Claire's bookshelf: all en-US Thu, 10 Apr 2025 19:29:29 -0700 60 Claire's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg]]> 25422234 Only Ruth Bader Ginsburg can judge me.
The Ruth will set you free.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg never asked for fame—she was just trying to make the world a little better and a little freer. But along the way, the feminist pioneer's searing dissents and steely strength have inspired millions. Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, created by the young lawyer who began the Internet sensation and an award-winning journalist, takes you behind the myth for an intimate, irreverent look at the justice's life and work. As America struggles with the unfinished business of gender equality and civil rights, Ginsburg stays fierce. And if you don't know, now you know.]]>
240 Irin Carmon 0062415832 Claire 0 currently-reading 4.18 2015 Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg
author: Irin Carmon
name: Claire
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/10
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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2025 on Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ 216825549 2025 on Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ should make an interesting and varied catalogue of books to inspire other readers in 2026.

For those of you who don't like to add titles you haven't actually 'read', you can place 2025 on Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ on an 'exclusive' shelf. Exclusive shelves don't have to be listed under 'to read', 'currently reading' or 'read'. To create one, go to 'edit bookshelves' on your 'My Books' page, create a shelf name such as 'review-of-the year' and tick the 'exclusive' box. Your previous and future 'reviews of the year' can be collected together on this dedicated shelf.

Concept created by Fionnuala Lirsdottir.
Description: Fionnuala Lirsdottir
Cover art: Paul CĂ©zanne, Vase of Flowers and Apples, 1889-1890
Cover choice and graphics by Jayson]]>
Various Claire 0 goodreads-2025 —â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä� 4.71 2025 2025 on Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ
author: Various
name: Claire
average rating: 4.71
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/10
shelves: goodreads-2025
review:
—â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä�
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Twisted Games (Twisted, #2) 157816656
Bridget von Ascheberg. A princess with a stubborn streak and a hidden fire that reduces his rules to ash. She's nothing he expected and everything he never knew he needed. Day by day, inch by inch, she breaks down his defenses until he's faced with a truth he can no longer deny: he swore an oath to protect her, but all he wants is to ruin her.

Because she's his. His princess. His forbidden fruit. His every depraved fantasy.

Regal, strong-willed, and bound by the chains of duty, Princess Bridget dreams of the freedom to live and love as she chooses. But when her brother abdicates, she's suddenly faced with the prospect of a loveless, politically expedient marriage and a throne she never wanted.

And as she navigates the intricacies-and treacheries-of her new role, she must also hide her desire for a man she can't have. Her bodyguard. Her protector. Her ultimate ruin.

Theirs is a love that could destroy a kingdom...and doom them both.

Contains mature themes.]]>
Ana Huang Claire 0 currently-reading 3.54 2021 Twisted Games (Twisted, #2)
author: Ana Huang
name: Claire
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/10
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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Twisted Love (Twisted, #1) 123213489
He has a heart of ice…but for her, he'd burn the world

A diverse new adult steamy romance from Tiktok sensation and USA Today bestselling author Ana Huang.

Alex Volkov is a devil blessed with the face of an angel and cursed with a past he can't escape.

Driven by a tragedy that has haunted him for most of his life, his ruthless pursuits for success and vengeance leave little room for matters of the heart.

But when he's forced to look after his best friend's sister, he starts to feel something in his chest:

A crack.

A melt.

A fire that could end his world as he knew it.

***

Ava Chen is a free spirit trapped by nightmares of a childhood she can't remember.

But despite her broken past, she's never stopped seeing the beauty in the world...including the heart beneath the icy exterior of a man she shouldn't want.

Her brother's best friend.

Her neighbor.

Her savior and her downfall.

Theirs is a love that was never supposed to happen-but when it does, it unleashes secrets that could destroy them both...and everything they hold dear.

Twisted Love is a contemporary brother's best friend/grumpy sunshine romance. It's book one in the Twisted series but can be read as a standalone.]]>
Ana Huang Claire 2
And I honestly don’t know how to feel, cause I liked it but then I also didn’t like it but it wasn’t just meh, so do I say it was really good or really bad?]]>
3.08 2021 Twisted Love (Twisted, #1)
author: Ana Huang
name: Claire
average rating: 3.08
book published: 2021
rating: 2
read at: 2025/04/10
date added: 2025/04/10
shelves:
review:
Simultaneously entertained, confused and concerned me while I was doing a painting project for almost four strait hours today.

And I honestly don’t know how to feel, cause I liked it but then I also didn’t like it but it wasn’t just meh, so do I say it was really good or really bad?
]]>
A Gathering of Old Men 542953
Building to a climax that is as stunning as it is inevitable, 'A GATHERING OF OLD MEN' powerfully describes the racial tensions in 1970s Louisiana. Narrators Peter Francis James, Michelle-Denise Woods, Sally Darling, Graham Brown, Murphy Guyer, Tom Stechschulte, and Mark Hammer bring Gaines' masterful prose to vivid life.



Running Time => 7hrs. and 37mins.

©1992 Ernest J. Gaines (P)1996 Recorded Books]]>
214 Ernest J. Gaines 0679738908 Claire 5 4.07 1983 A Gathering of Old Men
author: Ernest J. Gaines
name: Claire
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1983
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/08
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[When the Moon Hatched (Moonfall, #1)]]> 202507554 moons.

They certainly did not expect them to fall.

As a valued Elding Blade of the rebellion group Fíur du Ath, Raeve’s job is to kill. To complete orders and never get caught. When a renowned bounty hunter is employed by The Crown to capture a member of the Ath, Raeve’s world is turned upside down. Blood spills, hearts break, and Raeve finds herself at the mercy of the Guild of Nobles—a group of dual-beaded elementals who intend to turn her into a political statement. Only death will set her free.

Crushed beneath a mourning weight, Kaan Vaegor took the head of a king and donned his melted crown. Now on a tireless quest to assuage the never-ebbing ache in his chest, his hunt for a moonshard lures him into the belly of Gore’s notorious prison where he stumbles upon something that rips apart his perception of reality. A shackled miracle with eyes full of rage and blood on her hands.

The echo of the past sings louder than the Creators themselves, and even Raeve can’t ignore the truths blaring at her from a warmer, happier time.
However.
There’s more to this song than meets the eye, and some truths �
They’re too poisonous to swallow.

When the Moon Hatched is a fast-paced fantasy romance for fans of witty banter and strong, sassy protagonists. Beneath the cover is an immersive, vibrant world with mysterious creatures, a unique magic system, and a love that blazes through the ages. ]]>
718 Sarah A. Parker Claire 3 2025-read, fantasy
I’m confused.

What happened?

Why did I really like it; I legit didn’t know what was occurring whatsoever. All I got was this:

Lady has stone in head, falls in love with guy, she dies�
She comes back to life! Why? Idk. It kinda just…happened. Lady has very bad amnesia, has a demon thing living inside her now, kills people for a living. Love that. Lady goes to jail, gets punished to death by dragon frenzy, is rescued by dragon (and dude on said dragon), goes to other kingdom, remembers shit, sleeps, eats, breathes, etc. lady falls back in love, kills another dude, saves a dragon, eats, sleeps, and breathes some more.

That’s about all I got out of this book.

Adios peeps.



]]>
3.99 2024 When the Moon Hatched (Moonfall, #1)
author: Sarah A. Parker
name: Claire
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/21
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: 2025-read, fantasy
review:
That was fun.

I’m confused.

What happened?

Why did I really like it; I legit didn’t know what was occurring whatsoever. All I got was this:

Lady has stone in head, falls in love with guy, she dies�
She comes back to life! Why? Idk. It kinda just…happened. Lady has very bad amnesia, has a demon thing living inside her now, kills people for a living. Love that. Lady goes to jail, gets punished to death by dragon frenzy, is rescued by dragon (and dude on said dragon), goes to other kingdom, remembers shit, sleeps, eats, breathes, etc. lady falls back in love, kills another dude, saves a dragon, eats, sleeps, and breathes some more.

That’s about all I got out of this book.

Adios peeps.




]]>
<![CDATA[Oathbound (The Legendborn Cycle, #3)]]> 214151316
Bree Matthews is alone. She exiled herself from the Legendborn Order, cut her ancestral connections, and turned away from the friends who can’t understand the impossible cost of her powers. This is the only way to keep herself—and those she loves—safe.

But Bree’s decision has come with a terrible price: an unbreakable bargain with the Shadow King himself, a shapeshifter who can move between humanity, the demon underworld, and the Legendborn secret society. In exchange for training to wield her unprecedented abilities, Bree has put her future in the Shadow King’s hands—and unwittingly bound herself to do his bidding as his new protégé.

Meanwhile, the other Scions must face war with their Round Table fractured, leaderless, and missing its Kingsmage, as Selwyn has also disappeared. When Nick is detained by the Order’s Merlins, he invokes an ancient law that requires the High Council of Regents to convene at the Northern Keep and grant him an audience. No one knows what he will demand of them...or what secrets he has kept hidden from the Table.

As a string of mysterious kidnappings escalates and Merlins are found dead, it becomes clear that no matter how hard Bree runs from who she is, the past will always find her.]]>
656 Tracy Deonn 1665951907 Claire 0 currently-reading 4.43 2025 Oathbound (The Legendborn Cycle, #3)
author: Tracy Deonn
name: Claire
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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<![CDATA[The Bridge Kingdom (The Bridge Kingdom, #1)]]> 53921926
The only route through a storm-ravaged world, the Bridge Kingdom enriches itself and deprives its rivals, including Lara's homeland. So when she’s sent as a bride under the guise of peace, Lara is prepared to do whatever it takes to fracture its impenetrable defenses. And the defenses of its king.

Yet as she infiltrates her new home and gains a deeper understanding of the war to possess the bridge, Lara begins to question whether she’s the hero or the villain. And as her feelings for Aren transform from frosty hostility to fierce passion, Lara must choose which kingdom she’ll save� and which kingdom she’ll destroy.

Passionate and violent, The Bridge Kingdom is a seductive fantasy perfect for fans of From Blood and Ash and A Court of Thorns and Roses.]]>
356 Danielle L. Jensen Claire 0 to-read 4.02 2018 The Bridge Kingdom (The Bridge Kingdom, #1)
author: Danielle L. Jensen
name: Claire
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/07
shelves: to-read
review:

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Linked 55959758
Because Michael was the first person to see it, he's the first suspect. Because Link is one of the most popular guys in school, everyone's looking to him to figure it out. And because Dana's the only Jewish girl in the whole town, everyone's treating her more like an outsider than ever.

The mystery deepens as more swastikas begin to appear. Some students decide to fight back and start a project to bring people together instead of dividing them further. The closer Link, Michael, and Dana get to the truth, the more there is to face-not just the crimes of the present, but the crimes of the past.]]>
256 Gordon Korman 1338629115 Claire 0 4.15 2021 Linked
author: Gordon Korman
name: Claire
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/07
shelves:
review:

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Two Can Play 217108838
An enemies-to-lovers spicy romance set in the world of video gaming from the bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis—available only in audio!

Viola Bowen has the chance of a lifetime: to design a video game based on her all-time favorite book series. The only problem? Her co-lead is Jesse F-ing Andrews, a.k.a. her arch-nemesis. Jesse has made it abundantly clear over the years that he wants nothing to do with her–and Viola has no idea why.

When their bosses insist a wintery retreat is the perfect team-building exercise, Viola can’t think of anything worse. Being freezing cold in a remote mountain lodge knowing Jesse is right next door? No, thank you.

But as the snow piles on, Viola discovers there’s more to Jesse than she knew, and heat builds in more ways than one.]]>
5 Ali Hazelwood Claire 3 3.55 2024 Two Can Play
author: Ali Hazelwood
name: Claire
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/05
date added: 2025/04/05
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Binding 13 (Boys of Tommen, #1)]]> 146943294 626 Chloe Walsh 1728299950 Claire 4 4.45 2018 Binding 13 (Boys of Tommen, #1)
author: Chloe Walsh
name: Claire
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/09
date added: 2025/04/04
shelves: 2024-read, romance, currently-reading
review:

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<![CDATA[Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games, #0.5)]]> 214331246 When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?

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

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

When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.]]>
382 Suzanne Collins 1546171460 Claire 0 currently-reading 4.66 2025 Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games, #0.5)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Claire
average rating: 4.66
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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<![CDATA[Apprentice to the Villain (Assistant to the Villain, #2)]]> 203147386
Evie Sage has never been happier to be the assistant to The Villain. Who would have thought that working for an outrageously handsome (shhh, bad for his brand) evil overlord would be so rewarding? Still, the business of being bad is demanding, the forces of good are annoyingly persistent, and said forbidding boss is somewhat…er, out-of-evil-office.

