en-US Fri, 21 Mar 2025 07:12:24 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 181850956
You know how they live. This is how they die.

Clemmie is dead. Who killed her? Was it the blithe, sociopathic boyfriend? His impossibly wealthy godmother? The art gallery owner Clemmie was having an affair with? Or was it just a drug deal gone wrong? Or perhaps a byproduct of the bourgeois artifact smuggling ring?

Rupert's 30th birthday party is a black-tie dinner at the Kentish Town McDonald's—catered with cocaine and Veuve Clicquot. The morning after, his girlfriend Clemmie is found murdered on Hampstead Heath, a single stiletto heel jutting from under a bush. All the party-goers have alibis. Naturally. This investigation is going to be about aristocrats and Classics degrees, Instagram influencers and whose father knows who.

Or is it 'whom'? Detective Caius Beauchamp isn't sure. He's sharply dressed, smart, and thoroughly modern—he discovers Clemmie's body on his early morning jog. As he searches for the dark truth beneath the luxurious life of these London socialites, a wall of staggering wealth and privilege threatens to shut down his investigation before it's even begun. Can Caius peer through the tangled mess of connections in which the other half live—and die—before the case is wrenched from his hands? Bitingly funny, full of shocking twists, and all too familiar, The Other Half is a stunning debut from your next favorite crime writer.]]> Charlotte Vassell Sarah 0 currently-reading 3.04 2023
author: Charlotte Vassell
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.04
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 214109421
Part memoir, part explosive window into the mind of a catfisher, a thrilling personal account of three women coming face-to-face with an internet predator and teaming up to expose them

In 2011 three successful and highly educated women fell head over heels for the brilliant and charming Ethan Schuman. Unbeknownst to the others, each exchanged countless messages with Ethan, staying up late into the evenings to deepen their connections with this fascinating man. His detailed excuses about broken webcams and complicated international calling plans seemed believable, as did last-minute trip cancellations. After all, why would he lie? Ethan wasn't after money—he never convinced his marks to shell out thousands of dollars for some imagined crisis. Rather, he ensnared these women in a web of intense emotional intimacy.

After the trio independently began to question inconsistencies in their new flame's stories, they managed to find one another and uncover a greater deception than they could have ever imagined. As Anna Akbari and the women untangled their catfish’s web, they found other victims and realized that without a proper crime, there was no legal reason for “Ethan� to ever stop.

There is No Ethan catalogues Akbari's experience as both victim and observer. By looking at the bigger picture—a world where technology mediates our relationships; where words and images are easily manipulated; and where truth, reality, and identity have become slippery terms—Akbari provides an explanation for why these stories matter.]]> Anna Akbari Sarah 0 currently-reading 3.58 2024
author: Anna Akbari
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 56944635
Both sisters were tenacious and visionary, but their convictions did not always align with the emergence of women’s rights—or with each other. “Doubt is disease,� Elizabeth insisted. They prevailed against fierce resistance from the male establishment, moving among Britain, France, and America during a tumultuous time of scientific discovery and civil war. This major new biography celebrates two complicated pioneers who exploded the limits of possibility. As Elizabeth predicted, “a hundred years hence, women will not be what they are now.”]]> 12 Janice P. Nimura Sarah 0 currently-reading 3.37 2021
author: Janice P. Nimura
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 101144869 A disgraced soccer exec reluctantly enlists the help of a retired soccer star in coaching a children’s team in this smalltown love story in the vein of Ted Lasso and It Happened One Summer —from the New York Times bestselling author of The Spanish Love Deception.

Adalyn Reyes has spent years perfecting her daily routine: wake up at dawn, drive to the Miami Flames FC offices, try her hardest to leave a mark, go home, and repeat.

But her routine is disrupted when a video of her in an altercation with the team’s mascot goes viral. Rather than fire her, the team’s owner—who happens to be her father—sends Adalyn to middle-of-nowhere North Carolina, where she’s tasked with turning around the struggling local soccer team, the Green Warriors, as a way to redeem herself. Her plans crumble upon discovering that the players wear tutus to practice (impractical), keep pet goats (messy), and are terrified of Adalyn (counterproductive), and are nine-year-old kids.

To make things worse, also in town is Cameron Caldani, goalkeeping prodigy whose presence is somewhat of a mystery. Cam is the perfect candidate to help Adalyn, but after one very unfortunate first encounter involving a rooster, Cam’s leg, and Adalyn’s bumper, he’s also set on running her out of town. But banishment is not an option for Adalyn. Not again. Helping this ragtag children’s team is her road to redemption, and she is playing the long game. With or without Cam’s help.]]> 373 Elena Armas 1668011301 Sarah 0 currently-reading 3.54 2023
author: Elena Armas
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 201628171 The Big Short and Flash Boys, the story of FTX’s spectacular collapse and the enigmatic founder at its center.

When Michael Lewis first met him, Sam Bankman-Fried was the world’s youngest billionaire and crypto’s Gatsby. CEOs, celebrities, and leaders of small countries all vied for his time and cash after he catapulted, practically overnight, onto the Forbes billionaire list. Who was this rumpled guy in cargo shorts and limp white socks, whose eyes twitched across Zoom meetings as he played video games on the side?

In Going Infinite Lewis sets out to answer this question, taking readers into the mind of Bankman-Fried, whose rise and fall offers an education in high-frequency trading, cryptocurrencies, philanthropy, bankruptcy, and the justice system. Both psychological portrait and financial roller-coaster ride, Going Infinite is Michael Lewis at the top of his game, tracing the mind-bending trajectory of a character who never liked the rules and was allowed to live by his own―until it all came undone.]]> 9 Michael Lewis Sarah 3 3.62 2023
author: Michael Lewis
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/18
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves:
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]]> 539282
From August Wilson, author of The Piano Lesson and the 1984-85 Broadway season's best play, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, is another powerful, stunning dramatic work that has won him numerous critical acclaim including the 1987 Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize. The protagonist of Fences (part of Wilson's ten-part Pittsburgh Cycle plays), Troy Maxson, is a strong man, a hard man. He has had to be to survive. Troy Maxson has gone through life in an America where to be proud and black is to face pressures that could crush a man, body and soul. But the 1950s are yielding to the new spirit of liberation in the 1960s, a spirit that is changing the world Troy Maxson has learned to deal with the only way he can, a spirit that is making him a stranger, angry and afraid, in a world he never knew and to a wife and son he understands less and less.]]> 101 August Wilson 0452264014 Sarah 5 plays 3.88 1986
author: August Wilson
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1986
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/14
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves: plays
review:

]]> 60149524 Witness what the gods do after dark in the third volume of a stylish and contemporary reimagining of one of the best-known stories in Greek mythology, featuring a brand-new, exclusive short story from creator Rachel Smythe.

"It is natural for a King to be curious about his future Queen. . . ."

All of Olympus--and the Underworld--are talking about the God of the Dead and the sprightly daughter of Demeter. But despite the rumors of their romance, Hades and Persephone have plenty to navigate on their own.

Since coming to Olympus, Persephone has struggled to be the perfect maiden goddess. Her attraction to Hades has only complicated the intense burden of the gods' expectations. And after Apollo's assault, Persephone fears she can no longer bury the intense feelings of hurt and love that she's worked so hard to hide.

As Persephone contemplates her future, Hades struggles with his past, falling back into toxic habits in Minthe's easy embrace. With all the mounting pressure and expectations--of their family, friends, and enemies--both Hades and Persephone tell themselves to deny their deepest desires, but the pull between them is too tempting, too magnetic. It's fate.

This full-color edition of Smythe's original Eisner-nominated webcomic Lore Olympus brings Greek mythology into the modern age in a sharply perceptive and romantic graphic novel.

This volume collects episodes 50-75 of the #1 WEBTOON comic Lore Olympus.]]> 384 Rachel Smythe 0593160312 Sarah 3 4.48 2022
author: Rachel Smythe
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/19
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves:
review:

]]> 129036236 107 August Wilson Sarah 3 plays 4.33 1996
author: August Wilson
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1996
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/31
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves: plays
review:

]]> 60311454 Stephen King's apocalyptic vision of a world blasted by plague and tangled in an elemental struggle between good and evil remains as riveting and eerily plausible as when it was first published.

Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read

A patient escapes from a biological testing facility, unknowingly carrying a deadly weapon: a mutated strain of super-flu that will wipe out 99 percent of the world's population within a few weeks. Those who remain are scared, bewildered, and in need of a leader. Two emerge--Mother Abagail, the benevolent 108-year-old woman who urges them to build a peaceful community in Boulder, Colorado; and Randall Flagg, the nefarious "Dark Man," who delights in chaos and violence. As the dark man and the peaceful woman gather power, the survivors will have to choose between them--and ultimately decide the fate of all humanity.

(This edition includes all of the new and restored material first published in The Stand The Complete And Uncut Edition.)]]> 1439 Stephen King 0307743683 Sarah 3
Once again, King sets up a perfectly believable scenario: a man escapes from a military facility that is growing biological weapons, after there is a breach. He goes home, collects his family, gets in the car, and spreads a plague. A plague that will kill 99% of humans and their domesticated animals. This is the story of the plague's aftermaths and the 1% who do survive.

It takes awhile for the story to start moving - King takes the long-view of the plague and imagines different scenarios across the USA: military rule, citizens overthrow and rebellion, panic, mass deaths on the freeways, etc. go on for quite awhile before King zeroes in on the heroes and the literal demons in the plot.

The survivors are linked by a psychic thread: one path will lead them to Kansas and Mother Abigail, a 108-year-old woman, and the other leads to Las Vegas and the epitome of evil, Randall Flagg. The characters make their choices in sometimes surprising ways. The Mother Abigail group ends up settling and trying to build a society in Boulder, CO. There, in Boulder, they feel the evil growing in Las Vegas, which leads them to come up with a strategy for goodness to prevail.

This is a complex novel, and I can tell that King was trying to accomplish a lot in it, and he touches on a lot of issues without fully exploring them. The novel begins with an apocalyptic vision, and ends in a showdown of supernatural proportions. I was interested in some of the civilization theories that King started to explore, but abandoned in pursuit of the supernatural storyline. I kept trying to figure out which parts were edited out, and I have to believe that some of the city council meetings were, as there were quite a few of them and it didn't seem to have a point at the end of the novel, as it wasn't revisited.

I liked a lot of the characters, and King does justice to the reader by killing protagonists that were favorites. Even though it stings at the time, it mirrors reality closely this way. In time, I might look back at this book more fondly, but for now, the added length of it makes it feel like it was a bit of hard work to get through all of it.]]> 4.24 1978
author: Stephen King
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1978
rating: 3
read at: 2016/12/12
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves:
review:
I read The Stand on the recommendation of others: readers who love Stephen King and cite The Stand as one of his finest creations. I feel like I would wholeheartedly agree if I had access to the original, edited, 1,000 page edition of this book. As it is now, the only copy I could readily get my hands on was the 1, 400 page version. I don't mind long books as long as they're good, but I can see where some editing would have helped this story move along.

Once again, King sets up a perfectly believable scenario: a man escapes from a military facility that is growing biological weapons, after there is a breach. He goes home, collects his family, gets in the car, and spreads a plague. A plague that will kill 99% of humans and their domesticated animals. This is the story of the plague's aftermaths and the 1% who do survive.

It takes awhile for the story to start moving - King takes the long-view of the plague and imagines different scenarios across the USA: military rule, citizens overthrow and rebellion, panic, mass deaths on the freeways, etc. go on for quite awhile before King zeroes in on the heroes and the literal demons in the plot.

The survivors are linked by a psychic thread: one path will lead them to Kansas and Mother Abigail, a 108-year-old woman, and the other leads to Las Vegas and the epitome of evil, Randall Flagg. The characters make their choices in sometimes surprising ways. The Mother Abigail group ends up settling and trying to build a society in Boulder, CO. There, in Boulder, they feel the evil growing in Las Vegas, which leads them to come up with a strategy for goodness to prevail.

This is a complex novel, and I can tell that King was trying to accomplish a lot in it, and he touches on a lot of issues without fully exploring them. The novel begins with an apocalyptic vision, and ends in a showdown of supernatural proportions. I was interested in some of the civilization theories that King started to explore, but abandoned in pursuit of the supernatural storyline. I kept trying to figure out which parts were edited out, and I have to believe that some of the city council meetings were, as there were quite a few of them and it didn't seem to have a point at the end of the novel, as it wasn't revisited.

I liked a lot of the characters, and King does justice to the reader by killing protagonists that were favorites. Even though it stings at the time, it mirrors reality closely this way. In time, I might look back at this book more fondly, but for now, the added length of it makes it feel like it was a bit of hard work to get through all of it.
]]> 61271738 King, we get the most comprehensive and complete portrait ever written about this iconic figure.

The first major new biography of Martin Luther King Jr in over 40 years, Jonathan Eig's superb King is based on years of research, hundreds of interviews with those who knew him and many thousands of previously unreleased documents, including a huge cache from the FBI. Eig reveals King's story to be more compelling and more complex than we knew.

For too long, his radical vision for the future has been erased. The hope of his 'I have a dream' message and the tragedy of his assassination at the age of 39 have overwhelmed the story of a brilliantly bold and complicated man, which obscures his real significance of today's society and for the future. His vision went far beyond achieving equal treatment for black men and women, which was only a part of a much greater and more wide-ranging mission - something that has been forgotten by most.Ěý

Eig's fascinating biography not only shines new light on King's remarkable career, but also humanises him so that he becomes more than a symbol of hope and defiance, but a man with flaws, a sense of humour, as a father and a husband. It's an essential read for our times.]]> Jonathan Eig 1398522554 Sarah 5 4.67 2023
author: Jonathan Eig
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.67
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/10
date added: 2025/03/05
shelves:
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]]> 61963525 A story of shipwreck, mutiny and murder, culminating in a court martialĚýthat reveals a shocking truth.

On 28th January 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty’s ship The Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain.ĚýWhile chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon, The Wager was wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The crew, marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing 2,500 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes.

Then, six months later, another, even more decrepit, craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways and they had a very different story to tell.ĚýThe thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes â€� they were mutineers. The first group responded with counter-charges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous captain and his henchmen. While stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death—for whomever the court found guilty could hang.]]> 9 David Grann 1398522848 Sarah 3 3.82 2023
author: David Grann
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/28
date added: 2025/03/05
shelves:
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]]> 50351108
The House of the Spirits brings to life the triumphs and tragedies of three generations of the Trueba family. The patriarch Esteban is a volatile, proud man whose voracious pursuit of political power is tempered only by his love for his delicate wife, Clara, a woman with a mystical connection to the spirit world. When their daughter Blanca embarks on a forbidden love affair in defiance of her implacable father, the result is an unexpected gift to Esteban: his adored granddaughter Alba, a beautiful and strong-willed child who will lead her family and her country into a revolutionary future.

One of the most important novels of the twentieth century, The House of the Spirits is an enthralling epic that spans decades and lives, weaving the personal and the political into a universal story of love, magic, and fate.]]> 497 Isabel Allende Sarah 5 4.30 1982
author: Isabel Allende
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1982
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/04
date added: 2025/03/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 62873378 One of the most remarkable true-crime narratives of the twenty-first the story of the world’s most prolific art thief, Stéphane Breitwieser.

In this spellbinding portrait of obsession and flawed genius, the best-selling author of The Stranger in the Woods brings us into Breitwieser’s strange world—unlike most thieves, he never stole for money, keeping all his treasures in a single room where he could admire them.

For centuries, works of art have been stolen in countless ways from all over the world, but no one has been quite as successful at it as the master thief Stéphane Breitwieser. Carrying out more than two hundred heists over nearly eight years—in museums and cathedrals all over Europe—Breitwieser, along with his girlfriend who worked as his lookout, stole more than three hundred objects, until it all fell apart in spectacular fashion.

In The Art Thief, Michael Finkel brings us into Breitwieser’s strange and fascinating world. Unlike most thieves, Breitwieser never stole for money. Instead, he displayed all his treasures in a pair of secret rooms where he could admire them to his heart’s content. Possessed of a remarkable athleticism and an innate ability to circumvent practically any security system, Breitwieser managed to pull off a breathtaking number of audacious thefts. Yet these strange talents bred a growing disregard for risk and an addict’s need to score, leading Breitwieser to ignore his girlfriend’s pleas to stop—until one final act of hubris brought everything crashing down.

This is a riveting story of art, crime, love, and an insatiable hunger to possess beauty at any cost.]]> 224 Michael Finkel 0525657320 Sarah 4 3.92 2023
author: Michael Finkel
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/14
date added: 2025/03/05
shelves:
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]]> 16065665
Victoria McQueen has an uncanny knack for finding things: a misplaced bracelet, a missing photograph, answers to unanswerable questions. When she rides her bicycle over the rickety old covered bridge in the woods near her house, she always emerges in the places she needs to be. Vic doesn't tell anyone about her unusual ability, because she knows no one will believe her. She has trouble understanding it herself.

Charles Talent Manx has a gift of his own. He likes to take children for rides in his 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith with the vanity plate NOS4A2. In the Wraith, he and his innocent guests can slip out of the everyday world and onto hidden roads that lead to an astonishing playground of amusements he calls Christmasland. Mile by mile, the journey across the highway of Charlie's twisted imagination transforms his precious passengers, leaving them as terrifying and unstoppable as their benefactor.

And then comes the day when Vic goes looking for trouble...and finds her way, inevitably, to Charlie.

That was a lifetime ago. Now, the only kid ever to escape Charlie's unmitigated evil is all grown up and desperate to forget.

But Charlie Manx hasn't stopped thinking about the exceptional Victoria McQueen. On the road again, he won't slow down until he's taken his revenge. He's after something very special—something Vic can never replace.

As a life-and-death battle of wills builds—her magic pitted against his—Vic McQueen prepares to destroy Charlie once and for all...or die trying...

