TRS's bookshelf: all en-US Thu, 08 May 2025 20:16:28 -0700 60 TRS's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg The Memory Police 37004370
When a young woman who is struggling to maintain her career as a novelist discovers that her editor is in danger from the Memory Police, she concocts a plan to hide him beneath her floorboards. As fear and loss close in around them, they cling to her writing as the last way of preserving the past.

A surreal, provocative fable about the power of memory and the trauma of loss, The Memory Police is a stunning new work from one of the most exciting contemporary authors writing in any language.]]> 274 YĹŤko Ogawa 1101870605 TRS 0 currently-reading 3.72 1994 The Memory Police
author: YĹŤko Ogawa
name: TRS
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1994
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/05/08
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Quantum Astrologer's Handbook]]> 36277283
This is a landmark in science writing. It resurrects from the vaults of neglect the polymath Jerome Cardano, a Milanese of the sixteenth century. Who is he? A gambler and blasphemer, inventor and chancer, plagued by demons and anxieties, astrologer to kings, emperors and popes. This stubborn and unworldly man was the son of a lawyer and a brothel keeper, but also a gifted physician and the unacknowledged discoverer of the mathematical foundations of quantum physics. That is the argument of this charming and intoxicatingly clever book, which is truly original in its style, and in the manner of the modernists embodies in its very form its theories about the world.

'The Quantum Astrologer’s Handbook' is a science book with the panache of a novel, for readers of Carlo Rovelli or Umberto Eco. It is a work of and about genius.]]> 256 Michael Brooks 1925322408 TRS 0 3.88 2017 The Quantum Astrologer's Handbook
author: Michael Brooks
name: TRS
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at: 2025/05/08
date added: 2025/05/08
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]]> <![CDATA[Assassin's Apprentice (Farseer Trilogy, #1)]]> 77197
Born on the wrong side of the sheets, Fitz, son of Chivalry Farseer, is a royal bastard, cast out into the world, friendless and lonely. Only his magical link with animals - the old art known as the Wit - gives him solace and companionship. But the Wit, if used too often, is a perilous magic, and one abhorred by the nobility.

So when Fitz is finally adopted into the royal household, he must give up his old ways and embrace a new life of weaponry, scribing, courtly manners; and how to kill a man secretly, as he trains to become a royal assassin.]]> 435 Robin Hobb 055357339X TRS 0 4.21 1995 Assassin's Apprentice (Farseer Trilogy, #1)
author: Robin Hobb
name: TRS
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1995
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/05/08
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]]> <![CDATA[A Marvellous Light (The Last Binding, #1)]]> 53217284
For fans of Georgette Heyer or Julia Quinn's Bridgerton, who'd like to welcome magic into their lives...

Young baronet Robin Blyth thought he was taking up a minor governmental post. However, he's actually been appointed parliamentary liaison to a secret magical society. If it weren’t for this administrative error, he’d never have discovered the incredible magic underlying his world.

Cursed by mysterious attackers and plagued by visions, Robin becomes determined to drag answers from his missing predecessor � but he’ll need the help of Edwin Courcey, his hostile magical-society counterpart. Unwillingly thrown together, Robin and Edwin will discover a plot that threatens every magician in the British Isles.]]> 377 Freya Marske 1250788897 TRS 0 romance-wtr 3.94 2021 A Marvellous Light (The Last Binding, #1)
author: Freya Marske
name: TRS
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/17
shelves: romance-wtr
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]]> Swordcrossed 204309713
What he can afford, unfortunately, is part-time con artist and full-time charming menace Luca Piere.

Luca, for his part, is trying to reinvent himself in a new city. All he wants to do is make some easy money and try to forget the crime he committed in his hometown. He didn’t plan on being blackmailed into giving sword lessons to a chronically responsible—and inconveniently handsome—wool merchant like Matti.

However, neither Matti’s business troubles nor Luca himself are quite what they seem. As the days count down to Matti’s wedding, the two of them become entangled in the intrigue and sabotage that have brought Matti’s house to the brink of ruin. And when Luca’s secrets threaten to drive a blade through their growing alliance, both Matti and Luca will have to answer the question: how many lies are you prepared to strip away, when the truth could mean losing everything you want?]]> 372 Freya Marske 1250341620 TRS 5 3.92 2024 Swordcrossed
author: Freya Marske
name: TRS
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/17
date added: 2025/04/17
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]]> The Surviving Sky (Rages, #1) 153591718
High above a jungle-planet float the last refuges of humanity—plant-made civilizations held together by tradition, technology, and arcane science. Here, architects are revered deeply, with humanity’s survival reliant on a privileged few. If not for their abilities, the cities would plunge into the devastating earthrage storms below.

Charismatic and powerful, Iravan is one such architect. His abilities are his identity, but to Ahilya, his archeologist wife, they are a method to suppress non-architects. Their marriage is thorny and fraught—yet when a jungle expedition goes terribly wrong, jeopardizing their careers, Ahilya and Iravan must work together to save their reputations. But as their city begins to plummet, their discoveries threaten not only their marriage, but their entire civilization.]]> 521 Kritika H. Rao 1803361247 TRS 0 to-read 3.53 2023 The Surviving Sky (Rages, #1)
author: Kritika H. Rao
name: TRS
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/12
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Shattered World 1844103 349 Michael Reaves 0671499424 TRS 0 to-read 4.04 1984 The Shattered World
author: Michael Reaves
name: TRS
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1984
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors (The Risen Kingdoms, #1)]]> 31702733
Born without the sorcery that is her birthright but with a perspicacious intellect, Isabelle believes her marriage will stave off disastrous conflict and bring her opportunity and influence. But the last two women betrothed to this prince were murdered, and a sorcerer-assassin is bent on making Isabelle the third. Aided and defended by her loyal musketeer, Jean-Claude, Isabelle plunges into a great maze of prophecy, intrigue, and betrayal, where everyone wears masks of glamour and lies. Step by dangerous step, she unravels the lies of her enemies and discovers a truth more perilous than any deception.]]> 416 Curtis Craddock 0765389592 TRS 0 to-read 4.06 2017 An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors (The Risen Kingdoms, #1)
author: Curtis Craddock
name: TRS
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants]]> 17465709 Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these lenses of knowledge together to show that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings are we capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learning to give our own gifts in return.]]> 408 Robin Wall Kimmerer 1571313354 TRS 0 currently-reading 4.52 2013 Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
author: Robin Wall Kimmerer
name: TRS
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/10
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Neuromancer (Sprawl, #1) 6088007 Neuromancer is a cyberpunk, science fiction masterpiece—a classic that ranks with 1984 and Brave New World as one of the twentieth century’s most potent visions of the future.

The Matrix is a world within the world, a global consensus-hallucination, the representation of every byte of data in cyberspace...

Henry Dorsett Case was the sharpest data-thief in the business, until vengeful former employees crippled his nervous system. But now a new and very mysterious employer recruits him for a last-chance run. The target: an unthinkably powerful artificial intelligence orbiting Earth in service of the sinister Tessier-Ashpool business clan. With a dead man riding shotgun and Molly, mirror-eyed street-samurai, to watch his back, Case embarks on an adventure that ups the ante on an entire genre of fiction.

The winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Awards, Neuromancer was the first fully-realized glimpse of humankind’s digital future—a shocking vision that has challenged our assumptions about our technology and ourselves, reinvented the way we speak and think, and forever altered the landscape of our imaginations.]]> 288 William Gibson TRS 0 3.94 1984 Neuromancer (Sprawl, #1)
author: William Gibson
name: TRS
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1984
rating: 0
read at: 2025/04/10
date added: 2025/04/10
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]]> The Spear Cuts Through Water 55868456 Two warriors shepherd an ancient god across a broken land to end the tyrannical reign of a royal family in this new epic fantasy from the author of The Vanished Birds.

The people suffer under the centuries-long rule of the Moon Throne. The royal family—the despotic emperor and his monstrous sons, the Three Terrors—hold the countryside in their choking grip. They bleed the land and oppress the citizens with the frightful powers they inherited from the god locked under their palace.

But that god cannot be contained forever.

With the aid of Jun, a guard broken by his guilt-stricken past, and Keema, an outcast fighting for his future, the god escapes from her royal captivity and flees from her own children, the triplet Terrors who would drag her back to her unholy prison. And so it is that she embarks with her young companions on a five-day pilgrimage in search of freedom—and a way to end the Moon Throne forever. The journey ahead will be more dangerous than any of them could have imagined.

Both a sweeping adventure story and an intimate exploration of identity, legacy, and belonging, The Spear Cuts Through Water is an ambitious and profound saga that will transport and transform you—and is like nothing you’ve ever read before.
]]> 525 Simon Jimenez 0593156595 TRS 0 fantasy-wtr 4.17 2022 The Spear Cuts Through Water
author: Simon Jimenez
name: TRS
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/10
shelves: fantasy-wtr
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]]> I Am a Strange Loop 123471 I Am a Strange Loop argues that the key to understanding selves and consciousness is the “strange loop”—a special kind of abstract feedback loop inhabiting our brains. Deep down, a human brain is a chaotic seething soup of particles, on a higher level it is a jungle of neurons, and on a yet higher level it is a network of abstractions that we call “symbols.� The most central and complex symbol in your brain or mine is the one we both call “I.� The “I� is the nexus in our brain where the levels feed back into each other and flip causality upside down, with symbols seeming to have free will and to have gained the paradoxical ability to push particles around, rather than the reverse. For each human being, this “I� seems to be the realest thing in the world. But how can such a mysterious abstraction be real—or is our “I� merely a convenient fiction? Does an “I� exert genuine power over the particles in our brain, or is it helplessly pushed around by the all-powerful laws of physics? These are the mysteries tackled in I Am a Strange Loop, Douglas R. Hofstadter’s first book-length journey into philosophy since Gödel, Escher, Bach. Compulsively readable and endlessly thought-provoking, this is the book Hofstadter’s many readers have long been waiting for.]]> 436 Douglas R. Hofstadter 0465030785 TRS 0 nonfiction-wtr 3.94 2007 I Am a Strange Loop
author: Douglas R. Hofstadter
name: TRS
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/02
shelves: nonfiction-wtr
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Daughter of the Moon Goddess (The Celestial Kingdom, #1)]]> 57789637
“Epic, romantic, and enthralling from start to finish.”—Stephanie Garber, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Caraval series

“An all-consuming work of literary fantasy that is breathtaking both for its beauty and its suspense."—BookPage, starred review

A captivating and romantic debut epic fantasy inspired by the legend of the Chinese moon goddess, Chang’e, in which a young woman’s quest to free her mother pits her against the most powerful immortal in the realm.

Growing up on the moon, Xingyin is accustomed to solitude, unaware that she is being hidden from the feared Celestial Emperor who exiled her mother for stealing his elixir of immortality. But when Xingyin’s magic flares and her existence is discovered, she is forced to flee her home, leaving her mother behind.

Alone, powerless, and afraid, she makes her way to the Celestial Kingdom, a land of wonder and secrets. Disguising her identity, she seizes an opportunity to learn alongside the emperor’s son, mastering archery and magic, even as passion flames between her and the prince.

