en-US Tue, 29 Apr 2025 08:52:57 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 221604746
Mallory is a self-proclaimed expert on Count Bastien Saphir - otherwise known as Monsieur Le Bleu - who brutally killed three of his wives more than a century ago. But she never expected to meet Bastien's great-grandson and heir to the Saphir estate. Armand is handsome, wealthy, and convinced that the Fontaine Sisters are as talented as they claim. The perfect mark. When he offers Mallory a large sum of money to rid his ancestral home of Le Bleu's ghost, she can’t resist. A paid vacation at Armand’s country manor? It’s practically a dream come true, never mind the ghosts of murdered wives and the monsters that are as common as household pests.

But when murder again comes to the House Saphir, Mallory finds herself at the center of the investigation—and she is almost certain the killer is mortal. If she has any hope of cashing in on the payment she was promised, she’ll have to solve the murder and banish the ghost, all while upholding the illusion of witchcraft.

But that all sounds relatively easy compared to her biggest learning to trust her heart. Especially when the person her heart wants the most might be a murderer himself.]]> 432 Marissa Meyer 125032095X Mara 0 to-read 4.50 2025
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]]> 231127315 From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Marie Benedict comes an extraordinary story of the woman who helped uncover Tutankhamun's tomb and the mystery behind Egypt’s first woman Pharaoh.

1920’s London was enthralled by the discovery of the treasure-filled tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. Filled with priceless statues, jewels, and the gold-encased mummy of the boy Pharaoh himself, the burial site unleashed a fascination with the ancient world and revolutionized the world of archeology.

The discovery was made by Lord Carnarvon of Highclere Castle and his associate, famed archeologist Howard Carter. What no one knows is that without the pioneering spirit of Lady Evelyn Herbert, Carnarvon’s daughter, the tomb might never have been found. As a young woman, Evelyn was fascinated by the story of Hatshepsut, a woman who had to assume the guise of a man in order to rule Egypt. Although she brought peace and prosperity to Egypt, her male successors ruthlessly and thoroughly erased her name from history.

Lady Evelyn’s ambition to find the tomb of Egypt’s first woman ruler exposes her to life-threatening danger and pits her against archeologists who refuse to believe the tomb can be found―and certainly not by a woman. Refusing to give up, Evelyn is on the verge of success when she is suddenly forced to make an agonizing choice between loyalty to her beloved father and Carter and realizing the dream of a lifetime.]]> 320 Marie Benedict 1250280737 Mara 0 to-read 4.00
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]]> 225699546 From the instant New York Times bestselling author of Firekeeper’s Daughter and Warrior Girl Unearthed comes a daring new mystery about a foster teen claiming her heritage on her own terms.

Ever since Lucy Smith’s father died five years ago, “home� has been more of an idea than a place. She knows being on the run is better than anything waiting for her as a “ward of the state.� But when the sharp-eyed and kind Mr. Jameson with an interest in her case comes looking for her, Lucy wonders if hiding from her past will ever truly keep her safe.

Five years in the foster system has taught her to be cautious and smart. But she wants to believe Mr. Jameson and his “friend-not-friend,� a tall and fierce-looking woman who say they want to look after her.

They also tell Lucy the truth her father hid from her: She is Ojibwe; she has � had � a sister, and more siblings; a grandmother who’d look after her and a home where she would be loved.

But Lucy is being followed. The past has destroyed any chance of normal she has had, and now the secrets she’s hiding will swallow her whole and take away the future she always dreamed of.]]> 384 Angeline Boulley 1250328535 Mara 0 to-read 5.00 2025
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]]> 219911001 Monsters, in all their terrifying glory, have preoccupied humans since we began telling stories. But where did these stories come from?

In Monsterland, award-winning author Nicholas Jubber goes on a journey to discover more about the monsters we’ve invented, lurking in the dark and the wild places of the earth � giants, dragons, ogres, zombies, ghosts, demons � all with one thing in their ability to terrify.

His far-ranging adventure takes him across the world. He sits on the thrones of giants in Cornwall, visits the shrine of a beheaded ogre near Kyoto, travels to an eighteenth-century Balkan vampire’s forest dwelling, and paddles among the shapeshifters of the Louisiana bayous. On his travels, he discovers that the stories of the people and places that birthed them are just as fascinating as the creatures themselves.

Artfully written, Monsterland is a fascinating interrogation into why we need these monsters and what they can tell us about ourselves � how they bind communities together as much as they cruelly cast away outsiders.]]> 352 Nicholas Jubber 1964992117 Mara 0 to-read 0.0
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]]> 221179051 Luster meets The Idiot in this riveting debut novel about a volatile friendship between two outsiders who escape their bleak childhoods and enter the glamorous early '90s art world in New York City, where only one of them can make it.

Ruth, an only child of recent immigrants to New England, lives in an emotionally cold home and attends the local Catholic girl’s school on a scholarship. Maria, a beautiful orphan whose Panamanian mother dies by suicide and is taken care of by an ill, unloving aunt, is one of the only other students attending the school on a scholarship. Ruth is drawn forcefully into Maria’s orbit, and they fall into an easy, yet intense, friendship. Her devotion to her charming and bright new friend opens up her previously sheltered world.

While Maria, charismatic and aware of her ability to influence others, eases into her full self, embracing her sexuality and her desire to be an artist, Ruth is mostly content to follow her around: to college and then into the early-nineties art world of New York City. There, ambition and competition threaten to rupture their friendship, while strong and unspoken forces pull them together over the years. Whereas Maria finds early success in New York City as an artist, Ruth stumbles along the fringes of the art world, pulled toward a quieter life of work and marriage. As their lives converge and diverge, they meet in one final and fateful confrontation.

Ruth and Maria's decades-long friendship interrogates the nature of intimacy, desire, class and time. What does it mean to be an artist and to be true to oneself? What does it mean to give up on an obsession? Marking the arrival of a sensational new literary talent, Lonely Crowds challenges us to reckon honestly with our own ambitions and the lives we hope to lead.]]> 304 Stephanie Wambugu 031658133X Mara 0 currently-reading 4.82
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]]> 221179254 This beautiful DELUXE EDITION hardcover featuring gorgeous sprayed edges with stenciled art is only available for a limited first print run and while supplies last. This is a stunning special edition you will want to add to your collection.

YOUR NEXT ROMANTASY OBSESSION!

The war is over, the dark forces have won, and the hero who was supposed to save them is dead.

Captured as her castle is overrun by the enemy, Briony Rosewood knows that the world as she knows it is changed forever. The dark forces of Bomard have won and her people, the Eversuns, face imminent servitude, imprisonment or death. Her brother, fated to be heir twice over and unite the warring kingdoms, is dead.

Stripped of her Mind Magic and her freedom, Briony and the other survivors are quickly auctioned off to the highest bidders in an auction � and as the heir-apparent’s sister, she fetches the highest price.

After a fierce bidding war, she’s sold to none other than Toven a high ranking Bomardsun � and her long-time and ill-fated infatuation. Scion of a family known for their cruel control of Heart Magic, the Hearsts are ruthlessly ambitious, and Briony knows they will use her however they can to further their own interests.

Yet despite the horrors of her new world and the role she must learn to play within it, all is not lost. Help � and hope � may yet arise in the most unlikely of places…]]> 464 Julie Soto 1538771225 Mara 2 4.55 2025
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name: Mara
average rating: 4.55
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rating: 2
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]]> 221251779 An amateur online sleuth must enlist the help of a jaded PI to clear her name while taking down a shady tech start-up in this exhilarating romantic caper.

Famed Reddit detective Fiona Addai is great at solving problems—online, that is. Cold cases, reality TV scandals, everyone calls on @Princess_PI. It’s her way of escaping her strict religious life at home and the memory of her brilliant brother’s sudden death. But when the sheltered sleuth tries to apply her inquisitive skills to real life, her plan to reclaim her late brother’s invention from the ruthless corporation that stole it goes disastrously wrong. Now, instead of getting justice, Fiona finds herself accused of murder.

Maurice Bennett is no stranger to insomnia. These days, he’s not losing sleep over the cases he’s solving—but running from the one he ł¦´ÇłÜ±ô»ĺ˛Ô’t. Instead, he’s been settling for small-time scandals that don’t stir up the guilt he’s buried. But when he spots Fiona Addai at the center of a murder investigation, something clicks. And for the first time in a long while, Maurice feels that old spark of intrigue.

However, Fiona is not the helpless damsel she appears to be. Sure, she needs Maurice’s help to clear her name, but she’s got conditions of her own: she wants a crash course in real-world detective work. Maurice isn’t exactly thrilled. With every late-night stakeout and tension-filled interrogation, their partnership starts to feel a little too close for comfort. To bring the real killer to light, they'll need to trust each other and that might be the most dangerous gamble of all.]]> 480 Nikki Payne 0593817362 Mara 0 to-read 5.00 2025
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]]> 223664734 184 Aviaq Johnston 1772275832 Mara 0 to-read 0.0
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]]> 227884067 Part social thriller, part modern love story, Who Knows You by Heart is a sly, witty, and endlessly discussable tale of Big Tech, new money, relationships, race, and discovering what’s real in an age of artificial intelligence.

Octavia Crenshaw, a Jamaican-American coder living in Manhattan, is broke, burned out, and haunted by her parents� deaths. Desperate to pay off some debts, she ditches her nonprofit job for a high-paying gig at Eustachian Inc., a Big Tech company that specializes in audio entertainment. Language, communication, human connection—these are the markets Eustachian wants to revolutionize...and dominate.

Octavia finds herself swept up in the world of the Tech Titans, with its lure of instant riches and its seemingly limitless future. But as one of Eustachian’s very few Black employees, Octavia is uncomfortably aware of things that seem to escape her unexplained tech glitches, cryptic remarks, a mysterious secret floor in the corporation’s gleaming headquarters.

But she sets her suspicions aside when she’s recruited by another Black coder—the infuriating but attractive Walcott—to collaborate on a secret project code-named Zion. Zion is a new kind of AI-powered storytelling, one that’s programmed to be free from the racist and sexist biases that plague other AI products. Zion could launch Eustachian into a bold new future and make its developers super rich while righting all kinds of injustices. Octavia and Walcott’s excitement over their creation sets off romantic sparks between the two of them, until they discover a toxic secret about their employer—something that they can’t unlearn, or overlook, but must overcome.]]> 288 C.J. Farley 0063418630 Mara 0 to-read 3.50
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]]> 219821396 Discover the true story of the Jesuit priest, explorer, geologist, and photographer who brought the wilds of Alaska—and his Catholic faith—to the American public.

In The Glacier Priest, Josh McMullen reveals the captivating life and legacy of Father Bernard R. Hubbard, a devout priest and a national celebrity, a rugged outdoorsman and a passionate promoter. From the late 1920s through the 1950s, the famous Glacier Priest and his dogs connected millions of Americans with the pioneering spirit of Alaska and his vision of the wilderness as the salvation of the nation’s soul. From celebrating Mass in the shadow of mighty Mount Katmai to mushing a dog sled team 1600 miles to five missionary bases, Hubbard’s stories of frontier adventure captured the hearts of Americans and paved the way toward Alaskan statehood and a greater integration of Catholics into American society.

The Glacier Priest seamlessly blends Father Hubbard’s rollicking adventures, the tensions underlying his larger-than-life persona, and the fascinating context that cements his legacy within American history.]]> 282 Josh McMullen 0268209464 Mara 0 to-read 0.0
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]]> 227912397 A young detective investigating crimes of the uncanny will learn that bargains can change your fate—for good or ill—in this darkly enthralling fantasy from the New York Times bestselling author of the Others and the Black Jewels series.

Words have power. Intentions matter.

Most people come to Destiny Park for entertainment. They come to have their cards read to tell them a bit about their future. They come to walk through a beautiful park and to eat at the hotel’s restaurant. They come in the hope of catching a glimpse of the Arcana, the paranormal beings who rule the Isle of Wyrd.

But some people come to make a bargain with the Arcana—to change their fate. And some people come for dark purposes.

When Detective Beth Fahey is sent to Destiny Park to inquire about a “ghost gun,� she will begin a strange journey on which she must learn to navigate the Arcana’s unforgiving laws and dangerous attractions. Her search will draw her into seemingly impossible cases and the secrets of her own past as tensions rise between the Arcana and their human neighbors across the river.

For the Isle of Wyrd is a place where the dead ride trains to their final destinations, predators literally become prey, and seekers� true natures are revealed in the ripples of destiny unknowingly stirred in their wakes.

Who will live? Who will die? And who will be lost in between?]]> 528 Anne Bishop 0593954084 Mara 0 to-read 5.00 2025
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]]> 216594910 For fans of Stephen King's The Mist and the HBO hit show The Last of Us comes a wildly inventive, sinister thriller following an estranged father and daughter who find themselves trapped in a diner by a living body of water.

ĚýDon't let the water drag you downâ€�

ĚýIt's been six years since Glen Masters lost his wife in a tragic accident. In hopes of reconnecting with his grieving teenage daughter, Lauren, he decides to take her on a road trip through the Appalachian mountains, where he has fond memories of their past as a family. But what was supposed to be a quick diner pit stop suddenly transforms into a nightmare when armed men stumble in, ranting about a mysterious and deadly "living water" that attacked several people up the road. The story the men spin seems to be the rantings of drunken lunatics, but soon Glen, his daughter, and the other diners find themselves hostages to both the gunmen and the inexplicably terrifying entity.Ěý

ĚýBecause there's truly something wrong with the water, and it has no mercy.

ĚýPanic grows as the diners play witness to a nature-defying being that seeks only to swallow everything in its path. With help nowhere in sight, the group of strangers must work together to devise an escape, and ultimately, Glen will have to face his worst fears to reconcile with the past or risk losing everything.

ĚýA chilling story from a brand-new voice in fiction, Body of Water explores the complicated nature of grief, terror, and the ghosts we must confront to survive.

Ěý


]]> 400 Adam Godfrey 1464229473 Mara 0 to-read 5.00
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]]> 224004259
For twenty-five years, Becky Siegel Spratford has worked as a librarian in Reader Advisory, training library workers all over the world on how to engage their patrons and readers, and to use her place as a horror expert and critic to get the word out to others; to bring even more readers into the horror fold.

