Meg's bookshelf: all en-US Mon, 28 Apr 2025 18:28:39 -0700 60 Meg's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Idle Grounds 214151881 On a New England morning in the late 1980s, a group of young cousins wander deep into the woods on their family’s property, drawn in by uncanny visions and the disappearance of one of their own—but the farther they go, the stranger their surroundings become.

Lingering at the edge of a family party, a troop of cousins loses track of the youngest child among them. With their parents preoccupied with bickering about decades-old crises, the children decide they must set out to investigate themselves—to the rickety chicken coop, the barn and its two troublesome horses, and into the woods that once comprised their late grandmother’s property. The more the children search, and the deeper they walk, the more threatening the woods become and the more lost they are, caught between their aunt’s home in the present day, their parents� childhood home just through the trees, and the memory of the house their grandmother grew up in. Soon, what began as a quest for answers gives way to a journey that undermines everything they’ve been told about who they are, where they came from, and what they deserve.

Disquieting and delightful, Idle Grounds is a rich exploration of the interior lives of children and a gripping meditation on birthright, decline, and weight of family history. A fable of the distortions of privilege and the impossibility of keeping secrets hidden, this is a novel about straying from home—only to come back unraveled, unsettled, and irrevocably changed.]]> 208 Krystelle Bamford 1668070456 Meg 0 to-read 3.30 2025 Idle Grounds
author: Krystelle Bamford
name: Meg
average rating: 3.30
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Sunflower House 203579150 Family secrets come to light as a young woman fights to save herself, and others, in a Nazi-run baby factory—a real-life Handmaid's Tale—during World War II.

In a sleepy German village, Allina Strauss’s life seems idyllic: she works at her uncle’s bookshop, makes strudel with her aunt, and spends weekends with her friends and fiancé. But it's 1939, Adolf Hitler is Chancellor, and Allina’s family hides a terrifying secret—her birth mother was Jewish, making her a Mischling.

One fateful night after losing everyone she loves, Allina is forced into service as a nurse at a state-run baby factory called Hochland Home. There, she becomes both witness and participant to the horrors of Heinrich Himmler’s ruthless eugenics program.

The Sunflower House is a meticulously-researched debut historical novel that uncovers the notorious Lebensborn Program of Nazi Germany. Women of “pure� blood stayed in Lebensborn homes for the sole purpose of perpetuating the Aryan population, giving birth to thousands of babies who were adopted out to “good� Nazi families. Allina must keep her Jewish identity a secret in order to survive, but when she discovers the neglect occurring within the home, she’s determined not only to save herself, but also the children in her care.

A tale of one woman’s determination to resist and survive, The Sunflower House is also a love story. When Allina meets Karl, a high-ranking SS officer with secrets of his own, the two must decide how much they are willing to share with each other—and how much they can stand to risk as they join forces to save as many children as they can. The threads of this poignant and heartrending novel weave a tale of loss and love, friendship and betrayal, and the secrets we bury in order to save ourselves.]]> 336 Adriana Allegri 1250326524 Meg 0 to-read 4.37 2024 The Sunflower House
author: Adriana Allegri
name: Meg
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Blue Light Hours 208580636 One of Electric Literature’s �75 Books by Women of Color to Read in 2024�

From the National Book Award-winning translator, an atmospheric and wise debut novel of a young Brazilian woman’s first year in America, a continent away from her lonely mother, and the relationship they build over Skype calls across borders

“Utterly beautiful . . . The yearning in these pages will haunt me.”—Ayşegül Savaş, author of White on White

In a small dorm room at a liberal arts college in Vermont, a young woman settles into the warm blue light of her desk lamp before calling the mother she left behind in northeastern Brazil. Four thousand miles apart and bound by the angular confines of a Skype window, they ask each other a simple question: what’s the news?

Offscreen, little about their lives seems newsworthy. The daughter writes her papers in the library at midnight, eats in the dining hall with the other international students, and raises her hand in class to speak in a language the mother cannot understand. The mother meanwhile preoccupies herself with natural disasters, her increasingly poor health, and the heartbreaking possibility that her daughter might not return to the apartment where they have always lived together. Yet in the blue glow of their computers, the two women develop new rituals of intimacy and caretaking, from drinking whiskey together in the middle of the night to keeping watch as one slides into sleep. As the warm colors of New England autumn fade into an endless winter snow, each realizes that the promise of spring might mean difficult endings rather than hopeful beginnings.

Expanded from a story originally published in The New Yorker, and in elegant prose that recalls the work of Sigrid Nunez, Katie Kitamura, and Rachel Khong, Bruna Dantas Lobato paints a powerful portrait of a mother and a daughter coming of age together and apart and explores the profound sacrifices and freedoms that come with leaving a home to make a new one somewhere else.]]> 192 Bruna Dantas Lobato 0802163777 Meg 0 to-read, fiction 3.96 2024 Blue Light Hours
author: Bruna Dantas Lobato
name: Meg
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/21
shelves: to-read, fiction
review:

]]> Wild Dark Shore 228681633
Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers. But with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants, packing up the seeds before they are transported to safer ground. Despite the wild beauty of life here, isolation has taken its toll on the Salts. Raff, eighteen and suffering his first heartbreak, can only find relief at his punching bag; Fen, seventeen, has started spending her nights on the beach among the seals; nine-year-old Orly, obsessed with botany, fears the loss of his beloved natural world; and Dominic can’t stop turning back toward the past, and the loss that drove the family to Shearwater in the first place.

Then, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman washes up on shore. As the Salts nurse the woman, Rowan, back to life, their suspicion gives way to affection, and they finally begin to feel like a family again. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting her heart, begins to fall for the Salts, too. But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers the sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own dark secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, the characters must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it’s too late—and if they can finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together.]]> Charlotte McConaghy 1761620002 Meg 0 to-read, fiction 4.53 2025 Wild Dark Shore
author: Charlotte McConaghy
name: Meg
average rating: 4.53
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/11
shelves: to-read, fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, #1)]]> 125168721 Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders...

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile� humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die]]> 498 Rebecca Yarros 0349437009 Meg 0 currently-reading, fiction 4.54 2023 Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, #1)
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: Meg
average rating: 4.54
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/11
shelves: currently-reading, fiction
review:

]]> The Season 214273049

She’s a passionate Western Bulldogs fan (with an imperfect grasp of the rules) who loves the epic theatre of AFL football. But her devotion to the under-16s offers her something else. This is her chance to connect with her youngest grandchild, to be close to him before he rushes headlong into manhood. To witness his triumphs and defeats, to fear for his safety in battle, to gasp and to cheer for his team as it fights for a place in the finals.


With her sharp eye, her generous wit and her warm humour, Garner documents this pivotal moment, both as part of the story and as silent witness. The Season is an unexpected and exuberant a celebration of the nobility, grace and grit of team spirit, a reflection on the nature of masculinity, and a tribute to the game’s power to thrill us.]]> 0 Helen Garner 1922791814 Meg 2 4.12 2024 The Season
author: Helen Garner
name: Meg
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2025/04/10
date added: 2025/04/10
shelves: non-fiction, melbourne-victoria
review:

]]> Fahrenheit-182: A Memoir 219129379 A smart, funny, and refreshing memoir from Mark Hoppus, the vocalist, bassist, and founding member of pop-punk band blink-182.

This is a story of what happens when an angst-ridden kid who grew up in the desert experiences his parents� bitter divorce, moves around the country, switches identities from dork to goth to skate punk, and eventually meets his best friend who just so happens to be his musical soulmate.

Bassist, songwriter, and vocalist for renowned pop-punk trailblazers blink-182, Mark Hoppus, tells his story inFahrenheit-182. A memoir that paints a vivid picture of what it was like to come of age in the 1980s as a latchkey kid hooked on punk rock, skateboards, and MTV; Mark Hoppus shares how he came of age and forms one of the biggest bands of his generation. Threaded through with the very human story of a constant battle with anxiety and Mark’s public battle and triumph over cancer,Fahrenheit-182is a delight for fans and also a funny, smart, and relatable memoir for anyone who has wanted to quit but kept going.]]> 400 Mark Hoppus 0063318911 Meg 0 to-read, non-fiction 4.63 2025 Fahrenheit-182: A Memoir
author: Mark Hoppus
name: Meg
average rating: 4.63
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: to-read, non-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Cinnamon Bun Book Store (Dream Harbor, #2)]]> 196241667 From the author of the Sunday Times bestseller and viral TikTok phenomenon, The Pumpkin Spice Café, comes a brand new spicy romance set in Dream Harbor!

When a secret message turns up hidden in a book in the Cinnamon Bun Bookstore, Hazel can't understand it. As more secret codes appear between the pages, she decides to follow the trail of clues� she just need someone to help her out.

Gorgeous and outgoing fisherman, Noah, is always up for an adventure. And a scavenger hunt sounds like a lot of fun. Even better that the cute bookseller he's been crushing on for months is the one who wants his help!

Hazel didn’t go looking for romance, but as the treasure hunt leads her and Noah around Dream Harbor, their undeniable chemistry might be just as hot as the fresh-out-of-the-oven cinnamon buns the bookstore sells�

The Cinnamon Bun Book Store is a cozy romantic mystery with a HEA guaranteed!

Tropes:
� opposites attract
� small town
� forced proximity
� he falls first]]> 384 Laurie Gilmore Meg 3 fiction 3.66 2024 The Cinnamon Bun Book Store (Dream Harbor, #2)
author: Laurie Gilmore
name: Meg
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/08
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> Show Don't Tell 222532850 A funny, fiercely intelligent, and moving collection exploring marriage, friendship, fame, and artistic ambition—including a story that revisits the main character from her iconic novel, ʰ�from the New York Times bestselling author of Eligible and Romantic Comedy.

In her second story collection, Sittenfeld shows why she’s as beloved for her short fiction as she is for her novels. In these dazzling stories, she conjures up characters so real that they seem like old friends, laying bare the moments when their long held beliefs are overturned.

In “The Patron Saints of Middle Age,� a woman visits two friends she hasn’t seen since her divorce. In “A for Alone,� a married middle-aged artist embarks on a creative project intended to disprove the so-called Mike Pence Rule, which suggests that women and men can’t spend time alone without lusting after each other. And in “Lost but Not Forgotten,� Sittenfeld gives fans of her novel Prep a window into the world of her beloved character Lee Fiora, decades later, when Lee attends an alumni reunion at her boarding school.

Hilarious, thought-provoking, and full of tenderness for her characters, Sittenfeld’s stories peel back layer after layer of our inner lives, keeping us riveted with her utterly distinctive voice.]]> Curtis Sittenfeld 1529925908 Meg 0 to-read, fiction, owned 3.86 2025 Show Don't Tell
author: Curtis Sittenfeld
name: Meg
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves: to-read, fiction, owned
review:

]]> Mayflies 50162215 From the widely renowned author Andrew O'Hagan, a heartbreaking novel of an extraordinary lifelong friendship.

Everyone has a Tully Dawson: the friend who defines your life.

In the summer of 1986, in a small Scottish town, James and Tully ignite a brilliant friendship based on music, films and the rebel spirit. With school over and the locked world of their fathers before them, they rush towards the climax of their youth: a magical weekend in Manchester, the epicentre of everything that inspires them in working-class Britain. There, against the greatest soundtrack ever recorded, a vow is made: to go at life differently. Thirty years on, half a life away, the phone rings. Tully has news.

Mayflies is a memorial to youth's euphorias and to everyday tragedy. A tender goodbye to an old union, it discovers the joy and the costs of love.]]> 288 Andrew O'Hagan 0571273688 Meg 0 fiction, currently-reading 3.91 2020 Mayflies
author: Andrew O'Hagan
name: Meg
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves: fiction, currently-reading
review:

]]> Down the Rabbit Hole 223942923
Seven years later, her best friend Hannah is bouncing from job to job, city to city, forever feeling the need to outrun something, but unsure what. With the niggling need to move nipping at her heels, Hannah decides to return home - a small coastal town in Western Australia - for the first time since she left, to help her mum after surgery and confront their fractured relationship.

When Hannah hears that Marnie Montgomery, Alice's mum, has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, she is seized by terror that she will never know the truth of her friend's disappearance; whether she ran away, or met a different, darker fate. Hannah begins to ask questions, starting with Marnie, an addict and recluse, who has long been dogged by rumours that she was in some way responsible.

Insisting she had nothing to do with it, Marnie instead points the finger at a local teacher, Rachel Olney, haunted by broken dreams and the consequences of a single bad decision she made many years ago.

What unfolds is a tale of three women - Hannah, Marnie, Rachel - and a reflection on grief left unchecked; what it means to be a mother, a daughter; and all the terrible ways in which we can hurt one another. As the mystery of Alice dances on the periphery, it becomes ever clearer that this is a story centred not on a potential crime, but on those left behind by tragedy, desperately seeking closure that might not exist.]]> 297 Shaeden Berry 1760689343 Meg 3 fiction, melbourne-victoria 3.37 Down the Rabbit Hole
author: Shaeden Berry
name: Meg
average rating: 3.37
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/30
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves: fiction, melbourne-victoria
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Lost and Lassoed (Rebel Blue Ranch, #3)]]> 206673322 She thrives in chaos. He prefers routine. The only thing they have in common? How much they hate each other. From the author of Done and Dusted and Swift and Saddled, the highly anticipated next book in the Rebel Blue Ranch series, a small town romance featuring enemies to lovers and forced proximity.

