Christina's bookshelf: all en-US Fri, 04 Apr 2025 17:57:29 -0700 60 Christina's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Ashes to Ashes (Ministry of Curiosities, #5)]]> 29331265 150 C.J. Archer Christina 4 3.83 2016 Ashes to Ashes (Ministry of Curiosities, #5)
author: C.J. Archer
name: Christina
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/04
date added: 2025/04/04
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]]> <![CDATA[From the Ashes (The Ministry of Curiosities, #6)]]> 29965667
The killer is still on the loose, Lady Harcourt's secret past is out, and Lady Vickers is trying to find Seth a wife. Charlie is stepping back into chaos, but nothing compares to the chaos wreaked on her heart by seeing Lincoln every day.

With her life once again in danger, she and Lincoln are forced together to catch the murderer and bring calm to Lichfield. But how can there be calm when the killer threatens everyone dear to Charlie?]]> 380 C.J. Archer 1310658854 Christina 0 currently-reading 4.11 2016 From the Ashes (The Ministry of Curiosities, #6)
author: C.J. Archer
name: Christina
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/04
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[Grave Expectations (The Ministry of Curiosities #4)]]> 29105123
Charlie and Lincoln return to London to find two supernaturals have been murdered, and Charlie might be next. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the man who adopted her has escaped from prison, and the committee members have just learned some news that infuriates them. Now there’s talk of sending Charlie away again. Far away.

But the worst is yet to come. Charlie is kidnapped and forced to summon one of the murder victims � but she’s unable to send him back. With an angry dead supernatural on the loose and the committee determined to get rid of her, Charlie’s time with the Ministry of Curiosities, and Lincoln, is in grave danger of coming to an end.]]> 252 C.J. Archer Christina 4 4.21 Grave Expectations (The Ministry of Curiosities #4)
author: C.J. Archer
name: Christina
average rating: 4.21
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/03
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]]> <![CDATA[Beyond the Grave (The Ministry of Curiosities, #3)]]> 26857731
The search leads them down a dark path littered with family secrets and titillating scandal. Using her necromancy to expose those secrets, Charlie unwittingly raises a spirit with the power to override her control. With a dead body on the loose in London, Charlie and Lincoln must work together to send it back before havoc is unleashed, and the committee members find out.

Because if they do, they will have more ammunition in their fight to send Charlie away from her home and everyone she loves.]]> 284 C.J. Archer Christina 4 4.12 2015 Beyond the Grave (The Ministry of Curiosities, #3)
author: C.J. Archer
name: Christina
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2015
rating: 4
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date added: 2025/04/01
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]]> <![CDATA[Her Majesty's Necromancer (The Ministry of Curiosities, #2)]]> 25908180
Instead, she conducts investigations of her own. She searches for details about her real mother, and makes inquiries into Lincoln's background. What she learns has the power to destroy the fragile trust they've built, or bring them closer together.

As secrets are revealed, and investigations don't go as planned, Charlie finds her necromancy sucking her into a whirlpool filled with betrayal, lies and danger.]]> 246 C.J. Archer 1311289658 Christina 4 3.98 2015 Her Majesty's Necromancer (The Ministry of Curiosities, #2)
author: C.J. Archer
name: Christina
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2015
rating: 4
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date added: 2025/04/01
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]]> <![CDATA[The Last Necromancer (The Ministry of Curiosities, #1)]]> 25942167
People are now hunting Charlie all over London, but only one man succeeds in capturing her.

Lincoln Fitzroy is the mysterious head of a secret organization on the trail of a madman who needs a necromancer to control his newly "made" creatures. There was only one known necromancer in the world - Charlotte - but now there appears to be two. Lincoln captures the willful Charlie in the hopes the boy will lead him to Charlotte. But what happens when he discovers the boy is in fact the young woman he's been searching for all along? And will she agree to work for the man who held her against her will, and for an organization she doesn't trust?

Because Lincoln and his ministry might be just as dangerous as the madman they're hunting.]]> 268 C.J. Archer 1515084388 Christina 0 3.74 2015 The Last Necromancer (The Ministry of Curiosities, #1)
author: C.J. Archer
name: Christina
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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]]> Silver Girl 10755433
Desperate and facing homelessness, Meredith receives a call from her old best friend, Constance Flute. Connie's had recent worries of her own, and the two depart for a summer on Nantucket in an attempt to heal. But the island can't offer complete escape, and they're plagued by new and old troubles alike. When Connie's brother Toby � Meredith's high school boyfriend � arrives, Meredith must reconcile the differences between the life she is leading and the life she could have had.

Set against the backdrop of a Nantucket summer, Elin Hilderbrand delivers a suspenseful story of the power of friendship, the pull of love, and the beauty of forgiveness.

“Clearly the Madoff family inspired this plot, but Hilderbrand gives it her own sun-kissed, optimistic spin � which is not to say it’s all Rosa rugosa , just that there’s a silver lining to the ugliest of circumstances.”—Elisabeth Egan, New York Times]]> 415 Elin Hilderbrand Christina 4 4.31 2011 Silver Girl
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Christina
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/31
date added: 2025/03/31
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]]> <![CDATA[Keeper of Enchanted Rooms (Whimbrel House, #1)]]> 60596112
Hulda Larkin of the Boston Institute for the Keeping of Enchanted Rooms has been trained in taming such structures in order to preserve their historical and magical significance. She understands the dangers of bespelled homes given to tantrums. She advises that it’s in Merritt’s best interest to make Whimbrel House their ally. To do that, she’ll need to move in, too.

Prepared as she is with augury, a set of magic tools, and a new staff trained in the uncanny, Hulda’s work still proves unexpectedly difficult. She and Merritt grow closer as the investigation progresses, but the house’s secrets run deeper than they anticipated. And the sentient walls aren’t their only concern—something outside is coming for the enchantments of Whimbrel House, and it could be more dangerous than what rattles within.]]> 347 Charlie N. Holmberg 1662500335 Christina 0 currently-reading 4.15 2022 Keeper of Enchanted Rooms (Whimbrel House, #1)
author: Charlie N. Holmberg
name: Christina
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls (and Everything in Between)]]> 40411206
In Talking as Fast as I Can, Lauren Graham hits pause for a moment and looks back on her life, sharing laugh-out-loud stories about growing up, starting out as an actress, and, years later, sitting in her trailer on the Parenthood set and asking herself, “Did you, um, make it?� She opens up about the challenges of being single in Hollywood (“Strangers were worried about me; that’s how long I was single!�), the time she was asked to audition her butt for a role, and her experience being a judge on Project Runway (“It’s like I had a fashion-induced blackout�).

In “What It Was Like, Part One,� Graham sits down for an epic Gilmore Girls marathon and reflects on being cast as the fast-talking Lorelai Gilmore. The essay “What It Was Like, Part Two� reveals how it felt to pick up the role again nine years later, and what doing so has meant to her.

Some more things you will learn about Lauren: She once tried to go vegan just to bond with Ellen DeGeneres, she’s aware that meeting guys at awards shows has its pitfalls (“If you’re meeting someone for the first time after three hours of hair, makeup, and styling, you’ve already set the bar too high�), and she’s a card-carrying REI shopper (“My bungee cords now earn points!�).

Including photos and excerpts from the diary Graham kept during the filming of the recent Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, this book is like a cozy night in, catching up with your best friend, laughing and swapping stories, and—of course—talking as fast as you can.]]> 224 Lauren Graham 0425285189 Christina 4 3.92 2016 Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls (and Everything in Between)
author: Lauren Graham
name: Christina
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/22
date added: 2025/03/22
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Count of Monte Cristo: The Original Unabridged and Complete Edition (Alexandre Dumas Classics)]]> 197029269
The story takes place in France, Italy, and islands in the Mediterranean during the historical events of 1815�1839: the era of the Bourbon Restoration through the reign of Louis-Philippe of France. It begins on the day that Napoleon left his first island of exile, Elba, beginning the Hundred Days period when Napoleon returned to power. The historical setting is a fundamental element of the book, an adventure story centrally concerned with themes of hope, justice, vengeance, mercy, and forgiveness.

Before he can marry his fiancée Mercédès, Edmond Dantès, a French nineteen-year-old first mate of the Pharaon, is falsely accused of treason, arrested, and imprisoned without trial in the Château d'If, a grim island fortress off Marseille. A fellow prisoner, Abbé Faria, correctly deduces that romantic rival Fernand Mondego, envious crewmate Danglars, and double-dealing magistrate De Villefort are responsible. Over the course of their long imprisonment, Faria educates Dantès and tells him of a cache of treasure he found. After Faria dies, Dantès escapes and finds the treasure. As the powerful and mysterious Count of Monte Cristo, he enters the fashionable Parisian world of the 1830s to avenge himself.]]> 817 Alexandre Dumas 1916700403 Christina 4 4.68 1846 The Count of Monte Cristo: The Original Unabridged and Complete Edition (Alexandre Dumas Classics)
author: Alexandre Dumas
name: Christina
average rating: 4.68
book published: 1846
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/10
date added: 2025/03/21
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review:

]]> The Third Gilmore Girl 207298106 “Come for the Gilmore Girls anecdotes, stay for the revealing truths about what it takes to build a lifelong career in and out of Hollywood� (The A.V. Club) in this candid and captivating memoir from award-winning and beloved actress Kelly Bishop, spanning her six decades in show business from A Chorus Line, Dirty Dancing, Gilmore Girls, and much more.

Kelly Bishop’s long, storied career has been defined by landmark achievements, from winning a Tony Award for her turn in the original Broadway cast of A Chorus Line to her memorable performance as Jennifer Grey’s mother in Dirty Dancing. But it is probably her iconic role as matriarch Emily in the modern classic Gilmore Girls that cemented her legacy.

Now, Bishop reflects on her remarkable life and looks towards the future with The Third Gilmore Girl. She shares some of her greatest stories and the life lessons she’s learned on her journey. From her early transition from dance to drama, to marrying young to a compulsive gambler, to the losses and achievements she experienced—among them marching for women’s rights and losing her second husband to cancer—Bishop offers a rich, genuine celebration of her life.

Full of witty insights, The Third Gilmore Girl is a warm, unapologetic, and spirited memoir from a woman who has left indelible impressions on her audiences for decades and has no plans on slowing down.]]> 256 Kelly Bishop 1668023776 Christina 5 4.36 2024 The Third Gilmore Girl
author: Kelly Bishop
name: Christina
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/20
date added: 2025/03/20
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]]> <![CDATA[Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space]]> 199798785
On January 28, 1986, just seventy-three seconds into flight, the space shuttle Challenger broke apart over the Atlantic Ocean, killing all seven people on board. Millions of Americans witnessed the tragic deaths of a crew including New Hampshire schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe. Like 9/11 or JFK’s assassination, the Challenger disaster is a defining moment in 20th-century history—yet the details of what took place that day, and why, have largely been forgotten. Until now.

Based on extensive archival records and meticulous, original reporting, Challenger follows a handful of central protagonists—including each of the seven members of the doomed crew—through the years leading up to the accident, a detailed account of the tragedy itself, and into the investigation that followed. It’s a tale of optimism and promise undermined by political cynicism and cost-cutting in the interests of burnishing national prestige; of hubris and heroism; and of an investigation driven by leakers and whistleblowers determined to bring the truth to light. Throughout, there are the ominous warning signs of a tragedy to come, recognized but then ignored, and ultimately kept from the public.

Higginbotham reveals the history of the shuttle program, the lives of men and women whose stories have been overshadowed by the disaster as well as the designers, engineers, and test pilots who struggled against the odds to get the first shuttle into space.]]> 576 Adam Higginbotham 198217661X Christina 4 4.53 2024 Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space
author: Adam Higginbotham
name: Christina
average rating: 4.53
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/16
date added: 2025/03/16
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]]> <![CDATA[The Goldsmith's Conspiracy (Glass and Steele, #13)]]> 58678363
But India has the ear of the government now, and her own political influence is growing, something which pushes Lord Coyle over the edge. He plots his revenge by murdering a jeweler and casting blame onto someone very important to Matt and India. As they scramble to prove Coyle was the real killer before the accused is hanged, they learn the extent of Coyle’s influence and the true motive behind his actions.

With a problem too big to solve alone, India and Matt draw on aid from their friends. But it’s old enemies who cause the biggest crisis of all.]]> 337 C.J. Archer Christina 3 4.31 2022 The Goldsmith's Conspiracy (Glass and Steele, #13)
author: C.J. Archer
name: Christina
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/07
date added: 2025/03/07
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]]> <![CDATA[The Spy Master's Scheme (Glass and Steele, #12)]]> 57042501
But it’s wise to be wary of the attention.

When the wool magician who helped India create a flying carpet spell disappears, his wife is worried for his life. India and Matt are worried for the country. If the person who stole the spell also kidnapped the wool magician, they could use flying carpets as vehicles of war. The closer they get to finding him, the more they realize they can’t trust anyone, not even the government. When it’s revealed that England’s spy master has plans for India’s talents, she refuses to cooperate.

But Matt knows it’s not as simple as refusing. Every decision has a repercussion.

