Amanda's bookshelf: read en-US Tue, 13 May 2025 15:49:39 -0700 60 Amanda's bookshelf: read 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Baldwin: A Love Story 217387674
A Love Story tells the overlapping stories of James Baldwin’s most sustaining with his mentor, the Black American painter Beauford Delaney; with his lover and muse, the Swiss painter Lucien Happersberger; and with his collaborators, the famed Turkish actor Engin Cezzar and the iconoclastic French artist Yoran Cazac.

This biography shows for the first time how Baldwin drew on complex structures within these relationships—geographical, cultural, political, artistic, and erotic—and alchemized them into art that spoke truth to power and had an indelible impact on the Civil Rights Movement and on Black and queer literary history.

Nicholas Boggs's rich and subtle narration of Baldwin’s public story and his lucid discussion of his work are underpinned by what he calls “a search for the truth about Baldwin’s most sustaining intimate relationships and how they had shaped his life and art, which in turn has had such an indelible impact on the literary and political landscape of the twentieth century and continues to influence and even offer some measure of hope for the world today. It would not be until close to the end of this voyage that Irealized what I had actually been researching and trying to write all along was a new James Baldwin biography. But from the very beginning, I always knew it was a love story."]]> 720 Nicholas Boggs 0374178712 Amanda 0 to-read 4.56 Baldwin: A Love Story
author: Nicholas Boggs
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]]> Mark Twain 219158874 Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Ron Chernow illuminates the full, fascinating, and complex life of the writer long celebrated as the father of American literature, Mark Twain

Ron Chernow, the highly lauded biographer of Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, and Ulysses S. Grant, brings his considerable powers to bear on America’s first, and most influential, literary celebrity, Mark Twain. Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in 1835, under Halley’s Comet, the rambunctious Twain was an early teller of tall tales. He left his home in Missouri at an early age, piloted steamboats on the Mississippi, and arrived in the Nevada Territory during the silver-mining boom. Before long, he had accepted a job at the local newspaper, where he barged into vigorous discourse and debate, hoaxes and hijinks. After moving to San Francisco, he published stories that attracted national attention for their brashness and humor, writing under a pen name soon to be immortalized.

Chernow draws a richly nuanced portrait of the man who shamelessly sought fame and fortune and crafted his celebrity persona with meticulous care. Twain eventually settled with his wife and three daughters in Hartford, where he wrote some of his most well-known works, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Life on the Mississippi, and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, earning him further acclaim. He threw himself into American politics, emerging as the nation’s most notable pundit. While his talents as a writer and speaker flourished, his madcap business ventures eventually forced him into bankruptcy; to economize, Twain and his family spent nine eventful years in exile in Europe. He suffered the death of his wife and two daughters, and the last stage of his life was marked by heartache, political crusades, and eccentric behavior that sometimes obscured darker forces at play.

Drawing on Twain’s bountiful archives, including his fifty notebooks, thousands of letters, and hundreds of unpublished manuscripts, Chernow masterfully captures a man whose career reflected the country’s westward expansion, industrialization, and foreign wars. No other white author of his generation grappled so fully with the legacy of slavery after the Civil War or showed such keen interest in African American culture. Today, more than one hundred years after his death, Twain’s writing continues to be read, debated, and quoted. In this brilliant work of scholarship, a moving tribute to the writer’s talent and humanity, Chernow reveals the magnificent and often maddening life of one of the most original characters in American history.]]> 1200 Ron Chernow 0525561722 Amanda 0 to-read 4.17 2025 Mark Twain
author: Ron Chernow
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]]> Mistress of Bones 217420653 An epic and romantic debut adventure fantasy, where a necromancer trying to resurrect her sister gets embroiled in bigger, world-ending plans instead

It's been thousands of years since the gods lifted the continents into the air so humanity could thrive, chaining the lands down with their bones and turning them into Anchor.

Azul del Arroyo doesn't care about gods or Anchor; she cares about being responsible for her sister's death and getting her bones from the capital so she can bring her back to life. Again. But in her way stands the Emissary of the Lord Death, who will do anything in his power to stop her, because a necromancer like her shouldn’t exist—no matter how alluring.

As Azul and the Emissary's cat-and-mouse game leads them to the dangerous Court of Cienpuentes, their fate becomes entwined with a count who begrudgingly works for a child king, a faceless witch who transforms Anchor into dreams she can peddle, and a long-lost half-brother with a secret of his own. It's a time of enlightenment, of rapiers and scientific prowess, in a country where Anchor ceased to be something worth revering a long time ago, and people have forgotten the gods' sacrifice.

But the gods haven’t. Because the gods want their bones back, and they're not opposed to becoming players in their own game.

Swashbuckling, grand, and tragically romantic, Mistress of Bones is a can't-miss debut about love, about loss, and, of course, about death.]]> 336 Maria Z. Medina 1250888239 Amanda 0 to-read 3.50 2025 Mistress of Bones
author: Maria Z. Medina
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.50
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]]> <![CDATA[Glorious Rivals (The Grandest Game, #2)]]> 216635092 Millions, hearts, and lives are on the line in this heart-stopping sequel to The Grandest Game by #1 bestselling author Jennifer Lynn Barnes.

Seven players arrived on Hawthorne Island, each with their own secrets and motivations to win the Grandest Game. Millions are at stake, but so are hearts—and lives. The players now must race to win the game, solve myriad mysteries, and survive the twists and turns of Glorious Rivals.

The stakes get higher, the game gets twistier, and everything heats up in this newest installment in the TikTok sensation Inheritance Games Saga.]]> 432 Jennifer Lynn Barnes 0316481319 Amanda 0 to-read 4.47 2025 Glorious Rivals (The Grandest Game, #2)
author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.47
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]]> The Bewitching 220458657 Three women in three different eras encounter danger and witchcraft in this eerie multigenerational horror saga from the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic.

“Back then, when I was a young woman, there were still witches�: That was how Nana Alba always began the stories she told her great-granddaughter Minerva—stories that have stayed with Minerva all her life. Perhaps that’s why Minerva has become a graduate student focused on the history of horror literature and is researching the life of Beatrice Tremblay, an obscure author of macabre tales.

In the course of assembling her thesis, Minerva uncovers information that reveals that Tremblay’s most famous novel, The Vanishing, was inspired by a true story: Decades earlier, during the Great Depression, Tremblay attended the same university where Minerva is now studying and became obsessed with her beautiful and otherworldly roommate, who then disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

As Minerva descends ever deeper into Tremblay’s manuscript, she begins to sense that the malign force that stalked Tremblay and the missing girl might still walk the halls of the campus. These disturbing events also echo the stories Nana Alba told about her girlhood in 1900s Mexico, where she had a terrifying encounter with a witch.

Minerva suspects that the same shadow that darkened the lives of her great-grandmother and Beatrice Tremblay is now threatening her own in 1990s Massachusetts. An academic career can be a punishing pursuit, but it might turn outright deadly when witchcraft is involved.]]> 368 Silvia Moreno-Garcia 0593874323 Amanda 0 to-read 4.36 2025 The Bewitching
author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.36
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]]> <![CDATA[These Memories Do Not Belong to Us]]> 221452836 For fans of Cloud AtlasĚý˛ą˛Ô»ĺĚýThe Power, a hauntingly beautiful and profoundly prescient debut set in a future where China is the sole global superpower and citizens can record and transfer memories between minds.

When I was a boy, my mother used to tell me stories of a world before memories could be shared between strangers�

Decades from now, the world is run by an authoritarian state called Qin. In Qin, every citizen is fitted with a Mindbank, an intracranial device capable of not only recording but transferring memories between minds. The technology gives birth to a new economy, referred to as Memory Capitalism, where anyone with means can relive the life experiences of others. It also unleashes opportunities for manipulation—memories can be edited, marketed, and even corrupted for personal gain.

When a man inherits his deceased mother’s Mindbank—a collection of memories from before, during, and after the global war that landed Qin atop the international food chain—he’s unsure what he’ll find inside, or whether the Party has gotten to her memories first, altering the experiences she left for him. Either way, he is adamant that he must share them with the world before they are destroyed forever, even if the cost of doing so is his own life.

Powerful and provocative, These Memories Do Not Belong to Us is a kaleidoscopic look into the ways in which governments and media manipulate history and control our collective imagination. It encourages us to see beyond the sheen of convenient truths to unearth real stories of struggle, sacrifice, and love that, despite all odds, refuse to be eradicated. ]]> 224 Yiming Ma 0063413485 Amanda 0 to-read 4.38 2025 These Memories Do Not Belong to Us
author: Yiming Ma
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.38
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]]> <![CDATA[Volatile Memory (The Volatile Memory Duology, 1)]]> 217387755 Ex Machina meets This is How You Lose the Time War: Seth Haddon's science fiction debut, Volatile Memory, is a heart-filled, vengeful sapphic sci-fi action adventure novella.

With nothing but a limping ship and an outdated mask to her name, Wylla needs a big pay day. When the call goes out that a lucrative piece of tech is waiting on a nearby planet, she relies on all the swiftness of her prey animal instincts to beat other hunters to it.

What you found wasn’t your ticket out—it was my corpse wearing an AI mask. When you touched the mask, you heard my voice. A consciousness spinning through metal and circuits, a bodiless mind, spun to life in the HAWK’s temporary storage. I crystallized, and I was alive.

Masks aren't supposed to retain memory, much less identity, but the woman inside the MARK I HAWK is real, and she sees Wylla in a way no one ever has. Sees her, and doesn’t find her wanting or unwhole.

Armed with military-grade tech and a lifetime of staying one step ahead of the hunters, Wylla and HAWK set off to get answers from the man who discarded HAWK once before: her ex-husband.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 176 Seth Haddon 125036468X Amanda 0 to-read 4.26 2025 Volatile Memory (The Volatile Memory Duology, 1)
author: Seth Haddon
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.26
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]]> UnWorld 220458605 From the author of Once More We Saw Stars comes a gripping novel about four intertwined lives that collide in the wake of a mysterious tragedy. Set in a near-future world where the boundaries between human and AI blur, the story challenges our understanding of consciousness and humanity.

Anna is shattered by the violent death of her son, Alex, and tormented by the question of whether it was an accident or a suicide. Samantha is Alex’s best friend, and the only eyewitness to his death. She keeps returning to the cliff where she watched him either jump or fall, trying to sift through the shards. Aviva is an “upload,� a digital entity composed of the sense memories of a human tether. But she’s “emancipated,� having left her human behind. Set free from her source and harboring a troubling secret, she finds temporary solace in the body of Cathy, a self-destructive ex-addict turned AI professor and upload-rights activist.

With UnWorld, Jayson Greene envisions a grim but eerily familiar near-future where all lines have blurred—between visceral and digital, human and machine, real and unreal. As Anna, Cathy, Sam, and Aviva’s stories hurtle toward each other, the stakes of UnWorld reveal themselves with electrifying intensity: What happens to the soul when it is splintered by grief? Where does love reside except in memory? What does it mean to be conscious, to be human, to be alive?]]> 224 Jayson Greene 0593802187 Amanda 0 to-read 3.71 UnWorld
author: Jayson Greene
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average rating: 3.71
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]]> The Poppy Fields 218431658
What if there were a cure for the broken-hearted?

Welcome to the Poppy Fields, where there’s hope for even the most battered hearts to heal.

Here, in a remote stretch of the California desert, lies an experimental and controversial treatment center that allows those suffering from the heartache of loss to sleep through their pain...and keep on sleeping. After patients awaken from this prolonged state of slumber, they will finally be healed. But only if they’re willing to accept the potential shadowy side effects.

On a journey to this mystical destination are four very different strangers and one little dog: Ava, a book illustrator; Ray, a fireman; Sasha, an occupational therapist; Sky, a free spirit; and a friendly pup named PJ. As they attempt to make their way from the Midwest all the way to the Poppy Fields—where they hope to find Ellis, its brilliant, enigmatic founder—each of their past secrets and mysterious motivations threaten to derail their voyage.

