en-US Sun, 06 Apr 2025 00:26:50 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 4406
Adam Trask came to California from the East to farm and raise his family on the new rich land. But the birth of his twins, Cal and Aaron, brings his wife to the brink of madness, and Adam is left alone to raise his boys to manhood. One boy thrives nurtured by the love of all those around him; the other grows up in loneliness enveloped by a mysterious darkness.

First published in 1952, East of Eden is the work in which Steinbeck created his most mesmerizing characters and explored his most enduring themes: the mystery of identity, the inexplicability of love, and the murderous consequences of love's absence. A masterpiece of Steinbeck's later years, East of Eden is a powerful and vastly ambitious novel that is at once a family saga and a modern retelling of the Book of Genesis.]]> 601 John Steinbeck 0142000655 hamna 0 4.41 1952
author: John Steinbeck
name: hamna
average rating: 4.41
book published: 1952
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves: stolen-from-linn, to-read, 2025-tbr
review:

]]> 216364822 Lose yourself in this exhilarating return to the #1 global bestselling Shatter Me universe, the first book in a new series set ten years after the fall of The Reestablishment.

James Anderson had a plan. Or half of one. All that matters is that he managed to do what his older brother, the famous Aaron Warner Anderson, never did: infiltrate Ark Island, the last refuge of The Reestablishment. In the past decade no outsider has breached the stronghold of the authoritarian regime, but James is in. In a prison cell, sure, but as far as James is concerned, a win is a win.

It’s been ten years since the fall of The Reestablishment. Ten years since the notorious duo �� Juliette Ferrars and Aaron Warner Anderson �� led a worldwide rebellion and established the New Republic of the West. But after a decade of unsettling quiet, The Reestablishment is ready to make a devastating move, and they have the perfect person for the job.

Rosabelle Wolff had a plan. She always has a plan. On Ark Island, where constant surveillance is packaged as security, even emotions must be experienced with caution. A trained assassin, her every movement is monitored by synthetic intelligence—and when she’s given an order to kill, she never hesitates.

Brimming with pulse-pounding action and torturous romance, Watch Me is an explosive journey through a dystopian landscape where enemies-to-lovers has never felt more impossible. Step into a beloved and breathtaking world that demands an answer to a desperate question��

Who are we when no one is watching?]]> 368 Tahereh Mafi 0063419009 hamna 0 currently-reading 4.55 2025
author: Tahereh Mafi
name: hamna
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/05
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 217245639
I never anticipated Charlie Florek.

Good things happen at the lake. That’s what Alice’s grandmother says, and it’s true. Alice spent just one summer at a cottage with Nan when she was seventeen—it’s where she took that photo, the one of three grinning teenagers in a yellow speedboat, the image that changed her life.

Now Alice lives behind a lens. As a photographer, she’s most comfortable on the sidelines, letting other people shine. Lately though, she’s been itching for something more, and when Nan falls and breaks her hip, Alice comes up with a plan for them both: another summer in that magical place, Barry’s Bay. But as soon as they settle in, their peace is disrupted by the roar of a familiar yellow boat, and the man driving it.

Charlie Florek was nineteen when Alice took his photo from afar. Now he’s all grown up—a shameless flirt, who manages to make Nan laugh and Alice long to be seventeen again, when life was simpler, when taking pictures was just for fun. Sun-slanted days and warm nights out on the lake with Charlie are a balm for Alice’s soul, but when she looks up and sees his piercing green gaze directly on her, she begins to worry for her heart.

Because Alice sees people—that’s why she is so good at what she does—but she’s never met someone who looks and sees her right back.]]> 400 Carley Fortune 0593638913 hamna 5 4.47 2025
author: Carley Fortune
name: hamna
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/03
date added: 2025/04/05
shelves: adult, arcs, contemporary, friends-to-lovers, romance, favorites
review:
i dragged this book out for so, so long because the thought of it ending was (is!) breaking my heart. i’m still in the trenches, i’m so sad. my loveliest, most adored characters ever, written by one of my favorite authors. i cannot believe how wonderful this book was and how much i love love love this entire universe. thank you so much to berkley for the arc. 5/5 stars and rtc when i’m a bit more gathered.
]]> 218559595 Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger-than-life story of a woman with more than a couple of plot twists up her sleeve in this dazzling and sweeping new novel from Emily Henry.

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

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

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

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

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

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

And it’s becoming abundantly clear that their story—just like the tale Margaret’s spinning—could be a mystery, tragedy, or love ballad…depending on who’s telling it.]]> 384 Emily Henry 059344129X hamna 3 3.5 4.26 2025
author: Emily Henry
name: hamna
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/03
date added: 2025/04/05
shelves: adult, arcs, contemporary, romance, workplace-romance
review:
3.5
]]> 32261 here and here.

When Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy D’Urbervilles and seek a portion of their family fortune, meeting her ‘cousin�� Alec proves to be her downfall. A very different man, Angel Clare, seems to offer her love and salvation, but Tess must choose whether to reveal her past or remain silent in the hope of a peaceful future.]]> 518 Thomas Hardy hamna 0 to-read, 2025-tbr 3.83 1891
author: Thomas Hardy
name: hamna
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1891
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/04
shelves: to-read, 2025-tbr
review:

]]> 139400713 Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! is a paean to how we spend our lives seeking meaning—in faith, art, ourselves, others—in which a newly sober, orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, guided by the voices of artists, poets, and kings, embarks on a search that leads him to a terminally ill painter living out her final days in the Brooklyn Museum.

Cyrus Shams is a young man grappling with an inheritance of violence and loss: his mother’s plane was shot down over the skies of Tehran in a senseless accident; and his father’s life in America was circumscribed by his work killing chickens at a factory farm in the Midwest. Cyrus is a drunk, an addict, and a poet, whose obsession with martyrs leads him to examine the mysteries of his past—toward an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields dressed as the Angel of death to inspire and comfort the dying, and toward his mother, through a painting discovered in a Brooklyn art gallery that suggests she may not have been who or what she seemed.

Electrifying, funny, wholly original, and profound, Martyr! heralds the arrival of a blazing and essential new voice in contemporary fiction.]]> 331 Kaveh Akbar 0593537610 hamna 0 to-read 4.23 2024
author: Kaveh Akbar
name: hamna
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 222376577 From the New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six , Girl Dinner is a darkly-fun novel about power, lust, and eating your fill, as wealthy moms and sorority girls practice a sinister new wellness trend . . .

Good girls deserve a treat.

Every member of The House, the most exclusive sorority on campus, and all its alumni, are beautiful, high-achieving, and universally respected.

After a freshman year she would rather forget, sophomore Nina Kaur knows being one of the chosen few accepted into The House is the first step in her path to the brightest possible future. Once she's taken into their fold, the House will surely ease her fears of failure and protect her from those who see a young woman on her own as easy prey.

Meanwhile, adjunct professor Dr. Sloane Hartley is struggling to return to work after accepting a demotion to support her partner's new position at the cutthroat University. After 18 months at home with her newborn daughter, Sloane's clothes don’t fit right, her girl-dad husband isn’t as present as he thinks he is, and even the few hours a day she's apart from her child fill her psyche with paralyzing ennui. When invited to be The House’s academic liaison, Sloane enviously drinks in the way the alumnae seem to have it all, achieving a level of collective perfection that Sloane so desperately craves.

As Nina and Sloane each get drawn deeper into the arcane rituals of the sisterhood, they learn that living well comes with bloody costs. And when they are finally invited to the table, they will have to decide just how much they can stomach in the name of solidarity and power.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 368 Olivie Blake 1250883458 hamna 0 currently-reading 4.14 2025
author: Olivie Blake
name: hamna
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 212174157 From an electrifying new voice in epic fantasy comes The Raven Scholar, a masterfully woven and playfully inventive tale of imperial intrigue, cutthroat competition, and one scholar’s quest to uncover the truth.

Let us fly now to the empire of Orrun, where after twenty-four years of peace, Bersun the Brusque must end his reign. In the dizzying heat of mid-summer, seven contenders compete to replace him. They are exceptional warriors, thinkers, strategists—the best of the best.

Then one of them is murdered.

It falls to Neema Kraa, the emperor’s brilliant, idiosyncratic High Scholar, to find the killer before the trials end. To do so, she must untangle a web of deadly secrets that stretches back generations, all while competing against six warriors with their own dark histories and fierce ambitions. Neema believes she is alone. But we are here to help; all she has to do is let us in.

If she succeeds, she will win the throne. If she fails, death awaits her. But we won’t let that happen.

We are the Raven, and we are magnificent.]]> 704 Antonia Hodgson 152933988X hamna 0 to-read 4.48 2025
author: Antonia Hodgson
name: hamna
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 172366 36 Jorge Luis Borges 156792123X hamna 5 classics “but the certainty that everything has been already written nullifies or makes phantoms of us all / no one can articulate a syllable which is not full of tenderness and fear, and which is not, in one of those languages, the powerful name of some god. to speak is to fall into tautologies.��

i read this because i wanted to read a mathematical analysis behind an “unending library�� but i’m a little stunned with how much this work managed to convey in such short pagespan. obsessed with the text (it’s haunting me a little), and i think i’ll ponder over this short story for ages to come. 5/5 stars.]]> 4.37 1941
author: Jorge Luis Borges
name: hamna
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1941
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/30
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: classics
review:
“but the certainty that everything has been already written nullifies or makes phantoms of us all / no one can articulate a syllable which is not full of tenderness and fear, and which is not, in one of those languages, the powerful name of some god. to speak is to fall into tautologies.��

i read this because i wanted to read a mathematical analysis behind an “unending library�� but i’m a little stunned with how much this work managed to convey in such short pagespan. obsessed with the text (it’s haunting me a little), and i think i’ll ponder over this short story for ages to come. 5/5 stars.
]]> 60386342 This dark and thrilling vampire romance—set in the world of the New York Times bestselling Serpent & Dove series—is perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas!

Célie Tremblay has always been a good girl: kind and beautiful, a daughter of whom every parent would be proud. She surprises the entire kingdom when she defies tradition to become the first huntswoman—including her new captain and fiancé, Jean Luc, who rules the huntsmen with an iron fist. He isn’t the only one concerned for Célie’s safety, however. Though her friends try to protect her from the horrors of her past, mysterious whispers still haunt her, and a new evil is rising in Belterra—leaving bodies in its wake, each one drained of blood.

Determined to prove herself in her new role, Célie tracks the killer to the lair of Les Éternels—ancient creatures only spoken about in nursery rhymes—and catches the attention of their king, a monster who hides his plans for her behind beautiful words and sharp smiles. Now Célie has new reason to fear the dark because the closer he gets, the more tempted she feels to give in to his dark hunger—and her own.]]> 640 Shelby Mahurin 0063258757 hamna 0 to-read 4.11 2023
author: Shelby Mahurin
name: hamna
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 54700397 50 George Orwell 2491704811 hamna 5 non-fiction what is above all needed is to let the meaning choose the word, and not the other way about / in prose, the worst thing one can do with words is to surrender to them.]]> 4.33 1946
author: George Orwell
name: hamna
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1946
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/24
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: non-fiction
review:
what is above all needed is to let the meaning choose the word, and not the other way about / in prose, the worst thing one can do with words is to surrender to them.
]]> 214331246 When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?

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

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

When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.]]> 382 Suzanne Collins 1546171460 hamna 3 young-adult, sci-fi sunrise on the reaping claim the same?
so. who is haymitch? we have an idea already, of course, from the original books. he’s a loved character, fans have been begging for his book for over a decade. it’s nothing new. we know haymitch as he is, once-lost and cognizant, but who was he at the start? i’ve finished this book, and i still don’t really know. he’s not particularly inspiring or moving, his ambitions and motivations seemed covered in haze, nothing about his thought process (and actions) makes sense, and every “rebellious�� choice he makes is usually spur of the moment and/or entirely borrowed. it’s hard to believe most (if not all) of his relationships, be it to lenore dove or the multitude of people he comes across. we’re told to blindly accept his romance subplot more than shown, so i never quite get a grasp on any of the details: why they loved each other or how their relationship blossomed. anything worthwhile, anything convincingly meaningful. lenore does not even feel like a character in her own right, save for a cushion for him to pin all his fear and aspirations on. she’s a blurred copy of lucy gray, greatly distilled, and snow/haymitch having a gf-off was maybe not on my list of things this book would conceivably bring up.
but let’s ignore that! let’s focus on the plot! the storyline is sadly kind of boringNNDKS i mean. like i said. we already know what’s going to happen. what elevates that? the fine print. but there really isn’t much go on with, because the characters are badly realized and one-step-away from being archetypal. i don’t understand how we’re supposed to buy these “lifelong�� bonds that begin out of nowhere, from a sentence or two, which aren’t very moving in the first place. a lot of the development feels artificial, the interview was borderline embarrassing (sorry) and i feel like there’s a lot leftover to be developed. the games start, and even though the players are double the normal amount, we never actually feel double the stakes (or any stakes at all) because haymitch is, all along, on a side quest. and i get it, but on god, it was so underwhelming and haymitch proves to be an incredibly weak main character.
around 75% things pick up. we find a little momentum within the story and the games, emotions rise and go haywire, and definitive choices made in a way they weren’t before. i was interested because finally i understood where haymitch stood, divided between the threat of the aftermath and the much more immediate, and urgent, macabre at his neck. the narrative feels more conclusive and defining as the story tires on, as we find ourselves (mostly) back into the hunger games world. is that a positive, or is it just the author finding relief in previously defined resolutions? hard to tell. the final act, with lenore dove dying and the fallout is maybe the best writing in this entire book. it’s sharp and quick, astute and jagged, and it brings to home the unapologetic point of this entire universe: ”don’t you.. let [the sun].. rise…�� she gets out. tears choke me. her head jerks a bit to the side. “…on the reaping.��
intermission. the book pauses. the message settles in. this is lenore dove’s sign. her message to me now. her reminder that i must prevent another sunrise on the reaping. and it says, ��you promised me.�� with that, she condemns me to life.
fast forward. epilogue. when lenore dove comes to me now, she’s not angry or dying, so i think she’s forgiven me. it’s poignant and it’s heartbreaking, and if the whole book worked with this perception and insight, with a spurring reason, a sort of wise-look-back, i feel like i would’ve loved it a lot more than i do now. because it’s important and so relevant, the message this series has been trying to bring home for the past 17 years. i feel like we should let suzanne collins know it came to fruition with mockingjay.