Length: 19 hrs and 41 mins]]> 18 Joe Hill Sarah 4 3.93 2013
author: Joe Hill
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/23
date added: 2025/01/17
shelves:
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Truly one of the scariest books I've listened to. Kate Mulgrew's voice is haunting.
]]> 62334527
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author known for her “superb pacing, twisted characters, and captivating prose� (), Lisa Jewell returns with a scintillating new psychological thriller about a woman who finds herself the subject of her own popular true crime podcast.

Celebrating her forty-fifth birthday at her local pub, popular podcaster Alix Summers crosses paths with an unassuming woman called Josie Fair. Josie, it turns out, is also celebrating her forty-fifth birthday. They are, in fact, birthday twins.

A few days later, Alix and Josie bump into each other again, this time outside Alix’s children’s school. Josie has been listening to Alix’s podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for her series. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life.

Josie’s life appears to be strange and complicated, and although Alix finds her unsettling, she can’t quite resist the temptation to keep making the podcast. Slowly she starts to realise that Josie has been hiding some very dark secrets, and before she knows it, Josie has inveigled her way into Alix’s life—and into her home.

But, as quickly as she arrived, Josie disappears. Only then does Alix discover that Josie has left a terrible and terrifying legacy in her wake, and that Alix has become the subject of her own true crime podcast, with her life and her family’s lives under mortal threat.

Who is Josie Fair? And what has she done?]]> 390 Lisa Jewell 1797156594 Sarah 4 4.00 2023
author: Lisa Jewell
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/17
date added: 2025/01/17
shelves:
review:

]]> 59973146 An essential journey through the American South—and the way it defines American identity—from one our most extraordinary writers on race and culture at work todayĚýĚý

We all think we know the South. Even those who have never lived there, who have never even been there,Ěýcan rattle off a list ofĚýsignifiers that define the South for them:ĚýGone with the Wind, the Civil War, the Ku Klux Klan, cotillions, plantations, football,ĚýJim Crow, and, of course, slavery.ĚýFor those whoĚýlive outside the region, the South is very much aboutĚýthe profound difference between “usâ€� and “them.â€� InĚýSouth to America, Imani Perry shows inĚýdetail by infinitely careful detail that the meaning of AmericanĚýis inextricably linked with the South, and if we are American, we are all at least a little bit Southern.

In looking at the American South through a historic, personal, and anecdotal lens, Perry argues that the South is in fact the nation’s heartland. The formation of our country, our wealth, and our politics have always pivoted around the resource-rich region. A native of Alabama but raised in the North, Perry returns to the South—the place she has always called home—traveling through its cities and their cultural formations, studying its historical figures and institutions and the natural settings from which they sprang. Seeing the South as familiar andĚýanew, Perry goes on a journey that brings her in contact with Southerners from all walks of life. She renders them with sensitivity and honesty, in addition to sharing her thoughts about a troubling history and the ritual humiliations and joys that characterize so much of Southern life.

This is the story of a woman going home—a Black woman and a Southern home—at a time when ideas of how the South should be are rising once again.ĚýSouth to AmericaĚýis an assertion that if we do indeed want to build a more humane future for the United States, we must center our concern below the Mason-Dixon Line.ĚýĚý]]> Imani Perry 0063095300 Sarah 3 4.19 2022
author: Imani Perry
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/13
date added: 2025/01/17
shelves:
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]]> 64623481 A woman is determined to stay in her dream home even after it becomes a haunted nightmare in this compulsively readable, twisty, and layered debut novel.

When Margaret and her husband Hal bought the large Victorian house on Hawthorn Street—for sale at a surprisingly reasonable price—they couldn’t believe they finally had a home of their own. Then they discovered the hauntings. Every September, the walls drip blood. The ghosts of former inhabitants appear, and all of them are terrified of something that lurks in the basement. Most people would flee.

Margaret is not most people.

Margaret is staying. It’s her house. But after four years Hal can’t take it anymore, and he leaves abruptly. Now, he’s not returning calls, and their daughter Katherine—who knows nothing about the hauntings—arrives, intent on looking for her missing father. To make things worse, September has just begun, and with every attempt Margaret and Katherine make at finding Hal, the hauntings grow more harrowing, because there are some secrets the house needs to keep.]]> 352 Carissa Orlando 0593548612 Sarah 3 3.87 2023
author: Carissa Orlando
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/17
date added: 2025/01/17
shelves:
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]]> 219580478 Listening Length: 9 hours and 20 minutes

She's looking for the perfect man. He's looking for the perfect victim.

Sydney Shaw, like every single woman in New York, has terrible luck with dating. She’s seen it men who lie in their dating profile, men who stick her with the dinner bill, and worst of all, men who can't shut up about their mothers. But finally, she hits the jackpot.

Her new boyfriend is utterly perfect. He's charming, handsome, and works as a doctor at a local hospital. Sydney is swept off her feet.

Then the brutal murder of a young woman―the latest in a string of deaths across the coast―confounds police. The primary suspect? A mystery man who dates his victims before he kills them.

Sydney should feel safe. After all, she is dating the guy of her dreams. But she can’t shake her own suspicions that the perfect man may not be as perfect as he seems. Because someone is watching her every move, and if she doesn’t get to the truth, she’ll be the killer’s next victim...

A dark story about obsession and the things we’ll do for love, #1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden proves that crimes of passion are often the bloodiest…]]> Freida McFadden Sarah 3 3.64 2024
author: Freida McFadden
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/11
date added: 2024/11/11
shelves:
review:
I had to see for myself what the hype around Freida McFadden is all about. I guess it's the propulsive nature of the narrative, and the ridiculous situations. You don't have to think about the story too much & it's like a Lifetime movie in book form. Glad for the experience, but not sure I would do it again.
]]> 205223946
Paul Scheer has entertained countless fans and podcast listeners with stories about the odd, wild, and absurd details of his life. Yet these tales have pointed to deeper, difficult truths that the actor and comedian has kept to himself. Now, Paul is finally ready to share those truths for the first time.

Blending the confident, affable humor that has won him a dedicated following with a refreshing level of candor, Joyful Recollections of Trauma chronicles Paul’s often shocking, admittedly messed-up childhood, and how the experiences of his youth have reverberated throughout his life. In his comedy, Paul has always been unafraid to “go there,� to play naïve, cringeworthy characters, imbuing them with disarming charm and humanity. That daring openness is on display in the pages of this memoir. Nothing is off from reckoning with his stepfather’s alcoholism to finding self-acceptance to becoming a good father himself.

Joining bestselling celebrity authors Casey Wilson, Colin Jost, Seth Rogen, Molly Shannon, and Bob Odenkirk, Paul Scheer demonstrates once again that the truth is often stranger—and funnier—than fiction. Joyful Recollections of Trauma offers a unique perspective on universal growing up, working through a challenging childhood, staying true to oneself, and finding success, fulfillment, and happiness in often strange and difficult circumstances. Paul shares both hard-fought lessons and laughter that can be found in the darkest parts of life, and reminds us that what matters is not what you’ve been through but who you are becoming.

Joyful Recollections of Trauma includes a 16-page color photo insert.]]> 1 Paul Scheer Sarah 3 4.20 2024
author: Paul Scheer
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/11
date added: 2024/11/11
shelves:
review:
I know Paul Scheer first from The League, then from his movie podcast. He seems to be a funny, likable guy, and he is funny & likable in this book. It was a little different from what I expected. It is light on the humor & heavy on his growing up in the face of abuse. He talks about how he was able to overcome some of the trauma he felt from that. I was hoping to get a little more insight into his professional career, but maybe he's saving that for another book.
]]> 60740447
A cleverly voiced psychological thriller about an unforgettable - and unsettling - friendship, with blood-chilling twists, crackling wit, and a thrumming pulse in its veins - from the nationally best-selling author of 'The Cabin at the End of the World' and 'Survivor Song'.

What if the coolest girl you’ve ever met decided to be your friend?

Art Barbara was so not cool. He was a seventeen-year-old high school loner in the late 1980s who listened to hair metal, had to wear a monstrous back-brace at night for his scoliosis, and started an extracurricular club for volunteer pallbearers at poorly attended funerals. But his new friend thought the Pallbearers� Club was cool. And she brought along her Polaroid camera to take pictures of the corpses.

Okay, that part was a little weird.

So was her obsessive knowledge of a notorious bit of New England folklore that involved digging up the dead. And there were other strange things � terrifying things � that happened when she was around, usually at night. But she was his friend, so it was okay, right?

Decades later, Art tries to make sense of it all by writing 'The Pallbearers� Club: A Memoir'. But somehow this friend got her hands on the manuscript and, well, she has some issues with it. And now she’s making cuts.

Seamlessly blurring the lines between fiction and memory, the supernatural and the mundane, 'THE PALLBEARERS CLUB' is an immersive, suspenseful portrait of an unforgettable and unsettling friendship.

©2022 Paul Tremblay (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers]]> 11 Paul Tremblay 0063069938 Sarah 2 2.87 2022
author: Paul Tremblay
name: Sarah
average rating: 2.87
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2024/11/11
date added: 2024/11/11
shelves:
review:
Sadly, this book was just ok for me; 2 1/2 stars is probably more fair. The narrators of the audio were very good, but I felt like maybe I wasn't the audience for this. I'm not sure if it was supposed to be more scary or funny, but neither one really worked for me. I also found it hard to care about either of the main characters.
]]> 178864
A mind-bending code hidden in the works of Leonardo da Vinci. A desperate race through the cathedrals and castles of Europe. An astonishing truth concealed for centuries� unveiled at last.

While in Paris on business, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon receives an urgent late-night phone call. The elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum, a baffling cipher found near the body. As Langdon and a gifted French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, sort through the bizarre riddles, they are stunned to discover a trail of clues hidden in the works of Da Vinci–clues visible for all to see and yet ingeniously disguised by the painter.

The stakes are raised when Langdon uncovers a startling link: the late curator was involved in the Priory of Sion—an actual secret society whose members included Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo, and Da Vinci, among others. Langdon suspects they are on the hunt for a breathtaking historical secret, one that has proven through the centuries to be as enlightening as it is dangerous. In a frantic race through Paris, and beyond, Langdon and Neveu find themselves matching wits with a faceless powerbroker who appears to anticipate their every move. Unless they can decipher the labyrinthine puzzle, the Priory's secret—and an explosive ancient truth—will be lost forever.

Instantly catapulted to the top of the bestseller lists around the world, The Da Vinci Code is simultaneously lightning-paced, intelligent, and intricately layered with remarkable research and detail. From secrets embedded in the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, to the symbols of ancient Egypt, to the architecture of landmarks such as the Louvre, Westminster Abbey, Rosslyn Chapel, and more, this fully illustrated collector's edition delivers the complete reading experience of Dan Brown's riveting novel—from the opening pages to the unpredictable and stunning conclusion.
(front flap)]]> 467 Dan Brown 0385513755 Sarah 2 4.03 2003
author: Dan Brown
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2003
rating: 2
read at: 2008/05/01
date added: 2024/11/09
shelves:
review:
The melodrama in this book was almost too much for me - at times I had to put it down because of it. It definitely was a page turner at times, but the language has much to be desired. The illustrations certainly added to the context.
]]> 46159525 336 Bruce Goldfarb 1492680478 Sarah 3 3.66 2020
author: Bruce Goldfarb
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/29
date added: 2024/10/29
shelves:
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]]> 100700774
From the author of the New York Times bestseller and #1 Netflix movie Luckiest Girl Alive comes an extraordinary novel inspired by the real-life sorority targeted by America's first celebrity serial killer in his final murderous spree.

January 1978. A serial killer has terrorized women across the Pacific Northwest, but his existence couldn’t be further from the minds of the vibrant young women at the top sorority on Florida State University’s campus in Tallahassee. Tonight is a night of promise, excitement, and desire, but Pamela Schumacher, president of the sorority, makes the unpopular decision to stay home—a decision that unwittingly saves her life. Startled awake at 3 a.m. by a strange sound, she makes the fateful decision to investigate. What she finds behind the door is a scene of implausible violence—two of her sisters dead; two others, maimed. Over the next few days, Pamela is thrust into a terrifying mystery inspired by the crime that’s captivated public interest for more than four decades.

On the other side of the country, Tina Cannon has found peace in Seattle after years of hardship. A chance encounter brings twenty-five-year-old Ruth Wachowsky into her life, a young woman with painful secrets of her own, and the two form an instant connection. When Ruth goes missing from Lake Sammamish State Park in broad daylight, surrounded by thousands of beachgoers on a beautiful summer day, Tina devotes herself to finding out what happened to her. When she hears about the tragedy in Tallahassee, she knows it’s the man the papers refer to as the All-American Sex Killer. Determined to make him answer for what he did to Ruth, she travels to Florida on a collision course with Pamela—and one last impending tragedy.

Bright Young Women is the story about two women from opposite sides of the country who become sisters in their fervent pursuit of the truth. It proposes a new narrative inspired by evidence that’s been glossed over for decades in favor of more salable headlines—that the so-called brilliant and charismatic serial killer from Seattle was far more average than the countless books, movies, and primetime specials have led us to believe, and that it was the women whose lives he cut short who were the exceptional ones.]]> 13 Jessica Knoll 1797154788 Sarah 2 3.99 2023
author: Jessica Knoll
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2024/09/08
date added: 2024/10/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 56268907
There is one other person in the house—a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.]]> 245 Susanna Clarke 1635577802 Sarah 4 4.25 2020
author: Susanna Clarke
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/08
date added: 2024/10/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 48932355 Best American Short StoriesĚýseries. “They were windows into emotions I had and hadn’t had, into other settings and circumstances and observations and relationships.â€� Decades later, Sittenfeld was met by the same feeling selecting the stories for this year’s edition. The result is a striking and nuanced collection, bringing to life awkward college students, disgraced public figures, raunchy grandparents, and mystical godmothers. To read these stories is to experience the transporting joys of discovery and affirmation, and to realize that story writing in America continues to flourish.Ěý

Godmother tea / Selena Anderson --
The apartment / T.C. Boyle --
A faithful but melancholy account of several barbarities lately committed / Jason Brown --
Sibling rivalry / Michael Byers --
The nanny / Emma Cline --
Halloween / Marian Crotty --
Something Street / Carolyn Ferrell --
This is pleasure / Mary Gaitskill --
In the event / Meng Jin --
The children / Andrea Lee --
Rubberdust / Sarah Thankam Mathews --
It's not you / Elizabeth McCracken --
Liberté / Scott Nadelson --
Howl Palace / Leigh Newman --
The nine-tailed fox explains / Jane Pek --
The hands of dirty children / Alejandro Puyana --
Octopus VII / Anna Reeser --
Enlightenment / William Pei Shih --
Kennedy / Kevin Wilson --
The special world / Tiphanie Yanique]]> 370 Curtis Sittenfeld 1328485374 Sarah 3 3.66 2020
author: Curtis Sittenfeld
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/08
date added: 2024/10/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 58446227 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER - The award-winning, best-selling author of Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel returns with a novel of art, time travel, love, and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon five hundred years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and space.

One of the Best Books of the Year: The New York Times, NPR, GoodReads

"One of [Mandel's] finest novels and one of her most satisfying forays into the arena of speculative fiction yet." --The New York Times

Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal--an experience that shocks him to his core.

Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She's traveling all over Earth, but her home is the second moon colony, a place of white stone, spired towers, and artificial beauty. Within the text of Olive's best-selling pandemic novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him.

When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the black-skied Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended: The exiled son of an earl driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe.

A virtuoso performance that is as human and tender as it is intellectually playful, Sea of Tranquility is a novel of time travel and metaphysics that precisely captures the reality of our current moment.]]> 259 Emily St. John Mandel 0593321448 Sarah 4 4.04 2022
author: Emily St. John Mandel
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/08
date added: 2024/10/08
shelves:
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]]> 18911660 In a “first ring� suburb outside a midsize American city, Ben and Mary fire up the grill to welcome the new neighbors who’ve moved into the long-empty house next door. The fledgling friendship soon veers out of control, shattering the fragile hold that newly unemployed Ben and burgeoning alcoholic Mary have on their way of life—with unexpected comic consequences. Detroit is a fresh, offbeat look at what happens when we dare to open ourselves up to something new. After premiering at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre last year to rave reviews, Lisa D’Amour’s brilliant and timely play moves to Broadway this fall.

]]> 96 Lisa D'Amour Sarah 4 plays 3.83 2011
author: Lisa D'Amour
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves: plays
review:
I loved this play. I thought the dialog was absolutely great, even though it was vulgar at times. It just flowed and felt very natural to the characters. The twist at the end was very unexpected and satisfying. It just worked on so many levels, even the descent into the crazy boozefest that is the climax of the play. It just goes to show: when you think you know somebody, you really don't; when you think you can trust somebody, you really can't; when you think that your life is falling into place, it might just be falling apart. Brilliant!
]]> 43263161 Amateur sleuth Lana Lee returns for another charming cozy Noodle Shop Mystery in Vivien Chien's Wonton Terror...

The Asian community is kicking off summer with the return of its popular Cleveland Night Market festivities, and Lana Lee is excited to represent the Ho-Lee Noodle House booth with her favorite chef, Peter Huang. Lana is confident that the evening marks the beginning of a great season to come. Not only is she looking forward to the warm temperatures, but her birthday is only weeks away, her handsome boyfriend, Detective Adam Trudeau, is planning a romantic get-away. Life couldn't be better.

But before she can get too accustomed to the idea of a carefree summer, an explosion involving a nearby food truck, Wonton on Wheels, kills one of the proprietors and injures several others in the nearby vicinity.

