Ioana's bookshelf: all en-US Thu, 06 Mar 2025 16:44:15 -0800 60 Ioana's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[The Vicomte de Bragelonne (Trilogie des Mousquetaires #3.1)]]> 369042 The Vicomte de Bragelonne opens an epic adventure which continues with Louise de La Valliere and reaches its climax in The Man in the Iron Mask. This new edition of the classic translation presents a key episode in the Musketeers saga, fully annotated and with an introduction by a leading Dumas scholar.]]> 768 Alexandre Dumas 0192834630 Ioana 5 3.97 The Vicomte de Bragelonne (Trilogie des Mousquetaires #3.1)
author: Alexandre Dumas
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.97
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 1995/01/01
date added: 2025/03/06
shelves: adventure, french, fiction, historical-fiction
review:

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The Storyteller 53931 ]]> 245 Mario Vargas Llosa 0312420285 Ioana 5 3.74 1987 The Storyteller
author: Mario Vargas Llosa
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1987
rating: 5
read at: 2014/03/07
date added: 2025/01/31
shelves: colonialism, fiction, latin-america, mythopoetics, peruvian, phenomenology, nobel-laureate, native-american, magical-realism, favorite-headtrips
review:

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Wool - Holston (Wool, #1) 12287209
Or you'll get what you wish for.]]>
56 Hugh Howey Ioana 4 4.14 2012 Wool - Holston (Wool, #1)
author: Hugh Howey
name: Ioana
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/01/09
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[2666, Part 1: The Part About The Critics]]> 16481836 160 Roberto Bola単o Ioana 5 fiction, latin-america 4.19 2666, Part 1: The Part About The Critics
author: Roberto Bola単o
name: Ioana
average rating: 4.19
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2013/12/30
date added: 2024/12/01
shelves: fiction, latin-america
review:

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<![CDATA[2666, Part 2: The Part About Amalfitano]]> 16481844 68 Roberto Bola単o Ioana 5 fiction, latin-america 4.06 2666, Part 2: The Part About Amalfitano
author: Roberto Bola単o
name: Ioana
average rating: 4.06
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2014/01/01
date added: 2024/11/21
shelves: fiction, latin-america
review:

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<![CDATA[The Metamorphosis and Other Stories]]> 7723 The Metamorphosis,� a story that is both harrowing and amusing, and a landmark of modern literature.

Bringing together some of Kafkas finest work, this collection demonstrates the richness and variety of the authors artistry. �The Judgment,� which Kafka considered to be his decisive breakthrough, and �The Stoker,� which became the first chapter of his novel Amerika, are here included. These two, along with �The Metamorphosis,� form a suite of stories Kafka referred to as The Sons,� and they collectively present a devastating portrait of the modern family.

Also included are �In the Penal Colony,� a story of a torture machine and its operators and victims, and �A Hunger Artist,� about the absurdity of an artist trying to communicate with a misunderstanding public. Kafkas lucid, succinct writing chronicles the labyrinthine complexities, the futility-laden horror, and the stifling oppressiveness that permeate his vision of modern life.]]>
224 Franz Kafka 1593080298 Ioana 0 to-read 4.08 1915 The Metamorphosis and Other Stories
author: Franz Kafka
name: Ioana
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1915
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/18
shelves: to-read
review:

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The Lost Book of the Grail 50025038 329 Charlie Lovett 0399562524 Ioana 3 4.10 2017 The Lost Book of the Grail
author: Charlie Lovett
name: Ioana
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2017/01/01
date added: 2024/09/24
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[2666, Part 3: The Part About Fate]]> 16481853 118 Roberto Bola単o Ioana 5 fiction, latin-america 4.23 2666, Part 3: The Part About Fate
author: Roberto Bola単o
name: Ioana
average rating: 4.23
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2014/01/24
date added: 2024/09/05
shelves: fiction, latin-america
review:

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<![CDATA[Around the World in Eighty Days]]> 54479 252 Jules Verne 014044906X Ioana 0 3.95 1872 Around the World in Eighty Days
author: Jules Verne
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1872
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/29
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories]]> 99300
Written from a feminist perspective, often focusing on the inferior status accorded to women by society, the tales include "turned," an ironic story with a startling twist, in which a husband seduces and impregnates a na誰ve servant; "Cottagette," concerning the romance of a young artist and a man who's apparently too good to be true; "Mr. Peebles' Heart," a liberating tale of a fiftyish shopkeeper whose sister-in-law, a doctor, persuades him to take a solo trip to Europe, with revivifying results; "The Yellow Wallpaper"; and three other outstanding stories.

These charming tales are not only highly readable and full of humor and invention, but also offer ample food for thought about the social, economic, and personal relationship of men and women � and how they might be improved.

Collects:
The Yellow Wallpaper
Three Thanksgivings
The Cottagette
T顎姻稼艶糸
Making a Change
If I Were a Man
Mr. Peebles' Heart]]>
129 Charlotte Perkins Gilman 0486298574 Ioana 5 4.05 1892 The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories
author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman
name: Ioana
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1892
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:

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The Lost Daughter 1058564
But she soon finds herself intrigued by Nina, a young mother on the beach, eventually striking up a conversation with her. After Nina confides a dark secret, one seemingly trivial occurrence leads to events that could destroy Ninas family.]]>
140 Elena Ferrante 1933372427 Ioana 0 to-read 3.70 2006 The Lost Daughter
author: Elena Ferrante
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Prince Edward's Warrant (The Chronicles of Hugh de Singleton #11)]]> 40097245 224 Melvin R. Starr 1782642625 Ioana 3 4.12 2018 Prince Edward's Warrant (The Chronicles of Hugh de Singleton #11)
author: Melvin R. Starr
name: Ioana
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2018/01/01
date added: 2024/07/19
shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, mystery
review:

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Cloudstreet 8851018 Struggling to rebuild their lives after being touched by disaster, the Pickle family, who've inherited a big house called Cloudstreet in a suburb of Perth, take in the God-fearing Lambs as tenants. The Lambs have suffered their own catastrophes, and determined to survive, they open up a grocery on the ground floor. From 1944 to 1964, the shared experiences of the two overpopulated clans -- running the gamut from drunkenness, adultery, and death to resurrection, marriage, and birth -- bond them to each other and to the bustling, haunted house in ways no one could have anticipated.]]> 432 Tim Winton 1439188556 Ioana 0 to-read 3.83 1991 Cloudstreet
author: Tim Winton
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1991
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/27
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Casa Lui Kafka (Romanian Edition)]]> 4691876 202 Gabriela Popa 9737622421 Ioana 3
M-a interesat de asemenea s remarc diferena 樽ntre copilaria din anii comuniti de la 樽nceput, comparat cu anii '80 (cu care am experien personal) - c但nd nu te mai mirai aproape de nimic, sau cel puin nu spuneai, i c但nd i ca copii, tiam s nu vorbim prea mult, s nu facem aa mare chestie de tabra de var sau alte prostii pe care le doream, tiam c viaa e mult mai grea dec但t fleacurile noastre (cel puin aa a fost 樽n familia mea - daca prinii spuneau c nu aveam bani, nu aveam bani i gata, nu era nici o vorba sa le dau 樽n cap p但na spuneau c pot s m duc). Dar astea nu sunt dec但t doua experiene, sigur nu reprezint situaia complet.

n sf但rit, mi-a fost destul de greu s termin, pentru c povestea mi s-a prut incredibil de plictisitoare. Ar fi trebuit numit "Amintiri din copilaria comunist dup razboi" sau aa ceva - povestea e constituita de c但teva episoade banale de viaa cotidian - dusul la coala, la cumprat bor, jucatul 樽n curte cu prietenii - sigur, tot povestit intr-o voce autentic, i frumos, dar... nimic nu se 樽ntampl, absolut de loc! Nu exist nici un fel de tensiune literar, sau personal, nici un conflict nu este explorat. i, din cauz c protagonist noastra este un copil de 10 ani (i nuvela este scris din perspectiva ei), caracterele apar numai ca caricaturi, nu ca oameni in 3 dimensiuni. ]]>
4.60 2010 Casa Lui Kafka (Romanian Edition)
author: Gabriela Popa
name: Ioana
average rating: 4.60
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2015/12/22
date added: 2024/06/11
shelves: romanian-lit, fiction, communism, eastern-block-lit
review:
2.5 stele, cu generozitate, poate 3. Popa ne ia la o plimbare autentic prin sufletul unui copil de 10 ani 樽n timpul primei generaii de comunism. Scrie 樽ntradevar cu o voce absolut credibil- protagonista este naiv si egoist, dar inocent i 樽n sf但rit e clar c centrarea pe sine e o funcie de v但rsta i nu de alte defecte.

M-a interesat de asemenea s remarc diferena 樽ntre copilaria din anii comuniti de la 樽nceput, comparat cu anii '80 (cu care am experien personal) - c但nd nu te mai mirai aproape de nimic, sau cel puin nu spuneai, i c但nd i ca copii, tiam s nu vorbim prea mult, s nu facem aa mare chestie de tabra de var sau alte prostii pe care le doream, tiam c viaa e mult mai grea dec但t fleacurile noastre (cel puin aa a fost 樽n familia mea - daca prinii spuneau c nu aveam bani, nu aveam bani i gata, nu era nici o vorba sa le dau 樽n cap p但na spuneau c pot s m duc). Dar astea nu sunt dec但t doua experiene, sigur nu reprezint situaia complet.

n sf但rit, mi-a fost destul de greu s termin, pentru c povestea mi s-a prut incredibil de plictisitoare. Ar fi trebuit numit "Amintiri din copilaria comunist dup razboi" sau aa ceva - povestea e constituita de c但teva episoade banale de viaa cotidian - dusul la coala, la cumprat bor, jucatul 樽n curte cu prietenii - sigur, tot povestit intr-o voce autentic, i frumos, dar... nimic nu se 樽ntampl, absolut de loc! Nu exist nici un fel de tensiune literar, sau personal, nici un conflict nu este explorat. i, din cauz c protagonist noastra este un copil de 10 ani (i nuvela este scris din perspectiva ei), caracterele apar numai ca caricaturi, nu ca oameni in 3 dimensiuni.
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<![CDATA[One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich]]> 17125 The only English translation authorized by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

First published in the Soviet journal Novy Mir in 1962, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich stands as a classic of contemporary literature. The story of labor-camp inmate Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, it graphically describes his struggle to maintain his dignity in the face of communist oppression. An unforgettable portrait of the entire world of Stalin's forced work camps, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is one of the most extraordinary literary documents to have emerged from the Soviet Union and confirms Solzhenitsyn's stature as "a literary genius whose talent matches that of Dosotevsky, Turgenev, Tolstoy"--Harrison Salisbury

This unexpurgated 1991 translation by H. T. Willetts is the only authorized edition available, and fully captures the power and beauty of the original Russian.]]>
182 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Ioana 5
This work does not describe horrific abuses, does not sensationalize the terror of the Gulag, does not dwell on despair, fear, hope, or pain. In fact it's most disturbing BECAUSE of the protagonists' quiet acceptance and concrete, practical orientation. Unlike others in the camp, Ivan is neither an intellectual nor a spiritual man; he does not find peace in salvation through Christianity (as Alyosha), he does not seek slivers of hope and meaning in discussions with other political prisoners about literature and film.

Instead, Ivan focuses on survival: on procuring an extra portion of oats for breakfast, on smuggling in a bit of a rusted blade into his barracks to build a knife, on staying warm in the Siberian winter. He "does not have time" to contemplate the beauty of stars and of its promise, to engage in conversation with other members of his squad, to think about his past and present, to philosophize about his condition.

This, to me, is the scariest condition of all, essentially indicating a loss of humanity, a return to the most animalistic, basic survivalist mode of being. For after all, what separates us from animals other than the power of human hope, thought, passion? Indeed, the aims of the Gulag, and of communism itself, were to reduce human beings into mere unthinking animals, instinctually scavenging for food and other necessities while loosing sight of the powers of human intellect, artistic impulse, and initiative.

Even more disturbing is Ivan's complacent acceptance. In fact, "A Day in the Life" is a GOOD day for Ivan, he is "almost happy" by the end of the short story: that night, he "went to sleep fully content. He'd had many strokes of luck that day: they hadn't sent his squad to the settlement; he'd swipe a bowl of kasha at inner; the quad leader had fixed the rates well; he' built a wall an enjoyed doing it; he'd smuggled that bid of haksaw blade through; he'd earned a favor from Tsezar that evening; he'd bought that tobacco. And he hadn't fallen ill." (last page).

In an ironic twist, Ivan is thus born into a new humanity, one that has learned to live in, and almost find happiness, under the most brutal, demoralizing, repressive, tortuous conditions imaginable. The proof is his Survival.

And a personal side note: If I was rating this book based on how much I enjoyed it, the rating would stand somewhere around a 2. It's filled with details on construction work, much of it was inscrutable to me (there were many terms I had to look up and it was difficult to visualize what was going on in terms of the configuration of the space, the usage of tools, the process of building, etc). But more importantly, I don't understand, and am quite disturbed, at Ivan's path to survival. I clearly have never suffered a Gulag (though my family underwent its own tribulations under Ceausescu/the Securiatate), but I'd like to imagine I'd find my hope in dreams/philosophy/art if I was in Ivan's place, like the Captain.

There were very few ways to escape communism back in this era, and the main route was through art and soulful expression through the absurd, satires, magical realism, and a dark humor which is impossible to understand without having lived in such a repressive society. People read books voraciously, there was an entire culture built around going to art galleries, the opera & theater, around discussing important books (non political on the surface, usually, but of course, always subversively all political). The Gulags were filled with members of the intelligensia: in Romania, there were even jokes (again, the dark humor) about how the masters of Romanian political philosophy, art, and history enjoyed the prison camps because they got to meet each other and philosophize all day. Personally, that (obviously romanticized) version of survival sounds much more appealing & humanizing than Ivan's, with which i do not personally identify. Then again, what would I know? I've never laid bricks in the cold for 14 hour days in the Siberian winter.]]>
3.98 1962 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
author: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1962
rating: 5
read at: 2013/05/12
date added: 2024/03/15
shelves: eastern-block-lit, fiction, russian-lit, communism
review:
Groundbreaking at the time of its publication, "One Day in the Life" was the first work on the Gulag to be published in the USSR (by a former prisoner no less). Born and raised in Communist Romania, Solzhenistyn's world is a familiar, disturbingly dark, and utterly tragic one for me; the existential structures of eastern block consciousness, even outside of the Gulag, are eerily similar to those of the imprisoned in "One Day in the Life": the appreciation for every small detail of subsistence related pursuits, such as scrounging for a bit of extra sugar or butter, the ways in which people are turned against each other through carefully articulated and craftily schemed policies and rules, the extensive bribery system/underground economy without which no one would survive, learning how to live in silence, barricading the soul/heart in an attempt at survival.

This work does not describe horrific abuses, does not sensationalize the terror of the Gulag, does not dwell on despair, fear, hope, or pain. In fact it's most disturbing BECAUSE of the protagonists' quiet acceptance and concrete, practical orientation. Unlike others in the camp, Ivan is neither an intellectual nor a spiritual man; he does not find peace in salvation through Christianity (as Alyosha), he does not seek slivers of hope and meaning in discussions with other political prisoners about literature and film.

Instead, Ivan focuses on survival: on procuring an extra portion of oats for breakfast, on smuggling in a bit of a rusted blade into his barracks to build a knife, on staying warm in the Siberian winter. He "does not have time" to contemplate the beauty of stars and of its promise, to engage in conversation with other members of his squad, to think about his past and present, to philosophize about his condition.

This, to me, is the scariest condition of all, essentially indicating a loss of humanity, a return to the most animalistic, basic survivalist mode of being. For after all, what separates us from animals other than the power of human hope, thought, passion? Indeed, the aims of the Gulag, and of communism itself, were to reduce human beings into mere unthinking animals, instinctually scavenging for food and other necessities while loosing sight of the powers of human intellect, artistic impulse, and initiative.

Even more disturbing is Ivan's complacent acceptance. In fact, "A Day in the Life" is a GOOD day for Ivan, he is "almost happy" by the end of the short story: that night, he "went to sleep fully content. He'd had many strokes of luck that day: they hadn't sent his squad to the settlement; he'd swipe a bowl of kasha at inner; the quad leader had fixed the rates well; he' built a wall an enjoyed doing it; he'd smuggled that bid of haksaw blade through; he'd earned a favor from Tsezar that evening; he'd bought that tobacco. And he hadn't fallen ill." (last page).

