Bri's bookshelf: all en-US Tue, 15 Apr 2025 04:32:34 -0700 60 Bri's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Tom Lake 216038747 In this beautiful and moving novel about family, love, and growing up, Ann Patchett once again proves herself one of America’s finest writers.

In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.

Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart. As in all of her novels, Ann Patchett combines compelling narrative artistry with piercing insights into family dynamics. The result is a rich and luminous story, told with profound intelligence and emotional subtlety, that demonstrates once again why she is one of the most revered and acclaimed literary talents working today.]]> 320 Ann Patchett 0063327538 Bri 0 to-read 3.83 2023 Tom Lake
author: Ann Patchett
name: Bri
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/15
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]]> <![CDATA[Done and Dusted (Rebel Blue Ranch, #1)]]> 123179008
For the first time in her life, Clementine “Emmy� Ryder has no idea what she’s doing. She’s accomplished everything on her to-do list. She left her small hometown of Meadowlark, Wyoming; went to college; and made a career for herself by doing her favorite thing: riding horses. But after an accident makes it impossible for her to get back into the saddle, she has no choice but to return to the hometown she always wanted to escape.

Luke Brooks is Meadowlark’s most notorious bad boy, bar owner, and bachelor. He’s also the unofficial fifth member of the Ryder family. As Emmy’s older brother’s best friend, Luke spent most of his childhood antagonizing her. It’s been years since he’s seen her, but when she walks into his bar and back into his life, he can’t take his eyes off her. Despite his better judgment, he wants to do a whole lot more than just look at her.

Emmy’s got too much on her mind to think about romance. And Luke knows he should stay away from his best friend’s younger sister. But what if Luke is just what Emmy needs to get her spark back? Or will they both go up in flames?]]> 356 Lyla Sage Bri 4 3.82 2023 Done and Dusted (Rebel Blue Ranch, #1)
author: Lyla Sage
name: Bri
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves:
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The perfect escapist book to read when you’re having a crisis back in your small hometown out west.
]]> Mayra 220458596 An eerie, hypnotic debut about friendship, desire, and memory set against the sultry backdrop of Florida’s swamplands

It's been years since Ingrid has heard from her childhood best friend, Mayra, a fearless rebel who fled their hometown of Hialeah, a Cuban neighborhood just west of Miami, for college in the Northeast. But when Mayra calls out of the blue to invite Ingrid to a weekend getaway at a house in the Everglades, she impulsively accepts.

From the moment Ingrid sets out for the house, danger looms: The directions are difficult, she’s out of reach of cell service, and as she drives deeper into the Everglades, the wet maw of the swamp threatens to swallow her whole. But once Ingrid arrives, Mayra is, in many ways, just as she remembers—with her sharp tongue and effortless, seductive beauty, still thumbing her nose at the world.

Before they can fully settle into the familiar intimacy of each other's company, their reunion is spoiled by the reemergence of past disagreements and the unexpected presence of Mayra's new boyfriend, Benji. The trio spend their hours eating lavish meals and exploring the labyrinthine house, which holds as much mystery and danger as the swamp itself. Indoors and on the grounds, time itself seems to expand, and Ingrid begins to lose a sense of the outside world, and herself.

Against this disquieting setting, where lizards dart in and out of porches and alligators peek up from dark waters, Gonzalez weaves a surreal, unforgettable story about the dizzying power of early friendship and the lengths we'll go to earn love and acceptance—even at the risk of losing ourselves entirely.]]> 240 Nicky Gonzalez 0593731557 Bri 0 to-read 3.64 2025 Mayra
author: Nicky Gonzalez
name: Bri
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Slow Horses (Slough House, #1)]]> 59336841
London, England: Slough House is where the washed-up MI5 spies go to while away what's left of their failed careers. The "slow horses," as they’re called, have all disgraced themselves in some way to get relegated here. Maybe they messed up an op badly and can't be trusted anymore. Maybe they got in the way of an ambitious colleague and had the rug yanked out from under them. Maybe they just got too dependent on the bottle—not unusual in this line of work. One thing they all have in common, though, is they all want to be back in the action. And most of them would do anything to get there─even if it means having to collaborate with one another.

River Cartwright, one such “slow horse,� is bitter about his failure and about his tedious assignment transcribing cell phone conversations. When a young man is abducted and his kidnappers threaten to broadcast his beheading live on the Internet, River sees an opportunity to redeem himself. But is the victim who he first appears to be? And what’s the kidnappers� connection with a disgraced journalist? As the clock ticks on the execution, River finds that everyone has his own agenda.]]> 336 Mick Herron Bri 0 to-read 4.29 2010 Slow Horses (Slough House, #1)
author: Mick Herron
name: Bri
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Wild and Wrangled (Rebel Blue Ranch, #4)]]> 216522630 She’s the one that got away. He’s the one that never let her go.

From the bestselling author of Done and Dusted and Swift and Saddled, the next book in the Rebel Blue Ranch series, a small town romance in which past lovers get a second chance to rediscover what they lost.

Camille Ashwood had always loved a plan. Her latest was her best yet. She was going to get married so she could secure her daughter’s future, get her overbearing parents off her back, and finally start building her own life in small town Meadowlark, Wyoming. Easy, right?

But when her groom doesn’t show up to the wedding, Cam’s life is turned upside down—she doesn’t even have a place to live. That is, until she finds out the house she’s loved since high school is available to rent. There’s only one problem: the neighbor.

Dusty Tucker has spent nearly all of his adult life running. Running from what, though? More like who: Cam Ashwood. But ever since he returned home last year, the girl who was his first, well, everything has become a woman seemingly determined to keep him at arm’s length. And he was okay with that—at least, that’s what he kept telling himself. She was getting married, after all. But now she’s single and living next door. Dusty wants to show her that they can be friends, and that he can stay put.

Despite her best attempts to stay far away from Dusty Tucker, Cam realizes that being close to him is like slipping on her favorite jeans. Easy. Comfortable. That is until past wounds start to open and feelings—both old and new—wreak havoc. Nearly ten years after they first met, Dusty and Cam begin to wonder if their first love can also be their last. And this time, will it be forever?]]> 368 Lyla Sage 0593732472 Bri 0 to-read 4.20 2025 Wild and Wrangled (Rebel Blue Ranch, #4)
author: Lyla Sage
name: Bri
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Every Move You Make (The Rugby Lovers)]]> 214534098 He’s been watching her for years, waiting for the right moment.
Isaiah Johanssen has built his life around two things: rugby and secretly loving his friend Robyn Cassidy. Since they met playing rugby in college, their stars have never aligned. But Isaiah isn’t worried—he has a plan.

Professional rugby player Robyn Cassidy is determined to show Isaiah she wants more than friendship, but every time she tries to get his attention, the words escape her. Normally bright and confident, she finds herself tongue-tied around her longtime crush.

So what happens when Del, her sexy and charming personal trainer, offers to be her flirt coach, only to find out he’s crushing on the same man? The same man who is now her head coach.

Maybe it’s time Del shows Isaiah exactly what he’s missing out on.
A spicy, friends-to-lovers romantic comedy with a guaranteed HEA, kink, and lots of praise. This is book 2 in the Rugby Lover’s series but can be read as a standalone.]]> 392 Sloan Spencer Bri 0 to-read 3.92 2025 Every Move You Make (The Rugby Lovers)
author: Sloan Spencer
name: Bri
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief]]> 23992445
The Wild Edge of SorrowĚýexplains that grief has always been communal and illustrates how we need the healing touch of others, an atmosphere of compassion, and the comfort of ritual in order to fully metabolize our grief. Weller describes how we often hide our pain from the world, wrapping it in a secret mantle of shame. This causes sorrow to linger unexpressed in our bodies, weighing us down and pulling us into the territory of depression and death. We have come to fear grief and feel too alone to face an encounter with the powerful energies of sorrow.Ěý

Those who work with people in grief, who have experienced the loss of a loved one, who mourn the ongoing destruction of our planet, or who suffer the accumulated traumas of a lifetime will appreciate the discussion of obstacles to successful grief work such as privatized pain, lack of communal rituals, a pervasive feeling of fear, and a culturally restrictive range of emotion. Weller highlights the intimate bond between grief and gratitude, sorrow and intimacy. In addition to showing us that the greatest gifts are often hidden in the things we avoid, he offers powerful tools and rituals and a list of resources to help us transform grief into a force that allows us to live and love more fully.


From the Trade Paperback edition.]]> 224 Francis Weller 1583949755 Bri 0 to-read 4.37 2015 The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief
author: Francis Weller
name: Bri
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Prophet 2547 The Prophet, is one of the most beloved classics of our time. Published in 1923, it has been translated into more than twenty languages, and the American editions alone have sold more than nine million copies.

The Prophet is a collection of poetic essays that are philosophical, spiritual, and, above all, inspirational. Gibran’s musings are divided into twenty-eight chapters covering such sprawling topics as love, marriage, children, giving, eating and drinking, work, joy and sorrow, housing, clothes, buying and selling, crime and punishment, laws, freedom, reason and passion, pain, self-knowledge, teaching, friendship, talking, time, good and evil, prayer, pleasure, beauty, religion, and death.]]> 127 Kahlil Gibran 000100039X Bri 0 to-read 4.27 1923 The Prophet
author: Kahlil Gibran
name: Bri
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1923
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/01
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]]> Nightbitch 55835474
At home full-time with her two-year-old son, an artist finds she is struggling. She is lonely and exhausted. She had imagined - what was it she had imagined? Her husband, always travelling for his work, calls her from faraway hotel rooms. One more toddler bedtime, and she fears she might lose her mind.

Instead, quite suddenly, she starts gaining things, surprising things that happen one night when her child will not sleep. Sharper canines. Strange new patches of hair. New appetites, new instincts. And from deep within herself, a new voice...

With its clear eyes on contemporary womanhood and sharp take on structures of power, Nightbitch is an outrageously original, joyfully subversive read that will make you want to howl in laughter and recognition. Addictive enough to be devoured in one sitting, this is an unforgettable novel from a blazing new talent.]]> 256 Rachel Yoder 0385546815 Bri 0 currently-reading 3.46 2021 Nightbitch
author: Rachel Yoder
name: Bri
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Everything I Know About Love 46041465
When it comes to the trials and triumphs of becoming an adult, journalist and former Sunday Times columnist Dolly Alderton has seen and tried it all. In her memoir, she vividly recounts falling in love, finding a job, getting drunk, getting dumped, realizing that Ivan from the corner shop might just be the only reliable man in her life, and that absolutely no one can ever compare to her best girlfriends. Everything I Know About Love is about bad dates, good friends and—above all else� realizing that you are enough.

Glittering with wit and insight, heart and humor, Dolly Alderton’s unforgettable debut weaves together personal stories, satirical observations, a series of lists, recipes, and other vignettes that will strike a chord of recognition with women of every age—making you want to pick up the phone and tell your best friends all about it. Like Bridget Jones� Diary but all true, Everything I Know About Love is about the struggles of early adulthood in all its terrifying and hopeful uncertainty.]]> 368 Dolly Alderton 0062968785 Bri 3
Second half of the book, especially the last 1/4: 4 stars. Slowly, and sort of by surprise, the book came to a beautiful conclusion. I wasn’t paying super close attention given I wasn’t that invested in the story, but then all of a sudden I was nodding along, dog-earing pages, and underlining sentences.

I think I would have enjoyed this book a lot more if I’d read it 5-10 years ago, but ultimately I think I’m still glad I read it now. I wish someone had given me a heads up that Alderton would grow into someone I found endearing and related to so I would have given her more grace (and my full attention) in the first half of the book. At 30, I think she writes with wisdom beyond her years. I’d like to read more of her stuff now to see how it lands with me.

PS Overall, it’s one of the more cohesive, short-story memoir type books I’ve read. Though I did still find myself getting confused about the overall timeline here and there. ]]> 3.98 2018 Everything I Know About Love
author: Dolly Alderton
name: Bri
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/27
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves:
review:
First half of the book: 2-3 stars. It felt like a slog for me to get through the earlier part of Alderton’s life. I never really was like that, and the time I was feels so long ago I just couldn’t connect to it.

Second half of the book, especially the last 1/4: 4 stars. Slowly, and sort of by surprise, the book came to a beautiful conclusion. I wasn’t paying super close attention given I wasn’t that invested in the story, but then all of a sudden I was nodding along, dog-earing pages, and underlining sentences.

I think I would have enjoyed this book a lot more if I’d read it 5-10 years ago, but ultimately I think I’m still glad I read it now. I wish someone had given me a heads up that Alderton would grow into someone I found endearing and related to so I would have given her more grace (and my full attention) in the first half of the book. At 30, I think she writes with wisdom beyond her years. I’d like to read more of her stuff now to see how it lands with me.

PS Overall, it’s one of the more cohesive, short-story memoir type books I’ve read. Though I did still find myself getting confused about the overall timeline here and there.
]]> Buried Deep and Other Stories 203956677 A thrilling collection of thirteen short stories that span the worlds of the New York Times bestselling author of the Scholomance Trilogy, including a sneak peek at the land where her next novel will be set.

From the dragon-filled Temeraire series and the gothic, magical halls of the Scholomance trilogy to the fairy tale worlds of Spinning Silver and Uprooted, this stunning collection takes us from fairy tale to fantasy, myth to history, and mystery to science fiction as we travel through Naomi Novik’s most beloved stories.

In Buried Deep, we move from ancient Greece and Rome, through the Middle Ages and the Black Death, and into the modern era. We meet Mark Antony, Sherlock Holmes, and Elizabeth Bennet, in ways we have never seen them before. We visit exotic fantasy cities and alien civilizations among the stars.

Though the stories are vastly different, there is a unifying theme: the act of finding and seizing one’s destiny, and the lengths one will go to achieve that—be it turning pirate, captaining a fighting dragon, or shifting from marriage to seek your destiny with a sword.

