en-US Sun, 19 Jan 2025 09:09:45 -0800 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 54874365
The increasingly hyper-individualistic, competitive and exploitative society that we live in has caused a global crisis at the turn of the new decade; in order to survive, numbness has pervaded us all.

In this urgent and incisive pamphlet, Kae Tempest leads the reckoning against this system, placing our legacy in our own hands. Creativity holds the key: the ability to provide us with internal and external connection, to move us beyond consumption, to allow us to discover authenticity and closeness to all others, to deliver us an antidote for our numbness. This is beyond 'art'. Creative connection is anything that brings us closer to ourselves and fellow human beings, and it has the potential to offer insights into mental health, politics and beyond. Powerful, hopeful and full of humanity, On Connection confirms Tempest as one of the most important voices of their generation.]]> 129 Kae Tempest abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 4.18 2020
author: Kae Tempest
name: abby
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/19
shelves: to-read, to-read-low-priority
review:

]]> 14546756
Each chapter of Lessons from Madame Chic reveals a valuable secret Jennifer learned while under Madame Chic's tutelage: tips you can incorporate into your own life, no matter where you live or the size of your budget. Embracing the classically French aesthetic of quality over quantity, aspiring Parisiennes will learn to master the art of eating (deprive yourself not), dressing (the ten-item wardrobe), grooming (le no-makeup look), and living à la française. From entertaining with easy flair and formality to cultivating allure while living an active, modern life, Lessons from Madame Chic is the essential handbook for anyone wanting to incorporate that Parisian je ne sais quoi into her daily life.]]> 283 Jennifer L. Scott 1451699379 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 3.81 2011
author: Jennifer L. Scott
name: abby
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read, to-read-low-priority
review:

]]> 15793890 The Stone Roses captures the magic—and chaos—behind the UK band's rise, fall, and recent resurrection.

The iconicÌýBrit popÌýband The Stone Roses became an overnight sensation when their 1989 eponymous album went double platinum.ÌýIt was a recording that is still often listed as one of the best albums ever made. Its chiming guitar riffs, anthemic melodies, and Smiths-like pop sensibilityÌýelevatedÌýThe Stone Roses to a cult-like status in the UK and put them on the map in the U.S. But theirsÌýis aÌýstory of unfulfilled success:Ìýtheir star imploded as their sophomore effort took years to complete and the band broke up acrimoniously in 1996. Sixteen years later, they have reunited for a world tour, thrilling fans around the globe in one of the most successful reunion tours ever.

With one hundred interviews of key figures, forty rare photographs, and exclusive insider materialÌýincluding how they created their music, The Stone Roses charts the band's rise from the backwaters of Manchester to becoming the stars of the "Madchester" sceneÌýto their 2011 reunion. Going beyond the myths to depict a band thatÌýdefined Brit pop, Simon SpenceÌýillustrates their incandescent talent and jaw-dropping success while contextualizing them in the 90s music scene. This is the definitive story of The Stone Roses.


]]> 352 Simon Spence 125003082X abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 3.85 2012
author: Simon Spence
name: abby
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read, to-read-low-priority
review:

]]> 29220499 320 Kathryn Kemp-Griffin 1487000634 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 3.77
author: Kathryn Kemp-Griffin
name: abby
average rating: 3.77
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read, to-read-low-priority
review:

]]> 61885091
What is joie de vivre, and why is it a fundamentally French concept?

In search of those ineffable qualities that make up the joy of living, this lively book takes readers on a voyage to France through forays into literature, history, and culture. How does art contribute to daily life? Why is cuisine such a central part of French existence? Why are the French more physical than many other cultures? How do French attitudes toward time speak volumes about their sense of pleasure and celebration? And finally, to what extent is this zest for life exportable? These and other questions give way to a dynamic sketch of French life today.

Peppered with anecdotes and humor, this book uncovers some of the secrets of the celebrated French art of living well. Drawing from her years of living in France as a student, professor, and mother, Yandell crafts an honest and profound appraisal of French culture and how la joie de vivre can be developed in anyone’s life.]]> 224 Cathy Yandell 1250777984 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 3.41 2023
author: Cathy Yandell
name: abby
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read, to-read-low-priority
review:

]]> 223222 Horror was my familiar.

Published the same year as her first novel, Adam Bede, this overlooked work displays the gifts for which George Eliot would become famous—gritty realism, psychological insight, and idealistic moralizing. It is unique from all her other writing, however, in that it represents the only time she ever used a first-person narrator, and it is the only time she wrote about the supernatural.

The tale of a man who is incapacitated by visions of the future and the cacophony of overheard thoughts, and yet who can’t help trying to subvert his vividly glimpsed destiny, it is easy to read The Lifted Veil as being autobiographically revealing—of Eliot’s sensitivity to public opinion and her awareness that her days concealed behind a pseudonym were doomed to a tragic unveiling (as indeed came to pass soon after this novella’s publication). But it is easier still to read the story as the exciting and genuine precursor of a moody new form, as well as an absorbing early masterpiece of suspense.

The Art of The Novella Series

Too short to be a novel, too long to be a short story, the novella is generally unrecognized by academics and publishers. Nonetheless, it is a form beloved and practiced by literature's greatest writers. In the Art Of The Novella series, Melville House celebrates this renegade art form and its practitioners with titles that are, in many instances, presented in book form for the first time.]]> 75 George Eliot 0976658305 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 3.42 1859
author: George Eliot
name: abby
average rating: 3.42
book published: 1859
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read, to-read-low-priority
review:

]]> 212808709 A competitive diver and an ace swimmer jump into forbidden waters in this steamy college romance from the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis.

Scarlett Vandermeer is swimming upstream. A Junior at Stanford and a student-athlete who specializes in platform diving, Scarlett prefers to keep her head down, concentrating on getting into med school and on recovering from the injury that almost ended her career. She has no time for relationships—at least, that’s what she tells herself.

Swim captain, world champion, all-around aquatics golden boy, Lukas Blomqvist thrives on discipline. It’s how he wins gold medals and breaks records: complete focus, with every stroke. On the surface, Lukas and Scarlett have nothing in common. Until a well-guarded secret slips out, and everything changes.

So they start an arrangement. And as the pressure leading to the Olympics heats up, so does their relationship. It was supposed to be just a temporary, mutually satisfying fling. But when staying away from Lukas becomes impossible, Scarlett realizes that her heart might be treading into dangerous water...]]> 464 Ali Hazelwood abby 0 not-interested 3.96 2025
author: Ali Hazelwood
name: abby
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: not-interested
review:

]]> 133938826 should feel successful—but all she feels is drained. Haunted by an abandoned dream, she takes a leap of faith and leaves her old life behind. Quitting her job and divorcing her husband, Yeongju moves to a quiet residential neighborhood outside the city and opens the Hyunam-dong Bookshop.

The transition isn’t easy. For months, all Yeongju can do is cry. But as the long hours in the shop stretch on, she begins to reflect on what makes a good bookseller and a meaningful store. She throws herself into reading voraciously, hosting author events, and crafting her own philosophy on bookselling. Gradually, Yeongju finds her footing in her new surroundings.

Surrounded by friends, writers, and the books that bind them, Yeongju begins to write a new chapter in her life. The Hyunam-dong Bookshop evolves into a warm, welcoming haven for lost souls—a place to rest, heal, and remember that it’s never too late to scrap the plot and start over.]]> 307 Hwang Bo-Reum abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 3.94 2022
author: Hwang Bo-Reum
name: abby
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read, to-read-low-priority
review:

]]> 17165596 The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption; and an exploration of the power of fathers over sons—their love, their sacrifices, their lies.

A sweeping story of family, love, and friendship told against the devastating backdrop of the history of Afghanistan over the last thirty years, The Kite Runner is an unusual and powerful novel that has become a beloved, one-of-a-kind classic.

The 10th anniversary edition of the New York Times bestseller and international classic loved by millions of readers.

]]> 371 Khaled Hosseini abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 4.47 2003
author: Khaled Hosseini
name: abby
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read, to-read-low-priority
review:

]]> 157095669 #1 New York Times bestseller

"This brilliant book will shatter your assumptions about what it takes to improve and succeed. I wish I could go back in time and gift it to my younger self. It would've helped me find a more joyful path to progress."
-Serena Williams, 23-time Grand Slam singles tennis champion

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again illuminates how we can elevate ourselves and others to unexpected heights.

We live in a world that’s obsessed with talent. We celebrate gifted students in school, natural athletes in sports, and child prodigies in music. But admiring people who start out with innate advantages leads us to overlook the distances we ourselves can travel. We can all improve at improving. And when opportunity doesn’t knock, there are ways to build a door.

Hidden Potential offers a new framework for raising aspirations and exceeding expectations. Adam Grant weaves together groundbreaking evidence, surprising insights, and vivid story­telling that takes us from the classroom to the boardroom, the playground to the Olympics, and underground to outer space. He shows that progress depends less on how hard you work than how well you learn. Growth is not about the genius you possess � it’s about the character you develop. Grant explores how to build the charac­ter skills and motivational structures to realize our own potential, and how to design systems that create opportunities for those who have been underrated and overlooked.

This book reveals how anyone can rise to achieve greater things. The true measure of your potential is not the height of the peak you’ve reached, but how far you’ve climbed to get there.]]> 304 Adam M. Grant 0593653149 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 4.09 2023
author: Adam M. Grant
name: abby
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read, to-read-low-priority
review:

]]> 1029031
A grippingly honest account of life with anorexia nervosa, Thin is Grace’s heartbreaking, shocking and, finally, inspirational story. A memoir that is in part insider’s exposé and in part survivor’s testimony, it explains the struggle for self-discovery, and chronicles the devastating battles waged for control over mind and body.

Breaking secrets, Grace shatters the myths surrounding this widely misunderstood illness, helping those bound within the rules of anorexia to find a way out, and those on the outside to understand more.Thin also has resonance beyond the world of eating disorders. For in daring to tell the truth, Grace reveals her extraordinary story to be a common one, reflected in the shape of many of our lives. She draws on the universal themes of female self-image and self-determination, which have inspired such classics as The Bell Jar and A Room of One’s Own, to shatter the myths surrounding anorexia. And the powerful insights she brings to overcoming addiction make this an invaluable narrative for all those looking to find hope and renewal in the acceptance of change and growth.Thin is the most eloquent account of anorexia yet.]]> 288 Grace Bowman 0141022841 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 3.69 2006
author: Grace Bowman
name: abby
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read, to-read-low-priority
review:

]]> 20729499
In order to be discharged, Jennifer must make her way through the strict treatment program—as well as harrowing accusations, confusing half-truths, and startling insights. She is forced to examine her relationships, both inside and outside the hospital. She must relearn who to trust, and decide for herself what “healthy� really means.

Punctuated by dark humor, gritty realism, and profound moments of self-discovery, Believarexic is a stereotype-defying exploration of belief and human connection.]]> 464 J.J. Johnson 156145771X abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 4.22 2015
author: J.J. Johnson
name: abby
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read, to-read-low-priority
review:

]]> 17465514 272 Kelsey Osgood 1468306685 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 3.39 2013
author: Kelsey Osgood
name: abby
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read, to-read-low-priority
review:

]]> 11958583 Find your voice.

Hopeless. Freak. Elephant. Pitiful. These are the words of Skinny, the vicious voice that lives inside fifteen-year-old Ever Davies’s head. Skinny tells Ever all the dark thoughts her classmates have about her. Ever knows she weighs over three hundred pounds, knows she’ll probably never be loved, and Skinny makes sure she never forgets it.

But there is another voice: Ever’s singing voice, which is beautiful but has been silenced by Skinny. Partly in the hopes of trying out for the school musical—and partly to try and save her own life—Ever decides to undergo a risky surgery that may help her lose weight and start over.

