en-US Sat, 12 Apr 2025 15:25:18 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 211004124 From the New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six comes the story of three siblings who, upon the death of their father, are forced to reckon with their long-festering rivalries, dangerous abilities, and the crushing weight of all their unrealized adolescent potential.

Where there’s a will, there’s a war.

Thayer Wren, the brilliant CEO of Wrenfare Magitech and so-called father of modern technology, is dead. Any one of his three telepathically and electrokinetically gifted children would be a plausible inheritor to the Wrenfare throne.

Or at least, so they like to think.

Meredith, textbook accomplished eldest daughter and the head of her own groundbreaking biotech company, has recently cured mental illness. You're welcome! If only her father's fortune wasn't her last hope for keeping her journalist ex-boyfriend from exposing what she really is: a total fraud.

Arthur, second-youngest congressman in history, fights the good fight every day of his life. And yet, his wife might be leaving him, and he's losing his re-election campaign. But his dead father’s approval in the form of a seat on the Wrenfare throne might just turn his sinking ship around.

Eilidh, once the world's most famous ballerina, has spent the last five years as a run-of-the-mill marketing executive at her father’s company after a life-altering injury put an end to her prodigious career. She might be lacking in accolades compared to her siblings, but if her father left her everything, it would finally validate her worth—by confirming she'd been his favorite all along.

On the pipeline of gifted kid to clinically depressed adult, nobody wins—but which Wren will come out on top?]]> 512 Olivie Blake 1250883407 Dani 0 to-read 3.92 2025
author: Olivie Blake
name: Dani
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 228507372
?? Content Warning ??
Sex, Violence, Drug Use, SA, Suicide

The massive forest surrounding The Azure Valley frightens Bianca. A sense of longing and dread permeates the air drifting through those tall trees, chilling her to the bone. She can’t even look at it. And so, she draws the curtains tight, thankful for the high fence out back, and retreats into the comforting fa?ade of electric light and air conditioning. Whatever unseen force prowls in the darkness outside cannot reach her here. Her husband Liam is patient but doesn’t understand. Bianca doesn’t either. All she knows is she doesn’t belong here. Not in The Valley. Not in this house with Liam. No, this life was never meant for her. Liam’s adult daughter Hannah has no problem reminding Bianca of that fact as often as possible. This isn’t her world. She can’t even tend to her once beloved garden, the vines strangling her beautiful flowers since the day she fled from a distant, mournful wail echoing from the mountains above. A stir of a memory.

One day, a strange woman appears in The Azure Valley who seems to know Bianca. Why does this strange woman disturb everyone she encounters except for Bianca? Who is she and what does she want? And what has Bianca forgotten?]]> 450 P.J. Burgy Dani 0 3.00
author: P.J. Burgy
name: Dani
average rating: 3.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: horror, mystery, psychological, thriller, currently-reading
review:

]]> 216588585 128 Joe Benítez 1534336303 Dani 4 3.89
author: Joe Benítez
name: Dani
average rating: 3.89
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/09
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: action, adventure, dystopian, graphic-novels, steam-punk
review:
I feel like many of these stories end in either heartbreak or are super bittersweet. This was a bittersweet one this time around. I did like the story, but had hoped it would dive more into the presence of the folktale characters and use them more. It feels like the main focus is on one folk character and a very short description of the other two. I love Lady Mechanika for its fantastical stories with fairy talk and folk tale elements, but I felt this focused too much on the mystery of the story with little influence from folk tales unless the plot needed it - so I ranked it down 1 star because of this. I'll still continue reading these stories, I just felt this one was lacking with the background on the fantastical characters that I'm used to getting.
]]> 56236445 61 John Rhea Dani 5 non-fiction, coding 5.00
author: John Rhea
name: Dani
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/09
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: non-fiction, coding
review:
Probably the only book that’s ever explained when “inline” and “block” mean in CSS and did so in a way I could actually understand and retain. John’s books are great to learn new concepts or as a refresher for already-know concepts. I’d recommend this to a beginner or advanced coder who wants to learn Flexbox or grid and have it explained simply.
]]> 14540186
Dimension 20: A Starstruck Odyssey brings the universe of Starstruck to the popular TTRPG actual play show, Dropout.tv's Dimension 20. Created and hosted by writer Elaine Lee's son, Brennan Lee Mulligan, Dimension 20: A Starstruck Odyssey is an 18-episode adventure that brings all of the chaos, wit, and heart of the Starstruck comic series to the world of RPGs. Featuring the cast of previous Dimension 20 seasons such as Fantasy High and The Unsleeping City , A Starstruck Odyssey will begin airing in January 2022.

This comprehensive Starstruck collection presents the material on which the Dimension 20 season is based in a grand, oversized edition. This beautiful book features some of the finest art ever put to paper by artist Michael Kaluta, including many pages that were never printed in the original run. Additionally, Kaluta painstakingly added approximately 20% of art to nearly every page to ensure the aspect ratio of the comic would be consistent and correct. The end result is unlike anything you’ve ever experienced—a head-spinning, synapse-snapping, soul-searing ride to a world like no other… the world of Starstruck !

Collects all 13 issues of the completely remastered series by Elaine Lee and Michael Kaluta! That's 360-pages of Starstruck and Galactic Girl Guides adventures, covers, pin-ups, glossary, postcards, and so much more.]]> 360 Elaine Lee 1613774397 Dani 0 3.83 2011
author: Elaine Lee
name: Dani
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: currently-reading, graphic-novels, sci-fi
review:

]]> 59349956 How far would you go to find The One?

A simple DNA test is all it takes. Just a quick mouth swab and soon you’ll be matched with your perfect partner the one you are genetically made for.

That’s the promise made by Match Your DNA. A decade ago, the company announced that they had found the gene that pairs each of us with our soul mate. Since then, millions of people around the world have been matched. But the discovery has its downsides: test results have led to the breakup of countless relationships and upended the traditional ideas of dating, romance and love.

Now five very different people have received the notification that they’ve been “Matched.” They’re each about to meet their one true love. But “happily ever after” isn’t guaranteed for everyone. Because even soul mates have secrets. And some are more shocking than others…

A word-of-mouth hit in the United Kingdom, The One is a fascinating novel that shows how even the simplest discoveries can have complicated consequences.]]> 418 John Marrs Dani 0 to-read 4.11 2016
author: John Marrs
name: Dani
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 22447402 200 Sui Ishida 4088795466 Dani 0 4.58 2013
author: Sui Ishida
name: Dani
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: currently-reading, graphic-novels, manga
review:

]]> 22447397 200 Sui Ishida 4088794982 Dani 5 graphic-novels, manga 4.44 2013
author: Sui Ishida
name: Dani
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/03
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: graphic-novels, manga
review:

]]> 52874477 FOLLOW THE SMOKE

Coco and her peers follow Olruggio and Luluci as they deftly ferry a wounded Qifrey to the underwater Great Hall where witches gather. To their surprise, Beldaruit of the Three Wise Ones awaits the young apprentices at the bottom of the ocean... And he's willing to offer another trial after Agott's and Richeh's was cut short. But the spells and tests of Beldaruit are as much a mystery to unfold as his past, and Coco may be the only one who can put the pieces together and close in on the startling truth...]]> 168 Kamome Shirahama 1646510100 Dani 5 4.59 2019
author: Kamome Shirahama
name: Dani
average rating: 4.59
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/01
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: fantasy, graphic-novels, manga
review:

]]> 217308498 Spark is light, Spark is magic, Spark is power.

Spark is everything and it blooms inside the bodies of Tau City’s young women. Once a decade, in exchange for enough power to keep the city modern and comfortable, a Spark Maiden must be sacrificed to their mysterious tower god in a ritual called The Extraction.

Ten Maidens are Chosen, but only one enters the tower as a sacrifice, never to be seen again. The nine leftovers are elevated to celebrity status and spend the next decade living in the luxurious Maiden Tower, wearing couture gala gowns, and partying with the city’s most interesting and beautiful people. Every young woman in Tau City wants to be a Spark Maiden because the odds have always been in their favor.

Until now.

One by one, the greedy god has summoned the leftover Spark Maidens into sacrifice. When Clara Birch, Spark Maiden number nine, gets the call, she fully expects her fiancé, Finn Scott, the Extraction Master’s son, to save her.

Spoiler He’s not going to.

At the same time, a rebellion is brewing. The forgotten underclass is plotting the end of the god and his tower with strategically-placed Rebel spies that will bring it all down. Jasina Bell is a young woman on a mission to make history and she will stop at nothing to get the fame she deserves.

When Clara is forced into the tower against her will, she makes an unexpected discovery. There is no god—just a man, one willing to do what Finn Scott wouldn’ save Clara Birch.

Even if it means destroying the entire world to do so.

Betrayal and sacrifice, loyalty and power plays—four people are entangled across time and space as they seek truth, freedom, and true love in this wild and twisted adult romantasy that will have readers breathlessly turning pages until the very last word.


Enemies to Lovers
Anti-Hero
Ride or Die
Across Time and Space
Ultimate Betrayal
Morally Grey

]]> 814 J.A. Huss 1957277351 Dani 0 to-read 4.10 2024
author: J.A. Huss
name: Dani
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 168632462 A deeply moving novel about forgiveness, grief, and what it means to be 'good', from the award-winning author of The Natural Way of Things and The Weekend.

A woman abandons her city life and marriage to return to the place of her childhood, holing up in a small religious community hidden away on the stark plains of the Monaro. She does not believe in God, doesn't know what prayer is, and finds herself living this strange, reclusive life almost by accident.

As she gradually adjusts to the rhythms of monastic life, she finds herself turning again and again to thoughts of her mother, whose early death she can't forget. Disquiet interrupts this secluded life with three visitations. First comes a terrible mouse plague, each day signaling a new battle against the rising infestation. Second is the return of the skeletal remains of a sister who left the community decades before to minister to deprived women in Thailand - then disappeared, presumed murdered. Finally, a troubling visitor to the monastery pulls the narrator further back into her past.

With each of these disturbing arrivals, the woman faces some deep questions. Can a person be truly good? What is forgiveness? Is loss of hope a moral failure? And can the business of grief ever really be finished? A meditative and deeply moving novel from one of Australia's most acclaimed and best loved writers.