And repercussions can be deadly.]]> 276 C.J. Archer Christina 4 4.12 2021 The Spy Master's Scheme (Glass and Steele, #12)
author: C.J. Archer
name: Christina
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/04
date added: 2025/03/04
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]]> <![CDATA[The Toymaker's Curse (Glass and Steele, #11)]]> 54670772
After a toymaker magician gives a lecture at a collector’s club soiree, an important spell is stolen and a man is found strangled. The investigation into his murder leads India and Matt to the colorful and dangerous world of the Romany gypsy where curses are used as weapons against their enemies.

But nobody seems to know if curses are real or not.

As Matt and India close in on the killer, old foes bring trouble into their lives. With the threat of exposure hanging over London’s magicians, disaster is never far away. Then one fateful day, catastrophe strikes the Park Street household.]]> 280 C.J. Archer Christina 4 4.11 2021 The Toymaker's Curse (Glass and Steele, #11)
author: C.J. Archer
name: Christina
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/28
date added: 2025/02/28
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]]> <![CDATA[The Kidnapper's Accomplice (Glass and Steele, #10)]]> 51008167
Meanwhile, powerful members of the Collectors Club are trying to find out what new spell India has created with Fabian, and with India’s attention focused elsewhere, they might just succeed.]]> 274 C.J. Archer Christina 4 4.07 2020 The Kidnapper's Accomplice (Glass and Steele, #10)
author: C.J. Archer
name: Christina
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/25
date added: 2025/02/25
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]]> <![CDATA[The Prisoner's Key (Glass and Steele, #8)]]> 46160962
Convinced of his innocence, India and Matt must discover who really killed the moneylender before the police find the magician. Their investigation leads them down a path littered with lies, betrayal, scandal, and interference from people they don't trust.

Meanwhile, Matt's relatives accuse Cyclops of ruining their daughter, and plan to marry off their manipulative youngest to someone even more manipulative and far more powerful. Should Matt and India support the union, or try to stop it? And how will they stop Cyclops from being deported back to America?]]> 288 C.J. Archer Christina 4 4.12 2019 The Prisoner's Key (Glass and Steele, #8)
author: C.J. Archer
name: Christina
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/22
date added: 2025/02/22
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]]> <![CDATA[The Cheater's Game (Glass and Steele, #7)]]> 43207890
When their list of suspects grows to include a member of the mysterious magic Collector's Club, they uncover a spy. But who is he working for? And what does his employer want?

As danger circles, secrets are revealed, and India struggles to keep her own secret hidden from Matt. But when her grandfather introduces her to a man who can change her life, India must decide if she wants her life to change at all.]]> 316 C.J. Archer Christina 4 4.09 2019 The Cheater's Game (Glass and Steele, #7)
author: C.J. Archer
name: Christina
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/13
date added: 2025/02/13
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]]> <![CDATA[The Ink Master's Silence (Glass and Steele, #6)]]> 40406844
When the editor of The Weekly Gazette is killed, controversial journalist and ink magician Oscar Barratt asks India and Matt to investigate. As the recipient of threatening letters written on magic paper, he believes he was the intended target. With suspects ranging from Oscar’s brother to guild masters and London’s elite, India and Matt have a lot of investigating to do.

But the more they dig, the more dark secrets they uncover. Secrets that involve blackmail and an exclusive club of magic collectors who want to preserve the value of their collections. When one of the secrets can give India and Matt the future they desire, will they give in to blackmail or sacrifice their happiness?]]> 272 C.J. Archer Christina 4 4.10 2018 The Ink Master's Silence (Glass and Steele, #6)
author: C.J. Archer
name: Christina
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/09
date added: 2025/02/09
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]]> <![CDATA[The Convent's Secret (Glass and Steele, #5)]]> 36440499
With his magic watch slowing down, Matt needs all the help India and his friends can offer before time runs out. But his nemesis will do anything to bring about his downfall, including rock Matt’s family with a scandal that can ruin them, and Matt and India’s chance of happiness.]]> 270 C.J. Archer Christina 4 4.11 2018 The Convent's Secret (Glass and Steele, #5)
author: C.J. Archer
name: Christina
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/07
date added: 2025/02/07
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review:

]]> The Island 7726892 A summertime story only Elin Hilderbrand can tell: a family in upheaval after a cancelled wedding fill an island summer with heartache, laughter, and surprises.
Birdie Cousins has thrown herself into the details of her daughter Chess's lavish wedding, from the floating dance floor in her Connecticut back yard to the color of the cocktail napkins. Like any mother of a bride-to-be, she is weathering the storms of excitement and chaos, tears and joy. But Birdie, a woman who prides herself on preparing for every possibility, could never have predicted the late-night phone call from Chess, abruptly announcing that she's cancelled her engagement.
It's only the first hint of what will be a summer of upheavals and revelations. Before the dust has even begun to settle, far worse news arrives, sending Chess into a tailspin of despair. Reluctantly taking a break from the first new romance she's embarked on since the recent end of her 30-year marriage, Birdie circles the wagons and enlists the help of her younger daughter Tate and her own sister India. Soon all four are headed for beautiful, rustic Tuckernuck Island, off the coast of Nantucket, where their family has summered for generations. No phones, no television, no grocery store - a place without distractions where they can escape their troubles.
But throw sisters, daughters, ex-lovers, and long-kept secrets onto a remote island, and what might sound like a peaceful getaway becomes much more. Before summer has ended, dramatic truths are uncovered, old loves are rekindled, and new loves make themselves known.]]> 416 Elin Hilderbrand 0316043877 Christina 0 currently-reading 3.85 2010 The Island
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Christina
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> The Love Season 8145193
It's a hot August Saturday on Nantucket Island. Over the course of the next 24 hours, two lives will be transformed forever.

Marguerite Beale, former chef of culinary hot spot Les Parapluies, has been out of the public eye for over a decade. This all changes with a phone call from Marguerite's goddaughter, Renata Knox.

Marguerite has not seen Renata since the death of Renata's mother, Candace Harris Knox, fourteen years earlier. And now that Renata is on Nantucket visiting the family of her new fiancé, she takes the opportunity, against her father's wishes, to contact Marguerite in hopes of learning the story of her mother's life--and death.

But the events of the day spiral hopelessly out of control for both women, and nothing ends up as planned.]]> 316 Elin Hilderbrand Christina 4 4.08 2006 The Love Season
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Christina
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/06
date added: 2025/02/06
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]]> <![CDATA[The Magician's Diary (Glass and Steele, #4)]]> 35071435
But as the reason for India's strangely strong magic is revealed, she wants to draw other magicians into the open, while Matt wants to hide magic to keep her safe.

Her plan backfires. His plan shatters. And danger comes to their door.]]> 400 C.J. Archer Christina 4 4.09 2017 The Magician's Diary (Glass and Steele, #4)
author: C.J. Archer
name: Christina
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/05
date added: 2025/02/05
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]]> <![CDATA[The Watchmaker's Daughter (Glass and Steele, #1)]]> 29765820
Matthew Glass must find a particular watchmaker, but he won't tell India why any old one won't do. Nor will he tell her what he does back home, and how he can afford to stay in a house in one of London's best streets. So when she reads about an American outlaw known as the Dark Rider arriving in England, she suspects Mr. Glass is the fugitive. When danger comes to their door, she's certain of it. But if she notifies the authorities, she'll find herself unemployed and homeless again - and she will have betrayed the man who saved her life.

With a cast of quirky characters, an intriguing mystery, and a dash of romance, THE WATCHMAKER'S DAUGHTER is the start of a thrilling new historical fantasy series from the author of the bestselling Ministry of Curiosities, Freak House, and Emily Chambers Spirit Medium books.]]> 302 C.J. Archer Christina 4 3.89 2016 The Watchmaker's Daughter (Glass and Steele, #1)
author: C.J. Archer
name: Christina
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/03
date added: 2025/02/03
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]]> <![CDATA[The Dead Letter Delivery (Glass Library, #4)]]> 195265525
A road trip with Gabe and her friends leads Sylvia to discover more about her mother’s veiled past yet throws up several questions, too. The stack of unopened letters addressed to her family will hopefully provide answers. As she delves into the contents, a startling revelation the letters allude to a clandestine union between two magician families, hinting at the elusive identity of Sylvia’s father.

Full of hope, she embarks on a quest to find the author of the letters, only to discover an artless youth who vanished decades ago, a dead man with the wrong name, and a hospital for former soldiers that connects them. The further Sylvia and Gabe delve into these mysteries, the more lies they expose, including long-buried secrets that certain individuals will stop at nothing to protect.

When danger strikes, Sylvia wonders if finding answers is worth the risk.]]> 279 C.J. Archer 1922554766 Christina 4 4.09 2024 The Dead Letter Delivery (Glass Library, #4)
author: C.J. Archer
name: Christina
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/25
date added: 2025/01/25
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]]> <![CDATA[[Elin Hilderbrand] Summer People:- A Novel - SoftCover]]> 210806192
Beth invites Marcus, the son of Arch's final and most challenging client, to spend the summer with her and her teenage twins Winnie and Garrett, who have mixed reactions to sharing their special summer place with this stranger. Always a place of peace before, Nantucket becomes the scene of roiling emotions and turbulent passions as Marcus, Winnie, and Garrett learn about loss, first love, and betrayal. And when they stumble upon a shocking secret from Beth's past, they must keep it from destroying the family they've been trying so hard to heal.]]> 0 Elin Hilderbrand Christina 0 currently-reading 1.00 2003 [Elin Hilderbrand] Summer People:- A Novel - SoftCover
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Christina
average rating: 1.00
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/25
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> Barefoot 6484834 From marriage, infidelity, and the mayhem of motherhood to scandal, tragedy, and illness—three women seek peace and comfort in Nantucket as they cope with life's challenges.

Three women—burdened with small children, unwieldy straw hats, and some obvious emotional issues—tumble onto the Nantucket airport tarmac one hot June day. Vicki is trying to sort through the news that she has a serious illness. Her sister, Brenda, has just left her job after being caught in an affair with a student. And their friend Melanie, after seven failed in vitro attempts, is pregnant at last—but only after learning that her husband is having an affair. They have come to escape, enjoy the sun, and relax in Nantucket's calming air. But into the house, into their world, steps twenty-two-year-old Josh Flynn.​Barefoot weaves these four lives together in a story with enthralling sweep and scope—a novel that is as fun and memorable and bittersweet as that one perfect day of summer.]]> 417 Elin Hilderbrand Christina 4 4.10 2007 Barefoot
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Christina
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/24
date added: 2025/01/24
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]]> <![CDATA[The Untitled Books (Glass Library, #3)]]> 86519502 A curated collection of magic…and murder.

When a set of bound manuscripts written on magician-made paper is brought to the Glass Library, Sylvia and the professor send the owner away. After all, the library collects books about magic, not containing it.

But the murder of the bookbinder who bound them sees the books returned to the library, along with Gabe in his role as consultant for Scotland Yard. When his investigation uncovers a link to Sylvia’s past, they’re even more determined to find the murderer. But they’re not the only ones searching for answers. Someone has gone to great lengths to find the truth behind the binding of the books.

The hunt for the killer leads them to dark corners of London and unscrupulous players with much to gain by owning the collection. It also leads to the discovery of long-buried secrets, and staggering revelations that shed light on Sylvia’s past.]]> 282 C.J. Archer 192255443X Christina 4 4.11 2023 The Untitled Books (Glass Library, #3)
author: C.J. Archer
name: Christina
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/21
date added: 2025/01/21
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]]> <![CDATA[The Medici Manuscript (Glass Library, #2)]]> 61392396
Finding an old manuscript in the attic has always been a fantasy of Sylvia’s. She just never expected the fantasy to come true, or for it to lead her to answers about her mysterious family.

The silver clasps binding the pages contain rare magic � the same magic that might run through Sylvia’s veins. To discover a link to her ancestors means understanding the book itself, but it’s written in a code that proves difficult to crack. The only thing she knows for certain is that it was once owned by the Medicis, the powerful family that controlled Renaissance Florence.

With the help of Gabe and his friends, Sylvia investigates the book’s origins. But following the clues throws up more questions � questions they need help answering. Trusting others is not Sylvia’s strong suit, but with Gabe at her side, she becomes capable and confident. Until their trust is shattered when the book is stolen.

Uncovering the thief proves dangerous, particularly when someone is also trying to kidnap Gabe. With his own mysteries to unravel, Gabe’s private life becomes more complicated. Sylvia tries to keep her distance but staying away from someone as magnetic as Gabe is impossible.

With so many distractions, can they find the thief before the book is lost forever? Or will the secrets contained within its pages remain unsolved and will Sylvia’s past continue to be a mystery?]]> 280 C.J. Archer 1922554308 Christina 4 4.03 2023 The Medici Manuscript (Glass Library, #2)
author: C.J. Archer
name: Christina
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/18
date added: 2025/01/18
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Librarian of Crooked Lane (Glass Library, #1)]]> 60054210
Librarian Sylvia Ashe knows nothing about her past, having grown up without a father and a mother who refused to discuss him. When she stumbles upon a diary that suggests she’s descended from magicians, she’s skeptical. After all, magicians are special, and she’s just an ordinary girl who loves books. She seeks the truth from a member of the most prominent family of magicians, but she quickly learns that finding the truth won’t be easy, especially when he turns out to be as artless as her, and more compelling and dangerous than books.

