kim's bookshelf: all en-US Sun, 05 Jan 2025 20:16:39 -0800 60 kim's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[The Will of the Many (Hierarchy, #1)]]> 58416952 At the elite Catenan Academy, a young fugitive uncovers layered mysteries and world-changing secrets in this new fantasy series by internationally bestselling author of The Licanius Trilogy, James Islington.

AUDI. VIDE. TACE.

The Catenan Republic � the Hierarchy � may rule the world now, but they do not know everything.

I tell them my name is Vis Telimus. I tell them I was orphaned after a tragic accident three years ago, and that good fortune alone has led to my acceptance into their most prestigious school. I tell them that once I graduate, I will gladly join the rest of civilised society in allowing my strength, my drive and my focus � what they call Will � to be leeched away and added to the power of those above me, as millions already do. As all must eventually do.

I tell them that I belong, and they believe me.

But the truth is that I have been sent to the Academy to find answers. To solve a murder. To search for an ancient weapon. To uncover secrets that may tear the Republic apart.

And that I will never, ever cede my Will to the empire that executed my family.

To survive, though, I will still have to rise through the Academy’s ranks. I will have to smile, and make friends, and pretend to be one of them and win. Because if I cannot, then those who want to control me, who know my real name, will no longer have any use for me.

And if the Hierarchy finds out who I truly am, they will kill me.]]> 639 James Islington 1982141190 kim 0 to-read 4.61 2023 The Will of the Many (Hierarchy, #1)
author: James Islington
name: kim
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive, #2)]]> 17332218 From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, Words of Radiance, Book Two of the Stormlight Archive, continues the immersive fantasy epic that The Way of Kings began.

Expected by his enemies to die the miserable death of a military slave, Kaladin survived to be given command of the royal bodyguards, a controversial first for a low-status "darkeyes." Now he must protect the king and Dalinar from every common peril as well as the distinctly uncommon threat of the Assassin, all while secretly struggling to master remarkable new powers that are somehow linked to his honorspren, Syl.

The Assassin, Szeth, is active again, murdering rulers all over the world of Roshar, using his baffling powers to thwart every bodyguard and elude all pursuers. Among his prime targets is Highprince Dalinar, widely considered the power behind the Alethi throne. His leading role in the war would seem reason enough, but the Assassin's master has much deeper motives.

Brilliant but troubled Shallan strives along a parallel path. Despite being broken in ways she refuses to acknowledge, she bears a terrible burden: to somehow prevent the return of the legendary Voidbringers and the civilization-ending Desolation that will follow. The secrets she needs can be found at the Shattered Plains, but just arriving there proves more difficult than she could have imagined.

Meanwhile, at the heart of the Shattered Plains, the Parshendi are making an epochal decision. Hard pressed by years of Alethi attacks, their numbers ever shrinking, they are convinced by their war leader, Eshonai, to risk everything on a desperate gamble with the very supernatural forces they once fled. The possible consequences for Parshendi and humans alike, indeed, for Roshar itself, are as dangerous as they are incalculable.]]> 1088 Brandon Sanderson 0765326361 kim 0 currently-reading 4.76 2014 Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive, #2)
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: kim
average rating: 4.76
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/05
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive, #1)]]> 7235533 From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings, book one of The Stormlight Archive begins an incredible new saga of epic proportion.

Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter.

It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars were fought for them, and won by them.

One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear to protect his little brother, has been reduced to slavery. In a war that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe, he struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendable.

Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Like his brother, the late king, he is fascinated by an ancient text called The Way of Kings. Troubled by over-powering visions of ancient times and the Knights Radiant, he has begun to doubt his own sanity.

Across the ocean, an untried young woman named Shallan seeks to train under an eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar's niece, Jasnah. Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan's motives are less than pure. As she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war.

The result of over ten years of planning, writing, and world-building, The Way of Kings is but the opening movement of the Stormlight Archive, a bold masterpiece in the making.

Speak again the ancient oaths:

Life before death.
Strength before weakness.
Journey before Destination.

and return to men the Shards they once bore.

The Knights Radiant must stand again.]]> 1007 Brandon Sanderson 0765326353 kim 4 4.66 2010 The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive, #1)
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: kim
average rating: 4.66
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/05
date added: 2025/01/05
shelves:
review:
SO good. i knew i had to read this after mistborn and i am not let down. sanderson continues to be a master of writing fantasy and really fleshing out his world building and characters. I really felt like i knew each character so well by the end and i'm so excited to find out what happens next.
]]> <![CDATA[Glass Houses (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #13)]]> 33602101
From the moment the creature's shadow falls over the village, Gamache, now Chief Superintendent of the Sûreté du Quebec, suspects it has deep roots and a dark purpose. Yet he does nothing. What can he do? Only watch and wait. And hope his mounting fears are not realized.

But when the figure vanishes overnight and a body is discovered, it falls to Gamache to discover if a debt has been paid or levied.

Months later, on a steamy July day, as the trial for the accused begins in Montréal, Chief Superintendent Gamache continues to struggle with actions he set in motion that bitter November from which there is no going back. More than the accused is on trial. Gamache's own conscience is standing in judgment.

In her latest utterly gripping book, number-one New York Times bestselling author Louise Penny shatters the conventions of the crime novel to explore what Gandhi called the court of conscience. A court that supersedes all others.]]> 391 Louise Penny 1250066190 kim 3 4.24 2017 Glass Houses (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #13)
author: Louise Penny
name: kim
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/05
date added: 2025/01/05
shelves:
review:
Cute read but didn't realize it was book 13 in a series lmao. it was easy to follow along even if it was super into the series. however the start is super slow and it jumps around from past to presence quite a bit which made it hard for me to follow the story at times. I think the twist is interesting but also not believable at the same time
]]> Autobiography of a Face 534255 I spent five years of my life being treated for cancer, but since then I've spent fifteen years being treated for nothing other than looking different from everyone else. It was the pain from that, from feeling ugly, that I always viewed as the great tragedy of my life. The fact that I had cancer seemed minor in comparison.

At age nine, Lucy Grealy was diagnosed with a potentially terminal cancer. When she returned to school with a third of her jaw removed, she faced the cruel taunts of classmates. In this strikingly candid memoir, Grealy tells her story of great suffering and remarkable strength without sentimentality and with considerable wit. Vividly portraying the pain of peer rejection and the guilty pleasures of wanting to be special, Grealy captures with unique insight what it is like as a child and young adult to be torn between two warring impulses: to feel that more than anything else we want to be loved for who we are, while wishing desperately and secretly to be perfect.]]> 236 Lucy Grealy 0060569662 kim 0 to-read 3.97 1994 Autobiography of a Face
author: Lucy Grealy
name: kim
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1994
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Last Graduate (The Scholomance, #2)]]> 55559887 A budding dark sorceress determined not to use her formidable powers uncovers yet more secrets about the workings of her world in the stunning sequel to A Deadly Education, the start of Naomi Novik’s groundbreaking crossover series.

At the Scholomance, El, Orion, and the other students are faced with their final year—and the looming specter of graduation, a deadly ritual that leaves few students alive in its wake. El is determined that her chosen group will survive, but it is a prospect that is looking harder by the day as the savagery of the school ramps up. Until El realizes that sometimes winning the game means throwing out all the rules . . .]]> 388 Naomi Novik 0593128869 kim 3 4.21 2021 The Last Graduate (The Scholomance, #2)
author: Naomi Novik
name: kim
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/29
date added: 2024/09/29
shelves:
review:
I like the premise and the characters but goddamn its like any issues ever happening El just whips up the solution willy nilly or magically has it come to her. I enjoy the characters but wtf was that cliffhanger.
]]> <![CDATA[The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)]]> 51901147
The odds are against him. He's been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined -- every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute... and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.]]> 541 Suzanne Collins kim 3 3.99 2020 The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: kim
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/26
date added: 2024/09/29
shelves:
review:
the book was better than the movie but i also love rachel zegler.
]]> No Country for Old Men 23515727 No Country for Old Men is a triumph.]]> 309 Cormac McCarthy 0375706674 kim 0 currently-reading 4.25 2005 No Country for Old Men
author: Cormac McCarthy
name: kim
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Don't Let Go 34001659 With unmatched suspense and emotional insight, Harlan Coben explores the big secrets and little lies that can destroy a relationship, a family, and even a town in this powerful new thriller.

Suburban New Jersey Detective Napoleon “Nap� Dumas hasn't been the same since senior year of high school, when his twin brother Leo and Leo’s girlfriend Diana were found dead on the railroad tracks—and Maura, the girl Nap considered the love of his life, broke up with him and disappeared without explanation. For fifteen years, Nap has been searching, both for Maura and for the real reason behind his brother's death. And now, it looks as though he may finally find what he's been looking for. 

When Maura's fingerprints turn up in the rental car of a suspected murderer, Nap embarks on a quest for answers that only leads to more questions—about the woman he loved, about the childhood friends he thought he knew, about the abandoned military base near where he grew up, and mostly about Leo and Diana—whose deaths are darker and far more sinister than Nap ever dared imagine.]]> 351 Harlan Coben 0525955119 kim 4 3.95 2017 Don't Let Go
author: Harlan Coben
name: kim
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/06
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves:
review:
people said this was one was one of harlan's best works and tbh they were actually right. good job harlan this one felt a little different maybe more polished than most of the books??
]]> Greenlights 52838315 From the Academy Award®–winning actor, an unconventional memoir filled with raucous stories, outlaw wisdom, and lessons learned the hard way about living with greater satisfaction.

I’ve been in this life for fifty years, been trying to work out its riddle for forty-two, and been keeping diaries of clues to that riddle for the last thirty-five. Notes about successes and failures, joys and sorrows, things that made me marvel, and things that made me laugh out loud. How to be fair. How to have less stress. How to have fun. How to hurt people less. How to get hurt less. How to be a good man. How to have meaning in life. How to be more me.

Recently, I worked up the courage to sit down with those diaries. I found stories I experienced, lessons I learned and forgot, poems, prayers, prescriptions, beliefs about what matters, some great photographs, and a whole bunch of bumper stickers. I found a reliable theme, an approach to living that gave me more satisfaction, at the time, and still: If you know how, and when, to deal with life’s challenges - how to get relative with the inevitable - you can enjoy a state of success I call “catching greenlights.�

So I took a one-way ticket to the desert and wrote this book: an album, a record, a story of my life so far. This is fifty years of my sights and seens, felts and figured-outs, cools and shamefuls. Graces, truths, and beauties of brutality. Getting away withs, getting caughts, and getting wets while trying to dance between the raindrops.

Hopefully, it’s medicine that tastes good, a couple of aspirin instead of the infirmary, a spaceship to Mars without needing your pilot’s license, going to church without having to be born again, and laughing through the tears.

It’s a love letter. To life.

It’s also a guide to catching more greenlights - and to realizing that the yellows and reds eventually turn green too.

Good luck.]]> 289 Matthew McConaughey 0593139135 kim 3 4.21 2020 Greenlights
author: Matthew McConaughey
name: kim
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/15
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves:
review:
usually really like memoirs but also for some reason just couldn't get super into this one. i had to actually have timed reading sessions to force myself to read it :/ idk i just dont relate to matthew so it was hard.
]]> I Will Find You 61392437 David and Cheryl Burroughs are living the dream - married, a beautiful house in the suburbs, a three year old son named Matthew - when tragedy strikes one night in the worst possible way.

David awakes to find himself covered in blood, but not his own - his son's. And while he knows he did not murder his son, the overwhelming evidence against him puts him behind bars indefinitely.

Five years into his imprisonment, Cheryl's sister arrives - and drops a bombshell.

She's come with a photograph that a friend took on vacation at a theme park. The boy in the background seems familiar - and even though David realizes it can't be, he knows it is. It's Matthew, and he's still alive.

