en-US Wed, 18 Dec 2024 05:12:56 -0800 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 53819302
Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.

Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.

And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.]]> Silvia Moreno-Garcia Judi 3 fiction, horror, mystery 3.53 2020
author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
name: Judi
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2022/03/28
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: fiction, horror, mystery
review:
Perhaps my brain is stuck on "three stars". To me this book seemed rather nebulous and vague. The story involves a couple of "youngish" female cousins who had been close at one time in their lives. One of the cousins summons the assistance of the other to help her escape from the large old family home that remains under the control of some toxic family members. Long time residents of the spooky house. This tome faded in and out of focus for me. It seems to work for numerous readers. Give it a try.
]]> 35395301 An The Oprah Magazine "Top 15 Best of the Year" - A Well-Read Black Girl's Pick

Tenderness and cruelty, loyalty and betrayal, ambition and regret--Alexia Arthurs navigates these tensions to extraordinary effect in her debut collection about Jamaican immigrants and their families back home. Sweeping from close-knit island communities to the streets of New York City and midwestern university towns, these eleven stories form a portrait of a nation, a people, and a way of life.

In "Light-Skinned Girls and Kelly Rowlands," an NYU student befriends a fellow Jamaican whose privileged West Coast upbringing has blinded her to the hard realities of race. In "Mash Up Love," a twin's chance sighting of his estranged brother--the prodigal son of the family--stirs up unresolved feelings of resentment. In "Bad Behavior," a couple leave their wild teenage daughter with her grandmother in Jamaica, hoping the old ways will straighten her out. In "Mermaid River," a Jamaican teenage boy is reunited with his mother in New York after eight years apart. In "The Ghost of Jia Yi," a recently murdered student haunts a despairing Jamaican athlete recruited to an Iowa college. And in "Shirley from a Small Place," a world-famous pop star retreats to her mother's big new house in Jamaica, which still holds the power to restore something vital.

Alexia Arthurs emerges in this vibrant, lyrical, intimate collection as one of fiction's most dynamic and essential authors.]]> 256 Alexia Arthurs 1524799211 Judi 0 to-read 3.86 2018
author: Alexia Arthurs
name: Judi
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 44163538
Taking us from hot Texas highways to cold family kitchens, from the freedom of pay-by-the-hour motels to the claustrophobia of private school dorms, these stories erupt off the page with a primal howl—sharp-voiced, bitter, and wise. Black Light contains the type of storytelling that resonates somewhere deep, in the well of memory that repudiates nostalgia.]]> 208 Kimberly King Parsons 0525563512 Judi 0 to-read 3.70 2019
author: Kimberly King Parsons
name: Judi
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61061706 An acclaimed rock and roll journalist evokes the legacy of The Rolling Stones—iconic, granitic, commercially unstoppable as a collective; and fascinating, contradictory, and occasionally��disturbing as individuals.

As Lesley-Ann Jones writes, the Rolling Stones are "still roaming the globe like rusty tanks without a war to go to. Jumping, jacking, flashing, posturing, these septuagenarian caricatures��with faces that might have been microwaved but coming on like eternal thirty-year-olds.��

On 12th��July 1962, the Rollin�� Stones performed their first-ever gig at London’s Marquee jazz club. Down the line, a ‘g�� was added, a spark was lit and��their destiny was sealed. No going��back.
��
These five white British kids set out to play the music of black America. They honed a style that bled bluesy undertones into dark insinuations of women,��sex, and drugs. Denounced as��‘corruptors of youth�� and ‘messengers of the devil,�� they created some of the most thrilling music ever recorded.
��
Now their sound and attitude seem louder and more influential than ever. Elvis is dead and the Beatles are��over, but Jagger and Richards bestride the world. The Stones may be��gathering moss, but on they roll.
��
Yet how did the ultimate anti-establishment misfits become the global brand we know today? Who were the casualties, and what are the forgotten��legacies? Can the artist ever be truly��divisible from the art?��
��
Lesley-Ann Jones’s new history��tracks this contradictory, disturbing, granitic and unstoppable band through hope, glory and exile, into the juggernaut��years and beyond into��rock’s��ongoing reckoning . . . where the Stones seem more at odds than ever with the values and heritage against which they have��always rebelled.��Good, bad, and often ugly, here are the Rolling Stones as never seen before.]]> 395 Lesley-Ann Jones 1639362061 Judi 0 to-read 4.00
author: Lesley-Ann Jones
name: Judi
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 99300
Written from a feminist perspective, often focusing on the inferior status accorded to women by society, the tales include "turned," an ironic story with a startling twist, in which a husband seduces and impregnates a naïve servant; "Cottagette," concerning the romance of a young artist and a man who's apparently too good to be true; "Mr. Peebles' Heart," a liberating tale of a fiftyish shopkeeper whose sister-in-law, a doctor, persuades him to take a solo trip to Europe, with revivifying results; "The Yellow Wallpaper"; and three other outstanding stories.

These charming tales are not only highly readable and full of humor and invention, but also offer ample food for thought about the social, economic, and personal relationship of men and women �� and how they might be improved.

Collects:
—The Yellow Wallpaper
—Three Thanksgivings
—The Cottagette
—T�ܰ��Ա��
—Making a Change
—If I Were a Man
—Mr. Peebles' Heart]]> 129 Charlotte Perkins Gilman 0486298574 Judi 4 classics 4.05 1892
author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman
name: Judi
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1892
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: classics
review:
"Way leads onto way" in this case. Odd. Perhaps it is part of my late life self education. When reading The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman two other authors came to mind. Upton Sinclair and Theodore Dreiser. There seemed to be a common "Progressive" theme in their work and a time frame where maybe their paths may have crossed. I did a little "high school" research and, indeed their paths did cross. All "Progressives". (as am I) All spent time in the Los Angeles area. Upton Sinclair did some editing of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's work. Theodore Dreiser was an an admirer, advisor on her work. I can relate to several of her stories and her basic philosophy, The Yellow Wallpaper in particular. It is quite apparent that the protagonist in this story was suffering from postpartum depression. Her physician/husband was insufferably condescending to her and virtually imprisoned her under the guise of a rest cure. Feminist flare there. I have seen stronger writing, but relate to her thinking. Final note. It seems that many of my favorite writers have succumbed to suicide. Sadly. In the case of Charlotte Perkins Gilman her suicide seems most practical and humane. She was suffering from terminal cancer.
]]> 45694 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780486419251

Renowned for his poetry, plays, essays, and conversational skills, Oscar Wilde also wrote scintillating works of short fiction. This volume includes four fine examples, including The Canterville Ghost, the comical tale of a spirit who terrorized the residents of Canterville Chase for three centuries. When the manor is acquired by a no-nonsense American family with no use for the supernatural, hilarity ensues.
Three other stories feature "The Sphinx Without a Secret," a tale of an enigmatic woman who carries a mystery's key to her grave; "The Model Millionaire," recounting the exploits of a "delightful, ineffectual young man with a perfect profile and no profession"; and "Lord Arthur Savile's Crime," in which an aristocrat learns that he is destined to commit murder. Rounding out the volume are Wilde's lyrical Poems in Prose: "The Artist," "The Doer of Good," "The Disciple," "The Master," "The House of Judgment," and "The Teacher of Wisdom."]]> 120 Oscar Wilde Judi 3 recorded-books, classics 4.00
author: Oscar Wilde
name: Judi
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2011/12/20
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: recorded-books, classics
review:
Preferred Portrait of an Artist to this collection. My favorite of these stories was Lord Arthur Savile's Crime. It had a nice bitter little twist and I learned a new word . . . . chiromancy. I do like reading Oscar Wilde's descriptions of people of a "certain class".
]]> 53064 384 Thomas Mann 0141181737 Judi 5 classics, recorded-books 3.92 1911
author: Thomas Mann
name: Judi
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1911
rating: 5
read at: 2011/11/17
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: classics, recorded-books
review:
I love the time period written about in these tales. The waning years of opulence and self indulgence tainted with a certain decadence. I can but whistfully relate. Nothing would appeal to me more than to check in to a resort, hotel or sanitarium and be indulged and pampered. Read, eat and sigh at the travails of life. I savored the rich lengthy descriptions of persons and especially ambiance and foods. Ah,the detail. I enjoyed Thomas Mann's writing.
]]> 1121186
libreka classics �� These are classics of literary history, reissued and made available to a wide audience.
Immerse yourself in well-known and popular titles!]]> 504 Ulysses S. Grant 0809302489 Judi 0 to-read 3.50
author: Ulysses S. Grant
name: Judi
average rating: 3.50
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 43803285
In this most sinister of institutions, the director, Mrs. Sigsby, and her staff are ruthlessly dedicated to extracting from these children the force of their extranormal gifts. There are no scruples here. If you go along, you get tokens for the vending machines. If you don’t, punishment is brutal. As each new victim disappears to Back Half, Luke becomes more and more desperate to get out and get help. But no one has ever escaped from the Institute.

As psychically terrifying as Firestarter, and with the spectacular kid power of It, The Institute is Stephen King’s gut-wrenchingly dramatic story of good vs. evil in a world where the good guys don’t always win.]]> 19 Stephen King Judi 0 to-read 4.04 2019
author: Stephen King
name: Judi
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 15766611 14 hrs and 6 mins
In this uproarious new novel, Richard Russo performs his characteristic high-wire walk between hilarity and heartbreak. Russo's protagonist is William Henry Devereaux, Jr., the reluctant chairman of the English department of a badly underfunded college in the Pennsylvania rust belt.��Devereaux's reluctance is partly rooted in his character--he is a born anarchist-- and partly in the fact that his department is more savagely divided than the Balkans.

