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<div class="goodreads-book" data-title="Treasure Island" data-author="Robert Louis Stevenson">
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<img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1614613391l/417994._SY500_.jpg" alt="Treasure Island" class="goodreads-cover-img">
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<h3 class="goodreads-title">
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/417994" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Treasure Island</a>
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<p class="goodreads-author">Robert Louis Stevenson</p>
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<span class="goodreads-year">Published: 1882</span>
<span class="goodreads-date">Finished: 18/06/2026</span>
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<div class="goodreads-description-text">The most popular pirate story ever written in English, featuring one of literature’s most beloved “bad guys,” Treasure Island has been happily devoured by several generations of boys—and girls—and grownups. Its unforgettable characters include: young Jim Hawkins, who finds himself owner of a map to Treasure Island, where the fabled pirate booty is buried; honest Captain Smollett, heroic Dr. Livesey, and the good-hearted but obtuse Squire Trelawney, who help Jim on his quest for the treasure; the frightening Blind Pew, double-dealing Israel Hands, and seemingly mad Ben Gunn, buccaneers of varying shades of menace; and, of course, garrulous, affable, ambiguous Long John Silver, who is one moment a friendly, laughing, one-legged sea-cook . . .and the next a dangerous pirate leader!
The unexpected and complex relationship that develops between Silver and Jim helps transform what seems at first to be a simple, rip-roaring adventure story into a deeply moving study of a boy’s growth into manhood, as he learns hard lessons about friendship, loyalty, courage and honor—and the uncertain meaning of good and evil.</div>
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<div class="goodreads-book" data-title="On Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Biography" data-author="D.J. Taylor">
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<img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1567255633l/43908974.jpg" alt="On Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Biography" class="goodreads-cover-img">
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<h3 class="goodreads-title">
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43908974" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">On Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Biography</a>
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<p class="goodreads-author">D.J. Taylor</p>
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<span class="goodreads-year">Published: 2019</span>
<span class="goodreads-date">Finished: 13/06/2026</span>
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<div class="goodreads-description-text">From the author of the definitive biography of George Orwell, a captivating account of the origin and enduring power of his landmark dystopian novel
Since its publication nearly 70 years ago, George Orwell’s 1984 has been regarded as one of the most influential novels of the modern age. Politicians have testified to its influence on their intellectual identities, rock musicians have made records about it, TV viewers watch a reality show named for it, and a White House spokesperson tells of “alternative facts.” The world we live in is often described as an Orwellian one, awash in inescapable surveillance and invasions of privacy.
On 1984 dives deep into Orwell’s life to chart his earlier writings and key moments in his youth, such as his years at a boarding school, whose strict and charismatic headmaster shaped the idea of Big Brother. Taylor tells the story of the writing of the book, taking readers to the Scottish island of Jura, where Orwell, newly famous thanks to Animal Farm but coping with personal tragedy and rapidly declining health, struggled to finish 1984 . Published during the cold war—a term Orwell coined—Taylor elucidates the environmental influences on the book. Then he examines 1984 ’s post-publication life, including its role as a tool to understand our language, politics, and government.
In a current climate where truth, surveillance, censorship, and critical thinking are contentious, Orwell’s work is necessary. Written with resonant and reflective analysis, On 1984 is both brilliant and remarkably timely.</div>
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<div class="goodreads-book" data-title="A Narco History: How the United States and Mexico Jointly Created the " mexican="" drug="" war"="" data-author="Carmen Boullosa">
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<img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1426798605l/24309343.jpg" alt="A Narco History: How the United States and Mexico Jointly Created the " mexican="" drug="" war"="" class="goodreads-cover-img">
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<h3 class="goodreads-title">
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24309343" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">A Narco History: How the United States and Mexico Jointly Created the "Mexican Drug War</a>
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<p class="goodreads-author">Carmen Boullosa</p>
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<span class="goodreads-year">Published: 2015</span>
<span class="goodreads-date">Finished: 11/06/2026</span>
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<div class="goodreads-description-text">The “War Against Drugs”: who started it, and why? What are its consequences in real terms, not mere statistics, for the people most affected by it?
One hundred thousand deaths later—with the vast majority of those killed innocent citizens, such as the 43 teachers college students recently killed in Guerrero—the solution to peace requires a radical rethinking of how America, and its neighbors, approach the illegal drug trade.
