Lilith
The Book of Lilith
Website
This site contains links devoted to
The Book of Lilith
, a work of
fiction by Robert G. Brown. Many of the links, of course, will also be
of interest to anyone interested in the myth of
Lilith
and her
relationship to Adam, to Eve, to Gilgamesh, to Cain in both historical
work and modern culture. [Vampire fans be warned! The
Lilith
portrayed in this book (and in most of the links below) is not a
bloodsucking demoness of the night. Sorry. You might like it anyway,
though.]
Current Amazon Sales Rank
The Book of Lilith (Trade Paper)
The Book of Lilith (Kindle)
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Since
The Book of Lilith
is unadvertised, if you find it (or
this site) interesting or really liked the book, please help me out.
Take a few seconds to
or
. Add an online review at Amazon or
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Lilith
rocks, spread the word!
Site Links
rgb Home
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Preview
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TBOL
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Web Links
Books/Mags
Webrings
Site Statistics
The Book of Lilith
Site Contents
Review/Synopsis
To give you an idea of what the book is all about.
Reviews and Previews
To give you a
good
idea of what the book is all about.
Stores and Formats to get
The Book of
Lilith
Store links where you can buy
TBOL
in trade paper, hardback,
Sony formatted PDF, Kindle e-book, and trade-paper image PDF
Author's Writing/Club Links
A little bit about rgb -- what he reads, what he thinks. Of course
to get a bigger better picture you might want to visit
rgb's Home Page
directly, which
gets roughly 500,000 web-hits a month (so there must be
something
there worth looking at, right?).
Lilith
Web Links
These are useful and entertaining Lilith references, including
some of the links that were used to do research for writing the book.
Lilith
Books and Mags
More of the same, but these you have to buy. Not from me.
Lilith Webring Station
TBOL
is on a number of webrings that overlap with Lilith,
feminism, spouse abuse, eventually other topics. I put all the links in
one spot at the bottom, but I make it easy to get there in one hop so
you can continue if you arrived on the webring train and this station
isn't, so to speak, your cup of tea...
Review/Synopsis of
The Book of Lilith
The Book of Lilith
is a work of serious fiction. You should
find it entertaining, and it should make you think. The general category
for the work is magical realism, or perhaps satiric fantasy in the
spirit of Barth's
Chimera
. It is a story set in a
pseudo-academic framing story involving the supposed discovery of lost
scrolls in war-torn Iraq by a somewhat mysterious maiden, who is then
subjected to a
very hard time
by the various patriarchal sides of
the war's participants. This part is pure black humor, but can be a bit
shocking as well. They should be, as events like the ones portrayed turn
up in my newspaper every week, where somehow they've lost all their
shock value.
These scrolls, when translated, turn out to be the oldest written
documents ever discovered, the first person story of
Lilith
herself
. This is a clear spoof on the
Nag Hammadi scrolls
discovered by an Arab peasant in Egypt in 1945, that were kept around
his house and (alas) even used to start fires before it was discovered
that they contained very early copies of books that were purged out of
the New Testament by the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE: the Gnostic
gospels, as well as the Book of Thomas (not properly a Gnostic text as
Thomas was of course an Apostle).
Although the frame is just part of the story, it is told
realistically enough that it fooled at least
one
early reader
into asking me if he could "see the real scrolls" (whereupon I added a
careful note at the beginning pointing out that the book is
fiction
). Fiction or not, the story itself is carefully
researched and Lilith's adventures span four cultures from the early
Bronze or late Stone age. It is not just a physical travelogue,
however, it is a
spiritual
travelogue, as Lilith takes from each
place a painful lesson on her road to wisdom.
Lilith doesn't travel alone on this journey; she takes the reader
with
her as the crazy course of her life ensouled carries her
from its beginnings in a magical Eden located in ancient Sumeria to
Sidon in early Phoenicia, to Mohenjo Daro and the Harrapan civilization,
and finally to a wicked and corrupt India in the years immediately
preceding the violent cleansing portrayed in the
Mahabharata
The Book of Lilith
is lovingly derived from many scholarly and
historical works and epics, including The Book of Genesis, the
Epic
of Gilgamesh
, the
Upanishads
, the
Alphabet of
Ben-Sirra
, the Dead Sea Scrolls and more.