But Rennedawn is in grave trouble, and all signs―Kingsley’s included―point to catastrophe. Something peculiar is happening with the kingdom’s magic, and it’s made The Villain’s manor vulnerable to their enemies...including their nemesis, the king.

Now it’s time for Evie to face her greatest challenge: protecting The Villain’s lair, all of his nefarious works, and maybe (provided no one finds out) the entire kingdom. No pressure, Evie.

It’s time to step out of her comfort zone and learn new skills. Like treason. Dagger work. Conspiring with the enemy. It’s all so…so…delightfully fun.

But what happens when the assistant to The Villain is ready to become his apprentice?]]>
368 Hannah Nicole Maehrer 1649377177 Claire 3 4.07 2024 Apprentice to the Villain (Assistant to the Villain, #2)
author: Hannah Nicole Maehrer
name: Claire
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/03
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[The Unhoneymooners (Unhoneymooners, #1)]]> 42201431
Olive braces herself to get through 24 hours of wedding hell before she can return to her comfortable, unlucky life. But when the entire wedding party gets food poisoning from eating bad shellfish, the only people who aren’t affected are Olive and Ethan. And now there’s an all-expenses-paid honeymoon in Hawaii up for grabs.

Putting their mutual hatred aside for the sake of a free vacation, Olive and Ethan head for paradise, determined to avoid each other at all costs. But when Olive runs into her future boss, the little white lie she tells him is suddenly at risk to become a whole lot bigger. She and Ethan now have to pretend to be loving newlyweds, and her luck seems worse than ever. But the weird thing is that she doesn’t mind playing pretend. In fact, she feels kind of... lucky.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781501128035.]]>
432 Christina Lauren 1501128035 Claire 0 to-read 3.88 2019 The Unhoneymooners (Unhoneymooners, #1)
author: Christina Lauren
name: Claire
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Scythe & Sparrow (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #3)]]> 127616032 Discover the serial killer romance series everyone is talking about!From the no.1 New York Times bestselling author of the genre-breaking international TikTok sensation Butcher & Blackbird and Leather & Lark comes the final book in the Ruinous Love Trilogy - a friends-with-benefits dark romantic comedy.

Murder.

Mayhem.

And spice.

Doctor Fionn Kane is running from a broken heart, one he hopes to mend in small-town Nebraska, far away from his almost-fiance and his derailed surgical career. It's a simpler head down, hard work, and absolutely no romantic relationships. He wants none of the circus he left behind in Boston.

But then the real circus finds him.

Motorcycle performer Rose Evans has spent a decade on the road with the Silveria Circus, and it suits her just fine, especially when she has the urge to indulge in a little murder when she's not in the spotlight. But when a kill goes awry and she ends up with an injured leg, Rose finds herself stuck in Nebraska, at the home of the adorably nerdy town doctor.

The problem is, not every broken heart can be sewn back together.

. . . And the longer you stay in one place, the more likely your ghosts are to catch up.

***


Friends with benefits
Small town romance
Fish out of water
Forced proximity
Hurt/care
Touch her and die]]>
416 Brynne Weaver Claire 4 2025-read, romance, eeeeekkkk 4.11 2025 Scythe & Sparrow (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #3)
author: Brynne Weaver
name: Claire
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/30
date added: 2025/04/02
shelves: 2025-read, romance, eeeeekkkk
review:

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Vicious (Villains, #1) 40874032 A masterful tale of ambition, jealousy, desire, and superpowers.

Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong.

Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?

In Vicious, V. E. Schwab brings to life a gritty comic-book-style world in vivid prose: a world where gaining superpowers doesn't automatically lead to heroism, and a time when allegiances are called into question.]]>
402 Victoria E. Schwab Claire 0 to-read 4.17 2013 Vicious (Villains, #1)
author: Victoria E. Schwab
name: Claire
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Dungeons and Drama (Dungeons and Drama, #1)]]> 160047094
Musical lover Riley has big aspirations to become a director on Broadway. Crucial to this plan is to bring back her high school’s spring musical, but when Riley takes her mom’s car without permission, she's grounded and stuck with the worst punishment: spending her after-school hours working at her dad’s game shop.

Riley can't waste her time working when she has a musical to save, so she convinces Nathan—a nerdy teen employee—to cover her shifts and, in exchange, she’ll flirt with him to make his gamer-girl crush jealous.

But Riley didn’t realize that meant joining Nathan's Dungeons & Dragons game…or that role playing would be so fun. Soon, Riley starts to think that flirting with Nathan doesn't require as much acting as she would've thought...]]>
304 Kristy Boyce 0593647017 Claire 0 to-read 4.14 2024 Dungeons and Drama (Dungeons and Drama, #1)
author: Kristy Boyce
name: Claire
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Deviant King (Royal Elite, #1)]]> 53180698 The villain isn't supposed to be king

I have a simple plan.
Finish Royal Elite School and get into my dream university.

One glance from the school’s king blows my plan up in smoke.
One glance and he suffocates my air.
One glance and he issues his death sentence.

His first words spiral my life into irreparable chaos.
“I will destroy you.�

Everything about Aiden King is black.
Black mind.
Black heart.
Black soul.

I should’ve remained quiet and endured the time I have left.
I didn’t.

I made the irrevocable mistake of provoking the king on his throne.
The devil in his hell.

And now, I’ll pay the price.

Being hated by Aiden King is dangerous.
But being wanted by him is lethal.

Deviant King is book one of Royal Elite Series. This is a dark high school bully romance, mature new adult, and contains dubious situations that some readers might find offensive. Aiden isn’t the normal romance hero. In fact, he’s not a hero at ALL. So please don’t read this if any of that bothers you.

Royal Elite Series:
#1 Deviant King
#2 Steel Princess
#3 Twisted Kingdom

This book is part of a trilogy and is NOT a standalone.
The entire trilogy is available.
]]>
364 Rina Kent Claire 0 to-read 3.91 2019 Deviant King (Royal Elite, #1)
author: Rina Kent
name: Claire
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[On Earth as It Is on Television]]> 62874129 First Contact stories have never been as intoxicating and fun as in Emily Jane’s novel of the sudden arrival—and equally sudden departure—of spaceships above Earth.

The arrival of spaceships can bring up a lot of big questions:
What does it mean that we’re not alone?
Why did aliens come here?
Who knew beforehand?
Where�. are the aliens going?

Wait� They can’t just leave! Without inviting us into their galactic federation—or at the very least obliterating us!

In Emily Jane’s debut—a rollicking paean to what it means to be alive in the twenty-first century—the fleeting presence of alien vessels, and the certainty that humans are not alone in the universe, sparks intense uncertainty as to our place within it.

Blaine has always been content to go along with whatever his supermom wife and television-addicted, half-feral children want. But when the kids blithely ponder skinning people to see if they’re aliens, and his wife announces a surprise road trip to Disney World, even steady Blaine begins to crack.

Half a continent away, Heather, bored in a Malibu pool while the ships hover overhead, watches as the Arrival heralds the demise of her dead-end relationship and sets her on a quest to understand herself, her accomplished (and oh-so-annoying) stepfamily, and why she feels so alone in a universe teeming with life.

And Oliver, suddenly conscious and alert after twenty catatonic years, struggles to piece together broken memories and understand why he’s following a strange cat on a westward journey and into the greatest adventure of his—or anyone’s—lifetime.]]>
352 Emily Jane 1368092993 Claire 0 to-read 3.60 2023 On Earth as It Is on Television
author: Emily Jane
name: Claire
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: to-read
review:

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Klara and the Sun 54120408
In Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro looks at our rapidly changing modern world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator to explore a fundamental question: what does it mean to love?]]>
340 Kazuo Ishiguro 059331817X Claire 0 to-read 3.71 2021 Klara and the Sun
author: Kazuo Ishiguro
name: Claire
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Heartstopper: Volume One (Heartstopper, #1)]]> 40495957
Charlie Spring is in Year 10 at Truham Grammar School for Boys. The past year hasn't been too great, but at least he's not being bullied anymore. Nick Nelson is in Year 11 and on the school rugby team. He's heard a little about Charlie - the kid who was outed last year and bullied for a few months - but he's never had the opportunity to talk to him.

They quickly become friends, and soon Charlie is falling hard for Nick, even though he doesn't think he has a chance. But love works in surprising ways, and sometimes good things are waiting just around the corner...]]>
288 Alice Oseman 152722533X Claire 0 to-read 4.43 2018 Heartstopper: Volume One (Heartstopper, #1)
author: Alice Oseman
name: Claire
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: to-read
review:

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Firelight (Amulet, #7) 25943106 199 Kazu Kibuishi 0545433169 Claire 0 4.38 2016 Firelight (Amulet, #7)
author: Kazu Kibuishi
name: Claire
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Escape from Lucien (Amulet, #6)]]> 20578979 A WORTHY MISSION...OR A TRAP?

Navin and his classmates journey to Lucien, a city ravaged by war and plagued by mysterious creatures, where they search for a beacon essential to their fight against the Elf King. Meanwhile, Emily heads back into the Void with Max, one of the Elf King's loyal followers, where she learns his darkest secrets. The stakes, for both Emily and Navin, are higher than ever.]]>
220 Kazu Kibuishi 0545433150 Claire 0 4.34 2014 Escape from Lucien (Amulet, #6)
author: Kazu Kibuishi
name: Claire
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Prince of the Elves (Amulet, #5)]]> 13436384 THE ENEMY GROWS STRONGER....

Emily survived the chaos of the Guardian Academy, but Max Griffin has stolen the Mother Stone. With it, the Elf King forges new Amulets that will give him the power to invade and destroy the nation of Windsor. Emily and her friends lead the soldiers of the Cielis Guard in a fight to stop him, but Max stands in their way. And when she seeks information from the Voice of her Amulet, she discovers that the Voice is much more sinister than she ever could have imagined.]]>
203 Kazu Kibuishi 0545208890 Claire 0 4.37 2012 Prince of the Elves (Amulet, #5)
author: Kazu Kibuishi
name: Claire
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves:
review:

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The Last Council (Amulet, #4) 10537195 A FALLEN CITY WHERE TERRIBLE SECRETS ARE REVEALED...

Emily and her friends think they'll find the help they need in Cielis, but something isn't right. Streets that were once busy are deserted, and the townspeople who are left live in fear. Emily is soon escorted to the Academy, where she's expected to compete for a spot on the Guardian Council, a group of the most powerful Stonekeepers. But as the number of competitors gets smaller and smaller, an awful secret is slowly uncovered—a secret that, if left buried, means the certain destruction of everything Emily fights for.]]>
219 Kazu Kibuishi 0545208874 Claire 0 4.38 2011 The Last Council (Amulet, #4)
author: Kazu Kibuishi
name: Claire
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[The Cloud Searchers (Amulet, #3)]]> 7955881 AN IMPOSSIBLE JOURNEY WITH DANGER AT EVERY TURN...

Emily, Navin, and their crew of resistance fighters charter an airship and set off in search of the lost city of Cielis. There they hope to find help from the Guardian Council's powerful Stonekeepers. It's a mission that Alledia's survival depends on, and time is running out—Emily's got to find Cielis before the Elf King finds her.]]>
203 Kazu Kibuishi 0545208858 Claire 0 4.34 2010 The Cloud Searchers (Amulet, #3)
author: Kazu Kibuishi
name: Claire
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[The Stonekeeper's Curse (Amulet, #2)]]> 6277410 A MYSTERIOUS WORLD FULL OF NEW ALLIES... AND OLD ENEMIES!

Emily and Navin's mother is still in a coma from the arachnopod's poison, and there's only one place to find help: Kanalis, the bustling, beautiful city of waterfalls. But when Em, her brother, and Miskit and the rest of the robotic crew aboard the walking house reach the city, they quickly realize that seeking help is looking for trouble...dangerous trouble.]]>
220 Kazu Kibuishi 0439846838 Claire 0 4.32 2009 The Stonekeeper's Curse (Amulet, #2)
author: Kazu Kibuishi
name: Claire
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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The Stonekeeper (Amulet, #1) 1238684
After the tragic death of their father, Emily and Navin move with their mother to the home of her deceased great-grandfather, but the strange house proves to be dangerous. Before long, a sinister creature lures the kids' mom through a door in the basement. Em and Navin, desperate not to lose her, follow her into an underground world inhabited by demons, robots, and talking animals.

