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401,921 | The Black Rose | 1,945 | 4.09 | 1,111 | 105 | null | null | Thomas B. Costain | By stated by the author, this story "grows out of a legend, a most beguiling and romantic legened which is found in a very few old English histories"."Solid in its facts, colorful and romantic...a rich and remarkable historical tapestry." Quote from Christian Science Monitor". | 401 | 414 | 431 | 222 | 35 | 9 | 0.84981 | 0.696667 |
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272,895 | The Black Stallion | 1,989 | 4.19 | 65,594 | 1,118 | The Black Stallion | 1 | Walter Farley | Published originally in 1941, this book is about a young boy, Alec Ramsay who finds a wild black stallion at a small Arabian port on the Red Sea. Between the black stallion and young boy, a strange understanding grew that you lead them through untold dangers as they journeyed to America. Nor could Alec understand that his adventures with the black stallion would capture th
Published originally in 1941, this book is about a young boy, Alec Ramsay who finds a wild black stallion at a small Arabian port on the Red Sea. Between the black stallion and young boy, a strange understanding grew that you lead them through untold dangers as they journeyed to America. Nor could Alec understand that his adventures with the black stallion would capture the interest of an entire nation.
...more | 275 | 29,860 | 21,001 | 12,334 | 1,892 | 507 | 1.197406 | 0.73 |
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4,640,856 | Black Sunday | 1,971 | 3.6 | 7,450 | 211 | null | null | Thomas Harris | The lives of 80,000 people gathered for Superbowl Sunday in New Orleans are threatened by a diabolical group of international terrorists. Spellbinding, fast-paced suspense is guaranteed once again from the acclaimed author of Silence of the Lambs. | 318 | 1,426 | 2,591 | 2,600 | 667 | 166 | -0.853414 | 0.533333 |
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1,267,126 | Blackbeard's Ghost | 1,965 | 3.26 | 66 | 10 | Blackbeard's Ghost | 1 | Ben Stahl | Blackbeard, probably the most idealized pirate of all time, is inadvertently raised from the dead by the two teenage boys of this story. Either tradition carved out an undeserved reputation for him, or his personality faded over the ages, but this folksy apparition seems to be missing his old swashbuckle. The prologue blends some facts about Blackbeard's last days, protect
Blackbeard, probably the most idealized pirate of all time, is inadvertently raised from the dead by the two teenage boys of this story. Either tradition carved out an undeserved reputation for him, or his personality faded over the ages, but this folksy apparition seems to be missing his old swashbuckle. The prologue blends some facts about Blackbeard's last days, protected by the Governor of the Carolinas until his undoing by the Governor of Virginia, with a tale about a tavern built by the pirate and his crew. When the old tavern is to be torn down and replaced by a gas station, J.D. Jones and Hank Obertuffer poke around in the rubble and find an old incantation which they read aloud at a mock seance. The spectral old salt makes his appearance, and rants about town until he gets to repossess the tavern, and thereby avenge his betrayal. Blackbeard emerges as a greasy looking fellow, with an underlay of bluster rather than fire. The boys, who seem too young for their high school classes, have tedious wise-cracking, ungrammatical conversations. The author has included a number of paintings in his widely popular Saturday Evening Post style. -Kirkus Reviews
...more | 192 | 7 | 15 | 35 | 6 | 3 | -2.035243 | 0.42 |
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2,702,246 | The Blank Wall | 1,947 | 3.84 | 472 | 89 | null | null | Elisabeth Sanxay Holding | A suburban matron, harassed by wartime domestic problems - her husband is overseas - finds herself implicated in the murder of her young daughter's extremely unattractive beau. This novel is about maternal love and about the heroine's relationship with those around her, especially her children and her maid. | 231 | 108 | 214 | 117 | 31 | 2 | -0.019182 | 0.613333 |
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407,235 | Blood Brother | 1,947 | 4.29 | 48 | 13 | null | null | Elliott Arnold | A classic of Southwestern literature and the basis for the highly acclaimed 1950 film, Broken Arrow, Blood Brother is "a history in fiction form, of the Southwest . . . following the adventures of Cochise, noted chief of the Chiricahua Apaches, and Tom Jeffords, famous peace maker and Indian agent."-Library Journal | 454 | 27 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 1.545003 | 0.763333 |
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2,300,939 | The Blue Lagoon | 1,908 | 3.59 | 1,814 | 132 | The Blue Lagoon | 1 | Henry de Vere Stacpoole | The Blue Lagoon is the story of two cousins, Dicky and Emmeline Lestrange, stranded on a remote island with a beautiful lagoon. As children, they are cared for by Paddy Button, a portly sailor who drinks himself to death after only two and a half years in paradise. Frightened and confused by the man's gruesome corpse, the children flee to another part of Palm Tree Island.
The Blue Lagoon is the story of two cousins, Dicky and Emmeline Lestrange, stranded on a remote island with a beautiful lagoon. As children, they are cared for by Paddy Button, a portly sailor who drinks himself to death after only two and a half years in paradise. Frightened and confused by the man's gruesome corpse, the children flee to another part of Palm Tree Island. Over a period of five years, they grow up and eventually fall in love. Sex and birth are as mysterious to them as death, but they manage to copulate instinctively and conceive a child. The birth is especially remarkable: fifteen-year-old Emmeline, alone in the jungle, loses consciousness and awakes to find a baby boy on the ground near her. Naming the boy Hannah (an example of Stacpoole's penchant for gender reversals), the Lestranges live in familial bliss until they are unexpectedly expelled from their tropical Eden.
...more | 224 | 419 | 550 | 588 | 196 | 61 | -0.888174 | 0.53 |
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348,573 | The Borrowers | 1,952 | 4.03 | 83,288 | 1,646 | The Borrowers | 1 | Mary Norton | Beneath the kitchen floor is the world of the Borrowers -- Pod and Homily Clock and their daughter, Arrietty. In their tiny home, matchboxes double as roomy dressers and postage stamps hang on the walls like paintings. Whatever the Clocks need they simply "borrow" from the "human beans" who live above them. It's a comfortable life, but boring if you're a kid. Only Pod is a
Beneath the kitchen floor is the world of the Borrowers -- Pod and Homily Clock and their daughter, Arrietty. In their tiny home, matchboxes double as roomy dressers and postage stamps hang on the walls like paintings. Whatever the Clocks need they simply "borrow" from the "human beans" who live above them. It's a comfortable life, but boring if you're a kid. Only Pod is allowed to venture into the house above, because the danger of being seen by a human is too great. Borrowers who are seen by humans are never seen again. Yet Arrietty won't listen. There is a human boy up there, and Arrietty is desperate for a friend.
...more | 192 | 31,004 | 29,102 | 18,761 | 3,387 | 1,034 | 0.641252 | 0.676667 |
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7,869 | The Bourne Identity | 2,004 | 4 | 364,026 | 4,313 | Jason Bourne | 1 | Robert Ludlum | Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found hereWho is Jason Bourne Is he an assassin, a terrorist, a thief Why has he got four million dollars in a Swiss bank account Why has someone tried to murder him...Jason Bourne does not know the answer to any of these questions. Suffering from amnesia, he does not even know that he is Jason Bourne. What manner of man is he What
Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found hereWho is Jason Bourne Is he an assassin, a terrorist, a thief Why has he got four million dollars in a Swiss bank account Why has someone tried to murder him...Jason Bourne does not know the answer to any of these questions. Suffering from amnesia, he does not even know that he is Jason Bourne. What manner of man is he What are his secrets Who has he killed
...more | 566 | 138,547 | 127,694 | 68,698 | 18,464 | 10,623 | 0.536973 | 0.666667 |
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149,607 | Breakheart Pass | 1,974 | 3.66 | 2,313 | 77 | null | null | Alistair MacLean | A magnificent tale of heart-stopping suspense from the highly acclaimed master of the genre.The Rocky Mountains, Winter 1873 | 192 | 437 | 884 | 791 | 175 | 26 | -0.644856 | 0.553333 |
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2,448,683 | Breaking Smith's Quarter Horse | 1,963 | 4.26 | 57 | 9 | null | null | Paul St. Pierre | Smith--a man of moderate ambition, unknown first name, and dubious companions--has a quarter horse in which he has great faith. But the path from quarter horse of good stock to cutting horse of skill and finesse is strewn with obstacles, unforgettable characters and the kind of earthy humor Paul St. Pierre's writing is known for. | 164 | 27 | 19 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 1.440724 | 0.753333 |
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425,068 | The Bridges of Madison County | 1,992 | 3.59 | 70,807 | 3,866 | null | null | Robert James Waller | There are songs that come free from the blue-eyed grass, from the dust of a thousand country roads. This is one of them.And so begins a story that you will never forget...THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY...is the story of Robert Kincaid, a world-class photographer, and Francesca Johnson, an Iowa farm wife. Kincaid, fifty-two, is a photographer for National Geographic. A stran
There are songs that come free from the blue-eyed grass, from the dust of a thousand country roads. This is one of them.And so begins a story that you will never forget...THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY...is the story of Robert Kincaid, a world-class photographer, and Francesca Johnson, an Iowa farm wife. Kincaid, fifty-two, is a photographer for National Geographic. A strange, almost mystical traveler of Asian deserts, distant rivers, and ancient cities, he is a man who feels out of harmony with time. Francesca Johnson, forty-five and once a young war bride from Italy, lives in the hills of south Iowa with flickering memories of her girlhood dreams. Each of them is content, yet when Robert Kincaid drives through the heat and dust of an Iowa summer and turns into her farm lane looking for directions, their illusions fall away, and they are joined in an experience that will haunt them forever.As the photographer Kincaid uses light to reveal not objects, but rather his own kind of truth, what occurs by the old bridges of Madison County becomes a prism transforming the ordinary emotions we think we understand into something rare and brilliant. The result is a passionate, deeply moving experience in lyrical prose, an achievement that puts Robert James Waller in the forefront of this country's new fiction writers.
...more | 171 | 20,124 | 19,755 | 17,573 | 8,463 | 4,892 | -0.888174 | 0.53 |
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1,134,739 | Brown's Requiem | 1,981 | 3.48 | 2,130 | 102 | null | null | James Ellroy | Beneath the golden glitter, Tinsel Town spawns sleaze, sickies, psychos, and wiseguys. Ex-cop Fritz Brown, sometime P.I., full-time Beethoven buff, sees it all as he walks the shady side of the streets. Now he's got a client named Freddy "Fat Dog" Baker, a caddy who flashes too much cash ... and a gut feeling that this case could be his last. Arson, pay-offs, and porn are
Beneath the golden glitter, Tinsel Town spawns sleaze, sickies, psychos, and wiseguys. Ex-cop Fritz Brown, sometime P.I., full-time Beethoven buff, sees it all as he walks the shady side of the streets. Now he's got a client named Freddy "Fat Dog" Baker, a caddy who flashes too much cash ... and a gut feeling that this case could be his last. Arson, pay-offs, and porn are all part of the game. But so is Fat Dog's foxy cello-playing sister. And soon Brown's desire to make beautiful music with her threatens to turn his favorite song into a funeral march.
