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441,240 | Dreamcatcher | 2,001 | 3.61 | 137,496 | 2,161 | null | null | Stephen King | From the Flap:Once upon a time, in the haunted city of Derry, four boys stood together and did a brave thing. Certainly a good thing, perhaps even a great thing. Something that changed them in ways they could never begin to understand.Twenty-five years later, the boys are now men with separate lives and separate troubles. But the ties endure. Each hunting season the fourso
From the Flap:Once upon a time, in the haunted city of Derry, four boys stood together and did a brave thing. Certainly a good thing, perhaps even a great thing. Something that changed them in ways they could never begin to understand.Twenty-five years later, the boys are now men with separate lives and separate troubles. But the ties endure. Each hunting season the foursome reunite in the woods of Maine. This year, a stranger stumbles into their camp, disoriented, mumbling something about lights in the sky. His incoherent ravings prove to be disturbingly prescient. Before long, these men will be plunged into a horrifying struggle with a creature from another world. Their only chance of survival is locked in their shared past - and in the Dreamcatcher.Stephen King's first full-length novel since Bag of Bones is, more than anything, a story of how men remember, and how they find their courage. Not since The Stand has King crafted a story of such astonishing range--and never before has he contended so frankly with the heart of darkness.
...more | 620 | 35,045 | 40,863 | 40,674 | 15,235 | 5,679 | -0.818655 | 0.536667 |
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10,315,853 | Duel in the Sun | 1,941 | 2.94 | 32 | 6 | null | null | Niven Busch | The arrival of Pearl Chavez at the Spanish Bit Ranch in the Brazos Country turned the ranch into a hotbed of conflict and unrest.It all began with Pearl taking reckless young Lewt McCanles as her lover and continued through an exciting bandit chase, a jail break and a dramatic trial.And always, lurking in the background, was the impending clash between Pearl's fight for se
The arrival of Pearl Chavez at the Spanish Bit Ranch in the Brazos Country turned the ranch into a hotbed of conflict and unrest.It all began with Pearl taking reckless young Lewt McCanles as her lover and continued through an exciting bandit chase, a jail break and a dramatic trial.And always, lurking in the background, was the impending clash between Pearl's fight for security and the snarled emotions of the three men who loved her.Step by step, tension increases and suspense mounts in this notable book with James M. Cain calls "the best novel of the Southwest I have any recollection of."
...more | 255 | 2 | 5 | 17 | 5 | 3 | -3.147553 | 0.313333 |
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234,225 | Dune | 1,965 | 4.21 | 604,185 | 15,960 | Dune | 1 | Frank Herbert | Set in the far future amidst a sprawling feudal interstellar empire where planetary dynasties are controlled by noble houses that owe an allegiance to the imperial House Corrino, Dune tells the story of young Paul Atreides (the heir apparent to Duke Leto Atreides and heir of House Atreides) as he and his family accept control of the desert planet Arrakis, the only source o
Set in the far future amidst a sprawling feudal interstellar empire where planetary dynasties are controlled by noble houses that owe an allegiance to the imperial House Corrino, Dune tells the story of young Paul Atreides (the heir apparent to Duke Leto Atreides and heir of House Atreides) as he and his family accept control of the desert planet Arrakis, the only source of the 'spice' melange, the most important and valuable substance in the cosmos. The story explores the complex, multi-layered interactions of politics, religion, ecology, technology, and human emotion as the forces of the empire confront each other for control of Arrakis.Published in 1965, it won the Hugo Award in 1966 and the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel. Dune is frequently cited as the world's best-selling sf novel.
...more | 604 | 304,982 | 177,009 | 82,817 | 25,067 | 14,310 | 1.266926 | 0.736667 |
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1,058,572 | Dying Young | 1,990 | 3.49 | 308 | 21 | null | null | Marti Leimbach | Victor, a 33-year-old intellectual, has decided to end his treatment for leukemia and live out the remainder of his life in a small coastal community. He falls in love with the girl he hired to care for him, and their romance is fraught with uncertainty. | 256 | 78 | 72 | 97 | 45 | 16 | -1.235771 | 0.496667 |
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6,969 | Emma | 1,815 | 3.99 | 559,394 | 14,024 | null | null | Jane Austen | Emma Woodhouse is one of Austen's most captivating and vivid characters. Beautiful, spoilt, vain and irrepressibly witty, Emma organizes the lives of the inhabitants of her sleepy little village and plays matchmaker with devastating effect. | 474 | 205,392 | 199,140 | 113,226 | 28,735 | 12,901 | 0.502213 | 0.663333 |
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1,294,495 | Emotional Arithmetic | 1,990 | 3.29 | 41 | 6 | null | null | Matt Cohen | Melanie is a mother and a lover, middle-aged, eccentric, courageous, and often hilariously unpredictable. She's also deeply scarred by her internment as a child in Drancy, a Nazi detention camp. Through the humanity and friendship of an English boy, Christopher Lewis, and her self-appointed protector, Jakob Bronski, Melanie managed to survive. Forty years later, Jakob, now
Melanie is a mother and a lover, middle-aged, eccentric, courageous, and often hilariously unpredictable. She's also deeply scarred by her internment as a child in Drancy, a Nazi detention camp. Through the humanity and friendship of an English boy, Christopher Lewis, and her self-appointed protector, Jakob Bronski, Melanie managed to survive. Forty years later, Jakob, now a frail, well-known Soviet dissident, and Christopher, a writer who's never forgotten the young Melanie, reenter her life. Memories of the past, coupled with her husband's infidelity, upset Melanie's precarious emotional stability, forcing her to confront the absurdity of trying to balance good and evil, guilt and love, duty and desire. With its finely drawn characters, rich humanity, and rare wit, Emotional Arithmetic is a novel of memory and hope, offering an unforgettable look at how the shadows of the past illuminate the present.
...more | 254 | 5 | 15 | 12 | 5 | 4 | -1.930964 | 0.43 |
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1,147,119 | The English Patient | 1,992 | 3.88 | 102,268 | 4,027 | null | null | Michael Ondaatje | Michael Ondaatje | 307 | 33,926 | 35,827 | 21,920 | 7,470 | 3,125 | 0.119856 | 0.626667 |
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4,743,823 | Escape | 1,939 | 3 | 5 | 3 | null | null | Ethel Vance | The time is the late '30s before World War II. Emmy Ritter, an actress who had fled to America, foolishly returns to Nazi Germany to sell her house. She is arrested and condemned to death, but because of an emergency appendectomy, she awaits the carrying-out of the sentence in the infirmary of a concentration camp. Her son Mark comes to find her and a dangerous plot is put
The time is the late '30s before World War II. Emmy Ritter, an actress who had fled to America, foolishly returns to Nazi Germany to sell her house. She is arrested and condemned to death, but because of an emergency appendectomy, she awaits the carrying-out of the sentence in the infirmary of a concentration camp. Her son Mark comes to find her and a dangerous plot is put into action: a plot to save Emmy Ritter.
...more | 428 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | -2.938995 | 0.333333 |
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2,325,777 | Fail-Safe | 1,962 | 4.15 | 4,910 | 150 | null | null | Eugene Burdick | A gripping novel about a world faced with nuclear disaster, first published in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis. As more countries develop nuclear capabilities, the issues raised in this compelling thriller are as timely today as ever. | 286 | 1,967 | 1,914 | 884 | 111 | 34 | 1.058368 | 0.716667 |
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12,787 | Falling Angel | 1,978 | 3.92 | 3,118 | 316 | null | null | William Hjortsberg | A spellbinding novel of murder, mystery, and the occult, Falling Angel pits a tough New York private eye against the most fearsome adversary a detective ever faced. For Harry Angel, a routine missing-persons case soon turns into a fiendish nightmare of voodoo and black magic, of dizzying peril and violent death. Many people feel that Falling Angel is the greatest American
A spellbinding novel of murder, mystery, and the occult, Falling Angel pits a tough New York private eye against the most fearsome adversary a detective ever faced. For Harry Angel, a routine missing-persons case soon turns into a fiendish nightmare of voodoo and black magic, of dizzying peril and violent death. Many people feel that Falling Angel is the greatest American supernatural horror novel of the 20th century.With a new foreword by Ridley Scott, an introduction by the late James Crumley, and a new afterword by the author and a bonus short story, plus a letter from Stephen King, the first time that the letter has ever been published in its complete form.The hardcover edition is limited to just 300 copies and is signed by William Hjortsberg. Bound in cloth with a dustjacket with the original Stanislaw Zagorski wraparound dustjacket printed against a black background with spot varnish.
...more | 302 | 988 | 1,200 | 696 | 170 | 64 | 0.258895 | 0.64 |
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27,055 | The Fan | 1,995 | 3.46 | 309 | 30 | null | null | Peter Abrahams | Baseball sensation Bobby Rayburn | 320 | 44 | 89 | 145 | 26 | 5 | -1.34005 | 0.486667 |
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10,799 | A Farewell to Arms | 1,929 | 3.8 | 232,567 | 8,254 | null | null | Ernest Hemingway | A Farewell to Arms is the unforgettable story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front and his passion for a beautiful English nurse. Set against the looming horrors of the battlefield - the weary, demoralized men marching in the rain during the German attack on Caporetto; the profound struggle between loyalty and desertion | 293 | 65,450 | 86,042 | 56,369 | 17,893 | 6,813 | -0.158221 | 0.6 |
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2,414,025 | Firefox | 1,977 | 3.92 | 5,202 | 70 | Mitchell Gant | 1 | Craig Thomas | THE MACHINE: The Soviet Mig-31, codenamed Firefox. A thought-controlled, terrifyingly lethal warplane capable of ruling the Western skies.THE MAN: His name is Gant, an obsessed renegade American pilot. His Control: Kenneth Aubrey of Great Britain. His plan: infiltrate the shadowy worldwide KGB network and make his way into the Soviet Union. His job: steal Firefox. | 288 | 1,606 | 1,948 | 1,330 | 267 | 51 | 0.258895 | 0.64 |
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3,236,244 | Fletch | 1,974 | 3.92 | 4,891 | 319 | Fletch | 1 | Gregory McDonald | Fletch He's an investigative reporter whose methods are a little unorthodox. Currently he's living on the beach with the strung-out trying to find to the source of the drugs they live for. Fletch He's taking more than a little flack from his editor. She doesn't appreciate his style. Or the expense account items he's racking up. Or his definition of the word "deadline," Or
Fletch He's an investigative reporter whose methods are a little unorthodox. Currently he's living on the beach with the strung-out trying to find to the source of the drugs they live for. Fletch He's taking more than a little flack from his editor. She doesn't appreciate his style. Or the expense account items he's racking up. Or his definition of the word "deadline," Or the divorce lawyers who keep showing up at the office. Fletch So when multimillionaire Alan Stanwyk offers Fletch the job of a lifetime, which could be worth a fortune, he's intrigued and decides to do a little investigation. What he discovers is that the proposition is anything but what it seems.