In the course of a single week, Devereaux will have his nose mangled by an angry colleague, imagine his wife is having an affair with his dean, wonder if a curvaceous adjunct is trying to seduce him with peach pits, and threaten to execute a goose on local television.����All this while coming to terms with his philandering father, the dereliction of his youthful promise, and the ominous failure of certain vital body functions.��In short, Straight Man is classic Russo--side-splitting and true-to-life, witty, compassionate, and impossible to put down.]]> 14 Richard Russo Judi 0 to-read 3.47 1997
author: Richard Russo
name: Judi
average rating: 3.47
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 16370721 The Long Home, is also the story of Amber Rose, a beautiful young woman forced to live beneath that evil who recognizes even as a child that Nathan is her first and last chance at escape. And it is the story of William Tell Oliver, a solitary old man who watches the growing evil from the dark woods and adds to his own weathered guilt by failing to do anything about it. Set in rural Tennessee in the 1940s, The Long Home will bring to mind once again the greatest Southern novelists and will haunt the reader with its sense of solitude , longing, and the deliverance that is always just out of reach.]]> 9 William Gay 1449885861 Judi 0 to-read 3.75 1999
author: William Gay
name: Judi
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 11214235 Gathering Evidence is a powerful and compelling memoir of youth by one of the twentieth century’s most gifted writers.
��
Born in 1931, the illegitimate child of an abandoned mother, Thomas Bernhard was brought up by an eccentric grandmother and an adored grandfather in right-wing, Catholic Austria. He ran away from home at age fifteen. Three years later, he contracted pneumonia and was placed in a hospital ward for the old and terminally ill, where he observed first-hand—and with unflinching acuity—the cruel nature of protracted suffering and death. From the age of twenty-one, everything he wrote was shaped by the urgency of a dying man’s testament—and where this account of his life ends, his art begins.
��
Included in this edition is My Prizes, a collection of Bernhard’s viciously funny and revelatory essays on his later literary life. Here is a portrait of the artist as a prize-winner: laconic, sardonic, shaking his head with biting amusement at the world and at himself.]]> 416 Thomas Bernhard 1400077621 Judi 0 to-read 4.45 1986
author: Thomas Bernhard
name: Judi
average rating: 4.45
book published: 1986
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 53969 ]]> 475 Mario Vargas Llosa 0571207766 Judi 0 to-read 4.27 2000
author: Mario Vargas Llosa
name: Judi
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 25904196 Hercule Poirot recalled an earlier outburst by a fellow passenger: 'I'd like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger." Yet in this exotic setting, nothing was ever quite what it seemed.]]> Agatha Christie Judi 4 3.96 1937
author: Agatha Christie
name: Judi
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1937
rating: 4
read at: 2019/01/06
date added: 2024/02/02
shelves: mystery, fiction, recorded-books
review:
My first exposure to Agatha Christie's work. The venue of this murder mystery intrigued me. The idea of cruising on the Nile. I was very motivated to solve the murder myself. I was not correct. I love the prinicipal character "Hercule Poirot. I am captivated by the 1920's, 1930's ambiance, history. I see more Agatha Christie on my "to read" list.
]]> 16078963 5 H.P. Lovecraft Judi 0 3.62 1928
author: H.P. Lovecraft
name: Judi
average rating: 3.62
book published: 1928
rating: 0
read at: 2014/04/01
date added: 2024/02/01
shelves: short-stories, recorded-books, put-back-on-shelf
review:

]]> 5769544
Gorgeous, successful executive Teri Stewart spends her days working for L.A.'s hottest record company--and her nights all alone. Her best friend Nicole is determined to find Teri a man, but she hasn't had much luck. . .because Teri wants more than Mr. Maybe. She's holding out for Mr. Right and won't settle for anything less. Just when Teri is ready to give up, a man from her past returns to reignite their romance. With his sultry smile and easy-going charm, radio DJ Harrison Starr is one-of-a kind--and Teri can't deny she's fallen hard for him again.

With her life finally falling into place, Teri thinks her dreams might come true after all. But Harrison may have a secret that could change everything. . .]]> 280 Mary Monroe 0758225512 Judi 3 comfort-food-reads 3.81 2009
author: Mary Monroe
name: Judi
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at: 2011/05/06
date added: 2024/01/30
shelves: comfort-food-reads
review:
Not one of Mary Monroe's better works. I listened to this as a book on tape. The narrator was good. Story line, characters predictable. A light, amusing read. I am begining to realize that my amusement when reading/listening to Mary Monroe's books may not be for the same reasons as other folks. To me her books are over the top, but I like them just the same.
]]> 1270002 168 Sherwood Anderson 1426421303 Judi 0 to-read 3.83 1921
author: Sherwood Anderson
name: Judi
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1921
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 4965
Through Anna's eyes we follow the story of the fateful year of 1666, as she and her fellow villagers confront the spread of disease and superstition.

As death reaches into every household and villagers turn from prayers to murderous witch-hunting, Anna must find the strength to confront the disintegration of her community and the lure of illicit love.

As she struggles to survive and grow, a year of catastrophe becomes instead annus mirabilis, a "year of wonders."

Inspired by the true story of Eyam, a village in the rugged hill country of England, Year of Wonders is a richly detailed evocation of a singular moment in history. ]]> 304 Geraldine Brooks 0142001430 Judi 4 4.00 2001
author: Geraldine Brooks
name: Judi
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/11/11
shelves:
review:

]]> 10339954
But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.

(c) 2011 Random House Audio]]> 14 Erin Morgenstern 0307938905 Judi 5 3.84 2011
author: Erin Morgenstern
name: Judi
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2013/06/14
date added: 2023/11/01
shelves: circus-carnival-books, recorded-books
review:
I am enchanted by this book! The narrator that read this audio book enhanced the vision. Another reviewer commented that one would either be captivated or put off by this book. I am one who is captivated. Swept away. It plays to all of the senses and one finds oneself seduced by the magic of the circus. Circuses have always held a facination for me. The mystery and illusions. Certainly the time frame of this story, the waning years of the nineteenth century, adds to the ambiance. My life perspective was tweaked a bit as well by The Night Circus. Beginings, endings, timing, chance, savoring every morsel of every day. It's all in The Night Circus.
]]> 7354
A vigorous, darkly comic, and at times magical portrait of the contemporary American family, The Shipping News shows why E. Annie Proulx is recognized as one of the most gifted and original writers in America today.
(back cover)]]> 337 Annie Proulx 0743225422 Judi 5 favorites, witty 3.88 1993
author: Annie Proulx
name: Judi
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1993
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/10/31
shelves: favorites, witty
review:

]]> 8429269 By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes.

The carnival rolls in sometime after the midnight hour of a chill Midwestern October eve. Ushering in Halloween a week before its time, a calliope's shrill siren song beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained. Young boyhood companions James Nightshade and Will Halloway are the first to heed its call. From a place of safety, they watch a midway come to spectral life, their emotions a riot of eagerness, trepidation, bravado, and uncertainty. For they can sense the change that's in the air; that this is the Autumn in which innocence must vanish in the harsh, acrid smoke of disillusionment...and horror.

Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois, to destroy every life touched by its strange and sinister mystery. And two inquisitive boys standing precariously on the brink of adulthood will soon discover the secret of the satanic raree-show's mazes and mirrors, as they learn all too well the heavy cost of wishes and the stuff of nightmares.

All those who still dream and remember—and those who have heard the whispering but have yet to experience its dark, poetic power—you are welcome. A shadow show like none other is about to begin...again.]]> 0 Ray Bradbury 1400118255 Judi 5 3.61 1962
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Judi
average rating: 3.61
book published: 1962
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/10/13
shelves: classics, mystery, recorded-books, circus-carnival-books
review:
I suspect that I truly remain an adolescent boy spinning on the cusp of adulthood, despite the fact that I am a wizened crone of sixty five years. This book is my first exposure to the work of Ray Bradbury. I chose it primarily as it seems to usher in autumn. Besides, I am attracted to the nostalgia of carnivals, circuses and the possibilities of magic, as are/were many adolescent boys it would seem. (I must make note here that I was equally dazzled by my first exposure to J.D. Salinger earlier this year reading Catcher In The Rye. A similar sort of epiphany of adolescence, that includes a carousel.) In Something Wicked This Way Comes the epiphany visits two boys, best friends. Will and Jim. Will is the more practical. Jim is the more impulsive risk taker. (Me) In late October the mysterious circus comes to town. They are captivated and the story unwinds. A carousel is one of the primary attractions of the circus. And so the wicked tale wends it's way. I suspect there are many, many folks who might quite willingly fall under the spell of this circus, not just Will, Jim and me. I savored every drop of Rad Bradbury's honeyed poetic prose style. ( I listened to the audio version of this book and the narrator was good.)
]]> 65214420
In over forty books, in a career that spanned over sixty years, Larry McMurtry staked his claim as a superior chronicler of the American West, and as the Great Plains�� keenest witness since Willa Cather and Wallace Stegner. Larry A Life traces his origins as one of the last American writers who had direct contact with this country’s pioneer traditions. It follows his astonishing career as bestselling novelist, Pulitzer-Prize winner, author of the beloved Lonesome Dove , Academy-Award winning screenwriter, public intellectual, and passionate bookseller. A sweeping and insightful look at a versatile, one-of-a-kind American writer, this book is a must-read for every Larry McMurtry fan.]]> 560 Tracy Daugherty 1250282330 Judi 0 to-read 4.17
author: Tracy Daugherty
name: Judi
average rating: 4.17
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 440304 256 Carolyn See 0449217094 Judi 0 to-read 3.90 1981
author: Carolyn See
name: Judi
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1981
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 320377 336 Aleister Crowley 0877281475 Judi 0 to-read 3.49 1917
author: Aleister Crowley
name: Judi
average rating: 3.49
book published: 1917
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 53026131 Other Voices, Other Rooms is a literary touchstone of the mid-twentieth century. In this semiautobiographical coming-of-age novel, thirteen-year-old Joel Knox, after losing his mother, is sent from New Orleans to live with the father who abandoned him at birth. But when Joel arrives at Skully’s Landing, the decaying mansion in rural Alabama, his father is nowhere to be found. Instead, Joel meets his morose stepmother, Amy, eccentric cousin Randolph, and a defiant little girl named Idabel, who soon offers Joel the love and approval he seeks.

Fueled by a world-weariness that belied Capote’s tender age, this novel tempers its themes of waylaid hopes and lost innocence with an appreciation for small pleasures and the colorful language of its time and place.

This new edition, featuring an enlightening Introduction by John Berendt, offers readers a fresh look at Capote’s emerging brilliance as a writer of protean power and effortless grace.


From the Hardcover edition.]]> 192 Truman Capote Judi 0 to-read 3.54 1948
author: Truman Capote
name: Judi
average rating: 3.54
book published: 1948
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 28204041 184 Ellen Gilchrist 1611176611 Judi 0 to-read 4.50 1981
author: Ellen Gilchrist
name: Judi
average rating: 4.50
book published: 1981
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 38474
Stunning for its emotional intensity and haunting sensuality, this book depicts men and women, blacks and whites, stripped of their masks of gender and race by love and hatred at the most elemental and sublime.]]> 448 James Baldwin 0141186372 Judi 0 to-read 4.32 1962
author: James Baldwin
name: Judi
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1962
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/27
shelves: to-read
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 Judi 0 to-read 4.27 2023
author: Matthew Desmond
name: Judi
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 11669195 140 Stuart Mason 1146454619 Judi 0 to-read 0.0 1910
author: Stuart Mason
name: Judi
average rating: 0.0
book published: 1910
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 63910381 New York Times-bestselling author James Lee Burke comes a novel set in Civil War-era Louisiana as the South transforms and a brilliant cast of characters �� enslaved and free women, plantation gentry, and battle-weary Confederate and Union soldiers �� are caught in the maelstrom

In the fall of 1863, the Union army is in control of the Mississippi river. Much of Louisiana, including New Orleans and Baton Rouge, is occupied. The Confederate army is in disarray, corrupt structures are falling apart, and enslaved men and women are beginning to glimpse freedom.

