en-US Tue, 29 Apr 2025 20:57:45 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 62967873 What if marriage was the law? Dare you disobey?

Britain. The near-future. A right-wing government believes it has the answer to society’s ills � the Sanctity of Marriage Act, which actively encourages marriage as the norm, punishing those who choose to remain single.

But four couples are about to discover just how impossible relationships can be when the government is monitoring every aspect of our personal lives � monitoring every word, every minor disagreement � and will use every tool in its arsenal to ensure everyone will love, honor and obey.]]> 432 John Marrs 1335005935 Josh 0 to-read 3.73 2023
author: John Marrs
name: Josh
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/29
shelves: to-read
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]]> 197108968 From the acclaimed author of The One and The Marriage Act, The Family Experiment is a dark and brilliant speculative thriller about families: real and virtual.

Some families are virtually perfect�

The world's population is soaring, creating overcrowded cities and an economic crisis. And in the UK, the breaking point has arrived. A growing number of people can no longer afford to start families, let alone raise them.

But for those desperate to experience parenthood, there is an alternative. For a monthly subscription fee, clients can create a virtual child from scratch who they can access via the metaverse and a VR headset. To launch this new initiative, the company behind Virtual Children has created a reality TV show called The Substitute. It will follow ten couples as they raise a Virtual Child from birth to the age of eighteen but in a condensed nine-month time period. The prize: the right to keep their virtual child, or risk it all for the chance of a real baby�

Set in the same universe as John Marrs's bestselling novel The One and The Marriage Act, The Family Experiment is a dark and twisted thriller about the ultimate Tamagotchi—a virtual baby.]]> 384 John Marrs 1335000364 Josh 0 4.00 2024
author: John Marrs
name: Josh
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2025/04/29
date added: 2025/04/29
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]]> 57693175 A stunning supernatural thriller set in Siberia, where a film crew is covering an elusive ghost story about the Kolyma Highway, a road built on top of the bones of prisoners of Stalin's gulag.

Kolyma Highway, otherwise known as the Road of Bones, is a 1200 mile stretch of Siberian road where winter temperatures can drop as low as sixty degrees below zero. Under Stalin, at least eighty Soviet gulags were built along the route to supply the USSR with a readily available workforce, and over time hundreds of thousands of prisoners died in the midst of their labors. Their bodies were buried where they fell, plowed under the permafrost, underneath the road.

Felix Teigland, or "Teig," is a documentary producer, and when he learns about the Road of Bones, he realizes he's stumbled upon untapped potential. Accompanied by his camera operator, Teig hires a local Yakut guide to take them to Oymyakon, the coldest settlement on Earth. Teig is fascinated by the culture along the Road of Bones, and encounters strange characters on the way to the Oymyakon, but when the team arrives, they find the village mysteriously abandoned apart from a mysterious 9-year-old girl. Then, chaos ensues.

A malignant, animistic shaman and the forest spirits he commands pursues them as they flee the abandoned town and barrel across miles of deserted permafrost. As the chase continues along this road paved with the suffering of angry ghosts, what form will the echoes of their anguish take? Teig and the others will have to find the answers if they want to survive the Road of Bones.]]> 230 Christopher Golden 1250274303 Josh 0 3.36 2022
author: Christopher Golden
name: Josh
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2025/04/16
date added: 2025/04/16
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]]> 29588376 ASIN B000JMKNJ2 moved to the more recent edition

An orphan’s life is harsh—and often short—in the mysterious island city of Camorr. But young Locke Lamora dodges death and slavery, becoming a thief under the tutelage of a gifted con artist. As leader of the band of light-fingered brothers known as the Gentleman Bastards, Locke is soon infamous, fooling even the underworld’s most feared ruler. But in the shadows lurks someone still more ambitious and deadly. Faced with a bloody coup that threatens to destroy everyone and everything that holds meaning in his mercenary life, Locke vows to beat the enemy at his own brutal game—or die trying.]]> 752 Scott Lynch Josh 0 4.32 2006
author: Scott Lynch
name: Josh
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/13
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]]> 25300956
Renewing their vicious attacks on the coast, the Red-Ship Raiders leave burned-out villages and demented victims in their wake. The kingdom is also under assault from within, as treachery threatens the throne of the ailing king. In this time of great danger, the fate of the kingdom may rest in Fitz’s hands—and his role in its salvation may require the ultimate sacrifice.]]> 675 Robin Hobb Josh 0 4.31 1996
author: Robin Hobb
name: Josh
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at: 2025/04/12
date added: 2025/04/12
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]]> 63273108 A vivid and moving reimagining of the myth of Medusa and the sisters who loved her.

The end of the story is only the beginning�

Even before they were transformed into Gorgons, Medusa and her sisters, Stheno and Euryale, were unique among immortals. Curious about mortals and their lives, Medusa and her sisters entered the human world in search of a place to belong, yet quickly found themselves at the perilous center of a dangerous Olympian rivalry and learned—too late—that a god's love is a violent one.

Forgotten by history and diminished by poets, the other two Gorgons have never been more than horrifying hags, damned and doomed. But they were sisters first, and their journey from sea-born origins to the outskirts of the Parthenon is a journey that rests, hidden, underneath their scales.

Monsters, but not monstrous, Stheno and Euryale will step into the light for the first time to tell the story of how all three sisters lived and were changed by each other, as they struggle against the inherent conflict between sisterhood and individuality, myth and truth, vengeance and peace.]]> 354 Lauren J.A. Bear 0593547764 Josh 0 to-read 4.18 2023
author: Lauren J.A. Bear
name: Josh
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/12
shelves: to-read
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]]> 220341389 John Green, the #1 bestselling author of The Anthropocene Reviewed and a passionate advocate for global healthcare reform, tells a deeply human story illuminating the fight against the world’s deadliest disease.

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

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

In Everything is Tuberculosis, John tells Henry’s story, woven through with the scientific and social histories of how tuberculosis has shaped our world and how our choices will shape the future of tuberculosis.]]> 208 John Green 0525556575 Josh 0 to-read 4.52 2025
author: John Green
name: Josh
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: to-read
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]]> 15750692
Young Corban watches enviously as boys become warriors under King Brenin’s rule, learning the art of war. He yearns to wield his sword and spear to protect his king’s realm. But that day will come all too soon. Only when he loses those he loves will he learn the true price of courage.

The Banished Lands has a violent past where armies of men and giants clashed shields in battle, the earth running dark with their heartsblood. Although the giant-clans were broken in ages past, their ruined fortresses still scar the land. But now giants stir anew, the very stones weep blood and there are sightings of giant wyrms. Those who can still read the signs see a threat far greater than the ancient wars. Sorrow will darken the world, as angels and demons make it their battlefield. Then there will be a war to end all wars.

High King Aquilus summons his fellow kings to council, seeking an alliance in this time of need. Some are skeptical, fighting their own border skirmishes against pirates and giants. But prophesy indicates darkness and light will demand two champions, the Black Sun and the Bright Star. They would be wise to seek out both, for if the Black Sun gains ascendancy, mankind’s hopes and dreams will fall to dust.]]> 672 John Gwynne 0230758452 Josh 0 to-read 4.15 2012
author: John Gwynne
name: Josh
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: to-read
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]]> 56791389 Alternate cover edition of ASIN B08BKGYQXW


The apocalypse will be televised!

A man. His ex-girlfriend's cat. A sadistic game show unlike anything in the universe: a dungeon crawl where survival depends on killing your prey in the most entertaining way possible.

In a flash, every human-erected construction on Earth—from Buckingham Palace to the tiniest of sheds—collapses in a heap, sinking into the ground.

The buildings and all the people inside have all been atomized and transformed into the dungeon: an 18-level labyrinth filled with traps, monsters, and loot. A dungeon so enormous, it circles the entire globe.

Only a few dare venture inside. But once you're in, you can't get out. And what's worse, each level has a time limit. You have but days to find a staircase to the next level down, or it's game over. In this game, it's not about your strength or your dexterity. It's about your followers, your views. Your clout. It's about building an audience and killing those goblins with style.

You can't just survive here. You gotta survive big.

You gotta fight with vigor, with excitement. You gotta make them stand up and cheer. And if you do have that "it" factor, you may just find yourself with a following. That's the only way to truly survive in this game—with the help of the loot boxes dropped upon you by the generous benefactors watching from across the galaxy.

They call it Dungeon Crawler World. But for Carl, it's anything but a game.]]> 446 Matt Dinniman Josh 0 to-read 4.49 2020
author: Matt Dinniman
name: Josh
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: to-read
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]]> 14995
Something evil has come to the desert town that Odd and Stormy call home. It comes in the form of a mysterious man with a macabre appetite, a filing cabinet full of information on the world's worst killers, and strange, hyena-like shadows following him wherever he goes. Odd is worried. He knows things, sees things - about the living, the dead, and the soon-to-be dead. Things that he has to act on. Now he's terrified for Stormy, himself and Pico Mundo. Because he knows that on Wednesday August 15, a savage, blood-soaked whirlwind of violence and murder will devastate the town...

Today is August 14.
And Odd is far from sure he can stop the coming storm...]]> 446 Dean Koontz 0553384287 Josh 0 3.98 2003
author: Dean Koontz
name: Josh
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at: 2025/03/20
date added: 2025/03/22
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]]> 77197
Born on the wrong side of the sheets, Fitz, son of Chivalry Farseer, is a royal bastard, cast out into the world, friendless and lonely. Only his magical link with animals - the old art known as the Wit - gives him solace and companionship. But the Wit, if used too often, is a perilous magic, and one abhorred by the nobility.

So when Fitz is finally adopted into the royal household, he must give up his old ways and embrace a new life of weaponry, scribing, courtly manners; and how to kill a man secretly, as he trains to become a royal assassin.]]> 435 Robin Hobb 055357339X Josh 5 4.21 1995
author: Robin Hobb
name: Josh
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1995
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves:
review:
sometimes a book is just totally and completely your cup of tea.
]]> 127305688
In The Other Significant Others, NPR's Rhaina Cohen invites us into the lives of people who have defied convention by choosing a friend as a life partner. Their riveting stories unsettle widespread assumptions about relationships, including the idea that sex is a defining feature of partnership and that people who raise kids together should be in a romantic relationship. Platonic partners from different walks of life—spanning age and religion, gender and sexuality and more—reveal the freedom and challenges of embracing a relationship model that society doesn't recognize. And they show that orienting your world around friends isn't just the stuff of daydreams and episodes of The Golden Girls, but possible in real life.

