Mark's profile

417 ratings | 550 reviews
avg rating: 3.18
Goodreads librarian
#40 top reviewers
#47 best reviewers

Mark's bookshelves

read (546)
currently-reading (4)
to-read (276)
fiction (144)
books-i-read-but-have-no-memory-of (63)
historical-fiction (61)
history (59)
books-i-own-i-fully-intend-to-read (42)
mystery (26)
science (25)
theology (21)
non-fiction (19)
thriller (17)

poetry (15)
memoir (14)
biography (13)
psychology (13)
science-fiction (10)
books-i-own-im-up-in-the-air-about (10)
books-i-own-and-what-was-i-thinking (8)
sociology (6)
childrens (6)
plays (4)
art-history (4)
books-i-just-couldnt-get-through (4)
business (3)

young-adult-fiction (3)
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i-will-come-back-to-this-later (3)
philosophy (3)
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essays (1)
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audio-books (1)
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architecture (1)
native-americans (1)
for-cammy (1)
spirituality (1)
economics (1)
grammar-and-style (1)
satire (1)
graphic-novel (0)

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Mark is currently reading

	07/21 Mark is currently reading: Sleeping It Off in Rapid City: Poems, New and Selected (Hardcover) by August Kleinzahler bookshelves: currently-reading	my rating:
	Mark said: "Got a great review in the New Yorker, and it's been in the holding queue a long time at my local library " add a comment
	07/21 Mark is currently reading: The Tree of Life (Paperback) by Hugh Nissenson bookshelves: currently-reading	my rating:
	add a comment
	07/14 Mark is currently reading: The Lightning Keeper by Starling Lawrence bookshelves: currently-reading	my rating:
	add a comment

Mark's recent updates (rss)

July 24

New comment on Jessica's review of The Omnivore's Dilemma

Mark wrote: "Thanks, good to know. "

(see all 3 comments)

New comment on Mark's review of Away: A Novel

Mark wrote: "Well, maybe I didn't give it enough chance, but the older I get, the more insistent I am that the wr...more "

(see all 2 comments)

July 23

New comment on Kelly's review of GRE General CBT w/ CD-ROM (REA) - The Best Test Prep for the GRE (Test Preps)

Mark wrote: "Oh, well, at least you don't have to worry about palm scans, as in this:

Business Schools
Try P...more "

(see all 5 comments)

Mark read and liked Kelly's review of GRE General CBT w/ CD-ROM (REA) - The Best Test Prep for the GRE (Test Preps):

"Okay, I just realized something. I hate studying because this book is shit. It's not me. The vocabulary is either ridiculously easy or "WTF, who has ever used that word in LIFE?", (and you know that's bad 'cause I read a lot of Victorian au...more Okay, I just realized something. I hate studying because this book is shit. It's not me. The vocabulary is either ridiculously easy or "WTF, who has ever used that word in LIFE?", (and you know that's bad 'cause I read a lot of Victorian authors who are daaaamn impressed with themselves and their education) and many of their analogies either don't make sense or are very, very obvious. I don't agree with their reading comprehension answers, and I don't think that's my fault sometimes. Sometimes they are /clearly /wrong. The math prep section is good for a basic review of formulas and a few basic problems, but their explanations of the problems they present on the practice exams are very poor, especially for someone like me who reeeally needs help with the math section.

An example of this book's BS that I just randomly opened to:

Resolution: (find the antonym)
A) analysis b) disloyalty c)obdurateness d) catalysis e)synthesis

Okay, there, they were looking for the FIFTH listed dictionary definition of resolution, the way its used in PHYSICS. Tell me, does this come to mind when you see the word resolution? "5. Physics & Chemistry The act or process of separating or reducing something into its constituent parts: the prismatic resolution of sunlight into its spectral colors."

If you see the word resolution, do you think of breaking something down into its parts? NO. None of those words fit. The GRE would never be that bitchy. I've asked people.

The prep book is full of things that don't work like that, or vaguely kind of, not really work. NO. I am not stupid, the book is. It takes a reeeeeal lot for me to say that, too.

Also? The book is riddled with typos. Really? In a vocabulary/verbal test prep book?? It spelled "liturgical," "ligigurical". I thought this was some new obscure word they dug up.

I'll keep it just for the math review, because God knows I could use all the help I could get, however minimal it is.