...more | 197 | 1,442 | 1,975 | 1,180 | 229 | 65 | 0.258895 | 0.64 |
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121,227 | Forlorn River | 1,927 | 3.91 | 222 | 12 | null | null | Zane Grey | Ben Ide is a failure in the horse trade because he loves horses more than money. A few bad deals have turned the world against him. His greatest adversary is his father, who thinks Ben good for nothing. | 340 | 66 | 84 | 58 | 14 | 0 | 0.224135 | 0.636667 |
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2,260,058 | Forrest Gump | 1,986 | 4.06 | 54,939 | 1,979 | Forrest Gump | 1 | Winston Groom | This is a series of simplified stories, designed as an introduction to literature. The series offers classics, best-sellers, film-titles and original stories. Each book has extensive exercises, a detailed introduction and information about the syllabus. They are published at six levels: level 1 - beginner (300 words); level 2 - elementary (500 words); level 3 - pre-interme
This is a series of simplified stories, designed as an introduction to literature. The series offers classics, best-sellers, film-titles and original stories. Each book has extensive exercises, a detailed introduction and information about the syllabus. They are published at six levels: level 1 - beginner (300 words); level 2 - elementary (500 words); level 3 - pre-intermediate (1050 words); level 4 - intermediate ( 1650 words); level 5 - upper intermediate (2300 words); level 6 - advanced (3000 words). The series is designed to be suitable for students of English as a foreign language, for students of English as a second language and for reluctant readers.
...more | 228 | 24,076 | 16,725 | 9,216 | 3,291 | 1,631 | 0.745531 | 0.686667 |
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1,181,977 | The French Lieutenant's Woman | 1,969 | 3.87 | 42,933 | 1,465 | null | null | John Fowles | The scene is the village of Lyme Regis on Dorset's Lyme Bay..."the largest bite from the underside of England's out-stretched southwestern leg." The major characters in the love-intrigue triangle are Charles Smithson, 32, a gentleman of independent means & vaguely scientific bent; his fianc | 445 | 12,431 | 16,659 | 10,347 | 2,618 | 878 | 0.085097 | 0.623333 |
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3,764 | From Russia With Love | 1,957 | 3.89 | 24,883 | 1,016 | James Bond Original Series | 5 | Ian Fleming | Name: Bond, James. Height: 183 cm, weight: 76 kg; slim build; eyes: blue; hair: black; scar down right cheek & on left shoulder; all-round athlete; expert pistol shot, boxer, knife-thrower; does not use disguises. Languages: French and German. Smokes heavily (NB: special cigarettes with three gold bands); vices: drink, but not to excess, and women.Every major foreign g
Name: Bond, James. Height: 183 cm, weight: 76 kg; slim build; eyes: blue; hair: black; scar down right cheek & on left shoulder; all-round athlete; expert pistol shot, boxer, knife-thrower; does not use disguises. Languages: French and German. Smokes heavily (NB: special cigarettes with three gold bands); vices: drink, but not to excess, and women.Every major foreign government organization has a file on British secret agent James Bond. Now, Russia's lethal SMERSH organization has targeted him for elimination. SMERSH has the perfect bait in the irresistible Tatiana Romanova, who lures 007 to Istanbul promising the top-secret Spektor cipher machine. But when Bond walks willingly into the trap, a game of cross and double-cross ensues, with Bond both the stakes and the prize.
...more | 259 | 7,014 | 9,820 | 6,580 | 1,156 | 313 | 0.154616 | 0.63 |
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180,936 | From the Terrace | 1,958 | 3.92 | 387 | 31 | null | null | John O'Hara | With over three million copies sold, O'Hara's great novel of America in the first half of the century was made into an acclaimed film starring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. It richly chronicles one man's rise to wealth, power, and prominence - and the haunting sense of failure at his heart. | 912 | 112 | 161 | 86 | 27 | 1 | 0.258895 | 0.64 |
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512,704 | Gentlemen Prefer Blondes | 1,925 | 3.63 | 2,294 | 301 | Lorelei Lee | 1 | Anita Loos | If any American fictional character of the twentieth century seems likely to be immortal, it is Lorelei Lee of Little Rock, Arkansas, the not-so-dumb blonde who knew that diamonds are a girl | 165 | 469 | 841 | 717 | 204 | 63 | -0.749135 | 0.543333 |
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702,539 | Get Shorty | 1,990 | 3.96 | 18,369 | 588 | Chili Palmer | 1 | Elmore Leonard | Mob-connected loan shark Chili Palmer is sick of the Miami grind | 384 | 5,305 | 8,058 | 4,118 | 708 | 180 | 0.397934 | 0.653333 |
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895,185 | The Ghost | 2,007 | 3.7 | 12,275 | 1,205 | null | null | Robert Harris | The stunning new novel from the No. 1 bestselling author of Fatherland; Enigma; Archangel; Pompeii and Imperium. | 384 | 2,213 | 5,246 | 3,883 | 799 | 134 | -0.505818 | 0.566667 |
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242,514 | Gidget | 1,957 | 3.64 | 2,282 | 87 | Gidget series | 1 | Frederick Kohner | My English comp teacher Mr. Glicksberg says if you want to be a writer you have to, quote, sit on a window sill and get all pensive and stuff and jot down descriptions. Unquote Glicksberg! I don't know what kind of things he writes but I found my inspiration in Malibu with a radio, my best girlfriends, and absolutely zillions of boys for miles. I absolutely had to write ev
My English comp teacher Mr. Glicksberg says if you want to be a writer you have to, quote, sit on a window sill and get all pensive and stuff and jot down descriptions. Unquote Glicksberg! I don't know what kind of things he writes but I found my inspiration in Malibu with a radio, my best girlfriends, and absolutely zillions of boys for miles. I absolutely had to write everything down because I heard that when you get older you forget things, and I'd be the most miserable woman in the world if I forgot all about Moondoggie and what happened this summer. I absolutely owe the world my story. (And every word is true. I swear.) This is Franzie, part Holden Caulfield, part Lolita. The guys call her Gidget--short for "girl midget | 154 | 705 | 570 | 625 | 240 | 142 | -0.714376 | 0.546667 |
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3,722,073 | The Girl From Petrovka | 1,972 | 3.29 | 7 | 1 | null | null | George Feifer | This is the story of a very free-spirited Russian girl, a dutiful and skeptical American reporter, and the improbable love they shared. It is also an intimate portrait of the curious country that sparked their love and made it impossible. The tragic tale is not merely a delightful read but also a classic of its kind. "In "The Girl From Petrovka," writes "The New Yorker" ma
This is the story of a very free-spirited Russian girl, a dutiful and skeptical American reporter, and the improbable love they shared. It is also an intimate portrait of the curious country that sparked their love and made it impossible. The tragic tale is not merely a delightful read but also a classic of its kind. "In "The Girl From Petrovka," writes "The New Yorker" magazine, Feifer has written the only good American novel about modern Russian life that I can remember.Oktyabrina Matvyeva joins the ranks of memorable-and heroic-women of modern fiction."
...more | 252 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | -1.930964 | 0.43 |
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26,874,180 | The Girl Who Leapt Through Time | 1,966 | 3.34 | 1,629 | 238 | null | null | Yasutaka Tsutsui | null | 226 | 288 | 418 | 562 | 281 | 80 | -1.757166 | 0.446667 |
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373,353 | The Glass Inferno | 1,974 | 3.72 | 201 | 22 | null | null | Thomas N. Scortia | It burst into flame without warning, an incendiary death trap claiming victims as powerless against the blaze as the firefighters 66 stories below. Their emotions laid bare, hundreds cringed or found new courage | 432 | 42 | 75 | 72 | 10 | 2 | -0.436298 | 0.573333 |
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1,772 | The Tower | 1,973 | 3.45 | 292 | 25 | null | null | Richard Martin Stern | For one hundred and twenty-five floors, the world's newest skyscraper rises tall and clean and shining.In its highest room film stars, celebrities, politicians, diplomats, tycoons and their wives celebrate the official opening.Suddenly, an explosion rocks the building. The electrical system is sabotaged. Fire rages upwards from the fourth floor. Totally isolated, the VIP g
For one hundred and twenty-five floors, the world's newest skyscraper rises tall and clean and shining.In its highest room film stars, celebrities, politicians, diplomats, tycoons and their wives celebrate the official opening.Suddenly, an explosion rocks the building. The electrical system is sabotaged. Fire rages upwards from the fourth floor. Totally isolated, the VIP guests are trapped. Who can escape, and how...and who must be left to die...