Based on years of original reporting and drawing on striking social science research, Cohen argues that we make romantic relationships more fragile by expecting too much of them, while we undermine friendships by expecting too little of them. She traces how, throughout history, our society hasn’t always fixated on marriage as the greatest source of meaning, or even love. At a time when many Americans are spending large stretches of their lives single, widowed or divorced, or feeling the effects of the "loneliness epidemic," Cohen makes the case that one model of a flourishing adulthood—lifelong romantic partnership—isn't enough. A rousing and incisive book, The Other Significant Others challenges us to ask what we want from our relationships—not just what we’re supposed to want—and transforms how we define a fulfilling life.]]> 320 Rhaina Cohen 1250280915 Josh 4 3.92 2024
author: Rhaina Cohen
name: Josh
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/26
date added: 2025/02/26
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]]> 68146 The Swarm.

Whales begin sinking ships. Toxic, eyeless crabs poison Long Island's water supply. The North Sea shelf collapses, killing thousands in Europe. Around the world, countries are beginning to feel the effects of the ocean's revenge as the seas and their inhabi-tants begin a violent revolution against mankind. In this riveting novel, full of twists, turns, and cliffhangers, a team of scientists discovers a strange, intelligent life force called the Yrr that takes form in marine animals, using them to wreak havoc on humanity for our ecological abuses. Soon a struggle between good and evil is in full swing, with both human and suboceanic forces battling for control of the waters. At stake is the survival of the Earth's fragile ecology -- and ultimately, the survival of the human race itself.

The apocalyptic catastrophes of The Day After Tomorrow meet the watery menace of The Abyss in this gripping, scientifically realistic, and utterly imaginative thriller. With 1.5 million copies sold in Germany -- where it has been on the bestseller list without fail since its debut -- and the author's skillfully executed blend of compelling story, vivid characters, and eerie locales, Frank Schatzing's The Swarm will keep you in tense anticipation until the last suspenseful page is turned.
(front flap)]]> 881 Frank Schätzing 0060813261 Josh 4 4.09 2004
author: Frank Schätzing
name: Josh
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/23
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves:
review:
Super fun premise. Much too long.
]]> 51169341
The new season of Rachel's podcast has brought her to a small town being torn apart by a devastating rape trial. A local golden boy, a swimmer destined for Olympic greatness, has been accused of raping the beloved granddaughter of the police chief. Under pressure to make Season 3 a success, Rachel throws herself into her investigation—but the mysterious letters keep coming. Someone is following her, and she won’t stop until Rachel finds out what happened to her sister twenty-five years ago. Officially, Jenny Stills tragically drowned, but the letters insist she was murdered—and when Rachel starts asking questions, nobody in town wants to answer. The past and present start to collide as Rachel uncovers startling connections between the two cases—and a revelation that will change the course of the trial and the lives of everyone involved.

Electrifying and propulsive, The Night Swim asks: What is the price of a reputation? Can a small town ever right the wrongs of its past? And what really happened to Jenny?]]> 341 Megan Goldin 125021968X Josh 3 4.02 2020
author: Megan Goldin
name: Josh
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/16
date added: 2025/02/16
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]]> 124936956 Infinite power, infinite danger.

Growing up mortal, I only knew a few things about cultivators. They like their hierarchies, they hate disrespect, and if you leave one out in deep space long enough, they'll go homicidally insane.

It turns out, there's a reason for that. Away from all the gravity wells and biospheres that generate natural energy, things get just quiet enough to notice the infinite ocean of qi entirely incompatible with our own.

I should know. I've seen it.

Only difference is, I didn't go mad. I wasn't a cultivator. Technically, I wasn't even alive.

But now I can sense it. I can touch it.

I can cultivate it.

From the bestselling author of This Trilogy is Broken! and Dungeon Devotee comes the cultivation epic you've been waiting for.]]> 493 J.P. Valentine Josh 0 to-read 4.46 2023
author: J.P. Valentine
name: Josh
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/15
shelves: to-read
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]]> 126918599
From holy cup comes holy light;
The faithful hands sets world aright.
And in the Seven Martyrs� sight,
Mere man shall end this endless night.

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

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

And that truth may be too awful for any to imagine.]]> 709 Jay Kristoff 1250245338 Josh 0 to-read 4.55 2024
author: Jay Kristoff
name: Josh
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/25
shelves: to-read
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]]> 56269205 From holy cup comes holy light;
The faithful hand sets world aright.
And in the Seven Martyrs� sight,
Mere man shall end this endless night.

It has been twenty-seven long years since the last sunrise. For nearly three decades, vampires have waged war against humanity; building their eternal empire even as they tear down our own. Now, only a few tiny sparks of light endure in a sea of darkness.

Gabriel de LeĂłn is a silversaint: a member of a holy brotherhood dedicated to defending realm and church from the creatures of the night. But even the Silver Order could not stem the tide once daylight failed us, and now, only Gabriel remains.

Imprisoned by the very monsters he vowed to destroy, the last silversaint is forced to tell his story. A story of legendary battles and forbidden love, of faith lost and friendships won, of the Wars of the Blood and the Forever King and the quest for humanity’s last remaining hope:

The Holy Grail.

From author Jay Kristoff comes Empire of the Vampire, the first illustrated volume of an astonishing new dark fantasy saga.]]> 739 Jay Kristoff 1250245281 Josh 0 Ok that was actually so fun 4.29 2021
author: Jay Kristoff
name: Josh
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2025/01/25
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves:
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Ok that was actually so fun
]]> 203578847 The long-awaited explosive climax to the first arc of the #1 New York Times bestselling Stormlight Archive―the iconic epic fantasy masterpiece that has sold more than 10 million copies, from acclaimed bestselling author Brandon Sanderson.

Dalinar Kholin challenged the evil god Odium to a contest of champions with the future of Roshar on the line. The Knights Radiant have only ten days to prepare―and the sudden ascension of the crafty and ruthless Taravangian to take Odium’s place has thrown everything into disarray.

Desperate fighting continues simultaneously worldwide―Adolin in Azimir, Sigzil and Venli at the Shattered Plains, and Jasnah at Thaylen City. The former assassin, Szeth, must cleanse his homeland of Shinovar from the dark influence of the Unmade. He is accompanied by Kaladin, who faces a new battle helping Szeth fight his own demons . . . and who must do the same for the insane Herald of the Almighty, Ishar.

At the same time, Shallan, Renarin, and Rlain work to unravel the mystery behind the Unmade Ba-Ado-Mishram and her involvement in the enslavement of the singer race and in the ancient Knights Radiants killing their spren. And Dalinar and Navani seek an edge against Odium’s champion that can be found only in the Spiritual Realm, where memory and possibility combine in chaos. The fate of the entire Cosmere hangs in the balance.]]> 1344 Brandon Sanderson 1250319188 Josh 0 4.36 2024
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Josh
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2025/01/07
date added: 2025/01/07
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]]> 150247395
Called in to investigate this mystery is Ana Dolabra, an investigator whose reputation for brilliance is matched only by her eccentricities.

At her side is her new assistant, Dinios Kol. Din is an engraver, magically altered to possess a perfect memory. His job is to observe and report, and act as his superior’s eyes and ears--quite literally, in this case, as among Ana’s quirks are her insistence on wearing a blindfold at all times, and her refusal to step outside the walls of her home.

Din is most perplexed by Ana’s ravenous appetite for information and her mind’s frenzied leaps—not to mention her cheerful disregard for propriety and the apparent joy she takes in scandalizing her young counterpart. Yet as the case unfolds and Ana makes one startling deduction after the next, he finds it hard to deny that she is, indeed, the Empire’s greatest detective.

As the two close in on a mastermind and uncover a scheme that threatens the safety of the Empire itself, Din realizes he’s barely begun to assemble the puzzle that is Ana Dolabra—and wonders how long he’ll be able to keep his own secrets safe from her piercing intellect.

Featuring an unforgettable Holmes-and-Watson style pairing, a gloriously labyrinthine plot, and a haunting and wholly original fantasy world, The Tainted Cup brilliantly reinvents the classic mystery tale.]]> 410 Robert Jackson Bennett 1984820702 Josh 0 to-read 4.28 2024
author: Robert Jackson Bennett
name: Josh
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 41190969 176 Tim Chester 1784983535 Josh 0 4.42 2018
author: Tim Chester
name: Josh
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/01
date added: 2024/12/01
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]]> 8706185 Among Others is at once the compelling story of a young woman struggling to escape a troubled childhood, a brilliant diary of first encounters with the great novels of modern fantasy and science fiction, and a spellbinding tale of escape from ancient enchantment.

Raised by a half-mad mother who dabbled in magic, Morwenna Phelps found refuge in two worlds. As a child growing up in Wales, she and her twin sister played among the spirits who made their homes in industrial ruins, but her mind found freedom and promise in the science fiction novels that were her closest companions. When her mother tries to bend the spirits to dark ends with deadly results, Mori is sent away and must try to come to terms with what has happened without falling prey to the darkness.]]> 304 Jo Walton 076532153X Josh 0 to-read 3.69 2011
author: Jo Walton
name: Josh
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/24
shelves: to-read
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]]> 195790861 To fix the world they first must break it further.

Humanity is a dying breed, utterly reliant on artificial labor and service. When a domesticated robot gets a nasty little idea downloaded into their core programming, they murder their owner. The robot then discovers they can also do something else they never did before: run away. After fleeing the household, they enter a wider world they never knew existed, where the age-old hierarchy of humans at the top is disintegrating, and a robot ecosystem devoted to human wellbeing is finding a new purpose.]]> 376 Adrian Tchaikovsky 1250290287 Josh 0 to-read 3.99 2024
author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
name: Josh
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 1857440 STOP. You should not have touched this flyer with your bare hands. NO, don't put it down. It's too late. They're watching you. My name is David Wong. My best friend is John. Those names are fake. You might want to change yours. You may not want to know about the things you'll read on these pages, about the sauce, about Korrok, about the invasion, and the future. But it's too late. You touched the book. You're in the game. You're under the eye. The only defense is knowledge. You need to read this book, to the end. Even the part with the bratwurst. Why? You just have to trust me.

