Kay's bookshelf: all en-US Wed, 16 Apr 2025 07:54:53 -0700 60 Kay's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious]]> 216052746 Do you ever wish you had more faith, but struggle to make religious belief fit with modern assumptions about the world and human life? With a rare combination of empathy, open-mindedness, and persuasive argument, Ross Douthat offers a blueprint forthinkingone's way from doubt to belief.

As a columnist for theNew York Timeswho writes often about spiritual topics for a skeptical audience, Ross Douthat understands that many of us--whether we are agnostic, somewhat religious, or longtime believers--want to have more faith than we do. But we think we can't believe the way our ancestors did, knowing what we know now--can we?

With clear and straightforward arguments,Believeshows how religious belief makes sense of the order of the cosmos and our place within it, illuminates the mystery of consciousness, and explains the persistent reality of encounters with the supernatural.

Douthat argues that in light of what we know today it should be harder tonothave faith than to have it. With empathy, clarity, and rigor, Douthat

Why nonbelief requires ignoring what our reasoning faculties tell us about the worldHow modern scientific developments make a religious worldview more credible, not lessWhy it's entirely reasonable to believe in mystical and supernatural realitiesHow an open-minded religious quest should proceed amid the diversity of religious faithsHow Douthat's own Christianity is informed by his blueprint for belief

Highly relevant for our current moment,Believeoffers a pathway for thinking your way from doubt into belief, from uncertainty about our place in the universe into a confidence that we are here for a reason.]]> 240 Ross Douthat 0310367581 Kay 0 to-read 3.69 Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious
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]]> Hope: The Autobiography 220114692 A primeira autobiografia alguma vez escrita por um papa no ativo.

Um documento excecional, publicado no Jubileu de 2025, o dos «peregrinos de esperança».

Por vontade do Papa Francisco, este documento excecional deveria ter visto a luz apenas após a sua morte. Porém, o novo Jubileu da ç e as necessidades do tempo fizeram-no decidir difundir agora este precioso legado.

ç é a primeira autobiografia publicada por um papa na história. Uma autobiografia completa, cuja escrita demorou seis anos, que remonta ao início do século XX, com as raízes italianas e a emigração aventureira dos antepassados para a América Latina, desenvolvendo-se através da infância, dos entusiasmos e perturbações da juventude, a escolha vocacional, a maturidade, até ao seu pontificado e ao tempo presente.

Ao narrar as suas memórias com uma profunda força narrativa, Francisco aborda também as questões cruciais do pontificado e desenvolve com coragem, franqueza e profecia os temas mais importantes da guerra e paz (incluindo os conflitos na Ucrânia e no Médio Oriente), migrações, crise ambiental, política social, condição da mulher, sexualidade, desenvolvimento tecnológico, futuro da Igreja e das religiões.

Rica em revelações e reflexões iluminantes, é uma autobiografia humaníssima, comovente e capaz de fazer humor, que representa um testamento moral e espiritual destinado a fascinar os leitores de todo o mundo.

Um livro enriquecido com fotografias extraordinárias, incluindo algumas privadas e inéditas, provenientes do arquivo pessoal do Papa Francisco.]]> 320 Pope Francis 0593978773 Kay 0 to-read 4.28 Hope: The Autobiography
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]]> Stone Yard Devotional 168632462 A deeply moving novel about forgiveness, grief, and what it means to be 'good', from the award-winning author of The Natural Way of Things and The Weekend.

A woman abandons her city life and marriage to return to the place of her childhood, holing up in a small religious community hidden away on the stark plains of the Monaro. She does not believe in God, doesn't know what prayer is, and finds herself living this strange, reclusive life almost by accident.

As she gradually adjusts to the rhythms of monastic life, she finds herself turning again and again to thoughts of her mother, whose early death she can't forget. Disquiet interrupts this secluded life with three visitations. First comes a terrible mouse plague, each day signaling a new battle against the rising infestation. Second is the return of the skeletal remains of a sister who left the community decades before to minister to deprived women in Thailand - then disappeared, presumed murdered. Finally, a troubling visitor to the monastery pulls the narrator further back into her past.

With each of these disturbing arrivals, the woman faces some deep questions. Can a person be truly good? What is forgiveness? Is loss of hope a moral failure? And can the business of grief ever really be finished? A meditative and deeply moving novel from one of Australia's most acclaimed and best loved writers.

"Wood joins the ranks of writers such as Nora Ephron, Penelope Lively and Elizabeth Strout." THE GUARDIAN UK]]> 320 Charlotte Wood Kay 0 to-read 3.73 2023 Stone Yard Devotional
author: Charlotte Wood
name: Kay
average rating: 3.73
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]]> What Happened to Nina? 171793386
From the #1 internationally bestselling author of The Murder Rule comes an emotional novel of suspense about two families at war.

Nina and Simon are the perfect couple. Young, fun and deeply in love. Until they leave for a weekend at his family’s cabin in Vermont, and only Simon comes home.

WHAT HAPPENED TO NINA?

Nobody knows. Simon’s explanation about what happened in their last hours together doesn’t add up. Nina’s parents push the police for answers, and Simon’s parents rush to protect him. They hire expensive lawyers and a PR firm that quickly ramps up a vicious, nothing-is-off-limits media campaign.

HOW FAR WILL HIS FAMILY GO TO KEEP HIM SAFE?

Soon, facts are lost in a swirl of accusation and counter-accusation. Everyone chooses a side, and the story goes viral, fueled by armchair investigators and wild conspiracy theories and illustrated with pretty pictures taken from Nina’s social media accounts. Journalists descend on their small Vermont town, followed by a few obsessive "fans."

HOW FAR WILL HER FAMILY GO TO GET TO THE TRUTH?

Nina’s family is under siege, but they never lose sight of the only thing that really matters—finding their daughter. Out-gunned by Simon’s wealthy, powerful family, Nina’s parents recognize that if playing by the rules won’t get them anywhere, it’s time to break them.]]> 328 Dervla McTiernan Kay 0 to-read 4.05 2024 What Happened to Nina?
author: Dervla McTiernan
name: Kay
average rating: 4.05
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]]> Time of the Child 219561180 "The writing in this book is lyrical . . . a beautiful book that you will love.� -Good Morning America's #1 Favorite Book of the Year

"I am utterly obsessed with Niall Williams." -Ann Patchett, New York Times bestselling author of Tom Lake

"Made me laugh out loud and remember how to love.� -Margaret Renkl, The New York Times

From the author of This Is Happiness, a compassionate, life-affirming novel about the Christmas season that transforms the small Irish town of Faha.

Doctor Jack Troy was born and raised in Faha, but his responsibilities for the sick and his care for the dying mean he has always been set apart from the town. His eldest daughter, Ronnie, has grown up in her father's shadow, and remains there, having missed one chance at love � and passed up another offer of marriage from an unsuitable man.

But in the Advent season of 1962, as the town readies itself for Christmas, Ronnie and Doctor Troy's lives are turned upside down when a baby is left in their care. As the winter passes, father and daughter's lives, the understanding of their family, and their role in their community are changed forever.

Set over the course of one December in the same village as Williams' beloved This Is Happiness, Time of the Child is a tender return to Faha for readers who know its charms, and a heartwarming welcome to new readers entering for the very first time.]]> 299 Niall Williams 163973421X Kay 0 currently-reading 4.44 2024 Time of the Child
author: Niall Williams
name: Kay
average rating: 4.44
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]]> The Lost Letters of Aisling 200125574 A woman faces the past she fled in a heart-stirring novel about unforgettable love and indomitable courage by the Amazon Charts bestselling author of The Lighthouse Keeper.

Rainey’s grandmother makes a startling request: Take me home. To Ireland, the country she fled post–World War II. Though they’re inseparably close, Rainey knows few of her grandmother’s secrets. Until they arrive at Aisling—the majestic estate on the southern coast of Ireland where her grandmother was raised—and Rainey discovers a collection of seventy-year-old letters in a trunk.

Dublin, 1945. The Germans surrender, celebrants crowd the streets, and fourteen-year-old Evie meets her best friend, the spirited Harding McGovern. Years on, they are more like sisters when rumors begin that Harding works in the black market trade—a source of wealth that could give her a dream life in America but could also cause great danger. Evie is uncertain of the truth but will stand by Harding, whatever the cost.

As Rainey uses the letters to reunite her grandmother with the past, what unfolds is a never-forgotten story of family, friendship, and love, and the healing that comes from letting go of secrets.]]> 302 Cynthia Ellingsen Kay 0 currently-reading 4.32 2024 The Lost Letters of Aisling
author: Cynthia Ellingsen
name: Kay
average rating: 4.32
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]]> Solito 123001950
A young poet tells the inspiring story of hismigration from El Salvador to the United States at the age of nine in this“gripping memoir� (NPR) of bravery, hope, and finding family.

Finalist for the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction � One of the New York Public Library’s Ten Best Books of the Year

Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence and the PEN/Open Book Award

� I read Solito with my heart in my throat and did not burst into tears until the last sentence. What a person, what a writer, what a book. � —Emma Straub

“A riveting tale of perseverance and the lengths humans will go to help each other in times of struggle.”—Dave Eggers

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE The New York Times Book Review, NPR, The Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Vulture, She Reads, Kirkus Reviews

Trip. My parents started using that word about a year ago—“one day, you’ll take a trip to be with us. Like an adventure.�

Javier Zamora’s adventure is athree-thousand-mile journey from his small town in El Salvador, through Guatemala and Mexico, and acrossthe U.S. border.He will leave behindhis beloved aunt and grandparentsto reunite with a mother who left four years ago and a father he barely remembers. Traveling aloneamida group of strangers and a “coyote� hired to lead them to safety, Javierexpects histriptolast two short weeks.

At nine years old, all Javier can imagine is rushing into his parents� arms, snuggling in bed between them, and living under the same roof again. He cannot foresee the perilous boat trips, relentless desert treks, pointed guns, arrests and deceptions that await him; nor can he know that those two weeks will expand into two life-altering months alongside fellow migrants who will come to encircle him like an unexpected family.

A memoir as gripping as it is moving, Solito providesan immediate and intimate accountnot onlyof a treacherous and near-impossible journey, but alsoofthe miraculous kindness and love delivered at the most unexpected moments. Solito is JavierZamora’sstory, but it’s also the story of millions of others who had no choice but to leave home.]]> 416 Javier Zamora 0593498089 Kay 4 4.46 2022 Solito
author: Javier Zamora
name: Kay
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2022
rating: 4
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]]> Solito 62208466 A young poet tells the story of his harrowing migration from El Salvador to the United States at the age of nine in this memoir.

Trip. My parents started using that word about a year ago--"one day, you'll take a trip to be with us. Like an adventure."

Javier's adventure is a three-thousand-mile journey from his small town in El Salvador, through Guatemala and Mexico, and across the U.S. border. He will leave behind his beloved aunt and grandparents to reunite with a mother who left four years ago and a father he barely remembers. Traveling alone except for a group of strangers and a coyote hired to lead them to safety, Javier's trip is supposed to last two short weeks.

At nine years old, all Javier can imagine is rushing into his parents' arms, snuggling in bed between them, living under the same roof again. He does not see the perilous boat trips, relentless desert treks, pointed guns, arrests and deceptions that await him; nor can he know that those two weeks will expand into two life-altering months alongside a group of strangers who will come to encircle him like an unexpected family.]]> 386 Javier Zamora Kay 0 4.55 2022 Solito
author: Javier Zamora
name: Kay
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2022
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]]> The Tokyo Zodiac Murders 1321926 The Tokyo Zodiac Murders joins a new wave of Japanese murder mysteries being translated into English.]]> 252 Sōji Shimada 4925080814 Kay 0 to-read 3.93 1981 The Tokyo Zodiac Murders
author: Sōji Shimada
name: Kay
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1981
rating: 0
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]]> The Patron Saint of Liars 15957 352 Ann Patchett 1841150509 Kay 3 3.81 1992 The Patron Saint of Liars
author: Ann Patchett
name: Kay
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1992
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/03
date added: 2025/04/03
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]]> Walk the Blue Fields 2524702
A masterful portrait of a country wrestling with its past and of individuals eking out their futures, Walk the Blue Fields is a breathtaking collection from one of Ireland’s greatest talents, and a resounding articulation of all the yearnings of the human heart.]]> 168 Claire Keegan 0802170498 Kay 0 to-read 4.02 2007 Walk the Blue Fields
author: Claire Keegan
name: Kay
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2007
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]]> <![CDATA[The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett]]> 50358079 It's never too late to start living.

Infused with the emotional power ofMe Before Youand the irresistible charm ofEleanor Oliphant Is Completely FineandBe Frank with Me, a moving and joyous novel about an elderly woman ready to embrace death and the little girl who reminds her what it means to live.

Eudora Honeysett is done with this noisy, moronic world—all of it. She has witnessed the indignities and suffering of old age and has lived a full life. At eighty-five, she isn’t going to leave things to chance. Her end will be on her terms. With one call to a clinic in Switzerland, a plan is set in motion.

Then she meets ten-year-old Rose Trewidney, a whirling, pint-sized rainbow of color and sparkling cheer. All Eudora wants is to be left alone to set her affairs in order. Instead, she finds herself embarking on a series of adventures with the irrepressible Rose and their affable neighbor, the recently widowed Stanley—afternoon tea, shopping sprees, trips to the beach, birthday celebrations, pizza parties.