...more | 302 | 53 | 74 | 122 | 37 | 6 | -1.37481 | 0.483333 |
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985,052 | Glitz | 1,985 | 3.74 | 2,735 | 164 | null | null | Elmore Leonard | Vincent Mora just can't win. He's been shot, his girlfriend is about to be tossed off a balcony, and there's a vengeful creep looking to even a twisted score. Set against the tacky glitter of Atlantic City's billion-dollar casinos, "Glitz" has all the classic Leonard touches: quirky characters, colorful and cinematic scenes, and dialogue that's, well, to die for. | 251 | 509 | 1,190 | 883 | 134 | 19 | -0.366779 | 0.58 |
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1,013,325 | The Gnomobile | 1,937 | 3.7 | 57 | 8 | null | null | Upton Sinclair | An amusing tale of two gnomes, Glogo and Bobo, who travel to America in the company of two human friends in their custom gnomobile. An unexpectedly silly side to Sinclair, who had a reputation as a public scold. | 191 | 16 | 18 | 15 | 6 | 2 | -0.505818 | 0.566667 |
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22,034 | The Godfather | 1,969 | 4.37 | 293,083 | 7,041 | Mario Puzo's Mafia | null | Mario Puzo | The Godfather | 448 | 161,835 | 90,205 | 31,682 | 6,323 | 3,038 | 1.82308 | 0.79 |
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1,188,373 | Gods and Generals | 1,996 | 4.07 | 30,164 | 685 | The Civil War Trilogy | 1 | Jeff Shaara | The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara | 498 | 11,268 | 11,648 | 5,647 | 1,164 | 437 | 0.78029 | 0.69 |
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594,430 | The golden evenings of summer | 1,971 | 4.58 | 19 | 5 | null | null | Will Stanton | Capture a moment of yesterday, a sunset from the porch swing . . . the aroma of the backyard lilac bush . . . the inviting appeal of the vacant lot next door . . . the riches of a bottle-cap collection . . . the temptation of the cookie jar . . . the summers that never ended.Capture a moment and journey back with us to the good old days . . . those very, very good old days
Capture a moment of yesterday, a sunset from the porch swing . . . the aroma of the backyard lilac bush . . . the inviting appeal of the vacant lot next door . . . the riches of a bottle-cap collection . . . the temptation of the cookie jar . . . the summers that never ended.Capture a moment and journey back with us to the good old days . . . those very, very good old days.
...more | 154 | 13 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2.553034 | 0.86 |
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37,941,573 | Grand Canary | 1,933 | 3.52 | 219 | 12 | null | null | A.J. Cronin | Dr Harvey Leith, brilliant research scientist, awakens from a drunken stupor to find himself aboard a liner bound for the Canary Islands, his past life in ruins, his hopes for the future shattered. His life becomes inextricably involved with those of the other passengers - especially the lovely Mary Fielding, but she's already married... | 224 | 42 | 73 | 67 | 31 | 6 | -1.131492 | 0.506667 |
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1,024,750 | Green for Danger | 1,944 | 3.88 | 576 | 73 | Inspector Cockrill | 2 | Christianna Brand | Set in a military hospital during the blitz, this novel is one of Brand's most intricately plotted detection puzzles, executed with her characteristic cleverness and gusto. When a patient dies under the anesthetic and later the presiding nurse is murdered, Inspector Cockrill finds himself with six suspects--three doctors and three nurses--and not a discernible motive among
Set in a military hospital during the blitz, this novel is one of Brand's most intricately plotted detection puzzles, executed with her characteristic cleverness and gusto. When a patient dies under the anesthetic and later the presiding nurse is murdered, Inspector Cockrill finds himself with six suspects--three doctors and three nurses--and not a discernible motive among them.
...more | 256 | 166 | 228 | 138 | 33 | 11 | 0.119856 | 0.626667 |
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11,566 | The Green Mile | 1,996 | 4.44 | 217,196 | 6,031 | The Green Mile | 1-6 | Stephen King | When it first appeared, one volume per month, Stephen King's THE GREEN MILE was an unprecedented publishing triumph: all six volumes ended up on the New York Times bestseller lists | 592 | 124,916 | 66,862 | 21,362 | 3,259 | 797 | 2.066398 | 0.813333 |
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387,348 | The Group | 1,963 | 3.67 | 11,698 | 1,098 | null | null | Mary McCarthy | Mary McCarthy's most celebrated novel follows the lives of eight Vassar graduates, known simply to their classmates as "the group." An eclectic mix of personalities and upbringings, they meet a week after graduation to watch Kay Strong get married. After the ceremony, the women begin their adult lives: traveling to Europe, tackling the worlds of nursing and publishing, and
Mary McCarthy's most celebrated novel follows the lives of eight Vassar graduates, known simply to their classmates as "the group." An eclectic mix of personalities and upbringings, they meet a week after graduation to watch Kay Strong get married. After the ceremony, the women begin their adult lives: traveling to Europe, tackling the worlds of nursing and publishing, and finding love and heartbreak in the streets of New York City. Through the years, some of the friends grow apart and some become entangled in each other's affairs, but all vow not to become like their mothers and fathers. It is only when one of them passes away that they all come back together again to mourn the loss of a friend, a confidante, and most importantly, a member of the group.
...more | 496 | 2,474 | 4,573 | 3,280 | 1,022 | 349 | -0.610097 | 0.556667 |
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12,187,086 | The War of the Buttons | 1,912 | 3.89 | 1,754 | 55 | La Guerre des Boutons | null | Louis Pergaud | As tenaciously as the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, the boys of the villages of Longevernes and Velrans perpetuate a vendetta of hundreds of years. With the ripping of smocks and the clatter of sabots, missiles and invectives fly--the Longevernes have "flabby balls" and the Velrans "awl have hary asses." Prefatory chapter heading quotations from Rabelais do not justify the
As tenaciously as the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, the boys of the villages of Longevernes and Velrans perpetuate a vendetta of hundreds of years. With the ripping of smocks and the clatter of sabots, missiles and invectives fly--the Longevernes have "flabby balls" and the Velrans "awl have hary asses." Prefatory chapter heading quotations from Rabelais do not justify the publisher's comparison, and the referral to Mark Twain seems altogether undeserved. . . . Under the leadership of Lebrac the war goes on from day to day and week to week; as buttons come off, there are some literal rearguard actions as the vanquished emerge with bottoms bared; a closing scene, the treason trial of one of theirs, a cripple, with the punitive reprisals, is quite brutal. But for the most part, this ""classic"" which appeared in France more than thirty years ago is resoundingly dull--and for all its peasant vigor, la guerre n'est pas finie for a long, long time.
...more | 273 | 552 | 624 | 438 | 109 | 31 | 0.154616 | 0.63 |
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324,987 | A Hall of Mirrors | 1,967 | 3.72 | 385 | 26 | null | null | Robert Stone | Rheinhardt, a disk jockey and failed musician, rolls into New Orleans looking for work and another chance in life. What he finds is a woman physically and psychically damaged by the men in her past and a job that entangles him in a right-wing political movement. Peopled with civil rights activists, fanatical Christians, corrupt politicians, and demented Hollywood stars, A
Rheinhardt, a disk jockey and failed musician, rolls into New Orleans looking for work and another chance in life. What he finds is a woman physically and psychically damaged by the men in her past and a job that entangles him in a right-wing political movement. Peopled with civil rights activists, fanatical Christians, corrupt politicians, and demented Hollywood stars, A Hall of Mirrors vividly depicts the dark side of America that erupted in the sixties. To quote Wallace Stegner, "Stone writes like a bird, like an angel, like a circus barker, like a con man, like someone so high on pot that he is scraping his shoes on the stars."
...more | 416 | 82 | 153 | 119 | 22 | 9 | -0.436298 | 0.573333 |
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12,995 | The Hamlet | 1,940 | 3.86 | 4,284 | 242 | The Snopes Trilogy | 1 | William Faulkner | The Hamlet, the first novel of Faulkner's Snopes trilogy, is both an ironic take on classical tragedy and a mordant commentary on the grand pretensions of the antebellum South and the depths of its decay in the aftermath of war and Reconstruction. It tells of the advent and the rise of the Snopes family in Frenchman's Bend, a small town built on the ruins of a once-stately
The Hamlet, the first novel of Faulkner's Snopes trilogy, is both an ironic take on classical tragedy and a mordant commentary on the grand pretensions of the antebellum South and the depths of its decay in the aftermath of war and Reconstruction. It tells of the advent and the rise of the Snopes family in Frenchman's Bend, a small town built on the ruins of a once-stately plantation. Flem Snopes -- wily, energetic, a man of shady origins -- quickly comes to dominate the town and its people with his cunning and guile.
...more | 409 | 1,299 | 1,601 | 1,007 | 257 | 120 | 0.050337 | 0.62 |
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624,988 | The Harder They Fall | 1,946 | 4.24 | 161 | 18 | null | null | Budd Schulberg | Budd Schulberg's celebrated novel of the prize ring has lost none of its power since its first publication almost fifty years ago. Crowded with unforgettable characters, it is a relentless expose of the fight racket. A modern Samson in the form of a simple Argentine peasant is ballyhooed by an unscrupulous fight promoter and his press agent and then betrayed and destroyed
Budd Schulberg's celebrated novel of the prize ring has lost none of its power since its first publication almost fifty years ago. Crowded with unforgettable characters, it is a relentless expose of the fight racket. A modern Samson in the form of a simple Argentine peasant is ballyhooed by an unscrupulous fight promoter and his press agent and then betrayed and destroyed by connivers. Mr. Schulberg creates a wonderfully authentic atmosphere for this book that many critics hailed as even better than What Makes Sammy Run "The quintessential novel of boxing and corruption."--USA Today "The book will stand not only as the novel about boxing but also as a book that indirectly tells more about civilization than do most books about civilization itself."--Arthur Miller. "Brilliant, witty, and amusing--the best book on fighting that I have read."--Gene Tunney.