Note well that the Lilith portrayed is
not
the "goddess"
worshipped by various cults,
nor
is she the she-demon portrayed
by various patriarchal writings. She is a
real person
. She is
the first, untamed wife of Adam, with a surprising relationship with the
more submissive Eve. In fact, she is the
first real person gifted
with a soul by God
, and it is her appointed task to bring the gift
of Soul to all things in Creation (beginning with Adam) by means of her
love, just as it is Adam's task to bring about the rule of Law and hence
begin the process of evolving a just and ethical society.
That's not to say that Lilith isn't more than a bit magical. To do
her job she has been given a tiny bit of the miraculous power of God,
which she uses for better or worse as her life evolves. Her life does
come with some very definite percs. For example, she enjoys both
preternatural knowledge
of all things but herself and a
personal
relationship -- one that involves sharing sushi and
shopping trips to early bazaars - with Goddess in the
metaphor
of
Inanna (given that any human representation of God is at heart an
anthropomorphic projection of a genderless state of Perfect Knowledge
and Perfect Being). Herself she must learn about the hard way, just as
you or I might.
Many themes (some of them somewhat disturbing or even shocking, be
warned) are woven into the story, but the overall story is one of
growth
. Lilith is in turn an eager (and somewhat naive and
foolish) young bride in love, a young mother coping with what turns out
to be a possessive, insecure, and slovenly husband, a beaten and raped
wife who prefers to work as a harlot to feed herself and her children
rather than ever again be "owned" by any man, a miracle worker beloved
by God and granted the power to heal the sick or punish the wicked, a
penetrating judge who can plumb the depths of the darkest heart and
consign its possessor to freedom or a horrible death, and, in the end,
something
more
. She is throughout her life a seductive lover
with the uninhibited knowledge of sexual pleasure she is ever willing to
share -- as long as she gets to be on
top
, or at least to take
turns.
At the end of all this -- eventually -- she turns out to be neither more
nor less than an extraordinary human being who suffers from her pride
and mistakes, who struggles with her appointed task (sometimes
succeeding and sometimes failing) and who learns from the pain and
reward of a life well spent that knowledge and wisdom are not the same
thing.
There are surprises and adventures, wickedness and great good, laughter
and tears, and -- perhaps -- a nugget or two of wisdom, so give it a
try. I think you'll enjoy it!
Back to Contents
Reviews and Previews of
The Book of Lilith
Preview of
The Book of
Lilith
This is an online free preview of
The Book of Lilith
containing the preface and first three chapters in their entirety.
Because html doesn't support proper "pages" without a page browser, the
footnotes in the actual text are presented as inserts. However, it
should read pretty well in most web browsers, especially if you resize
the browser to a convenient line width for easy reading at your font
size.
Online Page
Version
This is an online preview site set up by
fans
of
TBOL
in
Australia
who wrote:
We laughed and cried. He deeply stirred all our emotions. In fact we
were mesmerized by this remarkable book and loved it so much so that we
wanted to help Robert spread the word. So we contacted him and offered
to create this web site. We hope you buy The Book of Lilith as a gift
for someone special this Christmas, as it is truly the first classic
fable of the 21st century, that will act as a beacon for the future, for
whoever are fortunate enough to read it.
No kidding! Almost embarrassing, actually. They set up a flash-based
page-at-a-time preview
here
as well.
Podpeople
Blogspot Review
of
TBOL
A review by Cheryl Anne Garder, author of dark, erotic novels
such as
The
Thin Wall
. She says:
I loved it, and the author's approach to the story not only made me giggle a
bit, but it also made me ponder and appreciate what it means to be a
woman -- a candid and tough woman, struggling in the world of men.
BreeniBooks
Review
of
TBOL
Sabrina Williams (in her email back to me letting me know she posted
the review) said that it was "a really
really
great book." High
praise, from one of the best known and respected online reviewers!
Here's the conclusion of her review:
I found myself emotionally involved in Lilith's tale, at times laughing
out loud, at times brimming with joy or seething with anger. At some
points, I was lost in the story so much that it seemed real to me, and
when I brought myself back to reality, I longed for it to have been a
true account. It's a wonderful work of fiction that encourages the
reader to examine humanity's existence and the sacred feminine from many
perspectives.
