Kianna's bookshelf: all

Kianna's bookshelf: all en-US Fri, 04 Apr 2025 02:56:06 -0700 60 Kianna's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[The Book Club for Troublesome Women]]> 216052751 Four dissatisfied sixties-era housewives form a book club turned sisterhood that will hold fast amid the turmoil of a rapidly changing world and alter the course of each of their lives.

By early 1960s standards, Margaret Ryan, Viv Buschetti, and Bitsy Cobb, suburban housewives in a brand-new "planned community" in Northern Virginia, appear to have it all. The fact that "all" doesn't feel like enough leaves them feeling confused and guilty, certain the fault must lie with them. Things begin to change when they form a book club with Charlotte Gustafson--the eccentric and artsy "new neighbor" from Manhattan--and read Betty Friedan's just-released book, The Feminine Mystique.

Controversial and groundbreaking, the book struck a chord with an entire generation of women, helping them realize that they weren't alone in their dissatisfactions, or their longings, lifting their eyes to new horizons of possibility and achievement. Margaret, Charlotte, Bitsy, and Viv are among them. But is it really the book that alters the lives of these four very different women? Or is it the bond of sisterhood that helps them find courage to confront the past, navigate turmoil in a rapidly changing world, and see themselves in a new and limitless light?]]> 384 Marie Bostwick 1400344743 Kianna 0 to-read 4.14 2025 The Book Club for Troublesome Women

author: Marie Bostwick
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/04
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]]> <![CDATA[Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2)]]> 6148028 Sparks are igniting.
Flames are spreading.
And the Capitol wants revenge.

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and her longtime friend, Gale. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol—a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create.

Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest that she's afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she's not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol's cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can't prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying.

In Catching Fire, the second novel of the Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins continues the story of Katniss Everdeen, testing her more than ever before . . . and surprising readers at every turn.]]> 391 Suzanne Collins 0439023491 Kianna 4 4.34 2009 Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2)

author: Suzanne Collins
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2009
rating: 4
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date added: 2025/03/30
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]]> Literary Theory: The Basics 445371 272 Hans Bertens 041535112X Kianna 4 3.66 2000

author: Hans Bertens
name: Kianna
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2000
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory]]> 376554
The bewildering variety of approaches, theorists and technical language is lucidly and expertly unraveled. Unlike many books which assume certain positions about the critics and the theories they represent, Peter Barry allows readers to develop their own ideas once first principles and concepts have been grasped.]]> 290 Peter Barry 0719062683 Kianna 4 3.85 1995 Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory

Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory

author: Peter Barry
name: Kianna
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/06
date added: 2025/03/30
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]]> To Kill a Mockingbird 2657 "Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."

A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic novel - a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with exuberant humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man's struggle for justice. But the weight of history will only tolerate so much.

"To Kill A Mockingbird" became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film.]]> 323 Harper Lee 0060935464 Kianna 1 4.25 1960 To Kill a Mockingbird

author: Harper Lee
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1960
rating: 1
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]]> White Nights 1772910 82 Fyodor Dostoevsky Kianna 1 4.16 1848

author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1848
rating: 1
read at: 2023/11/22
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]]> Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 51496 139 Robert Louis Stevenson 0451528956 Kianna 3 3.84 1886

author: Robert Louis Stevenson
name: Kianna
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1886
rating: 3
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]]> Crime and Punishment 7144 671 Fyodor Dostoevsky Kianna 2 4.26 1866

author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1866
rating: 2
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]]> <![CDATA[An Introduction to Literary Studies]]> 4375823 172 Mario Klarer 0415333822 Kianna 2 3.69 1998

author: Mario Klarer
name: Kianna
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1998
rating: 2
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]]> The Twilight Saga 3090465

Twilight (11 CDs):
When Isabella Swan moves to the gloomy town of Forks, Washington, and meets the mysterious, alluring Edward Cullen, her life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. With his porcelain skin, golden eyes, mesmerizing voice, and supernatural gifts, Edward is both irresistible and impenetrable. Up until now, he has managed to keep his true identity hidden, but Bella is determined to uncover his dark secret.

New Moon (12 CDs):
For Bella Swan, there is one thing more important than life Edward Cullen. But being in love with a vampire is even more dangerous than Bella ever could have imagined. Edward has already rescued Bella from the clutches of one evil vampire, but now, as their daring relationship threatens all that is near and dear to them, they realize their troubles may be just beginning.

Eclipse (13 CDs):
As Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge, Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between her love for Edward and her friendship with Jacob—knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the ageless struggle between vampire and werewolf.

Breaking Dawn (14 CDs):
Twilight tempted the imagination. New Moon made readers thirsty for more. Eclipse turned the saga into a worldwide phenomenon. And now, the story that everyone has been waiting for....
Breaking Dawn, the final installment in the #1 bestselling Twilight Saga, will take your breath away.]]> 65 Stephenie Meyer 0739352350 Kianna 2 3.91 2005 The Twilight Saga

author: Stephenie Meyer
name: Kianna
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2005
rating: 2
read at: 2023/10/12
date added: 2025/03/30
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]]> <![CDATA[The Hunger Games Trilogy Boxset (The Hunger Games, #1-3)]]> 7938275 1155 Suzanne Collins 0545265355 Kianna 4 4.49 2010

The Hunger Games Trilogy Boxset (The Hunger Games, #1-3)

author: Suzanne Collins
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2010
rating: 4
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]]> Red Queen (Red Queen, #1) 22328546 This is a world divided by blood—red or silver.

The Reds are commoners, ruled by a Silver elite in possession of god-like superpowers. And to Mare Barrow, a seventeen-year-old Red girl from the poverty-stricken Stilts, it seems like nothing will ever change.

That is until she finds herself working in the Silver Palace. Here, surrounded by the people she hates the most, Mare discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy the balance of power.

Fearful of Mare's potential, the Silvers hide her in plain view, declaring her a long-lost Silver princess, now engaged to a Silver prince. Despite knowing that one misstep would mean her death, Mare works silently to help the Red Guard, a militant resistance group, and bring down the Silver regime.

But this is a world of betrayal and lies, and Mare has entered a dangerous dance—Reds against Silvers, prince against prince, and Mare against her own heart.]]> 388 Victoria Aveyard 0062310631 Kianna 1 3.98 2015 Red Queen (Red Queen, #1)

author: Victoria Aveyard
name: Kianna
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2015
rating: 1
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]]> Notes from Underground 49455 Notes from Underground marks the dividing line between nineteenth- and twentieth-century fiction, and between the visions of self each century embodied. One of the most remarkable characters in literature, the unnamed narrator is a former official who has defiantly withdrawn into an underground existence. In complete retreat from society, he scrawls a passionate, obsessive, self-contradictory narrative that serves as a devastating attack on social utopianism and an assertion of man’s essentially irrational nature.

Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, whose Dostoevsky translations have become the standard, give us a brilliantly faithful edition of this classic novel, conveying all the tragedy and tormented comedy of the original.]]> 136 Fyodor Dostoevsky 067973452X Kianna 2 4.21 1864 Notes from Underground

author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1864
rating: 2
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]]> <![CDATA[The Hobbit, or There and Back Again]]> 5907 Written for J.R.R. Tolkien’s own children, The Hobbit met with instant critical acclaim when it was first published in 1937. Now recognized as a timeless classic, this introduction to the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, the wizard Gandalf, Gollum, and the spectacular world of Middle-earth recounts of the adventures of a reluctant hero, a powerful and dangerous ring, and the cruel dragon Smaug the Magnificent. The text in this 372-page paperback edition is based on that first published in Great Britain by Collins Modern Classics (1998), and includes a note on the text by Douglas A. Anderson (2001).]]> 366 J.R.R. Tolkien Kianna 3 4.29 1937 The Hobbit, or There and Back Again

author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1937
rating: 3
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]]> Life: A User's Manual 28293
But the novel is more than an extraordinary range of fictions; it is a closely observed account of life and experience. The apartment block's one hundred rooms are arranged in a magic square, and the book as a whole is peppered with a staggering range of literary puzzles and allusions, acrostics, problems of chess and logic, crosswords, and mathematical formulae. All are there for the reader to solve in the best tradition of the detective novel.]]> 581 Georges Perec 0879237511 Kianna 3 4.22 1978 Life: A User's Manual

author: Georges Perec
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1978
rating: 3
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]]> Animal Farm 170448 Librarian's note: There is an Alternate Cover Edition for this edition of this book here.

A farm is taken over by its overworked, mistreated animals. With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, they set out to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality. Thus the stage is set for one of the most telling satiric fables ever penned –a razor-edged fairy tale for grown-ups that records the evolution from revolution against tyranny to a totalitarianism just as terrible.
When Animal Farm was first published, Stalinist Russia was seen as its target. Today it is devastatingly clear that wherever and whenever freedom is attacked, under whatever banner, the cutting clarity and savage comedy of George Orwell’s masterpiece have a meaning and message still ferociously fresh.]]> 141 George Orwell 0451526341 Kianna 3 4.07 1945 Animal Farm

author: George Orwell
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1945
rating: 3
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]]> <![CDATA[Magician (The Riftwar Saga, #1-2)]]> 43916 Raymond E. Feist's classic fantasy epic, Magician, has enchanted readers for over twenty years. The revised edition was prepared to celebrate the tenth anniversary of its publication, and incorporates over 15,000 words of text omitted from previous editions.

At Crydee, a frontier outpost in the tranquil Kingdom of the Isles, an orphan boy, Pug, is apprenticed to a master magician �� and the destinies of two worlds are changed forever.

Suddenly the peace of the Kingdom is destroyed as mysterious alien invaders swarm the land. Pug is swept up into the conflict but for him and his warrior friend, Tomas, an odyssey into the unknown has only just begun.

Tomas will inherit a legacy of savage power from an ancient civilization. Pug’s destiny is to lead him through a rift in the fabric of space and time to the mastery of the unimaginable powers of a strange new magic.]]> 681 Raymond E. Feist 0586217835 Kianna 3 4.32 1982 Magician (The Riftwar Saga, #1-2)

author: Raymond E. Feist
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1982
rating: 3
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]]> <![CDATA[Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch]]> 12067
People have been predicting the end of the world almost from its very beginning, so it’s only natural to be sceptical when a new date is set for Judgement Day. This time though, the armies of Good and Evil really do appear to be massing. The four Bikers of the Apocalypse are hitting the road. But both the angels and demons �� well, one fast-living demon and a somewhat fussy angel �� would quite like the Rapture not to happen.

And someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist…]]> 491 Terry Pratchett Kianna 2 4.27 1990 Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

author: Terry Pratchett
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1990
rating: 2
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]]> No Longer Human 194746 No Longer Human, this leading postwar Japanese writer's second novel, tells the poignant and fascinating story of a young man who is caught between the breakup of the traditions of a northern Japanese aristocratic family and the impact of Western ideas. In consequence, he feels himself "disqualified from being human" (a literal translation of the Japanese title).

Donald Keene, who translated this and Dazai's first novel, The Setting Sun, has said of the author's work: "His world �� suggests Chekhov or possibly postwar France, �� but there is a Japanese sensibility in the choice and presentation of the material. A Dazai novel is at once immediately intelligible in Western terms and quite unlike any Western book." His writing is in some ways reminiscent of Rimbaud, while he himself has often been called a forerunner of Yukio Mishima.

Cover painting by Noe Nojechowiz, from the collection of John and Barbara Duncan; design by Gertrude Huston]]> 176 Osamu Dazai Kianna 4 3.99 1948 No Longer Human

author: Osamu Dazai
name: Kianna
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1948
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3)]]> 7260188 My name is Katniss Everdeen.
Why am I not dead?
I should be dead.

Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss's family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding.

It is by design that Katniss was rescued from the arena in the cruel and haunting Quarter Quell, and it is by design that she has long been part of the revolution without knowing it. District 13 has come out of the shadows and is plotting to overthrow the Capitol. Everyone, it seems, has had a hand in the carefully laid plans—except Katniss.

The success of the rebellion hinges on Katniss's willingness to be a pawn, to accept responsibility for countless lives, and to change the course of the future of Panem. To do this, she must put aside her feelings of anger and distrust. She must become the rebels' Mockingjay—no matter what the personal cost.]]> 390 Suzanne Collins 0439023513 Kianna 4 4.10 2010 Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3)

author: Suzanne Collins
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2010
rating: 4
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]]> Stoner 166997
John Williams’s luminous and deeply moving novel is a work of quiet perfection. William Stoner emerges from it not only as an archetypal American, but as an unlikely existential hero, standing, like a figure in a painting by Edward Hopper, in stark relief against an unforgiving world.]]> 292 John Williams 1590171993 Kianna 4 4.35 1965 Stoner

author: John Williams
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1965
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/09
date added: 2025/03/30
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]]> <![CDATA[My Year of Rest and Relaxation]]> 44279110
Our narrator should be happy, shouldn’t she? She’s young, thin, pretty, a recent Columbia graduate, works an easy job at a hip art gallery, lives in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan paid for, like the rest of her needs, by her inheritance. But there is a dark and vacuous hole in her heart, and it isn’t just the loss of her parents, or the way her Wall Street boyfriend treats her, or her sadomasochistic relationship with her best friend, Reva. It’s the year 2000 in a city aglitter with wealth and possibility; what could be so terribly wrong?

