Lo's bookshelf: all

Lo's bookshelf: all en-US Mon, 31 Mar 2025 08:00:21 -0700 60 Lo's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg East of Eden 4406
Adam Trask came to California from the East to farm and raise his family on the new rich land. But the birth of his twins, Cal and Aaron, brings his wife to the brink of madness, and Adam is left alone to raise his boys to manhood. One boy thrives nurtured by the love of all those around him; the other grows up in loneliness enveloped by a mysterious darkness.

First published in 1952, East of Eden is the work in which Steinbeck created his most mesmerizing characters and explored his most enduring themes: the mystery of identity, the inexplicability of love, and the murderous consequences of love's absence. A masterpiece of Steinbeck's later years, East of Eden is a powerful and vastly ambitious novel that is at once a family saga and a modern retelling of the Book of Genesis.]]> 601 John Steinbeck 0142000655 Lo 1
I really, really wanted to love this. I started it on new year's telling myself it could be one of my new favourite reads, and i was so deeply disappointed. I can deal with a book being a product of its time, wiithin acceptable limits, i can take a few racist or misogynistic passages with a grain of salt, but East of Eden is so deeply rooted in racism and misoginy that it makes it unreadable.

The thing that made me DNF was that learning the main antagonist of the book, Cathy Ames, is inspired by Steinbeck's ex-wife, which is absurd and laughable. Cathy is the only female character in this book that was well developed and, by far, the worst. She's a badly written patricidal conniving seductress who started weaponising her sexuality as a CHILD, prostitutes herself for fun, and has seemingly no coherent or clear motivations. While writing evil women does not make anyone misogynistic, Steinbeck makes it a point to write Cathy as a gross caricature of what a 1950s man thinks an evil woman is. There is nothing groundbreaking about this. There are other female characters, but they all fit into a dutiful wife archetype or are interchangeable prostitutes. It's boring. It bores me out of my mind. As if Steinbeck doesn't have the capacity to view women as complex human beings.

The writing style is dull, for the most part. Monotonous, pretentious. And while some passages have charmed me, they dont make the book worth finishing.]]> 4.41 1952 East of Eden

author: John Steinbeck
name: Lo
average rating: 4.41
book published: 1952
rating: 1
read at: 2025/03/31
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves:
review:
That's it. Im done with this book.

I really, really wanted to love this. I started it on new year's telling myself it could be one of my new favourite reads, and i was so deeply disappointed. I can deal with a book being a product of its time, wiithin acceptable limits, i can take a few racist or misogynistic passages with a grain of salt, but East of Eden is so deeply rooted in racism and misoginy that it makes it unreadable.

The thing that made me DNF was that learning the main antagonist of the book, Cathy Ames, is inspired by Steinbeck's ex-wife, which is absurd and laughable. Cathy is the only female character in this book that was well developed and, by far, the worst. She's a badly written patricidal conniving seductress who started weaponising her sexuality as a CHILD, prostitutes herself for fun, and has seemingly no coherent or clear motivations. While writing evil women does not make anyone misogynistic, Steinbeck makes it a point to write Cathy as a gross caricature of what a 1950s man thinks an evil woman is. There is nothing groundbreaking about this. There are other female characters, but they all fit into a dutiful wife archetype or are interchangeable prostitutes. It's boring. It bores me out of my mind. As if Steinbeck doesn't have the capacity to view women as complex human beings.

The writing style is dull, for the most part. Monotonous, pretentious. And while some passages have charmed me, they dont make the book worth finishing.
]]> <![CDATA[Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation]]> 403846 Caliban and the Witch is a history of the body in the transition to capitalism. Moving from the peasant revolts of the late Middle Ages to the witch-hunts and the rise of mechanical philosophy, Federici investigates the capitalist rationalization of social reproduction. She shows how the battle against the rebel body and the conflict between body and mind are essential conditions for the development of labor power and self-ownership, two central principles of modern social organization.

"It is both a passionate work of memory recovered and a hammer of humanity's agenda." Peter Linebaugh, author of The London Hanged"]]> 288 Silvia Federici 1570270597 Lo 0 to-read 4.55 2004 Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation

Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation

author: Silvia Federici
name: Lo
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves: to-read
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]]> Lolita 198806 Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here

Humbert Humbert is a middle-aged, fastidious college professor. He also likes little girls. And none more so than twelve-year-old Lolita, whom he'll do anything to possess. Is he in love or insane? A silver-tongued poet or a pervert? A tortured soul or a monster? . . Or is he all of these?]]> 361 Vladimir Nabokov 014102349X Lo 5 all-time-favourites 3.88 1955 Lolita

author: Vladimir Nabokov
name: Lo
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1955
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/26
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: all-time-favourites
review:

]]> My Dark Vanessa 44890081
2000. Bright, ambitious, and yearning for adulthood, fifteen-year-old Vanessa Wye becomes entangled in an affair with Jacob Strane, her magnetic and guileful forty-two-year-old English teacher.

2017. Amid the rising wave of allegations against powerful men, a reckoning is coming due. Strane has been accused of sexual abuse by a former student, who reaches out to Vanessa, and now Vanessa suddenly finds herself facing an impossible choice: remain silent, firm in the belief that her teenage self willingly engaged in this relationship, or redefine herself and the events of her past. But how can Vanessa reject her first love, the man who fundamentally transformed her and has been a persistent presence in her life? Is it possible that the man she loved as a teenager—and who professed to worship only her—may be far different from what she has always believed?

Alternating between Vanessa’s present and her past, My Dark Vanessa juxtaposes memory and trauma with the breathless excitement of a teenage girl discovering the power her own body can wield. Thought-provoking and impossible to put down, this is a masterful portrayal of troubled adolescence and its repercussions that raises vital questions about agency, consent, complicity, and victimhood. Written with the haunting intimacy of The Girls and the creeping intensity of Room, My Dark Vanessa is an era-defining novel that brilliantly captures and reflects the shifting cultural mores transforming our relationships and society itself.]]> 373 Kate Elizabeth Russell 006294150X Lo 5 all-time-favourites 4.09 2020 My Dark Vanessa

author: Kate Elizabeth Russell
name: Lo
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: all-time-favourites
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]]> Ariel 395090 Sylvia Plath's celebrated collection.

When Sylvia Plath died, she not only left behind a prolific life but also her unpublished literary masterpiece, Ariel. Her husband, Ted Hughes, brought the collection to life in 1966, and its publication garnered worldwide acclaim. This collection showcases the beloved poet’s brilliant, provoking, and always moving poems, including "Ariel" and once again shows why readers have fallen in love with her work throughout the generations.]]> 128 Sylvia Plath 0060931728 Lo 5 all-time-favourites 4.22 1965 Ariel

author: Sylvia Plath
name: Lo
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1965
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/13
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: all-time-favourites
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Women's Rebellion & Islamic Memory]]> 177341 224 Fatema Mernissi 1856493989 Lo 0 to-read 4.19 1993

author: Fatema Mernissi
name: Lo
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1993
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/13
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]]> <![CDATA[Art + Paris Impressionist Rise of the Impressionists]]> 72727197 235 Museyon Guides 1938450604 Lo 0 to-read 5.00

Art + Paris Impressionist Rise of the Impressionists

author: Museyon Guides
name: Lo
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/11
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]]> Devotion 57865361 Prussia, 1836. Hanne is nearly fifteen and the domestic world of womanhood is quickly closing in on her. A child of nature, she yearns instead for the rush of the river, the wind dancing around her. Hanne finds little comfort in the local girls and friendship doesn't come easily, until she meets Thea and she finds in her a kindred spirit and finally, acceptance.

Hanne's family are Old Lutherans, and in her small village hushed worship is done secretly - this is a community under threat. But when they are granted safe passage to Australia, the community rejoices: at last a place they can pray without fear, a permanent home. Freedom.

It's a promise of freedom that will have devastating consequences for Hanne and Thea, but, on that long and brutal journey, their bond proves too strong for even nature to break...]]> 432 Hannah Kent 1509863915 Lo 0 to-read 3.83 2021 Devotion

author: Hannah Kent
name: Lo
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/11
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]]> <![CDATA[Poesies / Une Saison En Enfer / Illuminations by Rimbaud Arthur Rimbaud Arthur Rimbaud(2011-05-11)]]> 141613227 0 Arthur Rimbaud Lo 0 to-read 3.83

Poesies / Une Saison En Enfer / Illuminations by Rimbaud Arthur Rimbaud Arthur Rimbaud(2011-05-11)

author: Arthur Rimbaud
name: Lo
average rating: 3.83
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/11
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]]> Death and the Dervish 358846 Death and the Dervish is an acclaimed novel��by Bosnian writer Mesa Selimovic. It recounts the story of Sheikh Nuruddin,��a dervish��residing in��an��Islamic��monastery in Sarajevo in the eighteenth century during the��Ottoman Turk��hegemony over the Balkans. When his brother is arrested, he must descend into the Kafkaesque world of the Ottoman authorities in his search to discover what happened to him. He��narrates his story in the form of an elaborate suicide note, regularly misquoting the Koran. In time, he begins to question his relations with society as a whole and, eventually, his life choices in general.

Hugely successful when published in the 1960s,��Death and the Dervish��is an enduring��classic that was made into a feature length film in 1974.]]> 473 Meša Selimović 0810112973 Lo 0 to-read 4.55 1966

author: Meša Selimović
name: Lo
average rating: 4.55
book published: 1966
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/11
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]]> We Are Okay 28243032 You go through life thinking there’s so much you need��

Until you leave with only your phone, your wallet, and a picture of your mother.

