Cassandra's bookshelf: all en-US Fri, 02 May 2025 11:30:32 -0700 60 Cassandra's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Lies and Weddings 197144545 A forbidden affair erupts dramatically amid a decadent Hawaiian wedding in this hilarious, sophisticated, and thrillingly plotted story of love, money, murder, sex—and the lies we tell about them all.
Ěý
Rufus Leung Gresham, future Earl of Greshambury and son of a former Hong Kong supermodel, has a problem: his family fortune, the legendary Gresham Trust, has been depleted by decades of profligate spending. While magazine covers and Instagram stories display impeccably designed manors and shiny new yachts, the secret reality holds nothing more than a gargantuan mountain of debt. The only solution, put forth by Rufus’s scheming mother, is for Rufus to seduce a woman with money, thereby securing the family's precarious financial future.

Should he marry Solène de Courcy, a French hotel heiress with honey-blond tresses and a royal bloodline? Should he pursue Martha Dung, the tattooed venture capital genius who passes out billions like lollipops? Or should he follow his heart, betray his family, squander his legacy, and finally confess his love to the literal girl next door, the humble daughter of a doctor, Eden Tong?

When the Gresham family descends on the Big Island of Hawaii to host a veritable who's who of sultans, barons, and oligarchs for the wedding of the decade, Rufus must merely flex his famous abs to bewitch the heiress of his choice. But instead a hot mic exposes a secret tryst, a volcanic eruption burns through the nuptials, and the Gresham family's plans—and their reputation—go up in flames.

Can the once-great earldom rise from the ashes? Or will a secret tragedy, hidden for two decades, reveal a shocking twist? Spanning the black sand beaches of Hawaii, the red city of Marrakech, the Los Angeles bachelor pad of a billionaire playboy, and the inner sanctum of England’s oldest family estate, Lies and Weddings reveals an enthralling family saga that is as scandalous and satirical as it is full of heart.]]> 437 Kevin Kwan 0385546297 Cassandra 3 3.69 2024 Lies and Weddings
author: Kevin Kwan
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/05/02
date added: 2025/05/02
shelves:
review:

]]> Remarkably Bright Creatures 58733693 Remarkably Bright Creatures, an exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope, tracing a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus.

After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she's been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors--until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late.

Shelby Van Pelt's debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.]]> 368 Shelby Van Pelt 0063204150 Cassandra 4 4.35 2022 Remarkably Bright Creatures
author: Shelby Van Pelt
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/21
date added: 2025/04/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Practice Like This: 35 Effective Ways to Get Better Faster]]> 27384925
The strategies in this book are top-shelf, pulled from neuroscience, research on excellence, and world-class masters in many fields, presented in an easy-to-understand style that is sometimes funny and always friendly.

Hundreds of helpful images and graphics.

6 SECTIONS, 42 HACKS:
1-Talent Is Practice in Disguise: Learn the 3 kinds of practice and how your brain is rewired when you learn new skills.
2-Motivation Is Like Bathing (A daily requirement): Your deepest, unspoken beliefs profoundly affect your motivation to improve, ya filthy animal.
3-You Are Unique (and so is everybody else): Learn why your reaction to difficulty matters. And why teachers and coaches matter just as much.
4-Time: The Most Valuable Thing You Spend: Forget the 10,000-hour rule. Practice time isn’t what you’ve been led to believe, nor is it otherwise.
5-Where You At? Where you practice and who you’re with will affect how fast and how much you improve. What can you do about it?
6-Do it To it! Some of the most effective practice strategies and techniques: used by pros, tested by science!]]> 146 Jonathan Harnum Cassandra 0 to-read 3.96 Practice Like This: 35 Effective Ways to Get Better Faster
author: Jonathan Harnum
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.96
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Basic Music Theory: How to Read, Write, and Understand Written Music (4th ed.)]]> 6035144 447 Jonathan Harnum Cassandra 0 to-read 3.96 2001 Basic Music Theory: How to Read, Write, and Understand Written Music (4th ed.)
author: Jonathan Harnum
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Practice of Practice 22455887
This book covers essential practice strategies and mindsets you won’t find in any other book. Drawn from in-depth interviews with world-class professional musicians across several genres of music, published research, and personal experience with practice. You’ll learn the What, Why, When, Where, Who, and especially the How of great music practice. You’ll learn what research tells us about practice, but more importantly, you’ll learn how great musicians in many genres of music think about practice, and you’ll learn the strategies and techniques they use to improve. This book will help you get better faster, whether you play rock, Bach, or any other kind of music.

Whatever instrument you want to play, The Practice of Practice will help you get the most out of your practice. This book will help you become more savvy about getting better. It will also help you be a more informed teacher or a more effective parent of a young learner. Don’t practice longer, practice smarter.]]> 276 Jonathan Harnum Cassandra 0 to-read 4.43 2014 The Practice of Practice
author: Jonathan Harnum
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Measure 58884736
"A story of love and hope as interweaving characters display: how all moments, big and small, can measure a life. If you want joy, love, romance, and hope—read with us." —Jenna Bush Hager
A luminous, spirit-lifting blockbuster that asks: would you choose to find out the length of your life?

Eight ordinary people. One extraordinary choice.

It seems like any other day. You wake up, drink a cup of coffee, and head out.

But today, when you open your front door, waiting for you is a small wooden box. The contents of this mysterious box tells you the exact number of years you will live.

From suburban doorsteps to desert tents, every person on every continent receives the same box. In an instant, the world is thrust into a collective frenzy. Where did these boxes come from? What do they mean? Is there truth to what they promise?

As society comes together and pulls apart, everyone faces the same shocking choice: Do they wish to know how long they’ll live? And, if so, what will they do with that knowledge?

The Measure charts the dawn of this new world through an unforgettable cast of characters whose decisions and fates interweave with one another: best friends whose dreams are forever entwined, pen pals finding refuge in the unknown, a couple who thought they didn’t have to rush, a doctor who cannot save himself, and a politician whose box becomes the powder keg that ultimately changes everything.

Enchanting and deeply uplifting, The Measure is an ambitious, invigorating story about family, friendship, hope, and destiny that encourages us to live life to the fullest.]]> 353 Nikki Erlick 0063204207 Cassandra 5 3.96 2022 The Measure
author: Nikki Erlick
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/12
date added: 2025/04/13
shelves:
review:

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

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

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

Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind.]]> 560 Barbara Kingsolver Cassandra 5 4.46 2022 Demon Copperhead
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/31
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves:
review:

]]> The Life of Elves 28269953
Do two young girls have the power to change the world? Maria, raised by powerful older women, lives in a remote village in Burgundy, where she discovers her gift of clairvoyance, of healing and of communicating with nature. Hundreds of miles away in Italy, Clara discovers her musical genius and is sent from the countryside to Rome to nurture her extraordinary abilities.

Who are the mysterious elves? Will they succeed in training the girls for their higher purpose in the face of an impending war? Barbery’s The Life of Elves is the story of two children whose amazing talents will bring them into contact with magical worlds and malevolent forces. If, against all odds, they can be brought together, their meeting may shape the course of history.

Seven years after the publication of her international bestseller, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery returns with an inspiring novel about finding the divine in the domestic, about the quest for enchantment. With its cast of unforgettable characters, each fighting to preserve the idea of an enhanced life, The Life of Elves is a luminous novel about art, nature, dreams, the power of love, and how imagination can help us build a bridge to a better future.]]> 258 Muriel Barbery 1925240827 Cassandra 0 to-read 2.81 2015 The Life of Elves
author: Muriel Barbery
name: Cassandra
average rating: 2.81
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Single Rose 57251520 From the best-selling author of The Elegance of the Hedgehog comes a story about a woman's journey to discover the father she never knew and a love she never thought possible.

Rose has just turned forty when she gets a call from a lawyer asking her to come to Kyoto for the reading of her estranged father's will. And so for the first time in her life she finds herself in Japan, where Paul, her father's assistant, is waiting to greet her.

As Paul guides Rose along a mysterious itinerary designed by her deceased father, her bitterness and anger are soothed by the stones and the trees in the Zen gardens they move through. During their walks, Rose encounters acquaintances of her father--including a potter and poet, an old lady friend, his housekeeper and chauffeur--whose interactions help her to slowly begin to accept a part of herself that she has never before acknowledged.

As the reading of the will gets closer, Rose's father finally, posthumously, opens his heart to his daughter, offering her a poignant understanding of his love and a way to accept all she has lost.]]> 142 Muriel Barbery 1609456785 Cassandra 0 to-read 3.50 2020 A Single Rose
author: Muriel Barbery
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Birthday of the World and Other Stories (Hainish Cycle, #9)]]> 68021 362 Ursula K. Le Guin 0060509066 Cassandra 4 4.33 2002 The Birthday of the World and Other Stories (Hainish Cycle, #9)
author: Ursula K. Le Guin
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/25
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Queen of Sugar Hill: A Novel of Hattie McDaniel]]> 139506611 Bestselling author ReShonda Tate presents a fascinating fictional portrait of Hattie McDaniel, one of Hollywood’s most prolific but woefully underappreciated stars—and the first Black person ever to win an Oscar for her role as Mammy in the critically acclaimed film classic Gone With the Wind.

It was supposed to be the highlight of her career, the pinnacle for which she’d worked all her life. And as Hattie McDaniel took the stage in 1940 to claim an honor that would make her the first African-American woman to win an Academy Award, she tearfully took her place in history. Between personal triumphs and tragedies, heartbreaking losses, and severe setbacks, this historic night of winning best supporting actress for her role as the sassy Mammy in the controversial movie Gone With the Wind was going to be life-changing.

Or so she thought.

Months after winning the award, not only did the Oscar curse set in where Hattie couldn’t find work, but she found herself thrust in the middle of two worlds—Black and White—and not being welcomed in either. Whites only saw her as Mammy and Blacks detested the demeaning portrayal.

As the NAACP waged an all-out war against Hattie and actors like her, the emotionally conflicted actor found herself struggling daily. Through it all, Hattie continued her fight to pave a path for other Negro actors, while focusing on war efforts, fighting housing discrimination, and navigating four failed marriages. Luckily, she had a core group of friends to help her out—from Clark Gable to Louise Beavers to Ruby Berkley Goodwin and Dorothy Dandridge.

The Queen of Sugar Hill brings to life the powerful story of one woman who was driven by many passions—ambition, love, sex, family, friendship, and equality. In re-creating Hattie’s story, ReShonda Tate delivers an unforgettable novel of resilience, dedication, and determination—about what it takes to achieve your dreams—even when everything—and everyone—is against you.]]> 432 ReShonda Tate 006329107X Cassandra 4 3.82 2024 The Queen of Sugar Hill: A Novel of Hattie McDaniel
author: ReShonda Tate
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/24
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Dare I Say It: Everything I Wish I'd Known About Menopause]]> 216351864
At thirty-six, Naomi Watts had just completed filming King Kong and was trying to start a family when she was told that she was on the brink of menopause. It is estimated that seventy-five million women in the United States are currently dealing with menopause symptoms (dry itchy skin, raging hormones, night sweats), and yet the very word “menopause� continues to be associated with stigma and confusion. With so little information, many women feel unprepared, ashamed, and deeply alone when the time comes.