My Year of Rest and Relaxation is a powerful answer to that question. Through the story of a year spent under the influence of a truly mad combination of drugs designed to heal our heroine from her alienation from this world, Moshfegh shows us how reasonable, even necessary, alienation can be. Both tender and blackly funny, merciless and compassionate, it is a showcase for the gifts of one of our major writers working at the height of her powers.]]> 289 Ottessa Moshfegh 0525522131 Kianna 3 The subversion of liberal humanism is a well-established development in literary theory, with theorists such as Barthes and Derrida proposing ideas of post-structuralism and deconstruction, challenging 'stabilised truth'. This fluidity of language and certainty allows for multiple readings and founds the creation of postmodernism. Postmodernism is the theoretical concept that questions fixed notions of society, identity, and meaning, as defined as "incredulity towards all grand narratives" . It analyses the interactions of literature and society within the grand Western metanarrative enforced by history, opening up a discussion into the workings of Western civilisation, and how our behaviours are influenced �� particularly in relation to gendered behaviours and societal constructs. Butler argues that this new era of literary theory allows the critical examination of the constructed nature of gender . According to Butler, gender is not an inherent or stable identity but rather a performative act that individuals engage in, shaped by societal norms learned during childhood and early adulthood . When applying Psychoanalytic and feminist literary theory in combination with postmodernism, a close examination of Ottessa Moshfegh's My Year of Rest and Relaxation (MYR&R) allows for a complex reading, delving into the novel’s establishment of a hyperreality, revealing the internal conflict intensified by the overarching contemporary metanarrative surrounding the modern woman’s identity.
MYR&R is a work of contemporary fiction published in 2018, following an unnamed, rich, and beautiful narrator in New York in 2000/2001 and her decision to conduct a year of self-induced 'hibernation'. Within this, she pursues the pleasures of oblivion and free will, whilst escaping the trauma of her childhood, her parents' deaths, and the caging nature of postmodern society. The narrator's intelligence and cynicism initially seem to be the root of her isolation, leaving her interactions limited to few key characters; her psychologist, who provides her with sleeping pills; Reva, who she deliberately avoids and actively seeks to distance herself; and Trevor, her abusive and older ‘on-and-off�� ex-boyfriend. These relationships suffer, where the protagonist's inability to form meaningful connections with others becomes apparent, as she seeks to assert her independence and reinvent herself as someone new. Paradoxically, this pursuit reveals her underlying reliance on societal constructs, leading her to conform to the Western metanarrative of femininity. The containment of women by ideology requires discussion in both the reasons behind conformist behaviours—or difficulty in such—and the conformist behaviours themselves.
Freud and Lacan attribute the construction of self (and hence, ideology and identity) in the narrator to the development of the unconscious and conscious mind in childhood . The ‘proper�� development in childhood is key to the functioning of the hegemonic ideology, as it provides children the tools to be able to become “socialised�� . Kristeva furthers this, citing the importance of early socialization in the formation of gendered behaviours. As such, children adopt gendered behaviours, as well as roles conforming to constructs of femineity and masculinity from their childhood development and identification with parental figures . Subsequently, any complication and conflicts within the narrator’s identity—such as her hedonistic indulgence in oblivion and the desire for nothing�� stem from complications in her childhood.
A "major determinate" of childhood development, accompanying lessons in socialisation and conformity into how woman should behave and contribute to society, is Freud’s ‘Oedipus Complex�� . Where a child—in this case a young girl�� has a developmental struggle where she must compete for the "attention and affection" of her father . Moshfegh portrays the narrator initially in relatable terms, particularly within the contemporary era of broken marriages and families, highlighting a character lacking both maternal and paternal care. Her parents divorced when she was young "due to some unspoken conflict", leaving the narrator to sleep in the master bedroom with her mother . She reflects that “none of us had much warmth in our hearts��, and that she would “pass [her father] in the hallway in the morning like strangers�� . The evident lack of 'competition' with her mother and connection with her father, and her subsequent 'winning' of her mother's affection, results in a failure of the Oedipus complex . As a result of this failed development, and subsequent failed learning of ‘submission�� to her father, Freud theorised that identity becomes ‘unhealthy�� and unstable, as she has not learned to suppress unreasonable desires . This contributes to the narrator’s identity, hindering the creation of meaningful relationships. As a common experience in contemporary society, the narrator’s relationship and identity complications are indicative of those of all women. Offering a supporting view, Lacan avoids the set developmental sequence that Freud is criticised for and offers a “relational structure�� allowing for difference . According to Lacan, development begins in the Imaginary stage and follows to the mirror stage, where identity and self are created and separated from the mother . A failure in the mirror stage is evident in the narrator; where she lacked the opportunity to properly ‘separate�� her identity, instead is forced from it. Her memories of her mother involve suddenness, emotional distance, closed doors, and duplicity; “she was usually passed out in her bed with the door locked��, “there were moments when�� my mother could make me feel very special�� but the next moment she’d be in a haze, distracted�� struggling to put up with even the thought of me�� . Relationships with a third term, i.e., Reva or Trevor, becomes impossible without this separation of identity, as it leads to “isolation and abandonment�� of self-worth from the mothers “absence or neglect�� . The lack of self-worth and individualism creates a ‘lack�� in the narrator’s identity, leading to a repressed desire to be ‘whole�� under Lacan’s theories, and a desire to be separate and ‘new��. This creates desire, reflected in the narrators constant chasing of both escape and the lost ability to engage, causing a duality within herself. The performative nature of gender and societal rules intended to be installed in the narrator at a young age to enable her to survive within the status quo, are denied the opportunity to develop, along with any form of coping mechanisms and ability to resolve internal conflicts or relationships. This stands metaphorically for the contemporary women’s struggles, where common childhood issues hinder they ability to ‘survive��, and promoting a cyclical nature of behaviour.
Suffering from the “isolation and abandonment��, the narrator attempts to reject “the tragedy [and horror] of [her] past�� through her hibernation, whilst also fleeing the expectations of her present; "I wanted to sleep for as long as possible, to not wake up again for a very, very long time" , . Although thinking she is rejecting her mother and leaving her past behind, her social rejection ultimately mirrors her mother's lifestyle, including mostly "watch[ing] TV and smok[ing]��, and indulging in absentmindedness and isolation . Mirroring also conforms with Lacan's idea of misrecognition, where one "assumes an identity [that] they mistake as their own" , . This “horror [and fear] of being unable to distinguish�� self and other, under Kristeva’s principle of Abjection, contributes to her repression of pain and rejection of emotions as an adult . From this, defence mechanisms are formed in the narrator’s psyche (through interaction between the ego, superego, and id), serving as automatic responses to perceived threats, i.e., the pressure to conform . This occurs both internally (repression explored through focalisation) and externally (isolation and substance abuse) . For instance, rather than making connections or seeking a sense of self, the narrator attempts to escape herself and reality in a constant supply of re-watched VHS tapes of old movies, giving her the illusion of detachment from reality, Object-relations theory, from Klein, attributes the relationship of signified and signifier (object) to be created in childhood . Substance abuse, isolation, denial, etc, are signifiers signified through observations of her mother in the symbolic stage as safety nets to fall back on, and as an appropriate defence mechanism against pain, obviously be recognised by audiences as ineffective and problematic to self.
As she is unaware of the ego’s repression of childhood through isolation, refusal to engage in relationships, and substance abuse, the narrator displays rationalization to justify her actions. Written in a first person internal fixed focalisation, the text explores the narrator’s rationalisation, as theorised Holland, for the irrational hibernation, claiming that it was “self-preservation[al]��, “going to save [her] life�� from the ‘isolation and abandonment��, horror and mirroring, memories, and impending social confirmation , , . She uses intelligence as a theme to determine value and justify isolation, positioning the reader relate to her ordinary childhood and to follow and understand her reasoning, and leading them to accept the claim that the narrator chose her loneliness and aimlessness—as a modern woman has the ‘option�� to choose to be self-sufficient, and have a career—rather than being forced into it by her past , . As she does not know how to ‘properly�� function, she rejects the expectations placed upon her, conveying the central message of the text, that the modern woman is faced with a series of childhood pressures that pre-programme her to live a life of discontent. Where her worth is determined by her ability to conform to normative postmodern expectations of women; where she can grow up to fulfil roles of either domesticity or productivity in the workforce.
Through creating hyperrealities and utilising the ‘voices�� of characters, Moshfegh furthers this as a universal experience, exploring the adoption of modern feminine identity and defences (such as mimicry and rationalization) linked to desires and perceived lack originating from childhood. The narrator's failure to submit to ideologies, due to the lack of opportunity she received in her childhood, results in her being conflicted and unable to make the ‘proper�� transition from childhood to adulthood. Althusser argues that individuals are subjected to ideologies that shape their identities and determine their roles in society . Under feminist theory, these social roles directly lead to suppression and subjugation of women. For Bakhtin, the discourse consistent with an ideology is a voice . The narrator stands, within the novels established hyperreality, as a voice for all women, including those women attempting to conform, but who are unable to; helping readers understand and relate to the struggle of nonconformity .
The narrator initially strives to be 'normal', leading her to pursuing having a relationship. She tries to comply and compensate for her past, to make up for her childhood 'lack'. This partner, Trevor, ultimately symbolises the larger repression of women, ignoring her emotional needs much like her parents did. De Beauvoir, in her essay The Second Sex, outlines how women have historically “occupied a secondary role in relation to men��, creating gendered societal binaries between men and women and defining traditional, and now out-dated, gender roles . These traditional gender roles categorise men to be “rational, strong, protective, and decisive��, casting women to be “emotional (irrational), weak��, and submissive��; this can be seen throughout the narrator’s relationship with Trevor . Depictions of Trevor both in the narrator’s memory and in his visit towards the end of the book, portray him to be overwhelmingly dominate in their relationship; maturely, financially, and sexually. The narrator reflects that she had been “kept on a long, tight leash for months�� . His representation conforms to the western historical metanarrative’s depictions of masculinity as the leader in the relationship, providing everything for the woman, dinning her with “expensive meals, the occasional opera or ballet�� . The narrator takes these actions as “proof of his masculine value��, a value gathered from her childhood . Furthermore, their relationship gives way to produced stereotypes on women as obsessive and emotional, with the narrator repeatedly calls him in drug-induced haze and is always the one to re-start their relationship. This highlights a women’s experience in a hyperreal situation that is symbolic of society, with Trevor becoming symbolic of the male systematic oppression the narrator wants to escape.
As a result of this oppression -which is largely symbolic of all women’s oppression- she suffers from marginalisation and dismissal, becoming the ‘subaltern��, and being pushed into isolation. Put in association with Gilbert and Gubar, this process expands on the ideas of the ‘subaltern��, proposed by Spivak, to provide a more specific scope applying to women . The narrator is the ‘madwoman in the attic�� standing as the figure in literature who is marginalized, mentally ill, female, and who is confined and hidden from society, confined not by an attic, but to her apartment in a rich building and her own isolation . Her initial attempts in conforming to the proposed operative position in society are an avoidance of this marginalisation. She did "what young women in New York�� were supposed to do", including "getting colonics and facials and highlights, working out at an overpriced gym, lying in the hammam until [she] went blind, and going out at night in shoes that cut [her] feet" . This indicates that she was capable of attempting to socialise, but no longer willing or able to do so. Her rejection of cultural norms can be questioned as a decision, or as a result of fatigue in regard to social pressures, leading to regression to childhood familiarity in order to avoid the pressures of femininity and preserve a semblance of familiarity.
Her regression, though a conscious choice, still results in an internal conflict between the id and her superego as, now a grown woman, she finds herself without a solid relationship, boyfriend, or ‘protector��. Thus, she struggles with the idea of not lacking that which woman is meant to strive for; "I didn't want to be the girlfriend or the mother or the daughter. I didn't want to be any of it" . Heterogenic society, according to De Beauvoir, tells us that a single woman is not a ‘complete woman��, but is someone in need . Reva even tries to convince the narrator that she should be in a relationship, telling her to “settle down�� and to “get back out there�� in a misguided attempt to coerce the narrator into re-joining society . The narrator, displaying mirroring to her mother, further frustrates Reva, as she sees the narrator’s natural beauty—blond, thin, and “model�� like, alongside her stubborn seclusion—as ‘wasted potential�� . Reva is presented as the conditioned and adjusted character, willingly conforming to societal expectations and metanarratives around women’s work and women’s standards, as supported by Butler . Ironically, she too is unhappy, but unwilling to see the narrator’s point of view. Reva ultimately suffers a worse fate than the narrator, suffering, becoming unwell, and dying at her place of work. While settling down "sounded like death" to the narrator, this ended up foreshadowing the conformist Reva’s violent end. The protagonist's experiences of marginalization, isolation, and societal pressure placed upon her through her strained friendships and relationships, attempt to coerce her conformity to gender norms. This depicts not only the oppressive nature of women's societal roles and the consequences of resisting them, but also shows how attempting to maintain relationships with those who conform ultimately leading to a sense of entrapment and the rejection of traditional relationships.
Evidently, the narrator's attempt at conforming to societal expectations proved futile, both because of the inherent difficulties stemming from her childhood experiences, and the suffocating nature of the predetermined western metanarratives of femininity, rendering her efforts ineffective. Through the narrators attempts to change herself, she is left even more isolated, without Trevor, and even her psychiatrist. This failure, intricately intertwined with the first-person narration, aligns with Felski's insights into women's confessional discourse, where the narrator’s discourse is “implicated in those structures of power it is attempting to separate itself from; of how, striving for authentic selfhood, it can also reveal the subject's dependence on the same cultural and ideological systems it had seeming rejected or overcome�� . It exposes how such narratives can become entangled within the very power structures they attempt to free themselves from. The narrators attempt to dismantle her societal role ultimately reveals her reliance on the same cultural and ideological systems she sought to reject. Her reliance and repressed desires are uncovered through ‘dreams��, showing her unconscious desire to be ‘normal��. In her medically induced blackouts—a dream-like stage—she conforms to the metanarrative and hyperreality, indulging and buying designer clothes, going out clubbing, and spending on expensive lingerie. Her action indicates transference, as supported by Freud, of repressed desires for what she views to be normal, coming out in the alternative expression of dreams . The narrator's submersion in this dreamscape leads to the realisation that real change has never really been possible for the narrator. Despite her initial resistance to conformity, driven by her childhood troubles, she remains tied to societal expectations, unable to completely break free of their grip.
Moshfegh, through MYR&R, offers an exploration of the conflict between individual freedom and societal expectations. Through the protagonist's hibernation, as a form of escape, the novel exposes the paradoxical nature of Western ideals and their impact on personal identity, critiquing both sides, conforming (Reva), and rejection (narrator). Drawing from psychoanalytic and feminist theory, Moshfegh’s standard depiction of the narrators troubled upbringing, shaping her adult behavior and hindering meaningful connections, proves that normal social participation]]> 3.62 2018 My Year of Rest and Relaxation