Marin hasn’t spoken to anyone from her old life since the day she left everything behind. No one knows the truth about those final weeks. Not even her best friend, Mabel. But even thousands of miles away from the California coast, at college in New York, Marin still feels the pull of the life and tragedy she’s tried to outrun. Now, months later, alone in an emptied dorm for winter break, Marin waits. Mabel is coming to visit, and Marin will be forced to face everything that’s been left unsaid and finally confront the loneliness that has made a home in her heart.]]> 236 Nina LaCour 0525425896 Lo 0 to-read 3.94 2017 We Are Okay

author: Nina LaCour
name: Lo
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/10
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]]> The Little Friend 775346
The setting is Alexandria, Mississippi, where one Mother’s Day a little boy named Robin Cleve Dufresnes was found hanging from a tree in his parents�� yard. Twelve years later Robin’s murder is still unsolved and his family remains devastated. So it is that Robin’s sister Harriet - unnervingly bright, insufferably determined, and unduly influenced by the fiction of Kipling and Robert Louis Stevenson--sets out to unmask his killer. Aided only by her worshipful friend Hely, Harriet crosses her town’s rigid lines of race and caste and burrows deep into her family’s history of loss.]]> 624 Donna Tartt 1400031699 Lo 0 to-read 3.47 2002 The Little Friend

author: Donna Tartt
name: Lo
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2002
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/08
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]]> A Christmas Pageant 989273
Hazel Eyes connects us to universal emotions, those that may be uncomfortable to explore but better to reveal as a way to sooth the soul.

]]> 32 Donna Tartt 0140252983 Lo 0 to-read 3.84 1993 A Christmas Pageant

author: Donna Tartt
name: Lo
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1993
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/08
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]]> The Goldfinch 17333223
Aged thirteen, Theo Decker, son of a devoted mother and a reckless, largely absent father, survives an accident that otherwise tears his life apart. Alone and rudderless in New York, he is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. He is tormented by an unbearable longing for his mother, and down the years clings to the thing that most reminds him of her: a small, strangely captivating painting that ultimately draws him into the criminal underworld. As he grows up, Theo learns to glide between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love - and his talisman, the painting, places him at the centre of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle.

The Goldfinch is a haunted odyssey through present-day America and a drama of enthralling power. Combining unforgettably vivid characters and thrilling suspense, it is a beautiful, addictive triumph - a sweeping story of loss and obsession, of survival and self-invention, of the deepest mysteries of love, identity and fate.]]> 771 Donna Tartt 0316055433 Lo 0 to-read 3.94 2013 The Goldfinch

author: Donna Tartt
name: Lo
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/08
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]]> The Secret History 29044 559 Donna Tartt 1400031702 Lo 4 4.17 1992

author: Donna Tartt
name: Lo
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1992
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/26
date added: 2025/02/26
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]]> I'm a Fan 60151826 I'm A Fan, a single speaker uses the story of their experience in a seemingly unequal, unfaithful relationship as a prism through which to examine the complicated hold we each have on one another. With a clear and unforgiving eye, the narrator unpicks the behaviour of all involved, herself included, and makes startling connections between the power struggles at the heart of human relationships and those of the wider world, in turn offering a devastating critique of access, social media, patriarchal hetero-normative relationships, and our cultural obsession with status and how that status is conveyed.

In this incredible debut, Sheena Patel announces herself as a vital new voice in literature, capable of rendering a range of emotions and visceral experiences on the page. Sex, violence, politics, tenderness, humour—Patel handles them all with both originality and dexterity of voice.]]> 207 Sheena Patel Lo 0 to-read 3.28 2022 I'm a Fan

author: Sheena Patel
name: Lo
average rating: 3.28
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/21
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]]> The Burnout Society 25490360
]]> 60 Byung-Chul Han 0804795096 Lo 5 3.88 2010

author: Byung-Chul Han
name: Lo
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/29
date added: 2024/12/29
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]]> <![CDATA[The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet]]> 55145261 A deeply moving and mind-expanding collection of personal essays in the first ever work of non-fiction from #1 internationally bestselling author John Green

The Anthropocene is the current geological age, in which human activity has profoundly shaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his ground-breaking, critically acclaimed podcast, John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet - from the QWERTY keyboard and Halley's Comet to Penguins of Madagascar - on a five-star scale.

Complex and rich with detail, the Anthropocene's reviews have been praised as 'observations that double as exercises in memoiristic empathy', with over 10 million lifetime downloads. John Green's gift for storytelling shines throughout this artfully curated collection about the shared human experience; it includes beloved essays along with six all-new pieces exclusive to the book.]]> 304 John Green 0525555218 Lo 0 to-read 4.37 2021 The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet

The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet

author: John Green
name: Lo
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Waves 46114 The Waves introduces six characters—three men and three women—who are grappling with the death of a beloved friend, Percival. Instead of describing their outward expressions of grief, Virginia Woolf draws her characters from the inside, revealing them through their thoughts and interior soliloquies. As their understanding of nature’s trials grows, the chorus of narrative voices blends together in miraculous harmony, remarking not only on the inevitable death of individuals but on the eternal connection of everyone. The novel that most epitomizes Virginia Woolf’s theories of fiction in the working form, The Waves is an amazing book very much ahead of its time. It is a poetic dreamscape, visual, experimental, and thrilling.]]> 297 Virginia Woolf 0156949601 Lo 0 currently-reading 4.17 1931

author: Virginia Woolf
name: Lo
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1931
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/24
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[White Nights (Penguin Little Black Classics, #118)]]> 161777294 0 Fyodor Dostoevsky Lo 2 4.18 1848

White Nights (Penguin Little Black Classics, #118)

author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Lo
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1848
rating: 2
read at: 2024/12/23
date added: 2024/12/23
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]]> My Childhood 163620 240 Maxim Gorky 0140182853 Lo 4 4.06 1913

author: Maxim Gorky
name: Lo
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1913
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/21
date added: 2024/12/21
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]]> The Canterville Ghost 45685 126 Oscar Wilde Lo 4 3.90 1887

author: Oscar Wilde
name: Lo
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1887
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/19
date added: 2024/12/19
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]]> Cold Nights of Childhood 61157636 Cold Nights of Childhood grows up in a rapidly changing Turkey, where the atmosphere is nationalist, patriarchal, technocratic. As a misfit in search of freedom, love and happiness, she escapes to Berlin, is overcome by depression on her return, and trapped in a psychiatry clinic for five years. After electroshock therapy and inhumane treatment, she is released into the care of friends and family, making tentative steps in a halting journey towards recovery.

In her unique, unstructured style, Tezer Özlü explores the extremity of her inner life and the painful pleasures of memory. Translated into English for the first time by Maureen Freely, this novel is a classic akin to The Bell Jar and Good Morning, Midnight.]]> 96 Tezer Ozlu 1788168712 Lo 0 to-read 3.70 1980 Cold Nights of Childhood

author: Tezer Ozlu
name: Lo
average rating: 3.70
book published: 1980
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/19
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]]> Mysterious Skin 92365
During the following years he slowly recalls details from that night, but these fragments are not enough to explain what happened to him, and he begins to believe that he may have been the victim of an alien encounter. Neil McCormick is fully aware of the events from that summer of 1981. Wise beyond his years, curious about his developing sexuality, Neil found what he perceived to be love and guidance from his baseball coach. Now, ten years later, he is a teenage hustler, a terrorist of sorts, unaware of the dangerous path his life is taking. His recklessness is governed by idealized memories of his coach, memories that unexpectedly change when Brian comes to Neil for help and, ultimately, the truth.]]> 292 Scott Heim 0060841699 Lo 5 4.15 1995 Mysterious Skin

author: Scott Heim
name: Lo
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1995
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/08
date added: 2024/12/08
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]]> <![CDATA[The Poetry of Emily Dickinson (Word Cloud Classics)]]> 23168273
The��Poetry of Emily Dickinson��is a collection of pieces by 19th-century American poet Emily Dickinson, who insisted that her life of isolation gave her an introspective and deep connection with the world. As a result, her work parallels her life—misunderstood in its time, but full of depth and imagination, and covering such universal themes as nature, art, friendship, love, society, mortality, and more. During Dickinson’s lifetime, only seven of her poems were published, but after her death, her prolific writings were discovered and shared. With this volume, readers can dive into the now widely respected poetry of Emily Dickinson.]]> 352 Emily Dickinson 162686389X Lo 5 4.13 1890 The Poetry of Emily Dickinson (Word Cloud Classics)

The Poetry of Emily Dickinson (Word Cloud Classics)

author: Emily Dickinson
name: Lo
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1890
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/03
date added: 2024/12/03
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Postman Always Rings Twice / Double Indemnity / Mildred Pierce / Selected Stories]]> 96442 The Postman Always Rings Twice, Cain’s first novel–the subject of an obscenity trial in Boston, the inspiration for Camus’s The Stranger–is the fever-pitched tale of a drifter who stumbles into a job, into an erotic obsession, and into a murder. Double Indemnity–which followed Postman so quickly, Cain’s readers hardly had a chance to catch their breath–is a tersely narrated story of blind passion, duplicity, and, of course, murder. Mildred Pierce, a work of acute psychological observation and devastating emotional violence, is the tale of a woman with a taste for shiftless men and an unreasoned devotion to her monstrous daughter. All three novels were immortalized in classic Hollywood films. Also included here are five masterful stories–“Pastorale,�� “The Baby in the Icebox,�� “Dead Man,�� “Brush Fire,�� “The Girl in the Storm”–that have been out of print for decades.]]> 594 James M. Cain 037541438X Lo 0 to-read 4.25 1934 The Postman Always Rings Twice / Double Indemnity / Mildred Pierce / Selected Stories

The Postman Always Rings Twice / Double Indemnity / Mildred Pierce / Selected Stories

author: James M. Cain
name: Lo
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1934
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/28
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]]> The Butterfly 441531 The Butterfly takes place among the hills and hollers of West Virginia coal country. Cain uses his favorite form of narration, the first-person confessional, in relating this unusual tale of deceit, incest, and murder.

