Valerie's bookshelf: all en-US Thu, 20 Mar 2025 08:18:54 -0700 60 Valerie's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Tangled Up in You (Meant to Be, #4)]]> 197577021
Ren has never held an iPhone, googled the answer to a question, or followed a crush on social media. What she has done: Read a book or two, or three (okay, hundreds). Taught herself to paint. Built a working wind power system from scratch. But for all the books she’s read, Ren has never found one that’s taught a woman raised on a homestead and off the grid for most of her twenty-two years how to live in the real world. So when she finally achieves her lifelong dream of attending Corona College, it feels like her life is finally beginning.

Fitz has the rest of his life mapped out: Graduate from Corona at the top of his class, get his criminal record wiped clean, and pass himself off as the rich, handsome player everyone thinks he is. He’s a few short months from checking off step one of his plans when Ren Gylden, with her cascading blonde hair and encyclopedic brain, crashes into his life, and for the first time Fitz’s plan is in jeopardy.

But a simple assignment in their immunology seminar changes the course of both their lives, and suddenly they’re thrown out of the frying pan and into the fire on a road trip that will lead them in the most unexpected directions. Out on the open road, the world somehow shifts, and the unlikely pair realize that, maybe, the key to the dreams they've both been chasing have been sitting next to them the whole time.]]> 320 Christina Lauren 1368092837 Valerie 0 currently-reading 3.89 2024 Tangled Up in You (Meant to Be, #4)
author: Christina Lauren
name: Valerie
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[Little Women (Little Women, #1)]]> 1934 This is an alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780451529305.

Generations of readers young and old, male and female, have fallen in love with the March sisters of Louisa May Alcott’s most popular and enduring novel, Little Women. Here are talented tomboy and author-to-be Jo, tragically frail Beth, beautiful Meg, and romantic, spoiled Amy, united in their devotion to each other and their struggles to survive in New England during the Civil War.

It is no secret that Alcott based Little Women on her own early life. While her father, the freethinking reformer and abolitionist Bronson Alcott, hobnobbed with such eminent male authors as Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne, Louisa supported herself and her sisters with "woman’s work,� including sewing, doing laundry, and acting as a domestic servant. But she soon discovered she could make more money writing. Little Women brought her lasting fame and fortune, and far from being the "girl’s book� her publisher requested, it explores such timeless themes as love and death, war and peace, the conflict between personal ambition and family responsibilities, and the clash of cultures between Europe and America.

]]> 449 Louisa May Alcott Valerie 0 classic 4.16 1868 Little Women (Little Women, #1)
author: Louisa May Alcott
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1868
rating: 0
read at: 2025/03/04
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves: classic
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]]> Yellowface 62047984
So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? This piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller. That is what June believes, and The New York Times bestseller list agrees.

But June cannot escape Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens her stolen success. As she races to protect her secret she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.]]> 319 R.F. Kuang 000853277X Valerie 0 3.69 2023 Yellowface
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Valerie
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/28
date added: 2025/02/28
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]]> <![CDATA[Around the World in Eighty Days]]> 54479 252 Jules Verne 014044906X Valerie 0 3.95 1872 Around the World in Eighty Days
author: Jules Verne
name: Valerie
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1872
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/28
date added: 2025/02/28
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]]> New Madrid Earthquake 55924200
In the not too distant past, along the Mississippi River,

North America tried to tear itself in half.

It failed. It won't the second time.

New Madrid.

A standalone disaster thriller from international bestselling author, Bobby Akart, one of America's favorite storytellers, who has delivered up-all-night thrillers to readers in 245 countries and territories worldwide.

"Akart is a master of suspense, keeping us on the edge of our seats. But, he does it with fact-based fiction that would scare even the most hardened readers."

Two hundred years ago, several faults within the New Madrid seismic zone along the Mississippi River ruptured triggering some of the largest earthquakes in American history. The three massive quakes ripped open America's Heartland, shaking residents as far away as New York City and Washington, DC while ringing church bells in Boston and Charleston, South Carolina.

"No one can research like Bobby Akart and then turn this meticulous research into one exciting thrill ride."

Akart's standalone novel, New Madrid, is based on actual events. It just hasn't happened yet, until now. 200 years later after the historic quake sequence of 1811-12, it's reawakened.

" This is a story of fortitude and love for family - do you have what it takes to survive and make it back to your loved ones ."

The New Madrid fault zone, six times larger than the San Andreas in California, has generated a series of massive earthquakes thrusting the Atwood and Chandler families in a fight to survive. Attorney Jack Atwood and his brother-in-law Tony Chandler are winding up their year-end tax planning presentation atop The Met, a skyscraper in St. Louis, before returning to Memphis for their family's Christmas celebration. Jill Atwood, her daughter Emily and teenage son Tate, are in a downtown Memphis performing arts theater attending the dress rehearsal for Emily's Christmas pageant. Beth Chandler, 28 weeks pregnant, together with her 3-year old autistic son, are traveling from Louisiana to join the rest of the family in Memphis.

Will they arrive for Christmas? Will they arrive at all? Their lives are about to change forever.

"You are there. Feeling what they feel. Anger, joy, love, mourning. You feel it all. Not everyone can write a book like this. It takes a special writer to make you feel a book."

Bobby Akart has delivered intense, up-all-night thrillers causing you to whisper just one more chapter until the end.]]> 397 Bobby Akart Valerie 0 to-read 4.36 2020 New Madrid Earthquake
author: Bobby Akart
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/11
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]]> Frankenstein: The 1818 Text 35031085 This is a previously-published edition of ISBN 9780143131847.

Mary Shelley's seminal novel of the scientist whose creation becomes a monster.

This edition is the original 1818 text, which preserves the hard-hitting and politically charged aspects of Shelley's original writing, as well as her unflinching wit and strong female voice. This edition also includes a new introduction and suggestions for further reading by author and Shelley expert Charlotte Gordon, literary excerpts and reviews selected by Gordon and a chronology and essay by preeminent Shelley scholar Charles E. Robinson.]]> 260 Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley 0143131842 Valerie 0 to-read 4.02 1818 Frankenstein: The 1818 Text
author: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1818
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/07
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]]> 1984 61439040
Alternate cover edition can be found here.]]> 368 George Orwell 0452284236 Valerie 0 to-read 4.21 1949 1984
author: George Orwell
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1949
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Bodyguard 58724801 Hannah Brooks looks more like a kindergarten teacher than somebody who could kill you with her bare hands. But the truth is, she's an elite bodyguard and she's just been hired to protect a superstar actor from his stalker.

Jack Stapleton's a Hollywood heartthrob - captured by paparazzi on beaches the world over, rising out of the waves in clingy board shorts and glistening like a Roman deity.

When Jack's mom gets sick, he comes home to the family's Texas ranch to help out. Only one catch: He doesn't want his family to know about his stalker. Or the bodyguard thing. And so Hannah - against her will and her better judgment - finds herself pretending to be Jack's girlfriend as a cover.

Protecting Jack should be easy. But protecting her own heart? That's the hardest thing she's ever done...]]> 302 Katherine Center 1250219396 Valerie 0 3.94 2022 The Bodyguard
author: Katherine Center
name: Valerie
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2025/01/26
date added: 2025/01/26
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Totally out there but so fun with just a little bit of depth!
]]> <![CDATA[An Elegant Façade (Hawthorne House, #2)]]> 27066722 With money and business connections, but without impeccable bloodlines, Colin McCrae is invited everywhere but accepted nowhere. When he first encounters the fashionable Lady Georgina, he's irritated by his attraction to a woman who concerns herself only with status and appearance.
What Colin doesn't know is that Georgina's desperate social aspirations are driven by the shameful secret she harbors. Association with Colin McCrae is not part of Georgina's plan, but as their paths continue to cross, they both must decide if the realization of their dreams is worth the sacrifices they must make.]]> 362 Kristi Ann Hunter 0764218255 Valerie 0 currently-reading 4.09 2016 An Elegant Façade (Hawthorne House, #2)
author: Kristi Ann Hunter
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/19
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact]]> 34466952
While human lives are endlessly variable, our most memorable positive moments are dominated by four elements: elevation, insight, pride, and connection. If we embrace these elements, we can conjure more moments that matter. What if a teacher could design a lesson that he knew his students would remember twenty years later? What if a manager knew how to create an experience that would delight customers? What if you had a better sense of how to create memories that matter for your children?

This book delves into some fascinating mysteries of experience: Why we tend to remember the best or worst moment of an experience, as well as the last moment, and forget the rest. Why “we feel most comfortable when things are certain, but we feel most alive when they’re not.� And why our most cherished memories are clustered into a brief period during our youth.

Readers discover how brief experiences can change lives, such as the experiment in which two strangers meet in a room, and forty-five minutes later, they leave as best friends. (What happens in that time?) Or the tale of the world’s youngest female billionaire, who credits her resilience to something her father asked the family at the dinner table. (What was that simple question?)

Many of the defining moments in our lives are the result of accident or luck—but why would we leave our most meaningful, memorable moments to chance when we can create them? The Power of Moments shows us how to be the author of richer experiences.]]> 320 Chip Heath 1501147765 Valerie 0 4.10 2017 The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact
author: Chip Heath
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at: 2025/01/19
date added: 2025/01/19
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]]> Just One Wish 4570667
But Annika's plan to convince Jeremy that a magic genie will grant him any wish throws her a curveball when he unexpectedly wishes that his television idol would visit him. Annika suddenly finds herself in the desperate predicament of getting access to a hunky star actor and convincing him to come home with her. Piece of cake, right?

Janette Rallison's proven talent for laugh-out-loud humor, teen romance, and deep-hearted storytelling shines in a novel that will have readers laughing and crying at the same time.]]> 272 Janette Rallison 0399246185 Valerie 0 4.00 2009 Just One Wish
author: Janette Rallison
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at: 2025/01/19
date added: 2025/01/19
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]]> Chains (Seeds of America, #1) 3002300 From acclaimed author Laurie Halse Anderson comes this compelling, impeccably researched novel that shows the lengths we can go to cast off our chains, both physical and spiritual.

Reading Level: Age 10 and Up ]]> 316 Laurie Halse Anderson 1416905855 Valerie 0 to-read 4.10 2008 Chains (Seeds of America, #1)
author: Laurie Halse Anderson
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read
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]]> A Kind of Spark 51256288 Perfect for readers of Song for a Whale and Counting by 7s, a neurodivergent girl campaigns for a memorial when she learns that her small Scottish town used to burn witches simply because they were different."A must-read for students and adults alike." -School Library Journal, Starred Review Ever since Ms. Murphy told us about the witch trials that happened centuries ago right here in Juniper, I can’t stop thinking about them. Those people weren’t magic. They were like me. Different like me. I’m autistic. I see things that others do not. I hear sounds that they can ignore. And sometimes I feel things all at once. I think about the witches, with no one to speak for them. Not everyone in our small town understands. But if I keep trying, maybe someone will. I won’t let the witches be forgotten. Because there is more to their story. Just like there is more to mine. Award-winning and neurodivergent author Elle McNicoll delivers an insightful and stirring debut about the European witch trials and a girl who refuses to relent in the fight for what she knows is right.]]> 193 Elle McNicoll 1913311058 Valerie 0 to-read 4.51 2020 A Kind of Spark
author: Elle McNicoll
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/13
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]]> Invisible Cities 9809 165 Italo Calvino 0156453800 Valerie 0 to-read 4.16 1972 Invisible Cities
author: Italo Calvino
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1972
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/13
shelves: to-read
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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 Valerie 0 to-read 4.27 2024 Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts
author: Oliver Burkeman
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/10
shelves: to-read
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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 Valerie 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: Valerie
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/10
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]]> <![CDATA[Nothing to Fear: Demystifying Death to Live More Fully]]> 200721391 In this compassionate and knowledgeable guide, TikTok star Julie McFadden—known online as “Hospice Nurse Julie”—shares the valuable lessons she’s learned in her fifteen years as an RN in the ICU and in hospice. Expertly interweaving emotional insight and practical advice, Nothing to Fear demystifies end-of-life care for both patients and caregivers, covering topics including:
the biological details of dying
which medical interventions help and which only make things worse
the otherworldly beauty of deathbed phenomena
financial and logistical preparations for death
facts and myths about hospice care
the most important conversations to have before you die
the grieving process, before and after death
Sure to be a go-to resource for years to come, McFadden’s first book proves a better death goes hand in hand with a better life.]]> 240 Julie McFadden 0593713249 Valerie 0 to-read 4.44 Nothing to Fear: Demystifying Death to Live More Fully
author: Julie McFadden
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.44
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rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/10
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]]> The Last Love Note 123087802 You may never stop loving the one you lost. But you can still find love again.

