Eitanli/goodreads huggingface dataset:
A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy
by Sue Klebold
Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, True Crime, Biography, Audiobook, Crime, Psychology
Average rating on Goodreads: 4.13

On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold walked into Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Over the course of minutes, they would kill twelve students and a teacher and wound twenty-four others before taking their own lives.   For the last sixteen years, Sue Klebold, Dylan’s mother, has lived with the indescribable grief and shame of that day. How could her child, the promising young man she had loved and raised, be responsible for such horror? And how, as his mother, had she not known something was wrong? Were there subtle signs she had missed? What, if anything, could she have done differently?   These are questions that Klebold has grappled with every day since the Columbine tragedy. In A Mother’s Reckoning, she chronicles with unflinching honesty her journey as a mother trying to come to terms with the incomprehensible. In the hope that the insights and understanding she has gained may help other families recognize when a child is in distress, she tells her story in full, drawing upon her personal journals, the videos and writings that Dylan left behind, and on countless interviews with mental health experts.   Filled with hard-won wisdom and compassion, A Mother’s Reckoning is a powerful and haunting book that sheds light on one of the most pressing issues of our time. And with fresh wounds from the recent Newtown and Charleston shootings, never has the need for understanding been more urgent.  All author profits from the book will be donated to research and to charitable organizations focusing on mental health issues.
In Search of Lost Time
by Marcel Proust
Genres: Classics, Fiction, France, Literature, Philosophy, French Literature, Novels
Average rating on Goodreads: 4.35

On the surface a traditional "Bildungsroman" describing the narrator’s journey of self-discovery, this huge and complex book is also a panoramic and richly comic portrait of France in the author’s lifetime, and a profound meditation on the nature of art, love, time, memory and death. But for most readers it is the characters of the novel who loom the largest: Swann and Odette, Monsieur de Charlus, Morel, the Duchesse de Guermantes, Françoise, Saint-Loup and so many others — Giants, as the author calls them, immersed in Time. "In Search of Lost Time" is a novel in seven volumes. The novel began to take shape in 1909. Proust continued to work on it until his final illness in the autumn of 1922 forced him to break off. Proust established the structure early on, but even after volumes were initially finished he kept adding new material, and edited one volume after another for publication. The last three of the seven volumes contain oversights and fragmentary or unpolished passages as they existed in draft form at the death of the author; the publication of these parts was overseen by his brother Robert.For this authoritative English-language edition, D. J. Enright has revised the late Terence Kilmartin’s acclaimed reworking of C. K. Scott Moncrieff’s translation to take into account the new definitive French editions of À la recherche du temps perdu (the final volume of these new editions was published by the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade in 1989).
Animal Dreams
by Barbara Kingsolver
Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Novels, Adult Fiction, Literature, Adult
Average rating on Goodreads: 4.06

"Animals dream about the things they do in the day time just like people do. If you want sweet dreams, you've got to live a sweet life." So says Loyd Peregrina, a handsome Apache trainman and latter-day philosopher. But when Codi Noline returns to her hometown, Loyd's advice is painfully out of her reach. Dreamless and at the end of her rope, Codi comes back to Grace, Arizona to confront her past and face her ailing, distant father. What she finds is a town threatened by a silent environmental catastrophe, some startling clues to her own identity, and a man whose view of the world could change the course of her life. Blending flashbacks, dreams, and Native American legends, Animal Dreams is a suspenseful love story and a moving exploration of life's largest commitments. With this work, the acclaimed author of The Bean Trees and Homeland and Other Stories sustains her familiar voice while giving readers her most remarkable book yet.
Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey
by Chuck Palahniuk
Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Horror, Contemporary, Novels, Time Travel, Humor
Average rating on Goodreads: 3.84

Buster “Rant” Casey just may be the most efficient serial killer of our time. A high school rebel, Rant Casey escapes from his small town home for the big city where he becomes the leader of an urban demolition derby called Party Crashing. Rant Casey will die a spectacular highway death, after which his friends gather the testimony needed to build an oral history of his short, violent life.
Père Goriot
by Honoré de Balzac
Genres: Classics, Fiction, France, French Literature, Literature, 19th Century, Novels
Average rating on Goodreads: 3.85