To save her mother, Xingyin embarks on a perilous quest, confronting legendary creatures and vicious enemies. But when treachery looms and forbidden magic threatens the kingdom, she must challenge the ruthless Celestial Emperor for her dream—striking a dangerous bargain in which she is torn between losing all she loves or plunging the realm into chaos.

Daughter of the Moon Goddess begins an enchanting duology which weaves ancient Chinese mythology into a sweeping adventure of immortals and magic, of loss and sacrifice—where love vies with honor, dreams are fraught with betrayal, and hope emerges triumphant.]]> 503 Sue Lynn Tan 0063031302 TRS 1 I was sooo excited about this one—and that beautiful cover!!
So: The protagonist is too dumb to function properly and yet has everything handed to her on a silver platter because a prince happens to favor her. Apparently there is a love triangle later which I am happy to avoid.]]> 4.08 2022 Daughter of the Moon Goddess (The Celestial Kingdom, #1)
author: Sue Lynn Tan
name: TRS
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2022
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves:
review:
DNF
I was sooo excited about this one—and that beautiful cover!!
So: The protagonist is too dumb to function properly and yet has everything handed to her on a silver platter because a prince happens to favor her. Apparently there is a love triangle later which I am happy to avoid.
]]> <![CDATA[Little Brother (Little Brother, #1)]]> 954674
But his whole world changes when he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his crew are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison where they’re mercilessly interrogated for days.

When the DHS finally releases them, his injured best friend Darryl does not come out. The city has become a police state where every citizen is treated like a potential terrorist. He knows that no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: "M1k3y" will take down the DHS himself.]]> 382 Cory Doctorow 0765319853 TRS 0 3.93 2008 Little Brother (Little Brother, #1)
author: Cory Doctorow
name: TRS
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at: 2025/03/27
date added: 2025/03/27
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]]> <![CDATA[Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land]]> 325509 608 David K. Shipler 0142002291 TRS 0 nonfiction-wtr 4.05 1986 Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land
author: David K. Shipler
name: TRS
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1986
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: nonfiction-wtr
review:

]]> In Praise of Shadows 34473 56 Jun'ichirĹŤ Tanizaki TRS 0 nonfiction-wtr 4.06 1933 In Praise of Shadows
author: Jun'ichirĹŤ Tanizaki
name: TRS
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1933
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: nonfiction-wtr
review:

]]> Goodnight Tokyo 201072367 A symphony of interconnected lives that offers a compelling reflection on life in modern-day metropolises at the intersection of isolation and intimacy.

Set over several nights, between the hours of 1:00 a.m. and 4:30 a.m., in and around Tokyo, this mind-blowingly constructed book is an elaborate, energetic fresco of human nocturnal existence in all its mystery, an enigmatic literary mix of Agatha Christie, Teju Cole, and Heironymous Bosch.

On this journey through the labyrinthine streets and hidden corners of one of the world’s most fascinating cities, everybody is searching for something, and maybe searching in the wrong places. Elements of the fantastical and the surreal abound, as they tend to do in the early pre-dawn hours of the morning, yet the settings, the human stories, and each character’s search are all as real as can be.

Goodnight Tokyo offers readers a unique and intimate take on Tokyo as seen through the eyes of a large cast of colorful characters. Their lives, as disparate and as far apart as they may seem, are in fact intricately interconnected and as their fates converge against the backdrop of the city’s neon-lit streets and quiet alleyways, Yoshida masterfully portrays in captivating, lyrical prose the complexities of human relationships, the mystery of human connection, and the universal quest for meaning.]]> 176 Atsuhiro Yoshida TRS 0 3.55 2018 Goodnight Tokyo
author: Atsuhiro Yoshida
name: TRS
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at: 2025/03/18
date added: 2025/03/18
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]]> In the Café of Lost Youth 31839659 The elegant, haunting story of the forgotten people and places of Paris from the reigning Nobel Laureate.

Four narrators, a student from a café, a private detective hired by an aggrieved husband, the heroine herself and one of her lovers, construct a portrait of Jacqueline Delanque, otherwise known as Louki.

The daughter of a single mother who works in the Moulin Rouge, Louki grows up in poverty in Montmartre. Her one attempt to escape her background fails when she is rejected from the Lycée Jules-Ferry. She meanders on through life, into a cocaine habit, and begins frequenting the Café Condé, whose regulars call her "Louki". She drifts into marriage with a real estate agency director, but finds no satisfaction with him or his friends and so makes the simple decision not to return to him one evening. She turns instead to a young man almost as aimless and adrift as she, but who perhaps loves her all the same.

Ever-present through this story is the city of Paris, almost another character in her own right. This is the Paris of 'no-man's-lands', of lonely journeys on the last metro, or nocturnal walks along empty boulevards; of cafés where the lost youth wander in, searching for meaning, and the older generation sift through their memories of their own long-gone adolescence.]]> 153 Patrick Modiano 0857055267 TRS 0 gothic-or-noir-wtr 3.65 2007 In the Café of Lost Youth
author: Patrick Modiano
name: TRS
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/05
shelves: gothic-or-noir-wtr
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Devil in a Blue Dress (Easy Rawlins, #1)]]> 37100 263 Walter Mosley TRS 0 gothic-or-noir-wtr 3.89 1990 Devil in a Blue Dress (Easy Rawlins, #1)
author: Walter Mosley
name: TRS
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1990
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/05
shelves: gothic-or-noir-wtr
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]]> The Maltese Falcon 29999 213 Dashiell Hammett TRS 0 gothic-or-noir-wtr 3.89 1930 The Maltese Falcon
author: Dashiell Hammett
name: TRS
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1930
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/05
shelves: gothic-or-noir-wtr
review:

]]> Carter Beats the Devil 4599 Carter Beats the Devil is a complex and illuminating story of one man's journey through a magical—and sometimes dangerous—world, where illusion is everything.]]> 483 Glen David Gold 0786886323 TRS 0 historical-fiction-wtr 4.09 2001 Carter Beats the Devil
author: Glen David Gold
name: TRS
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/05
shelves: historical-fiction-wtr
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]]> Nadja 110457
The principal narrative is an account of the author's relationship with a girl in the city of Paris, the story of an obsessional presence haunting his life. The first-person narrative is supplemented by forty-four photographs which form an integral part of the work -- pictures of various surreal people, places, and objects which the author visits or is haunted by in naja's presence and which inspire him to mediate on their reality or lack of it. The Nadja of the book is a girl, but, like Bertrand Russell's definition of electricity as not so much a thing as a way things happen, Nadja is not so much a person as the way she makes people behave. She has been described as a state of mind, a feeling about reality, k a kind of vision, and the reader sometimes wonders whether she exists at all. yet it is Nadja who gives form and structure to the novel.]]> 160 André Breton 0802150268 TRS 0 classics-wtr 3.57 1928 Nadja
author: André Breton
name: TRS
average rating: 3.57
book published: 1928
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/05
shelves: classics-wtr
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Full Moon Coffee Shop (The Full Moon Coffee Shop, #1)]]> 202468425 Translated from the Japanese bestseller, this charming and magical novel, inspired by the myth of cats returning favors to those who care for them, reminds us that it’s never too late to follow our stars.

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

It’s also run by talking cats.

While customers at the Full Moon Coffee Shop partake in cakes, coffees, and teas, the cats also consult them on their star charts, offer cryptic wisdom, and let them know where their lives have veered off course—because every person who visits the shop has been feeling more than a little lost. And for a down-on-her-luck screenwriter, a romantically stuck movie director, a hopeful hairstylist, and a technologically challenged website designer, the feline guides will set them back on their fated paths. After all, there is a reason the shop appeared to each of them…]]> 240 Mai Mochizuki 0593726820 TRS 0 3.60 2020 The Full Moon Coffee Shop (The Full Moon Coffee Shop, #1)
author: Mai Mochizuki
name: TRS
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2025/03/05
date added: 2025/03/05
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]]> <![CDATA[The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea]]> 56978100
Many believe that Shim Cheong, the most beautiful girl in the village—and the beloved of Mina’s older brother Joon—may be the legendary true bride. But on the night Cheong is to be sacrificed, Joon follows Cheong out to sea, even knowing that to interfere is a death sentence. To save her brother, Mina throws herself into the water in Cheong’s stead.

Swept away to the Spirit Realm, a magical city of lesser gods and mythical beasts, Mina seeks out the Sea God, only to find him caught in an enchanted sleep. With the help of a mysterious young man named Shin—as well as a motley crew of demons, gods and spirits—Mina sets out to wake the Sea God and bring an end to the killer storms once and for all.

But she doesn’t have much time: A human cannot live long in the land of the spirits. And there are those who would do anything to keep the Sea God from waking…]]> 325 Axie Oh 1250780861 TRS 3 A lovely and picturesque fantasy with Ghibli vibes (clear inspiration from Spirited Away). The romance and friendships were rather rushed though…]]> 4.10 2022 The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea
author: Axie Oh
name: TRS
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/03
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars!
A lovely and picturesque fantasy with Ghibli vibes (clear inspiration from Spirited Away). The romance and friendships were rather rushed though�
]]> <![CDATA[Lonesome Dove (Lonesome Dove, #1)]]> 256008 Lonesome Dove, the third book in the Lonesome Dove tetralogy, is the grandest novel ever written about the last defiant wilderness of America.

Journey to the dusty little Texas town of Lonesome Dove and meet an unforgettable assortment of heroes and outlaws, whores and ladies, Indians and settlers. Richly authentic, beautifully written, always dramatic, Lonesome Dove is a book to make us laugh, weep, dream, and remember.]]> 960 Larry McMurtry 067168390X TRS 0 historical-fiction-wtr 4.53 1985 Lonesome Dove (Lonesome Dove, #1)
author: Larry McMurtry
name: TRS
average rating: 4.53
book published: 1985
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: historical-fiction-wtr
review:

]]> Anathem 2845024
Now, in celebration of the week-long, once-in-a-decade rite of Apert, the fraas and suurs prepare to venture beyond the concent's gates—at the same time opening them wide to welcome the curious "extras" in. During his first Apert as a fraa, Erasmas eagerly anticipates reconnecting with the landmarks and family he hasn't seen since he was "collected." But before the week is out, both the existence he abandoned and the one he embraced will stand poised on the brink of cataclysmic change.