Why I Love Horror is a captivating anthology and heartfelt tribute to the horror genre featuring essays from several of the most celebrated contemporary horror writers including, Grady Hendrix, Paul Tremblay, Stephen Graham Jones, Josh Malerman, Victor LaValle, Tananarive Due, and Rachel Harrison.]]> 272 Becky Siegel Spratford 1668205092 Mara 0 to-read 5.00
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]]> 208704592 266 Lorna Piatti-Farnell 1666907200 Mara 0 currently-reading 4.50
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]]> 223147730 From the co-author of Let This Radicalize You, a collection of letters to inspire activists to continue the fightĚý

Organizers are well seasoned in defeat. We study movement histories, strategize collectively, and gather strength in direct action, knowing that liberation does not arrive overnight, but that the fight is worth it. But what happens when political and personal crises overlap, and the despair becomes overwhelming? Where do we turn when the process of organizing no longer feels like a site of refuge, but isolating, or even tragic?Ěý

Read This When Things Fall Apart is a collection of letters written to organizers in crisis who are struggling with the conflicts, heartbreaks, and catastrophes that activists so often experience. From grief to exhaustion, fractured relationships, state violence and interpersonal violence, the struggle for justice can be tumultuous. Each letter invites the reader to the writer’s particular world in abortion defense, organizing within prison walls, recuperating from state repression after the 2020 uprisings, or as a new parent struggling to find their way in movement spaces, and offers an authentic account of moving through difficult times.Ěý

Personal, reflective, and hopeful, Read This When Things Fall Apart is a new type of book for radicals that harnesses the writers' individual moments of despair into living, breathing wisdom capable of chipping away at the supposed inevitability of fascist life. Restorative like a letter from a trusted friend and invigorating like a story from a mentor, the book is an indispensable companion for all of us navigating the challenging times ahead.Ěý]]> 172 Kelly Hayes 1849355843 Mara 0 to-read 5.00
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]]> 212919982 In this debut memoir from the bestselling author of The Bear and The Last Neanderthal, Claire Cameron confronts the rare genetic mutation that gave her cancer by investigating an equally rare and terrifying event—a predatory bear attack.

When Claire Cameron was nine years old, her father, a professor of Old English, told her he was dying. In the years after he was gone, she found a way to overcome her grief among the rivers and lakes of Algonquin Park, a vast Canadian wilderness area. Around that same time, in 1991, a couple was killed by a black bear in a rare predatory attack in the park. Claire was shocked and, never fully sure of what happened, the attack haunted her.
Ěý Ěý Ěý Now older, with children of her own, Cameron was diagnosed with the same kind of deadly skin cancer as her father. Caught in a second wave of grief, she was told by her doctor, “the ideal exposure to UV light is none.â€� No longer able to venture into the wilderness as she once had, with long scars on her back, she became obsessed with the bear attack in Algonquin Park again. How could terror rip through such a beautiful place? Could she separate truth from fiction? She headed north to investigate.
Ěý Ěý ĚýĚýClaire seamlessly weaves together nature writing with true crime investigation in this unflinching account of recovery. How to Survive a Bear Attack is at once an intimate portrait of an extraordinary animal, a bracing chronicle of pain, obsession, and love, and a profoundly moving exploration of how we can understand and survive the wildness that lives inside us.]]> 296 Claire Cameron 1039056369 Mara 0 currently-reading 4.20
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]]> 211708762 It's time to put the past to rest�

Ben Packard was just a boy when his older brother disappeared. Ben watched him walk out the back door of their grandparents' house and into the cold night.Ěý

His brother was never seen again.Ěý

Decades later, Deputy Packard finds himself with too much time on his hands. A shooting has him on leave and under investigation, and for the first time in years, new information about his brother has surfaced that may lead them to the location of a body.

The midwinter ground is frozen solid. Worse, Packard is cut off from department resources. As he strikes out to finally uncover the truth behind his brother's disappearance, he stumbles on a separate, suspicious death. A tenuous connection exists between the two cases, and as Packard starts to dig, he meets fierce resistance from friends and foes alike who want him to stand down.ĚýĚý

The winter is long and cold. By the end of it, Packard will risk everything to catch a killer and reveal the shocking truth about his brother.]]> 336 Joshua Moehling 1728279003 Mara 4 4.18 2025
author: Joshua Moehling
name: Mara
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2025
rating: 4
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]]> 224004666 From Martha Waters, the author of the “enchanting� (Entertainment Weekly) Regency Vows series, a new historical romance set in 1930s England with a murder mystery twist.

In a quaint village in the Cotswolds, Georgiana Radcliffe has accidentally become an amateur detective after helping solve four murders in a single year. When the chairman of the village council turns up dead, everyone agrees with the official ruling of a heart attack, but Georgie can’t help but suspect that the council chairman is a fifth victim. Now, murder tourists are flocking from around the country, in hopes of becoming sleuths themselves.

Along with her reporter friend, she reaches out to a famous London detective for assistance in ascertaining why they have become a magnet for murder. But the fancy detective is simply too busy—or can’t be bothered—to help, and instead dispatches his secretary, Sebastian Fletcher-Ford—a posh womanizer who, truthfully, is just trying to get out of his hair, much to practical, no-nonsense Georgie’s dismay. But as they investigate in the charming Buncombe-upon-Woolly—with plentiful scones, sheep on the village green, and murder tourists at every turn—Georgie finds that her previous assessment of Sebastian may have been wrong, and rather than solving a murder, she may be solving for love instead.]]> 352 Martha Waters 1668069571 Mara 0 to-read 4.83 2025
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]]> 220160148 Pulitzer finalist Shoshana Walter exposes the country’s failed response to the opioid crisis, and the malfeasance, corruption, and snake oil which blight the drug rehabilitation industry.

Our country’s leaders all seem to People who suffer from addiction need treatment. Today, more people have access to treatment than ever before. So why isn’t it working? The answer is that in America—where anyone can get addicted—only certain people get a real chance to recover. Despite record numbers of overdose deaths, our default response is still to punish, while rehabs across the United States fail to incorporate scientifically proven strategies and exploit patients. We’ve heard a great deal about the opioid crisis foisted on America by Big Pharma, but we’ve heard too little about the other half of this epidemic—the reason why so many remain mired in addiction. Until now.

In this book, you’ll find the stories of four people who represent the failures of the rehab-industrial complex, and the ways our treatment system often prevents recovery. April is a black mom in Philadelphia, who witnessed firsthand how the government’s punitive response to the crack epidemic impeded her own mother’s recovery—and then her own. Chris, a young middle-class white man from Louisiana, received more opportunities in his addiction than April, including the chance to go to treatment instead of prison. Yet the only program the judge permitted was one that forced him to perform unpaid back-breaking labor at for-profit companies. Wendy is a mother from a wealthy suburb of Los Angeles, whose son died in a sober living home. She began investigating for-profit treatment programs—yet law enforcement and regulators routinely ignored her warnings, allowing rehab patients to die, again and again. Larry is a surgeon who himself struggled with addiction, who would eventually become one of the first Suboxone prescribers in the nation, drawing the scrutiny of the Drug Enforcement Administration. Together, these four stories illustrate the pitfalls of a system that not only fails to meet the needs of people with addiction, but actively benefits from maintaining their lower status. They also offer insight into how we might fix that system and save lives.]]> 336 Shoshana Walter 1982149825 Mara 0 to-read 0.0
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]]> 224003717 A compelling, intelligent, and timely exploration of the horror genre from one of Columbia University’s most popular professors, shedding light on how classic horror films demonstrate larger cultural attitudes about women’s rights, bodily autonomy, and more.

In May of 2022, Columbia University’s Dr. Eleanor Johnson watched along with her students as the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade. At the same time, her class was studying the 1968 horror film Rosemary’s Baby and Johnson had a sudden horror cinema engages directly with the combustive politics of women’s rights and offer a light through the darkness and an outlet to scream.

With a voice as persuasive as it is insightful, Johnson reveals how classics like Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist, and The Shining expose and critique issues of reproductive control, domestic violence, and patriarchal oppression. Scream with Me weaves these iconic films into the fabric of American feminism, revealing that true horror often lies not in the supernatural, but in the familiar confines of the home, exposing the deep-seated fears and realities of women’s lives.

While on the one hand a joyful celebration of seminal and beloved horror films, Scream with Me is also an unflinching and timely recognition of the power of this genre to shape and reflect cultural dialogues about gender and power.]]> 352 Eleanor Johnson 1668087634 Mara 0 to-read 5.00
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]]> 223736225 An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States, Lepore offers a sweeping, lyrical, and democratic constitutional history, telling the stories of generations of Americans who have attempted everything from abolishing the Electoral College to guaranteeing environmental rights, hoping to mend America by amending its constitution.]]> 768 Jill Lepore 1631496085 Mara 0 to-read 5.00 2025
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]]> 223736297 A joyful, moving, vivid window onto the life and heart of an American icon.


In the spring of 2018, Tom Piazza climbed into a 1977 Coupe DeVille with the great singer-songwriter John Prine, taking a Florida road trip that soon evolved into a deep friendship, full of jokes and tall tales over epic meals, afternoons digging around antique malls and record stores, and long nights playing guitar and trading songs. Eventually they decided to write Prine’s memoir together, and Prine shared intimate, often hilarious stories of his youth and family in Chicago and Kentucky, his breakthrough into the national spotlight, his riotous early years in the Nashville country scene, and much more. When Prine died suddenly of COVID in April 2020, that unfinished memoir evolved into an intimate narrative of the artist’s final years. Piazza offers fans an unforgettable portrait of the beloved musician in his late glory—as a boyish cut-up, an epic raconteur, a great American poet, and most importantly, the good friend his fans have always imagined.]]> 208 Tom Piazza 1324050853 Mara 0 to-read 5.00
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]]> 223736312 A revisionist history of the ancient world that shifts our focus from Athens and Rome to the long-ignored societies on the borders.

To many ancient Greeks and Romans, the outer reaches of their world was where civilization ceased to exist. But what was it like to live on the edges of these empires, on the boundaries of the known world? Thanks to new archaeological excavations, we now know that these border zones were thriving multicultural spaces where the boundaries of “civilized� and “barbarian� blurred. Historian Owen Rees takes readers on a fascinating journey to explore the diverse peoples in Europe, Asia, and Africa beyond the reaches of Greece and along the sandy caravan routes of Morocco to the freezing winters of the northern Black Sea, from the Red River valley of Vietnam to the rain-lashed forts south of Hadrian’s Wall. Through this globe-spanning historical tapestry, The Far Edges of the Known World offers us a rich new lens to see and understand the ancient world.]]> 368 Owen Rees 1324036524 Mara 0 to-read 0.0 2025
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]]> 223736254 A renowned sociologist examines the pernicious societal forces that lead employers to exploit vulnerable domestic workers.

The phrase “human trafficking� often conjures nightmarish images of sexual exploitation, but Rhacel Salazar Parreñas reveals that the vast majority of trafficking victims are domestic workers—who suffer abuse not at the hands of shadowy crime lords but rather “ordinary� family employers. Drawing on twenty years of groundbreaking research across three continents, Parreñas exposes the grim realities faced by migrant workers ensnared in forced labor due to poverty and debt bondage. She uncovers how entrenched social and legal norms, coupled with a patronizing “employer savior complex,� foster a troubling sense of ownership among employers over “their� domestic workers. Through powerful firsthand accounts, including harrowing stories of workers held against their will in the United States, Parreñas illustrates migrants� desperation and the power dynamics that often lead to modern-day slavery. Parreñas’s urgent narrative challenges readers to confront uncomfortable truths about everyday household arrangements and calls for justice and fair treatment for all workers.]]> 160 Rhacel Salazar Parreñas 132402030X Mara 0 to-read 0.0
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]]> 220160849 The critically acclaimed author of the “crazily enjoyable� (The New York Times) Whalefall returns with an immersive, cinematic novel about five World War I soldiers who stumble upon a fallen angel that could hold the key to ending the war.

Private Cyril Bagger has managed to survive the unspeakable horrors of the Great War through his wits and deception, swindling fellow soldiers at every opportunity. But his survival instincts are put to the ultimate test when he and four other grunts are given a deadly venture into the perilous No Man’s Land to euthanize a wounded comrade.

What they find amid the ruined battlefield, however, is not a man in need of mercy but a fallen angel, seemingly struck down by artillery fire. This celestial being may hold the key to ending the brutal conflict, but only if the soldiers can suppress their individual desires and work together. As jealousy, greed, and paranoia take hold, the group is torn apart by their inner demons, threatening to turn their angelic encounter into a descent into hell.

Angel Down plunges you into the heart of World War I and weaves a polyphonic tale of survival, supernatural wonder, and moral conflict.]]> 304 Daniel Kraus 1668068451 Mara 4 4.51
author: Daniel Kraus
name: Mara
average rating: 4.51
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/24
date added: 2025/04/24
shelves: 2025-books, historical-fiction, world-war-i
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]]> 227786757 The Genius and the Tramp Fight Fascists in 1930s Hollywood.

â€Ŕángeniously pairs real-life friends Albert Einstein and Charlie Chaplin on a roller coaster ride to save America from a fascist threat within its borders.â€� â€� Jacqueline Winspear, author of the Maisie Dobbs series.

It's 1937 and clouds of war gather over Europe, and American fascists march at home. While the FBI chases suspected communists, Nazi agents plot an armed insurrection. When the world’s two most famous men - Albert Einstein and Charlie Chaplin - uncover the scheme, which includes the assassination of Hollywood’s biggest stars, they fight back with nothing but their ingenuity, raw courage, and the fierce resolve of Georgia Ann Robinson, LAPD’s first Black female officer.

A dangerous chase takes our heroes into the heart of darkness, a fascist encampment in the San Gabriel Mountains north of Los Angeles where a militia armed with machine guns plans its attack. Batten the hatches: it's brains versus brawn in an explosive, unforgettable finale.

Paul Levine—praised by The New York Times for his “realistic, gritty, and fun� novels—delivers a wildly inventive thriller laced with humor and a larger-than-life cast, including Charles Lindbergh, Douglas Fairbanks, William Randolph Hearst, and Joseph Goebbels.]]> 374 Paul Levine 1943075964 Mara 0 to-read 4.33
author: Paul Levine
name: Mara
average rating: 4.33
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]]> 224003670 This twisty and sinister thriller follows a New York art gallery assistant reckoning with her past and now trapped in a web of deceit after an up-and-coming painter is murdered—perfect for fans of Katy Hays and Julia Bartz.

November 2001: Chloe Harlow wakes up late, with hazy memories of the party the night before but no recollection of how she got back to her Brooklyn apartment. Ever since the terrifying and catastrophic terrorist attack, it seems she has been on a collision course with destruction.

When she finally arrives at the exclusive Upper East Side art gallery where she works, she is immediately called into her boss’s office. A pair of NYPD detectives greet her, also very curious to know how her evening ended…because the host of the party, a rising painter and the gallery’s newest artist, is dead.

Navigating both the sophisticated high-stakes art world and her personal life in burgeoning Williamsburg, Chloe struggles to piece together a complete picture of that lost night. As she digs deeper, inconsistencies emerge between what she remembers and what people tell her actually happened, and more questions are raised. Everything begins to feel like a conspiracy and maybe it is. Because Chloe is the only one who glimpses the secrets the murdered artist left behind, and the closer she gets to the truth…the more deadly it becomes.]]> 288 Kate Belli 1668093650 Mara 0 to-read 3.85
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name: Mara
average rating: 3.85
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]]> 224004584 A group of Harvard alums have played a secret game for decades but as the stakes rise, deadly consequences emerge from old lies. An unputdownable debut thriller for readers of the suspenseful novels of Julia Bartz and Ruth Ware.

Harvard promised them everything.

Ambitious futures, peers who pushed each other toward their absolute best, and an education that would open doors for the rest of their lives. And though they started out as roommates, Sara, Bee, Dina, Allie, Wesley, and Claudine soon became family. They had their whole bright lives ahead of them—until their senior year, when a shocking tragedy changed everything.

