en-US Thu, 24 Apr 2025 08:06:41 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 25664465 An intrepid voyage out to the frontiers of the latest thinking about love, language, and family

Maggie Nelson's The Argonauts is a genre-bending memoir, a work of "autotheory" offering fresh, fierce, and timely thinking about desire, identity, and the limitations and possibilities of love and language. At its center is a romance: the story of the author's relationship with the artist Harry Dodge. This story, which includes the author's account of falling in love with Dodge, who is fluidly gendered, as well as her journey to and through a pregnancy, is an intimate portrayal of the complexities and joys of (queer) family making.

Writing in the spirit of public intellectuals such as Susan Sontag and Roland Barthes, Nelson binds her personal experience to a rigorous exploration of what iconic theorists have said about sexuality, gender, and the vexed institutions of marriage and child-rearing. Nelson's insistence on radical individual freedom and the value of caretaking becomes the rallying cry for this thoughtful, unabashed, uncompromising book.]]> 143 Maggie Nelson 1555977359 Constance 0 to-read 4.03 2015
author: Maggie Nelson
name: Constance
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/24
shelves: to-read
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]]> 49354511 Oxford English Dictionary. This is the story of the girl who stole it.

Esme is born into a world of words. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, she spends her childhood in the ‘Scriptorium��, a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of dedicated lexicographers are collecting words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day a slip of paper containing the word ‘bondmaid�� flutters to the floor. Esme rescues the slip and stashes it in an old wooden case that belongs to her friend, Lizzie, a young servant in the big house. Esme begins to collect other words from the Scriptorium that are misplaced, discarded or have been neglected by the dictionary men. They help her make sense of the world.

Over time, Esme realises that some words are considered more important than others, and that words and meanings relating to women’s experiences often go unrecorded. While she dedicates her life to the Oxford English Dictionary, secretly, she begins to collect words for another dictionary: The Dictionary of Lost Words.

Set when the women’s suffrage movement was at its height and the Great War loomed, The Dictionary of Lost Words reveals a lost narrative, hidden between the lines of a history written by men. It’s a delightful, lyrical and deeply thought-provoking celebration of words, and the power of language to shape the world and our experience of it.]]> 384 Pip Williams 1925972593 Constance 0 to-read 3.97 2020
author: Pip Williams
name: Constance
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/22
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]]> 25893709 193 Elizabeth Strout 1400067693 Constance 0 currently-reading 3.56 2016
author: Elizabeth Strout
name: Constance
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/22
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 31944708 240 David Demchuk 1771484217 Constance 0 to-read 3.78 2017
author: David Demchuk
name: Constance
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/22
shelves: to-read
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]]> 217896237
Nemeses! Dragons! Science! Symbolism! All these and more await in this brilliantly subversive, sharply irreverent epic from N.D. Stevenson. Featuring an exclusive epilogue not seen in the web comic, along with bonus conceptual sketches and revised pages throughout, this gorgeous full-color graphic novel is perfect for the legions of fans of the web comic and is sure to win Noelle many new ones.

Nimona is an impulsive young shapeshifter with a knack for villainy. Lord Ballister Blackheart is a villain with a vendetta. As sidekick and supervillain, Nimona and Lord Blackheart are about to wreak some serious havoc. Their mission: prove to the kingdom that Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin and his buddies at the Institution of Law Enforcement and Heroics aren't the heroes everyone thinks they are.

But as small acts of mischief escalate into a vicious battle, Lord Blackheart realizes that Nimona's powers are as murky and mysterious as her past. And her unpredictable wild side might be more dangerous than he is willing to admit.]]> 288 N.D. Stevenson 0063434695 Constance 0 to-read 5.00 2015
author: N.D. Stevenson
name: Constance
average rating: 5.00
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/21
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]]> 214151495 From RuPaul’s Drag Race winner and host of �����’s We’re Here comes an inventive, wondrous novel about American hero Harriet Tubman that remixes history into a fresh, dynamic novel about love, freedom, salvation, and music.

In an age of miracles where our greatest heroes from history have magically, unexplainably returned to shake us out of our confusion and hate, Harriet Tubman is back, and she has a lot to say.

Harriet Tubman and four of the enslaved persons she led to freedom want to tell their story in a unique way—by following in the footsteps of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton. Harriet wants to put on a show about her life, and she needs a songwriter to help her.

She calls upon Darnell Williams, a once successful hip-hop producer who was topping the charts before being outed by a rival at the BET Awards. Darnell has no idea what to expect when he steps into the studio with Harriet, only that they have one week to write a Broadway caliber musical she can take on the road. Over the course of their time together, they not only mount a show that will take the country by storm, but confront the horrors of both their pasts, and learn to find a way to a better future.

Original, evocative, and historic, Harriet Live in Concert is a landmark achievement that will burrow deep into our hearts (and ears).]]> 240 Bob the Drag Queen 166806197X Constance 0 currently-reading 4.08 2025
author: Bob the Drag Queen
name: Constance
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/20
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> 6138
This Modern Library Paperback Classic is set from the definitive 1871 edition.]]> 528 Wilkie Collins 0375757856 Constance 3 classics, mystery 3.90 1868
author: Wilkie Collins
name: Constance
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1868
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/20
date added: 2025/04/20
shelves: classics, mystery
review:

]]> 55298324 Who is Mrs. March?

A twenty-first-century Highsmith, Virginia Feito conjures the unforgettable Mrs. March, an Upper East Side housewife whose life is shattered by her husband’s latest novel.

In this astonishing debut, the venerable but gossipy New York literary scene is twisted into a claustrophobic fun house of paranoia, horror, and wickedly dark humor. George March’s latest novel is a smash. No one is prouder than Mrs. March, his doting wife. But one morning, the shopkeeper of her favorite patisserie suggests that his protagonist is based on Mrs. March herself: “But . . . ―isn't she . . .�� Mrs. March leaned in and in almost a whisper said, ‘a whore?�� Clutching her ostrich-leather pocketbook, she flees, that one casual remark destroying her belief that she knew everything about her husband―as well as herself. Suddenly, Mrs. March is hurled into a harrowing journey that builds to near psychosis, one that begins merely within the pages of a book but may uncover both a killer and the long-buried secrets of her past.]]> 304 Virginia Feito 1631498614 Constance 4 3.23 2021
author: Virginia Feito
name: Constance
average rating: 3.23
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/20
date added: 2025/04/20
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review:

]]> 59808007
“A great day is upon us. He is coming. The world will be washed away.��

On the wind-battered isle of Altnaharra, off the wildest coast of Scotland, a clan prepares to bring about the end of the world and its imminent rebirth.

The Adder is coming and one of their number will inherit its powers. They all want the honor, but young Eve is willing to do anything for the distinction.

A reckoning beyond Eve’s imagination begins when Chief Inspector Black arrives to investigate a brutal murder and their sacred ceremony goes terribly wrong.

And soon all the secrets of Altnaharra will be uncovered.]]> 271 Catriona Ward 1250812658 Constance 5 3.69 2018
author: Catriona Ward
name: Constance
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/16
date added: 2025/04/16
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]]> 213395480 From the acclaimed author of Mrs. March comes the riveting tale of a bloodthirsty governess who learns the true meaning of vengeance.

Grim Wolds, England: Winifred Notty arrives at Ensor House prepared to play the perfect governess—she’ll dutifully tutor her charges, Drusilla and Andrew, tell them bedtime stories, and only joke about eating children. But long, listless days spent within the estate’s dreary confines come with an intimate knowledge of the perversions and pathetic preoccupations of the Pounds family—Mr. Pounds can’t keep his eyes off Winifred’s chest, and Mrs. Pounds takes a sickly pleasure in punishing Winifred for her husband’s wandering gaze. Compounded with her disdain for the entitled Pounds children, Winifred finds herself struggling at every turn to stifle the violent compulsions of her past. French tutoring and needlework are one way to pass the time, as is admiring the ugly portraits in the gallery . . . and creeping across the moonlit lawns. . . .

Patience. Winifred must have patience, for Christmas is coming, and she has very special gifts planned for the dear souls of Ensor House. Brimming with sardonic wit and culminating in a shocking conclusion, Victorian Psycho plunges readers into the chilling mind of an iconic new literary psychopath.]]> 208 Virginia Feito 1631498630 Constance 4 gothic, horror 3.62 2025
author: Virginia Feito
name: Constance
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/08
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: gothic, horror
review:

]]> 220687890 A TIME MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK �� The Pulitzer Prize-finalist and author of the breakout bestseller There There delivers a masterful follow-up to his already classic first novel. Extending his constellation of narratives into the past and future, Tommy Orange traces the legacies of the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 and the Carlisle Indian Industrial School through three generations of a family in a story that is by turns shattering and wondrous.

Colorado, 1864. Star, a young survivor of the Sand Creek Massacre, is brought to the Fort Marion prison castle,where he is forced to learn English and practice Christianity by Richard Henry Pratt, an evangelical prison guard who will go on to found the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, an institution dedicated to the eradication of Native history, culture, and identity. A generation later, Star’s son, Charles, is sent to the school, where he is brutalized by the man who was once his father’s jailer. Under Pratt’s harsh treatment, Charles clings to moments he shares with a young fellow student, Opal Viola, as the two envision a future away from the institutional violence that follows their bloodlines.

In a novel that is by turns shattering and wondrous, Tommy Orange has conjured the ancestors of the family readers first fell in love with in There There—warriors, drunks, outlaws, addicts—asking what it means to bethe children and grandchildren of massacre. Wandering Stars is a novel about epigenetic and generational trauma that has the force and vision of a modern epic, an exceptionally powerful new book from one of the most exciting writers at work today and soaring confirmation of Tommy Orange’s monumental gifts.]]> 336 Tommy Orange 0593311442 Constance 0 to-read 4.15 2024
author: Tommy Orange
name: Constance
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/04
shelves: to-read
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]]> 195791072 The never-before-told story of the women Egyptologists who paved the way of exploration in Egypt and created the basis for Egyptology.

The history of Egyptology is often told as yet one more grand narrative of powerful men striving to seize the day and the precious artifacts for their competing homelands. But that is only half of the story. During the so-called Golden Age of Exploration, there were women working and exploring before Howard Carter discovered the tomb of King Tut. Before men even conceived of claiming the story for themselves, women were working in Egypt to lay the groundwork for all future exploration.

In Women in the Valley of the Kings: The Untold Story of Women Egyptologists in the Gilded Age, Kathleen Sheppard brings the untold stories of these women back into this narrative. Sheppard begins with some of the earliest European women who ventured to Egypt as travelers: Amelia Edwards, Jenny Lane, and Marianne Brocklehurst. Their travelogues, diaries and maps chronicled a new world for the curious. In the vast desert, Maggie Benson, the first woman granted permission to excavate in Egypt, met Nettie Gourlay, the woman who became her lifelong companion. They battled issues of oppression and exclusion and, ultimately, are credited with excavating the Temple of Mut.

As each woman scored a success in the desert, she set up the women who came later for their own struggles and successes. Emma Andrews�� success as a patron and archaeologist helped to pave the way for Margaret Murray to teach. Margaret’s work in the university led to the artists Amice Calverley’s and Myrtle Broome’s ability to work on site at Abydos, creating brilliant reproductions of tomb art, and to Kate Bradbury’s and Caroline Ransom’s leadership in critical Egyptological institutions. Women in the Valley of the Kings upends the grand male narrative of Egyptian exploration and shows how a group of courageous women charted unknown territory and changed the field of Egyptology forever.]]> 320 Kathleen Sheppard 125028435X Constance 0 to-read 3.50 2024
author: Kathleen Sheppard
name: Constance
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 25027836 And Tango Makes Three and The Sissy Duckling, this irresistible picture book is a celebration of love in all its splendid forms from debut author J. J. Austrian and the acclaimed author-illustrator of Little Elliot, Big City, Mike Curato.

You are cordially invited to celebrate the wedding of a worm . . . and a worm.

When a worm meets a special worm and they fall in love, you know what happens next: They get married! But their friends want to know—who will wear the dress? And who will wear the tux?

The answer is: It doesn't matter. Because Worm loves Worm.]]> J.J. Austrian Constance 5 picture-book 4.08 2016
author: J.J. Austrian
name: Constance
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/04
date added: 2025/04/04
shelves: picture-book
review:

]]> 211003810 Some people think foxes are similar to ghosts because we go around collecting qi, but nothing could be further than the truth. We are living creatures, just like you, only usually better looking . . .

Manchuria, 1908.
In the last years of the dying Qing Empire, a courtesan is found frozen in a doorway. Her death is clouded by rumors of foxes, which are believed to lure people by transforming themselves into beautiful women and handsome men. Bao, a detective with an uncanny ability to sniff out the truth, is hired to uncover the dead woman’s identity. Since childhood, Bao has been intrigued by the fox gods, yet they’ve remained tantalizingly out of reach—until, perhaps, now.