Powerful unforeseen forces jeopardize the peaceful stability of mathic life and the established ennui of the Extramuros—a threat that only an unsteady alliance of saecular and avout can oppose—as, one by one, Erasmas and his colleagues, teachers, and friends are summoned forth from the safety of the concent in hopes of warding off global disaster. Suddenly burdened with a staggering responsibility, Erasmas finds himself a major player in a drama that will determine the future of his world—as he sets out on an extraordinary odyssey that will carry him to the most dangerous, inhospitable corners of the planet . . . and beyond.]]> 937 Neal Stephenson 0061474096 TRS 0 fantasy-wtr 4.16 2008 Anathem
author: Neal Stephenson
name: TRS
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: fantasy-wtr
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Steerswoman (The Steerswoman, #1)]]> 793297 279 Rosemary Kirstein 0345357620 TRS 0 fantasy-wtr 3.99 1989 The Steerswoman (The Steerswoman, #1)
author: Rosemary Kirstein
name: TRS
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1989
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: fantasy-wtr
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Neon Nights: A Cyberpunk Detective Thriller (There's no Murder in Paradise Book 1)]]> 197121460 More and more people end up dead in the “city of dreams,� an allegedly perfect society. The victims haven’t just been murdered; they’ve been also horribly mutilated and stripped of their neural implants and augmentations. This is not the work of a serial killer but the signature of crime syndicates who sell the costly augmentations on the black market.
A specialist in organized crime, detective Ferreira-Nunes is the right man for job. Partnered with the sharp-witted Kate Spader, they delve into the seedy underworld of Oldtown, the megacity’s most notorious district, where life is cheap and criminal masterminds know how to evade the all-controlling “perfect� society of Olympias.
One of the victims, a popular TV star provides a surprising behind his shiny smile the actor hid a shocking double life in Oldtown’s infamous redlight district. Was the man really just a victim?
The investigation leads Siro and Kate from Oldtown’s gritty shadows to the opulent penthouses of the elite in the skyscrapers above. After the detectives barely survive an assassination attempt on their lives, the Guardian Angels, Olympias� notorious elite cyborg enforcers enter the stage.
But can they be trusted or are they following their own agenda?

"Neon Nights" is a spin-off from the acclaimed "Behind Blue Eyes" series but can be read as a standalone—an exciting mix of cyber intrigue, sex, and danger.]]> 246 Anna Mocikat TRS 0 cyberpunk-wtr 4.20 Neon Nights: A Cyberpunk Detective Thriller (There's no Murder in Paradise Book 1)
author: Anna Mocikat
name: TRS
average rating: 4.20
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: cyberpunk-wtr
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Ancient Art of Tea: Wisdom From the Old Chinese Tea Masters]]> 10632977
The health benefits of tea, whether white, green, oolong or black, are well known in our world today. However, creating the perfect, healthy cup of tea is a process few people genuinely understand. As expert Warren Peltier explains, making an ideal cup of tea is a dynamic process that requires the right environment, clear spring water, a suitable fire to boil water, skill in steeping tea, and a deep understanding of tea connoisseurship. The Ancient Art of Tea offers a thorough, much-needed guide for tea lovers.

Peltier's commentaries include discussion

The Ancient Art of Tea parses historic tea texts to offer a broader perspective and deeper insight into the topics that surround the tea-drinking experience. The book contains vital information to assist tea drinkers in their quest for yet another pot of delicious tea. It teaches the two fundamental secrets to tea as practiced in ancient China--technique and taste. These exemplify some of the basic concepts of the philosophy of tea, which greatly enhances the enjoyment of the beverage. Not only an exhaustive source of tea knowledge, The Ancient Art of Tea is also a significant volume in the study of Chinese tea and is sure to become a classic in its own right.]]> 160 Warren Peltier 0804841535 TRS 0 3.73 2011 The Ancient Art of Tea: Wisdom From the Old Chinese Tea Masters
author: Warren Peltier
name: TRS
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/24
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris]]> 7902560 An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris, Perec compiled a melancholic, slightly eerie and oddly touching document in which existence boils down to rhythm, writing turns into time and the line between the empirical and the surreal grows surprisingly thin.]]> 55 Georges Perec 0984115528 TRS 0 gothic-or-noir-wtr 3.77 1975 An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris
author: Georges Perec
name: TRS
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1975
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves: gothic-or-noir-wtr
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Things: A Story of the Sixties / A Man Asleep]]> 28295
Jerome and Sylvie, the young, upwardly mobile couple in Things, lust for the good life. "They wanted life's enjoyment, but all around them enjoyment was equated with ownership." Surrounded by Paris's tantalizing exclusive boutiques, they exist in a paralyzing vacuum of frustration, caught between the fantasy of "the film they would have liked to live" and the reality of life's daily mundanities.

In direct contrast with Jerome and Sylvie's cravings, the nameless student in A Man Asleep attempts to purify himself entirely of material desires and ambition. He longs "to want nothing. Just to wait, until there is nothing left to wait for. Just to wander, and to sleep." Yearning to exist on neutral ground as "a blessed parenthesis," he discovers that this wish is by its very nature a defeat.

Accessible, sobering, and deeply involving, each novel distills Perec's unerring grasp of the human condition as well as displaying his rare comic talent. His generosity of observation is both detached and compassionate.]]> 221 Georges Perec 1567921574 TRS 0 gothic-or-noir-wtr 3.99 1965 Things: A Story of the Sixties / A Man Asleep
author: Georges Perec
name: TRS
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1965
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves: gothic-or-noir-wtr
review:

]]> Untold Night and Day 50157589
A startling and boundary-pushing novel, Untold Night and Day tells the story of a young woman’s journey through Seoul over the course of a night and a day. It’s 28-year-old Ayami’s final day at her box-office job in Seoul’s audio theater. Her night is spent walking the sweltering streets of the city with her former boss in search of Yeoni, their missing elderly friend, and her day is spent looking after a mysterious, visiting poet. Their conversations take in art, love, food, and the inaccessible country to the north.

Almost immediately, in the heat of Seoul at the height of the summer, order gives way to chaos as the edges of reality start to fray, with Ayami becoming an unwitting escort into a fever-dream of increasingly tangled threads, all the while images of the characters� overlapping realities repeat, collide, change, and reassert themselves in this masterful work that upends the very structure of fiction and narrative storytelling and burns itself upon the soul of the reader.

By one of the boldest and most innovative voices in contemporary Korean literature, and brilliantly realized in English by International Man Booker­–winning translator Deborah Smith, Bae Suah’s hypnotic and wholly original novel asks whether more than one version of ourselves can exist at once, demonstrating the malleable nature of reality as we know it.]]> 160 Bae Suah 1419744380 TRS 0 gothic-or-noir-wtr 3.51 2013 Untold Night and Day
author: Bae Suah
name: TRS
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves: gothic-or-noir-wtr
review:

]]> <![CDATA[In Sunlight or In Shadow: Stories Inspired by the Paintings of Edward Hopper]]> 28943722
Contributors include Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Robert Olen Butler, Michael Connelly, Megan Abbott, Craig Ferguson, Nicholas Christopher, Jill D. Block, Joe R. Lansdale, Spider Robinson, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Warren Moore, Jonathan Santlofer, Jeffery Deaver, Lee Child, and Lawrence Block himself. Even Gail Levin, Hopper's biographer and compiler of his catalogue raisonée, appears with her own first work of fiction, providing a true account of art theft on a grand scale and told in the voice of the country preacher who perpetrated the crime. In a beautifully produced anthology as befits such a collection of acclaimed authors, each story is illustrated with a quality full-color reproduction of the painting that inspired it. Illustrated with 17 full color plates, one for each chapter.

Contents:
* Girlie Show / Megan Abbott
* Story of Caroline / Jill D. Block
*Soir Bleu / Robert Olen Butler
* Truth About What Happened / Lee Child
* Rooms by the Sea / Nicholas Christopher
* Nighthawks / Michael Connelly
* Incident of 10 November / Jeffery Deaver
* Taking Care of Business / Craig Ferguson
* Music Room / Stephen King
* Projectionist / Joe R. Lansdale
* Preacher Collects / Gail Levin
* Office at Night / Warren Moore
* Woman in the Window / Joyce Carol Oates
* Still Life 1931 / Kris Nelscott
* Night Windows / Jonathan Santlofer
* Woman in the Sun / Justin Scott
* Autumn at the Automat / Lawrence Block

.]]> 288 Lawrence Block 1681772450 TRS 0 gothic-or-noir-wtr 3.70 2016 In Sunlight or In Shadow: Stories Inspired by the Paintings of Edward Hopper
author: Lawrence Block
name: TRS
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves: gothic-or-noir-wtr
review:

]]> A Moveable Feast 4631 192 Ernest Hemingway TRS 0 classics-wtr 4.04 1964 A Moveable Feast
author: Ernest Hemingway
name: TRS
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1964
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves: classics-wtr
review:

]]> A Fist or a Heart 49761020 The past returns with a fury for a woman coming to terms with her life in this award-winning novel by an acclaimed Icelandic author making her English-language debut.

ElĂ­n JĂłnsdĂłttir lives an isolated existence in ReykjavĂ­k, Iceland, making props and prosthetics for theatrical productions and Nordic crime flicks. In her early seventies, she has recently become fascinated with another loner, Ellen ĂlfsdĂłttir, a sensitive young playwright and illegitimate daughter of a famous writer. The girl has aroused maternal feelings in ElĂ­n, but she has also stirred discomfiting memories long packed away. Because their paths have crossed before. One doesn’t remember. The other is about to forget.

Soon they’ll discover all they have in common: difficult childhoods, trauma, and being outliers who have found space to breathe in creative expression. Yet the more Elín tries to connect with the young woman and unbox painful memories, the more tenuous her grasp on reality becomes.

Winner of the Icelandic Literary Prize, A Fist or a Heart is a gripping, artfully interwoven novel of power, secrets, and isolation by one of the most bracing and original voices of the author’s generation.

]]> 202 KristĂ­n EirĂ­ksdĂłttir 1542044049 TRS 0 fiction-wtr 3.37 2017 A Fist or a Heart
author: KristĂ­n EirĂ­ksdĂłttir
name: TRS
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves: fiction-wtr
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Will of the Many (Hierarchy, #1)]]> 58416952 At the elite Catenan Academy, a young fugitive uncovers layered mysteries and world-changing secrets in this new fantasy series by internationally bestselling author of The Licanius Trilogy, James Islington.

AUDI. VIDE. TACE.

The Catenan Republic � the Hierarchy � may rule the world now, but they do not know everything.

I tell them my name is Vis Telimus. I tell them I was orphaned after a tragic accident three years ago, and that good fortune alone has led to my acceptance into their most prestigious school. I tell them that once I graduate, I will gladly join the rest of civilised society in allowing my strength, my drive and my focus � what they call Will � to be leeched away and added to the power of those above me, as millions already do. As all must eventually do.

I tell them that I belong, and they believe me.

But the truth is that I have been sent to the Academy to find answers. To solve a murder. To search for an ancient weapon. To uncover secrets that may tear the Republic apart.

And that I will never, ever cede my Will to the empire that executed my family.

To survive, though, I will still have to rise through the Academy’s ranks. I will have to smile, and make friends, and pretend to be one of them and win. Because if I cannot, then those who want to control me, who know my real name, will no longer have any use for me.

And if the Hierarchy finds out who I truly am, they will kill me.]]> 639 James Islington 1982141190 TRS 0 to-read 4.60 2023 The Will of the Many (Hierarchy, #1)
author: James Islington
name: TRS
average rating: 4.60
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Story of Hong Gildong (Penguin Classics)]]> 25810328
Hong Gildong, the brilliant but illegitimate son of a government minister, cannot advance in society due to his secondary status, so he leaves home to become the leader of a band of outlaws who rob the rich to give to the poor. On the way to building his own empire and gaining acceptance from his family, Hong Gildong vanquishes assassins, battles monsters, and conquers kingdoms. Minsoo Kang's expressive and animated new translation finally makes the original text of this classic available in English, re-introducing a noble and righteous outlaw and sharing a beloved hallmark of Korean culture.]]> 100 Unknown 0143107690 TRS 0 3.48 1600 The Story of Hong Gildong (Penguin Classics)
author: Unknown
name: TRS
average rating: 3.48
book published: 1600
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/10
date added: 2025/02/10
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Sorcery and Small Magics (The Wildersongs Trilogy, #1)]]> 199826249 Desperate to undo the curse binding them to each other, an impulsive sorcerer and his curmudgeonly rival venture deep into a magical forest in search of a counterspell—only to discover that magic might not be the only thing pulling them together.