When Hannah Laveau, a formerly enslaved woman working on the Lufkin plantation, is accused of murder, she goes on the run with Florence Milton, an abolitionist schoolteacher, dodging the local constable and the slavecatchers that prowl the bayous. Wade Lufkin, haunted by what he observed—and did—as a surgeon on the battlefield, has returned to his uncle’s plantation to convalesce, where he becomes enraptured by Hannah. Flags on the Bayou is an engaging, action-packed narrative that includes a duel that ends in disaster, a brutal encounter with the local Union commander, repeated skirmishes with Confederate irregulars led by a diseased and probably deranged colonel, and a powerful story of love blossoming between an unlikely pair. As the story unfolds, it illuminates a past that reflects our present in sharp relief.]]> 310 James Lee Burke 0802161693 Judi 0 to-read 3.93 2023
author: James Lee Burke
name: Judi
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 62140430 When his difficult mother is diagnosed with ALS, a sharp-witted yet sensitive artist reluctantly returns to his New Hampshire hometown �� and all the ghosts he left behind.

As it turns out, you can go home again. But sometimes, you really, really don’t want to . . .

Home, for Noah York, is Oakland, New Hampshire, the sleepy little town where Noah’s mother, Virginia, had a psychotic breakdown and Noah got beaten to a pulp as a teenager. Then there were the good times—and Noah’s not sure which ones are more painful to recall.

Now thirty-seven and eking out a living as an artist in Providence, Rhode Island, Noah looks much the same—and swears just as colorfully—as he did in high school. Virginia has become a wildly successful poet who made him the subject of her most famous poem, “The Lost Soul,�� a label Noah will never live down. And J.D., the one who got away—because Noah stupidly drove him away—is in a loving marriage with a successful, attractive man whom Noah despises wholeheartedly.

Is it any surprise that Noah wishes he could ignore his mother’s summons to come visit?

But Virginia has shattering news to deliver, and a request he can’t refuse. Soon, Noah will track down the sister and extended family he never knew existed, try to keep his kleptomaniac cousin out of jail, feud with a belligerent neighbor, confront J.D.’s jealous husband—and face J.D. himself, the ache from Noah’s past that never fades. . . . All the while, contending with his brilliant, unpredictable mother.

Bittersweet, hilarious, and moving, and as unapologetically candid and unforgettable as Noah himself, The Language of Love and Loss is a story about growing older, getting lost—and finding your way back to the only truths that really matter.]]> 246 Bart Yates 1496741242 Judi 0 currently-reading 3.94
author: Bart Yates
name: Judi
average rating: 3.94
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/10
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 62292419 For fans of Lucy Foley and Liane Moriarty, She Started It is a hot, twisty summer debut thriller about a group of young women whose Caribbean bachelorette party takes a sinister turn. It’s Lord of the Flies meets And Then There Were None...but with Instagram and too much prosecco.

The party of a lifetime is nothing like what they expected...

Annabel, Esther, Tanya, and Chloe are best friends—or were, as children. Despite drifting apart in adulthood, shared secrets have kept them bonded for better or worse, even as their childhood dreams haven’t quite turned out as they’d hoped. Then one day they receive a wholly unexpected—but not entirely unwelcome—invitation from another old friend. Poppy Greer has invited them all to her extravagant bachelorette party: a first-class plane ticket to three days of white sand, cocktails, and relaxation on a luxe private island in the Bahamas.

None of them has spoken to Poppy in years. But Poppy’s Instagram pics shows that the girl they used to consider the weakest link in their group has definitely made good—and made money. Curiosity gets the better of them. Besides, who can turn down a posh all-expenses-paid vacation on a Caribbean island?

The first-class flight and the island’s accommodations are just as opulent as expected...even if the scenic island proves more remote than they’d anticipated. Quite remote, in fact, with no cell service, and no other guests. The women quickly discover they’ve underestimated Poppy, and each other. As their darkest secrets are revealed, the tropical adventure morphs into a terrifying nightmare.

Endlessly twisty, sharply observant, and deliciously catty, She Started It is sure to shock readers until the very end.]]> 352 Sian Gilbert 0063286297 Judi 0 to-read 3.56 2023
author: Sian Gilbert
name: Judi
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 87556695
“‘Let us descend,�� the poet now began, ‘and enter this blind world.’�� �� Inferno, Dante Alighieri

Let Us Descend is a reimagining of American slavery, as beautifully rendered as it is heart-wrenching. Searching, harrowing, replete with transcendent love, the novel is a journey from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the slave markets of New Orleans and into the fearsome heart of a Louisiana sugar plantation.

Annis, sold south by the white enslaver who fathered her, is the reader’s guide through this hellscape. As she struggles through the miles-long march, Annis turns inward, seeking comfort from memories of her mother and stories of her African warrior grandmother. Throughout, she opens herself to a world beyond this world, one teeming with of earth and water, of myth and history; spirits who nurture and give, and those who manipulate and take. While Ward leads readers through the descent, this, her fourth novel, is ultimately a story of rebirth and reclamation.

From one of the most singularly brilliant and beloved writers of her generation, this miracle of a novel inscribes Black American grief and joy into the very land—the rich but unforgiving forests, swamps, and rivers of the American South. Let Us Descend is Jesmyn Ward’s most magnificent novel yet, a masterwork for the ages.]]> 305 Jesmyn Ward 198210449X Judi 0 to-read 3.68 2023
author: Jesmyn Ward
name: Judi
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/05/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 374371 847 Anthony Trollope 0140430865 Judi 0 currently-reading 3.97 1865
author: Anthony Trollope
name: Judi
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1865
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/05/02
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 26749375 6 Winifred Watson Judi 0 audible 3.94 1938
author: Winifred Watson
name: Judi
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1938
rating: 0
read at: 2023/05/02
date added: 2023/05/02
shelves: audible
review:

]]> 62672716 Past meets present in South Carolina

At first, Gillian Culkin feels only mildly inconvenienced by crowds of demonstrators debating the presence of the Confederate flag flying brazenly atop the South Carolina State House. Gil passes these people every day as she makes her way to work in the Caroliniana Library on the University of South Carolina campus. Like so many other White Southerners, she had never before given much thought to racial issues. But over the course of a few weeks, she comes to realize that the flag represents important and entrenched issues of race and inequality. Gil finds her views on race developing and evolving as she examines the past and sees its influence on the present.

Meanwhile, at the Caroliniana, she studies the 1857 diary of a South Carolina dirt farmer named William Medlin. Hollingsworth makes him the center of a second story. Thinking to turn a quick profit, Medlin buys a slave at auction. In the course of the tragic journey he then undertakes with his newly acquired slave, Medlin’s views of enslavement change.

​The two narratives—one told in the present, the other in the past, in alternating chapters—provide a probing and insightful look at what it means to be human within an often inhumane system]]> 344 Rebecca Hollingsworth 1626349169 Judi 0 to-read 3.83
author: Rebecca Hollingsworth
name: Judi
average rating: 3.83
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/05/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 53122429 New York Times called it “nothing short of a wonder-book.�� Now, with inventiveness seasoned by maturity and shot through with humor, Kenan riffs on appetites of all kinds, on the eerie persistence of history, on unstoppable losses and unexpected salvations.

In Kenan’s fictional territory of Tims Creek, North Carolina, an old man rages in his nursing home, a parson beats up an adulterer, a rich man is haunted by a hog, and an elderly woman turns unwitting miracle worker. A retired plumber travels to Manhattan, where Billy Idol sweeps him into his entourage. An architect who lost his famous lover to AIDS reconnects with a high school fling. Howard Hughes seeks out the woman who once cooked him butter beans.

A rich chorus of voices and visions, dreams and prophecies, marked by physicality and spirit, If I Had Two Wings is a glory.]]> 224 Randall Kenan 1324005467 Judi 0 to-read 3.81 2020
author: Randall Kenan
name: Judi
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/05/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 51344559 The definitive--and salacious--history of the iconic hotel that Hollywood stars have called a home away from home for almost a century.

Since 1929, Hollywood's brightest stars have flocked to the Chateau Marmont as if it were a second home. Perched above the Sunset Strip like a fairytale castle, the Chateau seems to come from another world entirely. An apartment building-turned-hotel, it has been the backdrop for generations of gossip and folklore: director Nicholas Ray slept with his sixteen-year-old Rebel Without a Cause star Natalie Wood; Jim Morrison swung from the balconies; John Belushi suffered a fatal overdose; and Lindsay Lohan got the boot after racking up nearly $50,000 in charges in less than two months. Much of what's happened inside the Chateau's walls has eluded the public eye--until now. With wit and insight, Shawn Levy recounts the wild revelries and scandalous liaisons, the creative breakthroughs and marital breakdowns, the births and deaths to which the hotel has been a party.]]> 384 Shawn Levy 0525435662 Judi 5 history, crime, non-fiction 3.97 2019
author: Shawn Levy
name: Judi
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2020/07/23
date added: 2023/04/22
shelves: history, crime, non-fiction
review:
Very appealing, interesting book. Ahhhhhh. What a history! I have always been intrigued by classic old hotels and the "spirits" that remain forever. This would certainly be one. I hope to visit it in the not too distant future and savor the reality. A couple of gems that I have stayed at remain in a special place in my memory. The Stanhope Hotel in New York. A classic, historical jewel. I was treated very kindly by the staff. The other would be The Huntington Hotel in San Francisco on Nob Hill. Looking forward to a stay at the Chateau Marmont!
]]> 23534929 206 Sara Steger Judi 0 to-read, audible 4.46 2014
author: Sara Steger
name: Judi
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/04/19
shelves: to-read, audible
review:

]]> 1200399 The Place In Flowers Where Pollen Rests recounts an odyssey from Arizona's Hopi mesas to the California motels where sex films get made, from Vietnam's battle zones to the very stars. First published in 1988, this edition contains a new introduction by David W. Madden, and two provocative essays by West on contemporary fiction. "West's astonishing novel...reveals a Joycean genius in its exuberant play of language, and its epic and mythic resonances..."�� Paul West.]]> 504 Paul West 002038260X Judi 0 to-read 4.14 1988
author: Paul West
name: Judi
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1988
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/04/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 200081 148 Michael Lesy 0826321933 Judi 5 4.01 1973
author: Michael Lesy
name: Judi
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1973
rating: 5
read at: 2023/04/17
date added: 2023/04/17
shelves: one-of-a-kind, history, re-reading
review:
Overwhelming for me. This work is an extraordinary art piece and a commentary on history. It deserves a shelf of it's own. No page numbers. No names, dates, identification on the photos. This book means a great deal to me as my family is from rural Wisconsin. Recently I have been sorting through generations of family photos taken at the time covered in the book (1890 - 1900) The book, photos, newspaper excerpts overlap/echo my family's life. The arson,the suicides, the diseases, Mendota State Asylum, the poverty. Between the photographs, the snippits from the Badger State Banner and the Mendota State Asylum it fleshes out that time, place and people. It was my family.
]]> 63112750
It was one of the most searing images of the twentieth century: two young boys, two princes, walking behind their mother's coffin as the world watched in sorrow - and horror. As Diana, Princess of Wales, was laid to rest, billions wondered what the princes must be thinking and feeling - and how their lives would play out from that point on.

