Liz's bookshelf: all en-US Wed, 16 Apr 2025 21:22:47 -0700 60 Liz's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Answers in the Pages 59447530 A bold, timely novel about speaking up and coming out as parents lobby to ban a beloved book from the school curriculum by New York Times-bestselling author David Levithan.

When Donovan left his copy of The Adventurers on the kitchen counter, he didn't think his mom would read it--much less have a problem with it. It's just an adventure novel about two characters trying to stop an evil genius...right?

But soon the entire town is freaking out about whether the book's main characters are gay, Donovan's mom is trying to get the book removed from the school curriculum, and Donovan is caught in the middle.

Donovan doesn't really know if the two boys fall in love at the end or not--but he does know this: even if they do, it shouldn't matter. The book should not be banned from school.

Interweaving three connected storylines, David Levithan delivers a bold, fun, and timely story about taking action (whether it's against book censors or deadly alligators...), being brave, and standing up for what's right.
]]> 176 David Levithan 0593484681 Liz 0 4.31 2022 Answers in the Pages
author: David Levithan
name: Liz
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2025/04/17
date added: 2025/04/16
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]]> Joe Nuthin's Guide to Life 199798209
Joe-Nathan likes the two parts of his name separate, just like dinner and dessert. Mean Charlie at work sometimes calls him Joe-Nuthin. But Joe is far from nothing. Joe is a good friend, good at his job, good at making things and at following rules, and he is learning how to do lots of things by himself.

Joe’s mother knows there are a million things he isn’t yet prepared for. While she helps to guide him every day, she is also writing notebooks of advice for Joe, of all the things she hasn’t yet told him about life and things he might forget.

By following her advice, Joe’s life is about to be more of a surprise than he expects. Because he’s about to learn that remarkable things can happen when you leave your comfort zone, and that you can do even the hardest things with a little help from your friends.]]> 400 Helen Fisher 1982142707 Liz 0 to-read 4.37 Joe Nuthin's Guide to Life
author: Helen Fisher
name: Liz
average rating: 4.37
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]]> One Golden Summer 217245639
I never anticipated Charlie Florek.

Good things happen at the lake. That’s what Alice’s grandmother says, and it’s true. Alice spent just one summer at a cottage with Nan when she was seventeen—it’s where she took that photo, the one of three grinning teenagers in a yellow speedboat, the image that changed her life.

Now Alice lives behind a lens. As a photographer, she’s most comfortable on the sidelines, letting other people shine. Lately though, she’s been itching for something more, and when Nan falls and breaks her hip, Alice comes up with a plan for them both: another summer in that magical place, Barry’s Bay. But as soon as they settle in, their peace is disrupted by the roar of a familiar yellow boat, and the man driving it.

Charlie Florek was nineteen when Alice took his photo from afar. Now he’s all grown up—a shameless flirt, who manages to make Nan laugh and Alice long to be seventeen again, when life was simpler, when taking pictures was just for fun. Sun-slanted days and warm nights out on the lake with Charlie are a balm for Alice’s soul, but when she looks up and sees his piercing green gaze directly on her, she begins to worry for her heart.

Because Alice sees people—that’s why she is so good at what she does—but she’s never met someone who looks and sees her right back.]]> 400 Carley Fortune 0593638913 Liz 0 to-read 4.50 2025 One Golden Summer
author: Carley Fortune
name: Liz
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/16
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]]> <![CDATA[Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts]]> 205363955 Meditations for Mortals takes us on a liberating journey towards a more meaningful life � one that begins not with fantasies of the ideal existence, but with the reality in which we actually find ourselves.

Addressing the fundamental questions about how to live, it offers a powerful new way to take action on what counts: a guiding philosophy of life Oliver Burkeman calls ‘imperfectionism�. How can we embrace our non-negotiable limitations? Or make good decisions when there’s always too much to do? What if purposeful productivity were often about letting things happen, not making them happen?

Reflecting on ideas drawn from philosophy, religion, literature, psychology, and self-help, Burkeman explores practical tools and shifts in perspective. The result is a bracing challenge to much familiar advice, and a profound yet entertaining crash course in living more fully.

To be read either as a four-week ‘retreat of the mind� or devoured in one or two sittings, Meditations for Mortals will be a source of solace and inspiration, and an aid to a saner, freer, and more enchantment-filled life. In anxiety-inducing times, it is rich in truths we have never needed more.]]> 208 Oliver Burkeman 0374611998 Liz 0 to-read 4.26 2024 Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts
author: Oliver Burkeman
name: Liz
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/07
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]]> Piglet 127282554 A New York Times Book Review Editors� Choice
A Belletrist Book Club Pick

An elegant, razor-sharp debut about women's ambitions and appetites—and the truth about having it all

Outside of a childhood nickname she can’t shake, Piglet’s rather pleased with how her life’s turned out. An up-and-coming cookbook editor at a London publishing house, she’s got lovely, loyal friends and a handsome fiancé, Kit, whose rarefied family she actually, most of the time, likes, despite their upper-class eccentricities. One of the many, many things Kit loves about Piglet is the delicious, unfathomably elaborate meals she’s always cooking.

But when Kit confesses a horrible betrayal two weeks before they’re set to be married, Piglet finds herself suddenly…hungry. The couple decides to move forward with the wedding as planned, but as it nears and Piglet balances family expectations, pressure at work, and her quest to make the perfect cake, she finds herself increasingly unsettled, behaving in ways even she can’t explain. Torn between a life she’s always wanted and the ravenousness that comes with not getting what she knows she deserves, Piglet is, by the day of her wedding, undone, but also ready to look beyond the lies we sometimes tell ourselves to get by.

A stylish, uncommonly clever novel about the things we want and the things we think we want, Piglet is both an examination of women’s often complicated relationship with food and a celebration of the messes life sometimes makes for us.]]> 320 Lottie Hazell 125028984X Liz 0 currently-reading 3.40 2024 Piglet
author: Lottie Hazell
name: Liz
average rating: 3.40
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/06
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]]> The Vanishing Half 51791252
Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person's decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.]]> 343 Brit Bennett 0525536299 Liz 4 4.11 2020 The Vanishing Half
author: Brit Bennett
name: Liz
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/06
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]]> <![CDATA[Secrets of Adulthood: Simple Truths for Our Complex Lives]]> 215805855 The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Happiness Project and Better Than Before distills her key insights into simple truths for living with greater satisfaction, clarity, and happiness.

The right idea, invoked at the right time, can change our lives. Drawing from her long studies of happiness, and also from the challenges she’s faced herself, writer Gretchen Rubin has discovered the “Secrets of Adulthood� that can help us manage the complexities of life. To convey her conclusions, she turned to the aphorism—the ancient literary discipline that demands that a writer convey a large truth in a few words.

Perhaps you’re paralyzed by indecision, struggling to navigate a big change, fighting a temptation, or puzzled by the behavior of someone you love; whatever you face, the right aphorism can help. From procrastination to the pursuit of happiness, Secrets of Adulthood is filled with witty and thought-provoking reflections such

“Recognize that, like sleeping with a big dog in a small bed, things that are uncomfortable can also be comforting�“Accept yourself, expect more from yourself�“Easy children raise good parents”� “What can be done at any time is often done at no time�
For anyone undergoing a major life transition, such as graduation, career switch, marriage, or moving, or for those just encountering everyday dilemmas, these disarmingly brief aphorisms will inspire you by articulating truths that you never before noticed—and instantly recognize.]]> 176 Gretchen Rubin 0593800737 Liz 0 to-read 3.63 Secrets of Adulthood: Simple Truths for Our Complex Lives
author: Gretchen Rubin
name: Liz
average rating: 3.63
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]]> The Love We Found 214269008 The long-awaited follow-up to the Reese’s Book Clubpick and New York Times bestselling global phenomenon The Light We Lost: a thrilling love story about the roles fate and choice play in shaping a life

It’s been ten years. In case you’re out there somewhere—in case you’re listening, I’m here. And I have so much to tell you.

It’s been nearly ten years since Gabe’s been gone when Lucy finds a tiny piece of paper in a box of his old photos. An address in Rome. Why did Gabe keep it, and what was he doing in Italy? Lucy buys a last-minute ticket. Impulsive, but Gabe always brought that out in her.

Lucy’s journey to uncover Gabe’s secret leads her to Dr. Dax Amstrong, a New Yorker in Italy working with an NGO. His broad shoulders and sad, intense eyes draw Lucy in. His touch reaches her in a forgotten place—one that no one has neared since Gabe.

But her old life awaits, along with an earth-shattering decision—whether she and Darren should tell their son Samuel the truth about his real father. How can Lucy move forward while she’s rooted in regret? Fate broke her heart in the past. Can finding new love set her free?]]> 352 Jill Santopolo 0593419200 Liz 0 to-read 3.92 The Love We Found
author: Jill Santopolo
name: Liz
average rating: 3.92
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]]> The Light We Lost 32956365 He was the first person to inspire her, to move her, to truly understand her. Was he meant to be the last?

Lucy is faced with a life-altering choice. But before she can make her decision, she must start her story—their story—at the very beginning.

Lucy and Gabe meet as seniors at Columbia University on a day that changes both of their lives forever. Together, they decide they want their lives to mean something, to matter. When they meet again a year later, it seems fated—perhaps they’ll find life’s meaning in each other. But then Gabe becomes a photojournalist assigned to the Middle East and Lucy pursues a career in New York. What follows is a thirteen-year journey of dreams, desires, jealousies, betrayals, and, ultimately, of love. Was it fate that brought them together? Is it choice that has kept them away? Their journey takes Lucy and Gabe continents apart, but never out of each other’s hearts.]]> 328 Jill Santopolo 0735212759 Liz 0 to-read 3.80 2017 The Light We Lost
author: Jill Santopolo
name: Liz
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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]]> We Begin at the End 55823880
Chris Whitaker's We Begin at the End looks at families—the ones we are born into and the ones we create.

Right. Wrong. Life is lived somewhere in between.

Duchess Day Radley is a thirteen-year-old self-proclaimed outlaw. Rules are for other people. At school the other kids make fun of her—her clothes are torn, her hair a mess. But let them throw their sticks, because she’ll throw stones. Duchess might be a badass, but she’s really just trying to survive. She is the fierce protector of her five-year-old brother, Robin. She is the parent to her mother, Star, a single mom incapable of taking care of herself, let alone her two kids.

Walk has never left the coastal California town where he and Star grew up. He’s the chief of police, trying to keep Cape Haven, with its beautiful bluffs overlooking the sea, not only safe, but safe from becoming a cookie-cutter tourist destination for the rich. But he’s still trying to heal the old wound of having given the testimony that sent his best friend, Vincent King, to prison decades before. And he’s in overdrive protecting Duchess and her brother as their mother slides deeper into self-destruction.

Now, thirty years later, Vincent is being released. As soon as he steps one foot back into his childhood town, trouble arrives. It shows up on Walk’s and Duchess’s doorsteps, and they will be unable to do anything but usher it in, arms wide closed.

Duchess and Walk—and everyone they love and whose hearts they break, who deserve so much more than life serves them—will sear your heart in this extraordinary novel.]]> Chris Whitaker Liz 3 3.89 2020 We Begin at the End
author: Chris Whitaker
name: Liz
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/26
date added: 2025/03/26
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]]> <![CDATA[Perfectly Imperfect Stories: Meet 28 inspiring people and discover their mental health stories]]> 56028449 64 Leo Potion 1786279207 Liz 4 3.74 Perfectly Imperfect Stories: Meet 28 inspiring people and discover their mental health stories
author: Leo Potion
name: Liz
average rating: 3.74
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/07
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]]> <![CDATA[The Genius of Judy: How Judy Blume Rewrote Childhood for All of Us]]> 199797799
Everyone knows Judy Blume.

Her books have garnered her fans of all ages for decades and sold tens of millions of copies. But why were people so drawn to them? And why are we still talking about them now in the 21st century?

In The Genius of Judy , her remarkable story is revealed as never before, beginning with her as a mother of two searching for purpose outside of her home in 1960s suburban New Jersey. The books she wrote starred regular children with genuine thoughts and problems. But behind those deceptively simple tales, Blume explored the pillars of the growing women’s rights movement, in which girls and women were entitled to careers, bodily autonomy, fulfilling relationships, and even sexual pleasure. Blume wasn’t trying to be a revolutionary—she just wanted to tell honest stories—but in doing so, she created a cohesive, culture-altering vision of modern adolescence.

Blume’s bravery provoked backlash, making her the country’s most-banned author in the mid-1980s. Thankfully, her works withstood those culture wars and it’s no coincidence that Blume has resurfaced as a cultural touchstone now. Young girls are still cat-called, sex education curricula are getting dismissed as pornography, and entire shelves of libraries are being banned. As we face these challenges, it’s only natural we look to Blume, the grand dame of so-called dirty books. This is the story of how a housewife became a groundbreaking artist, and how generations of empowered fans are her legacy, today more than ever.]]> 288 Rachelle Bergstein 1668010909 Liz 0 to-read 3.79 2024 The Genius of Judy: How Judy Blume Rewrote Childhood for All of Us
author: Rachelle Bergstein
name: Liz
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/05
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]]> Midnight at the Houdini 200200349
The night is perfect and glorious and sparkling, too beautiful to be real. Like magic.

Anna may have grown up in glitzy Las Vegas, but she’s determined thatno one will ever call her shallow. While her older sister Emily isthestar ofthefamily, Anna isthediligent stage manager, making sure thatboththeir lives go perfectly to plan. But when Emily reveals a startling betrayal, Anna flees inthemiddle of a raging storm and takes shelter in a boutique establishment she’s never seen before:TheHoudini.

Inside, Anna discovers a magic hotel . . . and a magical boy. Earnest, curious Max has lived his entire life insidetheHoudini. Overthecourse of one surreal evening, he becomes Anna’s guide tothe curious building. Forthefirst time in her life, Anna is center stage, in a place thatanticipates her every desire, with a boy who only has eyes for her.

