Mary's bookshelf: all en-US Wed, 23 Apr 2025 16:29:10 -0700 60 Mary's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Death at the Sign of the Rook (Jackson Brodie, #6)]]> 203164357 The stage is set. Marooned overnight by a snowstorm in a grand country house are a cast of characters and a setting that even Agatha Christie might recognize � a vicar, an Army major, a Dowager, a sleuth and his sidekick - except that the sleuth is Jackson Brodie, and the ‘sidekick� is DC Reggie Chase.

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

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

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

A brilliantly plotted, supremely entertaining, and utterly compulsive tour de force from a great writer at the height of her powers.]]> 320 Kate Atkinson 0385547994 Mary 0 3.69 2024 Death at the Sign of the Rook (Jackson Brodie, #6)
author: Kate Atkinson
name: Mary
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[A Refiner’s Fire: A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery (The Commissario Guido Brunetti Mysteries Book 33)]]> 209528915 In the thirty-third installment of Donna Leon’s magnificent series, Commissario Guido Brunetti confronts a present-day Venetian menace and the ghosts of a heroism that never was

Around one AM on an early spring morning, two teenage gangs are arrested after clashing violently in one of Venice’s squares. Commissario Claudia Griffoni, on duty that night, perhaps ill-advisedly walks the last of the boys home because his father, Dario Monforte, failed to pick him up at the Questura. Coincidentally, Guido Brunetti is askedby a wealthy friend of Vice-Questore Pattato vet Monforte for a job, triggering Brunetti’s memory that twenty years earlier Monforte had been publicly celebrated as the hero of a devastating bombing of the Italian military compound in Iraq. Yet Monforte had never been awarded a medal either by the Carabinieri, his service branch, or by the Italian government.

That seeming contradiction, and the brutal attack on one of Brunetti’s colleagues, Enzo Bocchese, by a possible gang member, concentrate Brunetti’s attentions. Surprisingly empowered by Patta, supported by Signorina Elettra’s extraordinary research abilities and by his wife, Paola’s, empathy, Brunetti, with Griffoni, gradually discovers the sordid hypocrisy surrounding Monforte’s past, culminating in a fiery meeting of two gangs and a final opportunity for redemption.

A Refiner’s Fire is Donna Leon at her very an elegant, sophisticated storyteller whose indelible characters become richer with each book, and who constantly explores the ambiguity between moral and legal justice.


]]> 277 Donna Leon 080216255X Mary 0 currently-reading 4.16 2024 A Refiner’s Fire: A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery (The Commissario Guido Brunetti Mysteries Book 33)
author: Donna Leon
name: Mary
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2024
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]]> <![CDATA[The Library of Borrowed Hearts]]> 181694817 A.J. Fikry meets The Bookish Life of Nina Hill in this charming, hilarious, and moving novel about the way books bring lonely souls together.

Two young lovers. Sixty long years. One bookish mystery worth solving.

Librarian Chloe Sampson has been struggling: to take care of her three younger siblings, to find herself, to make ends meet. She's just about at the end of her rope when she stumbles across a rare edition of a book from the 1960s at the local flea market. Deciding it's a sign of her luck turning, she takes it home with her—only to be shocked when her cranky hermit of a neighbor swoops in and offers to buy it for an exorbitant price. Intrigued, Chloe takes a closer look at the book only to find notes scribbled in the margins between two young lovers back when the book was new…one of whom is almost definitely Jasper Holmes, the curmudgeon next door.

When she begins following the clues left behind, she discovers this isn't the only old book in town filled with romantic marginalia. This kickstarts a literary scavenger hunt that Chloe is determined to see through to the end. What happened to the two tragic lovers who corresponded in the margins of so many different library books? And what does it have to do with the old, sad man next door—who only now has begun to open his home and heart to Chloe and her siblings?

In a romantic tale that spans the decades, Chloe discovers that there's much more to her grouchy old neighbor than meets the eye. And in allowing herself to accept the unexpected friendship he offers, she learns that some love stories begin in the unlikeliest of places.]]> 359 Lucy Gilmore 1728256267 Mary 0 currently-reading 4.17 2024 The Library of Borrowed Hearts
author: Lucy Gilmore
name: Mary
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Soothe: Restoring Your Nervous System from Stress, Anxiety, Burnout, and Trauma]]> 209655887 Tap into the power of nervous system regulation and reduce anxiety, stress, and burnout.

Do you struggle to relax, even while on vacation? Have shallow breaths, trouble sleeping, and aches that won’t go away? Feel irritable constantly, like the slightest inconvenience might set you off? If the answer to any or all of these questions is yes, your nervous system might be dysregulated. Soothe shows how to bring it back into balance—and experience a calmer, more resilient way to be.

Breaking down the fascinating workings of our nervous system and the brain-to-body connection, where emotions are stored, somatic practicioner Nahid de Belgeonne teaches you how to physically release stress by tapping into your senses, breath, and movement. Along the way, she introduces sustainable micro-practices and daily exercises for self-soothing, including how to:
� Rewire your brain with micro-movements
� Alter your emotions by modulating your breath
� Incorporate mood-enhancing foods into your diet
� Co-regulate your nervous system with the people around you

Stress and anxiety are inevitable, but they don’t have to throw us off balance. Soothe invites us into greater bodily awareness and peace.]]> 288 Nahid de Belgeonne 0593833635 Mary 0 to-read 3.22 Soothe: Restoring Your Nervous System from Stress, Anxiety, Burnout, and Trauma
author: Nahid de Belgeonne
name: Mary
average rating: 3.22
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]]> <![CDATA[Birding for Boomers: And Everyone Else Brave Enough to Embrace the World’s Most Rewarding and Frustrating Activity]]> 216628838 Birding for Boomers is a friendly, accessible, and humorous guide to discovering the joys of bird watching. Beginning birders of all ages will get answers to every question they may have, like which birds like feeders, the difference between a finch and a flicker, or which birding app to use. The guide also helps birders plan everything from local explorations to exciting "bird-cations."

Late-bloomer birders will appreciate Collard’s personal insights and tips for overcoming aging-related challenges such as physical handicaps, poor hearing, or failing eyesight. Additional sections cover sharing birding with others and contributing to community science, habitat stewardship, and bird conservation.

Appealing and light-hearted, Birding for Boomers will help a wide range of readers overcome any doubts and get started with
watching, understanding, and conserving our feathered friends.]]> 262 Sneed B. Collard III 168051671X Mary 0 to-read 4.11 Birding for Boomers: And Everyone Else Brave Enough to Embrace the World’s Most Rewarding and Frustrating Activity
author: Sneed B. Collard III
name: Mary
average rating: 4.11
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]]> The Berry Pickers 123036004 A four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a tragic mystery that haunts the survivors, unravels a community, and remains unsolved for nearly fifty years.

July 1962. A Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family’s youngest child, vanishes. She is last seen by her six-year-old brother, Joe, sitting on a favorite rock at the edge of a berry field. Joe will remain distraught by his sister’s disappearance for years to come.

In Maine, a young girl named Norma grows up as the only child of an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant, her mother frustratingly overprotective. Norma is often troubled by recurring dreams and visions that seem more like memories than imagination. As she grows older, Norma slowly comes to realize there is something her parents aren’t telling her. Unwilling to abandon her intuition, she will spend decades trying to uncover this family secret.

For readers of The Vanishing Half and Woman of Light, this showstopping debut by a vibrant new voice in fiction is a riveting novel about the search for truth, the shadow of trauma, and the persistence of love across time.]]> 307 Amanda Peters 1646221958 Mary 0 to-read 4.04 2023 The Berry Pickers
author: Amanda Peters
name: Mary
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> Mrs. Saint and the Defectives 34654519 Critically acclaimed author Julie Lawson Timmer returns with a tale of how community can heal the brokenness in all of us.

Markie, a fortysomething divorcée who has suffered a humiliating and very public fall from marital, financial, and professional grace, moves, along with her teenage son, Jesse, to a new town, hoping to lick her wounds in private. But Markie and Jesse are unable to escape the attention of their new neighbor Mrs. Saint, an irascible, elderly New European woman who takes it upon herself, along with her ragtag group of “defectives,� to identify and fix the flaws in those around her, whether they want her to or not.

What Markie doesn’t realize is that Mrs. Saint has big plans for the divorcée’s broken spirit. Soon, the quirky yet endearing woman recruits Markie to join her eccentric community, a world where both hidden truths and hope unite them. But when Mrs. Saint’s own secrets threaten to unravel their fragile web of healing, it’s up to Markie to mend these wounds and usher in a new era for the “defectives”—one full of second chances and happiness.]]> 338 Julie Lawson Timmer 1477809880 Mary 0 to-read 3.84 2017 Mrs. Saint and the Defectives
author: Julie Lawson Timmer
name: Mary
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous]]> 41880609 On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family's history that began before he was born � a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam � and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity. Asking questions central to our American moment, immersed as we are in addiction, violence, and trauma, but undergirded by compassion and tenderness, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is as much about the power of telling one's own story as it is about the obliterating silence of not being heard.

With stunning urgency and grace, Ocean Vuong writes of people caught between disparate worlds, and asks how we heal and rescue one another without forsaking who we are. The question of how to survive, and how to make of it a kind of joy, powers the most important debut novel of many years.]]> 246 Ocean Vuong 0525562028 Mary 0 4.05 2019 On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
author: Ocean Vuong
name: Mary
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail]]> 9791 A Walk in the Woods will make you long for the great outdoors (or at least a comfortable chair to sit and read in).]]> 397 Bill Bryson 0307279464 Mary 5 4.07 1998 A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
author: Bill Bryson
name: Mary
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1998
rating: 5
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]]> Beloved (Beloved Trilogy, #1) 6149 Staring unflinchingly into the abyss of slavery, this spellbinding novel transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby.

Sethe, its protagonist, was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe's new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved. Filled with bitter poetry and suspense as taut as a rope, Beloved is a towering achievement by Nobel Prize laureate Toni Morrison.]]> 325 Toni Morrison Mary 0 3.96 1987 Beloved (Beloved Trilogy, #1)
author: Toni Morrison
name: Mary
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1987
rating: 0
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]]> The House on Mango Street 139253 The House on Mango Street is the remarkable story of Esperanza Cordero.

Told in a series of vignettes � sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes deeply joyous–it is the story of a young Latina girl growing up in Chicago, inventing for herself who and what she will become. Few other books in our time have touched so many readers.]]> 110 Sandra Cisneros 0679734775 Mary 0 3.69 1984 The House on Mango Street
author: Sandra Cisneros
name: Mary
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1984
rating: 0
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]]> The Shining (The Shining, #1) 11588 497 Stephen King 0450040186 Mary 0 4.28 1977 The Shining (The Shining, #1)
author: Stephen King
name: Mary
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1977
rating: 0
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]]> Roots 869208 Now a major BBC drama starring Forest Whitaker, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Laurence Fishburne

