Allie's bookshelf: all en-US Wed, 29 Jan 2025 13:28:40 -0800 60 Allie's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg She Rides Shotgun 23361199 257 Jordan Harper 0062394401 Allie 0 to-read-own 3.97 2017 She Rides Shotgun
author: Jordan Harper
name: Allie
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/29
shelves: to-read-own
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Unraveling of Cassidy Holmes]]> 52163643 In vein of Daisy Jones & The Six and Everything I Never Told You, this debut novel probes the dark side of fame after a former pop star ends her own life.

Cassidy Holmes isn't just a celebrity.

She is “Sassy Gloss,� the fourth member of the hottest pop group America has ever seen. Hotter than Britney dancing with a snake, hotter than Christina getting dirrty, Gloss was the pop act that everyone idolized. Fans couldn't get enough of them, their music, and the drama that followed them like moths to a flame—until the group’s sudden implosion in 2002. And at the center of it all was Sassy Cassy, the Texan with a signature smirk that had everyone falling for her.

But now she's dead. Suicide.

The world is reeling from this unexpected news, but no one is more shocked than the three remaining Glossies. Fifteen years ago, Rose, Merry, and Yumi had been the closest to Cassidy, and this loss is hitting them hard. Before the group split, they each had a special bond with Cassidy—truths they told, secrets they shared. But after years apart, each of them is wondering: what could they have done?

Told in multiple perspectives—including Cassidy herself—and different timelines, this is a behind-the-scenes look into the rise and fall of a pop icon, and a penetrating examination of the dark side of celebrity and the industry that profits from it.]]> 448 Elissa R. Sloan Allie 2 3.46 2020 The Unraveling of Cassidy Holmes
author: Elissa R. Sloan
name: Allie
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2020/08/23
date added: 2024/11/04
shelves:
review:

]]> The Cage (The Cage, #1) 16071187
Four other teenagers have also been taken: a beautiful model, a tattooed smuggler, a secretive genius, and an army brat who seems to know too much about Cora’s past. None of them have a clue as to what happened, and all of them have secrets. As the unlikely group struggles for leadership, they slowly start to trust each other. But when their mysterious jailer appears—a handsome young guard called Cassian—they realize that their captivity is more terrifying than they could ever imagine: their captors aren’t from Earth. And they have taken the five teenagers for an otherworldly zoo—where the exhibits are humans.]]> 405 Megan Shepherd 0062243071 Allie 1 e-reader, dnf 3.65 2015 The Cage (The Cage, #1)
author: Megan Shepherd
name: Allie
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2015
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2024/09/17
shelves: e-reader, dnf
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories]]> 99300
Written from a feminist perspective, often focusing on the inferior status accorded to women by society, the tales include "turned," an ironic story with a startling twist, in which a husband seduces and impregnates a naïve servant; "Cottagette," concerning the romance of a young artist and a man who's apparently too good to be true; "Mr. Peebles' Heart," a liberating tale of a fiftyish shopkeeper whose sister-in-law, a doctor, persuades him to take a solo trip to Europe, with revivifying results; "The Yellow Wallpaper"; and three other outstanding stories.

These charming tales are not only highly readable and full of humor and invention, but also offer ample food for thought about the social, economic, and personal relationship of men and women � and how they might be improved.

Collects:
—The Yellow Wallpaper
—Three Thanksgivings
—The Cottagette
—T³Ü°ù²Ô±ð»å
—Making a Change
—If I Were a Man
—Mr. Peebles' Heart]]> 129 Charlotte Perkins Gilman 0486298574 Allie 3 4.05 1892 The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories
author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman
name: Allie
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1892
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 'Salem's Lot 5413 Also contains: One For the Road, Jerusalem's Lot. For standalone novel see ISBN 9780450031069.

Stephen King's second novel, the classic vampire bestseller 'Salem's Lot, tells the story of evil in small-town America. For the first time in a major trade edition, this terrifying novel is accompanied by previously unpublished material from King's archive, two short stories, and eerie photographs that bring King's fictional darkness and evil to vivid life.

When Stephen King’s classic thriller 'Salem's Lot hit the stands in 1975, it thrilled and terrified millions of readers with tales of demonic evil in small-town America. Now, thirty years later and still scaring readers witless, 'Salem's Lot reemerges in a brilliant new edition, complete with photographs, fifty pages of deleted and alternate scenes, and two short stories related to the events of the novel.

While the original edition of 'Salem's Lot will forever be a premier horror classic, 'Salem's Lot: Illustrated Edition, with the inclusion of material from King’s archive, is destined to become a classic in its own right and a must-have for all Stephen King fans. In this edition, the hair-raising story of Jerusalem’s Lot, a small town in Maine whose inhabitants succumb to the evil allure of a new resident, is told as the author envisioned it, complete with fifty pages of alternate and deleted scenes. With a new introduction by the author, two short stories related to the events and residents of Jerusalem’s Lot, the lavishly creepy photographs of Jerry Uelsmann, and a stunning new page design, this edition brings the story to life in words and pictures as never before.

No library will be complete without this ideal collector’s item for any King aficionado, the definitive illustrated edition of the great 'Salem's Lot.]]> 594 Stephen King 0385516487 Allie 0 to-read 4.28 1975 'Salem's Lot
author: Stephen King
name: Allie
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1975
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Centre 61032638 A darkly comic, speculative debut following an adrift Pakistani translator in London who attends a mysterious language school which boasts complete fluency in just ten days, but at a secret, sinister cost.

Anisa Ellahi dreams of being a translator of “great works of literature,� but instead mostly spends her days subtitling Bollywood movies, living off her parents� generous allowance, and discussing the “underside of life� with her best friend, Naima. Anisa’s mediocre white boyfriend, Adam, only adds to her growing sense of inadequacy with his savant-level aptitude for languages, successfully leveraging his expansive knowledge into an enviable career. But when Adam learns to speak Urdu with native fluency practically overnight, Anisa forces him to reveal his secret.

Adam begrudgingly tells Anisa about The Centre, an elite, invite-only program that guarantees near-instant fluency in any language. Skeptical but intrigued, Anisa enrolls—stripped of her belongings, contact with the outside world, and bodily autonomy—and emerges ten days later fluent in German. As Anisa enmeshes herself further within The Centre, seduced by all that it’s made possible, she soon realizes the true cost of its services.

By turns dark, funny, and surreal, and with twists page-turning and shocking, The Centre takes the reader on a journey through Karachi, London, and New Delhi, interrogating the sticky politics of language, translation, and appropriation with biting specificity, and ultimately asking: what is success really worth?]]> 336 Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi 1638930554 Allie 3 3.50 2023 The Centre
author: Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi
name: Allie
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/02
date added: 2024/06/02
shelves:
review:

]]> Imogen, Obviously 62963459 New York Times bestseller Becky Albertalli explores the nuances of sexuality, identity, and friendship.

Imogen Scott may be hopelessly heterosexual, but she’s got the World’s Greatest Ally title locked down.

She's never missed a Pride Alliance meeting. She knows more about queer media discourse than her very queer little sister. She even has two queer best friends. There's Gretchen, a fellow high school senior, who helps keep Imogen's biases in check. And then there's Lili—newly out and newly thriving with a cool new squad of queer college friends.

Imogen's thrilled for Lili. Any ally would be. And now that she's finally visiting Lili on campus, she's bringing her ally A game. Any support Lili needs, Imogen's all in.

Even if that means bending the truth, just a little.

Like when Lili drops a tiny queer bombshell: she's told all her college friends that Imogen and Lili used to date. And none of them know that Imogen is a raging hetero—not even Lili’s best friend, Tessa.

Of course, the more time Imogen spends with chaotic, freckle-faced Tessa, the more she starts to wonder if her truth was ever all that straight to begin with. . .]]> 412 Becky Albertalli Allie 4 4.32 2023 Imogen, Obviously
author: Becky Albertalli
name: Allie
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/22
date added: 2024/05/22
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[In the Hall with the Knife (Clue Mystery, #1)]]> 44761887 A murderer could be around every corner in Diana Peterfreund’s In the Hall with the Knife, the first mystery in a thrilling YA trilogy based on the board game CLUE!

When a storm strikes at Blackbrook Academy, an elite prep school nestled in the woods of Maine, a motley crew of students—including Beth “Peacock� Picach, Orchid McKee, Vaughn Green, Sam “Mustard� Maestor, Finn Plum, and Scarlet Mistry—are left stranded on campus with their headmaster. Hours later, his body is found in the conservatory and it’s very clear his death was no accident.

With this group of students who are all hiding something, nothing is as it seems, and everyone has a motive for murder.

Fans of the CLUE board game and cult classic film will delight in this modern reimagining of the brand, its characters, and the dark, magnificent old mansion with secrets hidden within its walls.

The Clue Mystery In the Hall with the Knife (#1) In the Study with the Wrench (#2) In the Ballroom with the Candlestick (#3)

CLUE and HASBRO and all related trademarks and logos are trademarks of Hasbro, Inc. © 2021 Hasbro.]]> 304 Diana Peterfreund 1683356411 Allie 4 3.68 2019 In the Hall with the Knife (Clue Mystery, #1)
author: Diana Peterfreund
name: Allie
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/21
date added: 2024/04/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Death on the Nile (Hercule Poirot, #18)]]> 9858200
Hercule Poirot recalled an earlier outburst by a fellow passenger: "I'd like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger." Yet in this exotic setting nothing is ever quite what it seems.]]> 333 Agatha Christie 0062073559 Allie 4 4.12 1937 Death on the Nile (Hercule Poirot, #18)
author: Agatha Christie
name: Allie
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1937
rating: 4
read at: 2017/01/01
date added: 2024/01/14
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Elephant Whisperer: My Life with the Herd in the African Wild]]> 13167246
In order to save their lives, Anthony took them in. In the years that followed he became a part of their family. And as he battled to create a bond with the elephants, he came to realize that they had a great deal to teach him about life, loyalty, and freedom.

The Elephant Whisperer is a heartwarming, exciting, funny, and sometimes sad memoir of Anthony's experiences with these huge yet sympathetic creatures. Set against the background of life on an African game reserve, with unforgettable characters and exotic wildlife, Anthony's unrelenting efforts at animal protection and his remarkable connection with nature will inspire animal lovers and adventurous souls everywhere.]]> 368 Lawrence Anthony 125000781X Allie 4 animals, nonfiction 4.5/5 stars 4.51 2009 The Elephant Whisperer: My Life with the Herd in the African Wild
author: Lawrence Anthony
name: Allie
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2018/04/03
date added: 2023/12/27
shelves: animals, nonfiction
review:
4.5/5 stars
]]> Enchantress of Numbers 34627441 A Novel of Ada Lovelace
🎧Run Time = 20 hours and 2 minutes

In this “exquisite biographical novel� (Booklist), a New York Times bestselling author of Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker and Switchboard Soldiers reimagines the fascinating life of Ada Byron King, Countess of Lovelace—Lord Byron’s daughter and the world’s first computer programmer. “Elegant in style, engaged in delivery, and riveting in content,� this Earphones Award winner “will entertain a wide array of listeners� (AudioFile).

The only legitimate child of Lord Byron, the most brilliant, revered, and scandalous ofÌýthe Romantic poets, Ada was destined for fame long before her birth. Estranged fromÌýAda’s father, who was infamously “mad, bad, and dangerous to know,â€� Ada’sÌýmathematician mother is determined to save her only child from her perilous ByronÌýheritage. Banishing fairy tales and make-believe from the nursery, Ada’s motherÌýprovides her daughter with a rigorous education grounded in mathematics andÌýscience. Any troubling spark of imagination—or worse yet, passion or poetry—isÌýpromptly extinguished. Or so her mother believes.

When Ada is introduced into London society as a highly eligible young heiress, she atÌýlast discovers the intellectual and social circles she has craved all her life. Little doesÌýshe realize that her delightful new friendship with inventor Charles Babbage—brilliant,Ìýcharming, and occasionally curmudgeonly—will shape her destiny.

Intrigued by theÌýprototype of his first calculating machine, the Difference Engine, and enthralled by theÌýplans for his even more advanced Analytical Engine, AdaÌýresolves to help Babbage realize his extraordinary vision, unique in her understandingÌýof how his invention could transform the world. All the while, she passionately studiesÌýmathematics—ignoring skeptics who consider it an unusual, even unhealthy pursuitÌýfor a woman—falls in love, discovers the shocking secrets behind her parents’Ìýestrangement, and comes to terms with the unquenchable fire of her imagination.

Enchantress of Numbers unveils the passions, dreams, and insatiable thirst for knowledge of a largely unheralded pioneer in computing—a young woman who stepped out of her father’s shadow to achieve her own laurels and champion the new technology that would shape the future.]]> 448 Jennifer Chiaverini 1101985208 Allie 0 to-read-own 3.48 2017 Enchantress of Numbers
author: Jennifer Chiaverini
name: Allie
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/26
shelves: to-read-own
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend]]> 16045198
Budo is lucky as imaginary friends go. He's been alive for more than five years, which is positively ancient in the world of imaginary friends. But Budo feels his age, and thinks constantly of the day when eight-year-old Max Delaney will stop believing in him. When that happens, Budo will disappear.