Teddy Andersen doesn't have a plan. She's never needed one before. She's always been more of a go with the flow type of girl, but for some reason, the flow doesn't seem to be going her way this time. Her favorite vintage suede jacket has a hole in it, her sewing machine is broken, and her best friend just got engaged. Suddenly, everything feels like it's starting to change. Teddy's used to being a leader, but now she feels like she's getting left behind, wondering if the life she lives in the small town she loves is enough for her anymore.

Gus Ryder has a lot on his plate. He doesn't know what's taking care of his family's 8,000 acre ranch, or parenting his spunky six-year-old daughter, who is staying with him for the summer. Gus has always been the dependable one, but when his workload starts to overwhelm him, he slips up, and he has to admit that he can't manage everything on his own. He needs help. His little sister's best friend, the woman he can't stand, is not who he had in mind. But when no one else can step in, Teddy's the only option he's got. Teddy decides to use the summer to try and figure out what she wants out of life. Gus, on the other hand, starts to worry that he'll never find what he needs. Tempers flare, tension builds, and for the first time ever, Gus and Teddy start to see each other in a different light. As new feelings start to simmer below the surface, they must decide whether or not to act on them. Can they keep things cool? Or will both of them get burned?]]> 368 Lyla Sage 1529436729 Meg 4 fiction 4.19 2024 Lost and Lassoed (Rebel Blue Ranch, #3)
author: Lyla Sage
name: Meg
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/18
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Swift and Saddled (Rebel Blue Ranch, #2)]]> 195532965
The last thing Ada Hart needs is a man to take care of her. Not anymore. After failing out of her interior design program and the disaster that was her short-lived marriage, Ada clawed her way up from her rock bottom. Now, the only person she trusts is herself, and that has gotten her further than ever before. She has her own business, and one of the largest ranches in Wyoming just hired her for the most important project of her career.

When Ada arrives in Meadowlark, she finds herself in a dive bar where she can’t seem to shake the eyes of a handsome cowboy. When she leads him to the back of the bar, he leaves her with a kiss that most people can only fantasize about. She almost regrets that she’ll never see him again... except it turns out he’s her new boss.

Weston Ryder is a happy guy. Even happier now that the mystery woman from the bar is the interior designer for his dream project on his family’s ranch. He feels like he hit the jackpot. It’s too bad she wants absolutely nothing to do with him outside of work. Ada is convinced the pull she feels toward Wes will go away, but Wes can’t stop thinking about her. Even though walls are coming down around Rebel Blue, Ada’s walls are firmly in place.

Can they make it through this project without giving in? Or will they both put their dreams on the line for a chance at love?]]> 320 Lyla Sage 059373243X Meg 3 fiction 3.90 2024 Swift and Saddled (Rebel Blue Ranch, #2)
author: Lyla Sage
name: Meg
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/26
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[I Heart Forever (I Heart Series, #7)]]> 34016827

Angela, Alex and Jenny are back! Just as everyone thinks they’ve settled down, Jenny’s life changes and Angela finds herself in her biggest scrape ever. The brilliant new I HEART novel from Sunday Times bestselling author Lindsey Kelk.]]> 400 Lindsey Kelk 000823681X Meg 4 fiction 4.21 2017 I Heart Forever (I Heart Series, #7)
author: Lindsey Kelk
name: Meg
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/09
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> Theory & Practice 216948382
Theory & Practice is a mesmerising account of desire and jealousy, truth and shame. It makes and unmakes fiction as we read, expanding our notion of what a novel can contain.

Michelle de Kretser, one of Australia’s most celebrated writers, bends fiction, essay and memoir into exhilarating new shapes to uncover what happens when life smashes through the boundaries of art.]]> 192 Michelle de Kretser 1923058142 Meg 2 3.94 2024 Theory & Practice
author: Michelle de Kretser
name: Meg
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2025/02/22
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves: fiction, melbourne-victoria, owned
review:

]]> Limberlost 60302358
His two brothers are away at war, their whereabouts unknown. His father and older sister struggle to hold things together on the family orchard, Limberlost.

Desperate to ignore it all—to avoid the future rushing towards him—Ned dreams of open water.

As his story unfolds over the following decades, we see how Ned’s choices that summer come to shape the course of his life, the fate of his family and the future of the valley, with its seasons of death and rebirth.

The third novel by the award-winning author of Flames and The Rain Heron, Limberlost is an extraordinary chronicle of life and land: of carnage and kindness, blood ties and love.]]> 240 Robbie Arnott 1922458767 Meg 0 4.20 2022 Limberlost
author: Robbie Arnott
name: Meg
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves: fiction, tbr-physical, owned, green-books
review:

]]> Molly (Dressmaker, #0.5) 217043589
Her burgeoning corsetry business is starting to take off, thanks to some high-profile supporters. She's marching with Melbourne's suffragists for better conditions for women everywhere. And her family - her eccentric, confounding, adored father and aunt - are turning their minds to country retirement.

But as the clouds of war gather and an ominous figure starts skulking in the shadows of her life, Molly's dreams begin to falter. Then, when true love drops out of the sky and into her arms, her hopes for her life and the world are entirely upended.

With the dark humour, richly detailed settings and vividly drawn characters we've come to expect from Rosalie Ham, this prequel to the international bestseller The Dressmaker is an unforgettable story of hopes lost, love found - and corsets loosened.]]> 415 Rosalie Ham 1761563920 Meg 4 fiction, melbourne-victoria 3.73 Molly (Dressmaker, #0.5)
author: Rosalie Ham
name: Meg
average rating: 3.73
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/30
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: fiction, melbourne-victoria
review:

]]> The Burrow 215812624
The Burrow tells an unforgettable story about grief and hope. With her characteristic compassion and eye for detail, Melanie Cheng reveals the lives of others—even of a small rabbit.]]> 208 Melanie Cheng 192279094X Meg 0 to-read, fiction 4.12 2024 The Burrow
author: Melanie Cheng
name: Meg
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: to-read, fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Gingerbread Bakery (Dream Harbor, #5)]]> 220255008 From the international bestselling author of The Pumpkin Spice Café and The Cinnamon Bun Book Store, comes the highly anticipated Dream Harbor romance for 2025!

A wedding in Dream Harbor can only mean one thing, everyone wants to get involved!

With Jeanie and Logan set to tie the knot, and Kira desperate to hire out her newly renovated barn at the Christmas tree farm, everything seems to be going well. Annie has agreed to bake the cake, and Mac is responsible for, well� just being Mac. And as the whole of Dream Harbor comes together to celebrate the wedding of the year with the snow falling around them, can Annie and Mac put aside their dislike for each just long enough for the ‘I Do’s� or is that one request too far�

The Gingerbread Bakery is a cozy romantic novel with an enemies to lovers dynamic, small-town setting and a HEA guaranteed!

Tropes:

� enemies to lovers
� found family
� small town
� forced proximity]]> 384 Laurie Gilmore 0008728097 Meg 0 to-read 3.91 2025 The Gingerbread Bakery (Dream Harbor, #5)
author: Laurie Gilmore
name: Meg
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Strawberry Patch Pancake House (Dream Harbor, #4)]]> 213186396 Fall in love with the brand new spring romance set in Dream Harbor, from the bestselling author of The Pumpkin Spice Café.

As a renowned chef, single-dad Archer never planned on moving to a small town, let alone running a pancake restaurant. But Dream Harbor needs a new chef, and Archer needs a community to help raise his daughter, Olive.

Iris has never managed to hold down a job for more than a few months. So when Mayor Kelly suggests Archer is looking for a nanny, and Iris might be available, she shudders at the thought. But in need of money she reluctantly agrees.

As Archer and Iris get used to their new roles, is it possible that they might have more in common than they first thought, or is Olive just determined to play match-maker�

Tropes:

� single dad
� forced proximity
� slow burn
� found family
� one bed]]> 361 Laurie Gilmore 0008713340 Meg 0 to-read 3.91 2025 The Strawberry Patch Pancake House (Dream Harbor, #4)
author: Laurie Gilmore
name: Meg
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Before We Were Innocent 205752951 A summer in Greece for three best friends ends in the unthinkable when only two return home in this new novel from Ella Berman. . . .

Ten years ago, after a sun-soaked summer spent in Greece, best friends Bess and Joni were cleared of having any involvement in their friend Evangeline’s death. But that didn’t stop the media from ripping apart their teenage lives like vultures.

While the girls were never convicted, Joni, ever the opportunist, capitalized on her newfound infamy to become a motivational speaker. Bess, on the other hand, resolved to make her life as small and controlled as possible so she wouldn’t risk losing everything all over again. And it almost worked. . . .

Except now Joni is tangled up in a crime eerily similar to that one fateful night in Greece. And when she asks Bess to come back to LA to support her, Bess has a decision to make.

Is it finally time to face up to what happened that night, exposing herself as the young woman she once was and maybe still is? And what happens if she doesn’t like what she finds?]]> 368 Ella Berman 1035900386 Meg 0 fiction, tbr-physical, owned 3.36 2023 Before We Were Innocent
author: Ella Berman
name: Meg
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: fiction, tbr-physical, owned
review:

]]> Blue Sisters 213281155 Three estranged siblings return to their family home in New York after their beloved sister's death in this unforgettable story of grief, identity, and the complexities of family.

The three Blue sisters are exceptional—and exceptionally different. Avery, the eldest and a recovering heroin addict turned strait-laced lawyer, lives with her wife in London; Bonnie, a former boxer, works as a bouncer in Los Angeles following a devastating defeat; and Lucky, the youngest, models in Paris while trying to outrun her hard-partying ways. They also had a fourth sister, Nicky, whose unexpected death left Avery, Bonnie, and Lucky reeling. A year later, as they each navigate grief, addiction, and ambition, they find they must return to New York to stop the sale of the apartment they were raised in.

But coming home is never as easy as it seems. As the sisters reckon with the disappointments of their childhood and the loss of the only person who held them together, they realize the greatest secrets they've been keeping might not have been from each other, but from themselves.]]> 352 Coco Mellors 0008623007 Meg 0 fiction, tbr-physical, owned 4.10 2024 Blue Sisters
author: Coco Mellors
name: Meg
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: fiction, tbr-physical, owned
review:

]]> There Are Rivers in the Sky 63216147 From the Booker Prize finalist author of The Island of Missing Trees, an enchanting new tale about three characters living along two rivers, all under the shadow of one of the greatest epic poems of all time.

In the ancient city of Nineveh, on the bank of the River Tigris, King Ashurbanipal of Mesopotamia, erudite but ruthless, built a great library that would crumble with the end of his reign. From its ruins, however, emerged a poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh, that would infuse the existence of two rivers and bind together three lives.

In 1840 London, Arthur is born beside the stinking, sewage-filled River Thames. With an abusive, alcoholic father and a mentally ill mother, Arthur’s only chance of escaping destitution is his brilliant memory. When his gift earns him a spot as an apprentice at a leading publisher, Arthur’s world opens up far beyond the slums, and one book in particular catches his interest: Nineveh and Its Remains.

In 2014 Turkey, Narin, a ten-year-old Yazidi girl, is diagnosed with a rare disorder that will soon cause her to go deaf. Before that happens, her grandmother is determined to baptize her in a sacred Iraqi temple. But with the rising presence of ISIS and the destruction of the family’s ancestral lands along the Tigris, Narin is running out of time.

In 2018 London, the newly divorced Zaleekah, a hydrologist, moves into a houseboat on the Thames to escape her husband. Orphaned and raised by her wealthy uncle, Zaleekah had made the decision to take her own life in one month, until a curious book about her homeland changes everything.

A dazzling feat of storytelling, There Are Rivers in the Sky entwines these outsiders with a single drop of water, a drop which remanifests across the centuries. Both a source of life and harbinger of death, rivers—the Tigris and the Thames—transcend history, transcend fate: “Water remembers. It is humans who forget.�]]> 483 Elif Shafak 0241435013 Meg 0 fiction, tbr-physical, owned 4.50 2024 There Are Rivers in the Sky
author: Elif Shafak
name: Meg
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: fiction, tbr-physical, owned
review:

]]> Time of the Child 220346451
Doctor Jack Troy was born and raised in Faha, but his responsibilities for the sick and his care for the dying mean he has always been set apart from the town. His eldest daughter, Ronnie, has grown up in her father's shadow, and remains there, having missed one chance at love � and passed up another offer of marriage from an unsuitable man.

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

Set over the course of one December in the same village as Williams' beloved This Is Happiness, Time of the Child is a tender return to Faha for readers who know its charms, and a heartwarming welcome to new readers entering for the very first time.]]> Niall Williams 152667517X Meg 0 fiction, tbr-physical, owned 4.36 2024 Time of the Child
author: Niall Williams
name: Meg
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: fiction, tbr-physical, owned
review:

]]> Hello Beautiful 175407087 A rich, compassionate tale of four sisters and the love affair that fractures their family

Best friends and sisters, the four Padavano girls are seen as inseparable by everyone in their close-knit Italian-American neighbourhood. Julia, the eldest, is the 'rocket' of the family - she always has a destination in mind and clear plans for how to get there. Sylvie, the dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book, dreaming of the kind of love you only read about in literature. Cecelia and Emmeline, the twins, are the artist and the caregiver. From childhood, the four sisters complete each other.

When Julia falls in love with William Waters, a history student and college sports star, she's delighted by the way her plans for adulthood are coming to fruition: a husband, a house, a family of her own. But when darkness from William's past begins to block the light of his future, it is Sylvie, not Julia, who becomes his closest confidante - and the ensuing betrayal tears the sisters apart.