sunrise on the reaping doesn’t add much to the story. we’re still where we ever were, which was a good place i might add, but it gives you a slight more context and perspective to the history of panem, to the embers of rebellion and the work that went into it, years before katniss ever came into play. living proof, even if it was erased out of memory. which isn’t much i guess? but it’s something. and the epilogue, with katniss and the corollary, was so, so important to me. all in all, i think this book is largely a retcon-ey nostalgia bait and i’m happy if it works for some but it felt so tiresome, since most of the political and otherwise themes have already been long developed and this story cannot, ultimately, rationalize its existence. 3/5 stars.]]> 4.68 2025
author: Suzanne Collins
name: hamna
average rating: 4.68
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/22
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: young-adult, sci-fi
review:
well this was actually kind of disappointing. very nothing burger of a book but not bad? i don’t know how to judge it really, it could be 2 stars and it could veer into 3.5 stars but ultimately this book feels…misplaced. maybe even pointless? the start is incredibly weak, with some of the worst writing i’ve come across in ages. we get past this after the first few chapters, and the narration finds its place: it’s not very good, but it *is* settled. the plot is as you’d imagine: the reaping, your name gets picked, capitol parade, the games, the mc wins, goes home traumatized. we didn’t need a new book just to tick off all these plot points. what’s left? the build up. the characters. the backstory to one of the biggest, most affecting trilogies in modern dystopia. i am not someone who liked tbosas (i gave it one star) but i do understand the purpose for the book, a character study into the villain who haunted so many of our beloved characters for so long. can sunrise on the reaping claim the same?
so. who is haymitch? we have an idea already, of course, from the original books. he’s a loved character, fans have been begging for his book for over a decade. it’s nothing new. we know haymitch as he is, once-lost and cognizant, but who was he at the start? i’ve finished this book, and i still don’t really know. he’s not particularly inspiring or moving, his ambitions and motivations seemed covered in haze, nothing about his thought process (and actions) makes sense, and every “rebellious�� choice he makes is usually spur of the moment and/or entirely borrowed. it’s hard to believe most (if not all) of his relationships, be it to lenore dove or the multitude of people he comes across. we’re told to blindly accept his romance subplot more than shown, so i never quite get a grasp on any of the details: why they loved each other or how their relationship blossomed. anything worthwhile, anything convincingly meaningful. lenore does not even feel like a character in her own right, save for a cushion for him to pin all his fear and aspirations on. she’s a blurred copy of lucy gray, greatly distilled, and snow/haymitch having a gf-off was maybe not on my list of things this book would conceivably bring up.
but let’s ignore that! let’s focus on the plot! the storyline is sadly kind of boringNNDKS i mean. like i said. we already know what’s going to happen. what elevates that? the fine print. but there really isn’t much go on with, because the characters are badly realized and one-step-away from being archetypal. i don’t understand how we’re supposed to buy these “lifelong�� bonds that begin out of nowhere, from a sentence or two, which aren’t very moving in the first place. a lot of the development feels artificial, the interview was borderline embarrassing (sorry) and i feel like there’s a lot leftover to be developed. the games start, and even though the players are double the normal amount, we never actually feel double the stakes (or any stakes at all) because haymitch is, all along, on a side quest. and i get it, but on god, it was so underwhelming and haymitch proves to be an incredibly weak main character.
around 75% things pick up. we find a little momentum within the story and the games, emotions rise and go haywire, and definitive choices made in a way they weren’t before. i was interested because finally i understood where haymitch stood, divided between the threat of the aftermath and the much more immediate, and urgent, macabre at his neck. the narrative feels more conclusive and defining as the story tires on, as we find ourselves (mostly) back into the hunger games world. is that a positive, or is it just the author finding relief in previously defined resolutions? hard to tell. the final act, with lenore dove dying and the fallout is maybe the best writing in this entire book. it’s sharp and quick, astute and jagged, and it brings to home the unapologetic point of this entire universe: ”don’t you.. let [the sun].. rise…�� she gets out. tears choke me. her head jerks a bit to the side. “…on the reaping.��
intermission. the book pauses. the message settles in. this is lenore dove’s sign. her message to me now. her reminder that i must prevent another sunrise on the reaping. and it says, ��you promised me.�� with that, she condemns me to life.
fast forward. epilogue. when lenore dove comes to me now, she’s not angry or dying, so i think she’s forgiven me. it’s poignant and it’s heartbreaking, and if the whole book worked with this perception and insight, with a spurring reason, a sort of wise-look-back, i feel like i would’ve loved it a lot more than i do now. because it’s important and so relevant, the message this series has been trying to bring home for the past 17 years. i feel like we should let suzanne collins know it came to fruition with mockingjay.

sunrise on the reaping doesn’t add much to the story. we’re still where we ever were, which was a good place i might add, but it gives you a slight more context and perspective to the history of panem, to the embers of rebellion and the work that went into it, years before katniss ever came into play. living proof, even if it was erased out of memory. which isn’t much i guess? but it’s something. and the epilogue, with katniss and the corollary, was so, so important to me. all in all, i think this book is largely a retcon-ey nostalgia bait and i’m happy if it works for some but it felt so tiresome, since most of the political and otherwise themes have already been long developed and this story cannot, ultimately, rationalize its existence. 3/5 stars.
]]> 216625982 Utterly riveting, Solvej Balle’s On the Calculation of Volume (Book I) is the grand opening of her speculative fiction septology, winner of the 2022 Nordic Council Literature Prize (Scandinavia’s most important literary award) for being “a masterpiece of its time.”��


Tara Selter, the heroine of On the Calculation of Volume, has involuntarily stepped off the train of in her world, November eighteenth repeats itself endlessly. We meet Tara on her 122nd November 18 she no longer experiences the changes of days, weeks, months, or seasons. She finds herself in a lonely new reality without being able to explain how is it that she wakes every morning into the same day, knowing to the exact second when the blackbird will burst into song and when the rain will begin? Will she ever be able to share her new life with her beloved and now chronically befuddled husband? And on top of her profound isolation and confusion, Tara takes in with pain how slight a difference she makes in the world. (As she puts “That’s how little the activities of one person matter on the eighteenth of November.��)


Balle is hypnotic and masterful in her remixing of the endless recursive day, creating curious little folds of time and her flashbacks light up inside the text like old flash bulbs.


The first volume’s gravitational pull—a force inverse to its constriction—has the effect of a strong tranquilizer, but a drug under which your powers of observation only grow sharper and more acute. Give in to the book's logic (its minute movements, its thrilling shifts, its slant wit, its slowing of time) and its spell is utterly intoxicating.


Solvej Balle’s seven-volume novel wrings enthralling and magical new dimensions from time and its hapless, mortal subjects.�� As one Danish reviewer beautifully put it, Balle’s fiction consists of writing that listens. “Reading her is like being caressed by language itself.”]]> 164 Solvej Balle 0811237265 hamna 4 3.98 2020
author: Solvej Balle
name: hamna
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/24
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: adult, borrowed, literary, sci-fi
review:
this has been on my tbr for so long it’s actually a little surreal that i’ve just finished it? i don’t know. an overplayed concept, not without its follies, but the writing (and the translation) and the subsequent tangents were so interesting to read about, deft yet meandering, resonating through an alarming and increasingly depressive cycle (in time, but also in life). i cannot wait to read the other installments.
]]> 224970641
In this gritty, haunting tale about doing whatever it takes for love, a small-town storyteller resolves to keep the local monster—and her own secrets—safe from a legendary knight.

Nestled deep in the steep hills, valleys, and surrounding woodlands lies Iron Hollow, a rural community beset by demons. Such horrors are common in the outlands, where most folks die young, if they don’t turn into monsters first. But what’s causing these transformations?

No one has the answer, not even the town’s oral historian, seventeen-year-old Shrike. And when a legendary knight is summoned to hunt down the latest beast to haunt their woods, Shrike has more reason than most to be concerned. Because that demon was her wife. And while Shrike is certain that May still recognizes her—that May is still human, somewhere beneath it all—she can’t prove it.

Determined to keep May safe, Shrike stalks the knight and his demon-hunting hawk through the recesses of the forest. But as they creep through toxic creeks and overgrown kudzu, Shrike realizes the knight has a secret of his own. And he’ll do anything to protect it.]]> 36 Alix E. Harrow 1662527233 hamna 4 4.08 2025
author: Alix E. Harrow
name: hamna
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves:
review:

]]> 52689537 Longlisted for the 2019 Booker Prize

A moving novel on the power of friendship in our darkest times, from internationally renowned writer and speaker Elif Shafak.

In the pulsating moments after she has been murdered and left in a dumpster outside Istanbul, Tequila Leila enters a state of heightened awareness. While the Turkish sun rises above her and her friends asleep soundly nearby, she contemplates her mortal existence before eternal rest.

Tequila Leila's memories bring us back to her childhood in the provinces, a highly oppressive milieu where a loving mother is no match for a strict, unforgiving father. Escaping to Istanbul, Leila makes her way into the sordid industry of sex trafficking, finding a home in the city's historic Street of Brothels. This is a dark, violent world, but Leila is tough and open to beauty, light, and the essential bonds of friendship.

In Tequila Leila's death, the secrets and wonders of modern Istanbul come to life, painted vividly by the captivating tales of how Leila came to know and be loved by her friends. As her epic journey to the afterlife comes to an end, it is they who bring her story to a buoyant and breathtaking conclusion.
]]> 320 Elif Shafak 163557448X hamna 0 to-read 4.15 2019
author: Elif Shafak
name: hamna
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 214151316
Bree Matthews is alone. She exiled herself from the Legendborn Order, cut her ancestral connections, and turned away from the friends who can’t understand the impossible cost of her powers. This is the only way to keep herself—and those she loves—safe.

But Bree’s decision has come with a terrible price: an unbreakable bargain with the Shadow King himself, a shapeshifter who can move between humanity, the demon underworld, and the Legendborn secret society. In exchange for training to wield her unprecedented abilities, Bree has put her future in the Shadow King’s hands—and unwittingly bound herself to do his bidding as his new protégé.

Meanwhile, the other Scions must face war with their Round Table fractured, leaderless, and missing its Kingsmage, as Selwyn has also disappeared. When Nick is detained by the Order’s Merlins, he invokes an ancient law that requires the High Council of Regents to convene at the Northern Keep and grant him an audience. No one knows what he will demand of them...or what secrets he has kept hidden from the Table.

As a string of mysterious kidnappings escalates and Merlins are found dead, it becomes clear that no matter how hard Bree runs from who she is, the past will always find her.]]> 656 Tracy Deonn 1665951907 hamna 3 4.45 2025
author: Tracy Deonn
name: hamna
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/17
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: fantasy, retellings, young-adult
review:
hhh so this was kind of funny. bree having amnesia in this book
]]> 38457091 New York Times bestselling Neapolitan quartet about two friends growing up in post-war Italy is a rich, intense, and generous-hearted family epic by Italy’s most beloved and acclaimed writer, Elena Ferrante, “one of the great novelists of our time.�� (Roxana Robinson, The New York Times)
��
Beginning in the 1950s in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples, Ferrante’s four-volume story spans almost sixty years, as its protagonists, the fiery and unforgettable Lila, and the bookish narrator, Elena, become women, wives, mothers, and leaders, all the while maintaining a complex and at times conflictual friendship. Book one in the series follows Lila and Elena from their first fateful meeting as ten-year-olds through their school years and adolescence.��

Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighborhood, a city, and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her protagonists.

“An intoxicatingly furious portrait of enmeshed friends,�� writes Entertainment Weekly. “Spectacular,�� says Maureen Corrigan on NPR’s Fresh Air. “A large, captivating, amiably peopled bildungsroman,�� writes James Wood in The New Yorker

Ferrante is one of the world’s great storytellers. With My Brilliant Friend she has given her readers an abundant, generous, and masterfully plotted page-turner that is also a stylish work of literary fiction destined to delight readers for many generations to come.]]> 387 Elena Ferrante hamna 0 currently-reading 4.06 2011
author: Elena Ferrante
name: hamna
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 8665743 The Myth of Sisyphus transformed twentieth-century philosophy with its impassioned argument for the value of life in a world without religious meaning.]]> 212 Albert Camus hamna 0 not-finished 4.05 1942
author: Albert Camus
name: hamna
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1942
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: not-finished
review:

]]> 222117842
Her hometown has always given her surf, sand, and inspiration. But when her parents decide to close the family music venue, Joni’s life begins to fall off key �� she couldn’t possibly write another song. Until a melody comes to her, half-formed, and with an imagined voice that she can’t forget.

But when the very real, very aggravating man behind the voice shows up in Vienna Shores �� Joni can no longer deny their inexplicable telepathic connection.

To get out of each other’s heads, they’ll have to finish the song haunting them both. But there’s just one problem �� they can’t agree on anything �� and if they don’t change their tune, it might just end in heartbreak first…]]> 400 Ashley Poston 0008644365 hamna 0 arc-tbr 2.00 2025
author: Ashley Poston
name: hamna
average rating: 2.00
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves: arc-tbr
review:

]]> 199971078
Based on the podcast with over 100 million downloads, Fall of Civilizations brilliantly explores how a range of ancient societies rose to power and sophistication, and how they tipped over into collapse.

Across the centuries, we journey from the great empires of Mesopotamia to those of Khmer and Vijayanagara in Asia and Songhai in West Africa; from Byzantium to the Maya, Inca and Aztecs of Central America; from Roman Britain to Rapa Nui. With meticulous research, breathtaking insight and dazzling, empathic storytelling, historian and novelist Paul Cooper evokes the majesty and jeopardy of these ancient civilizations, and asks what it might have felt like for a person alive at the time to witness the end of their world.]]> 544 Paul M.M. Cooper 0715655000 hamna 0 to-read 4.56 2024
author: Paul M.M. Cooper
name: hamna
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 215020997 London, 1837.
Boston, 2019.

Three young women, their bodies planted in the same soil, their stories tangling like roots.

One grows high, and one grows deep, and one grows wild.

And all of them grow teeth.]]> 560 Victoria E. Schwab 1035064642 hamna 0 arc-tbr 4.38 2025
author: Victoria E. Schwab
name: hamna
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: arc-tbr
review:

]]> 216425505

An unnamed writer embarks on an obsessive journey through Europe, drawn to the gravesites of her literary idols--Cesare Pavese, Italo Svevo, Franz Kafka--putting her life, her writing, and her politics in conversation with theirs.

Untethered and spirit-like herself, she moves among European cities: Berlin, Hamburg, Prague, Vienna, Zagreb, and Belgrade. At times there are companions--lovers and others--but she remains steadfast in her solitude. As she is uncannily drawn to Pavese's suicide, her journey transmutes passion for literature into desire for meaning.