Eventually, they enlist the help of a small mechanical rabbit named Miskit. Together with Miskit, they face the most terrifying monster of all, and Em finally has the chance to save someone she loves.]]>
192 Kazu Kibuishi 0439846803 Claire 0 4.17 2008 The Stonekeeper (Amulet, #1)
author: Kazu Kibuishi
name: Claire
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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Gender Queer: A Memoir 42837514 Gender Queer is here. Maia's intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma of pap smears. Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity—what it means and how to think about it—for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere.]]> 240 Maia Kobabe 1549304003 Claire 0 to-read 4.25 2019 Gender Queer: A Memoir
author: Maia Kobabe
name: Claire
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[The Courting of Bristol Keats (The Courting of Bristol Keats, #1)]]> 203579027
After losing both their parents, Bristol Keats and her sisters struggle to stay afloat in their small, quiet town of Bowskeep. When Bristol begins to receive letters from an “aunt� she’s never heard of who promises she can help, she reluctantly agrees to meet—and discovers that everything she thought she knew about her family is a lie. Even her father might still be alive, not killed but kidnapped by terrifying creatures to a whole other realm—the one he is from.

Desperate to save her father and find the truth, Bristol journeys to a land of gods and fae and monsters. Pulled into a dangerous world of magic and intrigue, she makes a deadly bargain with the fae king, Tyghan. But what she doesn't know is that he's the one who drove her parents to live a life on the run. And he is just as determined as she is to find her father—dead or alive.]]>
547 Mary E. Pearson 1250367573 Claire 0 currently-reading 3.70 2024 The Courting of Bristol Keats (The Courting of Bristol Keats, #1)
author: Mary E. Pearson
name: Claire
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[The Ballad of Falling Dragons (Moonfall, #2)]]> 216815055 â� Raeve and Kaan will return in the highly anticipated sequel to the #1 internationally bestselling phenomenon, When The Moon Hatched. Prepare for more danger, magic, romance and dragons!â�]]> Sarah A. Parker 000871035X Claire 0 to-read 4.35 2025 The Ballad of Falling Dragons (Moonfall, #2)
author: Sarah A. Parker
name: Claire
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Paris, 1919: Six Months that Changed the World]]> 847577 For six months, Paris was effectively the center of the world as the peacemakers carved up bankrupt empires and created new countries. This book brings to life the personalities, ideals, and prejudices of the men who shaped the settlement. They pushed Russia to the sidelines, alienated China, and dismissed the Arabs. They struggled with the problems of Kosovo, of the Kurds, and of a homeland for the Jews.
The peacemakers, so it has been said, failed dismally; above all they failed to prevent another war. Margaret MacMillan argues that they have unfairly been made the scapegoats for the mistakes of those who came later. She refutes received ideas about the path from Versailles to World War II and debunks the widely accepted notion that reparations imposed on the Germans were in large part responsible for the Second World War.
A landmark work of narrative history, Paris 1919 is the first full-scale treatment of the Peace Conference in more than twenty-five years. It offers a scintillating view of those dramatic and fateful days when much of the modern world was sketched out, when countries were created—Iraq, Yugoslavia, Israel—whose troubles haunt us still.

Winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize
Winner of the PEN Hessell Tiltman Prize
Winner of the Duff Cooper Prize]]>
570 Margaret MacMillan 0375508260 Claire 0 currently-reading 4.18 2001 Paris, 1919: Six Months that Changed the World
author: Margaret MacMillan
name: Claire
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2001
rating: 0
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Only for the Week 208987525
And now a toast from the maid of honor, Janelle Cross!

Hi everyone, thank you for being here.

Some of you may know me as the sister of the bride.

Some of you may know me as the ex-girlfriend of the groom.

But I'm willing to bet none of you know me as the woman secretly sleeping with the best man.

I am.

I know, I'm just as surprised as you.

It was only supposed to be for the week; but every kiss, adventure, and stolen moment with Rome Martin feels like it could last forever.

Oh well. What happens in Tulum stays in Tulum.

Right?]]>
0 Natasha Bishop Claire 2 4.08 2023 Only for the Week
author: Natasha Bishop
name: Claire
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/05
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves: 2025-read, audiobooks, romance
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<![CDATA[Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism]]> 55338982
What makes “cults� so intriguing and frightening? What makes them powerful? The reason why so many of us binge Manson documentaries by the dozen and fall down rabbit holes researching suburban moms gone QAnon is because we’re looking for a satisfying explanation for what causes people to join—and more importantly, stay in—extreme groups. We secretly want to know: could it happen to me? Amanda Montell’s argument is that, on some level, it already has . . .

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

Through juicy storytelling and cutting original research, Montell exposes the verbal elements that make a wide spectrum of communities “cultish,� revealing how they affect followers of groups as notorious as Heaven’s Gate, but also how they pervade our modern start-ups, Peloton leaderboards, and Instagram feeds. Incisive and darkly funny, this enrapturing take on the curious social science of power and belief will make you hear the fanatical language of “cultish� everywhere.]]>
309 Amanda Montell 0062993151 Claire 0 to-read 3.82 2021 Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
author: Amanda Montell
name: Claire
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2021
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<![CDATA[The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom]]> 386482
� A New York Times bestseller for over a decade
� An international bestseller published in 52 languages worldwide

“This book by don Miguel Ruiz, simple yet so powerful, has made a tremendous difference in how I think and act in every encounter.� � Oprah Winfrey

“Don Miguel Ruiz’s book is a roadmap to enlightenment and freedom.� � Deepak Chopra, Author, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success

“An inspiring book with many great lessons.� � Wayne Dyer, Author, Real Magic

“In the tradition of Castaneda, Ruiz distills essential Toltec wisdom, expressing with clarity and impeccability what it means for men and women to live as peaceful warriors in the modern world.� � Dan Millman, Author, Way of the Peaceful Warrior]]>
140 Miguel Ruiz 1878424319 Claire 0 to-read 4.23 1997 The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom
author: Miguel Ruiz
name: Claire
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1997
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Poverty, by America 61358638 Reimagining the debate on poverty, making a new and bracing argument about why it persists in America: because the rest of us benefit from it.

The United States, the richest country on earth, has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. Why? Why does this land of plenty allow one in every eight of its children to go without basic necessities, permit scores of its citizens to live and die on the streets, and authorize its corporations to pay poverty wages?

In this landmark book, acclaimed sociologist Matthew Desmond draws on history, research, and original reporting to show how affluent Americans knowingly and unknowingly keep poor people poor. Those of us who are financially secure exploit the poor, driving down their wages while forcing them to overpay for housing and access to cash and credit. We prioritize the subsidization of our wealth over the alleviation of poverty, designing a welfare state that gives the most to those who need the least. And we stockpile opportunity in exclusive communities, creating zones of concentrated riches alongside those of concentrated despair. Some lives are made small so that others may grow.

Elegantly written and fiercely argued, this compassionate book gives us new ways of thinking about a morally urgent problem. It also helps us imagine solutions. Desmond builds a startlingly original and ambitious case for ending poverty. He calls on us all to become poverty abolitionists, engaged in a politics of collective belonging to usher in a new age of shared prosperity and, at last, true freedom.]]>
304 Matthew Desmond 0593239911 Claire 0 to-read 4.27 2023 Poverty, by America
author: Matthew Desmond
name: Claire
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2023
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<![CDATA[This Is How You Lose the Time War]]> 43352954 Burn before reading. Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, grows into something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future.

Except the discovery of their bond would mean death for each of them. There's still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win that war.]]>
209 Amal El-Mohtar Claire 0 to-read 3.87 2019 This Is How You Lose the Time War
author: Amal El-Mohtar
name: Claire
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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The Song of Achilles 13623848 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780062060624.

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

They are trained by the centaur Chiron in the arts of war and medicine, but when word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, all the heroes of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause, and torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows. Little do they know that the cruel Fates will test them both as never before and demand a terrible sacrifice.]]>
408 Madeline Miller Claire 0 to-read 4.30 2011 The Song of Achilles
author: Madeline Miller
name: Claire
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Quicksilver (Fae & Alchemy, #1)]]> 217536270
In the land of the unforgiving desert, there isn't much a girl wouldn't do for a glass of water.

Twenty-four-year-old Saeris Fane is good at keeping secrets. No one knows about the strange powers she possesses, or the fact that she has been picking pockets and stealing from the Undying Queen's reservoirs for as long as she can remember.

But a secret is like a knot. Sooner or later, it is bound to come undone.

When Saeris comes face-to-face with Death himself, she inadvertently re-opens a gateway between realms and is transported to a land of ice and snow. The Fae have always been the stuff of myth, of legend, of nightmares... but it turns out they're real, and Saeris has landed herself in the middle of a centuries-long conflict that might just get her killed.

The first of her kind to tread the frozen mountains of Yvelia in over a thousand years, Saeris mistakenly binds herself to Kingfisher, a handsome Fae warrior, who has secrets and nefarious agendas of his own. He will use her Alchemist's magic to protect his people, no matter what it costs him . . . or her.

Death has a name. It is Kingfisher of the Ajun Gate. His past is murky. His attitude stinks. And he's the only way Saeris is going to make it home.]]>
624 Callie Hart 1538774194 Claire 3 2024-read, eeeeekkkk, fantasy 4.30 2024 Quicksilver (Fae & Alchemy, #1)
author: Callie Hart
name: Claire
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2024
rating: 3
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date added: 2025/03/16
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Animal Farm 170448 Librarian's note: There is an Alternate Cover Edition for this edition of this book here.

A farm is taken over by its overworked, mistreated animals. With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, they set out to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality. Thus the stage is set for one of the most telling satiric fables ever penned –a razor-edged fairy tale for grown-ups that records the evolution from revolution against tyranny to a totalitarianism just as terrible.
When Animal Farm was first published, Stalinist Russia was seen as its target. Today it is devastatingly clear that wherever and whenever freedom is attacked, under whatever banner, the cutting clarity and savage comedy of George Orwell’s masterpiece have a meaning and message still ferociously fresh.]]>
141 George Orwell 0451526341 Claire 5 classics, 2025-read 4.07 1945 Animal Farm
author: George Orwell
name: Claire
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1945
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/26
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves: classics, 2025-read
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Dinner for Vampires 216580311 A deliciously witty and inspiring memoir by One Tree Hill star Bethany Joy Lenz about her decade in a cult and her quest to break free.

In the early 2000s, after years of hard work and determination to breakthrough as an actor, Bethany Joy Lenz was finally cast as one of the leads on the hit drama One Tree Hill. Her career was about to take off, but her personal life was slowly beginning to unravel. What none of the show’s millions of fans knew, hidden even from her costars, was her secret double life in a cult.

An only child who often had to fend for herself and always wanted a place to belong, Lenz found the safe haven she’d been searching for in a Bible study group with other Hollywood creatives. However, the group soon morphed into something more sinister—a slowly woven web of manipulation, abuse, and fear under the guise of a church covenant called The Big House Family. Piece by piece, Lenz began to give away her autonomy, ultimately relocating to the Family’s Pacific Northwest compound, overseen by a domineering minister who would convince Lenz to marry one of his sons and steadily drained millions of her TV income without her knowledge. Family “minders� assigned to her on set, “Maoist struggle session”–inspired meetings in the basement of a filthy house, and regular counseling with “Leadership� were just part of the tactics used to keep her loyal.

Only when she became a mother did Lenz find the courage to leave and spare her child from a similar fate. After nearly a decade (and with the unlikely help of a One Tree Hill superfan), she finally managed to escape the family’s grip and begin to heal from the deep trauma that forever altered her relationship with God and her understanding of faith. Written with powerful honesty and dark humor, Dinner for Vampires is an inspiring story about the importance of identity and understanding what you believe.]]>
1 Bethany Joy Lenz 1668113716 Claire 5 4.34 2024 Dinner for Vampires
author: Bethany Joy Lenz
name: Claire
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/16
date added: 2025/03/16
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Connie: A Memoir 206119058 In an industry dominated by white men, Connie Chung stood alone, the first and only Asian woman to break into the television news industry. This is her extraordinary story, told with incisive wit and remarkable candor. Ěý Connie Chung is a pioneer.ĚýIn 1969 at the age of 23, this once-shy daughter of Chinese parents took her first job at a local TV station in her hometown of Washington, D.C. and soon thereafter began working at CBS news as a correspondent.ĚýProfoundly influenced by her family’s cultural traditions,Ěýyet growing up completely Americanized in the United States, Chung describes her career as an Asian woman in a white male-centered world.ĚýOvert sexism was a way of life,Ěýbut Chung was tenacious in her pursuit of stories â€� battling rival reporters to secure scoops that ranged from interviewing Magic Johnson to covering the Watergate scandal â€� and quickly becameĚýa household name. She made history when she achieved her dream of being the first woman to co-anchor theĚýCBS Evening NewsĚýand the first AsianĚýto anchor any news program in the U.S. Ěý Chung pulls no punches as she provides a behind-the-scenesĚýtour ofĚýher singular life. FromĚýshowdowns withĚýpowerful men in and out of the newsroom to the stories behind some of her career-defining reporting and the unwavering support of her husband, Maury Povich, nothing is off-limits â€� good, bad, or ugly. So be sure to tune in for an irreverent and inspiring this is CONNIE like you’ve never seen her before.]]> 336 Connie Chung 1538766981 Claire 0 to-read 4.11 2024 Connie: A Memoir
author: Connie Chung
name: Claire
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[The House of My Mother: A Daughter's Quest for Freedom]]> 214151420 From eldest daughter Shari Franke, the shocking true story behind the viral 8 Passengers family vlog and the hidden abuse she suffered at the hands of her mother, and how, in the face of unimaginable pain, she found freedom and healing.