Twenty years later, five of the roommates still indulge in a secret tradition they’ve kept alive since their campus the Circus, a harmless elimination-style “killing� game played across the private rooms and hidden alleys of New York City. The game is a nod to their younger selves and a tribute to the sixth roommate they lost too young. But this year, Sara wants out of the game—until she discovers there is a small fortune awaiting the winner of this final round.

As the Circus unfolds, Sara begins to suspect that the others aren’t playing by the rules, and as the danger turns real and the old friends start pointing fingers, she discovers that even those closest to her harbor secrets of their own…secrets that could kill.]]> 240 Alissa Lee 1668094002 Mara 0 to-read 3.29
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]]> 217387846 “Ferocious, hilarious, slippery, and wise� (Leni Zumas)-the story of a woman risking her life and finding her own way to protest the end of abortion rights.

A high-school state champion runner turned college dropout, Angela is working as a receptionist at an abortion clinic when a “heartbeat law� criminalizes most abortions statewide. In the ensuing upheaval, her boss is arrested for providing illegal procedures and the clinic is shut down.

Angela has never been either an activist or a model employee. But she gets why her boss didn't follow the rules. She decides to go on a hunger strike in the boarded-up clinic, to protest her boss's arrest and everything that's been lost. She'll draw on her skillset: the masochistic discipline of a runner, a history of self-destructive behavior, and a willingness to sleep on exam room tables (whose hygienic paper she uses as her diary).

Angela's protest is solitary, enraged, and a little messy, but it mobilizes a group of people around her-an ex who's a local journalist looking for a good story, the everyday people the clinic once served, and most especially a formidable anti-abortion activist named Janine.

Lucid, strange, and deeply metal, State Champ cuts through the political rhetoric to explore the relationship between bodily autonomy and real freedom. Angela's story is about what abortion access means day-to-day and how much we are-in ways that can transform us-responsible for one another.]]> 224 Hilary Plum 1639735437 Mara 0 to-read 4.60 2025
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average rating: 4.60
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]]> 228646321 In the spirit of Amor Towles and George Saunders, the renowned, bestselling Norwegian author Frode Grytten takes listeners on a quietly epic ferry driver Nils Vik’s last route along the fjord, on what he knows will be his last day alive.

Nils Vik wakes up on November the 18th and knows it will be the day he dies. He follows his morning routine as voices from his past echo in his mind, and looks around the empty house one last time, before stepping onto his beloved boat.

His dog, dead these many years, leaps aboard with him, and then the other dead begin to emerge—from the woods along the fjord, from each of the ferry stops along the route, from his logbook full of memories and quotations and jotted-down notes about the weather conditions. The people from the past accompany him now, prodding him, showing him what he might have missed before, as he waits for his Marta, his late, remarkable wife, to finally join him on the boat again.

Winner of the prestigious Brage Prize, and considered to be Grytten’s long-awaited masterpiece, The Ferryman and His Wife is the story of a quiet, yet utterly profound, life told in reverse. Timeless and absorbing, this is a novel about what we take with us—those moments that might seem insignificant as they happen but prove to be the most meaningful, in the end.]]> 176 Frode Grytten 1643757458 Mara 0 to-read 3.50 2023
author: Frode Grytten
name: Mara
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2023
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]]> 220923194 A search for a missing person uncovers a galaxy-spanning conspiracy in this thrilling standalone space opera from award-winning author Megan E. O'Keefe.

The Black Celeste is a ghost story. A once-legendary spaceship collecting dust in a cosmic graveyard known as the Clutch. Only famed pirate Bitter Amandine knows better, and she’ll do anything to never go near it again. No matter the cost.
Faven Sythe is crystborn, a member of the near-human species tasked with charting starpaths from station to station. She’s trained to be a navigator her entire life. But when her mentor disappears, leaving behind a mysterious starpath terminating in the Clutch, she is determined to find the truth. And only Amandine has the answers.

What they will find is a conspiracy bigger than either of them. Their quest for the truth will uncover secrets Amandine has long fought to keep buried � secrets about how she survived her last encounter in the Clutch, and what’s really hidden out there amongst the stars...]]> 352 Megan E. O'Keefe 0316572020 Mara 0 to-read 4.00 2025
author: Megan E. O'Keefe
name: Mara
average rating: 4.00
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]]> 228499077 From World Fantasy Award-winning author Tasha Suri comes The Isle in the Silver Sea, a heart-shattering romantasy of sapphic longing, medieval folklore and a love that spans the centuries.

In a Britain fuelled by stories, the knight and the witch are fated to fall in love and doom each other over and over, the same tale retold over hundreds of lifetimes.

Simran is a witch of the woods. Vina is a knight of the Queen's court. When the two women begin to fall for each other, how can they surrender to their desires, when to give in is to destroy each other?

As they seek a way to break the cycle, a mysterious assassin begins targeting tales like theirs. To survive, the two will need to write a story stronger than the one that fate has given to them.

But what tale is stronger than The Knight and the Witch?]]> 512 Tasha Suri 031659508X Mara 0 to-read 0.0 2025
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]]> 222725799 An electrifying memoir about the demise of a singular family—a stunning new book by Gabrielle Hamilton, author of the New York Times bestseller and James Beard Award winner Blood, Bones & Butter

“We were a family veined through with certain brutalities, rifts, and unresolved conflicts, as well as some remarkable violences and some decades-long silences. But together we had rituals, systems, congruent cohering events that made us who we were as one. I thought of the black and blue marks as if they were the desirable spores of mold found in noble cheeses.�

The youngest of five children, Gabrielle Hamilton took pride in her unsentimental, idiosyncratic family. She idolized her parents� charisma and non-conformity. She worshipped her siblings� mischievousness and flair. Hers was a family with no fondness for the humdrum.

Hamilton grew up to find enormous success, first as a chef and then as the author of award-winning, bestselling books. But her family ties frayed in ways both seismic and mundane until eventually she was estranged from them all. In the wake of one brother’s sudden death and another’s suicide, while raising young children of her own, Hamilton was compelled to examine the sprawling, complicated root system underlying her losses. She began investigating her family’s devout independence and individualism with a nearly forensic rigor, soon discovering a sobering warning in their long-held self-satisfaction. By the time she was called to care for her declining mother—the mother she’d seen only twice in thirty years—Hamilton had realized a certain freedom, one made possible only through a careful psychological autopsy of her family.

Hamilton’s gift for pungent dialogue, propulsive storytelling, intense honesty, and raucous humor made her first book a classic of modern memoir. In Next of Kin, she offers a keen and compassionate portrait of the people she grew up with and the prevailing but soon-to-falter ethos of the era that produced them. A personal account of one family’s disintegration, Next of Kin is also a universal story of the emotional clarity that comes from scrutinizing our family mythologies and seeing through to the other side.]]> 288 Gabrielle Hamilton 0399590099 Mara 0 to-read 0.0
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]]> 222631694 A historical epic about a girl from a remote Tongan island who becomes her people's queen.

The Wayfinder is an epic, sweeping novel set in the Polynesian islands of the South Pacific during the height of the Tu’i Tonga Empire. At its heart is Kōrero, a young girl chosen to save her people from the brink of starvation. Her quest takes her from her remote island home on a daring seafaring journey across a vast ocean empire built on power, consumption, and bloodshed.

With the grandeur of Wolf Hall, Shogun, and War and Peace, The Wayfinder immerses readers in a world untouched by Western influence, evoking the lost art of oral storytelling. Far from a conventional swashbuckling adventure, it conjures a world of outrigger canoes and celestial navigation, weaving a narrative that is as much about survival and self-discovery as it is about the sweeping history of the Tongan people.

In this monumental literary work, Adam Johnson explores themes of indigeneity, ecological balance, and the resilience of humanity in the face of scarcity, marking the novel as a profound meditation on both individual and cultural legacy.]]> 736 Adam Johnson 0374619573 Mara 0 to-read 5.00 2025
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]]> 222376640 Explaining the process of the “enshittification� of digital platforms over time and what to do about it.

Cory Doctorow's Enshittification takes a witty yet incisive look at the tech landscape, where platforms like TikTok, Facebook, and Google start off great—before they inevitably turn terrible. In this contemporary moment of digital decline, Doctorow explores how tech giants lure users in with convenience and then degrade their services over time, squeezing profit at the cost of user experience. With a mix of sharp humor and deep insight, he unveils the slow creep of "enshittification," turning the online world into a worse place, one algorithm at a time.]]> 352 Cory Doctorow 0374619328 Mara 0 to-read 3.00
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]]> 231127415 From National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Honoree Jenny Tinghui Zhang, a novel about a pop idol and his superfan, whose stories shockingly collide.

Freshman Minnie is adrift at college in Austin, Texas, when she discovers a boy band called HOURglass and the online forums that worship them. She especially loves Halo, whose sharp edges feel somehow familiar. After a brief romance goes painfully awry, Minnie pours everything into her new fandom, clinging to each livestream and bonding with other fans online. But when a scandal threatens to expose Halo to harm, Minnie decides that she is the only one who can save him.

Except Halo’s secret is darker than anything the tabloids could imagine. Before he was a superstar heartthrob, he was Eason: a high school dropout haunted by a tragic accident. When he is recruited for HOURglass, it feels like a chance to become someone else. And when he is on stage in front of his fans, he can almost forget the horrors of his past–until one of those very fans threatens to destroy everything.

Dazzling, entrancing, and deeply heartfelt, Superfan is about fandom in all its magic and its terror, and the extreme lengths to which we go to rid ourselves of loneliness.]]> 320 Jenny Tinghui Zhang 1250369665 Mara 0 to-read 0.0
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]]> 221441041 The second volume in a prize-worthy two-book series based on years of irreplicable personal interviews with survivors about each of the atomic bomb drops, first in Hiroshima and then Nagasaki, that hastened the end of the Pacific War.

On August 6, 1945, the United States unleashed a weapon unlike anything the world had ever seen. Then, just three days later, when Japan showed no sign of surrender, the United States took aim at Nagasaki.

Rendered in harrowing detail, this historical narrative is the second and final volume in M. G. Sheftall’s series Embers. Sheftall has spent years personally interviewing hibakusha—the Japanese word for atomic bomb survivors. These last living witnesses are a vanishing memory resource, the only people who can still provide us with reliable and detailed testimony about life in their cities before the use of nuclear weaponry.

The result is an intimate, firsthand account of life in Nagasaki, and the story of incomprehensible devastation and resilience in the aftermath of the second atomic bomb drop. This blow-by-blow account takes us from the city streets, as word of the attack on Hiroshima reaches civilians, to the cockpit of Bockscar, when Charles Sweeney dropped “Fat Man,"Ěý to the interminable six days while the world waited to see if Japan would surrender to the Allies--or if more bombs would fall.]]> 496 M.G. Sheftall 0593472284 Mara 0 to-read 0.0
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]]> 216520634



Fake news, outright political lies, a shamelessly partisan press, and the collapse of truth, civility, and shared facts, Philip Kadish argues, are nothing new. The Great White Hoax, a masterpiece of history and literary sleuthing, reveals that the era of Fox News and Donald Trump is simply a return to form. We have been here before.


In a book that brilliantly puts our current era into historical context, The Great White Hoax uncovers a centuries-long tradition of white supremacist hoaxes, perpetrated on the American public by a succession of political hucksters and opportunists, all of them willfully using racial frauds as tools for political and social advantage. In the antebellum era, slavery’s defenders used bogus science to “prove� the inferiority of American people; during the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln’s enemies circulated a sham pamphlet accusing him of promoting a dilution of the white race through “miscegenation� (a racist term invented by the pamphlet’s authors). From these murky beginnings, author Philip Kadish draws a direct thread to Thomas Dixon Jr.’s Birth of a Nation, Henry Ford’s the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Madison Grant’s embrace of eugenics (which directly influenced Adolf Hitler), Alabama Governor George Wallace’s race-baiting, and Roger Ailes’s creation of Fox News.


The Great White Hoax reveals white supremacy as today’s real “fake news”—and exposes the cast of villains, past and present, who have kept American racism alive.]]> 368 Philip Kadish 1620974118 Mara 0 to-read 3.00
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]]> 224003886 A horror anthology edited by the genre’s greatest, Ellen Datlow, with one side featuring stories about what haunts the night while the other side showcases the terrors that can exist in the light of day in this new addition to the Saga Doubles series.

This anthology contains stories from some of the most evocative and bestselling writers of horror and speculative fiction.

±·ľ±˛µłółŮâ€� Dreadful Tales of Nighttime Horror

Table of Contents
Trash Night by Clay McLeod Chapman
We Take Off Our Skin in the Dark by Eric LaRocca
The Door of Sleep by Stephen Graham Jones
At Night, My Dad by Dan Chaon
The Night House by Gemma Files
The Night-Mirrors by Pat Cadigan
Fear of the Dark by Benjamin Percy
The Picknicker by Josh Malerman
Secret Night by Nathan Ballingrud

Day—Merciless Tales of Daylight

Table of Contents
The Bright Day by Priya Sharma
Faire by Rachel Harrison
Trick of the Light by Brian Evenson
One Day by Jeffrey Ford
The Wanting by A.T. Greenblatt
Hold Us in the Light by A.C. Wise
Dismaying Creatures by Robert Shearman
Bitter Skin by Kaaron Warren
Cold Iron by Sophie White]]> 352 Ellen Datlow 1668080001 Mara 0 to-read 0.0
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]]> 224004314 The internationally bestselling author of the “brilliant, gripping must-read� (Glamour) Try Not to Breathe brings suspenseful thrills in this unputdownable novel following three women as they face an incoming nuclear attack.

Nuclear missile threat to South England. 59 minutes until impact. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a test.

Carrie is a young mother desperate to reunite with her daughter. Frankie, newly pregnant, faces a romantic vacation that takes a terrifying turn. Then there’s the enigmatic older woman determined to protect her teenage daughter, Bunny, no matter what.

Across South England, these three women must navigate survival amidst chaos when the country receives a nuclear bomb alert. With only 59 minutes before mass destruction, will they make it to their loved ones in time?]]> 320 Holly Seddon 1668087693 Mara 0 to-read 4.50 2025
author: Holly Seddon
name: Mara
average rating: 4.50
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]]> 228788985 From the Booker Prize finalist and bestselling a perceptive novel about a gay Black painter navigating the worlds of art, desire, and creativity

A newcomer to New York, Wyeth is a Black painter who grew up in the South and is trying to find his place in the contemporary Manhattan art scene. It’s challenging. Gallery shows displaying bad art. Pretentious artists jockeying for attention. The gossip and the backstabbing. While his part-time work for an art restorer is engaging, Wyeth suffers from artist’s block with his painting and he is finding it increasingly difficult to spark his creativity. When he meets Keating, a white former seminarian who left the priesthood, Wyeth begins to reconsider how to observe the world, in the process facing questions about the conflicts between Black and white art, the white gaze on the Black body, and the compromises we make � in art and in life.

