sesasaki's Reading List
9 stories
Homeland by CoryDoctorow
CoryDoctorow
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER -- In Cory Doctorow’s wildly successful Little Brother, young Marcus Yallow was arbitrarily detained and brutalized by the government in the wake of a terrorist attack on San Francisco—an experience that led him to become a leader of the whole movement of technologically clued-in teenagers, fighting back against the tyrannical security state. A few years later, California's economy collapses, but Marcus’s hacktivist past lands him a job as webmaster for a crusading politician who promises reform. Soon his former nemesis Masha emerges from the political underground to gift him with a thumbdrive containing a Wikileaks-style cable-dump of hard evidence of corporate and governmental perfidy. It’s incendiary stuff—and if Masha goes missing, Marcus is supposed to release it to the world. Then Marcus sees Masha being kidnapped by the same government agents who detained and tortured Marcus years earlier. Marcus can leak the archive Masha gave him—but he can’t admit to being the leaker, because that will cost his employer the election. He’s surrounded by friends who remember what he did a few years ago and regard him as a hacker hero. He can’t even attend a demonstration without being dragged onstage and handed a mike. He’s not at all sure that just dumping the archive onto the Internet, before he’s gone through its millions of words, is the right thing to do. Meanwhile, people are beginning to shadow him, people who look like they’re used to inflicting pain until they get the answers they want. Fast-moving, passionate, and as current as next week, Homeland is every bit the equal of Little Brother—a paean to activism, to courage, to the drive to make the world a better place.
Little Brother by CoryDoctorow
CoryDoctorow
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER -- Marcus, a.k.a “w1n5t0n,” is only seventeen years old, but he figures he already knows how the system works–and how to work the system. Smart, fast, and wise to the ways of the networked world, he has no trouble outwitting his high school’s intrusive but clumsy surveillance systems. But his whole world changes when he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his crew are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison where they’re mercilessly interrogated for days. When the DHS finally releases them, Marcus discovers that his city has become a police state where every citizen is treated like a potential terrorist. He knows that no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: to take down the DHS himself.
Talitha Koum by john_chan
john_chan
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Imagine a machine, a computer that can answer correctly any question you can think to ask, about absolutely anything at all. What would your question be? In this story, a psychologist and his friends are transported across time and space to find out exactly what that question might be for him and what the answer must involve. * Just one note. This story has a bit of a Christian bent to it. If that's just not your cup of tea, well then maybe this one is not for you! :P I just thought I should mention that here so you don't feel a little cheated halfway through. Cheers! ^_^
The Happy Zombie Sunrise Home by NaomiAlderman
NaomiAlderman
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Okie's fifteen. She lives in New York. She's got a few problems: she's failing geography, her dad's a wimp, and her mother, Sumatra, is a stone cold bitch. But things get a lot worse when Sumatra turns into a zombie and eats Okie's dad. Clio, Okie's grandmother, lives in Toronto; but since the zombie apocalypse, Toronto's a lot further away than it used to be. Clio suggests that Okie transport Sumatra across the border, because family is family. But coaching Okie by cellphone isn't easy, and Clio has some zombies of her own to contend with. Luckily she has some garden tools. Naomi Alderman and Margaret Atwood team up for this unusual two-hander. Encompassing love, death, sex, and the meaning of family, The Happy Zombie Sunrise Home will surprise, delight, and convince you of the vital importance of keeping ready supplies of rhubarb and mini-wieners in your freezer at all times. The story unfolds beginning October 24.
Tree of Life by john_chan
john_chan
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You are now reading Books I and II in a combined format. They are presented here as a single volume. Book I is about a thirteen year old boy's journey into magical healing. It is a time of awakening. Awakening to who you are, what you are meant to be, of friends and young love, of power and its use for good or evil. Book I is the book of beginnings. Book II outlines the further adventures of Julian, Nicole and Brian after they have grown up. What's at stake is magnified exponentially as the extent and full power of the Tree becomes realized. Book III has just begun. (Oct 10 2014) Please go check on my profile page. :-) Here's a thought. ^.^ We Canadians sometimes spell things differently. Like 'neighbourhood', 'Paediatrics' or even 'honour'. How's that? :-) So, thank you all so much, but please do not edit my work for spelling or grammar. All right? :-) I'd rather get there on my own, eventually.
The Headmaster's Wager by VincentLam
VincentLam
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Percival Chen is the headmaster of the most respected English school in Saigon. He is also a bon vivant, a compulsive gambler and an incorrigible womanizer. He is well accustomed to bribing forever changing lists of government officials in order to maintain the elite status of the Chen Academy. He is fiercely proud of his Chinese heritage, and quick to spot the business opportunities rife in a divided country. He devotedly ignores all news of the fighting that swirls around him, choosing instead to read the faces of his opponents at high-stakes mahjong tables. But when his only son gets in trouble with the Vietnamese authorities, Percival faces the limits of his connections and wealth and is forced to send him away. In the loneliness that follows, Percival finds solace in Jacqueline, a beautiful woman of mixed French and Vietnamese heritage, and Laing Jai, a son born to them on the eve of the Tet offensive. Percival's new-found happiness is precarious, and as the complexities of war encroach further and further into his world, he must confront the tragedy of all he has refused to see.
Memories of my Grandfather by VincentLam
VincentLam
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Often when I am asked about my new novel, ‘The Headmaster’s Wager’, I am asked about my memories of my late grandfather. This does not surprise me. After all, I have written a book in which the protagonist, Percival Chen, shares many characteristics with my grandfather. Percival is the headmaster of an English school in wartime Vietnam, as was my grandfather. Percival lives most of his adult life in Vietnam but is ethnically Chinese, and this is crucial to his sense of identity. In addition to being a successful educator and entrepreneur, he is a gambler, drinker, and womanizer. All of these qualities in Percival are inspired by my grandfather. I choose that word carefully – inspired. The book is a work of fiction, and is not ‘based upon’ my grandfather’s life. It does not memorialize him or recount his actions or memories. Instead, it picks up on a thread of his life, and an era he experienced.
Thriller Suite: New Poems by MargaretAtwood
MargaretAtwood
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In Thriller Suite -- appearing serially for the first time on Wattpad -- Margaret Atwood has gathered these new poems inspired by her long history as a reader of strange tales, from 19th century gothic classics to ghost stories to crime fiction and thrillers. Poems that cross thresholds...
Speeches For Doctor Frankenstein by MargaretAtwood
MargaretAtwood
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In 1966, before they were international sensations, Margaret Atwood and Charles Pachter teamed up to create Speeches for Doctor Frankenstein — now a unique piece of cultural history. In a book that has only existed as an artist book of fifteen copies Charles Pachter set the poetry of Margaret Atwood to his beautiful and whimsical artwork. Produced originally on handmade paper made with materials found around his house, this is a rare work of art that should be read by anyone interested in the origins of these two great artists. This is exclusively available as an enhanced ebook for iPad and features an introduction by Margaret Atwood, a video interview with the artist, and audio of Margaret Atwood reading the poems.