en-US Wed, 30 Apr 2025 16:06:44 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 195790594 In this captivating novel of suspense, a wilderness guide must team up with the man who ruined her life years ago when the friend who introduced them goes missing.

Emlyn doesn’t let herself think about the past.

How she and her best friend, Janessa, barely speak anymore. How Tyler, the man she thought was the love of her life, left her freezing and half-dead on the side of the road three years ago.

Her new life is simple and safe. She works as a fishing and hunting guide, spending her days in Idaho’s endless woods and scenic rivers. She lives alone in her Airstream trailer, her closest friends a handsome and kind Forest Service ranger and the community’s makeshift reverend, who took her in at her lowest.

But when Tyler shows up with the news that Janessa is missing, Emlyn is propelled back into the world she worked so hard to forget. Janessa, it turns out, has become a social media star, documenting her #vanlife adventures with her rugged survivalist boyfriend. But she hasn’t posted lately, and when she does, it’s from a completely different location than where her caption claims to be. In spite of their fractured history, Emlyn knows she might be the only one with the knowledge and tracking skills to save her friend, so she reluctantly teams up with Tyler. As the two trace Janessa’s path through miles of wild country, Emlyn can’t deny there’s still chemistry crackling between them. But the deeper they press into the wilderness, the more she begins to suspect that a darker truth lies in the woods―and that Janessa isn’t the only one in danger.

Poignant, suspenseful, and unforgettable, THE NATURE OF DISAPPEARING explores what it takes to start over―and the cost of letting the past pull you back in.]]> 304 Kimi Cunningham Grant 1250907616 Donna 4 3.63 2024
author: Kimi Cunningham Grant
name: Donna
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/30
date added: 2025/04/30
shelves:
review:
Always captivating this author ! She tells intriguing and deep stories ! Mysteries that are truly suspenseful with good character development! Grow your palette and read on!
]]> 218155596 An electrifying new series featuring Irene Rivers (code Wolverine), the unforgettable FBI Director from New York Times bestselling author John Gilstrap’s blockbuster, award-winning Jonathan Grave thrillers. Fans of action-packed page-turners by Catherine Coulter, Patricia Cornwell, and Tess Gerritsen are in for a treat, as Irene escapes the treacherous power games of Washington—only to face a new and equally deadly enemy in a rural West Virginia town . . .

She thought she and her loved ones would be safe here. The lovely farm nestled in the heart of West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle looks like the perfect refuge from the backstabbing maelstrom of DC politics. But this seemingly peaceful new home is anything but safe for former FBI director Rivers and her children.Ěý
Ěý
Troubles begin when Irene’s 12-year-old nephew finds a dead body in a cave on the property. Grim evidence points to a long-ago murder and cover-up.Ěý Powerful forces will do anything—including kill again—to protect their interests. Soon Irene’s family is the target of the kinds of threats and intimidation she’s seen before from major crime syndicates . . . but this time, the enemy determined to tear them down is homegrown.
Ěý
Then comes the attack she most fears. With everything she cares about at risk and an impossible deadline looming, Irene knows she won’t get any help from the local police force. And she’s burned too many bridges in Washington to get help from the FBI. This time, Irene Rivers is on her own.
Ěý
Packed with nail-biting suspense, gripping drama, and searing intrigue, Burned Bridges takes readers into a compelling world of unseen dangers and unexpected heroes.
Ěý]]> 320 John Gilstrap 1496753615 Donna 0 to-read 4.54
author: John Gilstrap
name: Donna
average rating: 4.54
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/28
shelves: to-read
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]]> 220531016
They were just friends. Best friends. Allies. They spent entire summers sitting on Shiloh’s porch steps, dreaming about the future. They were both going to get out of north Omaha—Shiloh would go to college and become an actress, and Cary would join the Navy. They promised each other that their friendship would never change.

Well, Shiloh did go to college, and Cary did join the Navy. And yet, somehow, everything changed.

Now Shiloh’s thirty-three, and it’s been fourteen years since she talked to Cary. She’s been married and divorced. She has two kids. And she’s back living in the same house she grew up in. Her life is nothing like she planned.

When she’s invited to an old friend’s wedding, all Shiloh can think about is whether Cary will be there—and whether she hopes he will be. Would Cary even want to talk to her? After everything?

The answer is yes. And yes. And yes.

Slow Dance is the story of two kids who fell in love before they knew enough about love to recognize it. Two friends who lost everything. Two adults who just feel lost.

It’s the story of Shiloh and Cary, who everyone thought would end up together, trying to find their way back to the start.]]> 400 Rainbow Rowell 006338020X Donna 0 to-read 3.33 2024
author: Rainbow Rowell
name: Donna
average rating: 3.33
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 40617092
When Alice Hale leaves a career in publicity to become a writer and follows her husband to the New York suburbs, she is unaccustomed to filling her days alone in a big, empty house. But when she finds a vintage cookbook buried in a box in the old home’s basement, she becomes captivated by the cookbook’s previous owner�1950s housewife Nellie Murdoch. As Alice cooks her way through the past, she realizes that within the cookbook’s pages Nellie left clues about her life–including a mysterious series of unsent letters penned to her mother.

Soon Alice learns that while baked Alaska and meatloaf five ways may seem harmless, Nellie’s secrets may have been anything but. When Alice uncovers a more sinister–even dangerous–side to Nellie’s marriage, and has become increasingly dissatisfied with the mounting pressures in her own relationship, she begins to take control of her life and protect herself with a few secrets of her own.]]> 336 Karma Brown 1524744948 Donna 0 to-read 3.64 2019
author: Karma Brown
name: Donna
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/27
shelves: to-read
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]]> 75500805 Two women's lives unexpectedly intertwine in this intriguing dual timeline novel from the #1 internationally bestselling author.

A 1970s feminist facing the costs of loss and autonomy strives to create a better future for women at her Adirondacks camp; the other woman, an aspiring screenwriter of today, makes a shocking discovery that sets her on a course of rewriting her own story.

Rowan is stuck. Her dreams of becoming a screenwriter are stalled, along with her bank account, as she and her fiancé, Seth, try to make sense of what's next for them after leaving LA. But when the couple takes a trip to a cabin in the Adirondacks, hoping the change will provide inspiration for Seth's novel-in-progress, Rowan finds herself drawn into a story greater than her own--that of socialite-turned-feminist-crusader Eddie Calloway, who vanished one day in 1975 and was never found or heard from again. In a handbook left behind in the abandoned ruins of a once-great camp, Rowan learns more about the enigmatic Eddie, and clues as to what happened to her.

As Rowan delves deeper into the mystery, we meet Eddie herself, a fierce and loving woman whose greatest wish was to host women at her camp and unlock their "wildness." However, Eddie's wild ways aren't welcomed by everyone, and rifts between camp owners threaten her mission. When Rowan gets closer to the truth of Eddie's disappearance, she realizes that it may hold the key to unlocking her own ambition and future.]]> 320 Karma Brown 0593186354 Donna 0 to-read 3.73 2023
author: Karma Brown
name: Donna
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/27
shelves: to-read
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]]> 17245 You can find an alternative cover edition for this ISBN here and here.

When Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to help Count Dracula with the purchase of a London house, he makes a series of horrific discoveries about his client. Soon afterwards, various bizarre incidents unfold in England: an apparently unmanned ship is wrecked off the coast of Whitby; a young woman discovers strange puncture marks on her neck; and the inmate of a lunatic asylum raves about the 'Master' and his imminent arrival.

In Dracula, Bram Stoker created one of the great masterpieces of the horror genre, brilliantly evoking a nightmare world of vampires and vampire hunters and also illuminating the dark corners of Victorian sexuality and desire.

This Norton Critical Edition includes a rich selection of background and source materials in three areas: Contexts includes probable inspirations for Dracula in the earlier works of James Malcolm Rymer and Emily Gerard. Also included are a discussion of Stoker's working notes for the novel and "Dracula's Guest," the original opening chapter to Dracula. Reviews and Reactions reprints five early reviews of the novel. "Dramatic and Film Variations" focuses on theater and film adaptations of Dracula, two indications of the novel's unwavering appeal. David J. Skal, Gregory A. Waller, and Nina Auerbach offer their varied perspectives. Checklists of both dramatic and film adaptations are included.

Criticism collects seven theoretical interpretations of Dracula by Phyllis A. Roth, Carol A. Senf, Franco Moretti, Christopher Craft, Bram Dijkstra, Stephen D. Arata, and Talia Schaffer.

A Chronology and a Selected Bibliography are included.]]> 488 Bram Stoker 0393970124 Donna 0 to-read 4.02 1897
author: Bram Stoker
name: Donna
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1897
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/27
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]]> 46000520
But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves.

Can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer before it's too late?

Alternate cover edition can be found here .]]> 382 Richard Osman Donna 0 to-read 3.87 2020
author: Richard Osman
name: Donna
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/27
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]]> 218559595 Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger-than-life story of a woman with more than a couple of plot twists up her sleeve in this dazzling and sweeping new novel from Emily Henry.

Alice Scott is an eternal optimist still dreaming of her big writing break. Hayden Anderson is a Pulitzer-prize winning human thundercloud. And they’re both on balmy Little Crescent Island for the same reason: To write the biography of a woman no one has seen in years--or at least to meet with the octogenarian who claims to be the Margaret Ives. Tragic heiress, former tabloid princess, and daughter of one of the most storied (and scandalous) families of the 20th Century.

When Margaret invites them both for a one-month trial period, after which she’ll choose the person who’ll tell her story, there are three things keeping Alice’s head in the game.

One: Alice genuinely likes people, which means people usually like Alice—and she has a whole month to win the legendary woman over.

Two: She’s ready for this job and the chance to impress her perennially unimpressed family with a Serious Publication

Three: Hayden Anderson, who should have no reason to be concerned about losing this book, is glowering at her in a shaken-to-the core way that suggests he sees her as competition.

But the problem is, Margaret is only giving each of them pieces of her story. Pieces they can’t swap to put together because of an ironclad NDA and an inconvenient yearning pulsing between them every time they’re in the same room.

And it’s becoming abundantly clear that their story—just like the tale Margaret’s spinning—could be a mystery, tragedy, or love ballad…depending on who’s telling it.]]> 432 Emily Henry Donna 0 to-read 4.18 2025
author: Emily Henry
name: Donna
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/26
shelves: to-read
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]]> 62080187
But when they visit the remote manor that once belonged to Dr. Adrienne Hale, a renowned psychiatrist who vanished without a trace four years earlier, a violent winter storm traps them at the estate� with no chance of escape until the blizzard comes to an end.

In search of a book to keep her entertained until the snow abates, Tricia happens upon a secret room. One that contains audio transcripts from every single patient Dr. Hale has ever interviewed. As Tricia listens to the cassette tapes, she learns about the terrifying chain of events leading up to Dr. Hale’s mysterious disappearance.

Tricia plays the tapes one by one, late into the night. With each one, another shocking piece of the puzzle falls into place, and Dr. Adrienne Hale’s web of lies slowly unravels.

And then Tricia reaches the final cassette.

The one that reveals the entire horrifying truth.]]> 286 Freida McFadden Donna 3 Book! This author is a popular one but I prefer a more intriguing mystery read with a broader lean and deeper development. ]]> 4.09 2022
author: Freida McFadden
name: Donna
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/26
date added: 2025/04/26
shelves:
review:
A good read ! Good ending and a bit of a comical
Book! This author is a popular one but I prefer a more intriguing mystery read with a broader lean and deeper development.
]]> 12527 288 Annie Dillard 0072434171 Donna 0 to-read 4.08 1974
author: Annie Dillard
name: Donna
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1974
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 218155604 In this uplifting series debut, forgiveness and unlikely friendship blossom in the haven of a quiet lakeside town when two very different women bond over one man’s betrayals.

Marlow Heddings is starting over. She’s carried the outrage of her husband Dylan’s affair with a younger woman—and the expectations of his family’s powerful Chicago holdings company—long enough. Now, after another devastating twist of fate, she’s unapologetically moving on.

Arriving in tiny Bramble, Kentucky, Marlow revels in her freedom, swapping her executive suits for sundresses . . . and scouting places to open her dream boutique. Best of all is her new residence, an adorable cottage with gorgeous lake views—and a breathtaking landlord, former Marine Cort Easton. Soon they’re sharing dockside morning coffee and nighttime firefly gazing. Marlow’s new life feels like a dream.

Then Pixie Nolan arrives on her doorstep. With a shocking secret.

To Marlow’s astonishment, Dylan’s “other woman� is a desperate girl of nineteen, destitute, exhausted, and disowned by her family. Defying her manipulative in-laws� demands, and surprising even herself, Marlow vows to lay down roots in Bramble and help Pixie get on her feet. Then they’ll part ways. But empathy has a way of forging bonds. As Marlow grows close to the hard-working, devoted young woman, she becomes something of a big sister to Pixie.

Now, with each sunrise, Marlow awakens to the life she was truly meant to live, one filled with deepening connections, supportive friendship . . . and even a second chance at love.]]> 304 Lori Foster 149675235X Donna 0 to-read 4.50 2025
author: Lori Foster
name: Donna
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/25
shelves: to-read
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]]> 223927246 Three estranged siblings return to their family home in New York after their beloved sister's death in this unforgettable story of grief, identity, and the complexities of family.

The three Blue sisters are exceptional—and exceptionally different. Avery, the eldest and a recovering heroin addict turned strait-laced lawyer, lives with her wife in London; Bonnie, a former boxer, works as a bouncer in Los Angeles following a devastating defeat; and Lucky, the youngest, models in Paris while trying to outrun her hard-partying ways. They also had a fourth sister, Nicky, whose unexpected death left Avery, Bonnie, and Lucky reeling. A year later, as they each navigate grief, addiction, and ambition, they find they must return to New York to stop the sale of the apartment they were raised in.