For Harry, this is that story at last.

With its raw, unflinching honesty, Spare is a landmark publication full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.

Prince Harry wishes to support British charities with donations from his proceeds from Spare. The Duke of Sussex has donated $1,500,000 to Sentebale, an organisation he founded with Prince Seeiso in their mothers' legacies, which supports vulnerable children and young people in Lesotho and Botswana affected by HIV/AIDS. Prince Harry will also donate to the non-profit organisation WellChild in the amount of £300,000. WellChild, which he has been Royal patron of for fifteen years, makes it possible for children and young people with complex health needs to be cared for at home instead of hospital, wherever possible.]]> 16 Prince Harry Judi 4 3.83 2023
author: Prince Harry
name: Judi
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/04/16
date added: 2023/04/16
shelves: autobiography, cultural, history, recorded-books
review:
Engaging read. Provided me with some historical information, insight to the British Royal Family.
]]> 11732634 ��
Dead bodies are showing up in shallow graves on the empty construction lot of Vincent Plum Bail Bonds. No one is sure who the killer is, or why the victims have been offed, but what is clear is that Stephanie’s name is on the killer’s list. Short on time to find the murderer, Stephanie is also under pressure from family and friends to choose between her on-again-off-again boyfriend, Trenton cop Joe Morelli, and the bad boy in her life, security expert Ranger. Stephanie’s mom wants her to dump them both for a former high school football star who’s just returned to town. Stephanie’s sidekick, Lula, suggests a red-hot boudoir “bake-off.�� And Joe’s old-world grandmother gives Stephanie “the eye,�� which may mean that it’s time to get out of town.

With a cold-blooded killer after her, a handful of hot men, and a capture list that includes a dancing bear and a senior citizen vampire, Stephanie’s life looks like it’s about to go up in smoke.]]> 324 Janet Evanovich 0345527704 Judi 0 4.07 2011
author: Janet Evanovich
name: Judi
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at: 2023/03/26
date added: 2023/03/26
shelves: fiction, mystery, beach-read, guilty-pleasure
review:

]]> 534321 887 Mavis Gallant 0679448861 Judi 0 4.44 1996
author: Mavis Gallant
name: Judi
average rating: 4.44
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at: 2023/03/26
date added: 2023/03/26
shelves: fiction, short-stories, literature
review:

]]> 59227941 ��
Filled with the emotional tension and multiple points of view that characterize Elin's books (The Blue Bistro, Golden Girl) as well as an added touch of historical reality, Hotel Nantucket offers something for everyone in this summer drama for the ages.��]]> 416 Elin Hilderbrand 0316258679 Judi 0 audible 4.01 2022
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Judi
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2023/03/26
date added: 2023/03/26
shelves: audible
review:

]]> 17575126 366 Shelley M. Bennett 0873282531 Judi 0 non-fiction 4.47 2013
author: Shelley M. Bennett
name: Judi
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at: 2023/03/26
date added: 2023/03/26
shelves: non-fiction
review:

]]> 5915 277 J.R.R. Tolkien 0261103288 Judi 5 classics, fantasy 4.40 1937
author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: Judi
average rating: 4.40
book published: 1937
rating: 5
read at: 2023/03/26
date added: 2023/03/26
shelves: classics, fantasy
review:

]]> 36217168 Run Time = 2 hours and 45 minutes

Hailed as one of the world's supreme masterpieces on the subject of death and dying, The Death of Ivan Ilyich is the story of a worldly careerist, a high court judge who has never given the inevitability of his death so much as a passing thought. But one day death announces itself to him, and to his shocked surprise he is brought face to face with his own mortality. How, Tolstoy asks, does an unreflective man confront his one and only moment of truth? A thoroughly absorbing and, at times, terrifying glimpse into the abyss of death, it is also a strong testament to the possibility of finding spiritual salvation.]]> Leo Tolstoy Judi 0 to-read 3.92 1886
author: Leo Tolstoy
name: Judi
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1886
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61281738 Three generations of women. Three generations worth of secrets. Will a cache of letters from beyond the grave hold the key to unravelling them all? The answer to that question lies at the heart of this addictive and atmospheric novel from the author of The House of Brides.

Growing up, the Anderson sisters could not have been more different. Susie, the wild one, had an adventurous life while Camilla-- Mills--followed a safer path. When Susie suddenly dies, Mills falls apart. Until she receives a bundle of mysterious letters from her estranged sister to be read in the case of her death. Each letter instructs her to visit a place special to Susie, both to spread her ashes but also to uncover some truths Susie has long kept hidden from her family.

Their mother Margaret has secrets of her own. When living in Swinging Sixties London, she too made a decision about her life that not only haunts her, but will reverberate through the generations.

One family, three very different women. What choices and secrets connect them? In this novel of truth and lies, concealment and regret, Jane Cockram flips the looking glass to expose our true face, revealing the deep lines of deception that can run through families and how the people we love the most often have the most to hide.]]> 320 Jane Cockram 0062939335 Judi 0 to-read, audible 3.73 2022
author: Jane Cockram
name: Judi
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/26
shelves: to-read, audible
review:

]]> 55479339 A Southern story of friendship forged by books and bees, when the timeless troubles of growing up meet the murky shadows of World War II.

Deep in the tobacco land of North Carolina, nothing's been the same since the boys shipped off to war and worry took their place. Thirteen-year-old Lucy Brown is precocious and itching for adventure. Then Allie Bert Tucker wanders into town, an outcast with a puzzling past, and Lucy figures the two of them can solve any curious crime they find―just like her hero, Nancy Drew.

Their chance comes when a man goes missing, a woman stops speaking, and an eccentric gives the girls a mystery to solve that takes them beyond the ordinary. Their quiet town, seasoned with honeybees and sweet tea, becomes home to a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp. More men go missing. And together, the girls embark on a journey to discover if we ever really know who the enemy is.

Lush with Southern atmosphere, All The Little Hopes, is the story of two girls growing up while war creeps closer, blurring the difference between what's right, what's wrong, and what we know to be true]]> 352 Leah Weiss 1728232740 Judi 0 to-read 4.03 2021
author: Leah Weiss
name: Judi
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 23336693
Listening Length: 8 hours and 21 minutes]]> Laila Ibrahim Judi 0 to-read 4.18 2010
author: Laila Ibrahim
name: Judi
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60871959
He isn’t prepared for the resistance. Or for what appears to be a collective unwillingness to answer his questions.

Faced with one roadblock after another, Finn enlists the help of Billi Ellis, the young motel receptionist that everyone in the town seems to like. Maybe she can get them to open up to him. Maybe she can help him make sense of everything he keeps uncovering. Especially the unexpected tie this tragedy appears to have to his own life.

A tie that leads him directly to the old woman who seems to hold the key to everything. The woman everyone avoids…the woman they call “dirty”…the woman who hasn’t spoken a word to anyone since the day the hospital burned.]]> 376 Amy Matayo Judi 0 to-read 4.38 2022
author: Amy Matayo
name: Judi
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61918564 ��
In the hurricane-ravaged bottomlands of South Mississippi, where stores are closing and jobs are few, a fierce zealot has gained a foothold, capitalizing on the vulnerability of a dwindling population and a burning need for hope. As she preaches and promises salvation from the light of the pulpit, in the shadows she sows the seeds of violence.
��
Elsewhere, Jessie and her toddler, Jace, are on the run across the Mississippi/Louisiana line, in a resentful return to her childhood home and her desolate father. Holt, Jace's father, is missing and hunted by a brutish crowd, and an old man witnesses the wrong thing in the depths of night. In only a matter of days, all of their lives will collide, and be altered, in the maelstrom of the changing world.
��
At once elegiac and profound, Salvage This World journeys into the heart of a region growing darker and less forgiving, and asks how we keep going—what do we hold onto—in a land where God has fled.
��
Garden & Gun��Top Reads of 2023�� •�� Bibliolifestyle��Best Literary Fiction of 2023�� �� ��Southern Living��Southern Writers to Read Right Now]]> 272 Michael Farris Smith 0316413631 Judi 0 to-read 3.62 2023
author: Michael Farris Smith
name: Judi
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 75518492
A deliciously funny, sharply observed debut of family, love, and class, this zeitgeisty novel follows three women in one wealthy Brooklyn clan

Darley, the eldest daughter in the well-connected, carefully guarded, old-money Stockton family, followed her heart, trading her job and inheritance for motherhood, sacrificing more of herself than she ever intended. Sasha, middle-class and from New England, has married into the Brooklyn Heights family and finds herself cast as the arriviste outsider, wondering how she might ever understand their WASP-y ways. Georgiana, the baby of the family, has fallen in love with someone she can’t (and really shouldn’t) have and must confront the kind of person she wants to be.

