Karen 's bookshelf: all en-US Tue, 08 Apr 2025 20:14:24 -0700 60 Karen 's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Rules of Civility 11979229 The New York Times bestselling novel that "enchants on first reading and only improves on the second" (The Philadelphia Inquirer)

This sophisticated and entertaining first novel presents the story of a young woman whose life is on the brink of transformation. On the last night of 1937, twenty-five-year-old Katey Kontent is in a second-rate Greenwich Village jazz bar when Tinker Grey, a handsome banker, happens to sit down at the neighboring table. This chance encounter and its startling consequences propel Katey on a year-long journey into the upper echelons of New York society—where she will have little to rely upon other than a bracing wit and her own brand of cool nerve. With its sparkling depiction of New York’s social strata, its intricate imagery and themes, and its immensely appealing characters, Rules of Civility won the hearts of readers and critics alike.


]]> 337 Amor Towles Karen 4 4.20 2011 Rules of Civility
author: Amor Towles
name: Karen
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2018/09/06
date added: 2025/04/08
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]]> <![CDATA[How to Solve Your Own Murder (Castle Knoll Files, #1)]]> 181344911
It’s 1965 and teenage Frances Adams is at an English country fair with her two best friends. But Frances’s night takes a hairpin turn when a fortune-teller makes a bone-chilling One day, Frances will be murdered. Frances spends a lifetime trying to solve a crime that hasn’t happened yet, compiling dirt on every person who crosses her path in an effort to prevent her own demise. For decades, no one takes Frances seriously, until nearly sixty years later, when Frances is found murdered, like she always said she would be.
Ěý
In the present day, Annie Adams has been summoned to a meeting at the sprawling country estate of her wealthy and reclusive great-aunt Frances. But by the time Annie arrives in the quaint English village of Castle Knoll, Frances is already dead. Annie is determined to catch the killer, but thanks to Frances’s lifelong habit of digging up secrets and lies, it seems every endearing and eccentric villager might just have a motive for her murder. Can Annie safely unravel the dark mystery at the heart of Castle Knoll, or will dredging up the past throw her into the path of a killer?
Ěý
As Annie gets closer to the truth, and closer to the danger, she starts to fear she might inherit her aunt’s fate instead of her fortune.]]> 366 Kristen Perrin Karen 0 currently-reading 3.96 2024 How to Solve Your Own Murder (Castle Knoll Files, #1)
author: Kristen Perrin
name: Karen
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/19
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]]> All in the Timing 186632
At once enchanting and perplexing, incisively intelligent and side-splittingly funny, this original paperback edition of Ives's plays includes "Sure Thing," "Words, Words, Words," "The Universal Language," "Variations on the Death of Trotsky," "The Philadelphia," "Long Ago and Far Away," "Foreplay, or The Art of the Fugue," "Seven Menus," "Mere Mortals," "English Made Simple," "A Singular Kinda Guy," "Speed-the-Play," "Ancient History," and "Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread."]]> 336 David Ives 067975928X Karen 0 4.15 1994 All in the Timing
author: David Ives
name: Karen
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1994
rating: 0
read at: 2025/01/23
date added: 2025/03/12
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]]> By Any Other Name 203337138 From the New York Times bestselling co-author of Mad Honey comes an “inspiring� (Elle) novel about two women, centuries apart—one of whom is the real author of Shakespeare’s plays—who are both forced to hide behind another name.

Young playwright Melina Green has just written a new work inspired by the life of her Elizabethan ancestor Emilia Bassano. But seeing it performed is unlikely, in a theater world where the playing field isn’t level for women. As Melina wonders if she dares risk failure again, her best friend takes the decision out of her hands and submits the play to a festival under a male pseudonym.

In 1581, young Emilia Bassano is a ward of English aristocrats. Her lessons on languages, history, and writing have endowed her with a sharp wit and a gift for storytelling, but like most women of her day, she is allowed no voice of her own. Forced to become a mistress to the Lord Chamberlain, who oversees all theatre productions in England, Emilia sees firsthand how the words of playwrights can move an audience. She begins to form a plan to secretly bring a play of her own to the stage—by paying an actor named William Shakespeare to front her work.

Told in intertwining timelines, By Any Other Name, a sweeping tale of ambition, courage, and desire centers two women who are determined to create something beautiful despite the prejudices they face. Should a writer do whatever it takes to see her story live on . . . no matter the cost? This remarkable novel, rooted in primary historical sources, ensures the name Emilia Bassano will no longer be forgotten.]]> 528 Jodi Picoult 0593497228 Karen 0 4.12 2024 By Any Other Name
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Karen
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2025/03/12
date added: 2025/03/12
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]]> <![CDATA[What an Owl Knows: The New Science of the World's Most Enigmatic Birds]]> 63024269
From the author of The Genius of Birds and The Bird Way, a brilliant scientific investigation into owls—the most elusive of birds—and why they exert such a hold on human imagination

For millennia, owls have captivated and intrigued us. Our fascination with these mysterious birds was first documented more than thirty thousand years ago in the Chauvet Cave paintings in southern France. With their forward gaze and quiet flight, owls are often a symbol of wisdom, knowledge, and foresight. But what does an owl really know? And what do we really know about owls? Though our fascination goes back centuries, scientists have only recently begun to understand in deep detail the complex nature of these extraordinary birds. Some two hundred sixty species of owls exist today, and they reside on every continent except Antarctica, but they are far more difficult to find and study than other birds because they are cryptic, camouflaged, and mostly active in the dark of night.

Jennifer Ackerman illuminates the rich biology and natural history of these birds and reveals remarkable new scientific discoveries about their brains and behavior. She joins scientists in the field and explores how researchers are using modern technology and tools to learn how owls communicate, hunt, court, mate, raise their young, and move about from season to season. We now know that the hoots, squawks, and chitters of owls follow sophisticated and complex rules, allowing them to express not just their needs and desires but their individuality and identity. Owls duet. They migrate. They hoard their prey. Some live in underground burrows; some roost in large groups; some dine on black widows and scorpions.

Ackerman brings this research alive with her own personal field observations about owls and dives deep into why these birds beguile us. What an Owl Knows is an awe-inspiring exploration of owls across the globe and through human history, and a spellbinding account of their astonishing hunting skills, communication, and sensory prowess. By providing extraordinary new insights into the science of owls, What an Owl Knows pulls back the curtain on the nature of the world’s most enigmatic group of birds.]]> 333 Jennifer Ackerman 0593298888 Karen 0 4.15 2023 What an Owl Knows: The New Science of the World's Most Enigmatic Birds
author: Jennifer Ackerman
name: Karen
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/17
date added: 2025/02/16
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]]> <![CDATA[The World's Largest Man: A Memoir]]> 25465607 Winner of the 2016 Thurber Prize

Harrison Scott Key was born in Memphis, but he grew up in Mississippi, among pious Bible-reading women and men who either shot things or got women pregnant. At the center of his world was his larger-than-life father—a hunter, a fighter, a football coach, "a man better suited to living in a remote frontier wilderness of the nineteenth century than contemporary America, with all its progressive ideas and paved roads and lack of armed duels. He was a great man, and he taught me many how to fight and work and cheat and how to pray to Jesus about it, how to kill things with guns and knives and, if necessary, with hammers."

Harrison, with his love of books and excessive interest in hugging, couldn't have been less like Pop, and when it became clear that he was not able to kill anything very well, or otherwise make his father happy, he resolved to become everything his father was an actor, a Presbyterian, and a doctor of philosophy. But when it was time to settle down and start a family of his own, Harrison began to view his father in a new light and realized—for better and for worse—how much like his old man he'd become.

Sly, heartfelt, and tirelessly hilarious, The World's Largest Man is an unforgettable memoir—the story of a boy's struggle to reconcile himself with an impossibly outsize role model, and a grown man's reckoning with the father it took him a lifetime to understand.]]> 357 Harrison Scott Key 0062351524 Karen 0 4.34 2015 The World's Largest Man: A Memoir
author: Harrison Scott Key
name: Karen
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at: 2018/08/26
date added: 2025/01/16
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]]> <![CDATA[Deathtrap: A Thriller in Two Acts]]> 157568725 121 Ira Levin Karen 0 3.50 1978 Deathtrap: A Thriller in Two Acts
author: Ira Levin
name: Karen
average rating: 3.50
book published: 1978
rating: 0
read at: 2023/06/20
date added: 2025/01/08
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]]> The Frozen River 56699106
Over the course of one winter, as the trial nears, and whispers and prejudices mount, Martha doggedly pursues the truth. Her diary soon lands at the center of the scandal, implicating those she loves, and compelling Martha to decide where her own loyalties lie.

Clever, layered, and subversive, Ariel Lawhon’s newest offering introduces an unsung heroine who refused to accept anything less than justice at a time when women were considered best seen and not heard. The Frozen River is a thrilling, tense, and tender story about a remarkable woman who left an unparalleled legacy yet remains nearly forgotten to this day.]]> 432 Ariel Lawhon 0385546882 Karen 5 4.52 2023 The Frozen River
author: Ariel Lawhon
name: Karen
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/04
date added: 2025/01/04
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]]> The Answer Is No 219876684 In a hilarious short story from New York Times bestselling author Fredrik Backman, the absurdities of modern life cause one man’s solitary world to spin suddenly, and comically, out of control.

Lucas knows the perfect night entails just three things: video games, wine, and pad thai. Peanuts are a must! Other people? Not so much. Why complicate things when he’s happy alone?

Then one day the apartment board, a vexing trio of authority, rings his doorbell. And Lucas’s solitude takes a startling hike. They demand to see his frying pan. Someone left one next to the recycling room overnight, and instead of removing the errant object, as Lucas suggests, they insist on finding the guilty party. But their plan backfires. Colossally.

Told in Fredrik Backman’s singular witty style with sharply drawn characters and relatable antics, The Answer Is No is a laugh-out-loud portrait of a man struggling to keep to himself in a world that won’t leave him alone.]]> 68 Fredrik Backman 1662526520 Karen 5 3.94 2024 The Answer Is No
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Karen
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/22
date added: 2024/12/22
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]]> David Copperfield 134945530
David Copperfield is also an autobiographical "a very complicated weaving of truth and invention", with events following Dickens's own life. Of the books he wrote, it was his favourite. Called "the triumph of the art of Dickens", it marks a turning point in his work, separating the novels of youth and those of maturity.

At first glance, the work is modelled on 18th-century "personal histories" that were very popular, like Henry Fielding's Joseph Andrews or Tom Jones, but David Copperfield is a more carefully structured work. It begins, like other novels by Dickens, with a bleak picture of childhood in Victorian England, followed by young Copperfield's slow social ascent, as he painfully provides for his aunt, while continuing his studies.

Dickens wrote without an outline, unlike his previous novel, Dombey and Son. Some aspects of the story were fixed in his mind from the start, but others were undecided until the serial publications were underway. The novel has a primary theme of growth and change, but Dickens also satirises many aspects of Victorian life. These include the plight of prostitutes, the status of women in marriage, class structure, the criminal justice system, the quality of schools, and the employment of children in factories.]]> 1083 Charles Dickens Karen 0 currently-reading 4.57 1850 David Copperfield
author: Charles Dickens
name: Karen
average rating: 4.57
book published: 1850
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/13
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]]> Demon Copperhead 60317128 Demon Copperhead is set in the mountains of southern Appalachia. It's the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.

Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind.]]> 550 Barbara Kingsolver Karen 5 4.58 2022 Demon Copperhead
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Karen
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/12
date added: 2024/12/13
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]]> <![CDATA[Our Town: A Play in Three Acts]]> 53593653 This beautiful new edition features an eyeopening Afterword written by Tappan Wilder that includes Thornton Wilder's unpublished notes and other illuminating photographs and documentary material.