Kate is a bit of a mess. Two years after losing her young husband Cameron, she’s grieving, solo parenting, working like mad at her university fundraising job, always dropping the ball—and yet clinging to her sense of humor.

Lurching from one comedic crisis to the next, she also navigates an overbearing mom and a Tinder-obsessed best friend who's determined to matchmake Kate with her hot new neighbor.

When an in-flight problem leaves Kate and her boss, Hugh, stranded for a weekend on the east coast of Australia, she finally has a chance, away from her son, to really process her grief and see what’s right in front of her. Can she let go of the love of her life and risk her heart a second time?

When it becomes clear that Hugh is hiding a secret, Kate turns to the trail of scribbled notes she once used to hold her life together. The first note captured her heart. Will the last note set it free?

The Last Love Note will make listeners laugh, cry, and renew their faith in the resilience of the human heart—and in love itself.]]> 384 Emma Grey 1958506281 Valerie 0 to-read 4.04 2023 The Last Love Note
author: Emma Grey
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/10
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]]> Romney: A Reckoning 101025305 A remarkably illuminating biography of the political maverick, filled with revelations and written with his full cooperation by an award-winning writer at The Atlantic.

Authoritative, personal, and vividly written, Romney: A Reckoning is a revealing account of Mitt Romney’s life.

Based on dozens of exclusive interviews with Romney, his family, and his inner circle as well as hundreds of pages of his personal journals, this book offers a rare, portrait of a politician who in recent years has been at the center of our nation’s most defining political dramas.]]> 416 McKay Coppins 1982196238 Valerie 0 to-read 4.33 2023 Romney: A Reckoning
author: McKay Coppins
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/10
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Measure 58884736
"A story of love and hope as interweaving characters display: how all moments, big and small, can measure a life. If you want joy, love, romance, and hope—read with us." —Jenna Bush Hager
A luminous, spirit-lifting blockbuster that asks: would you choose to find out the length of your life?

Eight ordinary people. One extraordinary choice.

It seems like any other day. You wake up, drink a cup of coffee, and head out.

But today, when you open your front door, waiting for you is a small wooden box. The contents of this mysterious box tells you the exact number of years you will live.

From suburban doorsteps to desert tents, every person on every continent receives the same box. In an instant, the world is thrust into a collective frenzy. Where did these boxes come from? What do they mean? Is there truth to what they promise?

As society comes together and pulls apart, everyone faces the same shocking choice: Do they wish to know how long they’ll live? And, if so, what will they do with that knowledge?

The Measure charts the dawn of this new world through an unforgettable cast of characters whose decisions and fates interweave with one another: best friends whose dreams are forever entwined, pen pals finding refuge in the unknown, a couple who thought they didn’t have to rush, a doctor who cannot save himself, and a politician whose box becomes the powder keg that ultimately changes everything.

Enchanting and deeply uplifting, The Measure is an ambitious, invigorating story about family, friendship, hope, and destiny that encourages us to live life to the fullest.]]> 353 Nikki Erlick 0063204207 Valerie 0 to-read 3.96 2022 The Measure
author: Nikki Erlick
name: Valerie
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/10
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]]> <![CDATA[Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery]]> 29947651 400 Scott Kelly 1524731595 Valerie 0 4.16 2017 Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery
author: Scott Kelly
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at: 2025/01/09
date added: 2025/01/09
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]]> <![CDATA[The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business]]> 12609433
Marketers at Procter & Gamble study videos of people making their beds. They are desperately trying to figure out how to sell a new product called Febreze, on track to be one of the biggest flops in company history. Suddenly, one of them detects a nearly imperceptible pattern—and with a slight shift in advertising, Febreze goes on to earn a billion dollars a year.

An untested CEO takes over one of the largest companies in America. His first order of business is attacking a single pattern among his employees—how they approach worker safety—and soon the firm, Alcoa, becomes the top performer in the Dow Jones.

What do all these people have in common? They achieved success by focusing on the patterns that shape every aspect of our lives.

They succeeded by transforming habits.

In The Power of Habit, award-winning New York Times business reporter Charles Duhigg takes us to the thrilling edge of scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed. With penetrating intelligence and an ability to distill vast amounts of information into engrossing narratives, Duhigg brings to life a whole new understanding of human nature and its potential for transformation.

Along the way we learn why some people and companies struggle to change, despite years of trying, while others seem to remake themselves overnight. We visit laboratories where neuroscientists explore how habits work and where, exactly, they reside in our brains. We discover how the right habits were crucial to the success of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, and civil-rights hero Martin Luther King, Jr. We go inside Procter & Gamble, Target superstores, Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church, NFL locker rooms, and the nation’s largest hospitals and see how implementing so-called keystone habits can earn billions and mean the difference between failure and success, life and death.

At its core, The Power of Habit contains an exhilarating argument: The key to exercising regularly, losing weight, raising exceptional children, becoming more productive, building revolutionary companies and social movements, and achieving success is understanding how habits work.

Habits aren’t destiny. As Charles Duhigg shows, by harnessing this new science, we can transform our businesses, our communities, and our lives.]]> 375 Charles Duhigg 1400069289 Valerie 0 to-read 4.13 2012 The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
author: Charles Duhigg
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> Christmas Shopaholic 43811209 Celebrate Christmas with the ultimate Shopaholic!

The brilliant laugh-out-loud festive novel from the Number One bestselling author.

Becky Brandon (née Bloomwood) adores Christmas. It's always the same � Mum and Dad hosting, carols playing, Mum pretending she made the Christmas pudding, and the next-door neighbours coming round for sherry in their terrible festive jumpers.

And now it's even easier with online bargain-shopping sites � if you spend enough you even get free delivery. Sorted!

But this year looks set to be different. Unable to resist the draw of craft beer and smashed avocado, Becky's parents are moving to ultra-trendy Shoreditch and have asked Becky if she'll host Christmas this year. What could possibly go wrong?

With sister Jess demanding a vegan turkey, husband Luke determined that he just wants aftershave again, and little Minnie insisting on a very specific picnic hamper � surely Becky can manage all this, as well as the surprise appearance of an old boyfriend and his pushy new girlfriend, whose motives are far from clear . . .

Will chaos ensue, or will Becky manage to bring comfort and joy to Christmas?]]> 384 Sophie Kinsella 1787631974 Valerie 0 unfinished 3.82 2019 Christmas Shopaholic
author: Sophie Kinsella
name: Valerie
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/07
shelves: unfinished
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]]> Wives and Daughters 383206 Wives and Daughters is a novel by Elizabeth Gaskell, first published in the Cornhill Magazine as a serial from August 1864 to January 1866. It was partly written whilst Gaskell was staying with the salon hostess Mary Elizabeth Mohl at her home on the Rue de Bac in Paris. When Mrs Gaskell died suddenly in 1865, it was not quite complete, and the last section was written by Frederick Greenwood.]]> 679 Elizabeth Gaskell 014043478X Valerie 0 to-read 4.11 1866 Wives and Daughters
author: Elizabeth Gaskell
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1866
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/07
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]]> <![CDATA[The Book of Mormon Made Easier, Part 1: 1 Nephi to Words of Mormon (Your Study of The Standard Works Made Easier by David Ridges)]]> 18625118 440 David J. Ridges 1599556367 Valerie 0 to-read 4.72 2003 The Book of Mormon Made Easier, Part 1: 1 Nephi to Words of Mormon (Your Study of The Standard Works Made Easier by David Ridges)
author: David J. Ridges
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.72
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths That Are Destroying Your Prosperity]]> 2741718 270 Garrett B. Gunderson 1929774516 Valerie 0 to-read 3.72 2007 Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths That Are Destroying Your Prosperity
author: Garrett B. Gunderson
name: Valerie
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> Rich Dad, Poor Dad 69571 195 Robert T. Kiyosaki 0751532711 Valerie 0 to-read 4.11 1997 Rich Dad, Poor Dad
author: Robert T. Kiyosaki
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1997
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[10x Is Easier Than 2x: How World-Class Entrepreneurs Achieve More by Doing Less]]> 63338662
Dan Sullivan, the world's leading coach for highly successful entrepreneurs, wants you to know that achieving 10X growth is exponentially easier than striving for 2X growth. Most find this idea confusing at first because simply imagining 10X growth causes them to think they need to do 10X more work to achieve it. However, being a 10X entrepreneur is nothing like what most people think.

10X is not the outcome; it's a counterintuitive process you can apply every time you want exponential growth in your life and business. To make 10X possible, you must focus on expanding what Dan defines as your four most important freedoms—time, money, relationship, and purpose. As your time becomes 10X more valuable, you increasingly multiply the money you earn both in terms of amount and profitable satisfaction. As money becomes a tool you can increasingly access with greater ease, you will engage with a growing number of other freedom-motivated individuals. As both your professional and personal life fills up with 10X more unique and collaborative relationships, you will realize that your most powerful purposes in all areas become 10X more lasting and positive for everyone involved. You will be impressed by what your life has become, and the meaning and impact you're having.

10X is fundamentally about quality vs quantity, and the quality of your freedoms determines the results you achieve.]]> 288 Dan Sullivan 1401969968 Valerie 0 to-read 4.21 10x Is Easier Than 2x: How World-Class Entrepreneurs Achieve More by Doing Less
author: Dan Sullivan
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.21
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> For a Lifetime (Timeless, #3) 199670997
In 1692, they live and work in their father's tavern, where they must watch helplessly as the witch trials unfold in their village, threatening everyone. With the help of a handsome childhood friend, they search for the truth behind their mother's mysterious death, risking everything to expose a secret that could save their lives--or be their undoing.

In 1912, Hope dreams of becoming one of the first female pilots in America, and Grace works as an investigative journalist, uncovering corruption and injustice. After their parents' orphanage is threatened by an adversary, they enter a contest to complete a perilous cross-country flight under the guidance of a daring French aviator.

The sisters have already decided which timeline they will choose, but an unthinkable tragedy complicates the future they planned for themselves. As their birthday looms, how will they determine the lives--and loves--that are best for both of them?]]> 400 Gabrielle Meyer 0764239767 Valerie 0 to-read 4.49 2024 For a Lifetime (Timeless, #3)
author: Gabrielle Meyer
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Candy Bombers: The Untold Story of the Berlin Airlift and America's Finest Hour]]> 3231403 The masterfully told story of the unlikely men who came together to make the Berlin Airlift one of the great military and humanitarian successes of American history.