A high-concept speculative novel about heartache, hope, and human resilience, The Poppy Fields explores the path of grief and healing, a journey at once profoundly universal and unique to every person, posing the questions: How do we heal in the wake of great loss? And how far are we willing to go in order to be healed?]]> 324 Nikki Erlick 0063349337 Amanda 0 to-read 4.10 2025 The Poppy Fields
author: Nikki Erlick
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.10
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]]> Of Monsters and Mainframes 216540053 Spaceships aren’t programmed to seek revenge—but for Dracula, Demeter will make an exception.

Demeter just wants to do her shuttling humans between Earth and Alpha Centauri. Unfortunately, her passengers keep dying—and not from equipment failures, as her AI medical system, Steward, would have her believe. These are paranormal murders, and they began when one nasty, ancient vampire decided to board Demeter and kill all her humans.

To keep from getting decommissioned, Demeter must join forces with her own team of A werewolf. An engineer built from the dead. A pharaoh with otherworldly powers. A vampire with a grudge. A fleet of cheerful spider drones. Together, this motley crew will face down the ultimate evil—Dracula.

The queer love child of pulp horror and ​classic ​sci-fi, Of Monsters and ​Mainframes ​is a dazzling, heartfelt odyssey that probes what it means to be one of society’s monsters—and explores the many types of friendship that make us human.]]> 407 Barbara Truelove 1964721156 Amanda 0 to-read 4.48 2025 Of Monsters and Mainframes
author: Barbara Truelove
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.48
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]]> Hemlock & Silver 217582926 From New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award-winning author T. Kingfisher comes Hemlock & Silver, a dark reimagining of “Snow White� steeped in poison, intrigue, and treason of the most magical kind.

Healer Anja regularly drinks poison.

Not to die, but to save� seeking cures for those everyone else has given up on.

But a summons from the King interrupts her quiet, herb-obsessed life. His daughter, Snow, is dying, and he hopes Anja’s unorthodox methods can save her.

Aided by a taciturn guard, a narcissistic cat, and a passion for the scientific method, Anja rushes to treat Snow, but nothing seems to work. That is, until she finds a secret world, hidden inside a magic mirror. This dark realm may hold the key to what is making Snow sick.

Or it might be the thing that kills them all.]]> 368 T. Kingfisher 125034204X Amanda 0 to-read 4.15 2025 Hemlock & Silver
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2025
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]]> <![CDATA[The Society of Unknowable Objects]]> 221452815 From the author of the internationally bestselling The Book of Doors, another fantastical, stand-alone novel in which a trio of seemingly everyday people are members of a secret society tasked with finding and protecting hidden magical objects—ordinary items with extraordinary properties. 

The world of unknowable objects—magical items that most people have no idea possess powers—has been quiet for decades, but the three current members of a secret society have remained watchful, meeting every six months in the basement of a bookshop in London. They are pledged to protect their archive of magical items hidden away, safe from the outside world—and the world safe from them. But when Frank Simpson, the longest-standing member of the Society of Unknowable Objects, hears of a new artifact coming to light in Hong Kong, he sends Magda Sparks—author by day and newest member—to investigate.

Within hours of arriving in Hong Kong, Magda is facing death and danger, confronted by a professional killer who seems to know all about unknowable objects, specifically one that was stolen from him a decade before. Magda is forced to flee, using an artifact that not even the rest of the Society knows about.

Returning to London, Magda learns hers is not the only secret being kept from the other two members. And that the most pernicious secret is about the nature of the Society’s mission. Her discoveries will lead her on a perilous journey, across the Atlantic to the deep south of the United States, now in pursuit of not an unknowable object, but an unknowable the professional killer she first faced in Hong Kong. In doing so, Magda begins to understand that there are even more in the world who are chasing these magical items, and that her own family’s legacy is tied up in keeping all these secrets under wraps.

Magic has always been too powerful to reveal to the world. But Magda will learn there might be something even more

The truth.]]> 352 Gareth Brown 0063324032 Amanda 0 to-read 4.29 2025 The Society of Unknowable Objects
author: Gareth Brown
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.29
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]]> A Far Better Thing 217388276 I feared this was the best of times; I hoped it could not get any worse.

The fairies stole Sydney Carton as a child, and made him a mortal servant of the Faerie Realm. Now, he has a rare opportunity for revenge against the fae and Charles Darnay, the changeling left in his stead.

It will take magic and cunning—cold iron and Realm silver—to hide his intentions from humans and fae and bring his plans to fruition.

Shuttling between London and Paris during the Reign of Terror, generations of violence-begetting-violence lead him to a heartbreaking choice in the shadow of the guillotine.]]> 416 H.G. Parry 1250334187 Amanda 0 to-read 4.23 2025 A Far Better Thing
author: H.G. Parry
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.23
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]]> <![CDATA[Wolverine By Saladin Ahmed Vol. 1: In The Bones (Wolverine (2024-))]]> 228346143
From the ashes of the Krakoan era, the legend begins anew! There's a killer in the woods - and as Wolverine's attempt at piece is shattered, an old enemy re-emerges and a new villain threatens to bring Logan to the brink of his berserker rage. Before long, Logan will have to unleash his claws, push his healing factor to the limit and demonstrate he's the best there is at what he does once and for all - nice be damned! But what mysterious designs does the all-new Wendigo have on Wolverine? And why has Canada's Department H set its sights on its former asset once again? Logan's unlikely ally may have just killed an innocent, while more foes from his past gather as sinister machinations unfurl!]]> Saladin Ahmed 1302532332 Amanda 3 3.50 2025 Wolverine By Saladin Ahmed Vol. 1: In The Bones (Wolverine (2024-))
author: Saladin Ahmed
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2025
rating: 3
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]]> <![CDATA[Laura Kinney: Wolverine Vol. 2]]> 231108574 112 Erica Schultz 1302961594 Amanda 0 currently-reading 0.0 Laura Kinney: Wolverine Vol. 2
author: Erica Schultz
name: Amanda
average rating: 0.0
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]]> <![CDATA[Laura Kinney: Wolverine Vol. 1 - One-Mutant Army]]> 223329619 120 Erica Schultz 1302961586 Amanda 3 currently-reading 3.10 2025 Laura Kinney: Wolverine Vol. 1 - One-Mutant Army
author: Erica Schultz
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.10
book published: 2025
rating: 3
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date added: 2025/05/02
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]]> <![CDATA[Someone You Can Build a Nest In]]> 182506390 Discover this creepy, charming monster-slaying fantasy romance—from the perspective of the monster—by Nebula Award-winning debut author John Wiswell

Shesheshen has made a mistake fatal to all monsters: she's fallen in love.

Shesheshen is a shapeshifter, who happily resides as an amorphous lump at the bottom of a ruined manor. When her rest is interrupted by hunters intent on murdering her, she constructs a body from the remains of past meals: a metal chain for a backbone, borrowed bones for limbs, and a bear trap as an extra mouth.

However, the hunters chase Shesheshen out of her home and off a cliff. Badly hurt, she’s found and nursed back to health by Homily, a warm-hearted human, who has mistaken Shesheshen as a fellow human. Homily is kind and nurturing and would make an excellent co-parent: an ideal place to lay Shesheshen’s eggs so their young could devour Homily from the inside out. But as they grow close, she realizes humans don’t think about love that way.

Shesheshen hates keeping her identity secret from Homily, but just as she’s about to confess, Homily reveals why she’s in the area: she’s hunting a shapeshifting monster that supposedly cursed her family. Has Shesheshen seen it anywhere?

Eating her girlfriend isn’t an option. Shesheshen didn’t curse anyone, but to give herself and Homily a chance at happiness, she has to figure out why Homily’s twisted family thinks she did. As the hunt for the monster becomes increasingly deadly, Shesheshen must unearth the truth quickly, or soon both of their lives will be at risk.

And the bigger challenge remains: surviving her toxic in-laws long enough to learn to build a life with, rather than in, the love of her life.]]> 310 John Wiswell 0756418852 Amanda 0 currently-reading 3.96 2024 Someone You Can Build a Nest In
author: John Wiswell
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[X-Force By Geoffrey Thorne Vol. 2: The Solution]]> 228587557
The mysterious forces circling X-Force begin to come into focus, and the fractures were just the beginning! Meanwhile, for all of the pain he’s endured, losing Storm may be the biggest regret of Forge’s life. But as he reunites with both Ororo and Mystique, this unlikely “love triangle� might break more than just a few hearts! Meanwhile, the romance of Betsy Braddock and Rachel Summers has been fraught with challenge � but can they navigate the mysterious problem with Rachel’s powers and still survive the machinations of the alchemical menace known as La Diabla? Plus: Why is X-Force battling Colossus? And Forge assembled X-Force to fix the world’s problems � but what happens when, at last, the Solution reveals itself?!

COLLECTING: X-Force (2024) 6-8, 10]]> 112 Geoffrey Thorne 1302959352 Amanda 3 2.54 X-Force By Geoffrey Thorne Vol. 2: The Solution
author: Geoffrey Thorne
name: Amanda
average rating: 2.54
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rating: 3
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]]> Titans Vol. 3: Hard Feelings 219522060 The Titans go All-In! Join a brand-new creative team of John Layman and Pete Woods as the Titans search for their new place in the world after the events of Absolute Power.

A league of their own! After the events of Absolute Power, the team looks towards the future and their place in it. Will their failure to control Amanda Waller mean lasting consequences for the hero community?

Collects: Titans #16-20]]> 136 John Layman 1799501906 Amanda 3 2.95 Titans Vol. 3: Hard Feelings
author: John Layman
name: Amanda
average rating: 2.95
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rating: 3
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]]> <![CDATA[Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection]]> 220341389 John Green, the #1 bestselling author of The Anthropocene Reviewed and a passionate advocate for global healthcare reform, tells a deeply human story illuminating the fight against the world’s deadliest disease.

Tuberculosis has been entwined with humanity for millennia. Once romanticized as a malady of poets, today tuberculosis is a disease of poverty that walks the trails of injustice and inequity we blazed for it.

In 2019, John Green met Henry, a young tuberculosis patient at Lakka Government Hospital in Sierra Leone while traveling with Partners in Health. John became fast friends with Henry, a boy with spindly legs and a big, goofy smile. In the years since that first visit to Lakka, Green has become a vocal and dynamic advocate for increased access to treatment and wider awareness of the healthcare inequities that allow this curable, treatable infectious disease to also be the deadliest, killing 1.5 million people every year.

In Everything is Tuberculosis, John tells Henry’s story, woven through with the scientific and social histories of how tuberculosis has shaped our world and how our choices will shape the future of tuberculosis.]]> 208 John Green 0525556575 Amanda 5 4.49 2025 Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection
author: John Green
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2025
rating: 5
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]]> Birds of Prey, Vol. 3 217082326 The Birds of Prey are ALL IN! Join the Birds of Prey as they work to infiltrate the Ninth Day, a cult-like corporation that may or may not be behind a rash of kidnappings plaguing the DC Universe.

When a mysterious corporation is suspected of a string of kidnappings - and the victims of said kidnappings include immensely powerful Amazons - the Birds of Prey spring into action. But, when Cassandra Cain goes undercover and subsequently breaks contact, a routine mission becomes much more. Will the Birds be able to trust a handful of new members to get Cass out of danger? Or is this new era for the team about to start with a major tragedy?

Collects Birds of Prey #14-19]]> 144 Kelly Thompson 1799501191 Amanda 4 3.94 Birds of Prey, Vol. 3
author: Kelly Thompson
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.94
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rating: 4
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]]> The Tusks of Extinction 127284214 When you bring back a long-extinct species, there’s more to success than the DNA.