Max is different from other children. Some people say that he has Asperger's Syndrome, but most just say he's "on the spectrum." None of this matters to Budo, who loves Max and is charged with protecting him from the class bully, from awkward situations in the cafeteria, and even in the bathroom stalls. But he can't protect Max from Mrs. Patterson, the woman who works with Max in the Learning Center and who believes that she alone is qualified to care for this young boy.]]> 328 Matthew Dicks 1250031850 Allie 3 4.17 2012 Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend
author: Matthew Dicks
name: Allie
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2017/03/06
date added: 2023/10/16
shelves:
review:
Even though I loved the concept of this book, it all seemed a bit... wordy. A lot of scenes went on, and on, and on, and on, even when they didn't need to; only for the sole fact that the author kept re-explaining things over and over again. However, I did love Budo. I loved Max. I loved Oswald. I agree with those who said the ending was predictable, but that doesn't mean I liked it any less. Overall, this book was about a 3-star read for me.
]]> <![CDATA[The Dead House (The Dead House, #1)]]> 22396591
Re-opened police records, psychiatric reports, transcripts of video footage and fragments of diary reveal a web of deceit and intrigue, violence and murder, raising a whole lot more questions than it answers.

Who was Kaitlyn and why did she only appear at night? Did she really exist or was she a figment of a disturbed mind? What were the illicit rituals taking place at the school? And just what did happen at Elmbridge in the events leading up to ‘the Johnson Incident�?]]> 440 Dawn Kurtagich 1780622341 Allie 0 to-read 3.68 2015 The Dead House (The Dead House, #1)
author: Dawn Kurtagich
name: Allie
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Beach Read 52195137
They’re polar opposites.

In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they're living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer's block.

Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She’ll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he’ll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no one will fall in love. Really.

A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.]]> 380 Emily Henry Allie 0 4.10 2020 Beach Read
author: Emily Henry
name: Allie
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2023/07/28
date added: 2023/07/28
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle]]> 35967101 A brilliantly original high concept murder mystery from a fantastic new talent: Gosford Park meets Inception, by way of Agatha Christie and Black Mirror.

'Somebody's going to be murdered at the ball tonight. It won't appear to be a murder and so the murderer won't be caught. Rectify that injustice and I'll show you the way out.'

It is meant to be a celebration but it ends in tragedy. As fireworks explode overhead, Evelyn Hardcastle, the young and beautiful daughter of the house, is killed.

But Evelyn will not die just once. Until Aiden � one of the guests summoned to Blackheath for the party � can solve her murder, the day will repeat itself, over and over again. Every time ending with the fateful pistol shot.

The only way to break this cycle is to identify the killer. But each time the day begins again, Aiden wakes in the body of a different guest. And someone is determined to prevent him ever escaping Blackheath...

Also titled as The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle.]]> 505 Stuart Turton Allie 3 3.87 2018 The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
author: Stuart Turton
name: Allie
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2021/11/14
date added: 2023/04/21
shelves:
review:

]]> The Girl With All the Gifts 18656044
Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite, but they don't laugh.

Melanie loves school. She loves learning about spelling and sums and the world outside the classroom and the children's cells. She tells her favorite teacher all the things she'll do when she grows up. Melanie doesn't know why this makes Miss Justineau look sad.

The Girl with All the Gifts is a sensational thriller, perfect for fans of Stephen King, Justin Cronin, and Neil Gaiman.]]> 407 M.R. Carey 0316278157 Allie 4 quotable 3.90 2014 The Girl With All the Gifts
author: M.R. Carey
name: Allie
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2015/04/07
date added: 2022/12/20
shelves: quotable
review:
Wow. I don't even know what to say about this one. There were so many moments where I was shocked, and moments where I was just on the edge of my seat with anticipation. There were a few parts that dragged on and I wish there was a little more action, but overall a great book. Melanie will absolutely break your heart with her child-like curiosity and thirst for knowledge.
]]> <![CDATA[Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #1)]]> 51603444 What would you change if you could travel back in time?

 Down a small alleyway in the heart of Tokyo, there’s an underground café that’s been serving carefully brewed coffee for over a hundred years. Local legend says that this shop offers its customers something else besides coffee—the chance to travel back in time.

The rules, however, are far from simple: you must sit in one particular seat, and you can’t venture outside the café, nor can you change the present. And, most important, you only have the time it takes to drink a hot cup of coffee—or risk getting stuck forever.

Over the course of one summer, four customers visit the café in the hopes of traveling to another time: a heartbroken lover looking for closure, a nurse with a mysterious letter from her husband, a waitress hoping to say one last goodbye and a mother whose child she may never get the chance to know.

Heartwarming, wistful and delightfully quirky, Before the Coffee Gets Cold explores the intersecting lives of four women who come together in one extraordinary café, where the service may not be quick, but the opportunities are endless.]]> 227 Toshikazu Kawaguchi 1488077215 Allie 0 currently-reading 3.80 2015 Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #1)
author: Toshikazu Kawaguchi
name: Allie
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/12/10
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> The Wonder 28449257
An educated sceptic, Lib expects to expose the fast as a hoax right away. But as she gets to know the girl she becomes more and more unsure. Is Anna a fraud, or a 'living wonder'? Or is something more sinister unfolding right before Lib's eyes?

Written with all the propulsive tension that transported readers of Room, The Wonder asks what lengths we would go to for the love of a child.]]> 291 Emma Donoghue 0316393878 Allie 3 3.60 2016 The Wonder
author: Emma Donoghue
name: Allie
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2022/06/14
date added: 2022/09/09
shelves: historical-fiction, own, 2017-reading-challenge
review:

]]> The Lincoln Highway 57109107 The bestselling author of A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility and master of absorbing, sophisticated fiction returns with a stylish and propulsive novel set in 1950s America

In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the work farm where he has just served a year for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett’s intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother and head west where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden’s car. Together, they have hatched an altogether different plan for Emmett’s future.

Spanning just ten days and told from multiple points of view, Towles’s third novel will satisfy fans of his multi-layered literary styling while providing them an array of new and richly imagined settings, characters, and themes.]]> 576 Amor Towles 0735222355 Allie 4 4.18 2021 The Lincoln Highway
author: Amor Towles
name: Allie
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2022/04/30
date added: 2022/06/13
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers, #1)]]> 27213244 Librarian's Note: For an alternate hardcover edition of the same ISBN, click here.


Follow a motley crew on an exciting journey through space—and one adventurous young explorer who discovers the meaning of family in the far reaches of the universe—in this light-hearted debut space opera from a rising sci-fi star.

Rosemary Harper doesn’t expect much when she joins the crew of the aging Wayfarer. While the patched-up ship has seen better days, it offers her a bed, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and most importantly, some distance from her past. An introspective young woman who learned early to keep to herself, she’s never met anyone remotely like the ship’s diverse crew, including Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, chatty engineers Kizzy and Jenks who keep the ship running, and Ashby, their noble captain.

Life aboard the Wayfarer is chaotic and crazy—exactly what Rosemary wants. It’s also about to get extremely dangerous when the crew is offered the job of a lifetime. Tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet is definitely lucrative and will keep them comfortable for years. But risking her life wasn’t part of the plan. In the far reaches of deep space, the tiny Wayfarer crew will confront a host of unexpected mishaps and thrilling adventures that force them to depend on each other. To survive, Rosemary’s got to learn how to rely on this assortment of oddballs—an experience that teaches her about love and trust, and that having a family isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the universe.]]> 443 Becky Chambers 0062444131 Allie 3 sci-fi 4.24 2014 The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers, #1)
author: Becky Chambers
name: Allie
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2022/06/03
date added: 2022/06/13
shelves: sci-fi
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Wish You Were Here (Mrs. Murphy, #1)]]> 8132422 320 Rita Mae Brown Allie 3 3.91 1990 Wish You Were Here (Mrs. Murphy, #1)
author: Rita Mae Brown
name: Allie
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1990
rating: 3
read at: 2022/06/12
date added: 2022/06/12
shelves:
review:

]]> Verity 59218704 Whose truth is the lie?ÌýStay up all night readingÌýthe sensational psychological thriller that has readers obsessed, from the #1ÌýNew York TimesÌýbestselling author of Too Late andÌýIt Ends With Us.#1 New York TimesÌýBestsellerÌý·ÌýUSA TodayÌýBestsellerÌý·ÌýGlobe and MailÌýBestsellerÌý·ÌýPublishers WeeklyÌýBestsellerÌýLowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish.ÌýLowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity's notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn't expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity's recollection of the night her family was forever altered.ÌýLowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents could devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen's feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife's words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue loving her.]]> 333 Colleen Hoover Allie 4 4.38 2018 Verity
author: Colleen Hoover
name: Allie
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2022/04/23
date added: 2022/04/23
shelves:
review:

]]> Lucky 57650760 Alternate cover edition of ASIN B08BZDG1Z8.

A compelling and thrilling road-trip novel about a talented grifter named Lucky whose past comes back to haunt her.

What if you had the winning ticket that would change your life forever, but you couldn’t cash it in?

Lucky Armstrong is a tough, talented grifter who has just pulled off a million-dollar heist with her boyfriend, Cary. She’s ready to start a brand-new life, with a new identity—when things go sideways. Lucky finds herself alone for the first time, navigating the world without the help of either her father or her boyfriend, the two figures from whom she’s learned the art of the scam.

When she discovers that a lottery ticket she bought on a whim is worth millions, her elation is tempered by one big problem: cashing in the winning ticket means the police will arrest her for her crimes. She’ll go to prison, with no chance to redeem her fortune.

As Lucky tries to avoid arrest and make a future for herself, she must confront her past by reconciling with her father; finding her mother, who abandoned her when she just a baby; and coming to terms with the man she thought she loved—whose complicated past is catching up to her, too.

This is a novel about truth, personal redemption, and the complexity of being good. It introduces a singularly gifted, complicated character who must learn what it means to be independent and honest…before her luck runs out.]]> Marissa Stapley Allie 3 3.86 2021 Lucky
author: Marissa Stapley
name: Allie
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2022/04/20
date added: 2022/04/20
shelves:
review:

]]> The Humans 21265230
Who is he really? And what could make someone change their mind about the human race. . . ?]]> 294 Matt Haig Allie 0 to-read, sci-fi 4.04 2013 The Humans
author: Matt Haig
name: Allie
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/03/21
shelves: to-read, sci-fi
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Man Who Died Twice (Thursday Murder Club, #2)]]> 59082358
Elizabeth has received a letter from an old colleague, a man with whom she has a long history. He's made a big mistake, and he needs her help. His story involves stolen diamonds, a violent mobster, and a very real threat to his life.

As bodies start piling up, Elizabeth enlists Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron in the hunt for a ruthless murderer. And if they find the diamonds too? Well, wouldn't that be a bonus?

But this time they are up against an enemy who wouldn't bat an eyelid at knocking off four septuagenarians. Can The Thursday Murder Club find the killer (and the diamonds) before the killer finds them?]]> 355 Richard Osman Allie 5 4.53 2021 The Man Who Died Twice (Thursday Murder Club, #2)
author: Richard Osman
name: Allie
average rating: 4.53
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2022/03/02
date added: 2022/03/02
shelves:
review:

]]> The Downstairs Girl 50631530
While her opponents clamor to uncover the secret identity of Miss Sweetie, a mysterious letter sets Jo off on a search for her own past and the parents who abandoned her as a baby. But when her efforts put her in the crosshairs of Atlanta's most notorious criminal, Jo must decide whether she, a girl used to living in the shadows, is ready to step into the light.]]> Stacey Lee 197730401X Allie 3 3.77 2019 The Downstairs Girl
author: Stacey Lee
name: Allie
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2021/08/02
date added: 2022/03/02
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]]> <![CDATA[Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl]]> 3001512
On Valentine's Day 1985, biologist Stacey O'Brien first met a four-day-old baby barn owl -- a fateful encounter that would turn into an astonishing 19-year saga. With nerve damage in one wing, the owlet's ability to fly was forever compromised, and he had no hope of surviving on his own in the wild. O'Brien, a young assistant in the owl laboratory at Caltech, was immediately smitten, promising to care for the helpless owlet and give him a permanent home. Wesley the Owl is the funny, poignant story of their dramatic two decades together.

With both a tender heart and a scientist's eye, O'Brien studied Wesley's strange habits intensively and first-hand -- and provided a mice-only diet that required her to buy the rodents in bulk (28,000 over the owl's lifetime). As Wesley grew, she snapped photos of him at every stage like any proud parent, recording his life from a helpless ball of fuzz to a playful, clumsy adolescent to a gorgeous, gold-and-white, macho adult owl with a heart-shaped face and an outsize personality that belied his 18-inch stature. Stacey and Wesley's bond deepened as she discovered Wesley's individual personality, subtle emotions, and playful nature that could also turn fiercely loyal and protective -- though she could have done without Wesley's driving away her would-be human suitors!

