en-US Tue, 08 Apr 2025 18:47:37 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 56898085
Kendrick Lamar is at the top of his game.

The thirteen-time Grammy Award­-winning rapper is just in his early thirties, but he’s already won the Pulitzer Prize for Music, produced and curated the soundtrack of the megahit film Black Panther , and has been named one of Time ’s 100 Influential People. But what’s even more striking about the Compton-born lyricist and performer is how he’s established himself as a formidable adversary of oppression and force for change. Through his confessional poetics, his politically charged anthems, and his radical performances, Lamar has become a beacon of light for countless people.

Written by veteran journalist and music critic Marcus J. Moore, this is much more than the first biography of Kendrick Lamar. “It’s an analytical deep dive into the life of that good kid whose m.A.A.d city raised him, and how it sparked a fire within Kendrick Lamar to change history� (Kathy Iandoli, author of Baby Girl ) for the better.]]> 288 Marcus J. Moore 1982107596 Grace 0 3.86 2020
author: Marcus J. Moore
name: Grace
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: kindle-unlimited, owned, owned-new, currently-reading
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]]> 60943 418 Alice Walker 0156028646 Grace 0 to-read 4.29 1983
author: Alice Walker
name: Grace
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1983
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/02
shelves: to-read
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]]> 219825474 “An entertaining and poignant coming-of-age story about three young celebrity friends who go through the ups and downs of fame in the glaring eye of the spotlight.� —Mindy Kaling

Three girls in Hollywood who thought they’d rule the world. Reality bites in a touching novel about success, friendship, and redemption by a New York Times bestselling author.

Best friends Miranda Montana, Germaine St. Germaine-Chang, and Sicily Bell were the darlings of Hollywood who rose from teen success to in-demand idols of screaming fans and paparazzi. They rode the momentum like there was no tomorrow. But nothing lasts forever.

Now Miranda, the wild-child movie star, drifts from rehab to dead-end relationships as she tries for a comeback from a very public fall from grace. Germaine, the daughter of billionaire hotel moguls, has lost her purpose. And then there’s Sicily, the all-American pop star who had a record deal, sold-out concerts, and controlling parents who squeezed the very life out of her. After a decade, fate reconnects these three young women for a long-awaited confrontation with the secrets, betrayals, heartbreak, and family traumas of the past.

Settling old scores is just the beginning. It’s also time to repair the damage done and to hold fast to the most galvanizing success of their their friendship.]]> 280 Melissa de la Cruz 1662525354 Grace 0 to-read 3.48 2025
author: Melissa de la Cruz
name: Grace
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/02
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]]> 217387723 An electrifying rom com of rivalry and redemption, perfect for fans of Emily Henry and Daisy Jones and the Six, from New York Times bestselling author Emma Lord.

Once the most notorious rivals in the music scene, pop princess Mackenzie Waters and punk rockstar Sam Blaze electrified audiences as their bands clashed on stage. But behind the scenes, their simmering tension grew into something more � until suddenly both bands fell apart, and the idea of Mackenzie and Sam did, too.

Two years later, Sam has traded the rockstar lifestyle for a quiet life raising the son he didn’t know about. Meanwhile, Mackenzie is dealing with a postoperative change in her voice by only singing under a pseudonym. The only way to revive their public careers? A joint comeback album.

With fans over the moon and their futures on the line, Sam and Mackenzie face their biggest challenge yet: giving up the old rivalry and learning to work together. But as old sparks fly and new secrets emerge, they set off a chain reaction neither of them could have anticipated � one that proves that sometimes, the greatest hits are the ones yet to be written.]]> 320 Emma Lord 1250845327 Grace 0 to-read 3.96 2025
author: Emma Lord
name: Grace
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/01
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]]> 216526680 No Straight Road Takes You There, is an evocation and a declaration. Highways tend to be built across the easy routes and flat places, or the landscape is cleared away - logged, graded, levelled, tunnelled through - or the roadway lifted above it to streamline the journey. But to stick to these roads is to miss what else is out there. In her writing and activism, Rebecca Solnit has sought the back roads and the pathless places in order to celebrate indirect and unpredictable consequences, which, she argues are key to understanding power and the possibilities of change.

Picking up where Hope in the Dark left off, collected together here are Solnit's best recent essays about the climate crisis, as well as her broader reflections on women's rights, the fight for democracy, the trends in masculinity, and the rise of the far right in the West. Incantatory and poetic, positive and engaging, these essays argue for the long-term view and the power of collective action, making a case for seeding change wherever possible, and offering us all a path out of the wilderness.]]> 184 Rebecca Solnit Grace 0 to-read 4.33
author: Rebecca Solnit
name: Grace
average rating: 4.33
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]]> 415459 I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream contains seven stories with copyrights ranging from 1958 through 1967. This edition contains the original introduction by Theodore Sturgeon and the original foreword by Harlan Ellison, along with a brief update comment by Ellison that was added in the 1983 edition. Among Ellison's more famous stories, two consistently noted as among his very best ever are the title story and the volume's concluding one, Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes.

Since Ellison himself strongly resists categorization of his work, we won't call them science fiction, or SF, or speculative fiction or horror or anything else except compelling reading experiences that are sui generis. They could only have been written by Harlan Ellison and they are incomparably original.

CONTENTS
"I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream"
"Big Sam Was My Friend"
"Eyes of Dust"
"World of the Myth"
"Lonelyache"
"Delusion for Dragonslayer"
"Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes"]]> 134 Harlan Ellison 0441363954 Grace 0 not-reading 3.93 1967
author: Harlan Ellison
name: Grace
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1967
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: not-reading
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]]> 20813135 Ich denke, also bin ich109 Jahre nach dem Ende des Dritten Weltkriegs leben nur noch fünf Menschen. Sie hausen in unterirdischen Stollen, immer am Rande des Verhungerns, und werden jede Minute ihres Lebens von einem Supercomputer gefoltert, der ein Bewusstsein erlangt hat � und mit ihm unendlichen Hass auf seine Erbauer. Es gibt nur einen einzigen Ausweg für die gequälten Menschen � doch welcher von ihnen wird stark genug sein, ihn zu wählen? Die Kurzgeschichte „Ich muss schreien und habe keinen Mund� erscheint als exklusives E-Book Only bei Heyne und ist zusammen mit weiteren Stories von Harlan Ellison auch in dem Sammelband „Ich muss schreien und habe keinen Mund� enthalten. Sie umfasst ca. 22 Buchseiten.]]> 20 Harlan Ellison Grace 0 not-reading 3.72 1967
author: Harlan Ellison
name: Grace
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1967
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: not-reading
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]]> 34842610 A beautiful, arresting short story by Toni Morrison—the only one she ever wrote—about race and the relationships that shape us through life, with an introduction by Zadie Smith.

Twyla and Roberta have known each other since they were eight years old and spent four months together as roommates in the St. Bonaventure shelter. Inseparable at the time, they lose touch as they grow older, only to find each other later at a diner, then at a grocery store, and again at a protest. Seemingly at opposite ends of every problem, and in disagreement each time they meet, the two women still cannot deny the deep bond their shared experience has forged between them.

Written in 1980 and anthologized in a number of collections, this is the first time Recitatif is being published as a stand-alone hardcover. In the story, Twyla's and Roberta's races remain ambiguous. We know that one is white and one is black, but which is which? And who is right about the race of the woman the girls tormented at the orphanage?

Morrison herself described this story as "an experiment in the removal of all racial codes from a narrative about two characters of different races for whom racial identity is crucial." Recitatif is a remarkable look into what keeps us together and what keeps us apart, and about how perceptions are made tangible by reality.]]> 19 Toni Morrison Grace 0 to-read 4.31 1983
author: Toni Morrison
name: Grace
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1983
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: to-read
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]]> 209622883 It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over is voraciously alive in the afterlife. Adrift yet keenly aware, she notes every bizarre detail of her new reality. And even if she has forgotten her name and much of what connects her to her humanity, she remembers with an implacable and nearly unbearable longing the place where she knew herself and was known—where she loved and was loved. Traveling across the landscapes of time and of space, heading always west, and carrying a dead but laconically opinionated crow in her chest, our undead narrator encounters and loses parts of her body and her self in one terrifying, hilarious, and heartbreaking situation after another. A tale for our dispossessed times, and one of the sharpest and funniest novels of recent years, It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over plumbs mortality and how it changes everything, except possibly love.]]> 132 Anne de Marcken 1804270741 Grace 0 to-read 3.83 2024
author: Anne de Marcken
name: Grace
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/23
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]]> 95887 The legendary Eat That Frog! (more than 450,000 copies sold and translated into 23 languages) provides the 21 most effective methods for conquering procrastination and accomplishing more. This new edition is revised and updated throughout, and includes brand new information on how to keep technology from dominating our time.]]> 144 Brian Tracy 1576754227 Grace 0 to-read 3.90 2001
author: Brian Tracy
name: Grace
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2001
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/21
shelves: to-read
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]]> 22024907
Behind the scenes, heartbreaking troubles continue to test Ryke & Daisy’s resilience and shape their future together.

They promise:

To never slow down.
To never compromise who they are.
To never abandon their love for each other.

But preserving their happiness also means adding more risks. Ones that Connor Cobalt wouldn’t even take. As a professional free-solo climber, Ryke is no stranger to risk, but his next step with Daisy wagers more than just his health.

With their lives on the line, Ryke & Daisy head towards the vast, wild unknown.


***Authors' Note***
It's possible to only read the Calloway Sisters spin-off series without reading the Addicted series, but you MUST read Fuel the Fire (Calloway Sisters #3) before reading Long Way Down (Calloway Sisters #4).

It's highly recommended to read the books in the recommended reading order, which is in tangent with the Addicted series.]]> 599 Krista Ritchie Grace 0 4.50 2015
author: Krista Ritchie
name: Grace
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: kindle-unlimited, tbr-urgent, kindle, currently-reading
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]]> 25267855 556 Krista Ritchie 0990622568 Grace 4 4.36 2015
author: Krista Ritchie
name: Grace
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/20
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: kindle-unlimited, buzzwordathon-dec-25, tbr-urgent, kindle
review:
4.5 stars. This took me over 2 months to get through, since I'm not ready to part with this series yet. I love their love so much.
]]> 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 Grace 0 tbr-urgent, currently-reading 4.67 2025
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Grace
average rating: 4.67
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/18
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]]> 34348320 From #1 New York Times bestselling author Eric Metaxas comes a brilliant and inspiring biography of the most influential man in modern history, Martin Luther, in time for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation

On All Hallow’s Eve in 1517, a young monk named Martin Luther posted a document he hoped would spark an academic debate, but that instead ignited a conflagration that would forever destroy the world he knew. Five hundred years after Luther’s now famous Ninety-five Theses appeared, Eric Metaxas, acclaimed biographer of the bestselling Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy and Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery, paints a startling portrait of the wild figure whose adamantine faith cracked the edifice of Western Christendom and dragged medieval Europe into the future. Written in riveting prose and impeccably researched, Martin Luther tells the searing tale of a humble man who, by bringing ugly truths to the highest seats of power, caused the explosion whose sound is still ringing in our ears. Luther’s monumental faith and courage gave birth to the ideals of liberty, equality, and individualism that today lie at the heart of all modern life.]]> 480 Eric Metaxas 110198001X Grace 0 to-read 4.07 2017
author: Eric Metaxas
name: Grace
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/14
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]]> 55513324 From the New York Times-bestselling author of Stony the Road and one of our most important voices on the African-American experience, a powerful new history of the Black church in America as the Black community's abiding rock and its fortress.

The companion book to the upcoming PBS series.

For the young Henry Louis Gates, Jr., growing up in a small, segregated West Virginia town, the church was his family and his community's true center of gravity. Within those walls, voices were lifted up in song to call forth the best in each other, and to comfort each other when times were at their worst. In this book, his tender and magisterial reckoning with the meaning of the Black church in American history, Gates takes us from his own experience onto a journey across more than four hundred years and spanning the entire country. At road's end, we emerge with a new understanding of the centrality of the Black church to the American story--as a cultural and political force, as the center of resistance to slavery and white supremacy, as an unparalleled incubator of talent, and as a crucible for working through the community's most important issues, down to today.

In a country that has historically afforded its citizens from the African diaspora tragically few safe spaces, the Black church has always been more than a sanctuary; it's been a place to nourish the deepest human needs and dreams of the African-American community. This fact was never lost on white supremacists: from the earliest days of slavery, when enslaved people were allowed to worship at all, their meeting houses were subject to surveillance, and often destruction. So it continued, long after slavery's formal eradication; church burnings and church bombings by the Ku Klux Klan and others have always been a hallmark of the violent effort to suppress the struggle for equality for the African-American community. The past often isn't even past--Dylann Roof committed his slaughter in Charleston's Emanuel AME Church 193 years after the church was first burned down by whites following a thwarted slave rebellion.