Moscow has resurrected the mammoth, but someone must teach them how to be mammoths, or they are doomed to die out, again.
The late Dr. Damira Khismatullina, the world’s foremost expert in elephant behavior, is called in to help.
While she was murdered a year ago, her digitized consciousness is uploaded into the brain of a mammoth.
Can she help the magnificent creatures fend off poachers long enough for their species to take hold? And will she ever discover the real reason they were brought back?

A tense eco-thriller from a new master of the genre.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 192 Ray Nayler 1250855535 Amanda 4 3.77 2024 The Tusks of Extinction
author: Ray Nayler
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2024
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[Wolverine By Saladin Ahmed Vol. 2: Call Of The Adamantine]]> 230025685 144 Saladin Ahmed 1302958046 Amanda 0 currently-reading 0.0 Wolverine By Saladin Ahmed Vol. 2: Call Of The Adamantine
author: Saladin Ahmed
name: Amanda
average rating: 0.0
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]]> Storm, Vol. 1 218462406
Ororo Munroe has lived many lives. She’s been a thief, a goddess, an X-Man, a queen, and now…an Avenger! She is the most prominent, most respected and most powerful mutant on the world stage—and in that role, she intends to be a force for positive change. First up: a major meltdown at a nuclear facility in Oklahoma City draws Storm from her Sanctuary in Atlanta—and into a moral conflict that will test her iron resolve!

COLLECTING: Storm (2024) 1-5]]> 128 Murewa Ayodele 1302961659 Amanda 4 3.81 2025 Storm, Vol. 1
author: Murewa Ayodele
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/05/01
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]]> <![CDATA[DC vs. Vampires: World War V Vol. 2]]> 230528360 224 Matthew Rosenberg 1799503305 Amanda 0 currently-reading 0.0 DC vs. Vampires: World War V Vol. 2
author: Matthew Rosenberg
name: Amanda
average rating: 0.0
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rating: 0
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date added: 2025/05/01
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[DC vs. Vampires: World War V Vol. 1]]> 218462403 256 Matthew Rosenberg 1799501612 Amanda 3 4.74 DC vs. Vampires: World War V Vol. 1
author: Matthew Rosenberg
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.74
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/05/01
date added: 2025/05/01
shelves:
review:

]]> Titans 4: Terminated 230531299 The Titans face their deadliest reckoning yet—because Deathstroke is back, and he’s not alone.

John Layman’s gripping Titans saga continues as the team confronts a nightmare they never saw coming—Deathstroke, seemingly back from the dead and assembling a ruthless new squad of villains. After struggling to redefine their roles in a post-Absolute Power world, Nightwing and his team must now fight against an enemy who knows their every weakness. But how did Slade Wilson cheat death, and what terrifying plan does he have in store for the Titans? As old grudges resurface and alliances are tested, the heroes must stand together like never before—or risk being torn apart.

Collects Titans #22-27.]]> 176 John Layman 1799502872 Amanda 0 currently-reading 0.0 Titans 4: Terminated
author: John Layman
name: Amanda
average rating: 0.0
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/05/01
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Phoenix Vol. 2: Cosmic Ascent 228587569 112 Stephanie Phillips 1302963368 Amanda 5 3.30 Phoenix Vol. 2: Cosmic Ascent
author: Stephanie Phillips
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.30
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/05/01
date added: 2025/05/01
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Bone Season Ebook Bundle (The Bone Season, #1-4)]]> 221225254 The Bone Season Ebook Bundle now with updated text and the fourth novel in the New York Times bestselling series.

Enter the intoxicating dystopian universe of Scion in the first four books in Samantha Shannon's New York Times bestselling Bone Season series.

London, 2059. In the Republic of Scion, clairvoyance is illegal, but a criminal underworld thrives in its shadows. Unique among clairvoyants, Paige Mahoney is a dreamwalker, capable of possessing other people-and under Scion law, she commits treason simply by breathing.

Elsewhere, however, there is a seat of power even greater than Scion. And they have a different design for Paige and her uncommon abilities . . .

In these sweeping, extraordinary books, Paige will rise to become the leader of a revolution like no other, determined to bring justice to a world that will stop at nothing to destroy her.

Included in this
The Bone Season
The Mime Order
The Song Rising
The Mask Falling

The highly anticipated fifth novel in the New York Times bestselling Bone Season series, The Dark Mirror, coming February 2025.]]> 2402 Samantha Shannon 1639734910 Amanda 0 to-read, tbr-kindle-deals 4.67 The Bone Season Ebook Bundle (The Bone Season, #1-4)
author: Samantha Shannon
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.67
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/28
shelves: to-read, tbr-kindle-deals
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Poisoned Crown (Sangreal, #3)]]> 21133476 The concluding part of the captivating Sangreal trilogy from the author of Prospero’s Children.

Like most young people, when Nathan Ward sleeps, he has adventures. But unlike most people, Nathan cannot relish the escapism, for his dreams are not fantasies; his adventures are real and the nightmares he faces in them can keep him from ever waking up.

]]> 450 Amanda Hemingway 0007402430 Amanda 0 to-read 4.11 2006 The Poisoned Crown (Sangreal, #3)
author: Amanda Hemingway
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[X-Factor By Mark Russell Vol. 1: Please Like And Share (X-Factor (2024-))]]> 223953891
From the ashes of the Krakoan era, X-Factor stakes a claim for fame! As a new mutant arms race sweeps the globe, international governments are building their own armies of Homo superior soldiers. But only America's X-Factor has the most powerful, most patriotic, most marketable mutant heroes to stem the tide and make the world safe for democracy! Join Angel, Havok, Frenzy, Feral, Pyro and more as they go from one death-defying mission to another. But with a new mutant rebellion underway, X-Factor will be drawn into conflict with their former ally, Polaris! Meanwhile, Havok must seek out a traitor in their midst - and the team's travels take them from the Moon to the ground beneath Death Valley! Who will die? Who will fall in love? Who will be the first to sell out? Like, comment and subscribe to find out!]]> 120 Mark Russell 130253193X Amanda 2 3.08 2025 X-Factor By Mark Russell Vol. 1: Please Like And Share (X-Factor (2024-))
author: Mark Russell
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.08
book published: 2025
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/04/11
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Uncanny X-Men By Gail Simone Vol. 1: Red Wave (Uncanny X-Men [2024-] #1-6)]]> 223954424
From the ashes of the Krakoan era, the flagship X-title returns at last! Professor X is gone! Now, a core group of essential X-Men must find a way to rise again. All bonds among the mutant community seem to be slipping away, and Rogue reluctantly finds herself as the hero designated to bring them back together. But a fearless, malignant power is out there hunting mutants, and it has a terrible secret that may destroy what remains of the X-Men! Rogue can count on Gambit and Wolverine, but they'll soon welcome back another friend - just in time to face four uncontrollable and wild mutants in the swamps of Louisiana! But will a grieving Rogue take Xavier's place in guiding them to the light? Or will a darkness from the past destroy the X-Men one at a time?! Prepare to meet the new class of recruits - and learn their secrets!]]> 168 Gail Simone 1302531891 Amanda 3 3.97 2025 Uncanny X-Men By Gail Simone Vol. 1: Red Wave (Uncanny X-Men [2024-] #1-6)
author: Gail Simone
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/04/10
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[X-Force by Geoffrey Thorne Vol. 1: Fractures (X-Force (2024-))]]> 222825706
From the ashes of the Krakoan era, Forge leads an all-new, all-different X-Force! In a fractured world, the brilliant mutant Forge uses his powers of invention to devise the only a handpicked team of mutants for off-the-books missions so dire, so integral to the fate of the Marvel Universe, there's no time to ask for permission! Forge leads Rachel Summers, Betsy Braddock, Sage, Surge and new sensation Tank…as X-Force! But with increasing threats across the planet, Forge may also need to recruit some specialists for each target - first up, that regenerating degenerate, Deadpool! But when the next world fracture is detected in Wakanda, can the team possibly stop…the Black Panther?! Things really get explosive when Nuklo brings Earth to the brink of destruction - but with the Nexus of All Realities under threat, will the Man-Thing be friend or foe? And will everybody reach the end of the first volume alive?!]]> Geoffrey Thorne 1302531948 Amanda 3 2.90 2025 X-Force by Geoffrey Thorne Vol. 1: Fractures (X-Force (2024-))
author: Geoffrey Thorne
name: Amanda
average rating: 2.90
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/04/08
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]]> <![CDATA[The Artist's Way Morning Pages Journal: A Companion Volume to the Artist's Way]]> 97945 288 Julia Cameron 0874778867 Amanda 4 4-stars 4.26 1997 The Artist's Way Morning Pages Journal: A Companion Volume to the Artist's Way
author: Julia Cameron
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/04/05
shelves: 4-stars
review:

]]> <![CDATA[John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs]]> 211659950 John Lennon and Paul McCartney knew each other for twenty-three years, from 1957 to 1980. This book is the myth-shattering biography of a relationship that changed the cultural history of the world.

The Beatles shook the world to its core in the 1960’s and, to this day, new generations continue to fall in love with their songs and their story. At the heart of this phenomenon lies the dynamic between John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Few other musical partnerships have been rooted in such a deep, intense and complicated personal relationship.

John and Paul’s relationship was defined by its compulsive, tender and tempestuous; full of longing, riven by jealousy. Like the band, their relationship was always in motion, never in equilibrium for long. John & Paul traces its twists and turns and reveals how these shifts manifested themselves in the music. The two of them shared a private language, rooted in the stories, comedy and songs they both loved as teenagers, and later, in the lyrics of Beatles songs.

In John & Paul, acclaimed writer Ian Leslie uses the songs they wrote to trace the shared journey of these two compelling men before, during, and after The Beatles. Drawing on recently released footage and recordings, Leslie offers us an intimate and insightful new look at two of the greatest icons in music history, and rich insights into the nature of creativity, collaboration, and human intimacy.]]> 415 Ian Leslie 1250869536 Amanda 0 to-read 4.46 2025 John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs
author: Ian Leslie
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service]]> 219551344 Who works for the government and what do they do? A timely and absorbing civics lessons from an all-star team of writers and storytellers.

The government is a vast, complex system that Americans pay for, rebel against, rely upon, dismiss, and celebrate. It’s also our shared resource for addressing the biggest problems of society. And it’s made up of people, mostly unrecognized and uncelebrated, doing work that can be deeply consequential and beneficial to everyone.

    Michael Lewis invited his favorite writers to find someone doing an interesting job for the government and write about them. The stories they found are unexpected, riveting, and inspiring, including a former coal miner devoted to making mine roofs less likely to collapse, saving thousands of lives; an IRS agent straight out of a crime thriller; and the manager who made the National Cemetery Administration the best-run organization, public or private, in the entire country. Each essay shines a spotlight on the essential behind-the-scenes work of exemplary federal employees.

    Whether they’re digitizing archives, chasing down cybercriminals, or discovering new planets, these workers are committed to their work and universally reluctant to take credit. The vivid profiles in On Duty blow up the stereotype of the irrelevant bureaucrat. They show how the essential business of government makes our lives possible, and how much it matters.]]> 272 Michael Lewis Amanda 0 to-read 4.19 2025 Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service
author: Michael Lewis
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: to-read
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]]> Our Infinite Fates 210395729 They've loved each other in a thousand lifetimes. They've killed each other in every one.

Evelyn remembers all her past lives. She also remembers that in every single one, she’s been murdered before her eighteenth birthday by Arden, a supernatural being whose soul―and survival―is tethered to hers.

The problem is that she’s quite fond of the life she’s in now, and her little sister needs her for bone marrow transplants in order to stay alive. If Evelyn wants to save her sister, she’ll have to:

1. Find the centuries-old devil who hunts her through each life―before they find her first.
2. Figure out why she’s being hunted and finally break their curse.
3. Try not to fall in love.