O'Brien also brings us inside the prestigious research community, a kind of scientific Hogwarts where resident owls sometimes flew freely from office to office and eccentric, brilliant scientists were extraordinarily committed to studying and helping animals; all of them were changed by the animal they loved. As O'Brien gets close to Wesley, she makes important discoveries about owl behavior, intelligence, and communication, coining the term "The Way of the Owl" to describe his inclinations: he did not tolerate lies, held her to her promises, and provided unconditional love, though he was not beyond an occasional sulk. When O'Brien develops her own life-threatening illness, the biologist who saved the life of a helpless baby bird is herself rescued from death by the insistent love and courage of this wild animal.

Enhanced by wonderful photos, Wesley the Owl is a thoroughly engaging, heartwarming, often funny story of a complex, emotional, non-human being capable of reason, play, and, most important, love and loyalty. It is sure to be cherished by animal lovers everywhere.]]> 230 Stacey O'Brien 1416551735 Allie 3 4.07 2008 Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl
author: Stacey O'Brien
name: Allie
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2022/02/15
date added: 2022/02/16
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]]> Yellow Wife 54304031 Wench and Twelve Years a Slave, this harrowing story follows an enslaved woman forced to barter love and freedom while living in the most infamous slave jail in Virginia.

Born on a plantation in Charles City, Virginia, Pheby Brown was promised her freedom on her eighteenth birthday. But when her birthday finally comes around, instead of the idyllic life she was hoping for with her true love, she finds herself thrust into the bowels of slavery at the infamous Devil’s Half-Acre, a jail where slaves are broken, tortured, and sold every day. Forced to become the mistress of the brutal man who owns the jail, Pheby faces the ultimate sacrifice to protect her heart in this powerful, thrilling story of one slave’s fight for freedom.]]> 278 Sadeqa Johnson 1982149108 Allie 5 4.41 2021 Yellow Wife
author: Sadeqa Johnson
name: Allie
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2022/02/10
date added: 2022/02/10
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]]> 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 Allie 5 3.85 2021 People We Meet on Vacation
author: Emily Henry
name: Allie
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2022/02/06
date added: 2022/02/07
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]]> <![CDATA[The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times]]> 56268863
Looking at the headlines--a global pandemic, the worsening climate crisis, political upheaval--it can be hard to feel optimistic. And yet hope has never been more desperately needed.

In this urgent book, Jane Goodall, the world's most famous living naturalist and Doug Abrams, internationally-bestselling author, explore--through intimate and thought-provoking dialogue--one of the most sought after and least understood elements of human nature: hope. In The Book of Hope, Jane focuses on her “Four Reasons for Hope�: The Amazing Human Intellect, The Resilience of Nature, The Power of Young People, and The Indomitable Human Spirit.

Told through stories from a remarkable career and fascinating research, The Book of Hope touches on vital questions including: How do we stay hopeful when everything seems hopeless? How do we cultivate hope in our children? Filled with engaging dialogue and pictures from Jane’s storied career, The Book of Hope is a deeply personal conversation with one of the most beloved figures in today’s world.

And for the first time, Jane tells the story of how she became a messenger of hope: from living through World War II, to her years in Gombe, to realizing she had to leave the forest to travel the world in her role as an advocate for environmental justice. She details the forces that shaped her hopeful worldview, her thoughts on her past, and her revelations about her next--and perhaps final--adventure.

There is still hope, and this book will help guide us to it.]]> 272 Jane Goodall 1250784093 Allie 4 4.19 2021 The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times
author: Jane Goodall
name: Allie
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2022/02/04
date added: 2022/02/04
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]]> A History of Wild Places 59817754 The New York Times bestselling author of The Wicked Deep weaves a richly atmospheric adult debut following three residents of a secluded, seemingly peaceful commune as they investigate the disappearances of two outsiders.

Travis Wren has an unusual talent for locating missing people. Hired by families as a last resort, he requires only a single object to find the person who has vanished. When he takes on the case of Maggie St. James—a well-known author of dark, macabre children’s books—he’s led to a place many believed to be only a legend.

Called Pastoral, this reclusive community was founded in the 1970s by like-minded people searching for a simpler way of life. By all accounts, the commune shouldn’t exist anymore and soon after Travis stumbles upon it…he disappears. Just like Maggie St. James.

Years later, Theo, a lifelong member of Pastoral, discovers Travis’s abandoned truck beyond the border of the community. No one is allowed in or out, not when there’s a risk of bringing a disease�rot—into Pastoral. Unraveling the mystery of what happened reveals secrets that Theo, his wife, Calla, and her sister, Bee, keep from one another. Secrets that prove their perfect, isolated world isn’t as safe as they believed—and that darkness takes many forms.

Hauntingly beautiful, hypnotic, and bewitching, A History of Wild Places is a story about fairy tales, our fear of the dark, and losing yourself within the wilderness of your mind.]]> 354 Shea Ernshaw Allie 4 4.00 2021 A History of Wild Places
author: Shea Ernshaw
name: Allie
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2022/02/02
date added: 2022/02/03
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Tokyo Ever After (Tokyo Ever After, #1)]]> 54860605 literally a princess.

In a whirlwind, Izzy travels to Japan to meet the father she never knew and discover the country she always dreamed of. But being a princess isn’t all ball gowns and tiaras. There are conniving cousins, a hungry press, a scowling but handsome bodyguard who just might be her soulmate, and thousands of years of tradition and customs to learn practically overnight.

Izzy soon finds herself caught between worlds, and between versions of herself—back home, she was never “American� enough, and in Japan, she must prove she’s “Japanese� enough. Will Izumi crumble under the weight of the crown, or will she live out her fairytale, happily ever after?

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781250766601.]]> 336 Emiko Jean Allie 4 3.87 2021 Tokyo Ever After (Tokyo Ever After, #1)
author: Emiko Jean
name: Allie
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2022/01/31
date added: 2022/01/31
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]]> <![CDATA[The Handmaid’s Tale (The Handmaid's Tale, #1)]]> 38447
Funny, unexpected, horrifying, and altogether convincing, The Handmaid's Tale is at once scathing satire, dire warning, and tour de force.]]> 311 Margaret Atwood 038549081X Allie 4 4.15 1985 The Handmaid’s Tale (The Handmaid's Tale, #1)
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Allie
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1985
rating: 4
read at: 2022/01/28
date added: 2022/01/31
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]]> Under the Whispering Door 53588713 Welcome to Charon's Crossing.
The tea is hot, the scones are fresh, and the dead are just passing through.

When a reaper comes to collect Wallace from his own funeral, Wallace begins to suspect he might be dead.

And when Hugo, the owner of a peculiar tea shop, promises to help him cross over, Wallace decides he’s definitely dead.

But even in death he’s not ready to abandon the life he barely lived, so when Wallace is given one week to cross over, he sets about living a lifetime in seven days.

Hilarious, haunting, and kind, Under the Whispering Door is an uplifting story about a life spent at the office and a death spent building a home.]]> 390 T.J. Klune Allie 0 dnf 4.21 2021 Under the Whispering Door
author: T.J. Klune
name: Allie
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/01/27
shelves: dnf
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Cemetery Boys (Cemetery Boys, #1)]]> 52339313
When his traditional Latinx family has problems accepting his gender, Yadriel becomes determined to prove himself a real brujo. With the help of his cousin and best friend Maritza, he performs the ritual himself, and then sets out to find the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free.

However, the ghost he summons is actually Julian Diaz, the school’s resident bad boy, and Julian is not about to go quietly into death. He’s determined to find out what happened and tie up some loose ends before he leaves. Left with no choice, Yadriel agrees to help Julian, so that they can both get what they want. But the longer Yadriel spends with Julian, the less he wants to let him leave.]]> 344 Aiden Thomas 1250250463 Allie 4 4.26 2020 Cemetery Boys (Cemetery Boys, #1)
author: Aiden Thomas
name: Allie
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2022/01/19
date added: 2022/01/19
shelves:
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]]> The Great Alone 34927828 Alaska, 1974.
Unpredictable. Unforgiving. Untamed.
For a family in crisis, the ultimate test of survival.

Ernt Allbright, a former POW, comes home from the Vietnam war a changed and volatile man. When he loses yet another job, he makes an impulsive decision: He will move his family north, to Alaska, where they will live off the grid in America’s last true frontier.

Thirteen-year-old Leni, a girl coming of age in a tumultuous time, caught in the riptide of her parents� passionate, stormy relationship, dares to hope that a new land will lead to a better future for her family. She is desperate for a place to belong. Her mother, Cora, will do anything and go anywhere for the man she loves, even if it means following him into the unknown.

At first, Alaska seems to be the answer to their prayers. In a wild, remote corner of the state, they find a fiercely independent community of strong men and even stronger women. The long, sunlit days and the generosity of the locals make up for the Allbrights� lack of preparation and dwindling resources.

But as winter approaches and darkness descends on Alaska, Ernt’s fragile mental state deteriorates and the family begins to fracture. Soon the perils outside pale in comparison to threats from within. In their small cabin, covered in snow, blanketed in eighteen hours of night, Leni and her mother learn the terrible truth: They are on their own. In the wild, there is no one to save them but themselves.

In this unforgettable portrait of human frailty and resilience, Kristin Hannah reveals the indomitable character of the modern American pioneer and the spirit of a vanishing Alaska―a place of incomparable beauty and danger. The Great Alone is a daring, beautiful, stay-up-all-night story about love and loss, the fight for survival, and the wildness that lives in both man and nature.]]> 440 Kristin Hannah 0312577230 Allie 3 4.35 2018 The Great Alone
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Allie
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2022/01/09
date added: 2022/01/10
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]]> <![CDATA[Children of Blood and Bone (Legacy of Orïsha, #1)]]> 34728667 They killed my mother.
They took our magic.
They tried to bury us.

Now we rise.

Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zélie’s Reaper mother summoned forth souls.

But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope.

Now Zélie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must outwit and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good.

Danger lurks in Orïsha, where snow leoponaires prowl and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be Zélie herself as she struggles to control her powers and her growing feelings for an enemy.]]> 544 Tomi Adeyemi 1250170974 Allie 4 4.10 2018 Children of Blood and Bone (Legacy of Orïsha, #1)
author: Tomi Adeyemi
name: Allie
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2021/12/18
date added: 2021/12/18
shelves:
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]]> The Midnight Library 52578297
When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change.

The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren't always what she imagined they'd be, and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger.

Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?]]> 288 Matt Haig 0525559477 Allie 5 3.96 2020 The Midnight Library
author: Matt Haig
name: Allie
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2021/12/09
date added: 2021/12/09
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Modern Love: True Stories of Love, Loss, and Redemption]]> 45697243 The most popular, provocative, and unforgettable essays from the past fifteen years of the New York Times "Modern Love" column--including stories from the upcoming anthology series starring Tina Fey, Andy Garcia, Anne Hathaway, Catherine Keener, Dev Patel, and John Slattery

A young woman goes through the five stages of ghosting grief. A man's promising fourth date ends in the emergency room. A female lawyer with bipolar disorder experiences the highs and lows of dating. A widower hesitates about introducing his children to his new girlfriend. A divorcée in her seventies looks back at the beauty and rubble of past relationships.

These are just a few of the people who tell their stories in Modern Love, Revised and Updated, featuring dozens of the most memorable essays to run in The New York Times "Modern Love" column since its debut in 2004.

Some of the stories are unconventional, while others hit close to home. Some reveal the way technology has changed dating forever; others explore the timeless struggles experienced by anyone who has ever searched for love. But all of the stories are, above everything else, honest. Together, they tell the larger story of how relationships begin, often fail, and--when we're lucky--endure.

Edited by longtime "Modern Love" editor Daniel Jones and featuring a diverse selection of contributors--including Mindy Hung, Trey Ellis, Ann Hood, Deborah Copaken, Terri Cheney, and more--this is the perfect book for anyone who's loved, lost, stalked an ex on social media, or pined for true romance: In other words, anyone interested in the endlessly complicated workings of the human heart.]]> 304 Daniel Jones 0593137043 Allie 4 4.20 2007 Modern Love: True Stories of Love, Loss, and Redemption
author: Daniel Jones
name: Allie
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2021/11/23
date added: 2021/11/24
shelves:
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]]> Sourdough 33916024
Lois is no baker, but she could use a roommate, even if it is a needy colony of microorganisms. Soon, not only is she eating her own homemade bread, she’s providing loaves daily to the General Dexterity cafeteria. The company chef urges her to take her product to the farmer’s market, and a whole new world opens up.

