Marisa's bookshelf: all en-US Wed, 30 Apr 2025 16:18:00 -0700 60 Marisa's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg The Weedflower 204190445 32 Elizabeth Davaze 1771475889 Marisa 0 to-read 3.96 The Weedflower
author: Elizabeth Davaze
name: Marisa
average rating: 3.96
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]]> Umami 206180609 Umami, sick of cold fish, travels the world trying different and delicious food to bring back home for the other penguins to try.Umami is tired of eating cold fish.But fish is what the penguins eat. Fish for every meal and birthdays too. To find new exciting foods, Umami adventures across the sea and discovers flavors and spices that are inspiring! She has to share them.But will the other penguins share her love for these different foods?]]> 40 Jacob Grant 0593624068 Marisa 0 to-read 4.24 Umami
author: Jacob Grant
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.24
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]]> <![CDATA[The Plants of the Appalachian Trail: A Hiker’s Guide to 398 Species]]> 199928348
Quickly find, identify, and learn about the amazing range of plants and fungi growing along the Appalachian Trail. It’s easy with this guide, organized by type, color, and trail section. With hundreds of color photos and lively, accessible descriptions, there’s so much you can learn.ÌęKeep an eye out for flame azaleas, violet coral fungi, pink lady slipperÌęorchids, and oak trees that are hundreds of years old.
Ìę
Whether you’re enjoying a day hike, exploring with your family, or setting out on the trek of a lifetime, you’ll forge a deeper connection with nature through the beautiful plants on display mile after mile.Ìę
Ìę]]> 288 Dr. Kristen Wickert 1643260405 Marisa 0 to-read 4.42 The Plants of the Appalachian Trail: A Hiker’s Guide to 398 Species
author: Dr. Kristen Wickert
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.42
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]]> <![CDATA[The Autists: Women on the Spectrum]]> 62820205 An incisive and deeply candid account that explores autistic women in culture, myth, and society through the prism of the author’s own diagnosis.

Until the 1980s, autism was regarded as a condition found mostly in boys. Even in our time, autistic girls and women have largely remained invisible. When portrayed in popular culture, women on the spectrum often appear simply as copies of their male counterparts � talented and socially awkward.

Yet autistic women exist, and always have. They are varied in their interests and in their experiences. Autism may be relatively new as a term and a diagnosis, but not as a way of being and functioning in the world. It has always been part of the human condition. So who are these women, and what does it mean to see the world through their eyes?

In The Autists, Clara Törnvall reclaims the language to describe autism and explores the autistic experience in arts and culture throughout history. From popular culture, films, and photography to literature, opera, and ballet, she dares to ask what it might mean to re-read these works through an autistic lens â€� what we might discover if we allow perspectives beyond the neurotypical to take centre stage.]]> 224 Clara Törnvall 1922585890 Marisa 0 to-read 4.05 2021 The Autists: Women on the Spectrum
author: Clara Törnvall
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[L.A. Son: My Life, My City, My Food]]> 17383956
Abounding with both the food and the stories that gave rise to Choi's inspired cooking, L.A. Son takes us through the neighborhoods and streets most tourists never see, from the hidden casinos where gamblers slurp fragrant bowls of pho to Downtown's Jewelry District, where a ten-year-old Choi wolfed down Jewish deli classics between diamond deliveries; from the kitchen of his parents' Korean restaurant and his mother's pungent kimchi to the boulevards of East L.A. and the best taquerias in the country, to, at last, the curbside view from one of his emblematic Kogi taco trucks, where people from all walks of life line up for a revolutionary meal.

Filled with over 85 inspired recipes that meld the overlapping traditions and flavors of L.A.—including Korean fried chicken, tempura potato pancakes, homemade chorizo, and Kimchi and Pork Belly Stuffed Pupusas—L.A. Son embodies the sense of invention, resourcefulness, and hybrid attitude of the city from which it takes its name, as it tells the transporting, unlikely story of how a Korean American kid went from lowriding in the streets of L.A. to becoming an acclaimed chef.]]> 352 Roy Choi 0062202634 Marisa 0 to-read 4.26 2013 L.A. Son: My Life, My City, My Food
author: Roy Choi
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Ghana to the World: Recipes and Stories That Look Forward While Honoring the Past]]> 149110150
Sankofa is a Ghanaian Twi word that roughly translates to the idea that we must look back to move forward. In his moving debut cookbook, chef Eric Adjepong practices sankofa by showcasing the beauty and depth of West African food and its indelible impact on the foodways of the African diaspora through the lens of his own deeply personal story.

Born in New York as the son of two Ghanaian immigrants, and traveling to and from Ghana since childhood, Eric’s experience of balancing the two parts of his Ghanaian-American identity is both powerful and universal. Through 100 soul-satisfying recipes plus narrative essays, we follow Eric’s culinary journey, beginning with traditional home-cooked meals from his mother, like a deeply flavorful jollof rice and a smoky, savory shrimp kontombre stew thick with leafy greens. Creative dishes like a sweet summer curried corn soup and lamb ribs with a peanutty mafe glaze influenced by his culinary education reflect the lasting connections among the cultures of the African diaspora.

Full of stunning photography shot in Ghana and remembrances rooted in family, tradition, and love, Sankofa shows readers how the unsung story of a continent’s cuisine can shine a powerful light on one person’s exploration of who he is as a chef and a man.]]> 272 Eric Adjepong 0593234774 Marisa 0 to-read 4.50 Ghana to the World: Recipes and Stories That Look Forward While Honoring the Past
author: Eric Adjepong
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.50
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]]> <![CDATA[The Green Cure: How Shinrin-Yoku, Earthing, Going Outside, or Simply Opening a Window Can Heal Us]]> 40639028
What we all know on an intuitive level is a scientific the simple act of going outside is good for usâ€� really good for us. It has been shown to have a positive effect on a huge number of health conditions and issues, from diabetes to depression, anxiety to arteriolosclerosis. Down-to-earth and relevant, The Green Cure shows you that you don’t need a lot of fancy equipment or vacation days to heal your body and mind. An afternoon stroll among trees in the park, a dip in the ocean, or sinking your bare feet in the mud might change your life! Each chapter combines anecdotes and literature alongside recent medical and scientific discoveries to show how nature can heal us. The book also includes “prescriptionsâ€� for how to use the information in realistic, easy ways, so you, too, can enjoy the beneficial shift within that simply going outdoors can bring you.]]> 144 Alice Peck 1782496955 Marisa 0 to-read 4.06 The Green Cure: How Shinrin-Yoku, Earthing, Going Outside, or Simply Opening a Window Can Heal Us
author: Alice Peck
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.06
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]]> On Agoraphobia 59902181
Graham’s quest to understand his illness brought him back to his first love: books. From Harper Lee’s Boo Radley, Ford Madox Ford, Emily Dickinson, and Shirley Jackson: the literary world is replete with examples of agoraphobics â€� once you go looking for them.

On Agoraphobia is a fascinating, entertaining and sometimes painfully acute look at what it means to go through life with an anxiety disorder that evades easy definition.]]> 208 Graham Caveney 152905771X Marisa 0 to-read 3.83 On Agoraphobia
author: Graham Caveney
name: Marisa
average rating: 3.83
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]]> <![CDATA[The False White Gospel: Rejecting Christian Nationalism, Reclaiming True Faith, and Refounding Democracy]]> 195391633
It is time says Jim Wallis, to call out genuine faith―specifically the “Christianâ€� in White Christian Nationalism―inviting all who can be persuaded to reject and help dismantle a false gospel that propagates white supremacy and autocracy. We need–to raise up the faith of all of us, and help those who are oblivious, stuck, and captive to the ideology and idolatry of White Christian Nationalism that is leading us to such great danger. Wallis turns our attention to six iconic texts at the heart of what genuine biblical faith means and what Jesus, in the gospels, has called us to do. It is time to ask do we believe these teachings or not?

This book isn’t only for Christians but for all faith traditions, and even those with no faith at all. When we see a civic promotion of fear, hate, and violence for the trajectory of our politics, we need a civic faith of love, healing, and hope to defeat it. And that must involve all of us–religious or not. Learning to practice a politics of neighbor love will be central to the future of democracy in America. And more than ever, the words of Jesus ring, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”]]> 286 Jim Wallis 1250291895 Marisa 0 to-read 4.19 The False White Gospel: Rejecting Christian Nationalism, Reclaiming True Faith, and Refounding Democracy
author: Jim Wallis
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.19
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]]> <![CDATA[Unraveling: What I Learned About Life While Shearing Sheep, Dyeing Wool, and Making the World's Ugliest Sweater]]> 60916166 In this lively, funny memoir, Peggy Orenstein sets out to make a sweater from scratch--shearing, spinning, dyeing wool--and in the process discovers how we find our deepest selves through craft. Orenstein spins a yarn that will appeal to everyone.

The Covid pandemic propelled many people to change their lives in ways large and small. Some adopted puppies. Others stress-baked. Peggy Orenstein, a lifelong knitter, went just a little further. To keep herself engaged and cope with a series of seismic shifts in family life, she set out to make a garment from the ground up: learning to shear sheep, spin and dye yarn, then knitting herself a sweater.

Orenstein hoped the project would help her process not just wool but her grief over the recent death of her mother and the decline of her dad, the impending departure of her college-bound daughter, and other thorny issues of aging as a woman in a culture that by turns ignores and disdains them. What she didn't expect was a journey into some of the major issues of our time: climate anxiety, racial justice, women's rights, the impact of technology, sustainability, and, ultimately, the meaning of home.

With her wry voice, sharp intelligence, and exuberant honesty, Orenstein shares her year-long journey as daughter, wife, mother, writer, and maker--and teaches us all something about creativity and connection.]]> 224 Peggy Orenstein 0063081725 Marisa 0 to-read 3.85 2023 Unraveling: What I Learned About Life While Shearing Sheep, Dyeing Wool, and Making the World's Ugliest Sweater
author: Peggy Orenstein
name: Marisa
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/26
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]]> The Cat Who Taught Zen 123239380 Big Panda and Tiny Dragon comes a beautifully illustrated exploration into the journeys we take for self-discovery and the connections we make along the way. In a distant city, an old cat considers himself as wise as can be, until he hears of an ancient pine far away, under the boughs of which infinite wisdom can be found. Thus, the Cat embarks on a journey deep into the forest to search for the tree. Along the way, he meets new friends—the Hare, the Magpie, the Wolf Cub, the Monkey, the Tortoise, and the Tiger—and comes across the energetic young Kitten. What wisdom does the Cat have to impart to his friends, and, perhaps more importantly, what does he still have to learn? Inspired by Zen koans, with stunning illustrations and a gentle voice,ÌęThe Cat Who Taught ZenÌęhas wisdom to offer all readers.]]> 176 James Norbury 006334761X Marisa 4 4.31 2023 The Cat Who Taught Zen
author: James Norbury
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2023
rating: 4
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date added: 2025/04/22
shelves: graphic-novels, spirituality-religion-metaphysics
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique]]> 52364253
With this book, Sa'ed Atshan asks how transnational progressive social movements can balance struggles for liberation along more than one axis. He explores critical junctures in the history of Palestinian LGBTQ activism, revealing the queer Palestinian spirit of agency, defiance, and creativity, in the face of daunting pressures and forces working to constrict it. Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique explores the necessity of connecting the struggles for Palestinian freedom with the struggle against homophobia.]]> 304 Sa'ed Atshan 1503609944 Marisa 0 to-read 4.38 Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique
author: Sa'ed Atshan
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.38
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date added: 2025/04/19
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]]> <![CDATA[Ametora: How Japan Saved American Style]]> 25159057 ametora, or “American traditional”—and turned it into a huge business for companies like Uniqlo, Kamakura Shirts, Evisu, and Kapital. This phenomenon is part of a long dialogue between Japanese and American fashion; in fact, many of the basic items and traditions of the modern American wardrobe are alive and well today thanks to the stewardship of Japanese consumers and fashion cognoscenti, who ritualized and preserved these American styles during periods when they were out of vogue in their native land.

In Ametora, cultural historian W. David Marx traces the Japanese assimilation of American fashion over the past hundred and fifty years, showing how Japanese trendsetters and entrepreneurs mimicked, adapted, imported, and ultimately perfected American style, dramatically reshaping not only Japan’s culture but also our own in the process.
]]> 296 W. David Marx 0465059732 Marisa 0 to-read 4.41 2015 Ametora: How Japan Saved American Style
author: W. David Marx
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/18
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]]> <![CDATA[The House by the Lake: The True Story of a House, Its History, and the Four Families Who Made It Home]]> 51165926 History comes home in a deeply moving, exquisitely illustrated tale of a small house, taken by the Nazis, that harbors a succession of families--and becomes a quiet witness to a tumultuous century.

The days went around like a wheel.
The sun rose, warming the walls of the house.

On the outskirts of Berlin, Germany, a wooden cottage stands on the shore of a lake. Over the course of a hundred years, this little house played host to a kind Jewish doctor and his family, a successful Nazi composer, wartime refugees, and a secret-police informant. During that time, as a world war came and went and the Berlin Wall arose just a stone's throw from the back door, the house filled up with myriad everyday moments. And when that time was over, and the dwelling was empty and derelict, the great-grandson of the man who built the house felt compelled to bring it back to life and listen to the story it had to tell. Illuminated by Britta Teckentrup's magnificent illustrations, Thomas Harding's narration reads like a haunting fairy tale--a lyrical picture-book rendering of the story he first shared in an acclaimed personal history for adult readers.]]> 48 Thomas Harding 1536212741 Marisa 0 to-read 4.21 2015 The House by the Lake: The True Story of a House, Its History, and the Four Families Who Made It Home
author: Thomas Harding
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/17
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]]> <![CDATA[Cosmic Care: An Intergalactic Guide to Finding Your Glow]]> 51182126
Cosmic Care brings readers on a dreamy journey through space to reveal tips that will help them unlock their inner glow.