The origins of this cataclysm of violence go back a century: and no two writers are better suited to this investigation than Carmen Boullosa and Mike Wallace, two legendary prize-winning writers, one Mexican and the other American. Through them we learn of economic disaster, mass migration of families fleeing violence, and the chaos that has ensued as direct results of this disastrous policy promulgated by the U.S. Government. Before the attack on a supposedly rampant drug “problem,” Mexico had one of the lowest crime rates and lowest addiction rates in Latin America. Now, it may be the most crime-ridden, drug-infested country on the planet.</div>
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<div class="goodreads-book" data-title="The Sign Of Four" data-author="Arthur Conan Doyle">
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<img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1413747312l/7882155.jpg" alt="The Sign Of Four" class="goodreads-cover-img">
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<h3 class="goodreads-title">
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7882155" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Sign Of Four</a>
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<p class="goodreads-author">Arthur Conan Doyle</p>
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<span class="goodreads-year">Published: 1890</span>
<span class="goodreads-date">Finished: 10/06/2026</span>
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<div class="goodreads-description-text">Arthur Conan Doyle’s second Sherlock Holmes novel is both a detective story and an imperial romance. Ostensibly the story of Mary Morstan, a beautiful young woman enlisting the help of Holmes to find her vanished father and solve the mystery of her receipt of a perfect pearl on the same date each year, it gradually uncovers a tale of treachery and human greed. The action audaciously ranges from penal settlements on the Andaman Islands to the suburban comfort of South London, and from the opium-fuelled violence of Agra Fort during the Indian ‘Mutiny’ to the cocaine-induced contemplation of Holmes’ own Baker Street.
This Broadview Edition places Doyle’s tale in the cultural, political, and social contexts of late nineteenth-century colonialism and imperialism. The appendices provide a wealth of relevant extracts from hard-to-find sources, including official reports, memoirs, newspaper editorials, and anthropological studies.</div>
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<div class="goodreads-book" data-title="Inner War: A German WWII Survivor?s Journey from Pain to Peace" data-author="Gerda Hartwich Robinson">
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<img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1450236576l/25159219.jpg" alt="Inner War: A German WWII Survivor?s Journey from Pain to Peace" class="goodreads-cover-img">
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<h3 class="goodreads-title">
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25159219" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Inner War: A German WWII Survivor?s Journey from Pain to Peace</a>
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<p class="goodreads-author">Gerda Hartwich Robinson</p>
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<span class="goodreads-year">Published: 2013</span>
<span class="goodreads-date">Finished: 07/06/2026</span>
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<div class="goodreads-description-text">It is sometimes difficult to remember that in war there are innocents on all sides who suffer. German citizens who had no connection to the atrocities committed by their countrymen nonetheless endured great hardships because of them. In The Inner War , author Gerda Hartwich Robinson narrates her story as a German survivor of World War II. She tells how her life’s journey included hunger, fear, neglect, and physical and emotional abuse, and how she carried these injustices in her mind and body for many years, leading to debilitating back pain, headaches, panic attacks, depression, and feelings of inadequacy.
In this touching memoir, Robinson shows that the tragedies of war don’t end when the last bomb is dropped or the last prisoner freed; they continue in subtle but devastating ways. Like many German citizens during and after the war, Robinson was simply trying to survive a terrifying situation she had nothing to do with. She describes how her spirit was devastated by hopelessness, and how she entertained thoughts of suicide. The Inner War shares lessons she learned at a chronic pain rehabilitation center that allowed her to start on a path to peace and love.</div>
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<div class="goodreads-book" data-title="The Missing: The True Story of My Family in World War II" data-author="Michael Rosen">
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<img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1700543091l/202470583._SX500_.jpg" alt="The Missing: The True Story of My Family in World War II" class="goodreads-cover-img">
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<h3 class="goodreads-title">
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/202470583" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Missing: The True Story of My Family in World War II</a>
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<p class="goodreads-author">Michael Rosen</p>
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<span class="goodreads-date">Finished: 07/06/2026</span>
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<div class="goodreads-description-text">An award-winning author and poet traces the history of his relatives lost in the Holocaust in a personal, powerful narrative with resonance for readers today.
“They were there at the beginning of the war, but they were gone by the end. I suppose they died in the camps.”
That’s all young Michael Rosen, born in England just after the end of the Second World War, was told about the six great-aunts and great-uncles who had been living in Poland or France at the beginning of that war. This wasn’t enough for him. So, as an adult, he started to search. He asked relatives for any papers they might have. He read book after book. He searched online, time and again, as more information was digitized and suddenly there to be found. In a unique mix of memoir, history, and poetry, scholar and children’s literature luminary Michael Rosen explores his family history, digging up more details than he ever thought he would and sharing them with readers so that now, a lifetime after the Nazis tried to make the world forget the Rosen family and the rest of Europe’s Jews, his readers can do something essential: remember. With an extensive list of titles for further reading, maps of France and Poland, a family tree, and an introduction by lauded author and anthologist Marc Aronson, this immensely readable narrative offers a vital tool for talking to children about the Holocaust against the background of the ongoing refugee crisis.</div>
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<div class="goodreads-book" data-title="Call Them by Their True Names: American Crises" data-author="Rebecca Solnit">
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<img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1536046686l/41707852.jpg" alt="Call Them by Their True Names: American Crises" class="goodreads-cover-img">
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<h3 class="goodreads-title">
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41707852" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Call Them by Their True Names: American Crises</a>
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<p class="goodreads-author">Rebecca Solnit</p>
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<span class="goodreads-year">Published: 2018</span>
<span class="goodreads-date">Finished: 06/06/2026</span>
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<div class="goodreads-description-text">Rebecca Solnit is the author of more than twenty books including the international bestseller Men Explain Things to Me. Called “the voice of the resistance” by the New York Times, she has emerged as an essential guide to our times, through incisive commentary on feminism, violence, ecology, hope, and everything in between.