With the support of her best friend, Ever begins the uphill battle toward change. But demons, she finds, are not so easy to shake, not even as she sheds pounds. Because Skinny is still around. And Ever will have to confront that voice before she can truly find her own.]]> 272 Donna Cooner 0545427630 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 3.88 2012
author: Donna Cooner
name: abby
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read, to-read-low-priority
review:

]]> 6578758 264 Liane Shaw 1897187629 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 3.45 2009
author: Liane Shaw
name: abby
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read, to-read-low-priority
review:

]]> 36959766 Canada's productivity expert returns with a totally fresh angle on how to do more with less.

Throughout his experiments and research, Chris Bailey came across many little-known insights into how we focus (a key element of productivity), including the surprising idea that focus isn't so much a state of heightened awareness (as we'd assume), but a balance between two frames of mind. The most recent neuroscientific research on attention reveals that our brain has two powerful modes that can be unlocked when we use our attention well: a focused mode (hyperfocus), which is the foundation for being highly productive, and a creative mode (scatterfocus), which enables us to connect ideas in novel ways. Hyperfocus helps readers unlock both, so they can concentrate more deeply, think more clearly, and work and live more deliberately. Diving deep into the science and theories about how and why we bring our attention to bear on life's big goals and everyday tasks, Chris Bailey takes his unique approach to productivity to the next level in Hyperfocus, while retaining the approachable voice and perspective that made him a fast favourite.]]> 256 Chris Bailey 0735273685 abby 3 3.86 2018
author: Chris Bailey
name: abby
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/03
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: checked-out-through-libby, self-help, adhd-help, nonfiction, read-in-2024, read-on-phone, reference, 3-stars
review:
pretty okay self-help book. it isn’t obnoxiously written and it contains some useful advice.
]]> 40506137 The debut novella from one of contemporary fiction's most exciting young voices, now in a new edition.

Salem, Massachusetts, 1851: McGlue is in the hold, still too drunk to be sure of name or situation or orientation--he may have killed a man. That man may have been his best friend. Intolerable memory accompanies sobriety. A-sail on the high seas of literary tradition, Ottessa Moshfegh gives us a nasty heartless blackguard on a knife-sharp voyage through the fogs of recollection.

They said I've done something wrong? . . . And they've just left me down here to starve. They'll see this inanition and be so damned they'll fall to my feet and pass up hot cross buns slathered in fresh butter and beg I forgive them. All of them . . . : the entire world one by one. Like a good priest I'll pat their heads and nod. I'll dunk my skull into a barrel of gin.]]> 159 Ottessa Moshfegh 0525522751 abby 3 3.30 2014
author: Ottessa Moshfegh
name: abby
average rating: 3.30
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/06
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: 3-stars, animal-cruelty, bisexual, checked-out-through-libby, crime, death, disturbing, fiction, historical-fiction, homophobia, lgbtq, literary-fiction, literature, m-m-romance, mental-health, novella, odd-prose, racism, read-in-2024, read-on-kindle, unique, wtf, weird, homoerotic
review:
didn’t impress me as much as her other works, but it still kept me entertained. there is some very gross, gory detail in this book!
]]> 23616888 Prozac Nation, Wurtzel describes her harrowing battle with clinical depression before she was finally treated with Prozac. In a society plagued by divorce, economic instability, and AIDS, Wurtzel depicts the growing number of depressed and overmedicated people in America.]]> 382 Elizabeth Wurtzel 0547524145 abby 4 lot to many of Wurtzel’s insights on the condition. much better than the more acclaimed Girl, Interrupted, in my opinion.]]> 3.61 1994
author: Elizabeth Wurtzel
name: abby
average rating: 3.61
book published: 1994
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/09
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: 4-stars, biography, checked-out-through-libby, childhood-trauma, deeply-relatable, depression, disturbing, drugs, feminism, judaism, memoir, mental-health, my-favorites, nonfiction, read-in-2024, read-on-kindle, released-in-1990s, sad, self-help, self-improvement, she-just-like-me-fr, triggering, well-written
review:
really enjoyed this memoir � finished it very quickly. as someone who has also struggled with depression, i found myself relating a lot to many of Wurtzel’s insights on the condition. much better than the more acclaimed Girl, Interrupted, in my opinion.
]]> 45878653 Fifty years after its original publication, Catch-22 remains a cornerstone of American lit-erature and one of the funniest—and most celebrated—novels of all time. In recent years it has been named to “best novels� lists by Time, Newsweek, the Modern Library, and the London Observer. Set in Italy during World War II, this is the story of the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy—it is his own army, which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to excuse himself from the perilous missions he’s assigned, he’ll be in violation of Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes a formal request to be removed from duty, he is proven sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved. Since its publication in 1961, no novel has matched Catch-22’s intensity and brilliance in depicting the brutal insanity of war. This fiftieth-anniversary edition commemorates Joseph Heller’s masterpiece with a new introduction by Christopher Buckley; personal essays on the genesis of the novel by the author; a wealth of critical responses and reviews by Norman Mailer, Alfred Kazin, Anthony Burgess, and others; rare papers and photos from Joseph Heller’s personal archive; and a selection of advertisements from the original publishing campaign that helped turn Catch-22 into a cultural phenomenon. Here, at last, is the definitive edition of a classic of world literature.]]> 530 Joseph Heller abby 4 3.97 1961
author: Joseph Heller
name: abby
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1961
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/09
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: classics, fiction, 4-stars, anti-war, difficult, historical-fiction, humor-and-comedy, literature, made-me-laugh, read-in-2025, read-on-kindle, released-in-1960s, witty
review:
confusing but enormously entertaining.
]]> 19288141 In

Creation Stories he tells his story in depth for the first time, from leaving school at sixteen to setting up the Living Room club in London, which showcased many emerging indie bands, from managing the Jesus and Mary Chain to co-founding Creation when he was only twenty-three.
He then discovered dance and acid house, decamping to Manchester and hanging out at the Hacienda, and took Creation into the big time with Primal Scream's Screamadelica. His drug-induced breakdown, when it came was dramatic. But as he climbed back to sobriety, he signed Oasis, becoming one of the figureheads of Britpop. He sold the label to Sony to stave off bankruptcy and eventually left in 1999 but has continued to be in an influential figure in the music industry.]]> 336 Alan McGee 0283071788 abby 4 Tenement Kid does.
looking forward to watching the movie!]]> 3.94 2013
author: Alan McGee
name: abby
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/11
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: music, nonfiction, sexy-cover, zlibrary, 4-stars, bobby-gillespie, drugs, fascinating, kindle-library, memoir, musician-memoir, not-on-libby, read-in-2025, read-on-kindle, released-in-2010s
review:
i’m a huge fan of pretty much every artist that ever released music through Creation, so i loved this book. it also offers a nice insight into a working-class 1960s-70s Glasgow upbringing, though it doesn’t go into as much detail as Bobby Gillespie’s Tenement Kid does.
looking forward to watching the movie!
]]> 58581203 What have we done to each other?

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

So what did happen to Nick's beautiful wife?]]> 561 Gillian Flynn abby 4 4.21 2012
author: Gillian Flynn
name: abby
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/15
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: 4-stars, abuse, better-than-expected, characters-i-hate, checked-out-through-libby, crime, difficult-protagonist, disturbing, fiction, read-in-2025, read-on-kindle, released-in-2010s, thriller, unlikable-characters, unlikable-protagonist, mystery, mystery-thriller, contemporary
review:
pretty great thriller � hard to put down. it sort of drags on in the middle, but the ending makes up for it.
]]> 36116843
Although the murder and robbery are bungled, Raskolnikov manages to escape without being seen. And with nothing to prove his guilt and a mendacious confessor in police custody, Raskolnikov seems to have committed the perfect crime. But in Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s world of moral transgressions, with its reason and its consequences, Raskolnikov’s plan has a devastating hitch: the feverish delirium of his own conscience.

AmazonClassics brings you timeless works from the masters of storytelling. Ideal for anyone who wants to read a great work for the first time or rediscover an old favorite, these new editions open the door to literature’s most unforgettable characters and beloved worlds.]]> 641 Fyodor Dostoevsky 1542099307 abby 5 4.38 1866
author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: abby
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1866
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/04
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: classics, crime, fiction, apple-books-library, public-domain, literature, russian-literature, 5-stars, death, deeply-relatable, disturbing, my-favorites, philosophy, psychology, read-in-2024, read-on-kindle, holy-shit, ahead-of-its-time, dated
review:
such an incredible, powerful book. it isn’t an easy read by any means, but god, it’s worth it and then some.
]]> 60763786
Jennette McCurdy was six years old when she had her first acting audition. Her mother’s dream was for her only daughter to become a star, and Jennette would do anything to make her mother happy. So she went along with what Mom called “calorie restriction,� eating little and weighing herself five times a day. She endured extensive at-home makeovers while Mom chided, “Your eyelashes are invisible, okay? You think Dakota Fanning doesn’t tint hers?� She was even showered by Mom until age sixteen while sharing her diaries, email, and all her income.

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

Told with refreshing candor and dark humor, I’m Glad My Mom Died is an inspiring story of resilience, independence, and the joy of shampooing your own hair.]]> 320 Jennette McCurdy abby 5 4.50 2022
author: Jennette McCurdy
name: abby
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/13
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: memoir, nonfiction, booktok, ed-not-sheeran, checked-out-through-libby, 5-stars, better-than-expected, biography, child-abuse, child-sexual-abuse, childhood-trauma, deeply-relatable, disturbing, made-me-laugh, mental-health, my-favorites, read-in-2024, read-on-kindle, released-in-2020s, self-improvement, she-just-like-me-fr, well-written, witty
review:
as someone who grew up loving iCarly, this was an excellent memoir. but i still think it’s a great memoir even if you never watched the show. it addresses themes of child abuse, eating disorders trauma and more with McCurdy’s lighthearted writing style.
]]> 57368842
Tenement Kid is Bobby Gillespie's story up to the recording and release of the album that has been credited with 'starting the 90's', Screamadelica.

Born into a working class Glaswegian family in the summer of 1961, Bobby's memoirs begin in the district of Springburn, soon to be evacuated in Edward Heath's brutal slum clearances.

Leaving school at 16 and going to work as a printers' apprentice, Bobby's rock n roll epiphany arrives like a bolt of lightning shining from Phil Lynott's mirrored pickguard at his first gig at the Apollo in Glasgow. Filled with 'the holy spirit of rock n roll' his destiny is sealed with the arrival of the Sex Pistols and punk rock which to Bobby, represents an iconoclastic vision of class rebellion and would ultimately lead to him becoming an artist initially in the Jesus and Mary Chain then in Primal Scream.

Structured in four parts, Tenement Kid builds like a breakbeat crescendo to the final quarter of the book, the Summer of Love, Boys Own parties, and the fateful meeting with Andrew Weatherall in an East Sussex field. As the '80s bleed into the '90s and a new kind of electronic soul music starts to pulse through the nation's consciousness, Primal Scream become the most innovative British band of the new decade, representing a new psychedelic vanguard taking shape at Creation Records.

Ending with the release of Screamadelica and the tour that followed in the autumn, Tenement Kid is a book filled with the joy and wonder of a rock n roll apostle who would radically reshape the future sounds of fin de siecle British pop. Published thirty years after the release of their masterpiece, Bobby Gillespie's memoir cuts a righteous path through a decade lost to Thatcherism and saved by acid house.]]> 412 Bobby Gillespie 1474622062 abby 5 3.93 2021
author: Bobby Gillespie
name: abby
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: owned, musician-memoir, my-favorites, memoir, biography, music, nonfiction, sex, well-written, drugs, of-particular-interest-to-myself, owned-signed, 5-stars, beautiful-cover, deeply-relatable, depression, economics, politics, sexy-cover, social-justice, underrated, anti-conservative, anti-neoliberal, anti-war, anti-zionist, scotland, british-literature, bobby-gillespie, primal-scream, the-jesus-and-mary-chain, owned-limited-or-special-edition, left-wing, read-hardcover
review:
as a huge fan of the author, my opinion is obviously very biased. that being said, it’s an excellent music memoir. it was so fascinating to read about Bobby’s life and his experiences.
]]> 35261321
One of the most popular characters in English literature, Elizabeth Bennet is intelligent, witty, well-spoken and ahead of her time. If the terrible rumors about Mr. Darcy are true, he doesn’t stand a chance. Yet not all gossip is to be believed when marriage, money, and reputations are on the line. Will Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy circumvent her haste, his ego, and society’s expectations to find love?

