Brianna's bookshelf: all en-US Thu, 01 May 2025 18:32:30 -0700 60 Brianna's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[The Lost Queen (The Lost Queen, #1)]]> 38355440 �Outlander meets Camelot� (Kirsty Logan, author of The Gracekeepers) in the first book of an exciting historical trilogy that reveals the untold story of Languoreth—a powerful and, until now, tragically forgotten queen of sixth-century Scotland—twin sister of the man who inspired the legendary character of Merlin.

Intelligent, passionate, rebellious, and brave, Languoreth is the unforgettable heroine of The Lost Queen, a tale of conflicted loves and survival set against the cinematic backdrop of ancient Scotland, a magical land of myths and superstition inspired by the beauty of the natural world. One of the most powerful early medieval queens in British history, Languoreth ruled at a time of enormous disruption and bloodshed, when the burgeoning forces of Christianity threatened to obliterate the ancient pagan beliefs and change her way of life forever.

Together with her twin brother Lailoken, a warrior and druid known to history as Merlin, Languoreth is catapulted into a world of danger and violence. When a war brings the hero Emrys Pendragon, to their door, Languoreth collides with the handsome warrior Maelgwn. Their passionate connection is forged by enchantment, but Languoreth is promised in marriage to Rhydderch, son of the High King who is sympathetic to the followers of Christianity. As Rhydderch's wife, Languoreth must assume her duty to fight for the preservation of the Old Way, her kingdom, and all she holds dear.

“Moving, thrilling, and ultimately spellbinding� (BookPage), The Lost Queen brings this remarkable woman to life—rescuing her from obscurity, and reaffirming her place at the center of the most enduring legends of all time. “Moving, thrilling, and ultimately spellbinding, The Lost Queen is perfect for readers of historical fiction like The Clan of the Cave Bear and Wolf Hall, and for lovers of fantasy like Outlander and The Mists of Avalon� (BookPage).]]> 527 Signe Pike 1501191411 Brianna 0 to-read 4.14 2018 The Lost Queen (The Lost Queen, #1)
author: Signe Pike
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Enchanted April 24940946 The charming, slyly comic novel of romantic longing and transformation that inspired the Oscar-nominated film

Escaping dreary London for the sunshine of Italy, four very different women take up an offer advertised in the Times for a “small medieval Italian Castle on the shores of the Mediterranean to be let furnished for the month of April.� As each blossoms in the warmth of the Italian spring, quite unexpected changes occur.

An immediate bestseller upon its first publication, in 1922, The Enchanted April set off a craze for tourism to the Italian Riviera that continues to this day. Published here to coincide with a contemporary retelling, Enchanted August by Brenda Bowen, it’s a witty ensemble piece and the perfect romantic rediscovery for fans of Jess Walter’s Beautiful Ruins and Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love as well as of Downton Abbey and the hit movie The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust theseries to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-datetranslations by award-winning translators.]]> 240 Elizabeth von Arnim 0143107739 Brianna 4 2025-reads 3.88 1922 The Enchanted April
author: Elizabeth von Arnim
name: Brianna
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1922
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/18
date added: 2025/04/30
shelves: 2025-reads
review:

]]> The Radium Girls 30631926
All they wanted was the chance to shine.

Be careful what you wish for.

‘The first thing we asked was, “Does this stuff hurt you?� And they said, “No.� The company said that it wasn’t dangerous, that we didn’t need to be afraid.�

1917. As a war raged across the world, young American women flocked to work, painting watches, clocks and military dials with a special luminous substance made from radium. It was a fun job, lucrative and glamorous � the girls themselves shone brightly in the dark, covered head to toe in the dust from the paint. They were the radium girls.
As the years passed, the women began to suffer from mysterious and crippling illnesses. The very thing that had made them feel alive � their work � was in fact slowly killing they had been poisoned by the radium paint. Yet their employers denied all responsibility. And so, in the face of unimaginable suffering � in the face of death � these courageous women refused to accept their fate quietly, and instead became determined to fight for justice.
Drawing on previously unpublished sources � including diaries, letters and court transcripts, as well as original interviews with the women’s relatives � The Radium Girls is an intimate narrative account of an unforgettable true story. It is the powerful tale of a group of ordinary women from the Roaring Twenties, who themselves learned how to roar.]]> 480 Kate Moore Brianna 5 2025-reads, nonfiction 4.35 2016 The Radium Girls
author: Kate Moore
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/30
date added: 2025/04/30
shelves: 2025-reads, nonfiction
review:

]]> The Sword of Kaigen 202943439 A son struggling to grasp his violent future,
A father blind to the danger that threatens them all.

When the winds of war reach their peninsula, will the Matsuda family have the strength to defend their empire? Or will they tear each other apart before the true enemies even reach their shores?

High on a mountainside at the edge of the Kaigenese Empire live the most powerful warriors in the world, superhumans capable of raising the sea and wielding blades of ice. For hundreds of years, the fighters of the Kusanagi Peninsula have held the Empire’s enemies at bay, earning their frozen spit of land the name ‘The Sword of Kaigen.�

Born into Kusanagi’s legendary Matsuda family, fourteen-year-old Mamoru has always known his purpose: to master his family’s fighting techniques and defend his homeland. But when an outsider arrives and pulls back the curtain on Kaigen’s alleged age of peace, Mamoru realizes that he might not have much time to become the fighter he was bred to be. Worse, the empire he was bred to defend may stand on a foundation of lies.

Misaki told herself that she left the passions of her youth behind when she married into the Matsuda house. Determined to be a good housewife and mother, she hid away her sword, along with everything from her days as a fighter in a faraway country. But with her growing son asking questions about the outside world, the threat of an impending invasion looming across the sea, and her frigid husband grating on her nerves, Misaki finds the fighter in her clawing its way back to the surface.]]> 720 M.L. Wang 1739478711 Brianna 0 currently-reading 4.61 2019 The Sword of Kaigen
author: M.L. Wang
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/19
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Vera 30965725 did happen to Vera?]]> 336 Elizabeth von Arnim 1784872334 Brianna 0 to-read 3.76 1921 Vera
author: Elizabeth von Arnim
name: Brianna
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1921
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Story of a New Name (The Neapolitan Novels, #2)]]> 54680670 Neapolitan Novels, Elena Ferrante gives readers a poignant and universal story about friendship and belonging.]]> 471 Elena Ferrante 1787702235 Brianna 0 4.58 2012 The Story of a New Name (The Neapolitan Novels, #2)
author: Elena Ferrante
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at: 2025/04/12
date added: 2025/04/12
shelves: 2025-reads, historical-fiction, translated
review:

]]> Near to the Wild Heart 13082437
The book was an unprecedented sensation � the discovery of a genius. Narrative epiphanies and interior monologue frame the life of Joana, from her middle-class childhood through her unhappy marriage and its dissolution to transcendence, when she proclaims: “I shall arise as strong and comely as a young colt.”]]> 220 Clarice Lispector 0811220028 Brianna 0 2025-reads, translated 4.01 1943 Near to the Wild Heart
author: Clarice Lispector
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1943
rating: 0
read at: 2025/04/08
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: 2025-reads, translated
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Dungeon Crawler Carl (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #1)]]> 211721806
You know what’s worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Being stuck with her prize-winning show cat. And you know what’s worse than that? An alien invasion, the destruction of all man-made structures on Earth, and the systematic exploitation of all the survivors for a sadistic intergalactic game show. That’s what.

Join Coast Guard vet Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, as they try to survive the end of the world—or just get to the next level—in a video game–like, trap-filled fantasy dungeon. A dungeon that’s actually the set of a reality television show with countless viewers across the galaxy. Exploding goblins. Magical potions. Deadly, drug-dealing llamas. This ain’t your ordinary game show.

Welcome, Crawler. Welcome to the Dungeon. Survival is optional. Keeping the viewers entertained is not.

Includes part one of the exclusive bonus story “Backstage at the Pineapple Cabaret.�]]> 450 Matt Dinniman 059382024X Brianna 0 to-read 4.48 2020 Dungeon Crawler Carl (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #1)
author: Matt Dinniman
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Martyr! 139400713 A newly sober, orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, guided by the voices of artists, poets, and kings, embarks on a remarkable search for a family secret that leads him to a terminally ill painter living out her final days in the Brooklyn Museum. Electrifying, funny, and wholly original, Martyr! heralds the arrival of an essential new voice in contemporary fiction.

Cyrus Shams is a young man grappling with an inheritance of violence and loss: his mother’s plane was shot down over the skies of the Persian Gulf in a senseless accident; and his father’s life in America was circumscribed by his work killing chickens at a factory farm in the Midwest. Cyrus is a drunk, an addict, and a poet, whose obsession with martyrs leads him to examine the mysteries of his past—toward an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields dressed as the angel of death to inspire and comfort the dying, and toward his mother, through a painting discovered in a Brooklyn art gallery that suggests she may not have been who or what she seemed.

Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! is a paean to how we spend our lives seeking meaning—in faith, art, ourselves, others.]]> 331 Kaveh Akbar 0593537610 Brianna 4 2025-reads, literary-fiction 4.22 2024 Martyr!
author: Kaveh Akbar
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/31
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves: 2025-reads, literary-fiction
review:

]]> Counting Backwards 216052828 Inspired by true events revealing America's troubling past involving Pre-War eugenics practices, this emotionally riveting dual timeline novel brings together the lives of two inspiring women while exploring the timely and important themes of immigration, fertility, and motherhood. A revelatory tale of heartbreak and hope, it is an unputdownable story that will stay with readers long after the final page.

Jessa Gidney is a woman on the edge. Passed over for partner at her Manhattan law firm, she reevaluates her priorities, focusing on her deep desire to become a mother and her newfound interest in pro bono work. Her first case? An incarcerated woman named Isobel Perez fighting against a deportation order. An unsettling revelation about Isobel's health leads Jessa to uncover a horrifying pattern of medical malpractice within the detention facility. With her corporate law firm unsupportive and her husband, Vance, only concerned about the added stress while they're trying for a baby, Jessa is torn about whether to intervene. But when a shocking secret about her own family history comes to light, she is propelled to fight for these women, no matter the cost.

Nearly a century earlier in Virginia, seventeen-year-old, real-life Carrie Buck dreams of escaping her life as an unpaid laborer for her foster family. She yearns for a family of her own, a dream that seems within reach when she attracts the attention of her foster mother's handsome nephew. But he soon abandons her, and she's cast out, pregnant and completely alone. As a ward of the State, she is designated "feebleminded" and left to the mercy of a corrupt and heartless legal system. Her courageous fight for her own destiny leads to a landmark Supreme Court case.

As the novel alternates between these two women's stories, a startling connection is revealed. Tackling complex topics such as reproductive injustice, immigration law, eugenics, and societal expectations of women, the story is a compelling exploration of empowerment and self-determination. With a gripping investigation reminiscent of Erin Brockovich woven throughout, the tale is a testament to the courage it takes to stay true to oneself.]]> 336 Jacqueline Friedland 1400347300 Brianna 0 to-read 4.27 Counting Backwards
author: Jacqueline Friedland
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.27
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The House of the Spirits 50351108
The House of the Spirits brings to life the triumphs and tragedies of three generations of the Trueba family. The patriarch Esteban is a volatile, proud man whose voracious pursuit of political power is tempered only by his love for his delicate wife, Clara, a woman with a mystical connection to the spirit world. When their daughter Blanca embarks on a forbidden love affair in defiance of her implacable father, the result is an unexpected gift to Esteban: his adored granddaughter Alba, a beautiful and strong-willed child who will lead her family and her country into a revolutionary future.

One of the most important novels of the twentieth century, The House of the Spirits is an enthralling epic that spans decades and lives, weaving the personal and the political into a universal story of love, magic, and fate.]]> 497 Isabel Allende Brianna 4 4.30 1982 The House of the Spirits
author: Isabel Allende
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1982
rating: 4
read at: 2022/02/15
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: historical-fiction, 2022-reads, rory-gilmore-list, translated
review:

]]> A Far Wilder Magic 48909025
Weston Winters isn’t an alchemist--yet. Fired from every apprenticeship he's landed, his last chance hinges on Master Welty taking him in. But when Wes arrives at Welty Manor, he finds only Margaret and her bloodhound Trouble. Margaret begrudgingly allows him to stay, but on one condition: he must join the hunt with her.

Although they make an unlikely team, Wes is in awe of the girl who has endured alone on the outskirts of a town that doesn’t want her, in this creaking house of ghosts and sorrow. And even though Wes disrupts every aspect of her life, Margaret is drawn to him. He, too, knows what it's like to be an outsider. As the hunt looms closer and tensions rise, Margaret and Wes uncover dark magic that could be the key to winning the hunt - if they survive that long.]]> 384 Allison Saft 1250623650 Brianna 0 to-read 3.84 2022 A Far Wilder Magic
author: Allison Saft
name: Brianna
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Nothing More to Tell 51559209
The kids who found Mr. Larkin are her way in, and her ex–best friend, Tripp Talbot, was one of them. Without his account of events, the other two kids might have gone down for Mr. Larkin’s murder—but instead, thanks to Tripp, they're now at the top of the Saint Ambrose social pyramid. Tripp’s friends have never forgotten what Tripp did for them that day, and neither has he. Just like he hasn’t forgotten that everything he told the police was a lie.

Digging into the past is bound to shake up the present, and when Brynn begins to investigate what happened in the woods that day, she uncovers secrets that might change everything—about Saint Ambrose, about Mr. Larkin, and about her ex-best friend, Tripp Talbot.