Leovander Loveage is a master of small magics.

He can summon butterflies with a song, or turn someone’s hair pink by snapping his fingers. Such minor charms don’t earn him much admiration from other sorcerers (or his father), but anything more elaborate always blows up in his face. Which is why Leo vowed years ago to never again write powerful magic.

That is, until a mix-up involving a forbidden spell binds Leo to obey the commands of his longtime nemesis, Sebastian Grimm. Grimm is Leo’s complete opposite—respected, exceptionally talented, and an absolutely insufferable curmudgeon. The only thing they agree on is that getting caught using forbidden magic would mean the end of their careers. They need a counterspell, and fast. But Grimm casts spells, he doesn’t undo them, and Leo doesn’t mess with powerful magic.

Chasing rumors of a powerful sorcerer with a knack for undoing curses, Leo and Grimm enter the Unquiet Wood, a forest infested with murderous monsters and dangerous outlaws alike. To dissolve the curse, they’ll have to uncover the true depths of Leo’s magic, set aside their long-standing rivalry, and—much to their horror—work together.

Even as an odd spark of attraction flares between them.]]> 416 Maiga Doocy 0356523993 TRS 0 romance-wtr 4.32 2024 Sorcery and Small Magics (The Wildersongs Trilogy, #1)
author: Maiga Doocy
name: TRS
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves: romance-wtr
review:

]]> House of Beth 207767778 A haunting and seductive tale of a young career woman who slides quickly into the role of stepmother, in a life that may still belong to someone else. “Vivid, addictive, and crackling with life (yes, even the ghost), House of Beth asks us to consider how and why we make the lives we make� (Lynn Steger Strong).

After a heart-wrenching breakup and a shocking incident at her job as an overworked assistant at a literary agency, Cassie retreats to her hometown in New Jersey, along the Delaware River. There, she reconnects with her high school best friend, Eli, now a widowed father of two. Their bond reignites, and within a few short months, Cassie is trading her bustling New York City life for homeschooling, nature walks, and cooking lessons with her reserved neighbor, Joan.

But Cassie’s fresh start is anything but peaceful. She still misses her ex-girlfriend and she grapples with harm OCD, her mind haunted by graphic and gory images. In their secluded house nestled in the woods, she tries to find solace. But the shadow of Beth, Eli’s late spouse, a committed homemaker and traditional wife, looms large, permeating every corner of their home—from the décor to the rhythms of daily life.

Soon, Cassie starts hearing a voice narrating the house’s secrets. This mysterious presence grows stronger, guiding Cassie down a path to uncover the truth about Beth’s untimely death.

House of Beth is a beautifully crafted novel that blends modern literary charm with gothic mystery and speculative elements. Perfect for fans of Bunny by Mona Awad or Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder, this thought-provoking novel probes the boundaries of our minds and bodies, the stories we tell ourselves about who we’re meant to be, and the thoughts, beliefs, and desires we aren’t always brave enough to name.]]> Kerry Cullen TRS 0 to-read 0.0 2025 House of Beth
author: Kerry Cullen
name: TRS
average rating: 0.0
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop (Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, #2)]]> 199295788 In this charming and emotionally resonant follow up to the internationally bestselling Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, Satoshi Yagisawa paints a poignant and thoughtful portrait of life, love, and how much books and bookstores mean to the people who love them.

Set again in the beloved Japanese bookshop and nearby coffee shop in the Jimbocho neighborhood of Toyko, More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop deepens the relationship between Takako, her uncle Satoru , and the people in their lives. A new cast of heartwarming regulars have appeared in the shop, including an old man who wears the same ragged mouse-colored sweater and another who collects books solely for the official stamps with the author’s personal seal.

Satoshi Yagisawa illuminates the everyday relationships between people that are forged and grown through a shared love of books. As time passes, Satoru, with Takako’s help, must choose whether to keep the bookshop open or shutter its doors forever. Making the decision will take uncle and niece on an emotional journey back to their family’s roots and remind them again what a bookstore can mean to an individual, a neighborhood, and a whole culture.]]> 176 Satoshi Yagisawa 0063278715 TRS 3 3.90 2011 More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop (Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, #2)
author: Satoshi Yagisawa
name: TRS
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/05
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves:
review:

]]> Where the Wild Things Are 19543 38 Maurice Sendak 0099408392 TRS 0 4.25 1963 Where the Wild Things Are
author: Maurice Sendak
name: TRS
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1963
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves:
review:

]]> Daemon (Daemon, #1) 6665847 A high-tech thriller for the wireless age that explores the unthinkable consequences of a computer program running without human control—a daemon—designed to dismantle society and bring about a new world order

Technology controls almost everything in our modern-day world, from remote entry on our cars to access to our homes, from the flight controls of our airplanes to the movements of the entire world economy. Thousands of autonomous computer programs, or daemons, make our networked world possible, running constantly in the background of our lives, trafficking e-mail, transferring money, and monitoring power grids. For the most part, daemons are benign, but the same can't always be said for the people who design them.

Matthew Sobol was a legendary computer game designer—the architect behind half-a-dozen popular online games. His premature death depressed both gamers and his company's stock price. But Sobol's fans aren't the only ones to note his passing. When his obituary is posted online, a previously dormant daemon activates, initiating a chain of events intended to unravel the fabric of our hyper-efficient, interconnected world. With Sobol's secrets buried along with him, and as new layers of his daemon are unleashed at every turn, it's up to an unlikely alliance to decipher his intricate plans and wrest the world from the grasp of a nameless, faceless enemy—or learn to live in a society in which we are no longer in control. . . .

Computer technology expert Daniel Suarez blends haunting high-tech realism with gripping suspense in an authentic, complex thriller in the tradition of Michael Crichton, Neal Stephenson, and William Gibson.]]> 632 Daniel Suarez 0451228731 TRS 0 cyberpunk-wtr 4.14 2006 Daemon (Daemon, #1)
author: Daniel Suarez
name: TRS
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: cyberpunk-wtr
review:

]]> Fight Club 36236124 Fight Club’s estranged narrator leaves his lackluster job when he comes under the thrall of Tyler Durden, an enigmatic young man who holds secret after-hours boxing matches in the basement of bars. There, two men fight "as long as they have to." This is a gloriously original work that exposes the darkness at the core of our modern world.]]> 224 Chuck Palahniuk 0393355942 TRS 0 gothic-or-noir-wtr 4.18 1996 Fight Club
author: Chuck Palahniuk
name: TRS
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/30
shelves: gothic-or-noir-wtr
review:

]]> Factotum 497199
Charles Bukowski's posthumous legend continues to grow. Factotum is a masterfully vivid evocation of slow-paced, low-life urbanity and alcoholism, and an excellent introduction to the fictional world of Charles Bukowski.]]> 205 Charles Bukowski 0876852630 TRS 0 gothic-or-noir-wtr 3.95 1975 Factotum
author: Charles Bukowski
name: TRS
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1975
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/30
shelves: gothic-or-noir-wtr
review:

]]> Nightshift 58079463 A haunting, compelling debut novel of complex female friendship and obsession, following one young woman's decision to abandon her normal life and join the otherworldly, nocturnal existence of London's nightshift workers.

When twenty-three-year-old Meggie meets her distant and enigmatic new coworker Sabine, she recognizes in her the person she would like to be. Meggie is immediately drawn to worldly, beautiful, and uninhibited Sabine; and when Sabine announces she's switching to the nightshift, Meggie impulsively decides to follow her. Giving up her daytime existence, her reliable boyfriend, and the trappings of a normal life, Meggie finds a liberating sense of freedom as she indulges her growing preoccupation with Sabine and plunges into another existence, immersing herself in the transient and uncertain world of the nightshift worker.

While the city sleeps, she passes the hours at work clipping crime stories from the next day's newspapers. The liminal hours between night and day are spent haunting deserted bars and nightclubs with her eclectic coworkers and going on increasingly wild adventures with Sabine. Yet the closer she gets to Sabine, the more Sabine seems to push her away, leaving Meggie desperately trying to hold on to their intense friendship while doubting if she truly knows her friend at all.

A fresh twist on the coming of age story and a dark love letter to city life, Nightshift explores the thin line between self-invention and self-destruction, as Meggie's sleep deprivation, drinking, and fixation with Sabine gain a momentum all their own. Vividly set in late-nineties London and framed by Meggie's present-day reflections, Nightshift is a captivating and moving debut that asks profound questions about who we are and if we can truly escape ourselves.]]> 256 Kiare Ladner 0063138247 TRS 0 gothic-or-noir-wtr 3.20 2021 Nightshift
author: Kiare Ladner
name: TRS
average rating: 3.20
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/30
shelves: gothic-or-noir-wtr
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]]> <![CDATA[What You Are Looking For Is in the Library]]> 91274427 For fans of The Midnight Library and Before the Coffee Gets Cold, this charming Japanese novel shows how the perfect book recommendation can change a reader's life.

What are you looking for?

This is the famous question routinely asked by Tokyo’s most enigmatic librarian, Sayuri Komachi. Like most librarians, Komachi has read every book lining her shelves—but she also has the unique ability to read the souls of her library guests. For anyone who walks through her door, Komachi can sense exactly what they’re looking for in life and provide just the book recommendation they never knew they needed to help them find it.

Each visitor comes to her library from a different juncture in their careers and dreams, from the restless sales attendant who feels stuck at her job to the struggling working mother who longs to be a magazine editor. The conversation that they have with Sayuri Komachi—and the surprise book she lends each of them—will have life-altering consequences.

With heartwarming charm and wisdom, What You Are Looking For Is in the Library is a paean to the magic of libraries, friendship and community, perfect for anyone who has ever found themselves at an impasse in their life and in need of a little inspiration.]]> 304 Michiko Aoyama 1335005625 TRS 0 bookshop-library-centric-wtr 4.07 2020 What You Are Looking For Is in the Library
author: Michiko Aoyama
name: TRS
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/30
shelves: bookshop-library-centric-wtr
review:

]]> The Nine Cloud Dream 36063228 Korea’s most prized literary masterpiece: a Buddhist journey questioning the illusions of human life—presented in a vivid new translation by PEN/Hemingway finalist Heinz Insu Fenkl

Often considered the highest achievement in Korean fiction, The Nine Cloud Dream poses the question: will the life we dream of truly make us happy? Written in 17th-century Korea, this classic novel’s wondrous story begins when a young monk living on a sacred Lotus Peak in China succumbs to the temptation of eight fairy maidens. For doubting his master’s Buddhist teachings, the monk is forced to endure a strange punishment: reincarnation as the most ideal of men.