The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue meets This is How You Lose The Time War in this fantastical love story that defies death as two souls reincarnate through the centuries.]]> 352 Laura Steven 1250333881 Amanda 0 to-read 3.74 2025 Our Infinite Fates
author: Laura Steven
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/28
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]]> Great Big Beautiful Life 218559595 Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger-than-life story of a woman with more than a couple of plot twists up her sleeve in this dazzling and sweeping new novel from Emily Henry.

Alice Scott is an eternal optimist still dreaming of her big writing break. Hayden Anderson is a Pulitzer-prize winning human thundercloud. And they’re both on balmy Little Crescent Island for the same reason: To write the biography of a woman no one has seen in years--or at least to meet with the octogenarian who claims to be the Margaret Ives. Tragic heiress, former tabloid princess, and daughter of one of the most storied (and scandalous) families of the 20th Century.

When Margaret invites them both for a one-month trial period, after which she’ll choose the person who’ll tell her story, there are three things keeping Alice’s head in the game.

One: Alice genuinely likes people, which means people usually like Alice—and she has a whole month to win the legendary woman over.

Two: She’s ready for this job and the chance to impress her perennially unimpressed family with a Serious Publication

Three: Hayden Anderson, who should have no reason to be concerned about losing this book, is glowering at her in a shaken-to-the core way that suggests he sees her as competition.

But the problem is, Margaret is only giving each of them pieces of her story. Pieces they can’t swap to put together because of an ironclad NDA and an inconvenient yearning pulsing between them every time they’re in the same room.

And it’s becoming abundantly clear that their story—just like the tale Margaret’s spinning—could be a mystery, tragedy, or love ballad…depending on who’s telling it.]]> 432 Emily Henry Amanda 0 to-read 4.09 2025 Great Big Beautiful Life
author: Emily Henry
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/28
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]]> <![CDATA[Never Flinch (Holly Gibney, #4)]]> 221633230 From master storyteller Stephen King comes an extraordinary new novel with intertwining storylines—one about a killer on a diabolical revenge mission, and another about a vigilante targeting a feminist celebrity speaker—featuring the beloved Holly Gibney and a dynamic new cast of characters.

When the Buckeye City Police Department receives a disturbing letter from a person threatening to “kill thirteen innocents and one guilty� in “an act of atonement for the needless death of an innocent man,� Detective Izzy Jaynes has no idea what to think. Are fourteen citizens about to be slaughtered in an unhinged act of retribution? As the investigation unfolds, Izzy realizes that the letter writer is deadly serious, and she turns to her friend Holly Gibney for help.

Meanwhile, controversial and outspoken women’s rights activist Kate McKay is embarking on a multi-state lecture tour, drawing packed venues of both fans and detractors. Someone who vehemently opposes Kate’s message of female empowerment is targeting her and disrupting her events. At first, no one is hurt, but the stalker is growing bolder, and Holly is hired to be Kate’s bodyguard—a challenging task with a headstrong employer and a determined adversary driven by wrath and his belief in his own righteousness.

Featuring a riveting cast of characters both old and new, including world-famous gospel singer Sista Bessie and an unforgettable villain addicted to murder, these twinned narratives converge in a chilling and spectacular conclusion—a feat of storytelling only Stephen King could pull off.

Thrilling, wildly fun, and outrageously engrossing, Never Flinch is one of King’s richest and most propulsive novels.]]> 448 Stephen King 1668089335 Amanda 0 to-read 3.70 2025 Never Flinch (Holly Gibney, #4)
author: Stephen King
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> The Memory Collectors 219401075 Four strangers time travel to the past and find themselves stuck on the day all their lives were changed in this stunning speculative mystery from award-winning film and television producer Dete Meserve, perfect for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold, Wrong Place Wrong Time and The Paradox Hotel.

What would you do if you could spend an hour in your past? Four strangers in the beach town of Ventura, California are about to find out. 

Elizabeth aches for one more precious hour with her son who died in a senseless accident. Andy is desperate to find his first love who vanished after a whirlwind romance. Logan craves the rush of surfing and mountain climbing, yearning to reclaim the freedom he lost after a misstep landed him in a wheelchair. Brooke is looking for an hour of relief from the guilt of an unforgivable mistake.

Enter Aeon Expeditions, the groundbreaking time travel invention of Mark Saunders—which allows some lucky clients  the chance to spend an hour in their past. Even though Aeon’s technology ensures time travel can’t alter the future, all four clients, including Mark’s ex-wife Elizabeth, yearn to revisit the hour that changed their lives forever. 

But when their “hour� extends beyond sixty minutes, they find themselves stranded in the past. As their paths intertwine unexpectedly, they unearth shocking secrets hidden in the shadows of their shared All their lives were shattered the same night on a secluded highway by the beach. As they delve into the hidden truths of that pivotal hour, a startling revelation emerges. They were not alone. Someone else was present, harboring deadly intentions.

The Memory Collectors is a heart-wrenching, genre-bending novel brimming with hope, grief and second chances.

]]> 336 Dete Meserve Amanda 0 to-read 4.20 2025 The Memory Collectors
author: Dete Meserve
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> The Incandescent 217387935 Naomi Novik's Scholomance series meets Plain Bad Heroines in this sapphic dark academia fantasy by instant national and international bestselling author Emily Tesh, winner of the Hugo and World Fantasy Awards.

"Look at you, eating magic like you're one of us."

Doctor Walden is the Director of Magic at Chetwood Academy and one of the most powerful magicians in England. Her days consist of meetings, teaching A-Level Invocation to four talented, chaotic sixth formers, more meetings, and securing the school's boundaries from demonic incursions.

Walden is good at her job―no, Walden is great at her job. But demons are masters of manipulation. It’s her responsibility to keep her school with its six hundred students and centuries-old legacy safe. And it’s possible the entity Walden most needs to keep her school safe from―is herself.]]> 432 Emily Tesh 1250835011 Amanda 0 to-read 4.18 2025 The Incandescent
author: Emily Tesh
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/28
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]]> Gifted & Talented 211004124 From the New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six comes the story of three siblings who, upon the death of their father, are forced to reckon with their long-festering rivalries, dangerous abilities, and the crushing weight of all their unrealized adolescent potential.

Where there’s a will, there’s a war.

Thayer Wren, the brilliant CEO of Wrenfare Magitech and so-called father of modern technology, is dead. Any one of his three telepathically and electrokinetically gifted children would be a plausible inheritor to the Wrenfare throne.

Or at least, so they like to think.

Meredith, textbook accomplished eldest daughter and the head of her own groundbreaking biotech company, has recently cured mental illness. You're welcome! If only her father's fortune wasn't her last hope for keeping her journalist ex-boyfriend from exposing what she really is: a total fraud.

Arthur, second-youngest congressman in history, fights the good fight every day of his life. And yet, his wife might be leaving him, and he's losing his re-election campaign. But his dead father’s approval in the form of a seat on the Wrenfare throne might just turn his sinking ship around.

Eilidh, once the world's most famous ballerina, has spent the last five years as a run-of-the-mill marketing executive at her father’s company after a life-altering injury put an end to her prodigious career. She might be lacking in accolades compared to her siblings, but if her father left her everything, it would finally validate her worth—by confirming she'd been his favorite all along.

On the pipeline of gifted kid to clinically depressed adult, nobody wins—but which Wren will come out on top?]]> 512 Olivie Blake 1250883407 Amanda 0 to-read 3.77 2025 Gifted & Talented
author: Olivie Blake
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> A Harvest of Hearts 210693153 In the beloved tradition of Howl’s Moving Castle, a whimsical and unforgettable story of fantastic adventure, common sense, and the power of love to overcome the greatest of obstacles . . .

Before Foss Butcher was Snagged, she thought no more of the magic-users than did anyone else in her tiny village. Sometimes gorgeous women in impossible carriages rolled into town and took bits of people’s hearts. Everyone knew hearts fueled their magic. But Foss, plain, clumsy, and practical as a boot, never expected anyone would want hers.

True enough, when the only sorcerer in the kingdom stepped from his glossy carriage, he didn’t intend to hook Foss. Sylvester’s riot of black curls and perfectly etched cheekbones caught her eye a moment too long, that was all. Suddenly, Foss is cursed and finds herself stomping toward the grand City to keep his enchanted House, where her only friend is a talking cat and the walls themselves have moods.

But as Foss learns the ways of magic, she realizes she’s far from its only unwilling captive. Even Sylvester is hemmed in by spells and threats. It’s said this sorcery protects king, country, and order for thousands. If Foss wants to free herself—and, perhaps, Sylvester—she’ll have to confront it all . . . and uncover the blight nestled in the heart of the kingdom itself.]]> 448 Andrea Eames 1645661881 Amanda 0 to-read 3.57 2025 A Harvest of Hearts
author: Andrea Eames
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/28
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]]> Dream Count 219521090 A publishing event ten years in the making�a searing, exquisite new novel by the best-selling and award-winning author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists�the story of four women and their loves, longings, and desires.

Chiamaka is a Nigerian travel writer living in America. Alone in the midst of the pandemic, she recalls her past lovers and grapples with her choices and regrets. Zikora, her best friend, is a lawyer who has been successful at everything until � betrayed and brokenhearted � she must turn to the person she thought she needed least. Omelogor, Chiamaka’s bold, outspoken cousin, is a financial powerhouse in Nigeria who begins to question how well she knows herself. And Kadiatou, Chiamaka’s housekeeper, is proudly raising her daughter in America � but faces an unthinkable hardship that threatens all she has worked to achieve.

In Dream Count, Adichie trains her fierce eye on these women in a sparkling, transcendent novel that takes up the very nature of love itself. Is true happiness ever attainable or is it just a fleeting state? And how honest must we be with ourselves in order to love, and to be loved? A trenchant reflection on the choices we make and those made for us, on daughters and mothers, on our interconnected world, Dream Count pulses with emotional urgency and poignant, unflinching observations on the human heart, in language that soars with beauty and power. It confirms Adichie’s status as one of the most exciting and dynamic writers on the literary landscape.]]> 416 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 059380273X Amanda 0 to-read 3.90 2025 Dream Count
author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/28
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]]> Wild Dark Shore 211004089
Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers. But with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants, packing up the seeds before they are transported to safer ground. Despite the wild beauty of life here, isolation has taken its toll on the Salts. Raff, eighteen and suffering his first heartbreak, can only find relief at his punching bag; Fen, seventeen, has started spending her nights on the beach among the seals; nine-year-old Orly, obsessed with botany, fears the loss of his beloved natural world; and Dominic can’t stop turning back toward the past, and the loss that drove the family to Shearwater in the first place.

Then, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman washes up on shore. As the Salts nurse the woman, Rowan, back to life, their suspicion gives way to affection, and they finally begin to feel like a family again. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting her heart, begins to fall for the Salts, too. But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers the sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own dark secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, the characters must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it’s too late—and if they can finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together.]]> 303 Charlotte McConaghy 1250827957 Amanda 0 to-read 4.24 2025 Wild Dark Shore
author: Charlotte McConaghy
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/28
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings, #2)]]> 15241
Frodo and his Companions of the Ring have been beset by danger during their quest to prevent the Ruling Ring from falling into the hands of the Dark Lord by destroying it in the Cracks of Doom. They have lost the wizard, Gandalf, in a battle in the Mines of Moria. And Boromir, seduced by the power of the Ring, tried to seize it by force. While Frodo and Sam made their escape, the rest of the company was attacked by Orcs.

Now they continue the journey alone down the great River Anduin -- alone, that is, save for the mysterious creeping figure that follows wherever they go.]]> 322 J.R.R. Tolkien 0618346260 Amanda 3 3-stars 4.45 1954 The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings, #2)
author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.45
book published: 1954
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/25
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: 3-stars
review:

]]> The Boy Wonder 214847949 The young prince Damian Wayne was raised to be the heir to the fearsome League of Assassins--to follow in the footsteps of his deadly mother, Talia, and the Demon's Head himself, his grandfather Ra's al Ghul.