Occupying a liminal space between past and present, life and death, Journey to the Edge of Life is a deeply inquisitive, atmospheric, and rebellious novel that shows what such a journey can mean for a woman who has spent her life within the confines established by others.]]> 184 Tezer Özlü hamna 0 arc-tbr 4.00
author: Tezer Özlü
name: hamna
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/11
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]]> 220239023 When a young book publicist finds herself in an all-consuming workplace affair with her literary idol, she learns that the things you love most can sometimes be the very things that tear you apart in this intoxicating and moving debut novel.

Charlie hasn’t always had high hopes for herself. But now at twenty-three, she’s landed her dream job��as an assistant��at a historic��London��publishing house, moved into a stunning townhome with two of the most glamorous, kind and generous��people she’s ever met, and her favorite author, the award-winning, generation-defining,��charming��Richard Aveling, is about to publish his magnum opus—and Charlie is going to be working with him.

She couldn’t be more excited to help publish the man whose writing has inspired her since she was a teenager. When Charlie bumps into Richard while having a smoke in the rain, the attraction is immediate,��and the moment feels nothing short of cinematic.

So��when the Richard Aveling begins to take her advice over that of more senior staff, Charlie finds herself drawn to him despite their thirty-year age gap, his marriage, and the disparity in their power at the publishing house. Once Richard makes it clear that he’s drawn to her as well, they begin an affair that Charlie never saw coming;��it is a relationship founded in control and silence.

Too soon, she can’t imagine her life without Richard, and too late, she understands that losing him will unravel more than just their relationship…it might also unravel her.

Tender and poignant, Bitter Sweet is an intimate exploration��of power, of vulnerability, of what it means to love another person, and of what it means to love yourself.]]> 304 Hattie Williams 059387420X hamna 0 arc-tbr 4.34
author: Hattie Williams
name: hamna
average rating: 4.34
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: arc-tbr
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]]> 198137731 From the bestselling author of Funny You Should Ask comes an inspiring romance novel about honoring the past, living in the present, and loving for the future.

In her small Montana hometown, Lauren Parker has assumed a few different roles: teenage hellraiser; sister of superstar Gabe Parker; and most recently, tragically widowed single mother. She’s never cared much about labels or what people thought about her, but dealing with her grief has slowly revealed that she’s become adrift in her own life.

Then she meets the devilishly handsome actor Ben Walsh on the set of her brother’s new movie. They have instant chemistry, and Lauren realizes that it has been far too long since someone has really and truly seen her. Her rebellious spirit spurs her to dive headfirst into her desire, but when a sexy encounter becomes something more, Lauren finds herself balancing old roles and new possibilities.

There’s still plenty to contend with: small-town rumors, the complications of Ben’s fame, and her daughter’s unpredictable moods. An unexpected fling seemed simple at the time—so when did everything with Ben get so complicated? And is there enough room in her life for the woman Lauren wants to be? Alternating between Lauren’s past with Spencer and her present with Ben, Totally and Completely Fine illuminates what it means to find a life-changing love and be true to oneself in the process.]]> 448 Elissa Sussman 0593725174 hamna 0 arc-tbr 4.06 2025
author: Elissa Sussman
name: hamna
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/11
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]]> 219334122 The sequel to Of Jade and Dragons, a��thrilling and epic silkpunk fantasy inspired by the legendary Qing dynasty. Perfect for fans of Elizabeth Lim and Xiran Jay Zhao.

Two years after Ying leaves the Engineer’s Guild and the ghost of her father’s unjust death behind, life seems to regain a semblance of normalcy. But the winds of unrest continue to stir within the Nine Isles, and the aftermath of a horrific pirate attack by the mysterious Blood Phoenix fleet forces Ying back into the tense political world of the new High Commander, Ye-yang. And soon, Ying, Ye-yang and her former friends from the guild must work together to find a way to outsmart the cunning pirates who terrorise the straits—and the elusive mastermind who’s controlling them.����

Meanwhile, Ying’s sister, Nian, now lives in the capital, awaiting the day she will finally marry the High Commander. While her relationship with Ye-yang remains distant, she finds company in her friendship with the fourteenth prince, Ye-kan, and discovers her unexpected affinity for governance and strategy. But the capital is more dangerous than she expects, and when a dark conspiracy arises, Nian and Ye-kan must unravel the mystery in time to prevent the High Command from collapsing from within.��

New dangers arise at every moment, threatening to tear the Nine Isles apart. In order to sail through this storm, Ying and her loved ones must make difficult choices amidst terrible betrayals. With the world on the brink of destruction, will they find a way to defeat their enemies and survive? And will it be worth the cost?]]> Amber Chen 0593622790 hamna 0 arc-tbr 3.78 2025
author: Amber Chen
name: hamna
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: arc-tbr
review:

]]> 221228045
All stories come to an end.

Effy learned that when she defeated the Fairy King. Even though she may never know exactly what happened at Hiraeth, she is free of her nightmares and is able to pen a thesis with Preston on the beloved national fairy tale Angharad. She has finally earned a spot at the literature college, making her the first woman in history to enroll.

But some dreams are dangerous, especially when they come true. The entire university—and soon the entire nation—is waiting for her to fail. With the Fairy King defeated and Myrddin’s legacy exposed, Effy can no longer escape into fantasy. Who is she without her stories?

With Effy under threat, Preston is surprised to discover a rage simmering inside him, ringing in his ears like bells. He begins to dream of a palace under the sea, a world where he is king—visions that start to follow him even in waking.

As the war between Llyr and Argant explodes, Effy and Preston find themselves caught in the crossfire: Effy losing her dreams and Preston losing himself in his.

Are dreams ever truly just dreams?]]> 416 Ava Reid 0063421674 hamna 0 arc-tbr 3.94 2025
author: Ava Reid
name: hamna
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: arc-tbr
review:

]]> 219301783
Last week, Nina Hunnicutt was a professor about to move into a gorgeous new apartment with her long-term boyfriend. Now, she’s single, unemployed, and living with her parents. Even more surprising is the fact that Quentin Bell, her childhood neighbor (and okay, fine, crush), is also back in town—and wants to resume the treasure hunt that ended their friendship almost two decades ago.

Hoping the reward promised to whoever finds the rumored riches left behind by the town’s eccentric turn-of-the-century seltzer magnate will help her get her life back on track, Nina agrees. Granted, last time the search resulted in a broken heart and seventeen years of silence. But Nina’s older and wiser now—surely things will be different.

Except, Quentin is also older and wiser…not to mention distractingly handsome. As they resume their hunt, Nina and Quentin begin to rediscover all the things they once loved best about each other. But unlike the treasure, the secrets that left them empty-handed the first time refuse to stay buried. If there’s any hope of finding what they’re looking for—and for a future together—Nina and Quentin will have to be brave enough to excavate their past as well.]]> 400 Sarah Adler 0593817427 hamna 0 arc-tbr 4.11 2025
author: Sarah Adler
name: hamna
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/11
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review:

]]> 220817728 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six comes an epic new novel set against the backdrop of the 1980s Space Shuttle program about the extraordinary lengths we go to live and love beyond our limits.

Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s Space Shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space.

Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond and scientist John Griffin, who are kind and easy-going even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warm-hearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane.

As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe.

Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, everything changes in an instant.

Fast-paced, thrilling, and emotional, Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her best: transporting readers to iconic times and places, with complex protagonists, telling a passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love, this time among the stars.]]> 352 Taylor Jenkins Reid 0593158717 hamna 0 arc-tbr 4.44 2025
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: hamna
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/11
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review:

]]> 203073876 Six students at Blackwood Academy, an enigmatic boarding school located at the edge of the afterlife, must compete for the once-in-eternity chance to change their fate—or risk remaining stuck in purgatory forever. An unputdownable debut full of hairpin twists, shock betrayals and world-defying love, for fans of The Atlas Six.

Welcome to Blackwood Academy: the legendary school located on the fringes of the afterlife. Once a pupil enters the academy’s arched gates, there is no way out . . . except for the Decennial, a once-in-a-decade celebration in which a single, worthy student is tested and given a choice: Graduate and join Blackwood’s magical elite, or cross over to the mysterious Other Side.

This time, though, the rules have changed. This Decennial isn’t a celebration—it’s a competition. And there can only be one victor.

Two academic archrivals, whose strange connection blurs the lines between obsession and hate.

One girl driven solely by ambition, and another plagued by memories of the love she lost.

And a charming playboy who never cared for anyone—until he met the academy’s newest student.

Each of these six students has their own motivation to win . . . and their own secret to hide. But what none of them know? They aren’t the only ones playing Blackwood’s game. And if they lose. . . some fates are worse than death.]]> 512 I.V. Marie 0008783713 hamna 0 arc-tbr 4.53 2025
author: I.V. Marie
name: hamna
average rating: 4.53
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/11
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]]> 53403588 In the great walled city of Isara, political turmoil ignites a rebellion one hundred years in the making. But when a legionnaire falls in love with a Magistrate's daughter, their love will threaten the fate of the city and the will of the gods.

Luca Matius has one purpose—to carry on the family name, maintaining its presence in the Forum once his powerful and cruel uncle dies. But his noviceship with the city's Philosopher places him in the middle of a catastrophe that will alter the destiny of his people.

Maris Casoeria was raised amidst the strategic maneuvers of the Citadel's inner workings, and she knows what her future holds—a lifetime of service to a corrupt city. But her years of serving as a novice to the last Priestess who possesses the stolen magic of the Old War has made her envision a different kind of future for the city. When she meets Luca, a fated chain of events is set into motion that will divinely entangle their lives.

As a secret comes to light and throws the city into chaos, Luca and Maris hatch a plot to create a calculated alliance that could tip the scales of power. But when an execution forces Luca to become the symbol of rebellion, he and Maris are thrown onto opposite sides of a holy war. As their fates diverge, they learn they are at the center of a story the gods are writing. And even if they can find their way back to each other, there may be nothing left.]]> 400 Adrienne Young hamna 0 arc-tbr 4.58 2025
author: Adrienne Young
name: hamna
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/11
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]]> 219446158 A breathtaking romantic fantasy inspired by Beauty and the Beast about a girl who paints the future and a cursed dragon lord, bound by love and deception in a plot to bring down the gods.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Six Crimson Cranes!

Truyan Saigas didn't choose to become a con artist, but after her father is lost at sea, it’s up to her to support her mother and two younger sisters. A gifted art forger, Tru has the unique ability to paint the future, but even such magic is not enough to put her family back together again, or stave off the gangsters demanding payment in blood for her mother’s gambling debts.

Left with few options, Tru agrees to a marriage contract with a mysterious dragon lord. He offers a fresh start for her mother and sisters and elusive answers about her father's disappearance, but in exchange, she must join him in his desolate undersea palace. And she must assist him in a plot to infiltrate the tyrannical Dragon King's inner circle, painting a future so treasonous, it could upend both the mortal and immortal realms. . . .]]> Elizabeth Lim 0593650638 hamna 0 arc-tbr 4.49 2025
author: Elizabeth Lim
name: hamna
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/11
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]]> 222376906
Ten years ago, Vincent of Beckett wrote to Matilda on the darkest night of his life―begging the goddess he befriended in dreams to help him. When his request went unanswered, Vincent moved on, becoming the hardened, irreverent lord of the river who has long forgotten Matilda. That is, until she comes tumbling into his bedroom window with a letter for him.

As Fate would have it, Matilda and Vincent were destined to find each other beyond dreams. There may be a chance for Matilda to rewrite the blood-soaked ways of the gods, but at immense sacrifice. She will have to face something she fears even more than losing her magic: to be vulnerable, and to allow herself to finally be loved.]]> 544 Rebecca Ross 1250373352 hamna 0 arc-tbr 4.78 2025
author: Rebecca Ross
name: hamna
average rating: 4.78
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/11
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]]> 220175416 This enchanting and atmospheric fantasy brings readers to a Paris breathless with excitement at the dawn of the twentieth century. But for a select few there is a��second, secret Paris where the magic of the City of Light is very real.��
��
In the run up to the 1900s World’s Fair Paris is abuzz with creative energy and innovation. Audiences are spellbound by the Lumiere brothers�� moving pictures and Loie Fuller’s serpentine dance fusing art and technology. But for Clara Ironwood, a talented and pragmatic clockworker, nothing compares to the magic of her godfather’s mechanical creations, and she’d rather spend her days working on the Palace of Illusions, an intricate hall of mirrors that is one of the centerpieces of the world’s fair.
��
When her godfather sends Clara a hideous nutcracker for Christmas, she is puzzled until she finds a hidden compartment that unlocks a��mirror-world Paris where the Seine is musical, fountains spout lemonade, and��mechanical ballerinas move with human grace. The magic of her godfather’s toys was real.��
��
As Clara explores this other Paris and begins to imbue her own creations with its magic, she soon discovers a darker side to innovation. Suspicious men begin to approach her outside of work,��and she could swear a shadow is following her. There’s no ignoring the danger she’s in, but Clara doesn't know who to trust. The magic of the two Parises are colliding and Clara must find the strength within herself to save them both.]]> 480 Rowenna Miller 0316571946 hamna 0 arc-tbr 4.14 2025
author: Rowenna Miller
name: hamna
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/11
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review:

]]> 216247518 One woman, the performance of a lifetime. Or two. A mesmerizing Mobius strip of a novel that asks who we are to the people we love.

Two people meet for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant. She’s an elegant and accomplished actress in rehearsals for an upcoming premiere. He’s attractive, troubling, and young—young enough to be her son. Who is he to her, and who is she to him? In Audition, two competing narratives unspool, rewriting our understanding of the roles we play every day—partner, parent, creator, muse—and the truths every performance masks, especially from those who think they know us best.]]> 208 Katie Kitamura 059385232X hamna 0 arc-tbr 3.89 2025
author: Katie Kitamura
name: hamna
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/11
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review:

]]> 216623880 In the thrilling conclusion to the Egyptian-inspired Scorched Throne duology, a fugitive queen may be the key to restoring her lost kingdom of Jasad, but it could cost her everything and everyone she loves.

Held deep in a mountain refuge, Sylvia has been captured by the Urabi, who believe she can return their homeland to its former power. But after years of denying her legacy and a forbidden alliance with Jasad's greatest enemy, Sylvia must win the group's trust while struggling to keep control of both her magic and her mind.

In the rival kingdom, Arin is caught between his father's desire to put down the brewing rebellion and the sacred edicts he's sworn to uphold. Arin must find Sylvia before his father's army, but his search will call into question the very core of Arin's beliefs about his family and the destruction of Jasad.

War is inevitable and Sylvia cannot abandon her people again. The Urabi plan to raise the Jasadi fortress, and it will either kill Sylvia or destroy the humanity she's fought so hard to protect. For the first time in her life Sylvia doesn't just want to survive. She wants to win.
The fugitive queen is ready to come home.]]> 400 Sara Hashem 0356520420 hamna 0 arc-tbr 4.74 2025
author: Sara Hashem
name: hamna
average rating: 4.74
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/11
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]]> 123029113 A whimsical and heartwarming novel about a witch who has a second chance to get her magical powers—and her life—back on track, from the national bestselling author of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches.

