Gaije's bookshelf: all en-US Thu, 03 Apr 2025 19:33:17 -0700 60 Gaije's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England]]> 60181641
In this affectionate, informative and fascinating look at sex and sexuality in Tudor times, author Carol McGrath peeks beneath the bedsheets of late fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century England to offer a genuine understanding of the romantic and sexual habits of our Tudor ancestors.

Find out the truth about ‘swiving�, ‘bawds�, ‘shaking the sheets� and ‘the deed of darkness'. Discover the infamous indiscretions and scandals, feast day rituals, the Southwark Stews, and even city streets whose names indicated their use for sexual pleasure. Explore Tudor fashion: the codpiece, slashed hose and doublets, women’s layered dressing with partlets, overgowns and stomachers laced tightly in place. What was the Church view on morality, witchcraft and the female body? On which days could married couples indulge in sex and why? How were same sex relationships perceived? How common was adultery? How did they deal with contraception and how did Tudors attempt to cure venereal disease? And how did people bend and ignore all these rules?]]> 156 Carol McGrath 1526769182 Gaije 4 3.71 2022 Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England
author: Carol McGrath
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2022
rating: 4
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date added: 2025/04/03
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]]> <![CDATA[The Waiting Game: The Untold Story of the Women Who Served the Tudor Queens: A History]]> 214195693 A colorful and authoritative narrative history of the often-overlooked—yet hugely influential—figures of the Tudor the ladies-in-waiting.

Every Tudor Queen had ladies-in-waiting. They were her confidantes and her chaperones. Only the Queen's ladies had the right to enter her most private chambers, spending hours helping her to get dressed and undressed, caring for her clothes and jewels, listening to her secrets. But they also held a unique power. A quiet word behind the scenes, an appropriately timed gift, a well-negotiated marriage alliance were all forms of political agency wielded expertly by women.

The Waiting Game explores the daily lives of ladies-in-waiting, revealing the secrets of recruitment, costume, what they ate, where (and with whom) they slept. We meet María de Salinas, who traveled to England with Catherine of Aragon when just a teenager and spied for her during the divorce from Henry VIII. Anne Boleyn's lady-in-waiting Jane Parker was instrumental in the execution of not one, but two queens. And maid-of-honor Anne Basset kept her place through the last four consorts, negotiating the conflicting loyalties of her birth family, her mistress the Queen, and even the desires of the King himself.

As Henry changed wives—and changed the very fabric of the country's structure besides—these women had to make choices about loyalty that simply didn't exist before. The Waiting Game is the first time their vital story has been told.]]> 394 Nicola Clark 1639368108 Gaije 3 2025 4.22 2024 The Waiting Game: The Untold Story of the Women Who Served the Tudor Queens: A History
author: Nicola Clark
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/01
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: 2025
review:

]]> <![CDATA[We Three Queens (A Royal Spyness Mystery, #18)]]> 207610766 New mother Lady Georgiana "Georgie" Rannoch finds herself trying to separate fact from fiction when a murder occurs while a film is being made on the grounds of her estate in a new Royal Spyness Mystery from beloved bestselling author Rhys Bowen.

It's late 1936, and King Edward is in turmoil, having fallen in love with the scandalously divorced and even more scandalously American Wallis Simpson. He wants to marry her but knows that doing so will jeopardize his crown. Edward confides in his dear friend Darcy, Georgie's husband, and the couple agree to hide Wallis in their home while Edward figures out what to do.

But unbeknownst to Georgie and Darcy, Sir Hubert, the owner of the estate, has given a film crew permission to shoot a motion picture about Henry the Eighth and Anne Boleyn on the grounds. Trying to keep Mrs. Simpson hidden while raising a newborn baby seems like it couldn't be any more stressful for the Rannochs, until one of the stars of the film is found murdered on set. Georgie must solve the murder for king and country before scandal threatens to envelop them all.]]> 331 Rhys Bowen Gaije 4 2025 4.33 2024 We Three Queens (A Royal Spyness Mystery, #18)
author: Rhys Bowen
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/08
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves: 2025
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Book of Life (All Souls, #3)]]> 16054217 The #1 New York Times bestselling series finale and sequel to A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night

Bringing the magic and suspense of the All Souls Trilogy to a deeply satisfying conclusion, this highly anticipated finale went straight to #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. In The Book of Life, Diana and Matthew time-travel back from Elizabethan London to make a dramatic return to the present—facing new crises and old enemies. At Matthew’s ancestral home, Sept-Tours, they reunite with the beloved cast of characters from A Discovery of Witches—with one significant exception. But the real threat to their future has yet to be revealed, and when it is, the search for Ashmole 782 and its missing pages takes on even more urgency.]]> 561 Deborah Harkness 0670025593 Gaije 3 2019 4.15 2014 The Book of Life (All Souls, #3)
author: Deborah Harkness
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2025/01/17
shelves: 2019
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France]]> 255134 440 Leonie Frieda 0060744936 Gaije 3 3.97 2003 Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France
author: Leonie Frieda
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2003
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2025/01/08
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Uncrowned Queen: The Treacherous Life of Margaret Beaufort, Tudor Rebel]]> 45992763 400 Nicola Tallis 1789291712 Gaije 4 2025 4.16 2019 Uncrowned Queen: The Treacherous Life of Margaret Beaufort, Tudor Rebel
author: Nicola Tallis
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: 2025
review:

]]> Sisters 49240984 From a Booker Prize finalist and international literary star: a blazing portrait of one darkly riveting sibling relationship, from the inside out.

"One of her generation's most intriguing authors" (Entertainment Weekly), Daisy Johnson is the youngest writer to have been short-listed for the Man Booker Prize. Now she returns with Sisters, a haunting story about two sisters caught in a powerful emotional web and wrestling to understand where one ends and the other begins.

Born just ten months apart, July and September are thick as thieves, never needing anyone but each other. Now, following a case of school bullying, the teens have moved away with their single mother to a long-abandoned family home near the shore. In their new, isolated life, July finds that the deep bond she has always shared with September is shifting in ways she cannot entirely understand. A creeping sense of dread and unease descends inside the house. Meanwhile, outside, the sisters push boundaries of behavior—until a series of shocking encounters tests the limits of their shared experience, and forces shocking revelations about the girls� past and future.

Written with radically inventive language and imagery by an author whose work has been described as "entrancing" (The New Yorker), "a force of nature" (The New York Times Book Review), and "weird and wild and wonderfully unsettling" (Celeste Ng), Sisters is a one-two punch of wild fury and heartache—a taut, powerful, and deeply moving account of sibling love and what happens when two sisters must face each other’s darkest impulses.]]> 224 Daisy Johnson 0593188977 Gaije 0 currently-reading 3.38 2020 Sisters
author: Daisy Johnson
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.38
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/17
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> The Ministry of Time 199897956
In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats� from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time.

She is tasked with working as a “bridge�: living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as �1847� or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he’s a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as “washing machine,� “Spotify,� and “the collapse of the British Empire.� But he adjusts quickly; he is, after all, an explorer by trade. Soon, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a seriously uncomfortable housemate dynamic, evolves into something much more. Over the course of an unprecedented year, Gore and the bridge fall haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences they never could have imagined.

Supported by a chaotic and charming cast of characters—including a 17th-century cinephile who can’t get enough of Tinder, a painfully shy World War I captain, and a former spy with an ever-changing series of cosmetic surgery alterations and a belligerent attitude to HR—the bridge will be forced to confront the past that shaped her choices, and the choices that will shape the future.

An exquisitely original and feverishly fun fusion of genres and ideas, The Ministry of Time asks the universal What happens if you put a disaffected millennial and a Victorian polar explorer in a house together?]]> 284 Kaliane Bradley Gaije 0 3.88 2024 The Ministry of Time
author: Kaliane Bradley
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/11/16
date added: 2024/11/16
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]]> Nothing But Blackened Teeth 56656012 Cassandra Khaw's Nothing But Blackened Teeth is a gorgeously creepy haunted house tale, steeped in Japanese folklore and full of devastating twists.

A Heian-era mansion stands abandoned, its foundations resting on the bones of a bride and its walls packed with the remains of the girls sacrificed to keep her company.

It’s the perfect venue for a group of thrill-seeking friends, brought back together to celebrate a wedding.

A night of food, drinks, and games quickly spirals into a nightmare as secrets get dragged out and relationships are tested.

But the house has secrets too. Lurking in the shadows is the ghost bride with a black smile and a hungry heart.

And she gets lonely down there in the dirt.

Effortlessly turning the classic haunted house story on its head, Nothing but Blackened Teeth is a sharp and devastating exploration of grief, the parasitic nature of relationships, and the consequences of our actions.]]> 130 Cassandra Khaw Gaije 4 2024 2.81 2021 Nothing But Blackened Teeth
author: Cassandra Khaw
name: Gaije
average rating: 2.81
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/27
date added: 2024/10/27
shelves: 2024
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]]> Hangsaman 131177 Hangsaman is Miss Jackson's second novel. The story is a simple one but the overtones are immediately present. "Natalie Waite who was seventeen years old but who felt that she had been truly conscious only since she was about fifteen lived in an odd corner of a world of sound and sight, past the daily voices of her father and mother and their incomprehensible actions." In a few graphic pages, the family is before us—Arnold Waite, a writer, egotistical and embittered; his wife, the complaining martyr; Bud, the younger brother who has not yet felt the need to establish his independence; and Natalie, in the nightmare of being seventeen.

The Sunday afternoon cocktail party, to which Arnold Waite has invited his literary friends and neighbors, serves to etch in the details of this family's life, and to draw Natalie into the vortex. The story concentrates on the next few critical months in Natalie's life, away at college, where each experience reproduces on a larger scale the crucial failure of her emotional life at home. With a mounting tension rising from character and situation as well as the particular magic of which Miss Jackson is master, the novel proceeds inexorably to the stinging melodrama of its conclusion. The bitter cruelty of the passage from adolescence to womanhood, of a sensitive and lonely girl caught in a world not of her own devising, is a theme well suited to Miss Jackson's brilliant talent.]]> 191 Shirley Jackson 0445031174 Gaije 5 2024 3.78 1951 Hangsaman
author: Shirley Jackson
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1951
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/10/27
shelves: 2024
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]]> <![CDATA[Valerie Solanas: The Defiant Life of the Woman Who Wrote Scum (and Shot Andy Warhol)]]> 22441939 The authoritative biography of the 60s countercultural icon who wrote SCUM Manifesto, shot Andy Warhol, and made an unforgettable mark on feminist history. Valerie Solanas is one of the most polarizing figures of 1960s counterculture. A cult hero to some and vehemently denounced by others, she has been dismissed but never forgotten. Known for shooting Andy Warhol in 1968 and for writing the infamousSCUM Manifesto, Solanas became one of the most famous women of her era. But she was also diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and spent much of her life homeless or in mental hospitals. Solanas’s SCUM Manifesto, a sui generis vision of radical gender dystopia, predicted ATMs, test-tube babies, the Internet, and artificial insemination long before they existed. It has sold more copies and been translated into more languages than nearly all other feminist texts of its time. And yet, shockingly little work has investigated the life of its author. This book is the first biography about Solanas, including original interviews with family, friends (and enemies), and numerous living Warhol associates. It reveals surprising details about Solanas’s the children nearly no one knew she had, her drive for control over her own writing, and her elusive personal and professional relationships. Valerie Solanasreveals the tragic, remarkable life of an iconic figure. It is “not only a remarkable biographical feat but also a delicate navigation of an unwieldy, demanding, and complex life story� (BOMB Magazine).]]> 413 Breanne Fahs Gaije 0 currently-reading 4.00 2014 Valerie Solanas: The Defiant Life of the Woman Who Wrote Scum (and Shot Andy Warhol)
author: Breanne Fahs
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/14
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[SCUM Manifesto (VandA Vintage)]]> 19324989 SCUM Manifesto was considered one of the most outrageous, violent and certifiably crazy tracts when it first appeared in 1968. Valerie Solanas, the woman who shot Andy Warhol, self-published this work just before her rampage against the king of Pop Art made her a household name and resulted in her confinement to a mental institution. But the Manifesto, for all its vitriol, is impossible to dismiss as just the rantings of a lesbian lunatic. In fact, the work has indisputable prescience, not only as a radical feminist analysis light-years ahead of its time—predicting artificial insemination, ATMs, a feminist uprising against under-representation in the arts—but also as a stunning testament to the rage of an abused and destitute woman.