When Lois comes before the jury that decides who sells what at Bay Area markets, she encounters a close-knit club with no appetite for new members. But then, an alternative emerges: a secret market that aims to fuse food and technology. But who are these people, exactly?]]> 259 Robin Sloan 0374203105 Allie 3 3.73 2017 Sourdough
author: Robin Sloan
name: Allie
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2021/11/17
date added: 2021/11/18
shelves:
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]]> The Underground Railroad 30555488
In Whitehead's ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor--engineers and conductors operate a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora and Caesar's first stop is South Carolina, in a city that initially seems like a haven. But the city's placid surface masks an insidious scheme designed for its black denizens. And even worse: Ridgeway, the relentless slave catcher, is close on their heels. Forced to flee again, Cora embarks on a harrowing flight, state by state, seeking true freedom.

Like the protagonist of Gulliver's Travels, Cora encounters different worlds at each stage of her journey--hers is an odyssey through time as well as space. As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the unique terrors for black people in the pre-Civil War era, his narrative seamlessly weaves the saga of America from the brutal importation of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. The Underground Railroad is at once a kinetic adventure tale of one woman's ferocious will to escape the horrors of bondage and a shattering, powerful meditation on the history we all share.]]> 320 Colson Whitehead 0385542364 Allie 4 4.04 2016 The Underground Railroad
author: Colson Whitehead
name: Allie
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2021/11/10
date added: 2021/11/10
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Green Witch: Your Complete Guide to the Natural Magic of Herbs, Flowers, Essential Oils, and More (Green Witch Witchcraft Series)]]> 34944542
At her core, the green witch is a naturalist, an herbalist, a wise woman, and a healer. She embraces the power of nature; she draws energy from the Earth and the Universe; she relies on natural objects like stones and gems to commune with the land she lives off of; she uses plants, flowers, oils, and herbs for healing; she calls on nature for guidance; and she respects every living being no matter how small.

In The Green Witch, you will learn the way of the green witch, from how to use herbs, plants, and flowers to make potions and oils for everyday healing as well as how crystals, gems, stones, and even twigs can help you find balance within. You’ll discover how to find harmony in Earth’s great elements and connect your soul to every living creature. This guide also contains directions for herbal blends and potions, ritual suggestions, recipes for sacred foods, and information on how to listen to and commune with nature. Embrace the world of the green witch and discover what the power of nature has in store for you.]]> 257 Arin Murphy-Hiscock Allie 0 to-read 3.87 2017 The Green Witch: Your Complete Guide to the Natural Magic of Herbs, Flowers, Essential Oils, and More (Green Witch Witchcraft Series)
author: Arin Murphy-Hiscock
name: Allie
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/11/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Get a Life, Chloe Brown (The Brown Sisters, #1)]]> 43884209
� Enjoy a drunken night out.
� Ride a motorcycle.
� Go camping.
� Have meaningless but thoroughly enjoyable sex.
� Travel the world with nothing but hand luggage.
� And... do something bad.

But it’s not easy being bad, even when you’ve written step-by-step guidelines on how to do it correctly. What Chloe needs is a teacher, and she knows just the man for the job.

Redford ‘Red� Morgan is a handyman with tattoos, a motorcycle, and more sex appeal than ten-thousand Hollywood heartthrobs. He’s also an artist who paints at night and hides his work in the light of day, which Chloe knows because she spies on him occasionally. Just the teeniest, tiniest bit.

But when she enlists Red in her mission to rebel, she learns things about him that no spy session could teach her. Like why he clearly resents Chloe’s wealthy background. And why he never shows his art to anyone. And what really lies beneath his rough exterior…]]> 384 Talia Hibbert 0062941208 Allie 5 3.79 2019 Get a Life, Chloe Brown (The Brown Sisters, #1)
author: Talia Hibbert
name: Allie
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2021/11/06
date added: 2021/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]> Nothing to See Here 49947160 Listening Length: 6 hrs 40 mins

A novel about a woman who finds meaning in her life when she begins caring for two children with a remarkable ability.

Lillian and Madison were unlikely roommates and yet inseparable friends at their elite boarding school. But then Lillian had to leave the school unexpectedly in the wake of a scandal and they’ve barely spoken since. Until now, when Lillian gets a letter from Madison pleading for her help.

Madison’s twin stepkids are moving in with her family and she wants Lillian to be their caretaker. However, there’s a catch: the twins spontaneously combust when they get agitated, flames igniting from their skin in a startling but beautiful way. Lillian is convinced Madison is pulling her leg, but it’s the truth.

Thinking of her dead-end life at home, the life that has consistently disappointed her, Lillian figures she has nothing to lose. Over the course of one humid, demanding summer, Lillian and the twins learn to trust each other—and stay cool—while also staying out of the way of Madison’s buttoned-up politician husband. Surprised by her own ingenuity yet unused to the intense feelings of protectiveness she feels for them, Lillian ultimately begins to accept that she needs these strange children as much as they need her—urgently and fiercely. Couldn’t this be the start of the amazing life she’d always hoped for?]]> 7 Kevin Wilson 0062957864 Allie 3 4.07 2019 Nothing to See Here
author: Kevin Wilson
name: Allie
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2021/11/05
date added: 2021/11/05
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Into the Drowning Deep (Rolling in the Deep, #1)]]> 34523174
Now, a new crew has been assembled. But this time they’re not out to entertain. Some seek to validate their life’s work. Some seek the greatest hunt of all. Some seek the truth. But for the ambitious young scientist Victoria Stewart this is a voyage to uncover the fate of the sister she lost.

Whatever the truth may be, it will only be found below the waves. But the secrets of the deep come with a price.]]> 448 Mira Grant 0316379409 Allie 4 3.94 2017 Into the Drowning Deep (Rolling in the Deep, #1)
author: Mira Grant
name: Allie
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2021/11/02
date added: 2021/11/03
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts]]> 42478640
Tuesday Mooney is a loner. She keeps to herself, begrudgingly socializes, and spends much of her time watching old Twin Peaks and X-Files DVDs. But when Vincent Pryce, Boston’s most eccentric billionaire, dies—leaving behind an epic treasure hunt through the city, with clues inspired by his hero, Edgar Allan Poe—Tuesday’s adventure finally begins.

Puzzle-loving Tuesday searches for clue after clue, joined by a ragtag crew: a wisecracking friend, an adoring teen neighbor, and a handsome, cagey young heir. The hunt tests their mettle, and with other teams from around the city also vying for the promised prize—a share of Pryce’s immense wealth—they must move quickly. Pryce’s clues can't be cracked with sharp wit alone; the searchers must summon the courage to face painful ghosts from their pasts (some more vivid than others) and discover their most guarded desires and dreams.

A deliciously funny ode to imagination, overflowing with love letters to art, from The Westing Game to Madonna to the Knights of the Round Table, Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts is the perfect read for thrill seekers, wanderers, word lovers, and anyone looking for an escape to the extraordinary.]]> 359 Kate Racculia 0358023939 Allie 3 3.84 2019 Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts
author: Kate Racculia
name: Allie
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2021/10/27
date added: 2021/10/27
shelves:
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]]> The Witches of New York 24723284 Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, comes a new novel from historical fiction maven Ami McKay that transports readers to the heart of Victorian New York, where three witches practice their craft—to the delight of some—but at their own peril.

Respectable Lady Seeks Dependable Shop Girl. Those averse to magic need not apply.

New York in the spring of 1880 is a place alive with wonder and curiosity. Determined to learn the truth about the world, its residents enthusiastically engage in both scientific experimentation and spiritualist pursuits. Séances are the entertainment of choice in exclusive social circles, and many enterprising women—some possessed of true intuitive powers, and some gifted with the art of performance—find work as mediums.

Enter Adelaide Thom and Eleanor St. Clair. At their humble teashop, Tea and Sympathy, they provide a place for whispered confessions, secret cures, and spiritual assignations for a select society of ladies, who speak the right words and ask the right questions. But the profile of Tea and Sympathy is about to change with the fortuitous arrival of Beatrice Dunn.

When seventeen-year-old Beatrice leaves the safety of her village to answer an ad that reads "Respectable Lady Seeks Dependable Shop Girl. Those averse to magic need not apply," she has little inclination of what the job will demand of her. Beatrice doesn't know it yet, but she is no ordinary small-town girl; she has great spiritual gifts—ones that will serve as her greatest asset and also place her in grave danger. Under the tutelage of Adelaide and Eleanor, Beatrice comes to harness many of her powers, but not even they can prepare her for the evils lurking in the darkest corners of the city or the courage it will take to face them.

Ìý±Õ±Õ> 535 Ami McKay 0062359924 Allie 4 3.85 2016 The Witches of New York
author: Ami McKay
name: Allie
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2021/10/19
date added: 2021/10/19
shelves:
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]]> The Year of the Witching 49214110 The Handmaid's Tale for a new generation . . .

In the lands of Bethel, where the Prophet's word is law, Immanuelle Moore's very existence is blasphemy.

The daughter of a union with an outsider that cast her once-proud family into disgrace, Immanuelle does her best to worship the Father, follow Holy Protocol and lead a life of submission, devotion and absolute conformity, like all the women in the settlement.

But a chance mishap lures her into the forbidden Darkwood that surrounds Bethel - a place where the first prophet once pursued and killed four powerful witches. Their spirits are still walking there, and they bestow a gift on Immanuelle: the diary of her dead mother, who Immanuelle is shocked to learn once sought sanctuary in the wood.

Fascinated by secrets in the diary, Immanuelle finds herself struggling to understand how her mother could have consorted with the witches. But when she begins to learn grim truths about the Church and its history, she realises the true threat to Bethel is its own darkness. And if Bethel is to change, it must begin with her . . .]]> 363 Alexis Henderson 0593099621 Allie 4 3.92 2020 The Year of the Witching
author: Alexis Henderson
name: Allie
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2021/10/16
date added: 2021/10/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #2)]]> 22456248 Librarian's Note: An alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here.

Percy Jackson’s seventh-grade year has been surprisingly quiet. Not a single monster has set foot on his New York prep-school campus. But when an innocent game of dodgeball among Percy and his classmates turns into a death match against an ugly gang of cannibal giants, things get... well, ugly. And the unexpected arrival of Percy’s friend Annabeth brings more bad news: the magical borders that protect Camp Half-Blood have been poisoned by a mysterious enemy, and unless a cure is found, the only safe haven for demigods will be destroyed.

In this fresh, funny, and hugely anticipated follow up to The Lightning Thief, Percy and his friends must journey into the Sea of Monsters to save their beloved camp. But first, Percy will discover a stunning new secret about his family—one that makes him question whether being claimed as Poseidon’s son is an honor or simply a cruel joke.]]> 280 Rick Riordan 1423103343 Allie 4 magic, retellings, series 4.18 2006 The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #2)
author: Rick Riordan
name: Allie
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2015/11/09
date added: 2021/10/15
shelves: magic, retellings, series
review:

]]> The Ex Hex (The Ex Hex, #1) 56554626 New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hawkins, writing as Erin Sterling, casts a spell with a spine-tingling romance full of wishes, witches, and hexes gone wrong.

Nine years ago, Vivienne Jones nursed her broken heart like any young witch would: vodka, weepy music, bubble baths…and a curse on the horrible boyfriend. Sure, Vivi knows she shouldn’t use her magic this way, but with only an “orchard hayride� scented candle on hand, she isn’t worried it will cause him anything more than a bad hair day or two.

That is until Rhys Penhallow, descendent of the town’s ancestors, breaker of hearts, and annoyingly just as gorgeous as he always was, returns to Graves Glen, Georgia. What should be a quick trip to recharge the town’s ley lines and make an appearance at the annual fall festival turns disastrously wrong. With one calamity after another striking Rhys, Vivi realizes her silly little Ex Hex may not have been so harmless after all.

Suddenly, Graves Glen is under attack from murderous wind-up toys, a pissed off ghost, and a talking cat with some interesting things to say. Vivi and Rhys have to ignore their off the charts chemistry to work together to save the town and find a way to break the break-up curse before it’s too late.]]> 308 Erin Sterling 006302747X Allie 4 3.46 2021 The Ex Hex (The Ex Hex, #1)
author: Erin Sterling
name: Allie
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/10/12
date added: 2021/10/13
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Practical Magic (Practical Magic #1)]]> 42364684 Alternate cover for ISBN 9780425190371 (currently here).

The Owens sisters confront the challenges of life and love in this bewitching novel from New York Times bestselling author Alice Hoffman.

For more than two hundred years, the Owens women have been blamed for everything that has gone wrong in their Massachusetts town. Gillian and Sally have endured that fate as well: as children, the sisters were forever outsiders, taunted, talked about, pointed at. Their elderly aunts almost seemed to encourage the whispers of witchery, with their musty house and their exotic concoctions and their crowd of black cats. But all Gillian and Sally wanted was to escape.