Written more than two centuries ago, Jane Austen’s enduring story of manners, family, and love continues to delight new generations of readers.

AmazonClassics brings you timeless works from the masters of storytelling. Ideal for anyone who wants to read a great work for the first time or rediscover an old favorite, these new editions open the door to literature’s most unforgettable characters and beloved worlds.

Revised edition: Previously published as Pride and Prejudice, this edition of Pride and Prejudice (AmazonClassics Edition) includes editorial revisions.]]> 276 Jane Austen 1542097487 abby 0 4.44 1813
author: Jane Austen
name: abby
average rating: 4.44
book published: 1813
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: classics, fiction, historical-fiction, to-read-medium-priority, literature, public-domain, romance, zlibrary, currently-reading
review:

]]> 52566051 The "brilliant, funny, meaningful novel" (The New Yorker) that established J. D. Salinger as a leading voice in American literature--and that has instilled in millions of readers around the world a lifelong love of books.


"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth."

The hero-narrator of The Catcher in the Rye is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caufield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days.
]]> 212 J.D. Salinger 0316460001 abby 4 3.77 1951
author: J.D. Salinger
name: abby
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1951
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/07
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: classics, fiction, dated, deeply-relatable, depression, difficult-protagonist, literary-fiction, literature, read-in-2024, read-on-kindle, released-in-1950s
review:
it took me forever to finish because i was going through a depressive episode, but i really enjoyed this. i'm just a sucker for these ‘he/she just like me fr� books.
]]> 77920745 WINNER OF THE 2024 PULITZER PRIZE FOR GENERAL NON-FICTION

Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker, The Economist, Time, The New Republic, and the Financial Times.

Immersive and gripping, an intimate story of a deadly accident outside Jerusalem that unravels a tangle of lives, loves, enmities, and histories over the course of one revealing, heartbreaking day.

Five-year-old Milad Salama is excited for a school trip to a theme park on the outskirts of Jerusalem. On the way, his bus collides with a semitrailer. His father, Abed, gets word of the crash and rushes to the site. The scene is chaos—the children have been taken to different hospitals in Jerusalem and the West Bank; some are missing, others cannot be identified. Abed sets off on an odyssey to learn Milad’s fate. It is every parent’s worst nightmare, but for Abed it is compounded by the maze of physical, emotional, and bureaucratic obstacles he must navigate because he is Palestinian. He is on the wrong side of the separation wall, holds the wrong ID to pass the military checkpoints, and has the wrong papers to enter the city of Jerusalem. Abed’s quest to find Milad is interwoven with the stories of a cast of Jewish and Palestinian characters whose lives and histories unexpectedly converge.

In A Day in the Life of Abed Salama, Nathan Thrall—hailed for his “severe allergy to conventional wisdom� (Time)—offers an indelibly human portrait of the struggle over Israel/Palestine and a new understanding of the tragic history and reality of one of the most contested places on earth.]]> 272 Nathan Thrall 1250854970 abby 0 4.33 2023
author: Nathan Thrall
name: abby
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: to-read, to-read-high-priority
review:

]]> 16299
"Ten little boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there were nine. Nine little boys sat up very late; One overslept himself and then there were eight. Eight little boys traveling in Devon; One said he'd stay there then there were seven. Seven little boys chopping up sticks; One chopped himself in half and then there were six. Six little boys playing with a hive; A bumblebee stung one and then there were five. Five little boys going in for law; One got in Chancery and then there were four. Four little boys going out to sea; A red herring swallowed one and then there were three. Three little boys walking in the zoo; A big bear hugged one and then there were two. Two little boys sitting in the sun; One got frizzled up and then there was one. One little boy left all alone; He went out and hanged himself and then there were none."

When they realize that murders are occurring as described in the rhyme, terror mounts. One by one they fall prey. Before the weekend is out, there will be none. Who has choreographed this dastardly scheme? And who will be left to tell the tale? Only the dead are above suspicion.]]> 264 Agatha Christie 0312330871 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 4.28 1939
author: Agatha Christie
name: abby
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1939
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: to-read, to-read-low-priority
review:

]]> 59336344
“Captures the ache-inducing quality of art and desire . . . a deeply relatable and profoundly enjoyable read, one drenched in prismatic color and light.�—Kristen Arnett, New York Times bestselling author of With Teeth

It’s 2011: America is in a deep recession and Occupy Wall Street is escalating. But at the elite Wrynn College of Art, students paint and sculpt in a rarefied bubble. Louisa Arceneaux is a thoughtful, observant nineteen-year-old when she transfers to Wrynn as a scholarship student, but she soon finds herself adrift in an environment that prizes novelty over beauty. Complicating matters is Louisa’s unexpected attraction to her charismatic roommate, Karina Piontek, the preternaturally gifted but mercurial daughter of wealthy art collectors. Gradually, Louisa and Karina are drawn into an intense sensual and artistic relationship, one that forces them to confront their deepest desires and fears. But Karina also can’t shake her fascination with Preston Utley, a senior and anti-capitalist Internet provocateur, who is publicly feuding with visiting professor and political painter Robert Berger—a once-controversial figurehead seeking to regain relevance.

When Preston concocts an explosive hoax, the fates of all four artists are upended as each is unexpectedly thrust into the cutthroat New York art world. Now all must struggle to find new identities in art, in society, and among each other. In the process, they must find either their most authentic terms of life—of success, failure, and joy—or risk losing themselves altogether.

With a canny, critical eye, Sirens & Muses overturns notions of class, money, art, youth, and a generation’s fight to own their future.]]> 368 Antonia Angress abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 3.91 2022
author: Antonia Angress
name: abby
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: to-read, to-read-low-priority
review:

]]> 61187307
Longtime organizers and movement educators Mariame Kaba and Kelly Hayes examine some of the political lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the convergence of mass protest and mass formations of mutual aid, and consider what this confluence of power can teach us about a future that will require mass acts of care, rescue and defense, in the face of both state violence and environmental disaster.

The book is an assemblage of co-authored reflections, interviews and questions that are intended to aid and empower activists and organizers as they attempt to map their own journeys through the work of justice-making. It includes insights from a spectrum of experienced organizers, including Sharon Lungo, Carlos Saavedra, Ejeris Dixon, Barbara Ransby, and Ruth Wilson Gilmore about some of the difficult and joyous lessons they have learned in their work.]]> 296 Kelly Hayes abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 4.57 2023
author: Kelly Hayes
name: abby
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: to-read, to-read-low-priority
review:

]]> 62918049 In July 1950, Avi Shlaim, only five, and his family were forced into exile, fleeing their beloved Iraq to the new state of Israel.

'Remarkable.' Max Hastings, THE SUNDAY TIMES

Today the once flourishing Jewish community of Iraq, at one time numbering over 130,000 and tracing its history back 2,600 years, has all but vanished.

Why so? One explanation speaks of the timeless clash between Arab and Jewish civilisations and a heroic Zionist mission to rescue Eastern Jews from backward nations and unceasing persecution.

Avi Shlaim tears up this script. His parents had many Muslim friends in Baghdad and no interest in Zionism. As anti-Semitism surged in Iraq, the Zionist underground fanned the flames. Yet when Iraqi Jews fled to Israel, they faced an uncertain future, their history was rewritten to serve a Zionist narrative.

This memoir breathes life into an almost forgotten world. Weaving together the personal and the political, Three Worlds offers a fresh perspective on Arab-Jews, caught in the crossfire of Zionism and nationalism.

***

A TLS AND NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023

'A beautifully written book which artfully blends the personal with the political.' Justin Marozzi, SPECTATOR

'Three Worlds, by the Oxford historian of the modern Middle East Avi Shlaim, is an often enchanting memoir of his childhood in Baghdad... A gripping account... A lost world in Iraq is brilliantly brought back to life in this fascinating memoir.' David Abulafia, FINANCIAL TIMES]]> 374 Avi Shlaim 0861544641 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 4.41 2023
author: Avi Shlaim
name: abby
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: to-read, to-read-low-priority
review:

]]> 310612
His mother thinks he needs to go to work. He does, in a succession of jobs. Each job rapidly escalates into a lunatic adventure, a full-blown disaster; yet each has, like Don Quixote's, its own eerie logic.

His girlfriend, Myrna Minkoff of the Bronx, thinks he needs sex.

Ignatius is an intellectual, ideologue, deadbeat, goof-off, glutton, who should repel the reader with his gargantuan bloats, his thunderous contempt, and one-man war against everybody: Freud, homosexuals, heterosexuals, Protestants, and the assorted excesses of modern times.

A tragicomedy, set in New Orleans.]]> 394 John Kennedy Toole 0802130208 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 3.89 1980
author: John Kennedy Toole
name: abby
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1980
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: to-read, to-read-low-priority
review:

]]> 23966
There are some sizable flies in the ointment, though: a missing wife and child, a nagging cocaine habit, some painful below-the-belt eczema, and a string of demanding extramarital affairs. The last thing Robertson needs is a messy, racially fraught murder, even if it means overtime—and the opportunity to clinch the promotion he craves. Then there's that nutritionally demanding (and psychologically acute) intestinal parasite in his gut. Yes, things are going badly for this utterly corrupt tribune of the law, but in an Irvine Welsh novel nothing is ever so bad that it can't get a whole lot worse. . .

]]> 393 Irvine Welsh 0393318680 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 3.81 1998
author: Irvine Welsh
name: abby
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: to-read, to-read-low-priority
review:

]]> 4980 Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here

In Breakfast of Champions, one of Kurt Vonnegut’s most beloved characters, the aging writer Kilgore Trout, finds to his horror that a Midwest car dealer is taking his fiction as truth. What follows is murderously funny satire, as Vonnegut looks at war, sex, racism, success, politics, and pollution in America and reminds us how to see the truth.]]> 303 Kurt Vonnegut Jr. 0385334206 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 4.08 1973
author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
name: abby
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1973
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: to-read, to-read-low-priority
review:

]]> 6692041 In the refugee camp of Jenin, Amal is born into a world of loss—of home, country, and heritage. Her Palestinian family was driven from their ancestral village by the newly formed state of Israel in 1948. As the villagers fled that day, Amal's older brother, just a baby, was stolen away by an Israeli soldier. In Jenin, the adults subsist on memories, waiting to return to the homes they love. Amal's mother has walled away her heart with grief, and her father labors all day. But in the fleeting peacefulness of dawn, he reads to his young daughter daily, and she can feel his love for her, "as big as the ocean and all its fishes." On those quiet mornings, they dream together of a brighter future.

This is Amal's story, the story of one family's struggle and survival through over sixty years of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, carrying us from Jenin to Jerusalem, to Lebanon and the anonymity of America. It is a story shaped by scars and fear, but also by the transformative intimacy of marriage and the fierce protectiveness of motherhood. It is a story of faith, forgiveness, and life-sustaining love.

Mornings in Jenin is haunting and heart-wrenching, a novel of vital contemporary importance. Lending human voices to the headlines, it forces us to take a fresh look at one of the defining political conflicts of our lifetimes.]]> 331 Susan Abulhawa 1608190463 abby 0 4.49 2006
author: Susan Abulhawa
name: abby
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: to-read, to-read-medium-priority
review:

]]> 36436062 "The morning became a long, drawn-out afternoon that became depthless night dawning innocently through the house."