And in the two tales original to this collection, we first reenter the remade Scholomance in the wake of El’s revolution and see what life is like for the new crop of students. Then, we get a glimpse at the world of Novik’s upcoming series, a deserted land, populated only by silent and enigmatic architectural behemoths whose secrets are yet to be unlocked.]]> 430 Naomi Novik 0593600355 Bri 4 3.99 2024 Buried Deep and Other Stories
author: Naomi Novik
name: Bri
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/19
date added: 2024/12/29
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]]> <![CDATA[Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time]]> 46190 224 Rob Sheffield 1400083028 Bri 0 to-read 3.87 2007 Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time
author: Rob Sheffield
name: Bri
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/29
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Familiar 133286777 From the New York Times bestselling author of Ninth House, Hell Bent, and creator of the Grishaverse series comes a highly anticipated historical fantasy set during the Spanish Golden Age

In a shabby house, on a shabby street, in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to get through her days of endless toil as a scullion. But when her scheming mistress discovers the lump of a servant cowering in the kitchen is actually hiding a talent for little miracles, she demands Luzia use those gifts to better the family's social position.

What begins as simple amusement for the bored nobility takes a perilous turn when Luzia garners the notice of Antonio Pérez, the disgraced secretary to Spain's king. Still reeling from the defeat of his armada, the king is desperate for any advantage in the war against England's heretic queen—and Pérez will stop at nothing to regain the king's favor.

Determined to seize this one chance to better her fortunes, Luzia plunges into a world of seers and alchemists, holy men and hucksters, where the line between magic, science, and fraud is never certain. But as her notoriety grows, so does the danger that her Jewish blood will doom her to the Inquisition's wrath. She will have to use every bit of her wit and will to survive—even if that means enlisting the help of Guillén Santangel, an embittered immortal familiar whose own secrets could prove deadly for them both.]]> 387 Leigh Bardugo 125088425X Bri 0 to-read 3.74 2024 The Familiar
author: Leigh Bardugo
name: Bri
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/27
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]]> Butter 200776812 The cult Japanese bestseller about a female gourmet cook and serial killer and the journalist intent on cracking her case, inspired by a true story.

There are two things that I can simply not tolerate: feminists and margarine.

Gourmet cook Manako Kajii sits in Tokyo Detention Center convicted of the serial murders of lonely businessmen, who she is said to have seduced with her delicious home cooking. The case has captured the nation’s imagination but Kajii refuses to speak with the press, entertaining no visitors. That is, until journalist Rika Machida writes a letter asking for her recipe for beef stew and Kajii can’t resist writing back.

Rika, the only woman in her news office, works late each night, rarely cooking more than ramen. As the visits unfold between her and the steely Kajii, they are closer to a masterclass in food than journalistic research. Rika hopes this gastronomic exchange will help her soften Kajii but it seems that she might be the one changing. With each meal she eats, something is awakening in her body, might she and Kaji have more in common than she once thought?

Inspired by the real case of the convicted con woman and serial killer, "The Konkatsu Killer," Asako Yuzuki’s Butter is a vivid, unsettling exploration of misogyny, obsession, romance and the transgressive pleasures of food in Japan.]]> 464 Asako Yuzuki 0063236400 Bri 0 to-read 3.50 2017 Butter
author: Asako Yuzuki
name: Bri
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/27
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]]> <![CDATA[In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin]]> 9938498
A mild-mannered professor from Chicago, Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha. At first Martha is entranced by the parties and pomp, and the handsome young men of the Third Reich with their infectious enthusiasm for restoring Germany to a position of world prominence. Enamored of the New Germany, she has one affair after another, including with the surprisingly honorable first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels. But as evidence of Jewish persecution mounts, confirmed by chilling first-person testimony, her father telegraphs his concerns to a largely indifferent State Department back home. Dodd watches with alarm as Jews are attacked, the press is censored, and drafts of frightening new laws begin to circulate. As that first year unfolds and the shadows deepen, the Dodds experience days full of excitement, intrigue, romance and ultimately, horror, when a climactic spasm of violence and murder reveals Hitler's true character and ruthless ambition.

Suffused with the tense atmosphere of the period, and with unforgettable portraits of the bizarre Goring and the expectedly charming—yet wholly sinister—Goebbels, In the Garden of Beasts lends a stunning, eyewitness perspective on events as they unfold in real time, revealing an era of surprising nuance and complexity. The result is a dazzling, addictively readable work that speaks volumes about why the world did not recognize the grave threat posed by Hitler until Berlin, and Europe, were awash in blood and terror.]]> 448 Erik Larson 0307408841 Bri 0 to-read 3.87 2011 In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin
author: Erik Larson
name: Bri
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/22
shelves: to-read
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]]> Killing Rage: Ending Racism 17602
Killing Rage speaks to this imbalance. These twenty-three essays are written from a black and feminist perspective, and they tackle the bitter difficulties of racism by envisioning a world without it. They address a spectrum of topics having to do with race and racism in the United States: psychological trauma among African Americans; friendship between black women and white women; anti-Semitism and racism; and internalized racism in movies and the media. And in the title essay, hooks writes about the "killing rage"—the fierce anger of black people stung by repeated instances of everyday racism—finding in that rage a healing source of love and strength and a catalyst for positive change.

bell hooks is Distinguished Professor of English at City College of New York. She is the author of the memoir Bone Black as well as eleven other books. She lives in New York City.]]> 288 bell hooks 0805050272 Bri 0 to-read 4.35 1995 Killing Rage: Ending Racism
author: bell hooks
name: Bri
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1995
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/01
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]]> <![CDATA[The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love]]> 17601
In The Will to Change, bell hooks gets to the heart of the matter and shows men how to express the emotions that are a fundamental part of who they are—whatever their age, marital status, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. But toxic masculinity punishes those fundamental emotions, and it’s so deeply ingrained in our society that it’s hard for men to not comply—but hooks wants to help change that.

With trademark candor and fierce intelligence, hooks addresses the most common concerns of men, such as fear of intimacy and loss of their patriarchal place in society, in new and challenging ways. She believes men can find the way to spiritual unity by getting back in touch with the emotionally open part of themselves—and lay claim to the rich and rewarding inner lives that have historically been the exclusive province of women. A brave and astonishing work, The Will to Change is designed to help men reclaim the best part of themselves.]]> 208 bell hooks 0743456084 Bri 0 to-read 4.38 2003 The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love
author: bell hooks
name: Bri
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[I'm Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself: One Woman's Pursuit of Pleasure in Paris]]> 198563717
Come to Paris, August 2021, when the City of Lights was still empty of tourists, and a thirst for long overdue pleasure gripped those who wandered its streets.

After New York City emptied out in March 2020, Glynnis MacNicol, aged 46, unmarried with no children, spent 16 months alone in her tiny Manhattan apartment. The isolation was punishing. A year without touch. Women are warned of invisibility as they age, but this was an extreme loneliness no one can prepare you for. When the opportunity to sublet a friend’s apartment in Paris arose, MacNicol jumped on it. Leaving felt like less of a risk than a necessity.

What follows is a decadent, unexpected journey into one woman’s pursuit of radical enjoyment.

The weeks in Paris are filled with friendship and food and sex. There is dancing on the Seine; a plethora of gooey cheese; midnight bike rides through empty Paris; handsome men; afternoons wandering through the empty Louvre; nighttime swimming in the ocean off a French island. And yes, plenty of nudity.

In the spirit of Deborah Levy and Annie Ernaux, I’m Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself is an intimate, insightful, powerful, and endlessly pleasurable memoir of an intensely lived experience whose meaning and insight expands far beyond the personal narrative. MacNicol is determined to document the beauty, excess, and triumph of a life that does not require permission.

The pursuit of enjoyment is a political act, both a right and a responsibility. Enjoying yourself—as you are—is not something the world tells you is possible, but it is.

Here’s the proof.]]> 288 Glynnis MacNicol 0593655753 Bri 0 to-read 3.39 2024 I'm Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself: One Woman's Pursuit of Pleasure in Paris
author: Glynnis MacNicol
name: Bri
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/28
shelves: to-read
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]]> Women Talking 40046077
While the men of the colony are off in the city, attempting to raise enough money to bail out the rapists and bring them home, these women—all illiterate, without any knowledge of the world outside their community and unable even to speak the language of the country they live in—have very little time to make a choice: Should they stay in the only world they’ve ever known or should they dare to escape?

Based on real events and told through the “minutes� of the women’s all-female symposium, Toews’s masterful novel uses wry, politically engaged humor to relate this tale of women claiming their own power to decide.]]> 216 Miriam Toews 1635572584 Bri 0 to-read 3.61 2018 Women Talking
author: Miriam Toews
name: Bri
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/10
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity in This Crisis (And the Next)]]> 54654726
Around the globe, people are faced with a spiralling succession of crises, from the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change-induced fires, floods, and storms to the ongoing horrors of mass incarceration, racist policing, brutal immigration enforcement, endemic gender violence, and severe wealth inequality. As governments fail to respond to—or actively engineer—each crisis, ordinary people are finding bold and innovative ways to share resources and support the vulnerable.

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

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

Writing for those new to activism as well as those who have been in social movements for a long time, Dean Spade draws on years of organizing to offer a radical vision of community mobilization, social transformation, compassionate activism, and solidarity.]]> 152 Dean Spade 1839762128 Bri 0 to-read 4.33 2020 Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity in This Crisis (And the Next)
author: Dean Spade
name: Bri
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/08
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Hope in the Dark: The Untold History of People Power]]> 28048 Hope in the Dark, Rebecca Solnit makes a radical case for hope as a commitment to act in a world whose future remains uncertain and unknowable. Drawing on her decades of activism and a wide reading of environmental, cultural, and political history, Solnit argues that radicals have a long, neglected history of transformative victories, that the positive consequences of our acts are not always immediately seen, directly knowable, or even measurable, and that pessimism and despair rest on an unwarranted confidence about what is going to happen next.

Originally published in 2004, now with a new foreword and afterword, Solnit’s influential book shines a light into the darkness of our time in an unforgettable new edition.]]> 192 Rebecca Solnit 1841956600 Bri 0 to-read 4.01 2004 Hope in the Dark: The Untold History of People Power
author: Rebecca Solnit
name: Bri
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2004
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Fruit of the Dead 176443312
Camp counselor Cory Ansel, eighteen and aimless, afraid to face her high-strung single mother in New York, is no longer sure where home is when the father of one of her campers offers an alternative. The CEO of a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company, Rolo Picazo is middle-aged, divorced, magnetic. He is also intoxicated by Cory. When Rolo proffers a childcare job (and an NDA), Cory quiets an internal warning and allows herself to be ferried to his private island. Plied with luxury and opiates manufactured by his company, she continues to tell herself she’s in charge. Her mother, Emer, head of a teetering agricultural NGO, senses otherwise. With her daughter seemingly vanished, Emer crosses land and sea to heed a cry for help she alone is convinced she hears.

Alternating between the two women’s perspectives, Rachel Lyon’s Fruit of the Dead incorporates its mythic inspiration with a light touch and devastating precision. The result is a tale that explores love, control, obliteration, and America’s own late capitalist mythos. Lyon’s reinvention of Persephone and Demeter’s story makes for a haunting and ecstatic novel that vibrates with lush abandon. Readers will not soon forget it.]]> 320 Rachel Lyon 1668020858 Bri 3 3.5 / 5 stars 3.50 2024 Fruit of the Dead
author: Rachel Lyon
name: Bri
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/31
date added: 2024/10/31
shelves:
review:
3.5 / 5 stars
]]> Hagstone 198133381
On a wild and rugged island cut off and isolated to some, artist Nell feels the island is her home. It is the source of inspiration for her art, rooted in landscape, folklore and the feminine. The mysterious Inions, a commune of women who have travelled there from all over the world, consider it a place of refuge and safety, of solace in nature.

All the islanders live alongside the strange murmurings that seem to emanate from within the depths of the island, a sound that is almost supernatural � a Summoning as the Inions call it. One day, a letter arrives at Nell’s door from the reclusive Inions who invite Nell into the commune for a commission to produce a magnificent art piece to celebrate their long history. In its creation, Nell will discover things about the community and about herself that will challenge everything she thought she knew.

Beautifully written, prescient and eerily haunting, Sinéad Gleeson’s fiction debut takes in the darker side of human nature and the mysteries of faith and the natural world. A novel from one of our most beloved literary voices, this is perfect for fans of Margaret Atwood and Sarah Moss.]]> 307 Sinéad Gleeson 0008626669 Bri 0 to-read 3.55 2024 Hagstone
author: Sinéad Gleeson
name: Bri
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/28
shelves: to-read
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]]> All the Colors of the Dark 203019740 From the New York Times bestselling author of We Begin at the End comes a soaring thriller and an epic love story that spans decades.

1975 is a time of change in America. The Vietnam War is ending. Mohammed Ali is fighting Joe Frazier. And in the small town of Monta Clare, Missouri, girls are disappearing.

When the daughter of a wealthy family is targeted, the most unlikely hero emerges—Patch, a local boy with one eye, who saves the girl, and, in doing so, leaves heartache in his wake.

Patch and those who love him soon discover that the line between triumph and tragedy has never been finer. And that their search for answers will lead them to truths that could mean losing one another.

A missing person mystery, a serial killer thriller, a love story, a unique twist on each, Chris Whitaker has written a novel about what lurks in the shadows of obsession, and the blinding light of hope.]]> 608 Chris Whitaker 0593798872 Bri 0 to-read 4.23 2024 All the Colors of the Dark
author: Chris Whitaker
name: Bri
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging (Confessions of Georgia Nicolson, #1)]]> 402013 There are six things very wrong with my life:

1. I have one of those under-the-skin spots that will never come to a head but lurk in a red way for the next two years.

2. It is on my nose

3. I have a three-year-old sister who may have peed somewhere in my room.

4. In fourteen days the summer hols will be over and then it will be back to Stalag 14 and Oberfuhrer Frau Simpson and her bunch of sadistic teachers.

5. I am very ugly and need to go into an ugly home.

6. I went to a party dressed as a stuffed olive.


In this wildly funny journal of a year in the life of Georgia Nicolson, British author Louise Rennison has perfectly captured the soaring joys and bottomless angst of being a teenager. In the spirit of Bridget Jones's Diary, this fresh, irreverent, and simply hilarious book will leave you laughing out loud. As Georgia would say, it's "Fabbity fab fab!"

]]> 247 Louise Rennison 0060288140 Bri 0 to-read 3.76 1999 Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging (Confessions of Georgia Nicolson, #1)
author: Louise Rennison
name: Bri
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Know My Name 50196744
Now she reclaims her identity to tell her story of trauma, transcendence, and the power of words. It was the perfect case, in many ways–there were eyewitnesses, Turner ran away, physical evidence was immediately secured. But her struggles with isolation and shame during the aftermath and the trial reveal the oppression victims face in even the best-case scenarios. Her story illuminates a culture biased to protect perpetrators, indicts a criminal justice system designed to fail the most vulnerable, and, ultimately, shines with the courage required to move through suffering and live a full and beautiful life.