This is the book Naomi Watts wishes she had when she first started experiencing symptoms. Like sitting down over coffee and having an intimate chat with your girlfriend, Dare I Say It blends funny and poignant stories from Naomi and her friends with advice from doctors, hormone experts, and nutritionists to take the secrecy and shame out of menopause and aging. Answering questions such as: What’s hormone therapy and should I be on it? Will I ever sleep again? Will I get myself back? What happened to my libido? Do I need eighteen serums for my aging skin? Whose body is this anyway? Who am I now? Naomi Watts shares the most up-to-date research on how to manage menopause symptoms and tackle the physical and emotional challenges we encounter as we age.

Irreverent, bold, and reassuring, Dare I Say It is the companion every woman needs to embrace the best version of herself as she moves into what can be the most powerful and satisfying period of her life.]]> 256 Naomi Watts 059372903X Cassandra 0 to-read 3.96 2025 Dare I Say It: Everything I Wish I'd Known About Menopause
author: Naomi Watts
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The World We Make (Great Cities, #2)]]> 60399181 Four-time Hugo Award-winning andĚýNew York TimesĚýbestselling author N.K. Jemisin craftsĚýa glorious taleĚýof identity,Ěýresistance, magic andĚýmyth.

AllĚýis not well in the city that never sleeps.ĚýEven thoughĚýthe avatars of New York CityĚýhaveĚýtemporarily managed to stop the Woman in White from invading—and destroying the entire universe in the process—the mysterious capital "E" Enemy has more subtle powers at her disposal. A new candidate for mayor wielding the populist rhetoric ofĚýgentrification, xenophobia, and "law and order"Ěýmay have what it takes to change the very nature of New York itself and take it down from the inside.Ěý

In order to defeat him, and the Enemy who holds his purse strings,Ěýthe avatars will have to join together with the other Great Cities of the world in order to bring her down for good and protect their world from complete destruction.

N.K. Jemisin’s Great Cities Duology, which began withĚýThe City We BecameĚýand concludes withĚýThe World We Make, is a masterpiece of speculative fiction from one of the most importantĚýwriters of her generation.
]]> 357 N.K. Jemisin 035651269X Cassandra 0 to-read 4.05 2022 The World We Make (Great Cities, #2)
author: N.K. Jemisin
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Thistlefoot 60018639
Thistlefoot, as the house is called, has arrived from the Yagas' ancestral home in Russia--but not alone. A sinister figure known only as the Longshadow Man has tracked it to American shores, bearing with him violent secrets from the past: fiery memories that have hidden in Isaac and Bellatine's blood for generations. As the Yaga siblings embark with Thistlefoot on a final cross-country tour of their family's traveling theater show, the Longshadow Man follows in relentless pursuit, seeding destruction in his wake. Ultimately, time, magic, and legacy must collide--erupting in a powerful conflagration to determine who gets to remember the past and craft a new future.

An enchanted adventure illuminated by Jewish myth and adorned with lyrical prose as tantalizing and sweet as briar berries, Thistlefoot is an immersive modern fantasy saga by a bold new talent.]]> 448 GennaRose Nethercott 059346883X Cassandra 0 to-read 3.92 2022 Thistlefoot
author: GennaRose Nethercott
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (The Wicked Years, #1)]]> 37442 Alternative cover edition of ISBN 9780060987107

When Dorothy triumphed over the Wicked Witch of the West in L. Frank Baum's classic tale, we heard only her side of the story. But what about her arch-nemesis, the mysterious witch? Where did she come from? How did she become so wicked? And what is the true nature of evil?

Gregory Maguire creates a fantasy world so rich and vivid that we will never look at Oz the same way again. Wicked is about a land where animals talk and strive to be treated like first-class citizens, Munchkinlanders seek the comfort of middle-class stability and the Tin Man becomes a victim of domestic violence. And then there is the little green-skinned girl named Elphaba, who will grow up to be the infamous Wicked Witch of the West, a smart, prickly and misunderstood creature who challenges all our preconceived notions about the nature of good and evil.

]]> 406 Gregory Maguire Cassandra 3 3.52 1995 Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (The Wicked Years, #1)
author: Gregory Maguire
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.52
book published: 1995
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/22
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves:
review:

]]> Yellowface 62047984
So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? This piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller. That is what June believes, and The New York Times bestseller list agrees.

But June cannot escape Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens her stolen success. As she races to protect her secret she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.]]> 319 R.F. Kuang 000853277X Cassandra 3 3.69 2023 Yellowface
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/19
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Feminist Killjoy Handbook: The Radical Potential of Getting in the Way]]> 103489828 A renowned feminist thinker argues we need to get in the way of happiness, our own and other people’s, to build a more just worldĚý

Do you refuse to laugh at offensive jokes? Have you ever been accused of ruining dinner by pointing out your companion’s sexist comment? Are you often told to stop being so “wokeâ€�? If so, you might be a feminist killjoy—and this handbook is for you. In this book, feminist theorist Sara Ahmed shows how killing joy can be a radical world-making project.Ěý

Presenting sharp analysis of literature, film, and influential feminist works, and drawing on her own experiences as a queer feminist scholar-activist of color, Ahmed reveals the invaluable lessons of the feminist killjoy, from the importance of asking questions to the power of the eye roll. The Feminist Killjoy Handbook offers an outstretched hand to feminist killjoys everywhere and an essential intellectual guide to the transformative power of getting in the way.Ěý]]> 304 Sara Ahmed 1541603753 Cassandra 0 to-read 3.93 2023 The Feminist Killjoy Handbook: The Radical Potential of Getting in the Way
author: Sara Ahmed
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America]]> 59951373 368 Dahlia Lithwick 0525561390 Cassandra 0 to-read 4.39 2022 Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America
author: Dahlia Lithwick
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman]]> 33257571 From celebrity gossip expert and BuzzFeed culture writer Anne Helen Petersen comes an accessible, analytical look at how female celebrities are pushing boundaries of what it means to be an "acceptable" woman.

You know the type: the woman who won't shut up, who's too brazen, too opinionated--too much. It's not that she's an outcast (she might even be your friend or your wife, or your mother) so much as she's a social variable. Sometimes, she's the life of the party; others, she's the center of gossip. She's the unruly woman, and she's one of the most provocative, powerful forms of womanhood today.

There have been unruly women for as long as there have been boundaries of what constitutes acceptable "feminine" behavior, but there's evidence that she's on the rise--more visible and less easily dismissed--than ever before. In Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud, Anne Helen Petersen uses the lens of "unruliness" to explore the ascension of eleven contemporary powerhouses: Serena Williams, Melissa McCarthy, Abbi Jacobson, Ilana Glazer, Nicki Minaj, Kim Kardashian, Hillary Clinton, Caitlyn Jenner, Jennifer Weiner, and Lena Dunham.

Petersen explores why the public loves to love (and hate) these controversial figures, each of whom has been conceived as "too" something: too queer, too strong, too honest, too old, too pregnant, too shrill, too much. With its brisk, incisive analysis, Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud will be a conversation-starting book on what makes and breaks celebrity today.]]> 234 Anne Helen Petersen 0399576851 Cassandra 0 to-read 3.75 2017 Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman
author: Anne Helen Petersen
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[It's Not Hysteria: Everything You Need to Know About Your Reproductive Health (But Were Never Told)]]> 195790756 An inclusive and essential guide to reproductive health—including period problems, pelvic pain, menopause, fertility, sexual health, vaginal and urinary conditions, and overall wellbeing―from leading expert Dr. Karen Tang

Reproductive healthcare, from abortion to gender-affirming care, is under siege. The onus continues to fall on patients to find and advocate for the care they need. Dr. Karen Tang is on a mission to transform how women engage with their bodies and their healthcare.

Did you know that one in three women experiences menstrual abnormalities or pelvic issues, yet these conditions are overwhelmingly misunderstood, misdiagnosed, or dismissed? The root causes for these issues, such as polycystic ovary syndrome, endometriosis, fibroids, ovarian cysts, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, and pelvic-floor muscle dysfunction, don’t receive the stream of funding for research and new treatments that other conditions do, despite the potential to affect up to half the population.

It’s Not Hysteria is a comprehensive guide to common conditions and potential treatment options, with practical tools such as symptom prompts and sample questions to ask one's provider. In the face of uncertainty and misinformation, It’s Not Hysteria is destined to become a new classic that educates and empowers.]]> 384 Karen Tang 1250894158 Cassandra 0 to-read 4.19 2024 It's Not Hysteria: Everything You Need to Know About Your Reproductive Health (But Were Never Told)
author: Karen Tang
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The War of Two Queens (Blood and Ash, #4)]]> 58545515 From the desperation of golden crowns�

Casteel Da’Neer knows all too well that very few are as cunning or vicious as the Blood Queen, but no one, not even him, could’ve prepared for the staggering revelations. The magnitude of what the Blood Queen has done is almost unthinkable.

And born of mortal flesh�

Nothing will stop Poppy from freeing her King and destroying everything the Blood Crown stands for. With the strength of the Primal of Life’s guards behind her, and the support of the wolven, Poppy must convince the Atlantian generals to make war her way—because there can be no retreat this time. Not if she has any hope of building a future where both kingdoms can reside in peace.

A great primal power rises�

Together, Poppy and Casteel must embrace traditions old and new to safeguard those they hold dear—to protect those who cannot defend themselves. But war is only the beginning. Ancient primal powers have already stirred, revealing the horror of what began eons ago. To end what the Blood Queen has begun, Poppy might have to become what she has been prophesied to be—what she fears the most.

As the Harbinger of Death and Destruction.]]> 645 Jennifer L. Armentrout 1952457734 Cassandra 0 to-read 4.17 2022 The War of Two Queens (Blood and Ash, #4)
author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[When the Moon Hatched (Moonfall, #1)]]> 210714656
�'An absolutely stunning fantasy world� Raven Kennedy, author of international bestseller, The Plated Prisoner Series

â€A wild ride that thrills as much as it enchants â€� An instant classicâ€� Thea Guanzon, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Hurricane Wars

He's fire and brimstone.
I'm shattered ice �
I'll gladly burn beneath him until the world comes crumbling down.
As an assassin for the rebellion, Raeve’s job is to complete orders and never get caught. When a rival bounty hunter shatters her world, Raeve finds herself captured by the Guild of Nobles � a group of powerful fae.

Crushed by the loss of his great love, dragon rider Kaan Vaegor took the head of a king and donned his melted crown. Now on a tireless quest to quell the never-ebbing ache in his chest, a clue lures him into the capital’s high-security prison where he stumbles upon the imprisoned Raeve �

Together, they seek truths that threaten to unravel everything they knew about their world � and each other.

Bestselling sensation When the Moon Hatched will transport you into a world filled with magic, dragons and a love that blazes through the ages…]]> 576 Sarah A. Parker 0008710228 Cassandra 0 to-read 3.90 2024 When the Moon Hatched (Moonfall, #1)
author: Sarah A. Parker
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches]]> 60018635 A warm and uplifting novel about an isolated witch whose opportunity to embrace a quirky new family--and a new love--changes the course of her life.

As one of the few witches in Britain, Mika Moon knows she has to hide her magic, keep her head down, and stay away from other witches so their powers don't mingle and draw attention. And as an orphan who lost her parents at a young age and was raised by strangers, she's used to being alone and she follows the rules...with one exception: an online account, where she posts videos pretending to be a witch. She thinks no one will take it seriously.