...more | 256 | 260 | 741 | 922 | 186 | 21 | -1.270531 | 0.493333 |
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1,188,163 | Bump in the Night | 1,988 | 3.29 | 42 | 3 | null | null | Isabelle Holland | When Martha is abruptly awakened by the phone after a night of heavy drinking, she can't remember what day it is, but there's no misunderstanding the message of the voice on the other end of the line--her young son is missing. Jonathan's disappearance turns Martha's life into a nightmare as she frantically searches for him while battling alcoholism. | 185 | 4 | 12 | 20 | 4 | 2 | -1.930964 | 0.43 |
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264,397 | The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest | 1,616 | 3.66 | 2,862 | 89 | null | null | Tirso de Molina | Tirso de Molina was, with Lope de Vega and Calder | 258 | 641 | 1,000 | 874 | 288 | 59 | -0.644856 | 0.553333 |
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1,358,044 | The Busy Body | 1,966 | 3.78 | 405 | 44 | null | null | Donald E. Westlake | Previously published in paperback by Ballantine. | 179 | 87 | 164 | 134 | 19 | 1 | -0.22774 | 0.593333 |
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368,772 | The Caine Mutiny | 1,952 | 4.24 | 18,672 | 861 | null | null | Herman Wouk | The novel that inspired the now-classic film The Caine Mutiny and the hit Broadway play The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, Herman Wouk's boldly dramatic, brilliantly entertaining novel of life-and mutiny-on a Navy warship in the Pacific theater was immediately embraced, upon its original publication in 1951, as one of the first serious works of American fiction to grapple wit
The novel that inspired the now-classic film The Caine Mutiny and the hit Broadway play The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, Herman Wouk's boldly dramatic, brilliantly entertaining novel of life-and mutiny-on a Navy warship in the Pacific theater was immediately embraced, upon its original publication in 1951, as one of the first serious works of American fiction to grapple with the moral complexities and the human consequences of World War II. In the intervening half century, The Caine Mutiny has become a perennial favorite of readers young and old, has sold millions of copies throughout the world, and has achieved the status of a modern classic.
...more | 560 | 8,394 | 7,081 | 2,688 | 392 | 117 | 1.371205 | 0.746667 |
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46,460 | Call for the Dead | 1,961 | 3.8 | 18,636 | 1,247 | George Smiley | null | John le Carr | John le Carr | 160 | 3,918 | 8,308 | 5,426 | 768 | 216 | -0.158221 | 0.6 |
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29,488 | Candy | 1,998 | 4.08 | 6,058 | 323 | null | null | Luke Davies | "Candy is beside me, drenched in sweat. She's breathing gently, long slow breaths. I imagine her soul going in and out: wanting to leave, wanting to come back, wanting to leave, wanting to come back. The day will soon harden into what we need to do. But for now we have each other. . . ."He met Candy amid a lush Sydney summer. Gorgeous, sexy, free-spirited Candy. They fell
"Candy is beside me, drenched in sweat. She's breathing gently, long slow breaths. I imagine her soul going in and out: wanting to leave, wanting to come back, wanting to leave, wanting to come back. The day will soon harden into what we need to do. But for now we have each other. . . ."He met Candy amid a lush Sydney summer. Gorgeous, sexy, free-spirited Candy. They fell in love fast, lots of laughter and lust, the days melting warmly into each other. He never planned to give her a habit. But she wanted a taste. And wasn't love, after all, about sharing lives Candy had a bit of money and in the beginning, everything was beautiful. Heady, heroin-hazed days, the world open and inviting. But when the money ran out, the craving remained, and the days ceased their luxurious stretch.But there was still love. Only now, it was a threesome. Heroin had its own demands, its own timetable, and thoughts of nabbing the next fix hurled them into each day. Then, when desperation sets in, Candy will stop at nothing to secure a blast, as she and her lover become hostage to the nightmarish world of addiction. Painful, sexy, tender, and charged with dark humor, Candy provocatively charts the daily rituals of two lovers maintaining a long-term junk habit. Told in stunningly vivid prose and set against the backdrop of suburban and urban Australia, Candy is both an electrifying and frightening glimpse of contemporary life and love.
...more | 304 | 2,450 | 2,092 | 1,136 | 296 | 84 | 0.81505 | 0.693333 |
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152,864 | Das Schlo | 1,926 | 3.97 | 36,990 | 1,595 | null | null | Franz Kafka | Der Landvermesser K. kommt in einem am Fu | 401 | 12,918 | 13,567 | 7,607 | 2,137 | 761 | 0.432693 | 0.656667 |
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523,562 | The Caveman's Valentine | 1,994 | 3.69 | 639 | 75 | null | null | George Dawes Green | Romulus Ledbetter wasn't always homeless. He once was a devoted husband, father, and musician with a bright future. He now forages for food in the trash cans of the city's better neighborhoods and wages a strenuous one-man war against Cornelius Gould Stuyvesant, an evil -- and imaginary -- power broker who is responsible for society's ills, as well as the sinister Y- and Z
Romulus Ledbetter wasn't always homeless. He once was a devoted husband, father, and musician with a bright future. He now forages for food in the trash cans of the city's better neighborhoods and wages a strenuous one-man war against Cornelius Gould Stuyvesant, an evil -- and imaginary -- power broker who is responsible for society's ills, as well as the sinister Y- and Z-rays that are corrupting humankind. Then one wintry night, Rom finds a corpse at the mouth of his cave that rouses his well-defined sense of ethics and launches him on an obsessive quest for answers. Forced to reconnect with society, Rom leaves his world and journeys through a spiraling web of clues and hunches, straight into a sinister den of money, temptation, and murder--otherwise known as the "civilized" world.
...more | 325 | 141 | 244 | 187 | 49 | 18 | -0.540577 | 0.563333 |
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1,293,729 | Charlie M | 1,977 | 4.04 | 357 | 35 | Charlie Muffin | 1 | Brian Freemantle | One of the best spy novels ever written. Charlie Muffin, a British spy, finds himself shot at and missed and then shot at and hit by his own employers in this truly excellent novel of double crosses in the spy game. A "must read" for fans of le Carre or Deighton. | 207 | 112 | 162 | 70 | 11 | 2 | 0.676011 | 0.68 |
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9,859,520 | Chateau Bon Vivant | 1,969 | 3.67 | 9 | 1 | null | null | Frankie O'Rear | A memoir of running a ski chateau in Canada and the escapades that went along with doing so. | 240 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | -0.610097 | 0.556667 |
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59,296 | The Children of S | 1,961 | 4.12 | 569 | 69 | null | null | Oscar Lewis | A pioneering work from a visionary anthropologist, The Children of S | 499 | 229 | 216 | 94 | 21 | 9 | 0.954089 | 0.706667 |
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1,208,644 | The Chinese Parrot | 1,926 | 3.82 | 578 | 80 | Charlie Chan | 2 | Earl Derr Biggers | A mysterious millionaire with a penchant for strange pets takes a flyer on a string of pearls and finds that death is the broker. "Charlie Chan embarks on an incognito journey across the desert to find the answer to a question - a question posed by a dead parrot who spoke in Chinese . . . " | 224 | 130 | 249 | 171 | 20 | 8 | -0.088702 | 0.606667 |
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1,360,750 | Christmas at Candleshoe | 1,953 | 3.37 | 102 | 13 | null | null | Michael Innes | When an American multi-millionaire is keen to buy an Elizabethan manor, she comes up against fierce opposition from a young boy, Jay, and his band of bowmen, who are prepared to defend the manor and its nonagerian owner against all comers. It seems likely that that behind a monumental, seventeenth-century carving, by the hand of Gerard Christmas, lies a hoard of treasure. | 190 | 16 | 24 | 46 | 14 | 2 | -1.652887 | 0.456667 |
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121,749 | Prince Caspian | 1,955 | 3.97 | 304,235 | 5,732 | The Chronicles of Narnia Publication Order | 2 | C.S. Lewis | The Pevensie siblings are back to help a prince denied his rightful throne as he gathers an army in a desperate attempt to rid his land of a false king. But in the end, it is a battle of honor between two men alone that will decide the fate of an entire world. | 240 | 100,375 | 113,277 | 74,798 | 13,233 | 2,552 | 0.432693 | 0.656667 |
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140,225 | The Voyage of the Dawn Treader | 1,955 | 4.09 | 357,885 | 5,549 | The Chronicles of Narnia Publication Order | 3 | C.S. Lewis | Lucy and Edmund, with their dreadful cousin Eustace, get magically pulled into a painting of a ship at sea. That ship is the Dawn Treader, and on board is Caspian, King of Narnia. He and his companions, including Reepicheep, the valiant warrior mouse, are searching for seven lost lords of Narnia, and their voyage will take them to the edge of the world. Their adventures in
Lucy and Edmund, with their dreadful cousin Eustace, get magically pulled into a painting of a ship at sea. That ship is the Dawn Treader, and on board is Caspian, King of Narnia. He and his companions, including Reepicheep, the valiant warrior mouse, are searching for seven lost lords of Narnia, and their voyage will take them to the edge of the world. Their adventures include being captured by slave traders, a much-too-close encounter with a dragon, and visits to many enchanted islands, including the place where dreams come true.This edition follows the original numbering scheme. More recent publishers have re-numbered the volumes so that the books are ordered chronologically. This was reportedly the author's preference. Other editions number this book as #5.Please respect the title as printed.
...more | 248 | 143,136 | 123,205 | 75,128 | 13,524 | 2,892 | 0.84981 | 0.696667 |
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8,835,834 | The Leopard's Spots | 1,907 | 3.32 | 37 | 7 | The Reconstruction Trilogy | 1 | Thomas Dixon Jr. | Thomas F. Dixon, Jr. (1864-1946) was an American Baptist minister, playwright, lecturer, North Carolina state legislator, lawyer, and author, perhaps best known for writing The Clansman (1905), which was to become the inspiration for D. W. Griffith's film, The Birth of a Nation (1915). Although currently his life and works are discredited by his racism, he was among the mo
Thomas F. Dixon, Jr. (1864-1946) was an American Baptist minister, playwright, lecturer, North Carolina state legislator, lawyer, and author, perhaps best known for writing The Clansman (1905), which was to become the inspiration for D. W. Griffith's film, The Birth of a Nation (1915). Although currently his life and works are discredited by his racism, he was among the most popular speakers and writers of his day. His brother, the popular preacher Amzi Clarence Dixon, was also famous for helping to edit The Fundamentals, a series of articles influential in fundamentalist Christianity. He was the author of 22 novels; additionally, he wrote many plays, sermons, and works of nonfiction. Most of his work centered around three major themes constant throughout his writings: the need for racial purity, the evils of socialism, and the necessity of a stable family with a traditional role for the wife/mother. His other works include The Southerner: A Romance of the Real Lincoln (1913), The Victim: A Romance of the Real Jefferson Davis (1914), The Foolish Virgin (1915), The Way of a Man (1918) and The Man in Gray (1921).