Tracing his ancestry through six generations � slaves and freedmen, farmers and blacksmiths, lawyers and architects � back to Africa, Alex Haley discovered a sixteen-year-old youth, Kunta Kinte. It was this young man, who had been torn from his homeland and in torment and anguish brought to the slave markets of the New World, who held the key to Haley's deep and distant past.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award]]> 688 Alex Haley 0099362813 Mary 0 4.50 1976 Roots
author: Alex Haley
name: Mary
average rating: 4.50
book published: 1976
rating: 0
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]]> Shōgun (Asian Saga, #1) 52382796
Powerful and engrossing, capturing both the rich pageantry and stark realities of life in feudal Japan, Shōgun is a critically acclaimed powerhouse of a book. Heart-stopping, edge-of-your-seat action melds seamlessly with intricate historical detail and raw human emotion. Endlessly compelling, this sweeping saga captivated the world to become not only one of the best-selling novels of all time but also one of the highest-rated television miniseries, as well as inspiring a nationwide surge of interest in the culture of Japan. Shakespearean in both scope and depth, Shōgun is, as the New York Times put it, "...not only something you read--you live it." Provocative, absorbing, and endlessly fascinating, there is only one: Shōgun.]]> 1152 James Clavell 1982603844 Mary 0 4.42 1975 Shōgun (Asian Saga, #1)
author: James Clavell
name: Mary
average rating: 4.42
book published: 1975
rating: 0
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]]> The Stepford Wives 52350
At once a masterpiece of psychological suspense and a savage commentary on a media-driven society that values the pursuit of youth and beauty at all costs, The Stepford Wives is a novel so frightening in its final implications that the title itself has earned a place in the American lexicon.]]> 144 Ira Levin 0060080841 Mary 0 3.85 1972 The Stepford Wives
author: Ira Levin
name: Mary
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1972
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings]]> 5081331
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 0345514408 Mary 0 4.25 1969 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
author: Maya Angelou
name: Mary
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1969
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Charlie Bucket, #1)]]> 232187 155 Roald Dahl 0141301155 Mary 0 4.10 1964 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Charlie Bucket, #1)
author: Roald Dahl
name: Mary
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1964
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[All Quiet on the Western Front]]> 355697
In 1914 a room full of German schoolboys, fresh-faced and idealistic, are goaded by their schoolmaster to troop off to the ‘glorious war�. With the fire and patriotism of youth they sign up. What follows is the moving story of a young ‘unknown soldier� experiencing the horror and disillusionment of life in the trenches.]]> 296 Erich Maria Remarque 0449213943 Mary 0 4.04 1928 All Quiet on the Western Front
author: Erich Maria Remarque
name: Mary
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1928
rating: 0
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]]> The Stranger 49552 The Stranger has long been considered a classic of twentieth-century literature. Le Monde ranks it as number one on its "100 Books of the Century" list. Through this story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on a sundrenched Algerian beach, Camus explores what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd."]]> 123 Albert Camus Mary 0 4.04 1942 The Stranger
author: Albert Camus
name: Mary
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1942
rating: 0
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]]> The Little Prince 157993
Few stories are as widely read and as universally cherished by children and adults alike as The Little Prince, presented here in a stunning new translation with carefully restored artwork. The definitive edition of a worldwide classic, it will capture the hearts of readers of all ages.]]> 96 Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 0152023984 Mary 0 4.32 1943 The Little Prince
author: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
name: Mary
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1943
rating: 0
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]]> No Exit 123933 The play is a depiction of the afterlife in which three deceased characters are punished by being locked into a room together for all eternity. It is the source of Sartre's especially famous and often misinterpreted quotation "L'enfer, c'est les autres" or "Hell is other people", a reference to Sartre's ideas about the Look and the perpetual ontological struggle of being caused to see oneself as an object in the world of another consciousness.]]> 60 Jean-Paul Sartre 0573613052 Mary 0 4.13 1944 No Exit
author: Jean-Paul Sartre
name: Mary
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1944
rating: 0
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]]> The Glass Menagerie 6336561 92 Tennessee Williams 0141190264 Mary 0 3.84 1945 The Glass Menagerie
author: Tennessee Williams
name: Mary
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1945
rating: 0
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]]> 1984 61439040
Alternate cover edition can be found here.]]> 368 George Orwell 0452284236 Mary 0 4.21 1949 1984
author: George Orwell
name: Mary
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1949
rating: 0
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]]> Fahrenheit 451 13079982 Sixty years after its original publication, Ray Bradbury’s internationally acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451 stands as a classic of world literature set in a bleak, dystopian future. Today its message has grown more relevant than ever before.

Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.� But when he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.]]> 194 Ray Bradbury Mary 0 3.97 1953 Fahrenheit 451
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Mary
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1953
rating: 0
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]]> Catch-22 168668
Set in Italy during World War II, this is the story of the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy—it is his own army, which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to excuse himself from the perilous missions he’s assigned, he’ll be in violation of Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes a formal request to be removed from duty, he is proven sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved.

This fiftieth-anniversary edition commemorates Joseph Heller’s masterpiece with a new introduction by Christopher Buckley; a wealth of critical essays and reviews by Norman Mailer, Alfred Kazin, Anthony Burgess, and others; rare papers and photos from Joseph Heller’s personal archive; and much more. Here, at last, is the definitive edition of a classic of world literature.]]> 453 Joseph Heller 0684833395 Mary 0 3.99 1961 Catch-22
author: Joseph Heller
name: Mary
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1961
rating: 0
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]]> The Bell Jar 56616095 (back cover)]]> 288 Sylvia Plath 0060837020 Mary 0 4.11 1963 The Bell Jar
author: Sylvia Plath
name: Mary
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1963
rating: 0
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]]> The Briar Club 181110045 A haunting and powerful story of female friendships and secrets in a Washington, D.C. boardinghouse during the McCarthy era.

Washington, D.C., 1950. Everyone keeps to themselves at Briarwood House, a down-at-the-heels all-female boardinghouse in the heart of the nation’s capital, where secrets hide behind white picket fences. But when the lovely, mysterious widow Grace March moves into the attic, she draws her oddball collection of neighbors into unlikely friendship: poised English beauty Fliss whose facade of perfect wife and mother covers gaping inner wounds; police officer’s daughter Nora, who is entangled with a shadowy gangster; frustrated baseball star Bea, whose career has ended along with the women’s baseball league of WWII; and poisonous, gung-ho Arlene, who has thrown herself into McCarthy’s Red Scare.

Grace’s weekly attic-room dinner parties and window-brewed sun tea become a healing balm on all their lives, but she hides a terrible secret of her own. When a shocking act of violence tears apart the house, the Briar Club women must decide once and for all: Who is the true enemy in their midst?]]> 432 Kate Quinn 0063244748 Mary 0 to-read 4.26 2024 The Briar Club
author: Kate Quinn
name: Mary
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Heartbreak Hotel (Alex Delaware, #32)]]> 30327555 Alex Delaware and Milo Sturgis investigate the death of Alex’s most mysterious patient to date in the sensational new thriller from the master of suspense, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman.

At nearly one hundred years old, Thalia Mars is a far cry from the patients that child psychologist Alex Delaware normally treats. But the charming, witty woman convinces Alex to meet with her in a suite at the Aventura, a luxury hotel with a checkered history.

What Thalia wants from Alex are answers to unsettling questions—about guilt, patterns of criminal behavior, victim selection. When Alex asks the reason for her morbid fascination, Thalia promises to tell all during their next session. But when he shows up the following morning, he is met with silence: Thalia is dead in her room.

When questions arise about how Thalia perished, Alex and homicide detective Milo Sturgis must peel back the layers of a fascinating but elusive woman’s life and embark on one of the most baffling investigations either of them has ever experienced. For Thalia Mars is a victim like no other, an enigma who harbored nearly a century of secrets and whose life and death draw those around her into a vortex of violence.

Heartbreak Hotel is classic Delaware and classic Kellerman.]]> 325 Jonathan Kellerman 0345541448 Mary 0 4.05 2017 Heartbreak Hotel (Alex Delaware, #32)
author: Jonathan Kellerman
name: Mary
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[So Shall You Reap (Commissario Brunetti #32)]]> 61670148 In the thirty-second installment of Donna Leon's bestselling series, a connection to Guido Brunetti's own youthful past helps solve a mysterious murderOn a cold November evening, Guido Brunetti and Paola are up late when a call from his colleague Ispettore Vianello arrives, alerting the Commissario that a hand has been seen in one of Venice's canals. The body is soon found, and Brunetti is assigned to investigate the murder of an undocumented Sri Lankan immigrant. Because no official record of the man's presence in Venice exists, Brunetti is forced to use the city's far richer sources of gossip and the memories of people who knew the victim. Curiously, he had been living in a small house on the grounds of a palazzo owned by a university professor, in which Brunetti discovers books revealing the victim's interest in Buddhism, the revolutionary Tamil Tigers, and the last crop of Italian political terrorists, active in the 1980s.
As the investigation expands, Brunetti, Vianello, Commissario Griffoni, and Signora Elettra each assemble pieces of a puzzle--random information about real estate and land use, books, university friendships--that appear to have little in common, until Brunetti stumbles over something that transports him back to his own student days, causing him to reflect on lost ideals and the errors of youth, on Italian politics and history, and on the accidents that sometimes lead to revelation.]]> 320 Donna Leon 0802162371 Mary 4 4.30 2023 So Shall You Reap (Commissario Brunetti #32)
author: Donna Leon
name: Mary
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/01
date added: 2025/04/11
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]]> Very Very Lucky 141236490 A life-affirming story from million-copy bestselling author Amanda Prowse about having it all, losing it all, and how new friends can show each other the way back to happiness.

With kids to look after, an ailing mother and a neglected husband, life is full for Emma Fountain—too full, she realises, when she wakes up in IKEA after falling asleep in one of the show beds. Only her crazy, funny best friend Roz keeps her sane. But when Roz climbs in through her bathroom window one day to deliver terrible news, Emma’s belief that she can find a way around any obstacle crumbles in the face of a problem she just can’t fix.

For recently widowed Thurston, life without his beloved wife of sixty-two years has lost all its joy and sense of purpose. That is until he finds himself driving his niece to work one day and meets Emma, whose busy days are the opposite of his own. As Thurston is drawn into the whirlwind of Emma’s chaotic life, and as his calming influence starts to bring her troubles into perspective, an unlikely friendship grows.

In a world where grief is the price we pay for love, can two very different people realise that the little things in life are precious, that love is all around us, and that, even after all, they might still be very, very lucky?]]> 378 Amanda Prowse 1542024854 Mary 0 4.32 Very Very Lucky
author: Amanda Prowse
name: Mary
average rating: 4.32
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rating: 0
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]]> The Wishing Game 60864829
Lucy Hart knows better than anyone what it’s like to grow up without parents who loved her. In a childhood marked by neglect and loneliness, Lucy found her solace in books, namely the Clock Island series by Jack Masterson. Now a twenty-six-year-old teacher’s aide, she is able to share her love of reading with bright, young students, especially seven-year-old Christopher Lamb, who was left orphaned after the tragic death of his parents. Lucy would give anything to adopt Christopher, but even the idea of becoming a family seems like an impossible dream without proper funds and stability.

But be careful what you wish for. . . .

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

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

. . . You might just get it.]]> 294 Meg Shaffer Mary 5 4.22 2023 The Wishing Game
author: Meg Shaffer
name: Mary
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/26
date added: 2025/03/26
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]]> The Wedding People 198902277 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781250899576.

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

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

In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined—and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.]]> 384 Alison Espach Mary 0 to-read 4.11 2024 The Wedding People
author: Alison Espach
name: Mary
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: to-read
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]]> Breakdown (Alex Delaware #31) 25892497 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER •Jonathan Kellerman has been universally hailed as the master of psychological suspense, and the blockbuster new thriller featuring Alex Delaware and Milo Sturgis confirms his status as today’s preeminent practitioner of saber-sharp storytelling. Psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware meets beautiful and emotionally fragile TV actress Zelda Chase when called upon to evaluate her five-year-old son, Ovid. Years later, Alex is unexpectedly reunited with Zelda when she is involuntarily committed after a bizarre psychotic episode. Shortly after Zelda’s release, an already sad situation turns tragic when she is discovered dead on the grounds of a palatial Bel Air estate. Having experienced more than enough of L.A.’s dark side to recognize the scent of evil, Alex turns to his friend LAPD Lieutenant Milo Sturgis for help in finding out who ended Zelda’s broken life. At the same time, Alex is caught up in another the search for Zelda’s missing son. And when other victims vanish from the same upscale neighborhood, worry turns to terror. As Alex struggles to piece together the brief rise and steep fall of a gorgeous, talented actress, he and Milo unveil shattered dreams, the corruption of a family, and a grotesque betrayal of innocence. With each devastating revelation and damning clue, Alex’s brilliant mind is challenged as never before—and his determination grows to see a killer caged and the truth set free.Praise for Breakdown “This is a book you should not miss. . . . A master craftsman at the top of his game . . . one of his best to date.�—BǴǰǰٱ “Gripping . . . an exhilarating masterclass in the art of plotting, suspense, characterization and brilliant mind games.�—Blackpool Gazette Praise for Jonathan Kellerman “Jonathan Kellerman’s psychology skills and dark imagination are a potent literary mix.�—Los Angeles Times “Kellerman doesn’t just write psychological thrillers—he owns the genre.�—Detroit Free Press]]> 352 Jonathan Kellerman 0345541413 Mary 4 4.18 2016 Breakdown (Alex Delaware #31)
author: Jonathan Kellerman
name: Mary
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/16
date added: 2025/03/16
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]]> Housegirl 37931791
Belinda knows how to follow the rules. As a housegirl, she has learnt the right way to polish water glasses, to wash and fold a hundred handkerchiefs, and to keep a tight lid on memories of the village she left behind when she came to Kumasi.

Mary is still learning the rules. Eleven-years old and irrepressible, the young housegirl-in-training is the little sister Belinda never had.

Amma has had enough of the rules. A straight-A pupil at her exclusive South-London school, she has always been the pride of her Ghanaian parents. Until now. Watching their once-confident teenager grow sullen and wayward, they decide that sensible Belinda might be just the shining example Amma needs.