While the trio of unlikely BFFs grow closer and anxiously await the arrival of Rose’s new baby sister, Eudora is reminded of her own childhood—of losing her father during World War II and the devastating impact it had on her entire family. In reflecting on her past, Eudora realizes she must come to terms with what lies ahead.

But now that her joy for life has been rekindled, how can she possibly say goodbye?]]> 372 Annie Lyons 0063026066 Kay 0 to-read 4.26 2020 The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett
author: Annie Lyons
name: Kay
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2020
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]]> Shuggie Bain 61152572 Shuggie Bain is the unforgettable story of young Hugh "Shuggie" Bain, a sweet and lonely boy who spends his 1980s childhood in run-down public housing in Glasgow, Scotland. Thatcher's policies have put husbands and sons out of work, and the city's notorious drugs epidemic is waiting in the wings. Shuggie's mother Agnes walks a wayward path: she is Shuggie's guiding light but a burden for him and his siblings. She dreams of a house with its own front door while she flicks through the pages of the Freemans catalogue, ordering a little happiness on credit, anything to brighten up her grey life. Married to a philandering taxi-driver husband, Agnes keeps her pride by looking good--her beehive, make-up, and pearly-white false teeth offer a glamourous image of a Glaswegian Elizabeth Taylor. But under the surface, Agnes finds increasing solace in drink, and she drains away the lion's share of each week's benefits--all the family has to live on--on cans of extra-strong lager hidden in handbags and poured into tea mugs. Agnes's older children find their own ways to get a safe distance from their mother, abandoning Shuggie to care for her as she swings between alcoholic binges and sobriety. Shuggie is meanwhile struggling to somehow become the normal boy he desperately longs to be, but everyone has realized that he is "no right," a boy with a secret that all but him can see. Agnes is supportive of her son, but her addiction has the power to eclipse everyone close to her--even her beloved Shuggie.

A heartbreaking story of addiction, sexuality, and love, Shuggie Bain is an epic portrayal of a working-class family that is rarely seen in fiction. Recalling the work of Édouard Louis, Alan Hollinghurst, Frank McCourt, and Hanya Yanagihara, it is a blistering debut by a brilliant novelist who has a powerful and important story to tell.]]> Douglas Stuart Kay 0 to-read 4.26 2020 Shuggie Bain
author: Douglas Stuart
name: Kay
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2020
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]]> The Flower Sisters 195367844
Sure to resonate with fans of Daniel Woodrell, Donna Everhart, Ellen Marie Wiseman, and Jeannette Walls.

At birth, Violet and Rose Flowers were identical, save for a tiny bluish-purple mark gracing Violet’s slender neck. By nineteen, their temperaments distinguish them, as different as the flowers their mother named them for—Violet, wild and outgoing, and Rose, solitary and reserved. Still, they are each other’s world. Then, on a sweltering, terrible August night in 1928, an explosion rocks Lamb’s Dance Hall in Possum Flats, Missouri, engulfing it in flames, leaving one twin among the dozens dead, and her sister’s life forever changed.

Fifty years later, Daisy Flowers is dumped on her grandmother Rose’s doorstep for the summer. A bright, inquisitive fifteen-year-old, Daisy bargains her way into an internship at the local newspaper—where she learns of the mysterious long-ago tragedy and its connection to her family. Rose, now the local funeral home director, grows increasingly alarmed as her impulsive granddaughter delves into Possum Flats� history, determined to uncover the horrors and heroes of the fiery blast.

For a small town, Possum Flats holds a multitude of big secrets, some guarded by the living, some kept by the dead. And through Rose, Daisy, Dash—a preacher who found his calling that fateful night—and others, those ghosts gradually come into the light, forcing a reckoning at last.]]> 368 Michelle Collins Anderson 149674828X Kay 0 to-read 3.91 2024 The Flower Sisters
author: Michelle Collins Anderson
name: Kay
average rating: 3.91
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]]> The Autumn of Ruth Winters 205837964 In this heartwarming story about second acts and second chances, a no-nonsense retiree, very much set in her ways, must learn to adapt and make peace with her past in order to build a fulfilling future.

Ruth Winters is retired, widowed, and resigned to spending the rest of her life alone in her suburban home. She likes her routine and uses it to avoid having to spend time with other people. She probably wouldn’t call herself fulfilled, but it’s too late now to go chasing happiness.

Then three things happen at a beloved niece makes a big announcement, an old flame reaches out, and her estranged sister receives life-changing news. Ruth finds herself reconnecting with people she thought were long gone from her world, as she is forced to reconsider her expectations for this phase of her life.

None of this fits into Ruth’s routine—in fact, the whole thing just blows to bits. But when Ruth starts to pick up the pieces, she discovers that maybe it’s not too late to make something new after all.]]> 264 Marshall Fine 1662518331 Kay 0 to-read 4.08 2024 The Autumn of Ruth Winters
author: Marshall Fine
name: Kay
average rating: 4.08
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]]> The Story She Left Behind 214151359 Inspired by a true literary mystery, New York Times bestselling author of the mesmerizing The Secret Book of Flora Lea returns with the sweeping story of a legendary book, a lost mother, and a daughter’s search for them both.

In 1927, eight-year-old Clara Harrington’s magical childhood shatters when her mother, renowned author, Bronwyn Newcastle Fordham, disappears off the coast of South Carolina. Bronwyn stunned the world with a book written in an invented language that became a national sensation when she was just twelve years old. Her departure leaves behind not only a devoted husband and heartbroken daughter, but also the hope of ever translating the sequel to her landmark work. As the headlines focus on the missing author, Clara yearns for something far deeper and more her beautiful mother.

By 1952, Clara is an illustrator raising her own daughter, Wynnie. When a stranger named Charlie Jameson contacts her from London claiming to have discovered a handwritten dictionary of her mother’s lost language. Clara is skeptical. Compelled by the tragedy of her mother’s vanishing, she crosses the Atlantic with Wynnie only to arrive during one of London’s most deadly natural disasters—the Great Smog. With asthmatic Wynnie in peril, they escape the city with Charlie and find refuge in the Jameson’s family retreat nestled in the Lake District. It is there that Clara must find the courage to uncover the truth about her mother and the story she left behind.

Told in Patti Callahan Henry’s lyrical, enchanting prose, The Story She Left Behind is a captivating novel of mystery and family legacy that captures the profound longing for a mother and the evergreen allure of secrets.]]> 352 Patti Callahan Henry 1668011875 Kay 0 to-read 4.21 2025 The Story She Left Behind
author: Patti Callahan Henry
name: Kay
average rating: 4.21
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]]> The Diamond Eye 62990449 An alternative cover edition for this ASIN can be found here.

The New York Times bestselling author of The Rose Code returns with an unforgettable World War II tale of a quiet bookworm who becomes history's deadliest female sniper. Based on a true story.

In 1937 in the snowbound city of Kiev (now known as Kyiv), wry and bookish history student Mila Pavlichenko organizes her life around her library job and her young son--but Hitler's invasion of Ukraine and Russia sends her on a different path. Given a rifle and sent to join the fight, Mila must forge herself from studious girl to deadly sniper--a lethal hunter of Nazis known as Lady Death. When news of her three hundredth kill makes her a national heroine, Mila finds herself torn from the bloody battlefields of the eastern front and sent to America on a goodwill tour.

Still reeling from war wounds and devastated by loss, Mila finds herself isolated and lonely in the glittering world of Washington, DC--until an unexpected friendship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and an even more unexpected connection with a silent fellow sniper offer the possibility of happiness. But when an old enemy from Mila's past joins forces with a deadly new foe lurking in the shadows, Lady Death finds herself battling her own demons and enemy bullets in the deadliest duel of her life.

Based on a true story, The Diamond Eye is a haunting novel of heroism born of desperation, of a mother who became a soldier, of a woman who found her place in the world and changed the course of history forever.]]> 448 Kate Quinn Kay 4 4.41 2022 The Diamond Eye
author: Kate Quinn
name: Kay
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/14
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]]> When All Is Said 39863464 A tale of a single night. The story of a lifetime.

If you had to pick five people to sum up your life, who would they be? If you were to raise a glass to each of them, what would you say? And what would you learn about yourself, when all is said and done?

This is the story of Maurice Hannigan, who, over the course of a Saturday night in June, orders five different drinks at the Rainford House Hotel. With each he toasts a person vital to him: his doomed older brother, his troubled sister-in-law, his daughter of fifteen minutes, his son far off in America, and his late, lamented wife. And through these people, the ones who left him behind, he tells the story of his own life, with all its regrets and feuds, loves and triumphs.

Beautifully written, powerfully felt, When All Is Said promises to be the next great Irish novel.]]> 326 Anne Griffin 125020058X Kay 5 3.94 2019 When All Is Said
author: Anne Griffin
name: Kay
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/02
date added: 2025/03/12
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]]> <![CDATA[Cooking for Jeffrey: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook]]> 29539466 For America’s bestselling cookbook author Ina Garten there is no greater pleasure than cooking for the people she loves—and particularly for her husband, Jeffrey. She has been cooking for him ever since they were married forty-eight years ago, and the comforting, delicious meals they shared became the basis for her extraordinary career in food.Ina’s most personal cookbook yet, Cooking for Jeffrey is filled with the recipes Jeffrey and their friends request most often as well as charming stories from Ina and Jeffrey’s many years together. There are traditional dishes that she’s updated, such as Brisket with Onions and Leeks, and Tsimmes, a vegetable stew with carrots, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, and prunes, and new favorites, like Skillet-Roasted Lemon Chicken and Roasted Salmon Tacos. You’ll also find wonderful new salads, including Maple-Roasted Carrot Salad and Kale Salad with Pancetta and Pecorino. Desserts range from simple Apple Pie Bars to showstoppers like Vanilla Rum Panna Cotta with Salted Caramel. For the first time, Ina has included a chapter devoted to bread and cheese, with recipes and tips for creating the perfect cheese course. With options like Fig and Goat Cheese Bruschettas and Challah with Saffron, there’s something everyone will enjoy.From satisfying lunches to elegant dinners, here are the recipes Ina has tested over and over again, so you too can serve them with confidence to the people you love.]]> 242 Ina Garten Kay 4 4.25 2016 Cooking for Jeffrey: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook
author: Ina Garten
name: Kay
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/11
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]]> <![CDATA[The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human]]> 60321392
N amed a New York Times Notable Book and a Best Book of the Year by The Economist , Oprah Daily, BookPage, Book Riot, the New York Public Library, and more!

In The Song of the Cell , the extraordinary author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Emperor of All Maladies and the #1 New York Times bestseller The Gene “blends cutting-edge research, impeccable scholarship, intrepid reporting, and gorgeous prose into an encyclopedic study that reads like a literary page-turner� ( Oprah Daily ).

Mukherjee begins this magnificent story in the late 1600s, when a distinguished English polymath, Robert Hooke, and an eccentric Dutch cloth-merchant, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek looked down their handmade microscopes. What they saw introduced a radical concept that swept through biology and medicine, touching virtually every aspect of the two sciences, and altering both forever. It was the fact that complex living organisms are assemblages of tiny, self-contained, self-regulating units. Our organs, our physiology, our selves—hearts, blood, brains—are built from these compartments. Hooke christened them � cells. �

The discovery of cells—and the reframing of the human body as a cellular ecosystem—announced the birth of a new kind of medicine based on the therapeutic manipulations of cells. A hip fracture, a cardiac arrest, Alzheimer’s dementia, AIDS, pneumonia, lung cancer, kidney failure, arthritis, COVID pneumonia—all could be reconceived as the results of cells, or systems of cells, functioning abnormally. And all could be perceived as loci of cellular therapies.

Filled with writing so vivid, lucid, and suspenseful that complex science becomes thrilling, The Song of the Cell tells the story of how scientists discovered cells, began to understand them, and are now using that knowledge to create new humans. Told in six parts, and laced with Mukherjee’s own experience as a researcher, a doctor, and a prolific reader, The Song of the Cell is both panoramic and intimate—a masterpiece on what it means to be human.

“In an account both lyrical and capacious, Mukherjee takes us through an evolution of human from the seventeenth-century discovery that humans are made up of cells to our cutting-edge technologies for manipulating and deploying cells for therapeutic purposes� ( The New Yorker).]]> 473 Siddhartha Mukherjee 1982117354 Kay 0 to-read 4.25 2022 The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human
author: Siddhartha Mukherjee
name: Kay
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2022
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]]> Beautyland 127282939 From the acclaimed author of Parakeet, Marie-Helene Bertino’s Beautyland is a wise, tender novel about a woman who doesn't feel at home on Earth.

At the moment when Voyager 1 is launched into space carrying its famous golden record, a baby of unusual perception is born to a single mother in Philadelphia. Adina Giorno is tiny and jaundiced, but she reaches for warmth and light. As a child, she recognizes that she is different: She possesses knowledge of a faraway planet. The arrival of a fax machine enables her to contact her extraterrestrial relatives, beings who have sent her to report on the oddities of Earthlings.

For years, as she moves through the world and makes a life for herself among humans, she dispatches transmissions on the terrors and surprising joys of their existence. Then, at a precarious moment, a beloved friend urges Adina to share her messages with the world. Is there a chance she is not alone?

Marie-Helene Bertino’s Beautyland is a novel of startling originality about the fragility and resilience of life on our Earth and in our universe. It is a remarkable evocation of the feeling of being in exile at home, and it introduces a gentle, unforgettable alien for our times.]]> 327 Marie-Helene Bertino 0374109281 Kay 0 to-read 4.08 2024 Beautyland
author: Marie-Helene Bertino
name: Kay
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/03
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]]> How to Read a Book 62365896 A charming, deeply moving novel about second chances, unlikely friendships, and the life-changing power of sharing stories.

