Rich's bookshelf: all en-US Tue, 25 Mar 2025 14:44:50 -0700 60 Rich's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg The Last Tiger 220999057 Inspired by true stories from the authors� grandparents� lives during one of the darkest periods in Korean history,The Last Tiger is a debut young adult fantasy novel about the power of love to give voice to a broken people.

In a colonized land where tigers are being hunted to extinction and ancient magic stirs, two star-crossed teens from opposite worlds—Lee Seung, a servant yearning for freedom, and Choi Eunji, a noble girl defying tradition—join forces to try and reshape their respective fates.

But their relationship evolves from begrudging accomplices to bitter adversaries as they soon find themselves on opposite sides of a battle over the last tiger, a symbol of their people’s lost freedom and key to the liberation of their country. As the ties between Seung and Eunji are complicated by their conflicting loyalties, tensions rise—especially when a charming princeling of the empire begins to rival for Eunji's affection.

In this friends-to-enemies-to-lovers story of forbidden romance, antagonists turned allies, oppression and liberation, neither Seung nor Eunji can abandon their mission—or each other. And as they embark on separate quests to find the elusive creature, each must also find the power within themselves to make their own destiny.]]> 416 Julia Riew Rich 0 to-read 3.74 2025 The Last Tiger
author: Julia Riew
name: Rich
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Dark Matter 27833670 A mindbending, relentlessly surprising thriller from the author of the bestselling Wayward Pines trilogy.

Jason Dessen is walking home through the chilly Chicago streets one night, looking forward to a quiet evening in front of the fireplace with his wife, Daniela, and their son, Charlie—when his reality shatters.

"Are you happy with your life?"

Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious.

Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits.

Before a man Jason's never met smiles down at him and says, "Welcome back, my friend."

In this world he's woken up to, Jason's life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.

Is it this world or the other that's the dream?

And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could've imagined—one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe.

Dark Matter is a brilliantly plotted tale that is at once sweeping and intimate, mind-bendingly strange and profoundly human--a relentlessly surprising science-fiction thriller about choices, paths not taken, and how far we'll go to claim the lives we dream of.]]> 342 Blake Crouch 1101904224 Rich 0 to-read 4.13 2016 Dark Matter
author: Blake Crouch
name: Rich
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Stranded 58245333
A dream comes true for Maddy as she takes part in a novel television experiment in which eight strangers must survive on a deserted Scottish island for a year with minimal equipment and incommunicado.

18 months later, Maddy's dream has turned into a nightmare. The authorities pick up the young woman in a fishing village on the mainland. Desperate, she reports how the boat that was supposed to pick up the participants after a year did not come. And how in the following weeks one after the other died, not from hunger or disease, but from human hands. But what is Maddy hiding? And how did she manage to get off the island alive?]]> 400 Sarah Goodwin Rich 0 to-read 4.23 2021 Stranded
author: Sarah Goodwin
name: Rich
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Counterattacks at Thirty 215583234
Jihye is an ordinary woman who has never been extraordinary. In her administrative job at the Academy, she silently tolerates office politics and the absurdities of Korean bureaucracy. Forever only one misplaced email away from career catastrophe, she effectively becomes a master of the silent eye-roll and the tactical coffee run. But all her efforts to endure her superiors and the semi-hostile work environment they create are upended when a new intern, Gyuok Lee, arrives.

Like a pacifist version of V in V for Vendetta, Gyuok recruits a trio of office allies to carry out plans for minor revenge. Together, these four “rebels� commit tiny protests against those in more powerful positions through spraying graffiti, throwing eggs, and writing anonymous exposés. But as their attacks increase, the initial joy they felt at the release becomes something more and Jihye and the others will discover the beauty of friendship and the extraordinary power of unity against adversity.]]> 240 Sohn Won-Pyung 0063378108 Rich 0 to-read 3.66 2017 Counterattacks at Thirty
author: Sohn Won-Pyung
name: Rich
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany]]> 767171 No other powerful empire ever bequeathed such mountains of evidence about its birth and destruction as the Third Reich. When the bitter war was over, and before the Nazis could destroy their files, the Allied demand for unconditional surrender produced an almost hour-by-hour record of the nightmare empire built by Adolph Hitler. This record included the testimony of Nazi leaders and of concentration camp inmates, the diaries of officials, transcripts of secret conferences, army orders, private letters—all the vast paperwork behind Hitler's drive to conquer the world.

The famed foreign correspondent and historian William L. Shirer, who had watched and reported on the Nazis since 1925, spent five and a half years sifting through this massive documentation. The result is a monumental study that has been widely acclaimed as the definitive record of one of the most frightening chapters in the history of mankind.

This worldwide bestseller has been acclaimed as the definitive book on Nazi Germany; it is a classic work.

The accounts of how the United States got involved and how Hitler used Mussolini and Japan are astonishing, and the coverage of the war-from Germany's early successes to her eventual defeat-is must reading

]]> 1147 William L. Shirer 0671728687 Rich 0 to-read 4.20 1960 The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany
author: William L. Shirer
name: Rich
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1960
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Pictures of You 197156017 If you knew then what you know now, would you make the same choices? Imagine having a second chance with the one you never forgot.

From the author of the global breakout bestseller The Last Love Note comes the story of a young woman struggling to piece her life back together in the wake of a tragic accident, and the man who gives up everything to help her.

When Evie Hudson wakes in an unfamiliar hospital room, she thinks she’s fresh out of a teenage party with her best friend, Bree. Except, Bree isn’t around anymore and high school was years ago. Evie had just survived the crash that killed her husband, Oliver—whom she can't remember either. After suffering a traumatic loss of memory, she’s left to connect the dots. But how?

Drew, a promising photographer whose chance encounter with Evie unravels the elusive details of her marriage and her husband’s death. As Drew watches Evie stitch the story of her life together, secrets emerge that might shatter both of their worlds.

This tangled second-chance romance leads Evie to question every decision she ever made. This time around, she’s seeing all the things she missed–and the life she gets to choose...again.]]> 416 Emma Grey 195850646X Rich 0 currently-reading 4.01 2024 Pictures of You
author: Emma Grey
name: Rich
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Never Have I Ever 36679186 In this game, even winning can be deadly...

Amy Whey is proud of her ordinary life and the simple pleasures that come with it—teaching diving lessons, baking cookies for new neighbors, helping her best friend, Charlotte, run their local book club. Her greatest joy is her family: her devoted professor husband, her spirited fifteen-year-old stepdaughter, her adorable infant son. And, of course, the steadfast and supportive Charlotte. But Amy’s sweet, uncomplicated life begins to unravel when the mysterious and alluring Angelica Roux arrives on her doorstep one book club night.

Sultry and magnetic, Roux beguiles the group with her feral charm. She keeps the wine flowing and lures them into a game of spilling secrets. Everyone thinks it’s naughty, harmless fun. Only Amy knows better. Something wicked has come her way—a she-devil in a pricey red sports car who seems to know the terrible truth about who she is and what she once did.

When they’re alone, Roux tells her that if she doesn’t give her what she asks for, what she deserves, she’s going to make Amy pay for her sins. One way or another.

To protect herself and her family and save the life she’s built, Amy must beat the devil at her own clever game, matching wits with Roux in an escalating war of hidden pasts and unearthed secrets. Amy knows the consequences if she ’t beat Roux. What terrifies her is everything she could lose if she wins.

A diabolically entertaining tale of betrayal, deception, temptation, and love filled with dark twists leavened by Joshilyn Jackson’s trademark humor, Never Have I Ever explores what happens when the transgressions of our past come back with a vengeance.]]> 352 Joshilyn Jackson Rich 5 2025
This one grabbed my attention from the beginning and never let go, a rare trait for books i read. Usually there are peaks and valleys and lulls, but this book just kept going at a high level...
The story starts with a high school girl, Amy, struggling to fit in. She has one good friend she hangs with and then one night everything changes. A car crash happens and her best friend is sent to jail.
Fast forward and she has overcome her tough start. She is married, has a family, and a nice house. Then one neighborhood book club night a stranger appears and her past is thrown in her face.
There were so many good things like Amy using diving as a way to help her deal with her stress.
How your past can really make you appreciate the present, and how you may forget the past for a time but it will always be there...
How karma can really be a thing.
The stranger who shows up, Roux, is an evil but well done character.
The writing is really well done, and flows nicely.
Overall, a really good heart felt emotional ride.

]]> 3.69 2019 Never Have I Ever
author: Joshilyn Jackson
name: Rich
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/08
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves: 2025
review:
5 BIG STARS!!!!

This one grabbed my attention from the beginning and never let go, a rare trait for books i read. Usually there are peaks and valleys and lulls, but this book just kept going at a high level...
The story starts with a high school girl, Amy, struggling to fit in. She has one good friend she hangs with and then one night everything changes. A car crash happens and her best friend is sent to jail.
Fast forward and she has overcome her tough start. She is married, has a family, and a nice house. Then one neighborhood book club night a stranger appears and her past is thrown in her face.
There were so many good things like Amy using diving as a way to help her deal with her stress.
How your past can really make you appreciate the present, and how you may forget the past for a time but it will always be there...
How karma can really be a thing.
The stranger who shows up, Roux, is an evil but well done character.
The writing is really well done, and flows nicely.
Overall, a really good heart felt emotional ride.


]]> Death of the Author 214283593 The future of storytelling is here.

Life has thrown Zelu some curveballs over the years, but when she's suddenly dropped from her university job and her latest novel is rejected, all in the middle of her sister's wedding, her life is upended. Disabled, unemployed and from a nosy, high-achieving, judgmental family, she's not sure what comes next.

In her hotel room that night, she takes the risk that will define her life - she decides to write a book VERY unlike her others. A science fiction drama about androids and AI after the extinction of humanity. And everything changes.

What follows is a tale of love and loss, fame and infamy, of extraordinary events in one world, and another. And as Zelu's life evolves, the lines between fiction and reality begin to blur.

Because sometimes a story really does have the power to reshape the world.]]> 448 Nnedi Okorafor 0063391147 Rich 0 to-read 4.11 2025 Death of the Author
author: Nnedi Okorafor
name: Rich
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> My Darlings 61622044 No one was supposed to know. I've always been so careful. My Darlings, how did we get here?

Evil lurks behind the perfectly manicured lawns, ornate iron gates, and long winding driveways of affluent DC–but not for long.

Stay-at-home mom Eloise Williams is PTO president and a respected local philanthropist who sits on the boards of many distinguished charities. In addition to being a doting wife and mother, she is also a serial killer.

But Eloise isn’t the only lady of society playing a part. As the hidden lives of Eloise's inner circle are exposed, the body count rises. When the stalker becomes the prey, Eloise desperately clings to remain in control.

Money and power can only buy influence and safety for so long. Eventually, the curtains lift, exposing the chilling reality hiding in plain sight.]]> 0 Marie Still 1990253342 Rich 0 to-read 4.04 2024 My Darlings
author: Marie Still
name: Rich
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Invisible Hour 62919793
One June day when Mia Jacob can no longer see a way to survive, the power of words saves her. The Scarlet Letter was written almost two hundred years earlier, but it seems to tell the story of Mia’s mother, Ivy, and their life inside the Community—an oppressive cult in western Massachusetts where contact with the outside world is forbidden. But how could this be? How could Nathaniel Hawthorne have so perfectly captured the pain and loss that Mia carries inside her?

Through a journey of heartbreak, love, and time, Mia must abandon the rules she was raised with at the Community. As she does, she realizes that reading can transport you to other worlds or bring them to you, and that readers and writers affect one another in mysterious ways. She learns that time is more fluid than she can imagine, and that love is stronger than any chains that bind you.

As a girl Mia fell in love with a book. Now as a young woman she falls in love with a brilliant writer as she makes her way back in time. But what if Nathaniel Hawthorne never wrote The Scarlet Letter ? And what if Mia Jacob never found it on the day she planned to die?

From “the reigning queen of magical realism� (Kristin Hannah, New York Times bestselling author), this is the story of one woman’s dream. For a little while it came true.]]> 272 Alice Hoffman 1982175370 Rich 3 2025
The story is starts with a woman who gets pregnant and is not support by the father or her family. So she (Ivy) turns to a community living off the land in rural Massachusetts. She has a daughter Mia.
But as time goes on she realizes the Leader is not a good person, and she cant leave.
Then the story turns twisty with Nathaniel Hawthorne. It was at this point the story really got interesting for me. But then it kind of wandered with fits of starts and stops. If anything this book has inspired me to read the Scarlett Letter in the future. Hawthorne seems like an interesting person on his own and his personal life was described in depth.
But this book just wandered for too long in far too many places. The writing was good as usual with Hoffman.]]> 3.54 2023 The Invisible Hour
author: Alice Hoffman
name: Rich
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/09
date added: 2025/02/09
shelves: 2025
review:
This was a typical Alice Hoffman novel with some good magical realism.

The story is starts with a woman who gets pregnant and is not support by the father or her family. So she (Ivy) turns to a community living off the land in rural Massachusetts. She has a daughter Mia.
But as time goes on she realizes the Leader is not a good person, and she cant leave.
Then the story turns twisty with Nathaniel Hawthorne. It was at this point the story really got interesting for me. But then it kind of wandered with fits of starts and stops. If anything this book has inspired me to read the Scarlett Letter in the future. Hawthorne seems like an interesting person on his own and his personal life was described in depth.
But this book just wandered for too long in far too many places. The writing was good as usual with Hoffman.
]]> The Scarlet Letter 12296 279 Nathaniel Hawthorne 0142437263 Rich 0 to-read 3.43 1850 The Scarlet Letter
author: Nathaniel Hawthorne
name: Rich
average rating: 3.43
book published: 1850
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Mr. Flood's Last Resort 36373281 The spellbinding tale of a lonely caregiver and a cranky hoarder with a house full of secrets.

Maud Drennan is a dedicated caregiver whose sunny disposition masks a deep sadness. A tragic childhood event left her haunted, in the company of a cast of prattling saints who pop in and out of her life like tourists. Other than visiting her agoraphobic neighbor, Maud keeps to herself, finding solace in her work and in her humble existence–until she meets Mr. Flood.

Cathal Flood is a menace by all accounts. The lone occupant of a Gothic mansion crawling with feral cats, he has been waging war against his son’s attempts to put him into an old-age home and sent his last caretaker running for the madhouse. But Maud is this impossible man’s last chance: if she can help him get the house in order, he just might be able to stay. So the unlikely pair begins to cooperate, bonding over their shared love of Irish folktales and mutual dislike of Mr. Flood’s overbearing son.

Still, shadows are growing in the cluttered corners of the mansion, hinting at buried family secrets, and reminding Maud that she doesn’t really know this man at all. When the forgotten case of a missing schoolgirl comes to light, she starts poking around, and a full-steam search for answers begins.

Packed with eccentric charms, twisted comedy, and a whole lot of heart, Mr. Flood’s Last Resort is a mesmerizing tale that examines the space between sin and sainthood, reminding us that often the most meaningful forgiveness that we can offer is to ourselves.]]> 352 Jess Kidd 1501180630 Rich 0 to-read 3.68 2018 Mr. Flood's Last Resort
author: Jess Kidd
name: Rich
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Ordinary Girls 42152409 Ordinary Girls than some lives hold in a lifetime.� —Julia Alvarez

Ordinary Girls is a fierce, beautiful, and unflinching memoir from a wildly talented debut author. While growing up in housing projects in Puerto Rico and Miami Beach, Jaquira Díaz found herself caught between extremes: as her family split apart and her mother battled schizophrenia, she was surrounded by the love of her friends; as she longed for a family and home, she found instead a life upended by violence. From her own struggles with depression and sexual assault to Puerto Rico’s history of colonialism, every page of Ordinary Girls vibrates with music and lyricism. Díaz triumphantly maps a way out of despair toward love and hope to become her version of the girl she always wanted to be.

With a story reminiscent of Tara Westover’s Educated, Roxane Gay’s Hunger, and Terese Marie Mailhot’s Heart Berries, Jaquira Díaz delivers a memoir that reads as electrically as a novel.]]> 321 Jaquira Díaz 1616209135 Rich 4 2025 The MC Jaqui is a girl who moves from Puerto Rico to Miami. Her family life is very unstable and pretty much crazy. Her parents get separated then divorced. Her mom lives a wild life as a meth addict and lives on the street much of her life. Her Dad is not much better with many women and constantly on the move.

Jaqui more or less lives a life of constant ups and downs, always teetering on the edge of disaster.

In the end she overcomes her crazy home life and for me becomes an inspiration of survival and resilency.

Her parents do have some redeeming qualities which makes you root for them, even though you know things are not going to end well. I especially liked her mom's love of Madonna's music. I like to see the 80s loved by others.


]]> 4.03 2019 Ordinary Girls
author: Jaquira Díaz
name: Rich
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves: 2025
review:
This was very good book. I enjoyed it very much. It did not quite reach the five star level for me as there were times when the story just felt on repeat and missed that really deep level of engagement. But overall, good characters and entertaining.
The MC Jaqui is a girl who moves from Puerto Rico to Miami. Her family life is very unstable and pretty much crazy. Her parents get separated then divorced. Her mom lives a wild life as a meth addict and lives on the street much of her life. Her Dad is not much better with many women and constantly on the move.

Jaqui more or less lives a life of constant ups and downs, always teetering on the edge of disaster.

In the end she overcomes her crazy home life and for me becomes an inspiration of survival and resilency.

Her parents do have some redeeming qualities which makes you root for them, even though you know things are not going to end well. I especially liked her mom's love of Madonna's music. I like to see the 80s loved by others.



]]> <![CDATA[Snowed In (Fitzpatrick Christmas, #2)]]> 195487194
Christian’s fed up of being on his own every Christmas. He doesn’t mind being alone , but he hates his family’s sad eyes and soft tones as they sit around coupled up. Because he’s actually, totally, fine.

So when Megan literally bumps into Christian in a Dublin pub, they come up with a pact to see them through the holiday season. They’re going to be the very best fake dates for each other, ever .

Rules are drawn up, a contract is signed on a wine-stained napkin. They will sit through each other’s family gatherings and be outrageously in love until freed from their annual obligations. After all, it’s only for a few weeks.

But with everyone home for the holidays, two big families to deal with alongside old friends, old flames and old feelings, things are bound to get messy. And when a snowed-in cabin and a little Christmas magic are added to the mix, anything could happen�

A swoonworthy and utterly gorgeous romantic comedy that will make you laugh out loud and fall completely in love. Fans of Emily Henry, Sophie Kinsella and Abby Jimenez won’t be able to put this down!]]> 384 Catherine Walsh 1837906653 Rich 4 2025 I really liked the main characters Megan and Christian.
Megan is a runaway bride and on her way out of the back of the church, she runs right by Christian…a foreshadow of things to come�
Fast forward in time and the two are single. They decide to be fake boyfriend,girlfriend for Christmas family gatherings.
There is good friendship development leading to more…the build up was a bit slow. There was a lot of side stories which i usually enjoy but this time it seemed to take away from the MCs a bit too much.
The snowed in concept was a bit misleading, it was short lived and occurs near the end�
I don’t want to end on a negative. This was overall enjoyable, it had a nice build up, and for me the right amount of steaminess for a romance story.]]> 4.08 2023 Snowed In (Fitzpatrick Christmas, #2)
author: Catherine Walsh
name: Rich
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/18
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves: 2025
review:
4 stars. Good characters and good writing.
I really liked the main characters Megan and Christian.
Megan is a runaway bride and on her way out of the back of the church, she runs right by Christian…a foreshadow of things to come�
Fast forward in time and the two are single. They decide to be fake boyfriend,girlfriend for Christmas family gatherings.
There is good friendship development leading to more…the build up was a bit slow. There was a lot of side stories which i usually enjoy but this time it seemed to take away from the MCs a bit too much.
The snowed in concept was a bit misleading, it was short lived and occurs near the end�
I don’t want to end on a negative. This was overall enjoyable, it had a nice build up, and for me the right amount of steaminess for a romance story.
]]> <![CDATA[Code Name Verity (Code Name Verity, #1)]]> 11925514
When "Verity" is arrested by the Gestapo, she's sure she doesn't stand a chance. As a secret agent captured in enemy territory, she's living a spy's worst nightmare. Her Nazi interrogators give her a simple choice: reveal her mission or face a grisly execution.

As she intricately weaves her confession, Verity uncovers her past, how she became friends with the pilot Maddie, and why she left Maddie in the wrecked fuselage of their plane. On each new scrap of paper, Verity battles for her life, confronting her views on courage and failure and her desperate hope to make it home. But will trading her secrets be enough to save her from the enemy?

Harrowing and beautifully written, Elizabeth Wein creates a visceral read of danger, resolve, and survival that shows just how far true friends will go to save each other. Code Name Verity is an outstanding novel that will stick with you long after the last page.]]> 452 Elizabeth Wein 1405258217 Rich 0 to-read 3.99 2012 Code Name Verity (Code Name Verity, #1)
author: Elizabeth Wein
name: Rich
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Tiger Slam: The Inside Story of the Greatest Golf Ever Played (Tiger Woods in 2000�2001)]]> 209439583 304 Kevin Cook 1668043645 Rich 0 to-read 3.96 The Tiger Slam: The Inside Story of the Greatest Golf Ever Played (Tiger Woods in 2000–2001)
author: Kevin Cook
name: Rich
average rating: 3.96
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Perfect Strangers 49730872 “These kisses of his...they're demanding and possessive. They're hungry and deep. They're the kisses of a man who wants more of a woman—who wants everything—and isn't going to stop until he gets it."

Author Olivia Rossi hasn’t been able to write a word since tragedy struck two years ago and ripped her world apart. Heartbroken and still haunted by the past, she accepts an offer to spend the summer at a friend’s apartment in Paris in search of healing and her lost muse.