Know My Name will forever transform the way we think about sexual assault, challenging our beliefs about what is acceptable and speaking truth to the tumultuous reality of healing. It also introduces readers to an extraordinary writer, one whose words have already changed our world. Entwining pain, resilience, and humor, this memoir will stand as a modern classic.]]> 384 Chanel Miller 0735223718 Bri 4 4.69 2019 Know My Name
author: Chanel Miller
name: Bri
average rating: 4.69
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/21
date added: 2024/09/21
shelves:
review:

]]> All Fours 197798168
A semifamous artist announces her plan to drive cross-country, from LA to New York. Twenty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, beds down in a nondescript motel, and immerses herself in a temporary reinvention that turns out to be the start of an entirely different journey.

Miranda July’s second novel confirms the brilliance of her unique approach to fiction. With July’s wry voice, perfect comic timing, unabashed curiosity about human intimacy, and palpable delight in pushing boundaries, All Fours tells the story of one woman’s quest for a new kind of freedom. Part absurd entertainment, part tender reinvention of the sexual, romantic, and domestic life of a forty-five-year-old female artist, All Fours transcends expectation while excavating our beliefs about life lived as a woman. Once again, July hijacks the familiar and turns it into something new and thrillingly, profoundly alive.]]> 336 Miranda July 0593190262 Bri 0 to-read 3.52 2024 All Fours
author: Miranda July
name: Bri
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science]]> 61273694
In 1999, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology admitted to discriminating against women on its faculty, forcing institutions across the country to confront a problem they had long the need for more women at the top levels of science. Written by the journalist who broke the story for The Boston Globe , The Exceptions is the untold story of how sixteen highly accomplished women on the MIT faculty came together to do the work that triggered the historic admission.

The Exceptions centers on the life of Nancy Hopkins, a reluctant feminist who became the leader of the sixteen and a hero to two generations of women in science. Hired to prestigious universities at the dawn of affirmative action efforts in the 1970s, Dr. Hopkins and her peers embarked on their careers believing that discrimination against women was a thing of the past—that science was, at last, a pure meritocracy. For years they explained away the discrimination they experienced as the exception, not the rule. Only when these few women came together after decades of underpayment and the denial of credit, advancement, and equal resources to do their work did they recognize the relentless women were often marginalized and minimized, especially as they grew older. Meanwhile, men of similar or lesser ability had their career paths paved and widened.

The Exceptions is a powerful yet all-too-familiar story that will resonate with all professional women who experience what those at MIT called �21st-century discrimination”—a subtle and stubborn bias, often unconscious but still damaging. As in bestsellers from Hidden Figures to Lab Girl and Code Girls , we are offered a rare glimpse into the world of high-level scientific research and learn about the extraordinary female scientists whose work has been overlooked throughout history, and how these women courageously fought for fair treatment as they struggled to achieve the recognition they rightfully deserve.]]> 411 Kate Zernike 1982131837 Bri 0 to-read 4.39 2023 The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science
author: Kate Zernike
name: Bri
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Margo's Got Money Troubles 199534613
“[An] enormously entertaining and lovable book.� —Nick Hornby, New York Times Book Review

A bold, laugh-out-loud funny, and heartwarming story about one young woman’s attempt to navigate adulthood, new motherhood, and her meager bank account in our increasingly online world—from the PEN/Faulkner finalist and critically acclaimed author of The Knockout Queen.

As the child of a Hooters waitress and an ex-pro wrestler, Margo Millet's always known she’d have to make it on her own. So she enrolls at her local junior college, even though she can’t imagine how she’ll ever make a living. She’s still figuring things out and never planned to have an affair with her English professor—and while the affair is brief, it isn’t brief enough to keep her from getting pregnant. Despite everyone’s advice, she decides to keep the baby, mostly out of naiveté and a yearning for something bigger.

Now, at twenty, Margo is alone with an infant, unemployed, and on the verge of eviction. She needs a cash infusion—fast. When her estranged father, Jinx, shows up on her doorstep and asks to move in with her, she agrees in exchange for help with childcare. Then Margo begins to form a plan: she’ll start an OnlyFans as an experiment, and soon finds herself adapting some of Jinx’s advice from the world of wrestling. Like how to craft a compelling character and make your audience fall in love with you. Before she knows it, she’s turned it into a runaway success. Could this be the answer to all of Margo’s problems, or does internet fame come with too high a price?

Blisteringly funny and filled with sharp insight, Margo’s Got Money Troubles is a tender tale starring an endearing young heroine who’s struggling to wrest money and power from a world that has little interest in giving it to her. It’s a playful and honest examination of the art of storytelling and controlling your own narrative, and an empowering portrait of coming into your own, both online and off.

“A wholly original novel. . . . Thorpe is both poetic and profound in the way she brings her remarkable story to an end.� —The Associated Press]]> 304 Rufi Thorpe 0063356589 Bri 0 to-read 3.86 2024 Margo's Got Money Troubles
author: Rufi Thorpe
name: Bri
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Mrs. Quinn's Rise to Fame 150246174
Nothing could be more out of character, but after fifty-nine years of marriage, as her husband Bernard’s health declines, and her friends' lives become focused on their grandchildren—which Jenny never had—Jenny decides she wants a little something for herself. So she secretly applies to be a contestant on the prime-time TV show Britain Bakes.

Whisked into an unfamiliar world of cameras and timed challenges, Jenny delights in a new-found independence. But that independence, and the stress of the competition, starts to unearth memories buried decades ago. Chocolate teacakes remind her of a furtive errand involving a wedding ring; sugared doughnuts call up a stranger’s kind act; a simple cottage loaf brings back the moment her life changed forever.

With her baking star rising, Jenny struggles to keep a lid on that first secret—a long-concealed deceit that threatens to shatter the very foundations of her marriage. It’s the only time in six decades that she’s kept something from Bernard. By putting herself in the limelight, has Jenny created a recipe for disaster?]]> 384 Olivia Ford 0593656415 Bri 0 to-read 4.05 2024 Mrs. Quinn's Rise to Fame
author: Olivia Ford
name: Bri
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Thursday Murder Club (Thursday Murder Club, #1)]]> 46000520
But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves.

Can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer before it's too late?

Alternate cover edition can be found here .]]> 382 Richard Osman Bri 0 to-read 3.87 2020 The Thursday Murder Club (Thursday Murder Club, #1)
author: Richard Osman
name: Bri
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Pairing 199440249 definitely not.

Theo and Kit have been a lot of things: childhood best friends, crushes, in love, and now estranged exes. After a brutal breakup on the transatlantic flight to their dream European food and wine tour, they exited each other's lives once and for all.

Time apart has done them good. Theo has found confidence as a hustling bartender by night and aspiring sommelier by day, with a long roster of casual lovers. Kit, who never returned to America, graduated as the reigning sex god of his pastry school class and now bakes at one of the finest restaurants in Paris. Sure, nothing really compares to what they had, and life stretches out long and lonely ahead of them, but—yeah. It's in the past.

All that remains is the unused voucher for the European tour that never happened, good for 48 months after its original date and about to expire. Four years later, it seems like a great idea to finally take the trip. Solo. Separately.

It's not until they board the tour bus that they discover they've both accidentally had the exact same idea, and now they're trapped with each other for three weeks of stunning views, luscious flavors, and the most romantic cities of France, Spain, and Italy. It's fine. There's nothing left between them. So much nothing that, when Theo suggests a friendly wager to see who can sleep with their hot Italian tour guide first, Kit is totally game. And why stop there? Why not a full-on European hookup competition?

But sometimes a taste of everything only makes you crave what you can't have.]]> 432 Casey McQuiston 1250862744 Bri 0 to-read 3.70 2024 The Pairing
author: Casey McQuiston
name: Bri
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/13
shelves: to-read
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]]> Four Squares 199426316
Artie Anderson wouldn’t call himself lonely, not exactly. He has a beautiful apartment in the West Village, a steady career as a ghostwriter, and he has Halle and Vanessa, who—as the daughter and ex-wife of his former partner—are the closest thing he can call family. But when the women announce a move across the country, on Artie’s 60th birthday no less, Artie realizes that his seemingly full life isn’t quite as full as he imagined. To make matters worse, a surprising injury strips Artie of the independent lifestyle he’s used to and pushes him into the hands of GALS, the local LGBTQ senior center down the street.

Since the death of his ex-boyfriend, Abe decades ago, Artie’s intentionally avoided big crowds and close friends. So, he’s woefully unprepared for the other patrons of GALS, a group of larger-than-life seniors who insist on celebrating each and every day. They refuse to dwell in the past, but Artie, who has never quite recovered from Abe’s death and the loss of his dearest friends, can’t shake the memories of his youth, and of the chances he did, and didn’t, take.

Stretching across the 1990s and the present day, Four Squares is an intimate and profound look at what it means to create community and the lasting impressions even the most fleeting of relationships can leave. With Bobby Finger’s signature warmth, humor, and wit, it is touching reminder that it’s never too late for a second chance at truly living.]]> 336 Bobby Finger 0593713559 Bri 0 to-read 3.97 Four Squares
author: Bobby Finger
name: Bri
average rating: 3.97
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/13
shelves: to-read
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]]> Shark Heart 62919375
At first, Wren internally resists her husband’s fate. Is there a way for them to be together after Lewis changes? Then, a glimpse of Lewis’s developing carnivorous nature activates long-repressed memories for Wren, whose story vacillates between her childhood living on a houseboat in Oklahoma, her time with her college ex-girlfriend, and her unusual friendship with a woman pregnant with twin birds.]]> 416 Emily Habeck 1668006499 Bri 0 to-read 3.95 2023 Shark Heart
author: Emily Habeck
name: Bri
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Future 123177094
The Future is a few billionaires leading the world to destruction while safeguarding their own survival with secret lavish bunkers.

The Future is private weather, technological prophecy and highly deniable weapons.

The Future is a handful of friends—the daughter of a cult leader, a non-binary hacker, an ousted Silicon Valley visionary, the concerned wife of a dangerous CEO, and an internet-famous survivalist—hatching a daring plan. It could be the greatest heist ever. Or the cataclysmic end of civilization.

The Future is what you see if you don’t look behind you.

The Future is the only reason to do anything, the only object of desire.

The Future is here.]]> 432 Naomi Alderman 1668025701 Bri 0 to-read 4.08 2023 The Future
author: Naomi Alderman
name: Bri
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Parable of the Talents (Earthseed, #2)]]> 41161350
In 2032, Lauren Olamina has survived the destruction of her home and family, and realized her vision of a peaceful community in northern California based on her newly founded faith, Earthseed. The fledgling community provides refuge for outcasts facing persecution after the election of an ultra-conservative president who vows to "make America great again." In an increasingly divided and dangerous nation, Lauren's subversive colony--a minority religious faction led by a young black woman--becomes a target for President Jarret's reign of terror and oppression.

Years later, Asha Vere reads the journals of a mother she never knew, Lauren Olamina. As she searches for answers about her own past, she also struggles to reconcile with the legacy of a mother caught between her duty to her chosen family and her calling to lead humankind into a better future.]]> 406 Octavia E. Butler Bri 3
It was difficult to read at times; humans can be so incredibly monstrous. But it was a gripping story, and end of the book had some truly surprising twists.

Famously, Butler planned for there to be more books in the Earthseed series, but she passed away before she could write them. This is a fascinating article written by someone who had the privilege of looking through Butler’s notes and bits of drafts for the next Earthseed books that never came to be: ]]> 4.35 1998 Parable of the Talents (Earthseed, #2)
author: Octavia E. Butler
name: Bri
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1998
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/23
date added: 2024/09/01
shelves:
review:
I’m glad I read the second Parable book, even if I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as the first one. It was fascinating to simultaneously hear about Lauren’s steadfast commitment to Earthseed (even during truly horrific times), while also hearing Lauren’s adult daughter’s commentary completely to the contrary. Having a character criticize Earthseed made me like this whole world that much more, made me feel less like I was in a fantasy land. And unlike so many dystopian future series, the Parable books spanned enough years that we were able to see how society and culture began to change and move on in the aftermath of a truly dark period of time.

It was difficult to read at times; humans can be so incredibly monstrous. But it was a gripping story, and end of the book had some truly surprising twists.

Famously, Butler planned for there to be more books in the Earthseed series, but she passed away before she could write them. This is a fascinating article written by someone who had the privilege of looking through Butler’s notes and bits of drafts for the next Earthseed books that never came to be:
]]> Parable of the Sower 115559438
When global climate change and economic crises lead to social chaos in the early 2020s, California becomes full of dangers, from pervasive water shortage to masses of vagabonds who will do anything to live to see another day. Fifteen-year-old Lauren Olamina lives inside a gated community with her preacher father, family, and neighbors, sheltered from the surrounding anarchy. In a society where any vulnerability is a risk, she suffers from hyperempathy, a debilitating sensitivity to others' emotions.