Sera Swan used to be one of the most powerful witches in Britain. Then she resurrected her great-aunt Jasmine from the (very recently) dead, lost most of her magic, befriended a semi-villainous talking fox, and was exiled from her Guild. Now she (slightly reluctantly and just a bit grumpily) helps her aunt run an enchanted inn in Lancashire, where she deals with her quirky guests' shenanigans, tries to keep said talking fox in check, and longs for the future that seems lost to her. But then she finds out about an old spell that could hold the key to restoring her power��

Enter Luke Larsen, handsome and icy magical historian, who arrives on a dark winter evening and might just know how to unlock the spell’s secrets. Luke has absolutely no interest in getting involved in the madcap goings-on of the inn and is definitely not about to let a certain bewitching innkeeper past his walls, so no one is more surprised than he is when he agrees to help Sera with her spell. Worse, he might actually be thawing.

Running an inn, reclaiming lost magic, and staying one step ahead of the watchful Guild is a lot for anyone, but Sera Swan is about to discover that she doesn’t have to do it alone...and that the weird, wonderful family she’s made might be the best magic of all.]]> 336 Sangu Mandanna hamna 0 arc-tbr 4.36 2025
author: Sangu Mandanna
name: hamna
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> 210223811 Two graduate students must set aside their rivalry and journey to Hell to save their professor’s soul, perhaps at the cost of their own.

Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick. She has sacrificed everything to make that a reality—her pride, her health, her love life, and most definitely her sanity. All to work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world—that is, until he dies in a magical accident that could possibly be her fault.

Grimes is now in Hell, and she’s going in after him. Because his recommendation could hold her very future in his now incorporeal hands, and even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her dreams. Nor will the fact that her rival, Peter Murdoch, has come to the same conclusion.]]> 400 R.F. Kuang hamna 0 arc-tbr 4.12 2025
author: R.F. Kuang
name: hamna
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/11
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]]> 205335957
Sybil Delling has spent nine years dreaming of having no dreams at all. Like the other foundling girls who traded a decade of service for a home in the great cathedral, Sybil is a Diviner. In her dreams she receives visions from six unearthly figures known as Omens. From them, she can predict terrible things before they occur, and lords and common folk alike travel across the kingdom of Traum's windswept moors to learn their futures by her dreams.

Just as she and her sister Diviners near the end of their service, a mysterious knight arrives at the cathedral. Rude, heretical, and devilishly handsome, the knight Rodrick has no respect for Sybil's visions. But when Sybil's fellow Diviners begin to vanish one by one, she has no choice but to seek his help in finding them. For the world outside the cathedral's cloister is wrought with peril. Only the gods have the answers she is seeking, and as much as she'd rather avoid Rodrick's dark eyes and sharp tongue, only a heretic can defeat a god.]]> 400 Rachel Gillig 0356522962 hamna 0 arc-tbr 4.61 2025
author: Rachel Gillig
name: hamna
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: arc-tbr
review:

]]> 56233551 The epic conclusion to the #1 bestselling A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal; the gritty fantasy duology about an orphan girl and her crew who get tangled in a heist with vampires, perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows.

She's had her tea, now she's out for blood.

White Roaring is sharpening its fangs after the deadly night that left the city in shambles. The press are dead, the public calls for justice, vampires are in danger, and amid the turmoil, the Ram announces a celebration.

Still reeling from the bloodshed, Arthie Casimir has no time to mourn the death of anyone, let alone her own. She has no time for love, either, but it had saved her life. As Arthie navigates new emotions and new allies, she must reassemble her scrambled crew and scrape what little they have left to fight one last time �� and she will need to face the ghosts of her past to do it.

In Ceylan.

After the jaw-dropping ending of #1 bestselling A Tempest of Tea, Arthie and her crew still have plenty of hearts to break and crimson-red secrets to uncover. Hafsah Faizal crafts a deliciously twisty and seductive sequel that will leave readers breathless until the very last page.]]> 352 Hafsah Faizal 1529097118 hamna 0 arc-tbr 4.45 2025
author: Hafsah Faizal
name: hamna
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: arc-tbr
review:

]]> 176443380
As her paranoia spirals out of control, Enid must contend with her mounting suspicion that something is seriously wrong with her. Because at the end of the day there’s only one person she can’t outrun—herself.

Brimming with quirky humor, charm, and heart, Interesting Facts about Space effortlessly shows us the power of revealing our secret shames, the most beautifully human parts of us all.]]> 320 Emily R. Austin 1668014238 hamna 0 to-read 3.83 2024
author: Emily R. Austin
name: hamna
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 224035849 Is it time to renew love or start a new chapter?

Ingrid Dahl, a cheerful twenty-nine-year-old librarian in the cozy mountain town of Ridgetop, North Carolina, has been happily dating her college boyfriend, Cory, for eleven years without ever discussing marriage. But when Ingrid’s sister announces her engagement to a woman she’s only been dating for two years, Ingrid and Cory feel pressured to consider their future. Neither has ever been with anybody else, so they make an unconventional decision. They'll take a one-month break to date other people, then they'll reunite and move toward marriage. Ingrid even has someone in mind: her charmingly grumpy coworker, Macon Nowakowski, on whom she’s secretly crushed for years. But plans go awry, and when the month ends, Ingrid and Cory realize they’re not ready to resume their relationship�� and Ingrid’s harmless crush on Macon has turned into something much more complicated.

Overdue is a beautiful, slow-burn romance full of lust and longing about new beginnings and finding your way.]]> 416 Stephanie Perkins hamna 4 anna and the french kiss until i felt okay again, whole again. i’ve always loved her books, her writing, the way she paints romance, and how two people together, in her stories, meld together and can lighten each other up and make everything just right. i’ve always loved this about her. this book is then, somehow, more of the same and yet an even more extrapolated story: we get to follow the fmc from the start to the end of one of the most harrowing years of her life. this is more than a romance book�� it’s a love letter to reading and to readers, to booksellers and to librarians. it’s a love letter to books. and it’s a love letter to me, who has grown up and matured with this author’s work, from apprehensive young adult to tumultuous and wonderful adult fiction.
(and i cannot stop myself from sighing happily: there was no third act fallout!!!! which might seem immaterial, now, but god, when everyone reads this book and experiences firsthand the exquisite torture this book wields—angst upon angst upon angst. i was begging for relief and weeping in my bed reading this) (it is surreal) (very lukelorelai) 4.5/5 stars and thank you so much to saturday books for the arc.]]> 4.67 2025
author: Stephanie Perkins
name: hamna
average rating: 4.67
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/14
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: arcs, adult, contemporary, friends-to-lovers, romance, workplace-romance
review:
happy valentine’s day to me!!! i’m weeping tears of joy. stephanie perkins has been one of the authors that created my sanctuary when i was younger; i remember long days and tiresome nights rereading anna and the french kiss until i felt okay again, whole again. i’ve always loved her books, her writing, the way she paints romance, and how two people together, in her stories, meld together and can lighten each other up and make everything just right. i’ve always loved this about her. this book is then, somehow, more of the same and yet an even more extrapolated story: we get to follow the fmc from the start to the end of one of the most harrowing years of her life. this is more than a romance book�� it’s a love letter to reading and to readers, to booksellers and to librarians. it’s a love letter to books. and it’s a love letter to me, who has grown up and matured with this author’s work, from apprehensive young adult to tumultuous and wonderful adult fiction.
(and i cannot stop myself from sighing happily: there was no third act fallout!!!! which might seem immaterial, now, but god, when everyone reads this book and experiences firsthand the exquisite torture this book wields—angst upon angst upon angst. i was begging for relief and weeping in my bed reading this) (it is surreal) (very lukelorelai) 4.5/5 stars and thank you so much to saturday books for the arc.
]]> 217005439 A fierce, glamorous sapphic fantasy reimagining the secret societies of postcolonial Singapore, for fans of Jade City, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and the feverish intensity of RF Kuang’s Poppy War trilogy.

Singapore, 1972: Newly independent, a city of immigrants grappling for power in a fast-modernizing world. Here, gangsters are the last conduits of the gods their ancestors brought with them, and the back alleys where they fight are the last place where magic has not been assimilated and legislated away.

Loner schoolgirl Adeline Siow has never needed more company than the flame she can summon at her fingertips. But when her mother dies in a house fire with a butterfly seared onto her skin and Adeline hunts down a girl she saw in a back-alley barfight—a girl with a butterfly tattoo–she discovers she’s far from alone.

Ang Tian is a Red Butterfly: one of a gang of girls who came from nothing, sworn to a fire goddess and empowered to wreak vengeance on the men that abuse and underestimate them. Adeline’s mother led a double life as their elusive patron, Madam Butterfly. Now that she’s dead, Adeline’s bloodline is the sole thing sustaining the goddess. Between her search for her mother’s killer and the gang’s succession crisis, Adeline becomes quickly entangled with the girls�� dangerous world, and even more so with the charismatic Tian.

But no home lasts long around here. Ambitious and paranoid neighbor gangs hunt at the edges of Butterfly territory, and bodies are turning up in the red light district suffused with a strange new magic. Adeline may have found her place for once, but with the streets changing by the day, it may take everything she is to keep it.]]> Wen-yi Lee hamna 0 to-read 4.18 2025
author: Wen-yi Lee
name: hamna
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 52756485 Ernest Hemingway’s most beloved and popular novel ever, with millions of copies sold—now featuring early drafts and supplementary material as well as a personal foreword by the only living son of the author, Patrick Hemingway, and an introduction by the author’s grandson Seán Hemingway.

The last novel Ernest Hemingway saw published, The Old Man and the Sea has proved itself to be one of the enduring works of American fiction. It is the story of an old Cuban fisherman, down on his luck, and his supreme ordeal: a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream.

Using the simple, powerful language of a fable, Hemingway takes the timeless themes of courage in the face of defeat and personal triumph won from loss and transforms them into a magnificent twentieth-century classic. Written in 1952, this hugely successful novel confirmed his power and presence in the literary world and played a large part in his winning the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature.]]> 128 Ernest Hemingway 1476787840 hamna 3 4.12 1952
author: Ernest Hemingway
name: hamna
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1952
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/07
date added: 2025/03/07
shelves: jess-mariano-reading-list, 2025-tbr, borrowed, classics
review:
you know i don’t think ernest only has lovely things to say about me at all, actually.
]]> 58912891
But someone does. An unexpected message arrives, begging her to travel to the remote and mysterious Nowhere House to teach three young witches how to control their magic. It breaks all of the rules, but Mika goes anyway, and is immediately tangled up in the lives and secrets of not only her three charges, but also an absent archaeologist, a retired actor, two long-suffering caretakers, and…Jamie. The handsome and prickly librarian of Nowhere House would do anything to protect the children, and as far as he’s concerned, a stranger like Mika is a threat. An irritatingly appealing threat.

As Mika begins to find her place at Nowhere House, the thought of belonging somewhere begins to feel like a real possibility. But magic isn't the only danger in the world, and when peril comes knocking at their door, Mika will need to decide whether to risk everything to protect a found family she didn’t know she was looking for....]]> 334 Sangu Mandanna hamna 2 4.16 2022
author: Sangu Mandanna
name: hamna
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2024/08/16
date added: 2025/03/07
shelves: adult, borrowed, fantasy, romance, workplace-romance
review:
ahhh i think a perfectly fun filler book, if i may. i really adored what it tried to do and i loved the found family situation, the little magic tricks and classes, the characters finding home in each other. it sadly doesn't come across any deeper than that, and i could not find a real connection to or within this book. it's a bit on the nose, very funny and cutesy, but not nuanced enough at all, and a lot of the development and plot sequence came out of left field. especially the romance, which took me out even as i could see it obviously, flimsily trying to pull me back in. nonetheless, still an enjoyable read and i’d recommend this to anyone looking for a quick trip out into witchy lands and hidden houses brimming with magical cauldrons and potions. 2/5
]]> 214269374 Remember—words are your weapons, they’re your tools, your currency: a twisty, slippery descent into the rhetoric of truth and power from a "powerful new voice in British Literature�� (The Sunday Times).

Late one night on a Yorkshire farm, in the midst of an illegal rave, a young man is nearly bludgeoned to death with a solid gold bar.

An ambitious young journalist sets out to uncover the truth surrounding the attack, connecting the dots between an amoral banker landlord, an iconoclastic columnist, and a radical anarchist movement that has taken up residence on the farm. She solves the mystery, but her viral exposé raises more questions than it answers, Who wrote it? Why? And how much of it is true? Through a voyeuristic lens, and with a simmering power, the book focuses in on what we say, how we say it, and what we really mean.

The thrilling novel from one of the most acclaimed and incisive young novelists working today, Universality is a compelling, unsettling celebration of the spectacular, appalling force of language. It dares you to look away.]]> 176 Natasha Brown 0593977300 hamna 0 to-read 3.48 2025
author: Natasha Brown
name: hamna
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 223199392 Two good neighbors make the best of a bad Valentine’s Day in a funny and improbably romantic short story by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Just for the Summer.

It’s Valentine’s Day weekend, and Charlotte and Seth are not looking for romance. Armed with emotional-support bear spray, Charlotte is in self-imposed isolation and on guard from men. Having a stalker can do that to a person’s nerves. Just across the hall and giving off woodsy vibes is Seth, a recently divorced arborist. As in today recently. Heights, he’s fine with. Trust? Not so much. But when disaster traps them one flight up and no way down, an outrageously precarious predicament forces a tree-loving guy and a rattled girl next door to embrace their captivity. Soon their defenses are breaking away. Considering how close they both are to the edge, Charlotte and Seth could be in danger of falling—in love.]]> 82 Abby Jimenez 1662529082 hamna 1 adult, contemporary, romance 4.13 2025
author: Abby Jimenez
name: hamna
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2025
rating: 1
read at: 2025/03/04
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves: adult, contemporary, romance
review:
uhh. well kind of boring actually. and for a short story, so this has to be a feat. cute cover though.
]]> 45818284
Millions of people have learned its entirety by heart throughout every generation since it was first revealed. Nearly every Muslim memorises parts of it, and most recite a portion of it every day. No book, religious or otherwise, is read and recited or listened to as frequently as the Qur’an. Those who recite it in Arabic are always eager to do more, aware of its inimitable clarity, rhythm and brevity, yet modern English readers have had limited access to its meanings, with most reliant upon translations prepared in archaic English, unappealing to the contemporary reader.

