en-US Sat, 05 Apr 2025 20:44:26 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 53238858 Our earliest experiences shape our lives far down the road, and What Happened to You? provides powerful scientific and emotional insights into the behavioral patterns so many of us struggle to understand.

“Through this lens we can build a renewed sense of personal self-worth and ultimately recalibrate our responses to circumstances, situations, and relationships. It is, in other words, the key to reshaping our very lives.�—Oprah Winfrey

This book is going to change the way you see your life.

Have you ever wondered "Why did I do that?" or "Why can't I just control my behavior?" Others may judge our reactions and think, "What's wrong with that person?" When questioning our emotions, it's easy to place the blame on ourselves; holding ourselves and those around us to an impossible standard. It's time we started asking a different question.

Through deeply personal conversations, Oprah Winfrey and renowned brain and trauma expert Dr. Bruce Perry offer a groundbreaking and profound shift from asking “What’s wrong with you?� to “What happened to you?�

Here, Winfrey shares stories from her own past, understanding through experience the vulnerability that comes from facing trauma and adversity at a young age. In conversation throughout the book, she and Dr. Perry focus on understanding people, behavior, and ourselves. It’s a subtle but profound shift in our approach to trauma, and it’s one that allows us to understand our pasts in order to clear a path to our future—opening the door to resilience and healing in a proven, powerful way.]]> 304 Bruce D. Perry 1250223180 Candice 0 4.43 2021
author: Bruce D. Perry
name: Candice
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/05
shelves: currently-reading, nonfiction, read-as-an-ebook, read-or-started-2025, recommended-by-friends, self-help
review:

]]> 214151301 Set over the course of one day, a heart-racing story about a woman facing the unimaginable, determined to find safety

Annie is nine months pregnant and shopping for a crib at IKEA when a massive earthquake hits Portland, Oregon. With no way to reach her husband, no phone or money, and a city left in chaos, she realizes there’s nothing to do but walk.

Making her way across the wreckage of Portland, Annie experiences human desperation and kindness: strangers offering help, a riot at a grocery store, and an unlikely friendship with a young mother. As she walks, Annie reflects on her struggling marriage, her disappointing career, and her anxiety about having a baby. She’s determined to change her life if she can just make it home.]]> 229 Emma Pattee 1668055473 Candice 0 to-read, powells-suggestions 3.87 2025
author: Emma Pattee
name: Candice
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/05
shelves: to-read, powells-suggestions
review:

]]> 214331246 When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?

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

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

When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.]]> 382 Suzanne Collins 1546171460 Candice 4
I had to pause reading after the first chapter or two, though, to go skim-read The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and remind myself of names and its plot details. It helped a lot.]]> 4.67 2025
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Candice
average rating: 4.67
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/26
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: fiction, read-or-started-2025, young-adult-books
review:
It took me a bit to decide, but in the end, I liked this a lot. The parts in the arena were my favorite and moved quickly. It was interesting, for lack of a better word, to see how an author chooses to flesh out a story where you already know the bare bones of what happened. All in all, I thought she did a good job and this was a worthy addition to the series.

I had to pause reading after the first chapter or two, though, to go skim-read The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and remind myself of names and its plot details. It helped a lot.
]]> 8663600 288 Suzanne Collins 0545317800 Candice 3 3.95 2010
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Candice
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/28
date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: read-as-an-ebook, young-adult-books, fiction, all-time-favorites, read-or-started-2015, read-or-started-2016, read-or-started-2020, read-or-started-2022, read-or-started-2023, read-or-started-2025
review:

]]> 8376549 391 Suzanne Collins 0545227240 Candice 4 4.27 2009
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Candice
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/22
date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: fiction, young-adult-books, read-as-an-ebook, all-time-favorites, read-or-started-2015, read-or-started-2016, read-or-started-2020, read-or-started-2022, read-or-started-2023, read-or-started-2025
review:

]]> 199440249 definitely not.

Theo and Kit have been a lot of things: childhood best friends, crushes, in love, and now estranged exes. After a brutal breakup on the transatlantic flight to their dream European food and wine tour, they exited each other's lives once and for all.

Time apart has done them good. Theo has found confidence as a hustling bartender by night and aspiring sommelier by day, with a long roster of casual lovers. Kit, who never returned to America, graduated as the reigning sex god of his pastry school class and now bakes at one of the finest restaurants in Paris. Sure, nothing really compares to what they had, and life stretches out long and lonely ahead of them, but—yeah. It's in the past.

All that remains is the unused voucher for the European tour that never happened, good for 48 months after its original date and about to expire. Four years later, it seems like a great idea to finally take the trip. Solo. Separately.

It's not until they board the tour bus that they discover they've both accidentally had the exact same idea, and now they're trapped with each other for three weeks of stunning views, luscious flavors, and the most romantic cities of France, Spain, and Italy. It's fine. There's nothing left between them. So much nothing that, when Theo suggests a friendly wager to see who can sleep with their hot Italian tour guide first, Kit is totally game. And why stop there? Why not a full-on European hookup competition?

But sometimes a taste of everything only makes you crave what you can't have.]]> 432 Casey McQuiston 1250862744 Candice 0 3.70 2024
author: Casey McQuiston
name: Candice
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: fiction, library-book, read-as-an-ebook, read-or-started-2025, recommended-by-friends, romance, started-but-never-finished
review:

]]> 7107665
Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.]]> 358 Suzanne Collins 0545229936 Candice 4 4.40 2008
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Candice
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/16
date added: 2025/03/27
shelves: fiction, young-adult-books, read-as-an-ebook, all-time-favorites, read-or-started-2016, read-or-started-2020, read-or-started-2023, read-or-started-2025
review:

]]> 50794839 Ambition will fuel him.
Competition will drive him.
But power has its price.

It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capitol, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to outcharm, outwit, and outmaneuver his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute.

The odds are against him. He’s been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined—every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute . . . and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.]]> 528 Suzanne Collins 1338635174 Candice 4
I was in a smaller minority who didn’t hate the way Mockingjay ended, and read all 3 of the original trilogy back to back and before the movies came out. I didn’t have the heightened anticipation and fandom some did, so I enjoyed the books for what they were.

I enjoyed seeing the back story to the early Hunger Games, and the first two parts of the book managed to surprise me many times � a big feat for a prequel. But it went off the rails for me in Part 3. I don’t want to give any real spoilers, but the last 30 pages were one big “wth?� for me. There wasn’t a big enough buildup, climax, and firm push over the edge for me to explain why Snow becomes so evil over the long run.

I’d probably only give this 3.5 stars, but I liked the first 75% enough to feel generous and give it a 4...with caveats. ]]> 3.87 2020
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Candice
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/14
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: fiction, read-or-started-2020, young-adult-books, read-or-started-2023, read-or-started-2025
review:
I loved the first 70-75% of the book and am conflicted about the end.

I was in a smaller minority who didn’t hate the way Mockingjay ended, and read all 3 of the original trilogy back to back and before the movies came out. I didn’t have the heightened anticipation and fandom some did, so I enjoyed the books for what they were.

I enjoyed seeing the back story to the early Hunger Games, and the first two parts of the book managed to surprise me many times � a big feat for a prequel. But it went off the rails for me in Part 3. I don’t want to give any real spoilers, but the last 30 pages were one big “wth?� for me. There wasn’t a big enough buildup, climax, and firm push over the edge for me to explain why Snow becomes so evil over the long run.

I’d probably only give this 3.5 stars, but I liked the first 75% enough to feel generous and give it a 4...with caveats.
]]> 60556912
Every day I clean the Winchesters� beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor.

I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband.

I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon finds out� and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late.

But I reassure myself: the Winchesters don’t know who I really am.

They don’t know what I’m capable of�

An unbelievably twisty read that will have you glued to the pages late into the night. Anyone who loves The Woman in the Window, The Wife Between Us and The Girl on the Train won’t be able to put this down!]]> 329 Freida McFadden 1803144378 Candice 0 4.31 2022
author: Freida McFadden
name: Candice
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: to-read, recommended-by-friends
review:

]]> 25776291 A dynamic and inspiring exploration of the new science that is redrawing the future for people in their forties, fifties, and sixties for the better—and for good.

There’s no such thing as an inevitable midlife crisis, Barbara Bradley Hagerty writes in this provocative, hopeful book. It’s a myth, an illusion. New scientific research explodes the fable that midlife is a time when things start to go downhill for everybody. In fact, midlife can be a great new adventure, when you can embrace fresh possibilities, purposes, and pleasures. In Life Reimagined, Hagerty explains that midlife is about renewal: It’s the time to renegotiate your purpose, refocus your relationships, and transform the way you think about the world and yourself. Drawing from emerging information in neurology, psychology, biology, genetics, and sociology—as well as her own story of midlife transformation—Hagerty redraws the map for people in midlife and plots a new course forward in understanding our health, our relationships, even our futures.


From the Hardcover edition.]]> Barbara Bradley Hagerty 0399566694 Candice 0 4.00 2016
author: Barbara Bradley Hagerty
name: Candice
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: library-book, nonfiction, read-or-started-2025, recommended-by-friends, started-but-never-finished
review:

]]> 20527023
A hacker who identifies himself only as "Warlock" brings down the FBI's website and posts a code in its place that leads to a Michigan cemetery, where a dead girl is discovered rising from the ground . . . as if she tried to crawl out of her own grave.

Born into a dynasty of illusionists, Jessica Blackwood is destined to become its next star—until she turns her back on her troubled family to begin a new life in law enforcement. But FBI consultant Dr. Jeffrey Ailes's discovery of an old magic magazine will turn Jessica's world upside down. Faced with a crime that appears beyond explanation, Ailes has nothing to lose—and everything to gain—by taking a chance on an agent raised in a world devoted to achieving the seemingly impossible.

The body in the cemetery is only the first in the Warlock's series of dark miracles. Thrust into the media spotlight, with time ticking away until the next crime, can Jessica confront her past to stop a depraved killer? If she can't, she may become his next victim.]]> 368 Andrew Mayne 0062348876 Candice 0 3.99 2014
author: Andrew Mayne
name: Candice
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: to-read, fiction, recommended-by-friends
review:

]]> 61361681 For fans of Madeline Miller's Circe, a stunning debut following Clytemnestra, the most notorious villainess of the ancient world and the events that forged her into the legendary queen.

As for queens, they are either hated or forgotten. She already knows which option suits her best...

You were born to a king, but you marry a tyrant. You stand by helplessly as he sacrifices your child to placate the gods. You watch him wage war on a foreign shore, and you comfort yourself with violent thoughts of your own. Because this was not the first offence against you. This was not the life you ever deserved. And this will not be your undoing. Slowly, you plot.

But when your husband returns in triumph, you become a woman with a choice.

Acceptance or vengeance, infamy follows both. So, you bide your time and force the gods' hands in the game of retribution. For you understood something long ago that the others never did.

If power isn't given to you, you have to take it for yourself.

A blazing novel set in the world of Ancient Greece for fans of Jennifer Saint and Natalie Haynes, this is a thrilling tale of power and prophecies, of hatred, love, and of an unforgettable Queen who fiercely dealt out death to those who wronged her.]]> 435 Costanza Casati 1728268230 Candice 0 4.23 2023
author: Costanza Casati
name: Candice
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves: currently-reading, fiction, historical-fiction, read-or-started-2025
review:

]]> 219521090 A publishing event ten years in the making�a searing, exquisite new novel by the best-selling and award-winning author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists�the story of four women and their loves, longings, and desires.

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

In Dream Count, Adichie trains her fierce eye on these women in a sparkling, transcendent novel that takes up the very nature of love itself. Is true happiness ever attainable or is it just a fleeting state? And how honest must we be with ourselves in order to love, and to be loved? A trenchant reflection on the choices we make and those made for us, on daughters and mothers, on our interconnected world, Dream Count pulses with emotional urgency and poignant, unflinching observations on the human heart, in language that soars with beauty and power. It confirms Adichie’s status as one of the most exciting and dynamic writers on the literary landscape.]]> 416 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 059380273X Candice 0 to-read 3.97 2025
author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
name: Candice
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 40097951
Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.

Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him....

The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller of a woman’s act of violence against her husband—and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive.]]> 336 Alex Michaelides 1250301696 Candice 5 4.18 2019
author: Alex Michaelides
name: Candice
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/05
date added: 2025/03/06
shelves: fiction, recommended-by-friends, read-or-started-2025, suspense-mystery-thriller
review:
I love when a book makes you immediately start rereading it to see what you missed the first time! Five stars, for the type of book it is � a suspense/mystery/thriller. Well written, fast paced, and clever! I can see why so many people recommend it.
]]> 199347538 Somewhere Beyond the Sea is the hugely anticipated sequel to TJ Klune’s The House in the Cerulean Sea, one of the best-loved and best-selling fantasy novels of the past decade. Featuring gorgeous orange sprayed edges!

A magical house. A secret past. A summons that could change everything.

Arthur Parnassus lives a good life built on the ashes of a bad one.

He’s the master of a strange orphanage on a distant and peculiar island, and he hopes to soon be the adoptive father to the six dangerous and magical children who live there.

Arthur works hard and loves with his whole heart so none of the children ever feel the neglect and pain that he once felt as an orphan on that very same island so long ago. He is not alone: joining him is the love of his life, Linus Baker, a former caseworker in the Department In Charge of Magical Youth. And there’s the island’s sprite, Zoe Chapelwhite, and her girlfriend, Mayor Helen Webb. Together, they will do anything to protect the children.

But when Arthur is summoned to make a public statement about his dark past, he finds himself at the helm of a fight for the future that his family, and all magical people, deserve.

And when a new magical child hopes to join them on their island home—one who finds power in calling himself monster, a name that Arthur worked so hard to protect his children from—Arthur knows they’re at a breaking point: their family will either grow stronger than ever or fall apart.