On his journey through this new life full of material, martial, and sensual accomplishments beyond his wildest dreams, he encounters the eight fairies in human form, each one furthering his path towards understanding the fleeting value of his good fortune. As his successes grow, he comes closer and closer to finally comprehending the fundamental truths of the Buddha’s teachings. Like Hesse’s Siddhartha, The Nine Cloud Dream is an unforgettable tale exploring the meaning of a good life and the virtue of living simply with mindfulness.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,800 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.]]> 304 Kim Manjung 0143131273 TRS 0 classics-wtr 3.75 1687 The Nine Cloud Dream
author: Kim Manjung
name: TRS
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1687
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/29
shelves: classics-wtr
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Spin the Dawn (The Blood of Stars, #1)]]> 42815556 A gifted tailor in disguise.
Three legendary dresses.
The competition of a lifetime.

On the fringes of the Great Spice Road, Maia Tamarin works as a seamstress in the shop of her father, once a tailor of renown. She dreams of becoming the greatest tailor in the land, but as a girl, the best she can hope for is to marry well.

When a royal messenger summons her ailing father to court, Maia poses as his son and travels to the Summer Palace in his place. She knows her life is forfeit if her secret is discovered, but she'll take that risk to save her family from ruin and achieve her dream of becoming the imperial tailor. There's just one catch: Maia is one of twelve tailors vying for the job.

The competition is cutthroat, and Maia's job is further complicated by the unwelcome attention of the court enchanter, Edan, who seems to see straight through her disguise. But nothing could have prepared her for the final challenge: to sew three gowns so dangerously beautiful, it will take a quest to the ends of the earth to complete them . . .

Book 1 in the Blood of Stars duology]]> 392 Elizabeth Lim TRS 4 3.97 2019 Spin the Dawn (The Blood of Stars, #1)
author: Elizabeth Lim
name: TRS
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/29
date added: 2025/01/29
shelves:
review:

]]> Blood Over Bright Haven 208430658 Magic has made the city of Tiran an industrial utopia, but magic has a cost—and the collectors have come calling.

An orphan since the age of four, Sciona has always had more to prove than her fellow students. For twenty years, she has devoted every waking moment to the study of magic, fueled by a mad desire to achieve the impossible: to be the first woman ever admitted to the High Magistry. When she finally claws her way up the ranks to become a highmage, however, she finds that her challenges have just begun. Her new colleagues will stop at nothing to let her know she is unwelcome, beginning with giving her a janitor instead of a qualified lab assistant.

What neither Sciona nor her peers realize is that her taciturn assistant was once more than a janitor; before he mopped floors for the mages, Thomil was a nomadic hunter from beyond Tiran’s magical barrier. Ten years have passed since he survived the perilous crossing that killed his family. But working for a highmage, he sees the opportunity to finally understand the forces that decimated his tribe, drove him from his homeland, and keep the Tiranish in power.

Through their fractious relationship, mage and outsider uncover an ancient secret that could change the course of magic forever—if it doesn’t get them killed first. Sciona has defined her life by the pursuit of truth, but how much is one truth worth with the fate of civilization in the balance?

A standalone dark academia brimming with mystery, tragedy, and the damning echoes of the past. For fans of Leigh Bardugo, V. E. Schwab, and Fullmetal Alchemist.

(Content warnings for gore, sexual assault, and suicidal ideation)]]> 430 M.L. Wang 0593873351 TRS 0 fantasy-school-wtr 4.39 2023 Blood Over Bright Haven
author: M.L. Wang
name: TRS
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/26
shelves: fantasy-school-wtr
review:

]]> Od Magic 19823 320 Patricia A. McKillip 0441013341 TRS 0 fantasy-school-wtr 3.97 2005 Od Magic
author: Patricia A. McKillip
name: TRS
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/26
shelves: fantasy-school-wtr
review:

]]> The Name of the Rose 119073 552 Umberto Eco 0156001314 TRS 0 to-read 4.13 1980 The Name of the Rose
author: Umberto Eco
name: TRS
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1980
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Lonely Castle in the Mirror 54633167
Delving into their emotional lives with sympathy and a generous warmth, Lonely Castle in the Mirror shows the unexpected rewards of reaching out to others. Exploring vivid human stories with a twisty and puzzle-like plot, this heart-warming novel is full of joy and hope for anyone touched by sadness and vulnerability.]]> 355 Mizuki Tsujimura 0857527274 TRS 3 4.25 2017 Lonely Castle in the Mirror
author: Mizuki Tsujimura
name: TRS
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/22
date added: 2025/01/22
shelves:
review:

]]> Sea of Tranquility 58446227 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER - The award-winning, best-selling author of Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel returns with a novel of art, time travel, love, and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon five hundred years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and space.

One of the Best Books of the Year: The New York Times, NPR, GoodReads

"One of [Mandel's] finest novels and one of her most satisfying forays into the arena of speculative fiction yet." --The New York Times

Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal--an experience that shocks him to his core.

Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She's traveling all over Earth, but her home is the second moon colony, a place of white stone, spired towers, and artificial beauty. Within the text of Olive's best-selling pandemic novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him.

When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the black-skied Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended: The exiled son of an earl driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe.

A virtuoso performance that is as human and tender as it is intellectually playful, Sea of Tranquility is a novel of time travel and metaphysics that precisely captures the reality of our current moment.]]> 259 Emily St. John Mandel 0593321448 TRS 0 4.04 2022 Sea of Tranquility
author: Emily St. John Mandel
name: TRS
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2025/01/14
date added: 2025/01/14
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]]> Reasons to Stay Alive 25733573 Matt Haig’s accessible and life-affirming memoir of his struggle with depression, and how his triumph over the illness taught him to live.

Like nearly one in five people, Matt Haig suffers from depression. Reasons to Stay Alive is Matt’s inspiring account of how, minute by minute and day by day, he overcame the disease with the help of reading, writing, and the love of his parents and his girlfriend (and now-wife), Andrea. And eventually, he learned to appreciate life all the more for it.

Everyone’s lives are touched by mental illness: if we do not suffer from it ourselves, then we have a friend or loved one who does. Matt’s frankness about his experiences is both inspiring to those who feel daunted by depression and illuminating to those who are mystified by it. Above all, his humor and encouragement never let us lose sight of hope. Speaking as his present self to his former self in the depths of depression, Matt is adamant that the oldest cliché is the truest—there is light at the end of the tunnel. He teaches us to celebrate the small joys and moments of peace that life brings, and reminds us that there are always reasons to stay alive.]]> 256 Matt Haig 0143128728 TRS 0 4.04 2015 Reasons to Stay Alive
author: Matt Haig
name: TRS
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at: 2025/01/12
date added: 2025/01/12
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]]> The Book of Tea 904538 Now available in a gorgeous hardcover slipcase edition, this "object d'art" will be sure to add grace and elegance to tea shelves, coffee tables and bookshelves. A keepsake enjoyed by tea lovers for over a hundred years, The Book of Tea Classic Edition will enhance your enjoyment and understanding of the seemingly simple act of making and drinking tea.

In 1906 in turn-of-the-century Boston, a small, esoteric book about tea was written with the intention of being read aloud in the famous salon of Isabella Gardner, Boston's most notorious socialite. It was authored by Okakura Kakuzo, a Japanese philosopher, art expert, and curator. Little known at the time, Kakuzo would emerge as one of the great thinkers of the early 20th century, a genius who was insightful, witty—and greatly responsible for bridging Western and Eastern cultures. Okakura had been taught at a young age to speak English and was more than capable of expressing to Westerners the nuances of tea and the Japanese Tea Ceremony.

In The Book of Tea Classic Edition, he discusses such topics as Zen and Taoism, but also the secular aspects of tea and Japanese life. The book emphasizes how Teaism taught the Japanese many things; most importantly, simplicity. Kakuzo argues that tea-induced simplicity affected the culture, art and architecture of Japan.

Nearly a century later, Kakuzo's The Book of Tea Classic Edition is still beloved the world over, making it an essential part of any tea enthusiast's collection. Interwoven with a rich history of Japanese tea and its place in Japanese society is a poignant commentary on Asian culture and our ongoing fascination with it, as well as illuminating essays on art, spirituality, poetry, and more. The Book of Tea Classic Edition is a delightful cup of enlightenment from a man far ahead of his time.]]> 133 KakuzĹŤ Okakura 0804800693 TRS 3
What I got: “A flower has no mouth to scream as we rip it from the earth. Also, f*ck each and every one of you.�

Also I want to add that they really need a new translation—and one not littered with typos.]]> 3.91 1906 The Book of Tea
author: KakuzĹŤ Okakura
name: TRS
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1906
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/12
date added: 2025/01/12
shelves:
review:
What I expected: “Ah, what a nice day to philosophize and discuss the wondrous beverage, tea.�

What I got: “A flower has no mouth to scream as we rip it from the earth. Also, f*ck each and every one of you.�

Also I want to add that they really need a new translation—and one not littered with typos.
]]> <![CDATA[Romancing the Inventor (Supernatural Society, #1)]]> 30731095 Vampires are keeping an inventor in their potting shed. Imogene wants to seduce her.

Imogene Hale is a lowly parlourmaid with a soul-crushing secret. Seeking solace, she takes work at a local vampire hive, only to fall desperately in love with the amazing lady inventor imprisoned there.

Genevieve Lefoux is heartsick, lonely, and French.

With culture, class, and the lady herself set against the match, can Imogene and her duster overcome all odds and win Genevieve’s heart, or will the vampires suck both of them dry?

New York Times bestselling author Gail Carriger presents this stand-alone lesbian romance is set in her popular steampunk Parasolverse, full of class prejudice, elusive equations, and paranormal creatures taking tea.

Supernatural Society stories can be read in any order. Look for surprise appearances from popular Parasol Protectorate characters and the occasional strategic application of cognac.

Delicate Sensibilities?

This story contains women pleasing women and ladies who know what they want and pursue it, sometimes in exquisite detail.]]> 149 Gail Carriger TRS 0 romance-wtr 4.01 2016 Romancing the Inventor (Supernatural Society, #1)
author: Gail Carriger
name: TRS
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: romance-wtr
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Bye Baby (Flowershop Assassins, #1)]]> 59443385
Ruthless, sexy and assassin extraordinaire.

Or at least he used to be.

Now, Donnie’s washed up, drinking himself into unconsciousness night after night. He needs one more hit, one more chance to prove himself, to reclaim some dignity.

Enter Elliot Austin, the blue-eyed, blond.
An easy kill, or he should’ve been.

Donnie botches the hit and wakes up tied to a chair with a knife pressed to his jugular. He waits for Elliot to finish him off, but his young mark does something unexpected.

He kisses Donnie, then speaks over his shoulder as he leaves.

“Bye Baby.�

Humiliated, Donnie vows to end Elliot, but killing him is anything but easy.
He’s gifted at getting away, and is always one step ahead.

He teases, and humiliates, and drives Donnie crazy.
It’s an addicting game of cat and mouse that forces Donnie to climb out of the gutter, and get himself into shape.

Donnie wants Elliot dead, but he might just want him alive that little bit more...]]> 209 Louise Collins TRS 0 romance-wtr 3.83 2020 Bye Baby (Flowershop Assassins, #1)
author: Louise Collins
name: TRS
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: romance-wtr
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Hurricane Wars (The Hurricane Wars, #1)]]> 75668288 The heart is a battlefield.

