Lani's bookshelf: all en-US Wed, 14 May 2025 22:02:03 -0700 60 Lani's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg The City in Glass 209431009 In this new standalone, Hugo Award-winning author Nghi Vo introduces a beguiling fantasy city in the tradition of Calvino, Mieville, and Le Guin.

A demon. An angel. A city that burns at the heart of the world.

The demon Vitrine—immortal, powerful, and capricious—loves the dazzling city of Azril. She has mothered, married, and maddened the city and its people for generations, and built it into a place of joy and desire, revelry and riot.

And then the angels come, and the city falls.

Vitrine is left with nothing but memories and a book containing the names of those she has lost—and an angel, now bound by her mad, grief-stricken curse to haunt the city he burned.

She mourns her dead and rages against the angel she longs to destroy. Made to be each other’s devastation, angel and demon are destined for eternal battle. Instead, they find themselves locked in a devouring fascination that will change them both forever.

Together, they unearth the past of the lost city and begin to shape its future. But when war threatens Azril and everything they have built, Vitrine and her angel must decide whether they will let the city fall again.

The City in Glass is both a brilliantly constructed history and an epic love story, of death and resurrection, memory and transformation, redemption and desire strong enough to burn a world to ashes and build it anew.]]>
224 Nghi Vo 1250348285 Lani 0 currently-reading 3.93 2024 The City in Glass
author: Nghi Vo
name: Lani
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/14
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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The Dangers of Smoking in Bed 54106228 Following the "propulsive and mesmerizing" (New York Times Book Review) Things We Lost in the Fire comes a new collection of singularly unsettling stories, by an Argentine author who has earned comparisons to Shirley Jackson and Jorge Luis Borges.

Mariana Enriquez has been critically lauded for her unconventional and sociopolitical stories of the macabre: populated by unruly teenagers, crooked witches, homeless ghosts, and hungry women, they walk the uneasy line between urban realism and horror. The stories in her next collection are as terrifying as they are socially conscious, and press into being the unspoken -- fetish, illness, the female body, the darkness of human history -- with unsettling urgency. A woman is sexually obsessed with the human heart; a lost, rotting baby crawls out of a backyard and into a bedroom; a pair of teenage girls can't let go of their idol; an entire neighborhood is cursed to death by a question of morality they fail to answer correctly.

Written against the backdrop of contemporary Argentina, and with resounding tenderness towards those in pain, in fear, and in limbo, this new collection from one of Argentina's most exciting writers finds Enriquez at her most sophisticated, and most chilling.]]>
208 Mariana Enríquez Lani 0 currently-reading 3.77 2009 The Dangers of Smoking in Bed
author: Mariana Enríquez
name: Lani
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/05/14
shelves: currently-reading
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People We Meet on Vacation 55076069 Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Beach Read, a sparkling new novel that will leave you with the warm, hazy afterglow usually reserved for the best vacations.

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?]]>
382 Emily Henry Lani 3 4.03 2021 People We Meet on Vacation
author: Emily Henry
name: Lani
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2025/05/14
date added: 2025/05/14
shelves:
review:

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Testimony 5519041
Writing with a pace and intensity surpassing even her own greatest work, Anita Shreve delivers in TESTIMONY a gripping emotional drama with the impact of a thriller. No one more compellinglyexplores the dark impulses that sway the lives of seeming innocents, the needs and fears that drive ordinary men and women into intolerable dilemmas, and the ways in which our best intentions can lead to our worst transgressions.]]>
305 Anita Shreve 0316067342 Lani 1 chicklit, laundry-room
You know what the world really needed? Another story about how girls 'ask for it' and cause the downfall of those poor beloved student-athletes. Because there isn't enough stigma around rape victims and whether they 'cry rape' and those poor manipulated rapists.

This kind of BS is already fed to us on the regular by media, girls and women are frequently accused of making these stories of sexual assault up to... what? Ruin a guy's life? Or maybe excuse her own deviant behavior? Well, how about we acknowledge that teenage sex happens, that girls should be able to be sexual beings just like the boys, and maybe that whole shame thing can be taken out of the equation. But more importantly, why don't we acknowledge that the REAL problems here are the ACTUAL RAPES that occur far more regularly than these 'made up' rapes, and that we should maybe give the victim the benefit of the doubt since it's statistically a LOT more likely that she ISN'T LYING.

Yes, in this book, the girl is lying. The girl is also a stereotype of a nymphette and a blond bimbo gold-digging and manipulating her parents and anyone else she can get her hands on. But every other woman portrayed is a pathetic stereotype, to the point where I find it difficult to believe that Anita Shreve IS a woman and has any female friends.

Sure, it's fiction, every story gets told. But I think we hear this story all too often when a woman is assaulted - and we don't usually have 20 perspectives all clarifying just what a manipulative slut the girl was, including video to prove it! It's more often the athlete, the coach, the team, the school, the community that have all decided that he couldn't POSSIBLY have done wrong because they have a GAME to win, and a lone voice saying otherwise.

Maybe this book would have had some merit if there had been ANY indication that the author knows that she's telling the story of the anomaly and not the more common reality. A note at the end about sexual assault and date rape and an acknowledgement that rape is really the one crime we always find the VICTIM at fault for one reason or another. Even in the 'book club notes' there were no questions about this issue, no comment made in the author interview.

This book was disgusting and perpetuates the idea that rape victims are lying, were asking for it, and cannot be trusted. Fuck that, and fuck this book.


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3.49 2008 Testimony
author: Anita Shreve
name: Lani
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2008
rating: 1
read at: 2013/03/07
date added: 2025/05/07
shelves: chicklit, laundry-room
review:
I haven't read anything by Anita Shreve before, so I didn't really know what to expect. Her writing style is pleasant enough, so it's a shame her book has me so angry that I don't want to read anything else she's written.

You know what the world really needed? Another story about how girls 'ask for it' and cause the downfall of those poor beloved student-athletes. Because there isn't enough stigma around rape victims and whether they 'cry rape' and those poor manipulated rapists.

This kind of BS is already fed to us on the regular by media, girls and women are frequently accused of making these stories of sexual assault up to... what? Ruin a guy's life? Or maybe excuse her own deviant behavior? Well, how about we acknowledge that teenage sex happens, that girls should be able to be sexual beings just like the boys, and maybe that whole shame thing can be taken out of the equation. But more importantly, why don't we acknowledge that the REAL problems here are the ACTUAL RAPES that occur far more regularly than these 'made up' rapes, and that we should maybe give the victim the benefit of the doubt since it's statistically a LOT more likely that she ISN'T LYING.

Yes, in this book, the girl is lying. The girl is also a stereotype of a nymphette and a blond bimbo gold-digging and manipulating her parents and anyone else she can get her hands on. But every other woman portrayed is a pathetic stereotype, to the point where I find it difficult to believe that Anita Shreve IS a woman and has any female friends.

Sure, it's fiction, every story gets told. But I think we hear this story all too often when a woman is assaulted - and we don't usually have 20 perspectives all clarifying just what a manipulative slut the girl was, including video to prove it! It's more often the athlete, the coach, the team, the school, the community that have all decided that he couldn't POSSIBLY have done wrong because they have a GAME to win, and a lone voice saying otherwise.

Maybe this book would have had some merit if there had been ANY indication that the author knows that she's telling the story of the anomaly and not the more common reality. A note at the end about sexual assault and date rape and an acknowledgement that rape is really the one crime we always find the VICTIM at fault for one reason or another. Even in the 'book club notes' there were no questions about this issue, no comment made in the author interview.

This book was disgusting and perpetuates the idea that rape victims are lying, were asking for it, and cannot be trusted. Fuck that, and fuck this book.



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<![CDATA[More Than Pretty Boxes: How the Rise of Professional Organizing Shows Us the Way We Work Isn’t Working]]> 217200350 This study of organizing and decluttering professionals helps us understand—and perhaps alleviate—the overwhelming demands society places on our time and energy.



For a widely dreaded, often mundane task, organizing one’s possessions has taken a surprising hold on our cultural imagination. Today, those with the means can hire professionals to help sort and declutter their homes. In More Than Pretty Boxes, Carrie M. Lane introduces us to this world of professional organizers and offers new insight into the domains of work and home, which are forever entangled—especially for women.



The female-dominated organizing profession didn’t have a name until the 1980s, but it is now the subject of countless reality shows, podcasts, and magazines. Lane draws on interviews with organizers, including many of the field’s founders, to trace the profession’s history and uncover its enduring appeal to those seeking meaningful, flexible, self-directed work. Taking readers behind the scenes of real-life organizing sessions, More Than Pretty Boxes details the strategies organizers use to help people part with their belongings, and it also explores the intimate, empathetic relationships that can form between clients and organizers.



But perhaps most importantly, More Than Pretty Boxes helps us think through an interconnected set of questions around neoliberal work arrangements, overconsumption, emotional connection, and the deeply gendered nature of paid and unpaid work. Ultimately, Lane situates organizing at the center of contemporary conversations around how work isn’t working anymore and makes a case for organizing’s radical potential to push back against the overwhelming demands of work and the home, too often placed on women’s shoulders. Organizers aren’t the sole answer to this crisis, but their work can help us better understand both the nature of the problem and the sorts of solace, support, and solutions that might help ease it.]]>
276 Carrie M. Lane 0226836592 Lani 0 currently-reading 3.64 More Than Pretty Boxes: How the Rise of Professional Organizing Shows Us the Way We Work Isn’t Working
author: Carrie M. Lane
name: Lani
average rating: 3.64
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/05/07
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<![CDATA[The Year of Living Constitutionally: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Constitution's Original Meaning]]> 195889577 The New York Times bestselling author of The Year of Living Biblically chronicles his hilarious adventures in attempting to follow the original meaning of the Constitution, as he searches for answers to one of the most pressing issues of our How should we interpret America’s foundational document?

“I didn’t know how I learned so much while laughing so hard.”—Andy Borowitz

A.J. Jacobs learned the hard way that donning a tricorne hat and marching around Manhattan with a 1700s musket will earn you a lot of strange looks. In the wake of several controversial rulings by the Supreme Court and the on-going debate about how the Constitution should be interpreted, Jacobs set out to understand what it means to live by the Constitution.

In The Year of Living Constitutionally, A.J. Jacobs tries to get inside the minds of the Founding Fathers by living as closely as possible to the original meaning of the Constitution. He asserts his right to free speech by writing his opinions on parchment with a quill and handing them out to strangers in Times Square. He consents to quartering a soldier, as is his Third Amendment right. He turns his home into a traditional 1790s household by lighting candles instead of using electricity, boiling mutton, and—because women were not allowed to sign contracts� feebly attempting to take over his wife’s day job, which involves a lot of contract negotiations.

The book blends unforgettable adventures—delivering a handwritten petition to Congress, applying for a Letter of Marque to become a legal pirate for the government, and battling redcoats as part of a Revolutionary War reenactment group—with dozens of interviews from constitutional experts from both sides. Jacobs dives deep into originalism and living constitutionalism, the two rival ways of interpreting the document.

Much like he did with the Bible in The Year of Living Biblically, Jacobs provides a crash course on our Constitution as he experiences the benefits and perils of living like it’s the 1790s. He relishes, for instance, the slow thinking of the era, free from social media alerts. But also discovers the progress we’ve made since 1789 when married women couldn’t own property.

Now more than ever, Americans need to understand the meaning and value of the Constitution. As politicians and Supreme Court Justices wage a high-stakes battle over how literally we should interpret the Constitution, A.J. Jacobs provides an entertaining yet illuminating look into how this storied document fits into our democracy today.]]>
302 A.J. Jacobs 0593136756 Lani 4 4.23 2024 The Year of Living Constitutionally: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Constitution's Original Meaning
author: A.J. Jacobs
name: Lani
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/05/07
date added: 2025/05/07
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<![CDATA[Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger]]> 40032288
With eloquence and fervor, Rebecca tracks the history of female anger as political fuel—from suffragettes marching on the White House to office workers vacating their buildings after Clarence Thomas was confirmed to the Supreme Court. Here Traister explores women’s anger at both men and other women; anger between ideological allies and foes; the varied ways anger is perceived based on its owner; as well as the history of caricaturing and delegitimizing female anger; and the way women’s collective fury has become transformative political fuel—as is most certainly occurring today. She deconstructs society’s (and the media’s) condemnation of female emotion (notably, rage) and the impact of their resulting repercussions.

Highlighting a double standard perpetuated against women by all sexes, and its disastrous, stultifying effect, Traister’s latest is timely and crucial. It offers a glimpse into the galvanizing force of women’s collective anger, which, when harnessed, can change history.]]>
320 Rebecca Traister Lani 3 4.36 2018 Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger
author: Rebecca Traister
name: Lani
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2025/05/05
date added: 2025/05/05
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<![CDATA[Medgar and Myrlie: Medgar Evers and the Love Story That Awakened America]]> 128578466 #1 New York Times Bestseller

“Medgar Evers deserves a place alongside Malcolm X and Dr. King in our historical memory. Evers, with Myrlie as his partner in activism and in life, was doing civil rights work in the single most hostile and dangerous environment in America.”—fromMedgar and Myrlie

By MSNBC's Joy-Ann Reid, a triumphant work of biography that repositions slain Civil Rights pioneer Medgar Evers at the heart of America's struggle for freedom, and celebrates Myrlie Evers's extraordinary activism after her husband's assassination in the driveway of their Mississippi home.

"I love this book.The empathic, brilliant, and wise Joy Reid has brought us the poignant, fascinating inside story of Medgar and Myrlie Evers, transformational leaders who confronted pure evil and risked their lives to ensure that all American children might grow up in a United States that was more just.As Reid shows us, that painful task is now more urgent than ever.� —Michael Beschloss

Myrlie Louise Beasley met Medgar Evers on her first day of college. They fell in love at first sight, married just one year later, and Myrlie left school to focus on their growing family.

Medgar became the field secretary for the Mississippi branch of the NAACP, charged with beating back the most intractable and violent resistance to black voting rights in the country. Myrlie served as Medgar’s secretary and confidant, working hand in hand with him as they struggled against public accommodations and school segregation, lynching, violence, and sheer despair within their state’s “black belt.� They fought to desegregate the intractable University of Mississippi, organized picket lines and boycotts, despite repeated terroristic threats, including the 1962 firebombing of their home, where they lived with their three young children.

On June 12, 1963, Medgar Evers became the highest profile victim of Klan-related assassination of a black civil rights leader at that time; gunned down in the couple’s driveway in Jackson. In the wake of his tragic death, Myrlie carried on their civil rights legacy; writing a book about Medgar’s fight, trying to win a congressional seat, and becoming a leader of the NAACP in her own right.

In this groundbreaking and thrilling account of two heroes of the civil rights movement, Joy-Ann Reid uses Medgar and Myrlie’s relationship as a lens through which to explore the on-the-ground work that went into winning basic rights for Black Americans, and the repercussions that still resonate today.]]>
350 Joy-Ann Reid 0063068818 Lani 5 4.65 2024 Medgar and Myrlie: Medgar Evers and the Love Story That Awakened America
author: Joy-Ann Reid
name: Lani
average rating: 4.65
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/05/04
date added: 2025/05/04
shelves:
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An Education in Malice 173494433 An Education in Malice is a dark academia tale of blood, secrets and insatiable hungers from Sunday Times bestselling author S.T. Gibson, author of the cult hit A Dowry of Blood.