As he did so adeptly in Booker finalist Real Life and the bestselling The Late Americans, Brandon Taylor brings to life in Minor Black Figures a fascinating set of characters, this time in the competitive art world, and the lives they lead with each and on their own. Minor Black Figures is an involving and tender portrait of friendship, creativity, and the connections between them.]]> 320 Brandon Taylor 0593332369 Mara 0 to-read 5.00 2025
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]]> 216865335 The author of Black Chalk, "the smart summer thriller you've been waiting for" (NPR), returns with a mesmerizing new novel of dark academia about a dangerous secret society at Oxford University and the first-year literature student whose life begins to unravel in its shadow

When Ali McCain, an eighteen-year-old from Los Angeles, is accepted at Oxford, it’s a chance to fulfill his dreams. To study English literature in England; to meet true intellectuals; and to glimpse the life he might have lived had his father—British rock star Gel McCain, legendary frontman of the Pale Fires—not abandoned him and his mother when he was a toddler.

But not long after he arrives at the storied campus, Ali is drawn into a dark, disorienting world where events grow more and more curious by the day. Trading on his father’s name, he gains entry into one of Oxford’s oldest and most selective secret societies, the Saracens. As he immerses himself in this rarefied world, he inadvertently sets in motion a series of events that might culminate in disaster.

A mind-bending literary house of mirrors, replete with bookish allusions and Easter eggs ranging from Brideshead Revisited to King Lear,ĚýThe Rabbit ClubĚýis an arresting work of dark academia by the category’s finest writer.]]> 352 Christopher J. Yates 1335550976 Mara 0 to-read 4.54
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]]> 223665360 From bestselling author Meagan Church comes a haunting exploration of identity, motherhood, and the suffocating grip of societal expectations that will leave you questioning the lives we build―and the lies we live.Ěý

They called it hysteria. She called it survival.

Lulu Mayfield has spent the last five years molding herself into the perfect 1950s housewife. Despite the tragic memories that haunt her and the weight of exhausting expectations, she keeps her husband happy, her household running, and her gelatin salads the talk of the neighborhood. But after she gives birth to her second child, Lulu's carefully crafted life begins to unravel.

When a new neighbor, Bitsy, moves in, Lulu suspects that something darker lurks behind the woman's constant smile. As her fixation on Bitsy deepens, Lulu is drawn into a web of unsettling truths that threaten to expose the cracks in her own life. The more she uncovers about Bitsy, the more she questions everything she thought she knew―and soon, others begin questioning her sanity. But is Lulu truly losing her mind? Or is she on the verge of discovering a reality too terrifying to accept?

In the vein of The Bell Jar and The Hours, The Mad Wife weaves domestic drama with psychological suspense, so poignant and immersive, you won't want to put it down.]]> 336 Meagan Church 1464236747 Mara 0 to-read 0.0
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]]> 223665373 The forest is hungry, and her family's secrets are tangled in the trees�

Lia Gregg always hoped to outgrow her fear of the woods surrounding her childhood home. The dark, menacing trees have long been the site of whispered legends and disappearances of girls like her. But after a breakup sends her back to live with her family, the woods feel more sinister than ever.

When a teenage girl disappears from their backyard, Lia's childhood fear becomes terrifyingly real. The missing girls are no longer just faces on the news. Now, the danger is closer than she imagined, and her younger sister could be next.

As Lia digs into the disappearances, she begins to suspect her mother knows more about the forest—and the horrors within—than she's letting on. To save her sister and uncover the truth, Lia must confront the secrets lurking in the trees and the darkness they conceal…before it's too late.




"Hauntingly powerful." —Darcy Coates, USA Today bestselling author, for No Child of Mine

"Haunting and eerie…will chill your spine. I highly recommend it." —Amy Lukavics, author of Daughters Unto Devils, for No Child of Mine]]> 384 Nichelle Giraldes 1464247250 Mara 0 to-read 4.83
author: Nichelle Giraldes
name: Mara
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]]> 224004815 A missing stripper in Atlanta sets off a suspenseful search by her friends, unraveling a web of secrets and power dynamics in the city’s most notorious Black strip club in Nic Stone’s gripping adult thriller debut.

Welcome to Boom Town, Atlanta’s most infamous Black strip club, where the air is thick with secrets and the stakes are as high as the heels. When Damaris “Charm� Willburn, a new daytime dancer, vanishes without a trace, former headline Lyriq is thrust back into a world she thought she had left behind. Charm’s disappearance eerily mirrors that of Lyriq’s former partner, Lucky, who also went missing under mysterious circumstances. Both women shared a dangerous connection with Thomas McIntyre, a wealthy white man with far more power than they could imagine.

As Lyriq delves deeper into the mystery, she uncovers a tangled web of deceit, power, and privilege that threatens to consume her. With each revelation, the line between friend and foe blurs, and Lyriq must confront her own past to uncover the truth. But as the secrets of Boom Town unravel, Lyriq faces a harrowing can she solve the mystery without losing everything she holds dear?

Boom Town is a masterful blend of suspense and social commentary exploring themes of racial and sexual power dynamics, the invisibility of Black women, and the societal judgements placed on professions deemed “unsavory.� In this electrifying thriller, New York Times bestselling author Nic Stone takes you on a heart-pounding journey through Atlanta’s dark underbelly.]]> 272 Nic Stone 1668056275 Mara 0 to-read 4.14 2025
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name: Mara
average rating: 4.14
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]]> 221179205 A cynical young outcast confronts his small town’s dark secrets in this atmospheric and haunting debut horror novel from brilliant new voice Jen Julian.
Ěý
The town of Blacknot is not what it appears, and a place deep in the woodsĚýknown only as The Night House is calling...Ěý

Jesse Calloway hadn’t planned to return to his repressive, backwoods hometown of Blacknot, North Carolina, after only one year away at college, but an anonymous messenger has lured him home. Eighteen years ago, his mother died under unexplained circumstances. Every story he has heard is incomplete. Now, the messenger claims to have the answers. But Jesse will have to hunt for them.

Alice Catherine, the daughter of a local porkĚýmanufacturer, obsesses over Jesse in turn. To her, he is a key player in unearthing the dark family history she’s convinced her father is concealing. Alice knows Jesse must find the answers himself, with the hope that once he does, he’ll help her change both their futures.Ěý

But Jesse’s path to Alice isn’t a straight line, and his questions are stirring up issues with locals, including his much older and well-armed ex-boyfriend, Harlan. When an old fling of Jesse’s goes missing and Alice’s plans start to unravel, it’s clear there’s more at stake than either of them could imagine. On a collision course littered with psychotropic fungi, time-warping magic, and far too many alligators, Jesse and Alice will need to determine how far they are willing to go for the truth, and whether they can trust each other enough to get there…]]> 384 Jen Julian 0316580562 Mara 3 2025-books, horror 3.00 2025
author: Jen Julian
name: Mara
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/18
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: 2025-books, horror
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]]> 217387849 An unlikely assassin struggles to escape a legendary bounty hunter in this breakneck fantasy debut that will grab you by the throat—perfect for fans of Joe Abercrombie, R.F. Kuang, and Christopher Buehlman.

She killed for a cause. Will she die for it too?

Anji works as a castle servant, cleaning laundry for a king she hates. So when a rare opportunity presents itself, she seizes the chance to cut his throat. Then she runs for her life. In her wake, the kingdom is thrown into disarray, while a bounty bigger than anyone could imagine lands on her head.

On her heels are the fabled mercenaries of the Menagerie, whose animal-shaped masks are magical relics rumored to give them superhuman powers. It’s the Hawk who finds Anji a surly, aging swordswoman who has her own reasons for keeping Anji alive and out of the hands of her fellow bounty hunters, if only long enough to collect the reward herself.

With the rest of the Menagerie on their trail, so begins an alliance as tenuous as it is temporary—and a race against death that will decide Anji’s fate, and may change the course of a kingdom.]]> 368 Evan Leikam 125036924X Mara 5 4.14 2025
author: Evan Leikam
name: Mara
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/18
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: 2025-books, audiobooks, fantasy
review:

]]> 223362031 From one of our most acclaimed chroniclers of the forces eroding the fabric of our shared life, her most personal and powerful a reckoning with the changes that have rocked her own beloved small Ohio hometown

The town of Urbana, Ohio was not a utopia when Beth Macy grew up there in the 70’s and 80’s, certainly not for her family. Her dad was an alcoholic who only fitfully worked, and people called him the town drunk, which hurt, as did their poverty. But Urbana had a healthy enough economy, and there were middle class kids at school whose families became her role models. People in Urbana were proud of their schools, and the library, and the history of their town, an important stop on the Underground Railroad. Macy loved Urbana, and though she was able to make it to college on a Pell Grant and then follow a career in journalism that took her far away, she still clung gratefully to the hometown that helped raise her. On the surface it was still picture-postcard cute.

But as Macy’s mother’s health began its final descent in 2020, on more frequent visits home to Ohio, she ł¦´ÇłÜ±ô»ĺ˛Ô’t shake the feeling that her town had dramatically hardened in ways she ł¦´ÇłÜ±ô»ĺ˛Ô’t process. Beth grew up as the paper girl, delivering the local newspaper, which was like civic glue, mirroring the community back to itself. Now there was no local paper, no paper girl, and precious little civic glue.ĚýYes, a lot of the work that once supported the middle class had gone away, along with all that went with it. But that was an old story that didn’t begin to cover the forces turning her town into a poorer and angrier place. High school graduation rates were plummeting as absenteeism soared in the public schools and in the workplace. A mental health crisis gripped the small city, along with a litany of other pathologies. Urbana’s pride in its institutions was parents were opting to home school, or transferring their kids elsewhere, in record numbers. Even more painfully, many of her own family members and old friends had gone down the rabbit hole of conspiracies like QAnon, and worse. What happened to Urbana?

This was not an assignment Beth Macy ever wanted to take, but she felt she had no choice. Two years ago, she began to return regularly, to deploy everything she’d learned to figure her hometown out. The result is an astonishment, a book that takes us into the heart of one specific place and through it brings into focus in a new way our most urgent set of national issues.

Paper Girl is a gift of courage, empathy and insight, a profoundly generous act. Beth Macy has turned to face the darkest corners in the shared life of her family and community, people she loves wholeheartedly, even the ones she struggles now to like. And in doing so, in facing the truth—in person, with respect—she has found sparks of human dignity that she has used to light a great signal fire, of warning but also of hope.]]> 368 Beth Macy 0593656733 Mara 0 to-read 5.00
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name: Mara
average rating: 5.00
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]]> 229222655 A feminist, redemptive crime novel about a woman, Elizabeth, who has never come to terms with the loss of her daughter, who went missing twenty-five years ago, and why she is compelled to go back to the house where her little girl, Nina, disappeared.
Ěý
On the eve of her sixty-first birthday, Elizabeth Harte decides to run away from home, where she is living with her daughter and son-in-law. Elizabeth has experienced deep trauma in her life, including, twenty-five years earlier, the abduction of her other daughter, five-year-old, Nina. As the novel opens, Elizabeth feels both trapped and lost. It’s this deep-seeded unhappiness which pushes her to leave her home to find her daughter, in order to reconcile her present with her past. After running away, she soon crosses path with a young autistic girl called April, and it’s this relationship, alongside Elizabeth’s determination to find her missing daughter, which forge an awakening within her.
Ěý Ěý Ěý ĚýĚýMeanwhile, disgraced detective Nick is revisiting a series of cold cases for the Irish police. His father worked Nina’s case, back in the day, and came up empty-handed, and in despair, took his own life. Soon, young women start to go missing, resulting in a series of murders, with a pattern emerging. When Elizabeth reaches out to Nick to discuss her daughter’s disappearance, he realizes his cold cases are a crucial lead to stopping this killer from striking again.
Ěý
This emotional and page-turning mystery is perfect for fans of Charlie Donlea, and Laura Lippman, and Ashley Flowers.]]> 352 Louise Phillips 1454962585 Mara 0 to-read 0.0
author: Louise Phillips
name: Mara
average rating: 0.0
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]]> 216816880 This insightful and often witty collection of essays charts the making of a reluctant disability activist—including his commentary for NPR, the New York Times and elsewhere.

Ben Mattlin was born in 1962 with spinal muscular atrophy, a congenital and progressive neuromuscular weakness. He never stood or walked but grew up expecting a normal life. In this book of essays, he chronicles that life and also charts his growth as a reluctant disability activist and public intellectual.

Mattlin’s disability was from birth. Raised in a family that insisted that he be educated in a mainstream setting, he never thought about his disability as being an obstacle until adulthood. It was not until he had graduated from Harvard and could not find a job that he began to understand what disability rights activists were talking about.

These collected short pieces chronicle Mattlin’s intellectual coming-of-age including his beginnings, difficult conversations about disability, the social aspects of being disabled in a nondisabled world, and a wider perspective as the author looks back on his sixty years of disability. The book contains a variety of essays intermixed with a few edited podcast transcripts. Some of the pieces are deeply personal; others are stridently political. All of them are guaranteed to make readers see life and the world in a new way.

Altogether, this collection is a frank, unsentimental examination of some of the most important and moving issues of our day—always rendered with intelligence, sensitivity, and a liberal sprinkling of humor.]]> 250 Ben Mattlin 1958888524 Mara 0 to-read 0.0
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name: Mara
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]]> 225166002 A brilliant Scottish debut, shortlisted for the Highland Book Prize and the Bookmark Book Festival Book of the Year. Ěý

825: In the aftermath of a vicious attack by raiders from the north, an unlikely trio finds themselves the lone survivors on a remote Scottish isle. Still breathing are young Brother Martin, the only resident of the local monastery to escape martyrdom; Una, a beekeeper and mead maker who has been relieved of her violent husband during the slaughter; and Grimur, an aging Norseman who claws his way out of the hasty grave his fellow raiders left him in, thinking him dead.Ěý

As the seasons pass in this wild and lonely setting, their inherent distrust of each other melts into a complex meditation on the distances and bonds between them. Told with humor and alive with sharply exquisite dialogue, David Greig deftly lifts the curtain between our world and the past. The Book of I is an entirely unique novel that serves as a philosophical commentary on guilt and redemption, but also humanity, love, and the things we choose to believe in. Ěý]]> 160 David Greig Mara 0 to-read 0.0
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name: Mara
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]]> 222419303 A woman must confront the demons of her past when she attempts to fix up her childhood home in this devilishly clever take on the haunted house novel from the USA Today bestselling author.

Clio Louise Barnes leads a picture-perfect life as a stylist and influencer, but beneath the glossy veneer she harbors a not-so glamorous secret: she grew up in a haunted house. Well, not haunted. Possessed. After Clio’s parent’s messy divorce, her mother, Alex, moved Clio and her sisters into a house occupied by a demon. Or so Alex claimed. That’s not what Clio’s sisters remember or what the courts determined when they stripped Alex of custody after she went off the deep end. But Alex was insistent; she even wrote a book about her experience in the house.