David plans a harrowing escape from prison, determined to do what seems impossible - save his son, clear his own name, and discover the real story of what happened that devastating night.]]> 329 Harlan Coben 1538748363 kim 2 4.02 2023 I Will Find You
author: Harlan Coben
name: kim
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2024/08/13
date added: 2024/08/13
shelves:
review:
you kinda gotta suspend your beliefs if you want to enjoy this book. tbh i have no idea why it has such high reviews? it just seems so fake and unrealistic its ok harlan you tried.
]]> The Devil All the Time 10108463 The Devil All the Time follows a cast of characters from the end of World War II to the 1960s. There’s Willard Russell, tormented veteran of the carnage in the South Pacific, who can’t save his beautiful wife, Charlotte, from an agonizing death by cancer no matter how much sacrifi­cial blood he pours on his “prayer log.� There’s Carl and Sandy Henderson, a husband-and-wife team of serial kill­ers, who troll America’s highways searching for suitable models to photograph and exterminate. There’s the spider-handling preacher Roy and his crippled virtuoso-guitar-playing sidekick, Theodore, running from the law. And caught in the middle of all this is Arvin Eugene Russell, Willard and Charlotte’s orphaned son, who grows up to be a good but also violent man in his own right.]]> 261 Donald Ray Pollock 038553504X kim 4 4.13 2011 The Devil All the Time
author: Donald Ray Pollock
name: kim
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/11
date added: 2024/08/13
shelves:
review:
mmmm satisfying my need for a good american novel. its giving a lil east of eden, some cormac mccarthy. i'm very happy with this. god i love me a lil dirt road all american old timey shit.
]]> Adored (It Girl, #8) 5644886
Everybody at Waverly is getting into the giving spirit. The only present Tinsley Carmichael wants to unwrap is her new boyfriend, Julian McCafferty. But what happens when she uncovers a shady secret from his past instead? Looks like Jenny Humphrey, Waverly's newest small-screen star, is about to land on Tinsley's hit list. Again.

With raucous get-togethers and secret admirers, there's never a dull day in the life of an It Girl. But no one ever said being adored was easy. . . .]]> 224 Cecily von Ziegesar 0316025097 kim 3 3.84 2009 Adored (It Girl, #8)
author: Cecily von Ziegesar
name: kim
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[World After (Penryn & the End of Days, #2)]]> 17849112 Angelfall, the survivors of the angel apocalypse begin to scrape back together what's left of the modern world. When a group of people capture Penryn's sister Paige, thinking she's a monster, the situation ends in a massacre. Paige disappears. Humans are terrified. Mom is heartbroken.

Penryn drives through the streets of San Francisco looking for Paige. Why are the streets so empty? Where is everybody? Her search leads her into the heart of the angels' secret plans, where she catches a glimpse of their motivations, and learns the horrifying extent to which the angels are willing to go.

Meanwhile, Raffe hunts for his wings. Without them, he can't rejoin the angels, can't take his rightful place as one of their leaders. When faced with recapturing his wings or helping Penryn survive, which will he choose?

]]> 320 Susan Ee 1477867287 kim 4 4.09 2013 World After (Penryn & the End of Days, #2)
author: Susan Ee
name: kim
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2016/01/02
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:
funfact that i started reading the first book of the series on a toilet and i finished it on the toilet. it was that good. this one was excellent, i loved all the characters. but it was probably because i needed to work on math homework that i lowkey rushed reading it so i ddin't enjoy it as much?? clara and her fam jam was a++. man raffe and penryn discovering they were alive was so happy i was like yesss girl anyway this was v good BUT IT JUST WASN'T LONG ENOUGH FOR ME.
]]> Devious (It Girl, #9) 6425484
It's January, and a new semester at WaverlyAcademy means one new students. Make that hot new students. A gorgeous brother-sister pair is taking Waverly by storm, and the campus is abuzz with fresh gossip and even fresher crushes. But while all the girls are busy drooling over the new it-guy, they'd better watch their backs-because his sister is going to give them all a run for their money. After all, there can only be one It Girl...]]> 256 Cecily von Ziegesar 0316073946 kim 3 3.89 2009 Devious (It Girl, #9)
author: Cecily von Ziegesar
name: kim
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:

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

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

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

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

Evie Porter must stay one step ahead of her past while making sure there’s still a future in front of her. The stakes couldn’t be higher—but then, Evie has always liked a challenge. . . .]]> 340 Ashley Elston kim 0 to-read 3.97 2024 First Lie Wins
author: Ashley Elston
name: kim
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> What Happened to Goodbye 8492856 Who is the real McLean?

Since her parents' bitter divorce, McLean and her dad, a restaurant consultant, have been on the move-four towns in two years. Estranged from her mother and her mother's new family, McLean has followed her dad in leaving the unhappy past behind. And each new place gives her a chance to try out a new persona: from cheerleader to drama diva. But now, for the first time, McLean discovers a desire to stay in one place and just be herself, whoever that is. Perhaps Dave, the guy next door, can help her find out.

Combining Sarah Dessen's trademark graceful writing, great characters, and compelling storytelling, What Happened to Goodbye is irresistible reading.]]> 402 Sarah Dessen 0670012947 kim 3 3.95 2011 What Happened to Goodbye
author: Sarah Dessen
name: kim
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/01
date added: 2024/08/01
shelves:
review:
i love cute sarah dessen hs relationship coming of age novels theyre all the same just diff tragic backstory and diff weird names
]]> <![CDATA[A Deadly Education (The Scholomance, #1)]]> 50548197
A Deadly Education is set at Scholomance, a school for the magically gifted where failure means certain death (for real) � until one girl, El, begins to unlock its many secrets.

There are no teachers, no holidays, and no friendships, save strategic ones. Survival is more important than any letter grade, for the school won’t allow its students to leave until they graduate� or die! The rules are deceptively simple: Don’t walk the halls alone. And beware of the monsters who lurk everywhere.

El is uniquely prepared for the school’s dangers. She may be without allies, but she possesses a dark power strong enough to level mountains and wipe out millions. It would be easy enough for El to defeat the monsters that prowl the school. The problem? Her powerful dark magic might also kill all the other students.]]> 320 Naomi Novik 0593128486 kim 3 3.93 2020 A Deadly Education (The Scholomance, #1)
author: Naomi Novik
name: kim
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/01
date added: 2024/08/01
shelves:
review:
Definitely my least fave naomi novik book but it was still good. I wish there was more show dont tell but its hard when you're in the narrators head. I did enjoy the voice of Galadriel tho and thought she was a sympathetic and relatable character.
]]> <![CDATA[It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over]]> 177148776 128 Anne de Marcken 0811237850 kim 0 to-read 3.70 2024 It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over
author: Anne de Marcken
name: kim
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Once and for All 32078787 As bubbly as champagne and delectable as wedding cake, Once and for All, Sarah Dessen's thirteenth novel, is set in the world of wedding planning, where crises are routine.

Louna, daughter of famed wedding planner Natalie Barrett, has seen every sort of wedding: on the beach, at historic mansions, in fancy hotels and clubs. Perhaps that's why she's cynical about happily-ever-after endings, especially since her own first love ended tragically. When Louna meets charming, happy-go-lucky serial dater Ambrose, she holds him at arm's length. But Ambrose isn't about to be discouraged, now that he's met the one girl he really wants.

Sarah Dessen’s many, many fans will adore her latest, a richly satisfying, enormously entertaining story that has everything—humor, romance, and an ending both happy and imperfect, just like life itself.]]> 358 Sarah Dessen 0425290336 kim 2 3.76 2017 Once and for All
author: Sarah Dessen
name: kim
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2017
rating: 2
read at: 2024/07/25
date added: 2024/07/30
shelves:
review:
me and my girl sarah go way back but as i get older its starting to get harder to relate to HS characters. also to be dating 8 months after your mans get shot in a school shooting is CRAZY. i did like ambrose a lot tho but the ending was a little weird. Also why did she name the character Louna ...its the ugliest looking name i've seen in a while.
]]> <![CDATA[Bad Girl Reputation (Avalon Bay, #2)]]> 59808289
But it’s impossible not to run into Evan in the small coastal town where they once ran wild. And the moment she sees her gorgeous ex again, it’s clear to Gen that Evan is still as unruly, sexy, and irresistible as ever. This time around, however, she’s resolved to walk a new path. No more partying. No more foolish mistakes. Her plan is to temporarily remain in town to help her father run his business, but the second he finds somebody else, she’s out of there.

Evan has other ideas. He knows they can be good together, but he just has to convince Genevieve of that, even if it means turning over a new leaf himself. But can a bad reputation ever truly be shed? Do second chances really work? Genevieve and Evan are about to find out.

Bestselling author Elle Kennedy returns to Avalon Bay in this sexy second chance story about two exes who can't stay away from each other, Bad Girl Reputation.]]> 320 Elle Kennedy 125079675X kim 2 3.48 2022 Bad Girl Reputation (Avalon Bay, #2)
author: Elle Kennedy
name: kim
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2024/07/15
date added: 2024/07/30
shelves:
review:
this was a crazy red neck love story i did like the growth between the girly pop and the dude tho but fr jobless behaviour
]]> The Death of Mrs. Westaway 36373481
Soon, Hal finds herself at the funeral of the deceased…where it dawns on her that there is something very, very wrong about this strange situation and the inheritance at the centre of it.]]> 368 Ruth Ware 1501156217 kim 2 [spoilers removed]]]> 3.79 2018 The Death of Mrs. Westaway
author: Ruth Ware
name: kim
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2018
rating: 2
read at: 2024/07/10
date added: 2024/07/30
shelves:
review:
if you want to read this book u have to really suspend your beliefs.
[spoilers removed]
]]> Boys with Sharp Teeth 208840739 We Were Liars meets The Raven Boys in this mind-bending YA debut about dark revenge, twisted desire, and the sinister secrets lurking behind the walls of an elite boarding school.

Seventeen-year-old Marin James has spent her entire life living in the shadow of the exclusive Huntsworth Academy. And when her cousin’s dead body is found in a creek on school property, Marin knows exactly who’s to blame: Adrian Hargraves and Henry Wu, the enigmatic yet dangerously alluring leaders of the school's social elite.

Swapping her ripped jeans for a crisp prep school skirt, Marin infiltrates Huntsworth to seek justice. But her quest is quickly muddied by a confusing attraction to her new life, and to the two dysfunctional and depraved boys who somehow understand her better than anyone ever has.

When Marin uncovers an otherworldly secret the boys are hiding within Huntsworth's ivied gates, the lines between right and wrong, love and hate, and nightmare and reality begin to crumble -- and nothing is as it seems.

Welcome to Huntsworth Academy.]]> 400 Jenni Howell 1250334594 kim 0 to-read 3.54 2025 Boys with Sharp Teeth
author: Jenni Howell
name: kim
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Martin the Warrior (Redwall, #6)]]> 201345 376 Brian Jacques 0441001866 kim 5 4.16 1993 Martin the Warrior (Redwall, #6)
author: Brian Jacques
name: kim
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1993
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/07/13
shelves:
review:

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

Except the discovery of their bond would mean death for each of them. There's still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win that war.]]> 209 Amal El-Mohtar kim 0 to-read 3.87 2019 This Is How You Lose the Time War
author: Amal El-Mohtar
name: kim
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Lessons in Chemistry 58065033 390 Bonnie Garmus kim 0 to-read 4.23 2022 Lessons in Chemistry
author: Bonnie Garmus
name: kim
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow]]> 58784475 In this exhilarating novel, two friends—often in love, but never lovers—come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.

On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn't heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won't protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.

Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.]]> 401 Gabrielle Zevin 0735243344 kim 0 to-read 4.12 2022 Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
author: Gabrielle Zevin
name: kim
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Likeness (Dublin Murder Squad, #2)]]> 5941114 466 Tana French 0143115626 kim 0 to-read 4.06 2008 The Likeness (Dublin Murder Squad, #2)
author: Tana French
name: kim
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> All the Lovers in the Night 59336625
As the long overdue change occurs, however, painful episodes from Fuyuko’s past surface and her behavior slips further and further beyond the pale. All the Lovers in the Night is acute and insightful, entertaining and engaging; it will make readers laugh, and it will make them cry, but it will also remind them, as only the best books do, that sometimes the pain is worth it.]]> 224 Mieko Kawakami 1609456998 kim 0 to-read 3.71 2011 All the Lovers in the Night
author: Mieko Kawakami
name: kim
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Down the Drain 123183412
This commitment to authenticity has never been more on display than in Down the Drain . With writing that is both eloquent and accessible, Fox recounts her turbulent path to cultural her parents� volatile relationship that divided her childhood between Italy and New York City and left her largely raising herself; a possessive and abusive drug-dealing boyfriend whose torment continued even from within Rikers Island; her own trips to jail as well as to a psychiatric hospital; her work as a dominatrix that led to a complicated entanglement with a sugar daddy; a heroin habit that led to New Orleans trap houses and that she would kick only after the fatal overdose of her best friend; her own near-lethal overdoses and the deaths of still more friends from drugs and suicide; an emotionally explosive, tabloid-dominating romance with a figure she dubs “The Artist�; a whirlwind, short-lived marriage and her trials as a single parent striving to support her young son. Yet as extraordinary as her story is, its universality is what makes it so powerful. Fox doesn’t just capture her improbable evolution from grade-school outcast to fashion-world icon, she captures her transition from girlhood to womanhood to motherhood. Family and friendship, sex and death, violence and love, money and power, innocence and experience—it’s all here, in raw, remarkable and riveting detail.

More than a year before the book’s publication, Fox’s description of it as “a masterpiece� in a red carpet interview went viral. As always, she was just being honest. Down the Drain is a true literary achievement, as one-of-a-kind as its author.]]> 318 Julia Fox 1668011506 kim 5 4.38 2023 Down the Drain
author: Julia Fox
name: kim
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/29
date added: 2024/06/29
shelves:
review:
Think whatever you want to think of Julia Fox - you cannot deny the woman is entertaining. Did i like julia fox going into this book? No. Did I have any idea what it was going to be about? also no. but seriously she is so entertaining and raw in this. This book was actually unputdownable and was the cause of numerous 5-6 hours of sleeps in a row >.>
]]> Bag of Bones 10589 736 Stephen King 067102423X kim 0 currently-reading 3.92 1998 Bag of Bones
author: Stephen King
name: kim
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/29
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Murder in an Irish Village (An Irish Village Mystery, #1)]]> 28953387 369 Carlene O'Connor kim 3
also i wish she had chosen the american instead of the old guy her friend were so right.]]> 3.87 2016 Murder in an Irish Village (An Irish Village Mystery, #1)
author: Carlene O'Connor
name: kim
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/15
date added: 2024/06/15
shelves:
review:
it was cute but siobhan and her siblings got on my nerves you cannot be that dumb with murders going on u know.

also i wish she had chosen the american instead of the old guy her friend were so right.
]]> Good Material 96177629
Now he is. . .

Without a home

Waiting for his stand-up career to take off

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

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

In this sharply funny and exquisitely relatable story of romantic disaster and friendship, Dolly Alderton offers up a love story with two endings, demonstrating once again why she is one of the most exciting writers today, and the true voice of a generation.]]> 345 Dolly Alderton 0241523672 kim 0 to-read 3.85 2023 Good Material
author: Dolly Alderton
name: kim
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next, #1)]]> 27003
Hades' real target is the beloved Jane Eyre, and it's not long before he plucks her from the pages of Bronte's novel. Enter Thursday Next. She's the Special Operative's renowned literary detective, and she drives a Porsche. With the help of her uncle Mycroft's Prose Portal, Thursday enters the novel to rescue Jane Eyre from this heinous act of literary homicide. It's tricky business, all these interlopers running about Thornfield, and deceptions run rampant as their paths cross with Jane, Rochester, and Miss Fairfax. Can Thursday save Jane Eyre and Bronte's masterpiece? And what of the Crimean War? Will it ever end? And what about those annoying black holes that pop up now and again, sucking things into time-space voids . . .

Suspenseful and outlandish, absorbing and fun, The Eyre Affair is a caper unlike any other and an introduction to the imagination of a most distinctive writer and his singular fictional universe.]]> 374 Jasper Fforde 0142001805 kim 0 to-read 3.89 2001 The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next, #1)
author: Jasper Fforde
name: kim
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Red Side Story (Shades of Grey, #2)]]> 199353348 Shades of Grey—in an exclusive edition for North American readers, complete with a never-before-published short story

“Fforde's books are more than an ingenious idea. They are written with buoyant zest and are tautly plotted . . . and are embellished with the rich details of a Dickens or Pratchett.� —The Independent

Welcome to Chromatacia, where the societal hierarchy is strictly regulated by one's limited color perception. Civilization has been rebuilt after an unspoken “Something that Happened� five hundred years ago. Society is now color vision-segregated, professions, marriages, and leisure activities all dictated by an individual’s visual ability, and everything run by the shadowy National Color in far-off Emerald City.

Out on the fringes of Red Sector West, twenty-year-old Eddie Russett is being bullied into an arranged marriage with the powerful DeMauve family, purples who hope to redden up their progeny’s color-viewing potential with Eddie’s gene stock. Their obnoxious daughter Violet is confident the marriage won’t hamper her style for too long because Eddie is about to go on trial for a murder he didn’t commit, and he’s pretty sure to be sent on a one-way trip to the Green Room for execution by soporific color exposure. Meanwhile, Eddie is engaged in an illegal relationship with his co-defendant, a Green, the charismatic, unpredictable, and occasionally deadly Jane Grey. Time is running out for Eddie and Jane to figure out how to save themselves. Negotiating the narrow boundaries of the Rules within their society, they search for a loophole—some truth of their world that has been hidden from its hyper-policed citizens.

New York Times bestselling author Jasper Fforde returns to his fan-favorite Shades of Grey series with this wildly anticipated, laugh-out-loud funny and darkly satiric adventure about two star-crossed lovers on a quest to survive—even if it means upending their entire society in the process.]]> 459 Jasper Fforde 1641296283 kim 0 to-read 4.41 2024 Red Side Story (Shades of Grey, #2)
author: Jasper Fforde
name: kim
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Home Is Where the Bodies Are 194020321
After their mother passes, three estranged siblings reunite to sort out her estate. Beth, the oldest, never left home. She stayed with her mom, caring for her until the very end. Nicole, the middle child, has been kept at arm’s length due to her ongoing battle with a serious drug addiction. Michael, the youngest, lives out of state and hasn’t been back to their small Wisconsin town since their father ran out on them seven years before.

While going through their parent’s belongings, the siblings stumble upon a collection of home videos and decide to revisit those happier memories. However, the nostalgia is cut short when one of the VHS tapes reveals a night back in 1999 that none of them have any recollection of. On screen, their father appears covered in blood. What follows is a dead body and a pact between their parents to get rid of it, before the video abruptly ends.

Beth, Nicole, and Michael must now decide whether to leave the past in the past or uncover the dark secret their mother took to her grave.]]> 256 Jeneva Rose kim 3 side note did beth need to continuously call nicole a crack whore:?? they got the sibling dynamic pretty much down i guess lmfao]]> 3.77 2024 Home Is Where the Bodies Are
author: Jeneva Rose
name: kim
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/03
date added: 2024/06/03
shelves:
review:
honestly in my thriller era cuz theyre just so ez to eat up but idk i'm just not a good guesserrrr so i didn't see this one coming :'( apparently it was so obvious to a bunch of ppl.
side note did beth need to continuously call nicole a crack whore:?? they got the sibling dynamic pretty much down i guess lmfao
]]> Don't Believe It 36296238 The Girl of Sugar Beach is the most watched documentary in television history—a riveting, true-life mystery that unfolds over twelve weeks and centers on a fascinating question: Did Grace Sebold murder her boyfriend, Julian, while on a Spring Break vacation, or is she a victim of circumstance and poor police work? Grace has spent the last ten years in a St. Lucian prison, and reaches out to filmmaker Sidney Ryan in a last, desperate attempt to prove her innocence.

As Sidney begins researching, she uncovers startling evidence overlooked during the original investigation. Before the series even finishes filming, public outcry leads officials to reopen the case. 

Delving into Grace’s past, Sidney peels away layer after layer of deception. But as she edges closer to the real heart of the story, Sidney must decide if finding the truth is worth risking her newfound fame, her career … even her life.]]> 342 Charlie Donlea 149671380X kim 2 3.94 2018 Don't Believe It
author: Charlie Donlea
name: kim
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2018
rating: 2
read at: 2024/05/30
date added: 2024/06/03
shelves:
review:
I wanted to like this book but i didn't love the authors way of writing the documentary within the book. It made not understand if certain parts were made up or what. it was pretty interesting tho but cmon there were so many plot holes. like if she just had a better poker face she wouldnt be dead. also like the multiple different issues she had never heard about but still decided to take up the case (ie not knowing about the different boyfriend she had also been claimed to kill) like i feel like this is journalism 101..............
]]> Ăgua Viva 13082435 88 Clarice Lispector 0811219909 kim 0 to-read 4.33 1973 Ăgua Viva
author: Clarice Lispector
name: kim
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1973
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[All in Her Head: The Truth and Lies Early Medicine Taught Us About Women's Bodies and Why It Matters Today]]> 158649729 The fascinating history of women’s health as it’s never been told before.

For as long as medicine has been a practice, women's bodies have been treated like objects to be practiced on: examined and ignored, idealized and sexualized, shamed, subjugated, mutilated, and dismissed. The history of women’s healthcare is a story in which women themselves have too often been voiceless—a narrative instead written from the perspective of men who styled themselves as authorities on the female of the species, yet uninformed by women’s own voices, thoughts, fears, pain and experiences. The result is a cultural and societal legacy that continues to shape the (mis)treatment and care of women.

While the modern age has seen significant advancements in the medical field, the notion that female bodies are flawed inversions of the male ideal lingers on—as do the pervasive societal stigmas and lingering ignorance that shape women’s health and relationships with their own bodies.

Memorial Sloan Kettering oncologist and medical historian Dr. Elizabeth Comen peels back the curtain on the collective medical history of women to reintroduce us to our whole bodies—how they work, the actual doctors and patients whose perspectives and experiences laid the foundation for today’s medical thought, and the many oversights that still remain unaddressed. With a physician’s knowledge and empathy, Dr. Comen follows the road map of the eleven organ systems to share unique and untold stories, drawing upon medical texts and journals, interviews with expert physicians, as well as her own experience treating thousands of women.

Empowering women to better understand ourselves and advocate for care that prioritizes healthy and joyful lives—for us and generations to come�All in Her Head is written with humor, wisdom, and deep scientific and cultural insight. Eye-opening, sometimes enraging, yet always captivating, this shared memoir of women’s medical history is an essential contribution to a holistic understanding and much-needed reclaiming of women’s history and bodies.]]> 368 Elizabeth Comen 0063293013 kim 0 to-read 4.37 2024 All in Her Head: The Truth and Lies Early Medicine Taught Us About Women's Bodies and Why It Matters Today
author: Elizabeth Comen
name: kim
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Dexter in the Dark (Dexter, #3)]]> 206682
Dexter slides through life undetected, working as a blood splatter analyst for the Miami Police Department, helping his fiancee raise her two adorable (if somewhat...unique) children, and always planning his next jaunt as Dexter the Dark Avenger under the light of the full moon.

But everthing changes when Dexter is called to a gruesome double homicide. Dex realizes he's dealing with someone a whole lot more sinister than he is and it sends the Dark Passenger into hiding. And when something scares your friendly neighborhood serial killer, you know it's serious...

More used to inspiring fear then experiencing it, Dex must investigate, while simultaneously coping with his demanding family. If he's to save himself, and those around him, Dexter must pose questions he's never dared ask - where does evil come from, and does it hide inside everyone...?]]> 307 Jeff Lindsay 0385518331 kim 2 3.56 2006 Dexter in the Dark (Dexter, #3)
author: Jeff Lindsay
name: kim
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2006
rating: 2
read at: 2024/05/23
date added: 2024/05/26
shelves:
review:
i accidentally read the third book first and it was pretty confusing. The writing style is also not my favourite? I really love the show tho.
]]> Maame 60784605 Shortlisted for the TikTok Book Awards in the Book of the Year, 2023 and the Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ Debut and Fiction Book of the Year, 2023.