Welcome back to Marsyas Island. This is Arthur’s story.

Somewhere Beyond the Sea is a story of resistance, lovingly told, about the daunting experience of fighting for the life you want to live and doing the work to keep it.]]> 416 T.J. Klune 125088120X Candice 0 4.17 2024
author: T.J. Klune
name: Candice
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/06
shelves: fiction, library-book, read-or-started-2025, to-read
review:

]]> 199798179 A time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingenious exploration of the nature of power and the potential for love to change it all:

In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats� from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time.

She is tasked with working as a “bridge�: living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as �1847� or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he’s a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as “washing machines,� “Spotify,� and “the collapse of the British Empire.� But with an appetite for discovery, a seven-a-day cigarette habit, and the support of a charming and chaotic cast of fellow expats, he soon adjusts.

Over the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic, evolves into something much deeper. By the time the true shape of the Ministry’s project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined. Forced to confront the choices that brought them together, the bridge must finally reckon with how—and whether she believes—what she does next can change the future.]]> 339 Kaliane Bradley 1668045141 Candice 4 3.54 2024
author: Kaliane Bradley
name: Candice
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/02
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves: fiction, library-book, read-or-started-2025
review:
Gotta love when you stay up til 2:30am to finish a book because you want to see what happens! A fun, catchy, different little book. The author uses lots of strange, different descriptions, and I had to keep looking up words in a dictionary � theramin, rhotacism, exegesis, miscegenation. It could turn off some readers and enthrall others, and I personally found it quirky and charming. Some characters were delightfully fleshed out while others felt a bit like cardboard cutouts and could use a bit more realness, and some plot points were both fun but predictable, but I enjoyed it a lot overall � and I love when I read a book in two quick sittings.
]]> 45047384
Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages.

When Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management he's given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel to Marsyas Island Orphanage, where six dangerous children reside: a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist. Linus must set aside his fears and determine whether or not they’re likely to bring about the end of days.

But the children aren’t the only secret the island keeps. Their caretaker is the charming and enigmatic Arthur Parnassus, who will do anything to keep his wards safe. As Arthur and Linus grow closer, long-held secrets are exposed, and Linus must make a choice: destroy a home or watch the world burn.

An enchanting story, masterfully told, The House in the Cerulean Sea is about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place—and realizing that family is yours.]]> 394 T.J. Klune Candice 4 4.37 2020
author: T.J. Klune
name: Candice
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/24
date added: 2025/02/25
shelves: fiction, library-book, read-or-started-2025, recommended-by-friends
review:
A quaint, sweet, cozy read. I enjoyed this a lot, for what it is.
]]> 57945316 From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a historical fantasy epic that grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British Empire

Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.

1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel. The tower and its students are the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver-working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as the arcane craft serves the Empire's quest for colonization.

For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide . . .

Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?]]> 544 R.F. Kuang 0063021420 Candice 0 4.17 2022
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Candice
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves: fiction, read-or-started-2024, started-but-never-finished
review:

]]> 193781998 An exuberant debut, The Husbands delights in how do we navigate life, love, and choice in a world of never-ending options?

When Lauren returns home to her flat in London late one night, she is greeted at the door by her husband, Michael. There’s only one problem—she’s not married. She’s never seen this man before in her life. But according to her friends, her much-improved decor, and the photos on her phone, they’ve been together for years.

As Lauren tries to puzzle out how she could be married to someone she can’t remember meeting, Michael goes to the attic to change a lightbulb and abruptly disappears. In his place, a new man emerges, and a new, slightly altered life re-forms around her. Realizing that her attic is creating an infinite supply of husbands, Lauren confronts the question: If swapping lives is as easy as changing a lightbulb, how do you know you’ve taken the right path? When do you stop trying to do better and start actuallyĚýliving?]]> 352 Holly Gramazio 0385550618 Candice 3 3.50 2024
author: Holly Gramazio
name: Candice
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/13
date added: 2025/02/13
shelves: fiction, library-book, read-as-an-ebook, read-or-started-2025, recommended-by-friends
review:
My friend read this as an audiobook and suggested it. It has an interesting concept, but it was kinda pointlessly long and had remarkably little plot. You meet a lot of husbands, but I still don’t feel I have much sense of what Lauren is like as a person, even after 343 pages.
]]> 62628727 A comedy writer thinks she’s sworn off love, until a dreamily handsome pop star flips the script on all her assumptions. Romantic Comedy is a hilarious, observant and deeply tender novel from New York Times–bestselling author Curtis Sittenfeld.

Sally Milz is a sketch writer for "The Night Owls," the late-night live comedy show that airs each Saturday. With a couple of heartbreaks under her belt, she’s long abandoned the search for love, settling instead for the occasional hook-up, career success, and a close relationship with her stepfather to round out a satisfying life.

But when Sally’s friend and fellow writer Danny Horst begins dating Annabel, a glamorous actor who guest-hosted the show, he joins the not-so-exclusive group of talented but average-looking and even dorky men at the show—and in society at large—who’ve gotten romantically involved with incredibly beautiful and accomplished women. Sally channels her annoyance into a sketch called the "Danny Horst Rule," poking fun at this phenomenon while underscoring how unlikely it is that the reverse would ever happen for a woman.

Enter Noah Brewster, a pop music sensation with a reputation for dating models, who signed on as both host and musical guest for this week’s show. Dazzled by his charms, Sally hits it off with Noah instantly, and as they collaborate on one sketch after another, she begins to wonder whether there might actually be sparks flying. But this isn’t a romantic comedy; it’s real life. And in real life, someone like him would never date someone like her...right?

With her keen observations and trademark ability to bring complex women to life on the page, Sittenfeld explores the neurosis-inducing and heart-fluttering wonder of love, while slyly dissecting the social rituals of romance and gender relations in the modern age.]]> 309 Curtis Sittenfeld 0399590943 Candice 4 3.60 2023
author: Curtis Sittenfeld
name: Candice
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/30
date added: 2025/01/30
shelves: recommended-by-friends, fiction, library-book, read-or-started-2025, romance
review:
A fun and entertaining novel about a strong, dynamic, nuanced woman (and her hot, kind, caring musician man). A great counterbalance to the typical rom-com � and indeed, I don’t know that I’d classify this as a rom-com; it has more depth and realness than that.
]]> 5 435 J.K. Rowling 043965548X Candice 4 4.57 1999
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Candice
average rating: 4.57
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/08
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves: childrens-books, fiction, young-adult-books, read-or-started-2015, read-or-started-2016, read-or-started-2017, read-or-started-2020, read-or-started-2022, read-or-started-2024, read-or-started-2025
review:

]]> 194802722 A shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.

Daphne always loved the way her fiancé, Peter, told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it... right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.

Which is how Daphne begins her new story: stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak.

Scruffy and chaotic—with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads—Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned-up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them?

But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex... right?]]> 400 Emily Henry Candice 4 4.21 2024
author: Emily Henry
name: Candice
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/23
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves: fiction, library-book, read-or-started-2025, romance
review:
A sweet, cute, fun story. Liked this one much better than Happy Place, her last book that I’ve read.
]]> 43822804
In 1969, Elisabeth KĂĽbler Ross first identified the stages of dying in her transformative book On Death and Dying. Decades later, she and David Kessler wrote the classic On Grief and Grieving , introducing the stages of grief with the same transformative pragmatism and compassion. Now, based on hard-earned personal experiences, as well as knowledge and wisdom earned through decades of work with the grieving, Kessler introduces a critical sixth stage.

Many people look for “closure� after a loss. Kessler argues that it’s finding meaning beyond the stages of grief most of us are familiar with—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance—that can transform grief into a more peaceful and hopeful experience.

In this book, Kessler gives readers a roadmap to remembering those who have died with more love than pain; he shows us how to move forward in a way that honors our loved ones. Kessler’s insight is both professional and intensely personal. His journey with grief began when, as a child, he witnessed a mass shooting at the same time his mother was dying. For most of his life, Kessler taught physicians, nurses, counselors, police, and first responders about end of life, trauma, and grief, as well as leading talks and retreats for those experiencing grief. Despite his knowledge, his life was upended by the sudden death of his twenty-one-year-old son.

How does the grief expert handle such a tragic loss? He knew he had to find a way through this unexpected, devastating loss, a way that would honor his son. That, ultimately, was the sixth state of grief—meaning. In Finding Meaning , Kessler shares the insights, collective wisdom, and powerful tools that will help those experiencing loss.

Finding Meaning is a necessary addition to grief literature and a vital guide to healing from tremendous loss. This is an inspiring, deeply intelligent must-read for anyone looking to journey away from suffering, through loss, and towards meaning.]]> 257 David Kessler 1501192736 Candice 3 4.41 2019
author: David Kessler
name: Candice
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/20
date added: 2025/01/20
shelves: grief-books, library-book, nonfiction, read-as-an-ebook, read-or-started-2025
review:

]]> 149187311 From the author of The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy comes a heartwarming fantasy with a best friends-to-lovers rom com twist--When Harry Met Sally, but with dragons!—set in the delightful demigod and donut-filled world of Tanria.

The entire town of Eternity was shocked when widowed, middle-aged Twyla Banneker partnered up with her neighbor and best friend, Frank Ellis, to join the Tanrian Marshals. Eight years later, Twyla and Frank are still patrolling the dangerous land of Tanria, the former prison of the Old Gods.

Twyla might look like a small town mom who brings cheesy potatoes to funerals and whips up a batch of cookies for the school bake sale, but her rewarding career in law enforcement has been a welcome change from the domestic grind of mom life, despite the misgivings of her grown children.

Fortunately (or unfortunately) a recent decrease in on-the-job peril has made Twyla and Frank's job a lot safer ... and a lot less exciting. So when they discover the body of one of their fellow marshals covered in liquid glitter--and Frank finds himself the inadvertent foster dad to a baby dragon--they are more than happy to be back on the beat.

Soon, the friends wind up ensnared in a nefarious plot that goes far deeper than any lucrative Tanrian mineshaft. But as the danger closes in and Twyla and Frank's investigation becomes more complicated, so does their easy friendship. And Twyla starts to realize that her true soul mate might just be the person who has lived next door all along...]]> 464 Megan Bannen 0356521923 Candice 4 4.04 2024
author: Megan Bannen
name: Candice
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/20
date added: 2025/01/20
shelves: fiction, read-or-started-2025, recommended-by-friends, romance
review:
A fun and entertaining rom-com (romantasy?) with strong characters and � gasp! � friends-to-lovers in their 50s! An enjoyable romp back into the world of Tanria, and I’m happy I got to read it in one evening and late into the night. Well worth it!
]]> 59722215
PhD candidate Phoebe Walsh has always been obsessed with true crime. She’s even analyzing the genre in her dissertation—if she can manage to finish writing it. It’s hard to find the time while she spends the summer in Florida, cleaning out her childhood home, dealing with her obnoxiously good-natured younger brother, and grappling with the complicated feelings of mourning a father she hadn’t had a relationship with for years.

It doesn’t help that she’s low-key convinced that her new neighbor, Sam Dennings, is a serial killer (he may dress business casual by day, but at night he’s clearly up to something). It’s not long before Phoebe realizes that Sam might be something much scarier—a genuinely nice guy who can pierce her armor to reach her vulnerable heart.]]> 336 Alicia Thompson 0593438663 Candice 3 3.27 2022
author: Alicia Thompson
name: Candice
average rating: 3.27
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/18
date added: 2025/01/18
shelves: fiction, read-or-started-2025, recommended-by-friends, romance
review:
A quick, fun read with a quirky female protagonist. A good Fri/Sat night read.
]]> 211399784 448 Layne Fargo 0593732049 Candice 0 to-read 4.19 2025
author: Layne Fargo
name: Candice
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 197798168
A semifamous artist announces her plan to drive cross-country, from LA to New York. Twenty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, beds down in a nondescript motel, and immerses herself in a temporary reinvention that turns out to be the start of an entirely different journey.

Miranda July’s second novel confirms the brilliance of her unique approach to fiction. With July’s wry voice, perfect comic timing, unabashed curiosity about human intimacy, and palpable delight in pushing boundaries, All Fours tells the story of one woman’s quest for a new kind of freedom. Part absurd entertainment, part tender reinvention of the sexual, romantic, and domestic life of a forty-five-year-old female artist, All Fours transcends expectation while excavating our beliefs about life lived as a woman. Once again, July hijacks the familiar and turns it into something new and thrillingly, profoundly alive.]]> 336 Miranda July 0593190262 Candice 0 3.54 2024
author: Miranda July
name: Candice
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: currently-reading, fiction, recommended-by-friends, read-or-started-2025
review:

]]> 60321485 The author of The Charm Offensive returns with a festive romantic comedy about a woman who fakes an engagement with her landlord…only to fall for his sister.

One year ago, recent Portland transplant Ellie Oliver had her dream job in animation and a Christmas Eve meet-cute with a woman at a bookstore that led her to fall in love over the course of a single night. But after a betrayal the next morning and the loss of her job soon after, she finds herself adrift, alone, and desperate for money.

Finding work at a local coffee shop, she’s just getting through the days—until Andrew, the shop’s landlord, proposes a shocking, drunken plan: a marriage of convenience that will give him his recent inheritance and alleviate Ellie’s financial woes and isolation. They make a plan to spend the holidays together at his family cabin to keep up the ruse. But when Andrew introduces his new fiancée to his sister, Ellie is shocked to discover it’s Jack—the mysterious woman she fell for over the course of one magical Christmas Eve the year before. Now, Ellie must choose between the safety of a fake relationship and the risk of something real.