Père Goriot is the tragic story of a father whose obsessive love for his two daughters leads to his financial and personal ruin. Interwoven with this theme is that of the impoverished young aristocrat, Rastignac, who came to Paris from the provinces to hopefully make his fortune. He befriends Goriot and becomes involved with the daughters. The story is set against the background of a whole society driven by social ambition and lust for wealth.
Life As We Knew It (Last Survivors, #1)
by Susan Beth Pfeffer
Genres: Young Adult, Dystopia, Science Fiction, Fiction, Post Apocalyptic, Survival, Apocalyptic
Average rating on Goodreads: 3.88

Miranda’s disbelief turns to fear in a split second when a meteor knocks the moon closer to the earth. How should her family prepare for the future when worldwide tsunamis wipe out the coasts, earthquakes rock the continents, and volcanic ash blocks out the sun? As summer turns to Arctic winter, Miranda, her two brothers, and their mother retreat to the unexpected safe haven of their sunroom, where they subsist on stockpiled food and limited water in the warmth of a wood-burning stove.Told in journal entries, this is the heart-pounding story of Miranda’s struggle to hold on to the most important resource of all--hope--in an increasingly desperate and unfamiliar world.
The Year of Magical Thinking
by Joan Didion
Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography, Biography Memoir, Audiobook, Death, Autobiography
Average rating on Goodreads: 3.93

'An act of consummate literary bravery, a writer known for her clarity allowing us to watch her mind as it becomes clouded with grief.'From one of America's iconic writers, a stunning book of electric honesty and passion. Joan Didion explores an intensely personal yet universal experience: a portrait of a marriage–and a life, in good times and bad–that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband or wife or child.Several days before Christmas 2003, John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion saw their only daughter, Quintana, fall ill with what seemed at first flu, then pneumonia, then complete septic shock. She was put into an induced coma and placed on life support. Days later–the night before New Year's Eve–the Dunnes were just sitting down to dinner after visiting the hospital when John Gregory Dunne suffered a massive and fatal coronary. In a second, this close, symbiotic partnership of forty years was over. Four weeks later, their daughter pulled through. Two months after that, arriving at LAX, she collapsed and underwent six hours of brain surgery at UCLA Medical Center to relieve a massive hematoma.This powerful book is Didion's attempt to make sense of the "weeks and then months that cut loose any fixed idea I ever had about death, about illness . . . about marriage and children and memory . . . about the shallowness of sanity, about life itself."
Timbi's Dream
by Max Nowaz
Genres: Fiction, Novels
Average rating on Goodreads: 4.35

Timbi’s Dream is an adventure in rhyme. The updated 2019 edition contains much improved rhyming, which stirs the imagination in young minds and make it leap into a different plane, as one follows Timbi’s adventures in a sequence of dreams. This is brought on by the effect of a strange jar of ointment his grandmother has left behind, on her last visit. His mother uses the ointment to soothe Timbi’s ears when they turn red after sunburn. However, it has a very strange effect on Timbi that night, when he goes to sleep. He suddenly finds he can fly.As he flies out of his window to meet a little girl and together they have great fun flying around. The next day when Timbi tries to tell his mum and brothers about it, nobody believes him.Timbi forgets about the dream as his ears get better until a few days later when his ears get sunburned again and his mother puts more cream on them. He then has a similar dream again. What can Timbi do to convince his brothers?The whole story is told in simple rhyme form which makes it more interesting for young children and can help aid learning ability and reasoning. There is also a twist at the end of the story to fire their imagination.
The 7th Canon
by Robert Dugoni
Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Crime, Legal Thriller, Audiobook
Average rating on Goodreads: 4.25