Shari Franke’s childhood was a constant battle for survival. Her mother, Ruby Franke, enforced a severe moral code while maintaining a façade of a picture-perfect family for their wildly popular YouTube channel 8 Passengers, which documented the day-to-day life of raising six children for a staggering 2.5 million subscribers. But a darker truth lurked beneath the surface—Ruby’s wholesome online persona masked a more tyrannical parenting style than anyone could have imagined.

As the family’s YouTube notoriety grew, so too did Ruby’s delusions of righteousness. Fueled by the sadistic influence of relationship coach Jodi Hildebrandt, together they implemented an inhumane and merciless disciplinary regime.

Ruby and Jodi were arrested in Utah in 2023 on multiple charges of aggravated child abuse. On that fateful day, Shari shared a photo online of a police car outside their home. Her caption had one word: “Finally.�

For the first time, Shari will reveal the disturbing truth behind 8 Passengers and her family’s devastating involvement with Jodi Hildebrandt’s cultish life coaching program, “ConneXions.� No stone is left unturned as Shari exposes the perils of influencer culture and shares for the first time her battle for truth and survival in the face of her mother’s cruelty.]]>
320 Shari Franke 1668065398 Claire 0 to-read 4.44 2025 The House of My Mother: A Daughter's Quest for Freedom
author: Shari Franke
name: Claire
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2025
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The Unworthy 214151601 The long-awaited new novel from the author of global sensation Tender Is the Flesh: a thrilling work of literary horror about a woman cloistered in a secretive, violent religious order, while outside the world has fallen into chaos.

From her cell in a mysterious convent, a woman writes the story of her life in whatever she can find—discarded ink, dirt, and even her own blood. A lower member of the Sacred Sisterhood, deemed an unworthy, she dreams of ascending to the ranks of the Enlightened at the center of the convent and of pleasing the foreboding Superior Sister. Outside, the world is plagued by catastrophe—cities are submerged underwater, electricity and the internet are nonexistent, and bands of survivors fight and forage in a cruel, barren landscape. Inside, the narrator is controlled, punished, but safe.

But when a stranger makes her way past the convent walls, joining the ranks of the unworthy, she forces the narrator to consider her long-buried past—and what she may be overlooking about the Enlightened. As the two women grow closer, the narrator is increasingly haunted by questions about her own past, the environmental future, and her present life inside the convent. How did she get to the Sacred Sisterhood? Why can’t she remember her life before? And what really happens when a woman is chosen as one of the Enlightened?

A searing, dystopian tale about climate crisis, ideological extremism, and the tidal pull of our most violent, exploitative instincts, this is another unforgettable novel from a master of feminist horror.]]>
192 Agustina Bazterrica 1668051885 Claire 0 to-read 3.66 2023 The Unworthy
author: Agustina Bazterrica
name: Claire
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/16
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Cloistered: My Years as a Nun 126917977
Cloistered takes the reader deep into the hidden world of a traditional Carmelite monastery as it approaches the third Millennium and tells the story of an intense personal journey into and out of an enclosed life of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Finding an apparently perfect world at Akenside Priory, in Northumberland, Catherine trusts herself to a group of twenty silent women, believing she is trusting herself to God. As the beauty and mystery of an ancient way of life enfold her, she surrenders herself wholly to its power, quite unaware of the complexity and dangers that lie ahead.

Cut off from the wider world for decades, the community has managed to evade accountability to any authority beyond itself. When Sister Catherine realises that a mesmerising cult of the personality, with the distortions it entails, has replaced the ancient ideal of religious obedience, she is faced with a dilemma. Will she submit to this, or will she be forced to speak out?

An exploration of the limits of trust, Cloistered shows us how far youthful idealism can take us along the road of self-surrender, and of how much harm is done when institutional flaws go unacknowledged. Catherine’s honest account of her time in the monastery � and her dramatic flight from it � is both a love song to a lost community and an exploration of what is most compelling, yet most potentially destructive when closed human groups become laws unto themselves.]]>
342 Catherine Coldstream Claire 0 to-read 3.84 2024 Cloistered: My Years as a Nun
author: Catherine Coldstream
name: Claire
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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How to Say Babylon 62919742 Educated and Born a Crime, How to Say Babylon is the stunning story of the author’s struggle to break free of her rigid Rastafarian upbringing, ruled by her father’s strict patriarchal views and repressive control of her childhood, to find her own voice as a woman and poet.

Throughout her childhood, Safiya Sinclair’s father, a volatile reggae musician and militant adherent to a strict sect of Rastafari, became obsessed with her purity, in particular, with the threat of what Rastas call Babylon, the immoral and corrupting influences of the Western world outside their home. He worried that womanhood would make Safiya and her sisters morally weak and impure, and believed a woman’s highest virtue was her obedience.

In an effort to keep Babylon outside the gate, he forbade almost everything. In place of pants, the women in her family were made to wear long skirts and dresses to cover their arms and legs, head wraps to cover their hair, no make-up, no jewelry, no opinions, no friends. Safiya’s mother, while loyal to her father, nonetheless gave Safiya and her siblings the gift of books, including poetry, to which Safiya latched on for dear life. And as Safiya watched her mother struggle voicelessly for years under housework and the rigidity of her father’s beliefs, she increasingly used her education as a sharp tool with which to find her voice and break free. Inevitably, with her rebellion comes clashes with her father, whose rage and paranoia explodes in increasing violence. As Safiya’s voice grows, lyrically and poetically, a collision course is set between them.

How to Say Babylon is Sinclair’s reckoning with the culture that initially nourished but ultimately sought to silence her; it is her reckoning with patriarchy and tradition, and the legacy of colonialism in Jamaica. Rich in lyricism and language only a poet could evoke, How to Say Babylon is both a universal story of a woman finding her own power and a unique glimpse into a rarefied world we may know how to name, Rastafari, but one we know little about.']]>
352 Safiya Sinclair 1982132337 Claire 0 to-read 4.44 2023 How to Say Babylon
author: Safiya Sinclair
name: Claire
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[From Here to the Great Unknown]]> 204905217
A month later, Lisa Marie was dead, and the world would never know her story in her own words, never know the passionate, joyful, caring, and complicated woman that Riley loved and grieved.

Riley got the tapes that her mother had recorded for the book, laid in her bed, and listened as Lisa Marie told story after story about smashing golf carts together in the yards of Graceland, about the unconditional love she felt from her father, about being upstairs, just the two of them. About getting dragged screaming out of the bathroom as she ran towards his body on the floor. About living in Los Angeles with her mother, getting sent to school after school, always kicked out, always in trouble. About her singular, lifelong relationship with Danny Keough, about being married to Michael Jackson, what they shared in common. About motherhood. About deep addiction. About ever-present grief. Riley knew she had to fulfill her mother’s wish to reveal these memories, incandescent and painful, to the world.

To make her mother known.

This extraordinary book is written in both Lisa Marie’s and Riley’s voices, a mother and daughter communicating—from this world to the one beyond—as they try to heal each other. Profoundly moving and deeply revealing, From Here to the Great Unknown is a book like no other—the last words of the only child of an American icon.]]>
304 Lisa Marie Presley 0593733878 Claire 0 to-read 4.27 2024 From Here to the Great Unknown
author: Lisa Marie Presley
name: Claire
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Unsuitable: A History of Lesbian Fashion]]> 197812414
In Unsuitable , Eleanor Medhurst explores the history of lesbian fashion, a field that has been overwhelmingly ignored within both fashion and queer histories. Unsuitable uncovers the relationships between lesbians and their clothes as well as their fashionable details, from top hats to violet tiaras. It spans centuries and Anne Lister of nineteenth century Yorkshire and "Paris Lesbos" of the 1920s, butch/femme bar culture of the 1950s and lesbian activists in the '80s. It celebrates Black lesbian histories, trans lesbian histories, and histories of gender-nonconformity.

The lesbian past is slippery; it has often deliberately been hidden, altered or left unrecorded. This book lights it up and shares it with the world, adorned in all its finery.]]>
344 Eleanor Medhurst 1805260960 Claire 0 to-read 4.20 Unsuitable: A History of Lesbian Fashion
author: Eleanor Medhurst
name: Claire
average rating: 4.20
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/15
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<![CDATA[Jane Austen's Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector's Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend]]> 214152206 From rare book dealer and guest star of the hit show Pawn Stars, a page-turning literary adventure that introduces readers to the women writers who inspired Jane Austen—and investigates why their books have disappeared from our shelves.

Long before she was a rare book dealer, Rebecca Romney was a devoted reader of Jane Austen. She loved that Austen’s books took the lives of women seriously, explored relationships with wit and confidence, and always, allowed for the possibility of a happy ending. She read and reread them, often wishing Austen wrote just one more.

But Austen wasn’t a lone genius. She wrote at a time of great experimentation for women writers—and clues about those women, and the exceptional books they wrote, are sprinkled like breadcrumbs throughout Austen’s work. Every character in Northanger Abbey who isn’t a boor sings the praises of Ann Radcliffe. The play that causes such a stir in Mansfield Park is a real one by the playwright Elizabeth Inchbald. In fact, the phrase “pride and prejudice� came from Frances Burney’s second novel Cecilia. The women that populated Jane Austen’s bookshelf profoundly influenced her work; Austen looked up to them, passionately discussed their books with her friends, and used an appreciation of their books as a litmus test for whether someone had good taste. So where had these women gone? Why hadn’t Romney—despite her training—ever read them? Or, in some cases, even heard of them? And why were they no longer embraced as part of the wider literary canon?

Jane Austen’s Bookshelf investigates the disappearance of Austen’s heroes—women writers who were erased from the Western canon—to reveal who they were, what they meant to Austen, and how they were forgotten. Each chapter profiles a different writer including Frances Burney, Ann Radcliffe, Charlotte Lennox, Charlotte Smith, Hannah More, Elizabeth Inchbald, Hester Lynch Thrale Piozzi, and Maria Edgeworth—and recounts Romney’s experience reading them, finding rare copies of their works, and drawing on connections between their words and Austen’s. Romney collects the once-famed works of these forgotten writers, physically recreating Austen’s bookshelf and making a convincing case for why these books should be placed back on the to-be-read pile of all book lovers today. Jane Austen’s Bookshelf will encourage you to look beyond assigned reading lists, question who decides what belongs there, and build your very own collection of favorite novels.]]>
464 Rebecca Romney 1982190248 Claire 0 to-read 4.45 2025 Jane Austen's Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector's Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend
author: Rebecca Romney
name: Claire
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/15
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<![CDATA[White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color]]> 53260224 This explosive book of history and cultural criticism argues that white feminism has been a weapon of white supremacy and patriarchy deployed against Black and Indigenous women and all colonized women. It offers a long-overdue validation of the experiences of women of color. Taking us from the slave era—when white women fought in court to keep "ownership" of their slaves—through the centuries of colonialism—when they offered a soft face for brutal tactics—to the modern workplace, White Tears/Brown Scars

Examining subjects as varied as The Hunger Games, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the viral BBQ Becky video, and nineteenth-century lynchings of Mexicans in the American Southwest, Ruby Hamad builds a powerful argument about the entrenched systems of white supremacy that we are socialized within, a reality that we must apprehend in order to fight.]]>
284 Ruby Hamad 194822674X Claire 0 to-read 4.56 2020 White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color
author: Ruby Hamad
name: Claire
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: to-read
review:

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The Kiss Countdown 210356951
A struggling event planner and a sinfully hot astronaut must decide if their fake relationship is worth a shot at happily-ever-after, in this starry debut.

Risk-averse event planner Amerie Price is jobless, newly single, and about to lose her apartment. With no choice but to gamble on her shaky start-up, the last thing she needed was to run into her smug ex and his new, less complicated girlfriend at Amerie's favorite coffee shop. Panicked, she pretends to be dating the annoyingly sexy man she met by spilling Americano all over his abs. He plays along—for a price.

Half the single men in Houston claim to be astronauts, but Vincent Rogers turns out to be the real deal. What started as a one-off lie morphs into a plan: for the three months leading up to his mission, Amerie will play Vincent's doting partner in front of his loving but overly invested family. In exchange, she gets a rent-free room in his house and can put every penny toward her struggling business.