Four years ago someone got away with murder. More terrifying is that they might be closer than anyone thinks.]]> 358 Karen M. McManus 0593175905 Brianna 0 owned-but-not-read 3.89 2022 Nothing More to Tell
author: Karen M. McManus
name: Brianna
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: owned-but-not-read
review:

]]> Eyes of Silver, Eyes of Gold 8262550 Librarian's Note: an alternate cover for this ASIN can be found here.

Eyes of Silver, Eyes of Gold is a story of family conflicts set in Colorado in 1885. Anne Wells has embarrassed her rigidly proper family since she was a child with occasional but grievous lapses from ladylike behavior. They blame those lapses for the disgraceful fact that she is a spinster at 28. Cord Bennett, the son of his father's second marriage to a Cheyenne woman, is more than an embarrassment to his well-to-do family of ranchers and lawyers - they are ashamed and afraid of their black sheep. When Anne and Cord are found alone together, her father's fury leads to violence. Cord's family is more than willing to believe that the fault is his. Can Anne and Cord use the freedom of being condemned for sins they didn't commit to make a life together? Or will their disapproving, interfering families tear them apart?]]> 427 Ellen O'Connell Brianna 0 to-read 4.28 2010 Eyes of Silver, Eyes of Gold
author: Ellen O'Connell
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Winners (Beartown, #3) 60209470
As the locals of Beartown struggle to overcome the past, great change is on the horizon. Someone is coming home after a long time away. Someone will be laid to rest. Someone will fall in love, someone will try to fix their marriage, and someone will do anything to save their children. Someone will submit to hate, someone will fight, and someone will grab a gun and walk towards the ice rink.

So what are the residents of Beartown willing to sacrifice for their home?

Everything.

The long-awaited conclusion to the beloved New York Times bestselling and “engrossing� (People) Beartown series—which inspired an HBO series of the same name—follows the small hockey town’s residents as they grapple with change, pain, hope, and redemption.]]> 673 Fredrik Backman 1982112794 Brianna 0 owned-but-not-read 4.42 2022 The Winners (Beartown, #3)
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: owned-but-not-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[My Brilliant Friend (The Neapolitan Novels, #1)]]> 52717097 My Brilliant Friend is also the story of a nation. Through the lives of Elena and Lila, Ferrante gives her readers the story of a city and a country undergoing momentous change.]]> 331 Elena Ferrante Brianna 4 4.11 2011 My Brilliant Friend (The Neapolitan Novels, #1)
author: Elena Ferrante
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/28
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: 2025-reads, literary-fiction, translated
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Lonesome Dove (Lonesome Dove, #1)]]> 8447243 Lonesome Dove, the third book in the Lonesome Dove tetralogy, is the grandest novel ever written about the last defiant wilderness of America. Journey to the dusty little Texas town of Lonesome Dove and meet an unforgettable assortment of heroes and outlaws, whores and ladies, Indians and settlers. Richly authentic, beautifully written, always dramatic, Lonesome Dove is a book to make us laugh, weep, dream, and remember.]]> 1082 Larry McMurtry Brianna 0 4.55 1985 Lonesome Dove (Lonesome Dove, #1)
author: Larry McMurtry
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.55
book published: 1985
rating: 0
read at: 2024/09/24
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: 2024-reads, historical-fiction, american-lit
review:

]]> Mad Honey 59912428 A soul-stirring novel about what we choose to keep from our past, and what we choose to leave behind.

Olivia McAfee knows what it feels like to start over. Her picture-perfect life—living in Boston, married to a brilliant cardiothoracic surgeon, raising a beautiful son, Asher—was upended when her husband revealed a darker side. She never imagined she would end up back in her sleepy New Hampshire hometown, living in the house she grew up in, and taking over her father's beekeeping business.

Lily Campanello is familiar with do-overs, too. When she and her mom relocate to Adams, New Hampshire, for her final year of high school, they both hope it will be a fresh start.

And for just a short while, these new beginnings are exactly what Olivia and Lily need. Their paths cross when Asher falls for the new girl in school, and Lily can’t help but fall for him, too. With Ash, she feels happy for the first time. Yet at times, she wonders if she can she trust him completely . . .

Then one day, Olivia receives a phone call: Lily is dead, and Asher is being questioned by the police. Olivia is adamant that her son is innocent. But she would be lying if she didn’t acknowledge the flashes of his father’s temper in him, and as the case against him unfolds, she realizes he’s hidden more than he’s shared with her.

Mad Honey is a riveting novel of suspense, an unforgettable love story, and a moving and powerful exploration of the secrets we keep and the risks we take in order to become ourselves.]]> 464 Jodi Picoult 1984818384 Brianna 0 to-read 4.05 2022 Mad Honey
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Hester 59807978
When she meets a young Nathaniel Hawthorne, the two are instantly drawn to each other: he is a man haunted by his ancestors, who sent innocent women to the gallows––while she is an unusually gifted needleworker, troubled by her own strange talents. As the weeks pass and Edward's safe return grows increasingly unlikely, Nathaniel and Isobel grow closer and closer. Together, they are a muse and a dark storyteller; the enchanter and the enchanted. But which is which?

In this sensuous and hypnotizing tale, a young immigrant woman grapples with our country's complicated past, and learns that America's ideas of freedom and liberty often fall short of their promise. Interwoven with Isobel and Nathaniel's story is a vivid interrogation of who gets to be a "real" American in the first half of the 19th century, a depiction of the early days of the Underground Railroad in New England, and atmospheric interstitials that capture the long history of "unusual" women being accused of witchcraft. Meticulously researched yet evocatively imagined, Hester is a timeless tale of art, ambition, and desire that examines the roots of female creative power and the men who try to shut it down.

A vivid reimagining of the woman who inspired Hester Prynne, the tragic heroine of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, and a journey into the enduring legacy of New England's witchcraft trials.]]> 322 Laurie Lico Albanese 1250278554 Brianna 0 to-read 3.94 2022 Hester
author: Laurie Lico Albanese
name: Brianna
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #1)]]> 6563622 506 Carlos Ruiz Zafón Brianna 5 4.23 2001 The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #1)
author: Carlos Ruiz Zafón
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at: 2022/10/08
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: 2022-reads, crime-mystery-thrillers, favorites, gothic-fiction, historical-fiction, translated
review:
Magical and mystical and so, so good.
]]> <![CDATA[The Angel's Game (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #2)]]> 7380399
When he is approached by a mysterious publisher offering a book deal that seems almost too good to be real. David leaps at the chance. But as he begins the work, and after a visit to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, he realizes that there is a connection between his book and the shadows that surround his dilapidated home and that the publisher may be hiding a few troubling secrets of his own.

Once again, Carlos Ruiz Zafón takes us into a dark, gothic Barcelona and creates a breathtaking tale of intrigue, romance, and tragedy.]]> 531 Carlos Ruiz Zafón 0767931114 Brianna 4 3.96 2008 The Angel's Game (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #2)
author: Carlos Ruiz Zafón
name: Brianna
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2022/10/16
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: 2022-reads, crime-mystery-thrillers, gothic-fiction, historical-fiction, translated
review:

]]> One Hundred Years of Solitude 21032147 One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, blends the natural with the supernatural in on one of the most magical reading experiences on earth.

'Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice'

Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez's great masterpiece is the story of seven generations of the Buendía family and of Macondo, the town they have built. Though little more than a settlement surrounded by mountains, Macondo has its wars and disasters, even its wonders and its miracles. A microcosm of Columbian life, its secrets lie hidden, encoded in a book, and only Aureliano Buendía can fathom its mysteries and reveal its shrouded destiny. Blending political reality with magic realism, fantasy and comic invention, One Hundred Years of Solitude is one of the most daringly original works of the twentieth century.

'Dazzling' The New York Times

As one of the pioneers of magic realism and perhaps the most prominent voice of Latin American literature, Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez has received international recognition for his novels, works of non-fiction and collections of short stories. Those published in translation by Penguin include Autumn of the Patriarch, Bon Voyage Mr.President, Collected Stories, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, The General in his Labyrinth, Innocent Eréndira and Other Stories, In the Evil Hour, Leaf Storm, Living to Tell the Tale, Love in the Time of Cholera, Memories of My Melancholy Whores, News of a Kidnapping, No-one Writes to the Colonel, Of Love and Other Demons, The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor and Strange Pilgrims.]]> 428 Gabriel García Márquez Brianna 3 3.95 1967 One Hundred Years of Solitude
author: Gabriel García Márquez
name: Brianna
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1967
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/11
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: classics, 2024-reads, translated
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Labyrinth of the Spirits (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books #4)]]> 41824526 New York Times bestselling author returns to the magnificent universe he constructed in his bestselling novels The Shadow of the Wind, The Angel’s Game, and The Prisoner of Heaven in this riveting series finale—a heart-pounding thriller and nail-biting work of suspense which introduces a sexy, seductive new heroine whose investigation shines a light on the dark history of Franco’s Spain.

In this unforgettable final volume of Ruiz Zafón’s cycle of novels set in the universe of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, beautiful and enigmatic Alicia Gris, with the help of the Sempere family, uncovers one of the most shocking conspiracies in all Spanish history.

Nine-year-old Alicia lost her parents during the Spanish Civil War when the Nacionales (the fascists) savagely bombed Barcelona in 1938. Twenty years later, she still carries the emotional and physical scars of that violent and terrifying time. Weary of her work as an investigator for Spain’s secret police in Madrid, a job she has held for more than a decade, the twenty-nine-year old plans to move on. At the insistence of her boss, Leandro Montalvo, she remains to solve one last case: the mysterious disappearance of Spain’s Minister of Culture, Mauricio Valls.

With her partner, the intimidating policeman Juan Manuel Vargas, Alicia discovers a possible clue—a rare book by the author Victor Mataix hidden in Valls� office in his Madrid mansion. Valls was the director of the notorious Montjuic Prison in Barcelona during World War II where several writers were imprisoned, including David Martín and Victor Mataix. Traveling to Barcelona on the trail of these writers, Alicia and Vargas meet with several booksellers, including Juan Sempere, who knew her parents.

As Alicia and Vargas come closer to finding Valls, they uncover a tangled web of kidnappings and murders tied to the Franco regime, whose corruption is more widespread and horrifying than anyone imagined. Alicia’s courageous and uncompromising search for the truth puts her life in peril. Only with the help of a circle of devoted friends will she emerge from the dark labyrinths of Barcelona and its history into the light of the future.

In this haunting new novel, Carlos Ruiz Zafón proves yet again that he is a masterful storyteller and pays homage to the world of books, to his ingenious creation of the Cemetery of Forgotten, and to that magical bridgebetween literature and our lives.]]> 805 Carlos Ruiz Zafón 0062668706 Brianna 5 “Barcelona is a haunted house, Vargas. What happens is that you tourists never think of looking behind the curtain.�
I first picked up The Shadow of the Wind, the first book in Carlos Ruiz Zafón's magical, mystical series of twentieth century Barcelona, at a bookstore in Monterey, California, where I'd been on a quick four-day escape from reality. I was looking for a new book to read, and I had heard about The Shadow of the Wind for years, but I'd never given it much thought until I saw it on the shelf that day. When I checked it out, the cashier told me that it was her best friend's favorite book, but that she hadn't read it yet because her best friend told her to wait for the moment when the book found her, not the other way around. I didn't know then how prophetic that would be.

I devoured The Shadow of the Wind, and now that I was back home, I placed an online order for the next four books in the serious. I devoured them all, but slowly, not wanting the journey to end. A few weeks earlier, I started the final installation in Ruiz Zafon's quartet. I don't want to say too much about these books because I believe it's best to know as little about them before you start, but I will say this:

One of the last pages of the book describes Monterey, California, from the rugged coastlines to the peace and serenity it can bring people, and I knew then that I was meant to find these books. Or should I say, I was meant to let these books find me.]]> 4.49 2016 The Labyrinth of the Spirits (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books #4)
author: Carlos Ruiz Zafón
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2022/11/12
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: 2022-reads, crime-mystery-thrillers, historical-fiction, gothic-fiction, favorites
review:
“Barcelona is a haunted house, Vargas. What happens is that you tourists never think of looking behind the curtain.�

I first picked up The Shadow of the Wind, the first book in Carlos Ruiz Zafón's magical, mystical series of twentieth century Barcelona, at a bookstore in Monterey, California, where I'd been on a quick four-day escape from reality. I was looking for a new book to read, and I had heard about The Shadow of the Wind for years, but I'd never given it much thought until I saw it on the shelf that day. When I checked it out, the cashier told me that it was her best friend's favorite book, but that she hadn't read it yet because her best friend told her to wait for the moment when the book found her, not the other way around. I didn't know then how prophetic that would be.

I devoured The Shadow of the Wind, and now that I was back home, I placed an online order for the next four books in the serious. I devoured them all, but slowly, not wanting the journey to end. A few weeks earlier, I started the final installation in Ruiz Zafon's quartet. I don't want to say too much about these books because I believe it's best to know as little about them before you start, but I will say this:

One of the last pages of the book describes Monterey, California, from the rugged coastlines to the peace and serenity it can bring people, and I knew then that I was meant to find these books. Or should I say, I was meant to let these books find me.
]]> A Long Petal of the Sea 46042377 From the author of The House of the Spirits, this epic novel spanning decades and crossing continents follows two young people as they flee the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War in search of a place to call home.

In the late 1930s, civil war grips Spain. When General Franco and his Fascists succeed in overthrowing the government, hundreds of thousands are forced to flee in a treacherous journey over the mountains to the French border. Among them is Roser, a pregnant young widow, who finds her life intertwined with that of Victor Dalmau, an army doctor and the brother of her deceased love. In order to survive, the two must unite in a marriage neither of them desires.