Our TownĚýwas first produced and published in 1938 to wide acclaim. This Pulitzer Prize-winning drama of life in the small village of Grover's Corners, an allegorical representation of all life, has become a classic. It is Thornton Wilder's most renowned and most frequently performed play.]]> 224 Thornton Wilder 0063060116 Karen 4 4.18 1938 Our Town: A Play in Three Acts
author: Thornton Wilder
name: Karen
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1938
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/15
date added: 2024/11/15
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]]> Tom Lake 63256933 In this beautiful and moving novel about family, love, and growing up, Ann Patchett once again proves herself one of America’s finest writers.

In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.

Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart. As in all of her novels, Ann Patchett combines compelling narrative artistry with piercing insights into family dynamics. The result is a rich and luminous story, told with profound intelligence and emotional subtlety, that demonstrates once again why she is one of the most revered and acclaimed literary talents working today.]]> 310 Ann Patchett 0063327546 Karen 3 4.13 2023 Tom Lake
author: Ann Patchett
name: Karen
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/14
date added: 2024/11/14
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]]> <![CDATA[The Grey Wolf (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #19)]]> 204174589
Relentless phone calls interrupt the peace of a warm August morning in Three Pines. Though the tiny Québec village is impossible to find on any map, someone has managed to track down Armand Gamache, head of homicide at the Sûreté, as he sits with his wife in their back garden. Reine-Marie watches with increasing unease as her husband refuses to pick up, though he clearly knows who is on the other end. When he finally answers, his rage shatters the calm of their quiet Sunday morning.

That's only the first in a sequence of strange events that begin THE GREY WOLF, the nineteenth novel in Louise Penny's #1 New York Times-bestselling series. A missing coat, an intruder alarm, a note for Gamache reading "this might interest you", a puzzling scrap of paper with a mysterious list—and then a murder. All propel Chief Inspector Gamache and his team toward a terrible realization. Something much more sinister than any one murder or any one case is fast approaching.

Armand Gamache, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, his son-in-law and second in command, and Inspector Isabelle Lacoste can only trust each other, as old friends begin to act like enemies, and long-time enemies appear to be friends. Determined to track down the threat before it becomes a reality, their pursuit takes them across Québec and across borders. Their hunt grows increasingly desperate, even frantic, as the enormity of the creature they’re chasing becomes clear. If they fail the devastating consequences would reach into the largest of cities and the smallest of villages.

Including Three Pines.]]> 432 Louise Penny 1250328144 Karen 4 4.42 2024 The Grey Wolf (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #19)
author: Louise Penny
name: Karen
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/05
date added: 2024/11/05
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]]> Somebody's Fool (Sully #3) 63120893
Ten years after the death of the magnetic Donald “Sully� Sullivan, the town of North Bath is going through a major transition as it is annexed by its much wealthier neighbor, Schuyler Springs. Peter, Sully’s son, is still grappling with his father’s tremendous legacy as well as his relationship to his own son, Thomas, wondering if he has been all that different a father than Sully was to him. Meanwhile, the towns� newly consolidated police department falls into the hands of Charice Bond, after the resignation of Doug Raymer, the former North Bath police chief and Charice’s ex-lover. When a decomposing body turns up in the abandoned hotel situated between the two towns, Charice and Raymer are drawn together again and forced to address their complicated attraction to one another. Across town, Ruth, Sully’s married ex-lover, and her daughter Janey struggle to understand Janey’s daughter, Tina, and her growing obsession with Peter’s other son, Will. Amidst the turmoil, the town’s residents speculate on the identity of the unidentified body, and wonder who among their number could have disappeared unnoticed.

Infused with all the wry humor and shrewd observations that Russo is known for, Somebody's Fool is another classic from a modern master.]]> 464 Richard Russo 0593317904 Karen 5 4.45 2023 Somebody's Fool (Sully #3)
author: Richard Russo
name: Karen
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/29
date added: 2024/09/29
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]]> Remember Me 42759670 Eight people were in the woods that eight splintered lives, eight people hiding a terrible secret. But who can remember the truth?

Now, Ellen’s best friend, Detective Ava Cole is all grown up back in the village where it all began, and everyone is asking the same question.

What really happened to Ellen?

Filled with shocking discoveries and traumatic memories this fast paced thriller is perfect for fans of Friend Request and Close to Home.

]]> 295 D.E. White 000832204X Karen 4 3.81 2019 Remember Me
author: D.E. White
name: Karen
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2020/03/10
date added: 2024/09/28
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]]> <![CDATA[The Spellman Series Box Set 1 - 4 (The Spellmans, #1-4)]]> 11399778
·ĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚý The Spellman Meet the a family of sleuths for whom eavesdropping is a mandatory skill, locks are meant to be picked, past missteps are never forgotten, and blackmail is the preferred form of communication. The gunshot that set off the race of irresistible and hilarious novels in the Spellman series—The wisecracking Spellmans truly put the "fun" in dysfunctional.

·ĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚý Curse of the The knockout sequel to The Spellman Files features the same lovable family chaos—and even more bizarre twists and turns—as Izzy undertakes some recreational surveillance of her own. Nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel of 2008.

·ĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚý Revenge of the Third in the critically acclaimed series, Revenge of the Spellmans gives us another dose of smart-ass antics and a gut-busting glimpseĚýinto the Spellman world. This time, Izzy is not only on the case, but also on the couch—in court-ordered therapy. While Izzy decides whether she wants to stay in the family business, she tends bar and takes on the case of ErnieĚý Black's not very suspicious wife.Ěý

·ĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚý The Spellmans Strike The fourth Spellman novel is packed with the most family drama yet. Izzy finally agrees to take over the family business, and the transition is not a smooth one. This book proves beyond a reasonable doubt that no matter how much Isabel shrinks her head, she will never be able to follow Rule #1: Act Normal.]]> 1969 Lisa Lutz 1451659369 Karen 5 4.45 2011 The Spellman Series Box Set 1 - 4 (The Spellmans, #1-4)
author: Lisa Lutz
name: Karen
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2011
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/09/28
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]]> The God of the Woods 199698485 When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide

Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.]]> 490 Liz Moore Karen 5 4.16 2024 The God of the Woods
author: Liz Moore
name: Karen
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/20
date added: 2024/09/20
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]]> The Professor 66554650
Marlitt Kaplan never investigated love affairs. A former detective turned research assistant, she misses the excitement of her old job, but most of all the friendship of her partner, Teddy. When her mother, a professor at the university and colleague of the accused professor, asks for her help, she finds herself in the impossible position of proving something didn't happen. Without the credentials to interview suspects or access phone records, she will have to get closer to a victim's life than ever before. And she quickly finds herself in his apartment, having dinner with his roommates, even sleeping in his bed. But is she too close to see the truth?

In her relentless pursuit to uncover the mystery behind Ethan’s death, Marlitt will be forced to confront the power structures ingrained in the classroom against the backdrop of a historic campus and an institution that sometimes fails its most vulnerable members.]]> 336 Lauren Nossett 1250845378 Karen 4 3.76 2023 The Professor
author: Lauren Nossett
name: Karen
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/14
date added: 2024/09/13
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]]> <![CDATA[The Trespasser (Dublin Murder Squad, #6)]]> 29470866 A brilliant new novel from the New York Times bestselling author, whom Gillian Flynn calls "mesmerizing" and Stephen King calls "incandescent."


Being on the Murder squad is nothing like Detective Antoinette Conway dreamed it would be. Her partner, Stephen Moran, is the only person who seems glad she’s there. The rest of her working life is a stream of thankless cases, vicious pranks, and harassment. Antoinette is savagely tough, but she’s getting close to the breaking point.

Their new case looks like yet another by-the-numbers lovers� quarrel gone bad. Aislinn Murray is blond, pretty, groomed to a shine, and dead in her catalogue-perfect living room, next to a table set for a romantic dinner. There’s nothing unusual about her—except that Antoinette’s seen her somewhere before.

And that her death won’t stay in its neat by-numbers box. Other detectives are trying to push Antoinette and Steve into arresting Aislinn’s boyfriend, fast. There’s a shadowy figure at the end of Antoinette's road. Aislinn's friend is hinting that she knew Aislinn was in danger. And everything they find out about Aislinn takes her further from the glossy, passive doll she seemed to be.

Antoinette knows the harassment has turned her paranoid, but she can’t tell just how far gone she is. Is this case another step in the campaign to force her off the squad, or are there darker currents flowing beneath its polished surface?]]> 464 Tana French 073522109X Karen 4 4.17 2016 The Trespasser (Dublin Murder Squad, #6)
author: Tana French
name: Karen
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/06
date added: 2024/09/06
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]]> <![CDATA[Help the Poor Struggler (Richard Jury #6)]]> 19188286 324 Martha Grimes Karen 3 4.12 1985 Help the Poor Struggler (Richard Jury #6)
author: Martha Grimes
name: Karen
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1985
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/30
date added: 2024/08/30
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]]> The Resemblance 60005214 Lauren Nossett’s artfully written debut, The Resemblance is an exhilarating, atmospheric campus thriller reminiscent of The Secret History and The Likeness.

Never betray the brotherhood

On a chilly November morning at the University of Georgia, a fraternity brother steps off a busy crosswalk and is struck dead by an oncoming car. More than a dozen witnesses all agree on two the driver looked identical to the victim, and he was smiling.

Detective Marlitt Kaplan is first on the scene. An Athens native and the daughter of a UGA professor, she knows all its shameful histories, from the skull discovered under the foundations of Baldwin Hall to the hushed-up murder-suicide in Waddel. But in the course of investigating this hit-and-run, she will uncover more chilling secrets as she explores the sprawling, interconnected Greek system that entertains and delights the university’s most elite and connected students.

The lines between Marlitt’s police work and her own past increasingly blur as Marlitt seeks to bring to justice an institution that took something precious from her many years ago. When threats against her escalate, and some long-buried secrets threaten to come to the surface, she can’t help questioning whether the corruption in Athens has run off campus and into the force and how far these brotherhoods will go to protect their own.]]> 320 Lauren Nossett 1250843251 Karen 4 3.49 2022 The Resemblance
author: Lauren Nossett
name: Karen
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/10
date added: 2024/08/10
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]]> <![CDATA[The Laramie Project and The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later]]> 18811360 The Laramie ProjectĚýhas become a modern classic and one of the most-performed theater pieces in America.Ěý
Ěý Ěý Ěý Ěý Now, in this expanded edition,ĚýThe Laramie Project: Ten Years LaterĚýadds an essential sequel to the original work. Revisiting the town a decade after the tragedy, the troupe finds a community grappling with its legacy and its place in history. The two plays together comprise an epic and deeply moving theatrical cycle that explores the life of an American town over the course a decade. Ěý]]> 224 MoisĂ©s Kaufman 0804170398 Karen 4 4.29 2011 The Laramie Project and The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later
author: Moisés Kaufman
name: Karen
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/06
date added: 2024/08/07
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]]> <![CDATA[Pathways to Joy: The Master Vivekananda on the Four Yoga Paths to God]]> 20505425 316 Dave DeLuca 1577317564 Karen 3 4.24 2006 Pathways to Joy: The Master Vivekananda on the Four Yoga Paths to God
author: Dave DeLuca
name: Karen
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2018/04/30
date added: 2024/08/06
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]]> Good Half Gone 123023304 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Never Never and The Wives

Iris Walsh saw her twin sister, Piper, get kidnapped—so why does no one believe her?

Iris narrowly escaped her twin sister’s fate as a teen: abducted in broad daylight and long gone before she could convince the cops there was anything to investigate. With Piper presumed a runaway and no evidence to go on but Iris’s scattered memories, the case quickly goes cold.

Ever since that terrible day, Iris� search for Piper has bordered on obsession. Chasing leads across years and following clues that all seem to point to a single name, Iris does everything she can to get close to the only person who might know the answer to the question that still haunts her: where did Piper go? And if the police still won’t help, she’ll just have to find the answer herself--using her criminal psychology degree to intern at the isolated psychiatric hospital on Shoal Island, where secrets lurk in the shadows and are kept under lock and key. But Iris soon realizes that something even more sinister is simmering beneath the surface of the Shoal, and that the patients aren’t the only ones being observed…]]> 288 Tarryn Fisher 0369732758 Karen 2 3.68 2024 Good Half Gone
author: Tarryn Fisher
name: Karen
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/08/03
date added: 2024/08/03
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]]> <![CDATA[The Library of Borrowed Hearts]]> 181694817 A.J. Fikry meets The Bookish Life of Nina Hill in this charming, hilarious, and moving novel about the way books bring lonely souls together.