But that’s becausetheHoudinihas no other guests. No one ever enterstheHoudini. . . and no one ever leaves. Whentheclock strikesmidnight, Anna will be trapped intheHoudiniforever. If Anna's ever going to find out who she is on her own inthereal world, she’ll first have to make an impossible escape. But will she be able to do it if it means leaving Max behind?]]> 9 Delilah S. Dawson Liz 0 currently-reading 3.59 2023 Midnight at the Houdini
author: Delilah S. Dawson
name: Liz
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/05
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]]> Inkling: Library Edition 41770887
From the acclaimed author of The Nest, The Boundless, and Airborn comes a brilliantly funny, breakout book about a boy who discovers an ink blot that's come to life! Perfect for those who love Hoot and Frindle and sure to be a hit with kids everywhere!

The Rylance family is stuck. Dad's got writer's block. Ethan promised to illustrate a group project at school--even though he can't draw. Sarah's still pining for a puppy. And they all miss Mom. So much more than they can say.

Enter Inkling. Inkling begins life in Mr. Rylance's sketchbook. But one night the ink of his drawings runs together--and then leaps off the page! This small burst of creativity is about to change everything.

Ethan finds him first. Inkling has absorbed a couple chapters of his math book--not good--and the story he's supposed to be illustrating for school--also not good. But Inkling's also started drawing the pictures to go with the story--which is amazing! It's just the help Ethan was looking for! Inkling helps the rest of the family too--for Sarah he's a puppy. And for Dad he's a spark of ideas for a new graphic novel. It's exactly what they all want.

It's not until Inkling goes missing that this family has to face the larger questions of what they--and Inkling--truly need.

Kenneth Oppel has given us a small masterpiece of middle-grade fiction. Inkling is funny and fizzy and exciting, and brimming with the kind of interesting ideas and dilemmas that kids will love to wrestle with. Get ready. A little ink blot is about to become your new favorite character!]]> 6 Kenneth Oppel 198714726X Liz 4 4.00 2018 Inkling: Library Edition
author: Kenneth Oppel
name: Liz
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/02
date added: 2025/03/02
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]]> <![CDATA[The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America]]> 37660666 The Atlantic), Richard Rothstein has painstakingly documented how American cities, from San Francisco to Boston, became so racially divided. Rothstein describes how federal, state, and local governments systematically imposed residential segregation: with undisguised racial zoning, public housing that purposefully segregated previously mixed communities, subsidies for builders to create whites-only suburbs, tax exemptions for institutions that enforced segregation, and support for violent resistance to African Americans in white neighborhoods. He demonstrates that such policies still influence tragedies in places like Ferguson and Baltimore. Scholars have separately described many of these policies, but until now, no author has brought them together to explode the myth of de facto segregation arising from private prejudice or the unintended consequences of economic forces. Like The New Jim Crow, Rothstein’s groundbreaking history forces us to face the obligation to remedy our unconstitutional past.]]> 10 Richard Rothstein Liz 0 to-read 4.36 2017 The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
author: Richard Rothstein
name: Liz
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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]]> Wink 51814983 A wrenching and hilarious story about embracing life's weirdness and surviving an unthinkable diagnosis, based on the author's own experience with a rare eye cancer.

Twelve-year-old Ross Maloy just wants to be normal. Not to have a rare eye cancer, not to lose his hair, not to have to wear a weird hat or have a goopy eye full of ointment. Just normal. But with a sudden and horrifying diagnosis, Ross can't help standing out. His new life is medical treatments that feel straight out of a video game, vision loss in one eye, disappearing friends who don't know what to say to "the cancer kid," cruel bullying, and ultimately, friendships new and old that rise above everything.

Just when Ross starts to feel like he's losing his footing, he discovers how music, art, and true friends can change everything. Filled with Rob Harrell's comic panels (Batpig for the win!) and spot art, this novel brings effortless humor and hope to an unforgettable, uplifting story of survival.


RUNNING TIME � 6hrs. and 25mins.

©2020 Rob Harrell (P)2020 Listening Library]]> Rob Harrell Liz 4 4.28 2020 Wink
author: Rob Harrell
name: Liz
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/23
date added: 2025/02/23
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]]> <![CDATA[I Take My Coffee Black: Reflections on Tupac, Musical Theater, Faith, and Being Black in America]]> 58895633
As a 6'2" dreadlocked black man, Tyler Merritt knows what it feels like to be stereotyped as threatening, which can have dangerous consequences. But he also knows that proximity to people who are different from ourselves can be a cure for racism.

Tyler Merritt's video 'Before You Call the Cops' has been viewed millions of times. He's appeared on 'Jimmy Kimmel' and 'Sports Illustrated' and has been profiled in the 'New York Times'. The viral video's main point - the more you know someone, the more empathy, understanding, and compassion you have for that person - is the springboard for this book. By sharing his highs and exposing his lows, Tyler welcomes us into his world in order to help bridge the divides that seemto grow wider every day.

In I TAKE MY COFFEE BLACK', Tyler tells hilarious stories from his own life as a black man in America. He talks about growing up in a multi-cultural community and realizing that he wasn't always welcome, how he quit sports for musical theater (that's where the girls were) to how Jesus barged in uninvited and changed his life forever (it all started with a Triple F.A.T. Goose jacket) to how he ended up at a small Bible college in Santa Cruz because he thought they had a great theater program (they didn't). Throughout his stories, he also seamlessly weaves in lessons about privilege, the legacy of lynching and sharecropping and why you don't cross black mamas. He teaches readers about the history of encoded racism that still undergirds our society today.

By turns witty, insightful, touching, and laugh-out-loud funny, 'I TAKE MY COFFEE BLACK' paints a portrait of black manhood in America and enlightens, illuminates, and entertains - ultimately building the kind of empathy that might just be the antidote against the racial injustice in our society.


©2021 Tyler Merritt (P)2021 Worthy Books]]> 11 Tyler Merritt Liz 4 4.45 2021 I Take My Coffee Black: Reflections on Tupac, Musical Theater, Faith, and Being Black in America
author: Tyler Merritt
name: Liz
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/23
date added: 2025/02/23
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]]> The Briar Club 181110045 A haunting and powerful story of female friendships and secrets in a Washington, D.C. boardinghouse during the McCarthy era.

Washington, D.C., 1950. Everyone keeps to themselves at Briarwood House, a down-at-the-heels all-female boardinghouse in the heart of the nation’s capital, where secrets hide behind white picket fences. But when the lovely, mysterious widow Grace March moves into the attic, she draws her oddball collection of neighbors into unlikely friendship: poised English beauty Fliss whose facade of perfect wife and mother covers gaping inner wounds; police officer’s daughter Nora, who is entangled with a shadowy gangster; frustrated baseball star Bea, whose career has ended along with the women’s baseball league of WWII; and poisonous, gung-ho Arlene, who has thrown herself into McCarthy’s Red Scare.

Grace’s weekly attic-room dinner parties and window-brewed sun tea become a healing balm on all their lives, but she hides a terrible secret of her own. When a shocking act of violence tears apart the house, the Briar Club women must decide once and for all: Who is the true enemy in their midst?]]> 432 Kate Quinn 0063244748 Liz 4 4.26 2024 The Briar Club
author: Kate Quinn
name: Liz
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/22
date added: 2025/02/22
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]]> The Berry Pickers 123036004 A four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a tragic mystery that haunts the survivors, unravels a community, and remains unsolved for nearly fifty years.

July 1962. A Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family’s youngest child, vanishes. She is last seen by her six-year-old brother, Joe, sitting on a favorite rock at the edge of a berry field. Joe will remain distraught by his sister’s disappearance for years to come.

In Maine, a young girl named Norma grows up as the only child of an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant, her mother frustratingly overprotective. Norma is often troubled by recurring dreams and visions that seem more like memories than imagination. As she grows older, Norma slowly comes to realize there is something her parents aren’t telling her. Unwilling to abandon her intuition, she will spend decades trying to uncover this family secret.

For readers of The Vanishing Half and Woman of Light, this showstopping debut by a vibrant new voice in fiction is a riveting novel about the search for truth, the shadow of trauma, and the persistence of love across time.]]> 307 Amanda Peters 1646221958 Liz 0 to-read 4.04 2023 The Berry Pickers
author: Amanda Peters
name: Liz
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/20
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]]> <![CDATA[All the Broken Places (The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, #2)]]> 61111301
Then, a new family moves into the apartment below her. In spite of herself, Gretel can't help but begin a friendship with the little boy, Henry, though his presence brings back memories she would rather forget. One night, she witnesses a disturbing, violent argument between Henry's beautiful mother and his arrogant father, one that threatens Gretel's hard-won, self-contained existence.

All The Broken Places moves back and forth in time between Gretel's girlhood in Germany to present-day London as a woman whose life has been haunted by the past. Now, Gretel faces a similar crossroads to one she encountered long ago. Back then, she denied her own complicity, but now, faced with a chance to interrogate her guilt, grief and remorse, she can choose to save a young boy. If she does, she will be forced to reveal the secrets she has spent a lifetime protecting. This time, she can make a different choice than before -- whatever the cost to herself....

From the New York Times bestselling author John Boyne, a devastating, beautiful story about a woman who must confront the sins of her own terrible past, and a present in which it is never too late for bravery. ]]> 400 John Boyne 0593653068 Liz 0 to-read 4.43 2022 All the Broken Places (The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, #2)
author: John Boyne
name: Liz
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/14
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]]> <![CDATA[This Changes Everything: A Surprisingly Funny Story About Race, Cancer, Faith, and Other Things We Don’t Talk About]]> 212924131
When Tyler Merritt was diagnosed with cancer, everything he thought he knew about what mattered in life changed. This Changes Everything is a humorous and optimistic love letter to this beautiful life.

Though he made it through a highly invasive surgery and thought he was in the clear, Tyler soon realized that the cancer had other plans. It wasn’t a question of if the tumor would come back for an encore, his doctors told him. It was a question of when. Laced with Tyler’s trademark humor, love of pop culture, and arguably too many musical theater references, This Changes Everything is a story about how wrestling with the idea of death can birth a whole new outlook on life, how we live it, and the urgency that comes when you grasp that time is a precious commodity.]]> 320 Tyler Merritt 1546006966 Liz 4 4.54 This Changes Everything: A Surprisingly Funny Story About Race, Cancer, Faith, and Other Things We Don’t Talk About
author: Tyler Merritt
name: Liz
average rating: 4.54
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/13
date added: 2025/02/13
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]]> How to Read a Book 62365896 A charming, deeply moving novel about second chances, unlikely friendships, and the life-changing power of sharing stories.

Our Reasons meet us in the morning and whisper to us at night. Mine is an innocent, unsuspecting, eternally sixty-one-year-old woman named Lorraine Daigle�

Violet Powell, a twenty-two-year-old from rural Abbott Falls, Maine, is being released from prison after serving twenty-two months for a drunk-driving crash that killed a local kindergarten teacher. Harriet Larson, a retired English teacher who runs the prison book club, is facing the unsettling prospect of an empty nest. Frank Daigle, a retired machinist, hasn’t yet come to grips with the complications of his marriage to the woman Violet killed.

When the three encounter each other one morning in a bookstore in Portland—Violet to buy the novel she was reading in the prison book club before her release, Harriet to choose the next title for the women who remain, and Frank to dispatch his duties as the store handyman—their lives begin to intersect in transformative ways.

How to Read a Book is an unsparingly honest and profoundly hopeful story about letting go of guilt, seizing second chances, and the power of books to change our lives. With the heart, wit, grace, and depth of understanding that has characterized her work, Monica Wood illuminates the decisions that define a life and the kindnesses that make life worth living. .]]> 288 Monica Wood 0063243679 Liz 0 to-read 4.21 2024 How to Read a Book
author: Monica Wood
name: Liz
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/14
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]]> <![CDATA[The Menopause Manifesto: Own Your Health with Facts and Feminism]]> 55272232 Just as she did in her groundbreaking bestseller The Vagina Bible, Dr. Jen Gunter, the internet’s most fearless advocate for women’s health, brings you empowerment through knowledge by countering stubborn myths and misunderstandings about menopause with hard facts, real science, fascinating historical perspective, and expert advice.

The only thing predictable about menopause is its unpredictability. Factor in widespread misinformation, a lack of research, and the culture of shame around women's bodies, and it's no wonder women are unsure what to expect during the menopause transition and beyond.

Menopause is not a disease--it's a planned change, like puberty. And just like puberty, we should be educated on what's to come years in advance, rather than the current practice of leaving people on their own with bothersome symptoms and too much conflicting information. Knowing what is happening, why, and what to do about it is both empowering and reassuring.

Frank and funny, Dr. Jen debunks misogynistic attitudes and challenges the
over-mystification of menopause to reveal everything you really need to know about:

- Perimenopause
- Hot flashes
- Sleep disruption
- Sex and libido
- Depression and mood changes
- Skin and hair issues
- Outdated therapies
- Breast health
- Weight and muscle mass
- Health maintenance screening
- And much more!

Filled with practical, reassuring information, this essential guide will revolutionize how women experience menopause--including how their lives can be even better for it!]]> 400 Jen Gunter 0806540664 Liz 0 currently-reading 4.08 2021 The Menopause Manifesto: Own Your Health with Facts and Feminism
author: Jen Gunter
name: Liz
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/13
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants]]> 43797900
Read by the author.]]> 17 Robin Wall Kimmerer 1515975908 Liz 3 As opposed to listening if it would have been higher.]]> 4.39 2013 Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
author: Robin Wall Kimmerer
name: Liz
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/13
date added: 2025/01/13
shelves:
review:
I really wanted to like this book. At the beginning I loved it but by the end I was ready to be done with it. I would have given it 3.5 stars. I really like the concept, and the sound of the author’s voice, it was almost too relaxing to keep me engaged. I wonder if I had read it
As opposed to listening if it would have been higher.
]]> Okay for Now 9165406 Midwesterner Gary D. Schmidt won Newbery Honor awards for Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boys and The Wednesday Wars, two coming-of-age novels about unlikely friends finding a bond. Okay For Now, his latest novel, explores another seemingly improbable alliance, this one between new outsider in town Doug Swieteck and Lil Spicer, the savvy spitfire daughter of his deli owner boss. With her challenging assistance, Doug discovers new sides of himself. Along the way, he also readjusts his relationship with his abusive father, his school peers, and his older brother, a newly returned war victim of Vietnam.