Perfect for fans of Written in the Stars and One Day in December, Kiss Her Once for Me is the queer holiday rom-com that you’ll want to cozy up with next to the fire.]]> 368 Alison Cochrun 1982191139 Candice 3 3.83 2022
author: Alison Cochrun
name: Candice
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/25
date added: 2024/12/25
shelves: fiction, powells-suggestions, read-or-started-2024, romance
review:
3.5 stars. A fun little Christmas, queer rom-com to read on Christmas Eve and Day. Was entertaining to read the bits about Portland and know where it’s taking place IRL. I bought this in January at the Cedar Hills Powell’s, and I’m glad I inadvertently waited to read it over Christmas.
]]> 58724745
Devon is part of The Family, an old and reclusive clan of book eaters. Her brothers grow up feasting on stories of valor and adventure, and Devon—like all other book eater women—is raised on a carefully curated diet of fairy tales and cautionary stories.

But real life doesn't always come with happy endings, as Devon learns when her son is born with a rare and darker kind of hunger—not for books, but for human minds.]]> 298 Sunyi Dean 1250810183 Candice 4 3.60 2022
author: Sunyi Dean
name: Candice
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/19
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: fiction, library-book, powells-suggestions, read-as-an-ebook, read-or-started-2024
review:
An inventive, entertaining read that felt refreshingly nonderivative, unlike a lot of fantasy or magical realism plots. I wanted a bit more from the climax and ending, but it was still pretty good overall.
]]> 58446227 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER - The award-winning, best-selling author of Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel returns with a novel of art, time travel, love, and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon five hundred years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and space.

One of the Best Books of the Year: The New York Times, NPR, GoodReads

"One of [Mandel's] finest novels and one of her most satisfying forays into the arena of speculative fiction yet." --The New York Times

Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal--an experience that shocks him to his core.

Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She's traveling all over Earth, but her home is the second moon colony, a place of white stone, spired towers, and artificial beauty. Within the text of Olive's best-selling pandemic novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him.

When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the black-skied Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended: The exiled son of an earl driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe.

A virtuoso performance that is as human and tender as it is intellectually playful, Sea of Tranquility is a novel of time travel and metaphysics that precisely captures the reality of our current moment.]]> 259 Emily St. John Mandel 0593321448 Candice 0 to-read 4.04 2022
author: Emily St. John Mandel
name: Candice
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 65213595 A grim and gothic new tale from author Alix E. Harrow about a small town haunted by secrets that can't stay buried and the sinister house that sits at the crossroads of it all.

Eden, Kentucky, is just another dying, bad-luck town, known only for the legend of E. Starling, the reclusive nineteenth-century author and illustrator who wrote The Underland--and disappeared. Before she vanished, Starling House appeared. But everyone agrees that it’s best to let the uncanny house―and its last lonely heir, Arthur Starling―go to rot.

Opal knows better than to mess with haunted houses or brooding men, but an unexpected job offer might be a chance to get her brother out of Eden. Too quickly, though, Starling House starts to feel dangerously like something she’s never had: a home.

As sinister forces converge on Starling House, Opal and Arthur are going to have to make a dire choice to dig up the buried secrets of the past and confront their own fears, or let Eden be taken over by literal nightmares.

If Opal wants a home, she’ll have to fight for it.]]> 320 Alix E. Harrow 1250799058 Candice 0 to-read 3.77 2023
author: Alix E. Harrow
name: Candice
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61771675
But then darkness from William’s past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia’s carefully orchestrated plans for their future, but the sisters� unshakeable devotion to one another. The result is a catastrophic family rift that changes their lives for generations. Will the loyalty that once rooted them be strong enough to draw them back together when it matters most?]]> 416 Ann Napolitano Candice 0 to-read 4.14 2023
author: Ann Napolitano
name: Candice
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 63247365
“Emotional, relatable and binge-worthy." –Tessa Bailey

“I’ll read anything she writes. An absolute star." –Emily Henry

“I was hooked on the very first page. Don't miss this one!" � Carley Fortune

Two writers with a complicated history end up working on the same TV show. Can they write themselves a new ending? A sexy and emotional enemies-to-lovers romance guaranteed to pull on your heartstrings and give you a book hangover from brilliant new voice Yulin Kuang

Helen Zhang hasn’t seen Grant Shepard once in the thirteen years since the tragic accident that bound their lives together forever.

Now a bestselling author, Helen pours everything into her career. She’s even scored a coveted spot in the writers� room of the TV adaptation of her popular young adult novels, and if she can hide her imposter syndrome and overcome her writer’s block, surely the rest of her life will fall into place too. LA is the fresh start she needs. After all, no one knows her there. Except�

Grant has done everything in his power to move on from the past, including building a life across the country. And while the panic attacks have never quite gone away, he’s well liked around town as a screenwriter. He knows he shouldn’t have taken the job on Helen’s show, but it will open doors to developing his own projects that he just can’t pass up.

Grant’s exactly as Helen remembers him—charming, funny, popular, and lovable in ways that she’s never been. And Helen’s exactly as Grant remembers too—brilliant, beautiful, closed off. But working together is messy, and electrifying, and Helen’s parents, who have never forgiven Grant, have no idea he’s in the picture at all.

When secrets come to light, they must reckon with the fact that theirs was never meant to be any kind of love story. And yet� the key to making peace with their past—and themselves—might just lie in holding on to each other in the present.]]> 384 Yulin Kuang Candice 0 to-read 3.61 2024
author: Yulin Kuang
name: Candice
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 127305853 From the celebrated author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds comes Kristin Hannah's The Women—at once an intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided.

Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie� McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.

As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over-whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets—and becomes one of—the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost.

But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam.

The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm’s way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.]]> 471 Kristin Hannah 1250178630 Candice 0 to-read 4.59 2024
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Candice
average rating: 4.59
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 156480764
In New York City, bookseller Cassie Andrews is living an unassuming life when she is given a gift by a favourite customer. It's a book - an unusual book, full of strange writing and mysterious drawings. And at the very front there is a handwritten message to Cassie, telling her that this is the Book of Doors, and that any door is every door .

What Cassie is about to discover is that the Book of Doors is a special book that bestows an extraordinary powers on whoever possesses it, and soon she and her best friend Izzy are exploring all that the Book of Doors can do, swept away from their quiet lives by the possibilities of travelling to anywhere they want.

But the Book of Doors is not the only magical book in the world. There are other books that can do wondrous and dreadful things when wielded by dangerous and ruthless individuals - individuals who crave what Cassie now possesses.

Suddenly Cassie and Izzy are confronted by violence and danger, and the only person who can help them is, it seems, Drummond Fox. He is a man fleeing his own demons - a man with his own secret library of magical books that he has hidden away in the shadows for safekeeping. Because there is a nameless evil out there that is hunting them all . . .

Because some doors should never be opened.]]> 408 Gareth Brown 1787637247 Candice 0 to-read 4.04 2024
author: Gareth Brown
name: Candice
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 218559595 Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger-than-life story of a woman with more than a couple of plot twists up her sleeve in this dazzling and sweeping new novel from Emily Henry.

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

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

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

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

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

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

And it’s becoming abundantly clear that their story—just like the tale Margaret’s spinning—could be a mystery, tragedy, or love ballad…depending on who’s telling it.]]> 384 Emily Henry 059344129X Candice 0 to-read 4.25 2025
author: Emily Henry
name: Candice
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves: to-read
review:

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

Sally Rooney brings her brilliant psychological acuity and perfectly spare prose to a story that explores the subtleties of class, the electricity of first love, and the complex entanglements of family and friendship.]]> 273 Sally Rooney 1984822179 Candice 0 to-read 3.81 2018
author: Sally Rooney
name: Candice
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 154486930 “Reading this book is a joy...Ěýmuch to say about the trans journey and will undoubtedly become a standard for those in need of guidance. â€� â€� The Washington Post

"Sante’s bold devotion to complexity and clarity makes this an exemplary memoir. It is a clarion call to live one’s most authentic life.� � The Boston Globe

“Not to be missed, I Heard Her Call My Name is a powerful example of self-reflection and a vibrant exploration of the modern dynamics of gender and identity.”Ěýâ€� Lit Hub’s Most Anticipated Books of 2024

An iconic writer’s lapidary memoir of a life spent pursuing a dream of artistic truth while evading the truth of her own gender identity, until, finally, she turned to face who she really was

For a long time, Lucy Sante felt unsure of her place. Born in Belgium, the only child of conservative working-class Catholic parents who transplanted their little family to the United States, she felt at home only when she moved to New York City in the early 1970s and found her people among a band of fellow bohemians. Some would die young, to drugs and AIDS, and some would become jarringly famous. Sante flirted with both fates, on her way to building an estimable career as a writer. But she still felt like her life a performance. She was presenting a façade, even to herself.

Sante’s memoir braids together two threads of personal narrative: the arc of her life, and her recent step-by-step transition to a place of inner and outer alignment. Sante brings a loving irony to her account of her unsteady first steps; there was much she found she still needed to learn about being a woman after some sixty years cloaked in a man’s identity, in a man’s world. A marvel of grace and empathy, I Heard Her Call My Name parses with great sensitivity many issues that touch our lives deeply, of gender identity and far beyond.]]> 235 Lucy Sante 059349377X Candice 0 to-read 3.56 2024
author: Lucy Sante
name: Candice
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 127938747 From a visionary Mexican author, a hallucinatory, revelatory, colonial revenge story that reimagines the fall of Tenochtitlan.

One morning in 1519, conquistador Hernán Cortés entered the city of Tenochtitlan � today's Mexico City. Later that day, he would meet the emperor Moctezuma in a collision of two worlds, two empires, two languages, two possible futures.

Cortés was accompanied by his nine captains, his troops, and his two translators: Friar Aguilar, a taciturn, former slave, and Malinalli, a strategic, former princess. Greeted at a ceremonial welcome meal by the steely princess Atotoxli, sister and wife of Moctezuma, the Spanish nearly bungle their entrance to the city. As they await their meeting with Moctezuma � who is at a political, spiritual, and physical crossroads, and relies on hallucinogens to get himself through the day and in quest for any kind of answer from the gods � the Spanish are ensconced in the labyrinthine palace. Soon, one of Cortés’s captains, Jazmín Caldera, overwhelmed by the grandeur of the city, begins to question the ease with which they were welcomed into the city, and wonders at the risks of getting out alive, much less conquering the empire.

You Dreamed of Empires brings to life Tenochtitlan at its height, and reimagines its destiny. The incomparably original Alvaro Enrigue sets afire the moment of conquest and turns it into a moment of revolution, a restitutive, fantastical counter-attack, in a novel so electric and so unique that it feels like a dream.]]> 220 �lvaro Enrigue 059354479X Candice 0 to-read 3.76 2022
author: �lvaro Enrigue
name: Candice
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 96177629
Now he is. . .

Without a home

Waiting for his stand-up career to take off

Wondering why everyone else around him seems to have grown up while he wasn't looking

Set adrift on the sea of heartbreak, Andy clings to the idea of solving the puzzle of his ruined relationship. Because if he can find the answer to that, then maybe Jen can find her way back to him. But Andy still has a lot to learn, not least his ex-girlfriend's side of the story�

In this sharply funny and exquisitely relatable story of romantic disaster and friendship, Dolly Alderton offers up a love story with two endings, demonstrating once again why she is one of the most exciting writers today, and the true voice of a generation.]]> 345 Dolly Alderton 0241523672 Candice 0 to-read 3.85 2023
author: Dolly Alderton
name: Candice
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 214391207 From #1 bestselling author Sophie Kinsella, an unforgettable story—by turns heartbreaking and life-affirming—of a renowned novelist facing a devastating diagnosis and learning to live and love anew.

�What Does It Feel Like? is fiction, but it is my most autobiographical work to date. Eve’s story is my story.”—Sophie Kinsella

Eve is a successful novelist who wakes up one day in a hospital bed with no memory of how she got there. Her husband, never far from her side, explains that she has had an operation to remove the large, malignant tumor growing in her brain.

As Eve learns to walk, talk, and write again—and as she wrestles with her diagnosis, and how and when to explain it to her beloved children—she begins to recall what’s most important to her: long walks with her husband’s hand clasped firmly around her own, family game nights, and always buying that dress when she sees it.

Recounted in brief anecdotes, each one is an attempt to answer the type of impossible questions recognizable to anyone navigating the labyrinth of grief. This short, extraordinary novel is a celebration of life, shot through with warmth and humor—it will both break your heart and put it back together again.

“Why did I write such a personal book? I have always processed my life through writing. Hiding behind my fictional characters, I have always turned my own life into a narrative. It is my version of therapy, maybe. Writing is my happy place, and writing this book, although tough going at times, was immensely satisfying and therapeutic for me.”—Sophie Kinsella]]> Sophie Kinsella Candice 3 4.31 2024
author: Sophie Kinsella
name: Candice
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/30
date added: 2024/11/30
shelves: fiction, library-book, read-as-an-ebook, read-or-started-2024
review:
At only 130 pages, it’s hard to really rate or review this novella. It’s fine, it was fast, but it didn’t really leave much of an impression. Glad I read it as a library ebook for free.
]]> 132556
Eleven-year-old Philip Noble has a big problem: His dad, who was killed in a car accident, appears as a bloodstained ghost at his own funeral and introduces Philip to the Dead Fathers Club. The club, whose members were all murdered, gathers outside the Castle and Falcon, the local pub that Philip’s family owns and lives above. Philip’s father tells him that Uncle Alan killed him and he must avenge his death. When Philip realizes that Uncle Alan has designs on his mom and the family pub, Philip decides that something must be done. But it’s a much bigger job than he anticipated, especially when he is caught up by the usual distractions of childhood—a pretty girl, wayward friends, school bullies, and his own self-doubt. The Dead Fathers Club is a riveting, imaginative, and quirky update of Shakespeare’s great tragedy that will establish Matt Haig as a young writer of great talent and imagination.]]> 336 Matt Haig 0670038334 Candice 2
Edited to add: I skimmed parts of the end and then the last 10-20 pages, and WTH was that?! Glad I didn’t bother fully reading it all!