Meanwhile, a family who owns a famous Chinese medicine shop can cure ailments but can’t escape the curse that afflicts them—their eldest sons die before their twenty-fourth birthdays. When a disruptively winsome servant named Snow enters their household, the family’s luck seems to change—or does it?

Snow is a creature of many secrets, but most of all she’s a mother seeking vengeance for her lost child. Hunting a murderer, she will follow the trail from northern China to Japan, while Bao follows doggedly behind. Navigating the myths and misconceptions of fox spirits, both Snow and Bao will encounter old friends and new foes, even as more deaths occur.

New York Times bestselling author Yangsze Choo brilliantly explores a world of mortals and spirits, humans and beasts, and their dazzling intersection. Epic in scope and full of singular, unforgettable characters, The Fox Wife is a stunning novel about old loves and second chances, the depths of maternal love, and ancient folktales that may very well be true.]]> 400 Yangsze Choo 1250266033 Constance 4 china, fantasy, folklore 3.91 2024
author: Yangsze Choo
name: Constance
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/28
date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: china, fantasy, folklore
review:

]]> 219401057
Thirteen years ago, Providence Byrd threw the family car in reverse and ran over her mother. Even though she survived, that single instant of teenage madness made Providence a felon and irrevocably altered her life. When her mother disappears years later under suspicious circumstances, Providence tells herself that returning home is her chance to find closure after a prolonged estrangement from her family. Never mind that this is only half of the truth: she’s also returning to finally confront her abusive father, Tom Byrd. Nothing can stamp out Providence’s certainty that he is guilty of whatever terrible thing has happened to her mother.

As the search unfolds, Providence is haunted by the wounds of her past, none of which cut as deep as the distance between her and her younger sisters. Harmony and Grace are both uniquely scarred by her attempted matricide, and both have their own idea of what reconciliations might look like �� if reconciling is even possible. Harmony urges Providence to make their father pay for his sins; Grace begs her to end the cycle of violence that has haunted their family for generations. As her thirst for vengeance collides with her desire to heal her relationships with her sisters, Providence must decide which she values more: revenge or redemption.

Sharp and poignant, Every Sweet Thing Is Bitter is a stunning novel that eschews picture-perfect endings and dares to tell a story about a resilient queer woman and her relentless determination to persevere.]]> 320 Samantha Crewson Constance 0 to-read 3.64 2025
author: Samantha Crewson
name: Constance
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: to-read
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]]> 220239079 A great detective's young assistant yearns for glory, but first they have learn to get along in this delightful feel good mystery.

Olivia Blunt doesn't want to be an assistant detective for the rest of her life. She's determined to learn everything she can from her mentor and renowned investigator, Aubrey Merritt, but the latter is no easy grader.

After weeks of fielding phone calls from parties desperate for the world-renowned detective’s help, a case comes across Olivia’s desk that just might be worthy of Merritt’s skills. On the evening of her sixty-fifth birthday party, Victoria Summersworth somehow fell over her balcony railing to her death on the rocky shore of Lake Champlain. She was a happy woman—rich, beloved, in love, and matriarch of the preeminent Summersworth family. The police have ruled it a suicide, but her daughter Haley thinks it was murder.

Merritt is ever the skeptic, but Olivia believes Haley. Plus, she’s desperate to prove her investigative skills to her aloof boss. But the Summersworth family drama is a complicated web.

Olivia realizes she might be in over her head with this whole detective thing... or she might be unravelling a mystery even bigger than the one she’d started with.]]> 400 Liza Tully 0593816773 Constance 0 to-read 3.67 2025
author: Liza Tully
name: Constance
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: to-read
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]]> 220817728 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six comes an epic new novel set against the backdrop of the 1980s Space Shuttle program about the extraordinary lengths we go to live and love beyond our limits.

Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s Space Shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space.

Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond and scientist John Griffin, who are kind and easy-going even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warm-hearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane.

As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe.

Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, everything changes in an instant.

Fast-paced, thrilling, and emotional, Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her best: transporting readers to iconic times and places, with complex protagonists, telling a passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love, this time among the stars.]]> 352 Taylor Jenkins Reid 0593158717 Constance 0 to-read 4.45 2025
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Constance
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: to-read
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]]> 220259184 Heartwood takes you on a journey as a search and rescue team race against time when an experienced hiker mysteriously disappears on the Appalachian Trail in Maine.

In the heart of the Maine woods, an experienced Appalachian Trail hiker goes missing. She is forty-two-year-old Valerie Gillis, who has vanished 200 miles from her final destination. Alone in the wilderness, Valerie pours her thoughts into fractured, poetic letters to her mother as she battles the elements and struggles to keep hoping.

At the heart of the investigation is Beverly, the determined Maine State Game Warden tasked with finding Valerie, who leads the search on the ground. Meanwhile, Lena, a seventy-six-year-old birdwatcher in a Connecticut retirement community, becomes an unexpected armchair detective. Roving between these compelling narratives, a puzzle emerges, intensifying the frantic search, as Valerie’s disappearance may not be accidental.]]> 320 Amity Gaige 1668063603 Constance 0 to-read 3.95 2025
author: Amity Gaige
name: Constance
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: to-read
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]]> 211004837 Hipnotyzująca opowieść o ambicji, przetrwaniu i kobiecej sile w świecie, gdzie jedno błędne słowo może oznaczać śmierć.

Złoty Wiek. Hiszpania. W nędznym domu, na nędznej ulicy, w nowej stolicy �� Madrycie �� mieszka Luzia Cotado, która wykorzystuje swoje magiczne zdolności, by przetrwać ciężki los pomywaczki. Gdy inni odkrywają jej moc, dziewczyna zostaje wciągnięta w świat arystokratycznych intryg, gdzie może stać się pionkiem w grze o władzę�� lub jego królową.

Jej pokazy początkowo są zwykłą rozrywką dla znudzonej elity. Wkrótce sprawy jednak przybierają niebezpieczny obrót, gdy Luzia przyciąga uwagę Antonio Péreza �� obdarzonego złą sławą sekretarza hiszpańskiego króla. Król wciąż próbuje się podnieść po druzgocącej porażce swojej armii, ale nie ustaje w wysiłkach, by zdobyć przewagę nad Anglią. A Pérez, pragnący odzyskać zaufanie i przychylność króla, nie cofnie się przed niczym.

Zdeterminowana, by wykorzystać swoją jedyną szansę na lepsze życie, Luzia rzuca się w świat proroków, alchemistów, świętych, handlarzy, w wir magii, nauki i oszustwa. Ale wraz z rozgłosem przychodzi niebezpieczeństwo, że jej istnienie przyciągnie gniew inkwizytorów. Luzia będzie musiała użyć całego swojego sprytu i siły, by przetrwać �� nawet jeżeli oznacza to zasięgnięcie pomocy u Guilléna Santagnela, zgorzkniałego nieśmiertelnika, którego własne sekrety mogą doprowadzić do śmierci ich obojga.]]> 400 Leigh Bardugo 1250884276 Constance 0 to-read 3.93 2024
author: Leigh Bardugo
name: Constance
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: to-read
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]]> 34730753
As Cora begins to uncover the secrets concealed by a veneer of faith and tradition, something ancient and long concealed begins to awaken. What secrets do the townsfolk know? What might the handsome young pastor be hiding? What will happen when occulted horrors writhe to the surface, when pallid and forgotten things rise to reclaim the Earth?

Will Cora–and the earth–survive? The answers–and pure terror–can only be found in one place: Beneath.]]> 308 Kristi DeMeester 193990529X Constance 0 to-read 3.17 2017
author: Kristi DeMeester
name: Constance
average rating: 3.17
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 6969112
During the drive, they pick up a man wandering through the snow, who claims to be searching for his lost daughter. He is disoriented and his story seems peculiar. Strangest of all are the mysterious slashes cut into the back of the man’s coat, straight down to the flesh��

When they arrive at the nearest town, it appears deserted. Windows dark, cars abandoned, fires burning unattended. But Todd and the rest of the travelers soon learn the town is far from deserted, and that they are being watched…]]> 311 Ronald Malfi 0843963557 Constance 3 thriller, horror Doctor Who fans, basically The Snowmen). The overall tone was a little too relentless and the character development a little too bare bones for me, but it's still very effective for what it does. For readers who like a non-stop adrenaline rush for survival with just enough character thrown in to make you squirm each time someone doesn't make it [spoilers removed], this is the book for you. Very zombie apocalypse in tone. ]]> 3.65 2010
author: Ronald Malfi
name: Constance
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/21
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves: thriller, horror
review:
Plot-driven, action-packed horror about snow-based aliens taking over a small midwestern town (for Doctor Who fans, basically The Snowmen). The overall tone was a little too relentless and the character development a little too bare bones for me, but it's still very effective for what it does. For readers who like a non-stop adrenaline rush for survival with just enough character thrown in to make you squirm each time someone doesn't make it [spoilers removed], this is the book for you. Very zombie apocalypse in tone.
]]> 61963198
Each recommendation includes a full synopsis as well as a quick overview of the book’s themes, style, and tone so you can narrow down your next read at a glance.

Featuring a foreword by New York Times bestselling author Josh Malerman and five brand-new essays from rising voices in the genre, this illustrated reader’s guide is perfect for anyone who dares to delve into the dark.]]> 168 Sadie Hartmann 164567780X Constance 0 currently-reading 4.43 2023
author: Sadie Hartmann
name: Constance
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> 37004370
When a young woman who is struggling to maintain her career as a novelist discovers that her editor is in danger from the Memory Police, she concocts a plan to hide him beneath her floorboards. As fear and loss close in around them, they cling to her writing as the last way of preserving the past.

A surreal, provocative fable about the power of memory and the trauma of loss, The Memory Police is a stunning new work from one of the most exciting contemporary authors writing in any language.]]> 274 Yōko Ogawa 1101870605 Constance 4 3.72 1994
author: Yōko Ogawa
name: Constance
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1994
rating: 4
read at: 2020/11/20
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves:
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]]> 223420465
Trapped and desperate, Arthur turns to his closest friends for comfort and help. Together they dream up a wild, fantastical scheme to free Arthur from the cruel trap in which he finds himself. Wealthy, irrepressible Colin Wren suggests using the unnerving Crane journal (bound in the skin of its author) to summon a dragon to do their bidding. The others—brave, beautiful Alison Shiner; the battling twins Donna and Donovan McBride; and brainy, bold Gwen—don’t hesitate to join Colin in an effort to smash reality and bring a creature of the impossible into our world.

But there’s nothing simple about dealing with dragons, and their pact to save Arthur becomes a terrifying bargain in which the six must choose a new sacrifice for King Sorrow every year—or become his next meal.]]> 896 Joe Hill 0062200607 Constance 0 to-read 4.50 2025
author: Joe Hill
name: Constance
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 220160351 A time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingenious exploration of the nature of power and the potential for love to change it all:

In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats�� from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time.

She is tasked with working as a “bridge��: living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as ��1847�� or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he’s a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as “washing machines,�� “Spotify,�� and “the collapse of the British Empire.�� But with an appetite for discovery, a seven-a-day cigarette habit, and the support of a charming and chaotic cast of fellow expats, he soon adjusts.

Over the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic, evolves into something much deeper. By the time the true shape of the Ministry’s project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined. Forced to confront the choices that brought them together, the bridge must finally reckon with how—and whether she believes—what she does next can change the future.]]> 368 Kaliane Bradley 166804515X Constance 0 to-read 3.58 2024
author: Kaliane Bradley
name: Constance
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 201103108
In 1940s Germany, Sophie is excited to discover a message waiting for her in the Bridegroom's Oak from a mysterious suitor. Meanwhile, her best friend, Hanna, is sending messages too—but not to find love. As World War II unfolds in their small town of Kleinwald, the oak may hold the key to resistance against the Nazis.

In 1980s West Germany, American teen transplant Jenny feels suffocated by her strict parents and is struggling to fit in. Until she finds herself falling for Lena, a punk-rock girl hell-bent on tearing down the wall separating West Germany from East Germany, and meeting Frau Hermann, a kind old lady with secrets of her own.

In Spring 2020, New York City, best friends Miles and Chloe are slogging through the last few months of senior year when an unexpected package from Chloe’s grandmother leads them to investigate a cold case about two unidentified teenagers who went missing under the Bridegroom’s Oak eighty years ago.

Age Range: 12-18]]> 470 Libba Bray 0374388954 Constance 0 to-read 4.15 2025
author: Libba Bray
name: Constance
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 203578804 A magical island. A dangerous task. A burning secret.