What Amerie doesn't plan for is Vincent's gravitational pull. While her mind tells her a future with this astronaut is too unpredictable, her heart says he's exactly what she needs. As their time together counts down, Amerie must decide if she'll settle for the safe life—or shoot for the stars.]]>
Etta Easton Claire 3 3.64 2024 The Kiss Countdown
author: Etta Easton
name: Claire
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/17
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: 2025-read, audiobooks, romance
review:

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Bride (Bride, #1) 181344829 A dangerous alliance between a Vampyre bride and an Alpha Werewolf becomes a love deep enough to sink your teeth into in this new paranormal romance.

Misery Lark, the only daughter of the most powerful Vampyre councilman of the Southwest, is an outcast—again. Her days of living in anonymity among the Humans are over: she has been called upon to uphold a historic peacekeeping alliance between the Vampyres and their mortal enemies, the Weres, and she sees little choice but to surrender herself in the exchange—again...

Weres are ruthless and unpredictable, and their Alpha, Lowe Moreland, is no exception. He rules his pack with absolute authority, but not without justice. And, unlike the Vampyre Council, not without feeling. It’s clear from the way he tracks Misery’s every movement that he doesn’t trust her. If only he knew how right he was�.

Because Misery has her own reasons to agree to this marriage of convenience, reasons that have nothing to do with politics or alliances, and everything to do with the only thing she's ever cared about. And she is willing to do whatever it takes to get back what’s hers, even if it means a life alone in Were territory…alone with the wolf.]]>
410 Ali Hazelwood Claire 4 3.98 2024 Bride (Bride, #1)
author: Ali Hazelwood
name: Claire
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/04
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: 2025-read, eeeeekkkk, fantasy, romance
review:

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<![CDATA[Butcher & Blackbird (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #1)]]> 196915235 Every serial killer needs a friend.
Every game must have a winner.

When a chance encounter sparks an unlikely bond between rival murderers Sloane and Rowan, the two find something elusive—the friendship of a like-minded, pitch-black soul. From small town West Virginia to upscale California, from downtown Boston to rural Texas, the two hunters collide in an annual game of blood and suffering, one that pits them against the most dangerous monsters in the country. But as their friendship develops into something more, the restless ghosts left in their wake are only a few steps behind, ready to claim more than just their newfound love. Can Rowan and Sloane dig themselves out of a game of graves? Or have they finally met their match?

Butcher & Blackbird is the first book in the Ruinous Love Dark Romance trilogy of interconnected stand-alone dark romantic comedies. This dual POV novel ends on a HEA.]]>
355 Brynne Weaver Claire 4 2025-read, eeeeekkkk, romance
Loved it and Sloan and Rowan are now my pookies forever. Gotta love a couple of serial killer killing serial killers falling in love! And they bonded over a shared love of murder and homicidal rage, how fun! And they both may be a bit insane and kinda need to get a lil killing in to wash the stress outa their bones.

Gotta love their weirdly untoxic murdery relationship. I’d love to be with someone who’d punch the lights out of someone for me and maybe even do a bit of light torture for me! (JK, I think we both get arrested and I might be a tad bit concerned ngl)

TW: murder, torture: i.e., gouging of eyeballs, sorry “plucking� (happens a lot fair warning), and other inflictions of which there are many, ice cream ]]>
4.14 2023 Butcher & Blackbird (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #1)
author: Brynne Weaver
name: Claire
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/08
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: 2025-read, eeeeekkkk, romance
review:
A rom com with a dash of serial murder, torture, and ruining ice cream for me forever? Sign me up I guess!

Loved it and Sloan and Rowan are now my pookies forever. Gotta love a couple of serial killer killing serial killers falling in love! And they bonded over a shared love of murder and homicidal rage, how fun! And they both may be a bit insane and kinda need to get a lil killing in to wash the stress outa their bones.

Gotta love their weirdly untoxic murdery relationship. I’d love to be with someone who’d punch the lights out of someone for me and maybe even do a bit of light torture for me! (JK, I think we both get arrested and I might be a tad bit concerned ngl)

TW: murder, torture: i.e., gouging of eyeballs, sorry “plucking� (happens a lot fair warning), and other inflictions of which there are many, ice cream
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<![CDATA[Leather & Lark (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #2)]]> 127611580 Ěý
And they can’t stand each other.Ěý
Ěý
Indie singer-songwriter Lark is the sunshine and glitter that burns through every cloud and clings to every crevice that Lachlan Kane tries to hide inside. The surly older brother of her best friend’s soulmate, Lachlan thinks she’s just a privileged princess, but Lark has plenty of secrets hiding in the shadows of her bright light. With her formidable family in a tailspin and her best friend’s happiness on the line, she’s willing to make a vow to the man she’s determined to hate, no matter how tempting the broody assassin might be.Ěý

As Lachlan and Lark navigate the dark world that binds them together, it becomesĚýimpossible to discernĚýtheirĚýfake marriage from a real one. But it’s not just familiar dangers that haunt them.Ěý
There’s another phantom lurking on their doorstep.Ěý

And this one has come for blood.]]>
416 Brynne Weaver 0349441588 Claire 3 2025-read, eeeeekkkk, romance 3.98 2024 Leather & Lark (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #2)
author: Brynne Weaver
name: Claire
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/09
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: 2025-read, eeeeekkkk, romance
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Marigold Mind Laundry 210847428
Geçmişteki Pişmanlıklarınızı Temizliyor,
Acı Veren Anıları Siliyoruz.
Mutluluğunuz İçin Buruşmuş Kalbinizdeki
Kırışıklıkları Ütüleyebilir,
Hatta Lekeleri Çıkarabiliriz.
TĂĽm Lekelerden Kurtulun.
Çamaşırhanemize Davetlisiniz.]]>
256 Yun Jung-eun 0593733932 Claire 0 to-read 3.36 2023 Marigold Mind Laundry
author: Yun Jung-eun
name: Claire
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #1)]]> 44421460 What would you change if you could go back in time?

In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café which has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time.

In Before the Coffee Gets Cold, we meet four visitors, each of whom is hoping to make use of the café’s time-travelling offer, in order to: confront the man who left them, receive a letter from their husband whose memory has been taken by early onset Alzheimer's, to see their sister one last time, and to meet the daughter they never got the chance to know.

But the journey into the past does not come without risks: customers must sit in a particular seat, they cannot leave the café, and finally, they must return to the present before the coffee gets cold . . .

Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s beautiful, moving story explores the age-old question: what would you change if you could travel back in time? More importantly, who would you want to meet, maybe for one last time?]]>
213 Toshikazu Kawaguchi 1529029589 Claire 0 to-read 3.67 2015 Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #1)
author: Toshikazu Kawaguchi
name: Claire
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[The Kamogawa Food Detectives (Kamogawa Food Detectives, #1)]]> 154488299 The Kamogawa Food Detectives is the first book in the bestselling, mouth-watering Japanese series for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold.

What’s the one dish you’d do anything to taste just one more time?

Down a quiet backstreet in Kyoto exists a very special restaurant. Run by Koishi Kamogawa and her father Nagare, the Kamogawa Diner serves up deliciously extravagant meals. But that’s not the main reason customers stop by . . .

The father-daughter duo are â€food detectivesâ€�. Through ingenious investigations, they are able to recreate dishes from a person’s treasured memories â€� dishes that may well hold the keys to their forgotten past and future happiness. The restaurant of lost recipes provides a link to vanished moments, creating a present full of possibility.

A bestseller in Japan, The Kamogawa Food Detectives is a celebration of good company and the power of a delicious meal.]]>
201 Hisashi Kashiwai 0593717716 Claire 0 to-read 3.70 2013 The Kamogawa Food Detectives (Kamogawa Food Detectives, #1)
author: Hisashi Kashiwai
name: Claire
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[The Full Moon Coffee Shop (The Full Moon Coffee Shop, #1)]]> 202468425 Translated from the Japanese bestseller, this charming and magical novel, inspired by the myth of cats returning favors to those who care for them, reminds us that it’s never too late to follow our stars.

In Japan cats are a symbol of good luck. As the myth goes, if you are kind to them, they’ll one day return the favor. And if you are kind to the right cat, you might just find yourself invited to a mysterious coffee shop under a glittering Kyoto moon. This particular coffee shop is like no other. It has no fixed location, no fixed hours, and seemingly appears at random to adrift young people at crucial junctions in their lives.

It’s also run by talking cats.

While customers at the Full Moon Coffee Shop partake in cakes, coffees, and teas, the cats also consult them on their star charts, offer cryptic wisdom, and let them know where their lives have veered off course—because every person who visits the shop has been feeling more than a little lost. And for a down-on-her-luck screenwriter, a romantically stuck movie director, a hopeful hairstylist, and a technologically challenged website designer, the feline guides will set them back on their fated paths. After all, there is a reason the shop appeared to each of them…]]>
240 Mai Mochizuki 0593726820 Claire 0 to-read 3.61 2020 The Full Moon Coffee Shop (The Full Moon Coffee Shop, #1)
author: Mai Mochizuki
name: Claire
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[We'll Prescribe You a Cat (We'll Prescribe You a Cat, #1)]]> 209891170 A cat a day keeps the doctor away�.

Discover this utterly charming, vibrant celebration of the healing power of cats in the award-winning, bestselling Japanese novel that has become an international sensation.

Tucked away on the fifth floor of an old building at the end of a narrow alley in Kyoto, the Nakagyō Kokoro Clinic for the Soul can be found only by people who are struggling in their lives and who genuinely need help. The mysterious clinic offers a unique treatment to those who find their way there: it prescribes cats as medication. Patients are often puzzled by this unconventional prescription, but when they “take� their cat for the recommended duration, they witness profound transformations in their lives, guided by the playful, empathetic, and occasionally challenging yet endearing cats.

Throughout these pages, the power of the human-animal bond is revealed as a disheartened businessman finds unexpected joy in physical labor, a middle-aged man struggles to stay relevant at work and home, a young girl navigates the complexities of elementary school cliques, a hardened handbag designer seeks emotional balance, and a geisha learns to move on from the memory of her lost cat. As the clinic’s patients grapple with their inner turmoil and seek resolution, their feline companions lead them toward healing, self-discovery, and newfound hope.]]>
297 Syou Ishida 0593818741 Claire 5 2025-read, fiction 3.78 2023 We'll Prescribe You a Cat (We'll Prescribe You a Cat, #1)
author: Syou Ishida
name: Claire
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/11
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: 2025-read, fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[18 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics]]> 46159525 336 Bruce Goldfarb 1492680478 Claire 0 to-read 3.66 2020 18 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics
author: Bruce Goldfarb
name: Claire
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[The Dragon Republic (The Poppy War, #2)]]> 41118857
With no other options, Rin joins forces with the powerful Dragon Warlord, who has a plan to conquer Nikan, unseat the Empress, and create a new Republic. Rin throws herself into his war. After all, making war is all she knows how to do.

But the Empress is a more powerful foe than she appears, and the Dragon Warlord’s motivations are not as democratic as they seem. The more Rin learns, the more she fears her love for Nikan will drive her away from every ally and lead her to rely more and more on the Phoenix’s deadly power. Because there is nothing she won’t sacrifice for her country and her vengeance.

The sequel to R.F. Kuang’s acclaimed debut THE POPPY WAR, THE DRAGON REPUBLIC combines the history of 20th-century China with a gripping world of gods and monsters, to devastating effect.]]>
658 R.F. Kuang Claire 0 tbr, to-read 4.36 2019 The Dragon Republic (The Poppy War, #2)
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Claire
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: tbr, to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[These Violent Delights (These Violent Delights, #1)]]> 50892212
A blood feud between two gangs runs the streets red, leaving the city helpless in the grip of chaos. At the heart of it all is eighteen-year-old Juliette Cai, a former flapper who has returned to assume her role as the proud heir of the Scarlet Gang—a network of criminals far above the law. Their only rivals in power are the White Flowers, who have fought the Scarlets for generations. And behind every move is their heir, Roma Montagov, Juliette’s first love…and first betrayal.

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

Perfect for fans of The Last Magician and Descendant of the Crane, this heart-stopping debut is an imaginative Romeo and Juliet retelling set in 1920s Shanghai, with rival gangs and a monster in the depths of the Huangpu River.]]>
449 Chloe Gong 1534457690 Claire 0 currently-reading 3.82 2020 These Violent Delights (These Violent Delights, #1)
author: Chloe Gong
name: Claire
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: currently-reading
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Hamlet 1432 This is an alternate cover edition for ISBN13:9780743477123, Hamlet.

Hamlet is the story of the Prince of Denmark who learns of the death of his father at the hands of his uncle, Claudius. Claudius murders Hamlet's father, his own brother, to take the throne of Denmark and to marry Hamlet's widowed mother. Hamlet is sunk into a state of great despair as a result of discovering the murder of his father and the infidelity of his mother. Hamlet is torn between his great sadness and his desire for the revenge of his father's murder.