But coming home is never as easy as it seems. As the sisters reckon with the disappointments of their childhood and the loss of the only person who held them together, they realize the greatest secrets they've been keeping might not have been from each other, but from themselves.]]> 368 Coco Mellors 0593723783 Donna 0 to-read 3.80 2024
author: Coco Mellors
name: Donna
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 221544394 The first thrilling mystery in the new North Falls series from Karin Slaughter, New York Times bestselling author of Pretty Girls and the Will Trent series.

Welcome to North Falls—a small town where everyone knows everyone. Or so they think.

Until the night of the fireworks. When two teenage girls vanish, and the town ignites.

For Officer Emmy Clifton, it’s personal. She turned away when her best friend's daughter needed help—and now she must bring her home.

But as Emmy combs through the puzzle the girls left behind, she realizes she never really knew them. Nobody did.

Every teenage girl has secrets. But who would kill for them? And what else is the town hiding?]]> 448 Karin Slaughter 0063336774 Donna 0 to-read 4.39 2025
author: Karin Slaughter
name: Donna
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 25402194
Travis Parker has everything a man could want: a good job, loyal friends, even a waterfront home in small-town North Carolina. In full pursuit of the good life - boating, swimming , and regular barbecues with his good-natured buddies -- he holds the vague conviction that a serious relationship with a woman would only cramp his style. That is, until Gabby Holland moves in next door. Spanning the eventful years of young love, marriage and family, THE CHOICE ultimately confronts us with the most heartwrenching question of all: how far would you go to keep the hope of love alive?]]> 325 Nicholas Sparks Donna 0 to-read 4.01 2007
author: Nicholas Sparks
name: Donna
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 10441 401 Kim Edwards 0143037145 Donna 0 to-read 3.70 2005
author: Kim Edwards
name: Donna
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60279823 Dreamland is a love story about risking everything for a dream—and whether it’s possible to leave the past behind.

Colby Mills once felt destined for a musical career, until tragedy grounded his aspirations. Now the head of a small family farm in North Carolina, he spontaneously takes a gig playing at a bar in St. Pete’s Beach, Florida, seeking a rare break from his duties at home.

But when he meets Morgan Lee, his world is turned upside-down, making him wonder if the responsibilities he has shouldered need dictate his life forever. The daughter of affluent Chicago doctors, Morgan has graduated from a prestigious college music program with the ambition to move to Nashville and become a star. Romantically and musically, she and Colby complete each other in a way that neither has ever known.

While they are falling headlong in love, Beverly is on a heart-pounding journey of another kind. Fleeing an abusive husband with her six-year-old son, she is trying to piece together a life for them in a small town far off the beaten track. With money running out and danger seemingly around every corner, she makes a desperate decision that will rewrite everything she knows to be true.

In the course of a single unforgettable week, two young people will navigate the exhilarating heights and heartbreak of first love. Hundreds of miles away, Beverly will put her love for her young son to the test. And fate will draw all three people together in a web of life-altering connections . . . forcing each to wonder whether the dream of a better life can ever survive the weight of the past.]]> 367 Nicholas Sparks 059344955X Donna 4 Tears at the end !]]> 3.82 2022
author: Nicholas Sparks
name: Donna
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/22
date added: 2025/04/22
shelves:
review:
Wow what a great ending ! I did not care for the romance though -too predictable and overly sweet.
Tears at the end !
]]> 222156751 Wildly witty and wickedly fun,ĚýAĚýKiller WeddingĚýis a juicy debut whodunit about toxic family dynamics hidden beneath the surface of billionaire-level wealth that reads likeĚýThe Devil Wears PradaĚýprotagonist played a game of Clue at a White Lotus Hotel.

Christine can’t believe her luck. The iconic Gloria Beaufort, founder of the billion-dollar beauty empire Glo, has personally chosen her to cover her grandson’s wedding forĚýBespoke, the cult fashion magazine that every A-list bride dreams of being featured in. A career-making scoop and a free trip to a castle turned five-star hotel on the Emerald Isle? It feels too good to be trueâ€�

Because it is.

Gloria is found dead on the very first morning of the celebratory weekend, and her entire family wants to keep her death a secret and for the wedding to march on. When Gloria’s heirs issue a chilling warning to Christine to keep things quiet, she can’t help but wonder if one of them is guilty. There’s the son who’s hiding a damaging lawsuit; the resentful daughter-in-law; the grandson who’s had a few too many run-ins with the law; the ambitious granddaughter who’s hiding more than one secret; and Gloria’s favorite grandchild, the too-good-to-be-true groom. As Christine navigates a world where glamour masks grimy secrets and everyone she meets is a suspect, she realizes that among this glitzy elite, nothing is as it seems.

Set against the dazzling backdrop of ultimate luxury and an endless reveal of surprises,ĚýA Killer WeddingĚýis a fast-paced, humorous mystery that proves you’ll never forget your wedding day…especially if it starts with a murder.]]> 336 Joan O'Leary 0063432218 Donna 0 to-read 4.55
author: Joan O'Leary
name: Donna
average rating: 4.55
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/21
shelves: to-read
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]]> 222376948 From the New York Times and National Jewish Book Award winning author of Eli’s Promise and A Place to Hide: a gripping novel of bravery, betrayal, exile, and hope set in World War II Budapest

At the end of 1943, nearly all of Europe’s Jewish population had been deported, captured or killed by Hitler, or had fled; only Hungary retained almost 800,000 Jews. They lived under edicts and restrictions, but without fear of being murdered. That changed in March 1944, after the Nazi defeat at Stalingrad, as a desperate Hitler accelerated his plan for mass extermination.

With the notorious Adolf Eichmann supervising the process, Hungary began rounding up its Jewish population. In this dramatic new novel by Ronald H. Balson, US State department diplomat Teddy Hartigan and his wife Julia set out to rescue as many people as they can. Working with the newly-formed War Review Board, diplomats from neutral nations, and underground resistance groups, Teddy and Julia make contact with Swedish businessman Raoul Wallenberg. Wallenberg’s connections and skills make him the perfect candidate to work within the complex networks of public and secret diplomacy, as he, Teddy, Julia, and others take enormous risks to save tens of thousands of lives.

Authentic, suspenseful, and deeply moving, The Righteous continues Ron Balson’s fictional exploration of World War II and the heroic actions of those who resisted Hitler’s Master Plan.]]> 304 Ronald H. Balson 1250373085 Donna 0 to-read 0.0
author: Ronald H. Balson
name: Donna
average rating: 0.0
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/21
shelves: to-read
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]]> 210137725
Do you notice that even when your body is not moving, your mind is racing? InĚýPresent in Prayer, award-winning author Jennifer Tucker invites you to allow the Holy Spirit to speak through God's Word and renew your mind through the practice of Christian meditation. As she did with her first book,ĚýBreath as Prayer, Tucker keeps this beautifully illustrated book deep yet accessible. Each of the 30 meditations offersâ€�

A gentle call to silence, an opening prayer, and a thoughtful reflection on a Bible verseGuided meditation on Scripture using the centuries-old practice of lectio divina—the traditional practice of Bible reading, meditation, and prayer intended to promote closeness with God and increase knowledge of God's WordA prayer of surrender and prompts for how to live out the truths God is speaking to youĚý

With a beautiful foil-accented cover and full-color original illustrations throughout,ĚýPresent in PrayerĚýis an ideal gift

Anyone experiencing stress, anxiety, or overwhelming thoughtsThose who want to establish a more regular prayer practicePrayer groups and prayer ministriesĚý

You're not in a race. You're on a journey.ĚýPresent in PrayerĚýwill lead you to a more purposeful and peaceful prayer life and greater intimacy with God as you focus your thoughts on His Word.]]> 215 Jennifer Tucker 1400247926 Donna 0 to-read 4.50
author: Jennifer Tucker
name: Donna
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/20
shelves: to-read
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]]> 4912 Angela's Ashes, has been loved and celebrated by readers everywhere for its spirit, its wit and its profound humanity. A tale of redemption, in which storytelling itself is the source of salvation, it won the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Rarely has a book so swiftly found its place on the literary landscape.
And now we have 'Tis, the story of Frank's American journey from impoverished immigrant to brilliant teacher and raconteur. Frank lands in New York at age nineteen, in the company of a priest he meets on the boat. He gets a job at the Biltmore Hotel, where he immediately encounters the vivid hierarchies of this "classless country," and then is drafted into the army and is sent to Germany to train dogs and type reports. It is Frank's incomparable voice -- his uncanny humor and his astonishing ear for dialogue -- that renders these experiences spellbinding.
When Frank returns to America in 1953, he works on the docks, always resisting what everyone tells him, that men and women who have dreamed and toiled for years to get to America should "stick to their own kind" once they arrive. Somehow, Frank knows that he should be getting an education, and though he left school at fourteen, he talks his way into New York University. There, he falls in love with the quintessential Yankee, long-legged and blonde, and tries to live his dream. But it is not until he starts to teach -- and to write -- that Frank finds his place in the world. The boy in Angela's Ashes comes of age.
As Malcolm Jones said in his Newsweek review of Angela's Ashes, "It is only the best storyteller who can so beguile his readers that he leaves them wanting more when he is done...and McCourt proves himself one of the very best." Frank McCourt's 'Tis is one of the most eagerly awaited books of our time, and it is a masterpiece.]]> 495 Frank McCourt 0006551815 Donna 4 3.73 1999
author: Frank McCourt
name: Donna
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/18
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves:
review:
Good entertaining read -loved the stories of the poor Irish; significant references regarding American society in 70’s and earlier; nice reminders for me about the ways of the Irish!
]]> 107426 250 Jill Ker Conway 0679744614 Donna 3 3.88
author: Jill Ker Conway
name: Donna
average rating: 3.88
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2021/09/20
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves:
review:
Interesting memoir and a good read for those liking women’s history. It was a learned experience reading her reflections on her professional path in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
]]> 223541023 #1 bestselling author Elin Hilderbrand teams up with her daughter, Shelby Cunningham, to deliver a dishy, page-turning novel following an intertwined cast of characters over the course of one drama-filled year at a New England boarding school.

It’s move-in day at Tiffin Academy and amidst the happy chaos of friends reuniting, selfies uploading, and cars unloading, shocking news America Today just ranked Tiffin the number two boarding school in the country. It’s a seventeen-spot jump � was there a typo? The dorms need to be renovated, their sports teams always come in last place, and let’s just say Tiffin students are known for being more social than academic. On the other hand, the campus is exquisite, class sizes are small, and the dining hall is run by an acclaimed New York chef. And they do have fun—lots of parties and school dances, and a piano man plays in the student lounge every Monday night.

But just as the rarefied air of Tiffin is suffused with self-congratulation, the wheels begin to turn � and then they fall off the bus. One by one, scandalous blind items begin to appear on phones across Tiffin’s campus, thanks to a new app called ZipZap, and nobody is safe. From Davi Banerjee, international influencer and resident queen bee, to Simone Bergeron, the new and surprisingly young history teacher, to Charley Hicks, a transfer student who seems determined not to fit in, to Cordelia Spooner, Admissions Director with a somewhat idiosyncratic methodology � everyone has something to hide.

As if high school wasn’t dramatic enough...As the year unfolds, bonds are forged and broken, secrets are shared and exposed, and the lives of Tiffin’s students and staff are changed forever. The Academy is Elin Hilderbrand’s fresh, buzzy take on boarding school life, and a thrilling new direction from one of America’s most satisfying and popular storytellers.]]> 432 Elin Hilderbrand 031656785X Donna 0 to-read 4.04
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Donna
average rating: 4.04
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/15
shelves: to-read
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]]> 198902277 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781250899576.

A propulsive and uncommonly wise novel about one unexpected wedding guest and the surprising people who help her start anew.

It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She's immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamed of coming for years—she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe's plan—which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in each other.

In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined—and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.]]> 384 Alison Espach Donna 0 to-read 4.11 2024
author: Alison Espach
name: Donna
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/14
shelves: to-read
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]]> 204316858 A shocking and revelatory account of the murder of Emmett Till that lays bare how forces from around the world converged on the Mississippi Delta in the long lead-up to the crime, and how the truth was erased for so long. Wright Thompson’s family farm in Mississippi is 23 miles from the site of one of the most notorious and consequential killings in American history, yet he had to leave the state for college before he learned the first thing about it. To this day, fundamental truths about the crime are widely unknown, including where it took place and how many people were involved. This is no the cover-up began at once, and it is ongoing.ĚýIn August 1955, two men, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, were charged with the torture and murder of the 14-year-old Emmett Till in Money, Mississippi.ĚýAfter their inevitable acquittal in a mockery of justice, they gave a false confession to a journalist, which was misleading about where the long night of hell took place and who was involved.ĚýIn fact, Wright Thompson reveals, at least nine people can be placed at the scene, which was inside the barn of one of the killers, on a plot of land within the six-square-mile grid whose official name is Township 22 North, Range 4 West, Section 2, West Half, fabled in the Delta of myth as the birthplace of the blues on nearby Dockery Plantation. Even in the context of the brutal caste regime of the time, the four-hour torture and murder of a boy barely in his teens for whistling at a young white woman was acutely depraved; Till’s mother Mamie Till-Mobley’s decision to keep the casket open seared the crime indelibly into American consciousness. Wright Thompson has a deep understanding of this story—the world of the families of both Emmett Till and his killers, and all the forces that aligned to place them together on that spot on the map.ĚýAs he shows, the full horror of the crime was its inevitability, and how much about it we still need to understand. Ultimately this is a story about property, and money, and power.ĚýIt implicates all of us.ĚýIn The Barn, Thompson befriends the few people who have been engaged in the hard, fearful business of bringing the truth to light, people like Wheeler Parker, Emmett Till’s friend, who came down from Chicago with him that summer, and is the last person alive to know him well.ĚýWheeler Parker’s journey to put the killing floor of the barn on the map of Township 22 North, Range 4 West, Section 2, West Half, and the Delta, and America, is a journey we all need to go on if this country is to heal from its oldest, deepest wound.]]> 448 Wright Thompson 0593299825 Donna 0 to-read 4.36 2024
author: Wright Thompson
name: Donna
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: to-read
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]]> 36387423 125 Matthew Kelly 1929266952 Donna 3 Hope ]]> 4.20
author: Matthew Kelly
name: Donna
average rating: 4.20
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/07
date added: 2025/04/07
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review:
A nice little book of
Hope
]]> 217420633 Book Lovers meets Notting Hill with a slice of You've Got Mail in Wish You Were Her, the brand new rivals-to-lovers romance from bestselling, award-winning Elle McNicoll.