Deep in the forgotten hills of Massachusetts stands Saint Perpetua's College. Isolated and ancient, it is not a place for timid girls. Here, secrets are currency, ambition is lifeblood, and strange ceremonies welcome students into the fold.

On her first day of class, Laura Sheridan is thrust into an intense academic rivalry with the beautiful and enigmatic Carmilla. Together, they are drawn into the confidence of their demanding poetry professor, De Lafontaine, who holds her own dark obsession with Carmilla.

But as their rivalry blossoms into something far more delicious, Laura must confront her own strange hungers. Tangled in a sinister game of politics, bloodthirsty professors and dark magic, Laura and Carmilla must decide how much they are willing to sacrifice in their ruthless pursuit of knowledge.]]>
352 S.T. Gibson Lani 3 3.59 2024 An Education in Malice
author: S.T. Gibson
name: Lani
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/05/04
date added: 2025/05/04
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A Rose by Any Other Name 203537868 “A fascinating fictional exposé [with] a touch of mysticism and an LGBTQ+ twist.�--Booklist (starred review)

"A delightfully impish heroine... a tempestuous erotic connection... a captivating imagining of the life of the Dark Lady, the illusive inspiration for Shakespeare’s later sonnets."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

My name has only been whispered, heretofore�

England, 1591. Rose Rushe’s passion for life runs deep—she loves mead and music, meddles with astrology, and laughs at her mother’s warnings to guard her reputation. When Rose’s father dies and a noble accuses her and her dear friend Cecely of witchcraft, they flee to the household of respected alchemists in London. But as their bond deepens, their sanctuary begins to feel more like a cage. To escape, they turn to the occult, secretly casting charms and selling astrological advice in the hopes of building a life together. This thriving underground business leads Rose to fair young noble Henry and playwright Will Shakespeare, and so begins a brief, tempestuous, and powerful romance—one filled with secret longings and deep betrayals.

In this world of dazzling masques and decadent feasts, where the stars decide futures, Rose will write her own fate instead.

From the author of The Book of Gothel comes the lush, magical story behind Shakespeare's sonnets, as told by one of his most famous subjects—the incendiary and mysterious Dark Lady.]]>
375 Mary McMyne Lani 3 3.89 2024 A Rose by Any Other Name
author: Mary McMyne
name: Lani
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/05/04
date added: 2025/05/04
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<![CDATA[Where Am I Now?: True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame]]> 29911668 "Thoughtfully traces [Mara Wilson's] journey from child actress to Hollywood dropout...Whois she now? She's a writer."ʸ'"Guide To 2016’s Great Reads"“Growing up, I wanted tobeMara Wilson.Where Am I Now?is a delight.� �Ilana Glazer, cocreator and star ofBroad CityNamed a best book of the month by GoodReads andEntertainment Weekly A former child actor best known for her starring roles in Matilda and Mrs. Doubtfire, Mara Wilson has always felt a little young and out of as the onlykid on a film set full of adults, the first daughter in a house full of boys, a Valley girl in New York and a neurotic in California, and a grown-up the world still remembers as a little girl. Tackling everything fromwhat she learned about sex on the set of Melrose Place, to discovering in adolescence that she was no longer “cute� enough for Hollywood, these essayschart herjourney from accidental fame to relative (but happy) obscurity. They also illuminate universal struggles, like navigating love and loss,and figuring out who you are and where you belong. Candid, insightful, moving, and hilarious, Where Am I Now? introduces Mara Wilson as a brilliant new chronicler of the experience that is growing up female.]]> 265 Mara Wilson Lani 3 3.89 2016 Where Am I Now?: True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame
author: Mara Wilson
name: Lani
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/23
date added: 2025/04/23
shelves:
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<![CDATA[The Mistletoe Mystery (Molly the Maid, #2.5)]]> 210064685 Molly the Maid has a whole new mystery to solve in this heartwarming novella from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid and The Mystery Guest.

Molly Gray has always loved the holidays. When Molly was a child, her gran went to great lengths to make the season merry and bright, full of cherished traditions. The first few Christmases without Gran were hard on Molly, but this year, her beloved boyfriend and fellow festive spirit, Juan Manuel, is intent on making the season Molly’s mofinst joyful yet.

But when a Secret Santa gift exchange at the Regency Grand Hotel raises questions about who Molly can and cannot trust, she dives headfirst into solving her most consequential—and personal—mystery yet. Molly has a bad feeling about things, and she starts to wonder: has she yet again mistaken a frog for a prince?

A heartwarming, magical story about the true spirit of the season, The Mistletoe Mystery reminds us that love is the greatest mystery of all.]]>
Nita Prose 0593875451 Lani 4 3.76 2024 The Mistletoe Mystery (Molly the Maid, #2.5)
author: Nita Prose
name: Lani
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/22
date added: 2025/04/22
shelves:
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Santa Olivia 220410558
Loup Garron was born and raised in Santa Olivia, an isolated, disenfranchised town next to a US military base inside a DMZ buffer zone between Texas and Mexico. A fugitive "Wolf-Man" who had a love affair with a local woman, Loup's father was one of a group of men genetically-manipulated and used by the US government as a weapon. The "Wolf-Men" were engineered to have superhuman strength, speed, sensory capability, stamina, and a total lack of fear, and Loup, named for and sharing her father's wolf-like qualities, is marked as an outsider.

After her mother dies, Loup goes to live among the misfit orphans at the parish church, where they seethe from the injustices visited upon the locals by the soldiers. Eventually, the orphans find an outlet for their frustrations: They form a vigilante group to support Loup Garron who, costumed as their patron saint, Santa Olivia, uses her special abilities to avenge the town.

Aware that she could lose her freedom, and possibly her life, Loup is determined to fight to redress the wrongs her community has suffered. And like the reincarnation of their patron saint, she will bring hope to all of Santa Olivia.]]>
354 Jacqueline Carey Lani 0 4.00 2009 Santa Olivia
author: Jacqueline Carey
name: Lani
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at: 2025/04/21
date added: 2025/04/21
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A Children's Bible 50902716 Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2020 by Apple Books, Literary Hub, The Millions, and The Week



An indelible novel of teenage alienation and adult complacency in an unraveling world.


Pulitzer Prize finalist Lydia Millet’s sublime new novel—her first since the National Book Award long-listed Sweet Lamb of Heaven—follows a group of twelve eerily mature children on a forced vacation with their families at a sprawling lakeside mansion.


Contemptuous of their parents, who pass their days in a stupor of liquor, drugs, and sex, the children feel neglected and suffocated at the same time. When a destructive storm descends on the summer estate, the group’s ringleaders—including Eve, who narrates the story—decide to run away, leading the younger ones on a dangerous foray into the apocalyptic chaos outside.


As the scenes of devastation begin to mimic events in the dog-eared picture Bible carried around by her beloved little brother, Eve devotes herself to keeping him safe from harm.


A Children’s Bible is a prophetic, heartbreaking story of generational divide—and a haunting vision of what awaits us on the far side of Revelation.

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225 Lydia Millet Lani 2 3.83 2020 A Children's Bible
author: Lydia Millet
name: Lani
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2025/04/20
date added: 2025/04/20
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Free Food for Millionaires 40727626
Free Food For Millionaires offers up a fresh exploration of the complex layers we inhabit both in society and within ourselves. Inspired by 19th century novels such as Vanity Fair and Middlemarch, Min Jin Lee examines maintaining one's identity within changing communities in what is her remarkably assured debut.]]>
577 Min Jin Lee Lani 5 3.91 2007 Free Food for Millionaires
author: Min Jin Lee
name: Lani
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/19
date added: 2025/04/19
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Runaway 58596103
In 1970, Erin Keane’s mother ran away from home for the first time. She was thirteen years old. Over the next several years, and under two assumed identities, she hitchhiked her way across America, experiencing freedom, hardship, and tragedy. At fifteen, she met a man in New York City and married him. He was thirty-six.

Though a deft balance of journalistic digging, cultural criticism, and poetic reimagining, Keane pieces together the true story of her mother’s teenage years, questioning almost everything she’s been told about her parents and their relationship. Along the way, she also considers how pop culture has kept similar narratives alive in her. At stake are some of the most profound questions we can ask ourselves: What’s true? What gets remembered? Who gets to tell the stories that make us who we are?

Whether it’s talking about painful family history, #MeToo, Star Wars, true crime forensics, or The Gilmore Girls, Runaway is an unforgettable look at all the different ways the stories we tell—both personal and pop cultural—create us.]]>
250 Erin Keane 1953368328 Lani 3 3.85 Runaway
author: Erin Keane
name: Lani
average rating: 3.85
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/14
date added: 2025/04/14
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<![CDATA[The Mystery Guest (Molly the Maid, #2)]]> 157067546 When an acclaimed author dies at the Regency Grand Hotel, it's up to a fastidious maid to uncover the truth, no matter how dirty—in a standalone novel featuring Molly Gray, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid, a Good Morning America Book Club Pick.

Molly Gray is not like anyone else. With her flair for cleaning and proper etiquette, she has risen through the ranks of the glorious five-star Regency Grand Hotel to become the esteemed Head Maid. But just as her life reaches a pinnacle state of perfection, her world is turned upside down when J.D. Grimthorpe, the world-renowned mystery author, drops dead� very dead —on the hotel’s tea room floor.

When Detective Stark, Molly's old foe, investigates the author’s unexpected demise, it becomes clear that this death was murder most foul. Suspects abound, and everyone wants to who killed J.D. Grimthorpe? Was it Lily, the new Maid-in-Training? Or was it Serena, the author’s secretary? Could Mr. Preston, the hotel’s beloved doorman, be hiding something? And is Molly really as innocent as she seems?

As the case threatens the hotel’s pristine reputation, Molly knows she alone holds the key to unlocking the killer's identity. But that key is buried deep in her past—because long ago, she knew J.D. Grimthorpe. Molly begins to comb her memory for clues, revisiting her childhood and the mysterious Grimthorpe mansion where she and her dearly departed Gran once worked side by side. With the entire hotel under investigation, Molly must solve the mystery post-haste. If there's one thing Molly knows for sure, it's that dirty secrets don't stay buried forever...]]>
289 Nita Prose 0593356195 Lani 4 4.04 2023 The Mystery Guest (Molly the Maid, #2)
author: Nita Prose
name: Lani
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/14
date added: 2025/04/14
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Two Boys Kissing 18341484
While the two increasingly dehydrated and sleep-deprived boys are locking lips, they become a focal point in the lives of other teen boys dealing with languishing long-term relationships, coming out, navigating gender identity, and falling deeper into the digital rabbit hole of gay hookup sites—all while the kissing former couple tries to figure out their own feelings for each other.

This follow-up to the bestselling Every Day showcases David's trademark sharp-witted, warm-hearted tales of teenage love, and serves as a perfect thematic bookend to David's YA debut and breakthrough, Boy Meets Boy, which celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2013.]]>
210 David Levithan 0307975649 Lani 4 4.21 2013 Two Boys Kissing
author: David Levithan
name: Lani
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/13
date added: 2025/04/13
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<![CDATA[Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China]]> 38600316 How the Feminist Five and the rise of China's feminist movement threatens China's authoritarian government

On the eve of International Women’s Day in 2015, the Chinese government arrested five feminist activists and jailed them for 37 days. The Feminist Five became a global cause célèbre, with Hillary Clinton speaking out on their behalf, and activists inundating social media with #FreetheFive messages. But the Feminist Five are only symbols of a much larger feminist movement of civil rights lawyers, labor activists, performance artists and online warriors that is prompting an unprecedented awakening among China’s urban, educated women. In Betraying Big Brother, journalist and scholar Leta Hong Fincher argues that the popular, broad-based movement poses the greatest threat to China’s authoritarian regime today.

Through interviews with the Feminist Five and other leading Chinese activists, Hong Fincher illuminates both the challenges they face and their “joy of betraying Big Brother,� as Wei Tingting—one of the Feminist Five—wrote of the defiance she felt during her detention. Tracing the rise of a new feminist consciousness through online campaigns resembling #MeToo, and describing how the Communist regime has suppressed the history of its own feminist struggles, Betraying Big Brother is a story of how the movement against patriarchy could reconfigure China and the world.]]>
278 Leta Hong Fincher 1786633671 Lani 3 4.15 2018 Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China
author: Leta Hong Fincher
name: Lani
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/13
date added: 2025/04/13
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<![CDATA[By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land]]> 199639510
Before 2020, American Indian reservations made up roughly 55 million acres of land in the United States. Nearly 200 million acres are reserved for National Forests—in the emergence of this great nation, our government set aside more land for trees than for Indigenous peoples. That changed on July 9, 2020, when a high-profile Supreme Court case—which originated with a small-town murder two decades earlier—affirmed the reservation of Muscogee Nation. The ruling resulted in the largest restoration of tribal land in U.S. history, merely because the Court chose to follow the law.

In the 1830s Muscogee people were rounded by the US military at gunpoint and forced into exile halfway across the continent. At the time, they were promised this new land would be theirs for as long as the grass grew and the waters ran. But that promise was not kept. When Oklahoma was create on top of their land, the new state claimed their reservation no longer existed. Over a century later, when a Muscogee citizen was sentenced to death for murdering another Muscogee citizen, his defense attorneys argued the murder occurred on the reservation of his tribe, and therefore Oklahoma didn’t have the jurisdiction to execute him. Oklahoma argued that reservation no longer existed. In the summer of 2020, the Supreme Court no more. The ruling would ultimately underpin multiple reservations covering half the land in Oklahoma, including Nagle’s own Cherokee Nation.

Nagle tells the story of the generations-long fight for tribal land and sovereignty in Eastern Oklahoma. By chronicling both the contemporary legal battle and historic acts of Indigenous resistance, Indian Territory stands as a landmark work of American history. The story it tells exposes both the wrongs that our nation has committed in its long history of greed, corruption and lawlessness, and the Indigenous resistance that has shaped our country.]]>
352 Rebecca Nagle 006311206X Lani 4 4.38 2024 By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land
author: Rebecca Nagle
name: Lani
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/07
date added: 2025/04/07
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Butts: A Backstory 59366123 Butts: A Backstory, reporter, essayist, and RadioLab contributing editor Heather Radke is determined to find out.

Spanning nearly two centuries, this “whip-smart� (Publishers Weekly, starred review) cultural history takes us from the performance halls of 19th-century London to the aerobics studios of the 1980s, the music video set of Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back� and the mountains of Arizona, where every year humans and horses race in a feat of gluteal endurance. Along the way, she meets evolutionary biologists who study how butts first developed; models whose measurements have defined jean sizing for millions of women; and the fitness gurus who created fads like “Buns of Steel.� She also examines the central importance of race through figures like Sarah Bartmann, once known as the “Venus Hottentot,� Josephine Baker, Jennifer Lopez, and other women of color whose butts have been idolized, envied, and despised.

Part deep dive reportage, part personal journey, part cabinet of curiosities, Butts is an entertaining, illuminating, and thoughtful examination of why certain silhouettes come in and out of fashion—and how larger ideas about race, control, liberation, and power affect our most private feelings about ourselves and others.]]>
311 Heather Radke 1982135484 Lani 0 currently-reading 3.73 2022 Butts: A Backstory
author: Heather Radke
name: Lani
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves: currently-reading
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<![CDATA[The Colony: The Harrowing True Story of the Exiles of Molokai]]> 854874 In the bestselling tradition of In the Heart of the Sea, The Colony reveals the untold history of the infamous American leprosy colony on Molokai and of the extraordinary people who struggled to survive under the most horrific circumstances.