Better off skipping this one and picking another Matt Haig book instead.]]> 3.20 2006
author: Matt Haig
name: Candice
average rating: 3.20
book published: 2006
rating: 2
read at: 2024/11/30
date added: 2024/11/30
shelves: fiction, library-book, read-as-an-ebook, read-or-started-2024, started-but-never-finished
review:
Did not finish but read 62% of it. I’ve read 2 or 3 other Matt Haig books and really liked them, but this one was awful. There’s no punctuation except for periods, it reads like a teen or tween’s text messages, and I realized after a week or two of not touching it that I didn’t want to finish it, partially because I didn’t want to see how faithful it is to the original Hamlet and who all dies.

Edited to add: I skimmed parts of the end and then the last 10-20 pages, and WTH was that?! Glad I didn’t bother fully reading it all!

Better off skipping this one and picking another Matt Haig book instead.
]]> 213410049
In November 2010, on the morning after election day, Mirsky lost her three-year-old son, Lev. In the year that followed, she produced a profound and provocatively humorous body of work—tackling extreme loss as well as divorce, friendship, dating, sex, comedy, and art making, all while continuing her day job as a family liaison at the same children’s hospital where Lev died. Every November, the anniversary of Lev’s loss aligns with the churn of the election cycle.

A decade later, we find Mirsky in the heart of a different crisis: supervising COVID vaccine distribution in the polarized political climate of Austin, Texas. In “An Addendum,� she turns again to themes of grief and healing, this time on a societal scale, as she reckons with the tenth anniversary of Lev’s passing. Through her un-extraordinary story of extraordinary loss, Mirsky offers proof that there is an afterward to grief.]]> 192 Michelle Suzanne Mirsky 081014784X Candice 0 4.62
author: Michelle Suzanne Mirsky
name: Candice
average rating: 4.62
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/15
shelves: currently-reading, grief-books, memoir, nonfiction, read-as-an-ebook, read-or-started-2024, recommended-by-friends
review:

]]> 208516656 If you knew your future, would you try to fight fate?

Aside from a delay, there will be no problems. The flight will be smooth, it will land safely. Everyone who gets on the plane will get off. But almost all of them will be forever changed.

Because on this ordinary, short, domestic flight, something extraordinary happens. People learn how and when they are going to die. For some, their death is far in the future—age 103!—and they laugh. But for six passengers, their predicted deaths are not far away at all.

How do they know this? There were ostensibly more interesting people on the flight (the bride and groom, the jittery, possibly famous woman, the giant Hemsworth-esque guy who looks like an off-duty superhero, the frazzled, gorgeous flight attendant) but none would become as famous as “The Death Lady.�

Not a single passenger or crew member will later recall noticing her board the plane. She wasn’t exceptionally old or young, rude or polite. She wasn’t drunk or nervous or pregnant. Her appearance and demeanor were unremarkable. But what she did on that flight was truly remarkable.

A few months later, one passenger dies exactly as she predicted. Then two more passengers die, again, as she said they would. Soon no one is thinking this is simply an entertaining story at a cocktail party.

If you were told you only had a certain amount of time left to live, would you do things differently? Would you try to dodge your destiny?

Liane Moriarty’s Here One Moment is a brilliantly constructed tale that looks at free will and destiny, grief and love, and the endless struggle to maintain certainty and control in an uncertain world. A modern-day Jane Austen who humorously skewers social mores while spinning a web of mystery, Moriarty asks profound questions in her newest I-can’t-wait-to-find-out-what-happens novel.]]> 512 Liane Moriarty 0593798600 Candice 4 3.99 2024
author: Liane Moriarty
name: Candice
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/12
date added: 2024/11/12
shelves: fiction, library-book, read-as-an-ebook, read-or-started-2024
review:
A fun, entertaining read! Lots of well-rounded, fully fleshed, interesting characters and interwoven plot points, and a clever premise.
]]> 61062194 From the magical moments on set as Draco Malfoy to the challenges of growing up in the spotlight, get a backstage pass into Tom Felton’s life on and off the big screen in this #1 New York Times bestseller.

Tom Felton’s adolescence was anything but ordinary. His early rise to fame in beloved films like The Borrowers catapulted him into the limelight, but nothing could prepare him for what was to come after he landed the iconic role of the Draco Malfoy, the bleached blonde villain of the Harry Potter movies. For the next ten years, he was at the center of a huge pop culture phenomenon and yet, in between filming, he would go back to being a normal teenager trying to fit into a normal school.

Speaking with great candor and his signature humor, Tom shares his experience growing up as part of the wizarding world while also trying to navigate the muggle world. He tells stories from his early days in the business like his first acting gig where he was mistaken for fellow blonde child actor Macaulay Culkin and his Harry Potter audition where, in a very Draco-like move, he fudged how well he knew the books the series was based on (not at all). He reflects on his experiences working with cinematic greats such as Alan Rickman, Sir Michael Gambon, Dame Maggie Smith, and Ralph Fiennes (including that awkward Voldemort hug). And, perhaps most poignantly, he discusses the lasting relationships he made over that decade of filming, including with Emma Watson, who started out as a pesky nine-year-old whom he mocked for not knowing what a boom mic was but who soon grew into one of his dearest friends. Then, of course, there are the highs and lows of fame and navigating life after such a momentous and life-changing experience.

Tom Felton’s Beyond the Wand is an entertaining, funny, and poignant must-read for any Harry Potter fan. Prepare to meet a real-life wizard.]]> 288 Tom Felton 1538741369 Candice 0 to-read 4.28 2022
author: Tom Felton
name: Candice
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 202468408 Rule #1: They can't speak.
Rule #2: They can't move.
Rule #3: They can't hurt you.

Ezra Friedman sees ghosts, which made growing up in a funeral home a bit complicated. It might have been easier if his grandfather’s ghost didn’t give him such scathing looks of disapproval as he went through a second, HRT-induced puberty, or if he didn't have the pressure of all those relatives—living and dead—judging every choice he makes. It’s no wonder that Ezra runs as far away from the family business as humanly possible.

But when the floor of his dream job drops out from under him and his mother uses the family Passover seder to tell everyone that she’s running away with the rabbi’s wife, Ezra finds himself back in the thick of it. With his parents� marriage imploding and the Friedman Family Memorial Chapel on the brink of financial ruin, Ezra agrees to step into his mother's shoes and help out . . . which means long days surrounded by ghosts that no one else can see.

And then there's his unfortunate crush on Jonathan, the handsome funeral home volunteer who just happens to live downstairs from Ezra's new apartment . . . and the appearance of the ghost of Jonathan's gone-too-soon husband, Ben, who is breaking every spectral rule Ezra knows.

Because Ben can speak. He can move. And as Ezra tries to keep his family together and his heart from getting broken, he quickly realizes that there's more than one way to be haunted—and more than one way to become a ghost.]]> 400 Shelly Jay Shore 0593723945 Candice 4 3.88 2024
author: Shelly Jay Shore
name: Candice
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/28
date added: 2024/10/28
shelves: fiction, powells-suggestions, read-or-started-2024
review:
This was a fun, enjoyable read! There’s a LOT going on in this book � Jewish customs, Jewish death traditions, trans stuff, family stuff, queer life, crazy family drama, death, ghosts, anxiety, grief (and a rescue dog!) � but in the end, it all works and has a deep heart. Much more soul and depth than most cisgender rom-coms, and Ezra felt wonderfully full-dimensional. Yay for actually reading an impulse buy from Powell’s (curse/bless those display tables at the entrance!) within a few days of purchasing it, yay for being on sale, and yay for being a fun distraction in a week when I was laid off from my job.
]]> 45152372 "She smiled a soft, troubled smile and I felt the whole world slipping away, and I wanted to slip with it, to go wherever she was going... I had existed whole years without her, but that was all it had been. An existence. A book with no words."

Tom Hazard has just moved back to London, his old home, to settle down and become a high school history teacher. And on his first day at school, he meets a captivating French teacher at his school who seems fascinated by him. But Tom has a dangerous secret. He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old, but owing to a rare condition, he's been alive for centuries. Tom has lived history--performing with Shakespeare, exploring the high seas with Captain Cook, and sharing cocktails with Fitzgerald. Now, he just wants an ordinary life.

Unfortunately for Tom, the Albatross Society, the secretive group which protects people like Tom, has one rule: Never fall in love. As painful memories of his past and the erratic behavior of the Society's watchful leader threaten to derail his new life and romance, the one thing he can't have just happens to be the one thing that might save him. Tom will have to decide once and for all whether to remain stuck in the past, or finally begin living in the present.

How to Stop Time tells a love story across the ages--and for the ages--about a man lost in time, the woman who could save him, and the lifetimes it can take to learn how to live. It is a bighearted, wildly original novel about losing and finding yourself, the inevitability of change, and how with enough time to learn, we just might find happiness.

Soon to be a major motion picture starring Benedict Cumberbatch.]]> 339 Matt Haig 0525522891 Candice 4 3.78 2018
author: Matt Haig
name: Candice
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/13
date added: 2024/10/14
shelves: fiction, library-book, read-as-an-ebook, read-or-started-2024
review:
An entertaining way to spend a 5-hour cross-country flight. I enjoyed the story, pacing, and concept.
]]> 57850265
Among those adjusting to this new normal are an aspiring comedian, employed by a theme park designed for terminally ill children, who falls in love with a mother trying desperately to keep her son alive; a scientist who, having failed to save his own son from the plague, gets a second chance at fatherhood when one of his test subjects-a pig-develops human speech; a man who, after recovering from his own coma, plans a block party for his neighbours who have also woken up to find that they alone have survived their families; and a widowed painter and her teenaged granddaughter who must set off on cosmic quest to locate a new home planet.

From funerary skyscrapers to hotels for the dead, How High We Go in the Dark follows a cast of intricately linked characters spanning hundreds of years as humanity endeavours to restore the delicate balance of the world. This is a story of unshakable hope that crosses literary lines to give us a world rebuilding itself through an endless capacity for love, resilience and reinvention. Wonderful and disquieting, dreamlike and all too possible.]]> 293 Sequoia Nagamatsu 0063072645 Candice 3 3.81 2022
author: Sequoia Nagamatsu
name: Candice
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/28
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves: fiction, library-book, read-as-an-ebook, read-or-started-2024
review:
I’d probably give this 3.5-3.75 stars (though I’ve never considered quarter stars before, tbh
]]> 25548109 "[A] fascinating novel of psychological suspense. . . suffused with the supernatural."
—The Boston Globe

A LONE WOMAN
When Maeve Leahy lost her twin, Moira, she left home and buried her fun-loving spirit to become a workaholic professor of languages at a small college in upstate New York. She lives a solitary life now, controlling what she can and ignoring the rest–the recurring nightmares, hallucinations about a child with red hair, the unquiet sounds in her mind, her reflection in the mirror. It doesn't help that her mother avoids her, her best friend questions her sanity, and her not-quite boyfriend has left the country. But at least her life is ordered. Exactly how she wants it.

A LOST SHADOW
Moira Leahy struggled growing up in her prodigious twin's shadow; Maeve was always more talented, more daring, more fun. In the autumn of the girls' sixteenth year, a secret love tempted Moira, allowing her to have her own taste of adventure, but it also damaged the intimate, intuitive relationship she'd always shared with her sister. Though Moira's adolescent struggles came to a tragic end nearly a decade ago, her brief flirtation with independence will haunt Maeve for years to come.

A SHARED PAST
Until one night at an auction when Maeve wins a keris,a Javanese dagger that reminds her of her lost youth and happier days playing pirates with Moira in their father's boat. Days later, a book on weaponry is nailed to her office door, followed by the arrival of anonymous notes, including one that invites her to Rome to learn more about the blade and its legendary properties. Opening her heart and mind to possibility, Maeve accepts the invitation and, with it, also opens a window to her past.

Ultimately, she will revisit the November night that shaped her and Moira's destinies, and learn that nothing can be taken at face value–as one sister emerges whole and the other's score is finally settled.]]> 306 Therese Walsh 0986369209 Candice 0 to-read 3.76 2007
author: Therese Walsh
name: Candice
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 15815333
The summer that Nixon resigns, six teenagers at a summer camp for the arts become inseparable. Decades later the bond remains powerful, but so much else has changed. In The Interestings, Wolitzer follows these characters from the height of youth through middle age, as their talents, fortunes, and degrees of satisfaction diverge.

The kind of creativity that is rewarded at age fifteen is not always enough to propel someone through life at age thirty; not everyone can sustain, in adulthood, what seemed so special in adolescence. Jules Jacobson, an aspiring comic actress, eventually resigns herself to a more practical occupation and lifestyle. Her friend Jonah, a gifted musician, stops playing the guitar and becomes an engineer. But Ethan and Ash, Jules's now-married best friends, become shockingly successful—true to their initial artistic dreams, with the wealth and access that allow those dreams to keep expanding. The friendships endure and even prosper, but also underscore the differences in their fates, in what their talents have become and the shapes their lives have taken.