But someone does. An unexpected message arrives, begging her to travel to the remote and mysterious Nowhere House to teach three young witches how to control their magic. It breaks all of the rules, but Mika goes anyway, and is immediately tangled up in the lives and secrets of not only her three charges, but also an absent archaeologist, a retired actor, two long-suffering caretakers, and...Jamie. The handsome and prickly librarian of Nowhere House would do anything to protect the children, and as far as he's concerned, a stranger like Mika is a threat. An irritatingly appealing threat.

As Mika begins to find her place at Nowhere House, the thought of belonging somewhere begins to feel like a real possibility. But magic isn't the only danger in the world, and when a threat comes knocking at their door, Mika will need to decide whether to risk everything to protect a found family she didn't know she was looking for....
]]> 318 Sangu Mandanna 059343935X Cassandra 0 to-read 4.04 2022 The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches
author: Sangu Mandanna
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Death of the Author 214329001 The future of storytelling is here.

Life has thrown Zelu some curveballs over the years, but when she's suddenly dropped from her university job and her latest novel is rejected, all in the middle of her sister's wedding, her life is upended. Disabled, unemployed and from a nosy, high-achieving, judgmental family, she's not sure what comes next.

In her hotel room that night, she takes the risk that will define her life - she decides to write a book VERY unlike her others. A science fiction drama about androids and AI after the extinction of humanity. And everything changes.

What follows is a tale of love and loss, fame and infamy, of extraordinary events in one world, and another. And as Zelu's life evolves, the lines between fiction and reality begin to blur.

Because sometimes a story really does have the power to reshape the world.]]> 448 Nnedi Okorafor 0063391155 Cassandra 0 to-read 4.03 2025 Death of the Author
author: Nnedi Okorafor
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Sky Full of Elephants 207293815 In this exquisite speculative novel set in a world where white people no longer exist, college professor Charlie Brunton receives a call from his estranged daughter Sidney, setting off a chain of events as they journey across a truly “post-racial� America in search of answers.

One day, a cataclysmic event occurs: all of the white people in America walk into the nearest body of water. A year later, Charles Brunton is a Black man living in an entirely new world. Having served time in prison for a wrongful conviction, he’s now a professor of electric and solar power systems at Howard University when he receives a call from someone he wasn’t even sure existed: his daughter Sidney, a nineteen-year-old who watched her white mother and step-family drown themselves in the lake behind their house.

Traumatized by the event, and terrified of the outside world, Sidney has spent a year in isolation in Wisconsin. Desperate for help, she turns to the father she never met, a man she has always resented. Sidney and Charlie meet for the first time as they embark on a journey across America headed for Alabama, where Sidney believes she may still have some family left. But neither Sidney or Charlie is prepared for this new world and how they see themselves in it.

When they enter the Kingdom of Alabama, everything Charlie and Sidney thought they knew about themselves, and the world, will be turned upside down. Brimming with heart and humor, Cebo Campbell’s astonishing debut novel is about the power of community and connection, about healing and self-actualization, and a reckoning with what it means to be Black in America, in both their world and ours.]]> 304 Cebo Campbell 1668034921 Cassandra 0 to-read 3.82 2024 Sky Full of Elephants
author: Cebo Campbell
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/18
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 Cassandra 0 to-read 4.34 2023 The Covenant of Water
author: Abraham Verghese
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Ninth House (Alex Stern, #1) 43263680
Still searching for answers to this herself, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. These eight windowless “tombs� are well-known to be haunts of the future rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street and Hollywood’s biggest players. But their occult activities are revealed to be more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive.]]> 461 Leigh Bardugo 1250313074 Cassandra 0 to-read 4.00 2019 Ninth House (Alex Stern, #1)
author: Leigh Bardugo
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Babel 57945316 From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a historical fantasy epic that grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British Empire

Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.

1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel. The tower and its students are the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver-working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as the arcane craft serves the Empire's quest for colonization.

For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide . . .

Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?]]> 544 R.F. Kuang 0063021420 Cassandra 0 to-read 4.17 2022 Babel
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Where the Crawdads Sing 36809135
But Kya is not what they say. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life's lessons from the land, learning the real ways of the world from the dishonest signals of fireflies. But while she has the skills to live in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world—until the unthinkable happens.

In Where the Crawdads Sing, Owens juxtaposes an exquisite ode to the natural world against a profound coming of age story and haunting mystery. Thought-provoking, wise, and deeply moving, Owens’s debut novel reminds us that we are forever shaped by the child within us, while also subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.

The story asks how isolation influences the behavior of a young woman, who like all of us, has the genetic propensity to belong to a group. The clues to the mystery are brushed into the lush habitat and natural histories of its wild creatures.]]> 384 Delia Owens 0735219117 Cassandra 0 to-read 4.35 2018 Where the Crawdads Sing
author: Delia Owens
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Weyward 127280850
2019: Under cover of darkness, Kate flees London for ramshackle Weyward Cottage, inherited from a great aunt she barely remembers. With its tumbling ivy and overgrown garden, the cottage is worlds away from the abusive partner who tormented Kate. But she begins to suspect that her great aunt had a secret. One that lurks in the bones of the cottage, hidden ever since the witch-hunts of the 17th century.

1619: Altha is awaiting trial for the murder of a local farmer who was stampeded to death by his herd. As a girl, Altha’s mother taught her their magic, a kind not rooted in spell casting but in a deep knowledge of the natural world. But unusual women have always been deemed dangerous, and as the evidence for witchcraft is set out against Altha, she knows it will take all of her powers to maintain her freedom.

1942: As World War II rages, Violet is trapped in her family's grand, crumbling estate. Straitjacketed by societal convention, she longs for the robust education her brother receives––and for her mother, long deceased, who was rumored to have gone mad before her death. The only traces Violet has of her are a locket bearing the initial W and the word weyward scratched into the baseboard of her bedroom.

Weaving together the stories of three extraordinary women across five centuries, Emilia Hart's Weyward is an enthralling novel of female resilience and the transformative power of the natural world.]]> 392 Emilia Hart 1250842727 Cassandra 0 to-read 4.02 2023 Weyward
author: Emilia Hart
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Lessons in Chemistry 58065033 390 Bonnie Garmus Cassandra 0 to-read 4.23 2022 Lessons in Chemistry
author: Bonnie Garmus
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 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 Cassandra 0 to-read 3.54 2024 The Ministry of Time
author: Kaliane Bradley
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Mountain in the Sea 59808603 Humankind discovers intelligent life in an octopus species with its own language and culture, and sets off a high-stakes global competition to dominate the future.

Rumors begin to spread of a species of hyperintelligent, dangerous octopus that may have developed its own language and culture. Marine biologist Dr. Ha Nguyen, who has spent her life researching cephalopod intelligence, will do anything for the chance to study them.

The transnational tech corporation DIANIMA has sealed the remote Con Dao Archipelago, where the octopuses were discovered, off from the world. Dr. Nguyen joins DIANIMA’s team on the islands: a battle-scarred security agent and the world’s first android.

The octopuses hold the key to unprecedented breakthroughs in extrahuman intelligence. The stakes are high: there are vast fortunes to be made by whoever can take advantage of the octopuses� advancements, and as Dr. Nguyen struggles to communicate with the newly discovered species, forces larger than DIANIMA close in to seize the octopuses for themselves.

But no one has yet asked the octopuses what they think. And what they might do about it.

A near-future thriller about the nature of consciousness, Ray Nayler’s The Mountain in the Sea is a dazzling literary debut and a mind-blowing dive into the treasure and wreckage of humankind’s legacy.]]> 456 Ray Nayler 0374605955 Cassandra 5 3.87 2022 The Mountain in the Sea
author: Ray Nayler
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/17
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Psalm for the Wild-Built / A Prayer for the Crown-Shy (Monk & Robot #1-2)]]> 202149630 320 Becky Chambers 1637990979 Cassandra 5 4.41 A Psalm for the Wild-Built / A Prayer for the Crown-Shy (Monk & Robot #1-2)
author: Becky Chambers
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.41
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/31
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves:
review:

]]> Babylonia 210204151
When kings fall, queens rise.

Nothing about Semiramis's upbringing could have foretold her legacy or the power she would come to wield. A female ruler, once an orphan raised on the outskirts of an empire - certainly no one in Ancient Assyria would bend to her command willingly. Semiramis was a woman who knew if she wanted power, she would have to claim it.

There are whispers of her fame in Mesopotamian myth- Semiramis was a queen, an ambitious warrior, a commander whose reputation reaches the majestic proportions of Alexander the Great. Historical record, on the other hand, falls eerily quiet.

In her second novel, Costanza Casati brilliantly weaves myth and ancient history together to give Semiramis a voice, charting her captivating ascent to a throne no one promised her. The world Casati expertly builds is rich with dazzling detail and will transport her readers to the heat of the Assyrian Empire and a world long gone.]]> 448 Costanza Casati 1464228213 Cassandra 0 to-read 4.07 2024 Babylonia
author: Costanza Casati
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Inciting Joy: Essays 59892269 The Book of Delights

In these gorgeously written and timely pieces, prizewinning poet and author Ross Gay considers the joy we incite when we care for each other, especially during life’s inevitable hardships. Throughout Inciting Joy, he explores how we can practice recognizing that connection, and also, crucially, how we expand it.

In “We Kin� he thinks about the garden (especially around August, when the zucchini and tomatoes come on) as a laboratory of mutual aid; in “Share Your Bucket� he explores skateboarding’s reclamation of public space; he considers the costs of masculinity in “Grief Suite�; and in “Through My Tears I Saw,� he recognizes what was healed in caring for his father as he was dying.

In an era when divisive voices take up so much air space, Inciting Joy offers a vital What might be possible if we turn our attention to what brings us together, to what we love? Full of energy, curiosity, and compassion, Inciting Joy is essential reading from one of our most brilliant writers.]]> 256 Ross Gay 1643753045 Cassandra 0 currently-reading 4.13 Inciting Joy: Essays
author: Ross Gay
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.13
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Matchless 36642303 Gregory Maguire Cassandra 3 3.44 2009 Matchless
author: Gregory Maguire
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/31
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants]]> 17465709 Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these lenses of knowledge together to show that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings are we capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learning to give our own gifts in return.]]> 408 Robin Wall Kimmerer 1571313354 Cassandra 0 currently-reading 4.52 2013 Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
author: Robin Wall Kimmerer
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/17
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Live Life in Crescendo: Your Most Important Work is Always Ahead of You]]> 59736181 - Девять проŃŃ‚Ń‹Ń… и важных поŃŃ‚Ńлатов, позволяющих изменить жизнь Đş Đ»ŃчŃĐµĐĽŃ Đ˛ любом возраŃте, при любом Ńоциальном положении
- МножеŃтво мотивирŃющих кейŃов, вдохновивŃих Ń‚Ń‹Ńячи людей
- ВолнŃющий и трогательный раŃŃказ Синтии Кови Хэллер, ŃŃ‚Đ°Ń€Ńей дочери Стивена Đ . Кови, Đľ том, каким человеком был ее отец и ĐżĐľŃ‡ĐµĐĽŃ ĐµĐłĐľ Ń‚Đ°Đş любили не только близкие, но и вŃе, ĐşĐľĐĽŃ ĐżĐľŃчаŃтливилоŃŃŚ общатьŃŃŹ Ń Đ˝Đ¸ĐĽ

О чем

ВыдающийŃŃŹ ŃпециалиŃŃ‚ в облаŃти лидерŃтва, автор «Семи навыков выŃокоэффектив]]> Stephen R. Covey 1398516589 Cassandra 4 3.92 Live Life in Crescendo: Your Most Important Work is Always Ahead of You
author: Stephen R. Covey
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.92
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/15
date added: 2024/11/15
shelves:
review:

]]> The Crane Husband 60784308 Award-winning author Kelly Barnhill brings her singular talents to The Crane Husband, a raw, powerful story of love, sacrifice, and family.