"Wood joins the ranks of writers such as Nora Ephron, Penelope Lively and Elizabeth Strout." THE GUARDIAN UK]]> 320 Charlotte Wood Dani 0 to-read 3.73 2023
author: Charlotte Wood
name: Dani
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 203931568 HOUSES OF THE UNHOLY?is a riveting horror thrill ride from bestselling creators ED BRUBAKER and SEAN PHILLIPS, the award-winning team behind?CRIMINAL?(soon to be a TV series on Amazon Prime),?RECKLESS,?NIGHT FEVER,?and?WHERE THE BODY WAS.]]> 144 Ed Brubaker 1534327428 Dani 4 graphic-novels, horror 3.59 2024
author: Ed Brubaker
name: Dani
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/01
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: graphic-novels, horror
review:

]]> 90581037 112 Joe Brusha 1951087348 Dani 4 4.00
author: Joe Brusha
name: Dani
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/01
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: fantasy, graphic-novels, sci-fi
review:

]]> 199797538
Vic and her team of The Forged have escaped the menace of the Phobes only to arrive in a land of treachery, seduction, deceit, and violence—the Court of the Eternal Empress herself! Who can they trust? Just what are the Cassandras plotting? How far does the Unseen Hand reach? Who is Davian, and what, exactly, does he want? And most importantly—can Harpo find romance?

Collects The Forged #4 - #6]]> 144 Greg Rucka 1534397493 Dani 4 graphic-novels, sci-fi 3.63
author: Greg Rucka
name: Dani
average rating: 3.63
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/01
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: graphic-novels, sci-fi
review:

]]> 192793634 From acclaimed journalist Melissa Chan and esteemed activist artist Badiucao comes a near-future graphic novel dystopia that explores technology, authoritarian government, and the lengths that one will go to in the fight for freedom.

Three idealistic youths, forever transformed by the real-world protests in Hong Kong in 2019, develop diverging beliefs about how to best fight against techno-authoritarian China. As conflict escalates and a nuclear disaster looms, is working with an increasingly fascist and non-democratic United States the answer? Andy, Maggie, and Olivia travel different paths toward transformative change, each confronting to what extent they will fight for freedom, and who they will become in doing so.

A powerful and important book about global totalitarian futures, and the costs of resistance.]]> 264 Badiucao 1951491297 Dani 4 dystopian, graphic-novels 4.15
author: Badiucao
name: Dani
average rating: 4.15
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/01
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: dystopian, graphic-novels
review:

]]> 58243480
We think a lot of things. It was perhaps inevitable that some of them would turn out to be wrong.

When the great incursion occurred, no one was prepared. How could they have been? Of all the things physicists had predicted, "the fabric of reality might rip open and giant monsters could come pouring through" had not made the list. But somehow, on a fine morning in May, that was precisely what happened.

For sisters Susan and Katharine Black, the day of the incursion was the day they lost everything. Their home, their parents, their sense of normalcy...and each other, because when the rift opened, Susan was on one side and Katharine was on the other, and each sister was stranded in a separate form of reality. For Susan, it was science and study and the struggle to solve the mystery of the altered physics inside the zones transformed by the incursion. For Katharine, it was monsters and mayhem and the fight to stay alive in a world unlike the world of her birth.

The world has changed. The laws of physics have changed. The girls have changed. And the one universal truth of all states of changed matter is that nothing can be completely restored to what it was originally, no matter how much you might wish it could be.

Nothing goes back.]]> 144 Mira Grant 1645240533 Dani 0 to-read 3.85 2021
author: Mira Grant
name: Dani
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 216470365
Many believe that Shim Cheong, the most beautiful girl in the village—and the beloved of Mina’s older brother Joon—may be the legendary true bride. But on the night Cheong is to be sacrificed, Joon follows Cheong out to sea, even knowing that to interfere is a death sentence. To save her brother, Mina throws herself into the water in Cheong’s stead.

Swept away to the Spirit Realm, a magical city of lesser gods and mythical beasts, Mina seeks out the Sea God, only to find him caught in an enchanted sleep. With the help of a mysterious young man named Shin—as well as a motley crew of demons, gods and spirits—Mina sets out to wake the Sea God and bring an end to the killer storms once and for all.

But she doesn’t have much time: A human cannot live long in the land of the spirits. And there are those who would do anything to keep the Sea God from waking…]]> 352 Axie Oh 125086609X Dani 0 to-read 4.11 2022
author: Axie Oh
name: Dani
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 221331072
Yōkai—spirits and monsters found in Japanese folklore—reflect the complex relationship between Japan and the sea over its long history. The sea has served as a conduit for cultural exchange with continental Asia while also isolating Japan and allowing it to foster a distinct national identity. It has acted as both a protective barrier, shielding Japan from foreign invasion, and a destructive force, unleashing devastating tsunamis upon its shores. It is a vital source of sustenance, providing fish and seaweed that sustain the nation’s diet, yet it is also a realm of mystery and danger. These aspects are reflected in the number and diversity of aquatic yōkai. Some are playful, others are deadly; some grant wishes, others destroy; some bring terrible curses, and others provide divine protection.

This manual contains over 100 illustrated entries divided over five chapters that cover a wide variety of Japanese spirits, with a heavy focus on aquatic yōkai and maritime myths. Each creature is described in detail, including its habitat, diet, origin, and legends based on translations from centuries-old Japanese texts.]]> 341 Matthew Meyer Dani 5 non-fiction, yokai 5.00
author: Matthew Meyer
name: Dani
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/30
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves: non-fiction, yokai
review:
So glad to have another book by Matthew Meyer. His artwork and tales go so well together. And this is over 200 pages long? The amount of dedication to this project was definitely noticed! I would fund another Kickstarter by him at the drop of a hat.
]]> 214221062 They called me The Morrigan. I was magnificent. I was multitudes.
They twisted my story, stripped me away. But I will tell it now in my own voice.
It begins, as all the best stories do, in darkness.

From an ancient, storm-tossed sea, a tribe of gods reach the rocky shores of Ireland. Among them, a strange, hungry, red-haired girl. A girl who can change shape, from bird to beast to goddess. A girl who dreams of battle, of blood, of death and power.

She does not know yet that a woman who seeks to rule will always be in danger – or that there are far more treacherous figures in this land than the gods who raised her.

She does not know that one day love will burn so deep in her heart that its scars will never heal. That she will know pain so raw and pure it will almost tear her apart.

She does not know that her journey will take a thousand years. That her name will be remembered for a thousand more.

She is The Morrigan, and she is a girl with rage coiled in her chest. Beautiful, powerful, ravenous rage. A rage that will live forever.

An electric debut retelling of Ireland’s mythic goddess of war, from a bold and powerful new voice.]]> 352 Kim Curran 1405969385 Dani 0 to-read 4.05 2025
author: Kim Curran
name: Dani
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 22447384 200 Sui Ishida 4088794788 Dani 5 fantasy 4.39 2012
author: Sui Ishida
name: Dani
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/27
date added: 2025/03/27
shelves: fantasy
review:

]]> 22447379 192 Sui Ishida 4088794206 Dani 4 graphic-novels, manga 4.41 2012
author: Sui Ishida
name: Dani
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/22
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: graphic-novels, manga
review:

]]> 218515947 The gorgeous collector’s hardcover edition of Blood of Hercules contains full color customized artwork, exclusive bonus content, and gold foil sprayed edges, foil casing, and metallic cover treatment.

I’m just a girl. And it turns out, I’m Hercules.

I’m struggling to survive in a Titan infested world where Spartans, immortals from twelve royal families who have god-like powers and obscene wealth, rule over all. A shy-stammering foster child with nothing, I keep my head down, cover my scars, and focus on excelling in school. At least, I try to. Then it happens.

My blood test reveals I’m part of the powerful elite. I’m one of them. A Spartan.

Forced to attend the Spartan War Academy, I undergo the most harrowing test of all time to see if I have what it takes to be an immortal. There’s just a few problems. Achilles and Patro are my scary mentors. Kharon, the ferryman of death, and Augustus, the son of war, are my terrifying professors. Also, I’m pretty sure either someone’s stalking me everywhere I go, or my sanity’s slipping––I have a bad feeling both are true.

I’m surrounded by Villains and they’re smothering me with their hate, obsession, and dark possessiveness. Too bad for them, they have no clue just who they’re messing with.

Perfect for readers who love:
? "Who did this to you?"
? Extreme Enemies to Lovers
? Morally Gray Alpha Heros
? Stories where the Villains get the girl
? Greek Myths and War Academies]]> 512 Jasmine Mas 1335474730 Dani 0 to-read 4.09 2024
author: Jasmine Mas
name: Dani
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 38728544
After insomniac law clerk Frances Scarland is recruited by her firm's most notorious senior partner, she seems poised for serious advancement-whether she wants it or not. But when her impulsive best friend Vickie decides to move to the opposite coast for an acting role, Frances' confusing existence starts to implode...

An intimate study of work chaos and close friendships over time.]]> 144 Hartley Lin 1935233424 Dani 0 to-read 3.78 2018
author: Hartley Lin
name: Dani
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 62697454 108 Alan Noble 1514004437 Dani 0 to-read 4.31
author: Alan Noble
name: Dani
average rating: 4.31
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 215799446 Homura Kawamoto Dani 0 to-read 4.33
author: Homura Kawamoto
name: Dani
average rating: 4.33
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 123047594
Collects THE FORGED #1-3]]> 152 Greg Rucka 1534398678 Dani 3 graphic-novels 3.42
author: Greg Rucka
name: Dani
average rating: 3.42
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/15
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: graphic-novels
review:
This felt like a solid start to a series. I was having trouble tracking the action, and what was going on in the plot, but the ending has me asking a TON of questions! So I might check out volume 2 at some point in the future.
]]> 224103410 176 Tyler Boss 1534332065 Dani 0 to-read 2.00
author: Tyler Boss
name: Dani
average rating: 2.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 224103396 256 Matthew Rosenberg 1534333363 Dani 0 to-read 4.50
author: Matthew Rosenberg
name: Dani
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 939709 A Canticle for Leibowitz. A novella-length version of the story was included in the anthology The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume 2, edited by Ben Bova.

Before 1969, every science fiction writer wrote his or her own version of the first Moon landing. Few carry the horror of Budrys' unsettling story.

During all recorded history, the Moon has hovered above our heads, a timeless symbol for lovers' ecstasy. Goddesses & Gibson Girls have tripped the light fantastic of her beams while sonneteers & scientists have scanned her changing phases.