On the sixtieth anniversary of the Berlin Airlift, Andrei Cherny tells a remarkable story with profound implications for the world today. In the tradition of the best narrative storytellers, he brings together newly unclassified documents, unpublished letters and diaries, and fresh primary interviews to tell the story of the ill-assorted group of castoffs and second-stringers who not only saved millions of desperate people from a dire threat but changed how the world viewed the United States, and set in motion the chain of events that would ultimately lead to the dismantling of the Berlin Wall and to America's victory in the Cold War.

On June 24, 1948, intent on furthering its domination of Europe, the Soviet Union cut off all access to West Berlin, prepared to starve the city into submission unless the Americans abandoned it. Soviet forces hugely outnumbered the Allies', and most of America's top officials considered the situation hopeless. But not all of them.

Harry Truman, an accidental president, derided by his own party; Lucius Clay, a frustrated general, denied a combat command and relegated to the home front; Bill Tunner, a logistics expert downsized to a desk job in a corner of the Pentagon; James Forrestal, a secretary of defense beginning to mentally unravel; Hal Halvorsen, a lovesick pilot who had served far from the conflict, flying transport missions in the backwater of a global war—together these unlikely men improvised and stumbled their way into a uniquely American combination of military and moral force unprecedented in its time.

This is the forgotten foundation tale of America in the modern world, the story of when Americans learned, for the first time, how to act at the summit of world power—a masterful and exciting work of historical narrative, and one with strong resonance for our time.]]> 624 Andrei Cherny 0399154965 Valerie 0 to-read 4.26 2008 The Candy Bombers: The Untold Story of the Berlin Airlift and America's Finest Hour
author: Andrei Cherny
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Rose Code 53914938 The New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Huntress and The Alice Network returns with another heart-stopping World War II story of three female code breakers at Bletchley Park and the spy they must root out after the war is over.

1940. As England prepares to fight the Nazis, three very different women answer the call to mysterious country estate Bletchley Park, where the best minds in Britain train to break German military codes. Vivacious debutante Osla is the girl who has everything—beauty, wealth, and the dashing Prince Philip of Greece sending her roses—but she burns to prove herself as more than a society girl, and puts her fluent German to use as a translator of decoded enemy secrets. Imperious self-made Mab, product of East-End London poverty, works the legendary code-breaking machines as she conceals old wounds and looks for a socially advantageous husband. Both Osla and Mab are quick to see the potential in local village spinster Beth, whose shyness conceals a brilliant facility with puzzles, and soon Beth spreads her wings as one of the Park’s few female cryptanalysts. But war, loss, and the impossible pressure of secrecy will tear the three apart.

1947. As the royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip whips post-war Britain into a fever, three friends-turned-enemies are reunited by a mysterious encrypted letter—the key to which lies buried in the long-ago betrayal that destroyed their friendship and left one of them confined to an asylum. A mysterious traitor has emerged from the shadows of their Bletchley Park past, and now Osla, Mab, and Beth must resurrect their old alliance and crack one last code together. But each petal they remove from the rose code brings danger—and their true enemy...]]> 624 Kate Quinn 0062943472 Valerie 0 to-read 4.43 2021 The Rose Code
author: Kate Quinn
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Here One Moment 208516656 If you knew your future, would you try to fight fate?

Aside from a delay, there will be no problems. The flight will be smooth, it will land safely. Everyone who gets on the plane will get off. But almost all of them will be forever changed.

Because on this ordinary, short, domestic flight, something extraordinary happens. People learn how and when they are going to die. For some, their death is far in the future—age 103!—and they laugh. But for six passengers, their predicted deaths are not far away at all.

How do they know this? There were ostensibly more interesting people on the flight (the bride and groom, the jittery, possibly famous woman, the giant Hemsworth-esque guy who looks like an off-duty superhero, the frazzled, gorgeous flight attendant) but none would become as famous as “The Death Lady.�

Not a single passenger or crew member will later recall noticing her board the plane. She wasn’t exceptionally old or young, rude or polite. She wasn’t drunk or nervous or pregnant. Her appearance and demeanor were unremarkable. But what she did on that flight was truly remarkable.

A few months later, one passenger dies exactly as she predicted. Then two more passengers die, again, as she said they would. Soon no one is thinking this is simply an entertaining story at a cocktail party.

If you were told you only had a certain amount of time left to live, would you do things differently? Would you try to dodge your destiny?

Liane Moriarty’s Here One Moment is a brilliantly constructed tale that looks at free will and destiny, grief and love, and the endless struggle to maintain certainty and control in an uncertain world. A modern-day Jane Austen who humorously skewers social mores while spinning a web of mystery, Moriarty asks profound questions in her newest I-can’t-wait-to-find-out-what-happens novel.]]> 512 Liane Moriarty 0593798600 Valerie 0 maybe 3.99 2024 Here One Moment
author: Liane Moriarty
name: Valerie
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves: maybe
review:

]]> 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 Valerie 0 maybe 4.12 2020 The Vanishing Half
author: Brit Bennett
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: maybe
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The House in the Cerulean Sea (Cerulean Chronicles, #1)]]> 45047384
Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages.

When Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management he's given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel to Marsyas Island Orphanage, where six dangerous children reside: a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist. Linus must set aside his fears and determine whether or not they’re likely to bring about the end of days.

But the children aren’t the only secret the island keeps. Their caretaker is the charming and enigmatic Arthur Parnassus, who will do anything to keep his wards safe. As Arthur and Linus grow closer, long-held secrets are exposed, and Linus must make a choice: destroy a home or watch the world burn.

An enchanting story, masterfully told, The House in the Cerulean Sea is about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place—and realizing that family is yours.]]> 394 T.J. Klune Valerie 0 maybe 4.37 2020 The House in the Cerulean Sea (Cerulean Chronicles, #1)
author: T.J. Klune
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: maybe
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones]]> 40121378 Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving—every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.

If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Here, you'll get a proven system that can take you to new heights.

Clear is known for his ability to distill complex topics into simple behaviors that can be easily applied to daily life and work. Here, he draws on the most proven ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to create an easy-to-understand guide for making good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible. Along the way, readers will be inspired and entertained with true stories from Olympic gold medalists, award-winning artists, business leaders, life-saving physicians, and star comedians who have used the science of small habits to master their craft and vault to the top of their field.

Learn how to:
- Make time for new habits (even when life gets crazy);
- Overcome a lack of motivation and willpower;
- Design your environment to make success easier;
- Get back on track when you fall off course;
...and much more.

Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits--whether you are a team looking to win a championship, an organization hoping to redefine an industry, or simply an individual who wishes to quit smoking, lose weight, reduce stress, or achieve any other goal.]]> 319 James Clear Valerie 5 reread, audio, books-i-own 4.34 2018 Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
author: James Clear
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/20
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves: reread, audio, books-i-own
review:
Great advice. I like that it focuses on the attainable changes and refocusing where your effort needs to be to make lasting changes.
]]> <![CDATA[The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive, #1)]]> 7235533 From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings, book one of The Stormlight Archive begins an incredible new saga of epic proportion.

Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter.

It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars were fought for them, and won by them.

One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear to protect his little brother, has been reduced to slavery. In a war that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe, he struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendable.

Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Like his brother, the late king, he is fascinated by an ancient text called The Way of Kings. Troubled by over-powering visions of ancient times and the Knights Radiant, he has begun to doubt his own sanity.

Across the ocean, an untried young woman named Shallan seeks to train under an eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar's niece, Jasnah. Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan's motives are less than pure. As she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war.

The result of over ten years of planning, writing, and world-building, The Way of Kings is but the opening movement of the Stormlight Archive, a bold masterpiece in the making.

Speak again the ancient oaths:

Life before death.
Strength before weakness.
Journey before Destination.

and return to men the Shards they once bore.

The Knights Radiant must stand again.]]> 1007 Brandon Sanderson 0765326353 Valerie 0 to-read 4.66 2010 The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive, #1)
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.66
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Standard of Truth: 1815�1846 (Saints, #1)]]> 40886652
But opposition and violence follow those who defy old traditions to embrace restored truths. The women and men who join the church must choose whether or not they will stay true to their covenants, establish Zion, and proclaim the gospel to a troubled world.

The Standard of Truth is the first book in Saints, a new, four-volume narrative history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Fast-paced, meticulously researched, Saints recounts true stories of Latter-day Saints across the globe and answers the Lord’s call to write history “for the good of the church, and for the rising generations� (Doctrine and Covenants 69:8).]]> 699 1629737100 Valerie 0 4.55 2018 The Standard of Truth: 1815–1846 (Saints, #1)
author: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at: 2017/01/01
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]> Poverty, by America 61358638 Reimagining the debate on poverty, making a new and bracing argument about why it persists in America: because the rest of us benefit from it.

The United States, the richest country on earth, has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. Why? Why does this land of plenty allow one in every eight of its children to go without basic necessities, permit scores of its citizens to live and die on the streets, and authorize its corporations to pay poverty wages?

In this landmark book, acclaimed sociologist Matthew Desmond draws on history, research, and original reporting to show how affluent Americans knowingly and unknowingly keep poor people poor. Those of us who are financially secure exploit the poor, driving down their wages while forcing them to overpay for housing and access to cash and credit. We prioritize the subsidization of our wealth over the alleviation of poverty, designing a welfare state that gives the most to those who need the least. And we stockpile opportunity in exclusive communities, creating zones of concentrated riches alongside those of concentrated despair. Some lives are made small so that others may grow.

Elegantly written and fiercely argued, this compassionate book gives us new ways of thinking about a morally urgent problem. It also helps us imagine solutions. Desmond builds a startlingly original and ambitious case for ending poverty. He calls on us all to become poverty abolitionists, engaged in a politics of collective belonging to usher in a new age of shared prosperity and, at last, true freedom.]]> 304 Matthew Desmond 0593239911 Valerie 0 to-read 4.27 2023 Poverty, by America
author: Matthew Desmond
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Psychology of Money 41881472 242 Morgan Housel 0857197681 Valerie 0 to-read 4.28 2020 The Psychology of Money
author: Morgan Housel
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Magic Pill: The Extraordinary Benefits and Disturbing Risks of the New Weight-Loss Drugs]]> 201319612 The bestselling author of Lost Connections and Stolen Focus offers a revelatory look at the drugs upending weight loss as we knew it—from his personal experience on Ozempic to what these drugs mean for our society’s deeply dysfunctional relationship with food, weight, and our bodiesIn January 2023, bestselling author Johann Hari started to inject himself once a week with Ozempic, the diabetes drug that produces significant weight loss. He wasn’t alone—credible predictions suggest that in two years, a quarter of the U.S. population will be taking this class of drug. Proponents say that this is a biological solution to a biological problem. While 95 percent of diets fail, the average person taking one of the new drugs will lose a quarter of their body weight in six months, and keep it off for as long as they take it. Here is a moment of liberation from an illness that massively increases your chances of diabetes, dementia, and cancer, and causes 10 percent of all deaths. Still, Hari was wildly conflicted. The massive rise in obesity rates around the world in the last half century didn’t happen because something went wrong with human biology. It happened because something went disastrously wrong with our We began to eat food designed to be maximally addictive. We built cities that are impossible to walk or bike around. We became much more stressed, making us seek out more comfort snacks. From this perspective, the new weight loss drugs arrive at a moment of madness. We built a food system that poisons us, then decided en masse to inject ourselves with a different potential poison that puts us off all food.A personal journey through weight loss combined with scientific evidence from experts, Magic Pill explores, as only Hari can, questions How did we get to this point? What does it reveal about our society that we couldn’t solve this problem socially, and instead turned to potentially risky pharmaceutical solutions? And will this free us from social pressure to conform to an ideal body type—or make that pressure even more dangerously intense?]]> 320 Johann Hari 0593728637 Valerie 0 4.27 2024 Magic Pill: The Extraordinary Benefits and Disturbing Risks of the New Weight-Loss Drugs
author: Johann Hari
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/30
date added: 2024/12/30
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]]> Wurthering Heights 58503787
Los brumosos y sombríos páramos de Yorkshire son el singular escenario donde se desarrolla con fuerza arrebatadora esta historia de venganza, odio y amor desesperado entre sus protagonistas.]]> 260 Emily Brontë Valerie 0 unfinished 3.63 1847 Wurthering Heights
author: Emily Brontë
name: Valerie
average rating: 3.63
book published: 1847
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/21
shelves: unfinished
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Hiddensee: A Tale of the Once and Future Nutcracker]]> 34555335 From the author of the beloved #1 New York Times bestseller Wicked, the magical story of a toymaker, a nutcracker, and a legend remade . . .