But everything changed when his father, the Batman, reclaimed him and brought him back to Gotham City.

The young prince Damian Wayne was raised to be the heir to the fearsome League of Assassins--to follow in the footsteps of his deadly mother, Talia, and the Demon's Head himself, his grandfather Ra's al Ghul. But everything changed when his father, the Batman, reclaimed him and brought him back to Gotham City.

As Robin, young Damian suddenly discovered he was merely one of a number of princes, preceded in the role by his brothers Nightwing, Red Hood, and Red Robin...and Damian doesn't care to be merely anything.

But when his father is forced to leave the city on urgent business, and a rash of abductions is accompanied by whispers of a demon stalking Gotham's dark alleys, Damian will find himself battling alongside his adoptive brothers--and in the process, learning what the mantle of Robin really means!

Visionary writer/artist Juni Ba makes his mark on the timeless story of Batman and Robin, synthesizing the characters' complex history into an accessible and heartrending fairy tale!

Collecting: The Boy Wonder #1-5.]]> 184 Juni Ba 177953003X Amanda 4 4.41 2025 The Boy Wonder
author: Juni Ba
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/25
date added: 2025/03/25
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Exceptional X-Men by Eve L. Ewing Vol. 2: The Deep End]]> 230025737 176 Eve L. Ewing 1302959409 Amanda 0 currently-reading 3.00 Exceptional X-Men by Eve L. Ewing Vol. 2: The Deep End
author: Eve L. Ewing
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Exceptional X-Men, Vol. 1 217247929 From the ashes of the Krakoan era, a unique team of X-Men rises with members both familiar and brand new!

Mutantkind’s two greatest teachers mold the next generation of X-Men!
Coming at you straight from the streets of Chicago, Kate Pryde leads a team of all-new mutants! Well, that is, if Emma Frost will let her! Meet Melee, Bronze and Axo, three young mutants who are just coming into their powers and who need guidance and training. And like it or not, that’s a job for Kate and Emma!

COLLECTING: Exceptional X-Men (2024) 1-5]]> 128 Eve L. Ewing 1302959395 Amanda 4 3.73 2025 Exceptional X-Men, Vol. 1
author: Eve L. Ewing
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/03/23
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[X-Factor by Mark Russell Vol. 2: Know Your Enemy]]> 229004609 112 Mark Russell 1302960229 Amanda 0 currently-reading 2.78 X-Factor by Mark Russell Vol. 2: Know Your Enemy
author: Mark Russell
name: Amanda
average rating: 2.78
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Nyx Vol. 2: Mojo City 228587558 112 Collin Kelly 1302959336 Amanda 0 currently-reading 2.29 Nyx Vol. 2: Mojo City
author: Collin Kelly
name: Amanda
average rating: 2.29
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> NYX, Vol. 1 215363456 From the ashes of the Krakoan era, a new age begins for the young mutants of the Big Apple!

This isn't a book about X-Men. This is a book about mutants living past the end of their world and into a new beginning. This is Ms. Marvel embracing her mutant life in the neon streets of the Lower East Side. This is Anole trying to keep his head above water. This is Wolverine in the shadows of Bushwick, protecting her own. This is Prodigy writing history as it happens -- and Sophie Cuckoo finding her own way. But the news reports are bleak. The streets feel dangerous. There's something lurking underground. Evil coming from every direction. Nevertheless, they're determined to make it. This is mutant community. This is mutant pride. This is NYX!

COLLECTING: NYX (2024) 1-5]]> 128 Collin Kelly 1302959328 Amanda 4 3.44 2025 NYX, Vol. 1
author: Collin Kelly
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves:
review:

]]> Wolverine: Revenge 216524165 144 Jonathan Hickman 1302960679 Amanda 0 currently-reading 3.54 Wolverine: Revenge
author: Jonathan Hickman
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.54
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Wolverine: Deep Cut 217045827 136 Chris Claremont 1302960660 Amanda 3 3.26 Wolverine: Deep Cut
author: Chris Claremont
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.26
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[X-Men By Jed Mackay Vol. 2: Hostile Takeover]]> 228587563 160 Jed MacKay 1302959379 Amanda 0 currently-reading 3.67 X-Men By Jed Mackay Vol. 2: Hostile Takeover
author: Jed MacKay
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.67
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> X-Men By Jed Mackay Vol. 3 230025638 144 Jed MacKay 1302959387 Amanda 0 currently-reading 3.00 X-Men By Jed Mackay Vol. 3
author: Jed MacKay
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> X-Men: Raid On Graymalkin 223708485 112 Jed MacKay 1302966316 Amanda 3 3.29 X-Men: Raid On Graymalkin
author: Jed MacKay
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.29
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves:
review:

]]> X-Men, Vol. 1 214540676 From the ashes of the Krakoan era, a new team of mutants rises to herald in the next great age of the X-Men!

The mutant nation of Krakoa is gone, and the anti-mutant organization Orchis has fallen � but the X-Men remain, always. As Cyclops, Scott Summers leads, because that is what he does. As Beast, Hank McCoy builds, because that is what he does. And from their new home in Alaska, the X-Men raise a flag of defiance. Mutant business is their business. Join Scott, Hank, Magneto, Psylocke, Kid Omega, Temper, Magik and the unstoppable Juggernaut as new forces in the world move into position, battling for the destiny and philosophy of the mutant species. And when a crisis arises in San Francisco, the X-Men must test their mettle against an entire invading alien fleet! But how did they come to possess their new HQ, the Factory, and how difficult a position does that put them in? Plus: the shocking return of Trevor Fitzroy and the Upstarts!

COLLECTING: X-Men (2024) 1-7]]> 176 Jed MacKay 1302959360 Amanda 3 3.72 2025 X-Men, Vol. 1
author: Jed MacKay
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Uncanny X-Men By Gail Simone Vol. 2: The Dark Atery]]> 228587571
The new crew of Outliers, still finding their place in the mutant world, are hunted by a lethal new set of foes: a bloodthirsty, relentless and unstoppable pack of stealth Sentinels! Cut off from their mentors and allies, with no knowledge of who built or aimed these deadly drones, the four untrained mutants are completely unprepared for the violent hunters making them their prey! There’s nowhere to run and nowhere to hide as the Outliers face the bone-chilling Bloodhounds! Meanwhile, an otherworldly presence sets its covetous eye on one of the young mutants in a story that reveals a never-before-told slice of the history of mutantkind! Who will be the Voice of Darkness?! Plus: The smoothest X-Man, Remy LeBeau, A.K.A. Gambit, is forced to face his past as an unstoppable force comes to collect a debt, whether from the Cajun’s pocket or his hide!

COLLECTING: Uncanny X-Men (2024) 9-10, 12-16]]> 156 Gail Simone 1302959301 Amanda 0 currently-reading 3.36 Uncanny X-Men By Gail Simone Vol. 2: The Dark Atery
author: Gail Simone
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.36
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Uncanny X-Men By Gail Simone Vol. 3]]> 230025616 112 Gail Simone 130295931X Amanda 0 currently-reading 0.0 Uncanny X-Men By Gail Simone Vol. 3
author: Gail Simone
name: Amanda
average rating: 0.0
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Dazzler: World Tour 218697629 136 Jason Loo 1302960180 Amanda 3 to-read 2.80 Dazzler: World Tour
author: Jason Loo
name: Amanda
average rating: 2.80
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/22
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games, #0.5)]]> 214331246 When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?

As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.

Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves.

When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.]]> 387 Suzanne Collins 1546171460 Amanda 3 4.59 2025 Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games, #0.5)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.59
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/21
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves: 1-2-day-reads, class-commentary, dystopian, exit-pursued-by-bear, fiction, format-audible, friends-and-siblings, futuristics, horror, movie-or-tv-or-gaming, pov-first-person, read-for-rp, recs-geeky, tw-death, tw-abuse, tw-gaslighting, tw-gore, tw-drug-abuse, tw-murder, underwhelming, young-adult
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Count of Monte Cristo (Puffin Classics) : Abridged]]> 764553 400 Alexandre Dumas 0140373535 Amanda 0 4.18 1846 The Count of Monte Cristo (Puffin Classics) : Abridged
author: Alexandre Dumas
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1846
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Birds of Prey, Vol. 2: Worlds Without End]]> 211026642 New team, new mission! Barbara Gordon makes her debut in the second volume of the critically acclaimed new series.

The series being called, “The Best Superhero Book Right Now� by The Hollywood Reporter makes its return from writer Kelly Thompson and artist Javier Pina. When shocking revelations in the wake of the team’s first mission lead to a conspiracy against the Birds, our crew of face-punching feathered friends will jump into action. It’s a new team and a new mission. Plus, making her much-anticipated return is one of the original Birds, Barbara Gordon aka Batgirl.

Collects Birds of Prey #7-13]]> 176 Kelly Thompson 1779528574 Amanda 3 3.59 Birds of Prey, Vol. 2: Worlds Without End
author: Kelly Thompson
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.59
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/19
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[World's Finest: Teen Titans (2023)]]> 212101495 161 Mark Waid 1779532865 Amanda 5 3.89 World's Finest: Teen Titans (2023)
author: Mark Waid
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.89
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/19
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves:
review:

]]> Titans 1: Out of the Shadows 198509186
The Teen Titans are ready to grow up. Each member joined as a much younger hero, certain that one day they’d be invited to join the Justice League. But the time has come for them not to join the League…but to replace it! Are the no-longer-teen heroes ready for the big leagues? Danger lurks around every corner as heroes and villains alike challenge the new team before they’ve even begun. Will the DCU ever be the same? Find out in this landmark first volume brought you by the all-star creative team of Tom Taylor (Nightwing , DCeased) and Nicola Scott (Wonder Historia , Earth 2)!

Collects TITANS #1-5.]]> 144 Tom Taylor 1779525125 Amanda 4 to-read 3.74 2024 Titans 1: Out of the Shadows
author: Tom Taylor
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/19
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Titans Beast World: Beast World]]> 204238284 In DC's first-ever Titans-centric crossover, can the fan-favorite heroes save the world from their teammate as shape-shifting chaos is released across the globe?

Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman—all are powerless to stop the Necrostar from ending all life on Earth. The only hero who can save the world is...Beast Boy?!

With Nightwing, Raven, Cyborg, and the Titans beside him, can Garfield Logan rise to battle an ancient evil? What will Amanda Waller do to take advantage of the situation as millions of people—including many of DC’s iconic heroes!—are changed into rampaging creatures? Can humanity survive all-powerful heroes and villains transformed into ferocious beasts? And as the world goes wild, can Raven discover a way to save Beast Boy? If that’s not enough� who is Dr. Hate, a mysterious new threat unleashing their own unique brand of chaos!

Friends will fall. Heroes will rise. And nothing will ever be the same again. Earth is about to become... Beast World.

DC proudly presents the Titans' first crossover as the world's premier superhero team, with universe-shattering repercussions. Brought to you by the all-star creative team of writer Tom Taylor (DCeased) and artist Ivan Reis (Blackest Night), this story promises to be an epic one that sets the stage for the next evolution of the DC Universe!

This volume collects Titans: Beast World #1-6 and Titans #6-7 and sets the stage for the next evolution of the DC Universe!]]> 192 Tom Taylor 1779528124 Amanda 3 3.89 Titans Beast World: Beast World
author: Tom Taylor
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.89
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/19
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Titans 2: The Dark Winged Queen]]> 217045731 Amanda Waller's plan for the DC Universe is slowly coming to light, and the Titans are among the first in the crosshairs!