author: Ottessa Moshfegh
name: Kianna
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/06
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves:
review:
My Year of Rest and Relation: Analyzed Through a Psychoanalytical and Feminist Lens-
The subversion of liberal humanism is a well-established development in literary theory, with theorists such as Barthes and Derrida proposing ideas of post-structuralism and deconstruction, challenging 'stabilised truth'. This fluidity of language and certainty allows for multiple readings and founds the creation of postmodernism. Postmodernism is the theoretical concept that questions fixed notions of society, identity, and meaning, as defined as "incredulity towards all grand narratives" . It analyses the interactions of literature and society within the grand Western metanarrative enforced by history, opening up a discussion into the workings of Western civilisation, and how our behaviours are influenced �� particularly in relation to gendered behaviours and societal constructs. Butler argues that this new era of literary theory allows the critical examination of the constructed nature of gender . According to Butler, gender is not an inherent or stable identity but rather a performative act that individuals engage in, shaped by societal norms learned during childhood and early adulthood . When applying Psychoanalytic and feminist literary theory in combination with postmodernism, a close examination of Ottessa Moshfegh's My Year of Rest and Relaxation (MYR&R) allows for a complex reading, delving into the novel’s establishment of a hyperreality, revealing the internal conflict intensified by the overarching contemporary metanarrative surrounding the modern woman’s identity.
MYR&R is a work of contemporary fiction published in 2018, following an unnamed, rich, and beautiful narrator in New York in 2000/2001 and her decision to conduct a year of self-induced 'hibernation'. Within this, she pursues the pleasures of oblivion and free will, whilst escaping the trauma of her childhood, her parents' deaths, and the caging nature of postmodern society. The narrator's intelligence and cynicism initially seem to be the root of her isolation, leaving her interactions limited to few key characters; her psychologist, who provides her with sleeping pills; Reva, who she deliberately avoids and actively seeks to distance herself; and Trevor, her abusive and older ‘on-and-off�� ex-boyfriend. These relationships suffer, where the protagonist's inability to form meaningful connections with others becomes apparent, as she seeks to assert her independence and reinvent herself as someone new. Paradoxically, this pursuit reveals her underlying reliance on societal constructs, leading her to conform to the Western metanarrative of femininity. The containment of women by ideology requires discussion in both the reasons behind conformist behaviours—or difficulty in such—and the conformist behaviours themselves.
Freud and Lacan attribute the construction of self (and hence, ideology and identity) in the narrator to the development of the unconscious and conscious mind in childhood . The ‘proper�� development in childhood is key to the functioning of the hegemonic ideology, as it provides children the tools to be able to become “socialised�� . Kristeva furthers this, citing the importance of early socialization in the formation of gendered behaviours. As such, children adopt gendered behaviours, as well as roles conforming to constructs of femineity and masculinity from their childhood development and identification with parental figures . Subsequently, any complication and conflicts within the narrator’s identity—such as her hedonistic indulgence in oblivion and the desire for nothing�� stem from complications in her childhood.
A "major determinate" of childhood development, accompanying lessons in socialisation and conformity into how woman should behave and contribute to society, is Freud’s ‘Oedipus Complex�� . Where a child—in this case a young girl�� has a developmental struggle where she must compete for the "attention and affection" of her father . Moshfegh portrays the narrator initially in relatable terms, particularly within the contemporary era of broken marriages and families, highlighting a character lacking both maternal and paternal care. Her parents divorced when she was young "due to some unspoken conflict", leaving the narrator to sleep in the master bedroom with her mother . She reflects that “none of us had much warmth in our hearts��, and that she would “pass [her father] in the hallway in the morning like strangers�� . The evident lack of 'competition' with her mother and connection with her father, and her subsequent 'winning' of her mother's affection, results in a failure of the Oedipus complex . As a result of this failed development, and subsequent failed learning of ‘submission�� to her father, Freud theorised that identity becomes ‘unhealthy�� and unstable, as she has not learned to suppress unreasonable desires . This contributes to the narrator’s identity, hindering the creation of meaningful relationships. As a common experience in contemporary society, the narrator’s relationship and identity complications are indicative of those of all women. Offering a supporting view, Lacan avoids the set developmental sequence that Freud is criticised for and offers a “relational structure�� allowing for difference . According to Lacan, development begins in the Imaginary stage and follows to the mirror stage, where identity and self are created and separated from the mother . A failure in the mirror stage is evident in the narrator; where she lacked the opportunity to properly ‘separate�� her identity, instead is forced from it. Her memories of her mother involve suddenness, emotional distance, closed doors, and duplicity; “she was usually passed out in her bed with the door locked��, “there were moments when�� my mother could make me feel very special�� but the next moment she’d be in a haze, distracted�� struggling to put up with even the thought of me�� . Relationships with a third term, i.e., Reva or Trevor, becomes impossible without this separation of identity, as it leads to “isolation and abandonment�� of self-worth from the mothers “absence or neglect�� . The lack of self-worth and individualism creates a ‘lack�� in the narrator’s identity, leading to a repressed desire to be ‘whole�� under Lacan’s theories, and a desire to be separate and ‘new��. This creates desire, reflected in the narrators constant chasing of both escape and the lost ability to engage, causing a duality within herself. The performative nature of gender and societal rules intended to be installed in the narrator at a young age to enable her to survive within the status quo, are denied the opportunity to develop, along with any form of coping mechanisms and ability to resolve internal conflicts or relationships. This stands metaphorically for the contemporary women’s struggles, where common childhood issues hinder they ability to ‘survive��, and promoting a cyclical nature of behaviour.
Suffering from the “isolation and abandonment��, the narrator attempts to reject “the tragedy [and horror] of [her] past�� through her hibernation, whilst also fleeing the expectations of her present; "I wanted to sleep for as long as possible, to not wake up again for a very, very long time" , . Although thinking she is rejecting her mother and leaving her past behind, her social rejection ultimately mirrors her mother's lifestyle, including mostly "watch[ing] TV and smok[ing]��, and indulging in absentmindedness and isolation . Mirroring also conforms with Lacan's idea of misrecognition, where one "assumes an identity [that] they mistake as their own" , . This “horror [and fear] of being unable to distinguish�� self and other, under Kristeva’s principle of Abjection, contributes to her repression of pain and rejection of emotions as an adult . From this, defence mechanisms are formed in the narrator’s psyche (through interaction between the ego, superego, and id), serving as automatic responses to perceived threats, i.e., the pressure to conform . This occurs both internally (repression explored through focalisation) and externally (isolation and substance abuse) . For instance, rather than making connections or seeking a sense of self, the narrator attempts to escape herself and reality in a constant supply of re-watched VHS tapes of old movies, giving her the illusion of detachment from reality, Object-relations theory, from Klein, attributes the relationship of signified and signifier (object) to be created in childhood . Substance abuse, isolation, denial, etc, are signifiers signified through observations of her mother in the symbolic stage as safety nets to fall back on, and as an appropriate defence mechanism against pain, obviously be recognised by audiences as ineffective and problematic to self.
As she is unaware of the ego’s repression of childhood through isolation, refusal to engage in relationships, and substance abuse, the narrator displays rationalization to justify her actions. Written in a first person internal fixed focalisation, the text explores the narrator’s rationalisation, as theorised Holland, for the irrational hibernation, claiming that it was “self-preservation[al]��, “going to save [her] life�� from the ‘isolation and abandonment��, horror and mirroring, memories, and impending social confirmation , , . She uses intelligence as a theme to determine value and justify isolation, positioning the reader relate to her ordinary childhood and to follow and understand her reasoning, and leading them to accept the claim that the narrator chose her loneliness and aimlessness—as a modern woman has the ‘option�� to choose to be self-sufficient, and have a career—rather than being forced into it by her past , . As she does not know how to ‘properly�� function, she rejects the expectations placed upon her, conveying the central message of the text, that the modern woman is faced with a series of childhood pressures that pre-programme her to live a life of discontent. Where her worth is determined by her ability to conform to normative postmodern expectations of women; where she can grow up to fulfil roles of either domesticity or productivity in the workforce.
Through creating hyperrealities and utilising the ‘voices�� of characters, Moshfegh furthers this as a universal experience, exploring the adoption of modern feminine identity and defences (such as mimicry and rationalization) linked to desires and perceived lack originating from childhood. The narrator's failure to submit to ideologies, due to the lack of opportunity she received in her childhood, results in her being conflicted and unable to make the ‘proper�� transition from childhood to adulthood. Althusser argues that individuals are subjected to ideologies that shape their identities and determine their roles in society . Under feminist theory, these social roles directly lead to suppression and subjugation of women. For Bakhtin, the discourse consistent with an ideology is a voice . The narrator stands, within the novels established hyperreality, as a voice for all women, including those women attempting to conform, but who are unable to; helping readers understand and relate to the struggle of nonconformity .
The narrator initially strives to be 'normal', leading her to pursuing having a relationship. She tries to comply and compensate for her past, to make up for her childhood 'lack'. This partner, Trevor, ultimately symbolises the larger repression of women, ignoring her emotional needs much like her parents did. De Beauvoir, in her essay The Second Sex, outlines how women have historically “occupied a secondary role in relation to men��, creating gendered societal binaries between men and women and defining traditional, and now out-dated, gender roles . These traditional gender roles categorise men to be “rational, strong, protective, and decisive��, casting women to be “emotional (irrational), weak��, and submissive��; this can be seen throughout the narrator’s relationship with Trevor . Depictions of Trevor both in the narrator’s memory and in his visit towards the end of the book, portray him to be overwhelmingly dominate in their relationship; maturely, financially, and sexually. The narrator reflects that she had been “kept on a long, tight leash for months�� . His representation conforms to the western historical metanarrative’s depictions of masculinity as the leader in the relationship, providing everything for the woman, dinning her with “expensive meals, the occasional opera or ballet�� . The narrator takes these actions as “proof of his masculine value��, a value gathered from her childhood . Furthermore, their relationship gives way to produced stereotypes on women as obsessive and emotional, with the narrator repeatedly calls him in drug-induced haze and is always the one to re-start their relationship. This highlights a women’s experience in a hyperreal situation that is symbolic of society, with Trevor becoming symbolic of the male systematic oppression the narrator wants to escape.
As a result of this oppression -which is largely symbolic of all women’s oppression- she suffers from marginalisation and dismissal, becoming the ‘subaltern��, and being pushed into isolation. Put in association with Gilbert and Gubar, this process expands on the ideas of the ‘subaltern��, proposed by Spivak, to provide a more specific scope applying to women . The narrator is the ‘madwoman in the attic�� standing as the figure in literature who is marginalized, mentally ill, female, and who is confined and hidden from society, confined not by an attic, but to her apartment in a rich building and her own isolation . Her initial attempts in conforming to the proposed operative position in society are an avoidance of this marginalisation. She did "what young women in New York�� were supposed to do", including "getting colonics and facials and highlights, working out at an overpriced gym, lying in the hammam until [she] went blind, and going out at night in shoes that cut [her] feet" . This indicates that she was capable of attempting to socialise, but no longer willing or able to do so. Her rejection of cultural norms can be questioned as a decision, or as a result of fatigue in regard to social pressures, leading to regression to childhood familiarity in order to avoid the pressures of femininity and preserve a semblance of familiarity.
Her regression, though a conscious choice, still results in an internal conflict between the id and her superego as, now a grown woman, she finds herself without a solid relationship, boyfriend, or ‘protector��. Thus, she struggles with the idea of not lacking that which woman is meant to strive for; "I didn't want to be the girlfriend or the mother or the daughter. I didn't want to be any of it" . Heterogenic society, according to De Beauvoir, tells us that a single woman is not a ‘complete woman��, but is someone in need . Reva even tries to convince the narrator that she should be in a relationship, telling her to “settle down�� and to “get back out there�� in a misguided attempt to coerce the narrator into re-joining society . The narrator, displaying mirroring to her mother, further frustrates Reva, as she sees the narrator’s natural beauty—blond, thin, and “model�� like, alongside her stubborn seclusion—as ‘wasted potential�� . Reva is presented as the conditioned and adjusted character, willingly conforming to societal expectations and metanarratives around women’s work and women’s standards, as supported by Butler . Ironically, she too is unhappy, but unwilling to see the narrator’s point of view. Reva ultimately suffers a worse fate than the narrator, suffering, becoming unwell, and dying at her place of work. While settling down "sounded like death" to the narrator, this ended up foreshadowing the conformist Reva’s violent end. The protagonist's experiences of marginalization, isolation, and societal pressure placed upon her through her strained friendships and relationships, attempt to coerce her conformity to gender norms. This depicts not only the oppressive nature of women's societal roles and the consequences of resisting them, but also shows how attempting to maintain relationships with those who conform ultimately leading to a sense of entrapment and the rejection of traditional relationships.
Evidently, the narrator's attempt at conforming to societal expectations proved futile, both because of the inherent difficulties stemming from her childhood experiences, and the suffocating nature of the predetermined western metanarratives of femininity, rendering her efforts ineffective. Through the narrators attempts to change herself, she is left even more isolated, without Trevor, and even her psychiatrist. This failure, intricately intertwined with the first-person narration, aligns with Felski's insights into women's confessional discourse, where the narrator’s discourse is “implicated in those structures of power it is attempting to separate itself from; of how, striving for authentic selfhood, it can also reveal the subject's dependence on the same cultural and ideological systems it had seeming rejected or overcome�� . It exposes how such narratives can become entangled within the very power structures they attempt to free themselves from. The narrators attempt to dismantle her societal role ultimately reveals her reliance on the same cultural and ideological systems she sought to reject. Her reliance and repressed desires are uncovered through ‘dreams��, showing her unconscious desire to be ‘normal��. In her medically induced blackouts—a dream-like stage—she conforms to the metanarrative and hyperreality, indulging and buying designer clothes, going out clubbing, and spending on expensive lingerie. Her action indicates transference, as supported by Freud, of repressed desires for what she views to be normal, coming out in the alternative expression of dreams . The narrator's submersion in this dreamscape leads to the realisation that real change has never really been possible for the narrator. Despite her initial resistance to conformity, driven by her childhood troubles, she remains tied to societal expectations, unable to completely break free of their grip.
Moshfegh, through MYR&R, offers an exploration of the conflict between individual freedom and societal expectations. Through the protagonist's hibernation, as a form of escape, the novel exposes the paradoxical nature of Western ideals and their impact on personal identity, critiquing both sides, conforming (Reva), and rejection (narrator). Drawing from psychoanalytic and feminist theory, Moshfegh’s standard depiction of the narrators troubled upbringing, shaping her adult behavior and hindering meaningful connections, proves that normal social participation
]]> <![CDATA[Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games, #0.5)]]> 214331246 When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?