So Belinda is summoned from Ghana to London, and must leave Mary to befriend a troubled girl who shows no desire for her friendship. She encounters a city as bewildering as it is thrilling, and tries to impose order on her unsettling new world.

As the Brixton summer turns to Autumn, Belinda and Amma are surprised to discover the beginnings of an unexpected kinship. But when the cracks in their defences open up, the secrets they have both been holding tightly threaten to seep out.
From: ]]> 320 Michael Donkor 0008280347 Mary 5 2.99 2018 Housegirl
author: Michael Donkor
name: Mary
average rating: 2.99
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/01
date added: 2025/03/14
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]]> Thank You for Listening 59314703
On her return home, Sewanee discovers one of the world’s most beloved romance novelists wanted her to perform her last book—with Brock McNight, the industry’s hottest, most secretive voice. Sewanee doesn’t buy what romance novels are selling—not after her own dreams were tragically cut short—and she stopped narrating them years ago. But her admiration of the late author, and the opportunity to get her grandmother more help, makes her decision for her.

As Sewanee begins work on the book, resurrecting her old romance pseudonym, she and Brock forge a real connection, hidden behind the comfort of anonymity. Soon, she is dreaming again, but secrets are revealed, and the realities of life come crashing down around her once more.

If she can learn to risk everything for desires she has long buried, she will discover a world of intimacy and acceptance she never believed would be hers.

From the author of My Oxford Year, Julia Whelan’s uplifting novel tells the story of a former actress turned successful audiobook narrator—who has lost sight of her dreams after a tragic accident—and her journey of self-discovery, love, and acceptance when she agrees to narrate one last romance novel.]]> 432 Julia Whelan 0063095564 Mary 4 3.99 2022 Thank You for Listening
author: Julia Whelan
name: Mary
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/01
date added: 2025/03/14
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]]> Less (Arthur Less, #1) 39927096 You are a failed novelist about to turn fifty. A wedding invitation arrives in the mail: your boyfriend of the past nine years now engaged to someone else. You can’t say yes--it would all be too awkward--and you can’t say no--it would look like defeat. On your desk are a series of half-baked literary invitations you’ve received from around the world.

QUESTION: How do you arrange to skip town?

ANSWER: You accept them all.

If you are Arthur Less.

Thus begins an around-the-world-in-eighty-days fantasia that will take Arthur Less to Mexico, Italy, Germany, Morocco, India and Japan and put thousands of miles between him and the problems he refuses to face. What could possibly go wrong?

Well: Arthur will almost fall in love in Paris, almost fall to his death in Berlin, barely escape to a Moroccan ski chalet from a Sahara sandstorm, accidentally book himself as the (only) writer-in-residence at a Christian Retreat Center in Southern India, and arrive in Japan too late for the cherry blossoms. In between: science fiction fans, crazed academics, emergency rooms, starlets, doctors, exes and, on a desert island in the Arabian Sea, the last person on Earth he wants to see. Somewhere in there: he will turn fifty. The second phase of life, as he thinks of it, falling behind him like the second phase of a rocket. There will be his first love. And there will be his last.

A love story, a satire of the American abroad, a rumination on time and the human heart, by an author The New York Times has hailed as “inspired, lyrical,� “elegiac,� “ingenious,� as well as “too sappy by half,� Less shows a writer at the peak of his talents raising the curtain on our shared human comedy.]]> 273 Andrew Sean Greer Mary 4 3.61 2017 Less (Arthur Less, #1)
author: Andrew Sean Greer
name: Mary
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/01
date added: 2025/03/14
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]]> Evidence (Alex Delaware, #24) 6310964
Veteran homicide cop Milo Sturgis is shocked at the sight: a twisted crime that only Milo and psychologist Alex Delaware can hope to solve. While the female victim’s identity remains in question, her companion is ID’d as eco-friendly architect Desmond Backer, notorious for his power to seduce women. The deeper Milo and Alex dig for clues, the longer the list of suspects grows. But when the investigation veers suddenly in a startling direction, it’s the investigators who may wind up on the wrong end of a cornered predator’s final fury.]]> 355 Jonathan Kellerman 0345495152 Mary 4 3.86 2009 Evidence (Alex Delaware, #24)
author: Jonathan Kellerman
name: Mary
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/31
date added: 2025/03/14
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]]> <![CDATA[Deception (Alex Delaware, #25)]]> 8151246 “Kellerman doesn’t just write psychologicalthrillers—he owns the genre.”—Detroit Free Press

Her name is Elise Freeman, and her chilling cry for help comes too late to save her. On a DVD found near her lifeless body, the emotionally and physically battered woman chronicles a long ordeal of abuse at the hands of three sadistic tormentors. But even more shocking is the revelation that the offenders, like their victim, are teachers at one of L.A.’s most prestigious prep schools. Homicide detective Milo Sturgis is assigned to probe the hallowed halls of Windsor Prep Academy, and if ever he could use Dr. Alex Delaware’s psychological prowess, it’s now. As the scandal-conscious elite close ranks around Windsor Prep, Alex and Milo push to expose the dirty secrets festering among society’s manor-born. But while searching for predators among the privileged, Alex and Milo may be walking into a highly polished death This edition contains an excerpt from Jonathan Kellerman'sVictims. “Jonathan Kellerman’s novels are an obsession; once started it is hard to quit.”—Orlando Sentinel “The combination of Alex Delaware and Detective Milo Sturgis make for the most originalwhodunit duo since Watson and Holmes.”—Fǰ]]> 322 Jonathan Kellerman Mary 4 4.29 2010 Deception (Alex Delaware, #25)
author: Jonathan Kellerman
name: Mary
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/06
date added: 2025/03/14
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]]> The English Patient 11713 320 Michael Ondaatje 0771068719 Mary 0 to-read 3.88 1992 The English Patient
author: Michael Ondaatje
name: Mary
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1992
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: to-read
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]]> Motive (Alex Delaware #30) 23156697 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERJonathan Kellerman writes razor-sharp novels that cut to the quick. Now comes Motive, which pits psychologist Alex Delaware and homicide cop Milo Sturgis against a vicious criminal mind—the kind only Kellerman can bring to chilling life. Even having hundreds of closed cases to his credit can’t keep LAPD police lieutenant Milo Sturgis from agonizing over the crimes that don’t get solved—and the victims who go without justice. Victims like Katherine Hennepin, a young woman strangled and stabbed in her home. A single suspect with a solid alibi leads to a dead end—one even Alex Delaware’s expert insight can’t explain. The only thing to do is move on to the next murder case—because there’s always a next one. This time the victim is Ursula a successful, attractive divorcée who’s been gunned down—not a robbery but an execution, a crime that smacks of simple, savage revenge. And along with that theoretical motive come two strong contenders for the role of the dead woman’s business partner/ex-husband and her divorce lawyer/secret lover. But just as Alex and Milo think they’re zeroing in on the most likely suspect, a bizarre new clue stirs up eerie echoes of the unsolved Hennepin murder. And the discovery of yet another crime scene bearing the same taunting signature raises the specter of a serial killer on a mission, whose twisted method is exceeded only by his manipulative and cunning madness.Praise for Motive “Jonathan Kellerman has mastered the art of lean, evocative prose [in] a series that grows stronger with each volume.�—New York Journal of Books “One of [Kellerman’s] best works to date . . . Motive is wonderfully made, equally well-driven by plot and character, and shouldn’t be missed.�—BǴǰǰٱ “[Motive] will even keep genre veterans guessing. . . . The twists are both shocking and logical, and the byplay between the leads entertaining.�—Publishers Weekly Praise for Jonathan Kellerman “Jonathan Kellerman’s psychology skills and dark imagination are a potent literary mix.�—Los Angeles Times “A master of the psychological thriller.�‱DZ “The combination of Alex Delaware [and] Detective Milo Sturgis . . . makes for the most original whodunit duo since Watson and Holmes.�—Fǰ]]> 354 Jonathan Kellerman 0345541383 Mary 4 4.12 2015 Motive (Alex Delaware #30)
author: Jonathan Kellerman
name: Mary
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/12
date added: 2025/03/12
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]]> Killer (Alex Delaware, #29) 18900301 New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman returns with his most stunning thriller to date. Killer is a mesmerizing L.A. noir portrayal of the darkest impulses of human nature carried to shocking extremes.

The City of Angels has more than its share of psychopaths, and no one recognizes that more acutely than the brilliant psychologist and police consultant Dr. Alex Delaware. Despite that, Constance Sykes, a sophisticated, successful physician, hardly seems like someone Alex needs to fear. Then, at the behest of the court, he becomes embroiled in a bizarre child custody dispute initiated by Connie against her sister and begins to realize that there is much about the siblings he has failed to comprehend. And when the court battle between the Sykes sisters erupts into cold, calculating murder and a rapidly growing number of victims, Alex knows he’s been snared in a toxic web of pathology.

Nothing would please Alex more than to be free of the ugly spectacle known as Sykes v. Sykes. But then the little girl at the center of the vicious dispute disappears and Alex knows he must work with longtime friend Detective Milo Sturgis, braving an obstacle course of Hollywood washouts, gangbangers, and self-serving jurists in order to save an innocent life.

Killer is Kellerman—and Delaware—at their finest.

Praise for Jonathan Kellerman

“Jonathan Kellerman has justly earned his reputation as a master of the psychological thriller.��People

“Kellerman really knows how to keep those pages turning.� —The New York Times Book Review


From the Hardcover edition.]]> 354 Jonathan Kellerman Mary 4 4.23 Killer (Alex Delaware, #29)
author: Jonathan Kellerman
name: Mary
average rating: 4.23
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/10
date added: 2025/03/10
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]]> Guilt (Alex Delaware, #28) 17562245 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

In an upscale L.A. neighborhood, a backyard renovation unearths an infant’s body, buried sixty years ago. Soon thereafter, in a nearby park, another disturbingly bizarre discovery is made not far from the body of a young woman shot in the head. Helping LAPD homicide detective Milo Sturgis to link these eerie incidents is brilliant psychologist Alex Delaware. But even the good doctor’s vast experience with matters both clinical and criminal might not be enough to cut down to the bone of this chilling case. Backtracking six decades into the past stirs up tales of a beautiful nurse with a mystery lover, a handsome, wealthy doctor who seems too good to be true, and a hospital with a notorious reputation—all of them long gone, along with any records of a newborn, and destined for anonymity. But the specter of fame rears its head when the case unexpectedly twists in the direction of the highest echelons of celebrity privilege. Entering this sheltered world, Alex little imagines the macabre layer just below the surface—a decadent quagmire of unholy rituals and grisly sacrifice.

Don’t miss the excerpt of Jonathan Kellerman’s Killer in the back of the book!

Praise for Jonathan Kellerman and Guilt

“A solid, poignant tale of violence against the innocent . . . cool, brisk and polished.”�The Washington Post

“Action-packed . . . Kellerman proves he can keep readers entertained and engrossed in a story that keeps them on the edge of their seats to the final page.”—Wichita Falls Times Record News

“Certainly one of [Kellerman’s] best offerings to date . . . Do not miss this one.��Bookreporter

“Jonathan Kellerman’s psychology skills and dark imagination are a potent literary mix.”�Los Angeles Times

“The combination of Alex Delaware [and] Detective Milo Sturgis . . . makes for the most original whodunit duo since Watson and Holmes.”�Forbes

“Jonathan Kellerman’s novels are an obsession; once started it is hard to quit.”�Orlando Sentinel

“Kellerman doesn’t just write psychological thrillers—he owns the genre.”�Detroit Free Press]]> 386 Jonathan Kellerman 0345538811 Mary 4 4.25 2013 Guilt (Alex Delaware, #28)
author: Jonathan Kellerman
name: Mary
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/09
date added: 2025/03/09
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]]> Mystery (Alex Delaware, #26) 10959655 322 Jonathan Kellerman Mary 0 4.14 2011 Mystery (Alex Delaware, #26)
author: Jonathan Kellerman
name: Mary
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[The Waiting (Renée Ballard, #6)]]> 206125098 LAPD Detective Renée Ballard tracks a terrifying serial rapist whose trail has gone cold with the help of the newest volunteer to the Open-Unsolved Patrol Officer Maddie Bosch, Harry's daughter.

Renée Ballard and the LAPD's Open-Unsolved Unit get a hot shot DNA connection between a recently arrested man and a serial rapist and murderer who went quiet twenty years ago. The arrested man is only twenty-three, so the genetic link must be familial. It is his father who was the Pillowcase Rapist, responsible for a five-year reign of terror in the city of angels. But when Ballard and her team move in on their suspect, they encounter a baffling web of secrets and legal hurdles.