...more | 357 | 65 | 73 | 21 | 0 | 2 | 1.371205 | 0.746667 |
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15,881 | Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets | 1,998 | 4.4 | 2,250,076 | 42,839 | Harry Potter | 2 | J.K. Rowling | The Dursleys were so mean and hideous that summer that all Harry Potter wanted was to get back to the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. But just as he's packing his bags, Harry receives a warning from a strange, impish creature named Dobby who says that if Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts, disaster will strikeAnd strike it does. For in Harry's second year at Hog
The Dursleys were so mean and hideous that summer that all Harry Potter wanted was to get back to the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. But just as he's packing his bags, Harry receives a warning from a strange, impish creature named Dobby who says that if Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts, disaster will strikeAnd strike it does. For in Harry's second year at Hogwarts, fresh torments and horrors arise, including an outrageously stuck-up new professor, Gilderoy Lockhart, a spirit named Moaning Myrtle who haunts the girls' bathroom, and the unwanted attentions of Ron Weasley's younger sister, Ginny.But each of these seem minor annoyances when the real trouble begins, and someone -- or something -- starts turning Hogwarts students to stone. Could it be Draco Malfoy, a more poisonous rival than ever Could it possibly be Hagrid, whose mysterious past is finally told Or could it be the one everyone at Hogwarts most suspects . . . Harry Potter himself--jacket description
...more | 341 | 1,296,953 | 632,153 | 265,865 | 45,475 | 9,630 | 1.92736 | 0.8 |
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6 | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire | 2,000 | 4.55 | 2,151,870 | 37,860 | Harry Potter | 4 | J.K. Rowling | Harry Potter is midway through his training as a wizard and his coming of age. Harry wants to get away from the pernicious Dursleys and go to the International Quidditch Cup. He wants to find out about the mysterious event that's supposed to take place at Hogwarts this year, an event involving two other rival schools of magic, and a competition that hasn't happened for a h
Harry Potter is midway through his training as a wizard and his coming of age. Harry wants to get away from the pernicious Dursleys and go to the International Quidditch Cup. He wants to find out about the mysterious event that's supposed to take place at Hogwarts this year, an event involving two other rival schools of magic, and a competition that hasn't happened for a hundred years. He wants to be a normal, fourteen-year-old wizard. But unfortunately for Harry Potter, he's not normal - even by wizarding standards. And in his case, different can be deadly. --back cover
...more | 734 | 1,406,331 | 551,538 | 164,462 | 21,925 | 7,614 | 2.448755 | 0.85 |
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2 | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix | 2,003 | 4.48 | 2,106,674 | 34,749 | Harry Potter | 5 | J.K. Rowling | There is a door at the end of a silent corridor. And it | 870 | 1,315,756 | 550,836 | 195,471 | 34,007 | 10,604 | 2.205437 | 0.826667 |
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148,841 | Hart's War: A Novel of Suspense | 1,999 | 3.95 | 1,157 | 91 | null | null | John Katzenbach | Second Lieutenant Tommy Hart, a navigator whose B-25 was shot out of the sky in 1942, is burdened with guilt as the only surviving member of his crew. Now he is just another POW at the fiercely guarded Stalag Luft 13 in Bavaria.Then routine comes to a halt with the arrival of a new prisoner: First Lieutenant Lincoln Scott, an African American Tuskegee airman who instantly
Second Lieutenant Tommy Hart, a navigator whose B-25 was shot out of the sky in 1942, is burdened with guilt as the only surviving member of his crew. Now he is just another POW at the fiercely guarded Stalag Luft 13 in Bavaria.Then routine comes to a halt with the arrival of a new prisoner: First Lieutenant Lincoln Scott, an African American Tuskegee airman who instantly becomes the target of contempt from his fellow soldiers. When a prisoner is brutally murdered, and all the blood-soaked evidence points to Scott, Hart is tapped to defend the soldier. In a trial rife with racial tension and raw conflict, where the lines between ally and enemy blur, there are those with their own secret motives, and a burning passion for a rush to judgment, no matter what the cost.
...more | 576 | 350 | 483 | 255 | 52 | 17 | 0.363174 | 0.65 |
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1,696,081 | Hating Alison Ashley | 1,984 | 3.5 | 3,336 | 125 | null | null | Robin Klein | A classic story of friendship and jealousy from a beloved Australian author.Erica has always believed herself to be the star of her sixth grade class. But then Alison Ashley shows up, and right from the start, seems to threaten Erica's position. Can these classmates ever see past their difficulties and find friendship | 192 | 688 | 973 | 1,147 | 380 | 148 | -1.201011 | 0.5 |
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89,717 | The Haunting of Hill House | 1,959 | 3.87 | 102,256 | 9,479 | null | null | Shirley Jackson | First published in 1959, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House has been hailed as a perfect work of unnerving terror. It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a "haunting"; Theodora, the lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woma
First published in 1959, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House has been hailed as a perfect work of unnerving terror. It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a "haunting"; Theodora, the lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers | 182 | 31,116 | 37,215 | 24,999 | 7,039 | 1,887 | 0.085097 | 0.623333 |
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12,658 | Hawaii | 1,959 | 4.2 | 66,548 | 1,483 | null | null | James A. Michener | Pulitzer Prize | 1,136 | 29,631 | 23,421 | 11,005 | 1,888 | 603 | 1.232166 | 0.733333 |
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1,129,657 | Heller with a Gun | 1,954 | 3.84 | 1,497 | 39 | null | null | Louis L'Amour | Tom Healy was in trouble. His theatrical troupe needed to get to Alder Gulch, Montana, and the weather was turning. Andy Barker promised Tom he could get them there safely, but Tom was reluctant to trust him: he had the lives of three actresses to consider, and his personal feelings for Janice further heightened his concern. Then King Mabry showed up. Although Tom didn | 208 | 392 | 564 | 467 | 62 | 12 | -0.019182 | 0.613333 |
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5,907 | The Hobbit or There and Back Again | 1,937 | 4.26 | 2,488,724 | 42,360 | Middle-Earth Universe | null | J.R.R. Tolkien | In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.Written for J.R.R. Tolkien | 366 | 1,289,810 | 746,673 | 317,886 | 83,793 | 50,562 | 1.440724 | 0.753333 |
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1,656,001 | The Host | 2,008 | 3.84 | 821,096 | 40,616 | The Host | 1 | Stephenie Meyer | Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. The earth has been invaded by a species that take over the minds of human hosts while leaving their bodies intact. Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, didn't expect to find its former tenant refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.As Melanie fills Wanderer's thoughts with visions of Jared, a human who
Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. The earth has been invaded by a species that take over the minds of human hosts while leaving their bodies intact. Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, didn't expect to find its former tenant refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.As Melanie fills Wanderer's thoughts with visions of Jared, a human who still lives in hiding, Wanderer begins to yearn for a man she's never met. Reluctant allies, Wanderer and Melanie set off to search for the man they both love.Also see: Alternate Cover Editions for this ISBN [ACE]
ACE #1
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ACE #2
...more | 620 | 304,095 | 240,345 | 164,355 | 66,132 | 46,169 | -0.019182 | 0.613333 |
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8,921 | The Hound of the Baskervilles | 1,901 | 4.1 | 208,145 | 6,535 | Sherlock Holmes | 5 | Arthur Conan Doyle | 'Mr. Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound!'The death, quite suddenly, of Sir Charles Baskerville in mysterious circumstances is the trigger for one of the most extraordinary cases ever to challenge the brilliant analytical mind of Sherlock Holmes. As rumours of a legendary hound said to haunt the Baskerville family circulate, Holmes and Watson are asked to
'Mr. Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound!'The death, quite suddenly, of Sir Charles Baskerville in mysterious circumstances is the trigger for one of the most extraordinary cases ever to challenge the brilliant analytical mind of Sherlock Holmes. As rumours of a legendary hound said to haunt the Baskerville family circulate, Holmes and Watson are asked to ensure the protection of Sir Charles' only heir, Sir Henry - who has travelled all the way from America to reside at Baskerville Hall in Devon. And it is there, in an isolated mansion surrounded by mile after mile of wild moor, that Holmes and Watson come face to face with a terrifying evil that reaches out from centuries past . . .
...more | 256 | 77,176 | 83,651 | 40,093 | 5,922 | 1,303 | 0.884569 | 0.7 |
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598,662 | The Hours | 1,998 | 3.93 | 117,846 | 4,573 | null | null | Michael Cunningham | In The Hours, Michael Cunningham, who is recognized as "one of our very best writers" (Richard Eder, Los Angeles Times), draw inventively on the life and work of Virginia Woolf to tell the story of a group of contemporary characters who are struggling with the conflicting claims of love and inheritance, hope and despair.The novel opens with an evocation of Woolf's last day
In The Hours, Michael Cunningham, who is recognized as "one of our very best writers" (Richard Eder, Los Angeles Times), draw inventively on the life and work of Virginia Woolf to tell the story of a group of contemporary characters who are struggling with the conflicting claims of love and inheritance, hope and despair.The novel opens with an evocation of Woolf's last days before her suicide in 1941, and moves to the stories of two modern American women who are trying to make rewarding lives for themselves in spite of the demands of friends, lovers, and family.Clarissa Vaughan is a book editor who lives in present-day Greenwich Village; when we meet her, she is buying flowers to display at a party for her friend Richard, and ailing poet who has just won a major literary prize. Laura Brown is a housewife in postwar California who is bringing up her only son and looking for her true life outside of her stifling marriage.With rare ease and assurance, Cunningham makes the two women's lives converge with Virginia Woolf's in an unexpected and heartbreaking way during the party for Richard. As the novel jump-cuts through the twentieth century, every line resonates with Cunningham's clear, strong, surprising lyrical contemporary voice.Passionate, profound and deeply moving, The Hours is Michael Cunningham's most remarkable achievement to date.