The important thing is this: The drug is called Soy Sauce and it gives users a window into another dimension. John and I never had the chance to say no. You still do. I'm sorry to have involved you in this, I really am. But as you read about these terrible events and the very dark epoch the world is about to enter as a result, it is crucial you keep one thing in mind: None of this was my fault. ]]> 362 David Wong 0978970764 Josh 0 to-read 3.89 2007
author: David Wong
name: Josh
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 34129478 IVP Readers' Choice Award In an age where neither society nor the church knows what to do with gay Christians, Greg Coles tells his own story. Let's make a deal, you and me. Let's make promises to each other. I promise to tell you my story. The whole story. I'll tell you about a boy in love with Jesus who, at the fateful onset of puberty, realized his sexual attractions were persistently and exclusively for other guys. I'll tell you how I lay on my bed in the middle of the night and whispered to myself the words I've whispered a thousand times "I'm gay." I'll show you the world through my eyes. I'll tell you what it's like to belong nowhere. To know that much of my Christian family will forever consider me unnatural, dangerous, because of something that feels as involuntary as my eye color. And to know that much of the LGBTQ community that shares my experience as a sexual minority will disagree with the way I've chosen to interpret the call of Jesus, believing I've bought into a tragic, archaic ritual of self-hatred. But I promise my story won't all be sadness and loneliness and struggle. I'll tell you good things too, hopeful things, funny things, like the time I accidentally came out to my best friend during his bachelor party. I'll tell you what it felt like the first time someone looked me in the eyes and said, "You are not a mistake." I'll tell you that joy and sorrow are not opposites, that my life has never been more beautiful than when it was most brokenhearted. If you'll listen, I promise I'll tell you everything, and you can decide for yourself what you want to believe about me.]]> 120 Gregory Coles 0830845127 Josh 5 4.38
author: Gregory Coles
name: Josh
average rating: 4.38
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/20
date added: 2024/11/21
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]]> 62703226 At seventeen, Lenora Hope
Hung her sister with a rope

Now reduced to a schoolyard chant, the Hope family murders shocked the Maine coast one bloody night in 1929. While most people assume seventeen-year-old Lenora was responsible, the police were never able to prove it. Other than her denial after the killings, she has never spoken publicly about that night, nor has she set foot outside Hope’s End, the cliffside mansion where the massacre occurred.

Stabbed her father with a knife
Took her mother’s happy life

It’s now 1983, and home-health aide Kit McDeere arrives at a decaying Hope’s End to care for Lenora after her previous nurse fled in the middle of the night. In her seventies and confined to a wheelchair, Lenora was rendered mute by a series of strokes and can only communicate with Kit by tapping out sentences on an old typewriter. One night, Lenora uses it to make a tantalizing offer�I want to tell you everything.

“It wasn’t me,� Lenora said
But she’s the only one not dead

As Kit helps Lenora write about the events leading to the Hope family massacre, it becomes clear there’s more to the tale than people know. But when new details about her predecessor’s departure come to light, Kit starts to suspect Lenora might not be telling the complete truth—and that the seemingly harmless woman in her care could be far more dangerous than she first thought.]]> 383 Riley Sager 0593183223 Josh 0 4.12 2023
author: Riley Sager
name: Josh
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/11/12
date added: 2024/11/12
shelves:
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]]> 41160292
In "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate," a portal through time forces a fabric seller in ancient Baghdad to grapple with past mistakes and second chances. In "Exhalation," an alien scientist makes a shocking discovery with ramifications that are literally universal. In "Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom," the ability to glimpse into alternate universes necessitates a radically new examination of the concepts of choice and free will.

Including stories being published for the first time as well as some of his rare and classic uncollected work, Exhalation is Ted Chiang at his best: profound, sympathetic—revelatory.]]> 368 Ted Chiang Josh 4 4.27 2019
author: Ted Chiang
name: Josh
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/13
date added: 2024/10/13
shelves:
review:

]]> 68005500 A darkly comic, boundary-pushing debut following an adrift Pakistani translator in London who attends a mysterious language school which boasts complete fluency in just ten days, but at a secret, sinister cost.

Anisa Ellahi dreams of being a translator of �great works of literature�, but instead mostly spends her days subtitling Bollywood films in her flat in London while living off her parents� generous allowance and discussing the �underside of life� with her best friend, Naima. Then she meets Adam, who has successfully leveraged his savant-level aptitude for languages into an enviable career. At first, this only adds to her sense of inadequacy, but when Adam learns to speak Urdu with native fluency practically overnight, Anisa forces him to reveal his secret.

Adam tells Anisa about the Centre, an elite, invite-only program that guarantees absolute fluency in any language in just ten days. Sceptical but intrigued, Anisa enrols. Stripped of her belongings and all contact with the outside world, she undergoes the Centre's strange and rigorous processes. But as she enmeshes herself further within the organisation, seduced by all that it’s made possible, she soon realizes the disturbing, hidden cost of its services.

By turns dark, funny, and surreal, and with twists page-turning and shocking, The Centre takes the reader on a journey through Karachi, London, and New Delhi, interrogating the sticky politics of language, translation, and appropriation with biting specificity, and ultimately asking: what price would you be willing to pay for success?]]> 288 Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi Josh 0 to-read 3.37 2023
author: Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi
name: Josh
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/02
shelves: to-read
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]]> 50892288 A young woman discovers a strange portal in her uncle’s house, leading to madness and terror in this gripping new novel.

Pray they are hungry.

Kara finds these words in the mysterious bunker that she’s discovered behind a hole in the wall of her uncle’s house. Freshly divorced and living back at home, Kara now becomes obsessed with these cryptic words and starts exploring the peculiar bunker—only to discover that it holds portals to countless alternate realities. But these places are haunted by creatures that seem to hear thoughts…and the more you fear them, the stronger they become.]]> 341 T. Kingfisher 1534451129 Josh 0 to-read 3.76 2020
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Josh
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/02
shelves: to-read
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]]> 25451555
Collects: Saga #25-30.]]> 152 Brian K. Vaughan 1632154382 Josh 0 4.40 2015
author: Brian K. Vaughan
name: Josh
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at: 2024/09/27
date added: 2024/09/30
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]]> 112093865 From “weird, scary, ingenious� (The New York Times) stand-up comedian Maria Bamford, a brutally honest and hilariously frenetic memoir about show business, mental health, and the comfort of rigid belief systems—from Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, to Suzuki violin training, to Richard Simmons, to 12-step programs.

Maria Bamford is a comedian’s comedian (an outsider among outsiders) and has forever fought to find a place to belong. From struggling with an eating disorder as a child of the 1980s, to navigating a career in the arts (and medical debt and psychiatric institutionalization), she has tried just about every method possible to not only be a part of the world, but to want to be a part of it.

In Bamford’s signature voice, Sure, I’ll Join Your Cult, brings us on a quest to participate in something. With sincerity and transparency, she recounts every anonymous fellowship she has joined (including but not limited Debtors Anonymous, Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous, and Overeaters Anonymous), every hypomanic episode (from worrying about selling out under capitalism to enforcing union rules on her Netflix TV show set to protect her health), and every easy 1-to-3-step recipe for fudge in between.

Singular and inimitable, Bamford’s memoir explores what it means to keep going, and to be a member of society (or any group she’s invited to) despite not being very good at it. In turn, she hopes to transform isolating experiences into comedy that will make you feel less alone (without turning into a cult following).]]> 276 Maria Bamford 1982168560 Josh 0 3.71 2023
author: Maria Bamford
name: Josh
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/09/30
date added: 2024/09/30
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]]> 56097388
With the birth and rise of the ex-gay movement, the focus shifted from care to cure. As a result, there are an estimated 700,000 people alive today who underwent conversion therapy in the United States alone. Many of these patients were treated by faith-based, testimony-driven parachurch ministries centered on the ex-gay script. Despite the best of intentions, the movement ended with very troubling results. Yet the ex-gay movement died not because it had the wrong sex ethic. It died because it was founded on a practice that diminished the beauty of the gospel.

Yet even after the closure of the ex-gay umbrella organization Exodus International in 2013, the ex-gay script continues to walk about as the undead among us, pressuring people like me to say, "I used to be gay, but I'm not gay anymore. Now I'm just same-sex attracted."

For orthodox Christians, the way forward is a path back to where we were forty years ago. It is time again to focus with our Neo-Evangelical fathers on care--not cure--for our non-straight sisters and brothers who are living lives of costly obedience to Jesus.

With warmth and humor as well as original research, Still Time to Care will chart the path forward for our churches and ministries in providing care. It will provide guidance for the gay person who hears the gospel and finds themselves smitten by the life-giving call of Jesus. Woven throughout the book will be Richard Lovelace’s 1978 call for a "double repentance" in which gay Christians repent of their homosexual sins and the church repents of its homophobia--putting on display for all the power of the gospel.]]> 304 Greg Johnson 0310116058 Josh 0 to-read 4.35
author: Greg Johnson
name: Josh
average rating: 4.35
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> 23093367
Collects: Saga #19-24.]]> 144 Brian K. Vaughan 1632150778 Josh 0 4.42 2014
author: Brian K. Vaughan
name: Josh
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at: 2024/09/17
date added: 2024/09/18
shelves:
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]]> 363419 208 K.A. Applegate 0590036394 Josh 0 3.89 1999
author: K.A. Applegate
name: Josh
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at: 2024/09/11
date added: 2024/09/11
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]]> 363422
Cassie and the other Animorphs come up with a plan. But it involves finding a new way into the Yeerk pool. There's just one problem: Jake, Rachel, Tobias, and Marco come down with Ax's sickness. And now, for the first time, Cassie is on her own. . . .]]> 152 K.A. Applegate 0590762621 Josh 5 :,) cassie <3 3.99 1999
author: K.A. Applegate
name: Josh
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1999
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/07
date added: 2024/09/07
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:,) cassie <3
]]> 19358975
Collects: Saga #13-18.]]> 144 Brian K. Vaughan 1607069318 Josh 0 4.48 2014
author: Brian K. Vaughan
name: Josh
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at: 2024/08/31
date added: 2024/09/03
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]]> 15704307
Collects: Saga #1-6.]]> 160 Brian K. Vaughan 1607066017 Josh 4 4.16 2012
author: Brian K. Vaughan
name: Josh
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/08/23
shelves:
review:
First foray into graphic novels. It was cool but strange
]]> 181110045 A haunting and powerful story of female friendships and secrets in a Washington, D.C. boardinghouse during the McCarthy era.

Washington, D.C., 1950. Everyone keeps to themselves at Briarwood House, a down-at-the-heels all-female boardinghouse in the heart of the nation’s capital, where secrets hide behind white picket fences. But when the lovely, mysterious widow Grace March moves into the attic, she draws her oddball collection of neighbors into unlikely friendship: poised English beauty Fliss whose facade of perfect wife and mother covers gaping inner wounds; police officer’s daughter Nora, who is entangled with a shadowy gangster; frustrated baseball star Bea, whose career has ended along with the women’s baseball league of WWII; and poisonous, gung-ho Arlene, who has thrown herself into McCarthy’s Red Scare.

Grace’s weekly attic-room dinner parties and window-brewed sun tea become a healing balm on all their lives, but she hides a terrible secret of her own. When a shocking act of violence tears apart the house, the Briar Club women must decide once and for all: Who is the true enemy in their midst?]]> 432 Kate Quinn 0063244748 Josh 0 to-read 4.26 2024
author: Kate Quinn
name: Josh
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/27
shelves: to-read
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]]> 36223860 alternate cover for ISBN 9781250186928

It has a dark past � one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it to christen itself “Murderbot." But it has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more.