Our Reasons meet us in the morning and whisper to us at night. Mine is an innocent, unsuspecting, eternally sixty-one-year-old woman named Lorraine Daigle�

Violet Powell, a twenty-two-year-old from rural Abbott Falls, Maine, is being released from prison after serving twenty-two months for a drunk-driving crash that killed a local kindergarten teacher. Harriet Larson, a retired English teacher who runs the prison book club, is facing the unsettling prospect of an empty nest. Frank Daigle, a retired machinist, hasn’t yet come to grips with the complications of his marriage to the woman Violet killed.

When the three encounter each other one morning in a bookstore in Portland—Violet to buy the novel she was reading in the prison book club before her release, Harriet to choose the next title for the women who remain, and Frank to dispatch his duties as the store handyman—their lives begin to intersect in transformative ways.

How to Read a Book is an unsparingly honest and profoundly hopeful story about letting go of guilt, seizing second chances, and the power of books to change our lives. With the heart, wit, grace, and depth of understanding that has characterized her work, Monica Wood illuminates the decisions that define a life and the kindnesses that make life worth living. .]]> 288 Monica Wood 0063243679 Kay 0 to-read 4.21 2024 How to Read a Book
author: Monica Wood
name: Kay
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/02
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]]> <![CDATA[Home before Morning: The Story of an Army Nurse in Vietnam]]> 379415 Lynda Van Devanter was the girl next door, the cheerleader who went to Catholic schools, enjoyed sports, and got along well with her four sisters and parents. After high school she attended nursing school and then did something that would shatter her secure world for the rest of her life: in 1969, she joined the army and was shipped to Vietnam. When she arrived in Vietnam her idealistic view of the war vanished quickly. She worked long and arduous hours in cramped, ill-equipped, understaffed operating rooms. She saw friends die. Witnessing a war close-up, operating on soldiers and civilians whose injuries were catastrophic, she found the very foundations of her thinking changing daily.

After one traumatic year, she came home, a Vietnam veteran. Coming home was nearly as devastating as the time she spent in Asia. Nothing was the same -- including Lynda herself. Viewed by many as a murderer instead of a healer, she felt isolated and angry. The anger turned to depression; like many other Vietnam veterans she suffered from delayed stress syndrome. Working in hospitals brought back chilling scenes of hopelessly wounded soldiers. A marriage ended in divorce. The war that was fought physically halfway around the world had become a personal, internal battle.

Home before Morning is the story of a woman whose courage, stamina, and personal history make this a compelling autobiography. It is also the saga of others who went to war to aid the wounded and came back wounded -- physically and emotionally -- themselves. And, it is the true story of one person's triumphs: her understanding of, and coming to terms with, her destiny.

]]> 336 Lynda Van Devanter 1558492984 Kay 4 4.30 1983 Home before Morning: The Story of an Army Nurse in Vietnam
author: Lynda Van Devanter
name: Kay
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1983
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/26
date added: 2025/02/26
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Maria: A Novel of Maria von Trapp]]> 201494038 Maria von Trapp. You know the name and the iconic songs, but do you know her real story? This dramatic novel, based on the woman glamorized in The Sound of Music, brings Maria to life as never before.

In the 1950s, Oscar Hammerstein is asked to write the lyrics to a musical based on the life of a woman named Maria von Trapp. He’s intrigued to learn that she was once a novice who hoped to live quietly as an Austrian nun before her abbey sent her away to teach a widowed baron’s sickly child. What should have been a ten-month assignment, however, unexpectedly turned into a marriage proposal. And when the family was forced to flee their home to escape the Nazis, it was Maria who instructed them on how to survive using nothing but the power of their voices.

It’s an inspirational story, to be sure, and as half of the famous Rodgers & Hammerstein duo, Hammerstein knows it has big Broadway potential. Yet much of Maria’s life will have to be reinvented for the stage, and with the horrors of war still fresh in people’s minds, Hammerstein can’t let audiences see just how close the von Trapps came to losing their lives.

But when Maria sees the script that is supposedly based on her life, she becomes so incensed that she sets off to confront Hammerstein in person. Told that he’s busy, she is asked to express her concerns to his secretary, Fran, instead. The pair strike up an unlikely friendship as Maria tells Fran about her life, contradicting much of what will eventually appear in The Sound of Music.

A tale of love, loss, and the difficult choices that we are often forced to make, Maria is a powerful reminder that the truth is usually more complicated—and certainly more compelling—than the stories immortalized by Hollywood.]]> 304 Michelle Moran 0593499492 Kay 3 4.39 2024 Maria: A Novel of Maria von Trapp
author: Michelle Moran
name: Kay
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/22
date added: 2025/02/22
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]]> Rebecca 17899948 Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again...

The novel begins in Monte Carlo, where our heroine is swept off her feet by the dashing widower Maxim de Winter and his sudden proposal of marriage. Orphaned and working as a lady's maid, she can barely believe her luck. It is only when they arrive at his massive country estate that she realizes how large a shadow his late wife will cast over their lives--presenting her with a lingering evil that threatens to destroy their marriage from beyond the grave.

First published in 1938, this classic gothic novel is such a compelling read that it won the Anthony Award for Best Novel of the Century.]]> 449 Daphne du Maurier 0316323705 Kay 0 to-read 4.28 1938 Rebecca
author: Daphne du Maurier
name: Kay
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1938
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves: to-read
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]]> Whale Fall 195888522 A stunning debut from an award-winning writer, about loss, isolation, folklore, and the joy and dissonance of finding oneself by exploring life outside one’s community

In 1938, a dead whale washes up on the shores of remote Welsh island. For Manod, who has spent her whole life on the island, it feels like both a portent of doom and a symbol of what may lie beyond the island's shores. A young woman living with her father and her sister (to whom she has reluctantly but devotedly become a mother following the death of their own mother years prior), Manod can't shake her welling desire to explore life beyond the beautiful yet blisteringly harsh islands that her hardscrabble family has called home for generations.

The arrival of two English ethnographers who hope to study the island culture, then, feels like a boon to her—both a glimpse of life outside her community and a means of escape. The longer the ethnographers stay, the more she feels herself pulled towards them, reckoning with a sensual awakening inside herself, despite her misgivings that her community is being misconstrued and exoticized.

With shimmering prose tempered by sharp wit, Whale Fall tells the story of what happens when one person's ambitions threaten the fabric of a community, and what can happen when they are realized. O'Connor paints a portrait of a community and a woman on the precipice, forced to confront an outside world that seems to be closing in on them.]]> 224 Elizabeth O'Connor 0593700910 Kay 0 to-read 3.81 2024 Whale Fall
author: Elizabeth O'Connor
name: Kay
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/20
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]]> The House of the Spirits 9328
The House of the Spirits is an enthralling saga that spans decades and lives, twining the personal and the political into an epic novel of love, magic, and fate.]]> 448 Isabel Allende 0553383809 Kay 0 to-read 4.26 1982 The House of the Spirits
author: Isabel Allende
name: Kay
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1982
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/13
shelves: to-read
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]]> Frankie 210085071
Always just on the periphery, looking on, young Frankie is never quite sure enough of herself to take centre stage. But the outsider holds certain advantages, sees things others don't, can influence without drawing attention. And when the map has been lost, it's anyone's guess where you may end up, or the accidental choices you find you have made. Frankie discovers that life is not always the one we hope for, or the one others expect of us.

Travelling from post-war Ireland to the dazzling art scene of 1960s New York by way of London, Frankie is an immersive, decade-sweeping novel about love, bravery and what it means to live a significant life.]]> 291 Graham Norton Kay 0 to-read 4.31 2024 Frankie
author: Graham Norton
name: Kay
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/11
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]]> A Keeper 40934989
Forty years earlier, a young woman stumbles from a remote stone house, the night quiet except for the constant wind that encircles her as she hurries deeper into the darkness away from the cliffs and the sea. She has no sense of where she is going, only that she must keep on.
]]> 326 Graham Norton 1473664985 Kay 0 to-read 3.82 2018 A Keeper
author: Graham Norton
name: Kay
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/11
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]]> <![CDATA[The Friendship Bench: How Fourteen Grandmothers Inspired a Mental Health Revolution]]> 217485768 208 Dixon Chibanda MD 1955831025 Kay 0 to-read 4.33 The Friendship Bench: How Fourteen Grandmothers Inspired a Mental Health Revolution
author: Dixon Chibanda MD
name: Kay
average rating: 4.33
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/09
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]]> <![CDATA[The Tide Between Us: An Irish-Caribbean Story of Slavery & Emancipation (The O'Neill Trilogy Book 1)]]> 43527608 1821: Among the thousands of Irish deportees to the Caribbean British Colonies is a 10-year-old Irish boy, Art O’Neill. As an Indentured Servant on a sugar plantation in Jamaica, Art gradually acclimatises to the exotic country and the unfamiliar customs of the African slaves. When the new heirs to the plantation arrive from Ireland they resurrect the ghosts of brutal injustices against Art. He bides his time and hides his abhorrence from his new master by channelling his energy into his work. During those years he prospers, he acquires land, he sees his coloured children freed after emancipation as he takes us on a multi-generational historical saga.

Eventually Art is promised seven gold coins for seven decades of service. He doubts his master will part with the coins. The morning Art sets out to claim his gratuity, he ignores his sense of foreboding that he may not return home alive.

Ireland 1991: One hundred years later a skeleton is discovered beneath a fallen tree on the grounds of Lugdale Estate. By its side is a gold coin minted in 1870. Yseult, the owner of the estate, watches as events unfold, fearful of the long-buried truths that may emerge about her family’s past and its links to the slave trade. As the skeleton gives up its secrets, Yseult realises she too can no longer hide.

Inspired by the real story of 2,000 Irish children deported to Jamaica and the statistics that 25 percent of Jamaican citizens claim Irish ancestry. The Tide Between Us is a powerful novel documenting true historical events and the resilience of the human spirit.]]> 386 Olive Collins Kay 4 4.19 The Tide Between Us: An Irish-Caribbean Story of Slavery & Emancipation (The O'Neill Trilogy Book 1)
author: Olive Collins
name: Kay
average rating: 4.19
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/04
date added: 2025/02/04
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]]> <![CDATA[Lady in Waiting: My Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the Crown]]> 49945845 The Crown.

Anne Glenconner has been at the center of the royal circle from childhood, when she met and befriended the future Queen Elizabeth II and her sister, the Princess Margaret. Though the firstborn child of the 5th Earl of Leicester, who controlled one of the largest estates in England, as a daughter she was deemed "the greatest disappointment" and unable to inherit. Since then she has needed all her resilience to survive the vipers of court life with her sense of humor intact.

A unique witness to landmark moments in royal history, Maid of Honor at Queen Elizabeth's coronation, and a lady in waiting to Princess Margaret until her death in 2002, Anne's life has encompassed extraordinary drama and tragedy. In Lady in Waiting, she will share many intimate royal stories from her time as Princess Margaret's closest confidante as well as her own battle for survival: her broken-off first engagement on the basis of her "mad blood"; her 54-year marriage to the volatile, unfaithful Colin Tennant, Lord Glenconner, who left his fortune to a former servant; the death in adulthood of two of her sons; a third son she nursed back from a six-month coma following a horrific motorcycle accident. Through it all, Anne has carried on, traveling the world with the royal family, including visiting the White House, and developing the Caribbean island of Mustique as a safe harbor for the rich and famous-hosting Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Raquel Welch, and many other politicians, aristocrats, and celebrities.
]]> 326 Anne Glenconner 1529359066 Kay 0 to-read 3.95 2019 Lady in Waiting: My Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the Crown
author: Anne Glenconner
name: Kay
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/04
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]]> The Quiet Librarian 214175092 After the murder of her best friend, a librarian’s search for answers leads back to her own dark secrets in this sweeping novel about a woman transformed by war, family, vengeance, and love, from award-winning writer Allen Eskens.

Hana Babic is a quiet, middle-aged librarian in Minnesota whowants nothing more than to be left alone. But when a detective arrives with the news that her best friend has been murdered, Hana knows that something evil has come for her, a dark remnant of the past she and her friend had shared.

Thirty years before, Hana was someone Nura Divjak, a teenager growing up in the mountains of war-torn Bosnia—until Serbian soldiers arrived to slaughter her entire family before her eyes. The events of that day thrust Nura into the war, leading her to join a band of militia fighters, where she became not only a fierce warrior but a legend—the deadly Night Mora. But a shattering final act forced Nura to flee to the United States with a bounty on her head.

Now, someone is hunting Hana, and her friend has paid the price, leaving her eight-year-old grandson in Hana’s care. To protect the child without revealing her secret, Hana must again become the Night Mora—and hope she can find the killer before the past comes for them, too.]]> 320 Allen Eskens 0316566314 Kay 0 to-read 4.20 2025 The Quiet Librarian
author: Allen Eskens
name: Kay
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/29
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]]> <![CDATA[The Narrow Road to the Deep North]]> 17905709
Richard Flanagan's story � of Dorrigo Evans, an Australian doctor haunted by a love affair with his uncle's wife � journeys from the caves of Tasmanian trappers in the early twentieth century to a crumbling pre-war beachside hotel, from a Thai jungle prison to a Japanese snow festival, from the Changi gallows to a chance meeting of lovers on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Taking its title from 17th-century haiku poet Basho's travel journal, The Narrow Road to the Deep North is about the impossibility of love. At its heart is one day in a Japanese slave labour camp in August 1943. As the day builds to its horrific climax, Dorrigo Evans battles and fails in his quest to save the lives of his fellow POWs, a man is killed for no reason, and a love story unfolds.]]> 467 Richard Flanagan Kay 0 to-read 4.01 2013 The Narrow Road to the Deep North
author: Richard Flanagan
name: Kay
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/29
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]]> Prophet Song 158875813
On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find the GNSB on her step. Two officers from Ireland’s newly formed secret police are here to interrogate her husband, a trade unionist.