...more | 230 | 40,078 | 42,136 | 25,482 | 7,393 | 2,757 | 0.293655 | 0.643333 |
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1,038,590 | Immortality, Inc. | 1,959 | 3.82 | 1,813 | 98 | null | null | Robert Sheckley | First published in 1959 as a startling, revolutionary novel of the future, then pushed to new cinematic limits as the feature film adaptation FREEJACK in 1992, Robert Sheckley's unsettling vision of Tomorrow now arrives in ebook format for the 21st century.Thomas Blaine awoke in a white bed in a white room, and heard someone say, "He's alive now." Then they asked him his n
First published in 1959 as a startling, revolutionary novel of the future, then pushed to new cinematic limits as the feature film adaptation FREEJACK in 1992, Robert Sheckley's unsettling vision of Tomorrow now arrives in ebook format for the 21st century.Thomas Blaine awoke in a white bed in a white room, and heard someone say, "He's alive now." Then they asked him his name, age and marital status. Yes, that seemed normal enough---but what was this talk about "death trauma"Thus was Thomas Blaine introduced to the year 2110, where science had discovered the technique of transferring a man's consciousness from one body to another. Where a man's mind could be snatched from the past, when his body was at the point of death, and brought forward into a "host body" in this fantastic future world.But that was only a small part of it. For the future had proved the reality of life after death, and discovered worlds beyond or simultaneous with our own---worlds where, through scientific techniques, a man could live again, in another body, when he died here. And in the process, the reality of ghosts, poltergeists, and zombies was also established.What did it all mean How had this discovery of what they called the "hereafter" shaped the world of 2110 Thomas Blaine found himself living in a future where the discoveries and techniques imagined by people of his time, while having come about, were completely overwhelmed by discoveries no one had ever dreamed of.
...more | 250 | 463 | 719 | 498 | 112 | 21 | -0.088702 | 0.606667 |
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81,648 | In Country | 1,985 | 3.57 | 2,293 | 174 | null | null | Bobbie Ann Mason | The bestselling novel and deeply affecting story of a young girl who comes to terms with her father's death in Vietnam two decades earlierIn the summer of 1984, the war in Vietnam came home to Sam Hughes, whose father was killed there before she was born. The soldier-boy in the picture never changed. In a way that made him dependable. But he seemed so innocent. "Astronauts
The bestselling novel and deeply affecting story of a young girl who comes to terms with her father's death in Vietnam two decades earlierIn the summer of 1984, the war in Vietnam came home to Sam Hughes, whose father was killed there before she was born. The soldier-boy in the picture never changed. In a way that made him dependable. But he seemed so innocent. "Astronauts have been to the moon," she blurted out to the picture. "You missed Watergate. I was in the second grade."She stared at the picture, squinting her eyes, as if she expected it to come to life. But Dwayne had died with his secrets. Emmett was walking around with his. Anyone who survived Vietnam seemed to regard it as something personal and embarrassing. Granddad had said they were embarrassed that they were still alive. "I guess you're not embarrassed," she said to the picture.This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.
...more | 272 | 417 | 823 | 769 | 220 | 64 | -0.957694 | 0.523333 |
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1,025,049 | The Investigation | 1,977 | 3.69 | 132 | 15 | null | null | Dorothy Uhnak | Kitty Keeler is beautiful, blond, and anything but the conventional middle-class mother of the neighborhood. She is estranged from her husband, hoards expensive clothes and leads a very social life around gambling casinos and organized crime.When Kitty's two small sons are found dead, everyone quickly concludes Kitty murdered them. She quickly becomes a media sensation.Dur
Kitty Keeler is beautiful, blond, and anything but the conventional middle-class mother of the neighborhood. She is estranged from her husband, hoards expensive clothes and leads a very social life around gambling casinos and organized crime.When Kitty's two small sons are found dead, everyone quickly concludes Kitty murdered them. She quickly becomes a media sensation.During the course of the investigation, Sgt. Joe Peters, begins to doubt the evidence against Kitty. He is near the end of a failed marriage and reluctantly approaching retirement. He believes Kitty is innocent and finds himself falling in love with her. Joe begins to peel back the complex layers in the conspiracy of silence while his feelings for Kitty become an obsession...putting his career in jeopardy.
...more | 320 | 27 | 49 | 48 | 4 | 4 | -0.540577 | 0.563333 |
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232,094 | In the Heat of the Night | 1,965 | 3.78 | 1,479 | 157 | Virgil Tibbs | 1 | John Dudley Ball | It's the 1960s. A hot August night lies heavy over the Carolinas. The corpse -- legs sprawled, stomach down on the concrete pavement, arms above the head -- brings the patrol car to a halt. The local police pick up a black stranger named Virgil Tibbs, only to discover that their most likely suspect is a homicide detective from California -- and the racially tense community
It's the 1960s. A hot August night lies heavy over the Carolinas. The corpse -- legs sprawled, stomach down on the concrete pavement, arms above the head -- brings the patrol car to a halt. The local police pick up a black stranger named Virgil Tibbs, only to discover that their most likely suspect is a homicide detective from California -- and the racially tense community's single hope in solving a brutal murder that turns up no witnesses, no motives, no clues.
...more | 185 | 347 | 620 | 394 | 82 | 36 | -0.22774 | 0.593333 |
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1,241,322 | The Island | 1,979 | 3.32 | 1,575 | 99 | null | null | Peter Benchley | How could hundreds boats carrying more than 2000 people simply disappear Why does no one know or care to know A newspaper editor becomes obsessed with what is happening. | 281 | 209 | 415 | 676 | 223 | 52 | -1.826685 | 0.44 |
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29,981 | The Island of Doctor Moreau | 1,896 | 3.72 | 80,865 | 3,472 | null | null | H.G. Wells | Ranked among the classic novels of the English language and the inspiration for several unforgettable movies, this early work of H. G. Wells was greeted in 1896 by howls of protest from reviewers, who found it horrifying and blasphemous. They wanted to know more about the wondrous possibilities of science shown in his first book, The Time Machine, not its potential for mis
Ranked among the classic novels of the English language and the inspiration for several unforgettable movies, this early work of H. G. Wells was greeted in 1896 by howls of protest from reviewers, who found it horrifying and blasphemous. They wanted to know more about the wondrous possibilities of science shown in his first book, The Time Machine, not its potential for misuse and terror. In The Island of Dr. Moreau, a shipwrecked gentleman named Edward Prendick, stranded on a Pacific island lorded over by the notorious Dr. Moreau, confronts dark secrets, strange creatures, and a reason to run for his life.While this riveting tale was intended to be a commentary on evolution, divine creation, and the tension between human nature and culture, modern readers familiar with genetic engineering will marvel at Wells | 153 | 17,494 | 31,204 | 25,510 | 5,651 | 1,006 | -0.436298 | 0.573333 |
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366,260 | Jack in the Box | 1,980 | 3.73 | 66 | 5 | null | null | William Kotzwinkle | A witty and nostalgic novel that traces Jack Twiller's zany transition from a 1940s comic-book identity to a typical American youth of the Fabulous Fifties, which is to say completely warped. | 268 | 16 | 27 | 15 | 5 | 3 | -0.401539 | 0.576667 |
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2,399,928 | Jassy | 1,944 | 3.97 | 230 | 23 | null | null | Norah Lofts | She was the daughter of a preacher and a gypsy. A strange and elusive child with powers of prophecy, she grew into an even stranger woman. From those around her she inspired love and admiration or furious hatred. Nothing in between. And somehow Jassy could transform even those who loved her into her enemies. Barney Hatton, the disposessed heir of Mortiboys, loved her but n
She was the daughter of a preacher and a gypsy. A strange and elusive child with powers of prophecy, she grew into an even stranger woman. From those around her she inspired love and admiration or furious hatred. Nothing in between. And somehow Jassy could transform even those who loved her into her enemies. Barney Hatton, the disposessed heir of Mortiboys, loved her but not enough. Lindy, a servant girl who worked there, loved her too much. Elizabeth Twysdale, who taught Jassy her lessons, hated her more with every passing day. And because of the people around her, the people who loved or loathed her, Jassy's life was destined to be one of passion and anguish.
...more | 255 | 82 | 80 | 54 | 6 | 8 | 0.432693 | 0.656667 |
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543,300 | The Jewel of Seven Stars | 1,903 | 3.42 | 2,105 | 230 | Fantasy Classics | 5 | Bram Stoker | An Egyptologist, attempting to raise from the dead the mummy of Tera, an ancient Egyptian queen, finds a fabulous gem and is stricken senseless by an unknown force. Amid bloody and eerie scenes, his daughter is possessed by Tera's soul, and her fate depends upon bringing Tera's mummified body to life. | 304 | 385 | 577 | 761 | 296 | 86 | -1.479089 | 0.473333 |
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100,237 | Monkey: The Journey to the West | 1,590 | 4.01 | 5,087 | 420 | null | null | Wu Cheng'en | Probably the most popular book in the history of the Far East, this classic sixteenth century novel is a combination of picaresque novel and folk epic that mixes satire, allegory, and history into a rollicking adventure. It is the story of the roguish Monkey and his encounters with major and minor spirits, gods, demigods, demons, ogres, monsters, and fairies. This translat
Probably the most popular book in the history of the Far East, this classic sixteenth century novel is a combination of picaresque novel and folk epic that mixes satire, allegory, and history into a rollicking adventure. It is the story of the roguish Monkey and his encounters with major and minor spirits, gods, demigods, demons, ogres, monsters, and fairies. This translation, by the distinguished scholar Arthur Waley, is the first accurate English version; it makes available to the Western reader a faithful reproduction of the spirit and meaning of the original.