Breeni likes
TBOL
enough that she selected it as the best book
she read in February!
by far the best book I read in February was
The Book of Lilith
by
Robert G. Brown. If you like to invest in new authors, here's one you
should definitely run right out and buy.
"Run" being figurative, of course, since it is available online
at the links below
, or you can order it at your
favorite independent bookseller by its ISBN: 9781430322450 (often via
the Book Sense link below).
Still, sounds like good advice to me!
Mrs. Giggles'
Review
of
TBOL
Mrs. Giggles reviewed
TBOL
on her own, so to speak -- I
discovered the review accidentally when googling around on the web.
Mrs. Giggles didn't ``get'' the story the way that Breeni did; she
didn't seem to pick up on the fact that the tone change over the course
of the story is deliberate and actually echoes the process of Lilith's
personal journey of self-discovery as she starts out as an innocent in
Eden and is exposed in the harshest of ways to all of the
real
evil in the world. Even so, Mrs. Giggles says:
...this one has its charms, particularly as an unapologetically
feminist interpretation of the myth of a previously maligned figure in
Biblical canon that has in recent times become a positive icon for the
feminist movement.
I can live with that. Given that
TBOL
is my first published
novel, I can even take Mrs. Giggles criticism of my literary style and
use of irony, satire, black humor, light humor all mixed in with a
serious
work at face value. MG, I vow to work on this in the
future but (given the reviewers who don't seem to mind the style or even
applaud it) I'd suggest that potential readers check out the previews
(at least) before making up their minds.
Odyssey
Reviews
Odyssey Reviews
gives
TBOL
4.5 medallions (out of
five)...and this from a reviewer that frankly admits that he didn't
want
to like the book and generally dislikes the genre! A few
quotes:
I normally dislike this genre of book; mostly because they just come off
as a blatant show of the author's brilliance and wit; smug and lofty.
But I can't bring myself to hate the Book of Lilith. Trust me, I tried.
The truth is, I kind of liked it. I kind of
really
liked it,
actually.
sigh
I know...The horror!
Also:
Lately, I've had a hard time keeping focused on reading, yet this book
had my attention whenever I had it in my hands. I kept reading it; I
wanted
to keep reading it, despite the fact that I don't even
like
books about spirituality or etudes related to religion
beliefs. This book was far from mind-numbing.
Finally:
All in all the Book of Lilith is up there in the ranks of self-published
books. The quality of writing, the style and voice of the author made
the book quite compelling and a good read.
They aren't exactly review sites, but a number of people have thought
enough of
The Book of Lilith
to set up links to this page on
their own
without being asked by me
(seriously). Since that
takes work on their part and selects
TBOL
out of the vast sea of
books they
could
have put up to promote to their friends instead,
we'll count that as "five stars". Here are some of them:
Connie Pierce's
Personal Website
which is very well done (not all random and chaotic
like my own personal website:-). Worth checking out, and be sure to
sign her guestbook.
Back to Contents
rgb's Writing Links
The Author's
Den
Goodreads
Goodreads is a
great
online book club, for those that like
book clubs. It is a place where book
readers
hang out. Some
authors seeking to promote their books (blush, blush) sure, but on this
site they are readers
first
TBOL
has a chapter up there,
and there is also a link to it in review-space.
rgb's Lulu
blog
I'm too busy
writing
(I'm working on some five or six books
simultaneously) to blog out, but I do try to write a bit here from time
to time. It's one of several decent places to see what's going on.
Back to Contents
Links to Different Media Versions of
The Book of Lilith
Amazon
Trade Paper
Buy the book at Amazon! Be sure to leave a review.
Amazon
Kindle
Deliver
The Book of Lilith
to your Kindle in a matter of seconds,
and save a bunch of money as well!
Barnes
and Noble Trade Paper
Barnes and Noble has a great price and free shipping if you are a
member! Again, please leave a review and help to spread the word.
Sony-sized E-book
This is a special PDF version of the book formatted to display
perfectly on the Sony E-book reader. It will also display on any PDF
browser, though, so it will work on laptops and other E-book readers
with a similar sized screen that support PDFs.