Featuring the visionary art and signature style of Robin Eisenberg , Cosmic Care is an escape into a vivid, immersive universe that's simultaneously familiar, relatable, and out of this world.

Filled with vibrant illustrations and never-before-seen art , Cosmic Care offers feel-good advice to relax, find peace, stop and smell the bioluminescent flora, and bring out your stellar luminosity.

� Pairs bite-size pieces of advice with vibrant illustrations
� Blends the earthly and the extraterrestrial
� Offers a unique take on traditional self-care

The formation of a star begins with gravitational instability, but with a little cosmic care, it evolves into a luminous celestial object—and you can, too.

� Great for fans of Robin Eisenberg's art and illustrations
� A wonderful gift for anyone who loves self-care, the cosmos, astrology, and anything witchy
� Add it to the shelf with books like Strange Planet by Nathan W. Pyle, Basic Witches by Jaya Saxena, and The Witch's Book of Magical Ways to Pamper, Soothe, and Care for Your Body and Spirit by Arin Murphy-Hiscock.]]> 80 Robin Eisenberg 1797203835 Marisa 0 to-read 4.44 Cosmic Care: An Intergalactic Guide to Finding Your Glow
author: Robin Eisenberg
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.44
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]]> <![CDATA[The Echo Machine: How Right-Wing Extremism Created a Post-Truth America]]> 215363226 How right-wing extremism has led to the fall of critical thinking and rise of reactionary politics—and what we can do about it to save our democracy

Known for providing incisive progressive political analysis without being dogmatic, popular radio and podcast host David Pakman delves into the vicious cycle of reactionary political ideology.

It's no secret how the right-wing has benefited and capitalized off disinformation and polarization of US politics. Critical thinking and media literacy are on a rapid decline, and our republic is unable to agree upon a shared set of facts.

Pakman challenges the right-wing head-on and encourages readers to understand how the status quo became the status quo.

Deeply researched and accessibly written, readers will

The underlying issues with political discourse in America today.How these issues have led to the intellectual race to the bottom.Practical ways to improve discourse through improving critical thinking, media literacy, and public education.Examples from real-world debates and discussions to better understand the impact of these issues on our democracy and why leftism is the best path forward.
The Echo Machine is not just a critique nor an instruction manual, but an invitation to think, question, and understand. Pakman equips readers with the knowledge to be inspired to break out of our toxic political echo chamber and ultimately save our democracy.]]> 201 David Pakman 0807016535 Marisa 0 to-read 4.57 2025 The Echo Machine: How Right-Wing Extremism Created a Post-Truth America
author: David Pakman
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/15
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]]> Abundance 176444106 Abundance is a once-in-a-generation, paradigm-shifting call to rethink big, entrenched problems that seem mired in systemic from climate change to housing, education to healthcare.

To trace the global history of the twenty-first century so far is to trace a history of growing unaffordability and shortage. After years of refusing to build sufficient housing, the entire country has a national housing crisis. After years of slashing immigration, we don’t have enough workers. After decades of off-shoring manufacturing, we have a shortage of chips for cars and computers. Despite decades of being warned about the consequences of climate change, we haven’t built anything close to the clean energy infrastructure we need. The crisis that’s clicking into focus now has been building for decades—because we haven’t been building enough.

Abundance explains that our problems today are not the results of yesteryear’s villains. Rather, one generation’s solutions have become the next generation’s problems. Rules and regulations designed to solve the environmental problems of the 1970s often prevent urban density and green energy projects that would help solve the environmental problems of the 2020s. Laws meant to ensure that government considers the consequences of its actions in matters of education and healthcare have made it too difficult for government to act consequentially. In the last few decades, our capacity to see problems has sharpened while our ability to solve them has diminished.

Progress requires the ability to see promise rather than just peril in the creation of new ideas and projects, and an instinct to design systems and institutions that make building possible. In a book exploring how can move from a liberalism that not only protects and preserves but also builds, Klein and Thompson trace the political, economic, and cultural barriers to progress and how we can adopt a mindset directed toward abundance, and not scarcity, to overcome them.]]> 304 Ezra Klein 1668023482 Marisa 0 to-read 4.11 2025 Abundance
author: Ezra Klein
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/14
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]]> <![CDATA[Committed: On Meaning and Madwomen]]> 191746769 Ìę
When Suzanne Scanlon was a student at Barnard in the 90s, grieving the loss of her mother—feeling untethered and swimming through inarticulable pain—she made a suicide attempt that landed her in the New York State Psychiatric Institute.
Ìę
After nearly three years and countless experimental treatments, Suzanne left the ward on shaky legs. In the decades it took her to recover from the experience, Suzanne came to understand her suffering as part of something a long tradition of women whose complicated and compromised stories of self-actualization are reduced to “crazy chickâ€� and “madwomanâ€� narratives. It was a thrilling discovery, and she searched for more books, more woman writers, as the journey of her life converged with her journey through the literature that shaped her.
Ìę
Transporting, honest, and graceful, Committed is a story of discovery and recovery, reclaiming the idea of the madwoman as a template for insight and transcendence through the works of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, Janet Frame, Audre Lorde, Shulamith Firestone, and others.]]> 368 Suzanne Scanlon 0593469100 Marisa 0 to-read 4.16 2024 Committed: On Meaning and Madwomen
author: Suzanne Scanlon
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/14
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]]> After the Forest 65214189 After the Forest is a dark and enchanting fantasy debut from Kell Woods that explores the repercussions of a childhood filled with magic and a young woman contending with the truth of “happily ever after.â€�

Ginger. Honey. Cinnamon. Flour.

Twenty years after the witch in the gingerbread house, Greta and Hans are struggling to get by. Their mother and stepmother are long dead, Hans is deeply in debt from gambling, and the countryside lies in ruin, its people starving in the aftermath of a brutal war.

Greta has a secret, the witch's grimoire, secreted away and whispering in Greta's ear for the past two decades, and the recipe inside that makes the best gingerbread you've ever tasted. As long as she can bake, Greta can keep her small family afloat.

But in a village full of superstition, Greta and her mysteriously addictive gingerbread, not to mention the rumors about her childhood misadventures, is a source of gossip and suspicion.

And now, dark magic is returning to the woods and Greta's magic—magic she is still trying to understand—may be the only thing that can save her. If it doesn't kill her first.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 375 Kell Woods 1250852501 Marisa 0 to-read 3.80 2023 After the Forest
author: Kell Woods
name: Marisa
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/14
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]]> <![CDATA[So Many Stars: An Oral History of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Two-Spirit People of Color]]> 218372243 Award-winning novelist Caro De Robertis offers a first-of-its-kind, deeply personal, and moving oral history of a generation of queer and trans elders of color, from leading activists to artists to ordinary citizens to tell their stories of breathtaking courage, cultural innovations, and acts of resistance, all in their own words.

So Many StarsÌęknits together the voices of trans, nonbinary, genderqueer and two spirit elders of color as they share authentic, intimate accounts of how they created space for themselves and their communities in the world, how they pursued their passions, and how they continue to be at the vanguard of social change. This singular project collects the testimonies of over a dozen elders, each a glimmering thread in a luminous tapestry, preserving their words for future generations—who can more fully exist in the world today because of these very voices.

Award-winning novelist De Robertis creates a collective coming-of-age story based on hundreds of hours of interviews, offering rare snapshots of ordinary kids growing up, navigating family issues and finding community, coming out and changing how they identify over the years, building movements and weathering the AIDS crisis, and sharing wisdom for future generations. Often narrating experiences that took place before they had the array of language that exists today to self-identify and to describe life beyond the gender binary, this generation lived through remarkable changes in American culture, shaped American culture, and yet rarely takes center stage in the history books. Their stories feel particularly urgent in the current political moment, but also remind readers that their experiences are not new. Young trans and nonbinary people of color today belong to a long lineage.
Ìę
The anecdotes in these pages are riveting, joyful, heartbreaking—so full of life and personality and wisdom, and artfully woven together into one immersive narrative. In De Robertis’s words, So Many Stars shares “behind-the-scenes tales of what it meant—and still means—to create an authentic life, against the odds.”]]> 320 Caro De Robertis 1643756877 Marisa 0 to-read 4.33 So Many Stars: An Oral History of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Two-Spirit People of Color
author: Caro De Robertis
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.33
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]]> <![CDATA[A Little Queer Natural History]]> 206607442 Beautifully illustrated and scientifically informed, a celebration of the astonishing diversity of sexual behavior and biology found in nature.

Ìę

From a pair of male swans raising young to splitgill mushrooms with over 23,000 mating types, sex in the natural world is wonderfully diverse. Josh L. Davis considers how, for many different organisms—animals, plants, and fungi included—sexual reproduction and sex determination rely on a surprisingly complex interaction among genes, hormones, environment, and chance. As Davis introduces us to fascinating biological concepts like parthenogenesis (virgin birth), monoecious plants (individuals with separate male and female flowers), and sex-reversed genitals, we see turtle hatchlings whose sex is determined by egg temperature; butterflies that embody male and female biological tissue in the same organism; and a tomato that can reproduce three different ways at the same time. Davis also reveals animal and plant behaviors in nature that researchers have historically covered up or explained away, like queer sex among AdĂ©lie penguins or bottlenose dolphins, and presents animal behaviors that challenge us to rethink our assumptions and prejudices. Featuring fabulous sex-fluid fishes and ant, wasp, and bee queens who can choose both how they want to have sex and the sex of their offspring, A Little Queer Natural History offers a larger that the diversity we see in our own species needs no justification and represents just a fraction of what exists in the natural world.]]> 125 Josh L. Davis 0226837033 Marisa 0 to-read 4.46 A Little Queer Natural History
author: Josh L. Davis
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.46
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rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/14
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]]> <![CDATA[Stalactite & Stalagmite: A Big Tale from a Little Cave]]> 214151871
DRIP. DRIP. DRIP.

Time flies for two charming little cave nubs, Stalactite and Stalagmite. Over millions of years, creatures and things pass in and out of their cave, everything from a trilobite, an ichthyostega, and a triceratops, to a ground sloth and a bat.

When you are an ageless rock formation, it’s nice to have a friend who’s always there. But what will happen when the two nubs grow enough to finally touch?]]> 40 Drew Beckmeyer 1665926635 Marisa 0 to-read 4.35 Stalactite & Stalagmite: A Big Tale from a Little Cave
author: Drew Beckmeyer
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.35
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/13
shelves: to-read
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]]> Blake the Snake Bakes a Cake 200108787 Aaron Reynolds meets The Great British Baking Show in this tale of a hapless snake just trying to bake a cake!

All Blake the snake wants to do is bake a cake for his friend Drake's birthday. But mistake after mistake means he keeps having to pump the brakes. How can he share a delicious dessert at the picnic party if each time he bakes, he burns the cake, or it falls in the lake, or—watch out! EARTHQUAKE! Time to give it another take, Blake. Sheer determination is his only hope as he bakes and bakes and BAKES a new cake.Ìę

Married duo Amy and Alison Young will leave readers in stitches as they follow this rambunctious reptile on his quest for the perfect bake.]]> 0 Amy Young 0593621751 Marisa 0 to-read 3.84 Blake the Snake Bakes a Cake
author: Amy Young
name: Marisa
average rating: 3.84
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]]> <![CDATA[All in Her Head: The Truth and Lies Early Medicine Taught Us About Women’s Bodies and Why It Matters Today - Library Edition]]> 201558314 The fascinating history of women’s health as it’s never been told before.

For as long as medicine has been a practice, women's bodies have been treated like objects to be practiced on: examined and ignored, idealized and sexualized, shamed, subjugated, mutilated, and dismissed. The history of women’s healthcare is a story in which women themselves have too often been voiceless—a narrative instead written from the perspective of men who styled themselves as authorities on the female of the species, yet uninformed by women’s own voices, thoughts, fears, pain and experiences. The result is a cultural and societal legacy that continues to shape the (mis)treatment and care of women.

While the modern age has seen significant advancements in the medical field, the notion that female bodies are flawed inversions of the male ideal lingers on—as do the pervasive societal stigmas and lingering ignorance that shape women’s health and relationships with their own bodies.

Memorial Sloan Kettering oncologist and medical historian Dr. Elizabeth Comen peels back the curtain on the collective medical history of women to reintroduce us to our whole bodies—how they work, the actual doctors and patients whose perspectives and experiences laid the foundation for today’s medical thought, and the many oversights that still remain unaddressed. With a physician’s knowledge and empathy, Dr. Comen follows the road map of the eleven organ systems to share unique and untold stories, drawing upon medical texts and journals, interviews with expert physicians, as well as her own experience treating thousands of women.

Empowering women to better understand ourselves and advocate for care that prioritizes healthy and joyful lives—for us and generations to comeâ€�All in Her Head is written with humor, wisdom, and deep scientific and cultural insight. Eye-opening, sometimes enraging, yet always captivating, this shared memoir of women’s medical history is an essential contribution to a holistic understanding and much-needed reclaiming of women’s history and bodies.]]> 0 Anna Caputo Marisa 0 to-read 4.38 2024 All in Her Head: The Truth and Lies Early Medicine Taught Us About Women’s Bodies and Why It Matters Today - Library Edition
author: Anna Caputo
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/09
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]]> The Green Kingdom 214986198 Caspia‘s summer is transformed when she discovers a bundle of letters containing ten botanical riddles in this enchanting adventure.