What she finds instead is James, an enigmatic stranger who ignites in her an unexpected and all-consuming passion.

Agreeing to tell each other nothing more than their first names, Olivia and James embark on a torrid affair. But the more time they spend together, the more Olivia begins to realize her summer fling is turning into a powerful connection…and that the magnetic man she’s falling in love with might not be what he seems at all.

Author's Note: This is a work of literary fiction, not a romance. Readers looking for a traditional happy ending should look elsewhere.]]> 342 J.T. Geissinger Rich 0 to-read 4.23 2019 Perfect Strangers
author: J.T. Geissinger
name: Rich
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Yin Yang Love Song 212924526 This charming rom-com from an author whose writing is “deeply romantic, real, funny, and heartfelt� (Christina Lauren) is filled with Chinese traditions and a curse-breaking love story that will make readers of Helen Hoang, Jasmine Guillory, and Sarah Adams swoon.

In this charming rom-com filled with Chinese traditions and a family curse, an herbalist fake dates a star musician–perfect for fans of Helen Hoang and Jasmine Guillory.

Chinese herbalist Chryssy Hua Williams never actually believed in the Hua family curse. But after Break-Up #9, Chryssy stopped laughing. Now she and her aunties run a special healing retreat center for the broken-hearted. After all, there’s nothing a proper cup of herbal tea ’t fix...but Chryssy’s innocent run-in with celebrity cellist and bad boy Vin Chao has everyone brewing about a different kind of tea. So he offers her a deal: they’ll fake-date, he’ll “break� her heart (and increase ticket sales), and in return, he’ll promote her business.

It’s like Chryssy’s whole cursed love life has been leading up to this moment. But all it takes is one kiss—and a whole lot of unexpected chemistry—to land both of them in hot water . . .]]> 352 Lauren Kung Jessen 1538741636 Rich 0 to-read 3.70 Yin Yang Love Song
author: Lauren Kung Jessen
name: Rich
average rating: 3.70
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[All the Pretty Horses (The Border Trilogy, #1)]]> 469571 302 Cormac McCarthy 0679744398 Rich 0 to-read 4.04 1992 All the Pretty Horses (The Border Trilogy, #1)
author: Cormac McCarthy
name: Rich
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1992
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Not What She Seems 203688844 She left home as the local pariah at twenty-two, but when a family tragedy brings her back, she must confront her tortured past—and a new danger in town that no one seems to understand but her.

After years of self-exile, Jacinda “Jac� Brodie is back in Brook Haven, South Carolina. But the small cliffside town no longer feels like home. Jac hasn’t been there since the beloved chief of police fell to his death—and all the whispers said she was to blame.

That chief was Jac’s father.

Racked with guilt, Jac left town with no plans to return. But when her granddad lands in the hospital, she rushes back to her family, bracing herself to confront the past.

Brook Haven feels different now. Wealthy newcomer Faye Arden has transformed the notorious Moor Manor into a quaint country inn. Jac’s convinced something sinister lurks beneath Faye’s perfect exterior, yet the whole town fawns over their charismatic new benefactor. And when Jac discovers one of her granddad’s prized possessions in Faye’s office, she knows she has to be right.

But as Jac continues to dig, she stumbles upon dangerous truths that hit too close to home. With not only her life but also her family’s safety on the line, Jac discovers that maybe some secrets are better left buried.]]> 390 Yasmin Angoe 1662508328 Rich 0 to-read 3.77 2024 Not What She Seems
author: Yasmin Angoe
name: Rich
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Never Let Me Go 6334
Within the grounds of Hailsham, Kathy grows from schoolgirl to young woman, but it’s only when she and her friends Ruth and Tommy leave the safe grounds of the school (as they always knew they would) that they realize the full truth of what Hailsham is.

Never Let Me Go breaks through the boundaries of the literary novel. It is a gripping mystery, a beautiful love story, and also a scathing critique of human arrogance and a moral examination of how we treat the vulnerable and different in our society. In exploring the themes of memory and the impact of the past, Ishiguro takes on the idea of a possible future to create his most moving and powerful book to date.]]> 288 Kazuo Ishiguro 1400078776 Rich 2 2025 The story has a futuristic feeling with kids living in a school away from home, like a boarding school.
Except there is no mention of family so there something strange going on.
There are many good reviews for this, maybe just not a story for me…]]> 3.85 2005 Never Let Me Go
author: Kazuo Ishiguro
name: Rich
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2005
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/02
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: 2025
review:
Well a very strange book I thought. Mostly a series of slow build ups that leads to some “big”revelation that was more or less anticlimactic. I went into this without knowing much about it. So I had a feeling of hope that the story would blossom into something. That never happened�.
The story has a futuristic feeling with kids living in a school away from home, like a boarding school.
Except there is no mention of family so there something strange going on.
There are many good reviews for this, maybe just not a story for me�
]]> Credence 49084724
And when they suddenly pass away, she knows she should be devastated. But has anything really changed? She’s always been alone, hasn’t she?

Jake Van der Berg, her father’s stepbrother and her only living relative, assumes guardianship of Tiernan who is still two months shy of eighteen. Sent to live with him and his two sons, Noah and Kaleb, in the mountains of Colorado, Tiernan soon learns that these men now have a say in what she chooses to care and not care about anymore. As the three of them take her under their wing, teach her to work and survive in the remote woods far away from the rest of the world, she slowly finds her place among them.

And as a part of them.

She also realizes that lines blur and rules become easy to break when no one else is watching.

One of them has her.

The other one wants her.

But he�

He’s going to keep her.

*Credence is a new adult standalone novel suitable for readers 18+.]]> 470 Penelope Douglas 1660089050 Rich 0 gave-up-on 3.58 2020 Credence
author: Penelope Douglas
name: Rich
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/01
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: gave-up-on
review:
DNF too sexually intense for me
]]> The Love of My Life 58492104 From the New York Times bestselling author of Ghosted comes a love story wrapped in a mystery: an up-all-night page-turner with a dark secret at its core

I have held you at night for ten years and I didn't even know your name. We have a child together. A dog, a house.

Who are you?

Emma loves her husband Leo and their young daughter Ruby: she’d do anything for them. But almost everything she's told them about herself is a lie.

And she might just have got away with it, if it weren’t for her husband’s job. Leo is an obituary writer; Emma a well-known marine biologist. When she suffers a serious illness, Leo copes by doing what he knows best � researching and writing about his wife’s life. But as he starts to unravel the truth, he discovers the woman he loves doesn’t really exist. Even her name isn’t real.

When the very darkest moments of Emma’s past finally emerge, she must somehow prove to Leo that she really is the woman he always thought she was . . .

But first, she must tell him about the other love of her life.]]> 372 Rosie Walsh 0593296990 Rich 0 2024, gave-up-on
This one i thought was going to be a fun romance budding book ...but not really...

There is a Love story in the end but i never felt heavily invested in any of the characters...

There a re few themes that i will put behind spoilers as not to give away the plot. There was not much going on beyond the plot for me. Not a terrible story but nothing that elevated it for me.

I have been on a so-so run of books here lately so crossing my fingers on the next one i pick...

[spoilers removed]]]> 3.77 2022 The Love of My Life
author: Rosie Walsh
name: Rich
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/14
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: 2024, gave-up-on
review:
3 STARS... Not bad but not great.....

This one i thought was going to be a fun romance budding book ...but not really...

There is a Love story in the end but i never felt heavily invested in any of the characters...

There a re few themes that i will put behind spoilers as not to give away the plot. There was not much going on beyond the plot for me. Not a terrible story but nothing that elevated it for me.

I have been on a so-so run of books here lately so crossing my fingers on the next one i pick...

[spoilers removed]
]]> Descent 20312459
As their world comes undone, the Courtlands are drawn into a vortex of dread and recrimination. Why weren’t they more careful? What has happened to their daughter? Is she alive? Will they ever know? Caitlin’s disappearance, all the more devastating for its mystery, is the beginning of the family’s harrowing journey down increasingly divergent and solitary paths until all that continues to bind them together are the questions they can never bring themselves to ask: At what point does a family stop searching? At what point will a girl stop fighting for her life?]]> 376 Tim Johnston 1616203048 Rich 5 yearly-top-pick The story immediately grabbed me and never let go. A Wisconsin family on vacation in the Colorado mountains. An innocent, happy, family doing normal family stuff. The daughter gets abducted in a remote off season ski town. The story stays realistic and personal, not over the top. It was a good mix of building rich characters with pulse raising events.
I enjoyed the three primary POV format of The Father, the Daughter, and the Brother. Which at times left you with “come on”cliffhangers.
I don’t want to give too much away but the ending was a suspenseful buildup with heart pounding action and heartache.
Couldn’t help but think, this a book my son should read. Make him aware ( eye roll from him I am sure) that there are hazards out there and best to keep your eyes and gut alert.]]> 3.55 2015 Descent
author: Tim Johnston
name: Rich
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2020/01/04
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: yearly-top-pick
review:
5 Stars to welcome in 2020!!!
The story immediately grabbed me and never let go. A Wisconsin family on vacation in the Colorado mountains. An innocent, happy, family doing normal family stuff. The daughter gets abducted in a remote off season ski town. The story stays realistic and personal, not over the top. It was a good mix of building rich characters with pulse raising events.
I enjoyed the three primary POV format of The Father, the Daughter, and the Brother. Which at times left you with “come on”cliffhangers.
I don’t want to give too much away but the ending was a suspenseful buildup with heart pounding action and heartache.
Couldn’t help but think, this a book my son should read. Make him aware ( eye roll from him I am sure) that there are hazards out there and best to keep your eyes and gut alert.
]]> <![CDATA[Dave Stockton's Putt to Win: Secrets For Mastering the Other Game of Golf]]> 2018369
Dave Stockton has put together a guide filled with secrets to mastering the other game of golf, also known as putting. In Dave Stockton’s Putt to Win , readers will find tips and pointers that will help improve their putting techniques in golf.

Explaining how to conquer the mental game of putting and analyzing the fundamentals of strokes, Stockton’s method is sure to provide novices and frequent players alike with a solid foundation to improve their putting.]]> 160 Dave Stockton 0743245288 Rich 5 2021, favorites 3.97 1996 Dave Stockton's Putt to Win: Secrets For Mastering the Other Game of Golf
author: Dave Stockton
name: Rich
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1996
rating: 5
read at: 2021/12/04
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: 2021, favorites
review:
A must read for all golfers...
]]> <![CDATA[The Invisible Husband of Frick Island]]> 55760893
As Seen on the TODAY SHOW

A Southern Living Best Beach Read * A PopSugar Best Book of May * An Us Weekly Summer Beach Staple * A Frolic Under-the-Radar Book of May * An OK Magazine Best Summer Beach Read * An EW Best Book of Spring * A Country Living Can't Miss Beach Read * A LibraryReads Pick for May * An Emily Giffin Book Club pick

Sometimes all you need is one person to really see you.

Piper Parrish's life on Frick Island—a tiny, remote town smack in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay—is nearly perfect. Well, aside from one pesky detail: Her darling husband, Tom, is dead. When Tom's crab boat capsized and his body wasn't recovered, Piper, rocked to the core, did a most peculiar thing: carried on as if her husband was not only still alive, but right there beside her, cooking him breakfast, walking him to the docks each morning, meeting him for their standard Friday night dinner date at the One-Eyed Crab. And what were the townspeople to do but go along with their beloved widowed Piper?

Anders Caldwell’s career is not going well. A young ambitious journalist, he’d rather hoped he’d be a national award-winning podcaster by now, rather than writing fluff pieces for a small town newspaper. But when he gets an assignment to travel to the remote Frick Island and cover their boring annual Cake Walk fundraiser, he stumbles upon a much more fascinating tale: an entire town pretending to see and interact with a man who does not actually exist. Determined it’s the career-making story he’s been needing for his podcast, Anders returns to the island to begin covert research and spend more time with the enigmatic Piper—but he has no idea out of all the lives he’s about to upend, it’s his that will change the most.

USA Today bestselling author Colleen Oakley delivers an unforgettable love story about an eccentric community, a grieving widow, and an outsider who slowly learns that sometimes faith is more important than the facts.]]> 368 Colleen Oakley 1984806491 Rich 5 2021, favorites The plot was definitely unique for me like the names of the Mc’s, Piper and Anders. I Liked the names, a small thing but it helps. I don’t want to give to much away so I will put a brief plot description in spoiler area. So you can choose to go in blind if ya like.
[spoilers removed]
The story is many things, humor, grief, romance, friendship, loyalty, community and technology...
The characters are very real and likeable. It was one I had a hard time putting down, I was drawn in and kept wondering how things were going to go.
There was a suspension of reality that is not too far off like talking to your cat like she is a real person, we all kind of do that right??
The end kinda of gave me the that feel I got with “it’s a wonderful life�, I know those are big shoes so I say kinda...and appropriate for the holiday season coming. Anyways a thumbs up here...

]]> 3.72 2021 The Invisible Husband of Frick Island
author: Colleen Oakley
name: Rich
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2021/11/24
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: 2021, favorites
review:
5 Fricken Stars!!!
The plot was definitely unique for me like the names of the Mc’s, Piper and Anders. I Liked the names, a small thing but it helps. I don’t want to give to much away so I will put a brief plot description in spoiler area. So you can choose to go in blind if ya like.
[spoilers removed]
The story is many things, humor, grief, romance, friendship, loyalty, community and technology...
The characters are very real and likeable. It was one I had a hard time putting down, I was drawn in and kept wondering how things were going to go.
There was a suspension of reality that is not too far off like talking to your cat like she is a real person, we all kind of do that right??
The end kinda of gave me the that feel I got with “it’s a wonderful life�, I know those are big shoes so I say kinda...and appropriate for the holiday season coming. Anyways a thumbs up here...


]]> Grant 34237826
Before the Civil War, Grant was flailing. His business ventures had been dismal, and despite distinguished service in the Mexican War, he ended up resigning from the army in disgrace amid recurring accusations of drunkenness. But in the Civil War, Grant began to realize his remarkable potential, soaring through the ranks of the Union army, prevailing at the Battle of Shiloh and in the Vicksburg campaign and ultimately defeating the legendary Confederate general Robert E. Lee after a series of unbelievably bloody battles in Virginia. Along the way Grant endeared himself to President Lincoln and became his most trusted general and the strategic genius of the war effort. His military fame translated into a two-term presidency, but one plagued by corruption scandals involving his closest staff. All the while Grant himself remained more or less above reproach. But, more importantly, he never failed to seek freedom and justice for black Americans, working to crush the Ku Klux Klan and earning the admiration of Frederick Douglass, who called him 'the vigilant, firm, impartial, and wise protector of my race." After his presidency, he was again brought low by a trusted colleague, this time a dashing young swindler on Wall Street, but he resuscitated his image by working with Mark Twain to publish his memoirs, which are recognized as a masterpiece of the genre.

With his famous lucidity, breadth, and meticulousness, Chernow finds the threads that bind these disparate stories together, shedding new light on the man whom Walt Whitman described as "nothing heroic... and yet the greatest hero." His probing portrait of Grant's lifelong struggle with alcoholism transforms our understanding of the man at the deepest level. This is America's greatest biographer, bringing movingly to life one of America's finest but most underappreciated presidents. The definitive biography, Grant is a grand synthesis of painstaking research and literary brilliance that makes sense of all sides of Grant's life, explaining how this simple Midwesterner could at once be so ordinary and so extraordinary.]]> 1074 Ron Chernow 159420487X Rich 5 This was a thick long book. Make sure to be aware of what your getting into before you start. Having said that it was well worth my time and thoroughly enjoyed it.
I had no idea of what kind of man Grant was beforehand and was amazed by his life story. He is now my favorite President ( at least until I read a historical book on Lincoln...lol). Seriously, his ability to Rebound from really lows points many times throughout his life is truly inspiring. He Did amazing things like defeating General Lee to win the civil warrior the Union, and then two terms as President. All this not far removed from selling firewood on the city streets of St. Louis to keep his family going. A self made success much like Lincoln.
The book I thought did very well with keeping the story going without getting stuck on any particular point in his life for too long. This kept the the story from getting stale. The army battles were not told in great details, so this was not a book on military battles. The civil war was the main section of the book but included his personal relationships with Lincoln, his Generals, his advisors, and his family.
I was surprised to learn of Grant’s introverted personality. His characteristics were intriguing and Impressive to me.
the book has a few main sections. Grants personal life before the civil war, the civil war, Grants two terms as President, his life post President.
I will miss this one, many parts will be forever etched in my mind. I have another hero in my life....]]> 4.46 2017 Grant
author: Ron Chernow
name: Rich
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2021/07/28
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: 2021, favorites, yearly-top-pick
review:
5 big lengthy Stars...
This was a thick long book. Make sure to be aware of what your getting into before you start. Having said that it was well worth my time and thoroughly enjoyed it.
I had no idea of what kind of man Grant was beforehand and was amazed by his life story. He is now my favorite President ( at least until I read a historical book on Lincoln...lol). Seriously, his ability to Rebound from really lows points many times throughout his life is truly inspiring. He Did amazing things like defeating General Lee to win the civil warrior the Union, and then two terms as President. All this not far removed from selling firewood on the city streets of St. Louis to keep his family going. A self made success much like Lincoln.
The book I thought did very well with keeping the story going without getting stuck on any particular point in his life for too long. This kept the the story from getting stale. The army battles were not told in great details, so this was not a book on military battles. The civil war was the main section of the book but included his personal relationships with Lincoln, his Generals, his advisors, and his family.
I was surprised to learn of Grant’s introverted personality. His characteristics were intriguing and Impressive to me.
the book has a few main sections. Grants personal life before the civil war, the civil war, Grants two terms as President, his life post President.
I will miss this one, many parts will be forever etched in my mind. I have another hero in my life....
]]> Small Things Like These 58662236
Already an international bestseller, Small Things Like These is a deeply affecting story of hope, quiet heroism, and empathy from one of our most critically lauded and iconic writers.]]> 128 Claire Keegan 0802158749 Rich 5 2022, yearly-top-pick The story follows a man (Furlong) and family ( wife and 4 daughters). A small Irish town in essentially present day. Furlong had a challenging childhood and he came out of it well. He had help along the way and maybe feels there is some debt to be owed. His small town is relatable with typical challenges of money, work, and family.
It is Christmas time and Furlong comes across a young girl who is in a troubled way. Helping her will mean putting himself and his family at risk. A difficult situation, an opportunity, a life changing decision, a time to be courageous or a time to put his family first.
Christmas seems like the time when we often reflect on our personal choices which gives this story enduring significance for me. ]]> 4.14 2021 Small Things Like These
author: Claire Keegan
name: Rich
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2022/03/05
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: 2022, yearly-top-pick
review:
5 (Christmas)Stars!!! This is a short book, which makes the 5 stars kinda unusual. There is heart, intimacy, and very good writing. A book I can see myself reading over and over.
The story follows a man (Furlong) and family ( wife and 4 daughters). A small Irish town in essentially present day. Furlong had a challenging childhood and he came out of it well. He had help along the way and maybe feels there is some debt to be owed. His small town is relatable with typical challenges of money, work, and family.
It is Christmas time and Furlong comes across a young girl who is in a troubled way. Helping her will mean putting himself and his family at risk. A difficult situation, an opportunity, a life changing decision, a time to be courageous or a time to put his family first.
Christmas seems like the time when we often reflect on our personal choices which gives this story enduring significance for me.
]]> Annie Bot 156023123
She’s learning, too.

Doug says he loves that Annie’s artificial intelligence makes her seem more like a real woman, but the more human Annie becomes, the less perfectly she behaves. As Annie's relationship with Doug grows more intricate and difficult, she starts to wonder whether Doug truly desires what he says he does. In such an impossible paradox, what does Annie owe herself?]]> 231 Sierra Greer 0063312697 Rich 5 2024, favorites
It’s always a good sign for me when I get through a book quickly.

This was different relationship based book. The bot in the title kind of gives it away but it still felt fresh. The idea of having robotic partners is not new but having a real relationship with one is something I never really took seriously. This story kinda got me there. Obviously there is the strange sexual side of it but with AI technology rapidly progressing the idea of having a nearly human robot is probably not too crazy.
The story starts out more like a boss and a servant. Then moves through different areas of relationships including controlling, honesty, betrayal, counseling, and potentially a balanced relationship.
There is an interesting personality to Annie, she is not too happy about a few things. Another bot is brought in for cleaning as she is not a great cleaner. Annie is not sure if she is good enough. Strange things for a bot to have such feelings. She gets help from her manufacturer. They set up a made up friend who she calls her on the phone. A friend that she can feel good about and work through issues with. Strange but very clever nuance to book.
The writing a very good and the story is well paced.]]> 3.81 2024 Annie Bot
author: Sierra Greer
name: Rich
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/16
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: 2024, favorites
review:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

It’s always a good sign for me when I get through a book quickly.

This was different relationship based book. The bot in the title kind of gives it away but it still felt fresh. The idea of having robotic partners is not new but having a real relationship with one is something I never really took seriously. This story kinda got me there. Obviously there is the strange sexual side of it but with AI technology rapidly progressing the idea of having a nearly human robot is probably not too crazy.
The story starts out more like a boss and a servant. Then moves through different areas of relationships including controlling, honesty, betrayal, counseling, and potentially a balanced relationship.
There is an interesting personality to Annie, she is not too happy about a few things. Another bot is brought in for cleaning as she is not a great cleaner. Annie is not sure if she is good enough. Strange things for a bot to have such feelings. She gets help from her manufacturer. They set up a made up friend who she calls her on the phone. A friend that she can feel good about and work through issues with. Strange but very clever nuance to book.
The writing a very good and the story is well paced.
]]> You Are Here 201465867
Michael is coming undone. Adrift after his wife's departure, he has begun taking himself on long, solitary walks across the English countryside. Becoming ever more reclusive, he’ll do anything to avoid his empty house.