Meanwhile, Ballard's badge, gun, and ID are stolen-a theft she can't report without giving her enemies in the department the ammunition they need to end her career as a detective. She works the burglary alone, but her solo mission leads her into greater danger than she anticipates. She has no choice but to go outside the department for help, and that leads her to the door of Harry Bosch.

Finally, Ballard takes on a new volunteer to the cold case unit. Bosch's daughter Maddie wants to supplement her work as a patrol officer on the night beat by investigating cases with Ballard. But Renée soon learns that Maddie has an ulterior motive for getting access to the city's library of lost souls.

***

CRIME DOESN'T COME BETTER THAN 'The pre-eminent detective novelist of his generation' IAN RANKIN 'The best mystery writer in the world' GQ 'A superb natural storyteller' LEE CHILD 'A master' STEPHEN KING 'America's greatest living crime writer' DAILY EXPRESS 'One of the great storytellers of crime fiction' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH]]> Michael Connelly 0316563811 Mary 4 4.55 2024 The Waiting (Renée Ballard, #6)
author: Michael Connelly
name: Mary
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/01
date added: 2025/03/01
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]]> Sisters of Fortune 164795090
April,1912: It’s the perfect finale to a Grand Tour of Europe—sailing home on the largest, most luxurious ocean liner ever built. For the Fortune sisters, the voyage offers a chance to reflect on the treasures of the past they’ve seen—magnificent castles and museums in Italy and France, the ruins of Greece and the Middle East—and contemplate the futures that await them.

For Alice, there’s foreboding mixed with her excitement. A fortune teller in Egypt gave her a dire warning about traveling at sea. And the freedom she has enjoyed on her travels contrasts with her fiancé’s plans for her return—a cossetted existence she’s no longer sure she wants.

Flora is also returning to a fiancé, a well-to-do banker of whom her parents heartily approve, as befits their most dutiful daughter. Yet the closer the wedding looms, the less sure Flora feels. Another man—charming, exasperating, completely unsuitable—occupies her thoughts, daring her to follow her own desires rather than settling for the wishes of others.

Youngest sister Mabel knows her parents arranged this Grand Tour to separate her from a jazz musician. But the secret truth is that Helen has little interest in marrying at all, preferring to explore ideas of suffrage and reform—even if it forces a rift with her family.

Each sister grapples with the choices before her as the grand vessel glides through the Atlantic waters. Until, on an infamous night, fate intervenes, forever altering their lives . . .]]> 320 Anna Lee Huber 1496742702 Mary 4 4.36 2024 Sisters of Fortune
author: Anna Lee Huber
name: Mary
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/25
date added: 2025/02/25
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]]> Hairpin Curves 50261396 RITA® Award—winning author Elia Winters delivers a sexy, playful frenemies-to-lovers road-trip romance.

Megan Harris had hopes of seeing the world, but at twenty-five she’s never even left Florida. Now a wedding invitation lures her to Quebec…in February. When her ex-friend Scarlett offers to be her plus-one (yeah, that’s a whole story) and suggests they turn the journey into an epic road trip, Megan reluctantly agrees to the biggest adventure of her life.

A week together in a car is a surefire way to kill a crush, and Scarlett Andrews has had a big one on Megan for years. The important thing is fixing their friendship.

As the miles roll away, what starts as harmless road-trip games and rest-stop dares escalates into something like intimacy. And when a surprise snowstorm forces Megan and Scarlett to hunker down without the open road as distraction, they’ve got a bigger challenge than making it to the church on time: facing the true nature of their feelings for each other.

Carina Adores is home to highly romantic contemporary love stories where LGBTQ+ characters find their happily-ever-afters.]]> 260 Elia Winters 1488076308 Mary 0 3.61 2020 Hairpin Curves
author: Elia Winters
name: Mary
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/17
date added: 2025/02/17
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]]> <![CDATA[Give Unto Others (Commissario Brunetti #31)]]> 58669385 'Crime writing of the highest order' GUARDIAN'Donna Leon has been giving unto us for all of the thirty years since Death at La Fenice introduced us to Brunetti' Val McDermidThe gifted Venetian detective returns in his 31st case - this time, investigating the Janus-faced nature of yet another Italian institution. Brunetti will have to once again face the blurred line that runs between the criminal and the non-criminal, bending police rules, and his own character, to help an acquaintance in danger.'Both tremendously enjoyable and deeply humane' JESSIE GREENGRASS, Costa-shortlisted author of The High House'Leon's elegant, witty prose . . . is a joy' AMANDA CRAIG]]> 288 Donna Leon 0802159419 Mary 4 4.32 2022 Give Unto Others (Commissario Brunetti #31)
author: Donna Leon
name: Mary
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/09
date added: 2025/02/09
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]]> The Glass Hotel 45999201 From the award-winning author of Station Eleven, a captivating novel of money, beauty, white-collar crime, ghosts, and moral compromise in which a woman disappears from a container ship off the coast of Mauritania and a massive Ponzi scheme implodes in New York, dragging countless fortunes with it.

Vincent is a bartender at the Hotel Caiette, a five-star glass and cedar palace on an island in British Columbia. Jonathan Alkaitis works in finance and owns the hotel. When he passes Vincent his card with a tip, it's the beginning of their life together. That same day, Vincent's half-brother, Paul, scrawls a note on the windowed wall of the hotel: "Why don't you swallow broken glass." Leon Prevant, a shipping executive for a company called Neptune Logistics, sees the note from the hotel bar and is shaken to his core. Thirteen years later Vincent mysteriously disappears from the deck of the Neptune Cumberland. Weaving together the lives of these characters, The Glass Hotel moves between the ship, the skyscrapers of Manhattan, and the wilderness of northern Vancouver Island, painting a breathtaking picture of greed and guilt, fantasy and delusion, art and the ghosts of our pasts.]]> 302 Emily St. John Mandel 0525521151 Mary 5 3.83 2020 The Glass Hotel
author: Emily St. John Mandel
name: Mary
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/06
date added: 2025/02/06
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]]> James 173754979 A brilliant reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—both harrowing and satirical—told from the enslaved Jim's point of view

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

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

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780385550369.]]> 303 Percival Everett Mary 0 to-read 4.46 2024 James
author: Percival Everett
name: Mary
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/29
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Darkest Fear (Myron Bolitar #7)]]> 59107549
Myron never saw it coming. A surprise visit from an ex-girlfriend is unsettling enough. But Emily Downing's news brings him to his knees. Her son Jeremy is dying and needs a bone-marrow transplant—from a donor who has vanished without a trace. Then comes the real shocker: The boy is Myron's son, conceived the night before her wedding to another man.

Staggered by the news, Myron plunges into a search for the missing donor. But finding him means cracking open a dark mystery that involves a broken family, a brutal kidnapping spree, and the FBI. Somewhere in the sordid mess is the donor who disappeared. And as doubts emerge about Jeremy's true paternity, a child vanishes, igniting a chain reaction of heartbreaking truth and chilling revelation.]]> 370 Harlan Coben Mary 4 4.45 1999 Darkest Fear (Myron Bolitar #7)
author: Harlan Coben
name: Mary
average rating: 4.45
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/26
date added: 2025/01/26
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]]> One Midnight With You 212647613
Ailish’s daughter, Emmy, thought her boyfriend was nothing like her cheating father, but now she’s not so sure. As the hours pass, she turns detective to find out if she picked the right man, or if history is repeating itself.

Grandmother, Minnie Ryan is on a mission to deliver a very special gift to a lifelong friend. But will grit and a touch of divine intervention be enough to overcome the obstacles that fate is putting in her way?

Dario Moretti has spent his whole life working in the family business, but now it’s in trouble and he’s all out of options. Will he have the strength to let it go, even if it means hurting the people he loves?

The clock is ticking� but will twenty-four hours be long enough to heal four broken hearts?]]> 306 Shari Low 1835184634 Mary 4 4.37 One Midnight With You
author: Shari Low
name: Mary
average rating: 4.37
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/20
date added: 2025/01/20
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]]> There's Something About Mira 211290229 From USA Today bestselling author Sonali Dev comes the heartfelt story of a woman determined to reunite a lost ring with its owner, who ends up finding herself along the way.

Mira Salvi has the perfect life—a job she loves, a fiancé everyone adores, and the secure future she’s always imagined for herself. Really, she hasn’t a thing to complain about, not even when she has to go on her engagement trip to New York alone.

While playing tourist in the city, Mira chances upon a lost ring, and her social media post to locate its owner goes viral. With everyone trying to claim the ring, only one person seems to want to find its owner as badly as Mira journalist Krish Hale. Brooding and arrogant, he will do anything to get to write this story.

As Krish and Mira reluctantly join forces and jump into the adventure of tracing the ring back to where it belongs, Mira begins to wonder if she is in the right place in her own life. She had to have found this ring for a reason…right? Maybe, like the owner of the lost ring, her happy ending hasn’t been written yet either.]]> 314 Sonali Dev 1662524250 Mary 4 4.24 2025 There's Something About Mira
author: Sonali Dev
name: Mary
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/19
date added: 2025/01/19
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]]> Some Other Time 211102993 A hopeful, funny, and untraditional love story about second chances, the ripple effects of love, and the myriad ways in which the simplest lives have the power to change the world.

The next step in Ellie Baker’s divorce. She and her husband, Jonah, are heading to Florida to break it to the family. No great drama to share. After twenty years of marriage, they’ve just fallen out of love. Simple.

Not to their college-age daughter, Maggie, who is devastated. Or to Ellie’s father, Frank, who grows as cold as a retiree can get in Orlando. As for Ellie’s mother, Bunny: no, no, no. She doesn’t want to hear it. After a dreadful weekend, Ellie and Jonah return home to New Jersey with hearts and minds still set on a split. Until the extraordinary morning Ellie wakes up to an alternate version of the present day—one in which she, and a passing stranger named Jonah, never married.

Over the span of an inexplicable week, Ellie sees how her world—and the world of everyone she loves—unfolded through a different course in time. And this time could change everything all over again.]]> 297 Angela Brown 166251638X Mary 3 3.54 2025 Some Other Time
author: Angela Brown
name: Mary
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/17
date added: 2025/01/17
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]]> Lotus 129323131 "All these years, I've never given my heart to anyone�

The truth is, I didn't have a heart to give.

My heart was with a ghost."

To the rest of the world, he was the little boy who went missing on the Fourth of July. But to Sydney Neville, he was everything. Her heart hasn't been the same since her best friend disappeared, but she's learned to build her life around that missing piece.

Twenty-two years later, the last thing Sydney expects is for Oliver Lynch to return. Having been captive underground for decades, he's unfamiliar with the strange new world that awaits him—but he's alive. He's here. And no matter how he's changed, he and Sydney both still feel the connection that runs between them.

But as their reborn friendship begins to feel like something more, Sydney and Oliver realize there are still jagged, painful truths creating space between them. The walls Sydney's built don't want to come down, and as Oliver hunts for his missing memories and lost time, he realizes his nightmare is not yet over.

With nothing as it seems, is there space for love to bloom in this dark place?




"I have such a soft spot for strong but innocent heroes, and Lotus has one of the best there is. If you are looking for a compelling story that touches on deep, emotional topics, a heroine who is easy to love, and a beautifully vulnerable male hero, pick this one up immediately." -Mia Sheridan, NYT bestselling author]]> 349 Jennifer Hartmann 1728290511 Mary 3 4.33 2021 Lotus
author: Jennifer Hartmann
name: Mary
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/15
date added: 2025/01/15
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]]> Bones (Alex Delaware, #23) 8151248 Bones is classic Kellerman–relentlessly peeling back the skin and psyches of its characters and revealing the shadows and sins of the souls beneath. With jolt after jolt of galvanizing suspense, it drives the reader through its twists and turns toward a climax as satisfying as it is shattering.]]> 369 Jonathan Kellerman Mary 4 4.23 2008 Bones (Alex Delaware, #23)
author: Jonathan Kellerman
name: Mary
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/12
date added: 2025/01/12
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]]> <![CDATA[Obsession (Alex Delaware, #21)]]> 59111101 Victims.

With scores of millions of books in print, translation into two dozen languages, and one of the most popular heroes in contemporary fiction to his name, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman is the unequivocal “master of the psychological thriller� (People). In his newest novel Kellerman delivers a tour de force–poignant, dark, and chilling–that illuminates a shadowy world where impulse rules.