18-year-old Allegra Brooks has skyrocketed to fame after starring in a hit television show, and she's the overnight success that everyone's talking about. They just don't know she's autistic. Now, all she wants is a normal teenage summer.

Her destination for escape is the remote Lake Pristine and its annual Book Festival, organized by the dedicated but unfriendly senior bookseller, Jonah Thorne.

In small towns like Lake Pristine, misunderstandings abound, and before long the two are drawn into high-profile hostility that's a far cry from the drama-free holiday Allegra was craving. Thank goodness for her saving the increasingly personal emails she's been sharing with a charming and anonymous bookseller who is definitely not Jonah Thorne . . .

An unforgettable romcom about finding the one person who makes you feel yourself when the whole world is watching.

Praise for Elle McNicoll's Some Like it Cold:

'A clever, poignant and healing love story . . . Some Like It Cold is a heartfelt romance that is sweeping in its scope and tender in its emotional depth. McNicoll has crafted a powerful ode to love in all its of community, of home and of ourselves � as well as the genre of romance itself.' -- Bea Fitzgerald, author of Girl, Goddess, Queen

'I utterly adored this book! Some Like it Cold is a warm, wonderful winter romance to cosy up with - brilliant characters, sizzling chemistry, and so full of heart, Elle has written a truly gorgeous book that’s a must-read.'-- Beth Reekles, author of The Kissing Booth

'As much an ode to the history of the romance genre as a classic yet modern love story in its own right. Achingly honest and heartfelt, this is McNicoll at her best. It is quite literally my favourite romance novel of all time.' -- Lizzie Huxley-Jones, author of Make You Mine this Christmas

'McNicoll delivers a breathtaking story of love and joy that will keep the reader hooked until the very last page. It was such a pleasure being immersed in Jasper's world.'-- Anika Hussain, author of This Is How You Fall In Love

'A sweet will-they-won't-they rom-com set in a small town, dealing with autism, grief, love and being comfortable in your own skin. This is a cosy, heartwarming wintery romance. -- Abiola Bello, author of Only for the Holidays]]> 352 Elle McNicoll 1250335582 Donna 0 to-read 3.97
author: Elle McNicoll
name: Donna
average rating: 3.97
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: to-read
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]]> 783291 The Lovely Bones and Lucky.

For years Helen Knightly has given her life to others: to her haunted mother, to her enigmatic father, to her husband and now grown children. When she finally crosses a terrible boundary, her life comes rushing in at her in a way she never could have imagined. Unfolding over the next twenty-four hours, this searing, fast-paced novel explores the complex ties between mothers and daughters, wives and lovers, the meaning of devotion, and the line between love and hate.

It is a challenging, moving, gripping story, written with the fluidity and strength of voice that only Alice Sebold can bring to the page.]]> 295 Alice Sebold 0316677469 Donna 4 2.71 2007
author: Alice Sebold
name: Donna
average rating: 2.71
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/01
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves:
review:
Interesting read-I thought it would be more of a reflection of a mother daughter relationship but it was more of a read on family relationships which lead to a few mentally challenging decisions. I love this author and the read kept my interest but a bit surprised at the family dynamic storyline
]]> 215149250 ODDER, a New York Times bestseller for over a year, this picture book follows Odder's rescue and subsequent new role as a mentor to other rescued otter pups.]]> 40 Katherine Applegate 1250323592 Donna 0 to-read 4.83
author: Katherine Applegate
name: Donna
average rating: 4.83
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: to-read
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]]> 216818681
Over the fifty years that Lorne Michaels has been at the helm of Saturday Night Live, he has become a revered, inimitable, and bewildering presence in the entertainment world. He’s a tastemaker, a mogul, a withholding father figure, a genius spotter of talent, a shrewd businessman, a name-dropper, a raconteur, the inspiration for Dr. Evil, the winner of more than a hundred Emmys—and, essentially, a mystery. Generations of writers and performers have spent their lives trying to figure him out, by turns demonizing and lionizing him. He’s “Obi-Wan Kenobi� (Tracy Morgan), the “great and powerful Oz� (Kate McKinnon), or “some kind of very distant, strange comedy god� (Bob Odenkirk).

Lorne will introduce you to him, in full, for the first time. With unprecedented access to Michaels and the entire SNL apparatus, Susan Morrison takes readers behind the curtain for the lively, up-and-down, definitive story of how Michaels created and maintained the institution that changed comedy forever.

Drawn from hundreds of interviews—with Michaels, his friends, and SNL’s iconic stars and writers, from Will Ferrell to Tina Fey to John Mulaney to Chris Rock to Dan Aykroyd�Lorne is a deeply reported, wildly entertaining account of a man singularly obsessed with the show that would define his life—and have a profound impact on American culture.]]> 656 Susan Morrison 0812988876 Donna 0 to-read 4.20 2025
author: Susan Morrison
name: Donna
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/27
shelves: to-read
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]]> 229004506 #1 New York Times bestselling author John Grisham is the acclaimed master of the legal thriller. Now, he’s back with his first-ever whodunit, even more suspenseful than his courtroom dramas, as a small-time lawyer accused of murder races to find the real killer to clear his name.

Simon Latch is a lawyer in rural Virginia, making just enough to pay his bills while his marriage slowly falls apart. Then into his office walks Eleanor Barnett, an elderly widow in need of a new will. Apparently, her husband left her a small fortune, and no one knows about it.

Once he hooks the richest client of his career, Simon works quietly to keep her wealth under the radar. But soon her story begins to crack. When she is hospitalized after a car accident, Simon realizes that nothing is as it seems, and he finds himself on trial for a crime he swears he didn’t murder.

Simon knows he’s innocent. But he also knows the circumstantial evidence is against him, and he could spend the rest of his life behind bars. To save himself, he must find the real killer�.]]> 416 John Grisham 0385548982 Donna 0 to-read 4.50 2025
author: John Grisham
name: Donna
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 25813908 A broken man. A twist of fate. A second chance. The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Mistletoe Promise and The Walk begins a riveting new trilogy that explores the tantalizing question: What if you could start over?

Chicago celebrity Charles James can’t shake the nightmare that wakes him each night. He sees himself walking down a long, broken highway lined in flames. Where is he going? Why is he walking? What is the wailing he hears around him?

By day, he wonders why he’s so haunted and unhappy when he has all he ever wanted—fame, fans, and fortune and the lavish lifestyle it affords him. Coming from a childhood of poverty and pain, this is what he’s dreamed of. But now, at the pinnacle of his career, he’s started to wonder if he’s wanted the wrong things. His wealth has come legally, but questionably, from the power of his personality, seducing people out of their hard-earned money. When he learns that one of his customers has committed suicide because of financial ruin, Charles is shaken. The cracks in his façade start to break down, spurring him to question everything: his choices, his relationships, his future, and the type of man he’s become.

Then a twist of fate changes everything. Charles is granted something very remarkable: a second chance. The question is: what will he do with it?

The Broken Road is an engrossing, contemplative story of redemption and grace and the power of second chances. It is an epic journey you won’t soon forget.]]> 304 Richard Paul Evans 1442388390 Donna 4 Of us that get caught up in “plans to better oneself�.
Thank you Richard Paul Evans]]> 3.97 2017
author: Richard Paul Evans
name: Donna
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/25
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves:
review:
A good read -reminding us to pay attention to people not things in your life; relatable to all
Of us that get caught up in “plans to better oneself�.
Thank you Richard Paul Evans
]]> 58634953 Enchanting, mysterious, and deeply romantic, The Lighthouse follows a young woman's breathtaking journey far from home to discover where she truly belongs.

Something strange is happening in Seabrook. The town's lighthouse–dormant for over thirty years and famously haunted–has inexplicably started shining, and its mysterious glow is sparking feverish gossip throughout the spooked community.

Amy Tucker is only visiting for the night and has no plans to get caught up in the hysteria, but that changes when she meets Ryan, the loyal, hard-working son of a ranch owner who lives on the outskirts of town.

Their chance encounter turns into an unforgettable weekend, and against the backdrop of the lighthouse-obsessed town, the two of them forge a deep connection, opening their hearts, baring their souls, and revealing secrets long kept hidden.

But as they grow closer, and as the lighthouse glows ever brighter, a startling discovery about Ryan leaves Amy questioning everything she thought she knew. To uncover the truth about her new friend, Amy will need to enter Seabrook’s ominous tower, where waiting inside she will not only find the reason why fate has brought them together� but a shocking secret that will change the course of their lives forever.]]> 378 Christopher Parker Donna 0 to-read 4.12 2021
author: Christopher Parker
name: Donna
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: to-read
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]]> 210317914 Who says you can’t rewrite the stars?

1962—Twelve years removed from the summer when she first gave her heart away, Dr. Elizabeth (Ellie) Spencer, Professor of Astronomy at Indiana University, receives a mysterious package that has her asking that very question.

Inside the unmarked box is a novel written by Ellie’s first love, Jack Bennett. It tells the story of a young man and woman who meet at the water’s edge and fall madly in love, only to have their romance cut short by forces beyond their control. Ellie quickly realizes this is no ordinary story; it’s their story. Captivated by Jack’s words, she immerses herself in the pages, reliving the adventures they shared that magical summer. To her astonishment, hidden among the tales of star-gazing and stolen kisses is a detail that has her questioning everything.

Seeking answers, Ellie turns to her sister for help, but before they can get to the bottom of the mystery, news reaches them of their aunt’s death, sending Ellie back to the water’s edge with the hopes of finding the truth and rewriting the stars.]]> 320 Buck Turner Donna 0 to-read 3.88 2024
author: Buck Turner
name: Donna
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: to-read
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]]> 58803339 New York Times and USA Today Bestseller

Bestselling historical fiction author Kim Michele Richardson is back with the perfect book club read following Honey Mary Angeline Lovett, the daughter of the beloved Troublesome book woman, who must fight for her own independence with the help of the women who guide her and the books that set her free.

In the ruggedness of the beautiful Kentucky mountains, Honey Lovett has always known that the old ways can make a hard life harder. As the daughter of the famed blue-skinned, Troublesome Creek packhorse librarian, Honey and her family have been hiding from the law all her life. But when her mother and father are imprisoned, Honey realizes she must fight to stay free, or risk being sent away for good.

Picking up her mother’s old packhorse library route, Honey begins to deliver books to the remote hollers of Appalachia. Honey is looking to prove that she doesn’t need anyone telling her how to survive, but the route can be treacherous, and some folks aren’t as keen to let a woman pave her own way. If Honey wants to bring the freedom that books provide to the families who need it most, she’s going to have to fight for her place, and along the way, learn that the extraordinary women who run the hills and hollers can make all the difference in the world.]]> 336 Kim Michele Richardson 1728242592 Donna 0 to-read 4.16 2022
author: Kim Michele Richardson
name: Donna
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/24
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]]> 40914165 An alternate cover edition for ISBN 978-1492671527 can be found here.

In 1936, tucked deep into the woods of Troublesome Creek, KY, lives blue-skinned 19-year-old Cussy Carter, the last living female of the rare Blue People ancestry.

The lonely young Appalachian woman joins the historical Pack Horse Library Project of Kentucky and becomes a librarian, riding across slippery creek beds and up treacherous mountains on her faithful mule to deliver books and other reading material to the impoverished hill people of Eastern Kentucky.

Along her dangerous route, Cussy, known to the mountain folk as Bluet, confronts those suspicious of her damselfly-blue skin and the government's new book program. She befriends hardscrabble and complex fellow Kentuckians, and is fiercely determined to bring comfort and joy, instill literacy, and give to those who have nothing, a bookly respite, a fleeting retreat to faraway lands.]]> 309 Kim Michele Richardson Donna 5 4.17 2019
author: Kim Michele Richardson
name: Donna
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/24
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
What a read ! The historical significance is fascinating! Look forward to more by this author !!
]]> 219522073 In an intense, twisty, Hitchcockian standalone spin onĚýRear WindowĚýfrom #1ĚýNew York TimesĚýbestselling author Lisa Jackson, a woman returns to the Oregon town where a nightmare unfolded 20 years ago—and is waiting to engulf her again. For fans of J.T. Ellison, Paula Hawkins, Karin Slaughter, and Riley Sager.

The huge Victorian house on Lake Twilight belongs to Harper Reed Prescott, as does the private island on which it sits. Harper wants little to do with either. Twenty years ago, Harper’s grandmother died suspiciously while in her care, on the same night that Harper’s boyfriend disappeared. His body was never found, and no charges were filed. But the rumors haven’t faded. There have been other deaths, other accidents. All revolving around Harper and her family.

Now Harper’s marriage is over, her college-age daughter is estranged, and Harper just wants to sell the property and make a fresh start. Except returning to the lake has stirred everything up again. Whispers. Memories. And the persistent feeling that, as she gazes out at the houses across the water, she’s being watched in turn.