Marnie, on the other hand, is stuck. Hiding alone in her London flat, she avoids old friends and any reminders of her rotten, selfish ex-husband. Curled up with a good book, she’s battling the long afternoons of a life that feels like it’s passing her by.

When a persistent mutual friend and some very unpredictable weather conspire to toss Michael and Marnie together on the most epic of ten-day hikes, neither of them can think of anything worse. Until, of course, they discover exactly what they’ve been looking for.

Michael and Marnie are on the precipice of a bright future . . . if they can survive the journey.]]> 368 David Nicholls 0063394057 Rich 5 2024, yearly-top-pick
There are two MC's Marnie and Micheal.

Marnie is divorced and entering mid-life. She lives alone now and doesn't see her friends as often. She feels ok with this but questions herself if sometimes this is really ok. So the story explores living alone and a person's internal struggle with being alone. I think this was well done and relatable if you ever went through a relationship breakup and/or lived alone (which is almost everyone at some point).

The story centers on some friends getting together to do a hike/walk across a section of England.
A very enjoyable setting for me as I enjoy walking as a form of exercise.

Michael is the second MC. He is soon to be divorced and one of the hikers. He is someone in the end point of a serious relationship. He is in the midst of the turning point between his past and future relationships.

Without giving too much away the story explores the complexities of relationships. It is a feel good story in the end staying within the realities of life. ]]> 3.97 2024 You Are Here
author: David Nicholls
name: Rich
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/27
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: 2024, yearly-top-pick
review:
5 Big Stars!!! Well written with well developed characters.

There are two MC's Marnie and Micheal.

Marnie is divorced and entering mid-life. She lives alone now and doesn't see her friends as often. She feels ok with this but questions herself if sometimes this is really ok. So the story explores living alone and a person's internal struggle with being alone. I think this was well done and relatable if you ever went through a relationship breakup and/or lived alone (which is almost everyone at some point).

The story centers on some friends getting together to do a hike/walk across a section of England.
A very enjoyable setting for me as I enjoy walking as a form of exercise.

Michael is the second MC. He is soon to be divorced and one of the hikers. He is someone in the end point of a serious relationship. He is in the midst of the turning point between his past and future relationships.

Without giving too much away the story explores the complexities of relationships. It is a feel good story in the end staying within the realities of life.
]]> Mysterious Ways 195790811 A "sharp, hilarious, heartfelt" (#1 New York Times bestselling author Nicola Yoon) coming-of-age tale about a girl who believes she's God from award-winning author Wendy Wunder.

Seventeen-year-old Maya knows things. When she looks at someone, she instantly knows everything about them: their history, their private thoughts, their secret desires, their most tragic failures. She walks around with the weight of the world on her shoulders.

Which is why she was sent to the Whispering Pines Psychiatric Facility, and also why starting at a new school is going to be such a challenge. Especially when Maya meets a guy she actually wants to be around, and must grapple with whether there’s such a thing as knowing too much.]]> 336 Wendy Wunder 1250770203 Rich 0 to-read 3.11 2024 Mysterious Ways
author: Wendy Wunder
name: Rich
average rating: 3.11
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> When We Fell Apart 58678505 A drama that untangles the complicated ties that bind families together--or break them apart--as a young Korean American man's search for answers about his girlfriend's mysterious death becomes a soul-searching journey into his own bi-cultural identity

When the Seoul police inform Min that his girlfriend Yu-jin has committed suicide, he's sure it can't be true. She was successful, ambitious, happy, just on the cusp of graduating from university and claiming the future she'd always dreamed of.

Min, on the other hand, born to an American father and Korean mother, has never felt quite the same certainty as Yu-jin about his life's path. After growing up in California, where he always felt "too Korean" to fit in, he's moved to Seoul in the hope that exploring his Korean heritage will help him find a sense of purpose. And when he meets Yu-jin, little does he know that their carefree relationship will set off a chain of events with tragic consequences for them both.

Devastated by Yu-jin's death, Min throws himself into finding out why she could have secretly wanted to die. Or did she? With a controlling and powerful government official father, and a fraught friendship with her alluring and destructive roommate So-ra, Yu-jin's life was much more complex than she chose to reveal to Min. And the more he learns about her, the more he begins to doubt he ever really knew her at all.]]> 368 Soon Wiley 0593185145 Rich 5 2024
A heart felt story that takes on a few different issues with the characters.

The setting is in South Korea, mostly in Seoul. I never really got a strong recognition of what the City looks like or its good/bad. I was hoping to but never really happened, wasn't really part of the story.
The smallness of South Korea did come across well, it seems like a small state here in the US. So you get this feeling of being part of a community you cant get away from.
So the MC is Yu-Jin who is smart, has a Father that is like the Minister of Intelligence. She is saddled with huge expectations from a young child and living up to them pretty well. Then she goes to University in Seoul and she takes another path.

Without giving too much away the story is about largely about expectations and to finding your own path in the world. There are other good characters struggling with similar issues. I did learn a lot about Korean culture and enjoyed the setting.]]> 3.73 2022 When We Fell Apart
author: Soon Wiley
name: Rich
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/04
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: 2024
review:
5 Stars....

A heart felt story that takes on a few different issues with the characters.

The setting is in South Korea, mostly in Seoul. I never really got a strong recognition of what the City looks like or its good/bad. I was hoping to but never really happened, wasn't really part of the story.
The smallness of South Korea did come across well, it seems like a small state here in the US. So you get this feeling of being part of a community you cant get away from.
So the MC is Yu-Jin who is smart, has a Father that is like the Minister of Intelligence. She is saddled with huge expectations from a young child and living up to them pretty well. Then she goes to University in Seoul and she takes another path.

Without giving too much away the story is about largely about expectations and to finding your own path in the world. There are other good characters struggling with similar issues. I did learn a lot about Korean culture and enjoyed the setting.
]]> The Nature of Disappearing 195790594 In this captivating novel of suspense, a wilderness guide must team up with the man who ruined her life years ago when the friend who introduced them goes missing.

Emlyn doesn’t let herself think about the past.

How she and her best friend, Janessa, barely speak anymore. How Tyler, the man she thought was the love of her life, left her freezing and half-dead on the side of the road three years ago.

Her new life is simple and safe. She works as a fishing and hunting guide, spending her days in Idaho’s endless woods and scenic rivers. She lives alone in her Airstream trailer, her closest friends a handsome and kind Forest Service ranger and the community’s makeshift reverend, who took her in at her lowest.

But when Tyler shows up with the news that Janessa is missing, Emlyn is propelled back into the world she worked so hard to forget. Janessa, it turns out, has become a social media star, documenting her #vanlife adventures with her rugged survivalist boyfriend. But she hasn’t posted lately, and when she does, it’s from a completely different location than where her caption claims to be. In spite of their fractured history, Emlyn knows she might be the only one with the knowledge and tracking skills to save her friend, so she reluctantly teams up with Tyler. As the two trace Janessa’s path through miles of wild country, Emlyn ’t deny there’s still chemistry crackling between them. But the deeper they press into the wilderness, the more she begins to suspect that a darker truth lies in the woods―and that Janessa isn’t the only one in danger.

Poignant, suspenseful, and unforgettable, THE NATURE OF DISAPPEARING explores what it takes to start over―and the cost of letting the past pull you back in.]]> 304 Kimi Cunningham Grant 1250907616 Rich 3 2024
There was alot to like about this story: the setting, good characters, and good reveals. And then there was just some OK stuff at the end.

The story takes place in a rural Idaho town, a great place for a setting. The MC Emlyn is recovering from a tragic event and is working as a wilderness fishing guide.

The story moves back in forth through time which was a good feature that keep things moving nice.

In college, she had befriended a strong, beautiful girl named Vanessa. Jumping forward in time Vanessa goes missing and Emlyn needs to go to look for her. Emlyn meets up with an old boyfriend who abandoned her in the woods from which she nearly died. They are both friends of Vanessa so they both feel the need to find her. So there is the tension of old boyfriend on a search and rescue deep in the wilderness.

The story has its moments but the peaks were not high enough (to use a mountainous term). Most tragically, the last quarter of the story just kind of fizzled for me.



]]> 3.63 2024 The Nature of Disappearing
author: Kimi Cunningham Grant
name: Rich
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/01
date added: 2024/12/01
shelves: 2024
review:
3.5 Stars rounded down.

There was alot to like about this story: the setting, good characters, and good reveals. And then there was just some OK stuff at the end.

The story takes place in a rural Idaho town, a great place for a setting. The MC Emlyn is recovering from a tragic event and is working as a wilderness fishing guide.

The story moves back in forth through time which was a good feature that keep things moving nice.

In college, she had befriended a strong, beautiful girl named Vanessa. Jumping forward in time Vanessa goes missing and Emlyn needs to go to look for her. Emlyn meets up with an old boyfriend who abandoned her in the woods from which she nearly died. They are both friends of Vanessa so they both feel the need to find her. So there is the tension of old boyfriend on a search and rescue deep in the wilderness.

The story has its moments but the peaks were not high enough (to use a mountainous term). Most tragically, the last quarter of the story just kind of fizzled for me.




]]> Colorful 55215088 A beloved and bestselling classic in Japan, this groundbreaking tale of a dead soul who gets a second chance is now available in English for the very first time.

"Congratulations, you've won the lottery!" shouts the angel Prapura to a formless soul. The soul hasn't been kicked out of the cycle of rebirth just yet—he's been given a second chance. He must recall the biggest mistake of his past life while on 'homestay' in the body of fourteen-year-old Makoto Kobayashi, who has just committed suicide. It looks like Makoto doesn't have a single friend, and his family don't seem to care about him at all. But as the soul begins to live Makoto's life on his own terms, he grows closer to the family and the people around him, and sees their true colors more clearly, shedding light on Makoto's misunderstandings.

Since its initial release over twenty years ago, Colorful has become a part of the literary canon, not only in Japan—where it has sold over a million copies—but around the world, having been translated into several different languages. Now, Eto Mori's beloved classic is finally available in English.]]> 212 Eto Mori 1640094423 Rich 0 to-read 3.96 1998 Colorful
author: Eto Mori
name: Rich
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Sheine Lende (Elatsoe, #0) 190854829 Darcie Little Badger's Elatsoe launched her career and in the years since has become a beloved favorite. This prequel to Elatsoe, centered on Ellie's grandmother, deepens and expands Darcie's one-of-a-kind world and introduces us to another cast of characters that will wend their way around readers' hearts.

Shane works with her mother and their ghost dogs, tracking down missing persons even when their families can't afford to pay. Their own family was displaced from their traditional home years ago following a devastating flood - and the loss of Shane's father and her grandparents. They don't think they'll ever get their home back.

Then Shane's mother and a local boy go missing, after a strange interaction with a fairy ring. Shane, her brother, her friends, and her lone, surviving grandparent - who isn't to be trusted - set off on the road to find them. But they may not be anywhere in this world - or this place in time.

Nevertheless, Shane is going to find them.]]> 391 Darcie Little Badger 1646143795 Rich 0 to-read 4.23 2024 Sheine Lende (Elatsoe, #0)
author: Darcie Little Badger
name: Rich
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Rom-Commers 195790586 She’s rewriting his love story. But can she rewrite her own?

Emma Wheeler desperately longs to be a screenwriter. She’s spent her life studying, obsessing over, and writing romantic comedies―good ones! That win contests! But she’s also been the sole caretaker for her kind-hearted dad, who needs full-time care. Now, when she gets a chance to re-write a script for famous screenwriter Charlie Yates―The Charlie Yates! Her personal writing god!―it’s a break too big to pass up.

Emma’s younger sister steps in for caretaking duties, and Emma moves to L.A. for six weeks for the writing gig of a lifetime. But what is it they say? Don’t meet your heroes? Charlie Yates doesn’t want to write with anyone―much less “a failed, nobody screenwriter.� Worse, the romantic comedy he’s written is so terrible it might actually bring on the apocalypse. Plus! He doesn’t even care about the script―it’s just a means to get a different one green-lit. Oh, and he thinks love is an emotional Ponzi scheme.

But Emma’s not going down without a fight. She will stand up for herself, and for rom-coms, and for love itself. She will convince him that love stories matter―even if she has to kiss him senseless to do it. But . . . what if that kiss is accidentally amazing? What if real life turns out to be so much . . . more real than fiction? What if the love story they’re writing breaks all Emma’s rules―and comes true?]]> 336 Katherine Center 1250283809 Rich 0 4.06 2024 The Rom-Commers
author: Katherine Center
name: Rich
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/11/14
date added: 2024/11/14
shelves:
review:

]]> We Three Kings 217231505 Maggie Field was looking forward to a solo Christmas in her cosy London flat � before her three workmates decided to liven things up for her.

Maggie loves her job as head of IT at a financial firm, and her three geeky but lovable work buddies. And when they invite her to stay with each of them for the holidays, she ’t resist the chance to get to know them better.

But then her boss tells her she has to make one of her beloved team redundant, and Maggie is distraught. Frank’s work is his world, Jasper’s sarcastic humour is everything, and Leo…well, he’s talented, professional, confusingly attractive, dependable, and funny� Maggie definitely doesn’t want to lose him.

With her career and her heart on the line, Maggie sets off on the Christmas adventure of a lifetime, from playing fake girlfriend at a lavish wedding, to rescuing baby foxes on a posh country estate, to chasing a very confused donkey on Christmas Day in the Lake District. She ’t ignore the sparks between her and Leo � but she also ’t avoid her dilemma.

Can she find a way to keep her work family together, and maybe even find true love under the mistletoe?

A hilarious and heartfelt celebration of friendship, workplace romance, and finding where you belong. Perfect for fans of Sophie Kinsella and Beth O’Leary, this festive rom-com will have you laughing, crying, and reaching for the mince pies.]]> 346 Kristen Bailey 1805086804 Rich 0 to-read 4.09 2024 We Three Kings
author: Kristen Bailey
name: Rich
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Burrow 205973370
“How rare, this delicacy—this calm, sweet, desolated wisdom.”—Helen Garner

The Burrow follows members of the Lee family as they navigate grief and hope in their quiet Australian Jin, an emergency physician and father; Amy, a published author and mother; Lucie, their bookish and introverted ten-year-old; and Pauline, Amy’s mother who’s trying to make amends. Racked with grief for Ruby—Lucie’s baby sister who died in a shocking accident—the family adopts a rabbit in the hopes of bringing much-needed cheer to their home. At first, each family member benefits from the distraction of a new and needy creature, but when a violent home invasion breaks their fragile sense of peace, the family is forced to confront the terrible circumstances surrounding Ruby’s death.Atmospheric and tautly lyrical, Melanie Cheng’s slim novel brings together four distinct perspectives—and one wide-eyed rabbit—to reveal the enormity of loss, long-buried family secrets, and how to survive in a newfound world after the ultimate tragedy.]]> 200 Melanie Cheng 1959030868 Rich 0 to-read 4.00 2024 The Burrow
author: Melanie Cheng
name: Rich
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Homeseeking 211025407 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780593712993.

An epic and intimate tale of one couple across sixty years as world events pull them together and apart, illuminating the Chinese diaspora and exploring what it means to find home far from your homeland.

A single choice can define an entire life.

Haiwen is buying bananas at a 99 Ranch Market in Los Angeles when he looks up and sees Suchi, his Suchi, for the first time in sixty years. To recently widowed Haiwen it feels like a second chance, but Suchi has only survived by refusing to look back.

Suchi was seven when she first met Haiwen in their Shanghai neighborhood, drawn by the sound of his violin. Their childhood friendship blossomed into soul-deep love, but when Haiwen secretly enlisted in the Nationalist army in 1947 to save his brother from the draft, she was left with just his violin and a note: Forgive me.

Homeseeking follows the separated lovers through six decades of tumultuous Chinese history as war, famine, and opportunity take them separately to the song halls of Hong Kong, the military encampments of Taiwan, the bustling streets of New York, and sunny California, telling Haiwen’s story from the present to the past while tracing Suchi’s from her childhood to the present, meeting in the crucible of their lives. Throughout, Haiwen holds his memories close while Suchi forces herself to look only forward, neither losing sight of the home they hold in their hearts.

At once epic and intimate, Homeseeking is a story of family, sacrifice, and loyalty, and of the power of love to endure beyond distance, beyond time.]]> 512 Karissa Chen Rich 0 to-read 4.26 2025 Homeseeking
author: Karissa Chen
name: Rich
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The God of the Woods 199698485 When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide

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

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.]]> 490 Liz Moore Rich 0 to-read 4.16 2024 The God of the Woods
author: Liz Moore
name: Rich
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Putting Out of Your Mind 293993 Bob Rotella 1416501991 Rich 3 2024
I have read books by Bob Rotella before, he is mental side golf instructor.

His book The Unstoppable Golfer was fabulous but unfortunately this book did not keep up or add anything new.

The only highlights I had were to love YOUR putting stroke it is more than good enough to get the ball in the hole.

People tend to become what they think about themselves...You need to think you are a good putter to be a good putter.

Those are two good points but not enough to carry an entire book to above an average read.

Fore right!!!!

]]> 4.29 1996 Putting Out of Your Mind
author: Bob Rotella
name: Rich
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1996
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/20
date added: 2024/10/20
shelves: 2024
review:
3 Stars!!! Not Bad but nothing special....

I have read books by Bob Rotella before, he is mental side golf instructor.

His book The Unstoppable Golfer was fabulous but unfortunately this book did not keep up or add anything new.

The only highlights I had were to love YOUR putting stroke it is more than good enough to get the ball in the hole.

People tend to become what they think about themselves...You need to think you are a good putter to be a good putter.

Those are two good points but not enough to carry an entire book to above an average read.

Fore right!!!!


]]> Mad Honey 59912428 A soul-stirring novel about what we choose to keep from our past, and what we choose to leave behind.

Olivia McAfee knows what it feels like to start over. Her picture-perfect life—living in Boston, married to a brilliant cardiothoracic surgeon, raising a beautiful son, Asher—was upended when her husband revealed a darker side. She never imagined she would end up back in her sleepy New Hampshire hometown, living in the house she grew up in, and taking over her father's beekeeping business.

Lily Campanello is familiar with do-overs, too. When she and her mom relocate to Adams, New Hampshire, for her final year of high school, they both hope it will be a fresh start.

And for just a short while, these new beginnings are exactly what Olivia and Lily need. Their paths cross when Asher falls for the new girl in school, and Lily ’t help but fall for him, too. With Ash, she feels happy for the first time. Yet at times, she wonders if she can she trust him completely . . .

Then one day, Olivia receives a phone call: Lily is dead, and Asher is being questioned by the police. Olivia is adamant that her son is innocent. But she would be lying if she didn’t acknowledge the flashes of his father’s temper in him, and as the case against him unfolds, she realizes he’s hidden more than he’s shared with her.

Mad Honey is a riveting novel of suspense, an unforgettable love story, and a moving and powerful exploration of the secrets we keep and the risks we take in order to become ourselves.]]> 464 Jodi Picoult 1984818384 Rich 5 The story starts out as a familiar storyline of a teen murder who “done-it�...
Then a huge left turn with the girl who was murdered turns out to be [spoilers removed]. Did not see it coming at all. Not that I didn’t see it coming was a big deal but just a nod to masterful Piccoult/Boylan writing skills. This was a collaboration book with two authors.
The story includes wonderful information about bees that I had no idea( one of the MCs is a beekeeper).i learned things like Honey doesn’t spoil, was used to preserve bodies, and tainted honey can be used as a weapon (Mad Honey). A ton about Bee social behavior as well.
The murder suspect is a boy(Asher) who is a popular high school hockey player. The murdered girl(lily)was new to the school, no friends, and secretly transgender. Did he kill when he found out the truth? The plot was gripping and the pacing good.
The Moms of Lily and Asher were great characters.
The story deeply explores what is to be transgender. How a persons body gender doesn’t always match the persons personality gender. How hard that can be, and how cruel people can be (even family). A Question from your parent like “what’s wrong with you?� is a terrible thing.
A theme in the storyline is physical abuse by the Fathers. I did not personally relate with this but can see what terrible thing that is.
Mental abuse by the Fathers were also there.
There were many relatable things for me in this one Feel personal. Including some random things but it seemed like many including: a Black lab, Seattle, Louise Eldrich, Hockey, Loss. and Family drama.
Definitely changed my belief that gender is determined by body parts.]]> 4.05 2022 Mad Honey
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Rich
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/29
date added: 2024/10/16
shelves: 2023, favorites, yearly-top-pick
review:
5 Big Favorite Stars...
The story starts out as a familiar storyline of a teen murder who “done-it�...
Then a huge left turn with the girl who was murdered turns out to be [spoilers removed]. Did not see it coming at all. Not that I didn’t see it coming was a big deal but just a nod to masterful Piccoult/Boylan writing skills. This was a collaboration book with two authors.
The story includes wonderful information about bees that I had no idea( one of the MCs is a beekeeper).i learned things like Honey doesn’t spoil, was used to preserve bodies, and tainted honey can be used as a weapon (Mad Honey). A ton about Bee social behavior as well.
The murder suspect is a boy(Asher) who is a popular high school hockey player. The murdered girl(lily)was new to the school, no friends, and secretly transgender. Did he kill when he found out the truth? The plot was gripping and the pacing good.
The Moms of Lily and Asher were great characters.
The story deeply explores what is to be transgender. How a persons body gender doesn’t always match the persons personality gender. How hard that can be, and how cruel people can be (even family). A Question from your parent like “what’s wrong with you?� is a terrible thing.
A theme in the storyline is physical abuse by the Fathers. I did not personally relate with this but can see what terrible thing that is.
Mental abuse by the Fathers were also there.
There were many relatable things for me in this one Feel personal. Including some random things but it seemed like many including: a Black lab, Seattle, Louise Eldrich, Hockey, Loss. and Family drama.
Definitely changed my belief that gender is determined by body parts.
]]> The Midnight Watch 25666052 Titanic and her passengers sank slowly into the Atlantic Ocean after striking an iceberg late in the evening of April 14, 1912, a nearby ship looked on. Second Officer Herbert Stone, in charge of the midnight watch on the SS Californian sitting idly a few miles north, saw the distress rockets that the Titanic fired. He alerted the captain, Stanley Lord, who was sleeping in the chartroom below, but Lord did not come to the bridge. Eight rockets were fired during the dark hours of the midnight watch, and eight rockets were ignored. The next morning, the Titanic was at the bottom of the sea and more than 1,500 people were dead. When they learned of the extent of the tragedy, Lord and Stone did everything they could to hide their role in the disaster, but pursued by newspapermen, lawyers, and political leaders in America and England, their terrible secret was eventually revealed. The Midnight Watch is a fictional telling of what may have occurred that night on the SS Californian, and the resulting desperation of Officer Stone and Captain Lord in the aftermath of their inaction.

