en-US Thu, 09 Jan 2025 07:01:56 -0800 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 12287209
Or you'll get what you wish for.]]> 56 Hugh Howey May 4 audio-books, sci-fi, series 4.14 2012
author: Hugh Howey
name: May
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2014/08/29
date added: 2025/01/09
shelves: audio-books, sci-fi, series
review:

]]> 52873094
Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.

Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.

And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.]]> 304 Silvia Moreno-Garcia May 0 to-read 3.76 2020
author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
name: May
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 39030 464 Douglas Preston 0765354950 May 0 to-read 4.03 1997
author: Douglas Preston
name: May
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 350424 294 Michael B. Katz 067972561X May 0 3.79 1989
author: Michael B. Katz
name: May
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1989
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/24
shelves: books-i-own, social-science, textbooks, to-read, non-fiction, paused
review:

]]> 30245389 Night Sky with Exit Wounds is a book of poetry unlike any other. Steeped in war and cultural upheaval and wielding a fresh new language, Vuong writes about the most profound subjects �� love and loss, conflict, grief, memory and desire �� and attends to them all with lines that feel newly-minted, graceful in their cadences, passionate and hungry in their tender, close attention: ‘…the chief of police/facedown in a pool of Coca-Cola./A palm-sized photo of his father soaking/beside his left ear.�� This is an unusual, important book: both gentle and visceral, vulnerable and assured, and its blend of humanity and power make it one of the best first collections of poetry to come out of America in years.

‘These are poems of exquisite beauty, unashamed of romance, and undaunted by looking directly into the horrors of war, the silences of history. One of the most important debut collections for a generation.�� Andrew McMillan]]> 93 Ocean Vuong May 0 to-read 4.06 2016
author: Ocean Vuong
name: May
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 10729325 120 Jacob Grimm May 4 3.76 1812
author: Jacob Grimm
name: May
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1812
rating: 4
read at: 2012/08/01
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:
The original Grimm's Fairy Tales are definitely not the "happily ever after" tales many of us grew up with. Nonetheless, many of the tales, when they're not being weird and sexist, are still quite enjoyable. It is bizarre, to me, how absolutely morbid some stories are, but it's also kind of hilarious. I'd recommend this translation (with accompanying illustrations) to practically everyone, especially since it can be found for free online.
]]> 28186250
In this highly anticipated new cookbook, Angela shares wildly delicious recipes that are perfect for busy lifestyles, promising to make plant-based eating convenient every day of the week—including holidays and special occasions! Filled with more than 100 family-friendly recipes everyone will love, like Oh Em Gee Veggie Burgers, Fusilli Lentil-Mushroom Bolognese, Apple Pie Overnight Oats, Mocha Empower Glo Bars, and the Ultimate Flourless Brownies, Oh She Glows Every Day also includes easy-to-make homemade staples; useful information on essential pantry ingredients; tips on making recipes kid-, allergy-, and freezer-friendly; and so much more.]]> 352 Angela Liddon 0143196510 May 0 cookbooks, to-read 4.19 2013
author: Angela Liddon
name: May
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/06
shelves: cookbooks, to-read
review:

]]> 201345 376 Brian Jacques 0441001866 May 0 to-read, books-i-own 4.16 1993
author: Brian Jacques
name: May
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1993
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/13
shelves: to-read, books-i-own
review:

]]> 11626422 125 Kir Bulychev 5425045816 May 0 4.00 1996
author: Kir Bulychev
name: May
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/06
shelves: to-read, books-i-own, russian-language, sci-fi, plan-to-re-read, young-adult
review:

]]> 93272
The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion includes full chapters on drop cookies, roll-out cookies, shaped cookies, batter cookies, no-bake cookies, and bars and find a thorough overview of the essential ingredients of cookie baking, explaining the chemistry of flours and grains, leavens, sweeteners, fats, dairy products, flavorings, and the science of how these ingredients work and variations; measuring and weighing ingredients; even advice on high-altitude baking. Recipes are enhanced with sidebars providing hints, shortcuts, troubleshooting advice, and recipe lore. And each recipe is accompanied by a complete nutritional analysis. Illustrations throughout the book provide clear step-by-step instructions that take the mystery out of such baking terms as "creaming," "soft-ball stage," and "folding." Finally, a comprehensive illustrated chapter describes the essential line black white illustrations.]]> 536 King Arthur Baking Company 0881506591 May 5 books-i-own, cookbooks 4.27
author: King Arthur Baking Company
name: May
average rating: 4.27
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/12/26
shelves: books-i-own, cookbooks
review:

]]> 13632000 312 America's Test Kitchen 1936493071 May 0 books-i-own, cookbooks 4.17 2009
author: America's Test Kitchen
name: May
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at: 2012/05/02
date added: 2023/12/02
shelves: books-i-own, cookbooks
review:
Honestly just bought this because they were throwing in the 2011 edition for free...some of the recipes do look very promising though. I particularly enjoyed the "one big roast, four great meals" section (looking forward to trying the roast beef!). I also liked that in the front of the book, there was a list of commonly used ingredients and the amounts used (ex. half a bell pepper) so that you could meal plan around using the entire ingredient instead of stuffing part of it back in your fridge and finding an unrecognizable lump several months later...unfortunately happens way too often in my case. I'll add a star rating once I've actually cooked something out of it. I have made some ATK baked goods before and they have all been successful, but I still want to try the book out before I pass a final judgment.
]]> 8038167 James Beard Foundation:
Listen to Beard describe his own book, which included some 1,500 recipes, from Blushing Bunny (tomato rarebit) to Cracker (mock apple) Pie: “This is not a book of regional cookery, it is not a collection of family recipes, it is not primarily a critique of American cuisine. It is simply a record of good eating in this country with some of its lore.�� Beard went on to express the hope that “we are now in another epoch of gastronomic excellence.�� In a New York Times review, Nika Hazelton praised the book as “the value of the year, and as good for us as it will be for our children. The author, who has done more than anybody else to popularize good food in America, puts a lifetime of experience into the page.��

Book history:
1972 published
1975 new cover *unable to verify date
1980 new cover
1996 new cover
2009 released as an e-book with new cover

note about the author:
Books would be released not only as "James Beard", but also "Jim Beard" and "James A. Beard". "Jim Beard" is what his books were first published under.]]> 896 James Beard 031609868X May 0 4.34 1972
author: James Beard
name: May
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1972
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/18
shelves: books-i-own, cookbooks, to-read
review:

]]> 7354
A vigorous, darkly comic, and at times magical portrait of the contemporary American family, The Shipping News shows why E. Annie Proulx is recognized as one of the most gifted and original writers in America today.
(back cover)]]> 337 Annie Proulx 0743225422 May 0 to-read 3.88 1993
author: Annie Proulx
name: May
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1993
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 55883882
Collects MONSTRESS #1-6

About the Creators:

New York Times bestselling and award-winning writer Marjorie Liu is best known for her fiction and comic books. She teaches comic book writing at MIT, and leads a class on Popular Fiction at the Voices of Our Nation (VONA) workshop. Ms. Liu's extensive work includes the bestselling "Astonishing X-Men" for Marvel Comics, which featured the gay wedding of X-Man Northstar and was subsequently nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for outstanding media images of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. Prior to writing full-time, Liu was a lawyer. She currently resides in Boston.

Sana Takeda is an illustrator and comic book artist who was born in Niigata, and now resides in Tokyo, Japan. At age 20 she started out as a 3D CGI designer for SEGA, a Japanese video game company, and became a freelance artist when she was 25. She is still an artist, and has worked on titles such as "X-23" and "Ms. Marvel" for Marvel Comics, and is an illustrator for trading card games in Japan.]]> 192 Marjorie M. Liu 1632157098 May 0 to-read 3.96 2016
author: Marjorie M. Liu
name: May
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 6613526
Truly trivia you can't live without, Random Obsessions is filled with facts, lists, definitions, and astonishing information guaranteed to provide you with the best cocktail conversation for many years to come! Your guide, Nick Belardes, has devoted his life to poking around the peculiar and perplexing. Explore the unknown stories behind why the nation's capitol didn't stay in Philadelphia, why some fossils are smiling, and how, if Preparation H existed in the early 1800s, Napoleon would have won Waterloo. These real-world facts are outlandish enough to sharpen your brain and occupy your mind for hours of reading. This book is so fascinating and fun, you'll become obsessed, too!]]> 224 Nicholas Belardes 1573443603 May 0 to-read 3.20 2009
author: Nicholas Belardes
name: May
average rating: 3.20
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 53288434 A female apothecary secretly dispenses poisons to liberate women from the men who have wronged them - setting three lives across centuries on a dangerous collision course.

Rule #1: The poison must never be used to harm another woman.
Rule #2: The names of the murderer and her victim must be recorded in the apothecary’s register.

One cold February evening in 1791, at the back of a dark London alley in a hidden apothecary shop, Nella awaits her newest customer. Once a respected healer, Nella now uses her knowledge for a darker purpose - selling well-disguised poisons to desperate women who would kill to be free of the men in their lives. But when her new patron turns out to be a precocious twelve-year-old named Eliza Fanning, an unexpected friendship sets in motion a string of events that jeopardizes Nella’s world and threatens to expose the many women whose names are written in her register.

In present-day London, aspiring historian Caroline Parcewell spends her tenth wedding anniversary alone, reeling from the discovery of her husband’s infidelity. When she finds an old apothecary vial near the river Thames, she can’t resist investigating, only to realize she’s found a link to the unsolved “apothecary murders�� that haunted London over two centuries ago. As she deepens her search, Caroline’s life collides with Nella’s and Eliza’s in a stunning twist of fate - and not everyone will survive.]]> 301 Sarah Penner 0778311015 May 0 to-read 3.72 2021
author: Sarah Penner
name: May
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 56179360
Shizuka Satomi made a deal with the to escape damnation, she must entice seven other violin prodigies to trade their souls for success. She has already delivered six. When Katrina Nguyen, a young transgender runaway, catches Shizuka's ear with her wild talent, Shizuka can almost feel the curse lifting. She's found her final candidate. But in a donut shop off a bustling highway in the San Gabriel Valley, Shizuka meets Lan Tran, retired starship captain, interstellar refugee, and mother of four. Shizuka doesn't have time for crushes or coffee dates, what with her very soul on the line, but Lan's kind smile and eyes like stars might just redefine a soul's worth. And maybe something as small as a warm donut is powerful enough to break a curse as vast as the California coastline. As the lives of these three women become entangled by chance and fate, a story of magic, identity, curses, and hope begins, and a family worth crossing the universe for is found.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 372 Ryka Aoki 1250789060 May 0 to-read 4.03 2021
author: Ryka Aoki
name: May
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 57731125 “Alluring, shadowy Edinburgh with its hints of sophisticated academic magic will draw you in, but it’s Ropa - a hard knocks ghostalker on her paranormal grind to pay the rent - who grabs hold. The moment you meet her, you’ll follow wherever she goes.�� - Olivie Blake, New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six

T.L. Huchu returns with the gripping Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments, the next in the Alex-Award-winning Edinburgh Nights series.