A riveting new legal thriller from the bestselling author of My Sister’s Grave.In San Francisco’s seamy Tenderloin district, a teenage street hustler has been murdered in a shelter for boys. And the dedicated priest who runs the struggling home stands accused. But despite damning evidence that he’s a killer—and worse—Father Thomas Martin stands by his innocence. And attorney Peter Donley stands with him.For three years Donley has cut his legal teeth in his uncle’s tiny, no-frills firm, where people come before profits. Just as Donley is poised to move on to a lucrative dream job, the shocking case lands in his lap, and he must put his future on hold while putting his courtroom skills to the test. But a ruthless DA seeking headlines and a brutal homicide cop bent on vengeance have their own agendas. Now, as he unearths the dirty secrets surrounding the case, Donley must risk his neck to save his client’s life…and expose the face of true evil.
How the World Really Works: A Scientist's Guide to Our Past, Present and Future
by Vaclav Smil
Genres: Nonfiction, Science, History, Economics, Politics, Technology, Environment
Average rating on Goodreads: 4.00

This is his magnum opus. It distils his over 40 academic books into one peerlessly authoritative yet accessible masterpiece
Stop Overthinking: 23 Techniques to Relieve Stress, Stop Negative Spirals, Declutter Your Mind, and Focus on the Present (The Path to Calm Book 1)
by Nick Trenton
Genres: Self Help, Nonfiction, Mental Health, Psychology, Personal Development, Health, Productivity
Average rating on Goodreads: 3.83

Overcome negative thought patterns, reduce stress, and live a worry-free life.Overthinking is the biggest cause of unhappiness. Don't get stuck in a never-ending thought loop. Stay present and keep your mind off things that don't matter, and never will.Break free of your self-imposed mental prison.Stop Overthinking is a book that understands where you’ve been through,the exhausting situation you’ve put yourself into, and how you lose your mind in the trap of anxiety and stress. Acclaimed author Nick Trenton will walk you through the obstacles with detailed and proven techniques to help you rewire your brain, control your thoughts, and change your mental habits.What’s more, the book will provide you scientific approaches to completely change the way you think and feel about yourself by ending the vicious thought patterns.Stop agonizing over the past and trying to predict the future.Nick Trenton grew up in rural Illinois and is quite literally a farm boy. His best friend growing up was his trusty companion Leonard the dachshund. RIP Leonard. Eventually, he made it off the farm and obtained a BS in Economics, followed by an MA in Behavioral Psychology.Powerful ways to stop ruminating and dwelling on negative thoughts.-How to be aware of your negative spiral triggers-Identify and recognize your inner anxieties-How to keep the focus on relaxation and action-Proven methods to overcome stress attacks-Learn to declutter your mind and find focusUnleash your unlimited potential and start living.No more self-deprecating talk. No more sleepless nights with racing thoughts. Free your mind from overthinking and achieve more, feel better, and unleash your potential. Finally be able to live in the present moment.Live a stress-free life and conquer overthinking -- BUY NOW.
History of the Peloponnesian War
by Thucydides
Genres: History, Classics, Nonfiction, War, Ancient History, Politics, Greece
Average rating on Goodreads: 3.92

Written four hundred years before the birth of Christ, this detailed contemporary account of the long life-and-death struggle between Athens and Sparta stands an excellent chance of fulfilling its author's ambitious claim. Thucydides himself (c.460-400 BC) was an Athenian and achieved the rank of general in the earlier stages of the war. He applied thereafter a passion for accuracy and a contempt for myth and romance in compiling this factual record of a disastrous conflict.
Equal Rites (Discworld, #3; Witches, #1)
by Terry Pratchett
Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Humor, Comedy, Magic, Science Fiction Fantasy, Witches
Average rating on Goodreads: 4.05

The last thing the wizard Drum Billet did, before Death laid a bony hand on his shoulder, was to pass on his staff of power to the eighth son of an eighth son. Unfortunately for his colleagues in the chauvinistic (not to say misogynistic) world of magic, he failed to check on the newborn baby's sex...
Hometown Girl After All (Hometown, #2)
by Kirsten Fullmer
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult, New Adult, Fiction, Adult, Love Story, Romance
Average rating on Goodreads: 4.32