In this new translation the renowned author and scholar Adil Salahi has endeavoured to put the meanings of the Qur’anic verses and surahs in simple and straightforward form, so that the 21st century reader may find it concise easy to access, and yet full of expansive expression.]]> 635 Adil Salahi 0860377555 hamna 0 5.00
author: Adil Salahi
name: hamna
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/02
shelves: currently-reading, islam, non-fiction
review:

]]> 220341389 John Green, the #1 bestselling author of The Anthropocene Reviewed and a passionate advocate for global healthcare reform, tells a deeply human story illuminating the fight against the world’s deadliest disease.

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

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

In Everything is Tuberculosis, John tells Henry’s story, woven through with the scientific and social histories of how tuberculosis has shaped our world and how our choices will shape the future of tuberculosis.]]> 208 John Green 0525556575 hamna 0 to-read 4.57 2025
author: John Green
name: hamna
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 35031085 This is a previously-published edition of ISBN 9780143131847.

Mary Shelley's seminal novel of the scientist whose creation becomes a monster.

This edition is the original 1818 text, which preserves the hard-hitting and politically charged aspects of Shelley's original writing, as well as her unflinching wit and strong female voice. This edition also includes a new introduction and suggestions for further reading by author and Shelley expert Charlotte Gordon, literary excerpts and reviews selected by Gordon and a chronology and essay by preeminent Shelley scholar Charles E. Robinson.]]> 260 Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley 0143131842 hamna 0 to-read 4.02 1818
author: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
name: hamna
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1818
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 211400175 To the world, they were a scandal. To each other, an obsession.

An epic love story set in the sparkling, savage sphere of elite figure skating about a woman determined to carve her own path on and off the ice

She might not have a famous name, funding, or her family’s support, but Katarina Shaw has always known that she was destined to become an Olympic skater. When she meets Heath Rocha, a lonely kid stuck in the foster care system, their instant connection makes them a formidable duo on the ice. Clinging to skating—and each other—to escape their turbulent lives, Kat and Heath go from childhood sweethearts to champion ice dancers, captivating the world with their scorching chemistry, rebellious style, and rollercoaster relationship. Until a shocking incident at the Olympic Games brings their partnership to a sudden end.

As the ten-year anniversary of their final skate approaches, an unauthorized documentary reignites the public obsession with Shaw and Rocha, claiming to uncover the "real story" through interviews with their closest friends and fiercest rivals. Kat wants nothing to do with the documentary. But she can't stand the thought of someone else defining her legacy either. So, after a decade of silence, she's telling her story: from the childhood tragedies that created her all-consuming bond with Heath to the clash of desires that tore them apart. Sensational rumors have haunted their every step for years, but the truth may be even more shocking than the headlines.

Inspired by the powerful love and hate that fuel Emily Bronte’s classic, Wuthering Heights, The Favorites is an exhilarating dance between passion, ambition, and what it truly means to win.]]> 464 Layne Fargo 0593732057 hamna 2 waste of time actually 4.19 2025
author: Layne Fargo
name: hamna
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2025
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/01
date added: 2025/03/02
shelves: borrowed, adult, contemporary, romance
review:
waste of time actually
]]> 22609310
For once, Auburn takes a chance and puts her heart in control, only to discover that Owen is hiding a huge secret. The magnitude of his past threatens to destroy everything Auburn loves most, and the only way to get her life back on track is to cut Owen out of it—but can she do it?]]> 306 Colleen Hoover 1476791457 hamna 5 4.14 2015
author: Colleen Hoover
name: hamna
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2017/07/23
date added: 2025/03/02
shelves:
review:
"I'll love you forever, even when I can't." This was probably my favorite CoHo book (besides IEWU), I loved it so, so much. And I won't get into details but only one thing felt so off: the ending. It underwhelmed me somehow? Sigh.
]]> 40502944 140 George Orwell 9897786287 hamna 3 stolen-from-linn 4.38 1945
author: George Orwell
name: hamna
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1945
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/18
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: stolen-from-linn
review:

]]> 228393488 Howl's Moving Castle meets Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries in this enchanting and nostalgic YA fairytale from New York Times bestselling author Roshani Chokshi in which a young prince destined to die by the hand of his bride, and a veritas swan who has escaped her treacherous father, seek protection in one another and discover that the only thing more formidable than a curse...is love.]]> 352 Roshani Chokshi 125087310X hamna 0 to-read 0.0
author: Roshani Chokshi
name: hamna
average rating: 0.0
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 211480848 A woman inherits a pawnshop where you can sell your regrets, and then embarks on a magical journey when a charming young physicist wanders into the shop, in this dreamlike and enchanting fantasy novel.

On a backstreet in Tokyo lies a pawnshop, but not everyone can find it. Most will see a cozy ramen restaurant. And only the chosen ones—those who are lost—will find a place to pawn their life choices and deepest regrets.

Hana Ishikawa wakes on her first morning as the pawnshop’s new owner to find it ransacked, the shop’s most precious acquisition stolen, and her father missing. And then into the shop stumbles a charming stranger, quite unlike its other customers, for he offers help instead of seeking it.

Together, they must journey through a mystical world to find Hana’s father and the stolen choice—by way of rain puddles, rides on paper cranes, the bridge between midnight and morning, and a night market in the clouds.

But as they get closer to the truth, Hana must reveal a secret of her own—and risk making a choice that she will never be able to take back.]]> 372 Samantha Sotto Yambao 059372500X hamna 4 borrowed, fantasy 3.97 2025
author: Samantha Sotto Yambao
name: hamna
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/21
date added: 2025/02/25
shelves: borrowed, fantasy
review:
hello???? my heart is so warm
]]> 61187675 From the New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six comes an intimate and contemporary study of time, space, and the nature of love. Alone With You In The Ether explores what it means to be unwell, and how to face the fractures of yourself and still love as if you're not broken.


Chicago, sometime ��
Two people meet in the armory of the Art Institute by chance. Prior to their encounter, he is a doctoral student who manages his destructive thoughts with compulsive calculations about time travel; she is a bipolar counterfeit artist undergoing court-ordered psychotherapy.

After their meeting, those things do not change. Everything else, however, is slightly different.

Both obsessive, eccentric personalities, Aldo Damiani and Charlotte Regan struggle to be without each other from the moment they meet. The truth—that he is a clinically depressed, anti-social theoretician and she is a manipulative liar with a history of self-sabotage—means the deeper they fall in love, the more troubling their reliance on each other becomes.]]> 272 Olivie Blake 1250888174 hamna 5 3.73 2020
author: Olivie Blake
name: hamna
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/24
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves: adult, borrowed, comfort, contemporary, favorites, romance, literary
review:
this is probably going to be my favorite book of the year. im so obsessed
]]> 214268980 The New York Times bestselling author of Hotel Magnifique returns with another glittering dark fantasy about a deadly mystery that spans worlds and a teenage girl who must risk everything to uncover the truth.

Seven years ago, Maeve Abenthy lost her world, her father, even her name. Desperate to escape the stain of her father’s crimes, she lives under a fake name, never staying in one place long enough to put down roots.

Then she receives a mysterious letter with four impossible words Your father was innocent.

To uncover the truth, she poses as an apprentice for the Otherwhere Post, where she’ll be trained in the art of scriptomancy—the dangerous magic that allows couriers to enchant letters and deliver them to other worlds. But looking into her father’s past draws more attention than she’d planned.

Her secretive, infuriatingly handsome mentor knows she’s lying about her identity, and time is running out to convince him to trust her. Worse, she begins to receive threatening letters, warning her to drop her investigation��or else. For Maeve to unravel the mystery of what happened seven years ago, she may have to forfeit her life.]]> 400 Emily J. Taylor 0593404548 hamna 0 to-read 4.12 2025
author: Emily J. Taylor
name: hamna
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 202908611 A story about the weight of the past and the promise of the future set between rural Australia and London - from the bestselling author of The Bass Rock

Max didn’t believe in an afterlife. Until he died. Now, as a reluctant ghost trying to work out why he remains, he watches his girlfriend Hannah lost in grief in the flat they shared and begins to realise how much of her life was invisible to him.

In the weeks and months before Max’s death, Hannah is haunted by the secrets she left Australia to escape. A relationship with Max seems to offer the potential of a different story, but the past refuses to stay hidden. It finds expression in the untold stories of the people she grew up with, the details of their lives she never knew and the events that broke her family apart and led her to Max.

Both a celebration and autopsy of a relationship, The Echoes is a novel about stories and who has the right to tell them, asking what of our past can we shrug off and what is fixed forever.]]> 304 Evie Wyld 1529926998 hamna 0 to-read 3.83 2024
author: Evie Wyld
name: hamna
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 28502000 Nearly seventy years after its original publication, Ray Bradbury’s internationally acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451 stands as a classic of world literature set in a bleak, dystopian future. Today its message has grown more relevant than ever before.

Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.�� But when he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.]]> 249 Ray Bradbury 1451673310 hamna 5 2025-tbr 3.91 1953
author: Ray Bradbury
name: hamna
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1953
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/18
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: 2025-tbr
review:

]]> 75302266 Angharad—Emrys Myrddin’s epic about a mortal girl who falls in love with the Fairy King, then destroys him—is the only thing keeping her afloat. So when Myrddin’s family announces a contest to redesign the late author’s estate, Effy feels certain it’s her destiny.

But musty, decrepit Hiraeth Manor is an impossible task, and its residents are far from welcoming. Including Preston Héloury, a stodgy young literature scholar determined to expose Myrddin as a fraud. As the two rivals piece together clues about Myrddin’s legacy, dark forces, both mortal and magical, conspire against them—and the truth may bring them both to ruin.]]> 378 Ava Reid 0063211505 hamna 4 3.73 2023
author: Ava Reid
name: hamna
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/27
date added: 2025/02/13
shelves: fantasy, favorites, hate-to-love, romance, workplace-romance, young-adult
review:
oh this is one of my favorite books of 2023, which is such a pleasant surprise because i didn’t think i’d love it like that going in. it’s such a beautiful, almost unique book - from the premise to the execution, it’s the kind of book i’ll always look back on fondly, breathtaking in it’s writing, spectacular in the setting and characters. i love this book. i love what it did and the tone it set, the background drop and the penultimate act; the casual and slow progression through characters discovering the world and themselves. i loved effy! i loved her love for literature, her resentment at getting spurned from something she adored and deserved, the sheer friction being surrounded by so many things seemingly designed to break her. i loved her arc through all of that, through finding her stand and her absolution - and i loved how it all came together in one of the prettiest, if not downright stroke of genius, finales. the only slight problem i could find here was how predictable the lore was, and how you could tell how it would all lead and end from almost 25% into the book. that said, there’s just too much i love about this, even more the more i think it over, and if i have to excuse slight mistakes in the meanwhile, i’m very happy to. 5/5 stars!!!
]]> 57143821 Klara and the Sun, the first novel by Kazuo Ishiguro since he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, tells the story of Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, who, from her place in the store, watches carefully the behavior of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass on the street outside. She remains hopeful that a customer will soon choose her.

Klara and the Sun is a thrilling book that offers a look at our changing world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator, and one that explores the fundamental question: What does it mean to love?]]> 307 Kazuo Ishiguro 0571364888 hamna 0 to-read 3.69 2021
author: Kazuo Ishiguro
name: hamna
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

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

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

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

Over the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic, evolves into something much deeper. By the time the true shape of the Ministry’s project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined. Forced to confront the choices that brought them together, the bridge must finally reckon with how—and whether she believes—what she does next can change the future.]]> 339 Kaliane Bradley 1668045141 hamna 0 to-read 3.54 2024
author: Kaliane Bradley
name: hamna
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 398105
Miller's masterpiece has steadily seen productions all ove rthe world since its 1949 debut. As the noted Miller scholar Christopher Bigsby states in his Introduction, "if Willy's is an American dream, it is also a dream shared by all those who are aware of the gap between what they might have been and waht they are."
(back cover)]]> 144 Arthur Miller hamna 5 3.69 1949
author: Arthur Miller
name: hamna
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1949
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/09
date added: 2025/02/10
shelves: adult, borrowed, classics, favorites
review:
have so many thoughts about this (i’m obsessed with this book) that i can’t quite manage to get them out (if i loved this less i might be able to talk about it more)
]]> 141236438 A legendary band, an iconic lead singer, and their mysterious connection to a woman whose love helped create the music of a generation. Timing is everything in a powerful novel about fate, regret, and moving on by the author of A Day Like This.

In the 1990s, Carter Wills was the lead singer of the English alt-rock band Mayluna, securing his place among music legends. His tortured-heart lyrics struck a chord. And so did his secret connection to a woman whose love changed all their lives. Who was she?

Evie Waters’s two grown children discover an iconic photo in an old magazine of a “mystery girl�� with their mother. It all started in a wistful time and place for Evie, her twenty-fifth summer. A young columnist forging her career. Backstage euphoria. A long-shot interview. And an almost cosmic connection with an enigmatic musician on the rise.

What happened between them is a hidden story no one, not even Evie’s family, knows. Until now. Worlds apart, Carter and Evie finally reveal the story—joyful, regretful, and unforgettable. It was a time when the stars aligned for a love so profound the whole world felt it. It was as if it would last forever.]]> 391 Kelley McNeil 166251610X hamna 0 to-read 4.47 2024
author: Kelley McNeil
name: hamna
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60644263 From the minds behind the series, this is the story of Lumon Industries employee Margaret "Peg" Kincaid.
When Peg gets hired at Lumon, she undergoes Severance, a surgical procedure pitched by the company as an effortless way to separate her personal and work lives. Everyone has their reasons for wanting the easy solution Severance promises, but when Peg realizes that not all is as it seems at the company, she uncovers a reality that's far worse than the problems she wanted to escape.
At the heart of this story, Peg's shocking confession reveals the darkest side of corporate America. It raises a chilling question: How far will Lumon Industries go to protect its secrets?]]> 43 Anonymous hamna 4 oh! 4.16 2022
author: Anonymous
name: hamna
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/07
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves:
review:
oh!
]]> 40969531
Ophelia lives on Anima, an ark where objects have souls. Beneath her worn scarf and thick glasses, the young girl hides the ability to read and communicate with the souls of objects, and the power to travel through mirrors. Her peaceful existence on the Ark of Anima is disrupted when she is promised in marriage to Thorn, from the powerful Dragon clan. Ophelia must leave her family and follow her fiancée to the floating capital on the distant Ark of the Pole. Why has she been chosen? Why must she hide her true identity? Though she doesn’t know it yet, she has become a pawn in a deadly plot.]]> 446 Christelle Dabos 1787701425 hamna 0 to-read, 2025-tbr 3.90 2013
author: Christelle Dabos
name: hamna
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read, 2025-tbr
review:

]]> 215149209 From Axie Oh, the New York Times-bestselling author of The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea, Final Fantasy meets Shadow and Bone in this romantic fantasy reimagining the Korean legend of Celestial Maidens.