Together with two thousand other refugees, they embark on the SS Winnipeg, a ship chartered by the poet Pablo Neruda, to Chile: “the long petal of sea and wine and snow.� As unlikely partners, they embrace exile as the rest of Europe erupts in world war. Starting over on a new continent, their trials are just beginning, and over the course of their lives, they will face trial after trial. But they will also find joy as they patiently await the day when they will be exiles no more. Through it all, their hope of returning to Spain keeps them going. Destined to witness the battle between freedom and repression as it plays out across the world, Roser and Victor will find that home might have been closer than they thought all along.

A masterful work of historical fiction about hope, exile, and belonging, A Long Petal of the Sea shows Isabel Allende at the height of her powers. ]]> 325 Isabel Allende Brianna 3 4.03 2019 A Long Petal of the Sea
author: Isabel Allende
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/24
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: 2023-reads, historical-fiction, translated
review:

]]> Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2) 150260809
Everyone expected Violet Sorrengail to die during her first year at Basgiath War College—Violet included. But Threshing was only the first impossible test meant to weed out the weak-willed, the unworthy, and the unlucky.

Now the real training begins, and Violet’s already wondering how she’ll get through. It’s not just that it’s grueling and maliciously brutal, or even that it’s designed to stretch the riders� capacity for pain beyond endurance. It’s the new vice commandant, who’s made it his personal mission to teach Violet exactly how powerless she is–unless she betrays the man she loves.

Although Violet’s body might be weaker and frailer than everyone else’s, she still has her wits—and a will of iron. And leadership is forgetting the most important lesson Basgiath has taught her: Dragon riders make their own rules.

But a determination to survive won’t be enough this year.

Because Violet knows the real secret hidden for centuries at Basgiath War College—and nothing, not even dragon fire, may be enough to save them in the end.]]> 895 Rebecca Yarros Brianna 0 what the f*ck 4.56 2023 Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2)
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2023/11/26
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: 2023-reads, fantasy-sci-fi, meh
review:
what the f*ck
]]> The Thin Man 10303018 The Thin Man is a murder mystery that doubles as a sophisticated comedy of manners.]]> 208 Dashiell Hammett Brianna 2 3.99 1934 The Thin Man
author: Dashiell Hammett
name: Brianna
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1934
rating: 2
read at: 2023/12/25
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: 2023-reads, crime-mystery-thrillers, meh, american-lit
review:
The movie is a masterpiece; the book is mediocre, with some bright spots.
]]> Anna Karenina 153
Anna Karenina seems to have everything - beauty, wealth, popularity and an adored son. But she feels that her life is empty until the moment she encounters the impetuous officer Count Vronsky. Their subsequent affair scandalizes society and family alike and soon brings jealously and bitterness in its wake. Contrasting with this tale of love and self-destruction is the vividly observed story of Levin, a man striving to find contentment and a meaning to his life - and also a self-portrait of Tolstoy himself.]]> 838 Leo Tolstoy 0140449175 Brianna 4 4.21 1878 Anna Karenina
author: Leo Tolstoy
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1878
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/04
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: 2025-reads, classics, rory-gilmore-list, translated
review:

]]> I Who Have Never Known Men 43208407 ‘For a very long time, the days went by, each just like the day before, then I began to think, and everything changed�

Deep underground, thirty-nine women live imprisoned in a cage. Watched over by guards, the women have no memory of how they got there, no notion of time, and only vague recollection of their lives before.

As the burn of electric light merges day into night and numberless years pass, a young girl - the fortieth prisoner - sits alone and outcast in the corner. Soon she will show herself to be the key to the others' escape and survival in the strange world that awaits them above ground.]]> 188 Jacqueline Harpman 152911179X Brianna 4 4.24 1995 I Who Have Never Known Men
author: Jacqueline Harpman
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/27
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: 2025-reads, fantasy-sci-fi, translated
review:

]]> Lies and Sorcery 62001844
A heavily abridged English translation of Lies and Sorcery came out in the 1950s under the title of House of Lies. Jenny McPhee’s new translation is the first complete English rendering of the book that Georg Lukács considered the greatest of modern Italian novels.]]> 800 Elsa Morante 1681376849 Brianna 3 4.02 1948 Lies and Sorcery
author: Elsa Morante
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1948
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/16
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: 2025-reads, translated, historical-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Parable of the Talents (Earthseed, #2)]]> 41161350
In 2032, Lauren Olamina has survived the destruction of her home and family, and realized her vision of a peaceful community in northern California based on her newly founded faith, Earthseed. The fledgling community provides refuge for outcasts facing persecution after the election of an ultra-conservative president who vows to "make America great again." In an increasingly divided and dangerous nation, Lauren's subversive colony--a minority religious faction led by a young black woman--becomes a target for President Jarret's reign of terror and oppression.

Years later, Asha Vere reads the journals of a mother she never knew, Lauren Olamina. As she searches for answers about her own past, she also struggles to reconcile with the legacy of a mother caught between her duty to her chosen family and her calling to lead humankind into a better future.]]> 406 Octavia E. Butler Brianna 4 2025-reads, fantasy-sci-fi 4.35 1998 Parable of the Talents (Earthseed, #2)
author: Octavia E. Butler
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/18
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: 2025-reads, fantasy-sci-fi
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Blacker the Berry (Herald Classics)]]> 219269038 A source of controversy upon its 1929 publication, "The Blacker the Berry" was the first novel to openly address color prejudice among black Americans. Author Wallace Thurman, an active member of the Harlem Renaissance, vividly recaptures the era's mood and spirit. His portrait of a young woman adrift in the city forms an enduringly relevant reflection of the search for racial, sexual, and cultural identity.]]> 240 Wallace Thurman 1454960159 Brianna 3 3.00 1927 The Blacker the Berry (Herald Classics)
author: Wallace Thurman
name: Brianna
average rating: 3.00
book published: 1927
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/27
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: 2025-reads, american-lit, classics
review:

]]> Demon Copperhead 60194162 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780063251922.

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

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

Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind.]]> 560 Barbara Kingsolver Brianna 3 2025-reads, literary-fiction 4.46 2022 Demon Copperhead
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/08
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: 2025-reads, literary-fiction
review:

]]> Intermezzo 215366091 An exquisitely moving story about grief, love, and family, from the global phenomenon Sally Rooney.

Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common.

Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties—successful, competent, and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women—his enduring first love, Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke.

Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined.

For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude—a period of desire, despair, and possibility; a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.]]> 448 Sally Rooney 0571365477 Brianna 4 2025-reads, literary-fiction 4.03 2024 Intermezzo
author: Sally Rooney
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/20
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: 2025-reads, literary-fiction
review:

]]> Waking Olivia 29103642 And the last thing I need right now is more trouble."

A failing farm.
His father’s debt.
And a struggling college track team.
Will Langstrom has too many responsibilities, and the last thing he needs is Olivia Finnegan, a beautiful but troubled new transfer student.

A smart mouth.
A strong right hook.
And a secret that could destroy her.
Olivia is her own worst enemy, with a past she can’t seem to escape, and the last person she wants help from is a cocky track coach she can never seem to please.
Refusing to be pushed away, Will is determined to save her.
And determined to resist an attraction that could destroy them both.]]> 378 Elizabeth O'Roark 098981355X Brianna 0 4.03 2016 Waking Olivia
author: Elizabeth O'Roark
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at: 2024/07/01
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: 2024-reads, tiktok-made-me-read, contemp-romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Bold Tricks (The Artists Trilogy, #3)]]> 21926856 USA Today bestselling Artists Trilogy, now available in mass market paperback.

The Faster They Live, the Harder They Fall . . .

Raised by con artists, Ellie Watt has a lot of crazy childhood memories-but none crazier than being scarred with acid by the demented crime boss Travis Raines. Now Ellie is a full-grown woman who lives for revenge, and Travis is a full-blown drug lord who kills for pleasure. The sadistic bastard has kidnapped her good friend Gus as well as her mother, whom he's been holding as prized possessions in his heavily guarded lair. And Ellie has only one chance in hell of getting them out alive-using two dangerous men who love her to death . . .

One is Camden McQueen, a talented tattoo artist who's made a permanent mark on Ellie's heart. The other is Javier Bernal, her fiery ex-lover who's busted more than a few heads in his time. From the crime-ridden streets of Mexico City to the predatory jungles of Honduras, this unlikely trio forms an uneasy alliance in the deadliest game of all-a gun-blazing battle to the finish that will pit enemy against enemy and lover against lover. And Ellie must choose the right man to trust . . . or die.

Approx. 80,000 words.]]> 352 Karina Halle 1455552224 Brianna 2 This year, I’m celebrating female authors by only reading books written by women.
This was no longer a matter of good or bad. This was all grey. Hazy, fuzzy grey.
I'm not exactly sure where to begin with this review. I'll start off by saying that I was indifferent about Sins & Needles, the first book in Karina Halle's Artists Trilogy, and I loved nearly everything about the sequel, Shooting Scars, and the prequel, On Every Street. So when Shooting Scars ended in an enticing cliffhanger, I couldn't wait to start the last book in the trilogy, Bold Tricks.

And, right from the beginning, it pretty much fell flat for me. I'm a reader who hates love triangles, but one of the reasons Shooting Scars worked so well was because I really didn't know who I wanted Ellie to end up with - Javier or Camden. I figured that whoever she chose, I would be unhappy with the outcome. If she chose Camden, I'd be upset that she didn't choose Javier, and if she chose Javi, I'd be upset that she didn't choose Camden. But right from the beginning of Bold Tricks, it's clear who Ellie has chosen. And the rest of the book, despite a plot driven through the jungles of Central America, is pretty much Ellie's inner monologue devoted to the man she chose.

I'm not kidding. Every few pages, she'll describe her love for this man (whose name will remain undisclosed so as not to spoil anyone who hasn't read this book yet). I get it. She loves him. I don't need constant reminders of that love when people are literally dying all around Ellie. When Gus, a man who was like a father to her, has been kidnapped by one of the largest drug cartels in the world, along with her mother. With all that happening, I don't really care for passages like this:

He has my heart. He knows it. At least I hope he does. I’ll keep giving it anyway. I love him.

I know that the Artists trilogy is technically a New Adult romance series. I get that. I love me some good romance. But the thing is, this isn't good romance. I hate to say this, because I respect Miss Halle and I know that she put a lot of effort into this series and these characters. But the fact of the matter is that all throughout Bold Tricks, the relationship - this love - feels forced. Which is odd, considering that Ellie's relationships with Camden and Javier during the last two and a half books never once felt forced. So to have a romance that, for some reason, doesn't quite work take up center stage in this book was a pretty big disappointment to me.

All that said, the stakes in Bold Tricks are much higher than in the previous two books. Javier, Ellie, and Camden have formed a shaky alliance after Gus was presumably taken by Los Zetas (a rival cartel run by Javier and Ellie's sworn enemy, Travis) in order to retrieve both him and Ellie's mother from the clutches of the aforementioned villain, Travis. They are constantly in life or death situations, and at times, they're even pitted against each other. Who do they trust - each other, or the people they meet along the way?

The plot was the only reason I kept plodding forward, if I'm being honest here. But like I said, much of it was taken up by Ellie's inner monologue over the man she realizes that she loves. Because of that, the book often descended into sappiness worthy of the harlequin romances I love. The differences between those books and Bold Tricks is that I expect that level of saccharine prose from them, but I did not expect (or want) it from Miss Halle and Bold Tricks.]]> 3.76 Bold Tricks (The Artists Trilogy, #3)
author: Karina Halle
name: Brianna
average rating: 3.76
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2015/03/30
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: 2015-ranked, meh, contemp-romance
review:
This year, I’m celebrating female authors by only reading books written by women.
This was no longer a matter of good or bad. This was all grey. Hazy, fuzzy grey.
I'm not exactly sure where to begin with this review. I'll start off by saying that I was indifferent about Sins & Needles, the first book in Karina Halle's Artists Trilogy, and I loved nearly everything about the sequel, Shooting Scars, and the prequel, On Every Street. So when Shooting Scars ended in an enticing cliffhanger, I couldn't wait to start the last book in the trilogy, Bold Tricks.

And, right from the beginning, it pretty much fell flat for me. I'm a reader who hates love triangles, but one of the reasons Shooting Scars worked so well was because I really didn't know who I wanted Ellie to end up with - Javier or Camden. I figured that whoever she chose, I would be unhappy with the outcome. If she chose Camden, I'd be upset that she didn't choose Javier, and if she chose Javi, I'd be upset that she didn't choose Camden. But right from the beginning of Bold Tricks, it's clear who Ellie has chosen. And the rest of the book, despite a plot driven through the jungles of Central America, is pretty much Ellie's inner monologue devoted to the man she chose.

I'm not kidding. Every few pages, she'll describe her love for this man (whose name will remain undisclosed so as not to spoil anyone who hasn't read this book yet). I get it. She loves him. I don't need constant reminders of that love when people are literally dying all around Ellie. When Gus, a man who was like a father to her, has been kidnapped by one of the largest drug cartels in the world, along with her mother. With all that happening, I don't really care for passages like this:

He has my heart. He knows it. At least I hope he does. I’ll keep giving it anyway. I love him.

I know that the Artists trilogy is technically a New Adult romance series. I get that. I love me some good romance. But the thing is, this isn't good romance. I hate to say this, because I respect Miss Halle and I know that she put a lot of effort into this series and these characters. But the fact of the matter is that all throughout Bold Tricks, the relationship - this love - feels forced. Which is odd, considering that Ellie's relationships with Camden and Javier during the last two and a half books never once felt forced. So to have a romance that, for some reason, doesn't quite work take up center stage in this book was a pretty big disappointment to me.