Each Folger edition includes:

- Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play
- Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play
- Scene-by-scene plot summaries
- A key to famous lines and phrases
- An introduction to reading Shakespeare's language
- An essay by an outstanding scholar providing a modern perspective on the play
- Illustrations from the Folger Shakespeare Library's vast holdings of rare books]]>
342 William Shakespeare Claire 0 currently-reading 4.05 1601 Hamlet
author: William Shakespeare
name: Claire
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1601
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Things I Wanted to Say (Lancaster Prep #1)]]> 198966989
He’s a menace on campus. Adored and feared. Hated and respected. His taunting words carve into my skin, shredding me to ribbons. Yet his intense gaze scorches my blood, fills me with a longing I don’t understand.

When I stumble upon him one night alone, I find him broken. Bleeding. My instincts scream to leave and let him suffer, but I can’t. I sneak him into my room. Clean him up. Fall for his lies. Let him possess every single part of me until I’m the one left a gasping, broken mess.

When he leaves me alone in the dead of night, he takes my journal with him.

Now he knows all my secrets. My hate. My truth. And he promises to use my words against me. I’ll be ruined if my darkest secret gets out.

That’s when I strike a bargain with the devil.

I’ll let Whit Lancaster ruin me behind closed doors instead.]]>
646 Monica Murphy Claire 0 to-read 3.51 2021 Things I Wanted to Say (Lancaster Prep #1)
author: Monica Murphy
name: Claire
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/08
shelves: to-read
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The New Girl 51260761 368 Jesse Q. Sutanto 1728215196 Claire 0 to-read 3.42 2022 The New Girl
author: Jesse Q. Sutanto
name: Claire
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/08
shelves: to-read
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Educated 35133922
Her father forbade hospitals, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at home with herbalism. The family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education and no one to intervene when one of Tara's older brothers became violent.

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

Educated is an account of the struggle for self-invention. It is a tale of fierce family loyalty and of the grief that comes with severing the closest of ties. With the acute insight that distinguishes all great writers, Westover has crafted a universal coming-of-age story that gets to the heart of what an education is and what it offers: the perspective to see one's life through new eyes and the will to change it.]]>
352 Tara Westover 0399590501 Claire 0 currently-reading 4.46 2018 Educated
author: Tara Westover
name: Claire
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/06
shelves: currently-reading
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The Symposium 81779
In the course of a lively drinking party, a group of Athenian intellectuals exchange views on eros, or desire. From their conversation emerges a series of subtle reflections on gender roles, sex in society and the sublimation of basic human instincts. The discussion culminates in a radical challenge to conventional views by Plato's mentor, Socrates, who advocates transcendence through spiritual love. The Symposium is a deft interweaving of different viewpoints and ideas about the nature of love--as a response to beauty, a cosmic force, a motive for social action and as a means of ethical education.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.]]>
90 Plato 0140449272 Claire 0 to-read 4.11 -380 The Symposium
author: Plato
name: Claire
average rating: 4.11
book published: -380
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/05
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The Republic 30289 416 Plato 0140449140 Claire 0 to-read 3.97 -400 The Republic
author: Plato
name: Claire
average rating: 3.97
book published: -400
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/05
shelves: to-read
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Inferno 15645
A groundbreaking bilingual edition of Dante's masterpiece that includes a substantive Introduction, extensive notes, and appendixes that reproduce Dante's key sources and influences. Of the great poets, Dante is one of the most elusive and therefore one of the most difficult to adequately render into English verse. With this major new translation, Anthony Esolen has succeeded brilliantly in marrying sense with sound, poetry with meaning, capturing both the poem's line-by-line vigor and its allegorically and philosophically exacting structure, yielding an Inferno that will be as popular with general readers as with scholars, teachers, and students. For, as Dante insists, without a trace of sentimentality or intellectual compromise, even Hell is a work of divine art.

Esolen's edition also provides a critical ntroduction and endnotes, with appendices containing Dante's most important sources—from Virgil to Saint Thomas Aquinas and beyond —that deftly illuminate the religious universe the poet inhabited.

Verse Translation by Anthony Esolen
Illustrations by Gustave Doré]]>
490 Dante Alighieri 0812970063 Claire 0 to-read 4.02 1320 Inferno
author: Dante Alighieri
name: Claire
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1320
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/05
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Beowulf 41940267 Beowulf by the author of The Mere Wife.

Nearly twenty years after Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf � and fifty years after the translation that continues to torment high-school students around the world � there is a radical new verse translation of the epic poem by Maria Dahvana Headley, which brings to light elements never before translated into English.

A man seeks to prove himself as a hero. A monster seeks silence in his territory. A warrior seeks to avenge her murdered son. A dragon ends it all. These familiar components of the epic poem are seen with a novelist’s eye toward gender, genre, and history. Beowulf has always been a tale of entitlement and encroachment � of powerful men seeking to become more powerful and one woman seeking justice for her child � but this version brings new context to an old story. While crafting her contemporary adaptation, Headley unearthed significant shifts lost over centuries of translation; her Beowulf is one for the twenty-first century.]]>
140 Unknown 0374110034 Claire 0 to-read 4.10 1000 Beowulf
author: Unknown
name: Claire
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1000
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/05
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The Odyssey 1381 Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns
driven time and again off course, once he had plundered
the hallowed heights of Troy.

So begins Robert Fagles' magnificent translation of the Odyssey.

If the Iliad is the world's greatest war epic, then the Odyssey is literature's grandest evocation of everyman's journey though life. Odysseus' reliance on his wit and wiliness for survival in his encounters with divine and natural forces, during his ten-year voyage home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, is at once a timeless human story and an individual test of moral endurance.

In the myths and legends that are retold here, Fagles has captured the energy and poetry of Homer's original in a bold, contemporary idiom, and given us an Odyssey to read aloud, to savor, and to treasure for its sheer lyrical mastery.

Renowned classicist Bernard Knox's superb Introduction and textual commentary provide new insights and background information for the general reader and scholar alike, intensifying the strength of Fagles' translation.

This is an Odyssey to delight both the classicist and the public at large, and to captivate a new generation of Homer's students.

--

Robert Fagles, winner of the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, presents us with Homer's best-loved and most accessible poem in a stunning new modern-verse translation.]]>
541 Homer 0143039954 Claire 0 to-read 3.79 -700 The Odyssey
author: Homer
name: Claire
average rating: 3.79
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The Iliad 77265004 848 Homer 1324001801 Claire 0 to-read 4.09 -800 The Iliad
author: Homer
name: Claire
average rating: 4.09
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<![CDATA[Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine]]> 131121289 Legacy is an illuminating and stirring journey of a book.� —Ibram X. Kendi, #1 New York Times- bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist

The rousing, captivating story of a Black physician, her career in medicine, and the deep inequities that still exist in the U.S. healthcare system

Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, it never occurred to Uché Blackstock and her twin sister, Oni, that they would be anything but physicians. In the 1980s, their mother headed an organization of Black women physicians, and for years the girls watched these fiercely intelligent women in white coats tend to their patients and neighbors, host community health fairs, cure ills, and save lives.

What Dr. Uché Blackstock did not understand as a child—or learn about at Harvard Medical School, where she and her sister had followed in their mother’s footsteps, making them the first Black mother-daughter legacies from the school—were the profound and long-standing systemic inequities that mean just 2 percent of all U.S. physicians today are Black women; the racist practices and policies that ensure Black Americans have far worse health outcomes than any other group in the country; and the flawed system that endangers the well-being of communities like theirs. As an ER physician, and later as a professor in academic medicine, Dr. Blackstock became profoundly aware of the systemic barriers that Black patients and physicians continue to face.

Legacy is a journey through the critical intersection of racism and healthcare. At once a searing indictment of our healthcare system, a generational family memoir, and a call to action, Legacy is Dr. Blackstock’s odyssey from child to medical student to practicing physician—to finally seizing her own power as a health equity advocate against the backdrop of the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement.]]>
304 Uché Blackstock Claire 0 to-read 4.45 2024 Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine
author: Uché Blackstock
name: Claire
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2024
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<![CDATA[Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race]]> 27161178
Moving from World War II through NASA’s golden age, touching on the civil rights era, the Space Race, the Cold War, and the women’s rights movement, Hidden Figures interweaves a rich history of mankind’s greatest adventure with the intimate stories of five courageous women whose work forever changed the world.]]>
346 Margot Lee Shetterly 006236359X Claire 0 3.96 2016 Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race
author: Margot Lee Shetterly
name: Claire
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women]]> 31409135 The incredible true story of the women who fought America's Undark danger

The Curies' newly discovered element of radium makes gleaming headlines across the nation as the fresh face of beauty, and wonder drug of the medical community. From body lotion to tonic water, the popular new element shines bright in the otherwise dark years of the First World War.

Meanwhile, hundreds of girls toil amidst the glowing dust of the radium-dial factories. The glittering chemical covers their bodies from head to toe; they light up the night like industrious fireflies. With such a coveted job, these "shining girls" are the luckiest alive—until they begin to fall mysteriously ill.

But the factories that once offered golden opportunities are now ignoring all claims of the gruesome side effects, and the women's cries of corruption. And as the fatal poison of the radium takes hold, the brave shining girls find themselves embroiled in one of the biggest scandals of America's early 20th century, and in a groundbreaking battle for workers' rights that will echo for centuries to come.

Written with a sparkling voice and breakneck pace, The Radium Girls fully illuminates the inspiring young women exposed to the "wonder" substance of radium, and their awe-inspiring strength in the face of almost impossible circumstances. Their courage and tenacity led to life-changing regulations, research into nuclear bombing, and ultimately saved hundreds of thousands of lives.

]]>
479 Kate Moore 149264935X Claire 0 to-read 4.13 2016 The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women
author: Kate Moore
name: Claire
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[A Rome of One's Own: The Forgotten Women of the Roman Empire]]> 98652084 A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum comes a wildly entertaining new history of Rome that uses the lives of 21 extraordinary women to upend our understanding of the ancient world.

The history of Rome has long been narrow and one-sided, essentially a history of "The Doing of Important Things," and as far as Roman historians have been concerned, women don't make that history. From Romulus through "the political stab-fest of the late Republic," and then on to all the emperors, Roman historians may deign to give you a wife or a mother to show how bad things become when women get out of control, but history is more than that.

Emma Southon's A Rome of One's Own is the best kind of correction. This is a retelling of the history of Rome with all the things Roman history writers relegate to the background, or designate as domestic, feminine, or worthless. This is a history of women who caused outrage, led armies in rebellion, wrote poetry; who lived independently or under the thumb of emperors. Told with humor and verve as well as a deep scholarly background, A Rome of One's Own highlights women overlooked and misunderstood, and through them offers a fascinating and groundbreaking chronicle of the ancient world.]]>
416 Emma Southon 1419760181 Claire 0 to-read 4.16 2023 A Rome of One's Own: The Forgotten Women of the Roman Empire
author: Emma Southon
name: Claire
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science]]> 208580608 The acclaimed Pulitzer Prize finalist and #1 New York Times bestselling author of Galileo’s Daughter crafts a luminous chronicle of the life and work of the most famous woman in the history of science, and the untold story of the many young women trained in her laboratory who were launched into stellar scientific careers of their own

“Even now, nearly a century after her death, Marie Curie remains the only female scientist most people can name,� writes Dava Sobel at the opening of her shining portrait of the sole Nobel laureate decorated in two separate fields of science—Physics in 1903 with her husband Pierre and Chemistry by herself in 1911. And yet, Sobel makes clear, as brilliant and creative as she was in the laboratory, Marie Curie was equally passionate outside it. Grieving Pierre’s untimely death in 1906, she took his place as professor of physics at the Sorbonne; devotedly raised two brilliant daughters; drove a van she outfitted with x-ray equipment to the front lines of World War I; befriended Albert Einstein and other luminaries of twentieth-century physics; won support from two U.S. presidents; and inspired generations of young women the world over to pursue science as a way of life.