In an ironic twist, Ivan is thus born into a new humanity, one that has learned to live in, and almost find happiness, under the most brutal, demoralizing, repressive, tortuous conditions imaginable. The proof is his Survival.

And a personal side note: If I was rating this book based on how much I enjoyed it, the rating would stand somewhere around a 2. It's filled with details on construction work, much of it was inscrutable to me (there were many terms I had to look up and it was difficult to visualize what was going on in terms of the configuration of the space, the usage of tools, the process of building, etc). But more importantly, I don't understand, and am quite disturbed, at Ivan's path to survival. I clearly have never suffered a Gulag (though my family underwent its own tribulations under Ceausescu/the Securiatate), but I'd like to imagine I'd find my hope in dreams/philosophy/art if I was in Ivan's place, like the Captain.

There were very few ways to escape communism back in this era, and the main route was through art and soulful expression through the absurd, satires, magical realism, and a dark humor which is impossible to understand without having lived in such a repressive society. People read books voraciously, there was an entire culture built around going to art galleries, the opera & theater, around discussing important books (non political on the surface, usually, but of course, always subversively all political). The Gulags were filled with members of the intelligensia: in Romania, there were even jokes (again, the dark humor) about how the masters of Romanian political philosophy, art, and history enjoyed the prison camps because they got to meet each other and philosophize all day. Personally, that (obviously romanticized) version of survival sounds much more appealing & humanizing than Ivan's, with which i do not personally identify. Then again, what would I know? I've never laid bricks in the cold for 14 hour days in the Siberian winter.
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Year of Wonders 4965
Through Anna's eyes we follow the story of the fateful year of 1666, as she and her fellow villagers confront the spread of disease and superstition.

As death reaches into every household and villagers turn from prayers to murderous witch-hunting, Anna must find the strength to confront the disintegration of her community and the lure of illicit love.

As she struggles to survive and grow, a year of catastrophe becomes instead annus mirabilis, a "year of wonders."

Inspired by the true story of Eyam, a village in the rugged hill country of England, Year of Wonders is a richly detailed evocation of a singular moment in history. ]]>
304 Geraldine Brooks 0142001430 Ioana 3 fiction, historical-fiction
The 3-star rating has absolutely no relation to how much I enjoyed the book - for I found no pleasure in reading this at all, on the contrary, I found it excruciatingly boring (and historically inaccurate). There was simply nothing here to compel me to keep reading, and each time I picked up Year of Wonders, it was out of a duty to see it through (which I felt because of reasons mentioned in paragraph 1; had this book been written any less skilfully I would have had no problem leaving it on my bookshelf, unread).

The historical inaccuracies abounded throughout (and were the reason I initially did not plan to finish - see original review below). Though Brooks briefly outlines how her work is grounded historical facts, the essence of how people lived in 1666 is distorted beyond recognition; sure, there may have been a "plague village" in the highlands at this time, with residents who agreed to self-quarantine, but this is not history, it's a sketch of a timeline and events. History is about how people lived and thought, and in this, Brooks fails miserably - according to her, many understood the virtues of cleanliness and washed constantly, the pastor was so enlightened that he viewed the plague as something "natural" and not caused by God, villagers were embarrassed and repentant after killing women they deemed "witches" and purveyors of the plague, half the village women could read and write, a servant girl understood Latin and then mastered Arabic as well, etc.

Brooks writes that her inspiration for the main character, Anna, was found in women from present-day conflict zones such as Bosnia whom she has known. While she may weave a believable tale of despair and depravity under extreme conditions, she does not paint a believable historical portrait of how this mood might have manifested in England, 1666.

---- May 1, 2015 Review ----
I don't think it's excessive to expect that a book proclaiming itself as "historical-fiction" present some semblance of historical accuracy.. This one lost me a couple pages in, which found the protagonist explaining at length the bathing of her babies, the ways in which they smelled of soap (implying daily or regular washing), the different kind of soap used by her husband, and the cleanliness of her new tenant. UGH. Then, of course, we have the independent, 21st century woman - who is class-conscious, who can read and write - all while parading as a poor yeowoman in a small village/manor in the 17th century. Double Sigh. There are so many anachronisms in Year of Wonders I really couldn't take it seriously, or at all, after 50 pages or so.

(an aside: Brooks writes well, her prose is definitely more in a style that may be called "art" versus "pulp"; still, for me, this was not enough to overcome the profaning of historical details).

So, perhaps my rating will change, someday, when I may decide to finish. The impression above is based on the first 50 pages or so. ]]>
4.00 2001 Year of Wonders
author: Geraldine Brooks
name: Ioana
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at: 2015/05/25
date added: 2023/11/11
shelves: fiction, historical-fiction
review:
UPDATE: After expending a ridiculous amount of effort in forcing myself to finish this book (never have I been this bored while reading something in my entire reading life), I am revising my initial 1-star rating to 3-stars, solely for the reason that this book is, undoubtedly, literature. Brooks certainly has a way with words, and considering how the vast majority of new works have no respect for or attunement to language, she deserves a modicum of praise for her lyricism and storytelling.

The 3-star rating has absolutely no relation to how much I enjoyed the book - for I found no pleasure in reading this at all, on the contrary, I found it excruciatingly boring (and historically inaccurate). There was simply nothing here to compel me to keep reading, and each time I picked up Year of Wonders, it was out of a duty to see it through (which I felt because of reasons mentioned in paragraph 1; had this book been written any less skilfully I would have had no problem leaving it on my bookshelf, unread).

The historical inaccuracies abounded throughout (and were the reason I initially did not plan to finish - see original review below). Though Brooks briefly outlines how her work is grounded historical facts, the essence of how people lived in 1666 is distorted beyond recognition; sure, there may have been a "plague village" in the highlands at this time, with residents who agreed to self-quarantine, but this is not history, it's a sketch of a timeline and events. History is about how people lived and thought, and in this, Brooks fails miserably - according to her, many understood the virtues of cleanliness and washed constantly, the pastor was so enlightened that he viewed the plague as something "natural" and not caused by God, villagers were embarrassed and repentant after killing women they deemed "witches" and purveyors of the plague, half the village women could read and write, a servant girl understood Latin and then mastered Arabic as well, etc.

Brooks writes that her inspiration for the main character, Anna, was found in women from present-day conflict zones such as Bosnia whom she has known. While she may weave a believable tale of despair and depravity under extreme conditions, she does not paint a believable historical portrait of how this mood might have manifested in England, 1666.

---- May 1, 2015 Review ----
I don't think it's excessive to expect that a book proclaiming itself as "historical-fiction" present some semblance of historical accuracy.. This one lost me a couple pages in, which found the protagonist explaining at length the bathing of her babies, the ways in which they smelled of soap (implying daily or regular washing), the different kind of soap used by her husband, and the cleanliness of her new tenant. UGH. Then, of course, we have the independent, 21st century woman - who is class-conscious, who can read and write - all while parading as a poor yeowoman in a small village/manor in the 17th century. Double Sigh. There are so many anachronisms in Year of Wonders I really couldn't take it seriously, or at all, after 50 pages or so.

(an aside: Brooks writes well, her prose is definitely more in a style that may be called "art" versus "pulp"; still, for me, this was not enough to overcome the profaning of historical details).

So, perhaps my rating will change, someday, when I may decide to finish. The impression above is based on the first 50 pages or so.
]]>
Death in Kashmir 10217 256 M.M. Kaye 0312263104 Ioana 3 3.93 1953 Death in Kashmir
author: M.M. Kaye
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1953
rating: 3
read at: 2015/03/08
date added: 2023/08/01
shelves: fiction, gothic, mystery, romance
review:

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Death in Cyprus 515128 273 M.M. Kaye 0312263090 Ioana 2
I really just wanted to walk up to the heroine (or to Kaye?), take a hold of her and shake her vigorously while admonishing her to get a hold of herself. I mean, the characterization was ridiculous: beautiful, innocent, lovely young girl is so naive that she walks into traps that endanger her life, only to be saved by mysterious dark stranger. Frequently hysterical, she clings to said stranger for all it's worth, and trusts others unthinkingly, not once considering critically that one of them is a murderer. Then, there is the focus on (superficial) "beauty" - I don't even know how many times a supple waist was mentioned, and of course at least one of the characters was deemed undesirable by any and all men because she was "thick" and middle-age and "plain". Ugh.]]>
3.91 1956 Death in Cyprus
author: M.M. Kaye
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1956
rating: 2
read at: 2015/03/18
date added: 2023/08/01
shelves: fiction, mystery, gothic, romance
review:
Wavering between 1 and 2 stars... Kaye writes so well, and the mood and settings she describes leave me breathless, and while the mystery-plot itself is decent, unfortunately her work suffers from extreme misogynistic tendencies that pretty much disintegrate all magic she weaves in other ways.

I really just wanted to walk up to the heroine (or to Kaye?), take a hold of her and shake her vigorously while admonishing her to get a hold of herself. I mean, the characterization was ridiculous: beautiful, innocent, lovely young girl is so naive that she walks into traps that endanger her life, only to be saved by mysterious dark stranger. Frequently hysterical, she clings to said stranger for all it's worth, and trusts others unthinkingly, not once considering critically that one of them is a murderer. Then, there is the focus on (superficial) "beauty" - I don't even know how many times a supple waist was mentioned, and of course at least one of the characters was deemed undesirable by any and all men because she was "thick" and middle-age and "plain". Ugh.
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<![CDATA[A Study in Scarlet (Sherlock Holmes, #1)]]> 22056752 In the debut of literature's most famous sleuth, a dead man is discovered in a bloodstained room in Brixton. The only clues are a wedding ring, a gold watch, a pocket edition of Boccaccio's Decameron, and a word scrawled in blood on the wall. With this investigation begins the partnership of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Their search for the murderer uncovers a story of love and revenge-and heralds a franchise of detective mysteries starring the formidable Holmes.

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144 Arthur Conan Doyle 0140439080 Ioana 2 english, fiction, mystery 3.78 1887 A Study in Scarlet (Sherlock Holmes, #1)
author: Arthur Conan Doyle
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1887
rating: 2
read at: 2014/05/06
date added: 2023/06/22
shelves: english, fiction, mystery
review:

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<![CDATA[Aventurile lui Habarnam i ale prietenilor si]]> 12331363 176 Nikolay Nosov 9735026244 Ioana 5 child-fiction, fiction
(trans) Certainly one of the most wonderful children's books from the 1980s (implied: in Romania). One of the few we read over and over without getting bored. Don't know what I would say about it today (if I were to read it now), but in memory it remains perfect.

<3 Habarnam.]]>
4.28 1953 Aventurile lui Habarnam i ale prietenilor si
author: Nikolay Nosov
name: Ioana
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1953
rating: 5
read at: 1986/01/01
date added: 2021/05/27
shelves: child-fiction, fiction
review:
Vai-sigur una dintre cele mai frumoase carti din anii 80 pentru copii.. Una dintre cele care le citeam din nou si din nou fara sa ma plictisesc. Nu stiu ce as zice astazi de ea, dar, in memorie, ramine perfecta.

(trans) Certainly one of the most wonderful children's books from the 1980s (implied: in Romania). One of the few we read over and over without getting bored. Don't know what I would say about it today (if I were to read it now), but in memory it remains perfect.

<3 Habarnam.
]]>
The Witch Elm 46007673 509 Tana French 0735224641 Ioana 1 3.55 2018 The Witch Elm
author: Tana French
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2018
rating: 1
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2021/03/07
shelves: fiction, dnf, worst-books-ever, mystery
review:

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Station Eleven 21792828 An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilizations collapse, Station Eleven tells the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.

Kirsten Raymonde will never forget the night Arthur Leander, the famous Hollywood actor, had a heart attack on stage during a production of King Lear. That was the night when a devastating flu pandemic arrived in the city, and within weeks, civilization as we know it came to an end.

Twenty years later, Kirsten moves between the settlements of the altered world with a small troupe of actors and musicians. They call themselves The Traveling Symphony, and they have dedicated themselves to keeping the remnants of art and humanity alive. But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who will threaten the tiny bands existence. And as the story takes off, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, the strange twist of fate that connects them all will be revealed.]]>
354 Emily St. John Mandel Ioana 4 Station Eleven is more like a spiderweb of space-time-people. St. John Mandel follows one strand into an intersection into another strand, like those games in which one traces lines in a pattern until all have been covered - only here, going over a line more than once is allowed as long as it's done in a different shade/memory/voice/time. Really quite ingenious, the most creatively structured novel I've read in a VERY long time.

On the surface, Station Eleven is a dystopian "apocalyptic" tale - 99.9% of humanity gets wiped out by a flu, and the rest struggle to come to terms with what's happened, and to survive. But really, it's so much more than that (in fact, the "scientific" aspects of the "sci-fi" bit are almost absent and inherently flawed - more on that below). The story weaves between time periods (again, not in a simple back and forth pattern), and along the way, we are treated to profound observations about the nature of human hope, belief, endurance, regret, and the like. Not philosophical-thesis profundity, more like wise-grandma-who-lived-through-it-all-profundity: very authentic, relatable, applicable, realistic...

I cannot gush enough about how unique and creative the structuring of the story is; if you read the synopsis you might think it follows a traveling theater through their journey on a devastated Earth. Ok, I guess it kind of does that. But like I said, this is not a straightforward linear storyline. In fact, one might say the center of the spiderweb is someone who dies in the first two pages, before the apocalypse. The rest is told from the perspective of many characters whose lives-even just tangentially- intersected with this dead guy's. John Mandel brings their voices together in unique formats, sometimes stretching and other times radically condensing the flow of time: there are letters, and excerpts from a book, from newspapers and interviews. There are paragraphs describing the back-story of a character, 20 years to a page, and there are pages dedicated to single moments in time, 20 pages to a moment. I don't usually like such condensations or dilutions of essence in novels, but in this case, the techniques work brilliantly.

Now, the science and the rest of the mechanics behind the "apocalypse" are why my rating isn't a 5. In fact before I was won over completely by the story and by Mandel's writing, I was hovering at a 2.5 or 3 for the scientific holes. I've complained of other sci-fi books (like the recently popular The Martian) for being all science while failing to explore the human dimension at all, and I find Station Eleven to be at the other end of the spectrum. A couple points:

* Basically, we're not really sure how the people in the book survive at all (all that is mentioned in terms of food for example is hunted meat, and we all know a fully carnivorous diet doesn't sustain human life)... Also the minutia aren't really touched upon - where do they get their needed salt? water? Why do people congregate around airports/motels/Walmarts and not huge comfortable homes? (like why would they rather live in makeshift tents than someone's mansion in a formerly nice neighborhood)???

* Second, considering it's the FLU that wiped people out, i.e. there is nothing inherently wrong with machines/tech, it seems inconceivable that not one person survived who took some remaining gas, drove up to some drill/rig and pushed the "on" button. Or figured out how to work a windmill... I mean come on! No one survived who knew how to do ANYTHING to restore power or transportation or communication (ham radios anyone?!)...

* Then - how did the flu wipe out 99.9% of the population yet at least a hundred people or thereabouts survived at the airport mentioned? I'm sorry, no level of quarantine explains this (if indeed this flu was so contagious, it wouldn't have failed to permeate such an open space).


I could go on and on about the scientific details that just don't make sense or aren't adequately explained, but whatever, not all books can do everything and it's clear that Station Eleven isn't really about the science of the apocalypse, but about human memory/transcendence/resilience... And it does a brilliant job of exploring those dimensions.]]>
4.13 2014 Station Eleven
author: Emily St. John Mandel
name: Ioana
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2015/07/20
date added: 2020/12/23
shelves: dystopic-fiction, sci-fi, canadian, fiction, fantasy
review:
One of the most uniquely charted books I've ever read - not quite a spiral, or a circle, nor an oscillation between past and future or a continual revealing "memento style", Station Eleven is more like a spiderweb of space-time-people. St. John Mandel follows one strand into an intersection into another strand, like those games in which one traces lines in a pattern until all have been covered - only here, going over a line more than once is allowed as long as it's done in a different shade/memory/voice/time. Really quite ingenious, the most creatively structured novel I've read in a VERY long time.