Rife with the indulgent pleasures of life among New York’s one-percenters, Pineapple Street is a smart escapist novel that sparkles with wit. It’s about the peculiar unknowability of someone else’s family, the miles between the haves and have-nots and everything in between, and the insanity of first love.]]> Jenny Jackson Judi 0 to-read 3.40 2023
author: Jenny Jackson
name: Judi
average rating: 3.40
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 22732504 9 Nevil Shute Judi 0 to-read 3.93 1960
author: Nevil Shute
name: Judi
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1960
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 49019963 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof first heated up Broadway in 1955 with its gothic American story of brothers vying for their dying father’s inheritance amid a whirlwind of sexuality, untethered in the person of Maggie the Cat. The play also daringly showcased the burden of sexuality repressed in the agony of her husband, Brick Pollitt. In spite of the public controversy Cat stirred up, it was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the Drama Critics Circle Award for that year. Williams, as he so often did with his plays, rewrote Cat on a Hot Tin Roof for many years—the present version was originally produced at the American Shakespeare Festival in 1974 with all the changes that made Williams finally declare the text to be definitive, and was most recently produced on Broadway in the 2003��2004 season. This definitive edition also includes Williams&rsquoi; essay “Person-to-Person,�� Williams�� notes on the various endings, and a short chronology of the author’s life. One of America’s greatest living playwrights, as well as a friend and colleague of Williams, Edward Albee has written a concise introduction to the play from a playwright’s perspective, examining the candor, sensuality, power, and impact of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof then and now.]]> 3 Tennessee Williams 1987139917 Judi 0 to-read, audible 3.41 1955
author: Tennessee Williams
name: Judi
average rating: 3.41
book published: 1955
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/09
shelves: to-read, audible
review:

]]> 58986872
When Samuel Townsend died at his home in Madison County, Alabama, in November 1856, the fifty-two-year-old white planter left behind hundreds of slaves, thousands of acres of rich cotton land, and a net worth of approximately $200,000. In life, Samuel had done little to distinguish himself from other members of the South's elite slaveholding class. But he made a name for himself in death by leaving almost the entirety of his fortune to his five sons, four daughters, and two nieces: all of them his slaves.

In this deeply researched, movingly narrated portrait of the extended Townsend family, R. Isabela Morales reconstructs the migration of this mixed-race family across the American West and South over the second half of the nineteenth century. Searching for communities where they could exercise their newfound freedom and wealth to the fullest, members of the family homesteaded and attended college in Ohio and Kansas; fought for the Union Army in Mississippi; mined for silver in the Colorado Rockies; and, in the case of one son, returned to Alabama to purchase part of the old plantation where he had once been held as a slave. In Morales's telling, the Townsends' story maps a new landscape of opportunity and oppression, where the meanings of race and freedom--as well as opportunities for social and economic mobility--were dictated by highly local circumstances.

During the turbulent period between the Civil War and the rise of Jim Crow at the turn of the twentieth century, the Townsends carved out spaces where they were able to benefit from their money and mixed-race ancestry, pass down generational wealth, and realize some of their happy dreams of liberty.]]> 336 R. Isabela Morales 0197531792 Judi 4 4.12 2022
author: R. Isabela Morales
name: Judi
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/09
date added: 2023/03/09
shelves:
review:

]]> 24852541
To make the journey into The Power of Now you need to leave your analytical mind and its false created self, the ego, behind. Access to the Now is everywhere - in the body, the silence, and the space all around you. These are the keys to enter a state of inner peace. They can be used to bring you into the Now, the present moment, where problems do not exist. It is here you find your joy and are able to embrace your true self. It is here you discover that you are already complete and perfect.

Although the journey is challenging, Eckhart Tolle offers simple language in a question and answer format. The words themselves are the signposts to guide you on your journey. There are new discoveries to be made along the way: you are not your mind, you can find your way out of psychological pain, authentic human power is found by surrendering to the Now. When you become fully present and accepting of what is, you open yourself to the transforming experience of The Power of Now.

©2000 New World Library]]> Eckhart Tolle Judi 0 to-read 3.96 1997
author: Eckhart Tolle
name: Judi
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61272702
Most folk thought Sallie Kincaid was a nobody who’d amount to nothing. Sallie had other plans.

Sallie Kincaid is the daughter of the biggest man in a small town, the charismatic Duke Kincaid. Born at the turn of the 20th century into a life of comfort and privilege, Sallie remembers little about her mother who died in a violent argument with the Duke. By the time she is just eight years old, the Duke has remarried and had a son, Eddie. While Sallie is her father’s daughter, sharp-witted and resourceful, Eddie is his mother’s son, timid and cerebral. When Sallie tries to teach young Eddie to be more like their father, her daredevil coaching leads to an accident, and Sallie is cast out.

Nine years later, she returns, determined to reclaim her place in the family. That’s a lot more complicated than Sallie expected, and she enters a world of conflict and lawlessness. Sallie confronts the secrets and scandals that hide in the shadows of the Big House, navigates the factions in the family and town, and finally comes into her own as a bold, sometimes reckless bootlegger.

You will fall in love with Sallie Kincaid, a feisty and fearless, terrified and damaged young woman who refuses to be corralled.]]> 368 Jeannette Walls 1501117297 Judi 0 to-read 3.67 2023
author: Jeannette Walls
name: Judi
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 178142 448 Sharyn McCrumb 0451184726 Judi 0 to-read 4.09 1994
author: Sharyn McCrumb
name: Judi
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1994
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 53074297
All that Misty's sister Penny wants to talk about are the strange objects that start appearing outside their trailer. The grown-ups mutter about sins and punishment, but that doesn't scare Misty. Not like the hurtful thing that's been happening to her, the hurtful thing that is becoming part of her. Ever since her neighbor William cornered her in the barn, she must figure out how to get back to the Misty she was before �� the Misty who wasn't afraid to listen.

This is the story of one tough-as-nails girl whose choices are few but whose fight is boundless, as her coping becomes a battle cry for everyone around her. Written by a survivor of sexual abuse, Every Bone a Prayer is a beautifully honest exploration of healing and of hope.]]> 352 Ashley Blooms 1728216214 Judi 0 to-read 3.50 2020
author: Ashley Blooms
name: Judi
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 938212 246 Charles Portis 0879519312 Judi 0 delete 3.83 1979
author: Charles Portis
name: Judi
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1979
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/26
shelves: delete
review:

]]> 59110812 Native Son, who was “one of the most important literary talents of contemporary America�� (The New York Times): After a brutal interrogation convinces him to confess to a crime he didn’t commit, Fred Daniels flees underground in this “blazing literary meteor [that] should land in every collection�� (Booklist).]]> Richard Wright Judi 0 to-read 3.53 2021
author: Richard Wright
name: Judi
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61246753
A literary master across genres, award-winning author Chris Offutt’s latest book, Shifty’s Boys, is a compelling, propulsive thriller that returns to Appalachia.

Mick Hardin is an Army CID officer home on leave, recovering from an IED attack and flirting with prescription painkillers, when a body is found in the center of town. It’s Barney Kissick, the local heroin dealer, and the city police see it as an occupational hazard. But when Barney’s mother, Shifty, asks Mick to take a look, it seems there’s more to the killing than it seems. Mick should be rehabbing his leg, signing his divorce papers, and getting out of town—and most of all, staying out of the way of his sister Linda’s reelection as Sheriff—but he keeps on looking, and suddenly he’s getting shot at himself.

A dark, pacy crime novel about grief and revenge, and the surprises hidden below the surface, Shifty’s Boys is a tour de force that confirms Chris Offutt’s Mick Hardin as one of the most appealing new investigators in fiction.

Listening length: 6 hours, 10 minutes]]> 7 Chris Offutt 166658262X Judi 0 to-read 4.50
author: Chris Offutt
name: Judi
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/02/26
shelves: to-read
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]]> 58091070
When Leslie Jordan learned he had “gone viral,�� he had no idea what that meant or how much his life was about to change. Entertaining millions with his uproarious Instagram videos, he has become beloved around the globe and in this lively and intimate essay collection, Leslie is doing what Leslie does best: telling stories the whole world wants to hear.

Whether he’s writing about his brush with a biker gang in a West Hollywood Starbucks, or an unexpected phone call from the late Debbie Reynolds, Leslie infuses each story with his trademark Southern wit and an emotional resonance sure to touch the heart of every reader.

How Y’all Doing? is an authentic, warm, and joyful portrait of an American Sweetheart.]]> 5 Leslie Jordan Judi 4 4.10 2021
author: Leslie Jordan
name: Judi
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/02/15
date added: 2023/02/15
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review:

]]> 31355608 Length: 11 hours and 11 minutes

Sometimes it is the one who loves you who hurts you the most.

Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up—she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.

Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt. Lily can’t get him out of her head. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his “no dating�� rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place.

As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan—her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.]]> 11 Colleen Hoover Judi 0 to-read 3.84 2016
author: Colleen Hoover
name: Judi
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 69091 272 Heinrich Böll 014018726X Judi 0 to-read 4.08 1963
author: Heinrich Böll
name: Judi
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1963
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61106504
“Kingsolver is a writer who can help us understand and navigate the chaos of these times.��--Minneapolis Star Tribune

From the New York Times bestselling author of Unsheltered and Flight Behavior, a brilliant novel which enthralls, compels, and captures the heart as it evokes a young hero's unforgettable journey to maturity.

”Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose.��

Demon Copperhead is set in the mountains of southern Appalachia. It's the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.

Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind.]]> 22 Barbara Kingsolver Judi 4 audible, historical-fiction 4.34 2022
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Judi
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/02/07
date added: 2023/02/07
shelves: audible, historical-fiction
review:

]]> 9046814
Sidelined by a wartime injury, fighter pilot Alan Duncan reluctantly returns to his parents�� remote sheep station in Australia to take the place of his brother Bill, who died a hero in the war. But his homecoming is marred by the suicide of his parents�� parlormaid, of whom they were very fond. Alan soon realizes that the dead young woman is not the person she pretended to be. Upon discovering that she had served in the Royal Navy and participated along with his brother in the secret build-up to the Normandy invasion, Alan sets out to piece together the tragic events and the lonely burden of guilt that unravelled one woman’s life. In the process of finding the answer to the mystery, he realizes how much he had in common with this woman he never knew and how “a war can go on killing people long after it’s all over.”]]> 258 Nevil Shute Judi 0 to-read 4.19 1955
author: Nevil Shute
name: Judi
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1955
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 59892263 ��
With fires devastating much of America, Lark and his family first leave their home in Maryland for Maine. But as the country increasingly falls under the grip of religious nationalism, it becomes clear that nowhere is safe, not just from physical disasters but also persecution. The family secures a place on a crowded boat headed to Ireland, the last place on earth rumored to be accepting American refugees.
��
Upon arrival, it turns out that the safe harbor of Ireland no longer exists either—and Lark, the sole survivor of the trans-Atlantic voyage, must disappear into the countryside. As he runs for his life, Lark finds two equally lost and desperate souls: one of the last remaining dogs, who becomes his closest companion, and a fierce, mysterious woman in search of her lost son. Together they form a makeshift family and attempt to reach Glendalough, a place they believe will offer protection. But can any community provide the safety that they seek?
��
Lark Ascending is a moving and unforgettable story of friendship and bravery, and even more, a story of the ongoing fight to protect our per­sonal freedoms and find our shared humanity, from a writer at the peak of his powers.]]> 288 Silas House 164375159X Judi 0 to-read 4.12 2022
author: Silas House
name: Judi
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/02/02
shelves: to-read
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]]> 40116878 187 Cassie Dandridge Selleck Judi 0 to-read 4.08 2018
author: Cassie Dandridge Selleck
name: Judi
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/02/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 42772100 🎧Listening Length = 10 hours and 18 minutes

With a voice both humorous and heartfelt, Sean Dietrich—also known as Sean of the South—weaves together a tale about the dignity of humanity and the value of enduring hope.