]]> 360 Gary D. Schmidt 0547152604 Liz 0 to-read 4.23 2011 Okay for Now
author: Gary D. Schmidt
name: Liz
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/13
shelves: to-read
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]]> Apples Never Fall 56143578 #1 New York Times Bestseller
A Peacock Original TV Series–Streaming Soon

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

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

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

This is the dilemma facing the four grown Delaney siblings.

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

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

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

Later, when Joy goes missing, and Savannah is nowhere to be found, the police question the one person who remains: Stan. But for someone who claims to be innocent, he, like many spouses, seems to have a lot to hide. Two of the Delaney children think their father is innocent, two are not so sure—but as the two sides square off against each other in perhaps their biggest match ever, all of the Delaneys will start to reexamine their shared family history in a very new light.]]> 467 Liane Moriarty 1250220254 Liz 0 to-read 3.69 2021 Apples Never Fall
author: Liane Moriarty
name: Liz
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/13
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]]> The Three Lives of Cate Kay 214152244 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781668076217.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo meets First Lie Wins in this electric, voice-driven debut novel about an elusive bestselling author who decides to finally confess her true identity after years of hiding from her past.

Cate Kay knows how to craft a story. As the creator of a bestselling book trilogy that struck box office gold as a film series, she’s one of the most successful authors of her generation. The thing is, Cate Kay doesn’t really exist. She’s never attended author events or granted any interviews. Her real identity had been a closely guarded secret, until now.

As a young adult, she and her best friend Amanda dreamed of escaping their difficult homes and moving to California to become movie stars. But the day before their grand adventure, a tragedy shattered their dreams and Cate has been on the run ever since, taking on different names and charting a new future. But after a shocking revelation, Cate understands that returning home is the only way she’ll be a whole person again.]]> 304 Kate Fagan Liz 0 to-read 3.76 2025 The Three Lives of Cate Kay
author: Kate Fagan
name: Liz
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/09
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Lion Women of Tehran 199798217 A heartfelt novel of friendship, betrayal, and redemption set against three transformative decades in Tehran, Iran.

In 1950s Tehran, seven-year-old Ellie lives in grand comfort until the untimely death of her father, forcing Ellie and her mother to move to a tiny home downtown. Lonely and bearing the brunt of her mother’s endless grievances, Ellie dreams of a friend to alleviate her isolation.

Luckily, on the first day of school, she meets Homa, a kind, passionate girl with a brave and irrepressible spirit. Together, the two girls play games, learn to cook in the stone kitchen of Homa’s warm home, wander through the colorful stalls of the Grand Bazaar, and share their ambitions for becoming “lion women.�

But their happiness is disrupted when Ellie and her mother are afforded the opportunity to return to their previous bourgeois life. Now a popular student at the best girls� high school in Iran, Ellie’s memories of Homa begin to fade. Years later, however, her sudden reappearance in Ellie’s privileged world alters the course of both of their lives.

Together, the two young women come of age and pursue their own goals for meaningful futures. But as the political turmoil in Iran builds to a breaking point, one earth-shattering betrayal will have enormous consequences.]]> 327 Marjan Kamali 1668036584 Liz 0 to-read 4.48 2024 The Lion Women of Tehran
author: Marjan Kamali
name: Liz
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> How to Walk Away 36249638
In the hospital and forced to face the possibility that nothing will ever be the same again, Margaret must figure out how to move forward on her own terms while facing long-held family secrets, devastating heartbreak, and the idea that love might find her in the last place she would ever expect.]]> 302 Katherine Center 1250149061 Liz 0 to-read 4.06 2018 How to Walk Away
author: Katherine Center
name: Liz
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Life Is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age]]> 50255546
A pioneering and timely study of how to navigate life's biggest transitions with meaning, purpose, and skill

Bruce Feiler, author of the New York Times bestsellers The Secrets of Happy Families and Council of Dads , has long explored the stories that give our lives meaning. Galvanized by a personal crisis, he spent the last few years crisscrossing the country, collecting hundreds of life stories in all fifty states from Americans who’d been through major life changes—from losing jobs to losing loved ones; from changing careers to changing relationships; from getting sober to getting healthy to simply looking for a fresh start. He then spent a year coding these stories, identifying patterns and takeaways that can help all of us survive and thrive in times of change.

What Feiler discovered was a world in which transitions are becoming more plentiful and mastering the skills to manage them is more urgent for all of us. The idea that we’ll have one job, one relationship, one source of happiness is hopelessly outdated. We all feel unnerved by this upheaval. We’re concerned that our lives are not what we expected, that we’ve veered off course, living life out of order. But we’re not alone.

Life Is in the Transitions introduces the fresh, illuminating vision of the nonlinear life, in which each of us faces dozens of disruptors. One in ten of those becomes what Feiler calls a lifequake, a massive change that leads to a life transition. The average length of these transitions is five years. The We all spend half our lives in this unsettled state. You or someone you know is going through one now.

The most exciting thing Feiler identified is a powerful new tool kit for navigating these pivotal times. Drawing on his extraordinary trove of insights, he lays out specific strategies each of us can use to reimagine and rebuild our lives, often stronger than before.

From a master storyteller with an essential message, Life Is in the Transitions can move readers of any age to think deeply about times of change and how to transform them into periods of creativity and growth.]]> 366 Bruce Feiler Liz 0 to-read 3.90 2020 Life Is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age
author: Bruce Feiler
name: Liz
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/07
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]]> <![CDATA[The Breadwinner (The Breadwinner, #1)]]> 828015 The Breadwinner is trapped inside her family's one-room home. That is, until the Taliban hauls away her father and Parvana realizes that it's up to her to become the "breadwinner" and disguise herself as a boy to support her mother, two sisters, and baby brother. Set in the early years of the Taliban regime, this topical novel for middle readers explores the harsh realities of life for girls and women in modern-day Afghanistan. A political activist whose first book for children, Looking for X, dealt with poverty in Toronto, Ellis based The Breadwinner on the true-life stories of women in Afghan refugee camps.

In the wily Parvana, Ellis creates a character to whom North American children will have no difficulty relating. The daughter of university-educated parents, Parvana is thoroughly westernized in her outlook and responses. A pint-sized version of Offred from Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Parvana conceals her critique of the repressive Muslim state behind the veil of her chador. Although the dialogue is occasionally stilted and the ending disappointingly sketchy, The Breadwinner is essential reading for any child curious about ordinary Afghans. Like so many books and movies on the subject, it is also eerily prophetic. "Maybe someone should drop a big bomb on the country and start again," says a friend of Parvana's. "'They've tried that,' Parvana said, 'It only made things worse.'" (Ages 9 to 12) --Lisa Alward

]]> 171 Deborah Ellis 0888994168 Liz 4 4.02 2000 The Breadwinner (The Breadwinner, #1)
author: Deborah Ellis
name: Liz
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/31
date added: 2024/12/31
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]]> What Does It Feel Like? 214312329
“What Does It Feel Like? is fiction, but it is my most autobiographical work to date. Eve’s story is my story.”—Sophie Kinsella

Eve is a successful novelist who wakes up one day in a hospital bed with no memory of how she got there. Her husband, never far from her side, explains that she has had an operation to remove the large, malignant tumor growing in her brain.

As Eve learns to walk, talk, and write again—and as she wrestles with her diagnosis, and how and when to explain it to her beloved children—she begins to recall what’s most important to her: long walks with her husband’s hand clasped firmly around her own, family game nights, and always buying that dress when she sees it.

Recounted in brief anecdotes, each one is an attempt to answer the type of impossible questions recognizable to anyone navigating the labyrinth of grief. This short, extraordinary novel is a celebration of life, shot through with warmth and humor—it will both break your heart and put it back together again.

“Why did I write such a personal book? I have always processed my life through writing. Hiding behind my fictional characters, I have always turned my own life into a narrative. It is my version of therapy, maybe. Writing is my happy place, and writing this book, although tough going at times, was immensely satisfying and therapeutic for me.”—Sophie Kinsella]]> 144 Sophie Kinsella 0593977564 Liz 5
This book is very short and it was so good I listened to the whole thing twice in one day.]]> 4.26 2024 What Does It Feel Like?
author: Sophie Kinsella
name: Liz
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/31
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves:
review:
Excellent way to give insight to others who care and yet have not experienced similar things.

This book is very short and it was so good I listened to the whole thing twice in one day.
]]> Anita de Monte Laughs Last 209524568
New York Times bestselling author Xochitl Gonzalez delivers a mesmerizing novel about a first-generation Ivy League student who uncovers the genius work of a female artist decades after her suspicious death

1985. Anita de Monte, a rising star in the art world, is found dead in New York City; her tragic death is the talk of the town. Until it isn’t. By 1998 Anita’s name has been all but forgotten—certainly by the time Raquel, a third-year art history student is preparing her final thesis. On College Hill, surrounded by privileged students whose futures are already paved out for them, Raquel feels like an outsider. Students of color, like her, are the minority there, and the pressure to work twice as hard for the same opportunities is no secret.

But when Raquel becomes romantically involved with a well-connected older art student, she finds herself unexpectedly rising up the social ranks. As she attempts to straddle both worlds, she stumbles upon Anita’s story, raising questions about the dynamics of her own relationship, which eerily mirrors that of the forgotten artist.

Moving back and forth through time and told from the perspectives of both women, Anita de Monte Laughs Last is a propulsive, witty examination of power, love, and art, daring to ask who gets to be remembered and who is left behind in the rarefied world of the elite.]]> Xóchitl González Liz 3 3.78 2024 Anita de Monte Laughs Last
author: Xóchitl González
name: Liz
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/31
date added: 2024/12/31
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]]> The New House 59344722
Three couples.

About to purchase their dream home.

How far would you go to get the perfect life?

Perfect for fans of Louise Candlish and Shari Lapena, this domestic, psychological suspense novel will keep you on the edge of your seat.]]> 384 Tess Stimson 0008386080 Liz 0 to-read 3.88 2022 The New House
author: Tess Stimson
name: Liz
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: to-read
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]]> Don’t Forget to Write 75349380 334 Sara Goodman Confino 1662512236 Liz 0 to-read 4.49 2023 Don’t Forget to Write
author: Sara Goodman Confino
name: Liz
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: to-read
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]]> Family Family 127282881 “Not all stories of adoption are stories of pain and regret. Not even most of them. Why don’t we ever get that movie?�

India Allwood grew up wanting to be an actor. Armed with a stack of index cards (for research/line memorization/make-shift confetti), she goes from awkward sixteen-year-old to Broadway ingenue to TV superhero.

Her new movie is a prestige picture about adoption, but its spin is the same old tired story of tragedy. India is an adoptive mom in real life though. She wants everyone to know there’s more to her family than pain and regret. So she does something you should never do—she tells a journalist the truth: it’s a bad movie.

Soon she’s at the center of a media storm, battling accusations from the press and the paparazzi, from protesters on the right and advocates on the left. Her twin ten-year-olds know they need help–and who better to call than family? But that’s where it gets really messy because India’s not just an adoptive mother�

The one thing she knows for sure is what makes a family isn’t blood. And it isn’t love. No matter how they’re formed, the truth about family is this: it's complicated.]]> 400 Laurie Frankel 1250236800 Liz 4 Story line, although a Little slow to get into. The end of the book took me longer to read because there were so many quotes that I wanted to note in there because they are so accurate to Family.]]> 3.96 2024 Family Family
author: Laurie Frankel
name: Liz
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/26
date added: 2024/12/26
shelves:
review:
Don’t let the length of time it took me to read this book discourage you from reading it. Good
Story line, although a Little slow to get into. The end of the book took me longer to read because there were so many quotes that I wanted to note in there because they are so accurate to Family.
]]> The Daughter's Tale 40539216 BERLIN, 1939. The dreams that Amanda Sternberg and her husband, Julius, had for their daughters are shattered when the Nazis descend on Berlin, burning down their beloved family bookshop and sending Julius to a concentration camp. Desperate to save her children, Amanda flees toward the south of France, where the widow of an old friend of her husband’s has agreed to take her in. Along the way, a refugee ship headed for Cuba offers another chance at escape and there, at the dock, Amanda is forced to make an impossible choice that will haunt her for the rest of her life. Once in Haute-Vienne, her brief respite is inter­rupted by the arrival of Nazi forces, and Amanda finds herself in a labor camp where she must once again make a heroic sacrifice.

NEW YORK, 2015. Eighty-year-old Elise Duval receives a call from a woman bearing messages from a time and country that she forced herself to forget. A French Catholic who arrived in New York after World War II, Elise is shocked to discover that the letters were from her mother, written in German during the war. Despite Elise’s best efforts to stave off her past, seven decades of secrets begin to unravel.

Based on true events, The Daughter’s Tale chronicles one of the most harrowing atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis during the war. Heart­breaking and immersive, it is a beautifully crafted family saga of love, survival, and redemption.]]> 303 Armando Lucas Correa 1501187937 Liz 0 to-read 3.65 2019 The Daughter's Tale
author: Armando Lucas Correa
name: Liz
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/26
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]]> Oona Out of Order 45046893 A remarkably inventive novel that explores what it means to live a life fully in the moment, even if those moments are out of order.

It’s New Year’s Eve 1982, and Oona Lockhart has her whole life before her. At the stroke of midnight she will turn nineteen, and the year ahead promises to be one of consequence. Should she go to London to study economics, or remain at home in Brooklyn to pursue her passion for music and be with her boyfriend? As the countdown to the New Year begins, Oona faints and awakens thirty-two years in the future in her fifty-one-year-old body. Greeted by a friendly stranger in a beautiful house she’s told is her own, Oona learns that with each passing year she will leap to another age at random. And so begins Oona Out of Order...

