Alison's bookshelf: all

Alison's bookshelf: all en-US Mon, 28 Apr 2025 09:04:37 -0700 60 Alison's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg The Poisonwood Bible 7244 The Poisonwood Bible is a story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it -- from garden seeds to Scripture -- is calamitously transformed on African soil. What follows is a suspenseful epic of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa.]]> 546 Barbara Kingsolver 0060786507 Alison 4 currently-reading 4.10 1998 The Poisonwood Bible

author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Alison
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/04/28
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption]]> 8664353
The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini. In boyhood, he'd been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails. As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile. But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.

Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.]]> 475 Laura Hillenbrand 1400064163 Alison 5 need to read it. Everyone does.

Louis Zamperini was an Italian-American Olympic runner whose plane goes down in World War 2, and he and two other men drift on a raft for a long, long time. I don't want to tell you anything else, because I want you to experience it. This books packs a double punch--the story itself is as amazing as Laura Hillenbrand's genius story-telling.

Books like this inspire us, they shift our perspectives, they enlighten us, and they scare the *bleep* out of us. Louis stretched the human experience to the very depth and breadth of its ability to survive and lived, scratch that, LIVES to tell about it.]]> 4.38 2010 Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption

author: Laura Hillenbrand
name: Alison
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2011/05/10
date added: 2025/04/25
shelves:
review:
If you are wondering if you should read "Unbroken", just read it. Even if you don't end up liking it, you just need to read it. Everyone does.

Louis Zamperini was an Italian-American Olympic runner whose plane goes down in World War 2, and he and two other men drift on a raft for a long, long time. I don't want to tell you anything else, because I want you to experience it. This books packs a double punch--the story itself is as amazing as Laura Hillenbrand's genius story-telling.

Books like this inspire us, they shift our perspectives, they enlighten us, and they scare the *bleep* out of us. Louis stretched the human experience to the very depth and breadth of its ability to survive and lived, scratch that, LIVES to tell about it.
]]> <![CDATA[The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Hercule Poirot, #4)]]> 16328
The peaceful English village of King’s Abbot is stunned. The widow Ferrars dies from an overdose of Veronal. Not twenty-four hours later, Roger Ackroyd—the man she had planned to marry—is murdered. It is a baffling case involving blackmail and death that taxes Hercule Poirot’s “little grey cells�� before he reaches one of the most startling conclusions of his career.

Librarian's note: the first fifteen novels in the Hercule Poirot series are 1) The Mysterious Affair at Styles, 1920; 2) The Murder on the Links, 1923; 3) The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, 1926; 4) The Big Four, 1927; 5) The Mystery of the Blue Train, 1928; 6) Peril at End House, 1932; 7) Lord Edgware Dies, 1933; 8) Murder on the Orient Express, 1934; 9) Three Act Tragedy, 1935; 10) Death in the Clouds, 1935; 11) The A.B.C. Murders, 1936; 12) Murder in Mesopotamia, 1936; 13) Cards on the Table, 1936; 14) Dumb Witness, 1937; and 15) Death on the Nile, 1937. These are just the novels; Poirot also appears in this period in a play, Black Coffee, 1930, and two collections of short stories, Poirot Investigates, 1924, and Murder in the Mews, 1937. Each novel, play and short story has its own entry on ŷ��.]]> 288 Agatha Christie 1579126278 Alison 5
This is said to be the favorite Agatha Christie to many, and by some, the greatest murder mystery of all time. It's all there: small cast of characters in a small village in England...gossip, engagements, murder, suicide, blackmail, poison, drugs, a Tunisian dagger, clues that could not possibly mean anything but somehow come to mean a whole lot, Hercule Poirot with his fist-slamming and his impossible proclamations that he has already solved the case to a room full of his suspects. There’s the English manor, the servants, the secrets, the missing man. This book manages to be the prototypical Agatha Christie novel without losing any of its intrigue, its momentum, its originality, or its surprising conclusions.

I really need to see this one on the big screen. And I really need to be allowed to cast it. Highly recommended reading. Such a fun nugget of a mystery--it's more like a game than a book.]]> 4.26 1926 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Hercule Poirot, #4)

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Hercule Poirot, #4)

author: Agatha Christie
name: Alison
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1926
rating: 5
read at: 2018/01/17
date added: 2025/04/25
shelves:
review:
I really delved into "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd". I had my notes. I had my timeline. I did my underlining. And this really helped me stay engaged, as every detail (even the thought to be throw-away details) is important here. I wish I could say it helped me with the solving of the crime, but I will admit that it did not. I am no match for Hercule Poirot here.

This is said to be the favorite Agatha Christie to many, and by some, the greatest murder mystery of all time. It's all there: small cast of characters in a small village in England...gossip, engagements, murder, suicide, blackmail, poison, drugs, a Tunisian dagger, clues that could not possibly mean anything but somehow come to mean a whole lot, Hercule Poirot with his fist-slamming and his impossible proclamations that he has already solved the case to a room full of his suspects. There’s the English manor, the servants, the secrets, the missing man. This book manages to be the prototypical Agatha Christie novel without losing any of its intrigue, its momentum, its originality, or its surprising conclusions.

I really need to see this one on the big screen. And I really need to be allowed to cast it. Highly recommended reading. Such a fun nugget of a mystery--it's more like a game than a book.
]]> <![CDATA[The Housemaid (The Housemaid, #1)]]> 60556912
Every day I clean the Winchesters�� beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor.

I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband.

I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon finds out�� and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late.

But I reassure myself: the Winchesters don’t know who I really am.

They don’t know what I’m capable of��

An unbelievably twisty read that will have you glued to the pages late into the night. Anyone who loves The Woman in the Window, The Wife Between Us and The Girl on the Train won’t be able to put this down!]]> 329 Freida McFadden 1803144378 Alison 4 4.31 2022 The Housemaid (The Housemaid, #1)

author: Freida McFadden
name: Alison
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/09
date added: 2025/04/25
shelves:
review:
Not high-brow literature, but highly engaging and riveting story. Don't come into this one seeking plausibility, just come for the fun and the quick "snack" of book satisfaction. Would read more in this series.
]]> <![CDATA[The Rushworth Family Plot (Mr. Darcy & Miss Tilney, #4)]]> 219301729 The fourth book in the Mr. Darcy & Miss Tilney Mystery series, which finds the amateur sleuths caught up in the whirlwind of the London Season—and in a murderous scheme involving the family of Edmund and Fanny Bertram

Jonathan Darcy and Juliet Tilney understand each other perfectly; it's a pity their families do not. A series of misunderstandings, misplaced pride, and—indeed—prejudice, has led their parents to deem the pair unsuited to wed. Now, with the Season approaching, Juliet's grandfather, General Tilney, has sent her to London with a new wardrobe and orders to prove herself worthy of someone better than the snobby Darcys. Meanwhile, Jonathan has been forced to accept an invitation to stay in town with old friends Edmund and Fanny Bertram at the house of Edmund's brother, Sir Thomas. Oblivious to and undesiring of female attention outside of Juliet's, Jonathan is at risk of being ensnared by Caroline Bingley's previously rebuffed plans to make herself—or her daughter—mistress of Pemberley.

But when Mr. Rushworth, the former husband of Edmund's sister Maria, is discovered dead in his home, Jonathan and Juliet find themselves with problems far weightier than the marriage market. In one of the greatest scandals of its day, Maria abandoned her new husband in favor of the notorious rake Henry Crawford, and when he wouldn't marry her, was forced to flee to the continent in disgrace. Now Maria is back, accompanied by a daughter she claims Mr. Rushworth fathered after their divorce—and who he wrote into his will just before his death. To spare Edmund and Fanny further social shame, Jonathan and Juliet must unmask a killer before the drama surrounding the Rushworth family fortune claims another victim.]]> 336 Claudia Gray 0593686608 Alison 0 to-read 4.71 The Rushworth Family Plot (Mr. Darcy & Miss Tilney, #4)

The Rushworth Family Plot (Mr. Darcy & Miss Tilney, #4)

author: Claudia Gray
name: Alison
average rating: 4.71
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/25
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[We Solve Murders (We Solve Murders, #1)]]> 228177199 A brand new series. An iconic new detective duo. And a puzzling new murder to solve...

Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar habits and routines: the pub quiz, his favorite bench, his cat waiting for him when he comes home. His days of adventure are over: adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s business now.

Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. As a private security officer, she doesn’t stay still long enough for habits or routines. She’s currently on a remote island keeping world-famous author Rosie D’Antonio alive. Which was meant to be an easy job...

Then a dead body, a bag of money, and a killer with their sights on Amy have her sending an SOS to the only person she trusts. A breakneck race around the world begins, but can Amy and Steve stay one step ahead of a lethal enemy?]]> 400 Richard Osman 0593653246 Alison 0 to-read 4.13 2024 We Solve Murders (We Solve Murders, #1)

author: Richard Osman
name: Alison
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Daisy Darker 59808050 The New York Times bestselling Queen of Twists returns…with a family reunion that leads to murder.

After years of avoiding each other, Daisy Darker’s entire family is assembling for Nana’s 80th birthday party in Nana’s crumbling gothic house on a tiny tidal island. Finally back together one last time, when the tide comes in, they will be cut off from the rest of the world for eight hours.

The family arrives, each of them harboring secrets. Then at the stroke of midnight, as a storm rages, Nana is found dead. And an hour later, the next family member follows��

Trapped on an island where someone is killing them one by one, the Darkers must reckon with their present mystery as well as their past secrets, before the tide comes in and all is revealed.

With a wicked wink to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, Daisy Darker’s unforgettable twists will leave readers reeling.]]> 352 Alice Feeney 1250843936 Alison 3 3.75 2022

author: Alice Feeney
name: Alison
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/20
date added: 2025/04/21
shelves:
review:
Great writing. Great plot. But oh boy that ending. I liked the book and I wanted it to work. But it did not entirely work for me. Never the less, a fun read, and I would try another one by this author.
]]> <![CDATA[Raymond Chandler's Trouble Is My Business]]> 217927679 The hard-boiled world of Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler’s iconic private eye, comes to vivid life in this brilliant graphic novel adaptation of the classic noir tale.

In 1940s Los Angeles, a sour-faced millionaire hires Philip Marlowe, a hard-boiled, harder-drinking detective, to scare off a suspected gold digger who has got her claws into his even wealthier stepson. Marlowe takes the case but quickly discovers that Harriett Huntress isn’t just after she’s playing a long, cold game of revenge…��

Marlowe forms an alliance with George, the client's chauffeur-cum-bodyguard-cum-fixer. George is a black, Dartmouth educated veteran with a sniper’s skills and his own agenda, and the two uneasy allies find themselves on the wrong end of a brace of hired killers and an enigmatic casino boss. . . It rapidly becomes clear that Marlowe, sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong, is just asking for trouble. But that’s the thing. Trouble is his business.]]> 128 Raymond Chandler 0553387596 Alison 0 to-read 3.17 Raymond Chandler's Trouble Is My Business

Raymond Chandler's Trouble Is My Business

author: Raymond Chandler
name: Alison
average rating: 3.17
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Britt-Marie Was Here 30753704
But hidden inside the socially awkward, fussy busybody is a woman who has more imagination, bigger dreams, and a warmer heart that anyone around her realizes.

When Britt-Marie walks out on her cheating husband and has to fend for herself in the miserable backwater town of Borg—of which the kindest thing one can say is that it has a road going through it—she finds work as the caretaker of a soon-to-be demolished recreation center. The fastidious Britt-Marie soon finds herself being drawn into the daily doings of her fellow citizens, an odd assortment of miscreants, drunkards, layabouts. Most alarming of all, she’s given the impossible task of leading the supremely untalented children’s soccer team to victory. In this small town of misfits, can Britt-Marie find a place where she truly belongs?

Funny and moving, sweet and inspiring, Britt-Marie Was Here celebrates the importance of community and connection in a world that can feel isolating.

The New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove and My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry “returns with this heartwarming story about a woman rediscovering herself after a personal crisis�� fans of Backman will find another winner in these pages.”]]> 324 Fredrik Backman 1501142542 Alison 0 to-read 4.12 2014 Britt-Marie Was Here

author: Fredrik Backman
name: Alison
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> East of Eden 4406
Adam Trask came to California from the East to farm and raise his family on the new rich land. But the birth of his twins, Cal and Aaron, brings his wife to the brink of madness, and Adam is left alone to raise his boys to manhood. One boy thrives nurtured by the love of all those around him; the other grows up in loneliness enveloped by a mysterious darkness.

First published in 1952, East of Eden is the work in which Steinbeck created his most mesmerizing characters and explored his most enduring themes: the mystery of identity, the inexplicability of love, and the murderous consequences of love's absence. A masterpiece of Steinbeck's later years, East of Eden is a powerful and vastly ambitious novel that is at once a family saga and a modern retelling of the Book of Genesis.]]> 601 John Steinbeck 0142000655 Alison 5 THE GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL 4.41 1952

author: John Steinbeck
name: Alison
average rating: 4.41
book published: 1952
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/04
date added: 2025/04/04
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review:
THE GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL
]]> Mere Christianity 218266471
A beautiful keepsake edition of the revered spiritual classic from one of the greatest writers and thinkers of the twentieth century whose insights continue to influence us today.

Our moral consciousness and moral judgements are proof to the human race that a moral being exists—God.

Mere Christianity makes available to both believers and nonbelievers C. S. Lewis’s powerful and rational argument for the Christian faith. Recognized as one of the most important Christian books of the twentieth century, Mere Christianity brings together Lewis�� legendary broadcast talks during World War II, in which he explored the core beliefs of Christianity—timeless topics that continue to engage us—right and wrong, human nature, morality, marriage, sin, forgiveness, faith, hope, generosity, and kindness.

Now in a deluxe edition featuring gilded pages, C. S. Lewis’s brilliant and enduring work remains fresh and vital for readers today.]]> 256 C.S. Lewis 006344397X Alison 0 to-read 4.54 1952 Mere Christianity

author: C.S. Lewis
name: Alison
average rating: 4.54
book published: 1952
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Beartown (Beartown, #1) 33413128
People say Beartown is finished. A tiny community nestled deep in the forest, it is slowly losing ground to the ever encroaching trees. But down by the lake stands an old ice rink, built generations ago by the working men who founded this town. And in that ice rink is the reason people in Beartown believe tomorrow will be better than today. Their junior ice hockey team is about to compete in the national semi-finals, and they actually have a shot at winning. All the hopes and dreams of this place now rest on the shoulders of a handful of teenage boys.

Being responsible for the hopes of an entire town is a heavy burden, and the semi-final match is the catalyst for a violent act that will leave a young girl traumatized and a town in turmoil. Accusations are made and, like ripples on a pond, they travel through all of Beartown, leaving no resident unaffected.