The focus of this edition is not on the nostalgic appeal of the work, but on Avital Ronell's incisive introduction, "Deviant Payback: The Aims of Valerie Solanas." Here is a reconsideration of Solanas's infamous text in light of her social milieu, Derrida's "The Ends of Man" (written in the same year), Judith Butler's Excitable Speech, Nietzsche's Übermensch and notorious feminist icons from Medusa, Medea and Antigone, to Lizzie Borden, Lorenna Bobbit and Aileen Wournos.

]]> 36 Valerie Solanas 889847590X Gaije 0 currently-reading 4.09 1967 SCUM Manifesto (VandA Vintage)
author: Valerie Solanas
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1967
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/14
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> So Thirsty 203607418 A woman must learn to take life by the throat after a night out leads to irrevocable changes in this juicy, thrilling novel from the USA Today bestselling author of Such Sharp Teeth and Black Sheep.

Sloane Parker is dreading her birthday. She doesn’t need a reminder she’s getting older, or that she’s feeling indifferent about her own life.

Her husband surprises her with a birthday weekend getaway—not with him, but with Sloane’s longtime best friend, troublemaker extraordinaire Naomi.

Sloane anticipates a weekend of wine tastings and cozy robes and strategic avoidance of issues she’d rather not confront, like her husband’s repeated infidelity. But when they arrive at their rental cottage, it becomes clear Naomi has something else in mind. She wants Sloane to stop letting things happen to her, for Sloane to really live. So Naomi orchestrates a wild night out with a group of mysterious strangers, only for it to take a horrifying turn that changes Sloane’s and Naomi’s lives literally forever.

The friends are forced to come to terms with some pretty eternal consequences in this bloody, seductive novel about how it’s never too late to find satisfaction, even though it might taste different than expected.]]> 304 Rachel Harrison 0593642554 Gaije 0 currently-reading 3.59 2024 So Thirsty
author: Rachel Harrison
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/04
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[El guardián invisible (Trilogía del Baztán, #1)]]> 17238220 440 Dolores Redondo 8423346048 Gaije 0 currently-reading 4.01 2013 El guardián invisible (Trilogía del Baztán, #1)
author: Dolores Redondo
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/30
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Mister Monkey 28693710 New York Times bestselling author weaves an ingenious, darkly humorous, and brilliantly observant story that follows the exploits and intrigue of a constellation of characters affiliated with an off-off-off-off Broadway children’s musical.

Mister Monkey—a screwball children’s musical about a playfully larcenous pet chimpanzee—is the kind of family favorite that survives far past its prime. Margot, who plays the chimp’s lawyer, knows the production is dreadful and bemoans the failure of her acting career. She’s settled into the drudgery of playing a humiliating part—until the day she receives a mysterious letter from an anonymous admirer . . . and later, in the middle of a performance, has a shocking encounter with Adam, the twelve-year-old who plays the title role.

Francine Prose’s effervescent comedy is told from the viewpoints of wildly unreliable, seemingly disparate characters whose lives become deeply connected as the madcap narrative unfolds. There is Adam, whose looming adolescence informs his interpretation of his role; Edward, a young audience member who is candidly unimpressed with the play; Ray, the author of the novel on which the musical is based, who witnesses one of the most awkward first dates in literature; and even the eponymous Mister Monkey, the Monkey God himself.

With her trademark wit and verve, Prose delves into humanity’s most profound mysteries: art, ambition, childhood, aging, and love. Startling and captivating, Mister Monkey is a breathtaking novel from a writer at the height of her craft.]]> 291 Francine Prose 0062397850 Gaije 4 2020 3.42 2016 Mister Monkey
author: Francine Prose
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2020/06/11
date added: 2024/09/27
shelves: 2020
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Lesson in Secrets (Maisie Dobbs, #8)]]> 10873869 When the college’s controversial pacifist founder and principal, Greville Liddicote, is murdered, Maisie is directed to stand back as Detective Chief Superintendent Robert MacFarlane and Detective Chief Inspector Richard Stratton spearhead the investigation. She soon discovers, however, that the circumstances of Liddicote’s death appear inextricably linked to the suspicious comings and goings of faculty and students under her surveillance.
To unravel this web, Maisie must overcome a reluctant Secret Service, discover shameful hidden truths about Britain’s conduct during the Great War, and face off against the rising powers of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei—the Nazi Party—in Britain.
As the storm clouds of World War II gather on the horizon, this pivotal chapter in the life of Maisie Dobbs foreshadows new challenges and powerful enemies facing the psychologist and investigator.]]> 466 Jacqueline Winspear 0062079239 Gaije 3 4.30 2011 A Lesson in Secrets (Maisie Dobbs, #8)
author: Jacqueline Winspear
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2011
rating: 3
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date added: 2024/09/26
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]]> <![CDATA[Maisie Dobbs (Maisie Dobbs, #1)]]> 11397593 10th Anniversary Edition with a special Afterword by the author

Maisie Dobbs got her start as a maid in an aristocratic London household when she was thirteen. Her employer, suffragette Lady Rowan Compton, soon became her patron, taking the remarkably bright youngster under her wing. Lady Rowan's friend, Maurice Blanche, often retained as an investigator by the European elite, recognized Maisie’s intuitive gifts and helped her earn admission to the prestigious Girton College in Cambridge, where Maisie planned to complete her education.

The outbreak of war changed everything. Maisie trained as a nurse, then left for France to serve at the Front, where she found—and lost—an important part of herself. Ten years after the Armistice, in the spring of 1929, Maisie sets out on her own as a private investigator, one who has learned that coincidences are meaningful, and truth elusive. Her very first case involves suspected infidelity but reveals something very different.

In the aftermath of the Great War, a former officer has founded a working farm known as The Retreat, that acts as a convalescent refuge for ex-soldiers too shattered to resume normal life. When Fate brings Maisie a second case involving The Retreat, she must finally confront the ghost that has haunted her for over a decade.


From the Trade Paperback edition.]]> 333 Jacqueline Winspear Gaije 3 4.19 2003 Maisie Dobbs (Maisie Dobbs, #1)
author: Jacqueline Winspear
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2003
rating: 3
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date added: 2024/09/24
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]]> Lucky Dogs 61387986 The paths of two women on opposite ends of a high-profile sexual abuse scandal set them on a devastating collision course.

On a sultry summer night in Paris, two women meet on line at an ice cream kiosk in the Ile de la Cité. One is tall, fair, striking, with an indeterminate accent. The other, a troubled American TV star, is hiding her beauty and identity under a shapeless sweatshirt, wearing sunglasses even in the darkness. When two leering male tourists hassle the pair, the blonde pulls out a knife and a sisterhood is born. Both women have been victims of male violence, and both are warriors--one trained and calculating, one instinctually ferocious. They each think they know who they are dealing with. But both are very, very wrong.

In a story that unfolds with unexpected humor and the pace of a thriller, acclaimed novelist Helen Schulman lays bare what happens to women--no matter how fortunate they may appear to be on the surface--whose lives have been warped by brutality and misogyny. The issues are universal, but the core of the story is intimate: a passionate exploration of love, betrayal and survival. Lucky Dogs asks and answers a shattering question: How could one woman so utterly betray another?]]> 336 Helen Schulman 059353624X Gaije 3 2023 3.16 2023 Lucky Dogs
author: Helen Schulman
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.16
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2023/06/16
date added: 2024/09/24
shelves: 2023
review:

]]> Bad Dolls 60779461 In this stunning new collection of four horror stories, award-winning author Rachel Harrison explores themes of body image, complicated female friendship, heartbreak, and hauntings.

In “Reply Hazy, Try Again,� an indecisive young woman finds a mysterious Magic 8 Ball that might just have the answers she’s been looking for...or might lead her down a path of self-destruction.

In “Bachelorette,� a bridesmaid attends her childhood best friend’s bachelorette weekend, only to discover the itinerary may demand more than she’s willing to sacrifice.

In “Goblin,� an unusually brutal dieting app wreaks havoc on the life of an insecure woman preparing to attend her ex’s wedding.

In “Bad Dolls,� after a death in the family, a wayward young woman comes into possession of a strange porcelain doll that could offer a connection to her lost sister.

These dark tales navigate the complexities of modern life with humor, insight, and the occasional blood sacrifice…]]> 132 Rachel Harrison 0593548523 Gaije 4 3.68 2022 Bad Dolls
author: Rachel Harrison
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/29
date added: 2024/09/21
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]]> <![CDATA[The Mapping of Love and Death (Maisie Dobbs, #7)]]> 8174093
August 1914. Michael Clifton is mapping the land he has just purchased in California's beautiful Santa Ynez Valley, certain that oil lies beneath its surface. But as the young cartographer prepares to return home to Boston, war is declared in Europe. Michael—the youngest son of an expatriate Englishman—puts duty first and sails for his father's native country to serve in the British army. Three years later, he is listed among those missing in action.

April 1932. London psychologist and investigator Maisie Dobbs is retained by Michael's parents, who have recently learned that their son's remains have been unearthed in France. They want Maisie to find the unnamed nurse whose love letters were among Michael's belongings—a quest that takes Maisie back to her own bittersweet wartime love. Her inquiries, and the stunning discovery that Michael Clifton was murdered in his trench, unleash a web of intrigue and violence that threatens to engulf the soldier's family and even Maisie herself. Over the course of her investigation, Maisie must cope with the approaching loss of her mentor, Maurice Blanche, and her growing awareness that she is once again falling in love.

Following the critically acclaimed bestseller Among the Mad, The Mapping of Love and Death delivers the most gripping and satisfying chapter yet in the life of Maisie Dobbs.]]> 482 Jacqueline Winspear 0061987875 Gaije 3 4.53 2010 The Mapping of Love and Death (Maisie Dobbs, #7)
author: Jacqueline Winspear
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.53
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/09/21
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]]> Blindsight (Firefall, #1) 48484 Two months since the stars fell...

Two months since sixty-five thousand alien objects clenched around the Earth like a luminous fist, screaming to the heavens as the atmosphere burned them to ash. Two months since that moment of brief, bright surveillance by agents unknown.

Two months of silence while a world holds its breath.

Now some half-derelict space probe, sparking fitfully past Neptune’s orbit, hears a whisper from the edge of the solar system: a faint signal sweeping the cosmos like a lighthouse beam. Whatever’s out there isn’t talking to us. It’s talking to some distant star, perhaps. Or perhaps to something closer, something en route.

So who do you send to force introductions on an intelligence with motives unknown, maybe unknowable? Who do you send to meet the alien when the alien doesn’t want to meet?

You send a linguist with multiple personalities, her brain surgically partitioned into separate, sentient processing cores. You send a biologist so radically interfaced with machinery that he sees X-rays and tastes ultrasound, so compromised by grafts and splices he no longer feels his own flesh. You send a pacifist warrior in the faint hope she won’t be needed, and a fainter hope she’ll do any good if she is needed. You send a monster to command them all, an extinct hominid predator once called “vampire,� recalled from the grave with the voodoo of recombinant genetics and the blood of sociopaths. And you send a synthesist � an informational topologist with half his mind gone � as an interface between here and there, a conduit through which the Dead Center might hope to understand the Bleeding Edge.

You send them all to the edge of interstellar space, praying you can trust such freaks and retrofits with the fate of a world. You fear they may be more alien than the thing they’ve been sent to find.

But you’d give anything for that to be true, if you only knew what was waiting for them…]]> 384 Peter Watts 0765312182 Gaije 3 4.01 2006 Blindsight (Firefall, #1)
author: Peter Watts
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2011/08/30
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:
Another one I wish I could give 3.5 points. I liked the narrative, and the narrator. I liked the premise, and the ideas to which it lead, a lot. The prose just wasn't quite there for me.
]]> <![CDATA[Independent Study (The Testing, #2)]]> 17165932 320 Joelle Charbonneau 0547959206 Gaije 2 2014-books 3.93 2014 Independent Study (The Testing, #2)
author: Joelle Charbonneau
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2014
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: 2014-books
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Common Reader: First and Second Series]]> 904601 Virginia Woolf Gaije 3 4.33 The Common Reader: First and Second Series
author: Virginia Woolf
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.33
book published:
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
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]]> <![CDATA[The Man in the Wooden Hat (Old Filth, #2)]]> 6570431 Old Filth has been acclaimed as Jane Gardam's masterpiece, a book where life and art merge. And now that beautiful, haunting novel has been joined by a companion that also bursts with humor and wisdom: The Man in the Wooden Hat.

