Amanda's bookshelf: all en-US Sat, 05 Oct 2024 09:50:13 -0700 60 Amanda's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg The Beggar Queen 58728417 375 Kelly Evans Amanda 0 4.11 The Beggar Queen
author: Kelly Evans
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.11
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2024/10/04
date added: 2024/10/05
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Murder at an Irish Chipper (Irish Village Mystery, #10)]]> 157995320
Siobhán’s brother Eoin’s new family restaurant, The O’Sullivan Six, is so close to opening—but waiting on the necessary permits plus the heat of July in the village of Kilbane in County Cork is driving everyone a bit mad. Macdara Flannery comes to the rescue with a plan—take a holiday by the sea and stuff themselves with fish and chips to support the struggling business of the aptly named Mrs. Chipper.

But when they arrive, a crowd is gathered in front of the closed shop: a local fisherman with a fresh cod delivery, a food critic, Mrs. Chipper’s ex-husband who’s opening a competing fish and chips shop directly across the street, and a repairman to fix the vent for the deep fryer. With Siobhán and Macdara as witnesses, a local handyman gets the locked door open, only to find the proprietor lying dead and covered in flour at the base of a ladder, its rungs coated in slippery fat. Clearly this was not an accidental tragedy . . .

Even as the local garda take over the murder investigation, Siobhán and Macdara can’t help themselves from placing their long-delayed honeymoon on hold—at least until they can help apprehend an elusive killer.]]> 304 Carlene O'Connor 1496744446 Amanda 0 3.99 Murder at an Irish Chipper (Irish Village Mystery, #10)
author: Carlene O'Connor
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.99
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2024/10/01
date added: 2024/10/01
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]]> Never Lie 62080187
But when they visit the remote manor that once belonged to Dr. Adrienne Hale, a renowned psychiatrist who vanished without a trace four years earlier, a violent winter storm traps them at the estate� with no chance of escape until the blizzard comes to an end.

In search of a book to keep her entertained until the snow abates, Tricia happens upon a secret room. One that contains audio transcripts from every single patient Dr. Hale has ever interviewed. As Tricia listens to the cassette tapes, she learns about the terrifying chain of events leading up to Dr. Hale’s mysterious disappearance.

Tricia plays the tapes one by one, late into the night. With each one, another shocking piece of the puzzle falls into place, and Dr. Adrienne Hale’s web of lies slowly unravels.

And then Tricia reaches the final cassette.

The one that reveals the entire horrifying truth.]]> 286 Freida McFadden Amanda 0 4.09 2022 Never Lie
author: Freida McFadden
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2024/09/29
date added: 2024/09/29
shelves:
review:

]]> When We Were Friends 217107993 From New York Times bestselling author Jane Green comes a riveting story about a friendship that turns ugly when a woman realizes her new best friend is not what she seems.

By all accounts, Lucy’s handled her divorce well. She’s finally in the cozy, plant-filled house of her dreams. And although she doesn’t fit in with the other divorcées—all busy looking for their next ex—she’s excited to get down to earth and savor the small joys of life.

When Lucy meets Elle, a hip younger woman who shares her same passions, their connection is instant. Taking a chance on kismet, Lucy forges a friendship that fills her days with meaning. She and Elle are inseparable, from sunup to sundown, enjoying the immediate ease and familiarity of each other’s company.

But as Lucy introduces Elle to her circle, a new side of her friend appears. And try as she might, Lucy can’t ignore her misgivings. Who is Elle really? And can their all-consuming friendship survive closer inspection?]]> 44 Jane Green 1662518897 Amanda 0 3.45 2024 When We Were Friends
author: Jane Green
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/09/29
date added: 2024/09/29
shelves:
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]]> The Moonflowers 203689295 In a powerful and poignant novel, an artist unravels her mysterious family history and its generations of women who depended on each other to survive.

Tig Costello has arrived in Darren, Kentucky, commissioned to paint a portrait honoring her grandfather Benjamin. His contributions to the rural Appalachian town and his unimpeachable war service have made him a local hero. But to Tig, he’s a relative stranger. To find out more about him, Tig wants to talk to the person who knew her grandfather, Eloise Price, the woman who murdered him fifty years ago.

Still confined to a state institution, Eloise has a lifetime of stories to tell. She agrees to share them all—about herself, about Tig’s enigmatic grandmother, and about the other brave and desperate women who passed through Benjamin’s orbit. Most revealing of all is the truth about Whitmore Halls, the mansion on the hill that was home to triage, rescue, death, and one inevitable day that changed Eloise’s life forever.

As Tig begins to piece together the puzzle of her mysterious family tree, it sends her spiraling toward a confrontation with her own painful past—and a reconciliation with all its heartrending secrets.]]> 329 Abigail Rose-Marie 1662522983 Amanda 0 4.33 2024 The Moonflowers
author: Abigail Rose-Marie
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/09/29
date added: 2024/09/29
shelves:
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]]> Something in the Water 36388243 If you could make one simple choice that would change your life forever, would you?

Erin is a documentary filmmaker on the brink of a professional breakthrough, Mark a handsome investment banker with big plans. Passionately in love, they embark on a dream honeymoon to the tropical island of Bora Bora, where they enjoy the sun, the sand, and each other. Then, while scuba diving in the crystal blue sea, they find something in the water. . . .

Could the life of your dreams be the stuff of nightmares?

Suddenly the newlyweds must make a dangerous choice: to speak out or to protect their secret. After all, if no one else knows, who would be hurt? Their decision will trigger a devastating chain of events. . . .

Have you ever wondered how long it takes to dig a grave?

Wonder no longer. Catherine Steadman's enthralling voice shines throughout this spellbinding debut novel. With piercing insight and fascinating twists, Something in the Water challenges the reader to confront the hopes we desperately cling to, the ideals we're tempted to abandon, and the perfect lies we tell ourselves.]]> 342 Catherine Steadman 1524797189 Amanda 3 3.54 2018 Something in the Water
author: Catherine Steadman
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/21
date added: 2024/09/21
shelves:
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]]> Natural Selection 215950185
After a string of bad dates and no prospects, Sophia Othonos has finally hit the jackpot: an actual nice guy. When he suggests a romantic getaway, she’s sure they’re about to take the next step toward their future. A rustic cruise to the Galápagos Islands isn’t exactly her idea of a vacation, but Sophia is ready for anything…until her boyfriend has to cancel.

Now she’s all alone on a trip that was meant for two. Sophia finds herself at a crossroads about who she is, what she wants, and whether her relationship is really everything she thought. But if she’s going to suffer an identity crisis, at least she gets to do it amid the unexpected majesty of nature.

Eight days of wild, unobstructed beauty are enough to make anyone reevaluate their life. These islands are all about adapting to your surroundings—and change just might be what Sophia needs most of all.]]> 54 Elin Hilderbrand 1662521472 Amanda 0 3.63 2024 Natural Selection
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/09/07
date added: 2024/09/07
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High]]> 15014
When stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong, you have three choices: Avoid a crucial conversation and suffer the consequences; handle the conversation badly and suffer the consequences; or read Crucial Conversations and discover how to communicate best when it matters most. Crucial Conversations gives you the tools you need to step up to life's most difficult and important conversations, say what's on your mind, and achieve the positive resolutions you want. You'll learn how to:

Prepare for high-impact situations with a six-minute mastery technique
Make it safe to talk about almost anything
Be persuasive, not abrasive
Keep listening when others blow up or clam up
Turn crucial conversations into the action and results you want]]> 240 Kerry Patterson 0071401946 Amanda 0 4.04 2002 Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High
author: Kerry Patterson
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at: 2024/09/07
date added: 2024/09/07
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Making It Home: Life Lessons from a Season of Little League]]> 63139957 An achingly heartfelt and surprisingly funny memoir about family, grief, and moving forward by an award-winning writer and TV personality.

When her brother dies from cancer, and then her mother just four months later, Teresa Strasser has no one to mourn with but her irresponsible, cantankerous, trailerpark-dwelling father. He claims not to remember her chaotic childhood, but he's a devoted grandpa, so as her son embarks on his first season pitching in Little League, Teresa and Nelson form a grief group of two in beach chairs lined up behind the first base line.

There are no therapeutically trained facilitators and no rules other than those dictated by the Little League of America, and the human heart. For Teresa and her father, the stages of grief are the draft, the regular season, and the playoffs. One season of baseball becomes the framework for a memoir about family, loss, and the fundamentals of baseball and life. They cheer, talk smack about other teams, scream at each other in the parking lot, and care way too much about Little League.

Making It Home is a bracingly honest journey through grief, self-doubt, and anxiety armed with humor and optimism. After all, America's pastime may be just a game, but it always leaves room for redemption, even at the bottom of the lineup.]]> 352 Teresa Strasser 0593546083 Amanda 4 4.23 Making It Home: Life Lessons from a Season of Little League
author: Teresa Strasser
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.23
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/27
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves:
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I read this book for a book club and was worried it would be triggering as my father was in hospice care when I started the book and he passed away when I was about half way through. I found I was still able to laugh at the funny parts and cry at the appropriate sad parts. The book is well written and poignant. I did have to re-read some of the more intricate baseball passages as I went along being not well versed in the sport. They were not overly complex. It may have just been my fuzzy grief-ridden brain having trouble grasping those concepts.
]]> <![CDATA[Murder at an Irish Bakery (Irish Village Mystery, #9)]]> 61193064 In Ireland’s lush countryside locals are buzzing with excitement over the reality-TV baking contest coming to town—until someone serves up a show-stopping murder that only Garda Siobhan O’Sullivan can solve.

In Kilbane, opinions are plentiful and rarely in alignment. But there’s one thing everyone does agree on—the bakery in the old flour mill, just outside town, is the best in County Cork, well worth the short drive and the long lines. No wonder it's about to be featured on a reality baking show.

All six contestants in the show are coming to Kilbane to participate, and the town is buzzing with excitement. Aside from munching on free samples, the locals—including Siobhan—get a chance to appear in the opening shots. As for the competitors themselves, not all are as sweet as their confections. Shenanigans put everyone on edge on the first day of filming, but that’s nothing compared to day two, when the first round ends, and the top contestant is found face-down in her signature pie.

