books by Abacus     books:       The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency407 reviews Alexander McCall Smith Abacus, 2003 life-affirming book with the unforgettable main character When Precious Ramotswe's father, Obed, dies and leaves her all the cattle with the advice to sell it and buy herself a good business, she decides to become a private detective, the first lady detective in Botswana, and perhaps in the whole of Africa. Mma Ramotswe, smart, fat and good-natured, equipped with a detective handbook, great memory, and unfailing sense of right and wrong, sets out to ...             Infinite Jest351 reviews David Foster Wallace Abacus, 1997 Beyond Belief What a wonderful, terrible, brilliant, horrible, frustrating, fascinating story. Jesus wept. It's also heart-felt, humorous, whimsical, and a masterpiece. Jesus smiled.             In the Company of Cheerful Ladies (No 1 Ladies Detective Agency 6)82 reviews Alexander McCall Smith Abacus, 2005 Mystery and Laugh Out Loud Funny O Boy! Want some mystery? Good clean humor? No violence? Precious Ramotswe, a traditionally-built woman without apology, and her pals are here for us. She and her assistant, Grace (who gets advice from her colorful designer shoes), are very entertaining and many times, laugh-out-loud funny. I read the entire Ladies' Detective series in a couple of weeks. The books average about 200+ pages ...             The Wisdom of Crowds161 reviews James Surowiecki Abacus, 2005 great stuff! I read this for a MBA class. Out of the stack of books assigned, so far, this is the only one I liked. It is relevant to today's curious questions of how to get crowds engaged, how crowds behave, and why we even care. I'm trying to teach people to work collaboratively together at work. They "think" they already are doing this but the author gives me new ideas on how to further their ...             Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim313 reviews David Sedaris Abacus, 2004 Sedaris knows how to show you a great time. I've loved every one of Sedaris' books, and just fininshed re-reading this one. I felt like some good laughs, and his books really deliver. Sometimes a "yikes" rather than a laugh, but always an impact. I have yet to find anyone than has the wit and style and ability to fascinate as well as produce a belly laugh like David Sedaris.             An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943154 reviews Rick Atkinson Abacus, 2004 US Army and its WWII baptism A in depth and fair treatment of all the partys involved in Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa.             Shantaram276 reviews Gregory David Roberts Abacus, 2005 Wow!! I absolutely loved this book. It tells the story of a man, who after his marriage falls apart turns to a life of drugs and crime only to end up in a New Zeland prison. After he escapes from the prison, he finds his way to India where he meets some extraordinary people, sets up a medical clinic in the slum where he lives, and eventually works for the mafia. The vast majority of the novel occurs ...             The World According to Bertie3 reviews Alexander McCall Smith Abacus, 2008 "Bertie wanted...to be the average boy, but he knew that this would forever be beyond his reach--[because of] his mother." (4.5 stars) Alexander McCall Smith always succeeds in charming his readers with warm and humorous tales of almost normal life, lived by people who care about each other and share the values that make life worth living. Like the other novels in this series, the "plot" here consists of episodes in the lives of several loosely connected characters from 44 Scotland Street as they face separate ...             Me Talk Pretty One Day736 reviews David Sedaris Abacus, 2002 Best Sedaris collection! This is Sedaris' best collection of short stories/memoirs/autobiographies. His writing is wonderful, in part because it's hard to separate fact from fiction. He has a true gift for writing. My favorite story is the title one but all are great. These stories are great to read all at once or one at a time!             Say You're One of Them24 reviews Uwem Akpan Abacus, 2008 Say... you're one of them! When psychologists treat childhood victims of trauma - war, violence or sexual abuse - they will often use props such as dolls or drawings to re-enact the event in a safe environment without judgment. These five stories are in a way voices of the child victims of Africa, told through the prop of fiction (a doll, a drawing), empty of ideological or political concern. Uwem Akpan has given nameless ...             The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America286 reviews Bill Bryson Abacus, 1991 Side-splittingly Funny! I'd read four Bryson books before I read this one, and this is the funniest of the lot. Irreverence and biting wit on almost every page. I've definitely had more laughs from this book than any other I've ever read. I can only assume that the people who are giving this riveting work a meager one star are the kind of people who are more than happy to laugh at Bryson poking fun at anyone else, ...             