Twelve-year-old Caspia hates big cities, especially one as busy as New York. So she isn’t thrilled by the news that her parents are taking her to stay in Brooklyn. It's summer-devouring bad luck! But everything changes when Caspia discovers a bundle of letters, hidden in an old chest of drawers. They belonged to two sisters who lived there long ago. Each letter contains a ‘greenâ€� riddle, with clues leading to a different plant.

Caspia sets out to solve the riddles and, as she does, she meets friends she could never have imagined and discovers that anywhere can feel like home, if you are just brave enough to put down new roots.

The newest adventure from renowned and award winning author of Inkheart and Dragon Rider, Cornelia Funke weaves magic into every sentence of this new and exciting mystery set in the heart of New York City. The Green Kingdom is perfect for fans of the Greenwild series.
]]> 224 Cornelia Funke 0593959302 Marisa 0 to-read 4.16 The Green Kingdom
author: Cornelia Funke
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.16
book published:
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date added: 2025/04/03
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]]> <![CDATA[Enemy Feminisms: TERFs, Policewomen, and Girlbosses Against Liberation]]> 205902742 From the author of Abolish the Family, a provocative compendium of the feminisms we love to dismiss and making the case for the bold, liberatory feminist politics we’ll need to stand against fascism, nationalism, femmephobia, and cisness.

In recent years, “white feminismâ€� and girlboss feminism have taken a justified beating. We know that leaning in won’t make our jobs any more tolerable and that white women have proven to be, at best, unreliable allies. But in a time of rising fascism, ceaseless attacks on reproductive justice, and violent transphobia, we need to reckon with what Western feminism has wrought if we have any hope of building the feminist world we need.

Sophie Lewis offers an unflinching tour of enemy feminisms, from 19th century imperial feminists and police officers to 20th century KKK feminists and pornophobes to today’s anti-abortion and TERF feminists. Enemy feminisms exist. Feminism is not an inherent political good. Only when we acknowledge that can we finally reckon with the ways these feminisms have pushed us toward counterproductive and even violent ends. And only then can we finally engage in feminist strategizing that is truly antifascist.

At once a left transfeminist battlecry against cisness, a decolonial takedown of nationalist womanhoods, and a sex-radical retort to femmephobia in all its guises, Enemy Feminisms /em> is above all a fierce, brilliant love letter to feminism.]]> 342 Sophie Lewis Marisa 0 to-read 4.23 2025 Enemy Feminisms: TERFs, Policewomen, and Girlbosses Against Liberation
author: Sophie Lewis
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/03
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]]> <![CDATA[The Bakery Dragon (The Bakery Dragon, #1)]]> 205307705 The heroic taleÌęof a tiny dragon with a heart of gold and a taste for baked treats! A scrumptious picture book for fans of funny fairytales and fantastic beasts.

Ember has always been different from the other dragons. His fearsome roar sounds more like a polite sneeze, and when he breathes fire, the villagers just pat his head and say awwww.

Ember fears he’ll never collect a respectable hoard of gold until a chance encounter with a baker causes his fortunes to turn (and his stomach to grumble). As the little dragon soon discovers, the gold you make is way better than the gold you steal—and gold that is shared? That’s best of all.

Magic shimmers on every page of author-illustrator Devin Elle Kurtz'sÌęfeel-good story that celebrates baked goods, dragons, and generosity in equal measure. Filled with adorable illustrations, this is a perfect read aloud for bedtime or brunchtime!]]> 42 Devin Elle Kurtz 0593710967 Marisa 4 picture-books 4.51 2024 The Bakery Dragon (The Bakery Dragon, #1)
author: Devin Elle Kurtz
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: picture-books
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Shitty Craft Club: A Club for Gluing Beads to Trash, Talking about Our Feelings, and Making Silly Things]]> 103516996
Did you know that you are a glorious and incredible artist? Wait, really? Well, you are. Through silly and deeply relatable tales from her life, Sam Reece, founder of the Shitty Craft Club, guides you through dozens of craft projects that give you permission to be as weird, wild, and wonderful as you want to be.
Ìę
Melding the nihilistic spirit of millennial/Gen Z humor with Amy Sedaris's gonzo crafting style and a healthy dose of Lisa Frank vibes, the Shitty Craft Club proves there’s no limit to what a craft can be.ÌęMaking a bunch of pom-poms so you can be your own cheerleader? That’s a craft. Sculpting a rhinestone shrimp out of aluminum foil and a glue gun? A craft. Having literally one sip of water (congrats, by the way)? Yup, you bet—a craft. Because life is hard. So why not spend a bit of time gluing some trash to more trash if it makes you happy?

This is your sign to embrace anti-perfectionism. Join us at the Shitty Craft Club!

SELF-ESTEEM OVER In times of uncertainty, we all need a little more self-compassion. Treat yourselfÌęwithÌękindness and care. Shitty Craft ClubÌęgives us the toolsÌęto cope in a creative and fun way, without feeling the pressure to make everything perfect.
Ìę
A SHITTY ÌęFrom in-person events at the Ace Hotel and Milk Bar to viral projects on Instagram and TikTok, Sam Reece, the creator of Shitty Craft Club,Ìęhas cultivated a movement that embraces the weird and wonderful over the perfect. This book captures all thatÌęmagic of Shitty Craft Club (and hopefully inspires you to start your own).Ìę

FOR FANS OF MAKING IT AND AT HOME WITH AMY SEDARIS : With projects like Rhinestone Wall Shrimp, the Corndle, and the Shitty Trophy, this book will inspire you to pick up a glue gun, buy a bucket of beads, and make your own strange and beautiful creations.

Perfect]]> 144 Sam Reece 1797221507 Marisa 0 to-read 3.78 Shitty Craft Club: A Club for Gluing Beads to Trash, Talking about Our Feelings, and Making Silly Things
author: Sam Reece
name: Marisa
average rating: 3.78
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date added: 2025/03/27
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]]> <![CDATA[So Gay for You: Friendship, Found Family, and the Show That Started It All]]> 217388362 A intimate, hilarious memoir of art, friendship, queerness, and found family by Kate Moennig and Leisha Hailey, stars of The L Word—including never-before-shared stories and photos from behind the scenes of the show and their personal lives.

"The point is we're all connected, see? Through love, through loneliness, through one tiny, lamentable lapse in judgment. All of us, in our isolation, we reach out from the darkness, from the alienation of modern life, to form these connections." � Alice Pieszecki, Season 1, Episode 2, The L Word

In the early aughts, Kate Moennig and Leisha Hailey—both young artists trying to figure it all out—met at auditions for what they thought was just an unknown little TV show. Given that it was a show about lesbians living in LA, with the first ever ensemble cast of openly queer female characters, Kate and Leisha knew the project was going to be unlike anything else out there.

What they didn't foresee was just how huge The L Word would become. One million people watched the premiere, and the show quickly turned into a groundbreaking phenomenon. Its influence on pop culture, in the political arena, and in the lives of queer—and straight—viewers has been lasting, impactful, even life-saving. But in addition to changing the course of television history, The L Word also changed Kate and Leisha's lives forever.

From their first day on set, Kate and Leisha have always had each other’s backs, inseparable to the degree that the cast joked they were like a pair of pants—you couldn't have one leg without the other. Hence the name for their podcast, PANTS, born during the pandemic and now downloaded over 20 million times.

So Gay for You is a love letter to a life-defining friendship over the decades, and following Kate and Leisha's unlikely and extremely entertaining journey stumbling from closeted queer kids to LGBTQ+ activists to successful actresses, podcasters, and business owners. Full of never-before-shared glimpses into the making of The L Word, Kate and Leisha's real-life loves and losses, and their status as queer icons, So Gay for You is, at its heart, a book about a deep meaningful connection with your ride or die and the gift of finding your chosen family.]]> 272 Leisha Hailey 1250361362 Marisa 0 to-read 4.46 So Gay for You: Friendship, Found Family, and the Show That Started It All
author: Leisha Hailey
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.46
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date added: 2025/03/25
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]]> <![CDATA[We Need Your Art: Stop Messing Around and Make Something]]> 214537765 From creative phenom Amie McNee, the creator of @InspiredtoWrite, a manifesto on the vital, human importance of creating, with guidance for all artists in all endeavors, whether they're beginning or need a fresh start

In We Need Your Art, Amie McNee calls artists and aspiring artists of all kinds to do the work they’re meant to create.Ìę

Using her own experiences and the inspiration she’s shared with her legions of followers on Instagram, Amie guides you on why we need your art and how you can make it happen—starting with a two-week reset plan to help you kick-start your creative habit. This isn’t about writing your great novel in a month or painting a masterpiece in a flurry of inspiration. Rather, this process is about practicing small, sustainable creative steps every day over time—five hundred words of writing each day, a pencil sketch every evening—so that you avoid burnout, produce consistent, reliable content on your own terms, and begin to see yourself as an artist.Ìę

With frank and empowering conversations on the many issues creatives face, including impostor syndrome, perfectionism, procrastination, and the inner critic, as well as invitations to coronate yourself and celebrate your ambition, Amie provides the framework and encouragement you need to begin to take your art seriously. Each chapter also includes journal prompts that help you apply what you have learned to your new life.

We Need Your Art is a revolutionary reprogramming of everything we have been taught and told about being a creative, removing the shame and fear we may feel at dubbing ourselves artists and inviting us to create proudly, with celebration. This book is a warm hug, a pep talk, the wise teacher you always wanted, the loving parent you needed, and the fire in your belly that you need to get roaring.]]> 272 Amie McNee 0593833007 Marisa 0 to-read 4.47 We Need Your Art: Stop Messing Around and Make Something
author: Amie McNee
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.47
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/24
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]]> <![CDATA[Bert, the Bowerbird: The small bird with a big heart]]> 213083547
Bert the bowerbird is looking for love. He has made the most perfect bower, complete with a pretty purple flower, and is hoping it will help him to meet the bird of his dreams. But when Nanette comes along, she is far from impressed. Poor Bert is hurt, and flies off to bring her presents a-plenty. But will it ever be enough, and is Nanette really right for Bert?

A beautifully illustrated treat of a book from the creators of The Go-Away Bird.]]> 32 Julia Donaldson 1915801842 Marisa 0 to-read 4.14 Bert, the Bowerbird: The small bird with a big heart
author: Julia Donaldson
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.14
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/23
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]]> <![CDATA[The Feminist Killjoy Handbook: The Radical Potential of Getting in the Way]]> 103489828 A renowned feminist thinker argues we need to get in the way of happiness, our own and other people’s, to build a more just worldÌę

Do you refuse to laugh at offensive jokes? Have you ever been accused of ruining dinner by pointing out your companion’s sexist comment? Are you often told to stop being so “wokeâ€�? If so, you might be a feminist killjoy—and this handbook is for you. In this book, feminist theorist Sara Ahmed shows how killing joy can be a radical world-making project.Ìę

Presenting sharp analysis of literature, film, and influential feminist works, and drawing on her own experiences as a queer feminist scholar-activist of color, Ahmed reveals the invaluable lessons of the feminist killjoy, from the importance of asking questions to the power of the eye roll. The Feminist Killjoy Handbook offers an outstretched hand to feminist killjoys everywhere and an essential intellectual guide to the transformative power of getting in the way.Ìę]]> 304 Sara Ahmed 1541603753 Marisa 0 to-read 3.92 2023 The Feminist Killjoy Handbook: The Radical Potential of Getting in the Way
author: Sara Ahmed
name: Marisa
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/22
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]]> <![CDATA[A Radical Guide for Women with ADHD: A Four-Week Guided Program to Relax Your Body, Calm Your Mind, and Get the Sleep You Need]]> 59089179 412 Sari Solden 0369373162 Marisa 0 to-read 3.91 2019 A Radical Guide for Women with ADHD: A Four-Week Guided Program to Relax Your Body, Calm Your Mind, and Get the Sleep You Need
author: Sari Solden
name: Marisa
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Womb Witch: Herbal Magick for Reproductive Health]]> 218241048 256 Angelica Merritt 1648414575 Marisa 0 to-read 5.00 Womb Witch: Herbal Magick for Reproductive Health
author: Angelica Merritt
name: Marisa
average rating: 5.00
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rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/18
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]]> <![CDATA[When Adulting Feels Insulting: A Self-Help Guide for Burnt Out Millennials]]> 223647370 Feeling stuck & directionless in an endless loop of stress, exhaustion, never-ending unprecedented world events, and impending guilt every time you dare to rest?

Welcome to millennial burnout, where society’s impossible standards meet your overachieving brain.

Millennials grew up in a world that promised success through hard work, only to inherit a society that glorifies hustle culture, breeds exhaustion, all while the goalposts of success keep moving.

In When Adulting Feels A Self-Help Guide for Burnt Out Millennials , you’ll discover how our upbringing, societal conditioning, subconscious beliefs, and the brain’s wiring have led to an entire generation that’s not just burnt out, but stuck in a burnout mindset—and, most importantly, how you can undo it.

Packed with brain science made simple, self-reflection exercises, and a dash of 90s nostalgia, this book will help you break free from modern-day society’s impossible standards and rediscover the version of yourself before everyone else got their hands on you.