But as Gates brilliantly shows, the Black church has never been only one thing. Its story lies at the vital center of the civil rights movement, and produced many of its leaders, from the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. on, but at the same time there have always been churches and sects that eschewed a more activist stance, even eschewed worldly political engagement altogether. That tension can be felt all the way to the Black Lives Matter movement and the work of today. Still and all, as a source of strength and a force for change, the Black church is at the center of the action at every stage of the American story, as this enthralling history makes vividly clear.]]> 320 Henry Louis Gates Jr. 1984880330 Grace 0 to-read 4.07 2021
author: Henry Louis Gates Jr.
name: Grace
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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]]> 54717137 The story of one woman who believed in scientific medicine before the world believed in her

Raised by the eccentric surgeon Dr. Horace Croft after losing her parents to a deadly pandemic, the orphan Nora Beady knows little about conventional life. While other young ladies were raised to busy themselves with needlework and watercolors, Nora was trained to perfect her suturing and anatomical illustrations of dissections.

Women face dire consequences if caught practicing medicine, but in Croft's private clinic Nora is his most trusted--and secret--assistant. That is until the new surgical resident Dr. Daniel Gibson arrives. Dr. Gibson has no idea that Horace's bright and quiet young ward is a surgeon more qualified and ingenuitive than even himself. In order to protect Dr. Croft and his practice from scandal and collapse Nora must learn to play a new and uncomfortable role--that of a proper young lady.

But pretense has its limits. Nora cannot turn away and ignore the suffering of patients even if it means giving Gibson the power to ruin everything she's worked for. And when she makes a discovery that could change the field forever, Nora faces an impossible choice. Remain invisible and let the men around her take credit for her work, or let the world see her for what she is--even if it means being destroyed by her own legacy.]]> 384 Audrey Blake 1728228727 Grace 0 to-read, kindle-unlimited 4.09 2021
author: Audrey Blake
name: Grace
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: to-read, kindle-unlimited
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]]> 59691392
But the story continued nagging him. Farrow, Twohey, and Kantor did a brilliant job of exposing the trail of assaults and their cover-up, but the larger questions remained: what was at the root of Weinstein’s monstrousness? How and why was it never checked? How does a man run the day-to-day operations of a company with hundreds of employees and revenues in the hundreds of millions of dollars and at the same time live a shadow life of sexual predation without ever being caught, for years and years? How much is this a story about Harvey Weinstein, and how much is this a story about Hollywood and power?

Ken Auletta has spent the last three years in pursuit of the answers, uncovering the mysteries beneath a film career unparalleled in Hollywood history for its combination of extraordinary business and creative success and a personal brutality and viciousness that left a trail of ruined lives in its wake. Hollywood Ending is an unflinching examination of Weinstein’s life and career. Not simply a prosecutor’s litany of crimes, it embeds them in the context of his overall business, his failures but also his outsized successes. To understand how Weinstein could behave as he did, we have to understand the power he wielded. Iconic film stars, Miramax employees and board members, old friends and family, and even the person who knew him best—Harvey’s brother Bob—all talked to Auletta at length. The result is not simply the portrait of a predator, it is a portrait of the power that allowed Weinstein to operate with such impunity for so many years, the spider web in which his victims found themselves trapped. To face the truth of the Weinstein story is to understand how many other spider webs no doubt still remain.]]> 480 Ken Auletta 1984878379 Grace 0 to-read 4.06 2022
author: Ken Auletta
name: Grace
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/14
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]]> 58842736 From Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Will Bunch, the epic untold story of college—the great political and cultural fault line of American life

"This book is simply terrific." —Heather Cox Richardson, publisher of the "Letters from an American" Substack

"A must-read." —Nancy MacLean, author of Democracy in Chains

Today there are two Americas, separate and unequal, one educated and one not. And these two tribes—the resentful “non-college� crowd and their diploma-bearing yet increasingly disillusioned adversaries—seem on the brink of a civil war. The strongest determinant of whether a voter was likely to support Donald Trump in 2016 was whether or not they attended college, and the degree of loathing they reported feeling toward the so-called “knowledge economy of clustered, educated elites. Somewhere in the winding last half-century of the United States, the quest for a college diploma devolved from being proof of America’s commitment to learning, science, and social mobility into a kind of Hunger Games contest to the death. That quest has infuriated both the millions who got shut out and millions who got into deep debt to stay afloat.

In After the Ivory Tower Falls, award-winning journalist Will Bunch embarks on a deeply reported journey to the heart of the American Dream. That journey begins in Gambier, Ohio, home to affluent, liberal Kenyon College, a tiny speck of Democratic blue amidst the vast red swath of white, post-industrial, rural midwestern America. To understand “the college question,� there is no better entry point than Gambier, where a world-class institution caters to elite students amidst a sea of economic despair.

From there, Bunch traces the history of college in the U.S., beginning with the first technical schools, through the landmark GI Bill, and the culture wars of the 60’s and 70’s, which found their start on college campuses. We see how resentment of college-educated elites morphed into a rejection of knowledge itself—and how the explosion in student loan debt fueled major social movements like Occupy Wall Street. Bunch then takes a question we need to ask all over again—what, and who, is college even for?—and pushes it into the 21st century by proposing a new model that works for all Americans.

The sum total is a stunning work of journalism, one that lays bare the root of our political, cultural, and economic division—and charts a path forward for America.]]> 320 Will Bunch 0063076993 Grace 0 to-read 3.94
author: Will Bunch
name: Grace
average rating: 3.94
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: to-read
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]]> 56898099 From MSNBC anchor and New York Times bestselling author Katy Tur, a sharp and candid memoir about a life spent chasing the news.

“Television journalism is the worst job on the planet like motherhood is the worst job on the planet. It’s messy and often absurdly unpleasant and you’re constantly being judged by strangers and, yes, there are other wonderful ways to lead your life. But I ł¦˛ą˛Ô’t think of a richer way to spend mine.â€�

Before Katy Tur was an anchor on MSNBC, a bestselling author, and the wife of CBS This Morning’s Tony Dokoupil (a.k.a. “the guy with the good hair�), she was just another young journalist reporting on hurricanes and holdups. Katy’s passion for news began as a toddler when she would ride in her parents� helicopter as they reported on forest fires, Madonna’s wedding, and, of course, O.J. Simpson.

In Rough Draft, Tur reveals a life lived in TV news, from her beginnings as the daughter of groundbreaking helicopter journalists in Los Angeles, to being a storm chaser, to upstart Trump campaign reporter “Little Katy,� to national news anchor, and now, a mother of two. She opens up for the first time about her complicated relationship with her parents and she brings us behind the desk and behind the scenes to reveal what it was like to guide millions through the craziest era in news America has ever seen.

Tur writes about unique and often funny milestones (the semi-glow of bestseller acclaim, the art of the teleprompter) and relatable rites of passage (impostor syndrome, a difficult maternity leave, a husband who insists on feeding the baby beans). She also reflects on the business of broadcast news, and her role in it during a time of massive chaos, disinformation, and extremism.

More than a book about the news, Rough Draft is about rising to the moment, embracing the unexpected, and learning to write your own story.]]> 272 Katy Tur 1982118180 Grace 0 to-read 3.94
author: Katy Tur
name: Grace
average rating: 3.94
book published:
rating: 0
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]]> 26931 Cloudsplitter is narrated by the enigmatic Owen Brown, last surviving son of America's most famous and still controversial political terrorist and martyr, John Brown. Deeply researched, brilliantly plotted, and peopled with a cast of unforgettable characters both historical and wholly invented, Cloudsplitter is dazzling in its re-creation of the political and social landscape of our history during the years before the Civil War, when slavery was tearing the country apart. But within this broader scope, Russell Banks has given us a riveting, suspenseful, heartbreaking narrative filled with intimate scenes of domestic life, of violence and action in battle, of romance and familial life and death that make the reader feel in astonishing ways what it is like to be alive in that time.]]> 758 Russell Banks 0060930861 Grace 0 3.94 1998
author: Russell Banks
name: Grace
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves: to-read, the-national-book-references
review:

]]> 40180098 The Overstory is a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of - and paean to - the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, Richard Powers’s twelfth novel unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. There is a world alongside ours—vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe.

A New York Times Bestseller.]]> 502 Richard Powers 039335668X Grace 0 4.10 2018
author: Richard Powers
name: Grace
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/12
shelves: to-read, the-national-book-references, reviews-6-fig
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]]> 9717 The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera tells the story of a young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing and one of his mistresses and her humbly faithful lover. This magnificent novel juxtaposes geographically distant places, brilliant and playful reflections, and a variety of styles, to take its place as perhaps the major achievement of one of the world’s truly great writers.]]> 314 Milan Kundera 0571224385 Grace 0 4.12 1984
author: Milan Kundera
name: Grace
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1984
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/12
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]]> 7105015 No Fear: The Canterbury Tales makes it simple for students to love Chaucer’s masterpiece in all its humor, bawdiness, and poignancy.Ěý It features the original text on the left-hand page, side-by-side with an easy-to-understand translation on the right; in addition, there is a complete list of characters with descriptions and plenty of helpful commentary.

Ěý

Ěý]]> 416 Geoffrey Chaucer 1411426967 Grace 0 to-read 3.57 1390
author: Geoffrey Chaucer
name: Grace
average rating: 3.57
book published: 1390
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/11
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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 Grace 0 to-read 4.08 1943
author: Clarice Lispector
name: Grace
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1943
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 17164393 512 Chris Carter 0857203096 Grace 0 to-read, buzzwordathon-dec-25 4.45 2013
author: Chris Carter
name: Grace
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: to-read, buzzwordathon-dec-25
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 Grace 0 3.54 2018
author: Clarice Lispector
name: Grace
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: to-read, kindle-under-200-pgs, buzzwordathon-dec-25
review:

]]> 59485893
" The Power of Plus Ěýwill leave you feeling inspired, motivated, and ready to push for real change, as well as confident and encouraged to embrace yourself, just as you are. This is essential reading for anyone who truly cares about the future of fashion, and for anyone who believes in the power of being yourself."Ěý —Versha Sharma, editor in chief, Teen Vogue

Plus-size fashion revolutionizes the way women view themselves and their bodies .Ěý

Exclusivity runs within the foundation of fashion. While calls for diversity have intensified recently, long-held attitudes are only beginning to change. But through social media, plus-size people have been able to create supportive communities that show their confidence, strength, and beauty.

Plus-size fashionistas have been writing their own narrative for the past three decades, creating a market all on their own that is now worth more than $21 billion.Ěý The Power of Plus Ěýfeatures interviews with trailblazers such as Tess Holliday, Emme Aronson, Gabi Gregg, and more as it follows the evolution of plus-size fashion from its start on small blogs to its current boom, examining the way this market has changed women’s relationships with their bodies and how plus-size fashion is integral to the future success of the industry.

Plus-size fashion is not a PR stunt. It is a culture-changing market created by and for the people who have always deserved to feel stylish but never had the visibility to be . . . until now.Ěý

By honoring our progress so far, The Power of Plus celebrates the next stage of the plus-size fashion movement.]]> 208 Gianluca Russo 1641606428 Grace 0 3.84
author: Gianluca Russo
name: Grace
average rating: 3.84
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: to-read, buzzwordathon-jul-25, buzzwordathon-dec-25
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]]> 58012295 From the Wall Street Journal–bestselling author, “the perfect roadmap for anyone looking to build their brandâ€� (Marie Forleo, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Everything Is Figureoutable).Ěý In Scott Miller’s newest Mess to Success guide, the FranklinCovey senior advisor reveals thirty career obstacles that you may encounter in your brand marketing, and how to transform them into company wide gains. In thirty chapters, Marketing Mess to Brand Success shares a career’s worth of valuable lessons learned, such as “A Name is Not a Leadâ€� and “Hire People Smarter Than You.â€� Fast-track your career and success with the mentality of bruising hard, but healing fast. Whether you’re an entrepreneur starting a new company; a brand manager figuring out the best direct marketing strategy or brand positioning for a niche market; or an aspiring marketing manager, this book is designed to prepare you for many of the inevitable challenges you will encounter. Learn · Navigate a nebulous digital marketing environment · Maximize time and investments with sales marketing strategies · Build and model consistent brand standards · Become an expert in brand marketing and take your company to the next level Ěý “Don’t worry about making marketing mistakes―worry about not learning from them, advises Miller, chief marketing officer at the management services company FranklinCovey, in this energetic guide.â€� —Publishers Weekly Ěý “Scott Miller offers tangible insights and practical steps to make sure your product finds the right customer.â€� —Donald Miller, author of Building a StoryBrand]]> 314 Scott Jeffrey Miller Grace 0 3.46
author: Scott Jeffrey Miller
name: Grace
average rating: 3.46
book published:
rating: 0
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]]> 211782008 Meeting her future in-laws draws a young woman into a dark labyrinth in a novel of mounting psychological suspense by the author of My Favorite Terrible Thing.

Devon Ferrell and Richard Belmont are engaged, in love, and from two different worlds. Devon is as eager to please Richard’s elite parents as she is to leave the traumas of her childhood behind. After all, the Belmonts are her family now.

