en-US Sun, 27 Apr 2025 11:54:51 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 199698485 When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide

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

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.]]> 490 Liz Moore Lailah 4 4.15 2024
author: Liz Moore
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/27
date added: 2025/04/27
shelves:
review:

]]> 7932991
Over the last two decades, insurance has become less of a safety net and more of a spider's sticky and complicated, designed to ensnare as much as to aid. Insurance companies now often try to delay payment of justified claims, deny payment altogether, and defend these actions by forcing claimants to enter litigation.

Jay M. Feinman, a legal scholar and insurance expert, explains how these trends developed, how the government ought to fix the system, and what the rest of us can do to protect ourselves. He shows that the denial of valid claims is not occasional or accidental or the fault of a few bad employees. It's the result of an increasing and systematic focus on maximizing profits by major companies such as Allstate and State Farm.

Citing dozens of stories of victims who were unfairly denied payment, Feinman explains how people can be more cautious when shopping for policies and what to do when pursuing a disputed claim. He also lays out a plan for the legal reforms needed to prevent future abuses. This exposé will help drive the discussion of this increasingly hot- button issue.]]> 256 Jay M. Feinman 1591843154 Lailah 5 4.08 2010
author: Jay M. Feinman
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/07
date added: 2025/04/07
shelves:
review:
I'm taking a class on healthcare in the U.S. and in light of recent events I thought this would be useful to read. All very accurate and the first hand accounts are relatable. Unfortunate world we live in.
]]> 40597810 Everyone knows DAISY JONES & THE SIX, but nobody knows the reason behind their split at the absolute height of their popularity . . . until now.

Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock ’nâ€� roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.

Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.

Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.

The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the seventies. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a talented writer who takes her work to a new level with Daisy Jones & The Six, brilliantly capturing a place and time in an utterly distinctive voice.]]> 368 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1524798622 Lailah 4 4.20 2019
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/11
date added: 2025/04/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 123423832 Two women. An office filled with secrets. One terrible crime that can't be taken back.

Dawn Schiff is strange. At least, everyone thinks so at Vixed, the nutritional supplement company where Dawn works as an accountant. She never says the right thing. She has no friends. And she is always at her desk at precisely 8:45 a.m.

So when Dawn doesn't show up to the office one morning, her coworker Natalie Farrell—beautiful, popular, top sales rep five years running—is surprised. Then she receives an unsettling, anonymous phone call that changes everythingâ€�

It turns out Dawn wasn't just an awkward outsider—she was being targeted by someone close. And now Natalie is irrevocably tied to Dawn as she finds herself caught in a twisted game of cat and mouse that leaves her wondering: who's the real victim?

But one thing is incredibly clear: somebody hated Dawn Schiff. Enough to kill.

The Coworker is a tense, unputdownable thriller from New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden that explores the dark ways the past can echo through the present―with deadly consequences.]]> 362 Freida McFadden 172829620X Lailah 0 to-read 3.68 2023
author: Freida McFadden
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 485894 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 0553213695 / 9780553213690

"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. He was laying on his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his domelike brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes."

With it's startling, bizarre, yet surprisingly funny first opening, Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetle-like insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. A harrowing—though absurdly comic—meditation on human feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and isolation, The Metamorphosis has taken its place as one of the most widely read and influential works of twentieth-century fiction. As W.H. Auden wrote, "Kafka is important to us because his predicament is the predicament of modern man."]]> 201 Franz Kafka 0553213695 Lailah 3 3.90 1915
author: Franz Kafka
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1915
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/23
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves:
review:

]]> 38651604 378 Steve Stewart-Williams 1108425046 Lailah 0 to-read 4.23 2018
author: Steve Stewart-Williams
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 28950381
Just in case you are wondering, this is not a book about a man wallowing in self-pity and is not Machiavellian in any form. It’s a work of art that is insightful and succeeded in enlightening me on how to connect with other humans and why life is worth living. I will definitely be referencing this book for the rest of my life- I do not say this lightly.]]> 36 John Smith Lailah 0 to-read 4.09
author: John Smith
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.09
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 406235 178 James Baldwin Lailah 0 to-read 4.40 1956
author: James Baldwin
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.40
book published: 1956
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 320 417 Gabriel GarcĂ­a MĂĄrquez Lailah 0 to-read 4.10 1967
author: Gabriel GarcĂ­a MĂĄrquez
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1967
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 44421460 What would you change if you could go back in time?

In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café which has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time.

In Before the Coffee Gets Cold, we meet four visitors, each of whom is hoping to make use of the café’s time-travelling offer, in order to: confront the man who left them, receive a letter from their husband whose memory has been taken by early onset Alzheimer's, to see their sister one last time, and to meet the daughter they never got the chance to know.

But the journey into the past does not come without risks: customers must sit in a particular seat, they cannot leave the café, and finally, they must return to the present before the coffee gets cold . . .

Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s beautiful, moving story explores the age-old question: what would you change if you could travel back in time? More importantly, who would you want to meet, maybe for one last time?]]> 213 Toshikazu Kawaguchi 1529029589 Lailah 0 to-read 3.66 2015
author: Toshikazu Kawaguchi
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 49552 The Stranger has long been considered a classic of twentieth-century literature. Le Monde ranks it as number one on its "100 Books of the Century" list. Through this story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on a sundrenched Algerian beach, Camus explores what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd."]]> 123 Albert Camus Lailah 5 4.04 1942
author: Albert Camus
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1942
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/05
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves:
review:

]]> 13082435 88 Clarice Lispector 0811219909 Lailah 0 to-read 4.32 1973
author: Clarice Lispector
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1973
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60097444 A 52-week interactive devotional that helps families and friendsÌędiscover God enfleshed in the world.

Seasons of Wonder is designed to allow you to gather together weekly with your loved ones and expand your understanding of divinity, specifically the radical but faithful idea that everything is sacred. This devotional is designed around weekly contemplative activities as well as interactive and transformative practices that connect us to surprise, awe, and wonder, including:

� uncomplicated crafts that honor creation
� simple recipes to make together
� conversation guides to cultivate the gifts of storytelling, deep listening, mystery, and community
� accessible introductions to liturgical observations and rituals
â€� plus four additional weeks of activities that you can incorporate whenever they’re appropriate, such as birthdays, sick days, or when you’re traveling together or blessing your home

In February readers might make a hiking stick to embark on a holy pilgrimage (even if it’s just in the neighborhood) and discover the meaning of Ash Wednesday, while in the summer months they can learn how to cherish the Earth’s seasons of holy pause by making prayer cards, bath salts, or family time capsules alongside the reading of peaceful liturgies and ancient prayers.