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

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

When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.]]> 382 Suzanne Collins 1546171460 Kianna 0 currently-reading 4.63 2025 Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games, #0.5)

Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games, #0.5)

author: Suzanne Collins
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.63
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Bunny (Bunny, #1) 53285047 We were just these innocent girls in the night trying to make something beautiful. We nearly died. We very nearly did, didn't we?

Samantha Heather Mackey couldn't be more of an outsider in her small, highly selective MFA program at New England's Warren University. A scholarship student who prefers the company of her dark imagination to that of most people, she is utterly repelled by the rest of her fiction writing cohort--a clique of unbearably twee rich girls who call each other Bunny, and seem to move and speak as one.

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.

Named a Best Book of 2019 by TIME, Vogue, Electric Literature, and The New York Public Library]]> 305 Mona Awad 0525559752 Kianna 3 3.43 2019 Bunny (Bunny, #1)

author: Mona Awad
name: Kianna
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/30
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves:
review:

]]> The Song of Achilles 13623848 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780062060624.

Achilles, "the best of all the Greeks," son of the cruel sea goddess Thetis and the legendary king Peleus, is strong, swift, and beautiful, irresistible to all who meet him. Patroclus is an awkward young prince, exiled from his homeland after an act of shocking violence. Brought together by chance, they forge an inseparable bond, despite risking the gods' wrath.

They are trained by the centaur Chiron in the arts of war and medicine, but when word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, all the heroes of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause, and torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows. Little do they know that the cruel Fates will test them both as never before and demand a terrible sacrifice.]]> 408 Madeline Miller Kianna 0 to-read 4.30 2011 The Song of Achilles

author: Madeline Miller
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/30
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]]> <![CDATA[The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo]]> 32620332
Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.

Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the ��80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn’s story nears its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways.]]> 389 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1501139231 Kianna 0 to-read 4.39 2017 The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/30
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]]> <![CDATA[The Art of Statistics: How to Learn from Data]]> 43722897
��

Statistics are everywhere, as integral to science as they are to business, and in the popular media hundreds of times a day. In this age of big data, a basic grasp of statistical literacy is more important than ever if we want to separate the fact from the fiction, the ostentatious embellishments from the raw evidence -- and even more so if we hope to participate in the future, rather than being simple bystanders.

��

In The Art of Statistics , world-renowned statistician David Spiegelhalter shows readers how to derive knowledge from raw data by focusing on the concepts and connections behind the math. Drawing on real world examples to introduce complex issues, he shows us how statistics can help us determine the luckiest passenger on the Titanic, whether a notorious serial killer could have been caught earlier, and if screening for ovarian cancer is beneficial. The Art of Statistics not only shows us how mathematicians have used statistical science to solve these problems -- it teaches us how we too can think like statisticians. We learn how to clarify our questions, assumptions, and expectations when approaching a problem, and -- perhaps even more importantly -- we learn how to responsibly interpret the answers we receive.

��

Combining the incomparable insight of an expert with the playful enthusiasm of an aficionado, The Art of Statistics is the definitive guide to stats that every modern person needs.]]> 448 David Spiegelhalter 1541618513 Kianna 0 to-read 4.14 2019 The Art of Statistics: How to Learn from Data

The Art of Statistics: How to Learn from Data

author: David Spiegelhalter
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/19
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]]> <![CDATA[A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life]]> 53487237 A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, he shares a version of that class with us, offering some of what he and his students have discovered together over the years. Paired with iconic short stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol, the seven essays in this book are intended for anyone interested in how fiction works and why it’s more relevant than ever in these turbulent times.

In his introduction, Saunders writes, “We’re going to enter seven fastidiously constructed scale models of the world, made for a specific purpose that our time maybe doesn’t fully endorse but that these writers accepted implicitly as the aim of art—namely, to ask the big questions, questions like, How are we supposed to be living down here? What were we put here to accomplish? What should we value? What is truth, anyway, and how might we recognize it?�� He approaches the stories technically yet accessibly, and through them explains how narrative functions; why we stay immersed in a story and why we resist it; and the bedrock virtues a writer must foster. The process of writing, Saunders reminds us, is a technical craft, but also a way of training oneself to see the world with new openness and curiosity.

A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is a deep exploration not just of how great writing works but of how the mind itself works while reading, and of how the reading and writing of stories make genuine connection possible.]]> 403 George Saunders 1984856049 Kianna 0 to-read 4.55 2021 A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life

A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life

author: George Saunders
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Babel 57945316 From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a historical fantasy epic that grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British Empire

Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.

1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel. The tower and its students are the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver-working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as the arcane craft serves the Empire's quest for colonization.

For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide . . .

Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?]]> 544 R.F. Kuang 0063021420 Kianna 3 4.17 2022 Babel

author: R.F. Kuang
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/09
date added: 2025/03/15
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]]> <![CDATA[Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, and Why It Matters]]> 57433539
“Hurricanes and tornadoes are becoming fiercer and more frequent.��

“Climate change will be an economic disaster.��

You’ve heard all this presented as fact. But according to science, all of these statements are profoundly misleading.

When it comes to climate change, the media, politicians, and other prominent voices have declared that “the science is settled.�� In reality, the long game of telephone from research to reports to the popular media is corrupted by misunderstanding and misinformation. Core questions—about the way the climate is responding to our influence, and what the impacts will be—remain largely unanswered. The climate is changing, but the why and how aren’t as clear as you’ve probably been led to believe.

Now, one of America’s most distinguished scientists is clearing away the fog to explain what science really says (and doesn’t say) about our changing climate. In What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn't, and Why It Matters, Steven Koonin draws upon his decades of experience—including as a top science advisor to the Obama administration—to provide up-to-date insights and expert perspective free from political agendas.

Fascinating, clear-headed, and full of surprises, this book gives readers the tools to both understand the climate issue and be savvier consumers of science media in general. Koonin takes readers behind the headlines to the more nuanced science itself, showing us where it comes from and guiding us through the implications of the evidence. He dispels popular myths and unveils little-known despite a dramatic rise in greenhouse gas emissions, global temperatures actually decreased from 1940 to 1970. What’s more, the models we use to predict the future aren’t able to accurately describe the climate of the past, suggesting they are deeply flawed.

Koonin also tackles society’s response to a changing climate, using data-driven analysis to explain why many proposed “solutions�� would be ineffective, and discussing how alternatives like adaptation and, if necessary, geoengineering will ensure humanity continues to prosper. Unsettled is a reality check buoyed by hope, offering the truth about climate science that you aren’t getting elsewhere—what we know, what we don’t, and what it all means for our future.]]> 320 Steven E. Koonin 195329524X Kianna 0 to-read 4.26 2021 Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, and Why It Matters

Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, and Why It Matters

author: Steven E. Koonin
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/11
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]]> <![CDATA[A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra)]]> 18693655 A Mind for Numbers offers the tools you need to get a better grasp of that intimidating but inescapable field. Engineering professor Barbara Oakley knows firsthand how it feels to struggle with math. She flunked her way through high school math and science courses, before enlisting in the army immediately after graduation. When she saw how her lack of mathematical and technical savvy severely limited her options—both to rise in the military and to explore other careers—she returned to school with a newfound determination to re-tool her brain to master the very subjects that had given her so much trouble throughout her entire life.
��
In A Mind for Numbers, Dr. Oakley lets us in on the secrets to effectively learning math and science—secrets that even dedicated and successful students wish they’d known earlier. Contrary to popular belief, math requires creative, as well as analytical, thinking. Most people think that there’s only one way to do a problem, when in actuality, there are often a number of different solutions—you just need the creativity to see them. For example, there are more than three hundred different known proofs of the Pythagorean Theorem. In short, studying a problem in a laser-focused way until you reach a solution is not an effective way to learn math. Rather, it involves taking the time to step away from a problem and allow the more relaxed and creative part of the brain to take over. A Mind for Numbers shows us that we all have what it takes to excel in math, and learning it is not as painful as some might think!]]> 336 Barbara Oakley 039916524X Kianna 0 to-read 4.17 2014 A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra)

A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra)

author: Barbara Oakley
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/09
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]]> <![CDATA[What I Talk About When I Talk About Running]]> 2195464
Equal parts training log, travelogue, and reminiscence, this revealing memoir covers his four-month preparation for the 2005 New York City Marathon and takes us to places ranging from Tokyo’s Jingu Gaien gardens, where he once shared the course with an Olympian, to the Charles River in Boston among young women who outpace him. Through this marvelous lens of sport emerges a panorama of memories and insights: the eureka moment when he decided to become a writer, his greatest triumphs and disappointments, his passion for vintage LPs, and the experience, after fifty, of seeing his race times improve and then fall back.

By turns funny and sobering, playful and philosophical, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is rich and revelatory, both for fans of this masterful yet guardedly private writer and for the exploding population of athletes who find similar satisfaction in running.]]> 188 Haruki Murakami Kianna 0 to-read 3.87 2007 What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

author: Haruki Murakami
name: Kianna
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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]]> The Idiot 30962053 A portrait of the artist as a young woman. A novel about not just discovering but inventing oneself.