All that said, the stakes in Bold Tricks are much higher than in the previous two books. Javier, Ellie, and Camden have formed a shaky alliance after Gus was presumably taken by Los Zetas (a rival cartel run by Javier and Ellie's sworn enemy, Travis) in order to retrieve both him and Ellie's mother from the clutches of the aforementioned villain, Travis. They are constantly in life or death situations, and at times, they're even pitted against each other. Who do they trust - each other, or the people they meet along the way?

The plot was the only reason I kept plodding forward, if I'm being honest here. But like I said, much of it was taken up by Ellie's inner monologue over the man she realizes that she loves. Because of that, the book often descended into sappiness worthy of the harlequin romances I love. The differences between those books and Bold Tricks is that I expect that level of saccharine prose from them, but I did not expect (or want) it from Miss Halle and Bold Tricks.
]]> <![CDATA[Shooting Scars (The Artists Trilogy, #2)]]> 20706744 The USA Today Bestseller!!

A Dangerous Kind of Love . . .

When Ellie Watt offered herself to her thuggish former lover Javier to save Camden's life, she never imagined the twisted game Javier had planned for her. Trapped by him and his entourage of killers, Ellie is forced to commit a dangerous, heinous crime-or Javier will kill Camden. Now ex-con artist Ellie must find a way to stay ahead of the game . . . before it destroys her and the only man she ever loved.

Camden McQueen can't forget Ellie Watt. Seeking revenge and pursued by the authorities for a crime he didn't commit, the talented tattoo artist does things he never thought himself capable of to save Ellie. As Camden straddles the line between love and retribution, he vows to do everything in his power to get her back. But if Camden unleashes his dark side, will Ellie still love him?

"I knew from the moment I began chapter one that Karina and I are kindred spirits. Fans of her Artists series will not be disappointed with this second installment and will no doubt be left panting for the third."
--- CJ Roberts, USA Today bestselling author on SHOOTING SCARS

"I'm officially addicted to Karina Halle's writing, but I don't plan on seeking a cure for this obsession anytime soon."
--- New York Times bestselling author Chelsea M. Cameron on ON EVERY STREET

"Karina Halle has done it again with this violently beautiful tale of love, pain, revenge & loss that will rip you apart, piece by piece, and put you back together again."

--- New York Times and USA Today Best Selling Author S.L. Jennings on SHOOTING SCARS


Shooting Scars is Book 2 in Karina Halle's bestselling, Artists Trilogy.

Approx. 100,000 words.]]> 432 Karina Halle 1455552178 Brianna 4 2015-ranked, contemp-romance This year, I’m celebrating female authors by only reading books written by women.
The farther we got away from solid ground, the less chance I had. For life, for liberty, for love, maybe for everything. My situation kept changing from day to day, moment to moment, and I wasn’t quick enough to keep up.
Oh God. Karina Halle's Artists Trilogy is the best kind of addicting. After forcing myself through 75% of Sins & Needles unattached to the story or the characters, I was suddenly sucked in during the last quarter. Miss Halle certainly knows how to weave a suspenseful page-turner out of unrealistic situations, unlikeable characters, and plot devices I normally loathe. For instance, a list of things I don't like in my fiction:

� Love triangles
� Changing first-person points of view
� Alpha-male protagonists
� Did I mention love triangles?

And a list of plot devices used in Shooting Scars :

� Love Triangles
� Changing first-person points of view
� Alpha-male protagonists

And yet Karina Halle does all of this in a way that makes me want to read more instead of throwing the book across the room. Shooting Scars is the second book in The Artists trilogy, taking place immediately after the close of the first book, and it takes you to places you'd never thought you'd go. Let's start with the love triangle.

Ellie Watt, conwoman and ex-girlfriend of drug lord Javier Bernal, gives herself over to said drug lord ex-boyfriend in order to save the life of her current flame, tattoo god Camden McQueen. At the beginning, I rooted for Ellie and Camden. And then...along the way...I found myself liking Javier Bernal, a cold blooded murderer. I wanted Ellie to be with Javier. And then when Camden appeared, I wanted her to be with him, not Javier. Shooting Scars isn't Twilight: there's so much more driving the plot forward than the love-triangle. Ellie doesn't sit around asking herself who she loves more. And that's what makes it work, I think.

The switching points of view work very well in Shooting Scars. The first book, Sins & Needles, was written entirely in Ellie's point of view, with snippets told by an omniscient narrator who referred to Ellie as "the girl." I hated that in the first book. But as Ellie and Camden spend most of the novel apart, with both of them propelling the plot forward, the dual points of view were almost necessary, and they flowed really well.

To top it all off, I liked the characters in Shooting Scars much better than I did in Sins & Needles. Part of this might be because I read the prequel novella to Sins & Needles, On Every Street, before starting Shooting Scars. But I think most of it is because all of the characters have chemistry in this book. Not just romantic chemistry - all kinds of chemistry. Platonic. Romanitic. Suspenseful. Villainous.

And of course, Miss Halle left us with a cliff hanger as usual, [spoilers removed] that practically forces us (aka me) to buy the third and final book, Bold Tricks, just to see how on earth this whole delicious mess is going to be cleaned up.]]> 3.97 2013 Shooting Scars (The Artists Trilogy, #2)
author: Karina Halle
name: Brianna
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2015/03/22
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: 2015-ranked, contemp-romance
review:
This year, I’m celebrating female authors by only reading books written by women.
The farther we got away from solid ground, the less chance I had. For life, for liberty, for love, maybe for everything. My situation kept changing from day to day, moment to moment, and I wasn’t quick enough to keep up.
Oh God. Karina Halle's Artists Trilogy is the best kind of addicting. After forcing myself through 75% of Sins & Needles unattached to the story or the characters, I was suddenly sucked in during the last quarter. Miss Halle certainly knows how to weave a suspenseful page-turner out of unrealistic situations, unlikeable characters, and plot devices I normally loathe. For instance, a list of things I don't like in my fiction:

� Love triangles
� Changing first-person points of view
� Alpha-male protagonists
� Did I mention love triangles?

And a list of plot devices used in Shooting Scars :

� Love Triangles
� Changing first-person points of view
� Alpha-male protagonists

And yet Karina Halle does all of this in a way that makes me want to read more instead of throwing the book across the room. Shooting Scars is the second book in The Artists trilogy, taking place immediately after the close of the first book, and it takes you to places you'd never thought you'd go. Let's start with the love triangle.

Ellie Watt, conwoman and ex-girlfriend of drug lord Javier Bernal, gives herself over to said drug lord ex-boyfriend in order to save the life of her current flame, tattoo god Camden McQueen. At the beginning, I rooted for Ellie and Camden. And then...along the way...I found myself liking Javier Bernal, a cold blooded murderer. I wanted Ellie to be with Javier. And then when Camden appeared, I wanted her to be with him, not Javier. Shooting Scars isn't Twilight: there's so much more driving the plot forward than the love-triangle. Ellie doesn't sit around asking herself who she loves more. And that's what makes it work, I think.

The switching points of view work very well in Shooting Scars. The first book, Sins & Needles, was written entirely in Ellie's point of view, with snippets told by an omniscient narrator who referred to Ellie as "the girl." I hated that in the first book. But as Ellie and Camden spend most of the novel apart, with both of them propelling the plot forward, the dual points of view were almost necessary, and they flowed really well.

To top it all off, I liked the characters in Shooting Scars much better than I did in Sins & Needles. Part of this might be because I read the prequel novella to Sins & Needles, On Every Street, before starting Shooting Scars. But I think most of it is because all of the characters have chemistry in this book. Not just romantic chemistry - all kinds of chemistry. Platonic. Romanitic. Suspenseful. Villainous.

And of course, Miss Halle left us with a cliff hanger as usual, [spoilers removed] that practically forces us (aka me) to buy the third and final book, Bold Tricks, just to see how on earth this whole delicious mess is going to be cleaned up.
]]> <![CDATA[On Every Street (The Artists Trilogy, #0.5)]]> 17230557
Takes place six years before Sins & Needles. It can be read before or after Sins & Needles and may also be read as a standalone.]]> 263 Karina Halle Brianna 0 2015-ranked, contemp-romance 4.26 2013 On Every Street (The Artists Trilogy, #0.5)
author: Karina Halle
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at: 2015/03/21
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: 2015-ranked, contemp-romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sins & Needles (The Artists Trilogy, #1)]]> 16029994
Once known as the high school weirdo, Camden is bigger and badder than the boy he used to be and a talented tattoo artist with his own thriving business. Ellie’s counting on Camden still being in love with her but what she’s not counting on is how easily unrequited love can turn into obsession over time. When Camden discovers Ellie’s plan to con him, he makes her a deal she doesn’t dare refuse, but her freedom comes with a price and it’s one that takes both Ellie and Camden down a dangerous road.]]> 438 Karina Halle 1479359084 Brianna 3 2015-ranked, contemp-romance 3.94 2013 Sins & Needles (The Artists Trilogy, #1)
author: Karina Halle
name: Brianna
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2015/03/16
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: 2015-ranked, contemp-romance
review:

]]> Unteachable 20877902
But life has a way of throwing her plans into free-fall.

When Maise meets Evan at a carnival one night, their chemistry is immediate, intense, and short-lived. Which is exactly how she likes it: no strings. But afterward, she can’t get Evan out of her head. He’s taught her that a hookup can be something more. It can be an unexpected connection with someone who truly understands her. Someone who sees beyond her bravado to the scared but strong girl inside.

That someone turns out to be her new film class teacher, Mr. Evan Wilke.

Maise and Evan resolve to keep their hands off each other, but the attraction is too much to bear. Together, they’re real and genuine; apart, they’re just actors playing their parts for everyone else. And their masks are slipping. People start to notice. Rumors fly. When the truth comes to light in a shocking way, they may learn they were just playing parts for each other, too.

Smart, sexy, and provocative, Unteachable is about what happens when a love story goes off-script.]]> 320 Leah Raeder 1476786410 Brianna 3 2015-ranked, contemp-romance 3.62 2013 Unteachable
author: Leah Raeder
name: Brianna
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2015/03/09
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: 2015-ranked, contemp-romance
review:

]]> The Invisible Hour 62919793
One June day when Mia Jacob can no longer see a way to survive, the power of words saves her. The Scarlet Letter was written almost two hundred years earlier, but it seems to tell the story of Mia’s mother, Ivy, and their life inside the Community—an oppressive cult in western Massachusetts where contact with the outside world is forbidden. But how could this be? How could Nathaniel Hawthorne have so perfectly captured the pain and loss that Mia carries inside her?

Through a journey of heartbreak, love, and time, Mia must abandon the rules she was raised with at the Community. As she does, she realizes that reading can transport you to other worlds or bring them to you, and that readers and writers affect one another in mysterious ways. She learns that time is more fluid than she can imagine, and that love is stronger than any chains that bind you.

As a girl Mia fell in love with a book. Now as a young woman she falls in love with a brilliant writer as she makes her way back in time. But what if Nathaniel Hawthorne never wrote The Scarlet Letter ? And what if Mia Jacob never found it on the day she planned to die?

From “the reigning queen of magical realism� (Kristin Hannah, New York Times bestselling author), this is the story of one woman’s dream. For a little while it came true.]]> 272 Alice Hoffman 1982175370 Brianna 0 3.54 2023 The Invisible Hour
author: Alice Hoffman
name: Brianna
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Hello Stranger (The Ravenels, #4)]]> 35271196 A woman who defies her time.

Dr. Garrett Gibson, the only female physician in England, is as daring and independent as any man—why not take her pleasures like one? Yet she has never been tempted to embark on an affair, until now. Ethan Ransom, a former detective for Scotland Yard, is as gallant as he is secretive, a rumored assassin whose true loyalties are a mystery. For one exhilarating night, they give in to their potent attraction before becoming strangers again.

A man who breaks every rule.

As a Ravenel by-blow spurned by his father, Ethan has little interest in polite society, yet he is captivated by the bold and beautiful Garrett. Despite their vow to resist each other after that sublime night, she is soon drawn into his most dangerous assignment yet. When the mission goes wrong, it will take all of Garrett's skill and courage to save him. As they face the menace of a treacherous government plot, Ethan is willing to take any risk for the love of the most extraordinary woman he's ever known.]]> 286 Lisa Kleypas 0062804154 Brianna 0 3.98 2018 Hello Stranger (The Ravenels, #4)
author: Lisa Kleypas
name: Brianna
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sweet Little Lies (Heartbreaker Bay, #1)]]> 27161224 Choose the one guy you can’t have . . .

As captain of a San Francisco Bay tour boat, Pru can handle rough seas—the hard part is life on dry land. Pru loves her new apartment and her neighbors; problem is, she’s in danger of stumbling into love with Mr. Right for Anybody But Her.

Fall for him—hard . . .

Pub owner Finn O’Riley is six-foot-plus of hard-working hottie who always makes time for his friends. When Pru becomes one of them, she discovers how amazing it feels to be on the receiving end of that deep green gaze. But when a freak accident involving darts (don’t ask) leads to shirtless first aid, things rush way past the friend zone. Fast.

And then tell him the truth.

