Barbara's bookshelf: all en-US Fri, 25 Oct 2024 09:46:03 -0700 60 Barbara's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Hello Beautiful 61771675
But then darkness from William’s past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia’s carefully orchestrated plans for their future, but the sisters� unshakeable devotion to one another. The result is a catastrophic family rift that changes their lives for generations. Will the loyalty that once rooted them be strong enough to draw them back together when it matters most?]]> 416 Ann Napolitano Barbara 0 4.14 2023 Hello Beautiful
author: Ann Napolitano
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/10/25
date added: 2024/10/25
shelves:
review:

]]> Yellowface 62047984
So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? This piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller. That is what June believes, and The New York Times bestseller list agrees.

But June cannot escape Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens her stolen success. As she races to protect her secret she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.]]> 319 R.F. Kuang 000853277X Barbara 0 to-read 3.69 2023 Yellowface
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/18
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Overstory 40180098 The Overstory is a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of - and paean to - the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, Richard Powers’s twelfth novel unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. There is a world alongside ours—vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe.

A New York Times Bestseller.]]> 502 Richard Powers 039335668X Barbara 5 4.10 2018 The Overstory
author: Richard Powers
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/18
date added: 2024/01/18
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations]]> 36700347 Good Talk delves into the difficult conversations about race, sex, love, and family that seem to be unavoidable these days.

Inspired by her popular BuzzFeed piece "37 Difficult Questions from My Mixed-Raced Son," here are Jacob's responses to her six-year-old, Zakir, who asks if the new president hates brown boys like him; uncomfortable relationship advice from her parents, who came to the United States from India one month into their arranged marriage; and the imaginary therapy sessions she has with celebrities from Bill Murray to Madonna. Jacob also investigates her own past, from her memories of being the only non-white fifth grader to win a Daughters of the American Revolution essay contest to how it felt to be a brown-skinned New Yorker on 9/11. As earnest and moving as they are sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, these are the stories that have formed one American life.]]> 349 Mira Jacob 039958904X Barbara 0 4.45 2019 Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations
author: Mira Jacob
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/21
shelves:
review:

]]> Wrong Place Wrong Time 59947696
It is midnight on the morning of Halloween, and Jen anxiously waits up for her 18-year-old son, Todd, to return home. But worries about his broken curfew transform into something much more dangerous when Todd finally emerges from the darkness. As Jen watches through the window, she sees her funny, seemingly happy teenage son stab a total stranger.

She doesn’t know who the victim is, or why Todd has committed such a devastating act of violence. All she knows is that her life, and Todd’s, have been shattered.

After her son is taken into custody, Jen falls asleep in despair. But when she wakes up� it is yesterday. The murder has not happened yet—and there may be a chance to stop it. Each morning, when Jen wakes, she is further back in the past, first weeks, then years, before the murder. And Jen realizes that somewhere in the past lies the trigger for Todd’s terrible crime…and it is her mission to find it, and prevent it from taking place.]]> 416 Gillian McAllister 0063252341 Barbara 0 3.95 2022 Wrong Place Wrong Time
author: Gillian McAllister
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/20
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]]> The Marriage Portrait 60353768 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

The author of award-winning Hamnet brings the world of Renaissance Italy to jewel-bright life in this unforgettable fictional portrait of the captivating young duchess Lucrezia de� Medici as she makes her way in a troubled court.

Florence, the 1550s. Lucrezia, third daughter of the grand duke, is comfortable with her obscure place in the palazzo: free to wonder at its treasures, observe its clandestine workings, and devote herself to her own artistic pursuits. But when her older sister dies on the eve of her wedding to the ruler of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, Lucrezia is thrust unwittingly into the limelight: the duke is quick to request her hand in marriage, and her father just as quick to accept on her behalf.

Having barely left girlhood behind, Lucrezia must now enter an unfamiliar court whose customs are opaque and where her arrival is not universally welcomed. Perhaps most mystifying of all is her new husband himself, Alfonso. Is he the playful sophisticate he appeared to be before their wedding, the aesthete happiest in the company of artists and musicians, or the ruthless politician before whom even his formidable sisters seem to tremble?

As Lucrezia sits in constricting finery for a painting intended to preserve her image for centuries to come, one thing becomes worryingly clear. In the court’s eyes, she has one duty: to provide the heir who will shore up the future of the Ferranese dynasty. Until then, for all of her rank and nobility, the new duchess’s future hangs entirely in the balance.

Full of the beauty and emotion with which she illuminated the Shakespearean canvas of Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell turns her talents to Renaissance Italy in an extraordinary portrait of a resilient young woman’s battle for her very survival.]]> 355 Maggie O'Farrell Barbara 0 3.97 2022 The Marriage Portrait
author: Maggie O'Farrell
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/05/08
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[This Is Not a Book About Benedict Cumberbatch: The Joy of Loving Something--Anything--Like Your Life Depends On It]]> 58936417 Why We Can't Sleep meets Furiously Happy in this hilarious, heartfelt memoir about one woman's midlife obsession with Benedict Cumberbatch, and the liberating power of reclaiming our passions as we age, whatever they may be.

Tabitha Carvan was a new mother, at home with two young children, when she fell for the actor Benedict Cumberbatch. You know the guy: strange name, alien face, made Sherlock so sexy that it became one of the most streamed shows in the world? The force of her fixation took everyone--especially Carvan herself--by surprise. But what she slowly realized was that her preoccupation was not about Benedict Cumberbatch at all, as dashing as he might be. It was about finally feeling passionate about something, anything, again at a point in her life when she had lost touch with her own identity and sense of self.

In This Is Not a Book About Benedict Cumberbatch, Carvan explores what happens to women's desires after we leave adolescence...and why the space in our lives for pure, unadulterated joy is squeezed ever smaller as we age. She shines a light onto the hidden corners of fandom, from the passion of the online communities to the profound real-world connections forged between Cumberbatch devotees. But more importantly, she asks: what happens if we simply decide to follow our interests like we used to--unabashedly, audaciously, shamelessly? After all, Carvan realizes, there's true, untapped power in finding your "thing" (even if that thing happens to be a British-born Marvel superhero) and loving it like your life depends on it.
]]> 256 Tabitha Carvan 0593421914 Barbara 0 to-read 3.80 2022 This Is Not a Book About Benedict Cumberbatch: The Joy of Loving Something--Anything--Like Your Life Depends On It
author: Tabitha Carvan
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/28
shelves: to-read
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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 Barbara 0 to-read 4.35 2022 Remarkably Bright Creatures
author: Shelby Van Pelt
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/09
shelves: to-read
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]]> Dark on Light 60320567
Gentle the evening. Sweeping the skies.
Dark the shadows as twilight arrives.
Rose the horizon, gleaming and bright.
Twilight and evening and dark on light.

When the family dog trots away from the house at sunset, three siblings tumble out the door to go find him. Soon they find themselves immersed in the luminous colors, shades, and shadows of nature at night—both dark and light. They wander through moonlit lavender meadows, past a timid fawn, beneath a snowy white owl, and much, much more as the night deepens until, at last, they find their sneaky pup.

With beautiful illustrations by Felicita Sala and lyrical text by Dianne White that’s perfect for reading aloud, this book invites young readers to step into the wondrous, colorful nighttime natural world.]]> 48 Dianne White 1534487891 Barbara 0 3.91 2022 Dark on Light
author: Dianne White
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/16
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Love Is Loud: How Diane Nash Led the Civil Rights Movement]]> 61271949
Meet Diane Nash, a civil rights leader who worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis, in this “poignant and powerful� ( Kirkus Reviews , starred review) nonfiction picture book that is “a stunning, little-known story, and a welcome volume� ( School Library Journal, starred review) that “highlights major moments in Nash’s life� ( The Horn Book, starred review).

Diane grew up in the southside of Chicago in the 1940s. As a university student, she visited the Tennessee State Fair in 1959. Shocked to see a bathroom sign that read For Colored Women , Diane learned that segregation in the South went beyond schools—it was part of daily life. She decided to fight back, not with anger or violence, but with strong words of truth and action.

Finding a group of like-minded students, including student preacher John Lewis, Diane took command of the Nashville Movement. They sat at the lunch counters where only white people were allowed and got arrested, day after day. Leading thousands of marchers to the courthouse, Diane convinced the mayor to integrate lunch counters. Then, she took on the Freedom Rides to integrate bus travel, garnering support from Martin Luther King Jr. and then the president himself—John F. Kennedy.]]> 48 Sandra Neil Wallace 1534451048 Barbara 0 4.31 2023 Love Is Loud: How Diane Nash Led the Civil Rights Movement
author: Sandra Neil Wallace
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/10
shelves:
review:

]]> Sea of Tranquility 58446227 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER - The award-winning, best-selling author of Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel returns with a novel of art, time travel, love, and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon five hundred years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and space.

One of the Best Books of the Year: The New York Times, NPR, GoodReads

"One of [Mandel's] finest novels and one of her most satisfying forays into the arena of speculative fiction yet." --The New York Times

Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal--an experience that shocks him to his core.

Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She's traveling all over Earth, but her home is the second moon colony, a place of white stone, spired towers, and artificial beauty. Within the text of Olive's best-selling pandemic novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him.

When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the black-skied Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended: The exiled son of an earl driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe.

A virtuoso performance that is as human and tender as it is intellectually playful, Sea of Tranquility is a novel of time travel and metaphysics that precisely captures the reality of our current moment.]]> 259 Emily St. John Mandel 0593321448 Barbara 5 4.04 2022 Sea of Tranquility
author: Emily St. John Mandel
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/08/25
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review:

]]> The Witch's Heart 53438195 When a banished witch falls in love with the legendary trickster Loki, she risks the wrath of the gods in this moving, subversive debut novel that reimagines Norse mythology.

Angrboda's story begins where most witches' tales end: with a burning. A punishment from Odin for refusing to provide him with knowledge of the future, the fire leaves Angrboda injured and powerless, and she flees into the farthest reaches of a remote forest. There she is found by a man who reveals himself to be Loki, and her initial distrust of him transforms into a deep and abiding love.

Their union produces three unusual children, each with a secret destiny, who Angrboda is keen to raise at the edge of the world, safely hidden from Odin's all-seeing eye. But as Angrboda slowly recovers her prophetic powers, she learns that her blissful life—and possibly all of existence—is in danger.