In this powerful and wide-ranging collection of essays, Solnit turns her attention to the war at home. This is a war, she says, “with so many casualties that we should call it by its true name, this war with so many dead by police, by violent ex-husbands and partners and lovers, by people pursuing power and profit at the point of a gun or just shooting first and figuring out who they hit later.”
To get to the root of these American crises, she contends that “to acknowledge this state of war is to admit the need for peace,” countering the despair of our age with a dose of solidarity, creativity, and hope.</div>
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<div class="goodreads-book" data-title="The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World" data-author="Antony Loewenstein">
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<img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1664177146l/62790909._SY500_.jpg" alt="The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World" class="goodreads-cover-img">
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<h3 class="goodreads-title">
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62790909" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World</a>
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<p class="goodreads-author">Antony Loewenstein</p>
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<span class="goodreads-year">Published: 2023</span>
<span class="goodreads-date">Finished: 03/06/2026</span>
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<div class="goodreads-description-text">Bestselling journalist Antony Loewenstein uncovers the widespread commercialisation and brutal deployment globally of Israel’s occupation-enforcing technologies.
For more than 50 years, the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza has given the Israeli state invaluable experience in controlling an ‘enemy’ population, the Palestinians. It’s here that they have perfected the architecture of control, using the occupied Palestinian territories as a testing ground for weaponry and surveillance technology that they then export around the world.
The Palestine Laboratory shows in depth and for the first time how Israel has become a leader in developing spying technology and defence hardware that fuels some of the globe’s most brutal conflicts — from the Pegasus software that hacked Jeff Bezos’s and Jamal Khashoggi’s phones, and the weapons sold to the Myanmar army that has murdered thousands of Rohingyas, to the drones being used by the European Union to monitor refugees in the Mediterranean who are left to drown.
In a global investigation that uncovers secret documents, based on revealing interviews and on-the-ground reporting, Antony Loewenstein shows how, as ethno-nationalism grows in the 21st century, Israel has built the ultimate tools for despots and democracies.</div>
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<div class="goodreads-book" data-title="The Burrow" data-author="Franz Kafka">
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<img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1490107784l/34656462._SY500_.jpg" alt="The Burrow" class="goodreads-cover-img">
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<h3 class="goodreads-title">
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34656462" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Burrow</a>
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<p class="goodreads-author">Franz Kafka</p>
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<span class="goodreads-year">Published: 1924</span>
<span class="goodreads-date">Finished: 31/05/2026</span>
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<div class="goodreads-description-text">The Burrow" (German: "Der Bau") is an unfinished short story by Franz Kafka in which a mole-like being burrows through an elaborate system of tunnels it has built over the course of its life. The story was published posthumously in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer (Berlin, 1931). The first English translation appeared in The Great Wall of China. Stories and Reflections (New York: Schocken Books, 1946. Translated by Willa and Edwin Muir).</div>
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<div class="goodreads-book" data-title="A Study in Scarlet" data-author="Arthur Conan Doyle">
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<img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1516711658l/38145515._SY500_.jpg" alt="A Study in Scarlet" class="goodreads-cover-img">
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<h3 class="goodreads-title">
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38145515" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">A Study in Scarlet</a>
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<p class="goodreads-author">Arthur Conan Doyle</p>
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<span class="goodreads-year">Published: 1887</span>
<span class="goodreads-date">Finished: 30/05/2026</span>
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<div class="goodreads-description-text">'There's a scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it.'
From the moment Dr. John Watson takes lodgings in Baker Street with the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes, he becomes intimately acquainted with the bloody violence and frightening ingenuity of the criminal mind.
In A Study in Scarlet, Holmes and Watson's first mystery, the pair are summoned to a south London house where they find a dead man whose contorted face is a twisted mask of horror. The body is unmarked by violence but on the wall a mysterious word has been written in blood.
The police are baffled by the crime and its circumstances. But when Sherlock Holmes applies his brilliantly logical mind to the problem he uncovers a tragic tale of love and deadly revenge...</div>
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Scrapbook Note •