When the authorities discover that this was no accident, the family members of the dead man become the number-one suspects in a front-page murder story. Lana and her best friend, Megan Riley, fall back into detective mode. But as they uncover family secrets of abuse and angry costumers, Lana's own family drama raises its head. Will Lana be able to juggle everything the universe is throwing at her, or has she jumped from the frying pan to the fire?]]> 294 Vivien Chien 1250228344 Sarah 0 currently-reading 3.77 2019
author: Vivien Chien
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/03
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 63249764
The powerful true story of the champion Thoroughbred racehorse who gained international fame in the tumultuous Civil War–era South, and became the most successful sire in American racing history

The early days of American horse racing were grueling. Four-mile races, run two or three times in succession, were the norm, rewarding horses who brandished the ideal combination of stamina and speed. The stallion Lexington, named after the city in Kentucky where he was born, possessed these winning qualities, which pioneering Americans prized.Ěý

Lexington shattered the world speed record for a four-mile race, showing a war-torn nation that the extraordinary was possible even in those perilous times. He would continue his winning career until deteriorating eyesight forced his retirement in 1855. But once his groundbreaking achievements as a racehorse ended, his role as a sire began. Horses from his bloodline won more money than the offspring of any other Thoroughbred—an annual success that led Lexington to be named America’s leading sire an unprecedented sixteen times.Ěý

Yet with the Civil War raging, Lexington’s years at a Kentucky stud farm were far from idyllic. Confederate soldiers ran amok, looting freely and kidnapping horses from the top stables. They soon focused on the prized Lexington and his valuable progeny.

Kim Wickens, a lawyer and dressage rider, became fascinated by this legendary horse when she learned that twelve of Thoroughbred racing's thirteen Triple Crown winners descended from Lexington. Wickens spent years meticulously researching the horse and his legacy—and with Lexington, she presents an absorbing, exciting account that transports readers back to the raucous beginning of American horse racing and introduces them to the stallion at its heart.]]> 416 Kim Wickens 0593496701 Sarah 3 4.25 2023
author: Kim Wickens
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/18
date added: 2024/08/30
shelves:
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]]> 43261016
“As soon as you complete a description of what a good story must be, a new example flutters through an open window, lands on your sleeve, and proves your description wrong,� writes Anthony Doerr about the task of selecting The Best American Short Stories 2019 . The year’s best stories are a diverse, addictive group exploring everything from America’s rich rural culture to its online teen culture to the fragile nature of the therapist-client relationship. This astonishing collection brings together the realistic and dystopic, humor and terror. For Doerr, “with every new artist, we simultaneously refine and expand our understanding of what the form can be.�
Ěý
The Best American Short Stories 2019 includes Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Jamel Brinkley, Jeffrey Eugenides, Ursula K. Le Guin, Manuel Muñoz, Sigrid Nunez, Saïd Sayrafiezadeh, Jim Shepherd, Weike Wang, and others.]]> 372 Anthony Doerr 1328484246 Sarah 4 3.64 2019
author: Anthony Doerr
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/20
date added: 2024/08/30
shelves:
review:

]]> 197826189
What if the two most important people in your life hated each other with a passion?

The wife has it all. A big house in a nice neighborhood, a ride-or-die snarky friend with whom to laugh about facile men, and an affectionate husband who loves her above all else. The only thing missing from this portrait is a baby. But motherhood is a serious undertaking, especially for the wife who has valued her selfhood above all else.

On a seemingly normal day, the best friend comes over to spend a lazy afternoon with the wife. But when the husband comes home and a series of confessions are made that threaten to throw everything off balance, the wife's two confidantes are suddenly forced to jockey for their positions. Told in three taut, mesmerizing parts—the wife, the husband, the best friend—the day quickly unfolds to show how the trio's dented visions of each other finally unravel, throwing everyone’s integrity into question � and their long-drawn-out territorial dance, carefully constructed over pivotal years, into utter chaos.

At once subversively comical, wildly astute, and painfully compulsive, The Three of Us explores cultural truths, what it means to defy them, and the fine line between compromise and betrayal, ultimately asking: who are we if not for the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, and the people we’re meant to love?]]> Ore Agbaje-Williams Sarah 3 2.93 2023
author: Ore Agbaje-Williams
name: Sarah
average rating: 2.93
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/09
date added: 2024/08/30
shelves:
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]]> 59608146
A dramatic expansion of a groundbreaking work of journalism, 'The 1619 PROJECT: A NEW ORIGIN STORY' offers a profoundly revealing vision of the American past and present.

In late August 1619, a ship arrived in the British colony of Virginia bearing a cargo of 20 to 30 enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival led to the barbaric and unprecedented system of American chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years. This is sometimes referred to as the country’s original sin, but it is more than that: It is the source of so much that still defines the United States.

'THE 1619 PROJECT: A NEW ORIGIN STORY' builds on one of the most consequential journalistic events of recent years: The New York Times Magazine's award-winning �1619 Project,� which reframed our understanding of American history by placing slavery and its continuing legacy at the center of our national narrative. This new book substantially expands on the original 1619 Project, weaving together eighteen essays that explore the legacy of slavery in present-day America with 36 poems and works of fiction that illuminate key moments of oppression, struggle, and resistance. The essays show how the inheritance of 1619 reaches into every part of contemporary American society, from politics, music, diet, traffic, and citizenship to capitalism, religion, and our democracy itself. This legacy can be seen in the way we tell stories, the way we teach our children, and the way we remember. Together, the elements of the book reveal a new origin story for the United States, one that helps explain not only the persistence of anti-Black racism and inequality in American life today, but also the roots of what makes the country unique.

The book also features a significant elaboration of the original project’s Pulitzer Prize–winning lead essay, by Nikole Hannah-Jones, on how the struggles of Black Americans have expanded democracy for all Americans, as well as two original pieces from Hannah-Jones, one of which makes a profound case for reparative solutions to this legacy of injustice.

This is a book that speaks directly to our current moment, contextualizing the systems of race and caste within which we operate today. It reveals long-glossed-over truths around our nation’s founding and construction - and the way that the legacy of slavery did not end with emancipation, but continues to shape contemporary American life.

Featuring contributions from: Leslie Alexander, Michelle Alexander, Carol Anderson, Joshua Bennett, Reginald Dwayne Betts, Jamelle Bouie, Anthea Butler, Matthew Desmond, Rita Dove, Camille T. Dungy, Cornelius Eady, Eve L. Ewing, Nikky Finney, Vievee Francis, Yaa Gyasi, Forrest Hamer, Terrance Hayes, Kimberly Annece Henderson, Jeneen Interlandi, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, Barry Jenkins, Tyehimba Jess, Martha S. Jones, Robert Jones, Jr., A. Van Jordan, Ibram X. Kendi, Eddie Kendricks, Yusef Komunyakaa, Kevin M. Kruse, Kiese Laymon, Trymaine Lee, Jasmine Mans, Terry McMillan, Tiya Miles, Wesley Morris, Khalil Gibran Muhaammad, Lynn Nottage, Z.Z. Packer, Gregory Pardio, Darryl Pinckney, Claudia, Rankine, Jason Reynolds, Dorothy Roberts, Sonia Sanchez, Tim Seibles, Evie Shockley, Clint Smith, Danez Smith, Patricia Smith, Tracy K. Smith, Bryan Stevenson, Nafissa Thompson-Spires, Natasha Trethewey, Linda Villarosa, Jesmyn Ward

Lorna Simpson Beclouded, 2018 Lorna Simpson. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth.

©2021 Random House (P)2021 Random House Audio]]> 19 Nikole Hannah-Jones Sarah 4 4.57 2019
author: Nikole Hannah-Jones
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/25
date added: 2024/08/30
shelves:
review:

]]> 202503119
For millions of conservative Christians, America is their kingdom—a land set apart, a nation uniquely blessed, a people in special covenant with God. This love of country, however, has given way to right-wing nationalist fervor, a reckless blood-and-soil idolatry thatĚýtrivializes the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Alberta retraces the arc of the modern evangelical movement, placing political and cultural inflection points in the context of church teachings and traditions, explaining how Donald Trump's presidency and the COVID-19 pandemic only accelerated historical trends that long pointed toward disaster. Reporting from half-empty sanctuaries and standing-room-only convention halls across the country, the author documents a growing fracture inside American Christianity and journeys with readers through this strange new environment in which loving your enemies is "woke" and owning the libs is the answer to WWJD.

Accessing the highest echelons of the American evangelical movement, Alberta investigates the ways in which conservative Christians have pursued, exercised, and often abused power in the name of securing this earthly kingdom. He highlights the battles evangelicals are fighting—and the weapons of their warfare—to demonstrate the disconnect from Contra the dictates of the New Testament, today's believers are struggling mightily against flesh and blood, eyes fixed on the here and now, desperate for a power that is frivolous and fleeting. Lingering at the intersection of real cultural displacement and perceived religious persecution, Alberta portrays a rapidly secularizing America that has come to distrust the evangelical church, and weaves together present-day narratives of individual pastors and their churches as they confront the twin challenges of lost status and diminished standing.

Sifting through the wreckage—pastors broken, congregations battered, believers losing their religion because of sex scandals and political schemes—Alberta If the American evangelical movement has ceased to glorify God, what is its purpose?]]> Tim Alberta Sarah 5 4.32 2023
author: Tim Alberta
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/01
date added: 2024/08/30
shelves:
review:

]]> 31123244 Fatal Throne, a book about Henry VIII and his six wives, coordinated by Candace Fleming. Fleming and six other authors will each contribute a story from different points of view: M.T. Anderson, Jennifer Donnelly, Stephanie Hemphill, Deborah Hopkinson, Linda Sue Park, and Lisa Ann Sandell.]]> Candace Fleming Sarah 3 3.96 2018
author: Candace Fleming
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/08/30
shelves:
review:

]]> 2441240 0 Douglas Preston 1567402461 Sarah 2
The most exciting moments were those that occurred in the underground tunnels of New York City. I enjoyed when Pendergast dressed up like a mole person and ate an actual rat with the leader of the underground people. I'm startiin to be in awe of this mysterious agent. I was shocked when it turned out that Professor Frock was leading the charge with getting the plant out to the general populace so that everyone can live long lives and never age. That part was pretty crazy because I never saw it coming and the description of the hut of skulls and bones gave me the creeps. But with all that, I still have to say it was just okay.

I will continue with the series, though, because I have it on good authority that the books only get better.]]> 4.20 1997
author: Douglas Preston
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1997
rating: 2
read at: 2010/09/20
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves:
review:
I enjoyed this book, but in a superficial way. There really wasn't any depth to it, except to bring back the characters from the first book in the series, "Relic." I felt as if the authors were trying too hard to keep the momentum from the first book going. There wasn't any real mystery to it. There was some tension, but nothing that was super-exciting. The wrinklers were even kind of lame villians.

The most exciting moments were those that occurred in the underground tunnels of New York City. I enjoyed when Pendergast dressed up like a mole person and ate an actual rat with the leader of the underground people. I'm startiin to be in awe of this mysterious agent. I was shocked when it turned out that Professor Frock was leading the charge with getting the plant out to the general populace so that everyone can live long lives and never age. That part was pretty crazy because I never saw it coming and the description of the hut of skulls and bones gave me the creeps. But with all that, I still have to say it was just okay.

I will continue with the series, though, because I have it on good authority that the books only get better.
]]> 25334922 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER � A stunning “portrait of the enduring grace of friendship� (NPR) about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. A masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century.

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST � MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST � WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE �

A Little Life follows four college classmates—broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition—as they move to New York in search of fame and fortune. While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepen over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma. A hymn to brotherly bonds and a masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century, Hanya Yanagihara’s stunning novel is about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves.]]> 720 Hanya Yanagihara 1447294823 Sarah 4
As mentioned above, Jude is damaged. He gets open sores on his legs that will not heal. He has crippling bouts of pain that leave him curled up on the floor for hours. He cuts himself relentlessly. He doesn't like to be touched. He has problems developing relationships. He doesn't feel worthy of love or friendship. He has no family and will not talk about his life before he went to college and met the 3 men who would become his lifelong friends. The reasons behind the physical ailments and his mental instability is all explained, but takes about 700 pages to get the whole story. Jude's childhood is trauma after trauma, the worst I've ever experienced in literature. I felt traumatized during some parts of it. I believe there is a value to telling stories such as this one, no matter how uncomfortable they may get.

The book is told from different viewpoints, and it's not always clear at first who it is telling the story. I felt like all the voices were believable and interesting. One of the strongest voices is that of Jude's best friend, Willem. They are roommates in college, and continue living together into adulthood. There is a unique bond between these two because Jude doesn't trust too many people, and Willem cares for Jude's ailments. Willem gets frustrated with Jude's unwillingness to share his entire past with him. The portrayal of friendship is definitely the strong selling point of this book. The friendship is the focus of the book and how the friends care for each other from college age through middle age.

I liked JB's character, although he falls out of the picture for insulting Jude. I was able to relate to the hurt JB felt because I think we have all done things that unintentionally hurt the people we care about, and the relentless way we can pursue the friendship to try to make up with the person. Malcolm is the fourth friend, although he has the least amount of page time. I would have liked to learn more about him, even though he broke away from the group kind of early on.

Although a long book, I felt like it was a quick read. There is plenty of drama and inner conflict to keep the pages turning. And some of the traumatic events will make you want to skip the section altogether. Yanagihara's writing is lyrical and poignant. I bookmarked a few passages for later reflection.]]> 4.28 2015
author: Hanya Yanagihara
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2018/08/10
date added: 2024/08/09
shelves:
review:
When I first finished this book, I felt like it was a 5-star book. Now, that it's been a month, and I've had time to process it, I don't find myself thinking about it that way anymore. I was so emotionally invested in the story and characters when I was reading it, but that seemed to fade with time. The driving force of the plot was to find out what childhood trauma happened to the main character, Jude St. Clair, that has caused him such physical and emotional pain throughout his life. The maxim, "Be careful what you wish for" comes to mind when it comes to the answer. To me, his name immediately invoked "Jude the Obscure" in the amount of tragedy both characters endure, but Thomas Hardy's Jude has nothing on Yanagihara's. If you are feeling sorry for yourself in any way, this is the perfect book to cheer you up - because you are not Jude St. Clair.

As mentioned above, Jude is damaged. He gets open sores on his legs that will not heal. He has crippling bouts of pain that leave him curled up on the floor for hours. He cuts himself relentlessly. He doesn't like to be touched. He has problems developing relationships. He doesn't feel worthy of love or friendship. He has no family and will not talk about his life before he went to college and met the 3 men who would become his lifelong friends. The reasons behind the physical ailments and his mental instability is all explained, but takes about 700 pages to get the whole story. Jude's childhood is trauma after trauma, the worst I've ever experienced in literature. I felt traumatized during some parts of it. I believe there is a value to telling stories such as this one, no matter how uncomfortable they may get.

The book is told from different viewpoints, and it's not always clear at first who it is telling the story. I felt like all the voices were believable and interesting. One of the strongest voices is that of Jude's best friend, Willem. They are roommates in college, and continue living together into adulthood. There is a unique bond between these two because Jude doesn't trust too many people, and Willem cares for Jude's ailments. Willem gets frustrated with Jude's unwillingness to share his entire past with him. The portrayal of friendship is definitely the strong selling point of this book. The friendship is the focus of the book and how the friends care for each other from college age through middle age.

I liked JB's character, although he falls out of the picture for insulting Jude. I was able to relate to the hurt JB felt because I think we have all done things that unintentionally hurt the people we care about, and the relentless way we can pursue the friendship to try to make up with the person. Malcolm is the fourth friend, although he has the least amount of page time. I would have liked to learn more about him, even though he broke away from the group kind of early on.

Although a long book, I felt like it was a quick read. There is plenty of drama and inner conflict to keep the pages turning. And some of the traumatic events will make you want to skip the section altogether. Yanagihara's writing is lyrical and poignant. I bookmarked a few passages for later reflection.
]]> 16158509
For readers of Laura Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit and Unbroken, the dramatic story of the American rowing team that stunned the world at Hitler's 1936 Berlin Olympics

Daniel James Brown’s robust book tells the story of the University of Washington’s 1936 eight-oar crew and their epic quest for an Olympic gold medal, a team that transformed the sport and grabbed the attention of millions of Americans. The sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the boys defeated elite rivals first from eastern and British universities and finally the German crew rowing for Adolf Hitler in the Olympic games in Berlin, 1936.

The emotional heart of the story lies with one rower, Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, who rows not for glory, but to regain his shattered self-regard and to find a place he can call home. The crew is assembled by an enigmatic coach and mentored by a visionary, eccentric British boat builder, but it is their trust in each other that makes them a victorious team. They remind the country of what can be done when everyone quite literally pulls together—a perfect melding of commitment, determination, and optimism.

Drawing on the boys� own diaries and journals, their photos and memories of a once-in-a-lifetime shared dream, The Boys in the Boat is an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times—the improbable, intimate story of nine working-class boys from the American west who, in the depths of the Great Depression, showed the world what true grit really meant. It will appeal to readers of Erik Larson, Timothy Egan, James Bradley, and David Halberstam's The Amateurs.]]> 15 Daniel James Brown 1611761697 Sarah 5
The Boys in the Boat tells the story of the 9 Man Olympic Crew team that went to the 1936 Berlin Games. This was during the rise of Hitler & Leni Riefenstahl's epic film Olympia. The book does a good job in providing background on the political climate in Germany. This rise of Nationalism plays a crucial role in the gold medal race at the end of the book. I found myself riveted by the final race and the narrator makes it really exciting. I was almost late for work one day because I was sitting in the car trying to make it through to the end. The author gives a great amount of detail in the races: describing what each member of the team is doing in certain parts of the race and giving the audience & coach reactions.

I didn't know anything about rowing before I read this book, but the author does a superb job of explaining all the different aspect and elements that go into the sport. He explains each person's position in the boat, how weather can affect performance, and even the way the boat is made. So don't let this dissuade you. I didn't realize how strenuous rowing can be on the body: I believe the statistic was that one 4-mile race, which could be around 20 minutes is like the equivalent on the body of playing 2 full games of basketball. So these athletes are really elite in their commitment and resolve to participate in the sport.

