en-US Fri, 02 May 2025 21:34:35 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 22571757 It’s What I Do is the story of how the relentless pursuit of truth, in virtually every major theater of war in the twenty-first century, has shaped her life. What she does, with clarity, beauty, and candor, is to document, often in their most extreme moments, the complex lives of others. It’s her work, but it’s much more than that: it’s her singular calling.

Lynsey Addario was just finding her way as a young photographer when September 11 changed the world. One of the few photojournalists with experience in Afghanistan, she gets the call to return and cover the American invasion. She makes a decision she would often find herself making—not to stay home, not to lead a quiet or predictable life, but to set out across the world, face the chaos of crisis, and make a name for herself.

Addario finds a way to travel with a purpose. She photographs the Afghan people before and after the Taliban reign, the civilian casualties and misunderstood insurgents of the Iraq War, as well as the burned villages and countless dead in Darfur. She exposes a culture of violence against women in the Congo and tells the riveting story of her headline-making kidnapping by pro-Qaddafi forces in the Libyan civil war.

Addario takes bravery for granted but she is not fearless. She uses her fear and it creates empathy; it is that feeling, that empathy, that is essential to her work. We see this clearly on display as she interviews rape victims in the Congo, or photographs a fallen soldier with whom she had been embedded in Iraq, or documents the tragic lives of starving Somali children. Lynsey takes us there and we begin to understand how getting to the hard truth trumps fear.

As a woman photojournalist determined to be taken as seriously as her male peers, Addario fights her way into a boys�� club of a profession. Rather than choose between her personal life and her career, Addario learns to strike a necessary balance. In the man who will become her husband, she finds at last a real love to complement her work, not take away from it, and as a new mother, she gains an all the more intensely personal understanding of the fragility of life.

Watching uprisings unfold and people fight to the death for their freedom, Addario understands she is documenting not only news but also the fate of society. It’s What I Do is more than just a snapshot of life on the front lines; it is witness to the human cost of war.]]> 368 Lynsey Addario 159420537X Liv 0 currently-reading 4.33 2015
author: Lynsey Addario
name: Liv
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/05/02
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]]> 95833 Winner of the Tony Award for Best Play, nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and soon to be back on Broadway in a revival directed by the Lion King's Julie Taymor, starring Clive Owen

"A brilliant play of ideas... a visionary work that bridges the history and culture of two worlds."--Frank Rich, New York TimesBased on a true story that stunned the world, and inspired by Giacomo Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly, M. Butterfly was an immediate sensation when it premiered in 1988. It opens in the cramped prison cell where diplomat Rene Gallimard is being held captive by the French government--and by his own illusions. He recalls a time when Song Liling, the beautiful Chinese diva, touched him with a love as vivid, as seductive--and as elusive--as a butterfly.

How could he have known that his true love was, in fact, a spy for the Chinese government--and a man disguised as a woman? The diplomat relives the twenty-year affair from the temptation to the seduction, from its consummation to the scandal that ultimately consumed them both.

M. Butterfly is one of the most compelling, explosive, and slyly humorous dramas ever to light the Broadway stage, a work of unrivaled brilliance, illuminating the conflict between men and women, the differences between East and West, racial stereotypes--and the shadows we cast around our most cherished illusions.



The original cast included John Lithgow as Gallimard and BD Wong as Song Liling. During the show's 777-performance run, David Dukes, Anthony Hopkins, Tony Randall, and John Rubinstein were also cast as Gallimard. Hwang adapted the play for a 1993 film directed by David Cronenberg, starring Jeremy Irons and John Lone.

TEXT OF THE BROADWAY REVIVAL]]> 72 David Henry Hwang 0822207125 Liv 4 3.93 1988
author: David Henry Hwang
name: Liv
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1988
rating: 4
read at: 2025/05/02
date added: 2025/05/02
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]]> 57314572 The right cause can topple a kingdom.

Once upon a time, the kingdoms of Wales were rife with magic and conflict—and eighteen-year-old Mererid, or Mer, is well acquainted with both. As the last living water diviner, she can manipulate water with magic, and it's a skill many would kill to possess.

For years, Mer has been running from the prince who bound her into his service and forced her to kill hundreds with her magic. Now all Mer desires is a safe, quiet life far from power and politics. But that peace is disrupted when Mer’s old handler returns with a proposition: use her abilities to bring down the very prince that abused them both.

With a motley crew of allies—including a fae-cursed young man, the lady of thieves, and a corgi that may or may not be a spy—Mer must decide whether to run for the rest of her life or stand and fight for the true freedom she's long desired.

Part heist novel, part dark fairy tale, this immersive and ethereal fantasy from acclaimed author Emily Lloyd-Jones will enchant readers until the very last page.]]> 346 Emily Lloyd-Jones 0759556318 Liv 0 currently-reading 3.86 2022
author: Emily Lloyd-Jones
name: Liv
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/05/02
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]]> 199798006
As a young, queer couple who flip houses, Charlie and Eve can’t believe the killer deal they’ve just gotten on an old house in a picturesque neighborhood. As they’re working in the house one day, there’s a knock on the door. A man stands there with his family, claiming to have lived there years before and asking if it would be alright if he showed his kids around. People pleaser to a fault, Eve lets them in.

As soon as the strangers enter their home, inexplicable things start happening, including the family’s youngest child going missing and a ghostly presence materializing in the basement. Even more weird, the family can’t seem to take the hint that their visit should be over. And when Charlie suddenly vanishes, Eve slowly loses her grip on reality. Something is terribly wrong with the house and with the visiting family—or is Eve just imagining things?

This unputdownable and spine-tingling novel “is like quicksand: the further you delve into its pages, the more immobilized you become by a spiral of terror. We Used to Live Here will haunt you even after you have finished it�� (Agustina Bazterrica, author of Tender Is the Flesh).]]> 312 Marcus Kliewer 1982198788 Liv 0 currently-reading 3.66 2024
author: Marcus Kliewer
name: Liv
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/05/02
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]]> 211004089
Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers. But with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants, packing up the seeds before they are transported to safer ground. Despite the wild beauty of life here, isolation has taken its toll on the Salts. Raff, eighteen and suffering his first heartbreak, can only find relief at his punching bag; Fen, seventeen, has started spending her nights on the beach among the seals; nine-year-old Orly, obsessed with botany, fears the loss of his beloved natural world; and Dominic can’t stop turning back toward the past, and the loss that drove the family to Shearwater in the first place.

Then, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman washes up on shore. As the Salts nurse the woman, Rowan, back to life, their suspicion gives way to affection, and they finally begin to feel like a family again. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting her heart, begins to fall for the Salts, too. But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers the sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own dark secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, the characters must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it’s too late—and if they can finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together.]]> 303 Charlotte McConaghy 1250827957 Liv 5 4.27 2025
author: Charlotte McConaghy
name: Liv
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/05/02
date added: 2025/05/02
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]]> 216437557 disastrously close. A gorgeous veterinarian giving Greek god vibes—all while cuddling a tiny kitten? Immediately yes. That is until Xavier opens his mouth and proves that even sculpted gods can say the absolute wrong thing. Like, really wrong. Of course, there’s nothing Samantha loves more than proving an asshole wrong��

. . . unless, of course, he can admit he made a mistake. But after one incredible and seemingly endless date—possibly the best in living history—Samantha is forced to admit the truth, that her family is in crisis and any kind of relationship would be impossible. Samantha begs Xavier to forget her. To remember their night together as a perfect moment, as crushing as that may be.

Only no amount of distance or time is nearly enough to forget that something between them. And the only thing better than one single perfect memory is to make a life—and even a love—worth remembering.]]> 416 Abby Jimenez 0349442827 Liv 3 4.11 2025
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Liv
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/28
date added: 2025/04/28
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]]> 62322008
Now Sally is the centre of attention, not only from the hungry media and worried police, but also a sinister voice from a past she has no memory of. As she begins to discover the horrors of her childhood, recluse Sally steps into the world for the first time, making new friends, finding independence, and learning that people don't always mean what they say.

But when messages start arriving from a stranger who knows far more about her past than she knows herself, Sally's life will be thrown into chaos once again . . .]]> 384 Liz Nugent 1844885968 Liv 3 4.14 2023
author: Liz Nugent
name: Liv
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/28
date added: 2025/04/28
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]]> 59314662 #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Selection series Kiera Cass is back with her most epic novel yet—a sweeping enemies-to-lovers standalone romance.

“Love has a sound. It sounds like a thousand heartbeats happening at the same time.��

Princess Annika has lived a life of comfort—but no amount of luxuries can change the fact that her life isn’t her own to control. The king, once her loving father, has gone cold, and Annika will soon be forced into a loveless marriage for political gain.

Miles away, small comforts are few and far between for Lennox. He has devoted his life to the Dahrainian army, hoping to one day help them reclaim the throne that was stolen from them. For Lennox, the idea of love is merely a distraction—nothing will stand in the way of fighting for his people.

But when love, against all odds, finds them both, they are bound by its call. They can’t possibly be together—but the irresistible thrum of a thousand heartbeats won’t let them stay apart.

Kiera Cass brings her signature sparkling romance to this beautiful story of star-crossed lovers and long-held secrets.]]> 576 Kiera Cass 0062665782 Liv 1 3.90 2022
author: Kiera Cass
name: Liv
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2022
rating: 1
read at: 2025/04/24
date added: 2025/04/24
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]]> 220341389 John Green, the #1 bestselling author of The Anthropocene Reviewed and a passionate advocate for global healthcare reform, tells a deeply human story illuminating the fight against the world’s deadliest disease.

Tuberculosis has been entwined with humanity for millennia. Once romanticized as a malady of poets, today tuberculosis is a disease of poverty that walks the trails of injustice and inequity we blazed for it.

In 2019, John Green met Henry, a young tuberculosis patient at Lakka Government Hospital in Sierra Leone while traveling with Partners in Health. John became fast friends with Henry, a boy with spindly legs and a big, goofy smile. In the years since that first visit to Lakka, Green has become a vocal and dynamic advocate for increased access to treatment and wider awareness of the healthcare inequities that allow this curable, treatable infectious disease to also be the deadliest, killing 1.5 million people every year.

In Everything is Tuberculosis, John tells Henry’s story, woven through with the scientific and social histories of how tuberculosis has shaped our world and how our choices will shape the future of tuberculosis.]]> 208 John Green 0525556575 Liv 4 4.51 2025
author: John Green
name: Liv
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/23
date added: 2025/04/23
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]]> 217387810 It’s a thin line between love and love-hating.

Katie Vaughn has been burned by love in the past—now she may be lighting her career on fire. She has two choices: wait to get laid off from her job as a video producer or, at her coworker Cole’s request, take a career-making gig profiling Tom “Hutch�� Hutcheson, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer in Key West.

The catch? Katie’s not exactly qualified. She can’t swim—but fakes it that she can.

Plus: Cole is Hutch’s brother. And they don’t get along. Next stop paradise!

But paradise is messier than it seems. As Katie gets entangled with Hutch (the most scientifically good looking man she has ever seen . . . but also a bit of a love hater), along with his colorful Aunt Rue and his rescue Great Dane, she gets trapped in a lie. Or two.

Swim lessons, helicopter flights, conga lines, drinking contests, hurricanes, and stolen kisses ensue—along with chances to tell the truth, to face old fears, and to be truly brave at last.]]> 320 Katherine Center 1250283825 Liv 4 4.02 2025
author: Katherine Center
name: Liv
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/22
date added: 2025/04/22
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]]> 51152447 The Warmth of Other Suns examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows how our lives today are still defined by a hierarchy of human divisions.

“As we go about our daily lives, caste is the wordless usher in a darkened theater, flashlight cast down in the aisles, guiding us to our assigned seats for a performance. The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power—which groups have it and which do not.��

In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings.

Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people’s lives and behavior and the nation’s fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people—including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball’s Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others—she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. She documents how the Nazis studied the racial systems in America to plan their out-cast of the Jews; she discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against; she writes about the surprising health costs of caste, in depression and life expectancy, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and politics. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity.]]> 544 Isabel Wilkerson 0593230256 Liv 4 4.52 2020
author: Isabel Wilkerson
name: Liv
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/22
date added: 2025/04/22
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]]> 36300666
1838: Northumberland, England. Longstone Lighthouse on the Farne Islands has been Grace Darling’s home for all of her twenty-two years. When she and her father rescue shipwreck survivors in a furious storm, Grace becomes celebrated throughout England, the subject of poems, ballads, and plays. But far more precious than her unsought fame is the friendship that develops between Grace and a visiting artist. Just as George Emmerson captures Grace with his brushes, she in turn captures his heart.