Beartown explores the hopes that bring a small community together, the secrets that tear it apart, and the courage it takes for an individual to go against the grain. In this story of a small forest town, Fredrik Backman has found the entire world.]]> 432 Fredrik Backman Alison 0 currently-reading 4.27 2016 Beartown (Beartown, #1)

author: Fredrik Backman
name: Alison
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Daughter of Time (Inspector Alan Grant, #5)]]> 77661 206 Josephine Tey Alison 4 3.89 1951

The Daughter of Time (Inspector Alan Grant, #5)

author: Josephine Tey
name: Alison
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1951
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/19
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves:
review:
Historical mystery novel that seeks to answer the question: Did Richard III murder the his two nephews--the two Princes in the Tower? Less of a mystery and more of a look at the biases of history (as affected by time, propaganda, and other factors), reading this short novel led to my reading of some history and backstory. It was a wild time to be alive (if you could survive the times).
]]> The God of the Woods 199698485 When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide

Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.]]> 490 Liz Moore Alison 3 4.15 2024 The God of the Woods

author: Liz Moore
name: Alison
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/19
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves:
review:
This book was nothing like I thought it would be. I was expecting a fun, creepy, psychological thriller. But it was more of a take on wealth, privilege, classism, unhappiness, and substance abuse. I listened on audible and it was a slooooow burn.
]]> <![CDATA[Wolf Hall (Thomas Cromwell, #1)]]> 6101138 This is an alternative cover edition for ISBN 9780007230181

England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe opposes him. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell: a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people, and implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph?]]> 653 Hilary Mantel Alison 3
While brilliantly researched and written and well-deserved of its acclaim, I found it a difficult read. I would often read passages and, after consulting a summary, realize that I had not fully processed neither the the plot nor the implications of the passage. So I wasn't having fun reading this, and I was a bit frustrated with it. The pacing did not suit me.

Maybe this genre is not for me. Regardless, I won't spend another 2 weeks pushing through this one. I'll move on to something more fun for me.]]> 3.90 2009 Wolf Hall (Thomas Cromwell, #1)

author: Hilary Mantel
name: Alison
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/10
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves:
review:
I labored through 1/3 of this historical novel before declaring it "DNF."

While brilliantly researched and written and well-deserved of its acclaim, I found it a difficult read. I would often read passages and, after consulting a summary, realize that I had not fully processed neither the the plot nor the implications of the passage. So I wasn't having fun reading this, and I was a bit frustrated with it. The pacing did not suit me.

Maybe this genre is not for me. Regardless, I won't spend another 2 weeks pushing through this one. I'll move on to something more fun for me.
]]> <![CDATA[Paul Auster's The New York Trilogy: City of Glass, Ghosts, The Locked Room]]> 216247487
In each story the search for clues leads to remarkable coincidences in the universe as the simple act of trailing a man ultimately becomes a startling investigation of what it means to be human. Auster's book is modern fiction at its finest: bold, arresting and unputdownable.]]> 400 Paul Auster 0553387642 Alison 0 to-read 4.17 1987 Paul Auster's The New York Trilogy: City of Glass, Ghosts, The Locked Room

Paul Auster's The New York Trilogy: City of Glass, Ghosts, The Locked Room

author: Paul Auster
name: Alison
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1987
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Covenant of Water 180357146 From the New York Times-bestselling author of Cutting for Stone comes a stunning and magisterial epic of love, faith, and medicine, set in Kerala, South India, following three generations of a family seeking the answers to a strange secret

Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala's Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time. From this unforgettable new beginning, the young girl—and future matriarch, Big Ammachi—will witness unthinkable changes over the span of her extraordinary life, full of joy and triumph as well as hardship and loss, her faith and love the only constants.

A shimmering evocation of a bygone India and of the passage of time itself, The Covenant of Water is a hymn to progress in medicine and to human understanding, and a humbling testament to the hardships undergone by past generations for the sake of those alive today. Imbued with humor, deep emotion, and the essence of life, it is one of the most masterful literary novels published in recent years.]]> 715 Abraham Verghese 0802162177 Alison 5
Abraham Verghese is an Indian physician, a professor of medicine at Stanford, and an author (and brilliant human) who is a man of Faith (Christian) as well as a man of Science. TCOW spans 3 generations of a Malayali family in Southwest India whose family is plagued by a "condition" that causes family members to drown, sometimes in shallow water.

Themes include classism and the caste system in India; politics and the British occupation of India; family; art; science and medicine; love and tragedy (lots of tragedy). The narrative is enriched by plot twists and the unexpected overlapping of characters in unexpected ways.

It was long, and it did take some discipline to push through to finish. But it was brilliantly written with a rewarding ending. To be a physician and a writer this talented is truly special.]]> 4.34 2023 The Covenant of Water

author: Abraham Verghese
name: Alison
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/28
date added: 2025/02/28
shelves:
review:
I hadn't chosen to read a book as long as TCOW in a long time (it's 715) pages, but I wanted to tackle this one because of its acclaim. Also after re-reading "When Breath Becomes Air" (by another Indian physician of Faith) with an introduction by Verghese, I was inspired/reminded to take this one off the list (and its weight off my side table). So I set aside the month of February and got to it.

Abraham Verghese is an Indian physician, a professor of medicine at Stanford, and an author (and brilliant human) who is a man of Faith (Christian) as well as a man of Science. TCOW spans 3 generations of a Malayali family in Southwest India whose family is plagued by a "condition" that causes family members to drown, sometimes in shallow water.

Themes include classism and the caste system in India; politics and the British occupation of India; family; art; science and medicine; love and tragedy (lots of tragedy). The narrative is enriched by plot twists and the unexpected overlapping of characters in unexpected ways.

It was long, and it did take some discipline to push through to finish. But it was brilliantly written with a rewarding ending. To be a physician and a writer this talented is truly special.
]]> The Wedding People 198902277 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781250899576.

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

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

In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined—and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.]]> 384 Alison Espach Alison 3 3.5 stars 4.11 2024 The Wedding People

author: Alison Espach
name: Alison
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/20
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars
]]> Flashlight 219743621 A novel tracing a father’s disappearance across time, nations, and memory, from the author of Trust Exercise.

One night, Louisa and her father take a walk on the beach. He’s carrying a flashlight. He cannot swim. Later Louisa is found washed up by the tide, barely alive. Her father is gone, presumed drowned. She is ten years old.

In chapters that shift from one member to the next, turning back again and again to that night by the sea, Susan Choi's Flashlight chases the shockwaves of one family’s catastrophe. Louisa is an only child of parents who have severed themselves from the past. Her father, Serk, an ethnic Korean born and raised in Japan, lost touch with his family when they bought into the promises of postwar Pyongyang and relocated to the DPRK. Her American mother, Anne, is estranged from her family after a reckless sexual adventure in her youth. And then there is Tobias, Anne’s illegitimate son, whose reappearance in their lives will have astonishing consequences.

What really happened to Louisa’s father? Why did he take Louisa and her mother to Japan just before he disappeared? And how can we love, or make sense of our lives, when there’s so much we can’t see?]]> 464 Susan Choi 037461637X Alison 0 to-read 4.39 2025 Flashlight

author: Susan Choi
name: Alison
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/15
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]]> Martyr! 139400713 A newly sober, orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, guided by the voices of artists, poets, and kings, embarks on a remarkable search for a family secret that leads him to a terminally ill painter living out her final days in the Brooklyn Museum. Electrifying, funny, and wholly original, Martyr! heralds the arrival of an essential new voice in contemporary fiction.

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

Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! is a paean to how we spend our lives seeking meaning—in faith, art, ourselves, others.]]> 331 Kaveh Akbar 0593537610 Alison 5 4.22 2024 Martyr!

author: Kaveh Akbar
name: Alison
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/02
date added: 2025/02/02
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]]> The Seagull 79649
When it first opened in St Petersburg in 1896, The Seagull survived only five performances after a disastrous first opening night. Two years later it was revived by Nemirovich-Danchenko at the newly-founded Moscow Art Theatre with Stanslasky as Trigorin and was an immediate success. Checkhov's description of the play was characteristically self-mocking: "A comedy - 3F, 6M, four acts, rural scenery (a view over a lake); much talk of literature, little action, five bushels of love".
Michael Frayn's translation was commissioned by the Oxford Playhouse Company.]]> 65 Anton Chekhov 0413771008 Alison 4 3.93 1895 The Seagull

author: Anton Chekhov
name: Alison
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1895
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/24
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Be Ready When the Luck Happens]]> 209192698 In her long-awaited memoir, Ina Garten—aka the Barefoot Contessa, author of thirteen bestselling cookbooks, beloved Food Network personality, Instagram sensation, and cultural icon—shares her personal story with readers hungry for a seat at her table.��

Here, for the first time, Ina Garten presents an intimate, entertaining, and inspiring account of her remarkable journey. Ina’s gift is to make everything look easy, yet all her accomplishments have been the result of hard work, audacious choices, and exquisite attention to detail. In her unmistakable voice (no one tells a story like Ina), she brings her past and her process to life in a high-spirited and no-holds-barred memoir that chronicles decades of personal challenges, adventures (and misadventures) and unexpected career twists, all delivered with her signature combination of playfulness and purpose.

From a difficult childhood to meeting the love of her life, Jeffrey, and marrying him while still in college, from a boring bureaucratic job in Washington, D.C., to answering an ad for a specialty food store in the Hamptons, from the owner of one Barefoot Contessa shop to author of bestselling cookbooks and celebrated television host, Ina has blazed her own trail and, in the meantime, taught millions of people how to cook and entertain. Now, she invites them to come closer to experience her story in vivid detail and to share the important life lessons she learned along the way: do what you love because if you love it you’ll be really good at it, swing for the fences, and always Be Ready When the Luck Happens.]]> 320 Ina Garten 0593799895 Alison 5 4.25 2024

author: Ina Garten
name: Alison
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/18
date added: 2025/01/18
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Perfection! Inspiring and impossible to put down.
]]> Death of a Salesman 12898 'For a salesman, there is no rock bottom to life. He don't put a bolt to a nut, he don't tell you the law or give you medicine. He's a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine.'

Willy Loman has been a salesman for 34 years. At 60, he is cast aside, his usefulness now exhausted. With no future to dream about he must face the crushing disappointments of his past. He takes one final brave action, but is he heroic at last?, or a self-deluding fool?]]> 144 Arthur Miller 0435233076 Alison 3
So bleak! These people didn't look for real solutions to problems. They just tried to cover up life's inevitable frustrations and turns in the road. Just listening to this exhausted me. So much tension, so much disappointment. I know sadness was the point, yet it still depressed me to hear it. Great writing, but not for me. ]]> 3.57 1949 Death of a Salesman

author: Arthur Miller
name: Alison
average rating: 3.57
book published: 1949
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/17
date added: 2025/01/17
shelves:
review:
I'd seen a stage production of this once, MANY years ago. But I listened again on Audible, and it felt new to me.

So bleak! These people didn't look for real solutions to problems. They just tried to cover up life's inevitable frustrations and turns in the road. Just listening to this exhausted me. So much tension, so much disappointment. I know sadness was the point, yet it still depressed me to hear it. Great writing, but not for me.
]]> Maurice 214488980 Maurice is heartbroken over unrequited love, which opened his heart and mind to his own sexual identity. In order to be true to himself, he goes against the grain of society’s often unspoken rules of class, wealth, and politics.
Forster understood that his homage to same-sex love, if published when he completed it in 1914, would probably end his career. Thus, Maurice languished in a drawer for fifty-seven years, the author requesting it be published only after his death (along with his stories about homosexuality later collected in The Life to Come).
Since its release in 1971, Maurice has been widely read and praised. It has been, and continues to be, adapted for major stage productions, including the 1987 Oscar-nominated film adaptation starring Hugh Grant and James Wilby.]]> 272 E.M. Forster 0571388183 Alison 0 to-read 4.20 1971 Maurice

author: E.M. Forster
name: Alison
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1971
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Death at the Sign of the Rook (Jackson Brodie, #6)]]> 203164357 The stage is set. Marooned overnight by a snowstorm in a grand country house are a cast of characters and a setting that even Agatha Christie might recognize �� a vicar, an Army major, a Dowager, a sleuth and his sidekick - except that the sleuth is Jackson Brodie, and the ‘sidekick�� is DC Reggie Chase.

The crumbling house - Burton Makepeace and its chatelaine the Dowager Lady Milton - suffered the loss of their last remaining painting of any value, a Turner, some years ago. The housekeeper, Sophie, who disappeared the same night, is suspected of stealing it.

Jackson, a reluctant hostage to the snowstorm, has been investigating the theft of another The Woman with a Weasel, a portrait, taken from the house of an elderly widow, on the morning she died. The suspect this time is the widow’s carer, Melanie. Is this a coincidence or is there a connection? And what secrets does The Woman with a Weasel hold? The puzzle is Jackson’s to solve. And let’s not forget that a convicted murderer is on the run on the moors around Burton Makepeace.

All the while, in a bid to make money, Burton Makepeace is determined to keep hosting a shambolic Murder Mystery that acts as a backdrop while the real drama is being played out in the house.

A brilliantly plotted, supremely entertaining, and utterly compulsive tour de force from a great writer at the height of her powers.]]> 320 Kate Atkinson 0385547994 Alison 5 3.69 2024 Death at the Sign of the Rook (Jackson Brodie, #6)

Death at the Sign of the Rook (Jackson Brodie, #6)

author: Kate Atkinson
name: Alison
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/13
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves:
review:
#6 in Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie series of detective novels. I find this series brilliantly-written, oddly comforting, and deeply satisfying. I hope there will be more! This one felt like an homage to vintage English parlor-room mysteries and a celebration of mystery writers.
]]> Amadeus 84927
An L.A. Theatre Works full cast performance featuring:

Steven Brand as Baron van Swieten
James Callis as Mozart
Michael Emerson as Salieri
Darren Richardson as Venticello 2
Alan Shearman as Count Orsini-Rosenberg
Mark Jude Sullivan as Venticello 1
Simon Templeman as Joseph II
Brian Tichnell as Count Johann Kilian Von Strack
Jocelyn Towne as Constanze

Directed by Rosalind Ayres. Recorded in Los Angeles before a live audience at The James Bridges Theater, UCLA in September of 2016.]]> 160 Peter Shaffer 0060935499 Alison 5 4.16 1979 Amadeus

author: Peter Shaffer
name: Alison
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1979
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/12
date added: 2025/01/12
shelves:
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]]> An Ideal Husband 5296 Sooner or later, Wilde notes, we shall all have to pay for what we do. But he adds that, No one should be entirely judged by their past.Together with The Importance of Being Earnest, it is often considered Wilde's dramatic masterpiece. After Earnest, it is his most popularly produced play"]]> 78 Oscar Wilde 048641423X Alison 4 4.01 1893 An Ideal Husband

author: Oscar Wilde
name: Alison
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1893
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/07
date added: 2025/01/07
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]]> <![CDATA[The Importance of Being Earnest]]> 92303
Cecily Cardew and Gwendolen Fairfax are both in love with the same mythical suitor. Jack Worthing has wooed Gwendolen as Ernest while Algernon has also posed as Ernest to win the heart of Jack's ward, Cecily. When all four arrive at Jack's country home on the same weekend the "rivals" to fight for Ernest's undivided attention and the "Ernests" to claim their beloveds pandemonium breaks loose. Only a senile nursemaid and an old, discarded hand-bag can save the day!

This Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Edition includes a glossary and reader's notes to help the modern reader appreciate Wilde's wry wit and elaborate plot twists.]]> 89 Oscar Wilde 158049580X Alison 5 4.17 1895 The Importance of Being Earnest

author: Oscar Wilde
name: Alison
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1895
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/05
date added: 2025/01/05
shelves:
review:
Literary perfection. How did he do it?
]]> The Little Foxes 280797 108 Lillian Hellman 0856760919 Alison 5 3.95 1939

author: Lillian Hellman
name: Alison
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1939
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/03
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves:
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]]> Glengarry Glen Ross 251446
2 interior sets

This scalding comedy took Broadway and London by storm and won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize. Here is Mamet at his very best, writing about small-time, cutthroat real estate salesmen trying to grind out a living by pushing plots of land on reluctant buyers in a never-ending scramble for their share of the American dream. Revived on Broadway in 2006 this masterpiece of American drama became a celebrated film which starred Al Pacino, Jac]]> 112 David Mamet Alison 4 3.88 1983 Glengarry Glen Ross

author: David Mamet
name: Alison
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1983
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/03
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves:
review:

]]> The Cherry Orchard 87346
In Chekhov's tragi-comedy - perhaps his most popular play - the Gayev family is torn by powerful forces, forces rooted deep in history, and in the society around them. Their estate is hopelessly in debt: urged to cut down their beautiful cherry orchard and sell the land for holiday cottages, they struggle to act decisively. Tom Murphy's fine vernacular version allows us to re-imagine the events of the play in the last days of Anglo-Irish colonialism. It gives this great play vivid new life within our own history and social consciousness.]]> 96 Anton Chekhov 0413774031 Alison 5 3.72 1903 The Cherry Orchard

author: Anton Chekhov
name: Alison
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1903
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/30
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]> This is Our Youth 337630 128 Kenneth Lonergan 1585670189 Alison 4 3.75 1999

author: Kenneth Lonergan
name: Alison
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/30
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]> Winter Street (Winter, #1) 20706316
Kelley Quinn is the owner of Nantucket's Winter Street Inn and the proud father of four, all of them grown and living in varying states of disarray. Patrick, the eldest, is a hedge fund manager with a guilty conscience. Kevin, a bartender, is secretly sleeping with a French housekeeper named Isabelle. Ava, a school teacher, is finally dating the perfect guy but can't get him to commit. And Bart, the youngest and only child of Kelley's second marriage to Mitzi, has recently shocked everyone by joining the Marines.

As Christmas approaches, Kelley is looking forward to getting the family together for some quality time at the inn. But when he walks in on Mitzi kissing Santa Claus (or the guy who's playing Santa at the inn's annual party), utter chaos descends. With the three older children each reeling in their own dramas and Bart unreachable in Afghanistan, it might be up to Kelley's ex-wife, nightly news anchor Margaret Quinn, to save Christmas at the Winter Street Inn.

Before the mulled cider is gone, the delightfully dysfunctional Quinn family will survive a love triangle, an unplanned pregnancy, a federal crime, a small house fire, many shots of whiskey, and endless rounds of Christmas caroling, in this heart-warming novel about coming home for the holidays.]]> 246 Elin Hilderbrand 0316376116 Alison 4 3.74 2014 Winter Street (Winter, #1)

author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Alison
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/26
date added: 2024/12/26
shelves:
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]]> A Child's Christmas in Wales 563820 48 Dylan Thomas 0823405656 Alison 5 4.14 1952

author: Dylan Thomas
name: Alison
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1952
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/12/26
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Faking Christmas (Christmas Escape)]]> 62005119 One little white lie.

That's all it took. Now I'm suddenly having to fake-date my work nemesis to get me through a week at a Vermont Christmas lodge with my family.

The problem? I can't stand Miles Taylor. Not only that, but I don't date people I work with. But I can handle it. I've had practice faking my emotions for years. So it shouldn't matter that Miles never lets me get away with anything. And that he happens to boil my blood hotter than a steaming pot of wassail. So when he throws his annoying grin my way or forces me on dates he knows I'll hate, I'll just grit my teeth and smile.

Or maybe not. Did I mention that Miles is the one person in the world I can't seem to fool?

When my emotions begin feeling less like a sham and his arms feel way too comfortable, it makes me think that maybe Miles had a plan of his own. And I'm starting to like it a lot more than mine.]]> 340 Cindy Steel Alison 2 4.14 2022 Faking Christmas (Christmas Escape)

author: Cindy Steel
name: Alison
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2024/12/21
date added: 2024/12/21
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]]> My Friends 217163697 #1��New York Times��bestselling author Fredrik Backman returns with an unforgettably funny, deeply moving tale of four teenagers whose friendship creates a bond so powerful that it changes a stranger’s life twenty-five years later.

Most people don’t even notice them—three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an artist herself, knows otherwise and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures.

Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their difficult home lives by spending their days laughing and telling stories out on a pier. There’s Joar, who never backs down from a fight; quiet and bookish Ted who is mourning his father; Ali, the daughter of a man who never stays in one place for long; and finally, there’s the artist, a boy who hoards sleeping pills and shuns attention, but who possesses an extraordinary gift that might be his ticket to a better life. These four lost souls find in each other a reason to get up each morning, a reason to dream.

Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be put into eighteen-year-old Louisa’s care. As she struggles to decide what to do with this bequest, she embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn the story of how the painting came to be. The closer she gets to the painting’s birthplace, the more she feels compelled to unleash her own artistic spirit, but happy endings don’t always take the form we expect in this fresh testament to the transformative power of friendship and art.]]> 448 Fredrik Backman 1982112824 Alison 0 to-read 4.58 2025 My Friends

author: Fredrik Backman
name: Alison
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Tell Me Everything (Amgash, #5)]]> 204811915 People) of a novel about new friendships, old loves, and the very human desire to leave a mark on the world.

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

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

Brimming with empathy and pathos, Tell Me Everything is Elizabeth Strout operating at the height of her powers, illuminating the ways in which our relationships keep us afloat. As Lucy says, “Love comes in so many different forms, but it is always love.”]]> 326 Elizabeth Strout 0593446097 Alison 5 3.98 2024 Tell Me Everything (Amgash, #5)

author: Elizabeth Strout
name: Alison
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/11
date added: 2024/12/11
shelves:
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]]> The Sound and the Fury 215003814 The Sound and the Fury is the tragedy of the Compson family, featuring some of the most memorable characters in literature: beautiful, rebellious Caddy; the manchild Benjy; haunted, neurotic Quentin; Jason, the brutal cynic; and Dilsey, their black servant. Their lives fragmented and harrowed by history and legacy, the character’s voices and actions mesh to create what is arguably Faulkner’s masterpiece and one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.]]> 274 William Faulkner Alison 0 to-read 4.09 1929 The Sound and the Fury

author: William Faulkner
name: Alison
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1929
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Bartleby the Scrivener 114230 Moby-Dick��Bartleby the Scrivener is simply one of the most absorbing and moving novellas ever. Set in the mid-19th century on New York City's Wall Street, it was also, perhaps, Herman Melville's most prescient story: what if a young man caught up in the rat race of commerce finally just said, "I would prefer not to"?

The tale is one of the final works of fiction published by Melville before, slipping into despair over the continuing critical dismissal of his work after Moby-Dick, he abandoned publishing fiction. The work is presented here exactly as it was originally published in Putnam's magazine—to, sadly, critical disdain.]]> 64 Herman Melville 0974607800 Alison 3 3.91 1853 Bartleby the Scrivener

author: Herman Melville
name: Alison
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1853
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/18
date added: 2024/11/18
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[The Dead: James Joyce's Famous Story Annotated]]> 9411621
Joyce wrote “The Dead,�� and all the other stories in DUBLINERS, with loving care for the geographical, historical, and political details of his native city. As a consequence most of the local references are painstakingly exact; they are part of Joyce’s “realism�� and are often suggestive of everyday Dublin life.

We have supplied glosses where the significance of these references goes beyond matters of local color or Joycean realism. The aim of the footnotes, therefore, is to explain topical and religious references, literary allusions, historical and political nuances, and Irishisms which are likely to baffle the modern-day reader.]]> 82 James Joyce Alison 5 "“Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age.��

I've been reading (listening) to lauded short stories this month, many that I should have read by now but haven't. Several of them have been called "the greatest story ever written". I haven't felt that until I read "The Dead". A story that understands the assignment of literature--it conveys complex characters and emotions as well as the full burden of life itself in it's short pages.]]> 3.82 1914 The Dead: James Joyce's Famous Story Annotated

The Dead: James Joyce's Famous Story Annotated

author: James Joyce
name: Alison
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1914
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/13
date added: 2024/11/13
shelves:
review:
"“Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age.��

I've been reading (listening) to lauded short stories this month, many that I should have read by now but haven't. Several of them have been called "the greatest story ever written". I haven't felt that until I read "The Dead". A story that understands the assignment of literature--it conveys complex characters and emotions as well as the full burden of life itself in it's short pages.
]]> The Call of Cthulhu 15730101 The Call of Cthulhu is a harrowing tale of the weakness of the human mind when confronted by powers and intelligences from beyond our world.]]> 43 H.P. Lovecraft Alison 4 “The most merciful thing in the world, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.��

"Lovecraft, born in Rhode Island in 1890, was not widely known in his time. He published his stories in pulp magazines and was considered an amateur rather than a professional writer. Only after his death in 1937 did critics revisit his work and deem it important to the development of 20th-century horror and science fiction."

I decided to revisit this as I was revisiting several short classics of horror/fantasty. The reading on Audible is less than 2 hours and was perfect listening for a couple of fall evening walks.

This is the kind of story where, when listening, it is already familiar because there has been so much material (songs, stories, novels, movies, comics) to come after it that were derivative of it and borrowed from it. It tells the tale of Cthulhu, a creature part human, part octopus, part dragon, that lives in a green oozy underworld and has a cult following. He represents dread and the insurmountable...the idea of dark forces of nature that are bigger than humans. He lies sleeping under the ocean in a submerged city but still has the power to influence human dreams and behavior. The "awakening" of Cthuhlu will mean the end of humanity. The length of metaphorical comparisons in the modern world is unlimited.

Only 4 stars for being a little hard to follow in parts--likely because the prose was too sophisticated for my listening ears. ]]> 3.97 1928 The Call of Cthulhu

author: H.P. Lovecraft
name: Alison
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1928
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/08
date added: 2024/11/08
shelves:
review:
“The most merciful thing in the world, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.��

"Lovecraft, born in Rhode Island in 1890, was not widely known in his time. He published his stories in pulp magazines and was considered an amateur rather than a professional writer. Only after his death in 1937 did critics revisit his work and deem it important to the development of 20th-century horror and science fiction."

I decided to revisit this as I was revisiting several short classics of horror/fantasty. The reading on Audible is less than 2 hours and was perfect listening for a couple of fall evening walks.

This is the kind of story where, when listening, it is already familiar because there has been so much material (songs, stories, novels, movies, comics) to come after it that were derivative of it and borrowed from it. It tells the tale of Cthulhu, a creature part human, part octopus, part dragon, that lives in a green oozy underworld and has a cult following. He represents dread and the insurmountable...the idea of dark forces of nature that are bigger than humans. He lies sleeping under the ocean in a submerged city but still has the power to influence human dreams and behavior. The "awakening" of Cthuhlu will mean the end of humanity. The length of metaphorical comparisons in the modern world is unlimited.

Only 4 stars for being a little hard to follow in parts--likely because the prose was too sophisticated for my listening ears.
]]> When Breath Becomes Air 25899336
At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade's worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi's transformation from a naïve medical student "possessed," as he wrote, "by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life" into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.

What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.

Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. "I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything," he wrote. "Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: 'I can't go on. I'll go on.'" When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both.]]> 208 Paul Kalanithi 0812988418 Alison 5
I was moved yet again by this story of a brilliant physician who faced death bravely. A brief and modern exploration of the meaning of life, it should be required reading for all. I was inspired by the way that he viewed his occupation as a calling, not as a job. And how he lived out his curiosity to understand life and death--as well as his grasp of the value of relationships, his ambition, his intellect, and his desire to make the most of his brief time here on Earth.]]> 4.41 2016 When Breath Becomes Air

author: Paul Kalanithi
name: Alison
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/22
date added: 2024/11/07
shelves:
review:
The recently published NY Times "100 Best Books of the 21st Century" list brought to mind this book that I read around 8 years ago. It deeply moved me when I read it, and I decided to revisit it.

I was moved yet again by this story of a brilliant physician who faced death bravely. A brief and modern exploration of the meaning of life, it should be required reading for all. I was inspired by the way that he viewed his occupation as a calling, not as a job. And how he lived out his curiosity to understand life and death--as well as his grasp of the value of relationships, his ambition, his intellect, and his desire to make the most of his brief time here on Earth.
]]> The Turn of the Screw 12948
A very young woman's first job: governess for two weirdly beautiful, strangely distant, oddly silent children, Miles and Flora, at a forlorn estate... An estate haunted by a beckoning evil. Half-seen figures who glare from dark towers and dusty windows- silent, foul phantoms who, day by day, night by night, come closer, ever closer. With growing horror, the helpless governess realizes the fiendish creatures want the children, seeking to corrupt their bodies, possess their minds, own their souls. But worse-much worse- the governess discovers that Miles and Flora have no terror of the lurking evil. For they want the walking dead as badly as the dead want them.

Excerpt:
I remember the whole beginning as a succession of flights and drops, a little seesaw of the right throbs and the wrong. After rising, in town, to meet his appeal, I had at all events a couple of very bad days - found myself doubtful again, felt indeed sure I had made a mistake. In this state of mind I spent the long hours of bumping, swinging coach that carried me to the stopping place at which I was to be met by a vehicle from the house.]]> 121 Henry James 0140620613 Alison 5 3.42 1898 The Turn of the Screw

author: Henry James
name: Alison
average rating: 3.42
book published: 1898
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/07
date added: 2024/11/07
shelves:
review:
Excellent use of language and maybe the best ghost story of all time. Narrated on Audible by Emma Thompson.
]]> The Crucible 17250
Written in 1953, The Crucible is a mirror Miller uses to reflect the anti-communist hysteria inspired by Senator Joseph McCarthy's "witch-hunts" in the United States. Within the text itself, Miller contemplates the parallels, writing, "Political opposition... is given an inhumane overlay, which then justifies the abrogation of all normally applied customs of civilized behavior. A political policy is equated with moral right, and opposition to it with diabolical malevolence."