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

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

Smart, funny, and deeply affecting, Jessica George's Maame deals with the themes of our time with humor and poignancy: from familial duty and racism, to female pleasure, the complexity of love, and the life-saving power of friendship. Most important, it explores what it feels like to be torn between two homes and cultures―and it celebrates finally being able to find where you belong.]]> 320 Jessica George kim 4 4.03 2023 Maame
author: Jessica George
name: kim
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/15
date added: 2024/05/26
shelves:
review:
this was a gift from my future smil so it was pretty good. I enjoyed it and the diversity it featured. main character was super snarky
]]> <![CDATA[Shades of Grey (Shades of Grey, #1)]]> 2113260
Eddie Russett is an above-average Red who dreams of moving up the ladder. Until he is sent to the Outer Fringes where he meets Jane - a lowly Grey with an uncontrollable temper and a desire to see him killed.

For Eddie, it's love at first sight. But his infatuation will lead him to discover that all is not as it seems in a world where everything that looks black and white is really shades of grey...]]> 400 Jasper Fforde 0670019631 kim 4 4.15 2009 Shades of Grey (Shades of Grey, #1)
author: Jasper Fforde
name: kim
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/21
date added: 2024/04/21
shelves:
review:
honestly so good but a tad confusing at times and i maybe need more world building but the humor was funny and the story so original. I felt like we were introduced to sooo many characters tho and it was hard to remember everyone. But also...like. why did it take 15 years for the sequel to come out...
]]> The Ranger (Quinn Colson, #1) 10410038
Now an Army Ranger, he returns to a place overrun by corruption, and finds his uncle, the county sheriff, dead -- a suicide, he's told, but others whisper murder. In the days that follow, it will be up to Colson to discover the truth, not only about his uncle, but about his family, his friends, his town, and not least about himself. And once the truth is discovered, there is no turning back.]]> 334 Ace Atkins 0399157484 kim 2 3.73 2011 The Ranger (Quinn Colson, #1)
author: Ace Atkins
name: kim
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2011
rating: 2
read at: 2024/04/10
date added: 2024/04/21
shelves:
review:
the craziest most far fetched book i've read in a long time. also i understand ur in the south but reading about racism is so triggering and unnecessary in this book!!!!
]]> <![CDATA[Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted]]> 50743767
In the summer after graduating from college, Suleika Jaouad was preparing, as they say in commencement speeches, to enter "the real world". She had fallen in love and moved to Paris to pursue her dream of becoming a war correspondent. The real world she found, however, would take her into a very different kind of conflict zone.

It started with an itch - first on her feet, then up her legs, like 1,000 invisible mosquito bites. Next came the exhaustion, and the six-hour naps that only deepened her fatigue. Then a trip to the doctor and, a few weeks shy of her 23rd birthday, a diagnosis: leukemia, with a 35 percent chance of survival. Just like that, the life she had imagined for herself had gone up in flames. By the time Jaouad flew home to New York, she had lost her job, her apartment, and her independence. She would spend much of the next four years in a hospital bed, fighting for her life and chronicling the saga in a column for The New York Times.

When Jaouad finally walked out of the cancer ward - after three and a half years of chemo, a clinical trial, and a bone marrow transplant - she was, according to the doctors, cured. But as she would soon learn, a cure is not where the work of healing ends; it’s where it begins. She had spent the past 1,500 days in desperate pursuit of one goal - to survive. And now that she’d done so, she realized that she had no idea how to live.

How would she reenter the world and live again? How could she reclaim what had been lost? Jaouad embarked - with her new best friend, Oscar, a scruffy terrier mutt - on a 100-day, 15,000-mile road trip across the country. She set out to meet some of the strangers who had written to her during her years in the hospital: a teenage girl in Florida also recovering from cancer; a teacher in California grieving the death of her son; a death-row inmate in Texas who’d spent his own years confined to a room. What she learned on this trip is that the divide between sick and well is porous, that the vast majority of us will travel back and forth between these realms throughout our lives. Between Two Kingdoms is a profound chronicle of survivorship and a fierce, tender, and inspiring exploration of what it means to begin again.]]> 352 Suleika Jaouad 0399588582 kim 5 4.40 2021 Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted
author: Suleika Jaouad
name: kim
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/25
date added: 2024/04/21
shelves:
review:
Loved this memoir and really appreciated the authors take on having this awful illness and feeling like you're not in control and that others are moving on without you it must have felt absolutely devastating. Also tho like...i can't believe shes married to jon batiste now....
]]> Meant to Be Mine 59366214 From the author of Playing with Matches, a sweeping love story in the vein of Rebecca Serle and Chloe Benjamin about a woman who knows the date she’ll meet her true love—only he isn’t quite as perfect as she always imagined.

What if you knew exactly when you’d meet the love of your life? Edie Meyer knows. When her Grandma Gloria was a young woman, she had a vision of the exact day she would meet her soul mate—and then Grandpa Ray showed up.

Since then, Gloria has accurately predicted the day every single member of the family has met their match. Edie’s day arrives on June 24, 2022, when she’s twenty-nine years old. She has been waiting for it half her life. That morning, she boards an airplane to her twin sister’s surprise engagement, and when a handsome musician sits beside her, she knows it’s meant to be.

But fate comes with more complications than Edie expected and she can’t fight the nagging suspicion that her perfect guy doesn’t have perfect timing. After a tragedy and a shocking revelation rock Edie’s carefully constructed world, she’s forced to consider whether love chooses us, as simple as destiny, or if we choose it ourselves.]]> 288 Hannah Orenstein 1982175257 kim 2 3.37 2022 Meant to Be Mine
author: Hannah Orenstein
name: kim
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2024/03/05
date added: 2024/04/21
shelves:
review:
gagged bc imagine breaking up with someone u love cuz ur granny said ur gonna meet someone on this date and thats gonna be ur soul mate only to later find out that no one actually listens to ur granny as much as u do bc they all knew she was a little weird??????? imagine being that dumb. couldn't be me.
]]> Uprooted 22544764 “Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.�

Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.

Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood.

The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows�everyone knows—that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her.

But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.]]> 438 Naomi Novik 0804179034 kim 3 4.02 2015 Uprooted
author: Naomi Novik
name: kim
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/25
date added: 2024/04/21
shelves:
review:
sadly not a good as spinning silver but the author still had some good bits. the characters were definitely not as likeable as her previous work and honestly kind of weird choices were being made.
]]> My Thoughts Exactly 40949782 So, this is me. Lily Allen. I am a mother, and I was a wife. I'm also a singer and a songwriter. I have loved and been let down. I've been stalked and assaulted. I am a success and a failure. I've been broken and full of hope. I am all these things and more. I'm telling my truth because when women share their stories, loudly and clearly and honestly, things begin to change - for the better. So, this is my story. These are my thoughts exactly.
**Includes an exclusive new chapter**]]> 381 Allen Lily 1911600923 kim 3 3.96 2018 My Thoughts Exactly
author: Allen Lily
name: kim
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/17
date added: 2024/04/21
shelves:
review:
lily allen is fricking crazy. i'm in my memoir era btw. i liked that she understood that she was the bad guy in a lot of her work but also crazy how much blame was being placed at the same time? Also crazy she is still being weird about women today
]]> Spinning Silver 36896898 Spinning Silver draws readers deeper into a glittering realm of fantasy, where the boundary between wonder and terror is thinner than a breath, and safety can be stolen as quickly as a kiss.

Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders, but her father’s inability to collect his debts has left his family on the edge of poverty—until Miryem takes matters into her own hands. Hardening her heart, the young woman sets out to claim what is owed and soon gains a reputation for being able to turn silver into gold.

When an ill-advised boast draws the attention of the king of the Staryk—grim fey creatures who seem more ice than flesh—Miryem’s fate, and that of two kingdoms, will be forever altered. Set an impossible challenge by the nameless king, Miryem unwittingly spins a web that draws in a peasant girl, Wanda, and the unhappy daughter of a local lord who plots to wed his child to the dashing young tsar.

But Tsar Mirnatius is not what he seems. And the secret he hides threatens to consume the lands of humans and Staryk alike. Torn between deadly choices, Miryem and her two unlikely allies embark on a desperate quest that will take them to the limits of sacrifice, power, and love.

Channeling the vibrant heart of myth and fairy tale, Spinning Silver weaves a multilayered, magical tapestry that readers will want to return to again and again.]]> 465 Naomi Novik kim 4 4.20 2018 Spinning Silver
author: Naomi Novik
name: kim
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/09
date added: 2024/04/21
shelves:
review:
really like this but the multiplie povs relaly got me :/ i am illiterate.
]]> Head Over Heels 52765013
Now, reeling from a breakup with her football star boyfriend, Avery returns to her Massachusetts hometown, where new coach Ryan asks her to help him train a promising young gymnast with Olympic aspirations. Despite her misgivings and worries about the memories it will evoke, Avery agrees. Back in the gym, she’s surprised to find sparks flying with Ryan. But when a shocking scandal in the gymnastics world breaks, it has shattering effects not only for the sport but also for Avery and her old friend Jasmine.]]> 336 Hannah Orenstein 1982121475 kim 3 3.58 2020 Head Over Heels
author: Hannah Orenstein
name: kim
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/25
date added: 2024/04/21
shelves:
review:
It was cute but i thought the romance was weird and the man was weird like why would she still be into him when he never listened to her about the abuse she faced until he as a man saw it...like dump him girl
]]> A Long Walk to Water 7981456 A Long Walk to Water begins as two stories, told in alternating sections, about a girl in Sudan in 2008 and a boy in Sudan in 1985. The girl, Nya, is fetching water from a pond that is two hours� walk from her home: she makes two trips to the pond every day. The boy, Salva, becomes one of the "lost boys" of Sudan, refugees who cover the African continent on foot as they search for their families and for a safe place to stay. Enduring every hardship from loneliness to attack by armed rebels to contact with killer lions and crocodiles, Salva is a survivor, and his story goes on to intersect with Nya’s in an astonishing and moving way.]]> 128 Linda Sue Park 0547251270 kim 3 4.21 2010 A Long Walk to Water
author: Linda Sue Park
name: kim
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/17
date added: 2024/04/21
shelves:
review:
It was a lot shorter than i thought it would be and i felt as thought more parts of his story could have been expanded upon but i liked the two stories.
]]> The Haunting of Hill House 89717 182 Shirley Jackson 0143039989 kim 3 3.85 1959 The Haunting of Hill House
author: Shirley Jackson
name: kim
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1959
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/14
date added: 2024/04/21
shelves:
review:
Definitely a little bit spooky i wish we got to know more about the ending.
]]> <![CDATA[What Goes Around: Cracked Up to Be / Some Girls Are]]> 17286959 Cracked Up To Be, Perfect Parker Fadley isn’t so perfect anymore. She’s quit the cheerleading squad, she’s dumped her perfect boyfriend, and she’s failing school. Her parents are on a constant suicide watch and her counselors think she’s playing games…but what they don’t know, the real reason for this whole mess, is that a horrible thing has happened and it just might be her fault. In Some Girls Are, climbing to the top of the social ladder is hard--falling from it is even harder. Regina Afton used to be a member of the Fearsome Fivesome. And just like the other members of this all girl clique, she was both feared and revered by the students of Hallowell High... that is until vicious rumors about her and her best friend's boyfriend start going around.]]> 480 Courtney Summers 1250038448 kim 5 to-read 4.13 2013 What Goes Around: Cracked Up to Be / Some Girls Are
author: Courtney Summers
name: kim
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/01/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Educated 35133922
Her father forbade hospitals, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at home with herbalism. The family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education and no one to intervene when one of Tara's older brothers became violent.

Then, lacking any formal education, Tara began to educate herself. She taught herself enough mathematics and grammar to be admitted to Brigham Young University, where she studied history, learning for the first time about important world events like the Holocaust and the civil rights movement. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge. Only then would she wonder if she'd traveled too far, if there was still a way home.

Educated is an account of the struggle for self-invention. It is a tale of fierce family loyalty and of the grief that comes with severing the closest of ties. With the acute insight that distinguishes all great writers, Westover has crafted a universal coming-of-age story that gets to the heart of what an education is and what it offers: the perspective to see one's life through new eyes and the will to change it.]]> 352 Tara Westover 0399590501 kim 5 4.46 2018 Educated
author: Tara Westover
name: kim
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2023/11/12
date added: 2024/01/07
shelves:
review:
I honestly really liked this book and Tara's writing and stories really stayed with me.
]]> <![CDATA[Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood]]> 29780253
Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents� indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.