1938: Newport, Rhode Island. Nineteen-years-old and pregnant, Matilda Emmerson has been sent away from Ireland in disgrace. She is to stay with Harriet, a reclusive relative and assistant lighthouse keeper, until her baby is born. A discarded, half-finished portrait opens a window into Matilda’s family history. As a deadly hurricane approaches, two women, living a century apart, will be linked forever by their instinctive acts of courage and love.]]> 0 Hazel Gaynor 006269863X Liv 0 dnf 4.03 2018
author: Hazel Gaynor
name: Liv
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/21
shelves: dnf
review:

]]> 218572920 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.]]> 427 Emily Henry Liv 0 to-read 4.33 2025
author: Emily Henry
name: Liv
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/21
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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 Liv 2 4.09 2022
author: Freida McFadden
name: Liv
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2025/04/20
date added: 2025/04/20
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]]> 60209475 A new work of philosophical suspense.

Penny, an artist, has lived in the same apartment for decades, surrounded by the artifacts and keepsakes of her long life. She is resigned to the mundane rituals of old age, until things start to slip. Before her longtime partner passed away years earlier, provisions were made, unbeknownst to her, for a room in a unique long-term care residence, where Penny finds herself after one too many “incidents.��

Initially, surrounded by peers, conversing, eating, sleeping, looking out at the beautiful woods that surround the house, all is well. She even begins to paint again. But as the days start to blur together, Penny—with a growing sense of unrest and distrust—starts to lose her grip on the passage of time and on her place in the world. Is she succumbing to the subtly destructive effects of aging, or is she an unknowing participant in something more unsettling?

At once compassionate and uncanny, told in spare, hypnotic prose, Iain Reid’s genre-defying third novel explores questions of conformity, art, productivity, relationships, and what, ultimately, it means to grow old.]]> 289 Iain Reid 1982169354 Liv 3 3.76 2022
author: Iain Reid
name: Liv
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/19
date added: 2025/04/19
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]]> 22822858
Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride.��Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever.]]> 720 Hanya Yanagihara 0385539258 Liv 0 dnf 4.28 2015
author: Hanya Yanagihara
name: Liv
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: dnf
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]]> 39345870 Dolce e avvincente
La storia di un amore impossibile che colpisce al cuore

LA LETTURA PERFETTA PER LE FAN DELLA NUOVA SERIE NETFLIX “IL COLORE DELLE MAGNOLIE��.

Quando Thea Landry incontra il ricco e affascinante Logan Kendrick in un bar di New York, non si aspetta di condividere con lui nient’altro che la storia di una notte. L’attrazione tra i due è istantanea, ma i loro mondi troppo distanti per consentire a Thea di coltivare illusioni romantiche di una relazione duratura.
Del resto, da orfana abbandonata in un cassonetto, Thea conosce il suo posto nella società.
Quando si trasferisce in Montana, nella provinciale e accogliente cittadina di Lark Cove, Thea si ritroverà a fare i conti con le conseguenze delle proprie azioni sconsiderate, con l’incoscienza che l‘ha spinta a spazzare via ogni precauzione e che ora le impedisce di ritrovare Logan, destinato a rimanere per lei solo un ricordo.

Il destino, però, ha altri piani.

Sei anni dopo, durante un viaggio d’affari, Logan piomba nel piccolo bar del Montana in cui Thea lavora. Il sentimento e la passione tra loro sembrano immutati, ma non sono più i due giovani che si sono conosciuti in una lontana notte di tanti anni prima, incuranti di tutto, tranne che del loro desiderio.
La vita di Thea è drasticamente mutata dal loro ultimo incontro, e questo cambiamento rischia di abbattersi anche su Logan e di stravolgere per sempre la sua esistenza.
Tra rivelazioni, un rapporto da rinnovare e uno da costruire dalle fondamenta Thea e Logan scopriranno che il vero amore, pur attraverso percorsi tortuosi e inspiegabili, pretende di essere soddisfatto, di realizzare i sogni di due cuori destinati a non lasciarsi mai, che si sono riconosciuti al primo sguardo. «Dei personaggi indimenticabili e degli intrecci unici.» - Usa Today ]]> 372 Devney Perry Liv 0 currently-reading 4.20 2018
author: Devney Perry
name: Liv
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/17
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 61294937 Shannon Chakraborty, the bestselling author of The City of Brass, spins a new trilogy of magic and mayhem on the high seas in this tale of pirates and sorcerers, forbidden artifacts and ancient mysteries, in one woman’s determined quest to seize a final chance at glory—and write her own legend.

Amina al-Sirafi should be content. After a storied and scandalous career as one of the Indian Ocean’s most notorious pirates, she’s survived backstabbing rogues, vengeful merchant princes, several husbands, and one actual demon to retire peacefully with her family to a life of piety, motherhood, and absolutely nothing that hints of the supernatural.

But when she’s tracked down by the obscenely wealthy mother of a former crewman, she’s offered a job no bandit could refuse: retrieve her comrade’s kidnapped daughter for a kingly sum. The chance to have one last adventure with her crew, do right by an old friend, and win a fortune that will secure her family’s future forever? It seems like such an obvious choice that it must be God’s will.

Yet the deeper Amina dives, the more it becomes alarmingly clear there’s more to this job, and the girl’s disappearance, than she was led to believe. For there’s always risk in wanting to become a legend, to seize one last chance at glory, to savor just a bit more power…and the price might be your very soul.]]> 483 Shannon Chakraborty Liv 3 4.25 2023
author: Shannon Chakraborty
name: Liv
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/17
date added: 2025/04/17
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]]> 55898107
Event planner Kate Sweet is famous for creating the perfect happily-ever-after moment for her clients�� dream weddings. So how is it that her best friend has roped her into planning a bestselling horror writer’s book launch extravaganza? But the second Kate meets—or rather, accidentally maims —the drop-dead-hot Drake Matthews, her well-ordered life quickly transforms into an absolute nightmare.

Drake Matthews is tired of the spotlight and tired of his reputation as the Knight��of Nightmares. He's really a nice guy! But he’s not prepared for Kate, a fearless agent of chaos in steel-tipped stilettos, or for that sweet sting of attraction he feels for her. She’s inspiring him to take his writing in a whole new direction—one that no one expects. Because now Kate and Drake are changing up the rules, and this plot twist might just surprise everyone . . . including themselves.

"Fans of�� The Hating Game�� by Sally Thorne,�� Red, White and Royal Blue�� by Casey McQuiston,�� Get a Life, Chloe Brown�� by Talia Hibbert, and�� Written in the Stars ��by Alexandria Bellefleur will adore�� How Sweet It Is !" --The Nerd Daily

As featured
��Must-Read July Books
12 Swoonworthy Romances to Read in One Sitting]]> 352 Dylan Newton 1538754401 Liv 2 3.69 2021
author: Dylan Newton
name: Liv
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2021
rating: 2
read at: 2025/04/17
date added: 2025/04/17
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]]> 42379022
When the father Nina never knew existed suddenly dies, leaving behind innumerable sisters, brothers, nieces, and nephews, Nina is horrified. They all live close by! They're all—or mostly all—excited to meet her! She'll have to Speak. To. Strangers. It's a disaster! And as if that wasn't enough, Tom, her trivia nemesis, has turned out to be cute, funny, and deeply interested in getting to know her. Doesn't he realize what a terrible idea that is?

Nina considers her options.

1. Completely change her name and appearance. (Too drastic, plus she likes her hair.)
2. Flee to a deserted island. (Hard pass, see: coffee).
3. Hide in a corner of her apartment and rock back and forth. (Already doing it.)

It's time for Nina to come out of her comfortable shell, but she isn't convinced real life could ever live up to fiction. It's going to take a brand-new family, a persistent suitor, and the combined effects of ice cream and trivia to make her turn her own fresh page.]]> 351 Abbi Waxman 0451491882 Liv 2 3.80 2019
author: Abbi Waxman
name: Liv
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2025/04/16
date added: 2025/04/16
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]]> 220999092 “No one does suburban paranoia like Shari Lapena.”—Ruth Ware

The new gripping novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Couple Next Door

When a beloved wife and mother disappears, a luxurious condo building transforms into a potential crime scene, and the investigation begins: can the detectives find her before it's too late?

Bryden and Sam have it all: thriving careers, a smart apartment in a luxury condominium, supportive friends and a cherished daughter. The perfect life for the perfect couple.

Then Sam receives a call at his office. Bryden–working from home that day–has failed to collect their daughter from daycare. Arriving home with their little girl, he finds his wife’s car in the underground garage. Upstairs in their apartment her laptop is open on the table, her cell phone nearby, her keys in their usual place in the hall.

Except Bryden is nowhere to be seen. It’s as if she just walked out.]]> 352 Shari Lapena 0593832442 Liv 0 to-read 4.36 2025
author: Shari Lapena
name: Liv
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/14
shelves: to-read
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]]> 220161593 In this follow-up to #1 New York Times bestselling author Ruth Ware’s multi-million copy mega-hit The Women in Cabin 10, Lo Blacklock returns to attend the opening of a luxury hotel, only to find herself in a white-knuckled race across Europe.

When the invitation to attend the press opening of a luxury Swiss hotel—owned by reclusive billionaire Marcus Leidmann—arrives, it’s like the answer to a prayer. Three years after the birth of her youngest child, Lo Blacklock is ready to reestablish her journalism career, but post-pandemic travel journalism is a very different landscape from the one she left ten years ago.

The chateau on the shores of Lake Geneva is everything Lo’s ever dreamed of, and she hopes she can snag an interview with Marcus. Unfortunately, he proves to be even more difficult to pin down than his reputation suggests. When Lo gets a late-night call asking her to come to Marcus’s hotel room, she agrees despite her own misgivings. She’s greeted, however, by a woman claiming to be Marcus’s mistress, and in life-or-death jeopardy.

What follows is a thrilling cat-and-mouse pursuit across Europe, forcing Lo to ask herself just how much she’s willing to sacrifice to save this woman…and if she can even trust her?]]> 400 Ruth Ware 1668025620 Liv 0 to-read 3.84 2025
author: Ruth Ware
name: Liv
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/14
shelves: to-read
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]]> 41438776 You’re not messy—you just organize differently. Learn to make your natural habits work for you with this bestseller by the host of HGTV’s Hot Mess House! Organizing isn’t one size fits all. By discovering your unique Organizing Personality Type, you can find the most effective strategies for a more productive and clutter-free life. The Clutter Connection examines and explains how different brain types directly relate to organization and clutter. Cassandra Aarssen smashes the stereotype that some people are “naturally messy�� and offers insight and real-life solutions based on your unique personal organizing style. The Clutter Connection will help you get organized, be more productive and finally understand the why behind your clutter. Find out what type of Clutterbug you are and ·������������ The four different organizing styles and how they relate to each other ·������������ How motivation and happiness can be directly affected by our space ·������������ The ��3P’s”─Productivity, procrastination, and perfectionism, and how they’re connected to your unique organizing style ·������������ How you can finally become clutter-free simply by knowing yourself better]]> 380 Cassandra Aarssen 1633538575 Liv 4 4.12 2019
author: Cassandra Aarssen
name: Liv
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/09
date added: 2025/04/09
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Cassandra is my favorite professional organizer. This book is the perfect place to start for someone that can’t keep organized or stay on top of systems they’ve put in place previously. Years ago, she was instrumental in helping my household discover why why things weren’t working well: my spouse and I have completely opposite organizational styles. I need everything hidden away in micro-categories; he is a pile-er who needs everything visible and accessible in only a few large categories.
]]> 129466899 An incandescent romance about the misfortune of mortality and the strange salve of time, Your Absence is Darkness is a spellbinding story of death, desire, and the perfect agony of star-crossed love.]]> 456 Jón Kalman Stefánsson Liv 2 4.17 2020
author: Jón Kalman Stefánsson
name: Liv
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2025/04/07
date added: 2025/04/07
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]]> 48836839 368 Ron Lieber 006286730X Liv 4 4.10 2021
author: Ron Lieber
name: Liv
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/05
date added: 2025/04/05
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]]> 11996 "As far back as I can recall, I have been in the bunker."