...more | 524 | 9 | 10 | 8 | 4 | 6 | -1.826685 | 0.44 |
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32,669 | Clear and Present Danger | 1,989 | 4.1 | 118,147 | 703 | Jack Ryan Universe | 6 | Tom Clancy | Colombian drug lords, bored with Uncle Sam's hectoring, assassinate the head of the FBI. The message is clear: Bug off!At what point do these druggies threaten national security When can a nation act against its enemies These are questions Jack Ryan must answer because someone has quietly stepped over the line.Does anyone know who the real enemy is How much action is to
Colombian drug lords, bored with Uncle Sam's hectoring, assassinate the head of the FBI. The message is clear: Bug off!At what point do these druggies threaten national security When can a nation act against its enemies These are questions Jack Ryan must answer because someone has quietly stepped over the line.Does anyone know who the real enemy is How much action is too much Which lines have been crossed Ryan and his "dark side", a shadowy field officer known only as Mr. Clark, are charged with finding out. They expect danger from without... but the danger from within may be the greatest of all.
...more | 688 | 43,555 | 47,872 | 22,504 | 3,193 | 1,023 | 0.884569 | 0.7 |
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2,224,600 | Cocoon | 1,985 | 3.95 | 323 | 17 | null | null | David Saperstein | Story of illegal aliens and the people who helped them evade the law and escape back to their home. | 256 | 116 | 104 | 78 | 20 | 5 | 0.363174 | 0.65 |
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323,171 | The Color of Money | 1,984 | 3.83 | 393 | 27 | null | null | Walter Tevis | "Tevis in unequaled when it comes to creating and sustaining the tension of a high stakes game. Even readers who have never lifted a cue will be captivated."--Publishers WeeklyTwenty years after he conquered the underground pool circuit as The Hustler, "Fast" Eddie Felson is playing exhibition matches with former rival Minnesota Fats in shopping malls for prizes like cable
"Tevis in unequaled when it comes to creating and sustaining the tension of a high stakes game. Even readers who have never lifted a cue will be captivated."--Publishers WeeklyTwenty years after he conquered the underground pool circuit as The Hustler, "Fast" Eddie Felson is playing exhibition matches with former rival Minnesota Fats in shopping malls for prizes like cable television.With one failed marriage and years of running a pool hall behind him, Eddie is now ready to regain the skills needed to compete in a world of pool that has changed dramatically since he left. The real challenge comes when Eddie realizes that in order to compete with a new wave of young players, he must hone his skills in the unfamiliar game of nine-ball as opposed to the straight pool that had once won him fame. With a new generation of competitors, a higher-profile series of matches, and a waning confidence in his own abilities, "Fast" Eddie faces new challenges with unpredictable outcomes. The Color of Money is the source of the 1986 film starring Paul Newman in the role he had originated in The Hustler.
...more | 300 | 99 | 164 | 98 | 27 | 5 | -0.053942 | 0.61 |
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6,872 | The Comfort of Strangers | 1,981 | 3.43 | 12,198 | 1,065 | null | null | Ian McEwan | "Haunting and compelling." --The Times As their holiday unfolds, Colin and Maria are locked into their own intimacy. They groom themselves meticulously, as though there waits someone who cares deeply about how they appear. Then they meet a man with a disturbing story to tell and become drawn into a fantasy of violence and obsession. | 128 | 1,784 | 4,204 | 4,189 | 1,493 | 528 | -1.444329 | 0.476667 |
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3,181,151 | Coraz | 1,957 | 4.07 | 241 | 19 | Coraz | 1 | Caridad Bravo Adams | La historia se desarrolla en el 1800 en la Martinica, en las colonizadas Antillas francesas. Juan y Renato, dos medio hermanos en eterno odio, uno de ellos ha sido condenado al destierro y la c | 160 | 110 | 65 | 46 | 14 | 6 | 0.78029 | 0.69 |
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269,518 | Dad | 1,981 | 4.15 | 1,289 | 54 | null | null | William Wharton | John Tremont, a middle-aged man with a family, is summoned to his mother's bedside after she has suffered a heart attack. When he arrives, he finds her shaken but surviving; it is his father, left alone, who is unable to cope, who begins to fail, to slip away from life. Joined by his nineteen-year-old son, John suddenly becomes enmeshed in the frightening, consuming, endle
John Tremont, a middle-aged man with a family, is summoned to his mother's bedside after she has suffered a heart attack. When he arrives, he finds her shaken but surviving; it is his father, left alone, who is unable to cope, who begins to fail, to slip away from life. Joined by his nineteen-year-old son, John suddenly becomes enmeshed in the frightening, consuming, endless minutiae of caring for a beloved, dying parent. He also finds himself inescapably confronting his own middle age, jammed between his son's feckless impatience to get on with his life and his father's heartbreaking willingness to let go. A story of the love that binds generations, Dad celebrates the universe of possibilities within every individual life.
...more | 464 | 538 | 470 | 224 | 44 | 13 | 1.058368 | 0.716667 |
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9,893,072 | Damage | 1,991 | 3.69 | 3,632 | 460 | null | null | Josephine Hart | An astonishing debut novel--dark and shocking--that tells the story of a fatal, erotic obsession. Hart tells the story of a wealthly, successful man who falls in love with his son's fiance, a woman who wields a dangerous power over him. As the son's marriage grows imminent, the father falls deeper and deeper into the abyss of his obsession, plunging toward unfathomable tra
An astonishing debut novel--dark and shocking--that tells the story of a fatal, erotic obsession. Hart tells the story of a wealthly, successful man who falls in love with his son's fiance, a woman who wields a dangerous power over him. As the son's marriage grows imminent, the father falls deeper and deeper into the abyss of his obsession, plunging toward unfathomable tragedy.
...more | 208 | 914 | 1,258 | 992 | 339 | 129 | -0.540577 | 0.563333 |
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2,078,653 | The Dark Fields | 2,001 | 3.82 | 5,062 | 539 | Limitless | 1 | Alan Glynn | Imagine a drug that makes your brain function with perfect efficiency, tapping into your most fundamental resources of intelligence and drive, releasing all the passive knowledge you'd ever accumulated. A drug that made you focused, charming, fast, even attractive. Eddie Spinola is on such a drug. It's called MDT-48, and it's Viagra for the brain-a designer drug that's red
Imagine a drug that makes your brain function with perfect efficiency, tapping into your most fundamental resources of intelligence and drive, releasing all the passive knowledge you'd ever accumulated. A drug that made you focused, charming, fast, even attractive. Eddie Spinola is on such a drug. It's called MDT-48, and it's Viagra for the brain-a designer drug that's redesigning his life. But while MDT is helping Eddie achieve the kind of success he's only dreamed about, it's also chipping away at his sanity-splitting headaches, spontaneous blackouts, violent outbursts. And now that he's hooked and his supply is running low, Eddie must venture into the drug's dark past to feed his habit. What he discovers proves that MDT, once a dream come true, has become his worst nightmare.
...more | 341 | 1,267 | 2,081 | 1,305 | 336 | 73 | -0.088702 | 0.606667 |
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982,001 | The Day of the Jackal | 1,971 | 4.26 | 99,753 | 1,713 | null | null | Frederick Forsyth | One of the most celebrated thrillers ever written, The Day of the Jackal is the electrifying story of an anonymous Englishman who, in the spring of 1963, was hired by Colonel Marc Rodin, Operations Chief of the O.A.S., to assassinate General de Gaulle.From the Trade Paperback edition. | 358 | 45,375 | 37,942 | 13,935 | 1,912 | 589 | 1.440724 | 0.753333 |
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5,526 | Dear John | 2,006 | 4.03 | 497,416 | 11,064 | null | null | Nicholas Sparks | An angry rebel, John dropped out of school and enlisted in the Army, not knowing what else to do with his life--until he meets the girl of his dreams, Savannah. Their mutual attraction quickly grows into the kind of love that leaves Savannah waiting for John to finish his tour of duty, and John wanting to settle down with the woman who has captured his heart. But 9/11 chan
An angry rebel, John dropped out of school and enlisted in the Army, not knowing what else to do with his life--until he meets the girl of his dreams, Savannah. Their mutual attraction quickly grows into the kind of love that leaves Savannah waiting for John to finish his tour of duty, and John wanting to settle down with the woman who has captured his heart. But 9/11 changes everything. John feels it is his duty to re-enlist. And sadly, the long separation finds Savannah falling in love with someone else. Dear John, the letter read... and with those two words, a heart was broken and two lives were changed forever. Returning home, John must come to grips with the fact that Savannah, now married, is still his true love | 276 | 200,068 | 158,305 | 101,766 | 26,898 | 10,379 | 0.641252 | 0.676667 |
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644,537 | The Deep End of the Ocean | 1,996 | 3.86 | 111,806 | 1,166 | Cappadora Family | 1 | Jacquelyn Mitchard | Few first novels receive the kind of attention and acclaim showered on this powerful story | 434 | 31,700 | 42,673 | 29,309 | 6,312 | 1,812 | 0.050337 | 0.62 |
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25,239,218 | The Deluge | 1,886 | 3.86 | 3,028 | 46 | The Trilogy - 3 book edition | 2 | Henryk Sienkiewicz | Following on the success of With Fire and Sword, this second book of the classic Sienkiewicz Trilogy thunders across the vast historical canvas of Eastern Europe in the 17th Century, and its great human message of war, struggle, love, betrayal and redemption rings just as powerfully today as it did when it was first published in Polish in 1886.The Deluge is a literary mast
Following on the success of With Fire and Sword, this second book of the classic Sienkiewicz Trilogy thunders across the vast historical canvas of Eastern Europe in the 17th Century, and its great human message of war, struggle, love, betrayal and redemption rings just as powerfully today as it did when it was first published in Polish in 1886.The Deluge is a literary masterpiece, almost unknown today outside its native country, that sweeps across the plains and forests of Poland, Lithuania and Prussia in an epic tale of treasons, faith, selfishness, sacrifice and heroic valor, set against the bloody background of the Swedish invasion of 1655-1657, in an uncanny parallel to the events of our own decade, when an exploited and exhausted Poland threw off the yoke of foreign domination, reacquired its freedom, and opened the doors to liberty in East and Central Europe. Told by a master storyteller who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1905, this scorching tale of battles, passions, and intrigues is the structural and thematic heart of the Trilogy, Poland | 842 | 1,102 | 970 | 541 | 250 | 165 | 0.050337 | 0.62 |
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228,204 | Demon Seed | 1,973 | 3.4 | 12,770 | 468 | null | null | Dean Koontz | Susan Harris lived in self-imposed seclusion, in a mansion featuring numerous automated systems controlled by a state-of-the-art computer. Every comfort was provided, and in this often unsafe world of ours, her security was absolute.But now her security system has been breached, her sanctuary from the outside world violated by an insidious artificial intelligence, which ha
Susan Harris lived in self-imposed seclusion, in a mansion featuring numerous automated systems controlled by a state-of-the-art computer. Every comfort was provided, and in this often unsafe world of ours, her security was absolute.But now her security system has been breached, her sanctuary from the outside world violated by an insidious artificial intelligence, which has taken control of her house.In the privacy of her own home, and against her will, Susan will experience an inconceivable act of terror. She will become the object of the ultimate computer's consuming obsession: to learn everything there is to know about the flesh...