Hopping through decades, pop culture fads, and much-needed stock tips, Oona is still a young woman on the inside but ever changing on the outside. Who will she be next year? Philanthropist? Club Kid? World traveler? Wife to a man she’s never met? Surprising, magical, and heart-wrenching, Margarita Montimore has crafted an unforgettable story about the burdens of time, the endurance of love, and the power of family.]]> 339 Margarita Montimore 1250236606 Liz 0 to-read 3.84 2020 Oona Out of Order
author: Margarita Montimore
name: Liz
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/19
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]]> How to Age Disgracefully 199605519
When Lydia takes a job running the Senior Citizens� Social Club three afternoons a week, she assumes she’ll be spending her time drinking tea and playing gentle games of cards.

The members of the Social Club, however, are not at all what Lydia was expecting. From Art, a failed actor turned kleptomaniac to Daphne, who has been hiding from her dark past for decades to Ruby, a Banksy-style knitter who gets revenge in yarn, these seniors look deceptively benign—but when age makes you invisible, secrets are so much easier to hide.

When the city council threatens to sell the doomed community center building, the members of the Social Club join forces with their tiny friends in the daycare next door—as well as the teenaged father of one of the toddlers and a geriatric dog—to save the building. Together, this group’s unorthodox methods may actually work, as long as the police don’t catch up with them first.]]> 337 Clare Pooley 0593831497 Liz 0 to-read 4.12 2024 How to Age Disgracefully
author: Clare Pooley
name: Liz
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/17
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[More Than a Game: 13 Keys to Success for Teen Athletes On and Off the Field]]> 31186549 114 Kyleigh Villarreal Liz 4 4.00 More Than a Game: 13 Keys to Success for Teen Athletes On and Off the Field
author: Kyleigh Villarreal
name: Liz
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/17
date added: 2024/12/17
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]]> The Last Apple Tree 201722272 When feuding neighbors Sonnet and Zeke are paired up for a class project, they unearth a secret that could uproot Sonnet’s family—or allow it to finally heal and grow.

Twelve-year-old Sonnet’s family has just moved across the country to live with her grandfather after her nana dies. Gramps’s once-impressive apple orchard has been razed for a housing development, with only one heirloom tree left. Sonnet doesn’t want to think about how Gramps and his tree are both growing old—she just wants everything to be okay.

Sonnet is not okay with her neighbor, Zeke, a boy her age who gets on her bad side and stays there when he tries to choose her grandpa to interview for an oral history assignment. Zeke irks Sonnet with his prying questions, bringing out the sad side of Gramps she’d rather not see. Meanwhile, Sonnet joins the Green Club at school and without talking to Zeke about it, she asks his activist father to speak at the Arbor Day assembly—a collision of worlds that Zeke wanted more than anything to avoid.

But when the interviews uncover a buried tragedy that concerns Sonnet's mother, and an emergency forces Sonnet and Zeke to cooperate again, Sonnet learns not just to accept Zeke as he is, but also that sometimes forgetting isn't the solution—even when remembering seems harder.

Award-winning author Claudia Mills brings enormous compassion and depth to this novel of unlikely friendship and generational memory.

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection]]> 275 Claudia Mills 0823459330 Liz 3 4.14 2024 The Last Apple Tree
author: Claudia Mills
name: Liz
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/15
date added: 2024/12/15
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]]> Daisy Jones & The Six 43998422
Everyone knows Daisy Jones & The Six, but nobody knows the reason behind their split at the absolute height of their popularity . . . until now.

Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock and roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.

Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.

Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.

The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the seventies. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a talented writer who takes her work to a new level with Daisy Jones & The Six, brilliantly capturing a place and time in an utterly distinctive voice.

Cast List: Daisy Jones, read by Jennifer Beals; Billy Dunne, read by Pablo Schreiber; Graham Dunne, read by Benjamin Bratt; Eddie Loving, read by Fred Berman; Warren Rhodes, read by Ari Fliakos; Karen Karen, read by Judy Greer; Camila Dunne, read by January LaVoy; Simone Jackson, read by Robinne Lee; Narrator/Author, read by Julia Whelan; Jim Blades, read by Jonathan Davis; Rod Reyes, read by Henry Leyva; Artie Snyder, read by Oliver Wyman; Elaine Chang, read by Nancy Wu; Freddie Mendoza, read by P.J. Ochlan; Nick Harris, read by Arthur Bishop; Jonah Berg, read by Holter Graham; Greg McGuinness, read by Brendan Wayne; Pete Loving, read by Pete Larkin; Wyatt Stone, read by Alex Jenkins Reid; Hank Allen, read by Robert Petkoff; Opal Cunningham, read by Sara Arrington]]> 10 Taylor Jenkins Reid Liz 4 4.20 2019 Daisy Jones & The Six
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Liz
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/28
date added: 2024/12/01
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]]> <![CDATA[My Grief Jar: Still Growing After the Loss of My Daughter]]> 219535661 "Emotionally engaging, and as intensely personal as it is universal in experience...A cathartic and deftly crafted memoir of love, loss, and bereavement..." (Midwest Book Review)

Debbie Waffle's happy childhood, loving marriage, and successful career as an elementary school teacher all prepared her for a joyful, trouble-free path in motherhood. But early on, her firstborn child, Kelsey, developed medical problems that left Debbie both anguished by her daughter's chronic pain and determined to find the doctor, diagnosis, and treatment that would cure her. Instead, Kelsey's symptoms worsened. And as Kelsey's ability to feel well and live independently vanished, Debbie began to unravel—even as she continued to hunt for answers. When the unthinkable happened, Debbie blamed herself.

The grief of losing a child never goes away. But in the metaphor about the "grief jar," the space around that heartache eventually can grow—so there's more room to have other things in there, too. For Debbie, it's Kelsey's young retriever, Brody, who helps counter her despondency. Living out Kelsey's dream for Brody to become a therapy dog and help others in distress, Debbie felt—and still feels—her daughter's spirit infusing her new life with purpose and even happiness again.]]> 260 Deborah Waffle Liz 0 to-read 4.80 My Grief Jar: Still Growing After the Loss of My Daughter
author: Deborah Waffle
name: Liz
average rating: 4.80
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/29
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics]]> 22717176
The number one New York Times best-selling story about American Olympic triumph in Nazi Germany, the inspiration for the PBS documentary The Boys of '36, broadcast to coincide with the 2016 Summer Olympics and the 80th anniversary of the boys' gold medal race.

For readers/listeners of Unbroken, out of the depths of the Depression comes an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times - the improbable, intimate account of how nine working-class boys from the American West showed the world at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin what true grit really meant. It was an unlikely quest from the start. With a team composed of the sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the University of Washington’s eight-oar crew team was never expected to defeat the elite teams of the East Coast and Great Britain, yet they did, going on to shock the world by defeating the German team rowing for Adolf Hitler. The emotional heart of the tale lies with Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, who rows not only to regain his shattered self-regard but also to find a real place for himself in the world. Drawing on the boys� own journals and vivid memories of a once-in-a-lifetime shared dream, Brown has created an unforgettable portrait of an era, a celebration of a remarkable achievement, and a chronicle of one extraordinary young man’s personal quest.]]> 15 Daniel James Brown Liz 4 4.43 2013 The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
author: Daniel James Brown
name: Liz
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/11/24
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier]]> 137978862
In Build the Life You Want , Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey invite you to begin a journey toward greater happiness no matter how challenging your circumstances. Drawing on cutting-edge science and their years of helping people translate ideas into action, they show you how to improve your life right now instead of waiting for the outside world to change.

With insight, compassion, and hope, Brooks and Winfrey reveal how the tools of emotional self-management can change your life―immediately. They recommend practical, research-based practices to build the four pillars of family, friendship, work, and faith. And along the way, they share hard-earned wisdom from their own lives and careers as well as the witness of regular people whose lives are joyful despite setbacks and hardship.

Equipped with the tools of emotional self-management and ready to build your four pillars, you can take control of your present and future rather than hoping and waiting for your circumstances to improve. Build the Life You Want is your blueprint for a better life.]]> 272 Arthur C. Brooks 0593545400 Liz 0 to-read 3.76 2023 Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier
author: Arthur C. Brooks
name: Liz
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/24
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]]> <![CDATA[Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design]]> 13330588
After decades of unchecked sprawl, more people than ever are moving back to the city. Dense urban living has been prescribed as a panacea for the environmental and resource crises of our time. But is it better or worse for our happiness? Are subways, sidewalks and condo towers an improvement on the car-dependence of sprawl?

The award-winning journalist Charles Montgomery finds answers to such questions at the intersection between urban design and the emerging science of happiness, during an exhilarating journey through some of the world’s most dynamic cities. He meets the visionary mayor who introduced a “sexy� bus to ease status anxiety in Bogotá; the architect who brought the lessons of medieval Tuscan hill towns to modern-day New York City; the activist who turned Paris’s urban freeways into beaches; and an army of American suburbanites who have hacked the design of their own streets and neighborhoods.

Rich with new insights from psychology, neuroscience and Montgomery’s own urban experiments, Happy City reveals how our cities can shape our thoughts as well as our behavior. The message is as surprising as it is by retrofitting cities and our own lives for happiness, we can tackle the urgent challenges of our age. The happy city can save the world--and all of us can help build it.]]> 368 Charles Montgomery 0385669127 Liz 0 currently-reading 4.37 2012 Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design
author: Charles Montgomery
name: Liz
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/12
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[No One Gets to Fall Apart: A Memoir]]> 199793610 A Lit Hub's "Most Anticipated" * An Oprah Daily "Best Book of Fall" * An Esquire "Best Memoir of the Year" * A San Francisco Chronicle "New Book for a Season of Change" * A Zibby Owens "Most Anticipated"

In this poignant memoir, as candid and indelible as The Glass Castle and Memorial Drive, a writer takes on the conflict between the love that binds us to home and the desire to escape it for good .

On a highway in Houston, Texas, Sarah LaBrie’s mother was found screaming at passing cars, terrified she would be murdered by invisible assailants. The diagnosis of schizophrenia that followed compelled Sarah to rethink her childhood, marked at turns by violence and all-consuming closeness.

Digging into the events that led to her mother’s break, Sarah traces her family history of mental illness, from the dysphoria that plagued her great-grandmother, a granddaughter of slaves, to her own experience with depression as a scholarship student at Brown. At the same time, she navigates a decades-long fixation on a novel she can’t finish but can't abandon, her complicated feelings about her white partner, and a fraught friendship colored by betrayal.

Spanning the globe from Houston’s Third Ward to Paris to Tallinn and New York to Los Angeles, No One Gets to Fall Apart is an unflinching chronicle of one woman's attempt to forge a new future through a better understanding of the past.]]> 224 Sarah LaBrie 0063280728 Liz 3 3.45 2024 No One Gets to Fall Apart: A Memoir
author: Sarah LaBrie
name: Liz
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/12
date added: 2024/11/12
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]]> <![CDATA[Just Add Water: My Swimming Life]]> 203931794 A candid and inspiring memoir from Olympic gold medalist, world champion, and one of the best swimmers ever to compete: Katie Ledecky.

Katie Ledecky has won more individual Olympic races than any female swimmer in history. She is a three-time Olympian, a seven-time gold medalist, a twenty-one-time world champion, eight-time NCAA Champion, and a world record-holder in individual swimming events. Time and again, the question is posed to her family, her coaches, and to her—what makes her a champion? Now, for the first time, she shares what it takes to compete at an elite level.

Again and again, Ledecky has broken records: those of others and, increasingly, her own. She is both consistent and innovative—consistent at setting goals and shattering them, and innovative in the way she approaches her training. A true competitor, she sets her goals by choosing the ones that feel the scariest. But, crucially, she never sacrifices the joy of competition, even in the face of adversity. Her positive mental outlook and a great support system provides the springboard to her success.

Just Add Water charts Ledecky’s life in swimming. It details her start in Bethesda, Maryland, where she played sharks and minnows and first discovered the joy of the pool; her early foray into the Olympics at the tender age of fifteen where, as the youngest member of the American team, she stunned everyone by winning her first gold medal; her time balancing competition and her education at Stanford University; how she developed a champion’s mindset that has allowed her to persevere through so many meets, even under intense pressure; and how she has maintained her dominance in a sport where success depends on milliseconds. You learn how every element of her life—from the support of her family to the tutelage of her coaches, from her childhood spent in summer league swimming to the bright lights of Olympic pools in London, Rio, and Tokyo—set her up to become the champion she is.

In the end, Katie’s story is about testing yourself against the difficult, and seeing who you become on the other side.]]> 256 Katie Ledecky 1668060205 Liz 0 to-read 4.13 2024 Just Add Water: My Swimming Life
author: Katie Ledecky
name: Liz
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/05
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]]> <![CDATA[Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves]]> 38255372 An inspiring collection of essays by black women writers, curated by the founder of the popular book club Well-Read Black Girl, on the importance of recognizing ourselves in literature.

Remember that moment when you first encountered a character who seemed to be written just for you? That feeling of belonging can stick with readers the rest of their lives--but it doesn't come around as frequently for all of us. In this timely anthology, "well-read black girl" Glory Edim brings together original essays by some of our best black female writers and creative voices to shine a light on how we search for ourselves in literature, and how important it is that everyone--no matter their gender, race, religion, or abilities--can find themselves there. Whether it's learning about the complexities of femalehood from Their Eyes Were Watching God, seeing a new type of love in The Color Purple, or using mythology to craft an alternative black future, each essay reminds us why we turn to books in times of both struggle and relaxation. As she has done with her incredible book-club-turned-online-community Well-Read Black Girl, in this book, Edim has created a space where black women's writing and knowledge and life experiences are lifted up, to be shared with all readers who value the power of a story to help us understand the world, and ourselves.