Two young lovers. Sixty long years. One bookish mystery worth solving.

Librarian Chloe Sampson has been struggling: to take care of her three younger siblings, to find herself, to make ends meet. She's just about at the end of her rope when she stumbles across a rare edition of a book from the 1960s at the local flea market. Deciding it's a sign of her luck turning, she takes it home with her—only to be shocked when her cranky hermit of a neighbor swoops in and offers to buy it for an exorbitant price. Intrigued, Chloe takes a closer look at the book only to find notes scribbled in the margins between two young lovers back when the book was new…one of whom is almost definitely Jasper Holmes, the curmudgeon next door.

When she begins following the clues left behind, she discovers this isn't the only old book in town filled with romantic marginalia. This kickstarts a literary scavenger hunt that Chloe is determined to see through to the end. What happened to the two tragic lovers who corresponded in the margins of so many different library books? And what does it have to do with the old, sad man next door—who only now has begun to open his home and heart to Chloe and her siblings?

In a romantic tale that spans the decades, Chloe discovers that there's much more to her grouchy old neighbor than meets the eye. And in allowing herself to accept the unexpected friendship he offers, she learns that some love stories begin in the unlikeliest of places.]]> 359 Lucy Gilmore 1728256267 Karen 4 4.18 2024 The Library of Borrowed Hearts
author: Lucy Gilmore
name: Karen
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/30
date added: 2024/07/30
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]]> Marjorie Prime (TCG Edition) 27130473 96 Jordan Harrison Karen 3 4.18 2014 Marjorie Prime (TCG Edition)
author: Jordan Harrison
name: Karen
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/22
date added: 2024/06/22
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]]> The Crucible 17250
Written in 1953, The Crucible is a mirror Miller uses to reflect the anti-communist hysteria inspired by Senator Joseph McCarthy's "witch-hunts" in the United States. Within the text itself, Miller contemplates the parallels, writing, "Political opposition... is given an inhumane overlay, which then justifies the abrogation of all normally applied customs of civilized behavior. A political policy is equated with moral right, and opposition to it with diabolical malevolence."

WIth an introduction by Christopher Bigsby.
(back cover)]]> 143 Arthur Miller 0142437336 Karen 4 3.60 1953 The Crucible
author: Arthur Miller
name: Karen
average rating: 3.60
book published: 1953
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/19
date added: 2024/06/20
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]]> Apples Never Fall 56894456 #1 New York Times Bestseller
A Peacock Original TV Series–Streaming Soon

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Liane Moriarty comes a novel that looks at marriage, siblings, and how the people we love the most can hurt us the deepest

The Delaney family love one another dearly—it’s just that sometimes they want to murder each other . . .

If your mother was missing, would you tell the police? Even if the most obvious suspect was your father?

This is the dilemma facing the four grown Delaney siblings.

The Delaneys are fixtures in their community. The parents, Stan and Joy, are the envy of all of their friends. They’re killers on the tennis court, and off it their chemistry is palpable. But after fifty years of marriage, they’ve finally sold their famed tennis academy and are ready to start what should be the golden years of their lives. So why are Stan and Joy so miserable?

The four Delaney children—Amy, Logan, Troy, and Brooke—were tennis stars in their own right, yet as their father will tell you, none of them had what it took to go all the way. But that’s okay, now that they’re all successful grown-ups and there is the wonderful possibility of grandchildren on the horizon.

One night a stranger named Savannah knocks on Stan and Joy’s door, bleeding after a fight with her boyfriend. The Delaneys are more than happy to give her the small kindness she sorely needs. If only that was all she wanted.

Later, when Joy goes missing, and Savannah is nowhere to be found, the police question the one person who remains: Stan. But for someone who claims to be innocent, he, like many spouses, seems to have a lot to hide. Two of the Delaney children think their father is innocent, two are not so sure—but as the two sides square off against each other in perhaps their biggest match ever, all of the Delaneys will start to reexamine their shared family history in a very new light.]]> 474 Liane Moriarty Karen 0 3.99 2021 Apples Never Fall
author: Liane Moriarty
name: Karen
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2024/06/16
date added: 2024/06/16
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]]> <![CDATA[The Devil's Element: Phosphorus and a World Out of Balance]]> 66369627 A New Yorker Best Book of 2023 � A Smithsonian Staff Favorite of 2023



The New York Times best-selling author on the source of great bounty—and now great peril—all over the world.


Phosphorus has played a critical role in some of the most lethal substances on firebombs, rat poison, nerve gas. But it’s also the key component of one of the most fertilizer, which has sustained life for billions of people. In this major work of explanatory science and environmental journalism, Pulitzer Prize finalist Dan Egan investigates the past, present, and future of what has been called “the oil of our time.�


The story of phosphorus spans the globe and vast tracts of human history. First discovered in a seventeenth-century alchemy lab in Hamburg, it soon became a highly sought-after resource. The race to mine phosphorus took people from the battlefields of Waterloo, which were looted for the bones of fallen soldiers, to the fabled guano islands off Peru, the Bone Valley of Florida, and the sand dunes of the Western Sahara. Over the past century, phosphorus has made farming vastly more productive, feeding the enormous increase in the human population. Yet, as Egan harrowingly reports, our overreliance on this vital crop nutrient is today causing toxic algae blooms and “dead zones� in waterways from the coasts of Florida to the Mississippi River basin to the Great Lakes and beyond. Egan also explores the alarming reality that diminishing access to phosphorus poses a threat to the food system worldwide—which risks rising conflict and even war.


With The Devil’s Element, Egan has written an essential and eye-opening account that urges us to pay attention to one of the most perilous but little-known environmental issues of our time.]]> 243 Dan Egan 1324002670 Karen 5 4.45 2023 The Devil's Element: Phosphorus and a World Out of Balance
author: Dan Egan
name: Karen
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/01
date added: 2024/06/01
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]]> Sleuth 84919 Sleuth has all the ingredients of a top-class thriller, which it undoubtedly is - a plot whose twists and turns are breathtakingly audacious and fiendishly cunning; suspense and excitement galore; and a brilliant parody of the Agatha Christie country-house thriller, mercilessly satirizing the genre at the same as using its technical devices to the full. It is a dramatic study of sexual conflict and jealousy between an older and a younger man; as well as a subtle psychological portrait of an inadequate and sexually-obsessed middle-aged man.

Sleuth was filmed by Joseph Mankiewicz, with Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine in the leading roles, and this edition is fully illustrated with stills from the film, for which Anthony Shaffer wrote the screenplay.

Anthony Shaffer has written several television and stage plays, including the West End success Murderer (also available from Marion Boyars Publishers). He has also written many screenplays, including Play with a Gypsy , Hitchcock's Frenzy, The Wicker Man, and the Agatha Christie films Death on the Nile and Evil Under the Sun.]]> 93 Anthony Shaffer 0714507636 Karen 4 4.13 1970 Sleuth
author: Anthony Shaffer
name: Karen
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1970
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/04
date added: 2024/05/04
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]]> Elevation 38355410
Scott also has new neighbors who have opened a "fine dining experience" in town, although it's an experience being shunned by the locals: Deirdre McComb and her wife Missy Donaldson don't exactly conform to a lifestyle the community approves of. And now Scott seems trapped in a feud with the couple over their dogs dropping their business on his lawn. Missy may be warm and friendly, but Deirdre is as cold as ice.

As the town prepares for its annual Thanksgiving 12K run, Scott begins to understand the prejudices the women face, and tries to help. Unlikely alliances form, and the mystery of Scott's affliction brings out the best in people who have indulged the worst in themselves and others.

From the master storyteller Stephen King comes this compelling tale about finding common ground despite differences, a magical story with deep resonance for our time.]]> 146 Stephen King 1982102314 Karen 4 3.59 2018 Elevation
author: Stephen King
name: Karen
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/03
date added: 2024/05/04
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]]> <![CDATA[Night Passage (Jesse Stone, #1)]]> 414491
On arrival, the new chief finds himself in between corrupt town leaders, a local militia group, and a murderer on the loose.

This is an exciting departure for the creator of Spenser. Renowned author Robert B. Parker, "the reigning champion of the American tough-guy detective novel," (Entertainment Weekly), has landed on the 'New York Times' bestseller list once again but this time with Jesse Stone. Both readers and critics are thrilled.]]> 324 Robert B. Parker 0515123498 Karen 3 3.99 1997 Night Passage (Jesse Stone, #1)
author: Robert B. Parker
name: Karen
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1997
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/04
date added: 2024/05/04
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]]> Apple: (Skin to the Core) 54493155
The term "Apple" is a slur in Native communities across the country. It's for someone supposedly "red on the outside, white on the inside."

Eric Gansworth is telling his story in Apple (Skin to the Core). The story of his family, of Onondaga among Tuscaroras, of Native folks everywhere. From the horrible legacy of the government boarding schools, to a boy watching his siblings leave and return and leave again, to a young man fighting to be an artist who balances multiple worlds.

Eric shatters that slur and reclaims it in verse and prose and imagery that truly lives up to the word heartbreaking.]]> 352 Eric Gansworth 1646140141 Karen 4 3.89 2020 Apple: (Skin to the Core)
author: Eric Gansworth
name: Karen
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/21
date added: 2024/04/21
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]]> The Trial of the Century 62917608 NATIONAL BESTSELLER

A gripping and comprehensive history of the iconic attorney Clarence Darrow and the famous Scopes Monkey Trial, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Russia Hoax and the “superb� (Sean Hannity) Witch Hunt.

Nearly a century ago, famed liberal attorney Clarence Darrow defended schoolteacher John Scopes in a blockbuster legal proceeding that brought the attention of the entire country to the small town of Dayton, Tennessee. Darrow’s seminal defense of freedom of speech helped form the legal bedrock on which our civil liberties depend today. Expertly researched, eye-opening, and stirring, The Trial of the Century calls upon our past to unite Americans in the defense of the free exchange of ideas, especially in this divided time.]]> Gregg Jarrett 1797157752 Karen 4 3.62 The Trial of the Century
author: Gregg Jarrett
name: Karen
average rating: 3.62
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/27
date added: 2024/03/31
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]]> The Night Watchman 51058205 Based on the extraordinary life of National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich’sĚý grandfather who worked as a night watchman and carried the fight against Native dispossession from rural North Dakota all the way to Washington, D.C., this powerful novel explores themes of love and death with lightness and gravity and unfolds with the elegant prose, sly humor, and depth of feeling of a master craftsman.

Thomas Wazhashk is the night watchman at the jewel bearing plant, the first factory located near the Turtle Mountain Reservation in rural North Dakota. He is also a Chippewa Council member who is trying to understand the consequences of a new “emancipation� bill on its way to the floor of the United States Congress. It is 1953 and he and the other council members know the bill isn’t about freedom; Congress is fed up with Indians. The bill is a “termination� that threatens the rights of Native Americans to their land and their very identity. How can the government abandon treaties made in good faith with Native Americans “for as long as the grasses shall grow, and the rivers run�?

Since graduating high school, Pixie Paranteau has insisted that everyone call her Patrice. Unlike most of the girls on the reservation, Patrice, the class valedictorian, has no desire to wear herself down with a husband and kids. She makes jewel bearings at the plant, a job that barely pays her enough to support her mother and brother. Patrice’s shameful alcoholic father returns home sporadically to terrorize his wife and children and bully her for money. But Patrice needs every penny to follow her beloved older sister, Vera, who moved to the big city of Minneapolis. Vera may have disappeared; she hasn’t been in touch in months, and is rumored to have had a baby. Determined to find Vera and her child, Patrice makes a fateful trip to Minnesota that introduces her to unexpected forms of exploitation and violence, and endangers her life.