As Sobel did so memorably in her portrait of Galileo through the prism of his daughter, she approaches Marie Curie from a unique angle, narrating her remarkable life of discovery and fame alongside the women who became her legacy—from France’s Marguerite Perey, who discovered the element francium, and Norway’s Ellen Gleditsch, to Mme. Curie’s elder daughter, Irène, winner of the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. For decades the only woman in the room at international scientific gatherings that probed new theories about the interior of the atom, Marie Curie traveled far and wide, despite constant illness, to share the secrets of radioactivity, a term she coined. Her two triumphant tours of the United States won her admirers for her modesty even as she was mobbed at every stop; her daughters, in Ăve’s later recollection, “discovered all at once what the retiring woman with whom they had always lived meant to the world.â€�

With the consummate skill that made bestsellers of Longitude and Galileo’s Daughter, and the appreciation for women in science at the heart of her most recent The Glass Universe, Dava Sobel has crafted a radiant biography and a masterpiece of storytelling, illuminating the life and enduring influence of one of the most consequential figures of our time.]]>
318 Dava Sobel 0802163823 Claire 0 to-read 3.94 2024 The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science
author: Dava Sobel
name: Claire
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2024
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<![CDATA[The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective]]> 210129411 A revelatory history of the women who brought Victorian criminals to account—and how they became a cultural sensation
Ěý
From Wilkie Collins to the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, the traditional image of the Victorian detective is male. Few people realise that women detectives successfully investigated Victorian Britain, working both with the police and for private agencies, which they sometimes managed themselves.
Ěý
Sara Lodge recovers these forgotten women’s lives. She also reveals the sensational role played by the fantasy female detective in Victorian melodrama and popular fiction, enthralling a public who relished the spectacle of a cross-dressing, fist-swinging heroine who got the better of love rats, burglars, and murderers alike.
Ěý
How did the morally ambiguous work of real women detectives, sometimes paid to betray their fellow women, compare with the exploits of their fictional counterparts, who always save the day? Lodge’s book takes us into the murky underworld of Victorian society on both sides of the Atlantic, revealing the female detective as both an unacknowledged labourer and a feminist icon.]]>
384 Sara Lodge 0300277881 Claire 0 to-read 3.76 2024 The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective
author: Sara Lodge
name: Claire
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2024
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<![CDATA[Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America]]> 59951373 368 Dahlia Lithwick 0525561390 Claire 0 to-read 4.39 2022 Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America
author: Dahlia Lithwick
name: Claire
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Women Money Power: The Rise and Fall of Economic Equality]]> 195660527
For centuries, women were denied equal access to money and the freedom and power that came with it. They were restricted from owning property or transacting in real estate. Even well into the 20th century, women could not take out their own loans or own bank accounts without their husband’s permission. They could be fired for getting married or pregnant, and if they still had a job, they could be kept from certain roles, restricted from working longer hours, and paid less than men for equal work.

It was a raw deal, and women weren’t happy with it. So they pushed back. In Women Money Power , financial journalist Josie Cox tells the story of women’s fight for financial freedom. This is an inspirational account of brave pioneers who took on social mores and the law, including the “Rosies� who filled industrial jobs vacated by men and helped win WWII, the heiress whose fortune helped create the birth control pill, the brassy investor who broke into the boys� club of the New York Stock Exchange, and the namesake of landmark equal pay legislation who refused to accept discrimination.

But as any woman can tell you, the battle for equality—for money and power—is far from over. Cox delves deep into the challenges women face today and the culture and systems that hold them back. This is a fascinating narrative account of progress, women’s lives, and the work still to be done.]]>
336 Josie Cox 1419762982 Claire 0 to-read 4.21 2024 Women Money Power: The Rise and Fall of Economic Equality
author: Josie Cox
name: Claire
average rating: 4.21
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<![CDATA[Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution]]> 75494215 THE REAL ORIGIN OF OUR SPECIES: a myth-busting, eye-opening landmark account of how humans evolved, offering a paradigm shift in our thinking about what the female body is, how it came to be, and how this evolution still shapes all our lives today.

How did the female body drive 200 million years of human evolution?
� Why do women live longer than men?
� Why are women more likely to get Alzheimer’s?
� Why do girls score better at every academic subject than boys until puberty, when suddenly their scores plummet?
� Is sexism useful for evolution?
� And why, seriously why, do women have to sweat through our sheets every night when we hit menopause?

These questions are producing some truly exciting science—and in Eve, with boundless curiosity and sharp wit, Cat Bohannon covers the past 200 million years to explain the specific science behind the development of the female sex: "We need a kind of user's manual for the female mammal. A no-nonsense, hard-hitting, seriously researched (but readable) account of what we are. How female bodies evolved, how they work, what it really means to biologically be a woman. Something that would rewrite the story of womanhood. This book is that story. We have to put the female body in the picture. If we don't, it's not just feminism that's compromised. Modern medicine, neurobiology, paleoanthropology, even evolutionary biology all take a hit when we ignore the fact that half of us have breasts. So it's time we talk about breasts. Breasts, and blood, and fat, and vaginas, and wombs—all of it. How they came to be and how we live with them now, no matter how weird or hilarious the truth is."

Eve is not only a sweeping revision of human history, it's an urgent and necessary corrective for a world that has focused primarily on the male body for far too long. Picking up where Sapiens left off, Eve will completely change what you think you know about evolution and why Homo sapiens has become such a successful and dominant species.]]>
624 Cat Bohannon 0385350546 Claire 0 to-read 4.28 2023 Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution
author: Cat Bohannon
name: Claire
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2023
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<![CDATA[Pixel Flesh: How Toxic Beauty Culture Harms Women]]> 195791053 An up-close and striking look at modern beauty culture―from Botox and Instagram filters to lip flips and editing apps―and the realities of coming of age online

We live in a new age of beauty. With advancements in cosmetic surgery, walk-in treatments, augmented-reality face filters, photo-editing apps, and exposure to more images than ever, we have the ability to craft the image we want everyone to see. We pinch, pull, squeeze, tweeze, smooth, and slice ourselves beyond recognition. But is modern beauty culture truly empowering? Are we really in control?

In Pixel Flesh, Ellen Atlanta holds a mirror up to our modern beauty ideal and the pressure to present a perfect image, to live in an age of constant comparison and curated feeds. She weaves in her personal story with others� to reconfigure our obsession with the cult of beauty and to explore the reality of living in a world of paradoxes: We know our standards are unhealthy, but following them helps us succeed. We resent social media but continue to scroll. We know digital beauty is artificial, yet we strive for it.

From Love Island to lip filler, "blackfishing" to the "beauty tax," Pixel Flesh exposes what young women face under a dominant industry. Nuanced, unflinching, and razor sharp, it unmasks the absurdities of the standards we suddenly find ourselves upholding and acts as a rallying cry and a refusal to suffer in silence.]]>
384 Ellen Atlanta 1250286220 Claire 0 to-read 4.15 2024 Pixel Flesh: How Toxic Beauty Culture Harms Women
author: Ellen Atlanta
name: Claire
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman]]> 33257571 From celebrity gossip expert and BuzzFeed culture writer Anne Helen Petersen comes an accessible, analytical look at how female celebrities are pushing boundaries of what it means to be an "acceptable" woman.

You know the type: the woman who won't shut up, who's too brazen, too opinionated--too much. It's not that she's an outcast (she might even be your friend or your wife, or your mother) so much as she's a social variable. Sometimes, she's the life of the party; others, she's the center of gossip. She's the unruly woman, and she's one of the most provocative, powerful forms of womanhood today.

There have been unruly women for as long as there have been boundaries of what constitutes acceptable "feminine" behavior, but there's evidence that she's on the rise--more visible and less easily dismissed--than ever before. In Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud, Anne Helen Petersen uses the lens of "unruliness" to explore the ascension of eleven contemporary powerhouses: Serena Williams, Melissa McCarthy, Abbi Jacobson, Ilana Glazer, Nicki Minaj, Kim Kardashian, Hillary Clinton, Caitlyn Jenner, Jennifer Weiner, and Lena Dunham.

Petersen explores why the public loves to love (and hate) these controversial figures, each of whom has been conceived as "too" something: too queer, too strong, too honest, too old, too pregnant, too shrill, too much. With its brisk, incisive analysis, Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud will be a conversation-starting book on what makes and breaks celebrity today.]]>
234 Anne Helen Petersen 0399576851 Claire 0 to-read 3.76 2017 Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman
author: Anne Helen Petersen
name: Claire
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture]]> 35068524 368 Roxane Gay 0062413503 Claire 0 to-read 4.43 2018 Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture
author: Roxane Gay
name: Claire
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/05
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<![CDATA[Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger]]> 38532207 A transformative book urging twenty-first century-women to embrace their anger and harness it as a tool for lasting personal and societal change.

Women are angry, and it isn’t hard to figure out why.

We are underpaid and overworked. Too sensitive, or not sensitive enough. Too dowdy or too made-up. Too big or too thin. Sluts or prudes. We are harassed, told we are asking for it, and asked if it would kill us to smile. Yes, yes it would.

Contrary to the rhetoric of popular “self-help� and an entire lifetime of being told otherwise, our rage is one of the most important resources we have, our sharpest tool against both personal and political oppression. We’ve been told for so long to bottle up our anger, letting it corrode our bodies and minds in ways we don’t even realize. Yet our anger is a vital instrument, our radar for injustice and a catalyst for change. On the flip side, the societal and cultural belittlement of our anger is a cunning way of limiting and controlling our power.

We are so often told to resist our rage or punished for justifiably expressing it, yet how many remarkable achievements in this world would never have gotten off the ground without the kernel of anger that fueled them? Rage Becomes Her makes the case that anger is not what gets in our way, it is our way, sparking a new understanding of one of our core emotions that will give women a liberating sense of why their anger matters and connect them to an entire universe of women no longer interested in making nice at all costs.

Following in the footsteps of classic feminist manifestos like The Feminine Mystique and Our Bodies, Ourselves, Rage Becomes Her is an eye-opening book for the twenty-first century woman: an engaging, accessible credo offering us the tools to re-understand our anger and harness its power to create lasting positive change.]]>
364 Soraya Chemaly 1501189557 Claire 0 to-read 4.36 2018 Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger
author: Soraya Chemaly
name: Claire
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men]]> 41104077
Celebrated feminist advocate Caroline Criado Perez investigates the shocking root cause of gender inequality and research in Invisible Women�, diving into women’s lives at home, the workplace, the public square, the doctor’s office, and more. Built on hundreds of studies in the US, the UK, and around the world, and written with energy, wit, and sparkling intelligence, this is a groundbreaking, unforgettable exposé that will change the way you look at the world.]]>
448 Caroline Criado PĂ©rez 1419729071 Claire 0 to-read 4.35 2019 Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men
author: Caroline Criado PĂ©rez
name: Claire
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[I'm Sorry for My Loss: An Urgent Examination of Reproductive Care in America]]> 203751764
More than a million women lose a pregnancy each year, whether through miscarriage, stillbirth, or termination for medical reasons. For most, the experience often casts a shadow of isolation, shame, and blame. In the aftermath of the 2022 decision to overturn Roe v Wade, 25 million women of childbearing age live in states with laws that restrict access to abortion, including for those who never wanted to end their pregnancies. How did we get here?

Rebecca Little and Colleen Long, childhood friends who grew up to be journalists, both experienced late-term loss, and together they take an incisive, deeply reported look at the issue, working to shatter taboos that have made so many pregnant women feel ashamed and alone. They trace the experience of pregnancy loss and reproductive care from America's founding to the present day, exposing the deep impact made by a dangerous tangle of laws, politics, medicine, racism, and misogyny. Combining powerful personal narratives with exhaustive research, I'm Sorry for My Loss is a comprehensive examination on how pregnancy loss came to be so stigmatized and politicized, and why a system of more compassionate care is critical for everyone.]]>
496 1728292751 Claire 0 to-read 4.42 2024 I'm Sorry for My Loss: An Urgent Examination of Reproductive Care in America
author: Rebecca Little and Colleen Long
name: Claire
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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fast 54287490 adj.1. A girl or guy who is quick to engage in sexual activities.--Oftentimes used to shame. Oftentimes used to blame victims for their own abuse.

After the untimely death of her mother, Caprice Latimore has to move in with her grandmother. At eight years old, life as she knows it is turned upside down. The trauma of losing her mother is made worse with the introduction of Marcel, her grandmother's adult son who still lives in the home.

Her uncle Marcel takes an inappropriate interest in her that ultimately results in a tragic breaking point for the child. The only silver lining is that shortly after what Caprice calls "that night", Marcel is booked by local police with a drug possession charge. He's sentenced to prison for twelve years.

Seven years later, however, Marcel is released on good behavior.

Caprice is now sixteen, still dealing with the emotional scars of the past. But things aren't like they were before.

Because now she has Shaun Taylor, the boy across the street who will do whatever it takes to make sure no one ever hurts Caprice again.

fast is a standalone that spans twenty years. Separated into three acts, we watch Caprice grow from eight years old to sixteen years old to twenty-eight years old. She gets hurt, she falls in love, she grows, and she just might overcome.

fast is a story written about victims who were made to feel like their abuse was their own fault.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Child abuse, assault in prisons, mental instability, etc.Some themes touched upon in this story may trigger you. Please protect your mental health.]]>
420 Millie Belizaire Claire 0 to-read 4.77 fast
author: Millie Belizaire
name: Claire
average rating: 4.77
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Mate (Bride, #2) 228256271 A Human hybrid and an Alpha Were claw against the bonds of fate in the highly anticipated companion novel to the New York Times bestselling Bride.