Old Filth was Eddie's story. The Man in the Wooden Hat is the history of his marriage told from the perspective of his wife, Betty, a character as vivid and enchanting as Filth himself.

They met in Hong Kong after the war. Betty had spent the duration in a Japanese internment camp. Filth was already a successful barrister, handsome, fast becoming rich, in need of a wife but unaccustomed to romance. A perfect English couple of the late 1940s.

As a portrait of a marriage, with all the bittersweet secrets and surprising fulfillment of the 50-year union of two remarkable people, the novel is a triumph. The Man in the Wooden Hat is fiction of a very high order from a great novelist working at the pinnacle of her considerable power. It will be read and loved and recommended by all the many thousands of readers who found its predecessor, Old Filth, so compelling and so thoroughly satisfying.]]> 233 Jane Gardam 1933372893 Gaije 4 2013-books 4.04 The Man in the Wooden Hat (Old Filth, #2)
author: Jane Gardam
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.04
book published:
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: 2013-books
review:

]]> Mansfield Park 45032 488 Jane Austen Gaije 2 3.86 1814 Mansfield Park
author: Jane Austen
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1814
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
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]]> <![CDATA[World After (Penryn & the End of Days, #2)]]> 12983100 Angelfall, the survivors of the angel apocalypse begin to scrape back together what's left of the modern world.

When a group of people capture Penryn's sister Paige, thinking she's a monster, the situation ends in a massacre. Paige disappears. Humans are terrified. Mom is heartbroken.

Penryn drives through the streets of San Francisco looking for Paige. Why are the streets so empty? Where is everybody? Her search leads her into the heart of the angels' secret plans where she catches a glimpse of their motivations, and learns the horrifying extent to which the angels are willing to go.

Meanwhile, Raffe hunts for his wings. Without them, he can't rejoin the angels, can't take his rightful place as one of their leaders. When faced with recapturing his wings or helping Penryn survive, which will he choose?]]> 438 Susan Ee Gaije 2 2014-books 4.24 2013 World After (Penryn & the End of Days, #2)
author: Susan Ee
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2013
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: 2014-books
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Vicious Machination (Beatrice Hyde-Clare Mysteries, #12)]]> 209046459 296 Lynn Messina 1942218915 Gaije 0 currently-reading 4.39 2024 A Vicious Machination (Beatrice Hyde-Clare Mysteries, #12)
author: Lynn Messina
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/13
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Winter Lost (Mercy Thompson, #14; Mercy Thompson World, #20)]]> 201182779 Mercy Thompson, car mechanic and shapeshifter, must stop a disaster of world-shattering proportions in this exhilarating entry in the #1 New York Times bestselling series.

In the supernatural realms, there are creatures who belong to winter. I am not one of them. But like the coyote I can become at will, I am adaptable.

My name is Mercy Thompson Hauptman, and my mate, Adam, is the werewolf who leads the Columbia Basin Pack, the pack charged with keeping the people who live and work in the Tri-Cities of Washington State safe. It’s a hard job, and it doesn’t leave much room for side quests. Which is why when I needed to travel to Montana to help my brother, I intended to go by myself.

But I’m not alone anymore.

Together, Adam and I find ourselves trapped with strangers in a lodge in the heart of the wilderness, in the teeth of a storm of legendary power, only to discover my brother’s issues are a tiny part of a problemmuch bigger than we could have imagined. Arcane and ancient magics are at work that could, unless we are very careful, bring about the end of the world. . . .]]> 416 Patricia Briggs 0593439007 Gaije 4 4.36 2024 Winter Lost (Mercy Thompson, #14; Mercy Thompson World, #20)
author: Patricia Briggs
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/11
date added: 2024/07/11
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]]> All's Well 57114892
Miranda Fitch’s life is a waking nightmare. The accident that ended her burgeoning acting career left her with excruciating, chronic back pain, a failed marriage, and a deepening dependence on painkillers. And now she’s on the verge of losing her job as a college theater director. Determined to put on Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well, the play that promised, and cost, her everything, she faces a mutinous cast hellbent on staging Macbeth instead. Miranda sees her chance at redemption slip through her fingers.

That’s when she meets three strange benefactors who have an eerie knowledge of Miranda’s past and a tantalizing promise for her future: one where the show goes on, her rebellious students get what’s coming to them, and the invisible, doubted pain that’s kept her from the spotlight is made known.

With prose Margaret Atwood has described as “no punches pulled, no hilarities dodged...genius,� Mona Awad has concocted her most potent, subversive novel yet. All’s Well is the story of a woman at her breaking point and a formidable, piercingly funny indictment of our collective refusal to witness and believe female pain.]]> 361 Mona Awad 1982169680 Gaije 5 2024 3.70 2021 All's Well
author: Mona Awad
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/03
date added: 2024/06/03
shelves: 2024
review:

]]> Women and Children First 123006739 A gripping literary puzzle that unwinds the private lives of ten women as they confront tragedy in a small Massachusetts town.

Nashquitten, MA, is a decaying coastal enclave that not even tourist season can revive, full of locals who have run the town’s industries for generations. When a young woman dies at a house party, the circumstances around her death suspiciously unclear, the tight-knit community is shaken. As a mother grieves her daughter, a teacher her student, a best friend her confidante, the events around the tragedy become a lightning rod: blame is cast, secrets are buried deeper. Some are left to pick up the pieces, while others turn their backs, and all the while, a truth about that dreadful night begins to emerge.

Told through the eyes of ten local women, Grabowski’s Women and Children First is an exquisite portrait of grief and a powerful reminder of life’s interconnectedness. Touching on womanhood, class, and sexuality, ambition, disappointment, and tragedy, this novel is a stunning rendering of love and loss, and a bracing lesson from a phenomenal new literary talent that no one walks this earth alone.]]> 336 Alina Grabowski 1638930791 Gaije 0 currently-reading 3.39 2024 Women and Children First
author: Alina Grabowski
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/01
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]]> The Hunter 174136375
Cal Hooper took early retirement from Chicago PD and moved to rural Ireland looking for peace. He’s found it, more or he’s built a relationship with a local woman, Lena, and he’s gradually turning Trey Reddy from a half-feral teenager into a good kid going good places. But then Trey’s long-absent father reappears, bringing along an English millionaire and a scheme to find gold in the townland, and suddenly everything the three of them have been building is under threat. Cal and Lena are both ready to do whatever it takes to protect Trey, but Trey doesn’t want protecting. What she wants is revenge.

A nuanced, atmospheric tale that explores what we’ll do for our loved ones, what we’ll do for revenge, and what we sacrifice when the two collide.]]> 474 Tana French Gaije 0 currently-reading 4.34 2024 The Hunter
author: Tana French
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/05/13
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]]> <![CDATA[A Murderous Tryst (Beatrice Hyde-Clare Mysteries, #11)]]> 158235276 The past rears its gorgeous head�

Deeply distressed to discover her husband lied about his whereabouts the day before, Beatrice, Duchess of Kesgrave, emerges from a wretched night’s sleep to discover him embracing the most beautiful woman she has ever seen.
His former mistress!
It is shocking, yes, but not so very alarming, for Penelope Taylor is actually there to see Bea. Her dearest friend has been brutally slain, and as Millicent Lloyd happened to be sleeping in the courtesan’s bed at the time, Mrs. Taylor is the only suspect. The magistrate is impatient to cart her off to Newgate and refuses to acknowledge the truth that is glaringly obvious to her: She was the intended victim.
Poor Millie, murdered in her stead!
Persuaded by the evidence, Bea accepts the assignment, launching an investigation to prove the innocence of her husband’s former lover, whose fond recollections of her liaison with the duke confirm she is anything but innocent. Following the clues—and the trail of broken hearts discarded by Mrs. Taylor—Bea realizes she is looking for a villain more diabolical than any she has ever known.
And this one will not hesitate to strike again.]]> 284 Lynn Messina 1942218702 Gaije 0 currently-reading 4.27 2023 A Murderous Tryst (Beatrice Hyde-Clare Mysteries, #11)
author: Lynn Messina
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/02
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Under the Bridge: The True Story of the Murder of Reena Virk]]> 8983810 Drawing on six years of research -- including interviews with the accused -- acclaimed writer Rebecca Godfrey answers these questions in this stunning account of the notorious "Schoolgirl Murder." Through a skillful blend of hard journalism and riveting narrative, Godfrey takes us into the bedrooms and classrooms of a powerful hip-hop-obsessed clique and the loner-victim who just wanted to belong, then into the police stations and courtrooms where adults -- grieving, devastated -- must reckon with the shocking crime. Highlighting along the way the deeply entrenched social tensions that provoked the murder, Under the Bridge is more than a true-crime book -- it is an unforgettable wake-up call.]]> 500 Rebecca Godfrey Gaije 0 currently-reading 4.01 2005 Under the Bridge: The True Story of the Murder of Reena Virk
author: Rebecca Godfrey
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/04/18
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]]> Apples Never Fall 56894456 #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.]]> 474 Liane Moriarty Gaije 0 currently-reading 3.99 2021 Apples Never Fall
author: Liane Moriarty
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/04/15
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]]> <![CDATA[The Proof of the Pudding (Royal Spyness #17)]]> 110964807
Georgie, back home at her estate in Eynsleigh, impatiently awaits the birth of her baby. But she has plenty to occupy her: her new chef, Pierre, has arrived from Paris, and Sir Hubert, who owns Eynsleigh, is back from his latest expedition. It's time for Georgie to throw her first house party to celebrate his return and show off her new chef. The dinner party is a smashing success. Sir Mortimer Mordred—famous author of creepy Gothic horror novels—is one of the guests. He recently purchased a nearby Elizabethan manor nearby because it has a famous poison garden. After the dinner, Sir Mortimer approaches Georgie and asks to borrow her new chef for his upcoming party, and Georgie and Darcy, her dashing husband, are invited!

The tour of the poison garden is fascinating, as is Sir Mortimer’s laboratory. But after the meal, one of the guests does not feel well. She collapses and is rushed to hospital, but it's too late. An autopsy reveals she was poisoned, by a rare plant from the garden, administered in one of the desserts. Georgie has to find the culprit to save her new chef and her own reputation—all before her bundle of joy arrives!]]> 304 Rhys Bowen Gaije 3 4.37 2023 The Proof of the Pudding (Royal Spyness #17)
author: Rhys Bowen
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/11
date added: 2024/04/11
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]]> <![CDATA[Kingdom of Ash (Throne of Glass, #7)]]> 123004998 Together they will rise. Or together they will fall.

Aelin Galathynius has vowed to save her people-but at a tremendous cost. Locked in an iron coffin by the Queen of the Fae, Aelin must draw upon her fiery will as she endures months of torture. The knowledge that yielding to Maeve will doom those she loves keeps her from breaking, but her resolve unravels with each passing day.

With Aelin captured, her friends and allies have scattered. Some bonds will grow even deeper, while others will be severed forever. But as destinies weave together at last, all must stand together if Erilea is to have any hope of salvation.

Sarah J. Maas's #1 New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass series draws to an explosive conclusion as Aelin fights for her life, her people, and the promise of a better world.]]> 988 Sarah J. Maas Gaije 5 2024 4.79 2018 Kingdom of Ash (Throne of Glass, #7)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.79
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/09
date added: 2024/04/09
shelves: 2024
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Tower of Dawn (Throne of Glass, #6)]]> 123004979 A glorious empire. A desperate quest. An ancient secret.

Chaol Westfall and Nesryn Faliq have arrived in the shining city of Antica to forge an alliance with the Khagan of the Southern Continent, whose vast armies are Erilea's last hope. But they have also come to Antica for another purpose: to seek healing at the famed Torre Cesme for the wounds Chaol received in Rifthold.

After enduring unspeakable horrors as a child at the hands of Adarlanian soldiers, Yrene Towers has no desire to help the young lord from Adarlan, let alone heal him. Yet she has sworn an oath to assist those in need, and she will honor it. But Lord Westfall carries his own dark past, and Yrene soon realizes that those shadows could engulf them both.