Ireland is falling apart. The country is in the grip of a government turning towards tyranny and Eilish can only watch helplessly as the world she knew disappears. When first her husband and then her eldest son vanish, Eilish finds herself caught within the nightmare logic of a collapsing society.

How far will she go to save her family? And what � or who � is she willing to leave behind?

Exhilarating, terrifying and propulsive, Prophet Song is a work of breathtaking originality, offering a devastating vision of a country at war and a deeply human portrait of a mother’s fight to hold her family together.]]> 259 Paul Lynch Kay 0 to-read 4.03 2023 Prophet Song
author: Paul Lynch
name: Kay
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/29
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]]> A Fine Balance 5211
The time is 1975. The place is an unnamed city by the sea. The government has just declared a State of Emergency, in whose upheavals four strangers--a spirited widow, a young student uprooted from his idyllic hill station, and two tailors who have fled the caste violence of their native village--will be thrust together, forced to share one cramped apartment and an uncertain future.

As the characters move from distrust to friendship and from friendship to love, A Fine Balance creates an enduring panorama of the human spirit in an inhuman state.]]> 603 Rohinton Mistry 140003065X Kay 0 to-read 4.38 1995 A Fine Balance
author: Rohinton Mistry
name: Kay
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1995
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/29
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]]> Brightly Shining 208580627 192 Ingvild H. Rishøi 0802163491 Kay 0 to-read 3.67 2021 Brightly Shining
author: Ingvild H. Rishøi
name: Kay
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves: to-read
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]]> On Mystic Lake 217436 448 Kristin Hannah Kay 0 to-read 3.88 1999 On Mystic Lake
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Kay
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Best of Us 33036180
Before they met, both had believed they were done with marriage, and even after they married, Joyce resolved that no one could alter her course of determined independence. Then, just after their one-year wedding anniversary, her new husband was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. During the nineteen months that followed, as they battled his illness together, she discovered for the first time what it really meant to be a couple--to be a true partner and to have one.

This is their story. Charting the course through their whirlwind romance, a marriage cut short by tragedy, and Joyce's return to singleness on new terms, The Best of Us is a heart-wrenching, ultimately life-affirming reflection on coming to understand true love through the experience of great loss.]]> 448 Joyce Maynard 1635570344 Kay 0 to-read 4.06 2017 The Best of Us
author: Joyce Maynard
name: Kay
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/25
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]]> <![CDATA[Eddie Winston Is Looking for Love]]> 203680931 The author of the beloved international hit The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot returns with a funny, uplifting story about the power of friendship and finding love in unexpected places.

Eddie Winston is 90 years old. He has lived and loved, but he has never been kissed.

A true gentleman and incurable romantic, Eddie spends his days volunteering at a charity shop, where he sorts through the donations of the living and the dead, preserving letters and tokens of love. It is here that he meets Bella, a troubled young woman who, at 24 years old, has just lost the love of her life.

When Bella learns that Eddie is yet to have his first kiss, she resolves to help Eddie Winston finally find love, sparking an adventure that will take them to unexpected places and, they hope, bring Eddie Winston to the moment he has waited for all his life.

A tale of friendship and kindness that reminds us that those we love are never forgotten and it is never too late to try again.]]> 304 Marianne Cronin 0063383519 Kay 0 to-read 4.31 2024 Eddie Winston Is Looking for Love
author: Marianne Cronin
name: Kay
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/23
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]]> Still Life 57694740 464 Sarah Winman 0593330773 Kay 4 4.26 2021 Still Life
author: Sarah Winman
name: Kay
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/19
date added: 2025/01/19
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]]> <![CDATA[The Book of Life (All Souls, #3)]]> 16054217 The #1 New York Times bestselling series finale and sequel to A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night

Bringing the magic and suspense of the All Souls Trilogy to a deeply satisfying conclusion, this highly anticipated finale went straight to #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. In The Book of Life, Diana and Matthew time-travel back from Elizabethan London to make a dramatic return to the present—facing new crises and old enemies. At Matthew’s ancestral home, Sept-Tours, they reunite with the beloved cast of characters from A Discovery of Witches—with one significant exception. But the real threat to their future has yet to be revealed, and when it is, the search for Ashmole 782 and its missing pages takes on even more urgency.]]> 561 Deborah Harkness 0670025593 Kay 0 to-read 4.15 2014 The Book of Life (All Souls, #3)
author: Deborah Harkness
name: Kay
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/17
shelves: to-read
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]]> Beautiful Ugly 211004123 The million-copy bestselling Queen of Twists Alice Feeney returns with a gripping and deliciously dark thriller about marriage. . .
. . . and revenge.

Author Grady Green is having the worst best day of his life.

Grady calls his wife to share some exciting news as she is driving home. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he eventually finds her car by the cliff edge the headlights are on, the driver door is open, her phone is still there. . . but his wife has disappeared.

A year later, Grady is still overcome with grief and desperate to know what happened to Abby. He can’t sleep, and he can’t write, so he travels to a tiny Scottish island to try to get his life back on track. Then he sees the impossible � a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife.

Wives think their husbands will change but they don’t.
Husbands think their wives won’t change but they do.]]> 306 Alice Feeney 125033778X Kay 0 to-read 3.64 2025 Beautiful Ugly
author: Alice Feeney
name: Kay
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[O Come Ye Back to Ireland: Our First Year in County Clare]]> 202565
"Their tale is a delightful romance."� The New York Times Book Review]]> 233 Niall Williams 0939149222 Kay 0 3.95 1987 O Come Ye Back to Ireland: Our First Year in County Clare
author: Niall Williams
name: Kay
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1987
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/11
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]]> Four Letters of Love 49168 352 Niall Williams 0330352695 Kay 0 to-read 3.93 1997 Four Letters of Love
author: Niall Williams
name: Kay
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1997
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Murders in Great Diddling (Berit Gardner #1)]]> 200174240
The small, rundown village of Great Diddling is full of stories—author Berit Gardner can feel it. The way the villagers avoid outsiders, the furtive stares and whispers in the presence of newcomers� Berit can sense the edge of a story waiting to be unraveled, and she's just the person to do it. In fact, with a book deadline looming over her and no manuscript (not even the idea for a manuscript, truth be told), Berit doesn't just want this story. She needs it.

Then, while attending a village tea party, Berit becomes part of the action herself. An explosion in the library of the village's grand manor kills a local man, and the resulting investigation and influx of outsiders sends the quiet, rundown community into chaos. The residents of Great Diddling, each one more eccentric and interesting than any character Berit could have invented, rewrite their own narrative and transform the death of one of their own from a tragedy into a new beginning. Taking advantage of Great Diddling's new notoriety, the villagers band together to start a book and murder festival designed to bring desperately-needed tourists to their town. What they couldn't have predicted is how the new story they've begun to tell will change all their lives forever.]]> 392 Katarina Bivald 1728295769 Kay 0 to-read 3.60 2024 The Murders in Great Diddling (Berit Gardner #1)
author: Katarina Bivald
name: Kay
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Curious Case of the Village in the Moonlight]]> 152678453 Saint-Paul Mental Asylum, France, June 1889

Newly admitted patient Vincent Van Gogh watched as the first stars of what would become The Starry Night blinked to life. There was the half-moon, creeping up from behind the hills. The wind rose with such splendid force, he could almost see it. There was the sleepy village, colored with candlelight.

In that village lived a lamplighter. That notorious starry night would be his last one on the job. The town was scheduled to be wired with a new and innovative technology called ‘electricity� the following day. The lamplighter began his last night of work at the village tavern during ‘green hour� � an absinthe-drenched celebration in his honor. Green hour would transform the night from familiar to fantastical, with the village street lamps mysteriously vanishing. The lamplighter is swept away on a wonderfully strange adventure to find and light the lost lamps, one that will take him from the depths of wish-filled rivers to the heights of the star-filled sky. Along the way, the lamplighter finds help from a curious cast of characters including the man on the moon, an ages-old cypress tree, and the wind itself. It will take all of them to find the lost lamps, and a lost love.

From author of the highly acclaimed Fairytale Chicago of Francesca Finnegan comes another thought-provoking and unconventional fantasy novella, sure to help readers rediscover the stars.]]> 108 Steve Wiley 1735304662 Kay 0 4.36 The Curious Case of the Village in the Moonlight
author: Steve Wiley
name: Kay
average rating: 4.36
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/06
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]]> Drinker of Ink 199485037
“I only ever talk to this journal. Is there an alternate universe? Another planet? Please could you beam me up, Holy Father?�

Paris-born Vivienne Lebrun longs for a different life. One where she doesn’t attend college three thousand miles away from her family in New York City. A life where she is sophisticated and has kissed many men, both standing up and sitting down, like the lovers in Rodin’s sculpture. In that life, she would skip her final year of school and start writing books and working at a New York bakery. And her French mother wouldn’t (possibly, maybe) be dealing with the return of cancer.

In her real life, all Vivienne can do is obsessively catalog her longings in her journal. But as a new semester begins, she enrolls in a poetry class taught by Peter Breznik, a handsome Yugoslavian graduate instructor. In a heartbeat, she’s taken by his spell-casting blue eyes, his almost-smile, and his romantically-worn canvas satchel. Soon—though Vivienne suspects she’s stumbled into a dream—Peter is talking to her in chance library encounters about poems, future plans, and his violently unraveling country. And Vivienne is not just writing her fantasies, but wondering if she might (possibly, maybe) be singled out by the universe to live one.

Until struggles intensify for both their families—Vivienne’s mother’s health, Peter’s brother’s recklessness in war-torn Croatia—and they are pulled by demands beyond their control. Through distance and heartbreak, can Vivienne and Peter find one another and choose the life they had dreamed of together?]]> 331 Shannon Castleton Kay 0 to-read 4.49 2024 Drinker of Ink
author: Shannon Castleton
name: Kay
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/06
shelves: to-read
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]]> Crow Mary 62918680
In 1872, sixteen-year-old Goes First, a Crow Native woman, marries Abe Farwell, a white fur trader. He gives her the name Mary, and they set off on the long trip to his trading post in the Cypress Hills of Saskatchewan, Canada. Along the way, she finds a fast friend in a Métis named Jeannie; makes a lifelong enemy in a wolfer named Stiller; and despite learning a dark secret of Farwell’s past, falls in love with her husband.

The winter trading season passes peacefully. Then, on the eve of their return to Montana, a group of drunken whiskey traders slaughters forty Nakota—despite Farwell’s efforts to stop them. Mary, hiding from the hail of bullets, sees the murderers, including Stiller, take five Nakota women back to their fort. She begs Farwell to save them, and when he refuses, Mary takes two guns, creeps into the fort, and saves the women from certain death. Thus, she sets off a whirlwind of colliding cultures that brings out the worst and best in the cast of unforgettable characters and pushes the love between Farwell and Crow Mary to the breaking point.

Crow Mary sweeps across decades and the landscape of the upper West and Canada, showcasing the beauty of the natural world, while at the same time probing the intimacies of a marriage and one woman’s heart.]]> 348 Kathleen Grissom 1476748470 Kay 0 to-read 4.28 2023 Crow Mary
author: Kathleen Grissom
name: Kay
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/04
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]]> <![CDATA[The Vixen and the Vet (A Modern Fairytale, #1)]]> 35724645 Beauty and the Beast, Savannah Carmichael, betrayed by an unreliable source, returns to her hometown of Danvers, Virginia with her once-promising journalism career in ruins. Given the opportunity to get back in the game by writing a patriotic human interest piece, Savannah turns her attention to the town hermit, Asher Lee, a wounded veteran who returned to Danvers eight years ago, and hasn’t been seen since.

After an IED explosion in Afghanistan took Asher’s hand and disfigured half of his face, he's lived a quiet life on the outskirts of Danvers where the locals respect his privacy…that is, until Savannah Carmichael comes calling in a borrowed sundress with a plate of homemade brownies. When Asher agrees to be interviewed by Savannah, he starts feeling things for the beautiful reporter that he hasn’t felt in years.

Misfits in small-town Danvers, Savannah and Asher create a bond right away, touching each other’s hearts in ways neither thought possible. When a terrible mistake threatens to drive them apart, they’ll have to decide if the love they found in one another’s arms is strong enough to fight for their hard-won happily ever after.



The Vixen and the Vet is part of the a modern fairytale collection, which will include five standalone novels:

The Vixen and the Vet (Beauty & the Beast) - available now
Never Let You Go (Hansel & Gretel) - available now
Ginger's Heart (Little Red Riding Hood) - available March 22, 2016
Don't Speak (The Little Mermaid) - available 2017
Swan Song (The Ugly Duckling) � available 2017/18

Librarian's Note: This is an alternate/new cover for ASIN B00L19SVQ4]]> 295 Katy Regnery Kay 0 to-read 4.01 2014 The Vixen and the Vet (A Modern Fairytale, #1)
author: Katy Regnery
name: Kay
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/03
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]]> Mists of the Serengeti 33143435 Winner, 2017 Indie Reader Discovery Awards, Fiction

Once in Africa, I kissed a king...