Jess Tyler is a church-going mountain man. One day out of the blue, his estranged daughter, Kady, shows up at his cabin and starts throwing herself at him in a most undaughterly way. At least that's the way Jess tells it. Cain leaves a few hints that Jess may not be 100% accurate as a narrator. For example, he claims to be a God fearing teetotaler. Yet he quickly shows himself to be a seasoned expert when it comes to constructing and operating a commercial still.]]> 127 James M. Cain Lo 0 to-read 3.36 1947 The Butterfly

author: James M. Cain
name: Lo
average rating: 3.36
book published: 1947
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/28
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]]> I Know This Much Is True 227711
One of the most acclaimed novels of our time, Wally Lamb's I Know This Much Is True is a story of alienation and connection, devastation and renewal, at once joyous, heartbreaking, poignant, mystical, and powerfully, profoundly human.]]> 897 Wally Lamb 0060987561 Lo 0 to-read 4.21 1998 I Know This Much Is True

author: Wally Lamb
name: Lo
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1998
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/15
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]]> Olivia 679464
“Although not strictly autobiographical, Olivia draws on the author’s experiences at finishing schools run by the charismatic Mlle. Marie Souvestre, whose influence lived on through former students like Natalie Barney and Eleanor Roosevelt. Olivia was dedicated to the memory of Strachey’s friend Virginia Woolf and published to acclaim in 1949. Colette wrote the screenplay for the 1951 film adaptation of the novel. In 1999, Olivia was included on the Publishing Triangle’s widely publicized list of the 100 Best Gay and Lesbian Novels of the 20th Century.

“Dorothy Strachey (1865-1960) was the sister of the novelist Lytton Strachey and a prominent member of the Bloomsbury Group…��.Olivia, originally published under a pseudonym, is her only novel.�� -- Amazon.com]]> 135 Dorothy Strachey 1573442429 Lo 0 to-read 3.82 1949 Olivia

author: Dorothy Strachey
name: Lo
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1949
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/29
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]]> The Picture of Dorian Gray 5297
In this celebrated work Wilde forged a devastating portrait of the effects of evil and debauchery on a young aesthete in late-19th-century England. Combining elements of the Gothic horror novel and decadent French fiction, the book centers on a striking premise: As Dorian Gray sinks into a life of crime and gross sensuality, his body retains perfect youth and vigor while his recently painted portrait grows day by day into a hideous record of evil, which he must keep hidden from the world. For over a century, this mesmerizing tale of horror and suspense has enjoyed wide popularity. It ranks as one of Wilde's most important creations and among the classic achievements of its kind.]]> 272 Oscar Wilde Lo 3 4.13 1890 The Picture of Dorian Gray

author: Oscar Wilde
name: Lo
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1890
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/30
date added: 2024/08/21
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review:

]]> My Dark Vanessa 46186137 An era-defining novel about the relationship between a fifteen-year-old girl and her teacher

ALL HE DID WAS FALL IN LOVE WITH ME AND THE WORLD TURNED HIM INTO A MONSTER

Vanessa Wye was fifteen years old when she first had sex with her English teacher.

She is now thirty-two and in the storm of allegations against powerful men in 2017, the teacher, Jacob Strane, has just been accused of sexual abuse by another former student.

Vanessa is horrified by this news, because she is quite certain that the relationship she had with Strane wasn't abuse. It was love. She's sure of that.

Forced to rethink her past, to revisit everything that happened, Vanessa has to redefine the great love story of her life �� her great sexual awakening �� as rape. Now she must deal with the possibility that she might be a victim, and just one of many.

Nuanced, uncomfortable, bold and powerful, and as riveting as it is disturbing, My Dark Vanessa goes straight to the heart of some of the most complex issues our age is grappling with.

]]> 384 Kate Elizabeth Russell 0008342245 Lo 5 4.16 2020 My Dark Vanessa

author: Kate Elizabeth Russell
name: Lo
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/21
date added: 2024/08/21
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review:

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

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

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

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

Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?]]> 544 R.F. Kuang 0063021420 Lo 5 4.17 2022 Babel

author: R.F. Kuang
name: Lo
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/11/30
date added: 2024/08/15
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]]> Jane Eyre 10210 Alternate editions can be found here and here.

A gothic masterpiece of tempestuous passions and dark secrets, Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre is edited with an introduction and notes by Stevie Davis in Penguin Classics.

Charlotte Brontë tells the story of orphaned Jane Eyre, who grows up in the home of her heartless aunt, enduring loneliness and cruelty. This troubled childhood strengthens Jane's natural independence and spirit - which prove necessary when she finds employment as a governess to the young ward of Byronic, brooding Mr Rochester. As her feelings for Rochester develop, Jane gradually uncovers Thornfield Hall's terrible secret, forcing her to make a choice. Should she stay with Rochester and live with the consequences, or follow her convictions - even if it means leaving the man she loves? A novel of intense power and intrigue, Jane Eyre dazzled readers with its passionate depiction of a woman's search for equality and freedom.]]> 532 Charlotte Brontë 0142437204 Lo 4 4.14 1847

author: Charlotte Brontë
name: Lo
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1847
rating: 4
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date added: 2024/08/12
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]]> <![CDATA[The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy at All 1]]> 200818133 Nirvana sind die geilsten!

Aya Osawa ist Stammkundin eines kleinen, alternativen Plattenladens. Obwohl sie das beliebteste Mädchen in ihrer Klasse ist, stimmt es sie traurig, dass niemand ihre Liebe zur alternativen Musik teilt. Doch in ihrem Plattenladen arbeitet seit Neustem ein hübscher E-Boy mit fantastischem Musikgeschmack, und Aya ist sofort Feuer und Flamme. Was sie nicht Der hübsche E-Boy ist in Wahrheit ihre Klassenkameradin Mitsuki Koga. Und so beginnt die verrückte Liebesgeschichte der beiden Frauen...]]> 200 Sumiko Arai 3646731281 Lo 5 4.63 2023 The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy at All 1

The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy at All 1

author: Sumiko Arai
name: Lo
average rating: 4.63
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/10
date added: 2024/08/10
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Letters to a Young Poet (Penguin Little Black Classics, #103)]]> 142196929 Rainer Maria Rilke Lo 5 4.42 1929

Letters to a Young Poet (Penguin Little Black Classics, #103)

author: Rainer Maria Rilke
name: Lo
average rating: 4.42
book published: 1929
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/20
date added: 2024/07/20
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review:

]]> A Little Life 22822858
Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride.��Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever.]]> 720 Hanya Yanagihara 0385539258 Lo 2 4.28 2015 A Little Life

author: Hanya Yanagihara
name: Lo
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2015
rating: 2
read at: 2024/06/06
date added: 2024/06/18
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Blindness by Saramago, Jose (1998) Hardcover]]> 134546636 No food, no water, no government, no obligation, no order. Discover a chillingly powerful and prescient dystopian vision from one of Europe's greatest writers. A driver waiting at the traffic lights goes blind. An ophthalmologist tries to diagnose his distinctive white blindness, but is affected before he can read the textbooks. It becomes a contagion, spreading throughout the city. Trying to stem the epidemic, the authorities herd the afflicted into a mental asylum where the wards are terrorised by blind thugs. And when fire destroys the asylum, the inmates burst forth and the last links with a supposedly civilised society are snapped. This is not anarchy, this is blindness. ‘Saramago repeatedly undertakes to unite the pressing demands of the present with an unfolding vision of the future. This is his most apocalyptic, and most optimistic, version of that project yet�� Independent]]> 0 José Saramago Lo 0 to-read 4.31 1995 Blindness by Saramago, Jose (1998) Hardcover

Blindness by Saramago, Jose (1998) Hardcover

author: José Saramago
name: Lo
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1995
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/05/18
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review:

]]> Frankenstein: The 1818 Text 45356657 By the dim and yellow light of the moon, as it forced its way through the window-shutters, I beheld the wretch-the miserable monster whom I had created. He held up the curtain of the bed; and his eyes, if eyes they may be called, were fixed on me. His jaws opened...

Frankenstein is the most celebrated horror story ever written. It tells the dreadful tale of Victor Frankenstein, a visionary young student of natural philosophy, who discovers the secret of life. In the grip of his obsession he constructs a being from dead body parts, and animates this creature. The results, for Victor and for his family, are catastrophic.

Written when Mary Shelley was just eighteen, Frankenstein was inspired by the ghost stories and vogue for Gothic literature that fascinated the Romantic writers of her time. She transformed these supernatural elements an epic parable that warned against the threats to humanity posed by accelerating technological progress.

Published for the 200th anniversary, this edition, based on the original 1818 text, explains in detail the turbulent intellectual context in which Shelley was writing, and also investigates how her novel has since become a byword for controversial practices in science and medicine, from manipulating ecosystems to vivisection and genetic modification. As an iconic study of power, creativity, and, ultimately, what it is to be human, Frankenstein continues to shape our thinking in profound ways to this day.]]> 304 Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley 0198840829 Lo 0 to-read 4.05 1818 Frankenstein: The 1818 Text

author: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
name: Lo
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1818
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/05/17
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]]> Carmilla 55648601 Carmilla is the original vampire story, steeped in the sexual tension between two young women and gothic romance.

In an isolated castle deep in the Austrian forest, teenaged Laura leads a solitary life with only her father, attendant and tutor for company. Until one moonlit night, a horse-drawn carriage crashes into view, carrying an unexpected guest—the beautiful Carmilla.

