Jo's bookshelf: all en-US Tue, 15 Oct 2024 05:21:05 -0700 60 Jo's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg The World's Wife: Poems 820442 96 Carol Ann Duffy 033037222X Jo 5 "These myths going round, these legends, fairytales, I'll put them straight."

While I was clearing out my wardrobe I was attacked by a falling lever-arch file and, after flicking through it, I found a copy of an A-Level essay that I wrote on this collection.

I immediately went to my bookshelf and dug out my heavily annotated (Phrases such as "Satirises the traditional views of women to represent them as holders of power" and "Men's violence is faced and outdone" somehow look more intelligent when scrawled in purple, glittery gel pen, no?), ink-seeping-through-the-pages, well-thumbed copy and spent a good rainy afternoon reading through them all again.

To me anyway, it's one of the most clever and beautifully written anthologies out there :)


My favourites have to be Medusa, Mrs Midas, Mrs Darwin, Anne Hathaway, Frau Freud and, of course, Mrs Beast.

"Let the less-loving one be me." ]]> 4.11 1999 The World's Wife: Poems
author: Carol Ann Duffy
name: Jo
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1999
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/10/15
shelves:
review:
"These myths going round, these legends, fairytales, I'll put them straight."

While I was clearing out my wardrobe I was attacked by a falling lever-arch file and, after flicking through it, I found a copy of an A-Level essay that I wrote on this collection.

I immediately went to my bookshelf and dug out my heavily annotated (Phrases such as "Satirises the traditional views of women to represent them as holders of power" and "Men's violence is faced and outdone" somehow look more intelligent when scrawled in purple, glittery gel pen, no?), ink-seeping-through-the-pages, well-thumbed copy and spent a good rainy afternoon reading through them all again.

To me anyway, it's one of the most clever and beautifully written anthologies out there :)


My favourites have to be Medusa, Mrs Midas, Mrs Darwin, Anne Hathaway, Frau Freud and, of course, Mrs Beast.

"Let the less-loving one be me."
]]> <![CDATA[Act Your Age, Eve Brown (The Brown Sisters, #3)]]> 54688252 400 Talia Hibbert Jo 0 4.19 2021 Act Your Age, Eve Brown (The Brown Sisters, #3)
author: Talia Hibbert
name: Jo
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2024/04/16
date added: 2024/04/16
shelves:
review:

]]> The Girl in Seat 2A 148521178 Funny how one lie can spiral�

One thing about me: I HATE flying. It’s my worst nightmare.

That’s why I book seat 2A every time I fly. Since my big win, I've been booking seats 2B and 2C as well. They’re my comfort seats, they cushion the claustrophobia, and at last I can afford them.

I am now determined to live the life of luxury. I deserve it, after all.

How to Live Like a Millionaire is the book I’m reading on this flight. When it lands on the floor, a handsome guy hands it back to me. I know he clocks the title, because he’s totally charming and talks to me as if I’m one of the Marbella Millionaire set.

When I land in sunny Spain, I’ll be acting like a millionairess, that’s for sure � even if it’s stretching the truth, just a bit. We all know that money talks, and I intend to talk my way into a better life.

Who knows� maybe this guy, the one who had the cheek to sit down in seat 2C, might be someone special. He has an air of danger, but who cares?]]> 358 Diana Wilkinson 1837510210 Jo 0 currently-reading 3.78 2024 The Girl in Seat 2A
author: Diana Wilkinson
name: Jo
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/21
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Gallows Rock (Children's House, #4)]]> 45784429 On a jagged, bleak lava field just outside Reykjavik stands the Gallows Rock. Once a place of execution, it is now a tourist attraction. Until this morning, when a man was found hanging from it...

The nail embedded in his chest proves it wasn't suicide. But when the police go to his flat, a further puzzle awaits: a four-year-old boy has been left there. He doesn't seem to have any link with the victim, his parents cannot be found, and his drawings show he witnessed something terrible.

As detective Huldar hunts the killer, and child psychologist Freyja looks for the boy's parents, the mystery unfolds: a story of violence, entitlement, and revenge.

]]> 416 Yrsa Sigurdardottir Jo 0 currently-reading 3.98 2017 Gallows Rock (Children's House, #4)
author: Yrsa Sigurdardottir
name: Jo
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/29
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> One Last Breath 160873315
Jessie wakes to darkness, cold, and the rain beating down on her. She reaches out, and her hands meet hard stone.

Suddenly she knows where she is. Deep in the woods, far underground, at the bottom of the well where her best friend's lifeless body was found fifteen years ago. After returning to her hometown to investigate a new murder, she now finds herself poised to become the killer's next victim.

Jessie gazes up to the circle of night sky above her, the relentless raindrops landing on her face.

She doesn't know how she came to be here, but she knows that, with the storm getting worse, it's only a matter of time before the well begins to fill with water. Can she make it out before it's too late? And what will be waiting for her on the surface if she does?]]> 326 P.S. Cunliffe 1471413403 Jo 0 currently-reading 4.20 2024 One Last Breath
author: P.S. Cunliffe
name: Jo
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/19
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Little Deaths 32595029
Noting Ruth's perfectly made-up face and provocative clothing, the empty liquor bottles and love letters that litter her apartment, the detectives leap to convenient conclusions, fuelled by neighbourhood gossip and speculation. Sent to cover the case on his first major assignment, tabloid reporter Pete Wonicke at first can't help but do the same. But the longer he spends watching Ruth, the more he learns about the darker workings of the police and the press. Soon, Pete begins to doubt everything he thought he knew.

Ruth Malone is enthralling, challenging and secretive - is she really capable of murder?

Haunting, intoxicating and heart-poundingly suspenseful, Little Deaths is a gripping novel about love, morality and obsession, exploring the capacity for good and evil within us all.]]> 368 Emma Flint 1509826602 Jo 0 currently-reading 3.73 2017 Little Deaths
author: Emma Flint
name: Jo
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/11
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Moderate Becoming Good Later: Sea Kayaking the Shipping Forecast]]> 130959050 An exhilarating and deeply moving story of one man's attempt to sea kayak the areas of the Shipping Forecast, perfect for fans of The Salt Path and Attention All Shipping

Foreword by Charlie Connelly, author of Attention All Shipping

The Shipping Forecast has been described as the UK's national a source of dependability and calm in our often chaotic world, it has charmed millions of listeners and aided generations of seafarers across the decades. No stranger to weathering a storm after living with a rare life-limiting condition and facing the death of his brother, avid kayaker Toby Carr set out to explore the areas of the Forecast.

On a journey that took him to the harshest and most tranquil stretches of our sea, Toby found the real people, places and stories behind the familiar names and imagined environments of the well-loved BBC broadcast. From the wildness and peace of the sea, looking back at the land, Toby hoped to gain the strength and balance he knew nature could provide and to discover what anchors us to each other.

Written by Toby's sister Katie from his extensive notes and recordings after his untimely death, Moderate Becoming Good Later is both an epic adventure - sometimes choppy, constantly moving - and a personal voyage of discovery that includes old friends and new, plenty of wildlife, and the ever-present sea.]]> 340 Katie Carr 1837991804 Jo 0 currently-reading 4.68 Moderate Becoming Good Later: Sea Kayaking the Shipping Forecast
author: Katie Carr
name: Jo
average rating: 4.68
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/04
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Penance 63104845 Do you know what happened already? Did you know her? Did you see it on the internet? Did you listen to a podcast? Did the hosts make jokes?


Did you see the pictures of the body?

Did you look for them?

It's been years since the horrifying murder of sixteen-year-old Joan Wilson rocked Crow-on-Sea, and the events of that terrible night are now being published for the first time.

That story is Penance, a dizzying feat of masterful storytelling, where Eliza Clark manoeuvres us through accounts from the inhabitants of this small seaside town. Placing us in the capable hands of journalist Alec. Z. Carelli, Clark allows him to construct what he claims is the 'definitive account' of the murder - and what led up to it. Built on hours of interviews with witnesses and family members, painstaking historical research, and most notably, correspondence with the killers themselves, the result is a riveting snapshot of lives rocked by tragedy, and a town left in turmoil.

The only question is: how much of it is true?]]> 406 Eliza Clark Jo 0 currently-reading 3.93 2023 Penance
author: Eliza Clark
name: Jo
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/23
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> The Bandit Queens 62839143 Until the other women in her village decide they want to be widows, too.
Geeta is believed to have killed her vanished husband - a rumour she hasn't bothered trying to correct, because a reputation like that can keep a single woman safe in rural India. But when she's approached for help in ridding another wife of her abusive drunk of a husband, her reluctant agreement sets in motion a chain of events that will change the lives of all the women in the village....
A darkly irreverent and fresh take on a feminist revenge thriller, perfect for readers of My Sister the Serial Killer, How To Kidnap The Rich and the Sharon Horgan series Bad Sisters.]]> 352 Parini Shroff 1838957162 Jo 0 4.13 2023 The Bandit Queens
author: Parini Shroff
name: Jo
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2023/08/06
date added: 2023/08/06
shelves:
review:

]]> No One Saw a Thing 62353013 No one saw it happen.
You stand on a crowded tube platform in London. Your two little girls jump on the train ahead of you. As you try to join them, the doors slide shut and the train moves away, leaving you behind.

Everyone is lying.
By the time you get to the next stop, you've convinced yourself that everything will be fine. But you soon start to panic, because there aren't two children waiting for you on the platform. There's only one.

Someone wants revenge.
Has your other daughter got lost? Been taken by a passing stranger? Or perhaps the culprit is closer to home than you think? No one is telling the truth, and the longer the search continues, the harder she will be to find...]]> 378 Andrea Mara 1529197899 Jo 0 4.12 2023 No One Saw a Thing
author: Andrea Mara
name: Jo
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2023/08/06
date added: 2023/08/06
shelves:
review:

]]> 84 Charing Cross Road 1074383 An alternate cover edition can be found here.

"If you happen to pass by 84 Charing Cross Road, kiss it for me! I owe it so much.

In 1949 Helene Hanff, 'a poor writer with an antiquarian taste in books,' wrote to Marks & Co. Booksellers of 84 Charing Cross Rd, in search of rare editions she was unable to find in New York. Her books were dispatched with polite but brisk efficiency. But, seeking further treasures, Helene soon found herself in regular correspondence with bookseller Frank Doel, laying siege to his English reserve with her warmth and wit. And, as letter, books and quips crossed the ocean, a friendship flourished that would endure for twenty years.

A classic memoir of friendship and bibliophilia, 84 Charing Cross Road--accompanied her by the delightful sequel The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street--is an unlikely love story filled with charm and humour.]]> 230 Helene Hanff 0751503843 Jo 4 4.15 1970 84 Charing Cross Road
author: Helene Hanff
name: Jo
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1970
rating: 4
read at: 2009/08/07
date added: 2022/09/21
shelves:
review:

]]> You and Me on Vacation 55275757 Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.

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

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

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

Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?]]> 364 Emily Henry 0241992230 Jo 0 read-2021 3.71 2021 You and Me on Vacation
author: Emily Henry
name: Jo
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2021/05/30
date added: 2022/08/09
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> Q & A 870989
Is it because: a)he has punched a customer; b)he has drunk too much whisky; c)he has taken money from the till; or d)he is the biggest quiz-show winner in history? Ram Mohammad Thomas has been arrested. For answering twelve questions correctly on Who Will Win A Billion? Because a poor orphan who has never read a newspaper or gone to school cannot know the name of the President of America, or the location of the Pyramids, or the plays of Shakespeare. Unless he has cheated.

Rescued from the police cell by a lawyer, Ram reviews television footage of his flawless performance and takes us on an amazing tour of his life � from the day he is salvaged from a dustbin, to his employment with a faded Bollywood star, to meeting a security-crazed Australian colonel, by way of a career as an over-creative tour guide at the Taj Mahal, to falling in love with Nita, a young prostitute. Passed from pillar to post for eighteen years, Ram’s instinct for strategy and survival is infallible.

Stunning a TV audience of millions, he draws on a store of street wisdom and trivia to provide him with the essential keys, not only to the quiz show, but to life itself. Set in modern India, Q&A is a beguiling blend of high comedy and touching melancholy. Cutting across humanity in all its squalor and glory, Vikas Swarup presents a kaleidoscopic vision of the struggle of good against evil, and what happens when one boy has no other choice in life but to survive.]]> 382 Vikas Swarup 055277250X Jo 3 3.98 2005 Q & A
author: Vikas Swarup
name: Jo
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2022/03/22
shelves:
review:

]]> The Searcher 52661162
Then a local boy appeals to him for help. His brother is missing, and no one in the village, least of all the police, seems to care. And once again, Cal feels that restless itch.

Something is wrong in this community, and he must find out what, even if it brings trouble to his door.]]> 451 Tana French 073522465X Jo 0 currently-reading 3.70 2020 The Searcher
author: Tana French
name: Jo
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/12/29
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> I Know What You've Done 56053500 299 Dorothy Koomson Jo 0 3.80 2021 I Know What You've Done
author: Dorothy Koomson
name: Jo
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2021/12/27
date added: 2021/12/27
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Word Perfect: Etymological Entertainment For Every Day of the Year]]> 46140227
From 'Turning a Blind Eye' (Nelson putting the telescope to his missing eye to ignore the order to stop fighting) to why May Day became a distress call; from stealing someone's thunder to the real Jack the Lad, from tartle (forgetting someone's name) to snaccident (unintentionally eating a whole packet of biscuits), Word Perfect is her brilliant linguistic almanac full of unforgettable true stories tied to every day of the year. You'll never be lost for words again.]]> 416 Susie Dent 1529311519 Jo 0 audio 4.30 2021 Word Perfect: Etymological Entertainment For Every Day of the Year
author: Susie Dent
name: Jo
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2021/12/21
date added: 2021/12/21
shelves: audio
review:

]]> Transcendent Kingdom 48570454 Homegoing is a powerful, raw, intimate, deeply layered novel about a Ghanaian family in Alabama.