...more | 301 | 2,371 | 3,364 | 4,685 | 1,756 | 594 | -1.548608 | 0.466667 |
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553,118 | The Desperate Hours | 1,954 | 3.7 | 83 | 9 | null | null | Joseph Hayes | Suspense novel about a middle class family whose home is invaded by dangerous escaped convicts. | 246 | 19 | 30 | 25 | 8 | 1 | -0.505818 | 0.566667 |
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3,760 | Diamonds Are Forever | 1,956 | 3.6 | 14,280 | 770 | James Bond Original Series | 4 | Ian Fleming | "Listen, Bond," said Tiffany Case. "It | 230 | 2,311 | 5,318 | 5,427 | 1,096 | 128 | -0.853414 | 0.533333 |
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1,519,474 | Disclosure | 1,994 | 3.77 | 64,384 | 858 | null | null | Michael Crichton | A brutal struggle in the cutthroat computer industry; a shattering psychological game of cat and mouse; an accusation of sexual harassment that threatens to derail a brilliant career | 404 | 16,055 | 23,976 | 19,058 | 4,321 | 974 | -0.2625 | 0.59 |
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39,536 | A Distant Trumpet | 1,951 | 4.23 | 106 | 17 | null | null | Paul Horgan | A magnificently sweeping tale of the American West in the aftermath of the Civil War that is heroic in scale, rich in dramatic action, and filled with brilliant characterizations. Horgan's three-dimensional pageant of the daring and dangerous frontier life has been termed "the finest historical novel in American literature" (Gorham Munson) and "the finest novel yet on the
A magnificently sweeping tale of the American West in the aftermath of the Civil War that is heroic in scale, rich in dramatic action, and filled with brilliant characterizations. Horgan's three-dimensional pageant of the daring and dangerous frontier life has been termed "the finest historical novel in American literature" (Gorham Munson) and "the finest novel yet on the Southwest" (New York Times).Originally published in 1960selling half a million copies at the timeand first reissued as a Nonpareil paperback in 1991, this immensely popular work of fiction has attracted, informed, and been embraced by a whole new generation of readers."A monumental work by a monumental writer."San Francisco Chronicle"In the years to come our children will open this book with the same sense of discovery that kept me reading into the night. . . It deserves a permanent place in our literature."Miami News
...more | 629 | 44 | 46 | 13 | 2 | 1 | 1.336445 | 0.743333 |
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882,281 | Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood | 1,996 | 3.81 | 493,153 | 4,116 | Ya Yas | 1 | Rebecca Wells | The Barnes & Noble ReviewA powerfully literate yet thoroughly engaging and accessible novel, this story of a close-knit society of southern women has become a modern cult classic bolstered by author Rebecca Wells's abiltity to transcend standard-issue chick lit with bold and unique characters and a tale that digs deeply into the complex bonds of family.The entangled st
The Barnes & Noble ReviewA powerfully literate yet thoroughly engaging and accessible novel, this story of a close-knit society of southern women has become a modern cult classic bolstered by author Rebecca Wells's abiltity to transcend standard-issue chick lit with bold and unique characters and a tale that digs deeply into the complex bonds of family.The entangled story of actress Siddalee Walker, her mother Vivi, and Vivi's group of pals -- the Ya-Yas -- gets off to a heated start when Sidda's disparaging remarks about her mother run in the New York Times. Vivi declares all-out war and immediately cuts Sidda out of her will, pushes a libel suit, and forbids the other septuagenarian Ya-Ya's to speak to Sidda ever again. Convinced she doesn't "know how to love," a shaken Sidda postpones her upcoming wedding and flees to a remote Washington cabin. Suddenly concerned about her daughter, Vivi convenes an emergency Ya-Ya council and at last decides to reveal her jealously guarded past to Sidda through her treasured scrapbook, "The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood."The scrapbook spans Ya-Ya history, documenting among other things the hilarious Shirley Temple Look-Alike Contest that first united the four women in a conspiracy against polite society; the secret history and initiation rites of the group; a trip to Atlanta to attend the premier of Gone With The Wind; and Vivi's first and greatest love. It also sheds light on Vivi's reaction to the constraints of motherhood and the alcoholism, self-medication, and spiritual confusion that eventually led to a complete nervous breakdown. Also buried in the book is the key that unlocks Sidda's childhood memory of a lost lesson of love and brings her to a new understanding of her family's shared triumphs and tragedies.Much more universal in its appeal than the "women's book" some reviewers have been tempted to call it (according to Wells, "It's a book for women -- and smart men"), The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood manages with passion, humor, and an irrepressible gift for language to somehow show readers of all backgrounds a mirror-perfect reflection of their own life experiences. (Greg Marrs)
...more | 368 | 149,838 | 166,232 | 124,520 | 36,251 | 16,312 | -0.123461 | 0.603333 |
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4,371,665 | Dog Soldiers | 1,974 | 3.71 | 5,660 | 251 | null | null | Robert Stone | In Saigon during the last stages of the Vietnam war, a small-time journalist named John Converse thinks he'll find action - and profit - by getting involved in a big-time drug deal. But back in the States, things go badly wrong for him. | 342 | 1,401 | 2,078 | 1,520 | 478 | 183 | -0.471058 | 0.57 |
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973,214 | Donovan's Brain | 1,942 | 3.69 | 303 | 35 | null | null | Curt Siodmak | Curt Siodmak was a writer who was always ahead of his time. Today there are many writers who are comfortable in both print and film; there is also frequent overlap between science fiction and horror. But Siodmak was doing all this -- and doing it well -- before anyone else.He helped bring real science fiction to the movies (The Magnetic Monster, Riders to the Stars) and te
Curt Siodmak was a writer who was always ahead of his time. Today there are many writers who are comfortable in both print and film; there is also frequent overlap between science fiction and horror. But Siodmak was doing all this -- and doing it well -- before anyone else.He helped bring real science fiction to the movies (The Magnetic Monster, Riders to the Stars) and television (with scripts for Men into Space and Science Fiction Theatre). But his greatest fame as a scriptwriter was in the field of horror, with his creation of the character forever linked with Lon Chaney, Jr., The Wolf Man.How appropriate that his greatest novel should be the basis of three legitimate film versions and endless variations in other movies and television shows. Donovan's Brain is one of the most influential novels of our times.Dr. Patrick Cory is a scientist who, unable to save the life of W.H. Donovan after a plane crash, keeps his brain alive through an illegal experiment.The story provides an examination of human evil that is impossible to forget. W.H. Donovan is much more than one of the world's richest men. He is a megalomaniac even before Cory keeps his brain alive in the tank. Once freed of the distractions of the flesh, the will to power is all that drives the brain. It is able to communicate with Dr. Cory through telepathy, but that is only the beginning. Soon it begins to take over the scientist who keeps it alive. Possessed by the mind of Donovan, Cory finds himself helpless to fight the plans of the tycoon. Cory remains aware as he follows orders, becoming more and more like Donovan. His wife is helpless, his assistant is helpless, to stop Donovan's Brain!A word of warning: Don't start reading this novel unless you have the time to finish it in one sitting! This is a true page turner.
...more | 184 | 70 | 105 | 99 | 23 | 6 | -0.540577 | 0.563333 |
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280,513 | The Drowning Pool (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) | 1,950 | 4 | 4,464 | 186 | Lew Archer | 2 | Ross Macdonald | When a millionaire matriarch is found floating face-down in the family pool, the prime suspects are her good-for-nothing son and his seductive teenage daughter. In The Drowning Pool, Lew Archer takes this case in the L.A. suburbs and encounters a moral wasteland of corporate greed and family hatred--and sufficient motive for a dozen murders. | 244 | 1,408 | 1,888 | 980 | 140 | 48 | 0.536973 | 0.666667 |
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834,502 | The Dying Animal | 2,001 | 3.62 | 7,636 | 680 | null | null | Philip Roth | David Kepesh is white-haired and over sixty, an eminent TV culture critic and star lecturer at a New York college, when he meets Consuela Castillo, a decorous, well-mannered student of twenty-four, the daughter of wealthy Cuban exiles, who promptly puts his life into erotic disorder.Since the sexual revolution of the 1960s, when he left his wife and child, Kepesh has exper
David Kepesh is white-haired and over sixty, an eminent TV culture critic and star lecturer at a New York college, when he meets Consuela Castillo, a decorous, well-mannered student of twenty-four, the daughter of wealthy Cuban exiles, who promptly puts his life into erotic disorder.Since the sexual revolution of the 1960s, when he left his wife and child, Kepesh has experimented with living what he calls an "emancipated manhood," beyond the reach of family or a mate. Over the years he has refined that exuberant decade of protest and license into an orderly life in which he is both unimpeded in the world of eros and studiously devoted to his aesthetic pursuits. But the youth and beauty of Consuela, "a masterpiece of volupt | 156 | 1,576 | 2,836 | 2,224 | 766 | 234 | -0.783895 | 0.54 |
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4,406 | East of Eden | 1,952 | 4.36 | 376,034 | 16,651 | null | null | John Steinbeck | In his journal, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck called East of Eden | 601 | 212,929 | 106,373 | 42,123 | 10,151 | 4,458 | 1.788321 | 0.786667 |
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896,726 | Elephant Walk | 1,948 | 3.86 | 93 | 12 | null | null | Robert Standish | Reprint. Originally published: 1st American ed. New York: Macmillan, 1949. | 278 | 23 | 42 | 21 | 6 | 1 | 0.050337 | 0.62 |
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67,270 | Emil and the Detectives | 1,929 | 3.97 | 6,852 | 349 | Emil | 1 | Erich K | If Mrs Tischbein had known the amazing adventures her son Emil would have in Berlin, she'd never have let him go.Unfortunately, when his seven pounds goes missing on the train, Emil is determined to get it back - and when he teams up with the detectives he meets in Berlin, it's just the start of a marvellous money-retrieving adventure . . .A classic and influential story,
If Mrs Tischbein had known the amazing adventures her son Emil would have in Berlin, she'd never have let him go.Unfortunately, when his seven pounds goes missing on the train, Emil is determined to get it back - and when he teams up with the detectives he meets in Berlin, it's just the start of a marvellous money-retrieving adventure . . .A classic and influential story, Emil and the Detectives remains an enthralling read.