“Mothers fly away like migrating birds. This is why farmers have daughters.�

A fifteen-year-old teenager is the backbone of her small Midwestern family, budgeting the household finances and raising her younger brother while her mom, a talented artist, weaves beautiful tapestries. For six years, it’s been just the three of them—her mom has brought home guests at times, but none have ever stayed.

Yet when her mom brings home a six-foot tall crane with a menacing air, the girl is powerless to prevent her mom letting the intruder into her heart, and her children’s lives. Utterly enchanted and numb to his sharp edges, her mom abandons the world around her to weave the masterpiece the crane demands.

In this stunning contemporary retelling of “The Crane Wife� by the Newbery Medal-winning author of The Girl Who Drank the Moon, one fiercely pragmatic teen forced to grow up faster than was fair will do whatever it takes to protect her family—and change the story.]]> 118 Kelly Barnhill 1250850975 Cassandra 3 3.87 2023 The Crane Husband
author: Kelly Barnhill
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/07
date added: 2024/11/07
shelves:
review:

]]> The Giver of Stars 43925876 From the author of Me Before You, set in Depression-era America, a breathtaking story of five extraordinary women and their remarkable journey through the mountains of Kentucky and beyond.

Alice Wright marries handsome American Bennett Van Cleve hoping to escape her stifling life in England. But small-town Kentucky quickly proves equally claustrophobic, especially living alongside her overbearing father-in-law. So when a call goes out for a team of women to deliver books as part of Eleanor Roosevelt’s new traveling library, Alice signs on enthusiastically.

The leader, and soon Alice’s greatest ally, is Margery, a smart-talking, self-sufficient woman who’s never asked a man’s permission for anything. They will be joined by three other singular women who become known as the Packhorse Librarians of Kentucky.

What happens to them–and to the men they love–becomes an unforgettable drama of loyalty, justice, humanity and passion. These heroic women refuse to be cowed by men or by convention. And though they face all kinds of dangers in a landscape that is at times breathtakingly beautiful, at others brutal, they’re committed to their job: bringing books to people who have never had any, arming them with facts that will change their lives.

Based on a true story rooted in America’s past, The Giver of Stars is unparalleled in its scope and epic in its storytelling. Funny, heartbreaking, enthralling, it is destined to become a modern classic–a richly rewarding novel of women’s friendship, of true love, and of what happens when we reach beyond our grasp for the great beyond.]]> 390 Jojo Moyes 0399562486 Cassandra 5 4.27 2019 The Giver of Stars
author: Jojo Moyes
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/29
date added: 2024/10/29
shelves:
review:

]]> The Undocumented Americans 41880092 One of the first undocumented immigrants to graduate from Harvard reveals the hidden lives of her fellow undocumented Americans in this deeply personal and groundbreaking portrait of a nation.

Writer Karla Cornejo Villavicencio was on DACA when she decided to write about being undocumented for the first time using her own name. It was right after the election of 2016, the day she realized the story she'd tried to steer clear of was the only one she wanted to tell. So she wrote her immigration lawyer's phone number on her hand in Sharpie and embarked on a trip across the country to tell the stories of her fellow undocumented immigrants--and to find the hidden key to her own.

Looking beyond the flashpoints of the border or the activism of the DREAMers, Cornejo Villavicencio explores the lives of the undocumented--and the mysteries of her own life. She finds the nation of singular, effervescent characters often reduced in the media to political pawns or nameless laborers. The stories she tells are not deferential or naively inspirational but show the love, magic, heartbreak, insanity, and vulgarity that infuse the day-to-day lives of her subjects.

In New York, we meet the undocumented workers who were recruited into the federally funded Ground Zero cleanup after 9/11. In Miami, we enter the ubiquitous botanicas, which offer medicinal herbs and potions to those whose status blocks them from any other healthcare options. In Flint, Michigan, we learn of demands for state ID in order to receive life-saving clean water. In Connecticut, Cornejo Villavicencio, childless by choice, finds family in two teenage girls whose father is in sanctuary. And through it all we see the author grappling with the biggest questions of love, duty, family, and survival.

In her incandescent, relentlessly probing voice, Cornejo Villavicencio combines sensitive reporting and powerful personal narratives to bring to light remarkable stories of resilience, madness, and death. Through these stories we come to understand what it truly means to be a stray. An expendable. A hero. An American.]]> 208 Karla Cornejo Villavicencio 0399592687 Cassandra 0 to-read 4.38 2020 The Undocumented Americans
author: Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Starling House 65213595 A grim and gothic new tale from author Alix E. Harrow about a small town haunted by secrets that can't stay buried and the sinister house that sits at the crossroads of it all.

Eden, Kentucky, is just another dying, bad-luck town, known only for the legend of E. Starling, the reclusive nineteenth-century author and illustrator who wrote The Underland--and disappeared. Before she vanished, Starling House appeared. But everyone agrees that it’s best to let the uncanny house―and its last lonely heir, Arthur Starling―go to rot.

Opal knows better than to mess with haunted houses or brooding men, but an unexpected job offer might be a chance to get her brother out of Eden. Too quickly, though, Starling House starts to feel dangerously like something she’s never had: a home.

As sinister forces converge on Starling House, Opal and Arthur are going to have to make a dire choice to dig up the buried secrets of the past and confront their own fears, or let Eden be taken over by literal nightmares.

If Opal wants a home, she’ll have to fight for it.]]> 320 Alix E. Harrow 1250799058 Cassandra 5 3.77 2023 Starling House
author: Alix E. Harrow
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/26
date added: 2024/10/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances]]> 22522808 New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman returns to dazzle, captivate, haunt, and entertain with this third collection of short fiction following Smoke and Mirrors and Fragile Things--which includes a never-before published American Gods story, "Black Dog," written exclusively for this volume.

In this new anthology, Neil Gaiman pierces the veil of reality to reveal the enigmatic, shadowy world that lies beneath. Trigger Warning includes previously published pieces of short fiction--stories, verse, and a very special Doctor Who story that was written for the fiftieth anniversary of the beloved series in 2013--as well "Black Dog," a new tale that revisits the world of American Gods, exclusive to this collection.

Trigger Warning explores the masks we all wear and the people we are beneath them to reveal our vulnerabilities and our truest selves. Here is a rich cornucopia of horror and ghosts stories, science fiction and fairy tales, fabulism and poetry that explore the realm of experience and emotion. In "Adventure Story"--a thematic companion to The Ocean at the End of the Lane--Gaiman ponders death and the way people take their stories with them when they die. His social media experience "A Calendar of Tales" are short takes inspired by replies to fan tweets about the months of the year--stories of pirates and the March winds, an igloo made of books, and a Mother's Day card that portends disturbances in the universe. Gaiman offers his own ingenious spin on Sherlock Holmes in his award-nominated mystery tale "The Case of Death and Honey". And "Click-Clack the Rattlebag" explains the creaks and clatter we hear when we're all alone in the darkness.

A sophisticated writer whose creative genius is unparalleled, Gaiman entrances with his literary alchemy, transporting us deep into the realm of imagination, where the fantastical becomes real and the everyday incandescent. Full of wonder and terror, surprises and amusements, Trigger Warning is a treasury of delights that engage the mind, stir the heart, and shake the soul from one of the most unique and popular literary artists of our day.]]> 310 Neil Gaiman 0062330268 Cassandra 4 3.90 2015 Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/22
date added: 2024/10/22
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Spindle Splintered (Fractured Fables, #1)]]> 56179356
Her best friend Charm is intent on making Zinnia's last birthday special with a full sleeping beauty experience, complete with a tower and a spinning wheel. But when Zinnia pricks her finger, something strange and unexpected happens, and she finds herself falling through worlds, with another sleeping beauty, just as desperate to escape her fate.]]> 119 Alix E. Harrow 1250765358 Cassandra 5 3.58 2021 A Spindle Splintered (Fractured Fables, #1)
author: Alix E. Harrow
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/19
date added: 2024/10/19
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Radical Candor: Be a Kickass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity]]> 29939161
"I raced through Radical Candor --It’s thrilling to learn a framework that shows how to be both a better boss and a better colleague. Radical Candor is packed with illuminating truths, insightful advice, and practical suggestions, all illustrated with engaging (and often funny) stories from Kim Scott’s own experiences at places like Apple, Google, and various start-ups. Indispensable." � Gretchen Rubin author of New York Times bestseller The Happiness Project

"Reading Radical Candor will help you build, lead, and inspire teams to do the best work of their lives. Kim Scott's insights--based on her experience, keen observational intelligence and analysis--will help you be a better leader and create a more effective organization." � Sheryl Sandberg author of the New York Times bestseller Lean In

"Kim Scott has a well-earned reputation as a kick-ass boss and a voice that CEOs take seriously. In this remarkable book, she draws on her extensive experience to provide clear and honest guidance on the fundamentals of leading others: how to give (and receive) feedback, how to make smart decisions, how to keep moving forward, and much more. If you manage people--whether it be 1 person or a 1,000--you need Radical Candor . Now." � Daniel Pink author of New York Times bestseller Drive

From the time we learn to speak, we’re told that if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. When you become a manager, it’s your job to say it--and your obligation.

Author Kim Scott was an executive at Google and then at Apple, where she worked with a team to develop a class on how to be a good boss. She has earned growing fame in recent years with her vital new approach to effective management, Radical Candor.

Radical Candor is a simple idea: to be a good boss, you have to Care Personally at the same time that you Challenge Directly. When you challenge without caring it’s obnoxious aggression; when you care without challenging it’s ruinous empathy. When you do neither it’s manipulative insincerity.

This simple framework can help you build better relationships at work, and fulfill your three key responsibilities as a leader: creating a culture of feedback (praise and criticism), building a cohesive team, and achieving results you’re all proud of.

Radical Candor offers a guide to those bewildered or exhausted by management, written for bosses and those who manage bosses. Taken from years of the author’s experience, and distilled clearly giving actionable lessons to the reader; it shows managers how to be successful while retaining their humanity, finding meaning in their job, and creating an environment where people both love their work and their colleagues.]]> 336 Kim Malone Scott 1250103509 Cassandra 0 currently-reading 4.05 2017 Radical Candor: Be a Kickass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity
author: Kim Malone Scott
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/14
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Balcony on the Moon: Coming of Age in Palestine]]> 29772839 Tasting the Sky left off, Balcony on the Moon follows Ibtisam Barakat through her childhood and adolescence in Palestine from 1972-1981 and chronicles her desire to be a writer. Ibtisam finds inspiration through writing letters to pen pals and from an adult who encourages her to keep at it, but the most surprising turn of all for Ibtisam happens when her mother decides that she would like to seek out an education, too. This memoir is a touching, at times funny, and enlightening look at the not often depicted daily life in a politically tumultuous area.

A Margaret Ferguson Book]]> 239 Ibtisam Barakat 0374302537 Cassandra 5 4.24 2016 Balcony on the Moon: Coming of Age in Palestine
author: Ibtisam Barakat
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/04
date added: 2024/10/04
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Stars and the Blackness Between Them]]> 36412998 Told in two distinct and irresistible voices, Junauda Petrus’s bold and lyrical debut is the story of two black girls from very different backgrounds finding love and happiness in a world that seems determined to deny them both.