Some secrets are meant to stay buried

When Ropa Moyo discovered an occult underground library, she expected great things. She’s really into Edinburgh’s secret societies �� but turns out they are less into her. So instead of getting paid to work magic, she’s had to accept a crummy unpaid internship. And her with bills to pay and a pet fox to feed.

Then her friend Priya offers her a job on the side. Priya works at Our Lady of Mysterious Maladies, a very specialized hospital, where a new illness is resisting magical and medical remedies alike. The first patient was a teenage boy, Max Wu, and his healers are baffled. If Ropa can solve the case, she might earn as she learns �� and impress her mentor, Sir Callander.

Her sleuthing will lead her to a lost fortune, an avenging spirit and a secret buried deep in Scotland’s past. But how are they connected? Lives are at stake and Ropa is running out of time.

Edinburgh Nights
Library of the Dead
Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 367 T.L. Huchu 1250767814 May 0 to-read 3.90 2022
author: T.L. Huchu
name: May
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 53205876
When ghosts talk, she will listen...

Ropa dropped out of school to become a ghostalker. Now she speaks to Edinburgh's dead, carrying messages to the living. A girl's gotta earn a living, and it seems harmless enough. Until, that is, the dead whisper that someone's bewitching children--leaving them husks, empty of joy and life. It's on Ropa's patch, so she feels honor-bound to investigate. But what she learns will change her world.

She'll dice with death (not part of her life plan...), discovering an occult library and a taste for hidden magic. She'll also experience dark times. For Edinburgh hides a wealth of secrets, and Ropa's gonna hunt them all down.]]> 330 T.L. Huchu 1250767768 May 0 to-read 3.43 2021
author: T.L. Huchu
name: May
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 10381195 Body and Soul. The song. That's what London constable and sorcerer's apprentice Peter Grant first notices when he examines the corpse of Cyrus Wilkins, part-time jazz drummer and full-time accountant, who dropped dead of a heart attack while playing a gig at Soho's 606 Club. The notes of the old jazz standard are rising from the body - a sure sign that something about the man's death was not at all natural but instead supernatural.

Body and soul - they're also what Peter will risk as he investigates a pattern of similar deaths in and around Soho. With the help of his superior officer, Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, the last registered wizard in England, and the assistance of beautiful jazz aficionado Simone Fitzwilliam, Peter will uncover a deadly magical menace - one that leads right to his own doorstep and to the squandered promise of a young jazz musician: a talented trumpet player named Richard "Lord" Grant - otherwise known as Peter's dear old dad.]]> 375 Ben Aaronovitch 0575097604 May 3 audio-books, fantasy, mystery 4.05 2011
author: Ben Aaronovitch
name: May
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2023/01/13
date added: 2023/01/13
shelves: audio-books, fantasy, mystery
review:

]]> 61030718 stalker. Her obsession with her co-worker, Kurt, is just one of many coping mechanisms—like her constant shape and number rituals, or the way scenes from her favorite children’s book bleed into her vision whenever she feels anxious or stressed.

But when Katrina finds a cryptic message from Kurt that implies he’s aware of her surveillance, her tenuous hold on a normal life crumbles. Driven by compulsion, she enacts the most powerful ritual she has to reclaim control—a midnight visit to the Cayatoga Bridge—and arrives just in time to witness Kurt’s suicide. Before he jumps, he slams her with a devastating accusation: his death is all her fault.

Horrified, Katrina combs through the clues she’s collected about Kurt over the last three years, but each revelation uncovers a menacing truth: for every moment she was watching him, he was watching her. And the past she thought she’d left behind? It’s been following her more closely than she ever could have imagined.

A gripping page-turner, as well as a sensitive exploration of mental health, Liar, Dreamer, Thief is an intimate portrayal of life in all its complexities—and the dangers inherent in unveiling people’s most closely guarded secrets.]]> 325 Maria Dong 1538723565 May 0 to-read 3.58 2023
author: Maria Dong
name: May
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 45894050 A breathtaking exploration of the lives of young black women in the early twentieth century.

In Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments, Saidiya Hartman examines the revolution of black intimate life that unfolded in Philadelphia and New York at the beginning of the twentieth century. Free love, common-law and transient marriages, serial partners, cohabitation outside of wedlock, queer relations, and single motherhood were among the sweeping changes that altered the character of everyday life and challenged traditional Victorian beliefs about courtship, love, and marriage. Hartman narrates the story of this radical social transformation against the grain of the prevailing century-old argument about the crisis of the black family.

In wrestling with the question of what a free life is, many young black women created forms of intimacy and kinship that were indifferent to the dictates of respectability and outside the bounds of law. They cleaved to and cast off lovers, exchanged sex to subsist, and revised the meaning of marriage. Longing and desire fueled their experiments in how to live. They refused to labor like slaves or to accept degrading conditions of work.

Beautifully written and deeply researched, Wayward Lives recreates the experience of young urban black women who desired an existence qualitatively different than the one that had been scripted for them—domestic service, second-class citizenship, and respectable poverty—and whose intimate revolution was apprehended as crime and pathology. For the first time, young black women are credited with shaping a cultural movement that transformed the urban landscape. Through a melding of history and literary imagination, Wayward Lives recovers their radical aspirations and insurgent desires.]]> 441 Saidiya Hartman 0393357627 May 0 to-read 4.44 2019
author: Saidiya Hartman
name: May
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 29661618
Behind the seemingly innocuous façade of St Mary's, a different kind of historical research is taking place. They don't do 'time-travel' - they 'investigate major historical events in contemporary time'. Maintaining the appearance of harmless eccentrics is not always within their power - especially given their propensity for causing loud explosions when things get too quiet.

Meet the disaster-magnets of St Mary's Institute of Historical Research as they ricochet around History. Their aim is to observe and document - to try and find the answers to many of History's unanswered questions...and not to die in the process. But one wrong move and History will fight back - to the death. And, as they soon discover - it's not just History they're fighting.

Follow the catastrophe curve from 11th-century London to World War I, and from the Cretaceous Period to the destruction of the Great Library at Alexandria. For wherever Historians go, chaos is sure to follow in their wake....]]> 480 Jodi Taylor May 3
Might give the next few books a chance if I run out of other ideas, or read other reviews that suggest it improves, because I really wanted to like it!]]> 3.82 2013
author: Jodi Taylor
name: May
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2023/01/01
date added: 2023/01/02
shelves: audio-books, fantasy, sci-fi, series, women
review:
Interesting plot, but not as funny as I expected based on the synopsis, and the narrative structure was a little meh for me personally.

Might give the next few books a chance if I run out of other ideas, or read other reviews that suggest it improves, because I really wanted to like it!
]]> 9317452 392 Ben Aaronovitch 0575097566 May 4 audio-books, fantasy, mystery 3.83 2011
author: Ben Aaronovitch
name: May
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/01
date added: 2023/01/02
shelves: audio-books, fantasy, mystery
review:

]]> 53086832 A troubling account of heterosexual desire in the era of #MeToo

Heterosexuality is in crisis. Reports of sexual harassment, misconduct, and rape saturate the news in the era of #MeToo. Straight men and women spend thousands of dollars every day on relationship coaches, seduction boot camps, and couple’s therapy in a search for happiness.

In The Tragedy of Heterosexuality, Jane Ward smartly explores what, exactly, is wrong with heterosexuality in the twenty-first century, and what straight people can do to fix it for good. She shows how straight women, and to a lesser extent straight men, have tried to mend a fraught patriarchal system in which intimacy, sexual fulfillment, and mutual respect are expected to coexist alongside enduring forms of inequality, alienation, and violence in straight relationships.

Ward also takes an intriguing look at the multi-billion-dollar self-help industry, which markets goods and services to help heterosexual couples without addressing the root of their problems. Ultimately, she encourages straight men and women to take a page out of queer culture, reminding them “about the human capacity to desire, fuck, and show respect at the same time.”]]> 216 Jane Ward 1479851558 May 0 to-read 4.13 2020
author: Jane Ward
name: May
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 55867755
In Messy Roots, Laura illustrates her coming-of-age as the girl who simply wants to make the basketball team, escape Chinese school, and figure out why girls make her heart flutter.

Insightful, original, and hilarious, toggling seamlessly between past and present, China and America, Gao's debut is a tour de force of graphic storytelling.]]> 272 Laura Gao 0063067765 May 0 to-read 4.28 2022
author: Laura Gao
name: May
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 13239329 Vandal Love follows generations of a unique French-Canadian family across North America, and through the twentieth century, as they struggle to find their place in the world.

A family curse �� a genetic trick resulting from centuries of hardship �� causes the Hervé children to be born either giants or runts. Book I of Vandal Love follows the giants�� line, exploring Jude Hervé’s career as a boxer in Georgia and Louisiana in the 1960s, his escape from that brutal life alone with his baby daughter Isa, and her eventual decision to enter into a strange, chaste marriage with a much older man.

Book II traces a different kind of life entirely, as the runts of the family discover that their power lies in a kind of unifying love. François searches for years for his missing father; his own son, Harvey, flees from modern society into spiritual quests. But none of the Hervés can abandon their longing for a place where they might find others like themselves.

In assured and almost mystically powerful prose, D.Y. Béchard tells a wide-ranging, spellbinding story of a family trying to create an identity in an unwelcoming North America. Political, poetic, and philosophically searching, and imbued throughout with a deep sensitivity to the physical world, Vandal Love is a breathtaking literary debut about the power of love to create and destroy �� in our lives, and in our history.


From the Hardcover edition.]]> 341 Deni Ellis Béchard 1571310916 May 3 3.03 2006
author: Deni Ellis Béchard
name: May
average rating: 3.03
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2013/03/18
date added: 2022/04/20
shelves:
review:
I don't think I got it. I enjoyed the writing on a technical level and the first part of the book was interesting but then it just seemed like the thread got lost for me.
]]> 17701585 244 Anton Chekhov May 0 books-i-own, to-read 3.89 1904
author: Anton Chekhov
name: May
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1904
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/04/17
shelves: books-i-own, to-read
review:

]]> 32719336 "The best writer in America, bar none."—Robert Jordan

At last, the final work of John M. Ford—one of the greatest SF and fantasy authors of his time.