A young woman is kept in a cage underground with thirty-nine other females, guarded by armed men who never speak; her crimes unremembered... if indeed there were crimes.

The youngest of forty—a child with no name and no past—she survives for some purpose long forgotten in a world ravaged and wasted. In this reality where intimacy is forbidden—in the unrelenting sameness of the artificial days and nights—she knows nothing of books and time, of needs and feelings.

Then everything changes... and nothing changes.

A young woman who has never known men—a child who knows of no history before the bars and restraints—must now reinvent herself, piece by piece, in a place she has never been... and in the face of the most challenging and terrifying of unknowns: freedom.]]> 208 Jacqueline Harpman 0380731819 Liv 4 4.22 1995
author: Jacqueline Harpman
name: Liv
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/04
date added: 2025/04/04
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]]> 213570828 ��
1613: ��King James �� sixth of Scotland, first of England, son of Mary, Queen of Scots - has unified both countries under one crown. But the death of his eldest son, Henry, has plunged the nation into mourning, as the rumours rise the prince was poisoned.
��
Andrew Logan’s heard the rumours, but he’s paid them little heed. As one of the King’s Messengers he has enough secrets to guard, including his own. In these perilous times, when the merest suggestion of witchcraft can see someone tortured and hanged, men like Andrew must hide well the fact they were born with the Sight.
��
He’ll need all his gifts, though, when the king sends Andrew north to find and arrest Sir David Murray, once Prince Henry’s trusted courtier, and bring him a prisoner to London to stand trial before the dreaded Star Chamber.
��
A story of treachery, betrayal and love��
��

Praise for The Vanished

‘Fascinating and immersive�� I love a novel that deals with the many ways in which people keep their secrets’�� DIANA GABALDON

‘A hugely engrossing book and a complete world created’�� IAN RANKIN

‘The Vanished Days is an absolute tour de force of historical storytelling, tender and dramatic, gripping and authentic. Kearsley manages effortlessly to balance the epic sweep of the drama with telling moments of gentle characterization, all delivered in pitch-perfect style. I thoroughly enjoyed a perfect escape in these dark days’�� JANE JOHNSON , author of The Salt Road and The Tenth Gift
��
‘An engrossing and deeply romantic novel of Scotland’s Jacobite rebellion’�� RACHEL HORE

‘This novel tells of a tender love story set amid the Jacobite rebellion. For readers unfamiliar with the twists and turns of this period of Scottish history, author Kearsley provides a helpful map, along with rich details of the protagonists. Courage in this era lies not in acts of heroic daring, but in steadfast pursuit of truth and justice. Perfect for fans of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlande r�� WOMAN & HOME
��
��]]> 352 Susanna Kearsley 149268905X Liv 3 4.16 2024
author: Susanna Kearsley
name: Liv
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/04
date added: 2025/04/04
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]]> 215594162 An urgent and illuminating perspective that offers a window into how the most pernicious aspects of the venture capital ethos is reaching all areas of our lives, into everything from healthcare to food to entertainment to the labor market and leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.

The venture capital playbook is causing unique harms to society. And in World Eaters, Catherine Bracy offers a window into the pernicious aspects of VC and shows us how its bad practices are bleeding into all industries, undermining the labor and housing markets and posing unique dangers to the economy at large. VC’s creates a wide, powerful wake that impacts the average consumer just as much as it does investors and entrepreneurs.

In researching this book, Bracy has interviewed founders, fund managers, contract and temp workers in the gig economy, and Limited Partners across the landscape. She learned that the current VC model is not a good fit for the majority of start-ups, and yet, there are too few options for early stage funding outside of VC dollars. And while there are some alternative paths for sustainable, responsible growth, without the help of regulators, there is not much motivation to drive investors from the roulette table that is venture capital.

World Eaters is an eye-opening account of the ways that the values of contemporary venture capital hurt founders, consumers, and the market. Bracy’s clear-eyed debut is a must-read for fans of Winners Take All, Super Pumped,��and Brotopia, an appealing “insider / outsider�� perspective on Silicon Valley, and those who are fascinated to look under the hood and learn why the modern economy is not working for most of us.]]> 272 Catherine Bracy 0593473485 Liv 0 to-read 4.09
author: Catherine Bracy
name: Liv
average rating: 4.09
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/02
shelves: to-read
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]]> 24452 In the acclaimed Blood Rites , Barbara Ehrenreich delved into the origins of our species' attraction to war. Here, she explores the opposite impulse, one that has been so effectively suppressed that we lack even a term for the desire for collective joy, historically expressed in ecstatic revels of feasting, costuming, and dancing.
Ehrenreich uncovers the origins of communal celebration in human biology and culture. Although sixteenth-century Europeans viewed mass festivities as foreign and "savage," Ehrenreich shows that they were indigenous to the West, from the ancient Greeks' worship of Dionysus to the medieval practice of Christianity as a "danced religion." Ultimately, church officials drove the festivities into the streets, the prelude to widespread Protestants criminalized carnival, Wahhabist Muslims battled ecstatic Sufism, European colonizers wiped out native dance rites. The elites' fear that such gatherings would undermine social hierarchies was the festive tradition inspired French revolutionary crowds and uprisings from the Caribbean to the American plains. Yet outbreaks of group revelry persist, as Ehrenreich shows, pointing to the 1960s rock-and-roll rebellion and the more recent "carnivalization" of sports.
Original, exhilarating, and deeply optimistic, Dancing in the Streets concludes that we are innately social beings, impelled to share our joy and therefore able to envision, even create, a more peaceable future.]]> 336 Barbara Ehrenreich 0805057234 Liv 2 3.84 2006
author: Barbara Ehrenreich
name: Liv
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2006
rating: 2
read at: 2025/04/02
date added: 2025/04/02
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Repetitive. Dull. Full of much speculation.
]]> 54557816 Perfect for readers of The Hazel Wood and The Night Circus, this lush and layered story about magic and the captivating power of dreams is delivered with acclaimed author Rebecca Ross’s signature exquisite style.

A curse plagues the realm of Azenor—during each new moon, magic flows from the nearby mountain and brings nightmares to life. Only magicians, who serve as territory wardens, stand between people and their worst dreams.

Clementine Madigan is ready to take over as the warden of her small town, but when two magicians challenge her, she is unwittingly drawn into a century-old conflict. She seeks revenge, but as she secretly gets closer to Phelan, one of the handsome young magicians, secrets begin to rise. Clementine must unite with her rival to fight the realm’s curse, which seems to be haunting her every turn.]]> 496 Rebecca Ross 0063015951 Liv 2 4.08 2021
author: Rebecca Ross
name: Liv
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2021
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/31
date added: 2025/03/31
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No aspect of this felt well developed. It was confusing, lacked world building or magic system scaffolding, and was ultimately forgettable.
]]> 33917107
On November 9th, millions of Americans woke up to the impossible: the election of Donald Trump as president. Against all predictions, one of the most-disliked presidential candidates in history had swept the electoral college, elevating a man with open contempt for democratic norms and institutions to the height of power.

Timothy Snyder is one of the most celebrated historians of the Holocaust. In his books Bloodlands and Black Earth, he has carefully dissected the events and values that enabled the rise of Hitler and Stalin and the execution of their catastrophic policies. With Twenty Lessons, Snyder draws from the darkest hours of the twentieth century to provide hope for the twenty-first. As he writes, “Americans are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism and communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience.��

Twenty Lessons is a call to arms and a guide to resistance, with invaluable ideas for how we can preserve our freedoms in the uncertain years to come.]]> 127 Timothy Snyder 0804190119 Liv 4 4.24 2017
author: Timothy Snyder
name: Liv
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/28
date added: 2025/03/28
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]]> 41057294
A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years in college, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. Then, as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other.

Sally Rooney brings her brilliant psychological acuity and perfectly spare prose to a story that explores the subtleties of class, the electricity of first love, and the complex entanglements of family and friendship.]]> 273 Sally Rooney 1984822179 Liv 3 3.81 2018
author: Sally Rooney
name: Liv
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/28
date added: 2025/03/28
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]]> 62588481
New York City, 1956: Nineteen-year-old Marion is over the moon to have been selected to be one of the Rockettes, Radio City Music Hall’s glamorous precision-dancing troupe. It’s an honor to perform in the world’s most spectacular theater, an art deco masterpiece. But with four shows a day as well as grueling rehearsals, not to mention exacting standards of perfection to live up to, Marion quickly realizes that the life of a Rockette has both extraordinary highs and devastating lows.

Then one night a bomb explodes in the theater. It’s only the latest in a string of explosions around the city orchestrated by a person the press has nicknamed the "Big Apple Bomber." They have been terrorizing the citizens of New York for sixteen years by planting bombs in popular, crowded spaces. With the public in an uproar over the lack of any real leads after a yearslong manhunt, the police, at Marion’s urging, turn in desperation to a radical new technique: psychological profiling.

As Marion finds herself pulled deeper into the investigation, she realizes that as much as she’s been training herself to blend in—performing in perfect unison with all the other identical Rockettes—if she hopes to catch the bomber, she’ll need to stand out and take a terrifying risk. But she may be forced to sacrifice everything she’s worked for, as well as the people she loves the most.]]> 357 Fiona Davis 0593184041 Liv 2 4.04 2023
author: Fiona Davis
name: Liv
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/27
date added: 2025/03/27
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]]> 17920175 None of the residents know how they got here. They are told where to work, how to live, and who to marry. Some believe they are dead. Others think they’re trapped in an unfathomable experiment. Everyone secretly dreams of leaving, but those who dare face a terrifying surprise.

Ethan Burke has seen the world beyond. He’s sheriff, and one of the few who knows the truth—Wayward Pines isn’t just a town. And what lies on the other side of the fence is a nightmare beyond anyone’s imagining.]]> 298 Blake Crouch 1477808701 Liv 3 4.12 2013
author: Blake Crouch
name: Liv
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/25
date added: 2025/03/25
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]]> 60217777 The stakes are even higher in this epic, romantic conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Crimson Moth duology.

A WITCH...
Rune Winters is on the run. Ever since the boy she loved, Gideon Sharpe, revealed who she was and delivered her into enemy hands, everyone wants her dead. If Rune hopes to survive, she must ally herself with the cruel and dangerous Cressida Roseblood, who’s planning to take back the Republic and reinstate a Reign of Witches—something Cressida needs Rune to accomplish.

A WITCH HUNTER...
Apparently it wasn’t enough for Rune to deceive Gideon; she’s now betrayed him by allying herself with the witch who made his life a living hell. Gideon won’t allow the Republic to fall to the witches and be plunged back into the nightmares of the past. In order to protect this new world he fought for, every last witch must die—especially Rune Winters.

AN IMPOSSIBLE CHOICE...
When Rune makes Gideon an offer he can’t refuse, the two must pair up to accomplish dangerous goals. The more they’re forced into each other’s company, the more Gideon realizes the feelings he had for Rune aren’t as dead and buried as he thought. Now he’s faced with a terrible choice: sacrifice the girl he loves to stop a monster taking back power, or let Rune live and watch the world he fought so hard for burn.

In Kristen Ciccarelli's Rebel Witch, the exciting conclusion to The Crimson Moth duology, love has never been so deadly.]]> 464 Kristen Ciccarelli Liv 4 4.23 2025
author: Kristen Ciccarelli
name: Liv
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/25
date added: 2025/03/25
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]]> 50022883
King Harristan was thrust into power after his parents' shocking assassination, leaving the younger Prince Corrick to take on the brutal role of the King's Justice. The brothers have learned to react mercilessly to any sign of rebellion--it's the only way to maintain order when the sickness can strike anywhere, and the only known cure, an elixir made from delicate Moonflower petals, is severely limited.

Out in the Wilds, apothecary apprentice Tessa Cade is tired of seeing her neighbors die, their suffering ignored by the unyielding royals. Every night, she and her best friend Wes risk their lives to steal Moonflower petals and distribute the elixir to those who need it most--but it's still not enough.