...more | 224 | 2,250 | 2,601 | 1,602 | 318 | 81 | 0.432693 | 0.656667 |
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831,906 | Empire Of The Sun | 1,984 | 3.99 | 14,705 | 748 | Empire of the Sun | 1 | J.G. Ballard | The classic, award-winning novel, made famous by Steven Spielberg's film, tells of a young boy's struggle to survive World War II in China.Jim is separated from his parents in a world at war. To survive, he must find a strength greater than all the events that surround him.Shanghai, 1941 -- a city aflame from the fateful torch of Pearl Harbor. In streets full of chaos and
The classic, award-winning novel, made famous by Steven Spielberg's film, tells of a young boy's struggle to survive World War II in China.Jim is separated from his parents in a world at war. To survive, he must find a strength greater than all the events that surround him.Shanghai, 1941 -- a city aflame from the fateful torch of Pearl Harbor. In streets full of chaos and corpses, a young British boy searches in vain for his parents. Imprisoned in a Japanese concentration camp, he is witness to the fierce white flash of Nagasaki, as the bomb bellows the end of the war...and the dawn of a blighted world.Ballard's enduring novel of war and deprivation, internment camps and death marches, and starvation and survival is an honest coming-of-age tale set in a world thrown utterly out of joint.
...more | 278 | 4,465 | 6,386 | 3,156 | 571 | 127 | 0.502213 | 0.663333 |
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458,191 | Escape to Witch Mountain | 1,968 | 3.88 | 3,021 | 155 | Witch Mountain | null | Alexander Key | Some terrifying experience has blocked Tony and Tia's memory of the past. But because they have supernatural powers, they are sure that they come from another world--and that their people still exist somewhere.Then Tony and Tia find that they must escape from men who want to use their special powers for evil. They begin a desperate search to find their true home--which lea
Some terrifying experience has blocked Tony and Tia's memory of the past. But because they have supernatural powers, they are sure that they come from another world--and that their people still exist somewhere.Then Tony and Tia find that they must escape from men who want to use their special powers for evil. They begin a desperate search to find their true home--which leads them to the strange and mysterious Witch Mountain.
...more | 180 | 1,025 | 909 | 849 | 184 | 54 | 0.119856 | 0.626667 |
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1,931,674 | Evil Come, Evil Go | 1,961 | 3.47 | 15 | 1 | null | null | Whit Masterson | The newspapers called it the Crime of the Century. The extravagance was understandable. The crime would have made headlines had it happened to an ordinary citizen, but this blow had been struck at Andy Paxton. His Golden voice had made him an American institution. Lissa, his actress wife, was almost as successful. It was unbelievable that murder and an evil even worse than
The newspapers called it the Crime of the Century. The extravagance was understandable. The crime would have made headlines had it happened to an ordinary citizen, but this blow had been struck at Andy Paxton. His Golden voice had made him an American institution. Lissa, his actress wife, was almost as successful. It was unbelievable that murder and an evil even worse than murder could have touched them.Suspecting that Andy's enemy might be someone who knew him well, the police dug into the past lives of the members of his entourage. Even the most trustworthy employees had unsavory secrets. Afraid to enlist an ally who might be an adversary, Andy sets out alone to find an opponent. There was no one he trusted, not even the police. And, ironically, he learned that the police did not trust him.Here is a taut, compelling mystery, set against the fascinating background of show business.
...more | 185 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 0 | -1.30529 | 0.49 |
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10,831,203 | The Executioners | 1,957 | 4.08 | 11,845 | 241 | null | null | John D. MacDonald | Murder was merciful compared to what Cady had in mind - and what Cady had in mind most was Bowden's innocent and lovely teen-age daughter. | 160 | 4,595 | 4,325 | 2,355 | 440 | 130 | 0.81505 | 0.693333 |
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681,986 | Eye of the Beholder | 1,980 | 3.62 | 311 | 30 | null | null | Marc Behm | The Woman. She's beautiful, and seductive, and as shifting as a shadow. Her name, her appearance, and her victims are forever changing. There is only one constant in the woman's life: her chilling motive. . . .The Eye. A private investigator, driven and obsessed. A desperate loner with secrets of his own. His job To follow the woman. But catching her is the last thing on
The Woman. She's beautiful, and seductive, and as shifting as a shadow. Her name, her appearance, and her victims are forever changing. There is only one constant in the woman's life: her chilling motive. . . .The Eye. A private investigator, driven and obsessed. A desperate loner with secrets of his own. His job To follow the woman. But catching her is the last thing on his mind. He likes to watch. And the closer he gets, the more dangerous his fantasy becomes. . . .
...more | 192 | 79 | 100 | 79 | 40 | 13 | -0.783895 | 0.54 |
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92,364 | Eye of the Needle | 1,978 | 4.17 | 111,274 | 2,384 | null | null | Ken Follett | One enemy spy knows the secret to the Allies' greatest deception, a brilliant aristocrat and ruthless assassin -- code name: "The Needle" -- who holds the key to ultimate Nazi victory. Only one person stands in his way: a lonely Englishwoman on an isolated island, who is beginning to love the killer who has mysteriously entered her life. All will come to a terrifying concl
One enemy spy knows the secret to the Allies' greatest deception, a brilliant aristocrat and ruthless assassin -- code name: "The Needle" -- who holds the key to ultimate Nazi victory. Only one person stands in his way: a lonely Englishwoman on an isolated island, who is beginning to love the killer who has mysteriously entered her life. All will come to a terrifying conclusion in Ken Follett's unsurpassed and unforgettable masterwork of suspense, intrigue, and the dangerous machinations of the human heart.
...more | 339 | 44,758 | 44,907 | 18,565 | 2,384 | 660 | 1.127887 | 0.723333 |
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1,157,599 | False Witness | 1,981 | 3.5 | 128 | 12 | null | null | Dorothy Uhnak | After surviving an unspeakable crime, a victim identifies a shocking attackerLynne Jacobi gets the call a few hours before dawn. Model-turned-television celebrity Sanderalee Dawson lies on the kitchen floor of her sumptuous Manhattan apartment, hanging on to life by a tenuous thread. The victim of a savage assault, she stuns everyone when she survives and identifies her at
After surviving an unspeakable crime, a victim identifies a shocking attackerLynne Jacobi gets the call a few hours before dawn. Model-turned-television celebrity Sanderalee Dawson lies on the kitchen floor of her sumptuous Manhattan apartment, hanging on to life by a tenuous thread. The victim of a savage assault, she stuns everyone when she survives and identifies her attacker. | 288 | 29 | 27 | 53 | 17 | 2 | -1.201011 | 0.5 |
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328,464 | Fantastic Mr. Fox | 1,970 | 4.04 | 88,912 | 3,434 | null | null | Roald Dahl | In the tradition of The Adventures of Peter Rabbit, this is a "garden tale" of farmer versus vermin, or vice versa. The farmers in this case are a vaguely criminal team of three stooges: "Boggis and Bunce and Bean / One fat, one short, one lean. / These horrible crooks / So different in looks / Were nonetheless equally mean." Whatever their prowess as poultry farmers, with
In the tradition of The Adventures of Peter Rabbit, this is a "garden tale" of farmer versus vermin, or vice versa. The farmers in this case are a vaguely criminal team of three stooges: "Boggis and Bunce and Bean / One fat, one short, one lean. / These horrible crooks / So different in looks / Were nonetheless equally mean." Whatever their prowess as poultry farmers, within these pages their sole objective is the extermination of our hero--the noble, the clever, the Fantastic Mr. Fox. Our loyalties are defined from the start; after all, how could you cheer for a man named Bunce who eats his doughnuts stuffed with mashed goose livers As one might expect, the farmers in this story come out smelling like ... well, what farmers occasionally do smell like. This early Roald Dahl adventure is great for reading aloud to three- to seven-year-olds, who will be delighted to hear that Mr. Fox keeps his family one step ahead of the obsessed farmers. When they try to dig him out, he digs faster; when they lay siege to his den, he tunnels to where the farmers least expect him--their own larders! In the end, Mr. Fox not only survives, but also helps the whole community of burrowing creatures live happily ever after. With his usual flourish, Dahl evokes a magical animal world that, as children, we always knew existed, had we only known where or how to look for it. (Great read aloud for any age; written at a 9- to 12-year-old reading level)
...more | 63 | 33,723 | 31,055 | 19,396 | 3,814 | 924 | 0.676011 | 0.68 |
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31,463 | Far From the Madding Crowd | 1,874 | 3.93 | 113,249 | 5,067 | null | null | Thomas Hardy | Librarian note: an alternate cover for this edition can be found here.Independent and spirited Bathsheba Everdene has come to Weatherbury to take up her position as a farmer on the largest estate in the area. Her bold presence draws three very different suitors: the gentleman-farmer Boldwood, soldier-seducer Sergeant Troy and the devoted shepherd Gabriel Oak. Each, in cont
Librarian note: an alternate cover for this edition can be found here.Independent and spirited Bathsheba Everdene has come to Weatherbury to take up her position as a farmer on the largest estate in the area. Her bold presence draws three very different suitors: the gentleman-farmer Boldwood, soldier-seducer Sergeant Troy and the devoted shepherd Gabriel Oak. Each, in contrasting ways, unsettles her decisions and complicates her life, and tragedy ensues, threatening the stability of the whole community. The first of his works set in Wessex, Hardy's novel of swift passion and slow courtship is imbued with his evocative descriptions of rural life and landscapes, and with unflinching honesty about sexual relationships.
...more | 433 | 37,256 | 42,549 | 24,712 | 6,250 | 2,482 | 0.293655 | 0.643333 |
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1,058,535 | Father of Frankenstein | 1,995 | 4.11 | 841 | 80 | null | null | Christopher Bram | James Whale, the elegant director of such classic horror films as"Frankenstein" and "The Bride of Frankenstein," was found at his Los Angeles mansion in 1957, dead of unnatural causes. Christopher Bram, whose social insight and wit have earned him comparisons to Henry James and Gore Vidal, explores the mystery of Whale's last days in this evocative and suspenseful work of
James Whale, the elegant director of such classic horror films as"Frankenstein" and "The Bride of Frankenstein," was found at his Los Angeles mansion in 1957, dead of unnatural causes. Christopher Bram, whose social insight and wit have earned him comparisons to Henry James and Gore Vidal, explores the mystery of Whale's last days in this evocative and suspenseful work of fiction. Home from the hospital after a minor stroke, Whale becomes convinced that his time is nearly over. Increasingly confused and disoriented, he is overwhelmed by images from the past: his working-class childhood in Britain, lavish Hollywood premieres in the 1930s attended with a nervous lover, meeting Garbo, parties with Elsa Manchester, Charles Laughton, and Elizabeth Taylor, nightmares from his own movies. Handsome ex-marine Clayton Boone, an angry loner who is Whale's gardener, becomes the focus of a fantastic plot Whale devises to provide his life with the dramatic ending it deserves. Bram juxtaposes the worlds of two very different men, James Whale and Clayton Boone, deftly shifting between the complex mind of an English exile full of experience and sardonic humor, and that of an American whose attitude toward Whale moves from disgust to fascination to a final shock of disbelief. Suggesting influences as diverse as Sunset Boulevard and the works of Christopher Isherwood, Father of Frankenstein is a rich yet cutting look at fame, mortality, and hidden desire. Often praised for his singular take on history, culture, and sex, Bram has surpassed himself with this ingenious new novel.