The producers decide to continue filming while Siobhan and her husband, Garda Macdara Flannery, sift through the suspects. Was this a case of rivalry turned lethal, or are their other motives hidden in the mix? And can they uncover the truth before another baker is eliminated—permanently?]]> 320 Carlene O'Connor 149673081X Amanda 0 3.79 2023 Murder at an Irish Bakery (Irish Village Mystery, #9)
author: Carlene O'Connor
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/08/06
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Murder on an Irish Farm (Irish Village Mystery, #8)]]> 58230482 In this enchanting new read in the fan-favorite series from a USA Today bestselling author, garda of County Cork, Ireland, Siobhán O’Sullivan and Macdaras Flannery, are about to get married at last. But just as the rowdy O’Sullivan brood and all the regulars of the local bistro have gathered at the church, the nuptials come to an abrupt halt when the discovery of an unidentified skeleton puts the wedding on pause�

If only her mother could be here! The entire O’Sullivan brood—not to mention the regulars from Naomi’s Bistro—have gathered at St. Mary’s Church for the wedding of Siobhán and Macdara. It’s not every day you see two garda marrying each other. Only Siobhán’s brother James is missing. They can’t start without him.

But when James finally comes racing in, he’s covered in dirt and babbling he’s found a human skeleton in the old slurry pit at the farmhouse. What farmhouse? Macdara sheepishly admits he was saving it as a wedding surprise: he purchased an abandoned dairy farm. Duty calls, so the engaged garda decide to put the wedding on hold to investigate.

James leads them to a skeleton clothed in rags that resemble a tattered tuxedo. As an elderly neighbor approaches, she cries out that these must be the remains of her one true love who never showed up on their wedding day, fifty years ago. The garda have a cold case on their hands, which heats up the following day when a fresh corpse appears on top of the bridegroom’s bones. With a killer at large, they need to watch their backs—or the nearly wedded couple may be parted by death before they’ve even taken their vows. . .]]> 336 Carlene O'Connor 1496730801 Amanda 0 4.04 2022 Murder on an Irish Farm (Irish Village Mystery, #8)
author: Carlene O'Connor
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2024/07/29
date added: 2024/07/30
shelves:
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]]> The Husbands 193781998 An exuberant debut, The Husbands delights in how do we navigate life, love, and choice in a world of never-ending options?

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

As Lauren tries to puzzle out how she could be married to someone she can’t remember meeting, Michael goes to the attic to change a lightbulb and abruptly disappears. In his place, a new man emerges, and a new, slightly altered life re-forms around her. Realizing that her attic is creating an infinite supply of husbands, Lauren confronts the question: If swapping lives is as easy as changing a lightbulb, how do you know you’ve taken the right path? When do you stop trying to do better and start actuallyĚýliving?]]> 352 Holly Gramazio 0385550618 Amanda 0 to-read 3.50 2024 The Husbands
author: Holly Gramazio
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/26
shelves: to-read
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]]> Before I Let You Go 35758169
As weeks unfold, Lexie finds herself caring for her fragile newborn niece while her carefully ordered life is collapsing around her. She’s in danger of losing her job, and her fiancé only has so much patience for Annie’s drama. In court-ordered rehab, Annie attempts to halt her downward spiral by confronting long-buried secrets from the sisters� childhood, ghosts that Lexie doesn’t want to face. But will the journey heal Annie, or lead her down a darker path?

Both candid and compassionate, Before I Let You Go explores a hotly divisive topic and asks how far the ties of family love can be stretched before they finally break.]]> 384 Kelly Rimmer 1525820842 Amanda 0 4.11 2018 Before I Let You Go
author: Kelly Rimmer
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at: 2024/07/21
date added: 2024/07/22
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Excalibur (The Warlord Chronicles, #3)]]> 68521 The Winter King and Enemy of God Bernard Cornwell demonstrated his astonishing ability to make the oft-told legend of King Arthur fresh and new for our time. Now, in this riveting final volume of The Warlord Chronicles, Cornwell tells the unforgettable tale of Arthur's final struggles against the Saxons and his last attempts to triumph over a ruined marriage and ravaged dreams.

This is the tale not only of a broken love remade, but also of forces both earthly and unearthly that threaten everything Arthur stands for. Peopled by princesses and bards, by warriors and magicians, Excalibur is the story of love, war, loyalty, and betrayal-the work of a magnificent storyteller at the height of his powers.
]]> 436 Bernard Cornwell Amanda 0 4.41 1997 Excalibur (The Warlord Chronicles, #3)
author: Bernard Cornwell
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.41
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at: 2024/07/15
date added: 2024/07/16
shelves:
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]]> Veridian Sterling Fakes It 199541083 In this colorful and humorous tale, a hopeful young painter finds herself embroiled in the world of art heists…and possibly responsible for the counterfeits needed to cover them up.

Freshly graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design, Veridian Sterling is ready to hang her work in any of the countless New York galleries that are sure to give her a show. The problem is only one will, and they’re not interested in her art so much as her personal assistant skills.

No glitz, no glam, and definitely none of the money she needs to help her struggling mother finally realize her dream of starting her own business after having sacrificed everything for Veri to go to art school. So when she overhears her new boss discussing the impressive finder’s fee for a lost Van Gogh, Veri takes matters into her own hands. Maybe her own artwork isn’t celebrated, but she knows how to copy what is, and maybe those skills can help lead to a discovery.

But when a famous art dealer takes her under his wing (and his charming driver takes her interest), Veri realizes she’s in deeper than she expected, and quite possibly with the wrong people. With her mother’s dreams and her own future at stake, Veri will have to pull out every trick she can think of to wipe her canvas clean and erase the mess she’s created before she goes down for someone else’s crimes.]]> 252 Jennifer Gooch Hummer 1662518986 Amanda 0 3.74 2024 Veridian Sterling Fakes It
author: Jennifer Gooch Hummer
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/06/23
date added: 2024/06/24
shelves:
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]]> You Deserve Good Gelato 198137983 You Deserve Good Gelato, covering everything from travel fails and homesickness to the joy of culture shocks and the power of doing the s*** that scares you. Because life is too short not to.

Kacie decided to leave her life as a pro dancer in New York City and move to Italy in 2021 - and she never looked back. Okay, that isn't strictly true...

In You Deserve Good Gelato, Kacie reflects on the pure terror of driving on Italian roads, the trials of speaking a new language (and getting it horribly, horribly wrong), and the genuine beauty of a slower pace of life, all with humor and heart. And by sharing her personal stories of life under the Tuscan sun, Kacie explains how travel is a privilege, why cultural differences are the coolest things in the world, and how there's a positive you can take away from literally any situation.

You Deserve Good Gelato will have you buying that ticket and embracing this big, beautiful world that we all call home.]]> 272 Kacie Rose 0593840437 Amanda 0 3.70 2024 You Deserve Good Gelato
author: Kacie Rose
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/06/22
date added: 2024/06/22
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]]> <![CDATA[Murder in an Irish Bookshop (Irish Village Mystery, #7)]]> 53930351
Despite the owner deliberately limiting his clientele, he’s hosting a reading and autographing event featuring up and coming Irish writers who will be taking up residency in Kilbane for a month. Among them is indie author Deirdre Walsh, who spends more time complaining about the unfairness of the publishing industry and megastar bestsellers instead of her own creative works, causing a heated debate among the writers. She seems to have a particular distaste for the novels of Nessa Lamb.

Then Deirdre’s body is found the next day in the back of the store—with pages torn from Nessa’s books stuffed in her mouth. Now, Siobhán must uncover which of Kilbane’s literary guests took Deirdre’s criticisms so personally they’d engage in foul play . . .]]> 258 Carlene O'Connor 1496730852 Amanda 0 4.06 2021 Murder in an Irish Bookshop (Irish Village Mystery, #7)
author: Carlene O'Connor
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2024/06/18
date added: 2024/06/18
shelves:
review:

]]> 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 Amanda 0 3.96 2020 The Midnight Library
author: Matt Haig
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2024/06/08
date added: 2024/06/08
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Curious Secrets of Yesterday]]> 157205597 A woman’s ambitions clash with familial expectations in a captivating novel about generational secrets and self-discovery by the bestselling author of The Candid Life of Meena Dave.

Raised by her mother and grandmother and tutored in the healing wonders of spices, Tulsi Gupta is expected to carry on the ancestral tradition from her family’s Salem spice shop. Restless and reluctant, Tulsi yearns to follow her own path—destiny has other plans.

When Tulsi finds a letter written by her grandmother, addressed and never sent, that speaks of a long-ago betrayal, she decides to unravel the mystery as a distraction. But Tulsi stumbles into much more than she bargained for. With each new discovery, she learns there’s much more to her mother and grandmother than their expertise in the remedial aromas of coriander and cloves. When an attractive neighbor begins renovating the shuttered deli next door, Tulsi finds the courage to break her routine and chase the unexpected.

As Tulsi digs into the past and secrets come to light, she’s determined to heal old family wounds and find her true purpose—and maybe even love—every step of the way.]]> 281 Namrata Patel Amanda 4 4.00 The Curious Secrets of Yesterday
author: Namrata Patel
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/30
date added: 2024/05/30
shelves:
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]]> All the Light We Cannot See 18143977
In a mining town in Germany, Werner Pfennig, an orphan, grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find that brings them news and stories from places they have never seen or imagined. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments and is enlisted to use his talent to track down the resistance. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another.

From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, the stunningly beautiful instant New York Times bestseller about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.

An alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here]]> 544 Anthony Doerr 1476746583 Amanda 0 4.31 2014 All the Light We Cannot See
author: Anthony Doerr
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at: 2024/05/25
date added: 2024/05/25
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Enemy of God (The Warlord Chronicles, #2)]]> 68524 397 Bernard Cornwell Amanda 0 4.40 1996 Enemy of God (The Warlord Chronicles, #2)
author: Bernard Cornwell
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.40
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at: 2024/05/25
date added: 2024/05/25
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Cleopatra's Daughter: From Roman Prisoner to African Queen]]> 61089553 The first modern biography of one of the most influential yet long-neglected rulers of the ancient world: Cleopatra Selene, daughter of Antony and Cleopatra.

“A vibrant, fascinating portrait of a great woman who deserves her place in the pantheon of Roman queens.� ―Emma Southon

As the only daughter of Roman Triumvir Marc Antony and Egyptian Queen Cleopatra VII, Cleopatra Selene was expected to uphold traditional feminine virtues; to marry well and bear sons; and to legitimize and strengthen her parents� rule. Yet with their parents� deaths by suicide, the princess and her brothers found themselves the inheritors of Egypt, a claim that placed them squarely in the warpath of the Roman emperor.

“Supported by a feast of visual and literary references� (Caroline Lawrence), Cleopatra’s Daughter reimagines the life of Cleopatra Selene, a woman who, although born into Egyptian royalty and raised in her mother’s court, was cruelly abandoned and held captive by Augustus Caesar. Creating a narrative from frescos and coinage, ivory dolls and bronzes, historian and archaeologist Jane Draycott shows how Cleopatra Selene navigated years of imprisonment on Palatine Hill―where Octavia, the emperor’s sister and Antony’s fourth wife, housed royal children orphaned in the wake of Roman expansion―and emerged a queen.