Wide in scope, ambitious, and populated by complex characters who come together and apart in a changing New York City, The Interestings explores the meaning of talent; the nature of envy; the roles of class, art, money, and power; and how all of it can shift and tilt precipitously over the course of a friendship and a life.]]> 468 Meg Wolitzer 1594488398 Candice 0 to-read 3.58 2013
author: Meg Wolitzer
name: Candice
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 8170905 The third deligtfully undead novel in New York Times bestselling author Michele Bardsley's Broken Heart series.Not just anyone can visit Broken Heart, Oklahoma, especially since all the single moms—like me, Patsy Donahue—have been turned into vampires. I’m forever forty, but looking younger than my years, thanks to my new (un)lifestyle.And even thought most of my customers have skipped town, I still manage to keep my hair salon up and running because of the lycanthropes prowling around. They know how important good grooming is—especially a certain rogue shape-shifter who is as sexy as he is deadly. Now, if only I could put a leash on my wild teenage son. He’s up to his neck in danger. The stress would kill me if I wasn’t already dead. But my maternal instincts are sill alive and kicking, so no one better mess with my flesh and blood.]]> 320 Michele Bardsley 1440630046 Candice 1
It felt like a book outline or else the speed-written first draft that never actually got fully written. I found bits of it funny and amusing, but since I hadn't read book 1 or 2, the characters (which were more like character sketches than fleshed-out, fully formed characters) and backstory were impossible to follow.

Thank goodness I didn't waste any money or bookshelf space on this one!!]]> 4.10 2008
author: Michele Bardsley
name: Candice
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2008
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2024/09/11
shelves: fiction, read-as-an-ebook, started-but-never-finished
review:
I picked this book out only because it was available immediately from my library as an e-book, and I wanted free books to try out on my new Barnes & Noble nook over my vacation. But the writing was so bad I had to stop reading.

It felt like a book outline or else the speed-written first draft that never actually got fully written. I found bits of it funny and amusing, but since I hadn't read book 1 or 2, the characters (which were more like character sketches than fleshed-out, fully formed characters) and backstory were impossible to follow.

Thank goodness I didn't waste any money or bookshelf space on this one!!
]]> 159750 Taltos is the third book in a series known as the Lives of the Mayfair Witches... Their haunted heritage has brought the family great wealth, which is exercised from a New Orleans manse with Southern gentility; but of course such power cannot escape notice... or challenge... Rice is a formidable talent... [Taltos] is a curious amalgam of Gothic, glamour fiction, alternate history, and high soap opera." The Washington Post Book World

"Anne Rice will live on through the ages of literature." San Francisco Chronicle

"Her power of invention seems boundless... She has made a masterpiece of the morbid, worthy of Poe's daughter... It is hard to praise sufficiently the originality of Miss Rice." The Wall Street Journal

"An intricate, stunning imagination." Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Spellbinding... Mythical... Anne Rice is a pure storyteller." Cosmopolitan

"Beautifully written." Kirkus Reviews (starred).]]> 556 Anne Rice 0345404319 Candice 3 3.60 1994
author: Anne Rice
name: Candice
average rating: 3.60
book published: 1994
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/08
date added: 2024/09/08
shelves: fiction, library-book, read-as-an-ebook, read-or-started-2024
review:

]]> 31340
Michael remains entwined in the Mayfair family and learns how he comes by his strange powers. Michael's ghostly visiting from a long-dead Mayfair reveals the importance of destroying Lasher. In the investigation, Lasher's origins are revealed, the new Taltos Emaleth returns, and the climax of death and life engulfs the family.
--annerice.com]]> 896 Anne Rice 0099471434 Candice 3 3.88 1993
author: Anne Rice
name: Candice
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1993
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/05
date added: 2024/09/05
shelves: fiction, library-book, read-as-an-ebook, read-or-started-2024
review:

]]> 9741768
Demonstrating, once again, her gift for spellbinding storytelling and the creation of legend, Anne Rice makes real for us a great dynasty of witches--a family given to poetry and to incest, to murder and to philosophy; a family that, over the ages, is itself haunted by a powerful, dangerous, and seductive being.

On the veranda of a great New Orleans house, now faded, a mute and fragile woman sits rocking . . . and The Witching Hour begins.

It begins in our time with a rescue at sea. Rowan Mayfair, a beautiful woman, a brilliant practitioner of neurosurgery--aware that she has special powers but unaware that she comes from an ancient line of witches--finds the drowned body of a man off the coast of California and brings him to life. He is Michael Curry, who was born in New Orleans and orphaned in childhood by fire on Christmas Eve, who pulled himself up from poverty, and who now, in his brief interval of death, has acquired a sensory power that mystifies and frightens him.

As these two, fiercely drawn to each other, fall in love and--in passionate alliance--set out to solve the mystery of her past and his unwelcome gift, the novel moves backward and forward in time from today's New Orleans and San Francisco to long-ago Amsterdam and a château in the France of Louis XIV. An intricate tale of evil unfolds--an evil unleashed in seventeenth-century Scotland, where the first "witch," Suzanne of the Mayfair, conjures up the spirit she names Lasher . . . a creation that spells her own destruction and torments each of her descendants in turn.

From the coffee plantations of Port au Prince, where the great Mayfair fortune is made and the legacy of their dark power is almost destroyed, to Civil War New Orleans, as Julien--the clan's only male to be endowed with occult powers--provides for the dynasty its foothold in America, the dark, luminous story encompasses dramas of seduction and death, episodes of tenderness and healing. And always--through peril and escape, tension and release--there swirl around us the echoes of eternal war: innocence versus the corruption of the spirit, sanity against madness, life against death. With a dreamlike power, the novel draws us, through circuitous, twilight paths, to the present and Rowan's increasingly inspired and risky moves in the merciless game that binds her to her heritage. And in New Orleans, on Christmas Eve, this strangest of family sagas is brought to its startling climax.]]> 1058 Anne Rice Candice 0 4.11 1990
author: Anne Rice
name: Candice
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1990
rating: 0
read at: 2024/09/03
date added: 2024/09/03
shelves: fiction, read-or-started-2024, library-book, read-as-an-ebook
review:

]]> 204593567 A gripping story of motherhood and motherloss and the brutal, mighty things women do to keep themselves and each other alive, MADWOMAN marks the arrival of a major fiction talent.

The world is not made for mothers.
Yet mothers made the world�

Clove hasĚýgone to extremes to keep her past a secret. Thanks to her lies, she’s landed the life of her dreams, complete with a safe husband and two adoring children who will never know the terror that was routine in her own childhood. If her buried anxiety threatens to breach the surface, Clove (if that is really her name) focuses on finding the right supplement, the right gratitude meditation.Ěý

But when she receives a letter from a women’s prison in California, her past comes screeching into the present, entangling her in a dangerous game with memory and the people she thought she had outrun. As weĚýraceĚýbetween her precarious present-day life in Portland, Oregon and her childhood in a Waikiki high-rise with her mother and father, Clove is forced toĚýfinally unravel the defining day of her life. How did she survive that day, and what will it take to end the cycle of violence? Will the truth undo her, or could it ultimately save her?]]> 336 Chelsea Bieker 0316573299 Candice 0 to-read 3.71 2024
author: Chelsea Bieker
name: Candice
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 67037 464 Douglas Preston 0812542835 Candice 2 3.96 1997
author: Douglas Preston
name: Candice
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1997
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: fiction, suspense-mystery-thriller
review:

]]> 199698485 When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide

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

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.]]> 490 Liz Moore Candice 0 4.16 2024
author: Liz Moore
name: Candice
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/05
shelves: to-read, fiction, recommended-by-friends
review:

]]> 34051011
Richly told and profoundly moving, Pachinko is a story of love, sacrifice, ambition, and loyalty. From bustling street markets to the halls of Japan's finest universities to the pachinko parlors of the criminal underworld, Lee's complex and passionate characters—strong, stubborn women, devoted sisters and sons, fathers shaken by moral crisis—survive and thrive against the indifferent arc of history.]]> 496 Min Jin Lee Candice 0 to-read 4.35 2017
author: Min Jin Lee
name: Candice
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 50891570 The refreshingly original debut memoir of a guarded, over-achieving, self-lacerating young lawyer who reluctantly agrees to get psychologically and emotionally naked in a room of six complete strangers—her psychotherapy group—and in turn finds human connection, and herself.

Christie Tate had just been named the top student in her law school class and finally had her eating disorder under control. Why then was she driving through Chicago fantasizing about her own death? Why was she envisioning putting an end to the isolation and sadness that still plagued her in spite of her achievements?

Enter Dr. Rosen, a therapist who calmly assures her that if she joins one of his psychotherapy groups, he can transform her life. All she has to do is show up and be honest. About everything—her eating habits, childhood, sexual history, etc. Christie is skeptical, insisting that that she is defective, beyond cure. But Dr. Rosen issues a nine-word prescription that will change everything: “You don’t need a cure, you need a witness.

So begins her entry into the strange, terrifying, and ultimately life-changing world of group therapy. Christie is initially put off by Dr. Rosen’s outlandish directives, but as her defenses break down and she comes to trust Dr. Rosen and to depend on the sessions and the prescribed nightly phone calls with various group members, she begins to understand what it means to connect.

Group is a deliciously addictive read, and with Christie as our guide—skeptical of her own capacity for connection and intimacy, but hopeful in spite of herself—we are given a front row seat to the daring, exhilarating, painful, and hilarious journey that is group therapy—an under-explored process that breaks you down, and then reassembles you so that all the pieces finally fit.]]> 282 Christie Tate Candice 3
I thought this was better than another therapy memoir I read recently, and did more justice to the healing journey. ]]> 3.77 2020
author: Christie Tate
name: Candice
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/21
date added: 2024/07/21
shelves: memoir, nonfiction, recommended-by-friends, library-book, read-or-started-2024
review:
3.75 stars. This is an odd book. I loved parts of it and it was well-written, but I also wanted to scream at the author and shake her for some of the ridiculous things she does in her healing journey. The tenets and principles of Dr. Rosen and his groups were rather shocking, but the bonds between the group members were real and familiar. Of all the pages, I almost like the Q&A with the author at the end the most, where she explained some of her process about writing, healing, and learning to be her truest self. I attended a support group for close to 8 years, and the therapist and the 5-8 people who regularly attended were closer to me than family; they knew me, saw me at my rawest, and loved me anyway � just the way the author portrayed with her own groups and therapist. Group therapy/support helped me to learn how to show up and be present in all my life, and the author tapped into that in her book. I also really liked and appreciated how she ended the book with an epilogue 10 years later and what she chose to divulge, that healing never really ends and there are always new challenges.

I thought this was better than another therapy memoir I read recently, and did more justice to the healing journey.
]]> 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 Candice 4 4.35 2022
author: Shelby Van Pelt
name: Candice
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/15
date added: 2024/07/15
shelves: fiction, library-book, read-as-an-ebook, read-or-started-2024, recommended-by-friends
review:
SO GOOD!! I feel bad for being the tiniest bit stingy with stars and not giving it a full 5 stars…but, well, an incredible 4.5 out of five. One of my favorite books read this year. It’s lovely to read an engaging, smart, interesting book with a deep heart that’s written for grownups. Loved Tova, Marcellus, and Cat. Highly recommend!!
]]> 123227217 Ěý
“I am a butterfly at half-mast. Muscles coiled like springs. I have not unwound yet,� writes Julie Marie Wade in Otherwise . In this series of intimate, braided essays written throughout her 30s, Wade traces her own unwinding and becoming through probing lyricism. As a daughter, lover, lesbian, and writer, she invites readers on a journey of self-discovery framed by memory, literature, and popular culture. Touching and tender, empathic and insightful, Otherwise revels in its author's self-acceptance at the threshold of mid-life.
Ěý]]> 176 Julie Marie Wade 1637680724 Candice 0 to-read 4.50
author: Julie Marie Wade
name: Candice
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 5653041
A longtime trauma worker, Laura van Dernoot Lipsky offers a deep and empathetic survey of the often-unrecognized toll taken on those working to make the world a better place. We may feel tired, cynical, or numb or like we can never do enough. These, and other symptoms, affect us individually and collectively, sapping the energy and effectiveness we so desperately need if we are to benefit humankind, other living things, and the planet itself.Ěý


InĚý Trauma Stewardship , we are called to meet these challenges in an intentional way. Lipsky offers a variety of simple and profound practices, drawn from modern psychology and a range of spiritual traditions, that enable us to look carefully at our reactions and motivations and discover new sources of energy and renewal. She includes interviews with successful trauma stewards from different walks of life and even uses New Yorker cartoons to illustrate her points.


“We can do meaningful work in a way that works for us and for those we serve,� Lipsky writes. “Taking care of ourselves while taking care of others allows us to contribute to our societies with such impact that we will leave a legacy informed by our deepest wisdom and greatest gifts instead of burdened by our struggles and despair.]]> 288 Laura Van Dernoot Lipsky 157675944X Candice 0 4.29 2007
author: Laura Van Dernoot Lipsky
name: Candice
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/09
shelves: to-read, grief-books, nonfiction, recommended-by-friends, self-help
review:

]]> 112975658 A gripping historical mystery inspired by the life and diary of Martha Ballard, a renowned 18th-century midwife who defied the legal system and wrote herself into American history.

Maine, 1789: When the Kennebec River freezes, entombing a man in the ice, Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body and determine cause of death. As a midwife and healer, she is privy to much of what goes on behind closed doors in Hallowell. Her diary is a record of every birth and death, crime and debacle that unfolds in the close-knit community. Months earlier, Martha documented the details of an alleged rape committed by two of the town’s most respected gentlemen—one of whom has now been found dead in the ice. But when a local physician undermines her conclusion, declaring the death to be an accident, Martha is forced to investigate the shocking murder on her own.

Over the course of one winter, as the trial nears, and whispers and prejudices mount, Martha doggedly pursues the truth. Her diary soon lands at the center of the scandal, implicating those she loves, and compelling Martha to decide where her own loyalties lie.