Chaol, Nesryn, and Yrene will have to draw on every scrap of their resilience to overcome the danger that surrounds them. But while they become entangled in the political webs of the khaganate, long-awaited answers slumber deep in the mountains, where warriors soar on legendary ruks. Answers that might offer their world a chance at survival . . . or doom them all.

The final battle looms in this sixth book in the #1 New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass series.]]> 675 Sarah J. Maas Gaije 4 2024 4.44 2017 Tower of Dawn (Throne of Glass, #6)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/07
date added: 2024/04/07
shelves: 2024
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]]> <![CDATA[Empire of Storms (Throne of Glass, #5)]]> 126060933
As the kingdoms of Erilea fracture around her, enemies must become allies if Aelin is to keep those she loves from falling to the dark forces poised to claim her world. With war looming on all horizons, the only chance for salvation lies in a desperate quest that may mark the end of everything Aelin holds dear.

Aelin's journey from assassin to queen has entranced millions across the globe, and this fifth installment will leave fans breathless. Will Aelin succeed in keeping her world from splintering, or will it all come crashing down?]]> 704 Sarah J. Maas 1619636085 Gaije 4 2024 4.72 2016 Empire of Storms (Throne of Glass, #5)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.72
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/02
date added: 2024/04/02
shelves: 2024
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Beginner Pole Dancing: For Fitness and Fun]]> 35120136
Have you ever imagined yourself pole dancing? Have you ever caught yourself looking at a pole dancer and wishing it was you doing these amazing tricks?

Fortunately, there is a way to, and this book will show you just how to get started. You will learn about some amazing and mind-blowing beginner activities to help you with your pole dancing journey, including the

How to do the basic walk-around the pole easier How to climb the pole and overcoming your fear of it Basic spins to take your pole dancing to the next level Sexy slides to make you look like a superstar Pole dancing combines art and exercise. If you can imagine yourself as a “fit artist� then this sport is for you!]]> 65 Danni Peck Gaije 0 currently-reading 3.02 Beginner Pole Dancing: For Fitness and Fun
author: Danni Peck
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.02
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/29
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[Tips to Get Better at Pole Dancing: Fundamental Advice for Beginners]]> 61313371 Learning How to Pole Dance is an exciting adventure and a very big world to journey into.All of the excitement a beginner pole dancer will feel can be immensely renewing and invigorating.

Once a student grabs a hold of the dance pole there is a certain commitment that takes place within where they vow to become the greatest pole dancer that they can be. As you learn how to pole dance there will be many victories and many challenges. Some may not even try pole dancing because of that. Although Pole Dancing can look intimidating and sometimes be very challenging you will be happy to know that there are things you can do to improve your pole performance and speed up your progress.

This Book, "Simple Tips to Get Better at Pole Dancing" Fundamental Pole Advice for Beginners, will cover core principles that support a strong and long-lasting progression for any pole dancer.

The topics covered could be the difference in being an average pole dancer or a professional pole dancer! If you are ready to start your pole dancing journey with a solid foundation, then this is a MUST READ!]]> 24 Teresa Saffold Gaije 0 4.40 Tips to Get Better at Pole Dancing: Fundamental Advice for Beginners
author: Teresa Saffold
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.40
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2024/03/29
date added: 2024/03/29
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]]> <![CDATA[Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass, #4)]]> 126060012 Sarah J. Maas's New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass series reaches new heights in this sweeping fourth volume.

Everyone Celaena Sardothien loves has been taken from her. But she's at last returned to the empire—for vengeance, to rescue her once-glorious kingdom, and to confront the shadows of her past . . .

She will fight for her cousin, a warrior prepared to die just to see her again. She will fight for her friend, a young man trapped in an unspeakable prison. And she will fight for her people, enslaved to a brutal king and awaiting their lost queen's triumphant return.

Celaena’s epic journey has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions across the globe. This fourth volume will hold readers rapt as Celaena’s story builds to a passionate, agonizing crescendo that might just shatter her world.]]> 576 Sarah J. Maas 1619636050 Gaije 4 2024 4.72 2015 Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass, #4)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.72
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/27
date added: 2024/03/27
shelves: 2024
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass, #3)]]> 125810184
The bestselling series that has captured readers all over the world reaches new heights in this sequel to the New York Times best-selling Crown of Midnight. Packed with heart-pounding action, fierce new characters, and swoon-worthy romance, this third book will enthrall readers from start to finish.]]> 583 Sarah J. Maas 1619630664 Gaije 4 4.51 2014 Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass, #3)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/23
date added: 2024/03/23
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Crown of Midnight (Throne of Glass, #2)]]> 126059485 But her heart never wavers.

After a year of hard labor in the Salt Mines of Endovier, eighteen-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien has won the king's contest to become the new royal assassin. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown � a secret she hides from even her most intimate confidantes.

Keeping up the deadly charade—while pretending to do the king's bidding—will test her in frightening new ways, especially when she's given a task that could jeopardize everything she's come to care for. And there are far more dangerous forces gathering on the horizon -- forces that threaten to destroy her entire world, and will surely force Celaena to make a choice.

Where do the assassin’s loyalties lie, and who is she most willing to fight for?]]> 336 Sarah J. Maas 161963063X Gaije 4 2022 4.52 2013 Crown of Midnight (Throne of Glass, #2)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/16
date added: 2024/03/16
shelves: 2022
review:

]]> <![CDATA[House of Flame and Shadow (Crescent City, #3)]]> 123247704
Bryce Quinlan never expected to see a world other than Midgard, but now that she has, all she wants is to get back. Everything she loves is in Midgard: her family, her friends, her mate. Stranded in a strange new world, she's going to need all her wits about her to get home again. And that's no easy feat when she has no idea who to trust.

Hunt Athalar has found himself in some deep holes in his life, but this one might be the deepest of all. After a few brief months with everything he ever wanted, he's in the Asteri's dungeons again, stripped of his freedom and without a clue as to Bryce's fate. He's desperate to help her, but until he can escape the Asteri's leash, his hands are quite literally tied.

In this sexy, breathtaking sequel to the #1 bestsellers House of Earth and Blood and House of Sky and Breath, Sarah J. Maas's Crescent City series reaches new heights as Bryce and Hunt's world is brought to the brink of collapse-with its future resting on their shoulders.]]> 852 Sarah J. Maas Gaije 4 2024 4.40 2024 House of Flame and Shadow (Crescent City, #3)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/10
date added: 2024/03/12
shelves: 2024
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Court of Wings and Ruin (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #3)]]> 50659472 The epic third novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J. Maas.

Feyre has returned to the Spring Court, determined to gather information on Tamlin's actions and learn what she can about the invading king threatening to bring her land to its knees. But to do so she must play a deadly game of deceit. One slip could bring doom not only for Feyre, but for everything-and everyone-she holds dear.

As war bears down upon them all, Feyre endeavors to take her place amongst the High Fae of the land, balancing her struggle to master her powers-both magical and political-and her love for her court and family. Amidst these struggles, Feyre and Rhysand must decide whom to trust amongst the cunning and lethal High Lords, and hunt for allies in unexpected places.

In this thrilling third book in the #1 New York Times bestselling series from Sarah J. Maas, the fate of Feyre's world is at stake as armies grapple for power over the one thing that could destroy it.]]> 699 Sarah J. Maas 1635575605 Gaije 4 2024 4.47 2017 A Court of Wings and Ruin (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #3)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/03/12
shelves: 2024
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Court of Silver Flames (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #4)]]> 54479197
The one person who ignites her temper more than any other is Cassian, the battle-scarred warrior whose position in Rhysand and Feyre's Night Court keeps him constantly in Nesta's orbit. But her temper isn't the only thing Cassian ignites. The fire between them is undeniable, and only burns hotter as they are forced into close quarters with each other.

Meanwhile, the treacherous human queens who returned to the Continent during the last war have forged a dangerous new alliance, threatening the fragile peace that has settled over the realms. And the key to halting them might very well rely on Cassian and Nesta facing their haunting pasts.

Against the sweeping backdrop of a world seared by war and plagued with uncertainty, Nesta and Cassian battle monsters from within and without as they search for acceptance-and healing-in each other's arms.]]> 757 Sarah J. Maas Gaije 4 2024 4.61 2021 A Court of Silver Flames (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #4)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/09
date added: 2024/03/12
shelves: 2024
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #2)]]> 50659468
Feyre has undergone more trials than one human woman can carry in her heart. Though she's now been granted the powers and lifespan of the High Fae, she is haunted by her time Under the Mountain and the terrible deeds she performed to save the lives of Tamlin and his people.

As her marriage to Tamlin approaches, Feyre's hollowness and nightmares consume her. She finds herself split into two different one who upholds her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court, and one who lives out her life in the Spring Court with Tamlin. While Feyre navigates a dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms. She might just be the key to stopping it, but only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future-and the future of a world in turmoil.

Bestselling author Sarah J. Maas's masterful storytelling brings this second book in her dazzling, sexy, action-packed series to new heights.]]> 626 Sarah J. Maas 1635575583 Gaije 4 4.65 2016 A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #2)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.65
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/03/12
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1)]]> 50659467
At least, he’s not a beast all the time.

As she adapts to her new home, her feelings for the faerie, Tamlin, transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But something is not right in the faerie lands. An ancient, wicked shadow is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it, or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.

From bestselling author Sarah J. Maas comes a seductive, breathtaking book that blends romance, adventure, and faerie lore into an unforgettable read.]]> 419 Sarah J. Maas 1635575567 Gaije 4 4.16 2015 A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/03/12
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]]> <![CDATA[Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass, #1)]]> 76703559 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

In a land without magic, where the king rules with an iron hand, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She comes not to kill the king, but to win her freedom. If she defeats twenty-three killers, thieves, and warriors in a competition, she is released from prison to serve as the king's champion. Her name is Celaena Sardothien.

The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her. But something evil dwells in the castle of glass—and it's there to kill. When her competitors start dying one by one, Celaena's fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival, and a desperate quest to root out the evil before it destroys her world.]]> 406 Sarah J. Maas 163973094X Gaije 4 4.18 2012 Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass, #1)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/03/12
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]]> <![CDATA[House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City, #1)]]> 44778083
Hunt Athalar is a notorious Fallen angel, now enslaved to the Archangels he once attempted to overthrow. His brutal skills and incredible strength have been set to one purpose-to assassinate his boss's enemies, no questions asked. But with a demon wreaking havoc in the city, he's offered an irresistible deal: help Bryce find the murderer, and his freedom will be within reach.

As Bryce and Hunt dig deep into Crescent City's underbelly, they discover a dark power that threatens everything and everyone they hold dear, and they find, in each other, a blazing passion-one that could set them both free, if they'd only let it.

With unforgettable characters, sizzling romance, and page-turning suspense, this richly inventive new fantasy series by #1 New York Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas delves into the heartache of loss, the price of freedom-and the power of love.]]> 803 Sarah J. Maas 1635574048 Gaije 4 2024 4.43 2020 House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City, #1)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/03/12
shelves: 2024
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Dark Feminine Energy For Manifestation: The 7 Secrets of Radiating Powerfully Seductive Femme Fatale Energy to Magnetically Attract Your Deepest Desires (Dark Secrets of Spirituality Book 1)]]> 197298782 Digital Bonus 96 Powerful Affirmations & Self Discovery Prompts to Unlock Your Dark Feminine Energy
This isn't something just anyone is ready for�
Discovering your dark feminine energy can transform the way you see yourself and the rest of the world. Through that journey you'll become the most confident, independent, alluring version of yourself. Manifesting the life you desire is a journey of self discovery. It takes bold exploration, and bravely embracing parts of yourself and femininity that society has long feared and attempted to control. Seraphina Sinclair has spent years discovering the secrets and psychological principles that underly dark feminine energy, and how you can use it to manifest the lifestyle and relationships you desire. With specific techniques for infusing that art of manifesting your future with the passion of your own dark feminine energy. Dark feminine energy is about unifying the light and dark sides of our personality Shadow That reveals the hidden scripts that run our lives. So you can rewrite them in the way you see fit. Self Prioritizing your needs, and learning how to indulge in your deepest desires in a healthy and spiritually conscious way. Using the Power Discover your inner femme fatale, understand how to unlock the male psyche, and seduce with charm and grace. Discovering your With secrets of body language and guided reflections to realize your inherent self worth. Becoming Alluring and How to become the interesting person everyone wants to get to know. Click the “Buy now with 1 click� button at the top of the page to get started and discover the hidden path to the life you envision.]]> 162 Seraphina Sinclair Gaije 0 currently-reading 3.86 Dark Feminine Energy For Manifestation: The 7 Secrets of Radiating Powerfully Seductive Femme Fatale Energy to Magnetically Attract Your Deepest Desires (Dark Secrets of Spirituality Book 1)
author: Seraphina Sinclair
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.86
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/27
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> Booth 57822543 From the Man Booker finalist and bestselling author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves comes an epic novel about the family behind one of the most infamous figures in American history: John Wilkes Booth.

