Simi's bookshelf: all en-US Sun, 09 Feb 2025 12:03:56 -0800 60 Simi's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Shuri #1 42376696 25 Nnedi Okorafor Simi 3 4.00 2018 Shuri #1
author: Nnedi Okorafor
name: Simi
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2020/12/30
date added: 2025/02/09
shelves:
review:

]]> Mansfield Park 45032 488 Jane Austen Simi 4 3.86 1814 Mansfield Park
author: Jane Austen
name: Simi
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1814
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/11/27
shelves:
review:

]]> Saga, Volume 8 43307890
Collects: Saga #43-48.]]> 152 Brian K. Vaughan 1534303499 Simi 5 4.46 2017 Saga, Volume 8
author: Brian K. Vaughan
name: Simi
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2018/12/24
date added: 2023/03/04
shelves:
review:

]]> A Promised Land 55364115 A riveting, deeply personal account of history in the making - from the president who inspired us to believe in the power of democracy.

In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency - a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil.

Obama takes listeners on a compelling journey from his earliest political aspirations to the pivotal Iowa caucus victory that demonstrated the power of grassroots activism to the watershed night of November 4, 2008, when he was elected 44th president of the United States, becoming the first African American to hold the nation’s highest office.

Reflecting on the presidency, he offers a unique and thoughtful exploration of both the awesome reach and the limits of presidential power, as well as singular insights into the dynamics of US partisan politics and international diplomacy. Obama brings listeners inside the Oval Office and the White House Situation Room, and to Moscow, Cairo, Beijing, and points beyond. We are privy to his thoughts as he assembles his cabinet, wrestles with a global financial crisis, takes the measure of Vladimir Putin, overcomes seemingly insurmountable odds to secure passage of the Affordable Care Act, clashes with generals about US strategy in Afghanistan, tackles Wall Street reform, responds to the devastating Deepwater Horizon blowout, and authorizes Operation Neptune’s Spear, which leads to the death of Osama bin Laden.

A Promised Land is extraordinarily intimate and introspective - the story of one man’s bet with history, the faith of a community organizer tested on the world stage. Obama is candid about the balancing act of running for office as a Black American, bearing the expectations of a generation buoyed by messages of “hope and change�, and meeting the moral challenges of high-stakes decision-making. He is frank about the forces that opposed him at home and abroad, open about how living in the White House affected his wife and daughters, and unafraid to reveal self-doubt and disappointment. Yet he never wavers from his belief that inside the great, ongoing American experiment, progress is always possible.

This beautifully written and powerful book captures Barack Obama’s conviction that democracy is not a gift from on high but something founded on empathy and common understanding and built together, day by day.]]> 27 Barack Obama Simi 0 currently-reading 4.39 2020 A Promised Land
author: Barack Obama
name: Simi
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/11/27
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience]]> 57777482
Tarana Burke and Dr. Brené Brown bring together a dynamic group of Black writers, organizers, artists, academics, and cultural figures to discuss the topics the two have dedicated their lives to understanding and teaching: vulnerability and shame resilience.

Contributions by Kiese Laymon, Imani Perry, Laverne Cox, Jason Reynolds, Austin Channing Brown, and more

It started as a text between two friends.

Tarana Burke, founder of the 'me too.' Movement, texted researcher and writer Brené Brown to see if she was free to jump on a call. Brené assumed that Tarana wanted to talk about wallpaper. They had been trading home decorating inspiration boards in their last text conversation so Brené started scrolling to find her latest Pinterest pictures when the phone rang.

But it was immediately clear to Brené that the conversation wasn't going to be about wallpaper. Tarana's hello was serious and she hesitated for a bit before saying, "Brené, you know your work affected me so deeply, but as a Black woman, I've sometimes had to feel like I have to contort myself to fit into some of your words. The core of it rings so true for me, but the application has been harder."

Brené replied, "I'm so glad we're talking about this. It makes sense to me. Especially in terms of vulnerability. How do you take the armor off in a country where you're not physically or emotionally safe?"

Long pause.

"That's why I'm calling," said Tarana. "What do you think about working together on a book about the Black experience with vulnerability and shame resilience?"

There was no hesitation.

Burke and Brown are the perfect pair to usher in this stark, potent collection of essays on Black shame and healing. Along with the anthology contributors, they create a space to recognize and process the trauma of white supremacy, a space to be vulnerable and affirm the fullness of Black love and Black life.]]> 10 Tarana Burke Simi 4 4.80 2021 You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience
author: Tarana Burke
name: Simi
average rating: 4.80
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/11/26
date added: 2021/11/26
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]]> Shoko's Smile: Stories 55782297 A bestselling and award-winning debut collection from one of South Korea's most prominent young writers.

In crisp, unembellished prose, Eun-young Choi paints intimate portraits of the lives of young women in South Korea, balancing the personal with the political. In the title story, a fraught friendship between an exchange student and her host sister follows them from adolescence to adulthood. In A Song from Afar, a young woman grapples with the death of her lover, traveling to Russia to search for information about the deceased. In Secret, the parents of a teacher killed in the Sewol ferry sinking hide the news of her death from her grandmother.
In the tradition of Sally Rooney, Banana Yoshimoto, and Marilynne Robinson--writers from different cultures who all take an unvarnished look at human relationships and the female experience--Choi Eunyoung is a writer to watch.]]> 272 Choi Eun-young 0143135260 Simi 0 to-read 3.92 2016 Shoko's Smile: Stories
author: Choi Eun-young
name: Simi
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/11/20
shelves: to-read
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]]> This Is Pleasure: A Story 53152673 Bad Behavior in the 1980s, Mary Gaitskill has been writing about gender relations with searing, even prophetic honesty. In This Is Pleasure, she considers our present moment through the lens of a particular #MeToo incident.

The effervescent, well-dressed Quin, a successful book editor and fixture on the New York arts scene, has been accused of repeated unforgivable transgressions toward women in his orbit. But are they unforgivable? And who has the right to forgive him? To Quin’s friend Margot, the wrongdoing is less clear. Alternating Quin’s and Margot’s voices and perspectives, Gaitskill creates a nuanced tragicomedy, one that reveals her characters as whole persons—hurtful and hurting, infuriating and touching, and always deeply recognizable.

Gaitskill has said that fiction is the only way that she could approach this subject because it is too emotionally faceted to treat in the more rational essay form. Her compliment to her characters—and to her readers—is that they are unvarnished and real. Her belief in our ability to understand them, even when we don’t always admire them, is a gesture of humanity from one of our greatest contemporary writers.]]> 83 Mary Gaitskill 1524749133 Simi 0 to-read 3.45 2019 This Is Pleasure: A Story
author: Mary Gaitskill
name: Simi
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/11/20
shelves: to-read
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]]> Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 46041199 A fierce international bestseller that launched Korea’s new feminist movement, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 follows one woman’s psychic deterioration in the face of rigid misogyny.

Truly, flawlessly, completely, she became that person.

In a small, tidy apartment on the outskirts of the frenzied metropolis of Seoul lives Kim Jiyoung. A thirtysomething-year-old “millennial everywoman,� she has recently left her white-collar desk job—in order to care for her newborn daughter full-time—as so many Korean women are expected to do. But she quickly begins to exhibit strange symptoms that alarm her husband, parents, and in-laws: Jiyoung impersonates the voices of other women—alive and even dead, both known and unknown to her. As she plunges deeper into this psychosis, her discomfited husband sends her to a male psychiatrist.

In a chilling, eerily truncated third-person voice, Jiyoung’s entire life is recounted to the psychiatrist—a narrative infused with disparate elements of frustration, perseverance, and submission. Born in 1982 and given the most common name for Korean baby girls, Jiyoung quickly becomes the unfavored sister to her princeling little brother. Always, her behavior is policed by the male figures around her—from the elementary school teachers who enforce strict uniforms for girls, to the coworkers who install a hidden camera in the women’s restroom and post their photos online. In her father’s eyes, it is Jiyoung’s fault that men harass her late at night; in her husband’s eyes, it is Jiyoung’s duty to forsake her career to take care of him and their child—to put them first.

Jiyoung’s painfully common life is juxtaposed against a backdrop of an advancing Korea, as it abandons “family planning� birth control policies and passes new legislation against gender discrimination. But can her doctor flawlessly, completely cure her, or even discover what truly ails her?

Rendered in minimalist yet lacerating prose, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 sits at the center of our global #MeToo movement and announces the arrival of writer of international significance]]> 163 Cho Nam-Joo 1631496700 Simi 0 to-read 4.17 2016 Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982
author: Cho Nam-Joo
name: Simi
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/11/20
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism]]> 55338982
What makes “cults� so intriguing and frightening? What makes them powerful? The reason why so many of us binge Manson documentaries by the dozen and fall down rabbit holes researching suburban moms gone QAnon is because we’re looking for a satisfying explanation for what causes people to join—and more importantly, stay in—extreme groups. We secretly want to know: could it happen to me? Amanda Montell’s argument is that, on some level, it already has . . .

Our culture tends to provide pretty flimsy answers to questions of cult influence, mostly having to do with vague talk of “brainwashing.� But the true answer has nothing to do with freaky mind-control wizardry or Kool-Aid. In Cultish, Montell argues that the key to manufacturing intense ideology, community, and us/them attitudes all comes down to language. In both positive ways and shadowy ones, cultish language is something we hear—and are influenced by—every single day.

Through juicy storytelling and cutting original research, Montell exposes the verbal elements that make a wide spectrum of communities “cultish,� revealing how they affect followers of groups as notorious as Heaven’s Gate, but also how they pervade our modern start-ups, Peloton leaderboards, and Instagram feeds. Incisive and darkly funny, this enrapturing take on the curious social science of power and belief will make you hear the fanatical language of “cultish� everywhere.]]> 309 Amanda Montell 0062993151 Simi 0 to-read 3.82 2021 Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
author: Amanda Montell
name: Simi
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/11/20
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution]]> 22112474
Our true origins are not just human, or even terrestrial, but in fact cosmic. Drawing on scientific breakthroughs and the current cross-pollination among geology, biology, astrophysics, and cosmology, "Origins" explains the soul-stirring leaps in our understanding of the cosmos. From the first image of a galaxy birth to Spirit Rover s exploration of Mars, to the discovery of water on one of Jupiter s moons, coauthors Neil deGrasse Tyson and Donald Goldsmith conduct a galvanizing tour of the cosmos with clarity and exuberance."]]> 1 Neil deGrasse Tyson 1483021394 Simi 0 3.76 2004 Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution
author: Neil deGrasse Tyson
name: Simi
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at: 2021/11/17
date added: 2021/11/17
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]]> The Forest of Stolen Girls 51591586 Suspenseful and richly atmospheric, June Hur's The Forest of Stolen Girls is a haunting historical mystery sure to keep readers guessing until the last page.