Bonnie Smith Whitehouse invites us all to consider the life-changing idea that small, intentional moments of wonder are charged manifestations of the grand presence of Christ in me, in you, and in this dazzling, vast—and imperiled—blue planet we call our beloved home. By spending a short amount of time together with Seasons of Wonder every week this year, you can transform an ordinary meeting into a sacred gathering.]]> 368 Bonnie Smith Whitehouse 0593443314 Lailah 0 to-read 3.86 2022
author: Bonnie Smith Whitehouse
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 52623750 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780593189481.

An intimate, revelatory book exploring the ways we can care for and repair ourselves when life knocks us down.

Sometimes you slip through the cracks: unforeseen circumstances like an abrupt illness, the death of a loved one, a break up, or a job loss can derail a life. These periods of dislocation can be lonely and unexpected. For May, her husband fell ill, her son stopped attending school, and her own medical issues led her to leave a demanding job. Wintering explores how she not only endured this painful time, but embraced the singular opportunities it offered.

A moving personal narrative shot through with lessons from literature, mythology, and the natural world, May’s story offers instruction on the transformative power of rest and retreat. Illumination emerges from many sources: solstice celebrations and dormice hibernation, C.S. Lewis and Sylvia Plath, swimming in icy waters and sailing arctic seas.

Ultimately Wintering invites us to change how we relate to our own fallow times. May models an active acceptance of sadness and finds nourishment in deep retreat, joy in the hushed beauty of winter, and encouragement in understanding life as cyclical, not linear. A secular mystic, May forms a guiding philosophy for transforming the hardships that arise before the ushering in of a new season.]]> 241 Katherine May Lailah 0 to-read 3.82 2020
author: Katherine May
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 55404546 Four famous siblings throw an epic party to celebrate the end of the summer. But over the course of twenty-four hours, their lives will change forever.

Malibu: August, 1983. It’s the day of Nina Riva’s annual end-of-summer party, and anticipation is at a fever pitch. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: Nina, the talented surfer and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other a renowned photographer; and their adored baby sister, Kit. Together, the siblings are a source of fascination in Malibu and the world over—especially as the offspring of the legendary singer, Mick Riva.

The only person not looking forward to the party of the year is Nina herself, who never wanted to be the center of attention, and who has also just been very publicly abandoned by her pro tennis player husband. Oh, and maybe Hud—because it is long past time to confess something to the brother from whom he’s been inseparable since birth.

Jay, on the other hand, is counting the minutes until nightfall, when the girl he can’t stop thinking about promised she’ll be there.

And Kit has a couple secrets of her own—including a guest she invited without consulting anyone.

By midnight the party will be completely out of control. By morning, the Riva mansion will have gone up in flames. But before that first spark in the early hours before dawn, the alcohol will flow, the music will play, and the loves and secrets that shaped this family’s generations will all come bubbling to the surface.

Malibu Rising is a story about one unforgettable night in the life of a family: the night they each have to choose what they will keep from the people who made them... and what they will leave behind.]]> 369 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1524798657 Lailah 4 4.02 2021
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/19
date added: 2025/01/09
shelves:
review:
It started off kinda slow in my opinion but by the time the book was over I couldn't put it down!
]]> 60435878 Carrie Soto is fierce, and her determination to win at any cost has not made her popular.

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

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

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

In spite of it all: Carrie Soto is back, for one epic final season. In this riveting and unforgettable novel, Taylor Jenkins Reid tells a story about the cost of greatness and a legendary athlete attempting a comeback.]]> 384 Taylor Jenkins Reid 0593158687 Lailah 4 4.19 2022
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/08
date added: 2025/01/09
shelves:
review:
I really like this author and how this and at least malibu rising are interconnected. Good stuff!!
]]> 124627 105 Peter Kuper 1563893223 Lailah 5 3.90 1997
author: Peter Kuper
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/10/20
shelves:
review:

]]> 59364173
Jennette McCurdy was six years old when she had her first acting audition. Her mother’s dream was for her only daughter to become a star, and Jennette would do anything to make her mother happy. So she went along with what Mom called “calorie restriction,â€� eating little and weighing herself five times a day. She endured extensive at-home makeovers while Mom chided, “Your eyelashes are invisible, okay? You think Dakota Fanning doesn’t tint hers?â€� She was even showered by Mom until age sixteen while sharing her diaries, email, and all her income.

In I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette recounts all this in unflinching detail—just as she chronicles what happens when the dream finally comes true. Cast in a new Nickelodeon series called iCarly , she is thrust into fame. Though Mom is ecstatic, emailing fan club moderators and getting on a first-name basis with the paparazzi (“Hi Gale!â€�), Jennette is riddled with anxiety, shame, and self-loathing, which manifest into eating disorders, addiction, and a series of unhealthy relationships. These issues only get worse when, soon after taking the lead in the iCarly spinoff Sam & Cat alongside Ariana Grande, her mother dies of cancer. Finally, after discovering therapy and quitting acting, Jennette embarks on recovery and decides for the first time in her life what she really wants.

Told with refreshing candor and dark humor, I’m Glad My Mom Died is an inspiring story of resilience, independence, and the joy of shampooing your own hair.]]> 320 Jennette McCurdy Lailah 5 4.45 2022
author: Jennette McCurdy
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/08
date added: 2024/08/10
shelves:
review:
First book I've rated 5 stars in so long. I'm such a picky reader and I genuinely could not put this one down.
]]> 59586261 The prequel to We Were Liars takes readers back to the story of another summer, another generation, and the secrets that will haunt them for decades to come.

A windswept private island off the coast of Massachusetts.
A hungry ocean, churning with secrets and sorrow.
A fiery, addicted heiress. An irresistible, unpredictable boy.
A summer of unforgivable betrayal and terrible mistakes.

Welcome back to the Sinclair family.
They were always liars.]]> 299 E. Lockhart 059356880X Lailah 4 3.75 2022
author: E. Lockhart
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/18
date added: 2024/08/01
shelves:
review:

]]> 44279110
Our narrator should be happy, shouldn’t she? She’s young, thin, pretty, a recent Columbia graduate, works an easy job at a hip art gallery, lives in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan paid for, like the rest of her needs, by her inheritance. But there is a dark and vacuous hole in her heart, and it isn’t just the loss of her parents, or the way her Wall Street boyfriend treats her, or her sadomasochistic relationship with her best friend, Reva. It’s the year 2000 in a city aglitter with wealth and possibility; what could be so terribly wrong?