...more | 288 | 292 | 385 | 134 | 23 | 7 | 0.919329 | 0.703333 |
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34 | The Fellowship of the Ring | 1,955 | 4.35 | 2,068,325 | 18,185 | The Lord of the Rings | 1 | J.R.R. Tolkien | Alternate Cover Edition ISBN 0618260269 (copyright page ISBN is 0618346252 - different from back cover)One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkeness bind themIn ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, The Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could
Alternate Cover Edition ISBN 0618260269 (copyright page ISBN is 0618346252 - different from back cover)One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkeness bind themIn ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, The Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell into the hands of Bilbo Baggins, as told in The Hobbit.In a sleepy village in the Shire, young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense task, as his elderly cousin Bilbo entrusts the Ring to his care. Frodo must leave his home and make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the Ring and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose.--back cover
...more | 398 | 1,194,095 | 549,990 | 221,452 | 60,903 | 41,885 | 1.753561 | 0.783333 |
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21,306,968 | Felidae: A novel of Cats and Murder | 1,989 | 3.91 | 2,157 | 140 | Felidae | 1 | Akif Pirin | Francis, proklat chytr | 262 | 712 | 780 | 476 | 140 | 49 | 0.224135 | 0.636667 |
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965,337 | Fever Pitch Hb | 1,992 | 3.73 | 30,902 | 1,333 | null | null | Nick Hornby | This is a book about identity, belonging, obsession; about afternoons in the driving rain and bitter cold and glorious, unforgettable goals; getting your head read in Hampstead and punched at Highbury; the dazzling skills of the gods of football and leaving your girlfriend lying fainted on the terraces because Arsenal are about to score. It's about the moments of ecstasy i
This is a book about identity, belonging, obsession; about afternoons in the driving rain and bitter cold and glorious, unforgettable goals; getting your head read in Hampstead and punched at Highbury; the dazzling skills of the gods of football and leaving your girlfriend lying fainted on the terraces because Arsenal are about to score. It's about the moments of ecstasy in one man's life. And his pain. And it's about the only true question there is: Which comes first, Football or Life
...more | 256 | 7,699 | 11,288 | 8,676 | 2,393 | 846 | -0.401539 | 0.576667 |
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2,580,274 | Fiddler's Green | 1,950 | 3.79 | 24 | 2 | null | null | Ernest K. Gann | A San Francisco hood is rubbed out by rival Bruno Felkin, who himself reports the crime to Homicide Lieut. Kelsey in an alibi scheme which fails. To escape, he stows away on a fishing boat. At sea, skipper Hamil Linder receives Bruno kindly, teaching him fishing; Bruno enlists Hamil's wayward son Carl to tend his slot machines. Then Carl takes an interest in Bruno's girl C
A San Francisco hood is rubbed out by rival Bruno Felkin, who himself reports the crime to Homicide Lieut. Kelsey in an alibi scheme which fails. To escape, he stows away on a fishing boat. At sea, skipper Hamil Linder receives Bruno kindly, teaching him fishing; Bruno enlists Hamil's wayward son Carl to tend his slot machines. Then Carl takes an interest in Bruno's girl Connie. Climax in a storm at sea. Originally published: New York: Sloane, 1950 ; London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1954 The movie "The Raging Tide" (1950)with Shelley Winters, Richard Conte, Stephen McNally, Charles Bickford, Alex Nicol, John McIntire was an adaptation of Ernest K. Gann's novel "Fiddler's Green" from Universal-International.
...more | 302 | 8 | 4 | 11 | 1 | 0 | -0.192981 | 0.596667 |
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826,179 | Fight Club | 1,996 | 4.2 | 432,279 | 12,638 | null | null | Chuck Palahniuk | "THE FIRST RULE ABOUT FIGHT CLUB IS YOU DON'T TALK ABOUT CLUB."Every weekend, in the basements and parking lots of bars across the country, young men with good white-collar jobs and absent fathers take off their shoes and shirts and fight each other barehanded for as long as they have to. Then they go back to those jobs with blackened eyes and loosened teeth and the sense
"THE FIRST RULE ABOUT FIGHT CLUB IS YOU DON'T TALK ABOUT CLUB."Every weekend, in the basements and parking lots of bars across the country, young men with good white-collar jobs and absent fathers take off their shoes and shirts and fight each other barehanded for as long as they have to. Then they go back to those jobs with blackened eyes and loosened teeth and the sense that they can handle anything. Fight Club is the invention of Tyler Durden, projectionist, waiter, and dark, anarchic genius, and it's only the beginning of his plans for revenge on a world where cancer support groups have the corner on human warmth. As the narrator of Fight Club puts it: "If people thought you were dying, they gave you their full attention.""THE SECOND RULE ABOUT FIGHT CLUB IS YOU DON'T TALK ABOUT CLUB."Where does Tyler Durden come from Why do his violent schemes so capture the troubled, insomniac narrator What events bring them to the roof of the world's tallest building, wired to explode in ten minutes The answers in Fight Club reveal a world poised on the brink of mayhem | 208 | 193,412 | 155,010 | 64,559 | 14,174 | 5,124 | 1.232166 | 0.733333 |
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1,492,337 | Fighting Caravans | 1,929 | 3.92 | 281 | 15 | null | null | Zane Grey | Twenty-eight wagons packed with families, supplies, and tough-as-nails Texans circle up and fight for their lives against relentless hostile Indian attacks in this action-packed adventure from "the greatest novelist of the American West." Over 30 million Zane Gray paperbacks sold since 1954. | 361 | 94 | 83 | 93 | 9 | 2 | 0.258895 | 0.64 |
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202,292 | The First Wives Club | 1,992 | 3.89 | 19,069 | 275 | null | null | Olivia Goldsmith | Don't get mad. Get everything.When their best friend commits suicide over her divorce, Elise, Brenda and Annie decide enough is enough. Each was crucial to her husband's career. But now that the men are successful, they've traded in their wives for newer, blonder models.Over lunch one day they form the First Wives Club. But this is no support group. This is the SAS in Chan
Don't get mad. Get everything.When their best friend commits suicide over her divorce, Elise, Brenda and Annie decide enough is enough. Each was crucial to her husband's career. But now that the men are successful, they've traded in their wives for newer, blonder models.Over lunch one day they form the First Wives Club. But this is no support group. This is the SAS in Chanel. Painstakingly, inexorably, they plan the downfall of the men who've wrecked their lives - and know that revenge has never tasted sweeter...
...more | 480 | 6,390 | 6,023 | 5,107 | 1,208 | 341 | 0.154616 | 0.63 |
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11,501,608 | Flashpoint | 1,976 | 4.16 | 7,756 | 584 | The World of Flashpoint | null | Geoff Johns | Not a dream, not an imaginary story, not an elseworld. This is Flash Fact: When Barry Allen wakes at his desk, he discovers the world has changed. Family is alive, loved ones are strangers, and close friends are different, gone or worse. It's a world on the brink of a cataclysmic war - but where are Earth's Greatest Heroes to stop it It's a place where America's last hope
Not a dream, not an imaginary story, not an elseworld. This is Flash Fact: When Barry Allen wakes at his desk, he discovers the world has changed. Family is alive, loved ones are strangers, and close friends are different, gone or worse. It's a world on the brink of a cataclysmic war - but where are Earth's Greatest Heroes to stop it It's a place where America's last hope is Cyborg, who hopes to gather the forces of The Outsider, The Secret 7, SHAZAM!, Citizen Cold and other new and familiar, yet altered, faces! It's a world that could be running out of time, if The Flash can't find the villain who altered the time line!Collecting: Flashpoint 1-5
...more | 176 | 3,378 | 2,735 | 1,261 | 307 | 75 | 1.093127 | 0.72 |
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1,058,165 | For Love Of The Game: A Novel | 1,991 | 3.84 | 1,077 | 91 | null | null | Michael Shaara | This is the heartfelt story of the last game played by a baseball legend. Written by Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Shaara, it is a novel that is destined to be read each season by new fans and old as long as the game is played.In For Love of the Game, we meet Billy Chapel, after seventeen seasons a sure Hall of Famer, a pitcher who ranks right up there with Feller and Spah
This is the heartfelt story of the last game played by a baseball legend. Written by Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Shaara, it is a novel that is destined to be read each season by new fans and old as long as the game is played.In For Love of the Game, we meet Billy Chapel, after seventeen seasons a sure Hall of Famer, a pitcher who ranks right up there with Feller and Spahn and Koufax and Christy Mathewson. He is a man who retained an endearing quality of youth, a man who has devoted his life to the game he loves and plays so well. He is also that rarity, a pure competitor in professional sports - and, because of that, because of his unsurpassed skill and innocent faith, he has been betrayed.Michael Schaara uses his intimate knowledge of baseball to tell the exciting tension-filled story of one of the most memorable games ever played. It is a game that will decide which team goes to the World Series. But this is also a story about the need to choose and how choices can define a man's character and, perhaps, his fate.Set in the recent past, this is a novel as involving as the wonderful game it portrays. It is a story about true excellence, pride and the possibility of holding onto love.Billy Chapel may be Michael Schaara's most memorable character and For Love of the Game is surely one of the few sport fictions to deserve the name of literature.Michael Schaara published his first of five novels, The Broken Place, in 1968. In 1974 his masterpiece about the Civil War, The Killer Angels, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. The manuscript For Love of the Game was discovered by his estate after his death in 1988.
...more | 152 | 304 | 402 | 290 | 61 | 20 | -0.019182 | 0.613333 |
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5,368 | Forever Amber | 1,944 | 3.99 | 15,659 | 1,021 | null | null | Kathleen Winsor | Abandoned pregnant and penniless on the teeming streets of London, 16-year-old Amber St. Clare manages, by using her wits, beauty, and courage, to climb to the highest position a woman could achieve in Restoration England-that of favorite mistress of the Merry Monarch, Charles II. From whores and highwaymen to courtiers and noblemen, from events such as the Great Plague an
Abandoned pregnant and penniless on the teeming streets of London, 16-year-old Amber St. Clare manages, by using her wits, beauty, and courage, to climb to the highest position a woman could achieve in Restoration England-that of favorite mistress of the Merry Monarch, Charles II. From whores and highwaymen to courtiers and noblemen, from events such as the Great Plague and the Fire of London to the intimate passions of ordinary-and extraordinary-men and women, Amber experiences it all. But throughout her trials and escapades, she remains, in her heart, true to the one man she really loves, the one man she can never have. Frequently compared to Gone with the Wind, Forever Amber is the other great historical romance, outselling every other American novel of the 1940s-despite being banned in Boston for its sheer sexiness. A book to read and reread, this edition brings back to print an unforgettable romance and a timeless masterpiece.