WIth an introduction by Christopher Bigsby.
(back cover)]]> 143 Arthur Miller 0142437336 Alison 5
I especially enjoyed listening to this as I walked through a wooded walking trail in Autumn. Although, again, this dramatic production was particularly dramatic and harrowing.]]> 3.60 1953 The Crucible

author: Arthur Miller
name: Alison
average rating: 3.60
book published: 1953
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/06
date added: 2024/11/06
shelves:
review:
A recent trip to Salem, MA (and the Witch Museum) prompted me to revisit this Arthur Miller play set in Salem during the Witch Trials. I found a full cast reading (with a few celebrities in parts) on Audible.com that was a harrowing listen. I'll never forget the wall at the end of the Witch Museum that displayed fear + trigger = scapegoat and the examples listed of the many times this formula has materialized throughout history.

I especially enjoyed listening to this as I walked through a wooded walking trail in Autumn. Although, again, this dramatic production was particularly dramatic and harrowing.
]]> Society of Lies 202102003 How far would you go to belong?

Maya has returned to Princeton for her college reunion - it's been a decade since she graduated, and this visit is special because she will also be attending the graduation of her little sister, Naomi.

But what should have been a dream weekend becomes Maya's worst nightmare when she receives the news that Naomi is dead. The police are calling it an accident, but Maya suspects that there is more to the story than they are letting on.

As Maya pieces together what happened in the months leading up to her sister's death, she begins to realise how much Naomi hid from her. Despite Maya's warnings, Naomi had joined Sterling Club, the most exclusive social club on campus - the same one Maya belonged to. And if she had to guess, Naomi was likely tapped for the secret society within it.

Maya knows that her sister isn't the first person in the society to turn up dead. Now every clue is leading Maya back to the past . . . and to the secret she's been keeping all these years.]]> 384 Lauren Ling Brown 059372335X Alison 2
This one didn't grab me, and I wasn't motivated to finish it. Moving on. ]]> 3.48 2024 Society of Lies

author: Lauren Ling Brown
name: Alison
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/11/06
date added: 2024/11/06
shelves:
review:
I have around 5 hours left of this on Audible, but I'm throwing in the towel. Because 5 hours is alot of time.

This one didn't grab me, and I wasn't motivated to finish it. Moving on.
]]> <![CDATA[We Solve Murders (We Solve Murders, #1)]]> 219449299 A brand new series. An iconic new detective duo. And a puzzling new murder to solve...

Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar habits and routines: the pub quiz, his favorite bench, his cat waiting for him when he comes home. His days of adventure are over: adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s business now.

Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. As a private security officer, she doesn’t stay still long enough for habits or routines. She’s currently on a remote island keeping world-famous author Rosie D’Antonio alive. Which was meant to be an easy job...

Then a dead body, a bag of money, and a killer with their sights on Amy have her sending an SOS to the only person she trusts. A breakneck race around the world begins, but can Amy and Steve stay one step ahead of a lethal enemy?]]> 387 Richard Osman 059365322X Alison 0 to-read 4.06 2024 We Solve Murders (We Solve Murders, #1)

author: Richard Osman
name: Alison
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Body in the Library (Miss Marple, #2)]]> 16319
But who is she? How did she get there? And what is the connection with another dead girl, whose charred remains are later discovered in an abandoned quarry?

The respectable Bantrys invite Miss Marple to solve the mystery�� before tongues start to wag.

Librarian's note: this entry is for the novel "The Body in the Library." Collections and other Miss Marple stories are located elsewhere on ŷ��. The series includes 12 novels and 20 short stories. Entries for the short stories can be found by searching ŷ�� for: "a Miss Marple Short Story."]]> 191 Agatha Christie 157912626X Alison 4 3.86 1942 The Body in the Library (Miss Marple, #2)

The Body in the Library (Miss Marple, #2)

author: Agatha Christie
name: Alison
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1942
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/27
date added: 2024/10/27
shelves:
review:

]]> Bear 196056205 A mesmerising novel of two sisters on a Pacific Northwest island whose lives are upended by an unexpected visitor �� a tale of family, obsession, and a mysterious creature in the woods, by the celebrated, bestselling author of Disappearing Earth.

They were sisters and they would last past the end of time.

Sam and her sister, Elena, dream of another life. On the island off the coast of Washington where they were born and raised, they and their mother struggle to survive. Sam works long days on the ferry that delivers wealthy mainlanders to their vacation homes while Elena bartends at the local golf club, but even together they can’t earn enough to get by, stirring their frustration about the limits that shape their existence.

Then one night on the boat, Sam spots a bear swimming the dark waters of the channel. Where is it going? What does it want? When the bear turns up by their home, Sam, terrified, is more convinced than ever that it’s time to leave the island. But Elena responds differently to the massive beast. Enchanted by its presence, she throws into doubt the plan to escape and puts their long-held dream in danger.

A story about the bonds of sisterhood and the mysteries of the animals that live among us �� and within us �� Bear is a propulsive, mythical, rich novel from one of the most acclaimed young writers in America.]]> 304 Julia Phillips 0525520430 Alison 3 3.21 2024 Bear

author: Julia Phillips
name: Alison
average rating: 3.21
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/24
date added: 2024/10/24
shelves:
review:
This book was gifted to me (signed), and I wanted to love it. I enjoyed the writing here. I understood that it was meant to be a modern fairy tale (a la The Brothers Grimm). I just didn't always enjoy reading it. The main character seemed selfish, mean-spirited and brooding to me. And so much of her behavior and decisions were questionable. While I found Disappearing Earth by this author to be a masterpiece, this one wasn't quite it for me.
]]> Big Sky (Jackson Brodie, #5) 43107933
Jackson Brodie has relocated to a quiet seaside village, in the occasional company of his recalcitrant teenage son and an aging Labrador, both at the discretion of his ex-partner Julia. It’s picturesque, but there’s something darker lurking behind the scenes.

Jackson’s current job, gathering proof of an unfaithful husband for his suspicious wife, is fairly standard-issue, but a chance encounter with a desperate man on a crumbling cliff leads him into a sinister network—and back across the path of his old friend Reggie. Old secrets and new lies intersect in this breathtaking novel by one of the most dazzling and surprising writers at work today.]]> 352 Kate Atkinson Alison 5 3.90 2019 Big Sky (Jackson Brodie, #5)

author: Kate Atkinson
name: Alison
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/11
date added: 2024/10/11
shelves:
review:

]]> ’Salem’s Lot 11590 Librarian's Note: Alternate-cover edition for ISBN 0450031063

Thousands of miles away from the small township of 'Salem's Lot, two terrified people, a man and a boy, still share the secrets of those clapboard houses and tree-lined streets. They must return to 'Salem's Lot for a final confrontation with the unspeakable evil that lives on in the town.]]> 483 Stephen King 0450031063 Alison 3
Every Halloween I read a scary book, so this year I decided to finally pick up Salem's Lot, as it makes many of the "scariest book" lists. So after 35 years of wondering, I came to know that the title, 'Salem's Lot, is short for the name of the town in which the story takes place, "Jerusalem's Lot." And also--witch count zero.

The author's note at the beginning is very interesting (I love S. King as a non-fiction writer), where we learn that King wanted to write a vampire novel that was part Dracula, part pulpy comic-book vampire inspired, and that his wife suggested that the setting be America, more specifically small town Maine. Because something to do with Dracula coming to New York City and getting immediately hit by a cab...moving on.

King also calls "Salem's Lot" part Peyton Place, and while that IS ahead of my time, I think he is referring to the interlocking and overlapping of names and faces that occur in this small town. The bulk of this story is about the people of Salem's Lot, and in that way, this novel is a commentary on small town life in Maine as well as a love story to little hamlet communities.

There is a little bit about the vampires, although, I regretfully add...not much new. All vampire lore is represented here: the garlic, the stakes through the heart, the Holy Water. In true S. King fashion, the author pushes the envelope having certain victims as well as heroes be children. Also true to form he has characters take unexpected turns (main characters die, or leave town unexpectedly). So I can't criticize that it's predictable. I can, however, say by the time I had gotten through the details of each town member and their demise (or I guess one could argue--"un-demise"), I was ready for some resolution.

One thing that I think King does well is mix his fantasy horror in with real-life horror. For example, when Callahan sees the face of the vampire for the first time, it is THE SAME face as the boogy man who used to hide in his closet when he was a child. King blends childhood fears with grown-up fears, and shows us that most of the dark stuff we live with each day is just as horrific as anything that could be imagined in a horror novel (remember Danny Torrence's alcoholic father from The Shining?). Life, we see, is not only stranger, but more gut-wrenching than fiction.

I can't say that this was suspensful-scary. Creepy, gory maybe. There were a few stomach-turning bits with some blood sucking and animal/human cruelty. Not as memorable to me as King's "Carrie" or "The Shining", and not as original as my new favorite vampire novel, "I am Legend." But if you're a super-fan of the genre or the writer, I'd say it's worth checking out.]]> 4.06 1975 ’Salem’s Lot

author: Stephen King
name: Alison
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1975
rating: 3
read at: 2010/10/28
date added: 2024/10/02
shelves:
review:
Salem's Lots was written in 1975 when I was 2 years old. This book has been on my radar for as long as I can remember. I knew it existed...I knew it was by Stephen King...I knew there was a movie adaptation. But I never knew exactly WHAT this book was about. Due to the title, I always thought it was about witches.

Every Halloween I read a scary book, so this year I decided to finally pick up Salem's Lot, as it makes many of the "scariest book" lists. So after 35 years of wondering, I came to know that the title, 'Salem's Lot, is short for the name of the town in which the story takes place, "Jerusalem's Lot." And also--witch count zero.

The author's note at the beginning is very interesting (I love S. King as a non-fiction writer), where we learn that King wanted to write a vampire novel that was part Dracula, part pulpy comic-book vampire inspired, and that his wife suggested that the setting be America, more specifically small town Maine. Because something to do with Dracula coming to New York City and getting immediately hit by a cab...moving on.

King also calls "Salem's Lot" part Peyton Place, and while that IS ahead of my time, I think he is referring to the interlocking and overlapping of names and faces that occur in this small town. The bulk of this story is about the people of Salem's Lot, and in that way, this novel is a commentary on small town life in Maine as well as a love story to little hamlet communities.

There is a little bit about the vampires, although, I regretfully add...not much new. All vampire lore is represented here: the garlic, the stakes through the heart, the Holy Water. In true S. King fashion, the author pushes the envelope having certain victims as well as heroes be children. Also true to form he has characters take unexpected turns (main characters die, or leave town unexpectedly). So I can't criticize that it's predictable. I can, however, say by the time I had gotten through the details of each town member and their demise (or I guess one could argue--"un-demise"), I was ready for some resolution.

One thing that I think King does well is mix his fantasy horror in with real-life horror. For example, when Callahan sees the face of the vampire for the first time, it is THE SAME face as the boogy man who used to hide in his closet when he was a child. King blends childhood fears with grown-up fears, and shows us that most of the dark stuff we live with each day is just as horrific as anything that could be imagined in a horror novel (remember Danny Torrence's alcoholic father from The Shining?). Life, we see, is not only stranger, but more gut-wrenching than fiction.

I can't say that this was suspensful-scary. Creepy, gory maybe. There were a few stomach-turning bits with some blood sucking and animal/human cruelty. Not as memorable to me as King's "Carrie" or "The Shining", and not as original as my new favorite vampire novel, "I am Legend." But if you're a super-fan of the genre or the writer, I'd say it's worth checking out.
]]> The Ministry of Time 199798179 A time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingenious exploration of the nature of power and the potential for love to change it all: Welcome to The Ministry of Time, the exhilarating debut novel by Kaliane Bradley.

In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats�� from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time.

She is tasked with working as a “bridge��: living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as ��1847�� or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he’s a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as “washing machines,�� “Spotify,�� and “the collapse of the British Empire.�� But with an appetite for discovery, a seven-a-day cigarette habit, and the support of a charming and chaotic cast of fellow expats, he soon adjusts.

Over the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic, evolves into something much deeper. By the time the true shape of the Ministry’s project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined. Forced to confront the choices that brought them together, the bridge must finally reckon with how—and whether she believes—what she does next can change the future.

An exquisitely original and feverishly fun fusion of genres and ideas, The Ministry of Time asks: What does it mean to defy history, when history is living in your house? Kaliane Bradley’s answer is a blazing, unforgettable testament to what we owe each other in a changing world.]]> 339 Kaliane Bradley 1668045141 Alison 4 3.54 2024 The Ministry of Time

author: Kaliane Bradley
name: Alison
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/02
date added: 2024/10/02
shelves:
review:
Smart story set in England about a governmental department that seeks to manipulate history by capturing people from the past and bringing them to the present. Part romance, part sci-fi, part historical fiction, part spy-thriller, this one checks off all the boxes and seems ready made for a TV/film adaptation. I listened on audible where the twists and turns could be a bit confusing. But I feel like I managed to understand a large part of the whole. I actually considered re-listening once I finished to catch more details. Let's cast Graham Gore!
]]> Gilead (Gilead, #1) 68210 Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson returns with an intimate tale of three generations, from the Civil War to the 20th century: a story about fathers and sons and the spiritual battles that still rage at America's heart. In the words of Kirkus, it is a novel "as big as a nation, as quiet as thought, and moving as prayer. Matchless and towering." GILEAD tells the story of America and will break your heart.]]> 247 Marilynne Robinson 031242440X Alison 3 3.84 2004 Gilead (Gilead, #1)

author: Marilynne Robinson
name: Alison
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/18
date added: 2024/09/18
shelves:
review:

]]> 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 Alison 4 3.55 2024 Sandwich

author: Catherine Newman
name: Alison
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/01
date added: 2024/09/01
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Started Early, Took My Dog (Jackson Brodie, #4)]]> 7307795
Meanwhile, Jackson Brodie, the beloved detective of novels such as Case Histories, is embarking on a different sort of rescue - that of an abused dog. Dog in tow, Jackson is about to learn, along with Tracy, that no good deed goes unpunished.]]> 350 Kate Atkinson 0385608020 Alison 4 3.91 2010 Started Early, Took My Dog (Jackson Brodie, #4)

Started Early, Took My Dog (Jackson Brodie, #4)

author: Kate Atkinson
name: Alison
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/01
date added: 2024/09/01
shelves:
review:

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

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

Collects:
—The Yellow Wallpaper
—Three Thanksgivings
—The Cottagette
—T�ܰ��Ա��
—Making a Change
—If I Were a Man
—Mr. Peebles' Heart]]> 129 Charlotte Perkins Gilman 0486298574 Alison 5 4.05 1892 The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories

author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman
name: Alison
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1892
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:

]]> Good Material 96177629
Now he is. . .