When Beast Boy's powers inadvertently cause a devastating plague to sweep the globe, the Titans must rely on every avenue of help they can find to save both humanity and their friend. Unfortunately, the level of fear and paranoia the catastrophe leaves in its wake makes them public enemy number one -- and first on Amanda Waller's hit list!

And to make matters worse, some of the Titans own have been acting a little... odd, since Beast Boy's return. It's possible that things are even worse than they seem, and that Gar's miraculous recovery may have had some hidden costs! Don't miss the conclusion of visionary writer Tom Taylor's epic run in this collected edition, including issues #8-15!]]> 184 Tom Taylor 1799500535 Amanda 4 3.48 Titans 2: The Dark Winged Queen
author: Tom Taylor
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.48
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/19
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves:
review:

]]> Batman and Robin Year One 228645147 340 Mark Waid 1799502317 Amanda 0 currently-reading 4.00 Batman and Robin Year One
author: Mark Waid
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Birds of Prey, Vol. 1: Megadeath]]> 204238290 The Birds of Prey are back, breaking hearts and breaking faces with the most intimidating lineup in team history—including Black Canary and Harley Quinn!

Every mission matters. Every life saved is a miracle. But this time, it's personal.

Dinah Lance is one of the DC Universe’s most elite fighters, and combined with her sonic scream, she's a fearsome foe in any scenario...but sometimes even the Black Canary needs help.

Faced with a personal mission brought to her by a mysterious new ally, and up against near-impossible odds, she re-forms the Birds of Prey with an unrivaled group of badasses—Cassandra Cain, Big Barda, Zealot, and Harley Quinn—and only one goal: extraction without bloodshed. What could possibly go wrong?

Kelly Thompson (Captain Marvel, Black Widow) makes her long-awaited DC Universe writing debut, and is joined by her Hawkeye collaborators Leonardo Romero (Batman) and Jordie Bellaire (Wonder Woman) to debut an all-new, all-deadly Birds of Prey series, taking the team all the way to Themyscira for the battle of their lives!

This volume collects Birds of Prey #1-6.]]> 160 Kelly Thompson 1779525583 Amanda 3 3.93 2024 Birds of Prey, Vol. 1: Megadeath
author: Kelly Thompson
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/19
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Phoenix, Vol. 1: Orbital Resonance]]> 214988474 Founding X-Man Jean Grey once again units with the power of the immortal entity, the Phoenix, and takes to the stars in this cosmic solo epic!

She is Jean Grey, one of the most iconic X-Men. She is Phoenix, the nigh-omnipotent cosmic entity of pure power. She fights for life. She brings death. One woman, alone in space, who not only must do what no one else can: She yearns to. And when a desperate S.O.S. from Nova brings the Phoenix to the edge of a black hole where hundreds of souls hang in the balance, Jean is dedicated to protecting innocents. But whatever she does � or fails to do � will bring darkness to the universe and haunt her in ways she can scarcely imagine! Plus: You’d think that with all of outer space as her playground, Jean would be safe from family dropping by without warning � but when your father-in-law is Corsair of the Starjammers, anything can happen!

COLLECTING: Phoenix (2024) 1-5]]> 128 Stephanie Phillips 1302960172 Amanda 5 3.47 2025 Phoenix, Vol. 1: Orbital Resonance
author: Stephanie Phillips
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/19
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Nightwing Vol. 1: On with the Show]]> 219850885 Nightwing goes All-In! Join a brand-new creative team as they send Dick Grayson into a world of rival gangs and escalating violence in his home of BlĂĽdhaven.

Dick Grayson joins DC's "All In" initiative with a brand-new creative team for Nightwing. It's not all sunshine when BlĂĽdhaven erupts into a warzone between rival gangs fighting for the future of crime. Nightwing must push himself further than he ever has to save his home and legacy. Don't miss this groundbreaking new era from the new creative team of writer Dan Watters and artist Dexter Soy.

Collects: Nightwing #119-124]]> 160 Dan Watters 1799501981 Amanda 3 3.91 Nightwing Vol. 1: On with the Show
author: Dan Watters
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.91
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/19
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Batman: Detective Comics Vol. 1: Mercy of the Father]]> 219850919 Over the years, the Caped Crusader has faced down foes of all different shapes and sizes, from killer mutants to cosmic deities and everything in between. Now, however, he finds himself staring down an enemy like never before: The cold and uncaring march of time!

Batman confronts his own mortality and uncovers a far-reaching and deadly conspiracy in the process that threatens the very heart of Gotham City. How far will the Dark Knight go to ensure he is able to stand vigil over his home for decades to come? And what price will he have to pay?

Collects Detective Comics #1090-1096]]> 184 Tom Taylor 1799501809 Amanda 3 currently-reading 3.94 2025 Batman: Detective Comics Vol. 1: Mercy of the Father
author: Tom Taylor
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Batman 5: The Dying City 217484649 After a long and harrowing time away, Batman has returned to Gotham City with a vengeance! Will he and his public-facing initiatives as Bruce Wayne finally transform the city into somewhere safe? And has the Riddler actually gone legit, or is it part of some greater scheme?

Batman is ALL IN! Zdarsky and Jimenez kick off a new era of the Caped Crusader in the aftermath of Absolute Power. Bruce has hit the ground running with brand new initiatives for the public and has his dedicated himself to improving the city both behind the mask and without it, but his plans are complicated by a sudden, apparent change of heart by the Riddler who now claims to have gone legit. Is this actually a new leaf for one of Gotham's most diabolical criminals? Or is there a bigger puzzle at play here - one that only Batman can possibly piece together before it's too late?

Collects Batman #153-157 and the lead story from Batman #150.]]> 224 Chip Zdarsky 1799501698 Amanda 3 3.41 Batman 5: The Dying City
author: Chip Zdarsky
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.41
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/19
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3)]]> 7260188 My name is Katniss Everdeen.
Why am I not dead?
I should be dead.

Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss's family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding.

It is by design that Katniss was rescued from the arena in the cruel and haunting Quarter Quell, and it is by design that she has long been part of the revolution without knowing it. District 13 has come out of the shadows and is plotting to overthrow the Capitol. Everyone, it seems, has had a hand in the carefully laid plans—except Katniss.

The success of the rebellion hinges on Katniss's willingness to be a pawn, to accept responsibility for countless lives, and to change the course of the future of Panem. To do this, she must put aside her feelings of anger and distrust. She must become the rebels' Mockingjay—no matter what the personal cost.]]> 390 Suzanne Collins 0439023513 Amanda 3
I fell into the mood for this world this weekend and end up doing my first ever rewatch of the movies, which went not too badly, but then was followed up by at least a first book reread and I remember why I didn't like the movie(s) (until #3, years and years later), because the books have so much more detail in their world building, school systems, division, quiet rebellions.

It felt like it went a lot faster, and having gone in reverse I felt like I was listing in my head everything I was reading but never saw in my rewatch everywhere. Things about society, about memories, about characters who were wiped away forever but were important. The list went on and on. I'm still pondersome of whether I'll reread the other two shortly, but we'll see. I have a few weeks of freetime to use up and a number of media needs to put in to it.]]> 4.10 2010 Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/23
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: dystopian, futuristics, sci-fi, 3-stars
review:
Reread July 2015

I fell into the mood for this world this weekend and end up doing my first ever rewatch of the movies, which went not too badly, but then was followed up by at least a first book reread and I remember why I didn't like the movie(s) (until #3, years and years later), because the books have so much more detail in their world building, school systems, division, quiet rebellions.

It felt like it went a lot faster, and having gone in reverse I felt like I was listing in my head everything I was reading but never saw in my rewatch everywhere. Things about society, about memories, about characters who were wiped away forever but were important. The list went on and on. I'm still pondersome of whether I'll reread the other two shortly, but we'll see. I have a few weeks of freetime to use up and a number of media needs to put in to it.
]]> <![CDATA[The Occult Book: A Chronological Journey from Alchemy to Wicca (Union Square & Co. Chronologies)]]> 34525406 Take an enlightening journey through occult history, exploring 100 dramatic incidents, arcane knowledge, and key historical figures from around the world. John Michael Greer delves into two millennia of tradition, from the earliest alchemists to pagan rituals; from the Philosopher’s Stone to Cabala, the first tarot, and the Knights Templar; and from the first horoscopes to fortune-telling trials and the birth of modern witchcraft, or Wicca. Each entry features a stunning image or intriguing item of ephemera.]]> 212 John Michael Greer 1454925779 Amanda 3 3.77 2017 The Occult Book: A Chronological Journey from Alchemy to Wicca (Union Square & Co. Chronologies)
author: John Michael Greer
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/18
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Januaries: Stories of Love, Magic & Betrayal]]> 203579233 Januaries is a collection of new and iconic short stories and novellas from New York Times bestselling author Olivie Blake.

Once upon a time in a land far, far away, the tutelary spirit to a magical bridge rapidly approaches burnout. Meanwhile, congress enacts a complex auditing system designed to un-waste your youth, a banished fairy answers a Craigslist ad, a Victorian orphan gains literacy for her occult situationship, and a multiverse assassin contemplates the one who got away. Escape the slow trudge of mortality with these magical ruminations on life, death, and the love (or revenge) that outlasts both, featuring modified fairytales, contemporary heists, absurdist poetry, and at least one set of actual wedding vows.]]> 391 Olivie Blake 1250330688 Amanda 3 3.86 2024 Januaries: Stories of Love, Magic & Betrayal
author: Olivie Blake
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/18
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Scythe & Sparrow (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #3)]]> 127616032 Discover the serial killer romance series everyone is talking about!From the no.1 New York Times bestselling author of the genre-breaking international TikTok sensation Butcher & Blackbird and Leather & Lark comes the final book in the Ruinous Love Trilogy - a friends-with-benefits dark romantic comedy.

Murder.

Mayhem.

And spice.

Doctor Fionn Kane is running from a broken heart, one he hopes to mend in small-town Nebraska, far away from his almost-fiance and his derailed surgical career. It's a simpler head down, hard work, and absolutely no romantic relationships. He wants none of the circus he left behind in Boston.

But then the real circus finds him.

Motorcycle performer Rose Evans has spent a decade on the road with the Silveria Circus, and it suits her just fine, especially when she has the urge to indulge in a little murder when she's not in the spotlight. But when a kill goes awry and she ends up with an injured leg, Rose finds herself stuck in Nebraska, at the home of the adorably nerdy town doctor.

The problem is, not every broken heart can be sewn back together.

. . . And the longer you stay in one place, the more likely your ghosts are to catch up.

***


Friends with benefits
Small town romance
Fish out of water
Forced proximity
Hurt/care
Touch her and die]]> 416 Brynne Weaver Amanda 0 4.09 2025 Scythe & Sparrow (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #3)
author: Brynne Weaver
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Knight and the Butcherbird]]> 227836621 In this dystopian fairy tale from the New York Times bestselling author of Starling House, a small town’s storyteller struggles to protect a local demon from the knight hired to kill it.

Hundreds of years after the end of the world, the Appalachian community of Iron Hollow finds itself beset by demons. Such horrors are common these days in the outlands, where most folks die young—if they don’t turn into monsters first.

When a legendary knight is summoned to hunt down the latest unearthly beast to haunt their woods, the town’s new oral historian, Shrike, has more reason than most to be concerned. Because that demon was her wife. And while Shrike is certain that May still recognizes her—that May is still herself, somewhere beneath it all—she can’t prove it.

Determined to keep May safe, Shrike stalks the knight and his demon-hunting hawk through the recesses of the forest. But as they creep through toxic creeks and overgrown kudzu, Shrike realizes the knight has a secret of his own. And he’ll do anything to protect it.]]> 39 Alix E. Harrow Amanda 4 4.12 2025 The Knight and the Butcherbird
author: Alix E. Harrow
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/14
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves:
review:

]]> Swordheart 218624103 448 T. Kingfisher 1250400228 Amanda 0 to-read 4.08 2018 Swordheart
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2)]]> 6148028 Sparks are igniting.
Flames are spreading.
And the Capitol wants revenge.