Despite the disrepute of her family, Cleopatra Selene in time endeared herself to her captors through her remarkable intellect and political acumen. Rather than put her to death, Augustus wed her to the Numidian prince Juba, son of the deposed regent Juba I, and installed them both as client rulers of Mauretania in Africa. There, Cleopatra Selene ruled successfully for nearly twenty years, promoting trade, fostering the arts, and reclaiming her mother’s legacy―all at a time, Draycott reminds us, when kingship was an inherently male activity.

A princess who became a prisoner and a prisoner who became a queen, Cleopatra Selene here “finally attains her rightful place in history� (Barry Strauss). A much-needed corrective, Cleopatra’s Daughter sheds new and revelatory light on Egyptian and Roman politics, society, and culture in the early days of the Roman Empire.

35 black-and-white illustrations]]> 336 Jane Draycott 1324092599 Amanda 0 currently-reading 3.73 2022 Cleopatra's Daughter: From Roman Prisoner to African Queen
author: Jane Draycott
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/11
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Tiger Chair 209608728 When China invades America, guerrilla warfare explodes on the streets of Los Angeles in this provocative short story about the future of war from Max Brooks, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of World War Z.

China thought it would be a quick war, an easy war. But now, years later, as the insurgency on the streets of Los Angeles escalates but the propaganda never changes, a Chinese officer can’t keep silent any longer. Torn between loyalty to his country and loyalty to his troops, he writes a brutally honest—and possibly suicidal—letter home to unmask the truth.

Brooks combines his signature meticulous research with unforgettable characters in this landmark work of speculative fiction.]]> 50 Max Brooks 1662524161 Amanda 0 3.56 2024 Tiger Chair
author: Max Brooks
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/05/08
date added: 2024/05/10
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Murder at an Irish Christmas (Irish Village Mystery, #6)]]> 53533254 The O'Sullivan clan of County Cork, Ireland, are back to investigate another case of murder--this time at Christmas!

Garda Siobhan O'Sullivan's holiday plans hit a sour note when murder rearranges the yuletide carols into unexpected eulogies...

This December in Kilbane, if you're planning to warm up with a cuppa tea at Naomi's Bistro, you may have a bit of a wait--the entire O'Sullivan brood has gone off to West Cork to spend the holidays with brother James's fiancee Elise's family, including her grandfather, the famous orchestral conductor Enda Elliot. Siobhan is so happy for James and Elise but also quietly disappointed that she must put her own wedding to fellow garda Macdara Flannery on hold. Mac will have to join them later, so he can spend part of the holidays with his mam.

When the O'Sullivans learn everyone will choose a name from a hat to buy a music-related Christmas gift for someone else at the gathering, it seems like their greatest concern--until the cantankerous conductor is discovered crushed under a ninety-pound harp in a local concert hall.

With the extended family--including Enda's much-younger new wife Leah, a virtuoso violinist--suspected in his murder, it's up to Siobhan to ensure the guilty party faces the music. But as a snowstorm strands both families in a lavish farmhouse on a cliff, Siobhan had better pick up the tempo--before the killer orchestrates another untimely demise...]]> 306 Carlene O'Connor 1496719123 Amanda 0 3.97 2020 Murder at an Irish Christmas (Irish Village Mystery, #6)
author: Carlene O'Connor
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2024/05/08
date added: 2024/05/10
shelves:
review:

]]> The Alone Time 63059875 For two sisters, confronting the past could come at a terrible price in a riveting novel about a family tragedy—and family secrets—by the #1 Amazon Charts bestselling author Elle Marr.

Fiona and Violet Seng were just children when their family’s Cessna crash-landed in the Washington wilderness, claiming the lives of their parents. For twelve harrowing weeks, the girls fended for themselves before being rescued.

Twenty-five years later, they’re still trying to move on from the trauma. Fiona repurposes it into controversial works of art. Violet has battled addiction and failed relationships to finally progress toward normalcy as a writer. The estranged sisters never speak about what they call their Alone Time in the wild. They wouldn’t dare—until they become the subject of a documentary that renews public fascination with the “girl survivors� and questions their version of the events.

When disturbing details about the Seng family are exposed, a strange woman claims to know the crash was deliberate. Fiona and Violet must come together to face the horrifying truth of what happened out there and what they learned about their parents and themselves. Before any other secrets emerge from the woods.]]> 316 Elle Marr Amanda 0 3.57 2024 The Alone Time
author: Elle Marr
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/05/10
date added: 2024/05/10
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]]> The Bootlegger's Daughter 177614940 317 Nadine Nettmann 166251557X Amanda 4 4.12 2024 The Bootlegger's Daughter
author: Nadine Nettmann
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/05
date added: 2024/05/06
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]]> Cut and Thirst 209411839 Three women scheme to avenge an old friend in a darkly witty short story about loyalty, ambition, and delicious retribution by Margaret Atwood, the #1 bestselling author of The Handmaid’s Tale.

Myrna, Leonie, and Chrissy meet every Thursday to sample fine cheeses, to reminisce about their former lives as professors, and lately, to muse about murder. Decades ago, a vicious cabal of male poets contrived—quite publicly and successfully—to undermine the writing career, confidence, and health of their dear friend Fern. Now, after Fern has taken a turn for the worse, her three old friends decide that it’s finally time to strike back—in secret, of course, since Fern is far too gentle to approve of a vendetta. All they need is a plan with suitably Shakespearean drama. But as sweet and satisfying as revenge can be, it’s not always so cut and dried.]]> 35 Margaret Atwood 1662523335 Amanda 0 3.13 2024 Cut and Thirst
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.13
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/05/01
date added: 2024/05/01
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]]> The Teacher 195967140 A mind-bending, psychological thriller from Freida McFadden, the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Housemaid!

Lesson #1: trust no one

Eve has a good life. She gets up each day, gets a kiss from her husband Nate, and heads off to teach math at the local high school. All is as it should be. Except�

Last year, Caseham High was rocked by a scandal involving a student-teacher affair, with one student, Addie, at its center. But Eve knows there is far more to these ugly rumors than meets the eye.

Addie can't be trusted. She lies. She hurts people. She destroys lives. At least, that's what everyone says.

But nobody knows the real Addie. Nobody knows the secrets that could destroy her. And Addie will do anything to keep it quiet.

From the New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden comes a story of twisting secrets and long-awaited revenge.]]> 379 Freida McFadden 1728296218 Amanda 0 3.82 2024 The Teacher
author: Freida McFadden
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/04/30
date added: 2024/05/01
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]]> <![CDATA[The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks]]> 6493208
Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave.

Now Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey, from the “colored� ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells; from Henrietta’s small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia � a land of wooden quarters for enslaved people, faith healings, and voodoo � to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live and struggle with the legacy of her cells.

Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality� until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family � past and present � is inextricably connected to the history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of.

Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family—especially Henrietta’s daughter Deborah, who was devastated to learn about her mother’s cells. She was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Did it hurt her when researchers infected her cells with viruses and shot them into space? What happened to her sister, Elsie, who died in a mental institution at the age of fifteen? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn’t her children afford health insurance?

Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences.]]> 370 Rebecca Skloot 1400052173 Amanda 0 4.12 2010 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
author: Rebecca Skloot
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/27
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]]> <![CDATA[Murder in an Irish Cottage (Irish Village Mystery, #5)]]> 48893306 Ěý
Family is everything to Siobhán: her five siblings; her dear departed mother for whom the family business, Naomi's Bistro, is named; and now her fiancé, Macdara Flannery. So precious is her engagement that Siobhán wants to keep it just between the two of them for a little longer.
Ěý
But Macdara is her family, which is why when his cousin Susan frantically calls for his help, Siobhán is at his side as the two garda rush from Kilbane to the rural village where Susan and her mother have recently moved. Unfortunately, tragedy awaits them. They find Susan, who is blind, outside the cottage, in a state. Inside, Aunt Ellen lies on her bed in a fancy red dress, no longer breathing. A pillow on the floor and a nearby teacup suggest the mode of death to their trained eyes: the woman has been poisoned and smothered. Someone wanted to make sure she was dead. But who?
Ěý
Devout believers in Irish folklore, the villagers insist the cottage is cursed—built on a fairy path. It turns out Ellen Delaney was not the first to die mysteriously in this cottage. Although the townsfolk blame malevolent fairies, Siobhán and Macdara must follow the path of a murderer all too human—but just as evil . . .]]> 304 Carlene O'Connor 1496719050 Amanda 0 3.87 2020 Murder in an Irish Cottage (Irish Village Mystery, #5)
author: Carlene O'Connor
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2024/04/14
date added: 2024/04/15
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]]> Don't Forget Me 123726328 When a body is presumed to be her missing husband’s, a woman must unravel the secrets of her own past to clear her name, find the truth, and put her conscience to rest once and for all.

All Ruby wanted was a fresh start. But after an early retirement and a relocation to a tight-knit community with her husband, Tom, and her daughter, Lily, her new beginning takes a turn.

First her troubled daughter and then her husband disappear without a trace. Unsure how to cope, grief-ridden Ruby turns to her neighborhood friends to find a way forward with new hobbies, including a murder club where they try to solve cold cases.

But just as unexpectedly as her family vanished, a body floats to the surface of the nearby lake.

And everyone is sure the body belongs to Tom…everyone except Ruby.

Determined to find out what happened to her family once and for all, Ruby digs into her neighbors� lives, and her own, only to uncover secrets that raise more questions than they answer. And the biggest question of all—why doesn’t she recognize the body?]]> 266 Rea Frey 1662513224 Amanda 0 4.00 2024 Don't Forget Me
author: Rea Frey
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/02/15
date added: 2024/04/05
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]]> Lovers at the Museum 204820050
Love, be it wild or tender, often defies logic. In fact, at times, the only rationale behind the instant connection of two souls is plain magic.

Bibiña Aranda, runaway bride, wakes up in the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao still wearing her wedding dress, draped in the loving arms of a naked man whose name she doesn’t know. She and the man with no clothes, Indar Zubieta, attempt to explain to the authorities how they got there. It’s a story of love at first sight and experience beyond compare, one that involves a dreamlike journey through the museum.

But the lovers� transcendent night bears no resemblance to the crude one Detective Larramendi attempts to reconstruct. And no amount of fantastical descriptions can convince the irritated inspector of the truth.