Without a home

Waiting for his stand-up career to take off

Wondering why everyone else around him seems to have grown up while he wasn't looking

Set adrift on the sea of heartbreak, Andy clings to the idea of solving the puzzle of his ruined relationship. Because if he can find the answer to that, then maybe Jen can find her way back to him. But Andy still has a lot to learn, not least his ex-girlfriend's side of the story��

In this sharply funny and exquisitely relatable story of romantic disaster and friendship, Dolly Alderton offers up a love story with two endings, demonstrating once again why she is one of the most exciting writers today, and the true voice of a generation.]]> 345 Dolly Alderton 0241523672 Alison 5 3.85 2023 Good Material

author: Dolly Alderton
name: Alison
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/28
date added: 2024/07/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Girl Walks into a Bar . . .: Comedy Calamities, Dating Disasters, and a Midlife Miracle]]> 12867423 248 Rachel Dratch 1592407110 Alison 4 3.61 2012

Girl Walks into a Bar . . .: Comedy Calamities, Dating Disasters, and a Midlife Miracle

author: Rachel Dratch
name: Alison
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/25
date added: 2024/07/25
shelves:
review:
One of the funnier, more earnest and honest comedian memoirs that I have read (listened to). Thoroughly enjoyed her voice.
]]> Yes Please 20910157 Yes Please, she offers up a big juicy stew of personal stories, funny bits on sex and love and friendship and parenthood and real life advice (some useful, some not so much), like when to be funny and when to be serious. Powered by Amy’s charming and hilarious, biting yet wise voice, Yes Please is a book full of words to live by.]]> 329 Amy Poehler 0062268341 Alison 4
I enjoyed the re-listen. The biggest take-away for me this time around was the idea that people seem to naturally feel that success is quick and easily obtained. The reality is that people, like Amy, hone their craft for years with very little income, no health insurance, very little financial security in the face of an unknown future until they are fortunate enough to hit it big decades later. In other words, success is most often a long game.

“It’s very hard to have ideas. It’s very hard to put yourself out there, it’s very hard to be vulnerable, but those people who do that are the dreamers, the thinkers and the creators. They are the magic people of the world.��

As I was walking and listening to Amy Poehler's "Yes Please" on the track at my gym, I was struck with many talking points. However, since I was in motion, and since last time I checked you can't underline an audio book, I'm going to try to remember just a few of them here for my future self who likes to read back over book reviews. (When reflecting back on a book these days I can not only remember nothing about it, I can't even remember if I've read it.)

First of all I enjoyed this book. I felt that listening to a memoir on audio, READ BY THE AUTHOR, was so much more compelling than listening to a novel on audio. When I'm listening to fiction my mind definitely wanders. And if I'm in a car, I find myself falling asleep...waking up only when someone is kissing or getting murdered, and then I have to rewind (not easy on your phone--you always end up going back farther than you wanted to) and figure out the set-up to said kissing or killing. And then it takes me nine years to finish a book.

Of course I enjoyed the guest readers. Who with a sense of humor wouldn't enjoy the sound of (and recognize the genius of) Mike Myer's voice. What women over 40 who loves to laugh can't cite Carol Burnett as a comic hero. Amy's parents--adorable. Kathleen Turner? A bit misplaced. I didn't get it. (Was it even her, or was it Amy doing an impersonation? Too much confusion when I'm supposed to be laughing).

I hung onto every word about SNL and the Golden Globes, as I am a bona fide life-long junkie-watcher of each. Amy was very kind when she spoke of guest hosts at SNL. No juicy gossip here. Only tidbits that endear you to each host. I love the stories about Amy kissing Bono or sitting on Clooney's lap at the Globes (I remember each of these bits and thinking that Amy was killing it at the time). I was inspired to re-watch some SNL sketches during the reading of this book--particularly Amy's classic Sarah Palin rap and perhaps the funniest SNL sketch of all-time...Debbie Downer at Disneyworld where everyone involved completely loses it and can barely get their lines out (Amy calls it Prozac and should be prescribed to the depressed). Say it with me now..."It's official...I can't have children."

Several brief things that I whole-heartedly admire about Amy.

1. She was totally devoted to her craft (improv) and went after it with blind abandon--waiting tables, co-sharing apartments, writing and working night and day, fore-going health insurance or a clear future for the sole purpose of "getting good at improv." That is a true artist, and I believe that level of commitment to art is rare (particularly among graduates of Boston College, I might add).

2. Amy is brave and ambitious. There is not much Amy would not do or say on stage to get a laugh. While some people are driven by dollar signs, big houses, or fancy cars, I truly believe Amy is driven by the sound of audience laughter, and for this she will fore-go vanity and instantly overcome any level of self-consciousness.

3. Amy has a ton of friends. Not virtual Facebook or Instragram friends. People that she could call or text or take a walk around New York City with or vacation with at any time. Funny people. And smart people.

So why the four stars? I was a little off-put by some of Amy's advice. I acknowledge that she is an entirely self-made women who has found great financial success. And a ton of what she said about kindness and women getting older and creativity I can appreciate. However, I did feel that as my life path was so different than hers, some of the advice was not necessarily applicable to my life. And while Amy is funny and brave and smart and fashionable and weathly, she's not exactly my go-to person when I am seeking out the kind of wisdom that I seek out for guidance.

There's a lot to like about Yes, Please. It's not perfect. But it's funny. It's current, and for this genre, I believe it's a stand-out. Warning: there is some off-color language. And a good bit of talk about drug use. This is more risque than Bossypants, so if you enjoyed that, you're not necessarily going to automatically enjoy this as well. But it kept my attention and made me laugh out loud several times on the track, which elicited amusing frightened reactions from my track-mates (who tend to be sweet older people--I walk during the day). If Amy and I were friends, we would group-text about that and laugh.]]> 3.85 2014 Yes Please

author: Amy Poehler
name: Alison
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/22
date added: 2024/07/22
shelves:
review:
Second listen, as there was a road trip but there were no more audible credits.

I enjoyed the re-listen. The biggest take-away for me this time around was the idea that people seem to naturally feel that success is quick and easily obtained. The reality is that people, like Amy, hone their craft for years with very little income, no health insurance, very little financial security in the face of an unknown future until they are fortunate enough to hit it big decades later. In other words, success is most often a long game.

“It’s very hard to have ideas. It’s very hard to put yourself out there, it’s very hard to be vulnerable, but those people who do that are the dreamers, the thinkers and the creators. They are the magic people of the world.��

As I was walking and listening to Amy Poehler's "Yes Please" on the track at my gym, I was struck with many talking points. However, since I was in motion, and since last time I checked you can't underline an audio book, I'm going to try to remember just a few of them here for my future self who likes to read back over book reviews. (When reflecting back on a book these days I can not only remember nothing about it, I can't even remember if I've read it.)

First of all I enjoyed this book. I felt that listening to a memoir on audio, READ BY THE AUTHOR, was so much more compelling than listening to a novel on audio. When I'm listening to fiction my mind definitely wanders. And if I'm in a car, I find myself falling asleep...waking up only when someone is kissing or getting murdered, and then I have to rewind (not easy on your phone--you always end up going back farther than you wanted to) and figure out the set-up to said kissing or killing. And then it takes me nine years to finish a book.

Of course I enjoyed the guest readers. Who with a sense of humor wouldn't enjoy the sound of (and recognize the genius of) Mike Myer's voice. What women over 40 who loves to laugh can't cite Carol Burnett as a comic hero. Amy's parents--adorable. Kathleen Turner? A bit misplaced. I didn't get it. (Was it even her, or was it Amy doing an impersonation? Too much confusion when I'm supposed to be laughing).

I hung onto every word about SNL and the Golden Globes, as I am a bona fide life-long junkie-watcher of each. Amy was very kind when she spoke of guest hosts at SNL. No juicy gossip here. Only tidbits that endear you to each host. I love the stories about Amy kissing Bono or sitting on Clooney's lap at the Globes (I remember each of these bits and thinking that Amy was killing it at the time). I was inspired to re-watch some SNL sketches during the reading of this book--particularly Amy's classic Sarah Palin rap and perhaps the funniest SNL sketch of all-time...Debbie Downer at Disneyworld where everyone involved completely loses it and can barely get their lines out (Amy calls it Prozac and should be prescribed to the depressed). Say it with me now..."It's official...I can't have children."

Several brief things that I whole-heartedly admire about Amy.

1. She was totally devoted to her craft (improv) and went after it with blind abandon--waiting tables, co-sharing apartments, writing and working night and day, fore-going health insurance or a clear future for the sole purpose of "getting good at improv." That is a true artist, and I believe that level of commitment to art is rare (particularly among graduates of Boston College, I might add).

2. Amy is brave and ambitious. There is not much Amy would not do or say on stage to get a laugh. While some people are driven by dollar signs, big houses, or fancy cars, I truly believe Amy is driven by the sound of audience laughter, and for this she will fore-go vanity and instantly overcome any level of self-consciousness.

3. Amy has a ton of friends. Not virtual Facebook or Instragram friends. People that she could call or text or take a walk around New York City with or vacation with at any time. Funny people. And smart people.

So why the four stars? I was a little off-put by some of Amy's advice. I acknowledge that she is an entirely self-made women who has found great financial success. And a ton of what she said about kindness and women getting older and creativity I can appreciate. However, I did feel that as my life path was so different than hers, some of the advice was not necessarily applicable to my life. And while Amy is funny and brave and smart and fashionable and weathly, she's not exactly my go-to person when I am seeking out the kind of wisdom that I seek out for guidance.

There's a lot to like about Yes, Please. It's not perfect. But it's funny. It's current, and for this genre, I believe it's a stand-out. Warning: there is some off-color language. And a good bit of talk about drug use. This is more risque than Bossypants, so if you enjoyed that, you're not necessarily going to automatically enjoy this as well. But it kept my attention and made me laugh out loud several times on the track, which elicited amusing frightened reactions from my track-mates (who tend to be sweet older people--I walk during the day). If Amy and I were friends, we would group-text about that and laugh.
]]> <![CDATA[When Will There Be Good News? (Jackson Brodie, #3)]]> 3289281 When Will There Be Good News?

On a hot summer day, Joanna Mason's family slowly wanders home along a country lane. A moment later, Joanna's life is changed forever...

On a dark night thirty years later, ex-detective Jackson Brodie finds himself on a train that is both crowded and late. Lost in his thoughts, he suddenly hears a shocking sound...

At the end of a long day, 16-year-old Reggie is looking forward to watching a little TV. Then a terrifying noise shatters her peaceful evening. Luckily, Reggie makes it a point to be prepared for an emergency...

These three lives come together in unexpected and deeply thrilling ways in the latest novel from Kate Atkinson, the critically acclaimed author who Harlan Coben calls "an absolute must-read."]]> 388 Kate Atkinson 0316154857 Alison 5 3.98 2008 When Will There Be Good News? (Jackson Brodie, #3)

When Will There Be Good News? (Jackson Brodie, #3)

author: Kate Atkinson
name: Alison
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/21
date added: 2024/07/21
shelves:
review:

]]> 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 Alison 4
My mind was constantly racing as I listening. It's a commentary on child stars, on public image, on gender bias, on the evils of the paparazzi. I think my biggest take away was how Britney just wanted to do what she loved--be a performer and exercise the gifts that God gave her. But just by putting herself out there she was critiqued for her body, her behavior, her creative choices, her parenting. She never signed up to be a role model. But she was always treated as a failing one. The public seemed to RELISH in it. Why does fame (especially for women) go hand in hand with constant scrutiny and judgement?

A memoir like this will make one thankful for their "normal" life which can hardly coexist alongside fame. So many simple pleasures that a non-celebrity can enjoy are impossible to the famous. It's a story we've heard over and over, but this is the first time I can recall hearing it from the "celebrity victim" and it truly resonates. Thankfully she lived to tell about it as many women before her have not. The darkest side of human nature (greed, narcissism, lack of empathy toward a fellow human--even toward one's own child) is on display here.

Kudos for bravery and raw, unfiltered honesty from our author. She finally gets her chance to speak, and she tells it as she saw it. She's not here to play nice, nor for our judgement or our opinions. She's way beyond them.]]> 3.83 2023 The Woman in Me

author: Britney Spears
name: Alison
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/07
date added: 2024/07/07
shelves:
review:
I highly recommend listening to The Woman in Me as read by Michelle Williams. It's shocking, it's infuriating, it's full of rage but it's also a deeply revealing commentary on our times. As I said when I suggested it to friends..."you have to hear it to believe it."

My mind was constantly racing as I listening. It's a commentary on child stars, on public image, on gender bias, on the evils of the paparazzi. I think my biggest take away was how Britney just wanted to do what she loved--be a performer and exercise the gifts that God gave her. But just by putting herself out there she was critiqued for her body, her behavior, her creative choices, her parenting. She never signed up to be a role model. But she was always treated as a failing one. The public seemed to RELISH in it. Why does fame (especially for women) go hand in hand with constant scrutiny and judgement?

A memoir like this will make one thankful for their "normal" life which can hardly coexist alongside fame. So many simple pleasures that a non-celebrity can enjoy are impossible to the famous. It's a story we've heard over and over, but this is the first time I can recall hearing it from the "celebrity victim" and it truly resonates. Thankfully she lived to tell about it as many women before her have not. The darkest side of human nature (greed, narcissism, lack of empathy toward a fellow human--even toward one's own child) is on display here.

Kudos for bravery and raw, unfiltered honesty from our author. She finally gets her chance to speak, and she tells it as she saw it. She's not here to play nice, nor for our judgement or our opinions. She's way beyond them.
]]> This Time Tomorrow 59089704 What if you could take a vacation to your past?

With her celebrated humor, insight, and heart, beloved New York Times bestseller Emma Straub offers her own twist on traditional time travel tropes, and a different kind of love story.

On the eve of her 40th birthday, Alice's life isn't terrible. She likes her job, even if it isn't exactly the one she expected. She's happy with her apartment, her romantic status, her independence, and she adores her lifelong best friend. But her father is ailing, and it feels to her as if something is missing. When she wakes up the next morning she finds herself back in 1996, reliving her 16th birthday. But it isn't just her adolescent body that shocks her, or seeing her high school crush, it's her dad: the vital, charming, 40-something version of her father with whom she is reunited. Now armed with a new perspective on her own life and his, some past events take on new meaning. Is there anything that she would change if she could?]]> 310 Emma Straub 052553900X Alison 4 3.78 2022 This Time Tomorrow

author: Emma Straub
name: Alison
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/05
date added: 2024/07/05
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Locked Room (The New York Trilogy, #3)]]> 435 179 Paul Auster Alison 5 3.93 1986

The Locked Room (The New York Trilogy, #3)

author: Paul Auster
name: Alison
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1986
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/25
date added: 2024/06/25
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Ghosts (The New York Trilogy, #2)]]> 434 96 Paul Auster 014009735X Alison 5 3.63 1986

author: Paul Auster
name: Alison
average rating: 3.63
book published: 1986
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/22
date added: 2024/06/22
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[City of Glass (The New York Trilogy, #1)]]> 432 City of Glass inaugurates an intriguing New York Trilogy of novels that The Washington Post Book World has classified as "post-existentialist private eye... It's as if Kafka has gotten hooked on the gumshoe game and penned his own ever-spiraling version." As a result of a strange phone call in the middle of the night, Quinn, a writer of detective stories, becomes enmeshed in a case more puzzling than any he might have written. Written with hallucinatory clarity, City of Glass combines dark humor with Hitchcock-like suspense.

Ghosts and The Locked Room are the next two brilliant installments in Paul Auster's The New York Trilogy.