The whole town has always thought Harper has something to hide, and they’re right. But she might have even more to fear . . .]]> 592 Lisa Jackson 1496737032 Donna 0 to-read 3.73
author: Lisa Jackson
name: Donna
average rating: 3.73
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: to-read
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]]> 227788848
Already an international bestseller, Small Things Like These is a deeply affecting story of hope, quiet heroism, and empathy from one of our most critically lauded and iconic writers.]]> Claire Keegan Donna 0 to-read 4.40 2021
author: Claire Keegan
name: Donna
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: to-read
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]]> 58662236
Already an international bestseller, Small Things Like These is a deeply affecting story of hope, quiet heroism, and empathy from one of our most critically lauded and iconic writers.]]> 128 Claire Keegan 0802158749 Donna 5 4.13 2021
author: Claire Keegan
name: Donna
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/21
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves:
review:
Extraordinary simple but profound -love this author
]]> 58296512 160 James Joyce 1939931967 Donna 0 to-read 3.65
author: James Joyce
name: Donna
average rating: 3.65
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/16
shelves: to-read
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]]> 41713581 Faber Stories, a landmark series of individual volumes, presents masters of the short story form at work in a range of genres and styles.

The evening is fine. In the sky a few early stars are shining of their own accord. She watches the dog licking the bowl clean. This dog will break her daughter's heart, she's sure of it.

Claire Keegan's mesmeric story takes us into the heart of the Wicklow countryside, and of the farming family of Victor Deegan, with his 'three teenagers, the milking and the mortgage'.

When Deegan finds a gun dog and gives it as a present to his only daughter, his wife is filled with foreboding at this seeming act of kindness. As the seasons pass, long-buried family secrets threaten to emerge.

Bringing together past, present and future in our ninetieth year, Faber Stories is a celebratory compendium of collectable work.]]> 68 Claire Keegan 0571351859 Donna 0 to-read 4.05
author: Claire Keegan
name: Donna
average rating: 4.05
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/16
shelves: to-read
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]]> 73936042
From one of the finest writers working today, Keegan's new story asks if a lack of generosity might ruin what could be between men and women.]]> 47 Claire Keegan 0571382010 Donna 0 to-read 3.97 2023
author: Claire Keegan
name: Donna
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/16
shelves: to-read
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]]> 8143909
Winner of the Davy Byrnes Memorial Prize, Foster is now published in a revised and expanded version. Beautiful, sad and eerie, it is a story of astonishing emotional depth, showcasing Claire Keegan's great accomplishment and talent.]]> 89 Claire Keegan 0571255655 Donna 5 4.32 2010
author: Claire Keegan
name: Donna
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/16
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves:
review:
My new favorite author ! She captures the essence quickly and deeply of human kindness; her story telling is like no other.
]]> 214151301 Set over the course of one day, a heart-racing story about a woman facing the unimaginable, determined to find safety

Annie is nine months pregnant and shopping for a crib at IKEA when a massive earthquake hits Portland, Oregon. With no way to reach her husband, no phone or money, and a city left in chaos, she realizes there’s nothing to do but walk.

Making her way across the wreckage of Portland, Annie experiences human desperation and kindness: strangers offering help, a riot at a grocery store, and an unlikely friendship with a young mother. As she walks, Annie reflects on her struggling marriage, her disappointing career, and her anxiety about having a baby. She’s determined to change her life if she can just make it home.]]> 229 Emma Pattee 1668055473 Donna 0 to-read 3.71 2025
author: Emma Pattee
name: Donna
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves: to-read
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]]> 59227941 Ěý
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.Ěý]]> 416 Elin Hilderbrand 0316258679 Donna 0 to-read 4.01 2022
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Donna
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/16
shelves: to-read
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]]> 133793
Out of that dreadful intimacy comes a profoundly moving spiritual journey through our system of capital punishment. Here Sister Helen confronts both the plight of the condemned and the rage of the bereaved, the fears of a society shattered by violence and the Christian imperative of love. On its original publication in 1993, Dead Man Walking emerged as an unprecedented look at the human consequences of the death penalty. Now, some two decades later, this story—which has inspired a film, a stage play, an opera and a musical album—is more gut-wrenching than ever, stirring deep and life-changing reflection in all who encounter it.]]> 304 Helen Prejean 0679751319 Donna 3 4.14 1993
author: Helen Prejean
name: Donna
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1993
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/14
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves:
review:
A somber read -blessed Sister to be a spiritual advisor for death row inmates. The book describes some gruesome tales -this is an important read however to remember how human criminals are.
]]> 204811915 People) of a novel about new friendships, old loves, and the very human desire to leave a mark on the world.

With her remarkable insight into the human condition and silences that contain multitudes, Elizabeth Strout returns to the town of Crosby, Maine, and to her beloved cast of characters—Lucy Barton, Olive Kitteridge, Bob Burgess, and more—as they deal with a shocking crime in their midst, fall in love and yet choose to be apart, and grapple with the question, as Lucy Barton puts it, “What does anyone’s life mean?�

It’s autumn in Maine, and the town lawyer Bob Burgess has become enmeshed in an unfolding murder investigation, defending a lonely, isolated man accused of killing his mother. He has also fallen into a deep and abiding friendship with the acclaimed writer Lucy Barton, who lives down the road in a house by the sea with her ex-husband, William. Together, Lucy and Bob go on walks and talk about their lives, their fears and regrets, and what might have been. Lucy, meanwhile, is finally introduced to the iconic Olive Kitteridge, now living in a retirement community on the edge of town. They spend afternoons together in Olive’s apartment, telling each other stories. Stories about people they have known—“unrecorded lives,� Olive calls them—reanimating them, and, in the process, imbuing their lives with meaning.

Brimming with empathy and pathos, Tell Me Everything is Elizabeth Strout operating at the height of her powers, illuminating the ways in which our relationships keep us afloat. As Lucy says, “Love comes in so many different forms, but it is always love.”]]> 326 Elizabeth Strout 0593446097 Donna 0 to-read 3.98 2024
author: Elizabeth Strout
name: Donna
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: to-read
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]]> 305200
The Book of Margery Kempe is the extraordinary account of a medieval wife, mother and mystic from Norfolk. Having married in c. 1393, given birth to 14 children, and pursued unsuccessful ventures in brewing and milling, Kempe made a vow of chastity and embarked on a life of prayer, penance and pilgrimage. Known as the earliest autobiography in the English language, it contains intimate portraits of people and places, and a remarkable eye for detail, as it traces the transformation of a �sinful wretch� to a holy pilgrim.]]> 328 Margery Kempe 0393976394 Donna 0 to-read 3.32 1438
author: Margery Kempe
name: Donna
average rating: 3.32
book published: 1438
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: to-read
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]]> 227883709
The Magician's Daughter—A Memoir is a coming-of-age story set within the motion and light of a traveling magic show. Fourteen-year-old Katy is the daughter of Lee Grabel, a former professional magician stuck behind a desk in the suburbs who yearns to rekindle the past fame of his old magic show. When he decides to hit the road again in a grand bid to be a Las Vegas headliner, Katy has her chance for the spotlight she yearns for as his stage assistant. With a truck full of wonderments, the Grabel family and their crew go on tour across the western states, where trouble quickly ensues along with the increasing unhappiness of her mother —The Beautiful Helene—who is disenchanted with the magic show even as she runs it with military precision from her table stage right. Setting up, performing, and packing out of town after town, tensions mount, and betrayal is in the air.

Through error and misstep, Katy struggles to free herself from the show's intoxicating spotlight. Meanwhile, the Grabels and their crew are getting closer to their booking at the Las Vegas Convention Center, where the show's ultimate fate will be determined.

Readers will be captivated by this page-turner where Penn & Teller meets Mission Impossible. It's a tale that delves into the complexities of family dynamics and the enduring power of love, set against the backdrop of a mesmerizing magic show.]]> 244 Katy Grabel 1957468378 Donna 0 to-read 4.33 2025
author: Katy Grabel
name: Donna
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: to-read
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]]> 221508547 #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly introduces a new cop relentlessly following his mission in the seemingly idyllic setting of Catalina island.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly introduces a new cop relentlessly following his mission in the seemingly idyllic setting of Catalina island.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Detective Stilwell has been “exiled� to a low-key post policing rustic Catalina Island, after department politics drove him off a homicide desk on the mainland. But while following up the usual drunk-and-disorderlies and petty thefts that come with his new territory, Detective Stilwell gets a report of a body found weighed down at the bottom of the harbor—a Jane Doe identifiable at first only by a streak of purple dye in her hair. At the same time, a report of poaching on a protected reserve turns into a case fraught with violence and danger as Stilwell digs into the shady past of an island bigwig.

Crossing all lines of protocol and jurisdiction, Stilwell doggedly works both cases. Though hampered by an old beef with an ex-colleague determined to thwart him at every turn, he is convinced he is the only one who can bring justice to the woman known as “Nightshade.� Soon, his investigation uncovers closely guarded secrets and a dark heart to the serene island that was meant to be his escape from the evils of the big city.

Propulsive and atmospheric, Nightshade launches a brand new character into the Connelly universe, and proves without question that Michael Connelly is “the undisputed master of the modern crime novel� (Real Book Spy).]]> 352 Michael Connelly 0316588482 Donna 0 to-read 4.21 2025
author: Michael Connelly
name: Donna
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/10
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]]> 126262032 Librarian's Note: This is the entry for the short story collection. Please don't combine it with the short story of the same name.


A triptych of stories about love, lust, betrayal, misogyny, and the ever-intriguing interchanges between women and men. Celebrated for her powerful short fiction, Claire Keegan now gifts us three exquisite stories, newly revised and expanded, together forming a brilliant examination of gender dynamics and an arc from Keegan’s earliest to her most recent work.

In “So Late in the Day,� Cathal faces a long weekend as his mind agitates over a woman with whom he could have spent his life, had he behaved differently.

In “The Long and Painful Death,� a writer’s arrival at the seaside home of Heinrich Böll for a residency is disrupted by an academic who imposes his presence and opinions.

And in “Antarctica,â€� a married woman travels out of town to see what it’s like to sleep with another man and ends up in the grip of a possessive stranger.Ěý

Each story probes the dynamics that corrupt what could be between women and a lack of generosity, the weight of expectation, the looming threat of violence. Potent, charged, and breathtakingly insightful, these three essential tales will linger with readers long after the book is closed.]]> 128 Claire Keegan 0802160859 Donna 5 3.98 2022
author: Claire Keegan
name: Donna
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/09
date added: 2025/03/09
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Wow, what a read ! Started out humorous ended shocking ! Can’t wait to read another by Claire !
]]> 219301723 In this twisted psychological thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of the Reese’s Book Club Pick The Last Mrs. Parrish, a woman is tormented by nightmarish visions of her future—and then they start to come true.

Annabelle has everything she’s ever wanted. A devoted husband, two wonderful daughters, and a career she loves. She couldn’t be happier. So why is she suddenly plagued by disturbing dreams of a future where she hates her husband and her daughters� lives are at risk? At first, she chalks the dreams up to an overactive imagination. But when details from her dreams, details she couldn’t possibly have predicted, begin to materialize, she realizes these aren’t just dreams but rather premonitions of a terrifying future. They all point to a singular choice, an unknown moment that holds Annabelle’s life in the balance.

Then Annabelle has a dream that her daughter, Scarlett, is in immediate danger.ĚýSomeone wants Scarlett dead and Annabelle has no idea who or why. Suddenly, every choice she makes is fraught with peril, with no inkling of which move could bring this terrifying vision to life. As her present life starts to collide with the future in her dreams, she wrestles with how much control she really has over her destiny and whether or not she can change what is meant to be.]]> 352 Liv Constantine 0593875206 Donna 0 to-read 4.09 2025
author: Liv Constantine
name: Donna
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/09
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]]> 214151304 Emma Donoghue, the “soul-stirring� (Oprah Daily) nationally bestselling author of Room, returns with a sweeping historical novel about an infamous 1895 disaster at the Paris Montparnasse train station.

Based on an 1895 disaster that went down in history when it was captured in a series of surreal, extraordinary photographs, The Paris Express is a propulsive novel set on a train packed with a fascinating cast of characters who hail from as close as Brittany and as far as Russia, Ireland, Algeria, Pennsylvania, and Cambodia. Members of parliament hurry back to Paris to vote; a medical student suspects a girl may be dying; a secretary tries to convince her boss of the potential of moving pictures; two of the train’s crew build a life away from their wives; a young anarchist makes a terrifying plan, and much more.

From an author whose “writing is superb alchemy� (Audrey Niffenegger, New York Times bestselling author), The Paris Express is an evocative masterpiece that effortlessly captures the politics, glamour, chaos, and speed that marked the end of the 19th century.]]> 288 Emma Donoghue 1668082799 Donna 0 to-read 3.28 2025
author: Emma Donoghue
name: Donna
average rating: 3.28
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/09
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]]> 60528280
Champagne, France, 1800. Twenty-year-old Barbe-Nicole inherited Le Nez (an uncanny sense of smell that makes her picky, persnickety, and particularly perceptive) from her great-grandfather, a renowned champagne maker. Her parents see Le Nez as a curse that must be hidden and try to marry her off to an unsuspecting suitor. But Barbe-Nicole is haunted by her Grand-mere’s dying wish for her to use Le Nez to make great champagne. When she learns her childhood sweetheart, Francois Clicquot, wants to start a winery, she rejects her parents� suitors and marries Francois despite his mental illness.

Barbe-Nicole Clicquot must now cope with Francois� suicide, the difficulties of starting a winery, and the Napoleon Codes preventing women from owning a business. All this while Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, wages six wars against the European monarchs, crippling her ability to sell her champagne. Using Le Nez, she beats the impossible hardships of Napoleon’s wars, often challenging Napoleon himself. When Veuve Clicquot falls in love with her sales manager, Louis Bohne, who asks her to marry, she must choose between losing her winery to her husband, as dictated by Napoleon Code, or losing Louis.