But being brought into the fold is unbalancing her. There are the piercing stares from Richard’s brother, the confounding whispers about Devon’s moods and health. It’s as if the Belmonts are looking for reasons to reject her, to fill her with self-doubt and put her on edge. It’s working. And no one seems to be on Devon’s side. Not even Richard.

Are the Belmonts right to be concerned about Devon? Or are they waging a psychological battle against her? The truth is getting darker. Because the mind games have just begun.]]> 318 Madeleine Henry 1662517475 Grace 0 3.60 2025
author: Madeleine Henry
name: Grace
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/09
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]]> 217388243 From body-acceptance advocate and MEGABABE founder Katie Sturino comes a heartwarming and hilarious debut novel for fans for Emily Henry and Sex and the City

Sunny Greene is thirty-five, recently divorced, facing the looming prospect of going solo to her little brother’s wedding, and currently trying to find anything plus-sized in the Bergdorf Goodman swimsuit department that doesn’t make her want to cry. It’s not going well. But isn’t rock bottom the perfect place to start a climb?

She decides it’s now or never. Sunny has her PR empire, her gorgeous Chelsea apartment, her two dogs, and her loyal best friends. Maybe it's time to just love her body and accept herself for who she is. With a new commitment to confidence, her journey begins. Who says a plus-sized divorcee ł¦˛ą˛Ô’t put herself first, feel beautiful, and date up a storm?

Of course things are never straightforward in the dating world. Is fate knocking at her door with Dennis, the charming and down-to-earth mailman, or should she be with Ted, the business tycoon who seems ready to make her size-inclusive swimsuit brand a reality? And what should she do about her ex, who shows up unexpectedly, eager to reconnect?

With the same candor and confidence her followers love, Sturino brings us Sunny Greene, a Carrie Bradshaw for the next generation, and her journey through the trials and triumphs of dating, friendship, and finding yourself.]]> 304 Katie Sturino 1250344204 Grace 0 to-read, buzzwordathon-dec-25 3.91
author: Katie Sturino
name: Grace
average rating: 3.91
book published:
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]]> 224004055 A raw and deeply moving memoir from the legendary author of The God of Small Things and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness that traces the complex relationship with her mother, Mary Roy, a fierce and formidable force who shaped Arundhati’s life both as a woman and a writer.

Mother Mary Comes to Me, Arundhati Roy’s first work of memoir, is a soaring account, both intimate and inspirational, of how the author became the person and the writer she is, shaped by circumstance, but above all by her complex relationship to the extraordinary, singular mother she describes as “my shelter and my storm.�

“Heart-smashed� by her mother Mary’s death in September 2022 yet puzzled and “more than a little ashamed� by the intensity of her response, Roy began to write, to make sense of her feelings about the mother she ran from at age eighteen, “not because I didn’t love her, but in order to be able to continue to love her.� And so begins this astonishing, sometimes disturbing, and surprisingly funny memoir of the author’s journey from her childhood in Kerala, India, where her single mother founded a school, to the writing of her prizewinning novels and essays, through today.

With the scale, sweep, and depth of her novels, The God of Small Things and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, and the passion, political clarity, and warmth of her essays, Mother Mary Comes to Me is an ode to freedom, a tribute to thorny love and savage grace—a memoir like no other.]]> 352 Arundhati Roy 1668094711 Grace 0 4.82 2025
author: Arundhati Roy
name: Grace
average rating: 4.82
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> 220262236 The #1 International bestselling author of On Dublin Street is back with this witty, emotional and steamy fake-dating sports romance in which ambitious entrepreneur, Beth Carmichael, meets her match in the grumpy football captain who moves into the apartment above hers.

Imagine my surprise when my new neighbor turns out to be one of Scotland’s most famous (and hottest) professional footballers, Callan Keen. I’m even more shocked to discover that the brooding player is still holding a grudge for something that happened (or didn’t happen) between us years ago.

Too busy trying to take my social media management company to the next level, I »ĺ´Ç˛Ô’t have time for this gorgeous blast from the past. Or at least I ˛őłó´ÇłÜ±ô»ĺ˛Ô’t. Yet whenever I see him, I ł¦˛ą˛Ô’t help but engage in a battle of wits with the grump upstairs.

When a huge client opportunity arises, circumstances force me to enlist Callan’s help. I require a fake date and Callan needs me to facilitate a meeting with my dad to further his own business interests.

The deal between us should be simple. Except, of course, the blazing chemistry we’ve shared since the moment we met. We ł¦˛ą˛Ô’t deny it, we ł¦˛ą˛Ô’t control it, and soon we’re agreeing to six weeks of no-strings-attached, mind-blowing, steamy shenanigans.

I told myself I was too smart to catch feelings. But when Callan finally finds out the truth about our past, he becomes the guy I used to know. And that man is way too easy to fall for.

The problem is that Callan has vowed to never let another person close enough to break his heart again.

It just might prove impossible to show my stubborn Scotsman I’m worth the risk, especially when old wounds are re-opened and threaten to wreck any chance of a future together…]]> 440 Samantha Young 1915243270 Grace 0 to-read, buzzwordathon-dec-25 3.98 2025
author: Samantha Young
name: Grace
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> 215700931 Fourth Wing meets Iron Widow in this enemies-to-lovers romantic fantasy by debut author Mikayla Bridge. The hottest must-read of the summer!

On an island built from ash and shrouded in fire, phoenix racing is a sport just as profitable as it is deadly.

Seventeen-year-old Kel Varra and her team of underdogs, the Crimson Howlers, are desperate to win the annual races and the fortune that comes with it. But the Howlers need a new rider, which leads Kel to join forces with Warren “Coupâ€� Coupers â€� an arrogant rival she ł¦˛ą˛Ô’t get out of her head.

As tensions rise on and off the track, Kel's home is mistakenly burned down, and she’s forced to take a job from a mysterious tech mogul with an unsettling interest in her phoenix, Savita. This sets in motion a conspiracy that threatens everyone Kel cares for, especially Coup, for whom her embers of resentment are quickly igniting into something dangerously new.

Heart-pounding pages full of steamy romance, fiery confessions, political scheming, and volatile magic culminate ina final twist readers will never see coming.]]> 416 Mikayla Bridge 0374393427 Grace 0 to-read, buzzwordathon-dec-25 4.30
author: Mikayla Bridge
name: Grace
average rating: 4.30
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]]> 217087634 Fate connects two people in life-changing ways in a deeply romantic and emotional novel about hope and second chances by the author of Would You Rather and The Roommate Pact.

Uncertain of what tomorrow brings, Elliott Holland decides to live it up—on the eve of a stem cell transplant to treat her leukemia. It’s destiny when she crosses paths with handsome and charming Jamie Sullivan. The chemistry is magic. So is a beautiful evening that ends with a bittersweet kiss goodbye and no expectations of ever seeing each other again.

One year later, Elliott’s future looks good. Her cancer is in remission. Her career in graphic design is taking off. And she’s finally met Carly, the young woman whose stem cell donation gave Elliott a second chance at life. Then, in a twist of fate both blissful and unfair, she meets Carly’s boyfriend. It’s Jamie, the man Elliott kissed like it was her last day on earth. Neither of them has ever forgotten it.

Now, the most difficult decisions of all lie ahead. Whatever risks there are to the heart, one need wins to grab hold of everything that can make someone feel alive again.]]> 314 Allison Ashley 1662527268 Grace 0 4.05 2025
author: Allison Ashley
name: Grace
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/09
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]]> 83822351
In Organic Social Media , Jenny Li Fowler outlines the important steps that social media managers need to take to enhance an organization's broader growth objectives. Fowler breaks down the important questions to help readers determine the best platforms to invest in, how they can streamline the approval process and other essential strategic steps to create an organic following on social platforms.

Organic Social Media explains how to elevate the key growth objectives of a brand by creating or recreating its online presence. Early chapters walk readers through the planning phase, the process of strategic goal setting, platform selection, resource management and content discovery. Later chapters focus on executing these established plans and offer a strategic way to build a content calendar and track the success of social. With this book, social media managers will future-proof the online presence of any organization.]]> 232 Jenny Li Fowler 1398612979 Grace 0 4.21
author: Jenny Li Fowler
name: Grace
average rating: 4.21
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/09
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]]> 75706848
My neighbor doesn't know I have a key to her house. Doesn't know I watch her sleep or that the dreams of me she has aren't merely dreams. She doesn't know she's my girl, who I've claimed in a blood ritual that will bind our souls together.

When she goes out hunting for the supernatural, she draws the attention of Antonio Garcia, alpha of the werewolves and head of a rival gang. He'll attack her to get to me, to deal a blow to my Family that will weaken us in the coming war.

But I am the reaper who everyone fears. The "cleaner" of the Family. If anyone touches my girl - if they even just look at her wrong, they'll die.

Only...Antonio is consuming something that is causing his power to grow exponentially, and there is a traitor feeding him information. Someone close to me is willing to sacrifice my girl to take control of our Family.

Can I hunt them down before they hurt what's mine? Or will they damage her before I can save her?]]> Miranda Grant Grace 0 to-read, buzzwordathon-may-25 3.80 2023
author: Miranda Grant
name: Grace
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/09
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]]> 220160455 In this delightfully funny and heartfelt new novel from the author of the “bittersweet page-turner� (The New York Times) The Last Book Party, an American woman travels to the English countryside when she discovers tickets her late mother had purchased for a murder mystery simulation in a small British town.

When thirty-four-year-old Cath loses her mostly absentee mother, she is ambivalent. With days of quiet, unassuming routine in Buffalo, New York, Cath consciously avoids the impulsive, thrill-seeking lifestyle that her mother once led. But when she’s forced to go through her mother’s things one afternoon, Cath is perplexed to find tickets for an upcoming “murder week� in England’s Peak. A whole town has come together to stage a fake murder mystery to attract tourism to their quaint hamlet. Baffled but helplessly intrigued by her mother’s secret purchase, Cath decides to go on the trip herself—and begins a journey she never could have anticipated.

Teaming up with her two cottage-mates, both ardent mystery lovers—Wyatt Green, forty, who works unhappily in his husband’s birding store, and Amity Clark, fifty, a divorced romance writer struggling with her novels—Cath sets about solving the “crime� and begins to unravel shocking truths about her mother along the way. Amidst a fling—or something more—with the handsome local maker of artisanal gin, Cath and her irresistibly charming fellow sleuths will find this week of fake murder may help them face up to a very real crossroads in their own lives.

Witty, wise, and deliciously escapist, Welcome to Murder Week is a fresh, inventive twist on the murder mystery and a touching portrayal of one daughter’s reckoning with her grief, her past—and her own budding sense of adventure.]]> 304 Karen Dukess 1668079771 Grace 0 4.36 2025
author: Karen Dukess
name: Grace
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/09
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]]> 214151924 An often hilarious, surprisingly moving portrait of a long-married couple, seen through the eyes of their wickedly observant daughter—for fans of A Man Called Ove and The Royal Tenenbaums.

Miranda’s parents live in a dilapidated house in rural France that they share with two llamas, eight ducks, five chickens, two cats, and a freezer full of food dating back to 1982.

Miranda’s father is a retired professor of philosophy who never loses an argument. Her mother likes to bring conversation back to the War, although she was born after it ended. Married for fifty years, they are uncommonly set in their ways. Miranda plays the role of translator when she visits, communicating the desires or complaints of one parent to the other and then venting her frustration to her sister and her daughter. At the end of each visit, she reports “the usual desire to kill.�

A wry, propulsive, exquisitely observed story of a singularly eccentric family and the sibling rivalry, generational divides, and long-buried secrets that shape them. This is an extraordinary debut novel from a seasoned playwright with a flare for dialogue and, in the end, immense empathy.]]> 256 Camilla Barnes 1668062836 Grace 0 3.65 2025
author: Camilla Barnes
name: Grace
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> 217432720 The acclaimed USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author returns with a twisty thriller that probes how well we actually know the men in our lives.

Rowan Gallagher is a devoted single mother and a talented architect with a high-profile commission restoring an historic mansion for the most powerful family in Maine. But inside, she’s a mess. She knows that stalking her ex’s avatar all over Portland on her phone isn't the healthiest way to heal from their breakup. But she’s out of ice cream and she's sick of romcoms.

Watching his every move is both fascinating and infuriating. He's dining out while she's wallowing on the couch.ĚýThe last straw comes when he parks inĚýtheirĚýfavorite spot on the waterfront. In a weak moment, she leashes the dog and sets offĚýtoĚýsee who else is in his car.

Instead of catching her ex in a kiss, Rowan becomes the first witness to his murder—and the primary suspect.

But Rowan isn’t the only one keeping secrets. As she digs for the truth, she discovers the dead man was stalking her too, gathering intimate details about her job and her past.

Struggling to clear her name, Rowan finds herself spiraling into the shadowy plot that killed him.