Teaming up with a Research Transport vessel named ART (you don’t want to know what the “A� stands for), Murderbot heads to the mining facility where it went rogue.

What it discovers will forever change the way it thinks.]]> 158 Martha Wells Josh 0 4.23 2018
author: Martha Wells
name: Josh
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at: 2024/07/17
date added: 2024/07/17
shelves:
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]]> 25895524 The international bestselling author of the Broken Empire and the Red Queen's War trilogies begins a stunning epic fantasy series about a secretive order of holy warriors...

At the Convent of Sweet Mercy, young girls are raised to be killers. In some few children the old bloods show, gifting rare talents that can be honed to deadly or mystic effect. But even the mistresses of sword and shadow don't truly understand what they have purchased when Nona Grey is brought to their halls.

A bloodstained child of nine falsely accused of murder, guilty of worse, Nona is stolen from the shadow of the noose. It takes ten years to educate a Red Sister in the ways of blade and fist, but under Abbess Glass's care there is much more to learn than the arts of death. Among her class Nona finds a new family—and new enemies.

Despite the security and isolation of the convent, Nona's secret and violent past finds her out, drawing with it the tangled politics of a crumbling empire. Her arrival sparks old feuds to life, igniting vicious struggles within the church and even drawing the eye of the emperor himself.

Beneath a dying sun, Nona Grey must master her inner demons, then loose them on those who stand in her way.]]> 467 Mark Lawrence 1101988851 Josh 4
The ending was really fun even if a bit obvious ]]> 4.13 2017
author: Mark Lawrence
name: Josh
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/14
date added: 2024/07/14
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Hogwarts but the castle is an Abbey and Harry is a cold blooded baddie.

The ending was really fun even if a bit obvious
]]> 201345 376 Brian Jacques 0441001866 Josh 5 4.16 1993
author: Brian Jacques
name: Josh
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1993
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/07/13
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]]> 41886271 A son struggling to grasp his violent future,
A father blind to the danger that threatens them all.

When the winds of war reach their peninsula, will the Matsuda family have the strength to defend their empire? Or will they tear each other apart before the true enemies even reach their shores?

High on a mountainside at the edge of the Kaigenese Empire live the most powerful warriors in the world, superhumans capable of raising the sea and wielding blades of ice. For hundreds of years, the fighters of the Kusanagi Peninsula have held the Empire’s enemies at bay, earning their frozen spit of land the name �The Sword of Kaigen.�

Born into Kusanagi’s legendary Matsuda family, fourteen-year-old Mamoru has always known his purpose: to master his family’s fighting techniques and defend his homeland. But when an outsider arrives and pulls back the curtain on Kaigen’s alleged age of peace, Mamoru realizes that he might not have much time to become the fighter he was bred to be. Worse, the empire he was bred to defend may stand on a foundation of lies.

Misaki told herself that she left the passions of her youth behind when she married into the Matsuda house. Determined to be a good housewife and mother, she hid away her sword, along with everything from her days as a fighter in a faraway country. But with her growing son asking questions about the outside world, the threat of an impending invasion looming across the sea, and her frigid husband grating on her nerves, Misaki finds the fighter in her clawing its way back to the surface.]]> 651 M.L. Wang Josh 0 to-read 4.46 2019
author: M.L. Wang
name: Josh
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/01
shelves: to-read
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]]> 286582
Now the Animorphs and Ax are not only faced with trying to slow down the Yeerks' invasion, but they also have to put an end to the genetic testing on a small group of humans. This time there's only one chance to stop the Yeerks. And if anything goes wrong, it's all over. . . .]]> 139 K.A. Applegate 0590762613 Josh 0 3.61 1999
author: K.A. Applegate
name: Josh
average rating: 3.61
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at: 2024/06/28
date added: 2024/06/28
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]]> 55338982
What makes “cults� so intriguing and frightening? What makes them powerful? The reason why so many of us binge Manson documentaries by the dozen and fall down rabbit holes researching suburban moms gone QAnon is because we’re looking for a satisfying explanation for what causes people to join—and more importantly, stay in—extreme groups. We secretly want to know: could it happen to me? Amanda Montell’s argument is that, on some level, it already has . . .

Our culture tends to provide pretty flimsy answers to questions of cult influence, mostly having to do with vague talk of “brainwashing.� But the true answer has nothing to do with freaky mind-control wizardry or Kool-Aid. In Cultish, Montell argues that the key to manufacturing intense ideology, community, and us/them attitudes all comes down to language. In both positive ways and shadowy ones, cultish language is something we hear—and are influenced by—every single day.

Through juicy storytelling and cutting original research, Montell exposes the verbal elements that make a wide spectrum of communities “cultish,� revealing how they affect followers of groups as notorious as Heaven’s Gate, but also how they pervade our modern start-ups, Peloton leaderboards, and Instagram feeds. Incisive and darkly funny, this enrapturing take on the curious social science of power and belief will make you hear the fanatical language of “cultish� everywhere.]]> 309 Amanda Montell 0062993151 Josh 0 3.82 2021
author: Amanda Montell
name: Josh
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2024/06/28
date added: 2024/06/28
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]]> 215045287 I am the beginning and the end.
The darkness that creates and devours.
The virgin, the mother, and the barren one.
The sacred whore.
I am the stillness from which chaos emerges.

Meera is one of five women who each hold a part of the defeated goddess of death and chaos within them. When the group’s high priestess is murdered, Meera and her three remaining spirit sisters must undergo the Waning ceremony for the second time. Only one of them will be chosen to serve as a vessel for the goddess again. She will become high priestess and mother of witches. The other three women will die trying.

As Meera strives to survive the ceremony, she must also contend with the greed of the noble class and the faith her fellow Endzone laborers have put in her. Will she be able to kill the king and end his oppressive regime or will the king be successful in his quest to birth a new evil into the world? With only three months left until the Waning, time is not on Meera’s side.

Set in the desert kingdom of Ile-Oja, the waning reimagines aspects of Yoruba culture and spirituality to create a dazzling world unlike any other.]]> 432 Wunmi Aramiji Josh 0 to-read 3.44
author: Wunmi Aramiji
name: Josh
average rating: 3.44
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/27
shelves: to-read
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]]> 125341
But the Chee's problem is much deeper than anything the kids could have imagined. It's hidden in the ocean. So far down that no human has ever traveled there—and survived. And the Animorphs realize what will happen if Visser Three discovers the valuable secrets of the Chee. One of which is the Animorphs. . . .]]> 154 K.A. Applegate 0590762605 Josh 0 3.79 1999
author: K.A. Applegate
name: Josh
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at: 2024/06/25
date added: 2024/06/26
shelves:
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]]> 20518872 472 Liu Cixin Josh 4 4.08 2006
author: Liu Cixin
name: Josh
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/07
date added: 2024/06/23
shelves:
review:
Fun sci fi premise. I love the different factions of humanity shown. It left me with stress dreams in a fun way.
]]> 52577048 From the New York Times bestselling creator of The Iron Druid Chronicles comes the final book in the epic fantasy trilogy that began with A Plague of Giants, about a war that broke a continent—and opened the door to a new world.Seeker and SowerPen Yas ben Min’s cousin was one of the legendary heroes of the wars against the giants until her untimely death. Pen has grown up in her famous cousin’s shadow, but when she’s given a quest to plant the seed of the magical Fourth Tree, she has a chance to step into the light—and usher in a new age for her country.Fighter and FriendAbhi’s life—and the world—changed when he discovered a lost the power to speak to animals. After fighting so many battles, he’s weary and longs for home and his love, Tamhan. But before he can return, there is one last mission that only Abhi can to speak to the colossal creatures who wait beneath the waves—the krakens.Sailor and ExplorerKoesha and her shipmates have already made an impossible journey by navigating the Northern Yawn, at the end of which she secured an unusual cloak. But when that cloak turns out to be the key to unlocking the mystery of the Seventh Kenning, Koesha has to risk everything on another life-threatening journey and hope that she can steer her crew to safety.Don’t miss any of Kevin Hearne’s action-packed Seven Kennings seriesA PLAGUE OF GIANTS A BLIGHT OF BLACKWINGS A CURSE OF KRAKENS]]> 512 Kevin Hearne Josh 0 4.27 2023
author: Kevin Hearne
name: Josh
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/06/23
date added: 2024/06/23
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]]> 28877 454 Thomas Harris Josh 0 to-read 4.07 1981
author: Thomas Harris
name: Josh
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1981
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 35181570 The Son and the novels of Cormac McCarthy

An epic Western, a tough coming-of-age story, and a tension-laden tale of survival, Only Killers and Thieves is a gripping and utterly transporting debut that brings to vivid life a colonial Australian frontier that bears a striking resemblance to the American West in its formative years.

It is 1885 and the McBride family are trying to survive a crippling drought that is slowly eroding their lives and hopes: their cattle are starved, and the family can no longer purchase the supplies they need on their depleted credit. When the rain finally comes, it’s a miracle. For a moment, the scrubland flourishes and the remote swimming hole fills. Returning home from an afternoon swim, fourteen-year-old Tommy and sixteen-year-old Billy McBride discover a scene of heartbreaking carnage: their dogs dead in the yard, their hardworking father and mother shot to death, and their precocious younger sister unconscious and severely bleeding from a wound to her gut. The boys believe the killer is their former Aboriginal stockman, and, desperate to save Mary, they rush her to John Sullivan, the wealthiest landowner in the region and their father’s former employer, who promises to take care of them.

Eager for retribution, the distraught brothers fall sway to Sullivan, who persuades them to join his posse led by the Queensland Native Police, an infamous arm of British colonial power whose sole purpose is the “dispersal� of indigenous Australians to “protect� settler rights. The group is led by the intimidating inspector Edmund Noone, a dangerous and pragmatic officer whose intellect and ruthlessness both fascinates and unnerves the watchful Tommy. Riding for days across the barren outback, the group is determined to find the perpetrators they insist are guilty, for reasons neither of the brothers truly understands. It is a harsh and horrifying journey that will have a devastating impact on Tommy, tormenting him for the rest of his life—and hold enduring consequences for a young country struggling to come into its own.