One will do so by marrying, the other by running away. But the bonds they share will bring them back—almost as if by magic...
]]> 301 Alice Hoffman Allie 3 magic, witches 3.50 1995 Practical Magic (Practical Magic #1)
author: Alice Hoffman
name: Allie
average rating: 3.50
book published: 1995
rating: 3
read at: 2021/10/08
date added: 2021/10/12
shelves: magic, witches
review:

]]> The Guncle (The Guncle, #1) 54508798
So when tragedy strikes and Maisie and Grant lose their mother and Patrick’s brother has a health crisis of his own, Patrick finds himself suddenly taking on the role of primary guardian. Despite having a set of “Guncle Rules� ready to go, Patrick has no idea what to expect, having spent years barely holding on after the loss of his great love, a somewhat-stalled career, and a lifestyle not-so-suited to a six- and a nine-year-old. Quickly realizing that parenting—even if temporary—isn’t solved with treats and jokes, Patrick’s eyes are opened to a new sense of responsibility, and the realization that, sometimes, even being larger than life means you’re unfailingly human.]]> 326 Steven Rowley 0525542280 Allie 3 4.09 2021 The Guncle (The Guncle, #1)
author: Steven Rowley
name: Allie
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2021/10/05
date added: 2021/10/06
shelves:
review:

]]> My Best Friend's Exorcism 26118005
Abby’s investigation leads her to some startling discoveries - and by the time their story reaches its terrifying conclusion, the fate of Abby and Gretchen will be determined by a single question: Is their friendship powerful enough to beat the devil?

Like an unholy hybrid of Beaches and The Exorcist, My best Friend's Exorcism blends teen angst, adolescent drama, unspeakable horrors, and a mix of '80s pop songs into a pulse-pounding supernatural thriller.]]> 330 Grady Hendrix 1594748624 Allie 0 to-read 3.91 2016 My Best Friend's Exorcism
author: Grady Hendrix
name: Allie
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/10/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Thirteenth Tale 40440
The enigmatic Winter has spent six decades creating various outlandish life histories for herself -- all of them inventions that have brought her fame and fortune but have kept her violent and tragic past a secret. Now old and ailing, she at last wants to tell the truth about her extraordinary life. She summons biographer Margaret Lea, a young woman for whom the secret of her own birth, hidden by those who loved her most, remains an ever-present pain. Struck by a curious parallel between Miss Winter's story and her own, Margaret takes on the commission.

As Vida disinters the life she meant to bury for good, Margaret is mesmerized. It is a tale of gothic strangeness featuring the Angelfield family, including the beautiful and willful Isabelle, the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline, a ghost, a governess, a topiary garden and a devastating fire.

Margaret succumbs to the power of Vida's storytelling but remains suspicious of the author's sincerity. She demands the truth from Vida, and together they confront the ghosts that have haunted them while becoming, finally, transformed by the truth themselves.

The Thirteenth Tale is a love letter to reading, a book for the feral reader in all of us, a return to that rich vein of storytelling that our parents loved and that we loved as children. Diane Setterfield will keep you guessing, make you wonder, move you to tears and laughter and, in the end, deposit you breathless yet satisfied back upon the shore of your everyday life.]]> 406 Diane Setterfield 0743298020 Allie 5
10/4/2021 - Still feel the same way 6 years later!]]> 3.96 2006 The Thirteenth Tale
author: Diane Setterfield
name: Allie
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 2021/10/03
date added: 2021/10/04
shelves: to-re-read, favorites, quotable, gothic, historical-fiction
review:
This is the book that makes you realize every individual (and family) has their own secrets that nobody knows about. This book is definitely one of my favorites that I will keep going back to for years to come. It's timeless.

10/4/2021 - Still feel the same way 6 years later!
]]> The Dead and the Dark 54860359 Courtney Gould’s thrilling debut The Dead and the Dark is about the things that lurk in dark corners, the parts of you that can’t remain hidden, and about finding home in places―and people―you didn’t expect.

The Dark has been waiting for far too long, and it won't stay hidden any longer.

Something is wrong in Snakebite, Oregon. Teenagers are disappearing, some turning up dead, the weather isn’t normal, and all fingers seem to point to TV’s most popular ghost hunters who have just returned to town. Logan Ortiz-Woodley, daughter of TV's ParaSpectors, has never been to Snakebite before, but the moment she and her dads arrive, she starts to get the feeling that there's more secrets buried here than they originally let on.

Ashley Barton’s boyfriend was the first teen to go missing, and she’s felt his presence ever since. But now that the Ortiz-Woodleys are in town, his ghost is following her and the only person Ashley can trust is the mysterious Logan. When Ashley and Logan team up to figure out who—or what—is haunting Snakebite, their investigation reveals truths about the town, their families, and themselves that neither of them are ready for. As the danger intensifies, they realize that their growing feelings for each other could be a light in the darkness.

Courtney Gould’s thrilling debut The Dead and the Dark is about the things that lurk in dark corners, the parts of you that can’t remain hidden, and about finding home in places—and people—you didn’t expect.]]> 378 Courtney Gould 1250762022 Allie 4 3.86 2021 The Dead and the Dark
author: Courtney Gould
name: Allie
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/09/22
date added: 2021/09/22
shelves:
review:

]]> Station Eleven 20170404 An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization’s collapse—the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.

Kirsten Raymonde will never forget the night Arthur Leander, the famous Hollywood actor, had a heart attack on stage during a production of King Lear. That was the night when a devastating flu pandemic arrived in the city, and within weeks, civilization as we know it came to an end.

Twenty years later, Kirsten moves between the settlements of the altered world with a small troupe of actors and musicians. They call themselves The Traveling Symphony, and they have dedicated themselves to keeping the remnants of art and humanity alive. But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who will threaten the tiny band’s existence. And as the story takes off, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, the strange twist of fate that connects them all will be revealed.]]> 333 Emily St. John Mandel 0385353308 Allie 4 4.05 2014 Station Eleven
author: Emily St. John Mandel
name: Allie
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2021/09/19
date added: 2021/09/20
shelves:
review:

]]> Caraval (Caraval, #1) 27883214 A legendary competition.
A mesmerizing romance.
An unbreakable bond
between two sisters.

Scarlett Dragna has never left the tiny island where she and her sister, Tella, live with their powerful, and cruel, father. Now Scarlett’s father has arranged a marriage for her, and Scarlett thinks her dreams of seeing Caraval—the faraway, once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show—are over.

But this year, Scarlett’s long-dreamt-of invitation finally arrives. With the help of a mysterious sailor, Tella whisks Scarlett away to the show. Only, as soon as they arrive, Tella is kidnapped by Caraval’s mastermind organizer, Legend. It turns out that this season’s Caraval revolves around Tella, and whoever finds her first is the winner.

Scarlett has been told that everything that happens during Caraval is only an elaborate performance. Nevertheless she becomes enmeshed in a game of love, heartbreak, and magic. And whether Caraval is real or not, Scarlett must find Tella before the five nights of the game are over or a dangerous domino effect of consequences will be set off, and her beloved sister will disappear forever.

Welcome, welcome to Caraval . . . beware of getting swept too far away.]]> 407 Stephanie Garber 1250095255 Allie 0 dnf 3.97 2016 Caraval (Caraval, #1)
author: Stephanie Garber
name: Allie
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/09/15
shelves: dnf
review:

]]> The Thursday Murder Club 54846475 Four septuagenarians with a few tricks up their sleeves
A female cop with her first big case
A brutal murder
Welcome to�
THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB

In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet weekly in the Jigsaw Room to discuss unsolved crimes; together they call themselves The Thursday Murder Club.

When a local developer is found dead with a mysterious photograph left next to the body, the Thursday Murder Club suddenly find themselves in the middle of their first live case.

As the bodies begin to pile up, can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer, before it’s too late?]]> 368 Richard Osman 1984880977 Allie 5 4.08 2020 The Thursday Murder Club
author: Richard Osman
name: Allie
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2021/09/06
date added: 2021/09/06
shelves:
review:

]]> Majesty (American Royals, #2) 51518972 Is America ready for its first queen?

Power is intoxicating. Like first love, it can leave you breathless. Princess Beatrice was born with it. Princess Samantha was born with less. Some, like Nina Gonzalez, are pulled into it. And a few will claw their way in. Ahem, we're looking at you Daphne Deighton.

As America adjusts to the idea of a queen on the throne, Beatrice grapples with everything she lost when she gained the ultimate crown. Samantha is busy living up to her "party princess" persona...and maybe adding a party prince by her side. Nina is trying to avoid the palace--and Prince Jefferson--at all costs. And a dangerous secret threatens to undo all of Daphne's carefully laid "marry Prince Jefferson" plans.

A new reign has begun....]]> 374 Katharine McGee 198483021X Allie 0 dnf 3.72 2020 Majesty (American Royals, #2)
author: Katharine McGee
name: Allie
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/09/03
shelves: dnf
review:

]]> Dark Matter 27833670 A mindbending, relentlessly surprising thriller from the author of the bestselling Wayward Pines trilogy.

Jason Dessen is walking home through the chilly Chicago streets one night, looking forward to a quiet evening in front of the fireplace with his wife, Daniela, and their son, Charlie—when his reality shatters.

"Are you happy with your life?"

Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious.

Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits.

Before a man Jason's never met smiles down at him and says, "Welcome back, my friend."

In this world he's woken up to, Jason's life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.

Is it this world or the other that's the dream?

And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could've imagined—one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe.

Dark Matter is a brilliantly plotted tale that is at once sweeping and intimate, mind-bendingly strange and profoundly human--a relentlessly surprising science-fiction thriller about choices, paths not taken, and how far we'll go to claim the lives we dream of.]]> 342 Blake Crouch 1101904224 Allie 5 own 4.13 2016 Dark Matter
author: Blake Crouch
name: Allie
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2021/08/31
date added: 2021/09/01
shelves: own
review:

]]> The Dollhouse 28687354 "The Dollhouse. . . . That's what we boys like to call it. . . . The Barbizon Hotel for Women, packed to the rafters with pretty little dolls. Just like you."
Ìý
Fiona Davis's stunning debut novel pulls readers into the lush world of New York City's glamorous Barbizon Hotel for Women, where a generation of aspiring models, secretaries, and editors lived side-by-side while attempting to claw their way to fairy-tale success in the 1950s, and where a present-day journalist becomes consumed with uncovering a dark secret buried deep within the Barbizon's glitzy past.
Ìý
When she arrives at the famed Barbizon Hotel in 1952, secretarial school enrollment in hand, Darby McLaughlin is everything her modeling agency hall mates aren't: plain, self-conscious, homesick, and utterly convinced she doesn't belong—a notion the models do nothing to disabuse. Yet when Darby befriends Esme, a Barbizon maid, she's introduced to an entirely new side of New York City: seedy downtown jazz clubs where the music is as addictive as the heroin that's used there, the startling sounds of bebop, and even the possibility of romance.
Ìý
Over half a century later, the Barbizon's gone condo and most of its long-ago guests are forgotten. But rumors of Darby's involvement in a deadly skirmish with a hotel maid back in 1952 haunt the halls of the building as surely as the melancholy music that floats from the elderly woman's rent-controlled apartment. It's a combination too intoxicating for journalist Rose Lewin, Darby's upstairs neighbor, to resist—not to mention the perfect distraction from her own imploding personal life. Yet as Rose's obsession deepens, the ethics of her investigation become increasingly murky, and neither woman will remain unchanged when the shocking truth is finally revealed.


From the Hardcover edition.]]> Fiona Davis 152470315X Allie 4 3.54 2016 The Dollhouse
author: Fiona Davis
name: Allie
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2021/08/31
date added: 2021/08/31
shelves:
review:

]]> Firekeeper's Daughter 50762972
After Daunis witnesses a shocking murder that thrusts her into a criminal investigation, she agrees to go undercover. But the deceptions—and deaths—keep piling up and soon the threat strikes too close to home. How far will she go to protect her community if it means tearing apart the only world she’s ever known?]]> 496 Angeline Boulley Allie 3 4.40 2021 Firekeeper's Daughter
author: Angeline Boulley
name: Allie
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2021/08/30
date added: 2021/08/30
shelves:
review:

]]> The Chosen and the Beautiful 55169019
Jordan Baker grows up in the most rarefied circles of 1920s American society—she has money, education, a killer golf handicap, and invitations to some of the most exclusive parties of the Jazz Age. She's also queer, Asian, adopted, and treated as an exotic attraction by her peers, while the most important doors remain closed to her.

But the world is full of wonders: infernal pacts and dazzling illusions, lost ghosts and elemental mysteries. In all paper is fire, and Jordan can burn the cut paper heart out of a man. She just has to learn how.

Nghi Vo's debut novel The Chosen and the Beautiful reinvents this classic of the American canon as a coming-of-age story full of magic, mystery, and glittering excess, and introduces a major new literary voice.]]> 260 Nghi Vo 1250784786 Allie 0 to-read 3.53 2021 The Chosen and the Beautiful
author: Nghi Vo
name: Allie
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/08/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> We Ride Upon Sticks 50215350 Set in the coastal town of Danvers, Massachusetts (which in 1692 was Salem Village, site of the origins of the Salem Witch Trials), the story follows the Danvers High field hockey team as they discover that the dark impulses of their Salem forebears may be the key to a winning season.