The year is 1995, and email is new. Selin, the daughter of Turkish immigrants, arrives for her freshman year at Harvard. She signs up for classes in subjects she has never heard of, befriends her charismatic and worldly Serbian classmate, Svetlana, and, almost by accident, begins corresponding with Ivan, an older mathematics student from Hungary. Selin may have barely spoken to Ivan, but with each email they exchange, the act of writing seems to take on new and increasingly mysterious meanings.

At the end of the school year, Ivan goes to Budapest for the summer, and Selin heads to the Hungarian countryside, to teach English in a program run by one of Ivan's friends. On the way, she spends two weeks visiting Paris with Svetlana. Selin's summer in Europe does not resonate with anything she has previously heard about the typical experiences of American college students, or indeed of any other kinds of people. For Selin, this is a journey further inside herself: a coming to grips with the ineffable and exhilarating confusion of first love, and with the growing consciousness that she is doomed to become a writer.]]> 423 Elif Batuman 1594205612 Kianna 0 to-read 3.67 2017 The Idiot

author: Elif Batuman
name: Kianna
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks]]> 59148726 From the prize-winning, New York Times bestselling author of Say Nothing and Empire of Pain, twelve enthralling stories of skulduggery and intrigue by one of the most decorated journalists of our time.

Patrick Radden Keefe has garnered prizes ranging from the National Magazine Award to the Orwell Prize to the National Book Critics Circle Award for his meticulously reported, hypnotically engaging work on the many ways people behave badly. Rogues brings together a dozen of his most celebrated articles from The New Yorker. As Keefe says in his preface, "They reflect on some of my abiding preoccupations: crime and corruption, secrets and lies, the permeable membrane separating licit and illicit worlds, the bonds of family, the power of denial."

Keefe brilliantly explores the intricacies of forging $150,000 vintage wines, examines whether a whistleblower who dared to expose money laundering at a Swiss bank is a hero or a fabulist, spends time in Vietnam with Anthony Bourdain, chronicles the quest to bring down a cheerful international black market arms merchant, and profiles a passionate death penalty attorney who represents the "worst of the worst," among other bravura works of literary journalism.

The appearance of his byline in The New Yorker is always an event, and collected here for the first time readers can see his work forms an always enthralling but deeply human portrait of criminals and rascals, as well as those who stand up against them.]]> 368 Patrick Radden Keefe 0385548516 Kianna 0 to-read 4.00 2022 Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks

Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks

author: Patrick Radden Keefe
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/08
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]]> <![CDATA[Call Me By Your Name (Call Me By Your Name, #1)]]> 36336078 Call Me by Your Name is the story of a sudden and powerful romance that blossoms between an adolescent boy and a summer guest at his parents' cliff-side mansion on the Italian Riviera. Unprepared for the consequences of their attraction, at first each feigns indifference. But during the restless summer weeks that follow, unrelenting buried currents of obsession and fear, fascination and desire, intensify their passion as they test the charged ground between them. What grows from the depths of their spirits is a romance of scarcely six weeks' duration and an experience that marks them for a lifetime. For what the two discover on the Riviera and during a sultry evening in Rome is the one thing both already fear they may never truly find again: total intimacy.

The psychological maneuvers that accompany attraction have seldom been more shrewdly captured than in André Aciman's frank, unsentimental, heartrending elegy to human passion. Call Me by Your Name is clear-eyed, bare-knuckled, and ultimately unforgettable.]]> 248 André Aciman 1786495252 Kianna 4 4.08 2007 Call Me By Your Name (Call Me By Your Name, #1)

Call Me By Your Name (Call Me By Your Name, #1)

author: André Aciman
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/18
date added: 2025/02/20
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]]> Normal People 41057294
A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years in college, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. Then, as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other.

Sally Rooney brings her brilliant psychological acuity and perfectly spare prose to a story that explores the subtleties of class, the electricity of first love, and the complex entanglements of family and friendship.]]> 273 Sally Rooney 1984822179 Kianna 3 3.81 2018 Normal People

author: Sally Rooney
name: Kianna
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/11
date added: 2025/02/20
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]]> 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 Kianna 4 4.28 2015 A Little Life

author: Hanya Yanagihara
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2015
rating: 4
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]]> The Secret History 29044 559 Donna Tartt 1400031702 Kianna 4 4.17 1992

author: Donna Tartt
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1992
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[George Orwell: Critical Essays]]> 8867011 -George Orwell]]> 169 George Orwell Kianna 2 3.94 1946

author: George Orwell
name: Kianna
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1946
rating: 2
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]]> <![CDATA[The Hard Crowd: Essays 2000-2020]]> 54303940 A career-spanning collection of spectacular essays about politics and culture

Rachel Kushner has established herself as a master of the essay form. In The Hard Crowd, she gathers a selection of her writing from over the course of the last twenty years that addresses the most pressing political, artistic, and cultural issues of our times—and illuminates the themes and real-life terrain that underpin her fiction.

In nineteen razor-sharp essays, The Hard Crowd spans literary journalism, memoir, cultural criticism, and writing about art and literature, including pieces on Jeff Koons, Denis Johnson, and Marguerite Duras. Kushner takes us on a journey through a Palestinian refugee camp, an illegal motorcycle race down the Baja Peninsula, 1970s wildcat strikes in Fiat factories, her love of classic cars, and her young life in the music scene of her hometown, San Francisco. The closing, eponymous essay is her manifesto on nostalgia, doom, and writing.

These pieces, new and old, are electric, phosphorescently vivid, and wry, and they provide an opportunity to witness the evolution and range of one of our most dazzling and fearless writers.]]> 272 Rachel Kushner 1982157690 Kianna 1 3.85 2021 The Hard Crowd: Essays 2000-2020

author: Rachel Kushner
name: Kianna
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2021
rating: 1
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]]> <![CDATA[Literary Theory: An Introduction]]> 16939 “Literary Theory has the kind of racy readability that one associates more often with English critics who have set their faces resolutely against theory. It’s not just a brilliant polemical essay; it’s also a remarkable feat of condensation, explication, and synthesis.�� —Sunday Times (London)
“A concise guide to the most interesting and mystifying trends in the study of literature over the last fifty years.�� —The Nation

This classic work covers all of the major movements in literary studies in this century. Noted for its clear, engaging style and unpretentious treatment, Literary Theory has become the introduction of choice for anyone interested in learning about the world of contemporary literary thought.]]> 248 Terry Eagleton 0631201882 Kianna 1 How can your write an introduction to theory and not include marxism?? I’m not buying your other book just for the basic summary of marxism i’m looking for.
Alright text centred parts though.]]> 3.96 1983 Literary Theory: An Introduction

author: Terry Eagleton
name: Kianna
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1983
rating: 1
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Pure nonsense writing, not relevant, doesn’t get to the point i want.
How can your write an introduction to theory and not include marxism?? I’m not buying your other book just for the basic summary of marxism i’m looking for.
Alright text centred parts though.
]]> <![CDATA[The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)]]> 51901147
The odds are against him. He's been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined -- every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute... and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.]]> 541 Suzanne Collins Kianna 5 3.99 2020 The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)

author: Suzanne Collins
name: Kianna
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2020
rating: 5
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]]> Throne of Glass 56168468 When magic has gone from the world and a vicious king rules from his throne of glass, an assassin comes to the castle. She is a prisoner, but if she can defeat twenty-three killers, thieves, and warriors in a competition to find the greatest assassin in the land, she will become the king's champion and earn her freedom. But the evil she encounters in the castle goes deep, and as dark forces gather on the horizon �� forces which threaten to destroy her entire world �� the assassin must take her place in a fight greater than she could ever have imagined.

This is the epic, heart-stopping fantasy series that has turned #1 New York Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas into a worldwide phenomenon. Fans new and old will dive into this ebook bundle containing the whole series: Throne of Glass, Crown of Midnight, Heir of Fire, Queen of Shadows, Empire of Storms, Tower of Dawn, the thrilling finale Kingdom of Ash, and the companion anthology The Assassin's Blade.

]]> 4855 Sarah J. Maas 1547608552 Kianna 2 4.71 Throne of Glass

author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.71
book published:
rating: 2
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]]> <![CDATA[A Court of Thorns and Roses: 4 Books in 1]]> 56142798
Follow Feyre's journey into the dangerous, alluring world of the Fae, where she will lose her heart, face her demons, and learn what she is truly capable of.

This four-ebook bundle of the #1 New York Times bestselling series by Sarah J. Maas includes A Court of Thorns and Roses, A Court of Mist and Fury, A Court of Wings and Ruin, and the companion tale A Court of Frost and Starlight.]]> 2016 Sarah J. Maas 1635577756 Kianna 2 4.72 2018 A Court of Thorns and Roses: 4 Books in 1

A Court of Thorns and Roses: 4 Books in 1

author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.72
book published: 2018
rating: 2
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]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4)]]> 6 734 J.K. Rowling 0439139597 Kianna 4 4.56 2000

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4)

author: J.K. Rowling
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 2009/10/13
date added: 2025/02/20
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]]> Eileen 23453099 So here we are. My name was Eileen Dunlop. Now you know me. I was twenty-four years old then, and had a job that paid fifty-seven dollars a week as a kind of secretary at a private juvenile correctional facility for teenage boys. I think of it now as what it really was for all intents and purposes—a prison for boys. I will call it Moorehead. Delvin Moorehead was a terrible landlord I had years later, and so to use his name for such a place feels appropriate. In a week, I would run away from home and never go back.

This is the story of how I disappeared.

The Christmas season offers little cheer for Eileen Dunlop, an unassuming yet disturbed young woman trapped between her role as her alcoholic father’s caretaker in a home whose squalor is the talk of the neighborhood and a day job as a secretary at the boys�� prison, filled with its own quotidian horrors. Consumed by resentment and self-loathing, Eileen tempers her dreary days with perverse fantasies and dreams of escaping to the big city. In the meantime, she fills her nights and weekends with shoplifting, stalking a buff prison guard named Randy, and cleaning up her increasingly deranged father’s messes. When the bright, beautiful, and cheery Rebecca Saint John arrives on the scene as the new counselor at Moorehead, Eileen is enchanted and proves unable to resist what appears at first to be a miraculously budding friendship. In a Hitchcockian twist, her affection for Rebecca ultimately pulls her into complicity in a crime that surpasses her wildest imaginings.