Will she be the next to die?]]> 368 Sarina Bowen 0063280647 Grace 0 to-read, buzzwordathon-may-25 4.08 2025
author: Sarina Bowen
name: Grace
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: to-read, buzzwordathon-may-25
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]]> 61627773
Born into wealth in New York City, I've never had to want... until I lost the love of my life. And then he came along, the playboy I knew I shouldn't touch.

It's been a long time since I've looked at a man and wanted something more. Even longer since one has looked at me with a gaze I couldn't tear my eyes from.

No one's perfect, but that's how he felt when I was in his arms. I started to think everything was going to be all right. That life had finally put the pieces of my broken heart back together.

Fate brought us close, and I had no idea why until it was too late. What's between us is raw and everything I've ever wanted. But the sins of his past threaten to tear us apart.

"Beautifully written ...With every turn of the page the reader is waiting for the shoe to drop and the betrayal to begin." - Nicki, The Overflowing Bookcase

This is the complete You Are My Reason duet in one. One couple and one happily ever after.]]> Willow Winters Grace 0 to-read, buzzwordathon-jul-25 4.35
author: Willow Winters
name: Grace
average rating: 4.35
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rating: 0
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]]> 50892212
A blood feud between two gangs runs the streets red, leaving the city helpless in the grip of chaos. At the heart of it all is eighteen-year-old Juliette Cai, a former flapper who has returned to assume her role as the proud heir of the Scarlet Gang—a network of criminals far above the law. Their only rivals in power are the White Flowers, who have fought the Scarlets for generations. And behind every move is their heir, Roma Montagov, Juliette’s first love…and first betrayal.

But when gangsters on both sides show signs of instability culminating in clawing their own throats out, the people start to whisper. Of a contagion, a madness. Of a monster in the shadows. As the deaths stack up, Juliette and Roma must set their guns—and grudges—aside and work together, for if they ł¦˛ą˛Ô’t stop this mayhem, then there will be no city left for either to rule.

Perfect for fans of The Last Magician and Descendant of the Crane, this heart-stopping debut is an imaginative Romeo and Juliet retelling set in 1920s Shanghai, with rival gangs and a monster in the depths of the Huangpu River.]]> 449 Chloe Gong 1534457690 Grace 0 3.82 2020
author: Chloe Gong
name: Grace
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: to-read, reviews-6-fig, kindle-unlimited, buzzwordathon-oct-25
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]]> 213702691 Perfect Victims is an urgent affirmation of the Palestinian condition of resistance and refusal―an ode to the steadfastness of a nation.

Palestine is a microcosm of the on fire, stubborn, fragmented, dignified. While a settler colonial state continues to inflict devastating violence, fundamental truths are deliberately obscured—the perpetrators are coddled while the victims are blamed and placed on trial.

Why must Palestinians prove their humanity? And what are the implications of such an infuriatingly impossible task? With fearless prose and lyrical precision, Mohammed El-Kurd refuses a life spent in cross-examination. Rather than asking the oppressed to perform a perfect victimhood, El-Kurd asks friends and foes alike to look Palestinians in the eye, forgoing both deference and condemnation.

How we see Palestine reveals how we see each other; how we see everything else. Masterfully combining candid testimony, history, and reportage, Perfect Victims presents a powerfully simple dignity for the Palestinian.]]> 256 Mohammed El-Kurd Grace 0 to-read, buzzwordathon-jul-25 4.90 2025
author: Mohammed El-Kurd
name: Grace
average rating: 4.90
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> 222213935 51 Emily Goss Grace 0 to-read, buzzwordathon-jul-25 4.33
author: Emily Goss
name: Grace
average rating: 4.33
book published:
rating: 0
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]]> 53588649
Discover the life guide that has developed world champions, empowered athletes to become world #1, and most importantly, transformed their hearts and minds. This step-by-step training manual from one of the world's top mental skills coaches will teach you how the mindset of some of the best performers and leaders on the planet allowed them to have freedom and confidence when so much was out of their control.

Whether you’re an athlete or entrepreneur, single mother or father of five, you’ll find exercises, techniques and tools in this book that will improve every area of your life. Your life will take on new meaning as you move beyond the pursuit of happiness to a life of purpose and fulfillment. Jim Murphy's complete program of proven mental techniques is based on the powerful principles of love, wisdom, and courage, that came from over six years of full-time research and writing (after his masters degree in Coaching Science).

“I read the first version of Inner Excellence six times. I recommend all my clients read it.� � Matt Killen, PGA Tour coach to Justin Thomas, Tiger Woods and many others

INNER EXCELLENCE WILL SHOW YOU HOW TO:

DEVELOP SELF-MASTERY—and let go of what you ł¦˛ą˛Ô’t control
OVERCOME ANXIETY—and build powerful mental habits
REMOVE MENTAL BLOCKS—and get out of your own way
TRAIN YOUR SUBCONSCIOUS MIND—and release limiting beliefs

As professional baseball player in the Chicago Cubs organization, Jim’s sense of worth and identity revolved around his performance. He was obsessed with fame but also afraid of failure, and that fear in his heart made him struggle under the pressure to perform. When he started coaching professional and Olympic athletes, he saw the same pattern over and over again: athletes had lost their joy and passion for life as the fear of failure engulfed their lives.

This book will share with you how some of the best athletes in the world have learned Inner Excellence, how it propelled them to extraordinary performance even when they were filled with doubt and uncertainty, and how you can excel in the same way in your life. The insights and exercises within will help you achieve higher levels of performance than you ever thought possible—and bring incredible peace and confidence.

“Inner Excellence changed how I see the world, how I think, and how I play golf.� - Vaughn Taylor, three-time PGA Tour winner

Jim Murphy is a Performance Coach (mental skills) to some of the best athletes and leaders in the world. The majority of his clients achieved the best year of their career their first year working with Jim (or their best year in the previous five years)]]> 362 Jim Murphy 1734654821 Grace 0 to-read, buzzwordathon-jul-25 4.31 2009
author: Jim Murphy
name: Grace
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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]]> 43868109 The highly anticipated portrait of three generations of the Sackler family, by the prize-winning, bestselling author of Say Nothing.

The Sackler name adorns the walls of many storied institutions: Harvard, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oxford, the Louvre. They are one of the richest families in the world, known for their lavish donations to the arts and sciences. The source of the family fortune was vague, however, until it emerged that the Sacklers were responsible for making and marketing OxyContin, a blockbuster painkiller that was a catalyst for the opioid crisis.

Empire of Pain is a masterpiece of narrative reporting and writing, exhaustively documented and ferociously compelling.]]> 535 Patrick Radden Keefe 0385545681 Grace 0 4.54 2021
author: Patrick Radden Keefe
name: Grace
average rating: 4.54
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/09
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]]> 205900008 240 Coalition Against Campus Debt 1945335122 Grace 0 to-read, buzzwordathon-jul-25 4.20
author: Coalition Against Campus Debt
name: Grace
average rating: 4.20
book published:
rating: 0
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]]> 57223634 352 Stuart Hall 147801377X Grace 0 4.33
author: Stuart Hall
name: Grace
average rating: 4.33
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/09
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]]> 57717410 The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story offers a revealing vision of the American past and present.

In late August 1619, a ship arrived in the British colony of Virginia bearing a cargo of twenty to thirty enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival led to the barbaric and unprecedented system of American chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years. This is sometimes referred to as the country’s original sin, but it is more than that: It is the source of so much that still defines the United States.

The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story builds on The New York Times Magazine’s award-winning �1619 Project,� which reframed our understanding of American history by placing slavery and its continuing legacy at the center of our national narrative. This book substantially expands on the original "1619 Project, "weaving together eighteen essays that explore the legacy of slavery in present-day America with thirty-six poems and works of fiction that illuminate key moments of oppression, struggle, and resistance. The essays show how the inheritance of 1619 reaches into every part of contemporary American society, from politics, music, diet, traffic, and citizenship to capitalism, religion, and our democracy itself. This legacy can be seen in the way we tell stories, the way we teach our children, and the way we remember. Together, the elements of the book reveal a new origin story for the United States, one that helps explain not only the persistence of anti-Black racism and inequality in American life today, but also the roots of what makes the country unique.

The book also features an elaboration of the original project’s Pulitzer Prize–winning lead essay by Nikole Hannah-Jones on how the struggles of Black Americans have expanded democracy for all Americans, as well as two original pieces from Hannah-Jones, one of which makes a case for reparative solutions to this legacy of injustice.]]> 590 Nikole Hannah-Jones 0593230574 Grace 0 to-read, buzzwordathon-jul-25 4.61 2019
author: Nikole Hannah-Jones
name: Grace
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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]]> 217485768 208 Dixon Chibanda MD 1955831025 Grace 0 to-read, buzzwordathon-jul-25 4.50
author: Dixon Chibanda MD
name: Grace
average rating: 4.50
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rating: 0
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]]> 42201997 ONE OF NPR’S BEST BOOKS OF 2019

*Most Anticipated Reads of 2019 by Publishers Weekly, BuzzFeed, The Rumpus, Lit Hub, The Week, and Elle.com*

Fifteen brilliant writers explore what we »ĺ´Ç˛Ô’t talk to our mothers about, and how it affects us, for better or for worse.

As an undergraduate, Michele Filgate started writing an essay about being abused by her stepfather. It took her more than a decade to realize what she was actually trying to write: how this affected her relationship with her mother. When it was finally published, the essay went viral, shared on social media by Anne Lamott, Rebecca Solnit, and many others. The outpouring of responses gave Filgate an idea, and the resulting anthology offers a candid look at our relationships with our mothers.

While some of the writers in this book are estranged from their mothers, others are extremely close. Leslie Jamison writes about trying to discover who her seemingly perfect mother was before ever becoming a mom. In Cathi Hanauer’s hilarious piece, she finally gets a chance to have a conversation with her mother that isn’t interrupted by her domineering (but lovable) father. André Aciman writes about what it was like to have a deaf mother. Melissa Febos uses mythology as a lens to look at her close-knit relationship with her psychotherapist mother. And Julianna Baggott talks about having a mom who tells her everything.

As Filgate writes, “Our mothers are our first homes, and that’s why we’re always trying to return to them.� There’s relief in breaking the silence. Acknowledging what we couldn’t say for so long is one way to heal our relationships with others and, perhaps most important, with ourselves.

Contributors include Cathi Hanauer, Melissa Febos, Alexander Chee, Dylan Landis, Bernice L. McFadden, Julianna Baggott, Lynn Steger Strong, Kiese Laymon, Carmen Maria Machado, André Aciman, Sari Botton, Nayomi Munaweera, Brandon Taylor, and Leslie Jamison.]]> 288 Michele Filgate 1982107340 Grace 0 3.76 2019
author: Michele Filgate
name: Grace
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: to-read, owned, tbr-owned, buzzwordathon-jul-25
review:

]]> 217025128 One of the most anticipated books of the year, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Weiner, a glimmering novel set in the world of pop music about sisters, motherhood, young love, and the dreams we chase.

Sisters Cassie and Zoe Grossberg were born just a year apart but could not have been more different. Zoe, blessed with charm and beauty, yearned for fame from the moment she could sing into a hairbrush. Cassie was a musical prodigy who never felt at home in her own skin and preferred the safety of the shadows.

On the brink of adulthood in the early 2000s, destiny intervened, catapulting the sisters into the spotlight as the pop sensation the Griffin Sisters, hitting all the touchstones of early aughts fame—SNL, MTV, Rolling Stone magazine—along the way.

But after a whirlwind year in the public eye, the band abruptly broke up.

Two decades later, Zoe’s a housewife; Cassie’s off the grid. The sisters aren’t speaking, and the real reason for the Griffin Sisters� breakup is still a mystery. Zoe’s teenage daughter, Cherry, who’s determined to be a star in spite of Zoe’s warnings, is on a quest to learn the truth about what happened to the band all those years ago.

As secrets emerge, all three women must face the consequences of their choices: the ones they made and the ones the music industry made for them. Can they forgive each other—and themselves? And will the Griffin Sisters ever make music again?]]> 384 Jennifer Weiner 0063430436 Grace 0 to-read, buzzwordathon-jul-25 4.00 2025
author: Jennifer Weiner
name: Grace
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: to-read, buzzwordathon-jul-25
review:

]]> 208840704 Just add lemon, garlic, and a dash of the one percent.

This smart, biting novel explores what happens when a Haitian American girl uses her previously hidden zombie abilities to exact revenge on the wealthy elites who’ve caused her family pain.

Brielle Petitfour loves to cook. But with a chronically sick mother and bills to pay, becoming a chef isn’t exactly a realistic career path.

When Brielle’s mom suddenly loses her job, Brielle steps in and uses her culinary skills to earn some extra money. The rich families who love her cooking praise her use of unique flavors and textures, which keep everyone guessing what’s in Brielle’s dishes. The secret ingredient? Human flesh.

Written by the storytelling duo Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite, The Summer I Ate the Rich is a modern-day fable inspired by Haitian zombie lore that scrutinizes the socioeconomic and racial inequity that is the foundation of our society. Just like Brielle’s clients, it will have you asking: What’s for dinner?]]> 400 Maika Moulite 0374390533 Grace 0 to-read, buzzwordathon-oct-25 3.71
author: Maika Moulite
name: Grace
average rating: 3.71
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: to-read, buzzwordathon-oct-25
review:

]]> 209447377
I am done with hockey boys.