In 1866, twelve men and women and one small child were forced aboard a leaky schooner and cast away to a natural prison on the Hawaiian island of Molokai. Two weeks later, a dozen others were exiled, and then forty more, and then a hundred more. Tracked by bounty hunters and torn screaming from their families, the luckless were loaded into shipboard cattle stalls and abandoned in a lawless place where brutality held sway. Many did not have leprosy, and most of those who did were not contagious, yet all were caught in a shared nightmare. The colony had little food, little medicine, and very little hope. Exile continued for more than a century, the longest and deadliest instance of medical segregation in American history. Nearly nine thousand people were banished to the colony, trapped by pounding surf and armed guards and the highest sea cliffs in the world. Twenty-eight live there still.

John Tayman tells the fantastic saga of this horrible and hopeful place -- at one time the most famous community in the world -- and of the individuals involved. From the very first exile -- a gentle part-time lawyer trapped in an unjust ordeal beyond his imagination -- to the last remaining residents, the narrative is peopled by presidents and kings, cruel lawmen and pioneering doctors, and brave souls who literally gave their lives to help. A stunning cast includes the martyred Father Damien, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jack London, Mark Twain, Teddy Roosevelt, John Wayne, and more. The result is a searing tale of survival and bravery, and a testament to the power of faith, compassion, and heroism.

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421 John Tayman 074323300X Lani 0 currently-reading 3.80 2006 The Colony: The Harrowing True Story of the Exiles of Molokai
author: John Tayman
name: Lani
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/06
shelves: currently-reading
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<![CDATA[Spell of the Tiger: The Man-Eaters of Sundarbans]]> 699453 256 Sy Montgomery 0395791502 Lani 3 3.82 1995 Spell of the Tiger: The Man-Eaters of Sundarbans
author: Sy Montgomery
name: Lani
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1995
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/06
date added: 2025/04/06
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<![CDATA[Heavenly Tyrant (Iron Widow, #2)]]> 52934483
With political unrest and perilous forces aiming to undermine Zetian at every turn, can she enact positive changes as a fair and just ruler? Or will she be forced to rely on fear and violence and succumb to her darker instincts in her quest for vengeance?]]>
540 Xiran Jay Zhao Lani 0 currently-reading 3.86 2024 Heavenly Tyrant (Iron Widow, #2)
author: Xiran Jay Zhao
name: Lani
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/06
shelves: currently-reading
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Blitz (The Checquy Files, #3) 59362153
Until Pamela, the most sensible of them, suddenly breaks all the rules and brings down a Nazi bomber with her bare hands. The three resolve to tell no one about it, but they soon learn that a crew member is missing from the downed bomber. Charred corpses are discovered in nearby houses and it becomes apparent that the women have unwittingly unleashed a monster.

Through a city torn by the Blitz, the friends must hunt the enemy before he kills again. Their task will take them from the tunnels of the Underground to the halls of power, where they will discover the secrets that a secret organization must keep even from itself.

Today. Lynette Binns, a librarian with a husband and child, is a late recruit to the Checquy, having discovered only as an adult her ability to electrify everyday objects with her touch.

After completing her training, she is assigned to examine a string of brutal murders of London criminals and quickly realizes that all bear the unmistakable hallmark of her own unique power. Unable to provide an alibi and determined to prove her innocence, she flees, leaving behind her family to venture into the London underworld to find answers. But now she is prey, being tracked by her own frighteningly capable comrades.

As Lyn fights off powered thugs and her own vengeful colleagues, she will find that the solution to the murders and to the mystery of her own past lies in the events of World War II, and the covert actions of three young women during the Blitz.]]>
688 Daniel O'Malley 0316561533 Lani 4 4.21 2022 Blitz (The Checquy Files, #3)
author: Daniel O'Malley
name: Lani
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/06
date added: 2025/04/06
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The Atlas Six (The Atlas, #1) 59108922 The much-acclaimed BookTok sensation, Olivie Blake's The Atlas Six--now newly revised and edited with additional content.

� The tag #theatlassix has millions of views on TikTok

� A dark academic debut fantasy with an established cult following that reads like THE SECRET HISTORY meets THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY

� The first in an explosive trilogy

The Alexandrian Society, caretakers of lost knowledge from the greatest civilizations of antiquity, are the foremost secret society of magical academicians in the world. Those who earn a place among the Alexandrians will secure a life of wealth, power, and prestige beyond their wildest dreams, and each decade, only the six most uniquely talented magicians are selected to be considered for initiation.

Enter the latest round of six: Libby Rhodes and Nico de Varona, unwilling halves of an unfathomable whole, who exert uncanny control over every element of physicality. Reina Mori, a naturalist, who can intuit the language of life itself. Parisa Kamali, a telepath who can traverse the depths of the subconscious, navigating worlds inside the human mind. Callum Nova, an empath easily mistaken for a manipulative illusionist, who can influence the intimate workings of a person’s inner self. Finally, there is Tristan Caine, who can see through illusions to a new structure of reality—an ability so rare that neither he nor his peers can fully grasp its implications.

When the candidates are recruited by the mysterious Atlas Blakely, they are told they will have one year to qualify for initiation, during which time they will be permitted preliminary access to the Society’s archives and judged based on their contributions to various subjects of impossibility: time and space, luck and thought, life and death. Five, they are told, will be initiated. One will be eliminated. The six potential initiates will fight to survive the next year of their lives, and if they can prove themselves to be the best among their rivals, most of them will.

Most of them.]]>
410 Olivie Blake 1250854555 Lani 3 3.67 2020 The Atlas Six (The Atlas, #1)
author: Olivie Blake
name: Lani
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/01
date added: 2025/04/01
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The Fraud 123165183 From acclaimed and bestselling novelist Zadie Smith, a kaleidoscopic work of historical fiction set against the legal trial that divided Victorian England, about who deserves to tell their story—and who deserves to be believed

It is 1873. Mrs. Eliza Touchet is the Scottish housekeeper—and cousin by marriage—of a once-famous novelist, now in decline, William Ainsworth, with whom she has lived for thirty years.

Mrs. Touchet is a woman of many interests: literature, justice, abolitionism, class, her cousin, his wives, this life and the next. But she is also sceptical. She suspects her cousin of having no talent; his successful friend, Mr. Charles Dickens, of being a bully and a moralist; and England of being a land of facades, in which nothing is quite what it seems.

Andrew Bogle, meanwhile, grew up enslaved on the Hope Plantation, Jamaica. He knows every lump of sugar comes at a human cost. That the rich deceive the poor. And that people are more easily manipulated than they realize. When Bogle finds himself in London, star witness in a celebrated case of imposture, he knows his future depends on telling the right story.

The “Tichborne Trial”—wherein a lower-class butcher from Australia claimed he was in fact the rightful heir of a sizable estate and title—captivates Mrs. Touchet and all of England. Is Sir Roger Tichborne really who he says he is? Or is he a fraud? Mrs. Touchet is a woman of the world. Mr. Bogle is no fool. But in a world of hypocrisy and self-deception, deciding what is real proves a complicated task. . . .

Based on real historical events, The Fraud is a dazzling novel about truth and fiction, Jamaica and Britain, fraudulence and authenticity and the mystery of “other people.”]]>
464 Zadie Smith Lani 2 3.37 2023 The Fraud
author: Zadie Smith
name: Lani
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/30
date added: 2025/03/30
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<![CDATA[Rules of Estrangement: Why Adult Children Cut Ties and How to Heal the Conflict]]> 53801930 A guide for parents whose adult children have cut off contact that reveals the hidden logic of estrangement, explores its cultural causes, and offers practical advice for parents trying to reestablish contact with their adult children.“Finally, here’s a hopeful, comprehensive, and compassionate guide to navigating one of the most painful experiences for parents and their adult children alike.”—Lori Gottlieb, psychotherapist and New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to SomeoneLabeled a silent epidemic by a growing number of therapists and researchers, estrangement is one of the most disorienting and painful experiences of a parent's life. Popular opinion typically tells a one-sided story of parents who got what they deserved or overly entitled adult children who wrongly blame their parents. However, the reasons for estrangement are far more complex and varied. As a result of rising rates of individualism, an increasing cultural emphasis on happiness, growing economic insecurity, and a historically recent perception that parents are obstacles to personal growth, many parents find themselves forever shut out of the lives of their adult children and grandchildren. As a trusted psychologist whose own daughter cut off contact for several years and eventually reconciled, Dr. Joshua Coleman is uniquely qualified to guide parents in navigating these fraught interactions. He helps to alleviate the ongoing feelings of shame, hurt, guilt, and sorrow that commonly attend these dynamics. By placing estrangement into a cultural context, Dr. Coleman helps parents better understand the mindset of their adult children and teaches them how to implement the strategies for reconciliation and healing that he has seen work in his forty years of practice. Rules of Estrangement gives parents the language and the emotional tools to engage in meaningful conversation with their child, the framework to cultivate a healthy relationship moving forward, and the ability to move on if reconciliation is no longer possible.While estrangement is a complex and tender topic, Dr. Coleman's insightful approach is based on empathy and understanding for both the parent and the adult child.]]> 306 Joshua Coleman 059313687X Lani 3 4.47 2021 Rules of Estrangement: Why Adult Children Cut Ties and How to Heal the Conflict
author: Joshua Coleman
name: Lani
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/29
date added: 2025/03/29
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Fascism: A Warning 42114878 A personal and urgent examination of Fascism in the twentieth century and how its legacy shapes today’s world, written by one of America’s most admired public servants, the first woman to serve as U.S. secretary of state

A Fascist, observes Madeleine Albright, “is someone who claims to speak for a whole nation or group, is utterly unconcerned with the rights of others, and is willing to use violence and whatever other means are necessary to achieve the goals he or she might have.”�

The twentieth century was defined by the clash between democracy and Fascism, a struggle that created uncertainty about the survival of human freedom and left millions dead. Given the horrors of that experience, one might expect the world to reject the spiritual successors to Hitler and Mussolini should they arise in our era. In Fascism: A Warning, Madeleine Albright draws on her experiences as a child in war-torn Europe and her distinguished career as a diplomat to question that assumption.

Fascism, as she shows, not only endured through the twentieth century but now presents a more virulent threat to peace and justice than at any time since the end of World War II. The momentum toward democracy that swept the world when the Berlin Wall fell has gone into reverse. The United States, whichhistorically championed the free world, is led by a president who exacerbates division and heaps scorn on democratic institutions. In many countries, economic, technological, and cultural factors are weakening the political center and empowering the extremes of right and left. Contemporary leaders such as Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un are employing many of the tactics used by Fascists in the 1920s and 30s.

Fascism: A Warning is a book for our times that is relevant to all times. Written by someone who has not only studied history but helped to shape it, this call to arms teaches us the lessons we must understand and the questions we must answer if we are to save ourselves from repeating the tragic errors of the past.

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294 Madeleine K. Albright 006293127X Lani 4 4.43 2018 Fascism: A Warning
author: Madeleine K. Albright
name: Lani
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/26
date added: 2025/03/26
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<![CDATA[The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: A Graphic Novel]]> 4133366
Complete with Fitzgerald's original text, dazzling watercolor illustrations, and an afterword describing the story's origins and critical reception, this edition offers a fresh look at a literary masterpiece.]]>
128 F. Scott Fitzgerald 1594742812 Lani 4
The story itself is a little silly and made me like F. Scott Fitzgerald a little more than previously.]]>
3.71 1922 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: A Graphic Novel
author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
name: Lani
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1922
rating: 4
read at: 2009/02/13
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: modernclassics, comicsandgraphics, kids
review:
I've never read the original short story, but this was a very neat graphic adaptation. The art was very pretty, and I enjoyed the sort of sepia-toned washed out approach.

The story itself is a little silly and made me like F. Scott Fitzgerald a little more than previously.
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The Rose Code 54067525
The New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Huntress and The Alice Network returns with another heart-stopping World War II story of three female code breakers at Bletchley Park and the spy they must root out after the war is over.

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

1947. As the royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip whips post-war Britain into a fever, three friends-turned-enemies are reunited by a mysterious encrypted letter--the key to which lies buried in the long-ago betrayal that destroyed their friendship and left one of them confined to an asylum. A mysterious traitor has emerged from the shadows of their Bletchley Park past, and now Osla, Mab, and Beth must resurrect their old alliance and crack one last code together. But each petal they remove from the rose code brings danger--and their true enemy--closer...]]>
646 Kate Quinn Lani 5 4.55 2021 The Rose Code
author: Kate Quinn
name: Lani
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/18
date added: 2025/03/18
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<![CDATA[Rebel Blade (The Burnished City Book 3)]]> 210651948 From one of the most exciting new voices in fantasy comes the satisfying conclusion to Davinia Evans's wickedly entertaining debut trilogy full of monsters, mayhem, dangerous society ladies, and a dragon who holds the fate of the most famous alchemist of all in her claws. Siyon Velo has given magic back to the Mundane. But with it, monsters of myth have awoken to cause chaos in Bezim and--of course--everyone's blaming him. Hunted high and low, Siyon struggles against the rising tide of mystery, magic and mayhem threatening the city that's turned its back on him. In the Flower District, Lady Sable has unleashed chaos. But in the Avenues, Anahid is desperate to keep her slippery secrets just a little longer, until Zagiri can join the forth and frippery of high society. With scandal stalking the sisters and revolution rumbling anew, the best--and the worst--they can do may not be enough to save their city... The Alchemist must rise, or Bezim will burn.The Burnished City Notorious Sorcerer Shadow Baron Rebel Blade]]> 454 Davinia Evans 0316398535 Lani 3 4.32 2024 Rebel Blade (The Burnished City Book 3)
author: Davinia Evans
name: Lani
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/15
date added: 2025/03/15
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Rebel Queen 22837711 From the internationally bestselling author of Nefertiti and Cleopatra’s Daughter comes the breathtaking story of Queen Lakshmi—India’s Joan of Arc—who against all odds defied the mighty British invasion to defend her beloved kingdom.When the British Empire sets its sights on India in the mid-nineteenth century, it expects a quick and easy conquest. India is fractured and divided into kingdoms, each independent and wary of one another, seemingly no match for the might of the English. But when they arrive in the Kingdom of Jhansi, the British army is met with a surprising challenge. Instead of surrendering, Queen Lakshmi raises two armies—one male and one female—and rides into battle, determined to protect her country and her people. Although her soldiers may not appear at first to be formidable against superior British weaponry and training, Lakshmi refuses to back down from the empire determined to take away the land she loves. Told from the unexpected perspective of Sita—Queen Lakshmi’s most favored companion and most trusted soldier in the all-female army—Rebel Queen shines a light on a time and place rarely explored in historical fiction. In the tradition of her bestselling novel, Nefertiti, and through her strong, independent heroines fighting to make their way in a male dominated world, Michelle Moran brings nineteenth-century India to rich, vibrant life.]]> 369 Michelle Moran Lani 4 4.20 2015 Rebel Queen
author: Michelle Moran
name: Lani
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/09
date added: 2025/03/09
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Impossible Creatures 206181453 Two kids race to save the world’s last magical place in the first book of a landmark new fantasy series, from “a writer with an utterly distinctive voice and a wild imagination.� (Philip Pullman, author of The Golden Compass)

“Katherine Rundell is a phenomenon.She crafts original and brilliant books that delight readers of all ages and kinds.� ―Neil Gaiman, Newbery Medal Winner for The Graveyard Book

“An instant classic from one of the most gifted storytellers of our time, Impossible Creatures is an astonishing miracle of a book.� —Katherine Applegate, Newbery Medal Winner for The One and Only Ivan

The day that Christopher saved a drowning baby griffin from a hidden lake would change his life forever.