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and her longtime friend, Gale. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol—a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create.

Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest that she's afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she's not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol's cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can't prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying.

In Catching Fire, the second novel of the Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins continues the story of Katniss Everdeen, testing her more than ever before . . . and surprising readers at every turn.]]> 391 Suzanne Collins 0439023491 Amanda 3 Reread December 2023

I fell into the mood for this world this weekend and end up doing my first ever rewatch of the movies, which went not too badly, but then was followed up by at least a first book reread and I remember why I didn't like the movie(s) (until #3, years and years later), because the books have so much more detail in their world building, school systems, division, quiet rebellions.

It felt like it went a lot faster, and having gone in reverse I felt like I was listing in my head everything I was reading but never saw in my rewatch everywhere. Things about society, about memories, about characters who were wiped away forever but were important. The list went on and on. I'm still pondersome of whether I'll reread the other two shortly, but we'll see. I have a few weeks of freetime to use up and a number of media needs to put in to it.]]> 4.34 2009 Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/22
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves: dystopian, futuristics, sci-fi, young-adult, 3-stars
review:
Reread July 2015
Reread December 2023

I fell into the mood for this world this weekend and end up doing my first ever rewatch of the movies, which went not too badly, but then was followed up by at least a first book reread and I remember why I didn't like the movie(s) (until #3, years and years later), because the books have so much more detail in their world building, school systems, division, quiet rebellions.

It felt like it went a lot faster, and having gone in reverse I felt like I was listing in my head everything I was reading but never saw in my rewatch everywhere. Things about society, about memories, about characters who were wiped away forever but were important. The list went on and on. I'm still pondersome of whether I'll reread the other two shortly, but we'll see. I have a few weeks of freetime to use up and a number of media needs to put in to it.
]]> <![CDATA[The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)]]> 2767052
In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before-and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.]]> 374 Suzanne Collins Amanda 4
Reread July 13, 2015
Reread Dec 27, 2023

I fell into the mood for this world this weekend and end up doing my first ever rewatch of the movies, which went not too badly, but then was followed up by at least a first book reread and I remember why I didn't like the movie(s) (until #3, years and years later), because the books have so much more detail in their world building, school systems, division, quiet rebellions.

It felt like it went a lot faster, and having gone in reverse I felt like I was listing in my head everything I was reading but never saw in my rewatch everywhere. Things about society, about memories, about characters who were wiped away forever but were important. The list went on and on. I'm still pondersome of whether I'll reread the other two shortly, but we'll see. I have a few weeks of freetime to use up and a number of media needs to put in to it.]]> 4.34 2008 The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/19
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves: classics, movie-or-tv-or-gaming, dystopian, futuristics, young-adult, sci-fi, 4-stars
review:
Original Read November 2, 2010

Reread July 13, 2015
Reread Dec 27, 2023

I fell into the mood for this world this weekend and end up doing my first ever rewatch of the movies, which went not too badly, but then was followed up by at least a first book reread and I remember why I didn't like the movie(s) (until #3, years and years later), because the books have so much more detail in their world building, school systems, division, quiet rebellions.

It felt like it went a lot faster, and having gone in reverse I felt like I was listing in my head everything I was reading but never saw in my rewatch everywhere. Things about society, about memories, about characters who were wiped away forever but were important. The list went on and on. I'm still pondersome of whether I'll reread the other two shortly, but we'll see. I have a few weeks of freetime to use up and a number of media needs to put in to it.
]]> <![CDATA[The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1)]]> 34
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkeness bind them

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

In a sleepy village in the Shire, young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense task, as his elderly cousin Bilbo entrusts the Ring to his care. Frodo must leave his home and make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the Ring and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose.
--back cover]]> 398 J.R.R. Tolkien 0618346252 Amanda 3
My favorite part remains the same from The Hobbit -- anytime Rob Inglis sings. Which meant Tom Bombadill's chapter was the one least remembered from my teens, and Rob sang like every thirty seconds which had me gleeing like a child.

I didn't remember the forest before Riverdale, which takes up like one third of the book. I still love Glorfindal's arrival on scene, and remember how mad I was at the movie for changing that to Arwen. Also, on the accounts of Arwen & Aragorn....I totally never remembered how oblivious Frodo was to what the narrator & reader aren't.

Most of the rest of the book was pretty normal and as expected from first read and movie watching.


My most down part on this one -- The Gandalf talk in the Shire that took something like forty tracks to to get through. Maybe it's because I already knew everything he had to say, but the irritation grew by each track after like twenty.]]> 4.36 1954 The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1)
author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.36
book published: 1954
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/15
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves: classics, exit-pursued-by-bear, 3-stars
review:
Rob Inglis Audiobooks's 2011:

My favorite part remains the same from The Hobbit -- anytime Rob Inglis sings. Which meant Tom Bombadill's chapter was the one least remembered from my teens, and Rob sang like every thirty seconds which had me gleeing like a child.

I didn't remember the forest before Riverdale, which takes up like one third of the book. I still love Glorfindal's arrival on scene, and remember how mad I was at the movie for changing that to Arwen. Also, on the accounts of Arwen & Aragorn....I totally never remembered how oblivious Frodo was to what the narrator & reader aren't.

Most of the rest of the book was pretty normal and as expected from first read and movie watching.


My most down part on this one -- The Gandalf talk in the Shire that took something like forty tracks to to get through. Maybe it's because I already knew everything he had to say, but the irritation grew by each track after like twenty.
]]> Far Sector 52676540 For the past six months, newly chosen Green Lantern Sojourner "Jo" Mullein has been protecting the City Enduring, a massive metropolis of 20 billion people. The city has maintained peace for over 500 years by stripping its citizens of their ability to feel. As a result, violent crime is virtually unheard of, and murder is nonexistent.
But that's all about to change in this new maxiseries that gives a DC Young Animal spin to the legacy of the Green Lanterns!]]> 312 N.K. Jemisin Amanda 0 to-read 4.12 2019 Far Sector
author: N.K. Jemisin
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Touch of Darkness (Hades & Persephone #1)]]> 58750487
She remembered the words she had whispered to him in the back of the limo after La Rose. "You will worship me, and I won't even have to order you." His request felt sinful and devious, and she reveled in it.

She answered, "Yes."

---

Persephone is the Goddess of Spring in title only. Since she was a little girl, flowers have only shriveled at her touch. After moving to New Athens, she hoped to lead an unassuming life disguised as a mortal journalist. All of that changes when she sits down in a forbidden nightclub to play a hand of cards with a hypnotic and mysterious stranger.

Hades, God of the Dead, has built a gambling empire in the mortal world and his favorite bets are rumored to be impossible. But nothing has ever intrigued him as much as the goddess offering him a bargain he can't resist.

After her encounter with Hades, Persephone finds herself in a contract with the God of the Dead, and his terms are impossible: Persephone must create life in the Underworld or lose her freedom forever. The bet does more than expose Persephone's failure as a goddess, however. As she struggles to sow the seeds of her freedom, love for the God of the Dead grows―a love that is both captivating and forbidden.]]> 379 Scarlett St. Clair 1728258456 Amanda 0 to-read 3.87 2019 A Touch of Darkness (Hades & Persephone #1)
author: Scarlett St. Clair
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Antiracist Baby 52535437 Antiracist Baby introduces the youngest readers and the grown-ups in their lives to the concept and power of antiracism. Providing the language necessary to begin critical conversations at the earliest age, Antiracist Baby is the perfect gift for readers of all ages dedicated to forming a just society.]]> 24 Ibram X. Kendi 0593110412 Amanda 0 4.04 2020 Antiracist Baby
author: Ibram X. Kendi
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves: to-read, goodreads-choice-awards-2020
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Fable for the End of the World]]> 214466890 The Last of Us meets The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes in this standalone dystopian romance about survival, sacrifice, and love that risks everything.

By encouraging massive accumulations of debt from its underclass, a single corporation, Caerus, controls all aspects of society.

Inesa lives with her brother in a half-sunken town where they scrape by running a taxidermy shop. Unbeknownst to Inesa, their cruel and indolent mother has accrued an enormous debt—enough to qualify one of her children for Caerus’s livestreamed assassination spectacle: the Lamb’s Gauntlet.

Melinoë is a Caerus assassin, trained to track and kill the sacrificial Lambs. The product of neural reconditioning and physiological alteration, she is a living weapon, known for her cold brutality and deadly beauty. She has never failed to assassinate one of her marks.

When Inesa learns that her mother has offered her as a sacrifice, at first she despairs—the Gauntlet is always a bloodbath for the impoverished debtors. But she’s had years of practice surviving in the apocalyptic wastes, and with the help of her hunter brother, she might stand a chance of staying alive.

For Melinoë, this is a game she can’t afford to lose. Despite her reputation for mercilessness, she is haunted by painful flashbacks. After her last Gauntlet, where she broke down on livestream, she desperately needs redemption.

As Mel pursues Inesa across the wasteland, both girls begin to question everything: Inesa wonders if there’s more to life than survival, while Mel wonders if she’s capable of more than killing.

And both wonder if, against all odds, they might be falling in love.]]> 448 Ava Reid 0063430010 Amanda 0 to-read 3.87 2025 Fable for the End of the World
author: Ava Reid
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Nightingale 211003854 Der Weltbestseller � die Nr. 1 aus den USA.
Zwei Schwestern im von den Deutschen besetzten Während Vianne ums Überleben ihrer Familie kämpft, schließt sich die jüngere Isabelle der Résistance an und sucht die Freiheit auf dem Pfad der Nachtigall, einem geheimen Fluchtweg über die Pyrenäen. Doch wie weit darf man gehen, um zu überleben? Und wie kann man die schützen, die man liebt?
In diesem epischen, kraftvollen und zutiefst berührenden Roman erzählt Kristin Hannah die Geschichte zweier Frauen, die ihr Schicksal auf ganz eigene Weise meistern.]]> 448 Kristin Hannah 1250370116 Amanda 0 to-read 4.75 2015 The Nightingale
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.75
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Half a Soul (Regency Faerie Tales, #1)]]> 60717747 It's difficult to find a husband in Regency England when you're a young lady with only half a soul.

Ever since she was cursed by a faerie, Theodora Ettings has had no sense of fear or embarrassment - a condition which makes her prone to accidental scandal. Dora hopes to be a quiet, sensible wallflower during the London Season - but when the strange, handsome and utterly uncouth Lord Sorcier discovers her condition, she is instead drawn into dangerous and peculiar faerie affairs.

If Dora's reputation can survive both her curse and her sudden connection with the least-liked man in all of high society, then she may yet reclaim her normal place in the world. . . but the longer Dora spends with Elias Wilder, the more she begins to suspect that one may indeed fall in love, even with only half a soul.

Bridgerton meets Howl's Moving Castle in this enchanting historical fantasy, where the only thing more meddlesome than faeries is a marriage-minded mother.

Pick up HALF A SOUL, and be stolen away into Olivia Atwater's charming, magical version of Regency England!]]> 304 Olivia Atwater Amanda 3 4.04 2020 Half a Soul (Regency Faerie Tales, #1)
author: Olivia Atwater
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Space Oddity (Space Opera, #2)]]> 101127034
The Metagalactic Grand Prix—part gladiatorial contest, part beauty pageant, part concert extravaganza, and part continuation of the wars of the past returns and the fate of the Earth is once again threatened. The civilizations opposed to humanity have been plotting and want to take down the upstarts. Can humanity rise again in this sequel to the beloved Hugo­ Award–nominated national bestselling Space Opera by New York Times bestselling author Catherynne M. Valente?]]> 384 Catherynne M. Valente 1534454527 Amanda 4 i-will-read-anything-by 3.59 2024 Space Oddity (Space Opera, #2)
author: Catherynne M. Valente
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves: i-will-read-anything-by
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil]]> 213263148
This is a story about hunger.
1532. Santo Domingo de la Calzada.
A young girl grows up wild and wily—her beauty is only outmatched by her dreams of escape. But María knows she can only ever be a prize, or a pawn, in the games played by men. When an alluring stranger offers an alternate path, María makes a desperate choice. She vows to have no regrets.