Gifty is a fifth-year candidate in neuroscience at Stanford School of Medicine studying reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after a knee injury left him hooked on OxyContin. Her suicidal mother is living in her bed. Gifty is determined to discover the scientific basis for the suffering she sees all around her.

But even as she turns to the hard sciences to unlock the mystery of her family's loss, she finds herself hungering for her childhood faith and grappling with the evangelical church in which she was raised, whose promise of salvation remains as tantalizing as it is elusive. Transcendent Kingdom is a deeply moving portrait of a family of Ghanaian immigrants ravaged by depression and addiction and grief--a novel about faith, science, religion, love. Exquisitely written, emotionally searing, this is an exceptionally powerful follow-up to Gyasi's phenomenal debut.]]> 264 Yaa Gyasi Jo 0 4.11 2020 Transcendent Kingdom
author: Yaa Gyasi
name: Jo
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2021/12/07
date added: 2021/12/07
shelves:
review:

]]> Harmless Like You 36236111 Harmless Like You is set across New York, Connecticut, and Berlin. At its heart is Yuki Oyama, a Japanese girl fighting to make it as an artist, and her struggle with her decision to leave her two-year-old son, Jay. As an adult, Jay sets out to find his mother and confront her abandonment.]]> 320 Rowan Hisayo Buchanan 0393355748 Jo 0 3.76 2016 Harmless Like You
author: Rowan Hisayo Buchanan
name: Jo
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at: 2021/12/05
date added: 2021/12/05
shelves:
review:

]]> The Performance 54735157 A novel about three women at turning points in their lives, and the one night that changes everything.

One night, three women go to the theater to see a play. Wildfires are burning in the hills outside, but inside the theater it is time for the performance to take over.

Margot is a successful, flinty professor on the cusp of retirement, distracted by her fraught relationship with her adult son and her ailing husband. After a traumatic past, Ivy is is now a philanthropist with a seemingly perfect life. Summer is a young drama student, an usher at the theater, and frantically worried for her girlfriend whose parents live in the fire zone.

While the performance unfolds on stage, so does the compelling trajectory that will bring these three women together, changing them all. Deliciously intimate and yet emotionally wide-ranging, The Performance is a novel that both explores the inner lives of women as it underscores the power of art and memory to transform us.]]> 230 Claire Thomas 0593329163 Jo 0 3.54 2021 The Performance
author: Claire Thomas
name: Jo
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2021/11/22
date added: 2021/11/22
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Gumption: Relighting the Torch of Freedom with America's Gutsiest Troublemakers]]> 23604325
To millions of people, Nick Offerman is America. Both Nick and his character, Ron Swanson, are known for their humor and patriotism in equal measure.

After the great success of his autobiography,  Paddle Your Own Canoe , Offerman now focuses on the lives of those who inspired him. From George Washington to Willie Nelson, he describes twenty-one heroic figures and why they inspire in him such great meaning. He combines both serious history with light-hearted humor—comparing, say, Benjamin Franklin’s abstinence from daytime drinking to his own sage refusal to join his construction crew in getting plastered on the way to work. The subject matter also allows Offerman to expound upon his favorite topics, which readers love to hear—areas such as religion, politics, woodworking and handcrafting, agriculture, creativity, philosophy, fashion, and, of course, meat.]]> 400 Nick Offerman 0525954678 Jo 0 audio, read-2021 3.77 2015 Gumption: Relighting the Torch of Freedom with America's Gutsiest Troublemakers
author: Nick Offerman
name: Jo
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at: 2021/11/22
date added: 2021/11/22
shelves: audio, read-2021
review:

]]> The Library Book 39507318
Weaving her lifelong love of books and reading into an investigation of the fire, award-winning New Yorker reporter and New York Times bestselling author Susan Orlean delivers a mesmerizing and uniquely compelling book that manages to tell the broader story of libraries and librarians in a way that has never been done before.

In The Library Book, Orlean chronicles the LAPL fire and its aftermath to showcase the larger, crucial role that libraries play in our lives; delves into the evolution of libraries across the country and around the world, from their humble beginnings as a metropolitan charitable initiative to their current status as a cornerstone of national identity; brings each department of the library to vivid life through on-the-ground reporting; studies arson and attempts to burn a copy of a book herself; reflects on her own experiences in libraries; and reexamines the case of Harry Peak, the blond-haired actor long suspected of setting fire to the LAPL more than thirty years ago.

Along the way, Orlean introduces us to an unforgettable cast of characters from libraries past and present—from Mary Foy, who in 1880 at eighteen years old was named the head of the Los Angeles Public Library at a time when men still dominated the role, to Dr. C.J.K. Jones, a pastor, citrus farmer, and polymath known as “The Human Encyclopedia� who roamed the library dispensing information; from Charles Lummis, a wildly eccentric journalist and adventurer who was determined to make the L.A. library one of the best in the world, to the current staff, who do heroic work every day to ensure that their institution remains a vital part of the city it serves.

Brimming with her signature wit, insight, compassion, and talent for deep research, The Library Book is Susan Orlean’s thrilling journey through the stacks that reveals how these beloved institutions provide much more than just books—and why they remain an essential part of the heart, mind, and soul of our country. It is also a master journalist’s reminder that, perhaps especially in the digital era, they are more necessary than ever.]]> 317 Susan Orlean 1476740186 Jo 0 read-2021 3.88 2018 The Library Book
author: Susan Orlean
name: Jo
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at: 2021/11/05
date added: 2021/11/05
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Beautiful World, Where Are You]]> 56597885 356 Sally Rooney 0374602603 Jo 0 read-2021 3.53 2021 Beautiful World, Where Are You
author: Sally Rooney
name: Jo
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2021/10/04
date added: 2021/10/04
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> The Eighth Detective 53139064
Until Julia Hart, a sharp, ambitious editor knocks on his door. Julia wishes to republish his book, and together they must revisit those old stories: an author hiding from his past, and an editor, keen to understand it.

But there are things in the stories that don’t add up. Inconsistencies left by Grant that a sharp-eyed editor begins to suspect are more than mistakes. They may be clues, and Julia finds herself with a mystery of her own to solve.]]> 304 Alex Pavesi 125075593X Jo 0 read-2021 3.50 2020 The Eighth Detective
author: Alex Pavesi
name: Jo
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2021/09/22
date added: 2021/09/22
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Walking Home: A Poet's Journey]]> 15701634
Travelling as a 'modern troubadour' without a penny in his pocket, he stopped along the way to give poetry readings in village halls, churches, pubs and living rooms. His audiences varied from the passionate to the indifferent, and his readings were accompanied by the clacking of pool balls, the drumming of rain and the bleating of sheep.

Walking Home describes this extraordinary, yet ordinary, journey. It's a story about Britain's remote and overlooked interior - the wildness of its landscape and the generosity of the locals who sustained him on his journey. It's about facing emotional and physical challenges, and sometimes overcoming them. It's nature writing, but with people at its heart. Contemplative, moving and droll, it is a unique narrative from one of our most beloved writers.]]> 304 Simon Armitage 0571249884 Jo 0 audio 3.70 2012 Walking Home: A Poet's Journey
author: Simon Armitage
name: Jo
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at: 2021/09/19
date added: 2021/09/19
shelves: audio
review:

]]> <![CDATA[This Is Shyness (This Is Shyness, #1)]]> 8061032
This is Shyness was shortlisted for a number of major Australian literary awards and named a Children's Book Council of Australia Notable Book.

Leanne Hall won the 2009 Text Prize for Young Adult and Children's Writing for this spellbinding debut for readers fourteen and up.]]> 272 Leanne Hall 1921656522 Jo 5 Go on.
Just do it.
Write them down if you want.
It’s OK, I’ll wait.

*twiddles thumbs*

Done?
This book defies all of them.

I understand in saying that this book defies all clichés is in itself also a cliché because it’s what reviewers tend to say when they can’t really be bothered writing a real review but they want to make it sound like they loved it and keep everyone happy but in reality they wanted to fling it out of the window and then go outside and spit on it� while scowling at random, inanimate objects.

Actually, as I’m skimming through my notes I’ve realised that every single one of my points and examples on how this book ’t like all the other books and how it is as far away from cliché as something really far away from something else, all I’ve used is cliché things that reviewers tend to say when they can’t actually be bothered writing a real review but what to make it sound like they loved it�.you get the gist.
So I’m just going to go with it. In the immortal words of Tim Gunn, I’m going to make it work. I’m going to reclaim those clichés.

Jo Explains How THIS IS SHYNESS Defies All Cliches By Using Lots Of Them.

This book is like nothing that has ever been written before.
Whimsical. Magical. Mental. Mysterious. Fantastical. Intriguing. Surreal. ALL THE ADJECTIVES.
I’ve read strange books and sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t. For me, this one definitely worked. I devoured it like I imagine a Kidd would devour a bag of Tangfastic Haribo.
And when I say ‘a Kidd� I mean me.
*jitters*

This book ’t the typical ‘When girl meets boy�.
It’s when Wildgirl meets Wolfboy. The difference is subtle but it’s there…and it’s sexy.

This book will take you to places you’ve never been before.
I would like to build a duvet fort in Ms Hall’s imagination and stay there forever and ever and only allow people I like to join me. I loved Shyness because it was incredible.
And the best thing about it was that it felt real.
You may be thinking “Um, how did it feel real? Where have you ever been where there is no sun and plagues of delinquent kids roam the street?�
And to that, I answer: Manchester.

I know a few people are suggesting that this book is Urban Fantasy, but I’ve never really read any UF so I can’t add anything to that. All I know is that this book smudges the boundaries of genre. The best way I can describe the setting of the world that Ms Hall created with Shyness is that it’s contemporary…with a bolt of electricity running through its heart.

"There’s a rhythm to Shyness, but it takes a while to feel it."

There were times when I felt like I could’ve done with a map of Shyness but, to be honest, I was more than happy to get lost.

The heroine is different, kooky and feisty.
Wildgirl, I think I love you. You snort when you laugh. You go bright red when you’re embarrassed. You like to go on adventures. You’re fearless. You’re hilarious. You steal hearts. You have messy handwriting. You fancy boys who look like wolves.
Woman, if you get out of my mind long enough we should be best friends.

The hero is strong, tortured and has a past.
Now normally, this is the cliché is the one that makes me the most angry. I hate it when heroes are lumbered with a past because usually it means that they are boring and have no personality and the author needed something to hide that fact.
Wolfboy is the exception to this rule.

“In my panic I forget myself and do what I do best: I howl.�

Awoooooooooooooooooooo.

But then again, Wolfboy is the exception to any rule.
He was the perfect mix of the messed-up kid (who gets nervous around girls, awwww) on a mission to find answers to questions he’s been avoiding for a long time that you just want to protect and cuddle and the sexy guy with a quiff and tight trousers who you would be willing to follow wherever he led.
Is there a better combination?
Nah.

”I’ve got no idea whether the air of danger around Wolfboy is just part of a fashion statement or the real thing.�

It’s the real thing, baby.

The love story is fresh and compelling.
Roll up, roll up� but don’t come too close for what you’re about to hear may shock you, so people with heart defects please approach with caution.
Because within the pages of This is Shyness we have the most strangest and freakiest things you will ever have experienced in literature:

Love interests who actually talk to each other and have a genuine connection with each other based on their personalities, fears, thoughts and desires.

*faints*

And, that’s not all! It’s not forced, cringey, annoying, simpering, dangerous orrrrr illegal either!
I KNOW.

This book won’t be for everyone.
I know this book won’t be for everyone because it’s weird and hardly anything is explained. So if you like every single thing explained and get angry if it’s not, then I couldn’t recommend this book to you.
This is a book where you should definitely leave your disbelief at the door because if you start thinking about it too much, your head will implode. Literally.
It’s best to approach this book with an open mind and� well, just go with it and experience Shyness.

The fantastic Noelle made her for This is Shyness and Queen of the Night (the sequel) and I felt left out, so I got involved too.



“Darling, the spirit is kicking.
Don’t be fooled by the moonshine, it’s tricking.�

For me, this song perfectly captures the “smash and grab� feel of Wolfboy and Wildgirl’s story. All about being reckless but having no regrets, just unforgettable memories.

However, there was one part of this book that I wasn’t sure about. It’s right at the end when Wildgirl says that Wolfboys are the best kissers.
Now, I’m not entirely convinced but as I am a girl who likes to have all the facts, I will conduct a highly scientific experiment and kiss him until I am able to confirm that this is a true fact.
Taking one for the team.

Speaking of Wolfboy, I read this book with wonderful and she suggested that we should each share pictures of how we pictured Wolfboy.
I wish there was a song that perfectly matched with my feelings for Wolfboy so you could listen to it while you look at my suggestions.


Potential Wolfboy Fitties [PWFs]

Alex Turner.
My Ultimate Wolfboy (UW) is Alex Turner.



Look at his Urban Cowboy Quiff (UCQ)!

Seriously though, this book makes me want to have the adventure of a life time and howl at the dark sky above me.]]> 3.62 2010 This Is Shyness (This Is Shyness, #1)
author: Leanne Hall
name: Jo
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2021/09/19
date added: 2021/09/19
shelves:
review:
Think of every single cliché in young adult fiction you can.
Go on.
Just do it.
Write them down if you want.
It’s OK, I’ll wait.

*twiddles thumbs*

Done?
This book defies all of them.

I understand in saying that this book defies all clichés is in itself also a cliché because it’s what reviewers tend to say when they can’t really be bothered writing a real review but they want to make it sound like they loved it and keep everyone happy but in reality they wanted to fling it out of the window and then go outside and spit on it� while scowling at random, inanimate objects.