Gregory Maguire returns with an inventive novel inspired by a timeless holiday legend, intertwining the story of the famous Nutcracker with the life of the mysterious toy maker named Drosselmeier who carves him.

Hiddensee: An island of white sandy beaches, salt marshes, steep cliffs, and pine forests north of Berlin in the Baltic Sea, an island that is an enchanting bohemian retreat and home to a large artists' colony—a wellspring of inspiration for the Romantic imagination . . .

Having brought his legions of devoted readers to Oz in Wicked and to Wonderland in After Alice, Maguire now takes us to the realms of the Brothers Grimm and E. T. A. Hoffmann—the enchanted Black Forest of Bavaria and the salons of Munich. Hiddensee imagines the backstory of the Nutcracker, revealing how this entrancing creature came to be carved and how he guided an ailing girl named Klara through a dreamy paradise on a Christmas Eve. At the heart of Hoffmann's mysterious tale hovers Godfather Drosselmeier—the ominous, canny, one-eyed toy maker made immortal by Petipa and Tchaikovsky's fairy tale ballet—who presents the once and future Nutcracker to Klara, his goddaughter.

But Hiddensee is not just a retelling of a classic story. Maguire discovers in the flowering of German Romanticism ties to Hellenic mystery-cults—a fascination with death and the afterlife—and ponders a profound question: How can a person who is abused by life, shortchanged and challenged, nevertheless access secrets that benefit the disadvantaged and powerless? Ultimately, Hiddensee offers a message of hope. If the compromised Godfather Drosselmeier can bring an enchanted Nutcracker to a young girl in distress on a dark winter evening, perhaps everyone, however lonely or marginalized, has something precious to share.]]> 304 Gregory Maguire 006268440X Valerie 0 unfinished 3.12 2017 Hiddensee: A Tale of the Once and Future Nutcracker
author: Gregory Maguire
name: Valerie
average rating: 3.12
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/20
shelves: unfinished
review:

]]> Letters from Father Christmas 7331
Can you imagine writing to Father Christmas and actually getting a reply? For more than twenty years, the children of J.R.R. Tolkien received letters from the North Pole - from Father Christmas himself! They told wonderful stories of mischief and disaster, adventures, and battles: how the reindeer got loose and scattered presents all over the place, how the accident-prone Polar Bear climbed the North Pole and fell through the roof of Father Christmas's house, and many others.

Now, for the first time, these letters are brought to life with specially arranged holiday music.

REVIEW:

"Tolkien at his relaxed and ingenious best." The Times of London

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

J.R.R. TOLKIEN (1892-1973) is the creator of Middle-earth and author of such classic extraordinary works of fiction as 'The Hobbit', 'The Lord of the Rings', and 'The Silmarillion.' His books have been translated into more than fifty languages and have sold many millions of copies worldwide.

©1997, 2004 (P)1997 Harper Collins UK]]> 111 J.R.R. Tolkien 0618512659 Valerie 0 4.27 1976 Letters from Father Christmas
author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1976
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/13
date added: 2024/12/13
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]]> <![CDATA[A Billionaire Inventor for Christmas (Dexington Christmas Billionaires, #1)]]> 61296092 He might just be the Christmas gift she needs to heal.

Sarah Nash has no time for romance. She’d been emotionally scarred from her last relationship and has just managed to pay off the mountain of debts she was saddled with.

Now all she wants for Christmas is to rediscover Christmas joy—no love in the equation, and what better place than her hometown Dexington where she recalled spending the happiest times of her life. She is determined to stick with her plan and not even a chance encounter with Phillip—billionaire hospital heir and inventor, and the town’s most eligible bachelor—can change her mind.

Until she discovers he is the boy she kissed in high school.

Phillip Dexington is finally about to launch a new medical device after having his last invention stolen by his former girlfriend and sold to his archenemy. He’s determined that nothing must go wrong this time around—which means avoiding a relationship at all costs—and is content with spending Christmas with the children at the orphanage.

But when Phillip runs into Sarah Nash, the girl who stole his heart in high school, his world flips upside down. She’s only in town for Christmas, and the time before the launch party is Phillip’s only chance at determining if she is the one.

Will they open their hearts to the fullness of Christmas and give love a second chance, or will their trust issues rob them of a happily ever after?

This is a sweet/clean emotional scars Christmas medical billionaire romance with no cliffhangers and a guaranteed HEA.

]]> 204 Dobi Daniels Valerie 0 realistic-fiction 3.63 2018 A Billionaire Inventor for Christmas (Dexington Christmas Billionaires, #1)
author: Dobi Daniels
name: Valerie
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/10
date added: 2024/12/10
shelves: realistic-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Journey to the Center of the Earth]]> 32829
The expedition descends into an extinct volcano toward a sunless sea, where they encounter a subterranean world of luminous rocks, antediluvian forests, and fantastic marine life � a living past that holds the secrets to the origins of human existence.]]> 240 Jules Verne 0553213970 Valerie 0 unfinished 3.87 1864 Journey to the Center of the Earth
author: Jules Verne
name: Valerie
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1864
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/10
shelves: unfinished
review:

]]> <![CDATA[When the Day Comes (Timeless, #1)]]> 59627675
Libby has been given a powerful gift: to live one life in 1774 Colonial Williamsburg and the other in 1914 Gilded Age New York City. When she falls asleep in one life, she wakes up in the other. While she's the same person at her core in both times, she's leading two vastly different lives.

In Colonial Williamsburg, Libby is a public printer for the House of Burgesses and the Royal Governor, trying to provide for her family and support the Patriot cause. The man she loves, Henry Montgomery, has his own secrets. As the revolution draws near, both their lives--and any hope of love--are put in jeopardy.

Libby's life in 1914 New York is filled with wealth, drawing room conversations, and bachelors. But the only work she cares about--women's suffrage--is discouraged, and her mother is intent on marrying her off to an English marquess. The growing talk of war in Europe only complicates matters.

But Libby knows she's not destined to live two lives forever. On her twenty-first birthday, she must choose one path and forfeit the other--but how can she choose when she has so much to lose in each life?]]> 384 Gabrielle Meyer 0764239740 Valerie 0 to-read 4.37 2022 When the Day Comes (Timeless, #1)
author: Gabrielle Meyer
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Santa Suit 56693416
When newly-divorced Ivy Perkins buys an old farmhouse sight unseen, she is definitely looking for a change in her life. The Four Roses, as the farmhouse is called, is a labor of love―but Ivy didn't bargain on just how much labor. The previous family left so much furniture and so much junk, that it's a full-time job sorting through all of it.

At the top of a closet, Ivy finds an old Santa suit―beautifully made and decades old. In the pocket of a suit she finds a note written in a childish it's from a little girl who has one Christmas wish, and that is for her father to return home from the war. This discovery sets Ivy off on a mission. Who wrote the note? Did the man ever come home? What mysteries did the Rose family hold?

Ivy's quest brings her into the community, at a time when all she wanted to do was be left alone and nurse her wounds. But the magic of Christmas makes miracles happen, and Ivy just might find more than she ever thought a welcoming town, a family reunited, a mystery solved, and a second chance at love.]]> 224 Mary Kay Andrews 1250279313 Valerie 0 3.73 2021 The Santa Suit
author: Mary Kay Andrews
name: Valerie
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2024/11/30
date added: 2024/11/30
shelves:
review:

]]> Uncle Tom’s Cabin 46787 438 Harriet Beecher Stowe Valerie 0 maybe 3.88 1852 Uncle Tom’s Cabin
author: Harriet Beecher Stowe
name: Valerie
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1852
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/30
shelves: maybe
review:

]]> The Holiday Swap 54238730 In a Holidaze and Josie Silver's One Day in December.

All they want for Christmas is a different life.

When chef Charlie Goodwin gets hit on the head on the L.A. set of her reality baking show, she loses a lot more than consciousness; she also loses her ability to taste and smell--both critical to her success as show judge. Meanwhile, Charlie's identical twin, Cass, is frantically trying to hold her own life together back in their quaint mountain hometown while running the family's bustling bakery and dealing with her ex, who won't get the memo that they're over.

With only days until Christmas, a desperate Charlie asks Cass to do something they haven't done since they were kids: switch places. Looking for her own escape from reality, Cass agrees. But temporarily trading lives proves more complicated than they imagined, especially when rugged firefighter Jake Greenman and gorgeous physician's assistant Miguel Rodriguez are thrown into the mix. Will the twins' identity swap be a recipe for disaster, or does it have all the right ingredients for getting their lives back on track?]]> 351 Maggie Knox 0593330749 Valerie 0 3.56 2021 The Holiday Swap
author: Maggie Knox
name: Valerie
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2024/11/29
date added: 2024/11/29
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Doctrine and Covenants Made Easier Part 1 : Study Guide: Section 1 Through Section 42]]> 55947718 543 David Ridges 1462144799 Valerie 0 to-read 4.72 Doctrine and Covenants Made Easier Part 1 : Study Guide: Section 1 Through Section 42
author: David Ridges
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.72
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Darkness at the Door (Dauntless Path, #3)]]> 61131639 I've been cursed, betrayed, and sold into slavery � but the truth I carry can't be allowed to die.

Only Rae knows the extent of the corruption at the heart of the kingdom of Menaiya, from the noble lord who betrayed her, to the Circle of Mages whose wards protect the slavers from discovery. Injured and imprisoned on a slave ship, Rae's options are quickly running out. When a desperate escape attempt goes terribly wrong, she finds herself indebted to a terrifying Fae sorceress.

Now Rae will not rest until she has rescued her fellow prisoners and freed her land from the darkness that has taken hold. To succeed, she'll need every ally she can find—including Bren, the thief who may have stolen her heart. But Bren is hiding his own bloody secrets, and the curses that encircle Rae have sunk their claws into her mind. With her debts coming due and time running short, all the truths in the world may not be enough to save her kingdom, or herself.]]> 486 Intisar Khanani 1952667801 Valerie 5 4.51 2022 A Darkness at the Door (Dauntless Path, #3)
author: Intisar Khanani
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/19
date added: 2024/11/19
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Voices: The Final Hours of Joan of Arc]]> 41042549
★“An innovative, entrancing account of a popular figure that will appeal to fans of verse, history, and biography.� - Kirkus, starred review

In poems that surprise and move readers, bestselling author David Elliott explores how Joan of Arc changed the course of history and remains a figure of fascination centuries after her extraordinary life and death.