As rumors spread that the cure no longer works and sparks of rebellion begin to flare, a particularly cruel act from the King's Justice makes Tessa desperate enough to try the impossible: sneaking into the palace. But what she finds upon her arrival makes her wonder if it's even possible to fix Kandala without destroying it first.]]> 448 Brigid Kemmerer 1547604670 Liv 2 4.10 2021
author: Brigid Kemmerer
name: Liv
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2021
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/25
date added: 2025/03/25
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Sadly, nothing in this book held my interest: plot, characters, dialogue.
]]> 136342721 Fortune) explains how we’ve arrived at an era of AI harms and oppression, and what we can do to avoid its pitfalls.

“Dr. Joy Buolamwini has been an essential figure in bringing irresponsible, profit-hungry tech giants to their knees. If you’re going to read only one book about AI, this should be it.”—Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation
��
To most of us, it seems like recent developments in artificial intelligence emerged out of nowhere to pose unprecedented threats to humankind. But to Dr. Joy Buolamwini, who has been at the forefront of AI research, this moment has been a long time in the making.

After tinkering with robotics as a high school student in Memphis and then developing mobile apps in Zambia as a Fulbright fellow, Buolamwini followed her lifelong passion for computer science, engineering, and art to MIT in 2015. As a graduate student at the “Future Factory,�� she did groundbreaking research that exposed widespread racial and gender bias in AI services from tech giants across the world.

Unmasking AI goes beyond the headlines about existential risks produced by Big Tech. It is the remarkable story of how Buolamwini uncovered what she calls “the coded gaze”—the evidence of encoded discrimination and exclusion in tech products—and how she galvanized the movement to prevent AI harms by founding the Algorithmic Justice League. Applying an intersectional lens to both the tech industry and the research sector, she shows how racism, sexism, colorism, and ableism can overlap and render broad swaths of humanity “excoded�� and therefore vulnerable in a world rapidly adopting AI tools. Computers, she reminds us, are reflections of both the aspirations and the limitations of the people who create them.

Encouraging experts and non-experts alike to join this fight, Buolamwini writes, “The rising frontier for civil rights will require algorithmic justice. AI should be for the people and by the people, not just the privileged few.��]]> 336 Joy Buolamwini 0593241835 Liv 2 4.13
author: Joy Buolamwini
name: Liv
average rating: 4.13
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/22
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves:
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This was more a memoir about the process of grad school research and less a science book on AI facial recognition.
]]> 201581680 The sexy, cinnamon roll lumberjack offers me a ride into town, a stay at his cozy cabin, and eventually his bed—all things I can’t refuse.

After several flirty glances and heated mistletoe kisses, we create rules—no strings attached and no falling in love. Agreeing to the impossible might be my biggest mistake yet.

I visited the small town for one reason only—to prove a point to my father.
Now I’ve got a fake boyfriend.
A secret to keep hidden.
And a choice to make that will determine more than just my future.


If you're searching for a spicy holiday romance with a protective cinnamon roll lumberjack and sassy heroine, this book is for you! A Very Merry Mistake is a stand-alone with a sweet as gingerbread happily ever after. This small-town contemporary romance has a dash of grumpy/sunshine, forced proximity, secret identity, and tons of Southern goodness. Fade to black is NOT included! ]]> 384 Lyra Parish 1961229374 Liv 0 holiday-books, to-read 3.94
author: Lyra Parish
name: Liv
average rating: 3.94
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: holiday-books, to-read
review:

]]> 22979799 160 Gareth Abbott 1851497579 Liv 4 4.40 2014
author: Gareth Abbott
name: Liv
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/22
date added: 2025/03/22
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]]> 127611580 ��
And they can’t stand each other.��
��
Indie singer-songwriter Lark is the sunshine and glitter that burns through every cloud and clings to every crevice that Lachlan Kane tries to hide inside. The surly older brother of her best friend’s soulmate, Lachlan thinks she’s just a privileged princess, but Lark has plenty of secrets hiding in the shadows of her bright light. With her formidable family in a tailspin and her best friend’s happiness on the line, she’s willing to make a vow to the man she’s determined to hate, no matter how tempting the broody assassin might be.��

As Lachlan and Lark navigate the dark world that binds them together, it becomes��impossible to discern��their��fake marriage from a real one. But it’s not just familiar dangers that haunt them.��
There’s another phantom lurking on their doorstep.��

And this one has come for blood.]]> 416 Brynne Weaver 0349441588 Liv 3 3.98 2024
author: Brynne Weaver
name: Liv
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/22
date added: 2025/03/22
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]]> 129785341 216 Karen Nepacena 1423663950 Liv 3 3.84
author: Karen Nepacena
name: Liv
average rating: 3.84
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/22
date added: 2025/03/22
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]]> 55276549
And there's only one way out.

When Elias Thorne disappeared, he was America's most wanted. Now he's spent more than a decade in one of the most remote places on earth, guarding a dangerous secret. Leo's arrival, quickly followed by a team of expert hunters, leaves him no choice but to join forces with her—and run. Neither is prepared for their reluctant partnership to flare into something as wild and untamed as the frozen world around them...but as desperately cold days melt into scorchingly hot nights, Leo and Elias must learn to dig deep, trust in each other, and forge a bond as strong as the forces of nature.

Stranded together in a frozen wilderness,
There's nowhere left to run...]]> 384 Adriana Anders 149267754X Liv 3 4.19 2021
author: Adriana Anders
name: Liv
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/21
date added: 2025/03/21
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]]> 168668
Set in Italy during World War II, this is the story of the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy—it is his own army, which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to excuse himself from the perilous missions he’s assigned, he’ll be in violation of Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes a formal request to be removed from duty, he is proven sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved.

This fiftieth-anniversary edition commemorates Joseph Heller’s masterpiece with a new introduction by Christopher Buckley; a wealth of critical essays and reviews by Norman Mailer, Alfred Kazin, Anthony Burgess, and others; rare papers and photos from Joseph Heller’s personal archive; and much more. Here, at last, is the definitive edition of a classic of world literature.]]> 453 Joseph Heller 0684833395 Liv 4 3.99 1961
author: Joseph Heller
name: Liv
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1961
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/20
date added: 2025/03/20
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]]> 73071451 Sinner. Villain. Wicked.

The Prince of Envy has never claimed to be a saint. But when a cryptic note arrives, signaling the beginning of a deadly game, he knows it will take more than a hint of sin to win and save his falling demon court. Riddles, hexed objects, anonymous players, nothing will stand in his way, though none of his meticulous plans prepare him for her, the frustrating artist who ignites his sin like no other��

Virtuous. Darling. Liar.

The trouble with scoundrels and blackguards is that they haven’t a modicum of honor, a fact Miss Camilla Antonius learns after one desperate mistake allows Waverly Green’s most notorious rake to blackmail her. To avoid a ruinous scandal, Camilla is forced to enter a devil’s bargain with Envy, little expecting his game will awaken her true nature...

Together, Envy and Camilla must embark on a perilous journey through the Underworld—from glittering demon courts to the sultry vampire realm and beyond—while trying to avoid the most dangerous trap of all: falling in love.]]> 612 Kerri Maniscalco 031655751X Liv 3 4.00 2023
author: Kerri Maniscalco
name: Liv
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/18
date added: 2025/03/18
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]]> 204593559 A wicked prince determined to save his kingdom.

Gabriel Axton—infamous as the Prince of Gluttony, the self-proclaimed rake of rakes—has always lived for indulgence: in delicious food, in tantalizing women, and most of all, in the thrill of the hunt, where his love of danger can take over. But when his favorite adventure takes a deadly turn, he realizes something is very wrong in his demon court. With the clock ticking, he must turn to the only one who might uncover the truth: a journalist he has spent a decade avoiding��

A reporter hell-bent on finding the truth.

Adriana Saint Lucent has been on the hunt for years—if she could just report something damning enough about that no-good scoundrel Gabriel Axton, she knows others would finally see the demon as she does. But she never expected to turn up a rumor too terrifying to be believed: could the ice dragons to the north be growing restless? Drawn into the secrets of the Underworld, Adriana’s investigation leads her into the place she dreads most�� Axton’s infamous court.

A dangerous rivalry—and deliciously twisted fairy tale.

To stop darkness from falling over their kingdom, Axton and Adriana will have to unite against an escalating danger. But with each holding tight to their own secrets, can they find the truth before it’s too late? And what will they do with an equally troubling rumor: that they might not actually hate one another, after all?

Two rivals torn apart by a dark memory reunite on a deadly hunt—and in an irresistibly twisted fairy tale—in the next steamy standalone fantasy romance from New York Times bestselling sensation Kerri Maniscalco.]]> 502 Kerri Maniscalco 0316557544 Liv 0 to-read 3.88 2024
author: Kerri Maniscalco
name: Liv
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: to-read
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]]> 57845085
But Kate's neighbour Alice sees her leaving and Matt, Kate's son, soon realizes she's missing. And Kate, who planned only a quick solitary walk - a breath of open air - falls and badly injures herself. What began as a furtive walk has turned into a mountain rescue operation . . .

Unbearably suspenseful, witty and wise, The Fell asks probing questions about the place the world has become since March 2020, and the place it was before. Sarah Moss's novel is a story about compassion and kindness and what we must do to survive, and it will move you to tears.]]> 184 Sarah Moss 0374606048 Liv 3 3.55 2021
author: Sarah Moss
name: Liv
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/17
date added: 2025/03/17
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]]> 123204337 He/She/They clearly and compassionately addresses fundamental topics, from why being transgender is not a choice and why pronouns are important, to more complex issues including how gender-affirming healthcare can be lifesaving and why allowing trans youth to play sports is good for all kids. With a relatable narrative rooted in facts, science, and history, Schuyler helps restore common sense and humanity to a discussion that continues to be divisively coopted and deceptively politicized.

Schuyler Bailar didn’t set out to be an activist, but his very public transition to the Harvard men’s swim team put him in the spotlight. His choice to be open about his transition and share his experience has touched people around the world. His plain-spoken education has evolved into tireless advocacy for inclusion and collective liberation. In He/She/They, Schuyler uses storytelling and the art of conversation to give us the essential language and context of gender, meeting everyone where they are and paving the way for understanding, acceptance, and, most connection. He/She/They is more than a book on allyship; it also speaks to trans folks directly, answering the question, “does it get better?”��with a resounding yes, celebrating radical trans joy. Myth-busting, affirming, compassionate, and fierce, He/She/They is a crucial, urgent--and lifesaving--book that forever changes the conversation about gender.]]> 384 Schuyler Bailar 0306831872 Liv 4 4.59 2023
author: Schuyler Bailar
name: Liv
average rating: 4.59
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/17
date added: 2025/03/17
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]]> 60233363
Poirot discovers a connection with a house party at the home of Colonel and Mrs. Lacey, and in order to pursue his investigation an invitation is procured for him to the Laceys��, ostensibly to enjoy an old-fashioned Christmas. With deft skill and the workings of his ‘little grey cells��, Poirot brings this case to a satisfying end. Starring John Moffat as Hercule Poirot, with Donald Sinden and Sian Phillips as Colonel and Mrs. Lacey.

©1960 Agatha Christie Ltd (P)2010 BBC Audiobooks Ltd]]> Agatha Christie Liv 0 to-read, holiday-books 3.74
author: Agatha Christie
name: Liv
average rating: 3.74
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: to-read, holiday-books
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]]> 36544614 Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, called “the most famous undocumented immigrant in America,�� tackles one of the defining issues of our time in this explosive and deeply personal call to arms.

“This is not a book about the politics of immigration. This book––at its core––is not about immigration at all.��This book is about homelessness, not in a traditional sense, but in the unsettled, unmoored psychological state that undocumented immigrants like myself find ourselves in. This book is about lying and being forced to lie to get by; about passing as an American and as a contributing citizen; about families, keeping them together, and having to make new ones when you can’t. This book is about constantly hiding from the government and, in the process, hiding from ourselves. This book is about what it means to not have a home.

After 25 years of living illegally in a country that does not consider me one of its own, this book is the closest thing I have to freedom.��

—Jose Antonio Vargas, from��Dear America]]> 256 Jose Antonio Vargas 0062851365 Liv 4 4.29 2018
author: Jose Antonio Vargas
name: Liv
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/14
date added: 2025/03/14
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]]> 13424032 The second in the incredible new Rules of Scoundrels series from New York Times bestselling author Sarah MacLean.