"And just like that, in an old red barn at the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro, I discovered the elusive magic I had only ever glimpsed between the pages of great love stories. It fluttered around me like a newborn butterfly and settled in a corner of my heart. I held my breath, afraid to exhale for fear it would slip out, never to be found again.�

When a bomb explodes in a mall in East Africa, its aftershocks send two strangers on a collision course that neither one sees coming.

Jack Warden, a divorced coffee farmer in Tanzania, loses his only daughter. An ocean away, in the English countryside, Rodel Emerson loses her only sibling.

Two ordinary people, bound by a tragic afternoon, set out to achieve the extraordinary, as they make three stops to rescue three children across the vast plains of the Serengeti—children who are worth more dead than alive.

But even if they beat the odds, another challenge looms at the end of the line. Can they survive yet another loss—this time of a love that’s bound to slip through their fingers, like the mists that dissipate in the light of the sun?

“Sometimes you come across a rainbow story—one that spans your heart. You might not be able to grasp it or hold on to it, but you can never be sorry for the color and magic it brought.�

A blend of romance and women’s fiction, Mists of The Serengeti is inspired by true events and contains emotional triggers, including the death of a child. Not recommended for sensitive readers. Standalone, contemporary fiction.]]> 360 Leylah Attar 198805401X Kay 0 to-read 4.42 2017 Mists of the Serengeti
author: Leylah Attar
name: Kay
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/03
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]]> The Space Between Us 39706724 352 Thrity Umrigar Kay 4 4.18 2005 The Space Between Us
author: Thrity Umrigar
name: Kay
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/01/01
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]]> The Secrets Between Us 35959168 Bhima, the unforgettable main character of Thrity Umrigar’s beloved national bestseller The Space Between Us , returns in this triumphant sequel—a poignant and compelling novel in which the former servant struggles against the circumstances of class and misfortune to forge a new path for herself and her granddaughter in modern India. Poor and illiterate, Bhima had faithfully worked for the Dubash family, an upper-middle-class Parsi household, for more than twenty years. Yet after courageously speaking the truth about a heinous crime perpetrated against her own family, the devoted servant was cruelly fired. The sting of that dismissal was made more painful coming from Sera Dubash, the temperamental employer who had long been Bhima’s only confidante. A woman who has endured despair and loss with stoicism, Bhima must now find some other way to support herself and her granddaughter, Maya. Bhima’s fortunes take an unexpected turn when her path intersects with Parvati, a bitter, taciturn older woman. The two acquaintances soon form a tentative business partnership, selling fruits and vegetables at the local market. As they work together, these two women seemingly bound by fate grow closer, each confessing the truth about their lives and the wounds that haunt them. Discovering her first true friend, Bhima pieces together a new life, and together, the two women learn to stand on their own. A dazzling story of gender, strength, friendship, and second chances, The Secrets Between Us is a powerful and perceptive novel that brilliantly evokes the complexities of life in modern India and the harsh realities faced by women born without privilege as they struggle to survive.]]> 368 Thrity Umrigar 0062442201 Kay 0 to-read 4.48 2018 The Secrets Between Us
author: Thrity Umrigar
name: Kay
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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]]> The Stolen Queen 211025454 From New York Times bestselling author Fiona Davis, an utterly addictive new novel that will transport you from New York City’s most glamorous party to the labyrinth streets of Cairo and back.

Egypt, 1936: When anthropology student Charlotte Cross is offered a coveted spot on an archaeological dig in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, she leaps at the opportunity. But after an unbearable tragedy strikes, Charlotte knows her future will never be the same.

New York City, 1978: Eighteen-year-old Annie Jenkins is thrilled when she lands an opportunity to work for iconic former Vogue fashion editor Diana Vreeland, who’s in the midst of organizing the famous Met Gala, hosted at the museum and known across the city as the “party of the year.� Though Annie soon realizes she’ll have her work cut out for her, scrambling to meet Diana’s capricious demands and exacting standards.

Meanwhile, Charlotte, now leading a quiet life as the associate curator of the Met’s celebrated Department of Egyptian Art, wants little to do with the upcoming gala. She’s consumed with her research on Hathorkare—a rare female pharaoh dismissed by most other Egyptologists as unimportant.

That is, until the night of the gala. When one of the Egyptian art collection’s most valuable artifacts goes missing . . . and there are signs Hathorkare’s legendary curse might be reawakening.

As Annie and Charlotte team up to search for the missing antiquity, a desperate hunch leads the unlikely duo to one place Charlotte swore she’d never return: Egypt. But if they’re to have any hope of finding the artifact, Charlotte will need to confront the demons of her past—which may mean leading them both directly into danger.]]> 352 Fiona Davis 0593474279 Kay 0 to-read 3.93 2025 The Stolen Queen
author: Fiona Davis
name: Kay
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife]]> 204158999 For readers of Remarkably Bright Creatures and A Man Called Ove, a warm, life-affirming debut about a zany case of mistaken identity that allows a lonely old man one last chance to be part of a family.

‘Would you mind terribly, old boy, if I borrowed the rest of your life? I promise I’ll take excellent care of it.'

Frederick Fife was born with an extra helping of kindness in his heart. If he borrowed your car, he’d return it washed with a full tank of gas. The problem is there’s nobody left in Fred’s life to borrow from. At eighty-two, he’s desperately lonely, broke, and on the brink of homelessness. But Fred’s luck changes when, in a bizarre case of mistaken identity, he takes the place of grumpy Bernard Greer at the local nursing home. Now he has warm meals in his belly and a roof over his head—as long as his poker face is in better shape than his prostate and that his look-alike never turns up.

Denise Simms is stuck breathing the same disappointing air again and again. A middle-aged mom and caregiver at Bernard's facility, her crumbling marriage and daughter's health concerns are suffocating her joy for life. Wounded by her two-faced husband, she vows never to let a man deceive her again.

As Fred walks in Bernard’s shoes, he leaves a trail of kindness behind him, fueling Denise's suspicions about his true identity. When unexpected truths are revealed, Fred and Denise rediscover their sense of purpose and learn how to return a broken life to mint condition.

Bittersweet and remarkably perceptive, The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife is a hilarious, feel-good, clever novel about grief, forgiveness, redemption, and finding family.]]> 336 Anna Johnston 0063397293 Kay 0 to-read 4.28 2024 The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife
author: Anna Johnston
name: Kay
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/30
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]]> <![CDATA[An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s]]> 196585876 An Unfinished Love A Personal History of the 1960s by Doris Kearns Goodwin, one of America’s most beloved historians, artfully weaves together biography, memoir, and history. She takes you along on the emotional journey she and her husband, Richard (Dick) Goodwin embarked upon in the last years of his life.

Dick and Doris Goodwin were married for forty-two years and married to American history even longer. In his twenties, Dick was one of the brilliant young men of John F. Kennedy’s New Frontier. In his thirties he both named and helped design Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society and was a speechwriter and close advisor to Robert Kennedy. Doris Kearns was a twenty-four-year-old graduate student when selected as a White House Fellow. She worked directly for Lyndon Johnson and later assisted on his memoir.

Over the years, with humor, anger, frustration, and in the end, a growing understanding, Dick and Doris had argued over the achievements and failings of the leaders they served and observed, debating the progress and unfinished promises of the country they both loved.

The Goodwins� last great adventure involved finally opening the more than three hundred boxes of letters, diaries, documents, and memorabilia that Dick had saved for more than fifty years. They soon realized they had before them an unparalleled personal time capsule of the 1960s, illuminating public and private moments of a decade when individuals were powered by the conviction they could make a difference; a time, like today, marked by struggles for racial and economic justice, a time when lines were drawn and loyalties tested.

Their expedition gave Dick’s last years renewed purpose and determination. It gave Doris the opportunity to connect and reconnect with participants and witnesses of pivotal moments of the 1960s. And it gave them both an opportunity to make fresh assessments of the central figures of the time—John F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy, and especially Lyndon Johnson, who greatly impacted both their lives. The voyage of remembrance brought unexpected discoveries, forgiveness, and the renewal of old dreams, reviving the hope that the youth of today will carry forward this unfinished love story with America.]]> 480 Doris Kearns Goodwin 1982108665 Kay 0 to-read 4.53 2024 An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s
author: Doris Kearns Goodwin
name: Kay
average rating: 4.53
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> Havoc 209594864 In the vein of The Bad Seed comes a twisty, atmospheric psychological suspense about a meddlesome elderly guest at a decadent luxury hotel who believes she has left her problematic past behind, until she decides to interfere in the lives of a young mother and her eight-year-old son, and finally meets her wicked match.

The war between age and youth has never been so vicious.

Eighty-one-year-old widow Maggie Burkhardt came to the Royal Karnak to escape. But not in quite the same way as most other guests who are relaxing at this threadbare luxury hotel on the banks of the Nile. Maggie, a compulsive fixer of other people’s lives, may have found herself in hot water at her last hotel in Switzerland and just might have needed to get out of there fast... But here at the Royal Karnak, under the hot Saharan sun, she has a comfortable suite, a loyal confidante in the hotel manager, Ahmed, and a handful of sympathetic friends, similar “long-termers� who understand her still-vivid grief for her late husband, Peter. Here, she is merely the sweet old lady in Room 309.

One morning, however, Maggie notices a new arrival at a mournful-looking young mother named Tess and her impish eight-year-old, Otto. Eager to help, Maggie invites them into her world. But it isn’t long before Maggie realizes that in her longing to be a part of their family, she has let in an enemy much stronger than she bargained for. In scrawny, homely Otto, Maggie Burkhardt has finally met her match.]]> 256 Christopher Bollen 0063378892 Kay 0 to-read 3.58 2024 Havoc
author: Christopher Bollen
name: Kay
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/18
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]]> <![CDATA[The Shape of Water (Inspector Montalbano, #1)]]> 163166 The Shape of Water is the first in Andrea Camilleri's wry, brilliantly compelling Sicilian crime series, featuring Inspector Montalbano.

The goats of Vigàta once grazed on the trash-strewn site still known as the Pasture. Now local enterprise of a different sort flourishes: drug dealers and prostitutes of every flavour. But their discreet trade is upset when two employees of the Splendour Refuse Collection Company discover the body of engineer Silvio Luparello, one of the local movers and shakers, apparently deceased in flagrante at the Pasture. The coroner's verdict is death from natural causes - refreshingly unusual for Sicily.

But Inspector Salvo Montalbano, as honest as he is streetwise and as scathing to fools and villains as he is compassionate to their victims, is not ready to close the case - even though he's being pressured by Vigàta's police chief, judge, and bishop.

Picking his way through a labyrinth of high-comedy corruption, delicious meals, vendetta firepower, and carefully planted false clues, Montalbano can be relied on, whatever the cost, to get to the heart of the matter.

The Shape of Water is followed by the second in this phenomenal series, The Terracotta Dog.

]]> 224 Andrea Camilleri 0142004715 Kay 0 to-read 3.73 1994 The Shape of Water (Inspector Montalbano, #1)
author: Andrea Camilleri
name: Kay
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1994
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/18
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]]> Pearly Everlasting 205086340
New Brunswick, 1934. When a cook in a logging camp finds an orphaned baby bear, he brings it home to his wife, who names the cub Bruno and raises him alongside her newborn daughter, Pearly Everlasting.

During the Great Depression, amidst severe poverty and dangerous work conditions, Pearly’s family and the woodsmen form a close-knit community that embraces the tame, young bear in their camp.

But when a new camp supervisor—who increasingly endangers the lives of the loggers for profit—arrives, he is less accepting of Bruno. When the supervisor is found dead, Bruno is blamed, and soon after is kidnapped and sold to an animal trader. Pearly, now a teenager, has no choice but to find Bruno and sets off on a hazardous solo journey through the forest—her first trip to “the Outside”—to rescue him.

To make her way home again, Pearly will have to tramp more than fifty miles through ice and snow, elude the malevolent spirit of Jack in the Dark and confront the modern-day cruelty of villagers fearful of her family’s way of life. Over those harrowing miles, Pearly will discover what it really means to be family to a bear.]]> 352 Tammy Armstrong 0063396149 Kay 0 to-read 3.90 2024 Pearly Everlasting
author: Tammy Armstrong
name: Kay
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/15
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]]> The Boyfriend 208503280 She's looking for the perfect man. He's looking for the perfect victim.

Sydney Shaw, like every single woman in New York, has terrible luck with dating. She’s seen it men who lie in their dating profile, men who stick her with the dinner bill, and worst of all, men who can't shut up about their mothers. But finally, she hits the jackpot.

Her new boyfriend is utterly perfect. He's charming, handsome, and works as a doctor at a local hospital. Sydney is swept off her feet.

Then the brutal murder of a young woman―the latest in a string of deaths across the coast―confounds police. The primary suspect? A mystery man who dates his victims before he kills them.

Sydney should feel safe. After all, she is dating the guy of her dreams. But she can’t shake her own suspicions that the perfect man may not be as perfect as he seems. Because someone is watching her every move, and if she doesn’t get to the truth, she’ll be the killer’s next victim...

A dark story about obsession and the things we’ll do for love, #1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden proves that crimes of passion are often the bloodiest…]]> 368 Freida McFadden 1728296226 Kay 0 to-read 3.95 2024 The Boyfriend
author: Freida McFadden
name: Kay
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/13
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]]> <![CDATA[White Nights (Shetland Island, #2)]]> 20805751
Raven Black received crime fiction’s highest monetary honor, the Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award. Now Detective Jimmy Perez is back in an electrifying sequel.