So begins a feverish friendship between Laura and her entrancing new companion, one defined by mysterious happenings and infused with an implicit but undeniable eroticism. As Carmilla becomes increasingly strange and volatile, prone to eerie nocturnal wanderings, Laura finds herself tormented by nightmares and growing weaker by the day...]]> 156 J. Sheridan Le Fanu 1782275843 Lo 3 3.5 3.90 1872

author: J. Sheridan Le Fanu
name: Lo
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1872
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/06
date added: 2024/04/06
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review:
3.5
]]> Gerald's Game 32692
But this time Jessie didn't want to play. Lying there, spreadeagled and handcuffed to the bedstead while he'd loomed and drooled over her, she'd felt angry and humiliated.

So she'd kicked out hard. Aimed to hit him where it hurt.

And now he was dead - a coronary - on the floor.

Leaving Jessie alone and helpless in a lakeside holiday cabin. Miles from nowhere. No-one to hear her screams.

Alone. Except for the voices in her head that begun to chatter and argue and sneer...]]> 332 Stephen King 0831727527 Lo 0 to-read 3.58 1992 Gerald's Game

author: Stephen King
name: Lo
average rating: 3.58
book published: 1992
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/09
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]]> Beyond Good and Evil 12321 Beyond Good and Evil is translated from the German by R.J. Hollingdale with an introduction by Michael Tanner in Penguin Classics.

Beyond Good and Evil confirmed Nietzsche's position as the towering European philosopher of his age. The work dramatically rejects the tradition of Western thought with its notions of truth and God, good and evil. Nietzsche demonstrates that the Christian world is steeped in a false piety and infected with a 'slave morality'. With wit and energy, he turns from this critique to a philosophy that celebrates the present and demands that the individual imposes their own 'will to power' upon the world.

This edition includes a commentary on the text by the translator and Michael Tanner's introduction, which explains some of the more abstract passages in Beyond Good and Evil.

Frederich Nietzsche (1844-1900) became the chair of classical philology at Basel University at the age of 24 until his bad health forced him to retire in 1879. He divorced himself from society until his final collapse in 1899 when he became insane. A powerfully original thinker, Nietzsche's influence on subsequent writers, such as George Bernard Shaw, D.H. Lawrence, Thomas Mann and Jean-Paul Sartre, was considerable.

If you enjoyed Beyond Good and Evil you might like Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra, also available in Penguin Classics.

"One of the greatest books of a very great thinker." —Michael Tanner]]> 240 Friedrich Nietzsche 014044923X Lo 0 to-read 4.05 1886 Beyond Good and Evil

author: Friedrich Nietzsche
name: Lo
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1886
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/02
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]]> The Journals of Sylvia Plath 11632 The Journals of Sylvia Plath provide unique insight, and are essential reading for all those who have been moved and fascinated by Plath’s life and work.]]> 400 Sylvia Plath 0385493916 Lo 0 to-read 4.26 1982

author: Sylvia Plath
name: Lo
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1982
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/02
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review:

]]> Roundabout 48669816 270 Phong Nguyen 0913785415 Lo 0 to-read 3.07 2024

author: Phong Nguyen
name: Lo
average rating: 3.07
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/01
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]]> The Master and Margarita 117833 The first complete, annotated English Translation of Mikhail Bulgakov's comic masterpiece.

An audacious revision of the stories of Faust and Pontius Pilate, The Master and Margarita is recognized as one of the essential classics of modern Russian literature. The novel's vision of Soviet life in the 1930s is so ferociously accurate that it could not be published during its author's lifetime and appeared only in a censored edition in the 1960s. Its truths are so enduring that its language has become part of the common Russian speech.

One hot spring, the devil arrives in Moscow, accompanied by a retinue that includes a beautiful naked witch and an immense talking black cat with a fondness for chess and vodka. The visitors quickly wreak havoc in a city that refuses to believe in either God or Satan. But they also bring peace to two unhappy Muscovites: one is the Master, a writer pilloried for daring to write a novel about Christ and Pontius Pilate; the other is Margarita, who loves the Master so deeply that she is willing literally to go to hell for him. What ensues is a novel of inexhaustible energy, humor, and philosophical depth, a work whose nuances emerge for the first time in Diana Burgin's and Katherine Tiernan O'Connor's splendid English version.]]> 372 Mikhail Bulgakov 0679760806 Lo 0 to-read 4.31 1967 The Master and Margarita

author: Mikhail Bulgakov
name: Lo
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1967
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/02/29
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review:

]]> Poor Deer 127823311 A wondrous, tender novel about a young girl grappling with her role in a tragic loss—and attempting to reshape the narrative of her life—from PEN/Faulkner Award nominee Claire Oshetsky

Margaret Murphy is a weaver of fantastic tales, growing up in a world where the truth is too much for one little girl to endure. Her first memory is of the day her friend Agnes died.

No one blames Margaret. Not in so many words. Her mother insists to everyone who will listen that her daughter never even left the house that day. Left alone to make sense of tragedy, Margaret wills herself to forget these unbearable memories, replacing them with imagined stories full of faith and magic—that always end happily.

Enter Poor Deer: a strange and formidable creature who winds her way uninvited into Margaret’s made-up tales. Poor Deer will not rest until Margaret faces the truth about her past and atones for her role in Agnes’s death.

Heartrending, hopeful, and boldly imagined, Poor Deer explores the journey toward understanding the children we once were and the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of life’s most difficult moments.]]> 240 Claire Oshetsky 006332766X Lo 0 to-read 3.97 2024

author: Claire Oshetsky
name: Lo
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/02/29
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]]> ��ï�� 15992745 Cette vie de famille chaotique est au centre de l'intrigue, qui joue des similitudes entre l'histoire personnelle de Passan et celle du serial killer que l'on est tenté de voir comme son double monstrueux. Mais le suicide de l'Accoucheur ne résout rien et Passan devra aller jusqu'à Tokyo rechercher la clé de l'énigme... Un thriller ambitieux, magnifiquement soutenu de bout en bout. Loin des clichés habituels, le Japon occupe une place prépondérante dans le déroulement d'une intrigue imprévisible où Grangé confère à ses héros une surprenante densité psychologique.]]> 480 Jean-Christophe Grangé 2226243038 Lo 3 3.69 2012 ��ï��

author: Jean-Christophe Grangé
name: Lo
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/02/26
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]]> <![CDATA[The Miseducation of Cameron Post]]> 40801157
But that relief doesn't last, and Cam is soon forced to move in with her conservative aunt Ruth and her well-intentioned but hopelessly old-fashioned grandmother. She knows that from this point on, her life will forever be different. Survival in Miles City, Montana, means blending in and leaving well enough alone (as her grandmother might say), and Cam becomes an expert at both.

Then Coley Taylor moves to town. Beautiful, pickup-driving Coley is a perfect cowgirl with the perfect boyfriend to match. She and Cam forge an unexpected and intense friendship--one that seems to leave room for something more to emerge. But just as that starts to seem like a real possibility, ultrareligious Aunt Ruth takes drastic action to "fix" her niece, bringing Cam face-to-face with the cost of denying her true self--even if she's not exactly sure who that is.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a stunning and unforgettable literary debut about discovering who you are and finding the courage to live life according to your own rules.]]> 485 Emily M. Danforth Lo 4
Holy hell, this got to be one of my favorite books.
I don't even know where to start, I loved the way the hangouts between teenagers were done, whether at Miles City or at Promise, there is something very bittersweet and nostalgic about the interactions between the characters. Everything was so riddled with heartbreak though, the death of Cameron's parents, losing her friendship with Irene, and her relationship to Jamie and Ruth's tumors and Grandma Post. But above all, what happened with Coley, the sheer betrayal. Then Promise, and that too was bittersweet, making friends as the price of dehumanisation. I must admit, I didn't quite realise how terrible it was until what happened with Mark, and it hit me like a truck. I guess things can be bad and still be enjoyable to a certain extent, Reverand Rick didnt strike me as a terrible person, I found him quite likeable, just as I liked Grandma Post, I couldnt help but habe empathy for them. but still what they did is not acceptable in the least.

Out of all the characters, my favourites must've been Lindsey and Adam. Jamie is up here too, with Coley (the letter isnt forgivable, but I still feel bad for her), along with of course Cameron. And I overall liked all the disciples at Promise. Mark again, shook me the hardest. I kind of sensed he must have had it hard, being described as quiet and overly religious, but I didnt think it would go this far.

The ending left me on the edge, despite the closure, i craved more. I wanted to see more of Jane, Adam and Cameron after the escape and longed to see what would come next, but i must admit, it's written wonderfully and it ends at the shore of Quake Lake for a reason.

My only complaint is that sometimes, the author overdoes it a little. Some passages get dull and boring and things get unnecessarily overexplained and I did a lot of skimming, which is not exactly great. This book could have been fifty pages shorter and worked much better. But it is still completely worth reading to me.]]> 4.13 2012 The Miseducation of Cameron Post

author: Emily M. Danforth
name: Lo
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2022/03/12
date added: 2024/02/26
shelves:
review:
4.5/5 rounded up at 5.

Holy hell, this got to be one of my favorite books.
I don't even know where to start, I loved the way the hangouts between teenagers were done, whether at Miles City or at Promise, there is something very bittersweet and nostalgic about the interactions between the characters. Everything was so riddled with heartbreak though, the death of Cameron's parents, losing her friendship with Irene, and her relationship to Jamie and Ruth's tumors and Grandma Post. But above all, what happened with Coley, the sheer betrayal. Then Promise, and that too was bittersweet, making friends as the price of dehumanisation. I must admit, I didn't quite realise how terrible it was until what happened with Mark, and it hit me like a truck. I guess things can be bad and still be enjoyable to a certain extent, Reverand Rick didnt strike me as a terrible person, I found him quite likeable, just as I liked Grandma Post, I couldnt help but habe empathy for them. but still what they did is not acceptable in the least.