In 1822, a secret family moves into a secret cabin some thirty miles northeast of Baltimore, to farm, to hide, and to bear ten children over the course of the next 16 years. Junius Booth—breadwinner, celebrated Shakespearean actor and master of the house in all ways—is at once a mesmerizing talent and a man of terrifying instability. One by one the children arrive, as year by year, the country draws closer to the boiling point of secession and civil war.

As the children grow and the tenor of the world shifts, the Booths cement their place as one of the country’s leading theatrical families. But behind the curtains of the many stages they have graced, multiple scandals, family triumphs, and disasters begin to take their toll. A startling portrait of a country in the throes of change and a vivid exploration of brother- and sisterhood, Booth is a riveting historical novel focused on the very things that bind, and break, a family.]]> 480 Karen Joy Fowler 0593331443 Gaije 5 4.08 2022 Booth
author: Karen Joy Fowler
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/17
date added: 2024/02/17
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Nap Ministry's Rest Deck: 50 Practices to Resist Grind Culture]]> 123003383
The Nap Ministry's Rest Deck is a rousing call to reclaim rest in everyday life. Delivered in a stunning package with gold accents and gorgeous artwork throughout,the deckcombines restorative meditationswith prescient wisdom from celebrated activist and teaching artist Tricia Hersey, a.k.a. "the Nap Bishop," and founder of the Nap Ministry.

Readers will discover 50 inspiring cards, each with an empowering affirmation and a simple practice to encourage rest, rejuvenation, and imagination. Rooted in social justice and imbued with spirituality, these cards offer short, accessible practices designed to uplift anyone suffering from the toxic effects of grind culture.]]> 106 Tricia Hersey 1797215779 Gaije 0 4.47 Nap Ministry's Rest Deck: 50 Practices to Resist Grind Culture
author: Tricia Hersey
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.47
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2024/02/02
date added: 2024/02/02
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]]> <![CDATA[The Innocent Sleep (October Daye #18)]]> 123176786
For one bright, shining moment, Tybalt, King of Cats, had everything he had ever wanted. He was soon to set his crown aside; he had married the woman he loved; he was going to be a father. After centuries of searching for a family of his own, he had finally found a way to construct the life of his dreams, and was looking forward to a period of peace—or at least as much peace as is ever in the offing for the husband of a hero.

Alas for Tybalt and his domestic aspirations, fate—and Titania—had other ideas. His perfect world had been complete for only a moment when it was ripped away, to be replaced by hers. Titania, Faerie’s Summer Queen, Mother of Illusions and enemy of so many he holds dear, has seized control of the Kingdom, remaking it in her own image. An image which does not include meddlesome shapeshifters getting in her way. Tybalt quickly finds himself banished from her reality, along with the Undersea and the rest of the Court of Cats.

To protect his people and his future, Tybalt must find the woman he loves in a world designed to keep her from him, convince her that he’s not a stranger trying to ruin her life for no apparent reason, and get her to unmake the illusion she’s been firmly enmeshed in. And he’ll have to do it all while she doesn’t know him, and every unrecognizing look is a knife to his heart.

For Tybalt, King of Cats, the happily ever after was just the beginning.]]> 368 Seanan McGuire 0756416825 Gaije 5 4.41 2023 The Innocent Sleep (October Daye #18)
author: Seanan McGuire
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/30
date added: 2024/01/30
shelves:
review:

]]> Spanish Grammar For Dummies 19011644 The tools you need to master Spanish grammar Spanish Grammar For Dummies is a logical extension and complement to the successful language learning books, Spanish For Dummies and 500 Spanish Verb For Dummies. In plain English, it teaches you the grammatical rules of the Spanish language, including parts of speech, sentence construction, pronouns, adjectives, punctuation, stress and verb tenses, and moods. Throughout the book, you get plenty of practice opportunities to help you on your goal of mastering Spanish grammar.

Grasp the grammatical rules of Spanish Benefit from plenty of practice opportunities throughout the book Use the Spanish language confidently and correctly Whether you're a student studying Spanish or a professional looking to get ahead of the pack by learning a second language, Spanish Grammar For Dummies is your hands-on guide to quickly and painlessly master the written aspect of this popular language.]]> 652 Cecie Kraynak Gaije 0 currently-reading 4.38 2012 Spanish Grammar For Dummies
author: Cecie Kraynak
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/18
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Letters of Vita Sackville-West to Virginia Woolf]]> 795466 480 Louise DeSalvo 1573441368 Gaije 4 4.52 1926 The Letters of Vita Sackville-West to Virginia Woolf
author: Louise DeSalvo
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.52
book published: 1926
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/01/16
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]]> <![CDATA[Intuitive Witchcraft: How to Use Intuition to Elevate Your Craft]]> 50950751 Astrea Taylor provides the tools and techniques you need to build your intuition and witchcraft together, uniting them in a practice that allows you to follow your heart and spirit. Featuring exercises, examples, activities, and rituals, this book helps you find your magical path—intuitively—based on personal experience.

Celebrate the truth of who you are and embrace the wisdom of your inner voice with this inspiring guide. Beginners and advanced practitioners alike can use Intuitive Witchcraft to manifest their desires in an intuitive way and find greater energy and willpower to harness the enormous magical potential within. Featuring insights from some of the best writers, thinkers, and leaders in their fields, this book helps you become your most empowered self.

]]> 360 Astrea Taylor 073876194X Gaije 0 currently-reading 4.31 2020 Intuitive Witchcraft: How to Use Intuition to Elevate Your Craft
author: Astrea Taylor
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/09
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Color, Form, and Magic: Use the Power of Aesthetics for Creative and Magical Work]]> 59725522 Bring the magic of color and form into your everyday life.Color and form are powerful—and not just for creative work. When used purposefully, color and shape are tools we can use to help us manifest, attract the energy we want, and become our best selves. In this accessible guide, designer and intuitive Nicole Pivirotto breaks down properties of shapes and colors, the basics of getting started with magic, and spell ideas that use color and form, like color meditation and altar building. Whether you have an existing magic practice, want to develop one, or want to use the power of color and form in your creative work, this book is an essential companion to the magic of aesthetics. With gorgeous holographic foil on the cover and book page edges, it is also a beautiful gift for any contemporary seeker with a love of bold color and design.ACCESSIBLE APPROACH TO This book approaches magic as a flexible and empowering practice for manifestation, healing, and self-care. And there's no need to have any special tools to get started. This book shows how visual elements we interact with every day—color, shapes, and symbols—can help you to manifest and become your best self. It's a perfect entry to magic practice for creative types and a unique guide for those looking to infuse an existing practice with more color and creativity.SPELL In addition to overviews of the properties of colors, a library of magical symbols, and an introduction to magic practice, this book offers spell ideas to help you achieve a desired energy or state. All the spells are simple and most are easy to perform with everyday materials. Etch a candle with a symbol and burn to release its energy around you; or, create a custom symbol personalized to your unique intention. This book encourages getting creative, and offers plenty of practical examples to illustrate how you can tailor these spells to your interests and intentions.DISPLAY-WORTHY With shining foil-stamped accents, vibrant illustrations and photography, and a prismatic design, this book is a stunning addition to the coffee table or nightstand, and it makes a gorgeous gift.Perfect � modern mystics and those looking for gifts for them� color lovers, creatives, designers, and visual thinkers with a mystic mindset]]> 112 Nicole Pivirotto 1797208446 Gaije 0 currently-reading 3.12 Color, Form, and Magic: Use the Power of Aesthetics for Creative and Magical Work
author: Nicole Pivirotto
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.12
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/07
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[Night Rounds (Inspector Huss #2)]]> 11505253 Detective Inspector Huss.

One nurse lies dead and another vanishes after their hospital is hit by a blackout. The only witness claims to have seen Nurse Tekla doing her rounds, but Nurse Tekla died sixty years ago. Detective Inspector Irene Huss of the Violent Crimes Unit has the challenge of disentangling wandering ghosts and complex human relationships to get to the bottom of this intriguing case.

A cult hit in its first three installments, the Irene Huss series is available once again for English-language fans.]]> 336 Helene Tursten 1616950064 Gaije 3 books-2017 3.76 1999 Night Rounds (Inspector Huss #2)
author: Helene Tursten
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1999
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2023/10/30
shelves: books-2017
review:

]]> La carte postale 59379541 Dans notre boîte aux lettres, au milieu des traditionnelles cartes de voeux, se trouvait une carte postale étrange.
Elle n’était pas signée, l’auteur avait voulu rester anonyme.
L’Opéra Garnier d’un côté, et de l’autre, les prénoms des grands-parents de ma mère, de sa tante et son oncle, morts à Auschwitz en 1942.
Vingt ans plus tard, j’ai décidé de savoir qui nous avait envoyé cette carte postale. J’ai mené l’enquête, avec l’aide de ma mère. En explorant toutes les hypothèses qui s’ouvraient à moi. Avec l’aide d’un détective privé, d’un criminologue, j’ai interrogé les habitants du village où ma famille a été arrêtée, j’ai remué ciel et terre. Et j’y suis arrivée.
Cette enquête m’a menée cent ans en arrière. J’ai retracé le destin romanesque des Rabinovitch, leur fuite de Russie, leur voyage en Lettonie puis en Palestine. Et enfin, leur arrivée à Paris, avec la guerre et son désastre.
J’ai essayé de comprendre comment ma grand-mère Myriam fut la seule qui échappa à la déportation. Et éclaircir les mystères qui entouraient ses deux mariages. J’ai dû m’imprégner de l’histoire de mes ancêtres, comme je l’avais fait avec ma sœur Claire pour mon livre précédent, Gabriële.
Ce livre est à la fois une enquête, le roman de mes ancêtres, et une quête initiatique sur la signification du mot « Juif » dans une vie laïque.]]> 494 Anne Berest Gaije 0 currently-reading 4.70 2021 La carte postale
author: Anne Berest
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.70
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/24
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Lady Chatterley's Lover 49583709
With her soft brown hair, lithe figure and big, wondering eyes, Constance Chatterley is possessed of a certain vitality. Yet she is deeply unhappy; married to an invalid, she is almost as inwardly paralyzed as her husband Clifford is paralyzed below the waist. It is not until she finds refuge in the arms of Mellors the game-keeper, a solitary man of a class apart, that she feels regenerated. Together they move from an outer world of chaos towards an inner world of fulfillment.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust theseries to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-datetranslations by award-winning translators.]]> 400 D.H. Lawrence 014303961X Gaije 3 3.48 1928 Lady Chatterley's Lover
author: D.H. Lawrence
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.48
book published: 1928
rating: 3
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date added: 2023/10/18
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]]> <![CDATA[Arcadia: Una Tragedia Moderna (Un misterio sobrenatural encarnado por un dios irresistiblemente peligroso) (Spanish Edition)]]> 26872570
"Cuando un dios irrumpe en nuestras vidas y nos inunda con el deseo de penetrar y ser penetrados por lo inefable, vivir se convierte en una aventura. Ante la conquista ineludible de la muerte, los dioses nos ofrecen un pacto de mutua fascinación. Sólo los héroes sienten sobre si el poder de su lúcida mirada."