Told not only from the perspective of the SS Californian crew, but also through the eyes of a family of third-class passengers who perished in the disaster, the narrative is drawn together by Steadman, a tenacious Boston journalist who does not rest until the truth is found. The Midnight Watch is a powerful and dramatic debut novel--the result of many years of research in Liverpool, London, New York, and Boston, and informed by the author's own experiences as a ship's officer and a lawyer.]]> 323 David Dyer 1250080932 Rich 5 2024
So i think most people know the basic story of the Titanic. Largest passenger ship ever built, most luxurious, unsinkable, unstoppable, built it seemed for royalty to travel the seas. And then it hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage, sinking rather quickly and killing nearly 1500 souls.

What i didn't know that there was a ship nearby when the Titanic was afloat and sinking. Within reach of coming to it's aid and saving many of those 1500 souls, the SS Californian....This story is primarily about the Californian, its crew and what appears to have happened that night the Titanic sunk.

Californian ship characters included the Captain Stanley Lord, the second in command Herbert Stone, and a few more shipmates.

Without giving too much away here. The second in command Stone was on Midnight Watch at the time of the Titanic sinking. Stone saw white rockets being fired from the Titanic during his watch. He did not know it was the Titanic but anytime a ship fires white rockets it absolutely means it is in distress.

Eventually Stone calls down to the Captain about what he saw. The Captain seems unconcerned and wants more details. They go back and forth about it and eventually do nothing.

The character development was really well done. The details of what happened that night and why the SS Californian did nothing kept me in suspense throughout the book.

This book was a historical fiction created from research including the official Titanic inquiry transcripts. The author says some of the characters personal life were developed with his best guess as to their lives. But for what did happen it is pretty clear the SS Californian was in position to save people, they saw the distress rockets and did nothing. Why they did nothing is hard to fathom, the book presents the characters, the events, and a maybe why.]]> 3.76 2016 The Midnight Watch
author: David Dyer
name: Rich
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/13
date added: 2024/10/14
shelves: 2024
review:
5 BIG STARS... Not quite as BIG as the mighty Titanic itself but a very well done book in my opinion.

So i think most people know the basic story of the Titanic. Largest passenger ship ever built, most luxurious, unsinkable, unstoppable, built it seemed for royalty to travel the seas. And then it hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage, sinking rather quickly and killing nearly 1500 souls.

What i didn't know that there was a ship nearby when the Titanic was afloat and sinking. Within reach of coming to it's aid and saving many of those 1500 souls, the SS Californian....This story is primarily about the Californian, its crew and what appears to have happened that night the Titanic sunk.

Californian ship characters included the Captain Stanley Lord, the second in command Herbert Stone, and a few more shipmates.

Without giving too much away here. The second in command Stone was on Midnight Watch at the time of the Titanic sinking. Stone saw white rockets being fired from the Titanic during his watch. He did not know it was the Titanic but anytime a ship fires white rockets it absolutely means it is in distress.

Eventually Stone calls down to the Captain about what he saw. The Captain seems unconcerned and wants more details. They go back and forth about it and eventually do nothing.

The character development was really well done. The details of what happened that night and why the SS Californian did nothing kept me in suspense throughout the book.

This book was a historical fiction created from research including the official Titanic inquiry transcripts. The author says some of the characters personal life were developed with his best guess as to their lives. But for what did happen it is pretty clear the SS Californian was in position to save people, they saw the distress rockets and did nothing. Why they did nothing is hard to fathom, the book presents the characters, the events, and a maybe why.
]]> The Last Thing to Burn 53934298
He is her husband. She is his captive.

Her husband calls her Jane. That is not her name.

She lives in a small farm cottage, surrounded by vast, open fields. Everywhere she looks, there is space. But she is trapped. No one knows how she got to the UK: no one knows she is there. Visitors rarely come to the farm; if they do, she is never seen.

Her husband records her every movement during the day. If he doesn't like what he sees, she is punished.

For a long time, escape seemed impossible. But now, something has changed. She has a reason to live and a reason to fight. Now, she is watching him, and waiting ...

Praise for Will Dean's storytelling:

'Loaded with atmosphere, brilliant on setting' Mark Billingham

'The best thriller I've read in ages' Marian Keyes

'Atmospheric, creepy and tense' C.J. Tudor

'Memorably atmospheric' Guardian

'Impressive' The Times

'Crackles along at a roaring pace' Observer]]> 256 Will Dean 1529307058 Rich 0 4.30 2021 The Last Thing to Burn
author: Will Dean
name: Rich
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/25
shelves:
review:

]]> Something Wilder 59345253
Leo Grady knew mirages were a thing in the desert, but they’d barely left civilization when the silhouette of his greatest regret comes into focus in the flickering light of the campfire. Ready to leave the past behind him, Leo wants nothing more than to reconnect with his first and only love. Unfortunately, Lily Wilder is all business, drawing a clear line in the sand: it’s never going to happen.

But when the trip goes horribly and hilariously wrong, the group wonders if maybe the legend of the hidden treasure wasn’t a gimmick after all. There’s a chance to right the wrongs—of Duke’s past and their own—but only if Leo and Lily can confront their history and work together. Alone under the stars in the isolated and dangerous mazes of the Canyonlands, Leo and Lily must decide whether they’ll risk their lives and hearts on the adventure of a lifetime.]]> 384 Christina Lauren 1982173408 Rich 0 to-read 3.64 2022 Something Wilder
author: Christina Lauren
name: Rich
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Wedding of the Waters: The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation]]> 249243 Wedding of the Waters reveals that the twenty-first-century themes of urbanization, economic growth, and globalization can all be traced to the first great macroengineering venture of American history.]]> 448 Peter L. Bernstein 0393327957 Rich 2 2024
First off this book was waaaay tooo looong....I nearly gave up a few times.

Having lived most of my life in Buffalo, next to the Erie canal without much thought about it. I figured it was about time to learn something about this great engineering project. I probably picked the wrong book...

This book focused more on the poltical players and how they battled to get this project done. Washington, Jefferson, DeWitt, Clinton, and Van Buren were all involved. The book went on many tangents on stories of these people and others without good reason in my opinion. There was alot of non-relevant writing in this.

Only the last 10% really involved any continuous information about the engineering and towns involved. The canal was quite an amazing project in the end connecting Buffalo and NY City with a waterway: 363 miles long winding through all kind of mountainous terrain; 40 feet wide and 4 feet deep; 83 locks; 18 aqueducts suspended over valleys and rivers. It began around 1817 and finished around 1825. The canal was a financial success collecting tolls and paying for the costs rather quickly. Then railroads and steam engines arrived in the 1830's, eventually taking over the transportation of goods. So, I did learn that much.

Also, the final western city location was somewhat of a battle as well. Buffalo or Black Rock. The canal's financial windfall lay in the balance for a year or two. It was finally determined Buffalo was the better logistical location. Buffalo was not a large city back in the early 1800's so not a given as the final destination. So, the Erie canal did play an important role in the development of Buffalo's growth into the Queen City. This seems strange now that the Erie canal is not used much other than for slow moving recreational boating and kayaking....

]]> 3.78 2005 Wedding of the Waters: The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation
author: Peter L. Bernstein
name: Rich
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2005
rating: 2
read at: 2024/09/22
date added: 2024/09/22
shelves: 2024
review:
2.5 Stars rounded down.

First off this book was waaaay tooo looong....I nearly gave up a few times.

Having lived most of my life in Buffalo, next to the Erie canal without much thought about it. I figured it was about time to learn something about this great engineering project. I probably picked the wrong book...

This book focused more on the poltical players and how they battled to get this project done. Washington, Jefferson, DeWitt, Clinton, and Van Buren were all involved. The book went on many tangents on stories of these people and others without good reason in my opinion. There was alot of non-relevant writing in this.

Only the last 10% really involved any continuous information about the engineering and towns involved. The canal was quite an amazing project in the end connecting Buffalo and NY City with a waterway: 363 miles long winding through all kind of mountainous terrain; 40 feet wide and 4 feet deep; 83 locks; 18 aqueducts suspended over valleys and rivers. It began around 1817 and finished around 1825. The canal was a financial success collecting tolls and paying for the costs rather quickly. Then railroads and steam engines arrived in the 1830's, eventually taking over the transportation of goods. So, I did learn that much.

Also, the final western city location was somewhat of a battle as well. Buffalo or Black Rock. The canal's financial windfall lay in the balance for a year or two. It was finally determined Buffalo was the better logistical location. Buffalo was not a large city back in the early 1800's so not a given as the final destination. So, the Erie canal did play an important role in the development of Buffalo's growth into the Queen City. This seems strange now that the Erie canal is not used much other than for slow moving recreational boating and kayaking....


]]> Hum 195791689 From the National Book Award–longlisted author of The Need comes an extraordinary novel about a wife and mother who—after losing her job to AI—undergoes a procedure that renders her undetectable to surveillance…but at what cost?

In a city addled by climate change and populated by intelligent robots called “hums,� May loses her job to artificial intelligence. In a desperate bid to resolve her family’s debt and secure their future for another few months, she becomes a guinea pig in an experiment that alters her face so it cannot be recognized by surveillance.

Seeking some reprieve from her recent hardships and from her family’s addiction to their devices, she splurges on passes that allow them three nights� respite inside the Botanical Garden: a rare green refuge where forests, streams, and animals flourish. But her insistence that her son, daughter, and husband leave their devices at home proves far more fraught than she anticipated, and the lush beauty of the Botanical Garden is not the balm she hoped it would be. When her children come under threat, May is forced to put her trust in a hum of uncertain motives as she works to restore the life of her family.

Written in taut, urgent prose, Hum is a work of speculative fiction that unflinchingly explores marriage, motherhood, and selfhood in a world compromised by global warming and dizzying technological advancement, a world of both dystopian and utopian possibilities. As New York Times bestselling author Jeff VanderMeer says, “Helen Phillips, in typical bravura fashion, has found a way to make visible uncomfortable truths about our present by interrogating the near-future.”]]> 262 Helen Phillips 1668008831 Rich 0 to-read 3.49 2024 Hum
author: Helen Phillips
name: Rich
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Obsidio (The Illuminae Files, #3)]]> 24909347
Meanwhile, Kady's cousin, Asha, survived the initial BeiTech assault and has joined Kerenza's ragtag underground resistance. When Rhys--an old flame from Asha's past--reappears on Kerenza, the two find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict. With time running out, a final battle will be waged on land and in space, heros will fall, and hearts will be broken.

From bestselling author duo Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff comes the exciting finale in the trilogy that broke the mold and has been called "stylistically mesmerizing" and "out-of-this-world-awesome."]]> 618 Amie Kaufman 055349919X Rich 0 to-read 4.45 2018 Obsidio (The Illuminae Files, #3)
author: Amie Kaufman
name: Rich
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Perfect Couple (Nantucket, #3)]]> 34840184
But it's going to be memorable for all the wrong reasons after tragedy strikes: a body is discovered in Nantucket Harbor just hours before the ceremony-and everyone in the wedding party is suddenly a suspect. As Chief of Police Ed Kapenash interviews the bride, the groom, the groom's famous mystery-novelist mother, and even a member of his own family, he discovers that every wedding is a minefield-and no couple is perfect. Featuring beloved characters from The Castaways, Beautiful Day, and A Summer Affair, The Perfect Couple proves once again that Elin Hilderbrand is the queen of the summer beach read.]]> 480 Elin Hilderbrand 0316375241 Rich 3 2024
A pretty standard murder mystery formula. Lots of characters, lots of suspects, twists and turns.

The setting was good with a beach wedding in Nantucket, with a wealthy family.

The plot twists and scandal turned a bit extreme for me. The plot ended up like a book version of a TV daytime soap opera. This was the reason for the rounding downward.

Overall a fun read but just a bit overtwisted for me.

]]> 3.93 2018 The Perfect Couple (Nantucket, #3)
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Rich
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/01
date added: 2024/09/01
shelves: 2024
review:
3.5 Stars rounded down...

A pretty standard murder mystery formula. Lots of characters, lots of suspects, twists and turns.

The setting was good with a beach wedding in Nantucket, with a wealthy family.

The plot twists and scandal turned a bit extreme for me. The plot ended up like a book version of a TV daytime soap opera. This was the reason for the rounding downward.

Overall a fun read but just a bit overtwisted for me.


]]> <![CDATA[On Desperate Ground: The Marines at The Reservoir, the Korean War's Greatest Battle]]> 37922709 From the New York Times bestselling author of Ghost Soldiers and In the Kingdom of Ice, a chronicle of the extraordinary feats of heroism by Marines called on to do the impossible during the greatest battle of the Korean War

On October 15, 1950, the vainglorious General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of U.N. troops in Korea, convinced President Harry Truman that the communist forces would be utterly defeated by Thanksgiving. The Chinese, he said with near certainty, would not intervene in the war.

As he was speaking, 300,000 Chinese soldiers began crossing the border. Led by the 13,000 men of the 1st Marine Division, the Americans moved far north into the trap Mao had set for the arrogant MacArthur at the Chosin Reservoir. What followed was one of the most heroic - and harrowing - operations in American military history. Faced with annihilation, and temperatures plunging to 20 degrees below zero, the surrounded Marines fought through the enemy forces with ferocity, ingenuity and nearly unimaginable courage.

Hampton Sides's superb account of the battle relies on years of archival research and interviews with scores of Marines and Koreans who survived the siege. While expertly chronicling the follies of the American leaders, this is an immediate, grunt's-eye view of history, enthralling in its narrative pace and powerful in its portrayal of what ordinary men are capable of in the most extreme circumstances.]]> 394 Hampton Sides 0385541155 Rich 0 to-read 4.53 2018 On Desperate Ground: The Marines at The Reservoir, the Korean War's Greatest Battle
author: Hampton Sides
name: Rich
average rating: 4.53
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Normal People 41057294
A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years in college, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. Then, as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other.

Sally Rooney brings her brilliant psychological acuity and perfectly spare prose to a story that explores the subtleties of class, the electricity of first love, and the complex entanglements of family and friendship.]]> 273 Sally Rooney 1984822179 Rich 3 3.81 2018 Normal People
author: Sally Rooney
name: Rich
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2020/02/19
date added: 2024/08/19
shelves:
review:
I did not know what this book was about going in and was sorta duped. I did not realize this story was largely about mental health. I had been rolling my eyes throughout with the characters behavior. I have to admit I did feel somewhat foolish it took me so long time to fully realize the issues the characters had. In my defense, the characters behavior seemed intentionally done by the author to show how people can appear normal in public but have mental health problems behind the scenes. I think I got it in the end, but still not overly taken by the story.
]]> Gods of Jade and Shadow 36510722 The Mayan god of death sends a young woman on a harrowing, life-changing journey in this one-of-a-kind fairy tale inspired by Mexican folklore.

The Jazz Age is in full swing, but Casiopea Tun is too busy cleaning the floors of her wealthy grandfather’s house to listen to any fast tunes. Nevertheless, she dreams of a life far from her dusty small town in southern Mexico. A life she can call her own.

Yet this new life seems as distant as the stars, until the day she finds a curious wooden box in her grandfather’s room. She opens it—and accidentally frees the spirit of the Mayan god of death, who requests her help in recovering his throne from his treacherous brother. Failure will mean Casiopea’s demise, but success could make her dreams come true.

In the company of the strangely alluring god and armed with her wits, Casiopea begins an adventure that will take her on a cross-country odyssey from the jungles of Yucatán to the bright lights of Mexico City—and deep into the darkness of the Mayan underworld.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780525620754]]> 338 Silvia Moreno-Garcia Rich 0 to-read 3.87 2019 Gods of Jade and Shadow
author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
name: Rich
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Last Thing to Burn 54303965 A woman being held captive is willing to risk everything to save herself, her unborn child, and her captor’s latest victim in this claustrophobic thriller in the tradition of Misery and Room.

On an isolated farm in the United Kingdom, a woman is trapped by the monster who kidnapped her seven years ago. When she discovers she is pregnant, she resolves to protect her child no matter the cost, and starts to meticulously plan her escape. But when another woman is brought into the fold on the farm, her plans go awry. Can she save herself, her child, and this innocent woman at the same time? Or is she doomed to spend the remainder of her life captive on this farm?

Intense, dark, and utterly gripping The Last Thing to Burn is a breathtaking thriller from an author to watch.]]> 241 Will Dean 1982156465 Rich 4 2024
A well written, suspenseful story of a captive women being held at a farm against her will by one man(Lenn).
The location is a remote farm in England. The woman is a vietnamese woman he calls Jane.
It turns out Lenn somehow purchased the rights to Jane when she came to England. Jane was supposed to be able to pay off her travel expenses working at a retail shop but was tricked.
Instead Lenn plans to keep her forever as a captured wife. He breaks her ankle so she cannot run away.
Lenn himself is a mix of cunning and simpleminded. He seems to have spent most of life on the farm with his family that is gone. His Mom was a huge influence on how he lives still.
Jane has a few possessions that she was able to keep.
Jane ends up having a child which seems to give her strength to fight and plan a way off the farm.
The title comes from when Jane gets caught doing something wrong, Lenn then burns one of her few possessions. Its not too long before she is running out of possessions.
The ending seemed a bit abrupt and unlikely, but nothing too unbelievable.



]]> 3.94 2021 The Last Thing to Burn
author: Will Dean
name: Rich
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/30
date added: 2024/07/30
shelves: 2024
review:
3.5 rounded up!!!

A well written, suspenseful story of a captive women being held at a farm against her will by one man(Lenn).
The location is a remote farm in England. The woman is a vietnamese woman he calls Jane.
It turns out Lenn somehow purchased the rights to Jane when she came to England. Jane was supposed to be able to pay off her travel expenses working at a retail shop but was tricked.
Instead Lenn plans to keep her forever as a captured wife. He breaks her ankle so she cannot run away.
Lenn himself is a mix of cunning and simpleminded. He seems to have spent most of life on the farm with his family that is gone. His Mom was a huge influence on how he lives still.
Jane has a few possessions that she was able to keep.
Jane ends up having a child which seems to give her strength to fight and plan a way off the farm.
The title comes from when Jane gets caught doing something wrong, Lenn then burns one of her few possessions. Its not too long before she is running out of possessions.
The ending seemed a bit abrupt and unlikely, but nothing too unbelievable.




]]> Check & Mate 60683957 done with chess. Every move counts nowadays. After the sport led to the destruction of her family four years earlier, Mallory's focus is on her mom, her sisters, and the dead-end job that keeps the lights on. That is, until she begrudgingly agrees to play in one last charity tournament and inadvertently wipes the board with notorious "Kingkiller" Nolan Sawyer: current world champion and reigning bad boy of chess.

Nolan's loss to an unknown rook-ie shocks everyone—especially Mallory. What's even more confusing? His desire to cross pawns again. What kind of gambit is Nolan playing? The smart move would be to walk away. Resign. Game over. But Mallory's victory opens the door to sorely needed cash prizes and, despite everything, she can't help feeling drawn to the enigmatic strategist....

As she rockets up the ranks, Mallory struggles to keep her family safely separated from the game that wrecked it in the first place. And as her love for the sport she so desperately wanted to hate begins to rekindle, Mallory quickly realizes that the games aren't only on the board, the spotlight is hotter than she imagined, and the competition can be fierce(-ly attractive. And intelligent...and infuriating...)]]> 347 Ali Hazelwood 0593619919 Rich 3 2024
This was a fun romance read. The boy and girl are: Mallory a hard working young girl who is stuck working as an auto mechanic to support her family. Nolan a young, rich chess phenom who is prone to outrage and unpredictable behavior.
There was good chemistry between the two and I enjoyed their story.
There are a few buts...The story was heavily lopsided towards Mallory, I think a little more secondary stories would have been nice. Also, the POV was all from Mallory, a Nolan POV would have been refreshing. The spark between the two just seemed a bit more amber than red hot.
For me personally the best thing was it brought me back to the world of chess that I left behind in 7th grade. I joined a free online chess site and have rediscovered the game.]]> 3.93 2023 Check & Mate
author: Ali Hazelwood
name: Rich
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/14
date added: 2024/07/14
shelves: 2024
review:
3.5 rounded down ⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was a fun romance read. The boy and girl are: Mallory a hard working young girl who is stuck working as an auto mechanic to support her family. Nolan a young, rich chess phenom who is prone to outrage and unpredictable behavior.
There was good chemistry between the two and I enjoyed their story.
There are a few buts...The story was heavily lopsided towards Mallory, I think a little more secondary stories would have been nice. Also, the POV was all from Mallory, a Nolan POV would have been refreshing. The spark between the two just seemed a bit more amber than red hot.
For me personally the best thing was it brought me back to the world of chess that I left behind in 7th grade. I joined a free online chess site and have rediscovered the game.
]]> Goodnight Tokyo 201072367 A symphony of interconnected lives that offers a compelling reflection on life in modern-day metropolises at the intersection of isolation and intimacy.