1426, Joseon (Korea). Hwani's family has never been the same since she and her younger sister went missing and were later found unconscious in the forest near a gruesome crime scene.

Years later, Detective Min―Hwani's father―learns that thirteen girls have recently disappeared from the same forest that nearly stole his daughters. He travels to their hometown on the island of Jeju to investigate� only to vanish as well.

Determined to find her father and solve the case that tore their family apart, Hwani returns home to pick up the trail. As she digs into the secrets of the small village―and collides with her now estranged sister, Maewol―Hwani comes to realize that the answer could lie within her own buried memories of what happened in the forest all those years ago.]]> 367 June Hur 1250229588 Simi 0 to-read 3.74 2021 The Forest of Stolen Girls
author: June Hur
name: Simi
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/11/01
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Inside the Mind of BTK: The True Story Behind the Thirty-Year Hunt for the Notorious Wichita Serial Killer]]> 22714694
After disappearing for nine years, he suddenly reappeared, complaining that no one was paying enough attention to him and claiming that he had committed other crimes for which he had not been given credit. When he was ultimately captured, BTK was shockingly revealed to be Dennis Rader, a 61-year-old married man with two children.]]> John E. Douglas Simi 4 3.86 2007 Inside the Mind of BTK: The True Story Behind the Thirty-Year Hunt for the Notorious Wichita Serial Killer
author: John E. Douglas
name: Simi
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2021/10/29
date added: 2021/11/01
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]]> <![CDATA[ExtraOrdinary (Villains, #1.5)]]> 54739125 Written by #1 New York Times bestselling author V.E. Schwab, Extraordinary expands deeper into the world of Schwab's critically acclaimed novels Vicious and Vengeful.

Torn from the world of 'Vicious', where death is not the end, only the beginning of extraordinary powers... Three new "EO"s must grapple with their new abilities... and with those who would hunt them down! Featuring unseen character design galleries from Andrea Olimpieri and story commentary from V.E. Schwab!]]> 112 Victoria E. Schwab 1785865889 Simi 0 to-read 3.72 2021 ExtraOrdinary (Villains, #1.5)
author: Victoria E. Schwab
name: Simi
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/10/03
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World (Aristotle and Dante, #2)]]> 56980548 Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, two boys in a border town fell in love. Now, they must discover what it means to stay in love and build a relationship in a world that seems to challenge their very existence.

Ari has spent all of high school burying who he really is, staying silent and invisible. He expected his senior year to be the same. But something in him cracked open when he fell in love with Dante, and he can’t go back. Suddenly he finds himself reaching out to new friends, standing up to bullies of all kinds, and making his voice heard. And, always, there is Dante, dreamy, witty Dante, who can get on Ari’s nerves and fill him with desire all at once.

The boys are determined to forge a path for themselves in a world that doesn’t understand them. But when Ari is faced with a shocking loss, he’ll have to fight like never before to create a life that is truthfully, joyfully his own.

The highly anticipated sequel to the critically acclaimed, multiple award-winning novel Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe is an achingly romantic, tender tale sure to captivate fans of Adam Silvera and Mary H.K. Choi.]]> 516 Benjamin Alire Sáenz 153449619X Simi 0 to-read 4.11 2021 Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World (Aristotle and Dante, #2)
author: Benjamin Alire Sáenz
name: Simi
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/10/03
shelves: to-read
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]]> Ready Player One 12382340
Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune--and remarkable power--to whoever can unlock them.

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday's riddles are based in the pop culture he loved--that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday's icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes's oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.

And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.

Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt--among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life--and love--in the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.

A world at stake.
A quest for the ultimate prize.
Are you ready?

Length: 15 hrs and 46 mins]]> 16 Ernest Cline Simi 5 4.22 2011 Ready Player One
author: Ernest Cline
name: Simi
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2016/01/21
date added: 2021/07/14
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]]> Sputnik Sweetheart 18806499 alternate cover for ISBN 9780099448471

A mystery story about love, the cosmos and other fictional universes

Sumire is in love with a woman seventeen years her senior. But whereas Miu is glamorous and successful, Sumire is an aspiring writer who dresses in an oversized second-hand coat and heavy boots like a character in a Kerouac novel.

Sumire spends hours on the phone talking to her best friend K about the big questions in life: what is sexual desire, and should she ever tell Miu how she feels for her? Meanwhile K wonders whether he should confess his own unrequited love for Sumire.

Then, a desperate Miu calls from a small Greek island: Sumire has mysteriously vanished...]]> 229 Haruki Murakami Simi 0 to-read 3.76 1999 Sputnik Sweetheart
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Simi
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/03/14
shelves: to-read
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]]> Travellers in the Third Reich 34594504
The events that took place in Germany between 1919 and 1945 were dramatic and terrible but there were also moments of confusion, of doubt � of hope. How easy was it to know what was actually going on, to grasp the essence of National Socialism, to remain untouched by the propaganda or predict the Holocaust?

Travellers in the Third Reich is an extraordinary history of the rise of the Nazis based on fascinating first-hand accounts, drawing together a multitude of voices and stories, including students, politicians, musicians, diplomats, schoolchildren, communists, scholars, athletes, poets, journalists, fascists, artists, tourists, even celebrities like Charles Lindbergh and Samuel Beckett. Their experiences create a remarkable three-dimensional picture of Germany under Hitler � one so palpable that the reader will feel, hear, even breathe the atmosphere.

These are the accidental eyewitnesses to history. Disturbing, absurd, moving, and ranging from the deeply trivial to the deeply tragic, their tales give a fresh insight into the complexities of the Third Reich, its paradoxes and its ultimate destruction.]]> 464 Julia Boyd 1783963468 Simi 0 to-read 4.06 2017 Travellers in the Third Reich
author: Julia Boyd
name: Simi
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/02/02
shelves: to-read
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]]> History Is All You Left Me 25014114
To make things worse, the only person who truly understands his heartache is Jackson. But no matter how much they open up to each other, Griffin's downward spiral continues. He's losing himself in his obsessive compulsions and destructive choices, and the secrets he's been keeping are tearing him apart.

If Griffin is ever to rebuild his future, he must first confront his history, every last heartbreaking piece in the puzzle of his life.]]> 320 Adam Silvera 1616956933 Simi 0 to-read 3.93 2017 History Is All You Left Me
author: Adam Silvera
name: Simi
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/01/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The City We Became (Great Cities, #1)]]> 42074525
Every city has a soul. Some are as ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York City? She's got five.

But every city also has a dark side. A roiling, ancient evil stirs beneath the earth, threatening to destroy the city and her five protectors unless they can come together and stop it once and for all.]]> 437 N.K. Jemisin Simi 0 to-read 3.83 2020 The City We Became (Great Cities, #1)
author: N.K. Jemisin
name: Simi
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/01/08
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Agents of Dreamland (Tinfoil Dossier, #1)]]> 31189177
In a ranch house near the shore of the Salton Sea a cult leader gathers up the weak and susceptible � the Children of the Next Level � and offers them something to believe in and a chance for transcendence. The future is coming and they will help to usher it in.

A day after the events at the ranch house which disturbed the Signalman so deeply that he and his government sought out help from ‘other� sources, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory abruptly loses contact with NASA's interplanetary probe New Horizons. Something out beyond the orbit of Pluto has made contact.

And a woman floating outside of time looks to the future and the past for answers to what can save humanity.]]> 128 Caitlín R. Kiernan Simi 0 to-read 3.59 2017 Agents of Dreamland (Tinfoil Dossier, #1)
author: Caitlín R. Kiernan
name: Simi
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/01/08
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Binding 39964740
After having suffered some sort of mental collapse and no longer able to keep up with his farm chores, Emmett Farmer is sent to the workshop of one such binder to live and work as her apprentice. Leaving behind home and family, Emmett slowly regains his health while learning the binding trade. He is forbidden to enter the locked room where books are stored, so he spends many months marbling end pages, tooling leather book covers, and gilding edges. But his curiosity is piqued by the people who come and go from the inner sanctum, and the arrival of the lordly Lucian Darnay, with whom he senses a connection, changes everything.]]> 437 Bridget Collins 0008272115 Simi 0 to-read 3.86 2019 The Binding
author: Bridget Collins
name: Simi
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/12/02
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths about Sex and Identity in Our Society]]> 52854301
Is our gender something we’re born with, or are we conditioned by society? In The End of Gender, neuroscientist and sexologist Dr. Debra Soh uses a research-based approach to address this hot-button topic, unmasking popular misconceptions about the nature vs. nurture debate and exploring what it means to be a woman or a man in today’s society.

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

The End of Gender is a conversation-starting work that will challenge what you thought you knew about gender, identity, and everything in between. Timely, informative, and provocative, it will arm you with the facts you need to come to your own conclusions about gender identity and its place in the world today.]]> 0 Debra Soh 1797115820 Simi 3 3.77 2020 The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths about Sex and Identity in Our Society
author: Debra Soh
name: Simi
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2020/11/24
date added: 2020/11/24
shelves:
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]]> Home Fire 33621427
Then Eamonn enters the sisters� lives. Son of a powerful political figure, he has his own birthright to live up to—or defy. Is he to be a chance at love? The means of Parvaiz’s salvation? Suddenly, two families� fates are inextricably, devastatingly entwined, in this searing novel that asks: What sacrifices will we make in the name of love?

The suspenseful and heartbreaking story of an immigrant family driven to pit love against loyalty, with devastating consequences ]]> 276 Kamila Shamsie 0735217688 Simi 0 currently-reading 4.00 2017 Home Fire
author: Kamila Shamsie
name: Simi
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/11/16
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Convenience Store Woman: Library Edition]]> 39829653
Keiko is very happy in her life, but the people close to her, from her family to her coworkers, pressure her to settle down with a man and to find a proper profession. Eventually, she is pushed to make a huge change. The static world of Keiko is upended, but will it be for the better?A brilliant depiction of an unusual psyche and an extraordinary world, Convenience Store Woman is both an ironic and sharp-eyed look at contemporary work culture and the pressures to conform, as well as a charming and completely fresh portrait of an unforgettable heroine.]]> 4 Sayaka Murata 1538584557 Simi 3 3.61 2016 Convenience Store Woman: Library Edition
author: Sayaka Murata
name: Simi
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2020/11/13
date added: 2020/11/13
shelves:
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]]> Home (Binti, #2) 30038654
And now she must return home to her people, with her friend Okwu by her side, to face her family and face her elders.