Tales of desire and madness from this giant of Brazilian literature.]]> 64 Clarice Lispector 0241337607 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 3.54 2018
author: Clarice Lispector
name: abby
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: to-read, to-read-low-priority
review:

]]> 213572648
This is what happens to Lisette. Overnight, on 13 August 1961, the border between East and West Berlin has closed, slicing the city - and the world - in two. With the streets in chaos and armed guards ordered to shoot anyone who tries to cross, her situation is desperate.

Lisette's teenage daughter, Elly, has always struggled to understand the distance between herself and her mother. Both have lived for music, but while Elly hears notes surrounding every person she meets, for her mother - once a talented pianist - the music has gone silent.

Perhaps Elly can do something to bridge the gap between them. What begins as the flicker of an idea turns into a daring plan to escape East Berlin, find her baby brother, and bring him home....]]> Josie Ferguson 1529912431 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 4.46
author: Josie Ferguson
name: abby
average rating: 4.46
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: to-read, to-read-low-priority
review:

]]> 214621259 75th ANNIVERSARY EDITION

In 1984, London is a grim city in the totalitarian state of Oceania where Big Brother is always watching you and the Thought Police can practically read your mind. Winston Smith is a man in grave danger for the simple reason that his memory still functions. Drawn into a forbidden love affair, Winston finds the courage to join a secret revolutionary organization called The Brotherhood, dedicated to the destruction of the Party. Together with his beloved Julia, he hazards his life in a deadly match against the powers that be.]]> 416 George Orwell abby 0 4.16 1949
author: George Orwell
name: abby
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1949
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: classics, dystopian, fiction, to-read-high-priority, currently-reading
review:

]]> 201534914 The Brian Jonestown Massacre are one of the great contemporary cult American rock and roll bands. At the peak of their anarchic reign in the San Francisco underground of the mid '90s their psychedelic output was almost as prodigious and impressive as their narcotic intake.

Immortalised in one of the most unforgettable rock and roll documentaries of all time, DIG! alongside their friends/rivals/nemeses, The Dandy Warhol's, in their early years when the US were obsessed with grunge, the BJM felt like a '60s anachronism. But with albums like Their Satanic Majesties Second Request and Thank God for Mental Illness, and incendiary, often chaotic, live shows, they burnished their legend as true believers and custodians of the original west coast flame; a privilege and responsibility which continues to this day when the band have a bigger and more dedicated audience than ever.

Joel Gion's memoir tells the story of the first ten years of the band from the Duke Seat. A righteous account of the hazards and pleasures of life on and off the road, In the Jingle Jangle Jungle takes use behind the scenes of the supposed behind the scenes film that cemented the band's legend. Funny as hell, shot through with the innocence and wonder of a 'percussionist' whose true role is that of the band's 'spirit animal', In the Jingle Jangle Jungle is destined to take its place alongside cult classics in the pantheon of rock and roll literature like Playing the Bass with Three Left Hands, Head On, and 45 by Bill Drummond. It will also feature a foreword by Anton Newcombe, fellow member and founder of The Brian Jonestown Massacre.]]> 370 Joel Gion 1644284057 abby 0 to-read, owned 4.24
author: Joel Gion
name: abby
average rating: 4.24
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: to-read, owned
review:

]]> 41214467 Dig! - which won the Grand Jury Prize at SundanceÌý - but what isn’t known is the truth behind the making of the film, or the true story of the band since their formation in early 1990s San Francisco. Until now.

Writer, actor, and musician Jesse Valencia spent ten years uncovering the mysteries of the band and the film, during which time he has traveled from San Francisco to Denver, Portland to Tucson, and beyond, gathering pieces of the band’s history and putting them together, clue by clue, until he found it.

Presented as a personal narrative and compiled from hundreds of sources and interviews with key members of The Brian Jonestown Massacre - including Joel Gion, Rick Maymi, Frankie Emerson, Jeff Davies, Dean Taylor, Miranda Lee Richards, and Peter Hayes - as well as members of The Dandy Warhols, Dig! director Ondi Timoner, and countless other figures from both the film and from the band’s greater history, Keep Music EvilÌýis the definitive work on the band and their enigmatic leader.

Keep Music Evil also tells the stories of the creation of every album the band have released during their three-decade career, offering insight in Anton and his collaborators� working methods, and provides an in-depth look at the making of Dig!, giving deeper context to the events as portrayed, correcting misinformation, and deconstructing the film as a whole. It also features rare, candid, and never-before-seen photographs of the band from throughout their career.]]> 310 Jesse Valencia 1911036475 abby 0 3.72 2019
author: Jesse Valencia
name: abby
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: to-read, to-read-medium-priority, not-on-libby, not-on-zlibrary, bjm, owned
review:

]]> 75668238
In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humour and heart, she tells of growing up the only Asian-American kid at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother’s particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother’s tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food. As she grew up, moving to the east coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, performing gigs with her fledgling band � and meeting the man who would become her husband � her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live.

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

Vivacious, lyrical and honest, Michelle Zauner’s voice is as radiantly alive on the page as it is onstage. Rich with intimate anecdotes that will resonate widely, Crying in H Mart is a book to cherish, share, and reread.]]> 239 Michelle Zauner 1984898957 abby 0 to-read, owned 4.20 2021
author: Michelle Zauner
name: abby
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: to-read, owned
review:

]]> 175346311 The Brian Jonestown Massacre are one of the great contemporary cult American rock and roll bands. At the peak of their anarchic reign in the San Francisco underground of the mid '90s their psychedelic output was almost as prodigious and impressive as their narcotic intake.

Immortalised in one of the most unforgettable rock and roll documentaries of all time, DIG! alongside their friends/rivals/nemeses, The Dandy Warhol's, in their early years when the US were obsessed with grunge, the BJM felt like a '60s anachronism. But with albums like Their Satanic Majesties Second Request and Thank God for Mental Illness, and incendiary, often chaotic, live shows, they burnished their legend as true believers and custodians of the original west coast flame; a privilege and responsibility which continues to this day when the band have a bigger and more dedicated audience than ever.

Joel Gion's memoir tells the story of the first ten years of the band from the Duke Seat. A righteous account of the hazards and pleasures of life on and off the road, In the Jingle Jangle Jungle takes use behind the scenes of the supposed behind the scenes film that cemented the band's legend. Funny as hell, shot through with the innocence and wonder of a 'percussionist' whose true role is that of the band's 'spirit animal', In the Jingle Jangle Jungle is destined to take its place alongside cult classics in the pantheon of rock and roll literature like Playing the Bass with Three Left Hands, Head On, and 45 by Bill Drummond. It will also feature a foreword by Anton Newcombe, fellow member and founder of The Brian Jonestown Massacre.]]> 348 Joel Gion 1399618318 abby 0 4.23
author: Joel Gion
name: abby
average rating: 4.23
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: to-read, to-read-medium-priority, not-on-libby, not-on-zlibrary, bjm
review:

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

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

On another hot summer’s day ten years later, Natsu, on a journey back to her native city, struggles with her own indeterminate identity as she confronts anxieties about growing old alone and childless.]]> 430 Mieko Kawakami 1609455878 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 3.87 2019
author: Mieko Kawakami
name: abby
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: to-read, to-read-low-priority
review:

]]> 62236952 This book is an exhaustive, thorough and exciting celebration of the stunning artwork of punk music—everything from the most celebrated and iconic designs through to the stark beauty of the cheapest do-it-yourself lo-fi obscurities.
Punk 45! is introduced and coedited by Jon Savage, author of the acclaimed definitive history of punk, England’s Dreaming , and features a new introduction by Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream. Contributors include Peter Saville, Richard Hell, Richard H Kirk, Seymour Stein, Geoff Travis, Martin Moscrop, Glenn Branca, Jamie Reid, Dave Robinson, Roger Armstrong, Martin Mills, Gee Vaucher, Savage Pencil, Dennis Morris and more.]]> 367 Stuart Baker 1916359817 abby 0 3.40 2013
author: Stuart Baker
name: abby
average rating: 3.40
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: to-read, music, nonfiction, to-read-high-priority
review:

]]> 210373324
Over the following three decades, these two lives almost intersect in pivotal moments, the distance between them at times drawing so thin they nearly collide. Against the backdrop of an era including Australia's first Mardi Gras and the AIDS pandemic, we see these two lives ebb and flow, with joy and grief and loss and desire, until at last they come together in the most beautiful and surprising of fashions.

A Language of Limbs is about love and how it's policed, friendship and how it transcends, and hilarity in the face of heartbreak - the jokes you tell as you're dying and the ways laughing at a funeral softens the edges of our grief. An unashamed celebration of queer life in all its vibrancy and colour, this story finds the humanity in all of us, and demands we claim our futures for ourselves.]]> 277 Dylin Hardcastle 1761562428 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 4.39 2024
author: Dylin Hardcastle
name: abby
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: to-read, to-read-low-priority
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]]> 54304124
Extra-curricular activities. Honors classes. 60-hour work weeks. Side hustles.

Like many Americans, Dr. Devon Price believed that productivity was the best way to measure self-worth. Price was an overachiever from the start, graduating from both college and graduate school early, but that success came at a cost. After Price was diagnosed with a severe case of anemia and heart complications from overexertion, they were forced to examine the darker side of all this productivity.

Laziness Does Not Exist explores the psychological underpinnings of the “laziness lie,� including its origins from the Puritans and how it has continued to proliferate as digital work tools have blurred the boundaries between work and life. Using in-depth research, Price explains that people today do far more work than nearly any other humans in history yet most of us often still feel we are not doing enough.

Filled with practical and accessible advice for overcoming society’s pressure to do more, and featuring interviews with researchers, consultants, and experiences from real people drowning in too much work, Laziness Does Not Exist “is the book we all need right now� (Caroline Dooner, author of The F*ck It Diet ).]]> 256 Devon Price 1982140100 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 3.91 2021
author: Devon Price
name: abby
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/15
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]]> 152264426 A Rough Trade Book of the Year
A Resident Book of the Year
A Monorail Book of the Year
A Virgin Radio Book of the Year

A unique journey into the legacy and afterlives of the artists who featured on the legendary NME C86 tape.

In 1986, the NME released a cassette that would shape music for years to come. A collection of 22 independently signed guitar-based bands, C86 was the sound and ethos that defined a generation. It was also arguably the point at which 'indie' was born.

But what happened next to all those musical dreamers? Some of the bands, like Primal Scream, went on to achieve global stardom; others, such as Half Man Half Biscuit and the Wedding Present, cultivated lifelong fanbases that still sustain their careers thirty-five years later. Then there were the rest, who ultimately imploded in a riot of paisley shirts, bad drugs, and general indifference from the record-buying public.

Now, thirty-five years on, journalist Nige Tassell tracks down the class of C86, unearthing members of all twenty-two bands and sharing the stories, both tragic and uplifting, of these long-lost musicians. Told with warmth, compassion and humor, this is a very human account of ambition, hope, varying degrees of talent and what happens after you give up on music - or, more accurately, after music gives up on you. It's a world populated by bike-shop owners, dance-music producers, record-store proprietors, ornithologists, driving instructors, solicitors, caricaturists and possibly even an Olympic sailor. And let's not forget the musician-turned-actor gainfully employed as Jeremy Irons' body double...