Precocious and clear-eyed, Lauren must make her voice heard in order to protect her loved ones from the imminent disasters her small community stubbornly ignores. But what begins as a fight for survival soon leads to something much the birth of a new faith . . . and a startling vision of human destiny.
Ěý±Ő±Ő> 347 Octavia E. Butler 153875939X Bri 4 4.16 1993 Parable of the Sower
author: Octavia E. Butler
name: Bri
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1993
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/01
date added: 2024/09/01
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars rounded up to 4: Finally read this book, thanks to the nudge of it being Parable of the Sower day! It was a quick read for me, which is no easy feat these days. Loved the world building and really felt shock and despair as I followed along with Lauren’s story. I have to say though, I’m not totally sold on the whole Earthseed part of it. Maybe that’s because I am very skeptical of anything religious, and maybe it’s because I kept seeing Earthseed through the lens of Naomi Alderman’s The Power and the role that new religious sect played in the book. Still, I’m definitely going to read the next book and am open to having my mind changed - “God is Change�.
]]> <![CDATA[Billionaire Wilderness: The Ultra-Wealthy and the Remaking of the American West]]> 51801180 A revealing look at the intersection of wealth, philanthropy, and conservation

Billionaire Wilderness takes you inside the exclusive world of the ultra-wealthy, showing how today’s richest people are using the natural environment to solve the existential dilemmas they face. Justin Farrell spent five years in Teton County, Wyoming, the richest county in the United States, and a community where income inequality is the worst in the nation. He conducted hundreds of in-depth interviews, gaining unprecedented access to tech CEOs, Wall Street financiers, and other prominent figures in business and politics. He also talked with the rural poor who live among the ultra-wealthy and often work for them. The result is a penetrating account of the far-reaching consequences of the massive accrual of wealth and a troubling portrait of a changing American West where romanticizing rural poverty and conserving nature can be lucrative, socially as well as financially.]]> 392 Justin Farrell 0691176671 Bri 0 to-read 3.69 2020 Billionaire Wilderness: The Ultra-Wealthy and the Remaking of the American West
author: Justin Farrell
name: Bri
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Rachel Incident 63094957
Rachel is a student working at a bookstore when she meets James, and it’s love at first sight. Effervescent and insistently heterosexual, James soon invites Rachel to be his roommate and the two begin a friendship that changes the course of both their lives forever. Together, they run riot through the streets of Cork city, trying to maintain a bohemian existence while the threat of the financial crash looms before them.

When Rachel falls in love with her married professor, Dr. Fred Byrne, James helps her devise a reading at their local bookstore, with the goal that she might seduce him afterwards. But Fred has other desires. So begins a series of secrets and compromises that intertwine the fates of James, Rachel, Fred, and Fred’s glamorous, well-connected, bourgeois wife. Aching with unrequited love, shot through with delicious, sparkling humor, The Rachel Incident is a triumph.]]> 304 Caroline O'Donoghue 0593535707 Bri 0 to-read 4.06 2023 The Rachel Incident
author: Caroline O'Donoghue
name: Bri
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/31
shelves: to-read
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]]> Every Summer After 58014893
Until she receives the call that sends her racing back to Barry’s Bay and into the orbit of Sam Florek—the man she never thought she’d have to live without.

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

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

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

Six summers to fall in love. One moment to fall apart. A weekend to get it right.]]> 320 Carley Fortune 0593438531 Bri 0 to-read 4.17 2022 Every Summer After
author: Carley Fortune
name: Bri
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/24
shelves: to-read
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]]> I Hope This Finds You Well 200987323 In this wildly funny and heartwarming office comedy, an admin worker accidentally gains access to her colleagues� private emails and DMs and decides to use this intel to save her job—a laugh-till-you-cry debut novel you’ll be eager to share with your entire list of contacts, perfect for fans of Anxious People and Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine.

As far as Jolene is concerned, her interactions with her colleagues should start and end with her official duties as an admin for Supershops, Inc. Unfortunately, her irritating, incompetent coworkers don’t seem to understand the importance of boundaries. Her secret to survival? She vents her grievances in petty email postscripts, then changes the text colour to white so no one can see. That is, until one of her secret messages is exposed. Her punishment: sensitivity training (led by the suspiciously friendly HR guy, Cliff) and rigorous email restrictions.

When an IT mix-up grants her access to her entire department’s private emails and DMs, Jolene knows she should report it, but who could resist reading what their coworkers are really saying? And when she discovers layoffs are coming, she realizes this might just be the key to saving her job. The plan is simple: gain her boss’s favour, convince HR she’s Supershops material and beat out the competition.

But as Jolene is drawn further into her coworker’s private worlds and secrets, her carefully constructed walls begin to crumble—especially around Cliff, who she definitely cannot have feelings for. Soon she will need to decide if she’s ready to leave the comfort of her cubicle, even if it means coming clean to her colleagues.

Crackling with laugh-out-loud dialogue and relatable observations, I Hope This Finds You Well is a fresh and surprisingly tender comedy about loneliness and love beyond our computer screens. This sparkling debut novel will open your heart to the everyday eccentricities of work culture and the undeniable human connection that comes with it.]]> 338 Natalie Sue 0063320363 Bri 0 to-read 3.74 2024 I Hope This Finds You Well
author: Natalie Sue
name: Bri
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[So Let Them Burn (Divine Traitors, #1)]]> 61219118
Faron Vincent can channel the power of the gods. Five years ago, she used her divine magic to liberate her island from its enemies, the dragon-riding Langley Empire. But now, at seventeen, Faron is all powered up with no wars to fight. She’s a legend to her people and a nuisance to her neighbors.

When she’s forced to attend an international peace summit, Faron expects that she will perform tricks like a trained pet and then go home. She doesn’t expect her older sister, Elara, forming an unprecedented bond with an enemy dragon—or the gods claiming the only way to break that bond is to kill her sister.

As Faron’s desperation to find another solution takes her down a dark path, and Elara discovers the shocking secrets at the heart of the Langley Empire, both must make difficult choices that will shape each other’s lives, as well as the fate of their world.

"By turns hopeful and devastating, So Let Them Burn is a masterful debut with a blazing heart. I was captivated from beginning to end by Cole’s sharp, clever prose and by her protagonists—two remarkable sisters with an unforgettable bond." � Chelsea Abdullah, author of The Stardust Thief]]> 400 Kamilah Cole Bri 0 to-read 3.83 2024 So Let Them Burn (Divine Traitors, #1)
author: Kamilah Cole
name: Bri
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/17
shelves: to-read
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]]> Trilogy 28649367 Trilogy is Jon Fosse’s critically acclaimed, luminous love story about Asle and Alida, two lovers trying to find their place in this world. Homeless and sleepless, they wander around Bergen in the rain, trying to make a life for themselves and the child they expect. Through a rich web of historical, cultural, and theological allusions, Fosse constructs a modern parable of injustice, resistance, crime, and redemption. Consisting of three novellas (Wakefulness, Olav’s Dreams, and Weariness), Trilogy is a haunting, mysterious, and poignant evocation of love, for which Fosse received The Nordic Council’s Prize for Literature in 2015.]]> 147 Jon Fosse 1628971398 Bri 0 to-read 4.06 2014 Trilogy
author: Jon Fosse
name: Bri
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Breakaway 85175319
Thirty-three-year-old Abby Stern has made it to a happy place. True, she still has gig jobs instead of a career, and the apartment where she’s lived since college still looks like she’s just moved in. But she’s got good friends, her bike, and her bicycling club in Philadelphia. She’s at peace with her plus-size body—at least, most of the time—and she’s on track to marry Mark Medoff, her childhood summer sweetheart, a man she met at the weight-loss camp that her perpetually dieting mother forced her to attend. Fifteen years after her final summer at Camp Golden Hills, when Abby reconnects with a half-his-size Mark, it feels like the happy ending she’s always wanted.

Yet Abby can’t escape the feeling that some­thing isn’t right...or the memories of one thrilling night she spent with a man named Sebastian two years previously. When Abby gets a last-minute invi­tation to lead a cycling trip from NYC to Niagara Falls, she’s happy to have time away from Mark, a chance to reflect and make up her mind.

But things get complicated fast. First, Abby spots a familiar face in the group—Sebastian, the one-night stand she thought she’d never see again. Sebastian is a serial dater who lives a hundred miles away. In spite of their undeniable chemistry, Abby is determined to keep her distance. Then there’s a surprise last-minute addition to the her mother, Eileen, the woman Abby blames for a lifetime of body shaming and insecurities she’s still trying to undo.

Over two weeks and more than seven hundred miles, strangers become friends, hidden truths come to light, a teenage girl with a secret unites the riders in unexpected ways...and Abby is forced to reconsider everything she believes about herself, her mother, and the nature of love.]]> 400 Jennifer Weiner 1668033429 Bri 3
Things I didn’t enjoy: While I did like that there was a timely health policy subplot, I didn’t think it was executed that well. And the very end of the book really didn’t do it for me, nor did the thought of being in a relationship with Sebastian.

Still, a perfectly lovely beach read for a bike weekend on the Cape ]]> 3.65 2023 The Breakaway
author: Jennifer Weiner
name: Bri
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/10
date added: 2024/08/10
shelves:
review:
Things I enjoyed: All the biking!! Every reference was correct, you can really tell she is an avid cyclist. The cancel culture commentary was kind of novel/interesting. And I always like Weiner’s commentary from her characters about what it’s like moving through the world as a bigger woman.

Things I didn’t enjoy: While I did like that there was a timely health policy subplot, I didn’t think it was executed that well. And the very end of the book really didn’t do it for me, nor did the thought of being in a relationship with Sebastian.

Still, a perfectly lovely beach read for a bike weekend on the Cape
]]> <![CDATA[How to Be Queer: An Ancient Guide to Sexuality (Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers)]]> 202120772 264 Sarah Nooter 0691248613 Bri 0 currently-reading 3.60 How to Be Queer: An Ancient Guide to Sexuality (Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers)
author: Sarah Nooter
name: Bri
average rating: 3.60
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/02
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> All Down Darkness Wide 59575964 A luminous and haunting memoir from the prize-winning poet - a story of love, heartbreak and coming of age, and a fearless exploration of queer identity and trauma.

When Seán meets Elias, the two fall headlong into a love story. But as Elias struggles with severe depression, the couple comes face-to-face with crisis. Wrestling with this, Seán Hewitt delves deep into his own history, enlisting the ghosts of queer figures and poets before him. From a nineteenth-century cemetery in Liverpool to the pine forests of Gothenburg, Hewitt plumbs the darkness in search of solace and hope.

All Down Darkness Wide is an unflinching meditation on the burden of living in a world that too often sets happiness and queer life at odds, and a tender portrayal of what it's like to be caught in the undertow of a loved one's suffering. By turns devastating and soaring, it is a mesmerising story of heartache and renewal, and a work of rare and transcendent beauty.]]> 240 Seán Hewitt 0593300084 Bri 0 to-read 4.16 2022 All Down Darkness Wide
author: Seán Hewitt
name: Bri
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Writing for Busy Readers: Communicate More Effectively in the Real World]]> 65650203
Todd Rogers and Jessica Lasky-Fink offer the most valuable practical writing advice today. Building on their own research in behavioral science, they outline cognitive facts about how people actually read and distill them into six principles that will transform the power of your
Including many real-world examples, a checklist and other tools, this guide will make you a more successful and productive communicator. Rogers and Lasky-Fink bring Strunk and White’s core ideas into the twenty-first century’s attention marketplace.
Ěý
WhenĚýthe influential guides to writing prose were written, the internet hadn’t been invented. Now, the average American adult is inundated with digital messages each day. With all this correspondence, capturing a busy reader’s attention is more challenging than ever. This is how to do it.]]> 256 Todd Rogers 0593187482 Bri 0 to-read 3.82 Writing for Busy Readers: Communicate More Effectively in the Real World
author: Todd Rogers
name: Bri
average rating: 3.82
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Severance 36348525
Candace won’t be able to make it on her own forever, though. Enter a group of survivors, led by the power-hungry IT tech Bob. They’re traveling to a place called the Facility, where, Bob promises, they will have everything they need to start society anew. But Candace is carrying a secret she knows Bob will exploit. Should she escape from her rescuers?

A send-up and takedown of the rituals, routines, and missed opportunities of contemporary life, Ling Ma’s Severance is a quirky coming-of-adulthood tale and satire.]]> 291 Ling Ma 0374261598 Bri 0 to-read 3.90 2018 Severance
author: Ling Ma
name: Bri
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Known World 67 The Known World is a daring and ambitious work by Pulitzer Prize winner Edward P. Jones.

The Known World tells the story of Henry Townsend, a black farmer and former slave who falls under the tutelage of William Robbins, the most powerful man in Manchester County, Virginia. Making certain he never circumvents the law, Townsend runs his affairs with unusual discipline. But when death takes him unexpectedly, his widow, Caldonia, can't uphold the estate's order, and chaos ensues. Jones has woven a footnote of history into an epic that takes an unflinching look at slavery in all its moral complexities.]]> 388 Edward P. Jones 0061159174 Bri 0 to-read 3.83 2003 The Known World
author: Edward P. Jones
name: Bri
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Reminders of Him 58341222 A troubled young mother yearns for a shot at redemption in this heartbreaking yet hopeful story from #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover. After serving five years in prison for a tragic mistake, Kenna Rowan returns to the town where it all went wrong, hoping to reunite with her four-year-old daughter. But the bridges Kenna burned are proving impossible to rebuild. Everyone in her daughter’s life is determined to shut Kenna out, no matter how hard she works to prove herself. The only person who hasn’t closed the door on her completely is Ledger Ward, a local bar owner and one of the few remaining links to Kenna’s daughter. But if anyone were to discover how Ledger is slowly becoming an important part of Kenna’s life, both would risk losing the trust of everyone important to them. The two form a connection despite the pressure surrounding them, but as their romance grows, so does the risk. Kenna must find a way to absolve the mistakes of her past in order to build a future out of hope and healing.]]> 335 Colleen Hoover 1542025605 Bri 0 to-read 4.33 2022 Reminders of Him
author: Colleen Hoover
name: Bri
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> I Do Everything I'm Told 62972520 I Do Everything I’m Told explores disobedience and worship, longing and possessiveness, and nights of wandering cities. Its poems span thousands of miles, as a masterful crown of sonnets starts in Shanghai, then moves through Brooklyn, Los Angeles, Lisbon, Palermo, Paris, and Philadelphia—with a speaker who travels solo, adventures with strangers, struggles with the parameters of sexuality, and speculates on desire.


Across four sections, poems navigate the terrain of queer, normative, and ambiguous intimacies with a frank intelligence: â€Ŕát’s better to be illegible, sometimes. Then they can’t govern you.â€� Strangers, ancestors, priests, ghosts, the inner child, sisters, misfit raccoons, Rimbaud, and Rilke populate the pages. Beloveds are unnamed, and unrealized desires are grieved as actual losses. The poems are grounded in real cities, but also in a surrealist past or an impossible future, in clichĂ© love stories made weird, in ordinary routines made divine, and in the cosmos itself, sitting on Saturn’s rings looking back at Earth. When things go wrong, Fernandes treats loss with a sacred irreverence: “Contradictions are a sign we are from god. We fall. We don’t always get to ask why.â€�
]]> 104 Megan Fernandes 1953534880 Bri 4 4.12 2023 I Do Everything I'm Told
author: Megan Fernandes
name: Bri
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/13
date added: 2024/07/14
shelves:
review:
Read this in a single sitting and really enjoyed it. My favorite poem is probably still the very first one, but I found gems throughout. I especially enjoyed the sonnets chapter, my brain almost can’t comprehend how smart and intricately the author wove that whole section together. If you’d like to feel heartbroken and wistful, but not devastated and wiser for it, I recommend you pick this up and take yourself out on a solo poetry date.
]]> Romantic Comedy 62628727 A comedy writer thinks she’s sworn off love, until a dreamily handsome pop star flips the script on all her assumptions. Romantic Comedy is a hilarious, observant and deeply tender novel from New York Times–bestselling author Curtis Sittenfeld.