Trinidad. Sixteen-year-old Audre is despondent, having just found out she’s going to be sent to live in America with her father because her strictly religious mother caught her with her secret girlfriend, the pastor’s daughter. Audre’s grandmother Queenie (a former dancer who drives a white convertible Cadillac and who has a few secrets of her own) tries to reassure her granddaughter that she won’t lose her roots, not even in some place called Minneapolis. “America have dey spirits too, believe me,� she tells Audre.

Minneapolis. Sixteen-year-old Mabel is lying on her bed, staring at the ceiling and trying to figure out why she feels the way she feels–about her ex Terrell, about her girl Jada and that moment they had in the woods, and about the vague feeling of illness that’s plagued her all summer. Mabel’s reverie is cut short when her father announces that his best friend and his just-arrived-from-Trinidad daughter are coming for dinner.

Mabel quickly falls hard for Audre and is determined to take care of her as she tries to navigate an American high school. But their romance takes a turn when test results reveal exactly why Mabel has been feeling low-key sick all summer and suddenly it’s Audre who is caring for Mabel as she faces a deeply uncertain future.

Junauda Petrus’s debut brilliantly captures the distinctly lush and lyrical voices of Mabel and Audre as they conjure a love that is stronger than hatred, prison, and death and as vast as the blackness between the stars.]]> 312 Junauda Petrus 052555548X Cassandra 0 to-read 4.25 2019 The Stars and the Blackness Between Them
author: Junauda Petrus
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Art of Doing Nothing: Simple Ways to Make Time for Yourself]]> 885297 Simple Ways to Make Time for Yourself

A culture of overachievers, we make things happen--and happen fast. While rushing along, though, the days seem to get shorter and shorter. If only time would hold still, just a little bit, to let us savor life's simplest moments. . . .
The Art of Doing Nothing will help to ease these beat-the-clock jitters. The stress-reducing techniques described here require no time, no skill, no commitment. A practical guide to rest and relaxation, it ushers us into a world where "being" is more compelling than "doing."

Beautifully illustrated with Erica Lennard's photographs, The Art of Doing Nothing gives us permission to celebrate idleness in all its mesmerizing forms. V�ronique Vienne's delightfully informative essays on the art of breathing, meditating, bathing, listening, waiting, and more offer useful tips on such skills as how to whistle, stay in the moment, take a nap, cure a cold, or watch the sun set over the horizon. Without further ado--and without feeling guilty--we learn to unwind, exhale, and, yes, stop and smell the roses.

Like Ira Gershwin, you will be delighted to discover that you've got plenty of nothin', and that nothin's plenty for you.]]> 96 Veronique Vienne 0609600745 Cassandra 0 to-read 3.75 1998 The Art of Doing Nothing: Simple Ways to Make Time for Yourself
author: Veronique Vienne
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Exhalation 48588075 For your 2009 Hugo Award
"Best Short Story" consideration
Ted Chiang’s "Exhalation"

As Published in

Eclipse Two:
New Science Fiction and Fantasy

Edited by Jonathan Strahan]]> 32 Ted Chiang Cassandra 0 to-read 4.24 Exhalation
author: Ted Chiang
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.24
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart: And Other Stories]]> 150247444
The stories in Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart are about the abomination that resides within us all. That churning, clawing, hungry the desire to be loved, and seen, and known. And the terror of those things to be loved too well, or not enough, or for long enough. To be laid bare before your sweetheart, to their horror. To be known and recognized as the monstrous thing you are.Ěý

Two young women working at a sinister roadside attraction called the Eternal Staircase explore its secrets—and their own doomed summer love. A group of witchy teens concoct the perfect plan to induce the hated new girl into their ranks. A woman moves into a new house with her acclaimed artist boyfriend and finds her body slowly shifting into something specially constructed to accommodate his needs and whims. And two outcasts, a vampire and a goat woman, find solace in each other, even as the world's lack of understanding might bring about its own end.

In these lush, beautifully written stories, GennaRose Nethercott explores love in all its diamond-dark facets to create a collection that will redefine what you see as a beast, and make you beg to have your heart broken.]]> 259 GennaRose Nethercott 0593314182 Cassandra 5 3.76 2024 Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart: And Other Stories
author: GennaRose Nethercott
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/08
date added: 2024/07/08
shelves:
review:

]]> The Truth About Owls 180999857 49 Amal El-Mohtar Cassandra 0 to-read 3.98 The Truth About Owls
author: Amal El-Mohtar
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.98
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Wing 45133317 8 Amal El-Mohtar Cassandra 0 to-read 3.43 Wing
author: Amal El-Mohtar
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.43
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Honey Month 8789052 These bewitching poems and stories unwind a fevered world of magic and longing and young women who chance the uncanny and gain wisdom beyond their years.]]> 82 Amal El-Mohtar 190788100X Cassandra 0 to-read 4.19 2010 The Honey Month
author: Amal El-Mohtar
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Welcome to Bordertown (Borderland, #8)]]> 9191899
Terri Windling's original Bordertown series was the forerunner of today's urban fantasy, introducing authors that included Charles de Lint, Will Shetterly, Emma Bull, and Ellen Kushner. In this volume of all-new work (including a 15-page graphic story), the original writers are now joined by the generation that grew up dreaming of Bordertown, including acclaimed authors Holly Black, Cassandra Clare, Cory Doctorow, Neil Gaiman, Catherynne M. Valente, and many more. They all meet here on the streets of Bordertown in more than twenty new interconnected songs, poems, and stories.]]> 544 Holly Black 0375867058 Cassandra 0 to-read 4.07 2011 Welcome to Bordertown (Borderland, #8)
author: Holly Black
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How to Be a Sister: A Love Story with a Twist of Autism]]> 7569875
How to Be a Sister begins when Eileen, after several years in New Mexico, has just moved back to the Pacific Northwest, where she grew up. Being 1,600 miles away had allowed Eileen to avoid the question that has dogged her since birth: What is she going to do about Margaret? Now, Eileen must grapple with this question once again as she tentatively tries to reconnect with Margaret. How can she have a relationship with someone who can't drive, send email, or telephone? What role will Eileen play in Margaret's life as their parents age, and after they die? Will she remain in Margaret's life, or walk away?

A deeply felt, impeccably written memoir, How to Be a Sister will speak to siblings, parents, friends, and teachers of people with autism and to anyone who sometimes struggles to connect with someone difficult or different.]]> 272 Eileen Garvin 1615190163 Cassandra 0 to-read 3.67 2010 How to Be a Sister: A Love Story with a Twist of Autism
author: Eileen Garvin
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Crow Talk 195430705
Frankie O’Neill and Anne Ryan would seem to have nothing in common. Frankie is a lonely ornithologist struggling to salvage her dissertation on the spotted owl following a rift with her advisor. Anne is an Irish musician far from home and family, raising her five-year-old, Aiden, who refuses to speak.

At Beauty Bay, a community of summer homes nestled on the shores of June Lake, in the remote foothills of Mount Adams, it’s off-season with most houses shuttered for the fall. But Frankie, adrift, returns to the rundown caretaker’s cottage that has been in the hardworking O'Neill family for generations—a beloved place and a constant reminder of the family she has lost. And Anne, in the wake of a tragedy that has disrupted her career and silenced her music, has fled to the neighboring house, a showy summer home owned by her husband's wealthy family.

When Frankie finds an injured baby crow in the forest, little does she realize that the charming bird will bring all three lost souls—Frankie, Anne, and Aiden—together on a journey toward hope, healing, and rediscovering joy. Crow Talk is an achingly beautiful story of love, grief, friendship, and the healing power of nature in the darkest of times.]]> 368 Eileen Garvin 0593473884 Cassandra 0 to-read 4.08 2024 Crow Talk
author: Eileen Garvin
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Smek for President! (Smek, #2)]]> 20706799
After Tip and J.Lo banished the Gorg from Earth, the pair is notorious—but not for their heroics. Instead, human Dan Landry has taken credit for conquering the Gorg, and the aliens known as the Boov blame J.Lo for ruining their colonization of the planet. Determined to clear his name, J.Lo and Tip head to New Boovworld, the aliens' new home on one of Saturn's moons. But their welcome isn't quite as warm as Tip and J.Lo would have liked, since J.Lo is now dubbed Public Enemy Number One.

With the help of a friendly flying billboard named Bill, a journey through various garbage chutes, a bit of time travel, and a slew of hilarious Boovish accents, Tip and J.Lo must fight to set the record straight and return home in one piece.

"This sequel shares the strengths of its the loving friendship between Tip and J.Lo, the respect for the absurd, and the social consciences of the teen protagonist and her ET BFF."� Kirkus Reviews

Don't miss the front story in this intergalactic adventure, The True Meaning of Smekday]]> 272 Adam Rex 1484709519 Cassandra 0 to-read 3.91 2015 Smek for President! (Smek, #2)
author: Adam Rex
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Unlicensed Magician 29440010
But children grow. And so does magic. And secrets long to be told.]]> 123 Kelly Barnhill 184863918X Cassandra 0 to-read 4.14 2015 The Unlicensed Magician
author: Kelly Barnhill
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Mrs. Sorensen and the Sasquatch]]> 22673568 32 Kelly Barnhill 1466869062 Cassandra 0 to-read 3.82 2014 Mrs. Sorensen and the Sasquatch
author: Kelly Barnhill
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Dreadful Young Ladies and Other Stories]]> 35489150 Ěý
ĚýWhen Mrs. Sorensen’s husband dies, she rekindles a long-dormant love with an unsuitable mate in “Mrs. Sorensen and the Sasquatch.â€� In “Open the Door and the Light Pours Through,â€� a young man wrestles with grief and his sexuality in an exchange of letters with his faraway beloved. “Dreadful Young Ladiesâ€� demonstrates the strength and power—known and unknown—of the imagination.Ěý In “Notes on the Untimely Death of Ronia Drake,â€� a witch is haunted by the deadly repercussions of a spell. “The Insect and the Astronomerâ€� upends expectations about good and bad, knowledge and ignorance, love and longing. The World Fantasy Award–winning novella The Unlicensed Magician introduces the secret magical life of an invisible girl once left for dead—with thematic echoes of Barnhill’s Newbery Medal–winning novel, The Girl Who Drank the Moon.]]> 304 Kelly Barnhill 1616207973 Cassandra 0 to-read 3.68 2018 Dreadful Young Ladies and Other Stories
author: Kelly Barnhill
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Iron Hearted Violet 13455485 In most fairy tales, princesses are beautiful, dragons are terrifying, and stories are harmless. This isn’t most fairy tales.

Princess Violet is plain, reckless, and quite possibly too clever for her own good. Particularly when it comes to telling stories. One day she and her best friend, Demetrius, stumble upon a hidden room and find a peculiar book. A forbidden book. It tells a story of an evil being—called the Nybbas—imprisoned in their world. The story cannot be true�not really. But then the whispers start. Violet and Demetrius, along with an ancient, scarred dragon, may hold the key to the Nybbas’s triumph . . . or its demise. It all depends on how they tell the story. After all, stories make their own rules.