Born a Crime is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. It is also the story of that young man’s relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother—his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life.]]> 289 Trevor Noah 0385689225 kim 5 4.48 2016 Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood
author: Trevor Noah
name: kim
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2023/11/12
date added: 2023/11/12
shelves:
review:
this was SO good. highly recommended to those memoir fans out there.
]]> Forgotten 13624077
As she struggles to re-create her old life, throwing herself into solving a big case for a client and trying to reclaim her beloved apartment from the handsome photographer who assumed her lease, everyone around her thinks she should take the opportunity to change. But is she willing to sacrifice her job, her relationships, and everything else she worked so hard to build?

In "Forgotten," Catherine McKenzie tweaks a classic tale of discovering who we really are when everything that brings meaning to our lives is lost.]]> 448 Catherine McKenzie 0062115413 kim 2 3.61 2012 Forgotten
author: Catherine McKenzie
name: kim
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2012
rating: 2
read at: 2023/09/12
date added: 2023/11/09
shelves:
review:
the romance was very unrealistic and the guy calling her honey all the time when they'd just met made me believe there was a different sexuality
]]> The Perfect Girlfriend 31113934 YOU’VE NEVER READ A LOVE STORY AS TWISTED AS THIS.

Juliette loves Nate.

She will follow him anywhere. She’s even become a flight attendant for his airline so she can keep a closer eye on him.

They are meant to be.

The fact that Nate broke up with her six months ago means nothing. Because Juliette has a plan to win him back.

She is the perfect girlfriend. And she’ll make sure no one stops her from getting exactly what she wants.

True love hurts, but Juliette knows it’s worth all the pain...]]> 359 Karen Hamilton 1472244265 kim 3 3.41 2018 The Perfect Girlfriend
author: Karen Hamilton
name: kim
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/13
date added: 2023/09/13
shelves:
review:
It had so much potential but I'm surprised no one actually hit her because I would have
]]> The Girl from Widow Hills 52754102
Arden Maynor was just a child when she was swept away while sleepwalking during a terrifying rainstorm and went missing for days. Strangers and friends, neighbors and rescue workers, set up search parties and held vigils, praying for her safe return. Against all odds, she was found, alive, clinging to a storm drain. The girl from Widow Hills was a living miracle. Arden’s mother wrote a book. Fame followed. Fans and fan letters, creeps, and stalkers. And every year, the anniversary. It all became too much. As soon as she was old enough, Arden changed her name and disappeared from the public eye.

Now a young woman living hundreds of miles away, Arden goes by Olivia. She’s managed to stay off the radar for the last few years. But with the twentieth anniversary of her rescue approaching, the media will inevitably renew its interest in Arden. Where is she now? Soon Olivia feels like she’s being watched and begins sleepwalking again, like she did long ago, even waking outside her home. Until late one night she jolts awake in her yard. At her feet is the corpse of a man she knows—from her previous life, as Arden Maynor.

And now, the girl from Widow Hills is about to become the center of the story, once again, in this propulsive page-turner from suspense master Megan Miranda.]]> 325 Megan Miranda 1501165429 kim 3 3.68 2020 The Girl from Widow Hills
author: Megan Miranda
name: kim
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/12
date added: 2023/09/12
shelves:
review:
Kept me interested but also the ending ...cmon make it make sense
]]> Before We Were Yours 32148570 Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family’s Mississippi River shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge—until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children’s Home Society orphanage, the Foss children are assured that they will soon be returned to their parents—but they quickly realize the dark truth. At the mercy of the facility’s cruel director, Rill fights to keep her sisters and brother together in a world of danger and uncertainty.

Aiken, South Carolina, present day. Born into wealth and privilege, Avery Stafford seems to have it all: a successful career as a federal prosecutor, a handsome fiancé, and a lavish wedding on the horizon. But when Avery returns home to help her father weather a health crisis, a chance encounter leaves her with uncomfortable questions and compels her to take a journey through her family’s long-hidden history, on a path that will ultimately lead either to devastation or to redemption.

Based on one of America’s most notorious real-life scandals—in which Georgia Tann, director of a Memphis-based adoption organization, kidnapped and sold poor children to wealthy families all over the country—Lisa Wingate’s riveting, wrenching, and ultimately uplifting tale reminds us how, even though the paths we take can lead to many places, the heart never forgets where we belong.]]> 342 Lisa Wingate 0425284689 kim 0 to-read 4.38 2017 Before We Were Yours
author: Lisa Wingate
name: kim
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> He Said/She Said 31393997 Don't be left in the dark.

In the hushed aftermath of a total eclipse, Laura witnesses a brutal attack. She and her boyfriend Kit call the police, and in that moment, four lives change forever.

Fifteen years on, Laura and Kit live in fear.

And while Laura knows she was right to speak out, she also knows that you can never see the whole something is always hidden . . . something she never could have guessed.]]> 416 Erin Kelly 1444797174 kim 3 3.84 2017 He Said/She Said
author: Erin Kelly
name: kim
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/06
date added: 2023/09/06
shelves:
review:
Was going to be a two star because girly dumb but the twist was good so three it is
]]> The Pearl 5308
A story of classic simplicity, based on a Mexican folk tale, The Pearl explores the secrets of man’s nature, greed, the darkest depths of evil, and the luminous possibilities of love.]]> 96 John Steinbeck 0142000698 kim 0 currently-reading 3.52 1947 The Pearl
author: John Steinbeck
name: kim
average rating: 3.52
book published: 1947
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/03
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> The Winners (Beartown, #3) 60318890
As the locals of Beartown struggle to overcome the past, great change is on the horizon. Someone is coming home after a long time away. Someone will be laid to rest. Someone will fall in love, someone will try to fix their marriage, and someone will do anything to save their children. Someone will submit to hate, someone will fight, and someone will grab a gun and walk towards the ice rink.

So what are the residents of Beartown willing to sacrifice for their home?]]> 671 Fredrik Backman kim 4 4.45 2022 The Winners (Beartown, #3)
author: Fredrik Backman
name: kim
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/01
date added: 2023/09/03
shelves:
review:
As usual superb writing from Fredrick and love the characters so much but giddamn was this a long one. Feels like it easily could have scrapped a lot of it and saved myself from a broken heart :(
]]> Careering 59072930 any job. Writing her blog around double shifts at the pub is neither fulfilling her creatively nor paying the bills.

Harri might just be Imogen's fairy godmother. She's moving from the glossy pages of Panache magazine to launch a fierce feminist site, The Know. And she thinks Imogen's most outrageous sexual content will help generate the clicks she needs. But Imogen's fairy-tale ending soon sours as she finds herself putting more and more of herself into writing for a company that doesn't care if she sinks or swims.

Neither woman is aware of the crucial thing they have in common. Harri, at the other end of her career, has also been bitten and betrayed by the industry she has given herself to. Will she wake up to the way she's being exploited before her protégé realizes that not everything is copy? Can either woman reconcile their love for work with the fact that work will never love them back?]]> 384 Daisy Buchanan 0751580201 kim 0 currently-reading 3.33 2022 Careering
author: Daisy Buchanan
name: kim
average rating: 3.33
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/12
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Butter Honey Pig Bread 51168133 Longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize

Spanning three continents, Butter Honey Pig Bread tells the interconnected stories of three Nigerian women: Kambirinachi and her twin daughters, Kehinde and Taiye. Kambirinachi believes that she is an Ogbanje, or an Abiku, a non-human spirit that plagues a family with misfortune by being born and then dying in childhood to cause a human mother misery. She has made the unnatural choice of staying alive to love her human family but lives in fear of the consequences of her decision.

Kambirinachi and her two daughters become estranged from one another because of a trauma that Kehinde experiences in childhood, which leads her to move away and cut off all contact. She ultimately finds her path as an artist and seeks to raise a family of her own, despite her fear that she won't be a good mother. Meanwhile, Taiye is plagued by guilt for what her sister suffered and also runs away, attempting to fill the void of that lost relationship with casual flings with women. She eventually discovers a way out of her stifling loneliness through a passion for food and cooking.

But now, after more than a decade of living apart, Taiye and Kehinde have returned home to Lagos. It is here that the three women must face each other and address the wounds of the past if they are to reconcile and move forward.

For readers of African diasporic authors such as Teju Cole and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Butter Honey Pig Bread is a story of choices and their consequences, of motherhood, of the malleable line between the spirit and the mind, of finding new homes and mending old ones, of voracious appetites, of queer love, of friendship, faith, and above all, family.]]> 317 Francesca Ekwuyasi 1551528231 kim 5 it slapped 4.31 2020 Butter Honey Pig Bread
author: Francesca Ekwuyasi
name: kim
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2023/08/12
date added: 2023/08/12
shelves:
review:
it slapped
]]> All Good People Here 60142750 In the propulsive debut novel from the host of the #1 true crime podcast Crime Junkie, a journalist uncovers her hometown’s dark secrets when she becomes obsessed with the unsolved murder of her childhood neighbor—and the disappearance of another girl twenty years later.

You can’t ever know for sure what happens behind closed doors.

Everyone from Wakarusa, Indiana, remembers the infamous case of January Jacobs, who was discovered in a ditch hours after her family awoke to find her gone. Margot Davies was six at the time, the same age as January—and they were next-door neighbors. In the twenty years since, Margot has grown up, moved away, and become a big-city journalist. But she’s always been haunted by the feeling that it could’ve been her. And the worst part is, January’s killer has never been brought to justice.

When Margot returns home to help care for her uncle after he is diagnosed with early-onset dementia, she feels like she’s walked into a time capsule. Wakarusa is exactly how she remembers—genial, stifled, secretive. Then news breaks about five-year-old Natalie Clark from the next town over, who’s gone missing under circumstances eerily similar to January’s. With all the old feelings rushing back, Margot vows to find Natalie and to solve January’s murder once and for all.

But the police, Natalie’s family, the townspeople—they all seem to be hiding something. And the deeper Margot digs into Natalie’s disappearance, the more resistance she encounters, and the colder January’s case feels. Could January’s killer still be out there? Is it the same person who took Natalie? And what will it cost to finally discover what truly happened that night twenty years ago?

Twisty, chilling, and intense, All Good People Here is a searing tale that asks: What are your neighbors capable of when they think no one is watching?]]> 312 Ashley Flowers 0593496477 kim 2 3.81 2022 All Good People Here
author: Ashley Flowers
name: kim
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2023/07/28
date added: 2023/08/12
shelves:
review:
way too much going on in one book. girly should have just picked one thing and wrote her heart out intead we get all this plot point AND super unrealistic shit. damn.
]]> The French Girl 35235624
For Kate Channing, Severine was an unwelcome presence, her inscrutable beauty undermining the close-knit group's loyalties amid the already simmering tensions. And after a huge altercation on the last night of the holiday, Kate knew nothing would ever be the same. There are some things you can't forgive, and there are some people you can't forget, like Severine, who was never seen again.

Now, a decade later, the case is reopened when Severine's body is found in the well behind the farmhouse. Questioned along with her friends, Kate stands to lose everything she's worked so hard to achieve as suspicion mounts around her. Desperate to resolve her own shifting memories and fearful she will be forever bound to the woman whose presence still haunts her, Kate finds herself buried under layers of deception with no one to set her free.]]> 304 Lexie Elliott 0399586938 kim 2 3.51 2018 The French Girl
author: Lexie Elliott
name: kim
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2018
rating: 2
read at: 2023/06/01
date added: 2023/08/12
shelves:
review:
why did she just make it so predictable like i thought it would have been a good twist if the main character had killed her which is why she kept showing up
]]> <![CDATA[Crash into You (Pushing the Limits, #3)]]> 17233800
The girl with straight A's and the perfect life—that's who people expect Rachel Young to be. So the private school junior keeps secrets from her wealthy family…and she's just added two more to the list. One involves racing strangers down dark country roads in her Mustang GT. The other? Seventeen-year-old Isaiah Walker—a guy she has no business even talking to. But after the foster kid with the tattoos and intense gray eyes comes to her rescue, she can't get him out of her mind.