War hero Gabe is gifted with wealth, a loving family, and an incredible amount of luck that saw him survive four harrowing years of a brutal war without injury. But not all injuries are visible. Burying himself in his work as a consultant for Scotland Yard, Gabe is going through the motions as he investigates the theft of a magician-made painting. But his life changes when he unwittingly gets Sylvia dismissed from her job and places her in danger.

After securing her new employment in a library housing the world’s greatest collection of books about magic, Gabe and Sylvia’s lives become intwined as they work together to find both the painting and the truth about Sylvia’s past before powerful people can stop them.

But sometimes the past is better left buried…]]> 284 C.J. Archer 1922554200 Christina 4 3.84 2022 The Librarian of Crooked Lane (Glass Library, #1)
author: C.J. Archer
name: Christina
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/15
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Be Ready When the Luck Happens]]> 209192698 In her long-awaited memoir, Ina Garten—aka the Barefoot Contessa, author of thirteen bestselling cookbooks, beloved Food Network personality, Instagram sensation, and cultural icon—shares her personal story with readers hungry for a seat at her table.

Here, for the first time, Ina Garten presents an intimate, entertaining, and inspiring account of her remarkable journey. Ina’s gift is to make everything look easy, yet all her accomplishments have been the result of hard work, audacious choices, and exquisite attention to detail. In her unmistakable voice (no one tells a story like Ina), she brings her past and her process to life in a high-spirited and no-holds-barred memoir that chronicles decades of personal challenges, adventures (and misadventures) and unexpected career twists, all delivered with her signature combination of playfulness and purpose.

From a difficult childhood to meeting the love of her life, Jeffrey, and marrying him while still in college, from a boring bureaucratic job in Washington, D.C., to answering an ad for a specialty food store in the Hamptons, from the owner of one Barefoot Contessa shop to author of bestselling cookbooks and celebrated television host, Ina has blazed her own trail and, in the meantime, taught millions of people how to cook and entertain. Now, she invites them to come closer to experience her story in vivid detail and to share the important life lessons she learned along the way: do what you love because if you love it you’ll be really good at it, swing for the fences, and always Be Ready When the Luck Happens.]]> 320 Ina Garten 0593799895 Christina 3 4.26 2024 Be Ready When the Luck Happens
author: Ina Garten
name: Christina
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/07
date added: 2025/01/07
shelves:
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]]> The Blue Bistro 8377676
Adrienne Dealey has spent the past six years working for hotels in exotic resort towns. This summer she has decided to make Nantucket home. Left flat broke by her ex-boyfriend, she is desperate to earn some fast money. When the desirable Thatcher Smith, owner of Nantucket's hottest restaurant, is the only one to offer her a job, she wonders if she can get by with no restaurant experience. Thatcher gives Adrienne a crash course in the business...and they share an instant attraction. But there is a mystery about their what is it about Fiona, the Blue Bistro's chef, that captures Thatcher's attention again and again? And why does such a successful restaurant seem to be in its final season before closing its doors for good? Despite her uncertainty, Adrienne must decide whether to open her heart for the first time, or move on, as she always does.

Infused with intimate Nantucket detail and filled with the warmth of passion and the breeze of doubt, The Blue Bistro is perfect summer reading.]]> 428 Elin Hilderbrand 1429905492 Christina 4 4.15 2005 The Blue Bistro
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Christina
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[The Christmas Tree Farm (Dream Harbor, #3)]]> 206318178 From the author of the viral TikTok sensation, The Pumpkin Spice Café, comes the only spicy grumpy x sunshine Christmas romcom you need this year!

Kira North hates Christmas. Which is unfortunate since she just bought a Christmas tree farm in a town that’s too cute for its own good.

Bennett Ellis is on vacation in Dream Harbor taking a break from his life in California. And most importantly, taking a break from his latest run of disastrous dates.

After a run in with Kira in her fields, Ben has no intention of offering to help the grumpy owner set up her tree farm, despite the fact she’s clearly got no idea what she’s doing.

Kira knows she should stop being so stubborn, but her farm is not all cute and cozy like people always show on social media, it’s borderline dangerous with no heating, and she’d rather no one saw it.

But somehow fate finds Ben at Kira’s farm once more, and as Kira watches him swing an ax at the first tree, she finds herself appreciating his strength and questionning why she refused help in the first place..

The Christmas Tree Farm is a spicy romantic mystery for fans of Gilmore Girls with a HEA guaranteed!

Tropes:

� grumpy x sunshine
� small town
� forced proximity
� one bed]]> 369 Laurie Gilmore 0008610738 Christina 4 3.66 2024 The Christmas Tree Farm (Dream Harbor, #3)
author: Laurie Gilmore
name: Christina
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/17
date added: 2024/12/17
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]]> Swing Time 28390369
Dazzlingly energetic and deeply human, Swing Time is a story about friendship and music and stubborn roots, about how we are shaped by these things and how we can survive them. Moving from northwest London to West Africa, it is an exuberant dance to the music of time.]]> 453 Zadie Smith 0241144159 Christina 4 3.55 2016 Swing Time
author: Zadie Smith
name: Christina
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/16
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves:
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]]> A Tale of Two Cities 1953 A Tale of Two Cities is Charles Dickens’s great historical novel, set against the violent upheaval of the French Revolution. The most famous and perhaps the most popular of his works, it compresses an event of immense complexity to the scale of a family history, with a cast of characters that includes a bloodthirsty ogress and an antihero as believably flawed as any in modern fiction. Though the least typical of the author’s novels, A Tale of Two Cities still underscores many of his enduring themes—imprisonment, injustice, social anarchy, resurrection, and the renunciation that fosters renewal.]]> 489 Charles Dickens 0141439602 Christina 5 3.86 1859 A Tale of Two Cities
author: Charles Dickens
name: Christina
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1859
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/09
date added: 2024/12/09
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[The Cinnamon Bun Book Store (Dream Harbor, #2)]]> 210163199 From the author of the Sunday Times bestseller and viral TikTok phenomenon, The Pumpkin Spice Café, comes a brand new spicy romance set in Dream Harbor!

When a secret message turns up hidden in a book in the Cinnamon Bun Bookstore, Hazel can't understand it. As more secret codes appear between the pages, she decides to follow the trail of clues� she just need someone to help her out.

Gorgeous and outgoing fisherman, Noah, is always up for an adventure. And a scavenger hunt sounds like a lot of fun. Even better that the cute bookseller he's been crushing on for months is the one who wants his help!

Hazel didn’t go looking for romance, but as the treasure hunt leads her and Noah around Dream Harbor, their undeniable chemistry might be just as hot as the fresh-out-of-the-oven cinnamon buns the bookstore sells�

The Cinnamon Bun Book Store is a cozy romantic mystery with a HEA guaranteed!

Tropes:
� opposites attract
� small town
� forced proximity
� he falls first]]> 370 Laurie Gilmore 0008641579 Christina 4 3.89 2024 The Cinnamon Bun Book Store (Dream Harbor, #2)
author: Laurie Gilmore
name: Christina
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/07
date added: 2024/12/07
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]]> A Christmas Carol 5326
Introduction and Afterword by Joe Wheeler
To bitter, miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, Christmas is just another day. But all that changes when the ghost of his long-dead business partner appears, warning Scrooge to change his ways before it's too late.

Part of the Focus on the Family Great Stories collection, this abridged edition features an in-depth introduction and discussion questions by Joe Wheeler to provide greater understanding for today's reader. "A Christmas Carol" captures the heart of the holidays like no other novel.]]> 184 Charles Dickens 1561797464 Christina 5 4.06 1843 A Christmas Carol
author: Charles Dickens
name: Christina
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1843
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/03
date added: 2024/12/03
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]]> <![CDATA[The Pumpkin Spice Café (Dream Harbor, #1)]]> 139391940 A spicy small-town romance and TikTok phenomenon, perfect for fans of Hannah Grace and Stephanie Archer.

When Jeanie's aunt gifts her the beloved Pumpkin Spice Café in the small town of Dream Harbor, Jeanie jumps at the chance for a fresh start away from her very dull desk job.

Logan is a local farmer who avoids Dream Harbor's gossip at all costs. But Jeanie's arrival disrupts Logan's routine and he wants nothing to do with the irritatingly upbeat new girl, except that he finds himself inexplicably drawn to her.

Will Jeanie's happy-go-lucky attitude win over the grumpy-but-gorgeous Logan, or has this city girl found the one person in town who won't fall for her charm, or her pumpkin spice lattes�

The Pumpkin Spice Café is a cozy romantic mystery for fans of Gilmore Girls, with a grumpy x sunshine dynamic, a small-town setting and a HEA guaranteed!

Tropes:

� grumpy x sunshine
� small town
� found family
� spicy]]> 373 Laurie Gilmore 0008610665 Christina 4 3.36 2023 The Pumpkin Spice Café (Dream Harbor, #1)
author: Laurie Gilmore
name: Christina
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/01
date added: 2024/12/01
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]]> Never 57747930 The new must-read epic from master storyteller Ken Follett: more than a thriller, it's an action-packed, globe-spanning drama set in the present day.


In the Sahara Desert, two elite intelligence agents are on the trail of a powerful group of drug-smuggling terrorists, risking their lives—and, when they fall desperately in love, their careers—at every turn. Nearby, a beautiful young widow fights against human traffickers while traveling illegally to Europe with the help of a mysterious man who may not be who he says he is.

In China, a senior government official with vast ambitions for himself and his country battles against the older Communist hawks in the government, who may be pushing China—and its close military ally, North Korea—to a place of no return.

And in the United States, Pauline Green, the country's first woman president, navigates terrorist attacks, illegal arms trading, and the smear campaigns of her blustering political opponent with careful and deft diplomacy. She will do everything in her power to avoid starting an unnecessary war. But when one act of aggression leads to another, the most powerful countries in the world are caught in a complex web of alliances they can't escape. And once all the sinister pieces are in place, can anyone—even those with the best of intentions and most elite skills—stop the inevitable?

Never is an extraordinary thriller, full of heroines and villains, false prophets and elite warriors, jaded politicians and opportunistic revolutionaries. It brims with cautionary wisdom for our times, and a delivers a visceral, heart-pounding read that transports readers to the brink of the unimaginable.]]> 802 Ken Follett 0593300017 Christina 0 3.94 2021 Never
author: Ken Follett
name: Christina
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2024/11/26
date added: 2024/11/26
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]]> <![CDATA[The Grey Wolf (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #19)]]> 204174589
Relentless phone calls interrupt the peace of a warm August morning in Three Pines. Though the tiny Québec village is impossible to find on any map, someone has managed to track down Armand Gamache, head of homicide at the Sûreté, as he sits with his wife in their back garden. Reine-Marie watches with increasing unease as her husband refuses to pick up, though he clearly knows who is on the other end. When he finally answers, his rage shatters the calm of their quiet Sunday morning.

That's only the first in a sequence of strange events that begin THE GREY WOLF, the nineteenth novel in Louise Penny's #1 New York Times-bestselling series. A missing coat, an intruder alarm, a note for Gamache reading "this might interest you", a puzzling scrap of paper with a mysterious list—and then a murder. All propel Chief Inspector Gamache and his team toward a terrible realization. Something much more sinister than any one murder or any one case is fast approaching.

Armand Gamache, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, his son-in-law and second in command, and Inspector Isabelle Lacoste can only trust each other, as old friends begin to act like enemies, and long-time enemies appear to be friends. Determined to track down the threat before it becomes a reality, their pursuit takes them across Québec and across borders. Their hunt grows increasingly desperate, even frantic, as the enormity of the creature they’re chasing becomes clear. If they fail the devastating consequences would reach into the largest of cities and the smallest of villages.

Including Three Pines.]]> 432 Louise Penny 1250328144 Christina 5 4.42 2024 The Grey Wolf (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #19)
author: Louise Penny
name: Christina
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/24
date added: 2024/11/24
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]]> Wandering Stars 174147294
Colorado, 1864. Star, a young survivor of the Sand Creek Massacre, is brought to the Fort Marion Prison Castle, where he is forced to learn English and practice Christianity by Richard Henry Pratt, an evangelical prison guard who will go on to found the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, an institution dedicated to the eradication of Native history, culture, and identity. A generation later, Star’s son, Charles, is sent to the school, where he is brutalized by the man who was once his father’s jailer. Under Pratt’s harsh treatment, Charles clings to moments he shares with a young fellow student, Opal Viola, as the two envision a future away from the institutional violence that follows their bloodlines.

Oakland, 2018. Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield is barely holding her family together after the shooting that nearly took the life of her nephew Orvil. From the moment he awakens in his hospital bed, Orvil begins compulsively googling school shootings on YouTube. He also becomes emotionally reliant on the prescription medications meant to ease his physical trauma. His younger brother, Lony, suffering from PTSD, is struggling to make sense of the carnage he witnessed at the shooting by secretly cutting himself and enacting blood rituals that he hopes will connect him to his Cheyenne heritage. Opal is equally adrift, experimenting with Ceremony and peyote, searching for a way to heal her wounded family.