Now humans had actually reached the Moon, & on it the explorers found a structure, a formation so terrible & incomprehensible that it couldn't even be described in human terms. It was a thing that devoured people; that killed them again & again in torturous, unfathomable ways.

Earthbound are the only two men who could probe the thing: Al Barker, a reckless thrill-seeker, whose loving mistress was death, & Dr. Edward Hawks, a scientific murderer, whose greatest mission was rebirth.]]> 188 Algis Budrys 0380389509 Dani 0 to-read 3.54 1960
author: Algis Budrys
name: Dani
average rating: 3.54
book published: 1960
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 43889702 A rich, exquisite and original anthology that illuminates Japanese travel writing over a thousand years

'Oh journey upon journey, my life is a brief moment, and I cannot hope that we will meet again'

Roaming over mountains and along perilous shores, this anthology illuminates over a thousand years of Japanese travel writing. It takes in songs, diaries, tales and poetry, and ranges from famous works including The Pillow Book and the works of Basho to pieces such as the diary of a young girl who longs to return to the capital and her beloved books, or the writings of travelling monks who sleep on pillows of grass. Together they illuminate a long literary tradition, with intense poetic experience at its heart.]]> 400 Meredith McKinney 0241310873 Dani 0 to-read 4.05 2019
author: Meredith McKinney
name: Dani
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60149532 Older women often feel invisible, but sometimes that's their secret weapon.

They've spent their lives as the deadliest assassins in a clandestine international organization, but now that they're sixty years old, four women friends can't just retire - it's kill or be killed in this action-packed thriller.

Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie have worked for the Museum, an elite network of assassins, for forty years. Now their talents are considered old-school and no one appreciates what they have to offer in an age that relies more on technology than people skills.

When the foursome is sent on an all-expenses paid vacation to mark their retirement, they are targeted by one of their own. Only the Board, the top-level members of the Museum, can order the termination of field agents, and the women realize they've been marked for death.

Now to get out alive they have to turn against their own organization, relying on experience and each other to get the job done, knowing that working together is the secret to their survival. They're about to teach the Board what it really means to be a woman--and a killer--of a certain age.]]> 368 Deanna Raybourn 0593200683 Dani 0 to-read 3.82 2022
author: Deanna Raybourn
name: Dani
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 63900265
The psychotic Stickman has done the unthinkable and murdered Kid Dusk, sidekick to Twilight City’s premier crime-fighter, The Insomniac. The Insomniac’s teammates, The Continuum, are tearing Twilight apart, turning it into a terrifying police state—desperate to capture the Stickman and stop the Insomniac from “crossing that final line” in which he may never come back from.

Caught in the middle are the small-time C-list villains, finding it impossible to pull jobs or even walk down the street without being harassed by these heroes. With a bounty on the Stickman’s head, former villain Playtime decides to put together a ragtag team of equally disgruntled supervillains to take down the Stickman and kill him themselves, leading her on a dark journey into the criminal underbelly she’s tried so hard to escape.

This graphic crime drama is about superheroes and villains and the last gasp of the colorful, innocent days of the silver and bronze age...before they’re dragged into the grit-soaked modern era.]]> 136 Patton Oswalt 1506729991 Dani 4 4.02 2023
author: Patton Oswalt
name: Dani
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/14
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: graphic-novels, super-heroes, villians
review:
This was a solid book. I liked the art. I liked the characters. I liked the story, but it was very chaotic and hard to follow at points. At times there were inner monologues that were placed on the page with a lot of action, making me have to read the monologue separately, then double back and read the action text to follow what's going on. It's definitely not a perfect book, but it does have a lot going for it and I may check out the second volume if it comes out.
]]> 208580624
WELCOME TO MAPLE BAY, NOVA SCOTIA

For nearly a century, people have ventured to the idyllic seaside town of Maple Bay in search of a legendary lost pirate treasure, but locals know there’s more than just gold buried in the sand. As the paths of three strangers converge in Maple Bay, the truth is about to be blown wide open. But not before the bodies start to pile up.

Peter Barnett is rapidly approaching 40 with little to show for it when a mysterious letter invites him to Maple Bay and the mansion his estranged family has called home for generations.

Seventeen-year-old Dandy Feltzen is isolated and adrift following the death of her beloved grandfather, until his final request and a tantalizing clue sets her on a mission to solve the mystery he spent his entire life chasing.

Cass Jones has given up on her dream of being a successful author when an unexpected opportunity lands in her a housesitting gig in remote Maple Bay, where she stumbles on the perfect subject matter for her breakout book—and the handsome sailor who might be just the person to help her research it.

Peter, Dandy and Cass have never met, but they’re on a collision course with each other and the mystery that has defined Maple Bay for two centuries, and none of them are prepared for the shocking truths that may or may not still be buried there.]]> 384 Tom Ryan 0802163637 Dani 0 to-read 3.74 2024
author: Tom Ryan
name: Dani
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 20748818 192 Sui Ishida 4088793579 Dani 5 graphic-novels, manga 4.42 2012
author: Sui Ishida
name: Dani
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/13
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: graphic-novels, manga
review:

]]> 57748116
We travel the country, offering terrifying haunted houses, thrilling rides and the tastiest food. And with every passing town, I cleanse this world, one execution at a time.

I hide within the walls, casting my judgement for those that reek of evil, singing lullabies to their rotting souls.

Once you've been chosen, there's no escaping my henchmen—they cater to my every desire.

You can run and you can hide, but it only excites me.

Come.

Take a walk through my dollhouse, where your screams will blend and your cute little pleas will go unanswered.

But I can't promise it'll be over quickly...]]> 197 H.D. Carlton Dani 0 to-read 3.71 2021
author: H.D. Carlton
name: Dani
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 24611735 　
We all have to endure failure from time to time, whether it’s underperforming at a job interview, flunking an exam, or losing a pickup basketball game. But for people working in safety-critical industries, getting it wrong can have deadly consequences. Consider the shocking fact that preventable medical error is the third-biggest killer in the United States, causing more than 400,000 deaths every year. More people die from mistakes made by doctors and hospitals than from traffic accidents. And most of those mistakes are never made public, because of malpractice settlements with nondisclosure clauses.

For a dramatically different approach to failure, look at aviation. Every passenger aircraft in the world is equipped with an almost indestructible black box. Whenever there’s any sort of mishap, major or minor, the box is opened, the data is analyzed, and experts figure out exactly what went wrong. Then the facts are published and procedures are changed, so that the same mistakes won’t happen again. By applying this method in recent decades, the industry has created an astonishingly good safety record.

Few of us put lives at risk in our daily work as surgeons and pilots do, but we all have a strong interest in avoiding predictable and preventable errors. So why don’t we all embrace the aviation approach to failure rather than the health-care approach? As Matthew Syed shows in this eye-opening book, the answer is rooted in human psychology and organizational culture.

Syed argues that the most important determinant of success in any field is an acknowledgment of failure and a willingness to engage with it. Yet most of us are stuck in a relationship with failure that impedes progress, halts innovation, and damages our careers and personal lives. We rarely acknowledge or learn from failure—even though we often claim the opposite. We think we have 20/20 hindsight, but our vision is usually fuzzy.

Syed draws on a wide range of sources—from anthropology and psychology to history and complexity theory—to explore the subtle but predictable patterns of human error and our defensive responses to error. He also shares fascinating stories of individuals and organizations that have successfully embraced a black box approach to improvement, such as David Beckham, the Mercedes F1 team, and Dropbox.]]> 336 Matthew Syed 1591848229 Dani 0 to-read 4.27 2015
author: Matthew Syed
name: Dani
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 213562784
So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? This piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller. That is what June believes, and The New York Times bestseller list agrees.

But June cannot escape Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens her stolen success. As she races to protect her secret she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.]]> 322 R.F. Kuang 0063250853 Dani 3
Actually, I will make a change to my review - There was one character that learned their lesson from their actions, had to deal with the reprocussions of those actions, and led a better (and what seemed like happier) life. But it still seemed like the people that needed to learn from their actions....just learned nothing and repeated their bad habits. So that's how I feel about it.]]> 3.80 2023
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Dani
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/12
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves:
review:
More like 3.5 stars. I liked how the story started out, where the author took it, and how she had her lead spiral at points. I liked how it shows how horrible people can be to each other, especially when it comes to "having the background" to write about certain subjects. I didn't like how it ended. It felt like no one learned anything from their actions and things will continue down this on going cat and mouse forever. Maybe that was the point Kuang was trying to make, but I didn't care for how she went about with creating her ending.

Actually, I will make a change to my review - There was one character that learned their lesson from their actions, had to deal with the reprocussions of those actions, and led a better (and what seemed like happier) life. But it still seemed like the people that needed to learn from their actions....just learned nothing and repeated their bad habits. So that's how I feel about it.
]]> 20743809 208 Sui Ishida 4088792912 Dani 4 graphic-novels, manga 4.46 2012
author: Sui Ishida
name: Dani
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/12
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves: graphic-novels, manga
review:

]]> 18667307 224 Sui Ishida 2723495612 Dani 4 graphic-novels, manga 4.42 2012
author: Sui Ishida
name: Dani
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/12
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves: graphic-novels, manga
review:

]]> 61049580
Danielle Prescod grew up Black in an elite and overwhelmingly white community, her identity made more invisible by the whitewashed movies, television, magazines, and books she and her classmates voraciously consumed. Danielle took her cue from the world around her and aspired to shrink her identity into that box, setting increasingly poisonous goals. She started painful and damaging chemical hair treatments in elementary school, began depriving herself of food when puberty hit, and tried to control her image through the most unimpeachable, impeccable fashion choices.

Those obsessions led her to relentlessly pursue a career in beauty and fashion—the eye of the racist and sexist beauty standard storm. Assimilating was hard, but she was practiced. And she was an asset. Their “Token Black Girl.” Toxic, sure. But Danielle was striving to achieve social cache and working her way up the ladder of coveted media jobs, and she looked great, right? So what if she had to endure executives’ questions like “What was it like to drive to school from the ghetto?” Or coworkers’ eager curiosity to know if her parents were on welfare. But after decades of burying her emotions, resentment, and true self, Danielle turned a critical eye inward and confronted the factors that motivated her self-destructive behaviors.