The characters/people are so beautifully & vividly drawn that I became attached to them and became emotionally invested in their quest not just for gold, but for good lives and to be good all-around people. What makes this story so interesting is that these were a bunch of poor kids from the West Coast, selected for their physically ability which was gotten from the hard labor they were accustomed to; these were not the rich, Ivy league boys that were the faces of Crew rowing at the time. They broke convention and all expectations of how they were going to perform in this sport.

I loved the coach and the boat builder too. I guess they are 2 sides of the stereotypical coach: one is tough and makes decisions no one understands until the end; the other is kind mentor who passes on life lessons through the sport. Stereotypical? Yes, but that is one of the reasons I love true sports stories: they are metaphors for life. The struggle, the striving, the need for connection - all of that is in this book and more. I teared up more than once listening about these young men who competed almost 80 years ago to achieve the unthinkable and to believe in themselves when no one else did.

Beautiful story in every way; wish I could read it again for the 1st time. So, again, I love love love this book.]]> 4.47 2013
author: Daniel James Brown
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2014/06/08
date added: 2024/07/21
shelves:
review:
I love this book so much, that if you said a negative word to me about it, I could no longer be your friend. This is up there with the best audiobooks I've had the pleasure to listen to; one of the reasons I picked it up in the first place is because it made the Audie List for best of 2013.

The Boys in the Boat tells the story of the 9 Man Olympic Crew team that went to the 1936 Berlin Games. This was during the rise of Hitler & Leni Riefenstahl's epic film Olympia. The book does a good job in providing background on the political climate in Germany. This rise of Nationalism plays a crucial role in the gold medal race at the end of the book. I found myself riveted by the final race and the narrator makes it really exciting. I was almost late for work one day because I was sitting in the car trying to make it through to the end. The author gives a great amount of detail in the races: describing what each member of the team is doing in certain parts of the race and giving the audience & coach reactions.

I didn't know anything about rowing before I read this book, but the author does a superb job of explaining all the different aspect and elements that go into the sport. He explains each person's position in the boat, how weather can affect performance, and even the way the boat is made. So don't let this dissuade you. I didn't realize how strenuous rowing can be on the body: I believe the statistic was that one 4-mile race, which could be around 20 minutes is like the equivalent on the body of playing 2 full games of basketball. So these athletes are really elite in their commitment and resolve to participate in the sport.

The characters/people are so beautifully & vividly drawn that I became attached to them and became emotionally invested in their quest not just for gold, but for good lives and to be good all-around people. What makes this story so interesting is that these were a bunch of poor kids from the West Coast, selected for their physically ability which was gotten from the hard labor they were accustomed to; these were not the rich, Ivy league boys that were the faces of Crew rowing at the time. They broke convention and all expectations of how they were going to perform in this sport.

I loved the coach and the boat builder too. I guess they are 2 sides of the stereotypical coach: one is tough and makes decisions no one understands until the end; the other is kind mentor who passes on life lessons through the sport. Stereotypical? Yes, but that is one of the reasons I love true sports stories: they are metaphors for life. The struggle, the striving, the need for connection - all of that is in this book and more. I teared up more than once listening about these young men who competed almost 80 years ago to achieve the unthinkable and to believe in themselves when no one else did.

Beautiful story in every way; wish I could read it again for the 1st time. So, again, I love love love this book.
]]> 40180098 The Overstory is a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of - and paean to - the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, Richard Powers’s twelfth novel unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. There is a world alongside ours—vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe.

A New York Times Bestseller.]]> 502 Richard Powers 039335668X Sarah 0 currently-reading 4.10 2018
author: Richard Powers
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/15
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 75665940
Here, in one Marjane Satrapi's best-selling, internationally acclaimed memoir-in-comic-strips. Persepolis is the story of Satrapi's unforgettable childhood and coming of age within a large and loving family in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution; of the contradictions between private and public life in a country plagued by political upheaval; of her high school years in Vienna facing the trials of adolescence far from her family; of her homecoming--both sweet and terrible; and, finally, of her self-imposed exile from her beloved homeland. It is the chronicle of a girlhood and adolescence at once outrageous and familiar, a young life entwined with the history of her country yet filled with the universal trials and joys of growing up.

Edgy, searingly observant, and candid, often heartbreaking but threaded throughout with raw humor and hard-earned wisdom-- Persepolis is a stunning work from one of the most highly regarded, singularly talented graphic artists at work today.]]> 352 Marjane Satrapi 0593701054 Sarah 4 4.51 2007
author: Marjane Satrapi
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/27
date added: 2024/07/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 30368160 14 Philip Roth 150469368X Sarah 3
The premise is very good: Lindburgh becomes president & changes the course of WWII by sympathizing with the Nazis & largely staying out of the War, while at the same time, rolling out antisemitic policies. I enjoyed this alternate history aspect, as I can see some of these scenarios happening in the real world.

I did not enjoy some of the drawn out sections of the narrator's (Philip Roth) childhood anecdotes/stories. It seemed like 2 different books to me. Some of these passages really made the book drag for me. It was an odd mix of the two that didn't quite mesh.]]> 3.78 2004
author: Philip Roth
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/07
date added: 2024/07/15
shelves:
review:
This was a strange book, or maybe I didn't care for the narrator very much. The Plot Against America is told through the viewpoint of a young boy who is going up in 1940's America, in which Charles Lindburgh defeats FDR for the presidency. I think the problem I had with the narrator is that he is not good with voices: all the characters sounded like an older man with a New York accent.

The premise is very good: Lindburgh becomes president & changes the course of WWII by sympathizing with the Nazis & largely staying out of the War, while at the same time, rolling out antisemitic policies. I enjoyed this alternate history aspect, as I can see some of these scenarios happening in the real world.

I did not enjoy some of the drawn out sections of the narrator's (Philip Roth) childhood anecdotes/stories. It seemed like 2 different books to me. Some of these passages really made the book drag for me. It was an odd mix of the two that didn't quite mesh.
]]> 27839566 The Botany of Desire and The Selfish Gene, a groundbreaking, wondrously informative, and vastly entertaining examination of the most significant revolution in biology since Darwin—a “microbe’s-eye view� of the world that reveals a marvelous, radically reconceived picture of life on earth.

Every animal, whether human, squid, or wasp, is home to millions of bacteria and other microbes. Ed Yong, whose humor is as evident as his erudition, prompts us to look at ourselves and our animal companions in a new light—less as individuals and more as the interconnected, interdependent multitudes we assuredly are.

The microbes in our bodies are part of our immune systems and protect us from disease. In the deep oceans, mysterious creatures without mouths or guts depend on microbes for all their energy. Bacteria provide squid with invisibility cloaks, help beetles to bring down forests, and allow worms to cause diseases that afflict millions of people.

Many people think of microbes as germs to be eradicated, but those that live with us—the microbiome—build our bodies, protect our health, shape our identities, and grant us incredible abilities. In this astonishing book, Ed Yong takes us on a grand tour through our microbial partners, and introduces us to the scientists on the front lines of discovery. It will change both our view of nature and our sense of where we belong in it.]]> 10 Ed Yong 0062472593 Sarah 3 4.07 2016
author: Ed Yong
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/02
date added: 2024/07/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 61244676 From the prize-winning, New York Times bestselling author of Say Nothing and Empire of Pain, twelve enthralling stories of skulduggery and intrigue by one of the most decorated journalists of our time.

Patrick Radden Keefe has garnered prizes ranging from the National Magazine Award to the Orwell Prize to the National Book Critics Circle Award for his meticulously reported, hypnotically engaging work on the many ways people behave badly. Rogues brings together a dozen of his most celebrated articles from The New Yorker. As Keefe says in his preface, "They reflect on some of my abiding preoccupations: crime and corruption, secrets and lies, the permeable membrane separating licit and illicit worlds, the bonds of family, the power of denial."

Keefe brilliantly explores the intricacies of forging $150,000 vintage wines, examines whether a whistleblower who dared to expose money laundering at a Swiss bank is a hero or a fabulist, spends time in Vietnam with Anthony Bourdain, chronicles the quest to bring down a cheerful international black market arms merchant, and profiles a passionate death penalty attorney who represents the "worst of the worst," among other bravura works of literary journalism.

The appearance of his byline in The New Yorker is always an event, and collected here for the first time readers can see his work forms an always enthralling but deeply human portrait of criminals and rascals, as well as those who stand up against them.]]> 16 Patrick Radden Keefe 0593591720 Sarah 3 3.82 2022
author: Patrick Radden Keefe
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/30
date added: 2024/07/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 565978 Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning, Fences. In his second Pulitzer Prize-winner, The Piano Lesson, Wilson has fashioned his most haunting and dramatic work yet. At the heart of his play stands the ornately carved upright piano which, as the Charles family's prized, hard-won possession, has been gathering dust in the parlor of Berniece Charles's Pittsburgh home. When Boy Willie, Berniece's exuberant brother, bursts into her life with his dream of buying the same Mississippi land that his family had worked as slaves, he plans to sell their antique piano for the hard cash he needs to stake his future. But Berniece refuses to sell, clinging to the piano as a reminder of the history that is their family legacy. This dilemma is the real "piano lesson," reminding us that blacks are often deprived both of the symbols of their past and of opportunity in the present.
]]> 108 August Wilson 0452265347 Sarah 5 plays 3.80 1990
author: August Wilson
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.80
book published: 1990
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/18
date added: 2024/07/01
shelves: plays
review:
There are so many long monologues in this play that it almost reads like a novel. Once again, Wilson weaves a brilliant narrative of a generation not far removed & recovering from slavery and racism. The story revolves around a piano that was stolen & paid for with human life and the battle for its ownership. Should it remain a part of the family as its legacy, or as a means of income to procure land? A powerful narrative.
]]> 51182571
After a series of financial calamities (worsened by the racial prejudices of the small town he lives in) Bug reluctantly takes part in a daring diamond heist to solve his money troubles - and to go straight once and for all. However, when it goes horrifically wrong, he's sucked into a grimy underworld which threatens everything, and everyone, he holds dear . . .]]> 285 S.A. Cosby Sarah 4 4.06 2020
author: S.A. Cosby
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/01
date added: 2024/07/01
shelves:
review:
A very likable anti-hero figure, who reminds me a lot of Walter Mosley's character Leonid McGill. Non-stop action, with a sprinkling of graphic violence. The heists depicted are very imaginative in their planning & execution.
]]> 61370228
From New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hawkins comes a deliciously wicked gothic suspense, set at an Italian villa with a dark history, for fans of Lucy Foley and Ruth Ware.

As kids, Emily and Chess were inseparable. But by their 30s, their bond has been strained by the demands of their adult lives. So when Chess suggests a girls trip to Italy, Emily jumps at the chance to reconnect with her best friend.

Villa Aestas in Orvieto is a high-end holiday home now, but in 1974, it was known as Villa Rosato, and rented for the summer by a notorious rock star, Noel Gordon. In an attempt to reignite his creative spark, Noel invites up-and-coming musician, Pierce Sheldon to join him, as well as Pierce’s girlfriend, Mari, and her stepsister, Lara. But he also sets in motion a chain of events that leads to Mari writing one of the greatest horror novels of all time, Lara composing a platinum album––and ends in Pierce’s brutal murder.

As Emily digs into the villa’s complicated history, she begins to think there might be more to the story of that fateful summer in 1974. That perhaps Pierce’s murder wasn’t just a tale of sex, drugs, and rock & roll gone wrong, but that something more sinister might have occurred––and that there might be clues hidden in the now-iconic works that Mari and Lara left behind.

Yet the closer that Emily gets to the truth, the more tension she feels developing between her and Chess. As secrets from the past come to light, equally dangerous betrayals from the present also emerge––and it begins to look like the villa will claim another victim before the summer ends.]]> 8 Rachel Hawkins Sarah 3 3.37 2023
author: Rachel Hawkins
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/01
date added: 2024/07/01
shelves:
review:
This book doesn't have a lot of substance, but the dual-timeline mysteries kept me engaged.
]]> 26893819 355 Emma Cline 081299860X Sarah 1 3.48 2016
author: Emma Cline
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2016
rating: 1
read at: 2024/06/07
date added: 2024/06/11
shelves:
review:
I could not finish this book. Just the thought of continuing it (even though 2/3 through) is turning my stomach. Kind of a bad sign when one is physically repulsed by the narrator. I hate that the teenage girl is so blase about getting raped by an adult man & then becomes programmed to go back for more? I like books about cults, but this one is just too much for me.
]]> 17725761
Dune Messiah picks up the story of the man known as Muad'Dib, heir to a power unimaginable, bringing to fruition an ambition of unparalleled the centuries-old scheme to create a superbeing who reigns not in the heavens but among men.

But the question DO all paths of glory lead to the grave?]]> 9 Frank Herbert Sarah 0 3.62 1969
author: Frank Herbert
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.62
book published: 1969
rating: 0
read at: 2024/06/11
date added: 2024/06/11
shelves:
review:

]]> 56533035 Just as I Am is my truth. It is me, plain and unvarnished, with the glitter and garland set aside. Here, I am indeed Cicely, the actress who has been blessed to grace the stage and screen for six decades. Yet I am also the church girl who once rarely spoke a word. I am the teenager who sought solace in the verses of the old hymn for which this book is named. I am a daughter and mother, a sister, and a friend. I am an observer of human nature and the dreamer of audacious dreams. I am a woman who has hurt as immeasurably as I have loved, a child of God divinely guided by His hand. And here in my ninth decade, I am a woman who, at long last, has something meaningful to say.]]> 17 Cicely Tyson 0062931350 Sarah 5
In her personal life, it is amazing how many other famous people she has met throughout her life, either at the apex of their careers, or lowest. I read Miles Davis's memoir years ago, and I'm glad Tyson had the chance to tell her counterpoint to his story. For sure he did not paint her in a generous light, but he literally owed his life to her. She talks about their relationship with generosity and empathy, despite his continual cruelty towards her. Her narrative exudes dignity and wisdom.

Robin Miles once again does a fantastic job narrating. Cicely Tyson reads the introduction & Miles gets Tyson's cadence & deliberateness in speaking so right. I loved this book.]]> 4.48 2021
author: Cicely Tyson
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2022/11/18
date added: 2024/06/11
shelves:
review:
Cicely Tyson led a remarkable life, and she peppers stories from her career and personal life with advice that comes with a life well-lived. It feels like receiving a gift from an elder. I loved hearing her origin story of growing up a child of immigrants, and how she learned to navigate America. She maintained integrity throughout her career by selecting roles carefully, knowing that she was representing Black women and people through these roles. She talks about how there weren't/aren't enough positive portrayals, and how she refused to participate in the Blaxploitation films of the 70's because of it. These choices garnered her much respect from the newer generation of actors and filmmakers, culminating in an honorary Oscar at the age of 94.

In her personal life, it is amazing how many other famous people she has met throughout her life, either at the apex of their careers, or lowest. I read Miles Davis's memoir years ago, and I'm glad Tyson had the chance to tell her counterpoint to his story. For sure he did not paint her in a generous light, but he literally owed his life to her. She talks about their relationship with generosity and empathy, despite his continual cruelty towards her. Her narrative exudes dignity and wisdom.

Robin Miles once again does a fantastic job narrating. Cicely Tyson reads the introduction & Miles gets Tyson's cadence & deliberateness in speaking so right. I loved this book.
]]> 198193014 True love is at stake in this charming, debut romantic comedy.

Cassie Greenberg loves being an artist, but it’s a tough way to make a living. On the brink of eviction, she’s desperate when she finds a too-good-to-be-true apartment in a beautiful Chicago neighborhood. Cassie knows there has to be a catch—only someone with a secret to hide would rent out a room for that price.

Of course, her new roommate Frederick J. Fitzwilliam is far from normal. He sleeps all day, is out at night on business, and talks like he walked out of a regency romance novel. He also leaves Cassie heart-melting notes around the apartment, cares about her art, and asks about her day. And he doesn’t look half bad shirtless, on the rare occasions they’re both home and awake. But when Cassie finds bags of blood in the fridge that definitely weren’t there earlier, Frederick has to come clean...

Cassie’s sexy new roommate is a vampire. And he has a proposition for her.]]> 9 Jenna Levine Sarah 3 3.25 2023
author: Jenna Levine
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.25
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/17
date added: 2024/05/06
shelves:
review:
This is a cute romantic comedy about a young woman struggling to make ends meet & a centuries-old vampire who wakes up from a 100-year coma & is trying to navigate the present day.
]]> 61634107 Bono--artist, activist, and the lead singer of Irish rock band U2--has written a memoir: honest and irreverent, intimate and profound, Surrender is the story of the remarkable life he's lived, the challenges he's faced, and the friends and family who have shaped and sustained him.

"When I started to write this book, I was hoping to draw in detail what I'd previously only sketched in songs. The people, places, and possibilities in my life. Surrender is a word freighted with meaning for me. Growing up in Ireland in the seventies with my fists up (musically speaking), it was not a natural concept. A word I only circled until I gathered my thoughts for the book. I am still grappling with this most humbling of commands. In the band, in my marriage, in my faith, in my life as an activist. Surrender is the story of one pilgrim's lack of progress ... With a fair amount of fun along the way." --Bono

As one of the music world's most iconic artists and the cofounder of the organizations ONE and (RED), Bono's career has been written about extensively. But in Surrender, it's Bono who picks up the pen, writing for the first time about his remarkable life and those he has shared it with. In his unique voice, Bono takes us from his early days growing up in Dublin, including the sudden loss of his mother when he was fourteen, to U2's unlikely journey to become one of the world's most influential rock bands, to his more than twenty years of activism dedicated to the fight against AIDS and extreme poverty. Writing with candor, self-reflection, and humor, Bono opens the aperture on his life--and the family, friends, and faith that have sustained, challenged, and shaped him.