Tanya Bigelow was a solemn little girl when Dr. Alex Delaware successfully treated her obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Now, at nineteen, she still seems older than her years� but her problems go beyond hyper-maturity. Patty Bigelow, Tanya’s aunt and adoptive mother, has made a deathbed confession of murder and urged the young woman to seek Delaware’s help. The doctor recalls Patty as a selfless E.R. nurse struggling to raise a child on her own–a woman seemingly incapable of the “terrible thing� she has admitted. But for Tanya’s peace of mind, Delaware agrees to investigate, and he enlists LAPD detective Milo Sturgis in the search for the phantom victim of a crime that may never have occurred.

Armed with only the vaguest details, psychologist and cop follow a trail twisting from L.A.’s sleaziest low-rent districts to its overblown mansions, retracing Patty and Tanya’s nomadic and increasingly puzzling life to the doorsteps of a sullen heroin addict; a randy real-estate broker; and a brilliant, enigmatic physics student. Suddenly a very real murder tears open a terrifying tunnel into the past, where secrets–and bodies–are buried. As the tension mounts, Delaware and Sturgis uncover a tangled history of desperation, vengeance, and death–a legacy of evil that refuses to die.

Dramatic, action-packed, and filled with the psychological detail that only Jonathan Kellerman can provide, Obsession is a whodunit, a whydunit� and something unique: a did-it-even-happen? This is Kellerman at his heart-racing best.]]> 466 Jonathan Kellerman Mary 4 4.33 2007 Obsession (Alex Delaware, #21)
author: Jonathan Kellerman
name: Mary
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/09
date added: 2025/01/09
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]]> Gone (Alex Delaware, #20) 6378408 #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Missing acting students Dylan and Michaela are found in the remote mountains of Malibu, battered and terrified after a harrowing ordeal at the hands of a sadistic abductor. But forensic evidence soon exposes the incident as a hoax, and the kids are charged as criminals themselves. “Kellerman shows why he is called the ‘master of the psychological thriller.’”—Orlando Sentinel After examining Michaela, psychologist Alex Delaware is certain that there’s more to this sordid psychodrama, and his instincts prove dead-on when she is savagely murdered. Casting their dragnet into the murkiest corners of L.A., Delaware and homicide cop Milo Sturgis unearth more questions than answers—and a host of eerily identical killings. What bizarre and brutal epidemic is infecting the city with terror, madness, and sudden, twisted death?]]> 480 Jonathan Kellerman Mary 4 4.24 2006 Gone (Alex Delaware, #20)
author: Jonathan Kellerman
name: Mary
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/07
date added: 2025/01/07
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]]> Therapy (Alex Delaware, #18) 42869067 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Behind the yellow crime-scene tape, a brutal tableau awaits. On a lonely lovers� lane in the hills of Los Angeles, a young couple lies murdered in a car. Each victim bears a single gunshot wound to the head. Though the female remains unidentified, her male companion has a name—Gavin Quick—and a troubled past that had landed him on a therapist’s couch.

“Labyrinthine twists, excellent pacing, and hard-boiled, swaggering dialogue.”�The Washington Post

It’s there, on familiar turf, that psychologist-sleuth Alex Delaware hopes to find vital clues. And that means going head-to-head with Dr. Mary Lou Koppel, a celebrity psychologist who fiercely guards the privacy of her clients . . . alive or dead. As Delaware follows a chain of greed, corruption, and betrayal snaking hideously through the profession he thought he knew, he’ll cross into territory even he never dreamed of treading.

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Jonathan Kellerman's Guilt.]]> 512 Jonathan Kellerman Mary 4 4.23 2004 Therapy (Alex Delaware, #18)
author: Jonathan Kellerman
name: Mary
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/04
date added: 2025/01/04
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]]> <![CDATA[A Cold Heart (Alex Delaware, #17)]]> 41955437 This is an updated cover of this Kindle edition. *

LAPD homicide detective Milo Sturgis summons his friend psychologist-sleuth Alex Delaware to a trendy gallery where a promising young artist has been brutally garroted on the night of her first major showing. The details of the murder scene immediately suggest to Alex not an impulsive crime of passion but the meticulous and taunting modus operandi of a serial killer.

Delaware’s suspicions are borne out when he and Milo find a link between the artist’s death and the murder of a noted blues guitarist. The twisting trail leads from halfway houses to palatial mansions, from a college campus to the last place Alex ever expected: the doorstep of his ex-lover Robin Castagna. As more killings are discovered, unraveling the maddening puzzle assumes a chilling new importance—stopping a vicious psychopath who’s made cold-blooded murder his chosen art form.]]> 432 Jonathan Kellerman Mary 4 4.18 2003 A Cold Heart (Alex Delaware, #17)
author: Jonathan Kellerman
name: Mary
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/02
date added: 2025/01/02
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]]> <![CDATA[The Grey Wolf (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #19)]]> 204174589
Relentless phone calls interrupt the peace of a warm August morning in Three Pines. Though the tiny Québec village is impossible to find on any map, someone has managed to track down Armand Gamache, head of homicide at the Sûreté, as he sits with his wife in their back garden. Reine-Marie watches with increasing unease as her husband refuses to pick up, though he clearly knows who is on the other end. When he finally answers, his rage shatters the calm of their quiet Sunday morning.

That's only the first in a sequence of strange events that begin THE GREY WOLF, the nineteenth novel in Louise Penny's #1 New York Times-bestselling series. A missing coat, an intruder alarm, a note for Gamache reading "this might interest you", a puzzling scrap of paper with a mysterious list—and then a murder. All propel Chief Inspector Gamache and his team toward a terrible realization. Something much more sinister than any one murder or any one case is fast approaching.

Armand Gamache, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, his son-in-law and second in command, and Inspector Isabelle Lacoste can only trust each other, as old friends begin to act like enemies, and long-time enemies appear to be friends. Determined to track down the threat before it becomes a reality, their pursuit takes them across Québec and across borders. Their hunt grows increasingly desperate, even frantic, as the enormity of the creature they’re chasing becomes clear. If they fail the devastating consequences would reach into the largest of cities and the smallest of villages.

Including Three Pines.]]> 432 Louise Penny 1250328144 Mary 5 4.42 2024 The Grey Wolf (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #19)
author: Louise Penny
name: Mary
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/31
date added: 2024/12/31
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]]> Apologize, Apologize! 6668718


Apologize, Apologize! takes us into the perversely charmed world of the Flanagans and their son, Collie (who has the questionable good fortune to be named after a breed of dog). Coming of age on Martha's Vineyard, he struggles to find his place within his wildly wealthy, hyper-articulate, resolutely crazy Irish-Catholic a philandering father, incorrigible brother, pigeon-racing uncle, radical activist mother, and domineering media mogul grandfather (accused of being a murderer by Collie's mother). It is a world where chaos is exhilaratingly constant, where money is of no object. And yet it is a world where the things Collie wants-understanding, stability, a sense of belonging-cannot be bought for any price. Through his travails, we realize what it really means to grow up and also to grow into one's finding to find ways to see them anew, to forgive them, and to be forgiven in turn.

In prose that is lively, humorous, and brilliant throughout, Elizabeth Kelly gives us the dysfunctional-family novel to end all dysfunctional-family novels, finding the comedy and pathos in her characters' struggles, and showing beautifully how a family's love can be as trying as it is true.]]> 348 Elizabeth Kelly Mary 4 3.43 2009 Apologize, Apologize!
author: Elizabeth Kelly
name: Mary
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/28
date added: 2024/12/28
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]]> Unaccustomed Earth 31162939 #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER � From the bestselling, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Interpreter of These eight stories take us from Cambridge and Seattle to India and Thailand, as they explore the secrets at the heart of family life. “Glorious.... Showcases a considerable talent in full bloom.� —San Francisco Chronicle In the stunning title story, Ruma, a young mother in a new city, is visited by her father who carefully tends her garden–where she later unearths evidence of a love affair he is keeping to himself. In “A Choice of Accommodations,� a couple’s romantic getaway weekend takes a dark turn at a party that lasts deep into the night. In “Only Goodness,� a woman eager to give her younger brother the perfect childhood she never had is overwhelmed by guilt, anguish and anger when his alcoholism threatens her family. And in “Hema and Kaushik,� a trio of linked stories–a luminous, intensely compelling elegy of life, death, love and fate–we follow the lives of a girl and boy who, one fateful winter, share a house in Massachusetts. They travel from innocence to experience on separate, sometimes painful paths, until destiny brings them together again years later in Rome. Unaccustomed Earth is rich with the author’s signature exquisite prose, emotional wisdom, and subtle renderings of the most intricate workings of the heart and mind. It is the work of a writer at the peak of her powers.]]> 354 Jhumpa Lahiri 0307268683 Mary 5 4.33 2008 Unaccustomed Earth
author: Jhumpa Lahiri
name: Mary
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/19
date added: 2024/12/19
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]]> The Museum of Failures 75593884
When Remy Wadia left India for the United States, he carried his resentment of his cold and inscrutable mother with him and has kept his distance from her. Years later, he returns to Bombay, planning to adopt a baby from a young pregnant girl—and to see his elderly mother again before it is too late. She is in the hospital, has stopped talking, and seems to have given up on life.

Struck with guilt for not realizing just how ill she had become, Remy devotes himself to helping her recover and return home. But one day in her apartment he comes upon an old photograph that demands explanation. As shocking family secrets surface, Remy finds himself reevaluating his entire childhood and his relationship to his parents, just as he is on the cusp of becoming a parent himself. Can Remy learn to forgive others for their human frailties, or is he too wedded to his sorrow and anger over his parents� long-ago decisions?

Surprising, devastating, and ultimately a story of redemption and healing still possible between a mother and son, The Museum of Failures is a tour de force from one of our most elegant storytellers about the mixed bag of love and regret. It is also, above all, a much-needed reminder that forgiveness comes from empathy for others.]]> 358 Thrity Umrigar 164375355X Mary 0 to-read 4.04 2023 The Museum of Failures
author: Thrity Umrigar
name: Mary
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind]]> 23692271 512 Yuval Noah Harari Mary 0 to-read 4.33 2011 Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
author: Yuval Noah Harari
name: Mary
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: to-read
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]]> 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 Mary 5 4.34 2023 The Covenant of Water
author: Abraham Verghese
name: Mary
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/15
date added: 2024/12/17
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]]> Mika in Real Life 59430548
At thirty-five, Mika Suzuki’s life is a mess. Her last relationship ended in flames. Her roommate-slash-best friend might be a hoarder. She’s a perpetual disappointment to her traditional Japanese parents. And, most recently, she’s been fired from her latest dead-end job.

Mika is at her lowest point when she receives a phone call from Penny—the daughter she placed for adoption sixteen years ago. Penny is determined to forge a relationship with her birth mother, and in turn, Mika longs to be someone Penny is proud of. Faced with her own inadequacies, Mika embellishes a fact about her life. What starts as a tiny white lie slowly snowballs into a fully-fledged fake life, one where Mika is mature, put-together, successful in love and her career.

The details of Mika’s life might be an illusion, but everything she shares with curious, headstrong Penny is real: her hopes, dreams, flaws, and Japanese heritage. The harder-won heart belongs to Thomas Calvin, Penny’s adoptive widower father. What starts as a rocky, contentious relationship slowly blossoms into a friendship and, over time, something more. But can Mika really have it all—love, her daughter, the life she’s always wanted? Or will Mika’s deceptions ultimately catch up to her? In the end, Mika must face the truth—about herself, her family, and her past—and answer the question, just who is Mika in real life?

Perfect for fans of Kiley Reid’s Such a Fun Age, Gayle Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, and Rebecca Serle’s In Five Years, Mika in Real Life is at once a heart-wrenching and uplifting novel that explores the weight of silence, the secrets we keep, and what it means to be a mother.

In this brilliant new novel by from Emiko Jean, the author of the New York Times bestselling young adult novel Tokyo Ever After, comes a whip-smart, laugh-out-loud funny, and utterly heartwarming novel about motherhood, daughterhood, and love—how we find it, keep it, and how it always returns.]]> 384 Emiko Jean 0063215683 Mary 4 3.88 2022 Mika in Real Life
author: Emiko Jean
name: Mary
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/01
date added: 2024/12/17
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]]> Fruit of the Drunken Tree 36636727 In the vein of Isabel Allende and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a mesmerizing debut set against the backdrop of the devastating violence of 1990's Colombia about a sheltered young girl and a teenage maid who strike an unlikely friendship that threatens to undo them both.