Actually, as I’m skimming through my notes I’ve realised that every single one of my points and examples on how this book ’t like all the other books and how it is as far away from cliché as something really far away from something else, all I’ve used is cliché things that reviewers tend to say when they can’t actually be bothered writing a real review but what to make it sound like they loved it�.you get the gist.
So I’m just going to go with it. In the immortal words of Tim Gunn, I’m going to make it work. I’m going to reclaim those clichés.

Jo Explains How THIS IS SHYNESS Defies All Cliches By Using Lots Of Them.

This book is like nothing that has ever been written before.
Whimsical. Magical. Mental. Mysterious. Fantastical. Intriguing. Surreal. ALL THE ADJECTIVES.
I’ve read strange books and sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t. For me, this one definitely worked. I devoured it like I imagine a Kidd would devour a bag of Tangfastic Haribo.
And when I say ‘a Kidd� I mean me.
*jitters*

This book ’t the typical ‘When girl meets boy�.
It’s when Wildgirl meets Wolfboy. The difference is subtle but it’s there…and it’s sexy.

This book will take you to places you’ve never been before.
I would like to build a duvet fort in Ms Hall’s imagination and stay there forever and ever and only allow people I like to join me. I loved Shyness because it was incredible.
And the best thing about it was that it felt real.
You may be thinking “Um, how did it feel real? Where have you ever been where there is no sun and plagues of delinquent kids roam the street?�
And to that, I answer: Manchester.

I know a few people are suggesting that this book is Urban Fantasy, but I’ve never really read any UF so I can’t add anything to that. All I know is that this book smudges the boundaries of genre. The best way I can describe the setting of the world that Ms Hall created with Shyness is that it’s contemporary…with a bolt of electricity running through its heart.

"There’s a rhythm to Shyness, but it takes a while to feel it."

There were times when I felt like I could’ve done with a map of Shyness but, to be honest, I was more than happy to get lost.

The heroine is different, kooky and feisty.
Wildgirl, I think I love you. You snort when you laugh. You go bright red when you’re embarrassed. You like to go on adventures. You’re fearless. You’re hilarious. You steal hearts. You have messy handwriting. You fancy boys who look like wolves.
Woman, if you get out of my mind long enough we should be best friends.

The hero is strong, tortured and has a past.
Now normally, this is the cliché is the one that makes me the most angry. I hate it when heroes are lumbered with a past because usually it means that they are boring and have no personality and the author needed something to hide that fact.
Wolfboy is the exception to this rule.

“In my panic I forget myself and do what I do best: I howl.�

Awoooooooooooooooooooo.

But then again, Wolfboy is the exception to any rule.
He was the perfect mix of the messed-up kid (who gets nervous around girls, awwww) on a mission to find answers to questions he’s been avoiding for a long time that you just want to protect and cuddle and the sexy guy with a quiff and tight trousers who you would be willing to follow wherever he led.
Is there a better combination?
Nah.

”I’ve got no idea whether the air of danger around Wolfboy is just part of a fashion statement or the real thing.�

It’s the real thing, baby.

The love story is fresh and compelling.
Roll up, roll up� but don’t come too close for what you’re about to hear may shock you, so people with heart defects please approach with caution.
Because within the pages of This is Shyness we have the most strangest and freakiest things you will ever have experienced in literature:

Love interests who actually talk to each other and have a genuine connection with each other based on their personalities, fears, thoughts and desires.

*faints*

And, that’s not all! It’s not forced, cringey, annoying, simpering, dangerous orrrrr illegal either!
I KNOW.

This book won’t be for everyone.
I know this book won’t be for everyone because it’s weird and hardly anything is explained. So if you like every single thing explained and get angry if it’s not, then I couldn’t recommend this book to you.
This is a book where you should definitely leave your disbelief at the door because if you start thinking about it too much, your head will implode. Literally.
It’s best to approach this book with an open mind and� well, just go with it and experience Shyness.

The fantastic Noelle made her for This is Shyness and Queen of the Night (the sequel) and I felt left out, so I got involved too.



“Darling, the spirit is kicking.
Don’t be fooled by the moonshine, it’s tricking.�

For me, this song perfectly captures the “smash and grab� feel of Wolfboy and Wildgirl’s story. All about being reckless but having no regrets, just unforgettable memories.

However, there was one part of this book that I wasn’t sure about. It’s right at the end when Wildgirl says that Wolfboys are the best kissers.
Now, I’m not entirely convinced but as I am a girl who likes to have all the facts, I will conduct a highly scientific experiment and kiss him until I am able to confirm that this is a true fact.
Taking one for the team.

Speaking of Wolfboy, I read this book with wonderful and she suggested that we should each share pictures of how we pictured Wolfboy.
I wish there was a song that perfectly matched with my feelings for Wolfboy so you could listen to it while you look at my suggestions.


Potential Wolfboy Fitties [PWFs]

Alex Turner.
My Ultimate Wolfboy (UW) is Alex Turner.



Look at his Urban Cowboy Quiff (UCQ)!

Seriously though, this book makes me want to have the adventure of a life time and howl at the dark sky above me.
]]> Miss Benson's Beetle 52674676 She's going too far to go it alone.

It is 1950. London is still reeling from World War II, and Margery Benson, a schoolteacher and spinster, is trying to get through life, surviving on scraps. One day, she reaches her breaking point, abandoning her job and small existence to set out on an expedition to the other side of the world in search of her childhood obsession: an insect that may or may not exist--the golden beetle of New Caledonia. When she advertises for an assistant to accompany her, the woman she ends up with is the last person she had in mind. Fun-loving Enid Pretty in her tight-fitting pink suit and pom-pom sandals seems to attract trouble wherever she goes. But together these two British women find themselves drawn into a cross-ocean adventure that exceeds all expectations and delivers something neither of them expected to find: the transformative power of friendship.]]> 352 Rachel Joyce 0593230957 Jo 0 read-2021 4.03 2020 Miss Benson's Beetle
author: Rachel Joyce
name: Jo
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2021/09/12
date added: 2021/09/13
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> Pachinko 34051011
Richly told and profoundly moving, Pachinko is a story of love, sacrifice, ambition, and loyalty. From bustling street markets to the halls of Japan's finest universities to the pachinko parlors of the criminal underworld, Lee's complex and passionate characters—strong, stubborn women, devoted sisters and sons, fathers shaken by moral crisis—survive and thrive against the indifferent arc of history.]]> 496 Min Jin Lee Jo 0 read-2021 4.35 2017 Pachinko
author: Min Jin Lee
name: Jo
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at: 2021/08/28
date added: 2021/08/28
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Mudlark: In Search of London's Past Along the River Thames]]> 40180049
Seamlessly interweaving reflections from her own life with meditations on the art of wandering, Maiklem ultimately delivers—for Anglophiles and history lovers alike—a memorable treatise on the objects we leave in our wake, and the stories they can reveal if only we take a moment to look.]]> 336 Lara Maiklem 1631494961 Jo 0 audio, read-2021 4.10 2019 Mudlark: In Search of London's Past Along the River Thames
author: Lara Maiklem
name: Jo
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at: 2021/08/27
date added: 2021/08/27
shelves: audio, read-2021
review:

]]> On Connection 54874365
The increasingly hyper-individualistic, competitive and exploitative society that we live in has caused a global crisis at the turn of the new decade; in order to survive, numbness has pervaded us all.

In this urgent and incisive pamphlet, Kae Tempest leads the reckoning against this system, placing our legacy in our own hands. Creativity holds the key: the ability to provide us with internal and external connection, to move us beyond consumption, to allow us to discover authenticity and closeness to all others, to deliver us an antidote for our numbness. This is beyond 'art'. Creative connection is anything that brings us closer to ourselves and fellow human beings, and it has the potential to offer insights into mental health, politics and beyond. Powerful, hopeful and full of humanity, On Connection confirms Tempest as one of the most important voices of their generation.]]> 129 Kae Tempest Jo 0 audio, read-2021 4.18 2020 On Connection
author: Kae Tempest
name: Jo
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2021/08/13
date added: 2021/08/13
shelves: audio, read-2021
review:

]]> On a Night Like This 56670004
What Fran doesn’t know is that on this one night, everything will change for her too � that instead of standing on the sidelines, she’ll be putting on the most beautiful dress she’s ever seen and having the most unforgettable night of her life…]]> 384 Lindsey Kelk 0008407770 Jo 0 read-2021 4.17 2021 On a Night Like This
author: Lindsey Kelk
name: Jo
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2021/08/09
date added: 2021/08/09
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> Followers 42171136
Orla Cadden is a budding novelist stuck in a dead-end job, writing clickbait about movie-star hookups and influencer yoga moves. Then Orla meets Floss � a striving wannabe A-lister � who comes up with a plan for launching them both into the high-profile lives they dream about. So what if Orla and Floss's methods are a little shady and sometimes people get hurt? Their legions of followers can't be wrong.

Thirty-five years later, in a closed California village where government-appointed celebrities live every moment of the day on camera, a woman named Marlow discovers a shattering secret about her past. Despite her massive popularity � twelve million loyal followers � Marlow dreams of fleeing the corporate sponsors who would do anything to keep her on-screen. When she learns that her whole family history is based on a lie, Marlow finally summons the courage to run in search of the truth, no matter the risks.

Followers traces the paths of Orla, Floss and Marlow as they wind through time toward each other, and toward a cataclysmic event that sends America into lasting upheaval. At turns wry and tender, bleak and hopeful, this darkly funny story reminds us that even if we obsess over famous people we’ll never meet, what we really crave is genuine human connection.]]> 380 Megan Angelo 1525836269 Jo 0 read-2021 3.58 2020 Followers
author: Megan Angelo
name: Jo
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2021/08/07
date added: 2021/08/07
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> The Long Walk 9014 370 Richard Bachman 0451196716 Jo 0 read-2021 4.11 1978 The Long Walk
author: Richard Bachman
name: Jo
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1978
rating: 0
read at: 2021/08/04
date added: 2021/08/04
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> True Crime Story 55228181 'What happens to those girls who go missing? What happens to the Zoe Nolans of the world?'

In the early hours of Saturday 17 December 2011, Zoe Nolan, a nineteen-year-old Manchester University student, walked out of a party taking place in the shared accommodation where she had been living for three months.

She was never seen again.

Seven years after her disappearance, struggling writer Evelyn Mitchell finds herself drawn into the mystery. Through interviews with Zoe's closest friends and family, she begins piecing together what really happened in 2011. But where some versions of events overlap, aligning perfectly with one another, others stand in stark contrast, giving rise to troubling inconsistencies.

Shaken by revelations of Zoe's secret life, and stalked by a figure from the shadows, Evelyn turns to crime writer Joseph Knox to help make sense of a case where everyone has something to hide.

Zoe Nolan may be missing presumed dead, but her story is only just beginning]]> 400 Joseph Knox Jo 0 read-2021 4.17 2021 True Crime Story
author: Joseph Knox
name: Jo
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2021/07/17
date added: 2021/07/17
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Recollections of My Nonexistence: A Memoir]]> 49985046
In Recollections of My Nonexistence, Rebecca Solnit describes her formation as a writer and as a feminist in 1980s San Francisco, in an atmosphere of gender violence on the street and throughout society and the exclusion of women from cultural arenas. She tells of being poor, hopeful, and adrift in the city that became her great teacher; of the small apartment that, when she was nineteen, became the home in which she transformed herself; of how punk rock gave form and voice to her own fury and explosive energy.

Solnit recounts how she came to recognize the epidemic of violence against women around her, the street harassment that unsettled her, the trauma that changed her, and the authority figures who routinely disdained and disbelieved girls and women, including her. Looking back, she sees all these as consequences of the voicelessness that was and still is the ordinary condition of women, and how she contended with that while becoming a writer and a public voice for women’s rights.

She explores the forces that liberated her as a person and as a writer—books themselves, the gay men around her who offered other visions of what gender, family, and joy could be, and her eventual arrival in the spacious landscapes and overlooked conflicts of the American West. These influences taught her how to write in the way she has ever since, and gave her a voice that has resonated with and empowered many others.]]> 256 Rebecca Solnit 0593083334 Jo 0 read-2021 4.22 2020 Recollections of My Nonexistence: A Memoir
author: Rebecca Solnit
name: Jo
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2021/07/12
date added: 2021/07/12
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> This Will Be Funny Someday 53240811
Sixteen-year-old Izzy is used to keeping her thoughts to herself—in school, where her boyfriend does the talking for her, and at home, where it’s impossible to compete with her older siblings and high-powered parents—but when she accidentally walks into a stand-up comedy club and performs, the experience is surprisingly cathartic. After the show, she meets Mo, an aspiring comic who’s everything Izzy’s not: bold, confident, comfortable in her skin. Mo invites Izzy to join her group of friends and introduces her to the Chicago open mic scene.

The only problem? Her new friends are college students—and Izzy tells them she’s one, too. Now Izzy, the dutiful daughter and model student, is sneaking out to perform stand-up with her comedy friends, and she can hardly remember all the lies she’s telling to keep her two lives separate.

Her controlling boyfriend is getting suspicious, and her former best friend knows there’s something going on. But Izzy loves comedy and this newfound freedom. As her two parallel lives collide—in the most hilarious of ways—Izzy must choose to either hide what she really wants and who she really is or, finally, truly stand up for herself.]]> 400 Katie Henry 0062955705 Jo 0 read-2021 3.98 2021 This Will Be Funny Someday
author: Katie Henry
name: Jo
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2021/07/04
date added: 2021/07/04
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> Waking Romeo 35166377
YEAR: 2083. LOCATION: LONDON. MISSION: WAKE ROMEO.