In the ultimate showdown, Veuve Clicquot defies Napoleon, risking imprisonment and even death.]]> 331 Rebecca Rosenberg 1732969914 Donna 0 to-read 4.20 2022
author: Rebecca Rosenberg
name: Donna
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/09
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]]> 127305817
It’s 1990 and seventeen-year-old Marley West is blazing into the river valley town of Mercury, Pennsylvania. A perpetual loner, she seeks a place at someone’s table and a family of her own. The first thing she sees when she arrives in town is three men standing on a rooftop. Their silhouettes blot out the sun.

The Joseph brothers become Marley’s whole world before she can blink. Soon, she is young wife to one, The One Who Got Away to another, and adopted mother to them all. As their own mother fades away and their roofing business crumbles under the weight of their unwieldy father’s inflated ego, Marley steps in to shepherd these unruly men. Years later, an eerie discovery in the church attic causes old wounds to resurface and suddenly the family’s survival hangs in the balance. With Marley as their light, the Joseph brothers must decide whether they can save the family they’ve always known―or whether together they can build something stronger in its place.]]> 336 Amy Jo Burns 1250908566 Donna 3
]]> 3.78 2024
author: Amy Jo Burns
name: Donna
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/08
date added: 2025/03/08
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A well done story but really was not interested in the storyline of Marley and the men of the family.


]]> 2761626
Enter Harry Bosch. Determined to find Vincent's killer, he is not opposed to using Haller as bait. But as danger mounts and the stakes rise, these two loners realize their only choice is to work together.

Bringing together Michael Connelly's two most popular characters, "The Brass Verdict" is a thriller which reaches for, and then surpasses, the highest level!]]> 422 Michael Connelly 0316166294 Donna 4 4.15 2008
author: Michael Connelly
name: Donna
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/03
date added: 2025/03/03
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review:
Captivating, interesting and surprising ending for a good detective legal thriller read on !!
]]> 220161428 Juliette Fay—known for her “well-drawn characters and vibrant historical backdrops� (Library Journal)—transports us to 1920s America with this big-hearted tale of two very different women who must learn to trust each other as one tries to save her family and the other to save herself. Perfect for fans of Kristin Hannah and Kristina McMorris.

1926: Charlotte Crowninshield was born into one of the finest Boston society families. Now she’s on the run from a brutal husband, desperate to disappear into the wilds of the Southwest. Billie MacTavish is the oldest of nine children born to Scottish immigrants in Nebraska. She quit school in the sixth grade to help with her mother’s washing and mending business, but even that isn’t enough to keep the family afloat.

Desperate, both women join the ranks of the Harvey Girls, waitresses who serve in America’s first hospitality chain on the Santa Fe railroad. Hired on the same day, they share three things: a room, a heartfelt dislike of each other…and each has a secret that will certainly get them fired.

Through twelve-hour days of training in Topeka, Kansas, they learn the fine art of service, perfecting their skills despite bouts of homesickness, fear of being discovered, and a run-in with the KKK. When they’re sent to work at the luxurious El Tovar hotel at the Grand Canyon, the challenges only grow, as Billie struggles to hide her young age from would-be suitors, and Charlotte discovers the little-known dark side of the national park’s history.

“Juliette Fay’s gift for creating complex, exquisitely human characters� (Marisa de los Santos, New York Times bestselling author) is on full display in this deeply moving and joyous celebration of female empowerment, loyalty, and friendship.]]> 384 Juliette Fay 1668095068 Donna 0 to-read 4.16
author: Juliette Fay
name: Donna
average rating: 4.16
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]]> 218171641 Beloved New York Times bestselling author Karen White returns with a brand-new contemporary stand-alone novel about sisterhood, secrets and one woman’s reckoning with the past

As a child, Phoebe Manigault developed the gift of premonition after she wasĚýstruck by lightning in the creeks near her Charleston home. Plagued throughout her life by mysterious dreams, and always living in the shadow of her beautiful sister, Addie, Phoebe eventually moves to the West Coast, as far from her family as possible. Now, years later, she is summoned back to South Carolina, to help Addie care for their ailing mother.

As Phoebe’s return lures her back into deep-rooted tensions and conflicts, she is drawn toward Celeste, whose granddaughter went missing years ago. Their connection, woven through shared losses and hope, brings comfort to Phoebe, while Celeste’s adult grandson Liam resurrects complicated emotions tied to Phoebe’s past.

But the longer Phoebe spends in her childhood home, the more her recurring nightmares intensify—bringing her closer to the shocking truth that will irrevocably change everything. Unfolding against the lush backdrop of the South Carolina Lowcountry,ĚýThat Last Carolina SummerĚýis an unforgettable family drama and mystery about the unbreakable bonds of family and the gift of second chances.]]> 352 Karen White 0778310698 Donna 0 to-read 4.42
author: Karen White
name: Donna
average rating: 4.42
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/02
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]]> 204169194 The Family Remains, on Two Dead Wives

An exhilarating psychological crime thriller that will have you racing to the finish!

HIS FIRST WIFE DIED. NOW THERE'S A VACANCY�

When Emma meets Matthew, a kind, handsome widower, he seems to be just what she needs.

Yet as their relationship moves fast, Emma’s friends worry she might be exploited. She’s a rich woman after all.

Emma doesn’t care Matthew has no money. But as the memory of his perfect first wife hangs over them, Emma does have one tiny doubt.

If Matthew’s wife hadn’t died, he wouldn’t be with her. And Emma wonders if she’s second best. Can she ever fill the dead woman’s shoes?

As jealousy and suspicion blossom between Emma and Matthew, events take a darker, dangerous turn.

Suddenly Emma doesn’t know who she can trust. Her friends? Her husband? Or even herself�?]]> 368 Adele Parks 0778368130 Donna 0 to-read 3.89 2024
author: Adele Parks
name: Donna
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/02
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]]> 215805921 A searching, uplifting memoir by the celebrated, groundbreaking climber: a journey of overcoming where the mountain’s highest peaks can only be reached by traversing the dark crevasses of the soul

At twenty-seven, when Melissa Arnot Reid accepted a tank of oxygen just short of the summit of Mount Everest, she felt ravaged by defeat. Driven by a relentless, lifelong quest to prove to herself, her family, and the world that she was enough, she had set herself an incredible goal—to become the first American woman to summit Everest without supplemental oxygen. The failure battered her spirit and left her struggling to keep her tenuous grip on hope.

In the candid and adventurous spirit of Cheryl Strayed’s Wild, Enough is a story of a life in which the most dangerous mountain faces became a refuge—until suddenly they, too, no longer seemed safe. From a childhood marked by conflict, betrayal, and predation, Reid propelled herself to the top of the mountain climbing world, summiting and guiding on the world’s most challenging peaks and establishing herself as a woman unafraid to throw elbows in a milieu dominated by men. And yet for every summit she reached, her valleys of inner turmoil—over her estrangement with the family she believed she’d destroyed as a child; over relationships that cycled through deception and infidelity—grew deeper and more self-destructive. Eventually, she could not keep these worlds from colliding, especially after a series of tragedies at dangerous elevations took the lives of her mentors and friends. Forced at last to face herself, Reid made her most perilous climb yet—toward the uncertain promise of forgiveness and self-acceptance.

A beautiful, aching memoir of a journey with life-and-death stakes on the mountain and off, Enough bares the soul of one of the world’s greatest climbers, from the rarified heights visible only at thin-air altitudes to the dark depths home to demons familiar to anyone who has struggled to find compassion for themselves.]]> 304 Melissa Arnot Reid 0593594088 Donna 0 to-read 4.25
author: Melissa Arnot Reid
name: Donna
average rating: 4.25
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]]> 214151202 “The farmer is dead. He is dead, and all anyone wants to know is who killed him.�

Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident.

As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel’s life, tensions around the village rise and dangerous secrets and jealousies from the past resurface, this time with deadly consequences. Beth is forced to make a choice between the woman she once was, and the woman she has become.

A sweeping love story with the pace and twists of a thriller, Broken Country is a novel of simmering passion, impossible choices, and explosive consequences that toggles between the past and present to explore the far-reaching legacy of first love.]]> 320 Clare Leslie Hall 166807818X Donna 0 to-read 4.41 2025
author: Clare Leslie Hall
name: Donna
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/01
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]]> 216371549
In 1480, John Collan’s greatest anxiety is how to circumvent the village’s devil goat on the way to collect water. But the arrival of a well-dressed stranger from London upends his life forever: John is not John Collan, not the son of Will Collan, but the son of the long-deceased Duke of Clarence, hidden in the countryside after a brotherly rift over the crown, and because Richard III has a habit of disappearing his nephews. Removed from his humble origins, sent to Oxford to be educated in a manner befitting the throne’s rightful heir, John is put into play by his masters, learning the rules of etiquette in Burgundy and the machinations of the court in Ireland, where he encounters the intractable Joan, the delightfully strong-willed and manipulative daughter of his Irish patrons, a girl imbued with both extraordinary political savvy and occasional murderous tendencies. Joan has two paths available her—marry, or become a nun. Lambert’s choices are similarly stark: he will either become King, or die in battle. Together they form an alliance that will change the fate of the English monarchy.

Inspired by a footnote to history—the true story of the little known Simnel, who was a figurehead of the 1487 Yorkist rebellion and ended up working as a spy in the court of King Henry VII� The Pretender is historical fiction at its finest, a gripping, exuberant, rollicking portrait of British monarchy and life within the court, with a cast of unforgettable heroes and villains drawn from 15th century England. A masterful new work from a major new author.]]> 496 Jo Harkin 0593803302 Donna 0 to-read 4.20 2025
author: Jo Harkin
name: Donna
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/01
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]]> 221206053
A DEAD BODY. A MYSTERIOUS RED LETTER.

Hazel has everything she wants.

Business is booming at her boutique private investigation firm. She's dating the man of her dreams. Even her perpetually skeptical mother seems impressed. Then the NYPD finds a beloved neighborhood priest dead along with a mysterious red letter.

Hazel investigates the murder as a favor to an old friend and discovers that the priest wasn't the only recent murder victim to receive a red letter...and one victim has ties to a psychopath from a past life that Hazel thought she had buried. One by one, the red letters continue to appear, and with every letter, another killing, each more mysterious than the last.

As Hazel closes in on the killer, the killer closes in on her, and Hazel begins to question everything she thought she knew about herself and the people around her. Even worse, Hazel discovers that the only way to find the truth is to open one more...]]> 352 Daniel G. Miller 1464246394 Donna 0 to-read 4.37
author: Daniel G. Miller
name: Donna
average rating: 4.37
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/01
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]]> 221854228
When Madison starts her first real job as an executive assistant at a Silicon Valley tech giant, she has hopes to start afresh and put her troubled life in Boston behind her. But it is not to be.

A young employee out for an evening jog turns up dead.

Her charismatic VP boss fills her with unease. And when Madison uncovers his deadly secret, her ordinary life is thrust into a high-stakes conspiracy the FBI is desperate to crack.

An unprecedented crime from the past is about to be repeated on an unimaginable scale.

A shocking revelation, and her quest for redemption, could get her killed.

Tick...tick...tick...]]> 422 L.V. Pederson Donna 0 to-read 3.96
author: L.V. Pederson
name: Donna
average rating: 3.96
book published:
rating: 0
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]]> 83763
It has been programmed as a predator. It is evolving swiftly, becoming more deadly with each passing hour.

Every attempt to destroy it has failed.

And we are the prey.]]> 507 Michael Crichton 0061015725 Donna 0 to-read 3.78 2002
author: Michael Crichton
name: Donna
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2002
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/26
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]]> 221179145
Lately, Julia Pritzker is beginning to think she’s cursed. She’s lost her adoptive parents, then her husband is murdered. When she realizes that her horoscope essentially foretold his death, she begins to spiral. She fears her fate is written in the stars, not held in her own hands.

Then a letter arrives out of the blue, informing her that she has inherited a Tuscan villa and vineyard - but her benefactor is a total stranger named Emilia Rossi. Julia has no information about her biological family, so she wonders if Rossi could be a blood relative. Bewildered, she heads to Tuscany for answers.

There, Julia is horrified to discover that Rossi was a paranoid recluse with delusions of grandeur, who believed herself to be a descendent of Duchess Caterina Sforza, a legendary Renaissance ruler. Julia is stunned by her uncanny resemblance to Rossi and even to Caterina, then she unearths eerie parallels between them, including an obsession with astrology.

Before long, Julia suspects she’s being followed, and strange things begin to happen. Not even a chance meeting with a handsome Florentine can ease her disturbed mind. When events turn deadly, she breaks with reality.

Julia’s harrowing struggle becomes a search for her identity, a race to save her sanity, and ultimately, a question of her very survival.]]> 400 Lisa Scottoline 1538769999 Donna 0 to-read 3.60
author: Lisa Scottoline
name: Donna
average rating: 3.60
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/26
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]]> 215362444 336 Katy Hays 0593875559 Donna 0 to-read 3.62 2025
author: Katy Hays
name: Donna
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/26
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]]> 478614
When Dolly Magnuson moves to Pine Rapids, Wisconsin, in 1950, she discovers all too soon that making marriage work is harder than it looks in the pages of the Ladies� Home Journal . Dolly tries to adapt to her new life by keeping the house, supporting her husband’s career, and fretting about dinner menus. She even gives up her dream of flying an airplane, trying instead to fit in at the stuffy Ladies Aid quilting circle. Soon, though, her loneliness and restless imagination are seized by the vacant house on the hill. As Dolly’s life and marriage become increasingly difficult, she begins to lose herself in piecing together the story of three generations of Mickelson men and Wilma Mickelson, who came to Pine Rapids as a new bride in 1896 and fell in love with a man who was not her husband; her oldest son, Jack, who fought as a Marine in the trenches of World War I; and Jack’s son, JJ, a troubled veteran of World War II, who returns home to discover Dolly in his grandparents� house.