Enter the halls of Parliament with Varic, Coron of the Corvaric Coast.

Visit Strange House with the Archmage Birch.

Explore the mountains of Lady Longlight alongside the Palion Silvern, Sorcerer.

In the years before his unexpected death, John M. Ford wrote a novel of fantasy and magic unlike any other. Politics and abdicated kings, swords and sorcerous machine guns, divination and ancient empires—finally, Aspects is here.

“A great writer who is really fucking brilliant.”—Neil Gaiman]]> John M. Ford May 0 to-read 3.80 2022
author: John M. Ford
name: May
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/04/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 784567 311 John M. Ford 0812509595 May 0 to-read 3.84 1980
author: John M. Ford
name: May
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1980
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/04/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 17314659
Described by William Faulkner as the best novel ever written and by Fyodor Dostoevsky as “flawless,�� Anna Karenina tells of the doomed love affair between the sensuous and rebellious Anna and the dashing officer, Count Vronsky. Tragedy unfolds as Anna rejects her passionless marriage and must endure the hypocrisies of society. Set against a vast and richly textured canvas of nineteenth-century Russia, the novel's seven major characters create a dynamic imbalance, playing out the contrasts of city and country life and all the variations on love and family happiness.]]> 935 Leo Tolstoy May 0 books-i-own, to-read 4.07 1878
author: Leo Tolstoy
name: May
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1878
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/03/20
shelves: books-i-own, to-read
review:

]]> 16281716 502 Boris Akunin 0753828197 May 0 to-read, books-i-own 4.13 1999
author: Boris Akunin
name: May
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/03/19
shelves: to-read, books-i-own
review:

]]> 51285749
Koli has lived in Mythen Rood his entire life. He knows the first rule of survival is that you don't venture beyond the walls.

What he doesn't know is - what happens when you aren't given a choice?

The first in a gripping new trilogy, The Book of Koli charts the journey of one unforgettable young boy struggling to find his place in a chilling post-apocalyptic world.]]> 416 M.R. Carey 0316477532 May 4 3.99 2020
author: M.R. Carey
name: May
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2022/02/01
date added: 2022/03/19
shelves: audio-books, dystopia, fantasy, sci-fi, series
review:
Story was cool as hell, and the narration was mostly good, but unfortunately there's only one narrator and another major character is supposed to have a Japanese accent and it just made me so uncomfortable...
]]> 910863 Spin is Robert Charles Wilson's Hugo Award-winning masterpiece―a stunning combination of a galactic "what if" and a small-scale, very human story.

One night in October when he was ten years old, Tyler Dupree stood in his backyard and watched the stars go out. They all flared into brilliance at once, then disappeared, replaced by a flat, empty black barrier. He and his best friends, Jason and Diane Lawton, had seen what became known as the Big Blackout. It would shape their lives.

The effect is worldwide. The sun is now a featureless disk―a heat source, rather than an astronomical object. The moon is gone, but tides remain. Not only have the world's artificial satellites fallen out of orbit, their recovered remains are pitted and aged, as though they'd been in space far longer than their known lifespans. As Tyler, Jason, and Diane grow up, a space probe reveals a bizarre truth: The barrier is artificial, generated by huge alien artifacts. Time is passing faster outside the barrier than inside―more than a hundred million years per year on Earth. At this rate, the death throes of the sun are only about forty years in our future.

Jason, now a promising young scientist, devotes his life to working against this slow-moving apocalypse. Diane throws herself into hedonism, marrying a sinister cult leader who's forged a new religion out of the fears of the masses.

Earth sends terraforming machines to Mars to let the onrush of time do its work, turning the planet green. Next they send humans�� and immediately get back an emissary with thousands of years of stories to tell about the settling of Mars. Then Earth's probes reveal that an identical barrier has appeared around Mars. Jason, desperate, seeds near space with self-replicating machines that will scatter copies of themselves outward from the sun―and report back on what they find.

Life on Earth is about to get much, much stranger.]]> 458 Robert Charles Wilson 076534825X May 0 to-read 4.02 2005
author: Robert Charles Wilson
name: May
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/03/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 1960732 480 David Miller Sadker 0073230073 May 3 3.50 1991
author: David Miller Sadker
name: May
average rating: 3.50
book published: 1991
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2022/03/02
shelves: to-read, books-i-own, textbooks, teaching
review:
This was my first education textbook, and is definitely a great resource that covers a lot of basics. I'd like to say that I finished it, but my course only covered about half the chapters, so it's a book I'll have to come back to at some point when I'm not reading all the new textbooks I have...
]]> 58782892
Theo Mori wants to escape. Leaving Vermont for college means getting away from working at his parents�� Asian American café and dealing with their archrivals�� hopeless son Gabi who’s lost the soccer team more games than Theo can count.

Gabi Moreno is miserably stuck in the closet. Forced to play soccer to hide his love for dance and iced out by Theo, the only openly gay guy at school, Gabi’s only reprieve is his parents�� Puerto Rican bakery and his plans to take over after graduation.

But the town’s new fusion café changes everything. Between the Mori’s struggling shop and the Moreno’s plan to sell their bakery in the face of the competition, both boys find their dreams in jeopardy. Then Theo has an idea—sell photo-worthy food covertly at school to offset their losses. When he sprains his wrist and Gabi gets roped in to help, they realize they need to work together to save their parents�� shops but will the new feelings rising between them be enough to send their future plans up in smoke?

​]��> 320 Emery Lee 0063210274 May 0 to-read 3.62 2022
author: Emery Lee
name: May
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/01/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 59427580 No one’s safe when a pundemic spreads through the land of Xanth in this madcap adventure from the New York Times–bestselling author.

What’s a single prince to do when confronted with the baton of protagonism? Why, become the hero of his own story of course! And in Xanth that usually means embarking on a quest. For Prince Nolan Naga, there’s only one thing missing from his life: a wife. He needs a royal match by the time he assumes the throne. But to make sure he lands the right spouse, he must consult with the Good Magician.

After completing the three challenges necessary to see the Good Magician, Nolan learns that the ideal bride for him does exist. She is Apoca of the Lips Tribe. From the Queendom of Thanx—a matriarchy that is the opposite of Xanth—she is a formidable woman, one whose very kiss can seduce a man into love slavery. But before a happily ever after, they’ll have to team up to put an end to a curse that’s causing every baby in Xanth to be born with the same magical talent, all while navigating through a realm plagued by endless puns. It could be the end of the world as we know it . . .]]> 200 Piers Anthony 1504066928 May 0 to-read 3.98 2023
author: Piers Anthony
name: May
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/12/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 59427582 In this heroic Xanth adventure from the New York Times-bestselling author, there's no time like the present to free six plucky princesses from the past.

Young Vinia is enjoying her life with her boyfriend, Prince Ion. They complement each other her telekinesis helps him walk, and his ambiance abolishes all allergens, allowing her to breathe freely. But Ion and his twin, Hilda, are bored with their easy royal lives and are restless for an adventure . . .

While telling the story of how their parents met, the twins remember their mother was once captured by a dragon and frozen in crystal along with a half dozen other strong-willed princesses. She managed to escape, but the six other maidens continue to be held captive--which gives Vinia, Ion, Hilda, and Hilda's caprine-crossbreed boyfriend the perfect excuse to embark on a quest.

But first they must get the approval of their parents--and the Good Magician. Since Vinia is the protagonist in this story (though she's much more comfortable as a background character), it's up to her complete the Magician's challenges. And then comes their greatest to free the princesses from their patriarchal prison, frozen in place by the Dragon with the Girl Tattoo . . .

Praise for Piers Anthony

"Piers Anthony is one of those authors who can perform magic with the ordinary. . . . [He] is a craftsman." --A Reader's Guide to Science Fiction

"Anthony's unflagging sparkle, verve and wordplay spin everyday trials of Mundane life into storytelling gold." --Publishers Weekly]]> 358 Piers Anthony 1504066790 May 0 to-read 3.87 2022
author: Piers Anthony
name: May
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/12/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 57071653 ��
Squid may only be a tween alien cuttlefish, but her feelings for Chaos, her Demon boyfriend, are real, which is why she’s more than ready to let someone else take over as the protagonist of this story. Being a main character is exhausting—and it’s drastically cutting down her flirting time with Chaos. But their alternate future is dependent upon their completion of one final mission��.��.��.
��
Seven years from now, in another reality frame, things are not so picture perfect. Squid’s dream of happily ever after turns into happily never after when Chaos’s human host is murdered the night before their wedding. So before they become newly dead instead of newly wed, Squid and Chaos must travel through time in order to meet their maker��.��.��.
��
Praise for Piers Anthony
��
“Piers Anthony is one of those authors who can perform magic with the ordinary.��.��.��. [He] is a craftsman.�� �� A Reader’s Guide to Science Fiction
��
“Anthony’s unflagging sparkle, verve and wordplay spin everyday trials of Mundane life into storytelling gold.�� �� Publishers Weekly]]> 314 Piers Anthony 1504066812 May 0 to-read 3.55 2021
author: Piers Anthony
name: May
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/12/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 53514264 There's no dancing around a demonic threat in the fantasy world of Xanth in the New York Times-bestselling series.

Squid, the alien cuttlefish, is getting an a boost to her shape-changing talent so she can lead a mission against a foreign Demon who's stirring up trouble in Xanth. At Squid's side are her rescued siblings and one very special child--Larry, a girl in a boy's body, who will act as a secret host for their adoptive mother, the Demoness Fornax.

Aboard the Fire Boat, they form a plan to disguise themselves as a traveling dance troupe. Each child is paired up with a native Xanthian. But it's the friendship that blossoms between Squid and Larry that will power their quest, and they'll have to do some fancy footwork to avoid the trials and tribulations that await them.]]> 308 Piers Anthony 1504060288 May 0 to-read 3.91 2021
author: Piers Anthony
name: May
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/12/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 53039999 All of Xanth is a stage as an unlikely hero saves the show in the New York Times-bestselling series.

There's no shortage of laughs when Jess is around; she's been cursed to have nobody take her seriously. But her dubious talent comes in handy when she meets the very handsome showman Magnus. He promises to fake taking her seriously--if Jess joins his traveling show.