It's the end of the world. Literally. Time travel is possible, but only forwards. And only a handful of families choose to remain in the 'now', living off the scraps that were left behind. Among these are eighteen-year-old Juliet and the love of her life, Romeo. But things are far from rosy for Jules. Romeo is in a coma and she's estranged from her friends and family, dealing with the very real fallout of their wild romance. Then a handsome time traveller, Ellis, arrives with an important mission that makes Jules question everything she knows about life and love. Can Jules wake Romeo and rewrite her future?

A highly original mashup that delights as it disorients ... and asks what would have happened if two great literary love stories were somehow intertwined.]]> Kathryn Barker Jo 0 read-2021 3.97 2022 Waking Romeo
author: Kathryn Barker
name: Jo
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2021/06/30
date added: 2021/06/30
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> Constellations 36508441
How do you tell the story of life that is no one thing? How do you tell the story of a life in a body, as it goes through sickness, health, motherhood? And how do you tell that story when you are not just a woman but a woman in Ireland? In these powerful and daring essays, Sinead Gleeson does that very thing. In doing so she delves into a range of subjects: art, illness, ghosts, grief, and our very ways of seeing. In writing that is in tradition of some of our finest writers such as Olivia Laing, Maggie O'Farrell, and Maggie Nelson, and yet still in her own spirited, warm voice, Gleeson takes us on a journey that is both personal and yet universal in its resonance.]]> 304 Sinéad Gleeson 1509892753 Jo 5 read-2021 4.18 2019 Constellations
author: Sinéad Gleeson
name: Jo
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2021/06/18
date added: 2021/06/18
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> The Summer Seekers 54620162 Get swept into a summer of sunshine, soul-searching, and shameless matchmaking with this delightfully big-hearted road-trip adventure!

Kathleen is eighty years old. After she has a run-in with an intruder, her daughter wants her to move in to a residential home. But she’s not having any of it. What she craves—what she needs—is adventure.

Liza is drowning under the daily stress of family life. The last thing she needs is her mother jetting off on a wild holiday, making Liza long for a solo summer of her own.

Martha is having a quarter-life crisis. Unemployed, unloved and uninspired, she just can’t get her life together. But she knows something has to change.

When Martha sees Kathleen’s advertisement for a driver and companion to share an epic road trip across America, she decides this job might be the answer to her prayers. She’s not the world’s best driver, but anything has to be better than living with her parents. And traveling with a stranger? No problem. Anyway, how much trouble can one eighty-year-old woman be?

As these women embark on the journey of a lifetime, they all discover it’s never too late to start over.]]> 432 Sarah Morgan 1335180923 Jo 0 read-2021 4.03 2021 The Summer Seekers
author: Sarah Morgan
name: Jo
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2021/06/14
date added: 2021/06/14
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> Modern Lovers 27209486 From the New York Times‒bestselling author of The Vacationers, a smart, highly entertaining novel about a tight-knit group of friends from college—their own kids now going to college—and what it means to finally grow up well after adulthood has set in.

Friends and former college bandmates Elizabeth and Andrew and Zoe have watched one another marry, buy real estate, and start businesses and families, all while trying to hold on to the identities of their youth. But nothing ages them like having to suddenly pass the torch (of sexuality, independence, and the ineffable alchemy of cool) to their own offspring.

Back in the band's heyday, Elizabeth put on a snarl over her Midwestern smile, Andrew let his unwashed hair grow past his chin, and Zoe was the lesbian all the straight women wanted to sleep with. Now nearing fifty, they all live within shouting distance in the same neighborhood deep in gentrified Brooklyn, and the trappings of the adult world seem to have arrived with ease. But the summer that their children reach maturity (and start sleeping together), the fabric of the adults' lives suddenly begins to unravel, and the secrets and revelations that are finally let loose—about themselves, and about the famous fourth band member who soared and fell without them—can never be reclaimed.

Straub packs wisdom and insight and humor together in a satisfying book about neighbors and nosiness, ambition and pleasure, the excitement of youth, the shock of middle age, and the fact that our passions—be they food, or friendship, or music—never go away, they just evolve and grow along with us.]]> 353 Emma Straub 159463467X Jo 0 read-2021 3.39 2016 Modern Lovers
author: Emma Straub
name: Jo
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at: 2021/06/12
date added: 2021/06/12
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Red Snow (Tuva Moodyson Mystery, #2)]]> 40675503 Red Snow is the eagerly awaited follow-up to Dark Pines, selected for ITV's Zoe Ball Book Club

TWO BODIES

One suicide. One cold-blooded murder. Are they connected? And who’s really pulling the strings in the small Swedish town of Gavrik?

TWO COINS

Black Grimberg liquorice coins cover the murdered man's eyes. The hashtag #Ferryman starts to trend as local people stock up on ammunition.

TWO WEEKS

Tuva Moodyson, deaf reporter at the local paper, has a fortnight to investigate the deaths before she starts her new job in the south. A blizzard moves in. Residents, already terrified, feel increasingly cut-off. Tuva must go deep inside the Grimberg factory to stop the killer before she leaves town for good. But who’s to say the Ferryman will let her go?]]> 430 Will Dean Jo 0 read-2021 3.80 2019 Red Snow (Tuva Moodyson Mystery, #2)
author: Will Dean
name: Jo
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at: 2021/06/12
date added: 2021/06/12
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 46041199 A fierce international bestseller that launched Korea’s new feminist movement, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 follows one woman’s psychic deterioration in the face of rigid misogyny.

Truly, flawlessly, completely, she became that person.

In a small, tidy apartment on the outskirts of the frenzied metropolis of Seoul lives Kim Jiyoung. A thirtysomething-year-old “millennial everywoman,� she has recently left her white-collar desk job—in order to care for her newborn daughter full-time—as so many Korean women are expected to do. But she quickly begins to exhibit strange symptoms that alarm her husband, parents, and in-laws: Jiyoung impersonates the voices of other women—alive and even dead, both known and unknown to her. As she plunges deeper into this psychosis, her discomfited husband sends her to a male psychiatrist.

In a chilling, eerily truncated third-person voice, Jiyoung’s entire life is recounted to the psychiatrist—a narrative infused with disparate elements of frustration, perseverance, and submission. Born in 1982 and given the most common name for Korean baby girls, Jiyoung quickly becomes the unfavored sister to her princeling little brother. Always, her behavior is policed by the male figures around her—from the elementary school teachers who enforce strict uniforms for girls, to the coworkers who install a hidden camera in the women’s restroom and post their photos online. In her father’s eyes, it is Jiyoung’s fault that men harass her late at night; in her husband’s eyes, it is Jiyoung’s duty to forsake her career to take care of him and their child—to put them first.

Jiyoung’s painfully common life is juxtaposed against a backdrop of an advancing Korea, as it abandons “family planning� birth control policies and passes new legislation against gender discrimination. But can her doctor flawlessly, completely cure her, or even discover what truly ails her?

Rendered in minimalist yet lacerating prose, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 sits at the center of our global #MeToo movement and announces the arrival of writer of international significance]]> 163 Cho Nam-Joo 1631496700 Jo 0 read-2021 4.17 2016 Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982
author: Cho Nam-Joo
name: Jo
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at: 2021/06/03
date added: 2021/06/03
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line]]> 45755173
Jai drools outside sweet shops, watches too many reality police shows, and considers himself to be smarter than his friends Pari (though she gets the best grades) and Faiz (though Faiz has an actual job). When a classmate goes missing, Jai decides to use the crime-solving skills he has picked up from TV to find him. He asks Pari and Faiz to be his assistants, and together they draw up lists of people to interview and places to visit.

But what begins as a game turns sinister as other children start disappearing from their neighborhood. Jai, Pari, and Faiz have to confront terrified parents, an indifferent police force, and rumors of soul-snatching djinns. As the disappearances edge ever closer to home, the lives of Jai and his friends will never be the same again.

Drawing on real incidents and a spate of disappearances in metropolitan India.]]> 347 Deepa Anappara 0593129199 Jo 0 read-2021 3.78 2020 Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line
author: Deepa Anappara
name: Jo
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2021/05/29
date added: 2021/05/29
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> Leviathan (Leviathan, #1) 6050678
Deryn Sharp is a commoner, disguised as a boy in the British Air Service. She's a brilliant airman. But her secret is in constant danger of being discovered.

With World War I brewing, Alek and Deryn's paths cross in the most unexpected way…taking them on a fantastical, around-the-world adventure that will change both their lives forever.]]> 440 Scott Westerfeld 1416971734 Jo 5 "A missing piece can be very bad for the puzzle, whether in the natural world, or politics, or here in the belly of an airship."

Initial Final Page Thoughts.
That’s what I want to know, Alek. That’s what I want to know.

High Points.
Deryn. Alek. This world� wooow, why doesn’t it exist yet?! Huxleys. Darwinists. Clankers. Flying wales. Cow farts. Trinkets&Diddies. Messenger lizards. Science. Nature. Snowshoes. Tazza. Dr Barlow. Frostbitten bums. Odd kind of tingling. The prospect of sequels�

Hero.
Oh Alek, I think you’re going to end up getting overshadowed in this review which is completely unfair because you are brilliant too.
But� well� ٱԾdzǴDZ��*ɳ󾱲Ա*
Sorry, Alek. I’m back with you, promise.
You have all this ridiculous stuff happening around you and you still have the time to be a Grade A sweetheart? I applaud you because if I was an Austro-Hungarian prince I would be whinging like nobody’s business.
I loved how he was innocent and naïve and a bit of wimp but he was determined to learn and break-free of people’s perceptions of him and his ancestors and all that shebang.
I’m really excited to see where Alek’s learning curve takes him.
Also, the banter between him and Deryn was hilarious.

“Listen, I’m not really supposed to be this far from home. I just happened to be out hiking when I saw your ship come down.�
“Out hiking?� Deryn said. “In all this barking snow? At night?�
“Yes. I often hike on the glacier at night.�
“Wٳ medicine?�


And I can’t wait to see what happens when what I think will happen happens!

Hero. Heroine. Hero? Jo’s Best Friend.
YES YES YES.
I’ve only read one book but already Deryn is one of my favourite female heroines.
She can fashion a zipwire while dangling under a squid-thing! I’m going to start adding that to my necessary friend requirements.
And this is the point where I would get slightly nervous because I always fall in love with fantastic heroines in the first book of a series and then get my heart dashed as it goes on (Looking at you, Katniss!)� but I have no doubt that Deryn and I are for keeps.
*fingers crossed*
And OH, I caught you with your tingling feelings after a certain prince hugged you. Don’t think I didn’t see that!
Just because you’re a soldier doesn’t mean you can’t twist your skirts every now and again� or um, you know� your uniformed pants.

Again, I can’t wait to see what happens when what I think will happen happens !

Illustrations.
When the wonderful Catie recommended this book to me to be part of my Illustrated Book Week I was sceptical because it didn’t look like the kind of book that should be illustrated.
I mean it wasn’t about magic or fairy tales or monsters.
It was about alternative war and machines and.... boy stuff.
But, boy am I glad it was illustrated?!
I think they are particularly important because they are so detailed and perfectly capture Westfeld’s fantastical world. They almost looked like they had been produced with the smog and grime and grease from one of the Clanker's machines.
What I loved was that even though they were highly detailed and intricate, they also managed to maintain their cartoon-ness (Is there a word for that?). I loved the pictures with the characters on them the most because Mr Thompson got their facial expressions perfectly.
Also, the fact that Deryn is taller than Alek was brilliant!

Theme Tune.
I couldn’t find any song that really went with giant whale airships and clanking.
So I’m* going to choose a song for my girl, Deryn.


*Well, I say I’m- fellow music lover Catie chose this one because I was too busy buying the next two books.

Sadness Scale.
3/10. Almost zilch but I think Alek’s story (if you know your…um, alternate history you’ll know what I mean) was really sad.
Poor little pup.
And also, while I’m thinking about it, Deryn’s story is sad as well. But she doesn’t tend to dwell�
I hope we’ll get to find out more about these and their feelings as the series goes on.

Recommended For.
People who are looking for a fast-paced, high-action book with great characters and fantastic potential for the rest of the books. People who live in places where they can’t get mobile reception but have an abundance of lizards who seem to listen to your conversations! People who think that the smell of fish and cow farts always lead to adventure. People who would look great in a bowler hat. People who actually use the words “boffin� and “ninny� in everyday conversations (I actually do, you know, when I’m not swearing like a lorry driver.) People who always take medicine when they go on their glacial hikes. Boys who couldn’t recognise a girl if she cut her hair short and wore pants. People who are suspicious of eggs. People who can’t wait to see what happens when what they think will happen happens.

You can read this review and other exciting things on my blog ]]> 3.92 2009 Leviathan (Leviathan, #1)
author: Scott Westerfeld
name: Jo
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2011/11/21
date added: 2021/05/21
shelves:
review:
"A missing piece can be very bad for the puzzle, whether in the natural world, or politics, or here in the belly of an airship."

Initial Final Page Thoughts.
That’s what I want to know, Alek. That’s what I want to know.

High Points.
Deryn. Alek. This world� wooow, why doesn’t it exist yet?! Huxleys. Darwinists. Clankers. Flying wales. Cow farts. Trinkets&Diddies. Messenger lizards. Science. Nature. Snowshoes. Tazza. Dr Barlow. Frostbitten bums. Odd kind of tingling. The prospect of sequels�

Hero.
Oh Alek, I think you’re going to end up getting overshadowed in this review which is completely unfair because you are brilliant too.
But� well� ٱԾdzǴDZ��*ɳ󾱲Ա*
Sorry, Alek. I’m back with you, promise.
You have all this ridiculous stuff happening around you and you still have the time to be a Grade A sweetheart? I applaud you because if I was an Austro-Hungarian prince I would be whinging like nobody’s business.
I loved how he was innocent and naïve and a bit of wimp but he was determined to learn and break-free of people’s perceptions of him and his ancestors and all that shebang.
I’m really excited to see where Alek’s learning curve takes him.
Also, the banter between him and Deryn was hilarious.