After Alex’s sudden death, the supposedly possessed house passes to Clio and her sisters. Where her sisters see childhood trauma, Clio sees an opportunity for house flipping content. Only, as the home makeover process begins, Clio discovers there might be some truth to her mother’s claims. As memories resurface and Clio finally reads her mother’s book, the presence in the house becomes more real, and more sinister, revealing ugly truths that threaten to shake Clio’s beautiful life to its very foundation.]]> 336 Rachel Harrison 0593642570 Mara 0 to-read 4.50 2025
author: Rachel Harrison
name: Mara
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> 222850723 A captivating new historical novel from Madeline Martin, set in Victorian London aboutĚýa forbidden book club, dangerous secrets, and the women who dare to break free.
Ěý
You are cordially invited to the Secret Book Society�
Ěý
London, 1895: Trapped by oppressive marriages and societal expectations, three women receive a mysterious invitation to an afternoon tea at the home of the reclusive Lady Duxbury. Beneath the genteel facade of the gathering lies a secret book club—a sanctuary where they can discover freedom, sisterhood, and the courage to rewrite their stories.
Ěý
Eleanor Clarke, a devoted mother suffocating under the tyranny of her husband. Rose Wharton, a transplanted American dollar princess struggling to fit the mold of an aristocratic wife. Lavinia Cavendish, an artistic young woman haunted by a dangerous family secret. All are drawn to the enigmatic Lady Duxbury, a thrice-widowed countess whose husbands� untimely deaths have sparked whispers of murder.
Ěý
As the women form deep, heartwarming friendships, they uncover secrets about their marriages, their pasts, and the risks they face. Their courage is their only weapon in the oppressive world that has kept them silent, but when secrets are deadly, one misstep could cost them everything.
Ěý]]> 336 Madeline Martin 1335016287 Mara 0 to-read 0.0 2025
author: Madeline Martin
name: Mara
average rating: 0.0
book published: 2025
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]]> 220175349 In this provocative mystery from beloved crime writer Denise Mina, new evidence in an old murder case leads a forensic scientist to an impossible Ěý Would you still do the right thing if you knew it would cost everything you loved?

Doctor Claudia O’Sheil is approaching the podium at an elegant fundraiser, where she is expected to give a speech about how her forensic science evidence helped convict the brutal killer in her most famous The Incident at Chester Terrace, a sensational double-murder that ignited the country just one year before.
Ěý
But the research has moved on, the evidence Claudia gave was junk science, used to put William Stewart away for the murder of his father and his girlfriend. Because of her an innocent man is in prison, and she didn’t act alone—some very powerful people have an agenda she is only beginning to understand. This speech might be her last chance to reveal the truth and catch the real murderer. But admitting her mistake will cost her reputation, her career, her home, security for her two sons, the esteem of her colleagues, and the pride of a nation obsessed with her success. In this breathless upmarket suspense novel, interwoven with the present-day framework is a pastĚýnarrative that slowly reveals what actually happened the night of a devastating double-murder in a wealthy family.
Ěý
As Claudia steps toward the microphone, she revisits the murder investigation, desperate to understand what went wrong before her chance is gone. What speech will Claudia give? And what really happened at Chester Terrace that night?Ěý]]> 336 Denise Mina 0316243043 Mara 0 to-read 3.38
author: Denise Mina
name: Mara
average rating: 3.38
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]]> 228646243 Set amongst the glittering backdrop of London's iconic Savoy hotel, Cinnamon Scott is forced to confront her troubled past as she uncovers the story of the hotel’s first female bartender who has been erased from the history books. And like a well-made cocktail, their intertwined stories pack just the right punch.
Ěý
Six years ago, Cinnamon Scott was a young writer on the rise in New York City. But since the sudden loss of her parents, she's been stuck in place, retreating to a life of endless partying—made possible by the massive fortune she's inherited. Despite their tragic loss, she and her older sister Rosemary have always had each other to lean on. But now, with Rosie living in London and about to give birth to twins, Cinnamon feels more lost than ever.

When Rosie is put on bedrest, Cinnamon flies to her sister's side, where she's temporarily living at The Savoy. Immediately swept away by the beauty and history of the legendary hotel and its famed American Bar, Cinnamon finds ample opportunity to distract herself. When the late shift bartender tells her the story of Ada Coleman, the woman who crafted the cocktail recipes The Savoy popularized in its famous handbook a century ago, Cinnamon is inspired by the bartender's vivid stories of Ada's fearlessness and can't understand why Ada's name is nowhere to be found.

After meeting a handsome historian researching the hotel and realizing that Ada is likely to be once again overlooked, Cinnamon must decide if she can overcome her demons and stand up for Ada's story. And, along the way, she might just save her own story too.
Ěý]]> 320 Brisa Carleton 1538772884 Mara 0 to-read 5.00
author: Brisa Carleton
name: Mara
average rating: 5.00
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]]> 231109687 For fans of Survivor and Less, this fast-paced debut novel shines an unflinching light on the drama of reality TV when a gay man returns to the cut-throat show he won in his youth after his adult life begins to unravel.

Following the car accident that ended his football career and left his body scarred, 22-year-old Luke Griffin joins the cast of Endeavor, a new competition-based reality show that pits the tabloids� darlings against one another in tasks of endurance and problem solving. At first, he thrives, effortlessly forming friendships and even a romantic relationship that he thinks will last a lifetime. But Luke has aspirations far bigger than the show's million-dollar prize, and soon a series of betrayals leads to irreversible tragedy, changing the course of his and his fellow contestants' lives forever.
Ěý
Ten years later, Luke’s world looks very he is now a father of two and the stay-at-home husband to America’s only openly gay senator. When his husband's serial cheating is exposed, Luke impulsively joins the cast of Endeavor's latest season in a desperate bid to earn some fast cash. Back on set, he is confronted with everything he tried to leave in the bitter rivalries, shattered friendships, and crushing guilt, all of which threaten to tear down the walls he’s spent a decade building. As Season 20 of Endeavor kicks off, Luke must give everything to the game, even as he finally learns what it means––and what it costs––to face the truth.

Combining the fabulous rivalries of The Traitors with the epic physical stunts of The Challenge, THE BOOK OF LUKE offers a grounded portrait of what it means to reinvent yourself when no one will let you forget your past - especially if it's immortalized on streaming services.]]> 400 Lovell Holder 1538770156 Mara 0 to-read 4.00
author: Lovell Holder
name: Mara
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 0
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]]> 223296156
In this groundbreaking book, bestselling science writer Justin Gregg takes readers on a journey through the science behind our peculiar tendency to humanize the nonhuman. Prepare to be amazed as Gregg unveils a world filled with emotional support alligators, a woman who married her briefcase, and Soviet super babies that drink dolphin milk. With a delightful mix of scientific insight and humor, this comprehensive exploration delves into the bizarre ways we engage in anthropomorphism. Each chapter is a treasure-trove of quirky stories and fascinating research, unraveling the reasons behind our instinct to see ourselves in the creatures around us.Ěý

Gregg explores why we treat pets like people, how anthropomorphism drives consumerism, and the inverse process, dehumanization. Readers will come away with a better understanding of the biological benefits to anthropomorhism, how our lives are enriched by it, and how to harness it to create healthier relationships.Ěý

Humanish is a crash course in anthropomorphism and an engaging exploration of the human experience, told through a comedic lens that will resonate with anyone who has ever whispered sweet nothings to their dog or imagined their cat plotting world domination.ĚýĚý]]> 304 Justin Gregg 0316577588 Mara 0 to-read 0.0
author: Justin Gregg
name: Mara
average rating: 0.0
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]]> 222139714 For fans ofĚýConversations with FriendsĚýandĚýVladimirĚýcomes a magnetic, fresh take on marriage and when two married professors tiptoe toward infidelity, their transgressions are brought to light in a graduate student’s searing thesis project.

Simone is the star of Edwards University’s creative writing renowned Woolf scholar, grief memoirist, and campus sex icon. Her less glamorous and ostensibly devoted husband, Ethan, is a forgotten novelist and lecturer in the same department. But when Ethan and the department administrative assistant Abigail have sex, Simone and Ethan’s faith in their flawless marriage is rattled.

Simone has secrets of her own. While Ethan’s away for the summer, she becomes inordinately close with her advisee, graduate student Roberta “Robbie� Green. In Robbie, Simone finds a new running partner, confidante, and disciple—or so she believes. Behind Simone’s back, Robbie fictionalizes her mentor’s marriage in a breathtakingly invasive MFA thesis. Determined to tell her version of the story, Robbie paints a revealing portrait of Simone, Ethan, Abigail, and even herself, scratching at the very surface of what may—or may not—be the truth.

Innovative, witty, and tender,ĚýSeduction TheoryĚýexposes the intoxicating nature of power and attraction, masterfully demonstrating how love and betrayal can coexist.]]> 224 Emily Adrian 0316584517 Mara 0 to-read 4.15 2025
author: Emily Adrian
name: Mara
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> 228646220 WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN meets THE VEGETARIAN in this chilly and chilling epistolary novel of four characters locked in a frightening cycle of vengeance and comeuppance.

Mira is a desperate young woman, hired by a wealthy single mother to tutor her lonesome son, Yuchan. But Mira is not who she presents herself to be; she is haunted by the death of her own family and motivated by the dark pulse of vengeance. Yuchan was cruel to Mira’s mother. A kind of cruelty she can’t ever forgive.
Ěý
And then there is Jiwon, the boy’s mother, a bad mother, Mira thinks—or so Jiwon tells herself she must not be.
Ěý
But as Mira spends more time in the family’s sprawling home, she begins to suspect Yuchan is not the culprit she’s after. Someone else in the family has been pulling the strings. Someone with a deviant plan she can’t begin to imagine.
Ěý
Structured around four different letters and journal Mira's, Jiwon's reply, Yuchan's younger brother's diary entry and, finally, Mira's own written recollection. Each new section brings us deeper into a web of cruelty, consequence, and closer to the truth.]]> 160 Sulmi Bak 0316594482 Mara 0 to-read 1.40
author: Sulmi Bak
name: Mara
average rating: 1.40
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]]> 215750794 Following on the heels of the critically-acclaimed true crime account,ĚýA Killer By DesignĚý(soon to be released as an original docuseries calledĚýMastermind on Hulu), a groundbreaking look into the crucial role played by expert witnesses in the most high-profile criminal cases, from the Menendez brothers to Larry Nasser to Bill Cosby, based on Dr. Ann Burgessâ€� personal experiences within the criminal justice system

For decades, when criminal cases of the most unprecedented nature went to trial, one woman took the stand to separate truth from fiction. Expert ĚýThe Weight of Our Testimony When Justice Hangs in the Balanceâ€�Ěýis the extraordinary story of forensic and psychiatric pioneer Dr. Ann Burgess—inspiration for Hulu’s forthcoming docuseries Mastermind—and how she revolutionized what it means to be an expert witness in the American court system.

Written through Burgessâ€� singular lens of compassion and lived experience,ĚýExpert WitnessĚýpulls back the curtain on some of the biggest cases in the last thirty years—from Bill Cosby to the Menendez brothers to Larry Nassar—to reveal the deeply human stories behind the trials that captivated a nation. The book explores the role of expert witnesses in high stakes court cases, offering first-hand accounts and never-before-seen interviews with attorneys, victims, and offenders. Unlike any book before it,ĚýExpert WitnessĚýplaces readers inside the mind of the nation’s most prominent courtroom expert, following Burgess as she takes on one seismic case after the next and shows how powerful courtroom testimony can be.

Throughout the narrative, each case deepens the reader’s understanding of the art and science of expert testimony. And while the cases on their own are fascinating, it’s the never before told stories of the individuals at the heart of such groundbreaking cases that givesĚýExpert Witness its powerful sense of urgency, relevance, and framework of understanding, taking readers from the women’s movement of the 1970s to the #MeToo movement of today—one of the largest social reckonings in recent history.

At its core, Expert Witness is a story of empowerment. It’s a story of compassion and the ever-increasing need for individuals to stand up and speak truth to power or to popular opinion. And it's ultimately a story of how revolutionary one voice can be.Ěý]]> 256 Ann Wolbert Burgess 0306834049 Mara 0 to-read 0.0
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name: Mara
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]]> 228347660 A gripping story about a brother and sister, emancipated from slavery but still searching for true freedom, and their odyssey across the deserts of Mexico to finally reunite, all while escaping a former master still intent on their bondage

New Orleans, 1866. The Civil War might be over, but formerly enslaved Coleman and June have yet to find the freedom they’ve been promised. Two years ago, the siblings were separated when their old master, Mr. Harper, took June away to Mexico, where he hoped to escape the new reality of the post-war South. Coleman stayed behind in Louisiana to serve the Harper family, clinging to the hope that one day June would return.
Ěý
When an unexpected letter from Mr. Harper arrives, summoning Coleman to Mexico, Coleman thinks that finally his prayers have been answered. What Coleman cannot know is the tangled truth of June’s tribulations under Mr. Harper out on the frontier. And when disaster strikes Coleman’s journey, he is forced on the run with Mr. Harper's daughter, Florence. Together, they venture into the Mexican desert to find June, all the while evading two crooked brothers who'll stop at nothing to capture Coleman and Florence and collect the money they're owed. As Coleman and June separately navigate a perilous, parched landscape, the siblings learn quickly that freedom isn't always given—sometimes, it must be taken by force.
Ěý
As in hisĚýNew York TimesĚýbestselling debutĚýThe Sweetness of Water, Nathan Harris delves into the critical years of the Civil War’s aftermath to deliver an intimate and epic tale of what freedom means in a society still determined to return its Black citizens to bondage. Populated with unforgettable characters,ĚýAmityĚýis a vital addition to the literature of emancipation.]]> 320 Nathan Harris 0316456241 Mara 0 to-read 0.0
author: Nathan Harris
name: Mara
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]]> 222419292 Clashing ghost tours lead to a sizzling romantic rivalry in the second romance in the new series from USA Today bestselling author Jen DeLuca.

Boneyard Key, Florida, is the only home Sophie has ever known. Her love for its supernatural history has flourished into a career, as she guides the one and only ghost tour through the town’s can’t-miss haunted spots. And while her bank account isn’t full by any means, her heart is. Or at least, it was.

But there's a newcomer in town. The son of a Fortune 500 businessman, former theater kid Tristan has grown his tours from a fraternity fundraiser to a multicity ghost tour conglomerate. It’s doing well, but not well enough—if he can’t prove that he’s solidly in the black by the fall, Dad’s going to pull his funding, spelling the end of his career. Boneyard Key, with its haunted reputation, seems like the perfect place to boost his bottom line.

When the two ghost tours clash, Sophie’s expletive-filled rant goes viral, and the rivals strike up a deal. Whoever has the most successful business by summer’s end stays, while the loser must ghost. But the more Tristan comes to appreciate Boneyard Key, the more Sophie comes to appreciate Tristan, and what starts as begrudging respect becomes something spicier. Can they put their feuding businesses aside to make room for a chance at love, or is Boneyard Key too small for two ghost tours?]]> 368 Jen DeLuca 059364123X Mara 0 to-read 4.75 2025
author: Jen DeLuca
name: Mara
average rating: 4.75
book published: 2025
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]]> 223121133 Spotlighting the years during WWII when Henri Matisse and his family defiantly refused to evacuate Nazi-occupied France, this groundbreaking book illuminates the previously untold history of their passionate roles in the Resistance and the prodigious, revolutionary work the artist produced in the face of fascism, violence, and hate.