Set over several nights, between the hours of 1:00 a.m. and 4:30 a.m., in and around Tokyo, this mind-blowingly constructed book is an elaborate, energetic fresco of human nocturnal existence in all its mystery, an enigmatic literary mix of Agatha Christie, Teju Cole, and Heironymous Bosch.

On this journey through the labyrinthine streets and hidden corners of one of the world’s most fascinating cities, everybody is searching for something, and maybe searching in the wrong places. Elements of the fantastical and the surreal abound, as they tend to do in the early pre-dawn hours of the morning, yet the settings, the human stories, and each character’s search are all as real as can be.

Goodnight Tokyo offers readers a unique and intimate take on Tokyo as seen through the eyes of a large cast of colorful characters. Their lives, as disparate and as far apart as they may seem, are in fact intricately interconnected and as their fates converge against the backdrop of the city’s neon-lit streets and quiet alleyways, Yoshida masterfully portrays in captivating, lyrical prose the complexities of human relationships, the mystery of human connection, and the universal quest for meaning.]]> 176 Atsuhiro Yoshida Rich 0 to-read 3.55 2018 Goodnight Tokyo
author: Atsuhiro Yoshida
name: Rich
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Wedding People 177328214 A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A Today Show #ReadwithJenna Book Club Pick

A propulsive and uncommonly wise novel about one unexpected wedding guest and the surprising people who help her start anew.

It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She's immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamed of coming for years—she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe's plan—which makes it that much more surprising when the two women ’t stop confiding in each other.

In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined—and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.]]> 384 Alison Espach 1250899567 Rich 0 to-read 4.23 2024 The Wedding People
author: Alison Espach
name: Rich
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1)]]> 23395680
The year is 2575, and two rival mega-corporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than a speck at the edge of the universe. Now with enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra � who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to evacuate with a hostile warship in hot pursuit.

But their problems are just getting started. A plague has broken out and is mutating with terrifying results; the fleet’s AI may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a web of data to find the truth, it’s clear the only person who can help her is the ex-boyfriend she swore she’d never speak to again.

Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents � including emails, maps, files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more � Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.]]> 608 Amie Kaufman 0553499114 Rich 0 to-read 4.23 2015 Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1)
author: Amie Kaufman
name: Rich
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Sweet Bean Paste 33376821
Until, that is, Tokue comes into his life. An elderly woman with disfigured hands and a troubled past, she makes the best sweet bean paste Sentaro has ever tasted. The unlikeliest of friendships blossoms, but it will take all of their resolve � and plenty of pancakes � to protect themselves when Tokue's dark secret comes to light.]]> 216 Durian Sukegawa 1786071959 Rich 5 2024
The story is largely involved with (2) character set in contemporary Japan . Sentaro is young man who is trying to find his way. He works in a small shop that sells a sweet treat called Dorayaki ( a pancake sandwich with a sweet bean paste in center). He is not sure what he wants to do so he just works in this shop to pay-off his debts. Along comes Toku, an old woman who looks bad with deformed fingers. She offers to work at the shop at a low wage.it turns out she is a very skilled cook.
The story delves a bit into her disease of leprocy. The 1996 repeal of Japan,s law of leper’s being lawfully secluded.
There a few interesting themes that develop. How your life has significance no matter what. How we are all connected in certain ways. What can keep us going in the hard times.
These themes were done in a thought proving way rather than forced upon you.
The story is rather short at about 200 pages which made for a well paced book.]]> 4.07 2013 Sweet Bean Paste
author: Durian Sukegawa
name: Rich
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/23
date added: 2024/06/23
shelves: 2024
review:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4.5 rounded up.

The story is largely involved with (2) character set in contemporary Japan . Sentaro is young man who is trying to find his way. He works in a small shop that sells a sweet treat called Dorayaki ( a pancake sandwich with a sweet bean paste in center). He is not sure what he wants to do so he just works in this shop to pay-off his debts. Along comes Toku, an old woman who looks bad with deformed fingers. She offers to work at the shop at a low wage.it turns out she is a very skilled cook.
The story delves a bit into her disease of leprocy. The 1996 repeal of Japan,s law of leper’s being lawfully secluded.
There a few interesting themes that develop. How your life has significance no matter what. How we are all connected in certain ways. What can keep us going in the hard times.
These themes were done in a thought proving way rather than forced upon you.
The story is rather short at about 200 pages which made for a well paced book.
]]> Summer Romance 198563734
There aren’t enough labeled glass containers to contain the mess that is Ali Morris’s life. Her mom died two years ago, then her husband left, and she hasn’t worn pants with a zipper in longer than she cares to remember. She’s a professional organizer whose pantry is a disgrace.

No one is more surprised than Ali when the first time she takes off her wedding ring and puts on pants with hardware—overalls count, right?—she meets someone. Or rather, her dog claims a man for her in the same way he claimed his favorite of her three children: by peeing on him. Ethan smiles at Ali like her pants are just right—like he likes what he sees. The last thing Ali needs is to make her life messier, but there’s no harm in a little Summer Romance. Is there?]]> 321 Annabel Monaghan 0593714083 Rich 0 to-read 4.02 2024 Summer Romance
author: Annabel Monaghan
name: Rich
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Plain Truth 14864
One hundred miles away, Philadelphia defense attorney Ellie Hathaway has achieved an enviable, high-profile career. But her latest court victory has set the sands shifting beneath her. Single at thirty-nine and unsatisfied with her relationship, Ellie doesn't look back when she turns down her chance to make partner and takes off for an open-ended stay at her great-aunt's home in Paradise. Fate brings her to Katie Fisher. Suddenly, Ellie sees the chance to defend a client who truly needs her, not just one who can afford her.

But taking on this case challenges Ellie in more ways than one. She finds herself not only in a clash of wills with a client who does not want to be defended but also in a clash of cultures with a people whose channels of justice are markedly different from her own. Immersing herself in Katie Fisher's life -- and in a world founded on faith, humility, duty, and honesty -- Ellie begins to understand the pressures and sacrifices of those who to live plain. As she peels away the layers of fact and fantasy, Ellie calls on an old friend for guidance. Now, just as this man from Ellie's past reenters her life, she must uncover the truth about a complex case, a tragic loss, the bonds of love -- and her own deepest fears and desires.]]> 416 Jodi Picoult 0743275012 Rich 0 to-read 3.99 2000 Plain Truth
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Rich
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Napoleon in Egypt 3001909 “Europe is a molehill�.�
Everything here is worn out…tiny Europe has not enough to offer.
We must set off for the Orient; that is where all the greatest glory is to be achieved.� —NDZDz


Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt was the first Western attack in modern times on a Middle Eastern country. In this remarkably rich and eminently readable historical account, acclaimed author Paul Strathern reconstructs a mission of conquest inspired by glory, executed in haste, and bound for disaster.

In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte, only twenty-eight, mounted the most audacious military campaign of his already spectacular career. With 335 ships, 40,000 soldiers, and a collection of scholars, artists, scientists, and inventors, he set sail for Egypt to establish an Eastern empire in emulation of Alexander the Great. Like everything Napoleon ever attempted, it was a plan marked by unquenchable ambition, heroic romanticism, and not a little madness.

Napoleon saw himself as a liberator, freeing the Egyptians from the oppression of their Mameluke overlords. But while Napoleon thought his army would be welcomed as heroes, he tragically misunderstood Muslim culture and grossly overestimated the “gratitude� he could expect from those he’d come to save. Instead Napoleon and his men would face a grim war of attrition against an ad hoc army of Muslims led by the feared Murad Bey. Marching across seemingly endless deserts in the shadow of the pyramids, suffering extremes of heat and thirst, and pushed to the limits of human endurance, they would be plagued by mirages, suicides, and the constant threat of ambush. A crusade begun in honor and intended for glory would degenerate toward chaos and atrocity.

But Napoleon’s grand failure in Egypt also yielded vast treasures of knowledge about a culture largely lost to the West, and through the recovery of artifacts like the Rosetta Stone, it prepared the way for the translation of hieroglyphics and modern Egyptology. And it tempered the complex leader who believed it his destiny to conquer the world.

A story of war, adventure, politics, and a clash of cultures, Paul Strathern’s Napoleon in Egypt is history at once relevant and impossible to put down.


From the Hardcover edition.]]> 496 Paul Strathern 0553806785 Rich 4 2024
The story was a good mix of personal information and historic events. I went into this not knowing much about Napoleon beyond the recent Hollywood movie which didn't mention anything about Egypt that i remembered. Given it was a three hour movie i may have missed something. I was intrigued by Napoleons demeanor in the movie, a more laid back personality rather than a hot head i thought he was from the bugs bunny cartoons (sad but true my Napoleon background can best be described as limited).

So the book follows Napoleons younger days, his very strange relationship with his wife Josephine, and a little on the French Revolution which leads to his rise in power.

Napoleon gets approval from the French Leaders for an Egyptian Army mission to secure trade routes and expand the French empire. It is hinted that he had other plans as well to take India but they never happened or were confirmed.
The mission is top secret and involves detailed planning and preparation, which Napoleon throughout the book shows to be one of his great skills. Being unpredictable and decisive at critical moments were also traits described during his military battles.
The military voyage to Egypt involved four city ports each with dozens of ships coordinating their arrival in Egypt, all done without phones or long distance communication devices.
Then book describes many battles at Malta, Alexandria, Cairo, and a few others. Ultimately, Napoleon is unable to capture a key city and returns to France and leaves his troops to hold the conquered territories. The distance to hold these areas proves to be too much and many of them fall back to enemy hands. One interesting bit of information was that the Plague was still around during his campaign and ravaged his army in Egypt.
The book flowed rather nice for a historical story and there were many well described characters. As for Napoleon i never felt like i got to know him intimately ( largely my reason for Four Stars) but i feel well beyond my bugs bunny archive of Napoleon knowledge now!!!]]> 4.17 2007 Napoleon in Egypt
author: Paul Strathern
name: Rich
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/12
date added: 2024/06/13
shelves: 2024
review:
An interesting and informative book about Napoleons march into Egypt.

The story was a good mix of personal information and historic events. I went into this not knowing much about Napoleon beyond the recent Hollywood movie which didn't mention anything about Egypt that i remembered. Given it was a three hour movie i may have missed something. I was intrigued by Napoleons demeanor in the movie, a more laid back personality rather than a hot head i thought he was from the bugs bunny cartoons (sad but true my Napoleon background can best be described as limited).

So the book follows Napoleons younger days, his very strange relationship with his wife Josephine, and a little on the French Revolution which leads to his rise in power.

Napoleon gets approval from the French Leaders for an Egyptian Army mission to secure trade routes and expand the French empire. It is hinted that he had other plans as well to take India but they never happened or were confirmed.
The mission is top secret and involves detailed planning and preparation, which Napoleon throughout the book shows to be one of his great skills. Being unpredictable and decisive at critical moments were also traits described during his military battles.
The military voyage to Egypt involved four city ports each with dozens of ships coordinating their arrival in Egypt, all done without phones or long distance communication devices.
Then book describes many battles at Malta, Alexandria, Cairo, and a few others. Ultimately, Napoleon is unable to capture a key city and returns to France and leaves his troops to hold the conquered territories. The distance to hold these areas proves to be too much and many of them fall back to enemy hands. One interesting bit of information was that the Plague was still around during his campaign and ravaged his army in Egypt.
The book flowed rather nice for a historical story and there were many well described characters. As for Napoleon i never felt like i got to know him intimately ( largely my reason for Four Stars) but i feel well beyond my bugs bunny archive of Napoleon knowledge now!!!
]]> <![CDATA[The Unstoppable Golfer: Trusting Your Mind & Your Short Game to Achieve Greatness]]> 13545429 From the bestselling author of Golf Is Not a Game of Perfect and the preeminent golf psychologist to the game’s top players comes the defining guide to mastering the enormous challenges of chips, pitches, bunker shots, and putts.Dr. Bob Rotella is the preeminent golf psychologist to the game’s top players—he has coached stars like Keegan Bradley, Padraig Harrington, and Darren Clarke—and he has offered his advice to golfers of all skill levels in his bestselling books, including Golf Is Not a Game of Perfect and Golf Is a Game of Confidence. Now, he tackles the mind’s role in the most difficult aspect of golfing—the short game. It’s no secret that more than two-thirds of the shots a golfer makes are short putts, chips, and pitches. Long drives may garner applause, but whether a golfer wants to win the Masters or just five bucks from a friend on Saturday morning, it’s the little shots that make the difference. Yet many players either fail to recognize or choose to ignore the importance of the short game. In The Unstoppable Golfer, Dr. Rotella applies the same wisdom and experience that have worked for clients like Davis Love III and Graeme McDowell to help every golfer master this special art of short shots and take all the frustration out of this increasingly challenging element of the game. Requiring extraordinary levels of concentration, the short game is typically a source of fear for amateurs and pros alike. In this book, Dr. Rotella teaches readers how to overcome that fear by using their minds to achieve a state of calm in which the focus is on one thing the hole. Rotella shares stories about professionals with whom he has worked who have mastered the psychological aspect of successful putting by adhering to simple—but hard-to-follow—rules and practices that will improve any golfer’s stay focused on your targets, visualize your shots, commit to your routine, and accept completely whatever happened to the golf ball. On top of citing his experiences with golfers, Dr. Rotella also probes the science of memory and how knowledge of the brain’s workings—especially those areas that deal with physical tasks—can markedly improve a golf game, particularly when it comes to getting out of a bunker or taking the measure of a long putt. For casual and dedicated golfers alike, a better short game provides one of the ultimate pleasures of golf—a pleasure they will come to know by training their minds to allow them to become unstoppable golfers. Since 1984, golfers coached by Dr. Bob Rotella have won a total -74 major professional titles 2 Masters tournaments -12 U.S. Opens -12 British Opens -11 PGA Championships -4 U.S. Women’s Opens -6 LPGA Championships -5 Kraft-Nabisco Championships -5 Tradition Championships -7 Women’s British Opens -2 Senior PGA Championships -5 U.S. Senior Opens -3 Senior Players Championships]]> 226 Bob Rotella 1451650183 Rich 5 2024, favorites
This was definitely one of my favorite golf books. There was good golf info mixed with real people stories. Learned about golfers I didn’t know much about.
There was concept of how the the subconscious mind can work backed up by a medical case study.
The big take away is that you can perform much better if you can find a way to not let your mind get in the way. Think about trying to walk a straight line, if you start thinking about trying to do it, how to do it, chances are you will start to trip over your own feet. Your body can do many things without you thinking about them, and when you start thinking about how to do it can go bad. Playing a piano well largely relies on you letting it happen, not thinking about the keys. The same goes for sports.
Not easy to do but coming up with ways to do that is the first step to doing it...such as a pre shot routine you follow every time.
So highly recommend for any level of golfer...
]]> 4.31 2012 The Unstoppable Golfer: Trusting Your Mind & Your Short Game to Achieve Greatness
author: Bob Rotella
name: Rich
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/11
date added: 2024/06/11
shelves: 2024, favorites
review:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5 big ones!!!

This was definitely one of my favorite golf books. There was good golf info mixed with real people stories. Learned about golfers I didn’t know much about.
There was concept of how the the subconscious mind can work backed up by a medical case study.
The big take away is that you can perform much better if you can find a way to not let your mind get in the way. Think about trying to walk a straight line, if you start thinking about trying to do it, how to do it, chances are you will start to trip over your own feet. Your body can do many things without you thinking about them, and when you start thinking about how to do it can go bad. Playing a piano well largely relies on you letting it happen, not thinking about the keys. The same goes for sports.
Not easy to do but coming up with ways to do that is the first step to doing it...such as a pre shot routine you follow every time.
So highly recommend for any level of golfer...

]]> The Night Tiger 39863482 A sweeping historical novel about a dancehall girl and an orphan boy whose fates entangle over an old Chinese superstition about men who turn into tigers.

When 11-year-old Ren's master dies, he makes one last request of his Chinese houseboy: that Ren find his severed finger, lost years ago in an accident, and reunite it with his body. Ren has 49 days, or else his master's soul will roam the earth, unable to rest in peace.

Ji Lin always wanted to be a doctor, but as a girl in 1930s Malaysia, apprentice dressmaker is a more suitable occupation. Secretly, though, Ji Lin also moonlights as a dancehall girl to help pay off her beloved mother's Mahjong debts. One night, Ji Lin's dance partner leaves her with a gruesome souvenir: a severed finger. Convinced the finger is bad luck, Ji Lin enlists the help of her erstwhile stepbrother to return it to its rightful owner.

As the 49 days tick down, and a prowling tiger wreaks havoc on the town, Ji Lin and Ren's lives intertwine in ways they could never have imagined. Propulsive and lushly written, The Night Tiger explores colonialism and independence, ancient superstition and modern ambition, sibling rivalry and first love. Braided through with Chinese folklore and a tantalizing mystery, this novel is a page-turner of the highest order.

Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club Pick, Amazon Spotlight Pick for Best Book of the Month, NYTimes and Publisher's Weekly Bestseller. Starred Kirkus, Booklist, and Publisher's Weekly reviews.]]> 372 Yangsze Choo 1250175453 Rich 4 2024
There was a lot good mixed with some so-so.

The story is set in Malaysia being largely a murder mystery.

There is magical realism throughout the story. A possible death from a Tiger or a mythical man/tiger beast. There is a mystery of severed finger that needs to be returned to a unknown owner. There is brother that has past away that communicates with the living through dreams.

The characters are likeable, many of them struggling against some past or present issue. Ji Lin and Shin are stepbrother and Sister. Their relationship is unusual and interesting.
There is Ren a young boy who is an orphan. He is sent from one doctor who has passed away to another doctor to live, and serve as a house boy and intern.
Ji Lin is a seamstress who also works as a dancehall girl to pay off her mothers mahjong gambling debts. This brings her in company of some unusual characters. A dance hall is a place where lonely men only do traditional dancing with women. So slightly shady but still a semi-respectable place.

There were times when the story lagged but otherwise an entertaining story with a real feel of struggling people.
]]> 3.81 2019 The Night Tiger
author: Yangsze Choo
name: Rich
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/05
date added: 2024/05/05
shelves: 2024
review:
3.5 Stars rounded up.

There was a lot good mixed with some so-so.

The story is set in Malaysia being largely a murder mystery.

There is magical realism throughout the story. A possible death from a Tiger or a mythical man/tiger beast. There is a mystery of severed finger that needs to be returned to a unknown owner. There is brother that has past away that communicates with the living through dreams.

The characters are likeable, many of them struggling against some past or present issue. Ji Lin and Shin are stepbrother and Sister. Their relationship is unusual and interesting.
There is Ren a young boy who is an orphan. He is sent from one doctor who has passed away to another doctor to live, and serve as a house boy and intern.
Ji Lin is a seamstress who also works as a dancehall girl to pay off her mothers mahjong gambling debts. This brings her in company of some unusual characters. A dance hall is a place where lonely men only do traditional dancing with women. So slightly shady but still a semi-respectable place.

There were times when the story lagged but otherwise an entertaining story with a real feel of struggling people.

]]> <![CDATA[Yours Truly (Part of Your World, #2)]]> 62015945 A novel of terrible first impressions, hilarious second chances, and the joy in finding your perfect match.

Dr. Briana Ortiz’s life is seriously flatlining. Her divorce is just about finalized, her brother’s running out of time to find a kidney donor, and that promotion she wants? Oh, that’s probably going to the new man-doctor who’s already registering eighty-friggin�-seven on Briana’s “pain in my ass� scale. But just when all systems are set to hate, Dr. Jacob Maddox completely flips the game . . . by sending Briana a letter.

And it’s a really good letter. Like the kind that proves that Jacob isn’t actually Satan. Worse, he might be this fantastically funny and subversively likeable guy who’s terrible at first impressions. Because suddenly he and Bri are exchanging letters, sharing lunch dates in her “sob closet,� and discussing the merits of freakishly tiny horses. But when Jacob decides to give Briana the best gift imaginable—a kidney for her brother—she wonders just how she can resist this quietly sexy new doctor . . . especially when he calls in a favor she ’t refuse.]]> 417 Abby Jimenez 1538704412 Rich 0 to-read 4.38 2023 Yours Truly (Part of Your World, #2)
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Rich
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> You Know What You Did 192761618 In this heart-pounding debut thriller for fans of Lisa Jewell and Celeste Ng, a first-generation Vietnamese American artist must confront nightmares past and present�

Annie “Anh Le� Shaw grew up poor but seems to have it all now: a dream career, a stunning home, and a devoted husband and daughter. When Annie’s mother, a Vietnam War refugee, dies suddenly one night, Annie’s carefully curated life begins to unravel. Her obsessive-compulsive disorder, which she thought she’d vanquished years ago, comes roaring back—but this time, the disturbing fixations swirling around in Annie’s brain might actually be coming true.]]> 384 K.T. Nguyen 059347385X Rich 0 to-read 3.32 2024 You Know What You Did
author: K.T. Nguyen
name: Rich
average rating: 3.32
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Second Life of Tiger Woods]]> 50873490 From Michael Bamberger, author most recently of the New York Times bestseller Men in Green, the intimate and extraordinary Tiger Woods comeback story, in which the iconic golfer—his game, body, and life in shambles—makes not only a triumphant return to the winner’s circle (his 2019 Masters title), but discovers along the way more widespread love and admiration than he had ever known before.

