Jessica's bookshelf: all en-US Mon, 07 Apr 2025 22:13:39 -0700 60 Jessica's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Electric Idol (Dark Olympus, #2)]]> 57661359 And if I wasn't careful, he was going to be my death.

*A scorchingly hot modern retelling of Psyche and Eros that's as sinful as it is sweet.*

In the ultra-modern city of Olympus, there's always a price to pay. Psyche knew she'd have to face Aphrodite's ire eventually, but she never expected her literal heart to be at stake...or for Aphrodite's gorgeous son to be the one ordered to strike the killing blow.

Eros has no problem shedding blood. But when it comes time to take out his latest target, he can't do it. Confused by his reaction to Psyche, he does the only thing he can think of to keep her safe: he marries her. Psyche vows to make Eros's life a living hell until they find a way out of this mess. But as lines blur and loyalties shift, she realizes he might take her heart after all...and she's not sure she can survive the loss.]]> 375 Katee Robert 1728231760 Jessica 0 3.94 2022 Electric Idol (Dark Olympus, #2)
author: Katee Robert
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2025/04/02
date added: 2025/04/07
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[One Dark Window (The Shepherd King, #1)]]> 63121123 For fans of Uprooted and For the Wolf comes a dark, lushly gothic fantasy about a maiden who must unleash the monster within to save her kingdom--but the monster in her head isn't the only threat lurking.



Elspeth needs a monster. The monster might be her.

Elspeth Spindle needs more than luck to stay safe in the eerie, mist-locked kingdom she calls home--she needs a monster. She calls him the Nightmare, an ancient, mercurial spirit trapped in her head. He protects her. He keeps her secrets. But nothing comes for free, especially magic.

When Elspeth meets a mysterious highwayman on the forest road, her life takes a drastic turn. Thrust into a world of shadow and deception, she joins a dangerous quest to cure the kingdom of the dark magic infecting it. Except the highwayman just so happens to be the King's own nephew, Captain of the Destriers...and guilty of high treason.

He and Elspeth have until Solstice to gather twelve Providence Cards--the keys to the cure. But as the stakes heighten and their undeniable attraction intensifies, Elspeth is forced to face her darkest secret yet: the Nightmare is slowly, darkly, taking over her mind. And she might not be able to stop him]]> 394 Rachel Gillig 035652017X Jessica 0 to-read 4.26 2022 One Dark Window (The Shepherd King, #1)
author: Rachel Gillig
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Serpent & the Wings of Night (Crowns of Nyaxia, #1)]]> 180724703 Wall Street Journal bestselling Crowns of Nyaxia series by Carissa Broadbent. Filled with heart-wrenching romance, dark magic, and bloodthirsty intrigue—perfect for fans of From Blood and Ash and A Court of Thorns and Roses.

For humans and vampires, the rules of survival are the never trust, never yield, and always—always—guard your heart.

The adopted human daughter of the Nightborn vampire king, Oraya carved her place in a world designed to kill her. Her only chance to become something more than prey is entering the a legendary tournament held by the goddess of death herself.

But winning won’t be easy amongst the most vicious warriors from all three vampire houses. To survive, Oraya is forced to make an alliance with a mysterious rival.

Everything about Raihn is dangerous. He is a ruthless vampire, an efficient killer, an enemy to her father’s crown� and her greatest competition. Yet, what terrifies Oraya most of all is that she finds herself oddly drawn to him.

But there’s no room for compassion in the Kejari. War for the House of Night brews, shattering everything that Oraya thought she knew about her home. And Raihn may understand her more than anyone � but their blossoming attraction could be her downfall, in a kingdom where nothing is more deadly than love.]]> 464 Carissa Broadbent 1250343178 Jessica 0 to-read 4.29 2022 The Serpent & the Wings of Night (Crowns of Nyaxia, #1)
author: Carissa Broadbent
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Glass House 200454877
Amongst unrelenting hours, hospital politics, fraught relationships and new friendships, Hannah must learn on the job in a strained medical system, navigating the conflicting practice of her boss, Nash, who puts his faith in pharmaceuticals, and his boss, Professor Gordon, who takes the Freudian line. Meanwhile, the new manager thinks they're all part of the problem.

Hannah and her fellow trainees are dealing with the common and the bizarre, the hilarious and the tragic, the treatable and the confronting. Every day brings new patients: Chloe, who has life-threatening anorexia nervosa; Sian, suffering postpartum psychosis and fighting to keep her baby; and Xavier, the MP whose suicide attempt has an explosive story behind it. All the while, Hannah is trying to figure out herself.]]> 337 Anne Buist Jessica 0 currently-reading 3.81 2024 The Glass House
author: Anne Buist
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Death in Her Hands 59855016
While on her normal daily walk with her dog in the forest woods, our protagonist comes across a note, handwritten and carefully pinned to the ground with a frame of stones. "Her name was Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn't me. Here is her dead body". Our narrator is deeply shaken; she has no idea what to make of this. She is new to area, having moved her from her longtime home after the death of her husband, and she knows very few people. And she's a little shaky even on best days. Her brooding about this note quickly grows into a full-blown obsession, and she begins to devote herself to exploring the possibilities of her conjectures about who this woman was and how she met her fate. Her suppositions begin to find echoes in the real world, and with mounting excitement and dread, the fog of mystery starts to form into a concrete and menacing shape. But as we follow her in her investigation, strange dissonances start to accrue, and our faith in her grip on reality weakens, until finally, just as she seems be facing some of the darkness in her own past with her late husband, we are forced to face the prospect that there is either a more innocent explanation for all this or a much more sinister one - one that strikes closer to home.

A triumphant blend of horror, suspense, and pitch-black comedy, 'Death in Her Hands' asks us to consider how the stories we tell ourselves both guide us closer to the truth and keep us at bay from it. Once again, we are in the hands of a narrator whose unreliability is well earned, only this time the stakes have never been higher.]]> 259 Ottessa Moshfegh Jessica 0 3.24 2020 Death in Her Hands
author: Ottessa Moshfegh
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.24
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2025/03/04
date added: 2025/03/14
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]]> <![CDATA[Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI]]> 193388249
Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. The family of an Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, became a prime target. One of her relatives was shot. Another was poisoned. And this was just the beginning, as more and more Osage were dying under mysterious circumstances, and many of those who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered.

As the death toll rose, the newly created FBI took up the case, and the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to try to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including a Native American agent who infiltrated the region, and together with the Osage began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.]]> 338 David Grann 0593470834 Jessica 0 to-read 4.12 2017 Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
author: David Grann
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Uncultured: A Memoir 59808316 In the vein of Educated and The Glass Castle, Daniella Mestyanek Young's Uncultured is more than a memoir about an exceptional upbringing, but about a woman who, no matter the lack of tools given to her, is determined to overcome.

Behind the tall, foreboding gates of a commune in Brazil, Daniella Mestyanek Young was raised in the religious cult The Children of God, also known as The Family, as the daughter of high-ranking members. Her great-grandmother donated land for one of The Family’s first communes in Texas. Her mother, at thirteen, was forced to marry the leader and served as his secretary for many years. Beholden to The Family’s strict rules, Daniella suffers physical, emotional, and sexual abuse�masked as godly discipline and divine love�and is forbidden from getting a traditional education.

At fifteen years old, fed up with The Family and determined to build a better and freer life for herself, Daniella escapes to Texas. There, she bravely enrolls herself in high school and excels, later graduating as valedictorian of her college class, then electing to join the military to begin a career as an intelligence officer, where she believes she will finally belong.

But she soon learns that her new world�surrounded by men on the sands of Afghanistan�looks remarkably similar to the one she desperately tried to leave behind.

Told in a beautiful, propulsive voice and with clear-eyed honesty, Uncultured explores the dangers unleashed when harmful group mentality goes unrecognized, and is emblematic of the many ways women have to contort themselves to survive.]]> 339 Daniella Mestyanek Young 1250280117 Jessica 0 to-read 4.10 2022 Uncultured: A Memoir
author: Daniella Mestyanek Young
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Missing in Flight 212032163 From USA Today bestselling author Audrey J. Cole comes a harrowing thriller about a woman faced with the unthinkable, when her infant goes missing aboard a plane to New York.

Rushing back to her seat, Makayla Rossi is relieved that all’s still quiet. But when she checks on her sleeping baby, relief morphs into fear. The bassinet is empty.

Liam is gone.

It was a long flight from Anchorage to New York, and with every flight attendant busy, Makayla reluctantly ran to the restroom, asking a seat neighbor to watch her son. She stepped away for just a few minutes. Yet at thirty thousand feet, he still vanished.

Passengers and crew scour the plane to no avail, and since no one recalls seeing her with a baby, suspicions begin to mount about Makayla’s mental state. She’s certain this is nothing like her mother’s on-air memory meltdown. If only Jack, her husband, were there. He would believe her. A high-profile banker featured in Forbes, maybe he could even help.

But Makayla is squarely on her own. And she’ll have to think fast in order to find her son—before it’s too late.]]> 284 Audrey J. Cole 1662520719 Jessica 0 to-read 3.95 2025 Missing in Flight
author: Audrey J. Cole
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Come Fly The World: The Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am]]> 53968539 Mad Men–era of commercial flight, Pan Am World Airways attracted the kind of young woman who wanted out, and wanted up

Required to have a college degree, speak two languages, and possess the political savvy of a Foreign Service officer, a jet-age stewardess serving on iconic Pan Am between 1966 and 1975 also had to be between 5�3" and 5�9", between 105 and 140 pounds, and under 26 years of age at the time of hire. Julia Cooke’s intimate storytelling weaves together the real-life stories of a memorable cast of characters, from Lynne Totten, a science major who decided life in a lab was not for her, to Hazel Bowie, one of the relatively few black stewardesses of the era, as they embraced the liberation of their new jet-set life.

Cooke brings to life the story of Pan Am stewardesses� role in the Vietnam War, as the airline added runs from Saigon to Hong Kong for planeloads of weary young soldiers straight from the battlefields, who were off for five days of R&R, and then flown back to war. Finally, with Operation Babylift—the dramatic evacuation of 2,000 children during the fall of Saigon—the book’s special cast of stewardesses unites to play an extraordinary role on the world stage.]]> 288 Julia Cooke 0358251400 Jessica 0 to-read 3.63 2021 Come Fly The World: The Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am
author: Julia Cooke
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Dating and Dragons 213423368 From the author of the nationally bestselling Dungeons and Drama comes another gaming romance that's sure to win you over!

Quinn Norton is starting over at a new high school and hopes that joining a D&D game will be the trick to making friends. The plan sounds even better when she’s invited into a group that includes Logan Weber, the cute and charming guy she met on her first day of class. But this isn’t your average D&D campaign� this group livestreams their games and enforces strict rules: no phones allowed, and no dating other group members.