The Santiago family lives in a gated community in Bogotá, safe from the political upheaval terrorizing the country. Seven-year-old Chula and her older sister Cassandra enjoy carefree lives thanks to this protective bubble, but the threat of kidnappings, car bombs, and assassinations hover just outside the neighborhood walls, where the godlike drug lord Pablo Escobar continues to elude authorities and capture the attention of the nation.

When their mother hires Petrona, a live-in-maid from the city's guerrilla-occupied slum, Chula makes it her mission to understand Petrona's mysterious ways. But Petrona's unusual behavior belies more than shyness. She is a young woman crumbling under the burden of providing for her family as the rip tide of first love pulls her in the opposite direction. As both girls' families scramble to maintain stability amidst the rapidly escalating conflict, Petrona and Chula find themselves entangled in a web of secrecy that will force them both to choose between sacrifice and betrayal.

Inspired by the author's own life, and told through the alternating perspectives of the willful Chula and the achingly hopeful Petrona, Fruit of the Drunken Tree contrasts two very different, but inextricable coming-of-age stories. In lush prose, Rojas Contreras sheds light on the impossible choices women are often forced to make in the face of violence and the unexpected connections that can blossom out of desperation.]]> 304 Ingrid Rojas Contreras Mary 5 3.93 2018 Fruit of the Drunken Tree
author: Ingrid Rojas Contreras
name: Mary
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/01
date added: 2024/12/17
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]]> Love and Other Words 36206591 The story of the heart can never be unwritten.

Macy Sorensen is settling into an ambitious if emotionally tepid routine: work hard as a new pediatrics resident, plan her wedding to an older, financially secure man, keep her head down and heart tucked away.

But when she runs into Elliot Petropoulos—the first and only love of her life—the careful bubble she’s constructed begins to dissolve. Once upon a time, Elliot was Macy’s entire world—growing from her gangly bookish friend into the man who coaxed her heart open again after the loss of her mother...only to break it on the very night he declared his love for her.

Told in alternating timelines between Then and Now, teenage Elliot and Macy grow from friends to much more—spending weekends and lazy summers together in a house outside of San Francisco devouring books, sharing favorite words, and talking through their growing pains and triumphs. As adults, they have become strangers to one another until their chance reunion. Although their memories are obscured by the agony of what happened that night so many years ago, Elliot will come to understand the truth behind Macy’s decade-long silence, and will have to overcome the past and himself to revive her faith in the possibility of an all-consuming love.

Love, loss, friendship, and the betrayals of the past all collide in this first fiction novel from New York Times and #1 international bestselling author Christina Lauren (Autoboyography, Dating You / Hating You).]]> 432 Christina Lauren 1501190539 Mary 3 4.23 2018 Love and Other Words
author: Christina Lauren
name: Mary
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/01
date added: 2024/12/17
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]]> Demon Copperhead 60194162 "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 0063251922 Mary 4 4.46 2022 Demon Copperhead
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Mary
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/01
date added: 2024/12/17
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]]> <![CDATA[The Murder Book (Alex Delaware, #16)]]> 42868684
The nightmare begins when Alex receives a strange package in the mail with no return address. Inside is an ornate album filled with gruesome crime scene photos—a homicide scrapbook entitled The Murder Book. Alex can find no reason for anyone to send him this compendium of death, but when Milo views the book, he is immediately shaken by one of the images: a young woman, tortured, strangled, and dumped near a freeway ramp.

This was one of Milo’s first cases as a rookie homicide cop: a vicious killing that he failed to solve, because just as he and his training partner began to make headway, the department closed them down. Being forced to abandon the young victim tormented Milo. But his fears prevented him from pursuing the truth, and over the years he managed to forget. Or so he thought.

Now, two decades later, someone has chosen to stir up the past. As Alex and Milo set out to uncover what really happened twenty years ago, their every move is followed and their lives are placed in jeopardy. The relentless investigation reaches deep into L.A.’s nerve-centers of power and wealth—past and present. While peeling back layer after layer of ugly secrets, they discover that the murder of one forgotten girl has chilling ramifications that extend far beyond the tragic loss of a single life.]]> 576 Jonathan Kellerman Mary 0 4.23 2002 The Murder Book (Alex Delaware, #16)
author: Jonathan Kellerman
name: Mary
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/17
date added: 2024/12/17
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]]> <![CDATA[The Day Shelley Woodhouse Woke Up]]> 203098721 Brand new from the #1 bestselling author of The Last List of Mabel Beaumont comes a powerful story of memory, loss, love, and new beginnings�

When Shelley Woodhouse wakes up in hospital from a coma, the first thing she says is that her husband must be arrested.

He’s the reason she’s in here. She knows it. She remembers what he did. Clearly as anything.

But there are things Shelley has forgotten too, including parts of her childhood. And as those start to come back to her, so do other memories. Ones with the power to change everything.

But can she trust these new memories, or what anyone around her is telling her? And who is the mysterious hospital volunteer who brings her food and keeps making her smile? Is it possible to find your future when you're confused about your past?]]> 298 Laura Pearson 1785136429 Mary 4 4.17 2024 The Day Shelley Woodhouse Woke Up
author: Laura Pearson
name: Mary
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/09
date added: 2024/12/09
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]]> <![CDATA[Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss]]> 39808463 In the spirit of A Man Called Ove, Professor Chandra proves that it's never too late to change your life and reaffirm your love for those who really matter.

"Professor Chandra is as acerbic and unbending a curmudgeon as one could wish to find scowling from the pages of a novel. Brilliant, pompous, and baffled by the world outside his Cambridge study, Chandra is forced on a reluctant quest to America to find himself and his family. Searingly funny, uplifting, and wonderful." Helen Simonson, author of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand and The Summer Before the War

P.R. Chandrasekhar, the celebrated professor of economics at Cambridge, is at a turning point. He has sacrificed his family for his career, but his conservative brand of economics is no longer in fashion, and yet again he has lost the Nobel Prize to a rival. His wife has left him for a free spirited West Coast psychiatrist and relocated to Boulder, Colorado. His son, a capitalist guru with a cult following, mocks his father's life work; his middle daughter, the apple of his eye, has become a Marxist and refuses to speak to him; and his youngest daughter is struggling through her teenage years with the help of psychedelic drugs. And then, the final indignity: He is hit by a bicycle and forced to confront his mortality. Professor Chandra's American doctor instructs him to change his workaholic ways and "follow his bliss"--and so he does, right to the coast of California, and into the heart of his dysfunctional family.

Witty, charming, and all too human, the story of Professor Chandra's path to enlightenment will enchant readers from all walks of life.]]> 288 Rajeev Rajeev Balasubramanyam 1784742546 Mary 4 3.54 2019 Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss
author: Rajeev Rajeev Balasubramanyam
name: Mary
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/01
date added: 2024/12/09
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]]> <![CDATA[The Medicine Woman of Galveston]]> 198670262
Readers of Ellen Marie Wiseman, Sandra Dallas, and Sara Donati will be captivated by this story of medical historical fiction by Amanda Skenandore, registered nurse and acclaimed author of The Nurse’s Secret and The Second Life of Mirielle West .

Once a trailblazer in the field of medicine, Dr. Tucia Hatherley hasn’t touched a scalpel or stethoscope since she made a fatal mistake in the operating theater. Instead, she works in a corset factory, striving to earn enough to support her disabled son. When even that livelihood is threatened, Tucia is left with one option—to join a wily, charismatic showman named Huey and become part of his traveling medicine show.

Her medical license lends the show a pretense of credibility, but the cures and tonics Tucia is forced to peddle are little more than purgatives and bathwater. Loathing the duplicity, even as she finds uneasy kinship with the other misfit performers, Tucia vows to leave as soon as her debts are paid and start a new life with her son—if Huey will ever let her go.

When the show reaches Galveston, Texas, Tucia tries to break free from Huey, only to be pulled even deeper into his schemes. But there is a far greater reckoning ahead, as a September storm becomes a devastating hurricane that will decimate the Gulf Coast—and challenge Tucia to recover her belief in medicine, in the goodness of others—and in herself.]]> 304 Amanda Skenandore 1496741692 Mary 4 4.20 2024 The Medicine Woman of Galveston
author: Amanda Skenandore
name: Mary
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/08
date added: 2024/12/08
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]]> Whereabouts 53438824
This is the first novel she has written in Italian and translated into English. It brims with the impulse to cross barriers. By grafting herself onto a new literary language, Lahiri has pushed herself to a new level of artistic achievement.]]> 157 Jhumpa Lahiri 0593318315 Mary 0 to-read 3.76 2018 Whereabouts
author: Jhumpa Lahiri
name: Mary
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/08
shelves: to-read
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]]> Under the Magnolias 56217998 This night not only marked the end to the drought, but also the end to the long-held secret we'd kept hidden under the magnolias.

Magnolia, South Carolina, 1980
Austin Foster is barely a teenager when her mama dies giving birth to twins, leaving her to pick up the pieces while holding her six siblings together and doing her best to stop her daddy from retreating into his personal darkness.

Scratching out a living on the family's tobacco farm is as tough as it gets. When a few random acts of kindness help to ease the Fosters' hardships, Austin finds herself relying upon some of Magnolia's most colorful citizens for friendship and more. But it's next to impossible to hide the truth about the goings-on at Nolia Farms, and Austin's desperate attempts to save face all but break her.

Just when it seems she might have something more waiting for her--with the son of a wealthy local family who she's crushed on for years--her father makes a choice that will crack wide-open the family's secrets and lead to a public reckoning. There are consequences for loving a boy like Vance Cumberland, but there is also freedom in the truth.

T. I. Lowe's gritty yet tender and uplifting tale reminds us that a great story can break your heart . . . then heal it in the best possible way.]]> 384 T.I. Lowe 1496453611 Mary 0 4.23 2021 Under the Magnolias
author: T.I. Lowe
name: Mary
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2024/07/01
date added: 2024/11/05
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]]> <![CDATA[What You Are Looking For Is in the Library]]> 91274427 For fans of The Midnight Library and Before the Coffee Gets Cold, this charming Japanese novel shows how the perfect book recommendation can change a reader's life.

What are you looking for?

This is the famous question routinely asked by Tokyo’s most enigmatic librarian, Sayuri Komachi. Like most librarians, Komachi has read every book lining her shelves—but she also has the unique ability to read the souls of her library guests. For anyone who walks through her door, Komachi can sense exactly what they’re looking for in life and provide just the book recommendation they never knew they needed to help them find it.

Each visitor comes to her library from a different juncture in their careers and dreams, from the restless sales attendant who feels stuck at her job to the struggling working mother who longs to be a magazineeditor. The conversation that they have with Sayuri Komachi—and the surprise book she lends each of them—will have life-altering consequences.

With heartwarming charm and wisdom, What You Are Looking For Is in the Library is a paean to the magic of libraries, friendship and community, perfect for anyone who has ever found themselves at an impasse in their life and in need of a little inspiration.]]> 304 Michiko Aoyama 1335005625 Mary 5 4.07 2020 What You Are Looking For Is in the Library
author: Michiko Aoyama
name: Mary
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/01
date added: 2024/11/05
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]]> Tom Lake 63241104 In this beautiful and moving novel about family, love, and growing up, Ann Patchett once again proves herself one of America’s finest writers.

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

Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart. As in all of her novels, Ann Patchett combines compelling narrative artistry with piercing insights into family dynamics. The result is a rich and luminous story, told with profound intelligence and emotional subtlety, that demonstrates once again why she is one of the most revered and acclaimed literary talents working today.]]> 309 Ann Patchett 006332752X Mary 0 3.92 2023 Tom Lake
author: Ann Patchett
name: Mary
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/01/01
date added: 2024/11/05
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]]> <![CDATA[Dead Water (Shetland Island, #5)]]> 20159773 Raven Black, White Nights, Red Bones, and Blue Lightning. When the body of ajournalist is found, Detective Inspector Willow Reeves is drafted from outside to head up the investigation. Inspector Jimmy Perez has been out ofthe loop,but his local knowledge is needed in this case,and he decides to help Willow. The dead journalist had left the islands years before to pursue his writing career. In his wake, he left a scandal involving a young girl. When Willow and Jimmy dig deeper, they realize that the journalist was chasing a story that many Shetlanders didn't want to come to the surface.In Dead Water,a triumphantcontinuation to her Shetland series, Ann Cleeves cements her place as one of Britain's most successful crime writers.