It’s the day he learned about the Archipelago—a cluster of unmapped islands where magical creatures of every kind have thrived for thousands of years, until now. And it’s the day he met Mal—a girl on the run, in desperate need of his help.

Mal and Christopher embark on a wild adventure, racing from island to island, searching for someone who can explain why the magic is fading and why magical creatures are suddenly dying. They consult sphinxes, battle kraken, and negotiate with dragons. But the closer they get to the dark truth of what’s happening, the clearer it no one else can fix this. If the Archipelago is to be saved, Mal and Christopher will have to do it themselves.

Katherine Rundell’s story crackles and roars with energy and delight. It is brought vividly to life with more than 60 illustrations, including a map and a bestiary of magical creatures.]]>
367 Katherine Rundell 0593809882 Lani 4 4.23 2023 Impossible Creatures
author: Katherine Rundell
name: Lani
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/08
date added: 2025/03/08
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<![CDATA[The Black Bird Oracle (All Souls #5)]]> 203788140 Diana Bishop journeys to the darkest places within herself—and her family history—in the highly anticipated fifth novel of the beloved #1 New York Times bestselling All Souls series. Deborah Harkness first introduced the world to Diana Bishop, Oxford scholar and witch, and vampire geneticist Matthew de Clairmont in A Discovery of Witches. Drawn to each other despite long-standing taboos, these two otherworldly beings found themselves at the center of a battle for a lost, enchanted manuscript known as Ashmole 782. Since then, they have fallen in love, traveled to Elizabethan England, dissolved the Covenant between the three species, and awoken the dark powers within Diana’s family line. Now, Diana and Matthew receive a formal demand from the They must test the magic of their seven-year-old twins, Pip and Rebecca. Concerned with their safety and desperate to avoid the same fate that led her parents to spellbind her, Diana decides to forge a different path for her family’s future and answers a message from a great-aunt she never knew existed, Gwyneth Proctor, whose invitation simply It’s time you came home, Diana. On the hallowed ground of Ravenswood, the Proctor family home, and under the tutelage of Gwyneth, a talented witch grounded in higher magic, a new era begins for a confrontation with her family’s dark past, and a reckoning for her own desire for even greater power—if she can let go, finally, of her fear of wielding it.]]> 446 Deborah Harkness 059372478X Lani 2 4.33 2024 The Black Bird Oracle (All Souls #5)
author: Deborah Harkness
name: Lani
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/04
date added: 2025/03/04
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Making a Scene 60604383 Crazy Rich Asians and Fresh Off the Boat star Constance Wu about family, romance, sex, shame, trauma, and how she found her voice on the stage.

Growing up in the friendly suburbs of Richmond, Virginia, Constance Wu was often scolded for having big feelings or strong reactions. “Good girls don’t make scenes,� people warned her. And while she spent most of her childhood suppressing her bold, emotional nature, she found an early outlet in local community theater—it was the one place where big feelings were okay—were good, even. Acting became her refuge, her touchstone, and eventually her vocation. At eighteen she moved to New York, where she’d spend the next ten years of her life auditioning, waiting tables, and struggling to make rent before her two big breaks: the TV sitcom Fresh Off the Boat and the hit film Crazy Rich Asians.

Through raw and relatable essays, Constance shares private memories of childhood, young love and heartbreak, sexual assault and harassment, and how she “made it� in Hollywood. Her stories offer a behind-the-scenes look at being Asian American in the entertainment industry and the continuing evolution of her identity and influence in the public eye. Making a Scene is an intimate portrait of pressures and pleasures of existing in today’s world.]]>
336 Constance Wu 1982188545 Lani 2 3.66 2022 Making a Scene
author: Constance Wu
name: Lani
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/03
date added: 2025/03/03
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<![CDATA[Mini Habits for Weight Loss: Stop Dieting. Form New Habits. Change Your Lifestyle Without Suffering. (Mini Habits, #2)]]> 33098255
Say goodbye to calorie counting, restrictive food bans, or other forced behaviors. In Mini Habits for Weight Loss, you will learn how to lose weight naturally, in the precise way your body and brain are meant to change.

We’ve blamed ourselves for lack of discipline. That didn’t help.
We’ve blamed calories, carbs, and fat. That didn’t help.
We’ve blamed our diet formulas. That didn’t help.

It’s time we looked at the practice of dieting.

Nearly all diets are ineffective because they’re based on dieting. Every person has a diet (noun), but it’s only if you are trying to lose weight that you diet (verb). Dieting is eating and drinking sparingly or selectively to reduce your weight.

It doesn’t work. If you’ve tried dieting, you know that.

Even the “perfect diet� with the right foods will fail if it’s approached from the traditional dieting perspective. Since weight loss experts are more concerned with biology than neuroscience, we get brilliant discussions on nutrition followed by the same dumb suggestion to “immediately start eating completely different foods than the ones you’re habitually used to eating, and give up everything else.�

Are You Fighting Your Own Body and Brain?

The brain resists dramatic behavioral shifts. Recognizing this and developing a strategy around it made the original Mini Habits the #1 selling self-help book in a number of countries. In Mini Habits for Weight Loss, you’ll see that we also biologically resist such changes, which explains why most dieters and smoothie-cleanse aficionados lose weight in the short term, only to gain it all back (and more) when the body adjusts.

Mini Habits for Weight Loss will show you how to make dietary changes in a sustainable, permanent way that doesn’t trigger biological or neurological resistance.

It’s a specialized version of the method that made the original book a hit in 14 languages. The mini habits remain easy to implement, but the reasoning and supporting tactics are more sophisticated. This is by necessity, as weight loss factors are many and varied. The strategies in the book are rooted in extensive biological and neuroscience research.

You’ll discover:

Why it’s a terrible idea to forbid junk food.

How some of the most impactful changes you can make don’t involve either diet or exercise.

Why conscious calorie restriction causes long-term weight GAIN, and how this science has been publicly available (and ignored) for more than 30 years.

How the body’s change process mirrors that of the brain, and why that is great news for losing weight.

Creative strategies to mitigate weight gain from eating out, social events, and holiday binge sessions.

Why eating fruit is essential to losing weight (for lots of reasons).

The role of exercise and an active lifestyle in weight loss, with appropriate strategies.

Most importantly, you’ll learn how to change your behavior and lose weight in the long term with mini habits.

Instead of reading yet another dieting book, why not try a proven behavioral change strategy that your brain and body will welcome and respond to?

Lasting change won't happen until you take that first step toward a strategy that works.

Read Mini Habits for Weight Loss, and you’ll never diet again.]]>
240 Stephen Guise 0996435433 Lani 0 currently-reading 4.01 2016 Mini Habits for Weight Loss: Stop Dieting. Form New Habits. Change Your Lifestyle Without Suffering. (Mini Habits, #2)
author: Stephen Guise
name: Lani
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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Masters of Death 61339014 New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six comes Masters of Death, a story about vampires, ghosts, and death itself!

Viola Marek is a struggling real estate agent, and a vampire. But her biggest problem currently is that the house she needs to sell is haunted. The ghost haunting the house has been murdered, and until he can solve the mystery of how he died, he refuses to move on.

Fox D’Mora is a medium, and though is also most-definitely a shameless fraud, he isn’t entirely without his uses—seeing as he’s actually the godson of Death.

When Viola seeks out Fox to help her with her ghost-infested mansion, he becomes inextricably involved in a quest that neither he nor Vi expects (or wants). But with the help of an unruly poltergeist, a demonic personal trainer, a sharp-voiced angel, a love-stricken reaper, and a few high-functioning creatures, Vi and Fox soon discover the difference between a mysterious lost love and an annoying dead body isn’t nearly as distinct as they thought.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]>
406 Olivie Blake 1250884888 Lani 3 3.65 2018 Masters of Death
author: Olivie Blake
name: Lani
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2018
rating: 3
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John Lewis: A Life 207595740 A comprehensive, authoritative biography of Civil Rights icon John Lewis, “the conscience of the Congress,� drawing on interviews with Lewis and approximately 275 others who knew him at various stages of his life, as well as never-before-used FBI files and documents.

Born into poverty in rural Alabama, Lewis would become second only to Martin Luther King, Jr. in his contributions to the Civil Rights Movement. He was a Freedom Rider who helped to integrate bus stations in the South, a leader of the Nashville sit-in movement, the youngest speaker at the 1963 March on Washington, and the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which he made into one of the major civil rights organizations. He may be best remembered as the victim of a vicious beating by Alabama state troopers at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, where he nearly died.

Greenberg’s biography traces Lewis’s life through the post-Civil Rights years, when he headed the Voter Education Project, which enrolled millions of African American voters across the South. The book reveals the little-known story of his political ascent first locally in Atlanta, and then as a member of Congress. Tapped to be a part of the Democratic leadership in Congress, he earned respect on both sides of the aisle for the sacrifices he had made on behalf of nonviolent integration in the South and came to be known as the “conscience of the Congress.�

Thoroughly researched and dramatically told, Greenberg’s biography captures John Lewis’s influential career through documents from dozens of archives, interviews with hundreds of people who knew Lewis, and long-lost footage of Lewis himself speaking to reporters from his hospital bed following his severe beating on “Bloody Sunday� in Selma. With new details about his personal and professional relationships, John A Life is the definitive biography of a man whose heroism during the Civil Rights movement helped to bring America a new birth of freedom.]]>
700 David Greenberg 1982143010 Lani 5 4.67 2024 John Lewis: A Life
author: David Greenberg
name: Lani
average rating: 4.67
book published: 2024
rating: 5
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<![CDATA[A Wizard of Earthsea (Earthsea Cycle, #1)]]> 16029682 210 Ursula K. Le Guin 0544084373 Lani 3 4.04 1968 A Wizard of Earthsea (Earthsea Cycle, #1)
author: Ursula K. Le Guin
name: Lani
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1968
rating: 3
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<![CDATA[American Bulk: Essays on Excess]]> 207970840 A tender, critical, and curious window into the American ethos of quantity over quality.


To be American is to hoard, to collect. But what if that wasn’t a bad thing? Emily Mester’s American Bulk asks readers to see our national consumer obsession as more than a modern scourge—to consider consumption a complex character in a larger story of capitalism, imperialism, and technology. In sharply witty prose, Mester details how a seasonal stint at Ulta Beauty reveals the insidious performance of retail sales, how Yelp reviews highlight the lengths we go to curate our personal ephemera, and why we can’t help but find joy at Costco. In a stark reexamination of diet culture and fatness, Mester recounts her teenage summer at fat camp and the liberatory body neutrality that surrounded her. And in Storm Lake, Iowa, Mester excavates her grandmother’s abandoned hoard, among other discoveries about her own family’s history. American Bulk asks us to regard consumption not with guilt but with grace and empathy.]]>
211 Emily Mester 1324035242 Lani 2 3.97 2024 American Bulk: Essays on Excess
author: Emily Mester
name: Lani
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 2
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<![CDATA[Poison Fruit (Agent of Hel, #3)]]> 21531920 The hot-as-Hel series with the “Sookie Stackhouse type of vibe� (Paranormal Horizon) is back—but this time the paranormal Midwestern town of Pemkowet is feeling a frost in the air and the residents are frozen in fear...

The Pemkowet Visitors Bureau has always promoted paranormal tourism—even if it has downplayed the risks (hobgoblins are unpredictable). It helps that the town is presided over by Daisy Johanssen, who as Hel’s liaison is authorized by the Norse goddess of the dead to keep Pemkowet under control. Normally, that’s easier to do in the winter, when bracing temperatures keep folks indoors.

But a new predator is on the prowl, and this one thrives on nightmares. Daisy is on her trail and working intimately with her partner and sometime lover from the Pemkowet PD, sexy yet unavailable werewolf Cody Fairfax. But even as the creature is racking up innocent victims, a greater danger looms on Pewkowet’s horizon.

As a result of a recent ghost uprising, an unknown adversary—represented by a hell-spawn lawyer with fiery powers of persuasion—has instigated a lawsuit against the town. If Pemkowet loses, Hel’s sovereignty will be jeopardized, and the fate of the eldritch community will be at stake. The only one who can prevent it is Daisy—but she’s going to have to confront her own worst nightmare to do it.]]>
441 Jacqueline Carey 0698158636 Lani 3 4.13 2014 Poison Fruit (Agent of Hel, #3)
author: Jacqueline Carey
name: Lani
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2014
rating: 3
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<![CDATA[A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II]]> 51153322
The target in their sights was Virginia Hall, a Baltimore socialite who talked her way into Special Operations Executive, the spy organization dubbed Winston Churchill's "Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare." She became the first Allied woman deployed behind enemy lines and--despite her prosthetic leg--helped to light the flame of the French Resistance, revolutionizing secret warfare as we know it.

Virginia established vast spy networks throughout France, called weapons and explosives down from the skies, and became a linchpin for the Resistance. Even as her face covered wanted posters and a bounty was placed on her head, Virginia refused order after order to evacuate. She finally escaped through a death-defying hike over the Pyrenees into Spain, her cover blown. But she plunged back in, adamant that she had more lives to save, and led a victorious guerilla campaign, liberating swathes of France from the Nazis after D-Day.

Based on new and extensive research, Sonia Purnell has for the first time uncovered the full secret life of Virginia Hall--an astounding and inspiring story of heroism, spycraft, resistance, and personal triumph over shocking adversity.]]>
368 Sonia Purnell 0735225311 Lani 4 4.18 2019 A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II
author: Sonia Purnell
name: Lani
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2019
rating: 4
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<![CDATA[Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America]]> 15803139
Nationally syndicated columnist and bestselling author of ¡Ask a Mexican! Gustavo Arellano presents a tasty trip through the history and culture of Mexican food in this country, uncovering great stories and charting the cuisine’s tremendous popularity north of the border. Arellano’s fascinating narrative combines history, cultural criticism, food writing, personal anecdotes, and Jesus on a tortilla. In seemingly every decade for over a century, America has tried new culinary trends from south of the border, loved them, and demanded the next big thing. As a result, Mexican food dominates American palates to the tune of billions of dollars in sales per year, from canned refried beans to tortilla wraps and ballpark nachos. It’s a little-known history, one that’s crept up on this country and left us better for it.]]>
310 Gustavo Arellano 1439148627 Lani 4 4.06 2012 Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America
author: Gustavo Arellano
name: Lani
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2012
rating: 4
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On Women 60827532
Susan Sontag was one of the most formidable, original, and influential thinkers of the last century. “The most interesting ideas are heresies,� she remarked, and indeed, her writing rejects the familiar and refuses party lines.

On Women presents seven essays and exchanges, spanning a range of the challenges and humiliations women face as they age; the relationship between women’s liberation and class struggle; beauty, which Sontag calls “that over-rich brew of so many familiar opposites�; feminism; fascism; and film. Taken together, these pieces―relentlessly curious, historically precise, politically robust, and allergic to easy categorization Sontag’s inimitable mind at work.]]>
208 Susan Sontag 1250876850 Lani 1 3.63 2023 On Women
author: Susan Sontag
name: Lani
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2023
rating: 1
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<![CDATA[Autumn Bones (Agent of Hel, #2)]]> 17340100 New York Times bestselling author Jacqueline Carey returns to the curious Midwest tourist community where normal and paranormal worlds co-exist—however tenuously—under the watchful eye of a female hellspawn�...