Out of all the characters, my favourites must've been Lindsey and Adam. Jamie is up here too, with Coley (the letter isnt forgivable, but I still feel bad for her), along with of course Cameron. And I overall liked all the disciples at Promise. Mark again, shook me the hardest. I kind of sensed he must have had it hard, being described as quiet and overly religious, but I didnt think it would go this far.

The ending left me on the edge, despite the closure, i craved more. I wanted to see more of Jane, Adam and Cameron after the escape and longed to see what would come next, but i must admit, it's written wonderfully and it ends at the shore of Quake Lake for a reason.

My only complaint is that sometimes, the author overdoes it a little. Some passages get dull and boring and things get unnecessarily overexplained and I did a lot of skimming, which is not exactly great. This book could have been fifty pages shorter and worked much better. But it is still completely worth reading to me.
]]> Orlando (Wordsworth Classics) 40903744
Virginia Woolf’s Orlando ‘The longest and most charming love letter in literature��, playfully constructs the figure of Orlando as the fictional embodiment of Woolf’s close friend and lover, Vita Sackville-West. Spanning three centuries, the novel opens as Orlando, a young nobleman in Elizabeth’s England, awaits a visit from the Queen and traces his experience with first love as England under James I lies locked in the embrace of the Great Frost. At the midpoint of the novel, Orlando, now an ambassador in Costantinople, awakes to find that he is a woman, and the novel indulges in farce and irony to consider the roles of women in the 18th and 19th centuries. As the novel ends in 1928, a year consonant with full suffrage for women. Orlando, now a wife and mother, stands poised at the brink of a future that holds new hope and promise for women.]]> 188 Virginia Woolf Lo 4
Honestly I consistently felt like I was missing something while reading the book so this is gonna need a second read later on but overall it was pretty enjoyable.]]> 3.65 1928 Orlando (Wordsworth Classics)

author: Virginia Woolf
name: Lo
average rating: 3.65
book published: 1928
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/29
date added: 2024/02/26
shelves:
review:
4.5

Honestly I consistently felt like I was missing something while reading the book so this is gonna need a second read later on but overall it was pretty enjoyable.
]]> <![CDATA[Winter Love (McNally Editions)]]> 60377757 The raw account of a life-altering affair in wartime London—“Han Suyin’s outstanding achievement . . . her finest novel.�� (Alison Hennegan)

As a college student in London during the bitterly cold winter of 1944, Red falls in love with her married classmate Mara. Their affair unleashes a physical passion, a jealousy, and a sense of self-doubt that sweep all her previous experiences aside and will leave her changed forever. Set against the rubble of the bombed city, in a time of gray austerity and deprivation, Winter Love recalls a life at its most vivid. “Probably the best thing she has ever written�� (Daily Telegraph), it is also Han Suyin’s most unexpected, tender, and stirring work.]]> 159 Han Suyin 1946022314 Lo 0 to-read 3.81 1962 Winter Love (McNally Editions)

author: Han Suyin
name: Lo
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1962
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/02/24
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness]]> 33113683
My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness is an honest and heartfelt look at one young woman’s exploration of her sexuality, mental well-being, and growing up in our modern age. Told using expressive artwork that invokes both laughter and tears, this moving and highly entertaining single volume depicts not only the artist’s burgeoning sexuality, but many other personal aspects of her life that will resonate with readers.]]> 144 Kabi Nagata 1626926034 Lo 2 4.11 2016 My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness

author: Kabi Nagata
name: Lo
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2016
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2024/02/19
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review:

]]> Chlorine 61387386 In the vein of The Pisces and The Vegetarian, Chlorine is a debut novel that blurs the line between a literary coming-of-age narrative and a dark unsettling horror tale, told from an adult perspective on the trials and tribulations of growing up in a society that puts pressure on young women and their bodies... a powerful, relevant novel of immigration, sapphic longing, and fierce, defiant becoming.

Ren Yu is a swimmer. Her daily life starts and ends with the pool. Her teammates are her only friends. Her coach, her guiding light. If she swims well enough, she will be scouted, get a scholarship, go to a good school. Her parents will love her. Her coach will be kind to her. She will have a good life.

But these are human concerns. These are the concerns of those confined to land, those with legs. Ren grew up on stories of creatures of the deep, of the oceans and the rivers. Ones that called sailors to their doom. Ones that dragged them down and drowned them. Ones that feasted on their flesh. Ones of the creature that she's always longed to become: mermaid.

Ren aches to be in the water. She dreams of the scent of chlorine--the feel of it on her skin. And she will do anything she can to make a life for herself where she can be free. No matter the pain. No matter what anyone else thinks. No matter how much blood she has to spill.]]> 256 Jade Song 0063257602 Lo 0 to-read 3.67 2023 Chlorine

author: Jade Song
name: Lo
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/02/18
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]]> Inseparable 56197486 A never-before-published novel by the iconic Simone de Beauvoir of an intense and vivid girlhood friendship

From the moment Sylvie and Andrée meet in their Parisian day school, they see in each other an accomplice with whom to confront the mysteries of girlhood. For the next ten years, the two are the closest of friends and confidantes as they explore life in a post-World War One France, and as Andrée becomes increasingly reckless and rebellious, edging closer to peril.

Sylvie, insightful and observant, sees a France of clashing ideals and religious hypocrisy—and at an early age is determined to form her own opinions. Andrée, a tempestuous dreamer, is inclined to melodrama and romance. Despite their different natures they rely on each other to safeguard their secrets while entering adulthood in a world that did not pay much attention to the wills and desires of young women.

Deemed too intimate to publish during Simone de Beauvoir’s life, Inseparable offers fresh insight into the groundbreaking feminist’s own coming-of-age; her transformative, tragic friendship with her childhood friend Zaza Lacoin; and how her youthful relationships shaped her philosophy. Sandra Smith’s vibrant translation of the novel will be long cherished by de Beauvoir devotees and first-time readers alike.]]> 176 Simone de Beauvoir 0063075040 Lo 0 to-read 4.06 2020 Inseparable

author: Simone de Beauvoir
name: Lo
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/02/10
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[My People Shall Live: Autobiography of a Revolutionary as Told to George Hajjar]]> 799628 229 Leila Khaled 0919600298 Lo 0 to-read 4.50 1973

My People Shall Live: Autobiography of a Revolutionary as Told to George Hajjar

author: Leila Khaled
name: Lo
average rating: 4.50
book published: 1973
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/02/10
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]]> <![CDATA[The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder]]> 61714633 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon, a page-turning story of shipwreck, survival, and savagery, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth. The powerful narrative reveals the deeper meaning of the events on the Wager, showing that it was not only the captain and crew who ended up on trial, but the very idea of empire.

On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty's Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as "the prize of all the oceans," it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The men, after being marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing nearly 3,000 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes.

But then . . . six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they told a very different story. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes - they were mutineers. The first group responded with countercharges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous senior officer and his henchmen. It became clear that while stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death--for whomever the court found guilty could hang.

The Wager is a grand tale of human behavior at the extremes told by one of our greatest nonfiction writers. Grann's recreation of the hidden world on a British warship rivals the work of Patrick O'Brian, his portrayal of the castaways' desperate straits stands up to the classics of survival writing such as The Endurance, and his account of the court martial has the savvy of a Scott Turow thriller. As always with Grann's work, the incredible twists of the narrative hold the reader spellbound.]]> 331 David Grann 0385534264 Lo 0 to-read 4.14 2023 The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder

author: David Grann
name: Lo
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/09
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review:

]]> The Covenant of Water 180357146 From the New York Times-bestselling author of Cutting for Stone comes a stunning and magisterial epic of love, faith, and medicine, set in Kerala, South India, following three generations of a family seeking the answers to a strange secret

Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala's Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time. From this unforgettable new beginning, the young girl—and future matriarch, Big Ammachi—will witness unthinkable changes over the span of her extraordinary life, full of joy and triumph as well as hardship and loss, her faith and love the only constants.

A shimmering evocation of a bygone India and of the passage of time itself, The Covenant of Water is a hymn to progress in medicine and to human understanding, and a humbling testament to the hardships undergone by past generations for the sake of those alive today. Imbued with humor, deep emotion, and the essence of life, it is one of the most masterful literary novels published in recent years.]]> 715 Abraham Verghese 0802162177 Lo 0 to-read 4.34 2023 The Covenant of Water

author: Abraham Verghese
name: Lo
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/02/09
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review:

]]> Weyward 60654349 I am a Weyward, and wild inside.