With help from the fierce huntress Skadi, with whom she shares a growing bond, Angrboda must choose whether she’ll accept the fate that she's foreseen for her beloved family…or rise to remake their future. From the most ancient of tales this novel forges a story of love, loss, and hope for the modern age.]]> 359 Genevieve Gornichec 059309994X Barbara 0 currently-reading 4.04 2021 The Witch's Heart
author: Genevieve Gornichec
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/08/02
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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

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

Spanning just ten days and told from multiple points of view, Towles’s third novel will satisfy fans of his multi-layered literary styling while providing them an array of new and richly imagined settings, characters, and themes.]]> 576 Amor Towles 0735222355 Barbara 5 ]]> 4.18 2021 The Lincoln Highway
author: Amor Towles
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2022/06/24
date added: 2022/06/24
shelves:
review:
Certainly one of my top 3 I've read lately. Amor Towles is a masterful storyteller, and I love that he gives each character a chance to move the story along.

]]> Waiting for Pumpsie 30419194
This fictionalized account captures the true story of baseball player Pumpsie Green's rise to the major leagues. The story is a snapshot of the Civil Rights Movement and a great discussion starter about the state of race relations in the United States today.

"A grand slam" --Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"The story's moments of triumph sound the loudest notes" -- Publisher's Weekly

"This uplifting account of a family and the integration of Boston baseball will be inspiring to many youngsters." -- School Library Journal

"This picture book contributes to children's understanding of America's past, while telling a good story"-- Booklist]]> 32 Barry Wittenstein 158089545X Barbara 0 to-read 4.03 Waiting for Pumpsie
author: Barry Wittenstein
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.03
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/04/12
shelves: to-read
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]]> Such a Fun Age 50210178
A striking and surprising debut novel from an exhilarating new voice, Such a Fun Age is a page-turning and big-hearted story about race and privilege, set around a young black babysitter, her well-intentioned employer, and a surprising connection that threatens to undo them both.

Alix Chamberlain is a woman who gets what she wants and has made a living showing other women how to do the same. A mother to two small girls, she started out as a blogger and has quickly built herself into a confidence-driven brand. So she is shocked when her babysitter, Emira Tucker, is confronted while watching the Chamberlains� toddler one night. Seeing a young black woman out late with a white child, a security guard at their local high-end supermarket accuses Emira of kidnapping two-year-old Briar. A small crowd gathers, a bystander films everything, and Emira is furious and humiliated. Alix resolves to make it right.

But Emira herself is aimless, broke, and wary of Alix’s desire to help. At twenty-five, she is about to lose her health insurance and has no idea what to do with her life. When the video of Emira unearths someone from Alix’s past, both women find themselves on a crash course that will upend everything they think they know about themselves, and each other.

With empathy and piercing social commentary, Such a Fun Age explores the stickiness of transactional relationships, what it means to make someone “family,� the complicated reality of being a grown up, and the consequences of doing the right thing for the wrong reason.]]> Kiley Reid Barbara 5 3.75 2019 Such a Fun Age
author: Kiley Reid
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/03/03
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow]]> 43706732 From the bestselling author of The Ragged Edge of Night comes a powerful and poetic novel of survival and sacrifice on the American frontier.

Wyoming, 1870. For as long as they have lived on the frontier, the Bemis and Webber families have relied on each other. With no other settlers for miles, it is a matter of survival. But when Ernest Bemis finds his wife, Cora, in a compromising situation with their neighbor, he doesn’t think of survival. In one impulsive moment, a man is dead, Ernest is off to prison, and the women left behind are divided by rage and remorse.

Losing her husband to Cora’s indiscretion is another hardship for stoic Nettie Mae. But as a brutal Wyoming winter bears down, Cora and Nettie Mae have no choice but to come together as one family—to share the duties of working the land and raising their children. There’s Nettie Mae’s son, Clyde—no longer a boy, but not yet a man—who must navigate the road to adulthood without a father to guide him, and Cora’s daughter, Beulah, who is as wild and untamable as her prairie home.

Bound by the uncommon threads in their lives and the challenges that lie ahead, Cora and Nettie Mae begin to forge an unexpected sisterhood. But when a love blossoms between Clyde and Beulah, bonds are once again tested, and these two resilient women must finally decide whether they can learn to trust each other—or else risk losing everything they hold dear.]]> 496 Olivia Hawker 1542006910 Barbara 4 4.04 2019 One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow
author: Olivia Hawker
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2022/02/17
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow]]> 41692854 From the bestselling author of The Ragged Edge of Night comes a powerful and poetic novel of survival and sacrifice on the American frontier.

Wyoming, 1870. For as long as they have lived on the frontier, the Bemis and Webber families have relied on each other. With no other settlers for miles, it is a matter of survival. But when Ernest Bemis finds his wife, Cora, in a compromising situation with their neighbor, he doesn’t think of survival. In one impulsive moment, a man is dead, Ernest is off to prison, and the women left behind are divided by rage and remorse.

Losing her husband to Cora’s indiscretion is another hardship for stoic Nettie Mae. But as a brutal Wyoming winter bears down, Cora and Nettie Mae have no choice but to come together as one family—to share the duties of working the land and raising their children. There’s Nettie Mae’s son, Clyde—no longer a boy, but not yet a man—who must navigate the road to adulthood without a father to guide him, and Cora’s daughter, Beulah, who is as wild and untamable as her prairie home.

Bound by the uncommon threads in their lives and the challenges that lie ahead, Cora and Nettie Mae begin to forge an unexpected sisterhood. But when a love blossoms between Clyde and Beulah, bonds are once again tested, and these two resilient women must finally decide whether they can learn to trust each other—or else risk losing everything they hold dear.]]> 497 Olivia Hawker 1542091136 Barbara 4 4.19 2019 One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow
author: Olivia Hawker
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2022/02/17
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Housekeeper and the Professor]]> 3181564
She is an astute young Housekeeper, with a ten-year-old son, who is hired to care for him.

And every morning, as the Professor and the Housekeeper are introduced to each other anew, a strange and beautiful relationship blossoms between them. Though he cannot hold memories for long (his brain is like a tape that begins to erase itself every eighty minutes), the Professor’s mind is still alive with elegant equations from the past. And the numbers, in all of their articulate order, reveal a sheltering and poetic world to both the Housekeeper and her young son. The Professor is capable of discovering connections between the simplest of quantities--like the Housekeeper’s shoe size--and the universe at large, drawing their lives ever closer and more profoundly together, even as his memory slips away.

The Housekeeper and the Professor is an enchanting story about what it means to live in the present, and about the curious equations that can create a family.]]> 180 YĹŤko Ogawa 0312427808 Barbara 0 4.04 2003 The Housekeeper and the Professor
author: YĹŤko Ogawa
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/01/18
shelves:
review:

]]> Once Upon a Camel 56980316 An old camel is out to save two baby kestrel chicks during a massive storm in the Texas desert.

Zada is a camel with a treasure trove of stories to tell. She’s won camel races for the royal Pasha of Smyrna, crossed treacherous oceans to new land, led army missions with her best camel friend by her side, and outsmarted a far too pompous mountain lion.

But those stories were from before. Now, Zada wanders the desert as the last camel in Texas. But she’s not alone. Two tiny kestrel chicks are nestled in the fluff of fur between her ears—kee-killy-keeing for their missing parents—and a dust storm the size of a mountain is taking Zada on one more grand adventure. And it could lead to this achy old camel’s most brilliant story yet.]]> 336 Kathi Appelt 1534406433 Barbara 0 3.74 Once Upon a Camel
author: Kathi Appelt
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.74
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/12/08
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]]> <![CDATA[Eligible: A Modern Retelling of Pride & Prejudice]]> 25852870
Youngest sisters Kitty and Lydia are too busy with their CrossFit workouts and Paleo diets to get jobs. Mary, the middle sister, is earning her third online master's degree and barely leaves her room, except for those mysterious Tuesday-night outings she won't discuss. And Mrs. Bennet has one thing on her mind: how to marry off her daughters, especially as Jane's fortieth birthday fast approaches.

Enter Chip Bingley, a handsome new-in-town doctor who recently appeared on the juggernaut reality TV dating show Eligible. At a Fourth of July barbecue, Chip takes an immediate interest in Jane, but Chip's friend, neurosurgeon Fitzwilliam Darcy, reveals himself to Liz to be much less charming. . . . And yet, first impressions can be deceiving.]]> 492 Curtis Sittenfeld 1400068320 Barbara 0 3.58 2016 Eligible: A Modern Retelling of Pride & Prejudice
author: Curtis Sittenfeld
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/12/08
shelves:
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]]> The Seven Storey Mountain 175078
The Seven Storey Mountain tells of the growing restlessness of a brilliant and passionate young man, who at the age of twenty-six, takes vows in one of the most demanding Catholic orders—the Trappist monks. At the Abbey of Gethsemani, "the four walls of my new freedom," Thomas Merton struggles to withdraw from the world, but only after he has fully immersed himself in it. At the abbey, he wrote this extraordinary testament, a unique spiritual autobiography that has been recognized as one of the most influential religious works of our time. Translated into more than twenty languages, it has touched millions of lives.
Ěý±Ő±Ő> 467 Thomas Merton 0156010860 Barbara 0 currently-reading 4.05 1948 The Seven Storey Mountain
author: Thomas Merton
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1948
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/12/08
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Who Is a Scientist? 55784712 32 Laura Gehl 1541597990 Barbara 0 4.44 Who Is a Scientist?
author: Laura Gehl
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.44
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/10/22
shelves:
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]]> Wave: A Novel in Verse 58667560 A coming-of-age novel in verse set in 1980s Southern California, about a Persian American girl who rides the waves, falls, and finds her way back to the shore

Thirteen-year-old Ava loves to surf and to sing. Singing and reading Rumi poems settle her mild OCD, and catching waves with her best friend, Phoenix, lets her fit in—her olive skin looks tan, not foreign. But then Ava has to spend the summer before ninth grade volunteering at the hospital, to follow in her single mother’s footsteps to become a doctor. And when Phoenix’s past lymphoma surges back, not even surfing, singing, or poetry can keep them afloat, threatening Ava’s hold on the one place and the one person that make her feel like she belongs.ĚýWith ocean-like rhythm and lyricism, Wave is about a girl who rides the waves, tumbles, and finds her way back to the shore.]]> 320 Diana Farid 1951836588 Barbara 0 4.11 2022 Wave: A Novel in Verse
author: Diana Farid
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/10/20
shelves:
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]]> Hamnet 43890641 Hamnet is a luminous portrait of a marriage, at its heart the loss of a beloved child.

Warwickshire in the 1580s. Agnes is a woman as feared as she is sought after for her unusual gifts. She settles with her husband in Henley street, Stratford, and has three children: a daughter, Susanna, and then twins, Hamnet and Judith. The boy, Hamnet, dies in 1596, aged eleven. Four years or so later, the husband writes a play called Hamlet.