Extending his constellation of narratives into the past and future, Tommy Orange once again delivers a story that is by turns shattering and wondrous, a book piercing in its poetry, sorrow, and rage—a masterful follow-up to his already-classic first novel, and a devastating indictment of America’s war on its own people.]]> 315 Tommy Orange 0593318250 Christina 0 to-read 3.83 2024 Wandering Stars
author: Tommy Orange
name: Christina
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/17
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Last Rose of Shanghai 59232498 In Japanese-occupied Shanghai, two people from different cultures are drawn together by fate and the freedom of music...

1940. Aiyi Shao is a young heiress and the owner of a formerly popular and glamorous Shanghai nightclub. Ernest Reismann is a penniless Jewish refugee driven out of Germany, an outsider searching for shelter in a city wary of strangers. He loses nearly all hope until he crosses paths with Aiyi. When she hires Ernest to play piano at her club, her defiance of custom causes a sensation. His instant fame makes Aiyi's club once again the hottest spot in Shanghai. Soon they realize they share more than a passion for jazz—but their differences seem insurmountable, and Aiyi is engaged to another man.

As the war escalates, Aiyi and Ernest find themselves torn apart, and their choices between love and survival grow more desperate. In the face of overwhelming odds, a chain of events is set in motion that will change both their lives forever.

From the electrifying jazz clubs to the impoverished streets of a city under siege, The Last Rose of Shanghai is a timeless, sweeping story of love and redemption.]]> 429 Weina Dai Randel 1542032881 Christina 4 4.13 2021 The Last Rose of Shanghai
author: Weina Dai Randel
name: Christina
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/15
date added: 2024/11/15
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]]> Six Days in Bombay 212378278
When renouned painter Mira Novak arrives at Wadia hospital in Bombay after a miscarriage, she's expected to make a quick recovery, and Sona is excited to spend time with the worldly woman who shares her half-Indian identity, even if that's where their similarities end. Sona is enraptured by Mira's stories of her travels, and shocked by accounts of the many lovers she's left scattered through Europe. Over the course of a week, Mira befriends Sona, seeing in her something bigger than the small life she's living with her mother. Mira is released from the hospital just in time to attend a lavish engagement party where all of Bombay society. But the next day, Mira is readmitted to the hospital in worse condition than before, and when she dies under mysterious circumstances, Sona immediately falls under suspicion.

Before leaving the hospital in disgrace, Sona is given a note Mira left for her, along with her four favorite paintings. But how could she have known to leave a note if she didn't know she was going to die? The note sends Sona on a mission to deliver three of the paintings—the first to Petra, Mira's childhood friend and first love in Prague; the second to her art dealer Josephine in Paris; the third to her first painting tutor, Paolo, with whom both Mira and her mother had affairs. As Sona uncovers Mira's history, she learns that the charming facade she'd come to know was only one part of a complicated and sometimes cruel woman. But can she discover what really happened to Mira and exonerate herself?

Along the way, Sona also comes to terms with her own complex history and the English father who deserted her and her mother in India so many years ago. In the end, she'll discover that we are all made up of pieces, and only by seeing the world do we learn to see ourselves.]]> 352 Alka Joshi 077836853X Christina 0 to-read 4.23 2025 Six Days in Bombay
author: Alka Joshi
name: Christina
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/13
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Perfumist of Paris (The Jaipur Trilogy, #3)]]> 61062499
When her friend’s grandfather offered her a job at his parfumerie, she quickly discovered she had a talent—she could find the perfect fragrance for any customer who walked in the door. Now, ten years later, she’s working for a master perfumer, helping to design completely new fragrances for clients and building her career one scent at a time. She only wishes Pierre could understand her need to work. She feels his frustration, but she can’t give up this thing that drives her.

Tasked with her first major project, Radha travels to India, where she enlists the help of her sister, Lakshmi, and the courtesans of Agra—women who use the power of fragrance to seduce, tease and entice. She’s on the cusp of a breakthrough when she finds out the son she never told her husband about is heading to Paris to find her—upending her carefully managed world and threatening to destroy a vulnerable marriage.

The final chapter in Alka Joshi’s New York Times bestselling Jaipur trilogy takes readers to 1970s Paris, where Radha’s budding career as a perfumer must compete with the demands of her family and the secrets of her past.]]> 368 Alka Joshi 0778386147 Christina 5 4.08 2023 The Perfumist of Paris (The Jaipur Trilogy, #3)
author: Alka Joshi
name: Christina
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/13
date added: 2024/11/13
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]]> <![CDATA[The Small and the Mighty: Twelve Unsung Americans Who Changed the Course of History, from the Founding to the Civil Rights Movement]]> 203956674 America’s favorite government teacher offers thrilling, heartfelt stories of ordinary American heroes.Most pundits and historians sell a dangerously naïve version of the American story—either praising its most consequential figures uncritically or criticizing them unfairly.Sharon McMahon believes the truth is more human. In her debut book The Small and the Mighty, she tells the inpiring stories of twelve Americans--regular people with human foibles--whose extraordinary heroism in the face of mounting trials created the character of our country.With the same clarity and candor that's earned her millions of fans, McMahon follows the daughter of formerly enslaved parents who sparked a reformation in Black education, a Japanese immigrant who nearly died in combat and became a consequential Senator, and even the electrician who saved her husband’s life. Her unforgettable prose and meticulous research tell the story of America from the perspective of the unsung heroes whose devotion to their country will restore your faith in the American dream.The portraits of our nation’s most improbable champions, innovators, and rebels in this book celebrate the United States and reveal our common humanity. The Small and the Mighty is the encouragement we all need in an age of doomscrolling and division.]]> 320 Sharon McMahon 0593541677 Christina 5 4.45 2024 The Small and the Mighty: Twelve Unsung Americans Who Changed the Course of History, from the Founding to the Civil Rights Movement
author: Sharon McMahon
name: Christina
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/03
date added: 2024/11/03
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]]> Nantucket Nights 8145194 The ties between women can run as deep as the ocean--but so can the secrets.For 20 years, Kayla, Antoinette and Val have performed their own special summer ritual. Once a year, the old friends put aside their daily, separate lives to drink champagne, swap stories and swim naked under the Nantucket stars. But on one of those bonding nights, one of their trio swims out from the shore and doesn't return. After the surviving friends emerge from their grief, they realize that the repercussions of their loss go far beyond their little circle, and they begin to uncover layers of secrets--and their connections to each other--that were never revealed on the beach. What has made their friendship strong now has the power to destroy--their marriages, families, even themselves, in Elin Hilderbrand's Nantucket Nights.]]> 240 Elin Hilderbrand Christina 4 3.83 2002 Nantucket Nights
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Christina
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/02
date added: 2024/11/02
shelves:
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]]> James 173754979 A brilliant reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—both harrowing and satirical—told from the enslaved Jim's point of view

When Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he runs away until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck has faked his own death to escape his violent father. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

Brimming with nuanced humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a literary icon, this brilliant and tender novel radically illuminates Jim's agency, intelligence, and compassion as never before. James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first-century American literature.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780385550369.]]> 303 Percival Everett Christina 5 4.47 2024 James
author: Percival Everett
name: Christina
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/30
date added: 2024/10/30
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Nantucket Summer House (Nantucket Beach Plum Cove Book 9)]]> 218281669 Nantucket Influence will follow a group of young influencers as they spend the summer at a gorgeous waterfront home. It is a concept that Lauren has worked on successfully before and the job is hers—as long as she doesn’t mind that one of the influencers is Billy—the ex that she caught cheating on her. Does she really want to spend the summer working with him every day? This is her first chance to run a show, though, and she can’t pass it up.

Hudson, runs a Nantucket based production company, with famous actress and new Nantucket resident, Cami Carmichael. Hudson is good friends with Billy, but Lauren finds herself drawn to him. But she knows they shouldn't be more than friends since they are working together—and since Lauren will be heading back to LA when filming ends.

Meanwhile Angela is thrilled to see her college friend Lauren and has some exciting news to share. And Lisa discovers that her nemesis, Violet, who runs a competing inn is ready to declare herself as the top lobster quiche maker on the island. But not if Lisa has anything to say about it—she signs up for the local food festival as well and will let the people decide who makes the best quiche.]]> 293 Pamela M. Kelley 1953060528 Christina 4 4.31 Nantucket Summer House (Nantucket Beach Plum Cove Book 9)
author: Pamela M. Kelley
name: Christina
average rating: 4.31
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/23
date added: 2024/10/23
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]]> Nantucket News 58907265 298 Pamela M. Kelley 1953060269 Christina 4 4.31 Nantucket News
author: Pamela M. Kelley
name: Christina
average rating: 4.31
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/23
date added: 2024/10/23
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Nantucket Homes (Nantucket Beach Plum Cove #8)]]> 76855306 It's Fall on Nantucket--and change is in the air!



There's a new arrival to the island. Kay Johnson, a seventy-two-year-old widow, was a friend of Lisa's mother and is like an aunt to Lisa. Kay is excited to relax and enjoy Nantucket—she’s already signed up for a Needlepoint class. She’s not at all looking for a later in life romance, but she is happy to make a new friend in neighbor Walter Sturgess, a widower.



When the story begins, Walter's son Travis, CEO of a tech company he founded in Silicon Valley, and his four-year-old daughter, Sophie, are living with Walter until Travis's new home is ready for them to move in.



That new home is being built by Chase Hodges, Lisa's son, and is located on the ocean, next to the home where Victoria grew up--and is now living temporarily with her parents, since she and Sean—her long-term boyfriend and fiancé, broke up.



When she sees Travis for the first time in many years, Victoria realizes he is in a similar place, since his divorce. She didn't even recognize Travis at first. He had to remind her that they'd once dated in high school, before she dumped him for Sean, the star quarterback. Travis is all grown-up now, but even if she was interested in dating, Victoria has never been anxious to have children, let alone take on someone else's.



Meanwhile, Lisa's online food business was growing steadily until recently when she discovered several competitors making copycat lobster quiches and it is affecting her sales. Marley, her marketing advisor, studies the situation and advises what Lisa thinks is a questionable suggestion- but she's willing to give it a try.



Chase and Beth are also dealing with some unwelcome competition, when Chase discovers that he's losing new business bids to an upstart construction company--that is underbidding by such an amount that Chase can't imagine how they are making a profit.



And speaking of babies, Victoria isn't the only one who isn't sure she wants to have children. Now that she and Tyler are married, Kristen has been thinking a lot about that as well.



Come back to Nantucket and see what all of your old friends are up to. If you like romantic women's fiction and family focused stories you might find yourself addicted to this series. Be sure to start with book one, The Nantucket Inn. This story has a later-in-life romance as one of its storylines.]]> 264 Pamela M. Kelley 1953060374 Christina 4 4.40 2023 Nantucket Homes (Nantucket Beach Plum Cove #8)
author: Pamela M. Kelley
name: Christina
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/23
date added: 2024/10/23
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]]> <![CDATA[Nantucket Threads (Nantucket Beach Plum Cove #6)]]> 55304053 264 Pamela M. Kelley 1953060072 Christina 3 4.31 Nantucket Threads (Nantucket Beach Plum Cove #6)
author: Pamela M. Kelley
name: Christina
average rating: 4.31
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/06
date added: 2024/10/06
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]]> <![CDATA[Nantucket Weddings (Nantucket Beach Plum Cove #5)]]> 53532938
That was a year ago and she was just starting to feel better, when she came back from a vacation to find her house burned down. So she will be staying with Lisa at the Beach Plum Cove Inn for a while, until her house is renovated.
Mia's also worried about her younger sister and best friend Izzy--she has a serious boyfriend who has grown more controlling over the past year.

As it turns out, there are several member of the Hodges family that may be in need of Mia's services--she'll be planning not one but two weddings. There are a few road bumps along the way however.

Lisa has another long-term guest that she eagerly introduces to Mia. She finds this temporary neighbor equally intriguing and frustrating and she makes it clear that she's not even close to ready to date. She's not sure if she ever will be.]]> 180 Pamela M. Kelley 0991243595 Christina 3 4.26 Nantucket Weddings (Nantucket Beach Plum Cove #5)
author: Pamela M. Kelley
name: Christina
average rating: 4.26
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/02
date added: 2024/10/02
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]]> <![CDATA[The Secret Keeper of Jaipur (The Jaipur Trilogy, #2)]]> 55004546
Malik soon finds that not much has changed as he navigates the Pink City of his childhood. Power and money still move seamlessly among the wealthy class, and favors flow from Jaipur’s Royal Palace, but only if certain secrets remain buried. When the cinema’s balcony tragically collapses on opening night, blame is placed where it is convenient. But Malik suspects something far darker and sets out to uncover the truth. As a former street child, he always knew to keep his own counsel; it’s a lesson that will serve him as he untangles a web of lies.