Quinn is willing to accept the rules, even if it makes Logan off-limits. And she quickly learns that doing so won’t be a problem, since Logan goes from charismatic to insufferable as soon as she agrees to join. As their bickering—and bantering—intensifies inside and outside the game, Quinn can’t help wondering: Is Logan’s infuriating behavior a smokescreen for hidden feelings? Quinn is risking it all, and the twenty-sided dice are rolling!]]> 316 Kristy Boyce 0593899210 Jessica 0 to-read 4.12 2024 Dating and Dragons
author: Kristy Boyce
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: to-read
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]]> Confess 22609310
For once, Auburn takes a chance and puts her heart in control, only to discover that Owen is hiding a huge secret. The magnitude of his past threatens to destroy everything Auburn loves most, and the only way to get her life back on track is to cut Owen out of it—but can she do it?]]> 306 Colleen Hoover 1476791457 Jessica 2 4.14 2015 Confess
author: Colleen Hoover
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2015
rating: 2
read at: 2022/06/11
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves:
review:

]]> Trauma Room Two 26370821 164 Philip Allen Green Jessica 0 4.27 2015 Trauma Room Two
author: Philip Allen Green
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/02
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Vol. 1 (Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon Renewal Edition, #1)]]> 10862575
This new edition of Sailor Moon will feature:

- An entirely new, incredibly accurate translation!
- Japanese-style, right-to-left reading!
- New cover art never before seen in the U.S.!
- The original Japanese character names!
- Detailed translation notes!

This version of Sailor Moon will be completely true to original. Join us as Sailor Moon returns to the U.S. for the first time in years!]]> 240 Naoko Takeuchi 1935429744 Jessica 0 4.29 2003 Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Vol. 1 (Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon Renewal Edition, #1)
author: Naoko Takeuchi
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at: 2022/03/06
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves:
review:

]]> No One Saw a Thing 61432218 Two children get on the train. Only one gets off...

No one saw it happen.
You stand on a crowded tube platform in London. Your two little girls jump on the train ahead of you. As you try to join them, the doors slide shut and the train moves away, leaving you behind.

Everyone is lying.
By the time you get to the next stop, you've convinced yourself that everything will be fine. But you soon start to panic, because there aren't two children waiting for you on the platform. There's only one.

Someone is to blame.
Has your other daughter got lost? Been taken by a passing stranger? Or perhaps the culprit is closer to home than you think? No one is telling the truth, and the longer the search continues, the harder she will be to find...]]> 384 Andrea Mara 178763650X Jessica 0 3.87 2023 No One Saw a Thing
author: Andrea Mara
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2025/01/15
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves:
review:

]]> The Seven Year Slip 62926938 An overworked book publicist with a perfectly planned future hits a snag when she falls in love with her temporary roommate…only to discover he lives seven years in the past, in this witty and wise new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Dead Romantics.

Sometimes, the worst day of your life happens, and you have to figure out how to live after it.

So Clementine forms a plan to keep her heart safe: work hard, find someone decent to love, and try to remember to chase the moon. The last one is silly and obviously metaphorical, but her aunt always told her that you needed at least one big dream to keep going. And for the last year, that plan has gone off without a hitch. Mostly. The love part is hard because she doesn’t want to get too close to anyone—she isn’t sure her heart can take it.

And then she finds a strange man standing in the kitchen of her late aunt’s apartment. A man with kind eyes and a Southern drawl and a taste for lemon pies. The kind of man that, before it all, she would’ve fallen head-over-heels for. And she might again.

Except, he exists in the past. Seven years ago, to be exact. And she, quite literally, lives seven years in his future.

Her aunt always said the apartment was a pinch in time, a place where moments blended together like watercolors. And Clementine knows that if she lets her heart fall, she’ll be doomed.

After all, love is never a matter of time—but a matter of timing.]]> 336 Ashley Poston Jessica 0 to-read 4.18 2023 The Seven Year Slip
author: Ashley Poston
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/25
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[A Discovery of Witches (All Souls, #1)]]> 8667848
Deep in the stacks of Oxford's Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell.

Debut novelist Deborah Harkness has crafted a mesmerizing and addictive read, equal parts history and magic, romance and suspense. Diana is a bold heroine who meets her equal in vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont, and gradually warms up to him as their alliance deepens into an intimacy that violates age-old taboos. This smart, sophisticated story harks back to the novels of Anne Rice, but it is as contemporary and sensual as the Twilight series-with an extra serving of historical realism.]]> 592 Deborah Harkness 0670022411 Jessica 0 to-read 4.01 2011 A Discovery of Witches (All Souls, #1)
author: Deborah Harkness
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/25
shelves: to-read
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]]> Before I Go to Sleep 9736930
So what if you lost yours every time you went to sleep?

Your name, your identity, your past, even the people you love - all forgotten overnight.

And the one person you trust may only be telling you half the story.

Welcome to Christine's life.]]> 359 S.J. Watson 0062060554 Jessica 0 to-read 3.90 2011 Before I Go to Sleep
author: S.J. Watson
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[My Vampire Plus-One (My Vampires, #2)]]> 204640539
Amelia Collins is by definition successful. She would even go so far as to say successfully single. But not according to her family, and she’s tired of the constant questions about her nonexistent dating life. When an invitation to yet another family wedding arrives, she decides to get everyone off her back once and for all by finding someone–anyone–to pose as her date.

After a chance encounter with Reginald Cleaves, Amelia decides he’s perfect for her purposes. He’s a bit strange, but that’s fine; it’ll discourage tough questions from her family. (And it certainly doesn’t hurt that he’s very handsome.) For centuries-old vampire Reggie, posing as her plus-one sounds like the ultimate fun. And if it helps his ruse of pretending to be human, so much the better.

As Amelia and Reggie practice their fauxmance, it becomes clear that Reggie is as loyal to her as the day is long, and that Amelia’s first impressions could not have been more wrong. Suddenly, being in a real relationship with Reggie sounds pretty fang-tastic.]]> 372 Jenna Levine 0593548930 Jessica 0 to-read 3.74 2024 My Vampire Plus-One (My Vampires, #2)
author: Jenna Levine
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions]]> 21413662 xkcd comic ask Munroe a lot of strange questions: What if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90 percent the speed of light? How fast can you hit a speed bump while driving and live? If there was a robot apocalypse, how long would humanity last? What if everyone only had one soulmate? What would happen if the moon went away?

In pursuit of answers, Munroe runs computer simulations, pores over stacks of declassified military research memos, solves differential equations, and consults with nuclear reactor operators. His responses are masterpieces of clarity and hilarity, complemented by his signature xkcd comics. (They often predict the complete annihilation of humankind, or at least a really big explosion.)

In celebration of 10 years of unusual insight, Randall Munroe has revised his classic blockbuster to ask what if? x 10. The result is 10x the adventure of scientific inquiry. Featuring brand-new 2-color annotations and illustrations, this special anniversary edition is far more than a book for geeks, What If? explains the laws of science in operation in a way that every intelligent reader will enjoy and feel much smarter for having read.]]> 303 Randall Munroe 0544272994 Jessica 0 to-read 4.13 2014 What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
author: Randall Munroe
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Postcard 63880836 Winner of the Choix Goncourt Prize, Anne Berest’s The Postcard is a vivid portrait of twentieth-century Parisian intellectual and artistic life, an enthralling investigation into family secrets, and poignant tale of a Jewish family devastated by the Holocaust and partly restored through the power of storytelling.

January, 2003. Together with the usual holiday cards, an anonymous postcard is delivered to the Berest family home. On the front, a photo of the Opéra Garnier in Paris. On the back, the names of Anne Berest’s maternal great-grandparents, Ephraïm and Emma, and their children, Noémie and Jacques—all killed at Auschwitz.

Fifteen years after the postcard is delivered, Anne, the heroine of this novel, is moved to discover who sent it and why. Aided by her chain-smoking mother, family members, friends, associates, a private detective, a graphologist, and many others, she embarks on a journey to discover the fate of the Rabinovitch family: their flight from Russia following the revolution, their journey to Latvia, Palestine, and Paris. What emerges is a moving saga that shatters long-held certainties about Anne’s family, her country, and herself.]]> 464 Anne Berest Jessica 0 to-read 4.31 2021 The Postcard
author: Anne Berest
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Johnny Got His Gun 51606
This is no ordinary novel. This is a novel that never takes the easy way out: it is shocking, violent, terrifying, horrible, uncompromising, brutal, remorseless and gruesome... but so is war.

Winner of the National Book Award.]]> 309 Dalton Trumbo 0806512814 Jessica 0 to-read 4.19 1939 Johnny Got His Gun
author: Dalton Trumbo
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1939
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Wifedom: Mrs. Orwell's Invisible Life]]> 62802741 This is the story of the marriage behind some of the most famous literary works of the 20thcentury —and a probing consideration of what it means to be a wife and a writer in the modern world

At the end of summer 2017, Anna Funder found herself at a moment of peak overload. Family obligations and household responsibilities were crushing her soul and taking her away from her writing deadlines. She needed help, and George Orwell came to her rescue.

"I’ve always loved Orwell," Funder writes, "his self-deprecating humour, his laser vision about how power works, and who it works on." So after rereading and savoring books Orwell had written, she devoured six major biographies tracing his life and work. But then she read about his forgotten wife, and it was a revelation.

Eileen O’Shaughnessy married Orwell in 1936. O’Shaughnessy was a writer herself, and her literary brilliance not only shaped Orwell’s work, but her practical common sense saved his life. But why and how, Funder wondered, was she written out of their story? Using newly discovered letters from Eileen to her best friend, Funder re-creates the Orwells� marriage, through the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War in London. As she peeks behind the curtain of Orwell’s private life she is led to question what it takes to be a writer—and what it is to be a wife.

A breathtakingly intimate view of one of the most important literary marriages of the twentieth century,Wifedomspeaks to our present moment as much as it illuminates the past. Genre-bending and utterly original, it is an ode to the unsung work of women everywhere.

]]> 464 Anna Funder 0593320689 Jessica 0 to-read 4.08 2023 Wifedom: Mrs. Orwell's Invisible Life
author: Anna Funder
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Sociopath: A Memoir 176443093
Patric Gagne realized she made others uncomfortable before she started kindergarten. Something about her caused people to react in a way she didn’t understand. She suspected it was because she didn’t feel things the way other kids did. Emotions like fear, guilt, and empathy eluded her. For the most part, she felt nothing. And she didn’t like the way that “nothing� felt.

She did her best to pretend she was like everyone else, but the constant pressure to conform to a society she knew rejected anyone like her was unbearable. So Patric stole. She lied. She was occasionally violent. She became an expert lock-picker and home-invader. All with the goal of replacing the nothingness with...something.

In college, Patric finally confirmed what she’d long suspected. She was a sociopath. But even though it was the very first personality disorder identified—well over 200 years ago—sociopathy had been neglected by mental health professionals for decades. She was told there was no treatment, no hope for a normal life. She found herself haunted by sociopaths in pop culture, madmen and evil villains who are considered monsters. Her future looked grim.

But when Patric reconnects with an old flame, she gets a glimpse of a future beyond her diagnosis. If she’s capable of love, it must mean that she isn’t a monster. With the help of her sweetheart (and some curious characters she meets along the way) she embarks on a mission to prove that the millions of Americans who share her diagnosis aren’t all monsters either.

This is the inspiring story of her journey to change her fate and how she managed to build a life full of love and hope.]]> 368 Patric Gagne 166800318X Jessica 0 to-read 3.74 2024 Sociopath: A Memoir
author: Patric Gagne
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> This Is How You Remember It 202065852
It's not long before you discover porn. You don't know what you're watching, but you do know that you shouldn't tell anybody. Later, older, your first kiss is captured on camera and shared with everyone in your year. It feels like betrayal, but soon it feels normal. Part of the incessant cycle of posting, sharing and liking.