"Samantha Devin consigue resucitar en Arcadia aquellos mitos que creíamos olvidados. Es una novela vital, intensa, empujada por la energía del pensamiento filosófico" JAVIER SIERRA]]> 380 Samantha Devin Gaije 0 currently-reading 3.40 2004 Arcadia: Una Tragedia Moderna (Un misterio sobrenatural encarnado por un dios irresistiblemente peligroso) (Spanish Edition)
author: Samantha Devin
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.40
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/13
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Corinne ou l'Italie: Nouvelle édition revue avec soin et précédée d'observations par Mme Necker de Saussure et M. Sainte-Beuve de l'Académie française (French Edition)]]> 100995102 573 unknown author 1465635521 Gaije 0 currently-reading 0.0 Corinne ou l'Italie: Nouvelle édition revue avec soin et précédée d'observations par Mme Necker de Saussure et M. Sainte-Beuve de l'Académie française (French Edition)
author: unknown author
name: Gaije
average rating: 0.0
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/05
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> The Witch of Willow Hall 38898188 384 Hester Fox 1488096740 Gaije 3 2023 3.84 2018 The Witch of Willow Hall
author: Hester Fox
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/30
date added: 2023/09/30
shelves: 2023
review:

]]> Such Sharp Teeth 59070084
Rory Morris isn’t thrilled to be moving back to her hometown, even if it is temporary. There are bad memories there. But her twin sister, Scarlett, is pregnant, estranged from the baby’s father, and needs support, so Rory returns to the place she thought she’d put in her rearview. After a night out at a bar where she runs into an old almost-flame, she hits a large animal with her car. And when she gets out to investigate, she’s attacked.

Rory survives, miraculously, but life begins to look and feel different. She’s unnaturally strong, with an aversion to silver—and suddenly the moon has her in its thrall. She’s changing into someone else—something else, maybe even a monster. But does that mean she’s putting those close to her in danger? Or is embracing the wildness inside of her the key to acceptance?

This darkly comedic love story is a brilliantly layered portrait of trauma, rage, and vulnerability.]]> 368 Rachel Harrison Gaije 4 2023 3.98 2022 Such Sharp Teeth
author: Rachel Harrison
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/29
date added: 2023/09/29
shelves: 2023
review:

]]> The Return 52308312 A group of friends reunite after one of them has returned from a mysterious two-year disappearance in this edgy and haunting debut.

Julie is missing, and the missing don’t often return. But Elise knows Julie better than anyone, and she feels in her bones that her best friend is out there, and that one day she’ll come back. She’s right. Two years to the day that Julie went missing, she reappears with no memory of where she’s been or what happened to her.

Along with Molly and Mae, their two close friends from college, the women decide to reunite at a remote inn. But the second Elise sees Julie, she knows something is wrong—she’s emaciated, with sallow skin and odd appetites. And as the weekend unfurls, it becomes impossible to deny that the Julie who vanished two years ago is not the same Julie who came back. But then who—or what—is she?]]> 304 Rachel Harrison 0593098684 Gaije 4 3.55 2020 The Return
author: Rachel Harrison
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/29
date added: 2023/09/29
shelves:
review:

]]> Cackle 61058915 The Return.

All her life, Annie has played it nice and safe. After being unceremoniously dumped by her longtime boyfriend, Annie seeks a fresh start. She accepts a teaching position that moves her from Manhattan to a small village upstate. She’s stunned by how perfect and picturesque the town is. The people are all friendly and warm. Her new apartment is dreamy too, minus the oddly persistent spider infestation.

Then Annie meets Sophie. Beautiful, charming, magnetic Sophie, who takes a special interest in Annie, who wants to be her friend. More importantly, she wants Annie to stop apologizing and start living for herself. That’s how Sophie lives. Annie can’t help but gravitate toward the self-possessed Sophie, wanting to spend more and more time with her, despite the fact that the rest of the townsfolk seem…a little afraid of her. And like, okay. There are some things. Sophie’s appearance is uncanny and ageless, her mansion in the middle of the woods feels a little unearthly, and she does seem to wield a certain power…but she couldn’t be…could she?]]> 319 Rachel Harrison 0593202031 Gaije 4 2023 3.71 2021 Cackle
author: Rachel Harrison
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/09/28
shelves: 2023
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery]]> 56179372 Set in Colonial New England, Slewfoot is a tale of magic and mystery, of triumph and terror as only dark fantasist Brom can tell it.

A spirited young Englishwoman, Abitha, arrives at a Puritan colony betrothed to a stranger � only to become quickly widowed when her husband dies under mysterious circumstances. All alone in this pious and patriarchal society, Abitha fights for what little freedom she can grasp onto, while trying to stay true to herself and her past.

Enter Slewfoot, a powerful spirit of antiquity newly woken ... and trying to find his own role in the world. Healer or destroyer? Protector or predator? But as the shadows walk and villagers start dying, a new rumor is whispered: Witch.

Both Abitha and Slewfoot must swiftly decide who they are, and what they must do to survive in a world intent on hanging any who meddle in the dark arts.

Complete with 8 pages of Brom’s mesmerizing full-color artwork and chapter illustrations throughout, his latest book is sure to delight.]]> 305 Brom 125062200X Gaije 5 2023 4.23 2021 Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery
author: Brom
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/09/28
shelves: 2023
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Formidable Magic (Myrtlewood Mysteries, #7)]]> 122737181
Rosemary Thorn and her daughter Athena both sense that something is amiss. They soon find themselves caught up in a thrilling mystery as strange occurrences happen around town. They must navigate through the mystical and mysterious world of magic and uncover the truth behind the spooky happenings before it's too late.

As All Hallows draws near, the spirits in the land begin to stir in restless frustration and the anticipation in the air thickens, promising to be a Samhain that the people of Myrtlewood will never forget!]]> 302 Iris Beaglehole Gaije 0 currently-reading 4.37 Formidable Magic (Myrtlewood Mysteries, #7)
author: Iris Beaglehole
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.37
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/27
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Bountiful Magic (Myrtlewood Mysteries #6)]]> 63208169
Rosemary's chocolate shop is thriving with the help of Papa Jack, but it isn't long before the town is under attack by mysterious swampy monsters, and the local election reveals a dark side to the normally peaceful village.

Meanwhile, despite her mother's reservations, Athena is determined to embark on a journey into the fae realm to uncover her heritage and play a role in forging a treaty between magical beings.

Join Rosemary and Athena as they navigate vampire politics, pesky pixies, complicated magical family dynamics and feisty familiars!]]> 308 Iris Beaglehole Gaije 3 currently-reading, 2023 4.30 Bountiful Magic (Myrtlewood Mysteries #6)
author: Iris Beaglehole
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.30
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/27
date added: 2023/09/27
shelves: currently-reading, 2023
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Delectable Magic (Myrtlewood Mysteries #5)]]> 62213436
In the lead-up to the Lughnasa festival, trouble is brewing in Bermuda...

Rosemary has her hands full with the launch of her much anticipated magical chocolate shop. She's enjoying the peace and quiet of Myrtlewood and the last thing she wants to do is get involved in Bermuda witching politics.

Athena, on the other hand, is dying for a tropical escape, especially when things take a turn for the strange and unusual where her powers are concerned leading to terrible embarrassment.

Peculiar threats and unwanted visitors drive Rosemary to rise to the challenge of visiting the witching parliament to protect her daughter and salvage her dreams.]]> 302 Iris Beaglehole Gaije 3 currently-reading, 2023 4.34 Delectable Magic (Myrtlewood Mysteries #5)
author: Iris Beaglehole
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.34
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/26
date added: 2023/09/26
shelves: currently-reading, 2023
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Celestial Magic (Myrtlewood Mysteries #4)]]> 61961888
Can Rosemary and Athena manage to work together and cast aside their stubbornness, before thousands of festival-goers succumb to a magical catastrophe?]]> 310 Iris Beaglehole Gaije 3 currently-reading, 2023 4.28 Celestial Magic (Myrtlewood Mysteries #4)
author: Iris Beaglehole
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.28
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/26
date added: 2023/09/26
shelves: currently-reading, 2023
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Combustible Magic (Myrtlewood Mysteries #3)]]> 61141536
Rosemary already has too much on her plate with a hoard of foundling children to house and her own teenager to raise. On top of all this, she has run out of excuses. There's nothing standing between Rosemary and her dream of becoming a magical chocolatier. Well, nothing except her own self-sabotage.

Meanwhile, Athena Thorn is yearning for the fae realm and harbouring a secret that could put the whole town at risk, and the last thing she wants to do is tell her mother!
If you’re ready for more mystery, witches, paranormal women’s fiction with a midlife main character and a big dose of humour, you’re going to love Myrtlewood Mysteries Book 3.]]> 308 Iris Beaglehole Gaije 3 2023 4.17 Combustible Magic (Myrtlewood Mysteries #3)
author: Iris Beaglehole
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.17
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/26
date added: 2023/09/26
shelves: 2023
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Accidental Magic (Myrtlewood Mysteries, #1)]]> 158137276
Life’s a struggle for Rosemary Thorn and her teen daughter, Athena. But their regular troubles are turned upside down after Granny Thorn’s mysterious death.

Despite her cousin's sinister manoeuvrings, Rosemary returns to Myrtlewood and the sprawling, dilapidated Thorn Manor. But there's more to the old house than meets the eye, as Rosemary and Athena soon find out � in a whirlwind of magic, adventure, mystical creatures and endless cups of tea.

Life in Myrtlewood would be bliss if Rosemary could only clear her name in a certain murder investigation, solve the mystery and stay out of mortal peril � for at least a little while!

A small town with endless secrets, strange activities and a house with a mind of its own.

If you love mystery, witches, magic and a big dose of humour, you’re going to love Myrtlewood Mysteries Book 1.]]> 314 Iris Beaglehole Gaije 3 3.96 Accidental Magic (Myrtlewood Mysteries, #1)
author: Iris Beaglehole
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.96
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/24
date added: 2023/09/24
shelves:
review:

]]> The Death of Jane Lawrence 56903312
Practical, unassuming Jane Shoringfield has done the calculations, and decided that the most secure path forward is this: a husband, in a marriage of convenience, who will allow her to remain independent and occupied with meaningful work. Her first choice, the dashing but reclusive doctor Augustine Lawrence, agrees to her proposal with only one condition: that she must never visit Lindridge Hall, his crumbling family manor outside of town.

Yet on their wedding night, an accident strands her at his door in a pitch-black rainstorm, and she finds him changed. Gone is the bold, courageous surgeon, and in his place is a terrified, paranoid man—one who cannot tell reality from nightmare, and fears Jane is an apparition, come to haunt him. By morning, Augustine is himself again, but Jane knows something is deeply wrong at Lindridge Hall, and with the man she has so hastily bound her safety to.

Set in a dark-mirror version of post-war England, Caitlin Starling crafts a new kind of gothic horror from the bones of the beloved canon. This Crimson Peak-inspired story assembles, then upends, every expectation set in place by Shirley Jackson and Rebecca, and will leave readers shaken, desperate to begin again as soon as they are finished.]]> 368 Caitlin Starling Gaije 3 3.27 2021 The Death of Jane Lawrence
author: Caitlin Starling
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.27
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/24
date added: 2023/09/24
shelves:
review:

]]> Mister Magic 62061576 Mister Magic, the five surviving cast members have done their best to move on. But just as generations of cultishly devoted fans still cling to the lessons they learned from the show, the cast, known as the Circle of Friends, have spent their lives searching for the happiness they felt while they were on it. The friendship. The feeling of belonging. And the protection of Mister Magic.

But with no surviving video of the show, no evidence of who directed or produced it, and no records of who—or what—the beloved host actually was, memories are all the former Circle of Friends has.

Then a twist of fate brings the castmates back together at the remote desert filming compound that feels like it’s been waiting for them all this time. Even though they haven’t seen each other for years, they understand one another better than anyone has since.

After all, they’re the only ones who hold the secret of that circle, the mystery of the magic man in his infinitely black cape, and, maybe, the answers to what really happened on that deadly last day. But as the Circle of Friends reclaim parts of their past, they begin to Are they here by choice, or have they been lured into a trap?

Because magic never forgets the taste of your friendship. . . .]]> 293 Kiersten White 0593359275 Gaije 3 currently-reading, 2023 3.67 2023 Mister Magic
author: Kiersten White
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/23
date added: 2023/09/23
shelves: currently-reading, 2023
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Taken Ones (Steinbeck and Reed, #1)]]> 62726715 Two girls vanished. A woman buried alive. Between two crimes—decades of secrets yet to be unearthed.