My Year of Rest and Relaxation is a powerful answer to that question. Through the story of a year spent under the influence of a truly mad combination of drugs designed to heal our heroine from her alienation from this world, Moshfegh shows us how reasonable, even necessary, alienation can be. Both tender and blackly funny, merciless and compassionate, it is a showcase for the gifts of one of our major writers working at the height of her powers.]]> 289 Ottessa Moshfegh 0525522131 Lailah 4 3.62 2018
author: Ottessa Moshfegh
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/12
date added: 2024/07/15
shelves:
review:
I would've given it 3 stars but the ending was the most surprising part
]]> 7763 Alternate cover editions of ISBN 9780143038092 can be found here.

Four mothers, four daughters, four families, whose histories shift with the four winds depending on who's telling the stories. In 1949, four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, meet weekly to play mahjong and tell stories of what they left behind in China. United in loss and new hope for their daughters' futures, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Their daughters, who have never heard these stories, think their mothers' advice is irrelevant to their modern American lives � until their own inner crises reveal how much they've unknowingly inherited of their mothers' pasts.

With wit and sensitivity, Amy Tan examines the sometimes painful, often tender, and always deep connection between mothers and daughters. As each woman reveals her secrets, trying to unravel the truth about her life, the strings become more tangled, more entwined. Mothers boast or despair over daughters, and daughters roll their eyes even as they feel the inextricable tightening of their matriarchal ties. Tan is an astute storyteller, enticing readers to immerse themselves into these lives of complexity and mystery.]]> 288 Amy Tan Lailah 0 currently-reading 3.96 1989
author: Amy Tan
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1989
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/16
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 54985743 Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.

Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.

Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since.

Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.

Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?]]> 400 Emily Henry 1984806750 Lailah 4 3.85 2021
author: Emily Henry
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/08
date added: 2024/05/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 46042377 From the author of The House of the Spirits, this epic novel spanning decades and crossing continents follows two young people as they flee the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War in search of a place to call home.

In the late 1930s, civil war grips Spain. When General Franco and his Fascists succeed in overthrowing the government, hundreds of thousands are forced to flee in a treacherous journey over the mountains to the French border. Among them is Roser, a pregnant young widow, who finds her life intertwined with that of Victor Dalmau, an army doctor and the brother of her deceased love. In order to survive, the two must unite in a marriage neither of them desires.

Together with two thousand other refugees, they embark on the SS Winnipeg, a ship chartered by the poet Pablo Neruda, to Chile: “the long petal of sea and wine and snow.â€� As unlikely partners, they embrace exile as the rest of Europe erupts in world war. Starting over on a new continent, their trials are just beginning, and over the course of their lives, they will face trial after trial. But they will also find joy as they patiently await the day when they will be exiles no more. Through it all, their hope of returning to Spain keeps them going. Destined to witness the battle between freedom and repression as it plays out across the world, Roser and Victor will find that home might have been closer than they thought all along.

A masterful work of historical fiction about hope, exile, and belonging, A Long Petal of the Sea shows Isabel Allende at the height of her powers. ]]> 325 Isabel Allende Lailah 3 4.03 2019
author: Isabel Allende
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/24
date added: 2024/04/24
shelves:
review:

]]> 18108757
A truly one-off collection of Alexa's writing, doodles and photographs, It combines stories of early style inspirations such as her grandpa and the Spice Girls, discussion of figures of obsession like Jane Birkin and Annie Hall, and reflects on heartbreak, how to get dressed in the morning, the challenges of taking a good selfie, and more. Interspersed with pages from Alexa's notebooks and many a photo of a good night out, It appears in real cloth, with hand-crafted marbled endpages covered in polkadots, stripy head and tail bands, and luxiouriously creamy paper. Witty, charming and with a refreshingly down-to-earth attitude, It is a must-have for anyone who loves fashion, worries about growing up, or loves just about everything Alexa Chung.]]> 192 Alexa Chung 1846147549 Lailah 0 to-read 3.35 2013
author: Alexa Chung
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.35
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 6514 294 Sylvia Plath 0571268862 Lailah 5 4.05 1963
author: Sylvia Plath
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1963
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/15
date added: 2024/02/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 58532214 Little Rabbit first meets the choreographer at an artists' residency in Maine, it's not a match. She finds him loud, conceited, domineering. He thinks her serious, guarded, always running away to write. But when he reappears in her life in Boston and invites her to his dance company's performance, she's compelled to attend. Their interaction at the show sets off a summer of expanding her own body's boundaries: She follows the choreographer to his home in the Berkshires, to his apartment in New York, and into submission during sex. Her body learns to obediently follow his, and his desires quickly become inextricable from her pleasure. This must be happiness, right?

Back in Boston, her roommate Annie's skepticism amplifies her own doubts about these heady weekend retreats. What does it mean for a queer young woman to partner with an older man, for a fledgling artist to partner with an established one? Is she following her own agency, or is she merely following him? Does falling in love mean eviscerating yourself?

Combining the sticky sexual politics of Luster with the dizzying, perceptive intimacy of Cleanness, Little Rabbit is a wholly new kind of coming-of-age story about lust, punishment, artistic drive, and desires that defy the hard-won boundaries of the self.]]> 256 Alyssa Songsiridej 1635578698 Lailah 0 to-read 3.72 2022
author: Alyssa Songsiridej
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 22822858
Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride.ÌęYet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever.]]> 720 Hanya Yanagihara 0385539258 Lailah 1 4.28 2015
author: Hanya Yanagihara
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2015
rating: 1
read at: 2024/01/02
date added: 2024/01/02
shelves:
review:
It took me forever to read this book, but I finally bit the bullet and finished it last month. I really wish I hadn't wasted my time. I wanted so badly to believe in the 700+ pages I would actually find meaning, but turns out the entire book is just trauma p*rn. Start to finish. Embarrassing because hanya has great prose.
]]> 57693598 The first major biography of the Nobel Prize-winning scientist who discovered neurons and transformed our understanding of the human mind--illustrated with his extraordinary anatomical drawings



Unless you're a neuroscientist, Santiago Ramïżœn y Cajal is likely the most important figure in the history of biology you've never heard of. Along with Charles Darwin and Louis Pasteur, he ranks among the most brilliant and original biologists of the nineteenth century, and his discoveries have done for our understanding of the human brain what the work of Galileo and Sir Isaac Newton did for our conception of the physical universe. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1906 for his lifelong investigation of the structure of neurons: "The mysterious butterflies of the soul," Cajal called them, "whose beating of wings may one day reveal to us the secrets of the mind." And he produced a dazzling oeuvre of anatomical drawings, whose alien beauty grace the pages of medical textbooks and the walls of museums to this day.