Sharp witted and bracingly candid, Token Black Girl unpacks the adverse effects of insidious white supremacy in the media—both unconscious and strategic—to tell a personal story about recovery from damaging concepts of perfection, celebrating identity, and demolishing social conditioning.]]> 251 Danielle Prescod 1542035171 Dani 0 3.91 2022
author: Danielle Prescod
name: Dani
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: to-read, biography, non-fiction
review:

]]> 195791072 The never-before-told story of the women Egyptologists who paved the way of exploration in Egypt and created the basis for Egyptology.

The history of Egyptology is often told as yet one more grand narrative of powerful men striving to seize the day and the precious artifacts for their competing homelands. But that is only half of the story. During the so-called Golden Age of Exploration, there were women working and exploring before Howard Carter discovered the tomb of King Tut. Before men even conceived of claiming the story for themselves, women were working in Egypt to lay the groundwork for all future exploration.

In Women in the Valley of the Kings: The Untold Story of Women Egyptologists in the Gilded Age, Kathleen Sheppard brings the untold stories of these women back into this narrative. Sheppard begins with some of the earliest European women who ventured to Egypt as travelers: Amelia Edwards, Jenny Lane, and Marianne Brocklehurst. Their travelogues, diaries and maps chronicled a new world for the curious. In the vast desert, Maggie Benson, the first woman granted permission to excavate in Egypt, met Nettie Gourlay, the woman who became her lifelong companion. They battled issues of oppression and exclusion and, ultimately, are credited with excavating the Temple of Mut.

As each woman scored a success in the desert, she set up the women who came later for their own struggles and successes. Emma Andrews’ success as a patron and archaeologist helped to pave the way for Margaret Murray to teach. Margaret’s work in the university led to the artists Amice Calverley’s and Myrtle Broome’s ability to work on site at Abydos, creating brilliant reproductions of tomb art, and to Kate Bradbury’s and Caroline Ransom’s leadership in critical Egyptological institutions. Women in the Valley of the Kings upends the grand male narrative of Egyptian exploration and shows how a group of courageous women charted unknown territory and changed the field of Egyptology forever.]]> 320 Kathleen Sheppard 125028435X Dani 0 3.52 2024
author: Kathleen Sheppard
name: Dani
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: to-read, adventure, ancient-egypt, anthropology, archaeology, history
review:

]]> 12505 667 Fyodor Dostoevsky 0679642420 Dani 0 to-read 4.22 1869
author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Dani
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1869
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 63294228 岛民たちが混乱の涡に陥る中、魔警団だけでなく岛王や贤者までもが被害を食い止めるために奔走する。
一方、ココはクスタスとダグダを救うため、ついに秘密をキーフリーに打ち明けるが冲冲冲。
怪物が覆う星空の下、魔法使いの、人间の、それぞれの思惑が交差する。闭闭> 184 Kamome Shirahama 4065319692 Dani 5 4.60 2023
author: Kamome Shirahama
name: Dani
average rating: 4.60
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/09
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: fantasy, graphic-novels, manga
review:

]]> 60903369 ダグダとクスタスの救済が悬かった银夜行列が间近に迫り、ココは焦りからスランプに陥ってしまう。
そんなココに手を差し伸べたのは、同じく银夜行列を目指すライバルのアガットだった。
二人はなんとか魔法を完成させて审査を通过するが、果たして初の大舞台は成功するのか。

あなたの事を救いたい。
一途な想いを魔法に込めて冲冲冲。闭闭> 160 Kamome Shirahama 4065296056 Dani 5 4.61 2022
author: Kamome Shirahama
name: Dani
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/09
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: fantasy, graphic-novels, manga
review:

]]> 58562494 176 Kamome Shirahama 4065274125 Dani 5 4.58 2022
author: Kamome Shirahama
name: Dani
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/05
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: fantasy, graphic-novels, manga
review:

]]> 56330986
Коко та ?? друз? збираються взяти участь у ярмарку фестивалю ?Ср?бна н?ч?. Вони добряче п?дготувалися, й готов? показати вс?м власн? витвори.

Ярмарок, зда?ться, заполонив усе м?сто: всюди к?оски з ?жею, оздоби та занадто багато люду, який прагне святкувати. М?сто живе, як н?коли.

Тим часом у корол?вському замку, де маг?я п?д забороною, проходить зустр?ч вельмож ? чар?вник?в.

Тож на ярмарку будуть ус?: чар?вники, аристократи, мудрец?… та непрохан? гост?, нам?ри яких нам поки нев?дом?. Багато сили тут з?бралося, тож може статися будь-що.]]> 176 Kamome Shirahama 4065241006 Dani 5 4.57 2021
author: Kamome Shirahama
name: Dani
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/05
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: fantasy, graphic-novels, manga
review:

]]> 217331 161 Greg Rucka 1401209122 Dani 0 to-read 4.23 2006
author: Greg Rucka
name: Dani
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 245797 Renee Montoya Has A Secret.

She's a Grade A detective but her reputation is put on the line when she's implicated in a murder and her deepest secret is revealed. Suddenly, her colleagues in the GCPD look at her askance, begin treating her with hostility, and when she needs their support the most, she finds mostly cold shoulders.

The man who reaches out to her, though, is one who belongs behind bars. If free, he presents a grave threat not only to Montoya but to all of Gotham's citizens.

This acclaimed adventure won the coveted Eisner Award for Best Story in addition to winning the Harvey Award, the Eagle Award, and the Prism Award.

Bonus features include two more Greg Rucka-written tales, both spotlighting Montoya and the tough road she has traveled.

Collecting Batman Chronicles #16, Detective Comics #747, and Gotham Central #6-10.]]> 160 Greg Rucka 1401204384 Dani 0 to-read 4.33 2004
author: Greg Rucka
name: Dani
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 106058 192 Ed Brubaker 1563899957 Dani 0 to-read 4.32 2005
author: Ed Brubaker
name: Dani
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 179705494
On her journey to doom humankind, a heartbroken and betrayed Poison Ivy encounters obstacles (plant assassins!) and dodges the law along the way, in a body horror-infused character-defining epic from the visionary creative team of writer G. Willow Wilson and artist Marcio Takara.

This volume collects Poison Ivy #1-6.]]> 224 G. Willow Wilson 1779524331 Dani 5 4.12 2023
author: G. Willow Wilson
name: Dani
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/07
date added: 2025/03/07
shelves: batman, graphic-novels, villians
review:

]]> 57947401 195 Mochi au lait 4758068550 Dani 0 to-read 3.95
author: Mochi au lait
name: Dani
average rating: 3.95
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 199525652
After developing an unlikely friendship with the grouchy old woman who lives in his neighborhood, Hiroto suddenly finds himself inheriting not just her house but some rather difficult emotions as well. His 18-year-old cousin, Natsumi, moves in with him, but as a struggling art student, she has her own troubles to deal with and may just put Hiroto’s easygoing lifestyle to the test.]]> 192 Keigo Shinzō 1974746917 Dani 0 to-read 4.46 2021
author: Keigo Shinzō
name: Dani
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 214151469 A dark and gritty collection of short stories from Tatsuya Endo before Spy x Family!

A young girl fighting her way through bounty hunter school. A princess forced to flee her moon empire after a coup. Witch-hunters hell-bent on killing with bloodsucking swords. And a group of ragtag musketeers tracking down armed robbers.

In these early works by Tatsuya Endo, creator of the hit series Spy x Family, follow the adventures of four resourceful and unexpected heroes as they discover that true strength, power, and beauty can be found in walking the path one believes in.]]> 216 Tatsuya Endo 1974752607 Dani 0 to-read 3.51 2009
author: Tatsuya Endo
name: Dani
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 53202621
??Ahora que descubrieron problemas que nunca antes habían notado, ignorarlos ya no va a ser posible!!]]> 160 Kamome Shirahama 4065216257 Dani 5 4.54 2020
author: Kamome Shirahama
name: Dani
average rating: 4.54
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/04
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves: fantasy, graphic-novels, manga
review:

]]> 50272664 彼が魔法を求めた理由に、自分と母の関係を重ねたココは、一人で「図书の塔」へと向かう。

果たしてそこには自分の探す答えがあるのか。

意识を取り戻し后を追うキーフリーと、魔法使いになったことを悩み始めるココ。
そして、亲友を案じるオルーギオの中にも一つの疑惑が。

魔物に守られた知识の塔で、今、师弟?友人の绊が问われる。闭闭> 168 Kamome Shirahama 4065192668 Dani 5 4.58 2020
author: Kamome Shirahama
name: Dani
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/03
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves: fantasy, graphic-novels, manga
review:

]]> 50398 Northanger Abbey is often referred to as Jane Austen's "Gothic parody." Decrepit castles, locked rooms, mysterious chests, cryptic notes, and tyrannical fathers give the story an uncanny air, but one with a decidedly satirical twist.

The story's unlikely heroine is Catherine Morland, a remarkably innocent seventeen-year-old woman from a country parsonage. While spending a few weeks in Bath with a family friend, Catherine meets and falls in love with Henry Tilney, who invites her to visit his family estate, Northanger Abbey. Once there, Catherine, a great reader of Gothic thrillers, lets the shadowy atmosphere of the old mansion fill her mind with terrible suspicions. What is the mystery surrounding the death of Henry's mother? Is the family concealing a terrible secret within the elegant rooms of the Abbey? Can she trust Henry, or is he part of an evil conspiracy? Catherine finds dreadful portents in the most prosaic events, until Henry persuades her to see the peril in confusing life with art.