It’s midsummer in the Shetland Islands, the time of the white nights, when birds sing at midnight and the sun never sets. Artist Bella Sinclair throws an elaborate party to launch an exhibition of her work at The Herring House, a gallery on the beach.

The party ends in farce when one the guests, a mysterious Englishman, bursts into tears and claims not to know who he is or where he’s come from. The following day the Englishman is found hanging from a rafter, and Detective Jimmy Perez is convinced that the man has been murdered. He is reinforced in this belief when Roddy, Bella’s musician nephew, is murdered, too.

But the detective’s relationship with Fran Hunter may have clouded his judgment, for this is a crazy time of the year when night blurs into day and nothing is quite as it seems.

A stunning second installment in the acclaimed Shetland Island Quartet, White Nights is sure to garner American raves for international sensation Ann Cleeves.]]> 416 Ann Cleeves Kay 0 currently-reading 4.29 2008 White Nights (Shetland Island, #2)
author: Ann Cleeves
name: Kay
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/12
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]]> The Overstory 40180098 The Overstory is a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of - and paean to - the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, Richard Powers’s twelfth novel unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. There is a world alongside ours—vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe.

A New York Times Bestseller.]]> 502 Richard Powers 039335668X Kay 0 to-read 4.10 2018 The Overstory
author: Richard Powers
name: Kay
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/11
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]]> <![CDATA[The Small and the Mighty: Twelve Unsung Americans Who Changed the Course of History, from the Founding to the Civil Rights Movement]]> 203956674 America’s favorite government teacher offers thrilling, heartfelt stories of ordinary American heroes.Most pundits and historians sell a dangerously naïve version of the American story—either praising its most consequential figures uncritically or criticizing them unfairly.Sharon McMahon believes the truth is more human. In her debut book The Small and the Mighty, she tells the inpiring stories of twelve Americans--regular people with human foibles--whose extraordinary heroism in the face of mounting trials created the character of our country.With the same clarity and candor that's earned her millions of fans, McMahon follows the daughter of formerly enslaved parents who sparked a reformation in Black education, a Japanese immigrant who nearly died in combat and became a consequential Senator, and even the electrician who saved her husband’s life. Her unforgettable prose and meticulous research tell the story of America from the perspective of the unsung heroes whose devotion to their country will restore your faith in the American dream.The portraits of our nation’s most improbable champions, innovators, and rebels in this book celebrate the United States and reveal our common humanity. The Small and the Mighty is the encouragement we all need in an age of doomscrolling and division.]]> 320 Sharon McMahon 0593541677 Kay 0 to-read 4.45 2024 The Small and the Mighty: Twelve Unsung Americans Who Changed the Course of History, from the Founding to the Civil Rights Movement
author: Sharon McMahon
name: Kay
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2024
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date added: 2024/12/11
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]]> White Mulberry 210670872 A rich, deeply moving portrait of a young Korean woman in 1930s Japan who is torn between two worlds and must reclaim her true identity to provide a future for her family.

1928, Japan-occupied Korea. Eleven-year-old Miyoung has dreams too big for her tiny farming village near Pyongyang: to become a teacher, to avoid an arranged marriage, to write her own future. When she is offered the chance to live with her older sister in Japan and continue her education, she is elated, even though it means leaving her sick mother—and her very name—behind.

In Kyoto, anti-Korean sentiment is rising every day, and Miyoung quickly realizes she must pass as Japanese if she expects to survive. Her Japanese name, Miyoko, helps her find a new calling as a nurse, but as the years go by, she fears that her true self is slipping away. She seeks solace in a Korean church group and, within it, finds something she never expected: a romance with an activist that reignites her sense of purpose and gives her a cherished son.

As war looms on a new front and Miyoung feels the constraints of her adopted home tighten, she is faced with a choice that will change her life—and the lives of those she loves—forever.]]> 321 Rosa Kwon Easton 1662519702 Kay 0 to-read 4.02 2024 White Mulberry
author: Rosa Kwon Easton
name: Kay
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/08
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]]> The Girl from Ballymor 34402326
Ballymor, Ireland, 1847

As famine grips the country Kitty McCarthy is left widowed and alone. Fighting to keep her two remaining children alive against all odds, Kitty must decide how far she will go to save her family.

Present day

Arriving in Ballymor, Maria is researching her ancestor, Victorian artist Michael McCarthy � and his beloved mother, the mysterious Kitty who disappeared without a trace. Running from her future, it’s not only answers about the past that Maria hopes to find in Ireland. As her search brings her closer to the truth about Kitty’s fate, Maria must make the biggest decision of her life.]]> 337 Kathleen McGurl 1474066674 Kay 3 4.29 2017 The Girl from Ballymor
author: Kathleen McGurl
name: Kay
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/07
date added: 2024/12/07
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]]> Northern Spy 57650174 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

The acclaimed author of Under the Harrow and A Double Life returns with her most thrilling novel to date: the story of two sisters who become entangled with the IRA.

A producer at the Belfast bureau of the BBC, Tessa is at work one day when the news of another raid comes on the air. The IRA may have gone underground after the Good Friday agreement, but they never really went away, and lately, bomb threats, arms drops, and helicopters floating ominously over the city have become features of everyday life. As the anchor requests the public's help in locating those responsible for this latest raid - a robbery at a gas station - Tessa's sister appears on the screen. Tessa watches in shock as Marian pulls a black mask over her face.

The police believe Marian has joined the IRA, but Tessa knows this is impossible. They were raised to oppose Republicanism, and the violence enacted in its name. They've attended peace vigils together. And besides, Marian is vacationing by the sea. Tessa just spoke to her yesterday.

When the truth of what has happened to Marian reveals itself, Tessa will be forced to choose: between her ideals and her family, between bystanderism and action. Walking an increasingly perilous road, she fears nothing more than endangering the one person she loves more fiercely than her sister: her infant son.

A riveting and exquisite novel about family, terror, motherhood, betrayal, and the staggering human costs of an intractable conflict, Northern Spy cements Flynn Berry's status as one of the most sophisticated and accomplished authors of crime and suspense novels working today.]]> 288 Flynn Berry 0735224994 Kay 0 to-read 3.63 2021 Northern Spy
author: Flynn Berry
name: Kay
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/06
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]]> An Echo in Time 201793870 A woman delves into a centuries-old murder to find the truth behind her self-destructive behavior in a powerful novel about love, loss, and healing by the bestselling author of An Unfinished Story and The Stars Don’t Lie.

Unable to catch a break in life or love as she approaches thirty, Charli Thurman sees red lights at every crossroads. And given the Thurman family’s tumultuous history, she knows things will only get worse, unless she can break the cycle and figure out where—and when—it all went wrong.

Charli is skeptical when her best friend introduces her to a “soul reader� who specializes in generational trauma. But during family constellation therapy with the guru, Charli experiences an inexplicable memory of terrible violence. Whatever happened in the past, it created an imbalance that’s still in the Thurman blood.

When Charli’s research leads her to Winchester, England, she meets a charming pub owner named Noah, whose own family history is similarly twisted. As the mystery deepens around a damaged inheritance and a tragic death, Charli is resolved to find the truth—and create the fresh start she has been hoping for her whole life.]]> 387 Boo Walker 1662508808 Kay 0 to-read 4.19 2024 An Echo in Time
author: Boo Walker
name: Kay
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/06
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]]> Appalachian Song 123185835
Always remember, you are perfectly loved.

Bertie Jenkins has spent forty years serving as a midwife for her community in the Great Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee. Out of all the mothers she’s tended, none affects her more than the young teenager who shows up on her doorstep, injured, afraid, and expecting, one warm June day in 1943. As Bertie and her four sisters tenderly nurture Songbird back to health, the bond between the childless midwife and the motherless teen grows strong. But soon Songbird is forced to make a heartbreaking decision that will tear this little family apart.

Thirty years later, the day after his father’s funeral, Walker Wylie is stunned to learn he was adopted as an infant. The famous country singer enlists the help of adoption advocate Reese Chandler in the hopes of learning why he was abandoned by his birth parents. With the only clue he has in hand, Walker and Reese head deep into the Appalachian Mountains to track down Bertie Jenkins, the midwife who holds the secrets to Walker’s past.

For fans of historical and Southern fiction comes a poignant story of love and sacrifice set in the heart of Appalachia, from award-winning author Michelle Shocklee.]]> 352 Michelle Shocklee 1496472438 Kay 0 to-read 4.35 2023 Appalachian Song
author: Michelle Shocklee
name: Kay
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/06
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]]> No Lifeguard on Duty 137028623
When the smoke clears, secrets that brought the trio to this fateful time and place are revealed and continue to intertwine their lives in the years to come. The boardwalk and beaches become the setting for personal revelations, encounters with the dark side of human nature, and brushes with the supernatural.

No Lifeguard on Duty will stir a range of emotions and its nuanced treatment of race and class is as relevant today as it was in 1970.]]> 492 Paul C. Bomba Kay 0 to-read 4.23 No Lifeguard on Duty
author: Paul C. Bomba
name: Kay
average rating: 4.23
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/04
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]]> <![CDATA[Selected Stories of Andre Dubus]]> 33880 476 Andre Dubus 0679767304 Kay 0 to-read 4.28 1988 Selected Stories of Andre Dubus
author: Andre Dubus
name: Kay
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1988
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/03
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]]> Letters 207611493 The letters of one of the greatest observers of the human species, revealing his passion for life and work, friendship and art, medicine and society, and the richness of his relationships with friends, family, and fellow intellectuals over the decades. Dr. Oliver Sacks—who describes himself variously in these pages as “a philosophical physician,� “an astronomer of the inward,� and a “neuropathological Talmudist”—wrote lengthy letters throughout his to his parents, his beloved Aunt Lennie, to friends and colleagues from London, Oxford, California, and around the world. These pages begin with his arrival in America as a young man, eager to establish himself away from the confines of postwar England, and carry us through his bumpy early career in medicine and the discovery of his writer’s voice and métier; his weightlifting, motorcycle-riding years and his explosive seasons of discovery with the patients who populate his book Awakenings; his growing interest in matters of sight and the musical brain; his many friendships and exchanges with fellow writers, artists and scientists (to say nothing of astronauts, botanists, and mathematicians), and his deep gratitude for all these relationships at the end of his life. Some letters contain the first detailed sketches of an essay forming in his mind, others reveal his agony over a tempestuous love affair or his reminiscences of childhood. From Francis Crick and Jane Goodall to W. H. Auden and Susan Sontag, from lovers to patients, and ordinary folk who wrote to him with their odd symptoms and questions, all are treated equally to Sacks� lyrical, ferocious, penetrating and at times hilarious observations. Sensitively introduced and edited by Kate Edgar, Sacks� longtime editor (and one of his correspondents), the letters deliver a complete portrait of Sacks as he wrestles with the workings of the brain and mind. We see, through his eyes, the beginnings of modern neuroscience as it unlocks many secrets of how the human brain defines us. We experience the arc of a remarkable personal evolution, closely following the thought processes of one of the great intellectuals of our time whose words, as evidenced in these pages, were unfailingly shaped with generosity and wonder toward other people.]]> 752 Oliver Sacks 0451492919 Kay 0 to-read 4.32 Letters
author: Oliver Sacks
name: Kay
average rating: 4.32
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date added: 2024/11/27
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]]> The Familiar 133286777 From the New York Times bestselling author of Ninth House, Hell Bent, and creator of the Grishaverse series comes a highly anticipated historical fantasy set during the Spanish Golden Age

In a shabby house, on a shabby street, in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to get through her days of endless toil as a scullion. But when her scheming mistress discovers the lump of a servant cowering in the kitchen is actually hiding a talent for little miracles, she demands Luzia use those gifts to better the family's social position.

What begins as simple amusement for the bored nobility takes a perilous turn when Luzia garners the notice of Antonio Pérez, the disgraced secretary to Spain's king. Still reeling from the defeat of his armada, the king is desperate for any advantage in the war against England's heretic queen—and Pérez will stop at nothing to regain the king's favor.

Determined to seize this one chance to better her fortunes, Luzia plunges into a world of seers and alchemists, holy men and hucksters, where the line between magic, science, and fraud is never certain. But as her notoriety grows, so does the danger that her Jewish blood will doom her to the Inquisition's wrath. She will have to use every bit of her wit and will to survive—even if that means enlisting the help of Guillén Santangel, an embittered immortal familiar whose own secrets could prove deadly for them both.]]> 387 Leigh Bardugo 125088425X Kay 0 to-read 3.74 2024 The Familiar
author: Leigh Bardugo
name: Kay
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/26
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]]> H is for Hawk 18803640
When her father dies and she is knocked sideways by grief, she becomes obsessed with the idea of training her own goshawk. She buys Mabel for £800 on a Scottish quayside and takes her home to Cambridge. Then she fills the freezer with hawk food and unplugs the phone, ready to embark on the long, strange business of trying to train this wildest of animals.