On the surface, Station Eleven is a dystopian "apocalyptic" tale - 99.9% of humanity gets wiped out by a flu, and the rest struggle to come to terms with what's happened, and to survive. But really, it's so much more than that (in fact, the "scientific" aspects of the "sci-fi" bit are almost absent and inherently flawed - more on that below). The story weaves between time periods (again, not in a simple back and forth pattern), and along the way, we are treated to profound observations about the nature of human hope, belief, endurance, regret, and the like. Not philosophical-thesis profundity, more like wise-grandma-who-lived-through-it-all-profundity: very authentic, relatable, applicable, realistic...

I cannot gush enough about how unique and creative the structuring of the story is; if you read the synopsis you might think it follows a traveling theater through their journey on a devastated Earth. Ok, I guess it kind of does that. But like I said, this is not a straightforward linear storyline. In fact, one might say the center of the spiderweb is someone who dies in the first two pages, before the apocalypse. The rest is told from the perspective of many characters whose lives-even just tangentially- intersected with this dead guy's. John Mandel brings their voices together in unique formats, sometimes stretching and other times radically condensing the flow of time: there are letters, and excerpts from a book, from newspapers and interviews. There are paragraphs describing the back-story of a character, 20 years to a page, and there are pages dedicated to single moments in time, 20 pages to a moment. I don't usually like such condensations or dilutions of essence in novels, but in this case, the techniques work brilliantly.

Now, the science and the rest of the mechanics behind the "apocalypse" are why my rating isn't a 5. In fact before I was won over completely by the story and by Mandel's writing, I was hovering at a 2.5 or 3 for the scientific holes. I've complained of other sci-fi books (like the recently popular The Martian) for being all science while failing to explore the human dimension at all, and I find Station Eleven to be at the other end of the spectrum. A couple points:

* Basically, we're not really sure how the people in the book survive at all (all that is mentioned in terms of food for example is hunted meat, and we all know a fully carnivorous diet doesn't sustain human life)... Also the minutia aren't really touched upon - where do they get their needed salt? water? Why do people congregate around airports/motels/Walmarts and not huge comfortable homes? (like why would they rather live in makeshift tents than someone's mansion in a formerly nice neighborhood)???

* Second, considering it's the FLU that wiped people out, i.e. there is nothing inherently wrong with machines/tech, it seems inconceivable that not one person survived who took some remaining gas, drove up to some drill/rig and pushed the "on" button. Or figured out how to work a windmill... I mean come on! No one survived who knew how to do ANYTHING to restore power or transportation or communication (ham radios anyone?!)...

* Then - how did the flu wipe out 99.9% of the population yet at least a hundred people or thereabouts survived at the airport mentioned? I'm sorry, no level of quarantine explains this (if indeed this flu was so contagious, it wouldn't have failed to permeate such an open space).


I could go on and on about the scientific details that just don't make sense or aren't adequately explained, but whatever, not all books can do everything and it's clear that Station Eleven isn't really about the science of the apocalypse, but about human memory/transcendence/resilience... And it does a brilliant job of exploring those dimensions.
]]>
<![CDATA[Inspector and Other Plays (Applause Books)]]> 469979 224 Nikolai Gogol 0936839120 Ioana 0 to-read 4.26 Inspector and Other Plays (Applause Books)
author: Nikolai Gogol
name: Ioana
average rating: 4.26
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/10/25
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Notorious in the Neighborhood: Sex and Families across the Color Line in Virginia, 1787-1861]]> 19739155 357 Joshua D. Rothman Ioana 3 4.00 2003 Notorious in the Neighborhood: Sex and Families across the Color Line in Virginia, 1787-1861
author: Joshua D. Rothman
name: Ioana
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2003
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2020/09/28
shelves:
review:

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Inland 53050139
Meanwhile, Lurie is a former outlaw and a man haunted by ghosts. He sees lost souls who want something from him, and he finds reprieve from their longing in an unexpected relationship that inspires a momentous expedition across the West. The way in which Lurie's death-defying trek at last intersects with Nora's plight is the surprise and suspense of this brilliant novel.

Mythical, lyrical, and sweeping in scope, Inland is grounded in true but little-known history. It showcases all of T辿a Obreht's talents as a writer, as she subverts and reimagines the myths of the American West, making them entirely--and unforgettably--her own.]]>
384 T辿a Obreht 059313267X Ioana 3 fiction, historical-fiction 3.40 2019 Inland
author: T辿a Obreht
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.40
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2019/12/01
date added: 2020/04/08
shelves: fiction, historical-fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[Significance of the Frontier in American History]]> 4629688 This book starts with an explanation of Turner's classic paper, which is followed by the text that he delivered. While some of what he says in the paper is still controversial, it remains one of the most significant examinations of the forces that drove the development of the USA. It is a paper that is must reading for anyone studying the history of the USA before the frontier vanished at the start of the 20th century.
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58 Frederick Jackson Turner 0804469199 Ioana 5 us-history, non-fiction 3.69 Significance of the Frontier in American History
author: Frederick Jackson Turner
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.69
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2010/01/26
date added: 2020/01/12
shelves: us-history, non-fiction
review:

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Once Upon a River 40130093
Those who dwell on the river bank apply all their ingenuity to solving the puzzle of the girl who died and lived again, yet as the days pass the mystery only deepens. The child herself is mute and unable to answer the essential questions: Who is she? Where did she come from? And to whom does she belong? But answers proliferate nonetheless.

Three families are keen to claim her. A wealthy young mother knows the girl is her kidnapped daughter, missing for two years. A farming family reeling from the discovery of their sons secret liaison, stand ready to welcome their granddaughter. The parsons housekeeper, humble and isolated, sees in the child the image of her younger sister. But the return of a lost child is not without complications and no matter how heartbreaking the past losses, no matter how precious the child herself, this girl cannot be everyones. Each family has mysteries of its own, and many secrets must be revealed before the girls identity can be known.

Once Upon a River is a glorious tapestry of a book that combines folklore and science, magic and myth. Suspenseful, romantic, and richly atmospheric, the beginning of this novel will sweep you away on a powerful current of storytelling, transporting you through worlds both real and imagined, to the triumphant conclusion whose depths will continue to give up their treasures long after the last page is turned.]]>
464 Diane Setterfield 0743298071 Ioana 2 fiction, fairy-tales, fantasy 3.91 2018 Once Upon a River
author: Diane Setterfield
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2018
rating: 2
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: fiction, fairy-tales, fantasy
review:

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The Dreamers 34409176
Mei, an outsider in the cliquish hierarchy of dorm life, finds herself thrust together with an eccentric, idealistic classmate. Two visiting professors try to protect their newborn baby as the once-quiet streets descend into chaos. A father succumbs to the illness, leaving his daughters to fend for themselves. And at the hospital, a new life grows within a college girl, unbeknownst to hereven as she sleeps. A psychiatrist, summoned from Los Angeles, attempts to make sense of the illness as it spreads through the town. Those infected are displaying unusual levels of brain activity, more than has ever been recorded. They are dreaming heightened dreamsbut of what?]]>
303 Karen Thompson Walker 0812994167 Ioana 4 fiction, dystopic-fiction 3.61 2019 The Dreamers
author: Karen Thompson Walker
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: fiction, dystopic-fiction
review:

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Miraculum 41037463 320 Steph Post 1947993410 Ioana 3 fiction, fantasy, horror 3.48 2019 Miraculum
author: Steph Post
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: fiction, fantasy, horror
review:

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<![CDATA[The Kremlin Conspiracy (Marcus Ryker, #1)]]> 35605702 New York Times bestselling author Joel C. Rosenberg returns with a high-stakes political thriller set in Russia.

Everything he learned to protect the president, he must use to take out theirs.

With an American president distracted by growing tensions in North Korea and Iran, an ominous new threat is emerging in Moscow. A czar is rising in the Kremlin, a Russian president feverishly consolidating power, silencing his opposition, and plotting a brazen and lightning-fast military strike that could rupture the NATO alliance and bring Washington and Moscow to the brink of nuclear war. But in his blind spot is the former U.S. Secret Service agent, Marcus Ryker, trained to protect but ready to kill to save his country.]]>
470 Joel C. Rosenberg 1496406176 Ioana 1 4.04 2018 The Kremlin Conspiracy (Marcus Ryker, #1)
author: Joel C. Rosenberg
name: Ioana
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2018
rating: 1
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: fiction, worst-books-ever, thriller
review:

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Golden State 39599913
Laz is a resident of The Golden State, a nation resembling California, where like-minded Americans retreated after the erosion of truth and the spread of lies made public life, and governance, increasingly impossible. There, surrounded by the high walls of compulsory truth-telling, knowingly contradicting the truth--the Objectively So--is the greatest possible crime. Stopping those crimes, punishing them, is Laz's job. In its service, he is one of the few individuals permitted to harbor untruths--to "speculate" on what might have happened in the commission of a crime.

But the Golden State is far less a paradise than its name might suggest. To monitor, verify, and enforce the Objectively So requires a veritable panopticon of surveillance, recording, and record-keeping. And when those in control of the truth twist it for nefarious means, the Speculators may be the only ones with the power to fight back.]]>
323 Ben H. Winters 0316505412 Ioana 4 fiction, dystopic-fiction 3.44 2019 Golden State
author: Ben H. Winters
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: fiction, dystopic-fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself: How to Lose Your Mind and Create a New One]]> 12951631
Not only will you be given the necessary knowledge to change any aspect of yourself, but you will be taught the step-by-step tools to apply what you learn in order to make measurable changes in any area of your life. Dr. Joe demystifies ancient understandings and bridges the gap between science and spirituality. Through his powerful workshops and lectures, thousands of people in 24 different countries have used these principles to change from the inside out. Once you break the habit of being yourself and truly change your mind, your life will never be the same!]]>
329 Joe Dispenza 1401938086 Ioana 1 non-fiction, psychology 4.10 2012 Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself: How to Lose Your Mind and Create a New One
author: Joe Dispenza
name: Ioana
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2012
rating: 1
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: non-fiction, psychology
review:

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Girl Made of Stars 31351689 For readers of Girl in Pieces and The Way I Used to Be comes an emotionally gripping story about facing hard truths in the aftermath of sexual assault. Mara and Owen are as close as twins can get, so when Maras friend Hannah accuses Owen of rape, Mara doesn't know what to think. Can her brother really be guilty of such a violent act? Torn between her family and her sense of right and wrong, Mara feels lost, and it doesnt help that things are strained with her ex-girlfriend, Charlie. As Mara, Hannah, and Charlie come together in the aftermath of this terrible crime, Mara must face a trauma from her own past and decide where Charlie fits into her future. With sensitivity and openness, this timely novel confronts the difficult questions surrounding consent, victim blaming, and sexual assault.]]> 304 Ashley Herring Blake 1328476693 Ioana 4 fiction, young-adult 4.19 2018 Girl Made of Stars
author: Ashley Herring Blake
name: Ioana
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: fiction, young-adult
review:

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The Current 36387759
Brilliantly plotted, unrelentingly suspenseful, and beautifully realized, The Current is a gripping page-turner about how the past holds the key to the future as well as an unbreakable grip on the present.]]>
352 Tim Johnston 1616208899 Ioana 4 fiction, mystery 3.64 2019 The Current
author: Tim Johnston
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: fiction, mystery
review:

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Where the Crawdads Sing 36809135
But Kya is not what they say. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life's lessons from the land, learning the real ways of the world from the dishonest signals of fireflies. But while she has the skills to live in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling worlduntil the unthinkable happens.

In Where the Crawdads Sing, Owens juxtaposes an exquisite ode to the natural world against a profound coming of age story and haunting mystery. Thought-provoking, wise, and deeply moving, Owenss debut novel reminds us that we are forever shaped by the child within us, while also subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.

The story asks how isolation influences the behavior of a young woman, who like all of us, has the genetic propensity to belong to a group. The clues to the mystery are brushed into the lush habitat and natural histories of its wild creatures.]]>
384 Delia Owens 0735219117 Ioana 5 4.35 2018 Where the Crawdads Sing
author: Delia Owens
name: Ioana
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: fiction, american-lit, southern-fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[The Last Policeman (The Last Policeman, #1)]]> 13330370
Detective Hank Palace has faced this question ever since asteroid 2011GV1 hovered into view. Theres no chance left. No hope. Just six precious months until impact.

The Last Policeman presents a fascinating portrait of a pre-apocalyptic United States. The economy spirals downward while crops rot in the fields. Churches and synagogues are packed. People all over the world are walking off the jobbut not Hank Palace. Hes investigating a death by hanging in a city that sees a dozen suicides every weekexcept this one feels suspicious, and Palace is the only cop who cares.

The first in a trilogy, The Last Policeman offers a mystery set on the brink of an apocalypse. As Palaces investigation plays out under the shadow of 2011GV1, were confronted by hard questions way beyond whodunit.� What basis does civilization rest upon? What is life worth? What would any of us do, what would we really do, if our days were numbered?]]>
316 Ben H. Winters 1594745765 Ioana 3 3.75 2012 The Last Policeman (The Last Policeman, #1)
author: Ben H. Winters
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: fiction, dystopic-fiction, mystery
review:

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<![CDATA[We Set the Dark on Fire (We Set the Dark on Fire, #1)]]> 37868569
At the Medio School for Girls, distinguished young women are trained for one of two roles in their polarized society. Depending on her specialization, a graduate will one day run a husbands household or raise his children. Both paths promise a life of comfort and luxury, far from the frequent political uprisings of the lower class.

Daniela Vargas is the schools top student, but her pedigree is a lie. She must keep the truth hidden or be sent back to the fringes of society.

And school couldnt prepare her for the difficult choices she must make after graduation, especially when she is asked to spy for a resistance group desperately fighting to bring equality to Medio.

Will Dani cling to the privilege her parents fought to win for her, or will she give up everything shes strived for in pursuit of a free Medioand a chance at a forbidden love?]]>
400 Tehlor Kay Mejia 0062691333 Ioana 2 fiction, young-adult 3.74 2019 We Set the Dark on Fire (We Set the Dark on Fire, #1)
author: Tehlor Kay Mejia
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: fiction, young-adult
review:

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<![CDATA[The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle]]> 36337550
There are eight days, and eight witnesses for you to inhabit.

We will only let you escape once you tell us the name of the killer.

Understood? Then let's begin . . .

Evelyn Hardcastle will die. Every day until Aiden Bishop can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others . . .

The most inventive debut of the year twists together a mystery of such unexpected creativity it will leave listeners guessing until the very last second.]]>
432 Stuart Turton Ioana 1 3.78 2018 The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
author: Stuart Turton
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2018
rating: 1
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: fiction, worst-books-ever, mystery
review:

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The Night Olivia Fell 36962927 Big Little Lies and Reconstructing Amelia comes an emotionally charged domestic suspense novel about a mother unraveling the truth behind how her daughter became brain dead. And pregnant.

A search for the truth. A lifetime of lies.

In the small hours of the morning, Abi Knight is startled awake by the phone call no mother ever wants to get: her teenage daughter Olivia has fallen off a bridge. Not only is Olivia brain dead, shes pregnant and must remain on life support to keep her baby alive. And then Abi sees the angry bruises circling Olivias wrists.

When the police unexpectedly rule Olivias fall an accident, Abi decides to find out what really happened that night. Heartbroken and grieving, she unravels the threads of her daughters life. Was Olivias fall an accident? Or something far more sinister?

Christina McDonald weaves a suspenseful and heartwrenching tale of hidden relationships, devastating lies, and the power of a mothers love. With flashbacks of Olivias own resolve to uncover family secrets, this taut and emotional novel asks: how well do you know your children? And how well do they know you?]]>
342 Christina McDonald 1501184008 Ioana 4 fiction, mystery 3.87 2019 The Night Olivia Fell
author: Christina McDonald
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: fiction, mystery
review:

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<![CDATA[The Way of All Flesh (Raven, Fisher, and Simpson, #1)]]> 38114460
Edinburgh, 1847. City of Medicine, Money, Murder.

Young women are being discovered dead across the Old Town, all having suffered similarly gruesome ends. In the New Town, medical student Will Raven is about to start his apprenticeship with the brilliant and renowned Dr Simpson.