But first they must see the Good Magician. He will give them the use of the flying Fire Boat to tour the realm if they complete a quest. The only problem is, he can't remember what quest. Something to do with night mares, day mares, and one or two future princesses.

As Jess and Magnus try to unravel the mystery, they discover their true mission: to save Xanth from a big bird with a bone to peck . . .
]]> 296 Piers Anthony 1504059956 May 0 to-read 4.06 2020
author: Piers Anthony
name: May
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/12/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 45994928 The New York Times–bestselling series continues with this pun-tastic epic quest and far-flung fantasy adventure. �� Lydell, a shy, naive man of twenty-one, and world-weary grandmother Grania could not be more different. But when their paths cross on the way to beseech the Good Magician to add some excitement to their extraordinarily dull lives, the one thing they have in common is about to get them more than they bargained for .��.��. �� Lydell and Grania’s exceptional integrity makes them valuable to the Good Magician. He promises to fulfill their hearts�� desires on the condition they pilot a fireboat to its new proprietors, whoever—and wherever—they may be. �� Along with an obnoxious bird and a robot dogfish as shipmates, they unfurl their sail of flame and cruise through the skies of Xanth, guided by cryptic clues. Picking up a crew of future children along the way, Lydell and Grania must plan a royal wedding, detonate an F-Bomb, evade illusion dragons, rescue Jack and Jill, find a princess for a werewolf prince, and face their greatest fears—all while remaining true to their compulsively honest selves. Fire Sail is the 42nd book in the Xanth series, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order. ��]]> 296 Piers Anthony 1504058739 May 0 to-read 3.94 2019
author: Piers Anthony
name: May
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/12/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 96981 New York Times bestselling author of Zombie Lover

A wild and wonderful new magical adventure that leads from Xanth to Earth - and back again!

A cataclysmic cloud hangs over the enchanted land of land of Xanth. Three courageous couples must venture into the O-Xone, a cybernetic interface between Xanth and our own world, to rescue the enchanted realm from destruction.

A xany new fantasy xaga from the Master of Merriment, Xone of Contention is chock-filled with danger, excitement and xillions of laughs!

After a year filled with harrowing adventures, all Breanna of the Black Wave and her newfound love Justin Tree want is a little time to get to know each other better, and explore the wonders of the enchanted land of Xanth. But their incipient idyll is soon shattered by a stunning discovery. A climatic catastrophe is causing a massive meltdown that threatens to inundate the ancient forests of Xanth.

The only way to avert this dire disaster is to undertake a voyage into the distant mists of the past, to find the moment when this ghastly greenhouse effect began. And the only people who can safely make that journey are those unaffected by Xanth's magic - normal, ordinary humans from our own world.

So Breanna and Justin turn for help to the Demon X(A/N)th (a.k.a. Nimby) and his lovely consort Chlorine. Together, they devise a daring plan. Making use of the O-Xone, a magical computer network that links the worlds of Xanth and Earth, Nimby and Chlorine make contact with Pia and Edsel, a young couple from Earth who are working on a Xanth game, and arrange to exchange bodies with them.

But an unexpected surprise awaits them on their arrival. The Demon Earth has challenged the Demon Xanth to a deadly duel for the highest possible stakes - dominion over both worlds. While Pia and Edsel range through the farthest reaches of time and space to save Xanth from destruction, Nimby must learn to live by the strange rules of our world, and defeat his ancient enemy without the benefit of his own awesome powers.

Brimming with magic, merriment, laughter and love, Xone of Contention is a rousing new fantasy saga in the grand Xanth tradition.]]> 384 Piers Anthony 0812555236 May 0 to-read 3.75 1999
author: Piers Anthony
name: May
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/12/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 40121985 A pathbreaking history of the United States' overseas possessions and the true meaning of its empire

We are familiar with maps that outline all fifty states. And we are also familiar with the idea that the United States is an "empire," exercising power around the world. But what about the actual territories--the islands, atolls, and archipelagos--this country has governed and inhabited?

In How to Hide an Empire, Daniel Immerwahr tells the fascinating story of the United States outside the United States. In crackling, fast-paced prose, he reveals forgotten episodes that cast American history in a new light. We travel to the Guano Islands, where prospectors collected one of the nineteenth century's most valuable commodities, and the Philippines, site of the most destructive event on U.S. soil. In Puerto Rico, Immerwahr shows how U.S. doctors conducted grisly experiments they would never have conducted on the mainland and charts the emergence of independence fighters who would shoot up the U.S. Congress.

In the years after World War II, Immerwahr notes, the United States moved away from colonialism. Instead, it put innovations in electronics, transportation, and culture to use, devising a new sort of influence that did not require the control of space. Rich with absorbing vignettes, full of surprises, and driven by an original conception of what empire and globalization mean today, How to Hide an Empire is a major and compulsively readable work of history.]]> 513 Daniel Immerwahr 0374172145 May 0 to-read 4.47 2019
author: Daniel Immerwahr
name: May
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/08/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 54455629
In�� The Disordered Cosmos , Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein shares her love for physics, from the Standard Model of Particle Physics and what lies beyond it, to the physics of melanin in skin, to the latest theories of dark matter—along with a perspective informed by history, politics, and the wisdom of Star Trek .��

One of the leading physicists of her generation, Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is also one of fewer than one hundred Black American women to earn a PhD from a department of physics. Her vision of the cosmos is vibrant, buoyantly nontraditional, and grounded in Black and queer feminist lineages.��

Dr. Prescod-Weinstein urges us to recognize how science, like most fields, is rife with racism, misogyny, and other forms of oppression. She lays out a bold new approach to science and society, beginning��with the belief that we all have a fundamental right to know and love the night sky.�� The Disordered Cosmos ��dreams into existence a world that allows everyone to experience and understand the wonders of the universe.]]> 320 Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 1541724704 May 0 to-read 4.11 2021
author: Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
name: May
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/04/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 33590260
With Aelin captured, friends and allies are scattered to different fates. Some bonds will grow even deeper, while others will be severed forever. As destinies weave together at last, all must fight if Erilea is to have any hope of salvation.

Years in the making, Sarah J. Maas's New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass series draws to an explosive conclusion as Aelin fights to save herself―and the promise of a better world.]]> 980 Sarah J. Maas 1619636107 May 0 4.63 2018
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: May
average rating: 4.63
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/04/12
shelves: aggressively-hetero, audio-books, fantasy, pissed-me-off, women, young-adult, currently-reading
review:

]]> 31450852
After enduring unspeakable horrors as a child, Yrene Towers has no desire to help the young lord from Adarlan, let alone heal him. Yet she has sworn an oath to assist those in need—and will honor it. But Lord Westfall carries shadows from his own past, and Yrene soon comes to realize they could engulf them both.

In this sweeping parallel novel to the New York Times bestselling Empire of Storms, Chaol, Nesryn, and Yrene will have to draw on every scrap of their resilience if they wish to save their friends. But while they become entangled in the political webs of the khaganate, deep in the shadows of mighty mountains where warriors soar on legendary ruks, long-awaited answers slumber. Answers that might offer their world a chance at survival—or doom them all . . .]]> 660 Sarah J. Maas 1681195771 May 3 4.25 2017
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: May
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2021/03/31
date added: 2021/04/12
shelves: aggressively-hetero, audio-books, fantasy, kind-of-trashy, women, young-adult
review:

]]> 9265187
This book includes: history of beekeeping, overview and details of an apiary, equipment, obtaining a hive, seasonal changes, pests and diseases, harvesting honey and other products from the hive, breading queens, and a glossary of terms.]]> 160 Vivian Head 1848375247 May 0 4.42 2010
author: Vivian Head
name: May
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/04/07
shelves: books-i-own, non-fiction, to-read, paused
review:

]]> 32173923 The insurgent activist and educator shares a vital rally cry for today’s movement-makers in “a manifesto that should be read by everyone�� (Angela Y.��Davis).In an era defined by mass incarceration, endless war, economic crisis, catastrophic environmental destruction, and a political system offering more of the same, radical social transformation has never been more urgent—or seemed more remote. Demand the Impossible! urges us to imagine a world beyond what this rotten system would have us believe is possible.In critiquing the world around us, Bill Ayers uncovers cracks in that system. He raising the horizons for radical change and envisions new strategies for building the movement we need to make a better world for everyone.]]> 250 Bill Ayers May 0 4.50 2016
author: Bill Ayers
name: May
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/03/28
shelves: currently-reading, kindle, paused
review:

]]> 32718027
But when Nahri accidentally summons an equally sly, darkly mysterious djinn warrior to her side during one of her cons, she’s forced to accept that the magical world she thought only existed in childhood stories is real. For the warrior tells her a new tale: across hot, windswept sands teeming with creatures of fire, and rivers where the mythical marid sleep; past ruins of once-magnificent human metropolises, and mountains where the circling hawks are not what they seem, lies Daevabad, the legendary city of brass, a city to which Nahri is irrevocably bound.

In that city, behind gilded brass walls laced with enchantments, behind the six gates of the six djinn tribes, old resentments are simmering. And when Nahri decides to enter this world, she learns that true power is fierce and brutal. That magic cannot shield her from the dangerous web of court politics. That even the cleverest of schemes can have deadly consequences.

After all, there is a reason they say be careful what you wish for...]]> 532 S.A. Chakraborty 0062678108 May 0 4.12 2017
author: S.A. Chakraborty
name: May
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/03/28
shelves: books-i-own, fantasy, series, coming-up-next
review:

]]> 123471 I Am a Strange Loop argues that the key to understanding selves and consciousness is the “strange loop”—a special kind of abstract feedback loop inhabiting our brains. Deep down, a human brain is a chaotic seething soup of particles, on a higher level it is a jungle of neurons, and on a yet higher level it is a network of abstractions that we call “symbols.�� The most central and complex symbol in your brain or mine is the one we both call “I.�� The “I�� is the nexus in our brain where the levels feed back into each other and flip causality upside down, with symbols seeming to have free will and to have gained the paradoxical ability to push particles around, rather than the reverse. For each human being, this “I�� seems to be the realest thing in the world. But how can such a mysterious abstraction be real—or is our “I�� merely a convenient fiction? Does an “I�� exert genuine power over the particles in our brain, or is it helplessly pushed around by the all-powerful laws of physics? These are the mysteries tackled in I Am a Strange Loop, Douglas R. Hofstadter’s first book-length journey into philosophy since Gödel, Escher, Bach. Compulsively readable and endlessly thought-provoking, this is the book Hofstadter’s many readers have long been waiting for.]]> 436 Douglas R. Hofstadter 0465030785 May 0 currently-reading, paused 3.94 2007
author: Douglas R. Hofstadter
name: May
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/03/28
shelves: currently-reading, paused
review:

]]> 34050917 The Bear and the Nightingale, Katherine Arden’s enchanting first novel, introduced readers to an irresistible heroine. Vasilisa has grown up at the edge of a Russian wilderness, where snowdrifts reach the eaves of her family’s wooden house and there is truth in the fairy tales told around the fire. Vasilisa’s gift for seeing what others do not won her the attention of Morozko—Frost, the winter demon from the stories—and together they saved her people from destruction. But Frost’s aid comes at a cost, and her people have condemned her as a witch.