Contributors include: Jesmyn Ward (Sing Unburied Sing), Lynn Nottage (Sweat), Jacqueline Woodson (Another Brooklyn), Gabourey Sidibe (This Is Just My Face), Morgan Jerkins (This Will Be My Undoing), Zinzi Clemmons (What We Lose), N. K. Jemisin (The Fifth Season), Tayari Jones (An American Marriage), Nicole Dennis-Benn (Here Comes the Sun), Rebecca Walker (Black, White and Jewish), and more.]]> 201 Glory Edim 0525619771 Liz 3 4.36 2018 Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves
author: Glory Edim
name: Liz
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/23
date added: 2024/10/23
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]]> Same As It Ever Was 199344873
She’s unprepared, though, for what comes next: a surprise announcement from her straight-arrow son, an impending separation from her spikey teenaged daughter, and a seductive resurgence of the past, all of which threaten to draw her back into the patterns that had previously kept her on a razor’s edge.

Same As It Ever Was traverses the rocky terrain of real life, —exploring new avenues of maternal ambivalence, intergenerational friendship, and the happenstantial cause-and-effect that governs us all. Delving even deeper into the nature of relationships—how they grow, change, and sometimes end—Lombardo proves herself a true and definitive cartographer of the human heart and asserts herself among the finest novelists of her generation.]]> 498 Claire Lombardo 0385549555 Liz 0 to-read 3.82 2024 Same As It Ever Was
author: Claire Lombardo
name: Liz
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/21
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]]> <![CDATA[Generation M: Living Well in Perimenopause and Menopause]]> 210174092
Finally, here is a fresh plan for a new generation entering perimenopause and menopause. With clinical insights, actionable tips, and holistic guidance, Dr. Jessica Shepherd, a board-certified OB/GYN and women’s health advocate, redefines how to sustain the marathon of this life stage so you can make the most of your health and vitality. In Generation M, she throws out the old playbook and provides you with an empowering approach to thriving through this change and beyond. Dr. Shepherd draws upon many conversations with leading experts in nutrition, meditation, and fitness, as well as with those living through perimenopause and menopause, who’ve shared what challenges them and what helps them live vibrantly. In this book you will find:
Scientifically backed information and advice from a doctor and menopause expert
Evidence-based recommendations, tips, tools, and personal building blocks for the best health practices
A guided exploration of new medical research and data
A deep dive on the safety and efficacy of HRT, including information on what medications to take and when to take them
Holistic advice on how to ease your transition during this period, including recommendations for exercise, diet, sleep, mindfulness practices, and more
An accessible yet powerful, and at times humorous, voice from a woman who understands what you are going through
Discover the steps you need now for the future you desire—and stay healthy, active, and fabulous along the way.]]> 288 Jessica Shepherd 1454954892 Liz 4 3.88 2024 Generation M: Living Well in Perimenopause and Menopause
author: Jessica Shepherd
name: Liz
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/21
date added: 2024/10/21
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]]> How to Stop Time 45152372 "She smiled a soft, troubled smile and I felt the whole world slipping away, and I wanted to slip with it, to go wherever she was going... I had existed whole years without her, but that was all it had been. An existence. A book with no words."

Tom Hazard has just moved back to London, his old home, to settle down and become a high school history teacher. And on his first day at school, he meets a captivating French teacher at his school who seems fascinated by him. But Tom has a dangerous secret. He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old, but owing to a rare condition, he's been alive for centuries. Tom has lived history--performing with Shakespeare, exploring the high seas with Captain Cook, and sharing cocktails with Fitzgerald. Now, he just wants an ordinary life.

Unfortunately for Tom, the Albatross Society, the secretive group which protects people like Tom, has one rule: Never fall in love. As painful memories of his past and the erratic behavior of the Society's watchful leader threaten to derail his new life and romance, the one thing he can't have just happens to be the one thing that might save him. Tom will have to decide once and for all whether to remain stuck in the past, or finally begin living in the present.

How to Stop Time tells a love story across the ages--and for the ages--about a man lost in time, the woman who could save him, and the lifetimes it can take to learn how to live. It is a bighearted, wildly original novel about losing and finding yourself, the inevitability of change, and how with enough time to learn, we just might find happiness.

Soon to be a major motion picture starring Benedict Cumberbatch.]]> 339 Matt Haig 0525522891 Liz 0 to-read 3.78 2018 How to Stop Time
author: Matt Haig
name: Liz
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/20
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]]> Girl in the Blue Coat 40726583
On a routine delivery, a client asks Hanneke for help. Expecting to hear that Mrs. Janssen wants meat or kerosene, Hanneke is shocked by the older woman's frantic plea to find a person - a Jewish teenager Mrs. Janssen had been hiding, who has vanished without a trace from a secret room. Hanneke initially wants nothing to do with such dangerous work, but is ultimately drawn into a web of mysteries and stunning revelations that lead her into the heart of the resistance, open her eyes to the horrors of the Nazi war machine, and compel her to take desperate action.

Beautifully written, intricately plotted, and meticulously researched, Girl in the Blue Coat is an extraordinary, gripping novel from a bright new voice.]]> 310 Monica Hesse 0316260649 Liz 4 4.02 2016 Girl in the Blue Coat
author: Monica Hesse
name: Liz
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/17
date added: 2024/10/17
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]]> <![CDATA[The One and Only Family (The One and Only #4)]]> 195853536 272 Katherine Applegate 0063221128 Liz 4 4.38 2024 The One and Only Family (The One and Only #4)
author: Katherine Applegate
name: Liz
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/13
date added: 2024/10/13
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]]> The Last One at the Wedding 203579177 From the bestselling author of Hidden Pictures comes a breathtaking work of suspense about a father trying to save his daughter from a life-altering decision that will put everything he loves on the line.

Frank Szatowski is shocked when his daughter, Maggie, calls him for the first time in three years. He was convinced that their estrangement would become permanent. He’s even more surprised when she invites him to her upcoming wedding in New Hampshire. Frank is ecstatic, and determined to finally make things right.

He arrives to find that the wedding is at a private estate—very secluded, very luxurious, very much out of his league. It seems that Maggie failed to mention that she’s marrying Aidan Gardner, the son of a famous tech billionaire. Feeling desperately out of place, Frank focuses on reconnecting with Maggie and getting to know her new family. But it’s difficult: Aidan is withdrawn and evasive; Maggie doesn’t seem to have time for him; and he finds that the locals are disturbingly hostile to the Gardners. Frank needs to know more about this family his daughter is marrying into, but if he pushes too hard, he could lose Maggie forever.

An edge-of-your-seat thriller that delves deep into the heart of one family, The Last One at the Wedding is a work of brilliant suspense from a true modern master.]]> 338 Jason Rekulak 1250895782 Liz 0 to-read 3.62 2024 The Last One at the Wedding
author: Jason Rekulak
name: Liz
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/11
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]]> <![CDATA[My Friend Anne Frank: The Inspiring and Heartbreaking True Story of Best Friends Torn Apart and Reunited Against All Odds]]> 74873452 "Both heartbreaking and life-affirming" (Edith Eger, author of The Choice), the long-awaited New York Times bestselling memoir of Holocaust survivor Hannah Pick-Goslar, who shares an intimate look into her life and friendship with Anne Frank.�

In 1933, Hannah Pick-Goslar and her family fled Nazi Germany to live in Amsterdam, where she struck up a close friendship with her next-door neighbor, an outspoken and fun-loving young girl named Anne Frank. For several years, the inseparable pair enjoyed a carefree childhood of games, sleepovers, and treats with the other children in their neighborhood of Rivierenbuurt. But in 1942, Hannah and Anne's lives abruptly changed forever. As the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam progressed, Anne and the Frank family seemingly vanished, leaving behind unmade beds and dishes in the sink—but no trace of Anne's precious diary. Torn from her dear friend without warning, Hannah spent the next two years tormented by questions about Anne's fate, wondering if she had, by some miracle, managed to escape danger.

In this long‑awaited memoir, Hannah shares the story of her childhood during the Holocaust, from the introduction of anti-Jewish laws in Amsterdam to the gradual disappearance of classmates and, eventually, the Frank family, to Hannah and her family's imprisonment in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. As Hannah chronicles the experiences of her own life during and after the war, she provides a searing look at what countless children endured at the hands of the Nazi regime, as well as an intimate, never‑before‑seen portrait of the most recognizable victim of the Holocaust. Culminating in an astonishing fateful reunion, My Friend Anne Frankis the profoundly moving story of childhood and friendship during one of the darkest periods in the world's history.]]> 315 Hannah Pick-Goslar Liz 0 to-read 4.76 2023 My Friend Anne Frank: The Inspiring and Heartbreaking True Story of Best Friends Torn Apart and Reunited Against All Odds
author: Hannah Pick-Goslar
name: Liz
average rating: 4.76
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/11
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]]> <![CDATA[Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing]]> 59641216
So begins the riveting story of acclaimed actor Matthew Perry, taking us along on his journey from childhood ambition to fame to addiction and recovery in the aftermath of a life-threatening health scare. Before the frequent hospital visits and stints in rehab, there was five-year-old Matthew, who traveled from Montreal to Los Angeles, shuffling between his separated parents; fourteen-year-old Matthew, who was a nationally ranked tennis star in Canada; twenty-four-year-old Matthew, who nabbed a coveted role as a lead cast member on the talked-about pilot then called Friends Like Us. . . and so much more.

In an extraordinary story that only he could tell—and in the heartfelt, hilarious, and warmly familiar way only he could tell it—Matthew Perry lays bare the fractured family that raised him (and also left him to his own devices), the desire for recognition that drove him to fame, and the void inside him that could not be filled even by his greatest dreams coming true. But he also details the peace he’s found in sobriety and how he feels about the ubiquity of Friends, sharing stories about his castmates and other stars he met along the way. Frank, self-aware, and with his trademark humor, Perry vividly depicts his lifelong battle with addiction and what fueled it despite seemingly having it all.

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing is an unforgettable memoir that is both intimate and eye-opening—as well as a hand extended to anyone struggling with sobriety. Unflinchingly honest, moving, and uproariously funny, this is the book fans have been waiting for.]]> 250 Matthew Perry 1250866448 Liz 3 3.89 2022 Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing
author: Matthew Perry
name: Liz
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/08
date added: 2024/10/08
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]]> Blood Dazzler 3348584
Assuming the voices of flailing politicians, the dying, their survivors, and the voice of the hurricane itself, Smith follows the woefully inadequate relief effort and stands witness to families held captive on rooftops and in the Superdome. She gives voice to the thirty-four nursing home residents who drowned in St. Bernard Parish and recalls the day after their deaths when George W. Bush accompanied country singer Mark Willis on guitar:

The cowboy grins through the terrible din,
***
And in the Ninth, a choking woman wails
Look like this country done left us for dead.

An unforgettable reminder that poetry can still be “news that stays news,� Blood Dazzler is a necessary step toward national healing.

Patricia Smith is the author of four previous collections of poetry, including Teahouse of the Almighty, winner of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and the Paterson Poetry Prize. A record-setting, national poetry slam champion, she was featured in the film Slamnation, on the HBO series Def Poetry Jam, and is a frequent contributor to Harriet, the Poetry Foundation’s blog.]]> 77 Patricia Smith 156689218X Liz 0 to-read 4.42 2008 Blood Dazzler
author: Patricia Smith
name: Liz
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/08
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]]> <![CDATA[Ordinary Mysticism: Your Life as Sacred Ground]]> 199793521
So begins beloved spiritual guide Mirabai Starr's stunning exploration of finding the extraordinary in the everyday. In Ordinary Mysticism, she helps readers discover their own inner mystic and let go of the limiting belief that spiritual life exists only in traditional places of worship. Mysticism, she explains, is a direct experience of the sacred--no church or clergy required. Our everyday life can be an encounter with the sacred if we pay attention. Starr explores the magic of mundane life, from weeding in our humble gardens to a slow evening walk with a friend to a full kitchen table surrounded by family. Embracing mysticism in our everyday is a way of being more alive in the world, an awakening to the interconnectedness between all things.

You can visit an ashram in the Himalayas or kneel in a church pew to connect to the spirit or examine life's big questions--but these aren't the only opportunities to discover the sacred. Life, Starr reminds us, is holy ground. Lyrical and tender, filled with profound wisdom and mind-opening insights, Ordinary Mysticism is about finding wonder in regular life, grounded in lessons from spiritual teachers across the centuries--from Julian of Norwich to Ram Dass. Starr combines their ancient wisdom with the story of her own personal and spiritual journey--from surviving the heartbreak of her fourteen-year-old daughter's death to growing up amid the 1960s counterculture that introduced her to mysticism to her self-made spiritual practice of today. Alongside storytelling and age-old teachings, Starr offers practices and writing prompts for help our souls seek holy ground.

When you decide to walk the path of the mystic, the mundane shows up as miraculous, the boring becomes fascinating, and your own shortcomings turn out to be your greatest gifts. May we all find meaning and wonder in our most ordinary moments.]]> 240 Mirabai Starr 0063317192 Liz 0 to-read 4.31 Ordinary Mysticism: Your Life as Sacred Ground
author: Mirabai Starr
name: Liz
average rating: 4.31
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/29
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]]> <![CDATA[The Small and the Mighty: Twelve Unsung Americans Who Changed the Course of History, from the Founding to the Civil Rights Movement]]> 203956674 America’s favorite government teacher offers thrilling, heartfelt stories of ordinary American heroes.Most pundits and historians sell a dangerously naïve version of the American story—either praising its most consequential figures uncritically or criticizing them unfairly.Sharon McMahon believes the truth is more human. In her debut book The Small and the Mighty, she tells the inpiring stories of twelve Americans--regular people with human foibles--whose extraordinary heroism in the face of mounting trials created the character of our country.With the same clarity and candor that's earned her millions of fans, McMahon follows the daughter of formerly enslaved parents who sparked a reformation in Black education, a Japanese immigrant who nearly died in combat and became a consequential Senator, and even the electrician who saved her husband’s life. Her unforgettable prose and meticulous research tell the story of America from the perspective of the unsung heroes whose devotion to their country will restore your faith in the American dream.The portraits of our nation’s most improbable champions, innovators, and rebels in this book celebrate the United States and reveal our common humanity. The Small and the Mighty is the encouragement we all need in an age of doomscrolling and division.]]> 320 Sharon McMahon 0593541677 Liz 0 to-read 4.45 2024 The Small and the Mighty: Twelve Unsung Americans Who Changed the Course of History, from the Founding to the Civil Rights Movement
author: Sharon McMahon
name: Liz
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/29
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]]> Horse 59109077 A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American history: from these strands, a Pulitzer Prize winner braids a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, and injustice across American history

Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. When the nation erupts in civil war, an itinerant young artist who has made his name on paintings of the racehorse takes up arms for the Union. On a perilous night, he reunites with the stallion and his groom, very far from the glamor of any racetrack.