Pru only wants Finn to be happy; it’s what she wishes for at the historic fountain that’s supposed to grant her heart’s desire. But wanting him for herself is a different story—because Pru’s been keeping a secret that could change everything. . . .]]> 384 Jill Shalvis 006244803X Brianna 0 3.83 2016 Sweet Little Lies (Heartbreaker Bay, #1)
author: Jill Shalvis
name: Brianna
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Bride (Lairds' Fiancées, #1)]]> 107779
But Jamie has vowed to never surrender to this fierce highland barbarian. He is everything she had been warned against—an arrogant scoundrel whose rough good looks hint at savage pleasures. And though his scorching kisses fire her blood, she brazenly resists him…until one rapturous moment quells their clash of wills, and something far more dangerous than desire threatens to conquer her completely.]]> 352 Julie Garwood 0743452925 Brianna 0 4.22 1989 The Bride (Lairds' Fiancées, #1)
author: Julie Garwood
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1989
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves:
review:

]]> Love and Fury 54860577 288 Samantha Silva 1250159113 Brianna 0 to-read 4.13 2021 Love and Fury
author: Samantha Silva
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Middlemarch 271276 853 George Eliot 0141439548 Brianna 4 4.19 1872 Middlemarch
author: George Eliot
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1872
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/27
date added: 2025/03/27
shelves: 2025-reads, british-lit, classics
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland]]> 40163119
Patrick Radden Keefe's mesmerizing book on the bitter conflict in Northern Ireland and its aftermath uses the McConville case as a starting point for the tale of a society wracked by a violent guerrilla war, a war whose consequences have never been reckoned with. The brutal violence seared not only people like the McConville children, but also I.R.A. members embittered by a peace that fell far short of the goal of a united Ireland, and left them wondering whether the killings they committed were not justified acts of war, but simple murders.

Patrick Radden Keefe writes an intricate narrative about a notorious killing in Northern Ireland and its devastating repercussions.]]> 441 Patrick Radden Keefe 0385521316 Brianna 0 2025-reads, nonfiction 4.47 2018 Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
author: Patrick Radden Keefe
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at: 2025/03/25
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: 2025-reads, nonfiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Not Without Laughter (Penguin Classics)]]> 35031086
When first published in 1930, Not Without Laughter established Langston Hughes as not only a brilliant poet and leading light of the Harlem Renaissance but also a gifted novelist. In telling the story of Sandy Rogers, a young African American boy in small-town Kansas, and of his family—his mother, Annjee, a housekeeper for a wealthy white family; his irresponsible father, Jimboy, who plays the guitar and travels the country in search of employment; his strong-willed grandmother Hager, who clings to her faith; his Aunt Tempy, who marries a rich man; and his Aunt Harriet, who struggles to make it as a blues singer—Hughes gives the longings and lineaments of black life in the early twentieth century an important place in the history of racially divided America.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,800 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.]]> 256 Langston Hughes 0143131869 Brianna 0 to-read 4.30 1930 Not Without Laughter (Penguin Classics)
author: Langston Hughes
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1930
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games, #0.5)]]> 214333691 When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?

As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.

Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves.

When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.]]> 400 Suzanne Collins 1546171479 Brianna 5 4.67 2025 Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games, #0.5)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.67
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/24
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: 2025-reads, fantasy-sci-fi, favorites, young-adult
review:

]]> The Mountains Sing 49631287 Pachinko or Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing and the lyrical beauty of Vaddey Ratner’s In the Shadow of the Banyan, The Mountains Sing tells an enveloping, multigenerational tale of the Trần family, set against the backdrop of the Việt Nam War. Trần Diệu Lan, who was born in 1920, was forced to flee her family farm with her six children during the Land Reform as the Communist government rose in the North. Years later in Hà Nội, her young granddaughter, Hương, comes of age as her parents and uncles head off down the H� Chí Minh Trail to fight in a conflict that tore apart not just her beloved country, but also her family.

Vivid, gripping, and steeped in the language and traditions of Việt Nam, The Mountains Sing brings to life the human costs of this conflict from the point of view of the Vietnamese people themselves, while showing us the true power of kindness and hope.]]> 352 Nguyễn Phan Qu� Mai 161620818X Brianna 0 to-read 4.31 2020 The Mountains Sing
author: Nguyễn Phan Qu� Mai
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Buffalo Hunter Hunter 214565614 A chilling historical horror novel set in the American west in 1912 following a Lutheran priest who transcribes the life of a vampire who haunts the fields of the Blackfeet reservation looking for justice.

A diary, written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered within a wall. What it unveils is a slow massacre, a chain of events that go back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow. Told in transcribed interviews by a Blackfeet named Good Stab, who shares the narrative of his peculiar life over a series of confessional visits. This is an American Indian revenge story written by one of the new masters of horror, Stephen Graham Jones.]]> 448 Stephen Graham Jones 1668075083 Brianna 0 to-read 4.23 2025 The Buffalo Hunter Hunter
author: Stephen Graham Jones
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Gilded Heiress 59972550 From USA Today bestselling author Joanna Shupe comes a spicy Anastasia story full of secrets and betrayal, set among the glittering streets of New York City's Gilded Age.

In 1880 a baby was stolen from the wealthiest family in America. Though no ransom was ever demanded, the Pendelton family never gave up hope . . . and their reward became the stuff of legend.

After being raised in a children’s asylum, Josie Smith ends up on the streets and quickly learns how to take care of herself. Her singing voice draws crowds on every corner, and she’ll stop at nothing to become famous and travel the world, loved and adored by all. Maybe then she won’t think about the family who gave her away as an infant.

Leo Hardy isn’t afraid to use his charm and wits to make a fast buck, especially with a mother and five siblings to support. When he stumbles upon a beautiful young woman singing on the street, Leo notices her striking resemblance to the infamous missing baby’s mother, Mrs. Thomas Pendelton. The Hardys lost everything thanks to the Pendeltons, and once Leo sees Josie, he seizes the opportunity to settle the score. All he needs to do is pull off the biggest swindle of his career.

As the two are catapulted into Knickerbocker High Society, they grow closer to their goal, as well as to each other. But secrets can only stay hidden for so long. Soon the truth unfolds, and both Josie and Leo must separate what’s real from what’s just gilding.]]> 352 Joanna Shupe 0063310317 Brianna 0 to-read 3.91 2025 The Gilded Heiress
author: Joanna Shupe
name: Brianna
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Hot Wax 224103430 The new novel from the bestselling author of If We Were Villains and Graveyard Shift—a vivid and immersive tale of one woman’s reckless mission to make sense of the events that shattered her childhood, and made her who she is

Summer, 1989: ten-year-old Suzanne is drawn like a magnet to her father’s forbidden world of electric guitars and tricked-out cars. When her mother remarries, she jumps at the chance to tag along on the concert tour that just might be Gil and the Kills� wild ride to glory. But fame has sharper fangs than anybody realized, and as the band blazes up the charts, internal power struggles set Gil and his group on a collision course destined for a bloody reckoning—one shrouded in mystery and lore for decades to come.

The only witness to a desperate act of violence, Suzanne spends the next twenty-nine years trying to disappear. She trades the music and mayhem of her youth for the quiet of the suburbs and the company of her mild-mannered husband Rob. But when her father’s sudden death resurrects the troubled past she tried so hard to bury, she leaves it all behind and hits the road in search of answers. Hitching her fate and Gil’s beloved car to two vagabonds who call an old Airstream trailer home, she finds everything she thought she’d lost desire, adventure, and the woman she once wanted to be. But Rob refuses to let her go. Determined to bring her back where she belongs, he chases her across the country—and drives her to a desperation all her own.

Drenched in knock-down drag-out rock and roll, Hot Wax is a raucous, breakneck ride to hell and back—where getting lost might be the only way to find yourself and save your soul.]]> 400 M.L. Rio 1668070022 Brianna 0 to-read 4.13 2025 Hot Wax
author: M.L. Rio
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Reformatory 62918560
Gracetown, Florida, summer 1950.

Robert Stephen Jones Jr. is sent to Gracetown School for Boys for kicking a white boy’s leg. But the Gracetown School for Boys isn’t just any reform school. As Robert finds, it’s a segregated school that is haunted from the boys who have died there. The Reformatory is an eerie, frightening novel that explores the horrors of our history.]]> 576 Tananarive Due 1982188367 Brianna 4 4.55 2023 The Reformatory
author: Tananarive Due
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/03
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves: 2025-reads, crime-mystery-thrillers, historical-fiction
review:

]]> Native Son 32618211 Native Son follows Bigger Thomas, a young black man who is trapped in a life of poverty in the slums of Chicago. Unwittingly involved in a wealthy woman's death, he is hunted relentlessly, baited by prejudiced officials, charged with murder and driven to acknowledge a strange pride in his crime. Native Son shocked readers on its first publication in 1940 and went on to make Richard Wright the first bestselling black writer in America.]]> 480 Richard Wright 1446466884 Brianna 4 4.17 1940 Native Son
author: Richard Wright
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1940
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/25
date added: 2025/02/25
shelves: 2025-reads, american-lit, classics
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Autobiography of Malcolm X]]> 2295608 528 Malcolm X 0141032723 Brianna 5 2025-reads, nonfiction 4.57 1965 The Autobiography of Malcolm X
author: Malcolm X
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.57
book published: 1965
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/23
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves: 2025-reads, nonfiction
review:

]]> The Bluest Eye 6551700
A powerful examination of our obsession with beauty and conformity, Toni Morrison’s virtuosic first novel asks powerful questions about race, class, and gender with the subtlety and grace that have always characterized her writing.]]> 226 Toni Morrison 0307386589 Brianna 4 4.11 1970 The Bluest Eye
author: Toni Morrison
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1970
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/21
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves: 2025-reads, american-lit, classics, historical-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Perfume: The Story of a Murderer]]> 7790524
But Grenouille's genius is such that he is not satisfied to stop there, and he becomes obsessed with capturing the smells of objects such as brass doorknobs and frest-cut wood. Then one day he catches a hint of a scent that will drive him on an ever-more-terrifying quest to create the "ultimate perfume"—the scent of a beautiful young virgin.

Told with dazzling narrative brillance, Perfume is a hauntingly powerful tale of murder and sensual depravity.]]> 263 Patrick Süskind 0141041153 Brianna 0 to-read 3.86 1985 Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
author: Patrick Süskind
name: Brianna
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1985
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Bastard Out of Carolina 879067 309 Dorothy Allison 0452269571 Brianna 0 to-read 4.05 1992 Bastard Out of Carolina
author: Dorothy Allison
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1992
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Reel 205008282 A Broadway actress has a chance at stardom when cast by a major Hollywood director, but the role of her dreams may cost her the love of a lifetime in this epic novel from "one of the finest romance writers of our age." (Entertainment Weekly)

For months I stood by, an understudy waiting in the wings, preparing for my time to shine. I never imagined he would watch in the audience that night.
Canon Holt. Famous film director. Fascinating. Talented. Fine.
Before I could catch my breath, everything changed. I went from backstage Broadway to center stage Hollywood. From being unknown, to my name, Neevah Saint, on everyone's lips when Canon casts me in a star-studded Harlem Renaissance biopic.
But stars shine brightest in the dead of night. Forbidden attraction, scandal and circumstances beyond my control jeopardize my dream. Could this one shot—the role of a lifetime, the love of a lifetime—cost me everything?]]> 480 Kennedy Ryan 153876962X Brianna 3 2025-reads, contemp-romance 4.50 2021 Reel
author: Kennedy Ryan
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/14
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves: 2025-reads, contemp-romance
review:

]]> End of August 213245186 A captivating, multigenerational debut novel of a young woman navigating the personal trauma that ties herself, her nomadic mother, and her alcoholic grandmother together, perfect for fans of Ask Again, Yes and What the Fireflies Knew.

1979. Fifteen-year-old Aurora Taylor’s single mother prefers to leave when things get hard. She’s spent years abandoning bad boyfriends and dead-end jobs, without so much as a glance in the rearview mirror. After fifteen years in the passenger seat, Aurora needs more than two hands to count the towns she’s lived in. She’s learned to live small—it’s easier to leave when you don’t need to say goodbye. So when her mother Laine shows up at school with the car loaded, Aurora assumes her latest fling has run its course. Instead, it’s her grandpa Jay’s death calling them back to the town Laine has spent fifteen years running from.

Every visit to Monroe, Indiana ends in an explosive fight. Her mother and her Gran are oil and water, and it doesn’t take Aurora long to realize Gran has fallen off the wagon—again. With Gran drinking, and Laine’s discomfort in the little blue house, Aurora gives their visit a week, tops. But when Laine begins an affair with the town’s married mailman, everything changes. While her mom falls in love with a man she can’t have, Aurora has time to fall in love with the town. Her life begins to feel full—she has a friend to call her own, a gran who loves her, and a picture-perfect pastor’s son who sees Aurora as more than “Laine’s daughter.� It’s everything she never let herself dream about.

As the summer months march on, and her mom’s happiness becomes even more dependent on her unstable new relationship, Aurora worries the dream she allowed herself will end in heartbreak. This isn’t just another map dot on their endless journey, and Laine won’t just burn a bridge this time. Her choices threaten to light the town on fire, burning Gran’s hope, Aurora’s future, and her own chance at redemption to the ground with it.]]> 320 Paige Dinneny Brianna 0 to-read 3.90 2025 End of August
author: Paige Dinneny
name: Brianna
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Briar Book of the Dead 128746994 Set in the same universe as the acclaimed All the Murmuring Bones and The Path of Thorns (one of Oprah Daily's Top 25 Fantasy Novels of 2022), this beautifully told Gothic fairy tale of ghosts, witches, deadly secrets and past sins, will be perfect for fans of Hannah Whitten and Ava Reid.

Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into her family for generations. The Briar family of witches run the town of Silverton, caring for its inhabitants with their skills and magic. In the usual scheme of things, they would be burnt for their sorcery, but the church has given them dispensation in return for their protection of the borders of the Darklands, where the much-feared Leech Lords hold sway.

Ellie is being trained as a steward, administering for the town, and warding off the insistent interest of the church. When her grandmother dies suddenly, Ellie's cousin Audra rises to the position of Briar Witch, propelling Ellie into her new role. As she navigates fresh challenges, an unexpected new ability to see and speak to the dead leads her to uncover sinister family secrets, stories of burnings, lost grimoires and evil spells. Reeling from one revelation to the next, she seeks answers from the long dead and is forced to decide who to trust, as a devastating plot threatens to destroy everything the Briar witches have sacrificed so much to build.