Summer 1980: With no fear of a local superstition, three girls go into a Minnesota wood. Only one comes out. Dead silent. Memory gone. No trace of her friends. The mystery of the Taken Ones captures the nation.

Summer 2022: Cold case detective Van Reed and forensic scientist Harry Steinbeck are assigned a disturbing homicide—a woman buried alive, clutching a heart charm necklace belonging to one of the vanished girls. Van follows her gut. Harry trusts in facts. Their common ground is the need to catch a killer before he kills again. They have something else in common: each has ties to the original case in ways they’re reluctant to share.

As Van and Harry connect the crimes of the past and the present, Van struggles with memories of her own nightmarish childhood—and the fear that uncovering the truth of the Taken Ones will lead her down a path from which she, too, may never return.]]> 339 Jess Lourey 1662507607 Gaije 3 2023 4.23 2023 The Taken Ones (Steinbeck and Reed, #1)
author: Jess Lourey
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/23
date added: 2023/09/23
shelves: 2023
review:

]]> Black Sheep 69704901
Nobody has a “normal� family, but Vesper Wright’s is truly...something else. Vesper left home at eighteen and never looked back—mostly because she was told that leaving the staunchly religious community she grew up in meant she couldn’t return. But then an envelope arrives on her doorstep.

Inside is an invitation to the wedding of Vesper’s beloved cousin Rosie. It’s to be hosted at the family farm. Have they made an exception to the rule? It wouldn’t be the first time Vesper’s been given special treatment. Is the invite a sweet gesture? An olive branch? A trap? Doesn’t matter. Something inside her insists she go to the wedding. Even if it means returning to the toxic environment she escaped. Even if it means reuniting with her mother, Constance, a former horror film star and forever ice queen.

When Vesper’s homecoming exhumes a terrifying secret, she’s forced to reckon with her family’s beliefs and her own crisis of faith in this deliciously sinister novel that explores the way family ties can bind us as we struggle to find our place in the world.]]> 304 Rachel Harrison 0593545877 Gaije 3 currently-reading, 2023 3.70 2023 Black Sheep
author: Rachel Harrison
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/23
date added: 2023/09/23
shelves: currently-reading, 2023
review:

]]> Tell Me I'm Worthless 61112616 Alison Rumfitt’s Tell Me I’m Worthless is a dark, unflinching haunted house story that confronts both supernatural and real-world horrors through the lens of the modern-day trans experience.

“A triumph of transgressive queer horror.� �Publishers Weekly, STARRED review
“Easily one of the strongest horror debuts in recent memory.� �Booklist, STARRED review

Three years ago, Alice spent one night in an abandoned house with her friends, Ila and Hannah. Since then, Alice’s life has spiraled. She lives a haunted existence, selling videos of herself for money, going to parties she hates, drinking herself to sleep.

Memories of that night torment Alice, but when Ila asks her to return to the House, to go past the KEEP OUT sign and over the sick earth where teenagers dare each other to venture, Alice knows she must go.

Together, Alice and Ila must face the horrors that happened there, must pull themselves apart from the inside out, put their differences aside, and try to rescue Hannah, whom the House has chosen to make its own.

Cutting, disruptive, and darkly funny, Tell Me I’m Worthless is a vital work of trans fiction that examines the devastating effects of trauma and how fascism makes us destroy ourselves and each other.

�Ambitious, brutal, and brilliant.� —Gretchen Felker-Martin, author of Manhunt

Also by Alison Rumfitt:
Brainwyrms

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 265 Alison Rumfitt 1250866243 Gaije 0 currently-reading 3.28 2021 Tell Me I'm Worthless
author: Alison Rumfitt
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.28
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/22
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> I'm a Fan: A Novel 144743448
I stalk a woman on the internet who is sleeping with the same man as I am.

Sheena Patel’s incandescent first novel begins with the unnamed narrator describing her involvement in a seemingly unequal romantic relationship. With a clear and unforgiving eye, she dissects the behavior of all involved, herself included, and makes startling connections between the power struggles at the heart of human relationships and those of the wider world. I’m a Fan offers a devastating critique of class, social media, patriarchy’s hold on us, and our cultural obsession with status and how that status is conveyed.

In this unforgettable debut, Patel announces herself as a dynamic, commanding new voice in literature, capable of rendering a rollercoaster of emotions and experiences viscerally on the page. Sex, brutality, politics, work, art, tenderness, humor—Patel tackles them all while making the reader complicit in the inescapable trap of fandom that seems to define the modern condition.]]> 216 Sheena Patel 1644452464 Gaije 0 currently-reading 3.17 2022 I'm a Fan: A Novel
author: Sheena Patel
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.17
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/22
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> No One Needs to Know 61948946 320 Lindsay Cameron 0593159098 Gaije 3 2023 3.61 2023 No One Needs to Know
author: Lindsay Cameron
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/22
date added: 2023/09/22
shelves: 2023
review:

]]> The Social Climber 60669281 When you’re on top, you can get away with anything...

It’s the week before her wedding, and all of Eliza’s meticulous planning is about to pay off. She’s become the exact type of woman who would marry into the prominent, blue-blood Walker family � Ivy League credentials, a high-powered PR job, and a designer label wardrobe.

But as the big day approaches, secrets from Eliza’s past attending an Evangelical college start to throw her true motives into question. Who exactly is Eliza Bennett and what does she really want?

Written in a breakneck pace, capturing the glittering, privileged world of the one-percenters, THE SOCIAL CLIMBER is a gripping novel of one woman’s determination to seek justice at any cost.]]> 352 Amanda Pellegrino 0369723961 Gaije 3 4.05 2023 The Social Climber
author: Amanda Pellegrino
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/22
date added: 2023/09/22
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]]> The Favorite Sister 37713145 From the author of Luckiest Girl Alive—now a Netflix film—comes the “engrossing� (People) New York Times bestseller starring two sisters who join the cast of a reality TV series…and only one will make it out alive.Brett and Kelly have always toed the line between supportive sisters and bitter rivals. Growing up, Brett was the problem child, living in the shadow of the brilliant and beautiful Kelly. In adulthood, all that has changed. Kelly is a struggling single mother and Brett has skyrocketed to meteoric success that has been chronicled on a reality TV show called Goal Diggers. When Kelly manipulates her way onto the show and into Brett’s world, Brett is wildly threatened. Kelly, and only Kelly, knows her younger sister’s appalling secret, one that could ruin her. Still, when the truth comes out in the explosive final weekend of filming, neither of them ever expected that the season would end in murder.]]> 385 Jessica Knoll Gaije 4 3.31 2018 The Favorite Sister
author: Jessica Knoll
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.31
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/22
date added: 2023/09/22
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]]> Bright Young Women 112978985
The survivors, including key witness Pamela Schumacher, will be forever changed by this night. They have all become victims. But they tell their perspectives here, they remain masters of their stories. And they hunt the perpetrator on their own - against resistance from the justice system and the police; against public opinion, which idolizes the serial killer.]]> 384 Jessica Knoll Gaije 5 4.06 2023 Bright Young Women
author: Jessica Knoll
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/22
date added: 2023/09/22
shelves:
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]]> The September House 61311377 A woman is determined to stay in her dream home even after it becomes a haunted nightmare in this compulsively readable, twisty, and layered debut novel.

When Margaret and her husband Hal bought the large Victorian house on Hawthorn Street—for sale at a surprisingly reasonable price—they couldn’t believe they finally had a home of their own. Then they discovered the hauntings. Every September, the walls drip blood. The ghosts of former inhabitants appear, and all of them are terrified of something that lurks in the basement. Most people would flee.

Margaret is not most people.

Margaret is staying. It’s her house. But after four years Hal can’t take it anymore, and he leaves abruptly. Now, he’s not returning calls, and their daughter Katherine—who knows nothing about the hauntings—arrives, intent on looking for her missing father. To make things worse, September has just begun, and with every attempt Margaret and Katherine make at finding Hal, the hauntings grow more harrowing, because there are some secrets the house needs to keep.]]> 352 Carissa Orlando 0593548639 Gaije 4 2023 3.99 2023 The September House
author: Carissa Orlando
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/21
date added: 2023/09/21
shelves: 2023
review:

]]> Just the Nicest Couple 60674887 “Mary Kubica’s Just the Nicest Couple is a masterfully written thriller about deception where we least expect it and the danger of a lie tumbling out of control. Taut and incredibly suspenseful, every moment is perfectly crafted to keep us wanting more. An engrossing, spine-tingling read! —Ashley Audrain, New York Times bestselling author of The Push

A husband’s disappearance inextricably links two couples in this twisty thriller from New York Times bestselling author Mary Kubica

Two couples, two close friends, one missing husband�

Jake Hayes is missing. This much is certain. At first, his wife, Nina, thinks he is blowing off steam at a friend’s house after their heated fight the night before. But then a day goes by. Two days. Five. And Jake is still nowhere to be found.

Lily Scott, Nina’s friend and coworker, thinks she may have been the last to see Jake before he went missing. After Lily confesses everything to her husband, Christian, the two decide that nobody can find out what happened leading up to Jake’s disappearance, especially not Nina. But Nina is out there looking for her husband, and she won’t stop until the truth is discovered.

Queen of suspense Mary Kubica delivers a high-octane, edge-of-your-seat thriller filled with delicious lies and shocking betrayals, and shows how even the deepest secrets will always find a way to the surface.]]> 369 Mary Kubica Gaije 0 currently-reading 3.80 2023 Just the Nicest Couple
author: Mary Kubica
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/21
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere]]> 122932488 From “weird, scary, ingenious� (The New York Times) stand-up comedian Maria Bamford, an instant New York Times bestselling, brutally honest, and “laugh-out-loud funny� (Jennette McCurdy, #1 New York Times bestselling author) memoir about show business, mental health, and the comfort of rigid belief systems—from Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, to Richard Simmons, to 12-step programs.

Maria Bamford is a comedian’s comedian (an outsider among outsiders) and has forever fought to find a place to belong. From struggling with an eating disorder as a child of the 1980s, to navigating a career in the arts (and medical debt and psychiatric institutionalization), she has tried just about every method possible to not only be a part of the world, but to want to be a part of it.

In Bamford’s “trademark blend of disarming intimacy and dark whimsy� (Publishers Weekly), Sure, I’ll Join Your Cultbrings us on a quest to participate in something. With sincerity and transparency, she recounts every anonymous fellowship she has joined (including but not limited Debtors Anonymous, Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous, and Overeaters Anonymous), every hypomanic episode (from worrying about selling out under capitalism to enforcing union rules on her Netflix TV show set to protect her health), and every easy 1-to-3-step recipe for fudge in between.

Packed with “Bamford’s brilliance, relentless humor, and insatiable instinct for survival (Library Journal), this memoir explores what it means to keep going, and to be a member of society (or any group she’s invited to) despite not being very good at it. In turn, she hopes to transform isolating experiences into comedy that will make you feel less alone (without turning into a cult following).]]> 287 Maria Bamford 1982168587 Gaije 4 3.91 2023 Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere
author: Maria Bamford
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/21
date added: 2023/09/21
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]]> Rouge 157184735 From the critically acclaimed author of Bunny comes a horror-tinted, gothic fairy tale about a lonely dress shop clerk whose mother’s unexpected death sends her down a treacherous path in pursuit of youth and beauty. Can she escape her mother’s fate—and find a connection that is more than skin deep?

For as long as she can remember, Belle has been insidiously obsessed with her skin and skincare videos. When her estranged mother Noelle mysteriously dies, Belle finds herself back in Southern California, dealing with her mother’s considerable debts and grappling with lingering questions about her death. The stakes escalate when a strange woman in red appears at the funeral, offering a tantalizing clue about her mother’s demise, followed by a cryptic video about a transformative spa experience. With the help of a pair of red shoes, Belle is lured into the barbed embrace of La Maison de Méduse, the same lavish, culty spa to which her mother was devoted. There, Belle discovers the frightening secret behind her (and her mother’s) obsession with the mirror—and the great shimmering depths (and demons) that lurk on the other side of the glass.