Allende’s dreamy short story has the power to transport readers in any language, leaving them to ponder the wonders of love long after the story’s over.]]> 25 Isabel Allende 1662522622 Amanda 0 3.47 2024 Lovers at the Museum
author: Isabel Allende
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/03/15
date added: 2024/04/05
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]]> The Monstrous Misses Mai 198190203 A determined young woman in 1950s Los Angeles walks a darker city than she ever imagined in a spellbinding novel about the power to make dreams come true―whatever the sacrifice.

Los Angeles brims with opportunity in 1959―though not for aspiring fashion designer Cordelia Mai Yin, the first-generation child of Vietnamese immigrants, who finds the city unkind to outsiders and as dispirited as her own family. When Cordi rents a cheap loft in an old apartment building, she quickly warms to kindred souls Tessa, Audrey, and Silly. They also want better things and have pasts they’d rather forget. That they all share the same middle name makes their friendship seem like destiny.

As supportive as they are of each other, it’s a struggle just to eke out a living, let alone hope to see their wishes for success come true. Until an ever-present and uncannily charming acquaintance of the landlord’s offers a solution to their problems. He promises to fulfill their every dream. All it takes is a little magic. And a small sacrifice.

As one surprisingly effective spell leads to another, their wishes get bigger. But so does the price they must pay. Amid the damaged seams of her life so far, Cordi must realize her own power in order to rip free, without losing everything she’s worked so hard to achieve.]]> 347 Van Hoang 166251784X Amanda 0 3.43 2024 The Monstrous Misses Mai
author: Van Hoang
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/03/08
date added: 2024/04/05
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]]> <![CDATA[The Winter King (The Warlord Chronicles, #1)]]> 68520 431 Bernard Cornwell Amanda 0 4.27 1994 The Winter King (The Warlord Chronicles, #1)
author: Bernard Cornwell
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1994
rating: 0
read at: 2024/04/04
date added: 2024/04/05
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]]> <![CDATA[Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe]]> 9375 Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe is a now-classic novel about two women: Evelyn, who is in the sad slump of middle age, and gray-headed Mrs. Threadgoode, who is telling her life story. Her tale includes two more women, the irrepressibly daredevilish tomboy Idgie and her friend Ruth who back in the thirties ran a little place in Whistle Stop, Alabama, offering good coffee, southern barbecue, and all kinds of love and laughter, even an occasional murder. And as the past unfolds, the present will never be quite the same again.]]> 416 Fannie Flagg 0375508414 Amanda 0 4.28 1987 Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
author: Fannie Flagg
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1987
rating: 0
read at: 2024/03/26
date added: 2024/04/05
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]]> <![CDATA[Murder in an Irish Pub (Irish Village Mystery, #4)]]> 45360744 When competing card sharps stir up Siobhán O'Sullivan's quiet Irish village, a poker tournament turns into a game of Hangman . . .

Naomi's Bistro, managed by the many siblings of the lively O'Sullivan brood, is the place to go for a cuppa tea in Kilbane. For a pint or a game of darts, it's the pub you want. But when Dublin card sharp Eamon Foley is found swinging from the rafters of Rory Mack's pub, it's time for the garda to take matters into their own hands. Macdara Flannery would lay odds it's a simple suicide, but Siobhán suspects foul play. With conflicting theories abounding, tensions are running high between Siobhán and Macdara. Soon it's up to Siobhán to call a killer's bluff, but if she doesn't play her cards right, she may be the next one taken out of the game . . .

"The intricate puzzle and continuing Irish atmosphere make this the series' best to date."
--Kirkus Reviews]]> 320 Carlene O'Connor 1496719077 Amanda 0 3.96 2019 Murder in an Irish Pub (Irish Village Mystery, #4)
author: Carlene O'Connor
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at: 2024/03/06
date added: 2024/03/08
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]]> <![CDATA[The Ten Thousand Doors of January]]> 43521657
Then she finds a strange book. A book that carries the scent of other worlds, and tells a tale of secret doors, of love, adventure and danger. Each page turn reveals impossible truths about the world and January discovers a story increasingly entwined with her own.]]> 374 Alix E. Harrow 0316421995 Amanda 5 3.99 2019 The Ten Thousand Doors of January
author: Alix E. Harrow
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/07
date added: 2024/03/08
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]]> Silver Girl 9503336
Desperate and facing homelessness, Meredith receives a call from her old best friend, Constance Flute. Connie's had recent worries of her own, and the two depart for a summer on Nantucket in an attempt to heal. But the island can't offer complete escape, and they're plagued by new and old troubles alike. When Connie's brother Toby - Meredith's high school boyfriend - arrives, Meredith must reconcile the differences between the life she is leading and the life she could have had.

Set against the backdrop of a Nantucket summer, Elin Hilderbrand delivers a suspenseful story of the power of friendship, the pull of love, and the beauty of forgiveness.]]> 416 Elin Hilderbrand 031609966X Amanda 0 3.88 2011 Silver Girl
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at: 2024/03/06
date added: 2024/03/08
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]]> Happy Place 61718053
They broke up six months ago. And still haven’t told their best friends.

Which is how they find themselves sharing the largest bedroom at the Maine cottage that has been their friend group’s yearly getaway for the last decade. Their annual respite from the world, where for one vibrant, blue week they leave behind their daily lives; have copious amounts of cheese, wine, and seafood; and soak up the salty coastal air with the people who understand them most.

Only this year, Harriet and Wyn are lying through their teeth while trying not to notice how desperately they still want each other. Because the cottage is for sale and this is the last week they’ll all have together in this place. They can’t stand to break their friends� hearts, and so they’ll play their parts. Harriet will be the driven surgical resident who never starts a fight, and Wyn will be the laid-back charmer who never lets the cracks show. It’s a flawless plan (if you look at it from a great distance and through a pair of sunscreen-smeared sunglasses). After years of being in love, how hard can it be to fake it for one week� in front of those who know you best?

A couple who broke up months ago make a pact to pretend to still be together for their annual weeklong vacation with their best friends in this glittering and wise new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.]]> 400 Emily Henry 0593441273 Amanda 0 3.95 2023 Happy Place
author: Emily Henry
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/02/25
date added: 2024/02/25
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]]> <![CDATA[Boy of Chaotic Making (Whimbrel House, #3)]]> 124985527 317 Charlie N. Holmberg 1662508735 Amanda 0 4.09 2024 Boy of Chaotic Making (Whimbrel House, #3)
author: Charlie N. Holmberg
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/02/22
date added: 2024/02/24
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]]> <![CDATA[The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors]]> 20821029
With vivid descriptions of the battle of Towton, where 28,000 men died in a single morning, to Bosworth, where the last Plantagenet king was hacked down, this is the real story behind Shakespeare's famous history plays.]]> 392 Dan Jones 0670026670 Amanda 0 4.26 2014 The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors
author: Dan Jones
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at: 2024/02/17
date added: 2024/02/17
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]]> <![CDATA[The Last White Rose (Tudor Rose #1)]]> 58735042 New York Times bestselling author Alison Weir explores the life of Henry VIII's mother, Elizabeth, the first queen of the Tudor dynasty, in this stunning historical novel.

Elizabeth of York is the oldest daughter of King Edward IV. Flame-haired, beautiful, and sweet-natured, she is adored by her family; yet her life is suddenly disrupted when her beloved father dies in the prime of life. Her uncle, the notorious Richard III, takes advantage of King Edward's death to grab the throne and imprison Elizabeth's two younger brothers, the rightful royal heirs. Forever afterwards known as the princes in the tower, the boys are never seen again. On the heels of this tragedy, Elizabeth is subjected to Richard's overtures to make her his wife, further legitimizing his claim to the throne. King Richard has murdered her brothers, yet she is obliged to accept his proposal.

As if in a fairy tale, Elizabeth is saved by Henry Tudor, who challenges Richard and kills him in the legendary Battle of Bosworth Field. In recognition of his victory, Henry becomes king and asks Elizabeth to be his wife, the first queen of the Tudor line. The marriage is happy and fruitful, not only uniting the warring houses of Lancaster and York--the red and white roses--but resulting in four surviving children, one of whom, Henry VIII, will rule the country for the next thirty-six years.

As in her popular Six Tudor Queens series, Alison Weir captures the personality of one of Britain's most important monarchs, conveying Elizabeth of York's dramatic life in a novel that is all the richer because of its firm basis in history.]]> 544 Alison Weir 0593355032 Amanda 0 3.97 2022 The Last White Rose (Tudor Rose #1)
author: Alison Weir
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2024/02/06
date added: 2024/02/10
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]]> Almost Surely Dead 180320288
Dunia Ahmed lives an ordinary life—or she definitely used to. Now she’s the subject of a true crime podcast. She’s been missing for over a year, and no one knows if she’s dead or alive. But her story has listeners obsessed, and people everywhere are sporting merch that demands “Find Dunia!� In the days before her disappearance, Dunia is a successful pharmacist living in New York. The daughter of Pakistani immigrants, she’s coping with a broken engagement and the death of her mother. But then something happens that really shakes up her someone tries to murder her. When her would-be killer winds up dead, Dunia figures the worst is over. But then there’s another attempt on her life…and another. And police suspect someone close to her may be the culprit. Dunia struggles to make sense of what’s happening. And as childhood superstitions seep into her reality, she becomes convinced that someone—or some thing —is truly after her.]]> 298 Amina Akhtar 1662507593 Amanda 0 3.69 2024 Almost Surely Dead
author: Amina Akhtar
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/02/08
date added: 2024/02/10
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]]> The Family 57234739
Two daughters. Two families. One inescapable fate.

Sofia Colicchio is a free spirit, a loud, untamed thing. Antonia Russo is thoughtful, ever observing the world around her. Best friends from birth, their homes share a brick wall and their fathers are part of an unspoken community that connects them all: the Family. Sunday dinners gather the Family each week to feast, discuss business, and renew the intoxicating bond borne of blood and love.

Until Antonia’s father dares to dream of a different life and goes missing soon after. His disappearance drives a whisper-thin wedge between Sofia and Antonia as they become women, wives, mothers, and leaders, all the while maintaining a complex and at times conflicted friendship. Both women are pushing against the walls of a prison made up of expectations, even as they remain bound to one another, their hearts expanding in tandem with Red Hook and Brooklyn around them. One fateful night their loyalty to each other and the Family will be tested. Only one of them can pull the trigger before it’s too late.]]> 368 Naomi Krupitsky 0525541993 Amanda 4 3.51 2021 The Family
author: Naomi Krupitsky
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/22
date added: 2024/01/22
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]]> <![CDATA[Murder in an Irish Churchyard (Irish Village Mystery, #3)]]> 35268750
After solving two murders in the County Cork village of Kilbane, Siobhán O’Sullivan has accepted her calling and decided to join the Garda Síochána. The O’Sullivan clan couldn’t be prouder, but there’s no time to celebrate as she’s already on another case, summoned by the local priest who just found a dead man in the St. Mary’s graveyard—aboveground.