Now, you can't remember a time when you didn't feel hollow inside. Now, you know that something has to change.

Chilling, potent and intensely intimate, This is How You Remember It is at once a cautionary tale, a call to arms and a tender love story. It is about a life lived online, and about finding another way, when it's all you've ever known.]]> 289 Catherine Prasifka 1837261466 Jessica 0 to-read 4.03 This Is How You Remember It
author: Catherine Prasifka
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.03
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/02
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[You Called an Ambulance for What?]]> 149108565
Between the obligatory stories of objects lodged in body cavities and grown men who can't look after themselves when their wives are away, Tim finds that the promised life-saving moments are far outweighed by the trivial, frustrating and bizarre ambulance callouts. He and his colleagues battle fatigue, abuse and burnout - treated with coffee, occasional moments of heroism, and a healthy dose of dark humour.

Told with cutting wit, pathos and disarming insight, You Called an Ambulance for What? is a comedic behind-the-sirens look at the challenges, absurdities and shocking reality of life as an Australian intensive care paramedic.]]> 258 Tim Booth Jessica 0 3.93 You Called an Ambulance for What?
author: Tim Booth
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.93
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/02
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]]> <![CDATA[An Afterlife for Rosemary Lamb]]> 62588729
Magpie Beach is a quiet seaside town � full of small-town prejudices and small-town cliques. Meg, Rosemary and Lily are all outsiders. Meg and Lily because they came to Magpie Beach to escape their former lives, Rosemary because her upbringing was the subject of much local gossip and upturned noses. The three women come together as friends, partly because their homes are so close together on the outskirts of town � and partly because their neighbours treat them with such suspicion.

When Jessie Else, all of 9 years old, goes missing � it’s easy to see why this small band of outcasts are first on the list of suspects � but what they didn't realise is that Jessie’s disappearance is only the beginning of their troubles. Soon all those secrets they’ve been trying to hide are going to be uncovered � and nothing will ever be the same again.]]> 301 Louise Wolhuter 1761151878 Jessica 0 to-read 3.97 2022 An Afterlife for Rosemary Lamb
author: Louise Wolhuter
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/02
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]]> <![CDATA[Put your Feet in the Dirt, Girl]]> 145618900 A memoir

The bestselling author of Going Under recounts her real-life journey from hard-partying Sydney medical intern to dust-covered rural GP.

"Solo GP needed for medical clinic, mining town in Pilbara region, Western Australia. Car and accommodation provided. On call paid extra. Close proximity to absolutely nothing."

In 2020, lost and heartbroken, and with an unscratched travel itch thanks to international border closures, Sonia Henry accepted a job as a GP in remotest Western Australia. The plan was to stay for one month. But before she knew it, this dressed-to-the-nines Sydney party girl was becoming an Akubra-wearing bush doctor covered in red dust--and loving every minute of it.

Sonia spent the next two years working in some of the remotest parts of the country. She learned how to shoot in the middle of the desert, visited pearl farms and pubs, came to terms with being regularly outnumbered by crocodiles, and adopted a cattle dog called Buddy, who would come to be her closest companion. She also met an eclectic bunch of patients and friends, and opened her eyes to the truths--both good and bad--of the country she calls home.

Put Your Feet in the Dirt, Girl is a modern outback medical memoir full of heart, energy, rage and wonder. It is a must-read for anyone who has ever had to get lost in order to be found.]]> 368 Sonia Henry 1761186892 Jessica 0 to-read 4.27 2023 Put your Feet in the Dirt, Girl
author: Sonia Henry
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/28
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]]> Nightbitch 55835474
At home full-time with her two-year-old son, an artist finds she is struggling. She is lonely and exhausted. She had imagined - what was it she had imagined? Her husband, always travelling for his work, calls her from faraway hotel rooms. One more toddler bedtime, and she fears she might lose her mind.

Instead, quite suddenly, she starts gaining things, surprising things that happen one night when her child will not sleep. Sharper canines. Strange new patches of hair. New appetites, new instincts. And from deep within herself, a new voice...

With its clear eyes on contemporary womanhood and sharp take on structures of power, Nightbitch is an outrageously original, joyfully subversive read that will make you want to howl in laughter and recognition. Addictive enough to be devoured in one sitting, this is an unforgettable novel from a blazing new talent.]]> 256 Rachel Yoder 0385546815 Jessica 0 to-read 3.47 2021 Nightbitch
author: Rachel Yoder
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/25
shelves: to-read
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]]> Crushing 62882950 No Hard Feelings.
Getting over someone is not that difficult. All you have to do is focus on every negative thing about them for the rest of your life until you forget to stop actively hoping for their slow and painful death, then get a haircut ...

Serial monogamist Marnie is running late to her own identity crisis. After a decade of twisting herself into different versions of the ideal girlfriend, she's swearing off relationships for good. Forever. Done. No more, no thank you.

Pretty inconvenient time to meet Isaac: certified dreamboat and the only man who has ever truly got her. It's cool, though, they're just friends, he's got someone else, and she has more important things to worry about. Like who she is, what she wants, and what the hell she ever saw in the love(s) of her life in the first place.

Flanked by overwhelmed new mum Nicola, terminally single Claud, and eternal pessimist Kit, Marnie reckons with the question: who are we when we're on our own?

'Crushing stings with truth and aches with hope. I loved it.' Jessica Dettmann

'A sharp, funny and biting exploration of a classic millennial existential crisis ... with some genuine laugh-out-loud moments' Books+Publishing

'A sexy, complex, bittersweet dark chocolate souffle of a book: airily paced, tartly funny, and with a romantic centre that's just gooey enough' Clare Fletcher

'Bingeable, sharply written, and hilarious, Crushing had me hooked from the first page. This book is filled with love, rage, and wisdom, and reading it felt like having a wine with a best friend.' Victoria Brookman, author of Burnt Out

Praise for No Hard Feelings:

'Funny, biting, vulnerable and unflinching, Novak's novel is like an ocean dip: a bit salty, very refreshing' Lauren Sams

'No Hard Feelings is clever, funny and surprisingly sweet, and Penny captured my heart' Toni Jordan

'Wry and witty' Saturday Age]]> 368 Genevieve Novak 1460761855 Jessica 0 to-read 3.77 2023 Crushing
author: Genevieve Novak
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Advertisement for Murder (A St. Ives Book Club Mystery 1)]]> 52159526 Who killed Jenny Blake?


In the gentle hamlet of St. Ives, a killer roams free.
In 1975, seventeen-year-old Jenny Blake was found strangled in the ruins behind the abandoned St. Ives Abbey. Her murderer was never caught. Forty-four years later, an advertisement in the local newspaper draws seven people, including Avery Holmes, to the home of Elliot Marks with the purpose of forming a murder mystery book club.


Within minutes of the first meeting, Marks puts forward an intriguing proposal: Instead of reading about murder, why not try solving one? Beginning with who killed Jenny Blake.


Was it her ex-boyfriend, the brilliant but withdrawn Jesse Sutcliffe, who was now a homeless alcoholic? Or Duncan Carmichael, the attractive local politician who was dating Jenny at the time of the murder? What about Karen Haggerty, the bubbly school secretary, who Duncan dumped for Jenny in the summer of �75? Or was it Ida Greb, the town librarian who was privately glad at the time that Jenny was dead. And then there was the eccentric Elliot Marks, the club founder, who had a connection to the dead girl that no one knew about.


For Avery Holmes, who moved to St. Ives to write novels, keep a garden and live comfortably, poking into an old murder case is a risky proposition. After all, waking a killer who thought he or she had gotten away with murder could lead to ... well ... murder.]]> 210 Nadine Doolittle Jessica 0 to-read 4.09 Advertisement for Murder (A St. Ives Book Club Mystery 1)
author: Nadine Doolittle
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.09
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/25
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]]> One Medicine 62059588 288 Matt Morgan 1471173089 Jessica 0 4.23 One Medicine
author: Matt Morgan
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.23
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2024/11/25
date added: 2024/11/25
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]]> The Red Tent 4989 The Red Tent combines rich storytelling with a valuable achievement in modern fiction: a new view of biblical women's society.]]> 324 Anita Diamant 0312353766 Jessica 0 to-read 4.21 1997 The Red Tent
author: Anita Diamant
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> A Stolen Life 11330361
Dugard's memoir is written by the 30-year-old herself and covers the period from the time of her abduction in 1991 up until the present. In her stark, utterly honest and unflinching narrative, Jaycee opens up about what she experienced, including how she feels now, a year after being found. Garrido and his wife Nancy have since pleaded guilty to their crimes.]]> 273 Jaycee Dugard 1451629184 Jessica 0 3.95 2011 A Stolen Life
author: Jaycee Dugard
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at: 2024/11/06
date added: 2024/11/06
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]]> The Binding 39964740
After having suffered some sort of mental collapse and no longer able to keep up with his farm chores, Emmett Farmer is sent to the workshop of one such binder to live and work as her apprentice. Leaving behind home and family, Emmett slowly regains his health while learning the binding trade. He is forbidden to enter the locked room where books are stored, so he spends many months marbling end pages, tooling leather book covers, and gilding edges. But his curiosity is piqued by the people who come and go from the inner sanctum, and the arrival of the lordly Lucian Darnay, with whom he senses a connection, changes everything.]]> 437 Bridget Collins 0008272115 Jessica 0 3.86 2019 The Binding
author: Bridget Collins
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/05
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]]> <![CDATA[The Thursday Murder Club (Thursday Murder Club, #1)]]> 46040093
But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case.

Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves.

Can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer before it's too late?]]> 381 Richard Osman 024142545X Jessica 0 Unpopular opinion alert 3.88 2020 The Thursday Murder Club (Thursday Murder Club, #1)
author: Richard Osman
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2024/10/20
date added: 2024/10/20
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Unpopular opinion alert
]]> Icebreaker (UCMH, #1) 61767292
Nothing will stand in her way, not even the captain of the hockey team, Nate Hawkins.

Nate’s focus as team captain is on keeping his team on the ice. Which is tricky when a facilities mishap means they are forced to share a rink with the figure skating team—including Anastasia, who clearly can’t stand him.

But when Anastasia’s skating partner faces an uncertain future, she may have to look to Nate to take her shot.

Sparks fly, but Anastasia isn’t worried . . . because she could never like a hockey player, right?]]> 447 Hannah Grace Jessica 0 3.75 2022 Icebreaker (UCMH, #1)
author: Hannah Grace
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2024/10/13
date added: 2024/10/13
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]]> BOX 88 54504730
A spy that can’t be caught.

1989: The fall of the Berlin Wall is imminent and the Cold War will soon be over. But for BOX 88, a top secret spying agency known only to an inner circle of MI6 and CIA operatives, the espionage game is heating up.