“Listen, I’m not really supposed to be this far from home. I just happened to be out hiking when I saw your ship come down.�
“Out hiking?� Deryn said. “In all this barking snow? At night?�
“Yes. I often hike on the glacier at night.�
“Wٳ medicine?�


And I can’t wait to see what happens when what I think will happen happens!

Hero. Heroine. Hero? Jo’s Best Friend.
YES YES YES.
I’ve only read one book but already Deryn is one of my favourite female heroines.
She can fashion a zipwire while dangling under a squid-thing! I’m going to start adding that to my necessary friend requirements.
And this is the point where I would get slightly nervous because I always fall in love with fantastic heroines in the first book of a series and then get my heart dashed as it goes on (Looking at you, Katniss!)� but I have no doubt that Deryn and I are for keeps.
*fingers crossed*
And OH, I caught you with your tingling feelings after a certain prince hugged you. Don’t think I didn’t see that!
Just because you’re a soldier doesn’t mean you can’t twist your skirts every now and again� or um, you know� your uniformed pants.

Again, I can’t wait to see what happens when what I think will happen happens !

Illustrations.
When the wonderful Catie recommended this book to me to be part of my Illustrated Book Week I was sceptical because it didn’t look like the kind of book that should be illustrated.
I mean it wasn’t about magic or fairy tales or monsters.
It was about alternative war and machines and.... boy stuff.
But, boy am I glad it was illustrated?!
I think they are particularly important because they are so detailed and perfectly capture Westfeld’s fantastical world. They almost looked like they had been produced with the smog and grime and grease from one of the Clanker's machines.
What I loved was that even though they were highly detailed and intricate, they also managed to maintain their cartoon-ness (Is there a word for that?). I loved the pictures with the characters on them the most because Mr Thompson got their facial expressions perfectly.
Also, the fact that Deryn is taller than Alek was brilliant!

Theme Tune.
I couldn’t find any song that really went with giant whale airships and clanking.
So I’m* going to choose a song for my girl, Deryn.


*Well, I say I’m- fellow music lover Catie chose this one because I was too busy buying the next two books.

Sadness Scale.
3/10. Almost zilch but I think Alek’s story (if you know your…um, alternate history you’ll know what I mean) was really sad.
Poor little pup.
And also, while I’m thinking about it, Deryn’s story is sad as well. But she doesn’t tend to dwell�
I hope we’ll get to find out more about these and their feelings as the series goes on.

Recommended For.
People who are looking for a fast-paced, high-action book with great characters and fantastic potential for the rest of the books. People who live in places where they can’t get mobile reception but have an abundance of lizards who seem to listen to your conversations! People who think that the smell of fish and cow farts always lead to adventure. People who would look great in a bowler hat. People who actually use the words “boffin� and “ninny� in everyday conversations (I actually do, you know, when I’m not swearing like a lorry driver.) People who always take medicine when they go on their glacial hikes. Boys who couldn’t recognise a girl if she cut her hair short and wore pants. People who are suspicious of eggs. People who can’t wait to see what happens when what they think will happen happens.

You can read this review and other exciting things on my blog
]]> Heartless 18584855 Long before she was the terror of Wonderland—the infamous Queen of Hearts—she was just a girl who wanted to fall in love.

Catherine may be one of the most desired girls in Wonderland, and a favorite of the unmarried King of Hearts, but her interests lie elsewhere. A talented baker, all she wants is to open a shop with her best friend. But according to her mother, such a goal is unthinkable for the young woman who could be the next queen.

Then Cath meets Jest, the handsome and mysterious court joker. For the first time, she feels the pull of true attraction. At the risk of offending the king and infuriating her parents, she and Jest enter into an intense, secret courtship. Cath is determined to define her own destiny and fall in love on her terms. But in a land thriving with magic, madness, and monsters, fate has other plans.

In her first stand-alone teen novel, the New York Times-bestselling author dazzles us with a prequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.]]> 453 Marissa Meyer 1250044650 Jo 0 read-2021 4.10 2016 Heartless
author: Marissa Meyer
name: Jo
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at: 2021/05/16
date added: 2021/05/21
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Take a Hint, Dani Brown (The Brown Sisters, #2)]]> 49976087 Talia Hibbert returns with another charming romantic comedy about a young woman who agrees to fake date her friend after a video of him “rescuing� her from their office building goes viral...

Danika Brown knows what she wants: professional success, academic renown, and an occasional roll in the hay to relieve all that career-driven tension. But romance? Been there, done that, burned the T-shirt. Romantic partners, whatever their gender, are a distraction at best and a drain at worst. So Dani asks the universe for the perfect friend-with-benefits—someone who knows the score and knows their way around the bedroom.

When brooding security guard Zafir Ansari rescues Dani from a workplace fire drill gone wrong, it’s an obvious sign: PhD student Dani and ex-rugby player Zaf are destined to sleep together. But before she can explain that fact, a video of the heroic rescue goes viral. Now half the internet is shipping #DrRugbae—and Zaf is begging Dani to play along. Turns out, his sports charity for kids could really use the publicity. Lying to help children? Who on earth would refuse?

Dani’s plan is simple: fake a relationship in public, seduce Zaf behind the scenes. The trouble is, grumpy Zaf’s secretly a hopeless romantic—and he’s determined to corrupt Dani’s stone-cold realism. Before long, he’s tackling her fears into the dirt. But the former sports star has issues of his own, and the walls around his heart are as thick as his... um, thighs.

Suddenly, the easy lay Dani dreamed of is more complex than her thesis. Has her wish backfired? Is her focus being tested? Or is the universe just waiting for her to take a hint?]]> 400 Talia Hibbert 0062941259 Jo 0 read-2021 3.98 2020 Take a Hint, Dani Brown (The Brown Sisters, #2)
author: Talia Hibbert
name: Jo
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2021/05/21
date added: 2021/05/21
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> How It Feels to Float 41454344
But after what happens on the beach—first in the ocean, and then in the sand--the tethers that hold Biz steady come undone. Dad disappears, and with him, all comfort. It might be easier, better, sweeter to float all the way away? Or maybe stay a little longer, find her father, bring him back to her. Or maybe—maybe maybe maybe—there's a third way Biz just can't see yet.]]> 384 Helena Fox 0525554297 Jo 0 read-2021 3.81 2019 How It Feels to Float
author: Helena Fox
name: Jo
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at: 2021/04/28
date added: 2021/04/28
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> Last One at the Party 55478680
Yet someone is still alive. Alone in a new world of burning cities, rotting corpses and ravenous rats, one woman has survived. A woman who has spent her whole life compromising what she wants and hiding how she feels to meet other people's expectations. From her career to her relationships, to what she wears and where she lives, she's made a lifetime of decisions to fit what other people want her to be.

But with no one else left, who will she become now that she's completely alone?]]> 355 Bethany Clift 1529332125 Jo 0 read-2021 4.06 2021 Last One at the Party
author: Bethany Clift
name: Jo
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2021/04/26
date added: 2021/04/26
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Square Haunting: Five Writers in London Between the Wars]]> 52662139 An engrossing group portrait of five women writers, including Virginia Woolf, who moved to London's Mecklenburgh Square in search of new freedom in their life and work.

"I like this London life . . . the street-sauntering and square-haunting."--Virginia Woolf, diary, 1925

In the early twentieth century, Mecklenburgh Square--a hidden architectural gem in London's Bloomsbury--was a radical address, home to students, struggling artists, and revolutionaries. And in the pivotal era between the two world wars, the lives of five remarkable women intertwined around this one address: the modernist poet H. D., detective novelist Dorothy L. Sayers, classicist Jane Harrison, economic historian Eileen Power, and author and publisher Virginia Woolf. In an era when women's freedoms were fast expanding, they each sought a space where they could live, love, and--above all--work independently.

With sparkling insight and a novelistic style, Francesca Wade sheds new light on a group of artists and thinkers whose pioneering work would enrich the possibilities of women's lives for generations to come.]]> 432 Francesca Wade 0451497791 Jo 0 read-2021 4.18 2020 Square Haunting: Five Writers in London Between the Wars
author: Francesca Wade
name: Jo
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2021/04/24
date added: 2021/04/24
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> Untold Night and Day 50157589
A startling and boundary-pushing novel, Untold Night and Day tells the story of a young woman’s journey through Seoul over the course of a night and a day. It’s 28-year-old Ayami’s final day at her box-office job in Seoul’s audio theater. Her night is spent walking the sweltering streets of the city with her former boss in search of Yeoni, their missing elderly friend, and her day is spent looking after a mysterious, visiting poet. Their conversations take in art, love, food, and the inaccessible country to the north.

Almost immediately, in the heat of Seoul at the height of the summer, order gives way to chaos as the edges of reality start to fray, with Ayami becoming an unwitting escort into a fever-dream of increasingly tangled threads, all the while images of the characters� overlapping realities repeat, collide, change, and reassert themselves in this masterful work that upends the very structure of fiction and narrative storytelling and burns itself upon the soul of the reader.

By one of the boldest and most innovative voices in contemporary Korean literature, and brilliantly realized in English by International Man Booker­–winning translator Deborah Smith, Bae Suah’s hypnotic and wholly original novel asks whether more than one version of ourselves can exist at once, demonstrating the malleable nature of reality as we know it.]]> 160 Bae Suah 1419744380 Jo 0 read-2021 3.51 2013 Untold Night and Day
author: Bae Suah
name: Jo
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at: 2021/04/18
date added: 2021/04/24
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> I Remember You 15852019
In the vein of Stephen King and John Ajvide Lindqvist, this horrifying thriller, partly based on a true story, is the scariest novel yet from Yrsa Sigurdardóttir, who has captivated the attention of readers around the world with her mystery series featuring attorney Thora Gudmundsdottir. Now, Yrsa will stun readers once again with this out-of-this-world ghost story that will leave you shivering.]]> 391 Yrsa Sigurdardottir 1444738496 Jo 0 read-2021 3.79 2010 I Remember You
author: Yrsa Sigurdardottir
name: Jo
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at: 2021/04/17
date added: 2021/04/24
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> Dominicana 43263696
As the Dominican Republic slides into political turmoil, Juan returns to protect his family’s assets, leaving Cesar to take care of Ana. Suddenly, Ana is free to take English lessons at a local church, lie on the beach at Coney Island, see a movie at Radio City Music Hall, go dancing with Cesar, and imagine the possibility of a different kind of life in America. When Juan returns, Ana must decide once again between her heart and her duty to her family.]]> 323 Angie Cruz 125020593X Jo 0 read-2021 4.09 2019 Dominicana
author: Angie Cruz
name: Jo
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at: 2021/04/12
date added: 2021/04/12
shelves: read-2021
review:

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

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

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

But when she enlists Red in her mission to rebel, she learns things about him that no spy session could teach her. Like why he clearly resents Chloe’s wealthy background. And why he never shows his art to anyone. And what really lies beneath his rough exterior…]]> 384 Talia Hibbert 0062941208 Jo 0 read-2021 3.79 2019 Get a Life, Chloe Brown (The Brown Sisters, #1)
author: Talia Hibbert
name: Jo
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at: 2021/04/04
date added: 2021/04/04
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> Just Last Night 54870201
But then, in an instant, their lives are changed forever.

In the aftermath, Eve’s world is upended. As stunning secrets are revealed, she begins to wonder if she really knew her friends as well as she thought. And when someone from the past comes back into her life, Eve’s future veers in a surprising new direction...

They say every love story starts with a single moment. What if it was just last night?]]> 393 Mhairi McFarlane 0063036851 Jo 0 read-2021 3.96 2021 Just Last Night
author: Mhairi McFarlane
name: Jo
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2021/04/02
date added: 2021/04/02
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Silence of the Girls (Women of Troy, #1)]]> 37969723
When Agamemnon, the brutal political leader of the Greek forces, demands Briseis for himself, she finds herself caught between the two most powerful of the Greeks. Achilles refuses to fight in protest, and the Greeks begin to lose ground to their Trojan opponents. Keenly observant and coolly unflinching about the daily horrors of war, Briseis finds herself in an unprecedented position, able to observe the two men driving the Greek army in what will become their final confrontation, deciding the fate not only of Briseis's people but also of the ancient world at large.

Briseis is just one among thousands of women living behind the scenes in this war—the slaves and prostitutes, the nurses, the women who lay out the dead—all of them erased by history. With breathtaking historical detail and luminous prose, Pat Barker brings the teeming world of the Greek camp to vivid life. She offers nuanced, complex portraits of characters and stories familiar from mythology, which, seen from Briseis's perspective, are rife with newfound revelations. Barker's latest builds on her decades-long study of war and its impact on individual lives—and it is nothing short of magnificent.]]> 325 Pat Barker Jo 0 read-2021 3.88 2018 The Silence of the Girls (Women of Troy, #1)
author: Pat Barker
name: Jo
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at: 2021/04/02
date added: 2021/04/02
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories]]> 22929586 A Manual for Cleaning Women compiles the best work of the legendary short-story writer Lucia Berlin. With the grit of Raymond Carver, the humor of Grace Paley, and a blend of wit and melancholy all her own, Berlin crafts miracles from the everyday, uncovering moments of grace in the laundromats and halfway houses of the American Southwest, in the homes of the Bay Area upper class, among switchboard operators and struggling mothers, hitchhikers and bad Christians. Readers will revel in this remarkable collection from a master of the form and wonder how they'd ever overlooked her in the first place.]]> 406 Lucia Berlin 0374202397 Jo 0 read-2021 4.23 2015 A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories
author: Lucia Berlin
name: Jo
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at: 2021/03/20
date added: 2021/04/01
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> The Gaps 55438375
When sixteen-year-old Yin Mitchell is abducted, the news reverberates through the whole Year Ten class at Balmoral Ladies College. As the hours tick by, the girls know the chance of Yin being found alive is becoming smaller and smaller.