Julia lost everything while she was ill. Self-conscious and alone, she’s moved to Smithville, determined to hide away in her rundown Victorian house. Little does she know, she can’t hide anything in a small town, including her interest in the deliveryman.  Resolved to keep his life simple, Chad has his hands full running his delivery business and supporting his adopted family. So why can’t he get that withdrawn city girl, Julia, off his mind?  Will the eccentric but well-meaning Smithville folk push Julia and Chad to open up, or will the emotional toll drive them both back into seclusion?
The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels
by Michael D. Watkins
Genres: Business, Leadership, Nonfiction, Management, Self Help, Personal Development, Buisness
Average rating on Goodreads: 3.86

Since its original release, The First 90 Days has become the bestselling globally acknowledged bible of leadership and career transitions. In this updated and expanded 10th anniversary edition, internationally known leadership transition expert Michael D. Watkins gives you the keys to successfully negotiating your next move—whether you’re onboarding into a new company, being promoted internally, or embarking on an international assignment.In The First 90 Days, Watkins outlines proven strategies that will dramatically shorten the time it takes to reach what he calls the "breakeven point" when your organization needs you as much as you need the job. This new edition includes a substantial new preface by the author on the new definition of a career as a series of transitions; and notes the growing need for effective and repeatable skills for moving through these changes. As well, updated statistics and new tools make this book more reader-friendly and useful than ever.As hundreds of thousands of readers already know, The First 90 Days is a road map for taking charge quickly and effectively during critical career transition periods—whether you are a first-time manager, a mid-career professional on your way up, or a newly minted CEO.
Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness
by Richard H. Thaler
Genres: Nonfiction, Psychology, Economics, Business, Self Help, Science, Politics
Average rating on Goodreads: 3.84

 From the winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Economics, Richard H. Thaler, and Cass R. Sunstein: a revelatory look at how we make decisionsNew York Times bestsellerNamed a Best Book of the Year by The Economist and the Financial Times Every day we make choices—about what to buy or eat, about financial investments or our children’s health and education, even about the causes we champion or the planet itself. Unfortunately, we often choose poorly. Nudge is about how we make these choices and how we can make better ones. Using dozens of eye-opening examples and drawing on decades of behavioral science research, Nobel Prize winner Richard H. Thaler and Harvard Law School professor Cass R. Sunstein show that no choice is ever presented to us in a neutral way, and that we are all susceptible to biases that can lead us to make bad decisions. But by knowing how people think, we can use sensible “choice architecture” to nudge people toward the best decisions for ourselves, our families, and our society, without restricting our freedom of choice.
Hometown Girl Forever (Hometown, #3)
by Kirsten Fullmer
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult, Love Story, Fiction, New Adult, Adult, Romance
Average rating on Goodreads: 4.31

Lizzie gave up her stressful job in Boston to embrace her love of all things country in Smithville PA. Her farm, a new job at the spa, and her pet alpacas are a dream come true, if only her meddling, matchmaking, socialite mother would back off.  Elliot, a successful architect from Washington, DC, designed the new spa, but he certainly hadn't envisioned the exotic bohemian style manager or her intriguing, demanding mother. Small town antics and his interest in Lizzie extend his visit to Smithville, but will the allure of country life draw him in for good?  Once again, Smithville’s folk interfere with plans at every turn, forcing Lizzie and Elliot to face their personal dilemmas and each other, head on.
Train Dreams
by Denis Johnson
Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Novella, Westerns, Novels, Literary Fiction, Short Stories
Average rating on Goodreads: 3.90

Denis Johnson's Train Dreams is an epic in miniature, one of his most evocative and poignant fictions. It is the story of Robert Grainier, a day laborer in the American West at the start of the twentieth century---an ordinary man in extraordinary times. Buffeted by the loss of his family, Grainer struggles to make sense of this strange new world. As his story unfolds, we witness both his shocking personal defeats and the radical changes that transform America in his lifetime. Suffused with the history and landscapes of the American West, this novella captures the disappearance of a distinctly American way of life.
Forbidden
by Tabitha Suzuma
Genres: Romance, Young Adult, Contemporary, Fiction, Dark, Realistic Fiction, New Adult
Average rating on Goodreads: 3.99