For readers of Jeffrey H. Jackson’sĚýPaper Bullets,ĚýMartin Dugard’sĚýTaking Paris,ĚýJulie Orringer’sĚýThe Flight Portfolio,ĚýandĚýPicasso’s WarĚýby Hugh Eakin â€� from the acclaimed author ofĚýThe Confidante.

In 1940, with the Nazis sweeping through France, Henri Matisse found himself at a personal and artistic crossroads. His 42-year marriage had ended, he was gravely ill, and after decades at the forefront of modern art, he was beset by doubt. As scores of famous figures escaped the country, Matisse took refuge in Nice, with his companion, Lydia Delectorskaya. By defiantly remaining, Matisse was a source of inspiration for his nation.

While enemy agents and Resistance fighters played cat-and-mouse in the alleyways of Nice, Matisse’s son, Jean, engaged in sabotage efforts with the Allies. In Paris, under the swastika, Matisse’s estranged wife, Amélie, worked for the Communist underground. His beloved daughter, Marguerite, active in the French Resistance, was arrested and tortured by the Gestapo, sentenced to Ravensbruck concentration camp—and miraculously escaped when her train was halted by Allied bombs. His younger, son, Pierre helped Jewish artists escape to New York; even his teenaged grandson risked his life by defying the Germans and their Vichy collaborators.

Amidst this chaos, Matisse responded to the dark days of war by inventing a dazzling new paper technique that led to some of his most iconic pieces, including The Fall of Icarus, his profile of Charles De Gaulle, Monsieur Loyal, and his groundbreaking cut-out book, Jazz. His wartime works were acts of resistance, subtly patriotic and daringly new.

Drawing on intimate letters and a multitude of other sources, Christopher C. Gorham illuminates this momentous stage of Matisse’s life as never before, revealing an artist on a journey of reinvention, wrenching meaning from the suffering of war, and holding up the light of human imagination against the torch of fascism to createĚýsome of the most exciting work of his career, of the 20thĚýcentury, and in the history of art.]]> 452 Christopher C. Gorham 0806544163 Mara 0 to-read 0.0
author: Christopher C. Gorham
name: Mara
average rating: 0.0
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]]> 218569876 Three people—two enslaved, one indentured—live beside each other, fighting, and sometimes failing, to be more than their pasts say they should be.


1690s, Tidewater, Virginia. Bless, born into slavery and taken by her masters to toil in the house, faces her mother’s fury, learning that cruelty can come from any side. David, an enslaved child of a freed father, dreams of the promise of liberty made to him. Jack, an impoverished Scots-Irish boy, sails to America to be indentured but, in the hellish crossing, finds his hopes fracturing. Yet, somehow, they all will stake a claim to love.


Hurston-Wright Award winner Princess Joy L. Perry tells us a previously unheard story—one in which characters must carve out choices from the narrowest of circumstances and confront heartrending How far would you go to protect your children from enslavement? How to create a lasting family after being torn from your own? What to value a hard-won opportunity or your humanity? This Here Is Love is an unforgettable story from an astonishing new voice.]]> 384 Princess Joy L. Perry 1324105976 Mara 0 to-read 4.25 2025
author: Princess Joy L. Perry
name: Mara
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2025
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]]> 228383177 From the acclaimed author of Beasts of a Little Land and City of Night Birds, an exquisite, globetrotting story collection about humans in precarious balance with the natural world

Spanning multiple locales and epochs, and rendered in fine detail and vivid color, this transportive collection shows what it means to live as human inhabitants on our one miraculous planet. Lyrical, at times hilarious, and always heartfelt, each of these ten stories is a reflection of individual choice in the face of man-made in a near-future Seoul, where air pollution has become so fatal that the city has been encased in a translucent biodome, a civil engineer charged with its upkeep contemplates an arranged marriage. A painter, disenchanted with New York City, travels to the South of France and falls into a dalliance with an entrepreneur who claims to have invented a new color. And on an island where the Indian and Pacific Oceans meet, upon which other countries have relegated their waste to form a mountain of landfill, a local boy facing daily privation gets internet famous for his K-pop-inspired dances.

With the clear-eyed reverence of Richard Powers and the sparkling sincerity of George Saunders, Juhea Kim’s first story collection views our broken world—and broken hearts—from breathtaking heights. A Love Story from the End of the World delivers an impassioned reminder that we are human—but without nature, we are nothing at all.]]> 224 Juhea Kim 0063446391 Mara 0 to-read 0.0
author: Juhea Kim
name: Mara
average rating: 0.0
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]]> 231363395 288 Lizzie Assa MS Ed Mara 0 to-read 0.0
author: Lizzie Assa MS Ed
name: Mara
average rating: 0.0
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]]> 217387674
A Love Story tells the overlapping stories of James Baldwin’s most sustaining with his mentor, the Black American painter Beauford Delaney; with his lover and muse, the Swiss painter Lucien Happersberger; and with his collaborators, the famed Turkish actor Engin Cezzar and the iconoclastic French artist Yoran Cazac.

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

Nicholas Boggs's rich and subtle narration of Baldwin’s public story and his lucid discussion of his work are underpinned by what he calls “a search for the truth about Baldwin’s most sustaining intimate relationships and how they had shaped his life and art, which in turn has had such an indelible impact on the literary and political landscape of the twentieth century and continues to influence and even offer some measure of hope for the world today. It would not be until close to the end of this voyage that Irealized what I had actually been researching and trying to write all along was a new James Baldwin biography. But from the very beginning, I always knew it was a love story."]]> 720 Nicholas Boggs 0374178712 Mara 0 currently-reading 4.50
author: Nicholas Boggs
name: Mara
average rating: 4.50
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rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/15
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]]> 214151495 From RuPaul’s Drag Race winner and host of ±áµţ°żâ€™s We’re Here comes an inventive, wondrous novel about American hero Harriet Tubman that remixes history into a fresh, dynamic novel about love, freedom, salvation, and music.

In an age of miracles where our greatest heroes from history have magically, unexplainably returned to shake us out of our confusion and hate, Harriet Tubman is back, and she has a lot to say.

Harriet Tubman and four of the enslaved persons she led to freedom want to tell their story in a unique way—by following in the footsteps of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton. Harriet wants to put on a show about her life, and she needs a songwriter to help her.

She calls upon Darnell Williams, a once successful hip-hop producer who was topping the charts before being outed by a rival at the BET Awards. Darnell has no idea what to expect when he steps into the studio with Harriet, only that they have one week to write a Broadway caliber musical she can take on the road. Over the course of their time together, they not only mount a show that will take the country by storm, but confront the horrors of both their pasts, and learn to find a way to a better future.

Original, evocative, and historic, Harriet Live in Concert is a landmark achievement that will burrow deep into our hearts (and ears).]]> 240 Bob the Drag Queen 166806197X Mara 4 4.08 2025
author: Bob the Drag Queen
name: Mara
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/15
date added: 2025/04/15
shelves: 2025-books, african-american-history, audiobooks
review:

]]> 208580700 It’s the gig of a lifetime for this ghostwriter, except there’s a the client, a closeted A-list actor finally ready to come out in his memoir, is an actual ghost.

Adam Gallagher has knocked on thousands of doors. An ex-Mormon and almost-famous memoirist, he is used to sharing his life story with strangers. But this day, this house, is different. For it belongs to none other than Roland Hollywood Hunk, and soon to be author. Roland has a story to tell, a decades-old secret to spill, and he’s decided that Adam is just the guy to help him do it. Except there’s a problem. Roland Rogers is dead. Not in the metaphysical realm—if he focuses, he can summon enough energy to communicate via the kitchen speaker—but certainly in the physical, and he needs Adam to pen his story before his body is found frozen beneath the avalanche of snow that squashed it. That means one month, a hundred thousand words, no breaks. Ghostwriting is hard enough, let alone when you’re dealing with a real ghost, and so it isn’t long before Roland’s idea of what his book should be clashes with Adam’s vision for what it could be. But the clock is ticking, the ice melting. And as more truths are told, both men soon discover that this experience is less of a coming out, and more of a coming home . . . The sophomore novel from the beloved author of Patricia Wants to Cuddle, Roland Rogers Isn’t Dead Yet is a witty and electric new rom-com for fans of Ashley Poston and Casey McQuiston.]]> 288 Samantha Allen 1638931534 Mara 0 currently-reading 3.77
author: Samantha Allen
name: Mara
average rating: 3.77
book published:
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]]> 218695918 A young Victorian Egyptologist traverses the Nile River on a mission to undo a curse that may have befallen her family in this spellbinding debut novel.

Essex, 1887. Clementine’s ability to read hieroglyphs makes her invaluable at her father's Egyptian relic parties, which have become the talk of the town. But at one such party, the words she interprets from an unusual amulet strike fear into her heart. As her childhood games about Isis and Nephthys—sister goddesses who protect the dead—take on a devastating resonance in her life, and tragedy slowly consumes her loved ones, she wonders what she and her father may have unleashed . . .

Five years later, Clemmie arrives in Cairo desperate to save what remains of her family back home. There, she meets a motley crew of unwitting English travelers about to set sail down the Nile—including an adventurer with secrets of his own—and joins them on a mission to reach Denderah, a revered religious site, where she hopes to return the amulet and atone for her sins.

With each passing day, she is further engulfed in a life she’s yearned for all along. But as long-buried secrets and betrayals rise to the surface, Clemmie must reconcile the impossibility of living in the light while her past keeps her anchored to the darkness.]]> 352 Rachel Louise Driscoll 0593982886 Mara 4 3.58
author: Rachel Louise Driscoll
name: Mara
average rating: 3.58
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/14
date added: 2025/04/14
shelves: 2025-books, egypt, historical-fiction
review:

]]> 224082681
In the hours before dawn at a local summer camp, Bureau of Indian Affairs archaeologist Syd Walker receives an alarming call: newly discovered skeletal remains have been stolen. Not only have bones gone missing, but a Native teen girl has disappeared near the camp, and law enforcement dismisses her family's fears.

As Syd investigates both crimes, she's drawn into a world of privileged campers and their wealthy parents—most of them members of the Founders Society, an exclusive club whose members trace their lineage to the first colonists and claim ancestral rights to the land, despite fierce objections from the local tribal community. And it's not the first time something—or someone—has gone missing from the camp.

The deeper Syd digs, the more she realizes these aren't isolated incidents. A pattern of disappearances stretches back generations, all leading to the Founders Society's doorstep. But exposing the truth means confronting not just the town's most powerful families, but also a legacy of violence that refuses to stay buried.

From the national bestselling author of Blood Sisters (a Washington Post Best Mystery of the Year and Target Book Club pick) comes a new Syd Walker novel that proves the sins of the past are destined to repeat until the truth is finally unearthed.]]> 368 Vanessa Lillie 0593550145 Mara 0 to-read 5.00 2025
author: Vanessa Lillie
name: Mara
average rating: 5.00
book published: 2025
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]]> 225819195 In this page-turning, provocative horror novel, two desperate souls attempt to turn their lives around, with nightmarish consequences if they fail.

Madison has seen better days. Reeling from a bad breakup, self-soothing with junk food, and totally consumed by her lack of direction, she’s in need of a big reset. When she runs into an old acquaintance at the gym, Madison is shocked by how fit they’ve suddenly become. The cause? An all-female fitness boot camp led by ex-military guru Ellie Fellowes. The course is characterized by grueling reps and minimal contact with the outside world, and when Madison signs up to experience it herself, something doesn’t feel right. The other students keep acting strangely; Ellie seems almost superhuman, and her intense motivational methods are becoming bizarre, even dangerous. But Madison is gettingĚýresults.ĚýHow can she stop now?

Musician Johnny Blake has been struggling with a pain pill addiction after a very public, very bad fall. At the encouragement of loved ones, he retreats to a secluded cottage to detox. But Johnny isn’t alone. Something is lurking in the shadows of his new home—a creature unnatural and hungry, one that traps Johnny in a frightening bargain. If Johnny doesn’t stay off his pills and keep his end of the deal, he will be eaten alive.

As Madison and Johnny’s predicaments spiral into the unthinkable, they will have to look within to find the true and terrifying answer to the age-old ĚýHow badly do you want it?

Nerve-shredding and compulsively readable,ĚýI’ll Quit When I’m DeadĚýmarks Luke Smitherd as a major voice in horror to watch.]]> 384 Luke Smitherd 0316579564 Mara 0 to-read 4.00
author: Luke Smitherd
name: Mara
average rating: 4.00
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]]> 231363155 From the award-winning author of Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line comes a stunning historical novel set in Tibet that follows two outsiders—an Indian schoolteacher spying for the British Empire and an English “lady� explorer—as they venture into a forbidden kingdom.

1989. Tibet is closed to Europeans, an infuriating obstruction for the rap­idly expanding British Empire. In response, Britain begins training Indians—permitted to cross borders that white men may not—to undertake illicit, dangerous surveying expeditions into Tibet.

Balram is one such surveyor-spy, an Indian schoolteacher who, for several years, has worked for the British, often alongside his dearest friend, Gyan. But Gyan went missing on his last expedition and is rumored to be imprisoned within Tibet. Desperate to rescue his friend, Balram agrees to guide an English captain on a foolhardy After years of paying others to do the exploring, the captain, disguised as a monk, wants to personally chart a river that runs through southern Tibet. Their path will cross fatefully with that of another Westerner in disguise, fifty-year-old Katherine. Denied a fellowship in the all-male Royal Geographical Society in London, she intends to be the first European woman to reach Lhasa.

As Balram and Katherine make their way into Tibet, they will face storms and bandits, snow leopards and soldiers, fevers and frostbite. What’s more, they will have to battle their own doubts, ambitions, grief, and pasts in order to survive the treacherous landscape.

A polyphonic novel about the various ways humans try to leave a mark on the world—from the enduring nature of family and friendship to the egomania and obsessions of the colonial enterprise�The Last of Earth confirms Deepa Anappara as one of our greatest and most ambitious storytellers.]]> 352 Deepa Anappara 0593731352 Mara 0 to-read 5.00 2026
author: Deepa Anappara
name: Mara
average rating: 5.00
book published: 2026
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]]> 222850710 An award-winning debut about a young woman who lands an internship at the most popular supermarket chain in the Canary Islands, a role that proves at turns humorous and soul-crushing and reflects the daily struggles of a new generation entering the workforce, for fans of Really Good, ActuallyĚýand The New Me.

â€Ŕá was born in the â€�90s and grew up in the 2000s. I’ve survived a lot of horrible low-rise pants, Kate Winslet’s supposed chubbiness, ultra-thin eyebrows. I will survive this, too.â€�

Meryem is twenty-five years old, drinks too much coffee, goes on dates with terrifying men and never says what she really thinks. A Canarian from a Moroccan family, she has just started working as an intern in the offices of the most important supermarket chain on the island of Gran Canaria. She commutes daily by buses that are rarely on time just to arrive and meet her repulsive boss. The only thing they have in common is their mutual hate for each other.

In her spare time, Meryem hangs out with her two best friends, and writes fan fiction starring her office mates and characters from Harry Potter and Twilight. Surrounded by insecure and inept individuals, she seeks to hold on to what little authenticity is left around her.