]]> 401 Ann Cleeves 1250036615 Mary 0 4.31 2013 Dead Water (Shetland Island, #5)
author: Ann Cleeves
name: Mary
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at: 2024/11/04
date added: 2024/11/04
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]]> <![CDATA[Thin Air (Shetland Island, #6)]]> 23513880 Raven Black, White Nights, Red Bones, Blue Lightning, and Dead Water.

A group of old university friends leave the bright lights of London and travel to Shetland to celebrate the marriage of one of their friends. But, one of them, Eleanor, disappears—apparently into thin air. It's mid-summer, a time of light nights and unexpected mists. And then Eleanor's body is discovered lying in a small loch close to the cliff edge.

Detectives Jimmy Perez and Willow Reeves are dispatched to investigate. Before she went missing, Eleanor claimed to have seen the ghost of a local child who drowned in the 1920s. Her interest in the ghost had seemed unhealthy—obsessive, even—to her an indication of a troubled mind. But Jimmy and Willow are convinced that there is more to Eleanor's death than they first thought.

Is there a secret that lies behind the myth? One so shocking that someone would kill—many years later—to protect?

Ann Cleeves' striking newnovel is a quintessential whodunit with surprises at every turn.


]]> 400 Ann Cleeves 1466879351 Mary 0 4.29 2014 Thin Air (Shetland Island, #6)
author: Ann Cleeves
name: Mary
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at: 2024/11/04
date added: 2024/11/04
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]]> <![CDATA[Cold Earth (Shetland Island #7)]]> 32596686
At the burial of his old friend Magnus Tait, Jimmy Perez watches the flood of mud and peaty water smash through a croft house in its path. Everyone thinks the croft is uninhabited, but in the wreckage he finds the body of a dark-haired woman wearing a red silk dress. In his mind, she shares his Mediterranean ancestry and soon he becomes obsessed with tracing her identity.

Then it emerges that she was already dead before the landslide hit the house. Perez feels bound by duty - and something more powerful - to find out who she was, and how she died. Within the house, the only clue is a wooden box that contains two photos, one of two small children and one of an elderly couple. And a handwritten letter, which begins: "My dearest Alis..."]]> 396 Ann Cleeves 1250107393 Mary 0 4.32 2016 Cold Earth (Shetland Island #7)
author: Ann Cleeves
name: Mary
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at: 2024/11/04
date added: 2024/11/04
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]]> <![CDATA[Shots Fired: Stories from Joe Pickett Country]]> 39701332
C. J. Box has been hailed for his brilliant storytelling, with a style rich in character, suspense, and sense of place. That same brilliance is exemplified in the ten riveting stories—three of them never before published—that make up Shots Fired.

In “One-Car Bridge,� one of four Joe Pickett stories, Pickett goes up against a just plain mean landowner, with disastrous results. In “Shots Fired,� his investigation into a radio call nearly ends up being the last thing he ever does.

“Pirates of Yellowstone,� features two Eastern European tough guys who find out what it means to be strangers in a strange land, and in “Le Sauvage Noble,� the stranger is a Lakota in Paris who enjoys playing the noble savage for the French women—until he meets Sophie. Then he discovers what savage really means....]]> 270 C.J. Box 0698170679 Mary 0 4.24 2014 Shots Fired: Stories from Joe Pickett Country
author: C.J. Box
name: Mary
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at: 2024/11/04
date added: 2024/11/04
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]]> <![CDATA[The Crow Trap (Vera Stanhope, #1)]]> 203265701 Three very different women come together to complete an environmental survey. Three women who, in some way or another, know the meaning of betrayal....For team leader Rachael Lambert the project is the perfect opportunity to rebuild her confidence after a double-betrayal by her lover and boss, Peter Kemp. Botanist Anne Preece, on the other hand, sees it as a chance to indulge in a little deception of her own. And then there is Grace Fulwell, a strange, uncommunicative young woman with plenty of her own secrets to hide...

When Rachael arrives at the cottage, however, she is horrified to discover the body of her friend Bella Furness. Bella, it appears, has committed suicide--a verdict Rachael finds impossible to accept.

Only when the next death occurs does a fourth woman enter the picture--the unconventional Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope, who must piece together the truth from these women's tangled lives...

]]> Ann Cleeves Mary 0 4.08 1999 The Crow Trap (Vera Stanhope, #1)
author: Ann Cleeves
name: Mary
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at: 2024/11/04
date added: 2024/11/04
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]]> <![CDATA[Shadows Reel (Joe Pickett, #22)]]> 58367544 A day before the three Pickett girls come home for Thanksgiving, Joe is called out for a moose-poaching incident that turns out to be something much more a local fishing guide has been brutally tortured and murdered. At the same time, Marybeth opens an unmarked package at the library where she works and finds a photo album that belonged to an infamous Nazi official. Who left it there? And why?
She learns that during World War II, several Wyoming soldiers were in the group that fought to Hitler’s Eagles Nest retreat in the Alps—and one of them took the Fuhrer’s personal photo album. Did another take this one and keep it all these years? When a close neighbor is murdered, Joe and Marybeth face new Who is after the book? And how will they solve its mystery before someone hurts them…or their girls?
Meanwhile, Nate Romanowski is on the hunt for the man who stole his falcons and attacked his wife. Using a network of fellow falconers, Nate tracks the man from one city to another. Even as he grasps the true threat his quarry presents, Nate swoops in for the kill—and a stunning final showdown.]]> 384 C.J. Box 0593331273 Mary 0 4.20 2022 Shadows Reel (Joe Pickett, #22)
author: C.J. Box
name: Mary
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2024/11/04
date added: 2024/11/04
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]]> Mansfield Park 16058947 346 Jane Austen Mary 4 4.12 1814 Mansfield Park
author: Jane Austen
name: Mary
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1814
rating: 4
read at: 2016/08/03
date added: 2024/10/23
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]]> <![CDATA[Shine On: How To Grow Awesome Instead of Old]]> 28274478 -Meg Cabot
If you're a forty-to-forever woman who's interested in aging well, don't miss this motivating and inspiring book.
Join New York Times bestselling author Claire Cook (Must Love Dogs, Never Too Late) on a transformative journey that will help you shake off all those worries about getting older and embrace what can be the most vibrant, creative and empowering chapter of your life.

Claire wrote her first book in her minivan at 45. At 50, she walked the red carpet at the Hollywood premiere of the adaptation of her novel, Must Love Dogs, starring Diane Lane and John Cusack. With another milestone birthday on the horizon, she was old enough to know the signs: "It was time to get my act together. Again."

Shine On: How To Grow Awesome Instead of Old speaks to midlife women everywhere and is filled with Claire's trademark humor, heart, honesty and encouragement.

"Cook's penchant for hitting the emotional sore spot and combining it with humor hits the mark." -New York Journal of Books
]]> 310 Claire Cook 1942671172 Mary 5 4.19 Shine On: How To Grow Awesome Instead of Old
author: Claire Cook
name: Mary
average rating: 4.19
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/09/28
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]]> <![CDATA[Life Glows On: Reconnecting With Your Creativity to Make the Rest of Your Life the Best of Your Life]]> 58458334 #1 Amazon Bestseller in Creativity“This is exactly the book I needed right now.”—Looking on the Sunnyside“Filled with inspiring quotes and strategies.”—New York Journal of BooksPacked with fun ideas and solid, practical strategies for reconnecting with your creativity and making the rest of your life the best of your life. Ditch all those worries about getting older and embrace what can be the most vibrant and empowering chapter of your life.Equal parts creativity guide, mood boost, midlife manifesto, self-help salve, and breath of fresh air. 100% witty, wise and generous Claire Cook, who shares everything she’s learned on her own journey that might help you in yours. Filled with great stories and insider tips.If you’re a forty-to-forever woman who’s interested in making your life glow on, don’t miss this inspiring and motivating book."Whether you’re a writer, artist, or crafter in need of a boost, or someone who (incorrectly!) tells yourself you’re not creative (you are!), this book is a much-needed balm to the soul."—Book Perfume“It's a how-to 'Cook-book' filled with wonderful ideas to help you locate that spark and use that new-found innate creativity to keep yourself busy, productive—and happy—during difficult times like pandemic shutdowns and post-shutdowns.”—Pamela Kramer“From one reader to another, you can never go wrong reading one of Claire Cook's books.”—Vicky G.�Life Glows On gave me the encouragement I needed when I desperately needed it. I don't usually read nonfiction, but the great stories make this book feel as if you're reading a novel.”—Donna H.“[Cook’s] poignancy and sassy humor resonate with readers; her theme of reinvention uplifts and inspires.� —Savannah Magazine“A beach tote couldn’t ask for more.”—Kirkus“Claire Cook has an original voice, sparkling style, and a window into family life that will make you laugh and cry.”—Adriana Trigiani“Charming, engagingly quirky, and full of fun, Claire Cook just gets it.”—Meg Cabot“Claire Cook is wicked good.”—Jacquelyn Mitchard“Cook’s humor and narrative execution are impeccable.”—Publishers Weekly“Cook has a light, fun voice and always infuses her stories with great wit and heart.� –Cape Cod Times“Cook’s penchant for hitting the emotional sore spot and combining it with humor hits the mark.”—New York Journal of Books“It is never too late to find your place in the world.”—San Francisco Book Review“Dust off those what-ifs and get ready to glow on.”—Book Perfume]]> 314 Claire Cook 1942671067 Mary 5
So many of us came out of the last year looking for “more�. I have thought deeply about how I am spending my time. Life Glows On really taps into this in a fun and quirky way.

This book has all of Claire Cook’s trademark wit, and conveys great information in an accessible way.

Merged review:

One of the things I truly love about Claire Cook’s books is how they so often appear at a moment when I appreciate/need them. This book builds on Shine On and the Road to Reinvention but does so in a very fresh way.

So many of us came out of the last year looking for “more�. I have thought deeply about how I am spending my time. Life Glows On really taps into this in a fun and quirky way.

This book has all of Claire Cook’s trademark wit, and conveys great information in an accessible way.]]> 4.62 Life Glows On: Reconnecting With Your Creativity to Make the Rest of Your Life the Best of Your Life
author: Claire Cook
name: Mary
average rating: 4.62
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/01
date added: 2024/09/23
shelves:
review:
One of the things I truly love about Claire Cook’s books is how they so often appear at a moment when I appreciate/need them. This book builds on Shine On and the Road to Reinvention but does so in a very fresh way.

So many of us came out of the last year looking for “more�. I have thought deeply about how I am spending my time. Life Glows On really taps into this in a fun and quirky way.

This book has all of Claire Cook’s trademark wit, and conveys great information in an accessible way.

Merged review:

One of the things I truly love about Claire Cook’s books is how they so often appear at a moment when I appreciate/need them. This book builds on Shine On and the Road to Reinvention but does so in a very fresh way.

So many of us came out of the last year looking for “more�. I have thought deeply about how I am spending my time. Life Glows On really taps into this in a fun and quirky way.

This book has all of Claire Cook’s trademark wit, and conveys great information in an accessible way.
]]> Winter Storms 29337028 The Quinn family gathers for one last holiday at the Winter Street Inn in the heartwarming conclusion to Elin Hilderbrand's bestselling trilogy.

Preparing for another holiday season in Nantucket, the Quinns are optimistic that despite a health scare for Kelley, this year's celebration will be their best in ages. After a year apart, and an ill-fated affair with the Inn's old Santa Claus, Mitzi has returned to rule the roost; there is hopeful news about Bart, who has been MIA in Afghanistan; and love is in the air as Kevin and Isabelle are preparing to get married. But as the family gathers together, a powerful blizzard bears down on the Eastern seaboard. With a wedding, an emotional reunion, and enough holiday drama to test the closest of family bonds, WINTER STORMS proves that when the holidays roll around, you can always go home again.]]> 257 Elin Hilderbrand 0316261157 Mary 4 4.13 2016 Winter Storms
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Mary
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2017/05/15
date added: 2024/08/16
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]]> <![CDATA[The Bollywood Bride (Bollywood)]]> 25158604
Ria and Vikram spent childhood summers together, a world away from Ria’s exclusive boarding school in Mumbai. Their friendship grew seamlessly into love—until Ria made a shattering decision. As far as Vikram is concerned, Ria sold her soul for stardom and it’s taken him years to rebuild his life. But beneath his pent-up anger, their bond remains unchanged. And now, among those who know her best, Ria may find the courage to face the secrets she’s been guarding for everyone else’s benefit—and a chance to stop acting and start living.