Lady Philippa Marbury is odd. The bespectacled, brilliant fourth daughter of the Marquess of Needham and Dolby cares more for books than balls, flora than fashion and science than the season. Nearly engaged to Lord Castleton, Pippa wants to explore the scandalous parts of London she's never seen before marriage. And she knows just who to ask: the tall, charming, quick-witted bookkeeper of The Fallen Angel, London's most notorious and coveted gaming hell, known only as Cross.

Like any good scientist, Pippa's done her research and Cross's reputation makes him perfect for her scheme. She wants science without emotion—the experience of ruination without the repercussions of ruination. And who better to provide her with the experience than this legendary man? But when this odd, unexpected female propositions Cross, it's more than tempting... and it will take everything he has to resist following his instincts—and giving the lady precisely what she wants.]]> 376 Sarah MacLean 0062068539 Liv 0 to-read 4.01 2013
author: Sarah MacLean
name: Liv
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/14
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]]> 10428803 What a scoundrel wants, a scoundrel gets...

A decade ago, the Marquess of Bourne was cast from society with nothing but his title. Now a partner in London’s most exclusive gaming hell, the cold, ruthless Bourne will do whatever it takes to regain his inheritance—including marrying perfect, proper Lady Penelope Marbury.

A broken engagement and years of disappointing courtships have left Penelope with little interest in a quiet, comfortable marriage, and a longing for something more. How lucky that her new husband has access to such unexplored pleasures.

Bourne may be a prince of London’s underworld, but he vows to keep Penelope untouched by its wickedness—a challenge indeed as the lady discovers her own desires, and her willingness to wager anything for them... even her heart.]]> 386 Sarah MacLean 0062068520 Liv 4 3.90 2012
author: Sarah MacLean
name: Liv
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/14
date added: 2025/03/14
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]]> 2141948
Sweeping across four decades, Goodbye, Mr Chips features an extraordinary period of history, from the Franco-Prussian War of the 1870s to Hitler's rise to power in the 1930s, and demonstrates that, through it all, love and a good sense of humour can make all the difference.]]> 128 James Hilton 0340043598 Liv 4 3.90 1934
author: James Hilton
name: Liv
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1934
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/12
date added: 2025/03/12
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]]> 62800971
Back in Florida, Huơng is simultaneously mourning her mother and resenting her for having the relationship with Ann that she never did. Then Ann and Huơng learn that Minh has left them both the Banyan House, the crumbling old manor that was Ann’s childhood home, in all its strange, Gothic glory. Under the same roof for the first time in years, mother and daughter must face the simmering questions of their past and their uncertain futures, while trying to rebuild their relationship without the one person who’s always held them together.

Running parallel to this is Minh’s story, as she goes from a lovestruck teenager living in the shadow of the Vietnam War to a determined young mother immigrating to America in search of a better life for her children. And when Ann makes a shocking discovery in the Banyan House’s attic, long-buried secrets come to light as it becomes clear how decisions Minh made in her youth affected the rest of her life—and beyond.

Spanning decades and continents, from 1960s Vietnam to the wild swamplands of the Florida coast, Banyan Moon is a stunning and deeply moving story of mothers and daughters, the things we inherit, and the lives we choose to make out of that inheritance.]]> 336 Thao Thai 0063267101 Liv 0 dnf 3.86 2023
author: Thao Thai
name: Liv
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves: dnf
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]]> 39964740
After having suffered some sort of mental collapse and no longer able to keep up with his farm chores, Emmett Farmer is sent to the workshop of one such binder to live and work as her apprentice. Leaving behind home and family, Emmett slowly regains his health while learning the binding trade. He is forbidden to enter the locked room where books are stored, so he spends many months marbling end pages, tooling leather book covers, and gilding edges. But his curiosity is piqued by the people who come and go from the inner sanctum, and the arrival of the lordly Lucian Darnay, with whom he senses a connection, changes everything.]]> 437 Bridget Collins 0008272115 Liv 2 3.86 2019
author: Bridget Collins
name: Liv
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/12
date added: 2025/03/12
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This book is as slow as molasses, and any fantastical elements are overwhelmed by the sense of boredom while reading it.
]]> 25852784 Evicted, Princeton sociologist Matthew Desmond follows eight families in Milwaukee as they struggle to keep a roof over their heads. Evicted transforms our understanding of poverty and economic exploitation while providing fresh ideas for solving one of 21st-century America's most devastating problems. Its unforgettable scenes of hope and loss remind us of the centrality of home, without which nothing else is possible.]]> 418 Matthew Desmond 0553447432 Liv 0 to-read 4.47 2016
author: Matthew Desmond
name: Liv
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: to-read
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]]> 61358638 Reimagining the debate on poverty, making a new and bracing argument about why it persists in America: because the rest of us benefit from it.

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

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

Elegantly written and fiercely argued, this compassionate book gives us new ways of thinking about a morally urgent problem. It also helps us imagine solutions. Desmond builds a startlingly original and ambitious case for ending poverty. He calls on us all to become poverty abolitionists, engaged in a politics of collective belonging to usher in a new age of shared prosperity and, at last, true freedom.]]> 304 Matthew Desmond 0593239911 Liv 5 4.27 2023
author: Matthew Desmond
name: Liv
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/11
date added: 2025/03/11
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]]> 203640289
At eighteen, your life is full of of what-ifs and why-nots. You have everything to look forward to �� unless you’ve got the plague.

From a young Elizabeth Tudor, the orphan facing deadly intrigue at court, to a teenage Richard Burton, the rugby-obsessed son of a Welsh miner, historian Alice Loxton explores Britain’s past through the lives of eighteen figures at this crucial age.

How do you make a living in Georgian London with no arms or legs? What would you do if a world war interrupted your university studies? With plenty of wit and insight, Eighteen invites readers to join an eclectic cast of young Britons across the nation and throughout its history, to find out what makes us who we are.

Filled with fascinating stories of royalty, explorers, writers and entertainers, Eighteen asks what lessons we can learn for modern Britain.

]]> 338 Alice Loxton 1035031302 Liv 4 3.84
author: Alice Loxton
name: Liv
average rating: 3.84
book published:
rating: 4
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]]> 60417443 A rich, eccentric family. A time-honored tradition. Or a lethal game of survival? One woman finds out what it really takes to join the 1% in this riveting psychological thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Something in the Water, Mr. Nobody, and The Disappearing Act.

Harry is a novelist on the brink of stardom; Edward, her husband-to-be, is seemingly perfect. In love and freshly engaged, their bliss is interrupted by the reemergence of the Holbecks, Edward's eminent family and the embodiment of American old money. For years, they've dominated headlines and pulled society's strings, and Edward left them all behind to forge his own path. But there are eyes and ears everywhere. It was only a matter of time before they were pulled back in . . .

After all, even though he's long severed ties with his family, Edward is set to inherit it all. Harriet is drawn to the glamour and sophistication of the Holbecks, who seem to welcome her with open arms, but everything changes when she meets Robert, the inescapably magnetic head of the family. At their first meeting, Robert slips Harry a cassette tape, revealing a shocking confession which sets the inevitable game in motion.

What is it about Harry that made him give her that tape? A thing that has the power to destroy everything? As she ramps up her quest for the truth, she must endure the Holbecks' savage Christmas traditions all the while knowing that losing this game could be deadly.]]> 319 Catherine Steadman 0593158067 Liv 4 3.83 2022
author: Catherine Steadman
name: Liv
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/10
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]]> 61685822 From the author of the New York Times best seller Poser and the acclaimed memoir Love and Trouble, a passionate, provocative, blisteringly smart interrogation of how we make and experience art in the age of #MeToo, and of the link between genius and monstrosity.

In this unflinching, deeply personal book that expands on her instantly viral Paris Review essay, What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men? Claire Dederer asks: Can we love the work of Hemingway, Polanski, Naipaul, Miles Davis, or Picasso? Should we love it? Does genius deserve special dispensation? Is male monstrosity the same as female monstrosity? Does art have a mandate to depict the darker elements of the psyche? And what happens if the artist stares too long into the abyss? She explores the audience's relationship with artists from Woody Allen to Michael Jackson, asking: How do we balance our undeniable sense of moral outrage with our equally undeniable love of the work? In a more troubling vein, she wonders if an artist needs to be a monster in order to create something great. And if an artist is also a mother, does one identity inexorably, and fatally, interrupt the other? Highly topical, morally wise, honest to the core, Monsters is certain to incite a conversation about whether and how we can separate artists from their art.]]> 257 Claire Dederer 0525655115 Liv 3 3.75 2023
author: Claire Dederer
name: Liv
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/08
date added: 2025/03/08
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]]> 760601 104 �ѴDZ���è���� 0151795770 Liv 3 4.00 1992
author: �ѴDZ���è����
name: Liv
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1992
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/08
date added: 2025/03/08
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]]> 36626748
Now a rising star in the NYC art scene, Emma turns her past into paintings.. They catch the attention of Francesca Harris-White, the socialite and wealthy owner of the very same Camp Nightingale--and when Francesca implores Emma to return to the camp as a painting counselor, Emma sees an opportunity to find closure and move on.

Yet, it is immediately clear that all is not right at Camp Nightingale. Already haunted by surfacing memories, Emma is suddenly plagued by a security camera pointed directly at her cabin, mounting mistrust from Francesca, and, most disturbing of all, cryptic clues Vivian apparently left behind about the camp's twisted origins. And as history begins to repeat itself and three girls go missing again, Emma must face threats from both man and nature in order to uncover all the buried secrets--including what really happened all those years ago.]]> 402 Riley Sager Liv 3 4.02 2018
author: Riley Sager
name: Liv
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/07
date added: 2025/03/07
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]]> 41571739 The first novel in USA Today Bestselling Author Beverly Jenkins' compelling new series follows a Northern woman south in the chaotic aftermath of the Civil War...

Valinda Lacey's mission in the steamy heart of New Orleans is to help the newly emancipated community survive and flourish. But soon she discovers that here, freedom can also mean danger. When thugs destroy the school she has set up and then target her, Valinda runs for her life—and straight into the arms of Captain Drake LeVeq.

As an architect from an old New Orleans family, Drake has a deeply personal interest in rebuilding the city. Raised by strong women, he recognizes Valinda's determination. And he can't stop admiring—or wanting—her. But when Valinda's father demands she return home to marry a man she doesn't love, her daring rebellion draws Drake into an irresistible intrigue.]]> 384 Beverly Jenkins 0062861689 Liv 4 4.04 2019
author: Beverly Jenkins
name: Liv
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/07
date added: 2025/03/07
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]]> 57062720 A searing memoir from Harry Potter star and activist Evanna Lynch about the bravery it takes to embrace ourselves and our dreams while navigating the battle between perfection and creativity.

Gradually, I began to feel this dawning awareness that womanhood was coming for me, that it was looming inevitably, and it didn't feel safe . . . While those around me tried to expedite it, simulate it, exacerbate it, I tried to strangle it.

Evanna Lynch has long been viewed as a role model for people recovering from anorexia, as the story of her casting as Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter films grew to almost mythic proportions--a tale of how she faced disordered eating as a young girl, found solace in a beloved book series, and several years later landed the part of her favorite character. But that is not the whole story.

Even after recovery, there remains a conflict at the very core of her being: a bitter struggle between the familiar, anesthetizing pursuit of perfection and the desire to fully and fearlessly embrace her creativity. In her book, Evanna confronts all the complexities and contradictions within herself and reveals how she began to conquer her self-hate while facing her fear of leaving the neatness and safety of girlhood for the unpredictable journey of being a woman. Revealing a startlingly accomplished voice, Evanna delves into the very heart of a woman's relationship with her own body. Unwilling to let the darkness of her eating disorder eclipse her dreams, Evanna explores the pivotal moments and choices in her life that led her down the path of creativity. Taking the reader through her personal journey, she reveals how by channeling her fears of the messy, uncharted future into joyful, ambitious endeavors, she reaches toward acceptance of the wild, sensual, and unpredictable reality of womanhood.

Honest, electrifying, and inspiring, this is a story of the tragedy and the glory of growing up, of mourning girlhood and stepping into the unknown, and how that act of courage is the most liberating thing a woman can do.]]> 463 Evanna Lynch Liv 0 dnf 4.53 2021
author: Evanna Lynch
name: Liv
average rating: 4.53
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/06
shelves: dnf
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]]> 54860573 From the author of the beloved national bestseller Migrations, a pulse-pounding new novel set in the wild Scottish Highlands.