HTML formatted E-book
This is a special web version of the book formatted to display
perfectly on pretty much any web browser. It is being offered for a
short time at the special price of only $1.25 (the other E-book formats
for regular E-book readers are $6.95)! Read
The Book of Lilith
for about the cost of a soda out of a machine...
Your Favorite Independent
Bookseller Trade Paper
As an independent writer and publisher, I strongly support
independent booksellers! However, one of the dark sides of publishing
through
Lulu
is that their current publishing
arrangement makes it impossible to offer books at the 40% discount
required by a brick and mortar store so that they can make a small
profit at list price or afford to offer a discount to their customers.
As a result, most brick and mortar stores do not sell
The Book of
Lilith
directly inside the store. However, they often
do
allow you to order it through their store via Book Sense. If you wish
to support your local independent, follow the link above, enter your zip
code, select your local store, and then search on ISBN
978-1-4303-2245-0, or order it directly from your store using this same
ISBN. That way
they'll
make money on the sale, which is fine
with me.
Lulu Trade Paper
This is the home of the ISBN paperback version of
The Book of
Lilith
. It has an online previewer where you can read much of the
book for free. Reviews or comments welcome!
Lulu Hardback
As you can see, one can buy
The Book of Lilith
in several
formats. This site sells the only hardback edition of the book. It
does not have an ISBN at this time, and may end up being a bit of a
collectors item. The hardback (like the various e-book formats above)
is basically a typo-correcting revision ahead of the trade paperback as
well, and is very slightly more polished.
Lulu PDF
The hardback site
also
sells a 6x9 trade paper PDF image of
The Book of Lilith
, available for instant download. This is the
least expensive
copy currently available, and is the actual image
used to create the hardback book. This lets me offer it at a discount
compared to the other e-book formatted versions (which require
considerable additional work to get formatted just right). It is a great
size for easy readability in any PDF page browser on a Windows, Mac or
Linux computer.
rgb's Lulu
Bookstore
This is where
all
my available books published through Lulu
are for sale. There are two complete books of poetry, a science fiction
novel, a Classical Electromagnetism lecture note/textbook, and a book on
Beowulf computing (the latter two somewhat under development) there for
paper copy sale or PDF download. Check it out!
Back to Contents
Useful and Interesting
Lilith
Links
Wikipedia
Article on
Lilith
A truly excellent one-stop-shop scholarly review of Lilith, it
contains the various myths, the legends, the history, with numerous
cross-links. This page was hardly more than a stub when I began this
project, but at this point it is simply superb. They even selected the
same work of art to depict Lilith that I used for my cover! I still
learn more about Lilith every time I visit this site and follow its
links.
Alan
Humm's
Lilith
Website
This site, assembled by Alan Humm, is an excellent and
authoritative cross-referencing of Lilith's appearance in history and
literature from ancient times to the present. A very good starting
place, and almost invariably included as a reference on other Lilith
websites. From the content, I suspect that Humm is also responsible for
most of the Wikipedia article, although one cannot be sure.
Aaron Leitch's
Lilith
Website
This website, assembled by Aaron Leitch, is a very interesting
survey of Lilith-iana and includes a number of web-links to other
references. However it is most interesting (I think) for its
presentation and critique of various views of Lilith (in particular the
"feminist" viewpoint that is indirectly advanced in my book) and its
advancement of the notion that the Lilith mythology
as it has
emerged
in the present time has a
psychoanalytic
interpretation. This is not a unique viewpoint (see the
books
link) but he does a good job of presenting it.
As I noted in at the end of
The Book of Lilith
, however, I
personally prefer the
humanist
metaphor of
continuing
evolution
where I deliberately liberate Lilith from her demonic
roots and her symbolic soul roots and make her into just a person. She
is a
special
person, one with a special relationship with God and
a special task, but aside from the odd bit of magic there is nothing
about my Lilith that makes her particularly different from you or I.
She's equipped with different tools, but she's moving down the same
road.
Ramblin
Rosen's
Lilith
Website
This is a compendium of links to primary references on the
historical roots of the Lilith myths in Babylonian/Sumerian culture
through medieval times (when the myth of Lilith as the "first Eve"
emerged). The site has excellent essays and links, a mailing list, and
a message board (where the latter has a strong occult flavor to it, but
hey, that's one part of what Lilith is all about).