More than simply the tale of the tape, Whatever Happened to the C86 Kids? is an exploration of C86's wide-reaching and often surprising legacy.]]> 416 Nige Tassell 1788705602 abby 0 4.20
author: Nige Tassell
name: abby
average rating: 4.20
book published:
rating: 0
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shelves: to-read, to-read-high-priority
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]]> 13558344 624 Richard King 0571243908 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 3.99 2012
author: Richard King
name: abby
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/15
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]]> 18045891
Librarian's Note: this is an alternate cover edition - ISBN 10: 0307341550 (ISBN 13: 9780307341556)]]> 254 Gillian Flynn 0297851535 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 4.05 2006
author: Gillian Flynn
name: abby
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2006
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]]> 5886881
Since then, she has been drifting. But when she is contacted by a group who are convinced of Ben's innocence, Libby starts to ask questions she never dared to before. Was the voice she heard her brother's? Ben was a misfit in their small town, but was he capable of murder? Are there secrets to uncover at the family farm or is Libby deluding herself because she wants her brother back?

She begins to realise that everyone in her family had something to hide that day... especially Ben. Now, twenty-four years later, the truth is going to be even harder to find.

Who did massacre the Day family?]]> 424 Gillian Flynn 0307341569 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 3.95 2009
author: Gillian Flynn
name: abby
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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]]> 762390 The Hour of the Star, Clarice Lispector's consummate final novel, may well be her masterpiece. Narrated by the cosmopolitan Rodrigo S.M., this brief, strange, and haunting tale is the story of Macabéa, one of life's unfortunates. Living in the slums of Rio de Janeiro and eking out a poor living as a typist, Macabéa loves movies, Coca-Cola, and her rat of a boyfriend; she would like to be like Marilyn Monroe, but she is ugly, underfed, sickly, and unloved. Rodrigo recoils from her wretchedness, and yet he cannot avoid realization that for all her outward misery, Macabéa is inwardly free. She doesn't seem to know how unhappy she should be. Lispector employs her pathetic heroine against her urbane, empty narrator--edge of despair to edge of despair--and, working them like a pair of scissors, she cuts away the reader's preconceived notions about poverty, identity, love, and the art of fiction. In her last novel she takes readers close to the true mystery of life, and leaves us deep in Lispector territory indeed.]]> 96 Clarice Lispector 0811211908 abby 0 4.11 1977
author: Clarice Lispector
name: abby
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1977
rating: 0
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]]> 153425 Near to the Wild Heart is Clarice Lispector's first novel, written from March to November 1942 and published around her twenty-third birthday. The novel, written in a stream-of-consciousness style reminiscent of the English-language Modernists, centers around the childhood and early adulthood of a character named Joana, who bears strong resemblance to her author: "Madame Bovary, c'est moi", Lispector said, quoting Flaubert, when asked about the similarities. The book, particularly its revolutionary language, brought its young, unknown creator to great prominence in Brazilian letters and earned her the prestigious Graça Aranha Prize.

Joana, a young woman very much in the mode of existential contemporaries like Camus and Sartre, ponders the meaning of life, the freedom to be one's self, and the purpose of existence. Near to the Wild Heart does not have a conventional narrative plot. It instead recounts flashes from the life of Joana, between her present, as a young woman, and her early childhood. These focus, like most of Lispector's works, on interior, emotional states of mind.]]> 192 Clarice Lispector 0811211401 abby 0 4.08 1943
author: Clarice Lispector
name: abby
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1943
rating: 0
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]]> 122762546 Mei loses her Japanese mother at age six. Growing up in suburban Surrey, she yearns to fit in, suppressing both her heritage and her growing love for her best friend Fran.

Yuki leaves the Japanese countryside to pursue her dream of becoming a concert violinist in London. Lonely and far from home, she finds herself caught up in the charms of her older teacher.

Haruka attempts to navigate Tokyo’s nightlife and all of its many vices, working as a hostess in seedy bars. She grieves a mother who hid so many secrets from her, until finally one of those secrets comes to light . . .

Shifting between three intertwining narratives, Mongrel reveals a tangled web of isolation, desire, love, and ultimately, hope.]]> 352 Hanako Footman 1804440434 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 4.31 2024
author: Hanako Footman
name: abby
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> 198344746
Padma's fifteen-year-old niece Myra is reaching her own crisis point. When she falls in with the wrong crowd and her life ends up in danger, it's the final straw for her parents.

Now Padma will spend the summer with her niece - in a ramshackle, ivy-clad house on the Kent clifftops - running a DIY rehab of sorts.

Will this be a pressure too far for her and Wallace? And how will she spend six weeks with a niece who, thanks to her sister, she barely knows?

It's the last place they want to be.

But this could just be the summer that changes everything . . .

]]> 351 Poorna Bell 1804941972 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 4.18
author: Poorna Bell
name: abby
average rating: 4.18
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]]> 197635571
Neither Finlay or Banjo can remember the last time they had a hug.

Against all odds, 18-year-old Finlay has begun his nursing degree at Glasgow University. But coming straight from the care system means he has no support network. How can he write essays, focus on his nursing placement and stop himself from falling in love when he's struggling to feed himself? Meanwhile, 17-year-old Banjo is trying to settle into his new foster family and finish high school, desperate to hold down his job and the people it contains. But his anger and fear keep boiling over, threatening his already uncertain future.

Underpinning everything is what happened three years ago in their group care home, when Finlay and Banjo were as close as brothers until they stopped speaking. If these boys want to keep hold of the people they love, they have to be able to forgive one another. More than this, they must find a way to forgive themselves.]]> 350 Margaret McDonald 0571382975 abby 0 4.32
author: Margaret McDonald
name: abby
average rating: 4.32
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]]> 127282597
At twenty-four, Hera is a clump of unmet potential. To her, the future is nothing but an exhausting thought exercise, one depressing hypothetical after another. She’s sharp in more ways than one, adrift in her own smug malaise, until her new job moderating the comments section of an online news outlet—a role even more mind-numbing than it sounds—introduces her to Arthur, a middle-aged journalist. Though she's preferred women to men for years now, she soon finds herself falling into an all-consuming affair with him. She is coming apart with want and loving every second of it! Well, except for the tiny hiccup that Arthur has a wife—and that she has no idea Hera exists.

With its daringly specific and intimate voice, Green Dot is a darkly hilarious and deeply felt examination of the joys and indignities of coming into adulthood against the pitfalls of the twenty-first century and the winding, tortuous, and often very funny journey we take in deciding who we are and who we want to be.]]> 320 Madeleine Gray 1250890594 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 3.62 2024
author: Madeleine Gray
name: abby
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> 208552783 wealth-obsessed man � who is also dead.

One status-obsessed woman � who is the perfect accessory.

Their four inheritance-obsessed children � each with a killer instinct.

And a murder-obsessed outsider looking to expose them all�

Bella Mackie is back with a brilliantly funny and twisty mystery about dysfunctional families, awful rich people and true crime obsessives� and a murder or two, of course.]]> 400 Bella Mackie 0008365962 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 3.47 2024
author: Bella Mackie
name: abby
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> 199238982 Ìý
Spinning off of Bodrug's wildly popular Scrappy Cooking social media series, the cookbook is packed with over 150+ whole-food, plant-based recipes that show the reader how to make the most of the food they have in their fridge and pantry with easy and approachable vegan recipes anyone can make.
Ìý
Transform radish tops into pesto, broccoli stems into summer rolls and wilting greens into smoothie cubes... But that's not all. The book will equip readers with not only the tools to make the most of their scraps, but use up just about any vegetable, grain or bean from their fridge and pantry in the flexible Kitchen Raid Recipes, or cross reference commonly wasted foods like stale bread from a "Got This, Make That" index so these items can be used up in the easiest and most delicious way possible.Ìý
Ìý
Scrappy Cooking not only puts the focus on eating a diet that's more conscious for our environment (and our wallets) but our health as well. Every recipe in the book is vegan, almost entirely oil free, and focuses on whole, plant-based foods that are good for our bodies and the planet. Get ready for recipes like The Whole Darn Squash (Pasta), Skillet Lasagna, One Pan Orzo Casserole, Vodka Penne With Broccolini, Whole Roasted Cauliflower with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce, Chickpea Pot Pie, Orange Peel Chickn�, Loaded Tortilla Bowls, Sheet Pan Tacos with Carrot Top Chimichurri, Rebel “Ribs�, Veggie Masala Burgers, Palak “Paneer�, Vegan Meaty Hand Pies, We-Got-the-Beet Chips, Pickle-Mania Chips, Cornmeal Biscuits, Bang Bang Broccoli-cious Steaks…and more!]]> 384 Carleigh Bodrug 0306832429 abby 0 4.43
author: Carleigh Bodrug
name: abby
average rating: 4.43
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: cookbook, healthy-cookbook, manual, nonfiction, zlibrary
review:

]]> 58597190 Our ability to pay attention is collapsing. From the New York Times bestselling author of Chasing the Scream and Lost Connections comes a groundbreaking examination of why this is happening—and how to get our attention back.

Like so many of us, Johann Hari was finding it much harder to focus than he used to. He found that a life of constantly switching from device to device, from tab to tab, is diminishing and depressing. He tried all sorts of self-help solutions—even abandoning his phone for three months—but in the long-term, nothing seemed to work. So Hari went on an epic journey across the world to interview the leading experts on human attention and to study their scientific findings—and learned that everything we think we know about this crisis is wrong.

In the U.S., teenagers now focus on a task for only sixty-five seconds on average, and office workers manage only three minutes. We think this inability to focus is a personal flaw, an individual failure to exert enough willpower over our devices. The truth is even more Our focus has been stolen by powerful external forces, and the science shows that these forces have been ramping up for decades—leaving us uniquely vulnerable, when social media arrived, to corporations determined to raid our attention for profit. These forces have been so successful that our collapse in attention is behind many of the wider problems society faces.

In Stolen Focus, Hari embarks on a thrilling journey, taking readers from veterinarians who diagnose dogs with ADHD, to Silicon Valley dissidents who exposed social media companies' furtive attempts to hack our focus; from a favela in Rio where everyone lost their attention in a particularly catastrophic way, to an office in New Zealand that discovered a remarkable technique to restore their workers' attention.

In this urgent, deeply researched book, Hari shows that if we understand the twelve true causes of this crisis—from the collapse of sustained reading to the disruption of boredom to rising pollution—we, as individuals and as a society, can finally begin to solve it by staging an attention rebellion. Finally, we have a way to get our focus back.
]]> 348 Johann Hari 059313852X abby 0 to-read-low-priority, dnf 4.24 2022
author: Johann Hari
name: abby
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: to-read-low-priority, dnf
review:

]]> 12697427 277 Ken Kesey 067002323X abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 4.24 1962
author: Ken Kesey
name: abby
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1962
rating: 0
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]]> 176298949 They thought they knew everything about us. The kind of women we were.

It was a place for women. A remote farm tucked away in the Kent Downs. A safe space.

When Iris - newly single and living at home with her mother - meets the mysterious and beguiling Hazel, who lives in a women's commune, she finds herself drawn into the possibility of a new start away from the world of men who have only let her down. Here, at Breach House, the women can be loud and dirty, live and eat abundantly, all while under the leadership of their gargantuan matriarch, Blythe.

But even among the women, there are power struggles, cruelty and transgressions that threaten their precarious way of life. When a group of men arrives on the farm, the commune's existence is thrown into question, hurtling Iris and the other women towards an act of devastating violence.

Fierce and unapologetic, Spoilt Creatures is an intoxicating debut about transgression, sisterhood and the seductive nature of obsession. It pulls back the skin of patriarchal violence and examines the female rage that lurks beneath.]]> 301 Amy Twigg abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 3.83
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name: abby
average rating: 3.83
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]]> 181853964 Two love sceptics agree to work together as professional wedding disruptors. But fate has more romantic plans in mind for them . . .