Benjamin Ehrlich's The Brain in Search of Itself is the first major biography in English of this singular figure, whose scientific odyssey mirrored the rocky journey of his beloved homeland of Spain into the twentieth century. Born into relative poverty in a mountaintop hamlet, Cajal was an enterprising and unruly child whose ambitions were both nurtured and thwarted by his father, a country doctor with a flinty disposition. A portrait of a nation as well a biography, The Brain in Search of Itself follows Cajal from the hinterlands to Barcelona and Madrid, where he became an illustrious figure--resisting and ultimately transforming the rigid hierarchies and underdeveloped science that surrounded him. To momentous effect, Cajal devised a theory that was as controversial in his own time as it is universal in ours: that the nervous system is comprised of individual cells with distinctive roles, just like any other organ in the body. In one of the greatest scientific rivalries in history, he argued his case against Camillo Golgi and prevailed.

In our age of neuro-imaging and investigations into the neural basis of the mind, Cajal is the artistic and scientific forefather we must get to know. The Brain in Search of Itself is at once the story of how the brain as we know it came into being and a finely wrought portrait of an individual as fantastical and complex as the subject to which he devoted his life.]]> 464 Benjamin Ehrlich 0374110379 Lailah 0 currently-reading 4.37
author: Benjamin Ehrlich
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.37
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/11/06
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 34885438 196 Faith G. Harper 1621064972 Lailah 0 to-read 3.27 2017
author: Faith G. Harper
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.27
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/11/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 52979490 127 Faith G. Harper 1621065480 Lailah 0 to-read 3.60
author: Faith G. Harper
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.60
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/11/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 34759012 65 Faith G. Harper Lailah 5 3.41 2018
author: Faith G. Harper
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2022/11/06
date added: 2022/11/06
shelves:
review:
As someone whose struggled with anxiety my whole life, this is my first book reading about it. Thought it was funny and kind. I really liked the part about anxiety meaning that your body is fighting back (as opposed to the learned helplessness of depression). Now I keep saying "the university is inherently in my favor!" before I full send whatever I do.
]]> 327 Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers features new chapters on how stress affects sleep and addiction, as well as new insights into anxiety and personality disorder and the impact of spirituality on managing stress.

As Sapolsky explains, most of us do not lie awake at night worrying about whether we have leprosy or malaria. Instead, the diseases we fear—and the ones that plague us now—are illnesses brought on by the slow accumulation of damage, such as heart disease and cancer. When we worry or experience stress, our body turns on the same physiological responses that an animal's does, but we do not resolve conflict in the same way—through fighting or fleeing. Over time, this activation of a stress response makes us sick.]]> 560 Robert M. Sapolsky 0805073698 Lailah 0 to-read 4.17 1993
author: Robert M. Sapolsky
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1993
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/11/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 57693262 For readers of Modern Lovers and Conversations with Friends, an addictive, humorous, and poignant debut novel about the shock waves caused by one couple's impulsive marriage.

Twenty-four-year-old British painter Cleo has escaped from England to New York and is still finding her place in the sleepless city when, a few months before her student visa ends, she meets Frank. Twenty years older and a self-made success, Frank's life is full of all the excesses Cleo's lacks. He offers her the chance to be happy, the freedom to paint, and the opportunity to apply for a Green Card. But their impulsive marriage irreversibly changes both their lives, and the lives of those close to them, in ways they never could've predicted.

Each compulsively readable chapter explores the lives of Cleo, Frank, and an unforgettable cast of their closest friends and family as they grow up and grow older. Whether it's Cleo's best friend struggling to embrace his gender queerness in the wake of Cleo's marriage, or Frank's financially dependent sister arranging sugar daddy dates to support herself after being cut off, or Cleo and Frank themselves as they discover the trials of marriage and mental illness, each character is as absorbing, and painfully relatable, as the last.

As hilarious as it is heartbreaking, entertaining as it is deeply moving, Cleopatra and Frankenstein marks the entry of a brilliant and bold new talent.]]> 368 Coco Mellors 1635576814 Lailah 1 3.70 2022
author: Coco Mellors
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2022
rating: 1
read at: 2022/10/16
date added: 2022/10/16
shelves:
review:
I feel like you either love or hate this book. im on the hate side. couldn't even finish. Did make me wanna get eloped though.
]]> 52578297
When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change.

The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren't always what she imagined they'd be, and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger.

Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?]]> 288 Matt Haig 0525559477 Lailah 0 to-read 3.96 2020
author: Matt Haig
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/07/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 68783
Kaysen's memoir encompasses horror and razor-edged perception while providing vivid portraits of her fellow patients and their keepers. It is a brilliant evocation of a "parallel universe" set within the kaleidoscopically shifting landscape of the late sixties. Girl, Interrupted is a clear-sighted, unflinching documnet that gives lasting and specific dimension to our definitions of sane and insane, mental illness and recovery.]]> 169 Susanna Kaysen 0679746048 Lailah 5 3.95 1993
author: Susanna Kaysen
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1993
rating: 5
read at: 2022/07/24
date added: 2022/07/24
shelves:
review:

]]> 3914
Reproducing a time and place with extraordinary clarity, Leonard Michaels explores with self-wounding honesty the excruciating particulars of a youthful marriage headed for disaster.]]> 129 Leonard Michaels 0374271070 Lailah 0 to-read 3.82 1992
author: Leonard Michaels
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1992
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 22929602
What Belongs to You is a stunning debut novel of desire and its consequences. With lyric intensity and startling eroticism, Garth Greenwell has created an indelible story about the ways in which our pasts and cultures, our scars and shames can shape who we are and determine how we love.

Listening length: 6 hours, 11 minutes]]> 195 Garth Greenwell 0374288224 Lailah 0 to-read 3.79 2016
author: Garth Greenwell
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 10187223 There but for the is the sparkling satirical novel by bestselling Ali Smith. 'There once was a man who, one night between the main course and the sweet at a dinner party, went upstairs and locked himself in one of the bedrooms of the house of the people who were giving the dinner party . . .' As time passes by and the consequences of this stranger's actions ripple outwards, touching the owners, the guests, the neighbours and the whole country, so Ali Smith draws us into a beautiful, strange place where everyone is so much more than they at first appear.