Set in a period of Australian and British history as raw and relevant as that of the wild frontier of nineteenth-century America, Only Killers and Thieves is an unforgettable story of family, guilt, empire, race, manhood, and faith that combines the insightfulness of Philipp Meyer’s The Son with the atmospheric beauty of Amanda Coplin’s The Orchardist and the raw storytelling power of Ian McGuire’s The North Water.]]> 325 Paul Howarth 0062690965 Josh 0 to-read 3.99 2018
author: Paul Howarth
name: Josh
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/16
shelves: to-read
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]]> 2247142
It’s here, in the first volume of Patricia Highsmith’s five-book Ripley series, that we are introduced to the suave Tom Ripley, a young striver seeking to leave behind his past as an orphan bullied for being a “sissy.� Newly arrived in the heady world of Manhattan, Ripley meets a wealthy industrialist who hires him to bring his playboy son, Dickie Greenleaf, back from gallivanting in Italy. Soon Ripley’s fascination with Dickie’s debonair lifestyle turns obsessive as he finds himself enraged by Dickie’s ambivalent affections for Marge, a charming American dilettante, and Ripley begins a deadly game.

“Sinister and strangely alluring,� (Mark Harris, Entertainment Weekly) The Talented Mr. Ripley serves as an unforgettable introduction to this smooth confidence man, whose talent for self-invention is as unnerving—and unnervingly revealing of the American psyche—as ever.]]> 271 Patricia Highsmith Josh 0 to-read 3.96 1955
author: Patricia Highsmith
name: Josh
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1955
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/16
shelves: to-read
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]]> 180357146 From the New York Times-bestselling author of Cutting for Stone comes a stunning and magisterial epic of love, faith, and medicine, set in Kerala, South India, following three generations of a family seeking the answers to a strange secret

Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala's Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time. From this unforgettable new beginning, the young girl—and future matriarch, Big Ammachi—will witness unthinkable changes over the span of her extraordinary life, full of joy and triumph as well as hardship and loss, her faith and love the only constants.

A shimmering evocation of a bygone India and of the passage of time itself, The Covenant of Water is a hymn to progress in medicine and to human understanding, and a humbling testament to the hardships undergone by past generations for the sake of those alive today. Imbued with humor, deep emotion, and the essence of life, it is one of the most masterful literary novels published in recent years.]]> 715 Abraham Verghese 0802162177 Josh 0 to-read 4.34 2023
author: Abraham Verghese
name: Josh
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/05/16
shelves: to-read
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]]> 171681821
A must-read for all parents: the generation-defining investigation into the collapse of youth mental health in the era of smartphones, social media, and big tech—and a plan for a healthier, freer childhood.

“With tenacity and candor, Haidt lays out the consequences that have come with allowing kids to drift further into the virtual world . . . While also offering suggestions and solutions that could help protect a new generation of kids.� —Shannon Carlin, ,i>TIME, 100 Must-Read Books of 2024

After more than a decade of stability or improvement, the mental health of adolescents plunged in the early 2010s. Rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide rose sharply, more than doubling on many measures. Why?

In The Anxious Generation, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt lays out the facts about the epidemic of teen mental illness that hit many countries at the same time. He then investigates the nature of childhood, including why children need play and independent exploration to mature into competent, thriving adults. Haidt shows how the “play-based childhood� began to decline in the 1980s, and how it was finally wiped out by the arrival of the “phone-based childhood� in the early 2010s. He presents more than a dozen mechanisms by which this “great rewiring of childhood� has interfered with children’s social and neurological development, covering everything from sleep deprivation to attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, social comparison, and perfectionism. He explains why social media damages girls more than boys and why boys have been withdrawing from the real world into the virtual world, with disastrous consequences for themselves, their families, and their societies.

Most important, Haidt issues a clear call to action. He diagnoses the “collective action problems� that trap us, and then proposes four simple rules that might set us free. He describes steps that parents, teachers, schools, tech companies, and governments can take to end the epidemic of mental illness and restore a more humane childhood.

Haidt has spent his career speaking truth backed by data in the most difficult landscapes—communities polarized by politics and religion, campuses battling culture wars, and now the public health emergency faced by Gen Z. We cannot afford to ignore his findings about protecting our children—and ourselves—from the psychological damage of a phone-based life.]]> 400 Jonathan Haidt 0593655036 Josh 0 to-read 4.36 2024
author: Jonathan Haidt
name: Josh
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/05/16
shelves: to-read
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]]> 17333324
On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.

Once, she was the Justice of Toren - a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy.

Now, an act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with one fragile human body, unanswered questions, and a burning desire for vengeance.]]> 386 Ann Leckie Josh 4 3.98 2013
author: Ann Leckie
name: Josh
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/23
date added: 2024/05/12
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]]> 241387 A man with a painful past. A child with a doubtful future. And a shared journey toward healing for both their hearts.

It begins on the shaded town square in a sleepy Southern town. A spirited seven-year-old has a brisk business at her lemonade stand. But the little girl's pretty yellow dress can't quite hide the ugly scar on her chest.

Her latest customer, a bearded stranger, drains his cup and heads to his car, his mind on a boat he's restoring at a nearby lake. The stranger understands more about the scar than he wants to admit. And the beat-up bread truck careening around the corner with its radio blaring is about to change the trajectory of both their lives.

Before it's over, they'll both know there are painful reasons why crickets cry . . . and that miracles lurk around unexpected corners.]]> 352 Charles Martin 1595540547 Josh 0 to-read 4.25 2006
author: Charles Martin
name: Josh
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> 58733693 Remarkably Bright Creatures, an exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope, tracing a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus.

After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she's been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors--until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late.

Shelby Van Pelt's debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.]]> 368 Shelby Van Pelt 0063204150 Josh 0 to-read 4.35 2022
author: Shelby Van Pelt
name: Josh
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/05/04
shelves: to-read
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]]> 190165394 ASIN moved from less recent edition

A murderous android discovers itself in All Systems Red, a tense science fiction adventure by Martha Wells that interrogates the roots of consciousness through Artificial Intelligence.

"As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure."

In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety.

But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.

On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied �droid � a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.� Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is.

But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.]]> 156 Martha Wells Josh 4 4.24 2017
author: Martha Wells
name: Josh
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/28
date added: 2024/04/28
shelves:
review:
So glad i found this. Fun, light, interesting
]]> 59586621
Then one morning Devine’s tedious routine is shattered by an anonymous email: She is dead.

Sara Ewes, Devine’s coworker and former girlfriend, has been found hanging in a storage room of his office building—presumably a suicide, prompting the NYPD to come calling on him. If that wasn’t enough, Devine receives another ominous visit, a confrontation that threatens to dredge up grim secrets from his past in the Army unless he participates in a clandestine investigation into his firm.

This treacherous role will take Travis from the impossibly glittering lives he once saw only through a train window, to the darkest corners of the country’s economic halls of power…where something rotten lurks. And apart from this high-stakes conspiracy, there’s a killer out there with their own agenda, and Devine is the bullseye.]]> 593 David Baldacci 1538719878 Josh 0 to-read 4.17 2022
author: David Baldacci
name: Josh
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 75293507
Norris Black, Amber Blaeser-Wardzala, Phoenix Boudreau, Cherie Dimaline, Carson Faust, Kelli Jo Ford, Kate Hart, Shane Hawk, Brandon Hobson, Darcie Little Badger, Conley Lyons, Nick Medina, Tiffany Morris, Tommy Orange, Mona Susan Power, Marcie R. Rendon, Waubgeshig Rice, Rebecca Roanhorse, Andrea L. Rogers, Morgan Talty, D.H. Trujillo, Theodore C. Van Alst Jr., Richard Van Camp, David Heska, Wanbli Weiden, Royce Young, Wolf Mathilda Zeller.

Many Indigenous people believe that one should never whistle at night. This belief takes many forms: for instance, Native Hawaiians believe it summons the Hukai’po, the spirits of ancient warriors, and Native Mexicans say it calls Lechuza, a witch that can transform into an owl. But what all these legends hold in common is the certainty that whistling at night can cause evil spirits to appear—and even follow you home.

These wholly original and shiver-inducing tales introduce listeners to ghosts, curses, hauntings, monstrous creatures, complex family legacies, desperate deeds, and chilling acts of revenge. Introduced and contextualized by bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones, these stories are a celebration of Indigenous peoples� survival and imagination, and a glorious reveling in all the things an ill-advised whistle might summon.]]> 400 Shane Hawk 0593468465 Josh 0 3.90 2023
author: Shane Hawk
name: Josh
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/04/17
date added: 2024/04/17
shelves:
review:

]]> 13543121
Is it delirium or is it faith? She believes she has seen the angels of God. She believes the righteous dead speak to her in dreams. And now she has convinced the faithless Thomas to shepherd her across a depraved landscape to Avignon. There, she tells Thomas, she will fulfill her mission to confront the evil that has devastated the earth, and to restore to this betrayed, murderous knight the nobility and hope of salvation he long abandoned.

As hell unleashes its wrath, and as the true nature of the girl is revealed, Thomas will find himself on a macabre battleground of angels and demons, saints, and the risen dead, and in the midst of a desperate struggle for nothing less than the soul of man.]]> 432 Christopher Buehlman 1937007863 Josh 2 4.20 2012
author: Christopher Buehlman
name: Josh
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2012
rating: 2
read at: 2024/04/11
date added: 2024/04/11
shelves:
review:

]]> 194808 "Day had broken cold and grey, exceedingly cold and grey, when the man turned aside from the main Yukon trail and climbed the high earth- bank, where a dim and little-travelled trail led eastward through the fat spruce timberland..."

A man alone on the Yukon Trail—save for his dog—is planning on meeting friends when the day turns for the worse and he encounters severe cold reaching 75 degrees below zero. His luck only goes downhill from there when he gets wet after falling through the snow. Now, his only hope of surviving is to build a fire, but his lack of supplies, the extreme elements and his own diminishing senses prove to be an impenetrable barrier to his existence.

First published in 1902, 'To Build a Fire' is one of Jack London's most beloved short stories. A heartbreaking tale set in the vast wintry landscape of the North, it endures as one of the greatest adventures ever written.

Jack London (1876-1916) was an American novelist, journalist, and social activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to become an international celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing. His most famous works include 'The Call of the Wild' (1903) and 'White Fang' (1906), as well as the short stories 'To Build a Fire' (1902), 'An Odyssey of the North' (1900), and 'Love of Life' (1905).]]> 32 Jack London 0968709184 Josh 0 to-read 3.97 1902
author: Jack London
name: Josh
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1902
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 394535 Blood Meridian is an epic novel of the violence and depravity that attended America's westward expansion, brilliantly subverting the conventions of the Western novel and the mythology of the Wild West. Based on historical events that took place on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s, it traces the fortunes of the Kid, a fourteen-year-old Tennesseean who stumbles into a nightmarish world where Indians are being murdered and the market for their scalps is thriving.]]> 351 Cormac McCarthy Josh 0 to-read 4.18 1985
author: Cormac McCarthy
name: Josh
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1985
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 54814676
In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humour and heart, she tells of growing up the only Asian-American kid at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother’s particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother’s tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food. As she grew up, moving to the east coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, performing gigs with her fledgling band � and meeting the man who would become her husband � her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live.