But Okwu will be the first of his race to set foot on Earth in over a hundred years, and the first ever to come in peace.

After generations of conflict can human and Meduse ever learn to truly live in harmony?]]> 176 Nnedi Okorafor 0765393107 Simi 2 3.99 2017 Home (Binti, #2)
author: Nnedi Okorafor
name: Simi
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2017
rating: 2
read at: 2020/11/10
date added: 2020/11/10
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams]]> 34467926
Within the brain, sleep enriches a diversity of functions, including our ability to learn, memorize, and make logical decisions. It recalibrates our emotions, restocks our immune system, fine-tunes our metabolism, and regulates our appetite. Dreaming creates a virtual reality space in which the brain melds past and present knowledge, inspiring creativity.

In this “compelling and utterly convincing� (The Sunday Times) book, preeminent neuroscientist and sleep expert Matthew Walker provides a revolutionary exploration of sleep, examining how it affects every aspect of our physical and mental well-being. Charting the most cutting-edge scientific breakthroughs, and marshalling his decades of research and clinical practice, Walker explains how we can harness sleep to improve learning, mood and energy levels, regulate hormones, prevent cancer, Alzheimer’s and diabetes, slow the effects of aging, and increase longevity. He also provides actionable steps towards getting a better night’s sleep every night.

Clear-eyed, fascinating, and accessible, Why We Sleep is a crucial and illuminating book, written with the precision of Atul Gawande, Andrew Solomon, and Sherwin Nuland.

Runtime: 13 hours and 51 minutes]]> 14 Matthew Walker 1508240019 Simi 4 4.30 2017 Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams
author: Matthew Walker
name: Simi
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2020/11/07
date added: 2020/11/07
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]]> Binti (Binti, #1) 25667918 For the first time in hardcover, the winner of the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award!

With a new foreword by N. K. Jemisin

Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs.

Knowledge comes at a cost, one that Binti is willing to pay, but her journey will not be easy. The world she seeks to enter has long warred with the Meduse, an alien race that has become the stuff of nightmares. Oomza University has wronged the Meduse, and Binti's stellar travel will bring her within their deadly reach.

If Binti hopes to survive the legacy of a war not of her making, she will need both the the gifts of her people and the wisdom enshrined within the University, itself -- but first she has to make it there, alive.

The Binti Series
Book 1: Binti
Book 2: Binti: Home
Book 3: Binti: The Night Masquerade]]> 96 Nnedi Okorafor 0765384469 Simi 3 3.81 2015 Binti (Binti, #1)
author: Nnedi Okorafor
name: Simi
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2020/10/30
date added: 2020/10/30
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review:

]]> Circe 35959740
Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts, and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.

But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from or with the mortals she has come to love.]]> 393 Madeline Miller 0316556343 Simi 3 4.22 2018 Circe
author: Madeline Miller
name: Simi
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2020/10/28
date added: 2020/10/28
shelves:
review:

]]> Loyalties 42596796 From the bestselling French novelist. Adults are as lost as the children they should be protecting, in this compelling exploration of the destructive secrets and loyalties that are kept behind closed doors

Thirteen-year-old Théo and his friend Mathis secretly drink on an almost daily basis.

Their teacher, Hélène, suspects something is not right with Théo and becomes obsessed with rescuing him, casting aside her professionalism to the point of no return. Cécile, mother of Mathis, discovers something horrifying on her husband's computer that makes her question whether she has ever truly known him.

Respectable facades are peeled away as the four stories wind tighter and tighter together, pulling into a lean and darkly gripping novel of loneliness, lies and loyalties.]]> 191 Delphine de Vigan Simi 0 to-read 3.76 2018 Loyalties
author: Delphine de Vigan
name: Simi
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/10/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Vanishing Half 51791252
Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person's decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.]]> 343 Brit Bennett 0525536299 Simi 0 to-read 4.11 2020 The Vanishing Half
author: Brit Bennett
name: Simi
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/09/28
shelves: to-read
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]]> Such a Fun Age 43923951 Such a Fun Age is a page-turning and big-hearted story about race and privilege, set around a young black babysitter, her well-intentioned employer, and a surprising connection that threatens to undo them both.

Alix Chamberlain is a woman who gets what she wants and has made a living, with her confidence-driven brand, showing other women how to do the same. So she is shocked when her babysitter, Emira Tucker, is confronted while watching the Chamberlains' toddler one night, walking the aisles of their local high-end supermarket. The store's security guard, seeing a young black woman out late with a white child, accuses Emira of kidnapping two-year-old Briar. A small crowd gathers, a bystander films everything, and Emira is furious and humiliated. Alix resolves to make things right.

But Emira herself is aimless, broke, and wary of Alix's desire to help. At twenty-five, she is about to lose her health insurance and has no idea what to do with her life. When the video of Emira unearths someone from Alix's past, both women find themselves on a crash course that will upend everything they think they know about themselves, and each other.

With empathy and piercing social commentary, Such a Fun Age explores the stickiness of transactional relationships, what it means to make someone family, and the complicated reality of being a grown up. It is a searing debut for our times.]]> 310 Kiley Reid 052554190X Simi 0 to-read 3.76 2019 Such a Fun Age
author: Kiley Reid
name: Simi
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/09/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Killer Across the Table: Unlocking the Secrets of Serial Killers and Predators with the FBI’s Original Mindhunter]]> 44566966 ‘John Douglas is the FBI's pioneer and master of investigative profiling, and one of the most exciting figures in law enforcement I've had the privilege of knowing� Patricia Cornwell

‘John Douglas knows more about serial killers than anybody in the world� Jonathan Demme, Director of The Silence of the Lambs

The legendary FBI criminal profiler, number-one New York Times bestselling author, and inspiration for the hit Netflix show Mindhunter delves deep into the lives and crimes of four of the most disturbing and complex predatory killers, offering never-before-revealed details about his profiling process, and divulging the strategies used to crack some of his most challenging cases.

The FBI’s pioneer of criminal profiling, former special agent John Douglas, has studied and interviewed many of America’s most notorious killers � including Charles Manson, ‘Son of Sam Killer� David Berkowitz and ‘BTK Strangler� Dennis Rader. Twenty years after his famous memoir, the man who literally wrote the book on FBI criminal profiling opens his case files once again. In this riveting work of true crime, he spotlights four of the most diabolical criminals he’s confronted, interviewed and learned from.

A glimpse into the mind of a man who has pierced the heart of human darkness, The Killer Across the Table unlocks the ultimate mystery of depravity and the techniques and approaches that have countered evil in the name of justice.

]]> John E. Douglas Simi 4 4.12 2019 The Killer Across the Table: Unlocking the Secrets of Serial Killers and Predators with the FBI’s Original Mindhunter
author: John E. Douglas
name: Simi
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2020/09/23
date added: 2020/09/23
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]]> Of Mice and Men 890 “I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that's why.�

They are an unlikely pair: George is "small and quick and dark of face"; Lennie, a man of tremendous size, has the mind of a young child. Yet they have formed a "family," clinging together in the face of loneliness and alienation. Laborers in California's dusty vegetable fields, they hustle work when they can, living a hand-to-mouth existence. But George and Lennie have a plan: to own an acre of land and a shack they can call their own.

While the powerlessness of the laboring class is a recurring theme in Steinbeck's work of the late 1930s, he narrowed his focus when composing Of Mice and Men, creating an intimate portrait of two men facing a world marked by petty tyranny, misunderstanding, jealousy, and callousness. But though the scope is narrow, the theme is universal: a friendship and a shared dream that makes an individual's existence meaningful.

A unique perspective on life's hardships, this story has achieved the status of timeless classic due to its remarkable success as a novel, a Broadway play, and three acclaimed films.]]> 107 John Steinbeck 0142000671 Simi 5 favorites 3.88 1937 Of Mice and Men
author: John Steinbeck
name: Simi
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1937
rating: 5
read at: 2020/07/15
date added: 2020/08/31
shelves: favorites
review:

]]> The Devil All the Time 10108463 The Devil All the Time follows a cast of characters from the end of World War II to the 1960s. There’s Willard Russell, tormented veteran of the carnage in the South Pacific, who can’t save his beautiful wife, Charlotte, from an agonizing death by cancer no matter how much sacrifi­cial blood he pours on his “prayer log.� There’s Carl and Sandy Henderson, a husband-and-wife team of serial kill­ers, who troll America’s highways searching for suitable models to photograph and exterminate. There’s the spider-handling preacher Roy and his crippled virtuoso-guitar-playing sidekick, Theodore, running from the law. And caught in the middle of all this is Arvin Eugene Russell, Willard and Charlotte’s orphaned son, who grows up to be a good but also violent man in his own right.]]> 261 Donald Ray Pollock 038553504X Simi 0 to-read 4.13 2011 The Devil All the Time
author: Donald Ray Pollock
name: Simi
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/08/26
shelves: to-read
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]]> Why Not Me? 26543921 Why Not Me?, Kaling shares her ongoing journey to find contentment and excitement in her adult life, whether it's falling in love at work, seeking new friendships in lonely places, attempting to be the first person in history to lose weight without any behavior modification whatsoever, or most important, believing that you have a place in Hollywood when you're constantly reminded that no one looks like you.

In "How to Look Spectacular: A Starlet's Confessions," Kaling gives her tongue-in-cheek secrets for surefire on-camera beauty, ("Your natural hair color may be appropriate for your skin tone, but this isn't the land of appropriate�this is Hollywood, baby. Out here, a dark-skinned woman's traditional hair color is honey blonde.") "Player" tells the story of Kaling being seduced and dumped by a female friend in L.A. ("I had been replaced by a younger model. And now they had matching bangs.") In "Unlikely Leading Lady," she muses on America's fixation with the weight of actresses, ("Most women we see onscreen are either so thin that they're walking clavicles or so huge that their only scenes involve them breaking furniture.") And in "Soup Snakes," Kaling spills some secrets on her relationship with her ex-boyfriend and close friend, B.J. Novak ("I will freely admit: my relationship with B.J. Novak is weird as hell.")