Lachlan Kite, recruited straight from an elite boarding school, is sent to France � the frontline of a new secret war. Kite is tasked with gathering intelligence on a mysterious Iranian businessman implicated in the tragic Lockerbie bombing. But what he uncovers is even more deadly�

2020: MI5 hear rumours of BOX 88’s existence and go after Kite � only for Iranian intelligence to get to him first. Taken captive and subjected to torture, Kite is presented with a simple choice: reveal the truth about what happened in France thirty years earlier � or watch his family die.]]> 496 Charles Cumming 000820036X Jessica 0 to-read 4.16 2020 BOX 88
author: Charles Cumming
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/13
shelves: to-read
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]]> Mad Honey 62324354 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 1760528773 Jessica 0 4.05 2022 Mad Honey
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2024/10/03
date added: 2024/10/03
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]]> Happiness Falls 75495002 When a father goes missing, his family's desperate search leads them to question everything they know about him and one another--both a riveting page-turner and a deeply moving portrait of a family in crisis from the award-winning author of Miracle Creek.

"We didn't call the police right away." Those are the first words of this extraordinary novel about a biracial Korean-American family in Virginia whose lives are upended when their beloved father and husband goes missing.

Mia, the irreverent, hyperanalytical twenty-year-old daughter, has an explanation for everything--which is why she isn't initially concerned when her father and younger brother Eugene don't return from a walk in a nearby park. They must have lost their phone. Or stopped for an errand somewhere. But by the time Mia's brother runs through the front door bloody and alone, it becomes clear that the father in this tight-knit family is missing and the only witness is Eugene, who has the rare genetic condition Angelman syndrome and cannot speak.

What follows is both a ticking-clock investigation into the whereabouts of a father and an emotionally rich portrait of a family whose most personal secrets just may be at the heart of his disappearance. Full of shocking twists and fascinating questions of love, language, race, and human connection, Happiness Falls is a mystery, a family drama, and a novel of profound philosophical inquiry. With all the powerful storytelling she brought to her award-winning debut Miracle Creek, Angie Kim turns the missing person story into something wholly original, creating an indelible tale of a family who must go to remarkable lengths to truly understand one another.]]> 387 Angie Kim 0593448200 Jessica 0 to-read 3.72 2023 Happiness Falls
author: Angie Kim
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/26
shelves: to-read
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]]> Lies We Sing to the Sea 59470553
But when that fate comes for Leto, death is not what she thought it would be. Instead, she wakes on a mysterious island and meets a girl with green eyes and the power to command the sea. A girl named Melantho, who says one more death can stop a thousand.

The prince of Ithaca must die—or the tides of fate will drown them all.

Sarah Underwood weaves an epic tapestry of lies, love, and tragedy, perfect for fans of Madeline Miller, Alexandra Bracken, and Renée Ahdieh.]]> 432 Sarah Underwood Jessica 0 to-read 3.42 2023 Lies We Sing to the Sea
author: Sarah Underwood
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/26
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Group: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My Life]]> 50891570 The refreshingly original debut memoir of a guarded, over-achieving, self-lacerating young lawyer who reluctantly agrees to get psychologically and emotionally naked in a room of six complete strangers—her psychotherapy group—and in turn finds human connection, and herself.

Christie Tate had just been named the top student in her law school class and finally had her eating disorder under control. Why then was she driving through Chicago fantasizing about her own death? Why was she envisioning putting an end to the isolation and sadness that still plagued her in spite of her achievements?

Enter Dr. Rosen, a therapist who calmly assures her that if she joins one of his psychotherapy groups, he can transform her life. All she has to do is show up and be honest. About everything—her eating habits, childhood, sexual history, etc. Christie is skeptical, insisting that that she is defective, beyond cure. But Dr. Rosen issues a nine-word prescription that will change everything: “You don’t need a cure, you need a witness.

So begins her entry into the strange, terrifying, and ultimately life-changing world of group therapy. Christie is initially put off by Dr. Rosen’s outlandish directives, but as her defenses break down and she comes to trust Dr. Rosen and to depend on the sessions and the prescribed nightly phone calls with various group members, she begins to understand what it means to connect.

Group is a deliciously addictive read, and with Christie as our guide—skeptical of her own capacity for connection and intimacy, but hopeful in spite of herself—we are given a front row seat to the daring, exhilarating, painful, and hilarious journey that is group therapy—an under-explored process that breaks you down, and then reassembles you so that all the pieces finally fit.]]> 282 Christie Tate Jessica 0 to-read 3.77 2020 Group: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My Life
author: Christie Tate
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/26
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[The House of Night Series: Books 1-12 (House of Night, #1-12)]]> 23359246 Dare to enter the HOUSE OF NIGHT, the phenomenal #1 New York Times bestselling series, with this complete e-collection of all twelve books!When 16-year-old Zoey Redbird is Marked by a vampyre tracker and begins to undergo the Change into an actual vampyre, she has to leave behind her family in Tulsa and move into the House of Night, a boarding school for other fledglings like her. It's tough to begin a new life, away from her parents and friends, and on top of that, Zoey finds she is no average fledgling. She has been singled out by the vampyre Goddess, Nyx. Although Zoey has awesome new powers, it's not so easy to fit in when everyone knows you're "special" � and some people wish you weren't....As Zoey tries to make new friends and maybe find a hot boyfriend (or three), she comes up against all kinds of evil, from the perfect-looking, super-popular girl with not-so-innocent plans, to the mysterious deaths happening at the House of Night and all over Tulsa, and the beautiful high priestess, Neferet, who seems to have Zoey's best interests at heart…or does she? Things at the House of Night are rarely what they seem. Can Zoey find the courage deep within herself to find the truth and embrace her destiny?Read the entire epic series from #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors P. C. CASTand KRISTIN CAST: Marked, Betrayed, Chosen, Untamed, Hunted, Tempted, Burned, Awakened, Destined, Hidden, Revealed, Redeemed]]> 3623 P.C. Cast 146688259X Jessica 4 4.34 2014 The House of Night Series: Books 1-12 (House of Night, #1-12)
author: P.C. Cast
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2014
rating: 4
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date added: 2024/09/26
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]]> <![CDATA[Love Letters to a Serial Killer]]> 63059709 An aimless young woman starts writing to an accused serial killer while he awaits trial and then, once he’s acquitted, decides to move in with him and take the investigation into her own hands in this dark and irresistibly compelling debut thriller. Recently ghosted and sick of watching her friends fade into the suburbs, thirty-something Hannah finds community in a true-crime forum that’s on a mission to solve the murders of four women in Atlanta. After William, a handsome lawyer, is arrested for the killings, Hannah begins writing him letters. It’s the perfect outlet for her pent-up frustration and rage. The exercise empowers her, and even feels healthy at first. Until William writes back. Hannah’s interest in the case goes from curiosity to obsession, leaving space for nothing else as her life implodes around her. After she loses her job, she heads to Georgia to attend the trial and befriends other true-crime junkies like herself. When a fifth woman is discovered murdered, the jury has no choice but to find William not guilty, and Hannah is the first person he calls upon his release. The two of them quickly fall into a routine of domestic bliss. Well, as blissful as one can feel while secretly investigating their partner for serial murder…]]> 320 Tasha Coryell 0593640292 Jessica 0 to-read 3.41 2024 Love Letters to a Serial Killer
author: Tasha Coryell
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/14
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]]> Sandwich 200028726 From the beloved author of We All Want Impossible Things, a moving, hilarious story of a family summer vacation full of secrets, lunch, and learning to let go.

For the past two decades, Rocky has looked forward to her family’s yearly escape to Cape Cod. Their humble beach-town rental has been the site of sweet memories, sunny days, great meals, and messes of all kinds: emotional, marital, and—thanks to the cottage’s ancient plumbing—septic too.

This year’s vacation, with Rocky sandwiched between her half-grown kids and fully aging parents, promises to be just as delightful as summers past—except, perhaps, for Rocky’s hormonal bouts of rage and melancholy. (Hello, menopause!) Her body is changing—her life is, too. And then a chain of events sends Rocky into the past, reliving both the tenderness and sorrow of a handful of long-ago summers.

It's one precious week: everything is in balance; everything is in flux. And when Rocky comes face to face with her family’s history and future, she is forced to accept that she can no longer hide her secrets from the people she loves.]]> 240 Catherine Newman 0063345161 Jessica 0 to-read 3.55 2024 Sandwich
author: Catherine Newman
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/06
shelves: to-read
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]]> I Who Have Never Known Men 11996 "As far back as I can recall, I have been in the bunker."

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

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

Then everything changes... and nothing changes.

A young woman who has never known men—a child who knows of no history before the bars and restraints—must now reinvent herself, piece by piece, in a place she has never been... and in the face of the most challenging and terrifying of unknowns: freedom.]]> 208 Jacqueline Harpman 0380731819 Jessica 0 to-read 4.22 1995 I Who Have Never Known Men
author: Jacqueline Harpman
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1995
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/05
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]]> When Hearts Are Light Again 7947107 Triangle
Ann Jerome stood on her terrace and stared. Coming toward her was Myles Langdon who had been away for a year. He was her childhood friend and the man she loved. But he was also her sister Sonia's fiance. That hardly surprised Ann-men were taken with her charm and wit but it was Sonia's beauty that really dazzled them. Yet Sonia was in love with someone else-but she wouldn't break her engagement to Myles. Ann didn't know if she could continue to keep the secret of her love. Or is Sonia would run off with the man she was involved with. And Myles-what would he do?

HOW CAN THE HEART FORGET

A wise and witty story of three high-spirited young people and their hidden loves.]]> 219 Emilie Loring 055312949X Jessica 0 to-read 3.95 1943 When Hearts Are Light Again
author: Emilie Loring
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1943
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/05
shelves: to-read
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]]> Listen for the Lie 127279000 What if you thought you murdered your best friend? And if everyone else thought so too? And what if the truth doesn't matter?

Lucy and Savvy were the golden girls of their small Texas town: pretty, smart, and enviable. Lucy married a dream guy with a big ring and an even bigger new home. Savvy was the social butterfly loved by all and, if you believe the rumors, especially popular with the men in town. But after Lucy is found wandering the streets, covered in her best friend Savvy’s blood, everyone thinks she is a murderer.

It’s been years since that horrible night, a night Lucy can’t remember anything about, and she has since moved to LA and started a new life. But now the phenomenally huge hit true crime podcast Listen for the Lie and its too-good looking host, Ben Owens, have decided to investigate Savvy’s murder for the show’s second season. Lucy is forced to return to the place she vowed never to set foot in again to solve her friend’s murder, even if she is the one who did it.

The truth is out there, if we just listen.]]> 352 Amy Tintera 1250880319 Jessica 0 to-read 4.07 2024 Listen for the Lie
author: Amy Tintera
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/03
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Nervous System Reset: Heal Trauma, Resolve Chronic Pain, and Regulate Your Emotions with the Power of the Vagus Nerve]]> 201888849
Most of us have heard of the mind-body connection, but did you know that there is aphysicalstructure that connects the mind and body? That connection is the Vagus nerve, and it’s singularly responsible for maintaining balance in our mental and physical health.

In The Nervous System Reset, Jessica Maguire shares the wisdom of her popular Nervous System School masterclasses and shows readers how to unlock the power of their Vagus nerve.