Well, at least done dating them. I ł¦˛ą˛Ô’t cut them out of my life completely.

Needing a fresh start after heartbreak, I moved halfway across the country.

A one-night stand seemed like the perfect palate cleanser before I began my new life.

That was, until I saw those striking green eyes staring back at me from the podium on my first day as a reporter for the Indy Speed hockey team.

I’ve done some stupid things, but unknowingly sleeping with Maddox freaking Sterling lands at the top of the list.

His status may have gone from captain to head coach, but the old adage remains the same: you can take the player out of the game but ł¦˛ą˛Ô’t take the game out of the player.]]> 448 Siena Trap Grace 0 to-read, buzzwordathon-apr-25 4.04
author: Siena Trap
name: Grace
average rating: 4.04
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: to-read, buzzwordathon-apr-25
review:

]]> 220999057 Inspired by true stories from the authors� grandparents� lives during one of the darkest periods in Korean history,The Last Tiger is a debut young adult fantasy novel about the power of love to give voice to a broken people.

In a colonized land where tigers are being hunted to extinction and ancient magic stirs, two star-crossed teens from opposite worlds—Lee Seung, a servant yearning for freedom, and Choi Eunji, a noble girl defying tradition—join forces to try and reshape their respective fates.

But their relationship evolves from begrudging accomplices to bitter adversaries as they soon find themselves on opposite sides of a battle over the last tiger, a symbol of their people’s lost freedom and key to the liberation of their country. As the ties between Seung and Eunji are complicated by their conflicting loyalties, tensions rise—especially when a charming princeling of the empire begins to rival for Eunji's affection.

In this friends-to-enemies-to-lovers story of forbidden romance, antagonists turned allies, oppression and liberation, neither Seung nor Eunji can abandon their mission—or each other. And as they embark on separate quests to find the elusive creature, each must also find the power within themselves to make their own destiny.]]> 416 Julia Riew Grace 0 to-read, buzzwordathon-apr-25 3.73 2025
author: Julia Riew
name: Grace
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: to-read, buzzwordathon-apr-25
review:

]]> 214537759 “Where are you, Mom?� So began Amy’s quest to solve a mystery trapped in the deep recesses of her own memory—a journey that would take her into the burgeoning field of psychedelic therapy, to the limits of the judicial system, and ultimately, home to the Texas panhandle, where her story began.

In her search for the truth, to understand and begin to recover from buried childhood trauma, Griffin interrogates the pursuit of perfectionism, control, and maintaining appearances that drives so many women, asking, when, in our path from girlhood to womanhood, did we learn to look outside ourselves for validation? What kind of freedom is possible if we accept the whole story and embrace who we really are? With hope, heart, and relentless honesty, she points a way forward for all of us, revealing the power of radical truth-telling to deepen our connections—with others and ourselves.]]> 288 Amy Griffin 0593731204 Grace 0 to-read, buzzwordathon-jul-25 4.28 2025
author: Amy Griffin
name: Grace
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: to-read, buzzwordathon-jul-25
review:

]]> 220435885 In the latest thrilling suspense novel from Mary Higgins Clark Award–winning author Carol Goodman, a group of mystery authors gathers on a secluded Greek island for a writers retreat, only to discover that their enigmatic host has been murdered and everyone present is a suspect.

They’ll kill for inspiration�

Fifteen years ago, Maia Gold attended a prestigious—andĚýveryĚýexclusive—writers retreat hosted by billionaire Argos Alexander on the Greek island of Eris. It’s where she wrote her first book, the one that should have launched a brilliant career. But something dark happened on that island, a betrayal that has hung over Maia ever since.

Now, Maia finds a familiar envelope in the mail. It’s an invitation to return to Eris, and according to social media, she’s not the only one from that first retreat who’s been invited back. This could be the second chance Maia needs to jump-start her dreams. A chance for reconciliation� or revenge.

Almost all of the writers from fifteen years before have returned to Eris, bringing unresolved resentments with them. Soon, the guests learn that their illustrious host is absent, though he has left instructions for them to participate in a whoever can write the most suspenseful mystery while on the island will win a fortune and literary acclaim. But this is no harmless game—when the guests gather in the morning to share their first chapters, they find Argos Alexander, dead.Ěý

Tensions simmer as the guests try to determine who’s behind the murder, and why they’ve really been invited to the retreat. On an island full of mystery writers, anyone could be the killer—and anyone could be the next victim. Trapped together until the next boat arrives from the mainland, they must sort out old grievances and figure out how to trust one another... or die one by one.]]> 272 Carol Goodman 0063398737 Grace 0 to-read, buzzwordathon-jan-25 3.38 2025
author: Carol Goodman
name: Grace
average rating: 3.38
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: to-read, buzzwordathon-jan-25
review:

]]> 211004894
"Kari Ferrell’s memoir is a zippy, intimate account of low-level trickery before the era of scams fully erupted." —The Atlantic

"Raw and riveting. With a combination of bruising vulnerability and self-deprecating humor, Ferrell’s audacious coming-of-age tale pairs the thrill of true crime with the redemptive arc of a good memoir. It’s a deliciously edgy testament to reinvention." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

The compelling, edgy, compassionate, laugh-out-loud memoir from Kari Ferrell, formerly known as the "Hipster Grifter"

Before Anna Delvey, before the Tinder Swindler, there was Kari Ferrell. Adopted at a young age by a Mormon family in Utah, Kari struggled with questions of self-worth and identity as one of the few Asian Americans in her insulated community, leading her to run with the “bad crowd� in an effort to fit in.

Soon, stealing from superstores turned into picking up men (and picking their pockets), and before she knew it, Kari graduated from petty theft to Utah’s most wanted list. Though Kari was able to escape the Southwest, she couldn’t outrun her new moniker: the Hipster Grifter.

New York City’s indie sleaze scene had found its newest celebrity—just as Kari found herself in a heap of trouble. Jail time, riots, bad checks, and an explosion of internet infamy and fetishization put her name in the spotlight. Beyond the gossip and Gawker posts, there’s a side to Kari the media never saw—until now.]]> 288 Kari Ferrell 1250288223 Grace 0 3.36 2025
author: Kari Ferrell
name: Grace
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: to-read, buzzwordathon-mar-25, buzzwordathon-nov-25, buzzwordathon-jul-25, buzzwordathon-jan-25
review:

]]> 59339681 Once, we’d worshipped them as Gods.

For nearly 400 years, the Veil has protected us from the Fae of Alfheimr. In their absence, our lives have shifted from decadence and sin to survival and virtue under the guidance of the New Gods. I’ve spent my entire life tending to the gardens next to the boundary between our worlds, drawn to the shimmering magic like a moth to the flame.

Then, we died on their swords.

All of that changes the day the Veil shatters, unleashing the fae upon our world once again. The magic of faerie marks those of us they mean to take, but the Mist Guard protecting Nothrek will kill us all before they let the fae have us. There’s no choice but to flee everything I’ve ever known, not if I want to live to see my twenty-first birthday as a free woman.

Now, they’ll claim what’s theirs.

But before they capture me, Caelum saves me from the Wild Hunt. Fae-marked and on the run, he is able to fight back in ways I only dream of. From tentative alliance to all-consuming passion, our bond strengthens as the fae close in and evil lurks ever nearer. With my life on the line, he is everything I ˛őłó´ÇłÜ±ô»ĺ˛Ô’t dare to want and a distraction I ł¦˛ą˛Ô’t afford. I ł¦˛ą˛Ô’t seem to stay away, not even with something greater on the line.

My heart.

Author’s Note: This book is intended for readers who are 18 and older. It contains mature language, graphic violence, and explicit content with darker elements. This is book one in a series and ends in a cliffhanger.]]> 419 Harper L. Woods Grace 0 3.57 2022
author: Harper L. Woods
name: Grace
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: to-read, kindle-unlimited, buzzwordathon-jan-25
review:

]]> 23129659 If you grew up with an emotionally immature, unavailable, or selfish parent, you may have lingering feelings of anger, loneliness, betrayal, or abandonment. You may recall your childhood as a time when your emotional needs were not met, when your feelings were dismissed, or when you took on adult levels of responsibility in an effort to compensate for your parent’s behavior. These wounds can be healed, and you can move forward in your life.

In this breakthrough book, clinical psychologist Lindsay Gibson exposes the destructive nature of parents who are emotionally immature or unavailable. You will see how these parents create a sense of neglect, and discover ways to heal from the pain and confusion caused by your childhood. By freeing yourself from your parents� emotional immaturity, you can recover your true nature, control how you react to them, and avoid disappointment. Finally, you’ll learn how to create positive, new relationships so you can build a better life.

Discover the four types of difficult parents:



The emotional parent instills feelings of instability and anxiety

The driven parent stays busy trying to perfect everything and everyone

The passive parent avoids dealing with anything upsetting

The rejecting parent is withdrawn, dismissive, and derogatory
Ěý]]> 201 Lindsay C. Gibson 1626251703 Grace 0 4.36 2015
author: Lindsay C. Gibson
name: Grace
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: tbr-urgent, kindle, buzzwordathon-jul-25, buzzwordathon-may-25, owned, owned-new, currently-reading
review:

]]> 210682558 You »ĺ´Ç˛Ô’t find love. Love finds you…in New York Times bestselling author Max Monroe’s tender and emotionally charged story.

When grumpy, muscled-up artist Bennett Bishop bothers to speak, it’s usually to say something you’re not ready to hear.

When he first speaks to Norah Ellis, a rambling runaway bride who hitchhikes a ride from him, it’s to tell her to get out of his truck and walk because she’s a pain in the�

By appearance, Norah Ellis is a fancy fashionista who’s spent the last several years living the good life in the city—expensive apartments, highbrow events, and a fiancé with wealth and good looks. The only problem is that she didn’t choose any of it for herself.

On the day of her July wedding, Norah’s world turns upside down, thanks to a letter from a stranger. She runs for the small town in Vermont she used to call home, but what’s waiting for her, between her estranged sister, the townspeople, and bad-boy Bennett Bishop himself, is way more than she bargained for.

Enemies turn to lovers, strangers become friends, dark secrets bust open like cans of worms, and most of all…summer will never be the same.]]> 316 Max Monroe Grace 0 4.19 2024
author: Max Monroe
name: Grace
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: to-read, kindle-prime-reading, kindle-unlimited
review:

]]> 58545703 From USA Today bestselling author Emily McIntire comes a dark and delicious fractured fairy tale reimagining of Peter Pan.

He wants revenge, but he wants her more�

James has always had one agenda: destroy his enemy, Peter Michaels. When Peter’s twenty-year-old daughter Wendy shows up in James’s bar, he sees his way in. Seduce the girl and use her for his revenge. It’s the perfect plan, until things in James’s organization begin to crumble. Suddenly, he has to find the traitor in his midst, and his plan for revenge gets murkier as James starts to see Wendy as more than just a pawn in his game.

Wendy has been cloistered away most of her life by her wealthy cold father, but a spontaneous night out with friends turns into an intense and addictive love affair with the dark and brooding James. As much as she knows James is dangerous, Wendy ł¦˛ą˛Ô’t seem to shake her desire for him. But as their relationship grows more heated and she learns more about the world he moves in, she finds herself unsure if she’s falling for the man known as James or the monster known as Hook.

Hooked is a dark contemporary romance and the first complete standalone in the Never After Series: A collection of fractured fairy tales where the villains get the happy ever after. It is not a literal retelling and not fantasy. Hooked features mature themes and content that may not be suitable for all audiences. Reader discretion is advised. For all content warnings, check the author's website. ]]> 312 Emily McIntire 173750832X Grace 0 3.78 2021
author: Emily McIntire
name: Grace
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: to-read, reviews-6-fig, kindle-unlimited, kindle-prime-reading
review:

]]> 199821855 Rosie Belmont has been driving me wild for years. The good kind of wild. The bad kind of wild. But mostly the kind of wild that comes with wanting your best friend’s little sister and knowing you ł¦˛ą˛Ô’t have her.

After living in the city, she comes blasting back into Rose Hill like a storm. Beautiful, messy, and chaotic.

And one wide-eyed desperate plea for a job is all it takes for me to hire her.

Forbes may have labelled me the World’s Hottest Billionaire but all I care about is opening my new recording studio. Something that comes to a screeching halt when I end up face-to-face with a young girl who claims I’m her biological father.

Now I spend my days balancing business with parenting a sullen twelve-year-old all while trying desperately to keep my hands the hell off my best friend’s little sister.

I vow to keep Rosie at arm’s length. I try to stick to scowls and grumpy one-liners. But with her verbal sparring is merely foreplay—friction that turns to blistering heat.

I know damn well I ˛őłó´ÇłÜ±ô»ĺ˛Ô’t cross that line.