Heart-breaking and heart-mending, HELLO BEAUTIFUL paints a vivid portrait of the unique bond and devastating betrayals of sisterhood.]]> 416 Napolitano Ann 0241998492 Meg 0 fiction, tbr-physical 4.25 2023 Hello Beautiful
author: Napolitano Ann
name: Meg
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: fiction, tbr-physical
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Christmas Tree Farm (Dream Harbor, #3)]]> 206318178 From the author of the viral TikTok sensation, The Pumpkin Spice Café, comes the only spicy grumpy x sunshine Christmas romcom you need this year!

Kira North hates Christmas. Which is unfortunate since she just bought a Christmas tree farm in a town that’s too cute for its own good.

Bennett Ellis is on vacation in Dream Harbor taking a break from his life in California. And most importantly, taking a break from his latest run of disastrous dates.

After a run in with Kira in her fields, Ben has no intention of offering to help the grumpy owner set up her tree farm, despite the fact she’s clearly got no idea what she’s doing.

Kira knows she should stop being so stubborn, but her farm is not all cute and cozy like people always show on social media, it’s borderline dangerous with no heating, and she’d rather no one saw it.

But somehow fate finds Ben at Kira’s farm once more, and as Kira watches him swing an ax at the first tree, she finds herself appreciating his strength and questionning why she refused help in the first place..

The Christmas Tree Farm is a spicy romantic mystery for fans of Gilmore Girls with a HEA guaranteed!

Tropes:

� grumpy x sunshine
� small town
� forced proximity
� one bed]]> 369 Laurie Gilmore 0008610738 Meg 3 fiction 3.66 2024 The Christmas Tree Farm (Dream Harbor, #3)
author: Laurie Gilmore
name: Meg
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/27
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> The Safekeep 204902984 An exhilarating tale of twisted desire, histories and homes, and the unexpected shape of revenge - for readers of Patricia Highsmith, Sarah Waters and Ian McEwan's Atonement

It's 1961 and the rural Dutch province of Overijssel is quiet. Bomb craters have been filled, buildings reconstructed, and the war is well and truly over. Living alone in her late mother's country home, Isabel's life is as it should be: led by routine and discipline. But all is upended when her brother Louis delivers his graceless new girlfriend, Eva, at Isabel's doorstep-as a guest, there to stay for the season...

Eva is Isabel's antithesis: sleeps late, wakes late, walks loudly through the house and touches things she shouldn't. In response Isabel develops a fury-fuelled obsession, and when things start disappearing around the house-a spoon, a knife, a bowl-Isabel' suspicions spiral out of control. In the sweltering peak of summer, Isabel's paranoia gives way to desire - leading to a discovery that unravels all Isabel has ever known. The war might not be well and truly over after all, and neither Eva - nor the house in which they live - are what they seem.]]> 262 Yael van der Wouden 0241652308 Meg 4 fiction, owned 4.19 2024 The Safekeep
author: Yael van der Wouden
name: Meg
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/24
date added: 2024/12/24
shelves: fiction, owned
review:

]]> Long Island Compromise 60509751 “Were we gangsters? No. But did we know how to start a fire?�

In 1980, a wealthy businessman named Carl Fletcher is kidnapped from his driveway, brutalized, and held for ransom. He is returned to his wife and kids less than a week later, only slightly the worse, and the family moves on with their lives, resuming their prized places in the saga of the American dream, comforted in the realization that though their money may have been what endangered them, it is also what assured them their safety.

But now, nearly forty years later, it’s clear that perhaps nobody ever got over anything, after all. Carl has spent the ensuing years secretly seeking closure to the matter of his kidnapping, while his wife, Ruth, has spent her potential protecting her husband’s emotional health. Their three grown children aren’t doing much better: Nathan’s chronic fear won’t allow him to advance at his law firm; Beamer, a Hollywood screenwriter, will consume anything—substance, foodstuff, women—in order to numb his own perpetual terror; and Jenny has spent her life so bent on proving that she’s not a product of her family’s pathology that she has come to define it. As they hover at the delicate precipice of a different kind of survival, they learn that the family fortune has dwindled to just about nothing, and they must face desperate questions about how much their wealth has played a part in both their lives� successes and failures.

Long Island Compromise spans the entirety of one family’s history, winding through decades and generations, all the way to the outrageous present, and confronting the mainstays of American Jewish life: tradition, the pursuit of success, the terror of history, fear of the future, old wives� tales, evil eyes, ambition, achievement, boredom, dybbuks, inheritance, pyramid schemes, right-wing capitalists, beta-blockers, psychics, and the mostly unspoken love and shared experience that unite a family forever.]]> 464 Taffy Brodesser-Akner 1472273036 Meg 0 to-read, fiction 3.78 2024 Long Island Compromise
author: Taffy Brodesser-Akner
name: Meg
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/24
shelves: to-read, fiction
review:

]]> The Party 214397196 An irresistible novella about two sisters and a night that changes everything, from the master chronicler of our heart’s hidden desires.

‘Tessa Hadley is my favourite author� KATE ATKINSON

Evelyn had the surprising thought that bodies were sometimes wiser than the people inside them. She’d have liked to impress somebody with this idea, but couldn’t explain it.

On a winter Saturday night in post-war Bristol, sisters Moira and Evelyn, on the cusp of adulthood, go to an art students� party in a dockside pub; there they meet two men, Paul and Sinden, whose air of worldliness and sophistication both intrigues and repels them. Sinden calls a few days later to invite them over to the grand suburban mansion Paul shares with his brother and sister, and Moira accepts despite Evelyn’s misgivings.

As the night unfolds in this unfamiliar, glamorous new setting, the sisters learn things about themselves and each other that shock them, and release them into a new phase of their lives.

‘Few writers give me such consistent pleasure�
ZADIE SMITH

‘Hadley’s extraordinary skill [is] making both surface life and deep interiors come fully alive�
COLM TÓIBÍN

‘Tessa Hadley recruits admirers with each book�
HILARY MANTEL
]]> 111 Tessa Hadley 1529949300 Meg 0 to-read, fiction 3.32 2024 The Party
author: Tessa Hadley
name: Meg
average rating: 3.32
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves: to-read, fiction
review:

]]> Bridge to Terabithia 821162 141 Katherine Paterson 0140366180 Meg 4 fiction, owned 3.97 1977 Bridge to Terabithia
author: Katherine Paterson
name: Meg
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1977
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/22
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves: fiction, owned
review:

]]> Love Story 200546870 She’s a small-town schoolteacher.

He’s a hotshot marketing director.

Together, it’s hate at first sight.

Sophie Taylor has a secret and Joe Walsh thinks he knows it (all). He’s devilishly handsome, incredibly hot � and far too sure of himself.

Unfortunately, Sophie desperately needs his help. She has lost her laptop � and her sequel to the sensational, spicy romance that everybody’s talking about.

Because Sophie is not just hiding something small. She is Este Cox, the mysterious romance author the entire world is desperate to unmask.

When a trip to Sophie’s hometown leads to the disgruntled pair sharing a one-bed cottage, it’s a short step to sharing a whole lot more besides� Can Sophie trust Joe with the truth � and be herself?]]> 384 Lindsey Kelk 0008687706 Meg 4 fiction 4.14 2024 Love Story
author: Lindsey Kelk
name: Meg
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/21
date added: 2024/12/21
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> Demon Copperhead 61835832 "Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose."

Demon Copperhead is set in the mountains of southern Appalachia. It's the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.

Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind.

"Kingsolver is a writer who can help us understand and navigate the chaos of these times." --Minneapolis Star Tribune

From the New York Times bestselling author of Unsheltered and Flight Behavior, a brilliant novel which enthralls, compels, and captures the heart as it evokes a young hero's unforgettable journey to maturity.]]> 546 Barbara Kingsolver 0571376479 Meg 0 fiction, owned, tbr-physical 4.48 2022 Demon Copperhead
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Meg
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: fiction, owned, tbr-physical
review:

]]> Lola in the Mirror 167582092
'Mirror, mirror, on the grass, what's my future? What's my past?' A girl and her mother are on the lam. They've been running for sixteen years, from police and the monster they left in the kitchen with the knife in his throat. They've found themselves a home inside an orange 1987 Toyota HiAce van with four flat tyres parked in a scrapyard by the edge of the Brisbane River � just two of the 100,000 Australians sleeping rough every night. The girl has no name because names are dangerous when you're on the run. But the girl has a dream. Visions in black ink and living colour. A vision of a life as a groundbreaking artist of international acclaim. A life outside the grip of the Brisbane underworld drug queen 'Lady' Flora Box. A life of love with the boy in the brown suit who's waiting for her in the middle of the bridge that stretches across a flooding and deadly river. A life far beyond the bullet that has her name on it. And now that the storm clouds are rising, there's only one person who can help make her dreams come true. That person's name is Lola and she carries all the answers. But to find Lola, the girl with no name must first do one of the hardest things we can sometimes ever do. She must look in the mirror. A big, moving, blackly funny, violent, heartbreaking and beautiful novel of love, fate, life and death and all the things we see when we look in the mirror. All of the past, all of the present, and all of our possible futures. 'Mirror, mirror, please don't lie. Tell me who you are. Tell me who am I.']]> 512 Trent Dalton 146071332X Meg 0 fiction, tbr-physical 4.37 2023 Lola in the Mirror
author: Trent Dalton
name: Meg
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: fiction, tbr-physical
review:

]]> Intermezzo 215366091 An exquisitely moving story about grief, love, and family, from the global phenomenon Sally Rooney.

Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common.

Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties—successful, competent, and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women—his enduring first love, Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke.

Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined.

For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude—a period of desire, despair, and possibility; a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.]]> 448 Sally Rooney 0571365477 Meg 0 fiction, owned, tbr-physical 4.03 2024 Intermezzo
author: Sally Rooney
name: Meg
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: fiction, owned, tbr-physical
review:

]]> The Nightingale 36690684 This is an alternate cover edition of ASIN 1509848622 (ISBN13: 9781509848621)

The New York Times number one bestselling title Bravery, courage, fear and love in a time of war. Despite their differences, sisters Viann and Isabelle have always been close. Younger, bolder Isabelle lives in Paris while Viann is content with life in the French countryside with her husband Antoine and their daughter. But when the Second World War strikes, Antoine is sent off to fight and Viann finds herself isolated so Isabelle is sent by their father to help her. As the war progresses, the sisters' relationship and strength is tested. With life changing in unbelievably horrific ways, Viann and Isabelle will find themselves facing frightening situations and responding in ways they never thought possible as bravery and resistance take different forms in each of their actions. Vivid and exquisite in its illumination of a time and place that was filled with atrocities, but also humanity and strength, Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale will provoke thought and discussion that will have readers talking long after they finish reading.]]> 442 Kristin Hannah Meg 0 fiction, owned, tbr-physical 4.56 2015 The Nightingale
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Meg
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: fiction, owned, tbr-physical
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Children of Liberty (The Bronze Horseman, #0.5)]]> 26167302
The fates of the Barringtons and Attavianos become entwined, on a collision course between the old and new, between what is expected and what is desired, what is chosen and what is bestowed, what is given and what is taken away.

As America races headlong into the future, much will be lost and much will be gained for Gina and Harry, whose ill-fated love story will break your heart.]]> 433 Paullina Simons Meg 0 fiction, owned, tbr-physical 3.50 2012 Children of Liberty (The Bronze Horseman, #0.5)
author: Paullina Simons
name: Meg
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: fiction, owned, tbr-physical
review:

]]> Portrait in Sepia 354478 0 Isabel Allende 0007743416 Meg 0 fiction, owned, tbr-physical 3.90 2000 Portrait in Sepia
author: Isabel Allende
name: Meg
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: fiction, owned, tbr-physical
review:

]]> Daughter of Fortune 49955184 399 Isabel Allende 0006552323 Meg 0 fiction, owned, tbr-physical 4.00 1998 Daughter of Fortune
author: Isabel Allende
name: Meg
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: fiction, owned, tbr-physical
review:

]]> The Glassmaker 216356628
It is 1486 and Venice is a wealthy, opulent center for trade. Orsola Rosso is the eldest daughter in a family of glassblowers in Murano, the island revered for the craft. As a woman, she is not meant to work with glass—but she has the hands for it, the heart, and a vision. When her father dies, she teaches herself to make beads in secret, and her work supports the Rosso family fortunes.

Skipping like a stone through the centuries, in a Venice where time moves as slowly as molten glass, we follow Orsola and her family as they live through creative triumph and heartbreaking loss, from a plague devastating Venice to Continental soldiers stripping its palazzos bare, from the domination of Murano and its maestros to the transformation of the city of trade into a city of tourists. In every era, the Rosso women ensure that their work, and their bonds, endure.

Chevalier is a master of her own craft, and The Glassmaker is as inventive as it is a mesmerizing portrait of a woman, a family, and a city that are as everlasting as their glass.]]> 392 Tracy Chevalier 000870130X Meg 0 fiction, owned, tbr-physical 3.96 2024 The Glassmaker
author: Tracy Chevalier
name: Meg
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: fiction, owned, tbr-physical
review:

]]> The Familiar 201329699 Hipnotyzująca opowieść o ambicji, przetrwaniu i kobiecej sile w świecie, gdzie jedno błędne słowo może oznaczać śmierć.

Złoty Wiek. Hiszpania. W nędznym domu, na nędznej ulicy, w nowej stolicy � Madrycie � mieszka Luzia Cotado, która wykorzystuje swoje magiczne zdolności, by przetrwać ciężki los pomywaczki. Gdy inni odkrywają jej moc, dziewczyna zostaje wciągnięta w świat arystokratycznych intryg, gdzie może stać się pionkiem w grze o władzę� lub jego królową.