The last thing Isaiah needs is to get tangled up with a rich girl who wants to slum it on the south side for kicks. But when their shared love of street racing puts their lives in jeopardy, Isaiah and Rachel will have six weeks to come up with a way out. Six weeks to discover just how far they'll go to save each other.]]> 474 Katie McGarry 037321099X kim 0 to-read 4.26 2013 Crash into You (Pushing the Limits, #3)
author: Katie McGarry
name: kim
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Book of Negroes 23316548
A sweeping story that transports the reader from a tribal African village to a plantation in the southern United States, from the teeming Halifax docks to the manor houses of London, The Book of Negroes introduces one of the strongest female characters in Canadian fiction, one who cuts a swath through a world hostile to her colour and her sex.]]> 512 Lawrence Hill 0393351394 kim 0 currently-reading 4.50 2007 The Book of Negroes
author: Lawrence Hill
name: kim
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/11
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)]]> 35068705
When Rin aced the Keju—the Empire-wide test to find the most talented youth to learn at the Academies—it was a shock to everyone: to the test officials, who couldn’t believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating; to Rin’s guardians, who believed they’d finally be able to marry her off and further their criminal enterprise; and to Rin herself, who realized she was finally free of the servitude and despair that had made up her daily existence. That she got into Sinegard—the most elite military school in Nikan—was even more surprising.

But surprises aren’t always good.

Because being a dark-skinned peasant girl from the south is not an easy thing at Sinegard. Targeted from the outset by rival classmates for her color, poverty, and gender, Rin discovers she possesses a lethal, unearthly power—an aptitude for the nearly-mythical art of shamanism. Exploring the depths of her gift with the help of a seemingly insane teacher and psychoactive substances, Rin learns that gods long thought dead are very much alive—and that mastering control over those powers could mean more than just surviving school.

For while the Nikara Empire is at peace, the Federation of Mugen still lurks across a narrow sea. The militarily advanced Federation occupied Nikan for decades after the First Poppy War, and only barely lost the continent in the Second. And while most of the people are complacent to go about their lives, a few are aware that a Third Poppy War is just a spark away . . .

Rin’s shamanic powers may be the only way to save her people. But as she finds out more about the god that has chosen her, the vengeful Phoenix, she fears that winning the war may cost her humanity . . . and that it may already be too late.]]> 545 R.F. Kuang 0062662597 kim 0 to-read 4.16 2018 The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)
author: R.F. Kuang
name: kim
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Yellowface 59357120
So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? This piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller. That is what June believes, and The New York Times bestseller list agrees.

But June cannot escape Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens her stolen success. As she races to protect her secret she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.]]> 329 R.F. Kuang kim 0 to-read 3.84 2023 Yellowface
author: R.F. Kuang
name: kim
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Last Flight 51197260 Two women. Two Flights. One last chance to disappear.

Claire Cook has a perfect life. Married to the scion of a political dynasty, with a Manhattan townhouse and a staff of ten, her surroundings are elegant, her days flawlessly choreographed, and her future auspicious. But behind closed doors, nothing is quite as it seems. That perfect husband has a temper that burns as bright as his promising political career, and he's not above using his staff to track Claire's every move, making sure she's living up to his impossible standards. But what he doesn't know is that Claire has worked for months on a plan to vanish.

A chance meeting in an airport bar brings her together with a woman whose circumstances seem equally dire. Together they make a last-minute decision to switch tickets � Claire taking Eva's flight to Oakland, and Eva traveling to Puerto Rico as Claire. They believe the swap will give each of them the head start they need to begin again somewhere far away. But when the flight to Puerto Rico goes down, Claire realizes it's no longer a head start but a new life. Cut off, out of options, with the news of her death about to explode in the media, Claire will assume Eva's identity, and along with it, the secrets Eva fought so hard to keep hidden.

The Last Flight is the story of two women � both alone, both scared � and one agonizing decision that will change the trajectory of both of their lives.]]> 352 Julie Clark 1728215730 kim 0 to-read 4.26 2020 The Last Flight
author: Julie Clark
name: kim
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Desperate Girls (Wolfe Security, #1)]]> 36373451
When a vicious murderer she once helped prosecute resurfaces and starts a killing spree to wipeout those who put him behind bars, one thing becomes clear: Brynn needs to run for her life.

With no help from the police, Brynn is forced to take matters into her own hands, turning to a private security firm for protection. But when Brynn defies advice and gets involved in the investigation, even the former Secret Service agent assigned to protect her may not be able to keep her safe. With every new clue she discovers, Brynn is pulled back into the vortex of a disturbing case from her past.

As the clock ticks down on a manhunt, Brynn’s desperate search for the truth unearths long-buried secrets and reignites a killer’s fury.]]> 368 Laura Griffin 1501162411 kim 2 also the ending was so fucking funny like damn laura its ok to not tie up every loose end save some for the next book puhlease.]]> 3.83 2018 Desperate Girls (Wolfe Security, #1)
author: Laura Griffin
name: kim
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2018
rating: 2
read at: 2023/06/11
date added: 2023/06/11
shelves:
review:
i docked one star purely because the protagonist eats her mf egg rolls with mustard............
also the ending was so fucking funny like damn laura its ok to not tie up every loose end save some for the next book puhlease.
]]> Happy Place 61718053
They broke up six months ago. And still haven’t told their best friends.

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

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

A couple who broke up months ago make a pact to pretend to still be together for their annual weeklong vacation with their best friends in this glittering and wise new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.]]> 400 Emily Henry 0593441273 kim 0 to-read 3.95 2023 Happy Place
author: Emily Henry
name: kim
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Guest List 52656911
The bride � The plus one � The best man � The wedding planner � The bridesmaid � The body

On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star. The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It’s a wedding for a magazine, or for a celebrity: the designer dress, the remote location, the luxe party favors, the boutique whiskey. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed.

But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human. As the champagne is popped and the festivities begin, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. The groomsmen begin the drinking game from their school days. The bridesmaid not-so-accidentally ruins her dress. The bride’s oldest (male) friend gives an uncomfortably caring toast.

And then someone turns up dead. Who didn’t wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?]]> 319 Lucy Foley kim 0 to-read 3.82 2020 The Guest List
author: Lucy Foley
name: kim
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/05/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Mistakes Were Made 59808269 Something To Talk About comes a sharp and sexy rom-com about a college senior who accidentally hooks up with her best friend’s mom.

When Cassie Klein goes to an off-campus bar to escape her school’s Family Weekend, she isn’t looking for a hookup—it just happens. Buying a drink for a stranger turns into what should be an uncomplicated, amazing one-night stand. But then the next morning rolls around and her friend drags her along to meet her mom—the hot, older woman Cassie slept with.

Erin Bennett came to Family Weekend to get closer to her daughter, not have a one-night stand with a college senior. In her defense, she hadn’t known Cassie was a student when they'd met. To make things worse, Erin’s daughter brings Cassie to breakfast the next morning. And despite Erin's better judgement—how could sleeping with your daughter’s friend be anything but bad?—she and Cassie get along in the day just as well as they did last night.

What should have been a one-time fling quickly proves impossible to ignore, and soon Cassie and Erin are sneaking around. Worst of all, they start to realize they have something real. But is being honest about the love between them worth the cost?]]> 352 Meryl Wilsner 1250841003 kim 0 to-read 3.91 2022 Mistakes Were Made
author: Meryl Wilsner
name: kim
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/05/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Vanishing Hour 60279832 When a cold case in Texas leads to a sinister string of disappearances, a newcomer to the small town helps a detective piece together the clues in this new romantic thriller from New York Times bestselling author Laura Griffin.

Corporate lawyer Ava Burch has had enough of the big city and the daily grind. She grew up with her father, who raised search-and-rescue dogs, in rural Texas and has moved to the small town of Cuervo to spend time in the dry, rugged wilderness near Big Bend National Park. When she and her dog, Huck, discover an abandoned campsite on a volunteer search-and-rescue mission, she's perplexed, but she carefully photographs it all the same.

All Grant Wycoff can see when he looks at Ava is a city slicker--with her designer jeans and shiny car--who has no business on a serious team made of seasoned outdoorsmen and retired cops. But when she tells him of her findings on the trail, he sees there's more to her than meets the eye.

Ava's discovery reminds Grant of the unsolved case of a young woman who went missing two years ago. As they look into the campsite further, another woman disappears under odd circumstances. With time running out, Ava and Grant must work against the brutal heat from both the Texas sun and their own electric chemistry to solve the case.]]> 322 Laura Griffin 0593546695 kim 3 3.90 2022 Vanishing Hour
author: Laura Griffin
name: kim
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/05/30
date added: 2023/05/29
shelves:
review:
three stars bc while i liked it there was like no suspense. its exactly who u think it is half way through. I wanted MORE. and i wanted CULT.
]]> Lapvona 59693959 In a village in a medieval fiefdom buffeted by natural disasters, a motherless shepherd boy finds himself the unlikely pivot of a power struggle that puts all manner of faith to a savage test, in a spellbinding novel that represents Ottessa Moshfegh’s most exciting leap yet

Little Marek, the abused and delusional son of the village shepherd, never knew his mother; his father told him she died in childbirth. One of life’s few consolations for Marek is his enduring bond with the blind village midwife, Ina, who suckled him as a baby, as she did so many of the village’s children. Ina’s gifts extend beyond childcare: she possesses a unique ability to communicate with the natural world. Her gift often brings her the transmission of sacred knowledge on levels far beyond those available to other villagers, however religious they might be. For some people, Ina’s home in the woods outside of the village is a place to fear and to avoid, a godless place.

Among their number is Father Barnabas, the town priest and lackey for the depraved lord and governor, Villiam, whose hilltop manor contains a secret embarrassment of riches. The people’s desperate need to believe that there are powers that be who have their best interests at heart is put to a cruel test by Villiam and the priest, especially in this year of record drought and famine. But when fate brings Marek into violent proximity to the lord’s family, new and occult forces upset the old order. By year’s end, the veil between blindness and sight, life and death, the natural world and the spirit world, civility and savagery, will prove to be very thin indeed.]]> 313 Ottessa Moshfegh kim 0 to-read 3.53 2022 Lapvona
author: Ottessa Moshfegh
name: kim
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/05/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Carrie Soto Is Back 60435878 Carrie Soto is fierce, and her determination to win at any cost has not made her popular.

By the time Carrie retires from tennis, she is the best player the world has ever seen. She has shattered every record and claimed twenty Slam titles. And if you ask her, she is entitled to every one. She sacrificed nearly everything to become the best, with her father as her coach.

But six years after her retirement, Carrie finds herself sitting in the stands of the 1994 US Open, watching her record be taken from her by a brutal, stunning, British player named Nicki Chan.

At thirty-seven years old, Carrie makes the monumental decision to come out of retirement and be coached by her father for one last year in an attempt to reclaim her record. Even if the sports media says that they never liked the 'Battle-Axe' anyway. Even if her body doesn't move as fast as it did. And even if it means swallowing her pride to train with a man she once almost opened her heart to: Bowe Huntley. Like her, he has something to prove before he gives up the game forever.

In spite of it all: Carrie Soto is back, for one epic final season. In this riveting and unforgettable novel, Taylor Jenkins Reid tells a story about the cost of greatness and a legendary athlete attempting a comeback.]]> 384 Taylor Jenkins Reid 0593158687 kim 3 4.19 2022 Carrie Soto Is Back
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: kim
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/05/26
date added: 2023/05/28
shelves:
review:
I wanted to reallly love this book as I love tennis so much but while I liked the story i found the characters unlikeable. As a tennis DIE HARD carrie gave me such ostapenko vibes and her mans gave me nick krygios vibes and they are just not likeable ppl on the court and always throwing tantrums. I get that it is a story that leads to character development but to be behaving like that 30+ is ...a choice.
]]> Crying in H Mart 54814676
In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humour and heart, she tells of growing up the only Asian-American kid at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother’s particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother’s tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food. As she grew up, moving to the east coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, performing gigs with her fledgling band � and meeting the man who would become her husband � her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live.

It was her mother’s diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer, when Michelle was twenty-five, that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her.