Mindy turns the anxieties, the glamour, and the celebrations of her second coming-of-age into a laugh-out-loud funny collection of essays that anyone who's ever been at a turning point in their life or career can relate to. And those who've never been at a turning point can skip to the parts where she talks about meeting Bradley Cooper.]]> 5 Mindy Kaling 0553551779 Simi 4 3.59 2015 Why Not Me?
author: Mindy Kaling
name: Simi
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2016/02/17
date added: 2020/08/25
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]]> Severance 36348525
Candace won’t be able to make it on her own forever, though. Enter a group of survivors, led by the power-hungry IT tech Bob. They’re traveling to a place called the Facility, where, Bob promises, they will have everything they need to start society anew. But Candace is carrying a secret she knows Bob will exploit. Should she escape from her rescuers?

A send-up and takedown of the rituals, routines, and missed opportunities of contemporary life, Ling Ma’s Severance is a quirky coming-of-adulthood tale and satire.]]> 291 Ling Ma 0374261598 Simi 0 to-read 3.90 2018 Severance
author: Ling Ma
name: Simi
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/08/20
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Jane Austen Society 53362144
Just after the Second World War, in the small English village of Chawton, an unusual but like-minded group of people band together to attempt something remarkable.

One hundred and fifty years ago, Chawton was the final home of Jane Austen, one of England's finest novelists. Now it's home to a few distant relatives and their diminishing estate. With the last bit of Austen's legacy threatened, a group of disparate individuals come together to preserve both Jane Austen's home and her legacy. These people—a laborer, a young widow, the local doctor, and a movie star, among others—could not be more different and yet they are united in their love for the works and words of Austen. As each of them endures their own quiet struggle with loss and trauma, some from the recent war, others from more distant tragedies, they rally together to create the Jane Austen Society.]]> Natalie Jenner Simi 2 3.76 2020 The Jane Austen Society
author: Natalie Jenner
name: Simi
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2020/08/19
date added: 2020/08/19
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]]> Real Life 46263943
Almost everything about Wallace is at odds with the Midwestern university town where he is working uneasily toward a biochem degree. An introverted young man from Alabama, black and queer, he has left behind his family without escaping the long shadows of his childhood. For reasons of self-preservation, Wallace has enforced a wary distance even within his own circle of friends—some dating each other, some dating women, some feigning straightness. But over the course of a late-summer weekend, a series of confrontations with colleagues, and an unexpected encounter with an ostensibly straight, white classmate, conspire to fracture his defenses while exposing long-hidden currents of hostility and desire within their community.

Real Life is a novel of profound and lacerating power, a story that asks if it’s ever really possible to overcome our private wounds, and at what cost.]]> 329 Brandon Taylor 0525538887 Simi 0 to-read 3.79 2020 Real Life
author: Brandon Taylor
name: Simi
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/08/16
shelves: to-read
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]]> In the Dream House 43317482 251 Carmen Maria Machado 1644450038 Simi 0 to-read 4.41 2019 In the Dream House
author: Carmen Maria Machado
name: Simi
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/08/10
shelves: to-read
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]]> Educated 38630767
Her father forbade hospitals, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at home with herbalism. The family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education and no one to intervene when one of Tara's older brothers became violent.

Then, lacking any formal education, Tara began to educate herself. She taught herself enough mathematics and grammar to be admitted to Brigham Young University, where she studied history, learning for the first time about important world events like the Holocaust and the civil rights movement. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge. Only then would she wonder if she'd traveled too far, if there was still a way home.

Educated is an account of the struggle for self-invention. It is a tale of fierce family loyalty and of the grief that comes with severing the closest of ties. With the acute insight that distinguishes all great writers, Westover has crafted a universal coming-of-age story that gets to the heart of what an education is and what it offers: the perspective to see one's life through new eyes and the will to change it.]]> 352 Tara Westover Simi 4 4.37 2018 Educated
author: Tara Westover
name: Simi
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2020/07/30
date added: 2020/07/30
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]]> Red at the Bone 43697186
As the book opens in 2001, it is the evening of sixteen-year-old Melody's coming of age ceremony in her grandparents' Brooklyn brownstone. Watched lovingly by her relatives and friends, making her entrance to the music of Prince, she wears a special custom-made dress. But the event is not without poignancy. Sixteen years earlier, that very dress was measured and sewn for a different wearer: Melody's mother, for her own ceremony-- a celebration that ultimately never took place.

Unfurling the history of Melody's parents and grandparents to show how they all arrived at this moment, Woodson considers not just their ambitions and successes but also the costs, the tolls they've paid for striving to overcome expectations and escape the pull of history. As it explores sexual desire and identity, ambition, gentrification, education, class and status, and the life-altering facts of parenthood, Red at the Bone most strikingly looks at the ways in which young people must so often make long-lasting decisions about their lives--even before they have begun to figure out who they are and what they want to be.]]> 196 Jacqueline Woodson 0525535276 Simi 0 to-read 3.96 2019 Red at the Bone
author: Jacqueline Woodson
name: Simi
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/07/27
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us]]> 6452796 The New York Times bestseller that gives readers a paradigm-shattering new way to think about motivation

Most people believe that the best way to motivate is with rewards like money—the carrot-and-stick approach. That's a mistake, says Daniel H. Pink (author of To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Motivating Others). In this provocative and persuasive new book, he asserts that the secret to high performance and satisfaction—at work, at school, and at home—is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world.

Drawing on four decades of scientific research on human motivation, Pink exposes the mismatch between what science knows and what business does—and how that affects every aspect of life. He examines the three elements of true motivation—autonomy, mastery, and purpose—and offers smart and surprising techniques for putting these into action in a unique book that will change how we think and transform how we live.]]> 242 Daniel H. Pink 1594488843 Simi 0 to-read 3.94 2009 Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
author: Daniel H. Pink
name: Simi
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/07/23
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]]> Sleepwalking 18722771 The debut novel from New York Times–bestselling author Meg Wolitzer, a story of three college students� shared fascination with poetry and death, and how one of them must face difficult truths in order to leave her obsession behind.

Published when she was only twenty-three and written while she was a student at Brown, Sleepwalking marks the beginning of Meg Wolitzer’s acclaimed career.  Filled with her usual wisdom, compassion and insight, Sleepwalking tells the story of the three notorious “death girls,� so called on the Swarthmore campus because they dress in black and are each absorbed in the work and suicide of a different poet: Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, and Wolitzer’s creation Lucy Asher, a gifted writer who drowned herself at twenty-four.  At night the death girls gather in a candlelit room to read their heroines� work aloud.

But an affair with Julian, an upperclassman, pushes sensitive , struggling Claire Danziger—she of the Lucy Asher obsession-–to consider to what degree her “death girl� identity is really who she is.  As she grapples with her feelings for Julian, her own understanding of herself and her past begins to shift uncomfortably and even disturbingly. Finally, Claire takes drastic measures to confront the facts about herself that she has been avoiding for years.]]> 245 Meg Wolitzer 1594633134 Simi 0 to-read 3.43 1982 Sleepwalking
author: Meg Wolitzer
name: Simi
average rating: 3.43
book published: 1982
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/06/20
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory]]> 25189315
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes tells an unusual coming-of-age story full of bizarre encounters and unforgettable scenes. Caring for dead bodies of every color, shape, and affliction, Caitlin soon becomes an intrepid explorer in the world of the dead. She describes how she swept ashes from the machines (and sometimes onto her clothes) and reveals the strange history of cremation and undertaking, marveling at bizarre and wonderful funeral practices from different cultures.

Her eye-opening, candid, and often hilarious story is like going on a journey with your bravest friend to the cemetery at midnight. She demystifies death, leading us behind the black curtain of her unique profession. And she answers questions you didn’t know you had: Can you catch a disease from a corpse? How many dead bodies can you fit in a Dodge van? What exactly does a flaming skull look like?

Honest and heartfelt, self-deprecating and ironic, Caitlin's engaging style makes this otherwise taboo topic both approachable and engrossing. Now a licensed mortician with an alternative funeral practice, Caitlin argues that our fear of dying warps our culture and society, and she calls for better ways of dealing with death (and our dead).]]> 254 Caitlin Doughty 0393351904 Simi 0 to-read 4.24 2014 Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory
author: Caitlin Doughty
name: Simi
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/06/20
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Truth About Keeping Secrets]]> 44298988
He is also unexpectedly dead.

Is Sydney crazy, or is it kind of weird that her dad-a guy whose entire job revolved around other peoples' secrets-crashed alone, with no explanation?

And why is June Copeland, homecoming queen and the town's golden child, at his funeral?

As the two girls grow closer in the wake of the accident, it's clear that not everyone is happy about their new friendship.

But what is picture perfect June still hiding? And does Sydney even want to know?

THE TRUTH ABOUT KEEPING SECRETS is a page-turning, voice led, high school thriller.]]> Savannah Brown Simi 3 3.72 2019 The Truth About Keeping Secrets
author: Savannah Brown
name: Simi
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2020/06/20
date added: 2020/06/20
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]]> Inside the Criminal Mind 20758122 416 Stanton E. Samenow 0804139903 Simi 3 3.86 1984 Inside the Criminal Mind
author: Stanton E. Samenow
name: Simi
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1984
rating: 3
read at: 2020/05/27
date added: 2020/05/27
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Into the Drowning Deep (Rolling in the Deep, #1)]]> 34523174
Now, a new crew has been assembled. But this time they’re not out to entertain. Some seek to validate their life’s work. Some seek the greatest hunt of all. Some seek the truth. But for the ambitious young scientist Victoria Stewart this is a voyage to uncover the fate of the sister she lost.

Whatever the truth may be, it will only be found below the waves. But the secrets of the deep come with a price.]]> 448 Mira Grant 0316379409 Simi 0 to-read 3.94 2017 Into the Drowning Deep (Rolling in the Deep, #1)
author: Mira Grant
name: Simi
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/05/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Psychopathic God 500773



The Psychopathic God is the definitive psychological portrait of Adolph Hitler. By documenting accounts of his behavior, beliefs, tastes, fears, and compulsions, Robert Waite sheds new light on this complex figure. But Waite's ultimate aim is to explain how Hitler's psychopathology changed German--and world--history. With The Psychopathic God we can begin to understand Hitler as never before.]]> 512 Robert G.L. Waite 0306805146 Simi 0 to-read 3.91 1977 The Psychopathic God
author: Robert G.L. Waite
name: Simi
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1977
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/05/20
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Stranger in the Nest: Do Parents Really Shape Their Child's Personality, Intelligence, or Character?]]> 2593693 312 David B. Cohen 0471319228 Simi 0 to-read 3.42 1999 Stranger in the Nest: Do Parents Really Shape Their Child's Personality, Intelligence, or Character?
author: David B. Cohen
name: Simi
average rating: 3.42
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/05/10
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1)]]> 15839976 "I live for the dream that my children will be born free," she says. "That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them."