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

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

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

Weaving together the stories of three extraordinary women across five centuries, Emilia Hart's Weyward is an enthralling novel of female resilience and the transformative power of the natural world.]]> 329 Emilia Hart 125028080X Lo 0 to-read 4.03 2023 Weyward

author: Emilia Hart
name: Lo
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Delilah Green Doesn't Care (Bright Falls, #1)]]> 54756850
Delilah Green swore she would never go back to Bright Falls—nothing is there for her but memories of a lonely childhood where she was little more than a burden to her cold and distant stepfamily. Her life is in New York, with her photography career finally gaining steam and her bed never empty. Sure, it’s a different woman every night, but that’s just fine with her.
��
When Delilah’s estranged stepsister, Astrid, pressures her into photographing her wedding with a guilt trip and a five-figure check, Delilah finds herself back in the godforsaken town that she used to call home. She plans to breeze in and out, but then she sees Claire Sutherland, one of Astrid’s stuck-up besties, and decides that maybe there’s some fun (and a little retribution) to be had in Bright Falls, after all.
��
Having raised her eleven-year-old daughter mostly on her own while dealing with her unreliable ex and running a bookstore, Claire Sutherland depends upon a life without surprises. And Delilah Green is an unwelcome surprise…at first. Though they’ve known each other for years, they don’t really know each other—so Claire is unsettled when Delilah figures out exactly what buttons to push. When they’re forced together during a gauntlet of wedding preparations—including a plot to save Astrid from her horrible fiancé—Claire isn’t sure she has the strength to resist Delilah’s charms. Even worse, she’s starting to think she doesn’t want to...]]> 375 Ashley Herring Blake 0593336402 Lo 0 to-read 4.06 2022 Delilah Green Doesn't Care (Bright Falls, #1)

Delilah Green Doesn't Care (Bright Falls, #1)

author: Ashley Herring Blake
name: Lo
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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]]> Seven Days in June 55648820
When Shane and Eva meet unexpectedly at a literary event, sparks fly, raising not only their past buried traumas, but the eyebrows of New York's Black literati. What no one knows is that twenty years earlier, teenage Eva and Shane spent one crazy, torrid week madly in love. They may be pretending that everything is fine now, but they can't deny their chemistry - or the fact that they've been secretly writing to each other in their books ever since.

Over the next seven days in the middle of a steamy Brooklyn summer, Eva and Shane reconnect, but Eva's not sure how she can trust the man who broke her heart, and she needs to get him out of New York so that her life can return to normal. But before Shane disappears again, there are a few questions she needs answered...

With its keen observations of Black life and the condition of modern motherhood, as well as the consequences of motherless-ness, Seven Days in June is by turns humorous, warm and deeply sensual.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781538719107.]]> 336 Tia Williams Lo 0 to-read 3.98 2021

author: Tia Williams
name: Lo
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Perfume: The Story of a Murderer]]> 343 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

An acclaimed bestseller and international sensation, Patrick Suskind's classic novel provokes a terrifying examination of what happens when one man's indulgence in his greatest passion—his sense of smell—leads to murder.

In the slums of eighteenth-century France, the infant Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with one sublime gift—an absolute sense of smell. As a boy, he lives to decipher the odors of Paris, and apprentices himself to a prominent perfumer who teaches him the ancient art of mixing precious oils and herbs. But Grenouille's genius is such that he is not satisfied to stop there, and he becomes obsessed with capturing the smells of objects such as brass doorknobs and fresh-cut wood. Then one day he catches a hint of a scent that will drive him on an ever-more-terrifying quest to create the "ultimate perfume"—the scent of a beautiful young virgin. Told with dazzling narrative brilliance, Perfume is a hauntingly powerful tale of murder and sensual depravity.]]> 263 Patrick Süskind Lo 0 to-read 4.05 1985 Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

author: Patrick Süskind
name: Lo
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1985
rating: 0
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]]> The Haunting of Hill House 89717 182 Shirley Jackson 0143039989 Lo 0 to-read 3.85 1959

author: Shirley Jackson
name: Lo
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1959
rating: 0
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]]> Pnin 30593 Pnin features his funniest and most heart-rending character. Professor Timofey Pnin is a haplessly disoriented Russian émigré precariously employed on an American college campus in the 1950's. Pnin struggles to maintain his dignity through a series of comic and sad misunderstandings, all the while falling victim both to subtle academic conspiracies and to the manipulations of a deliberately unreliable narrator.

Initially an almost grotesquely comic figure, Pnin gradually grows in stature by contrast with those who laugh at him. Whether taking the wrong train to deliver a lecture in a language he has not mastered or throwing a faculty party during which he learns he is losing his job, the gently preposterous hero of this enchanting novel evokes the reader’s deepest protective instinct.

Serialized in The New Yorker and published in book form in 1957, Pnin brought Nabokov both his first National Book Award nomination and hitherto unprecedented popularity.]]> 184 Vladimir Nabokov 1400041988 Lo 0 to-read 3.90 1957 Pnin

author: Vladimir Nabokov
name: Lo
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1957
rating: 0
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]]> Letters From Medea 26828988 104 Salma Deera Lo 0 to-read 3.85 2015

author: Salma Deera
name: Lo
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/02/06
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]]> The Insulted and Humiliated 329803 460 Fyodor Dostoevsky 0898751047 Lo 0 to-read 4.27 1861

author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Lo
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1861
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/02/04
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]]> A Writer's Diary 14948
Included are entries that refer to her own writing, and those that are relevant to the raw material of her work, and, finally, comments on the books she was reading. The first entry included here is dated 1918 and the last, three weeks before her death in 1941. Between these points of time unfolds the private world—the anguish, the triumph, the creative vision—of one of the great writers of the twentieth century.

�� A Writer’s Diary . . . is Virginia Woolf . . . The whole vibrates with the ups and downs of a passionate relationship . . . in the intensities, variations, alarms and excursions, panics and exaltations of her relationship to her art.”�� New York Times Book Review

Edited and with a Preface by Leonard Woolf.]]> 355 Virginia Woolf 0156027917 Lo 0 to-read 4.16 1953 A Writer's Diary

author: Virginia Woolf
name: Lo
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1953
rating: 0
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]]> The Diary of a Young Girl 48855
In 1942, with the Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, the Franks and another family lived cloistered in the “Secret Annexe�� of an old office building. Cut off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and death. In her diary Anne Frank recorded vivid impressions of her experiences during this period. By turns thoughtful, moving, and surprisingly humorous, her account offers a fascinating commentary on human courage and frailty and a compelling self-portrait of a sensitive and spirited young woman whose promise was tragically cut short.
--back cover]]> 283 Anne Frank Lo 0 to-read 4.19 1947 The Diary of a Young Girl

author: Anne Frank
name: Lo
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1947
rating: 0
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]]> Crossing the Water 295148 64 Sylvia Plath 0060907894 Lo 0 to-read 4.12 1971

author: Sylvia Plath
name: Lo
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1971
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/31
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]]> Winter Trees 31416 55 Sylvia Plath 0571108628 Lo 0 to-read 4.08 1972

author: Sylvia Plath
name: Lo
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1972
rating: 0
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]]> The Colossus and Other Poems 11627 84 Sylvia Plath 0375704469 Lo 0 to-read 4.19 1960

author: Sylvia Plath
name: Lo
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1960
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom]]> 42614095
Lips the colour of blood, the sun an unprecedented orange, train wheels that sound like 'guilt, and guilt, and guilt': these are just some of the things Mary Ventura begins to notice on her journey to the ninth kingdom.

'But what is the ninth kingdom?' she asks a kind-seeming lady in her carriage. 'It is the kingdom of the frozen will,' comes the reply. 'There is no going back.'

Sylvia Plath's strange, dark tale of independence over infanticide, written not long after she herself left home, grapples with mortality in motion.

Bringing together past, present and future in our ninetieth year, Faber Stories is a celebratory compendium of collectable work.]]> 40 Sylvia Plath 0571351735 Lo 0 to-read 3.97 2019 Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom

author: Sylvia Plath
name: Lo
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams: Short Stories, Prose and Diary Excerpts]]> 11628 336 Sylvia Plath 0060955295 Lo 0 to-read 3.97 1977

Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams: Short Stories, Prose and Diary Excerpts

author: Sylvia Plath
name: Lo
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1977
rating: 0
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]]> Circe 35959740
Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts, and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.

But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from or with the mortals she has come to love.]]> 393 Madeline Miller 0316556343 Lo 3 4.22 2018 Circe

author: Madeline Miller
name: Lo
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2022/07/06
date added: 2024/01/29
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]]> <![CDATA[Come Close (Penguin Little Black Classics, #74)]]> 24874364
Lyrical, powerful poems about love, sexuality, sun-soaked Greece and the gods.

Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions.

Sappho (c.630-570 BCE).

Sappho's Stung with Love is available in Penguin Classics.]]> 55 Sappho 0141398698 Lo 0 to-read 4.05 2015 Come Close (Penguin Little Black Classics, #74)

Come Close (Penguin Little Black Classics, #74)

author: Sappho
name: Lo
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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]]> King's Cage (Red Queen, #3) 30226723
Mare Barrow is a prisoner, powerless without her lightning, tormented by her lethal mistakes. She lives at the mercy of a boy she once loved, a boy made of lies and betrayal. Now a king, Maven Calore continues weaving his dead mother's web in an attempt to maintain control over his country—and his prisoner.

As Mare bears the weight of Silent Stone in the palace, her once-ragtag band of newbloods and Reds continue organizing, training, and expanding. They prepare for war, no longer able to linger in the shadows. And Cal, the exiled prince with his own claim on Mare's heart, will stop at nothing to bring her back.

When blood turns on blood, and ability on ability, there may be no one left to put out the fire—leaving Norta as Mare knows it to burn all the way down.]]> 520 Victoria Aveyard 0062310712 Lo 3 3.91 2017 King's Cage (Red Queen, #3)

author: Victoria Aveyard
name: Lo
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2017
rating: 3
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]]> Red Queen (Red Queen, #1) 22328546 This is a world divided by blood—red or silver.

The Reds are commoners, ruled by a Silver elite in possession of god-like superpowers. And to Mare Barrow, a seventeen-year-old Red girl from the poverty-stricken Stilts, it seems like nothing will ever change.

That is until she finds herself working in the Silver Palace. Here, surrounded by the people she hates the most, Mare discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy the balance of power.

Fearful of Mare's potential, the Silvers hide her in plain view, declaring her a long-lost Silver princess, now engaged to a Silver prince. Despite knowing that one misstep would mean her death, Mare works silently to help the Red Guard, a militant resistance group, and bring down the Silver regime.