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.]]> 416 T.J. Klune 1250357241 Constance 4 4.39 2020
author: T.J. Klune
name: Constance
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/15
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 205804679 A personal and revealing look at the last ten years of John Lennon’s life and his partnership with Yoko Ono, written by the friend who knew them best, publicist and music industry insider Elliot Mintz. �� Elliot Mintz spent his life working with some of the biggest names in show business, but perhaps the most important and influential partnership he had was his work and close friendship with John Lennon and Yoko Ono.��In his memoir, We All Shine On, Mintz finally tells the story of their relationship, which has spanned more than fifty years and continues to this day. Through beautifully written chapters that are personal, revealing, and full of intriguing details, Mintz transports readers from his first interview with Yoko in 1971, through the years that he supported the couple both personally and professionally through creative highs, relationship and private challenges, fascinating interactions with the other former Beatles, and the happiest moments of their lives together, Sean Lennon’s birth and childhood. And, of course, Elliot was by Yoko’s side in the days, weeks, and months after John’s murder, when Elliot eventually became the official spokesperson of the Lennon estate. Perfect for Beatles fans and music lovers, this book will provide an intimate and revealing portrait of John and Yoko as people, partners, and friends, and most of all, celebrate the friendship that John, Yoko, and Elliot shared for so long.]]> 304 Elliot Mintz 0593475550 Constance 0 to-read 4.08
author: Elliot Mintz
name: Constance
average rating: 4.08
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 103088 The riveting story that inspired Kipling's classic tale and a John Huston movie

The true story of Josiah Harlan, a Pennsylvania Quaker and the first American ever to enter Afghanistan, has never been told before. Soldier, spy, doctor, naturalist, traveler and writer, Josiah Harlan wanted to be a king, with all the imperialist hubris of his times. In an amazing twenty-year journey around Central Asia, he was variously employed as surgeon to the Maharaja of Punjab, revolutionary agent for the exiled Afghan King, and then commander-in-chief of the Afghan armies. In 1838, he set off in the footsteps of Alexander the Great across the Hindu Kush and forged his own kingdom, only to be ejected from Afghanistan a few months later by the invading British.

Using a trove of newly-discovered documents, Harlan's own unpublished journals, and with a revised Preface detailing the unexpected discovery of Harlan's descendents, Ben Macintyre's The Man Who Would Be King tells the astonishing tale of the man who would be the first and last American king.]]> 368 Ben Macintyre 0374529574 Constance 0 to-read 3.86 2004
author: Ben Macintyre
name: Constance
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 57645813 An insurance mathematician’s carefully ordered life is turned on its head when he unexpectedly loses his job and inherits an adventure park �� with a whole host of problems. A quirky, tense and warmly funny thriller from award-winning Finnish author Antti Tuomainen.

What makes life perfect? Insurance mathematician Henri Koskinen knows the answer because he calculates everything down to the very last decimal.

And then, for the first time, Henri is faced with the incalculable. After suddenly losing his job, Henri inherits an adventure park from his brother �� its peculiar employees and troubling financial problems included. The worst of the financial issues appear to originate from big loans taken from criminal quarters �� and some dangerous men are very keen to get their money back.

But what Henri really can’t compute is love. In the adventure park, Henri crosses paths with Laura, an artist with a chequered past, and a joie de vivre and erratic lifestyle that bewilders him. As the criminals go to extreme lengths to collect their debts and as Henri's relationship with Laura deepens, he finds himself faced with situations and emotions that simply cannot be pinned down on his spreadsheets��

Warmly funny, rich with quirky characters and absurd situations, The Rabbit Factor is a triumph of a dark thriller, its tension matched only by its ability to make us rejoice in the beauty and random nature of life.]]> 300 Antti Tuomainen 191319387X Constance 0 to-read 3.74 2020
author: Antti Tuomainen
name: Constance
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 214151520 A group of four university students stumbles upon a deserted, decaying village deep in the mountains only to find an enormous perpetual motion machine still at work there. Before they can answer the questions of who made it and to what end, the friends begin to disappear, one after the other. Another story sees the return of the strange Hikizuri siblings! A girl weighed down since birth by an invisible burden meets the odd siblings and moves in with them in order to understand the truth about herself. But after a string of bizarre occurrences, the siblings�� uncle appears on the scene…]]> 224 Junji Ito 1974752259 Constance 0 to-read 3.98 2020
author: Junji Ito
name: Constance
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 53104610 An exhilarating new novel from a global superstar--a sexy, over-the-top psychological thriller that tells the story of the scorned wife of a billionaire and her delicious plot to get her revenge and bring him to his knees.

Faye has loved Jack since they were students at business school. Jack, the perpetual golden boy, grew up wealthy, unlike Faye, who has worked hard to bury a dark past. When Jack needs help launching a new company, Faye leaves school to support him, waitressing by day and working as his strategist by night. With the business soaring, Faye and Jack have a baby, and Faye finds herself at home, caring for their daughter, wealthier than she ever imagined, but more and more removed from the excitement of the business world. And none of the perks of wealth make up for the fact that Jack has begun to treat her coldly, undermining her intelligence and forgetting all she sacrificed for his success. When Faye discovers that he's having an affair, the polished facade of their life cracks wide open. Faye is alone, emotionally shattered, and financially devastated--but hell hath no fury like a woman with a violent past bent on vengeance. Jack is about to get exactly what he deserves--and so much more. In this splashy, electrifying story of sex, betrayal, and secrets, a woman's revenge is a brutal but beautiful thing.]]> 352 Camilla Läckberg 0525657975 Constance 3 3.72 2019
author: Camilla Läckberg
name: Constance
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/17
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves:
review:

]]> 59571997
Louisa’s father,��a retired judge and pillar of the community, is suffering from Alzheimer’s. Louisa’s mother is alternately pretending everything is fine and not pretending at all. And one of Louisa’s children happens upon a very confusing and heartfelt letter referring to something Louisa does not think her father could possibly have done. She is not the only one searching for something in Maine this summer.

Kristie took the Greyhound bus from Pennsylvania with the $761 left in her bank account and a whole lot of emotional baggage. She has a past she is trying to outrun, a secret she is trying to unpack, and a new boyfriend who is so kind she cannot figure out what she did to deserve him. As June turns to July turns to August, secrets will be unearthed; betrayals will come to light; and��both Louisa and Kristie will ask themselves what they are owed and what they owe others.]]> 384 Meg Mitchell Moore 0063026120 Constance 0 to-read 3.47 2022
author: Meg Mitchell Moore
name: Constance
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 8466181 199 Rebecca Stead 0375850864 Constance 0 to-read 4.19 2009
author: Rebecca Stead
name: Constance
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 30285766
Tamsen Donner must be a witch. That is the only way to explain the series of misfortunes that have plagued the wagon train known as the Donner Party. Depleted rations, bitter quarrels, and the mysterious death of a little boy have driven the pioneers to the brink of madness. They cannot escape the feeling that someone--or something--is stalking them. Whether it was a curse from the beautiful Tamsen, the choice to follow a disastrous experimental route West, or just plain bad luck--the 90 men, women, and children of the Donner Party are at the brink of one of the deadliest and most disastrous western adventures in American history.

While the ill-fated group struggles to survive in the treacherous mountain conditions--searing heat that turns the sand into bubbling stew; snows that freeze the oxen where they stand--evil begins to grow around them, and within them. As members of the party begin to disappear, they must ask themselves "What if there is something waiting in the mountains? Something disturbing and diseased...and very hungry?"]]> 376 Alma Katsu 0735212511 Constance 0 to-read 3.57 2018
author: Alma Katsu
name: Constance
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 58735039
Whether it's correctly naming the parts of a horse, knowing how lords and ladies address one another, or building a realistic fantasy army, getting the details right takes fantasy writing to the next level. Featuring some of the most popular articles from Dan Koboldt’s Fact in Fantasy blog as well as several never-before-seen essays, this book gives aspiring and established fantasy writers alike an essential foundation to the fascinating history and cultures of our own world, which serve as a jumping-off point for more inspired and convincing fantasy.]]> 352 Dan Koboldt 0593331990 Constance 0 currently-reading, writing 4.10 2022
author: Dan Koboldt
name: Constance
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/09
shelves: currently-reading, writing
review:

]]> 198385737
The year is 1901, and Ada Byrd �� spinster, schoolmarm, amateur naturalist �� accepts a teaching post in isolated Lowry Bridge, grateful for the chance to re-establish herself where no one knows her secrets. She develops friendships with her neighbors, explores the woods with her students, and begins to see a future in this tiny farming community. Her past �� riddled with grief and shame �� has never seemed so far away.

But then, Ada begins to witness strange and grisly a swarm of dying crickets, a self-mutilating rabbit, a malformed faun. She soon believes that something ancient and beastly �� which she calls the grey dog �� is behind these visceral offerings, which both beckon and repel her. As her confusion deepens, her grip on what is real, what is delusion, and what is traumatic memory begins to fail. Ada takes on the wildness of the woods, and begins to wonder which is more dangerous: the grey dog, or herself.]]> 400 Elliott Gish 177041732X Constance 5 3.86 2024
author: Elliott Gish
name: Constance
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/08
date added: 2025/02/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 52535437 Antiracist Baby introduces the youngest readers and the grown-ups in their lives to the concept and power of antiracism. Providing the language necessary to begin critical conversations at the earliest age, Antiracist Baby is the perfect gift for readers of all ages dedicated to forming a just society.]]> 24 Ibram X. Kendi 0593110412 Constance 2 childrens 4.04 2020
author: Ibram X. Kendi
name: Constance
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2021/01/03
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves: childrens
review:
I liked the concept of this book, but I didn't feel like it had a lot of kid appeal, and it is definitely adult vocabulary.
]]> 219520778 A publishing event ten years in the making��a searing, exquisite new novel by the best-selling and award-winning author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists��the story of four women and their loves, longings, and desires.

Chiamaka is a Nigerian travel writer living in America. Alone in the midst of the pandemic, she recalls her past lovers and grapples with her choices and regrets. Zikora, her best friend, is a lawyer who has been successful at everything until �� betrayed and brokenhearted �� she must turn to the person she thought she needed least. Omelogor, Chiamaka’s bold, outspoken cousin, is a financial powerhouse in Nigeria who begins to question how well she knows herself. And Kadiatou, Chiamaka’s housekeeper, is proudly raising her daughter in America �� but faces an unthinkable hardship that threatens all she has worked to achieve.

In Dream Count, Adichie trains her fierce eye on these women in a sparkling, transcendent novel that takes up the very nature of love itself. Is true happiness ever attainable or is it just a fleeting state? And how honest must we be with ourselves in order to love, and to be loved? A trenchant reflection on the choices we make and those made for us, on daughters and mothers, on our interconnected world, Dream Count pulses with emotional urgency and poignant, unflinching observations on the human heart, in language that soars with beauty and power. It confirms Adichie’s status as one of the most exciting and dynamic writers on the literary landscape.]]> 416 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 0593802721 Constance 0 to-read 3.93 2025
author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
name: Constance
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 211003854 In love we find out who we want to be.
In war we find out who we are.

FRANCE, 1939

In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says good-bye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn’t believe that the Nazis will invade France…but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent. When a German captain requisitions Vianne’s home, she and her daughter must live with the enemy or lose everything. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates all around them, she is forced to make one impossible choice after another to keep her family alive.

Vianne’s sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old, searching for purpose with all the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians march into the unknown terrors of war, she meets Gaëtan, a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and she falls in love as only the young can…completely. But when he betrays her, Isabelle joins the Resistance and never looks back, risking her life time and again to save others.]]> 448 Kristin Hannah 1250370116 Constance 0 to-read 4.75 2015
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Constance
average rating: 4.75
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 36809135
But Kya is not what they say. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life's lessons from the land, learning the real ways of the world from the dishonest signals of fireflies. But while she has the skills to live in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world—until the unthinkable happens.

In Where the Crawdads Sing, Owens juxtaposes an exquisite ode to the natural world against a profound coming of age story and haunting mystery. Thought-provoking, wise, and deeply moving, Owens’s debut novel reminds us that we are forever shaped by the child within us, while also subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.

The story asks how isolation influences the behavior of a young woman, who like all of us, has the genetic propensity to belong to a group. The clues to the mystery are brushed into the lush habitat and natural histories of its wild creatures.]]> 384 Delia Owens 0735219117 Constance 4 4.35 2018
author: Delia Owens
name: Constance
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/02
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: historical-fiction, mystery, southern
review:

]]> 62951865
The omnipresent vagaries of war and race rise to the surface as we learn their their flight to the highest mountain ridges of western Virginia; the disappearance of ConaLee’s father, who left for the War and never returned. Meanwhile, in the asylum, they begin to find a new path. ConaLee pretends to be her mother’s maid; Eliza responds slowly to treatment. They get swept up in the life of the facility—the mysterious man they call the Night Watch; the orphan child called Weed; the fearsome woman who runs the kitchen; the remarkable doctor at the head of the institution.]]> 276 Jayne Anne Phillips 0451493338 Constance 4 historical-fiction, civil-war 3.55 2023
author: Jayne Anne Phillips
name: Constance
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/28
date added: 2025/01/30
shelves: historical-fiction, civil-war
review:

]]> 127488823
The trick time plays is to lull us into the belief that everything lasts forever, and although nothing does, we continue, inside our dream.