Sally Milz is a sketch writer for "The Night Owls," the late-night live comedy show that airs each Saturday. With a couple of heartbreaks under her belt, she’s long abandoned the search for love, settling instead for the occasional hook-up, career success, and a close relationship with her stepfather to round out a satisfying life.

But when Sally’s friend and fellow writer Danny Horst begins dating Annabel, a glamorous actor who guest-hosted the show, he joins the not-so-exclusive group of talented but average-looking and even dorky men at the show—and in society at large—who’ve gotten romantically involved with incredibly beautiful and accomplished women. Sally channels her annoyance into a sketch called the "Danny Horst Rule," poking fun at this phenomenon while underscoring how unlikely it is that the reverse would ever happen for a woman.

Enter Noah Brewster, a pop music sensation with a reputation for dating models, who signed on as both host and musical guest for this week’s show. Dazzled by his charms, Sally hits it off with Noah instantly, and as they collaborate on one sketch after another, she begins to wonder whether there might actually be sparks flying. But this isn’t a romantic comedy; it’s real life. And in real life, someone like him would never date someone like her...right?

With her keen observations and trademark ability to bring complex women to life on the page, Sittenfeld explores the neurosis-inducing and heart-fluttering wonder of love, while slyly dissecting the social rituals of romance and gender relations in the modern age.]]> 309 Curtis Sittenfeld 0399590943 Bri 4
Trigger warning for COVID, the pandemic is very much a big part of this novel. I thought it was handled really well and I actually enjoyed it even more because of the COVID backdrop, but if you don’t want to revisit the summer of 2020 this might not be the book for you. ]]> 3.60 2023 Romantic Comedy
author: Curtis Sittenfeld
name: Bri
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/13
date added: 2024/07/14
shelves:
review:
Thoroughly enjoyed the first 2/3-3/4 of this book: entertaining premise, relatable and endearing main character, and believable romantic chemistry. I cackled through chapter 2 in particular. The ending didn’t quite land for me, but that’s pretty typical in terms of how I experience “romance� novels these days. Overall a really enjoyable read.

Trigger warning for COVID, the pandemic is very much a big part of this novel. I thought it was handled really well and I actually enjoyed it even more because of the COVID backdrop, but if you don’t want to revisit the summer of 2020 this might not be the book for you.
]]> <![CDATA[Men Have Called Her Crazy: A Memoir]]> 203931803 A powerful memoir that reckons with mental health as well as the insidious ways men impact the lives of women.

In early 2021, popular artist Anna Marie Tendler checked herself into a psychiatric hospital following a year of crippling anxiety, depression and self-harm. Over two weeks, she underwent myriad psychological tests, participated in numerous therapy sessions, connected with fellow patients and experienced profound breakthroughs, such as when a doctor noted, “There is a you inside that feels invisible to those looking at you from the outside.�

In Men Have Called Her Crazy, Tendler recounts her hospital experience as well as pivotal moments in her life that preceded and followed. As the title suggests, many of these moments are impacted by men: unrequited love in high school; the twenty-eight-year-old she lost her virginity to when she was sixteen; the frustrations and absurdities of dating in her mid-thirties; and her decision to freeze her eggs as all her friends were starting families.

This stunning literary self-portrait examines the unreasonable expectations and pressures women face in the 21st century. Yet overwhelming and despairing as that can feel, Tendler ultimately offers a message hope. Early in her stay in the hospital, she says, “My wish for myself is that one day I’ll reach a place where I can face hardship without trying to destroy myself.� By the end of the book, she fulfills that wish.]]> 304 Anna Marie Tendler 1668032341 Bri 0 to-read 3.42 2024 Men Have Called Her Crazy: A Memoir
author: Anna Marie Tendler
name: Bri
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Husbands 193781998 An exuberant debut, The Husbands delights in how do we navigate life, love, and choice in a world of never-ending options?

When Lauren returns home to her flat in London late one night, she is greeted at the door by her husband, Michael. There’s only one problem—she’s not married. She’s never seen this man before in her life. But according to her friends, her much-improved decor, and the photos on her phone, they’ve been together for years.

As Lauren tries to puzzle out how she could be married to someone she can’t remember meeting, Michael goes to the attic to change a lightbulb and abruptly disappears. In his place, a new man emerges, and a new, slightly altered life re-forms around her. Realizing that her attic is creating an infinite supply of husbands, Lauren confronts the question: If swapping lives is as easy as changing a lightbulb, how do you know you’ve taken the right path? When do you stop trying to do better and start actuallyĚýliving?]]> 352 Holly Gramazio 0385550618 Bri 0 to-read 3.50 2024 The Husbands
author: Holly Gramazio
name: Bri
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> How to End a Love Story 63247365
“Emotional, relatable and binge-worthy." –Tessa Bailey

â€Ŕá’ll read anything she writes. An absolute star." –Emily Henry

â€Ŕá was hooked on the very first page. Don't miss this one!" â€� Carley Fortune

Two writers with a complicated history end up working on the same TV show. Can they write themselves a new ending? A sexy and emotional enemies-to-lovers romance guaranteed to pull on your heartstrings and give you a book hangover from brilliant new voice Yulin Kuang

Helen Zhang hasn’t seen Grant Shepard once in the thirteen years since the tragic accident that bound their lives together forever.

Now a bestselling author, Helen pours everything into her career. She’s even scored a coveted spot in the writers� room of the TV adaptation of her popular young adult novels, and if she can hide her imposter syndrome and overcome her writer’s block, surely the rest of her life will fall into place too. LA is the fresh start she needs. After all, no one knows her there. Except�

Grant has done everything in his power to move on from the past, including building a life across the country. And while the panic attacks have never quite gone away, he’s well liked around town as a screenwriter. He knows he shouldn’t have taken the job on Helen’s show, but it will open doors to developing his own projects that he just can’t pass up.

Grant’s exactly as Helen remembers him—charming, funny, popular, and lovable in ways that she’s never been. And Helen’s exactly as Grant remembers too—brilliant, beautiful, closed off. But working together is messy, and electrifying, and Helen’s parents, who have never forgiven Grant, have no idea he’s in the picture at all.

When secrets come to light, they must reckon with the fact that theirs was never meant to be any kind of love story. And yet� the key to making peace with their past—and themselves—might just lie in holding on to each other in the present.]]> 384 Yulin Kuang Bri 0 to-read 3.61 2024 How to End a Love Story
author: Yulin Kuang
name: Bri
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Memory Piece 193759650
By the time they are adults, their dreams are murkier. As a performance artist, Giselle must navigate an elite social world she never conceived of. As a coder thrilled by the internet’s early egalitarian promise, Jackie must contend with its more sinister shift toward monetization and surveillance. And as a community activist, Ellen confronts the increasing gentrification and policing overwhelming her New York City neighborhood. Over time their friendship matures and changes, their definitions of success become complicated, and their sense of what matters evolves.

Moving from the predigital 1980s to the art and tech subcultures of the 1990s to a strikingly imagined portrait of the 2040s, Memory Piece is an innovative and audacious story of three lifelong friends as they strive to build satisfying lives in a world that turns out to be radically different from the one they were promised.]]> 304 Lisa Ko 059354210X Bri 0 to-read 3.18 2024 Memory Piece
author: Lisa Ko
name: Bri
average rating: 3.18
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Meet Me at the Lake 61797464
At thirty-two, Fern's life doesn't look at all how she once imagined it would. Instead of living in the city, Fern's back home, running her mother's Muskoka lakeside resort—something she vowed never to do. The place is in disarray, her ex-boyfriend's the manager, and Fern doesn't know where to begin.

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

But ten years ago, Will Baxter rescued Fern. Can she do the same for him?]]> 336 Carley Fortune 0735243786 Bri 0 to-read 3.66 2023 Meet Me at the Lake
author: Carley Fortune
name: Bri
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Girl and the Goddess: Stories and Poems of Divine Wisdom]]> 49814602 Bestselling poet, writer, and Instagram sensation Nikita Gill returns with a collection of poetry and prose exploring Hindu mythology and legend.

Let her be a little less human, a little more divine
Give her heart armor so it doesn't break as easily as mine

Meet Paro. A girl with a strong will, a full heart, and much to learn. Born into a family reeling from the ruptures of Partition in India, we follow her as she crosses the precarious lines between childhood, teenage discovery, and realizing her adult self. In the process, Paro must confront fear, desire and the darkest parts of herself in the search for meaning and, ultimately, empowerment.

Nikita Gill's vivid poetry and beautiful illustrations have captured hearts and imaginations--but in The Girl and the Goddess, she offers us her most personal and deeply felt writing to date: an intimate coming-of-age story told in linked poems that offers a look into the Hindu mythology and rich cultural influences that helped her become the woman she is today.]]> 352 Nikita Gill 0593085663 Bri 0 to-read 4.43 2020 The Girl and the Goddess: Stories and Poems of Divine Wisdom
author: Nikita Gill
name: Bri
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Disobedience 202677 Disobedience. The story begins with the death of the community's esteemed rabbi, which sets in motion plans for a memorial service and the search for a replacement. The rabbi's nephew and likely successor, Dovid, calls his cousin Ronit in New York to tell her that her father has died. Ronit, who left the community long ago to build a life for herself as a career woman, returns home when she hears the news, and her reappearance exposes tears in the fabric of the community.

Steeped in Jewish philosophy and teachings, Disobedience is a perceptive and thoughtful exploration of the laws and practices that have governed Judaism for centuries, and continue to hold sway today. Throughout the novel, Alderman retells stories from the Torah -- Judaism's fundamental source -- and the interplay between these tales and the struggles of the novel's unique characters wields enormous power and wisdom, and will surely move readers to tears.]]> 240 Naomi Alderman 0743291565 Bri 0 to-read 3.66 2006 Disobedience
author: Naomi Alderman
name: Bri
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Sympathizer (The Sympathizer, #1)]]> 23168277
The Sympathizer is the story of this captain: a man brought up by an absent French father and a poor Vietnamese mother, a man who went to university in America, but returned to Vietnam to fight for the Communist cause. A gripping spy novel, an astute exploration of extreme politics, and a moving love story, The Sympathizer explores a life between two worlds and examines the legacy of the Vietnam War in literature, film, and the wars we fight today.]]> 371 Viet Thanh Nguyen 0802123457 Bri 0 to-read 4.00 2015 The Sympathizer (The Sympathizer, #1)
author: Viet Thanh Nguyen
name: Bri
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/15
shelves: to-read
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]]> Consent: A Memoir 200798634 Half a Life. She asks herself whether she told the whole truth back then. What did truth look like to her in the era of love-bead curtains, when no one asked who was served by the permissibility of May-December romance? With new understanding about the imbalance of power between an older man and a minor girl, Ciment re-explores the erotic wild ride and intellectual flowering that shaped an improbable but blissful marriage that lasted for forty-five years, until her husband’s death at age ninety-three.]]> 145 Jill Ciment 0593701062 Bri 0 to-read 3.83 2024 Consent: A Memoir
author: Jill Ciment
name: Bri
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Ghosts 50042494
A new relationship couldn't have come at a better time - her thirties have not been the liberating, uncomplicated experience she was sold. Everywhere she turns, she is reminded of time passing and opportunities dwindling. Friendships are fading, ex-boyfriends are moving on and, worse, everyone's moving to the suburbs. There's no solace to be found in her family, with a mum who's caught in a baffling mid-life makeover and a beloved dad who is vanishing in slow-motion into dementia.

Dolly Alderton's debut novel is funny and tender, filled with whip-smart observations about relationships, family, memory, and how we live now.]]> 352 Dolly Alderton 0241434548 Bri 0 to-read 3.86 2020 Ghosts
author: Dolly Alderton
name: Bri
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/27
shelves: to-read
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]]> Good Material 96177629
Now he is. . .

Without a home

Waiting for his stand-up career to take off

Wondering why everyone else around him seems to have grown up while he wasn't looking

Set adrift on the sea of heartbreak, Andy clings to the idea of solving the puzzle of his ruined relationship. Because if he can find the answer to that, then maybe Jen can find her way back to him. But Andy still has a lot to learn, not least his ex-girlfriend's side of the story�

In this sharply funny and exquisitely relatable story of romantic disaster and friendship, Dolly Alderton offers up a love story with two endings, demonstrating once again why she is one of the most exciting writers today, and the true voice of a generation.]]> 345 Dolly Alderton 0241523672 Bri 0 to-read 3.85 2023 Good Material
author: Dolly Alderton
name: Bri
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> You Better Be Lightning 58464584 You Better Be Lightning by Andrea Gibson is a queer, political, and feminist collection guided by self-reflection. The poems range from close examination of the deeply personal to the vastness of the world, exploring the expansiveness of the human experience from love to illness, from space to climate change, and so much more in between. One of the most celebrated poets and performers of the last two decades, Andrea Gibson's trademark honesty and vulnerability are on full display in You Better Be Lightning, welcoming and inviting readers to be just as they are.]]> 115 Andrea Gibson 1943735999 Bri 4 4.63 2021 You Better Be Lightning
author: Andrea Gibson
name: Bri
average rating: 4.63
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/28
date added: 2024/05/27
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Undue Burden: Life and Death Decisions in Post-Roe America]]> 201130152 An urgent, intimate investigation into the experience of seeking an abortion after the fall of Roe v. Wade, and the economic, emotional, and life-threatening consequences of being denied reproductive freedom.On June 24, 2022, Roe v. Wade was overturned, and suddenly the right to an abortion in America was no longer guaranteed. The impact was by the beginning of 2023, the procedure was virtually unavailable or significantly restricted in 20 states. As other nations largely expand legal abortion access, the U.S. has gone backwards; the bans being enforced in many states are some of the most severe in the entire world.In Undue Burden, reporter Shefali Luthra traces the unforgettable stories of patients faced with one of the most personal decisions of their lives. Outside of Houston, there’s a 16-year-old girl who becomes pregnant well before she intends to, and is unable to get the abortion she so desperately wants. A 21-year-old mother barely making ends meet has to travel hundreds of miles in secret to access care in another state. A 42-year-old woman with a life-threatening condition wants nothing more than to safely carry her pregnancy to term, but her home state’s abortion bans fail to provide her with the options she needs to make an informed decision. And a 19-year-old trans man struggles to access care in Florida as abortion bans radiate across the American South.Before, it was a common misconception that abortion restrictions affected only people in certain states, but left one's own life untouched. Now, patients forced to travel to access care creates a domino effect across the entire country. As the landscape of abortion rights continues to shift, the experiences of these patients—those who had to cross state lines to seek life-saving care, who risked everything they had in pursuit of their own bodily autonomy, and who were unable to plan their reproductive future in the way that they deserved—illustrates how fragile the system is, and how devastating the consequences can be.Through the perspectives of patients, providers, activists, and lawmakers, Undue Burden is a revelatory portrait of human rights, healthcare, and economic and racial inequality in America.]]> 368 Shefali Luthra 0385550081 Bri 0 to-read 4.39 2024 Undue Burden: Life and Death Decisions in Post-Roe America
author: Shefali Luthra
name: Bri
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Good Grief 181110029
“Brianna Pastor is by far one of my favorite new writers. If you want to feel seen and deeply moved, read Good Grief. Let the power of her writing guide you to a better life.”—Yung Pueblo, #1 New York Times bestselling author

When Brianna Pastor released her self-published poetry collection, Good Grief, she was blown away by the outpouring of support from people who reached out and said, “Yes. Me too.� For anyone who has struggled with questions of identity or coped with serious emotional issues, including grief, trauma, anxiety, and depression, this collection will help you find hope on the other side.