...more | 972 | 6,082 | 4,985 | 3,248 | 975 | 369 | 0.502213 | 0.663333 |
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2,122 | The Fountainhead | 1,943 | 3.86 | 275,681 | 11,112 | null | null | Ayn Rand | Esta es la historia de un joven e intransigente arquitecto, de su violenta lucha en contra de los est | 704 | 106,761 | 82,400 | 47,240 | 20,018 | 19,262 | 0.050337 | 0.62 |
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1,322,303 | The Fox and The Hound | 1,967 | 4.25 | 919 | 60 | null | null | Daniel P. Mannix | Tod, a red fox, is sharp-witted, cunning, dauntless, and valiant. His ability to defy death becomes legendary. Copper, a half-bloodhound tracker, is the dog who lives to hunt the fox and, along with his beloved master, embarks on a lifelong quest to end the life of the elusive Tod.Described from the animal's perspectives, the paths of these rivals intersect and overlap in
Tod, a red fox, is sharp-witted, cunning, dauntless, and valiant. His ability to defy death becomes legendary. Copper, a half-bloodhound tracker, is the dog who lives to hunt the fox and, along with his beloved master, embarks on a lifelong quest to end the life of the elusive Tod.Described from the animal's perspectives, the paths of these rivals intersect and overlap in a world teeming with scent, sound, sight and instinct. Their story is vivid, gripping, absorbing, arresting and unflinching. The reader's awareness of wildlife and the essence of their domain may be reshaped and refined and, in the end, irrevocably changed.Winner of the Dutton Animal Book Award in 1967, the Athenaeum Literary Award, and was a Reader's Digest Book Club selection. The Fox and the Hound also became an animated Walt Disney movie.
...more | 251 | 462 | 284 | 127 | 30 | 16 | 1.405964 | 0.75 |
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523,518 | The Friendly Persuasion | 1,955 | 3.91 | 739 | 121 | null | null | Jessamyn West | A quintessential American heroine, Eliza Birdwell is a wonderful blend of would-be austerity, practicality, and gentle humor when it comes to keeping her faith and caring for her family and community. Her husband, Jess, shares Eliza's love of people and peaceful ways but, unlike Eliza, also displays a fondness for a fast horse and a lively tune. With their children, they m
A quintessential American heroine, Eliza Birdwell is a wonderful blend of would-be austerity, practicality, and gentle humor when it comes to keeping her faith and caring for her family and community. Her husband, Jess, shares Eliza's love of people and peaceful ways but, unlike Eliza, also displays a fondness for a fast horse and a lively tune. With their children, they must negotiate their way through a world that constantly confronts them-sometimes with candor, sometimes with violence-and tests the strength of their beliefs. Whether it's a gift parcel arriving on their doorstep or Confederate soldiers approaching their land, the Birdwells embrace life with emotion, conviction, and a love for one another that seems to conquer all. The Friendly Persuasion has charmed generations of readers as one of our classic tales of the American Midwest.
...more | 228 | 214 | 308 | 165 | 37 | 15 | 0.224135 | 0.636667 |
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1,094,533 | The Game of X | 1,965 | 3.77 | 137 | 16 | null | null | Robert Sheckley | The Game of X was loosely adapted as the 1981 Disney film, Condorman: Sheckley also wrote the novelization of this film. Say "gesundheit" to the spy who came in from the cold & get set for the intrigue novel to end all. "Combines ironic wit with suspense to remarkable effect."--John Le Carre Here is a spy-tangled novel of undercover misadventure that goes from Paris to
The Game of X was loosely adapted as the 1981 Disney film, Condorman: Sheckley also wrote the novelization of this film. Say "gesundheit" to the spy who came in from the cold & get set for the intrigue novel to end all. "Combines ironic wit with suspense to remarkable effect."--John Le Carre Here is a spy-tangled novel of undercover misadventure that goes from Paris to Venice by ways of intrigue that 007 never dreamed of--with semi-professional killers, submissive subversives & a swinging Mata Hari from Hunter College. This is upmanship espionage at its funniest--& all in The Game of X.
...more | 159 | 32 | 53 | 43 | 7 | 2 | -0.2625 | 0.59 |
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15,731,876 | Garden of Stones | 1,983 | 3.86 | 3,850 | 481 | null | null | Sophie Littlefield | In the dark days of war, a mother makes the ultimate sacrifice. | 301 | 887 | 1,780 | 975 | 164 | 44 | 0.050337 | 0.62 |
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239,437 | The Ghost and Mrs. Muir | 1,945 | 4.17 | 1,781 | 298 | null | null | Josephine Leslie | Burdened by debt after her husband's death, Lucy Muir insists on moving into the very cheap Gull Cottage in the quaint seaside village of Whitecliff, despite multiple warnings that the house is haunted. Upon discovering the rumors to be true, the young widow ends up forming a special companionship with the ghost of handsome former sea captain Daniel Gregg. Through the stru
Burdened by debt after her husband's death, Lucy Muir insists on moving into the very cheap Gull Cottage in the quaint seaside village of Whitecliff, despite multiple warnings that the house is haunted. Upon discovering the rumors to be true, the young widow ends up forming a special companionship with the ghost of handsome former sea captain Daniel Gregg. Through the struggles of supporting her children, seeking out romance from the wrong places, and working to publish the captain's story as a book, Blood and Swash, Lucy finds in her secret relationship with Captain Gregg a comfort and blossoming love she never could have predicted.Originally published in 1945, made into a movie in 1947, and later adapted into a television sitcom in 1968, this romantic tale explores how love can develop without boundaries, both in this life and beyond.
...more | 174 | 743 | 669 | 306 | 50 | 13 | 1.127887 | 0.723333 |
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149,150 | Giant | 1,952 | 4 | 2,281 | 224 | null | null | Edna Ferber | From Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edna Ferber, Giant captures the essence of Texas on a staggering scale as it chronicles the life and times of cattleman Jordan "Bick" Benedict, his young society wife, Leslie, and three generations of land-rich sons.A sensational story of power, love, cattle barons, and oil tycoons, Giant was the basis of the epic 1956 classic film starri
From Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edna Ferber, Giant captures the essence of Texas on a staggering scale as it chronicles the life and times of cattleman Jordan "Bick" Benedict, his young society wife, Leslie, and three generations of land-rich sons.A sensational story of power, love, cattle barons, and oil tycoons, Giant was the basis of the epic 1956 classic film starring James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, and Rock Hudson.
...more | 432 | 761 | 892 | 511 | 96 | 21 | 0.536973 | 0.666667 |
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258,079 | The Go-Between | 1,953 | 3.95 | 7,124 | 580 | null | null | L.P. Hartley | "The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there."Summering with a fellow schoolboy on a great English estate, Leo, the hero of L. P. Hartley's finest novel, encounters a world of unimagined luxury. But when his friend's beautiful older sister enlists him as the unwitting messenger in her illicit love affair, the aftershocks will be felt for years. The insp
"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there."Summering with a fellow schoolboy on a great English estate, Leo, the hero of L. P. Hartley's finest novel, encounters a world of unimagined luxury. But when his friend's beautiful older sister enlists him as the unwitting messenger in her illicit love affair, the aftershocks will be felt for years. The inspiration for the brilliant Joseph Losey/Harold Pinter film starring Julie Christie and Alan Bates, The Go-Between is a masterpiece | 326 | 2,312 | 2,738 | 1,598 | 371 | 105 | 0.363174 | 0.65 |
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3,865,815 | God and My Country | 1,954 | 3.74 | 39 | 9 | null | null | MacKinlay Kantor | MacKinlay Kantor has woven a compelling, appealing novel about the life of a simple American man who held in his care the destinies of hundreds of boys. With rare insight and sympathy, MacKinlay Kantor has created the memorable Lem Siddons, who gave forty years of his wisdom, the fund of his laughter, the knowledgable touch, the sweetness and love that were his, to generat
MacKinlay Kantor has woven a compelling, appealing novel about the life of a simple American man who held in his care the destinies of hundreds of boys. With rare insight and sympathy, MacKinlay Kantor has created the memorable Lem Siddons, who gave forty years of his wisdom, the fund of his laughter, the knowledgable touch, the sweetness and love that were his, to generations of Boy Scouts. Not every boy who passed khaki-clothed along his life won the world's respect or the Scoutmaster's pride. There were some misfits, fallers-by-the-wayside...sure. But Lem Siddons knew his reward every waking moment of his life and in his dreams as well. His story is one you will remember as that of the closest of your friends: his love for the delicate and freckled Vida that grew with a lifetime, his son Downey who wanted to crowd the years. MacKinlay Kantor has set the scene for God and My Country in a small town very much like Webster City, Iowa, where he was born, and has dedicated the book to his Scoutmaster of those days. It is a perfect example of MacKinlay Kantor's special genius for capturing the full flavor of a small American town, and of its people.
...more | 128 | 9 | 14 | 13 | 3 | 0 | -0.366779 | 0.58 |
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3,428,364 | The Gods Hate Kansas | 1,964 | 3.22 | 55 | 19 | null | null | Joseph J. Millard | It began with the landing of nine meteors in Kansas. Then, suddenly, it exploded into a massive catastrophe.First, the meteorite investigating team were turned into automatons, ruled by an unknown, alien intelligence. They barricaded themselvesfrom the world and began building a rocket project, aimed at traversing the stars.Then the Crimson Plague struck, sweeping over Ear
It began with the landing of nine meteors in Kansas. Then, suddenly, it exploded into a massive catastrophe.First, the meteorite investigating team were turned into automatons, ruled by an unknown, alien intelligence. They barricaded themselvesfrom the world and began building a rocket project, aimed at traversing the stars.Then the Crimson Plague struck, sweeping over Earth | 126 | 5 | 12 | 29 | 8 | 1 | -2.174282 | 0.406667 |
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191,581 | God's Little Acre | 1,933 | 3.66 | 1,891 | 183 | null | null | Erskine Caldwell | Like Tobacco Road, this novel chronicles the final decline of a poor white family in rural Georgia. Exhorted by their patriarch Ty Ty, the Waldens ruin their land by digging it up in search of gold. Complex sexual entanglements and betrayals lead to a murder within the family that completes its dissolution. Juxtaposed against the Waldens' obsessive search is the story of T
Like Tobacco Road, this novel chronicles the final decline of a poor white family in rural Georgia. Exhorted by their patriarch Ty Ty, the Waldens ruin their land by digging it up in search of gold. Complex sexual entanglements and betrayals lead to a murder within the family that completes its dissolution. Juxtaposed against the Waldens' obsessive search is the story of Ty Ty's son-in-law, a cotton mill worker in a nearby town who is killed during a strike.First published in 1933, God's Little Acre was censured by the Georgia Literary Commission, banned in Boston, and once led the all-time best-seller list, with more than ten million copies in print.