Serena Paris is orphaned, pack-less, and one of a kind. Coming forward as the first Human-Were hybrid was supposed to heal a centuries-long rift between species. Instead, it made her a target, prey to the ruthless political machinations between Weres, Vampyres, and Humans. With her enemies closing in on her, she has only one option left—if he’ll have her.

As Alpha of the Northwest pack, Koen Alexander commands obedience. His authority is so absolute, only a fool would threaten his mate. It doesn’t matter if Serena doesn’t reciprocate his feelings, nothing will stop him from keeping her safe.

But power-hungry Vampyres and Weres are not the only threats chasing Serena. Sooner or later, her past is bound to catch up with her—and Koen might be the only thing standing between her and total annihilation…]]>
432 Ali Hazelwood 0593955013 Claire 0 to-read 4.39 2025 Mate (Bride, #2)
author: Ali Hazelwood
name: Claire
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/04
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The Atlas Six (The Atlas, #1) 50520939
Enter the latest round of six: Libby Rhodes and Nico de Varona, unwilling halves of an unfathomable whole, who exert uncanny control over every element of physicality. Reina Mori, a naturalist, who can intuit the language of life itself. Parisa Kamali, a telepath who can traverse the depths of the subconscious, navigating worlds inside the human mind. Callum Nova, an empath easily mistaken for a manipulative illusionist, who can influence the intimate workings of a person’s inner self. Finally, there is Tristan Caine, who can see through illusions to a new structure of reality—an ability so rare that neither he nor his peers can fully grasp its implications.

When the candidates are recruited by the mysterious Atlas Blakely, they are told they will have one year to qualify for initiation, during which time they will be permitted preliminary access to the Society’s archives and judged based on their contributions to various subjects of impossibility: time and space, luck and thought, life and death. Five, they are told, will be initiated. One will be eliminated. The six potential initiates will fight to survive the next year of their lives, and if they can prove themselves to be the best among their rivals, most of them will.

Most of them.]]>
376 Olivie Blake Claire 0 currently-reading 3.56 2020 The Atlas Six (The Atlas, #1)
author: Olivie Blake
name: Claire
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: currently-reading
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<![CDATA[Better Than the Movies (Better Than the Movies, #1)]]> 55710822 In this rom-com about rom-coms, in the spirit of Kasie West and Jenn Bennett, a hopeless romantic teen attempts to secure a happily-ever-after moment with her forever crush, but finds herself reluctantly drawn to the boy next door.

Perpetual daydreamer Liz Buxbaum gave her heart to Michael a long time ago. But her cool, aloof forever crush never really saw her before he moved away. Now that he’s back in town, Liz will do whatever it takes to get on his radar - and maybe snag him as a prom date - even befriend Wes Bennet.

The annoyingly attractive next-door neighbor might seem like a prime candidate for romantic-comedy fantasies, but Wes has only been a pain in Liz’s butt since they were kids. Pranks involving frogs and decapitated lawn gnomes do not a potential boyfriend make. Yet, somehow, Wes and Michael are hitting it off, which means Wes is Liz’s in.

But as Liz and Wes scheme to get Liz noticed by Michael so she can have her magical prom moment, she’s shocked to discover that she likes being around Wes. And as they continue to grow closer, she must reexamine everything she thought she knew about love - and rethink her own ideas of what happily ever after should look like.]]>
356 Lynn Painter 1534467629 Claire 3 OMG!! So good! 4.28 2021 Better Than the Movies (Better Than the Movies, #1)
author: Lynn Painter
name: Claire
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/23
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: 2024-read, romance, young-adult
review:
OMG!! So good!
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<![CDATA[The Exchange (London Prep, #1)]]> 56911959
When my parents told me that I’d be spending three weeks at a London prep school on a student exchange my junior year, I was furious. I love New York. My school. My friends. And I didn’t want to leave. But after some not-so-subtle insistence about experiencing a new culture, gaining worldly knowledge, and the fact that it was only three weeks, I knew I wasn’t getting out of it.

So, I decided that if I had to go, I might as well have some fun.
Which was how I met Harry at a pub. His blue eyes, adorable accent, and charm instantly won me over—right after his lips did.

And I started to think that London might not be so bad.

But then I met Noah.
He’s tall, dark, intense, and spends way too much time in the shower. I know this because I have to live with him. And did I mention that he hates me?

My first day at school is more eventful than I anticipated. A boy named Mohammad takes me under his wing, declares himself my guide to the “hostile and hormonal battlefield that is Kensington School,� and lays three facts on me:

He, Harry, and Noah are best mates.
I’m the new girl and bound to cause drama.
And I’ve already got his boys all twisted up.

I’m in way over my head, and it’s only my first day!]]>
316 Jillian Dodd Claire 0 to-read 3.74 2020 The  Exchange (London Prep, #1)
author: Jillian Dodd
name: Claire
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Of Ashes and Wildflowers (The Medicine Princess, #1)]]> 213938138
However, even her heaviest science books seem simple compared to life at the palace. Worse still, she’s being forced to marry the roguish Prince Lukas, who declares that Naria’s only use is to bear him heirs and that her kingdom should remain in ruins.

Determined to escape her engagement, Naria spends her nights sneaking away to the crystal-walled, underground realm of the faeries. Yet, while the faery prince might be willing to help her people, behind his charming looks lies a sinister obsession for his darling new princess. To deepen her troubles, the more Naria finds herself in heated exchanges with Lukas, the more she begins to fear she’s falling for the wrong prince.

Because only a selfish princess would fall for the one prince who has vowed to forever leave her kingdom in ruins.]]>
343 Erin Fae Claire 0 to-read 4.06 Of Ashes and Wildflowers (The Medicine Princess, #1)
author: Erin Fae
name: Claire
average rating: 4.06
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves: to-read
review:

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A Love Song for Ricki Wilde 173404023
Leap years are a strange, enchanted time. And for some, even a single February can be life-changing.

Ricki Wilde has many talents, but being a Wilde isn’t one of them. As the impulsive, artistic daughter of a powerful Atlanta dynasty, she’s the opposite of her famous socialite sisters. Where they’re long-stemmed roses, she’s a dandelion: an adorable bloom that’s actually a weed, born to float wherever the wind blows. In her bones, Ricki knows that somewhere, a different, more exciting life awaits her.

When regal nonagenarian, Ms. Della, invites her to rent the bottom floor of her Harlem brownstone, Ricki jumps at the chance for a fresh beginning. She leaves behind her family, wealth, and chaotic romantic decisions to realize her dream of opening a flower shop. And just beneath the surface of her new neighborhood, the music, stories and dazzling drama of the Harlem Renaissance still simmers.

One evening in February as the heady, curiously off-season scent of night-blooming jasmine fills the air, Ricki encounters a handsome, deeply mysterious stranger who knocks her world off balance in the most unexpected way.

Set against the backdrop of modern Harlem and Renaissance glamour, A Love Song for Ricki Wilde is a swoon-worthy love story of two passionate artists drawn to the magic, romance, and opportunity of New York, and whose lives are uniquely and irreversibly linked.]]>
352 Tia Williams 153872670X Claire 5 3.98 2024 A Love Song for Ricki Wilde
author: Tia Williams
name: Claire
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/23
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves: 2025-read, 6-star-books, romance
review:

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<![CDATA[Malice (The Faithful and the Fallen, #1)]]> 15750692
Young Corban watches enviously as boys become warriors under King Brenin’s rule, learning the art of war. He yearns to wield his sword and spear to protect his king’s realm. But that day will come all too soon. Only when he loses those he loves will he learn the true price of courage.

The Banished Lands has a violent past where armies of men and giants clashed shields in battle, the earth running dark with their heartsblood. Although the giant-clans were broken in ages past, their ruined fortresses still scar the land. But now giants stir anew, the very stones weep blood and there are sightings of giant wyrms. Those who can still read the signs see a threat far greater than the ancient wars. Sorrow will darken the world, as angels and demons make it their battlefield. Then there will be a war to end all wars.

High King Aquilus summons his fellow kings to council, seeking an alliance in this time of need. Some are skeptical, fighting their own border skirmishes against pirates and giants. But prophesy indicates darkness and light will demand two champions, the Black Sun and the Bright Star. They would be wise to seek out both, for if the Black Sun gains ascendancy, mankind’s hopes and dreams will fall to dust.]]>
672 John Gwynne 0230758452 Claire 0 to-read 4.15 2012 Malice (The Faithful and the Fallen, #1)
author: John Gwynne
name: Claire
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves: to-read
review:

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Xaden POV: Fourth Wing 209453781
But he hadn’t counted on Violet Sorrengail, the General’s daughter, entering the Rider’s Quadrant. She’s not supposed to be here and she’s about to throw every plan he has made into chaos. Can he trust her? And more importantly, can he trust himself?

This follows the dialogue and events of Rebecca Yarros’s Fourth Wing, retold from Xaden’s perspective. This was written prior to the release of Iron Flame, so all theories and speculation are my own and unconfirmed. It's my best guess at exploring how Xaden might have felt throughout the story and features new scenes with Liam, Garrick, Imogen, Sgaeyl and Tairn. Major plot spoilers from the very first chapter.

Words: 121,459]]>
belle_beebee Claire 0 to-read 4.46 Xaden POV: Fourth Wing
author: belle_beebee
name: Claire
average rating: 4.46
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves: to-read
review:

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If You Could See the Sun 60099660 actually invisible.
Ěý
When her parents drop the news that they can no longer afford her tuition, even with the scholarship, Alice hatches a plan to monetize her strange new power—she’ll discover the scandalous secrets her classmates want to know, for a price.
Ěý
But as the tasks escalate from petty scandals to actual crimes, Alice must decide if it’s worth losing her conscience—or even her life.

In this genre-bending YA debut, a Chinese American girl monetizes her strange new invisibility powers by discovering and selling her wealthy classmates� most scandalous secrets.]]>
346 Ann Liang 1335915842 Claire 0 to-read 4.01 2022 If You Could See the Sun
author: Ann Liang
name: Claire
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves: to-read
review:

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Onyx Storm (The Empyrean, #3) 209439446
Now Violet must journey beyond the failing Aretian wards to seek allies from unfamiliar lands to stand with Navarre. The trip will test every bit of her wit, luck, and strength, but she will do anything to save what she loves—her dragons, her family, her home, and him.

Even if it means keeping a secret so big, it could destroy everything. They need an army. They need power. They need magic. And they need the one thing only Violet can find—the truth. But a storm is coming...and not everyone can survive its wrath.]]>
527 Rebecca Yarros 1649374186 Claire 3 2025-read, fantasy
1/24/25–Ummmm� What. Was. That.

1/25/25–reread the last page and what the freaking what?!!? I almost threw the book at the wall again like I did yesterday, because what is that ending!!!???

1/26/25–i read it too soon and now I have no one to yap to]]>
4.18 2025 Onyx Storm (The Empyrean, #3)
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: Claire
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/24
date added: 2025/02/19
shelves: 2025-read, fantasy
review:
A little update everyday while I detox from what an amazing yet crazy book this was:

1/24/25–Ummmm� What. Was. That.

1/25/25–reread the last page and what the freaking what?!!? I almost threw the book at the wall again like I did yesterday, because what is that ending!!!???

1/26/25–i read it too soon and now I have no one to yap to
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<![CDATA[Court of Monsters and Malice (The Shadow Bound Queen, #3)]]> 123002823
As hard as she wishes it were not true, Reyna’s desire for the Prince grows as fierce as her need to win the games and find the staff that will set him free.

But she’s about to find out who he really is, and what he has been keeping from her - and that will change everything.

This is the third book in the Shadow Bound Queen series, which is an adult fantasy romance inspired by Norse mythology. It is a slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers romance, packed with magic, mystery and above all - delicious romantic tension.
*This blurb is as spoiler-free as possible!]]>
264 Eliza Raine Claire 0 4.05 2023 Court of Monsters and Malice (The Shadow Bound Queen, #3)
author: Eliza Raine
name: Claire
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Court of Greed and Gold (The Shadow Bound Queen, #2)]]> 62840053
Forced to work with the famously monstrous Prince, Reyna soon learns that the fae warrior is dangerously different from the rumors. Passionately, fiercely, different.
And when the stakes are raised, she will discover that he is not the only one hiding who he really is.]]>
308 Eliza Raine Claire 0 4.13 2023 Court of Greed and Gold (The Shadow Bound Queen, #2)
author: Eliza Raine
name: Claire
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves:
review:

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