Thomas and Patrice live in this impoverished reservation community along with young Chippewa boxer Wood Mountain and his mother Juggie Blue, her niece and Patrice’s best friend Valentine, and Stack Barnes, the white high school math teacher and boxing coach who is hopelessly in love with Patrice.

In the Night Watchman, Louise Erdrich creates a fictional world populated with memorable characters who are forced to grapple with the worst and best impulses of human nature. Illuminating the loves and lives, the desires and ambitions of these characters with compassion, wit, and intelligence, The Night Watchman is a majestic work of fiction from this revered cultural treasure.

]]> 464 Louise Erdrich Karen 0 4.27 2020 The Night Watchman
author: Louise Erdrich
name: Karen
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2024/02/28
date added: 2024/02/28
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]]> <![CDATA[Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow]]> 58916147 A newer cover edition can be found here.

In this exhilarating novel by the best-selling author of The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry two friends--often in love, but never lovers--come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.

On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn't heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won't protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.

Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.]]> 418 Gabrielle Zevin Karen 5 4.26 2022 Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
author: Gabrielle Zevin
name: Karen
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/16
date added: 2024/02/16
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]]> Trust 59039413
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES TOP TEN BOOKS OF 2022
ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2022
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2022 BOOKER PRIZE

“Buzzy and enthralling …A glorious novel about empires and erasures, husbands and wives, staggering fortunes and unspeakable misery…Fun as hell to read.� � Oprah Daily

"A genre-bending, time-skipping story about New York City’s elite in the roaring �20s and Great Depression." � Vanity Fair

“A riveting story of class, capitalism, and greed.”Ěýâ€� Esquire

"Exhilarating.� � New York Times

Even through the roar and effervescence of the 1920s, everyone in New York has heard of Benjamin and Helen Rask. He is a legendary Wall Street tycoon; she is the daughter of eccentric aristocrats. Together, they have risen to the very top of a world of seemingly endless wealth—all as a decade of excess and speculation draws to an end. But at what cost have they acquired their immense fortune? This is the mystery at the center of Bonds , a successful 1937 novel that all of New York seems to have read. Yet there are other versions of this tale of privilege and deceit.
ĚýĚýĚýĚýHernan Diaz’s TRUST elegantly puts these competing narratives into conversation with one another—and in tension with the perspective of one woman bent on disentangling fact from fiction. The result is a novel that spans over a century and becomes more exhilarating with each new revelation.
Ěý Ěý At once an immersive story and a brilliant literary puzzle, TRUST engages the reader in a quest for the truth while confronting the deceptions that often live at the heart of personal relationships, the reality-warping force of capital, and the ease with which power can manipulate facts.]]> 415 Hernan Diaz 0593420330 Karen 5 3.97 2022 Trust
author: Hernan Diaz
name: Karen
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/04
date added: 2024/02/04
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]]> The Exchange (The Firm, #2) 124025550 #1 New York Times bestselling author John Grisham delivers high-flying international suspense in a stunning new legal thriller that marks the return of Mitch McDeere, the brilliant hero of The Firm.

What became of Mitch and Abby McDeere after they exposed the crimes of Memphis law firm Bendini, Lambert & Locke and fled the country? The answer is in The Exchange, the riveting sequel to The Firm, the blockbuster thrillerĚýthat launched the careerĚýof America’s favorite storyteller. It is now fifteen years later, and Mitch and Abby are living in Manhattan, where Mitch is a partner at the largest law firmĚýin the world. When a mentor in Rome asks him for a favor that will take him far from home, Mitch finds himself at the center of a sinister plot that has worldwideĚýimplications—and once again endangers his colleagues, friends, and family. Mitch has becomeĚýa master at staying one step ahead of his adversaries, but this time there’s nowhereĚýto hide.]]> 352 John Grisham 0385548966 Karen 3 3.97 2023 The Exchange (The Firm, #2)
author: John Grisham
name: Karen
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/18
date added: 2024/01/18
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]]> Orwell's Roses 58451566 Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for NonfictionFinalist for the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography“An exhilarating romp through Orwell’s life and times and also through the life and times of roses.â€� —Margaret Atwood “A captivating account of Orwell as gardener, lover, parent, and endlessly curious thinker.â€� —Claire Messud, Harper's“Nobody who reads it will ever think of Nineteen Eighty-Four in quite the same way.â€� —Vogue A lush exploration of politics, roses, and pleasure, and a fresh take on George Orwell as an avid gardener whose political writing was grounded by his passion for the natural world “In the spring of 1936, a writer planted roses.â€� So be-gins Rebecca Solnit’s new book, a reflection on George Orwell’s passionate gardening and the way that his involvement with plants, particularly flowers, illuminates his other commitments as a writer and antifascist, and on the intertwined politics of nature and power. Sparked by her unexpected encounter with the roses he reportedly planted in 1936, Solnit’s account of this overlooked aspect of Orwell’s life journeys through his writing and his actions—from going deep into the coal mines of England, fighting in the Spanish Civil War, critiquing Stalin when much of the international left still supported him (and then critiquing that left) to his analysis of the relationship between lies and authoritarianism. Through Solnit’s celebrated ability to draw unexpected connections, readers are drawn onward from Orwellâ€s own work as a writer and gardener to encounter photographer Tina Modotti’s roses and her politics, agriculture and illusion in the USSR of his time with forcing lemons to grow in impossibly cold conditions, Orwell’s slave-owning ancestors in Jamaica, Jamaica Kincaid’s examination of colonialism and imperialism in the flower garden, and the brutal rose industry in Colombia that supplies the American market. The book draws to a close with a rereading of Nineteen Eighty-Four that completes Solnit’s portrait of a more hopeful Orwell, as well as offering a meditation on pleasure, beauty, and joy as acts of resistance.]]> 320 Rebecca Solnit 0593083385 Karen 5 4.16 2021 Orwell's Roses
author: Rebecca Solnit
name: Karen
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/08
date added: 2023/12/08
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]]> Year of Wonders 4965
Through Anna's eyes we follow the story of the fateful year of 1666, as she and her fellow villagers confront the spread of disease and superstition.

As death reaches into every household and villagers turn from prayers to murderous witch-hunting, Anna must find the strength to confront the disintegration of her community and the lure of illicit love.

As she struggles to survive and grow, a year of catastrophe becomes instead annus mirabilis, a "year of wonders."

Inspired by the true story of Eyam, a village in the rugged hill country of England, Year of Wonders is a richly detailed evocation of a singular moment in history. ]]> 304 Geraldine Brooks 0142001430 Karen 0 4.00 2001 Year of Wonders
author: Geraldine Brooks
name: Karen
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at: 2019/03/04
date added: 2023/11/11
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]]> <![CDATA[Death of a Cad (Hamish MacBeth, #2)]]> 19190857 219 M.C. Beaton 1455520853 Karen 4 4.19 1987 Death of a Cad (Hamish MacBeth, #2)
author: M.C. Beaton
name: Karen
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1987
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/11/08
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]]> <![CDATA[Death of an Outsider (Hamish MacBeth, #3)]]> 18817343
The most hated man in the most dour town in Scotland is sleeping with the fishes, or - more accurately - has been dumped into a tank filled with crustaceans. All that remains of the murdered victim are his bones. But once the lobsters have been shipped off to Britain's best restaurants, the whole affair quickly lands on the plate of Constable Hamish Macbeth.

Exiled to the dreary outpost of Cnothan, Macbeth sorely misses his beloved Lochdubh, but before he can head back home he has to contend with a detective chief inspector who wants the murder hushed up, a dark-haired lassie who is out to seduce him, and a killer who has made mincemeat of his last victim, and will no doubt strike again . . .]]> 168 M.C. Beaton Karen 4 4.18 1988 Death of an Outsider (Hamish MacBeth, #3)
author: M.C. Beaton
name: Karen
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1988
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/11/08
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]]> Dead Man's Cell Phone 144215361 Sarah Ruhl Karen 3 3.07 Dead Man's Cell Phone
author: Sarah Ruhl
name: Karen
average rating: 3.07
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2023/10/25
date added: 2023/10/25
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]]> <![CDATA[The Boy from the Woods (Wilde, #1)]]> 51204046
No one seems to take Naomi Pine's disappearance seriously, not even her father-with one exception. Hester Crimstein, a television criminal attorney, knows through her grandson that Naomi was relentlessly bullied at school. Hester asks Wilde-with whom she shares a tragic connection-to use his unique skills to help find Naomi.

Wilde can't ignore an outcast in trouble, but in order to find Naomi he must venture back into the community where he has never fit in, a place where the powerful are protected even when they harbor secrets that could destroy the lives of millions . . . secrets that Wilde must uncover before it's too late.]]> 371 Harlan Coben 1538748142 Karen 5 3.84 2020 The Boy from the Woods (Wilde, #1)
author: Harlan Coben
name: Karen
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2020/03/27
date added: 2023/10/24
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]]> Holly (Holly Gibney #3) 83638977
“Sometimes the universe throws you a rope.� —BILL HODGES

Stephen King’s Holly marks the triumphant return of beloved King character Holly Gibney. Readers have witnessed Holly’s gradual transformation from a shy (but also brave and ethical) recluse in Mr. Mercedes to Bill Hodges’s partner in Finders Keepers to a full-fledged, smart, and occasionally tough private detective in The Outsider. In King’s new novel, Holly is on her own, and up against a pair of unimaginably depraved and brilliantly disguised adversaries.

When Penny Dahl calls the Finders Keepers detective agency hoping for help locating her missing daughter, Holly is reluctant to accept the case. Her partner, Pete, has Covid. Her (very complicated) mother has just died. And Holly is meant to be on leave. But something in Penny Dahl’s desperate voice makes it impossible for Holly to turn her down.

Mere blocks from where Bonnie Dahl disappeared live Professors Rodney and Emily Harris. They are the picture of bourgeois respectability: married octogenarians, devoted to each other, and semi-retired lifelong academics. But they are harboring an unholy secret in the basement of their well-kept, book-lined home, one that may be related to Bonnie’s disappearance. And it will prove nearly impossible to discover what they are up to: they are savvy, they are patient, and they are ruthless.

Holly must summon all her formidable talents to outthink and outmaneuver the shockingly twisted professors in this chilling new masterwork from Stephen King.

“I could never let Holly Gibney go. She was supposed to be a walk-on character in Mr. Mercedes and she just kind of stole the book and stole my heart. Holly is all her.� —STEPHEN KING]]> 464 Stephen King Karen 5 4.32 2023 Holly (Holly Gibney #3)
author: Stephen King
name: Karen
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/10/20
date added: 2023/10/20
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]]> The Sentence 57576425 In this stunning and timely novel, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich creates a wickedly funny ghost story, a tale of passion, of a complex marriage, and of a woman's relentless errors.

Louise Erdrich's latest novel, The Sentence, asks what we owe to the living, the dead, to the reader and to the book. A small independent bookstore in Minneapolis is haunted from November 2019 to November 2020 by the store's most annoying customer. Flora dies on All Souls' Day, but she simply won't leave the store. Tookie, who has landed a job selling books after years of incarceration that she survived by reading with murderous attention, must solve the mystery of this haunting while at the same time trying to understand all that occurs in Minneapolis during a year of grief, astonishment, isolation, and furious reckoning.

The Sentence begins on All Souls' Day 2019 and ends on All Souls' Day 2020. Its mystery and proliferating ghost stories during this one year propel a narrative as rich, emotional, and profound as anything Louise Erdrich has written.]]> 382 Louise Erdrich 0062671146 Karen 5 4.09 2021 The Sentence
author: Louise Erdrich
name: Karen
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2023/10/03
date added: 2023/10/16
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]]> <![CDATA[The Bullet That Missed (Thursday Murder Club, #3)]]> 59852739
Then a new foe pays Elizabeth a visit. Her mission? Kill or be killed. Suddenly the cold case has become red hot.

While Elizabeth wrestles with her conscience (and a gun), Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim chase down the clues with help from old friends and new. But can the gang solve the mystery and save Elizabeth before the murderer strikes again?