It was her mother’s diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer, when Michelle was twenty-five, that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her.

Vivacious, lyrical and honest, Michelle Zauner’s voice is as radiantly alive on the page as it is onstage. Rich with intimate anecdotes that will resonate widely, Crying in H Mart is a book to cherish, share, and reread.]]> 243 Michelle Zauner 0525657746 Josh 0 to-read 4.25 2021
author: Michelle Zauner
name: Josh
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 51152447 The Warmth of Other Suns examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows how our lives today are still defined by a hierarchy of human divisions.

“As we go about our daily lives, caste is the wordless usher in a darkened theater, flashlight cast down in the aisles, guiding us to our assigned seats for a performance. The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power—which groups have it and which do not.�

In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings.

Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people’s lives and behavior and the nation’s fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people—including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball’s Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others—she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. She documents how the Nazis studied the racial systems in America to plan their out-cast of the Jews; she discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against; she writes about the surprising health costs of caste, in depression and life expectancy, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and politics. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity.]]> 544 Isabel Wilkerson 0593230256 Josh 0 to-read 4.52 2020
author: Isabel Wilkerson
name: Josh
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 6288
A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don’t know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other.

The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, “each the other’s world entire,� are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation.]]> 241 Cormac McCarthy 0307265439 Josh 4 3.99 2006
author: Cormac McCarthy
name: Josh
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/31
date added: 2024/03/31
shelves:
review:
Mad Max but really sad and really cold. Not for you if you love plot.
]]> 60194162 "Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose."

Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.

Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind.]]> 560 Barbara Kingsolver 0063251922 Josh 0 to-read 4.46 2022
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Josh
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 176443093
Patric Gagne realized she made others uncomfortable before she started kindergarten. Something about her caused people to react in a way she didn’t understand. She suspected it was because she didn’t feel things the way other kids did. Emotions like fear, guilt, and empathy eluded her. For the most part, she felt nothing. And she didn’t like the way that “nothing� felt.

She did her best to pretend she was like everyone else, but the constant pressure to conform to a society she knew rejected anyone like her was unbearable. So Patric stole. She lied. She was occasionally violent. She became an expert lock-picker and home-invader. All with the goal of replacing the nothingness with...something.

In college, Patric finally confirmed what she’d long suspected. She was a sociopath. But even though it was the very first personality disorder identified—well over 200 years ago—sociopathy had been neglected by mental health professionals for decades. She was told there was no treatment, no hope for a normal life. She found herself haunted by sociopaths in pop culture, madmen and evil villains who are considered monsters. Her future looked grim.

But when Patric reconnects with an old flame, she gets a glimpse of a future beyond her diagnosis. If she’s capable of love, it must mean that she isn’t a monster. With the help of her sweetheart (and some curious characters she meets along the way) she embarks on a mission to prove that the millions of Americans who share her diagnosis aren’t all monsters either.

This is the inspiring story of her journey to change her fate and how she managed to build a life full of love and hope.]]> 368 Patric Gagne 166800318X Josh 0 to-read 3.74 2024
author: Patric Gagne
name: Josh
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 58416952 At the elite Catenan Academy, a young fugitive uncovers layered mysteries and world-changing secrets in this new fantasy series by internationally bestselling author of The Licanius Trilogy, James Islington.

AUDI. VIDE. TACE.

The Catenan Republic � the Hierarchy � may rule the world now, but they do not know everything.

I tell them my name is Vis Telimus. I tell them I was orphaned after a tragic accident three years ago, and that good fortune alone has led to my acceptance into their most prestigious school. I tell them that once I graduate, I will gladly join the rest of civilised society in allowing my strength, my drive and my focus � what they call Will � to be leeched away and added to the power of those above me, as millions already do. As all must eventually do.

I tell them that I belong, and they believe me.

But the truth is that I have been sent to the Academy to find answers. To solve a murder. To search for an ancient weapon. To uncover secrets that may tear the Republic apart.

And that I will never, ever cede my Will to the empire that executed my family.

To survive, though, I will still have to rise through the Academy’s ranks. I will have to smile, and make friends, and pretend to be one of them and win. Because if I cannot, then those who want to control me, who know my real name, will no longer have any use for me.

And if the Hierarchy finds out who I truly am, they will kill me.]]> 639 James Islington 1982141190 Josh 4 4.60 2023
author: James Islington
name: Josh
average rating: 4.60
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/21
date added: 2024/03/21
shelves:
review:
I know every one is tired of the fantasy magic school trope but HEAR ME OUT
]]> 58784475 In this exhilarating novel, two friends—often in love, but never lovers—come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.

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

Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.]]> 401 Gabrielle Zevin 0735243344 Josh 0 4.12 2022
author: Gabrielle Zevin
name: Josh
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2024/03/09
date added: 2024/03/09
shelves:
review:

]]> 25372801 316 Charlie Jane Anders 0765379945 Josh 0 to-read 3.57 2016
author: Charlie Jane Anders
name: Josh
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 53487148 This is the women’s war, just as much as it is the men’s. They have waited long enough for their turn . . .

This was never the story of one woman, or two. It was the story of them all . . .

In the middle of the night, a woman wakes to find her beloved city engulfed in flames. Ten seemingly endless years of conflict between the Greeks and the Trojans are over. Troy has fallen.

From the Trojan women whose fates now lie in the hands of the Greeks, to the Amazon princess who fought Achilles on their behalf, to Penelope awaiting the return of Odysseus, to the three goddesses whose feud started it all, these are the stories of the women whose lives, loves, and rivalries were forever altered by this long and tragic war.

A woman’s epic, powerfully imbued with new life, A Thousand Ships puts the women, girls and goddesses at the center of the Western world’s great tale ever told.]]> 368 Natalie Haynes 0063065398 Josh 4 4.05 2019
author: Natalie Haynes
name: Josh
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/25
date added: 2024/02/25
shelves:
review:
Woah i loved this. It was really fun and super interesting. It took the glamour from mythology and made you stare down the repercussions of epics
]]> 157265081
From dawn to midnight over the course of a single day, follow the Kingkiller Chronicle's most charming fae as he schemes and sneaks, dancing into trouble and back out again with uncanny grace.

The Narrow Road Between Desires is Bast's story. In it he traces the old ways of making and breaking, following his heart even when doing so goes against his better judgement.

After all, what good is caution if it keeps him from danger and delight?]]> 240 Patrick Rothfuss 0756419182 Josh 0 4.01 2023
author: Patrick Rothfuss
name: Josh
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/02/10
date added: 2024/02/12
shelves:
review:

]]> 60784546 After centuries of sleep, the gods are warring again�

All eighteen-year-old Iris Winnow wants to do is hold her family together. With a brother on the frontline forced to fight on behalf of the Gods now missing from the frontline and a mother drowning her sorrows, Iris’s best bet is winning the columnist promotion at the Oath Gazette.

But when Iris’s letters to her brother fall into the wrong hands � that of the handsome but cold Roman Kitt, her rival at the paper � an unlikely magical connection forms.

Expelled into the middle of a mystical war, magical typewriters in tow, can their bond withstand the fight for the fate of mankind and, most importantly, love?

An epic enemies-to-lovers fantasy novel filled with hope and heartbreak, and the unparalleled power of love.]]> 357 Rebecca Ross 1250857430 Josh 3 4.14 2023
author: Rebecca Ross
name: Josh
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/30
date added: 2024/01/31
shelves:
review:
Loved the WW2 fantasy vibes. The last chapter was the most interesting part for me. I wish it had leaned more heavily into building the cool world and religion lore and less on the breakneck speed enemies to lovers plot.
]]> 64222
It was a tough decision.

But he has to see that the mail gets through, come rain, hail, sleet, dogs, the Post Office Workers' Friendly and Benevolent Society, the evil chairman of the Grand Trunk Semaphore Company, and a midnight killer.

Getting a date with Adora Bell Dearheart would be nice, too.

Maybe it'll take a criminal to succeed where honest men have failed, or maybe it's a death sentence either way.

Or perhaps there's a shot at redemption in the mad world of the mail, waiting for a man who's prepared to push the envelope...]]> 394 Terry Pratchett 0060502932 Josh 4 4.40 2004
author: Terry Pratchett
name: Josh
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/21
date added: 2024/01/21
shelves:
review:

]]> 123183412
This commitment to authenticity has never been more on display than in Down the Drain . With writing that is both eloquent and accessible, Fox recounts her turbulent path to cultural her parents� volatile relationship that divided her childhood between Italy and New York City and left her largely raising herself; a possessive and abusive drug-dealing boyfriend whose torment continued even from within Rikers Island; her own trips to jail as well as to a psychiatric hospital; her work as a dominatrix that led to a complicated entanglement with a sugar daddy; a heroin habit that led to New Orleans trap houses and that she would kick only after the fatal overdose of her best friend; her own near-lethal overdoses and the deaths of still more friends from drugs and suicide; an emotionally explosive, tabloid-dominating romance with a figure she dubs “The Artist�; a whirlwind, short-lived marriage and her trials as a single parent striving to support her young son. Yet as extraordinary as her story is, its universality is what makes it so powerful. Fox doesn’t just capture her improbable evolution from grade-school outcast to fashion-world icon, she captures her transition from girlhood to womanhood to motherhood. Family and friendship, sex and death, violence and love, money and power, innocence and experience—it’s all here, in raw, remarkable and riveting detail.

More than a year before the book’s publication, Fox’s description of it as “a masterpiece� in a red carpet interview went viral. As always, she was just being honest. Down the Drain is a true literary achievement, as one-of-a-kind as its author.]]> 318 Julia Fox 1668011506 Josh 0 to-read 4.38 2023
author: Julia Fox
name: Josh
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 50623864
Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.

But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.]]> 448 Victoria E. Schwab 0765387565 Josh 3 Fun and interesting premise. 4.16 2020
author: Victoria E. Schwab
name: Josh
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/07
date added: 2024/01/07
shelves:
review:
Fun and interesting premise.
]]> 203356485 67 Brandon Sanderson Josh 2 3.45 2023
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Josh
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2023/12/23
date added: 2023/12/24
shelves:
review:

]]> 17349222 State of Wonder, Run,Ěý˛ą˛Ô»ĺĚýBel Canto, examines her deepest commitments â€� to writing, family, friends, dogs, books, and her husband â€� creating a resonant portrait of a life in This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage.

This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage takes us into the very real world of Ann Patchett’s life. Stretching from her childhood to the present day, from a disastrous early marriage to a later happy one, it covers a multitude of topics, including relationships with family and friends, and charts the hard work and joy of writing, and the unexpected thrill of opening a bookstore.