]]> 203 Paul Auster 0140097317 Alison 5 3.79 1985 City of Glass (The New York Trilogy, #1)

author: Paul Auster
name: Alison
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1985
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/19
date added: 2024/06/19
shelves:
review:

]]> The Remains of the Day 28921 Librarian's note: See alternate cover edition of ISBN 0571225381 here.

In the summer of 1956, Stevens, a long-serving butler at Darlington Hall, decides to take a motoring trip through the West Country. The six-day excursion becomes a journey into the past of Stevens and England, a past that takes in fascism, two world wars, and an unrealised love between the butler and his housekeeper.]]> 258 Kazuo Ishiguro Alison 5 4.14 1989 The Remains of the Day

author: Kazuo Ishiguro
name: Alison
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1989
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/19
date added: 2024/06/19
shelves:
review:

]]> First Lie Wins 164444179 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780593492918.

Evie Porter has everything a nice Southern girl could want: a doting boyfriend, a house with a white picket fence, a tight group of friends. The only catch: Evie Porter doesn’t exist.

The identity comes first: Evie Porter. Once she’s given a name and location by her mysterious boss, Mr. Smith, she learns everything there is to know about the town and the people in it. Then the mark: Ryan Sumner. The last piece of the puzzle is the job.

Evie isn’t privy to Mr. Smith’s real identity, but she knows this job isn’t like the others. Ryan has gotten under her skin, and she’s starting to envision a different sort of life for herself. But Evie can’t make any mistakes—especially after what happened last time.

Evie Porter must stay one step ahead of her past while making sure there’s still a future in front of her. The stakes couldn’t be higher—but then, Evie has always liked a challenge. . . .]]> 340 Ashley Elston Alison 3 3.97 2024 First Lie Wins

author: Ashley Elston
name: Alison
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/18
date added: 2024/06/18
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[One Good Turn (Jackson Brodie, #2)]]> 501124
The event thrusts Jackson into the orbit of the wife of an unscrupulous real estate tycoon, a washed-up comedian, a successful crime novelist, a mysterious Russian woman, and a female police detective. Each of them hiding a secret, each looking for love or money or redemption or escape, they all play a role in driving Jackson out of retirement and into the middle of several mysteries that intersect in one sinister scheme.

Kate Atkinson "writes such fluid, sparkling prose that an ingenious plot almost seems too much to ask, but we get it anyway," writes Laura Miller for Salon. With a keen eye for the excesses of modern life, a warm understanding of the frailties of the human heart, and a genius for plots that turn and twist, Atkinson has written a novel that delights and surprises from the first page to the last.]]> 418 Kate Atkinson 0316012823 Alison 4 3.78 2006 One Good Turn (Jackson Brodie, #2)

author: Kate Atkinson
name: Alison
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/14
date added: 2024/06/14
shelves:
review:

]]> Notes from Underground 49455 Notes from Underground marks the dividing line between nineteenth- and twentieth-century fiction, and between the visions of self each century embodied. One of the most remarkable characters in literature, the unnamed narrator is a former official who has defiantly withdrawn into an underground existence. In complete retreat from society, he scrawls a passionate, obsessive, self-contradictory narrative that serves as a devastating attack on social utopianism and an assertion of man’s essentially irrational nature.

Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, whose Dostoevsky translations have become the standard, give us a brilliantly faithful edition of this classic novel, conveying all the tragedy and tormented comedy of the original.]]> 136 Fyodor Dostoevsky 067973452X Alison 4 4.21 1864 Notes from Underground

author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Alison
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1864
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/09
date added: 2024/06/09
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Case Histories (Jackson Brodie, #1)]]> 16243 1 A little girl disappears in the night.
2 A beautiful young office worker falls to a maniac's attack.
3 A new mother is overwhelmed by demands from her baby and husband - until a fit of rage creates a grisly, bloody escape.
Result : Startling connections and discoveries emerge. . . .]]> 389 Kate Atkinson 0316010707 Alison 5
Kate Atkinson is a brilliant writer and this is a near-perfect mystery. I'm not sure what forbade me from enjoying it the first time around. I do enjoy the detective Jackson Brodie, and I'm on to the second in this series shortly.

First review: It's been a while since I read this. It was a bit of a mystery, very dark. It's one of those books where the subject matter prohibits you from calling it a favorite. From what I remember, there were five children in the family, and one goes missing. The rest of the story tells about the remainding children with flashbacks of some of the things they endured in their home--ultimately revealing the fate of that one missing child.]]> 3.79 2004 Case Histories (Jackson Brodie, #1)

author: Kate Atkinson
name: Alison
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/30
date added: 2024/06/05
shelves:
review:
Second review after a re-read--14 or so years later.

Kate Atkinson is a brilliant writer and this is a near-perfect mystery. I'm not sure what forbade me from enjoying it the first time around. I do enjoy the detective Jackson Brodie, and I'm on to the second in this series shortly.

First review: It's been a while since I read this. It was a bit of a mystery, very dark. It's one of those books where the subject matter prohibits you from calling it a favorite. From what I remember, there were five children in the family, and one goes missing. The rest of the story tells about the remainding children with flashbacks of some of the things they endured in their home--ultimately revealing the fate of that one missing child.
]]> Everything I Never Told You 18693763
Lydia is the favourite child of Marilyn and James Lee; a girl who inherited her mother's bright blue eyes and her father's jet-black hair. Her parents are determined that Lydia will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue - in Marilyn's case that her daughter become a doctor rather than a homemaker, in James's case that Lydia be popular at school, a girl with a busy social life and the centre of every party. But Lydia is under pressures that have nothing to do with growing up in 1970s small town Ohio. Her father is an American born of first-generation Chinese immigrants, and his ethnicity, and hers, make them conspicuous in any setting.

When Lydia's body is found in the local lake, James is consumed by guilt and sets out on a reckless path that may destroy his marriage. Marilyn, devastated and vengeful, is determined to make someone accountable, no matter what the cost. Lydia's older brother, Nathan, is convinced that local bad boy Jack is somehow involved. But it's the youngest in the family - Hannah - who observes far more than anyone realises and who may be the only one who knows what really happened.

Everything I Never Told You is a gripping page-turner, about secrets, love, longing, lies and race.

Librarian's note: There is an Alternate Cover Edition for this edition of this book here.]]> 297 Celeste Ng 159420571X Alison 4 3.81 2014 Everything I Never Told You

author: Celeste Ng
name: Alison
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/30
date added: 2024/06/05
shelves:
review:
I felt like the last person I know to read this book. It was well-written to me. I spent most of the book being infuriated at the lack of self-awareness on the part of the otherwise seemingly intelligent parents here. I'm sure this is how some parents behave, but I really couldn't get past my annoyance enough to connect with this story.
]]> James 173754979 A brilliant reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—both harrowing and satirical—told from the enslaved Jim's point of view

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

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

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780385550369.]]> 303 Percival Everett Alison 5 4.46 2024 James

author: Percival Everett
name: Alison
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/30
date added: 2024/06/05
shelves:
review:
I hadn't actually heard of this one, but it was a book club selection so I read it to join in the discussion (which I inevitably had to miss). I'm thankful for the recc, as this was a BRILLIANT re-telling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as told from the perspective of the runaway slave, Jim. This is the kind of book that wins the Pulitzer Prize for Literature, and you think...yes, of course it did. This felt like a modern class in the making to me.
]]> The Women 127305853 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.]]> 471 Kristin Hannah 1250178630 Alison 3 4.58 2024

author: Kristin Hannah
name: Alison
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/01
date added: 2024/06/05
shelves:
review:
I listed to this one on audible. It tells the story of a former nurse during the Vietnam conflict that experiences PTSD and the women that supported her and that she came to support when no one else was listening to her. I found the back story of the war experience to be engaging, particularly because I am a nurse. I found the emotional aspects of the book to be a bit maudlin, however. I've read other books by this author that I enjoyed more.
]]> How to Say Babylon 62919742 Educated and Born a Crime, How to Say Babylon is the stunning story of the author’s struggle to break free of her rigid Rastafarian upbringing, ruled by her father’s strict patriarchal views and repressive control of her childhood, to find her own voice as a woman and poet.

Throughout her childhood, Safiya Sinclair’s father, a volatile reggae musician and militant adherent to a strict sect of Rastafari, became obsessed with her purity, in particular, with the threat of what Rastas call Babylon, the immoral and corrupting influences of the Western world outside their home. He worried that womanhood would make Safiya and her sisters morally weak and impure, and believed a woman’s highest virtue was her obedience.

In an effort to keep Babylon outside the gate, he forbade almost everything. In place of pants, the women in her family were made to wear long skirts and dresses to cover their arms and legs, head wraps to cover their hair, no make-up, no jewelry, no opinions, no friends. Safiya’s mother, while loyal to her father, nonetheless gave Safiya and her siblings the gift of books, including poetry, to which Safiya latched on for dear life. And as Safiya watched her mother struggle voicelessly for years under housework and the rigidity of her father’s beliefs, she increasingly used her education as a sharp tool with which to find her voice and break free. Inevitably, with her rebellion comes clashes with her father, whose rage and paranoia explodes in increasing violence. As Safiya’s voice grows, lyrically and poetically, a collision course is set between them.

How to Say Babylon is Sinclair’s reckoning with the culture that initially nourished but ultimately sought to silence her; it is her reckoning with patriarchy and tradition, and the legacy of colonialism in Jamaica. Rich in lyricism and language only a poet could evoke, How to Say Babylon is both a universal story of a woman finding her own power and a unique glimpse into a rarefied world we may know how to name, Rastafari, but one we know little about.']]> 352 Safiya Sinclair 1982132337 Alison 5 4.43 2023 How to Say Babylon

author: Safiya Sinclair
name: Alison
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/05
date added: 2024/06/05
shelves:
review:
How to Say Babylon is everything I love about memoirs. Safiya Sinclair recounts her young life and journey to "becoming" as a girl in Montego Bay, Jamaica under the thumb of an oppressive Rastafarian father. I can't remember a time when I've been so anxious for a young woman to find her way out of such a stifling and abusive environment. Not only does she find her way, she lays the story out for all of the women who have come before her and will come after her in the most gifted, unique voice. I reveled in the success story of this talented, brilliant woman. I wouldn't hesitate to file this one under required reading for all. There is so much to be inspired by here.
]]> Me Talk Pretty One Day 482978 --davidsedarisbooks.com]]> 272 David Sedaris Alison 5 rgbookclub that lazy. And, it frees up some time for me to make a little jacket for my clock radio (I've been thinking of doing that). :)

I don't think (MTPOD) is necessarily as "funny" as it is "jealousy-inducingly clever". I mean...the man has a way with words. And he sees things in a way that most people just don't. I think he's very unique & talented, although not particularly laugh-out loud hilarious.

In "Go Carolina"...describing his speech therapist, when she finally opens up..."Who was this college bowl fanatic with no mixer and a fiance in Vietnam, and why had she taken so long to reveal herself?"

See, I, too would be able to appreciate the oddball humor in that situation, but I would never be able to put it on paper in a way that the reader could truly "see" it...highlighting what is wonderfully absurd in what would be to most a bland encounter. I know Sedaris has his detractors, but I like his style. To be able to see the world through different eyes is one thing, but to be able to actually describe it is truly a gift (or an illness? :>)

From Giant Dreams, Midget Abilities...

"A life in music was his great passion, not ours, and our lessons had taught us that without the passion, the best one could hope for was an occasional engagement at some hippie wedding....That night, as was his habit, our father fell asleep in front of the stereo, the record making its pointless, silent rounds as he lay back against the sofa cushions, dreaming."

Also, as I said in Holidays on Ice, I love the way he writes about his family...loveable but flawed.

Must add one more quote that makes me smile on the inside...

"To me, the greatest mystery of science continues to be that a man could father six children who shared absolutely none of his interests. We certainly expressed enthusiasm for our mother's hobbies, from smoking and napping to the writings of Sidney Sheldon."

]]> 4.03 2000 Me Talk Pretty One Day

author: David Sedaris
name: Alison
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/15
date added: 2024/05/15
shelves: rgbookclub
review:
I'm copying/pasting previous comments because...I'm just that lazy. And, it frees up some time for me to make a little jacket for my clock radio (I've been thinking of doing that). :)

I don't think (MTPOD) is necessarily as "funny" as it is "jealousy-inducingly clever". I mean...the man has a way with words. And he sees things in a way that most people just don't. I think he's very unique & talented, although not particularly laugh-out loud hilarious.

In "Go Carolina"...describing his speech therapist, when she finally opens up..."Who was this college bowl fanatic with no mixer and a fiance in Vietnam, and why had she taken so long to reveal herself?"

See, I, too would be able to appreciate the oddball humor in that situation, but I would never be able to put it on paper in a way that the reader could truly "see" it...highlighting what is wonderfully absurd in what would be to most a bland encounter. I know Sedaris has his detractors, but I like his style. To be able to see the world through different eyes is one thing, but to be able to actually describe it is truly a gift (or an illness? :>)

From Giant Dreams, Midget Abilities...

"A life in music was his great passion, not ours, and our lessons had taught us that without the passion, the best one could hope for was an occasional engagement at some hippie wedding....That night, as was his habit, our father fell asleep in front of the stereo, the record making its pointless, silent rounds as he lay back against the sofa cushions, dreaming."

Also, as I said in Holidays on Ice, I love the way he writes about his family...loveable but flawed.

Must add one more quote that makes me smile on the inside...

"To me, the greatest mystery of science continues to be that a man could father six children who shared absolutely none of his interests. We certainly expressed enthusiasm for our mother's hobbies, from smoking and napping to the writings of Sidney Sheldon."

]]> <![CDATA[We Solve Murders (We Solve Murders, #1)]]> 203956647 A brand new series. An iconic new detective duo. And a puzzling new murder to solve...

Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar habits and routines: the pub quiz, his favorite bench, his cat waiting for him when he comes home. His days of adventure are over: adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s business now.

Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. As a private security officer, she doesn’t stay still long enough for habits or routines. She’s currently on a remote island keeping world-famous author Rosie D’Antonio alive. Which was meant to be an easy job...

Then a dead body, a bag of money, and a killer with their sights on Amy have her sending an SOS to the only person she trusts. A breakneck race around the world begins, but can Amy and Steve stay one step ahead of a lethal enemy?

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 059365322X.]]> 400 Richard Osman Alison 0 to-read 4.06 2024 We Solve Murders (We Solve Murders, #1)

author: Richard Osman
name: Alison
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> When the World Tips Over 203820262 An explosive new novel brimming with love, secrets, and enchantment

The Fall siblings live in hot Northern California wine country, where the sun pours out of the sky, and the devil winds blow so hard they whip the sense right out of your head.

Years ago, the Fall kids�� father mysteriously disappeared, cracking the family into pieces. Now Dizzy Fall, age twelve, bakes cakes, sees spirits, and wishes she were a heroine of a romance novel. Miles Fall, seventeen, brainiac, athlete, and dog-whisperer, is a raving beauty, but also lost, and desperate to meet the kind of guy he dreams of. And Wynton Fall, nineteen, who raises the temperature of a room just by entering it, is a virtuoso violinist set on a crash course for fame . . . or self-destruction.