"We don’t know how long our pain will last. we assume that because it hurts now, it is probably going to hurt tomorrow. it may even hurt the next day. perhaps it will get worse. but we sleep, and you see, and we do this marvelous thing in our sleep—we mend. And tomorrow is not always what we thought it would be." –From Good Grief]]> 128 Brianna M. Pastor 0063359650 Bri 3 3.99 Good Grief
author: Brianna M. Pastor
name: Bri
average rating: 3.99
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/13
date added: 2024/05/14
shelves:
review:
2.5 stars rounded up to 3. I wanted to like this more than I did, but for the most part it fell flat for me. The topics were ones I didn’t connect with personally, or the poems were too general or high level to hit hard in the way that I really enjoy, a few good stand outs though.
]]> People We Meet on Vacation 54985743 Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.

Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.

Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since.

Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.

Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?]]> 400 Emily Henry 1984806750 Bri 3 3.85 2021 People We Meet on Vacation
author: Emily Henry
name: Bri
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/07
date added: 2024/05/07
shelves:
review:

]]> Big Swiss 60701439
One day, Greta recognizes Big Swiss’s voice in town and they quickly become enmeshed. While Big Swiss is unaware Greta has eavesdropped on her most intimate exchanges, Greta has never been more herself with anyone. Her attraction to Big Swiss overrides her guilt, and she’ll do anything to sustain the relationship…]]> 336 Jen Beagin 1982153083 Bri 0 to-read 3.69 2023 Big Swiss
author: Jen Beagin
name: Bri
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Fierce Fairytales: Poems and Stories to Stir Your Soul]]> 39088508
Traditional fairytales are rife with cliches and gender beautiful, silent princesses; ugly, jealous, and bitter villainesses; girls who need rescuing; and men who take all the glory.

But in this rousing new prose and poetry collection, Nikita Gill gives Once Upon a Time a much-needed modern makeover. Through her gorgeous reimagining of fairytale classics and spellbinding original tales, she dismantles the old-fashioned tropes that have been ingrained in our minds. In this book, gone are the docile women and male saviors. Instead, lines blur between heroes and villains. You will meet fearless princesses, a new kind of wolf lurking in the concrete jungle, and an independent Gretel who can bring down monsters on her own.

Complete with beautifully hand-drawn illustrations by Gill herself, Fierce Fairytales is an empowering collection of poems and stories for a new generation.]]> 176 Nikita Gill 0316420743 Bri 0 to-read 4.02 2018 Fierce Fairytales: Poems and Stories to Stir Your Soul
author: Nikita Gill
name: Bri
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Wild Embers: Poems of Rebellion, Fire and Beauty]]> 34253376 What has always been aflame"

Wild Embers explores the fire that lies within every soul, weaving words around ideas of feeling at home in your own skin, allowing yourself to heal, and learning to embrace your uniqueness with love from the universe.

Featuring rewritten fairytale heroines, goddess wisdom, and poetry that burns with revolution, this collection is an explosion of femininity, empowerment, and personal growth.]]> 150 Nikita Gill 1409173925 Bri 0 to-read 4.05 2017 Wild Embers: Poems of Rebellion, Fire and Beauty
author: Nikita Gill
name: Bri
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Great Goddesses: Life Lessons from Myths and Monsters]]> 44157727 Empowering life lessons from myths and monsters.

Wonder at Medusa's potent venom, Circe's fierce sorcery and Athena rising up over Olympus, as Nikita Gill majestically explores the untold stories of the life bringers, warriors, creators, survivors and destroyers that shook the world - the great Greek Goddesses.

Vividly re-imagined and beautifully illustrated, step into an ancient world transformed by modern feminist magic.

'I watch Girl become Goddess
and the metamorphosis is more
magnificent than anything
I have ever known.' ]]> 248 Nikita Gill 1529104645 Bri 0 to-read 4.15 2019 Great Goddesses: Life Lessons from Myths and Monsters
author: Nikita Gill
name: Bri
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Very Nice Box 54310999
But when Ava’s new boss—the young and magnetic Mat Putnam—offers Ava a ride home one afternoon, an unlikely relationship blossoms. Ava remembers how rewarding it can be to open up—and, despite her instincts, she becomes enamored. But Mat isn’t who he claims to be, and the romance takes a sharp turn.

The Very Nice Box is a wryly funny, suspenseful debut—with a shocking twist. It’s at once a send-up of male entitlement and a big-hearted account of grief, friendship, and trust.]]> 320 Laura Blackett Bri 4 3.76 2021 The Very Nice Box
author: Laura Blackett
name: Bri
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/01
date added: 2024/05/01
shelves:
review:

]]> American Wife 2807199
A kind, bookish only child born in the 1940s, Alice learned the virtues of politeness early on from her stolid parents and small Wisconsin hometown. But a tragic accident when she was seventeen shattered her identity and made her understand the fragility of life and the tenuousness of luck. So more than a decade later, when she met boisterous, charismatic Charlie Blackwell, she hardly gave him a second look: She was serious and thoughtful, and he would rather crack a joke than offer a real insight; he was the wealthy son of a bastion family of the Republican party, and she was a school librarian and registered Democrat. Comfortable in her quiet and unassuming life, she felt inured to his charms. And then, much to her surprise, Alice fell for Charlie.

As Alice learns to make her way amid the clannish energy and smug confidence of the Blackwell family, navigating the strange rituals of their country club and summer estate, she remains uneasy with her newfound good fortune. And when Charlie eventually becomes President, Alice is thrust into a position she did not seek–one of power and influence, privilege and responsibility. As Charlie’s tumultuous and controversial second term in the White House wears on, Alice must face contradictions years in the making: How can she both love and fundamentally disagree with her husband? How complicit has she been in the trajectory of her own life? What should she do when her private beliefs run against her public persona?

In Alice Blackwell, New York Times bestselling author Curtis Sittenfeld has created her most dynamic and complex heroine yet. American Wife is a gorgeously written novel that weaves class, wealth, race, and the exigencies of fate into a brilliant tapestry–a novel in which the unexpected becomes inevitable, and the pleasures and pain of intimacy and love are laid bare.

BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from Curtis Sittenfeld's Sisterland.]]> 555 Curtis Sittenfeld 1400064759 Bri 0 to-read 3.77 2008 American Wife
author: Curtis Sittenfeld
name: Bri
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/01
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[We Are Too Many: A Memoir (Kind Of)]]> 61796688 —Ann Napolitano, New York Times bestselling author of Hello Beautiful

â€Ŕá loved this book, which I read in two breathless sittings. An intimate, bold, exquisite exploration of marriage, friendship, rivalry, betrayal.â€�
—Megan Abbott, New York Times bestselling author of The Turnout and Beware the Woman

We Are Too Many is an unexpectedly funny, unflinchingly honest, and genre-bending memoir about a marriage-ending affair between award-winning author Hannah Pittard's husband and her captivating best friend.

In this wryly humorous and innovative look at a marriage gone wrong, Hannah Pittard recalls a decade’s worth of unforgettable conversations, beginning with the one in which she discovers her husband has been having sex with her charismatic best friend, Trish. These time-jumping exchanges are fast-paced, intimate, and often jaw-dropping in their willingness to reveal the vulnerabilities inherent in any friendship or marriage. Blending fact and fiction, sometimes re-creating exchanges with extreme accuracy and sometimes diving headlong into pure speculation, Pittard takes stock not only of her own past and future but also of the larger, more universal experiences they connect with—from the depths of female rage to the heartbreaking ways we inevitably outgrow certain people.

Clever and bold and radically honest to an unthinkable degree, We Are Too Many examines the ugly, unfiltered parts of the female experience, as well as the many (happier) possibilities in starting any life over after a major personal catastrophe.]]> 224 Hannah Pittard 1250869048 Bri 3
Things I didn’t enjoy about the book: Not to sound too crotchety, but there was just too much back and forth in the storyline for me. I honestly think I would have enjoyed it more if the whole thing had been put in chronological order.

Overall, 3.5/5 stars.

TW: Infidelity, eating disorder, addiction, death of a parent]]> 3.63 2023 We Are Too Many: A Memoir (Kind Of)
author: Hannah Pittard
name: Bri
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/12
date added: 2024/04/12
shelves:
review:
Things I enjoyed about this book: Unflinching anecdotes about the author’s semi-toxic relationships with her husband and her best friend (and herself). I really did ache for her in so many ways.

Things I didn’t enjoy about the book: Not to sound too crotchety, but there was just too much back and forth in the storyline for me. I honestly think I would have enjoyed it more if the whole thing had been put in chronological order.

Overall, 3.5/5 stars.

TW: Infidelity, eating disorder, addiction, death of a parent
]]> <![CDATA[Don't Want You Like a Best Friend (Mischief & Matchmaking, #1)]]> 127823335 A swoon-worthy debut queer Victorian romance in which two debutantes distract themselves from having to seek husbands by setting up their widowed parents, and instead find their perfect match in each other—the lesbian Bridgerton/Parent Trap you never knew you needed!

Gwen has a brilliant beyond brilliant idea.

It’s 1857, and anxious debutante Beth has just one season to snag a wealthy husband, or she and her mother will be out on the street. But playing the blushing ingenue makes Beth’s skin crawl and she’d rather be anywhere but here.

Gwen, on the other hand, is on her fourth season and counting, with absolutely no intention of finding a husband, possibly ever. She figures she has plenty of security as the only daughter of a rakish earl, from whom she’s gotten all her flair, fun, and less-than-proper party games.

“Let’s get them together,� she says.

It doesn’t take long for Gwen to hatch her latest scheme: rather than surrender Beth to courtship, they should set up Gwen’s father and Beth’s newly widowed mother. Let them get married instead.

â€Ŕát’ll be easyâ€� she says.

There’s just…one, teeny, tiny problem. Their parents kind of seem to hate each other.

But no worries. Beth and Gwen are more than up to the challenge of a little twenty-year-old heartbreak. How hard can parent-trapping widowed ex-lovers be?

Of course, just as their plan begins to unfold, a handsome, wealthy viscount starts calling on Beth, offering up the perfect, secure marriage.

Beth’s not mature enough for this�

Now Gwen must face the prospect of sharing Beth with someone else, forever. And Beth must reckon with the fact that she’s caught feelings, hard, and they’re definitely not for her potential fiancé.

That’s the trouble with matchmaking: sometimes you accidentally fall in love with your best friend in the process.]]> 368 Emma R. Alban 006331200X Bri 4
Was it particularly inventive or thought provoking? No. But if you are intrigued by the description “lesbian Bridgerton slash Parent Trap�, I’d recommend you read this.

Lastly, shout out to the Gaylor community: the only reason I picked this book up is because the title is an incredibly queer coded Taylor Swift lyric ]]> 3.76 2024 Don't Want You Like a Best Friend (Mischief & Matchmaking, #1)
author: Emma R. Alban
name: Bri
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/15
date added: 2024/04/12
shelves:
review:
I’ve read so many mediocre queer sapphic romances in the last couple of years� but this was not one of them! I actually enjoyed the characters and found their romance believable and compelling! The slow burn friends to lovers worked for me. The plot was simple, but effective and entertaining. And there was one twist at the end that was so wildly satisfying, I cackled when I read it. So while this was probably a 3.5 overall, I’m giving it 4 stars.

Was it particularly inventive or thought provoking? No. But if you are intrigued by the description “lesbian Bridgerton slash Parent Trap�, I’d recommend you read this.

Lastly, shout out to the Gaylor community: the only reason I picked this book up is because the title is an incredibly queer coded Taylor Swift lyric
]]> Pizza Girl 44088751 In the tradition of audacious and wryly funny novels like The Idiot and Convenience Store Woman comes the wildly original coming-of-age story of a pregnant pizza delivery girl who becomes obsessed with one of her customers.

Eighteen years old, pregnant, and working as a pizza delivery girl in suburban Los Angeles, our charmingly dysfunctional heroine is deeply lost and in complete denial about it all. She's grieving the death of her father (who she has more in common with than she'd like to admit), avoiding her supportive mom and loving boyfriend, and flagrantly ignoring her future.

Her world is further upended when she becomes obsessed with Jenny, a stay-at-home mother new to the neighborhood, who comes to depend on weekly deliveries of pickled covered pizzas for her son's happiness. As one woman looks toward motherhood and the other towards middle age, the relationship between the two begins to blur in strange, complicated, and ultimately heartbreaking ways.