Fathered by an incubus, raised by a mortal mother, and liaison to the Pemkowet Police Department, Daisy Johanssen pulled the community together after a summer tragedy befell the resort town she calls home. Things are back to normal—as normal as it gets for a town famous for its supernatural tourism, and presided over by the reclusive Norse goddess Hel.

Not only has Daisy now gained respect as Hel’s enforcer, she’s dating Sinclair Palmer, a nice, seemingly normal human guy. Not too shabby for the daughter of a demon. Unfortunately, Sinclair has a secret. And it’s a big one.

He’s descended from Obeah sorcerers and they want him back. If he doesn’t return to Jamaica to take up his rightful role in the family, they’ll unleash spirit magic that could have dire consequences for the town. It’s Daisy’s job to stop it, and she’s going to need a lot of help. But time is running out, the dead are growing restless, and one mistake could cost Daisy everything�...]]>
368 Jacqueline Carey 1101626526 Lani 3 3.85 2013 Autumn Bones (Agent of Hel, #2)
author: Jacqueline Carey
name: Lani
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2013
rating: 3
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Hex Appeal 62806439 It’s just a bunch of hocus pocus�

Essie Winterscale lives in a huge and ever-changing house in the village of Good Winter, in deepest, darkest Essex. She lives with various witches of various ages, one of whom is still a bit salty about having been burned at the stake in 1635, one who keeps accidentally casting fertility spells, and one who knits things that create the future.

All Essie ever wanted was to have a normal life but in the end she found herself drawn back to Beldam House because she just can’t stop her witchiness (although the ability to instantly chill wine is pretty awesome, even she has to admit).

Into this coven of chaos stumbles gorgeous, clueless Josh, their new landlord � and he’s just discovered his tenants haven’t paid rent since the 1700s! As Josh is drawn further into the lives of the inhabitants of Beldam House, Essie is determined to keep him at broomstick’s length. That is, until a family secret, lying hidden for centuries, puts Josh firmly under her spell…]]>
318 Kate Johnson 000859208X Lani 3 3.57 2022 Hex Appeal
author: Kate Johnson
name: Lani
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2022
rating: 3
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The Familiar 133938808 From the New York Times bestselling author of Ninth House, Hell Bent, and creator of the Grishaverse series comes a highly anticipated historical fantasy set during the Spanish Golden Age

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

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

Determined to seize this one chance to better her fortunes, Luzia plunges into a world of seers and alchemists, holy men and hucksters, where the line between magic, science, and fraud is never certain. But as her notoriety grows, so does the danger that her Jewish blood will doom her to the Inquisition's wrath. She will have to use every bit of her wit and will to survive—even if that means enlisting the help of Guillén Santangel, an embittered immortal familiar whose own secrets could prove deadly for them both.]]>
387 Leigh Bardugo Lani 4 4.00 2024 The Familiar
author: Leigh Bardugo
name: Lani
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2024
rating: 4
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<![CDATA[Dark Currents (Agent of Hel, #1)]]> 16069105
The Midwestern resort town of Pemkowet boasts a diverse eccentric locals, wealthy summer people, and tourists by the busload; not to mention fairies, sprites, vampires, naiads, ogres and a whole host of eldritch folk, presided over by Hel, a reclusive Norse goddess.

To Daisy Johanssen, fathered by an incubus and raised by a single mother, it’s home. And as Hel’s enforcer and the designated liaison to the Pemkowet Police Department, it’s up to her to ensure relations between the mundane and eldritch communities run smoothly.

But when a young man from a nearby college drowns—and signs point to eldritch involvement—the town’s booming paranormal tourism trade is at stake. Teamed up with her childhood crush, Officer Cody Fairfax, a sexy werewolf on the down-low, Daisy must solve the crime—and keep a tight rein on the darker side of her nature. For if she’s ever tempted to invoke her demonic birthright, it could accidentally unleash nothing less than Armageddon.]]>
368 Jacqueline Carey 1101615400 Lani 4 3.89 2012 Dark Currents (Agent of Hel, #1)
author: Jacqueline Carey
name: Lani
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2012
rating: 4
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<![CDATA[The PLAN: Manage Your Time Like a Lazy Genius]]> 205066487 The New York Times bestselling author of The Lazy Genius Way brings her signature Kind Big Sister Energy to a practical time management book for people weary of productivity but eager to live a good life.

If productivity systems tend to let you down, reading The PLAN will be such a relief.

Most time-management books leave you feeling inadequate, focusing on greatness and optimization. But what if you want to simply live your life without chasing productivity at every turn? Is there a way to manage your time without being at its mercy?

Absolutely, and The PLAN will show you how.

In her signature “Kind Big Sister� style, Kendra Adachi offers a fresh take on managing your time. Using the memorable acronym PLAN, you will learn to prepare, live, adjust, and notice like a Lazy Genius, all through the lens of what matters to you in your current season. With The PLAN, you’ll

� discover two beliefs that will change your time management forever
� integrate your hormones, personality, and life stage into your planning process
� use the Lighten the Load framework to get your stuff done
� experience freedom from the crushing pressure of greatness, potential, and hustle
� live wholeheartedly today

Refreshingly compassionate and immediately practical, The PLAN is what you’ve been waiting for.]]>
257 Kendra J. Adachi 0593727940 Lani 0 currently-reading 3.94 2024 The PLAN: Manage Your Time Like a Lazy Genius
author: Kendra J. Adachi
name: Lani
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2024
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<![CDATA[Selling Sexy: Victoria’s Secret and the Unraveling of an American Icon]]> 74831612 The story of how Victoria’s Secret skyrocketed from a tiny chain of boutiques to a retail phenomenon with more than $8 billion in annual sales at its peak—all while defining an impossible beauty standard for generations of American women—before the brand’s tight grip on the industry finally slipped

Victoria’s Secret is one of the most influential and polarizing brands to ever infiltrate the psyche of the American consumer. Almost right at its start in the late 1970s, the company developed a cult following for its glamorous catalogs. Back then, shoppers had few alternatives to the stodgy department stores that sold most of the nation’s intimate apparel. By 1982, the founders of Victoria’s Secret avoided bankruptcy by selling to Les Wexner, the fast-fashion pioneer behind the Limited, whose empire of mall brands would go on to dominate American retail for forty years.

Wexner turned Victoria’s Secret into a multibillion-dollar business, and the brand’s cultural influence soared thanks to its airbrushed advertisements and annual televised fashion show, which drew millions of viewers each year. Its supermodel spokeswomen, the sweet but sultry Angels, personified a new American beauty standard.

But as our definition of beauty expanded, Victoria’s Secret failed to evolve and reached a crisis point. Meanwhile, Wexner became increasingly known for his complicated relationship with sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, his former financial adviser and confidant.

Selling Sexy expertly draws from sources within Victoria’s Secret and across the industry to examine the unprecedented rise of one of the most innovative brands in retail history—a brand that today, under new ownership, is desperately trying to seduce shoppers again.]]>
307 Lauren Sherman Lani 3 3.95 2024 Selling Sexy: Victoria’s Secret and the Unraveling of an American Icon
author: Lauren Sherman
name: Lani
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2024
rating: 3
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The Maid (Molly the Maid, #1) 57690123 A charmingly eccentric hotel maid discovers a guest murdered in his bed. Solving the mystery will turn her once orderly world upside down in this utterly original debut.

Molly Gray is not like everyone else. She struggles with social skills and misinterprets the intentions of others. Her gran used to interpret the world for her, codifying it into simple rules that Molly could live by.

Since Gran died a few months ago, twenty-five-year-old Molly has had to navigate life’s complexities all by herself. No matter—she throws herself with gusto into her work as a hotel maid. Her unique character, along with her obsessive love of cleaning and proper etiquette, make her an ideal fit for the job. She delights in donning her crisp uniform each morning, stocking her cart with miniature soaps and bottles, and returning guest rooms at the Regency Grand Hotel to a state of perfection.

But Molly’s orderly life is turned on its head the day she enters the suite of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find it in a state of disarray and Mr. Black himself very dead in his bed. Before she knows what’s happening, Molly’s unusual demeanor has the police targeting her as their lead suspect. She quickly finds herself caught in a web of deception, one she has no idea how to untangle. Fortunately for Molly, friends she never knew she had unite with her in a search for clues to what really happened to Mr. Black—but will they be able to find the real killer before it’s too late?

A Clue-like, locked-room mystery and a heartwarming journey of the spirit, The Maid explores what it means to be the same as everyone else and yet entirely different—and reveals that all mysteries can be solved through connection to the human heart.]]>
385 Nita Prose Lani 4 4.03 2022 The Maid (Molly the Maid, #1)
author: Nita Prose
name: Lani
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2022
rating: 4
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<![CDATA[Time's Convert (All Souls, #4)]]> 38356765 446 Deborah Harkness Lani 3 4.08 2018 Time's Convert (All Souls, #4)
author: Deborah Harkness
name: Lani
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2018
rating: 3
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Iron Widow (Iron Widow #1) 56589218 Pacific Rim meets The Handmaid’s Tale in this blend of Chinese history and mecha science fiction for YA readers.

The boys of Huaxia dream of pairing up with girls to pilot Chrysalises, giant transforming robots that can battle the mecha aliens that lurk beyond the Great Wall. It doesn’t matter that the girls often die from the mental strain.

When 18-year-old Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, it’s to assassinate the ace male pilot responsible for her sister’s death. But she gets her vengeance in a way nobody expected—she kills him through the psychic link between pilots and emerges from the cockpit unscathed. She is labeled an Iron Widow, a much-feared and much-silenced kind of female pilot who can sacrifice boys to power up Chrysalises instead.

To tame her unnerving yet invaluable mental strength, she is paired up with Li Shimin, the strongestand most controversial male pilot in Huaxia. But now that Zetian has had a taste of power, she will not cower so easily. She will miss no opportunity to leverage their combined might and infamy to survive attempt after attempt on her life, until she can figure out exactly why the pilot system works in its misogynist way—and stop more girls from being sacrificed.]]>
399 Xiran Jay Zhao Lani 4 4.24 2021 Iron Widow (Iron Widow #1)
author: Xiran Jay Zhao
name: Lani
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2021
rating: 4
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Connie: A Memoir 206188498 In an industry dominated by white men, Connie Chung stood alone, the first and only Asian woman to break into the television news industry. This is her extraordinary story, told with incisive wit and remarkable candor.

Connie Chung is a pioneer.In 1969 at the age of 23, this once-shy daughter of Chinese parents took her first job at a local TV station in her hometown of Washington, D.C. and soon thereafter began working at CBS news as a correspondent.Profoundly influenced by her family’s cultural traditions,yet growing up completely Americanized in the United States, Chung describes her career as an Asian woman in a white male-centered world.Overt sexism was a way of life,but Chung was tenacious in her pursuit of stories � battling rival reporters to secure scoops that ranged from interviewing Magic Johnson to covering the Watergate scandal � and quickly becamea household name. She made history when she achieved her dream of being the first woman to co-anchor theCBS Evening Newsand the first Asianto anchor any news program in the U.S.

Chung pulls no punches as she provides a behind-the-scenestour ofher singular life. Fromshowdowns withpowerful men in and out of the newsroom to the stories behind some of her career-defining reporting and the unwavering support of her husband, Maury Povich, nothing is off-limits � good, bad, or ugly. So be sure to tune in for an irreverent and inspiring this is CONNIE like you’ve never seen her before.]]>
330 Connie Chung 1538767007 Lani 5 4.34 2024 Connie: A Memoir
author: Connie Chung
name: Lani
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2024
rating: 5
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<![CDATA[The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore]]> 201750634 "It is a delight to wander through the bookstores of American history in this warm, generous book."
—Emma Straub, New York Times bestselling author and owner of Books Are Magic

An affectionate and engaging history of the American bookstore and its central place in American cultural life, from department stores to indies, from highbrow dealers trading in first editions to sidewalk vendors, and from chains to special-interest community destinations

Bookstores have always been unlike any other kind of store, shaping readers and writers, and influencing our tastes, thoughts, and politics. They nurture local communities while creating new ones of their own. Bookshops are powerful spaces, but they are also endangered ones. In The Bookshop, wesee the what has been, and what might be lost.

Evan Friss’s history of the bookshop draws on oral histories, archival collections, municipal records, diaries, letters, and interviews with leading booksellers to offer a fascinating look at this institution beloved by so many. The story begins with Benjamin Franklin’s first bookstore in Philadelphia and takes us to a range of booksellers including the Strand, Chicago’s Marshall Field & Company, the Gotham Book Mart, specialty stores like Oscar Wilde and Drum and Spear, sidewalk sellers of used books, Barnes & Noble, Amazon Books, and Parnassus. The Bookshop is also a history of the leading figures in American bookselling, often impassioned eccentrics, and a history of how books have been marketed and sold over the course of more than two centuries—including, for example, a 3,000-pound elephant who signed books at Marshall Field’s in 1944.

The Bookshop is a love letter to bookstores, a charming chronicle for anyone who cherishes these sanctuaries of literature, and essential reading to understand how these vital institutions have shaped American life—and why we still need them.]]>
416 Evan Friss 0593299930 Lani 4 4.01 2024 The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore
author: Evan Friss
name: Lani
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2024
rating: 4
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Because Fat Girl 210439735 Because Fat Girl, a hilarious, emotionally piercing, unapologetically fat novel that is Chasing Amy meets Romantic Comedy. The only man Diana has ever wanted is golden and goes by the name of “Oscar.� Now this off-her-game filmmaker has a chance to make her dream come true...but to get her Hollywood ending, she’s going completely off-script.]]> 316 Lauren Marie Fleming 1649376227 Lani 2 3.86 Because Fat Girl
author: Lauren Marie Fleming
name: Lani
average rating: 3.86
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rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/18
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The Bird King 43686067 From award-winning author G. Willow Wilson, The Bird King is an epic journey set during the reign of the last sultan in the Iberian peninsula at the height of the Spanish Inquisition.

G. Willow Wilson's debut novel Alif the Unseen was an NPR and Washington Post Best Book of the Year, and it established her as a vital American Muslim literary voice. Now she delivers The Bird King, a stunning new novel that tells the story of Fatima, a concubine in the royal court of Granada, the last emirate of Muslim Spain, and her dearest friend Hassan, the palace mapmaker. Hassan has a secret--he can draw maps of places he's never seen and bend the shape of reality. When representatives of the newly formed Spanish monarchy arrive to negotiate the sultan's surrender, Fatima befriends one of the women, not realizing that she will see Hassan's gift as sorcery and a threat to Christian Spanish rule. With their freedoms at stake, what will Fatima risk to save Hassan and escape the palace walls? As Fatima and Hassan traverse Spain with the help of a clever jinn to find safety, The Bird King asks us to consider what love is and the price of freedom at a time when the West and the Muslim world were not yet separate.]]>
440 G. Willow Wilson 0802146848 Lani 2 3.95 2019 The Bird King
author: G. Willow Wilson
name: Lani
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/17
date added: 2025/01/17
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<![CDATA[Empire of the Damned (Empire of the Vampire, #2)]]> 126918599
From holy cup comes holy light;
The faithful hands sets world aright.
And in the Seven Martyrs� sight,
Mere man shall end this endless night.