One evening, as a young boy growing up in Benghazi, Khaled hears a bizarre short story read aloud on the radio, about a man being eaten alive by a cat. Obsessed by the power of those words—and by their enigmatic author, Hosam Zowa—Khaled eventually embarks on a journey that will take him far from home, to pursue a life of the mind at the University of Edinburgh.

There, thrust into an open society that is light years away from the world he knew in Libya, Khaled begins to change. He attends a protest against the Qaddafi regime in London, only to watch it explode in tragedy. In a flash, Khaled finds himself injured, clinging to life, an exile, unable to leave England, much less��return to��the country of his birth. To even tell his mother and father back home what he has done, on tapped phone lines, would jeopardize their safety.

When a chance encounter in a hotel brings Khaled face to face with Hosam Zowa, the author of the fateful short story, he is subsumed into the deepest friendship of his life. It is a friendship that not only sustains him, but eventually forces him, as the Arab Spring erupts, to confront agonizing tensions between revolution and safety, family and exile, and how to define his own sense of self against those closest to him.

A devastating meditation on friendship and family, and the ways in which time tests—and frays—those bonds, My Friends is an achingly beautiful��work��of literature by an author��at the peak of his powers.]]> 399 Hisham Matar 081299485X Constance 0 to-read 4.31 2024
author: Hisham Matar
name: Constance
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 217388265 A deeply dark academia novel from USA Today bestselling author Cassandra Khaw, perfect for fans of A Deadly Education and The Atlas Six who are hungry for something a little more diabolical.

The Hellebore Technical Institute for the Gifted is the premier academy for the dangerously the Anti-Christs and Ragnaroks, the world-eaters and apocalypse-makers.

Hellebore promises redemption, acceptance, and a normal life after graduation. At least, that’s what Alessa Li is told when she’s kidnapped and forcibly enrolled.

But there’s more to Hellebore than meets the eye. On graduation day, the faculty go on a ravenous rampage, feasting on Alessa’s class. Only Alessa and a group of her classmates escape the carnage. Trapped in the school’s library, they must offer a human sacrifice every night, or else the faculty will break down the door and kill everyone.

Can they band together and survive, or will the faculty eat its fill?]]> 288 Cassandra Khaw 1250877814 Constance 0 to-read 3.65 2025
author: Cassandra Khaw
name: Constance
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 210585822 A little free library guarded by a cat and a boy who takes on the mystery it keeps.

When a mysterious little free library (guarded by a large orange cat) appears overnight in the small town of Martinville, eleven-year-old Evan plucks two weathered books from its shelves, never suspecting that his life is about to change.

Evan and his best friend Rafe quickly discover a link between one of the old books and a long-ago event that none of the grown-ups want to talk about. The two boys start asking questions whose answers will transform not only their own futures, but the town itself.

Told in turn by a ghost librarian named Al, an aging (but beautiful) cat named Mortimer, and Evan himself, The Lost Library is a timeless story from award-winning authors Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass. It's about owning your truth, choosing the life you want, and the power of a good book (and, of course, the librarian who gave it to you).]]> 224 Rebecca Stead 1250838835 Constance 0 to-read 4.38 2023
author: Rebecca Stead
name: Constance
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 200982339
In 1940s Germany, Sophie is excited to discover a message waiting for her in the Bridegroom's Oak from a mysterious suitor. Meanwhile, her best friend, Hanna, is sending messages too—but not to find love. As World War II unfolds in their small town of Kleinwald, the oak may hold the key to resistance against the Nazis.

In 1980s West Germany, American teen transplant Jenny feels suffocated by her strict parents and is struggling to fit in. Until she finds herself falling for Lena, a punk-rock girl hell-bent on tearing down the wall separating West Germany from East Germany, and meeting Frau Hermann, a kind old lady with secrets of her own.

In Spring 2020, New York City, best friends Miles and Chloe are slogging through the last few months of senior year when an unexpected package from Chloe’s grandmother leads them to investigate a cold case about two unidentified teenagers who went missing under the Bridegroom’s Oak eighty years ago.

Age Range: 12-18]]> 480 Libba Bray 0374388946 Constance 0 to-read 4.19 2025
author: Libba Bray
name: Constance
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60097445 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - A lyrical and evocative collection of personal stories from the author of Under the Tuscan Sun, in which the queen of wanderlust reflects on the comforts of home.

Though Frances Mayes is known for her travels, she has always sought a sense of home wherever she goes. In this poetic testament to the power of place in our lives, Mayes reflects on the idea of home, from the earliest imprint of four walls to the startling discoveries of feeling the strange ease of homes abroad, friends' homes, and even momentary homes that spark desires for other lives. Her musings are all the more poignant after so many have spent their long pandemic months at home. From her travels across Italy--Tuscany, of course, but also Venice and Capri--to the American South, France, and Mexico, Mayes examines the connective tissue among them through the homes she's inhabited.

A Place in the World explores Mayes's passion and obsessions with houses and the things that inhabit them--old books, rich food, beloved friends, transportive art. The indelible marks each refuge has left on her and how each home influenced the next serve as the foundations of its chapters.

Written in Mayes's signature intimate style, A Place in the World captures the adventure of moving on while seeking comfort in the cornerstone closest to all of us--home.]]> 304 Frances Mayes 0593443330 Constance 0 to-read 3.46
author: Frances Mayes
name: Constance
average rating: 3.46
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 16117548 304 Elizabeth Losh 031264096X Constance 0 writing, to-read 3.75 2013
author: Elizabeth Losh
name: Constance
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves: writing, to-read
review:

]]> 217245582 In this dazzling debut, Stegner Fellow Jemimah Wei explores the formation and dissolution of family bonds in a story of ambition and sisterhood in turn-of-the-millennium Singapore.

Before Arin, Genevieve Yang was an only child. Living with her parents and grandmother in a single-room flat in working-class Bedok, Genevieve is saddled with an unexpected sibling when Arin appears, the shameful legacy of a grandfather long believed to be dead. As the two girls grow closer, they must navigate the intensity of life in a place where the urgent insistence on achievement demands constant sacrifice. Knowing that failure is not an option, the sisters learn to depend entirely on one another as they spurn outside friendships, leisure, and any semblance of a social life in pursuit of academic perfection and passage to a better future.

When a stinging betrayal violently estranges Genevieve and Arin, Genevieve must weigh the value of ambition versus familial love, home versus the outside world, and allegiance to herself versus allegiance to the people who made her who she is.

In the story of a family and its contention with the roiling changes of our rapidly modernizing, winner-take-all world, The Original Daughter is a major literary debut, rife with emotional clarity and searing social insight.]]> 368 Jemimah Wei 0385551010 Constance 0 to-read 4.14 2025
author: Jemimah Wei
name: Constance
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 219521090 A publishing event ten years in the making��a searing, exquisite new novel by the best-selling and award-winning author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists��the story of four women and their loves, longings, and desires.

Chiamaka is a Nigerian travel writer living in America. Alone in the midst of the pandemic, she recalls her past lovers and grapples with her choices and regrets. Zikora, her best friend, is a lawyer who has been successful at everything until �� betrayed and brokenhearted �� she must turn to the person she thought she needed least. Omelogor, Chiamaka’s bold, outspoken cousin, is a financial powerhouse in Nigeria who begins to question how well she knows herself. And Kadiatou, Chiamaka’s housekeeper, is proudly raising her daughter in America �� but faces an unthinkable hardship that threatens all she has worked to achieve.

In Dream Count, Adichie trains her fierce eye on these women in a sparkling, transcendent novel that takes up the very nature of love itself. Is true happiness ever attainable or is it just a fleeting state? And how honest must we be with ourselves in order to love, and to be loved? A trenchant reflection on the choices we make and those made for us, on daughters and mothers, on our interconnected world, Dream Count pulses with emotional urgency and poignant, unflinching observations on the human heart, in language that soars with beauty and power. It confirms Adichie’s status as one of the most exciting and dynamic writers on the literary landscape.]]> 416 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 059380273X Constance 0 to-read 3.94 2025
author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
name: Constance
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60978835 ��
They come in with the snow. They are the snow��.��.��.
��
The blizzard begins pummeling the Midwest on Christmas Eve, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. Todd Curry doesn’t need another reason to disappoint his son, so he joins three other people in renting the last four-wheel drive available and they set out into the blinding snow.
��
Only two hours into the treacherous trip west, Todd swerves to avoid a man in the middle of the highway. The stranger claims his daughter is lost somewhere out in the snow. Though his odd demeanor and ripped clothes make Todd and his group uneasy, they agree to take the man to the nearest town—if the now-damaged car can make it.
��
What awaits them at the next exit, however, is nothing they could have imagined. Around an empty town square, fires burn, cars are abandoned, storefronts are smashed. And there is no one to be seen—for now��.��.��.
��
But soon the shadows lurking on the edges of their vision will step into the light, and Todd and his fellow travelers will find themselves facing a sharp-scythed evil shaped from the snow, tearing its way into human form—and taking the neighborhood by storm.
��
“Malfi’s descriptive writing captures the cold and desperate scene in a way that will lure new fans to the genre.�� �� Las Vegas Review-Journal
��
“An impressively atmospheric novel with a wicked streak.�� �� Dread Central]]> 216 Ronald Malfi 1504075625 Constance 0 to-read 3.70 2010
author: Ronald Malfi
name: Constance
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 59414094 Grady Hendrix takes on the haunted house in a thrilling new novel that explores the way your past—and your family—can haunt you like nothing else.

When Louise finds out her parents have died, she dreads going home. She doesn’t want to leave her daughter with her ex and fly to Charleston. She doesn’t want to deal with her family home, stuffed to the rafters with the remnants of her father’s academic career and her mother’s lifelong obsession with puppets and dolls. She doesn’t want to learn how to live without the two people who knew and loved her best in the world.

Most of all, she doesn’t want to deal with her brother, Mark, who never left their hometown, gets fired from one job after another, and resents her success. Unfortunately, she’ll need his help to get the house ready for sale because it’ll take more than some new paint on the walls and clearing out a lifetime of memories to get this place on the market.

But some houses don’t want to be sold, and their home has other plans for both of them…]]> 419 Grady Hendrix 0593201264 Constance 4 horror, humor
Haunted house? Check.
In a modern Southern Gothic setting? Kind of an oxymoron, but it's the South. I am convinced the entire American South is haunted. (As it should be.) So, check.
Sibling rivalry while selling haunted house? Makes sense. Adds some conflict and a thoughtful dynamic about real things that happen to real people. Check.
Christian Puppet Ministry? Um... okay... I guess that's a thing. Again, it's the South.
Radical Puppet Collective? Wait... what? Is that also a thing?
Taxidermied Squirrel Nativity that comes to life? GAAAAH!!! I will never sleep again.
The list goes on...

Added to the creative ideas, Henderson has a gift for humorous and witty dialog, and this is his best to date. I mean, how can you go wrong when you can set up conversations that begin with a casual reference to joining a Radical Puppet Collective? (Please don't answer that. I am aware that could go terribly wrong in the wrong hands. In this case, it's in the right hands. Henderson's.)

Finally, this book is about as terrifying as it gets. Did I mention the taxidermied squirrel nativity that comes to life? Well, that is the tip of the terror iceberg, and anything more would be spoilers.

If you are looking for something humorous, but terrifying, and yet with a heart, this is it. Enjoy. ]]> 3.65 2023
author: Grady Hendrix
name: Constance
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/04
date added: 2025/01/22
shelves: horror, humor
review:
This book was everything it needed to be and then some. First of all, Grady Henderson always delivers exactly what he says he is going to. This book promises to be about selling a haunted house, and it gives just that in the most exact and precise way possible, while still being wildly creative in the concepts Henderson marries together.

Haunted house? Check.
In a modern Southern Gothic setting? Kind of an oxymoron, but it's the South. I am convinced the entire American South is haunted. (As it should be.) So, check.
Sibling rivalry while selling haunted house? Makes sense. Adds some conflict and a thoughtful dynamic about real things that happen to real people. Check.
Christian Puppet Ministry? Um... okay... I guess that's a thing. Again, it's the South.
Radical Puppet Collective? Wait... what? Is that also a thing?
Taxidermied Squirrel Nativity that comes to life? GAAAAH!!! I will never sleep again.
The list goes on...

Added to the creative ideas, Henderson has a gift for humorous and witty dialog, and this is his best to date. I mean, how can you go wrong when you can set up conversations that begin with a casual reference to joining a Radical Puppet Collective? (Please don't answer that. I am aware that could go terribly wrong in the wrong hands. In this case, it's in the right hands. Henderson's.)