Then an enigmatic rainbow-haired girl shows up, tipping the Falls�� world over. She might be an angel. Or a saint. Or an ordinary girl. Somehow, she is vital to each of them. But before anyone can figure out who she is, catastrophe strikes, leaving the Falls more broken than ever. And more desperate to be whole.

With road trips, rivalries, family curses, love stories within love stories within love stories, and sorrows and joys passed from generation to generation, this is the intricate, luminous tale of a family’s complicated past and present. And only in telling their stories can they hope to rewrite their futures.]]> 528 Jandy Nelson 0525429093 Alison 0 to-read 4.20 2024 When the World Tips Over

author: Jandy Nelson
name: Alison
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Most Fun We Ever Had 41880044
When Marilyn Connolly and David Sorenson fall in love in the 1970s, they are blithely ignorant of all that's to come. By 2016, their four radically different daughters are each in a state of unrest: Wendy, widowed young, soothes herself with booze and younger men; Violet, a litigator-turned-stay-at-home-mom, battles anxiety and self-doubt when the darkest part of her past resurfaces; Liza, a neurotic and newly tenured professor, finds herself pregnant with a baby she's not sure she wants by a man she's not sure she loves; and Grace, the dawdling youngest daughter, begins living a lie that no one in her family even suspects. Above it all, the daughters share the lingering fear that they will never find a love quite like their parents'.

As the novel moves through the tumultuous year following the arrival of Jonah Bendt--given up by one of the daughters in a closed adoption fifteen years before--we are shown the rich and varied tapestry of the Sorensons' past: years marred by adolescence, infidelity, and resentment, but also the transcendent moments of joy that make everything else worthwhile.]]> 532 Claire Lombardo 0385544251 Alison 4 3.88 2019 The Most Fun We Ever Had

author: Claire Lombardo
name: Alison
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/29
date added: 2024/04/29
shelves:
review:
I enjoyed this Reece's pick from Oak Park, Illinois native Claire Lombardo. It's about a husband and wife and their four daughters (a family) in Oak Park and it flashes back and forth in time as they experience real-life events and struggles. Mom and Dad are deeply in love, and the daughters feel they may never experience as much romance and stability in relationships of their own. There are secrets and lies, old grudges and unkindnesses within the family (as there are within most families). But there's also love and support when it counts. While not perfect, I enjoyed this read.
]]> The Snow Child 33597976 423 Eowyn Ivey Alison 0 to-read 4.10 2012

author: Eowyn Ivey
name: Alison
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Hello Beautiful 61771675
But then darkness from William’s past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia’s carefully orchestrated plans for their future, but the sisters�� unshakeable devotion to one another. The result is a catastrophic family rift that changes their lives for generations. Will the loyalty that once rooted them be strong enough to draw them back together when it matters most?]]> 416 Ann Napolitano Alison 4 On audible 4.14 2023 Hello Beautiful

author: Ann Napolitano
name: Alison
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/03/05
shelves:
review:
On audible
]]> Slow Dance 198530925
They were just friends. Best friends. Allies. They spent entire summers sitting on Shiloh’s porch steps, dreaming about the future. They were both going to get out of north Omaha—Shiloh would go to college and become an actress, and Cary would join the Navy. They promised each other that their friendship would never change.

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

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

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

The answer is yes. And yes. And yes.

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

It’s the story of Shiloh and Cary, who everyone thought would end up together, trying to find their way back to the start.]]> 400 Rainbow Rowell 0063380196 Alison 0 to-read 3.63 2024 Slow Dance

author: Rainbow Rowell
name: Alison
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Answered Prayers 146486527 Answered Prayers careens from a louche bar in Tangiers to a banquette at La Côte Basque, from literary salons to high-priced whorehouses. It takes in calculating beauties and sadistic husbands along with such real-life supporting characters as Colette, the Duchess of Windsor, Montgomery Clift, and Tallulah Bankhead. Above all, this malevolently funny book displays Capote at his wittiest and most observant.]]> 176 Truman Capote 0593731107 Alison 0 to-read 3.27 1986 Answered Prayers

author: Truman Capote
name: Alison
average rating: 3.27
book published: 1986
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Poverty, by America 61358638 Reimagining the debate on poverty, making a new and bracing argument about why it persists in America: because the rest of us benefit from it.

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

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

Elegantly written and fiercely argued, this compassionate book gives us new ways of thinking about a morally urgent problem. It also helps us imagine solutions. Desmond builds a startlingly original and ambitious case for ending poverty. He calls on us all to become poverty abolitionists, engaged in a politics of collective belonging to usher in a new age of shared prosperity and, at last, true freedom.]]> 304 Matthew Desmond 0593239911 Alison 4 4.27 2023 Poverty, by America

author: Matthew Desmond
name: Alison
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/10
date added: 2024/01/10
shelves:
review:

]]> Our Missing Hearts 60149573 A novel about a mother’s unbreakable love in a world consumed by fear.

Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet existence with his loving but broken father, a former linguist who now shelves books in a university library. Bird knows to not ask too many questions, stand out too much, or stray too far. For a decade, their lives have been governed by laws written to preserve “American culture�� in the wake of years of economic instability and violence. To keep the peace and restore prosperity, the authorities are now allowed to relocate children of dissidents, especially those of Asian origin, and libraries have been forced to remove books seen as unpatriotic—including the work of Bird’s mother, Margaret, a Chinese American poet who left the family when he was nine years old.

Bird has grown up disavowing his mother and her poems; he doesn’t know her work or what happened to her, and he knows he shouldn’t wonder. But when he receives a mysterious letter containing only a cryptic drawing, he is pulled into a quest to find her. His journey will take him back to the many folktales she poured into his head as a child, through the ranks of an underground network of librarians, into the lives of the children who have been taken, and finally to New York City, where a new act of defiance may be the beginning of much-needed change.]]> 335 Celeste Ng 0593492544 Alison 4 3.74 2022 Our Missing Hearts

author: Celeste Ng
name: Alison
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/31
date added: 2023/12/31
shelves:
review:

]]> Emma 6969 The newest edition is here. Another alternate cover can be found here.

Emma Woodhouse is one of Austen's most captivating and vivid characters. Beautiful, spoilt, vain and irrepressibly witty, Emma organizes the lives of the inhabitants of her sleepy little village and plays matchmaker with devastating effect.]]> 474 Jane Austen 0141439580 Alison 5
This is comedy, to me, and I don't take it seriously enough to get mad at Emma. She's funny and reminds me of many other interesting characters--and I think b/c she actually thinks she's doing the right thing--it's that genuine if not misguided spirit and lust for life that ultimately wins over me AND Mr. Knightley.]]> 4.05 1815 Emma

author: Jane Austen
name: Alison
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1815
rating: 5
read at: 2009/03/02
date added: 2023/12/23
shelves: guardians100greatest, rgbookclub
review:
Emma...love her...loathe her? The first time I read Emma, there was no "Clueless". This time, as I read, all I could think about was dead-on Alicia Silverstone. She was so preciously unaware of her own pretentiousness and ego. It was SO vain of her to want to match-make and make-over her sad little fashionless friends...or was it? Was she motivated by her own feelings of superiority or by good-will and a kind heart? I think a little bit of both (the ugly parts--unintentionally--it was the way she was brought up--a big fish in a small pond--much like being the queen of your high school) and I think that's what makes Emma such a complicated character (and who wants boring one-dimensional characters?).

This is comedy, to me, and I don't take it seriously enough to get mad at Emma. She's funny and reminds me of many other interesting characters--and I think b/c she actually thinks she's doing the right thing--it's that genuine if not misguided spirit and lust for life that ultimately wins over me AND Mr. Knightley.
]]> <![CDATA[Little Women (Little Women, #1)]]> 1934 This is an alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780451529305.

Generations of readers young and old, male and female, have fallen in love with the March sisters of Louisa May Alcott’s most popular and enduring novel, Little Women. Here are talented tomboy and author-to-be Jo, tragically frail Beth, beautiful Meg, and romantic, spoiled Amy, united in their devotion to each other and their struggles to survive in New England during the Civil War.

It is no secret that Alcott based Little Women on her own early life. While her father, the freethinking reformer and abolitionist Bronson Alcott, hobnobbed with such eminent male authors as Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne, Louisa supported herself and her sisters with "woman’s work,�� including sewing, doing laundry, and acting as a domestic servant. But she soon discovered she could make more money writing. Little Women brought her lasting fame and fortune, and far from being the "girl’s book�� her publisher requested, it explores such timeless themes as love and death, war and peace, the conflict between personal ambition and family responsibilities, and the clash of cultures between Europe and America.

]]> 449 Louisa May Alcott Alison 5 Adults: Four Stars

There was no GoodReads in 1987, so I can't tell you exactly how I felt after reading Little Women as a thirteen-year-old girl. Maybe I cried when Beth died. It's possible that when Jo refused Laurie time and time again, I finally threw the book against the wall in disgust.

Twenty-two years later (yikes!) Little Women is a very different experience. Marmee's preaching and Beth's saintly ways are over-the-top to me now. Alcott's somewhat extreme attempt to shape and mold young minds as they journey through life, overcoming their personal weaknesses (a la Pilgrim's Progress) even strikes me as somewhat unintentionally humorous at times.

Three things struck me as important about Little Women upon this reading. They are important to me because of where I've been and whom I am now, and they might not have any meaning to anyone else (isn't that a beautiful thing about books?)

1. I am crazy about Jo's fierce independence. I can 100% identify with her natural inclination and earnest desire to work, be productive, and support herself. I could totally hang with the Transcendentalists!

2. Little Women is a beautiful love story. Yes, angelic Beth dies. But I didn't cry real tears until upon hearing of her demise, Laurie rushes from Germany to Switzerland to be by Amy's side. "I think everthing was said and settled then, for as they stood together quite silent for a moment, with the dark head bent down protectingly over the light one, Amy felt that no one could comfort and sustain her so well as Laurie, and Laurie decided that Amy was the only woman in the world who could fill Jo's place and make him happy." Yes!

3. Little Women is for Little Women. Only a teenage girl can inhabit this sugary sweet world of domestic tranquility, where the women are so virtuous that even the men walk the straight and narrow, in fear of disapointing them or their mothers. Little Women is certainly a CLASSIC and will always remain dear to my heart, but now my excitement lies in the anticipation of my 8 year old girls' introduction to the March sisters, rather than in any personal re-reading.]]> 4.16 1868 Little Women (Little Women, #1)

author: Louisa May Alcott
name: Alison
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1868
rating: 5
read at: 2009/01/04
date added: 2023/12/23
shelves: guardians100greatest, rgbookclub
review:
Young adults: Five Stars
Adults: Four Stars

There was no GoodReads in 1987, so I can't tell you exactly how I felt after reading Little Women as a thirteen-year-old girl. Maybe I cried when Beth died. It's possible that when Jo refused Laurie time and time again, I finally threw the book against the wall in disgust.

Twenty-two years later (yikes!) Little Women is a very different experience. Marmee's preaching and Beth's saintly ways are over-the-top to me now. Alcott's somewhat extreme attempt to shape and mold young minds as they journey through life, overcoming their personal weaknesses (a la Pilgrim's Progress) even strikes me as somewhat unintentionally humorous at times.

Three things struck me as important about Little Women upon this reading. They are important to me because of where I've been and whom I am now, and they might not have any meaning to anyone else (isn't that a beautiful thing about books?)

1. I am crazy about Jo's fierce independence. I can 100% identify with her natural inclination and earnest desire to work, be productive, and support herself. I could totally hang with the Transcendentalists!

2. Little Women is a beautiful love story. Yes, angelic Beth dies. But I didn't cry real tears until upon hearing of her demise, Laurie rushes from Germany to Switzerland to be by Amy's side. "I think everthing was said and settled then, for as they stood together quite silent for a moment, with the dark head bent down protectingly over the light one, Amy felt that no one could comfort and sustain her so well as Laurie, and Laurie decided that Amy was the only woman in the world who could fill Jo's place and make him happy." Yes!

3. Little Women is for Little Women. Only a teenage girl can inhabit this sugary sweet world of domestic tranquility, where the women are so virtuous that even the men walk the straight and narrow, in fear of disapointing them or their mothers. Little Women is certainly a CLASSIC and will always remain dear to my heart, but now my excitement lies in the anticipation of my 8 year old girls' introduction to the March sisters, rather than in any personal re-reading.
]]> Disappearing Earth 34563821
Set on the remote Siberian peninsula of Kamchatka, Disappearing Earth draws us into the world of an astonishing cast of characters, all connected by an unfathomable crime. We are transported to vistas of rugged beauty �� densely wooded forests, open expanses of tundra, soaring volcanoes and the glassy seas that border Japan and Alaska �� and into a region as complex as it is alluring, where social and ethnic tensions have long simmered, and where outsiders are often the first to be accused.

In a story as propulsive as it is emotionally engaging, and through a young writer's virtuosic feat of empathy and imagination, this powerful novel provides a new understanding of the intricate bonds of family and community, in a Russia unlike any we have seen before.

Beautifully written, thought-provoking, intense and cleverly wrought, this is the most extraordinary first novel from a mesmerising new talent.]]> 312 Julia Phillips Alison 5 3.82 2019 Disappearing Earth

author: Julia Phillips
name: Alison
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/20
date added: 2023/12/20
shelves:
review:

]]> Seven Days of Us 33357622
For the next seven days, the Birches are locked down, cut off from the rest of humanity—and even decent Wi-Fi—and forced into each other’s orbits. Younger, unabashedly frivolous daughter Phoebe is fixated on her upcoming wedding, while Olivia deals with the culture shock of being immersed in first-world problems.

As Andrew sequesters himself in his study writing scathing restaurant reviews and remembering his glory days as a war correspondent, Emma hides a secret that will turn the whole family upside down.

In close proximity, not much can stay hidden for long, and as revelations and long-held tensions come to light, nothing is more shocking than the unexpected guest who’s about to arrive…]]> 368 Francesca Hornak Alison 4 3.57 2017 Seven Days of Us

author: Francesca Hornak
name: Alison
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/16
date added: 2023/12/16
shelves:
review:

]]> Great Circle 54976986 An alternate cover edition for ISBN 9780525656975 can be found here.

Spanning Prohibition-era Montana, the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, New Zealand, wartime London, and modern-day Los Angeles, Great Circle tells the unforgettable story of a daredevil female aviator determined to chart her own course in life, at any cost.

After being rescued as infants from a sinking ocean liner in 1914, Marian and Jamie Graves are raised by their dissolute uncle in Missoula, Montana. There—after encountering a pair of barnstorming pilots passing through town in beat-up biplanes—Marian commences her lifelong love affair with flight. At fourteen she drops out of school and finds an unexpected and dangerous patron in a wealthy bootlegger who provides a plane and subsidizes her lessons, an arrangement that will haunt her for the rest of her life, even as it allows her to fulfill her destiny: circumnavigating the globe by flying over the North and South Poles.