Simpson's patients range from the richest to the poorest of this divided city. His house is like no other, full of visiting luminaries and daring experiments in the new medical frontier of anaesthesia. It is here that Raven meets housemaid Sarah Fisher, who recognises trouble when she sees it and takes an immediate dislike to him. She has all of his intelligence but none of his privileges, in particular his medical education.

With each having their own motive to look deeper into these deaths, Raven and Sarah find themselves propelled headlong into the darkest shadows of Edinburgh's underworld, where they will have to overcome their differences if they are to make it out alive.]]>
409 Ambrose Parry 1786893789 Ioana 5 3.92 2018 The Way of All Flesh (Raven, Fisher, and Simpson, #1)
author: Ambrose Parry
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, mystery
review:

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My Lovely Wife 39796904 A couple's fifteen-year marriage has finally gotten too interesting...

Our love story is simple. I met a gorgeous woman. We fell in love. We had kids. We moved to the suburbs. We told each other our biggest dreams, and our darkest secrets. And then we got bored.

We look like a normal couple. We're your neighbors, the parents of your kid's friend, the acquaintances you keep meaning to get dinner with.

We all have secrets to keeping a marriage alive.

Ours just happens to be getting away with murder.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780451491725]]>
390 Samantha Downing Ioana 5 fiction, thriller, mystery 3.81 2019 My Lovely Wife
author: Samantha Downing
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: fiction, thriller, mystery
review:

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<![CDATA[Girls with Sharp Sticks (Girls with Sharp Sticks, #1)]]> 36442895 Enough plot twists to give a reader whiplash.� �Cosmopolitan

From New York Times bestselling author Suzanne Young comes the start of a thrilling, subversive new series about a girls-only boarding school with a terrifying secret and the friends who will stop at nothing to protect each other.

Some of the prettiest flowers have the sharpest thorns.

The Girls of Innovations Academy are beautiful and well-behavedit says so on their report cards. Under the watchful gaze of their Guardian, they receive a well-rounded education that promises to make them better. Obedient girls, free from arrogance or defiance. Free from troublesome opinions or individual interests.

But the girls� carefully controlled existence may not be quite as it appears. As Mena and her friends uncover the dark secrets of whats actually happening thereand who they really arethe girls of Innovations Academy will learn to fight back.

Bringing the trademark plot twists and high-octane drama that made The Program a bestselling and award-winning series, Suzanne Young launches a new series that confronts some of todays most pressing ethical questions.]]>
400 Suzanne Young 1534426132 Ioana 4 3.94 2019 Girls with Sharp Sticks (Girls with Sharp Sticks, #1)
author: Suzanne Young
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: fiction, young-adult, dystopic-fiction
review:

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Miracle Creek 40121959 Miracle Creek is a powerhouse debut about how far we'll go to protect our families, and our deepest secrets.

In rural Miracle Creek, Virginia, Young and Pak Yoo run an experimental medical treatment device known as the Miracle Submarine. A pressurized oxygen chamber that patients enter for therapeutic dives,� it's also a repository of hopes and dreams: the dream of a mom that her child can be like other kids; the dream of a young doctor desperate to cure his infertility and save his marriage; the dream of the Yoos themselves, Korean immigrants who have come to the United States so their teenage daughter can have a better life.

When the oxygen chamber mysteriously explodes, killing two people, all these dreams shatter with it, and the ensuing murder trial uncovers imaginable secrets and lies. In Miracle Creek, Angie Kim takes a classic formcourtroom dramaand draws on her own experience as an immigrant, a lawyer, and the mother of a real-life "submarine" patient to turn it into something wholly original, unputdownable . . . real. This is a spellbinding novel by an exciting new voice.]]>
355 Angie Kim 0374156026 Ioana 4 fiction, immigrants 3.86 2019 Miracle Creek
author: Angie Kim
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: fiction, immigrants
review:

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Cemetery Road 40604810
Bienville, Mississippi, is no longer the city Marshall remembers. His family's 150-year-old newspaper is failing, and Jet Talal, the love of his youth, has married into the family of Max Matheson, one of a dozen powerful patriarchs who rule the town through the exclusive Bienville Poker Club. The city's only hope of economic salvation is a new, billion-dollar Chinese paper mill. But on the verge of the deal's consummation, two deaths rock Bienville to its core.

Joining forces with his former lover, Marshall begins digging for the truth. But he and Jet soon discover that the soil of Mississippi is a minefield where explosive secrets can be far more destructive than injustice.]]>
590 Greg Iles 0062824619 Ioana 4 fiction, mystery 4.02 2019 Cemetery Road
author: Greg Iles
name: Ioana
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: fiction, mystery
review:

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The Wife Between Us 34189556
You will assume you are reading about a jealous ex-wife.

You will assume she is obsessed with her replacement � a beautiful, younger woman who is about to marry the man they both love.

You will assume you know the anatomy of this tangled love triangle.

Assume nothing.

Twisted and deliciously chilling, Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen's The Wife Between Us exposes the secret complexities of an enviable marriage - and the dangerous truths we ignore in the name of love.

Read between the lies.]]>
432 Greer Hendricks 1250130921 Ioana 4 fiction, thriller, mystery 3.82 2018 The Wife Between Us
author: Greer Hendricks
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: fiction, thriller, mystery
review:

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<![CDATA[You Know You Want This: Cat Person and Other Stories]]> 40539045
You Know You Want This brilliantly explores the ways in which women are horrifying as much as it captures the horrors that are done to them. Among its pages are a couple who becomes obsessed with their friend hearing them have sex, then seeing them have sexuntil they cant have sex without him; a ten-year-old whose birthday party takes a sinister turn when she wishes for something mean�; a woman who finds a book of spells half hidden at the library and summons her hearts desire: a nameless, naked man; and a self-proclaimed biter� who dreams of sneaking up behind and sinking her teeth into a green-eyed, long-haired, pink-cheeked coworker.

Spanning a range of genres and topicsfrom the mundane to the murderous and supernaturalthese are stories about sex and punishment, guilt and anger, the pleasure and terror of inflicting and experiencing pain. These stories fascinate and repel, revolt and arouse, scare and delight in equal measure. And, as a collection, they point a finger at you, daring you to feel uncomfortableor worse, understoodas if to say, You want this, right? You know you want this.�

Bad boy --
Look at your game, girl --
Sardines --
The night runner --
The mirror, the bucket, and the old thigh bone --
Cat person --
The good guy --
The boy in the pool --
Scarred --
The matchbox sign --
Death wish --
Biter --
Acknowledgments]]>
225 Kristen Roupenian 1982101636 Ioana 5 fiction, short-stories 3.62 2019 You Know You Want This: Cat Person and Other Stories
author: Kristen Roupenian
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: fiction, short-stories
review:

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If, Then 40641074 The residents of a sleepy mountain town are rocked by troubling visions of an alternate reality in this dazzling debut that combines the family-driven suspense of Celeste Ngs Little Fires Everywhere with the inventive storytelling of The Immortalists.

In the quiet haven of Clearing, Oregon, four neighbors find their lives upended when they begin to see themselves in parallel realities. Ginny, a devoted surgeon whose work often takes precedence over her family, has a baffling vision of a beautiful co-worker in Ginnys own bed and begins to doubt the solidity of her marriage. Ginnys husband, Mark, a wildlife scientist, sees a vision that suggests impending devastation and grows increasingly paranoid, threatening the safety of his wife and son. Samara, a young woman desperately mourning the recent death of her mother and questioning why her father seems to be coping with such ease, witnesses an apparition of her mother healthy and vibrant and wonders about the secrets her parents may have kept from her. Cass, a brilliant scholar struggling with the demands of new motherhood, catches a glimpse of herself pregnant again, just as shes on the brink of returning to the project that could define her career.

At first the visions are relatively benign, but they grow increasingly disturbingand, in some cases, frightening. When a natural disaster threatens Clearing, it becomes obvious that the visions were not what they first seemed and that the town will never be the same.]]>
260 Kate Hope Day 0525511229 Ioana 3 3.31 2019 If, Then
author: Kate Hope Day
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.31
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves:
review:

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

A New York Times Bestseller.]]>
502 Richard Powers 039335668X Ioana 0 dnf, fiction 4.10 2018 The Overstory
author: Richard Powers
name: Ioana
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: dnf, fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[Eat to Beat Disease: The New Science of How Your Body Can Heal Itself]]> 40697523
Forget everything you think you know about your body and food, and discover the new science of how the body heals itself. Learn how to identify the strategies and the dosages for using food to transform your resilience and health in EAT TO BEAT DISEASE.

We have radically underestimated our body's power to transform and restore our health. Pioneering physician scientist, Dr. William Li, empowers readers by showing them the evidence behind over 200 health-boosting foods that can starve cancer, reduce your risk of dementia, and beat dozens of avoidable diseases. EAT TO BEAT DISEASE isn't about what foods to avoid, but rather is a life-changing guide to the hundreds of healing foods to add to your meals that support the body's defense systems, including:


Plums
Cinnamon
Jasmine tea
Red wine and beer
Black Beans
San Marzano tomatoes
Olive oil
Pacific oysters
Cheeses like Jarlsberg, Camembert and cheddar
Sourdough bread

The book's plan shows you how to integrate the foods you already love into any diet or health plan to activate your body's health defense systems-Angiogenesis, Regeneration, Microbiome, DNA Protection, and Immunity-to fight cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, and autoimmune diseases, and other debilitating conditions.

Both informative and practical, EAT TO BEAT DISEASE explains the science of healing and prevention, the strategies for using food to actively transform health, and points the science of well-being and disease prevention in an exhilarating new direction.
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496 William W. Li 1538714620 Ioana 4 3.97 2019 Eat to Beat Disease: The New Science of How Your Body Can Heal Itself
author: William W. Li
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: non-fiction, nutrition, fitness
review:

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<![CDATA[Murder in the Crooked House (Kiyoshi Mitarai, #2)]]> 43321712
Enter Kiyoshi Mitarai, the renowned sleuth. Surely if anyone can crack these cryptic murders it is him. But you have all the clues too - can you solve the mystery of the murders in The Crooked House first?]]>
328 Sji Shimada Ioana 1 3.52 1982 Murder in the Crooked House (Kiyoshi Mitarai, #2)
author: Sji Shimada
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.52
book published: 1982
rating: 1
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: misogynistic-drivel, fiction, mystery, japanese-lit
review:

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Recursion 42046112 Memory makes reality.

That's what NYC cop Barry Sutton is learning, as he investigates the devastating phenomenon the media has dubbed False Memory Syndromea mysterious affliction that drives its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived.

That's what neuroscientist Helena Smith believes. It's why she's dedicated her life to creating a technology that will let us preserve our most precious memories. If she succeeds, anyone will be able to re-experience a first kiss, the birth of a child, the final moment with a dying parent.

As Barry searches for the truth, he comes face to face with an opponent more terrifying than any diseasea force that attacks not just our minds, but the very fabric of the past. And as its effects begin to unmake the world as we know it, only he and Helena, working together, will stand a chance at defeating it.

But how can they make a stand when reality itself is shifting and crumbling all around them?

At once a relentless pageturner and an intricate science-fiction puzzlebox about time, identity, and memory, Recursion is a thriller as only Blake Crouch could imagine itand his most ambitious, mind-boggling, irresistible work to date.]]>
326 Blake Crouch 1524759783 Ioana 1 4.15 2019 Recursion
author: Blake Crouch
name: Ioana
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2019
rating: 1
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: fiction, worst-books-ever, fantasy
review:

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The Simple Wild (Wild, #1) 36373564 City girl Calla Fletcher attempts to reconnect with her estranged father, and unwittingly finds herself torn between her desire to return to the bustle of Toronto and a budding relationship with a rugged Alaskan pilot in this masterful new romance from acclaimed author K.A. Tucker.

Calla Fletcher was two when her mother took her and fled the Alaskan wild, unable to handle the isolation of the extreme, rural lifestyle, leaving behind Callas father, Wren Fletcher, in the process. Calla never looked back, and at twenty-six, a busy life in Toronto is all she knows. But when her father reaches out to inform her that his days are numbered, Calla knows that its time to make the long trip back to the remote frontier town where she was born.

She braves the roaming wildlife, the odd daylight hours, the exorbitant prices, and even the occasionaldear Godouthouse, all for the chance to connect with her father: a man who, despite his many faults, she cant help but care for. While she struggles to adjust to this new subarctic environment, Jonahthe quiet, brooding, and proud Alaskan pilot who keeps her fathers charter plane company operationalcant imagine calling anywhere else home. And hes clearly waiting with one hand on the throttle to fly this city girl back to where she belongs, convinced that shes too pampered to handle the wild.

Jonah is probably right, but Calla is determined to prove him wrong. As time passes, she unexpectedly finds herself forming a bond with the burly pilot. As his undercurrent of disapproval dwindles, its replaced by friendshipor perhaps something deeper? But Calla is not in Alaska to stay and Jonah will never leave. It would be foolish of her to kindle a romance, to take the same path her parents triedand failed atyears ago.

Its a simple truth that turns out to be not so simple after all.]]>
390 K.A. Tucker 1501133438 Ioana 4 fiction, romance, alaska 4.27 2018 The Simple Wild (Wild, #1)
author: K.A. Tucker
name: Ioana
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: fiction, romance, alaska
review:

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<![CDATA[The Woman Who Married a Bear (Cecil Younger, #1)]]> 618880 240 John Straley 156947401X Ioana 4 fiction, alaska, mystery 3.41 1992 The Woman Who Married a Bear (Cecil Younger, #1)
author: John Straley
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.41
book published: 1992
rating: 4
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: fiction, alaska, mystery
review:

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A Pure Heart 42034140 A powerful novel about two Egyptian sisters, their divergent fates and the secrets of one family

Sisters Rose and Gameela Gubran could not have been more different. Rose, an Egyptologist, married an American journalist and immigrated to New York City, where she works in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Gameela, a devout Muslim since her teenage years, stayed in Cairo. During the aftermath of Egypt's revolution, Gameela is killed in a suicide bombing. When Rose returns to Egypt after the bombing, she sifts through the artifacts Gameela left behind, desperate to understand how her sister came to die, and who she truly was. Soon, Rose realizes that Gameela has left many questions unanswered. Why had she quit her job just a few months before her death and not told her family? Who was she romantically involved with? And how did the religious Gameela manage to keep so many secrets?

Rich in depth and feeling, A Pure Heart is a brilliant portrait of two Muslim women in the twenty-first century, and the decisions they make in work and love that determine their destinies. As Rose is struggling to reconcile her identities as an Egyptian and as a new American, she investigates Gameela's devotion to her religion and her country. The more Rose uncovers about her sister's life, the more she must reconcile their two fates, their inextricable bond as sisters, and who should and should not be held responsible for Gameela's death. Rajia Hassib's A Pure Heart is a stirring and deeply textured novel that asks what it means to forgive, and considers how faith, family, and love can unite and divide us.]]>
288 Rajia Hassib 052556005X Ioana 5 fiction, immigrants 3.78 2019 A Pure Heart
author: Rajia Hassib
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: fiction, immigrants
review:

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The Swallows 43744294 A new teacher at a New England prep school ignites a gender war--with deadly consequences.

What do you love? What do you hate? What do you want?

It starts with this simple writing prompt from Alex Witt, Stonebridge Academy's new creative writing teacher. When the students' answers raise disturbing questions of their own, Ms. Witt knows there's more going on the school than the faculty wants to see. She soon learns about The Ten--the students at the top of the school's social hierarchy--as well as their connection to something called The Darkroom.

Ms. Witt can't remain a passive observer. She finds the few girls who've started to question the school's "boys will be boys" attitude and incites a resistance that quickly becomes a movement. But just as it gains momentum, she also attracts the attention of an unknown enemy who knows a little too much about her--including what brought her to Stonebridge in the first place.

Meanwhile, Gemma, a defiant senior, has been plotting her attack for years, waiting for the right moment. Shy loner Norman hates his role in the Darkroom, but can't find the courage to fight back until he makes an unlikely alliance. And then there's Finn Ford, an English teacher with a shady reputation who keeps one eye on his literary ambitions and one on Ms. Witt.