Bold, tender, propulsive, and unexpected in countless ways, Jean Kyoung Frazier's Pizza Girl is a moving and funny portrait of a flawed, unforgettable young woman as she tries to find her place in the world.]]> 208 Jean Kyoung Frazier 038554572X Bri 0 to-read 3.35 2020 Pizza Girl
author: Jean Kyoung Frazier
name: Bri
average rating: 3.35
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> Birnam Wood 60784757 Birnam Wood is on the move . . .

Five years ago, Mira Bunting founded a guerrilla gardening group: Birnam Wood. An undeclared, unregulated, sometimes-criminal, sometimes-philanthropic gathering of friends, this activist collective plants crops wherever no one will notice: on the sides of roads, in forgotten parks, and neglected backyards. For years, the group has struggled to break even. Then Mira stumbles on an answer, a way to finally set the group up for the long term: a landslide has closed the Korowai Pass, cutting off the town of Thorndike. Natural disaster has created an opportunity, a sizable farm seemingly abandoned.

But Mira is not the only one interested in Thorndike. Robert Lemoine, the enigmatic American billionaire, has snatched it up to build his end-times bunker--or so he tells Mira when he catches her on the property. Intrigued by Mira, Birnam Wood, and their entrepreneurial spirit, he suggests they work this land. But can they trust him? And, as their ideals and ideologies are tested, can they trust each other?

A gripping psychological thriller from the Booker Prize-winning author of The Luminaries, Birnam Wood is Shakespearean in its wit, drama, and immersion in character. A brilliantly constructed consideration of intentions, actions, and consequences, it is an unflinching examination of the human impulse to ensure our own survival.]]> 432 Eleanor Catton 0374110336 Bri 0 to-read 3.79 2023 Birnam Wood
author: Eleanor Catton
name: Bri
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> Endpapers 60831910 In this page-turning novel set in 2003 New York City, a genderqueer book conservator feels trapped by her gender presentation, her ill-fitting relationship, and her artistic block—until she discovers a decades-old hidden queer love letter and becomes obsessed with tracking down its author.Ěý

It's 2003,and artist Dawn Levit is stuck. A bookbinder who works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she spends all day repairing old books but hasn’t created anything of her own in years. What’s more, although she doesn’t have a word for it yet, Dawn is genderqueer, and with a partner who wishes she were a man and a society that wants her to be a woman, she’s struggling to feel safe expressing herself. Dawn spends her free time scouting the city’s street art, hoping to find the inspiration that will break her artistic block—and time is of the essence, because she’s making her major gallery debut in six weeks and doesn’t have anything to show yet.

One day at work, Dawn discovers something hidden under the endpapers of an old the torn-off cover of a lesbian pulp novel from the 1950s, with an illustration of a woman looking into a mirror and seeing a man’s face. Even more intriguing is the queer love letter written on the back. Dawn becomes obsessed with tracking down the author of the letter, convinced the mysterious writer can help her find her place in the world. Her fixation only increases when her best friend, Jae, is injured in a hate crime for which Dawn feels responsible. But ultimately for Dawn, the trickiest puzzle to solve is how she truly wants to live her life.

A sharply written, page-turning, and evocative debut, EndpapersĚýis an unforgettable story about the journey toward authenticity and the hard conversations we owe ourselves in pursuit of a world where no one has to hide.]]> 336 Jennifer Savran Kelly 1643751840 Bri 0 to-read 3.69 2023 Endpapers
author: Jennifer Savran Kelly
name: Bri
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Indigo 347339
When the injured and beaten Galen Vachon, aka, the Black Daniel awakens in Hester's cellar, he is unprepared for the feisty young conductor providing his care. As a member of one of the wealthiest free Black families in New Orleans, Galen has turned his back on the lavish living he is accustomed to in order to provide freedom to those enslaved in the south. However, as he heals he cannot turn his back on Hester Wyatt. Her innocence fills him like a breath of fresh air and he is determined to make her his, but traitors have to be found, slave catchers have to be routed and Hester's refusal to trust her own heart have to be overcome before she and Galen can find the freedom only love can bring.
(back cover)]]> 370 Beverly Jenkins 0595002021 Bri 0 to-read 4.30 1996 Indigo
author: Beverly Jenkins
name: Bri
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Great Believers 45304101 A dazzling new novel of friendship and redemption in the face of tragedy and loss set in 1980s Chicago and contemporary Paris

In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, is about to pull off an amazing coup, bringing in an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings as a gift to the gallery. Yet as his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDS epidemic grows around him. One by one, his friends are dying and after his friend Nico's funeral, the virus circles closer and closer to Yale himself. Soon the only person he has left is Fiona, Nico's little sister.

Thirty years later, Fiona is in Paris tracking down her estranged daughter who disappeared into a cult. While staying with an old friend, a famous photographer who documented the Chicago crisis, she finds herself finally grappling with the devastating ways AIDS affected her life and her relationship with her daughter. The two intertwining stories take us through the heartbreak of the eighties and the chaos of the modern world, as both Yale and Fiona struggle to find goodness in the midst of disaster.

The Great Believers has become a critically acclaimed, indelible piece of literature; it was selected as one of New York Times Best 10 Books of the Year, a Washington Post Notable Book, a Buzzfeed Book of the Year, a Skimm Reads pick, and a pick for the New York Public Library's Best Books of the year.]]> 421 Rebecca Makkai 073522353X Bri 0 to-read 4.26 2018 The Great Believers
author: Rebecca Makkai
name: Bri
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Slow Horses (Slough House, #1)]]> 7929891
London, England: Slough House is where the washed-up MI5 spies go to while away what's left of their failed careers. The "slow horses," as they’re called, have all disgraced themselves in some way to get relegated here. Maybe they messed up an op badly and can't be trusted anymore. Maybe they got in the way of an ambitious colleague and had the rug yanked out from under them. Maybe they just got too dependent on the bottle—not unusual in this line of work. One thing they all have in common, though, is they all want to be back in the action. And most of them would do anything to get there─even if it means having to collaborate with one another.

River Cartwright, one such “slow horse,� is bitter about his failure and about his tedious assignment transcribing cell phone conversations. When a young man is abducted and his kidnappers threaten to broadcast his beheading live on the Internet, River sees an opportunity to redeem himself. But is the victim who he first appears to be? And what’s the kidnappers� connection with a disgraced journalist? As the clock ticks on the execution, River finds that everyone has his own agenda.]]> 320 Mick Herron 1569479011 Bri 0 to-read 3.95 2010 Slow Horses (Slough House, #1)
author: Mick Herron
name: Bri
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[This American Ex-Wife: How I Ended My Marriage and Started My Life]]> 157981711 A manifesto on the gender politics of marriage (bad) and divorce (actually pretty good!) in America today, and an argument that the former needs a reboot

Studies show that nearly 70 percent of divorces are initiated by women—women who are tired, fed up, exhausted, and unhappy. Journalist Lyz Lenz is one such woman whose life fell apart after she reached a breaking point in her twelve-year marriage. In this exuberant and unapologetic book, Lenz flips the script on that narrative and preaches the good gospel of the power of divorce.

The end of a marriage is often seen as the failure of the individual—most often the woman. We've all seen how media portray divorced women: sad, lonely, drowning their sorrows in a bottle of wine, desperate for a new man. It’s as though they did something wrong, so they’ve been cast out from society. Lenz sees divorce as a practical and powerful solution for women to take back the power they are owed, while examining why we call divorce a failure when it's heterosexual marriage that has been flawed all along. How can women succeed in marriage when most relationships are based on inequality?

This book weaves reportage with sociological research, literature with popular culture, and personal stories of coming together and breaking up to create a kaleidoscopic and poignant portrait of American marriage today. Lenz argues that the mechanisms of American power, justice, love, and gender equality remain deeply flawed, and that marriage, like any other cultural institution, is due for a reckoning. Unlike any other book about divorce, this raucous manifesto for acceptance, solidarity, and collective female refusal takes readers on a riveting ride—all while pointing us toward something a little freer.]]> 288 Lyz Lenz 0593241126 Bri 5
If you’ve ever thought about getting married, been married, thought about getting divorced or gotten divorced, I think you should read this book. Especially if you are in or ever have been in a heterosexual relationship. And especially especially if you are a cis white woman.

]]> 3.92 2024 This American Ex-Wife: How I Ended My Marriage and Started My Life
author: Lyz Lenz
name: Bri
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/04
date added: 2024/03/04
shelves:
review:
In this stunning and incendiary memoir/non-fiction book, Lyz eviscerates the institution of marriage on personal, societal, and political levels. But more importantly, she praises divorce. She not only wants to destigmatize divorce, but celebrate the ways that divorce can truly transform people’s lives for the better. Lyz’s passion for deconstructing gender norms and societal expectations around heterosexual marriages is truly compelling, validating, and inspiring. Lyz is also funny, messy, and real, as if one of your good friends was telling you stories about their life peppered with relevant and compelling research.

If you’ve ever thought about getting married, been married, thought about getting divorced or gotten divorced, I think you should read this book. Especially if you are in or ever have been in a heterosexual relationship. And especially especially if you are a cis white woman.


]]> Homebodies 62558851 Urgent, propulsive, and strikingly insightful, Homebodies is a thrilling debut novel about a young Black writer whose world is turned upside down when she loses her coveted job in media and pens a searing manifesto about racism in the industry.

Mickey Hayward dreams of writing stories that matter. She has a flashy media job that makes her feel successful and a devoted girlfriend who takes care of her when she comes home exhausted and demoralized. It’s not all A-list parties and steamy romance, but Mickey’s on her way, and it’s far from the messy life she left behind in Maryland. Despite being overlooked and mistreated at work, it seems like she might finally get the chance to prove herself—until she finds out she’s being replaced.

Distraught and enraged, Mickey fires back with a detailed letter outlining the racism and sexism she’s endured as a Black woman in media, certain it will change the world for the better. But when her letter is met with overwhelming silence, Mickey is sent into a tailspin of self-doubt. Forced to reckon with just how fragile her life is—including the uncertainty of her relationship—she flees to the last place she ever dreamed she would run to, her hometown, desperate for a break from her troubles.

Back home, Mickey is seduced by the simplicity of her old life—and the flirtation of a former flame—but her life in New York refuses to be forgotten. When a media scandal catapults Mickey’s forgotten letter into the public zeitgeist, suddenly everyone wants to hear what Mickey has to say. It’s what she’s always wanted—isn’t it? Intimate, witty, and deeply sexy, Homebodies is a testament to those trying to be heard and loved in a world that refuses to make space, and introduces a standout new writer.]]> 320 Tembe Denton-Hurst 0063274280 Bri 0 to-read 3.28 2023 Homebodies
author: Tembe Denton-Hurst
name: Bri
average rating: 3.28
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close]]> 52766000 A close friendship is one of the most influential and important relationships a human life can contain. Anyone will tell you that! But for all the rosy sentiments surrounding friendship, most people don’t talk much about what it really takes to stay close for the long haul.

Now two friends, Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman, tell the story of their equally messy and life-affirming Big Friendship in this honest and hilarious book that chronicles their first decade in one another’s lives. As the hosts of the hit podcast Call Your Girlfriend, they’ve become known for frank and intimate conversations. In this book, they bring that energy to their own friendship—its joys and its pitfalls.

An inspiring and entertaining testament to the power of society’s most underappreciated relationship, Big Friendship will invite you to think about how your own bonds are formed, challenged, and preserved. It is a call to value your friendships in all of their complexity. Actively choose them. And, sometimes, fight for them.]]> 256 Aminatou Sow 1982111909 Bri 4 3.74 2020 Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close
author: Aminatou Sow
name: Bri
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/26
date added: 2024/02/26
shelves:
review:
3.5/5 stars. I liked the beginning where they talked about friendships forming and the end where they talked about how to repair and maintain friendships the best, those I’d give a 4 or 4.5. It was nice to be reminded that all friendships will have conflict,but learning how to navigate that instead of just ignoring it will be worthwhile in the end (even though it’s scary to bring up a potential conflict in friendships, which are largely built on a foundation of “oh wow look how similar we are, we are both great!�).
]]> <![CDATA[The Immortal Irishman: The Irish Revolutionary Who Became an American Hero]]> 25897805 384 Timothy Egan 0544272889 Bri 0 to-read 4.25 2016 The Immortal Irishman: The Irish Revolutionary Who Became an American Hero
author: Timothy Egan
name: Bri
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them]]> 61423989
The Roaring Twenties--the Jazz Age--has been characterized as a time of Gatsby frivolity. But it was also the height of the uniquely American hate group, the Ku Klux Klan. Their domain was not the old Confederacy, but the Heartland and the West. They hated Blacks, Jews, Catholics and immigrants in equal measure, and took radical steps to keep these people from the American promise. And the man who set in motion their takeover of great swaths of America was a charismatic charlatan named D.C. Stephenson.

Stephenson was a magnetic presence whose life story changed with every telling. Within two years of his arrival in Indiana, he’d become the Grand Dragon of the state and the architect of the strategy that brought the group out of the shadows � their message endorsed from the pulpits of local churches, spread at family picnics and town celebrations. Judges, prosecutors, ministers, governors and senators across the country all proudly proclaimed their membership. But at the peak of his influence, it was a seemingly powerless woman � Madge Oberholtzer � who would reveal his secret cruelties, and whose deathbed testimony finally brought the Klan to their knees.

A FEVER IN THE HEARTLAND marries a propulsive drama to a powerful and page-turning reckoning with one of the darkest threads in American history.]]> 432 Timothy Egan 0735225265 Bri 0 to-read 4.33 2023 A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them
author: Timothy Egan
name: Bri
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Other Significant Others: Reimagining Life with Friendship at the Center]]> 127305688
In The Other Significant Others, NPR's Rhaina Cohen invites us into the lives of people who have defied convention by choosing a friend as a life partner. Their riveting stories unsettle widespread assumptions about relationships, including the idea that sex is a defining feature of partnership and that people who raise kids together should be in a romantic relationship. Platonic partners from different walks of life—spanning age and religion, gender and sexuality and more—reveal the freedom and challenges of embracing a relationship model that society doesn't recognize. And they show that orienting your world around friends isn't just the stuff of daydreams and episodes of The Golden Girls, but possible in real life.