As the crisis in Dolly’s marriage escalates, she not only escapes into JJ’s stories of his family’s past but finds in them parallels to her own life. As Keeping the House moves back and forth in time, it eloquently explores themes of wartime heroism and passionate love, of the struggles of men’s struggles with fatherhood and war and of women’s conflicts with issues of conformity, identity, forbidden dreams, and love.

Beautifully written and atmospheric, Keeping the House illuminates the courage it takes to shape and reshape a life, and the difficulty of ever knowing the truth about another person’s desires. Keeping the House is an unforgettable novel about small-town life and big matters of the heart.

Advance praise for Keeping the House
“Ellen Baker’s first novel is a wonder! Keeping the House is a great big juicy family saga, a romantic page-turner with genuine characters written with a perfect sense of history, time, and place. Her portrayal of the American housewife is hilarious and heartbreaking. I couldn’t have liked it more!�
–Fannie Flagg, author of Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven

“Ellen Baker’s first novel, Keeping the House, is a quilt that grids a small Midwestern town in the middle of the last century. Under this writer’s deft hands, each square is a story, a mystery, an indiscretion, a tale of the great house and grand family who once ruled there. Even more, it captures the roles of women both the living embodiments of demure ideals, and those who couldn’t fit the pattern. Edith Wharton’s novels of domestic despair and display come to mind with each page.�
–Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean

“A born storyteller, Ellen Baker has written an enthralling family saga filled with three generations of memorable characters and capturing the dreams and frustrations of twentieth-century women in wonderful, spot-on historical detail.�
–Faith Sullivan, author of Gardenias and The Cape Ann

“Ellen Baker has written the novel I’ve been waiting to read for a very long time. It’s the book you want to curl up with, the book you rush home to, the book you wish you’d written. In Keeping the House , she serves up the complexities of family relationships, the anguish of victims of wars, the innermost thoughts of women, and the social mores of the past. Seasoned with mysteries that kept me devouring pages, this is one huge gourmet feast of a book for readers to savor. I look forward to every delicious book this author writes.�
–Bev Marshall, author of Walking Through Shadows and Right as Rain]]> 528 Ellen Baker 1400066352 Donna 0 to-read 3.74 2007
author: Ellen Baker
name: Donna
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/25
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]]> 158649513 Orphan Train meets Before We Were Yours meets Water for Elephants in this compelling multigenerational novel of survival, love, and the families we make.

In 1924, four-year-old Cecily Larson’s mother reluctantly drops her off at an orphanage in Chicago, promising to be back once she’s made enough money to support both Cecily and herself. But she never returns, and shortly after high-spirited Cecily turns seven, she is sold to a traveling circus to perform as the “little sister� to glamorous bareback rider Isabelle DuMonde. With Isabelle and the rest of the circus, Cecily finally feels she’s found the family she craves. But as the years go by, the cracks in her little world begin to show. And when teenage Cecily meets and falls in love with a young roustabout named Lucky, she finds her life thrown onto an entirely unexpected—and dangerous—course.

In 2015, Cecily is now 94 and living a quiet life in Minnesota, with her daughter, granddaughter, and great-grandson. But when her family decides to surprise her with an at-home DNA test, the unexpected results not only bring to light the tragic love story that Cecily has kept hidden for decades but also throw into question everything about the family she’s raised and claimed as her own for nearly seventy years. Cecily and everyone in her life must now decide who they really are and what family—and forgiveness—really mean.

Sweeping through a long period of contemporary history, The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson is an immersive, compelling, and entertaining family drama centered around one remarkable woman and her determination to survive.]]> 384 Ellen Baker 0063351196 Donna 4 3.84 2024
author: Ellen Baker
name: Donna
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/25
date added: 2025/02/25
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Great read ! For anyone who loves historical family stories this is for you! I especially enjoyed the circus connection and the ancestry storyline !!
]]> 218155603 In this uplifting series debut, forgiveness and unlikely friendship blossom in the haven of a quiet lakeside town when two very different women bond over one man’s betrayals.

Marlow Heddings is starting over. She’s carried the outrage of her husband Dylan’s affair with a younger woman—and the expectations of his family’s powerful Chicago holdings company—long enough. Now, after another devastating twist of fate, she’s unapologetically moving on.

Arriving in tiny Bramble, Kentucky, Marlow revels in her freedom, swapping her executive suits for sundresses . . . and scouting places to open her dream boutique. Best of all is her new residence, an adorable cottage with gorgeous lake views—and a breathtaking landlord, former Marine Cort Easton. Soon they’re sharing dockside morning coffee and nighttime firefly gazing. Marlow’s new life feels like a dream.

Then Pixie Nolan arrives on her doorstep. With a shocking secret.

To Marlow’s astonishment, Dylan’s “other woman� is a desperate girl of nineteen, destitute, exhausted, and disowned by her family. Defying her manipulative in-laws� demands, and surprising even herself, Marlow vows to lay down roots in Bramble and help Pixie get on her feet. Then they’ll part ways. But empathy has a way of forging bonds. As Marlow grows close to the hard-working, devoted young woman, she becomes something of a big sister to Pixie.

Now, with each sunrise, Marlow awakens to the life she was truly meant to live, one filled with deepening connections, supportive friendship . . . and even a second chance at love.]]> 304 Lori Foster 1496752341 Donna 0 to-read 4.40 2025
author: Lori Foster
name: Donna
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/24
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]]> 216052965 Maggie Reynolds is finally ready for love again--until the past shows up in the form of someone who may or may not be the late husband she thought she'd lost.

Five years after her husband's death, Maggie is finally ready to let go of him and the dreams she had for their future. A summer at Seabrook, where she and Ethan first became childhood sweethearts, seems the perfect time and place to find closure. Plus, she gets to spend time with his family, the Reynoldses, whom she loves like her own.

Unbeknownst to Maggie, her brother-in-law, Josh Reynolds, has been in love with her since they first met all those years ago. But his brother ultimately won Maggie's heart, and Josh's unrequited love has ruined all of his relationships. If Maggie is ready to move on, then Josh is ready to lay it all on the line and come clean about his true feelings for her.

But his plans soon get put on hold when, shortly after Maggie returns to Seabrook, she runs into a man who could pass for Ethan's twin. But he disappears into the amusement-park crowd before she can confront him.

The event rattles Maggie, stirs up impossible questions, and sends Josh and her on a quest to discover the man's true identity. But their search ends up raising more questions than answers--and soon Maggie isn't sure she wants those answers at all.]]> 352 Denise Hunter 1400348552 Donna 0 to-read 4.08 2025
author: Denise Hunter
name: Donna
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/24
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]]> 212012146 Alternate cover edition of ISBN-13: 9781101972793, ISBN-10/ASIN: 1101972793

From one of our most accomplished novelists, a mesmerizing story about a mother and daughter seeking refuge in the chaotic aftermath of the Civil War

In 1874, in the wake of the War, erasure, trauma, and namelessness haunt civilians and veterans, renegades and wanderers, freedmen and runaways. Twelve-year-old ConaLee, the adult in her family for as long as she can remember, finds herself on a buckboard journey with her mother, Eliza, who hasn’t spoken in more than a year. They arrive at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in West Virginia, delivered to the hospital’s entrance by a war veteran who has forced himself into their world. There, far from family, a beloved neighbor, and the mountain home they knew, they try to reclaim their lives.

The omnipresent vagaries of war and race rise to the surface as we learn their their flight to the highest mountain ridges of western Virginia; the disappearance of ConaLee’s father, who left for the War and never returned. Meanwhile, in the asylum, they begin to find a new path. ConaLee pretends to be her mother’s maid; Eliza responds slowly to treatment. They get swept up in the life of the facility—the mysterious man they call the Night Watch; the orphan child called Weed; the fearsome woman who runs the kitchen; the remarkable doctor at the head of the institution.

Epic, enthralling, and meticulously crafted, Night Watch is a brilliant portrait of family endurance against all odds, and a stunning chronicle of surviving war and its aftermath.]]> 304 Jayne Anne Phillips Donna 0 to-read 3.67 2023
author: Jayne Anne Phillips
name: Donna
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/21
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]]> 217223357 FromĚýNew York TimesĚýbestselling author Susan Wiggs, a wrenching but life-affirming novel based on a true story of survival, friendship, and redemption when six girls come together in a Catholic reform school in 1960s Buffalo, NY. Perfect for fans ofĚýBefore We Were Yours,ĚýOrphan Train, andĚýThe Berry Pickers.

It was a place frozen in time, an ancient fortress haunted by echoes that whispered against the gray stone in a mysterious, heavy rhythm, as though this place was entirely separate from the rest of the world.ĚýA sign by the inner door read Our Lady of Charity Refuge and Sisters of the Good Shepherd.

Mairin’s breath caught in her throat as comprehension crept over her. This place was the one mentioned in scandalized whispers from the older girls at school. It was the one people gossiped about when a girl suddenly stopped showing up to class. It was the place angry parents—like her own mother—threatened their daughters “I’ll send you to the nuns, just you see if I won’t.�

Amid the turbulence of the Vietnam Era, in the all-American city of Buffalo, New York, teenage girls were condemned to forced labor at the Good Shepherd, a dark and secret institution controlled by the Sisters of Charity nuns.

In 1968 we meet six teens thrust into confinement at the Good Shepherd�merely for being gay, pregnant, or simply unruly.

Mairin� free-spirited daughter of Irish immigrants was committed to keep her safe from her stepfather.

Angela�denounced for her attraction to girls, was sent to the nuns for reform, but instead found herself the victim of a predator.

Helen�the daughter of intellectuals detained in Communist China, saw her “temporary� stay at the Good Shepherd stretch into years.

Odessa�caught up in a police dragnet over a racial incident, found the physical and mental toughness to endure her sentence.

Denise�sentenced for brawling in a foster home, dared to dream of a better life.

Janice�deeply insecure, she couldn’t decide where her loyalty lay�except when it came to her friend Kay, who would never outgrow her childlike dependency.

Sister Bernadette�rescued from a dreadful childhood, she owed her loyalty to the Sisters of Charity even as her conscience weighed on her.

Wayward GirlsĚýis a haunting but thrilling tale of hope, solidarity, and the enduring strength of young women who find the courage to break free and find redemption...and justice.]]> 400 Susan Wiggs 0063118270 Donna 0 to-read 4.29
author: Susan Wiggs
name: Donna
average rating: 4.29
book published:
rating: 0
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]]> 220161155 From the “great storyteller� (Natalie Jenner, author of The Jane Austen Society) Brooke Lea Foster, a captivating new novel set in 1965 and 1978 about a graduate student who returns with her sisters to their family’s summer home on Martha’s Vineyard and begins to unravel old family secrets.

After suffering through her first year of graduate school at Columbia following her senator father’s death, Betsy Whiting is hoping to spend the summer with her boyfriend…and hopefully end the summer as his fiancée. Instead, her mother—a longtime feminist and leader in the women’s movement—calls Betsy and her sisters back home to Martha’s Vineyard, announcing that they need to sell their beloved summer house to pay off their father’s debts.

When Betsy arrives on the island a week later, she must reckon with her strained familial relationships, a long-ago forbidden romance, and the complicated legacy of her parents, who divided the family even as they did good for the world.

Following a dual timeline between 1965 and 1978, and filled with the vibrant, sunlit nostalgia of the cherished New England vacation setting, Our Last Vineyard Summer poignantly captures two generations of women navigating love, loss, and womanhood while trying to find the courage to stand up for what they believe in—and the strength to decide if the home they once loved is worth saving.]]> 336 Brooke Lea Foster 1668034409 Donna 0 to-read 3.82
author: Brooke Lea Foster
name: Donna
average rating: 3.82
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/20
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]]> 221399275 “I think about how a person can be like a Cape May diamond. A dull piece of quartz but when the tide changes, as it always does, they can become shiny and new again.�

Sometimes the tide that sweeps you away can bring you home...

After thirteen years of marriage and seven years of infertility with her supposed soulmate, Sophie Bennett’s life is turned upside down. Not only does she discover her husband is having a sordid affair, on her birthday, but his mistress is also pregnant with his baby. Seeking solace, Sophie flees to Cape May, New Jersey, a quiet coastal town where she spent many summers as a child. There she encounters Liam Harper, a brooding carpenter who seems intent to keep everyone at a distance. Despite his best efforts, Sophie recognizes the vulnerability under his prickly exterior, sparking a curiosity about him that she can’t ignore.

Liam Harper is walking around with the weight of the world on his shoulders. Haunted by a tragedy from his past that changed him forever, Liam doesn’t believe he deserves love or happiness. After being unexpectedly awarded permanent custody of his one-year-old niece, Liam’s script flips yet again. He doesn’t know the first thing about parenthood, and his gruff exterior makes it hard for him to ask for help. When the beautiful and heartbroken Sophie becomes his new neighbor, Liam never expects her to be the one to chip away his defenses.

As the two navigate their attraction and work to heal old wounds, emotions run high. If they want to change the tides of their futures, they must decide whether love is worth the risk. Will they walk away forever, or will fate step in and see them through?

Content Warnings:
PTSD
Infidelity
Infertility (not directly on page)
Fatal Car Crash]]> 387 Linny Mack 1964264103 Donna 0 to-read 4.41
author: Linny Mack
name: Donna
average rating: 4.41
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/20
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]]> 42042731 Rebecca Rosenberg Donna 0 to-read 3.67
author: Rebecca Rosenberg
name: Donna
average rating: 3.67
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> 205126997
“Sparks is superb at what he does. The setting is postcard perfect. The characters are immensely likable. . . . This is a tidy miracle you can count on.”—The Washington Post

Tanner Hughes was raised by his grandparents, following in his grandfather’s military footsteps to become an Army Ranger. His whole life has been spent abroad, and he is the proverbial rolling stone: happiest when off on his next adventure, zero desire to settle down. But when his grandmother passes away, her last words to him are find where you belong. She also drops a bombshell, telling him the name of the father he never knew—and where to find him.