But this is a world of betrayal and lies, and Mare has entered a dangerous dance—Reds against Silvers, prince against prince, and Mare against her own heart.]]> 388 Victoria Aveyard 0062310631 Lo 3 3.98 2015 Red Queen (Red Queen, #1)

author: Victoria Aveyard
name: Lo
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2015
rating: 3
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]]> <![CDATA[I, The Divine: A Novel in First Chapters]]> 407942 316 Rabih Alameddine 0393323560 Lo 3 4.03 2001

I, The Divine: A Novel in First Chapters

author: Rabih Alameddine
name: Lo
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at: 2022/03/02
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]]> Cleopatra and Frankenstein 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.]]> 384 Coco Mellors 1635576814 Lo 0 to-read 3.70 2022

author: Coco Mellors
name: Lo
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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]]> The Odyssey 1381 Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns
driven time and again off course, once he had plundered
the hallowed heights of Troy.

So begins Robert Fagles' magnificent translation of the Odyssey.

If the Iliad is the world's greatest war epic, then the Odyssey is literature's grandest evocation of everyman's journey though life. Odysseus' reliance on his wit and wiliness for survival in his encounters with divine and natural forces, during his ten-year voyage home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, is at once a timeless human story and an individual test of moral endurance.

In the myths and legends that are retold here, Fagles has captured the energy and poetry of Homer's original in a bold, contemporary idiom, and given us an Odyssey to read aloud, to savor, and to treasure for its sheer lyrical mastery.

Renowned classicist Bernard Knox's superb Introduction and textual commentary provide new insights and background information for the general reader and scholar alike, intensifying the strength of Fagles' translation.

This is an Odyssey to delight both the classicist and the public at large, and to captivate a new generation of Homer's students.

--

Robert Fagles, winner of the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, presents us with Homer's best-loved and most accessible poem in a stunning new modern-verse translation.]]> 541 Homer 0143039954 Lo 0 to-read 3.79 -700 The Odyssey

author: Homer
name: Lo
average rating: 3.79
book published: -700
rating: 0
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]]> Fahrenheit 451 13079982 Sixty years after its original publication, Ray Bradbury’s internationally acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451 stands as a classic of world literature set in a bleak, dystopian future. Today its message has grown more relevant than ever before.

Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.�� But when he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.]]> 194 Ray Bradbury Lo 0 to-read 3.97 1953 Fahrenheit 451

author: Ray Bradbury
name: Lo
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1953
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Red Queen Collection (Red Queen, #0.1-2)]]> 26072627 Graceling meets The Selection in Victoria Aveyard’s #1 New York Times bestselling fantasy series about seventeen-year-old Mare, a common girl whose latent magical powers draw her into the dangerous world of the elite ruling class.

Will her power save her or condemn her? The first two novels in the series, plus two prequel novellas, are collected here, perfect for fans of the series, and those who want to find out what all the hype is about:

Red Queen: USA Today calls Victoria Aveyard's debut novel "a sizzling, imaginative thriller, where romance and revolution collide, where power and justice duel." Mare Barrow's world is divided by blood—those with common, Red blood serve the Silver- blooded elite, who are gifted with superhuman abilities. Mare is a Red, scraping by as a thief, until, by a twist of fate, she discovers an ability all her own. One wrong move can lead to her death, but in the dangerous game she plays, the only certainty is betrayal.

Glass Sword: The hotly anticipated sequel escalates the struggle between the growing rebel army and the blood-segregated world they've always known—and pits Mare against the darkness that has grown in her soul.

Queen Song: In this prequel novella, Queen Coriane, first wife of King Tiberias, keeps a secret diary—how else can she ensure that no one at the palace will use her thoughts against her? Coriane recounts her heady courtship with the crown prince, the birth of a new prince, Cal, and the potentially deadly challenges that lay ahead for her in royal life.

Steel Scars: In this second prequel novella, Captain Farley exchanges coded transmissions with the resistance as she travels the land, recruiting for her first attempt at an attack on the capital. She was raised to be strong, but planting the seeds of rebellion in Norta is a tougher job than expected—until she stumbles upon a connection that may prove to be the key to the entire operation: Mare Barrow.]]> 1064 Victoria Aveyard 0062457446 Lo 3 4.37 2016 Red Queen Collection (Red Queen, #0.1-2)

Red Queen Collection (Red Queen, #0.1-2)

author: Victoria Aveyard
name: Lo
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2016
rating: 3
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]]> <![CDATA[The Sword of Summer (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, #1)]]> 15724396
One day, Magnus learns that someone else is trying to track him down—his uncle Randolph, a man his mother had always warned him about. When Magnus tries to outmaneuver his uncle, he falls right into his clutches. Randolph starts rambling about Norse history and Magnus's birthright: a weapon that has been lost for thousands of years.

The more Randolph talks, the more puzzle pieces fall into place. Stories about the gods of Asgard, wolves, and Doomsday bubble up from Magnus's memory. But he doesn't have time to consider it all before a fire giant attacks the city, forcing him to choose between his own safety and the lives of hundreds of innocents. . . .

Sometimes, the only way to start a new life is to die.]]> 512 Rick Riordan 1423160916 Lo 5 4.22 2015 The Sword of Summer (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, #1)

The Sword of Summer (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, #1)

author: Rick Riordan
name: Lo
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2015
rating: 5
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]]> Julia 86508927
But Julia becomes intrigued by a colleague from the Records Department—a mid-level worker of the Outer Party called Winston Smith—when she sees him locking eyes with a superior from the Inner Party at the Two Minutes Hate. And when one day, finding herself walking toward Winston, she impulsively hands him a note—a potentially suicidal gesture—she comes to realise that she's losing her grip and can no longer safely navigate her world.

Seventy-five years after Orwell finished writing his iconic novel, Sandra Newman has tackled the world of Big Brother in a truly convincing way, offering a dramatically different, feminist narrative that is true to and stands alongside the original. For the millions of readers who have been brought up with Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, here, finally, is a provocative, vital and utterly satisfying companion novel.]]> 400 Sandra Newman 0063265338 Lo 0 to-read 3.72 2023 Julia

author: Sandra Newman
name: Lo
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> White Nights 1772910 82 Fyodor Dostoevsky Lo 0 to-read 4.16 1848

author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Lo
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1848
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/17
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]]> <![CDATA[The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel that Scandalized the World]]> 37959891
Vladimir Nabokov’s��Lolita��is one of the most beloved and notorious novels of all time. And yet, very few of its readers know that the subject of the novel was inspired by a real-life case: the 1948 abduction of eleven-year-old Sally Horner.

Weaving together suspenseful crime narrative, cultural and social history, and literary investigation,��The Real Lolita��tells Sally Horner’s full story for the very first time. Drawing upon extensive investigations, legal documents, public records, and interviews with remaining relatives, Sarah Weinman uncovers how much Nabokov knew of the Sally Horner case and the efforts he took to disguise that knowledge during the process of writing and publishing��Lolita.

Sally Horner’s story echoes the stories of countless girls and women who never had the chance to speak for themselves. By diving deeper in the publication history of��Lolita��and restoring Sally to her rightful place in the lore of the novel’s creation,��The Real Lolita��casts a new light on the dark inspiration for a modern classic.
Duration: 07:26:31]]> 8 Sarah Weinman 0062661957 Lo 0 to-read 3.41 2018 The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel that Scandalized the World

The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel that Scandalized the World

author: Sarah Weinman
name: Lo
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/14
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]]> You Exist Too Much 41720140
Told in vignettes that flash between the U.S. and the Middle East--from New York to Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine--Zaina Arafat's debut novel traces her protagonist's progress from blushing teen to sought-after DJ and aspiring writer. In Brooklyn, she moves into an apartment with her first serious girlfriend and tries to content herself with their comfortable relationship. But soon her longings, so closely hidden during her teenage years, explode out into reckless romantic encounters and obsessions with other people.

Her desire to thwart her own destructive impulses will eventually lead her to The Ledge, an unconventional treatment center that identifies her affliction as "love addiction." In this strange, enclosed society she will start to consider the unnerving similarities between her own internal traumas and divisions and those of the places that have formed her.

Opening up the fantasies and desires of one young woman caught between cultural, religious, and sexual identities, You Exist Too Much is a captivating story charting two of our most intense longings: for love, and a place to call home.]]> 263 Zaina Arafat 1948226502 Lo 0 to-read 3.62 2020

author: Zaina Arafat
name: Lo
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[A Vindication of the Rights of Woman]]> 224387 269 Mary Wollstonecraft 0141441259 Lo 0 to-read 3.92 1792

author: Mary Wollstonecraft
name: Lo
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1792
rating: 0
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]]> The Well of Loneliness 129223
Stephen is an ideal child of aristocratic parents—a fencer, a horse rider and a keen scholar. Stephen grows to be a war hero, a bestselling writer and a loyal, protective lover. But Stephen is a woman, and her lovers are women. As her ambitions drive her, and society confines her, Stephen is forced into desperate actions.