When Sophie finds out right before getting married that she’s been cheated on (again!) it’s time for drastic action. Instead of calling the wedding off, she hires a gorgeous stranger � Max � to interrupt the ceremony and confront her fiancé. It’s hardly the wedding she’d planned. But Sophie enjoys taking revenge. So, when Max asks if she’ll work with him to help others expose their cheating partners, Sophie agrees. When they’re hired by a man who’s marrying the girl that once broke Max’s heart, Sophie expects Max to revel in the job. But instead, he seems to be wrestling with his feelings for his ex. And worse than that, Sophie is jealous . . .Tropes/ Friends to lovers2. Slow burn romance3. Spicy books4. Love triangle]]> 313 Lynn Painter abby 0 not-interested 3.63 2024
author: Lynn Painter
name: abby
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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shelves: not-interested
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]]> 199616883 You were everything I ever wanted. Johnny was my first. I was seventeen and I was only brave enough to talk to him after I'd had three vodkas. He was only brave enough to kiss me when no-one else was around. Dave was different. We didn't go out or see friends. We were each other's world. Dave was all I needed. We were toxic before it became fashionable. Kyle was my best friend. And that was the problem. Or at least that's what he said was the problem. Because friends can hook up but they can't date.Adam was meant to be some harmless fun. I met him in a hotel and he was wearing an Adidas tracksuit. Casual but cute. He was anything but harmless.

And then I met You. And things went from bad to worse.]]> 195 Christine Anne Foley 1399807226 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 3.78
author: Christine Anne Foley
name: abby
average rating: 3.78
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]]> 37034
Alas, we cannot give you Austen, but Susan Hill's remarkable Woman In Black comes as close as our era can provide. Set on the obligatory English moor, on an isolated causeway, the story has as its hero Arthur Kipps, an up-and-coming young solicitor who has come north from London to attend the funeral and settle the affairs of Mrs. Alice Drablow of Eel Marsh House. The routine formalities he anticipates give way to a tumble of events and secrets more sinister and terrifying than any nightmare: the rocking chair in the deserted nursery, the eerie sound of a pony and trap, a child's scream in the fog, and most dreadfully--and for Kipps most tragically--The Woman In Black.

The Woman In Black is both a brilliant exercise in atmosphere and controlled horror and a delicious spine-tingler--proof positive that this neglected genre, the ghost story, isn't dead after all.]]> 138 Susan Hill 1567921892 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 3.76 1983
author: Susan Hill
name: abby
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1983
rating: 0
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]]> 61190770
Loretta Thurwar and Hamara "Hurricane Staxxx" Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly-popular, highly-controversial, profit-raising program in America's increasingly dominant private prison industry. It's the return of the gladiators and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom.

In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death-matches for packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. As she prepares to leave her fellow Links, she considers how she might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games, but CAPE's corporate owners will stop at nothing to protect their status quo and the obstacles they lay in Thurwar's path have devastating consequences.

Moving from the Links in the field to the protestors to the CAPE employees and beyond, Chain-Gang All-Stars is a kaleidoscopic, excoriating look at the American prison system's unholy alliance of systemic racism, unchecked capitalism, and mass incarceration, and a clear-eyed reckoning with what freedom in this country really means.]]> 367 Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah 0593317335 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 4.13 2023
author: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
name: abby
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> 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 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 4.38 2023
author: Trent Dalton
name: abby
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/13
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]]> 61737307
The food system is no longer simply a means of sustenance. It is one of the most successful, most innovative and most destructive industries on earth. It sustains us, but it is also killing us. Diet-related disease is now the biggest cause of preventable illness and death in the developed world - far worse than smoking. The environmental damage done by the food system is also changing climate patterns and degrading the earth, risking our food security.

Few people know the workings of the food system better than Henry Dimbleby, founder of the Leon restaurant chain, government adviser and author of the radical National Food Strategy. In Ravenous, he takes us behind the scenes to reveal the mechanisms that act together to shape the modern diet - and therefore the world. He explains not just why the food system is leading us into disaster, but what can be done about it.]]> 336 Henry Dimbleby 1800816510 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 4.36
author: Henry Dimbleby
name: abby
average rating: 4.36
book published:
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]]> 58838928 "This remarkable book, staring curiously down at the soil beneath our feet, points us convincingly in one of the directions we must travel. I learned something on every page." --Bill McKibben

For the first time since the Neolithic, we have the opportunity to transform not only our food system but our entire relationship to the living world.

Farming is the world's greatest cause of environmental destruction - and the one we are least prepared to talk about. We criticise urban sprawl, but farming sprawls across thirty times as much land. We have ploughed, fenced and grazed great tracts of the planet, felling forests, killing wildlife, and poisoning rivers and oceans to feed ourselves. Yet millions still go hungry.

Now the food system itself is beginning to falter. But, as George Monbiot shows us in this brilliant, bracingly original new book, we can resolve the biggest of our dilemmas and feed the world without devouring the planet.

Regenesis is a breathtaking vision of a new future for food and for humanity. Drawing on astonishing advances in soil ecology, Monbiot reveals how our changing understanding of the world beneath our feet could allow us to grow more food with less farming. He meets the people who are unlocking these methods, from the fruit and vegetable grower revolutionising our understanding of fertility; through breeders of perennial grains, liberating the land from ploughs and poisons; to the scientists pioneering new ways to grow protein and fat. Together, they show how the tiniest life forms could help us make peace with the planet, restore its living systems, and replace the age of extinction with an age of regenesis.]]> 352 George Monbiot 0143135961 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 4.40 2022
author: George Monbiot
name: abby
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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]]> 6980748 252 Richard Becker 0984122001 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 4.72 2009
author: Richard Becker
name: abby
average rating: 4.72
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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]]> 208580653 From the award-winning novelist of The Parisian and Enter Ghost comes an outstanding essay on the Palestinian struggle and the power of narrative.

Isabella Hammad delivered the Edward W. Said Memorial Lecture at Columbia University nine days before October 7th, 2023. The text of Hammad’s seminal speech and her afterword, written in the early weeks of 2024, together make up a searing appraisal of the war on Palestine during what seems a turning point in the narrative of human history. Profound and moving, Hammad writes from within the moment, giving voice to the Palestinian struggle for freedom. Recognizing the Stranger is a brilliant melding of literary and cultural analysis by one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists and a foremost writer of fiction in the world today.

"Extraordinary and amazingly erudite. Hammad shows how art and especially literature can be much, much more revealing than political writing.� � Rashid Khalidi, author of the New York Times bestseller The Hundred Years� War on Palestine]]> 96 Isabella Hammad 0802163920 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 4.68 2024
author: Isabella Hammad
name: abby
average rating: 4.68
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> 76150399 208 Ghada Karmi 0745348319 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 4.14
author: Ghada Karmi
name: abby
average rating: 4.14
book published:
rating: 0
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]]> 33799602
Kaysen's memoir encompasses horror and razor-edged perception while providing vivid portraits of her fellow patients and their keepers. It is a brilliant evocation of a "parallel universe" set within the kaleidoscopically shifting landscape of the late sixties. Girl, Interrupted is a clear-sighted, unflinching document that gives lasting and specific dimension to our definitions of sane and insane, mental illness and recovery.


From the Trade Paperback edition.]]> 156 Susanna Kaysen 0804151113 abby 2 3.86 1993
author: Susanna Kaysen
name: abby
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1993
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/13
date added: 2025/01/13
shelves: 2-stars, boring, disappointing, memoir, mental-health, nonfiction, read-in-2025, read-on-kindle, released-in-1990s
review:
it was way too short and didn’t give enough of an insight into the seemingly fascinating people at the hospital. some of the chapters were boring as well.
]]> 54169138 Washington Bullets is written in the best traditions of Marxist journalism and history-writing. It is a book of fluent and readable stories, full of detail about US imperialism, but never letting the minutiae obscure the larger political point. It is a book that could easily have been a song of despair � a lament of lost causes; it is, after all, a roll call of butchers and assassins; of plots against people’s movements and governments; of the assassinations of socialists, Marxists, communists all over the Third World by the country where liberty is a statue.

Despite all this, Washington Bullets is a book about possibilities, about hope, about genuine heroes. One such is Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso � also assassinated � who said: ‘You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness. In this case, it comes from nonconformity, the courage to turn your back on the old formulas, the courage to invent the future. It took the madmen of yesterday for us to be able to act with extreme clarity today. I want to be one of those madmen. We must dare to invent the future.�

Washington Bullets is a book infused with this madness, the madness that dares to invent the future.]]> 162 Vijay Prashad abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 4.38 2020
author: Vijay Prashad
name: abby
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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]]> 40121985 A pathbreaking history of the United States' overseas possessions and the true meaning of its empire

We are familiar with maps that outline all fifty states. And we are also familiar with the idea that the United States is an "empire," exercising power around the world. But what about the actual territories--the islands, atolls, and archipelagos--this country has governed and inhabited?

In How to Hide an Empire, Daniel Immerwahr tells the fascinating story of the United States outside the United States. In crackling, fast-paced prose, he reveals forgotten episodes that cast American history in a new light. We travel to the Guano Islands, where prospectors collected one of the nineteenth century's most valuable commodities, and the Philippines, site of the most destructive event on U.S. soil. In Puerto Rico, Immerwahr shows how U.S. doctors conducted grisly experiments they would never have conducted on the mainland and charts the emergence of independence fighters who would shoot up the U.S. Congress.

In the years after World War II, Immerwahr notes, the United States moved away from colonialism. Instead, it put innovations in electronics, transportation, and culture to use, devising a new sort of influence that did not require the control of space. Rich with absorbing vignettes, full of surprises, and driven by an original conception of what empire and globalization mean today, How to Hide an Empire is a major and compulsively readable work of history.]]> 513 Daniel Immerwahr 0374172145 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 4.47 2019
author: Daniel Immerwahr
name: abby
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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shelves: to-read, to-read-low-priority
review:

]]> 134928864 The Trinity of Fundamentals follows the story of 22-year-old Kan’an during his nine years of hiding from the occupation between 1982 and 1991. Driven by an unshakable commitment to the Palestinian cause, Kan’an takes the reader through his compelling journey filled with sacrifice and struggle, love and pain, isolation and liberation. All the while, major political and historical transformations unfold across international, regional and local contexts, including the First Intifada. Throughout all this, Kan’an maintains a spirit of revolutionary optimism so strong that the reader is bound to be transformed. It is all the more moving to know that Kan’an’s story is inspired by the real life experience of Rafeedie as he organized and struggled against the Zionist oppression of his people.
Love, revolution, and life—these are the “Trinity of Fundamentals'' that pave Kan’an’s path of struggle. Although the novel is set in the past, it holds many lessons that resonate with our current political moment, mobilizing us into collective action.]]> 331 Wisam Rafeedie abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 4.56
author: Wisam Rafeedie
name: abby
average rating: 4.56
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/13
shelves: to-read, to-read-low-priority
review:

]]> 35793669 368 Tareq Baconi 0804797412 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 4.31
author: Tareq Baconi
name: abby
average rating: 4.31
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/13
shelves: to-read, to-read-low-priority
review:

]]> 217163697 #1ÌýNew York TimesÌýbestselling author Fredrik Backman returns with an unforgettably funny, deeply moving tale of four teenagers whose friendship creates a bond so powerful that it changes a stranger’s life twenty-five years later.

Most people don’t even notice them—three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an artist herself, knows otherwise and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures.

Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their difficult home lives by spending their days laughing and telling stories out on a pier. There’s Joar, who never backs down from a fight; quiet and bookish Ted who is mourning his father; Ali, the daughter of a man who never stays in one place for long; and finally, there’s the artist, a boy who hoards sleeping pills and shuns attention, but who possesses an extraordinary gift that might be his ticket to a better life. These four lost souls find in each other a reason to get up each morning, a reason to dream.

Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be put into eighteen-year-old Louisa’s care. As she struggles to decide what to do with this bequest, she embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn the story of how the painting came to be. The closer she gets to the painting’s birthplace, the more she feels compelled to unleash her own artistic spirit, but happy endings don’t always take the form we expect in this fresh testament to the transformative power of friendship and art.]]> 448 Fredrik Backman 1982112824 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 4.59 2025
author: Fredrik Backman
name: abby
average rating: 4.59
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/13
shelves: to-read, to-read-low-priority
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]]> 209439446
Now Violet must journey beyond the failing Aretian wards to seek allies from unfamiliar lands to stand with Navarre. The trip will test every bit of her wit, luck, and strength, but she will do anything to save what she loves—her dragons, her family, her home, and him.

Even if it means keeping a secret so big, it could destroy everything. They need an army. They need power. They need magic. And they need the one thing only Violet can find—the truth. But a storm is coming...and not everyone can survive its wrath.]]> 527 Rebecca Yarros 1649374186 abby 0 not-interested 4.19 2025
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: abby
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/13
shelves: not-interested
review:

]]> 214331246 When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?

As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.

Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves.

When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.]]> 382 Suzanne Collins 1546171460 abby 0 not-interested 4.68 2025
author: Suzanne Collins
name: abby
average rating: 4.68
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/13
shelves: not-interested
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]]> 193559888
Ella's with you at the party when you first kiss a girl.

And Ella takes you to the hospital the first time you're diagnosed.

Over the next few years you have a string of relationships and jobs, but you can always count on Ella to be there for you - until the drinking and the parties, the hospital visits and late-night calls, blur the lines of your friendship into something unbalanced and fragile, at risk of breaking altogether.

The worst part is you can see it coming. The worst part is you don't know how to stop.

Gender Theory is the dizzying debut from Madeline Docherty, an incisive, affecting novel about illness, finding your place, and how we care for those around us.]]> 186 Madeline Docherty 1399812211 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 4.02 2024
author: Madeline Docherty
name: abby
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/13
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]]> 23339559
On the face of it, this succession of vastly disproportionate attacks has often seemed frenzied and pathological. Senior Israeli politicians have not discouraged such perceptions, indeed they have actively encouraged them. After the 2008-9 assault Israel’s then-foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, boasted, “Israel demonstrated real hooliganism during the course of the recent operation, which I demanded.�

However, as Norman G. Finkelstein sets out in this concise, paradigm-shifting new book, a closer examination of Israel’s motives reveals a state whose repeated recourse to savage war is far from irrational. Rather, Israel’s attacks have been designed to sabotage the possibility of a compromise peace with the Palestinians, even on terms that are favorable to it.

Looking also at machinations around the 2009 UN sponsored Goldstone report and Turkey’s forlorn attempt to seek redress in the UN for the killing of its citizens in the 2010 attack on the Gaza peace flotilla, Finkelstein documents how Israel has repeatedly eluded accountability for what are now widely recognized as war crimes.

Further, he shows that, though neither side can claim clear victory in these conflicts, the ensuing stalemate remains much more tolerable to Israelis than the beleaguered citizens of Gaza. A strategy of mass non-violent protest might, he contends, hold out more hope for a Palestinian victory than military resistance, however brave.]]> 236 Norman G. Finkelstein abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 4.22 2014
author: Norman G. Finkelstein
name: abby
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/13
shelves: to-read, to-read-low-priority
review:

]]> 145621578 How Israeli universities collaborate in Israeli state violence against Palestinians

Israeli universities have long enjoyed a reputation as liberal bastions of freedom and democracy. DrawingÌýon extensive research and making Hebrew sources accessible to the international community, Maya WindÌýshatters this myth and documents how Israeli universities are directly complicit in the violation ofÌýPalestinian rights.

As this book shows, Israeli universities serve as pillars of Israel's system of oppression against
Palestinians. Academic disciplines, degree programs, campus infrastructure, and research laboratories allÌýservice Israeli occupation and apartheid, while universities violate the rights of Palestinians to education,Ìýstifle critical scholarship, and violently repress student dissent. Towers of Ivory and Steel is a powerfulÌýexpose of Israeli academia’s ongoing and active complicity in Israel’s settler-colonial project.]]> 405 Maya Wind 1804291757 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 4.69
author: Maya Wind
name: abby
average rating: 4.69
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/13
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]]> 20588662 The first history of the United States told from the perspective of indigenous peoples

Today in the United States, there are more than five hundred federally recognized Indigenous nations comprising nearly three million people, descendants of the fifteen million Native people who once inhabited this land. The centuries-long genocidal program of the US settler-colonial regimen has largely been omitted from history. Now, for the first time, acclaimed historian and activist Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz offers a history of the United States told from the perspective of Indigenous peoples and reveals how Native Americans, for centuries, actively resisted expansion of the US empire.

With growing support for movements such as the campaign to abolish Columbus Day and replace it with Indigenous Peoples� Day and the Dakota Access Pipeline protest led by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, An Indigenous Peoples� History of the United States is an essential resource providing historical threads that are crucial for understanding the present. In An Indigenous Peoples� History of the United States, Dunbar-Ortiz adroitly challenges the founding myth of the United States and shows how policy against the Indigenous peoples was colonialist and designed to seize the territories of the original inhabitants, displacing or eliminating them. And as Dunbar-Ortiz reveals, this policy was praised in popular culture, through writers like James Fenimore Cooper and Walt Whitman, and in the highest offices of government and the military. Shockingly, as the genocidal policy reached its zenith under President Andrew Jackson, its ruthlessness was best articulated by US Army general Thomas S. Jesup, who, in 1836, wrote of the Seminoles: “The country can be rid of them only by exterminating them.�

Spanning more than four hundred years, this classic bottom-up peoples� history radically reframes US history and explodes the silences that have haunted our national narrative.

An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States is a 2015 PEN Oakland-Josephine Miles Award for Excellence in Literature.]]> 320 Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz 080700040X abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 4.38 2014
author: Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
name: abby
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/13
shelves: to-read, to-read-low-priority
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]]> 145624514
Everyone who makes the journey faces an impossible choice. Hundreds of thousands of people who arrive every year at the US-Mexico border travel far from their homes. An overwhelming share of them come from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, although many migrants come from farther away. Some are fleeing persecution, others crime or hunger. Very often it will not be their first attempt to cross. They may have already been deported from the United States, but it remains their only hope for safety and prosperity. Their homes have become uninhabitable. They will take their chances.

This vast and unremitting crisis did not spring up overnight. Indeed, as Blitzer dramatizes with forensic, unprecedented reporting, it is the result of decades of misguided policy and sweeping corruption. Brilliantly weaving the stories of Central Americans whose lives have been devastated by chronic political conflict and violence with those of American activists, government officials, and the politicians responsible for the country’s tragically tangled immigration policy, Blitzer reveals the full, layered picture for the first time.

Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here is an odyssey of struggle and resilience. With astonishing nuance and detail, Blitzer tells an epic story about the people whose lives ebb and flow across the border, and in doing so, he delves into the heart of American life itself. This vital and remarkable story has shaped the nation’s turbulent politics and culture in countless ways—and will almost certainly determine its future.]]> 544 Jonathan Blitzer 1984880802 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 4.46 2024
author: Jonathan Blitzer
name: abby
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/13
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]]> 9345 Following his #1 New York Times bestseller, Our Endangered Values, the former president, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, offers an assessment of what must be done to bring permanent peace to Israel with dignity and justice to Palestine.

President Carter, who was able to negotiate peace between Israel and Egypt, has remained deeply involved in Middle East affairs since leaving the White House. He has stayed in touch with the major players from all sides in the conflict and has made numerous trips to the Holy Land, most recently as an observer in the Palestinian elections of 2005 and 2006.

In this book, President Carter shares his intimate knowledge of the history of the Middle East and his personal experiences with the principal actors, and he addresses sensitive political issues many American officials avoid. Pulling no punches, Carter prescribes steps that must be taken for the two states to share the Holy Land without a system of apartheid or the constant fear of terrorism.

The general parameters of a long-term, two-state agreement are well known, the president writes. There will be no substantive and permanent peace for any peoples in this troubled region as long as Israel is violating key UN resolutions, official American policy, and the international “road map� for peace by occupying Arab lands and oppressing the Palestinians. Except for mutually agreeable negotiated modifications, Israel’s official pre-1967 borders must be honored. As were all previous administrations since the founding of Israel, US government leaders must be in the forefront of achieving this long-delayed goal of a just agreement that both sides can honor.

Palestine Peace Not Apartheid is a challenging, provocative, and courageous book.]]> 288 Jimmy Carter 0743285026 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 3.92 2006
author: Jimmy Carter
name: abby
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/13
shelves: to-read, to-read-low-priority
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]]> 45163258
But Emira herself is aimless, broke, and wary of Alix's desire to help. At twenty-five, she is about to lose her health insurance and has no idea what to do with her life. When the video of Emira unearths someone from Alix's past, both women find themselves on a crash course that will upend everything they think they know about themselves, and each other.

With empathy and piercing social commentary, Such a Fun Age explores the stickiness of transactional relationships, what it means to make someone "family," the complicated reality of being a grown up, and the consequences of doing the right thing for the wrong reason.

A striking and surprising debut novel from an exhilarating new voice, Such a Fun Age is a page-turning and big-hearted story about race and privilege, set around a young black babysitter, her well-intentioned employer, and a surprising connection that threatens to undo them both.

]]> 320 Kiley Reid 0525541926 abby 3 pretty solid read, not an infuriating one that i instantly regretted finishing unlike some other popular books i’ve read *COUGH* Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow *COUGH*. i really liked how the book switched perspectives between chapters. it was very fascinating to see how two characters would experience the same thing in a very different way.]]> 3.89 2019
author: Kiley Reid
name: abby
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/31
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: booktok, 3-stars, checked-out-through-libby, feminism, literary-fiction, neoliberalism, racism, read-in-2024, read-on-kindle, released-in-2010s, unlikable-characters
review:
3.5 stars. i never liked alix and it was satisfying to be proven right lol. she’s that exact type of 2015-era buzzfeed white neoliberal feminist that i can’t deal with. no wonder she wanted to work with hillary clinton.
pretty solid read, not an infuriating one that i instantly regretted finishing unlike some other popular books i’ve read *COUGH* Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow *COUGH*. i really liked how the book switched perspectives between chapters. it was very fascinating to see how two characters would experience the same thing in a very different way.
]]> 54189398
She only has four weeks to find someone willing to cross the Atlantic and aid in her deception. New York to Spain is no short flight and her raucous family won’t be easy to fool.

Enter Aaron Blackford—her tall, handsome, condescending colleague—who surprisingly offers to step in. She’d rather refuse; never has there been a more aggravating, blood-boiling, and insufferable man.

But Catalina is desperate, and as the wedding draws nearer, Aaron looks like her best option. And she begins to realize he might not be as terrible in the real world as he is at the office.]]> 487 Elena Armas 1668002531 abby 0 cheesy-cover, not-interested 3.80 2021
author: Elena Armas
name: abby
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: cheesy-cover, not-interested
review:

]]> 201033505 From Eliza Clark, the author of the brilliant novels Boy Parts and Penance and one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists, comes a fierce, visionary and darkly comic story collection.

A woman welcomes a parasite into her body.

A teenager longs for perfect skin.

A scientist tends to fragile alien flora.

A young man takes the night into his own hands.

Unsettling, revelatory, and laced with her signature dark humor, Eliza Clark’s debut short story collection plumbs the depths of that most basic human feeling: hunger.]]> 240 Eliza Clark 0063393263 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 3.82 2024
author: Eliza Clark
name: abby
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: to-read, to-read-low-priority
review:

]]> 24874360
The tales of Odysseus's struggle with a man-eating Cyclops and Circe, the beautiful enchantress who turns men into swine.

Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe.

Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions. Next to nothing is known about Homer's life. His works available in Penguin Classics are The Homeric Hymns, The Iliad and The Odyssey.]]> 64 Homer 0141398612 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 3.74 -850
author: Homer
name: abby
average rating: 3.74
book published: -850
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: to-read, to-read-low-priority
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]]> 18209510
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST VEGETARIAN COOKBOOKS OF ALL TIME BY BON APPÉTIT

Blending African, Carribean, and southern cuisines results in delicious recipes like Smashed Potatoes, Peas, and Corn with Chile-Garlic Oil, a recipe inspired by the Kenyan dishÌý irio , and Cinnamon-Soaked Wheat Berry SaladÌýwith dried apricots, carrots, and almonds, which is based on a Moroccan tagine. Creamy Coconut-Cashew Soup with Okra, Corn, and TomatoesÌýpays homage to a popular Brazilian dish while incorporating classic Southern ingredients, and Crispy Teff and Grit Cakes with Eggplant, Tomatoes, and Peanuts combines the Ethiopian grain teff with stone-ground corn grits from the Deep South and North AfricanÌý zalook Ìýdip. There’s perfect potluck fare, such as the simple, warming, and intensely flavored Collard Greens and Cabbage with Lots of Garlic, and the Caribbean-inspiredÌýCocoa Spice Cake with Crystallized Ginger and Coconut-Chocolate Ganache,Ìýplus a refreshingÌýRoselle-Rooibos DrinkÌýthatÌýwill satisfy any sweet tooth.Ìý

With more than 100 modern and delicious dishes that draw on Terry’s personal memories as well as the history of food that has traveled from the African continent,Ìý Afro-Vegan Ìýtakes you on an international food journey. Accompanying the recipes are Terry’s insights about building community around food, along with suggested music tracks from around the world and book recommendations. For anyone interested in improving their well-being,Ìý Afro-Vegan ’s groundbreaking recipes offer innovative, plant-based global cuisine that is fresh, healthy, and forges a new direction in vegan cooking.]]> 224 Bryant Terry 1607745313 abby 0 4.23 2014
author: Bryant Terry
name: abby
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: cookbook, kindle-library, manual, nonfiction, vegan, vegan-cookbook, zlibrary
review:

]]> 61813085
Love and Lemons is back with make-now and make-ahead vegetarian recipes—including 100+ tested vegan options—for every kind of cook.

What type of cook are you? That is the question Jeanine Donofrio, creator of the wildly successful blog Love & Lemons and bestselling cookbooks by the same name, asks her readers in her newest book, Love & Simple Feel-Good Food . Jeanine is beloved for her bright and breezy cook-from-the-hip style where trips to the farmers market lead to impromptu, seasonal meals. But, as life has gotten busier (she's a mom now), meal plans and weekly prep have entered into the rotation, too. Over the last few years, Jeanine has realized that getting fresh, nourishing, and flavor-packed meals to the table daily is doable through different approaches. After engaging with millions of her followers, two cooking camps those who love easy, at-the-ready dishes that can be made at the drop of a hat and those who like to plan in advance (like Jeanine's mom who always has a whole lasagna in the freezer, a trick Jeanine has since adopted). Now, for the first time, she's put pen-to-paper serving up feel-good recipes for both types of home cooks, and those who toggle between, just like herself.

In Love & Simple Feel-Good Food , each chapter—Breakfast, Salads, Soups, Dinner, and Dessert—is divided into two one for recipes made with minimal prep and ingredients ("at the ready"), and the second for food prepared ahead of time ("in advance"), whether that be components or full dishes destined for the freezer. Here, morning meals can be met with quick-to-assemble Spiced Chickpea Waffles or Skillet Granola while pre-made pancake dry mix ensures a fluffy stack is just minutes away. Rainbow Blender Soups turn one base into four colorful bowls while Tortellini Soup with Lemon Peel Broth offers an elegant, no-waste trick. Quick, meatless mains include Spring Pea Fritters with Whipped Feta, Chickpea Cacio e Pepe, and a range of sheet pan dinners such as Eggplant Sheet Pan Shawarma, while two different homemade veggie burgers (White Bean Swiss Chard and Sweet Potato Paneer) require some forethought but store brilliantly. Moreover, eight no-waste meal plans (what Jeanine calls 3-in-1 recipes -- three dinner dishes made with one whole vegetable) further provide kitchen ease without sacrificing flair or freshness. And, as with her previous books, scattered throughout are Jeanine's signature flow charts, offering visual guides to reusing, mixing, and matching ingredients to create fresh, must-eat dishes for grain bowls, lasagnas, tacos, and more.]]> 272 Jeanine Donofrio 0593419103 abby 0 4.01
author: Jeanine Donofrio
name: abby
average rating: 4.01
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: cookbook, kindle-library, manual, nonfiction, zlibrary
review:

]]> 28635038
The recipes found in Palestine on a Plate, although less fatty, less fussy and less time-consuming to prepare than their original incarnations, are largely unchanged since the author's grandmothers' days. The book has many photographs.]]> 240 Joudie Kalla 1910254746 abby 0 4.56 2016
author: Joudie Kalla
name: abby
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: cookbook, kindle-library, manual, nonfiction, palestine, zlibrary
review:

]]> 51208651 208 Tim Anderson 1784882844 abby 0 3.99
author: Tim Anderson
name: abby
average rating: 3.99
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: cookbook, kindle-library, manual, nonfiction, vegan, vegan-cookbook, zlibrary
review:

]]> 23258946 Following the plant-based nutrition regimen presented in The China Study is now easier than ever before.

When it comes to meal planning, do you find yourself deciding between healthy foods and quick options? Do you stare at the contents of your fridge, wondering what you can easily throw together?

Even on a busy schedule, your meals can be simple, healthy, and delicious!

You shouldn’t have to sacrifice health or taste for efficiency in the kitchen. Nobody knows this better than Chef Del Sroufe, author of the New York Times bestseller Forks Over Knives—The Cookbook and Better Than Vegan. In The China Study Quick & Easy Cookbook, Sroufe provides menu plans, pantry lists, and more than 100 delicious plant-based recipes that are quick, easy, and multipurpose.

Edited by LeAnne Campbell, author of The China Study Cookbook, this book guides you to spend a couple of hours one day a week preparing meals ahead of time. Every dish follows the nutrition standards set forth by The China Study, ensuring optimal healthful and quality eating with whole food recipes such as:

Fruit and Vegetable Curry � Mushrooms Barbacoa � Cauliflower Parmesan � Sweet Potato Pie Muffins � Banana-Coconut Macaroons

With a foreword by The China Study coauthor Thomas Campbell, The China Study Quick & Easy Cookbook is the next step in transforming your kitchen, your time, and your life.
]]> 256 Del Sroufe 1940363810 abby 0 4.09 2015
author: Del Sroufe
name: abby
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: cookbook, health, healthy-cookbook, kindle-library, manual, nonfiction, vegan, vegan-cookbook, zlibrary
review:

]]> 41948849
Between low-paying jobs, car troubles, student loans, vet bills, and trying to pay down credit card debt, Toni Okamoto spent most of her early adult life living paycheck to paycheck. So when she became a vegan at age 20, she worried: How would she be able to afford that kind of lifestyle change?

Then she discovered how to be plant-based on a budget.

Through her popular website, Toni has taught hundreds of thousands of people how to eat a plant-strong diet while saving money in the process. With Plant-Based on a Budget, going vegan is not only an attainable goal, but the best choice for your health, the planet—and your wallet.

Toni’s guidance doesn’t just help you save money—it helps you save time, too. Every recipe in this book can be ready in around 30 minutes or less.

Through her imaginative and incredibly customizable recipes, Toni empowers readers to make their own substitutions based on the ingredients they have on hand, reducing food waste in the process.

Inside discover 100 of Toni’s “frugal but delicious� recipes, including:


5-Ingredient Peanut Butter Bites
Banana Zucchini Pancakes
Sick Day Soup
Lentils and Sweet Potato Bowl
PB Ramen Stir Fry
Tofu Veggie Gravy Bowl
Jackfruit Carnita Tacos
Depression Era Cupcakes
Real Deal Chocolate Chip Cookies

With a foreword by Michael Greger, MD, Plant-Based on a Budget gives you everything you need to make plant-based eating easy, accessible, and most of all, affordable.

Featured in the groundbreaking documentary What the Health]]> 275 Toni Okamoto 1946885983 abby 0 4.19 2019
author: Toni Okamoto
name: abby
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: cookbook, manual, nonfiction, vegan, vegan-cookbook, zlibrary
review:

]]> 43859231 A new and vibrant vegan cookbook authorized by Instant Pot, from the creator of the Rainbow Plant Life blog.With food and photos as vivid, joyous, and wholesome as the title of her popular cooking blog--Rainbow Plant Life--suggests, Nisha Vora shares nourishing recipes with her loyal followers daily. Now, in her debut cookbook, she makes healthy, delicious everyday cooking a snap with more than 90 nutritious (and colorful!) recipes you can make easily with the magic of an Instant Pot pressure cooker. With a comprehensive primer to the machine and all its functions, you, too, can taste the rainbow with a full repertoire of vegan dishes. Start the day with Nisha's Homemade Coconut Yogurt or Breakfast Enchilada Casserole, then move on to hearty mains like Miso Mushroom Risotto, and even decadent desserts including Double Fudge Chocolate Cake and Red Wine-Poached Pears. The Vegan Instant Pot Cookbook will quickly become a go-to source of inspiration in your kitchen.]]> 318 Nisha Vora 0525540962 abby 0 4.27
author: Nisha Vora
name: abby
average rating: 4.27
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: cookbook, manual, nonfiction, vegan, vegan-cookbook, zlibrary
review:

]]> 29502036 352 Laila El-Haddad 1682570088 abby 0 4.54 2013
author: Laila El-Haddad
name: abby
average rating: 4.54
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: cookbook, kindle-library, manual, palestine, zlibrary
review:

]]> 385285 240 Deborah Britt-Hay 0764552686 abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 4.05 2000
author: Deborah Britt-Hay
name: abby
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: to-read, to-read-low-priority
review:

]]> 199798217 A heartfelt novel of friendship, betrayal, and redemption set against three transformative decades in Tehran, Iran.

In 1950s Tehran, seven-year-old Ellie lives in grand comfort until the untimely death of her father, forcing Ellie and her mother to move to a tiny home downtown. Lonely and bearing the brunt of her mother’s endless grievances, Ellie dreams of a friend to alleviate her isolation.

Luckily, on the first day of school, she meets Homa, a kind, passionate girl with a brave and irrepressible spirit. Together, the two girls play games, learn to cook in the stone kitchen of Homa’s warm home, wander through the colorful stalls of the Grand Bazaar, and share their ambitions for becoming “lion women.�

But their happiness is disrupted when Ellie and her mother are afforded the opportunity to return to their previous bourgeois life. Now a popular student at the best girls� high school in Iran, Ellie’s memories of Homa begin to fade. Years later, however, her sudden reappearance in Ellie’s privileged world alters the course of both of their lives.

Together, the two young women come of age and pursue their own goals for meaningful futures. But as the political turmoil in Iran builds to a breaking point, one earth-shattering betrayal will have enormous consequences.]]> 327 Marjan Kamali 1668036584 abby 0 4.48 2024
author: Marjan Kamali
name: abby
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: to-read, to-read-medium-priority
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But there is something within Dorothy that's different from everyone else, and having suppressed it long enough, she starts to embrace what makes Dorothy uniquely, terrifyingly herself. Recounting her life from a seemingly idyllic farm-to-table childhood, the heights of her career, to the moment she plunges an ice pick into a man's neck on Fire Island, Dorothy Daniels show us what happens when a woman finally embraces her superiority.

A satire of early foodieism, a critique of how gender is defined, and a showcase of virtuoso storytelling, Chelsea G. Summers' A Certain Hunger introduces us to the food world's most charming psychopath and an exciting new voice in fiction.]]> 250 Chelsea G. Summers abby 0 to-read, to-read-low-priority 3.73 2019
author: Chelsea G. Summers
name: abby
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: to-read, to-read-low-priority
review:

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