Told through medieval poetic forms and in the voices of the people and objects in Joan of Arc’s life, (including her family and even the trees, clothes, cows, and candles of her childhood), Voices offers an unforgettable perspective on an extraordinary young woman. Along the way it explores timely issues such as gender, misogyny, and the peril of speaking truth to power. Before Joan of Arc became a saint, she was a girl inspired. It is that girl we come to know in Voices.]]> 211 David Elliott 0358049156 Valerie 0 to-read 3.72 2019 Voices: The Final Hours of Joan of Arc
author: David Elliott
name: Valerie
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Theft of Sunlight (Dauntless Path #2)]]> 17317376 I did not choose this fate. But I will not walk away from it.

Children have been disappearing from across Menaiya for longer than Amraeya ni Ansarim can remember. When her friend’s sister is snatched, Rae knows she can’t look away any longer - even if that means seeking answers from the royal court, where her country upbringing and clubfoot will only invite ridicule.

Yet the court holds its share of surprises. There she discovers an ally in the foreign princess, who recruits her as an attendant. Armed with the princess’s support, Rae seeks answers in the dark city streets, finding unexpected help in a rough-around-the-edges street thief with secrets of his own. But treachery runs deep, and the more Rae uncovers, the more she endangers the kingdom itself.]]> 528 Intisar Khanani Valerie 5 4.36 2021 The Theft of Sunlight (Dauntless Path #2)
author: Intisar Khanani
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/16
date added: 2024/11/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World]]> 25744928 One of the most valuable skills in our economy is becoming increasingly rare. If you master this skill, you'll achieve extraordinary results.

Deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It's a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information and produce better results in less time. Deep work will make you better at what you do and provide the sense of true fulfillment that comes from craftsmanship. In short, deep work is like a super power in our increasingly competitive twenty-first century economy. And yet, most people have lost the ability to go deep-spending their days instead in a frantic blur of e-mail and social media, not even realizing there's a better way.

In Deep Work, author and professor Cal Newport flips the narrative on impact in a connected age. Instead of arguing distraction is bad, he instead celebrates the power of its opposite. Dividing this book into two parts, he first makes the case that in almost any profession, cultivating a deep work ethic will produce massive benefits. He then presents a rigorous training regimen, presented as a series of four "rules," for transforming your mind and habits to support this skill.

A mix of cultural criticism and actionable advice, Deep Work takes the reader on a journey through memorable stories-from Carl Jung building a stone tower in the woods to focus his mind, to a social media pioneer buying a round-trip business class ticket to Tokyo to write a book free from distraction in the air-and no-nonsense advice, such as the claim that most serious professionals should quit social media and that you should practice being bored. Deep Work is an indispensable guide to anyone seeking focused success in a distracted world.]]> 296 Cal Newport 1455586692 Valerie 3 audio
Anyways like I said some good take aways but I just thought it should've encompassed a to a broader range of people.]]> 4.16 2016 Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
author: Cal Newport
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/08
date added: 2024/11/08
shelves: audio
review:
I think there are a lot of good take aways and I completely agree that distraction keeps people from doing deep satisfying work. But I felt he left out a huge portion of people who are not part of his demographic most examples he gave were white men. He gave so few examples (if any that I can recall) of people who were almost exclusively doing shallow work and then became this amazing deep workers. He talked a lot about tenure which I suppose to his social group is a huge achievement but that is such a small percentage of the population. I'd like to have seen some mention of people like high school teachers, social workers, project managers, doctors, nurses, restaurant owners, engineers, or construction workers and address how deep work is important to them.

Anyways like I said some good take aways but I just thought it should've encompassed a to a broader range of people.
]]> <![CDATA[Kiss the Girl (Creekville Kisses, #2)]]> 59420647
At 26, Grace Winters must her promising career on pause to run her dad’s hardware store. She can’t wait to leave Creekville again, and she’ll keep everyone at arm’s length until she’s out of there. That especially means the new high school coach…no matter how cute and charming he is.

Noah Redmond knows Creekville is just a detour for Grace, the funniest—and sexiest—woman he’s ever met. He even joins forces with her to defeat the matchmaking schemes of . . . well, just about everyone trying to get them together. But when he and Grace must also tackle building a Christmas booth for the town’s biggest event of the year, he sees his chance for escape from the friend zone.

When Grace agrees to a fake relationship to convince Noah’s boss he's ready for a promotion, the plan works perfectly until they share an unplanned kiss that changes everything. With the lines between friendship and romance blurred, is their undeniable chemistry worth risking their friendship when their future is anything but certain?]]> 277 Melanie Jacobson Valerie 0 to-read 3.93 2021 Kiss the Girl (Creekville Kisses, #2)
author: Melanie Jacobson
name: Valerie
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Princess and the Goblin 444381 241 George MacDonald 0140367462 Valerie 0 4.02 1872 The Princess and the Goblin
author: George MacDonald
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1872
rating: 0
read at: 2024/11/08
date added: 2024/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]> Covertly Yours 165048287 In the wrong place at the wrong time—until he shows up.

Paisley Spencer's phone dies right when she's lost in a bad part of Phoenix. She ventures into an all-night liquor store to ask for directions, and when she returns to her car, three guys are waiting outside for her.

Not the greeting committee she'd hoped for.

She has to rely on the mercy of a handsome stranger to escape.

But he's keeping secrets that will lead her into even more trouble.

If you like romantic suspense with a twist of humor, this sweet, swoony novella is for you! ]]> 78 Janette Rallison Valerie 0 4.15 Covertly Yours
author: Janette Rallison
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.15
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2024/11/07
date added: 2024/11/07
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City]]> 57359691 The riveting, unforgettable story of a girl whose indomitable spirit is tested by homelessness, poverty, and racism in an unequal America—from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Andrea Elliott of The New York Times

Invisible Child follows eight dramatic years in the life of Dasani Coates, a child with an imagination as soaring as the skyscrapers near her Brooklyn homeless shelter. Born at the turn of a new century, Dasani is named for the bottled water that comes to symbolize Brooklyn’s gentrification and the shared aspirations of a divided city. As Dasani grows up, moving with her tight-knit family from shelter to shelter, this story goes back to trace the passage of Dasani’s ancestors from slavery to the Great Migration north. By the time Dasani comes of age, New York City’s homeless crisis is exploding as the chasm deepens between rich and poor.

In the shadows of this new Gilded Age, Dasani must lead her seven siblings through a thicket of problems: hunger, parental drug addiction, violence, housing instability, segregated schools, and the constant monitoring of the child-protection system. When, at age thirteen, Dasani enrolls at a boarding school in Pennsylvania, her loyalties are tested like never before. As she learns to “code switch� between the culture she left behind and the norms of her new town, Dasani starts to feel like a stranger in both places. Ultimately, she faces an impossible question: What if leaving poverty means abandoning the family you love?

By turns heartbreaking and revelatory, provocative and inspiring, Invisible Child tells an astonishing story about the power of resilience, the importance of family, and the cost of inequality. Based on nearly a decade of reporting, this book vividly illuminates some of the most critical issues in contemporary America through the life of one remarkable girl.]]> 602 Andrea Elliott 0812986946 Valerie 0 4.71 2021 Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City
author: Andrea Elliott
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.71
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2024/11/01
date added: 2024/11/01
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way]]> 13259960
America has long compared its students to top-performing kids of other nations, but how do the world’s education superpowers look through the eyes of an American high school student? Author Amanda Ripley follows three teenagers who chose to spend one school year living and learning in Finland, South Korea, and Poland. Through their adventures, Ripley discovers startling truths about how attitudes, parenting, and rigorous teaching have revolutionized these countries� education results.

In The Smartest Kids in the World, Ripley’s astonishing new insights reveal that top-performing countries have achieved greatness only in the past several decades; that the kids who live there are learning to think for themselves, partly through failing early and often; and that persistence, hard work, and resilience matter more to our children’s life chances than self-esteem or sports.

Ripley’s investigative work seamlessly weaves narrative and research, providing in-depth analysis and gripping details that will keep you turning the pages. Written in a clear and engaging style, The Smartest Kids in the World will enliven public as well as dinner table debates over what makes for brighter and better students.]]> 306 Amanda Ripley 1451654421 Valerie 0 4.05 2013 The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way
author: Amanda Ripley
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at: 2024/10/23
date added: 2024/10/23
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Hound of the Baskervilles (Sherlock Holmes, #5)]]> 8921 256 Arthur Conan Doyle Valerie 0 unfinished 4.15 1901 The Hound of the Baskervilles (Sherlock Holmes, #5)
author: Arthur Conan Doyle
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1901
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/21
shelves: unfinished
review:

]]> Hidden Figures 25953369 349 Margot Lee Shetterly Valerie 0 3.97 2016 Hidden Figures
author: Margot Lee Shetterly
name: Valerie
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at: 2024/10/21
date added: 2024/10/21
shelves:
review:
I think if I didn't expect it to be like the movie then I would've enjoyed the book for its own merit.
]]> <![CDATA[The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co., #1)]]> 13555073
For more than fifty years, the country has been affected by a horrifying epidemic of ghosts. A number of Psychic Investigations Agencies have sprung up to destroy the dangerous apparitions.

Lucy Carlyle, a talented young agent, arrives in London hoping for a notable career. Instead she finds herself joining the smallest, most ramshackle agency in the city, run by the charismatic Anthony Lockwood. When one of their cases goes horribly wrong, Lockwood & Co. have one last chance of redemption. Unfortunately this involves spending the night in one of the most haunted houses in England, and trying to escape alive.

Set in a city stalked by spectres, The Screaming Staircase is the first in a chilling new series full of suspense, humour and truly terrifying ghosts. Your nights will never be the same again . . .]]> 440 Jonathan Stroud 0857532014 Valerie 0 4.24 2013 The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co., #1)
author: Jonathan Stroud
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at: 2024/10/16
date added: 2024/10/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 1]]> 52085140
The Year is 1883 and Emma M. Lion has returned to her London neighborhood of St. Crispian’s. But Emma’s plans for a charmed and studious life are sabotaged by her eccentric Cousin Archibald, her formidable Aunt Eugenia, and the slightly odd denizens of St. Crispian’s.

Emma M. Lion offers up her Unselected Journals, however self-incriminating they may be, which comprise a series of novella-length volumes. Armed with wit and a sideways amusement, Emma documents the curious realities of her life at Lapis Lazuli House.]]> 125 Beth Brower 0998063614 Valerie 0 to-read 4.24 2019 The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 1
author: Beth Brower
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Caused an Epidemic of Mental Illness]]> 171681821
A must-read for all parents: the generation-defining investigation into the collapse of youth mental health in the era of smartphones, social media, and big tech—and a plan for a healthier, freer childhood.

“With tenacity and candor, Haidt lays out the consequences that have come with allowing kids to drift further into the virtual world . . . While also offering suggestions and solutions that could help protect a new generation of kids.� —Shannon Carlin, ,i>TIME, 100 Must-Read Books of 2024

After more than a decade of stability or improvement, the mental health of adolescents plunged in the early 2010s. Rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide rose sharply, more than doubling on many measures. Why?

In The Anxious Generation, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt lays out the facts about the epidemic of teen mental illness that hit many countries at the same time. He then investigates the nature of childhood, including why children need play and independent exploration to mature into competent, thriving adults. Haidt shows how the “play-based childhood� began to decline in the 1980s, and how it was finally wiped out by the arrival of the “phone-based childhood� in the early 2010s. He presents more than a dozen mechanisms by which this “great rewiring of childhood� has interfered with children’s social and neurological development, covering everything from sleep deprivation to attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, social comparison, and perfectionism. He explains why social media damages girls more than boys and why boys have been withdrawing from the real world into the virtual world, with disastrous consequences for themselves, their families, and their societies.