One child preacher traveling across the plains.

One young woman with a mysterious touch.

Two old friends, their baby, and their bloodhound.

And all the stars that shine above them.

When fifteen-year-old Marigold becomes pregnant amid the Great Depression, she is rejected by her family and forced to fend for herself. And when she loses her baby in the forest, her whole world turns upside down. She’s even more distraught upon discovering she has an inexplicable power that makes her both beautiful and terrifying—and something of a local legend.

Meanwhile, migrant workers Vern and Paul discover a violet-eyed baby and take it upon themselves to care for her. The men soon pair up with a widow and her two children, and the misfit family finds its way in fits and starts toward taking care of each other.

As survival brings one family together, a young boy finds himself with nary a friend to his name as the dust storms rage across Kansas. Fourteen-year-old Coot, a child preacher with a prodigy’s memory, is on the run with thousands of stolen dollars—and the only thing he’s sure of is that Mobile, Alabama, is his destination.

As the years pass and a world war looms, these stories intertwine in surprising ways, reminding us that when the dust clears, we can still see the stars.]]> 352 Sean Dietrich 0785226370 Judi 0 to-read 3.98 2019
author: Sean Dietrich
name: Judi
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/02/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 64651274
Told entirely through the transcripts of Alicia’s psychiatric sessions, Stella Maris is a searching, rigorous, intellectually challenging coda to The Passenger, a philosophical inquiry that questions our notions of God, truth, and existence.]]> 5 Cormac McCarthy Judi 0 to-read 3.81 2022
author: Cormac McCarthy
name: Judi
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 55339007 Viral sensation and Emmy Award-winner Leslie Jordan regales fans with entertaining stories about the odd, funny, and unforgettable events in his life in this unmissable essay collection that echoes his droll, irreverent voice.

When actor Leslie Jordan learned he had “gone viral,�� he had no idea what that meant or how much his life was about to change. On Instagram, his uproarious videos have entertained millions and have made him a global celebrity. Now, he brings his bon vivance to the page with this collection of intimate and sassy essays.

Bursting with color and life, dripping with his puckish Southern charm, How Y’all Doing? is Leslie doing what Leslie does best: telling stories that make us laugh and lift our spirits even in the darkest days. Whether he’s writing about his brush with a group of ruffians in a West Hollywood Starbucks, or an unexpected phone call from legendary Hollywood start Debbie Reynolds, Leslie infuses each story with his fresh and saucy humor and pure heart.

How Y’all Doing? is an authentic, warm, and joyful portrait of an American Sweetheart�� a Southern Baptist celebutante, first-rate raconteur, and keen observer of the odd side of life whose quirky wit rivals the likes of Amy Sedaris, Jenny Lawson, David Rakoff, and Sarah Vowell.]]> 272 Leslie Jordan 0063076195 Judi 0 to-read 4.13 2021
author: Leslie Jordan
name: Judi
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/01/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 45487701 Brilliant Rocket Scientist Killed in Explosion screamed the front-page headline of the Los Angeles Times on June 18, 1952. John Parsons, a maverick rocketeer whose work had helped transform the rocket from a derided sci-fi plotline into a reality, was at first mourned as a tragically young victim of mishandled chemicals. But as reporters dug deeper a shocking story emerged �� Parsons had been performing occult rites and summoning spirits as a follower of Aleister Crowley �� and he was promptly written off as an embarrassment to science.

George Pendle tells Parsons's extraordinary life story. Fueled from childhood by dreams of space flight, Parsons was a crucial innovator during rocketry's birth. But his visionary imagination also led him into the occult community thriving in 1930s Los Angeles, and when fantasy's pull became stronger than reality, he lost both his work and his wife. Parsons was just emerging from his personal underworld when he died at age thirty-seven. In Strange Angel, Pendle recovers a fascinating life and explores the unruly consequences of genius.]]> George Pendle Judi 4 audible, non-fiction, history 3.53 2005
author: George Pendle
name: Judi
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/09
date added: 2023/01/09
shelves: audible, non-fiction, history
review:

]]> 97715
Gaines introduces us to this world through the eyes of guileless children and wizened jailbirds, black tenants and white planters. ��He shows his characters eking out a living and making love, breaking apart aand coming together. ��And on every page he captures the soul of black community whose circumstances make even the slightest assertion of self-respect an act of majestic—and sometimes suicidal—heroism. �� Bloodline ��is a miracle of storytelling.

STORIES

A Long Day in November
The Sky Is Gray
Three Men
Bloodline
Just Like a Tree]]> 249 Ernest J. Gaines 067978165X Judi 0 to-read 4.02 1968
author: Ernest J. Gaines
name: Judi
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1968
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 5736
An all-A student whose dream of going to college is realized when she wins a basketball scholarship, she finally dares to join the NAACP in her junior year. Through the NAACP and later through CORE and SNCC she has first-hand experience of the demonstrations and sit-ins that were the mainstay of the civil rights movement, and the arrests and jailings, the shotguns, fire hoses, police dogs, billy clubs and deadly force that were used to destroy it.

A deeply personal story but also a portrait of a turning point in our nation's destiny, this autobiography lets us see history in the making, through the eyes of one of the footsoldiers in the civil rights movement.]]> 424 Anne Moody 0385337817 Judi 0 to-read 4.12 1968
author: Anne Moody
name: Judi
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1968
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 41448641
Women Talking is an imagined response to these real events. Eight women, all illiterate, without any knowledge of the world outside their colony and unable even to speak the language of the country they live in, meet secretly in a hayloft with the intention of making a decision about how to protect themselves and their daughters from future harm. They have two days to make a plan, while the men of the colony are away in the city attempting to raise enough money to bail out the rapists (not ghosts as it turns out but local men) and bring them home.

How should we live? How should we love? How should we treat one another? How should we organise our societies? These are questions the women in Women Talking ask one another-and Miriam Toews makes them the questions we must all ask ourselves.]]> 0 Miriam Toews Judi 0 to-read 3.60 2018
author: Miriam Toews
name: Judi
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/12/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61293429
Legendary storyteller Stephen King goes deep into the well of his imagination in this spellbinding novel about a seventeen-year-old boy who inherits the keys to a parallel world where good and evil are at war, and the stakes could not be higher—for their world or ours.

Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, great at baseball and football, a decent student. But he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a hit-and-run accident when he was ten, and grief drove his dad to drink. Charlie learned how to take care of himself—and his dad. Then, when Charlie is seventeen, he meets Howard Bowditch, a recluse with a big dog in a big house at the top of a big hill. In the backyard is a locked shed from which strange sounds emerge, as if some creature is trying to escape. When Mr. Bowditch dies, he leaves Charlie the house, a massive amount of gold, a cassette tape telling a story that is impossible to believe, and a responsibility far too massive for a boy to shoulder.

Because within the shed is a portal to another world—one whose denizens are in peril and whose monstrous leaders may destroy their own world, and ours. In this parallel universe, where two moons race across the sky, and the grand towers of a sprawling palace pierce the clouds, there are exiled princesses and princes who suffer horrific punishments; there are dungeons; there are games in which men and women must fight each other to the death for the amusement of the “Fair One.�� And there is a magic sundial that can turn back time.

A story as old as myth, and as startling and iconic as the rest of King’s work, 'Fairy Tale' is about an ordinary guy forced into the hero’s role by circumstance, and it is both spectacularly suspenseful and satisfying.

©2022 Stephen King (P)2022 Simon & Schuster Audio]]> 24 Stephen King Judi 0 to-read 4.03 2022
author: Stephen King
name: Judi
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/12/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 52364456 Pittsburgh Courier and contributed to the NAACP's influential Crisis magazine, is a hilariously insightful treatise on the absurdities of racial identity. Dr. Junius Crookman, a Harlem-based African American physician, mysteriously returns from Germany with a formula that can transform black people into whites. "It looked," Schuyler deadpans, "as though science was to succeed where the Civil War failed." One of the first to enlist Dr. Crookman's services is an insurance salesman named Max Disher, who as the white Matthew Fisher is now free to pursue the white women who once rejected him and otherwise bask in Euro-American social privilege (including a top position in a hate group called the Knights of Nordica). Schuyler unveils the futility of this electro-chemical form of "passing" through the emptiness the Disher/Fisher character encounters in the white cultural world, which doesn't measure up to the Harlem nightlife--revealing the poison behind the notion of wanting to be something you're not. --Eugene Holley Jr.]]> George S. Schuyler 1977322069 Judi 0 to-read 3.60 1931
author: George S. Schuyler
name: Judi
average rating: 3.60
book published: 1931
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/12/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 17238921 Having just celebrated her 26th birthday in 1976 California, Dana, an African-American woman, is suddenly and inexplicably wrenched through time into antebellum Maryland. After saving a drowning white boy there, she finds herself staring into the barrel of a shotgun and is transported back to the present just in time to save her life.
During numerous such time-defying episodes with the same young man, she realizes the challenge she's been given: to protect this young slaveholder until he can father her own great-grandmother.
Author Octavia E. Butler skilfully juxtaposes the serious issues of slavery, human rights, and racial prejudice with an exciting science-fiction, romance, and historical adventure. Kim Staunton's narrative talent magically transforms the listener's earphones into an audio time machine.]]> Octavia E. Butler Judi 5 4.27 1979
author: Octavia E. Butler
name: Judi
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1979
rating: 5
read at: 2022/12/16
date added: 2022/12/16
shelves: historical-fiction, science-fiction, favorites, audible, fiction
review:
Insightful. Perceptive. I am not a fan of science fiction in general. This book is an exception, it involves time travel by a black chick from contemporary (1976) Southern California to early nineteenth century plantation Maryland. The black chick, Dana, is a young, educated writer. She is "summoned" by a distant relative, Rufus, back in time, whenever he is in a life threatening circumstance, which is frequently. Rufus, is the young white son of the plantation owner. The time Dana spends in Maryland helping Rufus passes as months. When Dana returns to contemporary time only a matter of minutes or hours have passed. Dana's experience as an educated contemporary in plantation/slavery times is challenging, to say the least. Challenging on so many levels. Kindred is my first experience of reading any work by Octavia Butler. She was raised in Altadena/Pasadena Ca. and was a fellow student at the same high school I attended. Her work is currently on exhibition at the Huntington Library in Pasadena Ca. Sadly, she passed away in 2006. A gifted writer. I will most definitely read more of her work.
]]> 59478268
��The Maid is a masterful, charming mystery that will touch your heart in ways you could never expect.... This is the smart, quirky, uplifting read we need.�� (Ashley Audrain, number one best-selling author of The Push)

A dead body is one mess she can’t clean up on her own.