Tiger Woods’s long descent into a personal and professional hell reached bottom in the early hours of Memorial Day in 2017. Woods’s DUI arrest that night came just weeks after he told close friends he might never play tournament golf again and on the heels of a risky, desperate fusion back surgery. His mug shot and his alarming arrest video were painful to look at and, for Woods, a deep humiliation. There he was, this most disciplined of men, lost and out of control, for all the world to see. That episode could have marked the beginning of his end. It proved to be the opposite.

After going into rehab, pleading guilty to reckless driving, submitting to a series of probation meetings and drug tests, and performing hours of community service, Woods returned to competition. The player who once dominated golf at an unprecedented level had sunk to 1,119th place in the world golf rankings. But before 2018 was over, he led the British Open late in its last round before losing to his playing partner, finished second in the PGA Championship, and won the Tour Championship at the historic East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. As he marched to victory there, the pandemonium surrounding him bordered on chaos. But that was just a warm-up act to an event that enchanted the world: his 2019 victory at golf’s most celebrated event, the Masters, on a Sunday afternoon in April that was a high-wire act for all involved, especially for the forty-three-year-old single father with a bad back who won his fifth green jacket. The photos of the winner’s hugs with his young son and daughter and mother were iconic images by nightfall.

Michael Bamberger has covered Tiger Woods since the golfer was a teenager and an amateur, and in The Second Life of Tiger Woods he draws upon his deep network of sources inside locker rooms, caddie yards, clubhouses, fitness trailers, and back offices to tell the true and inspiring story of the legend’s return. Packed with new information and graced by insight, Bamberger reveals how this iconic athlete clawed his way back to the top. The Second Life of Tiger Woods is the saga of an exceptional man, but it’s also a celebration of second chances. Being rich and famous had nothing to do with Woods’s return. Instead, readers will see the application of his intelligence, pride, dedication—and his enormous capacity for work—to the problems at hand. Bamberger’s bracingly honest book is about what Tiger Woods did, and about what any of us can do, when we face our demons head-on.]]> 272 Michael Bamberger 198212282X Rich 3 2024 The story tells about a known event in Tigers life then the author gives his opinion of why it happened. The author may know Tiger to some degree but to tell the story as if he knows why things happened the way they did just did not seem valid to me.
The story is obviously about Tiger woods and his life. There is plenty of interesting events in Tiger woods life to cover. His ambien drug fueled driving arrest. His cheating with porn stars and divorce. Tigers family and childhood struggles as a black athlete in the world of golf.
Finally the book delivers with his comeback at the 2019 Masters. This part really saved this book for for me.
America loves a comeback story and Tiger is a perfect fit for the comeback hero.
]]> 3.79 The Second Life of Tiger Woods
author: Michael Bamberger
name: Rich
average rating: 3.79
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/07
date added: 2024/04/07
shelves: 2024
review:
This book tried really hard to read like a behind the scenes tell all book, but it really sounded more like a personal opinion story by the author.
The story tells about a known event in Tigers life then the author gives his opinion of why it happened. The author may know Tiger to some degree but to tell the story as if he knows why things happened the way they did just did not seem valid to me.
The story is obviously about Tiger woods and his life. There is plenty of interesting events in Tiger woods life to cover. His ambien drug fueled driving arrest. His cheating with porn stars and divorce. Tigers family and childhood struggles as a black athlete in the world of golf.
Finally the book delivers with his comeback at the 2019 Masters. This part really saved this book for for me.
America loves a comeback story and Tiger is a perfect fit for the comeback hero.

]]> The Stone Home 181109975
In 2011, Eunju Oh opens her door to greet a stranger: a young Korean American woman holding a familiar-looking knife—a knife Eunju hasn’t seen in more than thirty years, and that connects her to a place she’d desperately hoped to leave behind forever.

In South Korea in the 1980s, young Eunju and her mother are homeless on the street. After being captured by the police, they’re sent to live within the walls of a state-sanctioned reformatory center that claims to rehabilitate the nation’s citizens but hides a darker, more violent reality. While Eunju and her mother form a tight-knit community with the other women in the kitchen, two teenage brothers, Sangchul and Youngchul, are compelled to labor in the workshops and make increasingly desperate decisions—and all are forced down a path of survival, the repercussions of which will echo for decades to come.

Inspired by real events, told through alternating timelines and two intimate perspectives, The Stone Home is a deeply affecting story of a mother and daughter’s love and a pair of brothers whose bond is put to an unfathomably difficult test. Capturing a shameful period of history with breathtaking restraint and tenderness, Crystal Hana Kim weaves a lyrical exploration of the legacy of violence and the complicated psychology of power, while showcasing the extraordinary acts of devotion and friendship that can arise in the darkness.]]> 352 Crystal Hana Kim 006331097X Rich 0 to-read 3.62 2024 The Stone Home
author: Crystal Hana Kim
name: Rich
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Golf is Not a Game of Perfect 935617
Dr. Bob Rotella is one of the hottest performance consultants in America today. Among his many professional clients are Nick Price (last year's Player of the Year), Tom Kite, Davis Love III, Pat Bradley, Brad Faxon, John Daly, and many others. Rotella, or “Doc,� as most players refer to him, goes beyond just the usual mental aspects of the game and the reliance on specific techniques. What Rotella does here in this extraordinary book, and with his clients, is to create an attitude and a mindset about all aspects of a golfer's game, from mental preparation to competition. The most wonderful aspect of it all is that it is done in a conversational fashion, in a dynamic blend of anecdote and lesson. And, as some of the world's greatest golfers will attest, the results are spectacular. Golfers will improve their golf game and have more fun playing. Some of Rotella's maxims include:

-On the first tee, a golfer must expect only two things of himself: to have fun, and to focus his mind properly on every shot.

-Golfers must learn to love 'the challenge when they hit a ball into the rough, trees, or sand. The alternatives—anger, fear, whining, and cheating—do no good.

-Confidence is crucial to good golf. Confidence is simply the aggregate of the thoughts you have about yourself.

-It is more important to be decisive than to be correct when preparing to play any golf shot or putt.

Filled with delightful and insightful stories about golf and the golfers Rotella works with, Golf Is Not a Game of Perfect will improve the game of even the most casual weekend player.]]> 224 Bob Rotella 068480364X Rich 4 2021 Some good stuff and I consider it a worthwhile read to help your mental approach to the game.
]]> 4.30 1995 Golf is Not a Game of Perfect
author: Bob Rotella
name: Rich
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/29
date added: 2024/03/29
shelves: 2021
review:
Pretty informative. Some what dated with golfers who played a long time ago. Including Tom kite who never really impressed me.
Some good stuff and I consider it a worthwhile read to help your mental approach to the game.

]]> Steve Jobs 11084145 630 Walter Isaacson 1451648537 Rich 0 to-read 4.15 2011 Steve Jobs
author: Walter Isaacson
name: Rich
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942]]> 13707735
"Both a serious work of history…and a marvelously readable dramatic narrative." � San Francisco Chronicle On the first Sunday in December 1941, an armada of Japanese warplanes appeared suddenly over Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and devastated the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Six months later, in a sea fight north of the tiny atoll of Midway, four Japanese aircraft carriers were sent into the abyss, a blow that destroyed the offensive power of their fleet. Pacific Crucible ―through a dramatic narrative relying predominantly on primary sources and eyewitness accounts of heroism and sacrifice from both navies―tells the epic tale of these first searing months of the Pacific war, when the U.S. Navy shook off the worst defeat in American military history to seize the strategic initiative. 24 pages of illustrations; 12 maps]]> 656 Ian W. Toll 0393343413 Rich 5 2024
Although this was a large historical book (500 pages) by my standards it really read nicely and did not get dry or overly technical. A good amount of the story was devoted to getting to know the commanders and leaders at that time. Roosevelt, Churchill, Nimitz, Spruance, and Yamamoto.
The story begins with a short synopsis of the Pearl Harbor events. Then getting to know Admiral Yamamoto and the Japanese perspective. How they gained military experience in the China war. How Yamamoto was a champion of the Carrier ship being the new most important tool of modern Naval warfare. He helped develop the Zero plane which was lethal dogfight plane. It took the Americans a longtime to develop a strategy fighting the Zero which dominated the skies. After many American losses the � don’t leave your wingman� strategy was born.
Admiral Nimitz was given command of the pacific after the Pearl Harbor debacle. An even keeled man who never raised his voice but commanded with calm confidence.
Roosevelt and Churchill became buddies through a Churchill visit to America. They spent many a late nights drinking and chatting.
Admiral Spruance the fleet commander at the time of the Midway battle. A cerebral man know for his knowledge of war at sea. He walked the ships deck to keep in shape, ease anxiety, and get to know his men.
The story concludes with a significant description of the Midway battle. Again this flowed well without getting too detailed in any one event of the battle.
Overall an enjoyable read that was much about the events as it was about the commanders/people who were involved in them.
]]> 4.66 2011 Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942
author: Ian W. Toll
name: Rich
average rating: 4.66
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/17
date added: 2024/03/17
shelves: 2024
review:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Although this was a large historical book (500 pages) by my standards it really read nicely and did not get dry or overly technical. A good amount of the story was devoted to getting to know the commanders and leaders at that time. Roosevelt, Churchill, Nimitz, Spruance, and Yamamoto.
The story begins with a short synopsis of the Pearl Harbor events. Then getting to know Admiral Yamamoto and the Japanese perspective. How they gained military experience in the China war. How Yamamoto was a champion of the Carrier ship being the new most important tool of modern Naval warfare. He helped develop the Zero plane which was lethal dogfight plane. It took the Americans a longtime to develop a strategy fighting the Zero which dominated the skies. After many American losses the � don’t leave your wingman� strategy was born.
Admiral Nimitz was given command of the pacific after the Pearl Harbor debacle. An even keeled man who never raised his voice but commanded with calm confidence.
Roosevelt and Churchill became buddies through a Churchill visit to America. They spent many a late nights drinking and chatting.
Admiral Spruance the fleet commander at the time of the Midway battle. A cerebral man know for his knowledge of war at sea. He walked the ships deck to keep in shape, ease anxiety, and get to know his men.
The story concludes with a significant description of the Midway battle. Again this flowed well without getting too detailed in any one event of the battle.
Overall an enjoyable read that was much about the events as it was about the commanders/people who were involved in them.

]]> A Better World 176443112 The author of Good Neighbors, “one of the creepiest, most unnerving deconstructions of American suburbia I’ve ever read,� (NPR), returns with a cunning, out-of-the-box satirical thriller about a family’s odyssey into an exclusive enclave for the wealthy that might not be as ideal as it seems.

You’ll be safe here. That’s what the greasy tour guide tells the Farmer-Bowens when they visit Plymouth Valley, a walled-off company town with clean air, pantries that never go empty, and blue-ribbon schools. On a very trial basis, the company offers to hire Linda Farmer’s husband, a numbers genius, and relocate her whole family to this bucolic paradise for the .0001%. Though Linda will have to sacrifice her medical career back home, the family jumps at the opportunity. They’d be crazy not to take it. With the outside world literally falling apart, this might be the Farmer-Bowens last chance.

But fitting in takes work. The pampered locals distrust outsiders, cruelly snubbing Linda, Russell, and their teen twins. And the residents fervently adhere to a group of customs and beliefs called Hollow . . . but what exactly is Hollow?

It’s Linda who brokers acceptance by volunteering her medical skills to the most powerful people in town with their pet charity, ActHollow. In the months afterward, everything seems fine. Sure, Russell starts hyperventilating through a paper bag in the middle of the night, and the kids have drifted like bridgeless islands, but living here’s worth sacrificing their family’s closeness, isn’t it? At least they’ll survive. The trouble is, the locals never say what they think. They seem scared. And Hollow’s ominous culminating event, the Plymouth Valley Winter Festival, is coming.

Linda’s warned by her husband and her powerful new friends to stop asking questions. But the more she learns, the more frightened she becomes. Should the Farmer-Bowens be fighting to stay, or fighting to get out?

Sarah Langan’s latest novel A Better World is gleefully ruthless in its dissection of wealth, power, and privilege, timely in its depiction of a self-destructing world—and it is a prescient warning to us all.

Sarah Langan, a Columbia MFA graduate and three-time recipient of the Bram Stoker Award, is the author of several novels including A Better World and Good Neighbors. She grew up on Long Island and she currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband and daughters.]]> 368 Sarah Langan 1982191066 Rich 0 to-read 3.58 2024 A Better World
author: Sarah Langan
name: Rich
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Convenience Store Woman 36739755 Convenience Store Woman is the heartwarming and surprising story of thirty-six-year-old Tokyo resident Keiko Furukura.

Keiko has never fit in, neither in her family, nor in school, but when at the age of eighteen she begins working at the Hiiromachi branch of “Smile Mart,� she finds peace and purpose in her life. In the store, unlike anywhere else, she understands the rules of social interaction―many are laid out line by line in the store’s manual―and she does her best to copy the dress, mannerisms, and speech of her colleagues, playing the part of a “normal� person excellently, more or less. Keiko is very happy, but the people close to her, from her family to her coworkers, increasingly pressure her to find a husband, and to start a proper career, prompting her to take desperate action�

A brilliant depiction of a world hidden from view, Convenience Store Woman is an ironic and sharp-eyed look at contemporary work culture and the pressures we all feel to conform, as well as a charming and completely fresh portrait of an unforgettable heroine.]]> 163 Sayaka Murata 0802128254 Rich 0 to-read 3.65 2016 Convenience Store Woman
author: Sayaka Murata
name: Rich
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Shanghai Girls (Shanghai Girls, #1)]]> 5960325
In 1937, Shanghai is the Paris of Asia, a city of great wealth and glamour, the home of millionaires and beggars, gangsters and gamblers, patriots and revolutionaries, artists and warlords. Thanks to the financial security and material comforts provided by their father’s prosperous rickshaw business, twenty-one-year-old Pearl Chin and her younger sister, May, are having the time of their lives. Though both sisters wave off authority and tradition, they couldn’t be more different: Pearl is a Dragon sign, strong and stubborn, while May is a true Sheep, adorable and placid. Both are beautiful, modern, and carefree . . . until the day their father tells them that he has gambled away their wealth and that in order to repay his debts he must sell the girls as wives to suitors who have traveled from California to find Chinese brides.

As Japanese bombs fall on their beloved city, Pearl and May set out on the journey of a lifetime, one that will take them through the Chinese countryside, in and out of the clutch of brutal soldiers, and across the Pacific to the shores of America. In Los Angeles they begin a fresh chapter, trying to find love with the strangers they have married, brushing against the seduction of Hollywood, and striving to embrace American life even as they fight against discrimination, brave Communist witch hunts, and find themselves hemmed in by Chinatown’s old ways and rules.]]> 309 Lisa See 1400067111 Rich 4 2024
A very enjoyable story of 2 sisters living in Shanghai then moving to California.
The sisters ( May and Pearl) were living a very easy, happy life in Shanghai when Japan begins it invasion of China. The father loses in gambling and he is forced to sell his daughters to pay off his debts. The daughters are sold to a man who is getting wives for his Chinese sons in America.
Much of the story centers around Chinese people trying to become American citizens.
As expected there are many hardships of the sisters making there way to America and living in America. Their forced marriages are not ideal. Then Chinese were under intense scrutiny of being communists during the Macarthy Red Scare era.
There are good times to go with bad. I learned some interesting things around the Chinese culture with customs and traditions. I spent some time looking up info about the Chinese lunar calendar and new year. I was happy with my birth year animal of a horse.
Happy Year of the Dragon 2024...
]]> 3.91 2009 Shanghai Girls (Shanghai Girls, #1)
author: Lisa See
name: Rich
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/07
date added: 2024/02/07
shelves: 2024
review:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4.5 rounded down.

A very enjoyable story of 2 sisters living in Shanghai then moving to California.
The sisters ( May and Pearl) were living a very easy, happy life in Shanghai when Japan begins it invasion of China. The father loses in gambling and he is forced to sell his daughters to pay off his debts. The daughters are sold to a man who is getting wives for his Chinese sons in America.
Much of the story centers around Chinese people trying to become American citizens.
As expected there are many hardships of the sisters making there way to America and living in America. Their forced marriages are not ideal. Then Chinese were under intense scrutiny of being communists during the Macarthy Red Scare era.
There are good times to go with bad. I learned some interesting things around the Chinese culture with customs and traditions. I spent some time looking up info about the Chinese lunar calendar and new year. I was happy with my birth year animal of a horse.
Happy Year of the Dragon 2024...

]]> Good Bad Girl 83668030 Sometimes bad things happen to good people, so good people have to do bad things. Alice Feeney, returns with another thrilling mystery filled with drama and her trademark surprises.

Twenty years after a baby is stolen from a stroller, a woman is murdered in a care home. The two crimes are somehow linked, and a good bad girl may be the key to discovering the truth.

Edith may have been tricked into a nursing home, but at eighty-years-young, she’s planning her escape. Patience works there, cleaning messes and bonding with Edith, a kindred spirit. But Patience is lying to Edith about almost everything.

Edith’s own daughter, Clio, won’t speak to her. And someone new is about to knock on Clio’s door…and their intentions aren’t good.

With every reason to distrust each other, the women must solve a mystery with three suspects, two murders, and one victim. If they do, they might just find out what happened to the baby who disappeared, the mother who lost her, and the connections that bind them.

In the style of Daisy Darker and Rock Paper Scissors, Good Bad Girl is a thriller in which nobody can be trusted and the twists come fast and furious.]]> 306 Alice Feeney 1250843960 Rich 3 2024, buddy-reads An intriguing mystery book of “who is who�. The storyline jumps around through time, events happen that are slowly revealed as to why they happened. The past and present of the characters are somehow connected and the story keeps you guessing as to how...
Having said that, all the jumping around timelines and mixing of POV characters was at times confusing to me. Remembering who did what and the details of characters was challenging.
I was intrigued throughout but I wouldn’t call this a page turner. The characters were just ok to me.
The main themes of the story included mothers and daughters, the baby blues (which I didn’t know was a thing until my wife had it), and superstition around numbers ( learned number 4 is a bad omen to the Chinese).
A solid 3 stars overall.]]> 3.62 2023 Good Bad Girl
author: Alice Feeney
name: Rich
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/05
date added: 2024/02/05
shelves: 2024, buddy-reads
review:
⭐️⭐️⭐️
An intriguing mystery book of “who is who�. The storyline jumps around through time, events happen that are slowly revealed as to why they happened. The past and present of the characters are somehow connected and the story keeps you guessing as to how...
Having said that, all the jumping around timelines and mixing of POV characters was at times confusing to me. Remembering who did what and the details of characters was challenging.
I was intrigued throughout but I wouldn’t call this a page turner. The characters were just ok to me.
The main themes of the story included mothers and daughters, the baby blues (which I didn’t know was a thing until my wife had it), and superstition around numbers ( learned number 4 is a bad omen to the Chinese).
A solid 3 stars overall.
]]> The Fox Wife 204585013 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 ’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.]]> Yangsze Choo 1250329515 Rich 0 to-read 3.90 2024 The Fox Wife
author: Yangsze Choo
name: Rich
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> First Lie Wins 164444179 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780593492918.

Evie Porter has everything a nice Southern girl could want: a doting boyfriend, a house with a white picket fence, a tight group of friends. The only catch: Evie Porter doesn’t exist.

The identity comes first: Evie Porter. Once she’s given a name and location by her mysterious boss, Mr. Smith, she learns everything there is to know about the town and the people in it. Then the mark: Ryan Sumner. The last piece of the puzzle is the job.

Evie isn’t privy to Mr. Smith’s real identity, but she knows this job isn’t like the others. Ryan has gotten under her skin, and she’s starting to envision a different sort of life for herself. But Evie ’t make any mistakes—especially after what happened last time.

Evie Porter must stay one step ahead of her past while making sure there’s still a future in front of her. The stakes couldn’t be higher—but then, Evie has always liked a challenge. . . .]]> 340 Ashley Elston Rich 0 to-read 3.97 2024 First Lie Wins
author: Ashley Elston
name: Rich
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Riot Baby 43719523
Rooted in the hope that can live in anger, Riot Baby is as much an intimate family story as a global dystopian narrative. It burns fearlessly toward revolution and has quietly devastating things to say about love, fury, and the black American experience.

Ella and Kev are both shockingly human and immeasurably powerful. Their childhoods are defined and destroyed by racism. Their futures might alter the world.]]> 167 Tochi Onyebuchi 1250214769 Rich 0 to-read 3.72 2020 Riot Baby
author: Tochi Onyebuchi
name: Rich
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Little Fires Everywhere 34273236
In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is meticulously planned � from the layout of the winding roads, to the colours of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.