As the school's secrets begin to trickle out, a boys-versus-girls skirmish turns into an all-out war, with deeply personal--and potentially fatal--consequences for everyone involved.]]>
399 Lisa Lutz 1984818236 Ioana 1 3.63 2019 The Swallows
author: Lisa Lutz
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2019
rating: 1
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves:
review:

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A Door in the Earth 41716928 For readers of Cutting for Stone and The Reluctant Fundamentalist, a "breathtaking and achingly nuanced" (Kirkus, starred review) new novel from the author of the national bestseller The Submission about the journey of a young Afghan-American woman trapped between her ideals and the complicated truth.

Parveen Shamsa, a college senior in search of a calling, feels pulled between her charismatic and mercurial anthropology professor and the comfortable but predictable Afghan-American community in her Northern California hometown.

When she discovers a bestselling book called Mother Afghanistan, a memoir by humanitarian Gideon Crane that has become a bible for American engagement in the country, she is inspired. Galvanized by Crane's experience, Parveen travels to a remote village in the land of her birth to join the work of his charitable foundation.

When she arrives, however, Crane's maternity clinic, while grandly equipped, is mostly unstaffed. The villagers do not exhibit the gratitude she expected to receive. And Crane's memoir appears to be littered with mistakes, or outright fabrications. As the reasons for Parveen's pilgrimage crumble beneath her, the U.S. military, also drawn by Crane's book, turns up to pave the solde road to the village, bringing the war in their wake. When a fatal ambush occurs, Parveen must decide whether her loyalties lie with the villagers or the soldiers - and she must determine her own relationship to the truth.

Amy Waldman, who reported from Afghanistan for the New York Times after 9/11, has created a taut, propulsive novel about power, perspective, and idealism, brushing aside the dust of America's longest-standing war to reveal the complicated truths beneath. A Door in the Earth is the rarest of books, one that helps us understand living history through poignant characters and unforgettable storytelling.]]>
400 Amy Waldman 0316451576 Ioana 5 fiction 3.81 2019 A Door in the Earth
author: Amy Waldman
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: fiction
review:

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Northern Lights 85459
Meg Galloway, born and raised in Lunacy, is used to being alone. She was a young girl when her father disappeared, and she has learned to be independent, flying her small plane, living on the outskirts of town with just her huskies for company. After her New Year's kiss with the chief of police, she allows herself to give in to passion - while remaining determined to keep things as simple as possible. But there's something about Nate's sad eyes that gets under her skin and warms her frozen heart.

And now, things in Lunacy are heating up. Years ago, on one of the majestic mountains shadowing the town, a crime occurred that is unsolved to this day - and Nate suspects that a killer still walks the snowy streets. His investigation will unearth the secrets and suspicions that lurk beneath the placid surface, as well as bring out the big-city survival instincts that made him a cop in the first place. And his discovery will threaten the new life - and the new love - that he has finally found for himself.]]>
637 Nora Roberts 0515139742 Ioana 3 4.01 2004 Northern Lights
author: Nora Roberts
name: Ioana
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: fiction, romance, alaska, mystery
review:

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After the Flood 41088582
Stubbornly independent Myra and her precocious seven-year-old daughter, Pearl, fish from their small boat, the Bird, visiting dry land only to trade for supplies and information in the few remaining outposts of civilization. For seven years, Myra has grieved the loss of her oldest daughter, Row, who was stolen by her father after a monstrous deluge overtook their home in Nebraska. Then, in a violent confrontation with a stranger, Myra suddenly discovers that Row was last seen in a far-off encampment near the Arctic Circle. Throwing aside her usual caution, Myra and Pearl embark on a perilous voyage into the icy northern seas, hoping against hope that Row will still be there.

On their journey, Myra and Pearl join forces with a larger ship and Myra finds herself bonding with her fellow seekers who hope to build a safe haven together in this dangerous new world. But secrets, lust, and betrayals threaten their dream, and after their fortunes take a shockingand bloodyturn, Myra can no longer ignore the question of whether saving Row is worth endangering Pearl and her fellow travelers.

A compulsively readable novel of dark despair and soaring hope, After the Flood is a magnificent, action packed, and sometimes frightening odyssey laced with wonderan affecting and wholly original saga both redemptive and astonishing.]]>
448 Kassandra Montag 0062889397 Ioana 2 fiction, dystopic-fiction 3.65 2019 After the Flood
author: Kassandra Montag
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: fiction, dystopic-fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[The Ten Thousand Doors of January]]> 43521657
Then she finds a strange book. A book that carries the scent of other worlds, and tells a tale of secret doors, of love, adventure and danger. Each page turn reveals impossible truths about the world and January discovers a story increasingly entwined with her own.]]>
374 Alix E. Harrow 0316421995 Ioana 5 3.99 2019 The Ten Thousand Doors of January
author: Alix E. Harrow
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves:
review:

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The Death of Mrs. Westaway 36373481
Soon, Hal finds herself at the funeral of the deceasedwhere it dawns on her that there is something very, very wrong about this strange situation and the inheritance at the centre of it.]]>
368 Ruth Ware 1501156217 Ioana 5 fiction, gothic, mystery 3.79 2018 The Death of Mrs. Westaway
author: Ruth Ware
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: fiction, gothic, mystery
review:

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<![CDATA[A Cold Day for Murder (Kate Shugak, #1)]]> 271295 208 Dana Stabenow 042513301X Ioana 4 fiction, mystery 3.74 1992 A Cold Day for Murder (Kate Shugak, #1)
author: Dana Stabenow
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1992
rating: 4
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: fiction, mystery
review:

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<![CDATA[The Testaments (The Handmaid's Tale, #2)]]> 42975172 The Handmaid's Tale, readers had no way of telling what lay ahead for her--freedom, prison or death.

With The Testaments, the wait is over.

Margaret Atwood's sequel picks up the story more than fifteen years after Offred stepped into the unknown, with the explosive testaments of three female narrators from Gilead.

In this brilliant sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, acclaimed author Margaret Atwood answers the questions that have tantalized readers for decades.

"Dear Readers: Everything you've ever asked me about Gilead and its inner workings is the inspiration for this book. Well, almost everything! The other inspiration is the world we've been living in." --Margaret Atwood

An alternate cover edition of ISBN 978-0385543781 can be found here.]]>
422 Margaret Atwood Ioana 4 fiction, dystopic-fiction 4.16 2019 The Testaments (The Handmaid's Tale, #2)
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Ioana
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: fiction, dystopic-fiction
review:

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Ash Falls 31945048 --Kirkus Reviews

"In this fine first novel, Read deftly portrays the competing feelings of suffocation and loneliness that can breed in small towns. Pair this with Daniel Woodrell's marvelous Tomato Red."
--Booklist

"A stunning display of grit made alluring. Both beautiful and stark, Ash Falls is a slice-of-life portrait that gives color to the grayest of times鏤随賛."
--Shelf Awareness

"A well-crafted, subtle psychological thriller."
--Publisher's Weekly
鏤�

A routine prisoner transfer on a rural highway ends with the car upside-down in a ravine, the driver dead of a heart attack, and convicted murderer Ernie Luntz on the loose, his eyes fixed on the mountain range in the distance, over which lies his hometown of Ash Falls.

Set in a moss-draped, Pacific Northwest mountain town, Ash Falls is the story of a closely connected community both held together and torn apart by one mans single act of horrific violence. As the residents of Ash Fallswhich include Ernies ex-wife and teenage sonwait on edge, wondering if and when Ernie Luntz will reappear, they come to discover that they are held prisoner not by the killer in the woods outside their town, but by the chains of their own creation.

A tension-filled, multi-character exploration of collapsed relationships, carefully guarded secrets and the psychological strain of living in a place that is at once both idyllic and crippling, Ash Falls is a picturesque and haunting novel that belongs beside the work of such classic contemporary American writers as Kent Haruf, Leif Enger, Smith Henderson and Ron Carlson.

Warren Read is the author of a 2008 memoir, The Lyncher in Me (Borealis Books), about his discovery that his great-grandfather had incited a lynching in 1920. His fiction has been published in Hot Metal Bridge, Mud Season Review, Sliver of Stone, Inklette, Switchback and The Drowning Gull. In addition, he has had two short plays directed and produced by Tony winner Dinah Manoff. Warren earned his MFA from the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University.]]>
308 Warren Read 1632460475 Ioana 4 fiction, american-lit 3.47 2017 Ash Falls
author: Warren Read
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: fiction, american-lit
review:

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Waking Lions 28134405 Waking Lions is a gripping, suspenseful and morally devastating drama of guilt and survival, shame and desire.]]> 409 Ayelet Gundar-Goshen 1782271562 Ioana 4 israeli-lit, fiction 3.72 2013 Waking Lions
author: Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: israeli-lit, fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons]]> 42117387 The Hot Zone, this true story dives into the mystery surrounding one of the most controversial and misdiagnosed conditions of our time-Lyme disease-and of Willy Burgdorfer, the man who discovered the microbe behind it, revealing his secret role in developing bug-borne biological weapons, and raising terrifying questions about the genesis of the epidemic of tick-borne diseases affecting millions of Americans today.

While on vacation on Martha's Vineyard, Kris Newby was bitten by an unseen tick. That one bite changed her life forever, pulling her into the abyss of a devastating illness that took ten doctors to diagnose and years to recover: Newby had become one of the 300,000 Americans who are afflicted with Lyme disease each year.

As a science writer, she was driven to understand why this disease is so misunderstood, and its patients so mistreated. This quest led her to Willy Burgdorfer, the Lyme microbe's discoverer, who revealed that he had developed bug-borne bioweapons during the Cold War, and believed that the Lyme epidemic was started by a military experiment gone wrong.

In a superb, meticulous work of narrative journalism, Bitten takes readers on a journey to investigate these claims, from biological weapons facilities to interviews with biosecurity experts and microbiologists doing cutting-edge research, all the while uncovering darker truths about Willy. It also leads her to uncomfortable questions about why Lyme can be so difficult to both diagnose and treat, and why the government is so reluctant to classify chronic Lyme as a disease.

A gripping, infectious page-turner, Bitten will shed a terrifying new light on an epidemic that is exacting an incalculable toll on us, upending much of what we believe we know about it.]]>
6 Kris Newby 0062932705 Ioana 2 3.93 2019 Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons
author: Kris Newby
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: non-fiction, disease, public-health
review:

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Turning Pro 14912777 148 Steven Pressfield Ioana 5 non-fiction 4.14 2012 Turning Pro
author: Steven Pressfield
name: Ioana
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: non-fiction
review:

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The Widow of Pale Harbor 42867746
Maine, 1846. Gabriel Stone is desperate to escape the ghosts that haunt him in Massachusetts after his wifes death, so he moves to Maine, taking a position as a minister in the remote village of Pale Harbor.

But not all is as it seems in the sleepy town. Strange, unsettling things have been happening, and the townspeople claim that only one person can be responsible: Sophronia Carver, a reclusive widow who lives with a spinster maid in the eerie Castle Carver. Sophronia must be a witch, and she almost certainly killed her husband.

As the incidents escalate, one thing becomes clear: they are the work of a twisted person inspired by the wildly popular stories of Mr. Edgar Allan Poe. And Gabriel must find answers, or Pale Harbor will suffer a fate worthy of Poes darkest tales.]]>
360 Hester Fox 1488036624 Ioana 3 3.49 2019 The Widow of Pale Harbor
author: Hester Fox
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: fiction, gothic, romance, historical-fiction
review:

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Deeplight 44647479 The gods of The Myriad were as real as the coastlines and currents, and as merciless as the winds and whirlpools. Now the gods are dead, but their remains are stirring beneath the waves . . .

On the streets of the Island of Lady's Crave live 14-year-old street urchins Hark and his best friend Jelt. They are scavengers: diving for relics of the gods, desperate for anything they can sell. But there is something dangerous in the deep waters of the undersea, calling to someone brave enough to retrieve it.

When the waves try to claim Jelt, Hark will do anything to save him. Even if it means compromising not just who Jelt is, but what he is . . .]]>
416 Frances Hardinge 1509836950 Ioana 4 4.08 2019 Deeplight
author: Frances Hardinge
name: Ioana
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: fiction, fantasy, child-fiction, adventure
review:

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<![CDATA[A Better Man (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #15)]]> 44034500 Catastrophic spring flooding, blistering attacks in the media, and a mysterious disappearance greet Chief Inspector Armand Gamache as he returns to the S短ret辿 du Qu辿bec in the latest novel by #1 New York Times bestselling author Louise Penny.

It's Gamache's first day back as head of the homicide department, a job he temporarily shares with his previous second-in-command, Jean-Guy Beauvoir. Floodwaters are rising across the province. In the middle of the turmoil, a father approaches Gamache, pleading for help in finding his daughter.

As crisis piles upon crisis, Gamache tries to hold off the encroaching chaos, and realizes the search for Vivienne Godin should be abandoned. But with a daughter of his own, he finds himself developing a profound, and perhaps unwise, empathy for her distraught father.

Increasingly hounded by the question, how would you feel..., he resumes the search.

As the rivers rise, and the social media onslaught against Gamache becomes crueler, a body is discovered. And in the tumult, mistakes are made.

In the next novel in this "constantly surprising series that deepens and darkens as it evolves" (The New York Times Book Review), Gamache must face a horrific possibility, and a burning question.

What would you do if your child's killer walked free?]]>
437 Louise Penny 1250066212 Ioana 4 fiction, mystery 4.20 2019 A Better Man (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #15)
author: Louise Penny
name: Ioana
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2019/12/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: fiction, mystery
review:

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<![CDATA[Dead Voices (Small Spaces, #2)]]> 43069601 Bestselling author Katherine Arden returns with another creepy, spine-tingling adventure in this follow-up to the critically acclaimed Small Spaces.

Having survived sinister scarecrows and the malevolent smiling man in Small Spaces, newly minted best friends Ollie, Coco, and Brian are ready to spend a relaxing winter break skiing together with their parents at Mount Hemlock Resort. But when a snowstorm sets in, causing the power to flicker out and the cold to creep closer and closer, the three are forced to settle for hot chocolate and board games by the fire.

Ollie, Coco, and Brian are determined to make the best of being snowed in, but odd things keep happening. Coco is convinced she has seen a ghost, and Ollie is having nightmares about frostbitten girls pleading for help. Then Mr. Voland, a mysterious ghost hunter, arrives in the midst of the storm to investigate the hauntings at Hemlock Lodge. Ollie, Coco, and Brian want to trust him, but Ollie's watch, which once saved them from the smiling man, has a new cautionary message: BEWARE.

With Mr. Voland's help, Ollie, Coco, and Brian reach out to the dead voices at Mount Hemlock. Maybe the ghosts need their helpor maybe not all ghosts can or should be trusted.

Dead Voices is a terrifying follow-up to Small Spaces with thrills and chills galore and the captive foreboding of a classic ghost story.]]>
256 Katherine Arden 0593106490 Ioana 5 4.06 2019 Dead Voices (Small Spaces, #2)
author: Katherine Arden
name: Ioana
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2019/12/01
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: child-fiction, fiction, fantasy, horror
review:

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<![CDATA[Our Colonial Curriculum, 1607-1776]]> 3556970 301 Colyer Meriwether 084146023X Ioana 3 3.00 2013 Our Colonial Curriculum, 1607-1776
author: Colyer Meriwether
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2019/07/12
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[American Education: The Colonial Experience, 1607-1783]]> 22398473 688 Lawrence Arthur Cremin Ioana 5 4.25 1970 American Education: The Colonial Experience, 1607-1783
author: Lawrence Arthur Cremin
name: Ioana
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1970
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/06/20
shelves: non-fiction, education-history, education-research, us-history
review:

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<![CDATA[A Hero of France (Night Soldiers, #14)]]> 27876488
From the bestselling master espionage writer, hailed by Vince Flynn as the best in the business,� comes a riveting novel about the French Resistance in Nazi-occupied Paris.
Paris, 1941. The City of Light, occupied by the Nazis, is dark and silent at night. Streetlamps are painted blue and apartment windows draped or shuttered in the blackout ordered by the Germans. But when the clouds part, the silvery moonlight defies authority, and so does a leader of the French Resistance, known as Mathieu.

In Paris and in the farmhouses, barns, and churches of the French countryside, small groups of ordinary men and women are determined to take down the occupying forces of Adolf Hitler. Mathieu leads one such Resistance cell, helping downed British airmen escape back to England.