Jej pokazy początkowo są zwykłą rozrywką dla znudzonej elity. Wkrótce sprawy jednak przybierają niebezpieczny obrót, gdy Luzia przyciąga uwagę Antonio Péreza � obdarzonego złą sławą sekretarza hiszpańskiego króla. Król wciąż próbuje się podnieść po druzgocącej porażce swojej armii, ale nie ustaje w wysiłkach, by zdobyć przewagę nad Anglią. A Pérez, pragnący odzyskać zaufanie i przychylność króla, nie cofnie się przed niczym.

Zdeterminowana, by wykorzystać swoją jedyną szansę na lepsze życie, Luzia rzuca się w świat proroków, alchemistów, świętych, handlarzy, w wir magii, nauki i oszustwa. Ale wraz z rozgłosem przychodzi niebezpieczeństwo, że jej istnienie przyciągnie gniew inkwizytorów. Luzia będzie musiała użyć całego swojego sprytu i siły, by przetrwać � nawet jeżeli oznacza to zasięgnięcie pomocy u Guilléna Santagnela, zgorzkniałego nieśmiertelnika, którego własne sekrety mogą doprowadzić do śmierci ich obojga.]]> 385 Leigh Bardugo 0241655315 Meg 0 fiction, owned, tbr-physical 3.71 2024 The Familiar
author: Leigh Bardugo
name: Meg
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: fiction, owned, tbr-physical
review:

]]> Gold Rush 204297685 We give celebrities a power they don’t deserve. Power they haven’t earned. What happens when they exploit it?

Imagine you’ve just spent the night with the most famous man on the planet. Except you don’t quite remember it. That is what happens to Rose, a twenty-something woman who seemingly has everything going for her.

Working for one of the most powerful publishers in the country, Rose spends her days doing PR for glossy magazines. There are tedious spreadsheets, fashion divas, and many A-list parties. It’s at one of those parties where she meets Milo Jax, the world-famous, globally adored, British pop sensation. An unlikely flirtation turns into an even more unlikely evening and then Rose wakes up, unable to piece it all together. What happens next changes everything.

Gold Rush is a pre-MeToo story about consent, celebrity culture, and trying to figure out where you fit in a world that consistently devalues and disrespects women’s bodies.]]> 385 Olivia Petter 0008606439 Meg 0 fiction, owned, tbr-physical 3.39 2024 Gold Rush
author: Olivia Petter
name: Meg
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: fiction, owned, tbr-physical
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Most Famous Girl in the World]]> 193544856
Rose Aslani is mid-bikini wax when her phone lights up with a notification: Famed scam artist Poppy Hastings will be released from prison today.

It's been two years since Rose―a first-generation Middle Eastern American, functional trainwreck, and reporter for online journal The Shred―wrote the investigative article that exposed Poppy as a socialite grifter. Normally, one of her articles going viral would be cause for celebration, but the highly publicized trial that followed turned Poppy into the internet's favorite celebrity. And Rose has been reeling from the aftermath ever since. Although Poppy served her time for defrauding some of the richest, most powerful men in the world, Rose knows this is only the tip of the iceberg for Poppy's crimes. She just can't prove it yet� At least not without the help of a devilishly handsome FBI agent gone rogue.

As Poppy's star rises as an influencer and pop-culture icon, Rose quickly descends into a downward spiral of guilt and obsession. Her article created Poppy's fame, so Rose needs to right her wrong by exposing Poppy for the monster that she is. But it's not going to be easy taking down the most famous girl in the world.

Campy, satirical, and utterly hilarious, The Most Famous Girl in the World is both a scathing indictment of modern celebrity and a thrilling rollercoaster ride of unhinged hijinks that will keep you gasping at every turn of the page.]]> 384 Iman Hariri-Kia 1728270618 Meg 0 fiction, tbr-physical, owned 3.25 2024 The Most Famous Girl in the World
author: Iman Hariri-Kia
name: Meg
average rating: 3.25
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: fiction, tbr-physical, owned
review:

]]> The Beauties 62059154
When Emilia Lennox loses everything after her husband’s lands and title are confiscated, her beauty is her best bargaining chip with the only man who can restore their fortunes: King Charles II himself.

But the king’s favour comes at a price. He will pardon Emilia’s husband only if she agrees to be his mistress. Torn, Emilia comes up with a condition of her own: she will consent, but not until her portrait hangs among the famed Windsor Beauties, a series commissioned by the Duchess of York to showcase the fairest women in the royal retinue.

For Henry Greenhill, ambitious assistant to the court painter, the opportunity to paint Emilia’s portrait is a chance to step out of his master’s shadow. But his sitter proves as evasive as she is beautiful, and with barely a sketch to show for his efforts, Henry’s career is on the line.

As the king’s patience wears thin, it’s clear that more than creative talent will be needed to capture this incomparable beauty on canvas ...

From the bestselling author of The Lace Weavercomes this seductive story of rivalry, artistic passion and a woman bold enough to wield her beauty as a weapon.]]> 372 Lauren Chater 1760850241 Meg 0 fiction, owned, tbr-physical 3.76 2024 The Beauties
author: Lauren Chater
name: Meg
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: fiction, owned, tbr-physical
review:

]]> Violeta 62952147 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - This sweeping novel from the author of A Long Petal of the Sea tells the epic story of Violeta Del Valle, a woman whose life spans one hundred years and bears witness to the greatest upheavals of the twentieth century.

"An immersive saga about a passion-filled life."--People

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: PopSugar

Violeta comes into the world on a stormy day in 1920, the first girl in a family with five boisterous sons. From the start, her life is marked by extraordinary events, for the ripples of the Great War are still being felt, even as the Spanish flu arrives on the shores of her South American homeland almost at the moment of her birth.

Through her father's prescience, the family will come through that crisis unscathed, only to face a new one as the Great Depression transforms the genteel city life she has known. Her family loses everything and is forced to retreat to a wild and beautiful but remote part of the country. There, she will come of age, and her first suitor will come calling.

She tells her story in the form of a letter to someone she loves above all others, recounting times of devastating heartbreak and passionate affairs, poverty and wealth, terrible loss and immense joy. Her life is shaped by some of the most important events of history: the fight for women's rights, the rise and fall of tyrants, and ultimately not one, but two pandemics.

Through the eyes of a woman whose unforgettable passion, determination, and sense of humor carry her through a lifetime of upheaval, Isabel Allende once more brings us an epic that is both fiercely inspiring and deeply emotional.]]> 368 Isabel Allende 0593496221 Meg 0 fiction, owned, tbr-physical 3.89 2022 Violeta
author: Isabel Allende
name: Meg
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: fiction, owned, tbr-physical
review:

]]> The Dutch House 50622406 From the New York Times bestselling author of Commonwealth and State of Wonder , comes Ann Patchett’s most powerful novel to date: a richly moving story that explores the indelible bond between two siblings, the house of their childhood, and a past that will not let them go. The Dutch House is the story of a paradise lost, a tour de force that digs deeply into questions of inheritance, love and forgiveness, of how we want to see ourselves and of who we really are.

At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves.

The story is told by Cyril’s son Danny, as he and his older sister, the brilliantly acerbic and self-assured Maeve, are exiled from the house where they grew up by their stepmother. The two wealthy siblings are thrown back into the poverty their parents had escaped from and find that all they have to count on is one another. It is this unshakeable bond between them that both saves their lives and thwarts their futures.

Set over the course of five decades, The Dutch House is a dark fairy tale about two smart people who cannot overcome their past. Despite every outward sign of success, Danny and Maeve are only truly comfortable when they’re together. Throughout their lives they return to the well-worn story of what they’ve lost with humor and rage. But when at last they’re forced to confront the people who left them behind, the relationship between an indulged brother and his ever-protective sister is finally tested.

#1New York TimesBestseller |A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick |ANew York Times Book ReviewNotable Book | TIME Magazine's 100 Must-Read Books of 2019]]> 337 Ann Patchett 0062963686 Meg 0 fiction, owned, tbr-physical 4.07 2019 The Dutch House
author: Ann Patchett
name: Meg
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: fiction, owned, tbr-physical
review:

]]> Long Island (Eilis Lacey, #2) 213062452 New York Times bestselling author comes a spectacularly moving and intense novel of secrecy, misunderstanding, and love, the story of Eilis Lacey, the complex and enigmatic heroine of Brooklyn, Tóibín’s most popular work, twenty years later.

Eilis Lacey is Irish, married to Tony Fiorello, a plumber and one of four Italian American brothers, all of whom live in neighboring houses on a cul-de-sac in Lindenhurst, Long Island, with their wives and children and Tony’s parents, a huge extended family that lives and works, eats and plays together. It is the spring of 1976 and Eilis, now in her forties with two teenage children, has no one to rely on in this still-new country. Though her ties to Ireland remain stronger than those that hold her to her new land and home, she has not returned in decades.

One day, when Tony is at his job and Eilis is in her home office doing her accounting, an Irishman comes to the door asking for her by name. He tells her that his wife is pregnant with Tony’s child and that when the baby is born, he will not raise it but instead deposit it on Eilis’s doorstep. It is what Eilis does—and what she refuses to do—in response to this stunning news that makes Tóibín’s novel so riveting.

Long Island is about longings unfulfilled, even unrecognized. The silences in Eilis� life are thunderous and dangerous, and there’s no one more deft than Tóibín at giving them language. This is a gorgeous story of a woman alone in a marriage and the deepest bonds she rekindles on her return to the place and people she left behind, to ways of living and loving she thought she’d lost.]]> 288 Colm Tóibín 1761267736 Meg 0 fiction, owned, tbr-physical 3.83 2024 Long Island (Eilis Lacey, #2)
author: Colm Tóibín
name: Meg
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: fiction, owned, tbr-physical
review:

]]> The Promise 59063643 ***LONGLISTED FOR THE 2021 BOOKER PRIZE***

A masterpiece of a family in crisis from twice Booker-shortlisted author Damon Galgut

'Astonishing' Colm Tóibín

'A literary masterpiece' Sarah Hall

The Promise charts the crash and burn of a white South African family, living on a farm outside Pretoria. The Swarts are gathering for Ma's funeral. The younger generation, Anton and Amor, detest everything the family stand for -- not least the failed promise to the Black woman who has worked for them her whole life. After years of service, Salome was promised her own house, her own land... yet somehow, as each decade passes, that promise remains unfulfilled.

The narrator's eye shifts and blinks: moving fluidly between characters, flying into their dreams; deliciously lethal in its observation. And as the country moves from old deep divisions to its new so-called fairer society, the lost promise of more than just one family hovers behind the novel's title.

In this story of a diminished family, sharp and tender emotional truths hit home. Confident, deft and quietly powerful, The Promise is literary fiction at its finest.

'Gorgeous and pleasurable' Tessa Hadley

'The most important book of the last ten years' Edmund White

'Simply: you must read it' Claire Messud]]> 288 Damon Galgut 1529113873 Meg 0 fiction, owned, tbr-physical 3.75 2021 The Promise
author: Damon Galgut
name: Meg
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: fiction, owned, tbr-physical
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Pumpkin Spice Café (Dream Harbor, #1)]]> 198100928 A spicy small-town romance and TikTok phenomenon, perfect for fans of Hannah Grace and Stephanie Archer.

When Jeanie's aunt gifts her the beloved Pumpkin Spice Café in the small town of Dream Harbor, Jeanie jumps at the chance for a fresh start away from her very dull desk job.

Logan is a local farmer who avoids Dream Harbor's gossip at all costs. But Jeanie's arrival disrupts Logan's routine and he wants nothing to do with the irritatingly upbeat new girl, except that he finds himself inexplicably drawn to her.

Will Jeanie's happy-go-lucky attitude win over the grumpy-but-gorgeous Logan, or has this city girl found the one person in town who won't fall for her charm, or her pumpkin spice lattes�

The Pumpkin Spice Café is a cozy romantic mystery for fans of Gilmore Girls, with a grumpy x sunshine dynamic, a small-town setting and a HEA guaranteed!

Tropes:

� grumpy x sunshine
� small town
� found family
� spicy]]> 360 Laurie Gilmore 0008610673 Meg 3 fiction 3.48 2023 The Pumpkin Spice Café (Dream Harbor, #1)
author: Laurie Gilmore
name: Meg
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/19
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> The Parisian 40718341
Midhat Kamal picks his way across a fractured world, from the shifting politics of the Middle East to the dinner tables of Montpellier and a newly tumultuous Paris. He discovers that everything is fragile: love turns to loss, friends become enemies and everyone is looking for a place to belong.

Isabella Hammad delicately unpicks the tangled politics and personal tragedies of a turbulent era � the Palestinian struggle for independence from the British Mandate, the strife of the early twentieth century and the looming shadow of the Second World War. An intensely human story amidst a global conflict, The Parisian is historical fiction with a remarkable contemporary voice.]]> 576 Isabella Hammad 1911214438 Meg 0 owned, fiction, tbr-physical 3.38 2019 The Parisian
author: Isabella Hammad
name: Meg
average rating: 3.38
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: owned, fiction, tbr-physical
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Drums Of Autumn (Outlander, #4)]]> 23482855 The fourth novel in the bestselling Outlander series.

How far will a woman travel to find a father, a lover a destiny? Across seas, across time - across the grave itself.

It began in Scotland, at an ancient stone circle. Claire Randall was swept through time into the arms of James Fraser whose love for her became legend - a tale of tragic passion that ended with her return to the present to bear his child. Two decades later, Claire travelled back again to reunite with Jamie, this time in frontier America. But Claire had left someone behind in her own time - their daughter Brianna.