Sunho lives in the Under World, a land of perpetual darkness. An ex-soldier, he can remember little of his life from before two years ago, when he woke up alone with only his name and his sword. Now he does odd-jobs to scrape by, until he comes across the score of a lifetime—a chest of coins for any mercenary who can hunt down a girl who wields silver light.

Meanwhile, far to the east, Ren is a cheerful and spirited acrobat traveling with her adoptive family and performing at villages. But everything changes during one of their festival performances when the village is attacked by a horrific humanlike demon. In a moment of fear and rage, Ren releases a blast of silver light—a power she has kept hidden since childhood—and kills the monster. But her efforts are not in time to prevent her adoptive family from suffering a devastating loss, or to save her beloved uncle from being grievously wounded.

Determined to save him from succumbing to the poisoned wound, Ren sets off over the mountains, where the creature came from—and from where Ren herself fled ten years ago. Her path sets her on a collision course with Sunho, but he doesn't realize she's the girl that he—and a hundred other swords-for-hire—is looking for. As the two grow closer through their travels, they come to realize that their pasts—and destinies—are far more entwined than either of them could have imagined...]]> 368 Axie Oh 1250853087 hamna 2 4.22 2025
author: Axie Oh
name: hamna
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2025
rating: 2
read at: 2025/02/05
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: arcs, fantasy, young-adult, retellings
review:
this one is my fault. i knew i wasn’t a fan of the author’s work but the concept of this book seemed…intriguing and well, i thought the story would grow on me. and it’s interesting, definitely, but ultimately it became a very tiresome read. i couldn’t get into the plot or the characters very much, and i didn’t really care about how the story played out. it’s a little too easy to foresee, the worldbuilding is not strong enough to balance such a rich and complex universe, and the political motivations—while intrinsic to the story, are not delved into enough at all. is this a ya problem? i don’t know. but i feel like there was a lot to expound upon here, and that road just wasn’t taken so this quickly got disappointing and easily forgotten (and i don’t care for the ship at all). thank you to feiwel and friends for the arc. 2/5 stars
]]> 8680880 196 Eugene O'Neill 0300166222 hamna 4 borrowed, classics 4.18 1956
author: Eugene O'Neill
name: hamna
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1956
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves: borrowed, classics
review:

]]> 63850493 Grace D. Li hamna 0 to-read 4.71
author: Grace D. Li
name: hamna
average rating: 4.71
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 211003924 The first novel in a sweeping YA fantasy duology based on characters and teachings created by Bruce Lee!

Sixteen-year-old Jun dreams of proving his worth as a warrior in the elite Guardian’s Tournament, held every six years to entrust the magical Scroll of Earth to a new protector. Eager to prove his skills, Jun hopes that a win will restore his father’s honor—righting a horrible mistake that caused their banishment from his home, mother, and twin brother.

But Jun’s father strictly forbids him from participating. There is no future in honing his skills as a warrior, especially considering Jun is not breathmarked, born with a patch of dragon scales and blessed with special abilities like his twin. Determined to be the next Guardian, Jun stows away in the wagon of Chang and his daughter, Ren, performers on their way to the capital where the tournament will take place.

As Jun competes, he quickly realizes he may be fighting for not just a better life, but the fate of the country itself.]]> 341 Shannon Lee 1250902673 hamna 3 the strongest point for this book is definitely the writing and the worldbuilding. i didn’t go in expecting anything less, as someone who loves fonda’s work i knew she’d deliver on that front. the writing style is strong and deft, managing across paragraphs and pages to build such a complex and realistic narrative backdrop, entire histories and politics condensed into the story without ever feeling like anything was amiss. this one thing was, without a doubt, a pleasure to read and to parse: i wanted to get to know the universe more, and more, and more. which, unfortunately, led me to resolute disappointment. this book is so boring]]> 3.99 2025
author: Shannon Lee
name: hamna
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/30
date added: 2025/01/31
shelves: borrowed, fantasy, young-adult
review:
someone said this book is a love letter to martial arts, and i wholeheartedly agree. it's one of the reasons i was scared to get into it: i am not someone who cares about traditional combat, and i was worried half the book would go over my head (this turned out to not be the case).
the strongest point for this book is definitely the writing and the worldbuilding. i didn’t go in expecting anything less, as someone who loves fonda’s work i knew she’d deliver on that front. the writing style is strong and deft, managing across paragraphs and pages to build such a complex and realistic narrative backdrop, entire histories and politics condensed into the story without ever feeling like anything was amiss. this one thing was, without a doubt, a pleasure to read and to parse: i wanted to get to know the universe more, and more, and more. which, unfortunately, led me to resolute disappointment. this book is so boring
]]> 217387790 The epic conclusion to Moses Ose Utomi's critically acclaimed Forever Desert series, The Memory of the Ogisi shatters every truth, destroys every lie, and is a story of oppression no one shall ever forget.

Even deserts have a beginning. Even gardens have an end. Even water has a story.

One thousand years after Tutu and five hundred years after Osi the City of a Thousand Stories stands resolute on the edge of the Forever Desert. A teeming oasis, water flows into every mouth that thirsts and knowledge sprouts in every mind that hungers for it.

Ethike is an Ogisi, one of the City's many historians, who has devoted his life to studying a little-known figure named Osi. Unfortunately, the city has never approved any of his research papers and if he doesn’t find Osi’s story soon he will be stripped of his position.

Desperate to keep himself and his family from losing everything, Ethike ventures into the Forever Desert in search of the Lost Tomb of Osi. If he can find it, he will finally be able to prove his worth to the City’s elders and, more importantly, cement Osi’s role in history. But history is a tale told by those with power. What Ethike uncovers beneath the sand is far beyond anything he could have expected��.and it is extremely angry.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 128 Moses Ose Utomi 1250849047 hamna 5 thank you to tordotcom for the arc. 5/5]]> 4.67 2025
author: Moses Ose Utomi
name: hamna
average rating: 4.67
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/31
date added: 2025/01/31
shelves: arcs, adult, fantasy, favorites, sci-fi
review:
i really think this is one of the best and most meticulously crafted trilogies i’ve read in a long time and i’m going to be thinking about these books for months to come.
thank you to tordotcom for the arc. 5/5
]]> 75715117 Selected as an Evening Standard 'one to watch in 2023'

It's the early 1990s, and in the Irish village of Crossmore, Lucy feels out of place. Despite her fierce friendships, she's always felt this way, and the conventional path of marriage and motherhood doesn't appeal to her at all. Not even with handsome and doting Martin, her closest childhood friend.

Lucy begins to make sense of herself during a long hot summer, when a spark with her school friend Susannah escalates to an all-consuming infatuation, and, very quickly, to a desperate and devastating love.

Fearful of rejection from her small and conservative community, Lucy begins living a double life, hiding the most honest parts of herself in stolen moments with Susannah.

But with the end of school and the opportunity to leave Crossmore looming, Lucy must choose between two places, two people and two futures, each as terrifying as the other. But only one can offer her real happiness.

Sunburn is an astute and tender portrayal of first love, adolescent anxiety and the realities of growing up in a small town where tradition holds people tightly in its grasp.]]> 288 Chloe Michelle Howarth 0857308416 hamna 0 to-read 4.33 2023
author: Chloe Michelle Howarth
name: hamna
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 201924625 NATIONAL BESTSELLER
Longlisted for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection
Longlisted for THE STORY PRIZE
A Library Journal BEST BOOK OF 2024
An Electric Literature Most Exciting Debut Short Story Collection of 2024

“Short story fans might just discover their new favorite author in this arresting collection, a must-have.”��Library Journal (STARRED review)

What happens when you are forced to let go of the things you love the most? What are you left with?

In her stunning debut short story collection, The Goodbye Process, Mary Jones uses her distinctive voice to examine the painful and sometimes surreal ways we say goodbye.

The stories―which range from tender and heartbreaking to unsettling and darkly funny―will push you out of your comfort zone and ignite intense emotions surrounding love and loss. A woman camps out on the porch of an ex-lover who has barricaded himself inside the house; a preteen girl caught shoplifting finds herself in grave danger; a Los Angeles real estate agent falls for a woman who helps him detach from years of dramatic plastic surgery; a man hires a professional mourner to ensure his wife’s funeral is a success. Again and again, Jones’s characters find themselves facing the ends of things: relationships, health, and innocence.

Arresting, original, and beautifully rendered, this story collection packs a punch, just the way grief does―knocking us off our feet.]]> 240 Mary Jones 1958506621 hamna 0 to-read 3.94 2024
author: Mary Jones
name: hamna
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 217387755 Ex Machina meets This is How You Lose the Time War: Seth Haddon's science fiction debut, Volatile Memory, is a heart-filled, vengeful sapphic sci-fi action adventure novella.

With nothing but a limping ship and an outdated mask to her name, Wylla needs a big pay day. When the call goes out that a lucrative piece of tech is waiting on a nearby planet, she relies on all the swiftness of her prey animal instincts to beat other hunters to it.

What you found wasn’t your ticket out—it was my corpse wearing an AI mask. When you touched the mask, you heard my voice. A consciousness spinning through metal and circuits, a bodiless mind, spun to life in the HAWK’s temporary storage. I crystallized, and I was alive.

Masks aren't supposed to retain memory, much less identity, but the woman inside the MARK I HAWK is real, and she sees Wylla in a way no one ever has. Sees her, and doesn’t find her wanting or unwhole.

Armed with military-grade tech and a lifetime of staying one step ahead of the hunters, Wylla and HAWK set off to get answers from the man who discarded HAWK once before: her ex-husband.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 176 Seth Haddon 125036468X hamna 4 adult, arcs, fantasy, sci-fi 4.42 2025
author: Seth Haddon
name: hamna
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/19
date added: 2025/01/30
shelves: adult, arcs, fantasy, sci-fi
review:

]]> 39090430
Our life is brief . . .

Sasha Samokhina has been accepted to the Institute of Special Technologies.

Or, more precisely, she’s been chosen.

Situated in a tiny village, she finds the students are bizarre, and the curriculum even more so. The books are impossible to read, the lessons obscure to the point of maddening, and the work refuses memorization. Using terror and coercion to keep the students in line, the school does not punish them for their transgressions and failures; instead, it is their families that pay a terrible price. Yet despite her fear, Sasha undergoes changes that defy the dictates of matter and time; experiences which are nothing she has ever dreamed of . . . and suddenly all she could ever want.

A complex blend of adventure, magic, science, and philosophy that probes the mysteries of existence, filtered through a distinct Russian sensibility, this astonishing work of speculative fiction—brilliantly translated by Julia Meitov Hersey—is reminiscent of modern classics such as Lev Grossman’s The Magicians, Max Barry’s Lexicon, and Katherine Arden’s The Bear and the Nightingale, but will transport them to a place far beyond those fantastical worlds.]]> 417 Marina Dyachenko hamna 3 adult, borrowed, fantasy 3.99 2007
author: Marina Dyachenko
name: hamna
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/27
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves: adult, borrowed, fantasy
review:
that was so insane i barely know where or how to start thinking about this book. what even happened? everything feels like an acid trip. 3.5/5
]]> 202695
"To many scientists just as to many historians and philosophers of science facts are things that simply are the they are discovered through properly passive observation of natural reality. To such views Fleck replies that facts are invented, not discovered. Moreover, the appearance of scientific facts as discovered things is itself a social construction, a made thing. A work of transparent brilliance, one of the most significant contributions toward a thoroughly sociological account of scientific knowledge."—Steven Shapin, Science]]> 222 Ludwik Fleck 0226253252 hamna 0 to-read 4.15 1935
author: Ludwik Fleck
name: hamna
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1935
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 214507851 You know the most dangerous kind of villain? A woman with nothing left to lose.

In a world ruled by the Stars, cruel and merciless gods, Elara has been cursed by fate.

A prophecy promises she will fall for a Star, but that it will kill them both.

Yet when the Star of Wrath and War descends to hunt Elara, the neighbouring kingdom sees an opportunity to take her from her home, the Kingdom of Night, to Helios, Kingdom of Light. Where she strides straight into the arms of an enemy prince.

There, Elara is forced to either let Prince Lorenzo train her into a weapon worthy of battling against the tyrannical reign of the Stars, or to accept her fate.

But there are shadows even within the Kingdom of Light �� and they threaten to reveal the darkness in Lorenzo’s past and the ancient magic that slumbers in Elara’s veins.

And with it all, the undeniable, star-crossed pull between them . . .]]> 512 Imani Erriu 024174055X hamna 0 to-read 4.05 2022
author: Imani Erriu
name: hamna
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 24970 'What if everything in the world were a misunderstanding, what if laughter were really tears?'

Either/Or is the earliest of the major works of Søren Kierkegaard, one of the most startlingly original thinkers and writers of the nineteenth century, and the first which he wrote under a pseudonym, as he would for his greatest philosophical writings. Adopting the viewpoints of two distinct figures with radically different beliefs--the aesthetic young man of Part One, called simply 'A', and the ethical Judge Vilhelm of the second section--Kierkegaard reflects upon the search for a meaningful existence, contemplating subjects as diverse as Mozart, drama, boredom, and, in the famous Seducer's Diary, the cynical seduction and ultimate rejection of a young, beautiful woman. A masterpiece of duality, Either/Or is an exploration of the conflict between the aesthetic and the ethical--both meditating ironically and seductively upon Epicurean pleasures, and eloquently expounding the noble virtues of a morally upstanding life.

This lightly abridged edition fully conveys the vigour and eloquence of the original. Alastair Hannay's introduction explains the philosophical background to the work and places it in the context of its times.]]> 633 Søren Kierkegaard hamna 0 to-read, need-to-start 4.18 1843
author: Søren Kierkegaard
name: hamna
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1843
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves: to-read, need-to-start
review:

]]> 207298784
Avan Jogia grew up as a teen idol. He stumbled into the spotlight during the birth of the internet, the early days of Instagram and Twitter, before everyone online was a star. He spent his time in that spotlight writing, observing the cult of celebrity, the hilarity, the absurdity, and sometimes sinister side of being idolized before you’ve even had the chance to decide for yourself who you are.

Now, in his most revealing and honest work to date, he has assembled a book of poems as an act of self-dissection. Part boozy lovesick rage and part personal reflection on the nature of fame, Autopsy (of an Ex-Teen Heartthrob) is a sharp, tantalizing collection of poems examining Avan’s relationship with ego, idolatry, love as an act of worship, rage as an act of prayer, and sadness as confession.