Iron Hearted Violet is a story of a princess unlike any other. It is a story of the last dragon in existence, deathly afraid of its own reflection. Above all, it is a story about the power of stories, our belief in them, and how one enchanted tale changed the course of an entire kingdom.
]]> 424 Kelly Barnhill 0316056731 Cassandra 0 to-read 3.88 2012 Iron Hearted Violet
author: Kelly Barnhill
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Girl Who Drank the Moon 28110852
One year, Xan accidentally feeds a baby moonlight instead of starlight, filling the ordinary child with extraordinary magic. Xan decides she must raise this enmagicked girl, whom she calls Luna, as her own. To keep young Luna safe from her own unwieldy power, Xan locks her magic deep inside her. When Luna approaches her thirteenth birthday, her magic begins to emerge on schedule--but Xan is far away. Meanwhile, aĚýyoung man from the Protectorate is determined to free his people by killing the witch. Soon, it is up to Luna to protect those who have protected her--even if it means the end of the loving, safe world she’s always known.]]> 388 Kelly Barnhill 1616205679 Cassandra 0 to-read 4.11 2016 The Girl Who Drank the Moon
author: Kelly Barnhill
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Long Way Up 60451527
Content warnings: Depicts suicide, suicidal ideation, depression, car accidents.]]> 14 Alix E. Harrow Cassandra 0 to-read 4.20 2022 The Long Way Up
author: Alix E. Harrow
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Patience and Not-Forsaken 33872189 0 Alix E. Harrow 1536684880 Cassandra 0 to-read 3.44 Patience and Not-Forsaken
author: Alix E. Harrow
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.44
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Autobiography of a Traitor and a Half-Savage]]> 32815361
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 30 Alix E. Harrow 0765392313 Cassandra 0 to-read 4.09 2016 The Autobiography of a Traitor and a Half-Savage
author: Alix E. Harrow
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Mirror Mended (Fractured Fables, #2)]]> 58724595 A Mirror Mended is the next installment in USA Today bestselling author Alix E. Harrow's Fractured Fables series.

Zinnia Gray, professional fairy-tale fixer and lapsed Sleeping Beauty, is over rescuing snoring princesses. Once you’ve rescued a dozen damsels and burned fifty spindles, once you’ve gotten drunk with twenty good fairies and made out with one too many members of the royal family, you start to wish some of these girls would just get a grip and try solving their own narrative issues.

Just when Zinnia’s beginning to think she can't handle one more princess, she glances into a mirror and sees another face looking back at her: the shockingly gorgeous face of evil, asking for her help. Because there’s more than one person trapped in a story they didn’t choose. Snow White's Evil Queen has found out how her story ends, and she's desperate for a better ending. She wants Zinnia to help her before it’s too late for everyone. Will Zinnia accept the Queen's poisonous request and save them both from the hot-iron shoes that wait for them, or will she try another path?]]> 128 Alix E. Harrow 1250766648 Cassandra 0 to-read 3.72 2022 A Mirror Mended (Fractured Fables, #2)
author: Alix E. Harrow
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Six Deaths of the Saint (Into Shadow, #3)]]> 62991463
Always mindful of the debt she owes, the girl finds her worth as a weapon in the hand of the Prince. Her victories make him a king, then an emperor. The bards sing her name and her enemies fear it. But the war never ends and the cost keeps rising—how many times will she repeat her own story?]]> 31 Alix E. Harrow 166250957X Cassandra 0 to-read 4.32 2022 The Six Deaths of the Saint (Into Shadow, #3)
author: Alix E. Harrow
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Girl's Guide to Joining the Resistance: A Feminist Handbook on Fighting for Good]]> 35068842
Have recent events given you pause? Does Trump’s America make you fearful for the future of women? Do you want to become more involved in helping to preserve women’s rights but aren’t sure how? In A Girl’s Guide to Joining the Resistance, Emma Rose Gray, Executive Editor at The Huffington Post, outlines all that young women need to know on pivotal women’s rights issues and offers a blueprint for those who want to take a stand and participate in the cause.

This groundbreaking book � Background information on key issues so you can choose where you most want to take a stand.� A guide for learning about the first Amendment and how to choose good news sources and make sure you’re getting quality information.� Practical instructions on how to get involved and stay involved, with examples from the author’s own experience organizing the successful “Watch Us Run� conference. � Instructions for how to talk to your friend who says she’s “just not that political� and your relatives whose beliefs conflict with your own. � Advice for self-care and how to stay involved without exhausting yourself. � Extensive back-matter including numbers to call, organizations to email and donate to, and scripts for reaching out to representatives and organizations. � Interviews with experienced activists including senator Elizabeth Warren, actress Amber Tamblyn, actress Marlo Thomas, Women’s March Co-Chair Carmen Perez, Mother of the Movement Lucy McBath, Black Lives Matter creator Alicia Garza, People for Bernie Founder Winnie Wong, and former assistant to President Obama Tina Tchen. Featuring original 2-color illustrations throughout by New York Magazine’s Eva Hill, A Girl’s Guide to Joining the Resistance illuminates why the time has never been more important than now to get involved in helping to ensure women’s rights are protected for the current and future generations of women.]]> 136 Emma Rose Gray 0062748092 Cassandra 0 currently-reading 3.65 A Girl's Guide to Joining the Resistance: A Feminist Handbook on Fighting for Good
author: Emma Rose Gray
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.65
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/25
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> How Do You Live? 54110592 Anime master Hayao Miyazaki’s favorite childhood book, in English for the first time.

First published in 1937, Genzaburō Yoshino’s How Do You Live? has long been acknowledged in Japan as a crossover classic for young readers. Academy Award–winning animator Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Howl’s Moving Castle) has called it his favorite childhood book and announced plans to emerge from retirement to make it the basis of a final film.

How Do You Live? is narrated in two voices. The first belongs to Copper, fifteen, who after the death of his father must confront inevitable and enormous change, including his own betrayal of his best friend. In between episodes of Copper’s emerging story, his uncle writes to him in a journal, sharing knowledge and offering advice on life’s big questions as Copper begins to encounter them. Over the course of the story, Copper, like his namesake Copernicus, looks to the stars, and uses his discoveries about the heavens, earth, and human nature to answer the question of how he will live.

This first-ever English-language translation of a Japanese classic about finding one’s place in a world both infinitely large and unimaginably small is perfect for readers of philosophical fiction like The Alchemist and The Little Prince, as well as Miyazaki fans eager to understand one of his most important influences.]]> 288 Genzaburo Yoshino 1616209771 Cassandra 0 currently-reading 4.00 1937 How Do You Live?
author: Genzaburo Yoshino
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1937
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/20
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine]]> 35900387 No one’s ever told Eleanor that life should be better than fine.

Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy.

But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen on the sidewalk, the three become the kinds of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living. And it is Raymond’s big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one.

Soon to be a major motion picture produced by Reese Witherspoon, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is the smart, warm, and uplifting story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes. . .

The only way to survive is to open your heart. ]]> 390 Gail Honeyman 0008172145 Cassandra 4 4.17 2017 Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
author: Gail Honeyman
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/15
date added: 2024/04/15
shelves:
review:

]]> Breathing Book for Bassoon 89988199 0 Kristin Wolfe Jensen 1951624165 Cassandra 0 currently-reading 5.00 Breathing Book for Bassoon
author: Kristin Wolfe Jensen
name: Cassandra
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/05
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think]]> 32998876 450 Brianna Wiest Cassandra 0 currently-reading 3.74 2016 101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think
author: Brianna Wiest
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/05
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Art Matters: Because Your Imagination Can Change the World]]> 40090596
"The world always seems brighter when you've just made something that wasn't there before". (Neil Gaiman)

Drawn from Gaiman's trove of published speeches, poems and creative manifestos, 'ART MATTERS' is an embodiment of this remarkable multimedia artist's vision - an exploration of how reading, imagining, and creating can transform the world and our lives.

'ART MATTERS' brings together four of Gaiman's most beloved writings on creativity and artistry:

�1�
"CREDO", his remarkably concise and relevant manifesto on free expression, first delivered in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo shootings

�2�
"MAKE GOOD ART", his famous 2012 commencement address delivered at the Philadelphia University of the Arts

�3�
"MAKING A CHAIR", a poem about the joys of creating something, even when the words won't come

�4�
"ON LIBRARIES", an impassioned argument for libraries that illuminates their importance to our future and celebrates how they foster readers and daydreamers.

'ART MATTERS' is a stirring testament to the freedom of ideas that inspire us to make art in the face of adversity and dares us to choose to be bold.




RUNNING TIME � 49mins.

©2018 Neil Gaiman (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers]]> 95 Neil Gaiman 1472260090 Cassandra 5 4.27 2018 Art Matters: Because Your Imagination Can Change the World
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/02
date added: 2024/04/04
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[This Is How You Lose the Time War]]> 43352954 Burn before reading. Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, grows into something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future.

Except the discovery of their bond would mean death for each of them. There's still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win that war.]]> 209 Amal El-Mohtar Cassandra 5 3.86 2019 This Is How You Lose the Time War
author: Amal El-Mohtar
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/31
date added: 2024/03/31
shelves:
review:
Beautifully written and confusing as heck. Absolutely worth it.
]]> <![CDATA[˛Ń˛ął¦łÜ˛Ô˛ąĂ­łľ˛ą: The Hero with No Character]]> 61622860 ˛Ń˛ął¦łÜ˛Ô˛ąĂ­łľ˛ą, by Mário de Andrade. Written in 1927, ˛Ń˛ął¦łÜ˛Ô˛ąĂ­łľ˛ą is one of the most influential works in all of Brazilian literature. It follows the adventures of the shapeshifting ˛Ń˛ął¦łÜ˛Ô˛ąĂ­łľ˛ą and his brothers as they leave their home in the northern Amazon for a whirlwind tour of Brazil, cramming four centuries and a continental expanse into a single mythic plane. Having lost a magic amulet, the hero and his brothers journey to Sao Paulo to retrieve the talisman that has fallen into the hands of an Italo-Peruvian captain of industry (who is also a cannibal giant). ˛Ń˛ął¦łÜ˛Ô˛ąĂ­łľ˛ą was written over six delirious days–the fruit of years of study–and magically synthesizes dialect, folklore, anthropology, mythology, flora, fauna, and pop culture to examine the true Brazilian identity. This brilliant translation by Katrina Dodson is many years in the making and includes an extensive section of notes providing essential background information for this magnificent work.]]> 224 Mário de Andrade 0811227022 Cassandra 0 to-read 3.75 1928 ˛Ń˛ął¦łÜ˛Ô˛ąĂ­łľ˛ą: The Hero with No Character
author: Mário de Andrade
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1928
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Music of Bees 55198935 Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, following three lonely strangers in a rural Oregon town, each working through grief and life's curveballs, who are brought together by happenstance on a local honeybee farm where they find surprising friendship, healing--and maybe even a second chance--just when they least expect it.

Forty-four-year-old Alice Holtzman is stuck in a dead-end job, bereft of family, and now reeling from the unexpected death of her husband. Alice has begun having panic attacks whenever she thinks about how her life hasn't turned out the way she dreamed. Even the beloved honeybees she raises in her spare time aren't helping her feel better these days.

In the grip of a panic attack, she nearly collides with Jake--a troubled, paraplegic teenager with the tallest mohawk in Hood River County--while carrying 120,000 honeybees in the back of her pickup truck. Charmed by Jake's sincere interest in her bees and seeking to rescue him from his toxic home life, Alice surprises herself by inviting Jake to her farm.