But ˛őłó´ÇłÜ±ô»ĺ˛Ô’t and ł¦˛ą˛Ô’t are two very different things.

And the only thing I truly ł¦˛ą˛Ô’t do is resist her.]]> 466 Elsie Silver 173812553X Grace 0 4.21 2024
author: Elsie Silver
name: Grace
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: to-read, reviews-6-fig, kindle-unlimited, tbr-urgent, kindle-prime-reading
review:

]]> 224277538 From #1 New York Times bestselling author Greer Hendricks comes a chilling story about the hidden cost of perfection.

Anne is barely keeping it together. A frazzled ghostwriter and aspiring novelist, she juggles nine-year-old twins and a listless marriage from an overcrowded Manhattan apartment, spreading herself thinner each day. Just as Anne is about to give up on her dreams, she lands her biggest client Melody Wells.

Melody paints a picture of serenity and empowerment in the lavender haze of her visualization workshops—however, the one thing she ł¦˛ą˛Ô’t manifest are the pages her publisher is demanding for her new motivational book. Enter Anne.

As Melody invites Anne deeper into her magical world, Anne finds herself working impossibly long days and traveling far beyond her comfort zone.

When Melody passes along a lead on a spacious sublet complete with East River views, built-in closets, and three bedrooms, Anne ł¦˛ą˛Ô’t believe her luck. Melody seems to know just what her family needs. But as small, unsettling incidents begin to accumulate, Anne starts to wonder what price she’s willing to pay for the good life.]]> 61 Greer Hendricks 1662528515 Grace 0 3.23 2025
author: Greer Hendricks
name: Grace
average rating: 3.23
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: to-read, kindle, kindle-prime-first-reads
review:

]]> 226933409 Two graduate students must set aside their rivalry and journey to Hell to save their professor’s soul, perhaps at the cost of their own.

Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick. She has sacrificed everything to make that a reality—her pride, her health, her love life, and most definitely her sanity. All to work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world—that is, until he dies in a magical accident that could possibly be her fault.

Grimes is now in Hell, and she’s going in after him. Because his recommendation could hold her very future in his now incorporeal hands, and even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her dreams. Nor will the fact that her rival, Peter Murdoch, has come to the same conclusion.]]> 560 R.F. Kuang Grace 0 to-read 4.11 2025
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Grace
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 62316382 She’s his fiancée’s younger sister. He’s the man she’s always loved.

When her sister doesn’t show up on her wedding day, Raven has no choice but to take her place � but marriage to Ares Windsor is nothing short of torture.

The elusive billionaire media mogul is the man she’s always loved� yet he’s only ever had eyes for her sister.

Married to him at last, Raven is determined to win him over.

After all, everything is fair in love and war.

And this?

This is war.]]> 382 Catharina Maura Grace 0 kindle-unlimited, not-reading 3.88 2022
author: Catharina Maura
name: Grace
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/28
shelves: kindle-unlimited, not-reading
review:

]]> 50705453
As a young woman boxes up her ex-boyfriend’s belongings and prepares to see him one last time, she wonders where it all went wrong, and whether it was ever right to begin with. Burdened with a broken heart, she asks herself the age-old question . . . is love really worth it?

Out of Love is a bittersweet romance told in reverse. Beginning at the end of a relationship, each chapter takes us further back in time, weaving together an already unravelled tapestry, from tragic break-up to magical first kiss.

In this dazzling debut Hazel Hayes performs a post-mortem on love, tenderly but unapologetically exploring every angle, from the heights of joy to the depths of grief, and all the madness and mundanity in between. This is a modern story with the heart of a classic: truthful, tragic and ultimately full of hope.]]> 384 Hazel Hayes 1783528966 Grace 0 to-read 3.83 2020
author: Hazel Hayes
name: Grace
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 221200339
A new relationship couldn't have come at a better time - her thirties have not been the liberating, uncomplicated experience she was sold. Everywhere she turns, she is reminded of time passing and opportunities dwindling. Friendships are fading, ex-boyfriends are moving on and, worse, everyone's moving to the suburbs. There's no solace to be found in her family, with a mum who's caught in a baffling mid-life makeover and a beloved dad who is vanishing in slow-motion into dementia.

Dolly Alderton's debut novel is funny and tender, filled with whip-smart observations about relationships, family, memory, and how we live now.]]> 320 Dolly Alderton 0241988683 Grace 0 to-read, reviews-6-fig 3.83 2020
author: Dolly Alderton
name: Grace
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: to-read, reviews-6-fig
review:

]]> 218695937 A novel about one woman’s fight for freedom, set in a near future where even dreams are under surveillance.

Sara has just landed at LAX, returning home from a conference abroad, when agents from the Risk Assessment Administration pull her aside and inform her that she will soon commit a crime. Using data from her dreams, the RAA’s algorithm has determined that she is at imminent risk of harming the person she loves most: her husband. For his safety, she must be kept under observation for twenty-one days.

The agents transfer Sara to a retention center, where she is held with other dreamers, all of them women trying to prove their innocence from different crimes. With every deviation from the strict and ever-shifting rules of the facility, their stay is extended. Months pass and Sara seems no closer to release. Then one day, a new resident arrives, disrupting the order of the facility and leading Sara on a collision course with the very companies that have deprived her of her freedom.

Eerie, urgent, and ceaselessly clear-eyed, The Dream Hotel artfully explores the seductive nature of technology, which puts us in shackles even as it makes our lives easier. Lalami asks how much of ourselves must remain private if we are to remain free, and whether even the most invasive forms of surveillance can ever capture who we really are.]]> 336 Laila Lalami 0593317602 Grace 0 to-read 3.69 2025
author: Laila Lalami
name: Grace
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 17225311 "Smart and biting" —New York Journal of Books

"Laced with dark, sometimes savage humor and juicy riffs on consumer culture and its twin obsessions, youth and beauty" �Plain Dealer (Cleveland)

Celeste Price is twenty-six years old, beautiful, smart, married to a handsome man with money, and starting a new job as a junior high school teacher in suburban Tampa. Yet she harbors a dark secret. She is driven by a singular sexual obsession—fourteen-year-old boys. As the school year begins, Celeste has chosen and seduced the naive Jack Patrick, a quiet, thoughtful boy in awe of his teacher. But when her lustful frenzy begins to spiral out of control, the insatiable Celeste bypasses each hurdle with swift thinking and shameless determination.

"Impeccably written, full of smart cultural observations, and no small amount of wit . . . A very bold book." —Daily Beast]]> 266 Alissa Nutting 0062280562 Grace 0 not-reading 3.36 2013
author: Alissa Nutting
name: Grace
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: not-reading
review:

]]> 51234248 A New York Times "20 Books We're Watching For in 2020"

An Entertainment Weekly, Newsweek, Bustle, Buzzfeed, GoodReads, Houston Chronicle, Writer's Digest, Medium, Washington Independent Review of Books, The Millions, Boston Globe, USA Today, and Women's Day Most Anticipated Book

From the award-winning author of Station Eleven , an exhilarating novel set at the glittering intersection of two seemingly disparate events-a massive Ponzi scheme collapse and the mysterious disappearance of a woman from a ship at sea.

Vincent is a bartender at the Hotel Caiette, a five-star lodging on the northernmost tip of Vancouver Island. On the night she meets Jonathan Alkaitis, a hooded figure scrawls a message on the lobby's glass wall: "Why don't you swallow broken glass." High above Manhattan, a greater crime is committed: Alkaitis is running an international Ponzi scheme, moving imaginary sums of money through clients' accounts. When the financial empire collapses, it obliterates countless fortunes and devastates lives. Vincent, who had been posing as Jonathan's wife, walks away into the night. Years later, a victim of the fraud is hired to investigate a strange occurrence: a woman has seemingly vanished from the deck of a container ship between ports of call.

In this captivating story of crisis and survival, Emily St. John Mandel takes readers through often hidden landscapes: campgrounds for the near-homeless, underground electronica clubs, the business of international shipping, service in luxury hotels, and life in a federal prison. Rife with unexpected beauty, The Glass Hotel is a captivating portrait of greed and guilt, love and delusion, ghosts and unintended consequences, and the infinite ways we search for meaning in our lives.]]> 381 Emily St. John Mandel 059317173X Grace 0 3.68 2020
author: Emily St. John Mandel
name: Grace
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves: kindle, reviews-6-fig, owned, tbr-owned, currently-reading
review:

]]> 59079740 Listening length: 5 hours, 47 minutes

The award-winning, best-selling author of Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel returns with a novel of art, time, love, and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon three hundred years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and space.

Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal--an experience that shocks him to his core.

Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She's traveling all over Earth, but her home is the second moon colony, a place of white stone, spired towers, and artificial beauty. Within the text of Olive's bestselling pandemic novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him.

When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended: The exiled son of an earl driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe.

A virtuoso performance that is as human and tender as it is intellectually playful, Sea of Tranquility is a novel of time travel and metaphysics that precisely captures the reality of our current moment.]]> 0 Emily St. John Mandel 0593552008 Grace 5
Go into this book knowing absolutely nothing other than it's science fiction and it's set across 500 years. The blurb does not do this masterpiece justice. Also recommend reading Station Eleven and/or The Glass Hotel first. I am extremely picky with my science fiction and I couldn't be more happy to have loved yet another Emily St. John Mandel. 5 stars. I'll be thinking about this book for a long time.

Read for BuzzwordaThon February 2025. ]]> 3.86 2022
author: Emily St. John Mandel
name: Grace
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/20
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves: reviews-6-fig, kindle, buzzwordathon-feb-25, favorites
review:
Emily St. John Mandel, you've done it again.

Go into this book knowing absolutely nothing other than it's science fiction and it's set across 500 years. The blurb does not do this masterpiece justice. Also recommend reading Station Eleven and/or The Glass Hotel first. I am extremely picky with my science fiction and I couldn't be more happy to have loved yet another Emily St. John Mandel. 5 stars. I'll be thinking about this book for a long time.

Read for BuzzwordaThon February 2025.
]]> 221179145
Lately, Julia Pritzker is beginning to think she’s cursed. She’s lost her adoptive parents, then her husband is murdered. When she realizes that her horoscope essentially foretold his death, she begins to spiral. She fears her fate is written in the stars, not held in her own hands.

Then a letter arrives out of the blue, informing her that she has inherited a Tuscan villa and vineyard - but her benefactor is a total stranger named Emilia Rossi. Julia has no information about her biological family, so she wonders if Rossi could be a blood relative. Bewildered, she heads to Tuscany for answers.

There, Julia is horrified to discover that Rossi was a paranoid recluse with delusions of grandeur, who believed herself to be a descendent of Duchess Caterina Sforza, a legendary Renaissance ruler. Julia is stunned by her uncanny resemblance to Rossi and even to Caterina, then she unearths eerie parallels between them, including an obsession with astrology.

Before long, Julia suspects she’s being followed, and strange things begin to happen. Not even a chance meeting with a handsome Florentine can ease her disturbed mind. When events turn deadly, she breaks with reality.

Julia’s harrowing struggle becomes a search for her identity, a race to save her sanity, and ultimately, a question of her very survival.]]> 400 Lisa Scottoline 1538769999 Grace 0 to-read, 2025-releases 3.71
author: Lisa Scottoline
name: Grace
average rating: 3.71
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read, 2025-releases
review:

]]> 213618113 400 Xan Kaur 1035045176 Grace 0 to-read 3.50 2025
author: Xan Kaur
name: Grace
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61446516
Aric Kayden has seen better days. After failing to assassinate his last victim, he's left bleeding on the side of the road until he's found and taken in by Joss and Henrik, two seemingly innocent locals. Healing from his wounds, Aric is still haunted by the target he didn't kill, especially by those who paid him. Despite the undeniable attraction between him and Joss, Aric can't bring himself to tell the truth: that the masked figures who hired him knows where he is, and his original target is the mysterious prisoner who was recently sentenced to death. Forced to uphold the deal, Aric's only job now is to make sure the execution goes as planned and eliminate whoever intervenes.

Bound by their duties, both Joss and Aric assume this next kill will be easy. But then one of them has a change of heart, sparking a chain reaction that could leave one—or both—of them dead.]]> 202 A.M. Dunnewin 1952577020 Grace 0 to-read 3.68
author: A.M. Dunnewin
name: Grace
average rating: 3.68
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 224004053
Good looks and wads of cash usually get me whatever I desire, unless I desire a box of my favorite cereal at the grocery store right before it closes. As if tonight’s loss wasn’t bad enough, I'm now watching said box of cereal, my literal good luck charm, disappear in some woman’s cart.

The brazen woman denies my cash offer along with my proposal for a more intimate payment. How much loss can a man take in one day?

At this point, who cares how rude I am to her? She’s public enemy number one and chances of seeing her again are slim to none. That is, until she appears at the arena the next morning as the newest marketing rep for the Chicago Red Tails hockey team.

Just my luck.

Carissa Smallson is feisty, outspoken, and boldly confident. She's also funny, down to earth, and…ugh, she’s insanely pretty. Everything about her is both unbelievably annoying and terrifyingly attractive.