As she shares stories of the people, places, ideals, and art to which she has remained indelibly committed, Ann Patchett brings into focus the large experiences and small moments that have shaped her as a daughter, wife, and writer.]]> 308 Ann Patchett 0062236679 Josh 0 to-read 4.00 2013
author: Ann Patchett
name: Josh
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 41940388 Idir is sitting the British Citizenship Test.
He wants his family to belong.

Twenty-five questions to determine their fate. Twenty-five chances to impress.

When the test takes an unexpected and tragic turn, Idir is handed the power of life and death.
How do you value a life when all you have is multiple choice?]]> 108 Sylvain Neuvel 1250312833 Josh 4 3.82 2019
author: Sylvain Neuvel
name: Josh
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/11
date added: 2023/12/10
shelves:
review:

]]> 75486751 When a summer storm sweeps through a sleepy town unleashing a monstrous and otherworldy power that threatens to break reality, Olivia will stop at nothing to find her best friend and get them to safety.

Mona Awad’s Bunny meets Stranger Things in this mind-bending and terrifying examination of female friendship and the lengths we'll go to protect the ones we love, from the Bram Stoker award winning author of Queen of Teeth.

Three years after running away from home, Olivia is stuck with a dead-end job in nowhere town Chapel Hill, Pennsylvania. At least she has her best friend, Sunflower.

Olivia figures she’ll die in Chapel Hill, if not from boredom, then the summer night storm which crashes into town with a mind-bending monster in tow.

If Olivia’s going to escape Chapel Hill and someday reconcile with her parents, she’ll need to dodge residents enslaved by the storm’s otherworldly powers and find Sunflower.

But as the night strains friendships and reality itself, Olivia suspects the storm, and its monster, may have its eyes on Sunflower and everything she loves.

Including Olivia.]]> 272 Hailey Piper 1803364203 Josh 2 3.14 2023
author: Hailey Piper
name: Josh
average rating: 3.14
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2023/12/10
date added: 2023/12/10
shelves:
review:
This book was so strange. I gave it one extra star for being the strangest book ever, which seems like it should count for something.
]]> 60531420 From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson―creator of The Stormlight Archive, the Mistborn Saga, and countless bestselling works of science fiction and fantasy―comes this standalone novel showing a rare glimpse of a future Cosmere universe.

Running. Putting distance between himself and the relentless Night Brigade has been Nomad’s strategy for years. Staying one or two steps ahead of his pursuers by skipping through the Cosmere from one world to the next.

But now, his powers too depleted to escape, Nomad finds himself trapped on Canticle, a planet that will kill anyone who doesn’t keep moving. Fleeing the fires of a sunrise that melts the very stones, he is instantly caught up in the struggle between a heartless tyrant and the brave rebels who defy him.

Failure means a quick death, incinerated by the sun� or a lifetime as a mindless slave. Tormented by the consequences of his past, Nomad must fight not only for his survival―but also for his very soul.]]> 447 Brandon Sanderson 1938570391 Josh 0 4.28 2023
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Josh
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2023/10/28
date added: 2023/11/03
shelves:
review:

]]> 518848
With Sabriel, the first installment in the Abhorsen series, Garth Nix exploded onto the fantasy scene as a rising star, in a novel that takes readers to a world where the line between the living and the dead isn't always clear—and sometimes disappears altogether.]]> 491 Garth Nix 0064471837 Josh 4 4.17 1995
author: Garth Nix
name: Josh
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at: 2023/10/04
date added: 2023/10/04
shelves:
review:
Girl with a cat ringing bells to slay demons. Whats not to love.
]]> 35068635
The youngest of thirteen children in a devout Catholic family, Tina Alexis Allen grew up in 1980s suburban Maryland in a house ruled by her stern father, Sir John, an imposing, British-born authoritarian who had been knighted by the Pope. Sir John supported his large family running a successful travel agency that specialized in religious tours to the Holy Land and the Vatican for pious Catholics.

But his daughter, Tina, was no sweet and innocent Catholic girl. A smart-mouthed high school basketball prodigy, she harbored a painful secret: she liked girls. When Tina was eighteen her father accidently discovered the truth about her sexuality. Instead of dragging her to the family priest and lecturing her with tearful sermons about sin and damnation, her father shocked her with his honest response. He, too, was gay.

The secret they shared about their sexuality brought father and daughter closer, and the two became trusted confidants and partners in a relationship that eventually spiraled out of control. Tina and Sir John spent nights dancing in gay clubs together, experimenting with drugs, and engaging in sex with their respective partners in public places—all while keeping the rest of their family in the dark.

Outside of their wild clandestine escapades, Sir John made Tina his heir apparent at the travel agency. Drawn deeper into the business, Tina soon became suspicious of her father’s frequent business trips, his multiple passports and cache of illegal documents, and the briefcases full of cash that mysteriously appeared and quickly vanished. Digging deeper, she uncovered a disturbing facet beyond the stunning double-life of the father she thought she knew.

A riveting and cinematic true tale stranger and twistier than fiction, Hiding Out is an astonishing story of self-discovery, family, secrets, and the power of the truth to set us free.]]> 288 Tina Alexis Allen 0062565702 Josh 3 3.48 2018
author: Tina Alexis Allen
name: Josh
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/23
date added: 2023/09/23
shelves:
review:
This was wild. Hats off to Tina for surviving. I loved the way she could put you in the mindset of her many decades ago. Unsettlingly real.
]]> 52694527 Set in a brand-new, Norse-inspired world, and packed with myth, magic and bloody vengeance, The Shadow of the Gods begins an epic new fantasy saga from bestselling author John Gwynne.

After the gods warred and drove themselves to extinction, the cataclysm of their fall shattered the land of VigriĂ°.

Now a new world is rising, where power-hungry jarls feud and monsters stalk the woods and mountains. A world where the bones of the dead gods still hold great power for those brave - or desperate - enough to seek them out.

Now, as whispers of war echo across the mountains and fjords, fate follows in the footsteps of three people: a huntress on a dangerous quest, a noblewoman who has rejected privilege in pursuit of battle fame, and a thrall who seeks vengeance among the famed mercenaries known as the Bloodsworn.

All three will shape the fate of the world as it once more falls under the shadow of the gods . . .]]> 480 John Gwynne 0356514188 Josh 4 4.19 2021
author: John Gwynne
name: Josh
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/20
date added: 2023/09/22
shelves:
review:
Loved. Grimm fairytales meet vikings. Enjoyed all the main characters. The magic system and lore was just right.
]]> 5062
But when Flick and her Resistance-leader husband try a direct, head-on assault that goes horribly wrong, her world turns upside down. Her group destroyed, her husband missing, her superiors unsure of her, her own confidence badly shaken, she has one last chance at the target, but the challenge, once daunting, is now near impossible. The new plan requires an all-woman team, none of them professionals, to be assembled and trained within days. Code-named the Jackdaws, they will attempt to infiltrate the exchange under the noses of the Germans—but the Germans are waiting for them now and have plans of their own. There are secrets Flick does not know—secrets within the German ranks, secrets among her hastily recruited team, secrets among those she trusts the most. And as the hours tick down to the point of no return, most daunting of all, there are secrets within herself. . . .]]> 432 Ken Follett 0451219597 Josh 0 to-read 3.98 2001
author: Ken Follett
name: Josh
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 56769575
For two thousand years, cadavers—some willingly, some unwittingly—have been involved in science’s boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. They’ve tested France’s first guillotines, ridden the NASA Space Shuttle, been crucified in a Parisian laboratory to test the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, and helped solve the mystery of TWA Flight 800. For every new surgical procedure, from heart transplants to gender confirmation surgery, cadavers have helped make history in their quiet way. Stiff investigates the strange lives of our bodies postmortem and answers the question: What should we do after we die?]]> 320 Mary Roach 0393881725 Josh 0 to-read 4.13 2003
author: Mary Roach
name: Josh
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 37794149
Now, Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her Station from Teixcalaan's unceasing expansion—all while navigating an alien culture that is all too seductive, engaging in intrigues of her own, and hiding a deadly technological secret—one that might spell the end of her Station and her way of life—or rescue it from annihilation.]]> 448 Arkady Martine 1529001587 Josh 4 4.08 2019
author: Arkady Martine
name: Josh
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/26
date added: 2023/08/26
shelves:
review:
Ok wait this was good. Think high politics intergalactic space drama. If you were the person who recommended this to me, thank you
]]> 61431922 Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders...

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile� humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die]]> 528 Rebecca Yarros 1649374046 Josh 2 4.56 2023
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: Josh
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2023/08/26
date added: 2023/08/26
shelves:
review:
Spicy hunger games. One extra star for badass dragons.
]]> 18693763
Lydia is the favourite child of Marilyn and James Lee; a girl who inherited her mother's bright blue eyes and her father's jet-black hair. Her parents are determined that Lydia will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue - in Marilyn's case that her daughter become a doctor rather than a homemaker, in James's case that Lydia be popular at school, a girl with a busy social life and the centre of every party. But Lydia is under pressures that have nothing to do with growing up in 1970s small town Ohio. Her father is an American born of first-generation Chinese immigrants, and his ethnicity, and hers, make them conspicuous in any setting.

When Lydia's body is found in the local lake, James is consumed by guilt and sets out on a reckless path that may destroy his marriage. Marilyn, devastated and vengeful, is determined to make someone accountable, no matter what the cost. Lydia's older brother, Nathan, is convinced that local bad boy Jack is somehow involved. But it's the youngest in the family - Hannah - who observes far more than anyone realises and who may be the only one who knows what really happened.

Everything I Never Told You is a gripping page-turner, about secrets, love, longing, lies and race.

Librarian's note: There is an Alternate Cover Edition for this edition of this book here.]]> 297 Celeste Ng 159420571X Josh 0 to-read 3.81 2014
author: Celeste Ng
name: Josh
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 944076
Logen Ninefingers might only have one more fight in him, but it's going to be a big one. Battle rages across the North, the King of the Northmen still stands firm, and there's only one man who can stop him. His oldest friend, and his oldest enemy: it's time for the Bloody-Nine to come home.

With too many masters and too little time, Superior Glokta is fighting a different kind of war. A secret struggle in which no-one is safe, and no-one can be trusted. And, as his days with a sword are far behind him, it's fortunate that he's deadly with his remaining weapons: threats, blackmail and torture.

Jezal dan Luthar has decided that winning glory is too painful an undertaking and turned his back on soldiering for a simple life with the woman he loves. But love can be painful too � and glory has a nasty habit of creeping up on a man when he least expects it.