In New York Times bestselling author Alka Joshi’s intriguing new novel, henna artist Lakshmi arranges for her protégé, Malik, to intern at the Jaipur Palace in this tale rich in character, atmosphere, and lavish storytelling.]]> 384 Alka Joshi 0778331857 Christina 4 4.02 2021 The Secret Keeper of Jaipur (The Jaipur Trilogy, #2)
author: Alka Joshi
name: Christina
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/01
date added: 2024/10/01
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]]> <![CDATA[A Nantucket Affair (Nantucket Beach Plum Cove, #4)]]> 48898997
But things are sometimes not what they seem.

Lisa Hodges has always thought her best friend Sue had a dream marriage. She'd married Curt, her high school sweetheart and current business partner. After thirty-five years of marriage, she never doubted him once--until Brandi Morgan joined their thriving insurance company. Brandi is fifteen years younger, blonde and beautiful and is also excellent at her account manager job. All the clients love her and business is up. Sue liked her quite a bit too--until the rumors started swirling.

And it all began with A Nantucket Affair, the island's biggest charity gathering with a catered dinner and dancing on the beach. As usual, Curt is the chairman for the gala, and this year, he has a new second in command, Brandi. Sue didn't give it a second thought, until Curt suddenly dropped the fifteen pounds he'd been whining about wanting to lose and a few well meaning friends started asking her what was going on.

Meanwhile, Kristen's boyfriend, Tyler is dealing with a devastating loss and Kristen wants to be there for him, but isn't sure how best to support him, especially when she discovers a secret he's been keeping, one that could have devastating consequences for both of them.

Abby is busy learning how to be a new mother, and Lisa is madly in love with her first grandchild. And Chase and Beth have discovered a new passion project--flipping houses. Beth does the research to find the undervalued homes and Chase works his magic to renovate them. But then they get in over their heads when a project requires more than they could ever have imagined.]]> 228 Pamela M. Kelley Christina 0 4.10 A Nantucket Affair (Nantucket Beach Plum Cove, #4)
author: Pamela M. Kelley
name: Christina
average rating: 4.10
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2024/09/25
date added: 2024/09/25
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]]> <![CDATA[Nantucket White Christmas (Nantucket Beach Plum Cove, #3)]]> 52718380
Born on Christmas, Angela Stark has always hated the holiday. Bad things always seem to happen and this year is no exception when she is fired and evicted on the first day of December.

She was living and working as a maid in San Francisco. Who will hire her at this time of year, especially if they learn why she was fired?

Her only family is Sam, an elderly, and quite vocal orange cat. Her only option is to stay temporarily with her best friend Jane, but she is extremely allergic to cats. It’s not ideal, but it doesn’t look like she has a choice, until a certified letter arrives that changes everything.

The next thing she knows, she and Sam are flying to Nantucket, a place they’ve never been before.

It’s meant to be a temporary visit. But then Angela meets the Hodges family and friends and begins to question where home really is.]]> 244 Pamela M. Kelley Christina 4 4.21 Nantucket White Christmas (Nantucket Beach Plum Cove, #3)
author: Pamela M. Kelley
name: Christina
average rating: 4.21
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/24
date added: 2024/09/24
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]]> <![CDATA[The Henna Artist (The Jaipur Trilogy, #1)]]> 50607466 Vivid and compelling in its portrait of one woman’s struggle for fulfillment in a society pivoting between the traditional and the modern, The Henna Artist opens a door into a world that is at once lush and fascinating, stark and cruel.

Escaping from an abusive marriage, seventeen-year-old Lakshmi makes her way alone to the vibrant 1950s pink city of Jaipur. There she becomes the most highly requested henna artist—and confidante—to the wealthy women of the upper class. But trusted with the secrets of the wealthy, she can never reveal her own�

Known for her original designs and sage advice, Lakshmi must tread carefully to avoid the jealous gossips who could ruin her reputation and her livelihood. As she pursues her dream of an independent life, she is startled one day when she is confronted by her husband, who has tracked her down these many years later with a high-spirited young girl in tow—a sister Lakshmi never knew she had. Suddenly the caution that she has carefully cultivated as protection is threatened. Still she perseveres, applying her talents and lifting up those that surround her as she does.]]> 384 Alka Joshi 0778310205 Christina 5 4.14 2020 The Henna Artist (The Jaipur Trilogy, #1)
author: Alka Joshi
name: Christina
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/24
date added: 2024/09/24
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]]> Farenheit 451 56302573 208 Ray Bradbury Christina 0 to-read 3.77 1953 Farenheit 451
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Christina
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1953
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/20
shelves: to-read
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]]> Wurthering Heights 58503787
Los brumosos y sombríos páramos de Yorkshire son el singular escenario donde se desarrolla con fuerza arrebatadora esta historia de venganza, odio y amor desesperado entre sus protagonistas.]]> 260 Emily Brontë Christina 3 3.63 1847 Wurthering Heights
author: Emily Brontë
name: Christina
average rating: 3.63
book published: 1847
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/19
date added: 2024/09/19
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]]> <![CDATA[Nantucket Neighbors (Nantucket Beach Plum Cove, #2)]]> 52765730
Book your visit to the Beach Plum Cove Inn today.....meet widow Lisa Hodges and her four adult children, friends, and visitors to the newly opened waterfront bed and breakfast. In the first book, The Nantucket Inn, Lisa learned that her deceased husband had a hidden gambling addiction and had blown through their retirement savings. Since she'd been raising four children and hadn't worked in years, she had no employable skills. Her only option if she wanted to stay on the island near her loved ones, was to rent out her second floor rooms.

And she's loving it so far. Lisa's first guest, restaurant owner Rhett Byrne quickly became a close friend and then something more. In her early fifties, it sounds strange to her to call him her boyfriend, but that's what he is.

Her daughter Kristen, finally ended things with Sean, the separated man that no one in the family was excited about. It wasn't until she was beginning to move on, that he filed for divorce, and then begged her for another chance. So she gave him one, much to everyone's dismay. But then the cottage next door is sold, and she discovers who her new neighbor is.

Chase, the only boy in the family, has never been serious about anyone before. But he's suddenly withdrawn and has been secretive about who he's seeing, which only makes everyone that much more curious. When they learn who it is, the concern grows as no one wants to see Chase hurt, again.

Lisa's best friend, Paige, has a new neighbor too and it's one she is most decidedly not enthused about. Violet was one of the women who stood up at town meeting and protested against Lisa's inn being approved by the selectman. Because the house is right next door, Paige can't help but notice the steady stream of traffic. Violet seems to be very popular with a lot of people.

The inn is doing well and bookings are up, but then one Friday night, a guest that prepaid for the weekend never shows up. And quite a few people, including the police, come asking questions.
]]> 258 Pamela M. Kelley Christina 3 4.20 2019 Nantucket Neighbors (Nantucket Beach Plum Cove, #2)
author: Pamela M. Kelley
name: Christina
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/16
date added: 2024/09/16
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]]> <![CDATA[Being Elizabeth (Ravenscar, #3)]]> 2957414 416 Barbara Taylor Bradford 0312354630 Christina 3 3.21 2008 Being Elizabeth (Ravenscar, #3)
author: Barbara Taylor Bradford
name: Christina
average rating: 3.21
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/06
date added: 2024/09/06
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]]> The Beach Club 11433257
Mack Petersen, manager of the hotel, has been working at The Beach Club for 12 summers. Only this summer is different. His boss, the owner of the hotel, Bill Elliot, shows up in the spring with a new set of demands. His girlfriend Maribel is pressing Mack to get married and Vance, the African-American bellman, who has hated Mack since the day Mack stole his job 12 years ago, threatens him in a deadly scene. Mack knows something's got to give.

Love O'Donnell, the new front desk person straight from the slopes of Aspen, is desperately searching for a stranger to father her child. The bellman, Jem Crandall, who posed as Mr. November in his college calendar, is on his way to LA to break into agenting, until he falls in love with Maribel. Emotions are at a peak when a hurricane threatens to wash away The Beach Club and all it stands for.

An engrossing, sexy novel that will sweep you away to the beach any time of the year.
]]> 357 Elin Hilderbrand Christina 4 4.05 2000 The Beach Club
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Christina
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/03
date added: 2024/09/03
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]]> The Heir (Ravenscar, #2) 521247
Politics of inheritance are intense, and different family factions vie for honor over the years. An heir is needed to keep the Deravenel name alive, but tragedy and death remain obstacles at every turn. The choices include a loyal caretaker, a jealous rumormonger, a charming young woman, a sickly boy, and the scion of the family Edward ousted from power years before.

Barbara Taylor Bradford triumphs once again with a novel about passion, treachery, marriage, and family, and the compromises we’re forced to make for power and love.]]> 467 Barbara Taylor Bradford 0312354622 Christina 3 3.50 2007 The Heir (Ravenscar, #2)
author: Barbara Taylor Bradford
name: Christina
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/31
date added: 2024/08/31
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]]> <![CDATA[The Ravenscar Dynasty (Ravenscar, #1)]]> 8162 A Woman of Substance. Now she has created an unforgettable new dynasty: the Deravenels.

On a bitterly cold day in 1904, the Deravenel family's future changes forever. When Cecily Deravenel tells her eighteen-year-old son Edward of the death of his father, brother, uncle, and cousin in a fire, a part of him dies as well.Edward and his cousin Neville Watkins are suspicious of the deaths. They vow to seek the truth, avenge the deaths, and retake control of their family's business empire.


As he grows into a handsome, charismatic man, Edward is torn between duty and desire. There are women in his life for whom he'll risk everything--and one woman who might destroy him. But madness and secrecy lie at the heart of the family, and Edward's enemies are far more ruthless than he knows.He will need his strength more than ever whenthehouse of Deravenel is fatally rocked by betrayal from within. Who will become the ultimate ruler of the Deravenels?


Power and money, passion and adultery, ambition and treachery all illuminate a dramatic epic saga that brings to life the glittering Edwardian Era. The Ravenscar Dynasty is based on the familial factions of England's Wars of the Roses, brought to life by the magical, memorable storytelling power that is Barbara Taylor Bradford.]]> 484 Barbara Taylor Bradford 0312354606 Christina 3 3.54 2006 The Ravenscar Dynasty (Ravenscar, #1)
author: Barbara Taylor Bradford
name: Christina
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/22
date added: 2024/08/22
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]]> Hello Beautiful 61771675
But then darkness from William’s past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia’s carefully orchestrated plans for their future, but the sisters� unshakeable devotion to one another. The result is a catastrophic family rift that changes their lives for generations. Will the loyalty that once rooted them be strong enough to draw them back together when it matters most?]]> 416 Ann Napolitano Christina 5 4.14 2023 Hello Beautiful
author: Ann Napolitano
name: Christina
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/08
date added: 2024/08/08
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]]> <![CDATA[The Wonder of It All (House of Falconer, #3)]]> 65213158
James Falconer--a tycoon and a self-made man, seems to have the world in the palm of his hand. But The Great War looms, and James decides to fight for king and country. The fighting is bloody and brutal, and James returns a changed man, with wounds both physical and mental. His beloved wife is dead, but a new woman returns to help nurse him back to health
Georgiana Ward once held James in her thrall, but years have passed and bitterness has set in. Still, the old attraction is there and James is determined to make amends to both Georgiana and his child Leonie--now a grown woman and someone he hasn't seen in decades. Leonie is having none of it, and is embarking on a dangerous journey with a man who might very well destroy her. As James fights to return to the man he once was, he needs to find a way to heal his body, soul, and family.
Told with Barbara Taylor Bradford's inimitable style and flair for period detail , The Wonder of It All concludes House of Falconer trilogy that has followed the story of this remarkable family from Victorian times to the 20th-century.]]> 368 Barbara Taylor Bradford 1250187486 Christina 3 3.57 The Wonder of It All (House of Falconer, #3)
author: Barbara Taylor Bradford
name: Christina
average rating: 3.57
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/07
date added: 2024/08/07
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]]> <![CDATA[In the Lion's Den (House of Falconer, #2)]]> 51175931 From New York Times bestselling author Barbara Taylor Bradford comes the highly anticipated second book in the House of Falconer saga.

James Lionel Falconer has risen quickly from a mere shop worker to being the right-hand man of Henry Malvern, head of the most prestigious shipping company in London. With Malvern's daughter Alexis running away to the country after a terrible tragedy and refusing to return, James' ascent to head of the company seems inevitable. But even a charmed life like James' is not without its setbacks.

A terrible fire threatens to end his merchant career before it's had a chance to truly begin. Mrs. Ward, James' former paramour, has a secret that could change his life forever. And his distaste for Alexis Malvern is slowly growing into feelings of quite a different sort. Can James continue to be the master of his own fate, or will all of his charm, intelligence, and wit finally fail him when he has to enter the lion's den?

Spanning the years from 1889 to 1892, In the Lion's Den is Barbara Taylor Bradford at her historical storytelling best.

]]> 352 Barbara Taylor Bradford 1250187427 Christina 4 3.53 2019 In the Lion's Den (House of Falconer, #2)
author: Barbara Taylor Bradford
name: Christina
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/02
date added: 2024/08/02
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]]> <![CDATA[Master of His Fate (House of Falconer, #1)]]> 37638328 From New York Times bestselling author Barbara Taylor Bradford comes the first book in a stunning new historical saga.