Vivacious, lyrical and honest, Michelle Zauner’s voice is as radiantly alive on the page as it is onstage. Rich with intimate anecdotes that will resonate widely, Crying in H Mart is a book to cherish, share, and reread.]]> 243 Michelle Zauner 0525657746 kim 0 currently-reading 4.25 2021 Crying in H Mart
author: Michelle Zauner
name: kim
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/04/19
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![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 kim 5
]]> 4.05 2019 On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
author: Ocean Vuong
name: kim
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2023/04/19
date added: 2023/04/19
shelves:
review:
brb i am sobbing over this masterpiece.


]]> Sea of Tranquility 58446227 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER - The award-winning, best-selling author of Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel returns with a novel of art, time travel, love, and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon five hundred years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and space.

One of the Best Books of the Year: The New York Times, NPR, GoodReads

"One of [Mandel's] finest novels and one of her most satisfying forays into the arena of speculative fiction yet." --The New York Times

Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal--an experience that shocks him to his core.

Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She's traveling all over Earth, but her home is the second moon colony, a place of white stone, spired towers, and artificial beauty. Within the text of Olive's best-selling pandemic novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him.

When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the black-skied Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended: The exiled son of an earl driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe.

A virtuoso performance that is as human and tender as it is intellectually playful, Sea of Tranquility is a novel of time travel and metaphysics that precisely captures the reality of our current moment.]]> 259 Emily St. John Mandel 0593321448 kim 4 4.04 2022 Sea of Tranquility
author: Emily St. John Mandel
name: kim
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/04/02
date added: 2023/04/02
shelves:
review:
Slow start and i wanted more from that ending but honestly really good and a good reminder of why i love this author
]]> Know My Name 50196744
Now she reclaims her identity to tell her story of trauma, transcendence, and the power of words. It was the perfect case, in many ways–there were eyewitnesses, Turner ran away, physical evidence was immediately secured. But her struggles with isolation and shame during the aftermath and the trial reveal the oppression victims face in even the best-case scenarios. Her story illuminates a culture biased to protect perpetrators, indicts a criminal justice system designed to fail the most vulnerable, and, ultimately, shines with the courage required to move through suffering and live a full and beautiful life.

Know My Name will forever transform the way we think about sexual assault, challenging our beliefs about what is acceptable and speaking truth to the tumultuous reality of healing. It also introduces readers to an extraordinary writer, one whose words have already changed our world. Entwining pain, resilience, and humor, this memoir will stand as a modern classic.]]> 384 Chanel Miller 0735223718 kim 5 4.69 2019 Know My Name
author: Chanel Miller
name: kim
average rating: 4.69
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2023/03/24
date added: 2023/03/24
shelves:
review:

]]> Crooked Grow the Trees 36402448 Twisted lives, hidden truths, inescapable collisions.

Sophia escapes her own dark past by entering the broken worlds of the young men she mentors. She's a survivor who can show the way. Or is she? Are some beyond redemption...and can she tell which?

Sophia's father's sudden death splinters the family tree in shocking ways. The resulting storm pits doubt against certainty, brother against sister, rejection against acceptance, and throws Sophia into a tangle of vague memories and old wounds.

Unbalanced by her personal life and shaken by heartbreaking events at work, Sophia is pulled toward collisions she doesn't see coming.

This insightful, thought-provoking, emotional novel explores themes of trauma, relationships, love, and how much is hidden from others and ourselves. Realistic and raw, it contains occasional sensitive language and brief, non-graphic violence.]]> 318 Carmel Hanes 1975628500 kim 0 to-read 4.03 2017 Crooked Grow the Trees
author: Carmel Hanes
name: kim
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Punk 57 41021967
Misha

I can’t help but smile at the words in her letter. She misses me.

In fifth grade, my teacher set us up with pen pals from a different school. Thinking I was a girl, with a name like Misha, the other teacher paired me up with her student, Ryen. My teacher, believing Ryen was a boy like me, agreed.

It didn’t take long for us to figure out the mistake. And in no time at all, we were arguing about everything. The best take-out pizza. Android vs. iPhone. Whether or not Eminem is the greatest rapper ever�

And that was the start. For the next seven years, it was us.

Her letters are always on black paper with silver writing. Sometimes there’s one a week or three in a day, but I need them. She’s the only one who keeps me on track, talks me down, and accepts everything I am.

We only had three rules. No social media, no phone numbers, no pictures. We had a good thing going. Why ruin it?

Until I run across a photo of a girl online. Name’s Ryen, loves Gallo’s pizza, and worships her iPhone. What are the chances?

F*ck it. I need to meet her.

I just don’t expect to hate what I find.

Ryen

He hasn’t written in three months. Something’s wrong. Did he die? Get arrested? Knowing Misha, neither would be a stretch.

Without him around, I’m going crazy. I need to know someone is listening. It’s my own fault. I should've gotten his number or picture or something.

He could be gone forever.

Or right under my nose, and I wouldn’t even know it.]]> 343 Penelope Douglas 1952646049 kim 3
The Good: great, diverse characters -- I actually really enjoyed Ryen's character. She reminds me of all little girls. We all want to be popular and awed. I personally went through a similar interaction with my own Delilah when I was little. I also like how the author didn't slut shame anyone. The only thing that distinguished bad guys and good guys were the bullying and cheating.
Misha was a little harder to love. He was terribly abusive to Ryen just because he found out she was living a facade in her letters. I don't know what he expected, people lie all the time. It was his own fault for choosing to trust and believe so blindly in a girl's words.

The Bad: Really couldn't understand the high school relationship between Ryen and Misha. The sex was written well, but seems so much more mature than high school. The words Misha speaks sound so odd coming out of his mouth. For a YA novel, the sex would have worked better in a college or university setting.


Merged review:

The idea is fantastic. Unfortunately, although I liked it, there were a couple things I couldn't look over and ignore.

The Good: great, diverse characters -- I actually really enjoyed Ryen's character. She reminds me of all little girls. We all want to be popular and awed. I personally went through a similar interaction with my own Delilah when I was little. I also like how the author didn't slut shame anyone. The only thing that distinguished bad guys and good guys were the bullying and cheating.
Misha was a little harder to love. He was terribly abusive to Ryen just because he found out she was living a facade in her letters. I don't know what he expected, people lie all the time. It was his own fault for choosing to trust and believe so blindly in a girl's words.

The Bad: Really couldn't understand the high school relationship between Ryen and Misha. The sex was written well, but seems so much more mature than high school. The words Misha speaks sound so odd coming out of his mouth. For a YA novel, the sex would have worked better in a college or university setting.]]> 3.76 2016 Punk 57
author: Penelope Douglas
name: kim
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2017/03/18
date added: 2023/03/22
shelves:
review:
The idea is fantastic. Unfortunately, although I liked it, there were a couple things I couldn't look over and ignore.

The Good: great, diverse characters -- I actually really enjoyed Ryen's character. She reminds me of all little girls. We all want to be popular and awed. I personally went through a similar interaction with my own Delilah when I was little. I also like how the author didn't slut shame anyone. The only thing that distinguished bad guys and good guys were the bullying and cheating.
Misha was a little harder to love. He was terribly abusive to Ryen just because he found out she was living a facade in her letters. I don't know what he expected, people lie all the time. It was his own fault for choosing to trust and believe so blindly in a girl's words.

The Bad: Really couldn't understand the high school relationship between Ryen and Misha. The sex was written well, but seems so much more mature than high school. The words Misha speaks sound so odd coming out of his mouth. For a YA novel, the sex would have worked better in a college or university setting.


Merged review:

The idea is fantastic. Unfortunately, although I liked it, there were a couple things I couldn't look over and ignore.

The Good: great, diverse characters -- I actually really enjoyed Ryen's character. She reminds me of all little girls. We all want to be popular and awed. I personally went through a similar interaction with my own Delilah when I was little. I also like how the author didn't slut shame anyone. The only thing that distinguished bad guys and good guys were the bullying and cheating.
Misha was a little harder to love. He was terribly abusive to Ryen just because he found out she was living a facade in her letters. I don't know what he expected, people lie all the time. It was his own fault for choosing to trust and believe so blindly in a girl's words.

The Bad: Really couldn't understand the high school relationship between Ryen and Misha. The sex was written well, but seems so much more mature than high school. The words Misha speaks sound so odd coming out of his mouth. For a YA novel, the sex would have worked better in a college or university setting.
]]> The Memory Police 37004370
When a young woman who is struggling to maintain her career as a novelist discovers that her editor is in danger from the Memory Police, she concocts a plan to hide him beneath her floorboards. As fear and loss close in around them, they cling to her writing as the last way of preserving the past.

A surreal, provocative fable about the power of memory and the trauma of loss, The Memory Police is a stunning new work from one of the most exciting contemporary authors writing in any language.]]> 274 YĹŤko Ogawa 1101870605 kim 0 currently-reading 3.72 1994 The Memory Police
author: YĹŤko Ogawa
name: kim
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1994
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/06
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Norwegian Wood 11297
A magnificent blending of the music, the mood, and the ethos that was the sixties with the story of one college student's romantic coming of age, Norwegian Wood brilliantly recaptures a young man's first, hopeless, and heroic love.]]> 296 Haruki Murakami 0375704027 kim 2 4.01 1987 Norwegian Wood
author: Haruki Murakami
name: kim
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1987
rating: 2
read at: 2023/03/06
date added: 2023/03/06
shelves:
review:
:/ ok anyway old japanese men writing is something else. Murakami gotta go back to school and learn how women act bc this was not it.
]]> Tell the Wolves I'm Home 12875258
1987. There's only one person who has ever truly understood fourteen-year-old June Elbus, and that's her uncle, the renowned painter Finn Weiss. Shy at school and distant from her older sister, June can only be herself in Finn's company; he is her godfather, confidant, and best friend. So when he dies, far too young, of a mysterious illness her mother can barely speak about, June's world is turned upside down. But Finn's death brings a surprise acquaintance into June's life—someone who will help her to heal, and to question what she thinks she knows about Finn, her family, and even her own heart.

At Finn's funeral, June notices a strange man lingering just beyond the crowd. A few days later, she receives a package in the mail. Inside is a beautiful teapot she recognizes from Finn's apartment, and a note from Toby, the stranger, asking for an opportunity to meet. As the two begin to spend time together, June realizes she's not the only one who misses Finn, and if she can bring herself to trust this unexpected friend, he just might be the one she needs the most.

An emotionally charged coming-of-age novel, Tell the Wolves I'm Home is a tender story of love lost and found, an unforgettable portrait of the way compassion can make us whole again.]]> 360 Carol Rifka Brunt 0679644199 kim 0 currently-reading 4.01 2012 Tell the Wolves I'm Home
author: Carol Rifka Brunt
name: kim
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/23
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> The Project 53138093
When Lo’s given the perfect opportunity to gain access to Bea’s reclusive life, she thinks they’re finally going to be reunited. But it’s difficult to find someone who doesn’t want to be found, and as Lo delves deeper into The Project and its charismatic leader, she begins to realize that there’s more at risk than just her relationship with Bea: her very life might be in danger.

As she uncovers more questions than answers at each turn, everything Lo thought she knew about herself, her sister, and the world is upended. One thing doesn’t change, though, and that’s what keeps her going: Bea needs her, and Lo will do anything to save her.

From Courtney Summers, the New York Times bestselling author of the 2019 Edgar Award Winner and breakout hit Sadie, comes her electrifying follow-up—a suspenseful, pulls-no-punches story about an aspiring young journalist determined to save her sister no matter the cost.]]> 352 Courtney Summers 1250105730 kim 4
this one sucked me in and i read it in like three days? which is FAST for a bitch who works 70 hours a week ok

anyway i loved the story hOWEVER i think it needed about 100 more pages for it to really shine and really build up to the twist. also i would have liked more details on how everything went down cuz one moment its like A and the next she's like B and i think more build up would have helped.]]> 3.51 2021 The Project
author: Courtney Summers
name: kim
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/23
date added: 2023/01/23
shelves:
review:
courtney is an absolute mad man for this one.

this one sucked me in and i read it in like three days? which is FAST for a bitch who works 70 hours a week ok

anyway i loved the story hOWEVER i think it needed about 100 more pages for it to really shine and really build up to the twist. also i would have liked more details on how everything went down cuz one moment its like A and the next she's like B and i think more build up would have helped.
]]> Sourdough 33916024
Lois is no baker, but she could use a roommate, even if it is a needy colony of microorganisms. Soon, not only is she eating her own homemade bread, she’s providing loaves daily to the General Dexterity cafeteria. The company chef urges her to take her product to the farmer’s market, and a whole new world opens up.