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

When old family friends attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town � and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at an unexpected and devastating cost . . .]]> 338 Celeste Ng 0735224293 Rich 5 2023, favorites
The story was very good but it was the many characters that made this one. There were a handful of fully developed characters that were fun to read about.
The many characters gives the story a fresh feeling as each character gives his/her POV.
The focus is on two very different families. One Mia( Mom)and Pearl (Daughter). They travel from place to just getting by with Mia creating Art as her main profession but doing odd jobs for money to survive.
The other family ( Richardson’s) is a large “perfect� 50’s family with Dad, Mom, Star Athelete son, two beautiful daughters, and a smart son. They have huge house in an idyllic neighborhood.
Some how these two families become deeply intertwined.
Then a legal case pops up that ends up riping them all apart. It’s a case with huge drama, involving the custody of a baby. Both families have deep ties to opposing sides.
A very compelling read that kept my attention all the way through.]]> 4.05 2017 Little Fires Everywhere
author: Celeste Ng
name: Rich
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2023/03/30
date added: 2024/01/14
shelves: 2023, favorites
review:
5 big ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

The story was very good but it was the many characters that made this one. There were a handful of fully developed characters that were fun to read about.
The many characters gives the story a fresh feeling as each character gives his/her POV.
The focus is on two very different families. One Mia( Mom)and Pearl (Daughter). They travel from place to just getting by with Mia creating Art as her main profession but doing odd jobs for money to survive.
The other family ( Richardson’s) is a large “perfect� 50’s family with Dad, Mom, Star Athelete son, two beautiful daughters, and a smart son. They have huge house in an idyllic neighborhood.
Some how these two families become deeply intertwined.
Then a legal case pops up that ends up riping them all apart. It’s a case with huge drama, involving the custody of a baby. Both families have deep ties to opposing sides.
A very compelling read that kept my attention all the way through.
]]> <![CDATA[Be the Ball: A Golf Instruction Book for the Mind]]> 8015787 212 Charlie Jones 1567316662 Rich 3 2024 The title of this is kind of misleading. It’s more of book of mental thoughts than an instruction book. In fact there is no instructions at all, only advice from professionals and famous golfers.
Each page contains thoughts or advice from a golfer. There is no discussion or prose concerning this advice. It is essentially a book of quotes.
Which isn’t all bad since golf is largely a mental game. If any of these mental thoughts can support you during a round of golf it is worth the time to read. All of which you don’t really know until your out on the course in need of support. You never know what is gonna work for you so the book gets a positive 3 stars rating from me, not quite.....fore!!!!]]> 3.71 2000 Be the Ball: A Golf Instruction Book for the Mind
author: Charlie Jones
name: Rich
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/06
date added: 2024/01/06
shelves: 2024
review:
⭐️⭐️⭐️
The title of this is kind of misleading. It’s more of book of mental thoughts than an instruction book. In fact there is no instructions at all, only advice from professionals and famous golfers.
Each page contains thoughts or advice from a golfer. There is no discussion or prose concerning this advice. It is essentially a book of quotes.
Which isn’t all bad since golf is largely a mental game. If any of these mental thoughts can support you during a round of golf it is worth the time to read. All of which you don’t really know until your out on the course in need of support. You never know what is gonna work for you so the book gets a positive 3 stars rating from me, not quite.....fore!!!!
]]> <![CDATA[Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life / The Little Book of Lykke / Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living]]> 40534545 3 Books Collection Set:

Ikigai: The Japanese secret to a long and happy life

The people of Japan believe that everyone has an ikigai � a reason to jump out of bed each morning. And according to the residents of the Japanese island of Okinawa � the world’s longest-living people � finding it is the key to a longer and more fulfilled life. Inspiring and comforting, this book will give you the life-changing tools to uncover your personal ikigai. It will show you how to leave urgency behind, find your purpose, nurture friendships and throw yourself into your passions.

The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well

The Danish word hygge is one of those beautiful words that doesn't directly translate into English, but it more or less means comfort, warmth or togetherness. Hygge is the feeling you get when you are cuddled up on a sofa with a loved one, in warm knitted socks, in front of the fire, when it is dark, cold and stormy outside. It that feeling when you are sharing good, comfort food with your closest friends, by candle light and exchanging easy conversation. It is those cold, crisp blue sky mornings when the light through your window is just right.

Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living

Step aside Hygge. Lagom is the new Scandi lifestyle trend taking the world by storm. This delightfully illustrated book gives you the lowdown on this transformative approach to life and examines how the lagom ethos has helped boost Sweden to the No.10 ranking in 2017's World Happiness Report. Lagom (pronounced 'lah-gom') has no equivalent in the English language but is loosely translated as 'not too little, not too much, just right'. It is widely believed that the word comes from the Viking term 'laget om', for when a mug of mead was passed around a circle and there was just enough for everyone to get a sip.]]> Héctor García 9123672609 Rich 5 2024 I only read the first of the three titles listed. Strangely I can only locate the group of books listed together for amazon. The Japanese Secret to a long and happy life is a full book at 200 pages.long. I was not expecting such an engaging book, I was expecting more of a self help dry list of how to do it. Instead this book talked more about what people did in their lives, and gave a more overall picture rather than a case study feel.
It did have helpful and interesting information, such as there is no word for retirement in Japan. People just keep doing things it seems. These people in Japan generally have an ikigai that keeps them young. I don’t want to try and explain it but essentially makes for a passion in life, and living in a way that benefits are a long life.]]> 3.85 2018 Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life / The Little Book of Lykke / Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living
author: Héctor García
name: Rich
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/03
date added: 2024/01/03
shelves: 2024
review:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5 stars.
I only read the first of the three titles listed. Strangely I can only locate the group of books listed together for amazon. The Japanese Secret to a long and happy life is a full book at 200 pages.long. I was not expecting such an engaging book, I was expecting more of a self help dry list of how to do it. Instead this book talked more about what people did in their lives, and gave a more overall picture rather than a case study feel.
It did have helpful and interesting information, such as there is no word for retirement in Japan. People just keep doing things it seems. These people in Japan generally have an ikigai that keeps them young. I don’t want to try and explain it but essentially makes for a passion in life, and living in a way that benefits are a long life.
]]> Violets 49092634
We next meet San, aged twenty-two, as she starts a job in a flower shop. There, we are introduced to a colourful cast of characters, including the shop's mute owner, the other florist Su-ae, and the customers that include a sexually aggressive businessman and a photographer, who San develops an obsession for. Throughout, San's moment with Namae lingers in the back of her mind.

A story of desire and violence about a young woman who everyone forgot, VIOLETS is a captivating and sensual read, full of tragedy and beauty.]]> 218 Kyung-Sook Shin 1558612904 Rich 5 2023 This was my first South Korean authored book. I found the writing very fluid and mostly soothing.
The story follows a young girl (San) who has some emotional issues from being left by mother alone in high school and then being hurt by her best friend. She becomes emotionally fragile. These are my thoughts, I maybe wrong about that but the book leaves many events up for consideration. That is one of the more interesting things about the book is it makes you a consider past experiences forever shaping your actions.
San moves from her village to large City. She ’t find a job in what she wants to do, so she settles for a flower shop clerk job. The flower shop turns out to be rather therapeutic for her and she begins to have a stable life with a maybe a nice future. But when someone disturbs her normal routine she turns out not ready to handle it.
So a rollercoaster ride of good and bad. A lot of what I’ve seen written about the book talks about a loneliness vibe. I really didn’t think it was the main emotion I felt while reading this but again this story I feel can be seen in many different ways.
]]> 3.58 2001 Violets
author: Kyung-Sook Shin
name: Rich
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/26
date added: 2023/12/26
shelves: 2023
review:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⭐️
This was my first South Korean authored book. I found the writing very fluid and mostly soothing.
The story follows a young girl (San) who has some emotional issues from being left by mother alone in high school and then being hurt by her best friend. She becomes emotionally fragile. These are my thoughts, I maybe wrong about that but the book leaves many events up for consideration. That is one of the more interesting things about the book is it makes you a consider past experiences forever shaping your actions.
San moves from her village to large City. She ’t find a job in what she wants to do, so she settles for a flower shop clerk job. The flower shop turns out to be rather therapeutic for her and she begins to have a stable life with a maybe a nice future. But when someone disturbs her normal routine she turns out not ready to handle it.
So a rollercoaster ride of good and bad. A lot of what I’ve seen written about the book talks about a loneliness vibe. I really didn’t think it was the main emotion I felt while reading this but again this story I feel can be seen in many different ways.

]]> <![CDATA[Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway]]> 34658
Parshall and Tullyexamine the battle in detail and effortlessly place it within the context of the Imperial Navy’s doctrine and technology. With a foreword by leading World War II naval historian John Lundstrom, is an indispensable part of any military buff’s library.

is the winner of the 2005 John Lyman Book Award for the "Best Book in U.S. Naval History" and was cited by as one of its "Notable Naval Books" for 2005.]]> 612 Jonathan Parshall 1574889230 Rich 0 to-read 4.43 2005 Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway
author: Jonathan Parshall
name: Rich
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Her Every Fear 29938032
Soon after her arrival at Corbin’s grand apartment on Beacon Hill, Kate makes a shocking discovery: his next-door neighbor, a young woman named Audrey Marshall, has been murdered. When the police question her about Corbin, a shaken Kate has few answers, and many questions of her own—curiosity that intensifies when she meets Alan Cherney, a handsome, quiet tenant who lives across the courtyard, in the apartment facing Audrey’s. Alan saw Corbin surreptitiously come and go from Audrey’s place, yet he’s denied knowing her. Then, Kate runs into a tearful man claiming to be the dead woman’s old boyfriend, who insists Corbin did the deed the night that he left for London.

When she reaches out to her cousin, he proclaims his innocence and calms her nerves--until she comes across disturbing objects hidden in the apartment and accidentally learns that Corbin is not where he says he is. Could Corbin be a killer? What about Alan? Kate finds herself drawn to this appealing man who seems so sincere, yet she isn’t sure. Jet-lagged and emotionally unstable, her imagination full of dark images caused by the terror of her past, Kate can barely trust herself, so how could she take the chance on a stranger she’s just met?]]> 384 Peter Swanson 0062427040 Rich 3 2023 My resolve in Peter Swanson as a master of the thriller is turning questionable. This is a second book in row of his that turned out to be just so-so.
[spoilers removed]]]> 3.75 2017 Her Every Fear
author: Peter Swanson
name: Rich
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/10
date added: 2023/12/10
shelves: 2023
review:
⭐️⭐️⭐️.
My resolve in Peter Swanson as a master of the thriller is turning questionable. This is a second book in row of his that turned out to be just so-so.
[spoilers removed]
]]> Faking Christmas 200418110
That's all it took. Now I'm suddenly having to fake-date my work nemesis to get me through a week at a Vermont Christmas lodge with my family.

The problem? I can't stand Miles Taylor. Not only that, but I don't date people I work with. But I can handle it. I've had practice faking my emotions for years. So it shouldn't matter that Miles never lets me get away with anything. And that he happens to boil my blood hotter than a steaming pot of wassail. So when he throws his annoying grin my way or forces me on dates he knows I'll hate, I'll just grit my teeth and smile.

Or maybe not. Did I mention that Miles is the one person in the world I can't seem to fool?

When my emotions begin feeling less like a sham and his arms feel way too comfortable, it makes me think that maybe Miles had a plan of his own. And I'm starting to like it a lot more than mine.

� Faking Christmas is a sweet, closed door romance full of sizzle, witty banter, and chemistry, but without explicit content.]]> Cindy Steel Rich 0 to-read 4.01 2022 Faking Christmas
author: Cindy Steel
name: Rich
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Holiday Romance (Fitzpatrick Christmas, #1)]]> 61401417 She’s meant to be catching flights, not catching feelings�

Molly and Andrew are just trying to get home to Ireland for the holidays, when a freak snowstorm grounds their flight.

Nothing romantic has ever happened between them: they’re friends and that’s all. But once a year, for the last ten years, Molly has spent seven hours and fifteen minutes sitting next to Andrew on the last flight before Christmas from Chicago to Dublin, drinking terrible airplane wine and catching up on each other’s lives. In spite of all the ways the two friends are different, it’s the holiday tradition neither of them has ever wanted to give up.

Molly isn’t that bothered by Christmas, but—in yet another way they’re total opposites—Andrew is a full-on fanatic for the festive season and she knows how much getting back to Ireland means to him. So, instead of doing the sane thing and just celebrating the holidays together in America, she does the stupid thing. The irrational thing. She vows to get him home. And in time for his mam’s famous Christmas dinner.

The clock is ticking. But Molly always has a plan. And—as long as the highly-specific combination of taxis, planes, boats, and trains all run on time—it ’t possibly go wrong.

What she doesn’t know is that, as the snow falls over the city and over the heads of two friends who are sure they’re not meant to be together, the universe might just have a plan of its own�

A totally gorgeous and escapist friends-to-lovers festive romance with a swoon-worthy hero. Perfect for fans of Sophie Kinsella, Mhairi Macfarlane, and Christina Lauren.]]> 354 Catherine Walsh 1803145455 Rich 4 2023, buddy-reads
An enjoyable read especially around the holidays, brought back the good memories I have of Christmas with family and friends.
This was a buddy read with Jenny that I enjoyed doing as well.
A good part of the story is one of getting home for the holidays, not unlike Home Alone ( a true untouchable classic for me).
Andrew and Molly have been sharing a Christmas time flight home for years ( Chicago to Ireland). So once a year they catch up and enjoy each other. Along with a few text messages through the year. The friendship to more than friends has been brewing for many years. And this year things look to change for them.
A storm has them traveling around the world to get home and spending some quality time together. And since it’s Christmas a seemingly innocent mistletoe kiss is the spark they needed to get the romance percolating.
A fun, nicely paced , and seasonal read that I can recommend to anyone who wants to get the holiday off to a good start...]]> 4.01 2022 Holiday Romance (Fitzpatrick Christmas, #1)
author: Catherine Walsh
name: Rich
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/02
date added: 2023/12/02
shelves: 2023, buddy-reads
review:
3.5 rounded up to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

An enjoyable read especially around the holidays, brought back the good memories I have of Christmas with family and friends.
This was a buddy read with Jenny that I enjoyed doing as well.
A good part of the story is one of getting home for the holidays, not unlike Home Alone ( a true untouchable classic for me).
Andrew and Molly have been sharing a Christmas time flight home for years ( Chicago to Ireland). So once a year they catch up and enjoy each other. Along with a few text messages through the year. The friendship to more than friends has been brewing for many years. And this year things look to change for them.
A storm has them traveling around the world to get home and spending some quality time together. And since it’s Christmas a seemingly innocent mistletoe kiss is the spark they needed to get the romance percolating.
A fun, nicely paced , and seasonal read that I can recommend to anyone who wants to get the holiday off to a good start...
]]> <![CDATA[Mighty Fitz: The Sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald (Fesler-Lampert Minnesota Heritage Book)]]> 13795384 256 Michael Schumacher 0816680817 Rich 0 to-read 4.19 2005 Mighty Fitz: The Sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald (Fesler-Lampert Minnesota Heritage Book)
author: Michael Schumacher
name: Rich
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Four Seasons in Japan 62698533
It is a story about Ayako, a fierce and strict old woman who runs a coffee shop in the small town of Onomichi, where she has just taken guardianship of her grandson, Kyo. Haunted by long-buried family tragedy, both have suffered extreme loss and feel unable to open up to each other. As Flo follows the characters across a year in rural Japan, through the ups and downs of the pair's burgeoning relationship, she quickly realises that she needs to venture outside the pages of the book to track down its elusive author. And, as her two protagonists reveal themselves to have more in common with her life than first meets the eye, the lines between text and translator converge. The journey is just beginning.

From the author of The Cat and The City, Four Seasons in Japan is a gorgeously crafted book-within-a-book about literature, purpose and what it is to belong.]]> 336 Nick Bradley 0857529358 Rich 0 to-read 4.29 2023 Four Seasons in Japan
author: Nick Bradley
name: Rich
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Nightingale 21853621 In love we find out who we want to be.
In war we find out who we are.

FRANCE, 1939

In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says good-bye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn’t believe that the Nazis will invade France…but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent. When a German captain requisitions Vianne’s home, she and her daughter must live with the enemy or lose everything. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates all around them, she is forced to make one impossible choice after another to keep her family alive.

Vianne’s sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old, searching for purpose with all the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians march into the unknown terrors of war, she meets Gaëtan, a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and she falls in love as only the young can…completely. But when he betrays her, Isabelle joins the Resistance and never looks back, risking her life time and again to save others.]]> 564 Kristin Hannah 0312577222 Rich 5
I have not read a book about war times in awhile, it was a reminder of how cruel people can be to each other. Also, how incredibly selfless, strong, and kind people can be. The book takes you on an engrossing emotional ride, I truly enjoyed.

The story follows the lives of two sisters as they live through the Nazi occupation of France. It shows what life would look like if you lived through a wartime occupation of your country, town, and home. It was really well written and made you feel what the sisters were going through, how each one survived and fought back in their own way. The story had a real life feel to it, and moved along at a nice pace.

Things start out with a harsh reality of war. A town full of people fleeing their homes to an approaching army. An enemy airplane flies by overhead, then comes back and begins to machine gun bullets into the herd of women and children, repeating back and forth without mercy.

You feel the war told the sisters eyes. A regiment of German soldiers moves into town taking control of the government, businesses, and food supply. A soldier starts living in your home, takes over your bedroom, eats well each day while you nearly starve. The Nazis in general were not shown to be friendly people, cunningly cruel, smug, and evil as you can be especially to the Jewish people.

Given all this, the book had an uplifting side to it. Each sister having her own individual victories small and large, surviving each day, and fighting back against the Nazis. Helping other people was when they were at their best, which was really hard and brave given their circumstances. So in the end, this was a heart felt story of relationships and survival in difficult times.]]> 4.63 2015 The Nightingale
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Rich
average rating: 4.63
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2019/01/19
date added: 2023/11/06
shelves:
review:
5 Stars. Lived up to its reputation.

I have not read a book about war times in awhile, it was a reminder of how cruel people can be to each other. Also, how incredibly selfless, strong, and kind people can be. The book takes you on an engrossing emotional ride, I truly enjoyed.

The story follows the lives of two sisters as they live through the Nazi occupation of France. It shows what life would look like if you lived through a wartime occupation of your country, town, and home. It was really well written and made you feel what the sisters were going through, how each one survived and fought back in their own way. The story had a real life feel to it, and moved along at a nice pace.

Things start out with a harsh reality of war. A town full of people fleeing their homes to an approaching army. An enemy airplane flies by overhead, then comes back and begins to machine gun bullets into the herd of women and children, repeating back and forth without mercy.

You feel the war told the sisters eyes. A regiment of German soldiers moves into town taking control of the government, businesses, and food supply. A soldier starts living in your home, takes over your bedroom, eats well each day while you nearly starve. The Nazis in general were not shown to be friendly people, cunningly cruel, smug, and evil as you can be especially to the Jewish people.

Given all this, the book had an uplifting side to it. Each sister having her own individual victories small and large, surviving each day, and fighting back against the Nazis. Helping other people was when they were at their best, which was really hard and brave given their circumstances. So in the end, this was a heart felt story of relationships and survival in difficult times.
]]> Great Circle 54976986 An alternate cover edition for ISBN 9780525656975 can be found here.

Spanning Prohibition-era Montana, the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, New Zealand, wartime London, and modern-day Los Angeles, Great Circle tells the unforgettable story of a daredevil female aviator determined to chart her own course in life, at any cost.

After being rescued as infants from a sinking ocean liner in 1914, Marian and Jamie Graves are raised by their dissolute uncle in Missoula, Montana. There—after encountering a pair of barnstorming pilots passing through town in beat-up biplanes—Marian commences her lifelong love affair with flight. At fourteen she drops out of school and finds an unexpected and dangerous patron in a wealthy bootlegger who provides a plane and subsidizes her lessons, an arrangement that will haunt her for the rest of her life, even as it allows her to fulfill her destiny: circumnavigating the globe by flying over the North and South Poles.

A century later, Hadley Baxter is cast to play Marian in a film that centers on Marian's disappearance in Antarctica. Vibrant, canny, disgusted with the claustrophobia of Hollywood, Hadley is eager to redefine herself after a romantic film franchise has imprisoned her in the grip of cult celebrity. Her immersion into the character of Marian unfolds, thrillingly, alongside Marian's own story, as the two women's fates—and their hunger for self-determination in vastly different geographies and times—collide. Epic and emotional, meticulously researched and gloriously told, Great Circle is a monumental work of art, and a tremendous leap forward for the prodigiously gifted Maggie Shipstead.]]> 608 Maggie Shipstead Rich 4 2023
A good and entertaining read. A long book at 650 pages, but the pace was pretty good.

The is a fictional story that reads like a historical fiction. It was about a woman, Marion Graves, who learns to fly and want to fly around world through the poles. It takes place circa 1900-1950.
There is a parallel story with an actress who is gonna play her in a movie at the present time(2000’s)
The book covers a lot: her parents, her childhood, her marriage, her love and her drive to fly airplanes, her brothers life, her first love, her involvement with WW II, her next love, and then finally her flight around the world.
There are very good parts and there are just some ok parts which is how I end up at four stars.
I would have wished for more story about the flight around the world which only covers the last 60 pages.
I also liked the present day actress story which fizzled out for the second half of the book.
Overall a good read that has some really good and griping sections.]]> 4.06 2021 Great Circle
author: Maggie Shipstead
name: Rich
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/05
date added: 2023/11/05
shelves: 2023
review:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3.5 stars rounded up.

A good and entertaining read. A long book at 650 pages, but the pace was pretty good.

The is a fictional story that reads like a historical fiction. It was about a woman, Marion Graves, who learns to fly and want to fly around world through the poles. It takes place circa 1900-1950.
There is a parallel story with an actress who is gonna play her in a movie at the present time(2000’s)
The book covers a lot: her parents, her childhood, her marriage, her love and her drive to fly airplanes, her brothers life, her first love, her involvement with WW II, her next love, and then finally her flight around the world.
There are very good parts and there are just some ok parts which is how I end up at four stars.
I would have wished for more story about the flight around the world which only covers the last 60 pages.
I also liked the present day actress story which fizzled out for the second half of the book.
Overall a good read that has some really good and griping sections.
]]> Belladonna (Belladonna, #1) 59227936
Orphaned as a baby, nineteen-year-old Signa has been raised by a string of guardians, each one more interested in her wealth than her well-being—and each has met an untimely end. Her remaining relatives are the elusive Hawthornes, an eccentric family living at Thorn Grove, an estate both glittering and gloomy. Its patriarch mourns his late wife through wild parties, while his son grapples for control of the family’s waning reputation, and his daughter suffers from a mysterious illness. But when their mother’s restless spirit appears claiming she was poisoned, Signa realizes that the family she depends on could be in grave danger and enlists the help of a surly stable boy to hunt down the killer.