Fuck this, I'm getting the Princeton Review book....less "

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Mark marked as to-read:
Inheritance (Hardcover)
by Natalie Danford
bookshelves: to-read

my rating:

Mark said: "It's 1959 and Luigi, an Italian immigrant, has just bought a house in a New York suburb. When he goes to purchase a camera to document the realization of his dream, he launches a friendship with the store owner and soon marries his quiet and reclusiv...more "

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Mark marked as to-read:
Strange As This Weather Has Been: A Novel (Hardcover)
by Ann Pancake
bookshelves: to-read

my rating:

Mark said: "A West Virginia town in the midst of the latest coal boom, and plagued by the mountaintop removal strip mining that is ruining what is left of their mountain life. As the mine turns the mountains to dust and wastewater, workers struggle with layoffs ...more "

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Mark marked as to-read:
The Last Chicken in America: A Novel in Stories (Hardcover)
by Ellen Litman
bookshelves: to-read

my rating:

Mark said: "A novel of Russian Jewish immigrants set in my home town, where the author went to college "

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Mark marked as to-read:
Happiness: A History (Paperback)
by Darrin M. McMahon
bookshelves: to-read

my rating:

Mark said: "Even when the subject is, alluringly, happiness, readers may fear that a 544-page, heavily annotated book will be a dry, abstruse tome. Be not afraid. Erudite and detailed without being pedantic, Happiness is lively, lucid and enjoyable. Darrin M. Mc...more "

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Mark marked as to-read:
Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis (Hardcover)
by Kim Todd
bookshelves: to-read

my rating:

Mark said: "An artist turned naturalist, Maria Sibylla Merian was born just thirteen years after Galileo was prosecuted for claiming the earth orbited the sun. But in 1699, more than a century before Darwin or Humboldt, she sailed from Amsterdam to South America...more "

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Mark marked as to-read:
When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa (Hardcover)
by Peter Godwin
bookshelves: to-read

my rating:

Mark said: ""His account of his family’s history and his parents’ lives in an increasingly desperate Zimbabwe is written with the unsparing eye of a journalist and the tender, conflicted emotions of a son. He has written a powerful and deeply affecting ...more "

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see all 546 of Mark's books »

Mark's favorite quotes

"Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think."
— A.A. Milne

43 people liked it

""I was always treated as if I had insisted on being born, in opposition to the dictates of reason, religion, and morality, and against the dissuadinig arguments of my best friends.""
— Charles Dickens

6 people liked it

""You cannot make a man by standing a sheep on its hind-legs. But by standing a flock of sheep in that position you can make a crowd of men.""
— Max Beerbohm

2 people liked it

""Unless one is a genius, it is best to aim at being intelligible.""
— Anthony Hope

1 person liked it

"True sacrifice is the offering of self so that God can realize the power of creativity, compassion and friendship in and through your life."
— Keith Ward

1 person liked it

see all of Mark's favorite quotes »

Mark's writing

The world's must famous unknown literary prize (Literature & Fiction)

1 chapters — updated 3 days ago, 12:52PM

description: A news feature on the IMPAC literary award

What tortoises can tell us about our longevity (Science)

1 chapters — updated 3 days ago, 12:51PM

description: A news feature on longevity research on animals and humans

A famous sculptor meets a political boss (History)

1 chapters — updated 3 days ago, 12:50PM

description: An article about a 100-year old memorial in Pittsburgh and the men behind it

Alison Lapper's story symbolizes perseverance, courage (Biographies & Memoirs)

1 chapters — updated 3 days ago, 12:49PM

description: The woman who was a model for Trafalgar Square's first modern sculpture has a quietly heroic tale to tell

Mark's groups (recent posts)

Constant Reader — 836 members — last activity 1 hour, 36 min ago
An open forum for friendly discussion of books and anything to do with reading, movies and art.

Goodreads Feedback — 1002 members — last activity 2 hours, 29 min ago
This is a place to give feedback about Goodreads. Feature ideas, bugs, or any other suggestion for improvement. The Goodreads staff monitors this gr...more

READING AS WRITERS — 341 members — last activity 5 hours, 49 min ago
Those lines that startle you, endings that follow you for days, maybe a style that disturbs you but you can't stop reading. Discuss it all here.

Books I Loathed — 918 members — last activity 14 hours, 41 min ago
This is a public forum for people to kvetch (cleanly, please) about books they absolutely hated, and for others to respond. Though nonfiction is certa...more

What can you tell me about....? — 106 members — last activity 1 day ago, 06:13PM
Since we hear about certain writers, and haven't read them yet, this is the place to ask "so what about...?" or "of all her/his books, ...more

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Mark's friend comments

showing 1-3 of 3. (add a comment | view all)

from J.R.

11/26/2007 03:55PM

Tell him Jack sez hello. We worked together at the Daily News in Lebanon.

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from Mark

11/26/2007 03:45PM

Indeed I do. We're old friends. Ced now oversees our copy editors and the technical aspects of much of our production system, and also writes a technology column for us.

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from J.R.

11/26/2007 03:43PM

Thanks for the add Mark. Do you happen to know Ced Kurtz, a fellow newsman?

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Mark's friends (136)

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	peg 802 books 146 friends
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	Ashley 219 books 25 friends
	Kenneth 1206 books 172 friends
	Chris 1004 books 66 friends
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