Lilith the Mother of
Musical Worship Website
This is apparently a link on a biblical reference website, and is
most interesting for its presentation of Lilith myths (including those
that reference "Naamah", a Lilith-like demoness that might be another
term for Lilith herself or a sister of Tubal-Cain) and for connecting
those myths, interestingly enough, to the development of
music
in
culture and worship. I don't know how sound the scholarship of this
site is compared to, for example, that linked to Alan Humm's site above,
but it nevertheless has interesting versions or interpretations of the
Lilith/Naamah story on it and is a site that links Lilith strongly with
Inanna, in a positive way and as a goddess in her own right, not solely
as a demoness and a negative one.
Gilgamesh and the
Huluppu-Tree
This is the earliest known appearance of Lilith, in one of the
earliest known written works of mankind. I incorporated the notion of
Lilith, as the "always laughing" and happy handmaiden of Inanna living
in a tree with wise birds in the branches in Eden directly from this
myth. Gilgamesh becomes Adam, who tore down her tree and forced her to
flee into the waste. However, I am melding several myth's together; the
waste isn't a surrounding desert per se, it is the wasteland created by
the flood as the Sword of God (a small asteroid) is brought to Earth to
destroy Eden and drive out Adam as well.
A Chapter from
Hebrew
Myths
on Lilith
This is a fairly serious Gnostic website. It excerpts the chapter
from the book by Robert Graves and Raphael Patai that deals with the
myth of Lilith as it is presented in e.g.
The Alphabet of
Ben-Sira
and elsewhere. It is another very important source for
The Book of Lilith
-- in particular the it contains the
patriarchal crap
that inspired it, where Lilith was the woman
made on the sixth day but out of "filth and sediment instead of pure
dust". It is also where Adam tries to
compel her obedience by
force
to have sex with him on the bottom -- that is, he rapes her.
I reject the rest of the story here as too ridiculous for words,
transforming Lilith from a sensible woman who flees and abusive man into
some sort of demon-loving child murderer. But it is very useful to see
just how misogynistic the Hebrew Lilith legend really is, and how badly
it needs a makeover.
Lilith
in
The Alphabet of Ben-Sira
This is one of the primary sources for the modern view of biblical
Lilith as the first wife of Adam. Note well that it is not clear that
the
Alphabet
is intended to be taken
seriously
. It might
have been a self-mocking satire, it might have been a scurrilous work by
anti-Semites.
Lilith
in
The Zohar
I include this because this is a central work in the Kabbalistic
tradition of Lilith, one that binds together many earlier legends and
shows that Lilith has long been an important part of Jewish culture,
usually representing the dark side of the female, the side that dares to
be man's equal, the side that is tied to both the devil (in the person
of Samael) and the Serpent as well as Eve. I did not use this directly
in my mythopoeic reconstruction of Lilith's life, save for the obvious
connections -- Lilith (and
Adam
) have a critical connection to a
serpent, but it is a very different serpent than the traditional
tempter, a serpent that bridges the gap between Biblical/Sumerian Lilith
and Lilith in India as the mother of Krishna, where the
same
snake is now the well-known protector and umbrella of Krishna at his
birth. Note that these last two sites are themselves part of a
large
site devoted to Lilith
that is well worth exploring.
The Lilith
Library
This is a site that was originally devoted strictly to Lilith but
that has subsequently branched out. It is on
two
webrings
associated with Lilith, and has crosslinks to literature and art and
music associated with Lilith.
Back to Contents
Books and Literary Material
The following books and magazines may be of interest to people
interested in learning more about Lilith. Several of them seem to be
linked to my book on Amazon, so at the very least it seems probable that
the same people who read them like my book and vice versa. Inclusion
here does not mean that I've read them myself, however -- fascinating as
I find the Lilith story, reading Scholarly Works in general (even in
physics, actually) makes me yearn to give myself a root canal with my
Black and Decker instead.
Besides, in most cases the messages they convey could be equally well
conveyed in a good five paragraph essay, and be equally believable.