As Captain of the team, I’m always laser focused on my job, but lately I ł¦˛ą˛Ô’t stop thinking about her. I lead my team to victory night after night. Hustle, hit, and never quit.

But if I’m not careful, she could knock me off my game.]]> 304 Susan Renee 1964264154 Grace 0 to-read 3.62
author: Susan Renee
name: Grace
average rating: 3.62
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 216626120 Forbidden love on the sun-kissed Mediterranean. Regardless of the risks, it’s easy to get swept away in a breathtaking romance by Sariah Wilson, the USA Today bestselling author of Hypnotized by Love.

Lucky Salerno’s dream is to own a bakery. To earn enough money to achieve it, she has secured a lucrative job as chief stewardess on a superyacht cruising the Mediterranean. Aboard the ship, there’s one unbreakable no hookups among the crew. No problem. The last thing Lucky has time for is a man. Then she meets Hunter Smith, the gorgeous new deckhand sharing her cabin. Is the universe trying to test her willpower?

Who needs the drama that comes with a relationship? Not Hunter. Who can ignore a witty, beautiful bunkmate like Lucky? Also not Hunter. There’s something just as enticing for a tantalizing mystery behind Hunter’s piercing blue eyes she ł¦˛ą˛Ô’t wait to solve. But at what risk?

As they get to know each other, a secret romance buds at sea, and Lucky has to choose. Abide by the rules to make her career dreams come true, or pursue her love for Hunter—another dream that’s just as near to her heart.]]> 377 Sariah Wilson 1662514255 Grace 0 to-read 3.73
author: Sariah Wilson
name: Grace
average rating: 3.73
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 216286389 A whirlwind romance. An impulsive marriage. A Floridian paradise. And a murder among friends in a twisty whodunit by Boo Walker, the bestselling author of The Stars Don’t Lie and An Echo in Time, and coauthor Peggy Shainberg.

On a tiny island off Paradiso, Florida, in 1970, neighbors gather to toast two new shy Catherine and her taciturn husband, Dr. Frank Overbrook, who is taking over an old friend’s medical practice. It’s an intimate welcoming for the newlyweds, who have abandoned city life for swaying palms and an ocean breeze. But the morning after is anything but peaceful when Frank is found dead on the beach.

Detective Quentin Jones has his eyes on the island’s residents and the welcome party’s guest list. There’s the retiring doctor and host, as well as his nurse. Volatile marrieds Miriam and her husband, David, constantly at each other’s throats. The Carters, a strangely antisocial young couple. And Sylvie, a blind sculptor to whom Quentin lost his heart years ago.

But which one is a murderer? As the investigation unravels a close-knit group of friends, secrets are exposed—and more than one of them is worth killing for.]]> 361 Boo Walker 1662523696 Grace 0 to-read 4.23
author: Boo Walker
name: Grace
average rating: 4.23
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 222259253 From the acclaimed author of the "wise and addictive" (New York Times) The Gifted School comes a riveting family drama about moral responsibility in the age of artificial intelligence.

When the Cassidy-Shaws� autonomous minivan collides with an oncoming car, killing an elderly couple, seventeen-year-old Charlie is in the driver’s seat, with his father, Noah, riding shotgun. In the back seat, tweens Alice and Izzy are on their phones, while their mother, Lorelei, a world leader in the field of artificial intelligence, is absorbed in her work. Yet each family member harbors a secret, implicating them all in the tragic accident.

During a weeklong recuperation on the Chesapeake Bay, the family confronts the excruciating moral dilemmas triggered by the crash. Noah tries to hold the family together as a seemingly routine police investigation jeopardizes Charlie’s future. Alice and Izzy turn strangely furtive. And Lorelei’s odd behavior tugs at Noah’s suspicions that there is a darker truth behind the incident—suspicions heightened by the sudden intrusion of Daniel Monet, a tech mogul whose mysterious history with Lorelei hints at betrayal. When Charlie falls for Monet’s teenaged daughter, the stakes are raised even higher in this propulsive family drama that is also a fascinating exploration of the moral responsibility and ethical consequences of AI.

Culpability explores a world newly shaped by chatbots, autonomous cars, drones, and other nonhuman forces in ways that are thrilling, challenging, and unimaginably provocative.]]> 380 Bruce Holsinger 1954118961 Grace 0 to-read 4.33
author: Bruce Holsinger
name: Grace
average rating: 4.33
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read
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]]> 59972550 From USA Today bestselling author Joanna Shupe comes a spicy Anastasia story full of secrets and betrayal, set among the glittering streets of New York City's Gilded Age.

In 1880 a baby was stolen from the wealthiest family in America. Though no ransom was ever demanded, the Pendelton family never gave up hope . . . and their reward became the stuff of legend.

After being raised in a children’s asylum, Josie Smith ends up on the streets and quickly learns how to take care of herself. Her singing voice draws crowds on every corner, and she’ll stop at nothing to become famous and travel the world, loved and adored by all. Maybe then she won’t think about the family who gave her away as an infant.

Leo Hardy isn’t afraid to use his charm and wits to make a fast buck, especially with a mother and five siblings to support. When he stumbles upon a beautiful young woman singing on the street, Leo notices her striking resemblance to the infamous missing baby’s mother, Mrs. Thomas Pendelton. The Hardys lost everything thanks to the Pendeltons, and once Leo sees Josie, he seizes the opportunity to settle the score. All he needs to do is pull off the biggest swindle of his career.

As the two are catapulted into Knickerbocker High Society, they grow closer to their goal, as well as to each other. But secrets can only stay hidden for so long. Soon the truth unfolds, and both Josie and Leo must separate what’s real from what’s just gilding.]]> 352 Joanna Shupe 0063310317 Grace 0 to-read 3.91 2025
author: Joanna Shupe
name: Grace
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read
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]]> 219850879
In between grading papers andĚýnavigating her disastrous love life, Professor Ouverture embarks on a deadly investigation to find out what connects her to Sam’s murder—with the help of local detective Asma Ahmed and alluring former-detective-turned-bookseller, Rowan Peterson. As Professor Ouverture gets closer to the truthĚýshe begins toĚýuncover a secret history of injustice on campus and off.]]> 384 Zoe B. Wallbrook 164129552X Grace 0 to-read 4.54
author: Zoe B. Wallbrook
name: Grace
average rating: 4.54
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read
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]]> 209772218 An intimate and deeply moving coming-of-age novel about second chances and the inextricable bonds between lovers and friends.

The only love Ari has known is Morgan. Engaged and planning a life with him in New York, Ari is shocked when Morgan sits her down one rainy afternoon and tells her their decade-long relationship is over. They’ve been over for a long time now, he says—and Ari knows he’s right.

Twenty-eight years old and suddenly alone, Ari throws herself into a new job in Boston, as assistant to a tech CEO. Wells is British, twelve years her senior, a devoted husband and father. He’s also captivated by Ari, in a way neither of them can explain. Ignoring every warning signal from friends and their own instincts, they dive into a fiery affair, which becomes more dangerous as Ari finds herself intricately tangled with his wife, Leah.

Nothing can prepare Ari for the choices she must make as she tries to uncover what’s right for herself, and for the people she ł¦˛ą˛Ô’t let go. As a new path opens—a journey of lies and the twisted calculus of protecting them—Ari’s second chance at happiness forces her to consider who she really is. Can you love someone without dragging them under? What does it take to start over again?]]> 298 Meredith Turits 1662524013 Grace 0 to-read 3.61
author: Meredith Turits
name: Grace
average rating: 3.61
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 209492361 A haunted woman stalked by a serial killer confronts the horrors of fairy tales and the nightmares of real life in a breathtaking novel of psychological suspense by a Bram Stoker Award–winning author.

It started the night journalist Briar Thorne’s mother died in their rambling old mansion on Chicago’s South Side.

The nightmares of a woman in white pleading to come home, music switched on in locked rooms, and the panicked fear of being swallowed by the dark…Bri has almost convinced herself that these stirrings of dread are simply manifestations of grief and not the beyond-world of ghostly impossibilities her mother believed in. And more tangible terrors still lurk outside the decaying Victorian greystone.

A serial killer has claimed the lives of fifty-one women in the Chicago area. When Bri starts researching the murders, she meets a stranger who tells her there’s more to her sleepless nights than bad dreams—they hold the key to putting ghosts to rest and stopping a killer. But the killer has caught on and is closing in, and if Bri doesn’t answer the call of the dead soon, she’ll be walking among them.]]> 336 Cynthia Pelayo 1662513925 Grace 0 to-read 3.42 2025
author: Cynthia Pelayo
name: Grace
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 224103430 The new novel from the bestselling author of If We Were Villains and Graveyard Shift—a vivid and immersive tale of one woman’s reckless mission to make sense of the events that shattered her childhood, and made her who she is

Summer, 1989: ten-year-old Suzanne is drawn like a magnet to her father’s forbidden world of electric guitars and tricked-out cars. When her mother remarries, she jumps at the chance to tag along on the concert tour that just might be Gil and the Kills� wild ride to glory. But fame has sharper fangs than anybody realized, and as the band blazes up the charts, internal power struggles set Gil and his group on a collision course destined for a bloody reckoning—one shrouded in mystery and lore for decades to come.

The only witness to a desperate act of violence, Suzanne spends the next twenty-nine years trying to disappear. She trades the music and mayhem of her youth for the quiet of the suburbs and the company of her mild-mannered husband Rob. But when her father’s sudden death resurrects the troubled past she tried so hard to bury, she leaves it all behind and hits the road in search of answers. Hitching her fate and Gil’s beloved car to two vagabonds who call an old Airstream trailer home, she finds everything she thought she’d lost desire, adventure, and the woman she once wanted to be. But Rob refuses to let her go. Determined to bring her back where she belongs, he chases her across the country—and drives her to a desperation all her own.

Drenched in knock-down drag-out rock and roll, Hot Wax is a raucous, breakneck ride to hell and back—where getting lost might be the only way to find yourself and save your soul.]]> 400 M.L. Rio 1668070022 Grace 0 to-read 3.94 2025
author: M.L. Rio
name: Grace
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 51942513 Jay Shetty, social media superstar and host of the #1 podcast On Purpose, distills the timeless wisdom he learned as a monk into practical steps anyone can take every day to live a less anxious, more meaningful life.

When you think like a monk, you’ll understand:
- How to overcome negativity
- How to stop overthinking
- Why comparison kills love
- How to use your fear
- Why you ł¦˛ą˛Ô’t find happiness by looking for it
- How to learn from everyone you meet
- Why you are not your thoughts
- How to find your purpose
- Why kindness is crucial to success
- And much more...

Shetty grew up in a family where you could become one of three things—a doctor, a lawyer, or a failure. His family was convinced he had chosen option three: instead of attending his college graduation ceremony, he headed to India to become a monk, to meditate every day for four to eight hours, and devote his life to helping others. After three years, one of his teachers told him that he would have more impact on the world if he left the monk’s path to share his experience and wisdom with others. Heavily in debt, and with no recognizable skills on his résumé, he moved back home in north London with his parents.

Shetty reconnected with old school friends—many working for some of the world’s largest corporations—who were experiencing tremendous stress, pressure, and unhappiness, and they invited Shetty to coach them on well-being, purpose, and mindfulness. Since then, Shetty has become one of the world’s most popular influencers. In 2017, he was named in the Forbes magazine 30-under-30 for being a game-changer in the world of media. In 2018, he had the #1 video on Facebook with over 360 million views. His social media following totals over 38 million, he has produced over 400 viral videos which have amassed more than 8 billion views, and his podcast, On Purpose, is consistently ranked the world’s #1 Health and Wellness podcast.

In this inspiring, empowering book, Shetty draws on his time as a monk to show us how we can clear the roadblocks to our potential and power. Combining ancient wisdom and his own rich experiences in the ashram, Think Like a Monk reveals how to overcome negative thoughts and habits, and access the calm and purpose that lie within all of us. He transforms abstract lessons into advice and exercises we can all apply to reduce stress, improve relationships, and give the gifts we find in ourselves to the world. Shetty proves that everyone can—and should—think like a monk.]]> 328 Jay Shetty 1982134488 Grace 0 not-reading 4.18 2020
author: Jay Shetty
name: Grace
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: not-reading
review:

]]> 58606112 It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.

By her brother's graveside, Liesel Meminger's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Grave Digger's Handbook, left there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordion-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found.

But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up and closed down.

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.]]> 552 Markus Zusak 0375842209 Grace 0 4.52 2005
author: Markus Zusak
name: Grace
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read, audio, kindle-winter-reads, kindle, reviews-over-1m, kindle-fall-reads, owned, tbr-owned
review:

]]> 29093222 Jacqueline Woodson’s National Book Award and Newbery Honor winner, now available in paperback with seven new, original poems.

A President Obama "O" Book Club pick

Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child's soul as she searches for her place in the world. Woodson's eloquent poetry also reflects the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, despite the fact that she struggled with reading as a child. Her love of stories inspired her and stayed with her, creating the first sparks of the gifted writer she was to become.