From an upmarket spa to a prison cell complete with espresso machine to a luxury penthouse high in the sky, this third adventure of the Thursday Murder Club is full of the cleverness, intrigue, and irresistible charm that readers have come to expect from Richard Osman's bestselling series.]]> 342 Richard Osman 059329940X Karen 5 4.53 2022 The Bullet That Missed (Thursday Murder Club, #3)
author: Richard Osman
name: Karen
average rating: 4.53
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/10/11
date added: 2023/10/11
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]]> <![CDATA[The Last Devil to Die (Thursday Murder Club, #4)]]> 63122042
On Boxing Day, a dangerous package is smuggled across the English coast. When it goes missing, chaos is unleashed. The body count starts to rise � including someone close to the Thursday Murder Club--as our gang face an impossible search, and their most deadly opponents yet.

With the clock ticking down and a killer heading to Cooper’s Chase, has their luck finally run out? And who will be “The Last Devil To Die�?]]> 362 Richard Osman Karen 5 4.58 2023 The Last Devil to Die (Thursday Murder Club, #4)
author: Richard Osman
name: Karen
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/10/10
date added: 2023/10/10
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]]> <![CDATA[Every Man a King: A King Oliver Novel]]> 62830417
This linear assignment becomes a winding quest to uncover the extent of Quiller’s dealings, to understand Ferris� skin in the game, and to get to the bottom of who is working for whom. Even with the help of bodyguard and mercenary Oliya Ruez—no regular girl Friday—the machine King’s up against proves relentless and unsparing. As King gets closer to exposing the truth, he and his loved ones barrel towards grave danger.

Mosley once again proves himself a "master of craft and narrative" (National Book Foundation) in this carefully plotted mystery that is at once a classic caper, a family saga and an examination of fealty, pride and how deep debt can go.]]> 337 Walter Mosley Karen 4 4.10 2023 Every Man a King: A King Oliver Novel
author: Walter Mosley
name: Karen
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/10/07
date added: 2023/10/07
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]]> <![CDATA[The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store]]> 85148114
ĚýĚýĚýĚýAs these charactersâ€� stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town’s white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community—heaven and earth—that sustain us.]]> 400 James McBride 0593422961 Karen 5 4.25 2023 The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
author: James McBride
name: Karen
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/24
date added: 2023/09/24
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]]> The Marriage Portrait 60394519
Having barely left girlhood, Lucrezia must now make her way in a troubled court whose customs are opaque and where her arrival is not universally welcomed. Perhaps most mystifying of all is her husband himself, Alfonso. Is he the playful sophisticate he appears before their wedding, the aesthete happiest in the company of artists and musicians, or the ruthless politician before whom even his formidable sisters seem to tremble?

As Lucrezia sits in uncomfortable finery for the painting which is to preserve her image for centuries to come, one thing becomes worryingly clear. In the court's eyes, she has one duty: to provide the heir who will shore up the future of the Ferrarese dynasty. Until then, for all of her rank and nobility, her future hangs entirely in the balance.]]> 353 Maggie O'Farrell Karen 4 4.09 2022 The Marriage Portrait
author: Maggie O'Farrell
name: Karen
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/28
date added: 2023/09/17
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]]> Us Against You (Beartown, #2) 37755109 New York Times bestselling author of Beartown and A Man Called Ove, hailed as “a writer of astonishing depth [with] the remarkable ability to make you understand the feelings of each of a dozen different characters� (The Washington Times), a heart-wrenching story of how loyalty, friendship, and love carry a town through its darkest days.

After everything that the citizens of Beartown have gone through, they are struck yet another blow when they hear that their beloved local hockey team will soon be disbanded. What makes it worse is the obvious satisfaction that all the former Beartown players, who now play for a rival team in Hed, take in that fact. Amidst the mounting tension between the two rivals, a surprising newcomer is handpicked to be Beartown’s new hockey coach.

Soon a new team starts to take shape around Amat, the fastest player you’ll ever see; Benji, the intense lone wolf; and Vidar, a born-to-be-bad troublemaker. But bringing this team together proves to be a challenge as old bonds are broken, new ones are formed, and the enmity with Hed grows more and more acute.

As the big match approaches, the not-so-innocent pranks and incidents between the communities pile up and their mutual contempt grows deeper. By the time the last game is finally played, a resident of Beartown will be dead, and the people of both towns will be forced to wonder if, after all they’ve been through, the game they love can ever return to something simple and innocent.

Us Against You is a declaration of love for all the big and small, bright and dark stories that form and color our communities. Compelling and heartbreaking, it’s a roller-coaster ride of emotions and a showcase for “Fredrik Backman’s pitch-perfect dialogue and unparalleled understanding of human nature� (Shelf Awareness).]]> 434 Fredrik Backman Karen 0 to-read 4.40 2017 Us Against You (Beartown, #2)
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Karen
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/17
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida]]> 62357957
Ten years after his prize-winning novel Chinaman established him as one of Sri Lanka’s foremost authors, Shehan Karunatilaka is back with a “thrilling satire� (Economist) and rip-roaring state-of-the-nation epic that offers equal parts mordant wit and disturbing, profound truths.]]> 400 Shehan Karunatilaka 1324064838 Karen 0 4.10 2022 The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida
author: Shehan Karunatilaka
name: Karen
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2023/09/06
date added: 2023/09/06
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]]> God's Universe 6530957
Owen Gingerich believes in a universe of intention and purpose. We can at least conjecture that we are part of that purpose and have just enough freedom that conscience and responsibility may be part of the mix. They may even be the reason that pain and suffering are present in the world. The universe might actually be comprehensible.

Taking Johannes Kepler as his guide, Gingerich argues that an individual can be both a creative scientist and a believer in divine design--that indeed the very motivation for scientific research can derive from a desire to trace God's handiwork. The scientist with theistic metaphysics will approach laboratory problems much the same as does his atheistic colleague across the hall. Both are likely to view the astonishing adaptations in nature with a sense of surprise, wonder, and mystery.

In God's Universe Gingerich carves out "a theistic space" from which it is possible to contemplate a universe where God plays an interactive role, unnoticed yet not excluded by science.]]> 160 Owen Gingerich Karen 0 4.38 2012 God's Universe
author: Owen Gingerich
name: Karen
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at: 2023/08/01
date added: 2023/08/01
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]]> All My Sons 28915242 A Penguin ClassicJoe Keller and SteveĚýDeever, partners in a machine shop during World War II, turned out defective airplane parts, causing the deaths of many men. Deever was sent to prison while Keller escaped punishment and went back to business, making himself very wealthy in the ensuing years. In Miller’s Ěýwork of tremendous power, a love affair between Keller's son, Chris, and Ann Deever, Steve’s daughter, the bitterness of George Keller, who returns from the war to find his father in prison and his father's partner free, and the reaction of a son to his father's guilt escalate toward a climax of electrifying intensity. Ěý Winner of the Drama Critics' Award for Best New Play in 1947, All My Sons established Arthur Miller as a leading voice in the American theater. All My Sons introduced themes that thread through Miller's work as a the relationships between fathers and sons and the conflict between business and personal ethics. This edition features an introduction by Christopher Bigsby.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700Ěýtitles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust theĚýseries to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-dateĚýtranslations by award-winning translators.]]> 116 Arthur Miller 1101664932 Karen 0 4.11 1947 All My Sons
author: Arthur Miller
name: Karen
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1947
rating: 0
read at: 2023/07/12
date added: 2023/07/12
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]]> <![CDATA[Inherit the Wind: The Powerful Courtroom Drama in which Two Men Wage the Legal War of the Century]]> 253264 129 Jerome Lawrence 0345501039 Karen 5 3.93 1955 Inherit the Wind: The Powerful Courtroom Drama in which Two Men Wage the Legal War of the Century
author: Jerome Lawrence
name: Karen
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1955
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/09
date added: 2023/07/09
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]]> While Justice Sleeps 55948566
As political wrangling ensues in Washington to potentially replace the ailing judge whose life and survival Avery controls, she begins to unravel a carefully constructed, chesslike sequence of clues left behind by Wynn. She comes to see that Wynn had a much more personal stake in the controversial case and realizes his complex puzzle will lead her directly into harm’s way in order to find the truth. While Justice Sleeps is a cunningly crafted, sophisticated novel, layered with myriad twists and a vibrant cast of characters. Drawing on her astute inside knowledge of the court and political landscape, Stacey Abrams shows herself to be not only a force for good in politics and voter fairness but also a major new talent in suspense fiction.]]> 462 Stacey Abrams 0385546580 Karen 5 4.24 2021 While Justice Sleeps
author: Stacey Abrams
name: Karen
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/02
date added: 2023/07/02
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]]> <![CDATA[Deathtrap: A Thriller in Two Acts]]> 139389 A possible break in his fortunes occurs when he receives a script from a student in the seminar he has been conducting at a nearby college a thriller which Sidney recognizes immediately as a potential Broadway hit.
Sidney's plan, which he devises with his wife's help, is to offer collaboration to the student, an idea which the younger man quickly accepts.
Thereafter suspense mounts steadily as the plot begins to twist and turn with devilish cleverness, and with such an abundance of thrills and laughter, that audiences will be held enthralled until the final, startling moments of the play.]]> 80 Ira Levin 0822202948 Karen 4 to-read 4.05 1978 Deathtrap: A Thriller in Two Acts
author: Ira Levin
name: Karen
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1978
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/03
date added: 2023/06/20
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]]> <![CDATA[SLEUTH BY ANTHONY SHAFFER MAY 1972]]> 142285736 0 PlayBill Karen 0 5.00 SLEUTH BY ANTHONY SHAFFER MAY 1972
author: PlayBill
name: Karen
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2023/06/18
date added: 2023/06/20
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]]> <![CDATA[Rare A DELICATE BALANCE a play by Edward Albee -1st/1st 1966 HCDJ - $5.00 - near fine [Hardcover] unknown]]> 143767603 0 Unknown Karen 0 0.0 Rare A DELICATE BALANCE a play by Edward Albee -1st/1st 1966 HCDJ - $5.00 - near fine [Hardcover] unknown
author: Unknown
name: Karen
average rating: 0.0
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2023/06/20
date added: 2023/06/20
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]]> <![CDATA[Superior Donuts by Tracy Letts (2011) Paperback]]> 159189044 0 unknown author Karen 4 4.00 Superior Donuts by Tracy Letts (2011) Paperback
author: unknown author
name: Karen
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/16
date added: 2023/06/17
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]]> The battle of Shallowford 3489812 108 Ed Simpson 0573692769 Karen 4 4.00 1991 The battle of Shallowford
author: Ed Simpson
name: Karen
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1991
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/17
date added: 2023/06/17
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]]> <![CDATA[One Good Turn (Jackson Brodie, #2)]]> 6498592 449 Kate Atkinson Karen 5 4.00 2006 One Good Turn (Jackson Brodie, #2)
author: Kate Atkinson
name: Karen
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 2023/06/16
date added: 2023/06/16
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]]> <![CDATA[Laughing Wild and Baby with the Bathwater: Two Plays]]> 98206 166 Christopher Durang 0802131301 Karen 3 4.02 1989 Laughing Wild and Baby with the Bathwater: Two Plays
author: Christopher Durang
name: Karen
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1989
rating: 3
read at: 2023/06/02
date added: 2023/06/07
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]]> <![CDATA[Grace: President Obama and Ten Days in the Battle for America]]> 86219162 320 Cody Keenan 0063269333 Karen 5 4.64 Grace: President Obama and Ten Days in the Battle for America
author: Cody Keenan
name: Karen
average rating: 4.64
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/01
date added: 2023/06/07
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]]> <![CDATA[Grace: President Obama and Ten Days in the Battle for America]]> 61340323 A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“At a time when the meaning of America is up for grabs, Cody Keenan’s new book chronicles ten days that tested us and ultimately showed us at our best. It’s a captivating story about what’s worth fighting for, an antidote to cynicism that will make you believe again.”—President Barack Obama, via Twitter

From Barack Obama’s chief speechwriter Cody Keenan, a spellbinding account of the ten most dramatic days of the presidency, when a hate-fueled massacre and looming Supreme Court decisions put the character of our country on the line, and a president’s words could bring the nation together or tear it apart.