Surrender's subtitle, 40 Songs, One Story, is a nod to the book's forty chapters, which are each named after a U2 song. Bono has also created forty original drawings for Surrender, which appear throughout the book.]]> Bono 1786145227 Sarah 5
As an added bonus, Bono does sing and perform poetry on the audio version. One of the best audiobooks I've listened to (and I listen to a lot!)]]> 4.24 2022
author: Bono
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/18
date added: 2024/05/06
shelves:
review:
One doesn't have to be a fan of U2 to love this audiobook; Bono weaves together stories from his personal life, as well as his professional life by framing it within the titles of 40 U2 songs. This book is as lyrical as well, the lyrics he writes for the band, and his narration is as melodious as his singing voice. Some of the memories he recounts feel dreamlike, while others are told in a straight-forward manner. Bono is a very interesting individual, with talents in a few different areas, and a passion for social justice and change.

As an added bonus, Bono does sing and perform poetry on the audio version. One of the best audiobooks I've listened to (and I listen to a lot!)
]]> 63885852 Turning the bitterness of the past�
Into a sweet future!

When big-city advocate Sarah Abrams returns home for the High Holy Days, she’s got a lot on her mind—especially whether to marry her perfect-on-paper boyfriend. The last person she wants to encounter is Aaron Isaacson, her first love and the one who broke her heart. But after Aaron and Sarah join forces to fight an act of hate, it’s clear that their deep connection never abated. If only they could forgive one another for the past…in time for a sweet new start!]]> 283 Jennifer Wilck 1335594221 Sarah 4 3.67 2023
author: Jennifer Wilck
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/06
date added: 2024/05/06
shelves:
review:

]]> 61796688 —Ann Napolitano, New York Times bestselling author of Hello Beautiful

â€Ŕá loved this book, which I read in two breathless sittings. An intimate, bold, exquisite exploration of marriage, friendship, rivalry, betrayal.â€�
—Megan Abbott, New York Times bestselling author of The Turnout and Beware the Woman

We Are Too Many is an unexpectedly funny, unflinchingly honest, and genre-bending memoir about a marriage-ending affair between award-winning author Hannah Pittard's husband and her captivating best friend.

In this wryly humorous and innovative look at a marriage gone wrong, Hannah Pittard recalls a decade’s worth of unforgettable conversations, beginning with the one in which she discovers her husband has been having sex with her charismatic best friend, Trish. These time-jumping exchanges are fast-paced, intimate, and often jaw-dropping in their willingness to reveal the vulnerabilities inherent in any friendship or marriage. Blending fact and fiction, sometimes re-creating exchanges with extreme accuracy and sometimes diving headlong into pure speculation, Pittard takes stock not only of her own past and future but also of the larger, more universal experiences they connect with—from the depths of female rage to the heartbreaking ways we inevitably outgrow certain people.

Clever and bold and radically honest to an unthinkable degree, We Are Too Many examines the ugly, unfiltered parts of the female experience, as well as the many (happier) possibilities in starting any life over after a major personal catastrophe.]]> 224 Hannah Pittard 1250869048 Sarah 2 3.63 2023
author: Hannah Pittard
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2024/05/01
date added: 2024/05/01
shelves:
review:
I think this book would probably be enjoyed more by reading, not listening, as I did. The first half of the book is the author reading either text messages or dialog, which became monotonous. It was an interesting structure, by providing exchanges that happened between herself and other people surrounding the relationship with her now ex-husband & his now wife/her ex-friend. She then goes on to analyze the relationship between herself & the different people involved. She even imagines a scenario in which she & her ex were honest with each other about what each of them wanted, or where the relationship was going wrong. Parts of this were enjoyable & other parts just felt like the author needed to unload her feelings to a sympathetic audience. I only finished this because it was a short listen.
]]> 63610667 Listening Length: 11 hours and 16 minutess

They were eleven when they sent a killer to prison. They were heroes . . . but they were liars.

Naomi Shaw used to believe in magic. Twenty-two years ago, she and her two best friends, Cassidy and Olivia, spent the summer roaming the woods, imagining a world of ceremony and wonder. They called it the Goddess Game. The summer ended suddenly when Naomi was attacked. Miraculously, she survived her seventeen stab wounds and lived to identify the man who had hurt her. The girls� testimony put away a serial killer, wanted for murdering six women. They were heroes.

And they were liars.

For decades, the friends have kept a secret worth killing for. But now Olivia wants to tell, and Naomi sets out to find out what really happened in the woods―no matter how dangerous the truth turns out to be.]]> 12 Kate Alice Marshall 1250882443 Sarah 2 3.82 2023
author: Kate Alice Marshall
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2024/04/07
date added: 2024/05/01
shelves:
review:
Another mediocre thriller: I don't know if I have much to recommend about this one. The first person narrator is kind of unlikable, despite having survived a childhood trauma of multiple stabbings. The mystery springs from who really committed this crime, as it becomes questionable as to whether the serial killer who was convicted due to her & her friends' eyewitness testimony that he did it. Then there's the skeleton the three friends find in a cave during their childhood & perform elaborate rituals to it. There are a few twists, like hidden identities & people turning out to be bad, not good, etc. This one just didn't hit the right notes for me & I found myself really not listening to the last quarter of the book. Maybe that's where all the good stuff was....
]]> 57717417 Witness what the gods do after dark in the second volume of a stylish and contemporary reimagining of one of the best-known stories in Greek mythology from creator Rachel Smythe.

Persephone was ready to start a new life when she left the mortal realm for Olympus. However, she quickly discovered the dark side of her glamorous new home—from the relatively minor gossip threatening her reputation to a realm-shattering violation of her safety by the conceited Apollo—and she’s struggling to find her footing in the fast-moving realm of the gods. Hades is also off-balance, fighting against his burgeoning feelings for the young goddess of spring while maintaining his lonely rule of the Underworld. As the pair are drawn ever closer, they must untangle the twisted webs of their past and present to build toward a new future.

This full-color edition of Smythe’s original Eisner-nominated webcomic Lore Olympus features a brand-new, exclusive short story, and brings Greek mythology into the modern age in a sharply perceptive and romantic graphic novel.

This volume collects episodes 26�49 of the #1 WEBTOON comic Lore Olympus.]]> 368 Rachel Smythe 059335608X Sarah 3 4.43 2022
author: Rachel Smythe
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/15
date added: 2024/04/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 62043689 The world's most renowned art forger reveals the secrets behind his decades of painting like the masters--exposing an art world that is far more corrupt than we ever knew while providing an art history lesson wrapped in sex, drugs, and Caravaggio. The art world is a much dirtier, nastier business than you might expect. Tony Tetro, one of the most renowned art forgers in history, will make you question every masterpiece you've ever seen in a museum, gallery, or private collection. Tetro's Rembrandts, Caravaggios, Miros, and hundreds of other works now hang on walls around the globe. In 2019, it was revealed that Prince Charles received into his collection a Picasso, Dali, Monet, and Chagall, insuring them for over 200 million pounds, only to later discover that they're actually Tetros. And the kicker? In Tony's words: Even if some tycoon finds out his Rembrandt is a fake, what's he going to do, turn it in? Now his Rembrandt just became motel art. Better to keep quiet and pass it on to the next guy. It's the way things work for guys like me. The Prince Charles scandal is the subject of a forthcoming feature documentary with Academy Award nominee Kief Davidson and coauthor Giampiero Ambrosi, in cooperation with Tetro. Throughout Tetro's career, his inimitable talent has been coupled with a reckless penchant for drugs, fast cars, and sleeping with other con artists. He was busted in 1989 and spent four years in court and one in prison. His voice--rough, wry, deeply authentic--is nothing like the high society he swanned around in, driving his Lamborghini or Ferrari, hobnobbing with aristocrats by day, and diving into debauchery when the lights went out. He's a former furniture store clerk who can walk around in Caravaggio's shoes, become Picasso or Monet, with an encyclopedic understanding of their paint, their canvases, their vision. For years, he hid it all in an unassuming California townhouse with a secret art room behind a full-length mirror. (Press #* on his phone and the mirror pops open.) Pairing up with coauthor Ambrosi, one of the investigative journalists who uncovered the 2019 scandal, Tetro unveils the art world in an epic, alluring, at times unbelievable, but all-true narrative.]]> 9 Tony Tetro 1668627515 Sarah 3
Maybe the craziest ending of this story is that Tetro has gone legitimate & creates high-quality reproductions for wealthy people (and I imagine he makes a pretty good salary doing it too!)]]> 3.58 2022
author: Tony Tetro
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/04
date added: 2024/04/15
shelves:
review:
This was a fascinating story of not just art forgery, but also of how the art world operates as a business. It is also set in the not-so-distant past, just before the Internet, because as the author/artist admits, this whole story could not have happened in the Internet age. Tony Tetro got away with making forgeries of many different artists & many different styles. He speaks at length on how he forged the optical illusion print of Lincoln by Salvador Dali. He also talks about the techniques he used to age paintings, and how much research he did on specific artists so that his technique would be the same as theirs. I wondered a few times how great an artist Tetro could have been making his own art or paintings. As with many criminal enterprises, a lot of research and testing is employed in order to succeed in the grift and not get caught. Tetro is for sure a smart man, but could have used these talents to educate, or make his own art. He also speaks at length of all the money he made on some of these forgeries, the cars, the drugs, the vacations: he led an extravagant life at the height of his business.

Maybe the craziest ending of this story is that Tetro has gone legitimate & creates high-quality reproductions for wealthy people (and I imagine he makes a pretty good salary doing it too!)
]]> 61170208
For fans of Hustlers and How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, the story of two Asian American women who band together to grow a counterfeit handbag scheme into a global enterprise--an incisive and glittering blend of fashion, crime, and friendship from the author of Bury What We Cannot Take and Soy Sauce for Beginners.

Money can't buy happiness... but it can buy a decent fake.

Ava Wong has always played it safe. As a strait-laced, rule-abiding Chinese American lawyer with a successful surgeon as a husband, a young son, and a beautiful home--she's built the perfect life. But beneath this façade, Ava's world is crumbling: her marriage is falling apart, her expensive law degree hasn't been used in years, and her toddler's tantrums are pushing her to the breaking point.

Enter Winnie Fang, Ava's enigmatic college roommate from Mainland China, who abruptly dropped out under mysterious circumstances. Now, twenty years later, Winnie is looking to reconnect with her old friend. But the shy, awkward girl Ava once knew has been replaced with a confident woman of the world, dripping in luxury goods, including a coveted Birkin in classic orange. The secret to her success? Winnie has developed an ingenious counterfeit scheme that involves importing near-exact replicas of luxury handbags and now she needs someone with a U.S. passport to help manage her business--someone who'd never be suspected of wrongdoing, someone like Ava. But when their spectacular success is threatened and Winnie vanishes once again, Ava is left to face the consequences.

Swift, surprising, and sharply comic, Counterfeit is a stylish and feminist caper with a strong point of view and an axe to grind. Peering behind the curtain of the upscale designer storefronts and the Chinese factories where luxury goods are produced, Kirstin Chen interrogates the myth of the model minority through two unforgettable women determined to demand more from life.]]> Kirstin Chen 0063119587 Sarah 2 3.37 2022
author: Kirstin Chen
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2024/03/15
date added: 2024/04/15
shelves:
review:
This book was just OK, considering I finished it a few weeks ago & then thought, "did I listen to that?" and realized I did. (Shrug.)
]]> 58532129 From Center for Fiction First Novel Prize winning author De'Shawn Charles Winslow, a sweeping and unforgettable novel of a Black community reeling from a triple homicide, and the secrets the killings reveal.

In the still-segregated town of West Mills, North Carolina in 1976, Marian, Marva, and Lazarus Harmon-three enigmatic siblings-are found shot to death in their home. The people of West Mills-on both sides of the canal that serves as the town's color line-are in a frenzy of finger-pointing, gossip, and wonder. The crime is the first reported murder in the area in decades, but the white authorities don't seem to care or have any interest in solving the case.

Fortunately, one person is determined to do more than talk. Ms. Jo Wright has just moved back to West Mills from New York City to retire and marry a childhood sweetheart, Olympus “Lymp� Seymore. When she discovers that the murder victims are Lymp's half-siblings, and that Lymp is one of West Mills' leading culprits, she sets out on a transformative manhunt to prove his innocence.

As Jo begins to investigate those who might know the most about the Harmons' deaths, she starts to discover darker secrets than she'd ever imagined, and a pattern of cover ups-of racial incidents, homophobia, and medical misuse-that could upend the reputations of many.

For readers of American Spy and Bluebird, Bluebird, Decent People is a powerful new novel about shame, race, money, and the reckoning required to heal a fractured community.]]> 272 De'Shawn Charles Winslow 163557532X Sarah 3 3.56 2023
author: De'Shawn Charles Winslow
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/14
date added: 2024/03/28
shelves:
review:
While I enjoyed this book & it is a relatively quick read, there was something missing from the story and/or the characters. I felt like the story was very surface, or artificial, when I knew there had to be more depth to these characters. This seems especially strange to say considering that there are multiple 1st person narrations in this book. Some parts of the plot were very compelling, but got glossed over. I feel like maybe the author was trying to tackle too many social issues in one book.
]]> 61064576
Winner of the 2024 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ+ Drama.

Juicy—a young, queer, Southern man, who is grappling with questions of identity—is visited by the ghost of his father (Pap) at his mother’s wedding/family barbecue. Pap demands that Juicy avenge his recent murder. How will Juicy, a sensitive and self-aware young Black man, trying to break a cycle of trauma and toxic masculinity, avenge his father’s premature death? Fat Ham reinvents Shakespeare’s masterpiece in startling and hilarious ways amidst the backdrop of a family barbeque in the American South.]]> James Ijames Sarah 3 4.02 2023
author: James Ijames
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/12
date added: 2024/03/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 72236884 14 Stephan Talty Sarah 3
I thought the book was weighed down once the Waco siege started because some of the negotiators transcripts were included, and it felt like maybe that should have been in a book about Waco as an event & not about Koresh as a person.]]> 3.85 2023
author: Stephan Talty
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/26
date added: 2024/03/26
shelves:
review:
I remember Waco happening when I was a child as a news story, but not much else. I watched one of the shows about Waco on Showtime & was interested in learning more of the origins of this cult. Koresh fits in with all of the other known Christian cult leaders, in that he wanted power & sex, and got it by invoking Biblical translations to support his desires. It's puzzling how he got people to follow him, as he is not described as an overly appealing man, but I guess there was something about him that led people to ruin relationships & die for his preachings.

I thought the book was weighed down once the Waco siege started because some of the negotiators transcripts were included, and it felt like maybe that should have been in a book about Waco as an event & not about Koresh as a person.
]]> 37713392 We Are Never Meeting in Real Life., "bitches gotta eat" blogger and comedian Samantha Irby turns the serio-comic essay into an art form. Whether talking about how her difficult childhood has led to a problem in making "adult" budgets, explaining why she should be the new Bachelorette--she's "35-ish, but could easily pass for 60-something"--detailing a disastrous pilgrimage-slash-romantic-vacation to Nashville to scatter her estranged father's ashes, sharing awkward sexual encounters, or dispensing advice on how to navigate friendships with former drinking buddies who are now suburban moms--hang in there for the Costco loot--she's as deft at poking fun at the ghosts of her past self as she is at capturing powerful emotional truths.

Chapter titles:

My Bachelorette application --
A blues for Fred --
The miracle porker --
Do you guys pay your fucking bills or what? --
You don't have to be grateful for sex --
A Christmas carol --
Happy birthday --
A case for remaining indoors --
A total attack of the heart --
A civil union --
Mavis --
Fuck it, bitch. Stay fat --
Nashville hot chicken --
I'm in love and it's boring --
A bomb, probably --
The real housewife of Kalamazoo --
Thirteen questions to ask before getting married --
Yo, I need a job --
Feelings are a mistake --
We are never meeting in real life]]> 8 Samantha Irby 1524783560 Sarah 3 3.78 2017
author: Samantha Irby
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/22
date added: 2024/03/22
shelves:
review:
With any collection, some essays/stories are better than others. I loved the essay about Irby attending a wedding amidst a Civil War reenactment, and her application to be on the Bachelorette. Some of the others were maybe a little too TMI & raunchy for my tastes. I do appreciate Irby's conversational style.
]]> 61176327
Bartender Damon Fortune Maloney doesn’t sweat the small stuff; he has always gotten by on his charm. When he boasts that he can handleĚýanyĚýkid, adorable single mom Sari Keeling dares him to watch her two rambunctious boys for just one day. It’s game on, but Damon soon discovers that parenthood is tougher than he thought—and so is resisting Sari.Ěý Ěý

From Harlequin Special Believe in love. Overcome obstacles. Find happiness.

The Fortunes of Hitting the Jackpot

Book 1: A Fortune's Windfall by Michelle Major
Book 2: Fortune's Dream House by Nina Crespo
Book 3: Winning Her Fortune by Heatherly Bell
Book 4: Fortune's Fatherhood Dare by Makenna Lee
Book 6: Fortune's Runaway Bride by Allison Leigh
Book 7: Self-Made Fortune by Judy Duarte]]> 234 Makenna Lee 036973369X Sarah 2 4.51
author: Makenna Lee
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.51
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2024/03/11
date added: 2024/03/11
shelves:
review:

]]> 44321061 Sex and the City meets Bad Blood and Catch Me If You Can in the astonishing true story of Anna Delvey, a young con artist posing as an heiress in New York City—as told by the former Vanity Fair photo editor and friend of Delvey’s, who was scammed out of more than $62,000 and is featured as a character in the Netflix series Inventing Anna.

