape of the object or creature in question, the untiring rapidity of its movements, a surprising power of locomotion, and the peculiar life with which it seemed endowed. Merchants, common sailors, captains of vessels, skippers, both of Europe and America, naval officers of all countries, and the governments of several states on the two continents, were deeply interested in the matter.įor some time past, vessels had been met by "an enormous thing," a long object, spindle-shaped, occasionally phosphorescent, and infinitely larger and more rapid in its movements than a whale. Not to mention rumors which agitated the maritime population, and excited the public mind, even in the interior of continents, seafaring men were particularly excited. HE year 1866 was signalized by a remarkable incident, a mysterious and inexplicable phenomenon, which doubtless no one has yet forgotten. Blue flashing strobes lit up the facade of the house. The winding driveway of Gloria Maxfield’s Carmel home was full of police cars. So cooperation was very much off the table. Also, it was one in the morning, and Mac hadn’t had coffee in eight and a half hours, and he was feeling it. It was all very well for Val to go on about fostering a spirit of cooperation blah blah blah, but Mac had been after Dean Maxfield for months now, and no local cop was going to fuck it up for him. And Mac has to decide how far he’s willing to go to keep Henry by his side.Īn Excerpt from the Two Gentlemen of Altona.Ĭhapter One Mac was first on the scene, if you didn’t count the local cops. But as the mob closes in, Henry has to make his escape. Holed up in a fishing cabin, they’re surprised to discover that their feelings run more than skin deep. When evidence surfaces of a mole in the FBI office, Mac and Henry are forced to go into hiding. But he’s got his own agenda, and it doesn’t involve testifying. As the sole witness to a mob hit, Henry’s a valuable asset to the FBI. though he wouldn’t mind getting a little closer to uptight, handsome Agent McGuinness. Unless killing isn’t really what Mac wants to do to him.Ĭon man Henry Page prefers to keep his distance from the law. Which is tough when Mac’s a breath away from killing the Shakespeare-quoting, ethically-challenged, egg-obsessed Henry himself. Not only is he on a new diet, but he’s also been tasked with keeping Henry Page-the world’s most irritating witness-alive. Special Agent Ryan “Mac” McGuinness is having a rough week. But then a newcomer, who identifies himself as the Witchfinder General, arrives. Rebecca West, fatherless and husbandless, chafes against the drudgery of her days, livened only occasionally by her infatuation with the handsome young clerk John Edes. And in Manningtree, a town depleted of men since the wars began, the hot terror of damnation burns in the hearts of women left to their own devices. Puritanical fervor has gripped the nation. “This is an intimate portrait of a clever if unworldly heroine who slides from amused observation of the ‘moribund carnival atmosphere’ in the household of a ‘possessed’ child to nervous uncertainty about the part in the proceedings played by her adored tutor to utter despair as a wagon carts her off to prison.” -Alida Becker, The New York Times Book ReviewĮngland, 1643. Wolf Hall meets The Favourite in this beguiling debut novel that brilliantly brings to life the residents of a small English town in the grip of the seventeenth-century witch trials and the young woman tasked with saving them all from themselves. In Lesser Evil, these flashbacks pack the biggest emotional punch as they detail the relationship between the future Imperial grand admiral and Thrass - a respected Mitth Syndic and “brother” to Thrawn, who was blamed for his death. Lesser Evil picks up right where Greater Good left off and continues this trilogy’s tradition of “memories” chapters exploring more of Thrawn’s backstory. The events of the Ascendancy trilogy occur around the same time as the Clone Wars in the core part of the Star Wars galaxy - known as Lesser Space among the Chiss. There is no Republic or Empire in this chaotic, sometimes lawless space, but there are unique alien species, mind-boggling and terrifying weapons of war and a swath of cultures each with their own views on military might and their spiritual place in the galaxy. Concluding Timothy Zahn’s latest (and likely last) Thrawn trilogy, Lesser Evil packs a political and emotional punch, seamlessly tying up the many threads cut loose in Chaos Risingand Greater Goodwhile also effortlessly connecting to the next phase of Thrawn’s story.Īnd in between all the machinations of the autocratic Chiss Ascendancy and its blue-skinned, red-eyed elite warriors chronicled in the pages of this latest trilogy is a deep exploration of a fascinating region of the galaxy known as the Chaos. Despite being one of the longest canon Star Wars books out there, Thrawn Ascendancy: Lesser Evilis both an epic and intimate page-turner. |