Award-winning author Maggie O'Farrell's new novel breathes full-blooded life into the story of a loss usually consigned to literary footnotes, and provides an unforgettable vindication of Agnes, a woman intriguingly absent from history.

A New York Times Notable Book (2020), Best Book of 2020: Guardian, Financial Times, Literary Hub, and NPR.]]> 372 Maggie O'Farrell 1472223799 Barbara 5 4.16 2020 Hamnet
author: Maggie O'Farrell
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2021/09/28
date added: 2021/09/28
shelves:
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]]> Secondhand Dogs 55577659
When she adopted Gus, Roo, Tank, and Moon Pie, Miss Lottie rescued each member of the pack—including herself, her helper, Quinn, and her reclusive cat, Ghost—and turned them into a family. But when a new dog, Decker, arrives and tries to hoard Miss Lottie’s heart and home for himself, the pack’s future is threatened.

At first, Gus, the insecure pack leader, only notices little things, like tiny Moon Pie being kicked out of the bed and Ghost acting spooked (then again…Ghost is a cat). But things soon go from bad to worse as Decker’s presence causes disharmony in the group.

When Decker convinces Moon Pie to embark on an impossible journey, it’s up to Gus to gather his courage, rally his splintered pack, and bring Moon Pie home. And with coyotes and cars on the loose, the pack must push through obstacles and dangers to reunite with Moon Pie before he can get hurt—or nearly as bad, get his heart broken.]]> 256 Carolyn Crimi 0062989189 Barbara 0 4.14 2021 Secondhand Dogs
author: Carolyn Crimi
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/04/01
shelves:
review:

]]> A Promised Land 55361205
In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency—a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil.

Obama takes readers on a compelling journey from his earliest political aspirations to the pivotal Iowa caucus victory that demonstrated the power of grassroots activism to the watershed night of November 4, 2008, when he was elected 44th president of the United States, becoming the first African American to hold the nation’s highest office.

Reflecting on the presidency, he offers a unique and thoughtful exploration of both the awesome reach and the limits of presidential power, as well as singular insights into the dynamics of U.S. partisan politics and international diplomacy. Obama brings readers inside the Oval Office and the White House Situation Room, and to Moscow, Cairo, Beijing, and points beyond. We are privy to his thoughts as he assembles his cabinet, wrestles with a global financial crisis, takes the measure of Vladimir Putin, overcomes seemingly insurmountable odds to secure passage of the Affordable Care Act, clashes with generals about U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, tackles Wall Street reform, responds to the devastating Deepwater Horizon blowout, and authorizes Operation Neptune’s Spear, which leads to the death of Osama bin Laden.

A Promised Land is extraordinarily intimate and introspective—the story of one man’s bet with history, the faith of a community organizer tested on the world stage. Obama is candid about the balancing act of running for office as a Black American, bearing the expectations of a generation buoyed by messages of “hope and change,� and meeting the moral challenges of high-stakes decision-making. He is frank about the forces that opposed him at home and abroad, open about how living in the White House affected his wife and daughters, and unafraid to reveal self-doubt and disappointment. Yet he never wavers from his belief that inside the great, ongoing American experiment, progress is always possible.

This beautifully written and powerful book captures Barack Obama’s conviction that democracy is not a gift from on high but something founded on empathy and common understanding and built together, day by day.]]> 768 Barack Obama 1524763187 Barbara 5 4.32 2020 A Promised Land
author: Barack Obama
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2021/03/03
shelves:
review:

]]> We Dream of Space 52515165 It's January 1986. The launch of the Challenger is just weeks away, and Cash, Fitch, and Bird Nelson Thomas are three siblings in seventh grade together in Park, Delaware.

Cash loves basketball, Dr. J, and a girl named Penny; he's also in danger of failing seventh grade for a second time. Fitch spends every afternoon playing Major Havoc at the arcade and wrestles with an explosive temper that he doesn't understand. And Bird, his twelve-year-old twin, dreams of being NASA's first female shuttle commander, but feels like she's disappearing.

The Nelson Thomas siblings exist in their own orbits, circling a tense, crowded, and unpredictable household, dreaming of escape, dreaming of the future, dreaming of space. They have little in common except an enthusiastic science teacher named Ms. Salonga—a failed applicant to the Teacher in Space program—who encourages her students to live vicariously through the launch. Cash and Fitch take a passive interest, but Bird builds her dreams around it.

When the fated day arrives, it changes everything.]]> 400 Erin Entrada Kelly 0062747304 Barbara 4 4.08 2020 We Dream of Space
author: Erin Entrada Kelly
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2021/03/03
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Pride and Premeditation (Jane Austen Murder Mystery, #1)]]> 53914898
Except the man accused of the crime already has a lawyer on his side: Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, the stern young heir to the prestigious Pemberley Associates law firm. Lizzie is determined to solve the murder before Darcy can so that she can show the world that a woman can be just as good as a man. (The fact that Darcy is an infuriating snob doesn’t help.) But there’s still a killer on the loose, and as the case gets more complicated, Lizzie and Darcy may have to start working together to avoid becoming the next victims themselves.



Running Time => 8hrs. and 30mins.

©2021 Tirzah Price (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers]]> 368 Tirzah Price 006288980X Barbara 0 to-read 3.74 2021 Pride and Premeditation (Jane Austen Murder Mystery, #1)
author: Tirzah Price
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/01/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Rescue at Lake Wild 53968518
Everyone knows that twelve-year-old Madison “Madi� Lewis is not allowed to bring home any more animals. After she's saved hairless mice, two birds, a rabbit, and a stray tom cat that ended up destroying the front porch, Madi’s parents decide that if they find one more stray animal in the house, she won’t be allowed to meet Jane Goodall at an upcoming gala event.

But when Madi and her two best friends, Aaron and Jack, rescue beaver kits whose mother was killed, they find themselves at the center of a local conspiracy that’s putting the beavers and their habitats in danger. As Madi and her friends race to uncover the threat targeting the beavers, Madi must put her animal whisperer skills to the test in both raising the orphaned beaver kits and staying out of trouble long enough.]]> 208 Terry Lynn Johnson 0358334853 Barbara 0 3.95 2021 Rescue at Lake Wild
author: Terry Lynn Johnson
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/01/04
shelves:
review:

]]> The Last Super Chef 54235575
For as long as he can remember, Curtis Pith has been obsessed with becoming a chef like Lucas Taylor, host of Super Chef. And Curtis has a Taylor is actually his long-absent father.

So when Taylor announces a kids-only season of Super Chef, Curtis finally sees his chance to meet his dad. But after Curtis wins a spot in the competition and arrives in New York to film the show, nothing goes as smoothly as he expected.

It’s all riding on the last challenge. If Curtis cooks his heart out like he knows he can, he just might go home with the top prize—and the truth.]]> 416 Chris Negron 006294309X Barbara 0 to-read 4.43 2021 The Last Super Chef
author: Chris Negron
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/12/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> This Book Is Gray 43706730 40 Lindsay Ward 1542043409 Barbara 0 4.05 2019 This Book Is Gray
author: Lindsay Ward
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/11/23
shelves:
review:

]]> The Constant Rabbit 52378911 New York Times bestselling author of Early Riser and the Thursday Next series

England, 2022. There are 1.2 million human-size rabbits living in the UK. They can walk, talk, drive cars, and they like to read Voltaire, the result of an Inexplicable Anthropomorphizing Event fifty-five years before.

A family of rabbits is about to move into Much Hemlock, a cozy little village in Middle England where life revolves around summer fetes, jam making, gossipy corner stores, and the oh-so-important Best Kept Village awards.

No sooner have the rabbits arrived than the villagers decide they must depart, citing their propensity to burrow and breed, and their shameless levels of veganism. But Mrs Constance Rabbit is made of sterner stuff, and she and her family decide they are to stay. Unusually, their neighbors--longtime resident Peter Knox and his daughter, Pippa--decide to stand with them . . . and soon discover that you can be a friend to rabbits or humans, but not both.

With a blossoming romance, acute cultural differences, enforced rehoming to a MegaWarren in Wales, and the full power of the ruling United Kingdom Anti-Rabbit Party against them, Peter and Pippa are about to question everything they had ever thought about their friends, their nation, and their species.

An inimitable blend of satire, fantasy, and thriller, The Constant Rabbit is the latest dazzlingly original foray into Jasper Fforde's ever-astonishing creative genius.]]> 320 Jasper Fforde 0593296524 Barbara 0 to-read 4.03 2020 The Constant Rabbit
author: Jasper Fforde
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/09/24
shelves: to-read
review:

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

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

1947. As the royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip whips post-war Britain into a fever, three friends-turned-enemies are reunited by a mysterious encrypted letter—the key to which lies buried in the long-ago betrayal that destroyed their friendship and left one of them confined to an asylum. A mysterious traitor has emerged from the shadows of their Bletchley Park past, and now Osla, Mab, and Beth must resurrect their old alliance and crack one last code together. But each petal they remove from the rose code brings danger—and their true enemy...]]> 624 Kate Quinn 0062943472 Barbara 0 to-read 4.42 2021 The Rose Code
author: Kate Quinn
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/09/18
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Into the Clouds: The Race to Climb the World's Most Dangerous Mountain]]> 52922738 A tale of survival and brotherhood atop one of the deadliest mountains on Earth.
This fast-paced, three-part narrative takes readers on three expeditions over 15 years to K2, one of the deadliest mountains on Earth. Roped together, these teams of men face perilously high altitudes and battering storms in hopes of reaching the summit. As each expedition sets out, they carve new paths along icy slopes and unforgiving rock, creating camps on ledges so narrow they fear turning over in their sleep.

But disaster strikes -- in 1939, four men never make it down the mountain. Fourteen years later, a man develops blood clots in his legs at 25,000 feet, leaving his team with no safe path off the mountain. Into the Clouds tells the stories of the men whose quest to conquer a mountain became a battle to survive the descent.]]> 293 Tod Olson 1338207377 Barbara 5 4.16 Into the Clouds: The Race to Climb the World's Most Dangerous Mountain
author: Tod Olson
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.16
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/04/03
shelves:
review:

]]> Dan Unmasked 52917965
Whether they’re on the baseball field or in Nate’s basement devouring the newest issue of their favorite comic book, Dan and Nate are always talking. Until they’re not.

After an accident at baseball practice, Nate’s fallen into a coma. And if Dan ever wants to talk to Nate again, he’s got to take a page out of his hero Captain Nexus’s book, and do whatever it takes to save the day.