This isn’t just another self-help book—it’s a road map to breaking free from stress addiction & societal pressures, rewiring your mindset, and stepping into a life that feels more like yours .]]> 158 Peter Guse Marisa 0 to-read 4.50 When Adulting Feels Insulting: A Self-Help Guide for Burnt Out Millennials
author: Peter Guse
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.50
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rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/18
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]]> <![CDATA[The Autistic Burnout Cookbook : 300 Complete Recipes Inspired by Dr. Megan Anna Neff for A Sensory-Friendly Guide to Nourishing Your Body and Mind for Burnout Recovery]]> 229181748
Are you struggling with exhaustion, sensory overwhelm, or mental fog from autistic burnout? Do you find it challenging to nourish yourself while managing sensitivities, fatigue, or decision fatigue? You’re not alone there is a way to recover, and it starts with the right food.

Introducing The Autistic Burnout Cookbook a groundbreaking collection of 300 carefully curated recipes designed to soothe, energize, and restore your body and mind. Inspired by the work of Dr. Megan Anna Neff, this cookbook is your compassionate guide to healing through food, offering gentle, sensory-friendly meals that support nervous system regulation, gut health, and sustainable energy.

°ÂłóČčłÙ’s

300 Easy-to-Make, Nourishing Recipes Designed for autistic individuals, featuring soft, warm, crispy, and crunchy options to accommodate sensory preferences.
Healing Foods for Burnout Recovery Anti-inflammatory, nutrient-dense meals to replenish energy, reduce anxiety, and support mental clarity.
Sensory-Friendly Eating Strategies Tips to manage food aversions, textures, and flavors without stress.
Energy-Boosting and Anti-Anxiety Ingredients Science-backed nutrition to help regulate mood, reduce overwhelm, and promote long-term wellness.
Meal Plans & Simple Routines A 28-day structured meal plan to make cooking and eating stress-free.
Hydration & Herbal Support Gentle herbal drinks and hydration strategies to keep your body balanced and thriving.

Food That Works for YOU

Whether you crave soft, comforting foods on overstimulating days, or need crunchy, energizing bites for sensory input, this book meets you where you are. With clear instructions, easy-to-find ingredients, and adaptable recipes, you’ll feel empowered to nourish yourself without stress or burnout.

No complicated meal prep
No overwhelming ingredients
Just real, restorative food that supports YOUR needs

Reclaim Your Energy, One Meal at a Time

Burnout doesn’t define you, and healing is possible starting with your plate. Let this cookbook be your safe, supportive space to rebuild strength, reduce anxiety, and rediscover the joy of eating.

Your journey to wellness starts NOW. Scroll up and grab your copy today!]]> 110 Charlene Soluri Marisa 0 to-read 0.0 The Autistic Burnout Cookbook : 300 Complete Recipes Inspired by Dr. Megan Anna Neff for A Sensory-Friendly Guide to Nourishing Your Body and Mind for Burnout Recovery
author: Charlene Soluri
name: Marisa
average rating: 0.0
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date added: 2025/03/18
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]]> <![CDATA[The Unmasking Workbook for Autistic Adults: Neurodiversity-Affirming Skills to Help You Live Authentically, Avoid Burnout, and Thrive]]> 205479940
If you grew up before the neurodiversity movement, chances are you were taught at an early age that your autistic traits were “wrongâ€� or “bad.â€� Whether it was stimming, difficulties with making small talk, avoiding eye contact, sensitivities to loud sounds or certain textures, or even talking passionately about the things you care about—somewhere along the way you learned to mask these aspects of yourself to better fit in, avoid bullying from other kids, and in some cases to even gain the love of your own parents. The problem is that, over time, masking can lead to higher levels of stress, burnout, emotional dysregulation, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, and depression. So how can you be your authentic self and still succeed and thrive in a neurotypical world?

Written by a therapist who is actually autistic, this neurodiversity-affirming workbook offers skills to help you cultivate self-acceptance, manage intense emotions, and be your own advocate when needed. You’ll take a good look at the situations or people that caused you to mask in the first place. You’ll also discover:

How to set and achieve your own authentic goals—with a clear view of who you are and what you care about
Why self-love and self-acceptance is so important for autistic folks
How to live your life on your own terms, while self-advocating for accommodations
How to let go of old, hurtful messages about autistic people that you’ve internalized
How autism can be both a strength and a disability
Strategies to cope with burnout or meltdowns
How to be assertive and set boundaries with others

You don’t have to mask, hide, or camouflage any longer. Let this workbook guide you on a journey of self-discovery and acceptance. You are worthy of it. And you deserve it.]]> 168 Jessica Penot 164848350X Marisa 0 to-read 4.31 The Unmasking Workbook for Autistic Adults: Neurodiversity-Affirming Skills to Help You Live Authentically, Avoid Burnout, and Thrive
author: Jessica Penot
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.31
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Autistic Burnout Workbook: Your Guide to Your Personal Recovery Plan]]> 214151822 Navigate the challenging terrain of autistic burnout with expert guidance, insightful visuals, and transformative exercises designed to help you pursue your own recovery from neurodivergent psychologist Dr. Megan Neff.

Feeling burnt out? You’re not alone. Autistic burnout is a challenge faced by many individuals on the autistic spectrum. And The Autistic Burnout Workbook is here to help.

This transformative guide is designed to empower individuals on the autism spectrum to manage and overcome burnout. Crafted with empathy and insight, this workbook provides practical strategies and exercises to help you navigate the unique challenges associated with burnout.

Through interactive prompts and activities, The Autistic Burnout Workbook teaches individuals how to identify triggers, manage sensory overload, and build resilience. It encourages self-reflection and cultivates a supportive environment for personal growth. This user-friendly workbook is a proactive approach to mental health, promoting self-care and fostering a sense of control that makes it a lifeline for those grappling with the realities of autistic burnout.]]> 240 Megan Anna Neff 1507223064 Marisa 0 to-read 4.46 The Autistic Burnout Workbook: Your Guide to Your Personal Recovery Plan
author: Megan Anna Neff
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.46
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]]> The Unworthy 214151601 The long-awaited new novel from the author of global sensation Tender Is the Flesh: a thrilling work of literary horror about a woman cloistered in a secretive, violent religious order, while outside the world has fallen into chaos.

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

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

A searing, dystopian tale about climate crisis, ideological extremism, and the tidal pull of our most violent, exploitative instincts, this is another unforgettable novel from a master of feminist horror.]]> 192 Agustina Bazterrica 1668051885 Marisa 0 horror-paranormal-fiction 3.64 2023 The Unworthy
author: Agustina Bazterrica
name: Marisa
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2025/03/15
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: horror-paranormal-fiction
review:

]]> I Feel Awful, Thanks 176442730
Joana has dragons inside her. Can she tame them before they burn her life down?

Joana is a young witch who secured her dream job with a coven in London, her favorite city, where she can dedicate herself to creating potions, her favorite activity! However, she will soon discover the reality of city life is not so idyllic. Finding a flat is an ordeal, her “dream jobâ€� is stressful, and she’s totally alone. Little by little, she makes her place, but fatigue, sadness, and doubts threaten to topple her hard-earned success . . . until she starts talking to a professional who helps her realize in order to take care of herself, she must know herself.]]> 216 Lara Pickle 1637153007 Marisa 0 fantasy, graphic-novels, ya 3.87 2024 I Feel Awful, Thanks
author: Lara Pickle
name: Marisa
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2025/03/13
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: fantasy, graphic-novels, ya
review:

]]> Read at Your Own Risk 179031739
Hannah and her friends were just having a bit of fun when they decided to play a game to communicate with spirits of the dead. Little did they know something would answer their call and crawl its way into the pages of Hannah’s journal. What started out as a game has turned into something much more evil. With dire , horrifying consequences.

Is there any way to escape the curse?]]> 160 Remy Lai 1250323355 Marisa 0 to-read 3.60 2024 Read at Your Own Risk
author: Remy Lai
name: Marisa
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: to-read
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]]> Wolfgang in the Meadow 199532036 48 Lenny Wen 006328894X Marisa 0 to-read 4.22 Wolfgang in the Meadow
author: Lenny Wen
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.22
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rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Great Banned-Books Bake Sale]]> 146436150 32 Aya Khalil Marisa 0 to-read 4.31 The Great Banned-Books Bake Sale
author: Aya Khalil
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.31
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Violet Thistlewaite Is Not a Villain Anymore]]> 228142770 A powerful plant witch and a grumpy alchemist must work together to save their quiet town from a magical plague in this debut cozy fantasy romance about starting over, redemption, and what it really means to be a good person.

Guy Shadowfade is dead, and after a lifetime as the dark sorcerer’s right-hand, Violet Thistlewaite is determined to start over—not as the fearsome Thornwitch, but as someone kind. Someone better. Someone good.

The quaint town of Dragon’s Rest, Violet decides, will be her second chance—she’ll set down roots, open a flower shop, keep her sentient (mildly homicidal) houseplant in check, and prune dark magic from the twisted boughs of her life.

Violet’s vibrant bouquets and cheerful enchantments soon charm the welcoming townsfolk, though nothing seems to impress the prickly yet dashingly handsome Nathaniel Marsh, an alchemist sharing her greenhouse. With a struggling business and his own second chance seemingly out of reach, Nathaniel has no time for flowers or frippery—and certainly none for the intriguing witch next door.

When a mysterious blight threatens every living plant in Dragon’s Rest, Violet and Nathaniel must work together through their fears, pasts, and growing feelings for one another to save their community. But with a figure from her past knocking at her door and her secrets threatening to uproot everything she’s worked so hard to grow, Violet can’t help but wonder
does a former villain truly deserve a happily-ever-after?]]> 368 Emily Krempholtz 0593954300 Marisa 0 to-read 4.23 2025 Violet Thistlewaite Is Not a Villain Anymore
author: Emily Krempholtz
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Colin Gets Promoted and Dooms the World]]> 223362068 WARNING! Under no circumstances must employees strike a deal with unauthorized personnel on Dark Enterprises property. Such behavior could result in death
or the end of the world.

Colin is a low-level employee at Dark Enterprises, a Hell-like multinational corporation solving the world’s most difficult problems in deeply questionable ways. After years of toiling away in a cubicle, he's ready to climb the corporate ladder and claim the power he's never had.

The only problem is, he’s pretty sure he’s about to be terminated. Like, terminated. That's tough, because his BFF has just set him up with a great guy. In fact, maybe he's a little too great. And asks a lot of questions...

When Colin meets a shadowy figure promising him his heart’s deepest desire, he can’t resist the urge to fast-track his goals. In return for a small, unspecified favor, he asks for the one thing that will improve his life: a promotion.

But that small favor unleashes an ancient evil. People in New York are disappearing, the worldÌęmightÌębe ending, and Management is starting to notice. Getting to the top is never easy, and now it’s up to Colin to save the world. It's the ultimate power move, after all.]]> 384 Mark Waddell 0593818407 Marisa 0 to-read 4.29 Colin Gets Promoted and Dooms the World
author: Mark Waddell
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.29
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/13
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]]> <![CDATA[A Wild Promise: An Illustrated Celebration of The Endangered Species Act]]> 62987068
For the past fifty years, this promise, the Endangered Species Act, has ensured that the most threatened and vulnerable species and their habitats are protected. From the Steller sea lion to the ivory-billed woodpecker, from the steelhead trout to the red wolf, this landmark act has worked to preserve the wild beauty that surrounds and sustains us.In A Wild Promise, acclaimed artist Allen Crawford beautifully illustrates over eighty animals that embody the spirit, legacy, and commitment of the Endangered Species Act. In his trademark inventive style, Crawford’s full-color illustrations and illuminated text create a vibrant tapestry of our nation’s habitats—oceans, mountains, deserts, wetlands, prairies, and forests—and the varied species that call these places home. With a powerful and moving introduction by award-winning writer and conservationist Terry Tempest Williams, A Wild Promise is critically urgent and inspirational, lending voice and spirit to all endangered species. A visually delightful, one-of-a-kind work, A Wild Promise is a celebration of conservation, commitment, and compassion—a clarion call to continue to embrace, engage, and act in ways that preserve and protect our living world.]]> 208 Allen Crawford 195353497X Marisa 0 to-read 4.31 A Wild Promise: An Illustrated Celebration of The Endangered Species Act
author: Allen Crawford
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.31
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/13
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]]> <![CDATA[Rings of Heartwood: Poems on Growing]]> 217485925 32 Molly Beth Griffin 1681342324 Marisa 0 to-read 4.50 Rings of Heartwood: Poems on Growing
author: Molly Beth Griffin
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Environmental Warfare in Gaza: Colonial Violence and New Landscapes of Resistance]]> 63289148
Since 2014, the bulldozing of Palestinian lands by the Israeli occupation forces has been complemented by unannounced aerial spraying of military herbicides, extending the reach of Israeli violence into the realm of chemical warfare. Today, the spraying has destroyed entire swaths of arable land in Gaza, forcibly changing a once-lush Palestinian landscape, and providing the Israeli army with better visibility to fire at Palestinian targets with lethal force from a distance.
​â¶Ä‹â¶Ä‹â¶Ä‹â¶Ä‹â¶Ä‹â¶Ä�
This book is a vivid document of this latest stage of Israeli warfare, including original maps, images, and visualizations which deepen our understanding of its environmental and human impact. It collects new documents, original archival materials, stills of drone footage, first-hand testimonies of farmers, organizers and protesters, and documents affected vegetation in Gaza as 'silent witnesses' to Israeli settler-colonial violence.]]> 160 Shourideh C. Molavi 0745344577 Marisa 0 to-read 4.59 Environmental Warfare in Gaza: Colonial Violence and New Landscapes of Resistance
author: Shourideh C. Molavi
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.59
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/10
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]]> <![CDATA[Urban Tantra: Sacred Sex for the Twenty-First Century]]> 567853 304 Barbara Carrellas 1587612909 Marisa 0 to-read 3.96 2005 Urban Tantra: Sacred Sex for the Twenty-First Century
author: Barbara Carrellas
name: Marisa
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: to-read
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]]> Maeve Fly 62212684
By the neon night glow of the Sunset Strip, Maeve haunts the dive bars with a drink in one hand and a book in the other, imitating her misanthropic literary heroes.