There but for the was hailed as one of the best books of 2011 by Jeanette Winterson, A.S. Byatt, Patrick Ness, Sebastian Barry, Boyd Tonkin, Erica Wagner and Nick Barley. 'Dazzlingly inventive' A.S. Byatt 'Whimsically devastating. Playful, humorous, serious, profoundly clever and profoundly affecting' Guardian 'A real gem' Erica Wagner, The Times 'Eccentric, adventurous, intoxicating, dazzling. This is a novel with serious ambitions that remains huge fun to read' Literary Review 'If you liked Smith's earlier fiction, you will know that she enjoys setting up a situation before chucking in a literary Molotov cocktail then describing what happens' Sunday Express 'Wonderful, word-playful, compelling' Jeanette Winterson 'Smith can make anything happen, which is why she is one of our most exciting writers today' Daily Telegraph 'I take my hat off to Ali Smith. Her writing lifts the soul' Evening Standard]]> 357 Ali Smith Lailah 0 to-read 3.49 2011
author: Ali Smith
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 1743853 240 Meg Cabot 0545039479 Lailah 0 3.77 2008
author: Meg Cabot
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/07/04
shelves:
review:

]]> 427264
Learning to swing from the rafters, eating peanut-butter sandwiches with her feet . . . Evangeline Mudd has had an unusual childhood. Her primatologist parents have taken their child-rearing cues from the golden-haired ape, whose lifestyle they deeply admire. But things take a drastic turn when Evangeline’s parents are called away on a research trip to the Ikkinasti Jungle, then mysteriously fail to return â€� leaving it up to their dauntless daughter to find them herself! David Elliott’s comical, offbeat tale introduces a winning heroine as it whisks readers off on a wild adventure.]]> 208 David Elliott 0763626147 Lailah 0 3.87 2004
author: David Elliott
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/07/04
shelves:
review:

]]> 5821978 276 Jenny Han 1416968237 Lailah 2 3.77 2009
author: Jenny Han
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2009
rating: 2
read at: 2022/06/11
date added: 2022/07/04
shelves:
review:
I enjoyed reading, but didn't really care for the prose. Also, Belly was often so immature and petulant.. I guess that speaks to her age, but it made it hard to empathize with her.
]]> 58014893
Until she receives the call that sends her racing back to Barry’s Bay and into the orbit of Sam Florek—the man she never thought she’d have to live without.

For six summers, through hazy afternoons on the water and warm summer nights working in his family’s restaurant and curling up together with books—medical textbooks for him and work-in-progress horror short stories for her—Percy and Sam had been inseparable. Eventually that friendship turned into something breathtakingly more, before it fell spectacularly apart.

When Percy returns to the lake for Sam’s mother’s funeral, their connection is as undeniable as it had always been. But until Percy can confront the decisions she made and the years she’s spent punishing herself for them, they’ll never know whether their love might be bigger than the biggest mistakes of their past.

Told over the course of six years and one weekend, Every Summer After is a big, sweeping nostalgic look at love and the people and choices that mark us forever.

Six summers to fall in love. One moment to fall apart. A weekend to get it right.]]> 320 Carley Fortune 0593438531 Lailah 3 4.17 2022
author: Carley Fortune
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2022/07/04
date added: 2022/07/04
shelves:
review:
I read this because someone mentioned it was like The Summer I Turned Pretty (which I liked the plot of, but not the writing of) but in a different font. Very true. Beautiful book and very good prose. Percy was just kind of dumb.
]]> 102920 222 Scott McCloud Lailah 3 4.00 1993
author: Scott McCloud
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1993
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2022/06/25
shelves:
review:

]]> 39168414
Honford Star’s edition of Endless Blue Sky, the first in English, includes an introduction and explantory notes by translator Steven D. Capener.]]> 342 Lee Hyoseok 199979124X Lailah 0 to-read 3.61
author: Lee Hyoseok
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.61
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/06/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 7823678
Greg suddenly finds himself dealing with the pressures of boy-girl parties, increased responsibilities, and even the awkward changes that come with getting older—all without his best friend, Rowley, at his side. Can Greg make it through on his own? Or will he have to face the “ugly truthâ€�?]]> 217 Jeff Kinney 0810984911 Lailah 5 4.18 2010
author: Jeff Kinney
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/06/25
shelves:
review:

]]> 6578293 Ìę
Greg, a self-confessed "indoor person,â€� is living out his ultimate summer fantasy: no responsibilities and no rules. But Greg’s mom has a different vision for an ideal summer . . . one packed with outdoor activities and "family togetherness.â€�
Ìę
Whose vision will win out? Or will a new addition to the Heffley family change everything?]]> 218 Jeff Kinney 0810983915 Lailah 5 4.17 2009
author: Jeff Kinney
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/06/25
shelves:
review:

]]> 3293821 218 Jeff Kinney 0810970686 Lailah 5 4.14 2009
author: Jeff Kinney
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/06/25
shelves:
review:

]]> 1809465 NEW YORK TIMES bestselling book!

Secrets have a way of getting out, especially when a diary is involved.

Whatever you do, don’t ask Greg Heffley how he spent his summer vacation, because he definitely doesn’t want to talk about it.

As Greg enters the new school year, he’s eager to put the past three months behind him . . . and one event in particular.

Unfortunately for Greg, his older brother, Rodrick, knows all about the incident Greg wants to keep under wraps. But secrets have a way of getting out . . . especially when a diary is involved.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules chronicles Greg’s attempts to navigate the hazards of middle school, impress the girls, steer clear of the school talent show, and most important, keep his secret safe.]]> 226 Jeff Kinney 0810994739 Lailah 5 4.16 2008
author: Jeff Kinney
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/06/25
shelves:
review:

]]> 9516
Persepolis paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran and of the bewildering contradictions between home life and public life. Marjane’s child’s-eye view of dethroned emperors, state-sanctioned whippings, and heroes of the revolution allows us to learn as she does the history of this fascinating country and of her own extraordinary family. Intensely personal, profoundly political, and wholly original, Persepolis is at once a story of growing up and a reminder of the human cost of war and political repression. It shows how we carry on, with laughter and tears, in the face of absurdity. And, finally, it introduces us to an irresistible little girl with whom we cannot help but fall in love.]]> 153 Marjane Satrapi 037571457X Lailah 5 4.27 2003
author: Marjane Satrapi
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/06/13
shelves:
review:

]]> 834713 An alternate cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a 2007 novel by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini. It is his second, following his bestselling 2003 debut, The Kite Runner. The book, which spans a period of over 40 years, from the 1960s to 2003, focuses on the tumultuous lives and relationship of Mariam and Laila, two Afghan women. Mariam, an illegitimate child, suffers from the stigma surrounding her birth and the abuse she faces throughout her marriage. Laila, born a generation later, is comparatively privileged during her youth until their lives intersect and she is also forced to accept a marriage proposal from Rasheed, Mariam's husband.]]> 372 Khaled Hosseini 0747582971 Lailah 5 4.46 2007
author: Khaled Hosseini
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/06/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 67397 256 Nizami Ganjavi 1857821610 Lailah 0 to-read 4.10 1192
author: Nizami Ganjavi
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1192
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/06/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 52089753 From author Colleen Hoover comes a novel that explores life after tragedy and the enduring spirit of love.