Now Brianna has made a disturbing discovery that sends her to the stone circle and a terrifying leap into the unknown. In search of her mother and the father she has never met, she risks her own future to try to change history - and to save their lives. But as Brianna plunges into an uncharted wilderness, a heartbreaking encounter may strand her forever in the past - or root her in the place she should be, where her heart and soul belong...]]> 1200 Diana Gabaldon 1784751340 Meg 0 owned, fiction, tbr-physical 4.13 1996 Drums Of Autumn (Outlander, #4)
author: Diana Gabaldon
name: Meg
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: owned, fiction, tbr-physical
review:

]]> My Brilliant Friend 27214728
My Brilliant Friend is the gripping first volume in Elena Ferrante's widely acclaimed Neapolitan Novels. This exquisitely written quartet creates an unsentimental portrait of female experience, rivalry and friendship never before seen in literature.

The story of Elena and Lila begins in the 1950s in a poor but vibrant neighbourhood on the outskirts of Naples. They learn to rely on each other and discover that their destinies are bound up in the intensity of their relationship.

Elena Ferrante’s piercingly honest portrait of two girls� path into womanhood is also the story of a nation and a meditation on the nature of friendship itself.

My Brilliant Friend is a modern masterpiece, the work of one of Italy’s great storytellers.]]> 331 Elena Ferrante 1925240002 Meg 0 fiction, owned, tbr-physical 3.87 2011 My Brilliant Friend
author: Elena Ferrante
name: Meg
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: fiction, owned, tbr-physical
review:

]]> The Pool 218459606 ‘The Poolis Christos Tsiolkas’sThe Slapwith an added whodunnit layer.� � Books+Publishing

Prince of spin and life of the party, Baz King, is missing. Nine years ago, at an innocent summer barbecue in Melbourne, everything imploded. For the Kings and the four other young families there that fateful day marriages fractured, friendships crumbled and lives were upended.

Nothing would ever be the same.

Now in their forties and their children teenagers, Baz King cannot be found. Has his charm finally run out? With a history of dodgy dealings and no shortage of motives, anyone could be a suspect –his ex-wife, Birdie; his colleague, Alex Turner; his lover, Jess and her husband, Richard; his friend’s nanny and new wife, Madison � who wants him out of the picture?

A biting domestic noir, The Pool examines the enduring shrapnel of if you witness the worst thing imaginable, how does it change you? Could it make you a murderer?

PRAISE FOR THE POOL
‘delivers twists you won’t see coming� � The Age

‘Hannah Tunnicliffe creates a tangled web of love, betrayal and tragedy � It gripped me from start to finish.� Anna Snoekstra, author ofThe Ones We Love

‘a bold and deeply intriguing story of morally ambiguous lives …it depicts a world full of domestic and corporate duplicity that could very well be the one you’re living in right now� Lyn Yeowart, author ofThe Silent Listener

‘for fans of Garry Disher and Robert Gott—and anyone who loves a classic Australian mystery.� �Books+Publishing
]]> Hannah Tunnicliffe 1761153668 Meg 0 to-read, fiction 3.58 The Pool
author: Hannah Tunnicliffe
name: Meg
average rating: 3.58
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/07
shelves: to-read, fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois]]> 61277387 Homegoing; Sing, Unburied, Sing; and The Water Dancer—that chronicles the journey of one American family, from the centuries of the colonial slave trade through the Civil War to our own tumultuous era.

The great scholar, W. E. B. Du Bois, once wrote about the Problem of race in America, and what he called “Double Consciousness,� a sensitivity that every African American possesses in order to survive. Since childhood, Ailey Pearl Garfield has understood Du Bois’s words all too well. Bearing the names of two formidable Black Americans—the revered choreographer Alvin Ailey and her great grandmother Pearl, the descendant of enslaved Georgians and tenant farmers—Ailey carries Du Bois’s Problem on her shoulders.

Ailey is reared in the north in the City but spends summers in the small Georgia town of Chicasetta, where her mother’s family has lived since their ancestors arrived from Africa in bondage. From an early age, Ailey fights a battle for belonging that’s made all the more difficult by a hovering trauma, as well as the whispers of women—her mother, Belle, her sister, Lydia, and a maternal line reaching back two centuries—that urge Ailey to succeed in their stead.

To come to terms with her own identity, Ailey embarks on a journey through her family’s past, uncovering the shocking tales of generations of ancestors—Indigenous, Black, and white—in the deep South. In doing so Ailey must learn to embrace her full heritage, a legacy of oppression and resistance, bondage and independence, cruelty and resilience that is the story—and the song—of America itself.]]> 797 Honorée Fanonne Jeffers 0008516499 Meg 0 to-read, fiction 4.51 2021 The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois
author: Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
name: Meg
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/03
shelves: to-read, fiction
review:

]]> Mansfield Park 45032 488 Jane Austen Meg 3 classics, owned 3.86 1814 Mansfield Park
author: Jane Austen
name: Meg
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1814
rating: 3
read at: 2016/09/05
date added: 2024/11/27
shelves: classics, owned
review:

]]> <![CDATA[From Here to the Great Unknown]]> 204880158
A month later, Lisa Marie was dead, and the world would never know her story in her own words, never know the passionate, joyful, caring, and complicated woman that Riley loved and grieved.

Riley got the tapes that her mother had recorded for the book, laid in her bed, and listened as Lisa Marie told story after story about smashing golf carts together in the yards of Graceland, about the unconditional love she felt from her father, about being upstairs, just the two of them. About getting dragged screaming out of the bathroom as she ran towards his body on the floor. About living in Los Angeles with her mother, getting sent to school after school, always kicked out, always in trouble. About her singular, lifelong relationship with Danny Keough, about being married to Michael Jackson, what they shared in common. About motherhood. About deep addiction. About ever-present grief. Riley knew she had to fulfill her mother’s wish to reveal these memories, incandescent and painful, to the world.

To make her mother known.

This extraordinary book is written in both Lisa Marie’s and Riley’s voices, a mother and daughter communicating—from this world to the one beyond—as they try to heal each other. Profoundly moving and deeply revealing, From Here to the Great Unknown is a book like no other—the last words of the only child of an American icon.]]> 284 Lisa Marie Presley 0593733894 Meg 3 non-fiction 4.39 2024 From Here to the Great Unknown
author: Lisa Marie Presley
name: Meg
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/20
date added: 2024/11/20
shelves: non-fiction
review:

]]> Honey 215173426
As Amber embarks on her solo career and her fame intensifies, she increasingly finds herself reduced to a body, a voice, an object. Surrounded by the wrong kind of people and driven by a desire for recognition and success, for love and sex, for agency and connection, Amber comes of age at a time when the kaleidoscope of public opinion can distort everything, and one mistake can shatter a career.

Inspired by the starlets of the 90s and noughties who became as infamous for their personal lives as their hypersexualised music videos and lyrics, Honey is a novel about the journey from girlhood to womanhood and how far we are willing to go in the pursuit of love . . .]]> 384 Isabel Banta 1804184179 Meg 4 fiction, owned 3.51 2024 Honey
author: Isabel Banta
name: Meg
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/15
date added: 2024/11/15
shelves: fiction, owned
review:

]]> Simple comforts 54655687 304 Mary Berry 1785945076 Meg 0 reference-owned, owned 4.46 Simple comforts
author: Mary Berry
name: Meg
average rating: 4.46
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/15
shelves: reference-owned, owned
review:

]]> The Dressmaker's Secret 57944107 384 Rosalie Ham 1760986119 Meg 0 to-read, fiction 2.20 2020 The Dressmaker's Secret
author: Rosalie Ham
name: Meg
average rating: 2.20
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/13
shelves: to-read, fiction
review:

]]> Dirrayawadha 212931592 From the bestselling author of Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray (River of Dreams) comes a sweeping new historical blockbuster about resistance, love and resilience during the frontier wars.

Miinaa was a young girl when the white ghosts first arrived. She remembers the day they raised a piece of red and white cloth and renamed her homeland ‘Bathurst�. Now she lives at Cloverdale and works for a white family who have settled there. The Nugents are kind, but Miinaa misses her miyagan. Her brother, Windradyne, is a Wiradyuri leader, and visits when he can, bringing news of unrest across their ngurambang. Miinaa hopes the violence will not come to Cloverdale, but she knows Windradyne is prepared to defend their Country if necessary.

When Irish convict Daniel O’Dwyer arrives at the settlement, Miinaa’s life is transformed again. The pair are magnetically drawn to each other and begin meeting at the bila in secret. Dan understands how it feels to be displaced, but they still have a lot to learn about each other. Can their love survive their differences and the turmoil that threatens to destroy everything around them?

Anita Heiss is breathing new life into the Australian historical epic. Dirrayawadha (Rise Up) shows the resistance leader Windradyne as the remarkable figure he was and surrounds him with fascinating figures otherwise lost to history. With irresistible imagination and verve, as well as deep research, Anita Heiss’s novels are re-peopling our past.]]> 313 Anita Heiss 1761105272 Meg 4 fiction, owned 4.12 2024 Dirrayawadha
author: Anita Heiss
name: Meg
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/29
date added: 2024/11/09
shelves: fiction, owned
review:

]]> Dusk 214297319 272 Robbie Arnott 1761560948 Meg 5 fiction, owned 4.28 2024 Dusk
author: Robbie Arnott
name: Meg
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/09
date added: 2024/11/09
shelves: fiction, owned
review:

]]> Headshot 211100270 An electrifying debut novel from an “unusually gifted writer� (Lorrie Moore) about the radical intimacy of physical competition

An unexpected tragedy at a community pool. A family’s unrelenting expectation of victory. The desire to gain or lose control; to make time speed up or stop; to be frighteningly, undeniably good at something. Each of the eight teenage girl boxers in this blistering debut novel has her own reasons for the sacrifices she has made to come to Reno, Nevada, to compete to be named the best in the country. Through a series of face-offs that are raw, ecstatic, and punctuated by flashes of humor and tenderness, prizewinning writer Rita Bullwinkel animates the competitors� pasts and futures as they summon the emotion, imagination, and force of will required to win.

Frenetic, surprising, and strikingly original, Headshot is a portrait of the desire, envy, perfectionism, madness, and sheer physical pleasure that motivates young women to fight—even, and perhaps especially, when no one else is watching.]]> 244 Rita Bullwinkel 1914198727 Meg 3 fiction, owned 3.56 2024 Headshot
author: Rita Bullwinkel
name: Meg
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/17
date added: 2024/10/17
shelves: fiction, owned
review:

]]> Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray 56965435
The powerful Murrumbidgee River surges through town leaving death and destruction in its wake. It is a stark reminder that while the river can give life, it can just as easily take it away.

Wagadhaany is one of the lucky ones. She survives. But is her life now better than the fate she escaped? Forced to move away from her miyagan, she walks through each day with no trace of dance in her step, her broken heart forever calling her back home to Gundagai.

When she meets Wiradyuri stockman Yindyamarra, Wagadhaany’s heart slowly begins to heal. But still, she dreams of a better life, away from the degradation of being owned. She longs to set out along the river of her ancestors, in search of lost family and country. Can she find the courage to defy the White man’s law? And if she does, will it bring hope ... or heartache?

Set on timeless Wiradyuri country, where the life-giving waters of the rivers can make or break dreams, and based on devastating true events, Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray (River of Dreams) is an epic story of love, loss and belonging.]]> 416 Anita Heiss 1760850446 Meg 0 to-read, fiction 4.10 2021 Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray
author: Anita Heiss
name: Meg
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/14
shelves: to-read, fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Dark Mirror (The Bone Season, #5)]]> 24526778
As she makes her way back to the revolution, her journey takes her to Venice, where she learns a dangerous secret � one that could change the face of the war between humans and immortals. Before she can return to London, she must help the Domino Programme unravel the sinister Operation Ventriloquist.

And it soon becomes clear that the one person who could recover her memories � Arcturus Mesarthim � might also hold the key to saving Italy.

Lyrical and action-packed, The Dark Mirror drives the Bone Season series forward, showing Samantha Shannon at the height of her powers.]]> 576 Samantha Shannon 140887945X Meg 0 to-read, fiction 4.63 2025 The Dark Mirror (The Bone Season, #5)
author: Samantha Shannon
name: Meg
average rating: 4.63
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/13
shelves: to-read, fiction
review:

]]> Ariadne 58818904 A mesmerising retelling of the ancient Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. Perfect for fans of CIRCE, A SONG OF ACHILLES, and THE SILENCE OF THE GIRLS.

As Princesses of Crete and daughters of the fearsome King Minos, Ariadne and her sister Phaedra grow up hearing the hoofbeats and bellows of the Minotaur echo from the Labyrinth beneath the palace. The Minotaur � Minos's greatest shame and Ariadne's brother � demands blood every year.

When Theseus, Prince of Athens, arrives in Crete as a sacrifice to the beast, Ariadne falls in love with him. But helping Theseus kill the monster means betraying her family and country, and Ariadne knows only too well that in a world ruled by mercurial gods � drawing their attention can cost you everything.

In a world where women are nothing more than the pawns of powerful men, will Ariadne's decision to betray Crete for Theseus ensure her happy ending? Or will she find herself sacrificed for her lover's ambition?

Ariadne gives a voice to the forgotten women of one of the most famous Greek myths, and speaks to their strength in the face of angry, petulant Gods. Beautifully written and completely immersive, this is an exceptional debut novel.]]> 388 Jennifer Saint 1472273907 Meg 3 3.79 2021 Ariadne
author: Jennifer Saint
name: Meg
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/12
date added: 2024/10/12
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Tell Me Everything (Amgash, #5)]]> 205901447 People) of a novel about new friendships, old loves, and the very human desire to leave a mark on the world.