Police suspect the abduction is the work of a serial offender, with none in the community safe from suspicion. Everyone is affected by Yin’s disappearance—even scholarship student Chloe, who usually stays out of Balmoral drama, is drawn into the maelstrom. And when she begins to form an uneasy alliance with the queen of Year Ten, Natalia, things get even more complicated.

Looking over their shoulders at every turn, Chloe and Natalia must come together to cope with their fear and grief as best they can. A tribute to friendship in all its guises, The Gaps is a moving examination of vulnerability and strength, safety and danger, and the particular uncertainty of being a young woman in the world.]]> 356 Leanne Hall 1922330485 Jo 0 read-2021 3.80 2021 The Gaps
author: Leanne Hall
name: Jo
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2021/04/01
date added: 2021/04/01
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> The Last Story of Mina Lee 49374507
Interwoven with Margot's present-day search is Mina's story of her first year in Los Angeles as she navigates the promises and perils of the American myth of reinvention. While she's barely earning a living by stocking shelves at a Korean grocery store, the last thing Mina ever expects is to fall in love. But that love story sets in motion a series of events that have consequences for years to come, leading up to the truth of what happened the night of her death.]]> 384 Nancy Jooyoun Kim 0778310175 Jo 0 read-2021 3.48 2020 The Last Story of Mina Lee
author: Nancy Jooyoun Kim
name: Jo
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2021/03/27
date added: 2021/03/27
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Boyfriend Material (London Calling, #1)]]> 50225678 425 Alexis Hall 1728206146 Jo 0 read-2021 3.98 2020 Boyfriend Material (London Calling, #1)
author: Alexis Hall
name: Jo
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2021/03/21
date added: 2021/03/27
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> Long Bright River 43834909 Two sisters travel the same streets, though their lives couldn't be more different. Then, one of them goes missing.

In a Philadelphia neighborhood rocked by the opioid crisis, two once-inseparable sisters find themselves at odds. One, Kacey, lives on the streets in the vise of addiction. The other, Mickey, walks those same blocks on her police beat. They don't speak anymore, but Mickey never stops worrying about her sibling.

Then Kacey disappears, suddenly, at the same time that a mysterious string of murders begins in Mickey's district, and Mickey becomes dangerously obsessed with finding the culprit--and her sister--before it's too late.

Alternating its present-day mystery with the story of the sisters' childhood and adolescence, Long Bright River is at once heart-pounding and heart-wrenching: a gripping suspense novel that is also a moving story of sisters, addiction, and the formidable ties that persist between place, family, and fate.]]> 482 Liz Moore 0525540679 Jo 0 read-2021 4.02 2020 Long Bright River
author: Liz Moore
name: Jo
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2021/03/08
date added: 2021/03/08
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> The Truth Commission 22522076
Susan Juby’s The Truth Commission: A story about easy truths, hard truths, and those things best left unsaid.]]> 309 Susan Juby 0451468775 Jo 0 read-2021 3.70 2015 The Truth Commission
author: Susan Juby
name: Jo
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at: 2021/03/07
date added: 2021/03/07
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> Honeybee 53952835
At the other end of the same bridge, an old man, Vic, smokes his last cigarette.

The two see each other across the void. A fateful connection is made, and an unlikely friendship blooms. Slowly, we learn what led Sam and Vic to the bridge that night. Bonded by their suffering, each privately commits to the impossible task of saving the other.

Honeybee is a heart-breaking, life-affirming novel that throws us headlong into a world of petty thefts, extortion plots, botched bank robberies, daring dog rescues and one spectacular drag show.

At the heart of Honeybee is Sam: a solitary, resilient young person battling to navigate the world as their true self; ensnared by a loyalty to a troubled mother, scarred by the volatility of a domineering step-father, and confounded by the kindness of new alliances.

Honeybee is a tender, profoundly moving novel brimming with vivid characters and luminous words. It's about two lives forever changed by a chance encounter -- one offering hope, the other redemption. It's about when to persevere, and when to be merciful, as Sam learns when to let go, and when to hold on.]]> 421 Craig Silvey 1760877220 Jo 0 read-2021 4.38 2020 Honeybee
author: Craig Silvey
name: Jo
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2021/03/04
date added: 2021/03/04
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> Asking for a Friend 55274648
Three best friends are going to solve their relationship woes once and for all

Forty-something Jemima’s life is on track � well, sort of. All she has to do is muster the courage to bat her niggly ex away for good.

Twenty-something Meagan is in the midst of her five-phase plan and is nearly ready for phase three � a relationship.

While thirty-something Simi has had more it’s not yous than any I dos.

Deciding it’s time to play the dating game by their own rules, they’re going to ditch the dating apps and ask people out in real life. The catch? They’re playing matchmaker and can only ask out potential dates for each other because the most important rule is that no woman gets left behind.

Comedian Andi Osho’s hilarious and uplifting debut novel features her trademark wit and is perfect for fans of Candice Carty-Williams, Lucy Diamond and Mhairi McFarlane.]]> 384 Andi Osho 0008245797 Jo 0 read-2021 3.16 2021 Asking for a Friend
author: Andi Osho
name: Jo
average rating: 3.16
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2021/02/27
date added: 2021/02/27
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> Braised Pork 45161754
Profoundly troubled by what she has seen, even while she is abruptly released from a marriage that had constrained her, Jia Jia embarks on a journey to discover the truth of the sketch. Starting at her neighbourhood bar, with its brandy and vinyl, and fuelled by anger, bewilderment, curiosity and love, Jia Jia travels deep into her past in order to arrive at her future.

Braised Pork is a cinematic, often dreamlike evocation of nocturnal Beijing and the high plains of Tibet, and an exploration of myth-making, loss, and a world beyond words, which ultimately sees a young woman find a new and deeper sense of herself.]]> 240 An Yu 1787301877 Jo 0 read-2021 3.43 2020 Braised Pork
author: An Yu
name: Jo
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2021/02/22
date added: 2021/02/22
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> Writers & Lovers 45289222 Euphoria, Lily King returns with an unforgettable portrait of an artist as a young woman.

Blindsided by her mother's sudden death, and wrecked by a recent love affair, Casey Peabody has arrived in Massachusetts in the summer of 1997 without a plan. Her mail consists of wedding invitations and final notices from debt collectors. A former child golf prodigy, she now waits tables in Harvard Square and rents a tiny, moldy room at the side of a garage where she works on the novel she's been writing for six years. At thirty-one, Casey is still clutching onto something nearly all her old friends have let go of: the determination to live a creative life. When she falls for two very different men at the same time, her world fractures even more. Casey's fight to fulfil her creative ambitions and balance the conflicting demands of art and life is challenged in ways that push her to the brink.

Writers & Lovers follows Casey--a smart and achingly vulnerable protagonist--in the last days of a long youth, a time when every element of her life comes to a crisis. Written with King's trademark humor, heart, and intelligence, Writers & Lovers is a transfixing novel that explores the terrifying and exhilarating leap between the end of one phase of life and the beginning of another.]]> 320 Lily King Jo 0 read-2021 3.98 2020 Writers & Lovers
author: Lily King
name: Jo
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2021/01/17
date added: 2021/02/15
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)]]> 51901147
The odds are against him. He's been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined -- every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute... and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.]]> 541 Suzanne Collins Jo 0 read-2021 3.99 2020 The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Jo
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2021/02/06
date added: 2021/02/15
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Just One Damned Thing After Another (The Chronicles of St Mary's, #1)]]> 29661618
Behind the seemingly innocuous façade of St Mary's, a different kind of historical research is taking place. They don't do 'time-travel' - they 'investigate major historical events in contemporary time'. Maintaining the appearance of harmless eccentrics is not always within their power - especially given their propensity for causing loud explosions when things get too quiet.

Meet the disaster-magnets of St Mary's Institute of Historical Research as they ricochet around History. Their aim is to observe and document - to try and find the answers to many of History's unanswered questions...and not to die in the process. But one wrong move and History will fight back - to the death. And, as they soon discover - it's not just History they're fighting.

Follow the catastrophe curve from 11th-century London to World War I, and from the Cretaceous Period to the destruction of the Great Library at Alexandria. For wherever Historians go, chaos is sure to follow in their wake....]]> 480 Jodi Taylor Jo 0 read-2021 3.82 2013 Just One Damned Thing After Another (The Chronicles of St Mary's, #1)
author: Jodi Taylor
name: Jo
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at: 2021/02/15
date added: 2021/02/15
shelves: read-2021
review:

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

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

Alternate cover edition can be found here .]]> 382 Richard Osman Jo 0 read-2021 3.87 2020 The Thursday Murder Club (Thursday Murder Club, #1)
author: Richard Osman
name: Jo
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2021/01/31
date added: 2021/01/31
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> All Adults Here 51907346
Astrid’s youngest son is drifting and unfocused, making parenting mistakes of his own. Her daughter is intentionally pregnant yet struggling to give up her own adolescence. And her eldest seems to measure his adult life according to standards no one else shares. But who gets to decide, so many years later, which long-ago lapses were the ones that mattered? Who decides which apologies really count? It might be that only Astrid’s thirteen-year-old granddaughter and her new friend really understand the courage it takes to tell the truth to the people you love the most.

In All Adults Here, Emma Straub’s unique alchemy of wisdom, humor, and insight come together in a deeply satisfying story about adult siblings, aging parents, high school boyfriends, middle school mean girls, the lifelong effects of birth order, and all the other things that follow us into adulthood, whether we like them to or not.]]> 356 Emma Straub 1594634696 Jo 0 read-2021 3.54 2020 All Adults Here
author: Emma Straub
name: Jo
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2021/01/23
date added: 2021/01/23
shelves: read-2021
review:

]]> Leave the World Behind 50358031
Amanda and Clay head to a remote corner of Long Island expecting a a quiet reprieve from life in New York City, quality time with their teenage son and daughter and a taste of the good life in the luxurious home they've rented for the week. But with a late-night knock on the door, the spell is broken. Ruth and G. H., an older couple who claim to own the home, have arrived there in a panic. These strangers say that a sudden power outage has swept the city, and - with nowhere else to turn - they have come to the country in search of shelter.

But with the TV and internet down, and no phone service, the facts are unknowable. Should Amanda and Clay trust this couple - and vice versa? What has happened back in New York? Is the holiday home, isolated from civilisation, a truly safe place for their families? And are they safe from one another?]]> 241 Rumaan Alam 0062667637 Jo 0 read-2021
But hey, atleast there was inexplicable flamingos, right?]]> 3.13 2020 Leave the World Behind
author: Rumaan Alam
name: Jo
average rating: 3.13
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2021/01/09
date added: 2021/01/09
shelves: read-2021
review:
This is the kind of book people say is "claustrophobic" but actually it's just a bit dull. I can't help but think the actual (read: interesting) story was happening in a parallel world that we saw through few sentences scattered in every now and again. Maybe that was the point and it went over my head.

But hey, atleast there was inexplicable flamingos, right?
]]> The Wild Silence 52185541 The Salt Path.

Nature holds the answers for Raynor and her husband Moth. After walking 630 homeless miles along The Salt Path, living on the windswept and wild English coastline; the cliffs, the sky and the chalky earth now feel like their home.

Moth has a terminal diagnosis, but against all medical odds, he seems revitalized in nature. Together on the wild coastal path, with their feet firmly rooted outdoors, they discover that anything is possible.

Now, life beyond The Salt Path awaits and they come back to four walls, but the sense of home is illusive and returning to normality is proving difficult - until an incredible gesture by someone who reads their story changes everything.

A chance to breathe life back into a beautiful farmhouse nestled deep in the Cornish hills; rewilding the land and returning nature to its hedgerows becomes their saving grace and their new path to follow.

The Wild Silence is a story of hope triumphing over despair, of lifelong love prevailing over everything. It is a luminous account of the human spirit's instinctive connection to nature, and how vital it is for us all.]]> 280 Raynor Winn 0241401461 Jo 0 read-2021 One Sentence Review: The book equivalent of a really, really, really good packet of noodles eaten while looking over an impossible mountain you've just climbed.


]]> 3.90 2020 The Wild Silence
author: Raynor Winn
name: Jo
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2021/01/02
date added: 2021/01/02
shelves: read-2021
review:
One Sentence Review: The book equivalent of a really, really, really good packet of noodles eaten while looking over an impossible mountain you've just climbed.



]]> <![CDATA[On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous]]> 41880609 On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family's history that began before he was born � a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam � and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity. Asking questions central to our American moment, immersed as we are in addiction, violence, and trauma, but undergirded by compassion and tenderness, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is as much about the power of telling one's own story as it is about the obliterating silence of not being heard.

With stunning urgency and grace, Ocean Vuong writes of people caught between disparate worlds, and asks how we heal and rescue one another without forsaking who we are. The question of how to survive, and how to make of it a kind of joy, powers the most important debut novel of many years.]]> 246 Ocean Vuong 0525562028 Jo 4 read-2020 4.05 2019 On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
author: Ocean Vuong
name: Jo
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2020/12/31
shelves: read-2020
review:

]]> Kokomo 52334565 'genuinely funny and heartbreaking' - VPLA judges

When Mina receives an urgent call from her best friend back in Melbourne, her world is turned upside down. Her agoraphobic mother, Elaine, has left the house for the first time in twelve years. Mina drops everything to fly home, only to discover that Elaine will not talk about her sudden return to the world, nor why she's spent so much time hiding from it. Their reunion leaves Mina raking through pieces of their painful past in a bid to uncover the truth.