Snow White meets Eyes Wide Shut in this surreal descent into the dark side of beauty, envy, grief, and the complicated love between mothers and daughters. With black humor and seductive horror, Rouge explores the cult-like nature of the beauty industry—as well as the danger of internalizing its pitiless gaze. Brimming with California sunshine and blood-red rose petals, Rouge holds up a warped mirror to our relationship with mortality, our collective fixation with the surface, and the wondrous, deep longing that might lie beneath.]]> 383 Mona Awad Gaije 5 3.54 2023 Rouge
author: Mona Awad
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/17
date added: 2023/09/17
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]]> Matrix 57640897
Cast out of the royal court by Eleanor of Aquitaine, deemed too coarse and rough-hewn for marriage or courtly life, seventeen-year-old Marie de France is sent to England to be the new prioress of an impoverished abbey, its nuns on the brink of starvation and beset by disease.

At first taken aback by the severity of her new life, Marie finds focus and love in collective life with her singular and mercurial sisters. In this crucible, Marie steadily supplants her desire for family, for her homeland, for the passions of her youth with something new to her: devotion to her sisters, and a conviction in her own divine visions. Marie, born the last in a long line of women warriors and crusaders, is determined to chart a bold new course for the women she now leads and protects. But in a world that is shifting and corroding in frightening ways, one that can never reconcile itself with her existence, will the sheer force of Marie’s vision be bulwark enough?

Equally alive to the sacred and the profane, Matrix gathers currents of violence, sensuality, and religious ecstasy in a mesmerizing portrait of consuming passion, aberrant faith, and a woman that history moves both through and around. Lauren Groff’s new novel, her first since Fates and Furies, is a defiant and timely exploration of the raw power of female creativity in a corrupted world.]]> 272 Lauren Groff Gaije 5 3.91 2021 Matrix
author: Lauren Groff
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/16
date added: 2023/09/16
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]]> <![CDATA[House of Sky and Breath (Crescent City, #2)]]> 57941596
The Asteri have kept their word so far, leaving Bryce and Hunt alone. But with the rebels chipping away at the Asteri’s power, the threat the rulers pose is growing. As Bryce, Hunt, and their friends get pulled into the rebels� plans, the choice becomes stay silent while others are oppressed, or fight for what’s right. And they’ve never been very good at staying silent.

In this sexy, action-packed sequel to the #1 bestseller House of Earth and Blood, Sarah J. Maas weaves a captivating story of a world about to explode―and the people who will do anything to save it.]]> 807 Sarah J. Maas 1635574080 Gaije 4 4.57 2022 House of Sky and Breath (Crescent City, #2)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/13
date added: 2023/09/13
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]]> <![CDATA[A Court of Frost and Starlight (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #3.5)]]> 36156268
Feyre, Rhysand, and their friends are still busy rebuilding the Night Court and the vastly altered world beyond, recovering from the war that changed everything. But Winter Solstice is finally approaching, and with it, the joy of a hard-earned reprieve.

Yet even the festive atmosphere can't keep the shadows of the past from looming. As Feyre navigates her first Winter Solstice as High Lady, her concern for those dearest to her deepens. They have more wounds than she anticipated-scars that will have a far-reaching impact on the future of their court.
Bridging the events of A Court of Wings and Ruin with the later books in the series, A Court of Frost and Starlight explores the far-reaching effects of a devastating war and the fierce love between friends.]]> 272 Sarah J. Maas Gaije 4 2023 3.97 2019 A Court of Frost and Starlight (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #3.5)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/07
date added: 2023/09/07
shelves: 2023
review:

]]> Pet 122892583 A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS' CHOICE

A suspenseful new psychological thriller from the Women’s Prize for Fiction longlisted and Dublin Literary Award shortlisted author of Remote Sympathy, Catherine Chidgey.

Like every other girl in her class, twelve-year-old Justine is drawn to her glamorous, charismatic new teacher and longs to be her pet. However, when a thief begins to target the school, Justine’s sense that something isn’t quite right grows ever stronger. With each twist of the plot, this gripping story of deception and the corrosive power of guilt takes a yet darker turn. Justine must decide where her loyalties lie.

Set in New Zealand in the 1980s and probing themes of racism, misogyny and the oppressive reaches of Catholicism, Pet will take a rightful place next to other classic portraits of childhood betrayal and psychological suspense: Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures, Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock, and Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping among them.

“Refreshing, compelling and surprising.”—Ann Morgan, author of Beside Myself and Reading the World]]> 332 Catherine Chidgey 1609459318 Gaije 0 currently-reading 4.10 2023 Pet
author: Catherine Chidgey
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/04
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> My Husband 59818097 In this suspenseful and darkly funny debut novel, a sophisticated French woman spends her life obsessing over her perfect husband--but can their marriage survive her passionate love?

At forty years old, she has an enviable life: a successful career, stunning looks, a beautiful house in the suburbs, two healthy children, and most importantly, an ideal husband. After fifteen years together, she is still besotted with him. But she's never quite sure that her passion is reciprocated. After all, would a truly infatuated man ever let go of his wife's hand when they're sitting on the couch together?

Determined to keep their relationship perfect, she meticulously prepares for every encounter they have, always taking care to make her actions seem effortless. She watches him attentively, charting every mistake and punishing him accordingly to help him improve. And she tests him--setting traps to make sure that he still loves her just as much as he did when they first met.

Until one day she realizes she may have gone too far . . .

The winner of France's First Novel Prize in 2021, My Husband builds on the premise of hits like Gone Girl and Fates and Furies--how well can you really know your spouse?--and adds the tension and creepy obsession of You. The result is an irresistible read--compelling, tense, and engaging, infused with sly subversive humor, and told in an utterly original voice that makes it unforgettable.

Translated from the French by Emma Ramadan]]> 272 Maud Ventura 0063274841 Gaije 0 currently-reading 3.59 2021 My Husband
author: Maud Ventura
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/03
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[The Fourth Enemy (Daniel Pitt #6)]]> 61031525 352 Anne Perry 0593359135 Gaije 0 currently-reading 4.39 2023 The Fourth Enemy (Daniel Pitt #6)
author: Anne Perry
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/31
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> How Can I Help You 63062386
No one knows Margo’s real name. Her colleagues and patrons at a small town public library only know her middle-aged normalcy, congeniality, and charm. They have no reason to suspect that she is, in fact, a former nurse with a trail of countless premature deaths in her wake. She has turned a new page, so to speak, and the library is her sanctuary, a place to quell old urges.

That is, at least, until Patricia, a recent graduate and failed novelist, joins the library staff. Patricia quickly notices Margo’s subtly sinister edge, and watches her carefully. When a patron’s death in the library bathroom gives her a hint of Margo’s mysterious past, Patricia can’t resist digging deeper—even as this new fixation becomes all-consuming.

Taut and compelling, How Can I Help You explores the dark side of human nature and the dangerous pull of artistic obsession.]]> 256 Laura Sims 0593543726 Gaije 4 2023 3.49 2023 How Can I Help You
author: Laura Sims
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/31
date added: 2023/08/31
shelves: 2023
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]]> What Remains 61458821 She saved his life. Now he‘ll never let her go.

Detective Elise Sutton is drawn to cold cases. Each crime is a puzzle to solve, pulled from the past. Elise looks for cracks in the surface and has become an expert on how murderers slip up and give themselves away. She has dedicated her life to creating a sense of order, at work with her ex-marine partner; at home with her husband and two young daughters; and within, battling her own demons. Elise has everything under control, until one afternoon, when she walks into a department store and is forced to make a terrible choice: to save one life, she will have to take another.

Elise is hailed as a hero, but she doesn’t feel like one. Steeped in guilt, and on a leave of absence from work, she’s numb, even to her husband and daughters, until she connects with Wade Austin, the tall man whose life she saved. But Elise soon realizes that he isn’t who he says he is. In fact, Wade Austin isn’t even his real name. The tall man is a ghost, one who will set off a terrifying game of cat and mouse, threatening Elise and the people she loves most.]]> 283 Wendy Walker Gaije 3 2023 3.83 2023 What Remains
author: Wendy Walker
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2023/08/30
date added: 2023/08/30
shelves: 2023
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]]> We Spread 60417006 A new work of philosophical suspense.

Penny, an artist, has lived in the same apartment for decades, surrounded by the artifacts and keepsakes of her long life. She is resigned to the mundane rituals of old age, until things start to slip. Before her longtime partner passed away years earlier, provisions were made, unbeknownst to her, for a room in a unique long-term care residence, where Penny finds herself after one too many “incidents.�

Initially, surrounded by peers, conversing, eating, sleeping, looking out at the beautiful woods that surround the house, all is well. She even begins to paint again. But as the days start to blur together, Penny—with a growing sense of unrest and distrust—starts to lose her grip on the passage of time and on her place in the world. Is she succumbing to the subtly destructive effects of aging, or is she an unknowing participant in something more unsettling?

At once compassionate and uncanny, told in spare, hypnotic prose, Iain Reid’s genre-defying third novel explores questions of conformity, art, productivity, relationships, and what, ultimately, it means to grow old.]]> 304 Iain Reid 1982169370 Gaije 0 currently-reading 3.81 2022 We Spread
author: Iain Reid
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/28
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[Smells Like Tween Spirit (Class Mom #4)]]> 59067173 Even with the cutthroat days of being Class Mom behind her, as a freshly minted mat mom of the Pioneer Middle School (PMS) wrestling team, Jen Dixon cannot catch a break.

This year, as her son joins the ranks of the PMS wrestlers, Jen faces mystifying new social dynamics with her trademark combination of reluctance and resigned acceptance. The sights and smells of her son’s wrestling matches are more than enough for her to deal with, but Jen also finds herself fully immersed in sports-mom competitiveness. These parents all seem perfectly unassuming until their kids start to wrestle, and then some become raging momsters.

Jen steels herself for the indignities of middle school life, but she cannot quite fathom the extents to which some kids (and moms) will go for the sweet taste of victory. Add to this some truly bizarre encounters with students from her spin class and deeper challenges managing her parents, and Jen has more gum than she can chew...and even her riotously funny one-liners might not get her through it this time.]]> 256 Laurie Gelman 1250777607 Gaije 3 currently-reading, 2023 4.26 2022 Smells Like Tween Spirit (Class Mom #4)
author: Laurie Gelman
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/08/28
date added: 2023/08/28
shelves: currently-reading, 2023
review:

]]> The Silent Bride 62921149
Alice and Seth are a perfect love story: the handsome doctor and his beautiful fiancée. They’re wealthy, well liked and made for each other—the envy of all their friends. Alice can’t wait for the day of their dream wedding. But when she arrives at the altar, she doesn’t recognise the man waiting to marry her.

When this stranger insists he’s Seth, her husband-to-be, the entire congregation seems to agree. Even her parents try to persuade Alice to go through with the wedding.

As panic sets in, Alice’s world comes apart. Where is the real Seth, and why have all traces of him disappeared from her life? Fearing she’s losing her mind, she sets out to uncover the truth and escape the nightmare she’s living in. But with everyone around her convinced by the fake Seth, how can she ever hope to find the man she loves?]]> 267 Shalini Boland 1662507070 Gaije 3 2023 3.80 2023 The Silent Bride
author: Shalini Boland
name: Gaije
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2023/08/28
date added: 2023/08/28
shelves: 2023
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Demons of Good and Evil (The Hollows, #17)]]> 62610073
Rachel Morgan, witch-born demon, suspected that protecting the paranormal citizens of Cincinnati as the demon subrosa would be trouble. But it’s rapidly becoming way more trouble than even she could have imagined.

While Rachel and her friends may have vanquished the trickster demon Hodin, his mysterious associate known only as “The Mage� is eager to finish what Hodin started, beginning with taking down Rachel’s power structure piece by piece.

When he frames Rachel for the death of a powerful coven member and the vampire leaders in DC threaten to send a new master vampire to take the city in hand, Rachel’s friends Ivy and Pike are forced into hiding, and even her lover, Trent, finds himself under fire. With her world falling apart, Rachel desperately needs help. But with all of her supporters under attack, her only hope is to make a deal with the unlikeliest of allies...]]> 464 Kim Harrison Gaije 4 2023 4.59 2023 Demons of Good and Evil (The Hollows, #17)
author: Kim Harrison
name: Gaije
average rating: 4.59
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/27
date added: 2023/08/27
shelves: 2023
review:

]]>