When Leeds meets Layla, he’s convinced he’ll spend the rest of his life with her—until an unexpected attack leaves Layla fighting for her life. After weeks in the hospital, Layla recovers physically, but the emotional and mental scarring has altered the woman Leeds fell in love with. In order to put their relationship back on track, Leeds whisks Layla away to the bed-and-breakfast where they first met. Once they arrive, Layla’s behavior takes a bizarre turn. And that’s just one of many inexplicable occurrences.

Feeling distant from Layla, Leeds soon finds solace in Willow—another guest of the B&B with whom he forms a connection through their shared concerns. As his curiosity for Willow grows, his decision to help her find answers puts him in direct conflict with Layla’s well-being. Leeds soon realizes he has to make a choice because he can’t help both of them. But if he makes the wrong choice, it could be detrimental for all of them.
]]> 305 Colleen Hoover 1542000181 Lailah 0 to-read 3.63 2020
author: Colleen Hoover
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/06/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 40605223 Now a Netflix original movie, this deeply scary and intensely unnerving novel follows a couple in the midst of a twisted unraveling of the darkest unease. You will be scared. But you won’t know whyâ€�

I’m thinking of ending things. Once this thought arrives, it stays. It sticks. It lingers. It’s always there. Always.

Jake once said, “Sometimes a thought is closer to truth, to reality, than an action. You can say anything, you can do anything, but you can’t fake a thought.â€�

And here’s what I’m thinking: I don’t want to be here.

In this smart and intense literary suspense novel, Iain Reid explores the depths of the human psyche, questioning consciousness, free will, the value of relationships, fear, and the limitations of solitude. Tense, gripping, and atmospheric, I’m Thinking of Ending Things pulls you in from the very first page
and never lets you go.]]> 241 Iain Reid Lailah 3 3.53 2016
author: Iain Reid
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2022/06/08
date added: 2022/06/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 50172266 *Winner of the 2017 DINKy Award for Best Webcomic*

No man is an island, but Dr. Michael Fisher, a disgraced planetary geologist living on Mars, has never felt more isolated. The situation worsens when both he and Dr. Bex Egunsola, the station's newest biologist, accidentally break through the floor of an unstable lava tube into an ancient subterranean world... and they are not alone.

Is this purgatorial abyss a prison or a sanctuary? Genuine or constructed? How thin runs the line between life and death? And is there a chance for the fallen to return to the world of the living?

Book is available to purchase directly from the publisher here: ]]> 296 Der-shing Helmer 0998193739 Lailah 0 4.20 2019
author: Der-shing Helmer
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/01/18
shelves:
review:

]]> 43923951 Such a Fun Age is a page-turning and big-hearted story about race and privilege, set around a young black babysitter, her well-intentioned employer, and a surprising connection that threatens to undo them both.

Alix Chamberlain is a woman who gets what she wants and has made a living, with her confidence-driven brand, showing other women how to do the same. So she is shocked when her babysitter, Emira Tucker, is confronted while watching the Chamberlains' toddler one night, walking the aisles of their local high-end supermarket. The store's security guard, seeing a young black woman out late with a white child, accuses Emira of kidnapping two-year-old Briar. A small crowd gathers, a bystander films everything, and Emira is furious and humiliated. Alix resolves to make things right.

But Emira herself is aimless, broke, and wary of Alix's desire to help. At twenty-five, she is about to lose her health insurance and has no idea what to do with her life. When the video of Emira unearths someone from Alix's past, both women find themselves on a crash course that will upend everything they think they know about themselves, and each other.

With empathy and piercing social commentary, Such a Fun Age explores the stickiness of transactional relationships, what it means to make someone family, and the complicated reality of being a grown up. It is a searing debut for our times.]]> 310 Kiley Reid 052554190X Lailah 0 currently-reading 3.76 2019
author: Kiley Reid
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/01/05
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 57693171
Despite their alluring public lives, behind closed doors things are far less rosy. Sure, Olga can orchestrate the love stories of the 1%, but she can't seem to find her own...until she meets Matteo, who forces her to confront the effects of long-held family secrets...

Twenty-seven years ago, their mother, Blanca, a Young Lord-turned-radical, abandoned her children to advance a militant political cause, leaving them to be raised by their grandmother. Now, with the winds of hurricane season, Blanca has come barreling back into their lives.

Set against the backdrop of New York City in the months surrounding the most devastating hurricane in Puerto Rico's history, Olga Dies Dreaming is a story that examines political corruption, familial strife and the very notion of the American dream--all while asking what it really means to weather a storm.]]> 369 XĂłchitl GonzĂĄlez 1250786177 Lailah 0 to-read 3.95 2022
author: XĂłchitl GonzĂĄlez
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/01/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 50093704 Where do you see yourself in five years?

When Type-A Manhattan lawyer Dannie Kohan is asked this question at the most important interview of her career, she has a meticulously crafted answer at the ready. Later, after nailing her interview and accepting her boyfriend's marriage proposal, Dannie goes to sleep knowing she is right on track to achieve her five-year plan.

But when she wakes up, she’s suddenly in a different apartment, with a different ring on her finger, and beside a very different man. The television news is on in the background, and she can just make out the scrolling date. It’s the same night—December 15—but 2025, five years in the future.

After a very intense, shocking hour, Dannie wakes again, at the brink of midnight, back in 2020. She can’t shake what has happened. It certainly felt much more than merely a dream, but she isn’t the kind of person who believes in visions. That nonsense is only charming coming from free-spirited types, like her lifelong best friend, Bella. Determined to ignore the odd experience, she files it away in the back of her mind.

That is, until four-and-a-half years later, when by chance Dannie meets the very same man from her long-ago vision.

Brimming with joy and heartbreak, In Five Years is an unforgettable love story that reminds us of the power of loyalty, friendship, and the unpredictable nature of destiny.]]> 272 Rebecca Serle 1982137444 Lailah 0 to-read 3.74 2020
author: Rebecca Serle
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/01/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 16143347 A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.