He’s a stranger, but the priest has heard talk of an American tourist in town, searching for his Irish ancestor. As Siobhán begins to dig for a motive among the gnarled roots of the victim’s family tree, she will need to stay two steps ahead of the killer or end up with more than one foot in the grave.

“Captivating . . . Fans of mysteries with an Irish flavor will look forward to Siobhán and Macdara’s further adventures.”—Publishers Weekly]]> 401 Carlene O'Connor 1617738530 Amanda 4 4.06 2018 Murder in an Irish Churchyard (Irish Village Mystery, #3)
author: Carlene O'Connor
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/15
date added: 2024/01/15
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]]> <![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 Amanda 0 3.93 2016 Magpie Murders (Susan Ryeland, #1)
author: Anthony Horowitz
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at: 2024/01/13
date added: 2024/01/13
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]]> Last Night 57010537 From the Amazon Charts and New York Times bestselling author of The Shadow Box and Last Day comes a breathtaking thriller about a family shaken by lies, vengeance, and a cold-blooded crime.

A fierce blizzard is burying the eastern seaboard, but on the icy Rhode Island shore renowned artist Maddie Morrison finds warm sanctuary from a contentious divorce at the legendary Ocean House. Hours later, her body is found buried under a blanket of snow and her little daughter, CeCe, has disappeared without a trace.

For Detective Conor Reid; his brother, Tom, a coast guard commander; and Maddie’s grieving sister, Hadley, the posh hotel becomes ground zero for an investigation. Trapped by the blizzard, they must hunker down and determine who in the young mother’s life could have possibly wanted her dead. There are stories of a twisted romantic past. Of old jealousies and resentments that still cut to the bone. And a history of greed, rage, and revenge that created the perfect storm for murder. A storm that has just begun.]]> 329 Luanne Rice 1542030218 Amanda 5 4.06 2024 Last Night
author: Luanne Rice
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/08
date added: 2024/01/08
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]]> Remarkably Bright Creatures 58733693 Remarkably Bright Creatures, an exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope, tracing a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus.

After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she's been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors--until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late.

Shelby Van Pelt's debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.]]> 368 Shelby Van Pelt 0063204150 Amanda 4 4.35 2022 Remarkably Bright Creatures
author: Shelby Van Pelt
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/07
date added: 2024/01/07
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]]> <![CDATA[Murder at an Irish Wedding (An Irish Village Mystery, #2)]]> 31508477 "Any wedding is a big deal in the small village of Kilbane even more so when the bride is a famous fashion model. It s also good for business. Not only has customer traffic picked up at Naomi s Bistro, Siobhan O Sullivan and her five siblings have a full plate catering for the three-day affair. And Siobhan s own beau, local garda Macdara Flannery, gladly steps in as best man after the groom s first choice makes a drunken arse out of himself.
Even if he hadn t been disinvited to the wedding, the original best man wouldn t have been able to show. He s been found murdered in the woods, casting a pall over the nuptials. And when a second member of the wedding party is poisoned by a champagne flute engraved with Macdara s name, the garda goes from being best man to prime suspect.
With a killer at large and a string of robberies plaguing Kilbane, Siobhan feels more than a little protective of her village. She vows to clear Macdara s name, but the suspect list is as long as the guest list. Like the bride walking down the aisle, Siobhan needs to watch her step. For as she gets closer to unveiling the truth, the murderer is planning a very chilly reception for her . . .
PRAISE FOR "MURDER IN AN IRISH VILLAGE"
""
If Janet Evanovich and Maeve Binchy wrote a book together, "Murder in an Irish Village"would be the result. This one isdelicious fun. Laurien Berenson, author of"Live and Let Growl"
A lively debut . . . The cheeky and close-knit O Sullivans are sure to appeal to cozy fans, who will also appreciate the warmth and spirit of the people of Kilbane. "Publishers Weekly"
A smart whodunnit in an idyllic locale. I dare you not to be charmed by sleuth Siobhan and her siblings, the O Sullivan Six. Barbara Ross, author of"Fogged Inn"
""
This entertaining combination of Maeve Binchy s old-world Irish charm and Janet Evanovich s roguish humor is a smart, fast-paced read. Devotees of the Hibernian mysteries of Dicey Deere and M.C. Beaton will toast this debut with a pint of Guinness. Slainte! "Library Journal"]]> 304 Carlene O'Connor 1617738492 Amanda 4 3.97 2017 Murder at an Irish Wedding (An Irish Village Mystery, #2)
author: Carlene O'Connor
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/05
date added: 2024/01/06
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]]> <![CDATA[Murder in an Irish Village (An Irish Village Mystery, #1)]]> 28953387 369 Carlene O'Connor Amanda 0 3.87 2016 Murder in an Irish Village (An Irish Village Mystery, #1)
author: Carlene O'Connor
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/06
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Heir of Uncertain Magic (Whimbrel House, #2)]]> 61252380
Thanks to house tamer Hulda Larkin, the mischief infesting Whimbrel House has calmed. But if Hulda’s job is done, what does that mean for Merritt Fernsby, inheritor of the remote Narragansett Bay estate, who’s only now coming to terms with his enchanted place in the world?]]> 300 Charlie N. Holmberg 1662508689 Amanda 0 4.17 2023 Heir of Uncertain Magic (Whimbrel House, #2)
author: Charlie N. Holmberg
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/01
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]]> <![CDATA[The Plastic Magician (The Paper Magician, #4)]]> 35697528
Alvie Brechenmacher has arrived in London to begin her training in Polymaking—the magical discipline of bespelling plastic. Polymaking is the newest form of magic, and in a field where there is so much left to learn, every Polymaker dreams of making the next big discovery.

Even though she is only an apprentice, Alvie is an inventor at heart, and she is determined to make as many discoveries—in as short a time frame—as she can. Luckily for her, she’s studying under the world-renowned magician Marion Praff, who is just as dedicated as Alvie is.

Alvie’s enthusiasm reinvigorates her mentor’s work, and together they create a device that could forever change Polymaking—and the world. But when a rival learns of their plans, he conspires to steal their invention and take the credit for it himself.

To thwart him, Alvie will need to think one step ahead. For in the high-stakes world of magical discovery, not everyone plays fair…]]> 233 Charlie N. Holmberg 1542047927 Amanda 0 to-read 4.14 2018 The Plastic Magician (The Paper Magician, #4)
author: Charlie N. Holmberg
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Keeper of Enchanted Rooms (Whimbrel House, #1)]]> 60596112
Hulda Larkin of the Boston Institute for the Keeping of Enchanted Rooms has been trained in taming such structures in order to preserve their historical and magical significance. She understands the dangers of bespelled homes given to tantrums. She advises that it’s in Merritt’s best interest to make Whimbrel House their ally. To do that, she’ll need to move in, too.

Prepared as she is with augury, a set of magic tools, and a new staff trained in the uncanny, Hulda’s work still proves unexpectedly difficult. She and Merritt grow closer as the investigation progresses, but the house’s secrets run deeper than they anticipated. And the sentient walls aren’t their only concern—something outside is coming for the enchantments of Whimbrel House, and it could be more dangerous than what rattles within.]]> 347 Charlie N. Holmberg 1662500335 Amanda 0 4.15 2022 Keeper of Enchanted Rooms (Whimbrel House, #1)
author: Charlie N. Holmberg
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/01
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]]> <![CDATA[The Paper Magician (The Paper Magician, #1)]]> 20727654
Yet the spells Ceony learns under the strange yet kind Thane turn out to be more marvelous than she could have ever imagined—animating paper creatures, bringing stories to life via ghostly images, even reading fortunes. But as she discovers these wonders, Ceony also learns of the extraordinary dangers of forbidden magic.

An Excisioner—a practitioner of dark, flesh magic—invades the cottage and rips Thane’s heart from his chest. To save her teacher’s life, Ceony must face the evil magician and embark on an unbelievable adventure that will take her into the chambers of Thane’s still-beating heart—and reveal the very soul of the man.

From the imaginative mind of debut author Charlie N. Holmberg, The Paper Magician is an extraordinary adventure both dark and whimsical that will delight readers of all ages.]]> 222 Charlie N. Holmberg 1477823832 Amanda 0 to-read 3.61 2014 The Paper Magician (The Paper Magician, #1)
author: Charlie N. Holmberg
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/01
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Master Magician (The Paper Magician, #3)]]> 23485372
While all seems set for Ceony to complete her apprenticeship and pass her upcoming final magician’s exam, life quickly becomes complicated. To avoid favoritism, Emery sends her to another paper magician for testing, a Folder who despises Emery and cares even less for his apprentice. To make matters worse, a murderous criminal from Ceony’s past escapes imprisonment. Now she must track the power-hungry convict across England before he can take his revenge. With her life and loved ones hanging in the balance, Ceony must face a criminal who wields the one magic that she does not, and it may prove more powerful than all her skills combined.

The whimsical and captivating follow-up to The Paper Magician and The Glass Magician, The Master Magician will enchant readers of all ages.]]> 226 Charlie N. Holmberg 1477878696 Amanda 0 to-read 3.92 2015 The Master Magician (The Paper Magician, #3)
author: Charlie N. Holmberg
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/01
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]]> <![CDATA[The Glass Magician (The Paper Magician, #2)]]> 22341276
When a magician with a penchant for revenge believes that Ceony possesses a secret, he vows to discover it…even if it tears apart the very fabric of their magical world. After a series of attacks target Ceony and catch those she holds most dear in the crossfire, Ceony knows she must find the true limits of her powers…and keep her knowledge from falling into wayward hands.

The delightful sequel to Charlie N. Holmberg’s The Paper Magician, The Glass Magician will charm readers young and old alike.]]> 215 Charlie N. Holmberg 1477825940 Amanda 0 to-read 3.83 2014 The Glass Magician (The Paper Magician, #2)
author: Charlie N. Holmberg
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Killing the Witches: The Horror of Salem, Massachusetts]]> 65214203 With over 19 million copies in print and a remarkable record of #1 New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestsellers, Bill O'Reilly's Killing series is the most popular series of narrative histories in the world.

Killing the Witches revisits one of the most frightening and inexplicable episodes in American history: the events of 1692 and 1693 in Salem Village, Massachusetts. What began as a mysterious affliction of two young girls who suffered violent fits and exhibited strange behavior soon spread to other young women. Rumors of demonic possession and witchcraft consumed Salem. Soon three women were arrested under suspicion of being witches--but as the hysteria spread, more than 200 people were accused. Thirty were found guilty, twenty were executed, and others died in jail or their lives were ruined.