In The Girl in the Tower, Vasilisa faces an impossible choice. Driven from her home by frightened villagers, she has only two options left: marriage or the convent. She cannot bring herself to accept either fate and instead chooses adventure, dressing herself as a boy and setting off astride her magnificent stallion Solovey.

But after she prevails in a skirmish with bandits, everything changes. The Grand Prince of Moscow anoints her a hero for her exploits, and she is reunited with her beloved sister and brother, who are now part of the Grand Prince’s inner circle. She dares not reveal to the court that she is a girl, for if her deception were discovered it would have terrible consequences for herself and her family. Before she can untangle herself from Moscow’s intrigues—and as Frost provides counsel that may or may not be trustworthy—she will also confront an even graver threat lying in wait for all of Moscow itself.]]> 360 Katherine Arden 1101885963 May 0 4.34 2017
author: Katherine Arden
name: May
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/03/28
shelves: books-i-own, fantasy, coming-up-next
review:

]]> 28260587 Kingdoms will collide.

The long path to the throne has only just begun for Aelin Galathynius as war looms on the horizon. Loyalties have been broken and bought, friends have been lost and gained, and those who possess magic find themselves at odds with those who don't.

With her heart sworn to the warrior-prince by her side, and her fealty pledged to the people she is determined to save, Aelin will delve into the depths of her power to protect those she loves. But as monsters emerge from the horrors of the past, and dark forces become poised to claim her world, the only chance for salvation will lie in a desperate quest that may mark the end of everything Aelin holds dear.

In this breathtaking fifth installment of the New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass series, Aelin will have to choose what—and who—to sacrifice if she's to keep the world of Erilea from breaking apart.]]> 689 Sarah J. Maas May 2 4.57 2016
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: May
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2016
rating: 2
read at: 2021/03/16
date added: 2021/03/28
shelves: aggressively-hetero, audio-books, fantasy, kind-of-trashy, women, young-adult
review:

]]> 53321887 The Fall of Koli is the third and final novel in the breathtakingly original Rampart trilogy - set in a strange and deadly world of our own making.

The world that is lost will come back to haunt us . . .

Koli has come a long way since being exiled from his small village of Mythen Rood. In his search for the fabled tech of the old times, he knew he'd be battling strange, terrible beasts and trees that move as fast as whips. But he has already encountered so much more than he bargained for.

Now that Koli and his companions have found the source of the signal they've been following - the mysterious "Sword of Albion" - there is hope that their perilous journey will finally be worth something.

Until they unearth terrifying truths about an ancient war . . . and realise that it may have never ended.]]> 528 M.R. Carey 0356513505 May 0 to-read 4.36 2021
author: M.R. Carey
name: May
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/03/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 51829857
Beyond the walls of Koli’s small village lies a fearsome landscape filled with choker trees, vicious beasts and shunned men. As an exile, Koli’s been forced to journey out into this mysterious, hostile world. But he heard a story, once. A story about lost London, and the mysterious tech of the Old Times that may still be there. If Koli can find it, there may still be a way for him to redeem himself �� by saving what’s left of humankind.]]> 445 M.R. Carey 0356513491 May 0 to-read 4.23 2020
author: M.R. Carey
name: May
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/03/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 18006496
She has embraced her identity as Aelin Galathynius, Queen of Terrasen. But before she can reclaim her throne, she must fight.

She will fight for her cousin, a warrior prepared to die for her. She will fight for her friend, a young man trapped in an unspeakable prison. And she will fight for her people, enslaved to a brutal king and awaiting their lost queen’s triumphant return.

The fourth volume in the New York Times bestselling series continues Celaena’s epic journey and builds to a passionate, agonizing crescendo that might just shatter her world.]]> 648 Sarah J. Maas 1619636042 May 2 4.56 2015
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: May
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2015
rating: 2
read at: 2021/03/13
date added: 2021/03/13
shelves: audio-books, fantasy, kind-of-trashy, women, young-adult
review:

]]> 20613470 565 Sarah J. Maas 1619630656 May 3 4.47 2014
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: May
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2021/03/09
date added: 2021/03/09
shelves: audio-books, fantasy, series, women, young-adult
review:

]]> 17167166 "A line that should never be crossed is about to be breached.

It puts this entire castle in jeopardy—and the life of your friend."

From the throne of glass rules a king with a fist of iron and a soul as black as pitch. Assassin Celaena Sardothien won a brutal contest to become his Champion. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown. She hides her secret vigilantly; she knows that the man she serves is bent on evil.

Keeping up the deadly charade becomes increasingly difficult when Celaena realizes she is not the only one seeking justice. As she tries to untangle the mysteries buried deep within the glass castle, her closest relationships suffer. It seems no one is above questioning her allegiances—not the Crown Prince Dorian; not Chaol, the Captain of the Guard; not even her best friend, Nehemia, a foreign princess with a rebel heart.

Then one terrible night, the secrets they have all been keeping lead to an unspeakable tragedy. As Celaena's world shatters, she will be forced to give up the very thing most precious to her and decide once and for all where her true loyalties lie... and whom she is ultimately willing to fight for.]]> 420 Sarah J. Maas 1619630621 May 3 4.35 2013
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: May
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2021/03/03
date added: 2021/03/03
shelves: audio-books, fantasy, kind-of-trashy, series, women, young-adult
review:

]]> 13519397 Librarian note: Older cover of 9781408832332.

Meet Celaena Sardothien.
Beautiful. Deadly.
Destined for greatness.

In the dark, filthy salt mines of Endovier, an eighteen-year-old girl is serving a life sentence. She is a trained assassin, the best of her kind, but she made a fatal mistake. She got caught.

Young Captain Westfall offers her a deal: her freedom in return for one huge sacrifice. Celaena must represent the prince in a to-the-death tournament—fighting the most gifted thieves and assassins in the land. Live or die, Celaena will be free. Win or lose, she is about to discover her true destiny. But will her assassin’s heart be melted?]]> 404 Sarah J. Maas May 2 4.08 2012
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: May
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2012
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2021/02/28
shelves: aggressively-hetero, kind-of-trashy
review:

]]> 7896527 Meet Celaena Sardothien.

Beautiful. Deadly. Destined for greatness.

In a land without magic, where the king rules with an iron hand, Celaena, an assassin, is summoned to the castle. She comes not to kill the king, but to win her freedom. If she defeats twenty-three killers, thieves, and warriors in a competition, she is released from prison to serve as the king’s champion.

The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her. But something evil dwells in the castle of glass—and it’s there to kill. When her competitors start dying one by one, Celaena’s fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival, and a desperate quest to root out the evil before it destroys her world.]]> 406 Sarah J. Maas May 2 4.19 2012
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: May
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2012
rating: 2
read at: 2021/02/28
date added: 2021/02/28
shelves: audio-books, dystopia, fantasy, series, women, young-adult
review:

]]> 34215764 The new book by Nebula and Hugo Award-winner, Nnedi Okorafor.

"She’s the adopted daughter of the Angel of Death. Beware of her. Mind her. Death guards her like one of its own."

The day Fatima forgot her name, Death paid a visit. From hereon in she would be known as Sankofa­­--a name that meant nothing to anyone but her, the only tie to her family and her past.

Her touch is death, and with a glance a town can fall. And she walks--alone, except for her fox companion--searching for the object that came from the sky and gave itself to her when the meteors fell and when she was yet unchanged; searching for answers.

But is there a greater purpose for Sankofa, now that Death is her constant companion?]]> 156 Nnedi Okorafor May 0 to-read 3.86 2021
author: Nnedi Okorafor
name: May
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/02/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 45184304 A novel about letting go of the past, figuring out what you want in your future, and staying in the moment before it passes you by.

Weeks ago, Andre Cobb received a much-needed liver transplant.

He's ready for his life to finally begin, until one night, when he passes out and wakes up somewhere totally unexpected...in 1969, where he connects with a magnetic boy named Michael.

And then, just as suddenly as he arrived, he slips back to present-day Boston, where the family of his donor is waiting to explain that his new liver came with a side effect—the ability to time travel. And they've tasked their youngest son, Blake, with teaching Andre how to use his unexpected new gift.

Andre splits his time bouncing between the past and future. Between Michael and Blake. Michael is everything Andre wishes he could be, and Blake, still reeling from the death of his brother, Andre's donor, keeps him at arm's length despite their obvious attraction to each other.

Torn between two boys, one in the past and one in the present, Andre has to figure out where he belongs—and more importantly who he wants to be—before the consequences of jumping in time catch up to him and change his future for good.]]> 302 Kosoko Jackson 1492694347 May 0 to-read 3.71 2021
author: Kosoko Jackson
name: May
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/02/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 38357895
A brilliant depiction of an unusual psyche and a world hidden from view, Convenience Store Woman is an ironic and sharp-eyed look at contemporary work culture and the pressures to conform, as well as a charming and completely fresh portrait of an unforgettable heroine.]]> 163 Sayaka Murata May 5 3.70 2016
author: Sayaka Murata
name: May
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2021/02/24
date added: 2021/02/27
shelves: audio-books, in-translation, neurodivergent
review:

]]> 45047384
Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages.

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

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

An enchanting story, masterfully told, The House in the Cerulean Sea is about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place—and realizing that family is yours.]]> 394 T.J. Klune May 4 audio-books, fantasy, queer 4.37 2020
author: T.J. Klune
name: May
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2021/02/24
date added: 2021/02/24
shelves: audio-books, fantasy, queer
review:

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

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

When the test takes an unexpected and tragic turn, Idir is handed the power of life and death.
How do you value a life when all you have is multiple choice?]]> 108 Sylvain Neuvel 1250312833 May 5 3.82 2019
author: Sylvain Neuvel
name: May
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2021/02/14
date added: 2021/02/21
shelves: audio-books, current-ish-events, dystopia, sci-fi, social-science, tearjerker
review:

]]> 16248223 A startlingly original voice makes her literary debut with this wondrous coming-of-age story infused with Chinese folklore, romantic intrigue, adventure, and fascinating, dreamlike twists.