Rachel DeLoache Williams’s new friend Anna Delvey, a self-proclaimed German heiress, was worldly and ambitious. She was also generous—picking up the tab for lavish dinners at Le Coucou, infrared sauna sessions at HigherDOSE, drinks at the 11 Howard Library bar, and regular workout sessions with a celebrity personal trainer.

When Anna proposed an all-expenses-paid trip to Marrakech at the five-star La Mamounia hotel, Rachel jumped at the chance. But when Anna’s credit cards mysteriously stopped working, the dream vacation quickly took a dark turn. Anna asked Rachel to begin fronting costs—first for flights, then meals and shopping, and, finally, for their $7,500-per-night private villa. Before Rachel knew it, more than $62,000 had been charged to her credit cards. Anna swore she would reimburse Rachel the moment they returned to New York.

Back in Manhattan, the repayment never materialized, and a shocking pattern of deception emerged. Rachel learned that Anna had left a trail of deceit—and unpaid bills—wherever she’d been. Mortified, Rachel contacted the district attorney, and in a stunning turn of events, found herself helping to bring down one of the city’s most notorious con artists.

With breathless pacing and in-depth reporting from the person who experienced it firsthand, My Friend Anna is an unforgettable true story of “glamour, greed, lust for power� (The New York Times), and female friendship.]]> 9 Rachel DeLoache Williams 1508298629 Sarah 3
The book hinges on an incident that happened in Morocco. Basically, Anna promised her friends (4 people total) that she would pay for a trip to Morocco: airfare, activities & the accommodations at a 5-star resort. Problems arose when Anna's credit cards were declined & the hotel staff threatened to hold them all there (or call authorities) if a working credit card was not provided for the $38,000 bill they had accrued. Rachel uses her personal credit card + her work's credit card (namely, the magazine Vanity Fair). The hotel tells Rachel that it is merely a hold, not a charge. Anna promises to reimburse Rachel. The hotel charges Rachel's cards & Anna never pays Rachel.

I enjoyed listening to Rachel talk about her relationship with Anna, and how she eventually came to realize that Anna was not who she represented herself as. It was slightly off-putting to hear her complain about how she was in financial straights because she could not pay the credit card, and her battle with the credit card company in trying to convince them that she should not be liable for the charges. It felt naive that she would go on these trips and to these dinners without an expectation of her financial responsibility. She willingly participated in these experiences and enjoyed the luxuries of them. I felt slightly bad that she was tricked, but I didn't agree with some of her arguments. A good supplement to the Netflix series.]]> 3.32 2019
author: Rachel DeLoache Williams
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.32
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/11
date added: 2024/03/11
shelves:
review:
My Friend Anna tells the story of the author's friendship with supposed millionaire heiress Anna Delvie, who ends up being a fraud. I learned about this book after watching the Netflix series based on this story, Inventing Anna. The Netflix show gives a more broad view of the story, with many different points of view, especially the journalist who delved into the story & background of Anna. This book focuses on Rachel's relationship with Anna.

The book hinges on an incident that happened in Morocco. Basically, Anna promised her friends (4 people total) that she would pay for a trip to Morocco: airfare, activities & the accommodations at a 5-star resort. Problems arose when Anna's credit cards were declined & the hotel staff threatened to hold them all there (or call authorities) if a working credit card was not provided for the $38,000 bill they had accrued. Rachel uses her personal credit card + her work's credit card (namely, the magazine Vanity Fair). The hotel tells Rachel that it is merely a hold, not a charge. Anna promises to reimburse Rachel. The hotel charges Rachel's cards & Anna never pays Rachel.

I enjoyed listening to Rachel talk about her relationship with Anna, and how she eventually came to realize that Anna was not who she represented herself as. It was slightly off-putting to hear her complain about how she was in financial straights because she could not pay the credit card, and her battle with the credit card company in trying to convince them that she should not be liable for the charges. It felt naive that she would go on these trips and to these dinners without an expectation of her financial responsibility. She willingly participated in these experiences and enjoyed the luxuries of them. I felt slightly bad that she was tricked, but I didn't agree with some of her arguments. A good supplement to the Netflix series.
]]> 60005529
Combining the propulsive narrative drive of The Firm with the psychological complexity of The Silent Patient, a gripping and original thriller about two professional women—colleagues at an international fashion conglomerate—who enter an elevator together . . . but only one is alive when they reach the ground floor.

On a cold, misty Sunday night, two women are alone in the offices of fashion conglomerate Claudine de Martineau International. One is the company’s human resources director. Impeccably dressed and perfectly coiffed, she sits at her desk and stares somberly out the window. Down the hall, her colleague, one of the company’s lawyers, is buried under a pile of paperwork, frantically rushing to finish.

Leaving at the same time, the two women, each preoccupied by her own thoughts, enter the elevator that will take them down from the 30th floor.

When they arrive at the lobby, one of the women is dead. Was it murder or suicide?

An incredibly original novel that turns the office thriller on its head, The Cage is a wild ride that begins with a bang and picks up speed as it races to its dramatic end.]]> Bonnie Kistler Sarah 2
The premise is: 2 women & 1 gun in an elevator. 1 woman is shot with that gun. The question is whether it was a suicide, or a murder. The main character/suspect is not very sympathetic, so I really didn't care if she was convicted or not. The murdered character ends up not being a nice person, so I didn't care about that either. The rest of the story is kind of a blur because it's easily forgettable.]]> 3.38 2022
author: Bonnie Kistler
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.38
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2024/02/20
date added: 2024/02/20
shelves:
review:
If one is looking for a thrilling thriller, this is not the one. Unlikable characters, an implausible set-up & some questionable plot points. This is one of those that I felt compelled to finish because maybe it would get better, but it didn't.

The premise is: 2 women & 1 gun in an elevator. 1 woman is shot with that gun. The question is whether it was a suicide, or a murder. The main character/suspect is not very sympathetic, so I really didn't care if she was convicted or not. The murdered character ends up not being a nice person, so I didn't care about that either. The rest of the story is kind of a blur because it's easily forgettable.
]]> 31699854 15 Nancy Isenberg 1515925447 Sarah 4 3.69 2016
author: Nancy Isenberg
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/10
date added: 2024/02/20
shelves:
review:
This book was an eye-opener & is a great companion/complementary read to Isabel Wilkerson's Caste, in that White Trash focuses on the lower-class white people's experience. The lowest of these were (and maybe still are) referred to as "garbage people" in some circles, seen as disposable & only useful to provide cheap/free labor to the upper classes of American society. This is one of those "untold" histories because maybe it hasn't impacted major events when looking to the Past, but is having repercussions now in the present. Very enlightening & is told in an engaging way.
]]> 202325144
Geddy Lee is one of rock and roll's most respected bassists. For nearly five decades, his playing and work as co-writer, vocalist and keyboardist has been an essential part of the success story of Canadian progressive rock trio Rush. Here for the first time is his account of life inside and outside the band.

Long before Rush accumulated more consecutive gold and platinum records than any rock band after the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, before the seven Grammy nominations or the countless electrifying live performances across the globe, Geddy Lee was Gershon Eliezer Weinrib, after his grandfather murdered in the Holocaust.

As he recounts the transformation, Lee looks back on his family, in particular his loving parents and their horrific experiences as teenagers during World War II.

He talks candidly about his childhood and the pursuit of music that led him to drop out of high school.

He tracks the history of Rush which, after early struggles, exploded into one of the most beloved bands of all time.

He shares intimate stories of his lifelong friendships with bandmates Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart—deeply mourning Peart’s recent passing—and reveals his obsessions in music and beyond.

This rich brew of honesty, humor, and loss makes for a uniquely poignant memoir.]]> 17 Geddy Lee 0063159430 Sarah 3 4.45 2023
author: Geddy Lee
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/07
date added: 2024/02/14
shelves:
review:
As one with a passing familiarity with the band Rush, as in I can identify when I hear one of their songs, this book was fine. I enjoyed listening to Geddy Lee tell his own story. I probably liked the first half of the book much better, as he explores his family's history & his younger years. Most of his older family members survived the Holocaust, and afterwards emigrated to Canada. I like a good origin story & the formation of the band Rush is no exception. I guess I started to get mired down about halfway through the book when Lee goes in-depth on some of the Rush albums and tours that I am unfamiliar with & spends a lot of time talking about the lives of his bandmates. I believe this is all interesting to superfans, or those more familiar with Rush. To me, it was just OK.
]]> 29889254 A deluxe hardcover edition of the wondrous space adventure that is the basis for Stanley Kubrick's Oscar-winning film--now celebrating its 50th anniversary

Part of Penguin Galaxy, a collectible series of six sci-fi/fantasy classics, featuring a series introduction by Neil Gaiman

Winner of the AIGA + Design Observer 50 Books - 50 Covers competition

Written when landing on the moon was still a dream, 2001: A Space Odyssey is a science-fiction classic that has changed the way we look at the stars--and ourselves. On the moon, an enigma is uncovered. So great are the implications that, for the first time, men are sent deep into our solar system. But before they can reach their destination, things begin to go very wrong. From the savannas of Africa at the dawn of mankind to the rings of Saturn at the turn of the 21st century, Arthur C. Clarke takes us on a journey unlike any other. Brilliant, compulsive, and prophetic, and the basis for the immensely influential Stanley Kubrick film, 2001: A Space Odyssey tackles the enduring theme of man's--and technology's--place in the universe and lives on as a landmark achievement in storytelling.

Penguin Galaxy

Six of our greatest masterworks of science fiction and fantasy, in dazzling collector-worthy hardcover editions, and featuring a series introduction by #1 New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman, Penguin Galaxy represents a constellation of achievement in visionary fiction, lighting the way toward our knowledge of the universe, and of ourselves. From historical legends to mythic futures, monuments of world-building to mind-bending dystopias, these touchstones of human invention and storytelling ingenuity have transported millions of readers to distant realms, and will continue for generations to chart the frontiers of the imagination.

The Once and Future King by T. H. White
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
Dune by Frank Herbert
2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
Neuromancer by William Gibson

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.]]> 226 Arthur C. Clarke 0143111574 Sarah 4 4.33 1968
author: Arthur C. Clarke
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1968
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/14
date added: 2024/02/14
shelves:
review:
2001: A Space Odyssey is a very interesting book; first, from its conception as a screenplay collaboration, and secondly for the vast storyline. By this I mean the dawn of "man" through the exploration of deep space. This book can be enjoyed as a standalone, but is also a great companion to those familiar with the film, as the book is able to go more in-depth with the characters and is able to explain some of the more vague details. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of deep space as Dave flies past Jupiter & Saturn. It is also interesting as far as the technology described in the book that is now just a reality, think video calling & AI. A quick & fascinating read.
]]> 123856485 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Wow, No Thank You

This is not an advice book. Samantha Irby doesn't know anything.

After fleeing Chicago to quarantine at home in Michigan, Irby finds herself bleaching groceries and wondering if her upper lip hairs are visible on Zoom. Her career reaches new heights: she gets to work with the iconic ladies of Sex and the City - her dream! - but behind the new-found glam, Irby is just trying to keep her life together. Our friend in print is back, on point, and ready to take us with her, from adopting Abe (her scrawny, watery-eyed firstborn dog) to her favourite, extremely specific porn searches (including two old nuns).]]> 10 Samantha Irby Sarah 3 3.71 2023
author: Samantha Irby
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/26
date added: 2024/01/26
shelves:
review:
I enjoyed this book of essays & the authors delivery of the humor. Some of the essays were a little raunchy for my taste, so it was easy to skip over. I really enjoyed her Sex & the City reboot! I will probably go back & listen to some of her earlier books.
]]> 50358031
Amanda and Clay head to a remote corner of Long Island expecting a a quiet reprieve from life in New York City, quality time with their teenage son and daughter and a taste of the good life in the luxurious home they've rented for the week. But with a late-night knock on the door, the spell is broken. Ruth and G. H., an older couple who claim to own the home, have arrived there in a panic. These strangers say that a sudden power outage has swept the city, and - with nowhere else to turn - they have come to the country in search of shelter.

But with the TV and internet down, and no phone service, the facts are unknowable. Should Amanda and Clay trust this couple - and vice versa? What has happened back in New York? Is the holiday home, isolated from civilisation, a truly safe place for their families? And are they safe from one another?]]> 241 Rumaan Alam 0062667637 Sarah 3 3.13 2020
author: Rumaan Alam
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.13
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/03
date added: 2024/01/26
shelves:
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I like a good apocalyptic novel, but this one is far too vague for me. It felt more like a domestic drama than the end of the world. Maybe that is the point? My favorite part was the description of the Dad's compulsion to smoke, hide his smoking & go out to smoke. There is a lot of character repetition in this book, but not always used in a way to forward the narrative or flesh out the characters. This book left me with a lot of questions as to just what the heck is going on.
]]> 62081110 A moving, unflinching memoir of hard-won success, struggles with addiction, and a lifelong mission to give back--from the late iconic actor beloved for his roles in The Wire, Boardwalk Empire, and Lovecraft Country

When Michael K. Williams died on September 6, 2021, he left behind a career as one of the most electrifying actors of his generation. From his star turn as Omar Little in The Wire to Chalky White in Boardwalk Empire to Emmy-nominated roles in HBO's The Night Of and Lovecraft Country, Williams inhabited a slew of indelible roles that he portrayed with a rawness and vulnerability that leapt off the screen. Beyond the nominations and acclaim, Williams played characters who connected, whose humanity couldn't be denied, whose stories were too often left out of the main narrative.

At the time of his death, Williams had nearly finished a memoir that tells the story of his past while looking to the future, a book that merges his life and his life's work. Mike, as his friends knew him, was so much more than an actor. In Scenes from My Life, he traces his life in whole, from his childhood in East Flatbush and his early years as a dancer to his battles with addiction and the bar fight that left his face with his distinguishing scar. He was a committed Brooklyn resident and activist who dedicated his life to working with social justice organizations and his community, especially in helping at-risk youth find their voice and carve out their future. Williams worked to keep the spotlight on those he fought for and with, whom he believed in with his whole heart.

Imbued with poignance and raw honesty, Scenes from My Life is the story of a performer who gave his all to everything he did--in his own voice, in his own words, as only he could.]]> Michael K. Williams Sarah 4 4.42 2022
author: Michael K. Williams
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/26
date added: 2024/01/26
shelves:
review:
This is really a beautiful memoir. It feels very honest & I love how Williams chose a few formative/memorable moments from his life to highlight his successes, failures, and ambitions.
]]> 57282218
Persephone, young goddess of spring, is new to Olympus. Her mother, Demeter, has raised her in the mortal realm, but after Persephone promises to train as a sacred virgin, she’s allowed to live in the fast-moving, glamorous world of the gods. When her roommate, Artemis, takes her to a party, her entire life changes: she ends up meeting Hades and feels an immediate spark with the charming yet misunderstood ruler of the Underworld. Now Persephone must navigate the confusing politics and relationships that rule Olympus, while also figuring out her own place—and her own power.

This edition of Smythe’s original Eisner-winning webcomic Lore Olympus features a brand-new, exclusive short story, and brings the Greek Pantheon into the modern age in a sharply perceptive and romantic graphic novel.

This volume collects episodes 1-25 of the #1 WEBTOON comic, Lore Olympus.]]> 384 Rachel Smythe 0593160290 Sarah 3 4.23 2021
author: Rachel Smythe
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/24
date added: 2024/01/26
shelves:
review:

]]> 62917565 The definitive account of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the enduring legacy of Timothy McVeigh, leading to the January 6 insurrection—from acclaimed journalist Jeffrey Toobin.

Timothy McVeigh wanted to start a movement.

Speaking to his lawyers days after the Oklahoma City bombing, the Gulf War veteran expressed no regrets: killing 168 people was his patriotic duty. He cited the Declaration of Independence from memory: “Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it.� He had obsessively followed the siege of Waco and seethed at the imposition of President Bill Clinton’s assault weapons ban. A self-proclaimed white separatist, he abhorred immigration and wanted women to return to traditional roles. As he watched the industrial decline of his native Buffalo, McVeigh longed for when America was great.

New York Times bestselling author Jeffrey Toobin traces the dramatic history and profound legacy of Timothy McVeigh, who once declared, â€Ŕá believe there is an army out there, ready to rise up, even though I never found it.â€� But that doesn’t mean his army wasn’t there. With news-breaking reportage, Toobin details how McVeigh’s principles and tactics have flourished in the decades since his death in 2001, reaching an apotheosis on January 6 when hundreds of rioters stormed the Capitol. Based on nearly a million previously unreleased tapes, photographs, and documents, including detailed communications between McVeigh and his lawyers, as well as interviews with such key figures as Bill Clinton, Homegrown reveals how the story of Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City bombing is not only a powerful retelling of one of the great outrages of our time, but a warning for our future.]]> Jeffrey Toobin 1797153064 Sarah 3 4.11 2023
author: Jeffrey Toobin
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/30
date added: 2024/01/16
shelves:
review:

]]> 60395226 Now experience where the hit movie from Academy Award-winning director Bong Joon-ho, starring Robert Pattinson, started in Mickey7 (the inspiration for the film Mickey 17).

Dying isn’t any fun…but at least it’s a living.

Mickey7 is an Expendable: a disposable employee on a human expedition sent to colonize the ice world Niflheim. Whenever there’s a mission that’s too dangerous—even suicidal—the crew turns to Mickey. After one iteration dies, a new body is regenerated with most of his memories intact. After six deaths, Mickey7 understands the terms of his deal…and why it was the only colonial position unfilled when he took it.

On a fairly routine scouting mission, Mickey7 goes missing and is presumed dead. By the time he returns to the colony base, surprisingly helped back by native life, Mickey7’s fate has been sealed. There’s a new clone, Mickey8, reporting for Expendable duties. The idea of duplicate Expendables is universally loathed, and if caught, they will likely be thrown into the recycler for protein.