Both tender and fierce, heartbreaking and funny, Kokomo is a story about how secrets and love have the power to bring us together and tear us apart.

]]> 235 Victoria Hannan 0733643337 Jo 0 read-2020 3.56 2020 Kokomo
author: Victoria Hannan
name: Jo
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/12/25
shelves: read-2020
review:

]]> The Twelve Dates of Christmas 50608051 'Tis the season for finding romance in this hilarious and uplifting holiday read

When it comes to relationships, thirty-four-year-old Kate Turner is ready to say "Bah, humbug." The sleepy town of Blexford, England, isn't exactly brimming with prospects, and anyway, Kate's found fulfillment in her career as a designer, and in her delicious side job baking for her old friend Matt's neighborhood café. But then her best friend signs her up for a dating agency that promises to help singles find love before the holidays. Twenty-three days until Christmas. Twelve dates with twelve different men. The odds must finally be in her favor . . . right?

Yet with each new date more disastrous than the one before--and the whole town keeping tabs on her misadventures--Kate must remind herself that sometimes love, like mistletoe, shows up where it's least expected. And maybe, just maybe, it's been right under her nose all along. . . .]]> 320 Jenny Bayliss Jo 0 read-2020 3.54 2020 The Twelve Dates of Christmas
author: Jenny Bayliss
name: Jo
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/12/20
shelves: read-2020
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Little Christmas Shop on Nutcracker Lane]]> 55274653
Nia Maddison has always believed that wishes come true on Nutcracker Lane. So, when she gets the opportunity to run her own Christmas gift shop on the most magical street in town, it feels like her wishes have been finally granted.

But working late one night, Nia discovers yet another boyfriend has cheated on her. As she trudges home � alone, again � she passes the (supposedly) magical nutcracker and half-joking thinks a wish can’t hurt. Cracking a nut in its mouth, she wishes to find Prince Charming.

The next day Nia gets to work to find another decoration shop has opened directly across the lane from her own, and she can’t resist having a nose around.

Whilst there, she accidentally backs into a human-sized Nutcracker, knocking it over and breaking it. Mortified, she flees from the store but when she gathers her resolve to go back and apologise, she stumbles across the gorgeous shop owner James, who looks exactly like Prince Charming�

Could her Christmas wish from the night before really be coming true?]]> 311 Jaimie Admans Jo 0 read-2020 4.15 2020 The Little Christmas Shop on Nutcracker Lane
author: Jaimie Admans
name: Jo
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/12/19
shelves: read-2020
review:

]]> Wuthering Heights 348914 Alternate cover edition for ISBN: 9780141439556.

Lockwood, the new tenant of Thrushcross Grange, situated on the bleak Yorkshire moors, is forced to seek shelter one night at Wuthering Heights, the home of his landlord. There he discovers the history of the tempestuous events that took place years before; of the intense relationship between the gypsy foundling Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw; and how Catherine, forced to choose between passionate, tortured Heathcliff and gentle, well-bred Edgar Linton, surrendered to the expectations of her class. As Heathcliff's bitterness and vengeance at his betrayal is visited upon the next generation, their innocent heirs must struggle to escape the legacy of the past.]]> 359 Emily Brontë Jo 5 3.84 1847 Wuthering Heights
author: Emily Brontë
name: Jo
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1847
rating: 5
read at: 2009/07/06
date added: 2020/12/19
shelves:
review:

]]> The Broken Girls 35533431 A suspense novel from the award-winning author of The Haunting of Maddy Clare...

Vermont, 1950. There's a place for the girls whom no one wants--the troublemakers, the illegitimate, the too smart for their own good. It's called Idlewild Hall. And in the small town where it's located, there are rumors that the boarding school is haunted. Four roommates bond over their whispered fears, their budding friendship blossoming--until one of them mysteriously disappears. . . .

Vermont, 2014. As much as she's tried, journalist Fiona Sheridan cannot stop revisiting the events surrounding her older sister's death. Twenty years ago, her body was found lying in the overgrown fields near the ruins of Idlewild Hall. And though her sister's boyfriend was tried and convicted of murder, Fiona can't shake the suspicion that something was never right about the case.

When Fiona discovers that Idlewild Hall is being restored by an anonymous benefactor, she decides to write a story about it. But a shocking discovery during the renovations will link the loss of her sister to secrets that were meant to stay hidden in the past--and a voice that won't be silenced. . . .]]> 336 Simone St. James Jo 0 read-2020 4.06 2018 The Broken Girls
author: Simone St. James
name: Jo
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/12/05
shelves: read-2020
review:

]]> Corregidora 530773
From the back cover: "History and fiction have yielded little about those black slave women who were mistress and breeder to their white owners. There are some facts and figures, but they tell us nothing about the women themselves: their motives, their emotions, and the memories they passed on to their children. Gayl Jones's first novel is a gripping portrait of this harsh sexual and psychological genealogy....Jones's language is subtle and sinewy, and her imagination sure." —Margo Jefferson, Newsweek]]> 185 Gayl Jones Jo 0 read-2020 3.92 1975 Corregidora
author: Gayl Jones
name: Jo
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1975
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/11/24
shelves: read-2020
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Night Stalker (DCI Erika Foster, #2)]]> 29073628
In the dead of a swelteringly hot summer’s night, Detective Erika Foster is called to a murder scene. The victim, a doctor, is found suffocated in bed. His wrists are bound and his eyes bulging through a clear plastic bag tied tight over his head.

A few days later, another victim is found dead, in exactly the same circumstances. As Erika and her team start digging deeper, they discover a calculated serial killer � stalking their victims before choosing the right moment to strike.

The victims are all single men, with very private lives. Why are their pasts shrouded in secrecy? And what links them to the killer?

As a heat wave descends upon London, Erika will do everything to stop the Night Stalker before the body count rises, even if it means risking her job. But the victims might not be the only ones being watched� Erika’s own life could be on the line.

The global bestselling author of The Girl in the Ice is back with a heart-racing, electrifying thriller. If you love Angela Marsons, Rachel Abbott and Karin Slaughter, you’ll be hooked on Robert Bryndza.]]> 654 Robert Bryndza 1786810050 Jo 0 read-2020 4.19 2016 The Night Stalker (DCI Erika Foster, #2)
author: Robert Bryndza
name: Jo
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/11/17
shelves: read-2020
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Girl in the Ice (Detective Erika Foster, #1)]]> 28233082 Her eyes are wide open. Her lips parted as if to speak. Her dead body frozen in the ice…She is not the only one.

When a young boy discovers the body of a woman beneath a thick sheet of ice in a South London park, Detective Erika Foster is called in to lead the murder investigation.

The victim, a beautiful young socialite, appeared to have the perfect life. Yet when Erika begins to dig deeper, she starts to connect the dots between the murder and the killings of three prostitutes, all found strangled, hands bound and dumped in water around London.

What dark secrets is the girl in the ice hiding?

As Erika inches closer to uncovering the truth, the killer is closing in on Erika.

The last investigation Erika led went badly wrong� resulting in the death of her husband. With her career hanging by a thread, Erika must now battle her own personal demons as well as a killer more deadly than any she’s faced before. But will she get to him before he strikes again?]]> 417 Robert Bryndza Jo 0 read-2020 3.97 2016 The Girl in the Ice (Detective Erika Foster, #1)
author: Robert Bryndza
name: Jo
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/11/14
shelves: read-2020
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Deadly Education (The Scholomance, #1)]]> 50548197
A Deadly Education is set at Scholomance, a school for the magically gifted where failure means certain death (for real) � until one girl, El, begins to unlock its many secrets.

There are no teachers, no holidays, and no friendships, save strategic ones. Survival is more important than any letter grade, for the school won’t allow its students to leave until they graduate� or die! The rules are deceptively simple: Don’t walk the halls alone. And beware of the monsters who lurk everywhere.

El is uniquely prepared for the school’s dangers. She may be without allies, but she possesses a dark power strong enough to level mountains and wipe out millions. It would be easy enough for El to defeat the monsters that prowl the school. The problem? Her powerful dark magic might also kill all the other students.]]> 320 Naomi Novik 0593128486 Jo 0 read-2020 3.93 2020 A Deadly Education (The Scholomance, #1)
author: Naomi Novik
name: Jo
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/10/15
shelves: read-2020
review:

]]> The Switch 45134200 Eileen is sick of being 79.
Leena's tired of life in her twenties.
Maybe it's time they swapped places...

When overachiever Leena Cotton is ordered to take a two-month sabbatical after blowing a big presentation at work, she escapes to her grandmother Eileen's house for some overdue rest. Eileen is newly single and about to turn eighty. She'd like a second chance at love, but her tiny Yorkshire village doesn't offer many eligible gentlemen.

Once Leena learns of Eileen's romantic predicament, she proposes a a two-month swap. Eileen can live in London and look for love. Meanwhile Leena will look after everything in rural Yorkshire. But with gossiping neighbours and difficult family dynamics to navigate up north, and trendy London flatmates and online dating to contend with in the city, stepping into one another's shoes proves more difficult than either of them expected.

Leena learns that a long-distance relationship isn't as romantic as she hoped it would be, and then there is the annoyingly perfect � and distractingly handsome � school teacher, who keeps showing up to outdo her efforts to impress the local villagers. Back in London, Eileen is a huge hit with her new neighbours, but is her perfect match nearer home than she first thought?]]> 336 Beth O'Leary 1787475018 Jo 0 read-2020 3.95 2020 The Switch
author: Beth O'Leary
name: Jo
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/10/04
shelves: read-2020
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Peril at End House (Hercule Poirot, #8)]]> 16424
Poirot quickly takes a particular interest in the young woman. Recently, she has narrowly escaped a series of life-threatening accidents. Something tells the Belgian sleuth that these so-called accidents are more than just mere coincidences or a spate of bad luck. Something like a bullet! It seems all too clear to him that someone is trying to do away with poor Nick, but who? And, what is the motive? In his quest for answers, Poirot must delve into the dark history of End House. The deeper he gets into his investigation, the more certain he is that the killer will soon strike again. And, this time, Nick may not escape with her life.]]> 287 Agatha Christie 0007119305 Jo 0 read-2020 3.99 1932 Peril at End House (Hercule Poirot, #8)
author: Agatha Christie
name: Jo
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1932
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/10/03
shelves: read-2020
review:

]]> Mostly Dead Things 41817578 356 Kristen Arnett 1947793306 Jo 0 3.36 2019 Mostly Dead Things
author: Kristen Arnett
name: Jo
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/09/22
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Ten Thousand Doors of January]]> 43521657
Then she finds a strange book. A book that carries the scent of other worlds, and tells a tale of secret doors, of love, adventure and danger. Each page turn reveals impossible truths about the world and January discovers a story increasingly entwined with her own.]]> 374 Alix E. Harrow 0316421995 Jo 0 read-2020 3.99 2019 The Ten Thousand Doors of January
author: Alix E. Harrow
name: Jo
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/09/15
shelves: read-2020
review:

]]> The New Wilderness 48836769 A debut novel that explores a mother-daughter relationship in a world ravaged by climate change and overpopulation, a suspenseful second book from the author of the story collection, Man V. Nature.

Bea’s five-year-old daughter, Agnes, is slowly wasting away. The smog and pollution of the City—an over-populated, over-built metropolis where most of the population lives—is destroying her lungs. But what can Bea do? No one leaves the City anymore, because there is nowhere else to go. But across the country lies the Wilderness State, the last swath of open, protected land left. Here forests and desert plains are inhabited solely by wildlife. People are forbidden. Until now. 


Bea, Agnes, and eighteen others volunteer to live in the Wilderness State as part of a study to see if humans can co-exist with nature. Can they be part of the wilderness and not destroy it? Living as nomadic hunter-gatherers, this new community wanders through the grand country, trying to adhere to the strict rules laid down by the Rangers, whose job it is to remind them they must Leave No Trace. As the group slowly learns to live and survive on the unpredictable and often dangerous land, its members battle for power and control and betray and save each other. The farther they roam, the closer they come to their animal soul.

To her dismay, Bea discovers that, in fleeing to the Wilderness State to save Agnes, she is losing her in a different way. Agnes is growing wilder and closer to the land, while Bea cannot shake her urban past. As she and Agnes grow further apart, the bonds between mother and daughter are tested in surprising and heartbreaking ways.

Yet just as these modern nomads come to think of the Wilderness State as home, its future is threatened when the Government discovers a new use for the land. Now the migrants must choose to stay and fight for their place in the wilderness, their home, or trust the Rangers and their promises of a better tomorrow elsewhere.]]> 398 Diane Cook 0062333135 Jo 0 read-2020 3.64 2020 The New Wilderness
author: Diane Cook
name: Jo
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/09/05
shelves: read-2020
review:

]]> Such a Fun Age 43923951 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, with her confidence-driven brand, showing other women how to do the same. So she is shocked when her babysitter, Emira Tucker, is confronted while watching the Chamberlains' toddler one night, walking the aisles of their local high-end supermarket. The store's security guard, seeing a young black woman out late with a white child, 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 things 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, and the complicated reality of being a grown up. It is a searing debut for our times.]]> 310 Kiley Reid 052554190X Jo 0 read-2020 3.76 2019 Such a Fun Age
author: Kiley Reid
name: Jo
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/08/26
shelves: read-2020
review:

]]> Sorry I Missed You 51962319 A poignant and heartwarming novel about friendship, ghosting, and searching for answers to life’s mysteries.

When Mackenzie, Sunna, and Maude move into a converted rental house, they are strangers with only one thing in common—important people in their lives have “ghosted� them. Mackenzie’s sister, Sunna’s best friend, and Maude’s fiancé—all gone with no explanation.