Told in the award-winning author's trademark gorgeous, addictive prose, this is an intricately woven tale of a family of witches struggling against the bonds of past sins and persecution.]]> 368 A.G. Slatter 1803364556 Brianna 0 to-read 4.08 2024 The Briar Book of the Dead
author: A.G. Slatter
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Their Eyes Were Watching God 170436 Their Eyes Were Watching God, is an enduring Southern love story sparkling with wit, beauty, and heartfelt wisdom. Told in the captivating voice of a woman who refuses to live in sorrow, bitterness, fear, or foolish romantic dreams, it is the story of fair-skinned, fiercely independent Janie Crawford, and her evolving selfhood through three marriages and a life marked by poverty, trials, and purpose.

A true literary wonder, Hurston's masterwork remains as relevant and affecting today as when it was first published - perhaps the most widely read and highly regarded novel in the entire canon of African American literature.]]> 219 Zora Neale Hurston Brianna 3 3.89 1937 Their Eyes Were Watching God
author: Zora Neale Hurston
name: Brianna
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1937
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/11
date added: 2025/02/11
shelves: 2025-reads, american-lit, classics
review:

]]> Isola 212806636 A young woman and her lover are marooned on an island in this epic saga of love, faith, and defiance from the bestselling author of Sam.

Heir to a fortune, Marguerite is destined for a life of prosperity and gentility. Then she is orphaned, and her guardian—an enigmatic and volatile man—spends her inheritance and insists she accompany him on an expedition to New France. Isolated and afraid, Marguerite befriends her guardian’s servant and the two develop an intense attraction. But when their relationship is discovered, they are brutally punished and abandoned on a small island with no hope for rescue.

Once a child of privilege who dressed in gowns and laced pearls in her hair, Marguerite finds herself at the mercy of nature. As the weather turns, blanketing the island in ice, she discovers a faith she’d never before needed.

Inspired by the real life of a sixteenth-century heroine, Isola is the timeless story of a woman fighting for survival.]]> 368 Allegra Goodman 0593730089 Brianna 0 to-read 4.00 2025 Isola
author: Allegra Goodman
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Listeners 56988057
January 1942. The Avallon Hotel & Spa has always offered elegant luxury in the wilds of West Virginia, its mountain sweetwater washing away all of high society’s troubles.

Local girl-turned-general manager June Porter Hudson has guided the Avallon skillfully through the first pangs of war. The Gilfoyles, the hotel’s aristocratic owners, have trained her well. But when the family heir makes a secret deal with the State Department to fill the hotel with captured Axis diplomats, June must persuade her staff—many of whom have sons and husbands heading to the front lines—to offer luxury to Nazis. With a smile.

Meanwhile FBI Agent Tucker Minnick, whose coal tattoo hints at an Appalachian past, presses his ears to the hotel’s walls, listening for the diplomats� secrets. He has one of his own, which is how he knows that June’s balancing act can have dangerous consequences: the sweetwater beneath the hotel can threaten as well as heal.

June has never met a guest she couldn’t delight, but the diplomats are different. Without firing a single shot, they have brought the war directly to her. As clashing loyalties crack the Avallon’s polished veneer, June must calculate the true cost of luxury.]]> 400 Maggie Stiefvater 0593655508 Brianna 0 to-read 4.03 2025 The Listeners
author: Maggie Stiefvater
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Poisonwood Bible 7244 The Poisonwood Bible is a story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it -- from garden seeds to Scripture -- is calamitously transformed on African soil. What follows is a suspenseful epic of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa.]]> 546 Barbara Kingsolver 0060786507 Brianna 4 4.10 1998 The Poisonwood Bible
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/05
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: 2025-reads, historical-fiction
review:

]]> Black Woods Blue Sky 213243955 An unforgettable dark fairy tale that asks, Can love save us from ourselves?

Birdie’s keeping it together; of course she is. So she’s a little hungover sometimes, and she has to bring her daughter, Emaleen, to her job waiting tables at an Alaskan roadside lodge, but she’s getting by as a single mother in a tough town. Still, Birdie can remember happier times from her youth, when she was free in the wilds of nature.

Arthur Neilsen, a soft-spoken and scarred recluse who appears in town only at the change of seasons, brings Emaleen back to safety when she gets lost in the woods. Most people avoid him, but to Birdie he represents everything she’s ever longed for. She finds herself falling for Arthur and the land he knows so well. Against the warnings of those who care about them, Birdie and Emaleen move to his isolated cabin in the mountains on the far side of the Wolverine River.

It’s just the three of them in the vast black woods, far from roads, telephones, electricity, and outside contact, but Birdie believes she has come prepared. At first, it’s idyllic, but soon Birdie discovers that Arthur is something much more mysterious and dangerous than she could have imagined, and that like the Alaska wilderness, a fairy tale can be as dark as it is beautiful.]]> 306 Eowyn Ivey 0593231023 Brianna 0 to-read 3.69 2025 Black Woods Blue Sky
author: Eowyn Ivey
name: Brianna
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Fearless and Free: A Memoir 215593875 This is Josephine Baker in her own words.

Josephine Baker took Paris by storm in the 1920s, dazzling audiences with her humour, beauty and effervescence on stage. She became an icon. Hemingway, Jean Cocteau and Picasso admired her; Shirley Bassey adored 'I swear in all my life I have never seen, and probably never shall see again, such a spectacular singer and performer'. It was told she strolled the streets of Paris with her pet cheetah who wore a diamond collar.

Later, as one of the most recognisable women in the world, she became a spy for the French resistance, her celebrity working as her cover. She was awarded the Légion d'Honneur for military service. After the war she became increasingly interested in civil rights. In 1963 she spoke at the March on Washington alongside Martin Luther King. All this from a girl born in Missouri to a poor single black woman and a white father she did not know.

Flirtatious, funny, candid and this memoir gives us the wildly famous but elusive Josephine Baker telling her own story. Formed from a series of conversations with the French journalist Marcel Sauvage, over a period of more than twenty years, this book offers an entertaining insight into one of the most interesting and beguiling figures of the twentieth century.]]> 304 Josephine Baker 0593853695 Brianna 0 to-read 3.51 1949 Fearless and Free: A Memoir
author: Josephine Baker
name: Brianna
average rating: 3.51
book published: 1949
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Two Twisted Crowns (The Shepherd King #2)]]> 90589374 In the luscious, dark conclusion to the series that began with One Dark Window, Elspeth must face the consequences of what she's wrought - perfect for readers of Hannah Whitten's For the Wolf and Alexis Henderson's The Year of the Witching.

Elspeth and Ravyn have gathered most of the twelve Providence Cards, but the last, and most important one remains to be found: The Twin Alders.

If they are going to find it before the Solstice and cure the kingdom of the dark magic infecting it, they will need to journey beyond the dangerous mist-cloaked forest that surrounds their kingdom.

And the only one who can lead them there is the monster that shares Elspeth's head. The Nightmare. And he's not eager to share any longer.]]> 449 Rachel Gillig 0356519511 Brianna 4 2025-reads, fantasy-sci-fi 4.43 2023 Two Twisted Crowns (The Shepherd King #2)
author: Rachel Gillig
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/31
date added: 2025/01/31
shelves: 2025-reads, fantasy-sci-fi
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Myth of American Idealism: How U.S. Foreign Policy Endangers the World]]> 205495275 From one of the world’s most prominent thinkers comes an urgent warning of the threat that US power poses to humanity’s future

The land of the free. The home of the brave. But what has America achieved in the aim of “spreading democracy� � except wreak havoc in country after country and establish a reckless foreign policy that served the interest of few and endangered all too many? Without, ironically, making Americans any safer. In this timely book, Noam Chomsky, one of the most widely known intellectuals of all time, and his fellow political commentator Nathan J. Robinson vividly trace America’s pursuit of global domination, offering an incisive critique of the self-serving myths they continue to push.

Offering penetrating accounts of Washington’s relationship with the Global South, its role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, they argue, they are now driving us closer to wars with Russia and China that imperil humanity’s future. At once thorough and devastating, urgent and provocative, The Myth of American Idealism offers a highly readable entry to the conclusions Noam Chomsky has come to after a lifetime of thought and activism.]]> 396 Noam Chomsky 1405967153 Brianna 0 to-read 4.45 2024 The Myth of American Idealism: How U.S. Foreign Policy Endangers the World
author: Noam Chomsky
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Tar Baby 11359 Tar Baby is Toni Morrison’s reinvention of the love story. Jadine Childs is a black fashion model with a white patron, a white boyfriend, and a coat made out of ninety perfect sealskins. Son is a black fugitive who embodies everything she loathes and desires. As Morrison follows their affair, which plays out from the Caribbean to Manhattan and the deep South, she charts all the nuances of obligation and betrayal between blacks and whites, masters and servants, and men and women.]]> 305 Toni Morrison 1400033446 Brianna 4 2025-reads, american-lit 4.00 1981 Tar Baby
author: Toni Morrison
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1981
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/25
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves: 2025-reads, american-lit
review:

]]> Who Do You Think You Are? 1728810 240 Alice Munro 0143054953 Brianna 0 to-read 3.97 1978 Who Do You Think You Are?
author: Alice Munro
name: Brianna
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1978
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Favorites 211400175 To the world, they were a scandal. To each other, an obsession.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER � An epic love story set in the sparkling, savage sphere of elite figure skating, starring a woman determined to carve her own path on and off the ice

“P Wuthering Heights and part Daisy Jones & The Six, this novel is as brilliantly choreographed as a gold medal performance and will keep you guessing until its last page.”—Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of By Any Other Name

She might not have a famous name, funding, or her family’s support, but Katarina Shaw has always known that she was destined to become an Olympic skater. When she meets Heath Rocha, a lonely kid stuck in the foster care system, their instant connection makes them a formidable duo on the ice. Clinging to skating—and each other—to escape their turbulent lives, Kat and Heath go from childhood sweethearts to champion ice dancers, captivating the world with their scorching chemistry, rebellious style, and roller-coaster relationship.

Until a shocking incident at the Olympic Games brings their partnership to a sudden end.

As the ten-year anniversary of their final skate approaches, an unauthorized documentary reignites the public obsession with Shaw and Rocha, claiming to uncover the “real story� through interviews with their closest friends and fiercest rivals. Kat wants nothing to do with the documentary, but she can’t stand the thought of someone else defining her legacy. So, after a decade of silence, she’s telling her story: from the childhood tragedies that created her all-consuming bond with Heath to the clash of desires that tore them apart. Sensational rumors have haunted their every step for years, but the truth may be even more shocking than the headlines.]]> 464 Layne Fargo 0593732057 Brianna 3 2025-reads, contemp-romance 4.17 2025 The Favorites
author: Layne Fargo
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/21
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves: 2025-reads, contemp-romance
review:

]]> Mask of the Deer Woman 211953352 To find a missing young woman, the new tribal marshal must also find herself. At rock bottom following her daughter’s murder, ex-Chicago detective Carrie Starr has nowhere to go but back to her roots. Starr’s father never talked much about the reservation that raised him, but they need a new tribal marshal as much as Starr needs a place to call home. In the last decade, too many young women have disappeared from the rez. Some dead, others just� gone. Now, local college student Chenoa Cloud is missing, and Starr falls into an investigation that leaves her drowning in memories of her daughter—the girl she failed to save. Starr feels lost in this place she thought would welcome her. And when she catches a glimpse of a figure from her father’s stories, with the body of a woman and the antlers of a deer, Starr can’t shake the feeling that the fearsome spirit is watching her, following her. What she doesn’t know is whether Deer Woman is here to guide her or to seek vengeance for the lost daughters that Starr can never bring home.]]> 336 Laurie L. Dove 0593816102 Brianna 0 to-read 3.55 2025 Mask of the Deer Woman
author: Laurie L. Dove
name: Brianna
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/21
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]]> Wuthering Heights 32929156 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

Emily Brontë's only novel, a work of tremendous and far-reaching influence, the Penguin Classics edition of Wuthering Heights is the definitive edition of the text, edited with an introduction by Pauline Nestor. Lockwood, the new tenant of Thrushcross Grange, situated on the bleak Yorkshire moors, is forced to seek shelter one night at Wuthering Heights, the home of his landlord. There he discovers the history of the tempestuous events that took place years before; of the intense relationship between the gypsy foundling Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw; and how Catherine, forced to choose between passionate, tortured Heathcliff and gentle, well-bred Edgar Linton, surrendered to the expectations of her class. As Heathcliff's bitterness and vengeance at his betrayal is visited upon the next generation, their innocent heirs must struggle to escape the legacy of the past.]]> 359 Emily Brontë 0141439556 Brianna 4 4.04 1847 Wuthering Heights
author: Emily Brontë
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1847
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/18
date added: 2025/01/18
shelves: classics, british-lit, rory-gilmore-list, gothic-fiction, 2025-reads
review:

]]> Suite Française 43944 The first two stories of a masterwork once thought lost, written by a pre-WWII bestselling author who was deported to Auschwitz and died before her work could be completed.