A century later, Hadley Baxter is cast to play Marian in a film that centers on Marian's disappearance in Antarctica. Vibrant, canny, disgusted with the claustrophobia of Hollywood, Hadley is eager to redefine herself after a romantic film franchise has imprisoned her in the grip of cult celebrity. Her immersion into the character of Marian unfolds, thrillingly, alongside Marian's own story, as the two women's fates—and their hunger for self-determination in vastly different geographies and times—collide. Epic and emotional, meticulously researched and gloriously told, Great Circle is a monumental work of art, and a tremendous leap forward for the prodigiously gifted Maggie Shipstead.]]> 608 Maggie Shipstead Alison 4
Great Circle says alot about the past and current role of women in society. It is the picture of a woman who wants to be free to leave the situation of her birth, follow her dreams, and achieve her goals, but how, in doing this, she has to either disguise herself as a man or fight endlessly to swim against the current.]]> 4.06 2021 Great Circle

author: Maggie Shipstead
name: Alison
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/04
date added: 2023/12/13
shelves:
review:
Epic book that alternates between an Amelia Earheart-type female pilot and her mission to circumnavigate the globe by plane (from top to bottom) and the young, Hollywood actress chosen to play her in a movie. I was hesitant to start this because, at 600 pages, I knew it would take me a while to read. This book was well-written and researched, interesting, and compelling, but I did find the last 200 pages a bit laborious to get through, and I was ready to be finished.

Great Circle says alot about the past and current role of women in society. It is the picture of a woman who wants to be free to leave the situation of her birth, follow her dreams, and achieve her goals, but how, in doing this, she has to either disguise herself as a man or fight endlessly to swim against the current.
]]> We Met in December 44285798 Following a year in the life of a twenty-something British woman who falls hard for her London flat mate, this clever, fun, and unforgettable romantic comedy is the perfect feel-good holiday read.

Two people. One house. A year that changes everything.����

Twenty-nine-year-old Jess is following her dream and moving to London. It’s December, and she’s taking a room in a crumbling, but grand,��Notting Hill house-share with four virtual��strangers. On her first night, Jess meets Alex, the guy sharing her floor, at a Christmas dinner hosted by her landlord. They don’t kiss, but as far as Jess is concerned the connection is clear. She starts planning how they will knock down the wall between them to spend more time together.

But when Jess returns from a two-week Christmas holiday, she finds��Alex has started dating someone else—beautiful Emma, who lives on the floor above them.��Now Jess faces a year of bumping into (hell, sharing a bathroom with) the man of her dreams…and the woman of his.]]> 400 Rosie Curtis 0062964577 Alison 3 3.32 2019 We Met in December

author: Rosie Curtis
name: Alison
average rating: 3.32
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/08
date added: 2023/12/08
shelves:
review:
Charming romp about two people changing career paths later in life that find each other as flatmates in London. This easy to read story about a new-to-London, new-to-the-publishing industry British female and a nursing school student chronicles a year in their lives.
]]> Tom Lake 63241104 In this beautiful and moving novel about family, love, and growing up, Ann Patchett once again proves herself one of America’s finest writers.

In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.

Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart. As in all of her novels, Ann Patchett combines compelling narrative artistry with piercing insights into family dynamics. The result is a rich and luminous story, told with profound intelligence and emotional subtlety, that demonstrates once again why she is one of the most revered and acclaimed literary talents working today.]]> 309 Ann Patchett 006332752X Alison 5 3.92 2023 Tom Lake

author: Ann Patchett
name: Alison
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/11/14
date added: 2023/11/14
shelves:
review:

]]> The Odyssey 1381 Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns
driven time and again off course, once he had plundered
the hallowed heights of Troy.

So begins Robert Fagles' magnificent translation of the Odyssey.

If the Iliad is the world's greatest war epic, then the Odyssey is literature's grandest evocation of everyman's journey though life. Odysseus' reliance on his wit and wiliness for survival in his encounters with divine and natural forces, during his ten-year voyage home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, is at once a timeless human story and an individual test of moral endurance.

In the myths and legends that are retold here, Fagles has captured the energy and poetry of Homer's original in a bold, contemporary idiom, and given us an Odyssey to read aloud, to savor, and to treasure for its sheer lyrical mastery.

Renowned classicist Bernard Knox's superb Introduction and textual commentary provide new insights and background information for the general reader and scholar alike, intensifying the strength of Fagles' translation.

This is an Odyssey to delight both the classicist and the public at large, and to captivate a new generation of Homer's students.

--

Robert Fagles, winner of the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, presents us with Homer's best-loved and most accessible poem in a stunning new modern-verse translation.]]> 541 Homer 0143039954 Alison 0 dnf, to-read 3.79 -700 The Odyssey

author: Homer
name: Alison
average rating: 3.79
book published: -700
rating: 0
read at: 2023/11/08
date added: 2023/11/08
shelves: dnf, to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Last Devil to Die (Thursday Murder Club, #4)]]> 75293475 It's rarely a quiet day for the Thursday Murder Club.

Shocking news reaches them �� an old friend has been killed, and a dangerous package he was protecting has gone missing.

The gang's search leads them into the antiques business, where the tricks of the trade are as old as the objects themselves. As they encounter drug dealers, art forgers, and online fraudsters �� as well as heartache close to home �� Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim have no idea whom to trust.

With the body count rising, the clock ticking down, and trouble firmly on their tail, has their luck finally run out?

And who will be the last devil to die?]]> 353 Richard Osman 0593299426 Alison 5 4.47 2023 The Last Devil to Die (Thursday Murder Club, #4)

The Last Devil to Die (Thursday Murder Club, #4)

author: Richard Osman
name: Alison
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/11/08
date added: 2023/11/08
shelves:
review:
Cozy. Charming. Wry. Poignant. I love this writing and I love these characters. Bonus points for including a symbolic fox (dear to me) on the cover and in the story.
]]> Romantic Comedy 62628727 A comedy writer thinks she’s sworn off love, until a dreamily handsome pop star flips the script on all her assumptions. Romantic Comedy is a hilarious, observant and deeply tender novel from New York Times–bestselling author Curtis Sittenfeld.

Sally Milz is a sketch writer for "The Night Owls," the late-night live comedy show that airs each Saturday. With a couple of heartbreaks under her belt, she’s long abandoned the search for love, settling instead for the occasional hook-up, career success, and a close relationship with her stepfather to round out a satisfying life.

But when Sally’s friend and fellow writer Danny Horst begins dating Annabel, a glamorous actor who guest-hosted the show, he joins the not-so-exclusive group of talented but average-looking and even dorky men at the show—and in society at large—who’ve gotten romantically involved with incredibly beautiful and accomplished women. Sally channels her annoyance into a sketch called the "Danny Horst Rule," poking fun at this phenomenon while underscoring how unlikely it is that the reverse would ever happen for a woman.

Enter Noah Brewster, a pop music sensation with a reputation for dating models, who signed on as both host and musical guest for this week’s show. Dazzled by his charms, Sally hits it off with Noah instantly, and as they collaborate on one sketch after another, she begins to wonder whether there might actually be sparks flying. But this isn’t a romantic comedy; it’s real life. And in real life, someone like him would never date someone like her...right?

With her keen observations and trademark ability to bring complex women to life on the page, Sittenfeld explores the neurosis-inducing and heart-fluttering wonder of love, while slyly dissecting the social rituals of romance and gender relations in the modern age.]]> 309 Curtis Sittenfeld 0399590943 Alison 5 3.60 2023 Romantic Comedy

author: Curtis Sittenfeld
name: Alison
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/10/22
date added: 2023/10/23
shelves:
review:
The anti-romantic comedy that is actually very funny and romantic in a real way. I haven't banged through a book this quickly in a very long time. I almost pulled back a star for our lead male being "too perfect" (did this man have any real flaws?), but the star was earned back by MULTIPLE mentions of the Indigo Girls (they were almost a character in the story). Five stars it is. Go listen to Dairy Queen.
]]> Mother-Daughter Murder Night 65646968
A lighthearted whodunnit about a grandmother-mother-daughter trio of amateur sleuths. Gilmore Girls , but with murder.

High-powered��businesswoman��Lana Rubicon��has a lot to be��proud her keen intelligence, impeccable taste, and the��L.A. real estate empire she’s built.��But when she finds herself trapped 300 miles��north of the city,��convalescing��in a��sleepy �� coastal town with her adult daughter��Beth��and teenage granddaughter Jack, Lana is stuck��counting otters instead of square footage—and hoping that boredom won’t kill her before the cancer does.��

Then Jack—tiny in stature but fiercely independent—happens upon a dead body while kayaking. She��quickly��becomes a suspect in��the��homicide investigation, and the Rubicon women are thrown into chaos. Beth��thinks Lana should focus on recovery, but Lana has��a better idea. She’ll pull on her wig,��find the true murderer, protect her family, and prove she still has power. With Jack and��Beth’s��help, Lana uncovers a web of lies, family vendettas, and land disputes lurking beneath the��surface��of a community populated by folksy conservationists and wealthy ranchers. But as��their amateur snooping advances into ever-more dangerous territory,��the��headstrong Rubicon women��must learn to do the one thing they’ve always depend on each other.]]> 357 Nina Simon 0063315041 Alison 3 3.52 2023 Mother-Daughter Murder Night

author: Nina Simon
name: Alison
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2023/10/15
date added: 2023/10/15
shelves:
review:
The writing wasn't bad but OY it took me forever to get through this mystery. I felt it dragged and the plot was almost too simple to be interesting.
]]> The Maid (Molly the Maid, #1) 55196813
Since Gran died a few months ago, twenty-five-year-old Molly has been navigating life's complexities all by herself. No matter—she throws herself with gusto into her work as a hotel maid. Her unique character, along with her obsessive love of cleaning and proper etiquette, make her an ideal fit for the job. She delights in donning her crisp uniform each morning, stocking her cart with miniature soaps and bottles, and returning guest rooms at the Regency Grand Hotel to a state of perfection.

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

A Clue-like, locked-room mystery and a heartwarming journey of the spirit, The Maid explores what it means to be the same as everyone else and yet entirely different—and reveals that all mysteries can be solved through connection to the human heart.]]> 304 Nita Prose 0593356152 Alison 3 3.71 2022 The Maid (Molly the Maid, #1)

author: Nita Prose
name: Alison
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/10/02
date added: 2023/10/02
shelves:
review:

]]> The Winners (Beartown, #3) 101159892 Return to the close-knit, resilient community of Beartown with this “engrossing page-turner�� (Woman’s World) about first loves, second chances, and last goodbyes—from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anxious People and A Man Called Ove.

Over the course of two weeks, everything in Beartown will change.

Two years have passed since the events that no one wants to think about. Everyone has tried to move on, but there’s something about this place that prevents it. The destruction caused by a ferocious late-summer storm reignites the old rivalry between Beartown and the neighboring town of Hed, a rivalry which has always been fought through their ice hockey teams.

Maya Andersson and Benji Ovich, two young people who left in search of a better life, come home and joyfully reunite with their closest childhood friends. There is a new sense of optimism and purpose in the town, embodied in the impressive new ice rink that has been built down by the lake.

Maya’s parents, meanwhile, are caught up in an investigation of the hockey club’s murky finances, and Amat—once the star of the Beartown team—has lost his way after an injury and a failed attempt to get drafted into the NHL. Simmering tensions between the two towns turn into acts of intimidation and then violence. All the while, a fourteen-year-old boy grows increasingly alienated from this hockey-obsessed community and is determined to take revenge on the people he holds responsible for his beloved sister’s death. He has a pistol and a plan that will leave Beartown with a loss that is almost more that it can stand.

Discover what it means to forgive with this “hell of a conclusion to an outstanding series�� (Booklist, starred review).]]> 673 Fredrik Backman 1982112808 Alison 0 to-read 4.48 2022 The Winners (Beartown, #3)

author: Fredrik Backman
name: Alison
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Lessons in Chemistry 58065033 390 Bonnie Garmus Alison 5 4.23 2022

author: Bonnie Garmus
name: Alison
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/08/04
date added: 2023/08/04
shelves:
review:

]]> The Shipping News 7354
A vigorous, darkly comic, and at times magical portrait of the contemporary American family, The Shipping News shows why E. Annie Proulx is recognized as one of the most gifted and original writers in America today.
(back cover)]]> 337 Annie Proulx 0743225422 Alison 1 3.88 1993

author: Annie Proulx
name: Alison
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1993
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2023/08/03
shelves:
review:

]]> Happy Place 61718053
They broke up six months ago. And still haven’t told their best friends.

Which is how they find themselves sharing the largest bedroom at the Maine cottage that has been their friend group’s yearly getaway for the last decade. Their annual respite from the world, where for one vibrant, blue week they leave behind their daily lives; have copious amounts of cheese, wine, and seafood; and soak up the salty coastal air with the people who understand them most.

Only this year, Harriet and Wyn are lying through their teeth while trying not to notice how desperately they still want each other. Because the cottage is for sale and this is the last week they’ll all have together in this place. They can’t stand to break their friends�� hearts, and so they’ll play their parts. Harriet will be the driven surgical resident who never starts a fight, and Wyn will be the laid-back charmer who never lets the cracks show. It’s a flawless plan (if you look at it from a great distance and through a pair of sunscreen-smeared sunglasses). After years of being in love, how hard can it be to fake it for one week�� in front of those who know you best?

A couple who broke up months ago make a pact to pretend to still be together for their annual weeklong vacation with their best friends in this glittering and wise new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.]]> 400 Emily Henry 0593441273 Alison 3 3.95 2023 Happy Place

author: Emily Henry
name: Alison
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/22
date added: 2023/07/22
shelves:
review:

]]> Maame 60784605 Shortlisted for the TikTok Book Awards in the Book of the Year, 2023 and the ŷ�� Debut and Fiction Book of the Year, 2023.

It’s fair to say that Maddie’s life in London is far from rewarding. With a mother who spends most of her time in Ghana (yet still somehow manages to be overbearing), Maddie is the primary caretaker for her father, who suffers from advanced stage Parkinson’s. At work, her boss is a nightmare and Maddie is tired of always being the only Black person in every meeting.

When her mum returns from her latest trip to Ghana, Maddie leaps at the chance to get out of the family home and finally start living. A self-acknowledged late bloomer, she’s ready to experience some important “firsts��: She finds a flat share, says yes to after-work drinks, pushes for more recognition in her career, and throws herself into the bewildering world of internet dating. But it's not long before tragedy strikes, forcing Maddie to face the true nature of her unconventional family, and the perils—and rewards—of putting her life on the line.

Smart, funny, and deeply affecting, Jessica George's Maame deals with the themes of our time with humor and poignancy: from familial duty and racism, to female pleasure, the complexity of love, and the life-saving power of friendship. Most important, it explores what it feels like to be torn between two homes and cultures―and it celebrates finally being able to find where you belong.]]> 320 Jessica George Alison 5 4.03 2023 Maame

author: Jessica George
name: Alison
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/12
date added: 2023/07/12
shelves:
review:

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