'One evening, my father asked me whether I would like to become a ghost bride...'

Though ruled by British overlords, the Chinese of colonial Malaya still cling to ancient customs. And in the sleepy port town of Malacca, ghosts and superstitions abound.

Li Lan, the daughter of a genteel but bankrupt family, has few prospects. But fate intervenes when she receives an unusual proposal from the wealthy and powerful Lim family. They want her to become a ghost bride for the family's only son, who recently died under mysterious circumstances. Rarely practiced, traditional ghost marriages are used to placate restless spirits. Such a union would guarantee Li Lan a home for the rest of her days, but at a terrible price.

After an ominous visit to the opulent Lim mansion, Li Lan finds herself haunted not only by her ghostly would-be suitor, but also by her desire for the Lims' handsome new heir, Tian Bai. Night after night, she is drawn into the shadowy parallel world of the Chinese afterlife, with its ghost cities, paper funeral offerings, vengeful spirits, and monstrous bureaucracy—including the mysterious Er Lang, a charming but unpredictable guardian spirit. Li Lan must uncover the Lim family's darkest secrets—and the truth about her own family—before she is trapped in this ghostly world forever.]]> 368 Yangsze Choo 0062227327 May 5 3.79 2013
author: Yangsze Choo
name: May
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2021/02/21
date added: 2021/02/21
shelves: audio-books, fantasy, history, women
review:

]]> 46064313
Some girl dies.

It's not much to go on, but the specifics don't concern Marissa. Whatever the script is, her job is the same. She'll spend her days in the editing room, doing what she does best: turning pictures into stories.

But she soon discovers that on this set, nothing is as it's supposed to be--or as it seems. There are rumors of accidents and indiscretions, of burgeoning scandals and perilous schemes. Half the crew has been fired. The other half wants to quit. Even the actors have figured out something is wrong. And no one seems to know what happened to the editor she was hired to replace.

Then she meets the intrepid and incorrigible teenage girls who are determined to solve the real-life murder that is the movie's central subject, and before long, Marissa is drawn into the investigation herself.

The only problem is, the killer may still be on the loose. And he might not be finished.]]> 352 Elizabeth Little 067001639X May 5 audio-books 3.44 2020
author: Elizabeth Little
name: May
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2021/02/13
date added: 2021/02/13
shelves: audio-books
review:

]]> 35820656 336 Sylvain Neuvel 0399180117 May 5 audio-books, sci-fi, series 3.62 2018
author: Sylvain Neuvel
name: May
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2021/02/07
date added: 2021/02/07
shelves: audio-books, sci-fi, series
review:

]]> 6763725 81 Mark Fisher 1846943175 May 0 to-read 4.20 2009
author: Mark Fisher
name: May
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/02/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 30134847
Now humankind faces a nightmare invasion scenario made real, as more colossal machines touch down across the globe. But Rose and her team at the Earth Defense Corps refuse to surrender. They can turn the tide if they can unlock the last secrets of an advanced alien technology. The greatest weapon humanity wields is knowledge in a do-or-die battle to inherit the Earth . . . and maybe even the stars.]]> 336 Sylvain Neuvel 1101886722 May 5 audio-books, sci-fi, series 3.99 2017
author: Sylvain Neuvel
name: May
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2021/02/07
date added: 2021/02/07
shelves: audio-books, sci-fi, series
review:

]]> 25733990
Seventeen years later, the mystery of the bizarre artifact remains unsolved - the object's origins, architects, and purpose unknown.

But some can never stop searching for answers.

Rose Franklin is now a highly trained physicist leading a top-secret team to crack the hand's code. And along with her colleagues, she is being interviewed by a nameless interrogator whose power and purview are as enigmatic as the relic they seek. What's clear is that Rose and her compatriots are on the edge of unravelling history's most perplexing discovery-and finally figuring out what it portends for humanity. But once the pieces of the puzzle are in place, will the result be an instrument of lasting peace or a weapon of mass destruction?]]> 320 Sylvain Neuvel 1101886692 May 5 audio-books, sci-fi, series 3.82 2016
author: Sylvain Neuvel
name: May
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2021/02/06
date added: 2021/02/06
shelves: audio-books, sci-fi, series
review:

]]> 44179415
��In The View from Somewhere , Lewis Raven Wallace dives deep into the history of “objectivity�� in journalism and how its been used to gatekeep and silence marginalized writers as far back as Ida B. Wells. At its core, this is a book about fierce journalists who have pursued truth and transparency and sometimes been punished for it—not just by tyrannical governments but by journalistic institutions themselves. He highlights the stories of journalists who question “objectivity�� with sensitivity and Desmond Cole of the Toronto Star ; New York Times reporter Linda Greenhouse; Pulitzer Prize-winner Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah; Peabody-winning podcaster John Biewen; Guardian correspondent Gary Younge; former Buzzfeed reporter Meredith Talusan; and many others. Wallace also shares his own experiences as a midwestern transgender journalist and activist who was fired from his job as a national reporter for public radio for speaking out against “objectivity�� in coverage of Trump and white supremacy.��
��
With insightful steps through history, Wallace stresses that journalists have never been mere passive observers. Using historical and contemporary examples—from lynching in the nineteenth century to transgender issues in the twenty-first—Wallace offers a definitive critique of “objectivity�� as a catchall for accurate journalism. He calls for the dismissal of this damaging mythology in order to confront the realities of institutional power, racism, and other forms of oppression and exploitation in the news industry.
��
The View from Somewhere is a compelling rallying cry against journalist neutrality and for the validity of news told from distinctly subjective voices. ��]]> 240 Lewis Raven Wallace 022658917X May 0 to-read 4.34 2019
author: Lewis Raven Wallace
name: May
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/02/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 50999303 A radical argument for why rioting and looting are our most powerful tools of dismantling white supremacy.

Looting--a crowd of people publicly, openly, and directly seizing goods--is one of the more extreme actions that take can place in the midst of social unrest. Even self-identified radicals distance themselves from looters, fearing that violent tactics reflect badly on the broader movement.

However, in this deftly argued corrective, Vicky Osterweil argues that while looting is often maligned in today's society, it is, and has always been, one of our most powerful tools of dismantling capitalism and white supremacy. Stealing goods and destroying property are a direct means of wealth redistribution and a practical, immediate way of improving life for the working class-- not to mention a brazen message to the police, the state, and an unjust society. All our beliefs about the innate righteousness of property and ownership, Osterweil explains, are built on the history of anti-Black and settler oppression--meaning that belief in the right to own property is innately, structurally white supremacist.

From the slave revolts that started a social revolution in the South to the more recent #BlackLivesMatter and climate change movements, Osterweil makes a convincing case for rioting and looting as weapons that bludgeon the status quo while uplifting the poor and marginalized. In Defense of Looting is a history of violent protest sparking social change; a compelling reframing of radical activism; and a practical vision for the redistribution of wealth, a new relationship to property, and a radically restructured society.

]]> 288 Vicky Osterweil 1645036693 May 0 to-read 3.74 2020
author: Vicky Osterweil
name: May
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/02/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 53241562 A deeply-reported examination of why "doing what you love" is a recipe for exploitation, creating a new tyranny of work in which we cheerily acquiesce to doing jobs that take over our lives.

You're told that if you "do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life." Whether it's working for "exposure" and "experience," or enduring poor treatment in the name of "being part of the family," all employees are pushed to make sacrifices for the privilege of being able to do what we love.

In Work Won't Love You Back, Sarah Jaffe, a preeminent voice on labor, inequality, and social movements, examines this "labor of love" myth -- the idea that certain work is not really work, and therefore should be done out of passion instead of pay. Told through the lives and experiences of workers in various industries -- from the unpaid intern, to the overworked nurse, to the nonprofit worker and even the professional athlete -- Jaffe reveals how all of us have been tricked into buying into a new tyranny of work.
As Jaffe argues, understanding the trap of the labor of love will empower us to work less and demand what our work is worth. And once freed from those binds, we can finally figure out what actually gives us joy, pleasure, and satisfaction.]]> 432 Sarah Jaffe 1568589395 May 0 to-read 3.98 2021
author: Sarah Jaffe
name: May
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/02/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 39122774
Now, Zélie struggles to unite the maji in an Orïsha where the enemy is just as powerful as they are. But when the monarchy and military unite to keep control of Orïsha, Zélie must fight to secure Amari's right to the throne and protect the new maji from the monarchy's wrath.

With civil war looming on the horizon, Zélie finds herself at a breaking point: she must discover a way to bring the kingdom together or watch as Orïsha tears itself apart.]]> 404 Tomi Adeyemi 1250170990 May 3 3.86 2019
author: Tomi Adeyemi
name: May
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2021/02/01
date added: 2021/02/01
shelves: audio-books, black-is-beautiful, fantasy, series, young-adult
review:

]]> 52378525
Lito val Lucius climbed his way out of the slums to become an elite soldier of Venus, but was defeated in combat by none other than Saito Ren, resulting in the disappearance of his partner, Hiro. When Lito learns that Hiro is both alive and a traitor to the cause, he now has a shot at redemption: track down and kill his former partner. But when he discovers recordings that Hiro secretly made, Lito’s own allegiances are put to the test. Ultimately, he must decide between following orders and following his heart.]]> 352 Linden A. Lewis 198212699X May 0 to-read 3.83 2020
author: Linden A. Lewis
name: May
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/02/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60932 Parable of the Sower continues the story of Lauren Olamina in socially and economically depressed California in the 2030s. Convinced that her community should colonize the stars, Lauren and her followers make preparations. But the collapse of society and rise of fanatics result in Lauren's followers being enslaved, and her daughter stolen from her. Now, Lauren must fight back to save the new world order.]]> 448 Octavia E. Butler 0446610380 May 0 4.31 1998
author: Octavia E. Butler
name: May
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/01/31
shelves: black-is-beautiful, books-i-own, dystopia, sci-fi, some-people-might-want-a-trigger-wa, women, currently-reading
review:

]]> 52397
Lauren Olamina and her family live in one of the only safe neighborhoods remaining on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Behind the walls of their defended enclave, Lauren’s father, a preacher, and a handful of other citizens try to salvage what remains of a culture that has been destroyed by drugs, disease, war, and chronic water shortages. While her father tries to lead people on the righteous path, Lauren struggles with hyperempathy, a condition that makes her extraordinarily sensitive to the pain of others.