Through vivid imagery (and sometimes startling honesty) Avan cuts himself open and observes the false gods he has worshipped, the ways he has sinned, and exhumes a version of himself that looks like someone we all know: a person searching for the means to cure pain, mend the wounds of insecurity, and satiate cravings for love.]]> 240 Avan Jogia 1668062275 hamna 2 non-fiction, adult, arcs 3.41 2025
author: Avan Jogia
name: hamna
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2025
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/23
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves: non-fiction, adult, arcs
review:

]]> 19887474
Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze -- the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization's bedrock for a thousand years -- collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman's vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries.

Now Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, dying land. Without sunlight, clean water, or arable land, and with limited stockpiles of supplies, there will be war all across the Stillness: a battle royale of nations not for power or territory, but simply for the basic resources necessary to get through the long dark night. Essun does not care if the world falls apart around her. She'll break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter.]]> 496 N.K. Jemisin hamna 4 4.40 2015
author: N.K. Jemisin
name: hamna
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/22
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves: 2022-tbr, 2024-tbr, 2025-tbr, borrowed, fantasy, sci-fi, adult
review:
oh that was crazy? i went in completely blind, as one does, and was immediately blown away by the writing!!! hello!!!!! book of my dreams. i don’t have a lot to say honestly, there’s just so much to love about this and even to go back on, and this book employs one of my favorite sleight-of-hand plot devices, so it’s always interesting coming across a book narration from such a unique point of view, over a course of multiple…let’s say……vantage..points?
]]> 209439468 In this new standalone, Hugo Award-winning author Nghi Vo introduces a beguiling fantasy city in the tradition of Calvino, Mieville, and Le Guin.

A demon. An angel. A city that burns at the heart of the world.

The demon Vitrine—immortal, powerful, and capricious—loves the dazzling city of Azril. She has mothered, married, and maddened the city and its people for generations, and built it into a place of joy and desire, revelry and riot.

And then the angels come, and the city falls.

Vitrine is left with nothing but memories and a book containing the names of those she has lost—and an angel, now bound by her mad, grief-stricken curse to haunt the city he burned.

She mourns her dead and rages against the angel she longs to destroy. Made to be each other’s devastation, angel and demon are destined for eternal battle. Instead, they find themselves locked in a devouring fascination that will change them both forever.

Together, they unearth the past of the lost city and begin to shape its future. But when war threatens Azril and everything they have built, Vitrine and her angel must decide whether they will let the city fall again.

The City in Glass is both a brilliantly constructed history and an epic love story, of death and resurrection, memory and transformation, redemption and desire strong enough to burn a world to ashes and build it anew.]]> 216 Nghi Vo 1250348277 hamna 0 to-read, 2025-tbr 3.75 2024
author: Nghi Vo
name: hamna
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/18
shelves: to-read, 2025-tbr
review:

]]> 222765064 The Godfather meets The Magicians in the sweeping adult debut from #1 New York Times bestselling author Marie Lu. Perfect for fans of V.E. Schwab, Red City is a dark and deadly contemporary fantasy of magical warfare, star-crossed ambition, and the pursuit of perfection at any cost, set in a glittering alternate Los Angeles.

Alchemy is the hidden art of transformation. An exclusive power wielded by crime syndicates that market it to the world’s elites in the form of sand, a drug that enhances those who take it into a more perfect version of more beautiful, more charismatic, simply more.

Among the gleaming skyscrapers and rolling foothills of Angel City, alchemy is controlled by two rival syndicates. For years, Grand Central and Lumines have been balanced on a razor’s edge between polite negotiation and outright violence. But when two childhood friends step into that delicate equation, the city—and the paths of their lives—will be irrevocably transformed.

The daughter of a poor single mother, Sam would do anything to claw her way into the ranks of Grand Central in search of a better life. Plucked away from his family as a boy to become a Lumines apprentice, Ari is one of the syndicates' brightest rising stars. Once, they might have loved each other. But as the two alchemists face off across opposite sides of an ever-escalating conflict, ambition becomes power, loyalty becomes lies, and no transformation may be perfect enough for them both to survive the coming war.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> Marie Lu 125088568X hamna 0 to-read 4.00 2025
author: Marie Lu
name: hamna
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 196600323 A dark retelling of the Brothers Grimm's Goose Girl, rife with secrets, murder, and forbidden magic

Cordelia knows her mother is unusual. Their house doesn’t have any doors between rooms, and her mother doesn't allow Cordelia to have a single friend—unless you count Falada, her mother's beautiful white horse. The only time Cordelia feels truly free is on her daily rides with him. But more than simple eccentricity sets her mother apart. Other mothers don’t force their daughters to be silent and motionless for hours, sometimes days, on end. Other mothers aren’t sorcerers.

After a suspicious death in their small town, Cordelia’s mother insists they leave in the middle of the night, riding away on Falada’s sturdy back, leaving behind all Cordelia has ever known. They arrive at the remote country manor of a wealthy older man, the Squire, and his unwed sister, Hester. Cordelia’s mother intends to lure the Squire into marriage, and Cordelia knows this can only be bad news for the bumbling gentleman and his kind, intelligent sister.

Hester sees the way Cordelia shrinks away from her mother, how the young girl sits eerily still at dinner every night. Hester knows that to save her brother from bewitchment and to rescue the terrified Cordelia, she will have to face down a wicked witch of the worst kind.]]> 336 T. Kingfisher 1250244056 hamna 5 4.24 2024
author: T. Kingfisher
name: hamna
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/17
date added: 2025/01/17
shelves: 2024-tbr, 2025-tbr, adult, borrowed, fantasy, retellings
review:
oh i loved this? this book has been on my list for absolute ages, and i’m so glad i finally made time to read it! i went in completely blind and quickly got obsessed, i can’t find a single thing i don’t adore here. and of course, naming a beloved character lord evermore can never hurt:D
]]> 204022703 AN IMPOSSIBLE LOVE. AN ENCHANGED LEGACY. A DANGEROUS DISCOVERY.

The stunning conclusion to Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling What the River Knows. A lush immersive historical fantasy set in Egypt filled with adventure, and a rivals-to-lovers romance like no other!

1885, Egypt: Inez Olivera is left reeling from her cousin Elvira's murder, and her mother's betrayal, and when Tío Ricardo issues an ultimatum about her inheritance, she's left with only one option to consider.

Marriage to Whitford Hayes.

Former British soldier, her uncle's aide de camp, and one time nemesis, Whit has his own mysterious reasons for staying in Egypt. With her heart on the line, Inez might have to bind her fate to the one person whose secret plans could ruin her.

PRAISE FOR ISABEL IBAÑEZ

'A DELIGHTFUL READ' JODI PICOULT

'TRULY ENCHANTING' HEATHER FAWCETT

'BURNING WITH ROMANCE' STEPHANIE GARBER

'LUMINOUS AND ENCHANTING' REBECCA ROSS]]> 440 Isabel Ibañez 1399722247 hamna 2 but that’s not even top 5 on the things i didn’t like about this book. let’s start with the good: i liked the writing style and the background to this story so much, i think there’s a lot to be said and expanded upon and i think the author truly did it justice as much as possible. it’s something i found i liked in the first book too (the quest, the search for answers), which is why i was hoping this one would follow along in the same vein, but alas.
the romance. what garbage. i don’t care for the characters in a romantic setting and this book made it clear to me the author doesn’t care about them in that capacity either. why else would we have this goofy up and down, nonsense relationship—sorry, marriage—plaguing the pages? the rift between them was either something extremely serious (he stole her money) or something completely idiotic (he refuses to “pick her��, who he met 2 months ago, over his full fledged SISTER?), and neither the fmc nor the author ever tries to make it clear which caused the offence. and thus we go into a limbo of i hate you, i love you, get away from me, no we’re friends, we’re NOT friends, you’ll never know what you did to me, you are a hole in my heart, i hate you, you’re the love of my life, etc etc etc�� how tiresome. how irritating.
another debacle: spending half the book with the fmc reflecting every other page or so about how she’s smart and quickwitted and has learnt from her mistakes…only to go and get played in the next chapter. this doesn’t happen once or twice or thrice. it’s a constant cycle throughout the books: she gets betrayed by every single person possible, even people that she’s been repeatedly told are [obviously] not looking in her best interests, and she still doesn’t learn. i love flawed characters! i love characters who don’t think and jump first! but my god, spare some common sense? and then the book ends with her husband yet again lying to her:) i guess it wouldn’t matter, maybe, to a lot of people but considering the plot significance of the matter in question��? maybe? not do that? considering your history, but also considering her history.

i won’t comment on the final act (final plot twist?) except to say it wraps up the story in the most berserk way possible, and i still don’t know if i buy it OR if i respect it. how much character trauma is just…peddling trauma? how much can you let go of without like, it raising a question? and why do books never focus on the recovery, never the healing; why did this end before we get to see inez recovering from things that would’ve driven any person to insanity? maybe i’m thinking too much. but it didn’t sit right with me, not really]]> 3.83 2024
author: Isabel Ibañez
name: hamna
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/16
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: borrowed, marriage-of-convenience, romance, young-adult
review:
i really wanted to like this! this book is why i started this duology in the first place, because i was so completely taken over with the title. imagine my surprise, then, when the titular library doesn’t even get so much as a mention until about 78% of the book? i felt so ripped off lmao.
but that’s not even top 5 on the things i didn’t like about this book. let’s start with the good: i liked the writing style and the background to this story so much, i think there’s a lot to be said and expanded upon and i think the author truly did it justice as much as possible. it’s something i found i liked in the first book too (the quest, the search for answers), which is why i was hoping this one would follow along in the same vein, but alas.
the romance. what garbage. i don’t care for the characters in a romantic setting and this book made it clear to me the author doesn’t care about them in that capacity either. why else would we have this goofy up and down, nonsense relationship—sorry, marriage—plaguing the pages? the rift between them was either something extremely serious (he stole her money) or something completely idiotic (he refuses to “pick her��, who he met 2 months ago, over his full fledged SISTER?), and neither the fmc nor the author ever tries to make it clear which caused the offence. and thus we go into a limbo of i hate you, i love you, get away from me, no we’re friends, we’re NOT friends, you’ll never know what you did to me, you are a hole in my heart, i hate you, you’re the love of my life, etc etc etc�� how tiresome. how irritating.
another debacle: spending half the book with the fmc reflecting every other page or so about how she’s smart and quickwitted and has learnt from her mistakes…only to go and get played in the next chapter. this doesn’t happen once or twice or thrice. it’s a constant cycle throughout the books: she gets betrayed by every single person possible, even people that she’s been repeatedly told are [obviously] not looking in her best interests, and she still doesn’t learn. i love flawed characters! i love characters who don’t think and jump first! but my god, spare some common sense? and then the book ends with her husband yet again lying to her:) i guess it wouldn’t matter, maybe, to a lot of people but considering the plot significance of the matter in question��? maybe? not do that? considering your history, but also considering her history.

i won’t comment on the final act (final plot twist?) except to say it wraps up the story in the most berserk way possible, and i still don’t know if i buy it OR if i respect it. how much character trauma is just…peddling trauma? how much can you let go of without like, it raising a question? and why do books never focus on the recovery, never the healing; why did this end before we get to see inez recovering from things that would’ve driven any person to insanity? maybe i’m thinking too much. but it didn’t sit right with me, not really
]]> 207677131 A woman investigates her brother's mysterious death while coming to terms with her own haunting past in this atmospheric novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Unmaking of June Farrow

The only thing James and Johnny Golden have ever had is each other. For as long as she can remember, James’s��deep connection with her twin brother,��Johnny,��has gone beyond intuition—she can feel what he feels.��So, when Johnny is killed in a tragic accident, James knows before her phone even rings that her brother is gone and that she’s alone—truly alone—for the first time in her life.��

When James arrives in the rural town of Hawthorne, California to settle��her brother’s��affairs,��she’s��forced to rehash the ominous past she and Johnny shared and finally face Micah, the only person who knows about it. He’s also the only man she’s ever loved.��

But James soon discovers that the strange connection she had with Johnny isn’t quite gone, and the more she immerses herself into his world, the more questions she has about the brother she thought she knew. Johnny was keeping secrets, and he’s not the only one. What she uncovers will push her to unravel what happened in the days before Johnny’s death, but in the end, she’ll have to decide which truths should come to light, and which should stay buried forever.]]> 288 Adrienne Young 0593598709 hamna 3 3.72 2025
author: Adrienne Young
name: hamna
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/30
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 95784
This book tells the story from three perspectives: of the Japanese soldiers who performed it, of the Chinese civilians who endured it, and of a group of Europeans and Americans who refused to abandon the city and were able to create a safety zone that saved many.]]> 290 Iris Chang 0140277447 hamna 0 to-read 4.23 1997
author: Iris Chang
name: hamna
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 38462 here.

Baldwin's haunting and controversial second novel is his most sustained treatment of sexuality, and a classic of gay literature. In a 1950s Paris swarming with expatriates and characterized by dangerous liaisons and hidden violence, an American finds himself unable to repress his impulses, despite his determination to live the conventional life he envisions for himself. After meeting and proposing to a young woman, he falls into a lengthy affair with an Italian bartender and is confounded and tortured by his sexual identity as he oscillates between the two.

Examining the mystery of love and passion in an intensely imagined narrative, Baldwin creates a moving and complex story of death and desire that is revelatory in its insight.]]> 159 James Baldwin hamna 0 to-read, 2025-tbr 4.31 1956
author: James Baldwin
name: hamna
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1956
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/12
shelves: to-read, 2025-tbr
review:

]]> 213702691 Perfect Victims is an urgent affirmation of the Palestinian condition of resistance and refusal―an ode to the steadfastness of a nation.

Palestine is a microcosm of the on fire, stubborn, fragmented, dignified. While a settler colonial state continues to inflict devastating violence, fundamental truths are deliberately obscured—the perpetrators are coddled while the victims are blamed and placed on trial.

Why must Palestinians prove their humanity? And what are the implications of such an infuriatingly impossible task? With fearless prose and lyrical precision, Mohammed El-Kurd refuses a life spent in cross-examination. Rather than asking the oppressed to perform a perfect victimhood, El-Kurd asks friends and foes alike to look Palestinians in the eye, forgoing both deference and condemnation.

How we see Palestine reveals how we see each other; how we see everything else. Masterfully combining candid testimony, history, and reportage, Perfect Victims presents a powerfully simple dignity for the Palestinian.]]> 256 Mohammed El-Kurd hamna 0 4.91 2025
author: Mohammed El-Kurd
name: hamna
average rating: 4.91
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/10
shelves: currently-reading, arcs, non-fiction
review:

]]> 181344918 What should have been a family celebration of Chinese New Year descends into chaos when longtime foes crash the party in this hilariously entertaining novel by Jesse Q. Sutanto, bestselling author of Dial A for Aunties.