Destined to be a classic of nature writing, "H is for Hawk" is a record of a spiritual journey - an unflinchingly honest account of Macdonald's struggle with grief during the difficult process of the hawk's taming and her own untaming. At the same time, it's a kaleidoscopic biography of the brilliant and troubled novelist T. H. White, best known for "The Once and Future King." It's a book about memory, nature and nation, and how it might be possible to try to reconcile death with life and love.]]> 300 Helen Macdonald 0224097008 Kay 0 to-read 3.73 2014 H is for Hawk
author: Helen Macdonald
name: Kay
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/24
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]]> Lady Tan’s Circle of Women 62919732
According to Confucius, “an educated woman is a worthless woman,� but Tan Yunxian—born into an elite family, yet haunted by death, separations, and loneliness—is being raised by her grandparents to be of use. Her grandmother is one of only a handful of female doctors in China, and she teaches Yunxian the pillars of Chinese medicine, the Four Examinations—looking, listening, touching, and asking—something a man can never do with a female patient.

From a young age, Yunxian learns about women’s illnesses, many of which relate to childbearing, alongside a young midwife-in-training, Meiling. The two girls find fast friendship and a mutual purpose—despite the prohibition that a doctor should never touch blood while a midwife comes in frequent contact with it—and they vow to be forever friends, sharing in each other’s joys and struggles. No mud, no lotus , they tell from adversity beauty can bloom.

But when Yunxian is sent into an arranged marriage, her mother-in-law forbids her from seeing Meiling and from helping the women and girls in the household. Yunxian is to act like a proper wife—embroider bound-foot slippers, recite poetry, give birth to sons, and stay forever within the walls of the family compound, the Garden of Fragrant Delights.

How might a woman like Yunxian break free of these traditions and lead a life of such importance that many of her remedies are still used five centuries later? How might the power of friendship support or complicate these efforts? A captivating story of women helping each other, Lady Tan’s Circle of Women is a triumphant reimagining of the life of one person who was remarkable in the Ming dynasty and would be considered remarkable today.]]> 352 Lisa See 1982117087 Kay 3 4.31 2023 Lady Tan’s Circle of Women
author: Lisa See
name: Kay
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/23
date added: 2024/11/24
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]]> <![CDATA[Somewhere Beyond the Sea (Cerulean Chronicles, #2)]]> 199347538 Somewhere Beyond the Sea is the hugely anticipated sequel to TJ Klune’s The House in the Cerulean Sea, one of the best-loved and best-selling fantasy novels of the past decade. Featuring gorgeous orange sprayed edges!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Somewhere Beyond the Sea is a story of resistance, lovingly told, about the daunting experience of fighting for the life you want to live and doing the work to keep it.]]> 416 T.J. Klune 125088120X Kay 0 to-read 4.17 2024 Somewhere Beyond the Sea (Cerulean Chronicles, #2)
author: T.J. Klune
name: Kay
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/23
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]]> The Specimen 203751835
1826. Isobel Tait finds herself, by chance, staring at a tiny human heart floating in a jar. It should be of little consequence; Dr. Burnett is renowned for his collection of oddities and medical specimens, and this, a juvenile heart with a damaged mitral valve, is not the strangest thing on display. Except that the condition is rare, and that Isobel's young son, who has been missing for months, suffered from the ailment.

A phantom pulse beats in Isobel's ears. She knows something here isn't right.

Missing persons cases are all too common in Edinburgh, where people simply vanish like mist. But Burnett is obsessed with his specimens � how far would he go to acquire a new one? Determined to investigate, Isobel joins his staff as the keeper of his collection. What she'll unearth, though, is far worse than any of her nightmares�

Based on true crimes, The Specimen is a mesmerizing story about one woman's search for truth and vengeance in the darkest of places—where the deadliest secrets lie hidden in plain sight, on a freshly dusted shelf.]]> 416 Jaima Fixsen 1728294908 Kay 0 to-read 3.96 2024 The Specimen
author: Jaima Fixsen
name: Kay
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/23
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]]> The Lady of the Loch 63029389 ‘Although I believe I will die here in this castle, my spirit will never be silent.�
Ravenscraig Castle, Scotland. 1307

When the castle she works in is sacked by the army of Prince Edward of England, kitchen maid Agnes Fitzgerald manages to escape north of Inverness to throw herself at the mercy of the Lord and Lady at Ravenscraig Castle. Although safe for now, the people of Scotland are fighting hard for their independence, and the threat of the English hangs heavy over the land. But when Agnes spies Cam Buchanan swimming in the loch, her mind turns away from war and towards love. Agnes even dares to dream of a happy future, until she learns that Cam must go and fight alongside Robert de Brus.

Present day

Twins Leah and Zoe need a change, so caretaking at Ravenscraig Castle is the perfect opportunity to get away from it all. Surrounded by rugged Highland countryside, and bordered by a loch, the picturesque setting is everything they dreamed of. But the locals are reluctant to visit Ravenscraig, and there are whispers of ghosts and lost souls. The sisters quickly dismiss such superstition, but soon the overwhelming sadness they feel coming from the tower grows too hard to ignore.

Can the sisters finally right the wrongs of seven hundred years of heartbreak, seven hundred years of betrayal�

USA Today bestselling author Judy Leigh writing as Elena Collins, brings you this heart-breaking and unforgettable timeslip novel, perfect for fans of Barbara Erskine, Diana Gabaldon and Louise Douglas.]]> 438 Elena Collins 180280028X Kay 0 to-read 4.39 The Lady of the Loch
author: Elena Collins
name: Kay
average rating: 4.39
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]]> The Witch's Tree 60691225 'A wonderful book by a fabulous author, very highly recommended.� Louise Douglas A tale as old as time. A spirit that has never rested. Present day

As a love affair comes to an end, and with it her dreams for her future, artist Selena needs a retreat. The picture-postcard Sloe Cottage in the Somerset village of Ashcombe promises to be the perfect place to forget her problems, and Selena settles into her new home as spring arrives. But it isn’t long before Selena hears the past whispering to her. Sloe Cottage is keeping secrets which refuse to stay hidden.

1682

Grace Cotter longs for nothing more than a husband and family of her own. Content enough with her work on the farm, looking after her father, and learning the secrets of her grandmother Bett’s healing hands, nevertheless Grace still hopes for love. But these are dangerous times for dreamers, and rumours and gossip can be deadly. One mis-move and Grace’s fate looks set�

Separated by three hundred years, two women are drawn together by a home bathed in blood and magic. Grace Cotter’s spirit needs to rest, and only Selena can help her now.

USA Today bestselling author Judy Leigh writing as Elena Collins, brings you this unforgettable, heart-breaking, gripping timeslip novel set in a world when women were hung as witches, and fates could be sealed by a wrong word. Perfect for fans of Barbara Erskine, Diana Gabaldon and Louise Douglas.

Praise for Elena

'A profoundly moving, beautifully written and emotional story that skilfully combines two time frames into one unputdownable book.I was completely immersed in Grace’s story from the despite it taking place 400 years ago.The modern day storyline was also delightful with some wonderful characters. In short a wonderful book by a fabulous author, very highly recommended.' Louise Douglas]]> 366 Elena Collins 1802800123 Kay 0 to-read 4.43 2022 The Witch's Tree
author: Elena Collins
name: Kay
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/19
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]]> Little Souls 57693298
Finalist, 2023 Colorado Book Awards

Sandra Dallas's Little Souls is a gripping tale of sisterhood, loyalty, and secrets set in Denver amid America’s last deadly flu pandemic.

Colorado, 1918. World War I is raging overseas, but it’s the home front battling for survival. With the Spanish Flu rampant, Denver’s schools are converted into hospitals, churches and funeral homes are closed, and horse-drawn wagons collect corpses left in the street. Sisters Helen and Lutie have moved to Denver from Iowa after their parents� deaths. Helen, a nurse, and Lutie, a carefree advertising designer at a fashionable women’s store share a small, neat house, and each finds a local beau―for Helen a doctor, for Lutie a young student who soon enlists. They make a modest income from a rental apartment in the basement. When their tenant dies from the flu, the sisters are thrust into caring for the woman’s small daughter, Dorothy. Soon after, Lutie comes home from work and discovers a dead man on their kitchen floor and Helen standing above the body, an icepick in hand. She has no doubt Helen killed the man―Dorothy’s father―in self-defense, but she knows that will be hard to prove. They decide to leave the body in the street, hoping to disguise it as a flu victim.

Meanwhile Lutie also worries about her fiancé “over there.� As it happens, his wealthy mother harbors a secret of her own and helps the sisters as the danger deepens, from both the murder investigation and the outbreak.

Set against the backdrop of an epidemic that feels all too familiar, Little Souls is a compelling tale of sisterhood and of the sacrifices people make to protect those they love most.]]> 294 Sandra Dallas 1250277884 Kay 0 to-read 3.80 2022 Little Souls
author: Sandra Dallas
name: Kay
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/08
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]]> <![CDATA[Spoken Bones (DI Fenella Sallow, #1)]]> 59361438 This dark secret could finally break her�

Detective Inspector Fenella Sallow is obsessive about her work and driven by her own demons. When the body of a retired artist is discovered atop the blackened embers of the town bonfire, the community is rocked to the core.

It falls to DI Fenella Sallow and her team to find out how she came to be there. In her fifties, the veteran detective inspector thought she had seen it all. But behind the curtained windows and closed doors of the idyllic Cumbria coastal setting lurks pure evil.

Fenella must confront her dark past. Haunted by the unsolved case of a missing girl, she knows it is a race against time. Can she stop this death from slipping through her fingers, too?

Before long, it becomes disturbingly clear that the killer is playing a twisted game and will do anything to conceal the terrible truth of what happened on the beach on Bonfire Night.


Set against the backdrop of beautiful coastal Cumbria, an ancient land of legend, folklore and myth, Spoken Bones is the first book in the Detective Inspector Fenella Sallow series.

This page-turning crime thriller will keep you hooked until the very end. If you like police procedurals with psychologically complex characters and shocking twists, then you’ll love Spoken Bones.

Perfect for fans of L. J. Ross, JD. Kirk, Simon McCleave, Stuart MacBride, Matt Brolly, Angela Marsons, Alex Smith, JM. Dalgliesh, JE. Mayhew, David J. Gatward, TG Reid, Jack Gatland, Robert F Barker and JR. Ellis.]]> 316 N.C. Lewis Kay 0 to-read 3.92 2021 Spoken Bones (DI Fenella Sallow, #1)
author: N.C. Lewis
name: Kay
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/06
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]]> <![CDATA[The Grey Wolf (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #19)]]> 203578881 The nineteenth mystery in the #1 New York Times bestselling Armand Gamache series

Relentless phone calls interrupt the peace of a warm August morning in Three Pines. Though the tiny Québec village is impossible to find on any map, someone has managed to track down Armand Gamache, head of homicide at the Sûreté, as he sits with his wife in their back garden. Reine-Marie watches with increasing unease as her husband refuses to pick up, though he clearly knows who is on the other end. When he finally answers, his rage shatters the calm of their quiet Sunday morning.

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

Armand Gamache; Jean-Guy Beauvoir, his son-in-law and second in command; and Inspector Isabelle Lacoste can only trust each other, as old friends begin to act like enemies, and long-time enemies appear to be friends. Determined to track down the threat before it becomes a reality, their pursuit takes them across Québec and across borders. Their hunt grows increasingly desperate, even frantic, as the enormity of the creature they’re chasing becomes clear. If they fail, the devastating consequences would reach into the largest of cities and the smallest of villages.]]> 421 Louise Penny 1250328136 Kay 0 to-read 3.95 2024 The Grey Wolf (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #19)
author: Louise Penny
name: Kay
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/03
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]]> The Happiest Man on Earth 53239311 Life can be beautiful if you make it beautiful. It is up to you.

Eddie Jaku always considered himself a German first, a Jew second. He was proud of his country. But all of that changed in November 1938, when he was beaten, arrested and taken to a concentration camp.

Over the next seven years, Eddie faced unimaginable horrors every day, first in Buchenwald, then in Auschwitz, then on a Nazi death march. He lost family, friends, his country.

Because he survived, Eddie made the vow to smile every day. He pays tribute to those who were lost by telling his story, sharing his wisdom and living his best possible life. He now believes he is the 'happiest man on earth'.

Published as Eddie turns 100, this is a powerful, heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful memoir of how happiness can be found even in the darkest of times.]]> 208 Eddie Jaku 1760980080 Kay 0 to-read 4.59 2020 The Happiest Man on Earth
author: Eddie Jaku
name: Kay
average rating: 4.59
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/03
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]]> Man’s Search for Meaning 4069 Man's Search for Meaning has become one of the most influential books in America; it continues to inspire us all to find significance in the very act of living.]]> 165 Viktor E. Frankl 080701429X Kay 0 to-read 4.39 1946 Man’s Search for Meaning
author: Viktor E. Frankl
name: Kay
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1946
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/03
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]]> Mandy 10332 320 Julie Andrews Edwards 0061131628 Kay 0 to-read 4.27 1971 Mandy
author: Julie Andrews Edwards
name: Kay
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1971
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/03
shelves: to-read
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]]> Come to the Window 201187768
It’s 1918. The war in Europe grinds on, and the Spanish flu seems to be on an insatiable killing spree. In Parrsboro, a tiny fishing community in Nova Scotia, Elizabeth Frame murders her husband hours after their wedding and thrusts the revolver into the blowhole of a beached whale.

Toby Havenshaw covers the hearing for the Halifax Evening Mail and finds the people of the village delirious with unprecedented grief and bewilderment. His diary traces the details of Elizabeth’s story of adultery and murder, as well as his own beautiful relationship with his wife, Amelia, just home from serving as a surgeon at the front lines in France and Belgium. Come to the Window explores a question both universal and how does one recover hope in a time of horror?]]> 208 Howard Norman 132407633X Kay 0 to-read 3.61 2024 Come to the Window
author: Howard Norman
name: Kay
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/28
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]]> The Last Witch of Scotland 123164836
Scottish Highlands, 1727.