Inti Flynn arrives in Scotland with her twin sister, Aggie, to lead a team of biologists tasked with reintroducing fourteen gray wolves into the remote Highlands. She hopes to heal not only the dying landscape, but Aggie, too, unmade by the terrible secrets that drove the sisters out of Alaska.

Inti is not the woman she once was, either, changed by the harm she’s witnessed—inflicted by humans on both the wild and each other. Yet as the wolves surprise everyone by thriving, Inti begins to let her guard down, even opening herself up to the possibility of love. But when a farmer is found dead, Inti knows where the town will lay blame. Unable to accept her wolves could be responsible, Inti makes a reckless decision to protect them. But if the wolves didn’t make the kill, then who did? And what will Inti do when the man she is falling for seems to be the prime suspect?

Propulsive and spell-binding, Charlotte McConaghy's Once There Were Wolves is the unforgettable story of a woman desperate to save the creatures she loves—if she isn’t consumed by a wild that was once her refuge.]]> 258 Charlotte McConaghy 1250244145 Liv 4 4.07 2021
author: Charlotte McConaghy
name: Liv
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/05
date added: 2025/03/05
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]]> 9648968 The Blunderer is a comedy in five acts and in verse.

When The Blunderer was played for the first time in Paris, it obtained a great and well-deserved success. It is chiefly based on an Italian comedy, written by Nicolo Barbieri, from which the character of Mascarille, the servant, is taken, but the ending is much superior to that of the Italian play. Some of the scenes remind us of passages in several Italian "Commedia del' arte" between Arlecchino and Pantaleone, the personifications of impudence and ingenuity, as opposed to meekness and stupidity.

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.]]> �ѴDZ���è���� Liv 3 3.52 1655
author: �ѴDZ���è����
name: Liv
average rating: 3.52
book published: 1655
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/05
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]]> 58774603 Chef Anto Cocagne and Photographer Aline Princet take us on a unique food journey and introduce us to the best recipes from Gabon, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Congo, and Ethiopia.

Chef Anto Cocagne and Photographer Aline Princet take us on a unique food journey and introduce us to the best recipes from Gabon, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Congo, and Ethiopia. We will discover the main characteristics of these cuisines, the specialties of each region, the produce, the ideal pantry, the basics, as well as mouthwatering recipes for appetizers, main courses, side dishes, street food, desserts, and drinks.

And since no one evokes a cuisine better than its daughters and sons, we meet African musicians, writers, artists, and creatives who tell stories about their favorite dishes, their family cooking memories, and what these recipes represent for them today.

With stunning food and landscape photography, complemented by beautiful and colorful design, this book is an ode to conviviality, generosity, and positivity. It is a love letter to Africa.]]> 208 Anto Cocagne 1623718554 Liv 0 to-read, cookbooks 3.68
author: Anto Cocagne
name: Liv
average rating: 3.68
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rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/04
shelves: to-read, cookbooks
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]]> 62334530
A few days later, Alix and Josie bump into each other again, this time outside Alix’s children’s school. Josie has been listening to Alix’s podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for her series. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life.

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

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

Who is Josie Fair? And what has she done?]]> 390 Lisa Jewell 1982179007 Liv 4 4.08 2023
author: Lisa Jewell
name: Liv
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/01
date added: 2025/03/01
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]]> 60563720
To fill in the literary gaps and quench her own sense of adventure, Roberson quits her day job and sets off on a Great American Road Trip to visit America’s national parks.

America the Beautiful? is a hilarious trip into the mind of one of the Millennial generation’s funniest writers. Borrowing her Midwestern stepfather’s Prius, she heads west to the Loop of mega-popular parks, over to the ocean and down the Pacific Coast Highway, and, in a feat of spectacularly bad timing, through the southwestern desert in the middle of July. Along the way she meets new friends on their own personal quests, learns to cope with abstinence while missing the comforts of home, and comes to understand the limits—and possibilities—of going to nature to prove to yourself and your Instagram followers that you are, in fact, free.

The result is a laugh-out-loud-while-occasionally-raging-inside travelogue, filled with meditations and many, many jokes on ecotourism, conservation, freedom, traffic, climate change, and the structural and financial inequalities that limit so many Americans�� movement. Ultimately, Roberson ponders the question: Is quitting society and going on the road about enlightenment and liberty—or is it just selfish escapism?]]> 304 Blythe Roberson 0063115514 Liv 3 3.74 2023
author: Blythe Roberson
name: Liv
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/27
date added: 2025/02/27
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]]> 60769830 How Far the Light Reaches is a book that invites us to envision wilder, grander, and more abundant possibilities for the way we live.]]> 263 Sabrina Imbler 0316540536 Liv 2 4.10 2022
author: Sabrina Imbler
name: Liv
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2025/02/26
date added: 2025/02/26
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]]> 5517 A Raisin in the Sun opened on Broadway in 1959.

Indeed Lorraine Hansberry's award-winning drama about the hopes and aspirations of a struggling, working-class family living on the South Side of Chicago connected profoundly with the psyche of black America--and changed American theater forever.����The play's title comes from a line in Langston Hughes's poem "Harlem," which warns that a dream deferred might "dry up/like a raisin in the sun."

"The events of every passing year add resonance to A Raisin in the Sun," said The New York Times.����"It is as if history is conspiring to make the play a classic."����This Modern Library edition presents the fully restored, uncut version of Hansberry's landmark work with an introduction by Robert Nemiroff.]]> 162 Lorraine Hansberry 0375508333 Liv 4 3.84 1959
author: Lorraine Hansberry
name: Liv
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1959
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/26
date added: 2025/02/26
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]]> 3009435 This is Florens, who can read and write and might be useful on his farm. Rejected by her mother, Florens looks for love, first from Lina, an older servant woman at her new master's house, and later from the handsome blacksmith, an African, never enslaved, who comes riding into their lives.
A Mercy reveals what lies beneath the surface of slavery. But at its heart, like Beloved, it is the ambivalent, disturbing story of a mother and a daughter - a mother who casts off her daughter in order to save her, and a daughter who may never exorcise that abandonment.]]> 167 Toni Morrison 0307264238 Liv 2 3.76 2008
author: Toni Morrison
name: Liv
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2008
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2025/02/24
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]]> 15096164
WHY CAN'T HE MAKE CONTACT WITH HIS FAMILY IN THE OUTSIDE WORLD? WHY DOESN'T ANYONE BELIEVE HE IS WHO HE SAYS HE IS? AND WHAT'S THE PURPOSE OF THE ELECTRIFIED FENCES ENCIRCLING THE TOWN? ARE THEY KEEPING THE RESIDENTS IN? OR SOMETHING ELSE OUT?

Each step toward the truth takes Ethan further from the world he knows, until he must face a horrifying fact—he may never get out of Wayward Pines alive.....]]> 307 Blake Crouch 1612183956 Liv 3 3.94 2012
author: Blake Crouch
name: Liv
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/24
date added: 2025/02/24
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]]> 41104077
Celebrated feminist advocate Caroline Criado Perez investigates the shocking root cause of gender inequality and research in Invisible Women��, diving into women’s lives at home, the workplace, the public square, the doctor’s office, and more. Built on hundreds of studies in the US, the UK, and around the world, and written with energy, wit, and sparkling intelligence, this is a groundbreaking, unforgettable exposé that will change the way you look at the world.]]> 448 Caroline Criado Pérez 1419729071 Liv 5 4.35 2019
author: Caroline Criado Pérez
name: Liv
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/22
date added: 2025/02/22
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]]> 203164415 From a literary master, a moving and genre-bending story about our era-spanning search for meaning and knowing.

An uncertain near-future. A story of new boundaries drawn between people daily. A not-very brave new world.

Add two children. And a horse.

From a Scottish word meaning a transient moment, a shock, a faint glimpse, Gliff explores how and why we endeavour to make a mark on the world. In a time when western industry wants to reduce us to algorithms and data—something easily categorizable and predictable—Smith shows us why our humanity, our individual complexities, matter more than ever.]]> 288 Ali Smith 0593701569 Liv 4 3.93 2024
author: Ali Smith
name: Liv
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/22
date added: 2025/02/22
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]]> 36373425 My husband did not mean to kill Annie Doyle, but the lying tramp deserved it.

On the surface, Lydia Fitzsimons has the perfect life—wife of a respected, successful judge, mother to a beloved son, mistress of a beautiful house in Dublin. That beautiful house, however, holds a secret. And when Lydia’s son, Laurence, discovers its secret, wheels are set in motion that lead to an increasingly claustrophobic and devastatingly dark climax.

From the international bestselling author of Unraveling Oliver, an “unputdownable psychological thriller with an ending that lingers long after turning the final page�� (The Irish Times) about a Dublin family whose dark secrets and twisted relationships are suddenly revealed.]]> 320 Liz Nugent 1501167774 Liv 4 3.76 2016
author: Liz Nugent
name: Liv
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/19
date added: 2025/02/19
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]]> 48890486
There is nothing more essential to our health and well-being than breathing: take air in, let it out, repeat twenty-five thousand times a day. Yet, as a species, humans have lost the ability to breathe correctly, with grave consequences.

Journalist James Nestor travels the world to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. The answers aren't found in pulmonology labs, as we might expect, but in the muddy digs of ancient burial sites, secret Soviet facilities, New Jersey choir schools, and the smoggy streets of Sao Paulo. Nestor tracks down men and women exploring the hidden science behind ancient breathing practices like Pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya, and Tummo and teams up with pulmonary tinkerers to scientifically test long-held beliefs about how we breathe.

Modern research is showing us that making even slight adjustments to the way we inhale and exhale can jump-start athletic performance; rejuvenate internal organs; halt snoring, asthma, and autoimmune disease; and even straighten scoliotic spines. None of this should be possible, and yet it is.

Drawing on thousands of years of medical texts and recent cutting-edge studies in pulmonology, psychology, biochemistry, and human physiology, Breath turns the conventional wisdom of what we thought we knew about our most basic biological function on its head. You will never breathe the same again.]]> 280 James Nestor 0735213615 Liv 3 4.13 2020
author: James Nestor
name: Liv
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/18
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves:
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]]> 198276006 I Cheerfully Refuse is the tale of Rainy, an aspiring musician setting sail on Lake Superior in search of his departed, deeply beloved, bookselling wife. An endearing bear of an Orphean narrator, he seeks refuge in the harbors, fogs, and remote islands of the inland sea. After encountering lunatic storms and rising corpses from the warming depths, he eventually lands to find an increasingly desperate and illiterate people, a malignant billionaire ruling class, a crumbled infrastructure, and a lawless society. As his guileless nature begins to make an inadvertent rebel of him, Rainy’s private quest for the love of his life grows into something wider and wilder, sweeping up friends and foes alike in his wake.]]> 336 Leif Enger 0802162932 Liv 3 3.96 2024
author: Leif Enger
name: Liv
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/18
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves:
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]]> 59823 ON THE RUN��
No one was going to take her child away from her! Pregnant and alone, Laura Malone had been on the move for months. Finding herself snowbound with an angry, impatient Gabriel Bradley was not part of her plans.

Gabe wanted to be alone. He'd come to the isolated cabin to think, to work and to heal. But when a woman crashed into his life --literally-- he'd felt obliged to help. Laura was everything a man could ever want and all that he desired. She trusted him, but Gabe was hard put to be an angel when Laura felt like heaven in his arms.]]> 288 Nora Roberts 0373285442 Liv 0 holiday-books, to-read 3.82 1989
author: Nora Roberts
name: Liv
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1989
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/13
shelves: holiday-books, to-read
review:

]]> 212806981 A competitive diver and an ace swimmer jump into forbidden waters in this steamy college romance from the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis.

Scarlett Vandermeer is swimming upstream. A Junior at Stanford and a student-athlete who specializes in platform diving, Scarlett prefers to keep her head down, concentrating on getting into med school and on recovering from the injury that almost ended her career. She has no time for relationships—at least, that’s what she tells herself.

Swim captain, world champion, all-around aquatics golden boy, Lukas Blomqvist thrives on discipline. It’s how he wins gold medals and breaks records: complete focus, with every stroke. On the surface, Lukas and Scarlett have nothing in common. Until a well-guarded secret slips out, and everything changes.