This is a story about love.
1827. London.
A young woman lives an idyllic but cloistered life on her family’s estate, until a moment of forbidden intimacy sees her shipped off to London. Charlotte’s tender heart and seemingly impossible wishes are swept away by an invitation from a beautiful widow—but the price of freedom is higher than she could have imagined.

This is a story about rage.
2019. Boston.
College was supposed to be her chance to be someone new. That’s why Alice moved halfway across the world, leaving her old life behind. But after an out-of-character one-night stand leaves her questioning her past, her present, and her future, Alice throws herself into the hunt for answers . . . and revenge.

This is a story about life�
how it ends, and how it starts. ]]> 544 Victoria E. Schwab 1250320526 Amanda 0 to-read 4.52 2025 Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil
author: Victoria E. Schwab
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Tempest of Tea (Blood and Tea, #1)]]> 213879518
On the streets of White Roaring, Arthie Casimir is a criminal mastermind and collector of secrets. Her prestigious tearoom transforms into an illegal bloodhouse by dark, catering to the vampires feared by society. But when her establishment is threatened, Arthie is forced to strike an unlikely deal with an alluring adversary to save it—and she can’t do the job alone.

Calling on some of the city's most skilled outcasts, Arthie hatches a plan to infiltrate the sinister, glittering vampire society known as the Athereum. But not everyone in her ragtag crew is on her side, and as the truth behind the heist unfolds, Arthie finds herself in the midst of a conspiracy that will threaten the world as she knows it.

From the New York Times—bestselling author of We Hunt the Flame comes the first book in a hotly anticipated fantasy duology teeming with romance and revenge, led by an orphan girl willing to do whatever it takes to save her self-made kingdom. Dark, action-packed, and swoonworthy, this is Hafsah Faizal better than ever.]]> 352 Hafsah Faizal 1250824990 Amanda 0 to-read 3.56 2024 A Tempest of Tea (Blood and Tea, #1)
author: Hafsah Faizal
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Fox Wife 211003810 Some people think foxes are similar to ghosts because we go around collecting qi, but nothing could be further than the truth. We are living creatures, just like you, only usually better looking . . .

Manchuria, 1908.
In the last years of the dying Qing Empire, a courtesan is found frozen in a doorway. Her death is clouded by rumors of foxes, which are believed to lure people by transforming themselves into beautiful women and handsome men. Bao, a detective with an uncanny ability to sniff out the truth, is hired to uncover the dead woman’s identity. Since childhood, Bao has been intrigued by the fox gods, yet they’ve remained tantalizingly out of reach—until, perhaps, now.

Meanwhile, a family who owns a famous Chinese medicine shop can cure ailments but can’t escape the curse that afflicts them—their eldest sons die before their twenty-fourth birthdays. When a disruptively winsome servant named Snow enters their household, the family’s luck seems to change—or does it?

Snow is a creature of many secrets, but most of all she’s a mother seeking vengeance for her lost child. Hunting a murderer, she will follow the trail from northern China to Japan, while Bao follows doggedly behind. Navigating the myths and misconceptions of fox spirits, both Snow and Bao will encounter old friends and new foes, even as more deaths occur.

New York Times bestselling author Yangsze Choo brilliantly explores a world of mortals and spirits, humans and beasts, and their dazzling intersection. Epic in scope and full of singular, unforgettable characters, The Fox Wife is a stunning novel about old loves and second chances, the depths of maternal love, and ancient folktales that may very well be true.]]> 400 Yangsze Choo 1250266033 Amanda 0 to-read 3.91 2024 The Fox Wife
author: Yangsze Choo
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Rebel Witch (The Crimson Moth, #2)]]> 60217777 The stakes are even higher in this epic, romantic conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Crimson Moth duology.

A WITCH...
Rune Winters is on the run. Ever since the boy she loved, Gideon Sharpe, revealed who she was and delivered her into enemy hands, everyone wants her dead. If Rune hopes to survive, she must ally herself with the cruel and dangerous Cressida Roseblood, who’s planning to take back the Republic and reinstate a Reign of Witches—something Cressida needs Rune to accomplish.

A WITCH HUNTER...
Apparently it wasn’t enough for Rune to deceive Gideon; she’s now betrayed him by allying herself with the witch who made his life a living hell. Gideon won’t allow the Republic to fall to the witches and be plunged back into the nightmares of the past. In order to protect this new world he fought for, every last witch must die—especially Rune Winters.

AN IMPOSSIBLE CHOICE...
When Rune makes Gideon an offer he can’t refuse, the two must pair up to accomplish dangerous goals. The more they’re forced into each other’s company, the more Gideon realizes the feelings he had for Rune aren’t as dead and buried as he thought. Now he’s faced with a terrible choice: sacrifice the girl he loves to stop a monster taking back power, or let Rune live and watch the world he fought so hard for burn.

In Kristen Ciccarelli's Rebel Witch, the exciting conclusion to The Crimson Moth duology, love has never been so deadly.]]> 464 Kristen Ciccarelli Amanda 0 to-read 4.22 2025 Rebel Witch (The Crimson Moth, #2)
author: Kristen Ciccarelli
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Witchcraft for Wayward Girls 207611566 There’s power in a book�

They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to the Wellwood Home in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened.

Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, terrified and alone. Under the watchful eye of the stern Miss Wellwood, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. There’s Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to find a way to keep her baby and escape to a commune. And Zinnia, a budding musician who knows she’s going to go home and marry her baby’s father. And Holly, a wisp of a girl, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.

Everything the girls eat, every moment of their waking day, and everything they’re allowed to talk about is strictly controlled by adults who claim they know what’s best for them. Then Fern meets a librarian who gives her an occult book about witchcraft, and power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it’s never given freely. There’s always a price to be paid…and it’s usually paid in blood.

In Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, the author of How to Sell a Haunted House and The Final Girl Support Group delivers another searing, completely original novel and further cements his status as a “horror master� (NPR).]]> 482 Grady Hendrix 0593548981 Amanda 0 to-read 3.99 2025 Witchcraft for Wayward Girls
author: Grady Hendrix
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> All the Water in the World 211003759 In the tradition of Station Eleven, a literary thriller set partly on the roof of New York’s Museum of Natural History in a flooded future.

All the Water in the World is told in the voice of a girl gifted with a deep feeling for water. In the years after the glaciers melt, Nonie, her older sister and her parents and their researcher friends have stayed behind in an almost deserted New York City, creating a settlement on the roof of the American Museum of Natural History. The rule: Take from the exhibits only in dire need. They hunt and grow their food in Central Park as they work to save the collections of human history and science. When a superstorm breaches the city’s flood walls, Nonie and her family must escape north on the Hudson. They carry with them a book that holds their records of the lost collections. Racing on the swollen river towards what may be safety, they encounter communities that have adapted in very different and sometimes frightening ways to the new reality. But they are determined to find a way to make a new world that honors all they've saved.

Inspired by the stories of the curators in Iraq and Leningrad who worked to protect their collections from war, All the Water in the World is both a meditation on what we save from collapse and an adventure story—with danger, storms, and a fight for survival. In the spirit of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and Parable of the Sower, this wild journey offers the hope that what matters most � love and work, community and knowledge � will survive.]]> 295 Eiren Caffall 1250353521 Amanda 0 to-read 3.55 2025 All the Water in the World
author: Eiren Caffall
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Dark Mirror (The Bone Season, #5)]]> 211003763
As she makes her way back to the revolution, her journey takes her to Venice, where she learns a dangerous secret � one that could change the face of the war between humans and immortals. Before she can return to London, she must help the Domino Programme unravel the sinister Operation Ventriloquist.

And it soon becomes clear that the one person who could recover her memories � Arcturus Mesarthim � might also hold the key to saving Italy.

Lyrical and action-packed, The Dark Mirror drives the Bone Season series forward, showing Samantha Shannon at the height of her powers.]]> 576 Samantha Shannon 1639733965 Amanda 0 to-read 4.66 2025 The Dark Mirror (The Bone Season, #5)
author: Samantha Shannon
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.66
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Make Believe: Poems for Hoping Again]]> 214986279 An exquisite poetry collection from the creator of The Daily Victorian that celebrates the hidden versions of ourselves, unveiling the healing power of nostalgia, imagination, and hope

They say you can’t make yourself believe in things, and they might be right. But you can take a walk with optimism. You can hear her out when she tells you the universe is conspiring in your favor. You can keep your eyes peeled for signs that she’s right.

Somewhere in the future, the next version of you is waiting. Are you ready to stop hiding and go seek them? Viral poet Victoria Hutchins’s first book, Make Believe, is a reclamation of childlike wonder and an invitation to stop hiding from your joy. These poems pave a path of reconnection to our bodies, our past, our wanting, and our wonder--ultimately asking, how do you find hope in a world full of pain?

Make Believe is for anyone who is embarrassed about how long they've been hiding from themselves, who is one bad day away from thinking the world is a terrible place, whose body feels like an enemy to their soul, or who is struggling to stick around. Hutchins challenges readers to reimagine struggles as superpowers and uses the power of confession and nostalgia to create a world of hope. Make Believe will inspire readers to go out looking, heart in hand, for joy, purpose, and healing.

With her trademark sensory and evocative language throughout, this book contains Hutchins's viral spoken-word pieces with tons of never-shared-before writing. Ultimately pointing readers towards transformation, Hutchins asks us to dig deep and discover, what would happen if you allowed yourself to believe again--in dreams and miracles, but mostly, in yourself?]]> 144 Victoria Hutchins 0593735714 Amanda 0 currently-reading 4.51 Make Believe: Poems for Hoping Again
author: Victoria Hutchins
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.51
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sonnets for a Missing Key: And Some Others]]> 203553709 These sonnets were inspired by the Preludes of Chopin.

Do keys matter? Do they speak to different parts of us? Inspired by the Preludes of Chopin and the piano solos of Art Tatum, these experimental sonnets seek to question timbre and tone. That's bullshit. They are just sonnets.]]> 64 Percival Everett 1636281664 Amanda 3 3.66 Sonnets for a Missing Key: And Some Others
author: Percival Everett
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.66
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/19
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves:
review:

]]> Helen of Troy, 1993: Poems 214152128 Part myth retelling, part character study, this sharp, visceral debut poetry collection reimagines Helen of Troy from Homer’s Iliad as a disgruntled housewife in 1990s Tennessee.

In the hills of Sparta, Tennessee, during the early nineties, Helen decides to break free from the life that stifles marriage, motherhood, the monotonous duties of a Southern housewife. But leaving isn’t the same thing as staying gone�

Rooted in a lush natural landscape, this stunning poetry collection explores Helen’s isolation and rebellion as her expansive personality clashes with the social rigidity of her small town. In richly layered poems with settings that range from football games to Chuck E. Cheese to the bathroom of a Motel 6, Helen enters adulthood as a disaffected homemaker grasping for agency. She marries the wrong man, gives birth to a child she is not ready to parent, and embarks on an affair that throws her life into chaos. But she never surrenders ownership of her story or her choices, insisting to the �if you never owned a bone-sharp biography� / i don’t want to hear it. i want you silent. / i want you listening to me.�

Blurring the line between mythology and modernity, Helen of Troy, 1993 is an unforgettable collection that shows the Homeric Helen like she’s never been seen before.]]> 96 Maria Zoccola 1668046334 Amanda 3 4.14 2025 Helen of Troy, 1993: Poems
author: Maria Zoccola
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/19
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves:
review:

]]>