"I live for you," I say sadly.

Eo kisses my cheek. "Then you must live for more."

Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations.

Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.

But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity already reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.

Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity's overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society's ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies... even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.]]> 382 Pierce Brown 0345539788 Simi 4 4.26 2014 Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1)
author: Pierce Brown
name: Simi
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2020/05/09
date added: 2020/05/09
shelves:
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]]> Take Me Apart 45892241
When the famed photographer Miranda Brand died mysteriously at the height of her career, it sent shock waves through Callinas, California. Decades later, old wounds are reopened when her son, Theo, hires ex-journalist Kate Aitken to create an archive of his mother's work.

From Miranda's vast maze of personal effects, Kate pieces together a portrait of a vibrant artist buckling under the pressures of ambition, motherhood, and marriage. As the summer progresses, Kate navigates vicious local rumors and her growing attraction to the enigmatic Theo, all while unearthing the shocking details of Miranda's private life. But Kate has secrets of her own, and when she stumbles across a diary that may finally resolve the mystery of Miranda's death, her curiosity starts to spiral into a dangerous obsession.

With breathtaking and haunting imagery, Take Me Apart paints a vivid picture of two magnetic young women, separated by years, but bonded by shared struggles. Sara Sligar draws readers into a web of secrets and lies, alternating between the present and the past and revealing the truth about Miranda's death through the objects she left behind.]]> 368 Sara Sligar 0374272611 Simi 0 to-read 3.61 2020 Take Me Apart
author: Sara Sligar
name: Simi
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/05/09
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Bloody Okinawa: The Last Great Battle of World War II]]> 51196638 A stirring narrative of World War II's final major battle--the Pacific war's largest, bloodiest, most savagely fought campaign--the last of its kind.

On Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945, more than 184,000 US troops began landing on the only Japanese home soil invaded during the Pacific war. Just 350 miles from mainland Japan, Okinawa was to serve as a forward base for Japan's invasion in the fall of 1945.

Nearly 140,000 Japanese and auxiliary soldiers fought with suicidal tenacity from hollowed-out, fortified hills and ridges. Under constant fire and in the rain and mud, the Americans battered the defenders with artillery, aerial bombing, naval gunfire, and every infantry tool. Waves of Japanese kamikaze and conventional warplanes sank 36 warships, damaged 368 others, and killed nearly 5,000 US seamen.

When the slugfest ended after 82 days, more than 125,000 enemy soldiers lay dead--along with 7,500 US ground troops. Tragically, more than 100,000 Okinawa civilians perished while trapped between the armies. The brutal campaign persuaded US leaders to drop the atomic bomb instead of invading Japan.

Utilizing accounts by US combatants and Japanese sources, author Joseph Wheelan endows this riveting story of the war's last great battle with a compelling human dimension.]]> 419 Joseph Wheelan 0306903229 Simi 0 to-read 4.15 2020 Bloody Okinawa: The Last Great Battle of World War II
author: Joseph Wheelan
name: Simi
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/05/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow]]> 30363104 New York Times bestseller and international phenomenon Sapiens, returns with an equally original, compelling, and provocative book, turning his focus toward humanity’s future, and our quest to upgrade humans into gods.

Over the past century humankind has managed to do the impossible and rein in famine, plague, and war. This may seem hard to accept, but, as Harari explains in his trademark style—thorough, yet riveting—famine, plague and war have been transformed from incomprehensible and uncontrollable forces of nature into manageable challenges. For the first time ever, more people die from eating too much than from eating too little; more people die from old age than from infectious diseases; and more people commit suicide than are killed by soldiers, terrorists and criminals put together. The average American is a thousand times more likely to die from binging at McDonalds than from being blown up by Al Qaeda.

What then will replace famine, plague, and war at the top of the human agenda? As the self-made gods of planet earth, what destinies will we set ourselves, and which quests will we undertake? Homo Deus explores the projects, dreams and nightmares that will shape the twenty-first century—from overcoming death to creating artificial life. It asks the fundamental questions: Where do we go from here? And how will we protect this fragile world from our own destructive powers? This is the next stage of evolution. This is Homo Deus.

With the same insight and clarity that made Sapiens an international hit and a New York Times bestseller, Harari maps out our future.]]> 15 Yuval Noah Harari 0062657291 Simi 4 3.94 2015 Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow
author: Yuval Noah Harari
name: Simi
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2020/05/06
date added: 2020/05/06
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Buried Alive (Zendi Begoor) in English, Armenian and Persian]]> 9283284 85 Sadegh Hedayat 9647656785 Simi 0 to-read 3.93 1930 Buried Alive (Zendi Begoor) in English, Armenian and Persian
author: Sadegh Hedayat
name: Simi
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1930
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/04/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Age of Innocence 13550459
11 hours and 45 minutes]]> 12 Edith Wharton 1433242001 Simi 4 3.64 1920 The Age of Innocence
author: Edith Wharton
name: Simi
average rating: 3.64
book published: 1920
rating: 4
read at: 2020/04/06
date added: 2020/04/06
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[More Bedtime Stories for Cynics (Bedtime Stories for Cynics, #2)]]> 52948271
If children's literature is any guide, we should all be able to magically fall asleep simply by saying goodnight to the things we can see from our beds. But any adult knows that our work anxieties and shameful memories would rather stay up all night and chat. That’s where Offerman and Co. come in—with clever and occasionally downright dark parodies of the classic kids genre. What really happened after Snow White died, from the perspective of the one medically trained dwarf? A naive wizard professor reports back from the trenches of an underprivileged school of magic. A middle-aged man is haunted by the voices of his own aging body. The stories will make you laugh, cry and probably squirm a little.

Performers include: Patrick Stewart, Alia Shawkat, Jane Lynch, Aparna Nancherla, Harry Goaz, Mike Birbiglia, Ellen Page, Rachel Dratch, Gary Anthony Williams, Nicole Byer, and Matt Walsh.

Please note that this audiobook contains explicit content.]]> 176 Nick Offerman Simi 3 3.20 2019 More Bedtime Stories for Cynics (Bedtime Stories for Cynics, #2)
author: Nick Offerman
name: Simi
average rating: 3.20
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2019/05/19
date added: 2020/04/04
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Little Women (Little Women, #1)]]> 1934 This is an alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780451529305.

Generations of readers young and old, male and female, have fallen in love with the March sisters of Louisa May Alcott’s most popular and enduring novel, Little Women. Here are talented tomboy and author-to-be Jo, tragically frail Beth, beautiful Meg, and romantic, spoiled Amy, united in their devotion to each other and their struggles to survive in New England during the Civil War.

It is no secret that Alcott based Little Women on her own early life. While her father, the freethinking reformer and abolitionist Bronson Alcott, hobnobbed with such eminent male authors as Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne, Louisa supported herself and her sisters with "woman’s work,� including sewing, doing laundry, and acting as a domestic servant. But she soon discovered she could make more money writing. Little Women brought her lasting fame and fortune, and far from being the "girl’s book� her publisher requested, it explores such timeless themes as love and death, war and peace, the conflict between personal ambition and family responsibilities, and the clash of cultures between Europe and America.

]]> 449 Louisa May Alcott Simi 3 4.16 1868 Little Women (Little Women, #1)
author: Louisa May Alcott
name: Simi
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1868
rating: 3
read at: 2020/03/29
date added: 2020/03/29
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Wrinkle in Time (Time Quintet, #1)]]> 33574273 It was a dark and stormy night.

Out of this wild night, a strange visitor comes to the Murry house and beckons Meg, her brother Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin O'Keefe on a most dangerous and extraordinary adventure—one that will threaten their lives and our universe.

Winner of the 1963 Newbery Medal, A Wrinkle in Time is the first book in Madeleine L'Engle's classic Time Quintet.]]> 218 Madeleine L'Engle 1250153271 Simi 0 to-read 3.91 1962 A Wrinkle in Time (Time Quintet, #1)
author: Madeleine L'Engle
name: Simi
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1962
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/03/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Meg se kínáltak 52585637
Az elesett magyar vidék hősei nem vesztették el a derűt, és még szeretni is képesek. Milyen jó is egy utolsó utáni kocsonyát találni az ablaktáblák között, mikor már azt hittük, elfogyott! Milyen jó is az első nagyfröccs nyáron, miután egész nap nem engedett inni a főnök. Ugye, Gyöngyi? Figyelsz, Gyöngyi?

Bödőcs Tibor első regénye a magyar vidék iránt érzett rajongás, aggódás és szeretet műve. Amennyire nyomorult, annyira mulatságos. Hallod, Gyöngyi? Visszamásztam, és nézd, repülök!

Szálinger Balázs]]> 200 Tibor Bödőcs 9634793185 Simi 4 4.22 2019 Meg se kínáltak
author: Tibor Bödőcs
name: Simi
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2019/12/30
date added: 2020/03/21
shelves:
review:

]]> Blindness 40495148 From Nobel Prize–winning author José Saramago, a magnificent, mesmerizing parable of loss

A city is hit by an epidemic of "white blindness" that spares no one. Authorities confine the blind to an empty mental hospital, but there the criminal element holds everyone captive, stealing food rations, and assaulting women. There is one eyewitness to this nightmare who guides her charges—among them a boy with no mother, a girl with dark glasses, a dog of tears—through the barren streets, and their procession becomes as uncanny as the surroundings are harrowing. As Blindness reclaims the age-old story of a plague, it evokes the vivid and trembling horrors of the twentieth century, leaving readers with a powerful vision of the human spirit that's bound both by weakness and exhilarating strength.]]> 349 José Saramago Simi 0 to-read 4.17 1995 Blindness
author: José Saramago
name: Simi
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1995
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/02/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Artemis 36112610
Jazz Bashara is a criminal. Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent.

Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down. But pulling off the impossible is just the start of her problems, as she learns that she's stepped square into a conspiracy for control of Artemis itself - and that now her only chance at survival lies in a gambit even riskier than the first.