Tanner is due at his next posting soon, but his curiosity is piqued, and he sets out for Asheboro, North Carolina, to ask around. He’s been in town less than twenty-four hours when he meets Kaitlyn Cooper, a doctor and single mom. They both feel an immediate connection; Tanner knows Kaitlyn has a story to tell, and he wants to hear it. To Kaitlyn, Tanner is mysterious, exciting—and possibly leaving in just a few weeks.

Meanwhile, nearby, eighty-three-year-old Jasper lives alone in a cabin bordering a national forest. With only his old dog, Arlo, for company, he lives quietly, haunted by a tragic accident that took place decades before. When he hears rumors that a white deer has been spotted in the forest—a creature of legend that inspired his father and grandfather—he becomes obsessed with protecting the deer from poachers.

As these characters� fates orbit closer together, none of them is expecting a miracle . . . but that may be exactly what is about to alter their futures forever.]]> 368 Nicholas Sparks 0593449592 Donna 5 4.05 2024
author: Nicholas Sparks
name: Donna
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/19
date added: 2025/02/19
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Nicholas Sparks did not disappoint! Hard to put down!! The symbolism and connections were endearing and relevant to me!
]]> 9717 The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera tells the story of a young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing and one of his mistresses and her humbly faithful lover. This magnificent novel juxtaposes geographically distant places, brilliant and playful reflections, and a variety of styles, to take its place as perhaps the major achievement of one of the world’s truly great writers.]]> 314 Milan Kundera 0571224385 Donna 5 excellent! 4.12 1984
author: Milan Kundera
name: Donna
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1984
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/02/17
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review:
excellent!
]]> 217927387 From the screenwriter and co-author of the #1 New York Times bestselling novel and film Five Feet Apart comes an epic YA sapphic romance, unfolding over two sets of lives, one hundred years apart.

Nineteen-year-old Libby has always been inexplicably drawn to the old Victorian house on Mulberry Lane. So much so that when she sees a For Sale sign go up in the front yard, Libby uses all the money her grandmother left her to pay for college to buy the house instead, determined to fix it up herself—even though she knows her parents will be furious. Soon after moving in, she discovers a journal written by a young woman, Elizabeth Post, who lived in the house nearly a century earlier. It doesn’t take long for the journal to reveal that Elizabeth was madly in love with her personal maid, Patricia.ĚýA love that was forbidden and dangerous, especially at that time.

Enter Tish, a brash, broke fellow college student, who passes by the house one day and is mysteriously compelled to knock on the door. Soon Libby offers Tish a room in exchange for her help in fixing up the old house, and the two young women quickly find themselves falling for each other. But as Elizabeth’s journal entries delve deeper into her secret love affair with Patricia, uncanny similarities between that young couple and Libby and Tish are revealed, and it becomes clear that this may not be their first time in this house, or in this love. Is this their chance to get it right?]]> 368 Mikki Daughtry 0593533828 Donna 3 4.05
author: Mikki Daughtry
name: Donna
average rating: 4.05
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/17
date added: 2025/02/17
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A good young adult read about independence and coming of age. I definitely liked the storyline about her past life, gave it a historical edge.
]]> 220161203 An exquisite and revelatory debut novel about the devastating consequences of one woman’s affair.

1982. Dawn is a young mother, still adjusting to life with her husband, when Hazel lights up her world like a torch in the dark. Theirs is the kind of connection that’s impossible to resist, and suddenly life is more complicated, and more joyful, than Dawn ever expected. But she has responsibilities and commitments. She has a daughter.

2022. Heron has just received news from his doctor that turns everything upside down. He’s an older man, stuck in the habits of a quiet existence. Telling Maggie, his only child—the person around whom his life has revolved—seems impossible. Heron can’t tell her about his diagnosis, just as he can’t reveal all the other secrets he’s been keeping from her for so many years.

A Family Matter is a heartbreaking and hopeful exploration of love and loss, intimacy and injustice, custody and care, and whether it is possible to heal from the wounds of the past in the changed world of today.]]> 240 Claire Lynch 1668078899 Donna 0 to-read 4.27
author: Claire Lynch
name: Donna
average rating: 4.27
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/17
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]]> 221733722 There’s no place like home�

Blake Porter is riding high, until he's not. Fired abruptly from his job as a VP of marketing and unable to make the mortgage payments on the new brownstone that he shares with his fiancee, he's desperate to make ends meet.

Enter Whitney. Beautiful, charming, down-to-earth, and looking for a room to rent. She's exactly what Blake's looking for. Or is she?

Because something isn't quite right. The neighbors start treating Blake differently. The smell of decay permeates his home, no matter how hard he scrubs. Strange noises jar him awake in the middle of the night. And soon Blake fears someone knows his darkest secrets...

Danger lives right at home, and by the time Blake realizes it, it'll be far too late. The trap is already set.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden knocks at your door with a gripping story of revenge, privilege, and secrets turned sour�]]> 368 Freida McFadden 1464227314 Donna 0 to-read 4.44 2025
author: Freida McFadden
name: Donna
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/17
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]]> 214175156 #1 New York Times bestselling author Sandra Brown returns with a sexy thriller where an unruly detective and an ­­­­ambitious tv show producer work against the clock to prevent another young woman from disappearing before the next blood moon—while trying to resist the attraction between them.

Detective John Bowie is one misstep away from being fired from the Auclair Police Department in coastal Louisiana. Recently divorced and slightly heavy-handed with his liquor, Bowie does all that he can to cope with the actions taken (or not taken) during the investigation of Crissy Mellin, a teenage girl who disappeared more than three years prior. But now, Crisis Point, a long-running true crime television series, is soon to air an episode documenting the unsolved Mellin case. Bowie has been instructed by his unscrupulous boss to keep to himself his grievances and criticisms over the mishandling of the investigation.

Beth Collins, a senior producer on Crisis Point, knows what classifies as a great story and when there’s something more to be told. After working on the show for seven years researching, fact checking, and editing dozens of episodes, Collins is convinced that Crissy Mellin’s disappearance was not an isolated incident. A string of disappearances of teenage girls in nearby areas have only one thing in common: They took place on the night of a blood moon. In a last-ditch effort to find out the truth, Beth leaves New York City for Louisiana to enlist Detective Bowie in helping her figure out what happened to Crissy and find the true culprit before he acts on the next blood moon—in four days� time.

At the risk of their jobs and lives, Bowie and Collins band together to identify and capture a canny perpetrator, while fighting an irresistible spark between them that threatens to upend everything.]]> 448 Sandra Brown 1538742985 Donna 0 to-read 3.90 2025
author: Sandra Brown
name: Donna
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/17
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]]> 227979824 Enter to win the GoodReads Giveaway for paperback ARCS! /giveaway/sh...

A Spellbinding Saga of Ambition, Echoes, and Redemption Based on a true story.
1920s, Chicago. A rising starlet’s life takes a dark turn when a traumatic attack reawakens a secret part of herself. As Silver Dollar Tabor descends into the dangerous underworld of Chicago gangsters, her grip on reality loosens, and the line between ambition and destruction blurs. Her love affair with screenwriter Carl is tested as she falls deeper under the sway of her alter ego.

1932, Colorado. Silver’s mother, Baby Doe, is haunted by her daughter’s disappearance as she tries desperately to hang onto their family silver mine. A heartbreaking search with Carl reveals a shocking truth about Silver Dollar, a truth that will rewrite their family history forever.

What really happened to Silver Dollar Tabor? And can her mother uncover the truth before it’s too late?]]> 370 Rebecca Rosenberg 1732969965 Donna 0 to-read 4.62
author: Rebecca Rosenberg
name: Donna
average rating: 4.62
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/16
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]]> 217387937 A pulse-pounding new Southern thriller from the author of the runaway bestseller A Flicker in the Dark.

Twenty-two years ago, Claire Campbell’s older sister, Natalie, disappeared shortly after her eighteenth birthday. Days later, her blood was found in a car, a man was arrested, and the case was swiftly closed. In the decades since, Claire has attempted to forget her traumatic past by moving to the city and climbing the ranks as an investigative journalist... until an unexpected call from her father forces her to come back home and face it all anew.

With the entire summer now looming ahead—a summer spent with nothing to do in her childhood home, with her estranged mother—Claire decides on a whim to accept a seasonal job at Galloway Farm, a muscadine vineyard in coastal South Carolina less than an hour away from where she grew up. At first glance, Galloway is an idyllic escape for Claire. A scenic retreat full of slow-paced nostalgia, as well as a place where her sister seemed truly happy in that last summer before she vanished, it feels like the perfect plan to pass the time. However, as soon as Claire starts to settle in, she stumbles across an old diary written by one of the vineyard's owners, and what at first seems like a story of young rebellion and love turns into something much more sinister as it begins to describe details of various unsolved crimes. As the days stretch on, Claire finds herself becoming more and more secluded as she starts to obsess over the diary's contents� as well as the lingering feeling that her own sister's disappearance may be somehow tied to it all.

Galloway was supposed to be a place to help her move forward, but instead, Claire quickly finds herself immersed in her own dark and dangerous past.]]> 336 Stacy Willingham 1250887976 Donna 0 to-read 4.22 2025
author: Stacy Willingham
name: Donna
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/13
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]]> 217223453 Highly acclaimedĚýNew York TimesĚýbestseller Laura Lippman returns with an irresistible mystery featuring Muriel Blossom, a former private investigator and middle-aged widow whose vacation on a Parisian river cruise turns into a deadly international mystery…that only she can solve.Ěý

Mrs. Blossom is not the kind of woman to play the lottery. She is practical, a devoted grandmother, and has a knack for blending into the background, which was an asset during her days assisting private investigator Tess Monaghan. But when Mrs. Blossom finds a winning ticket in a parking lot, everything changes...including Mrs. Blossom. She is determined to see the world that sometimes feels as if it’s passing her by.

But when Mrs. Blossom booked her cruise through France on the MS Solitaire, she did not expect to meet Allan on her transatlantic flight. He is the first man who’s sparked something inside her since her beloved husband passed.

She also didn’t expect Allan to be found, dead, twenty-four hours later in Paris, a city he wasn’t supposed to be in.

Now Mrs. Blossom doesn’t know who to trust on board the ship, especially when a new, mystifying man, Danny, keeps popping up around every corner, always present when things go awry. He claims that Allan was involved in the transport of a stolen, precious piece of art, and he’s convinced that Mrs. Blossom knows more than she lets on, regarding both the artifact and Allan’s murder.

Mrs. Blossom’s questions only increase as the cruise sails down the Seine. Why does it feel like she is being followed? Who was Allan, and why was he killed? Most alarmingly, why do these mysterious men keep flirting with her?

What follows is a charming one-of-a-kind mystery from one ofĚýTime magazine’s “essential crime writers of the last 100 years.â€� The perfect combination of cozy and thrilling, this novel and the delightful Mrs. Blossom are sure to be unforgettable.]]> 272 Laura Lippman 0062998102 Donna 0 to-read 3.75 2025
author: Laura Lippman
name: Donna
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/13
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]]> 197717646
It's 2004 and former reality TV star and party girl Maya Miller has just married the most eligible bachelor on the planet: Colin Sterling, of the globally famous Sterling family whose history of aristocratic titles and land holdings rival a British royal and whose media empire is comparable to the Murdochs. To some, Maya represents the American dream. To others, a gold digger. But when Colin's cousin Arianna, the heiress to the family's immense fortune, is found murdered, Maya is thrust into the spotlight: first as she is revealed to be the next heiress to the fortune, and then as the prime suspect.

Swiftly, the entire Sterling family goes into lockdown at Silver House, the family's ancestral estate in the English countryside. They're told it's for their own safety—but Maya becomes convinced that it's not to keep threats out, but to keep secrets in. Now, she has no choice but to find and expose the truth hidden within the Sterling family, and why Arianna, a girl she had never met, chose her to take her place. But Maya has secrets of her own. And she knows that in order to survive the Sterlings, she'll have to beat them at their own game.]]> 432 Anna Sophia McLoughlin 1728296137 Donna 0 to-read 3.53 2025
author: Anna Sophia McLoughlin
name: Donna
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/10
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]]> 22466686
Caroline Adams is a nurse with a special she sees things others can’t see. She knows that Ben is more than he seems, and that the crows are trying to tell him something.

What the crows know could shed new light on the mystery of Ana's disappearance, or it could place Ben and Caroline at risk of vanishing just like she did.]]> 353 B.B. Griffith 0989940055 Donna 0 to-read 4.09 2014
author: B.B. Griffith
name: Donna
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/09
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]]> 197063361
Leigh grew up in Rotterdam, drawn to the waterfront as an escape from her unhappy home life and volatile father. Enchanted by the undersea world of her childhood, she excels in marine biology, travelling the globe to study ancient organisms. When a trench is discovered in the Atlantic ocean, Leigh joins the exploration team, hoping to find evidence of the earth's first life forms � what she instead finds calls into question everything we know about our own beginnings. Her discovery leads Leigh to the Mojave desert and an ambitious new space agency.

Drawn deeper into the agency's work, she learns that the Atlantic trench is only one of several related phenomena from across the world, each piece linking up to suggest a pattern beyond human understanding. Leigh knows that to continue working with the agency will mean leaving behind her declining mother and her younger sister, and faces an impossible choice: to remain with her family, or to embark on a journey across the breadth of the cosmos.

Exploring the natural world with the wonder and reverence we usually reserve for the stars,ĚýIn AscensionĚýis a compassionate, deeply inquisitive epic that reaches outward to confront the greatest questions of existence, looks inward to illuminate the smallest details of the human heart, and shows how â€� no matter how far away we might be and how much we have lost hope â€� we will always attempt to return to the people and places we call home.]]> 496 Martin MacInnes 0802163467 Donna 0 to-read 3.69 2023
author: Martin MacInnes
name: Donna
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/06
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]]> 384758 Charming Billy, a woman recalls her fifteenth summer with the wry and bittersweet wisdom of hindsight.