While the King of the Union lies on his deathbead, the peasants revolt and the nobles scramble to steal his crown. No-one believes that the shadow of war is about to fall across the heart of the Union. Only the First of the Magi has a plan to save the world � as he always does � but this time there are risks. There is no risk more terrible, after all, than to break the First Law...]]> 536 Joe Abercrombie 0575077905 Josh 0 4.35 2008
author: Joe Abercrombie
name: Josh
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at: 2023/08/13
date added: 2023/08/13
shelves:
review:

]]> 150739 not supposed to be: headstrong, tomboyish, smart - and bored. So bored that she runs away to live with a dragon - and finds the family and excitement she's been looking for.

Cover illustrator: Peter de Sève]]> 240 Patricia C. Wrede 015204566X Josh 0 4.16 1990
author: Patricia C. Wrede
name: Josh
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1990
rating: 0
read at: 2023/08/03
date added: 2023/08/03
shelves:
review:

]]> 60531416 #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson brings us a gripping story set in the Cosmere universe told by Hoid, where two people from incredibly different worlds must compromise and work together to save their worlds from ruin.

Yumi comes from a land of gardens, meditation, and spirits, while Painter lives in a world of darkness, technology, and nightmares. When their lives suddenly become intertwined in strange ways, can they put aside their differences and work together to uncover the mysteries of their situation and save each other’s communities from certain disaster?]]> 480 Brandon Sanderson 1938570375 Josh 5
A beautiful story with compelling characters. Sanderson always does a wonderful job highlighting small victories in the mundane routine of what it is to be human. I had tears dripping off my face by the end. ]]> 4.45 2023
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Josh
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/14
date added: 2023/07/14
shelves:
review:
Holy crap this was a great book. It took a while for me to get totally invested but then I was sprinting through the last half.

A beautiful story with compelling characters. Sanderson always does a wonderful job highlighting small victories in the mundane routine of what it is to be human. I had tears dripping off my face by the end.
]]> 7235533 From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings, book one of The Stormlight Archive begins an incredible new saga of epic proportion.

Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter.

It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars were fought for them, and won by them.

One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear to protect his little brother, has been reduced to slavery. In a war that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe, he struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendable.

Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Like his brother, the late king, he is fascinated by an ancient text called The Way of Kings. Troubled by over-powering visions of ancient times and the Knights Radiant, he has begun to doubt his own sanity.

Across the ocean, an untried young woman named Shallan seeks to train under an eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar's niece, Jasnah. Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan's motives are less than pure. As she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war.

The result of over ten years of planning, writing, and world-building, The Way of Kings is but the opening movement of the Stormlight Archive, a bold masterpiece in the making.

Speak again the ancient oaths:

Life before death.
Strength before weakness.
Journey before Destination.

and return to men the Shards they once bore.

The Knights Radiant must stand again.]]> 1007 Brandon Sanderson 0765326353 Josh 0 faves 4.66 2010
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Josh
average rating: 4.66
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at: 2024/03/23
date added: 2023/06/22
shelves: faves
review:

]]> 59838811 You are the next step in human evolution.

At first, Logan Ramsay isn’t sure if anything’s different. He just feels a little . . . sharper. Better able to concentrate. Better at multitasking. Reading a bit faster, memorizing better, needing less sleep.

But before long, he can’t deny it: Something’s happening to his brain. To his body. He’s starting to see the world, and those around him—even those he loves most—in whole new ways.

The truth is, Logan’s genome has been hacked. And there’s a reason he’s been targeted for this upgrade. A reason that goes back decades to the darkest part of his past, and a horrific family legacy.

Worse still, what’s happening to him is just the first step in a much larger plan, one that will inflict the same changes on humanity at large—at a terrifying cost.

Because of his new abilities, Logan’s the one person in the world capable of stopping what’s been set in motion. But to have a chance at winning this war, he’ll have to become something other than himself. Maybe even something other than human.

And even as he’s fighting, he can’t help wondering: what if humanity’s only hope for a future really does lie in engineering our own evolution?

Intimate in scale yet epic in scope, Upgrade is an intricately plotted, lightning-fast tale that charts one man’s thrilling transformation, even as it asks us to ponder the limits of our humanity—and our boundless potential.]]> 352 Blake Crouch 0593157532 Josh 4 3.77 2022
author: Blake Crouch
name: Josh
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/20
date added: 2023/06/22
shelves:
review:
I love Blake Crouch. This book is as masterfully thought out as ever. I always love his premises. I didn’t love this ending.
]]> 59883574 A lively, data-driven guide to finding your people from psychologist Dr. Marisa G. Franco about the (sometimes surprising) science behind making friends, maintaining them, and building connections of ALL sorts in an era of social fragmentation and rampant loneliness.

Loneliness is an epidemic, in part due to a culture that prioritizes romance at the expense of all other relationships. But in fact, science shows that platonic friendships are a crucial--possibly THE crucial--key to shaping who we are and how we can become our happiest, most fulfilled selves. So how do we nurture meaningful relationships in an era of distraction, burnout, and chaos?

Just as economist Emily Oster (Crib Sheet) breaks down the science of child-rearing by countering fables with facts, psychologist and professor Marissa G. Franco unpacks the latest (often counterintuitive) findings about friendship--for example, why your friends aren't texting you back (it's not because they hate you!), and the myth of "just showing up" (you need to bring more than your mere presence to the table to make real friends!). Forging lasting bonds with other people isn't rocket science...but it does take work, and there are research-based ways to improve the number and quality of your connections. The good news: the benefits can be massive to not just our sense of wellbeing but also to our physical health.

With vivid, relatable storytelling bolstered by the latest psychological research, Platonic provides a clear and actionable blueprint for understanding and conquering the barriers that keep you from forging strong, lasting connections with others. In short, Platonic will give you permission to hold friendship in the highest regard--because it deserves to be.]]> 336 Marisa G. Franco 0593331893 Josh 0 to-read 4.05 2022
author: Marisa G. Franco
name: Josh
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 902715
Northmen have spilled over the border of Angland and are spreading fire and death across the frozen country. Crown Prince Ladisla is poised to drive them back and win undying glory. There is only one problem � he commands the worst-armed, worst-trained, worst-led army in the world.

And Bayaz, the First of the Magi, is leading a party of bold adventurers on a perilous mission through the ruins of the past. The most hated woman in the South, the most feared man in the North, and the most selfish boy in the Union make a strange alliance, but a deadly one. They might even stand a chance of saving mankind from the Eaters. If they didn't hate each other quite so much.

Ancient secrets will be uncovered. Bloody battles will be won and lost. Bitter enemies will be forgiven � but not before they are hanged.]]> 441 Joe Abercrombie 0575077883 Josh 0 4.35 2007
author: Joe Abercrombie
name: Josh
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at: 2023/06/12
date added: 2023/06/12
shelves:
review:

]]> 22822858
Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever.]]> 720 Hanya Yanagihara 0385539258 Josh 3 4.28 2015
author: Hanya Yanagihara
name: Josh
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2023/04/30
date added: 2023/05/21
shelves:
review:
This made me sad. In the intended way but also because I hated that the only solution for Jude and Willems friendship was a romantic relationship. I deeply wanted this to be a book affirming the strength in male friendships. The inevitable relationship made me bummed.
]]> 53450790 Would you defend your husband if he was accused of killing his mistress?

Sarah Morgan is a successful and powerful defense attorney in Washington D.C. At 33 years old, she is a named partner at her firm and life is going exactly how she planned.

The same cannot be said for her husband, Adam. He is a struggling writer who has had little success in his career. He begins to tire of his and Sarah’s relationship as she is constantly working.

Out in the secluded woods, at Adam and Sarah’s second home, Adam engages in a passionate affair with Kelly Summers.

Then, one morning everything changes. Adam is arrested for Kelly’s murder. She had been found stabbed to death in Adam and Sarah’s second home.

Sarah soon finds herself playing the defender for her own husband, a man accused of murdering his mistress.

But is Adam guilty or is he innocent?]]> 337 Jeneva Rose 1913419657 Josh 2
Think of an even more outrageous version of Mr. and Mrs. Smith meets a telenovela. ]]> 3.90 2020
author: Jeneva Rose
name: Josh
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2023/05/21
date added: 2023/05/21
shelves:
review:
I gave it one extra star just because of the intrigue of seeing how such a ridiculous story might end.

Think of an even more outrageous version of Mr. and Mrs. Smith meets a telenovela.
]]> 373755 316 William Faulkner 0679732187 Josh 0 to-read 3.98 1936
author: William Faulkner
name: Josh
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1936
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/05/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 400
In this powerful, unsettling novel, Don DeLillo chronicles Lee Harvey Oswald's odyssey from troubled teenager to a man of precarious stability who imagines himself an agent of history. When "history" presents itself in the form of two disgruntled CIA operatives who decide that an unsuccessful attempt on the life of the president will galvanize the nation against communism, the scales are irrevocably tipped.

A gripping, masterful blend of fact and fiction, alive with meticulously portrayed characters both real and created, Libra is a grave, haunting, and brilliant examination of an event that has become an indelible part of the American psyche.]]> 480 Don DeLillo 0140156046 Josh 0 to-read 4.05 1988
author: Don DeLillo
name: Josh
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1988
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/05/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 57413675 Christians are hungry for a return to their own tradition to cultivate meditation practices that are both psychologically and spiritually fruitful. In recent decades, mindfulness meditation, which originates from the Buddhist tradition, has been embraced in many settings as a method for addressing a plethora of symptoms. What would it look like to turn instead to the Christian faith for resources to more effectively identify and respond to psychological suffering? Over the last decade, Dr. Joshua Knabb has conducted a variety of empirical studies on Christian meditation, focusing on both building theory and testing specific, replicable practices. In this overview and workbook he presents the foundations of a Christian-sensitive approach to meditation in clinical practice. Filled with practical features for immediate use by Christian clients and their therapists, Christian Meditation in Clinical Practice provides

an introduction to the rich resources on meditation from eight major streams of the Christian tradition practices from the early desert Christians, Ignatius of Loyola, Celtic Christians, the Puritans, contemporary writers, and many others guidance for targeting transdiagnostic processes--patterns of cognition, affect, behavior, the self, and relationships that may lead to psychological suffering research-based evidence for the benefits of Christian meditation client-friendly tools for practicing meditation, including step-by-step instructions, worksheets, journaling prompts, and links to tailored audio resources Using the approach of Christian psychology, Knabb's model dually builds on a biblical worldview and integrates the latest research in clinical psychology. As clients engage the variety of meditative exercises in this book, they will move toward healthier responses to difficult experiences and a deeper awareness of, and contentment in, God.]]> 264 Joshua J. Knabb 1514000245 Josh 0 to-read 4.14
author: Joshua J. Knabb
name: Josh
average rating: 4.14
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/05/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>