Bringing to life Weir's brash, whip-smart protagonist is actress Rosario Dawson (Marvel's The Defenders, Sin City, Death Proof). With the breathless immediacy of one realizing they're one cracked helmet visor away from oblivion, Dawson deftly captures Jazz's first-person perspective � all while delivering sarcastic Weir-ian one-liners and cracking wise in the face of death. And with a cast of diverse characters from all walks of life calling Artemis home, Dawson tonally somersaults to voice Kenyan prime ministers, Ukrainian scientists, and Saudi welders. It's a performance that transports listeners right alongside Jazz, matching her step for step on every lunar inch of her pulse-pounding journey.

This edition is 9 hours long.]]> 9 Andy Weir Simi 2 3.62 2017 Artemis
author: Andy Weir
name: Simi
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2017
rating: 2
read at: 2020/02/13
date added: 2020/02/13
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Man Who Knew The Way to the Moon]]> 51210419
Without John C. Houbolt, a junior engineer at NASA, Apollo 11 would never have made it to the moon.

Top NASA engineers on the project, including Werner Von Braun, strongly advocated for a single, huge spacecraft to travel to the moon, land, and return to Earth. It's the scenario used in 1950s cartoons and horror movies about traveling to outer space.

Houbolt had another idea: Lunar Orbit Rendezvous. LOR would link two spacecraft in orbit while the crafts were travelling at 17,000 miles per hour. His plan was ridiculed and considered unthinkable. But this junior engineer was irrepressible. He stood by his concept, fired off memos to executives, and argued that LOR was the only way to success.

For the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, hear the untold story of the man who helped fulfill Kennedy’s challenge to reach the moon and begin exploring the final frontier.]]> 5 Todd Zwillich Simi 2 3.83 2019 The Man Who Knew The Way to the Moon
author: Todd Zwillich
name: Simi
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2019/09/06
date added: 2020/02/12
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit]]> 44567489 THE BESTSELLING TRUE STORY THAT INSPIRED THE MAJOR NETFLIX SERIES

FBI Special Agent and expert in criminal profiling and behavioural science, John Douglas, is a man who has looked evil in the eye and made a vocation of understanding it. Now retired, Douglas can let us inside the FBI elite serial crime unit and into the disturbed minds of some of the most savage serial killers in the world.

The man who was the inspiration for Special Agent Jack Crawford in The Silence of the Lambs and who lent the film's makers his expertise explains how he invented and established the practice of criminal profiling; what it was like to submerge himself mentally in the world of serial killers to the point of 'becoming' both perpetrator and victim; and individual case histories including those of Jeffrey Dahmer, Charles Manson, Ted Bundy and the Atlanta child murders.

With the fierce page-turning power of a bestselling novel, yet terrifyingly true, Mindhunter is a true crime classic.

John Douglas knows more about serial killers than anybody in the world - Jonathan Demme, Director of The Silence of the Lambs

A cracker of a book - Esquire ]]> 15 John E. Douglas Simi 4 3.89 1995 Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit
author: John E. Douglas
name: Simi
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at: 2020/02/09
date added: 2020/02/09
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Conjuring of Light (Shades of Magic, #3)]]> 29939230 Witness the fate of beloved heroes - and enemies.

THE BALANCE OF POWER HAS FINALLY TIPPED...
The precarious equilibrium among four Londons has reached its breaking point. Once brimming with the red vivacity of magic, darkness casts a shadow over the Maresh Empire, leaving a space for another London to rise.

WHO WILL CRUMBLE?
Kell - once assumed to be the last surviving Antari - begins to waver under the pressure of competing loyalties. And in the wake of tragedy, can Arnes survive?

WHO WILL RISE?
Lila Bard, once a commonplace - but never common - thief, has survived and flourished through a series of magical trials. But now she must learn to control the magic, before it bleeds her dry. Meanwhile, the disgraced Captain Alucard Emery of the Night Spire collects his crew, attempting a race against time to acquire the impossible.

WHO WILL TAKE CONTROL?
And an ancient enemy returns to claim a crown while a fallen hero tries to save a world in decay.]]> 624 Victoria E. Schwab 0765387468 Simi 5 4.30 2017 A Conjuring of Light (Shades of Magic, #3)
author: Victoria E. Schwab
name: Simi
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2020/01/26
date added: 2020/01/26
shelves:
review:

]]> The Great Believers 45304101 A dazzling new novel of friendship and redemption in the face of tragedy and loss set in 1980s Chicago and contemporary Paris

In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, is about to pull off an amazing coup, bringing in an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings as a gift to the gallery. Yet as his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDS epidemic grows around him. One by one, his friends are dying and after his friend Nico's funeral, the virus circles closer and closer to Yale himself. Soon the only person he has left is Fiona, Nico's little sister.

Thirty years later, Fiona is in Paris tracking down her estranged daughter who disappeared into a cult. While staying with an old friend, a famous photographer who documented the Chicago crisis, she finds herself finally grappling with the devastating ways AIDS affected her life and her relationship with her daughter. The two intertwining stories take us through the heartbreak of the eighties and the chaos of the modern world, as both Yale and Fiona struggle to find goodness in the midst of disaster.

The Great Believers has become a critically acclaimed, indelible piece of literature; it was selected as one of New York Times Best 10 Books of the Year, a Washington Post Notable Book, a Buzzfeed Book of the Year, a Skimm Reads pick, and a pick for the New York Public Library's Best Books of the year.]]> 421 Rebecca Makkai 073522353X Simi 0 to-read 4.26 2018 The Great Believers
author: Rebecca Makkai
name: Simi
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/12/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Helter Skelter 21531176 26 Vincent Bugliosi Simi 4 4.07 1974 Helter Skelter
author: Vincent Bugliosi
name: Simi
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1974
rating: 4
read at: 2019/12/18
date added: 2019/12/18
shelves:
review:

]]> Bunny (Bunny, #1) 42815544
But everything changes when Samantha receives an invitation to the Bunnies' fabled "Smut Salon," and finds herself inexplicably drawn to their front door--ditching her only friend, Ava, in the process. As Samantha plunges deeper and deeper into the Bunnies' sinister yet saccharine world, beginning to take part in the ritualistic off-campus "Workshop" where they conjure their monstrous creations, the edges of reality begin to blur. Soon, her friendships with Ava and the Bunnies will be brought into deadly collision.

The spellbinding new novel from one of our most fearless chroniclers of the female experience, Bunny is a down-the-rabbit-hole tale of loneliness and belonging, friendship and desire, and the fantastic and terrible power of the imagination.]]> 307 Mona Awad 0525559736 Simi 0 to-read 3.53 2019 Bunny (Bunny, #1)
author: Mona Awad
name: Simi
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/12/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Little Life 22822858
Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever.]]> 720 Hanya Yanagihara 0385539258 Simi 5 4.28 2015 A Little Life
author: Hanya Yanagihara
name: Simi
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2019/11/30
date added: 2019/11/30
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Throne of the Crescent Moon (The Crescent Moon Kingdoms, #1)]]> 11487807
Doctor Adoulla Makhslood, “the last real ghul hunter in the great city of Dhamsawaat,� just wants a quiet cup of tea. Three score and more years old, he has grown weary of hunting monsters and saving lives, and is more than ready to retire from his dangerous and demanding vocation. But when an old flame’s family is murdered, Adoulla is drawn back to the hunter’s path.

Raseed bas Raseed, Adoulla’s young assistant, is a hidebound holy warrior whose prowess is matched only by his piety. But even as Raseed’s sword is tested by ghuls and manjackals, his soul is tested when he and Adoulla cross paths with the tribeswoman Zamia.

Zamia Badawi, Protector of the Band, has been gifted with the near-mythical power of the lion-shape, but shunned by her people for daring to take up a man’s title. She lives only to avenge her father’s death. Until she learns that Adoulla and his allies also hunt her father’s killer. Until she meets Raseed.

When they learn that the murders and the Falcon Prince’s brewing revolution are connected, the companions must race against time—and struggle against their own misgivings—to save the life of a vicious despot. In so doing they discover a plot for the Throne of the Crescent Moon that threatens to turn Dhamsawaat, and the world itself, into a blood-soaked ruin.]]> 274 Saladin Ahmed 0756407117 Simi 0 to-read 3.61 2012 Throne of the Crescent Moon (The Crescent Moon Kingdoms, #1)
author: Saladin Ahmed
name: Simi
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/11/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sins of Empire (Gods of Blood and Powder, #1)]]> 28811016 fantasy series from Brian McClellan, set in the world of his wildly popular Powder Mage trilogy.
A world on the cusp of a new age...
The young nation of Fatrasta is a turbulent place -- a frontier destination for criminals, fortune-hunters, brave settlers, and sorcerers seeking relics of the past. Only the iron will of the lady chancellor and her secret police holds the capital city of Landfall together against the unrest of an oppressed population and the machinations of powerful empires.

Sedition is a dangerous word...
The insurrection that threatens Landfall must be purged with guile and force, a task which falls on the shoulders of a spy named Michel Bravis, convicted war hero Mad Ben Styke, and Lady Vlora Flint, a mercenary general with a past as turbulent as Landfall's present.

The past haunts us all...
As loyalties are tested, revealed, and destroyed, a grim specter as old as time has been unearthed in this wild land, and the people of Landfall will soon discover that rebellion is the least of their worries.
]]> 624 Brian McClellan 0316407216 Simi 0 to-read 4.38 2017 Sins of Empire (Gods of Blood and Powder, #1)
author: Brian McClellan
name: Simi
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/11/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Midnight Son 48649679
This story has long haunted James Dommek Jr., the great-grandson of the last of the Inupiaq storytellers. Midnight Son is his journey to who Teddy Kyle Smith was, what he did, and what he really saw.

It’s a true story that takes listeners from the Alaskan wilderness to Hollywood and to the courtroom. A story that pits Inupiaq folklore against American justice in a battle over the nature of reality and the soul of the real Alaska.

3 hrs. 23 min.]]> 4 James Dommek Jr. Simi 2 3.60 2019 Midnight Son
author: James Dommek Jr.
name: Simi
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2019/11/16
date added: 2019/11/15
shelves:
review:

]]> Vom Ende der Einsamkeit 28051948 355 Benedict Wells 3257069588 Simi 0 to-read 4.49 2016 Vom Ende der Einsamkeit
author: Benedict Wells
name: Simi
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/11/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Shades of Magic Vol. 1: The Steel Prince]]> 38524301 Written by #1 New York Times bestselling author V.E. Schwab and torn from the universe of the Shades of Magic sequence, this all-original comic book prequel to A Darker Shade of Magic is perfect for fans of bloody, swashbuckling adventure and gritty fantasy!

Delve into the thrilling, epic tale of the young and arrogant prince Maxim Maresh, long before he became the king of Red London and adoptive father to Kell, the lead of A Darker Shade of Magic!