By the early l940s, when Ukrainian-born Irène Némirovsky began working on what would become Suite Française—the first two parts of a planned five-part novel—she was already a highly successful writer living in Paris. But she was also a Jew, and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz: a month later she was dead at the age of thirty-nine. Two years earlier, living in a small village in central France—where she, her husband, and their two small daughters had fled in a vain attempt to elude the Nazis—she'd begun her novel, a luminous portrayal of a human drama in which she herself would become a victim. When she was arrested, she had completed two parts of the epic, the handwritten manuscripts of which were hidden in a suitcase that her daughters would take with them into hiding and eventually into freedom. Sixty-four years later, at long last, we can read Némirovsky's literary masterpiece

The first part, "A Storm in June," opens in the chaos of the massive 1940 exodus from Paris on the eve of the Nazi invasion during which several families and individuals are thrown together under circumstances beyond their control. They share nothing but the harsh demands of survival—some trying to maintain lives of privilege, others struggling simply to preserve their lives—but soon, all together, they will be forced to face the awful exigencies of physical and emotional displacement, and the annihilation of the world they know. In the second part, "Dolce," we enter the increasingly complex life of a German-occupied provincial village. Coexisting uneasily with the soldiers billeted among them, the villagers—from aristocrats to shopkeepers to peasants—cope as best they can. Some choose resistance, others collaboration, and as their community is transformed by these acts, the lives of these these men and women reveal nothing less than the very essence of humanity.

Suite Française is a singularly piercing evocation—at once subtle and severe, deeply compassionate, and fiercely ironic—of life and death in occupied France, and a brilliant, profoundly moving work of art.]]> 431 Irène Némirovsky 1400096278 Brianna 0 to-read 3.83 2004 Suite Française
author: Irène Némirovsky
name: Brianna
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2004
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black: Collected Stories]]> 58884679 Walking through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black, the first volume of the Semiotext(e) Native Agents series, was the largest collection of stories she compiled during her life. But it presented only a slice of Mueller's prolific work as a writer. This new, landmark volume collects all of Mueller's stories: from the original contents of Clear Water, to additional stories discovered by Amy Scholder for the posthumous anthology Ask Dr. Mueller, to selections from Mueller's art and advice columns for Details and the East Village Eye, to still "new" stories collected and published here for the first time. Olivia Laing's new introduction situates Mueller's writing within the context of her life—and our times.

Thanks to recent documentaries like Mallory Curley's A Cookie Mueller Encyclopedia and Chloé Griffin's oral biography Edgewise, Mueller's life and work have been discovered by a new generation of readers. Walking through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black: Collected Stories returns essential source material to these readers, the archive of Mueller's writing itself. Mueller's many mise en scènes—the Baltimore of John Waters, post-Stonewall Provincetown, avant-garde Italy, 1980s New York, an America enduring Reagan and AIDS—patches together a singular personal history and a primer for others. As Laing writes in her introduction, Collected Stories amounts to "a how-to manual for a life ricocheting joyously off the rails . . . a live corrective to conformity, conservatism, and cruelty."]]> 430 Cookie Mueller 1635901669 Brianna 0 to-read 4.58 1990 Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black: Collected Stories
author: Cookie Mueller
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.58
book published: 1990
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Committed: On Meaning and Madwomen]]> 191746769
When Suzanne Scanlon was a student at Barnard in the 90s, grieving the loss of her mother—feeling untethered and swimming through inarticulable pain—she made a suicide attempt that landed her in the New York State Psychiatric Institute.

After nearly three years and countless experimental treatments, Suzanne left the ward on shaky legs. In the decades it took her to recover from the experience, Suzanne came to understand her suffering as part of something a long tradition of women whose complicated and compromised stories of self-actualization are reduced to “crazy chick� and “madwoman� narratives. It was a thrilling discovery, and she searched for more books, more woman writers, as the journey of her life converged with her journey through the literature that shaped her.

Transporting, honest, and graceful, Committed is a story of discovery and recovery, reclaiming the idea of the madwoman as a template for insight and transcendence through the works of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, Janet Frame, Audre Lorde, Shulamith Firestone, and others.]]> 368 Suzanne Scanlon 0593469100 Brianna 0 to-read 4.16 2024 Committed: On Meaning and Madwomen
author: Suzanne Scanlon
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The White Album 421 The White Album records indelibly the upheavals and aftermaths of the 1960s. Examining key events, figures, and trends of the era—including Charles Manson, the Black Panthers, and the shopping mall—through the lens of her own spiritual confusion, Joan Didion helped to define mass culture as we now understand it. Written with a commanding sureness of tone and linguistic precision, The White Album is a central text of American reportage and a classic of American autobiography.]]> 224 Joan Didion 0374532079 Brianna 4 2025-reads, nonfiction 4.06 1979 The White Album
author: Joan Didion
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1979
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/11
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: 2025-reads, nonfiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Small and the Mighty: Twelve Unsung Americans Who Changed the Course of History, from the Founding to the Civil Rights Movement]]> 203956674 America’s favorite government teacher offers thrilling, heartfelt stories of ordinary American heroes.Most pundits and historians sell a dangerously naïve version of the American story—either praising its most consequential figures uncritically or criticizing them unfairly.Sharon McMahon believes the truth is more human. In her debut book The Small and the Mighty, she tells the inpiring stories of twelve Americans--regular people with human foibles--whose extraordinary heroism in the face of mounting trials created the character of our country.With the same clarity and candor that's earned her millions of fans, McMahon follows the daughter of formerly enslaved parents who sparked a reformation in Black education, a Japanese immigrant who nearly died in combat and became a consequential Senator, and even the electrician who saved her husband’s life. Her unforgettable prose and meticulous research tell the story of America from the perspective of the unsung heroes whose devotion to their country will restore your faith in the American dream.The portraits of our nation’s most improbable champions, innovators, and rebels in this book celebrate the United States and reveal our common humanity. The Small and the Mighty is the encouragement we all need in an age of doomscrolling and division.]]> 320 Sharon McMahon 0593541677 Brianna 0 2025-reads, nonfiction 4.44 2024 The Small and the Mighty: Twelve Unsung Americans Who Changed the Course of History, from the Founding to the Civil Rights Movement
author: Sharon McMahon
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2025/01/09
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: 2025-reads, nonfiction
review:

]]> The Beautiful and Damned 8463187 388 F. Scott Fitzgerald 0307476359 Brianna 4 3.68 1922 The Beautiful and Damned
author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
name: Brianna
average rating: 3.68
book published: 1922
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/08
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: 2025-reads, american-lit, classics
review:

]]> Water Moon 211479192 A woman inherits a pawnshop where you can sell your regrets, and then embarks on a magical journey when a charming young physicist wanders into the shop, in this dreamlike and enchanting fantasy novel.

On a backstreet in Tokyo lies a pawnshop, but not everyone can find it. Most will see a cozy ramen restaurant. And only the chosen ones—those who are lost—will find a place to pawn their life choices and deepest regrets.

Hana Ishikawa wakes on her first morning as the pawnshop’s new owner to find it ransacked, the shop’s most precious acquisition stolen, and her father missing. And then into the shop stumbles a charming stranger, quite unlike its other customers, for he offers help instead of seeking it.

Together, they must journey through a mystical world to find Hana’s father and the stolen choice—by way of rain puddles, rides on paper cranes, the bridge between midnight and morning, and a night market in the clouds.

But as they get closer to the truth, Hana must reveal a secret of her own—and risk making a choice that she will never be able to take back.]]> 384 Samantha Sotto Yambao 0593724992 Brianna 0 to-read 3.79 2025 Water Moon
author: Samantha Sotto Yambao
name: Brianna
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Princess Knight 62792284 A princess desperate to win back the prince who broke her heart follows him to his kingdom's prestigious military academy—and in doing so, falls in love, saves the realm, and continues to look fabulous in this delightful debut fantasy.

Domhnall and Clía are an ideal match—or so everyone says. They are prince and princess of neighboring kingdoms. An alliance the gods will smile on. Until Domhnall ruins everything by refusing to propose.

Heartbroken but determined, Clía makes the perfect plan: Follow Domhnall to Caisleán Cósta, the military academy he’s attending. Show she can protect her kingdom. Secure the betrothal. Sure, the castle has a brutal reputation. But how hard can dueling really be?

Warrior Ronan promised himself he’d never lose his focus. He fought and sacrificed for his place at Caisleán Cósta, and he has no time for blonde princesses who waltz intro arenas like they’re attending a ball. Even if she and her otter-like pet are…well, cute.

He doesn’t want to be intrigued by Clía. But her hunger to prove herself is something he understands. He tells himself there’s no harm training her. Even if his heart does race around her. Even if Domhnall is his best friend.

But as they say, love is a battlefield—and unfortunately for them all, a very real war is looming on the horizon. It’s a fight that will threaten all their kingdoms…and test all their hearts.]]> 400 Cait Jacobs 0063321157 Brianna 0 to-read 3.99 2025 The Princess Knight
author: Cait Jacobs
name: Brianna
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl]]> 6556577 In a tour de force of historical reportage, Timothy Egan’s National Book Award–winning story rescues an iconic chapter of American history from the shadows.



The dust storms that terrorized the High Plains in the darkest years of the Depression were like nothing ever seen before or since. Following a dozen families and their communities through the rise and fall of the region, Timothy Egan tells of their desperate attempts to carry on through blinding black dust blizzards, crop failure, and the death of loved ones. Brilliantly capturing the terrifying drama of catastrophe, he does equal justice to the human characters who become his heroes, “the stoic, long-suffering men and women whose lives he opens up with urgency and respect� (New York Times). In an era that promises ever-greater natural disasters, The Worst Hard Time is “arguably the best nonfiction book yet� (Austin Statesman Journal) on the greatest environmental disaster ever to be visited upon our land and a powerful reminder about the dangers of trifling with nature.

This e-book includes a sample chapter of SHORT NIGHTS OF THE SHADOW CATCHER.]]> 352 Timothy Egan Brianna 0 to-read 4.10 2005 The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
author: Timothy Egan
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[鲹ōDz and Seventeen Other Stories]]> 13419553 These purple sparks...he would trade his life for the chance to hold them in his hands

Akutagawa (1892-1927) was one of Japan's foremost stylists - a modernist master whose stories are marked by original imagery, cynicism, beauty and wild humour. 鲹ōDz and In a Bamboo Grove inspired Kurosawa's magnificent film and depict a past in which morality is inverted, while tales such as the Nose and Loyalty paint a richly imaginative picture of medieval Japan peopled by Shoguns and priests, vagrants and peasants. Later works such as Death Register, The Life of a Stupid Man and Spinning Gears draw on Akutagawa's own life to devastating effect, revealing his intense melancholy and terror of madness in exquisitely moving impressionistic stories.

Including both famous and little-known works, some translated into English for the first time, this volume reveals Akutagawa in a new light. In his illuminating introduction, Haruki Murakami explores Akutagawa's place in Japanese culture and influence on his own writing, while Jay Rubin's translation catches the spirit of the originals.

Spine-tingling brilliance...intuitive, natural - and beautiful - Haruki Murakami]]> 320 Ryūnosuke Akutagawa 0140449701 Brianna 0 to-read 4.10 1927 鲹ōDz and Seventeen Other Stories
author: Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1927
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Madonna in a Fur Coat 34303467 Available in English for the first time, this best-selling Turkish classic of love and alienation in a changing world captures the vibrancy of interwar Berlin.

A shy young man leaves his home in rural Turkey to learn a trade and discover life in 1920s Berlin. There, amidst the city’s bustling streets, elegant museums, passionate politics, and infamous cabarets, a chance meeting with a beautiful half-Jewish artist transforms him forever. Caught between his desire for freedom from tradition and his yearning to belong, he struggles to hold on to the new life he has found with the woman he loves.

Emotionally powerful, intensely atmospheric, and touchingly profound, Madonna in a Fur Coat is an unforgettable novel about new beginnings, the relentless pull of family ties, and the unfathomable nature of the human soul. First published in 1943, this novel, with its quiet yet insistent defiance of social norms, has been topping best-seller lists in Turkey since 2013.]]> 208 Sabahattin Ali 1590518802 Brianna 0 to-read 4.02 1943 Madonna in a Fur Coat
author: Sabahattin Ali
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1943
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> O Caledonia 61140265
Janet lies murdered beneath the castle stairs, attired in her mother’s black lace wedding dress, lamented only by her pet jackdaw�

​Author Elspeth Barker masterfully evokes the harsh climate of Scotland in this atmospheric gothic tale that has been compared to the works of the Brontës, Edgar Allan Poe, and Edward Gorey. Immersed in a world of isolation and loneliness, Barker’s ill-fated young heroine Janet turns to literature, nature, and her Aunt Lila, who offers brief flashes of respite in an otherwise foreboding life. People, birds, and beasts move through the background in a tale that is as rich and atmospheric as it is witty and mordant. The family’s motto—Moriens sed Invictus (Dying but Unconquered)—is a well-suited epitaph for wild and courageous Janet, whose fierce determination to remain steadfastly herself makes her one of the most unforgettable protagonists in contemporary literature.]]> 207 Elspeth Barker 1668004623 Brianna 4 4.02 1991 O Caledonia
author: Elspeth Barker
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1991
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/30
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: 2024-reads, gothic-fiction, historical-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[We Have Always Lived in the Castle]]> 10863361 ]]> 216 Shirley Jackson 1101530650 Brianna 4 3.72 1962 We Have Always Lived in the Castle
author: Shirley Jackson
name: Brianna
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1962
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/29
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves: 2024-reads, american-lit, classics
review:

]]> Women, Race & Class 635635 From one of our most important scholars and civil rights activist icon, a powerful study of the women’s liberation movement and the tangled knot of oppression facing Black women.