All Talasyn has ever known is the Hurricane Wars. Growing up an orphan in a nation under siege by the ruthless Night Emperor, Talasyn has found her family among the soldiers who fight for freedom. But she is hiding a deadly secret: light magic courses through her veins, a blazing power believed to have been wiped out years ago that can cut through the Night Empire's shadows.

Prince Alaric, the emperor's only son and heir, has been forged into a weapon by his father. Tasked with obliterating any threats to the Night Empire's rule with the strength of his armies and mighty Shadow magic, Alaric has never been bested. That is until he sees Talasyn burning brightly on the battlefield with the magic that killed his grandfather, turned his father into a monster, and ignited the Hurricane Wars. In a clash of light and dark, their powers merge and create a force the likes of which has never been seen.

Talasyn and Alaric both know this war can only end with them. But a greater threat is coming, and the strange new magic they can create together could be the only way to overcome it. Thrust into an uneasy alliance, they will confront the secrets at the heart of the war and find, in each other, a searing passion--one that could save their world...or destroy it.

An exquisite fantasy brimming with unforgettable characters, sizzling enemies-to-lovers romance, and richly drawn worlds, The Hurricane Wars marks the breathtaking debut of an extraordinary new writer.]]> 472 Thea Guanzon 0063277271 TRS 0 romance-wtr 3.65 2023 The Hurricane Wars (The Hurricane Wars, #1)
author: Thea Guanzon
name: TRS
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/10
shelves: romance-wtr
review:

]]> Lirael (Abhorsen, #2) 47624
In this sequel to Sabriel, winner of the Aurealis Award for Excellence in Australian Science Fiction, New York Times best-selling author Garth Nix weaves a spellbinding tale of discovery, destiny, and danger.]]> 464 Garth Nix 0060590165 TRS 0 4.29 2001 Lirael (Abhorsen, #2)
author: Garth Nix
name: TRS
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at: 2025/01/10
date added: 2025/01/10
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Somnium: The Dream, or Posthumous Work on Lunar Astronomy]]> 5984974
Somnium began as a student dissertation in which Kepler defended the Copernican doctrine of the motion of the Earth, suggesting that an observer on the Moon would find the planet's movements as clearly visible as the Moon's activity is to the Earth's inhabitants. Nearly 20 years later, Kepler added the dream framework, and after another decade, he drafted a series of explanatory notes reflecting upon his turbulent career and the stages of his intellectual development. The book was edited by his heirs, including Jacob Bartsch, after Kepler's death in 1630, and was published posthumously in 1634.]]> 296 Johannes Kepler 0299040402 TRS 0 classics-wtr 3.53 1634 Somnium: The Dream, or Posthumous Work on Lunar Astronomy
author: Johannes Kepler
name: TRS
average rating: 3.53
book published: 1634
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/26
shelves: classics-wtr
review:

]]> The Pillow Book 18185
Lady Shonagon was an erstwhile rival of Lady Murasaki, whose novel, "The Tale of Genji," fictionalized the elite world Lady Shonagon so eloquently relates. Featuring reflections on royal and religious ceremonies, nature, conversation, poetry, and many other subjects, "The Pillow Book" is an intimate look at the experiences and outlook of the Heian upper class, further enriched by Ivan Morris's extensive notes and critical contextualization.]]> 419 Sei ShĹŤnagon 0231073372 TRS 0 4.08 1002 The Pillow Book
author: Sei ShĹŤnagon
name: TRS
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1002
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/25
date added: 2024/12/25
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]]> Man’s Search for Meaning 4069 Man's Search for Meaning has become one of the most influential books in America; it continues to inspire us all to find significance in the very act of living.]]> 165 Viktor E. Frankl 080701429X TRS 0 4.39 1946 Man’s Search for Meaning
author: Viktor E. Frankl
name: TRS
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1946
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/25
date added: 2024/12/25
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]]> The Magic Mountain 88077
The Magic Mountain is a monumental work of erudition and irony, sexual tension and intellectual ferment, a book that pulses with life in the midst of death.]]> 706 Thomas Mann TRS 0 classics-wtr 4.12 1924 The Magic Mountain
author: Thomas Mann
name: TRS
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1924
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/25
shelves: classics-wtr
review:

]]> When the Chocolate Runs Out 11595588 This new wisdom book is stuffed with wit, wisdom, and energetic teachings from Lama Yeshe. Author of Introduction to Tantra and many other books, Yeshe has long endured as a figure of playful wisdom and heart-striking compassion. This beautiful little book captures the essence of the teachings of this clever master who played an integral role in introducing Tibetan Buddhism to the world. When the Chocolate Runs Out delights both readers who have known Lama Yeshe for decades and those who have never met this remarkable spiritual teacher.

]]> 176 Thubten Yeshe 0861712692 TRS 0 memoir-self-help-wtr 4.24 2011 When the Chocolate Runs Out
author: Thubten Yeshe
name: TRS
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: memoir-self-help-wtr
review:

]]> Rabbits (Rabbits, #1) 55481226 Conspiracies abound in this surreal and yet all-too-real technothriller in which a deadly underground alternate reality game might just be altering reality itself, set in the same world as the popular Rabbits podcast.

It's an average work day. You've been wrapped up in a task, and you check the clock when you come up for air�4:44 pm. You go to check your email, and 44 unread messages have built up. With a shock, you realize it is April 4th�4/4. And when you get in your car to drive home, your odometer reads 44,444. Coincidence? Or have you just seen the edge of a rabbit hole?

Rabbits is a mysterious alternate reality game so vast it uses our global reality as its canvas. Since the game first started in 1959, ten iterations have appeared and nine winners have been declared. Their identities are unknown. So is their reward, which is whispered to be NSA or CIA recruitment, vast wealth, immortality, or perhaps even the key to unlocking the secrets of the universe itself. But the deeper you get, the more deadly the game becomes. Players have died in the past—and the body count is rising.

And now the eleventh round is about to begin. Enter K—a Rabbits obsessive who has been trying to find a way into the game for years. That path opens when K is approached by billionaire Alan Scarpio, the alleged winner of the sixth iteration. Scarpio says that something has gone wrong with the game and that K needs to fix it before Eleven starts or the whole world will pay the price.

Five days later, Scarpio is declared missing. Two weeks after that, K blows the deadline and Eleven begins. And suddenly, the fate of the entire universe is at stake.]]> 422 Terry Miles 1984819658 TRS 0 sci-fi-wtr 3.60 2021 Rabbits (Rabbits, #1)
author: Terry Miles
name: TRS
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: sci-fi-wtr
review:

]]> <![CDATA[When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times]]> 687278
� Using painful emotions to cultivate wisdom, compassion, and courage
� Communicating so as to encourage others to open up rather than shut down
� Practices for reversing habitual patterns
� Methods for working with chaotic situations
� Ways for creating effective social action]]> 148 Pema Chödrön 1570623449 TRS 0 memoir-self-help-wtr 4.26 1996 When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times
author: Pema Chödrön
name: TRS
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: memoir-self-help-wtr
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Space Between Worlds (The Space Between Worlds, #1)]]> 43301353 An outsider who can travel between worlds discovers a secret that threatens her new home and her fragile place in it, in a stunning sci-fi debut that’s both a cross-dimensional adventure and a powerful examination of identity, privilege, and belonging.

Multiverse travel is finally possible, but there’s just one catch: No one can visit a world where their counterpart is still alive. Enter Cara, whose parallel selves happen to be exceptionally good at dying—from disease, turf wars, or vendettas they couldn’t outrun. Cara’s life has been cut short on 372 worlds in total.

On this Earth, however, Cara has survived. Identified as an outlier and therefore a perfect candidate for multiverse travel, Cara is plucked from the dirt of the wastelands. Now she has a nice apartment on the lower levels of the wealthy and walled-off Wiley City. She works—and shamelessly flirts—with her enticing yet aloof handler, Dell, as the two women collect off-world data for the Eldridge Institute. She even occasionally leaves the city to visit her family in the wastes, though she struggles to feel at home in either place. So long as she can keep her head down and avoid trouble, Cara is on a sure path to citizenship and security.

But trouble finds Cara when one of her eight remaining doppelgängers dies under mysterious circumstances, plunging her into a new world with an old secret. What she discovers will connect her past and her future in ways she could have never imagined—and reveal her own role in a plot that endangers not just her world, but the entire multiverse.]]> 336 Micaiah Johnson TRS 0 sci-fi-wtr 3.90 2020 The Space Between Worlds (The Space Between Worlds, #1)
author: Micaiah Johnson
name: TRS
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/07
shelves: sci-fi-wtr
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Spirit Lens (Collegia Magica, #1)]]> 6678976 464 Carol Berg 0451463110 TRS 0 fantasy-school-wtr 3.68 2009 The Spirit Lens (Collegia Magica, #1)
author: Carol Berg
name: TRS
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/01
shelves: fantasy-school-wtr
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The God of Nishi-Yuigahama Station]]> 202731413 176 Takeshi Murase 1975392027 TRS 5 4.13 2020 The God of Nishi-Yuigahama Station
author: Takeshi Murase
name: TRS
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/28
date added: 2024/11/28
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine]]> 35900387 No one’s ever told Eleanor that life should be better than fine.

Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy.

But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen on the sidewalk, the three become the kinds of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living. And it is Raymond’s big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one.

Soon to be a major motion picture produced by Reese Witherspoon, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is the smart, warm, and uplifting story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes. . .

The only way to survive is to open your heart. ]]> 390 Gail Honeyman 0008172145 TRS 0 4.17 2017 Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
author: Gail Honeyman
name: TRS
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at: 2024/11/28
date added: 2024/11/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Village of Eight Graves (Detective Kosuke Kindaichi, #3)]]> 56887117 The third title in Japan’s most popular murder mystery series � after The Honjin Murders and The Inugami Curse � fiendish classics featuring investigator Kosuke Kindaichi.

Nestled deep in the mist-shrouded mountains, The Village of Eight Graves takes its name from a bloody legend: in the Sixteenth Century eight samurais, who had taken refuge there along with a secret treasure, were murdered by the inhabitants, bringing a terrible curse down upon their village.

Centuries later a mysterious young man named Tatsuya arrives in town, bringing a spate of deadly poisonings in his wake. The inimitably scruffy and brilliant Kosuke Kindaichi investigates.]]> 349 Seishi Yokomizo 1782277455 TRS 0 3.79 1949 The Village of Eight Graves (Detective Kosuke Kindaichi, #3)
author: Seishi Yokomizo
name: TRS
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1949
rating: 0
read at: 2024/11/23
date added: 2024/11/23
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]]> Novelist as a Vocation 60387307 A charmingly idiosyncratic look at writing, creativity, and the author’s own novels.

Haruki Murakami’s myriad fans will be delighted by this unique look into the mind of a master storyteller. In this engaging book, the internationally best-selling author and famously reclusive writer shares with readers what he thinks about being a novelist; his thoughts on the role of the novel in our society; his own origins as a writer; and his musings on the sparks of creativity that inspire other writers, artists, and musicians. Readers who have long wondered where the mysterious novelist gets his ideas and what inspires his strangely surreal worlds will be fascinated by this highly personal look at the craft of writing.]]> 224 Haruki Murakami 0451494644 TRS 0 3.90 2015 Novelist as a Vocation
author: Haruki Murakami
name: TRS
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue]]> 50623864
Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.