Drawing on the science of polyvagal theory and drawing on decades of her own study and coaching experience, Jessica teaches readers neural exercises, breathwork, and somatic practices to widen their window of tolerance in order to�
Smart, accessible, and revolutionary The Nervous System Reset is a practical, science-backed program to heal your nervous system for good.]]> 352 Jessica Maguire 1538757125 Jessica 0 abandoned Can I get a vagus nerve stimulator implant device up in here? DNF @25%]]> 3.61 The Nervous System Reset: Heal Trauma, Resolve Chronic Pain, and Regulate Your Emotions with the Power of the Vagus Nerve
author: Jessica Maguire
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.61
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/03
shelves: abandoned
review:
Just another Physiotherapist that believes meditation and daily exercise will trick your vagus nerve into thinking you don’t have chronic pain issues from e.g. a car accident or PTSD�
Can I get a vagus nerve stimulator implant device up in here? DNF @25%
]]> Butter 200776812 The cult Japanese bestseller about a female gourmet cook and serial killer and the journalist intent on cracking her case, inspired by a true story.

There are two things that I can simply not tolerate: feminists and margarine.

Gourmet cook Manako Kajii sits in Tokyo Detention Center convicted of the serial murders of lonely businessmen, who she is said to have seduced with her delicious home cooking. The case has captured the nation’s imagination but Kajii refuses to speak with the press, entertaining no visitors. That is, until journalist Rika Machida writes a letter asking for her recipe for beef stew and Kajii can’t resist writing back.

Rika, the only woman in her news office, works late each night, rarely cooking more than ramen. As the visits unfold between her and the steely Kajii, they are closer to a masterclass in food than journalistic research. Rika hopes this gastronomic exchange will help her soften Kajii but it seems that she might be the one changing. With each meal she eats, something is awakening in her body, might she and Kaji have more in common than she once thought?

Inspired by the real case of the convicted con woman and serial killer, "The Konkatsu Killer," Asako Yuzuki’s Butter is a vivid, unsettling exploration of misogyny, obsession, romance and the transgressive pleasures of food in Japan.]]> 464 Asako Yuzuki 0063236400 Jessica 0 abandoned 3.51 2017 Butter
author: Asako Yuzuki
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/02
shelves: abandoned
review:
The plot doesn’t match the contents at all. Don’t pick up if you want a murder/thriller/serial killer vibe. Slow burn about butter and misogyny. DNF @33%.
]]> <![CDATA[I Don't Need Therapy: and other lies I've told myself]]> 63630445 A hilarious memoir of home truths and whatever the opposite of 'that girl energy' is, from one half of the hit podcast Toni and Ryan.

Most of us tell little white lies all the time. Whether it's 'I'm five minutes away' or 'It must have gone to my spam folder', most of these fibs are harmless. But what if you realised that you weren't just lying about the little things, but the big 'life' stuff too?
When Toni Lodge sat down to write this memoir, she discovered that the lies she was telling herself were hiding some pretty important home truths—about her work, her identity and her mental health. Her dogged pursuit of these truths sent her on a brazen exploration of everything from gastro, fame and Twilight to funerals, the Dalai Lama and Brazilian waxes.
In this hilarious warm hug of a book, Toni exposes the lies she has told herself about who she is and what she is capable of, inviting you on a riotous romp that will make you laugh, cringe, cry and utterly rethink the truth behind the stories we tell ourselves.

'Hilarious, relatable and heartbreaking in equal measure. Toni's words will make you giggle and cry—on repeat.' Zara and Michelle from the Shameless podcast

'From fits of giggles to unexpected tears, this was like a besties road trip with Toni and a pure delight to read.' Sarah Davidson, host of the Seize the Yay podcast

'Nostalgic, tender, raw and laugh-out-loud funny. I loved it.' Chrissie Swan, television and radio presenter
'I absolutely love Toni. She is one of my heroes. So funny and relatable. I didn't read her book though, too busy.'Christian Hull, author of Leave Me Alone

'A nostalgic look back at our Australian childhoods, some questionable life advice and a hilarious explanation as to why Toni is the loveable hot mess she is today. Reading this book felt like hanging out with a best friend.'Ryan Jon, co-host of the Toni and Ryan podcast]]> 256 Toni Lodge 1761186221 Jessica 0 4.07 I Don't Need Therapy: and other lies I've told myself
author: Toni Lodge
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.07
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2024/08/28
date added: 2024/08/28
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]]> <![CDATA[The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing]]> 22318578 Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes tidying to a whole new level, promising that if you properly simplify and organize your home once, you'll never have to do it again. Most methods advocate a room-by-room or little-by-little approach, which doom you to pick away at your piles of stuff forever. The KonMari Method, with its revolutionary category-by-category system, leads to lasting results. In fact, none of Kondo's clients have lapsed (and she still has a three-month waiting list).

With detailed guidance for determining which items in your house "spark joy" (and which don't), this international best seller featuring Tokyo's newest lifestyle phenomenon will help you clear your clutter and enjoy the unique magic of a tidy home - and the calm, motivated mindset it can inspire.

]]> 213 Marie Kondō 1607747308 Jessica 0 to-read 3.88 2010 The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing
author: Marie Kondō
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/28
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Viscount Who Loved Me (Bridgertons, #2)]]> 861326 1814 promises to be another eventful season, but not, this author believes, for Anthony Bridgerton, London's most elusive bachelor, who has shown no indication that he plans to marry.
And in truth, why should he? When it comes to playing the consummate rake, nobody does it better...
—Lady Whistledown's Society Papers, April 1814

But this time, the gossip columnists have it wrong. Anthony Bridgerton hasn't just decided to marry—he's even chosen a wife! The only obstacle is his intended's older sister, Kate Sheffield—the most meddlesome woman ever to grace a London ballroom. The spirited schemer is driving Anthony mad with her determination to stop the betrothal, but when he closes his eyes at night, Kate is the woman haunting his increasingly erotic dreams...

Contrary to popular belief, Kate is quite sure that reformed rakes do not make the best husbands—and Anthony Bridgerton is the most wicked rogue of them all. Kate is determined to protect her sister—but she fears her own heart is vulnerable. And when Anthony's lips touch hers, she's suddenly afraid she might not be able to resist the reprehensible rake herself...]]> 480 Julia Quinn Jessica 0 3.98 2000 The Viscount Who Loved Me (Bridgertons, #2)
author: Julia Quinn
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at: 2024/08/21
date added: 2024/08/21
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]]> Blue Sisters 195430687 Three estranged siblings return to their family home in New York after their beloved sister's death in this unforgettable story of grief, identity, and the complexities of family.

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

But coming home is never as easy as it seems. As the sisters reckon with the disappointments of their childhood and the loss of the only person who held them together, they realize the greatest secrets they've been keeping might not have been from each other, but from themselves.]]> 342 Coco Mellors 0593723767 Jessica 0 to-read 3.94 2024 Blue Sisters
author: Coco Mellors
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/16
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]]> <![CDATA[The Body Keeps the Score: Mind, Brain and Body in the Transformation of Trauma]]> 26192866
Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat; one in five Americans has been molested; one in four grew up with alcoholics; one in three couples have engaged in physical violence. Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world’s foremost experts on trauma, has spent over three decades working with survivors. In The Body Keeps the Score, he uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers� capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust. He explores innovative treatments—from neurofeedback and meditation to sports, drama, and yoga—that offer new paths to recovery by activating the brain’s natural neuroplasticity. Based on Dr. van der Kolk’s own research and that of other leading specialists, The Body Keeps the Score exposes the tremendous power of our relationships both to hurt and to heal—and offers new hope for reclaiming lives.]]> 541 Bessel van der Kolk 0141978619 Jessica 5 4.41 2014 The Body Keeps the Score: Mind, Brain and Body in the Transformation of Trauma
author: Bessel van der Kolk
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/31
date added: 2024/07/05
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]]> <![CDATA[The Duke and I: The 2nd Epilogue (Bridgertons, #1.5)]]> 29283391 35 Julia Quinn Jessica 0 3.76 2006 The Duke and I: The 2nd Epilogue (Bridgertons, #1.5)
author: Julia Quinn
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at: 2024/07/03
date added: 2024/07/03
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]]> <![CDATA[The Duke and I (Bridgertons, #1)]]> 110391 Librarian note: See alternate cover editions here and here.

The Duke and I is a romance set in the Regency era.

In the ballrooms and drawing rooms of Regency London, rules abound. From their earliest days, children of aristocrats learn how to address an earl and curtsey before a prince—while other dictates of the ton are unspoken yet universally understood. A proper duke should be imperious and aloof. A young, marriageable lady should be amiable� but not too amiable.

Daphne Bridgerton has always failed at the latter. The fourth of eight siblings in her close-knit family, she has formed friendships with the most eligible young men in London. Everyone likes Daphne for her kindness and wit. But no one truly desires her. She is simply too deuced honest for that, too unwilling to play the romantic games that captivate gentlemen.

Amiability is not a characteristic shared by Simon Basset, Duke of Hastings. Recently returned to England from abroad, he intends to shun both marriage and society—just as his callous father shunned Simon throughout his painful childhood. Yet an encounter with his best friend’s sister offers another option. If Daphne agrees to a fake courtship, Simon can deter the mamas who parade their daughters before him. Daphne, meanwhile, will see her prospects and her reputation soar.

The plan works like a charm—at first. But amid the glittering, gossipy, cut-throat world of London’s elite, there is only one certainty: love ignores every rule...]]> 384 Julia Quinn 0380800829 Jessica 0 3.80 2000 The Duke and I (Bridgertons, #1)
author: Julia Quinn
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at: 2024/07/01
date added: 2024/07/01
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]]> The Mad Women's Ball 56969561 A literary historical novel detailing the horrors faced by institutionalized women in 19th century Paris—was a film with Amazon Studios

The Salpetriere Asylum: Paris, 1885. Dr. Charcot holds all of Paris in thrall with his displays of hypnotism on women who have been deemed mad and cast out from society. But the truth is much more complicated—these women are often simply inconvenient, unwanted wives, those who have lost something precious, wayward daughters, or girls born from adulterous relationships. For Parisian society, the highlight of the year is the Lenten ball—the Madwomen’s Ball—when the great and good come to gawk at the patients of the Salpetriere dressed up in their finery for one night only. For the women themselves, it is a rare moment of hope.