Mickey7 must keep his double a secret from the rest of the colony. Meanwhile, life on Niflheim is getting worse. The atmosphere is unsuitable for humans, food is in short supply, and terraforming is going poorly. The native species are growing curious about their new neighbors, and that curiosity has Commander Marshall very afraid. Ultimately, the survival of both lifeforms will come down to Mickey7.

That is, if he can just keep from dying for good.]]> 10 Edward Ashton Sarah 4 3.57 2022
author: Edward Ashton
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/06
date added: 2024/01/16
shelves:
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]]> 16373086
Inextricably linked with the fatwa called against its author in the wake of the novel's publication, The Satanic Verses is, beyond that, a rich showcase for Salman Rushdie's comic sensibilities, cultural observations, and unparalleled mastery of language. The tale of an Indian film star and a Bombay expatriate, Rushdie's masterpiece was deservedly honored with the Whitbread Prize.]]> 22 Salman Rushdie Sarah 5 3.48 1988
author: Salman Rushdie
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.48
book published: 1988
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/28
date added: 2023/12/28
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]]> 123241721
Now, I’m gonna be honest: Some of the details might be vague because a b*tch is fifty-five and she’s smoked a ton of weed. But while bits might be a touch hazy, I can promise you the underlying truth is REAL. Whether I’m talking about my childhood growing up in the South, my early stand-up days driving from gig to gig through the darkest parts of our country and praying I wouldn’t get murdered, what Chris Rock told Lorne Michaels, that time I wanted to shoot Whoopi Goldberg on SNL, and yeah, I’ll tell you all about Ghostbusters and the nudes and Supermarket Sweep and The Daily Show . . . I’m sharing it all in these pages. It’s not easy being a woman in comedy, especially when you’re a tall-*ss Black woman with a trumpet voice. I have to fight so that no one takes me for granted, and no one takes advantage. These are the stories that explain why. (Cue the Law & Order theme.)


Read by the author, with a Foreword by Chris Rock.]]> 17 Leslie Jones 1668623455 Sarah 3 4.16 2023
author: Leslie Jones
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/28
date added: 2023/12/28
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]]> 60471573 Time) is back with a masterful collection that explores ideas of power, ethics, and justice, and cuts to the very heart of what it means to live in community with our fellow humans. With his trademark prose--wickedly funny, unsentimental, and perfectly tuned--Saunders continues to challenge and surprise: here is a collection of prismatic, deeply resonant stories that encompass joy and despair, oppression and revolution, bizarre fantasy and brutal reality.

Love Letter is a tender missive from grandfather to grandson, in the midst of a dystopian political situation in the not-too-distant future, that reminds us of our obligations to our ideals, ourselves, and each other. Ghoul is set in a Hell-themed section of an underground amusement park in Colorado, and follows the exploits of a lonely, morally complex character named Brian, who comes to question everything he takes for granted about his "reality." In Mother's Day, two women who loved the same man come to an existential reckoning in the middle of a hailstorm. And in Elliott Spencer, our eighty-nine-year-old protagonist finds himself brainwashed--his memory "scraped"--a victim of a scheme in which poor, vulnerable people are reprogrammed and deployed as political protesters.

Together, these nine subversive, profound, and essential stories coalesce into a case for viewing the world with the same generosity and clear-eyed attention as Saunders does, even in the most absurd of circumstances.]]> 256 George Saunders 0525509593 Sarah 3 3.99 2022
author: George Saunders
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/28
date added: 2023/12/28
shelves:
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]]> 41433284
Planning to start careers as venture capitalists, the brothers quickly discover that no one will take their money after their fight with Zuckerberg. While nursing their wounds in Ibiza, they accidentally run into an eccentric character who tells them about a brand-new idea: cryptocurrency. Immersing themselves in what is then an obscure and sometimes sinister world, they begin to realize “crypto� is, in their own words, "either the next big thing or total bulls--t." There’s nothing left to do but make a bet.

From the Silk Road to the halls of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Bitcoin Billionaires will take us on a wild and surprising ride while illuminating a tantalizing economic future. On November 26, 2017, the Winklevoss brothers became the first bitcoin billionaires. Here’s the story of how they got there—as only Ben Mezrich could tell it.]]> 288 Ben Mezrich 1250217741 Sarah 4 3.92 2019
author: Ben Mezrich
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/28
date added: 2023/12/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 634687
In Madame Bovary , his story of a shallow, deluded, unfaithful, but consistently compelling woman living in the provinces of nineteenth-century France, Gustave Flaubert invented not only the modern novel but also a modern attitude toward human character and human experience that remains with us to this day.

One of the rare works of art that it would be fair to call perfect, Madame Bovary has had an incalculable influence on the literary culture that followed it. This translation, by Francis Steegmuller, is acknowledged by common consensus as the definitive English rendition of Flaubert’s text.]]> 330 Gustave Flaubert 0679420312 Sarah 4 3.99 1856
author: Gustave Flaubert
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1856
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/28
date added: 2023/12/28
shelves:
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]]> 60784586
The town of Bishop is known for exactly two recurring windstorms and an endless field of sunflowers that stretches farther than the eye can see. And women―missing women. So when three more women disappear one stormy night, no one in Bishop is surprised. The case is closed and their daughters are left in their dusty shared house with the shattered pieces of their lives. Until the wind kicks up a terrible secret at their mothers� much-delayed memorial.

With secrets come the lies each of the girls is forced to confront. After caring for the other girls, Delilah would like to move on with her boyfriend, Bennett, but she can’t bear his touch. Whitney has already lost both her mother and her girlfriend, Eleanor, and now her only solace is an old weathervane that seems to whisper to her. Jude, Whitney's twin sister, would rather ignore it all, but the wind kicks up her secret the summer fling she had with Delilah's boyfriend. And more than anything, Bo wants answers and she wants them now. Something happened to their mothers and the townsfolk know what it was. She’s sure of it.

Bishop has always been a strange town. But what the girls don’t know is that Bishop was founded on blood―and now it craves theirs.]]> 320 Andrea Hannah 125084262X Sarah 2 3.46 2023
author: Andrea Hannah
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2023/12/28
date added: 2023/12/28
shelves:
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]]> 55583789 From New York Times bestselling historian H. W. Brands, the epic struggle over slavery as embodied by John Brown and Abraham Lincoln, two men with radically different views on how moral people must act when their democracy countenances evil.

John Brown was a charismatic and deeply religious man who heard the God of the Old Testament speaking to him, telling him to destroy slavery by any means. In 1854, when Congress opened Kansas territory to slavery, Brown raised a band of followers to wage war against the institution--his men tore proslavery settlers from their homes and hacked them to death with broadswords. Three years later Brown and his men assaulted the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, hoping to arm slaves with weapons for the coming race war that would cleanse the nation of slavery once and for all.

Brown's violence pointed ambitious Illinois lawyer and former office-holder Abraham Lincoln toward a different solution to slavery: politics. A member of the moderate wing of the new, antislavery Republican Party, he spoke cautiously and dreamed big, plotting his path to Washington and perhaps the White House. Yet Lincoln's caution couldn't preserve him from the vortex of violence Brown set in motion. Arrested and sentenced to death, Brown's righteous dignity on the way to the gallows led many in the North to see him as a martyr to liberty. Southerners responded in anger and horror that a terrorist was made into a saint. Lincoln shrewdly threaded the needle of the fracturing country and won election as president, still preaching moderation.

But the time for moderation had passed, and as the nation careened toward war Lincoln would see his central faith, that democracy can resolve its moral crises peacefully, face the ultimate test. Master storyteller H. W. Brands narrates in thrilling fashion how two men confronted America's gravest scourge in the moments before the nation's darkest hour.]]> H.W. Brands Sarah 3 4.05 2020
author: H.W. Brands
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/28
date added: 2023/12/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 22926525 The welcome return of Leonid McGill, Walter Mosley's NYC-based private eye, his East Coast foil to his immortal L.A.-based detective Easy Rawlins. As theĚýBoston GlobeĚýraved, "A poignantly real character, [McGill is] not only the newest of the great fictional detectives, but also an incisive and insightful commentator on the American scene."
Ěý
ĚýĚýĚýĚý
ĚýIn the fifth Leonid McGill novel, Leonid finds himself in an unusual pickle of trying to balance his cases with his chaotic personal life. Leonid's father is still out there somewhere, and his wife is in an uptown sanitarium trying to recover from the deep depression that led to her attempted suicide in the previous novel. His wife's condition has put a damper on his affair with Aura Ullman, his girlfriend. And his son, Twill, has been spending a lot of time out of the office with his own case, helping a young thief named Fortune and his girlfriend, Liza.
ĚýĚýĚýĚý Meanwhile, Leonid is approached by an unemployed office manager named Hiram Stent to track down the whereabouts of his cousin, Celia, who is about to inherit millions of dollars from her father's side of the family. Leonid declines the case, but after his office is broken into and Hiram is found dead, he gets reeled into the underbelly of Celia's wealthy old-money family. It's up to Leonid to save who he can and incriminate the guilty; all while helping his son finish his own investigation; locating his own father; reconciling (whatever that means) with his wife and girlfriend; and attending the wedding of Gordo, his oldest friend.]]> 272 Walter Mosley 0385539185 Sarah 4 3.99 2015
author: Walter Mosley
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/28
date added: 2023/12/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 39863347 Everyone agrees that the food at Ho-Lee Noodle House is delicious—unless it happens to be deadly.

Lana Lee’s stake in her family’s Chinese restaurant is higher than ever now that she’s been made manager. So when she enters Ho-Lee into Cleveland’s Best Noodle Contest, Lana makes it her business to win—at all costs. But when a local food critic receives a threatening note in a fortune cookie and is later found dead, face-down in a bowl of lo mein, all bets are off. . .

Now, along with her sweet-and-sour boyfriend Detective Adam Trudeau, Lana decides to take matters into her own hands and dig into the lives of everyone involved in the contest. But when she receives an ill-fated fortune, Lana realizes that in order to save the reputation of her restaurant, she needs to save herself first. .]]> 304 Vivien Chien 1250129192 Sarah 3 3.74 2019
author: Vivien Chien
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2023/11/03
date added: 2023/11/16
shelves:
review:
Another entertaining case in the Noodle Shop mystery series. A fun amateur sleuth series.
]]> 31147267
Thus begins Apollo’s odyssey through a world he only thought he understood, to find a wife and child who are nothing like he’d imagined. His quest, which begins when he meets a mysterious stranger who claims to have information about Emma’s whereabouts, takes him to a forgotten island, a graveyard full of secrets, a forest where immigrant legends still live, and finally back to a place he thought he had lost forever.

This captivating retelling of a classic fairy tale imaginatively explores parental obsession, spousal love, and the secrets that make strangers out of the people we love the most. It’s a thrilling and emotionally devastating journey through the gruesome legacies that threaten to devour us and the homely, messy magic that saves us, if we’re lucky.]]> 431 Victor LaValle 0812995945 Sarah 4 3.75 2017
author: Victor LaValle
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2023/10/16
date added: 2023/11/16
shelves:
review:
Although this book is categorized as "Horror," it felt more like a dark fantasy, or dark fairy tale to me. I really loved this book, both for the character depth, and the fantastical elements. I will definitely read more books by LaValle.
]]> 55890741
In July 1947, not even three months after Jackie Robinson debuted on the Brooklyn Dodgers, snapping the color line that had segregated Major League Baseball, Larry Doby would follow in his footsteps on the Cleveland Indians. Though Doby, as the second Black player in the majors, would struggle during his first summer in Cleveland, his subsequent turnaround in 1948 from benchwarmer to superstar sparked one of the wildest and most meaningful seasons in baseball history.

In intimate, absorbing detail, 'OUR TEAM' traces the story of the integration of the Cleveland Indians and their quest for a World Series title through four key participants: Bill Veeck, an eccentric and visionary owner adept at exploding fireworks on and off the field; Larry Doby, a soft-spoken, hard-hitting pioneer whose major-league breakthrough shattered stereotypes that so much of white America held about Black ballplayers; Bob Feller, a pitching prodigy from the Iowa cornfields who set the template for the athlete as businessman; and Satchel Paige, a legendary pitcher from the Negro Leagues whose belated entry into the majors whipped baseball fans across the country into a frenzy.

Together, as the backbone of a team that epitomized the postwar American spirit in all its hopes and contradictions, these four men would captivate the nation by storming to the World Series - all the while rewriting the rules of what was possible in sports.


A MACMILLAN AUDIO PRODUCTION FROM FLATIRON BOOKS

RUNNING TIME => 13hrs. and 30mins.

©2021 Luke Epplin (P)2021 Macmillan Audio]]> Luke Epplin Sarah 4 4.12 2021
author: Luke Epplin
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/04
date added: 2023/11/16
shelves:
review:
I enjoyed listening to some of the stories of early baseball, especially about my hometown team. I don't think I will live to see the Cleveland team win a World Series, so it was nice to read about past triumphs. I liked the format of the book, as the author built up the suspense through the four men in the title of the book, as each one had a very unique role & story. It was interesting that the owner, Bill Vieck, kind of invented the promotional schedule for the MLB by staging giveaways & even fireworks, in an attempt to fill up the gigantic stadium by Lake Erie (he did break the major league attendance record for the time). It was also interesting & disheartening to learn about how Larry Doby & Satchel Paige were treated during the time of Jim Crow. The World Series win almost isn't as good as the build-up to it.
]]> 57926137 We can’t choose what we inherit. But can we choose who we become?

In present-day California, Eleanor Bennett’s death leaves behind a puzzling inheritance for her two children, Byron and Benny: a black cake, made from a family recipe with a long history, and a voice recording. In her message, Eleanor shares a tumultuous story about a headstrong young swimmer who escapes her island home under suspicion of murder. The heartbreaking tale Eleanor unfolds, the secrets she still holds back, and the mystery of a long-lost child challenge everything the siblings thought they knew about their lineage and themselves.

Can Byron and Benny reclaim their once-close relationship, piece together Eleanor’s true history, and fulfill her final request to “share the black cake when the time is right�? Will their mother’s revelations bring them back together or leave them feeling more lost than ever?

Charmaine Wilkerson’s debut novel is a story of how the inheritance of betrayals, secrets, memories, and even names can shape relationships and history. Deeply evocative and beautifully written, Black Cake is an extraordinary journey through the life of a family changed forever by the choices of its matriarch.]]> 385 Charmaine Wilkerson Sarah 4 4.06 2022
author: Charmaine Wilkerson
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/10/16
date added: 2023/11/16
shelves:
review:
This was quite a surprise for me as far as how much I enjoyed it. I picked it up when I saw hulu was making a show based on the book. I was not prepared for the complexity of the story lines and character depth. An engaging family history with some mystery.
]]> 7036065
As the United States celebrates the nation's "triumph over race" with the election of Barack Obama, the majority of young black men in major American cities are locked behind bars or have been labeled felons for life. Although Jim Crow laws have been wiped off the books, an astounding percentage of the African American community remains trapped in a subordinate status--much like their grandparents before them.

In this incisive critique, former litigator-turned-legal-scholar Michelle Alexander provocatively argues that we have not ended racial caste in America: we have simply redesigned it. Alexander shows that, by targeting black men and decimating communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control, even as it formally adheres to the principle of color blindness. The New Jim Crow challenges the civil rights community--and all of us--to place mass incarceration at the forefront of a new movement for racial justice in America.]]> 17 Michelle Alexander Sarah 3 4.50 2010
author: Michelle Alexander
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/16
date added: 2023/11/16
shelves:
review:
An eye-opening exploration of the American justice system. I felt kind of hopeless listening to this book, as I don't know how much has improved in the 10 years since this was written.
]]> 58386733 A mystery about a Black classical musician whose family heirloom violin is stolen on the eve of the most prestigious classical music competition in the world.

Ray McMillian loves playing the violin more than anything, and nothing will stop him from pursuing his dream of becoming a professional musician. Not his mother, who thinks he should get a real job, not the fact that he can't afford a high-caliber violin, not the racism inherent in the classical music world. And when he makes the startling discovery that his great-grandfather's fiddle is actually a priceless Stradivarius, his star begins to rise. Then with the international Tchaikovsky Competition—the Olympics of classical music—fast approaching, his prized family heirloom is stolen. Ray is determined to get it back. But now his family and the descendants of the man who once enslaved Ray's great-grandfather are each claiming that the violin belongs to them. With the odds stacked against him and the pressure mounting, will Ray ever see his beloved violin again?]]> 345 Brendan Slocumb 0593315413 Sarah 3
I found the history of the violin to be a compelling aspect of the narrative & this aspect kept me turning the pages.]]> 4.06 2022
author: Brendan Slocumb
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/25
date added: 2023/10/02
shelves:
review:
The Violin Conspiracy tells the story of a young Black violinist who is rising to fame in the classical music world, only to find his prized possession: a violin handed down to him from his Grandmother, stolen one morning from his hotel room. This is the scene that starts out this compelling narrative about a young man's quest to be the best, be accepted as a minority in a competitive field, and the question of ownership.

I found the history of the violin to be a compelling aspect of the narrative & this aspect kept me turning the pages.
]]> 59808611
Masterfully constructed with heart and humor, the linked stories in Jonathan Escoffery's If I Survive You center on Trelawny as he struggles to carve out a place for himself amid financial disaster, racism, and flat-out bad luck. After a fight with Topper--himself reckoning with his failures as a parent and his longing for Jamaica--Trelawny claws his way out of homelessness through a series of odd, often hilarious jobs. Meanwhile, his brother, Delano, attempts a disastrous cash grab to get his kids back, and his cousin, Cukie, looks for a father who doesn't want to be found. As each character searches for a foothold, they never forget the profound danger of climbing without a safety net.