The Well of Loneliness was banned for obscenity when published in 1928. It became an international bestseller, and for decades was the single most famous lesbian novel. It has influenced how love between women is understood, for the twentieth century and beyond.]]> 448 Radclyffe Hall Lo 0 to-read 3.74 1928 The Well of Loneliness

author: Radclyffe Hall
name: Lo
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1928
rating: 0
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]]> Letters to Vera 15710982 GUARDIAN BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2014

No marriage of a major twentieth-century writer lasted longer than Vladimir Nabokov's. Véra Slonim shared his delight at the enchantment of life's trifles and literature's treasures, and he rated her as having the best and quickest sense of humour of any woman he had met. From their meeting in 1921, Vladimir's letters to his beloved Véra form a narrative arc that tells a forty-six year-long love story, and they are memorable in their entirety. Almost always playful, romantic, and pithy, the letters tell us much about the man and the writer; we see that Vladimir observed everything, from animals, faces, speech, and landscapes with genuine fascination.]]> 864 Vladimir Nabokov 0141192232 Lo 0 to-read 4.19 2014 Letters to Vera

author: Vladimir Nabokov
name: Lo
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/11
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]]> Despair 418209 Despair is the wickedly inventive and richly derisive story of Hermann Karlovich, a man who undertakes the perfect crime - his own murder.]]> 212 Vladimir Nabokov 0679723439 Lo 0 to-read 3.92 1934 Despair

author: Vladimir Nabokov
name: Lo
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1934
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/11
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]]> Laughter in the Dark 8151 292 Vladimir Nabokov 0811216748 Lo 0 to-read 4.02 1932

author: Vladimir Nabokov
name: Lo
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1932
rating: 0
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]]> Lolita 7604 Librarian's note: Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780141182537.

Humbert Humbert - scholar, aesthete and romantic - has fallen completely and utterly in love with Dolores Haze, his landlady's gum-snapping, silky skinned twelve-year-old daughter. Reluctantly agreeing to marry Mrs Haze just to be close to Lolita, Humbert suffers greatly in the pursuit of romance; but when Lo herself starts looking for attention elsewhere, he will carry her off on a desperate cross-country misadventure, all in the name of Love. Hilarious, flamboyant, heart-breaking and full of ingenious word play, Lolita is an immaculate, unforgettable masterpiece of obsession, delusion and lust.]]> 368 Vladimir Nabokov 0679723161 Lo 0 to-read 3.87 1955 Lolita

author: Vladimir Nabokov
name: Lo
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1955
rating: 0
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]]> Pale Fire 7805
Nabokov's darkly witty, richly inventive masterpiece is a suspenseful whodunit, a story of one-upmanship and dubious penmanship, and a glorious literary conundrum.

Part of a major new series of the works of Vladimir Nabokov, author of Lolita and Pale Fire, in Penguin Classics.]]> 246 Vladimir Nabokov Lo 0 to-read 4.17 1962

author: Vladimir Nabokov
name: Lo
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1962
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Love Letters: Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West]]> 53328405 'I am reduced to a thing that wants Virginia. I composed a beautiful letter to you in the sleepless nightmare hours of the night, and it has all gone. I just miss you...'

At a dinner party in 1922, Virginia Woolf met the renowned author, aristocrat - and sapphist - Vita Sackville-West. Virginia wrote in her diary that she didn't think much of Vita's conversation, but she did think very highly of her legs. It was to be the start of almost twenty years of flirtation, friendship, and literary collaboration. Their correspondence ended only with Virginia's tragic death in 1941.

Intimate and playful, these selected letters and diary entries allow us to hear these women's constantly changing feelings for each other in their own words. Eavesdrop on the affair that inspired Virginia to write her most fantastical novel, Orlando, and glimpse into their extraordinary lives: from Vita's travels across the globe, to Virginia's parties with the Bloomsbury set; from their shared love of dogs and nature, to their grief at the beginning of the Second World War. Discover a relationship that - even a hundred years later - feels radical and relatable.

WITH AN ORIGINAL INTRODUCTION FROM ALISON BECHDEL, AUTHOR OF FUN HOME AND CREATOR OF THE BECHDEL TEST.]]> 280 Virginia Woolf 1784876720 Lo 0 to-read 4.53 1926 Love Letters: Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West

Love Letters: Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West

author: Virginia Woolf
name: Lo
average rating: 4.53
book published: 1926
rating: 0
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]]> Letters to a Young Poet 46199 Listy do mlodego poety 80 Rainer Maria Rilke 0486422453 Lo 0 to-read 4.32 1929

author: Rainer Maria Rilke
name: Lo
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1929
rating: 0
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]]> If We Were Villains 30319086
As one of seven young actors studying Shakespeare at an elite arts college, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingenue, extra. But when the casting changes, and the secondary characters usurp the stars, the plays spill dangerously over into life, and one of them is found dead. The rest face their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, and themselves, that they are blameless.]]> 354 M.L. Rio 125009528X Lo 0 to-read 4.11 2017 If We Were Villains

author: M.L. Rio
name: Lo
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/11
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]]> <![CDATA[The Women of Troy (Women of Troy, #2)]]> 55440232 A daring and timely feminist retelling of The Iliad from the perspective of the women of Troy who endured it—an extraordinary follow up to The Silence of the Girls from the Booker Prize-winning author of The Regeneration Trilogy.

Troy has fallen and the victorious Greeks are eager to return home with the spoils of an endless war—including the women of Troy themselves. They await a fair wind for the Aegean.

It does not come, because the gods are offended. The body of King Priam lies unburied and desecrated, and so the victors remain in suspension, camped in the shadows of the city they destroyed as the coalition that held them together begins to unravel. Old feuds resurface and new suspicions and rivalries begin to fester.

Largely unnoticed by her captors, the one time Trojan queen Briseis, formerly Achilles's slave, now belonging to his companion Alcimus, quietly takes in these developments. She forges alliances when she can, with Priam's aged wife the defiant Hecuba and with the disgraced soothsayer Calchas, all the while shrewdly seeking her path to revenge.]]> 307 Pat Barker 0385546696 Lo 0 to-read 3.81 2021 The Women of Troy (Women of Troy, #2)

author: Pat Barker
name: Lo
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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]]> All the Young Dudes 37887580 1799 MsKingBean89 Lo 5 4.77 2018

author: MsKingBean89
name: Lo
average rating: 4.77
book published: 2018
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/01/05
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]]> <![CDATA[The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths about Sex and Identity in Our Society]]> 50892227
Is our gender something we’re born with, or are we conditioned by society? In The End of Gender , neuroscientist and sexologist Dr. Debra Soh uses a research-based approach to address this hot-button topic, unmasking popular misconceptions about the nature vs. nurture debate and exploring what it means to be a woman or a man in today’s society.

Both scientific and objective, and drawing on original research and carefully conducted interviews, Soh tackles a wide range of issues, such as gender-neutral parenting, gender dysphoric children, and the neuroscience of being transgender. She debates today’s accepted notion that gender is a social construct and a spectrum, and challenges the idea that there is no difference between how male and female brains operate.

The End of Gender is a conversation-starting work that will challenge what you thought you knew about gender, identity, and everything in between. Timely, informative, and provocative, it will arm you with the facts you need to come to your own conclusions about gender identity and its place in the world today.]]> 336 Debra Soh 1982132515 Lo 0 to-read 3.89 2020 The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths about Sex and Identity in Our Society

The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths about Sex and Identity in Our Society

author: Debra Soh
name: Lo
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/12/31
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]]> Femininity 250345
What is femininity? How is it measured? What are its demands? How are women meant to dress, look, think, act, feel, and be, according to the mores of society?

Susan Brownmiller offers a witty and often pointed critique of the concept of femininity in contemporary culture and throughout history. She explores the demands placed upon women to fit an established mold, examines female stereotypes, and celebrates the hard-won advances in women's lifestyle and attire.

At once profound, revolutionary, empowering, and entertaining, "Femininity "challenges the accepted female norm while appreciating the women throughout history who have courageously broken free of its constraints]]> 272 Susan Brownmiller 0449901424 Lo 0 to-read 3.84 1984

author: Susan Brownmiller
name: Lo
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1984
rating: 0
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]]> Persepolis I & II 19793527 The Story of a Childhood and The Story of a Return

The intelligent and outspoken child of radical Marxists, and the great-grandaughter of Iran's last emperor, Satrapi bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country. Persepolis paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran and of the bewildering contradictions between home life and public life. This is a beautiful and intimate story full of tragedy and humour - raw, honest and incredibly illuminating.

]]> 352 Marjane Satrapi Lo 4 4.27 2007 Persepolis I & II

author: Marjane Satrapi
name: Lo
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2007
rating: 4
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date added: 2023/10/06
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]]> <![CDATA[Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead]]> 59366182 In this “fun, page-turner of a novel�� (Sarah Haywood, New York Times bestselling author) that’s perfect for fans of Mostly Dead Things and Goodbye, Vitamin, a morbidly anxious young woman stumbles into a job as a receptionist at a Catholic church and soon finds herself obsessed with her predecessor’s mysterious death.

Gilda, a twenty-something, atheist, animal-loving lesbian, cannot stop ruminating about death. Desperate for relief from her panicky mind and alienated from her repressive family, she responds to a flyer for free therapy at a local Catholic church, and finds herself being greeted by Father Jeff, who assumes she’s there for a job interview. Too embarrassed to correct him, Gilda is abruptly hired to replace the recently deceased receptionist Grace.

In between trying to memorize the lines to Catholic mass, hiding the fact that she has a new girlfriend, and erecting a dirty dish tower in her crumbling apartment, Gilda strikes up an email correspondence with Grace’s old friend. She can’t bear to ignore the kindly old woman who has been trying to reach her friend through the church inbox, but she also can’t bring herself to break the bad news. Desperate, she begins impersonating Grace via email. But when the police discover suspicious circumstances surrounding Grace’s death, Gilda may have to finally reveal the truth of her mortifying existence.

With a “kindhearted heroine we all need right now�� (Courtney Maum, New York Times bestselling author), Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead is a crackling and “delightfully weird reminder that we will one day turn to dust and that yes, this is depressing, but it’s also what makes life beautiful�� (Jean Kyoung Frazier, author of Pizza Girl).]]> 256 Emily R. Austin 198216736X Lo 0 to-read 3.85 2021 Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead

Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead

author: Emily R. Austin
name: Lo
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/10/06
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]]>