The beautiful child of older parents, raised on the eastern end of Long Island, Theresa is her town's most sought-after babysitter--cheerful, poised, an effortless storyteller, a wonder with children and animals. Among her charges this fateful summer is Daisy, her younger cousin, who has come to spend a few quiet weeks in this bucolic place. While Theresa copes with the challenge presented by the neighborhood's waiflike children, the tumultuous households of her employers, the attentions of an aging painter, and Daisy's fragility of body and spirit, her precocious, tongue-in-check sense of order is tested as she makes the perilous crossing into adulthood. In her deeply etched rendering of all that happened that seemingly idyllic season, McDermott once again peers into the depths of everyday life with inimitable insight and grace.]]> 242 Alice McDermott 0312422911 Donna 0 to-read 3.53 1984
author: Alice McDermott
name: Donna
average rating: 3.53
book published: 1984
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/06
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]]> 126849 224 Alice McDermott 0747563942 Donna 0 to-read 3.54 1992
author: Alice McDermott
name: Donna
average rating: 3.54
book published: 1992
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/06
shelves: to-read
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]]> 17332207
Our first glimpse of Marie is as a child: a girl in glasses waiting on a Brooklyn stoop for her beloved father to come home from work. A seemingly innocuous encounter with a young woman named Pegeen sets the bittersweet tone of this remarkable novel. Pegeen describes herself as an "amadan," a fool; indeed, soon after her chat with Marie, Pegeen tumbles down her own basement stairs. The magic of McDermott's novel lies in how it reveals us all as fools for this or that, in one way or another.

Marie's first heartbreak and her eventual marriage; her brother's brief stint as a Catholic priest, subsequent loss of faith, and eventual breakdown; the Second World War; her parents' deaths; the births and lives of Marie's children; the changing world of her Irish-American enclave in Brooklyn - McDermott sketches all of it with sympathy and insight. This is a novel that speaks of life as it is daily lived; a crowning achievement by one of the finest American writers at work today.

Membership]]> 232 Alice McDermott 0374281092 Donna 5 3.77 2013
author: Alice McDermott
name: Donna
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/06
date added: 2025/02/06
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review:
This book captured me all the way-the Irish storytelling of love and families !! Charming and heartwarming read!
]]> 25814222 A charming, warmhearted novel from the author of the New York Times bestseller A Man Called Ove.

Elsa is seven years old and different. Her grandmother is seventy-seven years old and crazy—as in standing-on-the-balcony-firing-paintball-guns-at-strangers crazy. She is also Elsa’s best, and only, friend. At night Elsa takes refuge in her grandmother’s stories, in the Land-of-Almost-Awake and the Kingdom of Miamas, where everybody is different and nobody needs to be normal.

When Elsa’s grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters apologizing to people she has wronged, Elsa’s greatest adventure begins. Her grandmother’s instructions lead her to an apartment building full of drunks, monsters, attack dogs, and old crones but also to the truth about fairy tales and kingdoms and a grandmother like no other.

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry is told with the same comic accuracy and beating heart as Fredrik Backman’s bestselling debut novel, A Man Called Ove. It is a story about life and death and one of the most important human rights: the right to be different.]]> 372 Fredrik Backman 1501115073 Donna 0 to-read 4.07 2013
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Donna
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/04
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]]> 58967290 Penguin Readers is an ELT graded reader series for learners of English as a foreign language. With carefully adapted text, new illustrations and language learning exercises, the print edition also includes instructions to access supporting material online.

Titles include popular classics, exciting contemporary fiction, and thought-provoking non-fiction, introducing language learners to bestselling authors and compelling content.

The eight levels of Penguin Readers follow the Common European Framework of Reference for language learning (CEFR). Exercises at the back of each Reader help language learners to practise grammar, vocabulary, and key exam skills. Before, during and after-reading questions test readers' story comprehension and develop vocabulary.

Breakfast at Tiffany's, a Level 4 Reader, is A2+ in the CEFR framework. The text is made up of sentences with up to three clauses, introducing more complex uses of present perfect simple, passives, phrasal verbs and simple relative clauses. It is well supported by illustrations, which appear regularly.

Visit the Penguin Readers website
Exclusively with the print edition, readers can unlock online resources including a digital book, audio edition, lesson plans and answer keys.

An unnamed writer remembers living in New York City in the United States of America during World War II. He becomes friends with one of his neighbors, the beautiful yet strange, Holly Golightly.]]> 80 Truman Capote 0241542553 Donna 0 to-read 3.61 1958
author: Truman Capote
name: Donna
average rating: 3.61
book published: 1958
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/03
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]]> 45300567
Mariana Andros is a brilliant but troubled group therapist who becomes fixated on The Maidens when one member, a friend of Mariana’s niece Zoe, is found murdered in Cambridge.

Mariana, who was once herself a student at the university, quickly suspects that behind the idyllic beauty of the spires and turrets, and beneath the ancient traditions, lies something sinister. And she becomes convinced that, despite his alibi, Edward Fosca is guilty of the murder. But why would the professor target one of his students? And why does he keep returning to the rites of Persephone, the maiden, and her journey to the underworld?

When another body is found, Mariana’s obsession with proving Fosca’s guilt spirals out of control, threatening to destroy her credibility as well as her closest relationships. But Mariana is determined to stop this killer, even if it costs her everything—including her own life.]]> 337 Alex Michaelides 1250304458 Donna 4 Violent for my taste; again great ending!!]]> 3.61 2021
author: Alex Michaelides
name: Donna
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/03
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves:
review:
Intense and suspenseful but a bit too
Violent for my taste; again great ending!!
]]> 213243949 A new Anne Tyler novel destined to be an instant classic: a socially awkward mother of the bride navigates the days before and after her daughter's wedding.

Gail Baines is having a bad day. To start, she loses her job—or quits, depending on whom you ask. Tomorrow her daughter, Debbie, is getting married, and she hasn’t even been invited to the spa day organized by the mother of the groom. Then, Gail’s ex-husband, Max, arrives unannounced on her doorstep, carrying a cat, without a place to stay, and without even a suit.

But the true crisis lands when Debbie shares with her parents a secret she has just learned about her husband to be. It will not only throw the wedding into question but also stir up Gail and Max’s past.

Told with deep sensitivity and a tart sense of humor, full of the joys and heartbreaks of love and marriage and family life,ĚýThree Days in JuneĚýis a triumph, and gives us the perennially bestselling, Pulitzer Prize–winning writer at the height of her powers

]]> 165 Anne Tyler 0593803485 Donna 0 to-read 3.61 2025
author: Anne Tyler
name: Donna
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/03
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]]> 213960819 Soon to be a major motion picture starring Hugh Jackman and Emma Thompson, this funny and surprising mystery features a new breed of detectives you’ve got to read to baaaaa-lieve.

This twentieth-anniversary deluxe paperback features a foreword by A. J. Finn, discussion questions, and more.

Something is not right with George the shepherd. His sheep have gathered around him outside the cozy Irish village of Glennkill to assess the situation. George has cared for the sheep, reading them books every night, and now he lies pinned to the ground with a spade. His flock, far savvier about the workings of the human mind than your average sheep, sets out to find George’s killer, led by Miss Maple, the smartest sheep in Glennkill (and possibly the world).

Her team of investigators includes Othello, who was rescued from the Dublin Zoo; Mopple the Whale, who is always hungry and remembers everything; and Zora, an existential ewe—just to name a few. Together, the sheep discuss the crime late into the night, and their speculations vary wildly. Determined to unravel the mystery, they embark on furtive missions into the village, where they encounter a hoof-full of two-legged suspects. There’s Ham, the terrifying butcher who smells of death; Rebecca, the secretive village newcomer; and Father Will, a sinister priest the sheep call God.

With wit and heart, this clever international bestseller is a mystery to chew on—and savor.]]> 384 Leonie Swann 1641296828 Donna 0 to-read 3.53 2005
author: Leonie Swann
name: Donna
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/01
shelves: to-read
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]]> 218155515 A powerful, captivating novel of historical fiction from the acclaimed author of The Titanic Sisters, based on the little-known story of the thousands of young women sent from Irish workhouses to Australia after the Famine.

1848: The girls, 4,000 in all, come from every part of Ireland—from the shores of Galway to the Glens of Ulster and Belfast’s teeming streets—to board ships bound for Australia. All were chosen from Ireland’s crowded workhouses. Most are orphans. The Earl Grey Scheme was presented as an opportunity for young women to gain employment as domestic servants in the Colony. But there is another, unstated purpose—the girls are to “civilize� the many men sent there as convicts, so that settlements can be built.
Ěý
Kate Gilvarry has spent six months in a Newry workhouse, subsisting on a diet of watery porridge. She knows there’s no future for her either within its walls or outside, in a ravaged, starving land. But once Kate’s ship completes the harrowing voyage, she and her companions find their reception in Sydney dismayingly unwelcoming, as anti-Irish sentiment grows. Homesick, and disillusioned by love following a shipboard crush, Kate strives to fit in, first as the servant of a demanding English woman, then as a farmer’s bride in the Outback.
Ěý
When heat and drought force her husband to leave for long periods to work on a sheep ranch, Kate is left alone to fend off wild animals, drifters, and her aching loneliness. She longs to return to Ireland. But first, this beautiful, unforgiving country will teach her about resilience and survival, and the limitless possibilities that come with courage and love.
Ěý
Evocative and compelling, The Famine Orphans is a testament to the young women whose pioneering spirit left an enduring legacy in a land so far from home.
Ěý]]> 368 Patricia Falvey 1496748131 Donna 0 to-read 4.33
author: Patricia Falvey
name: Donna
average rating: 4.33
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/01
shelves: to-read
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]]> 219848297 A stunningly original love story between a museum employee and the man in a masterpiece hanging on the walls—a breathtaking debut about time, art, and the enduring power of love.

Jean’s life is the same day in and day out. Frozen in time by his painter father, the legendary Henri Matisse, Jean observes the ebb and flow of museum guests as they take in the works of his father and other masters like Renoir, Picasso, and Van Gogh. But his world takes a mesmerizing turn when Claire, a new museum employee, enters his life.

Night after night, Claire moves through the gallery where Jean's painting hangs, mopping the floors, talking softly to herself to stem her loneliness and gazing admiringly at the masterpieces above. The alluring man in the corner of the Matisse—is he watching her? Why does she feel a deepening pull to him, like he can see her truest self, her secrets? Did he just move?Ěý

In an extraordinary twist of fate, Claire discovers she can step through the frame of Jean's painting and into a bygone era, a lush, verdant snapshot of family life in France in the throes of World War I. She and Jean begin a seemingly impossible affair, falling in love against the backdrop of the gallery’s other paintings come to life—glittering parties, exhilarating horse races, and windswept beach bluffs, that they can move through together and where Claire is seemingly the only modern visitor, alone in possession of this gift.

But as their happiness is threatened by challenges both inside and outside the museum, Claire and Jean find themselves in a fight to preserve the love they’ve only dared to dream of. Will their extraordinary connection defy the confines of reality, or will the forces conspiring against them shatter their carefully curated happiness?]]> 304 Morgan Pager 0593875389 Donna 0 to-read 3.84 2025
author: Morgan Pager
name: Donna
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/01
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]]> 224311 215 Isaac Bashevis Singer 0374213437 Donna 3 4.22 2000
author: Isaac Bashevis Singer
name: Donna
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/30
date added: 2025/01/30
shelves:
review:
A good read -humorous reveal of a Rabbi in Warsaw-nothing too deep but a nice view of life struggles and how this Rabbi gives guidance
]]> 52901474 The Home for Unwanted Girls meets Orphan Train in this unforgettable novel about a young girl caught in a scheme to rid England’s streets of destitute children, and the lengths she will go to find her way home—based on the true story of the British Home Children.

2018

At ninety-seven years old, Winnifred Ellis knows she doesn’t have much time left, and it is almost a relief to realize that once she is gone, the truth about her shameful past will die with her. But when her great-grandson Jamie, the spitting image of her dear late husband, asks about his family tree, Winnifred can’t lie any longer, even if it means breaking a promise she made so long ago...

1936

Fifteen-year-old Winny has never known a real home. After running away from an abusive stepfather, she falls in with Mary, Jack, and their ragtag group of friends roaming the streets of Liverpool. When the children are caught stealing food, Winny and Mary are left in Dr. Barnardo’s Barkingside Home for Girls, a local home for orphans and forgotten children found in the city’s slums. At Barkingside, Winny learns she will soon join other boys and girls in a faraway place called Canada, where families and better lives await them.

But Winny’s hopes are dashed when she is separated from her friends and sent to live with a family that has no use for another daughter. Instead, they have paid for an indentured servant to work on their farm. Faced with this harsh new reality, Winny clings to the belief that she will someday find her friends again.

Inspired by true events, The Forgotten Home Child is a moving and heartbreaking novel about place, belonging, and family—the one we make for ourselves and its enduring power to draw us home.]]> 384 Genevieve Graham 198212895X Donna 0 to-read 4.36 2020
author: Genevieve Graham
name: Donna
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/28
shelves: to-read
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]]> 36183441
Then, one day, a handsome stranger ventures into the store. He claims to be a trapper come from away, and as Grace gets to know him, she becomes enamoured by his gentle smile and thoughtful ways. But after a several weeks, she discovers that Rudi, her mysterious visitor, is not the lonely outsider he appears to be, but someone else entirely—someone not to be trusted. When a shocking truth about her family forces Grace to question everything she has so strongly believed, she realizes that she and Rudi have more in common than she had thought. And if Grace is to have a chance at love, she must not only choose a side, but take a stand.]]> 324 Genevieve Graham 1501142895 Donna 0 to-read 3.86 2018
author: Genevieve Graham
name: Donna
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/28
shelves: to-read
review:

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