With her remarkable insight into the human condition and silences that contain multitudes, Elizabeth Strout returns to the town of Crosby, Maine, and to her beloved cast of characters—Lucy Barton, Olive Kitteridge, Bob Burgess, and more—as they deal with a shocking crime in their midst, fall in love and yet choose to be apart, and grapple with the question, as Lucy Barton puts it, “What does anyone’s life mean?�

It’s autumn in Maine, and the town lawyer Bob Burgess has become enmeshed in an unfolding murder investigation, defending a lonely, isolated man accused of killing his mother. He has also fallen into a deep and abiding friendship with the acclaimed writer Lucy Barton, who lives down the road in a house by the sea with her ex-husband, William. Together, Lucy and Bob go on walks and talk about their lives, their fears and regrets, and what might have been. Lucy, meanwhile, is finally introduced to the iconic Olive Kitteridge, now living in a retirement community on the edge of town. They spend afternoons together in Olive’s apartment, telling each other stories. Stories about people they have known—“unrecorded lives,� Olive calls them—reanimating them, and, in the process, imbuing their lives with meaning.

Brimming with empathy and pathos, Tell Me Everything is Elizabeth Strout operating at the height of her powers, illuminating the ways in which our relationships keep us afloat. As Lucy says, “Love comes in so many different forms, but it is always love.”]]> 326 Elizabeth Strout 0241634350 Meg 0 to-read, fiction 4.33 2024 Tell Me Everything (Amgash, #5)
author: Elizabeth Strout
name: Meg
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/09
shelves: to-read, fiction
review:

]]> A Place Called Here 588369 Sometimes it takes losing everything to truly find yourself... Since Sandy Shortt's childhood classmate disappeared twenty years ago, Sandy has been obsessed with missing things. Finding what is lost becomes her single-minded goal--from the lone sock that vanishes in the washing machine to the car keys she misplaced. It's no surprise, then, that Sandy's life's work becomes finding people who have vanished from their loved ones. Sandy's family is baffled and concerned by her increasing preoccupation. Her parents can't understand her compulsion, and she pushes them away further by losing herself in the work of tracking down these missing people. She gives up her life in order to offer a flicker of hope to devastated families...and escape the disappointments of her own. Jack Ruttle is one of those devastated people. It's been a year since his brother Donal vanished into thin air, and he has enlisted Sandy Shortt to find him. But before she is able to offer Jack the information he so desperately needs, Sandy goes missing too...and Jack now finds himself searching for his brother and the one woman who understood his pain. One minute Sandy is jogging through the park, the next, she can't figure out where she is. The path is obscured. Nothing is familiar. A clearing up ahead reveals a camp site, and it's there that Sandy discovers the impossible: she has inadvertently stumbled upon the place-- and people--she's been looking for all her life, a land where all the missing people go. A world away from her loved ones and the home she ran from for so long, Sandy soon resorts to her old habit again, searching. Though this time, she is desperately trying to find her way home...]]> 485 Cecelia Ahern 0007198914 Meg 4 fiction 3.72 2006 A Place Called Here
author: Cecelia Ahern
name: Meg
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: fiction
review:
This is the novel of Cecelia's that has stuck with me for years. I just fell in love with the whole idea that there is a place where all the missing objects and sadly, missing people go. And they're not so far away after all, they're just 'here'. The world created within this book is so distinctly magical.
]]> <![CDATA[I Heart Hollywood (I Heart, #2)]]> 6766226 326 Lindsey Kelk 0007288409 Meg 5 fiction 3.95 2009 I Heart Hollywood (I Heart, #2)
author: Lindsey Kelk
name: Meg
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2012/11/09
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> Breakfast at Tiffany's 17696784
Pink Popular Penguins Edition
Co-founded by Jane and Glenn McGrath, the McGrath Foundation raises money to place McGrath Breast Care Nurses in communities right across Australia and to increase breast awareness in young women.

The McGrath Foundation believes 150 of these specially trained nurses are needed to ensure that every family experiencing breast cancer has access to a breast care nurse, no matter where they live or their financial situation. McGrath Breast Care Nurses offer a unique service to families who can self-refer to this free support.

Penguin is proud to donate $1 from the original sale of each Pink Popular Penguin to help the McGrath Foundation realise their goal. To find out how you can make a difference visit ]]> 168 Truman Capote 0734306210 Meg 5
Look, it has been awhile since I watched the film (in fact, I'll be seeing it again this Friday at an outdoor cinema), and I was completely fooled by the stylish little lady, so I don't remember feeling any resentment, but this time I felt it if only for awhile...her charm still wiggling its way into my heart in the end.

I loved how short it was! It made it super sweet. Also, having three short stories of Capote's slotted into the last 60 pages was a bonus too!]]> 3.70 1958 Breakfast at Tiffany's
author: Truman Capote
name: Meg
average rating: 3.70
book published: 1958
rating: 5
read at: 2014/02/12
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: classics, owned, recommend-me-more
review:
Oh Holiday Golightly, you are way more of a biatch in the novella!

Look, it has been awhile since I watched the film (in fact, I'll be seeing it again this Friday at an outdoor cinema), and I was completely fooled by the stylish little lady, so I don't remember feeling any resentment, but this time I felt it if only for awhile...her charm still wiggling its way into my heart in the end.

I loved how short it was! It made it super sweet. Also, having three short stories of Capote's slotted into the last 60 pages was a bonus too!
]]> <![CDATA[Anna and the French Kiss (Anna and the French Kiss, #1)]]> 17453983
Anna is happy in Atlanta. She has a loyal best friend and a crush on her coworker at the movie theater, who is just starting to return her affection. So she's less than thrilled when her father decides to send her to a boarding school in Paris for her senior year.

But despite not speaking a word of French, Anna meets some cool new people, including the handsome Étienne St. Clair, who quickly becomes her best friend. Unfortunately, he's taken —and Anna might be, too. Will a year of romantic near misses end with the French kiss she's waiting for?

This is an alternate cover edition for ISBN 9780142419403.]]> 372 Stephanie Perkins Meg 5 fiction 4.01 2010 Anna and the French Kiss (Anna and the French Kiss, #1)
author: Stephanie Perkins
name: Meg
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2014/11/24
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> Collected Stories 6342598 454 Peter Carey 1741661110 Meg 4 fiction 3.90 1995 Collected Stories
author: Peter Carey
name: Meg
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Dangers of Truffle Hunting]]> 30838786 True desires will be unearthed � For readers of Zoe Foster-Blake, Candace Bushnell and Gourmet Traveller, a delightful sexy story that spans the Australian wine country, the French provinces and hip bars of Melbourne.

Is life too short to play it safe?

Kit Gossard's life is neatly mapped out. A secure photographic job. A partner ready to commit. A wedding in the family vineyard for her mother to preside over. So why the apprehension? Why a hunger for something ... more?

Then someone new appears. Earthy, reserved, magnetic, this new man brings out feelings she has long suppressed, and suddenly Kit can't contain her simmering discontent. Black truffle hunting, illicit pastry lessons, vine fruit on flesh - Kit is seduced. It feels right. Before it all goes wrong.

Artful, sexy, sophisticated, The Dangers Of Truffle Hunting explores how a man can be more to a woman than a destination.]]> 352 Sunni Overend 1460752104 Meg 2 fiction, melbourne-victoria
To put it simply: a contemporary take on chick-lit full of good food and wine that falls short of a decent story.]]> 3.42 The Dangers of Truffle Hunting
author: Sunni Overend
name: Meg
average rating: 3.42
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2017/08/05
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: fiction, melbourne-victoria
review:
This would make for a great summer read for most, but the story didn't grab me. A great shame because I liked how modern everything felt from the food styling to Kit listening to TED Talks in her car. I'd imagine every character would have an awesome Instagram feed.

To put it simply: a contemporary take on chick-lit full of good food and wine that falls short of a decent story.
]]> Eggshell Skull 39675781
But what if it also works the other way? What if a defendant on trial for sexual crimes has to accept his 'victim' as she comes: a strong, determined accuser who knows the legal system, who will not back down until justice is done?

Bri Lee began her first day of work at the Queensland District Court as a bright-eyed judge's associate. Two years later she was back as the complainant in her own case.

This is the story of Bri's journey through the Australian legal system; first as the daughter of a policeman, then as a law student, and finally as a judge's associate in both metropolitan and regional Queensland-where justice can look very different, especially for women. The injustice Bri witnessed, mourned and raged over every day finally forced her to confront her own personal history, one she'd vowed never to tell. And this is how, after years of struggle, she found herself on the other side of the courtroom, telling her story.

Bri Lee has written a fierce and eloquent memoir that addresses both her own reckoning with the past as well as with the stories around her, to speak the truth with wit, empathy and unflinching courage. Eggshell Skull is a haunting appraisal of modern Australia from a new and essential voice.]]> 358 Bri Lee 1760295779 Meg 3 non-fiction 4.35 2018 Eggshell Skull
author: Bri Lee
name: Meg
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2019/04/01
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: non-fiction
review:

]]> Boy Swallows Universe 37558445
Brisbane, 1983: A lost father, a mute brother, a mum in jail, a heroin dealer for a stepfather and a notorious crime for a babysitter. It's not as if Eli's life isn't complicated enough already. He's just trying to follow his heart, learning what it takes to be a good man, but life just keeps throwing obstacles in the way - not least of which is Tytus Broz, legendary Brisbane drug dealer.

But if Eli's life is about to get a whole lot more serious. He's about to fall in love. And, oh yeah, he has to break into Boggo Road Gaol on Christmas Day, to save his mum.

A story of brotherhood, true love and the most unlikely of friendships, Boy Swallows Universe will be the most heartbreaking, joyous and exhilarating novel you will read all year.]]> 474 Trent Dalton 1460753895 Meg 4
I was skeptical about it been labelled as a new Australia classic, but that is exactly what this book is. It was a solid, entertaining read from start to finish.

There is so much to devour. So much. It is funny, brutal, sad. So full of life, colour and energy. The characters are so real and the suburban Australian setting is bang on.

It does lose a little star for the times it was hard to follow for me, but all in all it was great.

I really recommend reading the last 150 pages in one sitting. ]]> 4.31 2018 Boy Swallows Universe
author: Trent Dalton
name: Meg
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2019/02/02
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: owned, fiction, recommend-me-more
review:
A ripper of a read!

I was skeptical about it been labelled as a new Australia classic, but that is exactly what this book is. It was a solid, entertaining read from start to finish.

There is so much to devour. So much. It is funny, brutal, sad. So full of life, colour and energy. The characters are so real and the suburban Australian setting is bang on.

It does lose a little star for the times it was hard to follow for me, but all in all it was great.

I really recommend reading the last 150 pages in one sitting.
]]> Milkman 41086837 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780571338757.

In this unnamed city, to be interesting is dangerous. Middle sister, our protagonist, is busy attempting to keep her mother from discovering her maybe-boyfriend and to keep everyone in the dark about her encounter with Milkman. But when first brother-in-law sniffs out her struggle, and rumours start to swell, middle sister becomes 'interesting'. The last thing she ever wanted to be. To be interesting is to be noticed and to be noticed is dangerous.

Milkman is a tale of gossip and hearsay, silence and deliberate deafness. It is the story of inaction with enormous consequences.]]> 352 Anna Burns Meg 3 fiction, owned
There’s definitely things to like about it. Loved the backdrop of political and cultural tension in what is quite obviously Northern Ireland - although that is never mentioned. I liked that no one is ever referred to as their name. There’s Somebody McSomebodies, Middle and Big sisters, Maybe Boyfriends. I liked the all isolating and fear driven gossip of a small town and the little moments of hilarity.

BUT OH MY GOSH. Stream-of-consciousness writing is not for me!

It took me three months to read this (including the few weeks I lost it under the passenger’s seat of my car) because I could only manage 20-30 pages at a time.

A challenging book for me, that held my interest most definitely, but I nearly lost my mind in the process.]]> 3.59 2018 Milkman
author: Anna Burns
name: Meg
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2019/05/27
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: fiction, owned
review:
I couldn’t decide if this was a two or three star read, so let’s just say Milkman is somewhere in between.

There’s definitely things to like about it. Loved the backdrop of political and cultural tension in what is quite obviously Northern Ireland - although that is never mentioned. I liked that no one is ever referred to as their name. There’s Somebody McSomebodies, Middle and Big sisters, Maybe Boyfriends. I liked the all isolating and fear driven gossip of a small town and the little moments of hilarity.

BUT OH MY GOSH. Stream-of-consciousness writing is not for me!

It took me three months to read this (including the few weeks I lost it under the passenger’s seat of my car) because I could only manage 20-30 pages at a time.

A challenging book for me, that held my interest most definitely, but I nearly lost my mind in the process.
]]> The Switch 51023454 Eileen is sick of being 79.
Leena's tired of life in her twenties.
Maybe it's time they swapped places...

When overachiever Leena Cotton is ordered to take a two-month sabbatical after blowing a big presentation at work, she escapes to her grandmother Eileen's house for some overdue rest. Eileen is newly single and about to turn eighty. She'd like a second chance at love, but her tiny Yorkshire village doesn't offer many eligible gentlemen.

Once Leena learns of Eileen's romantic predicament, she proposes a solution: a two-month swap. Eileen can live in London and look for love. Meanwhile Leena will look after everything in rural Yorkshire. But with gossiping neighbours and difficult family dynamics to navigate up north, and trendy London flatmates and online dating to contend with in the city, stepping into one another's shoes proves more difficult than either of them expected.

Leena learns that a long-distance relationship isn't as romantic as she hoped it would be, and then there is the annoyingly perfect - and distractingly handsome - school teacher, who keeps showing up to outdo her efforts to impress the local villagers. Back in London, Eileen is a huge hit with her new neighbours, but is her perfect match nearer home than she first thought?