Genevieve is a senior nurse. After the childhood death of her sister Blandine, she shunned religion and placed her faith in both the celebrated psychiatrist Dr. Charcot and science. But everything begins to change when she meets Eugenie—the 19-year-old daughter of a bourgeois family that has locked her away in the asylum. Because Eugenie has a secret: she sees spirits. Inspired by the scandalous, banned work that all of Paris is talking about,The Book of Spirits,Eugenie is determined to escape from the asylum—and the bonds of her gender—and seek out those who will believe in her. And for that she will need Genevieve's help . . .]]> 224 Victoria Mas 1419757598 Jessica 0 3.70 2019 The Mad Women's Ball
author: Victoria Mas
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at: 2024/06/19
date added: 2024/06/19
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]]> Cat + Gamer, Vol. 1 58671043
Her coworkers can’t quite figure her out—she never talks about her personal life, she never works overtime, and she never joins them for happy hour. Is she antisocial? Nope, she’s rushing home to play video games! One day, a stray cat is found in the office parking lot, and before Riko knows it, the cat has moved in with her! Having no experience with pets, Riko uses lessons drawn from video games to guide her in cat care, while her cute companion tries to understand her behavior through a cat's worldview.]]> 200 Wataru Nadatani Jessica 0 to-read 4.16 2019 Cat + Gamer, Vol. 1
author: Wataru Nadatani
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/18
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Critical - Stories from the Front Line of Intensive Care Medicine]]> 139181172 Matt Morgan Jessica 0 to-read 4.28 Critical - Stories from the Front Line of Intensive Care Medicine
author: Matt Morgan
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.28
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rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/13
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]]> <![CDATA[Girl, Alone (Ella Dark FBI Suspense Thriller #1)]]> 57820725
But when a killer strikes in the swamps of Louisiana, Ella soon comes to learn that the real thing is nothing she could expect. Face to face with a real murder, a real killer, and a real ticking clock, Ella realizes she can’t rely on her knowledge. She must learn to trust her instinct, and allow herself to enter the dark canals of a real killer’s mind. If she gets it wrong, her career is at stake.

And so is the next victim’s life.

Will Ella’s talent be an asset? Or the source of her downfall?]]> 9 Blake Pierce Jessica 4 3.55 2020 Girl, Alone (Ella Dark FBI Suspense Thriller #1)
author: Blake Pierce
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2023/05/01
date added: 2024/06/11
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]]> What Lies Between Us 53142315
Every other night, Maggie and Nina have dinner together. When they are finished, Nina helps Maggie back to her room in the attic, and into the heavy chain that keeps her there. Because Maggie has done things to Nina that can’t ever be forgiven, and now she is paying the price.

But there are many things about the past that Nina doesn’t know, and Maggie is going to keep it that way—even if it kills her.

Because in this house, the truth is more dangerous than lies.]]> 363 John Marrs 1542017025 Jessica 0 3.97 2020 What Lies Between Us
author: John Marrs
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2024/05/02
date added: 2024/05/02
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]]> The Light Between Oceans 13158800 Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

Australia, 1926. After four harrowing years fighting on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns home to take a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly half a day's journey from the coast. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season and shore leaves are granted every other year at best, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby's cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby.

Tom, whose records as a lighthouse keeper are meticulous and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately. But Isabel has taken the tiny baby to her breast. Against Tom's judgment, they claim her as their own and name her Lucy. When she is two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world. Their choice has devastated one of them.

M. L. Stedman's mesmerizing, beautifully written debut novel seduces us into accommodating Isabel's decision to keep this "gift from God." And we are swept into a story about extraordinarily compelling characters seeking to find their North Star in a world where there is no right answer, where justice for one person is another's tragic loss.]]> 362 M.L. Stedman 1451681739 Jessica 0 4.02 2012 The Light Between Oceans
author: M.L. Stedman
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at: 2024/04/25
date added: 2024/04/25
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]]> <![CDATA[American Gods (American Gods, #1)]]> 18161930 Alternate cover edition of American Gods

Days before his release from prison, Shadow's wife, Laura, dies in a mysterious car crash. Numbly, he makes his way back home. On the plane, he encounters the enigmatic Mr Wednesday, who claims to be a refugee from a distant war, a former god and the king of America.

Together they embark on a profoundly strange journey across the heart of the USA, whilst all around them a storm of preternatural and epic proportions threatens to break.

Scary, gripping and deeply unsettling, American Gods takes a long, hard look into the soul of America. You'll be surprised by what - and who - it finds there...

This is the author's preferred text, never before published in the UK, and is about 12,000 words longer than the previous UK edition.

]]> 722 Neil Gaiman Jessica 0 4.07 2001 American Gods (American Gods, #1)
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at: 2020/03/17
date added: 2024/04/25
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]]> The Doctor of Hiroshima 141340540 With what this poor woman had been through the sight of her crying tore at my heartstrings. What if something should happen to her; who would care for her little baby? To conceal the fear and terror in my heart I left her, trying to put up a cheerful front. But no one could conceal from her the ominous import of the dark spots that had appeared on her chest. The Doctor of Hiroshima is the extraordinary true story of Dr Michihiko Hachiya, whose hospital was less than a mile from the centre of the atomic bomb that hit on that warm August day. In immense shock and pain, he and his wife Yaeko dragged themselves to the devastated hospital building and what colleagues they could find. In time, they begin to heal, and start to treat the impossible numbers of patients - a small girl covered in burns, an elderly man with pneumonia, a young boy and his little sister looking for their parents. They also began to investigate the strange unexplainable symptoms afflicting his patients - things he never dreamed he would see... Told simply and poignantly in Dr Hachiya's own words, The Doctor of Hiroshima is a unique and deeply moving human story of survival about a small, committed band of hospital staff in the face of unthinkable destruction and loss.]]> 271 Michihiko Hachiya 1800961529 Jessica 0 3.99 1955 The Doctor of Hiroshima
author: Michihiko Hachiya
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1955
rating: 0
read at: 2024/04/17
date added: 2024/04/19
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]]> Paris: The Memoir 61812425 Behind Paris Hilton's meteoric rise from Upper West Side club kid to household name lies her self-proclaimed "superpower" of ADHD and a hidden history that traumatized and defined her. Shocking, funny, and surprisingly profound, Paris is the deeply personal memoir of the ultimate It Girl and a stunning inside view of a pop culture phenomenon.

Until, in a revealing documentary, Paris Hilton disclosed that her childhood was shattered by two years of strip searches, isolation, beatings, restraint, and brainwashing within the now infamous "troubled teen industry," Paris Hilton was simply the billionaire heiress America had watched grow up on television, on the internet, and in tabloids. But there was always more to Paris Hilton than met the eye. Yes, she is the media personality, DJ, entrepreneur, model, singer, actress, and icon beloved all over the globe. And yet...

Paris is the story people have always wanted Paris Hilton to tell--the story of who she really is. In this revealing and thought-provoking book, Hilton will separate the creation from the creator, the brand from the ambassador, and show the woman who grew up with incredible privilege but was also trapped in a world of unreasonable expectation at a moment when young women were humiliated for sport in a gossip economy on steroids. Paris recounts her perilous journey through pre-#METOO sexual politics with grace, generosity, and plenty of fun, rising above a series of heart-wrenching challenges to find healing, lasting love, and a life of meaning and purpose.

The parallel story arcs in Hilton's braided narrative come to full bloom as a watershed portrait of the Aughts, challenging each of us to question our role in her story and her role in ours. The result is an intimate and unexpected memoir about persona and personification, the price of being young and disobedient, and the complexity of manifesting your dreams after watching part of yourself disappear.]]> 336 Paris Hilton 0063224623 Jessica 0 4.21 2023 Paris: The Memoir
author: Paris Hilton
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/04/09
date added: 2024/04/09
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]]> Without Merit 33280872 Not every mistake deserves a consequence. Sometimes the only thing it deserves is forgiveness.

The Voss family is anything but normal. They live in a repurposed church, newly baptized Dollar Voss. The once cancer-stricken mother lives in the basement, the father is married to the mother’s former nurse, the little half-brother isn’t allowed to do or eat anything fun, and the eldest siblings are irritatingly perfect. Then, there’s Merit.

Merit Voss collects trophies she hasn’t earned and secrets her family forces her to keep. While browsing the local antiques shop for her next trophy, she finds Sagan. His wit and unapologetic idealism disarm and spark renewed life into her—until she discovers that he’s completely unavailable. Merit retreats deeper into herself, watching her family from the sidelines when she learns a secret that no trophy in the world can fix.

Fed up with the lies, Merit decides to shatter the happy family illusion that she’s never been a part of before leaving them behind for good. When her escape plan fails, Merit is forced to deal with the staggering consequences of telling the truth and losing the one boy she loves.]]> 386 Colleen Hoover Jessica 0 3.66 2017 Without Merit
author: Colleen Hoover
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at: 2024/04/07
date added: 2024/04/07
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]]> <![CDATA[The Women (International Edition)]]> 203382824 From the celebrated author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds comes Kristin Hannah's The Women—at once an intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided.

Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie� McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.

As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over-whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets—and becomes one of—the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost.

But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam.

The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm’s way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.]]> 472 Kristin Hannah 1035005689 Jessica 5 4.43 2024 The Women (International Edition)
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/30
date added: 2024/03/30
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]]> The Teacher 195967140 A mind-bending, psychological thriller from Freida McFadden, the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Housemaid!

Lesson #1: trust no one

Eve has a good life. She gets up each day, gets a kiss from her husband Nate, and heads off to teach math at the local high school. All is as it should be. Except�

Last year, Caseham High was rocked by a scandal involving a student-teacher affair, with one student, Addie, at its center. But Eve knows there is far more to these ugly rumors than meets the eye.

Addie can't be trusted. She lies. She hurts people. She destroys lives. At least, that's what everyone says.

But nobody knows the real Addie. Nobody knows the secrets that could destroy her. And Addie will do anything to keep it quiet.

From the New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden comes a story of twisting secrets and long-awaited revenge.]]> 379 Freida McFadden 1728296218 Jessica 0 3.82 2024 The Teacher
author: Freida McFadden
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/03/12
date added: 2024/03/12
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]]> The Help 7856358
Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.]]> 444 Kathryn Stockett 0141039280 Jessica 0 4.39 2009 The Help
author: Kathryn Stockett
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at: 2024/02/22
date added: 2024/02/22
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]]> She and Her Cat 201149811 154 Makoto Shinkai Jessica 4 3.76 2013 She and Her Cat
author: Makoto Shinkai
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/27
date added: 2024/02/20
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]]> <![CDATA[Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children, #1)]]> 9460487 9781594744761

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs. It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow-impossible though it seems-they may still be alive. A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.]]> 352 Ransom Riggs 1594744769 Jessica 0 3.92 2011 Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children, #1)
author: Ransom Riggs
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at: 2024/02/20
date added: 2024/02/20
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]]> <![CDATA[Rosemary's Baby (Rosemary's Baby, #1)]]> 11282000
As the sickened Rosemary becomes increasingly isolated, she begins to suspect that the Castavet's circle is not what it seems.]]> 229 Ira Levin 1849015880 Jessica 0 to-read 4.10 1967 Rosemary's Baby (Rosemary's Baby, #1)
author: Ira Levin
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1967
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/15
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Memory Police 37004370
When a young woman who is struggling to maintain her career as a novelist discovers that her editor is in danger from the Memory Police, she concocts a plan to hide him beneath her floorboards. As fear and loss close in around them, they cling to her writing as the last way of preserving the past.

A surreal, provocative fable about the power of memory and the trauma of loss, The Memory Police is a stunning new work from one of the most exciting contemporary authors writing in any language.]]> 274 Yōko Ogawa 1101870605 Jessica 0 3.72 1994 The Memory Police
author: Yōko Ogawa
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1994
rating: 0
read at: 2024/02/14
date added: 2024/02/14
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]]> <![CDATA[Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere]]> 112093865 From “weird, scary, ingenious� (The New York Times) stand-up comedian Maria Bamford, a brutally honest and hilariously frenetic memoir about show business, mental health, and the comfort of rigid belief systems—from Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, to Suzuki violin training, to Richard Simmons, to 12-step programs.