But heroes have powers—and without Nate, all Dan has is a closet stuffed with comics and a best-friend-shaped hole in his heart. There’s no way a regular kid can save the day all on his own. Right?]]> 368 Chris Negron 0062943065 Barbara 4 4.62 2020 Dan Unmasked
author: Chris Negron
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.62
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2020/03/03
date added: 2020/04/03
shelves:
review:

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

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

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

The Great Believers has become a critically acclaimed, indelible piece of literature; it was selected as one of New York Times Best 10 Books of the Year, a Washington Post Notable Book, a Buzzfeed Book of the Year, a Skimm Reads pick, and a pick for the New York Public Library's Best Books of the year.]]> 421 Rebecca Makkai 073522353X Barbara 5 4.26 2018 The Great Believers
author: Rebecca Makkai
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2019/12/02
date added: 2019/12/02
shelves:
review:
This is one of the most eloquent, tragic, resonant books I've read recently. Some of the passages are so beautifully written. You just ache for the characters and awful series of events that unfold with the AIDS crisis. Highly recommended.
]]> <![CDATA[Cast Off: The Strange Adventures of Petra de Winter and Bram Broen]]> 23281899
If Petra is discovered and exposed as a girl, she could be tossed overboard, or worse . . . returned to her father. And if Bram is exposed for helping her, he could lose the only home—and family—he has. As tensions rise on the ship, with pirates attacking, deadly illness, and even mutiny, Petra and Bram face impossible decisions that test their friendship and threaten their dreams of freedom.

Told in alternating voices, this richly researched novel is filled with secrets, intrigue, and incredible adventure.
]]> 318 Eve Yohalem 0525428569 Barbara 5 3.88 2015 Cast Off: The Strange Adventures of Petra de Winter and Bram Broen
author: Eve Yohalem
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/12/02
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Vacation for Dexter! (Dexter T. Rexter, #3)]]> 41451729 32 Lindsay Ward 1542043204 Barbara 0 3.62 2019 Vacation for Dexter! (Dexter T. Rexter, #3)
author: Lindsay Ward
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/11/05
shelves:
review:

]]> We Could Be Heroes 46164337 Shiloh meets Raymie Nightingale in this funny and heartwarming debut novel about a ten-year-old that finds himself in a whole mess of trouble when his new friend Maisie recruits him to save the dog next door.

Hank Hudson is in a bit of trouble. After an incident involving the boy’s bathroom and a terribly sad book his teacher is forcing them to read, Hank is left with a week’s suspension and a slightly charred hardcover—and, it turns out, the attention of new girl Maisie Huang.

Maisie has been on the lookout for a kid with the meatballs to help her with a very important mission: Saving her neighbor’s dog, Booler. Booler has seizures, and his owner, Mr. Jorgensen, keeps him tied to a tree all day and night because of them. It’s enough to make Hank even sadder than that book does—he has autism, and he knows what it’s like to be treated poorly because of something that makes you different.

But different is not less. And Hank is willing to get into even more trouble to prove it. Soon he and Maisie are lying, brown-nosing, baking, and cow milking all in the name of saving Booler—but not everything is as it seems. Booler might not be the only one who needs saving. And being a hero can look a lot like being a friend.]]> 256 Margaret Finnegan 1534445250 Barbara 4 3.85 2020 We Could Be Heroes
author: Margaret Finnegan
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2019/10/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Testaments (The Handmaid's Tale, #2)]]> 42975172 The Handmaid's Tale, readers had no way of telling what lay ahead for her--freedom, prison or death.

With The Testaments, the wait is over.

Margaret Atwood's sequel picks up the story more than fifteen years after Offred stepped into the unknown, with the explosive testaments of three female narrators from Gilead.

In this brilliant sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, acclaimed author Margaret Atwood answers the questions that have tantalized readers for decades.

"Dear Readers: Everything you've ever asked me about Gilead and its inner workings is the inspiration for this book. Well, almost everything! The other inspiration is the world we've been living in." --Margaret Atwood

An alternate cover edition of ISBN 978-0385543781 can be found here.]]> 422 Margaret Atwood Barbara 5 4.16 2019 The Testaments (The Handmaid's Tale, #2)
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/10/08
shelves:
review:
As haunting and immersive as The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood has found a unique way to revisit the Republic of Gilead and what led to its creation. There are some puzzles to untangle here, as there were with the first book. Well worth reading.
]]> Weird Little Robots 32720313
Nine-year-old Penny Rose has just moved to a new town, and so far the robots she builds herself are her only company. But with just a bit of magic, everything changes: she becomes best friends with Lark, has the chance to join a secret science club, and discovers that her robots are alive. Penny Rose hardly remembers how lonely she used to feel. But then a fateful misstep forces her to choose between the best friend she’s always hoped for and the club she’s always dreamed of, and in the end it may be her beloved little robots that pay the price.]]> 240 Carolyn Crimi Barbara 5 3.85 2019 Weird Little Robots
author: Carolyn Crimi
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/09/26
shelves:
review:

]]> Homegoing 27071490 An alternate cover edition can be found here.

A novel of breathtaking sweep and emotional power that traces three hundred years in Ghana and along the way also becomes a truly great American novel. Extraordinary for its exquisite language, its implacable sorrow, its soaring beauty, and for its monumental portrait of the forces that shape families and nations, Homegoing heralds the arrival of a major new voice in contemporary fiction.

Two half-sisters, Effia and Esi, are born into different villages in eighteenth-century Ghana. Effia is married off to an Englishman and lives in comfort in the palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle. Unbeknownst to Effia, her sister, Esi, is imprisoned beneath her in the castle's dungeons, sold with thousands of others into the Gold Coast's booming slave trade, and shipped off to America, where her children and grandchildren will be raised in slavery. One thread of Homegoing follows Effia's descendants through centuries of warfare in Ghana, as the Fante and Asante nations wrestle with the slave trade and British colonization. The other thread follows Esi and her children into America. From the plantations of the South to the Civil War and the Great Migration, from the coal mines of Pratt City, Alabama, to the jazz clubs and dope houses of twentieth-century Harlem, right up through the present day, Homegoing makes history visceral, and captures, with singular and stunning immediacy, how the memory of captivity came to be inscribed in the soul of a nation.

Generation after generation, Yaa Gyasi's magisterial first novel sets the fate of the individual against the obliterating movements of time, delivering unforgettable characters whose lives were shaped by historical forces beyond their control. Homegoing is a tremendous reading experience, not to be missed, by an astonishingly gifted young writer.]]> 305 Yaa Gyasi Barbara 5 4.48 2016 Homegoing
author: Yaa Gyasi
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/08/01
shelves:
review:
A hauntingly beautiful story of slavery's origins in Ghana.
]]> The Huntress 38376046
Bold and fearless, Nina Markova always dreamed of flying. When the Nazis attack the Soviet Union, she risks everything to join the legendary Night Witches, an all-female night bomber regiment wreaking havoc on the invading Germans. When she is stranded behind enemy lines, Nina becomes the prey of a lethal Nazi murderess known as the Huntress, and only Nina’s bravery and cunning will keep her alive.

Transformed by the horrors he witnessed from Omaha Beach to the Nuremberg Trials, British war correspondent Ian Graham has become a Nazi hunter. Yet one target eludes him: a vicious predator known as the Huntress. To find her, the fierce, disciplined investigator joins forces with the only witness to escape the Huntress alive: the brazen, cocksure Nina. But a shared secret could derail their mission unless Ian and Nina force themselves to confront it.

Growing up in post-war Boston, seventeen-year-old Jordan McBride is determined to become a photographer. When her long-widowed father unexpectedly comes homes with a new fiancée, Jordan is thrilled. But there is something disconcerting about the soft-spoken German widow. Certain that danger is lurking, Jordan begins to delve into her new stepmother’s past—only to discover that there are mysteries buried deep in her family . . . secrets that may threaten all Jordan holds dear.

In this immersive, heart-wrenching story, Kate Quinn illuminates the consequences of war on individual lives, and the price we pay to seek justice and truth.]]> 576 Kate Quinn 0062740385 Barbara 4 4.24 2019 The Huntress
author: Kate Quinn
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2019/08/01
date added: 2019/08/01
shelves:
review:
The author weaves the stories of several protagonists in this reflective and beautifully-constructed novel. I love the way Kate Quinn integrates the stories of real individuals (Fritz Bauer, a real Nazi hunter), composite characters (the villain, Lorelei), and fictional people. While it starts a little slow, this book is a page-turner and worth reading.
]]> Donna Has Left the Building 42188456 From the beloved, New York Times bestselling author of Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress comes a hilarious, timely, and big-hearted new novel about rebuilding life in the face of disaster.


Forty-five-year-old Donna Koczynski is an ex-punk rocker, a recovering alcoholic, and the mother of two teenagers whose suburban existence detonates when she comes home early from a sales conference in Las Vegas to the surprise of a lifetime. As her world implodes, she sets off on an epic road trip to reclaim everything she believes she's sacrificed since her wild youth: Great friendship, passionate love, and her art. But as she careens across the U.S. from Detroit to New York to Memphis to Nashville, nothing turns out as she imagines. Ultimately, she finds herself resurrected on the other side of the globe, on a remote island embroiled in a crisis far bigger than her own.


Irresistibly funny, whip-smart, and surprisingly moving, Donna Has Left the Building spins an unforgettable tale about what it means to be brave—and to truly love—in a tumultuous world.]]> Susan Jane Gilman Barbara 2 3.51 2019 Donna Has Left the Building
author: Susan Jane Gilman
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2019/07/16
shelves:
review:
I can't remember why I requested this at the library--it must have been on the strong recommendation of someone else. I found it a bit meandering and the ending, frankly, is so incongruous with the rest of the book. I stuck with it just to see if the protagonist ever developed a shred of awareness outside her own bubble. Amusing and a light read, and maybe that's what the author is going for (outside the last 1/4 of the book).
]]> Circe 35959740
Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts, and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.

But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from or with the mortals she has come to love.]]> 393 Madeline Miller 0316556343 Barbara 5 4.22 2018 Circe
author: Madeline Miller
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2019/06/04
date added: 2019/06/04
shelves:
review:
Stunning, powerful prose. One of my favorite recent reads. Madeline Miller gives life and nuance to the ancient myths. It deserves all the accolades it's received.
]]> The Poet X 33294200 Fans of Jacqueline Woodson, Meg Medina, and Jason Reynolds will fall hard for this astonishing New York Times-bestselling novel-in-verse by an award-winning slam poet, about an Afro-Latina heroine who tells her story with blazing words and powerful truth.

Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking.