The 1989 Danvers Falcons are on an unaccountable winning streak. Quan Barry weaves together the individual and collective journeys of this enchanted team as they storm their way to the state championship. Helmed by good-girl captain Abby Putnam (a descendant of the infamous Salem accuser Ann Putnam) and her co-captain Jen Fiorenza, whose bleached blond "Claw" sees and knows all, the DHS Falcons prove to be as wily and original as their North of Boston ancestors, flaunting society's stale notions of femininity in order to find their glorious true selves through the crucible of team sport.]]> 367 Quan Barry 1524748099 Allie 4 3.78 2020 We Ride Upon Sticks
author: Quan Barry
name: Allie
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2021/05/01
date added: 2021/08/25
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Dial A for Aunties (Aunties, #1)]]> 53310061 What happens when you mix 1 (accidental) murder with 2 thousand wedding guests, and then toss in a possible curse on 3 generations of an immigrant Chinese-Indonesian family?

You get 4 meddling Asian aunties coming to the rescue!

When Meddelin Chan ends up accidentally killing her blind date, her meddlesome mother calls for her even more meddlesome aunties to help get rid of the body. Unfortunately, a dead body proves to be a lot more challenging to dispose of than one might anticipate, especially when it is inadvertently shipped in a cake cooler to the over-the-top billionaire wedding Meddy, her Ma, and aunties are working at an island resort on the California coastline. It's the biggest job yet for the family wedding business�"Don't leave your big day to chance, leave it to the Chans!"—and nothing, not even an unsavory corpse, will get in the way of her auntie's perfect buttercream flowers.

But things go from inconvenient to downright torturous when Meddy's great college love—and biggest heartbreak—makes a surprise appearance amid the wedding chaos. Is it possible to escape murder charges, charm her ex back into her life, and pull off a stunning wedding all in one weekend?]]> 299 Jesse Q. Sutanto 0593336739 Allie 3 3.68 2021 Dial A for Aunties (Aunties, #1)
author: Jesse Q. Sutanto
name: Allie
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2021/08/24
date added: 2021/08/24
shelves:
review:

]]> Not a Happy Family 56366617
Or are they? They each stand to inherit millions. They were never a happy family, thanks to their capricious father and neglectful mother, but perhaps one of them is more disturbed than anyone knew. Did one of them snap after that dreadful evening? Or was it someone else that night who crept in with the worst of intentions? It must be. After all, if one of your siblings was a psychopath, you'd know.

Wouldn't you?]]> 349 Shari Lapena 1984880551 Allie 4 3.74 2021 Not a Happy Family
author: Shari Lapena
name: Allie
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/08/23
date added: 2021/08/23
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[It Happened One Summer (Bellinger Sisters, #1)]]> 55706166 Tessa Bailey is back with a Schitt’s Creek-inspired rom-com about a Hollywood “It Girlâ€� who’s cut off from her wealthy family and exiled to a small Pacific Northwest beach town... where she butts heads with a surly, sexy local who thinks she doesn’t belong.Ìý

Piper Bellinger is fashionable, influential, and her reputation as a wild child means the paparazzi are constantly on her heels. When too much champagne and an out-of-control rooftop party lands Piper in the slammer, her stepfather decides enough is enough. So he cuts her off, and sends Piper and her sister to learn some responsibility running their late father’s dive bar... in Washington.

Piper hasn’t even been in Westport for five minutes when she meets big, bearded sea captain Brendan, who thinks she won’t last a week outside of Beverly Hills. So what if Piper can’t do math, and the idea of sleeping in a shabby apartment with bunk beds gives her hives. How bad could it really be? She’s determined to show her stepfather—and the hot, grumpy local—that she’s more than a pretty face.

Except it’s a small town and everywhere she turns, she bumps into Brendan. The fun-loving socialite and the gruff fisherman are polar opposites, but there’s an undeniable attraction simmering between them. Piper doesn’t want any distractions, especially feelings for a man who sails off into the sunset for weeks at a time. Yet as she reconnects with her past and begins to feel at home in Westport, Piper starts to wonder if the cold, glamorous life she knew is what she truly wants. LA is calling her name, but Brendan—and this town full of memories—may have already caught her heart.Ìý±Õ±Õ> 379 Tessa Bailey Allie 0 dnf 4.05 2021 It Happened One Summer (Bellinger Sisters, #1)
author: Tessa Bailey
name: Allie
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/08/18
shelves: dnf
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Magpie Murders (Susan Ryeland, #1)]]> 32075854
When Susan receives Alan's latest manuscript, in which Atticus Pünd investigates a murder at Pye Hall, an English manor house, she has no reason to think it will be any different from the others. There will be dead bodies, a cast of intriguing suspects, and plenty of red herrings and clues. But the more Susan reads, the more she realizes that there's another story hidden in the pages of the manuscript—one of ambition, jealousy, and greed—and that soon it will lead to murder.

Masterful, clever, and ruthlessly suspenseful, Magpie Murders is a deviously dark take on vintage crime fiction.]]> 477 Anthony Horowitz 0062645226 Allie 4 3.93 2016 Magpie Murders (Susan Ryeland, #1)
author: Anthony Horowitz
name: Allie
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2021/08/14
date added: 2021/08/14
shelves:
review:

]]> One Last Stop 54860443
But then, there’s this gorgeous girl on the train.

Jane. Dazzling, charming, mysterious, impossible Jane. Jane with her rough edges and swoopy hair and soft smile, showing up in a leather jacket to save August’s day when she needed it most. August’s subway crush becomes the best part of her day, but pretty soon, she discovers there’s one big problem: Jane doesn’t just look like an old school punk rocker. She’s literally displaced in time from the 1970s, and August is going to have to use everything she tried to leave in her own past to help her. Maybe it’s time to start believing in some things, after all.

Casey McQuiston’s One Last Stop is a magical, sexy, big-hearted romance where the impossible becomes possible as August does everything in her power to save the girl lost in time.]]> 418 Casey McQuiston 1250244498 Allie 4 3.90 2021 One Last Stop
author: Casey McQuiston
name: Allie
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/08/11
date added: 2021/08/11
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Mysterious Benedict Society (The Mysterious Benedict Society, #1)]]> 40605329
]]> 497 Trenton Lee Stewart 0316032115 Allie 3 4.29 2007 The Mysterious Benedict Society (The Mysterious Benedict Society, #1)
author: Trenton Lee Stewart
name: Allie
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 2021/08/08
date added: 2021/08/08
shelves:
review:

]]> The Forest of Vanishing Stars 55711683 The New York Times bestselling author of the The Book of Lost Names returns with an evocative coming-of-age World War II story about a young woman who uses her knowledge of the wilderness to help Jewish refugees escape the Nazis—until a secret from her past threatens everything.

After being stolen from her wealthy German parents and raised in the unforgiving wilderness of eastern Europe, a young woman finds herself alone in 1941 after her kidnapper dies. Her solitary existence is interrupted, however, when she happens upon a group of Jews fleeing the Nazi terror. Stunned to learn what’s happening in the outside world, she vows to teach the group all she can about surviving in the forest—and in turn, they teach her some surprising lessons about opening her heart after years of isolation. But when she is betrayed and escapes into a German-occupied village, her past and present come together in a shocking collision that could change everything.

Inspired by incredible true stories of survival against staggering odds, and suffused with the journey-from-the-wilderness elements that made Where the Crawdads Sing a worldwide phenomenon, The Forest of Vanishing Stars is a heart-wrenching and suspenseful novel.]]> 376 Kristin Harmel 198215893X Allie 0 to-read 4.22 2021 The Forest of Vanishing Stars
author: Kristin Harmel
name: Allie
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/08/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Deadly Education (The Scholomance, #1)]]> 57640243
Everyone loves Orion Lake. Everyone else, that is. Far as I'm concerned, he can keep his flashy combat magic to himself. I'm not joining his pack of adoring fans.

I don't need help surviving the Scholomance, even if they do. Forget the hordes of monsters and cursed artifacts, I'm probably the most dangerous thing in the place. Just give me a chance and I'll level mountains and kill untold millions, make myself the dark queen of the world.

At least, that's what the world expects. Most of the other students in here would be delighted if Orion killed me like one more evil thing that's crawled out of the drains. Sometimes I think they want me to turn into the evil witch they assume I am. The school certainly does.

But the Scholomance isn't getting what it wants from me. And neither is Orion Lake. I may not be anyone's idea of the shining hero, but I'm going to make it out of this place alive, and I'm not going to slaughter thousands to do it, either.

Although I'm giving serious consideration to just one.]]> 321 Naomi Novik 0593128508 Allie 0 to-read 3.90 2020 A Deadly Education (The Scholomance, #1)
author: Naomi Novik
name: Allie
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/08/03
shelves: to-read
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]]> Cloud Cuckoo Land 56783258 When everything is lost, it’s our stories that survive.

How do we weather the end of things? Cloud Cuckoo Land brings together an unforgettable cast of dreamers and outsiders from past, present and future to offer a vision of survival against all odds.

Constantinople, 1453:
An orphaned seamstress and a cursed boy with a love for animals risk everything on opposite sides of a city wall to protect the people they love.

Idaho, 2020:
An impoverished, idealistic kid seeks revenge on a world that’s crumbling around him. Can he go through with it when a gentle old man stands between him and his plans?

Unknown, Sometime in the Future:
With her tiny community in peril, Konstance is the last hope for the human race. To find a way forward, she must look to the oldest stories of all for guidance.

Bound together by a single ancient text, these tales interweave to form a tapestry of solace and resilience and a celebration of storytelling itself. Like its predecessor All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr’s new novel is a tale of hope and of profound human connection.]]> 626 Anthony Doerr 1982168439 Allie 0 to-read 4.24 2021 Cloud Cuckoo Land
author: Anthony Doerr
name: Allie
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/08/03
shelves: to-read
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]]> Project Hail Mary 54493401
Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone.

Or does he?]]> 476 Andy Weir 0593135202 Allie 0 to-read 4.49 2021 Project Hail Mary
author: Andy Weir
name: Allie
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/08/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Invisible Husband of Frick Island]]> 55760893
As Seen on the TODAY SHOW

A Southern Living Best Beach Read * A PopSugar Best Book of May * An Us Weekly Summer Beach Staple * A Frolic Under-the-Radar Book of May * An OK Magazine Best Summer Beach Read * An EW Best Book of Spring * A Country Living Can't Miss Beach Read * A LibraryReads Pick for May * An Emily Giffin Book Club pick

Sometimes all you need is one person to really see you.

Piper Parrish's life on Frick Island—a tiny, remote town smack in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay—is nearly perfect. Well, aside from one pesky detail: Her darling husband, Tom, is dead. When Tom's crab boat capsized and his body wasn't recovered, Piper, rocked to the core, did a most peculiar thing: carried on as if her husband was not only still alive, but right there beside her, cooking him breakfast, walking him to the docks each morning, meeting him for their standard Friday night dinner date at the One-Eyed Crab. And what were the townspeople to do but go along with their beloved widowed Piper?

Anders Caldwell’s career is not going well. A young ambitious journalist, he’d rather hoped he’d be a national award-winning podcaster by now, rather than writing fluff pieces for a small town newspaper. But when he gets an assignment to travel to the remote Frick Island and cover their boring annual Cake Walk fundraiser, he stumbles upon a much more fascinating tale: an entire town pretending to see and interact with a man who does not actually exist. Determined it’s the career-making story he’s been needing for his podcast, Anders returns to the island to begin covert research and spend more time with the enigmatic Piper—but he has no idea out of all the lives he’s about to upend, it’s his that will change the most.

USA Today bestselling author Colleen Oakley delivers an unforgettable love story about an eccentric community, a grieving widow, and an outsider who slowly learns that sometimes faith is more important than the facts.]]> 368 Colleen Oakley 1984806491 Allie 3 3.72 2021 The Invisible Husband of Frick Island
author: Colleen Oakley
name: Allie
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2021/07/30
date added: 2021/07/30
shelves:
review:

]]> The Other Black Girl 55787677 Listening length: 12 hours and 30 minutes

Get Out meets The Devil Wears Prada in this electric debut about the tension that unfurls when two young Black women meet against the starkly white backdrop of New York City book publishing.

Twenty-six-year-old editorial assistant Nella Rogers is tired of being the only Black employee at Wagner Books. Fed up with the isolation and microaggressions, she's thrilled when Harlem-born and bred Hazel starts working in the cubicle beside hers. They've only just started comparing natural hair care regimens, though, when a string of uncomfortable events elevates Hazel to Office Darling, and Nella is left in the dust.