Rich with details of modern Indian-American life, here is a warm, sexy, and witty story of love, family, and the difficult choices that arise in the name of both.]]> 239 Sonali Dev 1617730165 Mary 3 3.77 The Bollywood Bride (Bollywood)
author: Sonali Dev
name: Mary
average rating: 3.77
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2017/03/26
date added: 2024/08/07
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]]> <![CDATA[Crashing into Her (Love on Cue, #3)]]> 39735918 man. But Eva has needs, and a one-night-stand at her best friend’s wedding is the perfect way to kick off her new approach to singledom. Then a job opportunity puts her in the same city with the guy she can’t forget . . .

Anthony Castillo is a perpetual bachelor—no strings, just flings—a status he maintains by being honest about his intentions and never looking back. So why is he still thinking about the firecracker of a woman who rocked his world at his cousin’s wedding? It’s a question he refuses to answer, until she comes crashing back into his life, taking his emotional walls down with her.

When her father doubts her ability to make it in LA, Eva vows to go big and prove him wrong. With her athletic background, she’s an ideal candidate for stunt work. But first she’ll need training, and the instructor is none other than her former hookup, Anthony Castillo. Except he’s not as cocky as she remembers and he’s definitely still sexy as sin. The only problem is . . . Anthony doesn’t want her anywhere near his stunt school—or his heart.
]]> 384 Mia Sosa 0062878743 Mary 0 3.85 2019 Crashing into Her (Love on Cue, #3)
author: Mia Sosa
name: Mary
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at: 2022/11/29
date added: 2024/07/23
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]]> No. 23 Burlington Square 185040105
On the morning of Friday 5th February, 1927, Miss Agnes Humphries � the landlady of the attractive, if-slightly shabby, white-fronted townhouse at Number 23 Burlington Square � has a decision to make.

The rooms of the second floor lie empty, since poor Mr Blandford’s unfortunate demise, God rest his soul. And Agnes must make up her mind as to who will be her new lodger� Will it be her spirited, young niece Clara, who drifts through the glamorous world of London’s Bright Young Things? Or Stephen, the sensible, church-going, respectable banker who seems just be too good to be true? Or the timid war widow named Mercy, who is clearly running from something � or someone�?

Agnes must choose between them. But what will her decision lead to? One of the choices could result in scandal, one in devastation, and one could even lead to happiness. If only she gets it right�

As all three lodgers enter Number 23, in alternate timelines, relationships are formed and destroyed, feathers are ruffled, and secrets are exposed. Three different choices. Three very different paths. And Agnes is to discover that nobody � including herself � is quite who they seem�]]> 426 Jenni Keer 178513955X Mary 0 4.19 2023 No. 23 Burlington Square
author: Jenni Keer
name: Mary
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/07/22
date added: 2024/07/22
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]]> Fade Away (Myron Bolitar, #3) 59107522
In novels that crackle with wit and suspense, Harlan Coben has created one of the most fascinating heroes in suspense the wisecracking, tenderhearted sports agent Myron Bolitar. In this gripping third novel in the acclaimed series, Myron must confront a past that is dead and buried—and more dangerous than ever before.

The home is top-notch New Jersey suburban. The living room is Martha Stewart. The basement is Legos—and blood. The signs of a violent struggle. For Myron Bolitar, the disappearance of a man he once competed against is bringing back memories—of the sport he and Greg Downing had both played and the woman they both loved. Now, among the stars, the wannabes, the gamblers, and the groupies, Myron is embarking upon the strange ride of a sports hero gone wrong that just may lead to certain death. Namely, his own.]]> 370 Harlan Coben Mary 0 4.37 1996 Fade Away (Myron Bolitar, #3)
author: Harlan Coben
name: Mary
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at: 2024/07/22
date added: 2024/07/22
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]]> <![CDATA[The Messy Lives of Book People]]> 58262631 The house cleaner of a famous author must carry out her employer's shocking last wishin this delightful new novel from beloved author Phaedra Patrick

Mother of two Liv Green barely scrapes by as a maid to make ends meet, often finding escape in a good book while daydreaming of becoming a writer herself. So she can't believe her luck when she lands a job housekeeping for her personal hero, megabestselling author Essie Starling, a mysterious and intimidating recluse. The last thing Liv expected was to be the only person Essie talks to, which leads to a tenuous friendship.

When Essie passes away suddenly, Liv is astonished to learn that her dying wish was for Liv to complete her final novel. But to do so Liv will have to step into Essie’s shoes. As Liv begins to write, she uncovers secrets from the past that reveal a surprising connection between the two women—one that will change Liv’s own story forever�

Don’t miss Phaedra Patrick’s uplifting new novel, The Little Italian Hotel!

Check out these other heartwarming stories from Phaedra
The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper Rise and Shine, Benedict Stone The Library of Lost and Found The Secrets of Love Story Bridge

]]> 352 Phaedra Patrick 0369716779 Mary 0 3.96 2022 The Messy Lives of Book People
author: Phaedra Patrick
name: Mary
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2024/07/22
date added: 2024/07/22
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]]> <![CDATA[The Clinic (Alex Delaware, #11)]]> 42868906
Hope Devane had very different public and private faces. The killer could be any one of the millions who read her book, or someone from the personal life she kept so carefully separate. As Alex and Milo dig deeper into her shadowy past, they will set an elaborate trap for her killer . . . and reveal the unspeakable act that triggered a dark chain of violence.]]> 496 Jonathan Kellerman Mary 0 4.26 1996 The Clinic (Alex Delaware, #11)
author: Jonathan Kellerman
name: Mary
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at: 2024/07/22
date added: 2024/07/22
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]]> Monster (Alex Delaware, #13) 44059087 Victims.

A second-rate actor is found mutilated in a car trunk. Then a psychologist at a Los Angeles hospital for the criminally insane is murdered in a similar grisly fashion. Suddenly the incoherent ramblings of an inmate at the presumably secure institution begin to make chilling sense—they are, in fact, horrifying predictions. Yet how can a barely functional psychotic locked behind asylum walls possibly know such vivid details of crimes committed in the outside world? Drawn into a labyrinth of secrets, revenge, sex, and manipulation, Dr. Alex Delaware and Detective Milo Sturgis set out to unlock this enigma and put an end to the brutal killings—before the madman predicts their own demise. . . .]]> 416 Jonathan Kellerman Mary 0 4.28 1999 Monster (Alex Delaware, #13)
author: Jonathan Kellerman
name: Mary
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at: 2024/07/22
date added: 2024/07/22
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[One False Move (Myron Bolitar, #5)]]> 59107537
Brenda Slaughter is no damsel in distress. Myron Bolitar is no bodyguard. But Myron has agreed to protect the bright, strong, beautiful basketball star. And he's about to find out if he's man enough to unravel the tragic riddle of her life.

Twenty years before, Brenda's mother deserted her. And just as Brenda is making it to the top of the women's pro basketball world, her father disappears too. A big-time New York sports agent with a foundering love life, Myron has a professional interest in Brenda. Then a personal one. But between them isn't just the difference in their backgrounds or the color of their skin. Between them is a chasm of corruption and lies, a vicious young mafioso on the make, and one secret that some people are dying to keep—and others are killing to protect....


From the Paperback edition.]]> 402 Harlan Coben Mary 0 4.46 1998 One False Move (Myron Bolitar, #5)
author: Harlan Coben
name: Mary
average rating: 4.46
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at: 2024/07/22
date added: 2024/07/22
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Force of Nature (Joe Pickett, #12)]]> 40026917 Updated cover of this Kindle edition.

Joe Pickett’s friend’s past comes back to haunt everyone he cares about in this “violent, bloody, and quite satisfying thriller�* from #1 New York Times bestselling author C. J. Box.

In 1995, Nate Romanowski was in a Special Forces unit abroad when his commander, John Nemecek, did something terrible. Now the high-ranking government official and cold-blooded sociopath is determined to eliminate anyone who knows about it—like Nate, who’s hidden himself away in Wyoming’s Bighorn Mountains. And he knows exactly how Nemecek will do it—by targeting Nate's friends to draw him out. That includes his friend, game warden Joe Pickett, and Pickett’s entire family. The only way to fight back is outside the law. Nate knows he can do it, but he isn't sure about his straight-arrow friend. And all their lives could depend on it.]]> 395 C.J. Box Mary 4 4.58 2012 Force of Nature (Joe Pickett, #12)
author: C.J. Box
name: Mary
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/22
date added: 2024/07/22
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]]> <![CDATA[Breaking Point (Joe Pickett, #13)]]> 39707771
Joe Pickett always liked Butch Roberson—a hardworking local business-owner whose daughter is friends with his own. Little does he know that when Butch says he is heading into the mountains to scout elk, he is actually going on the run.

Two EPA employees have been murdered, and all signs point to Butch as the killer. Soon, Joe hears of the land Butch and his wife had bought to retire on—until they are told the EPA declared it a wetland—and the penalties they charged Butch until the family was torn apart by debt. Finally, it seems, the man just cracked.

It’s an awful story. But is it the whole story? The more Joe investigates, the more he begins to wonder—and the more he finds himself in the middle of a war in which he must choose sides.]]> 450 C.J. Box 1101609273 Mary 4 4.61 2013 Breaking Point (Joe Pickett, #13)
author: C.J. Box
name: Mary
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/22
date added: 2024/07/22
shelves:
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]]> The Sandycove Sunset Swimmers 123177503 yes change your life? When Cat Jones is given the opportunity of a lifetime to present one of Ireland’s most popular live daytime shows, alongside TV royalty David Fitzgerald she isn’t sure she is ready for the challenge.

But after being pushed by her mother’s friend Lorraine to say 'yes' to everything for a month, she reluctantly agrees.

What follows is a whirlwind of opportunities where Cat is forced outside her comfort zone with varying degrees of success.

Once she accepts the challenge to take the plunge with the eclectic sea swimming tribe The Forty Footers�in Dublin Bay, she never looks back. She is warmly welcomed into their lives, and learns to find reserves of strength she never knew existed which helps her deal with a toxic ex, and a growing attraction for a handsome TV executive.

With best friends, Becca and Sinead also in need of a re-boot, can Cat empower them to choose 'risk and adventure' or will they go back to their old, safe lives?

Say 'yes' and your whole life will open up in wonderful ways.

Fall in love with this uplifting, feel-good story from bestselling author Sian O'Gorman. Perfect for fans of Sheila O'Flanagan, Faith Hogan and Cathy Kelly.

Praise for the wonderful Sian O' 'Utterly irresistible and joyful - the perfect summer read!' Faith Hogan

'A gorgeous story of friendship, community and starting over' Jessica Redland

'A book with everything. A real 5 star read.' Claudia Carroll

“Delicious! An upbeat, witty read about friends, family and following your dreams.� Gillian Harvey]]> 392 Siân O'Gorman 1804269921 Mary 4 4.47 The Sandycove Sunset Swimmers
author: Siân O'Gorman
name: Mary
average rating: 4.47
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/11
date added: 2024/07/22
shelves:
review:

]]> Life's What You Make It 58364340 Dreams can come true, you just have to believe...

After 10 years in London, working in a stressful City firm, Liv O’Neill returns home to Sandycove, a picturesque seaside village, just outside Dublin to care for her mother after a fall.

Whilst Liv reconnects with friends and family, she is amazed by Sandycove’s thriving community spirit with its artisan shops, delis and cafes - it’s not quite the place she left behind.

As village life begins to creep under her skin, Liv is forced to confront the things that drove her away.

Can Liv balance her past, present and future and find her own happy place?

And will a handsome young doctor help her make a decision about the life she really wants?

Suddenly her old life in London begins to seem extremely unappealing and Liv is forced to use her family’s past in order to forge a brand new future.]]> 332 Siân O'Gorman 1800483805 Mary 3 4.38 Life's What You Make It
author: Siân O'Gorman
name: Mary
average rating: 4.38
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2022/05/01
date added: 2024/06/18
shelves:
review:

]]> Life After You 55339254 What if the person you've lost, is the one you need to find?

Milly Bryne’s world came crashing down when she lost her beloved Dad and boyfriend in a matter of weeks.

Losing her Dad broke her family. Losing her soulmate made her give up on life and love.

After swerving from stability to chaos to despair, Milly finally believes she has her life back on track when the unexpected return of a familiar face to Dublin throws her life into a spin.

Milly is forced to decide if her new life is the one for her, or if there is another path that will bring even greater riches of joy, excitement and fun.

Life just isn’t worth living if your heart isn’t in it?]]> 338 Siân O'Gorman 1800483651 Mary 3 4.24 Life After You
author: Siân O'Gorman
name: Mary
average rating: 4.24
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2022/05/03
date added: 2024/06/18
shelves:
review:

]]>