"Angela Davis is herself a woman of undeniable courage. She should be heard." �The New York Times

Angela Davis provides a powerful history of the social and political influence of whiteness and elitism in feminism, from abolitionist days to the present, and demonstrates how the racist and classist biases of its leaders inevitably hampered any collective ambitions. While Black women were aided by some activists like Sarah and Angelina Grimke and the suffrage cause found unwavering support in Frederick Douglass, many women played on the fears of white supremacists for political gain rather than take an intersectional approach to liberation. Here, Davis not only contextualizes the legacy and pitfalls of civil and women's rights activists, but also discusses Communist women, the murder of Emmitt Till, and Margaret Sanger's racism. Davis shows readers how the inequalities between Black and white women influence the contemporary issues of rape, reproductive freedom, housework and child care in this bold and indispensable work.]]> 271 Angela Y. Davis 0394713516 Brianna 0 to-read 4.58 1981 Women, Race & Class
author: Angela Y. Davis
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.58
book published: 1981
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> When Devils Sing 213618113 400 Xan Kaur 1035045176 Brianna 0 to-read 3.75 2025 When Devils Sing
author: Xan Kaur
name: Brianna
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Sula 11347 174 Toni Morrison 1400033438 Brianna 5 4.04 1973 Sula
author: Toni Morrison
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1973
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/27
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: 2024-reads, american-lit, classics
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Tempest of Desire (Scandalous Gentlemen of St. James, #5)]]> 199792274 New York Timesbestselling author Lorraine Heath returns to the fan favorite series, The Scandalous Gentlemen of St. James, with the story of a viscount who has retreated to a small, secluded island only to have a mysterious and beautiful woman wash up on shore.

After surviving a horrific railway accident, Viscount Langdon retreats to his private island to recover and conquer the nightmarish memories that continue to haunt him. The very last thing he wants—or expects—is for London’s most infamous courtesan to wash up on his beach.

Marlowe is known for her bold flirtations, but her most daring exploits involve flying in her hot air balloon. When a storm blows her off course, she discovers herself alone with the isle’s only inhabitant. The gorgeous, seductive lord tempts her beyond reason, but giving into temptation would lead to her ruination because the all-consuming liaison would demand complete surrender. And she has secrets to protect.

Langdon finds the captivating beauty near impossible to resist, but he can’t risk her learning the true reason behind his isolation. However, a powerful tempest of desire is swirling wildly between them, urging them to give in to the perilous passion that could destroy them . . . or perhaps show them the way to love.


]]> 371 Lorraine Heath 0063384450 Brianna 0 3.56 2024 A Tempest of Desire (Scandalous Gentlemen of St. James, #5)
author: Lorraine Heath
name: Brianna
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/27
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: 2024-reads, historical-romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year]]> 199531989 Knives Out gets a rom-com twist in this rivals-to-lovers Christmas romance-mystery from New York Times bestselling author Ally Carter

The bridge is out. The phones are down. And the most famous mystery writer in the world just disappeared out of a locked room three days before Christmas.

Meet Maggie Chase and Ethan Wyatt:
She’s the new Queen of the Cozy Mystery.
He’s Mr. Big-Time Thriller Guy.

She hates his guts.

He thinks her name is Marcie (no matter how many times she’s told him otherwise.)

But when they both accept a cryptic invitation to attend a Christmas house party at the English estate of a reclusive fan, neither is expecting their host to be the most powerful author in the world: Eleanor Ashley, the Duchess of Death herself.

That night, the weather turns, and the next morning Eleanor is gone.

She vanished from a locked room, and Maggie has to wonder: Is Eleanor in danger? Or is it all some kind of test? Is Ethan the competition? Or is he the only person in that snowbound mansion she can trust?

As the snow gets deeper and the stakes get higher, every clue will bring Maggie and Ethan closer to the truth—and each other. Because, this Christmas, these two rivals are going to have to become allies (and maybe more) if they have any hope of saving Eleanor.

Assuming they don’t kill each other first.]]> 293 Ally Carter 0063276682 Brianna 0 2024-reads, contemp-romance 3.92 2024 The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year
author: Ally Carter
name: Brianna
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/24
date added: 2024/12/24
shelves: 2024-reads, contemp-romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Parable of the Sower (Earthseed, #1)]]> 56787127 The Nebula Award–winning author of Kindred presents a “gripping� dystopian novel about a woman fleeing Los Angeles as America spirals into chaos (The New York Times Book Review).

“A stunner.� —Flea, musician and actor, The Wall Street Journal

Lauren Olamina and her family live in one of the only safe neighborhoods remaining on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Behind the walls of their defended enclave, Lauren’s father, a preacher, and a handful of other citizens try to salvage what remains of a culture that has been destroyed by drugs, disease, war, and chronic water shortages. While her father tries to lead people on the righteous path, Lauren struggles with hyperempathy, a condition that makes her extraordinarily sensitive to the pain of others.

When fire destroys their compound, Lauren’s family is killed and she is forced out into a world that is fraught with danger. With a handful of other refugees, Lauren must make her way north to safety, along the way conceiving a revolutionary idea that may mean salvation for all mankind.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Octavia E. Butler including rare images from the author’s estate.]]> 356 Octavia E. Butler Brianna 4 2024-reads, american-lit 4.28 1993 Parable of the Sower (Earthseed, #1)
author: Octavia E. Butler
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1993
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/22
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves: 2024-reads, american-lit
review:

]]> None Left to Tell 217074544 Three women, connected by one of the most brutal mass slayings in US history.

Lucy is sick of turning the other cheek. Ten years ago, an anti-Mormon mob drove her family and friends from their homes in Illinois. But now, the tables have turned. Rumor has it, some of those same men are traveling through Utah on their way to California. And this time, Lucy won’t run.

Katrina knew the trek west would be difficult. But she had no idea she’d be walking straight into hell. The young mother of four is prepared to do whatever it takes to protect her family from the violence closing in, but the battle to survive will be more harrowing than anything she can imagine.

Sally has just been “gifted� to a man she barely knows—as his fourth wife. Trapped and lonely, she tries to make the best of her new life. But when her husband insists on joining a group of religious zealots� plans for revenge, she’s forced to reconsider her loyalties. Even if it means putting her own life on the line.

Based on true events, None Left to Tell is the story of the Mountain Meadows Massacre.]]> 383 Noelle W. Ihli Brianna 5 4.21 2024 None Left to Tell
author: Noelle W. Ihli
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/19
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: 2014-ranked, historical-fiction, 2024-reads
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Knight and the Moth (The Stonewater Kingdom, #1)]]> 205335957
Sybil Delling has spent nine years dreaming of having no dreams at all. Like the other foundling girls who traded a decade of service for a home in the great cathedral, Sybil is a Diviner. In her dreams she receives visions from six unearthly figures known as Omens. From them, she can predict terrible things before they occur, and lords and common folk alike travel across the kingdom of Traum's windswept moors to learn their futures by her dreams.

Just as she and her sister Diviners near the end of their service, a mysterious knight arrives at the cathedral. Rude, heretical, and devilishly handsome, the knight Rodrick has no respect for Sybil's visions. But when Sybil's fellow Diviners begin to vanish one by one, she has no choice but to seek his help in finding them. For the world outside the cathedral's cloister is wrought with peril. Only the gods have the answers she is seeking, and as much as she'd rather avoid Rodrick's dark eyes and sharp tongue, only a heretic can defeat a god.]]> 400 Rachel Gillig 0356522962 Brianna 0 to-read 4.62 2025 The Knight and the Moth (The Stonewater Kingdom, #1)
author: Rachel Gillig
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.62
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> King of Ashes 219833252 Award-winning, New York Times bestselling author S. A. Cosby returns with King of Ashes, a Godfather-inspired Southern crime epic and dazzling family drama.

When eldest son Roman Carruthers is summoned home after his father’s car accident, he finds his younger brother, Dante, in debt to dangerous criminals and his sister, Neveah, exhausted from holding the family—and the family business—together. Neveah and their father, who run the Carruthers Crematorium in the run-down central Virginia town of Jefferson Run, see death up close every day. But mortality draws even closer when it becomes clear that the crash that landed their father in a coma was no accident and Dante’s recklessness has placed them all in real danger.

Roman, a financial whiz with a head for numbers and a talent for making his clients rich, has some money to help buy his brother out of trouble. But in his work with wannabe tough guys, he’s forgotten that there are real gangsters out there. As his bargaining chips go up in smoke, Roman realizes that he has only one thing left to offer to save his himself, and his own particular set of skills.

Roman begins his work for the criminals while Neveah tries to uncover the long-ago mystery of what happened to their mother, who disappeared when they were teenagers. But Roman is far less of a pushover than the gangsters realize. He is willing to do anything to save his family. Anything.

Because everything burns.]]> 352 S.A. Cosby 1250832063 Brianna 0 to-read 4.54 2025 King of Ashes
author: S.A. Cosby
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.54
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Queens of Crime 211003830 The Mystery of Mrs. Christie returns with a thrilling story of Christie’s legendary rival Dorothy Sayers, the race to solve a murder, and the power of friendship among women.

London, 1930. The five greatest women crime writers have banded together to form a secret society with a single goal: to show they are no longer willing to be treated as second-class citizens by their male counterparts in the legendary Detection Club. Led by the formidable Dorothy L. Sayers, the group includes Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham and Baroness Emma Orczy. They call themselves the Queens of Crime. Their plan? Solve an actual murder, that of a young woman found strangled in a park in France who may have connections leading to the highest levels of the British establishment.

May Daniels, a young English nurse on an excursion to France with her friend, seemed to vanish into thin air as they prepared to board a ferry home. Months later, her body is found in the nearby woods. The murder has all the hallmarks of a locked room mystery for which these authors are famous: how did her killer manage to sneak her body out of a crowded train station without anyone noticing? If, as the police believe, the cause of death is manual strangulation, why is there is an extraordinary amount of blood at the crime scene? What is the meaning of a heartbreaking secret letter seeming to implicate an unnamed paramour? Determined to solve the highly publicized murder, the Queens of Crime embark on their own investigation, discovering they’re stronger together. But soon the killer targets Dorothy Sayers herself, threatening to expose a dark secret in her past that she would do anything to keep hidden.

Inspired by a true story in Sayers� own life, New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict brings to life the lengths to which five talented women writers will go to be taken seriously in the male-dominated world of letters as they unpuzzle a mystery torn from the pages of their own novels.]]> 310 Marie Benedict 1250280753 Brianna 0 to-read 3.81 2025 The Queens of Crime
author: Marie Benedict
name: Brianna
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Steel King (Clifton Forge) 59207639
The former Clifton Forge, Montana motorcycle club has everyone in town convinced they’ve locked their clubhouse doors and ripped off their patches. Everyone but Bryce Ryan. There’s more happening at the club’s garage than muscle car restorations and Harley rebuilds. Her instincts are screaming there’s a story—one she’s going to tell.

As the new owner of the small town’s newspaper, Bryce is hungry for more than birth announcements and obituaries. When a woman is brutally killed and all signs point to the club, Bryce is determined to expose the members and their leader, Kingston “Dash� Slater, as murderers.

Bryce bests Dash match after match, disappointed her rugged and handsome opponent turns out to be an underwhelming adversary. Secrets are exposed. Truths defeat lies. Bryce is poised to win this battle in a landslide.

Then Dash breaks all the rules and tips the scales.

One kiss, and she’s fighting to save more than just her story. She’s fighting to save her heart from the Steel King.]]> 388 Devney Perry 1950692744 Brianna 0 2024-reads, contemp-romance 4.07 2019 Steel King (Clifton Forge)
author: Devney Perry
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/17
date added: 2024/12/17
shelves: 2024-reads, contemp-romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Wind and Truth (The Stormlight Archive, #5)]]> 203578847 The long-awaited explosive climax to the first arc of the #1 New York Times bestselling Stormlight Archive―the iconic epic fantasy masterpiece that has sold more than 10 million copies, from acclaimed bestselling author Brandon Sanderson.

Dalinar Kholin challenged the evil god Odium to a contest of champions with the future of Roshar on the line. The Knights Radiant have only ten days to prepare―and the sudden ascension of the crafty and ruthless Taravangian to take Odium’s place has thrown everything into disarray.

Desperate fighting continues simultaneously worldwide―Adolin in Azimir, Sigzil and Venli at the Shattered Plains, and Jasnah at Thaylen City. The former assassin, Szeth, must cleanse his homeland of Shinovar from the dark influence of the Unmade. He is accompanied by Kaladin, who faces a new battle helping Szeth fight his own demons . . . and who must do the same for the insane Herald of the Almighty, Ishar.

At the same time, Shallan, Renarin, and Rlain work to unravel the mystery behind the Unmade Ba-Ado-Mishram and her involvement in the enslavement of the singer race and in the ancient Knights Radiants killing their spren. And Dalinar and Navani seek an edge against Odium’s champion that can be found only in the Spiritual Realm, where memory and possibility combine in chaos. The fate of the entire Cosmere hangs in the balance.]]> 1344 Brandon Sanderson 1250319188 Brianna 4 2024-reads, fantasy-sci-fi 4.35 2024 Wind and Truth (The Stormlight Archive, #5)
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/14
date added: 2024/12/14
shelves: 2024-reads, fantasy-sci-fi
review:

]]> Know My Name 50196744
Now she reclaims her identity to tell her story of trauma, transcendence, and the power of words. It was the perfect case, in many ways–there were eyewitnesses, Turner ran away, physical evidence was immediately secured. But her struggles with isolation and shame during the aftermath and the trial reveal the oppression victims face in even the best-case scenarios. Her story illuminates a culture biased to protect perpetrators, indicts a criminal justice system designed to fail the most vulnerable, and, ultimately, shines with the courage required to move through suffering and live a full and beautiful life.

Know My Name will forever transform the way we think about sexual assault, challenging our beliefs about what is acceptable and speaking truth to the tumultuous reality of healing. It also introduces readers to an extraordinary writer, one whose words have already changed our world. Entwining pain, resilience, and humor, this memoir will stand as a modern classic.]]> 384 Chanel Miller 0735223718 Brianna 0 2024-reads, nonfiction 4.69 2019 Know My Name
author: Chanel Miller
name: Brianna
average rating: 4.69
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/11
date added: 2024/12/11
shelves: 2024-reads, nonfiction
review:

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