This suspenseful, fast-paced thriller by the author whom Vince Flynn calls the most talented espionage novelist of our generation� captures this dangerous time as no one ever has before. Alan Furst brings Paris and occupied France to life, along with courageous citizens who outmaneuver collaborators, informers, blackmailers, and spies, risking everything to fulfill perilous clandestine missions. Aiding Mathieu as part of his covert network are Lisette, a seventeen-year-old student and courier; Max de Lyon, an arms dealer turned nightclub owner; Chantal, a woman of class and confidence; Daniel, a Jewish teacher fueled by revenge; Jo谷lle, who falls in love with Mathieu; and Annemarie, a willful aristocrat with deep roots in France, and a desire to act.

As the German military police heighten surveillance, Mathieu and his team face a new threat, dispatched by the Reich to destroy them all.

Shot through with the authors trademark fine writing, breathtaking suspense, and intense scenes of seduction and passion, Alan Fursts A Hero of France is at once one of the finest novels written about the French Resistance and the most gripping novel yet by the living master of the spy thriller.

]]>
234 Alan Furst 0812996496 Ioana 2 A Hero of France broke my heart. Never before have I been so fully let down by a (used-to-be) favorite author. Night Soldiers blew me away as probably the most elegant, dark, subtle, historically detailed, and intellectual "spy" novel I'd ever encountered (I don't even like to describe it as a "spy" thriller because Night Soldiers is not genre fiction, but absolutely brilliant noir-historical WW2 literary fiction). I've read some others in the series, and loved them all (the last was #9, The Foreign Correspondent).

I couldn't believe this book was written by Furst; some developments from #1 to #14:
* all nuance has been obliterated in favor of simplistic moralizing and reeking explicitness
* lyrical, well composed prose has given way to a direct, factual-reporting style
* sex and nudity have been shoved in for purposes of titillation only, in ways that add nothing to the plot or characterizations
* the realistic gritty-noir moody tone has been replaced by that of a commercial, superficial action-thriller

One dimension I was not disappointed by was Furst's attention to historical detail and portrayal of aspects of WW2 I don't read much about in fiction (in this installment, the story is about the French resistance movement which helped stranded British pilots make it back to GB through an 'underground railroad' network). For the history lesson, one additional star.

I received my copy of this book through the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are solely my own.]]>
3.58 2016 A Hero of France (Night Soldiers, #14)
author: Alan Furst
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2016
rating: 2
read at: 2016/05/31
date added: 2019/03/14
shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, espionage, french-history, wwii
review:
A Hero of France broke my heart. Never before have I been so fully let down by a (used-to-be) favorite author. Night Soldiers blew me away as probably the most elegant, dark, subtle, historically detailed, and intellectual "spy" novel I'd ever encountered (I don't even like to describe it as a "spy" thriller because Night Soldiers is not genre fiction, but absolutely brilliant noir-historical WW2 literary fiction). I've read some others in the series, and loved them all (the last was #9, The Foreign Correspondent).

I couldn't believe this book was written by Furst; some developments from #1 to #14:
* all nuance has been obliterated in favor of simplistic moralizing and reeking explicitness
* lyrical, well composed prose has given way to a direct, factual-reporting style
* sex and nudity have been shoved in for purposes of titillation only, in ways that add nothing to the plot or characterizations
* the realistic gritty-noir moody tone has been replaced by that of a commercial, superficial action-thriller

One dimension I was not disappointed by was Furst's attention to historical detail and portrayal of aspects of WW2 I don't read much about in fiction (in this installment, the story is about the French resistance movement which helped stranded British pilots make it back to GB through an 'underground railroad' network). For the history lesson, one additional star.

I received my copy of this book through the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are solely my own.
]]>
Terra Nullius 35603581 Jacky was running. There was no thought in his head, only an intense drive to run. There was no sense he was getting anywhere, no plan, no destination, no future. All he had was a sense of what was behind, what he was running from. Jacky was running.

The Natives of the Colony are restless. The Settlers are eager to have a nation of peace, and to bring the savages into line. Families are torn apart, reeducation is enforced. This rich land will provide for all.

This is not Australia as we know it. This is not the Australia of our history.]]>
294 Claire G. Coleman 0733638317 Ioana 5
At first I picked up this book because it was billed as sci-fi, a tale of the colonization of the Earth by an alien race. Instead, I found myself immersed in a brutal, violent, extremely raw and unflinching tale of seemingly, the colonization of Australia by the British. Terra Nullius, Latin for "nobody's land," was the premise upon which Britain claimed Australia, and survived as a rationale well into the 20th century when, finally, following a grueling 10 year trial, on 3 June 1992, the High Court of Australia ruled that terra nullius should not have been applied (Mabo and others v Queensland).

Coleman masterfully weaves several story lines together that put on display the multi-faceted nature of the violence faced by the "Natives" at the hands of the "Settlers" - there is a re-education center, a boarding school run by sadistic nuns, there are plantations on which slaves labor in horrific conditions, there are those few who have not been captured but who live in continual terror that they will be found in addition to their struggles to survive in the arid, unforgiving landscape.

The tone undergirding the novel is one of seething anger and condemnation; nothing is left to the imagination or interpretation of the reader - subtlety is entirely absent. In general, this feature would be a significant detractor for me, however, depicting colonization in its encompassing brutality may be the one scenario for which absolute, uncompromising forthrightness is not only tolerable, but best suited for the task.

An example, re the nun at the school: "Sister Bagra was dedicated to her duty, to bring faith to these people, if they could be called people; to bring religion, to bring education to these savages. An almost completely thankless task, a seemingly pointless, useless task."

The true brilliance and novelty of Terra Nullius occurs about half-way through. Now, what I am about to write is not quite a spoiler, because the book is teased this way and reviewed by many who give away this "twist" but, do not unhide the following if you like surprises and plan on reading this book

[spoilers removed]

This book is not pleasant, and I definitely did not "enjoy it." But I am so very grateful to Coleman for writing it, and I HIGHLY recommend this to anyone interested in learning more, in a truly immersive way, with the lived experience of colonization.]]>
3.74 2017 Terra Nullius
author: Claire G. Coleman
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/02/10
shelves: fiction, sci-fi, colonialism, australia
review:
Terra Nullius, Coleman's (an indigenous Australian Noongar writer) debut novel, is impossible to rate, but I'm going with 5/5 because I think this work should become required high school reading, at least in places like Europe, or the US, or Australia (places with a legacy of colonization and extermination/genocide of local cultures and peoples).

At first I picked up this book because it was billed as sci-fi, a tale of the colonization of the Earth by an alien race. Instead, I found myself immersed in a brutal, violent, extremely raw and unflinching tale of seemingly, the colonization of Australia by the British. Terra Nullius, Latin for "nobody's land," was the premise upon which Britain claimed Australia, and survived as a rationale well into the 20th century when, finally, following a grueling 10 year trial, on 3 June 1992, the High Court of Australia ruled that terra nullius should not have been applied (Mabo and others v Queensland).

Coleman masterfully weaves several story lines together that put on display the multi-faceted nature of the violence faced by the "Natives" at the hands of the "Settlers" - there is a re-education center, a boarding school run by sadistic nuns, there are plantations on which slaves labor in horrific conditions, there are those few who have not been captured but who live in continual terror that they will be found in addition to their struggles to survive in the arid, unforgiving landscape.

The tone undergirding the novel is one of seething anger and condemnation; nothing is left to the imagination or interpretation of the reader - subtlety is entirely absent. In general, this feature would be a significant detractor for me, however, depicting colonization in its encompassing brutality may be the one scenario for which absolute, uncompromising forthrightness is not only tolerable, but best suited for the task.

An example, re the nun at the school: "Sister Bagra was dedicated to her duty, to bring faith to these people, if they could be called people; to bring religion, to bring education to these savages. An almost completely thankless task, a seemingly pointless, useless task."

The true brilliance and novelty of Terra Nullius occurs about half-way through. Now, what I am about to write is not quite a spoiler, because the book is teased this way and reviewed by many who give away this "twist" but, do not unhide the following if you like surprises and plan on reading this book

[spoilers removed]

This book is not pleasant, and I definitely did not "enjoy it." But I am so very grateful to Coleman for writing it, and I HIGHLY recommend this to anyone interested in learning more, in a truly immersive way, with the lived experience of colonization.
]]>
<![CDATA[Kingdom of the Blind (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #14)]]> 38232379
None of them had ever met the elderly woman.

The will is so odd and includes bequests that are so wildly unlikely that Gamache and the others suspect the woman must have been delusional. But what if, Gamache begins to ask himself, she was perfectly sane?

When a body is found, the terms of the bizarre suddenly seem less peculiar and far more menacing.

But it isn't the only menace Gamache is facing.

The investigation into what happened six months agothe events that led to his suspensionhas dragged on, into the dead of winter. And while most of the opioids he allowed to slip through his hands, in order to bring down the cartels, have been retrieved, there is one devastating exception.

Enough narcotic to kill thousands has disappeared into inner-city Montr辿al. With the deadly drug about to hit the streets, Gamache races for answers.

As he uses increasingly audacious, even desperate, measures to retrieve the drug, Armand Gamache begins to see his own blind spots. And the terrible things hiding there.]]>
389 Louise Penny 1250066204 Ioana 4 fiction, mystery 4.25 2018 Kingdom of the Blind (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #14)
author: Louise Penny
name: Ioana
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2019/02/01
date added: 2019/02/10
shelves: fiction, mystery
review:

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<![CDATA[The Murder Stone: A Chief Inspector Gamache Mystery, Book 4]]> 39906277 A New York Times Bestseller

'Impossible to put down' (Globe and Mail)

It's the height of summer, and the wealthy Finney family have gathered at the Manoir Bellechasse to pay tribute to their late father. But as the temperature rises, old secrets and bitter rivalries begin to surface. When the heat wave boils over into a mighty storm, a dead body is left in its wake.

Chief Inspector Gamache, a guest at the Bellechasse, finds himself with a building full of suspects. With the hotel locked down, the murderer is trapped. But a cornered predator is always the most dangerous of all...

]]>
336 Louise Penny Ioana 5 mystery, fiction 4.38 2008 The Murder Stone: A Chief Inspector Gamache Mystery, Book 4
author: Louise Penny
name: Ioana
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2018/01/01
date added: 2019/02/04
shelves: mystery, fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[The Romanian Revolution of December 1989]]> 373741 328 Peter Siani-Davies 0801473896 Ioana 0 currently-reading 3.68 2005 The Romanian Revolution of December 1989
author: Peter Siani-Davies
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/01/27
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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The Shape of the Ruins 38256287 A sweeping tale of conspiracy theories, assassinations, and twisted obsessions -- the much anticipated masterpiece from Juan Gabriel Vasquez.

The Shape of the Ruins is a masterly story of conspiracy, political obsession, and literary investigation. When a man is arrested at a museum for attempting to steal the bullet-ridden suit of a murdered Colombian politician, few notice. But soon this thwarted theft takes on greater meaning as it becomes a thread in a widening web of popular fixations with conspiracy theories, assassinations, and historical secrets; and it haunts those who feel that only they know the real truth behind these killings.

This novel explores the darkest moments of a country's past and brings to life the ways in which past violence shapes our present lives. A compulsive read, beautiful and profound, eerily relevant to our times and deeply personal, The Shape of the Ruins is a tour-de-force story by a master at uncovering the incisive wounds of our memories.]]>
509 Juan Gabriel V叩squez 0735211140 Ioana 0 currently-reading 3.76 2015 The Shape of the Ruins
author: Juan Gabriel V叩squez
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/01/27
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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The Blinds 32600769 Shovel Readya speculative modern Western with elements of Cormac McCarthy, Jim Thompson, and the Coen brothers that is wickedly funny, razor-sharp, and totally engrossing

Imagine a place populated by criminalspeople plucked from their lives, with their memories altered, whove been granted new identities and a second chance. Welcome to The Blinds, a dusty town in rural Texas populated by misfits who dont know if theyve perpetrated a crime, or just witnessed one. Whats clear to them is that if they leave, they will end up dead.

For eight years, Sheriff Calvin Cooper has kept an uneasy peacebut after a suicide and a murder in quick succession, the towns residents revolt. Cooper has his own secrets to protect, so when his new deputy starts digging, he needs to keep one step ahead of herand the mysterious outsiders who threaten to tear the whole place down. The more he learns, the more the hard truth is revealed: The Blinds is no sleepy hideaway. Its simmering with violence and deception, aching heartbreak and dark betrayals.]]>
382 Adam Sternbergh 0062661345 Ioana 4 3.71 2017 The Blinds
author: Adam Sternbergh
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2019/01/10
date added: 2019/01/27
shelves: sci-fi, dystopic-fiction, fiction
review:

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The Book of Hidden Things 36569910
A visit to his house increases the friends' worry; Art is farming marijuana. In Southern Italy doing that kind of thing can be very dangerous. They can't go to the Carabinieri so must make enquiries of their own. This is how they come across the rumours about Art; bizarre and unbelievable rumours that he miraculously cured the local mafia boss's daughter of terminal leukaemia. And among the chaos of his house, they find a document written by Art, The Book of Hidden Things, that promises to reveal dark secrets and wonders beyond anything previously known.]]>
385 Francesco Dimitri 1785657070 Ioana 2
First, a bit about the story - which, had it been done without the abject objectification and sexualization of women, I would have immersed myself fully into, with complete joy and wonder. Four (Southern Italian) men, friends from childhood, have a 'pact' to meet on a specific day of the year in a specific place to catch up; this year, one of them, an esoteric brilliant mystic curious about all facets of the world, does not show up. Worried, his friends begin their search, which plunges them into an ethereal world bordering on the magical (filled with ominous olive groves and mysterious disappearances and fight/dance circles at campfires in deserted fields and fortune tellers and the like) - a world that is also, from a more practical lens, dangerous for its affiliation to the mafia (seems like everyone in town is either connected or pays their dues in order to be allowed to live in peace).

I would have been captivated fully had it not become clear, just several pages in, that this was "men's fiction," of the type that is grievously unaware of its own biases, that portrays women as props in a man's world. Most women who appear on the pages of "The Book of Hidden Things" are gorgeous and/or big breasted (some are even "much more than beautiful"), they live for pleasuring men (and themselves via pleasuring men and did I mention they all love to be dominated), they don't think twice about cheating on their husbands with the husbands' good friends, in their beds at home while their children are in the next room, or quite literally at their own weddings (and don't apologize for it when their husbands find out), they love to strut around naked ("she didn't have qualms about being naked... She had started sunbathing topless at eighteen. We had all seen her boobs; this wasn't the first time for me, or the tenth"). Meanwhile the men choose their professions (ie photographer) because they want to see women naked, or they concoct elaborate plans in order to meet with women (in other worlds?) who offer unlimited sex, or they wax nostalgic about times before when they had kids, whom they find boring and a drag on the possibilities for excitement in their lives.

(*note: I'm all for women choosing domination or sex or being naked or even sex outside marriage if they so choose but I'm NOT for men making these decisions for them. So this is a perfect example of a scenario in which the author's identity matters: had a woman written all the above, and had the book been written from the pov of women, I'd be game).

I began gagging a few pages in, when "the Beauties" are introduced: "Carolina was one of the Beauties.. I once managed to get one of the beauties naked for my camera, but that's as far as any of us went, until many years later when Art came back to town and started banging Carolina. I have not seen her in maybe ten years, which suits me fine. Her voice had always grated on me." Oh, those pesky women with their grating voices... This from a man who also writes, about his job as a photographer: "I'm aroused. That happens often while I work. My love for boobs, and bums, and legs, has never waned. Beauty is not something you get accustomed to, and no beauty in the universe is a match for a naked woman's. I say this with no shame or guilt"... And then, bang, I'm toppled by this unadulterated misunderstanding of women: "nothing in this world is as erotic as the wetness of a woman; it means she likes you, that you are worthy of her." UM, No?

To be fair, there are two women who are not portrayed thusly, one fitting the old hag-like crazy fortune teller stereotype, and another, the sister of one of the four men, who is given a bit more power and autonomy outside of her sex. And, to an extent, the men do realize they are driven by their teenage sexual urges long past the time when they should learn to use their brains and not capitulate to the dictates of their dicks, and the one with kids does come to a realization that his daughters are not a net negative for his life. But I wasn't fully convinced of the sincerity of these transformations, nor of Dimitri's awareness of the extent of the immaturity of the worldview that permeates most of the book.