Molly Gray is not like everyone else. She struggles with social skills and misreads the intentions of others. Her gran used to interpret the world for her, codifying it into simple rules that Molly could live by.

Since Gran died a few months ago, 25-year-old Molly has been navigating life’s complexities all by herself. No matter - she throws herself with gusto into her work as a hotel maid. Her unique character, along with her obsessive love of cleaning and proper etiquette, make her an ideal fit for the job. She delights in donning her crisp uniform each morning, stocking her cart with miniature soaps and bottles, and returning guest rooms at the Regency Grand Hotel to a state of perfection.

But Molly’s orderly life is upended the day she enters the suite of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find it in a state of disarray and Mr. Black himself dead in his bed. Before she knows what’s happening, Molly’s unusual demeanor has the police targeting her as their lead suspect. She quickly finds herself caught in a web of deception, one she has no idea how to untangle. Fortunately for Molly, friends she never knew she had unite with her in a search for clues to what really happened to Mr. Black. But will they be able to find the real killer before it’s too late?

Both a Clue-like, locked-room mystery and a heartwarming journey of the spirit, The Maid explores what it means to be the same as everyone else and yet entirely different - and reveals that all mysteries can be solved through connection to the human heart.]]> 10 Nita Prose Judi 0 to-read 3.71 2022
author: Nita Prose
name: Judi
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/12/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 18180589 Michon’s exquisite short narratives transport us to the heart of the Middle Ages as witnesses to the double-edged power of belief

This welcome volume brings to English-language readers two beautifully crafted works by the internationally acclaimed French author Pierre Michon. Populated by distant and little-known figures—Irish and French monks, saints, and scientists in Winter Mythologies; Benedictine monks in the Vendée region of France in Abbots—the tales frequently draw on obscure histories and other literary sources.

Michon brings his characters to life in spare, evocative prose. Each, in his or her own way, exemplifies a power of belief that brings about an achievement—or catastrophe—in the real world: monasteries are built upon impossibly muddy wastes, monks acquire the power of speech, lives are taken, books are written, saints are created on the flimsiest of evidence. Michon’s exploration in ancient archives has led him to the discovery of such often deluded figures and their deeds, and his own exceptional powers bestow upon them a renewed life on the written page. This in turn is an example of the power of belief, which for Michon is what makes literature itself possible. Winter Mythologies and Abbots are meant to be read slowly, to be savored, to be mined for the secrets Michon has to tell.]]> 116 Pierre Michon 0300179065 Judi 0 to-read 4.28 2014
author: Pierre Michon
name: Judi
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/12/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 63098167
From the Pulitzer-Prize-winning New York Times reporter who has defined Donald J. Trump's presidency like no other journalist: a magnificent and disturbing reckoning that moves beyond simplistic caricature, chronicling his rise in New York City to his tortured post-presidency and his potential comeback.

Few journalists working today have covered Donald Trump more extensively than Maggie Haberman. And few understand him and his motivations better. Now, demonstrating her majestic command of this story, Haberman reveals in full the depth of her understanding of the 45th president himself, and of what the Trump phenomenon means.

Interviews with hundreds of sources and numerous interviews over the years with Trump himself portray a complicated and often contradictory historical figure. Capable of kindness but relying on casual cruelty as it suits his purposes. Pugnacious. Insecure. Lonely. Vindictive. Menacing. Smarter than his critics contend and colder and more calculating than his allies believe. A man who embedded himself in popular culture, galvanizing support for a run for high office that he began preliminary spadework for 30 years ago, to ultimately become a president who pushed American democracy to the brink.

The through-line of Trump’s life and his presidency is the enduring question of what is in it for him or what he needs to say to survive short increments of time in the pursuit of his own interests.

Confidence Man is also, inevitably, about the world that produced such a singular character, giving rise to his career and becoming his first stage. It is also about a series of relentlessly transactional relationships. The ones that shaped him most were with girlfriends and wives, with Roy Cohn, with George Steinbrenner, with Mike Tyson and Don King and Roger Stone, with city and state politicians like Robert Morgenthau and Rudy Giuliani, with business partners, with prosecutors, with the media, and with the employees who toiled inside what they commonly called amongst themselves the “Trump Disorganization.��

That world informed the one that Trump tried to recreate while in the White House. All of Trump’s behavior as President had echoes in what came before. In this revelatory and newsmaking book, Haberman brings together the events of his life into a single mesmerizing work. It is the definitive account of one of the most norms-shattering and consequential eras in American political history.]]> 597 Maggie Haberman 0593629280 Judi 4 4.10 2022
author: Maggie Haberman
name: Judi
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2022/12/05
date added: 2022/12/05
shelves: audible, biography, non-fiction, politics
review:
This book certainly describes in detail the failing of The Untied States in recent times. Our president, a man raised in the Gilded Era ambiance, privilege, lack of knowledge, a reality show host. Four years and more of major influence by a Barnum & Bailey circus performer. Sigh. Well written. Informative.
]]> 399473

From the Paperback edition.]]> 240 Lee Smith 0345410319 Judi 0 to-read 3.89 1980
author: Lee Smith
name: Judi
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1980
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/12/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60165460 The Grimkes, award-winning historian Kerri Greenidge presents a parallel narrative, indeed a long-overdue corrective, shifting the focus from the white abolitionist sisters to the Black Grimkes and deepening our understanding of the long struggle for racial and gender equality.



That the Grimke sisters had Black relatives in the first place was a consequence of slavery’s most horrific reality. Sarah and Angelina’s older brother, Henry, was notoriously violent and sadistic, and one of the women he owned, Nancy Weston, bore him three sons: Archibald, Francis, and John. While Greenidge follows the brothers�� trials and exploits in the North, where Archibald and Francis became prominent members of the post–Civil War Black elite, her narrative centers on the Black women of the family, from Weston to Francis’s wife, the brilliant intellectual and reformer Charlotte Forten, to Archibald’s daughter, Angelina Weld Grimke, who channeled the family’s past into pathbreaking modernist literature during the Harlem Renaissance.



In a grand saga that spans the eighteenth century to the twentieth and stretches from Charleston to Philadelphia, Boston, and beyond, Greenidge reclaims the Black Grimkes as complex, often conflicted individuals shadowed by their origins. Most strikingly, she indicts the white Grimke sisters for their racial paternalism. They could envision the end of slavery, but they could not imagine Black equality: when their Black nephews did not adhere to the image of the kneeling and eternally grateful slave, they were cruel and relentlessly judgmental—an emblem of the limits of progressive white racial politics.



A landmark biography of the most important multiracial American family of the nineteenth century, The Grimkes suggests that just as the Hemingses and Jeffersons personified the racial myths of the founding generation, the Grimkes embodied the legacy—both traumatic and generative—of those myths, which reverberate to this day.]]> 432 Kerri K. Greenidge 1324090847 Judi 0 to-read 3.75 2022
author: Kerri K. Greenidge
name: Judi
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/11/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 59345249
Vivacious, bright, occasionally vicious, and the ultimate It girl, she quickly pulled Hannah into her dazzling orbit. Together, they developed a group of devoted and inseparable friends—Will, Hugh, Ryan, and Emily—during their first term. By the end of the second, April was dead.

Now, a decade later, Hannah and Will are expecting their first child, and the man convicted of killing April, former Oxford porter John Neville, has died in prison. Relieved to have finally put the past behind her, Hannah’s world is rocked when a young journalist comes knocking and presents new evidence that Neville may have been innocent. As Hannah reconnects with old friends and delves deeper into the mystery of April’s death, she realizes that the friends she thought she knew all have something to hide�� including a murder.

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of One by One returns with an unputdownable mystery following a woman on the search for answers a decade after her friend’s murder.

]]> 423 Ruth Ware 1982155264 Judi 4 audible, mystery, thriller 3.81 2022
author: Ruth Ware
name: Judi
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2022/10/29
date added: 2022/10/29
shelves: audible, mystery, thriller
review:

]]> 59364239
The #1 New York Times bestselling author of the “claustrophobic spine-tingler�� (People) One by One returns with an unputdownable mystery following a woman on the search for answers a decade after her friend’s murder.

April Clarke-Cliveden was the first person Hannah Jones met at Oxford.

Vivacious, bright, occasionally vicious, and the ultimate It girl, she quickly pulled Hannah into her dazzling orbit. Together, they developed a group of devoted and inseparable friends—Will, Hugh, Ryan, and Emily—during their first term. By the end of the year, April was dead.

Now, a decade later, Hannah and Will are expecting their first child, and the man convicted of killing April, former Oxford porter John Neville, has died in prison. Relieved to have finally put the past behind her, Hannah’s world is rocked when a young journalist comes knocking and presents new evidence that Neville may have been innocent. As Hannah reconnects with old friends and delves deeper into the mystery of April’s death, she realizes that the friends she thought she knew all have something to hide…including a murder.]]> Ruth Ware 1668002019 Judi 4 3.60 2022
author: Ruth Ware
name: Judi
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2022/10/27
shelves:
review:

]]> 29097803 272 Susan Fletcher 0349007616 Judi 5 fiction, historical-fiction Jeanne labors at home and meanders, explores the surrounds of the nearby insane asylum. One day she encounters The Dutchman, a painter and inmate at the asylum. She finds him engaging, he addresses her questions, she loves his work. She learns. She learns indeed! She becomes a strong, independent, thinking woman.
My Mom was urged to drop out of high school to pursue labor. She didn't. She attended school and became a devoted nanny to a family with several children. She was expected to marry a local fellow, a high school graduate, settle nearby. Ditto life.
When my Mom graduated from high school the family that she had been a nanny for opted to move to Southern California. She went with them as a nanny. Her whole life changed completely for the best after that. She never looked back.
For me this book is very relatable.

]]> 4.00 2016
author: Susan Fletcher
name: Judi
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2022/10/22
date added: 2022/10/22
shelves: fiction, historical-fiction
review:
Engaging book. Jeanne, the core person in this story, reminds me so much of the story and expectations in my Mom's life. Both strong independent, smart females. Jeanne and my Mom grew up in rural, remote, poor environments. Both Mom and Jeanne as females were not treasured in their families. More of a burden. Having a son born into a family resulted in possible a bit of survival coin and the capacity to address needed family labor.
Jeanne labors at home and meanders, explores the surrounds of the nearby insane asylum. One day she encounters The Dutchman, a painter and inmate at the asylum. She finds him engaging, he addresses her questions, she loves his work. She learns. She learns indeed! She becomes a strong, independent, thinking woman.
My Mom was urged to drop out of high school to pursue labor. She didn't. She attended school and became a devoted nanny to a family with several children. She was expected to marry a local fellow, a high school graduate, settle nearby. Ditto life.
When my Mom graduated from high school the family that she had been a nanny for opted to move to Southern California. She went with them as a nanny. Her whole life changed completely for the best after that. She never looked back.
For me this book is very relatable.