But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.]]> 448 Victoria E. Schwab 0765387565 TRS 0 4.16 2020 The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
author: Victoria E. Schwab
name: TRS
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2024/11/16
date added: 2024/11/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close]]> 4588
The key belonged to his father, he's sure of that. But which of New York's 162 million locks does it open?

So begins a quest that takes Oskar - inventor, letter-writer and amateur detective - across New York's five boroughs and into the jumbled lives of friends, relatives, and complete strangers. He gets heavy boots, he gives himself little bruises and he inches ever nearer to the heart of a family mystery that stretches back fifty years. But will it take him any closer to, or further from, his lost father?]]> 326 Jonathan Safran Foer 0618711651 TRS 0 to-read 3.98 2005 Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
author: Jonathan Safran Foer
name: TRS
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop]]> 133938826 should feel successful—but all she feels is drained. Haunted by an abandoned dream, she takes a leap of faith and leaves her old life behind. Quitting her job and divorcing her husband, Yeongju moves to a quiet residential neighborhood outside the city and opens the Hyunam-dong Bookshop.

The transition isn’t easy. For months, all Yeongju can do is cry. But as the long hours in the shop stretch on, she begins to reflect on what makes a good bookseller and a meaningful store. She throws herself into reading voraciously, hosting author events, and crafting her own philosophy on bookselling. Gradually, Yeongju finds her footing in her new surroundings.

Surrounded by friends, writers, and the books that bind them, Yeongju begins to write a new chapter in her life. The Hyunam-dong Bookshop evolves into a warm, welcoming haven for lost souls—a place to rest, heal, and remember that it’s never too late to scrap the plot and start over.]]> 307 Hwang Bo-Reum TRS 5 3.93 2022 Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop
author: Hwang Bo-Reum
name: TRS
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/25
date added: 2024/10/25
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Wandering Inn (The Wandering Inn, #1)]]> 41033158
So reads the sign outside of The Wandering Inn, a small building run by a young woman named Erin Solstice. She serves pasta with sausage, blue fruit juice, and dead acid flies on request. And she comes from another world. Ours.

It’s a bad day when Erin finds herself transported to a fantastical world and nearly gets eaten by a Dragon. She doesn’t belong in a place where monster attacks are a fact of life, and where Humans are one species among many. But she must adapt to her new life. Or die.

In a dangerous world where magic is real and people can level up and gain classes, Erin Solstice must battle somewhat evil Goblins, deadly Rock Crabs, and hungry [Necromancers]. She is no warrior, no mage. Erin Solstice runs an inn.

She’s an [Innkeeper].]]> 1235 Pirateaba TRS 0 fantasy-wtr 4.25 2018 The Wandering Inn (The Wandering Inn, #1)
author: Pirateaba
name: TRS
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/25
shelves: fantasy-wtr
review:

]]> Air Awakens (Air Awakens, #1) 23127048 A library apprentice, a sorcerer prince, and an unbreakable magic bond...

The Solaris Empire is one conquest away from uniting the continent, and the rare elemental magic sleeping in seventeen-year-old library apprentice Vhalla Yarl could shift the tides of war.

Vhalla has always been taught to fear the Tower of Sorcerers, a mysterious magic society, and has been happy in her quiet world of books. But after she unknowingly saves the life of one of the most powerful sorcerers of them all—the Crown Prince Aldrik—she finds herself enticed into his world.

Now she must decide her future: Embrace her sorcery and leave the life she’s known, or eradicate her magic and remain as she’s always been. And with powerful forces lurking in the shadows, Vhalla’s indecision could cost her more than she ever imagined.]]> 342 Elise Kova 1932549935 TRS 0 fantasy-wtr 3.96 2015 Air Awakens (Air Awakens, #1)
author: Elise Kova
name: TRS
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/23
shelves: fantasy-wtr
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]]> The Shut Ins 58255799
It is not until ten years later, when Mai runs into Hikaru's mother, Hiromi Sato, that she learns Hikaru has become a hikikomori, a recluse unable to leave his bedroom for years. In secret, Hiromi Sato hires Mai as a 'rental sister', to write letters to Hikaru and encourage him to leave his room.

Mai has recently married J, a devoted salaryman with conservative ideas about the kind of wife Mai will be. The renewed contact with her old school friend Hikaru stirs Mai's feelings of invisibility within her marriage. She is frustrated with her life and knows she will never fulfill J's obsession with the perfect wife and mother.

What else is there for Mai to do but to disappear herself?]]> 252 Katherine Brabon 1761062204 TRS 0 fiction-wtr 3.54 2021 The Shut Ins
author: Katherine Brabon
name: TRS
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/22
shelves: fiction-wtr
review:

]]> The Sculptor In The Sky 11309133 151 Teal Swan 1456747231 TRS 0 4.21 2011 The Sculptor In The Sky
author: Teal Swan
name: TRS
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at: 2024/10/22
date added: 2024/10/22
shelves:
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]]> Heaven 53223710
These raw and realistic portrayals of bullying are counterbalanced by textured exposition of the philosophical and religious debates concerning violence to which the weak are subjected.

Kawakami's simple yet profound new work stands as a dazzling testament to her literary talent. There can be little doubt that it has cemented her reputation as one of the most important young authors working to expand the boundaries of contemporary Japanese literature.]]> 192 Mieko Kawakami 1609456211 TRS 0 3.80 2009 Heaven
author: Mieko Kawakami
name: TRS
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at: 2024/10/18
date added: 2024/10/18
shelves:
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]]> The Moonday Letters 59431090
Lumi is an Earth-born healer whose Mars-born spouse Sol disappears unexpectedly on a work trip. As Lumi begins her quest to find Sol, she delves gradually deeper into Sol’s secrets � and her own.

While recalling her own path to becoming a healer under the guidance of her mysterious teacher Vivian, she discovers an underground environmental group called Stoneturners, which may have something to do with Sol’s disappearance. Lumi’s search takes her from the wealthy colonies of Mars to Earth that has been left a shadow of its former self due to vast environmental destruction. Gradually, she begins to understand that Sol’s fate may have been connected to her own for much longer than she thought.

Part space-age epistolary, part eco-thriller, The Moonday Letters is also a love story between two individuals from very different worlds.]]> 359 Emmi Itäranta 1803360445 TRS 3 3.84 2020 The Moonday Letters
author: Emmi Itäranta
name: TRS
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/18
date added: 2024/10/18
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]]> <![CDATA[Goblin Mode: How to Get Cozy, Embrace Imperfection, and Thrive in the Muck]]> 68057408
Do you ever feel strange, gross, chaotic, underappreciated, or like you don’t quite fit in? Great news: you might be a goblin! That means your imperfections and idiosyncrasies are the most awesome things about you, and you can build a more balanced, comfortable, harmonious life by accepting and honoring them—taking inspiration from the frogs, fungus, moss, rocks, and dirt that goblins love.

Can a mushroom give you fashion tips? Can a snail teach you to be a better person? You bet they can—and in this book you’ll also learn to:
Build a moss garden for your lair
Grow and use medicinal plants
Forage for berries (even in the city)
Mend your cozy sweaters
Display your cool rock collection
And more!

Anyone can be a goblin, and Goblin Mode includes life advice for celebrating physical and mental diversity, rejecting prejudice, and generally hanging on to a little joy.

Featuring 25 whimsical illustrations by Marian Churchland, Goblin Mode will help you rethink your relationship with your body, your home, your community, and the earth.]]> 208 McKayla Coyle TRS 0 3.41 2023 Goblin Mode: How to Get Cozy, Embrace Imperfection, and Thrive in the Muck
author: McKayla Coyle
name: TRS
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/18
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]]> The Goldfinch 17333223
Aged thirteen, Theo Decker, son of a devoted mother and a reckless, largely absent father, survives an accident that otherwise tears his life apart. Alone and rudderless in New York, he is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. He is tormented by an unbearable longing for his mother, and down the years clings to the thing that most reminds him of her: a small, strangely captivating painting that ultimately draws him into the criminal underworld. As he grows up, Theo learns to glide between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love - and his talisman, the painting, places him at the centre of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle.

The Goldfinch is a haunted odyssey through present-day America and a drama of enthralling power. Combining unforgettably vivid characters and thrilling suspense, it is a beautiful, addictive triumph - a sweeping story of loss and obsession, of survival and self-invention, of the deepest mysteries of love, identity and fate.]]> 771 Donna Tartt 0316055433 TRS 5 3.94 2013 The Goldfinch
author: Donna Tartt
name: TRS
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2013
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/10/18
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]]> <![CDATA[The Witch Hunter (Jessica Niemi, #1)]]> 52322799 A shocking murder in an affluent Helsinki suburb has ties to the occult in this thrilling US debut from Finnish author Max Seeck.

A bestselling author’s wife has been found dead in a gorgeous black evening gown, sitting at the head of a formally set dinner table. Her most chilling feature—her face is frozen in a ghastly smile.

At first it seems as though a deranged psychopath is reenacting the gruesome murders from The Witch Hunter, the bestseller written by the victim’s husband. But investigator Jessica Niemi soon realizes she’s not looking for a single killer but rather for dozens of believers in a sinister form of witchcraft.

They know her every move and are always one step ahead. As the bodies start piling up, Jessica knows they won’t stop until they get what they want. And when her dark past comes to light, Jessica finds herself battling her own demons while desperately trying to catch a coven of killers before they claim their next victim.]]> 400 Max Seeck 0593199669 TRS 0 3.47 2019 The Witch Hunter (Jessica Niemi, #1)
author: Max Seeck
name: TRS
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at: 2024/09/01
date added: 2024/09/01
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Yumi and the Nightmare Painter]]> 60531416 #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson brings us a gripping story set in the Cosmere universe told by Hoid, where two people from incredibly different worlds must compromise and work together to save their worlds from ruin.

Yumi comes from a land of gardens, meditation, and spirits, while Painter lives in a world of darkness, technology, and nightmares. When their lives suddenly become intertwined in strange ways, can they put aside their differences and work together to uncover the mysteries of their situation and save each other’s communities from certain disaster?]]> 480 Brandon Sanderson 1938570375 TRS 0 4.45 2023 Yumi and the Nightmare Painter
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: TRS
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/09/01
date added: 2024/09/01
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]]> The Epigenetics Revolution 12414734 320 Nessa Carey TRS 0 nonfiction-wtr 4.05 2011 The Epigenetics Revolution
author: Nessa Carey
name: TRS
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/19
shelves: nonfiction-wtr
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The City and Its Uncertain Walls]]> 209192695 From the bestselling author of Norwegian Wood and Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World comes a love story, a quest, an ode to books and to the libraries that house them, and a parable for our peculiar times.

We begin with a nameless young couple: a boy and a girl, teenagers in love. One day, she disappears . . . and her absence haunts him for the rest of his life.

Thus begins a search for this lost love that takes the man into middle age and on a journey between the real world and an other world—a mysterious, perhaps imaginary, walled town where unicorns roam, where a Gatekeeper determines who can enter and who must remain behind, and where shadows become untethered from their selves. Listening to his own dreams and premonitions, the man leaves his life in Tokyo behind and ventures to a small mountain town, where he becomes the head librarian, only to learn the mysterious circumstances surrounding the gentleman who had the job before him. As the seasons pass and the man grows more uncertain about the porous boundaries between these two worlds, he meets a strange young boy who helps him to see what he’s been missing all along.