If I had to guess about Dimitri's personality, I'd say he reminds me of the 'old world' European (especially Latin/Eastern European origin) men, who truly and honestly don't see the bias and sexism imbibing their perspective, ie they will NOT apologize that they understand beauty, for example, as centered around a woman's naked body. I grew up in Romania around pretty rampant and blatant misogyny that was not always seen as such from within that context, but became obviously clear once I immigrated to the US, and now that I am observing or reminiscing about these scenarios from a distance, and/or observing her compatriot men in this new environment. Anyways, THAT type of worldview is what this book brought back for me, and it was anything but magical, ruining the mystical-magical-realist aura of the storyline.

Usually I'd give misogyny zero stars, but I'm capitulating to two not because I did actually love the premise and story (would still get zero for misogyny), but because Dimitri did attempt, albeit clumsily and unconvincingly, to admit that this worldview is flawed and that potentially more holistic and mature possibilities exist.]]>
3.38 2018 The Book of Hidden Things
author: Francesco Dimitri
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.38
book published: 2018
rating: 2
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/01/26
shelves: magical-realism, italian, fiction
review:
Argh, I am so very sad and frustrated at my rating of this suspenseful, engrossing novel. The magic-infused surrealist story aligned perfectly with my whimsical light-fantasy mood, but alas THE MISOGYNY oozing from every page induced dramatic eye rolls, exasperated annoyance, and occasional urges to yell loudly at men (ok not all men, but at least, at Dimitri).

First, a bit about the story - which, had it been done without the abject objectification and sexualization of women, I would have immersed myself fully into, with complete joy and wonder. Four (Southern Italian) men, friends from childhood, have a 'pact' to meet on a specific day of the year in a specific place to catch up; this year, one of them, an esoteric brilliant mystic curious about all facets of the world, does not show up. Worried, his friends begin their search, which plunges them into an ethereal world bordering on the magical (filled with ominous olive groves and mysterious disappearances and fight/dance circles at campfires in deserted fields and fortune tellers and the like) - a world that is also, from a more practical lens, dangerous for its affiliation to the mafia (seems like everyone in town is either connected or pays their dues in order to be allowed to live in peace).

I would have been captivated fully had it not become clear, just several pages in, that this was "men's fiction," of the type that is grievously unaware of its own biases, that portrays women as props in a man's world. Most women who appear on the pages of "The Book of Hidden Things" are gorgeous and/or big breasted (some are even "much more than beautiful"), they live for pleasuring men (and themselves via pleasuring men and did I mention they all love to be dominated), they don't think twice about cheating on their husbands with the husbands' good friends, in their beds at home while their children are in the next room, or quite literally at their own weddings (and don't apologize for it when their husbands find out), they love to strut around naked ("she didn't have qualms about being naked... She had started sunbathing topless at eighteen. We had all seen her boobs; this wasn't the first time for me, or the tenth"). Meanwhile the men choose their professions (ie photographer) because they want to see women naked, or they concoct elaborate plans in order to meet with women (in other worlds?) who offer unlimited sex, or they wax nostalgic about times before when they had kids, whom they find boring and a drag on the possibilities for excitement in their lives.

(*note: I'm all for women choosing domination or sex or being naked or even sex outside marriage if they so choose but I'm NOT for men making these decisions for them. So this is a perfect example of a scenario in which the author's identity matters: had a woman written all the above, and had the book been written from the pov of women, I'd be game).

I began gagging a few pages in, when "the Beauties" are introduced: "Carolina was one of the Beauties.. I once managed to get one of the beauties naked for my camera, but that's as far as any of us went, until many years later when Art came back to town and started banging Carolina. I have not seen her in maybe ten years, which suits me fine. Her voice had always grated on me." Oh, those pesky women with their grating voices... This from a man who also writes, about his job as a photographer: "I'm aroused. That happens often while I work. My love for boobs, and bums, and legs, has never waned. Beauty is not something you get accustomed to, and no beauty in the universe is a match for a naked woman's. I say this with no shame or guilt"... And then, bang, I'm toppled by this unadulterated misunderstanding of women: "nothing in this world is as erotic as the wetness of a woman; it means she likes you, that you are worthy of her." UM, No?

To be fair, there are two women who are not portrayed thusly, one fitting the old hag-like crazy fortune teller stereotype, and another, the sister of one of the four men, who is given a bit more power and autonomy outside of her sex. And, to an extent, the men do realize they are driven by their teenage sexual urges long past the time when they should learn to use their brains and not capitulate to the dictates of their dicks, and the one with kids does come to a realization that his daughters are not a net negative for his life. But I wasn't fully convinced of the sincerity of these transformations, nor of Dimitri's awareness of the extent of the immaturity of the worldview that permeates most of the book.

If I had to guess about Dimitri's personality, I'd say he reminds me of the 'old world' European (especially Latin/Eastern European origin) men, who truly and honestly don't see the bias and sexism imbibing their perspective, ie they will NOT apologize that they understand beauty, for example, as centered around a woman's naked body. I grew up in Romania around pretty rampant and blatant misogyny that was not always seen as such from within that context, but became obviously clear once I immigrated to the US, and now that I am observing or reminiscing about these scenarios from a distance, and/or observing her compatriot men in this new environment. Anyways, THAT type of worldview is what this book brought back for me, and it was anything but magical, ruining the mystical-magical-realist aura of the storyline.

Usually I'd give misogyny zero stars, but I'm capitulating to two not because I did actually love the premise and story (would still get zero for misogyny), but because Dimitri did attempt, albeit clumsily and unconvincingly, to admit that this worldview is flawed and that potentially more holistic and mature possibilities exist.
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禽艶乙艶釘庄界温 22713861 22 Hans Christian Andersen Ioana 5 child-fiction, fiction 3.98 1835 禽艶乙艶釘庄界温
author: Hans Christian Andersen
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1835
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/01/23
shelves: child-fiction, fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[Winter Sisters (Mary Sutter, #2)]]> 35876392
As contemporary as it is historic, Winter Sisters is part gripping thriller, part family saga, and ultimately a story of trauma and resilience that explores the tremendous good and unspeakable evil of which humans are capable.]]>
416 Robin Oliveira 039956425X Ioana 5 historical-fiction
Considering that I was expecting (and in the mood for) a light and magical tale, it speaks to the excellence of this novel that I was quickly pulled in and enthralled to the point I was staying up long past my bedtime to find out what happened next. Oliveira builds a rich atmosphere depicting late 19th century Albany in great detail, and she examines the sensitive themes she does with tastefulness that does not brush over their horrific nature.

The story is essentially about two girls, orphaned in a blizzard, who are kidnapped and held against their will, while the 10 year old one is raped. Some chapters in and several weeks later, the girls are able to escape the basement where they are held because of another natural disaster - a flood caused by melting ice and snow. The remainder of the story is about the aftermath of their travails - about the trail, both legal and public opinion, about the difficulty of healing from such traumatic and horrific crimes, about the power of familial support.

But what makes this an excellent historical work is that Winter Sisters is not just a story of individual overcoming of hardship, it is also an expertly woven political tale about city machinations and crony relationships within the governmental and business spheres, and about corruption at the highest levels. And finally, it is a searing depiction of and commentary on the historical oppression of women, not only by the literal letter of the law, but also by public opinion. In 1879, the age of consent in NY was ten years, and the vast majority of rape victims (who even made it to trial, as rape trials were incredibly rare) - were accused of "wanting it" and "asking for it" and as long as they were 10 years old or over, usually this defense worked. So many of these themes held on for at least a century, though to an extent we are finally now emerging out of this era of traditional debasement and devaluing of women.

This novel is not for the faint of heart and also not for those who do not wish to read about such horrific acts as child rape (which is implied only, not described). But if you can bear that, I highly recommend this to anyone interested in historical fiction, especially that set in the United States around the period of industrialization and urbanization, and especially to those interested in women's history.]]>
4.02 2018 Winter Sisters (Mary Sutter, #2)
author: Robin Oliveira
name: Ioana
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2019/01/16
date added: 2019/01/18
shelves: historical-fiction
review:
I seem to be one of the few people who came into this book without having read the prequel (My Name is Mary Sutter) and without knowing anything about the author. Perhaps if I had, I would have been prepared for what was to come, but alas as it was, what I read was not in the least what I expected (ie a magical fairytale or a cozy mystery). No, indeed: this was a gritty, dark, meticulously researched work of historical fiction that covered some incredibly challenging themes: child abduction, rape, devastating natural events (floods, blizzards), bribery and corruption at the highest levels of local politics, and more.

Considering that I was expecting (and in the mood for) a light and magical tale, it speaks to the excellence of this novel that I was quickly pulled in and enthralled to the point I was staying up long past my bedtime to find out what happened next. Oliveira builds a rich atmosphere depicting late 19th century Albany in great detail, and she examines the sensitive themes she does with tastefulness that does not brush over their horrific nature.

The story is essentially about two girls, orphaned in a blizzard, who are kidnapped and held against their will, while the 10 year old one is raped. Some chapters in and several weeks later, the girls are able to escape the basement where they are held because of another natural disaster - a flood caused by melting ice and snow. The remainder of the story is about the aftermath of their travails - about the trail, both legal and public opinion, about the difficulty of healing from such traumatic and horrific crimes, about the power of familial support.

But what makes this an excellent historical work is that Winter Sisters is not just a story of individual overcoming of hardship, it is also an expertly woven political tale about city machinations and crony relationships within the governmental and business spheres, and about corruption at the highest levels. And finally, it is a searing depiction of and commentary on the historical oppression of women, not only by the literal letter of the law, but also by public opinion. In 1879, the age of consent in NY was ten years, and the vast majority of rape victims (who even made it to trial, as rape trials were incredibly rare) - were accused of "wanting it" and "asking for it" and as long as they were 10 years old or over, usually this defense worked. So many of these themes held on for at least a century, though to an extent we are finally now emerging out of this era of traditional debasement and devaluing of women.

This novel is not for the faint of heart and also not for those who do not wish to read about such horrific acts as child rape (which is implied only, not described). But if you can bear that, I highly recommend this to anyone interested in historical fiction, especially that set in the United States around the period of industrialization and urbanization, and especially to those interested in women's history.
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<![CDATA[A Constellation of Vital Phenomena]]> 18428067
In the final days of December 2004, in a small rural village in Chechnya, eight-year-old Havaa hides in the woods when her father is abducted by Russian forces. Fearing for her life, she flees with their neighbor Akhmeda failed physicianto the bombed-out hospital, where Sonja, the one remaining doctor, treats a steady stream of wounded rebels and refugees and mourns her missing sister. Over the course of five dramatic days, Akhmed and Sonja reach back into their pasts to unravel the intricate mystery of coincidence, betrayal, and forgiveness that unexpectedly binds them and decides their fate.

With The English Patient's dramatic sweep and The Tiger's Wife's expert sense of place, Marra gives us a searing debut about the transcendent power of love in wartime, and how it can cause us to become greater than we ever thought possible.]]>
416 Anthony Marra 0770436420 Ioana 0 to-read 4.10 2013 A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
author: Anthony Marra
name: Ioana
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/01/17
shelves: to-read
review:

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The Perfect Nanny 38330854 This is an alternate cover edition for ISBN 9780143132172.

When Myriam, a French-Moroccan lawyer, decides to return to work after having children, she and her husband look for the perfect nanny for their two young children. They never dreamed they would find Louise: a quiet, polite, devoted woman who sings to the children, cleans the family's chic apartment in Paris's upscale tenth arrondissement, stays late without complaint, and hosts enviable kiddie parties. But as the couple and the nanny become more dependent on one another, jealousy, resentment, and suspicions mount, shattering the idyllic tableau.]]>
228 Le誰la Slimani Ioana 5 fiction, french had to get it because, obviously, if you've ever seen a French film, you know about the French reputation for avant-garde subtlety and cryptic brilliance. How could these qualities apply to a supposed "Gone Girl"-esque novel? (most reviews I read called this "The French Gone Girl"). I was intrigued.

In those respects, The Perfect Nanny did not disappoint. The book is not actually a "thriller" or a mystery in the traditional sense because we know "what happened" and "who did it" within the first few pages in the book: a seemingly perfect nanny stabbed the two children she was entrusted to caring for to death. The rest of the novel is essentially a character study of the nanny, told through scenes from her own story, the family's, and those of people tangentially related (another nanny from the park, a neighbor, and the like). To make a character study compelling takes major skill imo, at least for an audience like myself, who gets bored quickly reading biographies or stories with no real thrust. And Slimani accomplishes this brilliantly - The Perfect Nanny is addictive, the reader propelled along with irresistible urge from page to page.

In all, I don't find that the parallel between this novel and "Gone Girl" makes sense at all. GG is basically a domestic mystery/thriller, in which there is a mystery that is solved and the story is explicit. The Perfect Nanny is a gripping character study that does not tie up loose ends neatly, that does not spoon-feed the reader its own conclusions and that leaves the question of "how could this have happened" wide open. The nanny is not portrayed as evil or even obviously unstable, and there is no direct line from her personality or circumstances to her horrific act. That said, if you prefer more of a storyline and more concrete answers, this novel may not be for you.

I'm giving it 5 stars because (1) I'm biased towards all things French and (2) this book truly surprised me; I don't like books on domestic themes, and I tend not to be a fan of pure character studies, and yet I was breathless from beginning to end.]]>
3.24 2016 The Perfect Nanny
author: Le誰la Slimani
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.24
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/01/05
shelves: fiction, french
review:
A purported thriller about domestic life is definitely NOT my thing, but somehow I was convinced by Bookriot's podcast "All the Books" that this is not your typical domestic suspense. When I looked up the book and learned it was translated from the French, then I had to get it because, obviously, if you've ever seen a French film, you know about the French reputation for avant-garde subtlety and cryptic brilliance. How could these qualities apply to a supposed "Gone Girl"-esque novel? (most reviews I read called this "The French Gone Girl"). I was intrigued.

In those respects, The Perfect Nanny did not disappoint. The book is not actually a "thriller" or a mystery in the traditional sense because we know "what happened" and "who did it" within the first few pages in the book: a seemingly perfect nanny stabbed the two children she was entrusted to caring for to death. The rest of the novel is essentially a character study of the nanny, told through scenes from her own story, the family's, and those of people tangentially related (another nanny from the park, a neighbor, and the like). To make a character study compelling takes major skill imo, at least for an audience like myself, who gets bored quickly reading biographies or stories with no real thrust. And Slimani accomplishes this brilliantly - The Perfect Nanny is addictive, the reader propelled along with irresistible urge from page to page.

In all, I don't find that the parallel between this novel and "Gone Girl" makes sense at all. GG is basically a domestic mystery/thriller, in which there is a mystery that is solved and the story is explicit. The Perfect Nanny is a gripping character study that does not tie up loose ends neatly, that does not spoon-feed the reader its own conclusions and that leaves the question of "how could this have happened" wide open. The nanny is not portrayed as evil or even obviously unstable, and there is no direct line from her personality or circumstances to her horrific act. That said, if you prefer more of a storyline and more concrete answers, this novel may not be for you.

I'm giving it 5 stars because (1) I'm biased towards all things French and (2) this book truly surprised me; I don't like books on domestic themes, and I tend not to be a fan of pure character studies, and yet I was breathless from beginning to end.
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<![CDATA[Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture]]> 35068524 368 Roxane Gay 0062413503 Ioana 0 currently-reading 4.43 2018 Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture
author: Roxane Gay
name: Ioana
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/01/05
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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<![CDATA[Tombland (Matthew Shardlake, #7)]]> 40095725 Spring, 1549. Two years after the death of Henry VIII, England is sliding into chaos�

The king, Edward VI, is eleven years old. His uncle Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, rules as Protector. Radical Protestants are conducting all out war on the old religion, stirring discontent among the people. The Protector's prolonged war with Scotland is proving a disastrous failure. Worst of all, the economy is in collapse, inflation rages and rebellion is stirring among the peasantry.