Gabriel de León has saved the Holy Grail from death, but his chance to end the endless night is lost. Drawn into an uneasy alliance with the mysterious vampire Liathe, Gabriel must now deliver the Grail to ancients of the Blood Esani, and learn the truth of how Daysdeath might be finally undone.

But the Last Silversaint faces peril, within and without. Pursued by terrors of the Blood Voss, drawn into warfare between the Blood Dyvok and duskdancers of the frozen Highlands, and ravaged by his own rising bloodlust, Gabriel may not survive to see the Grail learn her truth.

And that truth may be too awful for any to imagine.]]>
709 Jay Kristoff 1250245338 Lani 3 4.55 2024 Empire of the Damned (Empire of the Vampire, #2)
author: Jay Kristoff
name: Lani
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/17
date added: 2025/01/17
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The Paper Palace 58061810
It is a perfect July morning, and Elle, a fifty-year-old happily married mother of three, awakens at "The Paper Palace"--the family summer place which she has visited every summer of her life. But this morning is different: last night Elle and her oldest friend Jonas crept out the back door into the darkness and had sex with each other for the first time, all while their spouses chatted away inside.

Now, over the next twenty-four hours, Elle will have to decide between the life she has made with her genuinely beloved husband, Peter, and the life she always imagined she would have had with her childhood love, Jonas, if a tragic event hadn't forever changed the course of their lives. As Heller colors in the experiences that have led Elle to this day, we arrive at her ultimate decision with all its complexity.

Tender yet devastating, The Paper Palace considers the tensions between desire and dignity, the legacies of abuse, and the crimes and misdemeanors of families.]]>
400 Miranda Cowley Heller 0593329848 Lani 2 3.96 2021 The Paper Palace
author: Miranda Cowley Heller
name: Lani
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2021
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/17
date added: 2025/01/17
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<![CDATA[Viva Jacquelina!: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, Over the Hills and Far Away (Bloody Jack Adventures Book 10)]]> 18895954 373 L.A. Meyer Lani 3 4.25 2012 Viva Jacquelina!: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, Over the Hills and Far Away (Bloody Jack Adventures Book 10)
author: L.A. Meyer
name: Lani
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/13
date added: 2025/01/13
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<![CDATA[Grave Expectations (Grave Expectations #1)]]> 61659979
Almost-authentic medium Claire and her best friend, Sophie, agree to take on a seemingly simple job at a crumbling old manor in the English performing a seance for the family matriarch's 80th birthday. The pair have been friends since before Sophie went missing when they were seventeen. Everyone else is convinced Sophie simply ran away, but Claire knows the truth. Claire knows Sophie was murdered because Sophie has been haunting her ever since.

Despite this traumatic past, Claire and Sophie are still unprepared for what they encounter when they arrive: a ghost, tragic and unrecognizable, and clearly the spirit of someone killed in a rage at the previous year's party. Given her obsession with crime shows—not to mentionSophie's ability to walk through walls—Claire decides they're the best people to solve the case. And with the help of the only obviously not-guilty members of their host family—sexy ex-policeman Sebastian and far-too-cool non-binary teen Alex—they launch an investigation into which of last year's guests never escaped the manor's grounds.

What follows is somewhat irregular detective work involving stealing a priest's cassock, getting too drunk to remember to question your suspect, and of course,Chekhov's sparkly purple dildo. As Claire desperately tries to keep a lid on the shameful secret that would definitely alienate her new friends, the gang must race against their own incompetence to find the murderer before the murderer finds them.]]>
400 Alice Bell 0593470648 Lani 3 3.76 2023 Grave Expectations (Grave Expectations #1)
author: Alice Bell
name: Lani
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/02
date added: 2025/01/02
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<![CDATA[Bitch: On the Female of the Species]]> 103490093
Studying zoology made Lucy Cooke feel like a sad freak. Not because she loved spiders or would root around in animal all her friends shared the same curious kinks. The problem was her sex. Being female meant she was, by nature, a loser.

Since Charles Darwin, evolutionary biologists have been convinced that the males of the animal kingdom are the interesting ones—dominating and promiscuous, while females are dull, passive, and devoted.

In Bitch , Cooke tells a new story. Whether investigating same-sex female albatross couples that raise chicks, murderous mother meerkats, or the titanic battle of the sexes waged by ducks, Cooke shows us a new evolutionary biology, one where females can be as dynamic as any male. This isn‘t your grandfather’s evolutionary biology. It’s more inclusive, truer to life, and, simply, more fun.]]>
400 Lucy Cooke 154167491X Lani 4 4.34 2022 Bitch: On the Female of the Species
author: Lucy Cooke
name: Lani
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/01/01
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<![CDATA[Wildcat: The Untold Story of Pearl Hart, the Wild West's Most Notorious Woman Bandit]]> 56383031
“[A] true-life adventure saga about the female outlaw who robbed a stagecoach at gunpoint in Arizona in 1899.� –New York Times Book Review

The little-known story of Pearl Hart, the most famous female bandit in the American West.

On May 30, 1899, history was made when Pearl Hart, disguised as a man, held up a stagecoach in Arizona and robbed the passengers at gunpoint. A manhunt ensued as word of her heist spread, and Pearl Hart went on to become a media sensation and the most notorious female outlaw on the Western frontier. Her early life, family and fate after her later release from prison have long remained a mystery to scholars and historians—until now.

Drawing on groundbreaking research into territorial records and genealogical data, ’s is the first book to uncover the enigma of Pearl Hart. Hailed by many as “The Bandit Queen,� her epic life of crime and legacy as a female trailblazer provide a crucial lens into the lives of the rare women who made their mark in the American West.]]>
329 John Boessenecker 1335471391 Lani 4 3.44 2021 Wildcat: The Untold Story of Pearl Hart, the Wild West's Most Notorious Woman Bandit
author: John Boessenecker
name: Lani
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/01
date added: 2024/12/29
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A Botanical Daughter 179541848 Mexican Gothic meets The Lie Tree by way of Oscar Wilde and Mary Shelley in this delightfully witty horror debut. A captivating tale of two Victorian gentlemen hiding their relationship away in a botanical garden who embark on a Frankenstein-style experiment with unexpected consequences.

It is an unusual thing, to live in a botanical garden. But Simon and Gregor are an unusual pair of gentlemen. Hidden away in their glass sanctuary from the disapproving tattle of Victorian London, they are free to follow their own interests without interference. For Simon, this means long hours in the dark basement workshop, working his taxidermical art. Gregor's business is exotic plants � lucrative, but harmless enough. Until his latest acquisition, a strange fungus which shows signs of intellect beyond any plant he's seen, inspires him to attempt a masterwork: true intelligent life from plant matter.

Driven by the glory he'll earn from the Royal Horticultural Society for such an achievement, Gregor ignores the flaws in his plan: that intelligence cannot be controlled; that plants cannot be reasoned with; and that the only way his plant-beast will flourish is if he uses a recently deceased corpse for the substrate.

The experiment � or Chloe, as she is named � outstrips even Gregor's expectations, entangling their strange household. But as Gregor's experiment flourishes, he wilts under the cost of keeping it hidden from jealous eyes. The mycelium grows apace in this sultry greenhouse. But who is cultivating whom?

Told with wit and warmth, this is an extraordinary tale of family, fungus and more than a dash of bloody revenge from an exciting new voice in queer horror.]]>
337 Noah Medlock Lani 4 3.64 2024 A Botanical Daughter
author: Noah Medlock
name: Lani
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/28
date added: 2024/12/28
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The Future 123177094
The Future is a few billionaires leading the world to destruction while safeguarding their own survival with secret lavish bunkers.

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

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

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

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

The Future is here.]]>
432 Naomi Alderman 1668025701 Lani 4 4.07 2023 The Future
author: Naomi Alderman
name: Lani
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/28
date added: 2024/12/28
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<![CDATA[The Titanic Survivors Book Club]]> 182515703 A remarkable tale about the life-changing power of books, followingthe Titanic librarian whose survival upends the course of his life.

For weeks after the sinking of the Titanic, Yorick spots his own name among the list of those lost at sea. As an apprentice librarian for the White Star Line, his job was to curate the ship’s second-class library. But just as he was about to board to tend to his library throughout the passage, a superior takes his place, leaving Yorick stranded at the dock.

The Titanic was not Yorick’s first brush with death, but as with every near-miss he manages to escape into the world of books. After he learns of the ship’s sinking, he takes this twist of fate as a sign to follow his lifelong dream of owning a bookshop in Paris. It’s at his shop that he receives an invitation to a secret society of survivors where he encounters other ticket-holders who didn’t board the ship. Haunted by their good fortune, they decide to transform their group into a book society, where they can grapple with their own anxieties through the guise of discussing contentious works such as The Awakening or The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Of the ragtag group of survivors, Yorick finds himself particularly drawn to the wealthy candy heiress Zinnia and the mysterious and alluring Haze. Yorick feels like an outsider looking in, falling hopelessly for Haze as Haze courts Zinnia; a tangled triangle of love and friendship forms between them. Yet with the Great War looming, their close-knit group is shattered, only brought back together once the death of a fellow book club member leaves them wondering what fate has in store for each of them.

Elegant and elegiac, The Titanic Survivors' Book Club is a dazzling ode to love, chance, and the transformative power of books to bring people together.]]>
304 Timothy Schaffert 0385549164 Lani 4 3.33 2024 The Titanic Survivors Book Club
author: Timothy Schaffert
name: Lani
average rating: 3.33
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/28
date added: 2024/12/28
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The Diamond Eye 62990449 An alternative cover edition for this ASIN can be found here.

The New York Times bestselling author of The Rose Code returns with an unforgettable World War II tale of a quiet bookworm who becomes history's deadliest female sniper. Based on a true story.

In 1937 in the snowbound city of Kiev (now known as Kyiv), wry and bookish history student Mila Pavlichenko organizes her life around her library job and her young son--but Hitler's invasion of Ukraine and Russia sends her on a different path. Given a rifle and sent to join the fight, Mila must forge herself from studious girl to deadly sniper--a lethal hunter of Nazis known as Lady Death. When news of her three hundredth kill makes her a national heroine, Mila finds herself torn from the bloody battlefields of the eastern front and sent to America on a goodwill tour.

Still reeling from war wounds and devastated by loss, Mila finds herself isolated and lonely in the glittering world of Washington, DC--until an unexpected friendship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and an even more unexpected connection with a silent fellow sniper offer the possibility of happiness. But when an old enemy from Mila's past joins forces with a deadly new foe lurking in the shadows, Lady Death finds herself battling her own demons and enemy bullets in the deadliest duel of her life.

Based on a true story, The Diamond Eye is a haunting novel of heroism born of desperation, of a mother who became a soldier, of a woman who found her place in the world and changed the course of history forever.]]>
448 Kate Quinn Lani 5 4.42 2022 The Diamond Eye
author: Kate Quinn
name: Lani
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/28
date added: 2024/12/28
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<![CDATA[The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet]]> 55145261 A deeply moving and mind-expanding collection of personal essays in the first ever work of non-fiction from #1 internationally bestselling author John Green

The Anthropocene is the current geological age, in which human activity has profoundly shaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his ground-breaking, critically acclaimed podcast, John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet - from the QWERTY keyboard and Halley's Comet to Penguins of Madagascar - on a five-star scale.

Complex and rich with detail, the Anthropocene's reviews have been praised as 'observations that double as exercises in memoiristic empathy', with over 10 million lifetime downloads. John Green's gift for storytelling shines throughout this artfully curated collection about the shared human experience; it includes beloved essays along with six all-new pieces exclusive to the book.]]>
304 John Green 0525555218 Lani 4 non-fiction, own 4.37 2021 The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet
author: John Green
name: Lani
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/05/14
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: non-fiction, own
review:

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<![CDATA[Where the Water Goes: Life and Death Along the Colorado River]]> 31544566 A brilliant, eye-opening account of where our water comes from and where it all goes

The Colorado River is a crucial resource for a surprisingly large part of the United States, and every gallon that flows down it is owned or claimed by someone. David Owen traces all that water from the Colorado's headwaters to its parched terminus, once a verdant wetland but now a million-acre desert. He takes readers on an adventure downriver, along a labyrinth of waterways, reservoirs, power plants, farms, fracking sites, ghost towns, and RV parks, to the spot near the U.S.–Mexico border where the river runs dry.

Water problems in the western United States can seem tantalizingly easy to solve: just turn off the fountains at the Bellagio, stop selling hay to China, ban golf, cut down the almond trees, and kill all the lawyers. But a closer look reveals a vast man-made ecosystem that is far more complex and more interesting than the headlines let on.

The story Owen tells in Where the Water Goes is crucial to our future: how a patchwork of engineering marvels, byzantine legal agreements, aging infrastructure, and neighborly cooperation enables life to flourish in the desert, and the disastrous consequences we face when any part of this tenuous system fails.]]>
288 David Owen 1594633770 Lani 3 3.90 2017 Where the Water Goes: Life and Death Along the Colorado River
author: David Owen
name: Lani
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/24
date added: 2024/12/24
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The Bright Sword 201751543
They aren’t the heroes of legend, like Lancelot or Gawain. They’re the oddballs of the Round Tables, from the edges of the stories, like Sir Palomides, the Saracen Knight and Sir Dagonet, Arthur’s fool, who was knighted as a joke. They’re joined by Nimue, who was Merlin’s apprentice until she turned on him and buried him under a hill. Together this ragtag fellowship will set out to rebuild Camelot in a world that has lost its balance.

But Arthur’s death has revealed Britain’s fault lines. God has abandoned it, and the fairies and monsters and old gods are returning, led by Arthur’s half-sister Morgan le Fay. Kingdoms are turning on each other, warlords are laying siege to Camelot, and rival factions are forming around the disgraced Lancelot and the fallen Queen Guinevere. It is up to Collum and his companions to reclaim Excalibur, solve the mysteries of this ruined world and make it whole again. But before they can restore Camelot they’ll have to learn the truth of why the lonely, brilliant King Arthur fell and lay to rest the ghosts of his troubled family and of Britain’s dark past.]]>
688 Lev Grossman 0735224056 Lani 3 4.18 2024 The Bright Sword
author: Lev Grossman
name: Lani
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/22
date added: 2024/12/22
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<![CDATA[Dating While Feminist: Essays on Sex, Dating, and Feminism]]> 204007003
The uproarious and poignant essays in this collection draw on the scathing, wildly candid, and hilarious particulars of Young’s life as she navigates sexual liberation in a fatphobic, sexist world. Dating While Feminist is Young at her most honest, relatable, and unflinching.]]>
254 Victoria Young Lani 4 3.67 Dating While Feminist: Essays on Sex, Dating, and Feminism
author: Victoria Young
name: Lani
average rating: 3.67
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/21
date added: 2024/12/21
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Bang Bang Bodhisattva 199798226
This punk ain’t feelin� lucky.

It’s 2032 and we live in the worst cyberpunk future. Kiera is gigging her ass off to keep the lights on, but her polycule’s social score is so dismal they’re about to lose their crib. That’s why she’s out here chasing cheaters with Angel Herrera, a luddite P.I. who thinks this is The Big Sleep . Then the latest job cuts too deep—hired to locate Herrera’s ex-best friend (who’s also Kiera’s pro bono attorney), they find him murdered instead. Their only a stick of Nag Champa incense dropped at the scene.