When Lois comes before the jury that decides who sells what at Bay Area markets, she encounters a close-knit club with no appetite for new members. But then, an alternative emerges: a secret market that aims to fuse food and technology. But who are these people, exactly?]]> 259 Robin Sloan 0374203105 kim 0 to-read 3.73 2017 Sourdough
author: Robin Sloan
name: kim
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass]]> 43554866 The highly anticipated spoken word poetry collection from Lana Del Rey, Violet Bent Backwards over the Grass

�'Violet Bent Backwards over the Grass' is the title poem of the book and the first poem I wrote of many. Some of which came to me in their entirety, which I dictated and then typed out, and some that I worked laboriously picking apart each word to make the perfect poem. They are eclectic and honest and not trying to be anything other than what they are and for that reason I’m proud of them, especially because the spirit in which they were written was very authentic.� (Lana Del Rey)

Lana Del Rey brings her breathtaking poetry to life in an unprecedented audiobook. In this stunning spoken word performance, Lana Del Rey reads 14 poems from her debut book Violet Bent Backwards over the Grass accompanied by music from Grammy Award-winning musician Jack Antonoff. Lana’s debut book solidifies her further as “the essential writer of her times� (The Atlantic). This audiobook features Lana reading select poems from the book, including "LA Who Am I to Love You?", "The Land of 1,000 Fires", "Past the Bushes Cypress Thriving", "Never to Heaven", "Tessa DiPietro", "Happy", and several others. The result is an extraordinary poetic landscape that reflects the unguarded spirit of its creator.]]> 1 Lana Del Rey kim 0 to-read 4.03 2020 Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass
author: Lana Del Rey
name: kim
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Breasts and Eggs 50736031
Breasts and Eggs paints a portrait of contemporary womanhood in Japan and recounts the intimate journeys of three women as they confront oppressive mores and their own uncertainties on the road to finding peace and futures they can truly call their own.

It tells the story of three women: the thirty-year-old Natsu, her older sister, Makiko, and Makiko’s daughter, Midoriko. Makiko has traveled to Tokyo in search of an affordable breast enhancement procedure. She is accompanied by Midoriko, who has recently grown silent, finding herself unable to voice the vague yet overwhelming pressures associated with growing up. Her silence proves a catalyst for each woman to confront her fears and frustrations.

On another hot summer’s day ten years later, Natsu, on a journey back to her native city, struggles with her own indeterminate identity as she confronts anxieties about growing old alone and childless.]]> 430 Mieko Kawakami 1609455878 kim 0 to-read 3.87 2019 Breasts and Eggs
author: Mieko Kawakami
name: kim
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Little Life 22822858
Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever.]]> 720 Hanya Yanagihara 0385539258 kim 1
i agree with all the other reviews that this is just pure trauma porn. its not worth dragging through it. the prose and the author does a splendid job with all the characters and really making you feel for them throug the novel but holy fuck - i actually dreaded picking it up and reading it cuz it made me feel like shit ]]> 4.28 2015 A Little Life
author: Hanya Yanagihara
name: kim
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2015
rating: 1
read at: 2023/01/22
date added: 2023/01/22
shelves:
review:
this guy i went on a date with told me it was his favourite book. after reading this book i have realized that i dodged a bullet with that dude :/

i agree with all the other reviews that this is just pure trauma porn. its not worth dragging through it. the prose and the author does a splendid job with all the characters and really making you feel for them throug the novel but holy fuck - i actually dreaded picking it up and reading it cuz it made me feel like shit
]]> You Must Not Miss 38446644
Now, Magpie is called a slut whenever she walks down the hallways of her high school, her former best friend won't speak to her, and she spends her lunch period with a group of misfits who've all been socially exiled like she has. And so, feeling trapped and forgotten, Magpie retreats to her notebook, dreaming up a place called Near.

Near is perfect--somewhere where her father never cheated, her mother never drank, and Magpie's own life never derailed so suddenly. She imagines Near so completely, so fully, that she writes it into existence, right in her own backyard. It's a place where she can have anything she wants...even revenge.]]> 304 Katrina Leno 0316449806 kim 3 3.37 2019 You Must Not Miss
author: Katrina Leno
name: kim
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2023/01/16
date added: 2023/01/22
shelves:
review:
Interesting premise but i just wish the characters were less caricatures.
]]> Cloud Cuckoo Land 56783258 When everything is lost, it’s our stories that survive.

How do we weather the end of things? Cloud Cuckoo Land brings together an unforgettable cast of dreamers and outsiders from past, present and future to offer a vision of survival against all odds.

Constantinople, 1453:
An orphaned seamstress and a cursed boy with a love for animals risk everything on opposite sides of a city wall to protect the people they love.

Idaho, 2020:
An impoverished, idealistic kid seeks revenge on a world that’s crumbling around him. Can he go through with it when a gentle old man stands between him and his plans?

Unknown, Sometime in the Future:
With her tiny community in peril, Konstance is the last hope for the human race. To find a way forward, she must look to the oldest stories of all for guidance.

Bound together by a single ancient text, these tales interweave to form a tapestry of solace and resilience and a celebration of storytelling itself. Like its predecessor All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr’s new novel is a tale of hope and of profound human connection.]]> 626 Anthony Doerr 1982168439 kim 4 the beginning was a slow burn trying to get to know all the characters wihout overloading. Then the middle got you hooked. stayed up late finishing this
omg but the ending.....one star docked for the slow burn beginning and the ending T.T they did my characters dirty w that.]]> 4.24 2021 Cloud Cuckoo Land
author: Anthony Doerr
name: kim
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/10
date added: 2023/01/10
shelves:
review:
equal parts mad and in love with this book
the beginning was a slow burn trying to get to know all the characters wihout overloading. Then the middle got you hooked. stayed up late finishing this
omg but the ending.....one star docked for the slow burn beginning and the ending T.T they did my characters dirty w that.
]]> Razorblade Tears 54860585 A Black father. A white father. Two murdered sons. A quest for vengeance.

Ike Randolph has been out of jail for fifteen years, with not so much as a speeding ticket in all that time. But a Black man with cops at the door knows to be afraid.

The last thing he expects to hear is that his son Isiah has been murdered, along with Isiah’s white husband, Derek. Ike had never fully accepted his son but is devastated by his loss.

Derek’s father Buddy Lee was almost as ashamed of Derek for being gay as Derek was ashamed his father was a criminal. Buddy Lee still has contacts in the underworld, though, and he wants to know who killed his boy.

Ike and Buddy Lee, two ex-cons with little else in common other than a criminal past and a love for their dead sons, band together in their desperate desire for revenge. In their quest to do better for their sons in death than they did in life, hardened men Ike and Buddy Lee will confront their own prejudices about their sons and each other, as they rain down vengeance upon those who hurt their boys.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781250252708]]> 336 S.A. Cosby kim 3 4.08 2021 Razorblade Tears
author: S.A. Cosby
name: kim
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2022/12/31
date added: 2023/01/03
shelves:
review:
Took a second to get used to the author's writing style but other than that was pretty intersting and i liked the exploration of race and homophobia. Also unrealistic but what is a book than a device to take you away?
]]> Project Hail Mary 54493401
Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone.

Or does he?]]> 476 Andy Weir 0593135202 kim 5 4.49 2021 Project Hail Mary
author: Andy Weir
name: kim
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2022/10/29
date added: 2022/10/30
shelves:
review:
While i didn't notice too many differences between the main protagonist in this and the martian, I appreciated the story. I was skeptic at the aliens but but honestly what a beautiful ending and story overall.
]]> Trafficked 12187771 When Sophie Hayes met Bledi she knew he'd change her life � but she had no idea how much. At first, it was a typical whirlwind romance. But one day Bledi told her that love always comes at a price ...

Bledi tricked Sophie into travelling to Italy, where he forced her to sell her body to help him pay off a debt. Terrified and ashamed, Sophie worked the dangerous Italian streets without rest, seeing as many as 30 clients in a night. She was completely at Bledi′s mercy for food, clothes and shelter. And without money, friends or family, she was trapped.

But Sophie found the strength to keep going, clinging to life by a single thread of hope: that somehow she′d find a way to escape.]]> 308 Sophie Hayes 0007438885 kim 2 3.91 2012 Trafficked
author: Sophie Hayes
name: kim
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2012
rating: 2
read at: 2022/10/08
date added: 2022/10/30
shelves:
review:
all the other reviews say exactly what i'm thinking but its hard to comment on someone's true story so i'll leave it at that.
]]> <![CDATA[One of Us Is Lying (One of Us is Lying, #1)]]> 58679358 On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.
Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule.
Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess.
Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing.
Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher.
And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High's notorious gossip app.

Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention Simon's dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn't an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he'd planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who's still on the loose?

Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.]]> 416 Karen M. McManus 0593565371 kim 3 3.87 2017 One of Us Is Lying (One of Us is Lying, #1)
author: Karen M. McManus
name: kim
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2022/10/05
date added: 2022/10/30
shelves:
review:
The story was fine if a lil predictable. But also dead @ all the gossip in one high school. Also if youre gonna have different character POVs they have to sound different. All the characters sounded the same which was confusing
]]> Sweet Bean Paste 33376821
Until, that is, Tokue comes into his life. An elderly woman with disfigured hands and a troubled past, she makes the best sweet bean paste Sentaro has ever tasted. The unlikeliest of friendships blossoms, but it will take all of their resolve � and plenty of pancakes � to protect themselves when Tokue's dark secret comes to light.]]> 216 Durian Sukegawa 1786071959 kim 0 to-read 4.07 2013 Sweet Bean Paste
author: Durian Sukegawa
name: kim
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/09/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Nakano Thrift Shop 32919876
Objects for sale at the Nakano Thrift Shop appear as commonplace as the staff and customers that handle them. But like those same customers and staff, they hold many secrets. If examined carefully, they show the signs of innumerable extravagancies, of immeasurable pleasure and pain, and of the deep mysteries of the human heart.

Hitomi, the inexperienced young woman who works the register at Mr. Nakano's thrift shop, has fallen for her coworker, the oddly reserved Takeo. Unsure of how to attract his attention, she seeks advice from her employer's sister, Masayo, whose sentimental entanglements make her a somewhat unconventional guide. But thanks in part to Masayo, Hitomi will come to realize that love, desire, and intimacy require acceptance not only of idiosyncrasies but also of the delicate waltz between open and hidden secrets.

Animating each delicately rendered chapter in Kawakami's playful novel is Mr. Nakano himself, an original, entertaining, and enigmatic creation whose compulsive mannerisms, secretive love life, and impulsive behavior defy all expectations.]]> 224 Hiromi Kawakami kim 0 to-read 3.34 2005 The Nakano Thrift Shop
author: Hiromi Kawakami
name: kim
average rating: 3.34
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/09/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Setting Sun 194740
The story is told through the eyes of Kazuko, the unmarried daughter of a widowed aristocrat. Her search for self meaning in a society devoid of use for her forms the crux of Dazai’s novel. It is a sad story, and structurally is a novel very much within the confines of the Japanese take on the novel in a way reminiscent of authors such as Nobel Prize winner Yasunari Kawabata � the social interactions are peripheral and understated, nuances must be drawn, and for readers more used to Western novelistic forms this comes across as being rather wishy-washy.

Kazuko’s mother falls ill, and due to their financial circumstances they are forced to take a cottage in the countryside. Her brother, who became addicted to opium during the war is missing. When he returns, Kazuko attempts to form a liaison with the novelist Uehara. This romantic displacement only furthers to deepen her alienation from society.]]> 175 Osamu Dazai 0811200329 kim 0 to-read 4.00 1947 The Setting Sun
author: Osamu Dazai
name: kim
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1947
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/09/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>