But when Gideon Green - her best friend’s brother - moves to town, he awakens something dangerous within her, and the world she knows suddenly shifts beneath her feet.

Untethered, Maeve ditches her discontented act and tries on a new persona. A bolder, bloodier one, inspired by the pages of American Psycho . Step aside Patrick Bateman, it’s Maeve’s turn with the knife.]]> 8 C.J. Leede 125090112X Marisa 0 to-read 3.60 2023 Maeve Fly
author: C.J. Leede
name: Marisa
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Market Day (I Like to Read Comics)]]> 125324934 It’s Market Day! Everyone wants Mama Cat’s magical desserts, but her kittens think she deserves a treat of her own. Will they find the perfect gift among the stalls? Find out in this early graphic reader!

It’s time to go to the market! Mama Cat is selling her most delicious desserts, from bright rainbow cookies to shimmering sunshine muffins. Can cute kitten siblings Nutmeg, Cinnamon, and Ginger find the perfect present to treat their Mama? Maybe a colorful shell, a shimmering sweater, or an enchanted packet of seeds? Time to explore a colorful, crowded, and dazzling fantasy market!

This imaginative and inviting graphic reader returns readers to the delicious world of rising comics star Miranda Harmon’s Spring Cakes, which Kirkus Reviews called a story where “young kitty and comics lovers will be right at home!â€� With deep detail and a sweet-hearted sensibility, MARKET DAY helps introduce children to the concepts of purchasing, money-handling, and gift-giving.

Comics-lovers can now share the fun with their kids, students, siblings, and younger friends who are learning to read!

I Like to ReadÂź Comics are perfect for kids who are challenged by or unengaged in reading, kids who love art, and the growing number of young comics fans. Filled with eye-catching art, humor, and terrific stories, these comics provide unique reading experiences for growing minds.

I Like to ReadÂź Comics, like their award-winning I Like to ReadÂź counterpart, are created by celebrated artists and support reading comprehension to transform children into lifelong readers.

We hope that all new readers will say, “I like to read comics!”]]> 40 Miranda Harmon 0823453677 Marisa 0 to-read 3.61 2024 Market Day (I Like to Read Comics)
author: Miranda Harmon
name: Marisa
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Neurodiverse Workplace: An Employer's Guide to Managing and Working with Neurodivergent Employees, Clients and Customers]]> 49120115 Estimates suggest that up to 20% of employees, customers and clients might have a neurodivergent condition - such as dyslexia, autism, Asperger's, ADHD or dyspraxia - yet these individuals often struggle to gain and maintain employment, despite being very capable. This practical, authoritative business guide will help managers and employers support neurodiverse staff, and gives advice on how to ensure workplaces are neuro-friendly. The book demonstrates that neurodiversity is a natural aspect of human variation to be expected and accepted, rather than a deficit to be accommodated.

Employer responsibilities are highlighted, including the 2010 Equality Act, and a range of strategies and policies are provided, including recruitment advice and the benefits of neurodiverse employees, along with advice on physical environments, interaction and communication, and working with clients and customers. This book is an ideal resource for all employers wanting to support and empower people with specific needs to help create a more inclusive workplace, benefiting both neurodiverse individuals and the companies employing them.

]]> 217 Victoria Honeybourne Marisa 0 to-read 3.78 The Neurodiverse Workplace: An Employer's Guide to Managing and Working with Neurodivergent Employees, Clients and Customers
author: Victoria Honeybourne
name: Marisa
average rating: 3.78
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/06
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Banned Together: Our Fight for Readers' Rights]]> 214274182 A dazzling YA anthology that spotlights the transformative power of books while equipping teens to fight for the freedom to read, featuring the voices of 15 diverse, award-winning authors and illustrators.

Books are disappearing from shelves across the country.

What does this mean for authors, illustrators, and—most crucially—for young readers?

This bold collection of fiction, memoir, poetry, graphic narratives, essays, and other genres explores book bans through various lenses, and empowers teens to fight back. From moving personal accounts to clever comebacks aimed at censorship, fifteen legendary YA authors and illustrators confront the high-stakes question of what is lost when books are kept from teens.

Contributors include Elana K. Arnold, Nikki Grimes, Ellen Hopkins, Kelly Jensen, Brendan Kiely, Maia Kobabe, Bill Konigsberg, Kyle Lukoff, MariNaomi, Trung LĂȘ Nguyễn, Ashley Hope PĂ©rez, Isabel Quintero, Traci Sorell, Robin Stevenson, and Padma Venkatraman; the collection is a star-studded must-read that packs strength and power into every last word.

Striking illustrations from Ignatz-nominated artist Debbie Fong pair perfectly with the searing, impactful narrative. Resources include tips from the Vandegrift Banned Book Club and other teen activists, as well as extensive recommended book lists, a How to Start Your Own Little Free Library flier, and more.]]> 304 Ashley Hope PĂ©rez 082345830X Marisa 0 to-read 4.57 2025 Banned Together: Our Fight for Readers' Rights
author: Ashley Hope PĂ©rez
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Autistic's Guide to Self-Discovery: Flourishing as a Neurodivergent Adult]]> 221507710 Live Authentically and Function Effectively in All Areas of Your Life

In this first-of-its-kind book, Sol Smith combines current research, his personal experience as a late-diagnosed autistic adult, and lessons learned as an educator to show how you can transcend common mischaracterizations, overcome shame, and gain the skills to flourish. Sol knows that neurodivergent people often feel that nothing they have been taught relates to how they experience the world. To resolve this conflict, they try to change or mask who they are, which can cause isolation, depression, and anxiety. He advises the Understand yourself, accept yourself, and reduce conflict. Designed to help you peel away the shell of inadequacy and self-blame that often comes with neurodivergence, The Autistic’s Guide to Self-Discovery offers the necessary tools and knowledge to function effectively at home, at work, and in the wider world.

]]> 214 Sol Smith 1608689999 Marisa 0 to-read 4.65 The Autistic's Guide to Self-Discovery: Flourishing as a Neurodivergent Adult
author: Sol Smith
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.65
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/02
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Drug Use for Grown-Ups: Chasing Liberty in the Land of Fear]]> 53481723 "Hart's argument that we need to drastically revise our current view of illegal drugs is both powerful and timely . . . when it comes to the legacy of this country's war on drugs, we should all share his outrage." --The New York Times Book Review

From one of the world's foremost experts on the subject, a powerful argument that the greatest damage from drugs flows from their being illegal, and a hopeful reckoning with the possibility of their use as part of a responsible and happy life

Dr. Carl L. Hart, Ziff Professor at Columbia University and former chair of the Department of Psychology, is one of the world's preeminent experts on the effects of so-called recreational drugs on the human mind and body. Dr. Hart is open about the fact that he uses drugs himself, in a happy balance with the rest of his full and productive life as a colleague, husband, father, and friend. In Drug Use for Grown-Ups, he draws on decades of research and his own personal experience to argue definitively that the criminalization and demonization of drug use--not drugs themselves--have been a tremendous scourge on America, not least in reinforcing this country's enduring structural racism.

Dr. Hart did not always have this view. He came of age in one of Miami's most troubled neighborhoods at a time when many ills were being laid at the door of crack cocaine. His initial work as a researcher was aimed at proving that drug use caused bad outcomes. But one problem kept cropping up: the evidence from his research did not support his hypothesis. From inside the massively well-funded research arm of the American war on drugs, he saw how the facts did not support the ideology. The truth was dismissed and distorted in order to keep fear and outrage stoked, the funds rolling in, and Black and brown bodies behind bars.

Drug Use for Grown-Ups will be controversial, to be sure: the propaganda war, Dr. Hart argues, has been tremendously effective. Imagine if the only subject of any discussion about driving automobiles was fatal car crashes. Drug Use for Grown-Ups offers a radically different vision: when used responsibly, drugs can enrich and enhance our lives. We have a long way to go, but the vital conversation this book will generate is an extraordinarily important step.]]> 304 Carl L. Hart 1101981644 Marisa 0 to-read 4.00 2021 Drug Use for Grown-Ups: Chasing Liberty in the Land of Fear
author: Carl L. Hart
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/28
shelves: to-read
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]]> Off Menu: A Graphic Novel 207297713 The last thing on Soup's to-do list is to make waves at the restaurant she works at, but when she discovers her boss's villainous grip over her beloved town, she decides it's time to dismantle his power--and what better way than a cooking competition? This graphic novel is an empowering story about taking risks, finding your voice, and being brave enough to stand up for friends.

At seventeen, Soup is at a crossroads, eager to make her mark on the world, yet reluctant to leave the restaurant she calls home--the place where she was found as a baby, the place where she grew up, the place where she learned to cook. It's only when her elven boss snaps at her that she begins to see his pattern of abuse, starting in the kitchen and extending all across town. Something's got to give, and the answer is simple: a cooking competition for the restaurant.

If Soup wins, she'll claim the business and protect her village from destructive expansion. But if she loses, she'll have to leave her home and stand by as the food community she loves is razed to the ground. With friends and chosen family rallying around her, Soup has a chance to win. Yet, everyone knows villains don't fight fair, and this restauranteur is not going to give up his throne so easily . . .]]> 240 Oliver Gerlach 1499815026 Marisa 0 to-read 3.77 Off Menu: A Graphic Novel
author: Oliver Gerlach
name: Marisa
average rating: 3.77
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/27
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]]> <![CDATA[How to Winter: Harness Your Mindset to Thrive on Cold, Dark, or Difficult Days]]> 205804545 A blend of mindset science, original research, and cultural insights for cultivating a positive “wintertime mindset,â€� to vanquish winter blues and find joy and comfort in dark times year-round.

Do you dread the end of Daylight Saving Time and grouch about the long, chilly season of gray skies and ice? Do you find yourself in a slump every January and February? What if there were a way to rethink this time of year? Psychologist and winter expert Kari Leibowitz’s galvanizing How to Winter uses mindset science to help readers embrace winter as a season to be enjoyed, not endured—and in turn, learn powerful lessons that can impact our mental wellbeing throughout the year.

Kari Leibowitz moved above the Arctic Circle â€� where the sun doesn’t rise for two months each winter –expecting to research the season’s negative effects on mental health, only to find that inhabitants actually looked forward to it with delight and enthusiasm. Leibowitz has since travelled to places on earth with some of the coldest, darkest, longest and most intense winters, and discovered the power of “wintertime mindset”â€� viewing the season as full of opportunity and wonder. Impactful strategies for cultivating this wintertime mindset can teach us not just about braving the gray, cold months of the year, but also the darker and more difficult seasons of life.

� In TromsÞ, Norway, people live in rhythm with nature, adapting to the months-long Polar Night by honoring seasonal fluctuations in energy, slowing down, and resting more.
� On the Isle of Lewis, off the coast of Scotland, communal gatherings around roaring fires embrace darkness and provide connection during long nights.
� In Yamagata, Japan, families sink into steaming onsen baths, banishing the chill of winter with healthful soaks that improve sleep and reduce risk of heart attack.

Inspired by cutting-edge psychological and behavioral science research as well as cultures worldwide that find warmth and joy in winter’s extremes, How to Winter provides readers with concrete tools for making winter wonderful wherever they live and harnessing the power of small mindset changes with big impact to help readers embrace every season of life.]]> 304 Kari Leibowitz 0593653750 Marisa 0 to-read 4.02 2024 How to Winter: Harness Your Mindset to Thrive on Cold, Dark, or Difficult Days
author: Kari Leibowitz
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Lu and Ren's Guide to Geozoology: A Graphic Novel]]> 218368160 This graphic novel follows a girl who learns more about friendship and family as she journeys across the fantastical land of Lirrin to tend to its majestic animals.

Lu dreams of being a great adventurer, just like her ah-ma, who is a world-renowned geozoologist. Ah-ma has traveled far and wide, researching unique animals like dreamy cloud-jellies, enormous sunfish, and playful mossgoats. There’s nothing Lu loves more than reading Ah-ma’s letters about her quests, even if she and her mom struggle to understand the Cylian language Ah-ma writes in.

But when Ah-ma’s letters suddenly stop, Lu becomes worried. So when a nearby town needs a geozoologist, Lu decides to go on the journey to find Ah-ma. She charts a course with the help of Ren, an old friend turned new travel buddy.

As they follow in Ah-ma’s footsteps, Lu begins to discover the complex relationships between geofauna—and between people. What stories has Ah-ma never told her? And what’s Ren hiding from her?]]> 256 Angela Hsieh 0063207931 Marisa 0 to-read 4.47 2025 Lu and Ren's Guide to Geozoology: A Graphic Novel
author: Angela Hsieh
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Polly Bee Makes Honey (Follow My Food)]]> 91601383 In Polly Bee Makes Honey we follow a worker bee collecting pollen and nectar from various flowers, and bringing it back to the hive � where it is stored in the honeycomb. We meet the queen bee and the drones, and finally see honey being harvested and enjoyed!
There is a simple quiz and fun facts at the end of the book, to show children how bees live.]]> 0 Deborah Chancellor 1912650703 Marisa 0 to-read 3.68 Polly Bee Makes Honey (Follow My Food)
author: Deborah Chancellor
name: Marisa
average rating: 3.68
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes—and Why]]> 2706211
Today, nine out of ten Americans live in places at significant risk of earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, terrorism, or other disasters. Tomorrow, some of us will have to make split-second choices to save ourselves and our families. How will we react? What will it feel like? Will we be heroes or victims? Will our upbringing, our gender, our personality–anything we’ve ever learned, thought, or dreamed of–ultimately matter?
ÌęÌęÌęÌę
Amanda Ripley, an award-winning journalist for Time magazine who has covered some of the most devastating disasters of our age, set out to discover what lies beyond fear and speculation. In this magnificent work of investigative journalism, Ripley retraces the human response to some of history’s epic disasters, from the explosion of the Mont Blanc munitions ship in 1917–one of the biggest explosions before the invention of the atomic bomb–to a plane crash in England in 1985 that mystified investigators for years, to the journeys of the 15,000 people who found their way out of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Then, to understand the science behind the stories, Ripley turns to leading brain scientists, trauma psychologists, and other disaster experts, formal and informal, from a Holocaust survivor who studies heroism to a master gunfighter who learned to overcome the effects of extreme fear.