Clever, layered, and subversive, Ariel Lawhon’s newest offering introduces an unsung heroine who refused to accept anything less than justice at a time when women were considered best seen and not heard. The Frozen River is a thrilling, tense, and tender story about a remarkable woman who left an unparalleled legacy yet remains nearly forgotten to this day.]]> 432 Ariel Lawhon 0385546874 Candice 4 4.38 2023
author: Ariel Lawhon
name: Candice
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/01
date added: 2024/07/01
shelves: recommended-by-friends, historical-fiction, library-book, read-as-an-ebook, read-or-started-2024
review:
I love when a book compels me to stay up til 3am to finish it. I hate when it happens on a Sunday night and I have work the next day.
]]> 61918576 Ěý
In this transformative book, Galit Atlas entwines the stories of her patients, her own stories, and decades of research to help us identify the links between our life struggles and the “emotional inheritance� we all carry. For it is only by following the traces those ghosts leave that we can truly change our destiny.]]> 288 Galit Atlas 0316492108 Candice 3 4.20 2022
author: Galit Atlas
name: Candice
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/23
date added: 2024/06/23
shelves: library-book, nonfiction, read-as-an-ebook, read-or-started-2024
review:
An interesting book on a curious, intriguing topic. The patients and case studies she shared were fascinating, but they also made me curious about the patients who were excluded and didn’t have such tidy, concrete generational ties and answers.
]]> 195430429
Fake spirit medium Gretchen Acorn is happy to help when her best ( wealthiest) client hires her to investigate the unexplained phenomena preventing the sale of her bridge partner’s struggling goat farm. Gretchen may be a fraud, but she'd like to think she’s a beneficent one. So if "cleansing" the property will help a nice old man finally retire and put some much-needed cash in her pockets at the same time, who's she to say no?

Of course, it turns out said bridge partner isn't the kindly AARP member Gretchen imagined—Charlie Waybill is young, hot as hell, and extremely unconvinced that Gretchen can communicate with the dead. (Which, fair.) Except, to her surprise, Gretchen finds herself face-to-face with the very real, very chatty ghost that’s been wreaking havoc during every open house. And he wants her to help ensure Charlie avoids the same family curse that's had Everett haunting Gilded Creek since the 1920s.

Now, Gretchen has one month to convince Charlie he can’t sell the property. Unfortunately, hard work and honesty seem to be the way to win over the stubborn farmer—not exactly Gretchen's strengths. But trust isn’t the only thing growing between them, and the risk of losing Charlie to the spirit realm looms over Gretchen almost as annoyingly as Everett himself. To save the goat farm, its friendly phantom, and the man she's beginning to love, Gretchen will need to pull off the greatest con of her being fully, genuinely herself.]]> 416 Sarah Adler 0593547829 Candice 3 3.75 2024
author: Sarah Adler
name: Candice
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/21
date added: 2024/06/21
shelves:
review:
I’d probably give it a 3.5 more than a 3 (but not really a 4 either). A fun, silly, frivolous, less-annoying-than-other-recent-rom-coms book. The resident ghost was an amusing third character. Glad I read it as a library book, though, as it wasn’t “grabby� enough to want to read again (or keep on my bookshelf if I’d bought it). An entertaining summer read, if nothing else.
]]> 60822515 Sparks fly between a lordly art critic and a lady forger in this enthralling Victorian historical romance from the author of The Runaway Duchess.

Nina Finch isn’t suited for a life of crime. Raised by her art-forger brother, she can paint like Botticelli. But she’d so much rather be baking gooseberry tarts. She finally has the money she needs to open her own bakery. Unfortunately, her brother’s carelessness lands her—and their forgeries—directly under the nose of London’s most discerning art critic, Alan De’Ath. De’Ath knows the paintings are fake. He doesn’t know that Nina had a hand in their creation. In fact, he offers her a job in his household. Accepting it is the most dangerous thing she has ever done�.

Alan takes pride in seeing things other people miss. He plans to catch the forger and cement his reputation. There’s only one problem: the closer he gets to the beguiling woman he hired, the less he trusts his perspective. Nina isn’t what she seems. But despite their false start, she just might hold the real key to his heart.

As Nina and Alan’s attraction grows, divided loyalties threaten to pull them apart and shatter their worlds. They’ll lose everything, or discover how powerful true love can be�.

]]> 322 Joanna Lowell 0593198328 Candice 0 3.61 2023
author: Joanna Lowell
name: Candice
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/20
shelves: to-read, fiction, historical-fiction, recommended-by-friends, romance
review:

]]> 173754979 A brilliant reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—both harrowing and satirical—told from the enslaved Jim's point of view

When Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he runs away until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck has faked his own death to escape his violent father. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

Brimming with nuanced humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a literary icon, this brilliant and tender novel radically illuminates Jim's agency, intelligence, and compassion as never before. James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first-century American literature.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780385550369.]]> 303 Percival Everett Candice 0 to-read 4.47 2024
author: Percival Everett
name: Candice
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 200721391 In this compassionate and knowledgeable guide, TikTok star Julie McFadden—known online as “Hospice Nurse Julie”—shares the valuable lessons she’s learned in her fifteen years as an RN in the ICU and in hospice. Expertly interweaving emotional insight and practical advice, Nothing to Fear demystifies end-of-life care for both patients and caregivers, covering topics including:
the biological details of dying
which medical interventions help and which only make things worse
the otherworldly beauty of deathbed phenomena
financial and logistical preparations for death
facts and myths about hospice care
the most important conversations to have before you die
the grieving process, before and after death
Sure to be a go-to resource for years to come, McFadden’s first book proves a better death goes hand in hand with a better life.]]> 240 Julie McFadden 0593713249 Candice 4 4.43
author: Julie McFadden
name: Candice
average rating: 4.43
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/12
date added: 2024/06/15
shelves: nonfiction, read-as-an-ebook, read-or-started-2024
review:

]]> 61190770
Loretta Thurwar and Hamara "Hurricane Staxxx" Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly-popular, highly-controversial, profit-raising program in America's increasingly dominant private prison industry. It's the return of the gladiators and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom.

In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death-matches for packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. As she prepares to leave her fellow Links, she considers how she might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games, but CAPE's corporate owners will stop at nothing to protect their status quo and the obstacles they lay in Thurwar's path have devastating consequences.

Moving from the Links in the field to the protestors to the CAPE employees and beyond, Chain-Gang All-Stars is a kaleidoscopic, excoriating look at the American prison system's unholy alliance of systemic racism, unchecked capitalism, and mass incarceration, and a clear-eyed reckoning with what freedom in this country really means.]]> 367 Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah 0593317335 Candice 0 4.13 2023
author: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
name: Candice
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/15
shelves: to-read, recommended-by-friends
review:

]]> 131986049 “A frank chronicle of healing.”—Kirkus Reviews


What happens when a trauma therapist is traumatized by loss?


Esteemed trauma therapist Meghan Riordan Jarvis knew how to help her patients process grief. For nearly twenty years, Meghan expected that this clinical training would inoculate her against the effects of personal trauma. But when her father died after a year-long battle with cancer, followed by her mother’s unexpected passing while on their family vacation, she came undone.


Thrown into a maelstrom of grief, with long-buried childhood tragedy rising to the surface, Meghan knew what she had to do―check herself into the same trauma facility to which she often sent her clients. In treatment, trading the therapist’s chair for the patient’s couch, Meghan took her first steps toward healing.


A brave story of confronting life’s hardest moments with emotional honesty, End of the Hour is for anyone who has experienced the unpredictable, lasting power of grief―and wondered how they’d ever get through it.]]> 283 Meghan Riordan Jarvis 1958506222 Candice 3 4.33
author: Meghan Riordan Jarvis
name: Candice
average rating: 4.33
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/02
date added: 2024/06/02
shelves: grief-books, library-book, memoir, nonfiction, read-or-started-2024
review:
3.5 stars. An easy, quick, interesting read, though the end wasn’t as compelling as earlier sections.
]]> 56978100
Many believe that Shim Cheong, the most beautiful girl in the village—and the beloved of Mina’s older brother Joon—may be the legendary true bride. But on the night Cheong is to be sacrificed, Joon follows Cheong out to sea, even knowing that to interfere is a death sentence. To save her brother, Mina throws herself into the water in Cheong’s stead.

Swept away to the Spirit Realm, a magical city of lesser gods and mythical beasts, Mina seeks out the Sea God, only to find him caught in an enchanted sleep. With the help of a mysterious young man named Shin—as well as a motley crew of demons, gods and spirits—Mina sets out to wake the Sea God and bring an end to the killer storms once and for all.

But she doesn’t have much time: A human cannot live long in the land of the spirits. And there are those who would do anything to keep the Sea God from waking…]]> 325 Axie Oh 1250780861 Candice 0 4.10 2022
author: Axie Oh
name: Candice
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/30
shelves: to-read, recommended-by-friends
review:

]]> 58175765 An impossible crime. A detective on the edge of madness. The future of time travel at stake.

January Cole’s job just got a whole lot harder.

Not that running security at the Paradox was ever really easy. Nothing’s simple at a hotel where the ultra-wealthy tourists arrive costumed for a dozen different time periods, all eagerly waiting to catch their “flights� to the past.

Or where proximity to the timeport makes the clocks run backward on occasion—and, rumor has it, allows ghosts to stroll the halls.

None of that compares to the corpse in room 526. The one that seems to be both there and not there. The one that somehow only January can see.

On top of that, some very important new guests have just checked in. Because the U.S. government is about to privatize time-travel technology—and the world’s most powerful people are on hand to stake their claims.

January is sure the timing isn’t a coincidence. Neither are those “accidents� that start stalking their bidders.

There’s a reason January can glimpse what others can’t. A reason why she’s the only one who can catch a killer who’s operating invisibly and in plain sight, all at once.

But her ability is also destroying her grip on reality—and as her past, present, and future collide, she finds herself confronting not just the hotel’s dark secrets but her own.]]> 336 Rob Hart 1984820648 Candice 0 3.48 2022
author: Rob Hart
name: Candice
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/30
shelves: to-read, recommended-by-friends
review:

]]> 75555793 *The Sunday Times and Global number one bestseller*
*Winner of Novel of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards*
*A Book of the Year in The Times, the Guardian, the Irish Times and the Financial Times*

Alice, a novelist, meets Felix, who works in a warehouse, and asks him if he'd like to travel to Rome with her. In Dublin, her best friend Eileen is getting over a break-up and slips back into flirting with Simon, a man she has known since childhood.

Alice, Felix, Eileen and Simon are still young - but life is catching up with them. They desire each other, they delude each other, they worry about sex and friendship and the times they live in. Will they find a way to believe in a beautiful world?]]> 337 Sally Rooney 0571365442 Candice 0 3.50 2021
author: Sally Rooney
name: Candice
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/30
shelves: to-read, recommended-by-friends
review:

]]> 50490698 A Love Story is a gothic tale full of mystery and romance.

Hazel Sinnett is a lady who wants to be a surgeon more than she wants to marry.

Jack Currer is a resurrection man who’s just trying to survive in a city where it’s too easy to die.

When the two of them have a chance encounter outside the Edinburgh Anatomist’s Society, Hazel thinks nothing of it at first. But after she gets kicked out of renowned surgeon Dr. Beecham’s lectures for being the wrong gender, she realizes that her new acquaintance might be more helpful than she first thought. Because Hazel has made a deal with Dr. If she can pass the medical examination on her own, Beecham will allow her to continue her medical career. Without official lessons, though, Hazel will need more than just her books—she’ll need corpses to study.

Lucky that she’s made the acquaintance of someone who digs them up for a living.

But Jack has his own strange men have been seen skulking around cemeteries, his friends are disappearing off the streets, and the dreaded Roman Fever, which wiped out thousands a few years ago, is back with a vengeance. Nobody important cares—until Hazel.

Now, Hazel and Jack must work together to uncover the secrets buried not just in unmarked graves, but in the very heart of Edinburgh society.]]> 320 Dana Schwartz 1250774160 Candice 3
I’m somewhat curious to see what the big plot climax was at the end, but not curious enough to buy it or wait for it to come back up as a library ebook again. Guess I can live in suspense of not knowing (aside from what I can find out from spoilers online).

I had high hopes for this one. On to the next one�.]]> 3.91 2022
author: Dana Schwartz
name: Candice
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/27
date added: 2024/05/27
shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, library-book, read-as-an-ebook, read-or-started-2024, recommended-by-friends
review:
Maybe only 2.5-3 stars, but to be fair, I only made it 53% through before the library ebook expired. I thought the first prologue chapter was great and hooked me, the first real chapter with Hazel was fun and very Mary Shelley-esque � and then the more I read, the more I was reminded it was YA and a romance, which I wasn’t quite in the mood for. But hey, it was free!

I’m somewhat curious to see what the big plot climax was at the end, but not curious enough to buy it or wait for it to come back up as a library ebook again. Guess I can live in suspense of not knowing (aside from what I can find out from spoilers online).

I had high hopes for this one. On to the next one�.
]]> 62585962 304 Kelly McMasters 0393541053 Candice 0 4.21 2023
author: Kelly McMasters
name: Candice
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/23
shelves: to-read, memoir, nonfiction, recommended-by-friends
review:

]]> 203106169 A forensic artist confronts a crime against her own family, while MAGA politics, racism and violence rage in a small town in the Bitterroot Mountains of Idaho.Ěý

Set in the fictional town of Steeplejack, nestled in the Bitterroot Mountains, Hazel Mackenzie provides law enforcement with sketch art and victim reconstruction following suspected crimes. Trouble strikes twice when her husband dies in an accident and then soon after, her gay twin brother Kento is shot by a member of Steeplejack’s growing anti-LBGTQ community during a gender reveal party for his child.Ěý

Secrets boil up. First an ugly secret about her late husband. Then Hazel finds letters written by her great-grandfather during the second world war when as a first-generation Japanese-American serving in the US military, the rest of the family was interned in a prison-like camp. Now, some eighty years later, the same racism and prejudice threaten to strip Kento and his husband of their basic rights to their baby. Hazel must now confront her own intergenerational trauma as she battles for herself, her brother, and a town that has been torn apart by hate.]]> 260 Suzy Vitello 1960573101 Candice 0 to-read 4.02
author: Suzy Vitello
name: Candice
average rating: 4.02
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 40409102 Alternate cover edition of ASIN B01HW6Z3FG

This is how a family keeps a secret…and how that secret ends up keeping them.