New York City, 1954. Martha Jackson, a gallery owner celebrated for taking risks on edgy contemporary painters, becomes obsessed with a nineteenth-century equestrian oil painting of mysterious provenance.

Washington, DC, 2019. Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian, find themselves unexpectedly connected through their shared interest in the horse--one studying the stallion's bones for clues to his power and endurance, the other uncovering the lost history of the unsung Black horsemen who were critical to his racing success.

Based on the remarkable true story of the record-breaking thoroughbred Lexington, Horse is a novel of art and science, love and obsession, and our unfinished reckoning with racism.]]> 401 Geraldine Brooks 0399562966 Liz 5 4.17 2022 Horse
author: Geraldine Brooks
name: Liz
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/26
date added: 2024/09/26
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]]> <![CDATA[The Death and Life of the Great Lakes]]> 35187180
The Death and Life of the Great Lakes is prize-winning reporter Dan Egan’s compulsively readable portrait of an ecological catastrophe happening right before our eyes, blending the epic story of the lakes with an examination of the perils they face and the ways we can restore and preserve them for generations to come.]]> 364 Dan Egan 0393355551 Liz 3 4.32 2017 The Death and Life of the Great Lakes
author: Dan Egan
name: Liz
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/26
date added: 2024/09/26
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]]> <![CDATA[Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking]]> 8520610 The book that started the Quiet Revolution

At least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking; who innovate and create but dislike self-promotion; who favor working on their own over working in teams. It is to introverts—Rosa Parks, Chopin, Dr. Seuss, Steve Wozniak—that we owe many of the great contributions to society.

In Quiet, Susan Cain argues that we dramatically undervalue introverts and shows how much we lose in doing so. She charts the rise of the Extrovert Ideal throughout the twentieth century and explores how deeply it has come to permeate our culture. She also introduces us to successful introverts—from a witty, high-octane public speaker who recharges in solitude after his talks, to a record-breaking salesman who quietly taps into the power of questions. Passionately argued, superbly researched, and filled with indelible stories of real people, Quiet has the power to permanently change how we see introverts and, equally important, how they see themselves.

Now with Extra Libris material, including a reader’s guide and bonus content.]]> 333 Susan Cain 0307352145 Liz 0 to-read 4.07 2012 Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
author: Susan Cain
name: Liz
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/26
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]]> All Fours 197798168
A semifamous artist announces her plan to drive cross-country, from LA to New York. Twenty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, beds down in a nondescript motel, and immerses herself in a temporary reinvention that turns out to be the start of an entirely different journey.

Miranda July’s second novel confirms the brilliance of her unique approach to fiction. With July’s wry voice, perfect comic timing, unabashed curiosity about human intimacy, and palpable delight in pushing boundaries, All Fours tells the story of one woman’s quest for a new kind of freedom. Part absurd entertainment, part tender reinvention of the sexual, romantic, and domestic life of a forty-five-year-old female artist, All Fours transcends expectation while excavating our beliefs about life lived as a woman. Once again, July hijacks the familiar and turns it into something new and thrillingly, profoundly alive.]]> 336 Miranda July 0593190262 Liz 0 to-read 3.53 2024 All Fours
author: Miranda July
name: Liz
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/23
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]]> <![CDATA[The Perfect Couple (Nantucket, #3)]]> 34840184
But it's going to be memorable for all the wrong reasons after tragedy strikes: a body is discovered in Nantucket Harbor just hours before the ceremony-and everyone in the wedding party is suddenly a suspect. As Chief of Police Ed Kapenash interviews the bride, the groom, the groom's famous mystery-novelist mother, and even a member of his own family, he discovers that every wedding is a minefield-and no couple is perfect. Featuring beloved characters from The Castaways, Beautiful Day, and A Summer Affair, The Perfect Couple proves once again that Elin Hilderbrand is the queen of the summer beach read.]]> 480 Elin Hilderbrand 0316375241 Liz 0 to-read 3.93 2018 The Perfect Couple (Nantucket, #3)
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Liz
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/15
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Addicted to Drama: Healing Dependency on Crisis and Chaos in Yourself and Others]]> 56221016
Do you know someone who seems to thrive on chaos, a person who manufactures crisis where there is none, makes mountains out of molehills, and whose very presence feels like an inescapable whirlwind?
You may even label them a “drama queen.”�
This person might be someone close to you.
This person might even be you.

In this groundbreaking book, clinical psychologist and mind-body expert Dr. Scott Lyons turns the notion of the “drama queen� on its head, showing that drama is actually an addiction and those who are suffering with it are experiencing a much deeper psychological, biological, and social pain. For a person addicted to drama, the intensity becomes their way of coping. Their life is a constant cycle of crisis, chaos, and chronically high levels of stress. They may never be able to relax without an internal alarm going off, sending them spiraling back toward chaos. Drama is the stirring, the excitement, the exaggeration, the eruption, the unrest, and the medicine to feel alive in relation to the numbing of the internal and external world around them. For a person addicted to drama, the drama is often how they survive—or think they do.

With studies, primary research, and patient stories, Dr. Lyons deconstructs this little-understood addiction,
Rather than dismiss addiction to drama as just attention-seeking, Dr. Lyons offers clear-eyed empathy, humor, and practical strategies to help us all understand and break free of the drama cycle.]]> 288 Scott Lyons 0306925834 Liz 0 to-read 3.87 Addicted to Drama: Healing Dependency on Crisis and Chaos in Yourself and Others
author: Scott Lyons
name: Liz
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]]> <![CDATA[Infectious Generosity: The Ultimate Idea Worth Spreading]]> 178332355
“I flew through these pages with an increasing sense of joy. I hope that millions read this book.”—Elizabeth Gilbert,author of Eat, Pray, Love

Let’s face Recent years have been tough on optimists. Hopes that the Internet might bring people together have been crushed by the ills of social media. Is there a way back?

As head of TED, Chris Anderson has had a ringside view of the world’s boldest thinkers sharing their most uplifting ideas. Inspired by them, he believes that it’s within our grasp to turn outrage back into optimism. It all comes down to reimagining one of the most fundamental human generosity. What if generosity could become infectious generosity? Consider

� how a London barber began offering haircuts to people experiencing homelessness—and catalyzed a movement
� how two anonymous donors gave $10,000 each to two hundred strangers and discovered that most recipients wanted to “pay it forward� with their own generous acts
� how TED itself transformed from a niche annual summit into a global beacon of ideas by giving away talks online, allowing millions access to free learning

In telling these inspiring stories, Anderson has given us “the first page-turner ever written about human generosity� (Elizabeth Dunn). More important, he offers a playbook for how to embark on our own generous acts—whether gifts of money, time, talent, connection, or kindness—and to prime them, thanks to the Internet, to have self-replicating, even world-changing, impact.]]> 272 Chris J. Anderson 059372755X Liz 3 3.64 Infectious Generosity: The Ultimate Idea Worth Spreading
author: Chris J. Anderson
name: Liz
average rating: 3.64
book published:
rating: 3
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]]> <![CDATA[Life After Suicide: Finding Courage, Comfort & Community After Unthinkable Loss]]> 43500359
Jennifer Ashton, M.D., has witnessed firsthand the impact of a loved one's suicide. When her ex-husband killed himself soon after their divorce, her world-and that of her children-was shattered. Though she held a very public position with one of the world's largest media companies, she was hesitant to speak about the personal trauma that she and her family experienced following his death. A woman who addresses the public regularly on intimate health topics, she was uncertain of revealing her devastating loss-the most painful thing she'd ever experienced. But with the high-profile suicides of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain, Dr. Ashton recognized the importance of talking about her experience and the power of giving voice to her grief. She shared her story with her Good Morning America family on air-an honest, heartbreaking revelation that provided comfort and solace to others, like her and her family, who have been left behind.

In Life After Suicide, she opens up completely for the first time, hoping that her experience and words can inspire those faced with the unthinkable to persevere. Part memoir and part comforting guide that incorporates the latest insights from researchers and health professionals, Life After Suicide is both a call to arms against this dangerous, devastating epidemic, and an affecting story of personal grief and loss. In addition, Dr. Ashton includes stories from others who have survived the death of a loved one by their own hand, showing how they survived the unthinkable and demonstrating the vital roles that conversation and community play in recovering from the suicide of a loved one. The end result is a raw and revealing exploration of a subject that's been taboo for far too long, providing support, information, and comfort for those attempting to make sense of their loss and find a way to heal.]]> 0 Jennifer Ashton 1982657197 Liz 0 to-read 3.73 Life After Suicide: Finding Courage, Comfort & Community After Unthinkable Loss
author: Jennifer Ashton
name: Liz
average rating: 3.73
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]]> Night 1617 Night is the terrifying record of Elie Wiesel's memories of the death of his family, the death of his own innocence, and his despair as a deeply observant Jew confronting the absolute evil of man. This new translation by his wife and most frequent translator, Marion Wiesel, corrects important details and presents the most accurate rendering in English of Elie Wiesel's testimony to what happened in the camps and of his unforgettable message that this horror must simply never be allowed to happen again.]]> 120 Elie Wiesel 0374500010 Liz 5 4.38 1956 Night
author: Elie Wiesel
name: Liz
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1956
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/06
date added: 2024/09/06
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]]> This Summer Will Be Different 197577126 This summer they’ll keep their promise. This summer they won’t give into temptation. This summer will be different.

Lucy is the tourist vacationing at a beach house on Prince Edward Island. Felix is the local who shows her a very good time. The only problem: Lucy doesn’t know he’s her best friend’s younger brother. Lucy and Felix’s chemistry is unreal, but the list of reasons why they need to stay away from each other is long, and they vow to never repeat that electric night again.

It’s easier said than done.

Each year, Lucy escapes to PEI for a big breath of coastal air, fresh oysters and crisp vinho verde with her best friend, Bridget. Every visit begins with a long walk on the beach, beneath soaring red cliffs and a golden sun. And every visit, Lucy promises herself she won’t wind up in Felix’s bed. Again.

If Lucy can’t help being drawn to Felix, at least she’s always kept her heart out of it.

When Bridget suddenly flees Toronto a week before her wedding, Lucy drops everything to follow her to the island. Her mission is to help Bridget through her crisis and resist the one man she’s never been able to. But Felix’s sparkling eyes and flirty quips have been replaced with something new, and Lucy’s beginning to wonder just how safe her heart truly is.]]> 368 Carley Fortune 0593638883 Liz 0 to-read 3.94 2024 This Summer Will Be Different
author: Carley Fortune
name: Liz
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/05
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]]> Meet Me at the Lake 61797464
At thirty-two, Fern's life doesn't look at all how she once imagined it would. Instead of living in the city, Fern's back home, running her mother's Muskoka lakeside resort—something she vowed never to do. The place is in disarray, her ex-boyfriend's the manager, and Fern doesn't know where to begin.

She needs a plan—a lifeline. To her surprise, it comes in the form of Will, who arrives nine years too late, with a suitcase in tow and an offer to help on his lips. Will may be the only person who understands what Fern's going through. But how could she possibly trust this expensive-suit wearing mirage who seems nothing like the young man she met all those years ago. Will is hiding something, and Fern's not sure she wants to know what it is.

But ten years ago, Will Baxter rescued Fern. Can she do the same for him?]]> 336 Carley Fortune 0735243786 Liz 0 to-read 3.66 2023 Meet Me at the Lake
author: Carley Fortune
name: Liz
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> Every Summer After 58014893
Until she receives the call that sends her racing back to Barry’s Bay and into the orbit of Sam Florek—the man she never thought she’d have to live without.

For six summers, through hazy afternoons on the water and warm summer nights working in his family’s restaurant and curling up together with books—medical textbooks for him and work-in-progress horror short stories for her—Percy and Sam had been inseparable. Eventually that friendship turned into something breathtakingly more, before it fell spectacularly apart.

When Percy returns to the lake for Sam’s mother’s funeral, their connection is as undeniable as it had always been. But until Percy can confront the decisions she made and the years she’s spent punishing herself for them, they’ll never know whether their love might be bigger than the biggest mistakes of their past.

Told over the course of six years and one weekend, Every Summer After is a big, sweeping nostalgic look at love and the people and choices that mark us forever.

Six summers to fall in love. One moment to fall apart. A weekend to get it right.]]> 320 Carley Fortune 0593438531 Liz 4 4.17 2022 Every Summer After
author: Carley Fortune
name: Liz
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/05
date added: 2024/09/05
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]]> The Life Impossible 198281740
“What looks like magic is simply a part of life we don’t understand yet…�

When retired math teacher Grace Winters is left a run-down house on a Mediterranean island by a long-lost friend, curiosity gets the better of her. She arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook and no plan.

Among the rugged hills and golden beaches of the island, Grace searches for answers about her friend’s life, and how it ended. What she uncovers is stranger than she could have dreamed. But to dive into this impossible truth, Grace must first come to terms with her past.

Filled with wonder and wild adventure, this is a story of hope and the life-changing power of a new beginning.]]> 324 Matt Haig 0593489276 Liz 0 to-read 3.45 2024 The Life Impossible
author: Matt Haig
name: Liz
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> The Woman in Me 63133205 The Woman in Me is a brave and astonishingly moving story about freedom, fame, motherhood, survival, faith, and hope.

In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court. The impact of sharing her voice—her truth—was undeniable, and it changed the course of her life and the lives of countless others. The Woman in Me reveals for the first time her incredible journey—and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history.