After an ultra-romantic honeymoon across Europe, Meddy Chan and her husband Nathan have landed in Jakarta to spend Chinese New Year with her entire extended family. Chinese New Year, already the biggest celebration of the Lunar calendar, gets even more festive when a former beau of Second Aunt’s shows up at the Chan residence bearing extravagant gifts—he’s determined to rekindle his romance with Second Aunt and the gifts are his way of announcing his courtship.
��
His grand gesture goes awry however, when it’s discovered that not all the gifts were meant for Second Aunt and the Chans—one particular gift was intended for a business rival to cement their alliance and included by accident. Of course the Aunties agree that it’s only right to return the gift—after all, anyone would forgive an honest mistake, right? But what should have been a simple retrieval turns disastrous and suddenly Meddy and the Aunties are helpless pawns in a decades-long war between Jakarta’s most powerful business factions. The fighting turns personal, however, when Nathan and the Aunties are endangered and it’s up to Meddy to come up with a plan to save them all.�� Determined to rescue her loved ones, Meddy embarks on an impossible mission—but with the Aunties by her side, nothing is truly impossible…]]> 304 Jesse Q. Sutanto 0593546237 hamna 2 adult, borrowed, contemporary 3.66 2024
author: Jesse Q. Sutanto
name: hamna
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/10
date added: 2025/01/10
shelves: adult, borrowed, contemporary
review:
so this is…in many ways better than the previous installments and in just as many ways, worse off. i don’t really know what to think lmaooo? it made me laugh i guess and it’s always nice to get back into jesse sutanto’s books, but i don’t think i’d be overstating if i said this series did not need to expand beyond a standalone. 2/5 stars
]]> 38619 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780441014897.

Ilona Andrews invites you to experience the first novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling series featuring the intriguing fantasy world of mercenary Kate Daniels��

When the magic is up, rogue mages cast their spells and monsters appear, while guns refuse to fire and cars fail to start. But then technology returns, and the magic recedes as unpredictably as it arose, leaving all kinds of paranormal problems in its wake.

Kate Daniels is a down-on-her-luck mercenary who makes her living cleaning up these magical problems. But when Kate’s guardian is murdered, her quest for justice draws her into a power struggle between two strong factions within Atlanta’s magic circles.

The Masters of the Dead, necromancers who can control vampires, and the Pack, a paramilitary clan of shapechangers, blame each other for a series of bizarre killings—and the death of Kate’s guardian may be part of the same mystery. Pressured by both sides to find the killer, Kate realizes she’s way out of her league—but she wouldn’t have it any other way…]]> 260 Ilona Andrews hamna 4 adult, fantasy 4.06 2007
author: Ilona Andrews
name: hamna
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/09
date added: 2025/01/09
shelves: adult, fantasy
review:
oh this was pleasantly surprising! can’t wait to read the next book and the next and the next..
]]> 56179377
Seeking help from a powerful gravewitch, Marra is offered the tools to kill a prince—if she can complete three impossible tasks. But, as is the way in tales of princes, witches, and daughters, the impossible is only the beginning.

On her quest, Marra is joined by the gravewitch, a reluctant fairy godmother, a strapping former knight, and a chicken possessed by a demon. Together, the five of them intend to be the hand that closes around the throat of the prince and frees Marra's family and their kingdom from its tyrannous ruler at last.]]> 243 T. Kingfisher 1250244048 hamna 0 to-read 4.08 2022
author: T. Kingfisher
name: hamna
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 33283361
Imam Ibn Qayyim's 'Asrar al-Salah' is from among powerfully inspiring works that take the reader through a vivid journey of the stages of prayer and their profound spiritual significance - combined with the physical actions that symbolise submission, surrender and humility to Allah. The author identifies impediments to achieving khushu' in prayer, and beautifully explains some profound benefits and wisdom behind actions performed therein and the words proscribed. He also adds a concise note on the psychological effect of listening to the magnificence of the Qur'an and strikes a comparison with music and its depravity and decadence. The rich literary style used by Ibn Qayyim itself is a delight to behold - and the translator has successfully maintained some of that imagery in the translation. This work will provide the reader with a unique insight into the prayer and its inner dimensions. It will be a truly uplifting experience that will reflect in the refreshing new light we see our prayer. Lackluster attitudes will be eliminated, especially of those who see prayer as a mere ritual of releasing themselves from its obligation, and will enliven us to become more careful and attentive within it.]]> 96 ابن قيم الجوزية hamna 5 islam, non-fiction 4.73
author: ابن قيم الجوزية
name: hamna
average rating: 4.73
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/06
date added: 2025/01/06
shelves: islam, non-fiction
review:
i really wanted this to be my first 2025 book! naturally it took a little while to read because it’s context heavy and i haven’t had much time, but i’m so happy to have found this. lemme see if i can find a physical copy somewhere, and i really do recommend this for anyone looking to connect more with their prayers or just islam in general.
]]> 10093825 116 Rainer Maria Rilke 0141192305 hamna 4 4.16 1929
author: Rainer Maria Rilke
name: hamna
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1929
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/31
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves: classics, comfort, non-fiction
review:
this did something so profound to me, i want to stay in this headspace forever. thank you oomfbeloved for letting me rob ur books.
]]> 52692515 Convenience Store Woman meets My Year of Rest and Relaxation in this strange, compelling, darkly funny tale of one woman's search for meaning in the modern workplace.

A young woman walks into an employment agency and requests a job that has the following traits: it is close to her home, and it requires no reading, no writing �� and ideally, very little thinking.

She is sent to a nondescript office building where she is tasked with watching the hidden-camera feed of an author suspected of storing contraband goods. But observing someone for hours on end can be so inconvenient and tiresome. How will she stay awake? When can she take delivery of her favourite brand of tea? And, perhaps more importantly �� how did she find herself in this situation in the first place?

As she moves from job to job, writing bus adverts for shops that mysteriously disappear, and composing advice for rice cracker wrappers that generate thousands of devoted followers, it becomes increasingly apparent that she's not searching for the easiest job at all, but something altogether more meaningful...]]> 416 Kikuko Tsumura 1526622246 hamna 0 to-read, 2025-tbr 3.61 2015
author: Kikuko Tsumura
name: hamna
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: to-read, 2025-tbr
review:

]]> 211974738
I regret nothing.
��
Okay, maybe I regret some things.
In my defense, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t get caught.
Also in my defense, I had no way of knowing that “The Incident�� would go viral.

But Toronto’s most notorious billionaire isn’t exactly known for his generous or understanding spirit, and he doesn’t want to hear my excuses.
Not when my little public stunt cost him the biggest investment deal of his career.

What he does want is cold, hard revenge.
And that’s how I find myself backed into a corner, forced to strike a deal with the snarly, green-eyed devil.
I have no choice but to be at his beck and call 24 hours a day, succumbing to his every bossy whim.
But as his demands—and the blistering tension—become increasingly unbearable, I can’t help but start to bite back.

Adrien Cloutier isn’t a man to be messed with, though.
And as the old saying goes, bad girls deserve to be punished.

This is a full-length enemies-to-lovers romance with loads of spicy banter and laugh-out-loud moments, featuring a dimpled bosshole devil in a suit and the smart-mouthed woman who brings him to his knees. (Literally.)

�� Enemies to lovers
�� Fake relationship
�� Only one bed
�� Three slow-burn peppers
�� Good girl]]> 434 Kyra Parsi hamna 1 4.11 2023
author: Kyra Parsi
name: hamna
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2023
rating: 1
read at: 2024/12/28
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: adult, contemporary, dnf, fake-dating, hate-to-love, romance
review:
file under: shit i read because booktwt wouldn’t stop hyping it up, that i ultimately always end up regretting.
]]> 57438319
Young Fitz is the bastard son of the noble Prince Chivalry, raised in the shadow of the royal court by his father’s gruff stableman. He is treated as an outcast by all the royalty except the devious King Shrewd, who has him secretly tutored in the arts of the assassin. For in Fitz’s blood runs the magic Skill—and the darker knowledge of a child raised with the stable hounds and rejected by his family.

As barbarous raiders ravage the coasts, Fitz is growing to manhood. Soon he will face his first dangerous, soul-shattering mission. And though some regard him as a threat to the throne, he may just be the key to the survival of the kingdom.]]> 464 Robin Hobb hamna 0 to-read, 2025-tbr 4.39 1995
author: Robin Hobb
name: hamna
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1995
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: to-read, 2025-tbr
review:

]]> 196774373
Inventing a formula to predict people's perfect partners doesn't equate to love in this contemporary YA novel that New York Times bestsellers Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick call "honest, raw, and breathtakingly real."

College freshman Grace Tang never meant to rewrite the rules of love. She came to college to move on from a grief-stricken senior year and to start anew. So she follows a predictable routine: Attend class, study, go home and visit her dad every weekend. She doesn't leave any room in her life for outliers or anomalies.

Then, Grace comes up with an algorithm for her statistics class to pair students with their perfect romantic partners. Though some people are skeptical, like Julia, Grace's prickly coworker, Grace is confident that her program will take all the drama out of relationships. That's why she keeps trying to make things work with her match, a guy named Jamie. But as the semester goes on and she grows closer to Julia, Grace starts to question who she's really attracted to.

In award-winning author Christina Li's YA debut, Grace will have to make a choice between the tidy equations she knows will protect her from heartbreak or the possibility that true love doesn't follow any formula]]> 400 Christina Li 006324604X hamna 0 to-read, 2025-tbr 4.10 2024
author: Christina Li
name: hamna
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: to-read, 2025-tbr
review:

]]> 8460324
Jay Gatsby is the man who has everything. Everybody who is anybody is seen at his glittering parties. Day and night his Long Island mansion buzzes with bright young things drinking, dancing and debating his mysterious character. For Gatsby - young, handsome, fabulously rich - always seems alone in the crowd, watching and waiting, though no one knows what for. Beneath the shimmering surface of his life he is hiding a secret: a silent longing for the one thing that will always be out of his reach. And soon this destructive obsession will force his world to unravel.]]> 198 F. Scott Fitzgerald 0141194057 hamna 0 4.09 1925
author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
name: hamna
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1925
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/26
shelves: stolen-from-linn, to-read, 2025-tbr
review:

]]> 101146072
Cornwall, 1730: A young girl known only as Red travels with her father making a living predicting fortunes using the ancient Cornish method of the Square of Sevens. Shortly before he dies, her father entrusts Red’s care to a gentleman scholar, along with a document containing the secret of the Square of Sevens technique.

Raised as a lady amidst the Georgian splendor of Bath, Red’s fortune-telling delights in high society. But she cannot ignore the questions that gnaw at her soul: who was her mother? How did she die? And who are the mysterious enemies her father was always terrified would find him?

The pursuit of these mysteries takes her from Cornwall and Bath to London and Devon, from the rough ribaldry of the Bartholomew Fair to the grand houses of two of the most powerful families in England. And while Red’s quest brings her the possibility of great reward, it also leads to grave danger.

Laura Shepherd-Robinson, has written a dazzling and Dickensian story of mystery and intrigue, with audacious twists and turns.]]> 528 Laura Shepherd-Robinson 1668031124 hamna 0 to-read, 2025-tbr 4.07 2023
author: Laura Shepherd-Robinson
name: hamna
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/26
shelves: to-read, 2025-tbr
review:

]]> 61294937 Shannon Chakraborty, the bestselling author of The City of Brass, spins a new trilogy of magic and mayhem on the high seas in this tale of pirates and sorcerers, forbidden artifacts and ancient mysteries, in one woman’s determined quest to seize a final chance at glory—and write her own legend.

Amina al-Sirafi should be content. After a storied and scandalous career as one of the Indian Ocean’s most notorious pirates, she’s survived backstabbing rogues, vengeful merchant princes, several husbands, and one actual demon to retire peacefully with her family to a life of piety, motherhood, and absolutely nothing that hints of the supernatural.

But when she’s tracked down by the obscenely wealthy mother of a former crewman, she’s offered a job no bandit could refuse: retrieve her comrade’s kidnapped daughter for a kingly sum. The chance to have one last adventure with her crew, do right by an old friend, and win a fortune that will secure her family’s future forever? It seems like such an obvious choice that it must be God’s will.

Yet the deeper Amina dives, the more it becomes alarmingly clear there’s more to this job, and the girl’s disappearance, than she was led to believe. For there’s always risk in wanting to become a legend, to seize one last chance at glory, to savor just a bit more power…and the price might be your very soul.]]> 483 Shannon Chakraborty hamna 0 4.25 2023
author: Shannon Chakraborty
name: hamna
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/25
shelves: adult, arcs, fantasy, not-finished, 2023-tbr, 2025-tbr
review:
i like this!! a lot, but not in the right headspace and/or don’t have time rn. moving this to next year’s tbr
]]> 199087734
Disguised as her brother, Ying manages to infiltrate the guild’s male-only apprenticeship trial with the help of an unlikely ally—Aogiya Ye-yang, the taciturn eighth prince of the High Command. With her father’s renown placing a target firmly on her back, Ying must stay one step ahead of her fellow competitors, the jealous guild masters, and the killer still hunting for her father’s journal. Complicating everything is her increasingly tangled relationship with the prince, who may have mysterious plans of his own.

The secrets concealed within the guild can be as deadly as the weapons they build—and with her life and the future of her homeland at stake, Ying doesn’t know who to trust. Can she avenge her father even if it means going against everything he stood for, or will she be next in the mastermind’s line of fire?]]> 477 Amber Chen 0593622766 hamna 3
i loved ying. i loved her resilience and her love for mechanics, i loved her resolve in understanding beyond the written word, and her courage in going to new lands and new places all to find out what she’s been *quite hauntingly* warned not to unravel. my main complaint with this book is something i feel like i’m always complaining about]]> 3.82 2024
author: Amber Chen
name: hamna
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/25
date added: 2024/12/25
shelves: borrowed, romance, sci-fi, young-adult
review:
oh! i’ve been planning (and procrastinating) on reading this book for a year. more than an year, in fact. i’m sooo happy i finally got around to reading it and that this book was so completely different to anything i’d imagined it to be. jade and dragons! but the dragon is a machine! because the main character is an engineer! did amber chen make this book out of my most fervent of dreams?

i loved ying. i loved her resilience and her love for mechanics, i loved her resolve in understanding beyond the written word, and her courage in going to new lands and new places all to find out what she’s been *quite hauntingly* warned not to unravel. my main complaint with this book is something i feel like i’m always complaining about
]]>