In the aftermath of a tragic fire that kills her father, Aila and her mother, Janet , move to the remote parish of Loth, north-west of Inverness. Blending in does not come easily to the Aila was badly burned in the fire and left with visible injuries, while her mother struggles to maintain her grip on reality. When a temporary minister is appointed in the area, rather than welcome the two women, he develops a strange curiosity for them that sets them even further apart from the community.

Then arrives a motley troupe of travelling entertainers from Edinburgh, led by the charismatic but mysterious Jack . It is just the distraction Janet, and particularly Aila, for the first time in a long while, their lives are filling with joy and friendship, and a kind of hope Aila hasn't known since her father's death. But in this small community, faith is more powerful than truth, and whispers more dangerous even than fire.

Haunting and deeply moving, The Last Witch of Scotland is a story of love, loyalty and sacrifice, inspired by the true story of the last person to be executed for witchcraft in Britain.

Perfect for fans of Outlander , The Mercies and The Witches of Vardo , or for anyone with an interest in the history of witchcraft, late renaissance Scotland and Highland history.]]> 306 Philip Paris 1785304518 Kay 0 to-read 3.90 2023 The Last Witch of Scotland
author: Philip Paris
name: Kay
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/27
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]]> Ernestine 56330343
Pulled into intrigues of the devout community and its residents, Sister Ernestine discovers a French spy has tracked her down, intent on stealing the plans that would alter the European balance of power. And as her old enemy closes in, she must protect the world-changing information from falling into the wrong hands... and survive the rising threat within the abbey's sacred walls.

With the future of Europe at stake, can the grieving woman complete her honor-bound mission before she loses her life?
Ernestine is an intriguing standalone historical fiction novel. If you like well-drawn characters, richly researched settings, then you'll adore Ernestine's story of emotional healing, redemption, and forgiveness.

Discover Ernestine today to learn why Booklife says, "This work of historical fiction brims with life and heart."]]> 366 Kate Reynolds Kay 0 to-read 4.30 Ernestine
author: Kate Reynolds
name: Kay
average rating: 4.30
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/26
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]]> <![CDATA[In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom]]> 24611623 273 Yeonmi Park 1594206791 Kay 4 4.45 2015 In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom
author: Yeonmi Park
name: Kay
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/26
date added: 2024/10/26
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]]> Trinity 42696 Leon Uris’s beloved Irish classic, available in Avon mass market.

From the acclaimed author who enthralled the world withExodus, Battle Cry, QB VII, Topaz,and other beloved classics of twentieth-century fiction comes a sweeping and powerful epic adventure that captures the "terrible beauty" of Ireland during its long and bloody struggle for freedom. It is the electrifying story of an idealistic young Catholic rebel and the valiant and beautiful Protestant girl who defied her heritage to join his cause. It is a tale of love and danger, of triumph at an unthinkable cost�a magnificent portrait of a people divided by class, faith, and prejudice�an unforgettable saga of the fires that devastated a majestic land... and the unquenchable flames that burn in the human heart.]]> 894 Leon Uris 0060827882 Kay 0 4.28 1976 Trinity
author: Leon Uris
name: Kay
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1976
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/26
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]]> True Grit 257845 224 Charles Portis 1585673692 Kay 0 to-read 4.15 1968 True Grit
author: Charles Portis
name: Kay
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1968
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries (Emily Wilde, #1)]]> 60657589
Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world's first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party--or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, and the Fair Folk.

So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, get in the middle of Emily's research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.

But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones--the most elusive of all faeries--lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she'll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all--her own heart.]]> 336 Heather Fawcett 059350013X Kay 0 to-read 3.99 2023 Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries (Emily Wilde, #1)
author: Heather Fawcett
name: Kay
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/23
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands (Emily Wilde, #2)]]> 214269333 When mysterious faeries from other realms appear at her university, curmudgeonly professor Emily Wilde must uncover their secrets before it’s too late, in this heartwarming, enchanting second installment of the Emily Wilde series.

Emily Wilde is a genius scholar of faerie folklore who just wrote the world’s first comprehensive encyclopaedia of faeries. She’s learned many of the secrets of the Hidden Ones on her adventures . . . and also from her fellow scholar and former rival Wendell Bambleby.

Because Bambleby is more than infuriatingly charming. He’s an exiled faerie king on the run from his murderous mother and in search of a door back to his realm. And despite Emily’s feelings for Bambleby, she’s not ready to accept his proposal of marriage: Loving one of the Fair Folk comes with secrets and dangers.

She also has a new project to focus on: a map of the realms of faerie. While she is preparing her research, Bambleby lands her in trouble yet again, when assassins sent by his mother invade Cambridge. Now Bambleby and Emily are on another adventure, this time to the picturesque Austrian Alps, where Emily believes they may find the door to Bambleby’s realm and the key to freeing him from his family’s dark plans.

But with new relationships for the prickly Emily to navigate and dangerous Folk lurking in every forest and hollow, Emily must unravel the mysterious workings of faerie doors and of her own heart.]]> 368 Heather Fawcett 0593500210 Kay 0 to-read 4.21 2024 Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands (Emily Wilde, #2)
author: Heather Fawcett
name: Kay
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/23
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]]> Infinity + One 20901080
Bonnie Rae Shelby is a superstar. She’s rich. She’s beautiful. She’s impossibly famous. And Bonnie Rae Shelby wants to die.

Finn Clyde is a nobody. He’s broken. He’s brilliant. He’s impossibly cynical. And all he wants is a chance at life.

One girl. One boy. An act of compassion. A bizarre set of circumstances. And a choice � turn your head and walk away, or reach out your hand and risk it all?

With that choice, the clock starts ticking on a man with a past and a girl who can’t face the future, counting down the seconds in an adventure riddled with heartbreak and humor, misunderstanding and revelation. With the world against them, two very different people take a journey that will not only change their lives, but may cost them their lives as well.


Infinity + One is a tale of shooting stars and fame and fortune, of gilded cages and iron bars, of finding a friend behind a stranger’s face, and discovering love in the oddest of places.]]> 327 Amy Harmon 1499535392 Kay 0 to-read 4.04 2014 Infinity + One
author: Amy Harmon
name: Kay
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/22
shelves: to-read
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]]> Bailey's Café 394240 Mama Day and The Women of Brewster Place is a feast for the senses and the spirit.]]> 240 Gloria Naylor 0679748210 Kay 0 to-read 4.04 1992 Bailey's Café
author: Gloria Naylor
name: Kay
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1992
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/22
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]]> The Irish Key (Emerald Isles) 205631928 ‘Take the key, my pet. I can’t ever go back. The last letter I had from Ireland was clear about that. But one day you may need a safe haven, and it’s the one thing I can give you. Ireland is in your blood, it will keep you safe.�

When Grace arrives tired, tearful and rain-soaked in Roone Bay, the little Irish village where her grandmother Caitlin grew up, she is overwhelmed with longing for Caitlin’s safe, warm arms. The crumbling wreck of Caitlin’s once-beautiful childhood cottage � whose key Grace was given on her wedding day as a secret refuge if she ever needed it � is not the fresh start she’d hoped for. But with her young daughter Olivia to look after and a painful past to hide from, Grace has to stay strong. Plucking up the courage to ask for help from her kind new neighbours � including quietly rugged carpenter Sean Murphy � Grace gets to work making the house habitable. Soon the view of the deep emerald sea has her captivated, Olivia is blossoming, and Sean makes her laugh in a way she’d forgotten she could� As she learns more about her family history, with Sean by her side, Grace’s curiosity unearths only further mystery. What drove Caitlin away from Ireland, never to return? But when Grace uncovers a long-lost letter to Caitlin that reveals the heartbreaking truth, she is suddenly threatened by her own devastating secrets. Grace may have finally found a home for her little family. But when faced with everything she ran from, will the past tear her apart once more? Or will Grace find the strength to stand up for her daughter, her love for Sean, and her new life in Ireland?

This utterly heartbreaking, completely life-affirming story of a family secret that echoes down the generations is perfect for fans of Susanne O’Leary and Tricia O’Malley.]]> 294 Daisy O'Shea 1835250777 Kay 0 to-read 4.39 The Irish Key (Emerald Isles)
author: Daisy O'Shea
name: Kay
average rating: 4.39
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rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/22
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]]> <![CDATA[Marble Hall Murders (Susan Ryeland, #3)]]> 216850869
She is freelancing for Causton Books, where she is asked to work on a ‘continuation� novel , Pünd’s Last Case, by a young author, Eliot Crace. Eliot Crace is the grandson of one of the most well known children’s authors ever, Marian Crace. Think Enid Blyton, then double her sales. Marian Crace died some 15 years previously and Eliot is sure she was poisoned.

Rather doubtfully, Susan starts to read the opening chapters, finding to her relief that Pünd’s Last Case is actually pretty good. Set in the South of France, it revolves around the mysterious death of Lady Margaret Chalfont who, though mortally ill, is poisoned � perhaps by a member of her own family. But why? And who did it?

It soon becomes clear to Susan that the clues to who was responsible for the death of Eliot’s grandmother, Marian Crace, are hidden from view in this Atticus Pünd mystery.

Eliot’s behaviour becomes increasingly erratic as his alcohol and gambling addictions increase. But when he is killed in a hit and run accident, Susan realises that she is suspected of his murder.

Three mysterious deaths and a group of people with multiple motives for Susan realises that if she doesn’t solve the mystery in Pünd’s Last Case, her death may well be next …]]> 579 Anthony Horowitz 1804943010 Kay 0 to-read 4.53 2025 Marble Hall Murders (Susan Ryeland, #3)
author: Anthony Horowitz
name: Kay
average rating: 4.53
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/16
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]]> <![CDATA[Make Trouble: Standing Up, Speaking Out, and Finding the Courage to Lead]]> 35721620
Cecile Richards has been an activist since she was taken to the principal’s office in seventh grade for wearing an armband in protest of the Vietnam War. Richards had an extraordinary girlhood in ultra-conservative Texas, where her hell-raising parents—her civil rights attorney father and political activist mother—taught their kids to be troublemakers. In the Richards household, the “dinner table was never for eating—it was for sorting precinct lists.�

She watched her mother, Ann, transform herself from a housewife to a force in American politics who made a name for herself as the straight-talking, truth-telling governor of Texas. But Richards also witnessed the pitfalls of public life that are unique to women, and the constant struggle to protect and expand equal rights—both exemplified by her marathon congressional testimony, where she held her own against hostile questions for five hours.

As a young woman, Richards worked as a labor organizer alongside women earning a minimum wage, and learned that those in power don’t give it up without a fight. Now, after years of advocacy, resistance, and progressive leadership, she shares her story for the first time—from the joy and heartbreak of activism to the challenges of raising kids, having a life, and making change, all at the same time. She shines a light on the people and lessons that have gotten her through good times and bad, and encourages readers to take risks, make mistakes, and make trouble along the way. Richards has dedicated her life to taking on injustice, and her memoir will inspire readers to hope and action.]]> 266 Cecile Richards 1501187597 Kay 0 to-read 4.28 2018 Make Trouble: Standing Up, Speaking Out, and Finding the Courage to Lead
author: Cecile Richards
name: Kay
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/15
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]]> <![CDATA[The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together]]> 53231851
McGhee embarks on a deeply personal journey across the country from Maine to Mississippi to California, tallying what we lose when we buy into the zero-sum paradigm--the idea that progress for some of us must come at the expense of others. Along the way, she meets white people who confide in her about losing their homes, their dreams, and their shot at better jobs to the toxic mix of American racism and greed. This is the story of how public goods in this country--from parks and pools to functioning schools--have become private luxuries; of how unions collapsed, wages stagnated, and inequality increased; and of how this country, unique among the world's advanced economies, has thwarted universal healthcare.

But in unlikely places of worship and work, McGhee finds proof of what she calls the Solidarity Dividend: gains that come when people come together across race, to accomplish what we simply can't do on our own.

McGhee marshals economic and sociological research to paint a story of racism's costs, but at the heart of the book are the humble stories of people yearning to be part of a better America, including white supremacy's collateral victims: white people themselves. With startling empathy, this heartfelt message from a Black woman to a multiracial America leaves us with a new vision for a future in which we finally realize that life can be more than a zero-sum game.]]> 415 Heather McGhee 0525509569 Kay 0 to-read 4.62 2021 The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together
author: Heather McGhee
name: Kay
average rating: 4.62
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/15
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Lost Bookshop 65137920 The Keeper of Stories meets The Lost Apothecary in this evocative and charming novel full of mystery and secrets.

‘The thing about books,� she said ‘is that they help you to imagine a life bigger and better than you could ever dream of.�

On a quiet street in Dublin, a lost bookshop is waiting to be found�

For too long, Opaline, Martha and Henry have been the side characters in their own lives.

But when a vanishing bookshop casts its spell, these three unsuspecting strangers will discover that their own stories are every bit as extraordinary as the ones found in the pages of their beloved books. And by unlocking the secrets of the shelves, they find themselves transported to a world of wonder� where nothing is as it seems.]]> 432 Evie Woods 0008609209 Kay 0 currently-reading 4.04 2023 The Lost Bookshop
author: Evie Woods
name: Kay
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Yellowface 62060532
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 Kay 1 3.77 2023 Yellowface
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Kay
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2023
rating: 1
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date added: 2024/10/07
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review:
Had to stop reading at 50% ( I always finish books). Total waste of my reading time.
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