Bookbot

Otto Biersma

    La physique des catastrophes
    The gargoyle
    Le parfum de ces livres que nous avons aimés
    Eating Animals
    On The Move: A Life
    Matterhorn
    • Matterhorn

      • 608pages
      • 22 heures de lecture

      An incredible publishing story, this epic war novel was crafted over thirty years by a decorated Vietnam veteran and became a New York Times best seller for sixteen weeks, as well as a National Indie Next and USA Today best seller. Hailed as a "brilliant account of war," it tells the timeless tale of young Marine lieutenant Waino Mellas and his comrades in Bravo Company, who are thrust into the mountain jungles of Vietnam. As they transition from boys to men, they face not only the North Vietnamese but also the relentless monsoon rains, mud, leeches, tigers, disease, and malnutrition. Compounding their struggles are the racial tensions, competing ambitions, and duplicitous superior officers within their ranks. When the company finds itself surrounded by a massive enemy regiment, the Marines confront the raw terror of combat, an experience that will change them forever. This visceral and spellbinding narrative captures the essence of youth at war, transforming the tragedy of Vietnam into a powerful story of courage, camaraderie, and sacrifice. It serves as a parable of war, highlighting the redemptive power of literature and the universal themes of human resilience and brotherhood.

      Matterhorn
      4,5
    • On The Move: A Life

      • 397pages
      • 14 heures de lecture

      When Oliver Sacks was twelve years old, a perceptive schoolmaster wrote in his report: 'Sacks will go far, if he does not go too far.' It is now abundantly clear that Sacks has never stopped going. From its opening pages on his youthful obsession with motorcycles and speed, On the Move is infused with his restless energy. As he recounts his experiences as a young neurologist in the early 1960s, first in California and then in New York, where he discovered a long forgotten illness in the back wards of a chronic hospital, as well as with a group of patients who would define his life, it becomes clear that Sacks' earnest desire for engagement has occasioned unexpected encounters and travels - sending him through bars and alleys, over oceans, and across continents. With unbridled honesty and humour, Sacks shows us that the same energy that drives his physical passions - bodybuilding, weightlifting, and swimming - also drives his cerebral passions. He writes about his love affairs, both romantic and intellectual, his guilt over leaving his family to come to America, his bond with his schizophrenic brother, and the writers and scientists - A.R. Luria, W.H. Auden, Francis Crick - who influenced him. On the Move is the story of a brilliantly unconventional physician and writer - and of the man who has illuminated the many ways that the brain makes us human

      On The Move: A Life
      4,3
    • Where does it come from? How is it produced? What are the economic, social and environmental effects? Are there animals that it is straightforwardly right to eat? Are there situations in which not eating animals is wrong? This title gives an account of where meat comes from.

      Eating Animals
      4,2
    • An Entertainment Weekly and BookPage Best Book of the Year During her treatment for cancer, Mary Anne Schwalbe and her son Will spent many hours sitting in waiting rooms together. To pass the time, they would talk about the books they were reading. Once, by chance, they read the same book at the same time—and an informal book club of two was born. Through their wide-ranging reading, Will and Mary Anne—and we, their fellow readers—are reminded how books can be comforting, astonishing, and illuminating, changing the way that we feel about and interact with the world around us. A profoundly moving memoir of caregiving, mourning, and love—The End of Your Life Book Club is also about the joy of reading, and the ways that joy is multiplied when we share it with others.

      Le parfum de ces livres que nous avons aimés
      3,9
    • The gargoyle

      • 480pages
      • 17 heures de lecture

      The mass-market edition of the international publishing sensation

      The gargoyle
      3,9
    • Ce roman captivant explore les thèmes de la jeunesse, de la connaissance et du mystère. La narratrice, Blue de Meer, une adolescente de seize ans, possède une intelligence exceptionnelle et filtre ses expériences de vie à travers les livres recommandés par son père, un professeur de science politique. Après la mort de sa femme, Gareth de Meer, méprisant les universités prestigieuses, mène une existence nomade avec sa fille, se déplaçant de collège en collège. Soucieux de l'avenir de Blue, il l'inscrit dans un lycée privé à Stockton, où elle rejoint un groupe d'élèves sous la tutelle d'une enseignante charismatique, Hannah Schneider. Leur voyage de camping tourne au drame lorsque Blue découvre Hannah pendue. Bien que la police conclue à un suicide, Blue est convaincue qu'il s'agit d'un meurtre et commence sa propre enquête, plongeant dans un monde de secrets et de révélations.

      La physique des catastrophes
      3,7
    • Man Gone Down

      • 431pages
      • 16 heures de lecture

      Winner of the 2009 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, Man Gone Down by Michael Thomas. One of the Ten Best Books of the Year - The New York Times Book Review 'Vivid, graphic and poignant' Washington Post 'Powerful and moving . . . An impressive success' New York Times Book Review '[A] jazzy, sinewy debut . . . Thomas's urgent, quicksilver prose makes even the darkest moments of this novel shine' O' the Oprah Magazine On the eve of his thirty-fifth birthday, the unnamed black narrator of Man Gone Down finds himself broke, estranged from his white wife and three children, and living in the bedroom of a friend's six-year-old child. He has four days to come up with the money to keep his kids in school and make a down payment on an apartment for them to live in. As we slip between his childhood in inner city Boston and present-day New York City, we discover a life marked by abuse, abandonment, raging alcoholism, and the best and worst intentions of a supposedly integrated America. This is a story of the American Dream gone awry, about what it's like to feel preprogrammed to fail in life and the urge to escape that sentence.

      Man Gone Down
      3,3