However, Signa’s best chance of uncovering the murderer is an alliance with Death himself, a fascinating, dangerous shadow who has never been far from her side. Though he’s made her life a living hell, Death shows Signa that their growing connection may be more powerful—and more irresistible—than she ever dared imagine.]]> 409 Adalyn Grace 0316158232 Rich 0 to-read 3.97 2022 Belladonna (Belladonna, #1)
author: Adalyn Grace
name: Rich
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Earth Is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West]]> 28814679 A magisterial, essential history of the struggle between whites and Native Americans over the fate of the West.

After the Civil War, the United States turned its attention to conquering the Great Plains and the lands beyond. The expansion of the country and discoveries of gold drew whites to territory traditionally claimed by Indians. The Indian Wars would last more than three decades, permanently altering the physical and political landscape of America.
The Earth Is Weeping is a sweeping, definitive history of the battles and negotiations that destroyed the Indian way of life even as they paved the way for the emergence of the United States we know today. Dramatically relating bloody and tragic events as varied as Wounded Knee, the Nez Perce War, the Sierra Madre campaign, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
As the action moves from the great Plains to Texas desert to the sheer cliffs of the Rockies and Sierra Madre, we encounter a pageant of fascinating characters including Custer, Sherman, Grant, and a host of officers, soldiers and indian agents, as well as great native leaders such as Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Geronimo, and Red Cloud and the warriors they led. The Earth Is Weeping brings them all together for the first time in the fullest account to date of how the West was won—and lost.

]]> 544 Peter Cozzens 0307958043 Rich 0 to-read 4.27 2016 The Earth Is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West
author: Peter Cozzens
name: Rich
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Kind Worth Saving (Henry Kimball/Lily Kintner, #2)]]> 60916172 In this spectacularly devious novel by New York Times bestselling author Peter Swanson—featuring the smart and complex Lily Kintner from his acclaimed novel, The Kind Worth Killing—a private eye starts to follow a possibly adulterous husband, but little does he know that the twisted trail will lead back to the woman who hired him.

There was always something slightly dangerous about Joan. So, when she turns up at private investigator Henry Kimball’s office asking him to investigate her husband, he ’t help feeling ill at ease. Just the sight of her stirs up a chilling memory: he knew Joan in his previous life as a high school English teacher, when he was at the center of a tragedy.

Now Joan needs his help in proving that her husband is cheating. But what should be a simple case of infidelity becomes much more complicated when Kimball finds two bodies in an uninhabited suburban home with a “for sale� sign out front. Suddenly it feels like the past is repeating itself, and Henry must go back to one of the worst days of his life to uncover the truth.

Is it possible that Joan knows something about that day, something she’s hidden all these years? Could there still be a killer out there, someone who believes they have gotten away with murder? Henry is determined to find out, but as he steps closer to the truth, a murderer is getting closer to him, and in this hair-raising game of cat and mouse only one of them will survive.]]> 303 Peter Swanson 0063204983 Rich 3 2023 Well this was a disappointment given how much I liked the � the kind worth killing �.
So this starts out pretty good. A girl, Joan the MC, who is bothered by a boy is is deserving of some bad treatment. Not the kind worth saving...Joan has plans for him.
The writing style and pace are good. Unfortunately the story line and characters are not up to the task.
The story brings back a few characters from the kind worth killing. The detective Kimball and Lily.
The new girl, Joan, doesn’t really have any endearing qualities or really nasty evil either. So it kinda leaves her at indifferent. The same can be said for her accomplice Richard.
Maybe it was just a tough comparison but I thought the overall story lacked suspense.
]]> 3.65 2023 The Kind Worth Saving (Henry Kimball/Lily Kintner, #2)
author: Peter Swanson
name: Rich
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/10
date added: 2023/09/10
shelves: 2023
review:
2.5 ⭐️ Rounded up. Since it’s Peter Swanson and I am a still a fan of his.
Well this was a disappointment given how much I liked the � the kind worth killing �.
So this starts out pretty good. A girl, Joan the MC, who is bothered by a boy is is deserving of some bad treatment. Not the kind worth saving...Joan has plans for him.
The writing style and pace are good. Unfortunately the story line and characters are not up to the task.
The story brings back a few characters from the kind worth killing. The detective Kimball and Lily.
The new girl, Joan, doesn’t really have any endearing qualities or really nasty evil either. So it kinda leaves her at indifferent. The same can be said for her accomplice Richard.
Maybe it was just a tough comparison but I thought the overall story lacked suspense.

]]> Luckiest Girl Alive 22609317
As a teenager at the prestigious Bradley School, Ani FaNelli endured a shocking, public humiliation that left her desperate to reinvent herself. Now, with a glamorous job, expensive wardrobe, and handsome blue blood fiancé, she’s this close to living the perfect life she’s worked so hard to achieve.

But Ani has a secret.

There’s something else buried in her past that still haunts her, something private and painful that threatens to bubble to the surface and destroy everything.

With a singular voice and twists you won’t see coming, Luckiest Girl Alive explores the unbearable pressure that so many women feel to “have it all� and introduces a heroine whose sharp edges and cutthroat ambition have been protecting a scandalous truth, and a heart that's bigger than it first appears.

The question remains: will breaking her silence destroy all that she has worked for—or, will it at long last, set Ani free?]]> 338 Jessica Knoll 1476789630 Rich 5 2023
This book covered some serious topics including [spoilers removed]. These were not the main reasons I enjoyed this book so much. I enjoyed largely because of the main character, TifAni. She was a strong, vulnerable. and very relatable person.
She moves to a new school and has to figure out how to fit in. This is a difficult thing new school or not. This part of the story brings back many good/hard memories of high school. Ani has insecurities of being good enough that drives her.
The writing is very good, showing Ani as a very intelligent person. The story moves between present and past beautifully.
In the present she has finally gotten everything she strived for, a wealthy fiancé who has a highly respected family. She has a top notch journalism job for a well known woman’s magazine. Are these things the right things to make her happy.
In the end Ani has to navigate very sticky situations and make some hard decisions. The story/writing had me drawn in, wrestling with these things right along with her.]]> 3.50 2015 Luckiest Girl Alive
author: Jessica Knoll
name: Rich
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2023/08/26
date added: 2023/08/26
shelves: 2023
review:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5 big ones...

This book covered some serious topics including [spoilers removed]. These were not the main reasons I enjoyed this book so much. I enjoyed largely because of the main character, TifAni. She was a strong, vulnerable. and very relatable person.
She moves to a new school and has to figure out how to fit in. This is a difficult thing new school or not. This part of the story brings back many good/hard memories of high school. Ani has insecurities of being good enough that drives her.
The writing is very good, showing Ani as a very intelligent person. The story moves between present and past beautifully.
In the present she has finally gotten everything she strived for, a wealthy fiancé who has a highly respected family. She has a top notch journalism job for a well known woman’s magazine. Are these things the right things to make her happy.
In the end Ani has to navigate very sticky situations and make some hard decisions. The story/writing had me drawn in, wrestling with these things right along with her.
]]> Everyone Here Is Lying 63138717 Welcome to Stanhope - a safe neighbourhood. A place for families.

William Wooler is a family man, on the surface. But he's been having an affair, an affair that ended horribly this afternoon at a motel up the road. So when he returns to his house, devastated and angry, to find his difficult nine-year-old daughter Avery unexpectedly home from school, William loses his temper.

Hours later, Avery's family declare her missing.

Suddenly Stanhope doesn't feel so safe. And William isn't the only one on his street who's hiding a lie. As witnesses come forward with information that may or may not be true, Avery's neighbours become increasingly unhinged.

Who took Avery Wooler?

Nothing will prepare you for the truth. ]]> 368 Shari Lapena 0593489942 Rich 0 to-read 3.96 2023 Everyone Here Is Lying
author: Shari Lapena
name: Rich
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Where the Lost Wander 51815479 In this epic and haunting love story set on the Oregon Trail, a family and their unlikely protector find their way through peril, uncertainty, and loss.



The Overland Trail, 1853: Naomi May never expected to be widowed at twenty. Eager to leave her grief behind, she sets off with her family for a life out West. On the trail, she forms an instant connection with John Lowry, a half-Pawnee man straddling two worlds and a stranger in both.

But life in a wagon train is fraught with hardship, fear, and death. Even as John and Naomi are drawn to each other, the trials of the journey and their disparate pasts work to keep them apart. John’s heritage gains them safe passage through hostile territory only to come between them as they seek to build a life together.

When a horrific tragedy strikes, decimating Naomi’s family and separating her from John, the promises they made are all they have left. Ripped apart, they ’t turn back, they ’t go on, and they ’t let go. Both will have to make terrible sacrifices to find each other, save each other, and eventually…make peace with who they are.]]> 349 Amy Harmon 1542017971 Rich 4 Not sure if hardship is a book genre but if it is I am a follower.
This story has its fair share of hardships as you might expect traveling across the country with not much help to get you there. A covered wagon, horses, mules, and oxen to care for. Sickness like Cholera taxing you. Finding Fresh water. Hostile Indians. Pregnancies on the trail.
Like most things in life with bad there is good. Helping each other when help is desperately needed, finding love, finding friends among people who you didn’t expect such as Indians on the trail.
This story reminds you that there is good and bad in every type of people, life is full of ups and downs, and the good times are a gift to be enjoyed.]]> 4.42 2020 Where the Lost Wander
author: Amy Harmon
name: Rich
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2020/10/17
date added: 2023/08/15
shelves:
review:
A very enjoyable story about traveling the Oregon trail.
Not sure if hardship is a book genre but if it is I am a follower.
This story has its fair share of hardships as you might expect traveling across the country with not much help to get you there. A covered wagon, horses, mules, and oxen to care for. Sickness like Cholera taxing you. Finding Fresh water. Hostile Indians. Pregnancies on the trail.
Like most things in life with bad there is good. Helping each other when help is desperately needed, finding love, finding friends among people who you didn’t expect such as Indians on the trail.
This story reminds you that there is good and bad in every type of people, life is full of ups and downs, and the good times are a gift to be enjoyed.
]]> The Keeper of Lost Things 30363088 A charming, clever, and quietly moving debut novel of of endless possibilities and joyful discoveries that explores the promises we make and break, losing and finding ourselves, the objects that hold magic and meaning for our lives, and the surprising connections that bind us.

Lime green plastic flower-shaped hair bobbles�Found, on the playing field, Derrywood Park, 2nd September.

Bone china cup and saucer�Found, on a bench in Riveria Public Gardens, 31st October.

Anthony Peardew is the keeper of lost things. Forty years ago, he carelessly lost a keepsake from his beloved fiancée, Therese. That very same day, she died unexpectedly. Brokenhearted, Anthony sought consolation in rescuing lost objects—the things others have dropped, misplaced, or accidentally left behind—and writing stories about them. Now, in the twilight of his life, Anthony worries that he has not fully discharged his duty to reconcile all the lost things with their owners. As the end nears, he bequeaths his secret life’s mission to his unsuspecting assistant, Laura, leaving her his house and all its lost treasures, including an irritable ghost.

Recovering from a bad divorce, Laura, in some ways, is one of Anthony’s lost things. But when the lonely woman moves into his mansion, her life begins to change. She finds a new friend in the neighbor’s quirky daughter, Sunshine, and a welcome distraction in Freddy, the rugged gardener. As the dark cloud engulfing her lifts, Laura, accompanied by her new companions, sets out to realize Anthony’s last wish: reuniting his cherished lost objects with their owners.

Long ago, Eunice found a trinket on the London pavement and kept it through the years. Now, with her own end drawing near, she has lost something precious—a tragic twist of fate that forces her to break a promise she once made.

As the Keeper of Lost Objects, Laura holds the key to Anthony and Eunice’s redemption. But can she unlock the past and make the connections that will lay their spirits to rest?

Full of character, wit, and wisdom, The Keeper of Lost Things is heartwarming tale that will enchant fans of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, Garden Spells, Mrs Queen Takes the Train, and The Silver Linings Playbook.]]> 288 Ruth Hogan Rich 3 2023
I jumped into this not knowing much about this one. After reading the first couple of chapters I was really enjoying everything about it. Intriguing storyline, good characters, nice writing flow. But......then things just bogged down for me.
The story mainly follows a woman Laura who is taking care of an elderly man at his house. More or less his nurse/ housekeeper. She had a bad marriage and didn’t many have choices after her divorce. When the elderly man passes away, she inherits the house as long as she agrees to return the many lost items that are stored in the house. Sounds like an interesting challenge. The story stays focused on only a few items which kinda disappointed my overall idea of what the story could have been.
The story jumps between characters, some of which I never really got to know well until the very end. It also jumps in timelines. These things mostly left me trying to figure out what is going on and who are these people.
The story does wrap up well in the end but the majority of the book left me waiting for the intriguing parts of the story to get going.
]]> 3.70 2017 The Keeper of Lost Things
author: Ruth Hogan
name: Rich
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2023/08/14
date added: 2023/08/14
shelves: 2023
review:
3.5 rounded down to ⭐️⭐️⭐️.

I jumped into this not knowing much about this one. After reading the first couple of chapters I was really enjoying everything about it. Intriguing storyline, good characters, nice writing flow. But......then things just bogged down for me.
The story mainly follows a woman Laura who is taking care of an elderly man at his house. More or less his nurse/ housekeeper. She had a bad marriage and didn’t many have choices after her divorce. When the elderly man passes away, she inherits the house as long as she agrees to return the many lost items that are stored in the house. Sounds like an interesting challenge. The story stays focused on only a few items which kinda disappointed my overall idea of what the story could have been.
The story jumps between characters, some of which I never really got to know well until the very end. It also jumps in timelines. These things mostly left me trying to figure out what is going on and who are these people.
The story does wrap up well in the end but the majority of the book left me waiting for the intriguing parts of the story to get going.

]]> Book Lovers 58690308 One summer. Two rivals. A plot twist they didn't see coming....

Nora Stephens� life is books—she’s read them all—and she is not that type of heroine. Not the plucky one, not the laidback dream girl, and especially not the sweetheart. In fact, the only people Nora is a heroine for are her clients, for whom she lands enormous deals as a cutthroat literary agent, and her beloved little sister Libby.

Which is why she agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August when Libby begs her for a sisters� trip away—with visions of a small-town transformation for Nora, who she’s convinced needs to become the heroine in her own story. But instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor from back in the city. It would be a meet-cute if not for the fact that they’ve met many times and it’s never been cute.

If Nora knows she’s not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he’s nobody’s hero, but as they are thrown together again and again—in a series of coincidences no editor worth their salt would allow—what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they’ve written about themselves.]]> 377 Emily Henry 0593334833 Rich 0 to-read 4.09 2022 Book Lovers
author: Emily Henry
name: Rich
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Island 58349776 It was just supposed to be a family vacation.
A terrible accident changed everything.
You don't know what you're capable of until they come for your family.

After moving from a small country town to Seattle, Heather Baxter marries Tom, a widowed doctor with a young son and teenage daughter. A working vacation overseas seems like the perfect way to bring the new family together, but once they’re deep in the Australian outback, the jet-lagged and exhausted kids are so over their new mom.

When they discover remote Dutch Island, off-limits to outside visitors, the family talks their way onto the ferry, taking a chance on an adventure far from the reach of iPhones and Instagram.

But as soon as they set foot on the island, which is run by a tightly knit clan of locals, everything feels wrong. Then a shocking accident propels the Baxters from an unsettling situation into an absolute nightmare.

When Heather and the kids are separated from Tom, they are forced to escape alone, seconds ahead of their pursuers.

Now it’s up to Heather to save herself and the kids, even though they don’t trust her, the harsh bushland is filled with danger, and the locals want her dead.

Heather has been underestimated her entire life, but she knows that only she can bring her family home again and become the mother the children desperately need, even if it means doing the unthinkable to keep them all alive.]]> 384 Adrian McKinty 0316531278 Rich 5 2023
A Seattle, WA family trip to Australia that goes terribly wrong. The family( wife and two kids) travels with Dad to a work conference. They decide to take the advice of some locals to travel to a nearby island to see Australian wildlife (teeming with koala bears).
Tom(Dad) is driving along when something jumps out in front of his car. An accident occurs that he decides to try and cover up. A dead girl he hides by the side of the road.
It turns out there is one family that runs the island and it is one of their family that has been killed. The family wants revenge ( blood for blood). Ma and her boys prove to be primitive and ruthless bunch. A definite Deliverance vibe.
Tom’s younger wife Heather is more resourceful than she looks and stands up to Ma and her clan of thugs.
There is another vacationing couple Hans and Petra who also are involved in the fight.
Many times it looks like the end (either good or bad) but something happens to keep things going.
The drama and suspense is good throughout. The story stays believable which makes for a real feel. A page turning adventure which is perfect for the vacation season. Ya might wanna think twice about those sight seeing tips from the locals ]]> 4.03 2022 The Island
author: Adrian McKinty
name: Rich
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/09
date added: 2023/07/10
shelves: 2023
review:
A very adventurous ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️!!!

A Seattle, WA family trip to Australia that goes terribly wrong. The family( wife and two kids) travels with Dad to a work conference. They decide to take the advice of some locals to travel to a nearby island to see Australian wildlife (teeming with koala bears).
Tom(Dad) is driving along when something jumps out in front of his car. An accident occurs that he decides to try and cover up. A dead girl he hides by the side of the road.
It turns out there is one family that runs the island and it is one of their family that has been killed. The family wants revenge ( blood for blood). Ma and her boys prove to be primitive and ruthless bunch. A definite Deliverance vibe.
Tom’s younger wife Heather is more resourceful than she looks and stands up to Ma and her clan of thugs.
There is another vacationing couple Hans and Petra who also are involved in the fight.
Many times it looks like the end (either good or bad) but something happens to keep things going.
The drama and suspense is good throughout. The story stays believable which makes for a real feel. A page turning adventure which is perfect for the vacation season. Ya might wanna think twice about those sight seeing tips from the locals
]]> Hotel Laguna 61885018
Unwilling to be forced into a traditional woman’s role in the Midwest, Hazel remains on the west coast, and finds herself in the bohemian town of Laguna Beach. Desperate for work, she accepts a job as an assistant to famous artist Hanson Radcliff. Beloved by the locals for his contributions to the art scene and respected by the critics, Radcliff lives under the shadow of a decades old scandal that haunts him.

Working hard to stay on her cantankerous employer’s good side, Hazel becomes a valued member of the community. She never expected to fall in love with the rhythms of life in Laguna, nor did she expect to find a kindred spirit in Jimmy, the hotel bartender whose friendship promises something more. But Hazel still wants to work with airplanes—maybe even learn to fly one someday. Torn between pursuing her dream and the dream life she has been granted, she is unsure if giving herself over to Laguna is what her heart truly wants.]]> 278 Nicola Harrison 1250277388 Rich 0 to-read 3.76 2023 Hotel Laguna
author: Nicola Harrison
name: Rich
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Beautifully Broken Redemption (Sutter Lake, #5)]]> 57139335
For Anna, keeping her deepest scars hidden from the world has always been a necessity—from the bruises of her childhood to the mistake that nearly cost her everything. To keep herself safe, she must keep everyone around her at a distance—especially the man who has tempted her since the moment they met.

His demons are taunting him.

Mason has done his best to bury the past by achieving more than he ever thought possible. But even with all of his success, his life feels empty.

When tragedy strikes, Anna is left fighting to protect the only family she has left. And Mason will do anything to keep her and her loved ones safe—even if that means the ring of wedding bells.

But as a new spark ignites between them, someone is watching.

And they’ll do whatever it takes to snuff out that light for good.]]> 304 Catherine Cowles 1951936078 Rich 5 2023, buddy-reads An emotional rainstorm in the end.

This is series book that breaks from the romance genre into the drama genre.
I heartfelt journey of one’s couples struggle to stay together and fight together against some pretty bad people. These bad people include parents, siblings, and x’s.
The story includes a core of good friends who have been in the last few books. A new relationship begins with Anna and Mason ( nice name). They come together under difficult circumstances and begin to have feelings for each other.
The story pace starts fast and stays good throughout. [spoilers removed]. Anna has a troubled past so this is gonna be a challenge. A troubled past is a common denominator for most of the core characters.
The end really finishes strong. An emotional ride.
]]> 4.16 2021 Beautifully Broken Redemption (Sutter Lake, #5)
author: Catherine Cowles
name: Rich
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2023/06/25
date added: 2023/06/25
shelves: 2023, buddy-reads
review:
4.5 rounded up to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️!!!
An emotional rainstorm in the end.

This is series book that breaks from the romance genre into the drama genre.
I heartfelt journey of one’s couples struggle to stay together and fight together against some pretty bad people. These bad people include parents, siblings, and x’s.
The story includes a core of good friends who have been in the last few books. A new relationship begins with Anna and Mason ( nice name). They come together under difficult circumstances and begin to have feelings for each other.
The story pace starts fast and stays good throughout. [spoilers removed]. Anna has a troubled past so this is gonna be a challenge. A troubled past is a common denominator for most of the core characters.
The end really finishes strong. An emotional ride.

]]>