Most important, Haidt issues a clear call to action. He diagnoses the “collective action problems� that trap us, and then proposes four simple rules that might set us free. He describes steps that parents, teachers, schools, tech companies, and governments can take to end the epidemic of mental illness and restore a more humane childhood.

Haidt has spent his career speaking truth backed by data in the most difficult landscapes—communities polarized by politics and religion, campuses battling culture wars, and now the public health emergency faced by Gen Z. We cannot afford to ignore his findings about protecting our children—and ourselves—from the psychological damage of a phone-based life.]]> 400 Jonathan Haidt 0593655036 Valerie 0 4.36 2024 The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Caused an Epidemic of Mental Illness
author: Jonathan Haidt
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/10/03
date added: 2024/10/03
shelves:
review:

]]> The Blue Sword (Damar, #1) 407813
And this is the story of Harry Crewe, the Homelander orphan girl who became Harimad-sol, King's Rider, and heir to the Blue Sword, Gonturan, that no woman had wielded since the Lady Aerin herself bore it into battle.

And this is the song of the kelar of the Hillfolk, the magic of the blood, the weaver of destinies...]]> 248 Robin McKinley 0441068804 Valerie 0 to-read 4.21 1982 The Blue Sword (Damar, #1)
author: Robin McKinley
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1982
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[House of Robots (House of Robots, #1)]]> 21489272 In this highly-illustrated series from James Patterson, an extraordinary robot signs up for an ordinary fifth grade class . . . and elementary school will never be the same!
It was never easy for Sammy Hayes-Rodriguez to fit in, so he's dreading the day when his genius mom insists he bring her newest invention to school: a walking, talking robot he calls E-for "Error". Sammy's no stranger to robots; his house is full of a colorful cast of them. But this one not only thinks it's Sammy's brother . . . it's actually even nerdier than Sammy. Will E be Sammy's one-way ticket to Loserville? Or will he prove to the world that it's cool to be square? It's a roller-coaster ride for Sammy to discover the amazing secret E holds that could change family forever . . . if all goes well on the trial run!]]> 3 James Patterson 1478955856 Valerie 0 4.20 2014 House of Robots (House of Robots, #1)
author: James Patterson
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at: 2024/09/28
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves: children, kids-read-aloud, sci-fi
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Story Keeper (Carolina Heirlooms, #2)]]> 21539471 448 Lisa Wingate 1414386893 Valerie 0 to-read 4.12 2014 The Story Keeper (Carolina Heirlooms, #2)
author: Lisa Wingate
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Midnight Blizzard: A Cinderella Retelling]]> 218439180 An ice slipper wasn’t the only thing left behind at midnight�

Noelle Frost only has one chance to reclaim the inheritance stolen from her after her father’s death. With her stepfamily plotting to win the prince’s heart during his bride competition to secure their own power, Noelle must infiltrate the royal ball to confront her stepmother and reclaim her birthright before time runs out. But in order to get close enough, she must compete for a crown she doesn’t want—and a prince she doesn’t love.

The real danger lies in her growing feelings for Jack, the prince’s enigmatic mage advisor. As their forbidden romance ignites, Jack becomes Noelle’s only ally in a world of treachery, with access to the records that could restore her to her rightful place as the heiress of the Frostwood estate. The closer Noelle gets to Jack, the more impossible their future seems.

As the competition heats up and the prince’s attention turns to Noelle, her stepmother offers a risky bargain that Noelle can’t turn down if she wants to protect Jack, even if it means leaving the castle forever. After all, if Noelle and Jack can never be together, does she have any reason to stay?

As midnight approaches, Noelle must decide if she can truly leave her heart behind.




This is a Cinderella retelling, filled with forbidden love, dog sleds, blackmail, and an illegal courtship set in a snowy kingdom. Perfect for a cozy Christmas read, fans of Melanie Cellier, Tara Grayce, and Deborah Grace White will love this no-spice romantic fantasy book.

This book is a part of The Christmas Chronicles, a collection of festive novellas filled with clean romance, chilly weather, and cozy adventure.]]> 218 Mary Mecham Valerie 0 to-read 4.56 The Midnight Blizzard: A Cinderella Retelling
author: Mary Mecham
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.56
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Never Enough: When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic-and What We Can Do About It]]> 63876547
The definitive book on the rise of “toxic achievement culture� overtaking our kids' and parents' lives, and a new framework for fighting back

In the ever more competitive race to secure the best possible future, today’s students face unprecedented pressure to succeed. They jam-pack their schedules with AP classes, fill every waking hour with resume-padding activities, and even sabotage relationships with friends to “get ahead.� Family incomes and schedules are stretched to the breaking point by tutoring fees and athletic schedules. Yet this drive to optimize performance has only resulted in skyrocketing rates of anxiety, depression, and even self-harm in America’s highest achieving schools. Parents, educators, and community leaders are facing the same how can we teach our kids to strive towards excellence without crushing them?

In Never Enough, award-winning reporter Jennifer Breheny Wallace investigates the deep roots of toxic achievement culture, and finds out what we must do to fight back. Drawing on interviews with families, educators, and an original survey of nearly 6,000 parents, she exposes how the pressure to perform is not a matter of parental choice but baked in to our larger society and spurred by increasing income inequality and dwindling opportunities. As a result, children are increasingly absorbing the message that they have no value outside of their accomplishments, a message that is reinforced by the media and greater culture at large.

Through deep research and interviews with today’s leading child psychologists, Wallace shows what kids need from the adults in the room is not more pressure, but to feel like they matter , and have intrinsic self-worth not contingent upon external achievements. Parents and educators who adopt the language and values of mattering help children see themselves as a valuable contributor to a larger community. And in an ironic twist, kids who receive consistent feedback that they matter no matter what are more likely to have the resilience, self-confidence, and psychological security to thrive.

Packed with memorable stories and offering a powerful toolkit for positive change, Never Enough offers an urgent, humane view of the crisis plaguing today’s teens and a practical framework for how to help.]]> 320 Jennifer Breheny Wallace 0593191862 Valerie 0 4.15 2023 Never Enough: When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic-and What We Can Do About It
author: Jennifer Breheny Wallace
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/09/14
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves:
review:
I'm glad that she kinda reframed what success looks like.
]]> The Other Princess 75668265
With a brilliant mind and a fierce will to survive, Sarah Forbes Bonetta, a kidnapped African princess, is rescued from enslavement at seven years old and presented to Queen Victoria as a “gift.� To the Queen, the girl is an exotic trophy to be trotted out for the entertainment of the royal court and to showcase Victoria’s magnanimity. Sarah charms most of the people she meets, even those who would cast her aside. Her keen intelligence and her aptitude for languages and musical composition helps Sarah navigate the Victorian era as an outsider given insider privileges.

But embedded in Sarah’s past is her destiny. Haunted by visions of destruction and decapitations, she desperately seeks a place, a home she will never run from, never fear, a refuge from nightmares and memories of death.

From West Africa to Windsor Castle to Sierra Leone, to St. James's Palace, and the Lagos Colony, Sarah juggles the power and pitfalls of a royal upbringing as she battles racism and systematic oppression on her way to living a life worthy of a Yoruba princess.

Based on the real life of Queen Victoria’s Black goddaughter, Sarah Forbes Bonetta’s story is a sweeping saga of an African princess in Victorian England and West Africa, as she searches for a home, family, love, and identity.]]> 448 Denny S. Bryce 0063144123 Valerie 0 to-read 3.96 2023 The Other Princess
author: Denny S. Bryce
name: Valerie
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Mansfield Park 6251615
View our feature on Jane Austen.

Begun in 1811 at the height of Jane Austen's writing powers and published in 1814, Mansfield Park marks a conscious break from the tone of her first three novels, Northanger Abbey , Sense and Sensibility , and Pride and Prejudice , the last of which Austen came to see as "rather too light." Fanny Price is unlike any of Austen's previous heroines, a girl from a poor family brought up in a splendid country house and possessed of a vast reserve of moral fortitude and imperturbability. She is very different from Elizabeth Bennet, but is the product of the same inspired imagination.]]> 305 Jane Austen 110120012X Valerie 3 classic
But...*sigh*...Fanny, Fanny, Fanny, she is one of the most difficult heroines that I've ever encountered. I just didn't know how to take her. All the characters are kind of dense in their own way and sometimes I wondered if Fanny was too, but then she says or does something that reminds me that she is actually intelligent. I can see the reason why she is the heroine though. It makes it such a contrast to what society was at the time. To have a heroine that is weak in health, is quiet, patient, polite, and meek makes the world around her that much louder, hearty, faster, and self-indulgent. And for Fanny to hold firmly with her beliefs and saying no to compromising her values for a more comfortable living shows that even an unlikely heroine can have strength.

The message is clear to me and I appreciate that but I just wanted it to be less tedious. There is a lot of Fanny being down, feeling sad, weak in health, and low in spirits.

The ending was anti-climactic. And that is not just me, Austen just tells you what happens so it made it feel very detached from these character that you took all this time to read about.]]> 3.64 1814 Mansfield Park
author: Jane Austen
name: Valerie
average rating: 3.64
book published: 1814
rating: 3
read at: 2011/06/22
date added: 2024/09/11
shelves: classic
review:
I remember watching Mansfield Park on the TV before I knew it was called Mansfield Park, before I knew it was a Austen novel, before I became a reader and even knew who Jane Austen was. Some years later, when I found out about all this I was excited about reading Mansfield Park. I've been meaning to ever sense reading P&P.

But...*sigh*...Fanny, Fanny, Fanny, she is one of the most difficult heroines that I've ever encountered. I just didn't know how to take her. All the characters are kind of dense in their own way and sometimes I wondered if Fanny was too, but then she says or does something that reminds me that she is actually intelligent. I can see the reason why she is the heroine though. It makes it such a contrast to what society was at the time. To have a heroine that is weak in health, is quiet, patient, polite, and meek makes the world around her that much louder, hearty, faster, and self-indulgent. And for Fanny to hold firmly with her beliefs and saying no to compromising her values for a more comfortable living shows that even an unlikely heroine can have strength.

The message is clear to me and I appreciate that but I just wanted it to be less tedious. There is a lot of Fanny being down, feeling sad, weak in health, and low in spirits.

The ending was anti-climactic. And that is not just me, Austen just tells you what happens so it made it feel very detached from these character that you took all this time to read about.
]]> Beowulf 52357 259 Unknown 0393320979 Valerie 0 classic 3.46 1000 Beowulf
author: Unknown
name: Valerie
average rating: 3.46
book published: 1000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/04
shelves: classic
review:

]]> Catch-22 168668
Set in Italy during World War II, this is the story of the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy—it is his own army, which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to excuse himself from the perilous missions he’s assigned, he’ll be in violation of Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes a formal request to be removed from duty, he is proven sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved.

This fiftieth-anniversary edition commemorates Joseph Heller’s masterpiece with a new introduction by Christopher Buckley; a wealth of critical essays and reviews by Norman Mailer, Alfred Kazin, Anthony Burgess, and others; rare papers and photos from Joseph Heller’s personal archive; and much more. Here, at last, is the definitive edition of a classic of world literature.]]> 453 Joseph Heller 0684833395 Valerie 0 maybe 3.99 1961 Catch-22
author: Joseph Heller
name: Valerie
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1961
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/04
shelves: maybe
review:

]]> The Old Man and the Sea 2165 Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

This short novel, already a modern classic, is the superbly told, tragic story of a Cuban fisherman in the Gulf Stream and the giant Marlin he kills and loses—specifically referred to in the citation accompanying the author's Nobel Prize for literature in 1954.]]> 96 Ernest Hemingway 0684830493 Valerie 0 maybe 3.81 1952 The Old Man and the Sea
author: Ernest Hemingway
name: Valerie
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1952
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/04
shelves: maybe
review:

]]> <![CDATA[I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou's Autobiography, #1)]]> 13214
Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide.

Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.� At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors (“I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare�) will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned.

Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read.]]> 289 Maya Angelou 0553279378 Valerie 0 to-read 4.30 1969 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou's Autobiography, #1)
author: Maya Angelou
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1969
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> East of Eden 4406
Adam Trask came to California from the East to farm and raise his family on the new rich land. But the birth of his twins, Cal and Aaron, brings his wife to the brink of madness, and Adam is left alone to raise his boys to manhood. One boy thrives nurtured by the love of all those around him; the other grows up in loneliness enveloped by a mysterious darkness.

First published in 1952, East of Eden is the work in which Steinbeck created his most mesmerizing characters and explored his most enduring themes: the mystery of identity, the inexplicability of love, and the murderous consequences of love's absence. A masterpiece of Steinbeck's later years, East of Eden is a powerful and vastly ambitious novel that is at once a family saga and a modern retelling of the Book of Genesis.]]> 601 John Steinbeck 0142000655 Valerie 0 to-read 4.41 1952 East of Eden
author: John Steinbeck
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.41
book published: 1952
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[My Father's Dragon (My Father's Dragon, #1)]]> 34898 96 Ruth Stiles Gannett 0440421217 Valerie 0 kids-read-aloud 4.09 1948 My Father's Dragon (My Father's Dragon, #1)
author: Ruth Stiles Gannett
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1948
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/01
shelves: kids-read-aloud
review:

]]> <![CDATA[American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West]]> 34427982 this edition

The enthralling story of the rise and reign of O-Six, the celebrated Yellowstone wolf, and the people who loved or feared her.

Before humans ruled the earth, there were wolves. Once abundant in North America, these majestic creatures were hunted to near extinction in the lower 48 states by the 1920s. But in recent decades, conservationists have brought wolves back to the Rockies, igniting a battle over the very soul of the West.

With novelistic detail, Nate Blakeslee tells the gripping story of one of these wolves, O-Six, a charismatic alpha female named for the year of her birth. Uncommonly powerful, with gray fur and faint black ovals around each eye, O-Six is a kind and merciful leader, a fiercely intelligent fighter, and a doting mother. She is beloved by wolf watchers, particularly renowned naturalist Rick McIntyre, and becomes something of a social media star, with followers around the world.

But as she raises her pups and protects her pack, O-Six is challenged on all fronts: by hunters, who compete with wolves for the elk they both prize; by cattle ranchers who are losing livestock and have the ear of politicians; and by other Yellowstone wolves who are vying for control of the park’s stunningly beautiful Lamar Valley.

These forces collide in American Wolf, a riveting multi-generational saga of hardship and triumph that tells a larger story about the ongoing cultural clash in the West—between those fighting for a vanishing way of life and those committed to restoring one of the country’s most iconic landscapes.]]> 300 Nate Blakeslee 1101902787 Valerie 0 4.39 2017 American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West
author: Nate Blakeslee
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at: 2024/08/21
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves:
review:

]]> The Wolf 41750870 this edition

The enthralling story of the rise and reign of O-Six, the celebrated Yellowstone wolf, and the people who loved or feared her.

Before humans ruled the earth, there were wolves. Once abundant in North America, these majestic creatures were hunted to near extinction in the lower 48 states by the 1920s. But in recent decades, conservationists have brought wolves back to the Rockies, igniting a battle over the very soul of the West.

With novelistic detail, Nate Blakeslee tells the gripping story of one of these wolves, O-Six, a charismatic alpha female named for the year of her birth. Uncommonly powerful, with gray fur and faint black ovals around each eye, O-Six is a kind and merciful leader, a fiercely intelligent fighter, and a doting mother. She is beloved by wolf watchers, particularly renowned naturalist Rick McIntyre, and becomes something of a social media star, with followers around the world.

But as she raises her pups and protects her pack, O-Six is challenged on all fronts: by hunters, who compete with wolves for the elk they both prize; by cattle ranchers who are losing livestock and have the ear of politicians; and by other Yellowstone wolves who are vying for control of the park’s stunningly beautiful Lamar Valley.

These forces collide in American Wolf, a riveting multi-generational saga of hardship and triumph that tells a larger story about the ongoing cultural clash in the West—between those fighting for a vanishing way of life and those committed to restoring one of the country’s most iconic landscapes.]]> 336 Nate Blakeslee 1786074079 Valerie 0 4.38 2017 The Wolf
author: Nate Blakeslee
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/20
shelves:
review:

]]> Of Mice and Men 890 “I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that's why.�

They are an unlikely pair: George is "small and quick and dark of face"; Lennie, a man of tremendous size, has the mind of a young child. Yet they have formed a "family," clinging together in the face of loneliness and alienation. Laborers in California's dusty vegetable fields, they hustle work when they can, living a hand-to-mouth existence. But George and Lennie have a plan: to own an acre of land and a shack they can call their own.

While the powerlessness of the laboring class is a recurring theme in Steinbeck's work of the late 1930s, he narrowed his focus when composing Of Mice and Men, creating an intimate portrait of two men facing a world marked by petty tyranny, misunderstanding, jealousy, and callousness. But though the scope is narrow, the theme is universal: a friendship and a shared dream that makes an individual's existence meaningful.

A unique perspective on life's hardships, this story has achieved the status of timeless classic due to its remarkable success as a novel, a Broadway play, and three acclaimed films.]]> 107 John Steinbeck 0142000671 Valerie 0 maybe 3.88 1937 Of Mice and Men
author: John Steinbeck
name: Valerie
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1937
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/15
shelves: maybe
review:

]]> Uncle Wiggly's Storybook 9328738 0 Howard Roger Garis 1882513800 Valerie 0 to-read 4.12 1987 Uncle Wiggly's Storybook
author: Howard Roger Garis
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1987
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[One Magic Moment (de Piaget, #11; de Piaget/MacLeod, #17)]]> 11277925 There’s no time like the present … if you’re running away from the past.Tess Alexander has it family within reach, work she loves, and the chance to live in a perfectly restored medieval castle. But then a trip to the village brings her face-to-face with the new owner of the local garage, who looks a great deal like the man who married her sister � eight hundred years in the past. She’s determined to remain objective about magic and destiny, yet she can’t help but wonder about the mysterious, sword-wielding mechanic…As far as John de Piaget is concerned, he has no past; it’s safer that way. The last thing he needs is the nosey medieval studies scholar from the nearby castle dredging up ancient history—his ancient history. But from the moment he lays eyes on Tess, John can’t help but wonder how he ever took a decent breath without her … or how he’s going to protect her from the treachery that threatens both their futures.]]> 386 Lynn Kurland 1101514558 Valerie 3
This is the first book I've read of this series and so there are probably things I didn't know about but really the only thing I was kind of confused about was the sister Peaches which is cleared up later.

Tess and John are a strange couple. I like a protective leading guy, really I do, and I must admit that I did feel pretty gooey when he was 'wooing' Tess but he was just so demanding. Saying Tess should know her place and he was always pushing her around, just having to protect her. Tess does mention how bossy he is and John does admit how hard he is to deal with though. But Tess gets saved a lot of times by John. Sure she 'kind of' saves him back once but that is compared to the dozens of recues that he did for her. It just dosen't make her seem as strong a woman as she is supposed to be for me.

In the end I think just a little more plot and a little less romance and I would've liked it better. And I do believe I'll be looking out for more from Lynn Kurland.]]> 4.45 2011 One Magic Moment (de Piaget, #11; de Piaget/MacLeod, #17)
author: Lynn Kurland
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2011/08/15
date added: 2024/08/13
shelves:
review:
This is a real romance. Yes it has time travel and some historical fiction stuff in it but the basic plot of it is mostly driven by the slow build up of the romance. Someone is after John and Tess but this takes mostly a backseat. Though I do usually like a bit more plot about stuff other than romance I did enjoy reading One Magic Moment because I am a romantic at times.

This is the first book I've read of this series and so there are probably things I didn't know about but really the only thing I was kind of confused about was the sister Peaches which is cleared up later.

Tess and John are a strange couple. I like a protective leading guy, really I do, and I must admit that I did feel pretty gooey when he was 'wooing' Tess but he was just so demanding. Saying Tess should know her place and he was always pushing her around, just having to protect her. Tess does mention how bossy he is and John does admit how hard he is to deal with though. But Tess gets saved a lot of times by John. Sure she 'kind of' saves him back once but that is compared to the dozens of recues that he did for her. It just dosen't make her seem as strong a woman as she is supposed to be for me.

In the end I think just a little more plot and a little less romance and I would've liked it better. And I do believe I'll be looking out for more from Lynn Kurland.
]]> The Tale of Despereaux 37190 A brave mouse, a covetous rat, a wishful serving girl, and a princess named Pea come together in Kate DiCamillo's Newbery Medal–winning tale.

Welcome to the story of Despereaux Tilling, a mouse who is in love with music, stories, and a princess named Pea. It is also the story of a rat called Roscuro, who lives in the darkness and covets a world filled with light. And it is the story of Miggery Sow, a slow-witted serving girl who harbors a simple, impossible wish. These three characters are about to embark on a journey that will lead them down into a horrible dungeon, up into a glittering castle, and, ultimately, into each other's lives. What happens then? As Kate DiCamillo would say: Reader, it is your destiny to find out.]]> 272 Kate DiCamillo 0763625299 Valerie 3 kids-read-aloud 4.07 2003 The Tale of Despereaux
author: Kate DiCamillo
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2003
rating: 3
read at: 2022/12/29
date added: 2024/08/13
shelves: kids-read-aloud
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Dinosaurs Before Dark (Magic Tree House, #1)]]> 824734
Where did the tree house come from?

Before Jack and Annie can find out, the mysterious tree house whisks them to the prehistoric past. Now they have to figure out how to get home. Can they do it before dark . . . or will they become a dinosaur's dinner?]]> 68 Mary Pope Osborne 0679824111 Valerie 0 kids-read-aloud 3.97 1992 Dinosaurs Before Dark (Magic Tree House, #1)
author: Mary Pope Osborne
name: Valerie
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1992
rating: 0
read at: 2024/07/31
date added: 2024/08/13
shelves: kids-read-aloud
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Marvelous Magic of Miss Mabel (Poppy Pendle)]]> 28954081
“Mabel’s hijinks will appeal to readers of Roald Dahl’s Matilda and Diana Wynne Jones’s Howl’s Moving Castle �.Mabel will inspire readers with her confident creativity; a solid secondary purchase, especially where Lowe’s previous title is popular.� � School Library Journal

“This lovely celebration of quirky individualism applauds both creativity and science.� � Booklist

Penderwicks meets Edward Eager in this charming coming of age tale about a young witch found in a flowerpot who’s on a journey to discover her roots.

The morning Nora Ratcliff finds a baby in the flowerpot on her front steps her life changes forever. She had always wanted a child, but after her husband passed away, Nora never thought she would have one, but her flowerpot child was a miracle and she decided to name her Mabel. As Mabel grew up, she showed a distinct talent for magic.

When Mabel is accepted to the prestigious witch school, Ruthersfield Academy, she excels at the magic curriculum but is constantly in trouble for experimenting and inventing her own potions. One day she is asked to write a paper on her magical roots and discovers the truth about her birth after a mean classmate blurts out what everyone seems to know except Mabel. Mabel is shocked but the revelation does explain a lot. In rebellion, Mabel changes her name to Magnolia and tries to understand why she was left in the flowerpot and who her birth family might be.