A white supremacist shooting and an astonishing act of forgiveness. A national reckoning with race and the Confederate flag. The fate of marriage equality and the Affordable Care Act. Grace is the propulsive story of ten days in June 2015, when Obama and his chief speechwriter Cody Keenan composed a series of high-stakes speeches to meet a succession of stunning developments.

Through behind-the-scenes moments—from Obama’s suggestion that Keenan pour a drink, listen to some Miles Davis, and “find the silences,� to the president’s late-night writing sessions in the First Family’s residence—Keenan takes us inside the craft of speechwriting at the highest level for the most demanding of bosses, the relentlessly poetic and perfectionist Barack Obama. Grace also delivers a fascinating portrait of White House insiders like Ben Rhodes, Valerie Jarrett, Jen Psaki, and the speechwriting team responsible for pulling it all off during a furious, historic stretch of the Obama presidency—including a gifted fact-checker who took Keenan’s rhetoric to task before taking his hand in marriage. Grace is the most intimate writing that exists on the rhetorical tightrope our first Black president had to walk, culminating with an unforgettable high Obama stunning everybody by taking a deep breath and leading the country in a chorus of “Amazing Grace.”]]> 319 Cody Keenan 0358651867 Karen 5 4.65 2022 Grace: President Obama and Ten Days in the Battle for America
author: Cody Keenan
name: Karen
average rating: 4.65
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/06/07
date added: 2023/06/07
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]]> Horse 59109077 A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American history: from these strands, a Pulitzer Prize winner braids a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, and injustice across American history

Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. When the nation erupts in civil war, an itinerant young artist who has made his name on paintings of the racehorse takes up arms for the Union. On a perilous night, he reunites with the stallion and his groom, very far from the glamor of any racetrack.

New York City, 1954. Martha Jackson, a gallery owner celebrated for taking risks on edgy contemporary painters, becomes obsessed with a nineteenth-century equestrian oil painting of mysterious provenance.

Washington, DC, 2019. Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian, find themselves unexpectedly connected through their shared interest in the horse--one studying the stallion's bones for clues to his power and endurance, the other uncovering the lost history of the unsung Black horsemen who were critical to his racing success.

Based on the remarkable true story of the record-breaking thoroughbred Lexington, Horse is a novel of art and science, love and obsession, and our unfinished reckoning with racism.]]> 401 Geraldine Brooks 0399562966 Karen 5 4.17 2022 Horse
author: Geraldine Brooks
name: Karen
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/19
date added: 2023/05/20
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]]> A Tale for the Time Being 15811545
Across the Pacific, we meet Ruth, a novelist living on a remote island who discovers a collection of artifacts washed ashore in a Hello Kitty lunchbox—possibly debris from the devastating 2011 tsunami. As the mystery of its contents unfolds, Ruth is pulled into the past, into Nao's drama and her unknown fate, and forward into her own future.Ěý

Full of Ozeki's signature humour and deeply engaged with the relationship between writer and reader, past and present, fact and fiction, quantum physics, history, and myth, A Tale for the Time Being is a brilliantly inventive, beguiling story of our shared humanity and the search for home.]]> 432 Ruth Ozeki 0670026638 Karen 0 4.06 2013 A Tale for the Time Being
author: Ruth Ozeki
name: Karen
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at: 2023/05/05
date added: 2023/05/14
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]]> <![CDATA[The Final Revival of Opal & Nev]]> 55059523 An electrifying novel about the meteoric rise of an iconic interracial rock duo in the 1970s, their sensational breakup, and the dark secrets unearthed when they try to reunite decades later for one last tour. A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BUZZ PICK NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2021 BY BARACK OBAMA * THE WASHINGTON POST * NPR * ESQUIRE * ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY * GOODREADS * THE MILLIONS * READER’S DIGEST * PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER * EERIE READER * PUBLIC RADIO TULSA * CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY * KIRKUS REVIEWS “Feels truer and more mesmerizing than some true stories. It’s a packed time capsule that doubles as a stick of dynamite.� �THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEWOpal is a fiercely independent young woman pushing against the grain in her style and attitude, Afro-punk before that term existed. Coming of age in Detroit, she can’t imagine settling for a 9-to-5 job—despite her unusual looks, Opal believes she can be a star. So when the aspiring British singer/songwriter Neville Charles discovers her at a bar’s amateur night, she takes him up on his offer to make rock music together for the fledgling Rivington Records. In early seventies New York City, just as she’s finding her niche as part of a flamboyant and funky creative scene, a rival band signed to her label brandishes a Confederate flag at a promotional concert. Opal’s bold protest and the violence that ensues set off a chain of events that will not only change the lives of those she loves, but also be a deadly reminder that repercussions are always harsher for women, especially black women, who dare to speak their truth. Decades later, as Opal considers a 2016 reunion with Nev, music journalist S. Sunny Shelton seizes the chance to curate an oral history about her idols. Sunny thought she knew most of the stories leading up to the cult duo’s most politicized chapter. But as her interviews dig deeper, a nasty new allegation from an unexpected source threatens to blow up everything. Provocative and chilling, The Final Revival of Opal & Nev features a backup chorus of unforgettable voices, a heroine the likes of which we’ve not seen in storytelling, and a daring structure, and introduces a bold new voice in contemporary fiction.]]> 368 Dawnie Walton Karen 5 3.97 2021 The Final Revival of Opal & Nev
author: Dawnie Walton
name: Karen
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2023/05/14
date added: 2023/05/14
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]]> <![CDATA[Benjamin Franklin: An American Life]]> 6329461
He was, during his 84-year life, America's best scientist, inventor, diplomat, writer, and business strategist, and he was also one of its most practical -- though not most profound -- political thinkers. He proved by flying a kite that lightning was electricity, and he invented a rod to tame it. He sought practical ways to make stoves less smoky and commonwealths less corrupt. He organized neighborhood constabularies and international alliances, local lending libraries and national legislatures. He combined two types of lenses to create bifocals and two concepts of representation to foster the nation's federal compromise. He was the only man who shaped all the founding documents of America: the Albany Plan of Union, the Declaration of Independence, the treaty of alliance with France, the peace treaty with England, and the Constitution. And he helped invent America's unique style of homespun humor, democratic values, and philosophical pragmatism.

But the most interesting thing that Franklin invented, and continually reinvented, was himself. America's first great publicist, he was, in his life and in his writings, consciously trying to create a new American archetype. In the process, he carefully crafted his own persona, portrayed it in public, and polished it for posterity.

Through it all, he trusted the hearts and minds of his fellow "leather-aprons" more than he did those of any inbred elite. He saw middle-class values as a source of social strength, not as something to be derided. His guiding principle was a "dislike of everything that tended to debase the spirit of the common people." Few of his fellow founders felt this comfort with democracy so fully, and none so intuitively.

In this colorful and intimate narrative, Isaacson provides the full sweep of Franklin's amazing life, from his days as a runaway printer to his triumphs as a statesman, scientist, and Founding Father. He chronicles Franklin's tumultuous relationship with his illegitimate son and grandson, his practical marriage, and his flirtations with the ladies of Paris. He also shows how Franklin helped to create the American character and why he has a particular resonance in the twenty-first century.]]> 608 Walter Isaacson 0743260848 Karen 4 4.36 2003 Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
author: Walter Isaacson
name: Karen
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2023/04/14
date added: 2023/04/14
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]]> Jesus and the Disinherited 18911042 Famously known as the text that Martin Luther King Jr. sought inspiration from in the days leading up to the Montgomery bus boycott, Howard Thurman’s Jesus and the Disinherited helped shape the civil rights movement and changed our nation’s history forever. In this classic theological treatise, the acclaimed theologian and religious leader Howard Thurman (1900-1981) demonstrates how the gospel may be read as a manual of resistance for the poor and disenfranchised. Jesus is a partner in the pain of the oppressed and the example of His life offers a solution to ending the descent into moral nihilism. Hatred does not empower--it decays. Only through self-love and love of one another can God's justice prevail.]]> 134 Howard Thurman 0807095338 Karen 4 4.62 1949 Jesus and the Disinherited
author: Howard Thurman
name: Karen
average rating: 4.62
book published: 1949
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/22
date added: 2023/03/22
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]]> <![CDATA[The Law of Innocence (The Lincoln Lawyer, #6; Harry Bosch Universe #35)]]> 51810799
Mickey elects to defend himself and must strategize and build his defense from his jail cell in the Twin Towers Correctional Center in downtown Los Angeles, all the while looking over his shoulder--as an officer of the court he is an instant target.

Mickey knows he's been framed. Now, with the help of his trusted team, he has to figure out who has plotted to destroy his life and why. Then he has to go before a judge and jury and prove his innocence.]]> 432 Michael Connelly 0316498025 Karen 4 4.36 2008 The Law of Innocence (The Lincoln Lawyer, #6; Harry Bosch Universe #35)
author: Michael Connelly
name: Karen
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/22
date added: 2023/03/22
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]]> <![CDATA[Case Histories (Jackson Brodie, #1)]]> 54675424 The first book in Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie Mysteries series, called "The best mystery of the decade" by Stephen King, finds private investigator Jackson Brodie following three seemingly unconnected family mysteries in Edinburg.

Case one: A little girl goes missing in the night.

Case two: A beautiful young office worker falls victim to a maniac's apparently random attack.

Case three: A new mother finds herself trapped in a hell of her own making - with a very needy baby and a very demanding husband - until a fit of rage creates a grisly, bloody escape.

Thirty years after the first incident, as private investigator Jackson Brodie begins investigating all three cases, startling connections and discoveries emerge . . .]]> 434 Kate Atkinson Karen 3 3.80 2004 Case Histories (Jackson Brodie, #1)
author: Kate Atkinson
name: Karen
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 2023/03/20
date added: 2023/03/20
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]]> Giovanni’s Room 18915870
In the 1950s Paris of American expatriates, liaisons, and violence, a young man finds himself caught between desire and conventional morality. With a sharp, probing imagination, James Baldwin's now-classic narrative delves into the mystery of loving and creates a moving, highly controversial story of death and passion that reveals the unspoken complexities of the human heart.]]> 178 James Baldwin 0345806573 Karen 0 4.37 1956 Giovanni’s Room
author: James Baldwin
name: Karen
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1956
rating: 0
read at: 2023/03/05
date added: 2023/03/05
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]]> Fleishman Is in Trouble 42103980 If you could do it all over again, would you? Should you? One man finds out in this finely observed, compulsively readable, and occasionally raunchy novel of marriage, sex, and dating for readers of Jonathan Franzen, Lauren Groff, and Tom Perrotta.