Maria Bamford is a comedian’s comedian (an outsider among outsiders) and has forever fought to find a place to belong. From struggling with an eating disorder as a child of the 1980s, to navigating a career in the arts (and medical debt and psychiatric institutionalization), she has tried just about every method possible to not only be a part of the world, but to want to be a part of it.

In Bamford’s signature voice, Sure, I’ll Join Your Cult, brings us on a quest to participate in something. With sincerity and transparency, she recounts every anonymous fellowship she has joined (including but not limited Debtors Anonymous, Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous, and Overeaters Anonymous), every hypomanic episode (from worrying about selling out under capitalism to enforcing union rules on her Netflix TV show set to protect her health), and every easy 1-to-3-step recipe for fudge in between.

Singular and inimitable, Bamford’s memoir explores what it means to keep going, and to be a member of society (or any group she’s invited to) despite not being very good at it. In turn, she hopes to transform isolating experiences into comedy that will make you feel less alone (without turning into a cult following).]]> 276 Maria Bamford 1982168560 Jessica 0 abandoned 3.71 2023 Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere
author: Maria Bamford
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/03
shelves: abandoned
review:

]]> The Clinic 123416743 From the critically acclaimed author of Black Widows comes a thriller set in a remote rehab clinic on the Pacific Northwest coast, in which the death of a woman inside prompts her sister to enter the clinic as a patient in order to find the truth. Perfect for fans of Stacy Willingham and Tarryn Fisher!

Meg works for a casino in LA, catching cheaters and popping a few too many pain pills to cope, following a far different path than her sister Haley, a famous actress. But suddenly reports surface of Haley dying at the remote rehab facility where she had been forced to go to get her addictions under control.

There are whispers of suicide, but Meg can't believe it. She decides that the best way to find out what happened to her sister is to check in herself � to investigate what really happened from the inside.

Battling her own addictions and figuring out the truth will be much more difficult than she imagined, far away from friends, family � and anyone who could help her.]]> 444 Cate Quinn Jessica 0 to-read 3.62 2024 The Clinic
author: Cate Quinn
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Women at War: The Story of Fifty Military Nurses Who Served in Vietnam (Studies in Health, Illness, and Caregiving)]]> 1010896 238 Elizabeth M. Norman 0812213173 Jessica 0 to-read 4.17 1990 Women at War: The Story of Fifty Military Nurses Who Served in Vietnam (Studies in Health, Illness, and Caregiving)
author: Elizabeth M. Norman
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1990
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Frankenstein 39810297
Junji Ito meets Mary Shelley! The master of horror manga bends all his skill into bringing the anguished and solitary monster—and the fouler beast who created him—to life with the brilliantly detailed chiaroscuro he is known for.

Also included are six tales of Oshikiri—a high school student who lives in a decaying mansion connected to a haunted parallel world. Uncanny doppelgangers, unfortunately murdered friends, and a whole lot more are in store for him.

Bonus: The Ito family dog! Thrill to the adventures of Non-non Ito, an adorable Maltese!]]> 408 Junji Ito 1974703762 Jessica 3 4.02 1999 Frankenstein
author: Junji Ito
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1999
rating: 3
read at: 2022/05/29
date added: 2024/01/20
shelves:
review:

]]> Masters of Death 63326363 From Olivie Blake, the New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six comes Masters of Death, a story about vampires, ghosts, and death itself!

Viola Marek is a struggling real estate agent, and a vampire. But her biggest problem currently is that the house she needs to sell is haunted. The ghost haunting the house has been murdered, and until he can solve the mystery of how he died, he refuses to move on.

Fox D’Mora is a medium, and though is also most-definitely a shameless fraud, he isn’t entirely without his uses—seeing as he’s actually the godson of Death.

When Viola seeks out Fox to help her with her ghost-infested mansion, he becomes inextricably involved in a quest that neither he nor Vi expects (or wants). But with the help of an unruly poltergeist, a demonic personal trainer, a sharp-voiced angel, a love-stricken reaper, and a few high-functioning creatures, Vi and Fox soon discover the difference between a mysterious lost love and an annoying dead body isn’t nearly as distinct as they thought.]]> 416 Olivie Blake 1035011530 Jessica 0 3.67 2018 Masters of Death
author: Olivie Blake
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at: 2024/01/17
date added: 2024/01/17
shelves:
review:

]]> Love, Theoretically 61326735
Honestly, it’s a pretty sweet gig—until her carefully constructed Elsie-verse comes crashing down. Because Jack Smith, the annoyingly attractive and broody older brother of her favorite client, turns out to be the cold-hearted experimental physicist who ruined her mentor’s career and undermined the reputation of theorists everywhere. And that same Jack who now sits on the hiring committee at MIT, right between Elsie and her dream job.

Elsie is prepared for an all-out war of scholarly sabotage but…those long, penetrating looks? Not having to be anything other than her true self when she’s with him? Will falling into an experimentalist’s orbit finally tempt her to put her most guarded theories on love into practice?]]> 389 Ali Hazelwood 1408725797 Jessica 0 4.07 2023 Love, Theoretically
author: Ali Hazelwood
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/01/09
date added: 2024/01/09
shelves:
review:

]]> The Goodbye Cat 157487250
Against the backdrop of changing seasons in Japan, we meet Spin, a kitten rescued from the recycling bin, whose playful nature and simple needs teach an anxious father how to parent his own human baby; a colony of wild cats on a popular holiday island show a young boy not to stand in nature’s way; a family is perplexed by their cat’s undying devotion to their charismatic but uncaring father; a woman curses how her cat will not stop visiting her at night; and an elderly cat hatches a plan to pass into the next world as a spirit so that he and his owner may be in each other’s lives forever.

Bursting with love and warmth, The Goodbye Cat exquisitely explores the cycle of life, from birth to death—as each of the seven stories explores how, in different ways, the steadiness and devotion of a well-loved cat never lets us down. A huge bestseller in Japan, this magical book is a joyous celebration of the wondrousness of cats and why we choose to share our lives with them.]]> 285 Hiro Arikawa 0593815718 Jessica 0 to-read 3.91 2021 The Goodbye Cat
author: Hiro Arikawa
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Days at the Morisaki Bookshop (Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, #1)]]> 62047992 The moving international sensation about new beginnings, human connection, and the joy of reading.

Hidden in Jimbocho, Tokyo, is a booklover's paradise. On a quiet corner in an old wooden building lies a shop filled with hundreds of second-hand books.

Twenty-five-year-old Takako has never liked reading, although the Morisaki bookshop has been in her family for three generations. It is the pride and joy of her uncle Satoru, who has devoted his life to the bookshop since his wife Momoko left him five years earlier.

When Takako's boyfriend reveals he's marrying someone else, she reluctantly accepts her eccentric uncle's offer to live rent-free in the tiny room above the shop. Hoping to nurse her broken heart in peace, Takako is surprised to encounter new worlds within the stacks of books lining the Morisaki bookshop.

As summer fades to autumn, Satoru and Takako discover they have more in common than they first thought. The Morisaki bookshop has something to teach them both about life, love, and the healing power of books.]]> 150 Satoshi Yagisawa 0063278677 Jessica 0 to-read 3.67 2010 Days at the Morisaki Bookshop (Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, #1)
author: Satoshi Yagisawa
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Somewhere Beyond the Sea (Cerulean Chronicles, #2)]]> 199347538 Somewhere Beyond the Sea is the hugely anticipated sequel to TJ Klune’s The House in the Cerulean Sea, one of the best-loved and best-selling fantasy novels of the past decade. Featuring gorgeous orange sprayed edges!

A magical house. A secret past. A summons that could change everything.

Arthur Parnassus lives a good life built on the ashes of a bad one.

He’s the master of a strange orphanage on a distant and peculiar island, and he hopes to soon be the adoptive father to the six dangerous and magical children who live there.

Arthur works hard and loves with his whole heart so none of the children ever feel the neglect and pain that he once felt as an orphan on that very same island so long ago. He is not alone: joining him is the love of his life, Linus Baker, a former caseworker in the Department In Charge of Magical Youth. And there’s the island’s sprite, Zoe Chapelwhite, and her girlfriend, Mayor Helen Webb. Together, they will do anything to protect the children.

But when Arthur is summoned to make a public statement about his dark past, he finds himself at the helm of a fight for the future that his family, and all magical people, deserve.

And when a new magical child hopes to join them on their island home—one who finds power in calling himself monster, a name that Arthur worked so hard to protect his children from—Arthur knows they’re at a breaking point: their family will either grow stronger than ever or fall apart.

Welcome back to Marsyas Island. This is Arthur’s story.

Somewhere Beyond the Sea is a story of resistance, lovingly told, about the daunting experience of fighting for the life you want to live and doing the work to keep it.]]> 416 T.J. Klune 125088120X Jessica 0 to-read 4.17 2024 Somewhere Beyond the Sea (Cerulean Chronicles, #2)
author: T.J. Klune
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels]]> 176442891
Now, true crime author Amanda Bailey is looking to revive her career by writing a book on the case. The Alperton baby has turned eighteen; finding them will be the scoop of the year. But rival author Oliver Menzies is just as smart, better connected, and also on the baby’s trail.

As Amanda and Oliver are forced to collaborate, they realize that the truth about the Angels is much darker and stranger than they’d ever imagined, and in pursuit of the story they risk becoming part of it.]]> 432 Janice Hallett 1668023393 Jessica 0 to-read 3.82 2023 The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels
author: Janice Hallett
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Darling Girls 174064975 It's not just secrets buried at Wild Meadows.

For as long as they can remember, Jessica, Norah and Alicia have been told how lucky they are. Rescued from family tragedies and raised by a loving foster mother on an idyllic farming estate, they were given an elusive second chance of a happy family life.

But their childhood wasn't the fairy tale everyone thinks it was. And when a body is discovered under the home they grew up in, the foster sisters find themselves thrust into the spotlight as key witnesses. Or are they prime suspects?

A thrilling page-turner by New York Times bestselling author Sally Hepworth of sisterhood, secrets, love and murder.]]> 352 Sally Hepworth 176126852X Jessica 3 4.28 2024 Darling Girls
author: Sally Hepworth
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/20
date added: 2023/12/26
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[My Roommate Is a Vampire (My Vampires, #1)]]> 60041932 True love is at stake in this charming, debut romantic comedy.

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

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

Cassie’s sexy new roommate is a vampire. And he has a proposition for her.]]> 341 Jenna Levine 0593548914 Jessica 4 3.46 2023 My Roommate Is a Vampire (My Vampires, #1)
author: Jenna Levine
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/26
date added: 2023/12/26
shelves:
review:
Picking up the right book at the right time makes all the difference
]]> A Cat Café Christmas 60021448 A laugh-out-loud, opposites attract romance about three of the world’s most beloved C’s: Christmas, Coffee, and Cats.

Veterinarian and animal lover Kara Ingalls needs a Christmas miracle. Opening the Meow and Furrever Cat Café to find loving homes for adorable, adoptable cats was a dream come true—but with more cats than customers, it’s quickly turning into a nightmare. If Kara can’t figure out some way to get the café out of the red, it won’t last past the holidays.