]]> 330 Beth O'Leary 178747500X Meg 3 fiction 3.92 2020 The Switch
author: Beth O'Leary
name: Meg
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2020/07/23
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> Mr Salary 43159260 My love for him felt so total and so annihilating that it was often impossible for me to see him clearly at all.

Years ago, Sukie moved in with Nathan because her mother was dead and her father was difficult, and she had nowhere else to go. Now they are on the brink of the inevitable.

Sally Rooney is one of the most acclaimed young talents of recent years. With her minute attention to the power dynamics in everyday speech, she builds up sexual tension and throws a deceptively low-key glance at love and death.

]]> 48 Sally Rooney 0571354645 Meg 4 fiction 3.44 2016 Mr Salary
author: Sally Rooney
name: Meg
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2020/04/13
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> Red, White & Royal Blue 52390310 Note: New/alternate cover for ISBN# 9781250316776. Original cover edition here.

What happens when America's First Son falls in love with the Prince of Wales?

When his mother became President of the United States, Alex Claremont-Diaz was promptly cast as the American equivalent of a young royal. Handsome, charismatic, genius—his image is pure millennial-marketing gold for the White House. There's only one problem: Alex has a beef with an actual prince, Henry, across the pond. And when the tabloids get hold of a photo involving an Alex/Henry altercation, U.S./British relations take a turn for the worse.

Heads of the family and state and other handlers devise a plan for damage control: Stage a truce between the two rivals. What at first begins as a fake, Instagrammable friendship grows deeper, and more dangerous, than either Alex or Henry could have imagined. Soon Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret romance with a surprisingly unstuffy Henry that could derail the presidential campaign and upend two nations. It raises the question: Can love save the world after all? Where do we find the courage, and the power, to be the people we are meant to be? And how can we learn to let our true colors shine through? Casey McQuiston's Red, White & Royal Blue proves: true love isn't always diplomatic.]]> 421 Casey McQuiston Meg 2 fiction
For all the cute and funny moments, I couldn’t move past it reading like fan-fiction. Characters were flat. Romance was dull. Arch enemies on one page, to kissing the next? I’ve read too many contemporary romances (and Draco/Harry fanfics in my teens) for that to be a thing anymore.]]> 4.13 2019 Red, White & Royal Blue
author: Casey McQuiston
name: Meg
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2020/01/08
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: fiction
review:
I’m sorry, I just couldn’t give this three stars. I really wanted to, but I couldn’t.

For all the cute and funny moments, I couldn’t move past it reading like fan-fiction. Characters were flat. Romance was dull. Arch enemies on one page, to kissing the next? I’ve read too many contemporary romances (and Draco/Harry fanfics in my teens) for that to be a thing anymore.
]]> Self Care 45027767
Maren Gelb is on a company-imposed digital detox. She tweeted something terrible about the President’s daughter, and as the COO of Richual, “the most inclusive online community platform for women to cultivate the practice of self-care and change the world by changing ourselves,� it’s a PR nightmare. Not only is CEO Devin Avery counting on Maren to be fully present for their next round of funding, but indispensable employee Khadijah Walker has been keeping a secret that will reveal just how feminist Richual’s values actually are, and former Bachelorette contestant and Richual board member Evan Wiley is about to be embroiled in a sexual misconduct scandal that destroy the company forever.

Have you ever scrolled through Instagram and seen countless influencers who seem like experts at caring for themselves—from their yoga crop tops to their well-lit clean meals to their serumed skin and erudite-but-color-coded reading stack? Self Care delves into the lives and psyches of people working in the wellness industry and exposes the world behind the filter.]]> 243 Leigh Stein 0143135198 Meg 3 3.11 2020 Self Care
author: Leigh Stein
name: Meg
average rating: 3.11
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2021/01/22
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: fiction, owned, donate-or-sell
review:

]]> <![CDATA[No Country Woman: A Memoir of Not Belonging]]> 40492379
'I was born in a hospital in Suva, Fiji. I can't recall ever seeing the building on my trips back to the city, first as a child or later as an adult. I imagine it in shades of blue and brown, the plastic waiting room chairs covered in the fine film of moisture that creeps over everything there. It is not a place I've thought of often, but I think of it now and wonder how it has shaped me.

I am Fijian-Indian, and have lived in Australia since I was three years old. Memories of my early life in Fiji are limited to flashes, like an old film projector running backwards. I remember a blue dress, a trip on a boat where my father handed me a dried, floating starfish that I clutched in my fingers, determined not to lose it back to the ocean.'

No Country Woman is the story of never knowing where you belong. It's about not feeling represented in the media you consumed, not being connected to the culture of your forebears, not having the respect of your peers.

It's about living in a multicultural society with a monocultural focus but being determined to be heard.

It's about challenging society's need to define us and it's a rallying cry for the future.

It's a memoir full of heart, fury and intelligence - and the book we need right now.]]> 272 Zoya Patel 0733640060 Meg 4 3.78 2018 No Country Woman: A Memoir of Not Belonging
author: Zoya Patel
name: Meg
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2020/09/09
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: non-fiction, owned, donate-or-sell
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Light is the New Black: A Guide to Answering Your Soul's Callings and Working Your Light]]> 23280915 Light Is The New Black is a guidebook for a new breed of women who are here to be bright lights in the world. These women are modern day lightworkers, who agreed at soul level to be here at this time in history, to bring us into the Age of Light (lead by spirit and the divine feminine).

At the Peace Conference in Canada in 2009, when the Dalai Lama said ‘The world will be saved by the western woman�, it was a call to action for women throughout the West. Light Is The New Black is a response to that call. It guides these women to come back home to who they are at soul level, and embrace their uniqueness so they can light up the world in a way that only they can. Gone are the days of following someone else’s well-trodden path. In order to succeed in this new age, everything must be an authentic expression of who we truly are. A down-to-earth, relatable mix of one girl’s journey, channeled messages from The Universe, practical tools, and metaphysical marketing for this new social age, this book will reconnect you to the core of your being, so that you can use it to change the world.]]> 295 Rebecca Campbell 1401948502 Meg 3 non-fiction 4.04 2015 Light is the New Black: A Guide to Answering Your Soul's Callings and Working Your Light
author: Rebecca Campbell
name: Meg
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2021/01/16
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: non-fiction
review:

]]> Everything You Ever Wanted 49095695
Then you hear about Life on Nyx , a programme that offers the chance to move to another planet and start a new, meaningful way of life. But there's a if you go, you can never come back.]]> 272 Luiza Sauma 024136356X Meg 4 3.76 2019 Everything You Ever Wanted
author: Luiza Sauma
name: Meg
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2022/03/12
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: fiction, owned, recommend-me-more
review:

]]> One Hundred Days 55882832 One day, a boy in a nice silver car gives sixteen-year-old Karuna a ride. So Karuna returns the favour.

Eventually, Karuna can’t ignore the reality: she is pregnant. Incensed, her mother, already over-protective, confines her to their fourteenth-storey housing-commission flat for one hundred days, to protect her from the outside world � and make sure she can’t get into any more trouble. Stuck inside for endless hours, Karuna battles her mother and herself for a sense of power in her own life, as a new life forms and grows within her.

One Hundred Days is a fractured fairytale exploring the fault lines between love and control. At times tense and claustrophobic, it also brims with humour, warmth and character. It is a magnificent new work from one of Australia’s most celebrated writers.]]> 256 Alice Pung 1760641839 Meg 5 3.94 2021 One Hundred Days
author: Alice Pung
name: Meg
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2021/06/11
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: fiction, melbourne-victoria, recommend-me-more
review:

]]> Nightcrawling 59954607
Kiara Johnson and her brother Marcus are barely scraping by in a squalid East Oakland apartment complex optimistically called the Royal-Hi. Both have dropped out of high school, their family fractured by death and prison. But while Marcus clings to his dream of rap stardom, Kiara hunts for work to pay their rent—which has more than doubled—and to keep the 9-year-old boy next door, abandoned by his mother, safe and fed.

One night, what begins as a drunken misunderstanding with a stranger turns into the job Kiara never imagined wanting but now desperately needs: nightcrawling. And her world breaks open even further when her name surfaces in an investigation that exposes her as a key witness in a massive scandal within the Oakland police department.

Full of edge, raw beauty, electrifying intensity, and piercing vulnerability, Nightcrawling marks the stunning arrival of a voice unlike any we have heard before.]]> 288 Leila Mottley 1526634554 Meg 5 3.88 2022 Nightcrawling
author: Leila Mottley
name: Meg
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2022/12/27
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: fiction, owned, recommend-me-more
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Flawless (Chestnut Springs, #1)]]> 108514520 The rules were simple . . . Keep my hands off his daughter and stay out of trouble. But now I'm stuck with her. There's only one bed. And, well, rules are made to be broken.

I'm the golden boy of professional bull riding. Or at least I was until it all blew up in my face. Now, my agent says I have to clean up my image, so I'm stuck with his ball-busting daughter for the rest of the season as my "full-time supervision."

But I don't need a goddamn babysitter, especially one with skin-tight jeans, a sexy smirk, and a mouth she can't stop running . . . A mouth I can't stop thinking about.

She says this means nothing.

I say this means everything.

She says there are boundaries we shouldn't cross. That my reputation can't take any more hits-and neither can her damaged heart.

I say I'm going to steal it anyway.]]> 416 Elsie Silver 0349437661 Meg 3 fiction 3.93 2022 Flawless (Chestnut Springs, #1)
author: Elsie Silver
name: Meg
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/02
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> Stargazer 60182327
Diana Martin has lived her life in the shadow of her sadistic older brother. She quietly watches the family next door, enthralled by celebrity fashion designer Marianne Taylor and her feted daughter, Aurelle.

She wishes she were a 'Taylor girl'.

By the summer of 1995, the two girls are at university together, bonded by a mutual desire to escape their wealthy families and personal tragedies and forge new identities.

They are closer than lovers, intoxicated by their own bond, falling into the hedonistic seduction of the woods and the water at a remote university that is more summer camp than campus.

But when burgeoning artist Diana has a chance at fame, cracks start to appear in their friendship. To what lengths is Diana willing to go to secure her own stardom?]]> 253 Laurie Petrou 085730822X Meg 3 fiction 3.72 2022 Stargazer
author: Laurie Petrou
name: Meg
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/18
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones]]> 123242281
In Behind the My Life in Rhinestones, global superstar Dolly Parton shares, for the first time, the full story behind her lifelong passion for fashion, including how she developed her own, distinctly Dolly style, which has defied convention and endeared her to fans around the world.

Featuring behind-the-scenes stories from Dolly Parton's life and career, and the largest reveal of her private costume archive, this gorgeously photographed book spotlights her most unforgettable looks from the 1960s to now. The sky-high heels, famous wigs, bold makeup, eye-catching stage clothes - she shares them all. Along the way, Parton discusses memorable outfits from her past, from the clothes her mother would sew out of feed sacks (including her "Coat of Many Colors") and the bold dresses and hairdos that shook up Nashville, to the bunny suit on the cover of Playboy, evening wear at Studio 54, costumes from her most famous film and TV roles, and the daring styles that continue to entertain and inspire today.

Filled with candor, humor, and lots and lots of rhinestones, Behind the My Life in Rhinestones is a shining tribute to one of the most beloved musicians in history, a treasured keepsake for anyone who loves Dolly Parton, and an indispensable guide to forging your own path to beauty and confidence.]]> 330 Dolly Parton 1529915589 Meg 5 non-fiction, owned 4.28 2023 Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones
author: Dolly Parton
name: Meg
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/11/17
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: non-fiction, owned
review:

]]> Anita de Monte Laughs Last 208952336 REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK � New York Times bestselling author Xochitl Gonzalez delivers a mesmerizing novel about a first-generation Ivy League student who uncovers the genius work of a female artist decades after her suspicious death

1985. Anita de Monte, a rising star in the art world, is found dead in New York City; her tragic death is the talk of the town. Until it isn’t. By 1998 Anita’s name has been all but forgotten―certainly by the time Raquel, a third-year art history student is preparing her final thesis. On College Hill, surrounded by privileged students whose futures are already paved out for them, Raquel feels like an outsider. Students of color, like her, are the minority there, and the pressure to work twice as hard for the same opportunities is no secret.

But when Raquel becomes romantically involved with a well-connected older art student, she finds herself unexpectedly rising up the social ranks. As she attempts to straddle both worlds, she stumbles upon Anita’s story, raising questions about the dynamics of her own relationship, which eerily mirrors that of the forgotten artist.

Moving back and forth through time and told from the perspectives of both women, Anita de Monte Laughs Last is a propulsive, witty examination of power, love, and art, daring to ask who gets to be remembered and who is left behind in the rarefied world of the elite.]]> 352 Xóchitl González 125035630X Meg 0 to-read, fiction 3.80 2024 Anita de Monte Laughs Last
author: Xóchitl González
name: Meg
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: to-read, fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Enchanted Wood (The Faraway Tree, #1)]]> 22827646 185 Enid Blyton Meg 5
I hope to keep my mother's copies well into my own years...any edition published now has changed Fanny's name to Franny which endlessly disappoints me. ]]> 4.33 1939 The Enchanted Wood (The Faraway Tree, #1)
author: Enid Blyton
name: Meg
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1939
rating: 5
read at: 1998/01/01
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: fiction, favourite-books, owned
review:
I read Enid's Faraway series so often as a child. They were the first books I remember being able to read by myself and I've never being able to forget the characters and the stories.