Victorian England is a country of sharp divides between rich and poor, but James Lionel Falconer is everything a self-made man should be: handsome, ambitious, charming, and brimming with self-confidence. Even as a boy working in his father's market stall in Camden, he was determined to become a merchant prince. Through hard work and a single-minded determination, James rises quickly through the ranks, with a loving wife, devoted children, and a lofty position in the Malvern & Malvern Company. But when back-to-back tragedies strike the Falconer home, shattering this idyllic life, it seems as though James might never recover his former glory...until a royal summons gives him the chance to prove that he truly is a master of the game.

The first book in an expansive and intricately detailed new historical fiction series from master storyteller Barbara Taylor Bradford, Master of the Game is filled with drama, intrigue, and Bradford's trademark cast of compelling characters.]]> 400 Barbara Taylor Bradford 1250187397 Christina 4 3.45 2018 Master of His Fate (House of Falconer, #1)
author: Barbara Taylor Bradford
name: Christina
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/29
date added: 2024/07/29
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]]> <![CDATA[A Man of Honor (Emma Harte Saga #0)]]> 56269134
Opening five years before the start of A Woman of Substance , A Man of Honor begins with 13-year-old Blackie O’Neill facing an uncertain future in rural County Kerry. Orphaned and alone, he has just buried his sister, Bronagh, and must leave his home to set sail for England, in search of a better life with his mother’s brother in Leeds. There, he learns his trade as a navvy, amid the grand buildings and engineering triumphs of one of England’s most prosperous cities, and starts to dream of greater things... And then, high on the Yorkshire moors, in the mists of a winter morning he meets a kitchen maid called Emma Harte.

In A Man of Honor , the true Blackie O'Neill is revealed. For the first time, readers discover his story: his tumultuous life, the obstacles facing him, the desire he has to throw off the impotence of poverty and move up in the world. Like his friend Emma, he is ambitious, driven, disciplined, and determined to make it to the top. And like Emma Harte, he is an unforgettable character for the millions who loved the book.]]> 464 Barbara Taylor Bradford 1250187451 Christina 3 3.58 2021 A Man of Honor (Emma Harte Saga #0)
author: Barbara Taylor Bradford
name: Christina
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/24
date added: 2024/07/24
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]]> The Hotel Nantucket 60114458 “The queen of beach reads� (New York Magazine) and #1New York Timesbestselling author delivers an immensely satisfying page-turner in this tale about a summer of scandal at a storied Nantucket hotel.

Fresh off a bad breakup with a longtime boyfriend, Nantucket sweetheart Lizbet Keaton is desperately seeking a second act. When she’s named the new general manager of the Hotel Nantucket, a once Gilded Age gem turned abandoned eyesore, she hopes that her local expertise and charismatic staff can win the favor of their new London billionaire owner, Xavier Darling, as well as that of Shelly Carpenter, the wildly popular Instagram tastemaker who can help put them back on the map. And while the Hotel Nantucket appears to be a blissful paradise, complete with a celebrity chef-run restaurant and an idyllic wellness center, there’s a lot of drama behind closed doors. The staff (and guests) have complicated pasts, and the hotel can’t seem to overcome the bad reputation it earned in 1922 when a tragic fire killed nineteen-year-old chambermaid Grace Hadley. With Grace gleefully haunting the halls, a staff harboring all kinds of secrets, and Lizbet’s own romantic uncertainty, is the Hotel Nantucket destined for success or doom?

Filled with the emotional depth and multiple points of view that characterize Hilderbrand’s novels (The Blue Bistro, Golden Girl) as well as an added dash of Roaring Twenties history, The Hotel Nantucket offers something for everyone in this compelling summer drama.]]> 417 Elin Hilderbrand 031625908X Christina 4 4.21 2022 The Hotel Nantucket
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Christina
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/19
date added: 2024/07/19
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]]> Transcription 37946414
Ten years later, now a radio producer at the BBC, Juliet is unexpectedly confronted by figures from her past. A different war is being fought now, on a different battleground, but Juliet finds herself once more under threat. A bill of reckoning is due, and she finally begins to realize that there is no action without consequence.]]> 343 Kate Atkinson 031617663X Christina 4 3.44 2018 Transcription
author: Kate Atkinson
name: Christina
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/19
date added: 2024/07/19
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]]> <![CDATA[The Sage's Tao Te Ching: Ancient Advice for the Second Half of Life]]> 136368 160 William Martin 1569246114 Christina 4 4.26 2000 The Sage's Tao Te Ching: Ancient Advice for the Second Half of Life
author: William Martin
name: Christina
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/13
date added: 2024/07/13
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]]> <![CDATA[The Tattooist of Auschwitz (The Tattooist of Auschwitz, #1)]]> 37540594
In April 1942, Lale Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew, is forcibly transported to the concentration camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau. When his captors discover that he speaks several languages, he is put to work as a Tätowierer (the German word for tattooist), tasked with permanently marking his fellow prisoners.

Imprisoned for over two and a half years, Lale witnesses horrific atrocities and barbarism—but also incredible acts of bravery and compassion. Risking his own life, he uses his privileged position to exchange jewels and money from murdered Jews for food to keep his fellow prisoners alive.

One day in July 1942, Lale, prisoner 32407, comforts a trembling young woman waiting in line to have the number 34902 tattooed onto her arm. Her name is Gita, and in that first encounter, Lale vows to somehow survive the camp and marry her.]]> 293 Heather Morris Christina 4 4.40 2018 The Tattooist of Auschwitz (The Tattooist of Auschwitz, #1)
author: Heather Morris
name: Christina
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/05
date added: 2024/07/05
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]]> The Distance Between Us 13260227 325 Reyna Grande 1451661770 Christina 4 4.35 2012 The Distance Between Us
author: Reyna Grande
name: Christina
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/05
date added: 2024/07/05
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]]> House Rules 6614960 When your son can't look you in the eye...does that mean he's guilty?

Jacob Hunt is a teen with Asperger's syndrome. He's hopeless at reading social cues or expressing himself well to others, though he is brilliant in many ways. But he has a special focus on one subject - forensic analysis. A police scanner in his room clues him in to crime scenes, and he's always showing up and telling the cops what to do. And he's usually right.

But when Jacob's small hometown is rocked by a terrible murder, law enforcement comes to him. Jacob's behaviors are hallmark Asperger's, but they look a lot like guilt to the local police. Suddenly the Hunt family, who only want to fit in, are directly in the spotlight. For Jacob's mother, Emma, it's a brutal reminder of the intolerance and misunderstanding that always threaten her family. For his brother, Theo, it's another indication why nothing is normal because of Jacob.

And over this small family, the soul-searing question looms: Did Jacob commit murder? ]]> 532 Jodi Picoult 0743296435 Christina 4 4.04 2010 House Rules
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Christina
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/27
date added: 2024/06/27
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]]> Between Sisters 217432
Claire has fallen in love for the first time in her life, and as her wedding day approaches she prepares to face her strong-willed older sister. Reunited after two decades, these two women who believe they have nothing in common will try to become what they never were: a family.

Tender, funny, bittersweet and moving, Kristin Hannah's Between Sisters skilfully explores the profound joys and sorrows shared in a close relationship, the mistakes made in the name of love, and the promise of redemption."]]> 428 Kristin Hannah 0345450744 Christina 4 3.94 2003 Between Sisters
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Christina
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/25
date added: 2024/06/25
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]]> Marilla of Green Gables 38906015 A bold, heartfelt tale of life at Green Gables . . . before Anne: A marvelously entertaining and moving historical novel, set in rural Prince Edward Island in the nineteenth century, that imagines the young life of spinster Marilla Cuthbert, and the choices that will open her life to the possibility of heartbreak—and unimaginable greatness.

Plucky and ambitious, Marilla Cuthbert is thirteen years old when her world is turned upside down. Her beloved mother has dies in childbirth, and Marilla suddenly must bear the responsibilities of a farm wife: cooking, sewing, keeping house, and overseeing the day-to-day life of Green Gables with her brother, Matthew and father, Hugh.

In Avonlea—a small, tight-knit farming town on a remote island—life holds few options for farm girls. Her one connection to the wider world is Aunt Elizabeth "Izzy" Johnson, her mother’s sister, who managed to escape from Avonlea to the bustling city of St. Catharines. An opinionated spinster, Aunt Izzy’s talent as a seamstress has allowed her to build a thriving business and make her own way in the world.

Emboldened by her aunt, Marilla dares to venture beyond the safety of Green Gables and discovers new friends and new opportunities. Joining the Ladies Aid Society, she raises funds for an orphanage run by the Sisters of Charity in nearby Nova Scotia that secretly serves as a way station for runaway slaves from America. Her budding romance with John Blythe, the charming son of a neighbor, offers her a possibility of future happiness—Marilla is in no rush to trade one farm life for another. She soon finds herself caught up in the dangerous work of politics, and abolition—jeopardizing all she cherishes, including her bond with her dearest John Blythe. Now Marilla must face a reckoning between her dreams of making a difference in the wider world and the small-town reality of life at Green Gables.

]]> 311 Sarah McCoy Christina 0 4.27 2018 Marilla of Green Gables
author: Sarah McCoy
name: Christina
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at: 2024/06/17
date added: 2024/06/25
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]]> The Pact 10916
So when midnight calls from the hospital come in, no one is ready for the appalling truth: Emily is dead at seventeen from a gunshot wound to the head. There's a single unspent bullet in the gun that Chris took from his father's cabinet—a bullet that Chris tells police he intended for himself. But a local detective has doubts about the suicide pact that Chris has described.]]> 512 Jodi Picoult 0061150142 Christina 4 4.03 1998 The Pact
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Christina
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/15
date added: 2024/06/15
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]]> A Spark of Light 39072210
After rushing to the scene, Hugh McElroy, a police hostage negotiator, sets up a perimeter and begins making a plan to communicate with the gunman. As his phone vibrates with incoming text messages he glances at it and, to his horror, finds out that his fifteen-year-old daughter, Wren, is inside the clinic.

But Wren is not alone. She will share the next and tensest few hours of her young life with a cast of unforgettable characters: A nurse who calms her own panic in order save the life of a wounded woman. A doctor who does his work not in spite of his faith but because of it, and who will find that faith tested as never before. A pro-life protester disguised as a patient, who now stands in the cross hairs of the same rage she herself has felt. A young woman who has come to terminate her pregnancy. And the disturbed individual himself, vowing to be heard.

Told in a daring and enthralling narrative structure that counts backward through the hours of the standoff, this is a story that traces its way back to what brought each of these very different individuals to the same place on this fateful day.

Jodi Picoult—one of the most fearless writers of our time—tackles a complicated issue in this gripping and nuanced novel. How do we balance the rights of pregnant women with the rights of the unborn they carry? What does it mean to be a good parent? A Spark of Light will inspire debate, conversation . . . and, hopefully, understanding.]]> 381 Jodi Picoult 0345544994 Christina 3 3.75 2018 A Spark of Light
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Christina
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/06
date added: 2024/06/06
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]]> The Paris Novel 195431572
Stella reached for an oyster, tipped her head and tossed it back. It was cool and slippery, the flavor so briny it was like diving into the ocean... Oysters, she thought, where have they been all my life?

When her estranged mother dies, Stella is left with an unusual gift: a one-way plane ticket, and a note reading ‘Go to Paris�. But Stella is hardly cut out for adventure; a childhood trauma has kept her confined to the strict routines of her comfort zone. When her boss encourages her to take time off, Stella resigns herself to honoring her mother’s last wishes.

Alone in a foreign city, Stellafalls into old habits, living cautiously and frugally. Then she stumbles across a vintage store where she tries on a fabulous Dior dress. The shopkeeper insists that this dress was meant for Stella and, for the first time in her life, Stella does something impulsive. She buys the dress and together they embark on an adventure.

Her first iconic brasserie Les Deux Magots, where Stella tastes her first oysters, and then meets an octogenarian art collector who decides to take her under his wing. As Jules introduces her to a veritable who’s who of the 1980s Paris literary, art, and culinary worlds, Stella begins to understand what it might mean to live a larger life.

As weeks—and many decadent meals—go by, Stella ends up livingas a “tumbleweed� at famed bookstore Shakespeare & Company, uncovers a hundred-year-old mystery in a Manet painting, and discovers a passion for food that may be connected to her past.A feast for the senses, this novel is a testament toliving deliciously, taking chances, and finding your true home.]]> 274 Ruth Reichl 0812996313 Christina 4 4.28 2024 The Paris Novel
author: Ruth Reichl
name: Christina
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/02
date added: 2024/06/02
shelves:
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]]> The Storyteller 15753740
Sage Singer is a baker. She works through the night, preparing the day’s breads and pastries, trying to escape a reality of loneliness, bad memories, and the shadow of her mother’s death. When Josef Weber, an elderly man in Sage’s grief support group, begins stopping by the bakery, they strike up an unlikely friendship. Despite their differences, they see in each other the hidden scars that others can’t, and they become companions.