The youthful Maresh is sent to a violent and unmanageable port city on the Blood Coast of Verose, on strict orders from his father, King Nokil Maresh, to cut his military teeth in this lawless landscape.

There, he encounters an unruly band of soldiers, a lawless landscape, and the intoxicatingly deadly presence of the newly returned pirate queen, Arisa...

Collects Shades of Magic: The Steel Prince #1-4.]]> 112 Victoria E. Schwab 1785865870 Simi 0 to-read 3.78 2019 Shades of Magic Vol. 1: The Steel Prince
author: Victoria E. Schwab
name: Simi
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/11/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Watchmen 472331 Watchmen, the groundbreaking series from award-winning author Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, presents a world where the mere presence of American superheroes changed history—the U.S. won the Vietnam War, Nixon is still president, and the Cold War is in full effect.

Considered the greatest graphic novel in the history of the medium, the Hugo Award-winning story chronicles the fall from grace of a group of superheroes plagued by all-too-human failings. Along the way, the concept of the superhero is dissected as an unknown assassin stalks the erstwhile heroes.]]> 416 Alan Moore 0930289234 Simi 0 to-read 4.38 1987 Watchmen
author: Alan Moore
name: Simi
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1987
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/11/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Call Down the Hawk (Dreamer Trilogy, #1)]]> 31373184 The dreamers walk among us . . . and so do the dreamed. Those who dream cannot stop dreaming � they can only try to control it. Those who are dreamed cannot have their own lives � they will sleep forever if their dreamers die.

And then there are those who are drawn to the dreamers. To use them. To trap them. To kill them before their dreams destroy us all.

Ronan Lynch is a dreamer. He can pull both curiosities and catastrophes out of his dreams and into his compromised reality.

Jordan Hennessy is a thief. The closer she comes to the dream object she is after, the more inextricably she becomes tied to it.

Carmen Farooq-Lane is a hunter. Her brother was a dreamer . . . and a killer. She has seen what dreaming can do to a person. And she has seen the damage that dreamers can do. But that is nothing compared to the destruction that is about to be unleashed. . . .]]> 472 Maggie Stiefvater 1338188321 Simi 0 to-read 4.24 2019 Call Down the Hawk (Dreamer Trilogy, #1)
author: Maggie Stiefvater
name: Simi
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/11/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Summer of Salt 35230420
Georgina Fernweh waits with growing impatience for the tingle of magic in her fingers—magic that has been passed down through every woman in her family. Her twin sister, Mary, already shows an ability to defy gravity. But with their eighteenth birthday looming at the end of this summer, Georgina fears her gift will never come.

An island where strange things happen . . .

No one on the island of By-the-Sea would ever call the Fernwehs what they really are, but if you need the odd bit of help—say, a sleeping aid concocted by moonlight—they are the ones to ask.

No one questions the weather, as moody and erratic as a summer storm.

No one questions the (allegedly) three-hundred-year-old bird who comes to roost on the island every year.

A summer that will become legend . . .

When tragedy strikes, what made the Fernweh women special suddenly casts them in suspicion. Over the course of her last summer on the island—a summer of storms, of love, of salt—Georgina will learn the truth about magic, in all its many forms.]]> 288 Katrina Leno 0062493647 Simi 0 to-read 3.98 2018 Summer of Salt
author: Katrina Leno
name: Simi
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/10/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Little Princess 3008
This unique and fully annotated edition appends excerpts from Frances Hodgson Burnett 's original 1888 novella Sara Crewe and the stage play that preceded the novel, as well as an early story, "Behind the White Brick," allowing readers to see how A Little Princess evolved. In his delightful introduction, U. C. Knoepflmacher considers the fairy-tale allusions and literary touchstones that place the book among the major works of Victorian literature, and shows it to be an exceptionally rich and resonant novel.]]> 242 Frances Hodgson Burnett 0142437018 Simi 0 to-read 4.22 1905 A Little Princess
author: Frances Hodgson Burnett
name: Simi
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1905
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/10/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Secret Garden 2998
Mary Lennox, a spoiled, ill-tempered, and unhealthy child, comes to live with her reclusive uncle in Misselthwaite Manor on England’s Yorkshire moors after the death of her parents. There she meets a hearty housekeeper and her spirited brother, a dour gardener, a cheerful robin, and her wilful, hysterical, and sickly cousin, Master Colin, whose wails she hears echoing through the house at night.

With the help of the robin, Mary finds the door to a secret garden, neglected and hidden for years. When she decides to restore the garden in secret, the story becomes a charming journey into the places of the heart, where faith restores health, flowers refresh the spirit, and the magic of the garden, coming to life anew, brings health to Colin and happiness to Mary.]]> 331 Frances Hodgson Burnett 0517189607 Simi 0 to-read 4.16 1911 The Secret Garden
author: Frances Hodgson Burnett
name: Simi
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1911
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/10/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Pretty Girls 25574782
Now another girl has disappeared, with chilling echoes of the past. And it seems that she might not be the only one.

Claire is convinced Julia's disappearance is linked.

But when she begins to learn the truth about her sister, she is confronted with a shocking discovery, and nothing will ever be the same...]]> 432 Karin Slaughter 0062430874 Simi 0 to-read 3.99 2015 Pretty Girls
author: Karin Slaughter
name: Simi
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/10/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Stranger Beside Me 9849994 19 Ann Rule 0743546830 Simi 4 3.57 1980 Stranger Beside Me
author: Ann Rule
name: Simi
average rating: 3.57
book published: 1980
rating: 4
read at: 2019/10/17
date added: 2019/10/17
shelves:
review:

]]> Radio Silence 30653843 You probably think that Aled Last and I are going to fall in love or something. Since he is a boy and I am a girl.

I just wanted to say—we don’t.

Frances Janvier spends most of her time studying. When she’s not studying, she’s up in her room making fan art for her favorite podcast, Universe City.

Everyone knows Aled Last as that quiet boy who gets straight As. But no one knows he’s the creator of Universe City, who goes by the name Radio Silence.

When Frances gets a message from Radio Silence asking if she’ll collaborate with him, everything changes. Frances and Aled spend an entire summer working together and becoming best friends. They get each other when no one else does.

But when Aled’s identity as Radio Silence is revealed, Frances fears that the future of Universe City—and their friendship—is at risk. Aled helped her find her voice. Without him, will she have the courage to show the world who she really is? Or will she be met with radio silence?]]> 476 Alice Oseman 0062335715 Simi 5 4.12 2016 Radio Silence
author: Alice Oseman
name: Simi
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2019/10/03
date added: 2019/10/03
shelves:
review:

]]> North and South 156538
In North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell skillfully fuses individual feeling with social concern, and in Margaret Hale creates one of the most original heroines of Victorian literature.]]> 521 Elizabeth Gaskell 0140620192 Simi 3 4.14 1855 North and South
author: Elizabeth Gaskell
name: Simi
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1855
rating: 3
read at: 2019/09/27
date added: 2019/09/27
shelves:
review:

]]> Persuasion 208705 304 Jane Austen 0141028114 Simi 4 4.22 1817 Persuasion
author: Jane Austen
name: Simi
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1817
rating: 4
read at: 2019/07/15
date added: 2019/09/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind]]> 23692271 512 Yuval Noah Harari Simi 4 4.33 2011 Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
author: Yuval Noah Harari
name: Simi
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2019/09/21
date added: 2019/09/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[I Love the Bones of You: My Father And The Making Of Me]]> 43618282 ‘A beautiful book’ Zoë Ball ‘My father was an “ordinary man�, which of course means he was extraordinary.' Be it as Nicky Hutchinson in Our Friends In The North, Maurice in The A Word, or his reinvention of Doctor Who, One man, in life and death, has accompanied Christopher Eccleston every step of the way � his father, Ronnie. In I Love the Bones of You, Eccleston unveils a vivid portrait of a relationship that has shaped his entire career trajectory � mirroring and defining his own highs and lows, from stage and screen triumph to breakdown, anorexia and self-doubt. Eccleston describes how the tightening grip of  dementia on his father slowly blinded him to his son’s existence, forcing a new and final chapter in their connection. Told with trademark honesty and openness, I Love the Bones of You is a celebration of those on whom the spotlight so rarely shines, as told by a man who found his voice in its glare. A love letter to one man, and a paean to many.]]> 343 Christopher Eccleston 1471176339 Simi 0 to-read 4.31 2019 I Love the Bones of You: My Father And The Making Of Me
author: Christopher Eccleston
name: Simi
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/09/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Sadie 34810320 A missing girl on a journey of revenge. A Serial-like podcast following the clues she's left behind. And an ending you won't be able to stop talking about.

Sadie hasn't had an easy life. Growing up on her own, she's been raising her sister Mattie in an isolated small town, trying her best to provide a normal life and keep their heads above water.

But when Mattie is found dead, Sadie's entire world crumbles. After a somewhat botched police investigation, Sadie is determined to bring her sister's killer to justice and hits the road following a few meager clues to find him.

When West McCray―a radio personality working on a segment about small, forgotten towns in America―overhears Sadie's story at a local gas station, he becomes obsessed with finding the missing girl. He starts his own podcast as he tracks Sadie's journey, trying to figure out what happened, hoping to find her before it's too late.