Executed with high-spirited gusto, Northanger Abbey is a lighthearted, yet unsentimental commentary on love and marriage.]]> 260 Jane Austen 1593082649 Dani 4 3.85 1817
author: Jane Austen
name: Dani
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1817
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/18
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves: classics, romance, ghost-stories, gothic
review:
I had this book assigned as one of my required readings for a Fairy Tales and Folklore online course. I asked before I read it if this would be okay to read in place of the print book - sadly the answer was no. But I read so fast, that I ended up reading both with plenty of time to spare, so I'm going to do this as a double review. I did enjoy the book, but I felt the lead in to get all the character to the actual Northanger Abbey took SO LONG! I know it's Jane Austen and it was the style of the time to focus on good manners in society, but WOW did it take a while to get to the good stuff! I did like how both books emphasized the main character's habit of using her wild imagination to jump to conclusions about what was going on at Northanger Abbey. And I really loved how the graphic novel showed her annoyance at some of the other character's behavior while still trying to be polite. Overall, both books were great reads and were very enjoyable. I just had to give it 4 stars because the lead-in was so long. I would recommend this to any Jane Austen fan or fans or classic retellings in graphic novel format.
]]> 36615765
Lovingly adapted from Jane Austen's most humorous work, Marvel Comics is proud to present literature lover Catherine Morland's quest to be the leading lady of her own great romance. Can real life prove the equal of the Gothic novels she finds so enchanting? Can Catherine find true love amid the fictions of others and her own wild imagination? And what dread secrets lie in wait in Northanger Abbey itself? Award-winning author Nancy Butler continues her quest to reinvent Jane Austen's Regency world in the Mighty Marvel Manner. With exquisite illustrations from Janet Lee, 19th-century England comes alive like never before. Discover - along with Catherine Moreland - that while truth may not be stranger than fiction, it can be no less surprising!]]> 126 Nancy Butler 130250133X Dani 4 3.61 2011
author: Nancy Butler
name: Dani
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/10
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves: ghost-stories, gothic, graphic-novels
review:
I had this book assigned as one of my required readings for a Fairy Tales and Folklore online course. I asked before I read it if this would be okay to read in place of the print book - sadly the answer was no. But I read so fast, that I ended up reading both with plenty of time to spare, so I'm going to do this as a double review. I did enjoy the book, but I felt the lead in to get all the character to the actual Northanger Abbey took SO LONG! I know it's Jane Austen and it was the style of the time to focus on good manners in society, but WOW did it take a while to get to the good stuff! I did like how both books emphasized the main character's habit of using her wild imagination to jump to conclusions about what was going on at Northanger Abbey. And I really loved how the graphic novel showed her annoyance at some of the other character's behavior while still trying to be polite. Overall, both books were great reads and were very enjoyable. I just had to give it 4 stars because the lead-in was so long. I would recommend this to any Jane Austen fan or fans or classic retellings in graphic novel format.
]]> 60720222
Every morning, Kris Pulaski wakes up in hell. In the 1990s she was lead guitarist of Dürt Würk, a heavy-metal band on the brink of breakout success until lead singer Terry Hunt embarked on a solo career and rocketed to stardom, leaving his bandmates to rot in obscurity.

Now Kris works as night manager of a Best Western; she’s tired, broke, and unhappy. Then one day everything changes—a shocking act of violence turns her life upside down, and she begins to suspect that Terry sabotaged more than just the band. Kris hits the road, hoping to reunite Dürt Würk and confront the man who ruined her life. Her journey will take her from the Pennsylvania rust belt to a celebrity rehab center to a satanic music festival. A furious power ballad about never giving up, We Sold Our Souls is an epic journey into the heart of a conspiracy-crazed, pill-popping, paranoid country that seems to have lost its very soul.]]> 333 Grady Hendrix 168369340X Dani 4 horror 3.64 2018
author: Grady Hendrix
name: Dani
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/30
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves: horror
review:
I was really excited to get a hold of this book! I've been trying to find and buy all of Grady Hendrix's books ever since I read Horrorstor and fell in love with his work. And I really wanted to give this one 5 stars, but the pacing of it just felt off compared to his other works that I had to drop it down to 4 stars. I think the flash-back scenes sometimes felt like they were shoehorned into the story at points. And the addition of the waitress character, that wasn't a main character but ended up being important to the story later on, felt a little off. I guess it was good to have her backstory in there, so you knew why she was at the end of the story, but I didn't feel like it was totally needed. I still enjoyed reading this like just like I enjoyed Grady's other works. I'd recommend this to fans of 1980s and 1990s rock and metal music as well as fans of Grady Hendrix's other books.
]]> 59531644
Twenty years have passed since the Sith and their endless rivalries were eradicated and replaced with the Rule of Two. Darth Bane now reigns alongside his young acolyte, Zannah, who must study and train in the dark side of the Force until the time comes to strike down her master and claim the mantle for herself.

But Bane's brutal new regime has one potential fatal flaw--how will their legacy continue if an apprentice fails to raise their blade in combat? The only solution must be for the Dark Lord of the Sith to rediscover a long-forgotten secret of the order--the key to immortality.

Bane's doubt spurs his young apprentice into action, and Zannah vows to destroy her master at any cost. After he mysteriously vanishes, she tracks him across the galaxy to a desolate desert outpost, where the fate of the dark side will be forged by a final fight to the death.]]> 336 Drew Karpyshyn 059349704X Dani 5 action, sci-fi 4.35 2009
author: Drew Karpyshyn
name: Dani
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/25
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves: action, sci-fi
review:
It all comes to a close in Book 3! I have to say the action sequences in this one were some of the best ones I've read in a long time. I know I wouldn't be able to easily describe the action needed for a light saber battle so much respect to the author for being able to capture this well. I enjoyed reading the dynamic between the Darth Bane and Darth Zannah, along with a few newcomers in this volume, and how things turned out in the end for everyone. I'd have to say I was very satisfied with the ending and disappointed there were no more books to read in the series! I know the author mentioned he would like to return to writing this story. I'm really hoping he was serious because I would love to see this story continued. Definite recommend for any fan of Star Wars and space operas.
]]> 195790867 Robin Sloan expands the Penumbraverse to new reaches of time and space in a rollicking far-future adventure.

In Moonbound, Robin Sloan has written a novel with the full scope and ambitious imagination of the very books that lit the engines of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore: an epic quest as only Sloan could conceive it, mixing science fiction, fantasy, good old-fashioned literary storytelling, and unrivaled enthusiasm for what’s next.

It is thirteen thousand years from now . . . A lot has happened, and yet a lot is still very familiar. Ariel is a boy in a small town under a wizard’s rule. Like many adventurers before him, Ariel is called to explore a world full of unimaginable glories and unknown enemies, a mission to save the world, a girl. Here, as they say, be dragons. But none of this happens before Ariel comes across an artifact from an earlier civilization, a sentient, record-keeping artificial intelligence that carries with it the perspective of the whole of human history―and becomes both Ariel’s greatest ally and the narrator of our story.

Moonbound is an adventure into the richest depths of Story itself. It is a deeply satisfying epic of ancient scale, blasted through the imaginative prism one of our most forward-thinking writers. And this is only the beginning.]]> 432 Robin Sloan 0374610606 Dani 4 sci-fi, fantasy, adventure 3.97 2024
author: Robin Sloan
name: Dani
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/30
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves: sci-fi, fantasy, adventure
review:
This wasn't my favorite Robin Sloan book, but it's not the worst one either. It's a sci-fi that takes places in a post-apolyptic world with talking animals, wizards, and a space princess. The pacing was good but didn't keep my attention like his other works that take place in this time period. But it is a good change up from his regular work.
]]> 42869707 192 Kamome Shirahama 4065155975 Dani 5 4.58 2019
author: Kamome Shirahama
name: Dani
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/02
date added: 2025/03/02
shelves: fantasy, graphic-novels, manga
review:

]]> 63098034
You’ll understand the different types of variables available to you and how to create and utilize them for maximum damage to the undead.

We’ll discuss conditional statements (if/then statements) and talk about how to execute different code depending on whether something is true or not such as “There’s a zombie gnawing on your head!”

We’ll loop-dee-loop around the horde as we define and demonstrate the three kinds of PHP loops.

And finally, using functions and reusable code, we’ll land sucker punch after sucker punch after sucker punch on every zombie shuffling toward you.

While this book presents these concepts using PHP syntax and information, nearly all of the concepts are universal to programming languages everywhere.

So come along for a jaunt through the apocalypse and stock your armory with plenty of programming tools and PHP finery. Next stop ending the apocalypse!]]> 48 John Rhea Dani 5 5.00
author: John Rhea
name: Dani
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/02
date added: 2025/03/02
shelves:
review:
I had this book for class and I have to say it’s a great book to learn PHP. It’s set up to read like a regular novel and the author’s humor, and use of zombies to help teach programming, make you read through this rather quickly. I had a hard time stopping because I was enjoying reading this so much. It’s a generalized guide, but you get a lot of informa from this book. Definitely give this a try if PHP is something you’ve wanted to learn and want a gentle start into the coding language.
]]> 29625249 THE SIGNS & SYMBOLS SOURCEBOOK is an Ato Z treasure trove of facts, stories, and hidden meanings of symbols from cultures around the world. Where does each symbol come from and what does it mean? Learn about Native American hunting symbols, secret alphabets, and coded message. Find out the true meanings of Indian murdras, the Masonic compass, the Eye of Horus, the Caduceus, and hundreds of other ancient signs. Loaded with over a thousand lush images, this comprehensive sourcebook has everthing you need to unlock the secrets of the symboles of our world.

]]> 416 Adele Nozedar 1435161815 Dani 0 to-read 4.21 2008
author: Adele Nozedar
name: Dani
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 58291425 120 Ed Brubaker 153432058X Dani 0 to-read 4.04 2021
author: Ed Brubaker
name: Dani
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 106042
Living in the shadows of the Dark Knight makes the detectives of Gotham's police force determined to prove that have what it takes to enforce the law in a city rife with criminals... with or without Batman's help.

Meet Commissioner Akins and his Major Crimes Unit commander Maggie Sawter (fresh from Metropolis). Keeping the streets safe are detectives Renee Montoya, Crispis Allen and others newly introduced to readers. The race is on to stop Mister Freeze while solving a crime before the Caped Crusader intervenes.

Collects issues #1-5.]]> 128 Greg Rucka 1401201997 Dani 0 to-read 4.19 2004
author: Greg Rucka
name: Dani
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 63901302 Night Fever is a pulse-pounding noir thriller from grand masters Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. A Jekyll-and-Hyde story of a man facing the darkness inside himself, this riveting tour of the night is a must-have for all Brubaker and Phillips readers!]]> 120 Ed Brubaker 153432609X Dani 0 to-read 3.86 2023
author: Ed Brubaker
name: Dani
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 896797
Secrets of Film Writing reveals a working writer's secrets-the tips, short cuts, tricks, and insider advice that will get your story down on paper, maximize your idea, and seduce your readers. Do you know why actors pick scripts out of a stack? Why montage sequences don't work? Why the traditional three-act structure is obsolete? Lazarus lifts the veil with dozens of secrets like these.