Marketing guru Ben Reese may be annoyingly smart and frustratingly bossy, but when he hatches a plan to put the café in the “green� by Christmas, Kara realizes that she’d be a fool to turn down his help. And so what if he turns out to be an excellent problem solver and nerdy-hot—he can’t even handle fostering one little kitten. She needs to keep their relationship professional and focus on saving the cafe.

But if Ben and Kara can set aside their differences—and find homes for all the cats by Christmas—they might discover that, by risking their hearts, they’ll have their own purr-fect holiday . . . together.]]> 375 Codi Gary 1538708159 Jessica 0 to-read 3.74 2022 A Cat Café Christmas
author: Codi Gary
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Younger Wife 61199886 The New York Times bestselling author of The Mother-in-Law and The Good Sister

No one saw her coming


The moment she laid eyes on Heather Wisher, Tully knew this woman was going to destroy their lives.

Tully and Rachel are murderous when they discover their father has a new girlfriend. The fact that Heather is half his age isn't even the most shocking part. Stephen is still married to their mother, who is stricken with Alzheimer's Disease.

Heather knows she has an uphill battle to win Tully and Rachel over - particularly while carrying the shameful secrets of her past. But, as it turns out, they are all hiding something.

A garage full of stolen goods. An old hot-water bottle, stuffed with cash. A blood-soaked wedding. And that's only the beginning...


Praise for The Younger Wife

'Smart, suspenseful, brimming with secrets' - Kate Morton

'Sally Hepworth delivers with this stay-up-late one-more-chapter gem' - Jane Harper

'At once familiar, wonderfully unpredictable and riveting' - Rosalie Ham

'Totally absorbing, brilliantly written and thoroughly enjoyable' - Herald Sun

'The queen of suburban noir' - Sunday Telegraph]]> 319 Sally Hepworth 1760987220 Jessica 4 3.83 2021 The Younger Wife
author: Sally Hepworth
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/12
date added: 2023/12/17
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]]> I’m Sorry You Feel That Way 59203767 Став взрослыми, Элис и Ханна продолжают свой путь по дороге разочарований, их жизнь так не похожа на то, что они представляли в детстве. Им так хочется нащупать наконец совсем иной путь � не тот, где сплошь чертополох и колючки, колдобины и препятствия, а тот, где любовь, радость и смех. Но тропа жизни все петляет и петляет]]> 400 Rebecca Wait 152942044X Jessica 0 to-read 3.99 2022 I’m Sorry You Feel That Way
author: Rebecca Wait
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/16
shelves: to-read
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]]> Green Dot 127282597
At twenty-four, Hera is a clump of unmet potential. To her, the future is nothing but an exhausting thought exercise, one depressing hypothetical after another. She’s sharp in more ways than one, adrift in her own smug malaise, until her new job moderating the comments section of an online news outlet—a role even more mind-numbing than it sounds—introduces her to Arthur, a middle-aged journalist. Though she's preferred women to men for years now, she soon finds herself falling into an all-consuming affair with him. She is coming apart with want and loving every second of it! Well, except for the tiny hiccup that Arthur has a wife—and that she has no idea Hera exists.

With its daringly specific and intimate voice, Green Dot is a darkly hilarious and deeply felt examination of the joys and indignities of coming into adulthood against the pitfalls of the twenty-first century and the winding, tortuous, and often very funny journey we take in deciding who we are and who we want to be.]]> 320 Madeleine Gray 1250890594 Jessica 0 to-read 3.62 2024 Green Dot
author: Madeleine Gray
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> None of This Is True 62875937
Big coincidence: they are birthday twins; not only this � they were born in the same hospital.

Alix is a journalist and podcaster. Could this be her next subject, she wonders: the story of two women who share the same birthday but whose lives could not be more different. She proposes this to Josie, and they start sharing their stories in Alix's recording studio.

But slowly Alix starts to realise that Josie has been hiding some very dark secrets, and before she knows it Josie has inveigled her way into Alix's life � and into her home.

Soon Alix starts to worry that Josie will never leave.

But, as quickly as she arrived, Josie disappears. Only then does Alix discover that Josie has left a terrible and terrifying legacy in her wake, and that her family is in more danger than she ever thought possible ...]]> 391 Lisa Jewell 1529195985 Jessica 4 4.09 2023 None of This Is True
author: Lisa Jewell
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/17
date added: 2023/12/16
shelves:
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]]> The Woman in Me 63133205 The Woman in Me is a brave and astonishingly moving story about freedom, fame, motherhood, survival, faith, and hope.

In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court. The impact of sharing her voice—her truth—was undeniable, and it changed the course of her life and the lives of countless others. The Woman in Me reveals for the first time her incredible journey—and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history.

Written with remarkable candor and humor, Spears’s groundbreaking book illuminates the enduring power of music and love—and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms, at last.]]> 288 Britney Spears 1668009048 Jessica 3 3.83 2023 The Woman in Me
author: Britney Spears
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/08
date added: 2023/12/16
shelves:
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]]> Oh, Sister 61398410 Meet Isobel, Jen and Zelda.
Three women whose bodies and minds are not their own.

They belong to the Church.
Life and death decisions are taken by others on their behalf.
Who they might marry.
Whether they start a family.

Isobel and Jen know nothing of the world.
But when Isobel's husband leaves her and Jen challenges those in charge, the Church turns its back on them.

Zelda - never one for doing what is expected - dares to find hope on the outside.

Meet Isobel, Jen and Zelda.
Three women desperate to find a life to call their own . . .

This is a novel about what it is like to live inside a prison of the mind and how to break out of it - if you can.
____________

Praise for Jodie Chapman:

'Beautifully written...I couldn't put it down' EMMA GANNON
'An astounding debut about sibling grief, religion and sliding doors love' PANDORA SYKES
'Deep, rich, thoughtful' GILLIAN MCALLISTER
'This beautiful tale of love, loss and sacrifice will break your heart . . . With echoes of David Nicholls' One Day and Sally Rooney's novels, it perfectly captures the agony of falling in love and the razor-sharp reality of pain and loss' DAILY MAIL]]> 352 Jodie Chapman 0241456959 Jessica 3 4.13 2023 Oh, Sister
author: Jodie Chapman
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/14
date added: 2023/12/16
shelves:
review:

]]> Nightcrawling 59954607
Kiara Johnson and her brother Marcus are barely scraping by in a squalid East Oakland apartment complex optimistically called the Royal-Hi. Both have dropped out of high school, their family fractured by death and prison. But while Marcus clings to his dream of rap stardom, Kiara hunts for work to pay their rent—which has more than doubled—and to keep the 9-year-old boy next door, abandoned by his mother, safe and fed.

One night, what begins as a drunken misunderstanding with a stranger turns into the job Kiara never imagined wanting but now desperately needs: nightcrawling. And her world breaks open even further when her name surfaces in an investigation that exposes her as a key witness in a massive scandal within the Oakland police department.

Full of edge, raw beauty, electrifying intensity, and piercing vulnerability, Nightcrawling marks the stunning arrival of a voice unlike any we have heard before.]]> 288 Leila Mottley 1526634554 Jessica 4 3.88 2022 Nightcrawling
author: Leila Mottley
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/16
date added: 2023/12/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, #1)]]> 125168721 Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders...

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile� humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die]]> 498 Rebecca Yarros 0349437009 Jessica 0 4.55 2023 Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, #1)
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2023/12/14
date added: 2023/12/14
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]]> <![CDATA[Divine Might: Goddesses in Greek Myth]]> 187016352 259 Natalie Haynes 0063377098 Jessica 0 to-read 3.94 2023 Divine Might: Goddesses in Greek Myth
author: Natalie Haynes
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Fury 123206645 A masterfully paced thriller about a reclusive ex–movie star and her famous friends whose spontaneous trip to a private Greek island is upended by a murder � from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Silent Patient.

This is a tale of murder.

Or maybe that’s not quite true. At its heart, it’s a love story, isn’t it?

Lana Farrar is a reclusive ex–movie star and one of the most famous women in the world. Every year, she invites her closest friends to escape the English weather and spend Easter on her idyllic private Greek island.

I tell you this because you may think you know this story. You probably read about it at the time � it caused a real stir in the tabloids, if you remember. It had all the necessary ingredients for a press a celebrity; a private island cut off by the wind…and a murder.

We found ourselves trapped there overnight. Our old friendships concealed hatred and a desire for revenge. What followed was a game of cat and mouse � a battle of wits, full of twists and turns, building to an unforgettable climax. The night ended in violence and death, as one of us was found murdered.

But who am I?

My name is Elliot Chase, and I’m going to tell you a story unlike any you’ve ever heard.]]> 298 Alex Michaelides 125075898X Jessica 0 to-read 3.34 2024 The Fury
author: Alex Michaelides
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.34
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/08
shelves: to-read
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]]> Tokyo Ueno Station 43398196
Akutagawa-award-winning author Yū Miri uses her outsider’s perspective as a Zainichi (Korean-Japanese) writer to craft a novel of utmost importance to this moment, a powerful rebuke to the Imperial system and a sensitive, deeply felt depiction of the lives of Japan’s most vulnerable people.]]> 168 Yū Miri 1911284169 Jessica 0 to-read 3.46 2014 Tokyo Ueno Station
author: Yū Miri
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[I'm a Therapist, and My Patient is Going to be the Next School Shooter: 6 Patient Files That Will Keep You Up At Night (Dr. Harper Therapy, #1)]]> 43799186 120 Dr. Harper Jessica 0 3.54 2019 I'm a Therapist, and My Patient is Going to be the Next School Shooter: 6 Patient Files That Will Keep You Up At Night (Dr. Harper Therapy, #1)
author: Dr. Harper
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at: 2023/11/06
date added: 2023/11/06
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]> 57902127
Together this dynamic pair begin a journey through space aided by quotes from The Hitchhiker's Guide ("A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have") and a galaxy-full of fellow travelers: Zaphod Beeblebrox--the two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie and totally out-to-lunch president of the galaxy; Trillian, Zaphod's girlfriend (formally Tricia McMillan), whom Arthur tried to pick up at a cocktail party once upon a time zone; Marvin, a paranoid, brilliant, and chronically depressed robot; Veet Voojagig, a former graduate student who is obsessed with the disappearance of all the ballpoint pens he bought over the years.

Where are these pens? Why are we born? Why do we die? Why do we spend so much time between wearing digital watches? For all the answers stick your thumb to the stars. And don't forget to bring a towel!]]> 320 Douglas Adams 1529046130 Jessica 0 4.06 1979 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
author: Douglas Adams
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1979
rating: 0
read at: 2023/11/06
date added: 2023/11/06
shelves:
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]]> The Final Girl Support Group 55939506
Lynnette Tarkington is a real-life final girl who survived a massacre. For more than a decade, she’s been meeting with five other final girls and their therapist in a support group for those who survived the unthinkable, working to put their lives back together. Then one woman misses a meeting, and their worst fears are realized—someone knows about the group and is determined to rip their lives apart again, piece by piece. But the thing about final girls is that no matter how bad the odds, how dark the night, how sharp the knife, they will never, ever give up.]]> 352 Grady Hendrix 0593201256 Jessica 0 to-read 3.64 2021 The Final Girl Support Group
author: Grady Hendrix
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>