Finally, Ripley steps into the dark corners of her own imagination, having her brain examined by military researchers and experiencing through realistic simulations what it might be like to survive a plane crash into the ocean or to escape a raging fire.
ÌęÌęÌęÌę
Ripley comes back with precious wisdom about the surprising humanity of crowds, the elegance of the brain’s fear circuits, and the stunning inadequacy of many of our evolutionary responses. Most unexpectedly, she discovers the brain’s ability to do much, much better, with just a little help.

The Unthinkable escorts us into the bleakest regions of our nightmares, flicks on a flashlight, and takes a steady look around. Then it leads us home, smarter and stronger than we were before.]]> 266 Amanda Ripley 0307352897 Marisa 0 to-read 4.16 2008 The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes—and Why
author: Amanda Ripley
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Self-Esteem and the End of the World]]> 195790883
Life is not a race. There are no winners and losers. Immeasurable people are doing better than you
immeasurably worse. You are statistically average.


For over ten years, cartoonist Luke Healy has invested all of his self-esteem into his career. But two years post publication of his last book, and suffering the blow of his twin-brother not finding him fit to act as best man, both Luke’s career and self-esteem seem to have disintegrated.

Set against the backdrop of a dangerously changing global climate, with melting ice-caps and flooding cities, Self-Esteem and the End of the World spans two decades of tragicomic self-discovery. From self-help books to summiting Greek mountaintops, and workplace murder mysteries to a Hollywood revival of Luke’s early work, we see our protagonist grappling with his identity as the world crumbles.

Quietly funny, smartly introspective, and grounded in deeply-felt familial highs and lows, Self-Esteem and the End of the World ponders what happens when the person you are isn’t who you need to be, who you are when nobody’s watching, and ultimately, Who can you possibly be at the end of the world?]]> 324 Luke Healy 1770467149 Marisa 0 fiction, graphic-novels 3.57 2024 Self-Esteem and the End of the World
author: Luke Healy
name: Marisa
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/21
shelves: fiction, graphic-novels
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The History of Everything: A Graphic Novel]]> 213656350 Best friends Agnes and Daisy must learn to say goodbye in this coming-of-age YA graphic novel perfect for fans of Booksmart and Pumpkinheads from debut creator Victoria Evans.

Daisy and Agnes have always had each other.

And that’s all they’ve ever needed—or wanted, at least. So when Agnes’s mom drops the bombshell that she and Agnes are moving at the end of the summer, the girls are crushed.

All seems lost until the pair unearth "The History of Everything," an old friendship scrapbook with the ultimate bucket list to make their last summer together unforgettable. But when Daisy starts dating a charming drummer, her social calendar suddenly has less room for her best friend. Insecurities bubble to the surface, and Daisy and Agnes begin to question if their friendship is meant to last the summer, much less forever.

In this tender graphic novel debut, Victoria Evans delves into the heart of a best friendship and explores what it means to grow up without growing apart.]]> 240 Victoria Evans 0063268892 Marisa 0 to-read 3.91 2025 The History of Everything: A Graphic Novel
author: Victoria Evans
name: Marisa
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Please Stop Trying to Leave Me]]> 199460236 A debut novel about love, family, queerness, and losing your mind in the modern world marks the arrival of a truly original, haunting voice in fiction who will make you laugh, cry, and scream, all in the same breath.

In the midst of god sending her signs through Instagram and Spotify telling her to break up with her girlfriend, twenty-seven-year-old Norma meets a new therapist for one she really needs to write again. With only one story left to finish her collection, Norma is desperate for an should she leave her girlfriend in order to finish her manuscript?

When her new therapist diagnoses her with depersonalization/derealization disorder, Norma insists she doesn't have it’s just Oblivion, the thing that started happening to her when she was two and a half. Haunted by SSRI side effects, her girlfriend’s kindness, her father’s incessant calls, and a world that becomes less hazily fictional by the day, Norma has never felt crazier. And whenever she attempts to write The Last Story, Norma is faced with the reality and unrealities of her past, the society she lives in, and everything that she’s ever believed about life, writing, and love. Against the backdrop of climate change, racial injustice, Google ads, and the metaverse, Norma begins sharing other stories, hoping that they'll help her connect the dissociative dots once and for all. Maybe it's crazy not to be crazy in a place like this. And in the midst of it all is Norma's girlfriend, who may well be an answer in Norma's search for meaning.

Told alternately through Norma's barely fictional fiction and through her crackling stream of consciousness, Please Stop Trying To Leave Me is an honest, comedic, horrifying, and heart-wrenching story about existing in today’s world, challenging all we’ve been taught about the distance between fiction and reality, sanity and insanity, mental illness and healing.]]> 416 Alana Saab 0593686780 Marisa 0 to-read 4.00 2024 Please Stop Trying to Leave Me
author: Alana Saab
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma]]> 58214328 A searing memoir of reckoning and healing by acclaimed journalist Stephanie Foo, investigating the little-understood science behind complex PTSD and how it has shaped her life.

"Every cell in my body is filled with the code of generations of trauma, of death, of birth, of migration, of history that I cannot understand. . . . I want to have words for what my bones know."

By age thirty, Stephanie Foo was successful on paper: She had her dream job as an award-winning radio producer at This American Life and a loving boyfriend. But behind her office door, she was having panic attacks and sobbing at her desk every morning. After years of questioning what was wrong with herself, she was diagnosed with complex PTSD—a condition that occurs when trauma happens continuously, over the course of years.

Both of Foo's parents abandoned her when she was a teenager, after years of physical and verbal abuse and neglect. She thought she'd moved on, but her new diagnosis illuminated the way her past continued to threaten her health, relationships, and career. She found limited resources to help her, so Foo set out to heal herself, and to map her experiences onto the scarce literature about C-PTSD.

In this deeply personal and thoroughly researched account, Foo interviews scientists and psychologists and tries a variety of innovative therapies. She returns to her hometown of San Jose, California, to investigate the effects of immigrant trauma on the community, and she uncovers family secrets in the country of her birth, Malaysia, to learn how trauma can be inherited through generations. Ultimately, she discovers that you don't move on from trauma—but you can learn to move with it.

Powerful, enlightening, and hopeful, What My Bones Know is a brave narrative that reckons with the hold of the past over the present, the mind over the body—and examines one woman's ability to reclaim agency from her trauma.]]> 352 Stephanie Foo 0593238109 Marisa 0 to-read 4.50 2022 What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma
author: Stephanie Foo
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Cat Way 205589400 An unconventional story about navigating differences and learning to be present.

​When a cat and her human go for walks, the human always decides where they go and what they do. “But what if it were the other way around?â€� the cat asks one day. So the next time, the human follows the cat. When the cat is in control, she wants to stop more often, and she wants to chase squirrels and climb up trees. Her human finds all these detours ridiculous. But when you walk at a cat’s pace, you can see the most amazing things.

Painted in richly saturated colors, The Cat Way explores the strange path to compromise and cooperation. Walking together might take some patience—but it can also lead to the most incredible surprises.]]> 66 Sara Lundberg 0802856330 Marisa 0 to-read 3.63 2024 The Cat Way
author: Sara Lundberg
name: Marisa
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Wildflower Emily: A Story About Young Emily Dickinson]]> 200982324
Follow along as we delve into Emily Dickinson’s childhood, revealing a young girl desperate to go out exploring―to meet the flowers in their own homes. Wade through tall grasses to gather butterfly weed and goldenrod, the air alive with the “buccaneers of buzz.â€� And, don’t forget to keep a hot potato in your pocket to keep your
fingers warm.

This is Emily Dickinson as you’ve never seen her before, embarking on an unforgettable journey in her hometown of Amherst, Massachusetts, with her trusty four-legged companion, Carlo.]]> 112 Lydia Corry 1250868203 Marisa 0 to-read 4.38 2024 Wildflower Emily: A Story About Young Emily Dickinson
author: Lydia Corry
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> My Heart Fills With Happiness 26586438
International speaker and award-winning author Monique Gray Smith wrote My Heart Fills with Happiness to support the wellness of Indigenous children and families, and to encourage young children to reflect on what makes them happy.]]> 24 Monique Gray Smith 1459809572 Marisa 0 to-read 4.21 2016 My Heart Fills With Happiness
author: Monique Gray Smith
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Preaching to the Perverted 218238398

Editorial Reviews:

"I really loved this collection. It has great range - Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling's fairy tale series, cosmic horror, noir, The Prestige, coming of age stories, the gothic of Mary Shelley - but there's nothing derivative about it. It's heartfelt and gutsy. Filled with beautiful horrors and heartbreaks. James Bennett is a superb writer." - Priya Sharma, World Fantasy Award-winning author of Pomegranates

"Full of fire and flare, this superb collection of stories is complete with angels and devils and all the flawed humanity between. Bennett's stories are told straight from the heart-an absolute must-read." - Alison Littlewood, Shirley Jackson Award-winning author

"Dark fun, with mourning, tragedy, and loss, but permeated with wicked humour and enough glimmers of queer hope and love to sustain me. Recommended"'- Joe Koch, author of Invaginies

"Preaching to the Perverted is masterful storytelling, a marvel of authorial style, pacing, and plot. At times shocking and other times shockingly funny, Bennett's great gift is his expert use of voice-he is at once wry and antiquated, modern and mythic. These stories comment uniquely and individually on the LGBT experience, but taken together they're nearly overwhelming. A brilliant addition to any library of the weird." - Polly Schattel, author of The Occultists

"Some cracking horror stories (and humour too)... at least one story may well have you punching the air in delight. Bennett is doing a fine job of making all of us a bit less bitter and afraid, and I can think of no greater compliment to give than that. What a marvellous collection." - John Llewellyn Probert, author of House of Mortal Cinema

"Bennett's stories flit effortlessly, flirting with the delicate, the extreme, and wanton whimsy. The bold and confident prose crafts a seamless collection that is indefatigable in its purpose and merciless in its approach. Beautiful. Brutal. Brilliant." - Dave Jeffery, award-winning author of the Necropolis Rising series]]> 298 James Bennett 1590217853 Marisa 0 to-read 4.91 Preaching to the Perverted
author: James Bennett
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.91
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Bad Taste: Or the Politics of Ugliness]]> 117718205
How did minimalism become a virtue, and who can afford to do it justice?

When did blue-collar jackets become a fashion item?

Who stands to gain from the distinction made between beauty and sex?

Bold, original and provocative, Bad Taste is a revelatory exploration of the intersection between consumerism, class, desire, and power, and a rousing call-to-arms to break free from the restrictive ways we see those around us.]]> 240 Nathalie Olah 0349702233 Marisa 0 to-read 3.97 Bad Taste: Or the Politics of Ugliness
author: Nathalie Olah
name: Marisa
average rating: 3.97
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Unfuck Your Intimacy: Using Science for Better Relationships, Sex, and Dating]]> 43272599
This book speaks to so many of the possible ways of being intimate with yourself and others. Whether you're queer, straight, trans, ace, demi, aro, are dealing with past abuse or societal bullshit, or have no freaking clue what's going on with you yet, Dr. Faith's got you covered.]]> 192 Faith G. Harper 1621067629 Marisa 0 to-read 3.56 2019 Unfuck Your Intimacy: Using Science for Better Relationships, Sex, and Dating
author: Faith G. Harper
name: Marisa
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism]]> 198563691 Why don’t our schools work? Eve L. Ewing tackles this question from a new angle: What if they’re actually doing what they were built to do? She argues that instead of being the great equalizer, America’s classrooms were designed to do the opposite: to maintain the nation’s inequalities. It’s a task at which they excel.

If all children could just get an education, the logic goes, they would have the same opportunities later in life. But this historical tour de force makes it clear that the opposite is true: The U.S. school system has played an instrumental role in creating and upholding racial hierarchies, preparing children to expect unequal treatment throughout their lives.

In Original Sins, Ewing demonstrates that our schools were designed to propagate the idea of white intellectual superiority, to “civilizeâ€� Native students and to prepare Black students for menial labor. Education was not an afterthought for the Founding Fathers; it was envisioned by Thomas Jefferson as an institution that would fortify the country’s racial hierarchy. Ewing argues that these dynamics persist in a curriculum that continues to minimize the horrors of American history. The most insidious aspects of this system fall below the radar in the forms of standardized testing, academic tracking, disciplinary policies, and uneven access to resources.

By demonstrating that it’s in the DNA of American schools to serve as an effective and underacknowledged mechanism maintaining inequality in this country today, Ewing makes the case that we need a profound reevaluation of what schools are supposed to do, and for whom. This book will change the way people understand the place we send our children for eight hours a day.]]> 400 Eve L. Ewing 0593243706 Marisa 0 to-read 4.61 2025 Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism
author: Eve L. Ewing
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Brewed with Love 213197641 A cozy, contemporary romantasy about a teen witch who wants to keep her family’s apothecary from falling to the competition but can only do so with assistance from her first crush.