Next thing Kiera knows, her new crush turns up missing—sans a hand (the real one, not the cybernetic), and there’s the familiar stink of sandalwood across the apartment. Two crimes, two sticks of incense, Kiera framed for both. She told Herrera to lose her number, but now the old man might be her only way out of this bullshit...

A fast-talker with a heart of gold, Bang Bang Bodhisattva is both an odd-couple buddy comedy that never knows when to shut up and an exploration of finding yourself and your people in an ever-mutable world.]]>
432 Aubrey Wood 1786189844 Lani 3 3.50 2023 Bang Bang Bodhisattva
author: Aubrey Wood
name: Lani
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/18
date added: 2024/12/20
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<![CDATA[Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines]]> 136342721 Fortune) explains how we’ve arrived at an era of AI harms and oppression, and what we can do to avoid its pitfalls.

“Dr. Joy Buolamwini has been an essential figure in bringing irresponsible, profit-hungry tech giants to their knees. If you’re going to read only one book about AI, this should be it.”—Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation

To most of us, it seems like recent developments in artificial intelligence emerged out of nowhere to pose unprecedented threats to humankind. But to Dr. Joy Buolamwini, who has been at the forefront of AI research, this moment has been a long time in the making.

After tinkering with robotics as a high school student in Memphis and then developing mobile apps in Zambia as a Fulbright fellow, Buolamwini followed her lifelong passion for computer science, engineering, and art to MIT in 2015. As a graduate student at the “Future Factory,� she did groundbreaking research that exposed widespread racial and gender bias in AI services from tech giants across the world.

Unmasking AI goes beyond the headlines about existential risks produced by Big Tech. It is the remarkable story of how Buolamwini uncovered what she calls “the coded gaze”—the evidence of encoded discrimination and exclusion in tech products—and how she galvanized the movement to prevent AI harms by founding the Algorithmic Justice League. Applying an intersectional lens to both the tech industry and the research sector, she shows how racism, sexism, colorism, and ableism can overlap and render broad swaths of humanity “excoded� and therefore vulnerable in a world rapidly adopting AI tools. Computers, she reminds us, are reflections of both the aspirations and the limitations of the people who create them.

Encouraging experts and non-experts alike to join this fight, Buolamwini writes, “The rising frontier for civil rights will require algorithmic justice. AI should be for the people and by the people, not just the privileged few.�
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336 Joy Buolamwini 0593241835 Lani 5 4.13 Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines
author: Joy Buolamwini
name: Lani
average rating: 4.13
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/20
date added: 2024/12/20
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Mexican Gothic 52873094
Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.

Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.

And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.]]>
304 Silvia Moreno-Garcia Lani 4 3.76 2020 Mexican Gothic
author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
name: Lani
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2021/04/18
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: chicklit, historicalfiction, kindle, library
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<![CDATA[Boyslut: A Memoir and Manifesto]]> 70241720
"Zachary Zane is one of the best sex writers working today."—DAN SAVAGE

A sex and relationship columnist bares it all in a series of essays—part memoir, part manifesto—that explore the author’s coming-of-age and coming out as a bisexual man and move toward embracing and celebrating sex unencumbered by shame

As a boy, Zachary Zane sensed that all was not right when images of his therapist naked popped into his head. Without an explanation as to why, a deep sense of shame pervaded these thoughts. Though his therapist assured him a little imagination was nothing to be ashamed of, over the years, society told him otherwise.

Boyslut is a series of personal and tantalizing essays that articulate how our society still shames people for the sex that they have and the sexualities that they inhabit. Through the lens of his bisexuality and much self-described sluttiness, Zane breaks down exactly how this sexual shame negatively impacts the sex and relationships in our lives, and through personal experience, shares how we can unlearn the harmful, entrenched messages that society imparts to us.

From stories of drug-fueled threesomes and risqué Grindr hookups to insights on dealing with rejection and livingwith his boyfriend and his wife, Boyslut isreassuring and often painfully funny—but is most potently a testimony that we can all learn to live healthier lives unburdened by stigma.]]>
240 Zachary Zane 1647008336 Lani 5 3.86 2023 Boyslut: A Memoir and Manifesto
author: Zachary Zane
name: Lani
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/16
date added: 2024/12/16
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<![CDATA[Want: Sexual Fantasies by Anonymous]]> 209191753 A collection of confessions from women around the world, Want is a revelatory, sensational and game-changing exploration of women’s sexuality that asks, and How do women feel about sex when they have the freedom to be totally anonymous? What do you want, when no-one is watching?What do you want, when the lights are off?What do you want, when you are anonymous? When we talk about sex, we talk about womanhood and motherhood, infidelity and exploitation, consent and respect, fairness and egalitarianism, love and hate, pleasure and pain. And yet for many reasons—some complicated, some not—so many of us don’t talk about it. Our deepest, most intimate fears and fantasies remain locked away inside of us, until someone comes along with the key. Here’s the key. In this generation-defining book, Gillian Anderson collects and introduces the anonymous letters of hundreds of self-identifying women from around the world (along with her own anonymous letter). From a Sikh woman who writes about her secret lust for her brother-in-law, an Apache American woman who wants to be worshipped like a divine creature, a white British woman who just wants to be properly kissed one last time, another who likes to role play as a panther, or a Hispanic Jewish woman living in Bangladesh, for whom the pinnacle of sexual arousal is a doorknob, Want reveals how women feel about sex when they have the freedom to be totally anonymous. What do you want?]]> 400 Gillian Anderson Lani 3 3.43 2024 Want: Sexual Fantasies by Anonymous
author: Gillian Anderson
name: Lani
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/13
date added: 2024/12/13
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The Swan Gondola 18401394
One of a travelling troupe of actors that has descended on the city, Cecily works in the Midway’s Chamber of Horrors, where she loses her head hourly on a guillotine playing Marie Antoinette. And after closing, she rushes off, clinging protectively to a mysterious carpet bag, never giving Ferret a second glance. But a moonlit ride on the swan gondola, a boat on the lagoon of the New White City, changes everything, and the fair’s magic begins to take its effect.]]>
464 Timothy Schaffert 0698152727 Lani 0 currently-reading 3.66 2014 The Swan Gondola
author: Timothy Schaffert
name: Lani
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/13
shelves: currently-reading
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A Sorceress Comes to Call 196600323 A dark retelling of the Brothers Grimm's Goose Girl, rife with secrets, murder, and forbidden magic

Cordelia knows her mother is unusual. Their house doesn’t have any doors between rooms, and her mother doesn't allow Cordelia to have a single friend—unless you count Falada, her mother's beautiful white horse. The only time Cordelia feels truly free is on her daily rides with him. But more than simple eccentricity sets her mother apart. Other mothers don’t force their daughters to be silent and motionless for hours, sometimes days, on end. Other mothers aren’t sorcerers.

After a suspicious death in their small town, Cordelia’s mother insists they leave in the middle of the night, riding away on Falada’s sturdy back, leaving behind all Cordelia has ever known. They arrive at the remote country manor of a wealthy older man, the Squire, and his unwed sister, Hester. Cordelia’s mother intends to lure the Squire into marriage, and Cordelia knows this can only be bad news for the bumbling gentleman and his kind, intelligent sister.

Hester sees the way Cordelia shrinks away from her mother, how the young girl sits eerily still at dinner every night. Hester knows that to save her brother from bewitchment and to rescue the terrified Cordelia, she will have to face down a wicked witch of the worst kind.]]>
336 T. Kingfisher 1250244056 Lani 5 4.23 2024 A Sorceress Comes to Call
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Lani
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/13
date added: 2024/12/13
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The Book Eaters 55878227 "I devoured this."—V. E. Schwab, New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue

An International Bestseller
An NPR Best Sci Fi, Fantasy, & Speculative Fiction Book of 2022
A Book Riot Best Book of 2022
A Vulture Best Fantasy Novel of 2022
A ŷ Best Fantasy Choice Award Nominee

A Library Journal Best Book of 2022

Out on the Yorkshire Moors lives a secret line of people for whom books are food, and who retain all of a book's content after eating it. To them, spy novels are a peppery snack; romance novels are sweet and delicious. Eating a map can help them remember destinations, and children, when they misbehave, are forced to eat dry, musty pages from dictionaries.

Devon is part of The Family, an old and reclusive clan of book eaters. Her brothers grow up feasting on stories of valor and adventure, and Devon—like all other book eater women—is raised on a carefully curated diet of fairy tales and cautionary stories.

But real life doesn't always come with happy endings, as Devon learns when her son is born with a rare and darker kind of hunger—not for books, but for human minds.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]>
294 Sunyi Dean 1250810191 Lani 4 3.78 2022 The Book Eaters
author: Sunyi Dean
name: Lani
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/08
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How to Succeed in Witchcraft 55350379 An overachieving teen witch vies for a prestigious scholarship at her elite high school in this contemporary YA fantasy for fans of Never Have I Ever and Sabrina the Teen Witch!

Magically brilliant, academically perfect, chronically overcommitted...

Shay Johnson has all the makings of a successful witch. Now that she's a junior at T.K. Anderson Magical Magnet School, she's one step closer to winning the full-ride Brockton Scholarship--her ticket into the university of her dreams. Her main competition? Ana freaking Álvarez. The key to victory? Impressing Mr. B, drama teacher and head of the scholarship committee.

When Mr. B persuades Shay to star in this year's aggressively inclusive, racially diverse musical--at their not-quite-diverse school--she agrees, wearily, even though she'll have to put up with Ana playing the other lead. But with rehearsals underway, Shay realizes Ana is...not the despicable witch she'd thought. Perhaps she could even be a friend--or more. And Shay could use someone in her corner once she finds herself on the receiving end of Mr. B's unpleasant and unwanted attention. When Shay learns she's not the first witch to experience his inappropriate behavior, she must decide if she'll come forward. But how can she speak out when the scholarship--and her future--are on the line?

An unforgettable debut, How to Succeed in Witchcraft conjures up searing social commentary, delightfully awkward high school theater, and magical proclamations of love.]]>
400 Aislinn Brophy 0593354532 Lani 4 4.05 2022 How to Succeed in Witchcraft
author: Aislinn Brophy
name: Lani
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/06
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<![CDATA[Hybrid Workplace: The Insights You Need from Harvard Business Review (HBR Insights Series)]]> 59602116
Hybrid work is here to stay—but what will it look like at your company? If your organization is holding on to inflexible, pre-pandemic policies about where—and when—your people work, it may be risking a mass exodus of talent. Designing a hybrid workplace that furthers your business goals while staying true to your culture requires balancing experimentation with rigorous planning.

Hybrid Workplace: The Insights You Need from Harvard Business Review will help you adopt the best technological, cultural, and new management practices to seize the benefits and avoid the pitfalls of the hybrid age.

Business is changing. Will you adapt or be left behind?

Get up to speed and deepen your understanding of the topics that are shaping your company's future with the Insights You Need from Harvard Business Review series. Featuring HBR's smartest thinking on fast-moving issues—blockchain, cybersecurity, AI, and more—each book provides the foundational introduction and practical case studies your organization needs to compete today and collects the best research, interviews, and analysis to get it ready for tomorrow.

You can't afford to ignore how these issues will transform the landscape of business and society. The Insights You Need series will help you grasp these critical ideas—and prepare you and your company for the future.]]>
170 Harvard Business Review 1647823390 Lani 3 3.60 Hybrid Workplace: The Insights You Need from Harvard Business Review (HBR Insights Series)
author: Harvard Business Review
name: Lani
average rating: 3.60
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Rabbits (Rabbits, #1) 55764834 Conspiracies abound in this surreal and yet all-too-real technothriller in which a deadly underground alternate reality game might just be altering reality itself, set in the same world as the popular Rabbits podcast.

It's an average work day. You've been wrapped up in a task, and you check the clock when you come up for air�4:44 pm. You go to check your email, and 44 unread messages have built up. With a shock, you realize it is April 4th�4/4. And when you get in your car to drive home, your odometer reads 44,444. Coincidence? Or have you just seen the edge of a rabbit hole?

Rabbits is a mysterious alternate reality game so vast it uses our global reality as its canvas. Since the game first started in 1959, ten iterations have appeared and nine winners have been declared. Their identities are unknown. So is their reward, which is whispered to be NSA or CIA recruitment, vast wealth, immortality, or perhaps even the key to unlocking the secrets of the universe itself. But the deeper you get, the more deadly the game becomes. Players have died in the past—and the body count is rising.

And now the eleventh round is about to begin. Enter K—a Rabbits obsessive who has been trying to find a way into the game for years. That path opens when K is approached by billionaire Alan Scarpio, the alleged winner of the sixth iteration. Scarpio says that something has gone wrong with the game and that K needs to fix it before Eleven starts or the whole world will pay the price.

Five days later, Scarpio is declared missing. Two weeks after that, K blows the deadline and Eleven begins. And suddenly, the fate of the entire universe is at stake.]]>
423 Terry Miles 1984819666 Lani 3 3.89 2021 Rabbits (Rabbits, #1)
author: Terry Miles
name: Lani
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/05
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<![CDATA[World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments]]> 54669336 177 Aimee Nezhukumatathil 157131959X Lani 3 4.15 2020 World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments
author: Aimee Nezhukumatathil
name: Lani
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/29
date added: 2024/11/29
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<![CDATA[That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America]]> 203891278 “Amanda Jones started getting death threats, all for standing up for our right to read . . . but she's not stopped fighting against book bans, or stopped advocating for access to diverse stories.�-Oprah Winfrey, in a speech at the 2023 National Book Awards

"Amanda Jones clearly outlines how we got here, who's leading this false charge against qualified educators, media specialists, and authors-and most importantly, explores the steps we all must take to make the voice of truth and reason louder than their caterwauling.�-Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author

Part memoir, part manifesto, the inspiring story of a Louisiana librarian advocating for inclusivity on the front lines of our vicious culture wars.


One of the things small town librarian Amanda Jones values most about books is how they can affirm a young person's sense of self. So in 2022, when she caught wind of a local public hearing that would discuss “book content,� she knew what was at stake. Schools and libraries nationwide have been bombarded by demands for books with LGTBQ+ references, discussions of racism, and more to be purged from the shelves. Amanda would be damned if her community were to ban stories representing minority groups. She spoke out that night at the meeting. Days later, she woke up to a nightmare that is still ongoing.

Amanda Jones has been called a groomer, a pedo, and a porn-pusher; she has faced death threats and attacks from strangers and friends alike. Her decision to support a collection of books with diverse perspectives made her a target for extremists using book banning campaigns-funded by dark money organizations and advanced by hard right politicians-in a crusade to make America more white, straight, and "Christian." But Amanda Jones wouldn't give up without a she sued her harassers for defamation and urged others to join her in the resistance.

Mapping the book banning crisis occurring all across the nation, That Librarian draws the battle lines in the war against equity and inclusion, calling book lovers everywhere to rise in defense of our readers.]]>
277 Amanda Jones 163973354X Lani 2 3.92 2024 That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America
author: Amanda Jones
name: Lani
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/11/28
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<![CDATA[The Busy Body (Ghostwriter Mystery, #1)]]> 138378622
Her collaborator is impressed by Dorothy's work ethic and steel-trap mind, not to mention the stunning surroundings (and one particularly gorgeous bodyguard). But when a neighbor dies under suspicious circumstances, Dorothy is determined to find the killer in their midst. And when Dorothy Gibson asks if you want to team up for a top secret, possibly dangerous murder investigation, the only answer "Of course!"