Finally, this book is about as terrifying as it gets. Did I mention the taxidermied squirrel nativity that comes to life? Well, that is the tip of the terror iceberg, and anything more would be spoilers.

If you are looking for something humorous, but terrifying, and yet with a heart, this is it. Enjoy.
]]> 25458371
It was impossible to truly know the place. It changed with each influx and retreat, and the neap tides would reveal the skeletons of those who thought they could escape its insidious currents. No one ever went near the water. No one apart from us, that is.

I suppose I always knew that what happened there wouldn't stay hidden for ever, no matter how much I wanted it to. No matter how hard I tried to forget...."]]> 368 Andrew Michael Hurley 1473619823 Constance 5 folk-horror 3.24 2014
author: Andrew Michael Hurley
name: Constance
average rating: 3.24
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/22
date added: 2025/01/22
shelves: folk-horror
review:

]]> 8862170
Bramble: A village girl whom no one living can tame, forced to flee her home for a crime she did not commit.

Ash: A safeguarder's apprentice who must kill for an employer he cannot escape.

Saker: An enchanter who will not rest until the land is returned to his people.

As their three stories unfold, along with the stories of those whose lives they touch, it becomes clear that they are bound together in ways that not even a stonecaster could have foreseen - by their past, their future, and their blood.

This omnibus edition includes all three novels - Blood Ties, Deep Water, and Full Circle - together for the first time.]]> 1258 Pamela Freeman 0316102857 Constance 0 4.10 2010
author: Pamela Freeman
name: Constance
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at: 2020/11/01
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves:
review:

]]> 114192

Medical Apartheid is the first and only comprehensive history of medical experimentation on African Americans. Starting with the earliest encounters between black Americans and Western medical researchers and the racist pseudoscience that resulted, it details the ways both slaves and freedmen were used in hospitals for experiments conducted without their knowledge—a tradition that continues today within some black populations. It reveals how blacks have historically been prey to grave-robbing as well as unauthorized autopsies and dissections. Moving into the twentieth century, it shows how the pseudoscience of eugenics and social Darwinism was used to justify experimental exploitation and shoddy medical treatment of blacks, and the view that they were biologically inferior, oversexed, and unfit for adult responsibilities. Shocking new details about the government’s notorious Tuskegee experiment are revealed, as are similar, less-well-known medical atrocities conducted by the government, the armed forces, prisons, and private institutions.

The product of years of prodigious research into medical journals and experimental reports long undisturbed, Medical Apartheid reveals the hidden underbelly of scientific research and makes possible, for the first time, an understanding of the roots of the African American health deficit. At last, it provides the fullest possible context for comprehending the behavioral fallout that has caused black Americans to view researchers—and indeed the whole medical establishment—with such deep distrust. No one concerned with issues of public health and racial justice can afford not to read Medical Apartheid, a masterful book that will stir up both controversy and long-needed debate.]]> 501 Harriet A. Washington 0385509936 Constance 0 to-read 4.42 2007
author: Harriet A. Washington
name: Constance
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 18527689 Please Note That The Following Individual Books As Per Original ISBN and Cover Image In this Listing shall be Dispatched Arthritis Drug-Free Alternatives to Prevent and Reverse Arthritis By Lynne McTaggart, Eat To Beat Arthritis By Marguerite Patten, Jeannette Ewin 2 Books Collection Arthritis Drug-Free Alternatives to Prevent and Reverse In the traditional Western medical world, most patients aren't told the full story of arthritis and how to get better. Nor are they told about some of the limitations of conventional treatments. In this book, the team at What Doctors Don't Tell You, the internationally respected health magazine and website, draws on 27 years of research into conventional and unconventional treatments and presents its findings to help you make informed decisions about your health, and the health of your family. Eat to Beat Freshly jacketed mass market edition of this bestselling guide to beating arthritis through nutrition. With over 60 delicious recipes from cook Marguerite Patten, who completely eased her own painful arthritic symptoms through diet, and a comprehensive self-treatment plan from nutritionist Jeannette Ewin. Marguerite Patten suffered from crippling arthritis, but was completely eased of her painful symptoms after following Giraud Campbell’s original classic arthritis diet, The New Doctor’s Proven Home Cure for Arthritis. However, as a cook she found the recipes impractical and often unpalatable- so she set about creating a whole new set of easy to prepare, good to eat, arthritis-beating recipes.]]> 240 Lynne McTaggart 1401945848 Constance 0 to-read 3.79 2014
author: Lynne McTaggart
name: Constance
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 39127647 Thirteen of YA’s most celebrated names reimagine Edgar Allan Poe’s most surprising, unsettling, and popular tales for a new generation.

Edgar Allan Poe may be a hundred and fifty years beyond this world, but the themes of his beloved works have much in common with modern young adult fiction. Whether the stories are familiar to readers or discovered for the first time, readers will revel in Edgar Allan Poe’s classic tales, and how they’ve been brought to life in 13 unique and unforgettable ways.

Contributors include Kendare Blake (reimagining “Metzengerstein��), Rin Chupeco (“The Murders in the Rue Morge��), Lamar Giles (“The Oval Portrait��), Tessa Gratton (“Annabel Lee��), Tiffany D. Jackson (“The Cask of Amontillado��), Stephanie Kuehn (“The Tell-Tale Heart��), Emily Lloyd-Jones (“The Purloined Letter��), Hillary Monahan (“The Masque of the Red Death��), Marieke Nijkamp (“Hop-Frog��), Caleb Roehrig (“The Pit and the Pendulum��), and Fran Wilde (“The Fall of the House of Usher��).]]> 480 Dahlia Adler 1250302773 Constance 3 3.57 2019
author: Dahlia Adler
name: Constance
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/21
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves: short-story, horror, science-fiction
review:

]]> 45890523
Starve Acre is a devastating new novel by the author of the prize-winning bestseller The Loney. It is a novel about the way in which grief splits the world in two and how, in searching for hope, we can so easily unearth horror.]]> 256 Andrew Michael Hurley Constance 4 folk-horror
On a side note, at this point, I am convinced that if you dig a hole in a field in England, you are just asking for some ancient evil to rise.

Very much looking forward to the movie starring Matt Smith coming out later this year.]]> 3.69 2019
author: Andrew Michael Hurley
name: Constance
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/04
date added: 2025/01/17
shelves: folk-horror
review:
Juliette and Richard Willoughby are grieving for their young son Ewan who has passed away unexpectedly. While Juliette clings to the belief that her son's spirit haunts their rural home on the moors, Richard passes the time by excavating the field opposite the house in search of a legendary oak that once stood there. Meanwhile, a spiritualist whom Juliette employs to help her move on, combined with Richard's excavations in the field, inadvertently awaken an ancient evil. That's the simplified synopsis. I love the way this novel was crafted with clues to what has happened to Ewan and what will happen slowly unfolding to a mounting sense of dread: folk horror at its finest.

On a side note, at this point, I am convinced that if you dig a hole in a field in England, you are just asking for some ancient evil to rise.

Very much looking forward to the movie starring Matt Smith coming out later this year.
]]> 38922230
For two weeks, the length of her father's vacation, they join an anthropology course set to reenact life in simpler times. They are surrounded by forests of birch and rowan; they make stew from foraged roots and hunted rabbit. The students are fulfilling their coursework; Silvie's father is fulfilling his lifelong obsession. He has raised her on stories of early man, taken her to witness rare artifacts, recounted time and again their rituals and beliefs—particularly their sacrifices to the bog. Mixing with the students, Silvie begins to see, hear, and imagine another kind of life, one that might include going to university, traveling beyond England, choosing her own clothes and food, speaking her mind.

The ancient Britons built ghost walls to ward off enemy invaders, rude barricades of stakes topped with ancestral skulls. When the group builds one of their own, they find a spiritual connection to the past. What comes next but human sacrifice?

A story at once mythic and strikingly timely, Sarah Moss's Ghost Wall urges us to wonder how far we have come from the "primitive minds" of our ancestors.]]> 152 Sarah Moss 1783784458 Constance 4 3.72 2018
author: Sarah Moss
name: Constance
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/17
date added: 2025/01/17
shelves:
review:

]]> 213562784
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.]]> 322 R.F. Kuang 0063250853 Constance 0 to-read 3.80 2023
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Constance
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 212755924 From a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity’s creation and evolution—a #1 international bestseller—that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be “human.��

One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one—homo sapiens. What happened to the others? And what may happen to us?

Most books about the history of humanity pursue either a historical or a biological approach, but Dr. Yuval Noah Harari breaks the mold with this highly original book that begins about 70,000 years ago with the appearance of modern cognition. From examining the role evolving humans have played in the global ecosystem to charting the rise of empires, Sapiens integrates history and science to reconsider accepted narratives, connect past developments with contemporary concerns, and examine specific events within the context of larger ideas.

Dr. Harari also compels us to look ahead, because over the last few decades humans have begun to bend laws of natural selection that have governed life for the past four billion years. We are acquiring the ability to design not only the world around us, but also ourselves. Where is this leading us, and what do we want to become?

Featuring 27 photographs, 6 maps, and 25 illustrations/diagrams, this provocative and insightful work is sure to spark debate and is essential reading for aficionados of Jared Diamond, James Gleick, Matt Ridley, Robert Wright, and Sharon Moalem.]]> 464 Yuval Noah Harari 006342200X Constance 0 to-read 4.12 2011
author: Yuval Noah Harari
name: Constance
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 213344068
One week into the COVID-19 shutdown, tenants of a Lower East Side apartment building in Manhattan have begun to gather on the rooftop and tell stories. With each passing night, more and more neighbours gather, bringing chairs and milk crates and overturned pails. Gradually the tenants - some of whom have barely spoken to each other - become real neighbours. In this Decameron-like serial novel, general editor Margaret Atwood, Authors Guild president Douglas Preston, and a star-studded list of contributors create a beautiful ode to the people who couldn't get away from the city when the pandemic hit. A dazzling, heartwarming and ultimately surprising narrative, Fourteen Days reveals how beneath the horrible loss and suffering, some communities managed to become stronger.

Includes writing from:
Margaret Atwood, Douglas Preston, Celeste Ng, Emma Donoghue, Dave Eggers, John Grisham, Diana Gabaldon, Ishmael Reed, Meg Wolitzer, Luis Alberto Urrea, James Shapiro, Sylvia Day, Mary Pope Osborne, Monique Truong, Hampton Sides, R. L. Stine, Scott Turow, Tommy Orange, and more!]]> 384 Margaret Atwood 0063280183 Constance 0 to-read 3.56 2024
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Constance
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 52843028
A refugee of the Great War, Poirot has settled in England near Styles Court, the country estate of his wealthy benefactor, the elderly Emily Inglethorp. When Emily is poisoned and the authorities are baffled, Poirot puts his prodigious sleuthing skills to work. Suspects are plentiful, including the victim’s much younger husband, her resentful stepsons, her longtime hired companion, a young family friend working as a nurse, and a London specialist on poisons who just happens to be visiting the nearby village.

All of them have secrets they are desperate to keep, but none can outwit Poirot as he navigates the ingenious red herrings and plot twists that contribute to Agatha Christie's well-deserved reputation as the queen of mystery.]]> 174 Agatha Christie 1734452595 Constance 4 mystery mon ami," he says to Hastings, "you will be of great assistance to me." Poor Hastings, the bumbling Watson to Poirot's Holmes, does not stand a chance against the little gray cells. Luckily, neither does the murderer.

For lovers of solid, classic mysteries, Christie is always a good bet, and this one's no exception with its genuinely clever plot and large cast of characters, each with something to hide. ]]> 4.06 1920
author: Agatha Christie
name: Constance
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1920
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/11
date added: 2025/01/12
shelves: mystery
review:
The Mysterious Affair at Styles is notable for introducing Hercule Poirot to the world, but it is also a good mystery with a suitably clever mix of red herrings, subterfuge, and eclectic characters--any of whom may be motivated to murder. "We must be so intelligent," Poirot says of the murderer at one point, "that he does not suspect us of being intelligent at all." Poirot, we discover in the next sentence, is not only brilliant, he is also shady. "There, mon ami," he says to Hastings, "you will be of great assistance to me." Poor Hastings, the bumbling Watson to Poirot's Holmes, does not stand a chance against the little gray cells. Luckily, neither does the murderer.

For lovers of solid, classic mysteries, Christie is always a good bet, and this one's no exception with its genuinely clever plot and large cast of characters, each with something to hide.
]]> 58724626
What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife, surrounding a dark, pulsing lake. Madeline sleepwalks and speaks in strange voices at night, and her brother Roderick is consumed with a mysterious malady of the nerves.