...more | 306 | 1,797 | 1,956 | 1,000 | 263 | 71 | 0.571732 | 0.67 |
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77,270 | The Jungle Book | 1,895 | 3.94 | 92,032 | 2,926 | null | null | Rudyard Kipling | The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling | 277 | 31,010 | 31,602 | 23,147 | 4,980 | 1,293 | 0.328414 | 0.646667 |
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128,518 | The Second Jungle Book | 1,895 | 3.83 | 2,786 | 143 | null | null | Rudyard Kipling | The Second Jungle Book is a sequel to The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. First published in 1895, it features five stories about Mowgli and three unrelated stories, all but one set in India, most of which Kipling wrote while living in Vermont. | 142 | 865 | 921 | 727 | 198 | 75 | -0.053942 | 0.61 |
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526,270 | Jurassic Park | 1,990 | 4 | 721,872 | 10,184 | Jurassic Park | 1 | Michael Crichton | State-of-the-art science and suspense combine in this uniquely exciting high-tension thriller from the author of The Andromeda Strain. Bio-engineers create authentic, detail-perfect, real-life dinosaurs for a Pacific island theme park, but scientific triumph explodes into horrendous disaster as the first visitors encounter the unbelievable. | 400 | 267,387 | 256,247 | 146,545 | 35,445 | 16,248 | 0.536973 | 0.666667 |
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672,988 | The Lost World | 1,995 | 3.76 | 105,938 | 3,060 | Jurassic Park | 2 | Michael Crichton | It is now six years since the secret disaster at Jurassic Park, six years since the extraordinary dream of science and imagination came to a crashing end--the dinosaurs destroyed, the park dismantled, the island indefinitely closed to the public.There are rumors that something has survived... | 393 | 26,094 | 38,989 | 31,647 | 7,780 | 1,428 | -0.29726 | 0.586667 |
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1,676,273 | L.A. Confidential | 1,990 | 4.2 | 26,930 | 734 | L.A. Quartet | 3 | James Ellroy | Christmas 1951, Los Angeles: a city where the police are as corrupt as the criminals. Six prisoners are beaten senseless in their cells by cops crazed on alcohol. For the three LAPD detectives involved, it will expose the guilty secrets on which they have built their corrupt and violent careers. The novel takes these cops on a sprawling epic of brutal violence and the murd
Christmas 1951, Los Angeles: a city where the police are as corrupt as the criminals. Six prisoners are beaten senseless in their cells by cops crazed on alcohol. For the three LAPD detectives involved, it will expose the guilty secrets on which they have built their corrupt and violent careers. The novel takes these cops on a sprawling epic of brutal violence and the murderous seedy side of Hollywood. One of the best crime novels ever written, it is the heart of Ellroy's four-novel masterpiece, the LA Quartet, and an example of crime writing at its most powerful.
...more | 496 | 11,927 | 10,066 | 3,763 | 812 | 362 | 1.232166 | 0.733333 |
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70,700 | Lady L | 1,958 | 3.56 | 1,678 | 141 | null | null | Romain Gary | null | 185 | 333 | 546 | 576 | 171 | 52 | -0.992453 | 0.52 |
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50,051 | The Last Picture Show | 1,966 | 3.97 | 12,432 | 625 | The Last Picture Show | 1 | Larry McMurtry | This is one of McMurtry's most memorable novels - the basis for the film of the same name. Set in a small, dusty Texas town, it introduces Jacy, Duane and Sonny, teenagers stumbling towards adulthood, discovering the beguiling mysteries of sex and the even more baffling mysteries of love. | 280 | 3,791 | 5,234 | 2,738 | 525 | 144 | 0.432693 | 0.656667 |
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1,054,596 | The Last Ride | 1,996 | 3.95 | 457 | 53 | null | null | Thomas Eidson | A novel of the American West narrates the story of a dying man's attempts to make peace with his daughter, their struggle to rescue his granddaughter from renegades and slave traders, and his lifelong search for inner peace. | 304 | 142 | 188 | 96 | 25 | 6 | 0.363174 | 0.65 |
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6,400,090 | The Last Song | 2,009 | 4.15 | 474,579 | 11,534 | null | null | Nicholas Sparks | Alternate Cover Edition can be found hereSeventeen-year-old Veronica 'Ronnie' Miller | 390 | 213,828 | 151,097 | 83,028 | 18,915 | 7,711 | 1.058368 | 0.716667 |
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267,418 | The Late George Apley | 1,937 | 3.68 | 1,990 | 109 | null | null | John P. Marquand | A modern classic restored to print -- the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that charts the diminishing fortunes of a distinguished Boston family in the early years of the 20th century. Sweeping us into the inner sanctum of Boston society, into the Beacon Hill town houses and exclusive private clubs where only the city's wealthiest and most powerful congregate, the novel gives
A modern classic restored to print -- the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that charts the diminishing fortunes of a distinguished Boston family in the early years of the 20th century. Sweeping us into the inner sanctum of Boston society, into the Beacon Hill town houses and exclusive private clubs where only the city's wealthiest and most powerful congregate, the novel gives us -- through the story of one family and its patriarch, the recently deceased George Apley -- the portrait of an entire society in transition. Gently satirical and rich with drama, the novel moves from the Gilded Age to the Great Depression as it projects George Apley's world -- and subtly reveals a life in which success and accomplishment mask disappointment and regret, a life of extreme and enviable privilege that is nonetheless an imperfect life.
...more | 368 | 528 | 663 | 529 | 181 | 89 | -0.575337 | 0.56 |
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1,131,222 | Layer Cake | 2,000 | 3.98 | 1,331 | 92 | null | null | J.J. Connolly | A story of one young gangster's attempt to leave the corruption behind him, Layer Cake refers to the layers or levels he has to go as he painstakingly plots his own escape. What is revealed is a modern underworld where the rules have changed. There are no 'codes', or 'families' and respect lasts as long as a line. Not knowing who he can trust, our man has to use all his 's
A story of one young gangster's attempt to leave the corruption behind him, Layer Cake refers to the layers or levels he has to go as he painstakingly plots his own escape. What is revealed is a modern underworld where the rules have changed. There are no 'codes', or 'families' and respect lasts as long as a line. Not knowing who he can trust, our man has to use all his 'savvy', 'telling' and skills which make him one of the best, to escape his own. The ultimate last job, a love interest called Tammy and an international drugs ring, threaten to draw him back into the 'cake mix'. But, time is running out and the penalty will endure a lifetime.
...more | 240 | 417 | 566 | 277 | 53 | 18 | 0.467453 | 0.66 |
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54,822 | Leaving Cheyenne | 1,963 | 3.95 | 1,932 | 117 | Thalia, Texas | 2 | Larry McMurtry | From the Pulitzer Prize | 304 | 593 | 775 | 460 | 86 | 18 | 0.363174 | 0.65 |
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27,523 | Left Behind | 1,995 | 3.82 | 184,370 | 3,495 | Left Behind | 1 | Tim LaHaye | An airborne Boeing 747 is headed to London when, without any warning, passengers mysteriously disappear from their seats. Terror and chaos slowly spread not only through the plane but also worldwide as unusual events continue to unfold. For those who have been left behind, the apocalypse has just begun... | 342 | 73,273 | 48,155 | 34,351 | 14,557 | 14,034 | -0.088702 | 0.606667 |
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4,907,587 | Let the Right One In | 2,004 | 4.07 | 76,827 | 5,372 | null | null | John Ajvide Lindqvist | Let the Right One In Takes Top Honors at Tribeca Film Festival!It is autumn 1981 when the inconceivable comes to Blackeberg, a suburb in Sweden. The body of a teenage boy is found, emptied of blood, the murder rumored to be part of a ritual killing. Twelve-year-old Oskar is personally hoping that revenge has come at long last---revenge for the bullying he endures at school
Let the Right One In Takes Top Honors at Tribeca Film Festival!It is autumn 1981 when the inconceivable comes to Blackeberg, a suburb in Sweden. The body of a teenage boy is found, emptied of blood, the murder rumored to be part of a ritual killing. Twelve-year-old Oskar is personally hoping that revenge has come at long last---revenge for the bullying he endures at school, day after day.But the murder is not the most important thing on his mind. A new girl has moved in next door---a girl who has never seen a Rubik's Cube before, but who can solve it at once. There is something wrong with her, though, something odd. And she only comes out at night.Sweeping top honors at film festivals all over the globe, director Tomas Alfredsson's film of Let the Right One In has received the same kind of spectacular raves that have been lavished on the book. American readers of vampire fiction will be thrilled!
...more | 472 | 30,249 | 28,203 | 13,167 | 3,561 | 1,647 | 0.78029 | 0.69 |
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13,287,266 | Letter To Five Wives | 1,946 | 3.1 | 10 | 1 | null | null | John Klempner | Basis for the 1949 film "A Letter To Three Wives." Originally publish in Cosmopolitan in 1945. | 204 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 0 | -2.591398 | 0.366667 |
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31,250 | Little Dorrit | 1,855 | 3.98 | 41,031 | 1,388 | null | null | Charles Dickens | A novel of serendipity, of fortunes won and lost, and of the spectre of imprisonment that hangs over all aspects of Victorian society, Charles Dickens's Little Dorrit is edited with an introduction by Stephen Wall in Penguin Classics.When Arthur Clennam returns to England after many years abroad, he takes a kindly interest in Amy Dorrit, his mother's seamstress, and in the
A novel of serendipity, of fortunes won and lost, and of the spectre of imprisonment that hangs over all aspects of Victorian society, Charles Dickens's Little Dorrit is edited with an introduction by Stephen Wall in Penguin Classics.When Arthur Clennam returns to England after many years abroad, he takes a kindly interest in Amy Dorrit, his mother's seamstress, and in the affairs of Amy's father, William Dorrit, a man of shabby grandeur, long imprisoned for debt in Marshalsea prison. As Arthur soon discovers, the dark shadow of the prison stretches far beyond its walls to affect the lives of many, from the kindly Mr Panks, the reluctant rent-collector of Bleeding Heart Yard, and the tipsily garrulous Flora Finching, to Merdle, an unscrupulous financier, and the bureaucratic Barnacles in the Circumlocution Office. A masterly evocation of the state and psychology of imprisonment, Little Dorrit is one of the supreme works of Dickens's maturity.Stephen Wall's introduction examines Dickens's transformation of childhood memories of his father's incarceration in the Marshalsea debtors' prison. This revised edition includes expanded notes, appendices and suggestion for further reading by Helen Small, a chronology of Dickens's life and works, and original illustrations.Charles Dickens is one of the best-loved novelists in the English language, whose 200th anniversary was celebrated in 2012. His most famous books, including Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield and The Pickwick Papers, have been adapted for stage and screen and read by millions.If you enjoyed Little Dorrit, you might like Dickens's Barnaby Rudge, also available in Penguin Classics.