The best ghostwriters are adept at asking questions and spinning stories . . . two talents, it turns out, that also come in handy for sleuths. Dorothy's political career, meanwhile, has made her an expert at recognizing lies and double-dealing. Working together, the two women are soon untangling motives and whittling down suspects, to the exasperation of local police. But this investigation-much like the election-may not unfold the way anyone expects.]]>
336 Kemper Donovan 1496744535 Lani 0 currently-reading 3.45 2024 The Busy Body (Ghostwriter Mystery, #1)
author: Kemper Donovan
name: Lani
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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Queenie 52164473
As Queenie careens from one questionable decision to another, she finds herself wondering, “What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Who do you want to be?”—all of the questions today’s woman must face in a world trying to answer them for her.]]>
352 Candice Carty-Williams Lani 3 3.90 2019 Queenie
author: Candice Carty-Williams
name: Lani
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/28
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You Never Know: A Memoir 45042217
Frank, funny and open-hearted, You Never Know is an intimate memoir from one of the most beloved actors of our time, the highly personal story of a remarkable life and thoroughly accidental career. In his own voice and uniquely unpretentious style, the famed actor brings readers on his uncharted but serendipitous journey to the top in Hollywood, his temptations and distractions, his misfires and mistakes and, over time, his well-earned success. Along the way, he clears up an armload of misconceptions and shares dozens of never-told stories from all corners of his personal and professional life. His rambunctious California childhood. His clueless arrival as a good-looking college jock in Hollywood (from the Dating Game to the Fox New Talent Program to co-starring with Mae West and escorting her to black-tie social functions). What it was like to emerge as a mega-star in his mid-thirties and remain so for decades to come, an actor whose authenticity and ease in front of the camera connected with audiences worldwide while embodying and also redefining the clichés of onscreen manhood.

In You Never Know, Selleck recounts his personal friendships with a vivid army of A-listers, everyone from Frank Sinatra to Carol Burnett to Sam Elliott, paying special tribute to his mentor James Garner of The Rockford Files, who believed, like Selleck, that TV protagonists are far more interesting when they have rough edges. He also more than tips his hat to the American western and the scruffy band of actors, directors and other ruffians who helped define that classic genre, where Selleck has repeatedly found a happy home. Magnum fans will be fascinated to learn how Selleck put his career on the line to make Thomas Magnum a more imperfect hero and explains why he walked away from a show that could easily have gone on for years longer.

Hollywood is never easy, even for stars who make it look that way. In You Never Know, Selleck explains how he’s struggled to balance his personal and professional lives, frequently adjusting his career to protect his family’s privacy and normalcy. His journey offers a truly fresh perspective on a changing industry and a changing world. Beneath all the charm and talent and self-deprecating humor, Selleck’s memoir reveals an American icon who has reached remarkable heights by always insisting on being himself.]]>
350 Tom Selleck 0062945785 Lani 4 4.39 2024 You Never Know: A Memoir
author: Tom Selleck
name: Lani
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2024
rating: 4
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Starless 36144849 Jacqueline Carey is back with an amazing adventure not seen since her New York Times bestselling Kushiel's Legacy series. Lush and sensual, Starless introduces us to an epic world where exiled gods live among us, and a hero whose journey will resonate long after the last page is turned.

Let your mind be like the eye of the hawk�

Destined from birth to serve as protector of the princess Zariya, Khai is trained in the arts of killing and stealth by a warrior sect in the deep desert; yet there is one profound truth that has been withheld from him.

In the court of the Sun-Blessed, Khai must learn to navigate deadly intrigue and his own conflicted identity…but in the far reaches of the western seas, the dark god Miasmus is rising, intent on nothing less than wholesale destruction.

If Khai is to keep his soul’s twin Zariya alive, their only hope lies with an unlikely crew of prophecy-seekers on a journey that will take them farther beneath the starless skies than anyone can imagine.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

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574 Jacqueline Carey 0765386836 Lani 4 4.31 2018 Starless
author: Jacqueline Carey
name: Lani
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2018
rating: 4
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No Place for a Woman 72135085
No Place for a Woman explores the history of the fight for women’s rights in the West, examining the conditions that prevailed during the vast migration of pioneers looking for free land and opportunity on the frontier, the politics of the emerging western territories at the end of the Civil War, and the changing social and economic conditions of the country recovering from war and on the brink of the Gilded Age. Through the individual stories of women like Esther Hobart Morris, Martha Cannon, and Jeannette Rankin, this book fills a hole in the story of the West, revealing how the hard work and individual lobbying of a few heroines, plus a little bit of publicity-seeking and opportunism, ushered in a new era for the expansion of women’s rights.]]>
232 Chris Enss 1493072412 Lani 3 3.00 2020 No Place for a Woman
author: Chris Enss
name: Lani
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/22
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The Alice Network 32051912
1947. In the chaotic aftermath of World War II, American college girl Charlie St. Clair is pregnant, unmarried, and on the verge of being thrown out of her very proper family. She's also nursing a desperate hope that her beloved cousin Rose, who disappeared in Nazi-occupied France during the war, might still be alive. So when Charlie's parents banish her to Europe to have her "little problem" taken care of, Charlie breaks free and heads to London, determined to find out what happened to the cousin she loves like a sister.

1915. A year into the Great War, Eve Gardiner burns to join the fight against the Germans and unexpectedly gets her chance when she's recruited to work as a spy. Sent into enemy-occupied France, she's trained by the mesmerizing Lili, code name Alice, the "queen of spies", who manages a vast network of secret agents right under the enemy's nose.

Thirty years later, haunted by the betrayal that ultimately tore apart the Alice Network, Eve spends her days drunk and secluded in her crumbling London house. Until a young American barges in uttering a name Eve hasn't heard in decades, and launches them both on a mission to find the truth...no matter where it leads.]]>
503 Kate Quinn 0062654195 Lani 5 4.30 2017 The Alice Network
author: Kate Quinn
name: Lani
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/18
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<![CDATA[HBR's 10 Must Reads on Managing Yourself (with bonus article "How Will You Measure Your Life?" by Clayton M. Christensen)]]> 10307135 The path to your professional success starts with a critical look in the mirror.

If you read nothing else on managing yourself, read these 10 articles (plus the bonus article “How Will You Measure Your Life?� by Clayton M. Christensen). We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles to select the most important ones to help you maximize yourself.

HBR's 10 Must Reads on Managing Yourself will inspire you

Stay engaged throughout your 50+-year work lifeTap into your deepest valuesSolicit candid feedbackReplenish physical and mental energyBalance work, home, community, and selfSpread positive energy throughout your organizationRebound from tough timesDecrease distractibility and frenzyDelegate and develop employees' initiativeThis collection of best-selling articles bonus article “How Will You Measure Your Life?� by Clayton M. Christensen, "Managing Oneself," "Management Who's Got the Monkey?" "How Resilience Works," "Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time," "Overloaded Why Smart People Underperform," "Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life," "Reclaim Your Job," "Moments of Entering the Fundamental State of Leadership," "What to Ask the Person in the Mirror," and "Primal The Hidden Driver of Great Performance."]]>
208 Harvard Business Publishing 1422172031 Lani 0 currently-reading 4.08 2010 HBR's 10 Must Reads on Managing Yourself (with bonus article "How Will You Measure Your Life?" by Clayton M. Christensen)
author: Harvard Business Publishing
name: Lani
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Every Drop Is a Man's Nightmare]]> 60779431
A childhood encounter with a wild pua'a (pig) on the haunted Pali highway portends one young woman's fraught relationship with her pregnant body. An elderly widow begins seeing her deceased lover in a giant flower. A kanaka writer, mid-manuscript, feels her raw pages quaking and knocking in the briefcase.

Every Drop Is a Man's Nightmare is both a fierce love letter to Hawaiian identity and mythology, and a searing dispatch from an occupied territory threatening to erupt with violent secrets.]]>
272 Megan Kamalei Kakimoto 1639731172 Lani 3 3.84 2023 Every Drop Is a Man's Nightmare
author: Megan Kamalei Kakimoto
name: Lani
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/16
date added: 2024/11/16
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<![CDATA[Press Reset: Ruin and Recovery in the Video Game Industry]]> 55277893 From the bestselling author of Blood, Sweat, and Pixels comes the next definitive, behind-the-scenes account of the video game industry: how some of the past decade's most renowned studios fell apart -- and the stories, both triumphant and tragic, of what happened next.

Jason Schreier's groundbreaking reporting has earned him a place among the preeminent investigative journalists covering the world of video games. In his eagerly anticipated, deeply researched new book, Schreier trains his investigative eye on the volatility of the video game industry and the resilience of the people who work in it.

The business of videogames is both a prestige industry and an opaque one. Based on dozens of first-hand interviews that cover the development of landmark games -- Bioshock Infinite, Epic Mickey, Dead Space, and more -- on to the shocking closures of the studios that made them, PRESS RESET tells the stories of how real people are affected by game studio shutdowns, and how they recover, move on, or escape the industry entirely.

Schreier's insider interviews cover hostile takeovers, abusive bosses, corporate drama, bounced checks, and that one time the Boston Red Sox's Curt Schilling decided he was going to lead a game studio that would take out World of Warcraft. Along the way, he asks pressing questions about why, when the video game industry is more successful than ever, it's become so hard to make a stable living making video games -- and whether the business of making games can change before it's too late.]]>
301 Jason Schreier 1538735490 Lani 3 4.02 2021 Press Reset: Ruin and Recovery in the Video Game Industry
author: Jason Schreier
name: Lani
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/01
date added: 2024/11/14
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Dolly: Daughter of the South 5826889 0 L. Scobey 0890837732 Lani 3 3.29 1901 Dolly: Daughter of the South
author: L. Scobey
name: Lani
average rating: 3.29
book published: 1901
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/14
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Hex and Hexability 198810415
Lady Tiffany Worthington has always had a special talent for making the world around her come to life � whether she wants it to or not � but it’s only with the arrival of her mysterious great aunt Esme on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo that she learns she’s a witch � and that the magic she’s long feared is actually a gift to be embraced.

Now, as she’s exposed to a side of London she never knew existed, one with sea creatures, magical portals, time travel, and a handsome duke from a faraway land with a dashing scar that makes him look like a pirate, Lady Tiffany discovers that despite what the ton might decree, there is no limit to what she can do � or who she can be.]]>
384 Kate Johnson 0008671427 Lani 4 3.68 2024 Hex and Hexability
author: Kate Johnson
name: Lani
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/12
date added: 2024/11/14
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Cassiel's Servant 61884931 The lush epic fantasy that inspired a generation with a single “Love As Thou Wilt."

Returning to the realm of Terre d’Ange which captured an entire generation of fantasy readers, New York Times bestselling author Jacqueline Carey brings us a hero’s journey for a new era.

In Kushiel’s Dart , a daring young courtesan uncovered a plot to destroy her beloved homeland. But hers is only half the tale. Now see the other half of the heart that lived it.

Cassiel’s Servant is a retelling of cult favorite Kushiel’s Dar t from the point of view of Joscelin, Cassiline warrior-priest and protector of Phèdre nó Delaunay. He’s sworn to celibacy and the blade as surely as she’s pledged to pleasure, but the gods they serve have bound them together. When both are betrayed, they must rely on each other to survive.

From his earliest training to captivity amongst their enemies, his journey with Phèdre to avert the conquest of Terre D’Ange shatters body and mind� and brings him an impossible love that he will do anything to keep.

Even if it means breaking all vows and losing his soul.]]>
528 Jacqueline Carey 1250208335 Lani 3 4.21 2023 Cassiel's Servant
author: Jacqueline Carey
name: Lani
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/07
date added: 2024/11/14
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<![CDATA[Breaking and Entering: The Extraordinary Story of a Hacker Called "Alien"]]> 40954217 This taut, true thriller dives into a dark world that touches us all, as seen through the brilliant, breakneck career of an extraordinary hacker—a woman known only as Alien.

When she arrived at MIT in the 1990s, Alien was quickly drawn to the school’s tradition of high‑risk physical the original “hacking.� Within a year, one of her hallmates was dead and two others were arraigned. Alien’s adventures were only just beginning.

After a stint at the storied, secretive Los Alamos National Laboratory, Alien was recruited by a top cybersecurity firm where she deployed her cache of virtual weapons—and the trespassing and social engineering talents she had developed while “hacking� at MIT. The company tested its clients� security by every means possible—not just coding, but donning disguises and sneaking past guards and secretaries into the C‑suite.

Alien now runs a boutique hacking outfit that caters to some of the world’s biggest and most vulnerable institutions—banks, retailers, government agencies. Her work combines devilish charm, old‑school deception, and next generation spycraft. In Breaking and Entering, cybersecurity finally gets the rich, character‑driven, fast-paced treatment it deserves.]]>
0 Jeremy N. Smith 0544911229 Lani 3 4.02 2019 Breaking and Entering: The Extraordinary Story of a Hacker Called "Alien"
author: Jeremy N. Smith
name: Lani
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/08
date added: 2024/11/08
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<![CDATA[Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees]]> 195924473
InBite by Bite, poet and essayist Aimee Nezhukumatathil explores the way food and drink evoke our associations and remembrances—a subtext or layering, a flavor tinged with joy, shame, exuberance, grief, desire, or nostalgia.

Nezhukmatathil restores our astonishment and wonder about food through her encounters with a range of foods and food traditions. From shave ice to lumpia, mangoes to pecans, rambutan to vanilla, she investigates how food marks our experiences and identities, the boundaries between heritage and memory, and the ethics and environmental pressures around gathering and consuming food.

Bite by Biteoffers a rich and textured kaleidoscope of vignettes and visions into the world of food and nature, drawn together by intimate and funny personal reflections, with Fumi Nakamura’s gorgeous imagery and illustration.]]>
224 Aimee Nezhukumatathil 0063282283 Lani 4 4.14 2024 Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees
author: Aimee Nezhukumatathil
name: Lani
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/03
date added: 2024/11/03
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Days at the Morisaki Bookshop 74888456 The wise and charming international bestseller and hit Japanese movie—about a young woman who loses everything but finds herself—a tale of new beginnings, romantic and family relationships, and the comfort that can be found in books.

Twenty-five-year-old Takako has enjoyed a relatively easy existence—until the day her boyfriend Hideaki, the man she expected to wed, casually announces he’s been cheating on her and is marrying the other woman. Suddenly, Takako’s life is in freefall. She loses her job, her friends, and her acquaintances, and spirals into a deep depression. In the depths of her despair, she receives a call from her distant uncle Satoru.

An unusual man who has always pursued something of an unconventional life, especially after his wife Momoko left him out of the blue five years earlier, Satoru runs a second-hand bookshop in Jimbocho, Tokyo’s famous book district. Takako once looked down upon Satoru’s life. Now, she reluctantly accepts his offer of the tiny room above the bookshop rent-free in exchange for helping out at the store. The move is temporary, until she can get back on her feet. But in the months that follow, Takako surprises herself when she develops a passion for Japanese literature, becomes a regular at a local coffee shop where she makes new friends, and eventually meets a young editor from a nearby publishing house who’s going through his own messy breakup.

But just as she begins to find joy again, Hideaki reappears, forcing Takako to rely once again on her uncle, whose own life has begun to unravel. Together, these seeming opposites work to understand each other and themselves as they continue to share the wisdom they’ve gained in the bookshop.]]>
154 Satoshi Yagisawa Lani 3 3.88 2010 Days at the Morisaki Bookshop
author: Satoshi Yagisawa
name: Lani
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/27
date added: 2024/10/27
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