And then there's Harry, a twenty-four-year-old with debilitating social anxiety who is desperate for work. When he applies to Alice's ad for part-time farm help, he's shocked to find himself hired. As an unexpected friendship blossoms among Alice, Jake, and Harry, a nefarious pesticide company moves to town, threatening the local honeybee population and illuminating deep-seated corruption in the community. The unlikely trio must unite for the sake of the bees--and in the process, they just might forge a new future for themselves.

Beautifully moving, warm, and uplifting, The Music of Bees is about the power of friendship, compassion in the face of loss, and finding the courage to start over (at any age) when things don't turn out the way you expect.]]> 322 Eileen Garvin 0593183924 Cassandra 5 4.01 2021 The Music of Bees
author: Eileen Garvin
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/06
date added: 2024/03/06
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Galaxy, and the Ground Within (Wayfarers, #4)]]> 50209317
At the Five-Hop One-Stop, long-haul spacers can stretch their legs (if they have legs, that is), and get fuel, transit permits, and assorted supplies. The Five-Hop is run by an enterprising alien and her sometimes helpful child, who work hard to provide a little piece of home to everyone passing through.

When a freak technological failure halts all traffic to and from Gora, three strangers—all different species with different aims—are thrown together at the Five-Hop. Grounded, with nothing to do but wait, the trio—an exiled artist with an appointment to keep, a cargo runner at a personal crossroads, and a mysterious individual doing her best to help those on the fringes—are compelled to confront where they’ve been, where they might go, and what they are, or could be, to each other.]]> 336 Becky Chambers 0062936050 Cassandra 5 4.37 2021 The Galaxy, and the Ground Within (Wayfarers, #4)
author: Becky Chambers
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/12
date added: 2024/02/12
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic]]> 75532088 For fans of Practical Magic and Gilmore Girls, The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic is a debut novel that explores the shields we build around our hearts to retain our own magic.

Sadie Revelare has always believed that the curse of four heartbreaks that accompanies her magic would be worth the price. But when her grandmother is diagnosed with cancer with only weeks to live, and her first heartbreak, Jake McNealy, returns to town after a decade, her carefully structured life begins to unravel.

With the news of their grandmother's impending death, Sadie's estranged twin brother Seth returns to town, bringing with him deeply buried family secrets that threaten to tear Sadie's world apart. Their grandmother has been the backbone of the family for generations, and with her death, Sadie isn't sure she'll have the strength to keep the family, and her magic, together.

As feelings for Jake begin to rekindle, and her grandmother growing sicker by the day, Sadie faces the last of her heartbreaks, and she has to decide: is love more important than magic?

Readers who love the magic of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake and the sense of community found in The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches will enjoy this warm, witchy novel.]]> 322 Breanne Randall 1639105735 Cassandra 2 3.16 2023 The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic
author: Breanne Randall
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.16
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2024/01/17
date added: 2024/01/17
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Rooster House: My Ukrainian Family Story]]> 61783855
In 2014, the landmarks of Victoria Belim’s personal geography were plunged into tumult at the hands of Russia. Her hometown Kyiv was gripped by protests and violent suppression. Crimea, where she’d once been sent to school to avoid radiation from the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, was invaded. Kharkiv, where her grandmother Valentina studied economics and fell in love; Donetsk, where her father once worked; and Mariupol, where she and her mother bought a cherry tree for Valentina’s garden all became battlegrounds.

A naturalized American citizen then living in Brussels, Belim felt she had to go back. She had to spend time with her aging grandmother and her cousin Dima. She had to unravel a family mystery spanning several generations. And she needed to understand how her country’s tragic history of communist revolution, civil war, famine, world war, totalitarianism, and fraught independence had changed the course of their lives.

The Rooster House is a beautifully written memoir of a family, a country’s past, and its dangerous present. It is about parents and children, true believers and victims, gardens and art, secrets and tragedy. Compulsively readable, deeply moving, and at times laugh-out-loud funny, it is a stunning debut book by an experienced, expressive, and gifted writer.]]> 304 Victoria Belim 1419767852 Cassandra 0 currently-reading 3.95 2022 The Rooster House: My Ukrainian Family Story
author: Victoria Belim
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/15
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> The True Meaning of Smekday 1194366
When twelve-year-old Gratuity (“Tip�) Tucci is assigned to write five pages on “The True Meaning of Smekday� for the National Time Capsule contest, she’s not sure where to begin. When her mom started telling everyone about the messages aliens were sending through a mole on the back of her neck? Maybe on Christmas Eve, when huge, bizarre spaceships descended on the Earth and the aliens � called Boov � abducted her mother? Or when the Boov declared Earth a colony, renamed it “Smekland� (in honor of glorious Captain Smek), and forced all Americans to relocate to Florida via rocketpod?

In any case, Gratuity’s story is much, much bigger than the assignment. It involves her unlikely friendship with a renegade Boov mechanic named J.Lo.; a futile journey south to find Gratuity’s mother at the Happy Mouse Kingdom; a cross-country road trip in a hovercar called Slushious; and an outrageous plan to save the Earth from yet another alien invasion.

Fully illustrated with “photos,� drawings, newspaper clippings, and comics sequences, this is a hilarious, perceptive, genre-bending novel by a remarkable new talent.]]> 426 Adam Rex 0786849002 Cassandra 3 4.10 2007 The True Meaning of Smekday
author: Adam Rex
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/07
date added: 2024/01/15
shelves:
review:

]]> Small Things Like These 58662236
Already an international bestseller, Small Things Like These is a deeply affecting story of hope, quiet heroism, and empathy from one of our most critically lauded and iconic writers.]]> 128 Claire Keegan 0802158749 Cassandra 3 4.13 2021 Small Things Like These
author: Claire Keegan
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/31
date added: 2023/12/31
shelves:
review:

]]> The Travelling Cat Chronicles 40961230
An instant international bestseller and indie bestseller, The Travelling Cat Chronicles has charmed readers around the world. With simple yet descriptive prose, this novel gives voice to Nana the cat and his owner, Satoru, as they take to the road on a journey with no other purpose than to visit three of Satoru's longtime friends. Or so Nana is led to believe...

With his crooked tail—a sign of good fortune—and adventurous spirit, Nana is the perfect companion for the man who took him in as a stray. And as they travel in a silver van across Japan, with its ever-changing scenery and seasons, they will learn the true meaning of courage and gratitude, of loyalty and love.]]> 281 Hiro Arikawa 0735235244 Cassandra 4 4.35 2012 The Travelling Cat Chronicles
author: Hiro Arikawa
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/29
date added: 2023/12/31
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Record of a Spaceborn Few (Wayfarers, #3)]]> 32802595
Tessa chose to stay home when her brother Ashby left for the stars, but has to question that decision when her position in the Fleet is threatened.

Kip, a reluctant young apprentice, itches for change but doesn't know where to find it.

Sawyer, a lost and lonely newcomer, is just looking for a place to belong.

When a disaster rocks this already fragile community, those Exodans who still call the Fleet their home can no longer avoid the inescapable question:

What is the purpose of a ship that has reached its destination?]]> 359 Becky Chambers 1473647606 Cassandra 5 4.10 2018 Record of a Spaceborn Few (Wayfarers, #3)
author: Becky Chambers
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/18
date added: 2023/12/18
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom]]> 27091 Teaching to Transgress, bell hooks—writer, teacher, and insurgent black intellectual—writes about a new kind of education, educations as the practice of freedom. Teaching students to "transgress" against racial, sexual, and class boundaries in order to achieve the gift of freedom is, for hooks, the teacher's most important goal.

Bell hooks speaks to the heart of education today: how can we rethink teaching practices in the age of multiculturalism? What do we do about teachers who do not want to teach, and students who do not want to learn? How should we deal with racism and sexism in the classroom?

Full of passion and politics, Teaching to Transgress combines practical knowledge of the classroom with a deeply felt connection to the world of emotions and feelings. This is the rare book about teachers and students that dares to raise critical questions about eros and rage, grief and reconciliation, and the future of teaching itself.

"To educate as the practice of freedom," writes bell hooks, "is a way of teaching that any one can learn." Teaching to Transgress is the record of one gifted teacher's struggle to make classrooms work.

–from the back of the book]]> 216 bell hooks 0415908086 Cassandra 0 currently-reading 4.46 1994 Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom
author: bell hooks
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.46
book published: 1994
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/03
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou's Autobiography, #1)]]> 13214
Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide.

Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.� At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors (“I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare�) will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned.

Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read.]]> 289 Maya Angelou 0553279378 Cassandra 5 4.30 1969 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou's Autobiography, #1)
author: Maya Angelou
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1969
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/03
date added: 2023/12/03
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock]]> 61358639 How to Do Nothing, Jenny Odell wrote about the importance of disconnecting from the “attention economy� to spend time in quiet contemplation. But what if you don’t have time to spend?

In order to answer this seemingly simple question, Odell took a deep dive into the fundamental structure of our society and found that the clock we live by was built for profit, not people. This is why our lives, even in leisure, have come to seem like a series of moments to be bought, sold, and processed ever more efficiently. Odell shows us how our painful relationship to time is inextricably connected not only to persisting social inequities but to the climate crisis, existential dread, and a lethal fatalism.

This dazzling, subversive, and deeply hopeful book offers us different ways to experience time—inspired by pre-industrial cultures, ecological cues, and geological timescales—that can bring within reach a more humane, responsive way of living. As planet-bound animals, we live inside shortening and lengthening days alongside gardens growing, birds migrating, and cliffs eroding; the stretchy quality of waiting and desire; the way the present may suddenly feel marbled with childhood memory; the slow but sure procession of a pregnancy; the time it takes to heal from injuries. Odell urges us to become stewards of these different rhythms of life in which time is not reducible to standardized units and instead forms the very medium of possibility.

Saving Time tugs at the seams of reality as we know it—the way we experience time itself—and rearranges it, imagining a world not centered on work, the office clock, or the profit motive. If we can “save� time by imagining a life, identity, and source of meaning outside these things, time might also save us.]]> 400 Jenny Odell 059324270X Cassandra 0 currently-reading 3.60 2023 Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock
author: Jenny Odell
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/20
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Closed and Common Orbit (Wayfarers, #2)]]> 29475447
Together, Pepper and Lovey will discover that no matter how vast space is, two people can fill it together.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet introduced readers to the incredible world of Rosemary Harper, a young woman with a restless soul and secrets to keep. When she joined the crew of the Wayfarer, an intergalactic ship, she got more than she bargained for - and learned to live with, and love, her rag-tag collection of crewmates.