Written with remarkable candor and humor, Spears’s groundbreaking book illuminates the enduring power of music and love—and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms, at last.]]> 288 Britney Spears 1668009048 Liz 0 3.83 2023 The Woman in Me
author: Britney Spears
name: Liz
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Leg: The Story of a Limb and the Boy Who Grew from It]]> 61783798 A hilarious and poignant memoir grappling with family, disability, and coming of age in two closets—as a gay man and as a man living with cerebral palsy

Greg Marshall’s early years were pretty bizarre. Rewind the VHS tapes (this is the nineties) and you’ll see a lopsided teenager limping across a high school stage, or in a wheelchair after leg surgeries, pondering why he’s crushing on half of the Utah Jazz. Add to this home video footage a mom clacking away at her newspaper column between chemos, a dad with ALS, and a cast of foulmouthed siblings. Fast forward the tape and you’ll find Marshall happily settled into his life as a gay man only to discover he’s been living in another closet his whole life: he has cerebral palsy. Here, in the hot mess of it all, lies Greg Marshall’s wellspring of wit and wisdom.

Leg is an extraordinarily funny and insightful memoir from a daring new voice. Packed with outrageous stories of a singular childhood, it is also a unique examination of what it means to transform when there are parts of yourself you can’t change, a moving portrait of a family in crisis, and a tale of resilience of spirit. In Marshall’s deft hands, we see a story both personal and universal—of being young and wanting the world, even when the world doesn’t feel like yours to want.]]> 304 Greg Marshall 1419763601 Liz 3 3.93 2023 Leg: The Story of a Limb and the Boy Who Grew from It
author: Greg Marshall
name: Liz
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/16
date added: 2024/08/16
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]]> <![CDATA[True Gretch: What I've Learned About Life, Leadership, and Everything in Between]]> 211756613 From trailblazing Michigan governor and rising Democratic star Gretchen Whitmer comes an unconventionally honest, personal, and funny account of her remarkable life and career, full of insights that guided her through a global pandemic, showdowns with high-profile bullies, and even a kidnapping and assassination plot.

When Gretchen Whitmer was growing up, her beloved grandmother Nino taught her that you can always find something good in other people. “Even the meanest person might have pretty eyes,� she would say. Nino’s words persuaded Whitmer to look for the good in any person or situation—just one of many colorful personal experiences that have shaped her political vision. (And, as Whitmer writes, one that resonated more than another piece of advice her grandmother offered, to “never part your hair in the middle.�)

In this candid and inspiring book, Whitmer reveals the principles and instincts that have shaped her extraordinary career, from her early days as a lawyer and legislator and her 2018 election as governor of Michigan, to her bold and innovative actions as she led the state through a series of unprecedented crises. Her motto in politics, she writes, is to “get shit done.�

Whitmer shares the lessons in resilience that steered her through some of the most challenging events in Michigan’s history, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, a five-hundred-year flood, the rise of domestic terrorism, and the fierce fight to protect reproductive rights.

Along the way, she tells stories about the outsize characters in her family, her lifelong clumsy streak, the wild comments she’s heard on the campaign trail, her self-deprecating social media campaigns (including her star turn as a talking potato with lipstick), and the slyly funny tactics she deploys to neutralize her opponents.

Written with Whitmer’s trademark sense of humor and straight-shooting style, True Gretch is not only a compelling account of her remarkable journey, but also a blueprint for anyone who wants to make a difference in their community, their country, or the world. It is a testament to the power of humor, perseverance, and compassion in the face of darkness.]]> 4 Gretchen Whitmer 1668116758 Liz 0 to-read 4.14 2024 True Gretch: What I've Learned About Life, Leadership, and Everything in Between
author: Gretchen Whitmer
name: Liz
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[He, She, They, Us: Queer Poems]]> 212399474 One must-have reversible cover. Worn four different ways. You decide.

A poetry book like no other, with beautiful endpapers and a reversible cover jacket that allows you to choose your preferred pronoun from HE, SHE, THEY and US and four different yellow, blue, green and pink. The perfect gift book or statement piece for any shelf.

He, She, They, Us pulls together poems from queer poets both old and new � from Oscar Wilde, Emily Dickinson and Langston Hughes to the likes of Jay Hulme, Dean Atta, Josie Giles, Nikita Gill, Theo Parish and Travis Alabanza. This anthology celebrates queerness in all its forms and takes us through the experiences that make us who we are today.

Collected and introduced by editor, writer and anthologist Charlie Castelletti, He, She, They, Queer Poems contains an inclusive array of voices, from modern and contemporary poets to those who came before.]]> 255 Charlie Castelletti 1761562916 Liz 4 4.03 He, She, They, Us: Queer Poems
author: Charlie Castelletti
name: Liz
average rating: 4.03
book published:
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[The Widow's Guide to Dead Bastards]]> 199798901
In the midst of mourning her husband’s sudden death, writer Jessica Waite discovered shocking secrets that undermined everything she thought she knew about the man she’d loved and trusted. From uncovered affairs to drug use and a pornography addiction, Waite was overwhelmed reconciling this devastating information with her new reality as a widowed single mom. Then, to further complicate matters, strange, inexplicable coincidences forced her to consider whether her husband was reaching back from beyond the grave.

With her signature candor and unflinching honesty, Waite details her tumultuous love story and the pain of adjusting to the new normal she built for herself and her son. A riveting, difficult, and surprisingly beautiful story, The Widow’s Guide to Dead Bastards is also a lyrical exploration of grief, mental health, single parenthood, and betrayal that demonstrates that the most moving love stories aren’t perfect—they’re flawed and poignantly real.]]> 320 Jessica Waite 1668044854 Liz 0 to-read 3.52 2024 The Widow's Guide to Dead Bastards
author: Jessica Waite
name: Liz
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/11
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]]> <![CDATA[Can't We Talk about Something More Pleasant?]]> 18594409 #1 New York Times Bestseller

2014 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST

In her first memoir, Roz Chast brings her signature wit to the topic of aging parents. Spanning the last several years of their lives and told through four-color cartoons, family photos, and documents, and a narrative as rife with laughs as it is with tears, Chast's memoir is both comfort and comic relief for anyone experiencing the life-altering loss of elderly parents.

When it came to her elderly mother and father, Roz held to the practices of denial, avoidance, and distraction. But when Elizabeth Chast climbed a ladder to locate an old souvenir from the "crazy closet"—with predictable results—the tools that had served Roz well through her parents' seventies, eighties, and into their early nineties could no longer be deployed.

While the particulars are Chast-ian in their idiosyncrasies—an anxious father who had relied heavily on his wife for stability as he slipped into dementia and a former assistant principal mother whose overbearing personality had sidelined Roz for decades—the themes are universal: adult children accepting a parental role; aging and unstable parents leaving a family home for an institution; dealing with uncomfortable physical intimacies; managing logistics; and hiring strangers to provide the most personal care.

An amazing portrait of two lives at their end and an only child coping as best she can, Can't We Talk about Something More Pleasant will show the full range of Roz Chast's talent as cartoonist and storyteller.]]> 228 Roz Chast 1608198065 Liz 5 4.14 2014 Can't We Talk about Something More Pleasant?
author: Roz Chast
name: Liz
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/05
date added: 2024/08/06
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]]> The Little Liar 112975105 333 Mitch Albom 0062406655 Liz 4 4.54 2023 The Little Liar
author: Mitch Albom
name: Liz
average rating: 4.54
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/29
date added: 2024/07/29
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]]> <![CDATA[While You Were Out: An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence]]> 61885057 From award-winning journalist Meg Kissinger, a searing memoir of a family besieged by mental illness, as well as an incisive exploration of the systems that failed them and a testament to the love that sustained them.

Growing up in the 1960s in the suburbs of Chicago, Meg Kissinger’s family seemed to live a charmed life. With eight kids and two loving parents, the Kissingers radiated a warm, boisterous energy. Whether they were spending summer days on the shores of Lake Michigan, barreling down the ski slopes, or navigating the trials of their Catholic school, the Kissingers always knew how to live large and play hard.

But behind closed doors, a harsher reality was unfolding—a heavily medicated mother hospitalized for anxiety and depression, a manic father prone to violence, and children in the throes of bipolar disorder and depression, two of whom would take their own lives. Through it all, the Kissingers faced the world with their signature dark humor and the unspoken family rule: never talk about it.

While You Were Out begins as the personal story of one family’s struggles then opens outward, as Kissinger details how childhood tragedy catalyzed a journalism career focused on exposing our country’s flawed mental health care. Combining the intimacy of memoir with the rigor of investigative reporting, the book explores the consequences of shame, the havoc of botched public policy, and the hope offered by new treatment strategies.

Powerful, candid and filled with surprising humor, this is the story of one family’s love and resilience in face of great loss.]]> 320 Meg Kissinger 1250793777 Liz 5 4.26 2023 While You Were Out: An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence
author: Meg Kissinger
name: Liz
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2023
rating: 5
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]]> The Paris Novel 195430688
Stella reached for an oyster, tipped her head and tossed it back. It was cool and slippery, the flavor so briny it was like diving into the ocean... Oysters, she thought, where have they been all my life?

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

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

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

As weeks—and many decadent meals—go by, Stella ends up living as a “tumbleweed� at famed bookstore Shakespeare & Company, uncovers a hundred-year-old mystery in a Manet painting, and discovers a passion for food that may be connected to her past. A feast for the senses, this novel is a testament to living deliciously, taking chances, and finding your true home.]]> 288 Ruth Reichl 0812996305 Liz 4 3.68 2024 The Paris Novel
author: Ruth Reichl
name: Liz
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2024
rating: 4
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date added: 2024/07/25
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]]> The Unwedding 214228671
To add insult to injury, there’s a wedding at Broken Point scheduled during her stay. Ellery remembers how it felt to be on the cusp of everything new and wonderful, with a loved and certain future glimmering just ahead. Now she isn’t certain of anything except her love for her kids and a growing realization that this place, although beautiful, is unsettling.]]> Ally Condie Liz 3 3.15 2024 The Unwedding
author: Ally Condie
name: Liz
average rating: 3.15
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/25
date added: 2024/07/25
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]]> <![CDATA[Hope for Cynics: The Surprising Science of Human Goodness]]> 204593731 Cynicism is making us sick; Stanford Psychologist Dr. Jamil Zaki has the cure—a “ray of light for dark days� (Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author).

For thousands of years, people have argued about whether humanity is selfish or generous, cruel or kind. But recently, our answers have changed. In 1972, half of Americans agreed that most people can be trusted; by 2018, that figure had fallen to 30%. Different generations, genders, religions, and political parties can’t seem to agree on anything, except that they all think human virtue is evaporating.

Cynicism is a perfectly understandable response to a world full of injustice and inequality. But in many cases, cynicism is misplaced. Dozens of studies find that people fail to realize how kind, generous, and open-minded others really are. And cynical thinking worsens social problems, because our beliefs don’t just interpret the world—they change it. When we expect people to be awful, we coax awfulness out of them. Cynicism is a disease, with a history, symptoms–and a cure. Through science and storytelling, Jamil Zaki imparts the secret for beating back cynicism: hopeful skepticism. This approach doesn’t mean putting our faith in every politician or influencer. It means thinking critically about people and our problems, while simultaneously acknowledging and encouraging our strengths. Far from being naïve, hopeful skepticism is a more precise way of understanding others, and paying closer attention re-balances how you think about human nature. As more of us do this, we can take steps towards building the world we truly want.]]> 288 Jamil Zaki 153874306X Liz 0 to-read 3.87 Hope for Cynics: The Surprising Science of Human Goodness
author: Jamil Zaki
name: Liz
average rating: 3.87
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date added: 2024/07/21
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]]> Free Period 124932745 *School Library Journal Starred Review
*Audiofile Earphones Award Winner

This middle-grade Moxie centering period equity is i<>Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret for the next generation!

Helen and Gracie are pranking their way through middle school when a stinky stunt lands them in the front office -- again. Because nothing else has curbed their chaos, the principal orders the best friends to do the unthinkable -- care about something. So they join the school’s Community Action Club with plans to do as little as humanly possible. But when Helen is caught unprepared by an early period and bleeds through her pants -- they were gold lamé! -- the girls take over the club’s campaign for maxi pads in bathrooms for all students who menstruate. In the name of period equity, the two friends use everything from over-the-top baked goods to glitter gluing for change. But nothing can prepare them for a clueless school board (ew), an annoying little sister (ugh), and crushes (oh my!). As Helen and Gracie find themselves closer to change and in deeper trouble than ever before, they must decide if they care enough to keep going . . . even if it costs them their friendship.]]> 266 Ali Terese 1338835831 Liz 4 4.05 2024 Free Period
author: Ali Terese
name: Liz
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/02
date added: 2024/07/02
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Great book for young girls to become more comfortable with their menstrual cycle and give ideas on how to make a difference in any topic she may feel passionate about!
]]> After Annie 177185880
Yet over the course of the next year, while Annie looms large in their memories, all three are able to grow, to change, even to become stronger and more sure of themselves. The enduring power Annie gave to those who loved her is the power to love, and to go on without her.

Written in Quindlen’s emotionally resonant voice, and with her deep and generous understanding of people, After Annie is a story that ends with hope, a beautiful novel about how adversity can change us in profound ways.]]> 283 Anna Quindlen 0593229800 Liz 0 to-read 3.89 2024 After Annie
author: Anna Quindlen
name: Liz
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/01
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]]> The Memory Keeper's Daughter 826300
For though David's son is a healthy boy, his daughter has Down's syndrome. And, in a shocking act of betrayal whose consequences only time will reveal, he tells his wife their daughter died while secretly entrusting her care to a nurse.

As grief quietly tears apart David's family, so a little girl must make her own way in the world as best she can.]]> 401 Kim Edwards 0141030143 Liz 5 3.42 2005 The Memory Keeper's Daughter
author: Kim Edwards
name: Liz
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2005
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/06/28
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]]> <![CDATA[Free Throws, Friendship, and Other Things We Fouled Up]]> 213311555 separated by a mere three miles.