When fire destroys their compound, Lauren’s family is killed and she is forced out into a world that is fraught with danger. With a handful of other refugees, Lauren must make her way north to safety, along the way conceiving a revolutionary idea that may mean salvation for all mankind.]]> 345 Octavia E. Butler 0446675504 May 5
it is very very grisly and violent, an emotionally difficult read but worth it if you can manage it.

also if you have read this and loved it but haven't yet read N.K. Jemisen's 'broken earth' trilogy, you would probably enjoy it.]]> 4.21 1993
author: Octavia E. Butler
name: May
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1993
rating: 5
read at: 2021/01/31
date added: 2021/01/31
shelves: books-i-own, sci-fi, women, black-is-beautiful
review:
i know I'm not the first person to say this but this is probably more prescient than '1984' or 'brave new world,' the epitome of a right wing libertarian future.

it is very very grisly and violent, an emotionally difficult read but worth it if you can manage it.

also if you have read this and loved it but haven't yet read N.K. Jemisen's 'broken earth' trilogy, you would probably enjoy it.
]]> 36348525
Candace won’t be able to make it on her own forever, though. Enter a group of survivors, led by the power-hungry IT tech Bob. They’re traveling to a place called the Facility, where, Bob promises, they will have everything they need to start society anew. But Candace is carrying a secret she knows Bob will exploit. Should she escape from her rescuers?

A send-up and takedown of the rituals, routines, and missed opportunities of contemporary life, Ling Ma’s Severance is a quirky coming-of-adulthood tale and satire.]]> 291 Ling Ma 0374261598 May 5 3.90 2018
author: Ling Ma
name: May
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2021/01/17
date added: 2021/01/17
shelves: books-i-own, botm, current-ish-events
review:
incredible to read at a time like this tbh
]]> 34386617 Binti.

Binti has returned to her home planet, believing that the violence of the Meduse has been left behind. Unfortunately, although her people are peaceful on the whole, the same cannot be said for the Khoush, who fan the flames of their ancient rivalry with the Meduse.

Far from her village when the conflicts start, Binti hurries home, but anger and resentment has already claimed the lives of many close to her.

Once again it is up to Binti, and her intriguing new friend Mwinyi, to intervene—though the elders of her people do not entirely trust her motives—and try to prevent a war that could wipe out her people, once and for all.

Don't miss this essential concluding volume in the Binti trilogy.]]> 208 Nnedi Okorafor 0765393131 May 5 3.96 2018
author: Nnedi Okorafor
name: May
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2021/01/10
date added: 2021/01/10
shelves: black-is-beautiful, books-i-own, sci-fi, series
review:

]]> 54654726
Around the globe, people are faced with a spiralling succession of crises, from the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change-induced fires, floods, and storms to the ongoing horrors of mass incarceration, racist policing, brutal immigration enforcement, endemic gender violence, and severe wealth inequality. As governments fail to respond to—or actively engineer—each crisis, ordinary people are finding bold and innovative ways to share resources and support the vulnerable.

Survival work, when done alongside social movement demands for transformative change, is called mutual aid.

This book is about mutual aid: why it is so important, what it looks like, and how to do it. It provides a grassroots theory of mutual aid, describes how mutual aid is a crucial part of powerful movements for social justice, and offers concrete tools for organizing, such as how to work in groups, how to foster a collective decision-making process, how to prevent and address conflict, and how to deal with burnout.

Writing for those new to activism as well as those who have been in social movements for a long time, Dean Spade draws on years of organizing to offer a radical vision of community mobilization, social transformation, compassionate activism, and solidarity.]]> 152 Dean Spade 1839762128 May 0 to-read 4.33 2020
author: Dean Spade
name: May
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/01/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 30038654
And now she must return home to her people, with her friend Okwu by her side, to face her family and face her elders.

But Okwu will be the first of his race to set foot on Earth in over a hundred years, and the first ever to come in peace.

After generations of conflict can human and Meduse ever learn to truly live in harmony?]]> 176 Nnedi Okorafor 0765393107 May 5 3.99 2017
author: Nnedi Okorafor
name: May
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2021/01/10
date added: 2021/01/10
shelves: black-is-beautiful, books-i-own, sci-fi, series
review:

]]> 25667918 For the first time in hardcover, the winner of the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award!

With a new foreword by N. K. Jemisin

Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs.

Knowledge comes at a cost, one that Binti is willing to pay, but her journey will not be easy. The world she seeks to enter has long warred with the Meduse, an alien race that has become the stuff of nightmares. Oomza University has wronged the Meduse, and Binti's stellar travel will bring her within their deadly reach.

If Binti hopes to survive the legacy of a war not of her making, she will need both the the gifts of her people and the wisdom enshrined within the University, itself -- but first she has to make it there, alive.

The Binti Series
Book 1: Binti
Book 2: Binti: Home
Book 3: Binti: The Night Masquerade]]> 96 Nnedi Okorafor 0765384469 May 5 3.81 2015
author: Nnedi Okorafor
name: May
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2021/01/03
date added: 2021/01/03
shelves: black-is-beautiful, books-i-own, sci-fi, series
review:

]]> 48714772
Katie will be marrying firefighter Declan McCarthy in less than a week, and she's still finding time to run the Honeybee Bakery, where she infuses sweets and treats with special spells and cheerful charms. But her hope of��getting hitched without a hitch is short-lived. When Declan's family shows up early to enjoy a few extra days in Savannah, his youngest sister finds an unsavory her ex-husband, dead in a hotel room hours after they argued.

The ex was scam artist with a lot of enemies, but the argument puts Declan's sister under suspicion. Between dress fittings and dough-kneading, Katie—along with her witchy friends in the spellbook club—will really have to work some magic to figure out who killed the con man...or there may not be a wedding.]]> 320 Bailey Cates 0593099222 May 1 4.03 2020
author: Bailey Cates
name: May
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2020
rating: 1
read at: 2020/12/08
date added: 2020/12/09
shelves: aggressively-hetero, audio-books, cozy-mystery, pissed-me-off, series
review:
i could go the rest of my life without reading a contemporary novel that uses phrases like "she looked resplendent in her twinset" honestly. boring, overly moralizing, conveniently appearing magical powers when the author doesn't know what else to do, and as always, AGGRESSIVELY hetero.
]]> 23591097 From the New York Times bestselling author of Some Enchanted Éclair comes a tale of delicious desserts and supernatural sleuthing��
��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
For magical baker Katie Lightfoot, the only way to beat the Savannah summer heat is to whip up some cool treats for the Honeybee Bakery’s patrons. But when a meeting of the spellbook club is interrupted by a stranger collapsing on the floor of her shop, mumbling something about a voodoo talisman, Katie drops everything to begin investigating.

Her search for answers quickly leads her into a dangerous blend of Savannah’s infamous voodoo queens, a powerful missing charm—and a deadly witch who seems to be targeting the city’s magical community. And with the case getting hotter by the second, Katie will have to work fast to track down the talisman and the killer before the timer runs out��

RECIPES INCLUDED]]> 297 Bailey Cates 0451467426 May 1 3.99 2015
author: Bailey Cates
name: May
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2015
rating: 1
read at: 2020/11/29
date added: 2020/12/03
shelves: aggressively-hetero, audio-books, cozy-mystery, kind-of-trashy, series
review:
why do i keep reading these? also why does the author have such a hard time describing Black people? come on.
]]> 34297361 ��
It’s been exactly two years since Katie and her aunt and uncle opened the Honeybee Bakery, where they serve delicious—and bespelled—treats to the good people of Savannah. After a dinner celebrating the bakery’s anniversary, they all take a stroll along the waterfront and meet Aunt Lucy’s friend Orla, a colorful character who has been telling the fortunes of locals and tourists alike for years.
��
The next day, Orla meets with what seems like a terrible accident, but Katie’s witchy intuition tells her it was something more sinister. Together with her trustworthy coven and her firefighter boyfriend, she’ll race to find out what happened to the unfortunate fortune-teller before the piping hot trail goes cold....]]> 292 Bailey Cates 0399587004 May 1 4.09 2017
author: Bailey Cates
name: May
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2017
rating: 1
read at: 2020/12/01
date added: 2020/12/03
shelves: aggressively-hetero, audio-books, cozy-mystery, series
review:
at this point I'm just hate reading these. truly abysmal writing and I don't understand why the goodreads rating is so high
]]> 43196001 Baker Katie Lightfoot serves up enchanted delicacies and tracks down a malicious murderer in the newest installment of this New York Times bestselling series...Hedgewitch Katie Lightfoot is juggling wedding preparations, a visit from her father, and home renovations on top of her long hours at the Honeybee Bakery, where she and her aunt Lucy imbue their yummy cookies and pastries with beneficial magic. But when firefighter Randy Post is accused of murdering a collector of rarities, and his prints are on the statue that was used to kill the man, Katie steps in.��Randy is not only Katie's fiancé's coworker, but also the boyfriend of fellow spellbook club member and witch Bianca Devereaux. Bianca and Declan are both sure Randy is innocent, and so is Katie. However, to prove it she'll have to work with ornery detective Peter Quinn again—and this time around he knows she's more than your everyday baker.]]> 319 Bailey Cates 0399587020 May 1 4.11 2019
author: Bailey Cates
name: May
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2019
rating: 1
read at: 2020/12/03
date added: 2020/12/03
shelves: aggressively-hetero, audio-books, cozy-mystery, kind-of-trashy
review:
i hate this series and this absolutely abysmal author but I'm in too deep to stop reading T_T
]]> 29069374 My Favorite Thing Is Monsters is the fictional graphic diary of 10-year-old Karen Reyes, filled with B-movie horror and pulp monster magazines iconography. Karen Reyes tries to solve the murder of her enigmatic upstairs neighbor, Anka Silverberg, a holocaust survivor, while the interconnected stories of those around her unfold. When Karen’s investigation takes us back to Anka’s life in Nazi Germany, the reader discovers how the personal, the political, the past, and the present converge. Full-color illustrations throughout.]]> 416 Emil Ferris 1606999591 May 0 to-read 4.21 2017
author: Emil Ferris
name: May
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/12/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 27177386 There's a body in the bookshop in this latest novel from the New York Times bestselling author of the Magical Bakery mysteries...
��
When the bookshop next to the Honeybee Bakery hosts a signing for a Savannah radio celebrity's new self-help book, magical baker Katie Lightfoot is happy to provide some delectable desserts. A big crowd has turned out for the event, curious about the book (and maybe to sample some goodies), but the final chapter comes too soon for the author when she is found dead at the event.
��
The prime suspect is Angie Kissel, a former witch whose familiar was once Katie’s own terrier, Mungo. Katie is at first hesitant to help, afraid of losing the little dog who has become so important to her. But after a little nudge from Mungo himself, Katie decides to try to conjure up the real killer—before Angie gets served...
��
RECIPES INCLUDED!]]> 293 Bailey Cates 0451467434 May 1 4.00 2016
author: Bailey Cates
name: May
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2016
rating: 1
read at: 2020/11/29
date added: 2020/11/29
shelves:
review:

]]> 19486394
When Hollywood invades Savannah’s historic district to film a Revolutionary War movie, magical baker Katie Lightfoot, and her witches�� coven, the Spellbook Club, take a break from casting spells for casting calls. One of the witches snags a part as an extra, while Katie’s firefighter boyfriend, Declan, acts as on-set security. Katie and her aunt Lucy decide to stay out of the action, but after the movie’s “fixer�� fires the caterer, the Honeybee Bakery comes to the rescue, working their magic to keep the hungry crew happy.
��
But when someone fixes the fixer—permanently—and a spooky psychic predicts Katie will find the killer, the charming baker and her fellow conjurers step in to sift through the suspects…before someone else winds up on the cutting room floor��.]]> 327 Bailey Cates 0451467418 May 1
main character and her romantic interest have zero chemistry and they're always "playfully punching" each other, honestly idk how straight ppl live like this

whyyyyyyyyy must every hideous outfit be described in excruciating detail?!]]> 3.96 2014
author: Bailey Cates
name: May
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2014
rating: 1
read at: 2020/11/19
date added: 2020/11/19
shelves: aggressively-hetero, audio-books, cozy-mystery, kind-of-trashy, pissed-me-off, some-people-might-want-a-trigger-wa
review:
according to the author of this series, if you're thin but you eat a lot, you must obviously be bulimic!

main character and her romantic interest have zero chemistry and they're always "playfully punching" each other, honestly idk how straight ppl live like this

whyyyyyyyyy must every hideous outfit be described in excruciating detail?!
]]> 15808412
The dead man’s tattoo reveals he was a member of a secret society—and it turns out he's missing an object that was very important to the group. When Katie learns the killer was after more than the man's life, she and her Aunt Lucy leave the baked goods on the rack to cool and set off in hot pursuit of a killer.]]> 329 Bailey Cates 0451238982 May 2 3.94 2012
author: Bailey Cates
name: May
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2012
rating: 2
read at: 2020/11/15
date added: 2020/11/16
shelves: audio-books, cozy-mystery, fantasy, series, aggressively-hetero
review:
this series started off badly and keeps getting worse but I'm still listening to the books for some reason
]]> 16000243 336 Bailey Cates 0451240626 May 2 3.92 2013
author: Bailey Cates
name: May
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2013
rating: 2
read at: 2020/11/16
date added: 2020/11/16
shelves: aggressively-hetero, audio-books, cozy-mystery, kind-of-trashy, series
review:
the controlling attitudes of all the men in these books is way over the top, the characters who are supposed to be romantically involved have zero chemistry, and i feel like making the Haitian character the most morally ambiguous and reactive is kind of racist.
]]> 12035966
While working at the Honeybee Bakery—named after Lucy's cat—Katie notices that her aunt is adding mysterious herbs to her recipes. Turns out these herbal enhancements aren't just tasty—Aunt Lucy is a witch and her recipes are actually spells!

When a curmudgeonly customer is murdered outside the Honeybee Bakery, Uncle Ben becomes the prime suspect. With the help of handsome journalist Steve Dawes, charming firefighter Declan McCarthy, and a few spells, Katie and Aunt Lucy stir up some toil and trouble to clear Ben's name and find the real killer.]]> 323 Bailey Cates 0451236637 May 3 3.79 2012
author: Bailey Cates
name: May
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2020/11/09
date added: 2020/11/09
shelves: audio-books, series, cozy-mystery, kind-of-trashy
review:

]]> 36430601
For fifty years, the Protector ruled, reshaping her country in her image and driving her enemies to the corners of the map. For half a century the world turned around her as she built her armies, trained her Tensors, and grasped at the reins of fate itself. Now she is dead. Her followers will quiver, her enemies rejoice.

But in one tavern, deep in rebel territory, her greatest enemy drowns her sorrows. Lady Han raised a movement that sought the Protector's head, yet now she can only mourn her loss. She remembers how it all began, when the Protector was young, not yet crowned, and a desperate dancing girl dared to fall in love with her.]]> 122 Neon Yang 1250165881 May 5 fantasy, queer, series 3.98 2019
author: Neon Yang
name: May
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2020/11/07
date added: 2020/11/07
shelves: fantasy, queer, series
review:

]]> 34728667 They killed my mother.
They took our magic.
They tried to bury us.

Now we rise.

Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zélie’s Reaper mother summoned forth souls.

But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope.

Now Zélie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must outwit and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good.

Danger lurks in Orïsha, where snow leoponaires prowl and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be Zélie herself as she struggles to control her powers and her growing feelings for an enemy.]]> 544 Tomi Adeyemi 1250170974 May 5 4.10 2018
author: Tomi Adeyemi
name: May
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2020/10/30
shelves: amazeballs, audio-books, black-is-beautiful, fantasy, series, young-adult
review:

]]> 45044785 They are each other's fiercest love, greatest danger, and only hope.

Séverin and his team members might have successfully thwarted the Fallen House, but victory came at a terrible cost -- one that still haunts all of them. Desperate to make amends, Séverin pursues a dangerous lead to find a long lost artifact rumoured to grant its possessor the power of God.

Their hunt lures them far from Paris, and into the icy heart of Russia where crystalline ice animals stalk forgotten mansions, broken goddesses carry deadly secrets, and a string of unsolved murders makes the crew question whether an ancient myth is a myth after all.

As hidden secrets come to the light and the ghosts of the past catch up to them, the crew will discover new dimensions of themselves. But what they find out may lead them down paths they never imagined.

A tale of love and betrayal as the crew risks their lives for one last job.]]> 406 Roshani Chokshi 1250144574 May 4 4.07 2020
author: Roshani Chokshi
name: May
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2020/10/30
date added: 2020/10/30
shelves: audio-books, fantasy, series, tearjerker, women
review:
i know second books have a tendency to have dramatic cliffhanger endings but this was too much
]]> 39863498 From New York Times bestselling author Roshani Chokshi comes a novel set in Paris during a time of extraordinary change--one that is full of mystery, decadence, and dangerous desires...

It's 1889. The city is on the cusp of industry and power, and the Exposition Universelle has breathed new life into the streets and dredged up ancient secrets. Here, no one keeps tabs on dark truths better than treasure-hunter and wealthy hotelier Séverin Montagnet-Alarie. When the elite, ever-powerful Order of Babel coerces him to help them on a mission, Séverin is offered a treasure that he never imagined: his true inheritance.

To hunt down the ancient artifact the Order seeks, Séverin calls upon a band of unlikely experts: An engineer with a debt to pay. A historian banished from his home. A dancer with a sinister past. And a brother in arms if not blood.

Together, they will join Séverin as he explores the dark, glittering heart of Paris. What they find might change the course of history--but only if they can stay alive.]]> 388 Roshani Chokshi 125014454X May 5 audio-books, fantasy, series 3.71 2019
author: Roshani Chokshi
name: May
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2020/10/27
date added: 2020/10/27
shelves: audio-books, fantasy, series
review:

]]> 51184571
After two years and seven months biding her time on Anima, her home ark, it is finally time to act, to put what she has discovered in the Book of Faruk to good use. Under an assumed identity she travels to Babel, a cosmopolitan and thoroughly modern ark that is the jewel of the universe, and where automata have taken over the most humble jobs from humans. But under the surface of this pacific and orderly ark social unrest stirs, fed by the memories of a fateful purge long ago, and the inhabitants�� growing fear of being replaced altogether. Will Ophelia’s talent as a reader suffice to avoid her being lured into a deadly trap by her ever more fearful adversaries? Will she ever see Thorn, her betrothed, again?]]> 508 Christelle Dabos 1609455738 May 2 4.12 2017
author: Christelle Dabos
name: May
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2017
rating: 2
read at: 2020/10/26
date added: 2020/10/25
shelves:
review:

]]> 50482961 In the second installment of this richly imagined fantasy adventure series, a new threat from within the Library could destroy those who depend upon it the most.

The Library of the Unwritten in Hell was saved from total devastation, but hundreds of potential books were destroyed. Former librarian Claire and Brevity the muse feel the loss of those stories, and are trying to adjust to their new roles within the Arcane Wing and Library, respectively. But when the remains of those books begin to leak a strange ink, Claire realizes that the Library has kept secrets from Hell--and from its own librarians.

Claire and Brevity are immediately at odds in their approach to the ink, and the potential power that it represents has not gone unnoticed. When a representative from the Muses Corps arrives at the Library to advise Brevity, the angel Rami and the erstwhile Hero hunt for answers in other realms. The true nature of the ink could fundamentally alter the afterlife for good or ill, but it entirely depends on who is left to hold the pen.]]> 352 A.J. Hackwith 1984806394 May 5 3.80 2020
author: A.J. Hackwith
name: May
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2020/10/18
date added: 2020/10/18
shelves:
review:

]]> 36430596 JY Yang continues to redefine the limits of silkpunk fantasy with their Tensorate novellas, which the New York Times lauded as "joyously wild." In this third volume, an investigation into atrocities committed at a classified research facility threaten to expose secrets that the Protectorate will do anything to keep hidden.

You are reading this because I am dead.

Something terrible happened at the Rewar Teng Institute of Experimental Methods. When the Tensorate’s investigators arrived, they found a sea of blood and bones as far as the eye could see. One of the institute’s experiments got loose, and its rage left no survivors. The investigators returned to the capital with few clues and two prisoners: the terrorist leader Sanao Akeha and a companion known only as Rider.

Investigator Chuwan faces a puzzle. What really happened at the institute? What drew the Machinists there? What are her superiors trying to cover up? And why does she feel as if her strange dreams are forcing her down a narrowing path she cannot escape?]]> 166 Neon Yang 1250165857 May 5 3.83 2018
author: Neon Yang
name: May
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2020/10/12
date added: 2020/10/12
shelves: books-i-own, fantasy, queer, series
review:

]]>