So they start an arrangement. And as the pressure leading to the Olympics heats up, so does their relationship. It was supposed to be just a temporary, mutually satisfying fling. But when staying away from Lukas becomes impossible, Scarlett realizes that her heart might be treading into dangerous water...]]> 447 Ali Hazelwood 0593550447 Liv 4 4.10 2025
author: Ali Hazelwood
name: Liv
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/13
date added: 2025/02/13
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]]> 29397486
Behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel, one hundred and eighteen cardinals from all over the globe will cast their votes in the world’s most secretive election.

They are holy men. But they have ambition. And they have rivals.

Over the next seventy-two hours one of them will become the most powerful spiritual figure on earth.]]> 288 Robert Harris Liv 4 4.02 2016
author: Robert Harris
name: Liv
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/10
date added: 2025/02/10
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]]> 58750487
She remembered the words she had whispered to him in the back of the limo after La Rose. "You will worship me, and I won't even have to order you." His request felt sinful and devious, and she reveled in it.

She answered, "Yes."

---

Persephone is the Goddess of Spring in title only. Since she was a little girl, flowers have only shriveled at her touch. After moving to New Athens, she hoped to lead an unassuming life disguised as a mortal journalist. All of that changes when she sits down in a forbidden nightclub to play a hand of cards with a hypnotic and mysterious stranger.

Hades, God of the Dead, has built a gambling empire in the mortal world and his favorite bets are rumored to be impossible. But nothing has ever intrigued him as much as the goddess offering him a bargain he can't resist.

After her encounter with Hades, Persephone finds herself in a contract with the God of the Dead, and his terms are impossible: Persephone must create life in the Underworld or lose her freedom forever. The bet does more than expose Persephone's failure as a goddess, however. As she struggles to sow the seeds of her freedom, love for the God of the Dead grows―a love that is both captivating and forbidden.]]> 379 Scarlett St. Clair 1728258456 Liv 0 to-read 3.87 2019
author: Scarlett St. Clair
name: Liv
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> 297134
After the divorce, Angie moved back to her hometown and rejoined her loud, loving, slightly crazy family. In West End, a place where life rises and falls in time with the tides, she will find the man who once again will open her heart to love . . . and meet the girl who will change Angie’s life.

Lauren Ribido lives in a rundown apartment in a bad part of town with a mother who cares more about her next drink than about her daughter. At seventeen, Lauren knows that her aspirations in life may never come to pass.

From the moment they meet, Angie sees something special in Lauren. They form a quick connection, this woman who is desperate for a daughter and the girl who has never known a mother’s love. When Lauren is abandoned by her mother, Angie doesn’t hesitate to offer the girl a place to stay. But nothing could have prepared Angie for the far-reaching repercussions of this act of kindness. In a dramatic turn of events, she and Lauren will be tested in a way that mothers and daughters seldom are. Together they will embark on an intensely moving, deeply emotional journey to the very heart of what it means to be a family.]]> 464 Kristin Hannah 0345467515 Liv 0 dnf 4.08 2004
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Liv
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves: dnf
review:

]]> 62926992
Lucy Hart knows better than anyone what it’s like to grow up without parents who loved her. In a childhood marked by neglect and loneliness, Lucy found her solace in books, namely the Clock Island series by Jack Masterson. Now a twenty-six-year-old teacher’s aide, she is able to share her love of reading with bright, young students, especially seven-year-old Christopher Lamb, who was left orphaned after the tragic death of his parents. Lucy would give anything to adopt Christopher, but even the idea of becoming a family seems like an impossible dream without proper funds and stability.

But be careful what you wish for. . . .

Just when Lucy is about to give up, Jack Masterson announces he’s finally written a new book. Even better, he’s holding a contest at his home on the real Clock Island, and Lucy is one of the four lucky contestants chosen to compete to win the one and only copy.

For Lucy, the chance of winning the most sought-after book in the world means everything to her and Christopher. But first she must contend with ruthless book collectors, wily opponents, and the distractingly handsome (and grumpy) Hugo Reese, the illustrator of the Clock Island books. Meanwhile, Jack “the Mastermind�� Masterson is plotting the ultimate twist ending that could change all their lives forever.

. . . You might just get it.]]> 304 Meg Shaffer 0593598830 Liv 4 4.02 2023
author: Meg Shaffer
name: Liv
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/02/07
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]]> 173754979 A brilliant reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—both harrowing and satirical—told from the enslaved Jim's point of view

When Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he runs away until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck has faked his own death to escape his violent father. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

Brimming with nuanced humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a literary icon, this brilliant and tender novel radically illuminates Jim's agency, intelligence, and compassion as never before. James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first-century American literature.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780385550369.]]> 303 Percival Everett Liv 4 4.46 2024
author: Percival Everett
name: Liv
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/06
date added: 2025/02/06
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]]> 51177136 Seven days. Three families. One killer.

It was supposed to be the perfect holiday - a group of families enjoying a week together in the sun. Four women who have been best friends for as long as they can remember making the most of a luxurious villa in the south of France.

But Kate has a secret: her husband is having an affair. And a week away might just be the perfect opportunity to get the proof she needs - to catch him in the act once and for all. Because she suspects the other woman is one of her two best friends.

One of them is working against her, willing to sacrifice years of friendship to destroy her family. But which one? As Kate closes in on the truth in the stifling Mediterranean heat, she realises too late that the stakes are far higher than she ever imagined . . .

Because someone in the villa may be prepared to kill to keep their secret hidden.]]> 374 T.M. Logan 1250270774 Liv 3 3.73 2019
author: T.M. Logan
name: Liv
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/06
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves:
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]]> 35340600
"What is the best way to eat a radish?" Alana Chernila hears this sort of question all the time. Arugula, celeriac, kohlrabi, fennel, asparagus--whatever the vegetable may be, people always ask how to prepare it so that the produce really shines. Although there are countless ways to eat our vegetables, there are a few perfect ways to make each vegetable sing.
With more than 100 versatile recipes, Eating from the Ground Up teaches you how to showcase the unique flavor and texture of each vegetable, truly bringing out the best in every root and leaf. The answers lie in smart techniques and a light touch. Here are dishes so simple and quick that they feel more intuitive than following a typical recipe; soups for year-round that are packed with nourishment; ideas for maximizing summer produce; hearty fall and winter foods that are all about comfort; impressive dishes fit for a party; and tips like knowing there's not one vegetable that doesn't perk up with a sprinkle of salt. No matter the vegetable, the central lesson is: don't mess with a good thing.]]> 272 Alana Chernila 0451494997 Liv 0 cookbooks, to-read 4.19
author: Alana Chernila
name: Liv
average rating: 4.19
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: cookbooks, to-read
review:

]]> 197577126 This summer they’ll keep their promise. This summer they won’t give into temptation. This summer will be different.

Lucy is the tourist vacationing at a beach house on Prince Edward Island. Felix is the local who shows her a very good time. The only problem: Lucy doesn’t know he’s her best friend’s younger brother. Lucy and Felix’s chemistry is unreal, but the list of reasons why they need to stay away from each other is long, and they vow to never repeat that electric night again.

It’s easier said than done.

Each year, Lucy escapes to PEI for a big breath of coastal air, fresh oysters and crisp vinho verde with her best friend, Bridget. Every visit begins with a long walk on the beach, beneath soaring red cliffs and a golden sun. And every visit, Lucy promises herself she won’t wind up in Felix’s bed. Again.

If Lucy can’t help being drawn to Felix, at least she’s always kept her heart out of it.

When Bridget suddenly flees Toronto a week before her wedding, Lucy drops everything to follow her to the island. Her mission is to help Bridget through her crisis and resist the one man she’s never been able to. But Felix’s sparkling eyes and flirty quips have been replaced with something new, and Lucy’s beginning to wonder just how safe her heart truly is.]]> 368 Carley Fortune 0593638883 Liv 0 to-read 3.94 2024
author: Carley Fortune
name: Liv
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves: to-read
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]]> 59571699 From the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis comes a new STEMinist rom-com in which a scientist is forced to work on a project with her nemesis—with explosive results.

Bee Königswasser lives by a simple code: What would Marie Curie do? If NASA offered her the lead on a neuroengineering project - a literal dream come true - Marie would accept without hesitation. Duh. But the mother of modern physics never had to co-lead with Levi Ward.

Sure, Levi is attractive in a tall, dark, and piercing-eyes kind of way. But Levi made his feelings toward Bee very clear in grad school - archenemies work best employed in their own galaxies far, far away.

But when her equipment starts to go missing and the staff ignore her, Bee could swear she sees Levi softening into an ally, backing her plays, seconding her ideas... devouring her with those eyes. The possibilities have all her neurons firing.

But when it comes time to actually make a move and put her heart on the line, there's only one question that matters: What will Bee Königswasser do?]]> 368 Ali Hazelwood 1408725789 Liv 0 3.88 2022
author: Ali Hazelwood
name: Liv
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves:
review:

]]> 22925739 Breakfast at Tiffany's, Truman Capote's most beloved work of fiction, introduced an independent and complex character who challenged audiences, revived Audrey Hepburn's flagging career in the 1961 film version, and whose name and style has remained in the national idiom since publication. Hall uses his diligent attention to character to bring our unnamed narrator’s emotional vulnerability to the forefront of this American classic.]]> 3 Truman Capote Liv 0 to-read 3.76 1958
author: Truman Capote
name: Liv
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1958
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 218153839 USA Today bestselling author of Nora Goes Off Script, a novel about a former adolescent TV punchline who has left her awkwardness in the rearview mirror thanks to a fake-it-till-you-make-it mantra that has her on the cusp of success, until she tells a lie that sets her on a crash-course with her past, spending a week in Long Island with the last man she thinks might make her believe in love.

Rules for a love story: There are none. It’s all a lie.

Jane Jackson knows that true love is a lie. Laughter is the only truth—you can’t fake a belly laugh. Jane should know, she spent her adolescence as "Poor Janey Jakes," the barbecue-sauce-in-her-braces punchline on America's fifth-favorite sitcom. Now she’s a Creative Executive at Clearwater Studios and she’s living by a new mantra: Fake it till you make it.

Except, she might have faked it too far. Desperate to get her first project greenlit and riled up by pompous cinematographer and one-time crush Dan Finnegan, she opened her mouth and a big fat fib fell out. She claimed that Jack Quinlan, hottest popstar of the moment, has promised to write an original song for the soundtrack. Jack may have been her first kiss—and greatest source of shame—but she hasn’t spoken to him in twenty years.

Now, Jane must turn to the last man she’d ever want to owe: Dan Finnegan. Because Jack is playing a festival in Dan’s hometown on Long Island, and Dan has an in. A week in close quarters with Dan while facing down her past is Jane's idea of hell, but Dan just might surprise her. While covering up her lie, can they find something true?]]> 368 Annabel Monaghan 0593714105 Liv 5
This book was full of surprises but one of them wasn't that I thoroughly enjoyed it, as I love all of Annabel Monaghan's books. Where this book excels is pulling out every emotion from a reader. Monaghan is a master as making the emotions of her characters visceral and taking the reader for a journey with them. She also is wonderful at creating a sense of place, one of my favorite things in a book. The Long Island summer setting is so vivid that you can smell the sunscreen and feel the ocean breezes. Annabel Monaghan is a "must read" author, and I will consume anything she puts out.

Thank you, NetGalley, for this advanced manuscript copy.]]> 4.29 2025
author: Annabel Monaghan
name: Liv
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/28
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves:
review:
Jane Jackson grew up better know as Janey Jakes, the punchline on a teen sitcom. As an adult, she's worked to distance herself from that image but still feels like it on the inside. Jane finally has a chance to prove herself as a producer and she may have oversold her connection to America's biggest popstar and promised he would write a song for the soundtrack of the movie she's trying to greenlight. Now, in order to track down the musician she hasn't seen since she was 14, she has to pair up with her professional nemesis, Dan, and travel across the country to Dan's hometown on Long Island.

This book was full of surprises but one of them wasn't that I thoroughly enjoyed it, as I love all of Annabel Monaghan's books. Where this book excels is pulling out every emotion from a reader. Monaghan is a master as making the emotions of her characters visceral and taking the reader for a journey with them. She also is wonderful at creating a sense of place, one of my favorite things in a book. The Long Island summer setting is so vivid that you can smell the sunscreen and feel the ocean breezes. Annabel Monaghan is a "must read" author, and I will consume anything she puts out.