Rory’s dad just secured a new coaching gig at University of Cincinnati, so it means
yet another school and move for her, only this time to her dad’s hometown. Rory’s life revolves around basketball; she’s never had a close friend outside of it. Could this be a chance for a fresh start?

Abby has always lived in Cincinnati, where her dad grew up playing ball and now
coaches at Xavier University. But Abby has recently retreated from basketball after a
frustrating season that left her confidence in shambles. This year, she finds herself on
the outside looking in when it comes to her former teammates, and she could seriously use a new friend.

The coaches� daughters connect over their shared love of the game when Abby chaperones Rory on her first day of school. But when Abby’s dad practically forbids their friendship because of something that happened between him and Rory’s dad when they were younger, Abby and Rory have no choice but to move their budding friendship underground.

Can the two of them get to the bottom of what went down between their dads in the
1990s before history repeats itself?]]> 0 Jenn Bishop Liz 3 3.67 Free Throws, Friendship, and Other Things We Fouled Up
author: Jenn Bishop
name: Liz
average rating: 3.67
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/12
date added: 2024/06/12
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]]> All Good People Here 61413652
In the propulsive debut novel from the host of the #1 true crime podcast "Crime Junkie," a journalist uncovers her hometown’s dark secrets when she becomes obsessed with the unsolved murder of her childhood neighbor—and the disappearance of another girl twenty years later.

Everyone from Wakarusa, Indiana, remembers the case of January Jacobs, who was found dead in a ditch hours after her family awoke to find her gone. Margot Davies was six at the time, the same age as January—and they were next-door neighbors. In the twenty years since, Margot has grown up, moved away, and become a big-city journalist, but she’s always been haunted by the fear that it could’ve been her. And the worst part is, January’s killer has never been brought to justice.

When Margot returns home to help care for her sick uncle, it feels like walking into a time capsule. Wakarusa is exactly how she remembered: genial, stifled, secretive. Then news breaks about five-year-old Natalie Clark from the next town over, who’s gone missing under eerily similar circumstances. With all the old feelings rushing back, Margot vows to find Natalie and solve January’s murder once and for all.

But the police, the family, the townspeople—they all seem to be hiding something. And the deeper Margot digs into Natalie’s disappearance, the more resistance she encounters, and the colder January’s case feels. Could the killer still be out there? Could it be the same person who kidnapped Natalie? And what will it cost to finally discover what truly happened that night?]]> Ashley Flowers 0593587480 Liz 5 3.56 2022 All Good People Here
author: Ashley Flowers
name: Liz
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/17
date added: 2024/05/17
shelves:
review:
This book sucked me in from the very beginning. I enjoyed the way the connection of all the characters and have a love hate relationship with the ending.
]]> <![CDATA[Snow Place Like LA (A Christmas Notch, #1.5)]]> 63138613 Cowritten by #1 New York Times bestselling author Julie Murphy and USA Today bestselling author Sierra Simone--a steamy second chance Christmas in July rom-com.

After Angel and Luca connected on the set of Duke the Halls and had a whirlwind romance in the literal snow globe of Christmas Notch, Vermont, Luca found himself falling in love. Hard. He'd never been one to believe in fate or true love, but one thing was certain: Angel was his person. He knew it as well as he knew the history of American figure skating. But when Angel left for an art school semester abroad without a word, Luca's already brittle heart was broken. No one ghosted Luca. Unless he was in a haunted house.

But with the spring semester long over, Angel is back home in Los Angeles for the summer, and unfortunately for Luca, this big town is turning out to be smaller than either of them ever expected.]]> 192 Julie Murphy 0063325527 Liz 3 3.23 2023 Snow Place Like LA (A Christmas Notch, #1.5)
author: Julie Murphy
name: Liz
average rating: 3.23
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/06
date added: 2024/05/10
shelves:
review:

]]> Just Lizzie 123024151 In this beautifully written contemporary middle grade debut, an eighth grader's study of asexuality in science class leads her to understand her own asexual identity as she embarks on a journey toward self-discovery and self-advocacy. For readers of Alex Gino and Ashley Herring Blake.

There’s the part of me that doesn’t understand kissing or cuteness or attraction, and then there’s the part of me that feels so lonely. How do I make sense of those two parts? Maybe I’ll never make sense of them.

What do you do when there's a question inside you that feels so big, you don't know how to put words to it? How do you even begin to ask it?

Fourteen-year-old Lizzie is experiencing a lot of change: Her family had to move after the incident with their neighbor, leaving behind not only her beloved apple tree but what feels like her childhood along with it. Lizzie's brother is too busy for her in his first semester of college, and her friends are more interested in dating than dolls. It’s hard not to feel left behind, especially as she tries to explain the fact that she still has zero interest in boys, girls, or the baffling behavior known as “flirting.�

But just as Lizzie’s world feels like it's closing in, a class lesson on asexual reproduction in plants piques her curiosity, leading her to look up whether people can be asexual too—and suddenly her world opens up. Lizzie finally finds an identity, a word for all her messy, unnamable feelings that feels like it fits, although she quickly realizes that a label isn’t enough if no one believes it’s real.

Accessible, moving, and compassionate, Just Lizzie effortlessly braids a nuanced individual journey of identity with the bittersweet angst of growing up, growing apart, and learning there are many ways to live and love.]]> 320 Karen Wilfrid 0063290294 Liz 3 4.31 2023 Just Lizzie
author: Karen Wilfrid
name: Liz
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/04
date added: 2024/05/10
shelves:
review:

]]> Pageboy 60473073 Pageboy is a groundbreaking coming-of-age memoir from the Academy Award-nominated actor Elliot Page. A generation-defining actor and one of the most famous trans advocates of our time, Elliot will now be known as an uncommon literary talent, as he shares never-before-heard details and intimate interrogations on gender, love, mental health, relationships, and Hollywood.]]> 271 Elliot Page Liz 3 3.72 2023 Pageboy
author: Elliot Page
name: Liz
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/11
date added: 2024/05/10
shelves:
review:
Interesting story but didn’t care for the lack of organization of the book.
]]> <![CDATA[Stop Walking on Eggshells: Taking Your Life Back When Someone You Care about Has Borderline Personality Disorder]]> 188013 Stop Walking on Eggshells: Coping When Someone You Care About Has Borderline Personality Disorder is a self-help guide that helps the family members and friends of individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) understand this self-destructive disorder and learn what they can do to cope with it and take care of themselves. It is designed to help them understand how the disorder affects their loved ones and recognize what they can do to get off the emotional roller coasters and take care of themselves.]]> 258 Paul T. Mason 157224108X Liz 5 3.96 1998 Stop Walking on Eggshells: Taking Your Life Back When Someone You Care about Has Borderline Personality Disorder
author: Paul T. Mason
name: Liz
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/10
date added: 2024/05/10
shelves:
review:

]]> Redwood Court 150247430 A breathtaking debut about one unforgettable Southern Black family, seen through the eyes of its youngest daughter as she comes of age in the 1990s.

"A beautiful exploration of a family . . . deeply moving." Ann Napolitano, New York Times bestselling author of Hello Beautiful

“Mika, you sit at our feet all these hours and days, hearing us tell our tales. You have all these stories inside all the stories everyone in our family knows and all the stories everyone in our family tells. You write ’em in your books and show everyone who we are.�

So begins award-winning poet DéLana R. A. Dameron’s debut novel, Redwood Court. The baby of the family, Mika Tabor spends much of her time in the care of loved ones, listening to their stories and witnessing their struggles. On Redwood Court, the cul-de-sac in the all-Black working-class suburb of Columbia, South Carolina, where her grandparents live, Mika learns important lessons from the people who raise her: her exhausted parents, who work long hours at multiple jobs while still making sure their kids experience the adventure of family vacations; her older sister, who in a house filled with Motown would rather listen to Alanis Morrisette; her retired grandparents, children of Jim Crow, who realized their own vision of success when they bought their house on the Court in the 1960s, imagining it filled with future generations; and the many neighbors who hold tight to the community they’ve built, committed to fostering joy and love in an America so insistent on seeing Black people stumble and fall.

With visceral clarity and powerful prose, Dameron reveals the devastation of being made to feel invisible and the transformative power of being seen. Redwood Court is a celebration of extraordinary, ordinary people striving to achieve their own American dreams.]]> 304 DeLana R.A. Dameron 0593447026 Liz 3 3.35 2024 Redwood Court
author: DeLana R.A. Dameron
name: Liz
average rating: 3.35
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/10
date added: 2024/05/10
shelves:
review:
I really wanted to like this book so kept plugging away at it. It moved too slowly for me so wasn’t very motivated to spend the time reading it.
]]> Women and Children First 123006769 A gripping literary puzzle that unwinds the private lives of ten women as they confront tragedy in a small Massachusetts town.

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

Told through the eyes of ten local women, Grabowski’s Women and Children First is an exquisite portrait of grief and a powerful reminder of life’s interconnectedness. Touching on womanhood, class, and sexuality, ambition, disappointment, and tragedy, this novel is a stunning rendering of love and loss, and a bracing lesson from a phenomenal new literary talent that no one walks this earth alone.]]> 336 Alina Grabowski 1638930783 Liz 0 to-read 3.33 2024 Women and Children First
author: Alina Grabowski
name: Liz
average rating: 3.33
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Did I Ever Tell You? 176443541 Based on her "Modern Love" piece ("She Put Her Unspent Love in a Cardboard Box"), this extraordinary memoir tells the astonishing story of a mother's last gifts to her daughter, and the wisdom and love she bestowed upon her from beyond the grave.

Genevieve (Gwen) Kingston's mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer when Gwen was just three years old. Defying the odds, she lived another eight years—during which time she filled a chest with gifts and letters to Gwen and her brother, Jamie, for every major milestone and birthday through age thirty. The day Gwen got her driver's license. The day she graduated from high school. Gwen is now in her thirties and, when Did I Ever Tell You? begins, three unopened boxes remain: engagement, marriage, and first baby. Two decades after her passing, Gwen's mother's extraordinary efforts created a lifelong conversation beyond the grave.

Did I Ever Tell You? is Crying in H Mart meets The Bright Hour by Nina Riggs. This is not just a gorgeously written mother-daughter story. It's also the story of a family riven by grief and mental illness, and a story of a young woman's navigation through both. It's a book about family and legacy; and it's one that emphatically declares, as Gwen's mother does in a particularly powerful letter, that "Love is stronger than death."]]> 288 Genevieve Kingston 1668006294 Liz 0 to-read 4.29 2024 Did I Ever Tell You?
author: Genevieve Kingston
name: Liz
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[When You Care: The Unexpected Magic of Caring for Others]]> 176443418
Behind our current caregiving crisis, in which a broken system has left parents and caregivers exhausted, sits a fierce addiction to independence. But what would happen if we started to appreciate dependency, and the deep meaning of one person caring for another? If we start to care about care?

Drawing on research into parenting and caregiving, as well as her own experiences as a mother, journalist Elissa Strauss delves into the history and power of care in our lives and communities. With a curiosity and desire to more fully understand one of humanity’s most profound and essential relationships, she interrogates our societal obsession with going at it alone, and poses a challenge to let ourselves be transformed by the act of caregiving.

When You Care weaves historical anecdotes and science with conversations with parents and caregivers to the young, old, disabled, ill, and more, revealing a rich array of insights about how care shapes us on the inside and the outside, for the better. Care is a long-ignored force in our collective and political lives, as well as a deeply philosophical, spiritual, and psychologically potent experience. Moreso, an embrace of care by both women and men will lead to a more gender equitable future and help us reimagine what it means to be productive and live a meaningful life. The result is an eye-opening exploration into the power of being depended on—and a stirring call to action to finally acknowledge the breadth, depth, and beauty of all that caregivers do.]]> 320 Elissa Strauss 1982169273 Liz 0 to-read 4.06 2024 When You Care: The Unexpected Magic of Caring for Others
author: Elissa Strauss
name: Liz
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Forbidden Daughter: The True Story of a Holocaust Survivor]]> 181110008 288 Zipora Klein Jakob 0063296659 Liz 0 to-read 3.71 2024 The Forbidden Daughter: The True Story of a Holocaust Survivor
author: Zipora Klein Jakob
name: Liz
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The 5 Principles of Parenting: Your Essential Guide to Raising Good Humans]]> 191004855
“My go-to for how we all, including ourselves, raise good humans! � —Drew Barrymore

In the age of high-pressure parenting, when so many of us we feel like we’ve got to get everything exactly right the first time, Dr. Aliza Pressman is the compassionate, reassuring expert we all need—and the one whose advice we can all use. Already beloved by listeners of hit podcast, Raising Good Humans , Dr. Pressman distills it all with a handful of strategies every parent can use to get things right often enough : Relationship, Reflection, Regulation, Rules, and Repair.

The 5 Principles of Parenting doesn’t presume to tell you how to parent with “my way is right� advice because the science is There’s no one “right� way to raise good humans. No matter how you were raised, how your coparent behaves, or how your kids have been parented up until now, you can start using The 5 Principles of Parenting to chart a manageable course for raising good humans that’s aligned with your own values and with your children’s unique temperaments. Whether you're in the trenches with a toddler or a tween (because spoiler the tantrums of childhood mirror of the tantrums of adolescence), it’s never too late to learn to use these 5 principles to reparent yourself and help your kids build the resilience they need to thrive. Through practice and normalizing imperfection, along the way you’ll discover the person you’re ultimately raising is yourself . By becoming more intentional people, we become better parents. By becoming better parents, we become better people. Let’s get started.]]> 368 Aliza Pressman 166801453X Liz 0 to-read 4.12 The 5 Principles of Parenting: Your Essential Guide to Raising Good Humans
author: Aliza Pressman
name: Liz
average rating: 4.12
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Everyone But Myself 123087979 Written with humor and hope, and sure to resonate with mothers spread thin by the demands of modern family life, Everyone But Myself offers an intimate portrait of how one woman found her way back from the edge.]]> 240 Julie Chavez 1958506052 Liz 0 to-read 3.78 2024 Everyone But Myself
author: Julie Chavez
name: Liz
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/04
shelves: to-read
review:

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