Dr. Toby Fleishman wakes up each morning surrounded by women. Women who are self-actualized and independent and know what they want - and, against all odds, what they want is Toby. Who knew what kind of life awaited him once he finally extracted himself from his nightmare of a marriage? Who knew that there were women out there who would actually look at him with softness and desire? But just as the winds of his optimism are beginning to pick up, they're quickly dampened, and then extinguished, when his ex-wife, Rachel, suddenly disappears.
Toby thought he knew what to expect when he moved out: weekends and every other holiday with the kids, some residual bitterness, tense co-parenting negotiations. He never thought that one day, Rachel would just drop their children off at his place and never come back. As Toby tries to figure out what happened and what it means, all while juggling his patients at the hospital, his never-ending parental duties and his new, app-assisted sexual popularity, his tidy narrative of a spurned husband is his sole consolation. But if Toby ever wants to really understand where Rachel went and what really happened to his marriage, he is going to have to consider that he might not have seen it all that clearly in the first place.
A searing, funny, and electric debut from one of the most exciting writers working today, Fleishman Is In Trouble is an exploration of a culture trying to navigate the fault lines of an institution that has proven to be worthy of both our great wariness and our great optimism.]]> 380 Taffy Brodesser-Akner 0525510885 Karen 2 3.77 2019 Fleishman Is in Trouble
author: Taffy Brodesser-Akner
name: Karen
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2023/03/01
date added: 2023/03/01
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]]> <![CDATA[An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us]]> 60186447 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER •ĚýA “thrillingâ€� (The New York Times), “dazzlingâ€� (The Wall Street Journal) tour of the radically different ways that animals perceive the world that will fill you with wonder and forever alter your perspective, by Pulitzer Prize–winning science journalist Ed YongĚý“One of this year’s finest works of narrative nonfiction.”—Oprah DailyONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Time, People, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Slate, Reader’s Digest, Chicago Public Library, Outside, Publishers Weekly, BookPageONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE Oprah Daily, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Economist, Smithsonian Magazine, Prospect (UK), Globe & Mail,ĚýEsquire, Mental Floss, Marginalian, She Reads, Kirkus Reviews, Library JournalThe Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every kind of animal, including humans, is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of our immense world.In An Immense World, Ed Yong coaxes us beyond the confines of our own senses, allowing us to perceive the skeins of scent, waves of electromagnetism, and pulses of pressure that surround us. We encounter beetles that are drawn to fires, turtles that can track the Earth’s magnetic fields, fish that fill rivers with electrical messages, and even humans who wield sonar like bats. We discover that a crocodile’s scaly face is as sensitive as a lover’s fingertips, that the eyes of a giant squid evolved to see sparkling whales, that plants thrum with the inaudible songs of courting bugs, and that even simple scallops have complex vision. We learn what bees see in flowers, what songbirds hear in their tunes, and what dogs smell on the street. We listen to stories of pivotal discoveries in the field, while looking ahead at the many mysteries that remain unsolved.Funny, rigorous, and suffused with the joy of discovery, An Immense World takes us on what Marcel Proust called “the only true voyage . . . not to visit strange lands, but to possess other eyes.â€�WINNER OF THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL â€� FINALIST FOR THE KIRKUS PRIZE â€� FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD â€� LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/E.O. WILSON AWARD]]> 481 Ed Yong Karen 5 4.54 2022 An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us
author: Ed Yong
name: Karen
average rating: 4.54
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/02/19
date added: 2023/02/19
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]]> The Dog Stars 13330761
But when a random transmission beams through the radio of his 1956 Cessna, the voice ignites a hope deep inside him that a better life exists outside their tightly controlled perimeter. Risking everything, he flies past his point of no return and follows its static-broken trail, only to find something that is both better and worse than anything he could ever hope for.]]> 336 Peter Heller 0307959945 Karen 5 3.92 2012 The Dog Stars
author: Peter Heller
name: Karen
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2023/02/08
date added: 2023/02/08
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]]> <![CDATA[Killers of a Certain Age (Killers of a Certain Age, #1)]]> 60149532 Older women often feel invisible, but sometimes that's their secret weapon.

They've spent their lives as the deadliest assassins in a clandestine international organization, but now that they're sixty years old, four women friends can't just retire - it's kill or be killed in this action-packed thriller.

Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie have worked for the Museum, an elite network of assassins, for forty years. Now their talents are considered old-school and no one appreciates what they have to offer in an age that relies more on technology than people skills.

When the foursome is sent on an all-expenses paid vacation to mark their retirement, they are targeted by one of their own. Only the Board, the top-level members of the Museum, can order the termination of field agents, and the women realize they've been marked for death.

Now to get out alive they have to turn against their own organization, relying on experience and each other to get the job done, knowing that working together is the secret to their survival. They're about to teach the Board what it really means to be a woman--and a killer--of a certain age.]]> 368 Deanna Raybourn 0593200683 Karen 4 3.82 2022 Killers of a Certain Age (Killers of a Certain Age, #1)
author: Deanna Raybourn
name: Karen
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/23
date added: 2023/01/24
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]]> <![CDATA[Motherhood is Murder (Maternal Instincts Mystery, #2)]]> 25994085 A fun new installment to the Maternal Instincts Mystery Series Nights out are hard to come by for new parents. So when Kate’s new- mommy club, Roo & You, holds a dinner cruise, she and her husband leave baby Laurie with Kate’s mom and join the grown-ups for some fine dining on the San Francisco Bay.
But when one of the cofounders of Roo & You takes a fatal spill down a staircase, the police department crashes the party. Suddenly every mom and her man has a motive. Kate’s on deck to solve the mystery- but a killer’s determined to make her rue the day she joined the first-time-mom’s club�

To Do:
1. Buy diapers.
2. Make Laurie’s two-month check.
3. Find good “how to� book for PI business.
4. x Find dress for the cruise (done)
5. x Ask Mom to babysit (done)
6. Exercise.]]> 264 Diana Orgain Karen 3 stopped-reading 4.03 2010 Motherhood is Murder (Maternal Instincts Mystery, #2)
author: Diana Orgain
name: Karen
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2023/01/16
date added: 2023/01/16
shelves: stopped-reading
review:

]]> The Institute 43799634
In this most sinister of institutions, the director, Mrs. Sigsby, and her staff are ruthlessly dedicated to extracting from these children the force of their extranormal gifts. There are no scruples here. If you go along, you get tokens for the vending machines. If you don’t, punishment is brutal. As each new victim disappears to Back Half, Luke becomes more and more desperate to get out and get help. But no one has ever escaped from the Institute.]]> 557 Stephen King Karen 5 4.39 2019 The Institute
author: Stephen King
name: Karen
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/13
date added: 2023/01/13
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]]> <![CDATA[All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days: The True Story of the American Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler]]> 57743843 The INSTANTĚýNew York Times BestsellerWinner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography Winner of the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld AwardĚý Winner of the Chautauqua Prize Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award Finalist for the Plutarch AwardA New York Times Notable Book of 2021AĚýNew York Times Book ReviewĚýEditorsâ€� Choice AĚýNew York TimesĚýCritics' Top Pick of 2021Wall StreetĚýJournalĚý10 Best Books of 2021Time Magazine 100 Must-Read Books of 2021Publishers WeeklyĚýTopĚýTen Books of 2021 An Economist Best Book of the Year AĚýNew York PostĚýBest Book of the Year A Milwaukee Journal SentinelĚýBest Book of the YearOprah Daily Best New Books of AugustA New York PublicĚýLibrary Book of the Week ĚýIn this “stunning literary achievement,â€� Donner chronicles the extraordinary life and brutal death of her great-great-aunt Mildred Harnack, the American leader of one of the largest underground resistance groups in Germany during WWII—“a page-turner story of espionage, love and betrayalâ€� (Kai Bird, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography) Born and raised in Milwaukee, Mildred Harnack was twenty-six when she enrolled in a PhD program in Germany and witnessed the meteoric rise of the Nazi party. In 1932, she began holding secret meetings in her apartment—a small band of political activists that by 1940 had grown into the largest underground resistance group in Berlin. She recruited working-class Germans into the resistance, helped Jews escape, plotted acts of sabotage, and collaborated in writing leaflets that denounced Hitler and called for revolution. Her coconspirators circulated through Berlin under the cover of night, slipping the leaflets into mailboxes, public restrooms, phone booths. When the first shots of the Second World War were fired, she became a spy, couriering top-secret intelligence to the Allies. On the eve of her escape to Sweden, she was ambushed by the Gestapo. At a Nazi military court, a panel of five judges sentenced her to six years at a prison camp, but Hitler overruled the decision and ordered her execution. On February 16, 1943, she was strapped to a guillotine and beheaded. Historians identify Mildred Harnack as the only American in the leadership of the German resistance, yet her remarkable story has remained almost unknown until now. Harnack’s great-great-niece Rebecca Donner draws on her extensive archival research in Germany, Russia, England, and the U.S. as well as newly uncovered documents in her family archive to produce this astonishing work of narrative nonfiction. Fusing elements of biography, real-life political thriller, and scholarly detective story, Donner brilliantly interweaves letters, diary entries, notes smuggled out of a Berlin prison, survivorsâ€� testimony, and a trove of declassified intelligence documents into a powerful, epic story, reconstructing the moral courage of an enigmatic woman nearly erased by history.]]> 535 Rebecca Donner 031656172X Karen 5 4.46 2021 All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days: The True Story of the American Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler
author: Rebecca Donner
name: Karen
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/11
date added: 2023/01/11
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]]> <![CDATA[Pietr the Latvian (Inspector Maigret, #1)]]> 19234594 A gripping new translation of the first novel in the famous Inspector Maigret series
What he sought, what he waited and watched out for was the crack in the wall. In other words, the instant when the human being comes out from behind the opponent . . .

Who is Pietr the Latvian? Is he a gentleman thief? A Russian drinking absinthe in a grimy bar? A married Norwegian sea captain? A twisted corpse in a train bathroom? Or is he all of these men? Inspector Maigret, tracking a mysterious adversary and a trail of bodies, must bide his time before the answer comes into focus.

The first book in the brand new Penguin Simenon series featuring brilliant renderings by some of today's best translators from French, Pietr the Latvian introduces the intrepid Inspector to a new audience.]]> 176 Georges Simenon 0698151038 Karen 0 stopped-reading, to-read 3.66 1930 Pietr the Latvian (Inspector Maigret, #1)
author: Georges Simenon
name: Karen
average rating: 3.66
book published: 1930
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/11
shelves: stopped-reading, to-read
review:

]]> Schooled 18904793 228 Gordon Korman 1423141229 Karen 5 4.47 2007 Schooled
author: Gordon Korman
name: Karen
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/03
date added: 2023/01/03
shelves:
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]]> Local Woman Missing 55970694
Shelby Tebow is the first to go missing. Not long after, Meredith Dickey and her six-year-old daughter, Delilah, vanish just blocks away from where Shelby was last seen, striking fear into their once-peaceful community. Are these incidents connected? After an elusive search that yields more questions than answers, the case eventually goes cold.

Now, eleven years later, Delilah shockingly returns. Everyone wants to know what happened to her, but no one is prepared for what they’ll find�

In this smart and chilling thriller, master of suspense and New York Times bestselling author Mary Kubica takes domestic secrets to a whole new level, showing that some people will stop at nothing to keep the truth buried.]]> 353 Mary Kubica Karen 5 4.26 2021 Local Woman Missing
author: Mary Kubica
name: Karen
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/01
date added: 2023/01/01
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]]> We Were the Mulvaneys 6586731 454 Joyce Carol Oates 1101213132 Karen 4 3.90 1996 We Were the Mulvaneys
author: Joyce Carol Oates
name: Karen
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at: 2022/12/30
date added: 2022/12/30
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]]> Invisible (Invisible, #1) 34231676
Not even Emmy's ex-boyfriend, field agent Harrison "Books" Bookman, will believe her that hundreds of kidnappings, rapes, and murders are all connected. That is, until Emmy finds a piece of evidence he can't afford to ignore. More murders are reported by the day--and they're all inexplicable. No motives, no murder weapons, no suspects. Could one person really be responsible for these unthinkable crimes?

INVISIBLE is James Patterson's scariest, most chilling stand-alone thriller yet.]]> 432 James Patterson Karen 4 4.22 2014 Invisible (Invisible, #1)
author: James Patterson
name: Karen
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2022/12/22
date added: 2022/12/28
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]]> <![CDATA[Desert Star (Renée Ballard, #5; Harry Bosch, #24; Harry Bosch Universe, #37)]]> 60219987 LAPD detective Renée Ballard and Harry Bosch work together to hunt the killer who is Bosch’s “white whale”—a man responsible for the murder of an entire family.

A year has passed since LAPD detective Renée Ballard quit the force in the face of misogyny, demoralization, and endless red tape. Yet, after the chief of police himself tells her she can write her ticket within the department, Ballard takes back her badge, leaving “the Late Show� to rebuild the cold case unit at the elite Robbery-Homicide Division.
Ěý
For years, Harry Bosch has been working a case that haunts him but that he hasn’t been able to crack—the murder of an entire family by a psychopath who still walks free. Ballard makes Bosch an offer: come work with her as a volunteer investigator in the new Open-Unsolved Unit, and he can pursue his “white whale� with the resources of the LAPD behind him.