]]> 727281
Crooms's vision of a new Ape Yard, rebuilt by its own residents, unites the four-and puts them on a collision course with Doc Bobo, a smalltown Machiavelli who rules the community like a feudal lord. Jeff Fields's exuberantly defined characters and his firmly rooted sense of place have earned A Cry of Angels an intensely loyal following. Its republication, more than three decades since it first appeared, is cause for celebration.]]> 392 Jeff Fields 0820328480 Judi 0 4.42 1974
author: Jeff Fields
name: Judi
average rating: 4.42
book published: 1974
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/10/22
shelves: currently-reading, fiction, classics, southern-gothic
review:

]]> 54933091
I’ve been in this life for fifty years, been trying to work out its riddle for forty-two, and been keeping diaries of clues to that riddle for the last thirty-five. Notes about successes and failures, joys and sorrows, things that made me marvel, and things that made me laugh out loud. How to be fair. How to have less stress. How to have fun. How to hurt people less. How to get hurt less. How to be a good man. How to have meaning in life. How to be more me.

Recently, I worked up the courage to sit down with those diaries. I found stories I experienced, lessons I learned and forgot, poems, prayers, prescriptions, beliefs about what matters, some great photographs, and a whole bunch of bumper stickers. I found a reliable theme, an approach to living that gave me more satisfaction, at the time, and still: If you know how, and when, to deal with life’s challenges—how to get relative with the inevitable—you can enjoy a state of success I call “catching greenlights.��

So I took a one-way ticket to the desert and wrote this book: an album, a record, a story of my life so far. This is fifty years of my sights and seens, felts and figured-outs, cools and shamefuls. Graces, truths, and beauties of brutality. Getting away withs, getting caughts, and getting wets while trying to dance between the raindrops.

Hopefully, it’s medicine that tastes good, a couple of aspirin instead of the infirmary, a spaceship to Mars without needing your pilot’s license, going to church without having to be born again, and laughing through the tears.

It’s a love letter. To life.

It’s also a guide to catching more greenlights—and to realizing that the yellows and reds eventually turn green too.

Good luck.]]> 8 Matthew McConaughey Judi 5
SECOND LISTEN. I was engaged with Greenlights on my second listen. Truly relatable from my current perspective. I don't know what I expected on my first "listen" . . . . . some sort of magical, Hollywood star like biography. I will concur with my comment on my first review though. Matthew McConaughey does give his audible biography a genuine relatable voice. Glad that I gave Greenlights a second listen. ]]> 4.14 2020
author: Matthew McConaughey
name: Judi
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2022/10/02
date added: 2022/10/02
shelves:
review:
I am glad that I opted to the audible version of this book. Matthew MConaughey truly gives this biography a voice! The contents . . . . mediocre, satisfactory. Likely as engaging as my biography would be should I write one.

SECOND LISTEN. I was engaged with Greenlights on my second listen. Truly relatable from my current perspective. I don't know what I expected on my first "listen" . . . . . some sort of magical, Hollywood star like biography. I will concur with my comment on my first review though. Matthew McConaughey does give his audible biography a genuine relatable voice. Glad that I gave Greenlights a second listen.
]]> 55844037 In Kentucky, back in 1933, Carol's daddy lost his 13-year-old daughter in a game of cards. Award-winning author Simon Van Booy's spellbinding novel spans decades as he tells the story of Carol and the people in her life. Incidents intersect and lives unexpectedly change course in this masterfully interwoven story of chance and choice that leads home again to a night blessed with light.



"What you give in this world," an old man tells his grandson, "will be given back to you." Those words illuminate the actions within this unforgettable novel and its connected characters. A young man survives two nearly fatal accidents. A Black family saves an orphaned white boy. A pregnant teenager is rescued by the side of the road. An autistic teenager is given his first job. Each incident grows in meaning and power over many decades as we see connections sometimes felt but not always apparent to the people themselves. "Everything was moving," observes Samuel (Carol's grandson) in the Kentucky woods. "An invisible force that was everywhere, and made everything touch."

Told by a master storyteller, Night Came with Many Stars is a rare novel that reveals how wondrous, mysterious, and magically connected life can be--the light Simon Van Booy creates in this novel illuminates our own lives.]]> 248 Simon Van Booy 1567927033 Judi 0 to-read 3.96 2021
author: Simon Van Booy
name: Judi
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/09/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 35663633 National Book Award finalist
Best book of 2018: Kirkus, Southern Living, and NPR Code Switch
Reading the West Book Award winner
Aspen Words Literary Prize longlist
2020 International Dublin Literary Award longlist

Set in rural Oklahoma during the late 1980s, Where the Dead Sit Talking is a startling, authentically voiced and lyrically written Native American coming-of-age story.

With his single mother in jail, Sequoyah, a fifteen-year-old Cherokee boy, is placed in foster care. Literally and figuratively scarred by his mother’s years of substance abuse, Sequoyah keeps mostly to himself, living with his emotions pressed deep below the surface. At least until he meets seventeen-year-old Rosemary, a troubled artist who also lives with the family.

Sequoyah and Rosemary bond over their shared Native American background and tumultuous paths through the foster care system, but as Sequoyah’s feelings toward Rosemary deepen, the precariousness of their lives and the scars of their pasts threaten to undo them both.]]> 288 Brandon Hobson 161695888X Judi 0 to-read 3.34 2018
author: Brandon Hobson
name: Judi
average rating: 3.34
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/09/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 55425310 A haunting novel about a black woman who returns to her hometown for a plantation wedding and the horror that ensues as she reconnects with the blood-soaked history of the land and the best friends she left behind.

More than a decade ago, Mira fled her small, segregated hometown in the south to forget. With every mile she traveled, she distanced herself from her past: from her best friend Celine, mocked by their town as the only white girl with black friends; from her old neighborhood; from the eerie Woodsman plantation rumored to be haunted by the spirits of slaves; from the terrifying memory of a ghost she saw that terrible day when a dare-gone-wrong almost got Jesse—the boy she secretly loved—arrested for murder.

But now Mira is back in Kipsen to attend Celine’s wedding at the plantation, which has been transformed into a lush vacation resort. Mira hopes to reconnect with her friends, and especially, Jesse, to finally tell him the truth about her feelings and the events of that devastating long-ago day.

But for all its fancy renovations, the Woodsman remains a monument to its oppressive racist history. The bar serves antebellum drinks, entertainments include horrifying reenactments, and the service staff is nearly all black. Yet the darkest elements of the plantation’s past have been carefully erased—rumors that slaves were tortured mercilessly and that ghosts roam the lands, seeking vengeance on the descendants of those who tormented them, which includes most of the wedding guests.��

As the weekend unfolds, Mira, Jesse, and Celine are forced to acknowledge their history together, and to save themselves from what is to come.]]> 237 LaTanya McQueen 0063035049 Judi 0 to-read 3.67 2021
author: LaTanya McQueen
name: Judi
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/09/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 1109977 224 Charles W. Chesnutt 0140186859 Judi 0 to-read 3.76 1900
author: Charles W. Chesnutt
name: Judi
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1900
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/09/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 38473 In a small Southern town, a white man murders a black man, then throws his body in the weeds. With this act of violence--which is loosely based on the notorious 1955 killing of Emmett Till--James Baldwin launches an unsparing and at times agonizing probe of the wounds of race.

For where once a white storekeeper could have shot a boy like Richard Henry with impunity, times have changed. And centuries of brutality and fear, patronage and contempt, are about to erupt in a moment of truth as devastating as a shotgun blast.

In his award-winning play, Baldwin turns a murder and its aftermath into an inquest in which even the most well-intentioned whites are implicated--and in which even a killer receives his share of compassion.]]> 144 James Baldwin 0679761780 Judi 0 to-read 4.16 1964
author: James Baldwin
name: Judi
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1964
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/09/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 2235484 224 Alain Robbe-Grillet 0394171179 Judi 0 to-read 3.56 1955
author: Alain Robbe-Grillet
name: Judi
average rating: 3.56
book published: 1955
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/09/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 3833584 454 Elmer Kelton 0786220279 Judi 0 to-read 3.75 1978
author: Elmer Kelton
name: Judi
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1978
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/09/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 244261
Bruno Schulz's untimely death at the hands of a Nazi stands as one of the great losses to modern literature. During his lifetime, his work found little critical regard, but word of his remarkable talents gradually won him an international readership. This volume brings together his complete fiction, including three short stories and his final surviving work, Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass. Illustrated with Schulz's original drawings, this edition beautifully showcases the distinctive surrealist vision of one of the twentieth century's most gifted and influential writers.]]> 160 Bruno Schulz 0140186255 Judi 0 to-read 4.18 1933
author: Bruno Schulz
name: Judi
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1933
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/09/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 58339645
To trace the evolution of the American state, Aaron Good takes a deep-politics approach. The term deep state was badly misappropriated during the Trump era. In the simplest sense, it here refers to all those institutions that collectively exercise undemocratic power over state and society. To trace how we arrived at this point, American Exception explores various deep state institutions and history-making interventions.

Key institutions involve the relationships between the overworld of the corporate rich, the underworld of organized crime, and the national security actors that mediate between them. History-making interventions include the toppling of foreign governments, the launching of aggressive wars, and the political assassinations of the 1960s.

In its long history before World War II, the United States had a deep political system, a system of governance in which decision-making and enforcement were carried out within--and outside of--public institutions. It was a system that always included some degree of secretive collusion and law-breaking. After World War II, US elites decided to pursue global dominance over the international capitalist system.

Setting aside the liberal rhetoric, this project was pursued in a manner that was by and large imperialistic rather than progressive. To administer this covert empire, US elites created a massive national security state characterized by unprecedented levels of secrecy and lawlessness. The Global Communist Conspiracy provided a pretext for exceptionism--an endless exception to the rule of law. What gradually emerged after World War II was a tripartite state system of governance. The open democratic state and the authoritarian security state were both increasingly dominated by an American deep state.

Aaron Good concludes by assessing the prospects for a revival of US democracy.]]> 312 Aaron Good 1510769137 Judi 0 to-read 4.40
author: Aaron Good
name: Judi
average rating: 4.40
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/09/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>