Lazarus's insights and techniques will smooth and improve any screenwriter's process and will make any script more readable and ultimately more salable. Secrets of Film Writing takes you behind the scenes of feature and television writing and demystifies, once and for all, the Hollywood System.]]> 256 Tom Lazarus 0312269080 Dani 0 to-read 3.36 2001
author: Tom Lazarus
name: Dani
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 153747889 ?
Erika Fane’s boyfriend's older brother is handsome, strong, and completely terrifying. The star of his college's basketball team gone pro, he's more concerned with the dirt on his shoe than he is with her. But she saw him. She heard him. The things that he did, and the deeds that he hid...
?
For years, Erika bit her nails, unable to look away. Now, she’s in college, but she hasn’t stopped watching him. He’s bad and the things she’s seen aren’t content to stay in her head anymore.
?
Because he's finally noticed her.
?
But Michael Crist?knows the hold he has on Rika, how much she fears him. She looks down when he enters the room and stills when he’s close. He knows she thinks only of him. When Michael’s brother leaves for the military, leaving Rika alone and unprotected, he knows the opportunity is too good to be true.?

Three years ago she put Michael’s friends in prison, and now they’re free. ?

Every last one of her nightmares is about to come true.]]> 496 Penelope Douglas 0593642007 Dani 0 to-read 3.84 2015
author: Penelope Douglas
name: Dani
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 207595731
“Sadie Smith” is how the narrator introduces herself to her lover, to the rural commune of French subversives on whom she is keeping tabs, and to the reader.

Sadie has met her love, Lucien, a young and well-born Parisian, by “cold bump”—making him believe the encounter was accidental. Like everyone Sadie targets, Lucien is useful to her and used by her. Sadie operates by strategy and dissimulation, based on what her “contacts”—shadowy figures in business and government—instruct. First, these contacts want her to incite provocation. Then they want more.

In this region of centuries-old farms and ancient caves, Sadie becomes entranced by a mysterious figure named Bruno Lacombe, a mentor to the young activists who communicates only by email. Bruno believes that the path to emancipation from what ails modern life is not revolt, but a return to the ancient past.

Just as Sadie is certain she’s the seductress and puppet master of those she surveils, Bruno Lacombe is seducing her with his ingenious counter-histories, his artful laments, his own tragic story.]]> 416 Rachel Kushner 1982116544 Dani 0 to-read 3.59 2024
author: Rachel Kushner
name: Dani
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 37752854 192 Kamome Shirahama 4065126819 Dani 5 4.56 2018
author: Kamome Shirahama
name: Dani
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/27
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: fantasy, graphic-novels, manga
review:

]]> 43312297 AN INKY INVESTIGATION

Cast yourself into the world of witches as Qifrey chases after the dark mysteries of the Brimmed Caps!

With some quick thinking and ingenuity, Coco and her fellow classmates use their growing magic skills to save some locals from a grim fate. But this triumph nearly turns to tragedy as the Knights Moralis threaten the young witches with severe punishment for disturbing the natural order of magic. Qifrey convinces the Knights to overlook this issue, but a peculiar happening related to this incident puts him onto the trail of the same forbidden magic that brought Coco into his atelier. This may be Qifrey's only chance to come into contact with the Brimmed Caps, but is he in over his head to engage in this treacherous pursuit on his own?]]> 190 Kamome Shirahama 1632368056 Dani 5 4.49 2018
author: Kamome Shirahama
name: Dani
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/27
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: fantasy, graphic-novels, manga
review:

]]> 42264867 TRIAL BY FIRE

Join Coco as she continues her spellbinding journey of magic and discovery!

After traveling to the mystical township of Kalhn with her new master to buy a casting wand, a strange, masked witch transports Coco and her three sister apprentices to an eerily quiet city. But they soon find out that they're not alone, and they encounter a ferocious dragon! Do these fledgling witches have what it takes to defeat the fire-breathing beast, or will their plans and lives go up in flames?!]]> 190 Kamome Shirahama 1632368048 Dani 5 4.45 2017
author: Kamome Shirahama
name: Dani
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/27
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: fantasy, graphic-novels, manga
review:

]]> 40893782 A TOUCH OF MAGIC

In a world where everyone takes wonders like magic spells and dragons for granted, Coco is a girl with a simple dream: She wants to be a witch. But everybody knows magicians are born, not made, and Coco was not born with a gift for magic. Resigned to her un-magical life, Coco is about to give up on her dream to become a witch…until the day she meets Qifrey, a mysterious, traveling magician. After secretly seeing Qifrey perform magic in a way she’s never seen before, Coco soon learns what everybody “knows” might not be the truth, and discovers that her magical dream may not be as far away as it may seem…]]> 204 Kamome Shirahama 163236770X Dani 5 manga 4.45 2017
author: Kamome Shirahama
name: Dani
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/26
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: manga
review:

]]> 51945812
COLLECTING: CAPTAIN AMERICA (2012) 25, ALL-NEW CAPTAIN AMERICA: FEAR HIM (2015) 1-4, ALL-NEW CAPTAIN AMERICA (2014) 1-6, AMAZING SPIDERMAN SPECIAL (2015) 1, INHUMAN SPECIAL (2015) 1, ALL-NEW CAPTAIN AMERICA SPECIAL (2015) 1, CAPTAIN AMERICA: SAM WILSON (2015) 1-6]]> 488 Rick Remender 1302923250 Dani 4 3.65 2020
author: Rick Remender
name: Dani
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/23
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves: action, adventure, graphic-novels
review:

]]> 2143109 Bottomless Belly Button is a graphic novel comedy-drama that follows the dysfunctional adventures of the Loony Family. When the parents announce their divorce, the family comes together at their beach house for a week. Dennis, the eldest son, is having marriage troubles of his own, and searches for clues, trap doors, and secret tunnels. Claire, the middle child, is a single mother with a troubled 16-year-old daughter, Jill. The youngest child, Peter, is a hack filmmaker suffering from paralyzing insecurities who establishes an unorthodox romance with a mysterious day care counselor at the beach.
Black & white illustrations with some color.]]> 720 Dash Shaw 1560979151 Dani 0 to-read 4.08 2008
author: Dash Shaw
name: Dani
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 138473 ONCE A CITY, NOW A WASTELAND...

Kurogane, Syaoran, Fai, Mokona, and Princess Sakura have come upon a desert of shifting sands and ruined skyscrapers. This postapocalyptic nightmare is all that remains of the booming metropolis that was Tokyo, and the survivors are battling for the few life-giving resources left in the world. As the five dimension travelers search for another piece of the princess's lost memories, they will all be tested to their limits in ways they never expected!]]> 185 Clamp 0345498313 Dani 0 4.33 2006
author: Clamp
name: Dani
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves: currently-reading, graphic-novels, manga
review:

]]> 138453 IF THEY WON'T LET US BORROW IT...

The odd group of dimension travelers arrives in a country full of magic seeking a book that may hold the key to finding one of Princess Sakura's powerful memory feathers. But the volume they need turns out to be a national treasure, off limits to the public. Now Syaoran, Kurogane, and the others must brave traps, ravenous beasts, and some of the universe's strongest magicians in order to steal the book. When it comes down to enchantments versus martial arts skills, can the team pull off the biggest caper of their career so far?]]> 185 Clamp 0345485343 Dani 5 graphic-novels, manga 4.36 2006
author: Clamp
name: Dani
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/20
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves: graphic-novels, manga
review:

]]> 138452 THIS BOOK'S A REAL TRIP!

Five friends must journey through time and space to lift a curse from beautiful Princess Sakura. Their quest now leads them to a world of magic and mysterious learning. Syaoran, the princess's young but fierce defender, is awestruck by this new world's enormous library. But when he opens one of the books, he is suddenly whisked away to a different dimension - a rough, barbaric place that resembles medieval Japan. There he witnesses the hardships faced by the family of a feudal lord who looks surprisingly like Syaoran's gruff companion Kurogane. Now Syaoran must figure out how he was transported...if he ever hopes to see Sakura again!]]> 187 Clamp 0345485335 Dani 5 graphic-novels, manga 4.35 2006
author: Clamp
name: Dani
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/20
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves: graphic-novels, manga
review:

]]> 13579 DRAGONFLY BATTLE

All is not well on Piffle World. The magical land's most popular sporting event - a race of lightweight aircraft called dragonflies - seems to have been rigged by one of the contestants. But winning the competition is the only way Princess Sakura and her friends can recover one of the princess's precious and powerful memory feathers. The five friends are determined to cross the finish line first, but the cheating is taking its toll - even Fai is out of the running! Can the travelers still win the race and discover who's behind the booby traps before it's too late?]]> 184 Clamp 0345485327 Dani 5 graphic-novels, manga 4.31 2005
author: Clamp
name: Dani
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/19
date added: 2025/02/19
shelves: graphic-novels, manga
review:

]]> 13568 RIDING ON THE WINGS OF A DRAGONFLY

The Dragonfly Race is set to begin in Piffle World, and the prize for one lucky lightweight aircraft pilot is an amazingly powerful battery in the shape of a feather. But for the four dimension-travelers, and one odd creature named Mokona, who have joined the competition, the feather represents more than energy - it's one of Princess Sakura's lost memories! And Sakura's feather isn't the only ting at stake. Despite President Tomoyo's best efforts to protect the race using her wealth and resources, unexpected hazards keep popping up, and the perilous contest could lead to death for unskilled pilots...like the princess!]]> 183 Clamp 0345485289 Dani 5 graphic-novels, manga 4.28 2005
author: Clamp
name: Dani
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/19
date added: 2025/02/19
shelves: graphic-novels, manga
review:

]]> 20958632
Hazel lives with her brother, Ben, in the strange town of Fairfold where humans and fae exist side by side. The faeries’ seemingly harmless magic attracts tourists, but Hazel knows how dangerous they can be, and she knows how to stop them. Or she did, once.

At the center of it all, there is a glass coffin in the woods. It rests right on the ground and in it sleeps a boy with horns on his head and ears as pointed as knives. Hazel and Ben were both in love with him as children. The boy has slept there for generations, never waking.

Until one day, he does…

As the world turns upside down, Hazel tries to remember her years pretending to be a knight. But swept up in new love, shifting loyalties, and the fresh sting of betrayal, will it be enough?]]> 328 Holly Black 0316213071 Dani 0 to-read, fantasy 3.87 2015
author: Holly Black
name: Dani
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read, fantasy
review:

]]> 8171378
Wilkerson tells this interwoven story through the lives of three unforgettable protagonists: Ida Mae Gladney, a sharecropper’s wife, who in 1937 fled Mississippi for Chicago; sharp and quick-tempered George Starling, who in 1945 fled Florida for Harlem, and Robert Foster, a surgeon who left Louisiana in 1953 in hopes of making it in California.