She is pretty and talented - sweet sixteen and never been kissed. He is seventeen; gorgeous and on the brink of a bright future. And now they have fallen in love. But... they are brother and sister.Seventeen-year-old Lochan and sixteen-year-old Maya have always felt more like friends than siblings. Together they have stepped in for their alcoholic, wayward mother to take care of their three younger siblings. As defacto parents to the little ones, Lochan and Maya have had to grow up fast. And the stress of their lives—and the way they understand each other so completely—has also brought them closer than two siblings would ordinarily be. So close, in fact, that they have fallen in love. Their clandestine romance quickly blooms into deep, desperate love. They know their relationship is wrong and cannot possibly continue. And yet, they cannot stop what feels so incredibly right. As the novel careens toward an explosive and shocking finale, only one thing is certain: a love this devastating has no happy ending.
All Things Bright and Beautiful (All Creatures Great and Small, #3-4)
by James Herriot
Genres: Nonfiction, Animals, Memoir, Biography, Classics, Humor, Autobiography
Average rating on Goodreads: 4.33

"A very warm, very engaging read. . . . The reader falls totally under his spell."—Associated Press The second volume in the multimillion copy bestselling seriesMillions of readers have delighted in the wonderful storytelling and everyday miracles of James Herriot in the over thirty years since his delightful animal stories were first introduced to the world.Now in a new edition for the first time in a decade, All Things Bright and Beautiful is the beloved sequel to Herriot's first collection, All Creatures Great and Small, and picks up as Herriot, now newly married, journeys among the remote hillside farms and valley towns of the Yorkshire Dales, caring for their inhabitants—both two- and four-legged. Throughout, Herriot's deep compassion, humor, and love of life shine out as we laugh, cry, and delight in his portraits of his many, varied animal patients and their equally varied owners."Humor, realism, sensitivity, earthiness; animals comic and tragic; and people droll, pathetic, courageous, eccentric—all of whom he views with the same gentle compassion and a lively sense of the sad, the ridiculous, and the admirable."—Columbus Dispatch
Fifty Shades Darker (Fifty Shades, #2)
by E.L. James
Genres: Romance, Erotica, Fiction, BDSM, Adult, Contemporary, Contemporary Romance
Average rating on Goodreads: 3.83

Daunted by the singular sexual tastes and dark secrets of the beautiful, tormented young entrepreneur Christian Grey, Anastasia Steele has broken off their relationship to start a new career with a Seattle publishing house. But desire for Christian still dominates her every waking thought, and when he proposes a new arrangement, Anastasia cannot resist. They rekindle their searing sensual affair, and Anastasia learns more about the harrowing past of her damaged, driven, and demanding Fifty Shades. While Christian wrestles with his inner demons, Anastasia must confront her anger and envy of the women who came before her and make the most important decision of her life. Erotic, sparkling and suspenseful, Fifty Shades Darker is the irresistibly addictive second part of the Fifty Shades trilogy.
The Grifters
by Jim Thompson
Genres: Fiction, Crime, Noir, Mystery, Novels, Thriller, Mystery Thriller
Average rating on Goodreads: 3.93

To his friends, to his coworkers, and even to his mistress Moira, Roy Dillon is an honest hardworking salesman. He lives in a cheap hotel just within his pay bracket. He goes to work every day. He has hundreds of friends and associates who could attest to his good character.Yet, hidden behind three gaudy clown paintings in Roy's pallid hotel room, sits fifty-two thousand dollars--the money Roy makes from his short cons, his "grifting." For years, Roy has effortlessly maintained control over his house-of-cards life--until the simplest con goes wrong, and he finds himself critically injured and at the mercy of the most dangerous woman he ever met: his own mother.THE GRIFTERS, one of the best novels ever written about the art of the con, is an ingeniously crafted story of deception and betrayal that was the basis for Stephen Frears' and Martin Scorsese's 1990 critically-acclaimed film of the same name.