Aided by a redoubtable British mycologist and a baffled American doctor, Alex must unravel the secret of the House of Usher before it consumes them all.]]> 165 T. Kingfisher 1250830753 Constance 4 3.86 2022
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Constance
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/12
date added: 2025/01/12
shelves:
review:

]]> 53137992 The Blair Witch Project meets Midsommar in this brilliantly disturbing thriller from Camilla Sten, an electrifying new voice in suspense.

Documentary filmmaker Alice Lindstedt has been obsessed with the vanishing residents of the old mining town, dubbed “The Lost Village,�� since she was a little girl. In 1959, her grandmother’s entire family disappeared in this mysterious tragedy, and ever since, the unanswered questions surrounding the only two people who were left—a woman stoned to death in the town center and an abandoned newborn—have plagued her. She’s gathered a small crew of friends in the remote village to make a film about what really happened.

But there will be no turning back.

Not long after they’ve set up camp, mysterious things begin to happen. Equipment is destroyed. People go missing. As doubt breeds fear and their very minds begin to crack, one thing becomes startlingly clear to Alice:

They are not alone.

They’re looking for the truth��
But what if it finds them first?]]> 340 Camilla Sten 1250249252 Constance 3 3.50 2019
author: Camilla Sten
name: Constance
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/07
date added: 2025/01/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 16307
That night, Hercule Poirot is called in to find the 'evil presence.' But first he must establish whether he is looking for a murderer or a double-murderer!]]> 336 Agatha Christie 0007120680 Constance 4 mystery A Haunting in Venice, which is purported to be loosely based on Christie's Hallowe'en Party. When I say loosely based, I mean very VERY loosely, in that the only similarities are that both include parties with apple-bobbing and, of course, Hercule Poirot. Murder, motive, victim, setting, and characters are so different in Branagh's movie that it felt very un-Christie-like to me, compelling me to read the book.

I enjoyed the book as it is true to Christie's form: perfect for those who love "cozy" mysteries with plenty of English village ambiance. Being one of Christie's later books (1969), there are also many amusing references to 1960s youth culture as seen through the eyes of Christie's older, but enjoyably open-minded, characters. (TW: For those sensitive to depictions of violence done to children, the victim in this one is a child.)

(My jury of one is still out on the film, although I appreciate Branagh for taking risks with an author whose works are virtually national treasures in England. I much preferred the book, although the two are so different it's hard to make comparisons.)]]> 3.56 1969
author: Agatha Christie
name: Constance
average rating: 3.56
book published: 1969
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/28
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: mystery
review:
Well-plotted and well-written, as is the norm for Christie. I read this after watching Kenneth Branagh's A Haunting in Venice, which is purported to be loosely based on Christie's Hallowe'en Party. When I say loosely based, I mean very VERY loosely, in that the only similarities are that both include parties with apple-bobbing and, of course, Hercule Poirot. Murder, motive, victim, setting, and characters are so different in Branagh's movie that it felt very un-Christie-like to me, compelling me to read the book.

I enjoyed the book as it is true to Christie's form: perfect for those who love "cozy" mysteries with plenty of English village ambiance. Being one of Christie's later books (1969), there are also many amusing references to 1960s youth culture as seen through the eyes of Christie's older, but enjoyably open-minded, characters. (TW: For those sensitive to depictions of violence done to children, the victim in this one is a child.)

(My jury of one is still out on the film, although I appreciate Branagh for taking risks with an author whose works are virtually national treasures in England. I much preferred the book, although the two are so different it's hard to make comparisons.)
]]> 40389527
Then the Russells move into the house across the way: a father, a mother and their teenage son. The perfect family. But when Anna, gazing out her window one night, sees something she shouldn’t, her world begins to crumble and its shocking secrets are laid bare.

What is real? What is imagined? Who is in danger? Who is in control? In this diabolically gripping thriller, no one—and nothing—is what it seems.]]> 455 A.J. Finn Constance 3 thriller, psychological 3.94 2018
author: A.J. Finn
name: Constance
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: thriller, psychological
review:

]]> 34275215
This is how a family lives happily ever after…until happily ever after becomes complicated.

This is how children change…and then change the world.

This is Claude. He’s five years old, the youngest of five brothers, and loves peanut butter sandwiches. He also loves wearing a dress, and dreams of being a princess.

When he grows up, Claude says, he wants to be a girl.

Rosie and Penn want Claude to be whoever Claude wants to be. They’re just not sure they’re ready to share that with the world. Soon the entire family is keeping Claude’s secret. Until one day it explodes.

This Is How It Always Is is a novel about revelations, transformations, fairy tales, and family. And it’s about the ways this is how it always is: Change is always hard and miraculous and hard again, parenting is always a leap into the unknown with crossed fingers and full hearts, children grow but not always according to plan. And families with secrets don’t get to keep them forever.

"This is a novel everyone should read. It’s brilliant. It’s bold. And it’s time.��
―Elizabeth George, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Banquet of Consequences]]> 336 Laurie Frankel 1250088569 Constance 0 to-read 4.28 2017
author: Laurie Frankel
name: Constance
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 210343102 A dark, lyrical fantasy blending the world of the Fae with the stories mothers tell to keep their daughters safe - and the consequences of disregarding the truth, no matter how sinister.

Gemma lives with her mother in an isolated antique shop in Michigan, near a small patch of woods that conceals an enchanted gateway to fairyland. She knows she's not supposed to go into the woods - her mother Virginia has warned her multiple times about the monsters that lurk there - and yet defiantly, curiously, she goes anyway.

Virginia understands her daughter's defiance. She knows the lure of the woods all too well. Her own mother warned her about the monsters that resided there, and she also did not listen. Until a witch cursed her true love, Ash - Gemma's father - into the form of a beast in the days before Gemma's birth. And if Virginia cannot break the curse before her daughter turns fifteen, Ash will eat Virginia's heart and Gemma will belong to the witch. So Virginia will do whatever she can to protect her daughter - even if it means stealing Gemma's memories away.

But everything changes when Gemma inadvertently gets too close to the truth, and the witch steals Virginia away instead. Now it is up to Gemma to venture deep into Fae lands to try and rescue her mother and break the curse.

Told in alternating viewpoints between Gemma and Virginia, this lyrical novel is not only a tale of a girl's fantastical quest through a darkly magical fairyland, but also an examination of the complex bonds of love and resentment that lie between parents and their children.]]> 320 Alyssa Wees 0593357523 Constance 0 to-read 3.62 2024
author: Alyssa Wees
name: Constance
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 56179364 The English language debut of the bestselling Dutch novel, Hex, from Thomas Olde Heuvelt--a Hugo and World Fantasy award nominated talent to watch

Whoever is born here, is doomed to stay 'til death. Whoever settles, never leaves.

Welcome to Black Spring, the seemingly picturesque Hudson Valley town haunted by the Black Rock Witch, a seventeenth century woman whose eyes and mouth are sewn shut. Muzzled, she walks the streets and enters homes at will. She stands next to children's bed for nights on end. Everybody knows that her eyes may never be opened or the consequences will be too terrible to bear.

The elders of Black Spring have virtually quarantined the town by using high-tech surveillance to prevent their curse from spreading. Frustrated with being kept in lockdown, the town's teenagers decide to break their strict regulations and go viral with the haunting. But, in so doing, they send the town spiraling into dark, medieval practices of the distant past.

This chilling novel heralds the arrival of an exciting new voice in mainstream horror and dark fantasy.]]> 384 Thomas Olde Heuvelt 1250780934 Constance 0 to-read 3.71 2013
author: Thomas Olde Heuvelt
name: Constance
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 816085
For Ned and his family, Cornwall Coombe was to become a place of ultimate horror.]]> 401 Thomas Tryon 0394485289 Constance 4 Children of the Corn, and it has often been compared to The (original) Wicker Man, which came out the same year. Investigating a series of fairly minor-sounding mysteries in an idyllic rural town, the narrator--a seemingly good guy--becomes more and more convinced that the town's agrarian traditions hide far deeper secrets. It's meticulously-plotted and a strange combination of leisurely, respectful, bucolic, and cliched in its description, which leads me to say...

Never have I been more perplexed over the concept of author's intent than reading this book. As the story unfolds, the first person narrator's actions become more reprehensible and his excuses more repellent than the conspiracies he is trying to uncover. I'm giving this four stars because my best guess, based on Tryon's other work, suggests he's giving us an unreliable narrator with a dark side of his own. If that is *not* the case, then this book has a really ugly streak of 1973-era feminest backlash going on. (Maybe it's a bit of both.) Whatever the case, it's unsettling and ultimately thought-provoking, and I appreciate a horror story, if that is what this is, that makes me think.

A TV miniseries starring Bette Davis was made from this in the 1970s, and several of the plot twists and shock moments - as it turns out, quite faithful to the book - have stayed with me for many years.]]> 3.82 1973
author: Thomas Tryon
name: Constance
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1973
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/15
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves: horror, atmospheric, folk-horror
review:
Before there was Stephen King, people read Thomas Tryon for their dose of creepy chills. A bestseller in its day, this book is said to have inspired King's Children of the Corn, and it has often been compared to The (original) Wicker Man, which came out the same year. Investigating a series of fairly minor-sounding mysteries in an idyllic rural town, the narrator--a seemingly good guy--becomes more and more convinced that the town's agrarian traditions hide far deeper secrets. It's meticulously-plotted and a strange combination of leisurely, respectful, bucolic, and cliched in its description, which leads me to say...

Never have I been more perplexed over the concept of author's intent than reading this book. As the story unfolds, the first person narrator's actions become more reprehensible and his excuses more repellent than the conspiracies he is trying to uncover. I'm giving this four stars because my best guess, based on Tryon's other work, suggests he's giving us an unreliable narrator with a dark side of his own. If that is *not* the case, then this book has a really ugly streak of 1973-era feminest backlash going on. (Maybe it's a bit of both.) Whatever the case, it's unsettling and ultimately thought-provoking, and I appreciate a horror story, if that is what this is, that makes me think.

A TV miniseries starring Bette Davis was made from this in the 1970s, and several of the plot twists and shock moments - as it turns out, quite faithful to the book - have stayed with me for many years.
]]> 214152456 A USA TODAY Bestseller
A Washington Post Bestseller

Inspired by Jami Attenberg’s wildly popular literary movement #1000WordsofSummer, this writer’s guide features encouraging essays on creativity, productivity, and writing from acclaimed authors including Roxane Gay, Lauren Groff, Celeste Ng, Meg Wolitzer, and Carmen Maria Machado.

In 2018, novelist Jami Attenberg, faced with a looming deadline, needed writing inspiration. Using a bootcamp model, she and a friend set out to write one thousand words daily for two weeks straight. They opened this practice to Attenberg’s online community and soon hundreds then thousands of people started using the #1000WordsofSummer hashtag to track their work and support one another. What began as a simple challenge between two friends has become a literary movement—write 1,000 words per day without judgment, or bias, or concerns about writer’s block, and see what comes of it.

1000 Words is the book-length extension of this movement. It is about becoming—and staying—motivated, discovering yourself and your creative desires, and approaching your craft from a new direction. It features advice from more than fifty well-known writers, including New York Times bestsellers, Pulitzer Prize winners, and stars of the literary world. Framing these letters are words of wisdom and encouragement, plus specific strategies, from Attenberg on how to carve out a creative path for yourself all year round.

Paired with vibrant word art illustrations, 1000 Words is an accessible and motivational craft book that allows you to open any page and get a quick and fulfilling hit of inspiration.

Featuring Roxane Gay, Bryan Washington, Susan Orlean, Maris Kreizman, Sara Novic, Rumaan Alam, Lauren Oyler, Emma Straub, Christopher Gonzales, Benjamin Percy, Mira Jacob, Laura van den Berg, Carmen Maria Machado, Courtney Sullivan, Rebecca Carroll, Ada Limon, R.O. Kwon, Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, Elissa Washuta, Alexander Chee, Maggie Shipstead, Deesha Philyaw, Jasmine Guillory, Kristen Arnett, Attica Locke, Megan Abbott, Min Jin Lee, Lauren Groff, Andrew Sean Greer, Camille Dungy, Megan Giddings, Isaac Fitsgerald, Hannah Tinti, Michael H. Weber, Celeste Ng, Elizabeth McCracken, Will Leitch, Maurice Carlos Ruffin, Morgan Parker, Kiese Laymon, Melissa Febos, Alissa Nutting, Liz Moore, Laila Lalami, Megan Mayhew Berman, Rebecca Makkai, Meg Wolitzer, Mychal Denzel Smith, Josh Gondelman, and Dantiel W. Moniz.]]> 272 Jami Attenberg 166802361X Constance 0 to-read 4.11 2024
author: Jami Attenberg
name: Constance
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 51648276
A deeply satisfying thriller cum fairy tale, Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead is a provocative exploration of the murky borderland between sanity and madness, justice and tradition, autonomy and fate. Whom do we deem sane? it asks. Who is worthy of a voice?