Wilkerson brilliantly captures their first treacherous cross-country journeys by car and train and their new lives in colonies in the New World. The Warmth of Other Suns is a bold, remarkable, and riveting work, a superb account of an “unrecognized immigration” within our own land. Through the breadth of its narrative, the beauty of the writing, the depth of its research, and the fullness of the people and lives portrayed herein, this book is a modern classic.]]> 622 Isabel Wilkerson 0679444327 Dani 0 to-read 4.45 2010
author: Isabel Wilkerson
name: Dani
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61612864
A girl has spent hers in a tiny settlement out on the Dust where nightmares stalk and no one goes.

The world has never even noticed them. That's about to change.

Their stories spiral around each other, across worlds and time. This is a tale of truth and lies and hearts, and the blurring of one into another. A journey on which knowledge erodes certainty, and on which, though the pen may be mightier than the sword, blood will be spilled and cities burned.]]> 559 Mark Lawrence 0593437918 Dani 0 to-read, fantasy, sci-fi 3.94 2023
author: Mark Lawrence
name: Dani
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read, fantasy, sci-fi
review:

]]> 157031755 We fight for the people we love. We fight for the ideas we want to be true.

Evar and Livira stand side by side and yet far beyond each other's reach. Evar is forced to flee the library, driven before an implacable foe. Livira, trapped in a ghost world, has to recover her book if she's to return to her life. While Evar's journey leads him outside into the vastness of a world he's never seen, Livira's destination lies deep inside her own writing, where she must wrestle with her stories in order to reclaim the volume in which they were written.

And all the while, the library quietly weaves thread to thread, bringing the scattered elements of Livira's old life – friends and foe alike – back together beneath new skies.

Long ago, a lie was told, and with the passing years it has grown and spread, a small push leading to a chain of desperate consequences. Now, as one edifice topples into the next with ever-growing violence, it threatens to break the world. The secret war that defines the library has chosen its champions and set them on the board. The time has come when they must fight for what they believe, or lose everything.

The Library Trilogy is about many things: adventure, discovery, and romance, but it's also a love letter to books and the places where they live. The focus is on one vast and timeless library, but the love expands to encompass smaller more personal collections, and bookshops of all shades too.]]> 384 Mark Lawrence 0008456763 Dani 0 to-read, sci-fi, fantasy 4.00 2024
author: Mark Lawrence
name: Dani
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read, sci-fi, fantasy
review:

]]> 61980327 From the author of The School for German Brides, this captivating historical novel set in nineteenth-century and post-World War II Paris follows two fierce women of the same family, generations apart, who find that their futures lie in the four walls of a simple bakery in a tiny corner of Montmartre.

1870: The Prussians are at the city gates, intent to starve Paris into submission. Lisette Vigneau--headstrong, willful, and often ignored by her wealthy parents--awaits the outcome of the war from her parents' grand home in the Place Royale in the very heart of the city. When an excursion throws her into the path of a revolutionary National Guardsman, Theodore Fournier, her destiny is forever changed. She gives up her life of luxury to join in the fight for a Paris of the People. She opens a small bakery with the hopes of being a vital boon to the impoverished neighborhood in its hour of need. When the city falls into famine, and then rebellion, her resolve to give up the comforts of her past life is sorely tested.

1946: Nineteen-year-old Micheline Chartier is coping with the loss of her father and the disappearance of her mother during the war. In their absence, she is charged with the raising of her two younger sisters. At the hand of a well-meaning neighbor, Micheline finds herself enrolled in a prestigious baking academy with her entire life mapped out for her. Feeling trapped and desperately unequal to the task of raising two young girls, she becomes obsessed with finding her mother. Her classmate at the academy, Laurent Tanet, may be the only one capable of helping Micheline move on from the past and begin creating a future for herself.

Both women must grapple with loss, learn to accept love, and face impossible choices armed with little more than their courage and a belief that a bit of flour, yeast, sugar, and love can bring about a revolution of their own.]]> 384 Aimie K. Runyan 0063247712 Dani 0 to-read, historical-fiction 3.95 2023
author: Aimie K. Runyan
name: Dani
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read, historical-fiction
review:

]]> 214151520 A group of four university students stumbles upon a deserted, decaying village deep in the mountains only to find an enormous perpetual motion machine still at work there. Before they can answer the questions of who made it and to what end, the friends begin to disappear, one after the other. Another story sees the return of the strange Hikizuri siblings! A girl weighed down since birth by an invisible burden meets the odd siblings and moves in with them in order to understand the truth about herself. But after a string of bizarre occurrences, the siblings’ uncle appears on the scene…]]> 224 Junji Ito 1974752259 Dani 0 to-read 3.96 2020
author: Junji Ito
name: Dani
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 13571 TIME WILL TELL

The godlike being Ashura-? has killed the equally skilled and mighty rival, Yasha-?. But now Ashura-? seems depressed. What this means to the country of Shura, none can tell...not even the five friends on a desperate journey through dimensions to find the memories of Princess Sakura - memories in the form of immensely powerful feathers. The five have been racing from world to world, separated and then pitted against one another as enemies. Now young Syaoran is at the center of the maelstrom - and only wits, luck, and some help from his friends will save the tiny band from destruction.]]> 184 Clamp 0345484304 Dani 5 graphic-novels, manga 4.30 2005
author: Clamp
name: Dani
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/14
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves: graphic-novels, manga
review:

]]> 13578 IN THE GOD'S HANDS

Five friends continue their desperate search for Princess Sakura's memories, which have been scattered across parallel worlds in the form of magically potent feathers. But this time Syaoran and Sakura are pulled from a tumultuous land where two factions battle over a statue of the God of Calamity - and into the realm of that very divinity! Now they find themselves on one side of a long, bloody conflict between two gods and their minions. Unfortunately the experienced fighters in their band, Fai and Kurogane, seem to be aligned with the opposition. In a war that can be ended only by the death of a god, how can Syaoran and Sakura hope to stay alive?]]> 184 Clamp 0345484290 Dani 5 graphic-novels, manga 4.29 2005
author: Clamp
name: Dani
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/14
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves: graphic-novels, manga
review:

]]> 28116839
You have been awakened.

Floppy disk inserted, computer turned on, a whirring, and then this sentence, followed by a blinking cursor. So begins Suspended , the first computer game to obsess seven-year-old Michael, to worm into his head and change his sense of reality. Thirty years later he will "Computer games have taught me the things you can't learn from people."

Gamelife is the memoir of a childhood transformed by technology. Afternoons spent gazing at pixelated maps and mazes train Michael's eyes for the uncanny side of 1980s suburban Illinois. A game about pirates yields clues to the drama of cafeteria politics and locker-room hazing. And in the year of his parents' divorce, a spaceflight simulator opens a hole in reality.]]> 224 Michael W. Clune 0374536384 Dani 0 to-read 4.05 2015
author: Michael W. Clune
name: Dani
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 654167 305 Rick Cook 0671698354 Dani 0 to-read 3.37 1989
author: Rick Cook
name: Dani
average rating: 3.37
book published: 1989
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 207611566 There’s power in a book…

They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to the Wellwood Home in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened.

Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, terrified and alone. Under the watchful eye of the stern Miss Wellwood, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. There’s Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to find a way to keep her baby and escape to a commune. And Zinnia, a budding musician who knows she’s going to go home and marry her baby’s father. And Holly, a wisp of a girl, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.

Everything the girls eat, every moment of their waking day, and everything they’re allowed to talk about is strictly controlled by adults who claim they know what’s best for them. Then Fern meets a librarian who gives her an occult book about witchcraft, and power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it’s never given freely. There’s always a price to be paid…and it’s usually paid in blood.

In Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, the author of How to Sell a Haunted House and The Final Girl Support Group delivers another searing, completely original novel and further cements his status as a “horror master” (NPR).]]> 482 Grady Hendrix 0593548981 Dani 5 horror 4.01 2025
author: Grady Hendrix
name: Dani
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/13
date added: 2025/02/13
shelves: horror
review:
This book was incredible! It’s a look into maternity houses during post-WWII American and how people viewed unwed mothers during that time. Grady always puts his horror spin on things, but this one felt more serious than his other books. And after reading his Acknowledgments, it totally makes sense. I did feel like the book started off pretty slow, but once it picked up it was hard to put down. But I think the slowness of the book at the start was on purpose. He wanted us to know how the lead character felt in this new strange place filled with other pregnant girls that were complete strangers to her. But I really enjoyed how they ended up banding together and being there for each other. This is a definite read if you’ve read any of the author’s previous books. And it’s a read for those that want some history with their horror - especially since it feels a little too real at times.
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Upstate NY, 1982. Every small town like Fell, New York, has a place like the Sun Down Motel. Some customers are from out of town, passing through on their way to someplace better. Some are locals, trying to hide their secrets. Viv Delaney works as the night clerk to pay for her move to New York City. But something isn't right at the Sun Down, and before long she's determined to uncover all of the secrets hidden…]]> 327 Simone St. James 0440000173 Dani 0 to-read 3.99 2020
author: Simone St. James
name: Dani
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 40595446 The never-before-told story of one woman's heroism that changed the course of the Second World War

In 1942, the Gestapo sent out an urgent transmission: "She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies. We must find and destroy her."

This spy was Virginia Hall, a young American woman--rejected from the foreign service because of her gender and her prosthetic leg--who talked her way into the spy organization deemed Churchill's "ministry of ungentlemanly warfare," and, before the United States had even entered the war, became the first woman to deploy to occupied France.

Virginia Hall was one of the greatest spies in American history, yet her story remains untold. Just as she did in Clementine, Sonia Purnell uncovers the captivating story of a powerful, influential, yet shockingly overlooked heroine of the Second World War. At a time when sending female secret agents into enemy territory was still strictly forbidden, Virginia Hall came to be known as the "Madonna of the Resistance," coordinating a network of spies to blow up bridges, report on German troop movements, arrange equipment drops for Resistance agents, and recruit and train guerilla fighters. Even as her face covered WANTED posters throughout Europe, Virginia refused order after order to evacuate. She finally escaped with her life in a grueling hike over the Pyrenees into Spain, her cover blown, and her associates all imprisoned or executed. But, adamant that she had "more lives to save," she dove back in as soon as she could, organizing forces to sabotage enemy lines and back up Allied forces landing on Normandy beaches. Told with Purnell's signature insight and novelistic flare, A Woman of No Importance is the breathtaking story of how one woman's fierce persistence helped win the war.]]> 352 Sonia Purnell 073522529X Dani 0 to-read 4.08 2019
author: Sonia Purnell
name: Dani
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 31841099 Spying is the art of knowing who to trust-and who to betray.