We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from New York Times bestselling author, National Book Award finalist, and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart.

Read it.

And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.]]> 242 E. Lockhart 0385741278 Lailah 4 3.65 2014
author: E. Lockhart
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2022/01/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 56597885 356 Sally Rooney 0374602603 Lailah 0 to-read 3.53 2021
author: Sally Rooney
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 116223 288 Keiji Nakazawa 0867196025 Lailah 5 4.25 1973
author: Keiji Nakazawa
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1973
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/01/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 10108463 The Devil All the Time follows a cast of characters from the end of World War II to the 1960s. There’s Willard Russell, tormented veteran of the carnage in the South Pacific, who can’t save his beautiful wife, Charlotte, from an agonizing death by cancer no matter how much sacrifi­cial blood he pours on his “prayer log.â€� There’s Carl and Sandy Henderson, a husband-and-wife team of serial kill­ers, who troll America’s highways searching for suitable models to photograph and exterminate. There’s the spider-handling preacher Roy and his crippled virtuoso-guitar-playing sidekick, Theodore, running from the law. And caught in the middle of all this is Arvin Eugene Russell, Willard and Charlotte’s orphaned son, who grows up to be a good but also violent man in his own right.]]> 261 Donald Ray Pollock 038553504X Lailah 0 to-read 4.13 2011
author: Donald Ray Pollock
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 1845 Librarian's Note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

In April, 1992, a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, a party of moose hunters found his decomposed body. How McCandless came to die is the unforgettable story of Into the Wild.

Immediately after graduating from college in 1991, McCandless had roamed through the West and Southwest on a vision quest like those made by his heroes Jack London and John Muir. In the Mojave Desert he abandoned his car, stripped it of its license plates, and burned all of his cash. He would give himself a new name, Alexander Supertramp, and, unencumbered by money and belongings, he would be free to wallow in the raw, unfiltered experiences that nature presented. Craving a blank spot on the map, McCandless simply threw away the maps. Leaving behind his desperate parents and sister, he vanished into the wild.]]> 207 Jon Krakauer 0385486804 Lailah 5 4.01 1996
author: Jon Krakauer
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1996
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/01/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 16085481
When Rachel Chu agrees to spend the summer in Singapore with her boyfriend, Nicholas Young, she envisions a humble family home, long drives to explore the island, and quality time with the man she might one day marry. What she doesn't know is that Nick's family home happens to look like a palace, that she'll ride in more private planes than cars, and that with one of Asia's most eligible bachelors on her arm, Rachel might as well have a target on her back.

Initiated into a world of dynastic splendor beyond imagination, Rachel meets Astrid, the It Girl of Singapore society; Eddie, whose family practically lives in the pages of the Hong Kong socialite magazines; and Eleanor, Nick's formidable mother, a woman who has very strong feelings about who her son should—and should not—marry.

Uproarious, addictive, and filled with jaw-dropping opulence, Crazy Rich Asians is an insider's look at the Asian JetSet; a perfect depiction of the clash between old money and new money; between Overseas Chinese and Mainland Chinese; and a fabulous novel about what it means to be young, in love, and gloriously, crazily rich.]]> 403 Kevin Kwan 0385536976 Lailah 0 to-read 3.91 2013
author: Kevin Kwan
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 191139 For out-starting upstarts of all ages, here is a wonderfully wise and blessedly brief graduation speech from the one and only Dr. Seuss!

In his inimitable, humorous verse and pictures, he addresses the Great Balancing Act (life itself, and the ups and downs it presents) while encouraging us to find the success that lies within us.

"And will you succeed?
Yes! You will indeed!
(98 and Ÿ percent guaranteed.)"

A modern classic, Oh, the Places You'll Go! was first published one year before Dr. Seuss's death at the age of eighty-seven. In a mere fifty-six pages, Dr, Seuss managed to impart a lifetime of wisdom. It is the perfect send-off for children starting out in the maze of life, be they nursery school grads or newly-minted PhD's. Everyone will find it inspired good fun.

With his unique combination of hilarious stories, zany pictures and riotous rhymes, Dr. Seuss has been delighting young children and helping them learn to read for over fifty years. Creator of the wonderfully anarchic 'Cat in the Hat', and ranked among the world's top children's authors, Dr. Seuss is a global best-seller, with nearly half a billion books sold worldwide.]]> 44 Dr. Seuss 0679805273 Lailah 4 4.37 1990
author: Dr. Seuss
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1990
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2022/01/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 4948
One sunny Sunday, the caterpillar was hatched out of a tiny egg. He was very hungry. On Monday, he ate through one apple; on Tuesday, he ate through three plums--and still he was hungry. When full at last, he made a cocoon around himself and went to sleep, to wake up a few weeks later wonderfully transformed into a butterfly!

The brilliantly innovative Eric Carle has dramatized the story of one of Nature's commonest yet loveliest marvels, the metamorphosis of the butterfly. This audiobook will delight as well as instruct the very youngest listener.]]> 26 Eric Carle 0241003008 Lailah 5 4.33 1969
author: Eric Carle
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1969
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/01/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 9522 76 Marjane Satrapi 2844140580 Lailah 5 4.30 2000
author: Marjane Satrapi
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/01/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 157993
Few stories are as widely read and as universally cherished by children and adults alike as The Little Prince, presented here in a stunning new translation with carefully restored artwork. The definitive edition of a worldwide classic, it will capture the hearts of readers of all ages.]]> 96 Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 0152023984 Lailah 5 4.32 1943
author: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1943
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/01/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 36336078 Call Me by Your Name is the story of a sudden and powerful romance that blossoms between an adolescent boy and a summer guest at his parents' cliff-side mansion on the Italian Riviera. Unprepared for the consequences of their attraction, at first each feigns indifference. But during the restless summer weeks that follow, unrelenting buried currents of obsession and fear, fascination and desire, intensify their passion as they test the charged ground between them. What grows from the depths of their spirits is a romance of scarcely six weeks' duration and an experience that marks them for a lifetime. For what the two discover on the Riviera and during a sultry evening in Rome is the one thing both already fear they may never truly find again: total intimacy.

The psychological maneuvers that accompany attraction have seldom been more shrewdly captured than in André Aciman's frank, unsentimental, heartrending elegy to human passion. Call Me by Your Name is clear-eyed, bare-knuckled, and ultimately unforgettable.]]> 248 André Aciman 1786495252 Lailah 5 4.08 2007
author: André Aciman
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/01/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 18135 Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare creates a violent world, in which two young people fall in love. It is not simply that their families disapprove; the Montagues and the Capulets are engaged in a blood feud.