But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers—especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about.

With Mami’s determination to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself. So when she is invited to join her school’s slam poetry club, she doesn’t know how she could ever attend without her mami finding out. But she still can’t stop thinking about performing her poems.

Because in the face of a world that may not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be silent.]]> 368 Elizabeth Acevedo Barbara 5 4.37 2018 The Poet X
author: Elizabeth Acevedo
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2019/03/26
date added: 2019/03/26
shelves:
review:

]]> Becoming 38746485
In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it—in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations—and whose story inspires us to do the same.]]> 426 Michelle Obama 1524763136 Barbara 5 4.42 2018 Becoming
author: Michelle Obama
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2019/03/05
date added: 2019/03/05
shelves:
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]]> An American Marriage 33590210
This stirring love story is a profoundly insightful look into the hearts and minds of three people who are at once bound and separated by forces beyond their control. An American Marriage is a masterpiece of storytelling, an intimate look deep into the souls of people who must reckon with the past while moving forward—with hope and pain—into the future.]]> 308 Tayari Jones 1616201347 Barbara 5 3.91 2018 An American Marriage
author: Tayari Jones
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/03/05
shelves:
review:

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

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

The story asks how isolation influences the behavior of a young woman, who like all of us, has the genetic propensity to belong to a group. The clues to the mystery are brushed into the lush habitat and natural histories of its wild creatures.]]> 384 Delia Owens 0735219117 Barbara 5 4.35 2018 Where the Crawdads Sing
author: Delia Owens
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/01/04
shelves:
review:
First book I've listened to after the Harry Potter series, so the bar was set high. The story is well-paced and there are some beautifully written passages. The ending is a stunner.
]]> Little Fires Everywhere 34273236
In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is meticulously planned � from the layout of the winding roads, to the colours of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.

Enter Mia Warren � an enigmatic artist and single mother � who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenage daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than just tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother–daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past, and a disregard for the rules that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.

When old family friends attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town � and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at an unexpected and devastating cost . . .]]> 338 Celeste Ng 0735224293 Barbara 5 4.05 2017 Little Fires Everywhere
author: Celeste Ng
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2018/09/12
shelves:
review:
One of my favorite recent reads! This book presents so many moral and ethical questions to ponderm and it's beautifully written. A great one for book club discussion.
]]> Ghosted 36949996 Ellie Charles ghosted her best friend--and her actions come back to haunt her. A heartwarming and funny middle-grade story of redemption from Leslie Margolis.

Thirteen-year-old Ellie Charles has everything going for her: she's the smartest, prettiest, best-dressed, and most popular kid at Lincoln Heights Middle School. She's also the meanest, by design. Ellie's got sharp edges, which she uses to keep herself at the top of the social food chain. But one night, hours before her school's winter dance, a frightening accident leads her to encounter a ghost who just might change everything. This ghost, of a girl dressed all in black, makes Ellie visit her own past, present, and future--reliving her parents' divorce, her struggles in school, and worst of all, her massive falling-out with her best friend, Marley. Can what Ellie sees inspire her to change her ways? And is a new perspective enough to save her life?]]> 256 Leslie Margolis 0374307563 Barbara 4 3.56 2018 Ghosted
author: Leslie Margolis
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2018/08/28
shelves:
review:

]]> Journey of the Pale Bear 38351755
Tasked with feeding and cleaning up after the bear, Arthur’s fears slowly lessen as he begins to feel a connection to this bear, who like him, has been cut off from her family. But the journey holds many dangers, and Arthur knows his own freedom—perhaps even his life—depends on keeping the bear from harm. When pirates attack and the ship founders, Arthur must make a choice—does he do everything he can to save himself, or does he help the bear to find freedom?]]> 291 Susan Fletcher 1534420770 Barbara 0 4.18 2018 Journey of the Pale Bear
author: Susan Fletcher
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at: 2018/08/10
date added: 2018/08/10
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry]]> 23604559 A charming, warmhearted novel from the author of the New York Times bestseller A Man Called Ove.

Elsa is seven years old and different. Her grandmother is seventy-seven years old and crazy—as in standing-on-the-balcony-firing-paintball-guns-at-strangers crazy. She is also Elsa’s best, and only, friend. At night Elsa takes refuge in her grandmother’s stories, in the Land-of-Almost-Awake and the Kingdom of Miamas, where everybody is different and nobody needs to be normal.

When Elsa’s grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters apologizing to people she has wronged, Elsa’s greatest adventure begins. Her grandmother’s instructions lead her to an apartment building full of drunks, monsters, attack dogs, and old crones but also to the truth about fairy tales and kingdoms and a grandmother like no other.

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry is told with the same comic accuracy and beating heart as Fredrik Backman’s bestselling debut novel, A Man Called Ove. It is a story about life and death and one of the most important human rights: the right to be different.]]> 372 Fredrik Backman 1501115065 Barbara 0 currently-reading 4.04 2013 My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/06/25
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Back When We Were Grownups 31178
So Anne Tyler opens this irresistible new novel.

The woman is Rebecca Davitch, a fifty-three-year-old grandmother. Is she an impostor in her own life? she asks herself. Is it indeed her own life? Or is it someone else’s?

On the surface, Beck, as she is known to the Davitch clan, is outgoing, joyous, a natural celebrator. Giving parties is, after all, her vocation—something she slipped into even before finishing college, when Joe Davitch spotted her at an engagement party in his family’s crumbling nineteenth-century Baltimore row house, where giving parties was the family business. What caught his fancy was that she seemed to be having such a wonderful time. Soon this large-spirited older man, a divorcé with three little girls, swept her into his orbit, and before she knew it she was embracing his extended family plus a child of their own, and hosting endless parties in the ornate, high-ceilinged rooms of The Open Arms.

Now, some thirty years later, after presiding over a disastrous family picnic, Rebecca is caught un-awares by the question of who she really is. How she answers it—how she tries to recover her girlhood self, that dignified grownup she had once been—is the story told in this beguiling, funny, and deeply moving novel.

As always with Anne Tyler’s novels, once we enter her world it is hard to leave. But in Back When We Were Grownups she so sharpens our perceptions and awakens so many untapped feelings that we come away not only refreshed and delighted, but also infinitely wiser.]]> 336 Anne Tyler 0345477243 Barbara 3 3.53 2001 Back When We Were Grownups
author: Anne Tyler
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at: 2018/06/21
date added: 2018/06/21
shelves:
review:
Not my favorite Anne Tyler book, but there is definitely some interesting weaving done with story lines and themes.
]]> The Art of Losing 35883613 320 Lizzy Mason 1616959878 Barbara 0 to-read 3.71 2019 The Art of Losing
author: Lizzy Mason
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/05/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> News of the World 25817493 Enemy Women that explores the boundaries of family, responsibility, honor, and trust.

In the wake of the Civil War, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd travels through northern Texas, giving live readings from newspapers to paying audiences hungry for news of the world. An elderly widower who has lived through three wars and fought in two of them, the captain enjoys his rootless, solitary existence.

In Wichita Falls, he is offered a $50 gold piece to deliver a young orphan to her relatives in San Antonio. Four years earlier, a band of Kiowa raiders killed Johanna’s parents and sister; sparing the little girl, they raised her as one of their own. Recently rescued by the U.S. army, the ten-year-old has once again been torn away from the only home she knows.

Their 400-mile journey south through unsettled territory and unforgiving terrain proves difficult and at times dangerous. Johanna has forgotten the English language, tries to escape at every opportunity, throws away her shoes, and refuses to act “civilized.� Yet as the miles pass, the two lonely survivors tentatively begin to trust each other, forming a bond that marks the difference between life and death in this treacherous land.

Arriving in San Antonio, the reunion is neither happy nor welcome. The captain must hand Johanna over to an aunt and uncle she does not remember—strangers who regard her as an unwanted burden. A respectable man, Captain Kidd is faced with a terrible choice: abandon the girl to her fate or become—in the eyes of the law—a kidnapper himself.

]]> 209 Paulette Jiles 0062409204 Barbara 0 4.02 2016 News of the World
author: Paulette Jiles
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at: 2018/05/16
date added: 2018/05/16
shelves:
review:
Such a beautifully written, thoughtful little book.
]]> The Heart's Invisible Furies 33253215 real Avery or at least that’s what his adoptive parents tell him. And he never will be. But if he isn’t a real Avery, then who is he?

Born out of wedlock to a teenage girl cast out from her rural Irish community and adopted by a well-to-do if eccentric Dublin couple via the intervention of a hunchbacked Redemptorist nun, Cyril is adrift in the world, anchored only tenuously by his heartfelt friendship with the infinitely more glamourous and dangerous Julian Woodbead.

At the mercy of fortune and coincidence, he will spend a lifetime coming to know himself and where he came from � and over his three score years and ten, will struggle to discover an identity, a home, a country and much more.

In this, Boyne's most transcendent work to date, we are shown the story of Ireland from the 1940s to today through the eyes of one ordinary man. The Heart's Invisible Furies is a novel to make you laugh and cry while reminding us all of the redemptive power of the human spirit.]]> 582 John Boyne Barbara 4 4.51 2017 The Heart's Invisible Furies
author: John Boyne
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2018/03/31
date added: 2018/04/09
shelves:
review:
The first chapter is a stunner. Incredible opening to a long but worthwhile read.
]]> Scream All Night 32928987 A darkly hilarious contemporary realistic young adult novel about growing up and finding your place in the world, perfect for fans of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl and Running With Scissors.

Dario Heyward knows one thing: He’s never going back to Moldavia Studios, the iconic castle that served as the set, studio, and home to the cast and crew of dozens of cult classic B-horror movies. It’s been three years since Dario’s even seen the place, after getting legally emancipated from his father, the infamous director of Moldavia’s creature features.

But then Dario’s brother invites him home to a mysterious ceremony involving his father and a tribute to his first filmâ€�The Curse of the Mummy’s Tongue.ĚýDario swears his homecoming will be a one-time visit. A way for him to get closure on his past—and reunite with Hayley, his first love and costar ofĚýZombie Children of the Harvest Sun,Ěýa production fraught with real-life tragedy—and say good-bye for good. But the unthinkable happens—Dario gets sucked back into the twisted world of Moldavia and the horrors, both real and imagined, he’s left there.

With only months to rescue the sinking studio and everyone who has built their lives there, Dario must confront the demons of his past—and the uncertainties of his future. But can he escape the place that’s haunted him his whole life?]]> 400 Derek Milman 0062665677 Barbara 0 to-read 3.87 2018 Scream All Night
author: Derek Milman
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/02/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Left Hand of Darkness 18423 The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary to Winter, an alien world whose inhabitants spend most of their time without a gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters.

Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction.]]> 304 Ursula K. Le Guin Barbara 0 currently-reading 4.11 1969 The Left Hand of Darkness
author: Ursula K. Le Guin
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1969
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/02/12
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Handmaid’s Tale (The Handmaid's Tale, #1)]]> 38447
Funny, unexpected, horrifying, and altogether convincing, The Handmaid's Tale is at once scathing satire, dire warning, and tour de force.]]> 311 Margaret Atwood 038549081X Barbara 5 4.15 1985 The Handmaid’s Tale (The Handmaid's Tale, #1)
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1985
rating: 5
read at: 2018/02/12
date added: 2018/02/12
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[You Don't Have to Say You Love Me]]> 31420708
When his mother passed away at the age of 78, Sherman Alexie responded the only way he knew how: he wrote. The result is this stunning memoir. Featuring 78 poems, 78 essays and intimate family photographs, Alexie shares raw, angry, funny, profane, tender memories of a childhood few can imagine—growing up dirt-poor on an Indian reservation, one of four children raised by alcoholic parents. Throughout, a portrait emerges of his mother as a beautiful, mercurial, abusive, intelligent, complicated woman. You Don't Have To Say You Love Me is a powerful account of a complicated relationship, an unflinching and unforgettable remembrance.]]> 457 Sherman Alexie 031627075X Barbara 0 4.15 2017 You Don't Have to Say You Love Me
author: Sherman Alexie
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at: 2018/02/12
date added: 2018/02/12
shelves:
review:

]]> Disappeared (Disappeared, #1) 34371577 Four months ago: Sara Zapata’s best friend disappeared, kidnapped by the web of criminals who terrorize Juàrez.

Four weeks ago: Her brother, Emiliano, fell in love with Perla Rubi, a girl whose family is as rich as her name.

Four hours ago: Sara received a death threat…and her first clue her friend’s location.

Four minutes ago: Emiliano was offered a way into Perla Rubi’s world—if he betrays his own.

In the next four days, Sara and Emiliano will each face impossible choices, between life and justice, friends and family, truth and love. But when the criminals come after Sara, only one path remains for both the siblings: the way across the desert to the United States.]]> 329 Francisco X. Stork 0545944473 Barbara 5 3.79 2017 Disappeared (Disappeared, #1)
author: Francisco X. Stork
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2017/08/25
date added: 2017/08/25
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Deep Run Roots: Stories and Recipes from My Corner of the South]]> 28962990 Vivian Howard, star of PBS's A CHEF'S LIFE, celebrates the flavors of North Carolina's coastal plain in more than 200 recipes and stories.

This new classic of American country cooking proves that the food of Deep Run, North Carolina--Vivian's home--is as rich as any culinary tradition in the world.


Organized by ingredient with dishes suited to every skill level--from beginners to confident cooks--DEEP RUN ROOTS features time-honored simple preparations, extraordinary meals from her acclaimed restaurant Chef and the Farmer, and recipes that bring new traditions to life. Home cooks will find photographs for every single recipe.


As much a storybook as it is a cookbook, DEEP RUN ROOTS imparts the true tale of Southern food: rooted in family and tradition, yet calling out to the rest of the world.


Ten years ago, Vivian opened Chef and the Farmer and put the nearby town of Kinston on the culinary map. But in a town paralyzed by recession, she couldn't hop on every new culinary trend. Instead, she focused on rural development: If you grew it, she'd buy it. Inundated by local sweet potatoes, blueberries, shrimp, pork, and beans, Vivian learned to cook the way generations of Southerners before her had, relying on resourcefulness, creativity, and the old ways of preserving food.


DEEP RUN ROOTS is the result of those years of effort to discover the riches of Eastern North Carolina. Like The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, The Art of Simple Food, and The Taste of Country Cooking before it, this is landmark work of American food writing.



Recipes include:
Family favorites like Blueberry BBQ Chicken, Creamed Collard-Stuffed Potatoes, Fried Yams with Five-Spice Maple Bacon Candy, Chicken and Rice, and Country-Style Pork Ribs in Red Curry-Braised Watermelon,
Crowd-pleasers like Butterbean Hummus, Tempura-Fried Okra with Ranch Ice Cream, Pimiento Cheese Grits with Salsa and Pork Rinds, Cool Cucumber Crab Dip, and Oyster Pie,
Show-stopping desserts like Warm Banana Pudding, Peaches and Cream Cake, Spreadable Cheesecake, and Pecan-Chewy Pie,
And 200 more quick breakfasts, weeknight dinners, holiday centerpieces, seasonal preserves, and traditional preparations for all kinds of cooks.
---
Interior photographs by Rex Miller. Jacket photograph by Stacey Van Berkel Photography. Illustrations by Tatsuro Kiuchi.

]]> 576 Vivian Howard 0316381101 Barbara 0 currently-reading 4.49 2016 Deep Run Roots: Stories and Recipes from My Corner of the South
author: Vivian Howard
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/08/08
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Tell the Wolves I'm Home 12875258
1987. There's only one person who has ever truly understood fourteen-year-old June Elbus, and that's her uncle, the renowned painter Finn Weiss. Shy at school and distant from her older sister, June can only be herself in Finn's company; he is her godfather, confidant, and best friend. So when he dies, far too young, of a mysterious illness her mother can barely speak about, June's world is turned upside down. But Finn's death brings a surprise acquaintance into June's life—someone who will help her to heal, and to question what she thinks she knows about Finn, her family, and even her own heart.

At Finn's funeral, June notices a strange man lingering just beyond the crowd. A few days later, she receives a package in the mail. Inside is a beautiful teapot she recognizes from Finn's apartment, and a note from Toby, the stranger, asking for an opportunity to meet. As the two begin to spend time together, June realizes she's not the only one who misses Finn, and if she can bring herself to trust this unexpected friend, he just might be the one she needs the most.

An emotionally charged coming-of-age novel, Tell the Wolves I'm Home is a tender story of love lost and found, an unforgettable portrait of the way compassion can make us whole again.]]> 360 Carol Rifka Brunt 0679644199 Barbara 5 4.01 2012 Tell the Wolves I'm Home
author: Carol Rifka Brunt
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2017/06/29
shelves:
review:
Beautifully written and emotionally powerful--I couldn't put this one down.
]]> <![CDATA[Online Marketing for Busy Authors: A Step-by-Step Guide]]> 27037564 Writing It Is Only the Beginning

There has truly never been a better time to be an author. For the first time, authors have direct access to the public via the Internet—and can create a community eagerly awaiting their book. But where do new authors start? How do they sort through the dizzying range of online options? Where should they spend their time online and what should they be doing?

Enter Fauzia Burke, a digital book marketing pioneer and friend of overwhelmed writers everywhere. She takes authors step-by-step through the process of identifying their unique personal brand, defining their audience, clarifying their aspirations and goals, and setting priorities. She offers advice on designing a successful website, building a mailing list of superfans, blogging, creating an engagement strategy for social media, and more. By following Burke’s expert advice, authors can conquer the Internet and still get their next manuscript in on time.]]> 168 Fauzia Burke 1626567859 Barbara 5 4.27 2016 Online Marketing for Busy Authors: A Step-by-Step Guide
author: Fauzia Burke
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2017/06/29
shelves:
review:
Practical advice, organized in easy-to-digest bites!
]]> Things That Surprise You 32711711
But things are changing. At home, Emily and her mom are learning to move on after her parents� divorce. Hardest of all, her beloved sister Mina has been in a treatment facility to deal with her anorexia. Emily is eager to have her back, but anxious about her sister getting sick again.

Hazel is changing too. She has new friends from the field hockey team, is starting to wear makeup, and have crushes on boys. Emily is trying to keep up, but she keeps doing and saying the wrong thing. She want to be the perfect new Emily. But who is that really?

Things That Surprise You is a beautifully layered novel about navigating the often shifting bonds of family and friendship, and learning how to put the pieces back together when things fall apart.]]> 288 Jennifer Maschari 0062438921 Barbara 5 4.36 2017 Things That Surprise You
author: Jennifer Maschari
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2017/06/29
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal]]> 13615414
Like all of Roach’s books, Gulp is as much about human beings as it is about human bodies.]]> 348 Mary Roach 0393081575 Barbara 0 currently-reading 3.91 2013 Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal
author: Mary Roach
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/06/29
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Sweetbitter 26192646 Sweetbitter, Stephanie Danler deftly conjures with heart-stopping accuracy the nonstop and high-adrenaline world of the restaurant industry and evokes the infinite possibilities, the unbearable beauty, and the fragility and brutality of being young in New York.]]> 356 Stephanie Danler 1101875941 Barbara 5 3.32 2016 Sweetbitter
author: Stephanie Danler
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.32
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2017/01/05
shelves:
review:

]]> Pug Meets Pig (Pug & Pig) 25785783
Pug is a very happy pup. He has his own yard, his own bowl, and even his own cozy bed! That is, until Pig moves in and starts eating from Pug’s bowl, interrupting Pug’s routine, and, worst of all, sleeping in Pug’s bed. Will Pug and Pig ever learn to live together as friends?

This sweet and silly story about a darling duo celebrates the timeless themes of embracing change, being kind to others, and finding friends in unlikely places.]]> 40 Sue Lowell Gallion 1481420666 Barbara 5 3.94 2016 Pug Meets Pig (Pug & Pig)
author: Sue Lowell Gallion
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2016/09/16
shelves:
review:
Such a great book for talking about getting along with others and finding creative solutions!
]]> Everyone Brave Is Forgiven 25814512
It’s 1939 and Mary, a young socialite, is determined to shock her blueblood political family by volunteering for the war effort. She is assigned as a teacher to children who were evacuated from London and have been rejected by the countryside because they are infirm, mentally disabled, or—like Mary’s favorite student, Zachary—have colored skin.

Tom, an education administrator, is distraught when his best friend, Alastair, enlists. Alastair, an art restorer, has always seemed far removed from the violent life to which he has now condemned himself. But Tom finds distraction in Mary, first as her employer and then as their relationship quickly develops in the emotionally charged times. When Mary meets Alastair, the three are drawn into a tragic love triangle and—while war escalates and bombs begin falling around them—further into a new world unlike any they’ve ever known.

A sweeping epic with the kind of unforgettable characters, cultural insights, and indelible scenes that made Little Bee so incredible, Chris Cleave’s latest novel explores the disenfranchised, the bereaved, the elite, the embattled. Everyone Brave Is Forgiven is a heartbreakingly beautiful story of love, loss, and incredible courage.]]> 418 Chris Cleave 1501124374 Barbara 4 ]]> 3.71 2016 Everyone Brave Is Forgiven
author: Chris Cleave
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/09/16
shelves:
review:
A beautifully crafted novel. I found the characters compelling and well-drawn. Highly recommended.