Duration: 11 hours 39 minutes.]]> 274 Olga Tokarczuk Constance 4 mystery 3.93 2009
author: Olga Tokarczuk
name: Constance
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/29
date added: 2024/12/09
shelves: mystery
review:

]]> 215003814 The Sound and the Fury is the tragedy of the Compson family, featuring some of the most memorable characters in literature: beautiful, rebellious Caddy; the manchild Benjy; haunted, neurotic Quentin; Jason, the brutal cynic; and Dilsey, their black servant. Their lives fragmented and harrowed by history and legacy, the character’s voices and actions mesh to create what is arguably Faulkner’s masterpiece and one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.]]> 274 William Faulkner Constance 0 to-read 4.09 1929
author: William Faulkner
name: Constance
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1929
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 204593567 A gripping story of motherhood and motherloss and the brutal, mighty things women do to keep themselves and each other alive, MADWOMAN marks the arrival of a major fiction talent.

The world is not made for mothers.
Yet mothers made the world��

Clove has��gone to extremes to keep her past a secret. Thanks to her lies, she’s landed the life of her dreams, complete with a safe husband and two adoring children who will never know the terror that was routine in her own childhood. If her buried anxiety threatens to breach the surface, Clove (if that is really her name) focuses on finding the right supplement, the right gratitude meditation.��

But when she receives a letter from a women’s prison in California, her past comes screeching into the present, entangling her in a dangerous game with memory and the people she thought she had outrun. As we��race��between her precarious present-day life in Portland, Oregon and her childhood in a Waikiki high-rise with her mother and father, Clove is forced to��finally unravel the defining day of her life. How did she survive that day, and what will it take to end the cycle of violence? Will the truth undo her, or could it ultimately save her?]]> 336 Chelsea Bieker 0316573299 Constance 0 to-read 3.71 2024
author: Chelsea Bieker
name: Constance
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60806775
“Staggeringly intimate...Groundbreaking.�� �� Entertainment Weekly
“A breathtaking and important book.�� —Cheryl Strayed
“Extraordinary...A nonfiction literary masterpiece.�� —Elizabeth Gilbert

#1 New York Times Bestseller and a Best Book of the Year The Washington Post * NPR * The Atlantic * New York Public Library * Vanity Fair * PBS * Time * Economist * Entertainment Weekly * Financial Times * Shelf Awareness * Guardian * Sunday Times * BBC * Esquire * Good Housekeeping * Elle * Real Simple * And more

A riveting true story about the sex lives of three real American women “who are carnal, brave, and beautifully flawed�� ( People, Book of the Week), based on nearly a decade of reporting.

Lina, a young mother in suburban Indiana whose marriage has lost its passion, reconnects with an old flame through social media and embarks on an affair that quickly becomes all-consuming. Maggie, a seventeen-year-old high school student in North Dakota, allegedly engages in a relationship with her married English teacher; the ensuing criminal trial turns their quiet community upside down. Sloane, a successful restaurant owner in an exclusive enclave of the Northeast, is happily married to a man who likes to watch her have sex with other men and women.

Hailed as “a dazzling achievement�� ( Los Angeles Times ) and “a riveting page-turner that explores desire, heartbreak, and infatuation in all its messy, complicated nuance�� ( The Washington Post ), Lisa Taddeo’s Three Women has captivated readers, booksellers, and critics—and topped bestseller lists—worldwide. Based on eight years of immersive research, it is “an astonishing work of literary reportage�� ( The Atlantic ) that introduces us to three unforgettable women—and one remarkable writer—whose experiences remind us that we are not alone.]]> 336 Lisa Taddeo 1668011719 Constance 0 to-read 3.29 2019
author: Lisa Taddeo
name: Constance
average rating: 3.29
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 34101736
Every year, the Gaffer would redraw the boundary lines of the village, with pen and paper but also through the remembrance of folk tales, family stories and timeless communal rituals which keep the sheep safe from the Devil. This year, though, the determination of some members of the community to defend those boundary lines has strengthened, and John and Katherine must decide where their loyalties lie, and whether they are prepared to make the sacrifices necessary to join the tribe...

Gripping, unsettling and beautifully written, Andrew Michael Hurley's new novel asks how much we owe to tradition, and how far we will go to belong.]]> 368 Andrew Michael Hurley 1473619866 Constance 4 folk-horror 3.39 2017
author: Andrew Michael Hurley
name: Constance
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/07
date added: 2024/11/16
shelves: folk-horror
review:

]]> 25849 190 Kazuo Umezu 1421507226 Constance 0 to-read 3.80 2006
author: Kazuo Umezu
name: Constance
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 11252905 Buddenbrooks set in the Florida Everglades—and Swamplandia!, their island home and gator-wrestling theme park, is swiftly being encroached upon by a sophisticated competitor known as the "World of Darkness."

Ava, a resourceful but terrified twelve-year-old, must manage seventy gators and the vast, inscrutable landscape of her own grief. Her mother, Swamplandia!’s legendary headliner, has just died; her sister is having an affair with a ghost called the Dredgeman; her brother has secretly defected to the World of Darkness in a last-ditch effort to keep their sinking family afloat; and her father, Chief Bigtree, is AWOL. To save her family, Ava must journey on her own to a perilous part of the swamp called the "Underworld," a harrowing odyssey from which she emerges a true heroine.]]> 400 Karen Russell 0307276686 Constance 0 to-read 3.28 2011
author: Karen Russell
name: Constance
average rating: 3.28
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 122755849 350 Michal Reznizki 0814100937 Constance 4 writing 4.57
author: Michal Reznizki
name: Constance
average rating: 4.57
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/18
date added: 2024/10/21
shelves: writing
review:

]]> 199550226 From the mid-century metropolis of Chicago to the windswept ancestral lands of the Dakota people to the bleak and brutal Indian boarding schools, A Council of Dolls is the story of three women, told in part through the stories of the dolls they carried.

Sissy, born 1961: Sissy’s relationship with her beautiful and volatile mother is difficult, even dangerous, but her life is also filled with beautiful things, including a new Christmas present, a doll called Ethel. Ethel whispers advice and kindness in Sissy’s ear, and in one especially terrifying moment, maybe even saves Sissy’s life.

Lillian, born 1925: Born in her ancestral lands in a time of terrible change, Lillian clings to her sister, Blanche, and her doll, Mae. When the sisters are forced to attend an “Indian school�� far from their home, Blanche refuses to be cowed by the school’s abusive nuns. But when tragedy strikes the sisters, the doll Mae finds her way to defend the girls.

Cora, born 1888: Although she was born into the brutal legacy of the “Indian Wars,�� Cora isn’t afraid of the white men who remove her to a school across the country to be “civilized.�� When teachers burn her beloved buckskin and beaded doll Winona, Cora discovers that the spirit of Winona may not be entirely lost.

A modern masterpiece, A Council of Dolls is gorgeous, quietly devastating, and ultimately hopeful, shining a light on the echoing damage of Indian boarding schools, and the historical massacres of Indigenous people.]]> 304 Mona Susan Power 0063281104 Constance 0 to-read 3.82 2023
author: Mona Susan Power
name: Constance
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 199798522
It’s the summer before senior year for best friends Tolly Driver and Amber Dennison. They’re not in the marching band, they’re not in the FFA �� they don’t really count. Amber’s the only Native student in town, and Tolly’s only on the radar due to his father’s recent death.

This is all about to change.

Bodies are going to be dropping fast in this small West Texas town. For a few unbearably hot days that will resonate through the decades and even get made into a TV movie, Tolly and Amber will be famous. Notorious even. Finally, everyone will know their names.

This is Stephen Graham Jones x-raying the slasher genre, interrogating its motivations over the shoulder and in the voice of the killer itself �� from a town he did some growing up in, in a year he was also seventeen.

The kills will be poignant, the jokes will hurt, and the violence will be endearing. Everything’s turned around for Tolly, for Amber �� for all of Lamesa, Texas.

Be happy you weren’t there.

Be happy you’re only reading about it.]]> 373 Stephen Graham Jones 1668022249 Constance 4 3.54 2024
author: Stephen Graham Jones
name: Constance
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/11
date added: 2024/10/20
shelves:
review:

]]> 60784489 From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, the first book in the wildly successful Mistborn trilogy, now in trade paperback.
For a thousand years, ash fell and no flowers bloomed. For a thousand years, the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years, the Lord Ruler reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Then, when all hope was lost, the scarred, heartbroken half-Skaa Kelsier found in himself the powers of a Mistborn.
A brilliant thief and natural leader, Kelsier recruits the underworld's smartest and most trustworthy allomancers, who each share one of his many powers and relish a high-stakes challenge. Only then does he reveal his ultimate dream: not just the greatest heist in history, but the downfall of the divine despot.

But even with the best criminal crew ever assembled, Kel's plan looks like the ultimate long shot, until luck brings a ragged girl named Vin into his life. Like him, she's a half-Skaa orphan, but she's lived a much harsher life. Vin has learned to expect betrayal from everyone she meets. She will have to learn to trust, if Kel is to help her master powers that she’s never dreamed of.


Other Tor books by Brandon Sanderson

The Cosmere

The Stormlight Archive
The Way of Kings
Words of Radiance
Edgedancer (Novella)
Oathbringer
Dawnshard (Novella)
Rhythm of War

The Mistborn trilogy
Mistborn: The Final Empire
The Well of Ascension
The Hero of Ages

Mistborn: The Wax and Wayne series
Alloy of Law
Shadows of Self
Bands of Mourning
The Lost Metal

Collection
Arcanum Unbounded

Other Cosmere novels
Elantris
Warbreaker

The Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians series
Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians
The Scrivener's Bones
The Knights of Crystallia
The Shattered Lens
The Dark Talent
Bastille vs. the Evil Librarians

The Rithmatist series
The Rithmatist

Other books by Brandon Sanderson

The Reckoners
Steelheart
Firefight
Calamity]]> 534 Brandon Sanderson 1250868289 Constance 0 to-read 4.54 2006
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Constance
average rating: 4.54
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 34088341 274 Orhan Pamuk 0451494431 Constance 0 to-read 3.78 2016
author: Orhan Pamuk
name: Constance
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 18820638
Journey through the woods in this sinister, compellingly spooky collection that features four brand-new stories and one phenomenally popular tale in print for the first time. These are fairy tales gone seriously wrong, where you can travel to “Our Neighbor’s House”—though coming back might be a problem. Or find yourself a young bride in a house that holds a terrible secret in “A Lady’s Hands Are Cold.�� You might try to figure out what is haunting “My Friend Janna,�� or discover that your brother’s fiancée may not be what she seems in “The Nesting Place.�� And of course you must revisit the horror of “His Face All Red,�� the breakout webcomic hit that has been gorgeously translated to the printed page.]]> 208 Emily Carroll 1442465972 Constance 3 3.93 2014
author: Emily Carroll
name: Constance
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2015/04/05
date added: 2024/09/23
shelves: folk-fairytale, graphic-novels, creepy-as-heck
review:
I think I'd have appreciated these dark, minimalist fairy tales more if only my e-reader had a larger screen. Some of the lettering was hard to read, and I suspect details of the stunning artwork were lost on the small screen. Alas, the e-book was the only format available to me. Creepy and gorgeous, with an economical use of language.
]]> 24366759 The author of the blockbuster New York Times bestsellers, The Happiness Project and Happier at Home, tackles the critical ��How do we change?��
��
Gretchen Rubin's through habits. Habits are the invisible architecture of everyday life.��It takes work to make a habit, but once that habit is set, we can harness the energy of habits to build happier, stronger, more productive lives.
��
So if habits are a key to change, then what we really need to know How do we change our habits?
��
Better than Before answers that question. It presents a practical, concrete framework to allow readers to understand their habits—and to change them for good. Infused with Rubin’s compelling voice, rigorous research, and easy humor, and packed with vivid stories of lives transformed, Better than Before explains the (sometimes counter-intuitive) core principles of habit formation.
��
Along the way, Rubin uses herself as guinea pig, tests her theories on family and friends, and answers readers�� most pressing questions—oddly, questions that other writers and researchers tend to ��

•��Why do I find it tough to create a habit for something I��love��to do?
•��Sometimes I can change a habit overnight, and sometimes I can’t change a habit, no matter how hard I try. Why?
•��How quickly can I change a habit?
•��What can I do to make sure I stick to a new habit?
•��How can I help someone else change a habit?
•��Why can I keep habits that benefit others, but can’t make habits that are just for me?

Whether readers want to get more sleep, stop checking their devices, maintain a healthy weight, or finish an important project, habits make��change possible. Reading just a few chapters of Better Than Before will make readers eager to start work on their own habits—even before they’ve finished the book.]]> 322 Gretchen Rubin 0385348622 Constance 0 to-read 3.93 2015
author: Gretchen Rubin
name: Constance
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 35018589 347 Paul Hockenos 1620971968 Constance 0 to-read 4.22 2017
author: Paul Hockenos
name: Constance
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 199635125
Sharply observant and outrageously funny, Rejection is a provocative plunge into the touchiest problems of modern life. The seven connected stories seamlessly transition between the personal crises of a complex ensemble and the comic tragedies of sex, relationships, identity, and the internet.