In this death-filled setting, the movement from love at first sight to the lovers� final union in death seems almost inevitable. And yet, this play set in an extraordinary world has become the quintessential story of young love. In part because of its exquisite language, it is easy to respond as if it were about all young lovers.]]> 281 William Shakespeare 0743477111 Lailah 5 3.74 1597
author: William Shakespeare
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1597
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/01/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 7735333
Cassia has always trusted their choices. It’s hardly any price to pay for a long life, the perfect job, the ideal mate. So when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is the one
until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible choices: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s known and a path no one else has ever dared follow—between perfection and passion.

Matched is a story for right now and storytelling with the resonance of a classic.]]> 369 Ally Condie 0525423648 Lailah 3 3.62 2010
author: Ally Condie
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2022/01/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 6442769 Who is the real Margo?

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs into his life—dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows. After their all-nighter ends, and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues—and they're for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees the girl he thought he knew...]]> 305 John Green 014241493X Lailah 4 3.68 2008
author: John Green
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2022/01/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 99561 Before. Miles “Pudgeâ€� Halter is done with his safe life at home. His whole life has been one big non-event, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave “the Great Perhapsâ€� even more (Francois Rabelais, poet). He heads off to the sometimes crazy and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young. She is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart. Then. . . .
After. Nothing is ever the same.]]> 221 John Green 1435249151 Lailah 5 3.97 2005
author: John Green
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/01/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 41865
First, Edward was a vampire.

Second, there was a part of him - and I didn't know how dominant that part might be - that thirsted for my blood.

And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.

Deeply seductive and extraordinarily suspenseful, Twilight is a love story with bite.]]> 498 Stephenie Meyer 0316015849 Lailah 3 3.66 2005
author: Stephenie Meyer
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2022/01/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 6054449 327 Rachel Renée Russell 1416980067 Lailah 5 4.11 2009
author: Rachel Renée Russell
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/01/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 38424 Baby-Sitters Club book, Raina Telgemeier captures all the drama of the original in warm, spunky illustrations. Witness Kristy's eureka moment, when she gets the idea for a "baby-sitters club" and enlists her best friends, shy Mary Anne and artistic Claudia, in an exciting new venture. But the baby-sitting business isn't the only thing absorbing their attention: Kristy is having a hard time accepting her stepdad-to-be, and the newest member of the gang, Stacey, seems to be hiding a secret.]]> 192 Raina Telgemeier Lailah 5 4.14 2006
author: Raina Telgemeier
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/01/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 6393631 214 Raina Telgemeier 0545132053 Lailah 5 4.22 2009
author: Raina Telgemeier
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/01/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 18465566
In This One Summer two stellar creators redefine the teen graphic novel. Cousins Mariko and Jillian Tamaki, the team behind Skim, have collaborated on this gorgeous, heartbreaking, and ultimately hopeful story about a girl on the cusp of her teen age—a story of renewal and revelation.]]> 324 Mariko Tamaki 1626720940 Lailah 4 3.70 2014
author: Mariko Tamaki
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2022/01/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 40864790 In Pumpkinheads author Rainbow Rowell and artist Faith Erin Hicks have teamed up to create this tender and hilarious story about two irresistible teens discovering what it means to leave behind a place―and a person―with no regrets.

Deja and Josiah are seasonal best friends.

Every autumn, all through high school, they’ve worked together at the best pumpkin patch in the whole wide world. (Not many people know that the best pumpkin patch in the whole wide world is in Omaha, Nebraska, but it definitely is.) They say good-bye every Halloween, and they’re reunited every September 1.

But this Halloween is different—Josiah and Deja are finally seniors, and this is their last season at the pumpkin patch. Their last shift together. Their last good-bye.

Josiah’s ready to spend the whole night feeling melancholy about it. Deja isn’t ready to let him. She’s got a plan: What if—instead of moping and the usual slinging lima beans down at the Succotash Hut—they went out with a bang? They could see all the sights! Taste all the snacks! And Josiah could finally talk to that cute girl he’s been mooning over for three years . . .

What if their last shift was an adventure?]]> 209 Rainbow Rowell 125031285X Lailah 5 4.01 2019
author: Rainbow Rowell
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/01/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 40490167 159 Art Spiegelman 2080660292 Lailah 5 4.36 1986
author: Art Spiegelman
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.36
book published: 1986
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/01/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 389627 In the first book of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, #1 international bestselling author Jeff Kinney, introduces us to Greg Heffley: an unforgettable, unlikely hero that every family can relate to.

Being a kid can really stink. And no one knows this better than Greg. He finds himself thrust into middle school, where undersized weaklings share the hallways with kids who are taller, meaner, and already shaving. Greg is happy to have Rowley Jefferson, his sidekick, along for the ride. But when Rowley's star starts to rise, Greg tries to use his best friend's newfound popularity to his own advantage, kicking off a chain of events that will test their friendship in hilarious fashion.

The hazards of growing up before you're ready are uniquely revealed through words and drawings as Greg records them in his diary. But as Greg says: “Just don’t expect me to be all “Dear Diaryâ€� this and “Dear Diaryâ€� that.â€�

Luckily for us, what Greg Heffley says he won’t do and what he actually does are two very different things.]]> 226 Jeff Kinney 0810993139 Lailah 5 3.98 2007
author: Jeff Kinney
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/01/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 18045891
Librarian's Note: this is an alternate cover edition - ISBN 10: 0307341550 (ISBN 13: 9780307341556)]]> 254 Gillian Flynn 0297851535 Lailah 5 4.05 2006
author: Gillian Flynn
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/01/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 19288043 What have we done to each other?

These are the questions Nick Dunne finds himself asking on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary when his wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they weren't made by him. And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone.

So what did happen to Nick's beautiful wife?]]> 415 Gillian Flynn 0307588378 Lailah 0 to-read 4.22 2012
author: Gillian Flynn
name: Lailah
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 4671 The only edition of the beloved classic that is authorized by Fitzgerald’s family and from his lifelong publisher.

This edition is the enduring original text, updated with the author’s own revisions, a foreword by his granddaughter, and with a new introduction by National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward.

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. First published by Scribner in 1925, this quintessential novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the mysteriously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.]]> 180 F. Scott Fitzgerald 0743273567 Lailah 2 3.93 1925
author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
name: Lailah
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1925
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2022/01/02
shelves:
review:

]]>