Plant witch, Sage Bishop, is determined to run her family’s old apothecary one day. She spends her time trying to invent the perfect tonic to put Bishop Brews on the map. And she’s going to need one quickly, too, because their biggest competitor is drawing away customers.

Short-staffed, her nana hires Ximena Reyes, Sage’s ex-best friend and first crush, who’s more of an unwelcome distraction than anything. Ximena has always dreamed of leaving their small town behind while Sage wants to tend to her roots. And during one of their first shifts together, someone breaks into Bishop Brews, stealing several tonics, including the one Sage has been working tirelessly on, the same one that wipes a councilmember’s kid’s memory.

To avoid being shut down by the sheriff, Sage decides to investigate. If so much wasn’t at stake, she’d do it alone. But with her grandmother’s legacy and her future on the line, she must partner with her ever smug and unfairly pretty new coworker. As Sage begins to fall for Ximena (again), she’ll have to decide if the comfort of the familiar is worth missing out on a chance at real happiness.]]> 336 Shelly Page 0593897625 Marisa 0 to-read 3.86 2025 Brewed with Love
author: Shelly Page
name: Marisa
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Crayola: A Visual Biography of the World's Most Famous Crayon]]> 57410951



Everyone has a relationship with color. If you think back to your first memories of exploring color, there is a very good chance that crayons were involved. And when it comes to crayons, Crayola is king.




This book explores the history of a beloved childhood art supply, while also delving into our relationship with how we use and create with color, and how we name colors. It looks at the history of the 120 iconic colors of Crayola and where they came from, and how Crayola itself has helped shape our understanding of color over the last century and a half. Finally, this book explores how people -- adults and children alike -- have and continued to turn to Crayola to inspire and manifest their creativity. Filled with hundreds of illustrations and archival photos, Crayola is a nostalgic and fascinating wonderland of creativity and delight.]]> 256 Crayola LLC 076247081X Marisa 0 to-read 4.13 Crayola: A Visual Biography of the World's Most Famous Crayon
author: Crayola LLC
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.13
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Decolonizing Trauma Work: Indigenous Stories and Strategies]]> 20729456 176 Renee Linklater 1552666581 Marisa 0 to-read 4.47 2014 Decolonizing Trauma Work: Indigenous Stories and Strategies
author: Renee Linklater
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Gay Girl Prayers 183910792 72 Emily R. Austin 1771316225 Marisa 0 to-read 3.87 Gay Girl Prayers
author: Emily R. Austin
name: Marisa
average rating: 3.87
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Antiracist Baby 52535437 Antiracist Baby introduces the youngest readers and the grown-ups in their lives to the concept and power of antiracism. Providing the language necessary to begin critical conversations at the earliest age, Antiracist Baby is the perfect gift for readers of all ages dedicated to forming a just society.]]> 24 Ibram X. Kendi 0593110412 Marisa 0 4.04 2020 Antiracist Baby
author: Ibram X. Kendi
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves: picture-books, social-issues-commentary
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity in This Crisis (And the Next)]]> 54654726
Around the globe, people are faced with a spiralling succession of crises, from the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change-induced fires, floods, and storms to the ongoing horrors of mass incarceration, racist policing, brutal immigration enforcement, endemic gender violence, and severe wealth inequality. As governments fail to respond to—or actively engineer—each crisis, ordinary people are finding bold and innovative ways to share resources and support the vulnerable.

Survival work, when done alongside social movement demands for transformative change, is called mutual aid.

This book is about mutual aid: why it is so important, what it looks like, and how to do it. It provides a grassroots theory of mutual aid, describes how mutual aid is a crucial part of powerful movements for social justice, and offers concrete tools for organizing, such as how to work in groups, how to foster a collective decision-making process, how to prevent and address conflict, and how to deal with burnout.

Writing for those new to activism as well as those who have been in social movements for a long time, Dean Spade draws on years of organizing to offer a radical vision of community mobilization, social transformation, compassionate activism, and solidarity.]]> 152 Dean Spade 1839762128 Marisa 0 to-read 4.33 2020 Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity in This Crisis (And the Next)
author: Dean Spade
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[White Supremacy Is All Around: Notes from a Black Disabled Woman in a White World]]> 179262591
This is the story of how I became an unapologetic Black disabled woman in a white world. This book is for people who look and live structurally like me to be valued, seen, heard and perhaps some advice on how to navigate life amongst white supremacy. This book is also for white people who have been “doing the workâ€� since the murder of George Floyd to read my story and be able to clearly see systemic oppression, racism, and ableism. There are books sharing the historical context of white supremacy, providing tips on how to be an ally or anti-racist, and firsthand experiences from Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) which are important. I push the conversation that leads to real change through my story. This book is for the Black woman who is looking to been seen and soft in shared lived experience. It is for the white person who is immersing themselves in the community they want to advocate for. It is for anyone who understands that learning and unlearning is lifelong.
Ìę
White Supremacy Is All Around arrives as the U.S.’s ongoing racial reckoning has left readers searching for voices they can trust. BIPOC, disabled people, and other intentionally ignored Americans want to feel heard and empowered; organization leaders and allies invested in dismantling white supremacy want a framework for how best to contribute. Dr. Akilah Cadet speaks to all these needs, drawing from her life experiences and work helping leading brands build inclusive and equitable cultures to offer an informed perspective that prioritizes belonging. In a series of personal stories told with her trademark candor and wit, Dr. Cadet explores the long-term work required to combat structural oppression from her unique vantage point as a Black disabled woman. She tackles from the 2020 “summer of allyship â€� and depression caused by workplace discrimination to navigating disability and building a consulting business, all with a little inspo from BeyoncĂ©.
Ìę
A powerful call for true accompliceship for non-Black people, and a way for Black people to see and celebrate themselves, White Supremacy Is All Around Ìęushers in a new voice that is timely, urgent, and essential—and a vision we all need now.]]> 272 Akilah Cadet 0306831031 Marisa 0 to-read 4.19 White Supremacy Is All Around: Notes from a Black Disabled Woman in a White World
author: Akilah Cadet
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.19
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Ultrawild: An Audacious Plan to Rewild Every City on Earth]]> 195436036 Mind-bendingly original and full of intricate illustrations,ÌęUltrawild is totally unique, containing over one hundred outrageously funny, scientifically plausible inventions for rewilding cities and saving the planet.

Join maverick inventor Steve Mushin as he tackles climate change with an avalanche of mind-bending, scientifically plausible inventions to rewild cities and save the planet.

Jump intoÌęhisÌębrain as he designs habitat-printing robot birds and water-filtering sewer submarines, calculates how far compost cannons can blast seed bombs (over a kilometre), brainstorms biomaterials with scientists and engineers, studies ecosystems and develops a deadly serious plan to transform cities into jungles, rewilding them into carbon-sucking mega-habitats for all species, and as fast as possible.

Through marvellously designed and hilarious engineering ideas, Mushin shares his vision for super-high-tech urban rewilding, covering the science of climate change, futuristic materials and foods, bio reactors, soil, forest ecosystems, mechanical flight, solar thermal power and working out just how fast we could actually turn roads into jungles, absorb carbon and reverse climate change.

Developed over seven years, Ultrawild is an optimistic book about creative thinking, science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) and the potential for massive change. Filled with laugh-out-loud design-ridiculousness, it aims to empower and excite a new generation of designers, scientists, engineers and ultra-wild thinkers.

'If this book does not fire your imagination, nothing will. Steve Mushin doesn't hold back when thinking about our green future; humanity needs all the ideas it can get to bring climate change under control, and this book is packed with them!' Professor James Renwick, climate scientist]]> 86 Steve Mushin 1761188089 Marisa 0 to-read 4.61 Ultrawild: An Audacious Plan to Rewild Every City on Earth
author: Steve Mushin
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.61
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Too Much!: An Overwhelming Day]]> 98652836
When feelings go on overload,
I pause and breathe
and all is . . . slowed.

Sometimes everything is too much! Too loud, too bright, and all too overwhelming. Writing from her own experience with sensory processing disorder, Jolene GutiĂ©rrez’s compassionate picture book explores the struggles of a sensorily sensitive child and how they settle themselves. Joined by Angel Chang’s beautiful illustrations, young readers will learn that it’s OK if some days are too much. An extensive author’s note to caregivers and educators explores sensory systems, sensory processing issues, and specific information about how to support kids with overstimulated nervous systems as they learn to soothe themselves.]]> 32 Jolene GutiĂ©rrez 1419764268 Marisa 0 to-read 4.64 Too Much!: An Overwhelming Day
author: Jolene Gutiérrez
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.64
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Harder I Fight the More I Love You: A Memoir]]> 214175247 An unforgettable portrait of an extraordinary life—one forged through a poverty-stricken childhood in “slummy, one-horse townsâ€�; obsessive desire; bursts of comedy; and indispensable friendships, reflecting on the way art, music, and a deep connection to nature helped her on a singular journeyÌęto become a beloved, Grammy-nominated artist.

Neko Case has long been revered as one of music’s most influential artists, whose authenticity, lyrical storytelling, and sly wit have endeared her to a legion of critics, musicians, and lifelong fans.ÌęInÌęThe Harder I Fight, the More I Love You,ÌęCaseÌębrings her trademarkÌęcandor andÌęprecisionÌęto a memoir that traces her evolution from an invisibleÌęgirl “raised by two dogs and a space heaterâ€� in rural Washington state toÌęher improbable emergence as an internationally-acclaimed talent. In luminous, sharp-edged prose, CaseÌęshows readers what it’s like to be left alone for hours and hours as a child, to take refuge in the woods around her home, and to channel theÌęmonotony and loneliness and joy that comes from music, camaraderie, and shared experience into art.

The Harder I Fight, the More I Love YouÌęis a rebellious meditation on identity and corruption, and a manifesto on how to make space for ourselves in this world, despite the obstacles we face.


Ìę]]> 271 Neko Case 1538710501 Marisa 0 to-read 4.07 2025 The Harder I Fight the More I Love You: A Memoir
author: Neko Case
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Wild Year: A Field Guide for Exploring Nature All Around Us]]> 59089928
Whether you’re an avid nature lover or newly discovering the world outside your door, you’ll find information and inspiration in this beautifully illustrated pocket companion. Organized by season, its colorful pages are brimming with wondrous wildflowers and plants to discover as you wander, forage, and explore—from alder, foxglove, and fireweed to mistletoe, yarrow, and many more.Ìę
Ìę
Artist Kristyna Baczynski blends writing, research, and illustrations that celebrate more than ninety plant specimens, drawn in detail for identification, along with historical, scientific, and folkloric information highlighting the unique backstory and beauty of these everyday natural wonders. You’ll also find checklists, foraging tips, and room for field notes and sketches.
Ìę
Take your daily neighborhood walk or weekend hike to the next level with this vibrant and irresistible guide.]]> 160 Kristyna Baczynski 0593538366 Marisa 0 to-read 4.23 The Wild Year: A Field Guide for Exploring Nature All Around Us
author: Kristyna Baczynski
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.23
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This]]> 213870084 From award-winning novelist and journalist Omar El Akkad comes a powerful reckoning with what it means to live in the heart of an Empire which doesn’t consider you fully human.

On Oct 25th, after just three weeks of the bombardment of Gaza, Omar El Akkad put out a tweet: “One day, when it’s safe, when there’s no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it’s too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.â€� This tweet was viewed over 10 million times.Ìę

One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This chronicles the deep fracture which has occurred for Black, brown, indigenous Americans, as well as the upcoming generation, many of whom had clung to a thread of faith in western ideals, in the idea that their countries, or the countries of their adoption, actually attempted to live up to the values they espouse.Ìę

This book is a reckoning with what it means to live in the west, and what it means to live in a world run by a small group of countries—America, the UK, France and Germany.â€� It will be The Fire Next Time for a generation that understands we’re undergoing a shift in the so-called ‘rules-based order,â€� a generation that understands the west can no longer be trusted to police and guide the world, or its own cities and campuses. It draws on intimate details of Omar’s own story as an emigrant who grew up believing in the western project, who was catapulted into journalism by the rupture of 9/11.Ìę

This book is his heartsick breakup letter with the west. It is a breakup we are watching all over the U.S., on college campuses, on city streets, and the consequences of this rupture will be felt by all of us. His book is for all the people who want something better than what the west has served up. This is the book for our time.]]> 208 Omar El Akkad 0593804147 Marisa 0 to-read 4.68 2025 One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
author: Omar El Akkad
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.68
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Spellshop 217206125 The Spellshop is Sarah Beth Durst’s romantasy debut–a lush cottagecore tale full of stolen spellbooks, unexpected friendships, sweet jams, and even sweeter love.

Kiela has always had trouble dealing with people. Thankfully, as a librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she and her assistant, Caz—a magically sentient spider plant—have spent the last decade sequestered among the empire’s most precious spellbooks, preserving their magic for the city’s elite.

When a revolution begins and the library goes up in flames, she and Caz flee with all the spellbooks they can carry and head to a remote island Kiela never thought she’d see again: her childhood home. Taking refuge there, Kiela discovers, much to her dismay, a nosy—and very handsome—neighbor who can’t take a hint and keeps showing up day after day to make sure she’s fed and to help fix up her new home.

In need of income, Kiela identifies something that even the bakery in town doesn’t have: jam. With the help of an old recipe book her parents left her and a bit of illegal magic, her cottage garden is soon covered in ripe berries.