Based on years of original reporting and drawing on striking social science research, Cohen argues that we make romantic relationships more fragile by expecting too much of them, while we undermine friendships by expecting too little of them. She traces how, throughout history, our society hasn’t always fixated on marriage as the greatest source of meaning, or even love. At a time when many Americans are spending large stretches of their lives single, widowed or divorced, or feeling the effects of the "loneliness epidemic," Cohen makes the case that one model of a flourishing adulthood—lifelong romantic partnership—isn't enough. A rousing and incisive book, The Other Significant Others challenges us to ask what we want from our relationships—not just what we’re supposed to want—and transforms how we define a fulfilling life.]]> 320 Rhaina Cohen 1250280915 Bri 0 to-read 3.92 2024 The Other Significant Others: Reimagining Life with Friendship at the Center
author: Rhaina Cohen
name: Bri
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/02/25
shelves: to-read
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]]> Plastic 154462842 A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN � OUR CULTURE � LOCUS MAGAZINE � SO MANY DAMN BOOKS � CLIMATE & CULTURE

"[PLASTIC] deserves applause....raises urgent questions about climate change, political violence and spirituality with high intelligence....wondrous." - The New York Times Book Review

For fans of Interior Chinatown and American War, a surreal, hilarious, and sneakily profound debut novel that casts our current climate of gun violence and environmental destruction in a surprising new mold.

Erin is a plastic girl living in a plastic world. Every day she eats a breakfast of boiled chicken, then conveys her articulated body to Tablet Town, where she sells other figurines Smartbodies: wearable tech that immerses them in a virtual world, a refuge from real life’s brutal wars and eco-terrorist insurgency. If you cut her, she will not bleed—but figurines can still be cracked by gunfire or crumble from nuclear fallout. Erin, who's lost her father and the love of her life, certainly knows plenty about death.

One day, a terror attack at work leads Erin to meet Jacob, a blind figurine with whom she feels an instant connection. Together they start to explore the wonders of the virtual reality landscape. But just as they begin to heal from their traumas, secrets from Erin’s past threaten to crack the facade she’s built around her life, revealing everything vulnerable beneath.

Both a dystopian comedy and a serious dissection of our own pre-apocalypse, Scott Guild’s debut novel is a beautiful and fabulously inventive look at the hollow core of American society—and a guide to how we might reanimate all its broken plastic pieces.]]> 304 Scott Guild 0593316762 Bri 0 to-read 3.54 2024 Plastic
author: Scott Guild
name: Bri
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/02/14
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]]> Poor Deer 127823311 A wondrous, tender novel about a young girl grappling with her role in a tragic loss—and attempting to reshape the narrative of her life—from PEN/Faulkner Award nominee Claire Oshetsky

Margaret Murphy is a weaver of fantastic tales, growing up in a world where the truth is too much for one little girl to endure. Her first memory is of the day her friend Agnes died.

No one blames Margaret. Not in so many words. Her mother insists to everyone who will listen that her daughter never even left the house that day. Left alone to make sense of tragedy, Margaret wills herself to forget these unbearable memories, replacing them with imagined stories full of faith and magic—that always end happily.

Enter Poor Deer: a strange and formidable creature who winds her way uninvited into Margaret’s made-up tales. Poor Deer will not rest until Margaret faces the truth about her past and atones for her role in Agnes’s death.

Heartrending, hopeful, and boldly imagined, Poor Deer explores the journey toward understanding the children we once were and the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of life’s most difficult moments.]]> 240 Claire Oshetsky 006332766X Bri 0 to-read 3.97 2024 Poor Deer
author: Claire Oshetsky
name: Bri
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/02/14
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]]> <![CDATA[The Way Forward (The Inward Trilogy)]]> 100697520
In these rapidly changing times, it is more important than ever to know ourselves well and fully, even and especially in the face of turmoil. The Way Forward encourages readers to connect more deeply to their intuition, using it to remain focused and grounded amidst a world in constant flux.

In his latest collection of poetry and short prose, Yung Pueblo offers clear strategies for managing the unknown, inhabiting your personal power, and bringing your truest, healthiest self to relationships. Progressing naturally from both Inward and Clarity & Connection , The Way Forward is exactly that­­—an inspired beginning.]]> 240 Yung Pueblo 1524874833 Bri 0 to-read 4.38 The Way Forward (The Inward Trilogy)
author: Yung Pueblo
name: Bri
average rating: 4.38
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/02/05
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]]> When You Least Expect It 206112391
After all, though Hannah is probably the most gorgeous woman she’s ever seen, she’s also straight. And married to Caroline’s work rival. While being hired by Hannah throws her for a loop, winning a divorce case and sticking it to her ex-colleague should be enough of a thrill.

But as the months slip by, bringing her closer to both Hannah and her adorable daughter Abbie, the lines between attorney and client begin to blur. And she could have never predicted just how much she wants them to.]]> 242 Haley Cass Bri 0 to-read 4.31 2020 When You Least Expect It
author: Haley Cass
name: Bri
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/29
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]]> <![CDATA[Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times]]> 52623750 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780593189481.

An intimate, revelatory book exploring the ways we can care for and repair ourselves when life knocks us down.

Sometimes you slip through the cracks: unforeseen circumstances like an abrupt illness, the death of a loved one, a break up, or a job loss can derail a life. These periods of dislocation can be lonely and unexpected. For May, her husband fell ill, her son stopped attending school, and her own medical issues led her to leave a demanding job. Wintering explores how she not only endured this painful time, but embraced the singular opportunities it offered.

A moving personal narrative shot through with lessons from literature, mythology, and the natural world, May’s story offers instruction on the transformative power of rest and retreat. Illumination emerges from many sources: solstice celebrations and dormice hibernation, C.S. Lewis and Sylvia Plath, swimming in icy waters and sailing arctic seas.

Ultimately Wintering invites us to change how we relate to our own fallow times. May models an active acceptance of sadness and finds nourishment in deep retreat, joy in the hushed beauty of winter, and encouragement in understanding life as cyclical, not linear. A secular mystic, May forms a guiding philosophy for transforming the hardships that arise before the ushering in of a new season.]]> 241 Katherine May Bri 4 3.82 2020 Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times
author: Katherine May
name: Bri
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/27
date added: 2024/01/27
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Renaissance of Our Own: A Memoir & Manifesto on Reimagining]]> 60097383 A deeply personal and illuminating approach to antiracism and allyship, revealing the power of imagination and action to dismantle oppressive systems and build liberating ones, from a highly lauded lecturer, public academic, writer, and activist.

In Beyond Love and Light, Rachel Cargle details the seminal event that put her on the map--her viral 2017 Women's March appearance that thrust her into the national conversation on feminism and allyship--and how she soon woke up to the fallacies of a movement she had believed in. Discovering and unpacking the white-washed lies she'd been fed about intersectional "solidarity," Cargle's awakening, although painful and seismic, gifted her the opportunity to see the world through a new lens.

Now, Cargle shares her journey, depicting a framework for allyship, and beyond, that she developed along the way. In creating KEA (Knowledge, Empathy, Action), or as she calls them "from the head to the heart to the feet," Cargle learned to craft a world independent of oppressive constructs that allowed her to critically examine her surroundings. Alongside KEA, she established a set of intentional values based on an individual sense of purpose, known as higher values, and through the combination of these tools, reimagined her approach to the personal, societal, and structural components of life that are often stifled. She provides the same tools and prompts that she used to unearth and align her own values so anyone can wield them, and ultimately, identify the structures and mindsets that hold them back and learn to move forward.

Beyond Love and Light serves as a reminder of the power of reimagining as an engine for critical learning, radical empathizing, and intentional action.]]> 256 Rachel Elizabeth Cargle 0593134737 Bri 0 to-read 4.24 2023 A Renaissance of Our Own: A Memoir & Manifesto on Reimagining
author: Rachel Elizabeth Cargle
name: Bri
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/23
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]]> The Chronology of Water 9214995 The Chronology of Water, Lidia Yuknavitch expertly moves the reader through issues of gender, sexuality, violence, and the family from the point of view of a lifelong swimmer turned artist. In writing that explores the nature of memoir itself, her story traces the effect of extreme grief on a young woman's developing sexuality that some define as untraditional because of her attraction to both men and women. Her emergence as a writer evolves at the same time and takes the narrator on a journey of addiction, self-destruction, and ultimately survival that finally comes in the shape of love and motherhood.]]> 310 Lidia Yuknavitch 0979018838 Bri 0 to-read 4.24 2011 The Chronology of Water
author: Lidia Yuknavitch
name: Bri
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/20
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]]> The Deluge 60806778 From the bestselling author of Ohio, a masterful American epic charting a near future approaching collapse and a nascent but strengthening solidarity.

In the first decades of the 21st century, the world is convulsing, its governments mired in gridlock while a patient but unrelenting ecological crisis looms. America is in upheaval, battered by violent weather and extreme politics. In California in 2013, Tony Pietrus, a scientist studying deposits of undersea methane, receives a death threat. His fate will become bound to a stunning cast of characters—a broken drug addict, a star advertising strategist, a neurodivergent mathematician, a cunning eco-terrorist, an actor turned religious zealot, and a brazen young activist named Kate Morris, who, in the mountains of Wyoming, begins a project that will alter the course of the decades to come.

From the Gulf Coast to Los Angeles, the Midwest to Washington, DC, their intertwined odysseys unfold against a stark backdrop of accelerating chaos as they summon courage, galvanize a nation, fall to their own fear, and find wild hope in the face of staggering odds. As their stories hurtle toward a spectacular climax, each faces a reckoning: what will they sacrifice to salvage humanity’s last chance at a future? A singular achievement, The Deluge is a once-in-a-generation novel that meets the moment as few works of art ever have.]]> 896 Stephen Markley 1982123095 Bri 0 to-read 4.20 2023 The Deluge
author: Stephen Markley
name: Bri
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/07
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida]]> 57224204
Ten years after his prize-winning novel Chinaman established him as one of Sri Lanka’s foremost authors, Shehan Karunatilaka is back with a “thrilling satire� (Economist) and rip-roaring state-of-the-nation epic that offers equal parts mordant wit and disturbing, profound truths.]]> 386 Shehan Karunatilaka 1908745908 Bri 0 to-read 3.89 2022 The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida
author: Shehan Karunatilaka
name: Bri
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Civilisations 54345837 c.1000AD: Erik the Red's daughter heads south from Greenland.
1492: Columbus does not discover America.
1531: the Incas invade Europe.

Freydis is the leader of a band of Viking warriors who get as far as Panama. Nobody knows what became of them...
Five hundred years later, Christopher Columbus is sailing for the Americas, dreaming of gold and conquest. Even when captured by Incas, his faith in his superiority and his mission is unshaken.

Thirty years after that, Atahualpa, the last Inca emperor, arrives in Europe. What does he find? The Spanish Inquisition, the Reformation, capitalism, the miracle of the printing press, endless warmongering between the ruling monarchies, and constant threat from the Turks.

But most of all, downtrodden populations ready for revolution. Fortunately, he has a recent guidebook to acquiring power - Machiavelli's The Prince. It turns out he is very good at it. So, the stage is set for a Europe ruled by Incas and, when the Aztecs arrive on the scene, for a great war that will change history forever.

Civilisations is a wildly entertaining counterfactual story about the modern world, colonisation, empire-building and the eternal human quest for domination. It is an electrifying novel by one of Europe's most exciting writers.]]> 352 Laurent Binet 1787302296 Bri 0 to-read 3.64 2019 Civilisations
author: Laurent Binet
name: Bri
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Power 36222363 385 Naomi Alderman 0316547603 Bri 5 favorites
2022 update: I still think about this book all the time. Reread it before the TV series came out. Still a fantastic book. I hope the show does it justice! ]]> 3.73 2016 The Power
author: Naomi Alderman
name: Bri
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2023/03/21
date added: 2023/12/28
shelves: favorites
review:
I raced through this book so quickly I’m tempted to reread it again right away. Alderman uses a fairly simple premise to tell a gripping story of gender dynamics, power, retaliation, and how flawed history’s memory can be.

2022 update: I still think about this book all the time. Reread it before the TV series came out. Still a fantastic book. I hope the show does it justice!
]]> The Christmas Orphans Club 75492257
Hannah and Finn have spent every Christmas together since college. Neither has anywhere else to go—Hannah’s parents died, and Finn’s disowned him when he came out. Their tradition of offbeat holiday adventures only grows more outrageous with time. When the pair starts their adult lives in New York City, they add stylish Priya and mysterious Theo to the group, solidifying a found family and sense of belonging they’ve always craved.

But now, when Finn announces a move to L.A., this Christmas may be their last. Hannah is terrified of losing the family she’s built for herself, even as her boyfriend nudges her toward commitment. Meanwhile, Finn struggles with the things he’s about to leave behind—namely, his unexpressed feelings for Theo. Does growing up mean growing apart? This Christmas the changes these friends fear may be exactly what they need. . . .]]> 368 Becca Freeman 0143138030 Bri 4 3.75 2023 The Christmas Orphans Club
author: Becca Freeman
name: Bri
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/27
date added: 2023/12/27
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education]]> 101160309 From the New York Times bestselling author who inspired the hit Netflix series about a struggling mother barely making ends meet as a housecleaner—a gripping memoir about college, motherhood, poverty, and life after Maid.

When Stephanie Land set out to write her memoir Maid, she never could have imagined what was to come. Handpicked by President Barack Obama as one of the best books of 2019, it was called “an eye-opening journey into the lives of the working poor� (People). Later it was adapted into the hit Netflix series Maid, which was viewed by 67 million households and was Netflix’s fourth most-watched show in 2021, garnering three Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Stephanie’s escape out of poverty and abuse in search of a better life inspired millions.

Maid was a story about a housecleaner, but it was also a story about a woman with a dream. In Class, Land takes us with her as she finishes college and pursues her writing career. Facing barriers at every turn including a byzantine loan system, not having enough money for food, navigating the judgments of professors and fellow students who didn’t understand the demands of attending college while under the poverty line—Land finds a way to survive once again, finally graduating in her mid-thirties.

Class paints an intimate and heartbreaking portrait of motherhood as it converges and often conflicts with personal desire and professional ambition. Who has the right to create art? Who has the right to go to college? And what kind of work is valued in our culture? In clear, candid, and moving prose, Class grapples with these questions, offering a searing indictment of America’s educational system and an inspiring testimony of a mother’s triumph against all odds.]]> 288 Stephanie Land 1982151412 Bri 0 to-read 3.59 2023 Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education
author: Stephanie Land
name: Bri
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/12/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>