false 114 28 27 true 5707439 read 1 true 2903145 currently-reading 0 true 2903144 to-read 8 false 2959753 tom 8 false 2959804 elliot 5 false 2968451 wander 4 false 2959807 jaimee 4 false 2959977 chelsea 3 false 3800416 nancy 2 false 2959799 dave_felton 2 false 2959815 bill 1 false 2959783 john http://apps.facebook.com/good_reads/ check it out » ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/50829030 to: Cutting for Stone (Hardcover) by Abraham Verghese
bookshelves: tom
The best novel I've read in a good while. Like a big, meaty, Russian classic, with medicine! ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/50828444 to: Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul (Hardcover) by Stuart Brown
bookshelves: tom
OK! No need to apologize because you're "just playing around." It turns out play is essential to our well-being. Got play? Get Play--and be sure to check out the great dog/bear playing pictures early in the book. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/38251229 to: Harbor (Paperback) by Lorraine Adams
bookshelves: nancy
As current as the headlines, this debut novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Lorraine Adams takes a penetrating look at the marginal lives of a group of Arab Muslims living in the United States and Canada. The story begins in Boston Harbor, where Algerian immigrant Aziz Arkoun swims ashore from a tanker. It's his third attempt to escape from his country and he's finally successful in reaching his destination. Ill and disoriented from his experiences—and knowing little English—Aziz connects with a cousin (who may or may not be involved in illegal dealings), works for a brute boss in a minimum-wage job, and sleeps in a chair at night in an overcrowded apartment. Then he and his friend Ghazi come under FBI scrutiny. Adams explores the question: "Who is a terrorist?" and finds no easy answers.

Recommended by Nancy Blood ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/38250981 to: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium, #1) by Stieg Larsson
bookshelves: nancy
An international bestseller, this financial thriller set in Sweden tells an eerily familiar story of corruption and greed. At the heart of the novel is journalist Mikael Blomkvist and an idiosyncratic—yet endearing—young heroine, pierced and tattooed Lisbeth Salander, an edgy, brilliant computer hacker who trusts no one. Larsson's feminist sensibilities are as strong as his financial ones: in sections titled "incentive," "consequence analyses," "mergers," and "hostile takeover," Larsson begin each with a chilling statistic on violence against women. With murders, a love story, and the unraveling of a family, this debut novel keeps unfolding in breathtaking and insightful ways. Larsson, who died in 2004, wrote this and two subsequent novels.

Recommended by Nancy Blood ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/38250795 to: Away: A Novel (Paperback) by Amy Bloom
bookshelves: nancy
Twenty-two-year old Jewish immigrant Lillian Leyb arrives in the United States in 1924, her husband and parents killed in a Russian pogram and her young daughter separated from her in the devastation. With few skills and little English, Lillian snags a job as a seamstress at a Yiddish theater and becomes the mistress of the lead actor (as well as the mistress of his father). Then this story of immigrant life takes a turn when a cousin of Lillian's—presumed lost in the pogram—makes her way to America too, and reveals that she saw Lillian's daughter alive before she left. Driven by love, Lillian takes the "doomed, foolish, and peculiar" journey back to Russia, not by crossing the Atlantic and Europe but by crossing the United States and traveling up through the Pacific Northwest to the Bering Strait. The characters she meets along the way and the experiences she has makes this small book a true epic.

Recommended by Nancy Blood
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/38250603 to: Dreams from My Father (Paperback) by Barack Obama
bookshelves: jaimee
As a swath of books about our next president abound, the one that was written before his campaign, by the man himself, is probably the best one to read, (or the best one to give to a relative). The book, as it was not written to be a political tool, is more literary than most political bios, creating a moving, personal narrative, with vivid language and details.

Recommended by Jaimee Hills ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/38250521 to: Durham Tales: The Morris Street Maple, the Plastic Cow, the Durham Day that Was More (Paperback) by Jim Wise
bookshelves: tom
Nobody knows more about where the bodies are buried in Durham history than Jim Wise. This is a little book packed with great stories of our fair--well, often not so fair—town. Perfect for Durham natives, transplants, or even for folks who've moved away. I've always said that Durham is a much more colorful place than our boring Triangle neighbors Raleigh and Chapel Hill. Here's proof!


Recommended by Tom Campbell ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/38250289 to: This I Believe II: More Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women (Kindle Edition) by Jay Allison
bookshelves: tom
Hard hitting tales from often hard hit people (apologies to Woody Guthrie). From the NPR show of the same name. Brief (3 pages), to the point, and often surprising tales of what folks have learned from their lives that gets them through the day. Need inspiration? There's lots of it here. The first book in this set is now available in paperback, as well.


Recommended by Tom Campbell ]]>