What really happened in Salem? Killing the Witches tells the horrifying story of a colonial town's madness, offering the historical context of similar episodes of community mania during that time, and exploring the evidence that emerged in the Salem trials, in contemporary accounts, and in subsequent investigations. The result is a compulsively readable book about good, evil, and how fear can overwhelm fact and reason.]]> 291 Bill O'Reilly 1250283329 Amanda 5 3.49 2023 Killing the Witches: The Horror of Salem, Massachusetts
author: Bill O'Reilly
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2023
rating: 5
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date added: 2023/12/31
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]]> The Light on Farallon Island 60661466
Thirty miles off the coast of San Francisco lie the Farallon Islands, known to sailors as the Devil’s Teeth. Despite their fearsome reputation, their remote nature appeals to young Lucy Riley, who in 1859 seeks a new start as a teacher to the lighthouse keepers� children.

But Lucy brings treacherous secrets with her, including a name that isn’t hers and a past she can’t escape. On the island, she meets Will Sisson, a mysterious man who seems to recognize her name—but not her face. Wary of Will at first, Lucy slowly starts to trust him.

As Lucy embeds herself in the island’s community, she discovers numerous dangers: deadly cliffs, shark-infested waters, and disorienting fogs. A dark presence of another sort, too, disguises an encroaching threat.

In this forbidding place, Lucy must find the courage to confront the perils of her past and the ever-present dangers of the world around her for the new life she’s sought to finally begin.]]> 358 Jen Wheeler 1662508999 Amanda 0 3.88 2023 The Light on Farallon Island
author: Jen Wheeler
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/28
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]]> The Life She Wanted 62066861
1926, Hyde Park, New York. Born to modest means but befriended by the wealthy, aspiring dress designer Pandora Carmichael has been surrounded by privilege yet never at home in it. That hasn’t stopped her from dreaming—of a romance in a rarified world that could also give her the status and resources to start a business of her own. When she’s introduced to a charismatic Princeton student, Pandora’s future begins to fall into place.

Marriage provides Pandora with a devoted husband, comfortable love, and the prominence and affluence to open a boutique. It’s a fantasy realized, until scandal and tragedy upend Pandora’s life and she flees Hyde Park with a heart-wrenching secret. As the Depression looms, Pandora must rethink everything she’s ever wanted.

From sprawling Gilded Age mansions in New York to the seedy underbelly of Greenwich Village and the stunning ocean vistas of the French Riviera, Pandora’s escape is a journey of self-discovery, adventure, true love, and ambition. There are new dreams to be had, and Pandora is betting on herself to make them come true.]]> 287 Anita Abriel 1662509812 Amanda 0 3.93 2023 The Life She Wanted
author: Anita Abriel
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/28
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]]> <![CDATA[The Dark Queens: The Bloody Rivalry that Forged the Medieval World]]> 59487969 The remarkable, little-known story of two trailblazing women in the Early Middle Ages who wielded immense power, only to be vilified for daring to rule.

Brunhild was a Spanish princess, raised to be married off for the sake of alliance-building. Her sister-in-law Fredegund started out as a lowly palace slave. And yet—in the 6th-century Merovingian Empire, where women were excluded from noble succession and royal politics was a blood sport—these two iron-willed strategists reigned over vast realms for decades, changing the face of Europe.

The two queens commanded armies and negotiated with kings and popes. They formed coalitions and broke them, mothered children and lost them. They fought a years-long civil war—against each other. With ingenuity and skill, they battled to stay alive in the game of statecraft, and in the process laid the foundations of what would one day be Charlemagne’s empire. Yet after Brunhild and Fredegund’s deaths—one gentle, the other horrific—their stories were rewritten, their names consigned to slander and legend.

In The Dark Queens, award-winning writer Shelley Puhak sets the record straight. She resurrects two very real women in all their complexity, painting a richly detailed portrait of an unfamiliar time and striking at the roots of some of our culture’s stubbornest myths about female power. The Dark Queens offers proof that the relationships between women can transform the world.]]> 384 Shelley Puhak 1635574927 Amanda 0 to-read 4.04 2022 The Dark Queens: The Bloody Rivalry that Forged the Medieval World
author: Shelley Puhak
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/12/28
shelves: to-read
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]]> Daughters of the Lake 36530830
One hundred years ago, a love story ended in tragedy, its mysteries left unsolved. It’s time for the lake to give up its secrets. As each mystery unravels, it pulls Kate deeper into the eddy of a haunting folktale that has been handed down in whispers over generations. Now, it’s Kate’s turn to listen.

As the drowned woman reaches out from the grave, Kate reaches back. They must come together, if only in dreams, to right the sinister wrongs of the past.]]> 321 Wendy Webb 1503956342 Amanda 0 4.02 2018 Daughters of the Lake
author: Wendy Webb
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/28
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review:

]]> The House in the Pines 60775542 A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK

Armed with only hazy memories, a woman who long ago witnessed her friend's sudden, mysterious death, and has since spent her life trying to forget, sets out to track down answers. What she uncovers, deep in the woods, is hardly to be believed....

Maya was a high school senior when her best friend, Aubrey, mysteriously dropped dead in front of the enigmatic man named Frank whom they'd been spending time with all summer.

Seven years later, Maya lives in Boston with a loving boyfriend and is kicking the secret addiction that has allowed her to cope with what happened years ago, the gaps in her memories, and the lost time that she can't account for. But her past comes rushing back when she comes across a recent YouTube video in which a young woman suddenly keels over and dies in a diner while sitting across from none other than Frank. Plunged into the trauma that has defined her life, Maya heads to her Berkshires hometown to relive that fateful summer--the influence Frank once had on her and the obsessive jealousy that nearly destroyed her friendship with Aubrey.

At her mother's house, she excavates fragments of her past and notices hidden messages in her deceased Guatemalan father's book that didn't stand out to her earlier. To save herself, she must understand a story written before she was born, but time keeps running out, and soon, all roads are leading back to Frank's cabin....

Utterly unique and captivating, The House in the Pines keeps you guessing about whether we can ever fully confront the past and return home.]]> 336 Ana Reyes 0593186729 Amanda 0 3.34 2023 The House in the Pines
author: Ana Reyes
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.34
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/12/28
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]]> <![CDATA[Katharine Parr, The Sixth Wife (Six Tudor Queens #6)]]> 55072446
Four years into the marriage, Henry dies, leaving England’s throne to nine-year-old Edward—a puppet in the hands of ruthlessly ambitious royal courtiers—and Katharine's life takes a more complicated turn. Thrilled at this renewed opportunity to wed her first love, Katharine doesn't realize that Sir Thomas now sees her as a mere stepping stone to the throne, his eye actually set on bedding and wedding fourteen-year-old Elizabeth. The princess is innocently flattered by his attentions, allowing him into her bedroom, to the shock of her household. The result is a tangled tale of love and a struggle for power, bringing to a close the dramatic and violent reign of Henry VIII.]]> 544 Alison Weir 1101966645 Amanda 0 4.39 2021 Katharine Parr, The Sixth Wife (Six Tudor Queens #6)
author: Alison Weir
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/12/28
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]]> Someone Else's Shoes 62971668 A story of mix-ups, mess-ups and making the most of second chances, this is the new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Jojo Moyes, author of Me Before You and The Giver of Stars.

Who are you when you are forced to walk in someone else’s shoes?

Nisha Cantor lives the globetrotting life of the seriously wealthy, until her husband announces a divorce and cuts her off. Nisha is determined to hang onto her glamorous life. But in the meantime, she must scramble to cope--she doesn’t even have the shoes she was, until a moment ago, standing in.

That’s because Sam Kemp � in the bleakest point of her life � has accidentally taken Nisha’s gym bag. But Sam hardly has time to worry about a lost gym bag--she’s struggling to keep herself and her family afloat. When she tries on Nisha’s six-inch high Christian Louboutin red crocodile shoes, the resulting jolt of confidence that makes her realize something must change—and that thing is herself.

Full of Jojo Moyes� signature humor, brilliant storytelling, and warmth, Someone Else’s Shoes is a story about how just one little thing can suddenly change everything.]]> 438 Jojo Moyes 1984879294 Amanda 0 3.88 2023 Someone Else's Shoes
author: Jojo Moyes
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/12/28
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]]> Gone Girl 21480930 560 Gillian Flynn 0553418351 Amanda 4 4.05 2012 Gone Girl
author: Gillian Flynn
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/04/04
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6)]]> 1 652 J.K. Rowling Amanda 5 4.57 2005 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2014/04/29
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]]> <![CDATA[Snow Flower and the Secret Fan]]> 1103
As the years pass, Lily and Snow Flower send messages on fans, compose stories on handkerchiefs, reaching out of isolation to share their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments. Together, they endure the agony of foot-binding, and reflect upon their arranged marriages, shared loneliness, and the joys and tragedies of motherhood. The two find solace, developing a bond that keeps their spirits alive. But when a misunderstanding arises, their deep friendship suddenly threatens to tear apart.]]> 269 Lisa See 0812968069 Amanda 5 4.06 2005 Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
author: Lisa See
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at: 2014/01/06
date added: 2014/01/06
shelves:
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]]> Dangerous Women 17279560 - Introduction by Gardner Dozois
- “Some Desperado� by Joe Abercrombie - A Red Country story
- “My Heart is Either Broken� by Megan Abbott
- “Nora’s Song� by Cecelia Holland
- “The Hands That Are Not There� by Melinda Snodgrass
- “Bombshells� by Jim Butcher - A Harry Dresden story
- “Raisa Stepanova� by Carrie Vaughn
- “Wrestling Jesus� by Joe R. Lansdale
- “Neighbors� by Megan Lindholm
- “I Know How to Pick ’Em� by Lawrence Block
- “Shadows For Silence in the Forests of Hell� by Brandon Sanderson - A Cosmere story
- “A Queen in Exile� by Sharon Kay Penman
- “The Girl in the Mirror� by Lev Grossman - A Magicians story
- “Second Arabesque, Very Slowly� by Nancy Kress
- “City Lazarus� by Diana Rowland
- “Virgins� by Diana Gabaldon - An Outlander story
- “Hell Hath No Fury� by Sherilynn Kenyon
- “Pronouncing Doom� by S.M. Stirling - An Emberverse story
- “Name the Beast� by Sam Sykes
- “Caretakers� by Pat Cadigan
- “Lies My Mother Told Me� by Caroline Spector - A Wild Cards story
- “The Princess and the Queen� by George R.R. Martin - A Song of Ice and Fire story]]> 736 George R.R. Martin Amanda 4 3.70 2013 Dangerous Women
author: George R.R. Martin
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2014/01/06
date added: 2014/01/06
shelves:
review:
I did not skip straight to Virgins by Diana Gaboldon (though I really wanted to and it was the reason I bought the book), I started at the beginning and worked my way through. I absolutely loved Virgins when I finally got to it! Diana Gabaldon does not disappoint. Several of the stories here felt more like a book excerpt rather than free standing short stories. By this I mean I was left feeling as if I was missing part of the backstory or I needed more closure. Some authors intrigued me and I may explore their other works after having read these. I had not read any of the other authors previously. I have been told I would like Game of Thrones. I will say one thing about the Game of Thrones novella contained herein: too many people with cry similar (or the same) names only makes the reader confused. There were at least three female characters with some variation of the name Rhaenyra, two Aegons, a Daemon, an Aemond and another with a similar name to those two. It was difficult for a new initiate to George RR Martin's works to follow the up story line. I really enjoyed Hell Hath No Fury by Sherrilyn Kenyon, Raisa Stepanova by Carrie Vaughn, Nora's Song by Cecelia Holland, and A Queen in Exile by Sharon Kay Penman. I was also intrigued by Name the Beast by Sam Sykes and look forward to exploring more of his works.
]]> The Lovely Bones 12232938
So begins the story of Susie Salmon, who is adjusting to her new home in heaven, a place that is not at all what she expected, even as she is watching life on earth continue without her -- her friends trading rumors about her disappearance, her killer trying to cover his tracks, her grief-stricken family unraveling. Out of unspeakable tragedy and loss, The Lovely Bones succeeds, miraculously, in building a tale filled with hope, humor, suspense, even joy.]]> 372 Alice Sebold 0316166685 Amanda 0 to-read 3.87 2002 The Lovely Bones
author: Alice Sebold
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/08/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood]]> 137791 383 Rebecca Wells 006075995X Amanda 5 3.86 1996 Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
author: Rebecca Wells
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1996
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2010/11/20
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]]> <![CDATA[Bridget Jones’s Diary (Bridget Jones, #1)]]> 227443 a. lose 7 pounds
b. stop smoking
c. develop Inner Poise