...more | 224 | 418 | 722 | 509 | 169 | 73 | -0.644856 | 0.553333 |
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16,958 | Gold Mine | 1,970 | 3.74 | 1,980 | 52 | null | null | Wilbur Smith | Gold Mine by Wilbur SmithNorth of Johannesburg, five companies share the Kitchenerville fields, furiously blasting and digging deep into the earth. For some men, gold mining is a way of life--and death. For some it's just a business. For one man, it's the most dangerous game of all...Rod Ironsides makes love to his boss's wife and drives his miners faster and harder than a
Gold Mine by Wilbur SmithNorth of Johannesburg, five companies share the Kitchenerville fields, furiously blasting and digging deep into the earth. For some men, gold mining is a way of life--and death. For some it's just a business. For one man, it's the most dangerous game of all...Rod Ironsides makes love to his boss's wife and drives his miners faster and harder than anyone has ever dared. A few weeks ago, Ironsides had a passion for golf and one-night stands. Now, he has been handed a prize and a curse: to blast through rock and reap a fortune--or be destroyed.From a split-second, oxygen-sucking explosion to a looming underground wall of water, there are a dozen ways Rod can fail. But his passion and fury won't let him back down from a conspiracy he cannot see: men who want to turn his mine into a death trap--for the bloodiest pay-day of all...
...more | 272 | 493 | 688 | 620 | 151 | 28 | -0.366779 | 0.58 |
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259,020 | The Golden Bowl | 1,904 | 3.78 | 10,035 | 349 | null | null | Henry James | 'A thing to marvel at, a thing to be grateful for.'A rich American art-collector and his daughter Maggie buy in for themselves and to their greater glory a beautiful young wife and noble husband. They do not know that Charlotte and Prince Amerigo were formerly lovers, nor that on the eve of the Prince's marriage they had discovered, in a Bloomsbury antique shop, a golden b
'A thing to marvel at, a thing to be grateful for.'A rich American art-collector and his daughter Maggie buy in for themselves and to their greater glory a beautiful young wife and noble husband. They do not know that Charlotte and Prince Amerigo were formerly lovers, nor that on the eve of the Prince's marriage they had discovered, in a Bloomsbury antique shop, a golden bowl with a secret flaw. The superstitious Amerigo, fearing for his gilded future, refuses to accept it as a wedding gift from Charlotte. 'Don't you think too much of "cracks,"' she is later to say to him, 'aren't you too afraid of them I risk the cracks...' When the golden bowl is broken, Maggie must leave the security of her childhood and try to reassemble the pieces of her shattered happiness.In this, the last of his three great poetic masterpieces, James combined with a dazzling virtuosity elements of social comedy, of mystery, terror, and myth. "The Golden Bowl" is the most controversial, ambiguous, and sophisticated of James's novels.The text of this World's Classics paperback is that of the first English edition (1905). James's Preface is included, and a new introduction, notes, and selected variant readings.
...more | 591 | 3,194 | 3,173 | 2,373 | 875 | 420 | -0.22774 | 0.593333 |
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1,078 | The Good Earth | 1,931 | 3.98 | 207,966 | 9,098 | House of Earth | 1 | Pearl S. Buck | This tells the poignant tale of a Chinese farmer and his family in old agrarian China. The humble Wang Lung glories in the soil he works, nurturing the land as it nurtures him and his family. Nearby, the nobles of the House of Hwang consider themselves above the land and its workers; but they will soon meet their own downfall.Hard times come upon Wang Lung and his family w
This tells the poignant tale of a Chinese farmer and his family in old agrarian China. The humble Wang Lung glories in the soil he works, nurturing the land as it nurtures him and his family. Nearby, the nobles of the House of Hwang consider themselves above the land and its workers; but they will soon meet their own downfall.Hard times come upon Wang Lung and his family when flood and drought force them to seek work in the city. The working people riot, breaking into the homes of the rich and forcing them to flee. When Wang Lung shows mercy to one noble and is rewarded, he begins to rise in the world, even as the House of Hwang falls.
...more | 418 | 77,040 | 72,335 | 40,891 | 12,172 | 5,528 | 0.467453 | 0.66 |
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147,326 | The Good German | 2,001 | 3.74 | 5,235 | 534 | null | null | Joseph Kanon | With World War II finally ending, Jake Geismar, former Berlin correspondent for CBS, has wangled one of the coveted press slots for the Potsdam Conference. His assignment: a series of articles on the Allied occupation. His personal agenda: to find Lena, the German mistress he left behind at the outbreak of the war. When Jake stumbles on a murder -- an American soldier was
With World War II finally ending, Jake Geismar, former Berlin correspondent for CBS, has wangled one of the coveted press slots for the Potsdam Conference. His assignment: a series of articles on the Allied occupation. His personal agenda: to find Lena, the German mistress he left behind at the outbreak of the war. When Jake stumbles on a murder -- an American soldier washes up on the conference grounds -- he thinks he has found the key that will unlock his Berlin story. What Jake finds instead is a larger story of corruption and intrigue reaching deep into the heart of the occupation. Berlin in July 1945 is like nowhere else -- a tragedy, and a feverish party after the end of the world. As Jake searches the ruins for Lena, he discovers that years of war have led to unimaginable displacement and degradation. As he hunts for the soldier's killer, he learns that Berlin has become a city of secrets, a lunar landscape that seethes with social and political tension. When the two searches become entangled, Jake comes to understand that the American Military Government is already fighting a new enemy in the east, busily identifying the "good Germans" who can help win the next war. And hanging over everything is the larger crime, a crime so huge that it seems -- the worst irony -- beyond punishment. At once a murder mystery, a moving love story, and a riveting portrait of a unique time and place, The Good German is a historical thriller of the first rank.
...more | 482 | 1,143 | 2,164 | 1,467 | 357 | 104 | -0.366779 | 0.58 |
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6,448,647 | Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square | 1,969 | 3.39 | 49 | 13 | null | null | Arthur La Bern | With the last of his money disappearing, Dick Ramey sets out to borrow some from his ex-wife. What happens in the following few hours makes him the only possible suspect in a sex-murder he did not commit.This relentlessly readable novel carries you from one memorable scene to another: a matrimonial agency where Ramey fills out an application form with amazing crudity; an o
With the last of his money disappearing, Dick Ramey sets out to borrow some from his ex-wife. What happens in the following few hours makes him the only possible suspect in a sex-murder he did not commit.This relentlessly readable novel carries you from one memorable scene to another: a matrimonial agency where Ramey fills out an application form with amazing crudity; an overnight stay in a flophouse--and, on another night, a seedy hotel room to which Ramey has taken an amorous barmaid; a meeting in a London park that leads to a cover-up flight to Paris; a second murder, which is discovered through a sack of potatoes that has legs.Ramey, in the words of one advance review, convicted " in a trial where the judge is hardly impartial, manages to escape...and then comes a real little shocker of an ending."
...more | 224 | 6 | 16 | 19 | 7 | 1 | -1.583368 | 0.463333 |
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413,617 | Good-Bye, Mr. Chips | 1,934 | 3.96 | 8,221 | 605 | null | null | James Hilton | Mr. Hilton's classic story of an English schoolmaster.Mr. Chipping, the classics master at Brookfield School since 1870, takes readers on a beguiling journey through the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Sometimes Chips, as he is affectionately known, is an old man who dreams by the fire; then he's a difficult young taskmaster schooling his students, or a middle-aged man
Mr. Hilton's classic story of an English schoolmaster.Mr. Chipping, the classics master at Brookfield School since 1870, takes readers on a beguiling journey through the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Sometimes Chips, as he is affectionately known, is an old man who dreams by the fire; then he's a difficult young taskmaster schooling his students, or a middle-aged man encountering the lovely Katherine, whose "new woman" opinions work far-reaching changes in him. As succeeding generations of boys march onward through Chips' mind, Hilton's narrative remains masterful. He seamlessly interweaves a poignant love story with the jokes and eccentricities of English public school life, while also chronicling a new, uncertain world full of conflict and upheaval that extends far beyond the turrets of Brookfield.
...more | 144 | 2,773 | 2,967 | 1,947 | 430 | 104 | 0.397934 | 0.653333 |
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18,114,322 | The Grapes of Wrath | 1,939 | 3.95 | 637,184 | 14,860 | null | null | John Steinbeck | The Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression, a book that galvanized | 479 | 251,182 | 198,408 | 116,117 | 45,040 | 26,437 | 0.363174 | 0.65 |
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41,733,839 | The Great Gatsby | 1,925 | 3.91 | 3,227,928 | 58,474 | null | null | F. Scott Fitzgerald | An alternate cover of this ISBN can be found here.James L.W. West III to include the author | 180 | 1,128,476 | 1,086,485 | 693,210 | 222,299 | 97,458 | 0.224135 | 0.636667 |
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716,780 | The Green Years | 1,944 | 4.03 | 832 | 34 | null | null | A.J. Cronin | The Green Years is a 1944 novel by A. J. Cronin which traces the formative years of an Irish orphan, Robert Shannon, who is sent to live with his draconian maternal grandparents in Scotland. An introspective child, Robert forms an attachment to his roguish great-grandfather, who draws the youngster out of his shell with his raucous ways. | 240 | 292 | 329 | 164 | 41 | 6 | 0.641252 | 0.676667 |
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296,298 | The Guns of Navarone | 1,957 | 4.13 | 13,817 | 319 | Guns of Navarone | 1 | Alistair MacLean | An entire navy had tried to silence the guns of Navarone and failed. Full-scale attacks had been driven back. Now they were sending in just five men, each one a specialist in dealing death. | 410 | 5,173 | 5,669 | 2,607 | 314 | 54 | 0.988848 | 0.71 |
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2,895,041 | Hannibal | 1,999 | 3.75 | 72,712 | 2,470 | Hannibal Lecter | 3 | Thomas Harris | Invite Hannibal Lecter into the palace of your mind and be invited into his mind palace in turn. | 751 | 20,813 | 24,030 | 19,165 | 6,373 | 2,331 | -0.332019 | 0.583333 |
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3,692 | The Heart of the Matter | 1,948 | 3.99 | 23,346 | 1,165 | null | null | Graham Greene | In a British colony in West Africa, Henry Scobie is a pious and righteous man of modest means enlisted with securing borders. But when he | 272 | 7,559 | 9,569 | 4,886 | 1,044 | 288 | 0.502213 | 0.663333 |
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4,667,024 | The Help | 2,009 | 4.46 | 1,847,047 | 81,368 | null | null | Kathryn Stockett | Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Consta
Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women, mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends, view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't. (jacket flap)
...more | 465 | 1,099,298 | 555,150 | 151,897 | 28,543 | 12,159 | 2.135918 | 0.82 |
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2,213,652 | The Heritage of the Desert | 1,910 | 3.87 | 663 | 42 | null | null | Zane Grey | null | 298 | 206 | 225 | 186 | 35 | 11 | 0.085097 | 0.623333 |
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990,079 | The High and the Mighty | 1,953 | 3.97 | 235 | 19 | null | null | Ernest K. Gann | One of the most essential flying novels ever written. Past the point of no return, things start to go wrong on a flight from Hawaii to San Francisco. Can they make it This plot has been done and redone many times since 1953, but the only two which come close are Nevil Shute's No Highway and Arthur Hailey's Airport. | 253 | 67 | 102 | 58 | 7 | 1 | 0.432693 | 0.656667 |
Subsets and Splits