Everything changes on the day that Josef confesses a long-buried and shameful secret—one that nobody else in town would ever suspect—and asks Sage for an extraordinary favor. If she says yes, she faces not only moral repercussions, but potentially legal ones as well. With her own identity suddenly challenged, and the integrity of the closest friend she’s ever had clouded, Sage begins to question the assumptions and expectations she’s made about her life and her family. When does a moral choice become a moral imperative? And where does one draw the line between punishment and justice, forgiveness and mercy?

In this searingly honest novel, Jodi Picoult gracefully explores the lengths we will go in order to protect our families and to keep the past from dictating the future]]> 461 Jodi Picoult 1439102767 Christina 4 4.28 2013 The Storyteller
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Christina
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/31
date added: 2024/05/31
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]]> The Good Left Undone 58065358 From Adriana Trigiani, "a master of visual and palpable detail" (The Washington Post), comes a lush, immersive novel about three generations of Tuscan artisans with one remarkable secret. Epic in scope and resplendent with the glorious themes of identity and belonging, The Good Left Undone unfolds in breathtaking turns.

Matelda, the Cabrelli family's matriarch, has always been brusque and opinionated. Now, as she faces the end of her life, she is determined to share a long-held secret with her family about her own mother's great love story: with her childhood friend, Silvio, and with dashing Scottish sea captain John Lawrie McVicars, the father Matelda never knew. . . .

In the halcyon past, Domenica Cabrelli thrives in the coastal town of Viareggio until her beloved home becomes unsafe when Italy teeters on the brink of World War II. Her journey takes her from the rocky shores of Marseille to the mystical beauty of Scotland to the dangers of wartime Liverpool--where Italian Scots are imprisoned without cause--as Domenica experiences love, loss, and grief while she longs for home. A hundred years later, her daughter, Matelda, and her granddaughter, Anina, face the same big questions about life and their family's legacy, while Matelda contemplates what is worth fighting for. But Matelda is running out of time, and the two timelines intersect and weave together in unexpected and heartbreaking ways that lead the family to shocking revelations and, ultimately, redemption.]]> 439 Adriana Trigiani 0593183320 Christina 5 3.90 2022 The Good Left Undone
author: Adriana Trigiani
name: Christina
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/30
date added: 2024/05/30
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]]> Salem Falls 10915
When Jack St. Bride arrives by chance in the sleepy New England town of Salem Falls, he decides to reinvent himself. Tall, blond, and handsome, Jack was once a beloved teacher and soccer coach at a girls' prep school -- until a student's crush sparked a powder keg of accusation and robbed him of his reputation. Now, working for minimum wage washing dishes for Addie Peabody at the Do-Or-Diner, Jack buries his past, content to become the mysterious stranger who has appeared out of the blue.

With ghosts of her own haunting her, Addie Peabody is as cautious around men as Jack St. Bride is around women. But as this unassuming stranger steps smoothly into the diner's daily routine, she finds him fitting just as comfortably inside her heart -- and slowly, a gentle, healing love takes hold between them.

Yet planting roots in Salem Falls may prove fateful for Jack. Amid the white-painted centuries-old churches, a quartet of bored, privileged teenage girls have formed a coven that is crossing the line between amusement and malicious intent. Quick to notice the attractive new employee at Addie's diner, the girls turn Jack's world upside down with a shattering allegation that causes history to repeat itself -- and forces Jack to proclaim his innocence once again. Suddenly nothing in Salem Falls is as it seems: a safe haven turns dangerous, an innocent girl meets evil face-to-face, a dishwasher with a Ph.D. is revealed to be an ex-con. As Jack's hidden past catches up with him, the seams of this tiny town begin to tear, and the emerging truth becomes a slippery concept written in shades of gray. Now Addie, desperate for answers, must look into her heart -- and into Jack's lies and shadowy secrets -- for evidence that will condemn or redeem the man she has come to love.]]> 434 Jodi Picoult 0743418719 Christina 4 3.83 2001 Salem Falls
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Christina
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/20
date added: 2024/05/20
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]]> Tom Lake 63241104 In this beautiful and moving novel about family, love, and growing up, Ann Patchett once again proves herself one of America’s finest writers.

In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.

Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart. As in all of her novels, Ann Patchett combines compelling narrative artistry with piercing insights into family dynamics. The result is a rich and luminous story, told with profound intelligence and emotional subtlety, that demonstrates once again why she is one of the most revered and acclaimed literary talents working today.]]> 309 Ann Patchett 006332752X Christina 4 3.92 2023 Tom Lake
author: Ann Patchett
name: Christina
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/15
date added: 2024/05/15
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]]> The Guest List 52656911
The bride � The plus one � The best man � The wedding planner � The bridesmaid � The body

On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star. The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It’s a wedding for a magazine, or for a celebrity: the designer dress, the remote location, the luxe party favors, the boutique whiskey. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed.

But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human. As the champagne is popped and the festivities begin, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. The groomsmen begin the drinking game from their school days. The bridesmaid not-so-accidentally ruins her dress. The bride’s oldest (male) friend gives an uncomfortably caring toast.

And then someone turns up dead. Who didn’t wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?]]> 319 Lucy Foley Christina 3 3.82 2020 The Guest List
author: Lucy Foley
name: Christina
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/14
date added: 2024/05/14
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]]> <![CDATA[Cut From The Earth (The Tile Maker Series, #1)]]> 58015940
Pêro harbors a female artist whose risqué creations keep the shop’s works in demand by Lisbon’s elite. The success of her designs does not sit well with one of Pêro’s longtime workers, bringing him and his loved ones under the menacing eye of the Inquisition, with threat of imprisonment and closure of his shop.

Risking his life and liberty, Pêro is determined to push forward. But on All Saints Day, November 1st, Portugal is struck by earthquakes, tidal waves and massive fires, and Pêro loses what is most dear to him. Will he escape? Or stay to fight for freedom and the future?

A historical novel set in 18th century Lisbon, Cut From The Earth is a riveting story of courage, determination and survival.]]> 352 Stephanie Renee Dos Santos Christina 3 4.15 Cut From The Earth (The Tile Maker Series, #1)
author: Stephanie Renee Dos Santos
name: Christina
average rating: 4.15
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/07
date added: 2024/05/07
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]]> Maame 61535154 An alternate cover edition can be found here.

Maame (ma-meh) has many meanings in Twi but in my case, it means woman.

It’s fair to say that Maddie’s life in London is far from rewarding. With a mother who spends most of her time in Ghana (yet still somehow manages to be overbearing), Maddie is the primary caretaker for her father, who suffers from advanced stage Parkinson’s. At work, her boss is a nightmare and Maddie is tired of always being the only Black person in every meeting.

When her mum returns from her latest trip to Ghana, Maddie leaps at the chance to get out of the family home and finally start living. A self-acknowledged late bloomer, she’s ready to experience some important “firsts�: She finds a flat share, says yes to after-work drinks, pushes for more recognition in her career, and throws herself into the bewildering world of internet dating. But it's not long before tragedy strikes, forcing Maddie to face the true nature of her unconventional family, and the perils—and rewards—of putting her heart on the line.

Smart, funny, and deeply affecting, Jessica George's Maame deals with the themes of our time with humor and poignancy: from familial duty and racism, to female pleasure, the complexity of love, and the life-saving power of friendship. Most important, it explores what it feels like to be torn between two homes and cultures―and it celebrates finally being able to find where you belong]]> 320 Jessica George Christina 0 to-read 4.19 2023 Maame
author: Jessica George
name: Christina
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/29
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]]> Let Us Descend 87556695
“‘Let us descend,� the poet now began, ‘and enter this blind world.’� � Inferno, Dante Alighieri

Let Us Descend is a reimagining of American slavery, as beautifully rendered as it is heart-wrenching. Searching, harrowing, replete with transcendent love, the novel is a journey from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the slave markets of New Orleans and into the fearsome heart of a Louisiana sugar plantation.

Annis, sold south by the white enslaver who fathered her, is the reader’s guide through this hellscape. As she struggles through the miles-long march, Annis turns inward, seeking comfort from memories of her mother and stories of her African warrior grandmother. Throughout, she opens herself to a world beyond this world, one teeming with of earth and water, of myth and history; spirits who nurture and give, and those who manipulate and take. While Ward leads readers through the descent, this, her fourth novel, is ultimately a story of rebirth and reclamation.

From one of the most singularly brilliant and beloved writers of her generation, this miracle of a novel inscribes Black American grief and joy into the very land—the rich but unforgiving forests, swamps, and rivers of the American South. Let Us Descend is Jesmyn Ward’s most magnificent novel yet, a masterwork for the ages.]]> 305 Jesmyn Ward 198210449X Christina 0 to-read 3.68 2023 Let Us Descend
author: Jesmyn Ward
name: Christina
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/04/29
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]]> Leaving Time 18816603 398 Jodi Picoult 0345544927 Christina 4 3.96 2014 Leaving Time
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Christina
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/29
date added: 2024/04/29
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]]> <![CDATA[The Good, the Bad, and the Aunties (Aunties, #3)]]> 181344918 What should have been a family celebration of Chinese New Year descends into chaos when longtime foes crash the party in this hilariously entertaining novel by Jesse Q. Sutanto, bestselling author of Dial A for Aunties.

After an ultra-romantic honeymoon across Europe, Meddy Chan and her husband Nathan have landed in Jakarta to spend Chinese New Year with her entire extended family. Chinese New Year, already the biggest celebration of the Lunar calendar, gets even more festive when a former beau of Second Aunt’s shows up at the Chan residence bearing extravagant gifts—he’s determined to rekindle his romance with Second Aunt and the gifts are his way of announcing his courtship.

His grand gesture goes awry however, when it’s discovered that not all the gifts were meant for Second Aunt and the Chans—one particular gift was intended for a business rival to cement their alliance and included by accident. Of course the Aunties agree that it’s only right to return the gift—after all, anyone would forgive an honest mistake, right? But what should have been a simple retrieval turns disastrous and suddenly Meddy and the Aunties are helpless pawns in a decades-long war between Jakarta’s most powerful business factions. The fighting turns personal, however, when Nathan and the Aunties are endangered and it’s up to Meddy to come up with a plan to save them all. Determined to rescue her loved ones, Meddy embarks on an impossible mission—but with the Aunties by her side, nothing is truly impossible…]]> 304 Jesse Q. Sutanto 0593546237 Christina 4 3.66 2024 The Good, the Bad, and the Aunties (Aunties, #3)
author: Jesse Q. Sutanto
name: Christina
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/26
date added: 2024/04/26
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]]> Wish You Were Here 57701764 New York Times bestselling author of Small Great Things and The Book of Two Ways comes comes a deeply moving novel about the resilience of the human spirit in a moment of crisis.

Jodi Picoult once again proves she is the master of wading through the darkness to find the light. Wish You Were Here is a powerfully evocative story of resilience and the triumph of the human spirit.
--Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Malibu Rising

Synopsis
Diana O’Toole is perfectly on track. She will be married by thirty, done having kids by thirty-five, and move out to the New York City suburbs, all while climbing the professional ladder in the cutthroat art auction world. She’s an associate specialist at Sotheby’s now, but her boss has hinted at a promotion if she can close a deal with a high-profile client. She’s not engaged just yet, but she knows her boyfriend, Finn, a surgical resident, is about to propose on their romantic getaway to the Galapagos—days before her thirtieth birthday. Right on time.

But then a virus that felt worlds away has appeared in the city, and on the eve of their departure, Finn breaks the news: It’s all hands on deck at the hospital. He has to stay behind. You should still go, he assures her, since it would be a shame for all of their nonrefundable trip to go to waste. And so, reluctantly, she goes.

Almost immediately, Diana’s dream vacation goes awry. Her luggage is lost, the Wi-Fi is nearly nonexistent, and the hotel they’d booked is shut down due to the pandemic. In fact, the whole island is now under quarantine, and she is stranded until the borders reopen. Completely isolated, she must venture beyond her comfort zone. Slowly, she carves out a connection with a local family when a teenager with a secret opens up to Diana, despite her father’s suspicion of outsiders.

In the Galapagos Islands, where Darwin’s theory of natural selection was formed, Diana finds herself examining her relationships, her choices, and herself—and wondering if when she goes home, she too will have evolved into someone completely different.]]> 310 Jodi Picoult 1984818414 Christina 4 3.86 2021 Wish You Were Here
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Christina
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/23
date added: 2024/04/23
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]]> The Book of Two Ways 50265329
Dawn, miraculously, survives the crash, but so do all the doubts that have suddenly been raised. She has led a good life. Back in Boston, there is her husband, Brian, her beloved daughter, and her work as a death doula, where she helps ease the transition between life and death for patients in hospice.

But somewhere in Egypt is Wyatt Armstrong, who works as an archaeologist unearthing ancient burial sites, a job she once studied for, but was forced to abandon when life suddenly intervened. And now, when it seems that fate is offering her second chances, she is not as sure of the choice she once made.

After the crash landing, the airline ensures the survivors are seen by a doctor, then offers transportation wherever they want to go. The obvious option for Dawn is to continue down the path she is on and go home to her family. The other is to return to the archaeological site she left years before, reconnect with Wyatt and their unresolved history, and maybe even complete her research on The Book of Two Ways--the first known map of the afterlife.