Will Mabel find the answers she’s looking for—or will she discover that families are people who love each other and look after each other and that’s most important of all.]]> 288 Natasha Lowe 1481465333 Valerie 4 kids-read-aloud 4.19 2016 The Marvelous Magic of Miss Mabel (Poppy Pendle)
author: Natasha Lowe
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2022/11/05
date added: 2024/08/13
shelves: kids-read-aloud
review:

]]> Matilda 39988 “The Trunchbull� is no match for Matilda!

Matilda is a little girl who is far too good to be true. At age five-and-a-half she's knocking off double-digit multiplication problems and blitz-reading Dickens. Even more remarkably, her classmates love her even though she's a super-nerd and the teacher's pet. But everything is not perfect in Matilda's world...

For starters she has two of the most idiotic, self-centered parents who ever lived. Then there's the large, busty nightmare of a school principal, Miss ("The") Trunchbull, a former hammer-throwing champion who flings children at will, and is approximately as sympathetic as a bulldozer. Fortunately for Matilda, she has the inner resources to deal with such annoyances: astonishing intelligence, saintly patience, and an innate predilection for revenge.

Roald Dahl was a spy, ace fighter-pilot, chocolate historian, and medical inventor. He was also the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The BFG, and many more brilliant stories. He remains the World's No. 1 Storyteller.]]> 240 Roald Dahl 043512398X Valerie 5 kids-read-aloud 4.33 1988 Matilda
author: Roald Dahl
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1988
rating: 5
read at: 2022/10/05
date added: 2024/08/13
shelves: kids-read-aloud
review:

]]> The Christmas Pig 57730258 A heartwarming, page-turning adventure about one child's love for his most treasured thing, and how far he will go to find it. A tale for the whole family to fall in love with, from one of the world’s greatest storytellers.

One boy and his toy are about to change everything...

Jack loves his childhood toy, Dur Pig. DP has always been there for him, through good and bad. Until one Christmas Eve something terrible happens � DP is lost. But Christmas Eve is a night for miracles and lost causes, a night when all things can come to life... even toys. And Jack’s newest toy � the Christmas Pig (DP’s replacement) � has a daring plan: Together they’ll embark on a magical journey to seek something lost, and to save the best friend Jack has ever known...]]> 288 J.K. Rowling 1338790234 Valerie 5 kids-read-aloud 4.12 2021 The Christmas Pig
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2022/12/18
date added: 2024/08/13
shelves: kids-read-aloud
review:

]]> Winterfrost 20708772
Christmas has come, and with it a sparkling white winterfrost over the countryside. But twelve-year-old Bettina's parents have been called away unexpectedly, leaving her in charge of the house, the farm, and baby Pia. In all the confusion, Bettina's family neglects to set out the traditional bowl of Christmas rice pudding for the tiny nisse who are rumored to look after the family and their livestock. No one besides her grandfather ever believed the nisse were real, so what harm could there be in forgetting this silly custom? But when baby Pia disappears during a nap, the magic of the nisse makes itself known. To find her sister and set things right, Bettina must venture into the miniature world of these usually helpful, but sometimes mischievous folk. A delightful winter adventure for lovers of the legendary and miraculous.]]> 272 Michelle Houts 0763665657 Valerie 0 kids-read-aloud 3.94 2014 Winterfrost
author: Michelle Houts
name: Valerie
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at: 2023/01/16
date added: 2024/08/13
shelves: kids-read-aloud
review:

]]> The Little Prince 157993
Few stories are as widely read and as universally cherished by children and adults alike as The Little Prince, presented here in a stunning new translation with carefully restored artwork. The definitive edition of a worldwide classic, it will capture the hearts of readers of all ages.]]> 96 Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 0152023984 Valerie 3 4.32 1943 The Little Prince
author: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1943
rating: 3
read at: 2023/02/22
date added: 2024/08/13
shelves: classic, fantasy, kids-read-aloud
review:

]]> Stuart Little 138959 E.B. White's classic novel tells the story of one small mouse on a very big adventure!

Stuart Little is no ordinary mouse. Born into a family of humans, he lives in New York City with his parents, his older brother George, and Snowbell the cat. Though Stuart is shy and thoughtful, he's also a true lover of adventure.

Stuart's greatest journey begins when his best friend, a beautiful little bird named Margalo, suddenly disappears from her nest. Determined to find her, Stuart sets off on an adventure away from home for the very first time in his life. Along the way, he encounters plenty of excitement—but will he be able to find his friend?]]> 131 E.B. White 0064400565 Valerie 3 kids-read-aloud 3.90 1945 Stuart Little
author: E.B. White
name: Valerie
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1945
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/22
date added: 2024/08/13
shelves: kids-read-aloud
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Henry and the Clubhouse (Henry Huggins, #5)]]> 510711
Henry and his friends are building a no-girls-allowed clubhouse. With a private space of their own away from everyone else—and even a top secret entry password—they're all thrilled with their boy fort. But Henry's about to find out that nothing—not even a sign—will keep gutsy Ramona out of their clubhouse…and her retaliation may just ruin Henry's newspaper career.]]> 224 Beverly Cleary Valerie 5 children, kids-read-aloud 4.06 1962 Henry and the Clubhouse (Henry Huggins, #5)
author: Beverly Cleary
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1962
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/19
date added: 2024/08/13
shelves: children, kids-read-aloud
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Henry and Ribsy (Henry Huggins, #3)]]> 244338 208 Beverly Cleary Valerie 5 kids-read-aloud 4.01 1953 Henry and Ribsy (Henry Huggins, #3)
author: Beverly Cleary
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1953
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/19
date added: 2024/08/13
shelves: kids-read-aloud
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, #1)]]> 100915
Lucy is the first to find the secret of the wardrobe in the professor's mysterious old house. At first her brothers and sister don't believe her when she tells of her visit to the land of Narnia. But soon Edmund, then Peter and Susan step through the wardrobe themselves. In Narnia they find a country buried under the evil enchantment of the White Witch. When they meet the Lion Aslan, they realize they've been called to a great adventure and bravely join the battle to free Narnia from the Witch's sinister spell.]]> 206 C.S. Lewis Valerie 0 kids-read-aloud 4.24 1950 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, #1)
author: C.S. Lewis
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1950
rating: 0
read at: 2024/07/30
date added: 2024/08/13
shelves: kids-read-aloud
review:

]]> <![CDATA[101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think]]> 32998876 450 Brianna Wiest Valerie 0 3.74 2016 101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think
author: Brianna Wiest
name: Valerie
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at: 2024/08/10
date added: 2024/08/10
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[World After (Penryn & the End of Days, #2)]]> 12983100 Angelfall, the survivors of the angel apocalypse begin to scrape back together what's left of the modern world.

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

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

Meanwhile, Raffe hunts for his wings. Without them, he can't rejoin the angels, can't take his rightful place as one of their leaders. When faced with recapturing his wings or helping Penryn survive, which will he choose?]]> 438 Susan Ee Valerie 5 fantasy 4.24 2013 World After (Penryn & the End of Days, #2)
author: Susan Ee
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2015/08/14
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: fantasy
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine]]> 31434883 No one’s ever told Eleanor that life should be better than fine

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

But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen, the three rescue one another from the lives of isolation that they had been living. Ultimately, it is Raymond’s big heart that will help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one. If she does, she'll learn that she, too, is capable of finding friendship—and even love—after all.

Smart, warm, uplifting, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is the story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes. . .

the only way to survive is to open your heart.]]> 336 Gail Honeyman 0735220689 Valerie 0 to-read 4.21 2017 Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
author: Gail Honeyman
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Ruthless Vows (Letters of Enchantment, #2)]]> 127280062 Torn apart by war. Reunited by love?

Two weeks have passed since Iris returned home bruised and heartbroken from the front, but the war is far from over.

Roman is missing, lost behind enemy lines, with no memory of his past, or Iris. Hoping his memories return, he begins to write again � but this time for the enemy.

When a strange letter arrives through his wardrobe door, he strikes up a correspondence with a penpal who seems at once mysterious� and strangely familiar.

As their connection deepens, the two of them will risk their very hearts and futures to change the tides of the war.]]> 420 Rebecca Ross 1250857457 Valerie 0 to-read 3.99 2023 Ruthless Vows (Letters of Enchantment, #2)
author: Rebecca Ross
name: Valerie
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Divine Rivals (Letters of Enchantment, #1)]]> 60784546 After centuries of sleep, the gods are warring again�

All eighteen-year-old Iris Winnow wants to do is hold her family together. With a brother on the frontline forced to fight on behalf of the Gods now missing from the frontline and a mother drowning her sorrows, Iris’s best bet is winning the columnist promotion at the Oath Gazette.

But when Iris’s letters to her brother fall into the wrong hands � that of the handsome but cold Roman Kitt, her rival at the paper � an unlikely magical connection forms.

Expelled into the middle of a mystical war, magical typewriters in tow, can their bond withstand the fight for the fate of mankind and, most importantly, love?

An epic enemies-to-lovers fantasy novel filled with hope and heartbreak, and the unparalleled power of love.]]> 357 Rebecca Ross 1250857430 Valerie 0 4.14 2023 Divine Rivals (Letters of Enchantment, #1)
author: Rebecca Ross
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/08/05
date added: 2024/08/05
shelves:
review:

]]> A Girl Called Samson 58769584 From New York Times bestselling author Amy Harmon comes the saga of a young woman who dares to chart her own destiny in life and love during the American Revolutionary War.

In 1760, Deborah Samson is born to Puritan parents in Plympton, Massachusetts. When her father abandons the family and her mother is unable to support them, Deborah is bound out as an indentured servant. From that moment on, she yearns for a life of liberation and adventure.

Twenty years later, as the American colonies begin to buckle in their battle for independence, Deborah, impassioned by the cause, disguises herself as a soldier and enlists in the Continental Army. Her impressive height and lanky build make her transformation a convincing one, and it isn’t long before she finds herself confronting the horrors of war head-on.

But as Deborah fights for her country’s freedom, she must contend with the secret of who she is—and, ultimately, a surprising love she can’t deny.]]> 405 Amy Harmon 1542039738 Valerie 0 to-read 4.48 2023 A Girl Called Samson
author: Amy Harmon
name: Valerie
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Book of Broken Hearts 18906449 When all signs point to heartbreak, can love still be a rule of the road? A poignant and romantic novel from the author of Bittersweet and Twenty Boy Summer.Jude has learned a lot from her older sisters, but the most important thing is The Vargas brothers are notorious heartbreakers. She’s seen the tears and disasters that dating a Vargas boy can cause, and she swore an oath—with candles and a contract and everything—to never have anything to do with one. Now Jude is the only sister still living at home, and she’s spending the summer helping her ailing father restore his vintage motorcycle—which means hiring a mechanic to help out. Is it Jude’s fault he happens to be cute? And surprisingly sweet? And a Vargas? Jude tells herself it’s strictly bike business with Emilio. Her sisters will never find out, and Jude can spot those flirty little Vargas tricks a mile away—no way would she fall for them. But Jude’s defenses are crumbling, and if history is destined to repeat itself, she’s speeding toward some serious heartbreak…unless her sisters were wrong? Jude may have taken an oath, but she’s beginning to think that when it comes to love, some promises might be worth breaking.]]> 370 Sarah Ockler 1442430400 Valerie 0 to-read 3.92 2013 The Book of Broken Hearts
author: Sarah Ockler
name: Valerie
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>