This is how a family lives happily ever after…until happily ever after becomes complicated.

This is how children change…and then change the world.

This is Claude. He’s five years old, the youngest of five brothers, and loves peanut butter sandwiches. He also loves wearing a dress, and dreams of being a princess.

When he grows up, Claude says, he wants to be a girl.

Rosie and Penn want Claude to be whoever Claude wants to be. They’re just not sure they’re ready to share that with the world. Soon the entire family is keeping Claude’s secret. Until one day it explodes.

This Is How It Always Is is a novel about revelations, transformations, fairy tales, and family. And it’s about the ways this is how it always is: Change is always hard and miraculous and hard again, parenting is always a leap into the unknown with crossed fingers and full hearts, children grow but not always according to plan. And families with secrets don’t get to keep them forever.]]> 338 Laurie Frankel Candice 0 to-read 4.26 2017
author: Laurie Frankel
name: Candice
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 59438099 320 Emma Straub 0525539026 Candice 4 3.90 2022
author: Emma Straub
name: Candice
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/13
date added: 2024/05/13
shelves: fiction, library-book, read-as-an-ebook, read-or-started-2024
review:
A love letter to New York, and between a daughter and father, and to all the little things you might change if you could. It was a great counterpoint to the millennial rom-coms I’ve read as fluffy filler, with more realness, heart, and an actual grownup (a 40yo woman!) at the center. Insider tip: Read the author’s note at the end too. ❤️
]]> 195888551
Lilly Dancyger always thought of her closest friendships as great loves, complex and profound as any romance. When her beloved cousin was murdered just as both girls were entering adulthood, Dancyger felt a new urgency in her devotion to the women in her life—a desire to hold her friends close while she still could. In First Love, this urgency runs through a striking exploration of the bonds between women, from the intensity of adolescent best friendship and fluid sexuality to mothering and chosen family.

Each essay in this incisive collection is grounded in a close female friendship in Dancyger’s life, reaching outward to dissect cultural assumptions about identity and desire, and the many ways women create space for each other in a world that wants us small. Seamlessly weaving personal experience with literature and pop culture—ranging from fairytales to true crime, from Anaïs Nin and Sylvia Plath to Heavenly Creatures and the “sad girls� of Tumblr—Dancyger’s essays form a kaleidoscopic story of a life told through friendships, and an expansive interrogation of what it means to love each other.

Though friendship will never be enough to keep us safe from the dangers of the world, Dancyger reminds us that love is always worth the risk, and that when tragedy strikes, it’s our friends who will help us survive. In First Love, these essential bonds get their due.]]> 224 Lilly Dancyger 0593447573 Candice 0 3.90 2024
author: Lilly Dancyger
name: Candice
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/09
shelves: to-read, memoir, nonfiction, recommended-by-friends
review:

]]> 61718053
They broke up six months ago. And still haven’t told their best friends.

Which is how they find themselves sharing the largest bedroom at the Maine cottage that has been their friend group’s yearly getaway for the last decade. Their annual respite from the world, where for one vibrant, blue week they leave behind their daily lives; have copious amounts of cheese, wine, and seafood; and soak up the salty coastal air with the people who understand them most.

Only this year, Harriet and Wyn are lying through their teeth while trying not to notice how desperately they still want each other. Because the cottage is for sale and this is the last week they’ll all have together in this place. They can’t stand to break their friends� hearts, and so they’ll play their parts. Harriet will be the driven surgical resident who never starts a fight, and Wyn will be the laid-back charmer who never lets the cracks show. It’s a flawless plan (if you look at it from a great distance and through a pair of sunscreen-smeared sunglasses). After years of being in love, how hard can it be to fake it for one week� in front of those who know you best?

A couple who broke up months ago make a pact to pretend to still be together for their annual weeklong vacation with their best friends in this glittering and wise new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.]]> 400 Emily Henry 0593441273 Candice 3
I started accidentally reading the occasional rom com a little over a year ago, and after 6-8 of them, I’m reminded over and over that, at 46yo, I’m not the target audience for them � I’m too old, too jaded, not nearly millennial enough. I’m glad the last third of this book improved, relatively speaking…and I’m glad it was a library book.

I enjoyed Beach Read, loved Book Lovers, thought The People You Meet on Vacation was awful…so I guess this book gets third place in my Emily Henry list. I’ll still read her new book sometime � but I’ll wait for the library ebook to come through.]]> 3.95 2023
author: Emily Henry
name: Candice
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/01
date added: 2024/05/01
shelves: fiction, library-book, read-as-an-ebook, read-or-started-2024, romance
review:
67% of it was an annoying meh, but then it finally found some emotional kernel of realness and I guess it got better?

I started accidentally reading the occasional rom com a little over a year ago, and after 6-8 of them, I’m reminded over and over that, at 46yo, I’m not the target audience for them � I’m too old, too jaded, not nearly millennial enough. I’m glad the last third of this book improved, relatively speaking…and I’m glad it was a library book.

I enjoyed Beach Read, loved Book Lovers, thought The People You Meet on Vacation was awful…so I guess this book gets third place in my Emily Henry list. I’ll still read her new book sometime � but I’ll wait for the library ebook to come through.
]]> 34615256
Plus - the epilogue II short story:
Those cute kids from romance novels aren't actually supposed to grow up, are they?

When last we saw Amanda Crane, she was eight years old and (in her own words) a blight on the face of humanity. Now she's grown up, remarkably well-adjusted, and ready to fall in love. All she needs is the right gentleman...]]> 432 Julia Quinn Candice 2
I haven’t read historical romance novels in probably 20-25 years, but I was enticed into it again by all the Bridgerton Season 3 posts hitting Instagram recently. I reread the book with Colin & Penelope’s story and still enjoyed it, so thought I’d read this next one with Eloise.

But it doesn’t have any of the sparkle and fun of Penelope’s story and I don’t care enough to keep reading and see what the supposed climax is. Moving on�.]]> 4.09 2003
author: Julia Quinn
name: Candice
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2003
rating: 2
read at: 2024/04/25
date added: 2024/04/28
shelves: historical-fiction, library-book, read-as-an-ebook, read-or-started-2024, romance
review:
Meh. I didn’t actually finish it, bc it was a library book and wasn’t wowing me � but I still read enough of it (70-80%) to claim it as done.

I haven’t read historical romance novels in probably 20-25 years, but I was enticed into it again by all the Bridgerton Season 3 posts hitting Instagram recently. I reread the book with Colin & Penelope’s story and still enjoyed it, so thought I’d read this next one with Eloise.

But it doesn’t have any of the sparkle and fun of Penelope’s story and I don’t care enough to keep reading and see what the supposed climax is. Moving on�.
]]> 57823095 I am a Weyward, and wild inside.

2019: Under cover of darkness, Kate flees London for ramshackle Weyward Cottage, inherited from a great aunt she barely remembers. With its tumbling ivy and overgrown garden, the cottage is worlds away from the abusive partner who tormented Kate. But she begins to suspect that her great aunt had a secret. One that lurks in the bones of the cottage, hidden ever since the witch-hunts of the 17th century.

1619: Altha is awaiting trial for the murder of a local farmer who was stampeded to death by his herd. As a girl, Altha’s mother taught her their magic, a kind not rooted in spell casting but in a deep knowledge of the natural world. But unusual women have always been deemed dangerous, and as the evidence for witchcraft is set out against Altha, she knows it will take all of her powers to maintain her freedom.

1942: As World War II rages, Violet is trapped in her family's grand, crumbling estate. Straitjacketed by societal convention, she longs for the robust education her brother receives––and for her mother, long deceased, who was rumored to have gone mad before her death. The only traces Violet has of her are a locket bearing the initial W and the word weyward scratched into the baseboard of her bedroom.

Weaving together the stories of three extraordinary women across five centuries, Emilia Hart's Weyward is an enthralling novel of female resilience and the transformative power of the natural world.]]> 408 Emilia Hart Candice 2 4.21 2023
author: Emilia Hart
name: Candice
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2024/02/19
date added: 2024/04/28
shelves: read-as-an-ebook, read-or-started-2024, shelf-ish-book-group
review:
I didn’t actually finish it � I think I only made it to 44% � but I’m still claiming it toward my 2024 reading challenge goal.
]]> 58007238 A renowned grief expert and neuroscientist shares groundbreaking discoveries about what happens in our brain when we grieve, providing a new paradigm for understanding love, loss, and learning.

For as long as humans have existed, we have struggled when a loved one dies. Poets and playwrights have written about the dark cloak of grief, the deep yearning, how devastating heartache feels. But until now, we have had little scientific perspective on this universal experience.

In The Grieving Brain, neuroscientist and psychologist Mary-Frances O'Connor, PhD, gives us a fascinating new window into one of the hallmark experiences of being human. O'Connor has devoted decades to researching the effects of grief on the brain, and in this book, she makes cutting-edge neuroscience accessible through her contagious enthusiasm, and guides us through how we encode love and grief. With love, our neurons help us form attachments to others; but, with loss, our brain must come to terms with where our loved ones went, or how to imagine a future that encompasses their absence.

Based on O'Connor's own trailblazing neuroimaging work, research in the field, and her real-life stories, The Grieving Brain does what the best popular science books do, combining storytelling, accessible science, and practical knowledge that will help us better understand what happens when we grieve and how to navigate loss with more ease and grace.]]> 236 Mary-Frances O'Connor 0062946234 Candice 3
Instead this book was maybe 30% sorta related to science (and that might be a stretch), 30% the author’s pseudo memoir or experiences, and 30% expository writing on the self-help aspects of grief. I wanted more science.

That said, I still flagged and underlined many sentences. It had some good things to say � I just wish it said more (and less about some aspects). ]]> 4.13 2022
author: Mary-Frances O'Connor
name: Candice
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/28
date added: 2024/04/28
shelves: grief-books, nonfiction, read-or-started-2024
review:
I wanted more from this book. I wanted it to be nerdier, to delve more deeply into the studies and brain scans and the science, neurochemistry, and physiological brain structures. I wanted pictures, visuals � a griever’s version of the 1980s ad campaign, “This is your brain; this is your brain on drugs.� I wanted it to be more like “The Body Keeps the Score,� full of deep insights and shocking (to me) revelations.

Instead this book was maybe 30% sorta related to science (and that might be a stretch), 30% the author’s pseudo memoir or experiences, and 30% expository writing on the self-help aspects of grief. I wanted more science.

That said, I still flagged and underlined many sentences. It had some good things to say � I just wish it said more (and less about some aspects).
]]> 338691
But Gamache knows that evil is lurking somewhere behind the white picket fences and that, if he watches closely enough, Three Pines will start to give up its dark secrets...]]> 293 Louise Penny 0312948557 Candice 0 3.86 2005
author: Louise Penny
name: Candice
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/22
shelves: to-read, recommended-by-friends
review:

]]> 1859053
Colin Bridgerton is tired of being thought nothing but an empty-headed charmer, tired of everyone's preoccupation with the notorious gossip columnist Lady Whistledown, who can't seem to publish an edition without mentioning him in the first paragraph. But when Colin returns to London from a trip abroad he discovers nothing in his life is quite the same - especially Penelope Featherington! The girl haunting his dreams. But when he discovers that Penelope has secrets of her own, this elusive bachelor must decide...is she his biggest threat - or his promise of a happy ending?]]> 384 Julia Quinn 0749936606 Candice 0 3.70 2002
author: Julia Quinn
name: Candice
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at: 2024/04/20
date added: 2024/04/19
shelves: fiction, romance, read-or-started-2021, read-as-an-ebook, read-or-started-2024
review:

]]> 196841896
From the acclaimed author of twelve books of fiction and nonfiction, includingĚý All the Secrets of the WorldĚý and theĚý New York Times ĚýbestsellersĚý Candyfreak ĚýandĚý Against Football,Ěý comes a craft book that is at once irreverent and iconoclastic. Ěý InĚý Truth is the Arrow ,Ěý Mercy is the Bow , Steve Almond employs the radical empathy he displayed as co-host (with Cheryl Strayed) of the podcastĚý Dear Sugars Ěýto explore the joys and trials of storytelling, and to explode the myths that hold us back from writing our deepest and truest work. The book includes chapters on plot, character, and chronology, but travels far beyond the earnest intentions of most craft books. It includes essays on humor, sex, writer’s block, and the dividends of failure, as well as prompts to generate new work and a rollicking Frequently Asked Questions section. You’ll never think about writing the same way again.]]> 256 Steve Almond 1638931305 Candice 0 to-read 4.51
author: Steve Almond
name: Candice
average rating: 4.51
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61214136
From the day she watched her kindergarten teacher drop dead during a dramatic telling of Peter Rabbit , Clover Brooks has felt a stronger connection with the dying than she has with the living. After the beloved grandfather who raised her dies alone while she is traveling, Clover becomes a death doula in New York City, dedicating her life to ushering people peacefully through their end-of-life process.

Clover spends so much time with the dying that she has no life of her own, until the final wishes of a feisty old woman send Clover on a road trip to uncover a forgotten love story—and perhaps, her own happy ending. As she finds herself struggling to navigate the uncharted roads of romance and friendship, Clover is forced to examine what she really wants, and whether she’ll have the courage to go after it.