]]> <![CDATA[The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle]]> 23208665 388 Janet Fox 0451476336 Barbara 4 3.60 2016 The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle
author: Janet Fox
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2016/09/16
date added: 2016/09/16
shelves:
review:

]]> Tru & Nelle (Tru & Nelle, #1) 25897850 336 G. Neri 0544699602 Barbara 4 3.80 2016 Tru & Nelle (Tru & Nelle, #1)
author: G. Neri
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2016/09/16
date added: 2016/09/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The One and Only Ivan (The One and Only #1)]]> 11594337
Instead, Ivan thinks about TV shows he’s seen and about his friends Stella, an elderly elephant, and Bob, a stray dog. But mostly Ivan thinks about art and how to capture the taste of a mango or the sound of leaves with color and a well-placed line.

Then he meets Ruby, a baby elephant taken from her family, and she makes Ivan see their home—and his own art—through new eyes. When Ruby arrives, change comes with her, and it’s up to Ivan to make it a change for the better.

Katherine Applegate blends humor and poignancy to create Ivan’s unforgettable first-person narration in a story of friendship, art, and hope.]]> 304 Katherine Applegate 0061992259 Barbara 4 4.25 2012 The One and Only Ivan (The One and Only #1)
author: Katherine Applegate
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/05/04
shelves:
review:

]]> The Diary of a Young Girl 48855
In 1942, with the Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, the Franks and another family lived cloistered in the “Secret Annexe� of an old office building. Cut off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and death. In her diary Anne Frank recorded vivid impressions of her experiences during this period. By turns thoughtful, moving, and surprisingly humorous, her account offers a fascinating commentary on human courage and frailty and a compelling self-portrait of a sensitive and spirited young woman whose promise was tragically cut short.
--back cover]]> 283 Anne Frank Barbara 5 4.19 1947 The Diary of a Young Girl
author: Anne Frank
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1947
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2016/05/04
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review:

]]> The Crossover 18263725
Josh and Jordan must come to grips with growing up on and off the court to realize breaking the rules comes at a terrible price, as their story's heart-stopping climax proves a game-changer for the entire family.]]> 245 Kwame Alexander Barbara 5 4.21 2014 The Crossover
author: Kwame Alexander
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2016/05/04
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review:

]]> Brown Girl Dreaming 20821284
Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child’s soul as she searches for her place in the world. Woodson’s eloquent poetry also reflects the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, despite the fact that she struggled with reading as a child. Her love of stories inspired her and stayed with her, creating the first sparks of the gifted writer she was to become.]]> 337 Jacqueline Woodson 0399252517 Barbara 5 4.14 2014 Brown Girl Dreaming
author: Jacqueline Woodson
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2016/05/04
date added: 2016/05/04
shelves:
review:

]]> State of Wonder 9118135
As Dr. Marina Singh embarks upon an uncertain odyssey into the insect-infested Amazon, she will be forced to surrender herself to the lush but forbidding world that awaits within the jungle.

Charged with finding her former mentor Dr. Annick Swenson, a researcher who has disappeared while working on a valuable new drug, she will have to confront her own memories of tragedy and sacrifice as she journeys into the unforgiving heart of darkness.

Stirring and luminous, "State of Wonder" is a world unto itself, where unlikely beauty stands beside unimaginable loss beneath the rain forest's jeweled canopy.]]> 353 Ann Patchett 0062049801 Barbara 4 3.88 2011 State of Wonder
author: Ann Patchett
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2016/04/25
date added: 2016/04/25
shelves:
review:
Ann Patchett is one of my new favorite authors. There are many passages where I would stop and re-read--her prose is so tightly written and so well-crafted that I needed to go over it again. Highly recommended.
]]> The Dinner 15797938
Each couple has a fifteen-year-old son. The two boys are united by their accountability for a single horrific act - an act that has triggered a police investigation and shattered the comfortable, insulated worlds of their families. When the dinner reaches its culinary climax, the conversation finally touches on their children. As civility and friendship disintegrate, each couple shows just how far they are prepared to go to protect those they love.

Tautly written, incredibly gripping, and told by an unforgettable narrator, The Dinner is an internationally bestselling phenomenon that will leave you breathless.]]> 292 Herman Koch 0770437850 Barbara 3 3.18 2009 The Dinner
author: Herman Koch
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.18
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2016/04/05
shelves:
review:

]]> Maybe a Fox 25785754 Sylvie and Jules.

Jules and Sylvie.

Jules adores her older-by-one-year sister, Sylvie.

Sylvie: beautiful like their mother.
Sylvie: supreme maker of tiny snow families.
Sylvie: faster than fast.

Sylvie: gone.

Into thin air, Sylvie goes missing, and as Jules stumbles in grief, a fox cub is born. A shadow fox, spirit and animal in one. From the minute the cub opens her eyes, she senses something very wrong. Someone—JłÜ±ô±đ˛ő.

Jules: steadfast like their father.
Jules: supreme maker of tiny snow foxes.
Jules: collector of rocks.

Jules: heartbroken.

Who is this Jules? Who is this Sylvie she cries out for? And why does the air still prickle with something unsettled? As that dark unknown grows, the fates of the girl Jules and the fox cub, laced together with wishes and shadowy ties, are about to collide.]]> 272 Kathi Appelt 1442482427 Barbara 5 4.08 2016 Maybe a Fox
author: Kathi Appelt
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2016/02/19
shelves:
review:

]]> The Trouble with Ants 24338388 Ěý
The trouble with ants is . . .
. . . people think they’re boring.
. . . they are not cuddly.
. . . who would ever want them for a pet?
Ěý
Nora Alpers is using her new notebook to record the behavior of ants. Why? Because they are fascinating! Unfortunately, no one agrees with her. Her mom is not happy about them being in the house, and when Nora brings her ant farm to school for show and tell, her classmates are not very impressed. They are more interested in cat videos, basketball practice, or trying to set a Guinness World Record (although Nora wouldn’t mind that).
Ěý
Mostly they are distracted by the assignment their teacher Coach Joe has given them—to write a persuasive speech and change people’s minds about something. Will Nora convince her friends that ants are as interesting as she thinks they are? Or will everyone still think of ants as nothing but trouble?
Ěý
With real science facts, a classroom backdrop, an emphasis on friendship, and appealing black-and-white interior illustrations from artist Katie Kath,Ěý The Nora Notebooks Ěýis perfect for newly independent readers—especially budding scientists like Nora!—and adults who want to encourage awareness of STEM subjects in young readers.]]> 176 Claudia Mills 0385391625 Barbara 5 3.99 2015 The Trouble with Ants
author: Claudia Mills
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/10/12
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]]> Divergent (Divergent, #1) 13335037
During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.]]> 487 Veronica Roth 0062024035 Barbara 4 4.13 2011 Divergent (Divergent, #1)
author: Veronica Roth
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/10/06
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles, #1)]]> 11235712
She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.]]> 390 Marissa Meyer 0312641893 Barbara 5 4.14 2012 Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles, #1)
author: Marissa Meyer
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/10/06
shelves:
review:

]]> The Toymaker’s Apprentice 23846071
Embarking on a wild adventure through Germany, Stefan must save Boldavia’s princess and his own father from the fanatical Mouse Queen and her seven-headed Mouse Prince, both of whom have sworn to destroy the Drosselmeyer family.Ěý

[Based on the original inspiration for the Nutcracker ballet, the author brings the Nutcracker Prince to life in this fascinating journey into a world of toymaking, magical curses, clockmaking guilds, talking mice and erudite squirrels.]
]]> 400 Sherri L. Smith 0399252959 Barbara 0 currently-reading 3.86 2015 The Toymaker’s Apprentice
author: Sherri L. Smith
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/07/22
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Romancing the Dark in the City of Light]]> 21525983
Haunting and beautifully written, with a sharp and distinctive voice that could belong only to this character, Romancing the Dark in the City of Light is an unforgettable young adult novel.

Summer Barnes just moved to Paris to repeat her senior year of high school. After being kicked out of four boarding schools, she has to get on track or she risks losing her hefty inheritance. Summer is convinced that meeting the right guy will solve everything. She meets two. Moony, a classmate, is recovering against all odds from a serious car accident, and he encourages Summer to embrace life despite how hard it can be to make it through even one day. But when Summer meets Kurt, a hot, mysterious older man who she just can't shake, he leads her through the creepy underbelly of the city-and way out of her depth.

When Summer's behavior manages to alienate everyone, even Moony, she's forced to decide if a life so difficult is worth living. With an ending that'll surprise even the most seasoned reader, Romancing the Dark in the City of Light is an unputdownable and utterly compelling novel.]]> 288 Ann Jacobus 1466870508 Barbara 5 3.31 2015 Romancing the Dark in the City of Light
author: Ann Jacobus
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.31
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/07/17
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]]> Ghostlight 23743749
Unfortunately, Julian wants to film at Hilliard House, a looming, empty mansion that Grandma has absolutely forbidden her to enter. As terrified as Avery is of Grandma’s wrath, the allure of filmmaking is impossible to resist.

As the kids explore the secrets of Hilliard house, eerie things begin to happen, and the “imaginary� dangers in their movie threaten to become very real. Have Avery and Julian awakened a menacing presence? Can they turn back before they go too far?]]> 249 Sonia Gensler 0553522140 Barbara 5 3.71 2015 Ghostlight
author: Sonia Gensler
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2015/07/02
date added: 2015/07/02
shelves:
review:

]]> Gone Girl 19288043 What have we done to each other?

These are the questions Nick Dunne finds himself asking on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary when his wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they weren't made by him. And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone.

So what did happen to Nick's beautiful wife?]]> 415 Gillian Flynn 0307588378 Barbara 0 4.22 2012 Gone Girl
author: Gillian Flynn
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at: 2015/02/04
date added: 2015/02/04
shelves:
review:

]]> Orphan Train 15818107 This is an alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780061950728, found here.

The author of Bird in Hand and The Way Life Should Be delivers her most ambitious and powerful novel to date: a captivating story of two very different women who build an unexpected friendship: a 91-year-old woman with a hidden past as an orphan-train rider and the teenage girl whose own troubled adolescence leads her to seek answers to questions no one has ever thought to ask.

Nearly eighteen, Molly Ayer knows she has one last chance. Just months from "aging out" of the child welfare system, and close to being kicked out of her foster home, a community service position helping an elderly woman clean out her home is the only thing keeping her out of juvie and worse.