The City and Its Uncertain Walls is a singular and towering achievement by one of modern literature’s most important writers.]]> 449 Haruki Murakami 0593801970 TRS 0 to-read 3.72 2023 The City and Its Uncertain Walls
author: Haruki Murakami
name: TRS
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/15
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Shadows of the Short Days (Hrimland Saga #1)]]> 40041298
Perfect for fans of contemporary fantasy in the style of Lev Grossman's The Magicians or China Mieville's The City & The City

Sæmundur the Mad, addict and sorcerer, has been expelled from the magical university, Svartiskóli, and can no longer study galdur, an esoteric source of magic. Obsessed with proving his peers wrong, he will stop at nothing to gain absolute power and knowledge, especially of that which is long forbidden.

GarĂşn is an outcast: half-human, half-huldufĂłlk, her very existence is a violation of dimensional boundaries, the ultimate taboo. A militant revolutionary and graffiti artist, recklessly dismissive of the status quo, she will do anything to achieve a just society, including spark a revolution. Even if she has to do it alone.

This is a tale of revolution set in a twisted version of Reykjavik fuelled by industrialised magic and populated by humans, interdimensional exiles, otherworldly creatures, psychoactive graffiti and demonic familiars.]]> 528 Alexander Dan Vilhjálmsson 1473224101 TRS 3 3.58 2019 Shadows of the Short Days (Hrimland Saga #1)
author: Alexander Dan Vilhjálmsson
name: TRS
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/22
date added: 2024/06/22
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]]> <![CDATA[The Fall of Koli (Rampart Trilogy, #3)]]> 53321887 The Fall of Koli is the third and final novel in the breathtakingly original Rampart trilogy - set in a strange and deadly world of our own making.

The world that is lost will come back to haunt us . . .

Koli has come a long way since being exiled from his small village of Mythen Rood. In his search for the fabled tech of the old times, he knew he'd be battling strange, terrible beasts and trees that move as fast as whips. But he has already encountered so much more than he bargained for.

Now that Koli and his companions have found the source of the signal they've been following - the mysterious "Sword of Albion" - there is hope that their perilous journey will finally be worth something.

Until they unearth terrifying truths about an ancient war . . . and realise that it may have never ended.]]> 528 M.R. Carey 0356513505 TRS 0 to-read 4.36 2021 The Fall of Koli (Rampart Trilogy, #3)
author: M.R. Carey
name: TRS
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/22
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]]> <![CDATA[The Trials of Koli (Rampart Trilogy, #2)]]> 51829857
Beyond the walls of Koli’s small village lies a fearsome landscape filled with choker trees, vicious beasts and shunned men. As an exile, Koli’s been forced to journey out into this mysterious, hostile world. But he heard a story, once. A story about lost London, and the mysterious tech of the Old Times that may still be there. If Koli can find it, there may still be a way for him to redeem himself � by saving what’s left of humankind.]]> 445 M.R. Carey 0356513491 TRS 5 4.23 2020 The Trials of Koli (Rampart Trilogy, #2)
author: M.R. Carey
name: TRS
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/22
date added: 2024/06/22
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]]> Blue Highways 63832 Hailed as a masterpiece of American travel writing, Blue Highways is an unforgettable journey along our nation's backroads.
William Least Heat-Moon set out with little more than the need to put home behind him and a sense of curiosity about "those little towns that get on the map-if they get on at all-only because some cartographer has a blank space to fill: Remote, Oregon; Simplicity, Virginia; New Freedom, Pennsylvania; New Hope, Tennessee; Why, Arizona; Whynot, Mississippi."
His adventures, his discoveries, and his recollections of the extraordinary people he encountered along the way amount to a revelation of the true American experience.]]> 428 William Least Heat-Moon TRS 0 classics-wtr 4.03 1982 Blue Highways
author: William Least Heat-Moon
name: TRS
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1982
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/21
shelves: classics-wtr
review:

]]> The Magus 16286 The Magus is Nicholas Urfe, a young Englishman who accepts a teaching position on a remote Greek island, where he befriends a local millionaire. The friendship soon evolves into a deadly game, in which reality and fantasy are deliberately manipulated, and Nicholas finds that he must fight not only for his sanity but for his very survival.]]> 656 John Fowles 0316296198 TRS 0 classics-wtr 4.06 1965 The Magus
author: John Fowles
name: TRS
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1965
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/21
shelves: classics-wtr
review:

]]> <![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 TRS 0 to-read 4.41 2015 Ametora: How Japan Saved American Style
author: W. David Marx
name: TRS
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/05/24
shelves: to-read
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]]> After Sappho 61089551 What did we want? To begin with, we wanted what half the population had got by just being born.

It’s 1895. Amid laundry and bruises, Rina Pierangeli Faccio gives birth to the child of the man who raped her � the man she has been forced to marry. Unbroken, she determines to change her name and, alongside it, her life.

1902. Romaine Brooks sails for Capri. She has barely enough money for the ferry, nothing for lunch; her paintbrushes are bald and clotted. But she is sure she can sell a painting � and is fervent in her belief that the island is detached from all fates she has previously suffered.

In 1923, Virginia Woolf writes: I want to make life fuller � and fuller.

Told in a series of cascading vignettes, featuring a multitude of voices, After Sappho reimagines the lives of a brilliant group of feminists, sapphists, artists and writers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century as they battle for liberation, justice and control over their own lives.

Sarah Bernhardt, Colette, Eileen Gray, Lina Poletti: these are just a few of the women (some famous, others hitherto unsung) sharing the pages of a novel as fierce as it is luminous. Lush and poetic, furious and funny, After Sappho celebrates the women and trailblazers of the past � and offers hope for our present, and our futures.]]> 272 Selby Wynn Schwartz 1324092319 TRS 0 3.46 2022 After Sappho
author: Selby Wynn Schwartz
name: TRS
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/05/21
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]]> The Colossus of Maroussi 246 244 Henry Miller 0811201090 TRS 0 classics-wtr 4.00 1941 The Colossus of Maroussi
author: Henry Miller
name: TRS
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1941
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/08
shelves: classics-wtr
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror]]> 542700 Trauma and Recovery was first published in 1992, it was hailed as a groundbreaking work. In the intervening years, Herman’s volume has changed the way we think about and treat traumatic events and trauma victims.

In a new afterword, Herman chronicles the incredible response the book has elicited and explains how the issues surrounding the topic have shifted within the clinical community and the culture at large. Trauma and Recovery brings a new level of understanding to a set of problems usually considered individually. Herman draws on her own cutting-edge research in domestic violence as well as on the vast literature of combat veterans and victims of political terror, to show the parallels between private terrors such as rape and public traumas such as terrorism. The book puts individual experience in a broader political frame, arguing that psychological trauma can be understood only in a social context.

Meticulously documented and frequently using the victims� own words as well as those from classic literary works and prison diaries, Trauma and Recovery is a powerful work that will continue to profoundly impact our thinking.]]> 247 Judith Lewis Herman 0465087302 TRS 0 memoir-self-help-wtr 4.37 1992 Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror
author: Judith Lewis Herman
name: TRS
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1992
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/04
shelves: memoir-self-help-wtr
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Letter to the Luminous Deep (The Sunken Archive, #1)]]> 63879533
A charming fantasy set in an underwater world with magical academia and a heartwarming penpal romance, perfect for fans of A Marvellous Light and Emily Wilde's Encylopaedia of Faeries.

A beautiful discovery outside the window of her underwater home prompts the reclusive E. to begin a correspondence with renowned scholar Henerey Clel. The letters they share are filled with passion, at first for their mutual interests, and then, inevitably, for each other.

Together, they uncover a mystery from the unknown depths, destined to transform the underwater world they both equally fear and love. But by no mere coincidence, a seaquake destroys E.'s home, and she and Henerey vanish.

A year later, E.'s sister Sophy, and Henerey's brother Vyerin, are left to solve the mystery of their siblings' disappearances with the letters, sketches and field notes left behind. As they uncover the wondrous love their siblings shared, Sophy and Vyerin learn the key to their disappearance - and what it could mean for life as they know it.]]> 432 Sylvie Cathrall 0356521095 TRS 0 3.65 2024 A Letter to the Luminous Deep (The Sunken Archive, #1)
author: Sylvie Cathrall
name: TRS
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/04/27
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]]> <![CDATA[Woman, Captain, Rebel: The Extraordinary True Story of a Daring Icelandic Sea Captain]]> 61266714
A daring and magnificent account of Iceland's most famous female sea captain who constantly fought for women's rights and equality—and who also solved one of the country's most notorious robberies.

Many people may have heard the old sailing superstition that having women onboard a ship was bad luck. Thus, the sea remains in popular knowledge a male realm. When we think of examples of daring sea captains, swashbuckling pirates, or wise fishermen, many men come to mind. Cultural anthropologist Margaret Willson would like to introduce a fearless woman into our imagination of the sea: ThurĂ­dur EinarsdĂłttir.

Captain ThurĂ­dur was a controversial woman constantly contesting social norms while simultaneously becoming a respected captain fighting for dignity and equality for underrepresented Icelanders. Both horrifying and magnificent, this story will captivate readers from the first page and keep them thinking long after they turn the last page.]]> 416 Margaret Willson TRS 5 3.89 2023 Woman, Captain, Rebel: The Extraordinary True Story of a Daring Icelandic Sea Captain
author: Margaret Willson
name: TRS
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2023
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/04/27
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]]> <![CDATA[Days at the Morisaki Bookshop (Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, #1)]]> 62047992 The moving international sensation about new beginnings, human connection, and the joy of reading.

Hidden in Jimbocho, Tokyo, is a booklover's paradise. On a quiet corner in an old wooden building lies a shop filled with hundreds of second-hand books.

Twenty-five-year-old Takako has never liked reading, although the Morisaki bookshop has been in her family for three generations. It is the pride and joy of her uncle Satoru, who has devoted his life to the bookshop since his wife Momoko left him five years earlier.

When Takako's boyfriend reveals he's marrying someone else, she reluctantly accepts her eccentric uncle's offer to live rent-free in the tiny room above the shop. Hoping to nurse her broken heart in peace, Takako is surprised to encounter new worlds within the stacks of books lining the Morisaki bookshop.

As summer fades to autumn, Satoru and Takako discover they have more in common than they first thought. The Morisaki bookshop has something to teach them both about life, love, and the healing power of books.]]> 150 Satoshi Yagisawa 0063278677 TRS 0 3.66 2010 Days at the Morisaki Bookshop (Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, #1)
author: Satoshi Yagisawa
name: TRS
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/04/11
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]]> The Diary of a Young Girl 48855
In 1942, with the Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, the Franks and another family lived cloistered in the “Secret Annexe� of an old office building. Cut off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and death. In her diary Anne Frank recorded vivid impressions of her experiences during this period. By turns thoughtful, moving, and surprisingly humorous, her account offers a fascinating commentary on human courage and frailty and a compelling self-portrait of a sensitive and spirited young woman whose promise was tragically cut short.
--back cover]]> 283 Anne Frank TRS 0 4.19 1947 The Diary of a Young Girl
author: Anne Frank
name: TRS
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1947
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/04/08
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]]>