Played out against the snowy landscape of coastal New England in the days leading up to Christmas, young Eileen’s story is told from the gimlet-eyed perspective of the now much older narrator. Creepy, mesmerizing, and sublimely funny, in the tradition of Shirley Jackson and early Vladimir Nabokov, this powerful debut novel enthralls and shocks, and introduces one of the most original new voices in contemporary literature. Ottessa Moshfegh is also the author of My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Homesick for Another World: Stories, and McGlue.]]> 260 Ottessa Moshfegh 1594206627 Kianna 0 to-read 3.57 2015 Eileen

author: Ottessa Moshfegh
name: Kianna
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/01
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]]> <![CDATA[Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide]]> 269131 482 Lois Tyson 0415974100 Kianna 2 4.03 1998

Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide

author: Lois Tyson
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1998
rating: 2
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date added: 2024/02/14
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Only a couple good quotes. Fairly basic.
]]> <![CDATA[The Malloreon Boxed Set: Guardians of the West / King of the Murgos / Demon Lord of Karanda / Sorceress of Darshiva / The Seeress of Kell (The Malloreon, #1-5)]]> 189835 David Eddings 0345379888 Kianna 4 4.36 1992 The Malloreon Boxed Set: Guardians of the West / King of the Murgos / Demon Lord of Karanda / Sorceress of Darshiva / The Seeress of Kell (The Malloreon, #1-5)

The Malloreon Boxed Set: Guardians of the West / King of the Murgos / Demon Lord of Karanda / Sorceress of Darshiva / The Seeress of Kell (The Malloreon, #1-5)

author: David Eddings
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.36
book published: 1992
rating: 4
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date added: 2024/02/14
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]]> A Certain Hunger 44294655
But there is something within Dorothy that's different from everyone else, and having suppressed it long enough, she starts to embrace what makes Dorothy uniquely, terrifyingly herself. Recounting her life from a seemingly idyllic farm-to-table childhood, the heights of her career, to the moment she plunges an ice pick into a man's neck on Fire Island, Dorothy Daniels show us what happens when a woman finally embraces her superiority.

A satire of early foodieism, a critique of how gender is defined, and a showcase of virtuoso storytelling, Chelsea G. Summers' A Certain Hunger introduces us to the food world's most charming psychopath and an exciting new voice in fiction.]]> 250 Chelsea G. Summers Kianna 0 to-read 3.73 2019

author: Chelsea G. Summers
name: Kianna
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/29
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]]> Schoolgirl 12483882 Schoolgirl gained notoriety for its ironic and inventive use of language. Now it illuminates the prevalent social structures of a lost time, as well as the struggle of the individual against "them" -- a theme that occupied Dazai's life both personally and professionally. This new translation preserves the playful language of the original and offers the reader a new window into the mind of one of the greatest Japanese authors of the 20th century.]]> 103 Osamu Dazai 1935548085 Kianna 5 4.02 1939 Schoolgirl

author: Osamu Dazai
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1939
rating: 5
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date added: 2023/12/06
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]]> The Time Traveler's Wife 18619684 537 Audrey Niffenegger 1939126010 Kianna 0 to-read 4.07 2003

author: Audrey Niffenegger
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/11/22
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]]> A Clockwork Orange 41817486 A Clockwork Orange is a frightening fable about good and evil and the meaning of human freedom. This edition includes the controversial last chapter not published in the first edition, and Burgess’s introduction, “A Clockwork Orange Resucked.”]]> 240 Anthony Burgess 0393341763 Kianna 0 to-read 4.04 1962

author: Anthony Burgess
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1962
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/11/22
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]]> A Brief History of Time 3869
Told in language we all can understand, A Brief History of Time plunges into the exotic realms of black holes and quarks, of antimatter and “arrows of time,�� of the big bang and a bigger God—where the possibilities are wondrous and unexpected. With exciting images and profound imagination, Stephen Hawking brings us closer to the ultimate secrets at the very heart of creation.]]> 226 Stephen Hawking 0553380168 Kianna 0 to-read 4.22 1988 A Brief History of Time

author: Stephen Hawking
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1988
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/11/22
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]]> 1984 61439040
Alternate cover edition can be found here.]]> 368 George Orwell 0452284236 Kianna 0 to-read 4.21 1949 1984

author: George Orwell
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1949
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/11/22
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]]> Nausea 9104493 252 Jean-Paul Sartre 0141194847 Kianna 0 to-read 3.77 1938 Nausea

author: Jean-Paul Sartre
name: Kianna
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1938
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/11/22
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]]> The Catcher in the Rye 5107 It's Christmas time and Holden Caulfield has just been expelled from yet another school...

Fleeing the crooks at Pencey Prep, he pinballs around New York City seeking solace in fleeting encounters—shooting the bull with strangers in dive hotels, wandering alone round Central Park, getting beaten up by pimps and cut down by erstwhile girlfriends. The city is beautiful and terrible, in all its neon loneliness and seedy glamour, its mingled sense of possibility and emptiness. Holden passes through it like a ghost, thinking always of his kid sister Phoebe, the only person who really understands him, and his determination to escape the phonies and find a life of true meaning.

The Catcher in the Rye is an all-time classic in coming-of-age literature- an elegy to teenage alienation, capturing the deeply human need for connection and the bewildering sense of loss as we leave childhood behind.

J.D. Salinger's (1919��2010) classic novel of teenage angst and rebellion was first published in 1951. The novel was included on Time's 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923. It was named by Modern Library and its readers as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. It has been frequently challenged in the court for its liberal use of profanity and portrayal of sexuality and in the 1950's and 60's it was the novel that every teenage boy wants to read.]]> 277 J.D. Salinger 0316769177 Kianna 0 to-read 3.81 1951 The Catcher in the Rye

author: J.D. Salinger
name: Kianna
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1951
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Things: A Story of the Sixties / A Man Asleep]]> 28295
Jerome and Sylvie, the young, upwardly mobile couple in Things, lust for the good life. "They wanted life's enjoyment, but all around them enjoyment was equated with ownership." Surrounded by Paris's tantalizing exclusive boutiques, they exist in a paralyzing vacuum of frustration, caught between the fantasy of "the film they would have liked to live" and the reality of life's daily mundanities.

In direct contrast with Jerome and Sylvie's cravings, the nameless student in A Man Asleep attempts to purify himself entirely of material desires and ambition. He longs "to want nothing. Just to wait, until there is nothing left to wait for. Just to wander, and to sleep." Yearning to exist on neutral ground as "a blessed parenthesis," he discovers that this wish is by its very nature a defeat.

Accessible, sobering, and deeply involving, each novel distills Perec's unerring grasp of the human condition as well as displaying his rare comic talent. His generosity of observation is both detached and compassionate.]]> 221 Georges Perec 1567921574 Kianna 0 to-read 3.99 1965 Things: A Story of the Sixties / A Man Asleep

Things: A Story of the Sixties / A Man Asleep

author: Georges Perec
name: Kianna
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1965
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/11/22
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]]> <![CDATA[The Sublime Object of Ideology]]> 18912
Linking key psychoanalytical and philosophical concepts to social phenomena such as totalitarianism and racism, the book explores the political significance of these fantasies of control.]]> 256 Slavoj Žižek 0860919714 Kianna 0 to-read 4.07 1989 The Sublime Object of Ideology

author: Slavoj Žižek
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1989
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/11/21
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]]> In the Winter Dark 418809 110 Tim Winton 0330412590 Kianna 3 3.49 1988

author: Tim Winton
name: Kianna
average rating: 3.49
book published: 1988
rating: 3
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]]> The Brothers Karamazov 4934
This award-winning translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky remains true to the verbal inventiveness of Dostoevsky’s prose, preserving the multiple voices, the humor, and the surprising modernity of the original. It is an achievement worthy of Dostoevsky’s last and greatest novel.]]> 796 Fyodor Dostoevsky 0374528373 Kianna 0 to-read 4.36 1880 The Brothers Karamazov

author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.36
book published: 1880
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Perfume: The Story of a Murderer]]> 343 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

An acclaimed bestseller and international sensation, Patrick Suskind's classic novel provokes a terrifying examination of what happens when one man's indulgence in his greatest passion—his sense of smell—leads to murder.

In the slums of eighteenth-century France, the infant Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with one sublime gift—an absolute sense of smell. As a boy, he lives to decipher the odors of Paris, and apprentices himself to a prominent perfumer who teaches him the ancient art of mixing precious oils and herbs. But Grenouille's genius is such that he is not satisfied to stop there, and he becomes obsessed with capturing the smells of objects such as brass doorknobs and fresh-cut wood. Then one day he catches a hint of a scent that will drive him on an ever-more-terrifying quest to create the "ultimate perfume"—the scent of a beautiful young virgin. Told with dazzling narrative brilliance, Perfume is a hauntingly powerful tale of murder and sensual depravity.]]> 263 Patrick Süskind Kianna 0 to-read 4.05 1985 Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

author: Patrick Süskind
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1985
rating: 0
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]]> Free Will 13259270
In this enlightening book, Sam Harris argues that this truth about the human mind does not undermine morality or diminish the importance of social and political freedom, but it can and should change the way we think about some of the most important questions in life.]]> 96 Sam Harris 1451683405 Kianna 0 to-read 3.86 2012 Free Will

author: Sam Harris
name: Kianna
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Goodbye, Things: The New Japanese Minimalism]]> 30231806 The best-selling phenomenon from Japan that shows us a minimalist life is a happy life.

Fumio Sasaki is not an enlightened minimalism expert or organizing guru like Marie Kondo―he’s just a regular guy who was stressed out and constantly comparing himself to others, until one day he decided to change his life by saying goodbye to everything he didn’t absolutely need. The effects were remarkable: Sasaki gained true freedom, new focus, and a real sense of gratitude for everything around him. In Goodbye, Things Sasaki modestly shares his personal minimalist experience, offering specific tips on the minimizing process and revealing how the new minimalist movement can not only transform your space but truly enrich your life. The benefits of a minimalist life can be realized by anyone, and Sasaki’s humble vision of true happiness will open your eyes to minimalism’s potential.