Courtney Summers has written the breakout book of her career. Sadie is propulsive and harrowing and will keep you riveted until the last page.]]> 308 Courtney Summers 1250105714 Simi 0 to-read 4.04 2018 Sadie
author: Courtney Summers
name: Simi
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/09/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Northanger Abbey 588467 284 Jane Austen 0141028130 Simi 5 favorites 3.82 1817 Northanger Abbey
author: Jane Austen
name: Simi
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1817
rating: 5
read at: 2017/04/17
date added: 2019/09/04
shelves: favorites
review:

]]> A Pál utcai fiúk 13640727
Kevés regény ábrázolja olyan sokrétegűen és érzékenyen a kamaszok világát, mint Molnár Ferenc műve, a Pál utcai fiúk. Ezért sem véletlen, hogy kötelező olvasmány lett belőle. Az 1890-es évek pesti gyerekvilágának ezt a lírai krónikáját többször is feldolgozták, színpadon és filmen egyaránt. Leghíresebbnek közülük a Fábry Zoltán rendezte 1968-as változat bizonyult, ami magyar-amerikai koprodukcióban készült. A Pál utcai fiúk főszereplői józsefvárosi gyerekek, akiknek két bérház közötti grund jelenti a szabadságot és a hadszínteret. Ezen kereten belül mutatja be az iskola és játék, barátság és harc, összetartás és árulás megnyilvánulásait a kamaszvilág tükrében, a gyerekek szemszögéből nézve és megértve. A történet két rivális banda között játszódik, akik a grundon � és a grundért � folyó harcot élet-halál kérdésének tekintik, ám ez a romantikus játékhadszíntér az író fantáziája által jelképpé válik, ahol a fennmaradásért kell háborúzni. Mert ennek a világnak is megvannak a saját törvényei, szokásai, egyesületei és erődítményei. Tehát vezérei és közkatonái is. Boka és Ács Feri a két tábor vezére, Geréb, az áruló, s az önfeláldozó Nemecsek Ernő egytől-egyig kiforratlan, alakuló egyéniségek, s Nemecsek híres önfeláldozása sem a szokványos hősi tett, sokkal inkább a grundért folyó háború során önkéntelenül is bátor hőssé váló hétköznapi kamasz természetes cselekedete.]]> 208 Ferenc Molnár 9631150313 Simi 5 favorites 4.32 1906 A Pál utcai fiúk
author: Ferenc Molnár
name: Simi
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1906
rating: 5
read at: 2017/02/15
date added: 2019/09/04
shelves: favorites
review:

]]> After the Fire 37789683 The things I've seen are burned into me, like scars that refuse to fade.

Before, she lived inside the fence. Before, she was never allowed to leave the property, never allowed to talk to Outsiders, never allowed to speak her mind. Because Father John controlled everything—and Father John liked rules. Disobeying Father John came with terrible consequences.

But there are lies behind Father John's words. Outside, there are different truths.

Then came the fire.]]> 464 Will Hill 1492669792 Simi 0 to-read 4.29 2017 After the Fire
author: Will Hill
name: Simi
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/09/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children, #1)]]> 25526296 Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children
No Solicitations
No Visitors
No Quests

Children have always disappeared under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere... else.

But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children.

Nancy tumbled once, but now she’s back. The things she’s experienced... they change a person. The children under Miss West’s care understand all too well. And each of them is seeking a way back to their own fantasy world.

But Nancy’s arrival marks a change at the Home. There’s a darkness just around each corner, and when tragedy strikes, it’s up to Nancy and her new-found schoolmates to get to the heart of the matter.

No matter the cost.]]> 176 Seanan McGuire 0765385503 Simi 2 3.81 2016 Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children, #1)
author: Seanan McGuire
name: Simi
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2016
rating: 2
read at: 2016/08/26
date added: 2019/09/01
shelves:
review:

]]> Girl in Landscape 16719
Pella's father, Clement, has just been swept out of elective office in New York and has set his sights on the next political frontier: joining the first human settlers on the Planet of the Archbuilders. Once the domain of a super-evolved alien species who used "viruses" to alter their ecosystem before abandoning it, the planet is now a hothouse landscape of ruined towers and refuse inhabited only by skittery, mouselike "household deer" and a few remaining Archbuilders.

Clement's mission, to forge a community that embraces the Archbuilders, puts him on a collision course with Ephram Nugent, a xenophobic homesteader.]]> 280 Jonathan Lethem 0375703918 Simi 0 to-read 3.58 1998 Girl in Landscape
author: Jonathan Lethem
name: Simi
average rating: 3.58
book published: 1998
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/09/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 1Q84 (1Q84, #1-3) 10357575 The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo.

A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 —“Q is for ‘question mark.� A world that bears a question.� Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled.

As Aomame’s and Tengo’s narratives converge over the course of this single year, we learn of the profound and tangled connections that bind them ever closer: a beautiful, dyslexic teenage girl with a unique vision; a mysterious religious cult that instigated a shoot-out with the metropolitan police; a reclusive, wealthy dowager who runs a shelter for abused women; a hideously ugly private investigator; a mild-mannered yet ruthlessly efficient bodyguard; and a peculiarly insistent television-fee collector.

A love story, a mystery, a fantasy, a novel of self-discovery, a dystopia to rival George Orwell’s � 1Q84 is Haruki Murakami’s most ambitious undertaking yet: an instant best seller in his native Japan, and a tremendous feat of imagination from one of our most revered contemporary writers.]]> 944 Haruki Murakami 0307593312 Simi 0 to-read 3.94 2009 1Q84 (1Q84, #1-3)
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Simi
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/09/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Neuromancer (Sprawl, #1) 888628
Case was the sharpest data thief in the Matrix, until an ex-employer crippled his nervous system. Now a new employer has recruited him for a last-chance run against an unthinkably powerful artificial intelligence. With a mirror-eyed girl street-samurai riding shotgun, he's ready for the silicon-quick, bleakly prophetic adventure that upped the ante on an entire genre of fiction.]]> 278 William Gibson Simi 0 to-read 4.01 1984 Neuromancer (Sprawl, #1)
author: William Gibson
name: Simi
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1984
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/09/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Nina is Not OK 27245625
Nina’s mum isn’t so sure. But she’s busy with her new husband and five year old Katie. And Nina’s almost an adult after all.

And if Nina sometimes wakes up with little memory of what happened the night before, then her friends are all too happy to fill in the blanks. Nina’s drunken exploits are the stuff of college legend.

But then one dark Sunday morning, even her friends can’t help piece together Saturday night. All Nina feels is a deep sense of shame, that something very bad has happened to her�

A dark, funny - sometimes shocking - coming of age novel from one of the UK’s leading comedians. NINA IS NOT O.K. will appeal to fans of Caitlin Moran and Lena Dunham. ]]> 352 Shaparak Khorsandi 1785031368 Simi 2 4.22 2016 Nina is Not OK
author: Shaparak Khorsandi
name: Simi
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2016
rating: 2
read at: 2017/06/20
date added: 2019/08/30
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review:

]]> Vengeful (Villains, #2) 37534835
But Marcella Riggins needs no one. Flush from her brush with death, she’s finally gained the control she’s always sought—and will use her new-found power to bring the city of Merit to its knees. She’ll do whatever it takes, collecting her own sidekicks, and leveraging the two most infamous EOs, Victor Vale and Eli Ever, against each other.

With Marcella's rise, new enmities create opportunity--and the stage of Merit City will once again be set for a final, terrible reckoning.

A super-powered collision of extraordinary minds and vengeful intentions�#1 New York Times bestselling author V. E. Schwab returns with the thrilling follow-up to Vicious.]]> 478 Victoria E. Schwab 0765387522 Simi 3 4.13 2018 Vengeful (Villains, #2)
author: Victoria E. Schwab
name: Simi
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2019/06/08
date added: 2019/08/30
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Priory of the Orange Tree (The Roots of Chaos, #1)]]> 29774026 A world divided.
A queendom without an heir.
An ancient enemy awakens.

The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction—but assassins are getting closer to her door.

Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.

Across the dark sea, Tané has trained all her life to be a dragonrider, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel.

Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.]]> 848 Samantha Shannon Simi 0 to-read 4.15 2019 The Priory of the Orange Tree (The Roots of Chaos, #1)
author: Samantha Shannon
name: Simi
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/08/30
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[I Wish You All the Best (I Wish You All the Best, #1)]]> 41473872 An alternate cover edition for 9781338306125 can be found here.

When Ben De Backer comes out to their parents as nonbinary, they're thrown out of their house and forced to move in with their estranged older sister, Hannah, and her husband, Thomas, whom Ben has never even met. Struggling with an anxiety disorder compounded by their parents' rejection, they come out only to Hannah, Thomas, and their therapist and try to keep a low profile in a new school.

But Ben's attempts to survive the last half of senior year unnoticed are thwarted when Nathan Allan, a funny and charismatic student, decides to take Ben under his wing. As Ben and Nathan's friendship grows, their feelings for each other begin to change, and what started as a disastrous turn of events looks like it might just be a chance to start a happier new life.

At turns heartbreaking and joyous, I Wish You All the Best is both a celebration of life, friendship, and love, and a shining example of hope in the face of adversity.]]> 329 Mason Deaver Simi 0 to-read 4.15 2019 I Wish You All the Best (I Wish You All the Best, #1)
author: Mason Deaver
name: Simi
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/08/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Girl Made of Stars 31351689 For readers of Girl in Pieces and The Way I Used to Be comes an emotionally gripping story about facing hard truths in the aftermath of sexual assault. Mara and Owen are as close as twins can get, so when Mara’s friend Hannah accuses Owen of rape, Mara doesn't know what to think. Can her brother really be guilty of such a violent act? Torn between her family and her sense of right and wrong, Mara feels lost, and it doesn’t help that things are strained with her ex-girlfriend, Charlie. As Mara, Hannah, and Charlie come together in the aftermath of this terrible crime, Mara must face a trauma from her own past and decide where Charlie fits into her future. With sensitivity and openness, this timely novel confronts the difficult questions surrounding consent, victim blaming, and sexual assault.]]> 304 Ashley Herring Blake 1328476693 Simi 0 to-read 4.19 2018 Girl Made of Stars
author: Ashley Herring Blake
name: Simi
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/08/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Rosewater (The Wormwood Trilogy, #1)]]> 38362809 Tade Thompson's Rosewater is the start of an award-winning, cutting edge trilogy set in Nigeria, by one of science fiction's most engaging new voices.

Rosewater is a town on the edge. A community formed around the edges of a mysterious alien biodome, its residents comprise the hopeful, the hungry and the helpless—people eager for a glimpse inside the dome or a taste of its rumored healing powers.

Kaaro is a government agent with a criminal past. He has seen inside the biodome, and doesn't care to again—but when something begins killing off others like himself, Kaaro must defy his masters to search for an answer, facing his dark history and coming to a realization about a horrifying future.]]> 432 Tade Thompson 0316449059 Simi 2 3.71 2017 Rosewater (The Wormwood Trilogy, #1)
author: Tade Thompson
name: Simi
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2017
rating: 2
read at: 2019/08/22
date added: 2019/08/22
shelves:
review:

]]> Jonathan Livingston Seagull 71728
Jonathan Livingston Seagull is no ordinary bird. He believes it is every gull's right to fly, to reach the ultimate freedom of challenge and discovery, finding his greatest reward in teaching younger gulls the joy of flight and the power of dreams. The special 20th anniversary release of this spiritual classic!]]> 112 Richard Bach 0743278909 Simi 0 to-read 3.87 1970 Jonathan Livingston Seagull
author: Richard Bach
name: Simi
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1970
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/08/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>