Includes 7 new poems, including "Brown Girl Dreaming."


Praise for Jacqueline Woodson:

A 2016 National Book Award finalist for her adult novel, ANOTHER BROOKLYN

"Ms. Woodson writes with a sure understanding of the thoughts of young people, offering a poetic, eloquent narrative that is not simply a story . . . but a mature exploration of grown-up issues and self-discovery."--The New York Times Book Review]]> 366 Jacqueline Woodson 0147515823 Grace 0 4.38 2014
author: Jacqueline Woodson
name: Grace
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read, owned, kindle, tbr-owned
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]]> 32148570 Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family’s Mississippi River shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge—until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children’s Home Society orphanage, the Foss children are assured that they will soon be returned to their parents—but they quickly realize the dark truth. At the mercy of the facility’s cruel director, Rill fights to keep her sisters and brother together in a world of danger and uncertainty.

Aiken, South Carolina, present day. Born into wealth and privilege, Avery Stafford seems to have it all: a successful career as a federal prosecutor, a handsome fiancé, and a lavish wedding on the horizon. But when Avery returns home to help her father weather a health crisis, a chance encounter leaves her with uncomfortable questions and compels her to take a journey through her family’s long-hidden history, on a path that will ultimately lead either to devastation or to redemption.

Based on one of America’s most notorious real-life scandals—in which Georgia Tann, director of a Memphis-based adoption organization, kidnapped and sold poor children to wealthy families all over the country—Lisa Wingate’s riveting, wrenching, and ultimately uplifting tale reminds us how, even though the paths we take can lead to many places, the heart never forgets where we belong.]]> 342 Lisa Wingate 0425284689 Grace 0 4.38 2017
author: Lisa Wingate
name: Grace
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read, owned, reviews-6-fig, buzzwordathon-dec-25, tbr-owned
review:

]]> 539282
From August Wilson, author of The Piano Lesson and the 1984-85 Broadway season's best play, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, is another powerful, stunning dramatic work that has won him numerous critical acclaim including the 1987 Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize. The protagonist of Fences (part of Wilson's ten-part Pittsburgh Cycle plays), Troy Maxson, is a strong man, a hard man. He has had to be to survive. Troy Maxson has gone through life in an America where to be proud and black is to face pressures that could crush a man, body and soul. But the 1950s are yielding to the new spirit of liberation in the 1960s, a spirit that is changing the world Troy Maxson has learned to deal with the only way he can, a spirit that is making him a stranger, angry and afraid, in a world he never knew and to a wife and son he understands less and less.]]> 101 August Wilson 0452264014 Grace 0 3.88 1986
author: August Wilson
name: Grace
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1986
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read, owned, kindle-under-200-pgs, owned-ap-lit-textbook, tbr-owned
review:

]]> 59201362
Samira settles into the mansion, blissfully happy—until she discovers long-hidden journals belonging to Roland’s late wife, Melanie, who died in a tragic accident. With each dusty page, Samira comes to realize that perhaps it was no accident at all—that perhaps her perfect husband is not as perfect as she thought. Even as her trust in Roland begins to dwindle and a shadow falls over her marriage and she begins to fear for her own life, Samira is determined to uncover the truth of Melanie’s troubled last days. But even good wives should know that the truth is not always what it seems . . .]]> 320 Shanora Williams 1496731115 Grace 0 3.68 2022
author: Shanora Williams
name: Grace
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read, giveaway-wins, owned, kindle-prime-reading, kindle, kindle-unlimited, owned-arc, tbr-owned
review:

]]> 51152447 The Warmth of Other Suns examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows how our lives today are still defined by a hierarchy of human divisions.

“As we go about our daily lives, caste is the wordless usher in a darkened theater, flashlight cast down in the aisles, guiding us to our assigned seats for a performance. The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power—which groups have it and which do not.�

In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings.

Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people’s lives and behavior and the nation’s fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people—including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball’s Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others—she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. She documents how the Nazis studied the racial systems in America to plan their out-cast of the Jews; she discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against; she writes about the surprising health costs of caste, in depression and life expectancy, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and politics. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity.]]> 544 Isabel Wilkerson 0593230256 Grace 0 4.52 2020
author: Isabel Wilkerson
name: Grace
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read, owned, reviews-6-fig, kindle, tbr-owned
review:

]]> 57933316 They were cowriting literary darlings until they hit a plot hole that turned their lives upside down.

Three years ago, Katrina Freeling and Nathan Van Huysen were the brightest literary stars on the horizon, their cowritten books topping bestseller lists. But on the heels of their greatest success, they ended their partnership on bad terms, for reasons neither would divulge to the public. They haven't spoken since, and never planned to, except they have one final book due on contract.

Facing crossroads in their personal and professional lives, they're forced to reunite. The last thing they ever thought they'd do again is hole up in the tiny Florida town where they wrote their previous book, trying to finish a new manuscript quickly and painlessly. Working through the reasons they've hated each other for the past three years isn't easy, especially not while writing a romantic novel.

While passion and prose push them closer together in the Florida heat, Katrina and Nathan will learn that relationships, like writing, sometimes take a few rough drafts before they get it right.]]> 336 Emily Wibberley 0593201930 Grace 0 to-read, owned, tbr-owned 3.56 2022
author: Emily Wibberley
name: Grace
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read, owned, tbr-owned
review:

]]> 228580 Runway magazine, Andrea finds herself in an office that shouts Prada! Armani! Versace! at every turn, a world populated by impossibly thin, heart-wrenchingly stylish women and beautiful men clad in fine-ribbed turtlenecks and tight leather pants that show off their lifelong dedication to the gym. With breathtaking ease, Miranda can turn each and every one of these hip sophisticates into a scared, whimpering child.

The Devil Wears Prada gives a rich and hilarious new meaning to plaints about "The Boss from Hell." Narrated in Andrea’s smart, refreshingly disarming voice, it traces a deep, dark, devilish view of life at the top only hinted at in gossip columns and over Cosmopolitans at the trendiest cocktail parties. From sending the latest, not-yet-in-stores Harry Potter to Miranda’s children in Paris by private jet, to locating an unnamed antique store where Miranda had at some point admired a vintage dresser, to serving lattes to Miranda at precisely the piping hot temperature she prefers, Andrea is sorely tested each and every day—and often late into the night—with orders barked over the phone. She puts up with it all by keeping her eyes on the prize: a recommendation from Miranda that will get Andrea a top job at any magazine of her choosing. As things escalate from the merely unacceptable to the downright outrageous, however, Andrea begins to realize that the job a million girls would die for may just kill her. And even if she survives, she has to decide whether or not the job is worth the price of her soul.]]> 360 Lauren Weisberger 0767914767 Grace 0 3.33 2003
author: Lauren Weisberger
name: Grace
average rating: 3.33
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read, owned, reviews-6-fig, tbr-owned
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]]> 12027939 AN UNEXPECTED LOVE STORY...

Jules Strauss is a Princeton senior on a full scholarship who plans on selling her "pedigree" eggs to help save her father from addiction.

Annie Barrow, a struggling Pennsylvania housewife, thinks that carrying another woman's child will help her recover a sense of purpose and will bring in some much-needed cash.

India Bishop, thirty-eight (really, forty-three) and recently married to the wealthy Marcus Croft, yearns for a baby for reasons that have more to do with money than with love. When her attempts at pregnancy fail, she turns to Jules and Annie to make her dreams come true.

But each of their plans is thrown into disarray when Bettina, Marcus's privileged daughter, becomes suspicious that her new stepmother is not what she seems...

Told with Jennifer Weiner's trademark wit and sharp observations, Then Came You is a hilarious, tender, and timely tale that explores themes of class and entitlement, surrogacy and charity, the rights of a parent and the measure of a mother.]]> 338 Jennifer Weiner 1451617739 Grace 0 to-read, owned, tbr-owned 3.60 2011
author: Jennifer Weiner
name: Grace
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read, owned, tbr-owned
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]]> 22208009 268 James G. Webster 0262027860 Grace 0 to-read, owned, tbr-owned 3.74 2014
author: James G. Webster
name: Grace
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read, owned, tbr-owned
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]]> 36622726
The next morning, three women in and around London—Fatima, Thea, and Isa—receive the text they had always hoped would never come, from the fourth in their formerly inseparable clique, Kate, that says only, “I need you.�

The four girls were best friends at Salten, a second-rate boarding school set near the cliffs of the English Channel. Each different in their own way, the four became inseparable and were notorious for playing the Lying Game, telling lies at every turn to both fellow boarders and faculty. But their little game had consequences, and as the four converge in present-day Salten, they realize their shared past was not as safely buried as they had once hoped…]]> 416 Ruth Ware 1501156209 Grace 0 3.56 2017
author: Ruth Ware
name: Grace
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read, audio, kindle-fall-reads, reviews-6-fig, kindle, owned, tbr-owned
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]]> 7445 THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette's brilliant and charismatic father captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn't want the responsibility of raising a family.

The Walls children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed, and protected one another, and eventually found their way to New York. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as their children prospered.

The Glass Castle is truly astonishing--a memoir permeated by the intense love of a peculiar but loyal family.]]> 288 Jeannette Walls 074324754X Grace 5 ]]> 4.32 2005
author: Jeannette Walls
name: Grace
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at: 2021/02/13
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: owned, audio, reviews-over-1m, favorites, kindle-banned-books, tbr-reread
review:
Just as good as it was when I started in high school! I've made this comparison for years, but, if you love the TV show Shameless, you would love this book. Fantastic writing, it reads like fiction and has a wonderful storyline. Would highly recommend it to anyone in my life. 5 stars!

]]> 54626107 Border and Rule, one of North America's foremost thinkers and immigrant rights organizers delivers an unflinching examination of migration as a pillar of global governance and gendered racial class formation.

Harsha Walia disrupts easy explanations for the migrant and refugee crises, instead showing them to be the inevitable outcomes of conquest, capitalist globalization, and climate change generating mass dispossession worldwide. Border and Rule explores a number of seemingly disparate global geographies with shared logics of border rule that displace, immobilize, criminalize, exploit, and expel migrants and refugees. With her keen ability to connect the dots, Walia demonstrates how borders divide the international working class and consolidate imperial, capitalist, ruling class, and racist nationalist rule. Ambitious in scope and internationalist in orientation, Border and Rule breaks through American exceptionalist and liberal responses to the migration crisis and cogently maps the lucrative connections between state violence, capitalism, and right-wing nationalism around the world.

Illuminating the brutal mechanics of state formation, Walia exposes US border policy as a product of violent territorial expansion, settler-colonialism, enslavement, and gendered racial exclusion. Further, she compellingly details how Fortress Europe and White Australia are using immigration diplomacy and externalized borders to maintain a colonial present, how temporary labor migration in the Arab Gulf states and Canada is central to citizenship regulation and labor control, and far-right nationalism is escalating deadly violence in the US, Israel, India, the Philippines, Brazil, and across Europe, while producing a disaster of statelessness for millions elsewhere.

A must-read in these difficult times of war, inequality, climate change, and global health crisis, Border and Rule is a clarion call for revolution. The book includes a foreword from renowned scholar Robin D. G. Kelley and an afterword from acclaimed activist-academic Nick Estes.]]> 200 Harsha Walia 1642592692 Grace 0 4.58 2021
author: Harsha Walia
name: Grace
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/18
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]]> 69131
Based on the Law of Attraction, which is the concept that we can only attract what we’re ready to receive, the provocative yet simple seven-week program in Calling in “The One� prepares you to bring forth the love you seek. For each of the 49 days of Thomas’s thoughtful and life-affirming plan, there is a daily lesson, a corresponding practice, and instruction for putting that lesson into action in your life. Meditation, visualization, and journaling exercises will gently lead you to recognize the obstacles on your path to love and provide ways to steer around them. At the end of those 49 days, you will be in the ideal emotional state to go out into the world and find “The One.�

An inspirational approach that offers a radical new philosophy on relationships, Calling in “The One� is your guide to finding the love you seek.]]> 327 Katherine Woodward Thomas 1400049296 Grace 0 4.22 2004
author: Katherine Woodward Thomas
name: Grace
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2004
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/18
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]]> 38633553 This collector's edition of the acclaimed, award-winning novel contains a letter from the author, the meanings behind the names in the book, a map of Garden Heights, fan art, the full, original story that inspired the book, and an excerpt from On the Come Up.


Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil's name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

But what Starr does--or does not--say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.]]> 512 Angie Thomas 0062872346 Grace 0 4.67 2017
author: Angie Thomas
name: Grace
average rating: 4.67
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/18
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]]> 13528340
In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages—not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers—beautiful, haunted Akiva—fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?]]> 418 Laini Taylor 031613399X Grace 0 4.11 2011
author: Laini Taylor
name: Grace
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read, audio, kindle-winter-reads, kindle, owned, reviews-6-fig, kindle-unlimited, buzzwordathon-jul-25, tbr-owned
review:

]]>