"129 lbs. (how is it possible to put on 4 pounds in the middle of the night? Could flesh have somehow solidified becoming denser and heavier? Repulsive, horrifying notion), alcohol units 4 (excellent), cigarettes 21 (poor but will give up totally tomorrow), number of correct lottery numbers 2 (better, but nevertheless useless)..."

"Bridget Jones' Diary" is the devastatingly self-aware, laugh-out-loud daily chronicle of Bridget's permanent, doomed quest for self-improvement � a year in which she resolves to: reduce the circumference of each thigh by 1.5 inches, visit the gym three times a week not just to buy a sandwich, form a functional relationship with a responsible adult - and learn to program the VCR.

Over the course of the year, Bridget loses a total of 72 pounds but gains a total of 74. She remains, however, optimistic. Through it all, Bridget will have you helpless with laughter, and � like millions of readers the world round � you'll find yourself shouting, "Bridget Jones is me!"]]> 288 Helen Fielding 014028009X Amanda 5 3.81 1996 Bridget Jones’s Diary (Bridget Jones, #1)
author: Helen Fielding
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1996
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2010/11/20
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]]> <![CDATA[The Devil Wears Prada (The Devil Wears Prada, #1)]]> 5139
Andrea Sachs, a small-town girl fresh out of college, lands the job “a million girls would die for.� Hired as the assistant to Miranda Priestly, the high-profile, fabulously successful editor of Runway magazine, Andrea finds herself in an office that shouts Prada! Armani! Versace! at every turn, a world populated by impossibly thin, heart-wrenchingly stylish women and beautiful men clad in fine-ribbed turtlenecks and tight leather pants that show off their lifelong dedication to the gym. With breathtaking ease, Miranda can turn each and every one of these hip sophisticates into a scared, whimpering child.

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA gives a rich and hilarious new meaning to complaints about “The Boss from Hell.� Narrated in Andrea’s smart, refreshingly disarming voice, it traces a deep, dark, devilish view of life at the top only hinted at in gossip columns and over Cosmopolitans at the trendiest cocktail parties. From sending the latest, not-yet-in-stores Harry Potter to Miranda’s children in Paris by private jet, to locating an unnamed antique store where Miranda had at some point admired a vintage dresser, to serving lattes to Miranda at precisely the piping hot temperature she prefers, Andrea is sorely tested each and every day—and often late into the night with orders barked over the phone. She puts up with it all by keeping her eyes on the prize: a recommendation from Miranda that will get Andrea a top job at any magazine of her choosing. As things escalate from the merely unacceptable to the downright outrageous, however, Andrea begins to realize that the job a million girls would die for may just kill her. And even if she survives, she has to decide whether or not the job is worth the price of her soul.]]> 384 Lauren Weisberger 0307275558 Amanda 5 3.82 2003 The Devil Wears Prada (The Devil Wears Prada, #1)
author: Lauren Weisberger
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2010/11/20
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #1)]]> 11
Together this dynamic pair begin a journey through space aided by quotes from The Hitchhiker's Guide ("A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have") and a galaxy-full of fellow travelers: Zaphod Beeblebrox--the two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie and totally out-to-lunch president of the galaxy; Trillian, Zaphod's girlfriend (formally Tricia McMillan), whom Arthur tried to pick up at a cocktail party once upon a time zone; Marvin, a paranoid, brilliant, and chronically depressed robot; Veet Voojagig, a former graduate student who is obsessed with the disappearance of all the ballpoint pens he bought over the years.

Where are these pens? Why are we born? Why do we die? Why do we spend so much time between wearing digital watches? For all the answers stick your thumb to the stars. And don't forget to bring a towel!]]> 216 Douglas Adams Amanda 4 4.21 1979 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #1)
author: Douglas Adams
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1979
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2010/11/20
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]]> Like Water for Chocolate 6952
The number one bestseller in Mexico and America for almost two years, and subsequently a bestseller around the world, Like Water For Chocolate is a romantic, poignant tale, touched with moments of magic, graphic earthiness, bittersweet wit - and recipes.

A sumptuous feast of a novel, it relates the bizarre history of the all-female De La Garza family. Tita, the youngest daughter of the house, has been forbidden to marry, condemned by Mexican tradition to look after her mother until she dies. But Tita falls in love with Pedro, and he is seduced by the magical food she cooks. In desperation, Pedro marries her sister Rosaura so that he can stay close to her, so that Tita and Pedro are forced to circle each other in unconsummated passion. Only a freakish chain of tragedies, bad luck and fate finally reunite them against all the odds.]]> 222 Laura Esquivel Amanda 5 3.96 1989 Like Water for Chocolate
author: Laura Esquivel
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1989
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2010/11/20
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]]> The Princess Bride 21787
As a boy, William Goldman claims, he loved to hear his father read the S. Morgenstern classic, The Princess Bride. But as a grown-up he discovered that the boring parts were left out of good old Dad's recitation, and only the "good parts" reached his ears.

Now Goldman does Dad one better. He's reconstructed the "Good Parts Version" to delight wise kids and wide-eyed grownups everywhere.

What's it about? Fencing. Fighting. True Love. Strong Hate. Harsh Revenge. A Few Giants. Lots of Bad Men. Lots of Good Men. Five or Six Beautiful Women. Beasties Monstrous and Gentle. Some Swell Escapes and Captures. Death, Lies, Truth, Miracles, and a Little Sex.

In short, it's about everything.]]> 429 William Goldman 0345418263 Amanda 4 4.27 1973 The Princess Bride
author: William Goldman
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1973
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2010/11/20
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]]> The Time Traveler's Wife 14050 537 Audrey Niffenegger 0965818675 Amanda 4 3.90 2003 The Time Traveler's Wife
author: Audrey Niffenegger
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2010/11/20
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review:

]]> Pride and Prejudice 1885 Pride and Prejudice has remained one of the most popular novels in the English language. Jane Austen called this brilliant work "her own darling child" and its vivacious heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, "as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print." The romantic clash between the opinionated Elizabeth and her proud beau, Mr. Darcy, is a splendid performance of civilized sparring. And Jane Austen's radiant wit sparkles as her characters dance a delicate quadrille of flirtation and intrigue, making this book the most superb comedy of manners of Regency England.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780679783268]]> 279 Jane Austen 1441341706 Amanda 4 4.28 1813 Pride and Prejudice
author: Jane Austen
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1813
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2010/11/20
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Twilight (The Twilight Saga, #1)]]> 41865
First, Edward was a vampire.

Second, there was a part of him - and I didn't know how dominant that part might be - that thirsted for my blood.

And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.

Deeply seductive and extraordinarily suspenseful, Twilight is a love story with bite.]]> 498 Stephenie Meyer 0316015849 Amanda 5 3.66 2005 Twilight (The Twilight Saga, #1)
author: Stephenie Meyer
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2010/11/20
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy]]> 480479
Frances Mayes entered a wondrous new world when she began restoring an abandoned villa in the spectacular Tuscan countryside. There were unexpected treasures at every turn: faded frescos beneath the whitewash in her dining room, a vineyard under wildly overgrown brambles in the garden, and, in the nearby hill towns, vibrant markets and delightful people. In Under the Tuscan Sun, she brings the lyrical voice of a poet, the eye of a seasoned traveler, and the discerning palate of a cook and food writer to invite readers to explore the pleasures of Italian life and to feast at her table.]]> 304 Frances Mayes 0767900383 Amanda 0 to-read 3.77 1996 Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy
author: Frances Mayes
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1996
rating: 0
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]]> Eat, Pray, Love 19501
Around the time Elizabeth Gilbert turned thirty, she went through an early-onslaught midlife crisis. She had everything an educated, ambitious American woman was supposed to want—a husband, a house, a successful career. But instead of feeling happy and fulfilled, she was consumed with panic, grief, and confusion. She went through a divorce, a crushing depression, another failed love, and the eradication of everything she ever thought she was supposed to be.

To recover from all this, Gilbert took a radical step. In order to give herself the time and space to find out who she really was and what she really wanted, she got rid of her belongings, quit her job, and undertook a yearlong journey around the world—all alone. Eat, Pray, Love is the absorbing chronicle of that year. Her aim was to visit three places where she could examine one aspect of her own nature set against the backdrop of a culture that has traditionally done that one thing very well. In Rome, she studied the art of pleasure, learning to speak Italian and gaining the twenty-three happiest pounds of her life. India was for the art of devotion, and with the help of a native guru and a surprisingly wise cowboy from Texas, she embarked on four uninterrupted months of spiritual exploration. In Bali, she studied the art of balance between worldly enjoyment and divine transcendence. She became the pupil of an elderly medicine man and also fell in love the best way—unexpectedly.