Pulsing with vibrant lyricism and inimitable style, sly commentary and contagious laughter, Escoffery's debut unravels what it means to be in between homes and cultures in a world at the mercy of capitalism and whiteness. With If I Survive You, Escoffery announces himself as a prodigious storyteller in a class of his own, a chronicler of American life at its most gruesome and hopeful.]]> 260 Jonathan Escoffery 037460598X Sarah 3 3.67 2022
author: Jonathan Escoffery
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/21
date added: 2023/08/21
shelves:
review:
If I Survive You is a novel of sorts, that's told through various perspectives in the form of short stories. Escoffery uses a Jamaican dialect for one chapter, which took a minute to get into. There is definitely a unique point of view here, from being an immigrant in America, to being mislabeled, or just labeled in general, to the slide into homelessness, and what people will do to not have to live on the street. This was not really what I thought I was going to get when I picked up this book, but the images are so powerful that they have stuck with me. A challenging read, but satisfying.
]]> 53098669 Librarian note: Older cover of B07WNKJGNB.

The highly anticipated new book from Malcolm Gladwell, No.1 international bestselling author of The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, What the Dog Saw and David and Goliath

In July 2015, a young black woman named Sandra Bland was pulled over for a minor traffic violation in rural Texas. Minutes later she was arrested and jailed. Three days later, she committed suicide in her cell. What went wrong? Talking to Strangers is all about what happens when we encounter people we don't know, why it often goes awry, and what it says about us.

How do we make sense of the unfamiliar? Why are we so bad at judging someone, reading a face, or detecting a lie? Why do we so often fail to 'get' other people?

Through a series of puzzles, encounters and misunderstandings, from little-known stories to infamous legal cases, Gladwell takes us on a journey through the unexpected. You will read about the spy who spent years undetected at the highest levels of the Pentagon, the man who saw through the fraudster Bernie Madoff, the suicide of the poet Sylvia Plath and the false conviction of Amanda Knox. You will discover that strangers are never simple.

No one shows us who we are like Malcolm Gladwell. Here he sets out to understand why we act the way we do, and how we all might know a little more about those we don't.]]> 9 Malcolm Gladwell Sarah 4 4.00 2019
author: Malcolm Gladwell
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/21
date added: 2023/08/21
shelves:
review:

]]> 58257396 From #1 New York Times bestselling author Sabaa Tahir comes a brilliant, unforgettable, and heart-wrenching contemporary YA novel about family and forgiveness, love and loss, in a sweeping story that crosses generations and continents.


Lahore, Pakistan. Then.
Misbah is a dreamer and storyteller, newly married to Toufiq in an arranged match. After their young life is shaken by tragedy, they come to the United States and open the Cloud’s Rest Inn Motel, hoping for a new start.

Juniper, California. Now.
Salahudin and Noor are more than best friends; they are family. Growing up as outcasts in the small desert town of Juniper, California, they understand each other the way no one else does. Until The Fight, which destroys their bond with the swift fury of a star exploding.

Now, Sal scrambles to run the family motel as his mother Misbah’s health fails and his grieving father loses himself to alcoholism. Noor, meanwhile, walks a harrowing tightrope: working at her wrathful uncle’s liquor store while hiding the fact that she’s applying to college so she can escape him—and Juniper—forever.

When Sal’s attempts to save the motel spiral out of control, he and Noor must ask themselves what friendship is worth—and what it takes to defeat the monsters in their pasts and the ones in their midst.

From one of today’s most cherished and bestselling young adult authors comes a breathtaking novel of young love, old regrets, and forgiveness—one that’s both tragic and poignant in its tender ferocity.]]> 11 Sabaa Tahir Sarah 5 4.43 2022
author: Sabaa Tahir
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/21
date added: 2023/08/21
shelves:
review:
Excellent listening experience, as the three narrators voice different characters. Powerful storytelling and likable, relatable characters. There are some difficult situations/themes throughout the book, which had me hoping for a happy ending, or at least not a tragedy.
]]> 58437521 From one of the most dazzling and iconic writers of our time and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, an electrifying, deeply moving novel about the quest for authenticity, privacy, and meaning in a world where our memories are no longer our own—featuring characters from A Visit from the Goon Squad.

It’s 2010. Staggeringly successful and brilliant tech entrepreneur Bix Bouton is desperate for a new idea. He’s forty, with four kids, and restless when he stumbles into a conversation with mostly Columbia professors, one of whom is experimenting with downloading or “externalizing� memory. Within a decade, Bix’s new technology, Own Your Unconscious—that allows you access to every memory you’ve ever had, and to share every memory in exchange for access to the memories of others—has seduced multitudes. But not everyone.

In spellbinding linked narratives, Egan spins out the consequences of Own Your Unconscious through the lives of multiple characters whose paths intersect over several decades. Egan introduces these characters in an astonishing array of styles—from omniscient to first person plural to a duet of voices, an epistolary chapter, and a chapter of tweets. In the world of Egan’s spectacular imagination, there are “counters� who track and exploit desires and there are “eluders,� those who understand the price of taking a bite of the Candy House.

Intellectually dazzling and extraordinarily moving, The Candy House is a bold, brilliant imagining of a world that is moments away. With a focus on social media, gaming, and alternate worlds, you can almost experience moving among dimensions in a role-playing game.� Egan delivers a fierce and exhilarating testament to the tenacity and transcendence of human longing for real connection, love, family, privacy and redemption.]]> 352 Jennifer Egan 1476716765 Sarah 3 3.62 2022
author: Jennifer Egan
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/08/03
date added: 2023/08/21
shelves:
review:
I liked The Candy House, and while it had a similar concept to Egan's masterpiece, A Visit from the Goon Squad, it did not have the same energy. I also was not able to follow some of the character threads that she weaves throughout the narrative. This could be my fault because I read it in probably four sessions, but over a two month period. Perhaps if I read it consecutively, it would have made more sense. I feel like I didn't connect with the characters like I did in the previous book, and perhaps it's not fair to compare the two, but this is essentially a sequel/return to the goon squad. Enjoyable, with some poignant moments.
]]> 34217599
Though she wants to tell the adoptive parents who raised her from infancy, Cedar first feels compelled to find her birth mother, Mary Potts, an Ojibwe to understand both her and her baby’s origins. As Cedar goes back to her own biological beginnings, society around her begins to disintegrate, fueled by a swelling panic about the end of humanity.]]> 269 Louise Erdrich 0062694057 Sarah 3 3.57 2017
author: Louise Erdrich
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/31
date added: 2023/08/21
shelves:
review:
Future Home of the Living God has a lot of interesting concepts in it with regard to the apocalyptic world that Erdrich constructs. It became more interesting when I read some of the background as to why she made some of the choices with the narrative that she did. Taken as a whole though, the plot was uneven & some parts were unfinished. I liked the characters & the mystery of what was happening with the world. There is a lot to like about this book, but is average to me in this genre.
]]> 56269278 309 Percival Everett 164445064X Sarah 4 4.06 2021
author: Percival Everett
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/05/21
date added: 2023/08/21
shelves:
review:
The Trees is hard to describe except when I think about other books/authors like this. It's absurdist & funny, but also dark & disturbing. It has a message in its zaniness, and is very original. Percival Everett is an author that is consistently receiving positive reviews & it's about time I read something by him. It's a fairly quick read as well.
]]> 13574503 Length: 11 hours 15 minutes

Greece in the age of Heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the kingdom of Phthia. Here he is nobody, just another unwanted boy living in the shadow of King Peleus and his golden son, Achilles.

Achilles, “best of all the Greeks,� is everything Patroclus is not—strong, beautiful, the child of a goddess—and by all rights their paths should never cross. Yet one day, Achilles takes the shamed prince under his wing and soon their tentative connection gives way to a steadfast friendship. As they grow into young men skilled in the arts of war and medicine, their bond blossoms into something far deeper—despite the displeasure of Achilles� mother Thetis, a cruel sea goddess with a hatred of mortals.

Fate is never far from the heels of Achilles. When word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, the men of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause. Torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows Achilles into war, little knowing that the years that follow will test everything they have learned, everything they hold dear. And that, before he is ready, he will be forced to surrender his friend to the hands of Fate.

Profoundly moving and breathtakingly original, this rendering of the epic Trojan War is a dazzling feat of the imagination, a devastating love story, and an almighty battle between gods and kings, peace and glory, immortal fame and the human heart.]]> 11 Madeline Miller 0062115588 Sarah 3 4.07 2011
author: Madeline Miller
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2023/04/20
date added: 2023/06/20
shelves:
review:

]]> 57850265
Among those adjusting to this new normal are an aspiring comedian, employed by a theme park designed for terminally ill children, who falls in love with a mother trying desperately to keep her son alive; a scientist who, having failed to save his own son from the plague, gets a second chance at fatherhood when one of his test subjects-a pig-develops human speech; a man who, after recovering from his own coma, plans a block party for his neighbours who have also woken up to find that they alone have survived their families; and a widowed painter and her teenaged granddaughter who must set off on cosmic quest to locate a new home planet.

From funerary skyscrapers to hotels for the dead, How High We Go in the Dark follows a cast of intricately linked characters spanning hundreds of years as humanity endeavours to restore the delicate balance of the world. This is a story of unshakable hope that crosses literary lines to give us a world rebuilding itself through an endless capacity for love, resilience and reinvention. Wonderful and disquieting, dreamlike and all too possible.]]> 293 Sequoia Nagamatsu 0063072645 Sarah 3 3.81 2022
author: Sequoia Nagamatsu
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/05/02
date added: 2023/06/20
shelves:
review:

]]> 10201495
1922
The story opens with the confession of Wilfred James to the murder of his wife, Arlette, following their move to Hemingford, Nebraska onto land willed to Arlette by her father.

Big Driver
Mystery writer, Tess, has been supplementing her writing income for years by doing speaking engagements with no problems. But following a last-minute invitation to a book club 60 miles away, she takes a shortcut home with dire consequences.

Fair Extension
Harry Streeter, who is suffering from cancer, decides to make a deal with the devil but, as always, there is a price to pay.

A Good Marriage
Darcy Anderson learns more about her husband of over twenty years than she would have liked to know when she stumbles literally upon a box under a worktable in their garage. -]]> 14 Stephen King Sarah 3 3.90 2011
author: Stephen King
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2023/05/10
date added: 2023/06/20
shelves:
review:

]]> 61358638 Reimagining the debate on poverty, making a new and bracing argument about why it persists in America: because the rest of us benefit from it.

The United States, the richest country on earth, has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. Why? Why does this land of plenty allow one in every eight of its children to go without basic necessities, permit scores of its citizens to live and die on the streets, and authorize its corporations to pay poverty wages?

In this landmark book, acclaimed sociologist Matthew Desmond draws on history, research, and original reporting to show how affluent Americans knowingly and unknowingly keep poor people poor. Those of us who are financially secure exploit the poor, driving down their wages while forcing them to overpay for housing and access to cash and credit. We prioritize the subsidization of our wealth over the alleviation of poverty, designing a welfare state that gives the most to those who need the least. And we stockpile opportunity in exclusive communities, creating zones of concentrated riches alongside those of concentrated despair. Some lives are made small so that others may grow.

Elegantly written and fiercely argued, this compassionate book gives us new ways of thinking about a morally urgent problem. It also helps us imagine solutions. Desmond builds a startlingly original and ambitious case for ending poverty. He calls on us all to become poverty abolitionists, engaged in a politics of collective belonging to usher in a new age of shared prosperity and, at last, true freedom.]]> 304 Matthew Desmond 0593239911 Sarah 3 4.27 2023
author: Matthew Desmond
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2023/05/24
date added: 2023/06/20
shelves:
review:

]]> 59808343
Boston had its Strangler. California had the Zodiac Killer. And in the depths of the Great Depression, Cleveland had the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run.

On September 5th, 1934, a young beachcomber made a gruesome discovery on the shores of Cleveland’s Lake the lower half of a female torso, neatly severed at the waist. The victim, dubbed “The Lady of the Lake,� was only the first of a butcher’s dozen. Over the next four years, twelve more bodies would be scattered across the city. The bodies were dismembered with surgical precision and drained of blood. Some were beheaded while still alive.

Terror gripped the city. Amid the growing uproar, Cleveland’s besieged mayor turned to his newly-appointed director of public Eliot Ness. Ness had come to Cleveland fresh from his headline-grabbing exploits in Chicago, where he and his band of “Untouchables� led the frontline assault on Al Capone’s bootlegging empire. Now he would confront a case that would redefine his storied career.

Award-winning author Daniel Stashower shines a fresh light on one of the most notorious puzzles in the annals of crime, and uncovers the gripping story of Ness’s hunt for a sadistic killer who was as brilliant as he was cool and composed, a mastermind who was able to hide in plain sight. American Demon reconstructs this ultimate battle of wits between a hero and a madman.]]> 342 Daniel Stashower 1250041163 Sarah 3 3.45 2022
author: Daniel Stashower
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/06/04
date added: 2023/06/20
shelves:
review:

]]> 52656911
The bride � The plus one � The best man � The wedding planner � The bridesmaid � The body

On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star. The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It’s a wedding for a magazine, or for a celebrity: the designer dress, the remote location, the luxe party favors, the boutique whiskey. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed.

But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human. As the champagne is popped and the festivities begin, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. The groomsmen begin the drinking game from their school days. The bridesmaid not-so-accidentally ruins her dress. The bride’s oldest (male) friend gives an uncomfortably caring toast.

And then someone turns up dead. Who didn’t wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?]]> 319 Lucy Foley Sarah 4
I was so happy that there wasn't an "unbelievable twist" at the end, but rather, an actual human who committed the murder that happens at the beginning of the book. The Guest List takes place on a remote island in Ireland where a wedding is taking place between two celebrities. She runs a successful media company and he stars in a reality survival show. The viewpoints are from the bride & the various wedding guests. The book alternates between the present, with the murder, and the events of the past 24-hours leading up to it. Super-satisfying & engaging. This book earned all the hype it received.]]> 3.82 2020
author: Lucy Foley
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2021/04/13
date added: 2023/04/21
shelves:
review:
Outstanding cast performance + a logical murder mystery. This audio production will have a wide appeal. The Guest List is told from multiple viewpoints, and each one is given its own narrator, which works perfectly for this story.

I was so happy that there wasn't an "unbelievable twist" at the end, but rather, an actual human who committed the murder that happens at the beginning of the book. The Guest List takes place on a remote island in Ireland where a wedding is taking place between two celebrities. She runs a successful media company and he stars in a reality survival show. The viewpoints are from the bride & the various wedding guests. The book alternates between the present, with the murder, and the events of the past 24-hours leading up to it. Super-satisfying & engaging. This book earned all the hype it received.
]]> 52892857 Read the original inspiration for the new, boldly reimagined film from producers Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg, starring Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, and Fantasia Barrino.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award

A powerful cultural touchstone of modern American literature, The Color Purple depicts the lives of African American women in early twentieth-century rural Georgia. Separated as girls, sisters Celie and Nettie sustain their loyalty to and hope in each other across time, distance and silence. Through a series of letters spanning twenty years, first from Celie to God, then the sisters to each other despite the unknown, the novel draws readers into its rich and memorable portrayals of Celie, Nettie, Shug Avery and Sofia and their experience. The Color Purple broke the silence around domestic and sexual abuse, narrating the lives of women through their pain and struggle, companionship and growth, resilience and bravery. Deeply compassionate and beautifully imagined, Alice Walker's epic carries readers on a spirit-affirming journey towards redemption and love.

â€Áč±đ˛ą»ĺľ±˛Ô˛µ The Color Purple was the first time I had seen Southern, Black women’s literature as world literature. In writing us into the world—bravely, unapologetically, and honestly—Alice Walker has given us a gift we will never be able to repay.â€� —Tayari Jones

�The Color Purple was what church should have been, what honest familial reckoning could have been, and it is still the only art object in the world by which all three generations of Black artists in my family judge American art.� —Kiese Laymon]]> 287 Alice Walker 0143135694 Sarah 5
Celie endures multiple traumas within the first 100 pages (a reason why I've avoided this book for so long). It is hard to read, but thankfully the story never loses optimism, and the ending is satisfying. I liked how Walker creates such a rich cast of characters that have distinct traits and development arcs. A beautiful book.]]> 4.40 1982
author: Alice Walker
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.40
book published: 1982
rating: 5
read at: 2023/04/02
date added: 2023/04/20
shelves:
review:
The only thing I knew about this book going in was that it was made into a movie starring Whoopi & Oprah, and that there were some violent scenes. So yes, both are true, but I was not prepared for how relevant and contemporary this book is. It tackles race, class, poverty, LGBTQ+ orientation and gender in a way that feels timeless. It's a story of two sisters, Celie & Nettie, as told through their letters to each other over the course of decades. They are separated in the hopes that Nettie can have a better life outside of the small impoverished town into which they were born.

Celie endures multiple traumas within the first 100 pages (a reason why I've avoided this book for so long). It is hard to read, but thankfully the story never loses optimism, and the ending is satisfying. I liked how Walker creates such a rich cast of characters that have distinct traits and development arcs. A beautiful book.
]]> 28117901 0 Elizabeth Letts 073528508X Sarah 3
So begins the fight to hide, rescue and save these horses from the Nazis. It is astounding how much these horses were prized and the lengths in which a few different nations went to in order to possess them. It was an interesting listen.]]> 3.53 2016
author: Elizabeth Letts
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2023/04/08
date added: 2023/04/20
shelves:
review:
There are so many WWII stories, that it's not something I normally seek out. I was drawn to this book because I enjoyed Letts's other book, The Eighty-Dollar Champion so much. I was also interested to learn about the Polish landscape and its people. I was surprised to learn that the Polish were known for their skill in horse husbandry and they had some of the finest horses in the world, which made them coveted by the Nazi Army. One general in particular thought he could breed them better than the traditional ways, similar to their human genetic experiments.

So begins the fight to hide, rescue and save these horses from the Nazis. It is astounding how much these horses were prized and the lengths in which a few different nations went to in order to possess them. It was an interesting listen.
]]>