...more | 985 | 15,082 | 14,318 | 8,437 | 2,159 | 1,035 | 0.467453 | 0.66 |
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148,432 | The Lizard's Tail | 1,979 | 3.47 | 87 | 5 | null | null | Luisa Valenzuela | The Lizards Tail is a whip much favoured by Latin American torturers. It gives its name to this fictional biography of Lopez Rega, Isabel Perons minister of social well-being who ruled Argentina through sorcery and witchcraft. A figure of immense power and cruelty, Lopez Rega survives all attempts by politicians and the military to overthrow him. So great is the magic of
The Lizards Tail is a whip much favoured by Latin American torturers. It gives its name to this fictional biography of Lopez Rega, Isabel Perons minister of social well-being who ruled Argentina through sorcery and witchcraft. A figure of immense power and cruelty, Lopez Rega survives all attempts by politicians and the military to overthrow him. So great is the magic of this power-crazed witch-doctor that the writer / narrator can destroy him only by removing herself: 'By erasing myself from the map, I intend to erase you. Without my biography, it will be as if you never had a life. So long, Sorcerer, felice morte. In The Lizards Tail, Luisa Valenzuela re-invents language to convey the political reality of Latin America. A reality in which the writer hangs in the balance.
...more | 288 | 20 | 25 | 24 | 12 | 6 | -1.30529 | 0.49 |
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769,000 | The Light in the Forest | 1,953 | 3.36 | 4,047 | 462 | The Light in the Forest | 1 | Conrad Richter | When John Cameron Butler was a child, he was captured in a raid on the Pennsylvania frontier and adopted by the great warrrior Cuyloga. Renamed True Son, he came to think of himself as fully Indian. But eleven years later his tribe, the Lenni Lenape, has signed a treaty with the white men and agreed to return their captives, including fifteen-year-old True Son. Now he must
When John Cameron Butler was a child, he was captured in a raid on the Pennsylvania frontier and adopted by the great warrrior Cuyloga. Renamed True Son, he came to think of himself as fully Indian. But eleven years later his tribe, the Lenni Lenape, has signed a treaty with the white men and agreed to return their captives, including fifteen-year-old True Son. Now he must go back to the family he has forgotten, whose language is no longer his, and whose ways of dress and behavior are as strange to him as the ways of the forest are to them. A beautifully written, sensitively told story of a white boy brought up by Indians, The Light in the Forest is a beloved American classic.
...more | 192 | 694 | 1,184 | 1,329 | 564 | 276 | -1.687647 | 0.453333 |
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121,264 | The Light of Western Stars | 1,914 | 3.98 | 918 | 49 | Light of the Western Stars | 1 | Zane Grey | Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - When Madeline Hammond stepped from the train at El Cajon, New Mexico, it was nearly midnight, and her first impression was of a huge dark space of cool, windy emptiness, strange and silent, stretching away under
Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - When Madeline Hammond stepped from the train at El Cajon, New Mexico, it was nearly midnight, and her first impression was of a huge dark space of cool, windy emptiness, strange and silent, stretching away under great blinking white stars. Miss, there's no one to meet you, said the conductor, rather anxiously. I wired my brother, she replied. "The train being so late - perhaps he grew tired of waiting. He will be here presently. But, if he should not come - surely I can find a hotel" There's lodgings to be had. Get the station agent to show you. If you'll excuse me - this is no place for a lady like you to be alone at night. It's a rough little town - mostly Mexicans, miners, cowboys. And they carouse a lot. Besides, the revolution across the border has stirred up some excitement along the line. Miss, I guess it's safe enough, if you -
...more | 200 | 347 | 279 | 233 | 46 | 13 | 0.467453 | 0.66 |
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3,763 | Live and Let Die | 1,954 | 3.63 | 20,394 | 1,328 | James Bond Original Series | 2 | Ian Fleming | "Her hair was black and fell to her shoulders. She had high cheekbones and a sensual mouth, and wore a dress of white silk. Her eyes were blue, alight and disdainful, but, as they gazed into his with a touch of humour, Bond realized that they contained a message. Solitaire watched his eyes on her and nonchalantly drew her forearms together so that the valley between her br
"Her hair was black and fell to her shoulders. She had high cheekbones and a sensual mouth, and wore a dress of white silk. Her eyes were blue, alight and disdainful, but, as they gazed into his with a touch of humour, Bond realized that they contained a message. Solitaire watched his eyes on her and nonchalantly drew her forearms together so that the valley between her breasts deepened. The message was unmistakable." Beautiful, fortune-telling Solitaire is the prisoner (and tool) of Mr Big | 229 | 3,508 | 7,863 | 7,205 | 1,544 | 274 | -0.749135 | 0.543333 |
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73,654 | Logan's Run | 1,967 | 3.67 | 9,171 | 531 | Logan | 1 | William F. Nolan | It's the 23rd Century and at age 21... your life is over! Logan-6 has been trained to kill; born and bred from conception to be the best of the best. But his time is short and before his life ends he's got one final mission: Find and destroy Sanctuary, a fabled haven for those that chose to defy the system. But when Logan meets and falls in love with Jessica, he begins to
It's the 23rd Century and at age 21... your life is over! Logan-6 has been trained to kill; born and bred from conception to be the best of the best. But his time is short and before his life ends he's got one final mission: Find and destroy Sanctuary, a fabled haven for those that chose to defy the system. But when Logan meets and falls in love with Jessica, he begins to question the very system he swore to protect and soon they're both running for their lives. When Last Day comes, will you lie down and die... or run!
...more | 149 | 2,164 | 3,015 | 2,985 | 809 | 198 | -0.610097 | 0.556667 |
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12,194 | Lord Jim | 1,899 | 3.62 | 25,073 | 1,147 | null | null | Joseph Conrad | Jim, a young British seaman, becomes first mate on the Patna, a ship full of pilgrims travelling to Mecca for the hajj. When the ship starts rapidly taking on water and disaster seems imminent, Jim joins his captain and other crew members in abandoning the ship and its passengers. A few days later, they are picked up by a British ship. However, the Patna and its passengers
Jim, a young British seaman, becomes first mate on the Patna, a ship full of pilgrims travelling to Mecca for the hajj. When the ship starts rapidly taking on water and disaster seems imminent, Jim joins his captain and other crew members in abandoning the ship and its passengers. A few days later, they are picked up by a British ship. However, the Patna and its passengers are later also saved, and the reprehensible actions of the crew are exposed. The other participants evade the judicial court of inquiry, leaving Jim to the court alone. He is publicly censured for this action and the novel follows his later attempts at coming to terms with his past. The novel is counted as one of 100 best books of the 20th century.Joseph Conrad (1857-1924), was a Polish author who wrote in English after settling in England. Conrad is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in English, though he did not speak the language fluently until he was in his twenties. He wrote stories and novels, often with a nautical setting, that depict trials of the human spirit in the midst of an indifferent world. He was a master prose stylist who brought a distinctly non-English tragic sensibility into English literature.Contents: Lord JimMemoirs & Letters:A Personal Record; or Some ReminiscencesThe Mirror of the SeaNotes on Life & LettersBiography & Critical Essays:Joseph Conrad (A Biography) by Hugh WalpoleJoseph Conrad by John Albert MacyA Conrad Miscellany by John Albert MacyJoseph Conrad by Virginia Woolf
...more | 455 | 5,977 | 8,367 | 7,044 | 2,538 | 1,147 | -0.783895 | 0.54 |
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15,241 | The Two Towers | 1,954 | 4.43 | 605,230 | 8,388 | The Lord of the Rings | 2 | J.R.R. Tolkien | The Fellowship was scattered. Some were bracing hopelessly for war against the ancient evil of Sauron. Some were contending with the treachery of the wizard Saruman. Only Frodo and Sam were left to take the accursed Ring of Power to be destroyed in Mordor | 322 | 355,404 | 174,728 | 60,678 | 11,105 | 3,315 | 2.031639 | 0.81 |
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18,512 | The Return of the King | 1,955 | 4.52 | 578,548 | 8,014 | The Lord of the Rings | 3 | J.R.R. Tolkien | Alternate cover edition here.The Companions of the Ring have become involved in separate adventures as the quest continues. Aragorn, revealed as the hidden heir of the ancient Kings of the West, joined with the Riders of Rohan against the forces of Isengard, and took part in the desperate victory of the Hornburg. Merry and Pippin, captured by Orcs, escaped into Fangorn For
Alternate cover edition here.The Companions of the Ring have become involved in separate adventures as the quest continues. Aragorn, revealed as the hidden heir of the ancient Kings of the West, joined with the Riders of Rohan against the forces of Isengard, and took part in the desperate victory of the Hornburg. Merry and Pippin, captured by Orcs, escaped into Fangorn Forest and there encountered the Ents. Gandalf returned, miraculously, and defeated the evil wizard, Saruman. Meanwhile, Sam and Frodo progressed towards Mordor to destroy the Ring, accompanied by SmEagol--Gollum, still obsessed by his 'precious'. After a battle with the giant spider, Shelob, Sam left his master for dead; but Frodo is still alive--in the hands of the Orcs. And all the time the armies of the Dark Lord are massing. J.R.R. Tolkien's great work of imaginative fiction has been labeled both a heroic romance and a classic fantasy fiction. By turns comic and homely, epic and diabolic, the narrative moves through countless changes of scene and character in an imaginary world which is totally convincing in its detail.