IMO, anyway. Not that I'm not equally guilty in my own little essay in
the Appendix of
The Book of Lilith
Lilith
Magazine
This is
the
contemporary Jewish feminist magazine. It very
much appears to be run by women, for women, all of whom (like my Lilith
in
The Book of Lilith
) aren't about to spend their lives on the
bottom, not economically, not sexually, and not emotionally. Oh, and it
looks like it is useful and interesting outside of the dialectic, as
well.
The
Book of Lilith
by Barbara Black Koltuv
This is one of three or four works entitled
The Book of
Lilith
. It is supposedly a Jungian analysis of Lilith in history,
myth, and poetry, but I have
not read it
and do not know for
sure. I'm presenting it in all fairness as an "important" work you're
bound to run across if Lilith is your thing. If I had known about it
when I named my book, I would probably have named it "The Lilith
Scrolls" instead, which also works, but then,
The Book of Lilith
is
a great title, isn't it? And my book is plain old fiction, plain
old fun, where BBK's book is, um, Scholarship.
Lilith
- The First Eve: Historical and Psychological Aspects of the Dark
Feminine
by Siegmund Hurwitz
This is
also
a Jungian analysis of Lilith, apparently less
historical and more psychoanalytical. Again, haven't read it, and it
seems to be in a bit of a war with BBK's book above. From what I've
read second hand, its scholarship is likely a bit better, but it may be
a bit harder to read as a consequence. Thankfully, I'm just writing
plain old fiction...;-)
Lilith
by George MacDonald
A frankly wierd little religious fantasy. I'm not being critical
-- so is
The Book of Lilith
. It is one of the few genuine works
of magical realism from that period, and was enormously influential. In
particular, as I note in my
TBOL
essay, it influenced C. S.
Lewis, where his White Witch character was supposedly descended from
Lilith and is very much a Lilith character (of the dark, demonic sort)
herself. My only problem with it is that it drags a bit plotwise,
although MacDonald's "luminous" language and fancy rescue it to some
extent. Also the symbolism is a bit heavy handed. Not that Lewis's
wasn't as well, but Lewis's
plots
are fabulous. It is available
for free from
Project
Gutenberg
as a straight text e-book if you're comfortable reading in
that format -- I personally wish they'd make it into either PDF or
HTML/zip or both, but hey, not enough to do the work for them.
The Lost Book
of Lilith
by Rachel S. Havrelock
This link (or rather, a link to www.lilithinstitute.com) might well
have gone in above, and this isn't really a "book" but is rather a very
short story, but it is a literary rendering of the Lilith story and
again shares a lot of the same title, so it deserves mention somewhere.
The Lilith Institute links on this site will take you off many places as
well.
Agatha Crup and the
Legend of the Olin
by Ray Hayden
This is a unique and imaginative online concept comic produced by
veteran music producer and graphic designer Ray Hayden of Opaz
Multimedia. With its CGI graphics, mythical characters and an adult
twist, it is the evolution of the traditional paper comic.
The graphic novel is centred on the supernatural character Agatha Crup
who secretly works against the destructive force of Lilith and her demon
army. In Hebrew folklore Adam had a wife before God made Eve from his
rib, (Genesis 1.27 & 2.23) her name was Lilith. A human clone could not
have a soul, thus the spirit of Lilith returns All Hallows when the dead
walk the earth and possesses a cloned female. She unleashes an incurable
mutating disease spread by genetically modified foods and animals that
infects men. The widespread infection radically changes the world as we
know it putting women firmly in control
Comic creator, Ray Hayden, says: "We were painting in caves before we
could put pen to paper, it is one of our oldest traditions as a species.
Using CGI graphics I am able to bring something new to the comic strip
to tell Agatha's story. By combining theology/mythology with main-stream
science and a largely female cast I'm hoping to redefine the female
heroine."
Back to Contents
Webring Station
WebRing
Back to Contents
This page is maintained by Robert G. Brown, and he cherishes
communication from readers interested in the philosophy, the religion,
the humanism, or just the plain old story told in
The Book of
Lilith
. His obfuscated, anti-spam email address is rgb at phy dot
duke dot edu; feel free to contact him there.
Communication can also be established in blogspace if you are more
interested in that medium. The author maintains a writing blog on lulu,
and will sooner or later read and reply to comments made on the book's
pages on lulu, on the author's Writer's Den site, or on the Goodreads
site.