An intensely articulate and moving memoir of self-discovery, Eat, Pray, Love is about what can happen when you claim responsibility for your own contentment and stop trying to live in imitation of society’s ideals. It is certain to touch anyone who has ever woken up to the unrelenting need for change.]]> 368 Elizabeth Gilbert 0143038419 Amanda 0 to-read 3.64 2006 Eat, Pray, Love
author: Elizabeth Gilbert
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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]]> The Count of Monte Cristo 7126 The epic tale of wrongful imprisonment, adventure and revenge, in its definitive translation

Thrown in prison for a crime he has not committed, Edmond Dantès is confined to the grim fortress of If. There he learns of a great hoard of treasure hidden on the Isle of Monte Cristo and he becomes determined not only to escape, but also to use the treasure to plot the destruction of the three men responsible for his incarceration. Dumas� epic tale of suffering and retribution, inspired by a real-life case of wrongful imprisonment, was a huge popular success when it was first serialized in the 1840s.

Translated with an Introduction by Robin Buss

An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here]]> 1276 Alexandre Dumas 0140449264 Amanda 5 4.29 1846 The Count of Monte Cristo
author: Alexandre Dumas
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1846
rating: 5
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]]> The Odyssey 1381 Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns
driven time and again off course, once he had plundered
the hallowed heights of Troy.

So begins Robert Fagles' magnificent translation of the Odyssey.

If the Iliad is the world's greatest war epic, then the Odyssey is literature's grandest evocation of everyman's journey though life. Odysseus' reliance on his wit and wiliness for survival in his encounters with divine and natural forces, during his ten-year voyage home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, is at once a timeless human story and an individual test of moral endurance.

In the myths and legends that are retold here, Fagles has captured the energy and poetry of Homer's original in a bold, contemporary idiom, and given us an Odyssey to read aloud, to savor, and to treasure for its sheer lyrical mastery.

Renowned classicist Bernard Knox's superb Introduction and textual commentary provide new insights and background information for the general reader and scholar alike, intensifying the strength of Fagles' translation.

This is an Odyssey to delight both the classicist and the public at large, and to captivate a new generation of Homer's students.

--

Robert Fagles, winner of the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, presents us with Homer's best-loved and most accessible poem in a stunning new modern-verse translation.]]> 541 Homer 0143039954 Amanda 4 3.79 -700 The Odyssey
author: Homer
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.79
book published: -700
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[Little Women (Little Women, #1)]]> 1934 This is an alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780451529305.

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

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

]]> 449 Louisa May Alcott Amanda 4 4.16 1868 Little Women (Little Women, #1)
author: Louisa May Alcott
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1868
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (The Wicked Years, #1)]]> 37442 When Dorothy triumphed over the Wicked Witch of the West in L. Frank Baum's classic tale, we heard only her side of the story. But what about her arch-nemesis, the mysterious witch? Where did she come from? How did she become so wicked? And what is the true nature of evil?

Gregory Maguire creates a fantasy world so rich and vivid that we will never look at Oz the same way again. Wicked is about a land where animals talk and strive to be treated like first-class citizens, Munchkinlanders seek the comfort of middle-class stability and the Tin Man becomes a victim of domestic violence. And then there is the little green-skinned girl named Elphaba, who will grow up to be the infamous Wicked Witch of the West, a smart, prickly and misunderstood creature who challenges all our preconceived notions about the nature of good and evil.

]]> 406 Gregory Maguire 0060987103 Amanda 4 3.52 1995 Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (The Wicked Years, #1)
author: Gregory Maguire
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.52
book published: 1995
rating: 4
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]]> The Giving Tree 370493
So begins a story of unforgettable perception, beautifully written and illustrated by the gifted and versatile Shel Silverstein.

Every day the boy would come to the tree to eat her apples, swing from her branches, or slide down her trunk...and the tree was happy. But as the boy grew older he began to want more from the tree, and the tree gave and gave and gave.

This is a tender story, touched with sadness, aglow with consolation. Shel Silverstein has created a moving parable for readers of all ages that offers an affecting interpretation of the gift of giving and a serene acceptance of another's capacity to love in return.]]> 64 Shel Silverstein 0060256656 Amanda 5 4.38 1964 The Giving Tree
author: Shel Silverstein
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1964
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter, #5)]]> 2
Harry has had enough. He is beginning to think he must do something, anything, to change his situation, when the summer holidays come to an end in a very dramatic fashion. What Harry is about to discover in his new year at Hogwarts will turn his world upside down...]]> 912 J.K. Rowling Amanda 5 4.50 2003 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter, #5)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2003
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, #2)]]> 15881
And strike it does. For in Harry’s second year at Hogwarts, fresh torments and horrors arise, including an outrageously stuck-up new professor and a spirit who haunts the girls� bathroom. But then the real trouble begins � someone is turning Hogwarts students to stone. Could it be Draco Malfoy, a more poisonous rival than ever? Could it possibly be Hagrid, whose mysterious past is finally told? Or could it be the one everyone at Hogwarts most suspects� Harry Potter himself!]]> 352 J.K. Rowling Amanda 5 4.42 1998 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, #2)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.42
book published: 1998
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter, #3)]]> 5 435 J.K. Rowling 043965548X Amanda 5 4.57 1999 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter, #3)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.57
book published: 1999
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4)]]> 6 734 J.K. Rowling 0439139597 Amanda 5 4.56 2000 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2000
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Good in Bed (Cannie Shapiro, #1)]]> 14748
For twenty-eight years, things have been tripping along nicely for Cannie Shapiro. Sure, her mother has come charging out of the closet, and her father has long since dropped out of her world. But she loves her friends, her rat terrier, Nifkin, and her job as pop culture reporter for The Philadelphia Examiner. She's even made a tenuous peace with her plus-size body.

But the day she opens up a national women's magazine and sees the words "Loving a Larger Woman" above her ex-boyfriend's byline, Cannie is plunged into misery...and the most amazing year of her life. From Philadelphia to Hollywood and back home again, she charts a new course for herself: mourning her losses, facing her past, and figuring out who she is and who she can become.]]> 376 Jennifer Weiner 0743418174 Amanda 4 3.76 2002 Good in Bed (Cannie Shapiro, #1)
author: Jennifer Weiner
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2002
rating: 4
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]]> Fahrenheit 451 4381 158 Ray Bradbury 0307347974 Amanda 4 3.96 1953 Fahrenheit 451
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1953
rating: 4
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]]> 1984 5470 328 George Orwell Amanda 4 4.15 1949 1984
author: George Orwell
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1949
rating: 4
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]]> Outlander (Outlander, #1) 10964
Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire is catapulted into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life, and shatter her heart. For here James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire—and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.]]> 850 Diana Gabaldon 0440242940 Amanda 5 4.25 1991 Outlander (Outlander, #1)
author: Diana Gabaldon
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1991
rating: 5
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]]> Gone with the Wind 18405 1037 Margaret Mitchell 0446365386 Amanda 4 4.30 1936 Gone with the Wind
author: Margaret Mitchell
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1936
rating: 4
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]]> Sense and Sensibility 14935 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780141439662

'The more I know of the world, the more am I convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love. I require so much!'

Marianne Dashwood wears her heart on her sleeve, and when she falls in love with the dashing but unsuitable John Willoughby she ignores her sister Elinor's warning that her impulsive behaviour leaves her open to gossip and innuendo. Meanwhile Elinor, always sensitive to social convention, is struggling to conceal her own romantic disappointment, even from those closest to her. Through their parallel experience of love—and its threatened loss—the sisters learn that sense must mix with sensibility if they are to find personal happiness in a society where status and money govern the rules of love.

This edition includes explanatory notes, textual variants between the first and second editions, and Tony Tanner's introduction to the original Penguin Classic edition.]]> 409 Jane Austen 0141439661 Amanda 5 4.10 1811 Sense and Sensibility
author: Jane Austen
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1811
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Eragon (The Inheritance Cycle #1)]]> 113436 An alternate cover edition for ISBN 9780375826696 can be found here.

One boy...
One dragon...
A world of adventure.

When Eragon finds a polished blue stone in the forest, he thinks it is the lucky discovery of a poor farm boy; perhaps it will buy his family meat for the winter. But when the stone brings a dragon hatchling, Eragon soon realizes he has stumbled upon a legacy nearly as old as the Empire itself.

Overnight his simple life is shattered, and he is thrust into a perilous new world of destiny, magic, and power. With only an ancient sword and the advice of an old storyteller for guidance, Eragon and the fledgling dragon must navigate the dangerous terrain and dark enemies of an Empire ruled by a king whose evil knows no bounds.

Can Eragon take up the mantle of the legendary Dragon Riders? The fate of the Empire may rest in his hands.]]> 503 Christopher Paolini 0375826696 Amanda 5 3.96 2002 Eragon (The Inheritance Cycle #1)
author: Christopher Paolini
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2002
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1)]]> 119322
Can one small girl make a difference in such great and terrible endeavors? This is Lyra: a savage, a schemer, a liar, and as fierce and true a champion as Roger or Asriel could want--but what Lyra doesn't know is that to help one of them will be to betray the other.]]> 399 Philip Pullman 0679879242 Amanda 5 4.02 1995 The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1)
author: Philip Pullman
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1995
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[The Hobbit, or There and Back Again]]> 5907 Written for J.R.R. Tolkien’s own children, The Hobbit met with instant critical acclaim when it was first published in 1937. Now recognized as a timeless classic, this introduction to the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, the wizard Gandalf, Gollum, and the spectacular world of Middle-earth recounts of the adventures of a reluctant hero, a powerful and dangerous ring, and the cruel dragon Smaug the Magnificent. The text in this 372-page paperback edition is based on that first published in Great Britain by Collins Modern Classics (1998), and includes a note on the text by Douglas A. Anderson (2001).]]> 366 J.R.R. Tolkien Amanda 5 4.29 1937 The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
author: J.R.R. Tolkien
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average rating: 4.29
book published: 1937
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1)]]> 34
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkeness bind them

In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, The Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell into the hands of Bilbo Baggins, as told in The Hobbit.

In a sleepy village in the Shire, young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense task, as his elderly cousin Bilbo entrusts the Ring to his care. Frodo must leave his home and make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the Ring and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose.
--back cover]]> 398 J.R.R. Tolkien 0618346252 Amanda 5 4.36 1954 The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1)
author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.36
book published: 1954
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, #1)]]> 3 309 J.K. Rowling 0439554934 Amanda 5 4.47 1997 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, #1)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.47
book published: 1997
rating: 5
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]]>