Then the notes begin to appear on Nella's desk: LEAVE WAGNER. NOW.

It's hard to believe Hazel is behind these hostile messages. But as Nella starts to spiral and obsess over the sinister forces at play, she soon realizes that there's a lot more at stake than just her career.

A whip-smart and dynamic thriller and sly social commentary that is perfect for anyone who has ever felt manipulated, threatened, or overlooked in the workplace, The Other Black Girl will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last twist.]]> 13 Zakiya Dalila Harris 1797124765 Allie 4 3.28 2021 The Other Black Girl
author: Zakiya Dalila Harris
name: Allie
average rating: 3.28
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/07/19
date added: 2021/07/19
shelves:
review:

]]> Razorblade Tears 57660923 here.

A Black father. A white father. Two murdered sons. A quest for vengeance.

Ike Randolph has been out of jail for fifteen years, with not so much as a speeding ticket in all that time. But a Black man with cops at the door knows to be afraid.

The last thing he expects to hear is that his son Isiah has been murdered, along with Isiah’s white husband, Derek. Ike had never fully accepted his son but is devastated by his loss.

Derek’s father Buddy Lee was almost as ashamed of Derek for being gay as Derek was ashamed his father was a criminal. Buddy Lee still has contacts in the underworld, though, and he wants to know who killed his boy.

Ike and Buddy Lee, two ex-cons with little else in common other than a criminal past and a love for their dead sons, band together in their desperate desire for revenge. In their quest to do better for their sons in death than they did in life, hardened men Ike and Buddy Lee will confront their own prejudices about their sons and each other, as they rain down vengeance upon those who hurt their boys.

Provocative and fast-paced, S.A. Cosby's Razorblade Tears is a story of bloody retribution, heartfelt change - and maybe even redemption.]]> 322 S.A. Cosby 1250252709 Allie 4 4.10 2021 Razorblade Tears
author: S.A. Cosby
name: Allie
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/07/19
date added: 2021/07/19
shelves:
review:

]]> Ace of Spades 57060159 Gossip Girl meets Get Out in Ace of Spades, a YA contemporary thriller by debut author Faridah Àbíké-Ãyímídé about two students, Devon & Chiamaka, and their struggles against an anonymous bully.

When two Niveus Private Academy students, Devon Richards and Chiamaka Adebayo, are selected to be part of the elite school’s senior class prefects, it looks like their year is off to an amazing start. After all, not only does it look great on college applications, but it officially puts each of them in the running for valedictorian, too.

Shortly after the announcement is made, though, someone who goes by Aces begins using anonymous text messages to reveal secrets about the two of them that turn their lives upside down and threaten every aspect of their carefully planned futures.

As Aces shows no sign of stopping, what seemed like a sick prank quickly turns into a dangerous game, with all the cards stacked against them. Can Devon and Chiamaka stop Aces before things become incredibly deadly?

With heart-pounding suspense and relevant social commentary comes a high-octane thriller from debut author Faridah Àbíké-Ãyímídé.]]> 421 Faridah Àbíké-Ãyímídé Allie 3 4.11 2021 Ace of Spades
author: Faridah Àbíké-Ãyímídé
name: Allie
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2021/07/13
date added: 2021/07/13
shelves:
review:

]]> Malibu Rising 55404546 Four famous siblings throw an epic party to celebrate the end of the summer. But over the course of twenty-four hours, their lives will change forever.

Malibu: August, 1983. It’s the day of Nina Riva’s annual end-of-summer party, and anticipation is at a fever pitch. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: Nina, the talented surfer and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other a renowned photographer; and their adored baby sister, Kit. Together, the siblings are a source of fascination in Malibu and the world over—especially as the offspring of the legendary singer, Mick Riva.

The only person not looking forward to the party of the year is Nina herself, who never wanted to be the center of attention, and who has also just been very publicly abandoned by her pro tennis player husband. Oh, and maybe Hud—because it is long past time to confess something to the brother from whom he’s been inseparable since birth.

Jay, on the other hand, is counting the minutes until nightfall, when the girl he can’t stop thinking about promised she’ll be there.

And Kit has a couple secrets of her own—including a guest she invited without consulting anyone.

By midnight the party will be completely out of control. By morning, the Riva mansion will have gone up in flames. But before that first spark in the early hours before dawn, the alcohol will flow, the music will play, and the loves and secrets that shaped this family’s generations will all come bubbling to the surface.

Malibu Rising is a story about one unforgettable night in the life of a family: the night they each have to choose what they will keep from the people who made them... and what they will leave behind.]]> 369 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1524798657 Allie 4 4.02 2021 Malibu Rising
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Allie
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/07/06
date added: 2021/07/06
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Fate of the Fallen (The Shroud of Prophecy, #1)]]> 43263191 The start of a brand new adventure from New York Times bestselling author Kel Kade

Not all stories have happy endings.

Everyone loves Mathias. Naturally, when he discovers it’s his destiny to save the world, he dives in head first, pulling his best friend Aaslo along for the ride.

However, saving the world isn’t as easy, or exciting, as it sounds in the stories. The going gets rough and folks start to believe their best chance for survival is to surrender to the forces of evil, which isn’t how the prophecy goes. At all. As the list of allies grows thin, and the friends find themselves staring death in the face they must decide how to become the heroes they were destined to be or, failing that, how to survive.]]> 352 Kel Kade 1250293790 Allie 0 to-read-own 3.70 2019 Fate of the Fallen (The Shroud of Prophecy, #1)
author: Kel Kade
name: Allie
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/07/06
shelves: to-read-own
review:

]]> Code Name Hélène 50089336 Code Name Hélène is a spellbinding and moving story of enduring love, remarkable sacrifice and unfaltering resolve that chronicles the true exploits of a woman who deserves to be a household name.

It is 1936 and Nancy Wake is an intrepid Australian expat living in Paris who has bluffed her way into a reporting job for Hearst newspaper when she meets the wealthy French industrialist Henri Fiocca. No sooner does Henri sweep Nancy off her feet and convince her to become Mrs. Fiocca than the Germans invade France and she takes yet another name: a code name.

As LUCIENNE CARLIER Nancy smuggles people and documents across the border. Her success and her remarkable ability to evade capture earns her the nickname THE WHITE MOUSE from the Gestapo. With a five million franc bounty on her head, Nancy is forced to escape France and leave Henri behind. When she enters training with the Special Operations Executives in Britain, her new comrades are instructed to call her ±áɳ¢Ãˆ±··¡. And finally, with mission in hand, Nancy is airdropped back into France as the deadly MADAM ANDRÉ, where she claims her place as one of the most powerful leaders in the French Resistance, armed with a ferocious wit, her signature red lipstick, and the ability to summon weapons straight from the Allied Forces.

But no one can protect Nancy if the enemy finds out these four women are one and the same, and the closer to liberation France gets, the more exposed she--and the people she loves--become.]]> 451 Ariel Lawhon 0385544685 Allie 5 4.39 2020 Code Name Hélène
author: Ariel Lawhon
name: Allie
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2021/06/11
date added: 2021/06/11
shelves:
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]]> Girls Like Us 45130998
Four teenage girls. Four different stories. What they all have in common is that they’re dealing with unplanned pregnancies.

It's the summer of 1972, before Roe v. Wade . In rural Georgia, Izella is wise beyond her years, but burdened with the responsibility of her older sister, Ola, who has found out she’s pregnant. Their young neighbor, Missippi, is also pregnant, but doesn’t fully understand the extent of her predicament. When her father sends her to Chicago to give birth, she meets the final narrator, Susan, who is white and the daughter of an anti-choice senator.]]> 313 Randi Pink 125015586X Allie 4 4.20 2019 Girls Like Us
author: Randi Pink
name: Allie
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2021/06/07
date added: 2021/06/07
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Darius the Great Is Not Okay (Darius the Great, #1)]]> 39083865 Darius doesn't think he'll ever be enough, in America or in Iran. Hilarious and heartbreaking, this unforgettable debut introduces a brilliant new voice in contemporary YA.

Darius Kellner speaks better Klingon than Farsi, and he knows more about Hobbit social cues than Persian ones. He's a Fractional Persian--half, his mom's side--and his first-ever trip to Iran is about to change his life.

Darius has never really fit in at home in Portland, and he just knows things are going to be the same in Iran. His clinical depression doesn't exactly help matters, and trying to explain his medication to his grandparents only makes things harder. Then Darius meets Sohrab, the boy next door, and everything changes. Sohrab introduces Darius to all of his favorite things--mint syrup and the soccer field and a secret rooftop overlooking the city's skyline. He gets Darius an Iranian National Football Team jersey that makes him feel like a True Persian for the first time. And he understands that sometimes, friends don't have to talk. Sohrab calls him Darioush--the original Persian version of his name--and Darius has never felt more like himself than he does now that he's Darioush to Sohrab.

By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, Adib Khorram's brilliant debut is for anyone who's ever felt not good enough--then met a friend who makes them feel so much better than okay.]]> 320 Adib Khorram Allie 4 4.37 2018 Darius the Great Is Not Okay (Darius the Great, #1)
author: Adib Khorram
name: Allie
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2021/06/03
date added: 2021/06/03
shelves:
review:

]]> How Lucky 54870216 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and Nothing to See Here, a first novel as suspenseful and funny as it is moving, the unforgettable story of a fiercely resilient young man living with a physical disability, and his efforts to solve a mystery unfolding right outside his door.

Daniel leads a rich life in the university town of Athens, Georgia. He's got a couple close friends, a steady paycheck working for a regional airline, and of course, for a few glorious days each Fall, college football tailgates. He considers himself to be a mostly lucky guy--despite the fact that he's suffered from a debilitating disease since he was a small child, one that has left him unable to speak or to move without a wheelchair.

Largely confined to his home, Daniel spends the hours he's not online communicating with irate air travelers observing his neighborhood from his front porch. One young woman passes by so frequently that spotting her out the window has almost become part of his daily routine. Until the day he's almost sure he sees her being kidnapped...]]> 290 Will Leitch 0063073099 Allie 4 3.71 2021 How Lucky
author: Will Leitch
name: Allie
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/06/01
date added: 2021/06/01
shelves:
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]]> The Lost Apothecary 53288434 A female apothecary secretly dispenses poisons to liberate women from the men who have wronged them - setting three lives across centuries on a dangerous collision course.

Rule #1: The poison must never be used to harm another woman.
Rule #2: The names of the murderer and her victim must be recorded in the apothecary’s register.

One cold February evening in 1791, at the back of a dark London alley in a hidden apothecary shop, Nella awaits her newest customer. Once a respected healer, Nella now uses her knowledge for a darker purpose - selling well-disguised poisons to desperate women who would kill to be free of the men in their lives. But when her new patron turns out to be a precocious twelve-year-old named Eliza Fanning, an unexpected friendship sets in motion a string of events that jeopardizes Nella’s world and threatens to expose the many women whose names are written in her register.

In present-day London, aspiring historian Caroline Parcewell spends her tenth wedding anniversary alone, reeling from the discovery of her husband’s infidelity. When she finds an old apothecary vial near the river Thames, she can’t resist investigating, only to realize she’s found a link to the unsolved “apothecary murders� that haunted London over two centuries ago. As she deepens her search, Caroline’s life collides with Nella’s and Eliza’s in a stunning twist of fate - and not everyone will survive.]]> 301 Sarah Penner 0778311015 Allie 2 3.72 2021 The Lost Apothecary
author: Sarah Penner
name: Allie
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2021
rating: 2
read at: 2021/05/02
date added: 2021/06/01
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Anna and the French Kiss (Anna and the French Kiss, #1)]]> 17453983
Anna is happy in Atlanta. She has a loyal best friend and a crush on her coworker at the movie theater, who is just starting to return her affection. So she's less than thrilled when her father decides to send her to a boarding school in Paris for her senior year.

But despite not speaking a word of French, Anna meets some cool new people, including the handsome Étienne St. Clair, who quickly becomes her best friend. Unfortunately, he's taken —and Anna might be, too. Will a year of romantic near misses end with the French kiss she's waiting for?

This is an alternate cover edition for ISBN 9780142419403.]]> 372 Stephanie Perkins Allie 5 4.01 2010 Anna and the French Kiss (Anna and the French Kiss, #1)
author: Stephanie Perkins
name: Allie
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2016/08/21
date added: 2021/05/23
shelves: france, light-reading, to-re-read
review:

]]> Know My Name: A Memoir 49944910
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.]]> 366 Chanel Miller Allie 5 4.66 2019 Know My Name: A Memoir
author: Chanel Miller
name: Allie
average rating: 4.66
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2021/03/11
date added: 2021/03/11
shelves:
review:

]]> Kindred 18889555 The visionary author’s masterpiece pulls us—along with her Black female hero—through time to face the horrors of slavery and explore the impacts of racism, sexism, and white supremacy then and now.

Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him. Dana is drawn back repeatedly through time to the slave quarters, and each time the stay grows longer, more arduous, and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not Dana's life will end, long before it has a chance to begin.]]> 264 Octavia E. Butler 0807083704 Allie 4 4.37 1979 Kindred
author: Octavia E. Butler
name: Allie
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1979
rating: 4
read at: 2021/03/01
date added: 2021/03/01
shelves:
review:

]]> The Four Winds 53138081 Texas, 1934. Millions are out of work and a drought has broken the Great Plains. Farmers are fighting to keep their land and their livelihoods as the crops are failing, the water is drying up, and dust threatens to bury them all. One of the darkest periods of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl era, has arrived with a vengeance.

In this uncertain and dangerous time, Elsa Martinelli—like so many of her neighbors—must make an agonizing choice: fight for the land she loves or go west, to California, in search of a better life. The Four Winds is an indelible portrait of America and the American Dream, as seen through the eyes of one indomitable woman whose courage and sacrifice will come to define a generation.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Nightingale and The Great Alone comes an epic novel of love and heroism and hope, set against the backdrop of one of America’s most defining eras—the Great Depression.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781250178602]]> 464 Kristin Hannah 1250178606 Allie 4 4.27 2021 The Four Winds
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Allie
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/02/26
date added: 2021/02/28
shelves:
review:

]]> Greenlights 52838315 From the Academy Award®–winning actor, an unconventional memoir filled with raucous stories, outlaw wisdom, and lessons learned the hard way about living with greater satisfaction.

I’ve been in this life for fifty years, been trying to work out its riddle for forty-two, and been keeping diaries of clues to that riddle for the last thirty-five. Notes about successes and failures, joys and sorrows, things that made me marvel, and things that made me laugh out loud. How to be fair. How to have less stress. How to have fun. How to hurt people less. How to get hurt less. How to be a good man. How to have meaning in life. How to be more me.

Recently, I worked up the courage to sit down with those diaries. I found stories I experienced, lessons I learned and forgot, poems, prayers, prescriptions, beliefs about what matters, some great photographs, and a whole bunch of bumper stickers. I found a reliable theme, an approach to living that gave me more satisfaction, at the time, and still: If you know how, and when, to deal with life’s challenges - how to get relative with the inevitable - you can enjoy a state of success I call “catching greenlights.�

So I took a one-way ticket to the desert and wrote this book: an album, a record, a story of my life so far. This is fifty years of my sights and seens, felts and figured-outs, cools and shamefuls. Graces, truths, and beauties of brutality. Getting away withs, getting caughts, and getting wets while trying to dance between the raindrops.

Hopefully, it’s medicine that tastes good, a couple of aspirin instead of the infirmary, a spaceship to Mars without needing your pilot’s license, going to church without having to be born again, and laughing through the tears.

It’s a love letter. To life.

It’s also a guide to catching more greenlights - and to realizing that the yellows and reds eventually turn green too.

Good luck.]]> 289 Matthew McConaughey 0593139135 Allie 4 4.21 2020 Greenlights
author: Matthew McConaughey
name: Allie
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2021/02/08
date added: 2021/02/08
shelves:
review:

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

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

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

An enchanting story, masterfully told, The House in the Cerulean Sea is about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place—and realizing that family is yours.]]> 394 T.J. Klune Allie 5 4.37 2020 The House in the Cerulean Sea (Cerulean Chronicles, #1)
author: T.J. Klune
name: Allie
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2021/01/30
date added: 2021/01/30
shelves:
review:

]]> My Dark Vanessa 44890081
2000. Bright, ambitious, and yearning for adulthood, fifteen-year-old Vanessa Wye becomes entangled in an affair with Jacob Strane, her magnetic and guileful forty-two-year-old English teacher.

2017. Amid the rising wave of allegations against powerful men, a reckoning is coming due. Strane has been accused of sexual abuse by a former student, who reaches out to Vanessa, and now Vanessa suddenly finds herself facing an impossible choice: remain silent, firm in the belief that her teenage self willingly engaged in this relationship, or redefine herself and the events of her past. But how can Vanessa reject her first love, the man who fundamentally transformed her and has been a persistent presence in her life? Is it possible that the man she loved as a teenager—and who professed to worship only her—may be far different from what she has always believed?

Alternating between Vanessa’s present and her past, My Dark Vanessa juxtaposes memory and trauma with the breathless excitement of a teenage girl discovering the power her own body can wield. Thought-provoking and impossible to put down, this is a masterful portrayal of troubled adolescence and its repercussions that raises vital questions about agency, consent, complicity, and victimhood. Written with the haunting intimacy of The Girls and the creeping intensity of Room, My Dark Vanessa is an era-defining novel that brilliantly captures and reflects the shifting cultural mores transforming our relationships and society itself.]]> 373 Kate Elizabeth Russell 006294150X Allie 4 4.09 2020 My Dark Vanessa
author: Kate Elizabeth Russell
name: Allie
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2021/01/13
date added: 2021/01/13
shelves:
review:

]]> Outlawed 50997696 In the year of our Lord 1894, I became an outlaw.

The day of her wedding, 17 year old Ada's life looks good; she loves her husband, and she loves working as an apprentice to her mother, a respected midwife. But after a year of marriage and no pregnancy, in a town where barren women are routinely hanged as witches, her survival depends on leaving behind everything she knows.

She joins up with the notorious Hole in the Wall Gang, a band of outlaws led by a preacher-turned-robber known to all as the Kid. Charismatic, grandiose, and mercurial, the Kid is determined to create a safe haven for outcast women. But to make this dream a reality, the Gang hatches a treacherous plan that may get them all killed. And Ada must decide whether she's willing to risk her life for the possibility of a new kind of future for them all.

Featuring an irresistibly no-nonsense, courageous, and determined heroine, Outlawed dusts off the myth of the old West and reignites the glimmering promise of the frontier with an entirely new set of feminist stakes. Anna North has crafted a pulse-racing, page-turning saga about the search for hope in the wake of death, and for truth in a climate of small-mindedness and fear.]]> 261 Anna North Allie 4
4.5/5 stars]]> 3.47 2021 Outlawed
author: Anna North
name: Allie
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/01/12
date added: 2021/01/13
shelves:
review:
I loved this book! I've been in the mood to read a Western for the longest time now and Outlawed definitely delivered. The only reason why i didn't give this 5 stars is because I would have liked to see the main character be either LGBTQ+ or a POC. I think it would've made the book even stronger if we could have seen her experiences from that perspective instead of her being white, straight, and ashamed of her barrenness.

4.5/5 stars
]]> In a Holidaze 52962226 Alternate cover edition can be found here

One Christmas wish, two brothers, and a lifetime of hope are on the line for hapless Maelyn Jones in In a Holidaze, the quintessential holiday romantic novel by Christina Lauren, the New York Times bestselling author of The Unhoneymooners..

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…but not for Maelyn Jones. She’s living with her parents, hates her going-nowhere job, and has just made a romantic error of epic proportions.

But perhaps worst of all, this is the last Christmas Mae will be at her favorite place in the world—the snowy Utah cabin where she and her family have spent every holiday since she was born, along with two other beloved families. Mentally melting down as she drives away from the cabin for the final time, Mae throws out what she thinks is a simple plea to the universe: Please. Show me what will make me happy.

The next thing she knows, tires screech and metal collides, everything goes black. But when Mae gasps awake…she’s on an airplane bound for Utah, where she begins the same holiday all over again. With one hilarious disaster after another sending her back to the plane, Mae must figure out how to break free of the strange time loop—and finally get her true love under the mistletoe.

Jam-packed with yuletide cheer, an unforgettable cast of characters, and Christina Lauren’s trademark hijinks, this swoon-worthy romantic read will make you believe in the power of wishes and the magic of the holidays.
]]> 336 Christina Lauren 1982163631 Allie 3 3.80 2020 In a Holidaze
author: Christina Lauren
name: Allie
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2021/01/07
date added: 2021/01/08
shelves:
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]]> Grown 50728856
When Enchanted Jones wakes with blood on her hands and zero memory of the previous night, no one—the police and Korey’s fans included—has more questions than she does. All she really knows is that this isn't how things are supposed to be. Korey was Enchanted’s ticket to stardom.

Before there was a dead body, Enchanted was an aspiring singer, struggling with her tight knit family’s recent move to the suburbs while trying to find her place as the lone Black girl in high school. But then legendary R&B artist Korey Fields spots her at an audition. And suddenly her dream of being a professional singer takes flight.

Enchanted is dazzled by Korey’s luxurious life but soon her dream turns into a nightmare. Behind Korey’s charm and star power hides a dark side, one that wants to control her every move, with rage and consequences. Except now he’s dead and the police are at the door. Who killed Korey Fields?

All signs point to Enchanted.

Award-winning author Tiffany D. Jackson delivers another riveting, ripped-from-the-headlines mystery that exposes horrific secrets hiding in the limelight and the power of a young woman’s voice.]]> 384 Tiffany D. Jackson 0062840371 Allie 4 4.27 2020 Grown
author: Tiffany D. Jackson
name: Allie
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2020/11/18
date added: 2020/11/18
shelves:
review:

]]> Looking for Alaska 49085770 Before. Miles “Pudge� Halter is done with his safe life at home. His whole life has been one big non-event, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave “the Great Perhaps� even more (Francois Rabelais, poet). He heads off to the sometimes crazy and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young. She is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart. Then. . . .
After. Nothing is ever the same.]]> 227 John Green Allie 3 3.99 2005 Looking for Alaska
author: John Green
name: Allie
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at: 2020/11/11
date added: 2020/11/11
shelves:
review:

]]> Educated 35133922
Her father forbade hospitals, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at home with herbalism. The family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education and no one to intervene when one of Tara's older brothers became violent.

Then, lacking any formal education, Tara began to educate herself. She taught herself enough mathematics and grammar to be admitted to Brigham Young University, where she studied history, learning for the first time about important world events like the Holocaust and the civil rights movement. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge. Only then would she wonder if she'd traveled too far, if there was still a way home.

Educated is an account of the struggle for self-invention. It is a tale of fierce family loyalty and of the grief that comes with severing the closest of ties. With the acute insight that distinguishes all great writers, Westover has crafted a universal coming-of-age story that gets to the heart of what an education is and what it offers: the perspective to see one's life through new eyes and the will to change it.]]> 352 Tara Westover 0399590501 Allie 3 4.46 2018 Educated
author: Tara Westover
name: Allie
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2020/10/22
date added: 2020/10/23
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue]]> 50623864
Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.

But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.]]> 448 Victoria E. Schwab 0765387565 Allie 4 4.16 2020 The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
author: Victoria E. Schwab
name: Allie
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2020/10/15
date added: 2020/10/16
shelves:
review:

]]> The Silent Companions 35458733 When newly widowed Elsie is sent to see out her pregnancy at her late husband's crumbling country estate, The Bridge, what greets her is far from the life of wealth and privilege she was expecting . . .

When Elsie married handsome young heir Rupert Bainbridge, she believed she was destined for a life of luxury. But with her husband dead just weeks after their marriage, her new servants resentful, and the local villagers actively hostile, Elsie has only her husband's awkward cousin for company. Or so she thinks. Inside her new home lies a locked door, beyond which is a painted wooden figure —a silent companion �-that bears a striking resemblance to Elsie herself. The residents of The Bridge are terrified of the figure, but Elsie tries to shrug this off as simple superstition--that is, until she notices the figure's eyes following her.

A Victorian ghost story that evokes a most unsettling kind of fear, this is a tale that creeps its way through the consciousness in ways you least expect--much like the silent companions themselves.]]> 305 Laura Purcell 014313163X Allie 0 to-read 3.86 2017 The Silent Companions
author: Laura Purcell
name: Allie
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/10/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[House of Salt and Sorrows (Sisters of the Salt, #1)]]> 39679076 In a manor by the sea, twelve sisters are cursed.

Annaleigh lives a sheltered life at Highmoor, a manor by the sea, with her sisters, their father, and stepmother. Once they were twelve, but loneliness fills the grand halls now that four of the girls' lives have been cut short. Each death was more tragic than the last—the plague, a plummeting fall, a drowning, a slippery plunge—and there are whispers throughout the surrounding villages that the family is cursed by the gods.

Disturbed by a series of ghostly visions, Annaleigh becomes increasingly suspicious that the deaths were no accidents. Her sisters have been sneaking out every night to attend glittering balls, dancing until dawn in silk gowns and shimmering slippers, and Annaleigh isn't sure whether to try to stop them or to join their forbidden trysts. Because who—or what—are they really dancing with?

When Annaleigh's involvement with a mysterious stranger who has secrets of his own intensifies, it's a race to unravel the darkness that has fallen over her family—before it claims her next.]]> 403 Erin A. Craig 1984831925 Allie 4 3.89 2019 House of Salt and Sorrows (Sisters of the Salt, #1)
author: Erin A. Craig
name: Allie
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2020/10/06
date added: 2020/10/07
shelves:
review:

]]>