The two must put aside old resentments to work together again and close in on a dangerous killer. Propulsive and unstoppable, this new novel demonstrates once again why “Connelly is the real deal� (Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review).]]> 400 Michael Connelly 0316421464 Karen 4 4.49 2022 Desert Star (Renée Ballard, #5; Harry Bosch, #24; Harry Bosch Universe, #37)
author: Michael Connelly
name: Karen
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2022/12/11
date added: 2022/12/18
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]]> <![CDATA[A World of Curiosities (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #18)]]> 61029259 Chief Inspector Armand Gamache returns in the eighteenth book in #1 New York Times bestseller Louise Penny's beloved series.


It’s spring and Three Pines is reemerging after the harsh winter. But not everything buried should come alive again. Not everything lying dormant should reemerge.

But something has.

As the villagers prepare for a special celebration, Armand Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir find themselves increasingly worried. A young man and woman have reappeared in the Sûreté du Québec investigators� lives after many years. The two were young children when their troubled mother was murdered, leaving them damaged, shattered. Now they’ve arrived in the village of Three Pines.

But to what end?

Gamache and Beauvoir’s memories of that tragic case, the one that first brought them together, come rushing back. Did their mother’s murder hurt them beyond repair? Have those terrible wounds, buried for decades, festered and are now about to erupt?

As Chief Inspector Gamache works to uncover answers, his alarm grows when a letter written by a long dead stone mason is discovered. In it the man describes his terror when bricking up an attic room somewhere in the village. Every word of the 160-year-old letter is filled with dread. When the room is found, the villagers decide to open it up.

As the bricks are removed, Gamache, Beauvoir and the villagers discover a world of curiosities. But the head of homicide soon realizes there’s more in that room than meets the eye. There are puzzles within puzzles, and hidden messages warning of mayhem and revenge.

In unsealing that room, an old enemy is released into their world. Into their lives. And into the very heart of Armand Gamache’s home.]]> 400 Louise Penny Karen 5 4.65 2022 A World of Curiosities (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #18)
author: Louise Penny
name: Karen
average rating: 4.65
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2022/12/17
date added: 2022/12/17
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]]> The Bookshop of Yesterdays 36477572
Miranda Brooks grew up in the stacks of her eccentric Uncle Billy’s bookstore, solving the inventive scavenger hunts he created just for her. But on Miranda’s twelfth birthday, Billy has a mysterious falling-out with her mother and suddenly disappears from Miranda’s life. She doesn’t hear from him again until sixteen years later when she receives unexpected news: Billy has died and left her Prospero Books, which is teetering on bankruptcy—and one final scavenger hunt.]]> 397 Amy Meyerson Karen 4 3.65 2018 The Bookshop of Yesterdays
author: Amy Meyerson
name: Karen
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2022/12/02
date added: 2022/12/02
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]]> <![CDATA[The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett]]> 54577429 It's never too late to start living.

Infused with the emotional power ofĚýMe Before YouĚýand the irresistible charm ofĚýEleanor Oliphant Is Completely FineĚýandĚýBe Frank with Me, a moving and joyous novel about an elderly woman ready to embrace death and the little girl who reminds her what it means to live.

Eudora Honeysett is done with this noisy, moronic world—all of it. She has witnessed the indignities and suffering of old age and has lived a full life. At eighty-five, she isn’t going to leave things to chance. Her end will be on her terms. With one call to a clinic in Switzerland, a plan is set in motion.Ěý

Then she meets ten-year-old Rose Trewidney, a whirling, pint-sized rainbow of color and sparkling cheer. All Eudora wants is to be left alone to set her affairs in order. Instead, she finds herself embarking on a series of adventures with the irrepressible Rose and their affable neighbor, the recently widowed Stanley—afternoon tea, shopping sprees, trips to the beach, birthday celebrations, pizza parties.Ěý

While the trio of unlikely BFFs grow closer and anxiously await the arrival of Rose’s new baby sister, Eudora is reminded of her own childhood—of losing her father during World War II and the devastating impact it had on her entire family. In reflecting on her past, Eudora realizes she must come to terms with what lies ahead.Ěý

But now that her joy for life has been rekindled, how can she possibly say goodbye?Ěý]]> 380 Annie Lyons 0063026082 Karen 5 4.45 2020 The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett
author: Annie Lyons
name: Karen
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2022/11/26
date added: 2022/11/26
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]]> <![CDATA[The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness]]> 53498439 A tenth-anniversary edition of the iconic bestseller, with a new introduction by the author

Seldom does a book have the impact of Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow. Since it was first published in 2010, it has been cited in judicial decisions and has been adopted in campus-wide and community-wide reads; it helped inspire the creation of the Marshall Project and the new $100 million Art for Justice Fund; it has been the winner of numerous prizes, including the prestigious NAACP Image Award; and it has spent nearly 250 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.

Now, ten years after it was first published, The New Press is proud to issue a tenth-anniversary edition with a new introduction by Michelle Alexander that discusses the impact the book has had and the state of the criminal justice reform movement today.]]> 421 Michelle Alexander 1620971941 Karen 0 4.51 2010 The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
author: Michelle Alexander
name: Karen
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/11/17
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]]> The Boys from Biloxi 61108885
Keith Rudy and Hugh Malco grew up in Biloxi in the sixties and were childhood friends, as well as Little League all-stars. But as teenagers, their lives took them in different directions. Keith’s father became a legendary prosecutor, determined to “clean up the Coast.� Hugh’s father became the “Boss� of Biloxi’s criminal underground. Keith went to law school and followed in his father’s footsteps. Hugh preferred the nightlife and worked in his father’s clubs. The two families were headed for a showdown, one that would happen in a courtroom.

Life itself hangs in the balance in The Boys from Biloxi, a sweeping saga rich with history and with a large cast of unforgettable characters.]]> 432 John Grisham Karen 4 4.29 2022 The Boys from Biloxi
author: John Grisham
name: Karen
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2022/11/04
date added: 2022/11/04
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]]> Black Like Me 9974604 225 John Howard Griffin 1609401093 Karen 3 4.38 1961 Black Like Me
author: John Howard Griffin
name: Karen
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1961
rating: 3
read at: 2022/10/29
date added: 2022/10/29
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]]> When We Were Birds 60043299
Meanwhile in an old house on a hill, where the city meets the rainforest, Yejide's mother is dying. And she is leaving behind a legacy that now passes to the power to talk to the departed. The women of Yejide's family are human but also not - descended from corbeau, the black birds that fly east at sunset, taking with them the souls of the dead.

Darwin and Yejide both have something that the other needs. Their destinies are intertwined, and they will find one another in the sprawling, ancient cemetery at the heart of Port Angeles, where trouble is brewing...

Embedded with a timeless, mythic magic and wisdom, and yet alive with a totally fresh, modern sensibility, this hypnotic literary debut is a masterpiece of rhythm, exuberance, heart, loss in cycle with renewal and darkness with a reckoning with a grief that runs back generations and a defiant, joyful affirmation of hope.]]> 304 Ayanna Lloyd Banwo 0385547277 Karen 4 4.04 2022 When We Were Birds
author: Ayanna Lloyd Banwo
name: Karen
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2022/10/16
date added: 2022/10/16
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]]> <![CDATA[The Man Who Died Twice (Thursday Murder Club, #2)]]> 57465170
Elizabeth has received a letter from an old colleague, a man with whom she has a long history. He's made a big mistake, and he needs her help. His story involves stolen diamonds, a violent mobster, and a very real threat to his life.

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

But this time they are up against an enemy who wouldn't bat an eyelid at knocking off four septuagenarians. Can The Thursday Murder Club find the killer (and the diamonds) before the killer finds them?]]> 368 Richard Osman Karen 5 4.53 2021 The Man Who Died Twice (Thursday Murder Club, #2)
author: Richard Osman
name: Karen
average rating: 4.53
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2022/10/04
date added: 2022/10/04
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]]> The Thursday Murder Club 54846475 Four septuagenarians with a few tricks up their sleeves
A female cop with her first big case
A brutal murder
Welcome to�
THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB

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

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

As the bodies begin to pile up, can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer, before it’s too late?]]> 368 Richard Osman 1984880977 Karen 5 4.08 2020 The Thursday Murder Club
author: Richard Osman
name: Karen
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2022/09/28
date added: 2022/09/28
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next, #1)]]> 6564856 385 Jasper Fforde 1101158514 Karen 5 3.87 2001 The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next, #1)
author: Jasper Fforde
name: Karen
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at: 2022/09/26
date added: 2022/09/26
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest]]> 56213099 From the world's leading forest ecologist who forever changed how people view trees and their connections to one another and to other living things in the forest--a moving, inspiring journey of discovery of how, as a child in love with the woods, the author came to believe that trees communicate with one another and the story of how she proved her seemingly laughable theory, uncovering their secrets as well, and in the process became a world-renowned scientist.

Suzanne Simard is a pioneer on the frontier of plant communication and intelligence; she's been compared to Rachel Carson, hailed as a scientist who conveys complex, technical ideas in a way that is both dazzling and profound. Her work has influenced filmmakers (the Tree of Souls of James Cameron's Avatar) and her TED talks have been viewed by more than 10 million people worldwide.

Now, in her first book, Simard brilliantly illuminates the fascinating and vital truth about trees--not simply the source of timber or pulp, but a complex, interdependent circle of life on which we rely for our existence--and at the center of it all, the Mother the mysterious, powerful forces that connect and sustain them.

Born and raised in a logging family in the rainforests of British Columbia, Simard spent her days as a child cataloging the trees from the as she came to love and respect them--and to wonder about them--she embarked on a journey of discovery, and struggle.

She has spent a lifetime piecing together startling that trees have perceptions, language, behaviors, memory, recognition of neighbors, reciprocity, healing capacities, and wisdom. Finding the Mother Tree is the fascinating story of how Simard overturned widely accepted beliefs to systematically prove, against all odds, that trees and plants in the forest are connected underground in an immense fungal web, (which Simard calls the Wood Wide Web). That the biggest, oldest trees, the mother trees, are the hubs of the network, with the fungal mycelia, the links.

Simard not only invites us to understand trees in an entirely new way--she also makes clear what we can learn from the natural development of forests, in order to create a more civil and resilient society.]]> 337 Suzanne Simard 0525656103 Karen 4 4.39 2021 Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest
author: Suzanne Simard
name: Karen
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2022/09/16
date added: 2022/09/16
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]]> The Guest Book 41138424 A novel about past mistakes and betrayals that ripple throughout generations, The Guest Book examines not just a privileged American family, but a privileged America. It is a literary triumph.

The Guest Book follows three generations of a powerful American family, a family that “used to run the world.�

And when the novel begins in 1935, they still do. Kitty and Ogden Milton appear to have everything—perfect children, good looks, a love everyone envies. But after a tragedy befalls them, Ogden tries to bring Kitty back to life by purchasing an island in Maine. That island, and its house, come to define and burnish the Milton family, year after year after year. And it is there that Kitty issues a refusal that will haunt her till the day she dies.

In 1959 a young Jewish man, Len Levy, will get a job in Ogden’s bank and earn the admiration of Ogden and one of his daughters, but the scorn of everyone else. Len’s best friend, Reg Pauling, has always been the only black man in the room—at Harvard, at work, and finally at the Miltons� island in Maine.

An island that, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, this last generation doesn’t have the money to keep. When Kitty’s granddaughter hears that she and her cousins might be forced to sell it, and when her husband brings back disturbing evidence about her grandfather’s past, she realizes she is on the verge of finally understanding the silences that seemed to hover just below the surface of her family all her life.

An ambitious novel that weaves the American past with its present, The Guest Book looks at the racism and power that has been systemically embedded in the U.S. for generations.]]> 484 Sarah Blake 1250110262 Karen 4 3.62 2019 The Guest Book
author: Sarah Blake
name: Karen
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2022/09/02
date added: 2022/09/02
shelves:
review:

]]>