Maxwell Knight was perhaps the greatest spymaster in history, rumored to be the real-life inspiration for the James Bond character "M." He did more than anyone in his era to combat the rising threat of fascism in Britain during World War II, in spite of his own history inside this movement. He was also truly eccentric--a thrice-married jazz aficionado who kept a menagerie of exotic pets--and almost totally unqualified for espionage.

Yet he had a gift for turning practically anyone into a fearless secret agent. Knight's work revolutionized British intelligence, pioneering the use of female agents, among other accomplishments. In telling Knight's remarkable story, Agent M also reveals for the first time in print the names and stories of some of the men and women recruited by Knight, on behalf of MI5, who were asked to infiltrate the country's most dangerous political organizations.

Drawing on a vast array of original sources, Agent M reveals not only the story of one of the world's greatest intelligence operators, but the sacrifices and courage required to confront fascism during a nation's darkest time.]]> 320 Henry Hemming 1610396847 Dani 0 to-read 3.79 2017
author: Henry Hemming
name: Dani
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 40539126 The true story of the woman who became WWII's most highly decorated spy

The year is 1942, and World War II is in full swing. Odette Sansom decides to follow in her war hero father’s footsteps by becoming an SOE agent to aid Britain and her beloved homeland, France. Five failed attempts and one plane crash later, she finally lands in occupied France to begin her mission. It is here that she meets her commanding officer Captain Peter Churchill.

As they successfully complete mission after mission, Peter and Odette fall in love. All the while, they are being hunted by the cunning German secret police sergeant, Hugo Bleicher, who finally succeeds in capturing them. They are sent to Paris’s Fresnes prison, and from there to concentration camps in Germany where they are starved, beaten, and tortured. But in the face of despair, they never give up hope, their love for each other, or the whereabouts of their colleagues.

In Code Name: Lise, Larry Loftis paints a portrait of true courage, patriotism, and love—of two incredibly heroic people who endured unimaginable horrors and degradations. He seamlessly weaves together the touching romance between Odette and Peter and the thrilling cat and mouse game between them and Sergeant Bleicher.]]> 384 Larry Loftis 1501198653 Dani 0 to-read 3.94 2019
author: Larry Loftis
name: Dani
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 44594871 Amaryllis Fox's riveting memoir tells the story of her ten years in the most elite clandestine ops unit of the CIA, hunting the world's most dangerous terrorists in sixteen countries while marrying and giving birth to a daughter

Amaryllis Fox was in her last year as an undergraduate at Oxford studying theology and international law when her writing mentor Daniel Pearl was captured and beheaded. Galvanized by this brutality, Fox applied to a master's program in conflict and terrorism at Georgetown's School of Foreign Service, where she created an algorithm that predicted, with uncanny certainty, the likelihood of a terrorist cell arising in any village around the world. At twenty-one, she was recruited by the CIA. Her first assignment was reading and analyzing hundreds of classified cables a day from foreign governments and synthesizing them into daily briefs for the president. Her next assignment was at the Iraq desk in the Counterterrorism center. At twenty-two, she was fast-tracked into advanced operations training, sent from Langley to "the Farm," where she lived for six months in a simulated world learning how to use a Glock, how to get out of flexicuffs while locked in the trunk of a car, how to withstand torture, and the best ways to commit suicide in case of captivity. At the end of this training she was deployed as a spy under non-official cover--the most difficult and coveted job in the field as an art dealer specializing in tribal and indigenous art and sent to infiltrate terrorist networks in remote areas of the Middle East and Asia.
Life Undercover is exhilarating, intimate, fiercely intelligent--an impossible to put down record of an extraordinary life, and of Amaryllis Fox's astonishing courage and passion.]]> 256 Amaryllis Fox Dani 0 to-read 4.03 2019
author: Amaryllis Fox
name: Dani
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60795086
The incredible true story of Ana Montes, the most damaging female spy in US history, drawing upon never-before-seen material and to be published upon her release from prison, for readers of Agent Sonya and A Woman of No Importance.

Just days after the 9-11 attacks, a senior Pentagon analyst eased her red Toyota Echo into traffic and headed to work. She never saw the undercover cars tracking her every turn. As she settled into her cubicle on the 6th floor of the Defense Intelligence Agency in Washington, FBI Agents and twitchy DIA officers were hiding in nearby offices. For this was the day that Ana Montes--the US Intelligence Community superstar who had just won a prestigious fellowship at the CIA--was to be arrested and publicly exposed as a secret agent for Cuba.

Like spies Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen before her, Ana Montes blindsided her colleagues with brazen acts of treason. For nearly 17 years, Montes succeeded in two high-stress jobs. By day, she was one of the government’s top Cuba experts, a buttoned-down GS-14 with shockingly easy access to classified documents. By night, she was on the clock for Fidel Castro, listening to coded messages over shortwave radio, passing US secrets to handlers in local restaurants, and slipping into Havana wearing a wig.

Montes didn’t just deceive her country. Her betrayal was intensely personal. Her mercurial father was a former US Army Colonel. Her brother and sister-in-law were FBI Special Agents. And her only sister, Lucy, also worked her entire career for the Bureau. The highlight of her distinguished 31 years as a Miami-based language specialist: Helping the FBI flush Cuban spies out of the United States. Little did Lucy or her family know that the greatest Cuban spy of all was sitting right next to them at Thanksgivings, baptisms, and weddings.

In Code Name Blue Wren, investigative journalist Jim Popkin weaves the tale of two sisters who chose two very different paths, plus the unsung heroes who had to fight to bring Ana to justice. With exclusive access to a “Secret” CIA behavioral profile of Ana, family memoirs, and Ana’s incriminating letters from prison, Popkin reveals the making of a traitor—a woman labelled “one of the most damaging spies in U.S. history” by America’s top counter-intelligence official.

After more than two decades in federal prison, Montes will be freed in January 2023. Code Name Blue Wren is a thrilling detective tale, an insider’s look at the clandestine world of espionage, and an intimate exploration of the dark side of betrayal.]]> 352 Jim Popkin 1335449884 Dani 0 to-read 3.65 2023
author: Jim Popkin
name: Dani
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 199793672
At the start of WWII, the US found itself in desperate need of an intelligence agency. The Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a precursor to today’s CIA, was quickly formed—and, in an effort to fill its ranks with experts, the OSS turned to academia for recruits. Suddenly, literature professors, librarians, and historians were training to perform undercover operations and investigative work—and these surprising spies would go on to profoundly shape both the course of the war and our cultural institutions with their efforts.

In Book and Dagger, Elyse Graham draws on personal histories, diaries, and declassified OSS files to tell the story of a small but connected group of humanities scholars turned unlikely spies. Among them are Joseph Curtiss, a literature professor who hunted down German spies and turned them into double agents; Sherman Kent, a smart-mouthed history professor who rose to become the head of analysis for all of Europe and Africa; and Adele Kibre, an archivist who was sent to Stockholm to secretly acquire documents for the OSS. These unforgettable characters would ultimately help lay the foundations of modern intelligence and transform American higher education when they returned after the war.

Thrillingly paced and rigorously researched, Book and Dagger is an inspiring and gripping true story about a group of academics who helped beat the Nazis—a tale that reveals the indelible power of humanities to change the world.]]> 400 Elyse Graham 0063280841 Dani 0 to-read 3.82 2024
author: Elyse Graham
name: Dani
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 56017551 From internationally bestselling author John Connolly, a new short story to brighten the dark months, featuring the beloved character of Samuel Johnson.The Monks of Appalling Dreadfulness are the most feared assassins in the Multiverse. They are ruthless. They are cunning. They can do interesting things with oranges. Now they have been hired to hunt down and kill the demon Nurd, along with every friend he’s ever had. But friends come in all shapes and sizes, and with all kinds of talents. The Monks of Appalling Dreadfulness are about to meet their match...]]> 37 John Connolly 1982178744 Dani 0 to-read 3.74
author: John Connolly
name: Dani
average rating: 3.74
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 210436762 In partnership with Devolver Digital and Massive Monster, Oni Press proudly presents Cult of the Lamb: The First Verse—the hugely anticipated first graphic novel exploration into the sprawling cosmology of the millions-selling, multiple BAFTA Award–nominated video game phenomenon that has Polygon begging players to "smash that worship button"!

In a land pervaded by cruelty and evil, the most innocent among us—young Lamb—was selected to become a noble sacrifice. . . . Their death would be the magical rite that would forever seal the darkest of the Old Gods out of our realm and usher in a new age of bounty.

So Lamb died . . . but then they made a deal of their own.

At the crossroads of eternity, Lamb was met by the imprisoned deity known as the One Who Waits, who revealed the falsehoods and distortions of the false prophets who rule the world and the Old Faith. And so, Lamb was given a choice: Enter oblivion as intended . . .or return to the land of living with unholy powers and deliver a new cult unto the Earth.

The Four Bishops of the Old Faith must fall. The disbelievers must be destroyed. And, as Lamb assembles their flock, a new master shall reign over all of creation. Praise be to the Cult of the Lamb!

From acclaimed writer Alex Paknadel (All Against All, Red Goblin) and Eisner Award–nominated artist Troy Little (Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons, Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas) comes a deviously delightful, heretic-smashing excursion into the borderlands of the worldwide video game hit that IGN calls "adorably demonic."

Collects Cult of the Lamb (2024) #1–4.]]> 104 Alex Paknadel 1637155220 Dani 4 4.00
author: Alex Paknadel
name: Dani
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/08
date added: 2025/02/08
shelves: adventure, dark-comedy, fantasy, graphic-novels
review:
A story well worth backing the Kickstarter and waiting for it to arrive. This is just like playing the game except it's in a comic book format. The art is amazing and the writing is great. And I'm really enjoying how the story is moving along. I can't wait to read the next volume when it comes out so I can see how things go for our characters. All praise the Lamb!
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