...more | 490 | 373,803 | 146,501 | 46,662 | 8,627 | 2,955 | 2.344476 | 0.84 |
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973,972 | Lost Horizon | 1,933 | 3.92 | 15,197 | 1,276 | null | null | James Hilton | Following a plane crash, Conway, a British consul, his deputy, a missionary and an American financer find themselves in the enigmatic snow-capped mountains of uncharted Tibet. Here they discover a seemingly perfect hidden community where they are welcomed. | 218 | 4,555 | 5,906 | 3,815 | 754 | 167 | 0.258895 | 0.64 |
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10,155 | The Lost World | 1,912 | 3.92 | 49,945 | 1,814 | Professor Challenger | 1 | Arthur Conan Doyle | It's London, 1907. Journalist Edward Malone, rejected by the woman he loves because he is too prosaic, decides to go in search of adventure and fame to prove himself worthy of her. Soon after, he meets Professor George Challenger, a scientist who claims to have discovered a 'lost world' populated by pterodactyls and other prehistoric monsters. | 272 | 15,020 | 19,177 | 13,113 | 2,220 | 415 | 0.258895 | 0.64 |
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17,286,391 | Love Story | 1,977 | 3.61 | 48,568 | 2,529 | Love Story | 1 | Erich Segal | "What can you say about a twenty-five-year-old girl who died That she was beautiful. And brilliant. That she loved Mozart and Bach. And the Beatles. And me." Oliver Barrett IV went to Harvard and Jenny Cavilleri to Radcliffe. He was rich, she was poor. He was sporty, she played music. Nonetheless they fell in love and got married. Their story is funny, touching and infuse
"What can you say about a twenty-five-year-old girl who died That she was beautiful. And brilliant. That she loved Mozart and Bach. And the Beatles. And me." Oliver Barrett IV went to Harvard and Jenny Cavilleri to Radcliffe. He was rich, she was poor. He was sporty, she played music. Nonetheless they fell in love and got married. Their story is funny, touching and infused with wonder. It is also profoundly moving. This is LOVE STORY. As a book, it is a worldwidebestselling phenomenon. As a story, it is poignantand tender, touching and full of humour.
...more | 127 | 12,026 | 15,096 | 13,898 | 5,626 | 1,922 | -0.818655 | 0.536667 |
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77,544 | The Lovely Bones | 2,002 | 3.79 | 1,816,031 | 38,632 | null | null | Alice Sebold | The spirit of fourteen-year-old Susie Salmon describes her murder, her surprise at her new home in heaven, and her witness to her family's grief, efforts to find the killer, and attempts to come to terms with what has happened. | 328 | 535,955 | 638,584 | 435,519 | 139,479 | 66,494 | -0.192981 | 0.596667 |
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139,888 | Barry Lyndon | 1,844 | 3.63 | 1,676 | 151 | null | null | William Makepeace Thackeray | "Barry Lyndon" is the fictional autobiography of an adventurer and rogue. Born into the petty Irish gentry, and outmaneuvered in his first love affair, a ruined Barry volunteers for the British army. After seeing service in Germany he deserts and pursues the career of a gambler in the dissolute clubs and courts of Europe. In a determined effort to enter fashionable society
"Barry Lyndon" is the fictional autobiography of an adventurer and rogue. Born into the petty Irish gentry, and outmaneuvered in his first love affair, a ruined Barry volunteers for the British army. After seeing service in Germany he deserts and pursues the career of a gambler in the dissolute clubs and courts of Europe. In a determined effort to enter fashionable society, he marries a titled heiress but only to find himself easily outwitted.
...more | 220 | 345 | 629 | 486 | 168 | 48 | -0.749135 | 0.543333 |
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150,555 | The Magician | 1,908 | 3.58 | 3,110 | 341 | null | null | W. Somerset Maugham | Maugham | 240 | 544 | 1,147 | 1,046 | 309 | 64 | -0.922934 | 0.526667 |
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929,782 | Martin Eden | 1,909 | 4.41 | 19,170 | 972 | null | null | Jack London | Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780140187724The semiautobiographical Martin Eden is the most vital and original character Jack London ever created. Set in San Francisco, this is the story of Martin Eden, an impoverished seaman who pursues, obsessively and aggressively, dreams of education and literary fame. London, dissatisfied with the rewards of his own success, intende
Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780140187724The semiautobiographical Martin Eden is the most vital and original character Jack London ever created. Set in San Francisco, this is the story of Martin Eden, an impoverished seaman who pursues, obsessively and aggressively, dreams of education and literary fame. London, dissatisfied with the rewards of his own success, intended Martin Eden as an attack on individualism and a criticism of ambition; however, much of its status as a classic has been conferred by admirers of its ambitious protagonist.Andrew Sinclair's wide-ranging introduction discusses the conflict between London's support of socialism and his powerful self-will. Sinclair also explores the parallels and divergences between the life of Martin Eden and that of his creator, focusing on London's mental depressions and how they affected his depiction of Eden.
...more | 480 | 11,329 | 5,238 | 1,966 | 475 | 162 | 1.962119 | 0.803333 |
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473,850 | Make Room! Make Room! | 1,966 | 3.72 | 5,795 | 464 | null | null | Harry Harrison | First published in 1966, Harrison's novel of an overpopulated urban jungle, a divided class system--operating within an atmosphere of riots, food shortages, and senseless acts of violence--and a desperate hunt for the truth by a cynical NYC detective tells a classic tale of a dark future. | 288 | 1,224 | 2,282 | 1,818 | 387 | 84 | -0.436298 | 0.573333 |
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396,329 | The Man Who Fell to Earth | 1,963 | 4.03 | 5,161 | 538 | null | null | Walter Tevis | T.J. Newton is an extraterrestrial who goes to Earth on a desperate mission of mercy. But instead of aid, Newton discovers loneliness and despair that ultimately ends in tragedy. | 209 | 1,647 | 2,256 | 1,044 | 187 | 27 | 0.641252 | 0.676667 |
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370,769 | The Man Who Never Was | 1,954 | 3.91 | 857 | 87 | null | null | Ewen Montagu | The Man Who Never Was provides an exciting and accurate record of the counter-intelligence conspiracy, Operation Mincemeat, which paved the way for the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943. Ewen Montagu, who masterminded the whole scheme, gives his personal account of the audacious and innovative plot to outwit the Germans by washing up a dead body on Spanish shores, com
The Man Who Never Was provides an exciting and accurate record of the counter-intelligence conspiracy, Operation Mincemeat, which paved the way for the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943. Ewen Montagu, who masterminded the whole scheme, gives his personal account of the audacious and innovative plot to outwit the Germans by washing up a dead body on Spanish shores, complete with apparently confidential information concealed about his person. The preparations were fraught with tensions, as unforeseen difficulties were faced in creating a life persona for 'the man who never was'. Furthermore, as the new introduction by intelligence expert Alan Stripp reveals, failure of the operation could have had devastating results.
...more | 168 | 230 | 371 | 212 | 36 | 8 | 0.224135 | 0.636667 |
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30,164,694 | The Man Who Watched Trains Go By | 1,938 | 3.85 | 2,695 | 195 | null | null | Georges Simenon | Kees Popinga is an average man, a solid citizen who might enjoy a game of chess in the evening. But one night, this model husband and devoted father discovers his boss is bankrupt and that his own carefully tended life is in ruins. Before, he had watched impassively as the trains swept by; now he catches the first one out of town, and soon commits murder before the night i
Kees Popinga is an average man, a solid citizen who might enjoy a game of chess in the evening. But one night, this model husband and devoted father discovers his boss is bankrupt and that his own carefully tended life is in ruins. Before, he had watched impassively as the trains swept by; now he catches the first one out of town, and soon commits murder before the night is out. How reliable is even the most reliable man's identity Georges Simenon (1903-1989) was born in Liege, Belgium. He went to work as a reporter at the age of fifteen and in 1923 moved to Paris, where under various pseudonyms he became a highly successful and prolific author of pulp fiction while leading a dazzling social life. In the early 1930s, Simenon emerged as a writer under his own name, gaining renown for his detective stories featuring Inspector Maigret. He also began to write his psychological novels, or romans durs - books in which he displays a sympathetic awareness of the emotional and spiritual pain underlying the routines of daily life. Having written nearly two hundred books under his own name and become the best-selling author in the world, Simenon retired as a novelist in 1973, devoting himself instead to dictating memoirs that filled thousands of pages.
...more | 251 | 623 | 1,220 | 699 | 126 | 27 | 0.015577 | 0.616667 |
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177,193 | The Man With the Golden Gun | 1,965 | 3.56 | 8,780 | 430 | James Bond Original Series | 13 | Ian Fleming | A brainwashed James Bond has tried | 183 | 1,494 | 2,986 | 3,390 | 781 | 129 | -0.992453 | 0.52 |
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1,111,344 | Marathon Man | 1,974 | 4.12 | 18,127 | 400 | Babe Levy | 1 | William Goldman | Goldman, William, Marathon Man | 309 | 6,942 | 7,189 | 3,348 | 500 | 148 | 0.954089 | 0.706667 |
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223,691 | The Mephisto Waltz | 1,969 | 3.7 | 302 | 22 | null | null | Fred Mustard Stewart | "Paula and Myles Clarkson's luck was in the ascendant. After a period of depression following his resounding failure as a concert pianist, Myles had decided, with Paula's encouragement to turn to a career in writing. Now the free-lance assignments that would finance his work on a novel were beginning to come in, among them a journalist's dream - the chance to interview the
"Paula and Myles Clarkson's luck was in the ascendant. After a period of depression following his resounding failure as a concert pianist, Myles had decided, with Paula's encouragement to turn to a career in writing. Now the free-lance assignments that would finance his work on a novel were beginning to come in, among them a journalist's dream - the chance to interview the internationally celebrated pianist Duncan Ely. Astonishingly, the notoriously difficult Duncan warms toward him, sensing perhaps in Myles' love for music - and in his extraordinary pianist's hands - a kindred soul. The Mephisto Waltz is a spellbinder of a novel - a novel that makes Rosemary's Baby look like child play." The book was made into a major motion picture released in 1971 starring Alan Alda, Jacqueline Bisset and Curt Jurgens
...more | 256 | 76 | 98 | 94 | 29 | 5 | -0.505818 | 0.566667 |