But magic can do more than make life a little sweeter, so Kiela risks the consequences of using unsanctioned spells and opens the island’s first-ever and much needed secret spellshop.

Like a Hallmark rom-com full of mythical creatures and fueled by cinnamon rolls and magic, The Spellshop will heal your heart and feed your soul.]]> 377 Sarah Beth Durst 1250333970 Marisa 0 to-read 3.98 2024 The Spellshop
author: Sarah Beth Durst
name: Marisa
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Half-Arse Human: How to live better without burning out]]> 213938823

Me either.


I am a half-arser. A shave-one-legger. A rinse-the-plates-and-tell-myself-any-residual-dirt-will-improve-my-immune-system-er. And yet, I still want to live better, improve my relationships, build a career, enjoy hobbies, have ethics, and live a full, passionate, varied life.


And it's possible. This book will teach you to harness the power of half-arsedness to improve the things you actually care about improving, without expending more than you have to give. It's not going to turn you into a superhuman, but it will help you feel more human.]]> 300 Leena Norms 1399820311 Marisa 0 to-read 4.08 2024 Half-Arse Human: How to live better without burning out
author: Leena Norms
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The PLAN: Manage Your Time Like a Lazy Genius]]> 205064678 The New York Times bestselling author of The Lazy Genius Way brings her beloved Kind Big Sister Energy to a time management book for productivity-weary people who want to live an easier life, not do more homework.

Why do so-called life hacks leave usÌędrowning in tasks, schedules, and unfulfilled expectations?ÌęIn her straightforward, humorous style, author Kendra Adachi reveals why the problem is not you.

Most time management systems prioritizeÌęoptimization and greatness in service to an imagined future, but what if that's not your goal? What if you long for a book that helps you live wholeheartedly today? The PLAN is the answer.

Using theÌęmemorable acronym "PLAN," you will learn to prepare, live, adjust, and notice like a Lazy Genius, all through the lens of what matters to you in your current season:
� Discover two beliefs that will change time management forever
� Integrate your hormones, personality, and life stage into your planning process
� Learn the Lighten the Load to-do list framework to help you get your stuff done
� Use The PLAN Pyramid to help you visualize a balanced life
� Experience freedom from the crushing pressure of greatness, potential, and hustle

Refreshingly compassionate and immediately practical, The PLAN is the book you've been waiting for.]]> 233 Kendra Adachi 0593727932 Marisa 0 to-read 3.89 2024 The PLAN: Manage Your Time Like a Lazy Genius
author: Kendra Adachi
name: Marisa
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> This is a Story 62013369 Children’s literacy advocate John Schu and Caldecott Honor recipient Lauren Castillo celebrate the power of finding the perfect book—in a story that’s more relevant than ever.

This is a word on a page.
This is a page in a book.
This is a book on a shelf . . . waiting.

With a sea-horse kite in hand, a child heads out with Dad to the library. On the way they stop at a park, joining lots of people, some of whom are flying kites, too. At the library, a person toting a big pile of books hands over a story on a favorite subject: the sea horse. All around, there are readers poring over books, each with their own questions, ideas to explore, hopes for the future, and imaginations ready to spark. With a warm, lyrical text and tenderly expressive illustrations, John Schu and Lauren Castillo invite us to imagine the myriad ways that books can foster connection and understanding—and how they can empower children, through their own passions, to transform the world.]]> 40 John Schu 1536204528 Marisa 0 to-read 4.34 2023 This is a Story
author: John Schu
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Hooked: Food, Free Will, and How the Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions]]> 54217724
An account of the legal battles, insidious marketing campaigns, and cutting-edge food science that have brought us to our current public health crisis, Moss lays out all that the food industry is doing to exploit and deepen our addictions, and shows us why what we eat has never mattered more.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Salt Sugar Fat comes a powerful exposé of how the processed food industry exploits our evolutionary instincts, the emotions we associate with food, and legal loopholes in their pursuit of profit over public health.]]> 304 Michael Moss 0812997298 Marisa 0 to-read 3.76 2021 Hooked: Food, Free Will, and How the Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions
author: Michael Moss
name: Marisa
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Island of Whispers 123003161
On the island of Merlank, the Dead must not be allowed to linger. The very sight of their ghosts can kill you. When young Milo is thrust into the role of Ferryman following his father’s sudden death, he is the one who must carry away the Dead.

Pursued by a vengeful lord and two malignant magicians, Milo must navigate strange and perilous seas where untold threats whisper in the mist. Does he have the courage and imagination to complete his urgent mission?

From the Costa Book Award-winning Frances Hardinge, author of The Lie Tree and Unraveller, with spectacular illustrations from double Kate Greenaway Medal winner Emily Gravett, this riveting coming-of-age tale will sweep you away on an unforgettable journey.

Island of Whispers is a beautiful hardback glittering all over with shining silver moths, making the most exquisite gift for anybody who loves mysterious fantasy worlds, and for fans of Neil Gaiman and Kiran Millwood Hargrave.]]> 120 Frances Hardinge 1529088070 Marisa 0 to-read 4.26 2023 Island of Whispers
author: Frances Hardinge
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[My Government Means to Kill Me]]> 57130589 This program is read by actor, singer, and dancer Jelani Alladin, who originated the role of Kristoff in Broadway's Frozen musical.

A fierce and riveting queer coming-of-age story following the personal and political awakening of a young gay Black man in 1980s New York City, from the television drama writer and producer of The Chi, Narcos, and Bel-Air.

Born into a wealthy Black Indianapolis family, Earl “Treyâ€� Singleton III leaves his overbearing parents and their expectations behind by running away to New York City with only a few dollars in his pocket. In the city, Trey meets up with a cast of characters that changes his life forever. He volunteers at a renegade home hospice for AIDS patients, and after being put to the test by gay rights activists, becomes a member of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP). Along the way Trey attempts to navigate past traumas and searches for ways to maintain familial relationships—all while seeking the meaning of life amid so much death.

Vibrant, humorous, and fraught with entanglements, Rasheed Newson’s My Government Means to Kill Me is an exhilarating, fast-paced coming-of-age story that lends itself to a larger discussion about what it means for a young gay Black man in the mid-1980s to come to terms with his role in the midst of a political and social reckoning.]]> 9 Rasheed Newson 1250855837 Marisa 0 to-read 4.24 2022 My Government Means to Kill Me
author: Rasheed Newson
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/25
shelves: to-read
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]]> When You Find the Right Rock 204593548 44 Mary Lyn Ray 1797214586 Marisa 0 to-read 3.92 When You Find the Right Rock
author: Mary Lyn Ray
name: Marisa
average rating: 3.92
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Before the Seed: How Pollen Moves]]> 178347329 Discover the intricate process of pollination in a lyrical narrative from a noted biologist, packed with information-rich asides and paired with spectacular botanical illustrations.

We live in a world of green that grows from seeds, but what happens before there are seeds? In a graceful text grounded by riveting science, biologist Susannah Buhrman-Deever explains how whirling winds, buzzy bees, and bustling birds move pollen from flower to flower, answering each plant’s special invitation. Lush botanical illustrations by artist duo Gina Triplett and Matt Curtius bring each tiny detail of the process to life, and the final pages remind us why it’s important to take action to protect our pollinators. From bees and bats to beetles and hummingbirds, the text covers creatures from all over the world that aid in flower pollination, as well as the sophisticated mechanisms flowering plants have developed in order to reproduce. Back matter includes more information on flower anatomy, how to support local pollinators in your own backyard, and the dangers that global warming poses to pollinator species.]]> 40 Susannah Buhrman-Deever 1536226572 Marisa 0 to-read 4.03 Before the Seed: How Pollen Moves
author: Susannah Buhrman-Deever
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.03
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/24
shelves: to-read
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]]> Orbital 123136728
Contudo, mesmo tĂŁo distantes do mundo, os seis astronautas nĂŁo conseguem escapar Ă  sua constante influĂȘncia. Chegam notĂ­cias da morte de uma mĂŁe, trazendo pensamentos de regresso e de saudades de casa. A fragilidade da vida humana torna-se um tema central nas suas conversas, nos seus medos e nos seus sonhos.

Apesar de tão longe da Terra, nunca antes se haviam sentido tão protetores dela, tão parte dela. Começam a refletir: o que serå a vida sem a Terra? O que serå a Terra sem a humanidade?]]> 207 Samantha Harvey 0802161545 Marisa 0 to-read 3.55 2023 Orbital
author: Samantha Harvey
name: Marisa
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/23
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review:

]]> In the Haunted House 458958
What kind of a house can this be? And why does the person wearing the large sneakers seem to be more frightened than the one in the small pair?]]> 32 Eve Bunting 0395699428 Marisa 0 to-read 3.89 1990 In the Haunted House
author: Eve Bunting
name: Marisa
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1990
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/21
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]]> A Song for You & I 214269388 Being a ranger means adventure, action, and protecting the weak. But who protects the ranger when they lose their way? From the bestselling author of The Moth Keeper and the Tea Dragon Society comes a must read MG graphic novel for fans of soft sweeping fantasy romances.

Rowan knows exactly what they want to be: to be a ranger, protecting their village alongside their trusted flying horse Kes. But when Rowan's eagerness to show off their worth gets Kes injured, Rowan is suddenly unsure if they're capable of being the protector they've always dreamed of becoming.Ìę

With Kes needing to heal, Rowan is assigned a slow and winding expedition across the outlying lands. Paired with a lackadaisical sheep herder Leone, Rowan only finds frustration as they seem to fail even the simplest tasks. But Leone's own struggles, and endless support brings a new possibility to Rowan. Could their unlikely friendship be something more? And if it is, will Rowan be able to leave Leone behind to pursue being a ranger once Kes is healed?]]> 240 K. O'Neill 0593182308 Marisa 0 to-read 4.34 2025 A Song for You & I
author: K. O'Neill
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/20
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]]> Beautyland 127282939 From the acclaimed author of Parakeet, Marie-Helene Bertino’s Beautyland is a wise, tender novel about a woman who doesn't feel at home on Earth.

At the moment when Voyager 1 is launched into space carrying its famous golden record, a baby of unusual perception is born to a single mother in Philadelphia. Adina Giorno is tiny and jaundiced, but she reaches for warmth and light. As a child, she recognizes that she is different: She possesses knowledge of a faraway planet. The arrival of a fax machine enables her to contact her extraterrestrial relatives, beings who have sent her to report on the oddities of Earthlings.

For years, as she moves through the world and makes a life for herself among humans, she dispatches transmissions on the terrors and surprising joys of their existence. Then, at a precarious moment, a beloved friend urges Adina to share her messages with the world. Is there a chance she is not alone?

Marie-Helene Bertino’s Beautyland is a novel of startling originality about the fragility and resilience of life on our Earth and in our universe. It is a remarkable evocation of the feeling of being in exile at home, and it introduces a gentle, unforgettable alien for our times.]]> 327 Marie-Helene Bertino 0374109281 Marisa 0 to-read 4.08 2024 Beautyland
author: Marie-Helene Bertino
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/18
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]]> Saint Catherine 208840727 A relatable adult graphic novel about a woman who skips Sunday mass for the first time in her life only to discover she's possibly being possessed by a demon.

As a recovering Irish American Catholic, she has mostly traded the world of communion and confessionals for the “city-girlâ€� struggle of work-life balance, family, and her relationships. The only thing she has not been able to shake is her fear that something bad will happen if she misses Sunday mass.

But her fears become a reality when she skips mass for the first time and discovers she is now being possessed by a demon claiming to be the prince of hell. As she takes matters into her own hands and attempts to exorcise these demons (both the paranormal and emotional kind), Catherine must face her buried guilt and what it truly means to be good.

A cathartic and engaging view into the messy life of an urban women in her early twenties, Anna Meyer's Saint Catherine is truly a story of letting go of guilt and taking responsibilities for your desires, hopes, and mistakes.]]> 368 Anna Meyer 125036437X Marisa 0 to-read 4.27 2025 Saint Catherine
author: Anna Meyer
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/18
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]]> Spider in the Well 179311301 48 Jess Hannigan 0063289474 Marisa 0 to-read 4.12 Spider in the Well
author: Jess Hannigan
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.12
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/18
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]]> Starlight Symphony 203332351 Eee-oh-lay! Chirp-a-chirp! Rat-a-tat!


Nature is full of music. Listen in as a wood thrush, a cricket, a woodpecker, and many other animals perform a symphony under the stars. Rhyming verse and eye-catching photos will draw in animal lovers and music lovers alike!


This is a great fit for educators looking for STEAM content, bringing together animal behavior, figurative language as animals are compared to musicians, and lots of onomatopoeia. Back matter includes more about each of the featured animals and each of the featured instruments.


"Perfectly pitched for its audience." Kirkus Reviews, starred review.]]> 32 Buffy Silverman Marisa 0 to-read 4.53 Starlight Symphony
author: Buffy Silverman
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.53
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/18
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The World Is Ours to Cherish: A Letter to a Child]]> 165940234
The world is a big, beautiful place full of natural wonders--everything from bees to rainfall can seem magical.

The world is also changing. Climate change has already had a devastating effect on the planet.

But it's not too late! If we work together and show a little more care, both for the environment and each other, we can keep this world beautiful.

This moving debut from climate writer Mary AnnaĂŻse Heglar is perfect for budding environmentalists and anyone in need of a little hope for the future of our planet.]]> 40 Mary AnnaĂŻse Heglar 059356801X Marisa 0 to-read 4.05 The World Is Ours to Cherish: A Letter to a Child
author: Mary AnnaĂŻse Heglar
name: Marisa
average rating: 4.05
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/18
shelves: to-read
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