As the story unfolds, Dawn's two possible futures unspool side by side, as do the secrets and doubts long buried beside them. Dawn must confront the questions she's never truly asked: What does a life well-lived look like? When we leave this earth, what do we leave behind? Do we make choices...or do our choices make us? And who would you be, if you hadn't turned out to be the person you are right now?]]> 416 Jodi Picoult 198481835X Christina 4 3.61 2020 The Book of Two Ways
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Christina
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/18
date added: 2024/04/18
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]]> <![CDATA[The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America]]> 32191706 de facto segregation—that is, through individual prejudices, income differences, or the actions of private institutions like banks and real estate agencies. Rather, The Color of Law incontrovertibly makes clear that it was de jure segregation—the laws and policy decisions passed by local, state, and federal governments—that actually promoted the discriminatory patterns that continue to this day.

Through extraordinary revelations and extensive research that Ta-Nehisi Coates has lauded as "brilliant" (The Atlantic), Rothstein comes to chronicle nothing less than an untold story that begins in the 1920s, showing how this process of de jure segregation began with explicit racial zoning, as millions of African Americans moved in a great historical migration from the south to the north.

As Jane Jacobs established in her classic The Death and Life of Great American Cities, it was the deeply flawed urban planning of the 1950s that created many of the impoverished neighborhoods we know. Now, Rothstein expands our understanding of this history, showing how government policies led to the creation of officially segregated public housing and the demolition of previously integrated neighborhoods. While urban areas rapidly deteriorated, the great American suburbanization of the post–World War II years was spurred on by federal subsidies for builders on the condition that no homes be sold to African Americans. Finally, Rothstein shows how police and prosecutors brutally upheld these standards by supporting violent resistance to black families in white neighborhoods.

The Fair Housing Act of 1968 prohibited future discrimination but did nothing to reverse residential patterns that had become deeply embedded. Yet recent outbursts of violence in cities like Baltimore, Ferguson, and Minneapolis show us precisely how the legacy of these earlier eras contributes to persistent racial unrest. “The American landscape will never look the same to readers of this important book� (Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund), as Rothstein’s invaluable examination shows that only by relearning this history can we finally pave the way for the nation to remedy its unconstitutional past.]]> 368 Richard Rothstein 1631492853 Christina 0 to-read 4.44 2017 The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
author: Richard Rothstein
name: Christina
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Apples Never Fall 56143578 #1 New York Times Bestseller
A Peacock Original TV Series–Streaming Soon

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Liane Moriarty comes a novel that looks at marriage, siblings, and how the people we love the most can hurt us the deepest

The Delaney family love one another dearly—it’s just that sometimes they want to murder each other . . .

If your mother was missing, would you tell the police? Even if the most obvious suspect was your father?

This is the dilemma facing the four grown Delaney siblings.

The Delaneys are fixtures in their community. The parents, Stan and Joy, are the envy of all of their friends. They’re killers on the tennis court, and off it their chemistry is palpable. But after fifty years of marriage, they’ve finally sold their famed tennis academy and are ready to start what should be the golden years of their lives. So why are Stan and Joy so miserable?

The four Delaney children—Amy, Logan, Troy, and Brooke—were tennis stars in their own right, yet as their father will tell you, none of them had what it took to go all the way. But that’s okay, now that they’re all successful grown-ups and there is the wonderful possibility of grandchildren on the horizon.

One night a stranger named Savannah knocks on Stan and Joy’s door, bleeding after a fight with her boyfriend. The Delaneys are more than happy to give her the small kindness she sorely needs. If only that was all she wanted.

Later, when Joy goes missing, and Savannah is nowhere to be found, the police question the one person who remains: Stan. But for someone who claims to be innocent, he, like many spouses, seems to have a lot to hide. Two of the Delaney children think their father is innocent, two are not so sure—but as the two sides square off against each other in perhaps their biggest match ever, all of the Delaneys will start to reexamine their shared family history in a very new light.]]> 467 Liane Moriarty 1250220254 Christina 4 3.69 2021 Apples Never Fall
author: Liane Moriarty
name: Christina
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/06
date added: 2024/04/06
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]]> The Lost Apothecary 49083252 A forgotten history. A secret network of women. A legacy of poison and revenge. Welcome to The Lost Apothecary�

Hidden in the depths of eighteenth-century London, a secret apothecary shop caters to an unusual kind of clientele. Women across the city whisper of a mysterious figure named Nella who sells well-disguised poisons to use against the oppressive men in their lives. But the apothecary’s fate is jeopardized when her newest patron, a precocious twelve-year-old, makes a fatal mistake, sparking a string of consequences that echo through the centuries.

Meanwhile in present-day London, aspiring historian Caroline Parcewell spends her tenth wedding anniversary alone, running from her own demons. When she stumbles upon a clue to the unsolved apothecary murders that haunted London two hundred years ago, her life collides with the apothecary’s in a stunning twist of fate—and not everyone will survive.

With crackling suspense, unforgettable characters and searing insight, The Lost Apothecary is a subversive and intoxicating debut novel of secrets, vengeance and the remarkable ways women can save each other despite the barrier of time.]]> 320 Sarah Penner Christina 4 4.00 2021 The Lost Apothecary
author: Sarah Penner
name: Christina
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/02
date added: 2024/04/02
shelves:
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]]> The Book of Lost Friends 53025903 A new novel inspired by historical events: a story of three young women on a journey in search of family amidst the destruction of the post-Civil War South, and of a modern-day teacher who rediscovers their story and its connection to her own students' lives.

Lisa Wingate brings to life stories from actual "Lost Friends" advertisements that appeared in Southern newspapers after the Civil War, as freed slaves desperately searched for loved ones who had been sold off.

Louisiana, 1875 In the tumultuous aftermath of Reconstruction, three young women set off as unwilling companions on a perilous quest: Lavinia, the pampered heir to a now-destitute plantation; Juneau Jane, her illegitimate free-born Creole half-sister; and Hannie, Lavinia's former slave. Each carries private wounds and powerful secrets as they head for Texas, following dangerous roads rife with ruthless vigilantes and soldiers still fighting a war lost a decade before. For Lavinia and Juneau Jane, the journey is one of inheritance and financial desperation, but for Hannie, torn from her mother and eight siblings before slavery's end, the pilgrimage westward reignites an agonizing question: Could her long-lost family still be out there? Beyond the swamps lie the seemingly limitless frontiers of Texas and, improbably, hope.

Louisiana, 1987 For first-year teacher Benedetta Silva, a subsidized job at a poor rural school seems like the ticket to canceling her hefty student debt--until she lands in a tiny, out-of-step Mississippi River town. Augustine, Louisiana, seems suspicious of new ideas and new people, and Benny can scarcely comprehend the lives of her poverty-stricken students. But amid the gnarled oaks and run-down plantation homes lies the century-old history of three young women, a long-ago journey, and a hidden book that could change everything.]]> 388 Lisa Wingate 1984819887 Christina 5 4.11 2020 The Book of Lost Friends
author: Lisa Wingate
name: Christina
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/31
date added: 2024/03/31
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]]> <![CDATA[Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows]]> 32075853 Together Tea and Calendar Girls.

Every woman has a secret life . . .

Nikki lives in cosmopolitan West London, where she tends bar at the local pub. The daughter of Indian immigrants, she’s spent most of her twenty-odd years distancing herself from the traditional Sikh community of her childhood, preferring a more independent (that is, Western) life. When her father’s death leaves the family financially strapped, Nikki, a law school dropout, impulsively takes a job teaching a "creative writing" course at the community center in the beating heart of London’s close-knit Punjabi community.

Because of a miscommunication, the proper Sikh widows who show up are expecting to learn basic English literacy, not the art of short-story writing. When one of the widows finds a book of sexy stories in English and shares it with the class, Nikki realizes that beneath their white dupattas, her students have a wealth of fantasies and memories. Eager to liberate these modest women, she teaches them how to express their untold stories, unleashing creativity of the most unexpected—and exciting—kind.

As more women are drawn to the class, Nikki warns her students to keep their work secret from the Brotherhood, a group of highly conservative young men who have appointed themselves the community’s "moral police." But when the widows� gossip offers shocking insights into the death of a young wife—a modern woman like Nikki—and some of the class erotica is shared among friends, it sparks a scandal that threatens them all.]]> 304 Balli Kaur Jaswal 0062645129 Christina 4 3.92 2017 Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows
author: Balli Kaur Jaswal
name: Christina
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/21
date added: 2024/03/21
shelves:
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]]> The Frozen River 56699106
Over the course of one winter, as the trial nears, and whispers and prejudices mount, Martha doggedly pursues the truth. Her diary soon lands at the center of the scandal, implicating those she loves, and compelling Martha to decide where her own loyalties lie.

Clever, layered, and subversive, Ariel Lawhon’s newest offering introduces an unsung heroine who refused to accept anything less than justice at a time when women were considered best seen and not heard. The Frozen River is a thrilling, tense, and tender story about a remarkable woman who left an unparalleled legacy yet remains nearly forgotten to this day.]]> 432 Ariel Lawhon 0385546882 Christina 4 4.52 2023 The Frozen River
author: Ariel Lawhon
name: Christina
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/20
date added: 2024/03/20
shelves:
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]]> The Keeper of Lost Things 33828785 A charming, clever, and quietly moving debut novel of endless possibilities and joyful discoveries that explores the promises we make and break, losing and finding ourselves, the objects that hold magic and meaning for our lives, and the surprising connections that bind us.

Lime green plastic flower-shaped hair bobbles�Found, on the playing field, Derrywood Park, 2nd September.

Bone china cup and saucer�Found, on a bench in Riveria Public Gardens, 31st October.

Anthony Peardew is the keeper of lost things. Forty years ago, he carelessly lost a keepsake from his beloved fiancée, Therese. That very same day, she died unexpectedly. Brokenhearted, Anthony sought consolation in rescuing lost objects—the things others have dropped, misplaced, or accidently left behind—and writing stories about them. Now, in the twilight of his life, Anthony worries that he has not fully discharged his duty to reconcile all the lost things with their owners. As the end nears, he bequeaths his secret life’s mission to his unsuspecting assistant, Laura, leaving her his house and and all its lost treasures, including an irritable ghost.

Recovering from a bad divorce, Laura, in some ways, is one of Anthony’s lost things. But when the lonely woman moves into his mansion, her life begins to change. She finds a new friend in the neighbor’s quirky daughter, Sunshine, and a welcome distraction in Freddy, the rugged gardener. As the dark cloud engulfing her lifts, Laura, accompanied by her new companions, sets out to realize Anthony’s last wish: reuniting his cherished lost objects with their owners.

Long ago, Eunice found a trinket on the London pavement and kept it through the years. Now, with her own end drawing near, she has lost something precious—a tragic twist of fate that forces her to break a promise she once made.

As the Keeper of Lost Objects, Laura holds the key to Anthony and Eunice’s redemption. But can she unlock the past and make the connections that will lay their spirits to rest?

Full of character, wit, and wisdom, The Keeper of Lost Things is heartwarming tale that will enchant fans of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, Garden Spells, Mrs Queen Takes the Train, and The Silver Linings Playbook.]]> 277 Ruth Hogan 0062473573 Christina 5 4.01 2017 The Keeper of Lost Things
author: Ruth Hogan
name: Christina
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/10
date added: 2024/03/10
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]]> <![CDATA[The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration]]> 8171378
Wilkerson tells this interwoven story through the lives of three unforgettable protagonists: Ida Mae Gladney, a sharecropper’s wife, who in 1937 fled Mississippi for Chicago; sharp and quick-tempered George Starling, who in 1945 fled Florida for Harlem, and Robert Foster, a surgeon who left Louisiana in 1953 in hopes of making it in California.

Wilkerson brilliantly captures their first treacherous cross-country journeys by car and train and their new lives in colonies in the New World. The Warmth of Other Suns is a bold, remarkable, and riveting work, a superb account of an “unrecognized immigration� within our own land. Through the breadth of its narrative, the beauty of the writing, the depth of its research, and the fullness of the people and lives portrayed herein, this book is a modern classic.]]> 622 Isabel Wilkerson 0679444327 Christina 5 4.45 2010 The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
author: Isabel Wilkerson
name: Christina
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/07
date added: 2024/03/07
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]]> <![CDATA[Try My Jesus: Daily Reflections to Free Your Mind, Deepen Your Faith, and Invite Universal Love Into Your Life]]> 61852670
What does it mean to love and to know God? And who among us is worthy of that love? These are the questions posed and addressed in this groundbreaking collection of daily reflections.

In these pages, Rev. Smith takes us on a journey to rediscover self-acceptance, wholeness, inclusivity, and divine love through the words of Jesus, and invites us to meet the Jesus he knows � the one who embodies unconditional love and shows us how to save ourselves and minister to each other.

Be prepared to have your assumptions challenged, your heart opened, and your relationship with God and Jesus renewed.]]> 604 Carlton Smith Christina 0 to-read 5.00 Try My Jesus: Daily Reflections to Free Your Mind, Deepen Your Faith, and Invite Universal Love Into Your Life
author: Carlton Smith
name: Christina
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/02/23
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