Birth, growth, reproduction (if you’re lucky), work, work, work, work, work, work and death. This is the life cycle of every human being, and the oneĚýMeryemĚýfinds herself joining. But she endures and resists, because she has faith that everything will turn out all right and that her efforts now will pay off in the long run. In this darkly comedic debut from an award-winning author,ĚýSupersaurioĚývividly portrays the everyday trials of a new generation entering theĚýworking world.]]> 320 Meryem El Mehdati 1335090630 Mara 0 to-read 4.50 2022
author: Meryem El Mehdati
name: Mara
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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]]> 224004657 Award­ winning author Ken Liu returns with his first sci-fi thriller in a brand-new series following former “orphan hacker� Julia Z as she is thrust into a high-stakes adventure where she must use her cybersecurity and hacking skills to unravel a virtual reality mystery, rescue a kidnapped dream artist, and confront the blurred lines between technology, identity, and the power of shared dreams.

Julia Z, a young woman who gained notoriety at fourteen as the “orphan hacker,� is trying to live a life of digital obscurity in a Boston suburb.

But when a lawyer named Piers—whose famous artist wife, Elli, has been kidnapped by dangerous criminals—barges into her life, Julia decides to put the solitary life she has painstakingly created at risk as she can’t walk away from helping Piers and Elli, nor step away from the challenge of this digital puzzle. Elli is an onierofex, a dream artist, who can weave the dreams of an audience together through a shared virtual landscape, live, in a concert-like experience by tapping into each attendee’s waking dream and providing an emotionally resonant and narrative experience. While attendees� dreams are anonymous, Julia discovers that Elli was also providing a one-on-one dream experience for the head of an international criminal enterprise, and he’s demanding his dreams in return for Elli.

Unraveling the real and unreal leads Julia on an adventure that takes her across the country and deep into the shadows of her psyche.]]> 416 Ken Liu 1668083175 Mara 0 to-read 4.00 2025
author: Ken Liu
name: Mara
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2025
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]]> 216807139 From the award winning author of Waiting...


Promises are like tilapia from Lake Victoria—glittering, evasive� slippery.


From warm Kampala to gloomy London, Goretti Kyomuhendo’s novel charts the joys and tribulations of Ajuna and her fiancé, Kagaba. Young, highly skilled, and ambitious, both are caught up in financial hardship in their native Uganda. When Kagaba leaves for the UK as an economic immigrant, Ajuna’s happy, fulfilling relationship is under threat. And in the indifferent UK, Kagaba must battle the cold, and the cold shoulder of London.


Promises exposes the shadow world of illegal immigrants, and the creativity with which people in the legal margins rise to meet an inhumane system. But for both Kagaba and Ajuna, a glimmer of hope comes from unexpected quarters.


Populated with an expansive array of vibrant characters, Goretti Kyomuhendo’s novel examines the promises we keep and those we break when relationships are profoundly tested by circumstance and twists of fate. It is a vivid tapestry of Ugandan family life, and catches the universal emotions of love, death, and betrayal.]]> 296 Goretti Kyomuhendo 1960803220 Mara 0 to-read 0.0
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name: Mara
average rating: 0.0
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]]> 175678711
The new book censor hasn’t slept soundly in weeks. By day he combs through manuscripts at a government office, looking for anything that would make a book unfit to publish―allusions to queerness, unapproved religions, any mention of life before the Revolution. By night the characters of literary classics crowd his dreams, and pilfered novels pile up in the house he shares with his wife and daughter. As the siren song of forbidden reading continues to beckon, he descends into a netherworld of resistance fighters, undercover booksellers, and outlaw librarians trying to save their history and culture.

Reckoning with the global threat to free speech and the bleak future it all but guarantees, Bothayna Al-Essa marries the steely dystopia of Orwell’s 1984 with the madcap absurdity of Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, resulting in a dreadful twist worthy of Kafka. The Book Censor’s Library is a warning call and a love letter to stories and the delicious act of losing oneself in them.]]> 272 Bothayna Al-Essa 1632063344 Mara 4 2024-books 3.93 2019
author: Bothayna Al-Essa
name: Mara
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/24
date added: 2025/04/11
shelves: 2024-books
review:

]]> 218819179 From a world where women are forbidden to use magic and the only freedom is found on the Caribbean high seas comes a swashbuckling romantasy from USA TODAY bestselling author Eva Leigh.

Condemned as a witch, sentenced to die, Alys Tanner uses her innate magical power to flee Puritanical New England. Stealing a ship, Alys becomes captain of The Sea Witch, leading its all-female, sorcery-wielding pirate crew. But the colonial British navy is in hot pursuit. The navy fights for a choke hold on the Caribbean and will destroy anything they cannot control, especially witches.

When Ben Priestley, a headstrong naval navigator, is inadvertently captured by the lady pirates, dangerous truths are revealed. A quest that could turn the tides against the navy’s might ignites a reluctant partnership between the by-the-books prisoner and the fierce witch pirate captain. While they brave backstabbing pirates, perilous tropical islands and monster-filled seas, Alys and Ben’s mistrust grows into unexpected desire as they battle an enemy that will stop at nothing to rule the waves.]]> 304 Eva Leigh 1335143769 Mara 0 to-read 0.0 2025
author: Eva Leigh
name: Mara
average rating: 0.0
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> 219542932 Murder, movie stars, and mystery await those who climb aboard this cross-country train, inspired by the real-life history of the Hollywood Victory Caravan

Hollywood, 1942. Jacqueline Love's acting career is flailing. Suddenly on the wrong side of 40, parts are drying up, directors are calling her "difficult," and Humphrey Bogart has definitely stopped taking her calls. Desperate to cling to stardom, Jackie takes the only gig that will have her, the Hollywood Victory Caravan, a train full of movie stars crossing the country to fundraise for the war effort. Jackie wouldn't call herself patriotic, but with her life's work on the line, she'll do anything.

When a fellow star dies on board, everyone assumes the death was a tragic accident–but Jackie isn't so sure. Stuck in Chicago's Union Station, Jackie enlists the help of Grace, one of the few women in the police force, to investigate. But "difficult" outside of a movie set is dangerous, and when the pair fall into a homegrown Nazi scheme, Jackie must ask herself what's more her career, or her country?]]> 336 Sarah James 1464219230 Mara 0 to-read 4.50
author: Sarah James
name: Mara
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/11
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]]> 227429747 A young woman must shake off a family curse and the widely held belief that she is the reincarnation of her dead cousin in this wickedly funny, brilliantly perceptive novel about love, female rivalry, and superstition from the author of the smash hit My Sister, the Serial Killer (“A bombshell of a book... Sharp, explosive, hilarious'--New York Times)

When Ebun gives birth to her daughter, Eniiyi, on the day they bury her cousin Monife, there is no denying the startling resemblance between the child and the dead woman. So begins the belief, fostered and fanned by the entire family, that Eniiyi is the actual reincarnation of Monife, fated to follow in her footsteps in all ways, including that tragic end.

There is also the matter of the family â€�No man will call your house his home. And if they try, they will not have peace...â€� which has been handed down from generation to generation, breaking hearts and causing three generations of abandoned Falodun women to live under the same roof.Ěý

When Eniiyi falls in love with the handsome boy she saves from drowning, she can no longer run from her family’s history. As several women in her family have done before, she ill-advisedly seeks answers in older, darker spiritual corners of Lagos, demanding solutions. Is she destined to live out the habitual story of love and heartbreak? Or can she break the pattern once and for all, not only avoiding the spiral that led Monife to her lonely death, but liberating herself from all the family secrets and unspoken traumas that have dogged her steps since before she could remember?

Cursed Daughters is a brilliant cocktail of modernity and superstition, vibrant humor and hard-won wisdom, romantic love and familial obligation. With it’s unforgettable cast of characters, it asks us what it means to be given a second chance and how to live both wisely and well with what we’ve been given.]]> 352 Oyinkan Braithwaite 0385551479 Mara 0 to-read 0.0 2025
author: Oyinkan Braithwaite
name: Mara
average rating: 0.0
book published: 2025
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]]> 227871604 The best-selling author of the million-copy classic House of Leaves returns with a magisterial, page-turning epic, about two friends determined to rescue a pair of horses set for slaughter.

While folks still like to focus on the crimes that shocked the small city of Orvop, Utah, back in the fall of 1982, not to mention the trials that followed, far more remember the adventure that took place beyond municipal lines in mountains ready to shrug even the bravest from their backs, as one Orvop local would put, with another characterizing the astonishing journey as crazy as it was foolish as it still is just plain beyond imaginin. But them kids went for it anyway.

Not that such daring was entirely unexpected considering how some of those involved included the likes of young Tom Gatestone, already a bit of an Orvop legend, and his friend Kalin March, new to the area, the two of them takin it upon themselves to rescue a couple of neglected horses from the Porch paddocks on Willow and Oak.

Who knows what would have happened if they hadn’t?

For sure no one expected the dead to rise but they did. For sure no one expected the mountain to fall but it did. For sure no one expected an act of courage so great, and likewise so appalling, that it still staggers the heart and mind of anyone who knows anything about the Katanogos massif to say nothing of Pillars Meadow.

As one Orvop high-school teacher would describe that extraordinary feat days before she died: Fer sure, no one expected Kalin March to tell Old Porch: You get what you deserve when you ride with cowards.

In this sweeping tale of mythic proportions, populated by extraordinary characters, the ghosts of the American West, and bursting with unexpected humor, Danielewski tells a masterful story of determination, perseverance, and humanity in the face of long odds and adverse fate.]]> 1232 Mark Z. Danielewski 1524747718 Mara 0 to-read 5.00
author: Mark Z. Danielewski
name: Mara
average rating: 5.00
book published:
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]]> 231266757 224 Nina McConigley 0593702247 Mara 0 to-read 4.33
author: Nina McConigley
name: Mara
average rating: 4.33
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]]> 218559595 Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger-than-life story of a woman with more than a couple of plot twists up her sleeve in this dazzling and sweeping new novel from Emily Henry.

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

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

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

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

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

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

And it’s becoming abundantly clear that their story—just like the tale Margaret’s spinning—could be a mystery, tragedy, or love ballad…depending on who’s telling it.]]> 432 Emily Henry Mara 2 2025-books, romance 4.21 2025
author: Emily Henry
name: Mara
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2025
rating: 2
read at: 2025/04/10
date added: 2025/04/10
shelves: 2025-books, romance
review:

]]> 192709376 From the SUNDAY TIMES bestselling author of THE THORNS REMAIN comes an enemies-to-lovers journey to the underworld unlike any other, for fans of THE CRIMSON MOTH and THE CRUEL PRINCE

An immortal vampire. A mortal bride. A vow that even death can’t break.

Irina is about to be married to a dead man. She is the willing village sacrifice for the Wedding of the a desperate ritual designed to lay the hungry vampire that has been terrorising her Transylvanian village to rest. Irina’s beloved sister’s soul is trapped in the land of the dead. If Irina can retrieve it, she could bring her back � but Irina would need a guide, one who can walk between the living and the dead.

Irina strikes up a deal with her new husband � if he agrees to get her safely there and back again, then he can drink her blood as much as he wants.

They begin a perilous journey through the afterlife together, in which Irina realises Stefan isn’t the cruel and terrifying monster that she thought. In a land of three-headed beasts, winged creatures and walking corpses, the last thing Irina would have expected was to fall in love.

Only, Irina learns that by bringing Stefan to the land of the dead she has put him in grave danger, and will be faced with an impossible choice. Will they be able to make it out, undead or alive?]]> 384 J.J.A. Harwood 000866692X Mara 0 to-read 5.00 2025
author: J.J.A. Harwood
name: Mara
average rating: 5.00
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/10
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]]> 219301727 In this vibrant, gratifying novel, a pious, small-town teenager travels to Atlanta to get an abortion and finds herself smack in the middle of the civil rights movement and the secret lives of queer Black people.

Where do you get an abortion in 1960 Georgia, especially if the town midwife goes to the same church as your parents? For seventeen-year-old Doris Steele, the answer is Atlanta, where her favorite teacher, Mrs. Lucas, calls upon her brash, wealthy childhood best friend, Sylvia, for help. While waiting to hear from the doctor who has agreed to do the procedure, Doris spends the weekend scandalized by, but drawn to, the people who move in and out of Sylvia's celebrities whom Doris has seen in the pages of Jet and Ebony, political leaders like Coretta Scott King and Diane Nash, women who dance close together, atheists!ĚýAnd even more shocking? Mrs. Lucas seems right at home.

The young people Doris encounters are no less surprising. When he's not flirting too hard or talking too much, Sylvia’s nephew, Dexter, brings Doris into the heart of Atlanta’s civil rights movement, where some activists practice nonviolence to prepare for sit-ins, while others carry guns to protect Black families from the Klan.

From the guests at a queer kickback to the student activists at a SNCC conference, Doris suddenly finds herself surrounded by so many people who seem to know exactly who or what they want. Doris knows she doesn’t want a baby, but what does she want? Will this trip help her find out?

These Heathens! is a funny, poignant story about Black women’s obligations and ambitions, what we owe to ourselves, and the transformative power of leaving your bubble, even for just one chaotic weekend.]]> 272 Mia McKenzie 0593596943 Mara 5 4.69 2025
author: Mia McKenzie
name: Mara
average rating: 4.69
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/10
date added: 2025/04/10
shelves: 2025-books, african-american-history, historical-fiction
review:

]]> 215545091
(So What) If I’m a Puta?, originally published on author Amara Moira’s popular blog of the same name, consists of 44 crônicas that wryly portray her experiences as a trans sex worker in Brazil. In a brazen, funny, and at times heartbreaking voice, Moira explores the political and personal textures of her encounters with the men who buy sex from her, and the complex reality of her labor of a sort of love.

Woven through Moira’s essays are reflections on transition, safe sex, desire, whorephobia, consent—in the grim context of Brazil’s record rates of violence against trans women. Ultimately, Moira writes to “give a voice to us prostitutes� and center trans sex workers in Brazil’s putafeminist movement, modeling a feminism that envisions inclusivity, safety, self-determination, and joy for us all.]]> 192 Amara Moira 155861348X Mara 0 to-read 4.00
author: Amara Moira
name: Mara
average rating: 4.00
book published:
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]]> 220175389 A radical new examination of Malcolm X that shows how the iconic figure was always dedicated to a peaceful, global movement for Black liberationĚýĚý

Malcolm X is one of the most iconic figures of the twentieth century. Across countless films, documentaries, and books, we have come to know him as a violent and tragic figure, who, when considered next to Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement, was ultimately and perhaps dangerously misguided. But in the wake of continued police brutality and the rise of white supremacy, it’s time to revisit Malcolm X and What do we really know about what he believed, and what can we do with that political philosophy today?Ěý
Ěý
In Nobody Can Give You Freedom, Kehinde Andrews draws on the speeches and writings of Malcolm X to upend the conventional understanding of Malcolm—from his alleged misogyny to his putative proclivity for violence. Instead, Andrews argues that Malcolm X embraced equality across genders and foresaw a more inclusive approach to Black liberation that relied on grassroots efforts and community building. Ěý
Ěý
Far from a doomed ideologue, Malcolm X was in fact one of the most important, and misunderstood, intellectuals of the twentieth century, whose lessons on how to fight white supremacy are more important than ever. ĚýĚý]]> 352 Kehinde Andrews 1645030709 Mara 0 to-read 0.0
author: Kehinde Andrews
name: Mara
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]]> 223296071 For the very first time the tense and drama-filled story of the making Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train is revealed as author Stephen Rebello takesĚýreaders deep into the shadows and light of one of the most subversive, corrosively funny, and beloved suspense thriller masterworks.