Vivian Daly has lived a quiet life on the coast of Maine. But in her attic, hidden in trunks, are vestiges of a turbulent past. As she helps Vivian sort through her possessions and memories, Molly discovers that she and Vivian aren't as different as they seem to be. A young Irish immigrant orphaned in New York City, Vivian was put on a train to the Midwest with hundreds of other children whose destinies would be determined by luck and chance.

The closer Molly grows to Vivian, the more she discovers parallels to her own life. A Penobscot Indian, she, too, is an outsider being raised by strangers, and she, too, has unanswered questions about the past. As her emotional barriers begin to crumble, Molly discovers that she has the power to help Vivian find answers to mysteries that have haunted her for her entire life - answers that will ultimately free them both.

Rich in detail and epic in scope, Orphan Train is a powerful novel of upheaval and resilience, of second chances, of unexpected friendship, and of the secrets we carry that keep us from finding out who we are.]]> 278 Christina Baker Kline Barbara 0 4.18 2013 Orphan Train
author: Christina Baker Kline
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at: 2015/02/04
date added: 2015/02/04
shelves:
review:

]]> Charisma 22143892
Aislyn suffers from crippling shyness—that is, until she’s offered a dose of Charisma, an underground gene therapy drug guaranteed to make her shine. The effects are instant. She’s charming, vivacious, and popular. But strangely, so are some other kids she knows. The media goes into a frenzy when the disease turns contagious, and then deadly, and the doctor who gave it to them disappears. Aislyn must find a way to stop it, before it's too late.

Part medical thriller, part social justice commentary, Charisma will have readers on the edge of their seats.]]> 384 Jeanne Ryan 0803739664 Barbara 4 3.55 2015 Charisma
author: Jeanne Ryan
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2015/02/04
date added: 2015/02/04
shelves:
review:

]]> I'll Give You the Sun 20820994
Years later, they are barely speaking. Something has happened to change the twins in different yet equally devastating ways... but then Jude meets an intriguing, irresistible boy and a mysterious new mentor. The early years are Noah's to tell; the later years are Jude's. But they each have only half the story, and if they can only find their way back to one another, they'll have a chance to remake their world.

This radiant, award-winning novel from the acclaimed author of The Sky Is Everywhere will leave you breathless and teary and laughing—often all at once.

Printz Award Winner Stonewall Honor Book.]]> 371 Jandy Nelson 0803734964 Barbara 0 to-read 4.14 2014 I'll Give You the Sun
author: Jandy Nelson
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/12/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Undertow (Undertow, #1) 18275638 384 Michael Buckley Barbara 4 currently-reading 3.96 2015 Undertow (Undertow, #1)
author: Michael Buckley
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2014/11/19
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Friendship Over 17469952 152 Julie Sternberg 1590789938 Barbara 0 4.02 2014 Friendship Over
author: Julie Sternberg
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/10/03
shelves:
review:

]]> Skink 18012915 Carl Hiaasen 0804166900 Barbara 0 to-read 3.50 2014 Skink
author: Carl Hiaasen
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/09/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Lug, Dawn of the Ice Age (Lug, 1)]]> 20176227
Lug is a caveboy who would rather paint than club other caveboys. The clan even mocks him, calling him "Little Slug." Like all the other caveboys, Lug must enter the contest to become the clan's next Big Man and attempt to catch the Biggest Beast--even though he would much rather spend his days painting in his secret art cave. When Lug is banished for failing to catch a jungle llama, he thinks he is alone in the world but finds others who believe in his clanmate Stony and a new friend, Echo, a girl from a rival clan who can talk to animals and just may be prehistory's first vegetarian/animal rights activist. Together they face even bigger challenges--Lug discovers the Ice Age is coming and he has to bring the warring clans together to save them not only from the freeze but also from a particularly unpleasant migrating pride of saber-toothed tigers. It's no help that the elders are cavemen who can't seem to get the concept of climate change through their thick skulls. With both funny, anachronistic humor, charming characters, and strong themes, Lug, Dawn of the Ice Age is sure to be a hit with many readers.

Illustrated with black and white line art throughout.

"A great combination of humor and powerful insight." � Al Gore

“Lug makes the Ice Age sizzle.”—Gordon Korman
Ěý
"Fred Flintstone would feel right at home."� Kirkus Reviews
Ěý
"Suspenseful and smartly humorous."� ForeWord Reviews]]> 192 David Zeltser 1606845136 Barbara 4 3.88 2014 Lug, Dawn of the Ice Age (Lug, 1)
author: David Zeltser
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2014/09/18
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]]> <![CDATA[Be a Changemaker: How to Start Something That Matters]]> 20759562 * A Junior Library Guild selection
* Winner of a Parents' Choice Recommended Award
* Winner of the SCBWI Crystal Kite Members' Choice Award
* A 2014 Cybils Award finalist

We've had the civil rights movement and the women's movement—now it's time for the youth movement.

When Divine Bradley was seventeen, he just wanted a safe place to hang out away from gangs and violence, and Team Revolution was born. At age eleven, Jessica Markowitz learned that girls in Rwanda are often not allowed to attend school, and Richard's Rwanda took shape. During his sophomore year of high school, Zach Steinfeld put his love of baking to good use and started the Baking for Breast Cancer Club.

Gone are the days when kids were supposed to be "seen and not heard." Today, youth everywhere are rising up, building new organizations, and creating the changes they want to see in their communities and around the world. Be a Changemaker gives readers the tools and confidence they need to affect real change. Readers will learn how to:

- Research ideas
- Build a strong and passionate team
- Create a business plan
- Enlist a savvy adult
- Plan events
- Work with the media
- And more!

Plus, profiles of youth-led social organizations show readers that it's never too early to become a changemaker.]]> 240 Laurie Ann Thompson 1582704643 Barbara 4 3.91 2014 Be a Changemaker: How to Start Something That Matters
author: Laurie Ann Thompson
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2014/05/27
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review:

]]> A Hitch at the Fairmont 18689749
After the mysterious death of his mother, eleven-year-old Jack Fair is whisked away to San Francisco's swanky Fairmont Hotel by his wicked Aunt Edith. There, he seems doomed to a life of fetching chocolates for his aunt and her pet chinchilla. Until one night, when Aunt Edith disappears, and the only clue is a ransom note written... in chocolate?

Suddenly, Jack finds himself all alone on a quest to discover who kidnapped Aunt Edith and what happened to his mother. Alone, that is, until he meets an unlikely accomplice: Alfred Hitchcock himself! The two embark on a madcap journey full of hidden doorways, secret societies, cryptic clues, sinister villains, and cinematic flair.]]> 416 Jim Averbeck 1442494476 Barbara 4 3.86 2014 A Hitch at the Fairmont
author: Jim Averbeck
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2014/05/09
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Eye of Zoltar (The Last Dragonslayer, #3)]]> 16043857
But the Mighty Shandar doesn't do refunds, and vows to eliminate the dragons once and for all - unless sixteen-year-old Jennifer Strange and her sidekicks from the Kazam house of enchantment can bring him the legendary jewel, The Eye of Zoltar.

The only thing that stands in their way is a perilous journey with a 50% Fatality Index - through the Cambrian Empire to the Leviathan Graveyard, at the top of the deadly Cadir Idris mountain. It's a quest like never before, and Jennifer soon finds herself fighting not just for her life, but for everything she knows and loves . . .]]> 401 Jasper Fforde 1444707272 Barbara 5 4.14 2014 The Eye of Zoltar (The Last Dragonslayer, #3)
author: Jasper Fforde
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2014/05/09
date added: 2014/05/09
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Song of the Quarkbeast (The Last Dragonslayer, #2)]]> 17165902
Yet even smart and sensible Jennifer would have trouble against these powers-that-be. The king and his cronies will do anything to succeed--including ordering a just-might-be-rigged contest between Kazam and iMagic, Kazam's only competitor in the magic business. With underhanded shenanigans afoot, how can Kazam possibly win?

Whatever happens, one this is certain: Jennifer Strange will not relinquish the noble powers of magic without a fight.]]> 289 Jasper Fforde 054773848X Barbara 4 4.07 2011 The Song of the Quarkbeast (The Last Dragonslayer, #2)
author: Jasper Fforde
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2014/05/09
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Last Dragonslayer (The Last Dragonslayer, #1)]]> 13316328 287 Jasper Fforde 0547738471 Barbara 4 3.87 2010 The Last Dragonslayer (The Last Dragonslayer, #1)
author: Jasper Fforde
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2014/04/03
shelves:
review:

]]> The Goldfinch 17333223
Aged thirteen, Theo Decker, son of a devoted mother and a reckless, largely absent father, survives an accident that otherwise tears his life apart. Alone and rudderless in New York, he is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. He is tormented by an unbearable longing for his mother, and down the years clings to the thing that most reminds him of her: a small, strangely captivating painting that ultimately draws him into the criminal underworld. As he grows up, Theo learns to glide between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love - and his talisman, the painting, places him at the centre of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle.

The Goldfinch is a haunted odyssey through present-day America and a drama of enthralling power. Combining unforgettably vivid characters and thrilling suspense, it is a beautiful, addictive triumph - a sweeping story of loss and obsession, of survival and self-invention, of the deepest mysteries of love, identity and fate.]]> 771 Donna Tartt 0316055433 Barbara 5 3.94 2013 The Goldfinch
author: Donna Tartt
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2014/02/04
date added: 2014/02/04
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Like Carrot Juice on a Cupcake (Eleanor, #3)]]> 18405514 I did a mean thing.
A very mean thing.
I HATEĚýthat I did it.
But I did.
This is worse than
carrot juice on a cupcake
or a wasp on my pillow
or a dress that’s too tight at the neck.
In the third installment from the team who created Like Pickle Juice on a Cookie and Like Bug Juice on a Burger, Eleanor’s relationship with her best friend, Pearl, experiences its first growing pains. When a glamorous new student transfers to school, at first Eleanor’s excited about the possibility of a new friend. But when Pearl is assigned to be the new girl’s buddy, Eleanor fears she can’t compete. To make matters worse, Eleanor’s been chosen for the lead role in the springtime musical, which means she has to sing a solo in front of the entire school!
From overcoming stage fright to having a secret crush, young readers will relate to Eleanor as she navigates the bittersweet waters of growing up.]]> 192 Julie Sternberg 1419710338 Barbara 5 4.08 2014 Like Carrot Juice on a Cupcake (Eleanor, #3)
author: Julie Sternberg
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2014/02/04
shelves:
review:

]]>