I hope to keep my mother's copies well into my own years...any edition published now has changed Fanny's name to Franny which endlessly disappoints me.
]]> <![CDATA[The Folk of the Faraway Tree (The Faraway Tree, #3)]]> 22827699
Los clásicos inolvidables de Enid Blyton. Visitar El árbol muy muy lejano se parece a un sueño. Aunque para Connie, que nunca ha creído en la magia, está resultando una verdadera pesadilla. Es tan obstinada que ha subido al País de los Prodigios ella sola. ¡Y ahora se ha perdido! ¿Acompañamos a Joe, Bethy Frannie a buscarla?

ENGLISH

The third book in the magical Faraway Tree series by one of the world's most popular children's authors, Enid Blyton.

The mischievous Connie comes to enjoy a few days with Joe, Beth and Frannie while her mother is sick. Connie refuses to believe in the Faraway Tree or the magical folk who live in it, even when the Angry Pixie throws ink at her! Join the children and their friends Moonface, Saucepan Man and Silky the fairy as they discover which new land is at the top of the Faraway Tree.

Will it be the Land of Secrets, the Land of Enchantments, or the Land of Know-Alls? Discover the magic!]]> 185 Enid Blyton Meg 5 fiction, green-books 4.53 1946 The Folk of the Faraway Tree (The Faraway Tree, #3)
author: Enid Blyton
name: Meg
average rating: 4.53
book published: 1946
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: fiction, green-books
review:

]]> Closed For Winter 1168646 Closed for Winter is a gripping novel that will haunt you to the very end, and a powerful, positive story about the pain of letting go.]]> Georgia Blain 0140272070 Meg 4 3.50 1998 Closed For Winter
author: Georgia Blain
name: Meg
average rating: 3.50
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: fiction, recommend-me-more, green-books
review:

]]> Beautiful Revolutionary 40021016 The thrilling new novel, inspired by Jim Jones’s Peoples Temple, from the author of The Love of a Bad Man.

It’s the summer of 1968, and Evelyn Lynden is a woman at war with herself. Minister’s daughter. Atheist. Independent woman. Frustrated wife. Bitch with a bleeding heart.

Following her conscientious-objector husband Lenny to the rural Eden of Evergreen Valley, California, Evelyn wants to be happy with their new life. Yet as the world is rocked by warfare and political assassinations, by racial discrimination and social upheaval, she finds herself disillusioned with Lenny’s passive ways � and anxious for a saviour.

Enter the Reverend Jim Jones, the dynamic leader of a revolutionary church called Peoples Temple. As Evelyn grows closer to Jones, her marriage is just the first casualty of his rise to power.

Meticulously researched, elegantly written, and utterly engrossing, Beautiful Revolutionary explores the allure of the real-life charismatic leader who would destroy so many. In masterful prose, Woollett painstakingly examines what happens when Evelyn is pulled into Jones’s orbit � an orbit it would prove impossible for her to leave.]]> 416 Laura Elizabeth Woollett 1925713032 Meg 4 3.76 2018 Beautiful Revolutionary
author: Laura Elizabeth Woollett
name: Meg
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2021/05/08
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: fiction, owned, recommend-me-more, green-books
review:

]]> Normal People 40178403
This is an exquisite love story about how a person can change another person's life - a simple yet profound realisation that unfolds beautifully over the course of the novel. It tells us how difficult it is to talk about how we feel and it tells us - blazingly - about cycles of domination, legitimacy and privilege. Alternating menace with overwhelming tenderness, Sally Rooney's second novel breathes fiction with new life.]]> 288 Sally Rooney 0571347290 Meg 5
Normal People was the kind of story I didn’t realise I needed in my life until I got to the last page.

It was kind of like reading Looking for Alibrandi (or Alaska, for that matter) for the first time in your teens, but this time you’re in your twenties and you’ve finally found that book about YOUR generation now that’s real and actually relatable. ]]> 3.87 2018 Normal People
author: Sally Rooney
name: Meg
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2019/04/04
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: fiction, favourite-books, owned, recommend-me-more, green-books
review:
I don’t know how to correlate my thoughts and feelings besides that I’m so happy to have read my first five star book for the year.

Normal People was the kind of story I didn’t realise I needed in my life until I got to the last page.

It was kind of like reading Looking for Alibrandi (or Alaska, for that matter) for the first time in your teens, but this time you’re in your twenties and you’ve finally found that book about YOUR generation now that’s real and actually relatable.
]]> GRAND UNION 43706464 A dazzling collection of short fiction, more than half of which have never been published before, from the multi-award-winning author of White Teeth and Swing Time

Zadie Smith has established herself as one of the most iconic, critically-respected, and popular writers of her generation. In her first short story collection, she combines her power of observation and inimitable voice to mine the fraught and complex experience of life in the modern world. With ten extraordinary new stories complemented by a selection of her most lauded pieces for The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and Granta, GRAND UNION explores a wide range of subjects, from first loves to cultural despair, as well as the desire to be the subject of your own experience. In captivating prose, she contends with race, class, relationships, and gender roles in a world that feels increasingly divided.

Nothing is off limits, and everything--when captured by Smith's brilliant gaze--feels fresh and relevant. Perfectly paced, and utterly original, GRAND UNION highlights the wonders Zadie Smith can do.]]> 246 Zadie Smith 0241337038 Meg 3 fiction, owned, green-books 3.31 2019 GRAND UNION
author: Zadie Smith
name: Meg
average rating: 3.31
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2020/03/13
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: fiction, owned, green-books
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Our Women on the Ground: Essays by Arab Women Reporting from the Arab World]]> 42902454 Nineteen Arab women journalists speak out about what it's like to report on their changing homelands in this first-of-its-kind essay collection, with a foreword by CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour



A growing number of intrepid Arab and Middle Eastern sahafiyat--female journalists--are working tirelessly to shape nuanced narratives about their changing homelands, often risking their lives on the front lines of war. From sexual harassment on the streets of Cairo to the difficulty of traveling without a male relative in Yemen, their challenges are unique--as are their advantages, such as being able to speak candidly with other women at a Syrian medical clinic or with men on Whatsapp who will go on to become ISIS fighters, rebels, or pro-regime soldiers.

In Our Women on the Ground, nineteen of these women tell us, in their own words, about what it's like to report on conflicts that (quite literally) hit close to home. Their daring and heartfelt stories, told here for the first time, shatter stereotypes about the region's women and provide an urgently needed perspective on a part of the world that is frequently misunderstood.

INCLUDING ESSAYS BY: Donna Abu-Nasr, Aida Alami, Hannah Allam, Jane Arraf, Lina Attalah, Nada Bakri, Shamael Elnoor, Zaina Erhaim, Asmaa al-Ghoul, Hind Hassan, Eman Helal, Zeina Karam, Roula Khalaf, Nour Malas, Hwaida Saad, Amira Al-Sharif, Heba Shibani, Lina Sinjab, and Natacha Yazbeck]]> 278 Zahra Fatima Hankir 0143133411 Meg 5 4.41 2019 Our Women on the Ground: Essays by Arab Women Reporting from the Arab World
author: Zahra Fatima Hankir
name: Meg
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2019/11/05
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: non-fiction, owned, green-books
review:

]]> Transcendent Kingdom 49876039 **From the bestselling author of Homegoing comes a searing novel of love and loss, addiction and redemption, straight from the heart of contemporary America**

As a child Gifty would ask her parents to tell the story of their journey from Ghana to Alabama, seeking escape in myths of heroism and romance. When her father and brother succumb to the hard reality of immigrant life in the American South, their family of four becomes two - and the life Gifty dreamed of slips away.

Years later, desperate to understand the opioid addiction that destroyed her brother's life, she turns to science for answers. But when her mother comes to stay, Gifty soon learns that the roots of their tangled traumas reach farther than she ever thought. Tracing her family's story through continents and generations will take her deep into the dark heart of modern America.
______________________________________________________

'I would say that Transcendent Kingdom is a novel for our time (and it is) but it is so much more than that. It is a novel for all times. The splendor and heart and insight and brilliance contained in the pages holds up a light the rest of us can follow' Ann Patchett

'Absolutely transcendent. A gorgeously woven narrative . . . not a word or idea out of place. THE RANGE. I am quite angry this is so good' Roxane Gay

'A stirringly gifted writer' New York Times]]> 288 Yaa Gyasi 024143338X Meg 4 fiction, owned, green-books 4.10 2020 Transcendent Kingdom
author: Yaa Gyasi
name: Meg
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2021/02/20
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: fiction, owned, green-books
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing]]> 53368423
Jena Chung plays the violin. She was once a child prodigy and is now addicted to sex. She's struggling a little. Her professional life comprises rehearsals, concerts, auditions and relentless practice; her personal life is spent managing family demands, those of her creative friends, and lots of sex. Jena is selfish, impulsive and often behaves badly, though mostly only to her own detriment. And then she meets Mark � much older and worldly-wise � who bewitches her. Could this be love?

When Jena wins an internship with the New York Philharmonic, she thinks the life she has dreamed of is about to begin. But when Trump is elected, New York changes irrevocably and Jena along with it. Is the dream over? With echoes of Frances Ha, Jena's favourite film, truths are gradually revealed to her. Jena comes to learn that there are many different ways to live and love and that no one has the how-to guide for any of it � not even her indomitable mother.

A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing unflinchingly explores the confusion of having expectations upturned, and the awkwardness and pain of being human in our increasingly dislocated world � and how, in spite of all this, we still try to become the person we want to be. It is a dazzling, original and astounding debut from a young writer with a fierce, intelligent and fearless new voice.]]> 293 Jessie Tu 1760877190 Meg 4 3.14 2020 A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing
author: Jessie Tu
name: Meg
average rating: 3.14
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2020/09/12
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: fiction, owned, recommend-me-more, green-books
review:

]]> Ghosts 50042494
A new relationship couldn't have come at a better time - her thirties have not been the liberating, uncomplicated experience she was sold. Everywhere she turns, she is reminded of time passing and opportunities dwindling. Friendships are fading, ex-boyfriends are moving on and, worse, everyone's moving to the suburbs. There's no solace to be found in her family, with a mum who's caught in a baffling mid-life makeover and a beloved dad who is vanishing in slow-motion into dementia.

Dolly Alderton's debut novel is funny and tender, filled with whip-smart observations about relationships, family, memory, and how we live now.]]> 352 Dolly Alderton 0241434548 Meg 5 3.86 2020 Ghosts
author: Dolly Alderton
name: Meg
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2021/01/13
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: fiction, owned, recommend-me-more, green-books
review:

]]> New Animal 56379083
Maybe being a cosmetician at her family's mortuary business isn't the best job for a young woman. It's not helping her social life. She loves her job, but she's not great at much else. Especially emotion.

And then something happens to her mum and suddenly Amelia's got too many feelings and the only thing that makes any sense to her is running away.

It takes the intervention of her two fathers and some hilariously wrong encounters with other broken people in a struggling Tasmanian BDSM club to help her accept the truth she has been hiding from. And in a final, cataclysmic scene, we learn along with Amelia that you need to feel another person's weight before you can feel your own.

Deadpan, wise and heartbreakingly funny, New Animal is a stunning debut.]]> 240 Ella Baxter 1760877794 Meg 3 fiction, green-books 3.36 2021 New Animal
author: Ella Baxter
name: Meg
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2021/06/23
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: fiction, green-books
review:

]]> Pure Colour 57901895
In this first draft of the world, a woman named Mira leaves home to study. There, she meets Annie, whose tremendous power opens Mira’s chest like a portal—to what, she doesn’t know. When Mira is older, her beloved father dies, and his spirit passes into her. Together, they become a leaf on a tree. But photosynthesis gets boring, and being alive is a problem that cannot be solved, even by a leaf. Eventually, Mira must remember the human world she’s left behind, including Annie, and choose whether or not to return.

Pure Colour is a galaxy of a novel: explosive, celestially bright, huge, and streaked with beauty. It is a contemporary bible, an atlas of feeling, and an absurdly funny guide to the great (and terrible) things about being alive. Sheila Heti is a philosopher of modern experience, and she has reimagined what a book can hold.]]> 216 Sheila Heti 1787302814 Meg 4 fiction, owned, green-books 3.48 2022 Pure Colour
author: Sheila Heti
name: Meg
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2022/05/18
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: fiction, owned, green-books
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The House of Fortune (The Miniaturist, #2)]]> 61414717 The House of Fortune is the sequel to Jessie Burton’s million copy bestselling The Miniaturist. Set in the golden city of Amsterdam in 1705, it is a story of fate and ambition, secrets and dreams, and one young woman’s determination to rule her own destiny.

Thea Brandt is turning eighteen, and is ready to welcome adulthood with open arms. At the theatre, Walter, the love of her life, awaits her, but at home in the house on the Herengracht, winter has set in � her father Otto and Aunt Nella argue endlessly, and the Brandt family are selling their furniture in order to eat. On Thea’s birthday, also the day that her mother Marin died, the secrets from the past begin to overwhelm the present.

Nella is desperate to save the family and maintain appearances, to find Thea a husband who will guarantee her future, and when they receive an invitation to Amsterdam’s most exclusive ball, she is overjoyed � perhaps this will set their fortunes straight. And indeed, the ball does set things spinning: new figures enter their life, promising new futures. But their fates are still unclear, and when Nella feels a strange prickling sensation on the back of her neck, she wonders if the miniaturist has returned for her . . .]]> 402 Jessie Burton 1509886095 Meg 0 to-read, fiction, green-books 3.86 2022 The House of Fortune (The Miniaturist, #2)
author: Jessie Burton
name: Meg
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: to-read, fiction, green-books
review:

]]>