So when a mangled, near-indecipherable letter arrives in their shared mailbox—hinting at long-awaited answers—each tenant assumes it’s for her. The mismatched trio decides to stake out the coffee shop named in the letter—the only clue they have—and in the process, a bizarre kinship forms. But the more they learn about each other, the more questions (and suspicions) they begin to have. All the while, creepy sounds and strange happenings around the property suggest that the ghosts from their pasts might not be all that’s haunting them�

Will any of the housemates find the closure they are looking for? Or are some doors meant to remain closed?

Quirky, humorous, and utterly original, Sorry I Missed You is the perfect read for anyone who has ever felt haunted by their past (or by anything else).]]> 316 Suzy Krause 1542010209 Jo 0 read-2020 3.59 2020 Sorry I Missed You
author: Suzy Krause
name: Jo
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/08/25
shelves: read-2020
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Death on the Nile (Hercule Poirot, #18)]]> 131359
Who is also on board? Christie's great detective Hercule Poirot is on holiday. He recalls an earlier outburst by a fellow passenger: ‘I’d like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger.� Despite the exotic setting, nothing is ever quite what it seems…]]> 352 Agatha Christie Jo 0 read-2020 4.13 1937 Death on the Nile (Hercule Poirot, #18)
author: Agatha Christie
name: Jo
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1937
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/08/22
shelves: read-2020
review:

]]> One to Watch 53103895 Main Squeeze. The fantasy dates! The kiss-off rejections! The surprising amount of guys named Chad! But Bea is sick and tired of the lack of body diversity on the show. Since when is being a size zero a prerequisite for getting engaged on television?

Just when Bea has sworn off dating altogether, she gets an intriguing call: Main Squeeze wants her to be its next star, surrounded by men vying for her affections. Bea agrees, on one condition--under no circumstances will she actually fall in love. She's in this to supercharge her career, subvert harmful anti-fat beauty standards, inspire women across America, and get a free hot air balloon ride. That's it.

But when the cameras start rolling, Bea realizes things are more complicated than she anticipated. She's in a whirlwind of sumptuous couture, Internet culture wars, sexy suitors, and an opportunity (or two, or five) to find messy, real-life love in the midst of a made-for-TV fairy tale.]]> 417 Kate Stayman-London 0525510443 Jo 0 read-2020 3.86 2020 One to Watch
author: Kate Stayman-London
name: Jo
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/08/20
shelves: read-2020
review:

]]> Coming Undone 50330822
To everyone else, Terri White appeared to be living the dream, named one of Folio's Top Women in US Media and accruing further awards for the magazines she was editing. In reality, she was rapidly skidding towards a mental health crisis that would land her in a locked psychiatric ward as her past caught up with her.

As well as growing up in a household in poverty, Terri endured sexual and physical abuse at the hands of a number of her mother's partners. Her success defied all expectations, but the greater the disparity between her outer achievements and inner demons, the more she struggled to hold everything together.

Coming Undone is Terri's documentation of her unraveling, and her precarious navigation back from a life in pieces.]]> 256 Terri White 1786896788 Jo 0 read-2020 3.90 2020 Coming Undone
author: Terri White
name: Jo
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/08/18
shelves: read-2020
review:

]]> Clap When You Land 52516332 In a novel-in-verse that brims with grief and love, National Book Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Acevedo writes about the devastation of loss, the difficulty of forgiveness, and the bittersweet bonds that shape our lives.

Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people�

In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the principal’s office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash.

Separated by distance—and Papi’s secrets—the two girls are forced to face a new reality in which their father is dead and their lives are forever altered.

And then, when it seems like they’ve lost everything of their father, they learn of each other.]]> 432 Elizabeth Acevedo 0062882767 Jo 0 read-2020 4.22 2020 Clap When You Land
author: Elizabeth Acevedo
name: Jo
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/08/12
shelves: read-2020
review:

]]> <![CDATA[My Brilliant Friend (Neapolitan Novels, #1)]]> 35036409 My Brilliant Friend is a rich, intense and generous-hearted story about two friends, Elena and Lila. Ferrante’s inimitable style lends itself perfectly to a meticulous portrait of these two women that is also the story of a nation and a touching meditation on the nature of friendship. Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighbourhood, a city and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her two protagonists.]]> 331 Elena Ferrante Jo 0 read-2020 4.08 2011 My Brilliant Friend (Neapolitan Novels, #1)
author: Elena Ferrante
name: Jo
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/08/05
shelves: read-2020
review:

]]> Les Misérables 33175 1232 Victor Hugo 0140444300 Jo 4 4.34 1862 Les Misérables
author: Victor Hugo
name: Jo
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1862
rating: 4
read at: 2011/10/16
date added: 2020/08/02
shelves:
review:

]]> Girl, Woman, Other 41081373
Girl, Woman, Other follows the lives and struggles of twelve very different characters. Mostly women, black and British, they tell the stories of their families, friends and lovers, across the country and through the years.

Joyfully polyphonic and vibrantly contemporary, this is a gloriously new kind of history, a novel of our times: celebratory, ever-dynamic and utterly irresistible.]]> 453 Bernardine Evaristo 0241364906 Jo 0 read-2020 4.27 2019 Girl, Woman, Other
author: Bernardine Evaristo
name: Jo
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/08/01
shelves: read-2020
review:

]]> State Highway One 54115720 'I want to go from here . . .'
Finger on Cape Reinga.
'. . . to here.'
Finger at the bottom of Stewart Island, right at the bottom of the map.
It's been years since Alex was in New Zealand, and years since he spent any one-on-one time with his twin sister, Amy. When they lose their parents in a shock accident it seems like the perfect time to reconnect as siblings. To reconnect with this country they call 'home'.
As they journey the length of State Highway One, they will scratch at wounds that have never healed - and Alex will be forced to reckon with what coming home really means.]]> 384 Sam Coley 1869714261 Jo 5
Places that you used to go - the shop, the cinema, the office, a friend’s house - feel foreign and strange. So reading State Highway One, a book that takes its readers down the longest road from the top of New Zealand’s North island, down to the tip of the South island: it feels almost mythical.

Coley’s understanding of place is one of my favourite things about this book. With every scene, every stop, every twist in the road, the reader is faced with a different glimpse. The beach. The mountains. Sprawling cities. Small, forgotten towns. Scratched sunglasses thrown into the back seat of a temperamental Mirage. An old CD you’ve forgotten about in the glove box but still works*. Greasy fast food papers in the footwell. Memories you’d rather forget. Emotions you’re desperately trying to remember.

Every chapter is a postcard: wish you were there.

And it’s this depiction of the setting which really sets this book apart and allows Coley to really examine the book’s main question: what is ‘home�?

With considered and fresh prose, the author sets the scene of a splintered family, with Alex (grieving, angry, confusing, frustrating as hell - seriously, this boy!) picking his way through the wreckage. In Alex’s relationships with the people in his life, regardless of how permanent or how fleeting, Coley shows his skill in examining the relationships we form; dismantling them to see what is there and, ultimately, what we’re missing.

However, the main jewel of this book is the relationship between Alex and his sister, Amy. Gloriously bananas, Amy. But I’ll let you get to know her yourself.

You know those kinds of books that are so beautiful and sad that they give you a tummy ache? That’s this book. From the north island to the south. From the first page to the last.

State Highway One is a fantastic and assured debut and I’m so, so thrilled that people will - finally - be talking about Sam Coley and this book.

Tummy aches for all.


[Also, it was blurbed by Melina Marchetta so you know it’s going to be good.]

* The soundtrack to this book is A+.

[Full disclosure: the author is a writing partner of mine so, possibly a little biased, however - I’d 100% tell him if his book was pants.]]]> 3.75 State Highway One
author: Sam Coley
name: Jo
average rating: 3.75
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/07/31
shelves:
review:
It’s odd reading a story about a roadtrip at the moment.

Places that you used to go - the shop, the cinema, the office, a friend’s house - feel foreign and strange. So reading State Highway One, a book that takes its readers down the longest road from the top of New Zealand’s North island, down to the tip of the South island: it feels almost mythical.

Coley’s understanding of place is one of my favourite things about this book. With every scene, every stop, every twist in the road, the reader is faced with a different glimpse. The beach. The mountains. Sprawling cities. Small, forgotten towns. Scratched sunglasses thrown into the back seat of a temperamental Mirage. An old CD you’ve forgotten about in the glove box but still works*. Greasy fast food papers in the footwell. Memories you’d rather forget. Emotions you’re desperately trying to remember.

Every chapter is a postcard: wish you were there.

And it’s this depiction of the setting which really sets this book apart and allows Coley to really examine the book’s main question: what is ‘home�?

With considered and fresh prose, the author sets the scene of a splintered family, with Alex (grieving, angry, confusing, frustrating as hell - seriously, this boy!) picking his way through the wreckage. In Alex’s relationships with the people in his life, regardless of how permanent or how fleeting, Coley shows his skill in examining the relationships we form; dismantling them to see what is there and, ultimately, what we’re missing.

However, the main jewel of this book is the relationship between Alex and his sister, Amy. Gloriously bananas, Amy. But I’ll let you get to know her yourself.

You know those kinds of books that are so beautiful and sad that they give you a tummy ache? That’s this book. From the north island to the south. From the first page to the last.

State Highway One is a fantastic and assured debut and I’m so, so thrilled that people will - finally - be talking about Sam Coley and this book.

Tummy aches for all.


[Also, it was blurbed by Melina Marchetta so you know it’s going to be good.]

* The soundtrack to this book is A+.

[Full disclosure: the author is a writing partner of mine so, possibly a little biased, however - I’d 100% tell him if his book was pants.]
]]> Song of the Crocodile 53255180
Darnmoor is the home of the Billymil family, three generations who have lived in this 'gateway town'. Race relations between Indigenous and settler families are fraught, though the rigid status quo is upheld through threats and soft power rather than the overt violence of yesteryear.

As progress marches forwards, Darnmoor and its surrounds undergo rapid social and environmental changes, but as some things change, some stay exactly the same. The Billymil family are watched (and sometimes visited) by ancestral spirits and spirits of the recently deceased, who look out for their descendants and attempt to help them on the right path.

When the town's secrets start to be uncovered the town will be rocked by a violent act that forever shatters a century of silence.

Full of music, Yuwaalaraay language and exquisite description, Song of the Crocodile is a lament to choice and change, and the unyielding land that sustains us all, if only we could listen to it.]]> 448 Nardi Simpson 0733643744 Jo 0 to-read 4.07 2020 Song of the Crocodile
author: Nardi Simpson
name: Jo
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/07/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> In Case You Missed It 52227662 One missed chance in life…one second chance in love

When Ros steps off a plane after three years away, she’s in need of a new job, a new flat and a new start. But her friends have moved on, her parents only have eyes for each other, and her bedroom has been moved into the garden shed. Suddenly, Ros has a bad case of nostalgia for the way things were.

Then her phone begins to ping with messages from her old life. Including one number she thought she’d erased forever: the man who broke her heart.

Sometimes we’d all like the chance to see what we’ve been missing�

]]> 400 Lindsey Kelk 0008236917 Jo 0 read-2020 4.00 2020 In Case You Missed It
author: Lindsey Kelk
name: Jo
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/07/23
shelves: read-2020
review:

]]> One Year of Ugly 51283961
To say that the year that follows is tumultuous for the Palacios is an understatement. But in the midst of the turmoil appears Roman—Ugly’s distractingly gorgeous right-hand man. And although she knows it’s terrible and quite possibly dangerous, Yola just can’t help but give in to the attraction. Where, though, do Roman’s loyalties lie? And could this wildly inappropriate romance just be the antidote to a terrible year of Ugly?

Combining the spark of Junot Diaz with the irresistible wit of Maria Semple, One Year of Ugly brilliantly explores cross-cultural struggles and assimilation from a unique immigrant perspective and introduces us to an extraordinary new voice in contemporary fiction.]]> 400 Caroline Mackenzie 0008347077 Jo 0 read-2020 3.90 2020 One Year of Ugly
author: Caroline Mackenzie
name: Jo
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/07/23
shelves: read-2020
review:

]]> <![CDATA[White Out (Badlands Thriller, #1)]]> 52394909
The same night of the accident, a young woman is murdered and tossed in a dumpster. Kylie Milliard, Hagen’s only detective, doesn’t immediately recognize the victim, but Kylie soon discovers that Lily and the dead woman share a dark past…if only Lily could remember what it was.

Lily and Kylie both want answers. But Kylie has to play by the book. Lily has to play it safe. And the more Lily learns about her identity, the more she fears the truth.]]> 365 Danielle Girard 1542000114 Jo 0 read-2020 4.06 2020 White Out (Badlands Thriller, #1)
author: Danielle Girard
name: Jo
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/07/17
shelves: read-2020
review:

]]> Sadie 34810320 A missing girl on a journey of revenge. A Serial-like podcast following the clues she's left behind. And an ending you won't be able to stop talking about.

Sadie hasn't had an easy life. Growing up on her own, she's been raising her sister Mattie in an isolated small town, trying her best to provide a normal life and keep their heads above water.

But when Mattie is found dead, Sadie's entire world crumbles. After a somewhat botched police investigation, Sadie is determined to bring her sister's killer to justice and hits the road following a few meager clues to find him.

When West McCray―a radio personality working on a segment about small, forgotten towns in America―overhears Sadie's story at a local gas station, he becomes obsessed with finding the missing girl. He starts his own podcast as he tracks Sadie's journey, trying to figure out what happened, hoping to find her before it's too late.

Courtney Summers has written the breakout book of her career. Sadie is propulsive and harrowing and will keep you riveted until the last page.]]> 308 Courtney Summers 1250105714 Jo 0 read-2020 4.04 2018 Sadie
author: Courtney Summers
name: Jo
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/07/13
shelves: read-2020
review:

]]>