A Closed and Common Orbit is the stand-alone sequel to Becky Chambers' beloved debut novel The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and is perfect for fans of Firefly, Joss Whedon, Mass Effect and Star Wars.]]> 365 Becky Chambers 1473621445 Cassandra 4 4.35 2016 A Closed and Common Orbit (Wayfarers, #2)
author: Becky Chambers
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/20
date added: 2023/11/20
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are - Sidekick]]> 28675571 Dr. Brené Brown has given readers yet another self-help book to wow audiences and transform readers� lives. She hasn’t disappointed with her books in the past and The Gifts and Imperfections is no different. In this book she defines what it means to live a wholehearted life and then gives readers ten solid guideposts to incorporating wholehearted living into readers� lives.
Ěý
This sidekick explores the idea of wholehearted living on a deeper level and will help readers take Dr. Brown’s self-help book and ask the questions she asks along with the ones her novel begs to be asked as well. This sidekick includes several guides to help readers explore Dr. Brown’s concepts on more in-depth levels.
Ěý

Ěý
Detailed chapter summaries to refresh and help readers recall important details
Ěý
An introduction to Dr. Brené Brown, her famous works and her background
Ěý
A thorough analysis of the themes Dr. Brown is trying to portray and teach through the book
Ěý
A comprehensive list of the challenges Dr. Brown extends to her readers through the book for easy reference
Ěý
A set of discussion questions and topics for both individuals and groups to consider as they read through the book and after completing the book
Ěý
Important discussion quotes for readers to find and reference
Ěý
A discussion on the writing style and structure of the book
Ěý
This book serves as an accompaniment to the bestseller The Gifts of Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are by Brené Brown. It is meant to broaden the reader's understanding of the book and to offer some insights which can easily be overlooked. You should order a copy of the actual book before reading this.]]> 32 Bibliomaniac Cassandra 4 4.39 The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are - Sidekick
author: Bibliomaniac
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.39
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/10/25
date added: 2023/10/25
shelves:
review:

]]> When Women Were Dragons 58783802 A rollicking feminist tale set in 1950s America where thousands of women have spontaneously transformed into dragons, exploding notions of a woman’s place in the world and expanding minds about accepting others for who they really are.

The first adult novel by the Newbery award-winning author of The Girl Who Drank the Moon.

Alex Green is a young girl in a world much like ours, except for its most seminal event: the Mass Dragoning of 1955, when hundreds of thousands of ordinary wives and mothers sprouted wings, scales, and talons; left a trail of fiery destruction in their path; and took to the skies. Was it their choice? What will become of those left behind? Why did Alex’s beloved aunt Marla transform but her mother did not? Alex doesn’t know. It’s taboo to speak of.

Forced into silence, Alex nevertheless must face the consequences of this astonishing event: a mother more protective than ever; an absentee father; the upsetting insistence that her aunt never even existed; and watching her beloved cousin Bea become dangerously obsessed with the forbidden.

In this timely and timeless speculative novel, award-winning author Kelly Barnhill boldly explores rage, memory, and the tyranny of forced limitations. When Women Were Dragons exposes a world that wants to keep women small—their lives and their prospects—and examines what happens when they rise en masse and take up the space they deserve.]]> 367 Kelly Barnhill 0385548222 Cassandra 4 3.79 2022 When Women Were Dragons
author: Kelly Barnhill
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/10/24
date added: 2023/10/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[This Is What It Sounds Like: What the Music You Love Says About You]]> 60165381 This Is What It Sounds Like is a journey into the science and soul of music that reveals the secrets of why your favorite songs move you. But it’s also a story of a musical trailblazer who began as a humble audio tech in Los Angeles to became Prince’s chief engineer for Purple Rain, and then create other No. 1 hits (including Barenaked Ladies' "One Week") as one of the most successful female record producers of all time.


Now an award-winning professor of cognitive neuroscience, Susan Rogers leads readers to musical self-awareness. She explains that we each possess a unique “listener profile� based on our brain’s natural response to seven key dimensions of any song. Are you someone who prefers lyrics or melody? Do you like music “above the neck� (intellectually stimulating), or “below the neck� (instinctual and rhythmic)? Whether your taste is esoteric or mainstream, Rogers guides readers to recognize their musical personality, and offers language to describe one's own unique taste. Like most of us, Rogers is not a musician, but she shows that all of us can be musical—simply by being an active, passionate listener.


While exploring the science of music and the brain, Rogers also takes us behind the scenes of record-making, using her insider’s ear to illuminate the music of Prince, Frank Sinatra, Kanye West, Lana Del Rey, and many others. She shares records that changed her life, contrasts them with those that appeal to her coauthor and students, and encourages you to think about the records that define your own identity.


Told in a lively and inclusive style, This Is What It Sounds Like will refresh your playlists, deepen your connection to your favorite artists, and change the way you listen to music.]]> 288 Susan Rogers 0393541258 Cassandra 5 3.81 2022 This Is What It Sounds Like: What the Music You Love Says About You
author: Susan Rogers
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/26
date added: 2023/09/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Black Joy: Stories of Resistance, Resilience, and Restoration]]> 58438606
When Tracey M. Lewis-Giggetts wrote an essay on Black joy for The Washington Post , she had no idea just how deeply it would resonate. But the outpouring of positive responses affirmed her own lived experience: that Black joy is not just a weapon of resistance, it is a tool for resilience.

With this book, Tracey aims to gift her community with a collection of lyrical essays about the way joy has evolved, even in the midst of trauma, in her own life. Detailing these instances of joy in the context of Black culture allows us to recognize the power of Black joy as a resource to draw upon, and to challenge the one-note narratives of Black life as solely comprised of trauma and hardship.

“Lewis-Giggetts etches a stunning personal map that follows in her ancestors� footsteps and highlights their ability to take control of situational heartbreak and tragedy and make something better out of it�.A simultaneously gorgeous and heartbreaking read� ( Kirkus Reviews , starred review).]]> 288 1982176555 Cassandra 0 currently-reading 4.36 2022 Black Joy: Stories of Resistance, Resilience, and Restoration
author: Tracey Michae’l Lewis-Giggetts
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/21
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers, #1)]]> 22733729
Rosemary Harper doesn’t expect much when she joins the crew of the aging Wayfarer. While the patched-up ship has seen better days, it offers her a bed, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and most importantly, some distance from her past. An introspective young woman who learned early to keep to herself, she’s never met anyone remotely like the ship’s diverse crew, including Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, chatty engineers Kizzy and Jenks who keep the ship running, and Ashby, their noble captain.

Life aboard the Wayfarer is chaotic and crazy—exactly what Rosemary wants. It’s also about to get extremely dangerous when the crew is offered the job of a lifetime. Tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet is definitely lucrative and will keep them comfortable for years. But risking her life wasn’t part of the plan. In the far reaches of deep space, the tiny Wayfarer crew will confront a host of unexpected mishaps and thrilling adventures that force them to depend on each other. To survive, Rosemary’s got to learn how to rely on this assortment of oddballs—an experience that teaches her about love and trust, and that having a family isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the universe.]]> 518 Becky Chambers 1500453307 Cassandra 5 4.15 2014 The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers, #1)
author: Becky Chambers
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/21
date added: 2023/09/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead]]> 17279589
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly...who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly."
- Theodore Roosevelt

Every day we experience the uncertainty, risks, and emotional exposure that define what it means to be vulnerable, or to dare greatly. Whether the arena is a new relationship, an important meeting, our creative process, or a difficult family conversation, we must find the courage to walk into vulnerability and engage with our whole hearts.

In Daring Greatly, Dr. Brown challenges everything we think we know about vulnerability. Based on 12 years of research, her book argues that vulnerability is not weakness but rather our clearest path to courage, engagement, and meaningful connection. The book that Dr. Brown's many fans have been waiting for, Daring Greatly will spark a new spirit of truth - and trust - in our organizations, families, schools, and communities.

Brené Brown, PhD, LMSW, is a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. A nationally renowned teacher and speaker, she is also the author of The Gifts of Imperfection and I Thought It Was Just Me (But It Isn't). Her groundbreaking work has been featured widely in the media, including PBS and NPR.

©2012 Brené Brown; (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc.]]> 9 Brené Brown Cassandra 3 4.11 2012 Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
author: Brené Brown
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/05
date added: 2023/09/05
shelves:
review:

]]> The Once and Future Witches 49504061
But when the Eastwood sisters--James Juniper, Agnes Amaranth, and Beatrice Belladonna--join the suffragists of New Salem, they begin to pursue the forgotten words and ways that might turn the women's movement into the witch's movement. Stalked by shadows and sickness, hunted by forces who will not suffer a witch to vote-and perhaps not even to live-the sisters will need to delve into the oldest magics, draw new alliances, and heal the bond between them if they want to survive.

There's no such thing as witches. But there will be.]]> 517 Alix E. Harrow 0316422045 Cassandra 4 4.01 2020 The Once and Future Witches
author: Alix E. Harrow
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/28
date added: 2023/08/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Gregor the Overlander Box Set (Underland Chronicles, #1-5)]]> 7007561
Gregor wants no part in this conflict, but again and again, he and his family are drawn into the Underland. Gregor must find his place in the frightening prophecies he encounters, the strength to protect his family, and the courage to defend against an army of giant rats.

In this action-packed and masterful series, Suzanne Collins unfolds the fate of the Underland and its great warrior, Gregor the Overlander.]]> 1733 Suzanne Collins 0545166810 Cassandra 4 4.49 2009 Gregor the Overlander Box Set (Underland Chronicles, #1-5)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/08/09
shelves:
review:

]]> Between the World and Me 25489625 “This is your country, this is your world, this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it.�
Ěý
In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,� a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?
Ěý
Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.]]> 152 Ta-Nehisi Coates Cassandra 4 4.40 2015 Between the World and Me
author: Ta-Nehisi Coates
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/17
date added: 2023/07/17
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Lord of the Butterflies (Button Poetry)]]> 39656141 95 Andrea Gibson 1943735425 Cassandra 0 to-read 4.42 2018 Lord of the Butterflies (Button Poetry)
author: Andrea Gibson
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Once & Future (Once & Future, #1)]]> 36233085 King Arthur as you've never imagined! This bold, sizzling YA retells the popular legend with the Once and Future King as a teenage girl -- and she has a universe to save.
I've been chased my whole life. As a fugitive refugee in the territory controlled by the tyrannical Mercer corporation, I've always had to hide who I am. Until I found Excalibur.


Now I'm done hiding.


My name is Ari Helix. I have a magic sword, a cranky wizard, and a revolution to start.


When Ari crash-lands on Old Earth and pulls a magic sword from its ancient resting place, she is revealed to be the newest reincarnation of King Arthur. Then she meets Merlin, who has aged backward over the centuries into a teenager, and together they must break the curse that keeps Arthur coming back. Their quest? Defeat the cruel, oppressive government and bring peace and equality to all humankind.


No pressure.]]> 336 A.R. Capetta Cassandra 0 to-read 3.54 2019 Once & Future (Once & Future, #1)
author: A.R. Capetta
name: Cassandra
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Happy-Go-Lucky 58989873 Ěý
But then the pandemic hits, and like so many others, he’s stuck in lockdown, unable to tour and read for audiences, the part of his work he loves most. To cope, he walks for miles through a nearly deserted city, smelling only his own breath. He vacuums his apartment twice a day, fails to hoard anything, and contemplates how sex workers and acupuncturists might be getting by during quarantine.
Ěý
As the world gradually settles into a new reality, Sedaris too finds himself changed. His offer to fix a stranger’s teeth rebuffed, he straightens his own, and ventures into the world with new confidence. Newly orphaned, he considers what it means, in his seventh decade, no longer to be someone’s son. And back on the road, he discovers a battle-scarred America: people weary, storefronts empty or festooned with Help Wanted signs, walls painted with graffiti reflecting the contradictory messages of our time: Eat the Rich. Trump 2024. Black Lives Matter.
Ěý
In Happy-Go-Lucky, David Sedaris once again captures what is most unexpected, hilarious, and poignant about these recent upheavals, personal and public, and expresses in precise language both the misanthropy and desire for connection that drive us all. If we must live in interesting times, there is no one better to chronicle them than the incomparable David Sedaris.]]> 272 David Sedaris 0316392456 Cassandra 3 4.16 2022 Happy-Go-Lucky
author: David Sedaris
name: Cassandra
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/15
date added: 2023/07/15
shelves:
review:

]]>