Probing, clever, and hopeful, The Collected Regrets of Clover is perfect for readers of The Midnight Library and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine as it turns the normally taboo subject of death into a reason to celebrate life.]]> 320 Mikki Brammer 1250284392 Candice 0 4.14 2023
author: Mikki Brammer
name: Candice
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/04
shelves: to-read, recommended-by-friends
review:

]]> 136251
In this final, seventh installment of the Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling unveils in spectacular fashion the answers to the many questions that have been so eagerly awaited.]]> 759 J.K. Rowling Candice 5 4.61 2007
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Candice
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/29
date added: 2024/03/29
shelves: all-time-favorites, childrens-books, fiction, young-adult-books, read-or-started-2015, read-or-started-2018, read-or-started-2020, read-or-started-2022, read-or-started-2024
review:

]]> 1 652 J.K. Rowling Candice 4 4.57 2005
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Candice
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/17
date added: 2024/03/17
shelves: childrens-books, fiction, young-adult-books, read-or-started-2015, read-or-started-2018, read-or-started-2020, read-or-started-2022, read-or-started-2024
review:

]]> 155685405 Ěý
Leslie Jamison has become one of our most beloved contemporary voices, a scribe of the real, the true, the complex. She has been compared to Joan Didion and Susan Sontag, acclaimed for her powerful thinking, deep feeling, and electric prose. But while Jamison has never shied away from challenging material—scouring her own psyche and digging into our most unanswerable questions across four books� Splinters enters a new realm.
Ěý
In her first memoir, Jamison turns her unrivaled powers of perception on some of the most intimate relationships of her her consuming love for her young daughter, a ruptured marriage once swollen with hope, and the shaping legacy of her own parents� complicated bond. In examining what it means for a woman to be many things at once—a mother, an artist, a teacher, a lover—Jamison places the magical and the mundane side by side in surprising ways: pumping breastmilk in a shared university office, driving the open highway in the throes of new love, growing a tender second skin of consciousness as she watches her daughter come alive to the world. The result is a work of nonfiction like no other, an almost impossibly deep reckoning with the muchness of life and art, and a book that grieves the departure of one love even as it celebrates the arrival of another.
Ěý
How do we move forward into joy when we are haunted by loss? How do we claim hope alongside the harm we’ve caused? A memoir for which the very term tour de force seems to have been coined, Splinters plumbs these and other pressing questions with writing that is revelatory to the last page. Jamison has delivered a book with the linguistic daring and emotional acuity that made The Empathy Exams and The Recovering instant classics, even as she reaches new depths of understanding, piercing the reader to the core. A master of nonfiction, she evinces once again her ability to “stitch together the intellectual and the emotional with the finesse of a crackerjack surgeon� (NPR).]]> 272 Leslie Jamison 0316374881 Candice 0 to-read 3.79 2024
author: Leslie Jamison
name: Candice
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 2
Harry has had enough. He is beginning to think he must do something, anything, to change his situation, when the summer holidays come to an end in a very dramatic fashion. What Harry is about to discover in his new year at Hogwarts will turn his world upside down...]]> 912 J.K. Rowling Candice 0 4.50 2003
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Candice
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at: 2024/03/05
date added: 2024/03/05
shelves: read-or-started-2022, read-or-started-2024
review:

]]> 6 734 J.K. Rowling 0439139597 Candice 5 4.56 2000
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Candice
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/18
date added: 2024/02/18
shelves: all-time-favorites, childrens-books, fiction, young-adult-books, read-or-started-2015, read-or-started-2016, read-or-started-2017, read-or-started-2018, read-or-started-2020, read-or-started-2022, read-or-started-2024
review:

]]> 60931 The visionary author’s masterpiece pulls us—along with her Black female hero—through time to face the horrors of slavery and explore the impacts of racism, sexism, and white supremacy then and now.

Dana, a modern Black woman, is celebrating her 26th birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him. Dana is drawn back repeatedly through time to the slave quarters, and each time the stay grows longer, more arduous, and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not Dana’s life will end, long before it has a chance to begin.]]> 288 Octavia E. Butler 0807083690 Candice 5
The premise and perspective were new to me, and Butler handled it fantastically. Loved the perspective of a Black modern woman having to survive within 1800s slavery and what it brought to the story line. Best of all, it never felt like a 45 year old book; it could have been written in the last few years and had the same depth and power. Interestingly, I felt the book had as much to say about patriarchy and misogyny as it did slavery, racism, and owning another person.

I ended up picking this for one of my book club’s reads, and I’m so glad I did � and that I got to discuss it with another book-loving friend! I’m stingy with 5 star reviews, but this one deserves it.]]> 4.30 1979
author: Octavia E. Butler
name: Candice
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1979
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/08
date added: 2024/02/17
shelves: recommended-by-friends, read-or-started-2024, fiction, historical-fiction, shelf-ish-book-group
review:
I’d been curious about this book for a while, but I was totally hooked after reading the prologue over Thanksgiving, when our cousin James recommended it to my daughter and then gave her his copy. The rest of the book lived up to the first few pages and didn’t disappoint! I read it quickly, in only a few sessions � a rarity for me these days when work is crazy and I can’t read much or often.

The premise and perspective were new to me, and Butler handled it fantastically. Loved the perspective of a Black modern woman having to survive within 1800s slavery and what it brought to the story line. Best of all, it never felt like a 45 year old book; it could have been written in the last few years and had the same depth and power. Interestingly, I felt the book had as much to say about patriarchy and misogyny as it did slavery, racism, and owning another person.

I ended up picking this for one of my book club’s reads, and I’m so glad I did � and that I got to discuss it with another book-loving friend! I’m stingy with 5 star reviews, but this one deserves it.
]]> 55333938 This is a previously-published edition of ISBN 9780593101537.

The remarkable, little-known story of Belle da Costa Greene, J. P. Morgan's personal librarian—who became one of the most powerful women in New York despite the dangerous secret she kept in order to make her dreams come true, from New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict and acclaimed author Victoria Christopher Murray.

In her twenties, Belle da Costa Greene is hired by J. P. Morgan to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books, and artwork for his newly built Pierpont Morgan Library. Belle becomes a fixture on the New York society scene and one of the most powerful people in the art and book world, known for her impeccable taste and shrewd negotiating for critical works as she helps build a world-class collection.

But Belle has a secret, one she must protect at all costs. She was born not Belle da Costa Greene but Belle Marion Greener. She is the daughter of Richard Greener, the first Black graduate of Harvard and a well-known advocate for equality. Belle's complexion isn't dark because of her alleged Portuguese heritage that lets her pass as white—her complexion is dark because she is African American.

The Personal Librarian tells the story of an extraordinary woman, famous for her intellect, style, and wit, and shares the lengths to which she must go—for the protection of her family and her legacy—to preserve her carefully crafted white identity in the racist world in which she lives.]]> 341 Marie Benedict Candice 0 3.98 2021
author: Marie Benedict
name: Candice
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/17
shelves: to-read, recommended-by-friends
review:

]]> 56898248 Ever After. As the most successful producer in the franchise’s history, Dev always scripts the perfect love story for his contestants, even as his own love life crashes and burns. But then the show casts disgraced tech wunderkind Charlie Winshaw as its star.

Charlie is far from the romantic Prince Charming Ever After expects. He doesn’t believe in true love, and only agreed to the show as a last-ditch effort to rehabilitate his image. In front of the cameras, he’s a stiff, anxious mess with no idea how to date twenty women on national television. Behind the scenes, he’s cold, awkward, and emotionally closed-off.

As Dev fights to get Charlie to connect with the contestants on a whirlwind, worldwide tour, they begin to open up to each other, and Charlie realizes he has better chemistry with Dev than with any of his female co-stars. But even reality TV has a script, and in order to find to happily ever after, they’ll have to reconsider whose love story gets told.

In this witty and heartwarming romantic comedy—reminiscent of Red, White & Royal Blue and One to Watch—an awkward tech wunderkind on a reality dating show goes off-script when sparks fly with his producer.]]> 354 Alison Cochrun 1982170719 Candice 0 to-read 4.12 2021
author: Alison Cochrun
name: Candice
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 59427409
At once, Albert’s sole connection with his world unravels. Every day as a mail carrier, he would make his way through the streets of his small English town, delivering letters and parcels and returning greetings with a quick wave and a “how do?� Without the work that fills his days, what will be the point? He has no friends, family, or hobbies—just a past he never speaks of, and a lost love that fills him with regret.

And so, rather than continue his lonely existence, Albert forms a brave plan to start truly living. It’s finally time to be honest about who he is. To seek the happiness he’s always denied himself. And to find the courage to look for George, the man that, many years ago, he loved and lost—but has never forgotten. As he does, something extraordinary happens. Albert finds unlikely allies, new friends, and proves it’s never too late to live, to hope, and to love.]]> 400 Matt Cain 149673775X Candice 0 to-read 3.99 2021
author: Matt Cain
name: Candice
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 62687976 From Cathy Yardley, author of Love, Comment, Subscribe, comes an emotional rom-com about two middle-aged gamers who grow their online connection into an IRL love story.

Maggie is an unapologetically grumpy forty-eight-year-old hermit. But when her college-aged son makes her a deal—he’ll be more social if she does the same—she can’t refuse. She joins a new online gaming guild led by a friendly healer named Otter. So that nobody gets the wrong idea, she calls herself Bogwitch.

Otter is Aiden, a fifty-year-old optimist using the guild as an emotional outlet from his family drama caring for his aging mother while his brother plays house with Aiden’s ex-fiancée.

Bogwitch and Otter become fast virtual friends, but there’s a catch. Bogwitch thinks Otter is a college student. Otter assumes Bogwitch is an octogenarian.

When they finally meet face-to-face—after a rocky, shocking start—the unlikely pair of sunshine and stormy personalities grow tentatively closer. But Maggie’s previous relationships have left her bitter, and Aiden’s got a complicated past of his own.

Everything’s easier online. Can they make it work in real life?]]> 333 Cathy Yardley 1662503970 Candice 0 to-read 3.97 2023
author: Cathy Yardley
name: Candice
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 36199084 A heartwarming and refreshing debut novel that proves one thing: there's not enough data in the world to predict what will make your heart tick.

Stella Lane thinks math is the only thing that unites the universe. She comes up with algorithms to predict customer purchases—a job that has given her more money than she knows what to do with, and way less experience in the dating department than the average thirty-year-old.

It doesn't help that Stella has Asperger's and French kissing reminds her of a shark getting its teeth cleaned by pilot fish. Her conclusion: she needs lots of practice—with a professional. Which is why she hires escort Michael Phan. The Vietnamese and Swedish stunner can't afford to turn down Stella's offer, and agrees to help her check off all the boxes on her lesson plan—from foreplay to more-than-missionary position...

Before long, Stella not only learns to appreciate his kisses, but to crave all the other things he's making her feel. Soon, their no-nonsense partnership starts making a strange kind of sense. And the pattern that emerges will convince Stella that love is the best kind of logic...]]> 323 Helen Hoang 0451490819 Candice 0 to-read 3.88 2018
author: Helen Hoang
name: Candice
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 59747519 Lambda Literary award winner and national bestselling author Alexandria Bellefleur returns with a steamy Sapphic rom-com about a quiet bookseller and a romance novel cover model who agree to a modern-day marriage-of-convenience...

Tansy Adams� greatest love is her family’s bookstore, passed down from her late father. But when it comes to actual romance� Tansy can’t get past the first chapter. Tired of her stepfamily’s questions about her love life, Tansy invents Gemma, a fake girlfriend inspired by the stunning cover model on a bestselling book. They’ll never actually meet, so what’s the harm in a little fib? Yet when real-life Gemma crosses Tansy’s path, her white lie nearly implodes.

Gemma van Dalen is a wild child, the outcast of her wealthy family, and now the latest heir to Van Dalen Publishing. But the title comes with one tiny condition: she must be married in order to inherit. When Gemma discovers a beautiful stranger has been pretending to date her for months, she decides to take the charade one step further—and announces their engagement.

Gemma needs a wife to meet the terms of her grandfather’s will and Tansy needs money to save her struggling bookstore. A marriage could be mutually beneficial, if they can fool everyone into thinking it’s a love match. Unexpected sparks fly as Tansy and Gemma play the role of affectionate fiancées, and suddenly the line between convenient arrangement and real feelings begins to blur. But the scheming Van Dalen family won’t give up the company without a fight, and Gemma and Tansy’s newfound happiness might get caught in the fallout…]]> 384 Alexandria Bellefleur 0063258498 Candice 0 to-read 3.96 2023
author: Alexandria Bellefleur
name: Candice
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 173404023
Leap years are a strange, enchanted time. And for some, even a single February can be life-changing.

Ricki Wilde has many talents, but being a Wilde isn’t one of them. As the impulsive, artistic daughter of a powerful Atlanta dynasty, she’s the opposite of her famous socialite sisters. Where they’re long-stemmed roses, she’s a dandelion: an adorable bloom that’s actually a weed, born to float wherever the wind blows. In her bones, Ricki knows that somewhere, a different, more exciting life awaits her.

When regal nonagenarian, Ms. Della, invites her to rent the bottom floor of her Harlem brownstone, Ricki jumps at the chance for a fresh beginning. She leaves behind her family, wealth, and chaotic romantic decisions to realize her dream of opening a flower shop. And just beneath the surface of her new neighborhood, the music, stories and dazzling drama of the Harlem Renaissance still simmers.

One evening in February as the heady, curiously off-season scent of night-blooming jasmine fills the air, Ricki encounters a handsome, deeply mysterious stranger who knocks her world off balance in the most unexpected way.

Set against the backdrop of modern Harlem and Renaissance glamour, A Love Song for Ricki Wilde is a swoon-worthy love story of two passionate artists drawn to the magic, romance, and opportunity of New York, and whose lives are uniquely and irreversibly linked.]]> 352 Tia Williams 153872670X Candice 0 to-read 3.98 2024
author: Tia Williams
name: Candice
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>