Since the old King's death, Matthew Shardlake has been working as a lawyer in the service of Henry's younger daughter, the Lady Elizabeth. The gruesome murder of the wife of John Boleyn, a distant Norfolk relation of Elizabeth's mother - which could have political implications for Elizabeth - brings Shardlake and his young assistant Nicholas Overton to the summer assizes at Norwich. There they are reunited with Shardlake's former assistant Jack Barak. The three find layers of mystery and danger surrounding the death of Edith Boleyn, as more murders are committed.

During their investigation, a peasant rebellion breaks out across the country. Yeoman Robert Kett establishes a vast camp outside Norwich and leads a force of thousands to overthow the landlords. Soon the rebels have taken over the city, England's second largest.

Barak throws in his lot with the rebels; Nicholas, opposed to them, becomes a prisoner in Norwich Castle; while Shardlake has to decide where his ultimate loyalties lie. As government forces in London prepare to march north and destroy the rebels, he discovers that the murder of Edith Boleyn may have connections reaching into both the heart of the rebel camp and of the Norfolk gentry...

Tombland is both a thrilling murder mystery and a vivid and engaging portrait of a divided nation.

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865 C.J. Sansom 1447284496 Ioana 0 currently-reading 4.29 2018 Tombland (Matthew Shardlake, #7)
author: C.J. Sansom
name: Ioana
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/01/05
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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<![CDATA[The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek (The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, #1)]]> 40914165 An alternate cover edition for ISBN 978-1492671527 can be found here.

In 1936, tucked deep into the woods of Troublesome Creek, KY, lives blue-skinned 19-year-old Cussy Carter, the last living female of the rare Blue People ancestry.

The lonely young Appalachian woman joins the historical Pack Horse Library Project of Kentucky and becomes a librarian, riding across slippery creek beds and up treacherous mountains on her faithful mule to deliver books and other reading material to the impoverished hill people of Eastern Kentucky.

Along her dangerous route, Cussy, known to the mountain folk as Bluet, confronts those suspicious of her damselfly-blue skin and the government's new book program. She befriends hardscrabble and complex fellow Kentuckians, and is fiercely determined to bring comfort and joy, instill literacy, and give to those who have nothing, a bookly respite, a fleeting retreat to faraway lands.]]>
309 Kim Michele Richardson Ioana 0 to-read 4.17 2019 The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek (The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, #1)
author: Kim Michele Richardson
name: Ioana
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/01/05
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[The Echo Killing (Harper McClain, #1)]]> 34953112 When a murder echoing a fifteen-year-old cold case rocks the Southern town of Savannah, crime reporter Harper McClain risks everything to find the identity of this calculated killer.

A city of antebellum architecture, picturesque parks, and cobblestone streets, Savannah moves at a graceful pace. But for Harper McClain, the timeless beauty and culture that distinguishes her homes Southern heritage vanishes during the dark and dangerous nights. She wouldnt have it any other way. Not even finding her mother brutally murdered in their home when she was twelve has made her love Savannah any less.

Her mothers killer was never found, and that unsolved murder left Harper with an obsession that drove her to become one of the best crime reporters in the state of Georgia. She spends her nights with the police, searching for criminals. Her latest investigation takes her to the scene of a homicide where the details are hauntingly familiar: a young girl being led from the scene by a detective, a female victim naked and stabbed multiple times in the kitchen, and no traces of any evidence pointing towards a suspect.

Harper has seen all of this before in her own life. The similarities between the murder of Marie Whitney and her own mothers death lead her to believe theyre both victims of the same killer. At last, she has the chance to find the murderer whos eluded justice for fifteen years and make sure another little girl isnt forever haunted by a senseless act of violenceeven if it puts Harper in the killers cross-hairs]]>
356 Christi Daugherty 1250148847 Ioana 4 3.83 2018 The Echo Killing (Harper McClain, #1)
author: Christi Daugherty
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2018/01/01
date added: 2018/12/31
shelves: mystery, fiction, southern-fiction, gothic
review:

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How to Be Safe 35167727 Former Teacher Had Motive. Recently suspended for a so-called outburst, high school English teacher Anna Crawford is stewing over the injustice at home when she is shocked to see herself named on television as a suspect in a shooting at the school where she works. Though she is quickly exonerated, and the actual teenage murderer identified, her life is nevertheless held up for relentless scrutiny and judgment as this quiet town descends into media mania. Gun sales skyrocket, victims are transformed into martyrs, and the rules of public mourning are ruthlessly enforced. Anna decides to wholeheartedly reject the culpability shes somehow been assigned, and the rampant sexism that comes with it, both in person and online.

A piercing feminist howl written in trenchant prose, How to Be Safe is a compulsively readable, darkly funny expos辿 of the hypocrisy that ensues when illusions of peace are shattered.]]>
240 Tom McAllister 1631494139 Ioana 4 fiction 3.19 2018 How to Be Safe
author: Tom McAllister
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.19
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2018/01/01
date added: 2018/12/31
shelves: fiction
review:

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History of Wolves 30183198
And then the young Gardner family moves in across the lake and Madeline finds herself welcomed into their home as a babysitter for their little boy, Paul. It seems that her life finally has purpose but with this new sense of belonging she is also drawn into secrets she doesnt understand. Over the course of a few days, Madeline makes a set of choices that reverberate throughout her life. As she struggles to find a way out of the sequestered world into which she was born, Madeline confronts the life-and-death consequences of the things people doand fail to dofor the people they love]]>
288 Emily Fridlund 0802125875 Ioana 4 fiction, american-lit 3.39 2017 History of Wolves
author: Emily Fridlund
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2018/01/01
date added: 2018/12/31
shelves: fiction, american-lit
review:

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The Buried Giant 22522805
The Buried Giant begins as a couple set off across a troubled land of mist and rain in the hope of finding a son they have not seen in years.

Sometimes savage, often intensely moving, Kazuo Ishiguro's first novel in nearly a decade is about lost memories, love, revenge, and war.

Included on TIME Magazine's "THE 100 BEST FANTASY BOOKS OF ALL TIME"]]>
317 Kazuo Ishiguro 030727103X Ioana 5 3.56 2015 The Buried Giant
author: Kazuo Ishiguro
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2018/01/01
date added: 2018/12/31
shelves: fiction, fairy-tales, fantasy, favorite-headtrips
review:

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The Ninth Hour 33931059 A magnificent new novel from one of Americas finest writersa powerfully affecting story spanning the twentieth century of a widow and her daughter and the nuns who serve their Irish-American community in Brooklyn.

On a dim winter afternoon, a young Irish immigrant opens the gas taps in his Brooklyn tenement. He is determined to proveto the subway bosses who have recently fired him, to his badgering, pregnant wifethat the hours of his life belong to himself alone.� In the aftermath of the fire that follows, Sister St. Savior, an aging nun, appears, unbidden, to direct the way forward for his widow and his unborn child.

We begin deep inside Catholic Brooklyn, in the early part of the twentieth century. Decorum, superstition, and shame collude to erase the mans brief existence. Yet his suicide, although never spoken of, reverberates through many lives and over the decadestesting the limits and the demands of love and sacrifice, of forgiveness and forgetfulness, even through multiple generations.

The characters we meet, from Sally, the unborn baby at the beginning of the novel, who becomes the center of the story, to the nuns whose personalities we come to know and love, to the neighborhood families with whose lives they are entwined, are all rendered with extraordinary sympathy and McDermotts trademark lucidity and intelligence.

Alice McDermotts The Ninth Hour is a crowning achievement by one of the premiere writers at work in America today.]]>
247 Alice McDermott 0374280142 Ioana 4 fiction, historical-fiction 3.55 2017 The Ninth Hour
author: Alice McDermott
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2018/01/01
date added: 2018/12/31
shelves: fiction, historical-fiction
review:

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Idaho 30141401
But then something unimaginably shocking happens, an act so extreme it will scatter the family in every different direction.

In a story told from multiple perspectives and in razor-sharp prose, we gradually learn more about this act, and the way its violence, love and memory reverberate through the life of every character in Idaho.]]>
320 Emily Ruskovich 0701189096 Ioana 5 fiction, american-lit, poetry 3.48 2017 Idaho
author: Emily Ruskovich
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2018/01/01
date added: 2018/12/31
shelves: fiction, american-lit, poetry
review:

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The Other Mother 35068629 An atmospheric and harrowing tale, richly literary in complexity but ripe with all the crazed undertones, confusions, and forebodings inherent in the gothic genre. Recommend this riveting, du Maurierlike novel to fans of Jennifer McMahon.� Booklist (starred review)

From the author of the internationally bestselling The Lake of Dead Languages comes a gripping novel about madness, motherhood, love, and trust.

When Daphne Marist and her infant daughter, Chloe, pull up the gravel drive to the home of Daphnes new employer, it feels like theyve entered a whole new world. Tucked in the Catskills, the stone mansion looks like something out of a fairy tale, its lush landscaping hiding the view of the mental asylum just beyond its border. Daphne secured the live-in position using an assumed name and fake credentials, telling no one that shes on the run from a controlling husband who has threatened to take her daughter away.

Daphnes new life is a far cry from the one she had in Westchester where, just months before, she and her husband welcomed little Chloe. From the start, Daphne tries to be a good mother, but shes plagued by dark moods and intrusive thoughts that convince her shes capable of harming her own daughter. When Daphne is diagnosed with Post Partum Mood Disorder, her downward spiral feels unstoppableuntil she meets Laurel Hobbes.

Laurel, who also has a daughter named Chloe, is everything Daphne isnt: charismatic, sophisticated, fearless. They immediately form an intense friendship, revealing secrets to one another they thought theyd never share. Soon, they start to look alike, dress alike, and talk alike, their lives mirroring one another in strange and disturbing ways. But Daphne realizes only too late that being friends with Laurel will come at a very shocking priceone that will ultimately lead her to that towering mansion in the Catskills where terrifying, long-hidden truths will finally be revealed....]]>
352 Carol Goodman 0062562657 Ioana 4 fiction, thriller 3.55 2018 The Other Mother
author: Carol Goodman
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2018/01/01
date added: 2018/12/31
shelves: fiction, thriller
review:

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The Invention of Ana 35068756 Funny Girl, the philosophical lyricism of Roberto Bola単os The Savage Detectives, and the mesmerizing power of Anna Norths The Life and Death of Sophie Stark, a breathtaking debut, brimming with youthful brio and irresistible humor, that chronicles a young mans friendship with a most peculiar artist.

On a rooftop in Brooklyn on a spring night, a young intern and would-be writer, newly arrived from Copenhagen, meets the intriguing Ana Ivan. Clever and funny, with an air of mystery and melancholia, Ana is a performance artist, a mathematician, and a self-proclaimed time traveler. She is also bad luck, she confesses; she is from a cursed Romanian lineage.

Before long, the intern finds himself seduced by Anas enthralling storiesof her unlucky countrymen; of her parents� romance during the worst years of Nicolae Ceaucescus dictatorship; of a Daylight Savings switchover gone horribly wrong. Ana also introduces him to her latest artistic endeavor. Following the astronomical rather than the Gregorian calendar, she is trying to alter her sense of timean experiment that will lead her to live in complete darkness for one month.

Descending into the blackness with Ana, the intern slowly loses touch with his own existence, entangling himself in the lives of Ana, her starry-eyed mother Maria, and her raging math-prodigy father Ciprian. Peeling back the layers of her past, he eventually discovers the perverse tragedy that has haunted Anas family for decades and shaped her journey from the streets of Bucharest to the Atlas Mountains of Morocco and finally to New York City.

The Invention of Ana blurs the lines between narrative and memory, perception and reality, identity and authenticity. In his stunning debut novel, Mikkel Rosengaard illuminates the profound power of stories to alter the world around usand the lives of the ones we love.]]>
298 Mikkel Rosengaard 0062679090 Ioana 3 fiction 3.38 2016 The Invention of Ana
author: Mikkel Rosengaard
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.38
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2018/01/01
date added: 2018/12/31
shelves: fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[Heaven's Crooked Finger (Earl Marcus #1)]]> 34507291
As Earl returns to Church of the Holy Flame searching for the truth, faithful followers insist that his father has risen to a holy place high in the mountains. Nobody will talk about the teenage girls who go missing, only to return with strange tattoo-like marks on their skin. Rumors swirl about an old well that sits atop one of the mountains, a place of unimaginable power and secrets. Earl doesn't know what to believe, but he has long been haunted by his father, forever lurking in the shadows of his life. Desperate to leave his sinful Holy Flame childhood in the past, Earl digs up deeply buried secrets to discover the truth before time runs out and he's the one put underground in Heaven's Crooked Finger.]]>
336 Hank Early 1683313917 Ioana 4 3.85 2017 Heaven's Crooked Finger (Earl Marcus #1)
author: Hank Early
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2018/01/01
date added: 2018/12/31
shelves: fiction, mystery, southern-fiction, gothic
review:

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Manhattan Beach 34467031
Years later, her father has disappeared and the country is at war. Anna works at the Brooklyn Naval Yard, where women are allowed to hold jobs that once belonged to men, now soldiers abroad. She becomes the first female diver, the most dangerous and exclusive of occupations, repairing the ships that will help America win the war. One evening at a nightclub, she meets Dexter Styles again, and begins to understand the complexity of her fathers life, the reasons he might have vanished.

With the atmosphere of a noir thriller, Egans first historical novel follows Anna and Styles into a world populated by gangsters, sailors, divers, bankers, and union men. Manhattan Beach is a deft, dazzling, propulsive exploration of a transformative moment in the lives and identities of women and men, of America and the world.]]>
438 Jennifer Egan 1476716730 Ioana 5 fiction, historical-fiction 3.55 2017 Manhattan Beach
author: Jennifer Egan
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2018/01/01
date added: 2018/12/31
shelves: fiction, historical-fiction
review:

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Elmet 35711376 Fresh and distinctive writing from an exciting new voice in fiction, Elmet is an unforgettable novel about family, as well as a beautiful meditation on landscape.

Daniel is heading north. He is looking for someone. The simplicity of his early life with Daddy and Cathy has turned sour and fearful. They lived apart in the house that Daddy built for them with his bare hands. They foraged and hunted. When they were younger, Daniel and Cathy had gone to school. But they were not like the other children then, and they were even less like them now. Sometimes Daddy disappeared, and would return with a rage in his eyes. But when he was at home he was at peace. He told them that the little copse in Elmet was theirs alone. But that wasn't true. Local men, greedy and watchful, began to circle like vultures. All the while, the terrible violence in Daddy grew.

Atmospheric and unsettling, Elmet is a lyrical commentary on contemporary society and one family's precarious place in it, as well as an exploration of how deep the bond between father and child can go.

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311 Fiona Mozley 1473660548 Ioana 4 fiction 3.77 2017 Elmet
author: Fiona Mozley
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2018/01/01
date added: 2018/12/31
shelves: fiction
review:

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

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

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

Then came the fire.]]>
464 Will Hill 1492669792 Ioana 5 fiction, cults 4.29 2017 After the Fire
author: Will Hill
name: Ioana
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2018/01/01
date added: 2018/12/31
shelves: fiction, cults
review:

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The Cloister 35457226 From National Book Award-winning writer James Carroll comes a novel of the timeless love story of Peter Abelard and Heloise, and its impact on a modern priest and a Holocaust survivor seeking sanctuary in Manhattan.

Father Michael Kavanagh is shocked to see a friend from his seminary days named Runner Malloy at the altar of his humble Inwood community parish. Wondering about their past, he wanders into the medieval haven of The Cloisters, and begins a conversation with a lovely and intriguing museum guide, Rachel Vedette.

Rachel, a scholar of medieval history, has retreated to the quiet of The Cloisters after her harrowing experience as a Jewish woman in France during the Holocaust. She ponders her late father's greatest intellectual work: a study demonstrating the relationship between the famously discredited monk Peter Abelard and Jewish scholars. Something about Father Kavanagh makes Rachel think he might appreciate her continued studies, and she shares with him the work that cost her father his life.

At the center of these interrelated stories is the classic romance between the great scholar Peter Abelard and his intellectual equal Heloise. For Rachel, Abelard is the key to understanding her people's place in intellectual history. For Kavanagh, he is a doorway to understanding the life he might have had outside of the Church. The Cloister is James Carroll at his best.]]>
384 James Carroll 0385541279 Ioana 4 fiction, christianity 3.80 2018 The Cloister
author: James Carroll
name: Ioana
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2018/01/01
date added: 2018/12/31
shelves: fiction, christianity
review:

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