In “The Feminist,�� a young man’s passionate allyship turns to furious nihilism as he realizes, over thirty lonely years, that it isn’t getting him laid. A young woman’s unrequited crush in “Pics�� spirals into borderline obsession and the systematic destruction of her sense of self. And in “Ahegao; or, The Ballad of Sexual Repression,�� a shy late bloomer’s flailing efforts at a first relationship leads to a life-upending mistake. As the characters pop up in each other’s dating apps and social media feeds, or meet in dimly lit bars and bedrooms, they reveal the ways our delusions can warp our desire for connection.

These brilliant satires explore the underrated sorrows of rejection with the authority of a modern classic and the manic intensity of a manifesto. Audacious and unforgettable, Rejection is a stunning mosaic that redefines what it means to be rejected by lovers, friends, society, and oneself.]]> 272 Tony Tulathimutte 0063337878 Constance 0 to-read 3.87 2024
author: Tony Tulathimutte
name: Constance
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 15822836
For twenty years after Tara Martin disappeared from her small English town, her parents and her brother, Peter, have lived in denial of the grim fact that she was gone for good. And then suddenly, on Christmas Day, the doorbell rings at her parents' home and there, disheveled and slightly peculiar looking, Tara stands. It's a miracle, but alarm bells are ringing for Peter. Tara's story just does not add up. And, incredibly, she barely looks a day older than when she vanished.

Award-winning author Graham Joyce is a master of exploring new realms of understanding that exist between dreams and reality, between the known and unknown. Some Kind of Fairy Tale is a unique journey every bit as magical as its title implies, and as real and unsentimental as the world around us.]]> 322 Graham Joyce 0385535848 Constance 5 fae-folk 3.71 2012
author: Graham Joyce
name: Constance
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2013/05/08
date added: 2024/09/16
shelves: fae-folk
review:

]]> 18074525 By the author of Sharp Teeth, a novel of love, spies, and witches in 1950s Paris—and a cop turned into a flea

Will is a young American ad executive in Paris. Except his agency is a front for the CIA. It's 1959 and the cold war is going strong. But Will doesn't think he's a warrior—he's just a good-hearted Detroit ad guy who can't seem to figure out Parisian girls.
Zoya is a beautiful young woman wandering les boulevards, sad-eyed, coming off a bad breakup. In fact, she impaled her ex on a spike. Zoya, it turns out, has been a beautiful young woman for hundreds of years; she and her far more traditionally witchy-looking companion, Elga, have been thriving unnoticed in the bloody froth of Europe's wars.
Inspector Vidot is a hardworking Paris police detective who cherishes quiet nights at home. But when he follows a lead from a grisly murder to the abode of an ugly old woman, he finds himself turned into a flea.
Oliver is a patrician, fun-loving American who has come to France to start a literary journal with the help of friends in D.C. who ask a few favors in return. He's in well over his head, but it's nothing that a cocktail can't fix. Right?
Add a few chance encounters, a chorus of some more angry witches, a strung-out jazzman or two, a weaponized LSD program, and a cache of rifles buried in the Bois de Bologne—and that's a novel! But while Toby Barlow's Babayaga may start as just a joyful romp though the City of Light, it quickly grows into a daring, moving exploration of love, mortality, and responsibility.]]> 400 Toby Barlow 0374709599 Constance 0 to-read 3.65 2013
author: Toby Barlow
name: Constance
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 30319086
As one of seven young actors studying Shakespeare at an elite arts college, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingenue, extra. But when the casting changes, and the secondary characters usurp the stars, the plays spill dangerously over into life, and one of them is found dead. The rest face their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, and themselves, that they are blameless.]]> 354 M.L. Rio 125009528X Constance 3 mystery Shakespeare in general.
Macbeth.
Julius Caesar.
King Lear.
A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Romeo and Juliet.
(Be sure to be familiar with every character in these plays. Every character. Remember their names and all of their actions and some of their dialog. You will need to know them.)

Don't get me wrong. I love Shakespeare. I did not love this book or these characters. Most of them quote Shakespeare. All the time. They don't need to think up their own words. They have Shakespeare.

I actually did not hate this book or these characters. I just felt like we never really got to know them, most especially we never got to know them before things went wrong. Why did they like Richard in the first place? Did he just suddenly become abusive? Out of nowhere in fourth year? Why did everyone want to hide how abusive he was?? (James does give the nonsensical reason of not wanting to give Richard the satisfaction, but why? Especially after finding out Richard is ALSO hurting other people?) Why did her own friends objectify Meredith so much? Even AFTER she says this is what she's afraid of, they (James in particular) continue to evaluate her only on her looks and how shallow and egotistical they perceive her to be, although the reader never fully sees this side of her.

Bottom line: These characters are all stereotypes. The book tells us this at the outset, the characters never deviate far from seeing each other as stereotypes, and the reader is given little else to go on. ]]> 4.11 2017
author: M.L. Rio
name: Constance
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/14
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves: mystery
review:
Things that it is helpful to be extremely familiar with when reading this book:
Shakespeare in general.
Macbeth.
Julius Caesar.
King Lear.
A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Romeo and Juliet.
(Be sure to be familiar with every character in these plays. Every character. Remember their names and all of their actions and some of their dialog. You will need to know them.)

Don't get me wrong. I love Shakespeare. I did not love this book or these characters. Most of them quote Shakespeare. All the time. They don't need to think up their own words. They have Shakespeare.

I actually did not hate this book or these characters. I just felt like we never really got to know them, most especially we never got to know them before things went wrong. Why did they like Richard in the first place? Did he just suddenly become abusive? Out of nowhere in fourth year? Why did everyone want to hide how abusive he was?? (James does give the nonsensical reason of not wanting to give Richard the satisfaction, but why? Especially after finding out Richard is ALSO hurting other people?) Why did her own friends objectify Meredith so much? Even AFTER she says this is what she's afraid of, they (James in particular) continue to evaluate her only on her looks and how shallow and egotistical they perceive her to be, although the reader never fully sees this side of her.

Bottom line: These characters are all stereotypes. The book tells us this at the outset, the characters never deviate far from seeing each other as stereotypes, and the reader is given little else to go on.
]]> 200101541 A chilling twist on the “cursed film�� genre from the bestselling author of��The Pallbearers Club and��The Cabin at the End of the World.

In June 1993, a group of young guerilla filmmakers spent four weeks making Horror Movie, a notorious, disturbing, art-house horror flick.

The weird part?��Only three of the film’s scenes were ever released to the public, but Horror Movie has nevertheless grown a rabid fanbase. Three decades later, Hollywood is pushing for a big budget reboot.

The man who played “The Thin Kid�� is the only surviving cast member. He remembers all too well the secrets buried within the original screenplay, the bizarre events of the filming, and the dangerous crossed lines on set that resulted in tragedy. As memories flood back in, the boundaries between reality and film, past and present start to blur. But he’s going to help remake the film, even if it means navigating a world of cynical producers, egomaniacal directors, and surreal fan conventions �� demons of the past be damned.

But at what cost?��

Horror Movie is an obsessive, psychologically chilling, and suspenseful twist on the “cursed film�� that breathlessly builds to an unforgettable, mind-bending conclusion.]]> 277 Paul Tremblay 0063070014 Constance 4 horror 3.31 2024
author: Paul Tremblay
name: Constance
average rating: 3.31
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/06
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves: horror
review:

]]> 219362 269 William Peter Blatty 0671470450 Constance 4 3.71 1983
author: William Peter Blatty
name: Constance
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1983
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/01
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves:
review:

]]> 199798179 A time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingenious exploration of the nature of power and the potential for love to change it all:

In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats�� from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time.

She is tasked with working as a “bridge��: living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as ��1847�� or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he’s a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as “washing machines,�� “Spotify,�� and “the collapse of the British Empire.�� But with an appetite for discovery, a seven-a-day cigarette habit, and the support of a charming and chaotic cast of fellow expats, he soon adjusts.

Over the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic, evolves into something much deeper. By the time the true shape of the Ministry’s project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined. Forced to confront the choices that brought them together, the bridge must finally reckon with how—and whether she believes—what she does next can change the future.]]> 339 Kaliane Bradley 1668045141 Constance 0 to-read 3.54 2024
author: Kaliane Bradley
name: Constance
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 17345344
“An absorbing plunge into a mystery of the mind.�� �� Entertainment Weekly

To many people, hallucinations imply madness, but in fact they are a common part of the human experience. These sensory distortions range from the shimmering zigzags of a visual migraine to powerful visions brought on by fever, injuries, drugs, sensory deprivation, exhaustion, or even grief. Hallucinations doubtless lie behind many mythological traditions, literary inventions, and religious epiphanies.

Drawing on his own experiences, a wealth of clinical cases from among his patients, and famous historical examples ranging from Dostoevsky to Lewis Carroll, the legendary neurologist Oliver Sacks investigates the mystery of these sensory what they say about the working of our brains, how they have influenced our folklore and culture, and why the potential for hallucination is present in all humans.]]> 323 Oliver Sacks 0307947432 Constance 0 to-read 3.96 2012
author: Oliver Sacks
name: Constance
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 43269446 This follow-up to The Underground Railroad brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys unjustly sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida.

When Elwood Curtis, a black boy growing up in 1960s Tallahassee, is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, he finds himself trapped in a grotesque chamber of horrors. Elwood's only salvation is his friendship with fellow "delinquent" Turner, which deepens despite Turner's conviction that Elwood is hopelessly naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble. As life at the Academy becomes ever more perilous, the tension between Elwood's ideals and Turner's skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades.

Based on the real story of a reform school that operated for 111 years and warped the lives of thousands of children, The Nickel Boys is a devastating, driven narrative that showcases a great American novelist writing at the height of his powers.]]> 213 Colson Whitehead 0345804341 Constance 0 to-read 4.34 2019
author: Colson Whitehead
name: Constance
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 30753704
But hidden inside the socially awkward, fussy busybody is a woman who has more imagination, bigger dreams, and a warmer heart that anyone around her realizes.

When Britt-Marie walks out on her cheating husband and has to fend for herself in the miserable backwater town of Borg—of which the kindest thing one can say is that it has a road going through it—she finds work as the caretaker of a soon-to-be demolished recreation center. The fastidious Britt-Marie soon finds herself being drawn into the daily doings of her fellow citizens, an odd assortment of miscreants, drunkards, layabouts. Most alarming of all, she’s given the impossible task of leading the supremely untalented children’s soccer team to victory. In this small town of misfits, can Britt-Marie find a place where she truly belongs?

Funny and moving, sweet and inspiring, Britt-Marie Was Here celebrates the importance of community and connection in a world that can feel isolating.

The New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove and My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry “returns with this heartwarming story about a woman rediscovering herself after a personal crisis�� fans of Backman will find another winner in these pages.”]]> 324 Fredrik Backman 1501142542 Constance 0 to-read 4.12 2014
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Constance
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 199531649 464 Tim O'Brien 0063318512 Constance 0 to-read 3.52 2023
author: Tim O'Brien
name: Constance
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 179780 385 William Peter Blatty Constance 3 50-scariest-list 4.20 1971
author: William Peter Blatty
name: Constance
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1971
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/20
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves: 50-scariest-list
review:

]]> 198970297
When Lyn Slater started her fashion blog, Accidental Icon, at age sixty-one, she discovered that followers were flocking to her account for more than just her A-list style. As Lyn flaunted gray hair, wrinkles, and a megadose of self-acceptance, they found in her an alternative model of older someone who defied the stereotypes, refused to become invisible, and showed that all women have the opportunity to be relevant and take major risks at any stage of their life. Youth is not the only time we can be experimental.

How to Be Old tells the ten-year story of Lyn’s sixties, the sometimes-glamorous, sometimes-turbulent decade of Accidental Icon. This memoir is about the hopeful and future-oriented process of reinvention. It shows readers that while you can’t control everything, what you can control is the way you think about your age and the creative ways you respond to the changes in your mind and body as they happen. Rather than trying to meet standards of youth and beauty as a measure of successful aging, Lyn promotes a more inclusive and empowering standard to judge our older selves by.

In this paradigm-shifting memoir, Lyn exemplifies that even with its unique challenges, being old is just like any new beginning in your life and can be the best and most invigorating of all of life’s phases, full of rebellion and reinvention, connection and creativity.]]> 272 Lyn Slater 0593471792 Constance 0 to-read 3.34
author: Lyn Slater
name: Constance
average rating: 3.34
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>