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Then off they went over the far ridge, white tails lifted. Hopping with that mechanical grace animals have—grasshoppers and birds—as if nothing, save death, could interrupt the repetitive beat of their movements. Branches rattled old rain
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“Their story showed that the search for a freer, more humane China wasn’t new. It was something that Chinese people had been struggling for since the party took power.”
― Sparks: China's Underground Historians and their Battle for the Future
― Sparks: China's Underground Historians and their Battle for the Future
“Music, I’d heard him say, was like dessert. He could live without it, but life just wasn’t as good.”
― Girl at War
― Girl at War
“Lucas is happy. It’s not as hard as one might think to become, the hard part is just to keep being it. It’s hard because it’s so easy to get in your head that if you are to be happy, you have to be happy exactly all of the time. And who in the world has the energy for that? Happiness can be exhausting. Honestly, it’s most often enough to just not be the opposite.”
― The Answer Is No
― The Answer Is No
“To philosophize is to learn to live freely.”
― Hegel: The Philosopher of Freedom
― Hegel: The Philosopher of Freedom
“Artur Schnabel, one of the towering pianists of the twentieth century. Modified in tone but not spirit from Schnabel’s interview remarks in Chicago the same year Germany surrendered to the Allies. She also knew this was about as high a compliment as Paul Mandelbaum was capable of making. Schnabel’s performances of the thirty-two Beethoven sonatas were possibly the only thing her mentor was capable of carrying on about ad nauseam. You were never going to enter his pantheon of star pupils unless you gave yourself over, heart and soul, to Schnabel’s interpretation of Beethoven’s Klaviersonaten and the virtuoso’s idea that the greatest music was that which is “better than it can be performed.”
― The Prague Sonata
― The Prague Sonata
21st Century Literature
— 3787 members
— last activity 4 hours, 13 min ago
We read literary fiction from 2000 to present, with the intent of finding those literary gems of timeless and enduring quality. We're less focused o ...more
Historical Fictionistas
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— last activity 10 minutes ago
Welcome to Historical Fictionistas! We want to experience all different kinds of HF with all different kinds of people. The more diverse, the better. ...more
The Next Best Book Club
— 26441 members
— last activity Oct 18, 2026 04:35PM
Are you searching for the NEXT best book? Are you willing to kiss all your spare cash goodbye? Are you easily distracted by independent bookshops, bi ...more
2017 Reading Challenge
— 1422 members
— last activity Dec 17, 2021 06:26AM
Welcome to the 2017 Reading Challenge - a new list and a new challenge style for maximum participant success! It's easy to play along, and we have a ...more
The History Book Club
— 26588 members
— last activity Oct 14, 2026 11:51AM
"Interested in history - then you have found the right group". The History Book Club is the largest history and nonfiction group on Goodread ...more
charles’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at charles’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
1,921 books
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3,459 friends
487 books
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2 friends
91 books
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50 friends
593 books
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17 friends
45 books
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119 friends
47 books
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2,153 friends
1 book
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3 friends
1 book
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1 friend
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Favorite Genres
Art, Biography, Classics, Contemporary, Ebooks, Fiction, Historical fiction, History, Memoir, Music, Non-fiction, Philosophy, and Thriller
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