If This Is a Man and The Truce7 reviews Primo Levi Abacus, 1991 Heart-breaking but informative and important A truly amazing book - I cannot promise that you will enjoy it, in fact I can almost guarantee that you will find most of it heart-breaking and painful. It is a little like watching Kieslowski's A Short Film About Killing - on many levels you do not enjoy it but it enthrals you. The subject matter is so important and it is so beautifully made and eloquent that you feel compelled to watch (or ...             Brief Interviews with Hideous Men68 reviews David Foster Wallace Abacus, 2001 Talented writer will be missed I am still absorbing the news that David Foster Wallace apparently took his own life this weekend. He was 46. I vividly recall my experience reading "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men," because these short short stories are both insightful and laugh out loud funny. Wallace had a keen understanding of the often reptilian and repellent motivations of human beings. He knew that for all our ...             The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr.47 reviews Martin Luther King Abacus, 2000 Required reading! Martin Luther King, Jr., is without a doubt one of the most influential and pivotal figures in twentieth-century history. In addition to his work as a Civil Rights leader, his role as a father and pastor, he also was an extensively published writer. However, he never had the chance to write an autobiography in the traditional sense. We as readers in the present day and the future have lost the ...             Cosmos159 reviews Carl Sagan Abacus, 1983 read what you can of it, but READ it! This is an incredible book, even if it is dated. I am a words person, not numbers, so when Sagan got into a lot of equations and chemistry, I had to kind of skim over those parts. I never could have understood them, and if I'd tried to force myself to, I probably would have gotten frustrated and gave up on the book. So I stuck with the parts (happily, that was most of it) I could absorb and ...             The Virgin Suicides395 reviews Jeffrey Eugenides Abacus, 1994 Time in a Bottle "... they were bound for college, husbands, child-rearing, unhappiness only dimly perceived -- bound, in other words, for life." The Virgin Suicides is not just a story of the loneliness of being female. It is also a story of the loneliness of life and understanding what it is to be female; the pressures, or rather, the facade of traditional values placed upon women, lead to the Lisbon sisters ...             The Broom of the System44 reviews David Foster Wallace Abacus, 1997 Manically and Explosively Funny! David's early book titles apparently have little to do with the subject matter, much like a song from REM, whose lyrics have nothing to do with anything at all, other than they sound good. Don't expect to learn what is 'The Broom of the System' by reading this book. What you should expect is a Douglas-Adams like treatment of the near future, full of quintessential midwestern humor (David is ...             A Conspiracy of Paper185 reviews David Liss Abacus, 2001 A tale of murders, lies and money Think of a time where men and women, desperate to make money, buy and sell shares in companies, driving the value up; often borrowing money to further their ambitions, but where a single mishap can lead them into bankruptcy or worse. Think of a corrupt society, where marriage is mostly a sham, where affairs and adultery are winked at. Think of a culture where minorities, whether in race or ...             44 Scotland Street67 reviews Alexander McCall Smith Abacus, 2005 *EDINBURGH has an indelible place in my Heart . . .* In this series by Alexander McCall Smith, there is not as much philosophy as plain unadulterated (tho' calculated) fun. Because "44" runs as a newspaper serial, it must be served up in daily doses that carry one over to the next day's episode. In its book form readers may gallop ahead to the next hurdle (champing at the bit, to continue in a horsy vein). You will find your outlook of ...              search for books 1942-1943, according, africa, america, autobiography, bertie, cheerful, company, conspiracy, continent, corduroy, cosmos, crowds, detective, family, hideous, infinite, interviews, ladies, luther, martin, pretty, scotland, shantaram, street, suicides, system, travels, virgin, wisdom books:    Kindle - Amazon's New Wireless Reading Device This is the future of book reading. I have used it and love it! randomly chosen book: The Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review leave a comment home  impressum - about us