AsĚý entertaining as it is to watch Strangers on a Train, so too is the previously untold backstory that packs all the suspense, drama, and twists of a thriller. After all, what are the hallmarks of a great Hitchcock movie? A larger-than-life, complex cast of characters, each with something to prove, lose, or hide. Check. Tremendous risk, outsized conflict, and emotion as those men and women confront challenges off the set. Check. Feuds, deceptions, unlikely alliances, and double-crosses. Check.ĚýComing off a 5-year-string of flops, Alfred Hitchcock gambled big on adaptingĚýPatricia Highsmith's debut novel, which critics calledĚý “preposterousâ€� and “unconvincing," in addition to “unsavory,â€� and “sickâ€� (1950s code words for “gayâ€� and “pervertedâ€�). Each step of the production was fraught with battles, but Hitchcock masterfully stayed two steps ahead of his opponents as he fought to bring his vision to life. Strangers on a Train became not only a creative high-water mark and box-office smash for Hitchcock, but also kicked off his unmatched decade of classics including Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest, and Psycho. Ěý

Richly documented, meticulously researched, and stylishly written, Criss-Cross is more than an authoritative film book. It is a portrait of an especially politically paranoid, misogynistic, and homophobic era in America, a time of dramatic transition in the entertainment industry, and a day of reckoning for Alfred Hitchcock and a few other talents with whom he made a dark, resonant, and prescient work of art.
Ěý]]> 320 Stephen Rebello 0762486392 Mara 0 to-read 0.0
author: Stephen Rebello
name: Mara
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]]> 223296389 From the author and translator of the National Book Award finalist and Booker Prize shortlisted Cursed Bunny, comes a new novel-in-ghost-stories, set in a mysterious research center that houses cursed objects, where those who open the wrong door might find it’s disappeared behind them, or that the echoing footsteps they’re running from are their own�

The acclaimed Korean horror and sci-fi writer’s goosebump-inducing new book follows an employee on the night shift at the Institute. They soon learn why some employees don't last long at the center. The handkerchief in Room 302 once belonged to the late mother of two sons, whose rivalry imbues the handkerchief with undue power and unravels those around it. The cursed sneaker down the hall is stolen by a live-streaming, ghost-chasing employee, who later finds he can’t escape its tread. A cat in Room 206 reveals the crimes of its former family, trying to understand its own path to the Institute’s halls.

But Chung's haunted institute isn't just a chilling place to play. As in her astounding collections Cursed Bunny and Your Utopia, these violent allegories take on the horrors of animal testing, conversion therapy, domestic abuse, and late-stage capitalism. Equal parts bone-chilling, wryly funny, and deeply political, Midnight Timetable is a masterful work of literary horror from one of our time's greatest imaginations.]]> 208 Bora Chung 164375663X Mara 0 to-read 3.71 2023
author: Bora Chung
name: Mara
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> 223296388 The acclaimed author ofĚýRed ClocksĚýreturns with a biting, lyrical novel about an intergenerational group home run by an ex-musician determined to make a place for those without one

On a bluff above a river rises The House, where elderly and disabled residents live alongside young people who help out in exchange for free rent. The community is led by a former punk singer who never wanted to be responsible for anyone yet now finds herself the caretaker of this precarious collection of lives. It’s not a family, exactly, but it’s got the complicated, sometimes painful, sometimes hilarious, dynamics of kinship.

When two kids—Nola and her little cousin James—show up on The House’s back porch in need of refuge, the whole experiment is thrown into question. All are welcome here, or that was the idea. But the authorities are looking for these children, and The House’s finances are teetering on the edge.Ěý

Zumas’s long-anticipated third novel wrestles with America’s crisis of care in a taut, aching, polyphonic tale that moves as fast as the crackling comebacks that fly between The House’s residents over breakfast. As the rules of the outside world start to press in on this safe haven, readers will find themselves asking,Ěýwhat would the world look like if everyone had a place to belong?]]> 224 Leni Zumas 1643756575 Mara 0 to-read 5.00
author: Leni Zumas
name: Mara
average rating: 5.00
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]]> 223296278
Their nightmares are recorded in The Book of Dreams.
Their lessons are taken from The Book of Knowledge.
And their sins are reported in The Book of Guilt.

All the boys want is to be sent to the Big House in Margate, where they imagine a life of sun, sea and fairground rides. But, as the government looks to shut down the Sycamore Homes, the triplets begin to question everything they have been told.

Gradually surrendering its dark secrets, The Book of Guilt is a profoundly unnerving exploration of belonging in a world where some lives are valued less than others.]]> 400 Catherine Chidgey 1538774070 Mara 0 to-read 4.21
author: Catherine Chidgey
name: Mara
average rating: 4.21
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]]> 228644472 In the mode of Flights, a novel about the rich stories of small places, from the Nobel Prize-winning, New York Times-bestselling author.

When the narrator of House of Day, House of Night arrives with her husband in a village in remote southwest Poland, she knows no one. Before long, though, she discovers that everyone--and everything—there has a story. With the help of her neighbor, the eccentric Marta, she pieces together the fragments of the living and the dead. There’s the drunk Marek Marek, who discovers he shares his body with a bird, and Franz Frost, whose nightmares come to him from a newly discovered planet. There’s the man whose death � with one leg on the Polish side, one on the Czech - was an international incident. And there are the German soldiers, not long departed, who still haunt the region. Shard by shard, from the founding of the town to the lives of its saints, these stories capture not only a history but a cosmology.

Another brilliant “constellation novel� in the mode of her Booker-winning Flights, House of Day, House of Night interweaves narrative, musings, history, and mythology, reminding us that the story of any place, no matter how humble, is fascinating and boundless, and awaits any of us with the imagination to seek it.]]> 336 Olga Tokarczuk 0593716388 Mara 0 to-read 0.0 1998
author: Olga Tokarczuk
name: Mara
average rating: 0.0
book published: 1998
rating: 0
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]]> 223296091 From Giller Prize and O. Henry Award winner Souvankham Thammavongsa comes a revelatory novel about loneliness, love, labor, and class, an intimate and sharply written book following a nail salon owner as she toils away for the privileged clients who don't even know her true name.

â€Ŕá live in a world of Susans. I got name tags for everyone who works at this nail salon, and on every one is printed the name Ěý "Susan."

Ning is a retired boxer, but to the customers who visit her nail salon, she is just another worker named Susan. On this summer's day, much like any other, the Susans buff and clip and polish and tweeze. They listen and smile and nod. But beneath this superficial veneer, Ning is a woman of rigorous intellect and profound complexity. A woman enthralled by the intricacy and rhythms of her work, but also haunted by memories of paths not taken and opportunities lost. A woman navigating the complex power dynamics among her fellow Susans, whose greatest fears and desires lie just behind the gossip they exchange.

As the day's work grinds on, the friction between Ning's two identities—as anonymous manicurist and brilliant observer of her own circumstances—will gather electric and crackling force, and at last demand a reckoning with the way the world of privilege looks at a woman like Ning.

Told over a single day with razor-sharp precision and wit,ĚýPick a ColorĚýconfirms Souvankham Thammavongsa's place as literature's premier chronicler of the immigrant experience, in its myriad, complex, and slyly subversive forms.]]> 208 Souvankham Thammavongsa 0316422142 Mara 0 to-read 4.14
author: Souvankham Thammavongsa
name: Mara
average rating: 4.14
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]]> 223296201 In this atmospheric and bewitching novel, Louisa Morgan reimagines the story of Morgan Le Fay, one of the most enigmatic and powerful women in Arthurian legend.
Ěý
To the other priestesses of the Nine, a powerful council at the Lady’s Temple, Morgana is haughty and arrogant as she performs feats of magic no human should be capable of. Rumors start that she must be a fearsome fae.
Ěý
To King Arthur, Morgana is a trusted and devoted advisor, but his court is wary of her and her prodigious talent at divination. But his wife sees Morgana as a rival and a malevolent witch.
Ěý
To Braithe, Morgana’s faithful acolyte, she is simply the most powerful priestess Camelot has seen.
Ěý
Morgana doesn’t know why she’s so different from everyone else, and she doesn’t much care. But when she aids Arthur to ascend the throne before his time, she sets off a series of events that will change everything Morgana believes about her power.]]> 528 Louisa Morgan 0316585114 Mara 0 to-read 5.00
author: Louisa Morgan
name: Mara
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]]> 223296125 Moonflow is three-time Hugo Award nominee Bitter Karella's debut horror novel-a gloriously queer and irreverent psychedelic trip into the heart of an eldritch wood and the horrors of sisterhood. Answer the call of the forest, if you dare.

I see something out there, in the woods. It does not have a face.

They call it the King's Breakfast. One bite and you can understand the full scope of the universe; one bite and you can commune with forgotten gods beyond human comprehension. And it only grows deep in the Pamogo forest, where the trees crowd so tight that the forest floor is pitch black day and night, where rumors of strange cults and disappearing hikers abound.

Sarah makes her living growing mushrooms. When a bad harvest leaves her in a desperate fix, the lure of the King's Breakfast has her journeying into those vast uncharted woods. Her only guide is the most annoying man in the world, and he's convinced there's no danger. But as they descend deeper, they realize they're not alone. Something is luring them into the heart of the forest, and they must answer its call.]]> 384 Bitter Karella 0316581933 Mara 0 to-read 0.0 2025
author: Bitter Karella
name: Mara
average rating: 0.0
book published: 2025
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]]> 223296145 From the award-winning author of The Bride at Sea comes this visceral tale of feminine rage and magical realism as Layla learns the very human pains of growing up and realizing the world isn't as safe a place as it should be.

A man's body is found viciously murdered behind a neighborhood's corner store, sending shockwaves through the tight-knit community in this small-town neighborhood. All the victim's family and bystanders want is to make sense of this brutal crime and move on with their lives.

But all seven-year-old Layla wants is a pet donkey. To her, a donkey is the epitome of freedom and being self-sufficient—to think for herself, go anywhere by herself and live an independent life.

As the killings continue, Layla's world unravels. Rumors start to fly of supposed hoofprints and a woman with hair like black silk. As the ambiguous messages in lipstick and sweet smell of perfume cause the finger of blame to point towards the women, Layla herself grows into a woman.

The kind of woman she has always dreamt of becoming—aĚýwoman with sharp instincts. A woman who cannot be tamed.

The night is not for you. It has always belonged toĚýher.]]> 352 Eman Quotah 0316595810 Mara 0 to-read 0.0
author: Eman Quotah
name: Mara
average rating: 0.0
book published:
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date added: 2025/04/10
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]]> 223120442 A disillusioned millennial and a fragile young actress uncover the secrets of a decaying Hollywood mansion—a manifestation of the anxieties, obsessions, and fears of our digital era—in this wickedly entertaining novel about the eerie ways the internet haunts us, from the acclaimed author of Self Care.

Enter A thirty-nine-year-old unemployed rabbit owner whose boyfriend dumps her in a Reddit post. Out of options, she accepts an unusual opportunity from a man she stopped speaking to twenty years ago. If Dayna can transform Craig’s crumbling mansion—now home to a motley crew of college dropouts with big dreams—into a successful hype house, he can restore his birthright to its former glory . . . and she can resurrect her career from the dead.

Enter A fresh-faced nineteen-year-old actress with a guilty conscience and a gift for crying on camera. She arrives at the house looking for the one person who can grant her Becca, an enigmatic tarot card influencer who built a fandom with her cryptic, soul-touching readings . . . Ěýand then vanished.

By getting up close and personal with the generation coming to replace her, Dayna begins to build a social media campaign around Becca’s disappearance that will catapult the creators to new heights of success, but Craig forbids her from pursuing the mystery. As Olivia searches for traces of Becca in a labyrinthine house that seems intent on hiding its secrets from her, and Dayna becomes entangled with both Craig and Jake, the resident heartthrob and the last person to see Becca, the two women discover clues in the house’s hallways that upend everything—and lead to a shocking discovery.

The You may think you’re inhabiting it, but is it really inhabiting you? If You're Seeing This, It's Meant for You is an audacious social comedy and unnerving gothic mystery from one of our most acclaimed satirists and "a great demolition expert of the influencer era" (The New Republic).]]> 320 Leigh Stein 0593983645 Mara 0 to-read 3.82 2025
author: Leigh Stein
name: Mara
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/09
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]]> 208840704 Just add lemon, garlic, and a dash of the one percent.

This smart, biting novel explores what happens when a Haitian American girl uses her previously hidden zombie abilities to exact revenge on the wealthy elites who’ve caused her family pain.

Brielle Petitfour loves to cook. But with a chronically sick mother and bills to pay, becoming a chef isn’t exactly a realistic career path.

When Brielle’s mom suddenly loses her job, Brielle steps in and uses her culinary skills to earn some extra money. The rich families who love her cooking praise her use of unique flavors and textures, which keep everyone guessing what’s in Brielle’s dishes. The secret ingredient? Human flesh.

Written by the storytelling duo Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite, The Summer I Ate the Rich is a modern-day fable inspired by Haitian zombie lore that scrutinizes the socioeconomic and racial inequity that is the foundation of our society. Just like Brielle’s clients, it will have you asking: What’s for dinner?]]> 400 Maika Moulite 0374390533 Mara 0 to-read 3.51 2025
author: Maika Moulite
name: Mara
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> 218587803
All Raina wants is a do-over, so when she wakes up the next morning to a miracle—another chance at Nationals with Aditya by her side—she ł¦´ÇłÜ±ô»ĺ˛Ô’t be happier. But as the events of the day start repeating, Raina realizes she’s stuck in a time loop, cursed to humiliate herself at Nationals and then get dumped—over and over again.

Raina is certain that if she follows all the right steps, she can break out of the time loop, win Nationals, and earn back the heart of her one true love in the process. But what if perfection isn’t enough?]]> 272 Ananya Devarajan 1335009949 Mara 0 to-read 4.30
author: Ananya Devarajan
name: Mara
average rating: 4.30
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rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/09
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]]> 218155658
This “harmless� crush immediately raises Şener’s hackles; although he doesn’t think Deniz would ever reciprocate Fehmi’s feelings, it’s not a risk he’s willing to take. But when one betrayal leads to another, Deniz hatches a plan, and the sultry summer takes a dark turn as the couple’s relationship is put to the test like never before. Will lust or love win the day? One thing’s for sure: not everyone will be getting out of this love triangle alive.

Dishy, suspenseful, and boiling over with black humor, Yiğit Karaahmet’s debut makes a fierce political statement about supporting “gay wrongs� while also introducing a shockingly lovable pair of antiheroes who could be Tom Ripley’s grandfathers.]]> 352 Yiğit Karaahmet 1641295864 Mara 0 to-read 3.89
author: YiÄźit Karaahmet
name: Mara
average rating: 3.89
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/09
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]]>