16 pages of color illustrations]]> 259 Fumio Sasaki 0393609030 Kianna 0 to-read 3.79 2015 Goodbye, Things: The New Japanese Minimalism

Goodbye, Things: The New Japanese Minimalism

author: Fumio Sasaki
name: Kianna
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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]]> Confessions of a Mask 62794 Confessions of a Mask tells the story of Kochan, an adolescent boy tormented by his burgeoning attraction to men: he wants to be “normal.�� Kochan is meek-bodied, and unable to participate in the more athletic activities of his classmates. He begins to notice his growing attraction to some of the boys in his class, particularly the pubescent body of his friend Omi. To hide his homosexuality, he courts a woman, Sonoko, but this exacerbates his feelings for men. As news of the War reaches Tokyo, Kochan considers the fate of Japan and his place within its deeply rooted propriety.

Confessions of a Mask reflects Mishima’s own coming of age in post-war Japan. Its publication in English―praised by Gore Vidal, James Baldwin, and Christopher Isherwood―propelled the young Yukio Mishima to international fame.]]> 224 Yukio Mishima 0720610311 Kianna 0 to-read 4.02 1949 Confessions of a Mask

author: Yukio Mishima
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1949
rating: 0
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]]> The Fall 11991
The Fall (French: La Chute) is a philosophical novel by Albert Camus. First published in 1956, it is his last complete work of fiction. The Fall explores themes of innocence, imprisonment, non-existence, and truth. In a eulogy to Albert Camus, existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre described the novel as "perhaps the most beautiful and the least understood" of Camus' books.]]> 147 Albert Camus 0679720227 Kianna 0 to-read 4.07 1956 The Fall

author: Albert Camus
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1956
rating: 0
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]]> The Scarlet Letter 12296 279 Nathaniel Hawthorne 0142437263 Kianna 0 to-read 3.43 1850

author: Nathaniel Hawthorne
name: Kianna
average rating: 3.43
book published: 1850
rating: 0
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]]> The Life of a Stupid Man 24874322
Autobiographical stories from one of Japan's masters of modernist story-telling.

Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions.

Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927)

Akutagawa's Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories is also available in Penguin Classics.]]> 55 Ryūnosuke Akutagawa 0141397721 Kianna 0 to-read 3.65 1927 The Life of a Stupid Man

author: Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
name: Kianna
average rating: 3.65
book published: 1927
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[A Reader's Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory]]> 228270
Literature students will find its clearly defined sections easy to navigate and whilst avoiding over-simplification, it makes a complex subject accessible.]]> 314 Raman Selden 0582894107 Kianna 3 3.78 1985 A Reader's Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory

A Reader's Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory

author: Raman Selden
name: Kianna
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1985
rating: 3
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Some good reader centred parts, but Barry did it better
]]> The Picture of Dorian Gray 5297
In this celebrated work Wilde forged a devastating portrait of the effects of evil and debauchery on a young aesthete in late-19th-century England. Combining elements of the Gothic horror novel and decadent French fiction, the book centers on a striking premise: As Dorian Gray sinks into a life of crime and gross sensuality, his body retains perfect youth and vigor while his recently painted portrait grows day by day into a hideous record of evil, which he must keep hidden from the world. For over a century, this mesmerizing tale of horror and suspense has enjoyed wide popularity. It ranks as one of Wilde's most important creations and among the classic achievements of its kind.]]> 272 Oscar Wilde Kianna 4 4.13 1890 The Picture of Dorian Gray

author: Oscar Wilde
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1890
rating: 4
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]]> My Dark Vanessa 44890081
2000. Bright, ambitious, and yearning for adulthood, fifteen-year-old Vanessa Wye becomes entangled in an affair with Jacob Strane, her magnetic and guileful forty-two-year-old English teacher.

2017. Amid the rising wave of allegations against powerful men, a reckoning is coming due. Strane has been accused of sexual abuse by a former student, who reaches out to Vanessa, and now Vanessa suddenly finds herself facing an impossible choice: remain silent, firm in the belief that her teenage self willingly engaged in this relationship, or redefine herself and the events of her past. But how can Vanessa reject her first love, the man who fundamentally transformed her and has been a persistent presence in her life? Is it possible that the man she loved as a teenager—and who professed to worship only her—may be far different from what she has always believed?

Alternating between Vanessa’s present and her past, My Dark Vanessa juxtaposes memory and trauma with the breathless excitement of a teenage girl discovering the power her own body can wield. Thought-provoking and impossible to put down, this is a masterful portrayal of troubled adolescence and its repercussions that raises vital questions about agency, consent, complicity, and victimhood. Written with the haunting intimacy of The Girls and the creeping intensity of Room, My Dark Vanessa is an era-defining novel that brilliantly captures and reflects the shifting cultural mores transforming our relationships and society itself.]]> 373 Kate Elizabeth Russell 006294150X Kianna 0 to-read 4.09 2020 My Dark Vanessa

author: Kate Elizabeth Russell
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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]]> The Virgin Suicides 10956 250 Jeffrey Eugenides 0747560595 Kianna 0 to-read 3.81 1993

author: Jeffrey Eugenides
name: Kianna
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1993
rating: 0
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]]> Just Kids 341879 Just Kids, Patti Smith's first book of prose, the legendary American artist offers a never-before-seen glimpse of her remarkable relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in the epochal days of New York City and the Chelsea Hotel in the late sixties and seventies. An honest and moving story of youth and friendship, Smith brings the same unique, lyrical quality to Just Kids as she has to the rest of her formidable body of work--from her influential 1975 album Horses to her visual art and poetry.]]> 304 Patti Smith Kianna 0 to-read 4.19 2010

author: Patti Smith
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Brief Notes on the Art and Manner of Arranging One's Books (Penguin Great Ideas)]]> 53246189
One of the most singular and extravagant imaginations of the twentieth century, the novelist and essayist Georges Perec was a true original who delighted in wordplay, puzzles, taxonomies and seeing the extraordinary in the everyday. In these virtuoso writings about books and language, he discusses different ways of reading, a list of the things he really must do before he dies and the power of words to overcome the chaos of the world.

Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives--and upended them. Now Penguin brings you a new set of the acclaimed Great Ideas, a curated library of selections from the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.]]> 96 Georges Perec 024147521X Kianna 0 to-read 3.72 2010 Brief Notes on the Art and Manner of Arranging One's Books (Penguin Great Ideas)

Brief Notes on the Art and Manner of Arranging One's Books (Penguin Great Ideas)

author: Georges Perec
name: Kianna
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Brief Answers to the Big Questions]]> 40277241
Within these pages, he provides his personal views on our biggest challenges as a human race, and where we, as a planet, are heading next. Each section will be introduced by a leading thinker offering his or her own insight into Professor Hawking's contribution to our understanding.]]> 256 Stephen Hawking 1984819194 Kianna 0 to-read 4.28 2018 Brief Answers to the Big Questions

author: Stephen Hawking
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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]]> Ways of Seeing 2784 John Berger’s Classic Text on Art

Ways of Seeing is one of the most stimulating and the most influential books on art in any language. First published in 1972, it was based on the BBC television series about which the (London) Sunday Times a critic commented: "This is an eye-opener in more ways than one: by concentrating on how we look at paintings . . . he will almost certainly change the way you look at pictures." By now he has.

"Berger has the ability to cut right through the mystification of the professional art critics . . . He is a liberator of images: and once we have allowed the paintings to work on us directly, we are in a much better position to make a meaningful evaluation" —Peter Fuller, Arts Review

"The influence of the series and the book . . . was enormous . . . It opened up for general attention to areas of cultural study that are now commonplace" —Geoff Dyer in Ways of Telling.]]> 176 John Berger 0140135154 Kianna 0 to-read 3.93 1972 Ways of Seeing

author: John Berger
name: Kianna
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1972
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]]> The Flowers of Buffoonery 61340205 The Flowers of Buffoonery opens in a seaside sanitarium where Yozo Oba �� the narrator of No Longer Human �� is convalescing after a failed suicide attempt. Friends and family visit him, and nurses and police drift in and out of his room. Against this dispiriting backdrop, Yozo and his visitors try to maintain a lighthearted, even clownish atmosphere: playing cards, smoking cigarettes, vying for attention, cracking jokes, and trying to make each other laugh. Dazai is known for delving into the darkest corners of human consciousness, but in The Flowers of Buffoonery he pokes fun at these same emotions: the follies and hardships of youth, of love, and of self-hatred and depression. A glimpse into the lives of a group of outsiders in prewar Japan, The Flowers of Buffoonery is a fresh and darkly humorous addition to Osamu Dazai’s masterful and intoxicating oeuvre.]]> 96 Osamu Dazai 0811234541 Kianna 0 to-read 3.83 1935

author: Osamu Dazai
name: Kianna
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1935
rating: 0
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]]> The Setting Sun 194740
The story is told through the eyes of Kazuko, the unmarried daughter of a widowed aristocrat. Her search for self meaning in a society devoid of use for her forms the crux of Dazai’s novel. It is a sad story, and structurally is a novel very much within the confines of the Japanese take on the novel in a way reminiscent of authors such as Nobel Prize winner Yasunari Kawabata �� the social interactions are peripheral and understated, nuances must be drawn, and for readers more used to Western novelistic forms this comes across as being rather wishy-washy.

Kazuko’s mother falls ill, and due to their financial circumstances they are forced to take a cottage in the countryside. Her brother, who became addicted to opium during the war is missing. When he returns, Kazuko attempts to form a liaison with the novelist Uehara. This romantic displacement only furthers to deepen her alienation from society.]]> 175 Osamu Dazai 0811200329 Kianna 0 to-read 4.00 1947 The Setting Sun

author: Osamu Dazai
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1947
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]]> The Stranger 49552 The Stranger has long been considered a classic of twentieth-century literature. Le Monde ranks it as number one on its "100 Books of the Century" list. Through this story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on a sundrenched Algerian beach, Camus explores what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd."]]> 123 Albert Camus Kianna 0 to-read 4.04 1942 The Stranger

author: Albert Camus
name: Kianna
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1942
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]]> The Metamorphosis 485894 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 0553213695 / 9780553213690

"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. He was laying on his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his domelike brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes."

With it's startling, bizarre, yet surprisingly funny first opening, Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetle-like insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. A harrowing—though absurdly comic—meditation on human feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and isolation, The Metamorphosis has taken its place as one of the most widely read and influential works of twentieth-century fiction. As W.H. Auden wrote, "Kafka is important to us because his predicament is the predicament of modern man."]]> 201 Franz Kafka 0553213695 Kianna 0 to-read 3.90 1915 The Metamorphosis

author: Franz Kafka
name: Kianna
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1915
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]]>