Thank you, NetGalley, for this advanced manuscript copy.
]]> 217159488 From generational icon Brooke Shields comes an intimate and empowering exploration of ageing that flips the script on the idea of what it means for a woman to grow older

Brooke Shields has spent a lifetime in the public eye. Growing up as a child actor and model, her every feature was scrutinised, her every decision judged. Today Brooke faces a different kind of that of being a 'woman of a certain age'.

And yet, for Brooke, the passage of time has brought freedom. At fifty-nine, she feels more comfortable in her skin, more empowered and confident than she did decades ago in those famous Calvin Kleins. Now, in Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old, she's changing the narrative about women and ageing.

This is an era, insists Brooke, when women are reclaiming agency and power, not receding into the shadows. These are the years when we get to decide how we want to live - when we get to write our own stories.

With remarkable candour, Brooke bares all, painting a vibrant and optimistic picture of being a woman in the prime of her life, while dismantling the myths that have, for too long, dimmed that perception. Sharing her own life experiences with humour and humility, and weaving together research and reporting, Brooke takes aim at the systemic factors that contribute to age-related bias.

By turns inspiring, moving, and galvanising, Brooke's honesty and vulnerability will resonate with women everywhere, and spark a new conversation about the power and promise of midlife.]]> 250 Brooke Shields 034944191X Liv 4 3.71 2025
author: Brooke Shields
name: Liv
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/02
date added: 2025/02/02
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]]> 209456170
Book swap your latest read in a cool 1950s style fridge in New Zealand or hike through the ethereal woodlands of Eas Mor in Scotland where a hidden library in a small log cabin awaits. Each entry shares the library's mission and impact on the local community and offers fascinating stories from its resident caretaker.

Inside Hidden Libraries:

- 50 enchanting, obscure and astounding libraries from around the world
- Fascinating insider knowledge and unique stories from each library's resident caretaker
- Captivating photos accompany every entry and the exact location of each hidden library is revealed

Featured libraries include:
North America - Idaho: Little Free Library in a Cottonwood Tree; California: The Prison Library Project.
South America - Argentina: The Weapon of Mass Instruction; Colombia: The Biblioburro.
Africa - Egypt: St Catherine's Monastery; Mali: The Timbuktu Manuscripts.
Asia & the Middle East - China: The Lonely Library; Philippines: Reading Club 2000.
Europe - England: Phone Booth Library; Norway: The Future Library.
Oceania & Beyond - Antarctica: The Little Free Library at the South Pole; Outer Space: The International Space Station Library

Written by Diana Helmuth, an award winning author who writes about subjects including travel, nature, and philosophical trends

From the rare to the romantic, this extraordinary guide to our planet's hidden libraries makes the ultimate gift for literature lovers, adventurers, and dreamers alike. Nothing brings people together quite like a good book.]]> 208 DC Helmuth 1837582726 Liv 3 4.28
author: DC Helmuth
name: Liv
average rating: 4.28
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/27
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves:
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]]> 204716786 200 Sven Kirsten 1423666038 Liv 2
It began with an extremely scant introduction and continued with a lack of editorial focus or throughline. The text in the book was scattered and little thought appeared to have gone into the organization of the book as a whole. The book was crowded with images of various qualities piled on top of each other without adequate white space or art direction.

I suspected it was a vanity project and had to look up the publisher to see if the book was self-published because the presentation was so poor. Even the font choice was amateur. However the book is from Gibbs Smith publishing, which has many beautiful architectural books I've enjoyed. This one just seems to have fallen through the cracks of quality control.]]> 4.31
author: Sven Kirsten
name: Liv
average rating: 4.31
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/27
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves:
review:
Being a fan of Palm Springs mid-century architecture, I was excited to pick up this book. Unfortunately, it was a thorough design disappointment from multiple angles.

It began with an extremely scant introduction and continued with a lack of editorial focus or throughline. The text in the book was scattered and little thought appeared to have gone into the organization of the book as a whole. The book was crowded with images of various qualities piled on top of each other without adequate white space or art direction.

I suspected it was a vanity project and had to look up the publisher to see if the book was self-published because the presentation was so poor. Even the font choice was amateur. However the book is from Gibbs Smith publishing, which has many beautiful architectural books I've enjoyed. This one just seems to have fallen through the cracks of quality control.
]]> 55789067
Julian Jessop, an eccentric, lonely artist and septuagenarian believes that most people aren't really honest with each other. But what if they were? And so he writes--in a plain, green journal--the truth about his own life and leaves it in his local café. It's run by the incredibly tidy and efficient Monica, who furtively adds her own entry and leaves the book in the wine bar across the street. Before long, the others who find the green notebook add the truths about their own deepest selves--and soon find each other in real life at Monica's café.

The Authenticity Project's cast of characters--including Hazard, the charming addict who makes a vow to get sober; Alice, the fabulous mommy Instagrammer whose real life is a lot less perfect than it looks online; and their other new friends--is by turns quirky and funny, heartbreakingly sad and painfully true-to-life. It's a story about being brave and putting your real self forward--and finding out that it's not as scary as it seems. In fact, it looks a lot like happiness.

The Authenticity Project is just the tonic for our times that readers are clamoring for--and one they will take to their hearts and read with unabashed pleasure.]]> 400 Clare Pooley 1984878638 Liv 3 3.88 2020
author: Clare Pooley
name: Liv
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/25
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves:
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]]> 52765755 From award-winning higher education journalist and New York Times bestselling author Jeffrey Selingo comes a revealing look from inside the admissions office—one that identifies surprising strategies that will aid in the college search.

Getting into a top-ranked college has never seemed more impossible, with acceptance rates at some elite universities dipping into the single digits. In Who Gets In and Why, journalist and higher education expert Jeffrey Selingo dispels entrenched notions of how to compete and win at the admissions game, and reveals that teenagers and parents have much to gain by broadening their notion of what qualifies as a “good college.�� Hint: it’s not all about the sticker on the car window.

Selingo, who was embedded in three different admissions offices—a selective private university, a leading liberal arts college, and a flagship public campus—closely observed gatekeepers as they made their often agonizing and sometimes life-changing decisions. He also followed select students and their parents, and he traveled around the country meeting with high school counselors, marketers, behind-the-scenes consultants, and college rankers.

While many have long believed that admissions is merit-based, rewarding the best students, Who Gets In and Why presents a more complicated truth, showing that “who gets in�� is frequently more about the college’s agenda than the applicant. In a world where thousands of equally qualified students vie for a fixed number of spots at elite institutions, admissions officers often make split-second decisions based on a variety of factors—like diversity, money, and, ultimately, whether a student will enroll if accepted.

One of the most insightful books ever about “getting in�� and what higher education has become, Who Gets In and Why not only provides an usually intimate look at how admissions decisions get made, but guides prospective students on how to honestly assess their strengths and match with the schools that will best serve their interests.]]> 320 Jeffrey J. Selingo 1982116293 Liv 4 4.24 2020
author: Jeffrey J. Selingo
name: Liv
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/24
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves:
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]]> 62929342 Real Americans begins on the precipice of Y2K in New York City, when twenty-two-year-old Lily Chen, an unpaid intern at a slick media company, meets Matthew. Matthew is everything Lily is not: easygoing and effortlessly attractive, a native East Coaster and, most notably, heir to a vast pharmaceutical empire. Lily couldn't be more different: flat-broke, raised in Tampa, the only child of scientists who fled Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Despite all this, Lily and Matthew fall in love.

In 2021, fifteen-year-old Nick Chen has never felt like he belonged on the isolated Washington island where he lives with his single mother, Lily. He can't shake the sense she's hiding something. When Nick sets out to find his biological father, the journey threatens to raise more questions than answers.

In immersive, moving prose, Rachel Khong weaves a profound tale of class and striving, race and visibility, and family and inheritance—a story of trust, forgiveness, and finally coming home.

Exuberant and explosive, Real Americans is a social novel par excellence that asks: Are we destined, or made, and if so, who gets to do the making? Can our genetic past be overcome?

From the award-winning author of Goodbye, Vitamin: How far would you go to shape your own destiny? An exhilarating novel of American identity that spans three generations in one family, and asks: What makes us who we are? And how inevitable are our futures? ]]> 399 Rachel Khong 0593537254 Liv 3 3.93 2024
author: Rachel Khong
name: Liv
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/24
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves:
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]]> 61434408 It was the friends-with-benefits proposition he never saw coming��

While Arran Adair might have followed the call of wanderlust in his younger years, it isn’t the reason he stayed away from Ardnoch. Home now, desperate to put the sins of his past behind him, and rebuild his life in the Scottish Highlands, Arran could never have predicted Eredine Willows. The Ardnoch Estate Pilates instructor is a complicated mystery and one Arran can’t help but want to solve.

Eredine has spent the last eight years hiding in Scotland and building walls between her and the people she cares about. Arran is the first Adair who doesn’t treat her as if she’s fragile and demands a genuine friendship. Yet, the attraction sizzling between them is undeniable. So when she realizes she trusts him, Eredine surprises them both by offering Arran one night of no-strings passion.

Arran knows one night will inevitably lead to a desire for more and he’s willing to stay by Eredine’s side for as long as it takes to convince her there’s something real between them. However, just when Arran thinks they might build a future together, Eredine’s past returns to stalk her. And Arran won’t just have to battle her demons to keep them together. He’ll need to battle his own.]]> 338 Samantha Young 1915243068 Liv 0 to-read 3.80 2022
author: Samantha Young
name: Liv
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves: to-read
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]]> 60692648
Mac Galbraith remembers clearly the night Arro became everything to him, no longer just his best friend and boss’s younger sister. However, having made many mistakes over the years, there is one mistake Mac is determined not to make: to believe that he is worthy of Arrochar Adair. Allowing them to grow closer during his daughter, Robyn’s, return has proven his undoing. And when Arro forces the subject of their relationship, his response pushes her away. He just never meant for it to destroy them completely.

Devastated by Mac’s final rejection, Arro is determined to move on without him in her life, though he seems intent on staying put. And when the Adair family face a new threat, one that may have ties to Mac’s past, Arro can’t seem to be rid of the man. In fact, Mac will do anything to protect her.

But with so much hurt between them, will Arro let Mac close enough to guard her from their enemy�� before it’s too late?]]> 370 Samantha Young 1915243041 Liv 3 3.76 2022
author: Samantha Young
name: Liv
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/21
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves:
review:

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Determined to make amends for her mistakes, Regan plans to repair her relationship with Robyn by staying close. And when an offer of help comes from Thane Adair, Regan gratefully accepts.

Widower, Thane, needs a new nanny housekeeper for his two young children and when they bond with Regan Penhaligon, he offers her the job. But as the weeks pass and the complex American reveals who she really is, Thane struggles with his growing attraction to her.

Regan never expected to feel so intensely for Thane, but she can’t deny her passion for him or her love for his children. When someone from Thane’s past threatens his family, Regan wants to be his pillar of support. However, his continued inability to trust her might just destroy their chance at future happiness�� and the person who drove Regan to Ardnoch might snuff out her chance for any future at all.]]> 462 Samantha Young Liv 3 4.24 2021
author: Samantha Young
name: Liv
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/20
date added: 2025/01/20
shelves:
review:

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After narrowly escaping death, police officer Robyn Penhaligon leaves behind her life in Boston in search of some answers. Starting with Mac Galbraith, the Scottish father who abandoned her to pursue his career in private security. To re-connect with Mac, Robyn will finally meet a man she’s long resented. Lachlan Adair. Hostility instantly brews between Robyn and Lachlan. She thinks the head of the Adair family is high-handed and self-important. And finding closure with Mac is proving more difficult than she ever imagined. Robyn would sooner leave Ardnoch, but when she discovers Mac is embroiled in a threat against the Adairs and the exclusive members of the estate, she finds she’s not yet ready to give up on her father.

Determined to ensure Mac’s safety, Robyn investigates the disturbing crimes at Ardnoch, forcing her and Lachlan to spend time together. Soon it becomes clear a searing attraction exists beneath their animosity, and temptation leads them down a perilous path.
While they discover they are connected by something far more addictive than passion, Lachlan cannot let go of his grip on a painful past: a past that will destroy his future �� if the insidious presence of an enemy lurking in the shadows of Ardnoch doesn’t do the job first.]]> 528 Samantha Young Liv 4 4.14 2021
author: Samantha Young
name: Liv
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/18
date added: 2025/01/18
shelves:
review:

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