Em's bookshelf: all en-US Sun, 02 Mar 2025 02:24:50 -0800 60 Em's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Monkey Puzzle 2484354 32 Julia Donaldson 0333720008 Em 5 aimee-jolie 4.26 Monkey Puzzle
author: Julia Donaldson
name: Em
average rating: 4.26
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/03/02
shelves: aimee-jolie
review:

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<![CDATA[The House at Pooh Corner (Winnie-the-Pooh, #2)]]> 776407 180 A.A. Milne 0525444440 Em 4 childrens 4.37 1928 The House at Pooh Corner (Winnie-the-Pooh, #2)
author: A.A. Milne
name: Em
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1928
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/10/28
shelves: childrens
review:

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The World's Wife 171123 76 Carol Ann Duffy 0330372211 Em 4 2012, poetry
I think these are verses which I will read time and again, they're a pleasure to read and accessible too. Some poetry is so opaque that I can't grasp it's meaning but not so with Carol Ann Duffy, she is very much my kind of poet.]]>
3.95 1999 The World's Wife
author: Carol Ann Duffy
name: Em
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at: 2012/07/22
date added: 2024/10/15
shelves: 2012, poetry
review:
I found this collection of poems, all of which are voiced by famous women from history and myth or the wives of famous men to be funny, very witty, clever and gleefully vicious in places!

I think these are verses which I will read time and again, they're a pleasure to read and accessible too. Some poetry is so opaque that I can't grasp it's meaning but not so with Carol Ann Duffy, she is very much my kind of poet.
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<![CDATA[The Violin of Auschwitz: A Novel]]> 11467944 108 Maria Àngels Anglada 1849018936 Em 4 2014, historical 4.02 1983 The Violin of Auschwitz: A Novel
author: Maria Àngels Anglada
name: Em
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1983
rating: 4
read at: 2014/12/07
date added: 2024/09/26
shelves: 2014, historical
review:

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<![CDATA[Be healthy: Instant tips for total health (Brilliant Little Ideas)]]> 19518712 125 Infinite Ideas 190886415X Em 2 2012, health, self-help
Merged review:

It was OK, nothing particularly inspiring here.]]>
3.15 2011 Be healthy: Instant tips for total health (Brilliant Little Ideas)
author: Infinite Ideas
name: Em
average rating: 3.15
book published: 2011
rating: 2
read at: 2012/12/31
date added: 2024/09/22
shelves: 2012, health, self-help
review:
It was OK, nothing particularly inspiring here.

Merged review:

It was OK, nothing particularly inspiring here.
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<![CDATA[The Warlord Wants Forever (Immortals After Dark, #0.5)]]> 6388558
She eludes him for five years, but he has finally chased her to ground and stolen the jewel which commands her, giving him absolute power over her. While he possesses it, he can make her do anything, and he plans to in order for her to experience firsthand the agonizing, unending lust she'd purposely subjected him to for half a decade. Yet when Wroth realizes he wants more from her and frees her, will she come.

Note: First published in the 2006 anthology, Playing Easy to Get.]]>
163 Kresley Cole Em 2 romantic, fantasy, 2014 4.04 2006 The Warlord Wants Forever (Immortals After Dark, #0.5)
author: Kresley Cole
name: Em
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2006
rating: 2
read at: 2014/08/30
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves: romantic, fantasy, 2014
review:

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<![CDATA[The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories]]> 99300
Written from a feminist perspective, often focusing on the inferior status accorded to women by society, the tales include "turned," an ironic story with a startling twist, in which a husband seduces and impregnates a naïve servant; "Cottagette," concerning the romance of a young artist and a man who's apparently too good to be true; "Mr. Peebles' Heart," a liberating tale of a fiftyish shopkeeper whose sister-in-law, a doctor, persuades him to take a solo trip to Europe, with revivifying results; "The Yellow Wallpaper"; and three other outstanding stories.

These charming tales are not only highly readable and full of humor and invention, but also offer ample food for thought about the social, economic, and personal relationship of men and women � and how they might be improved.

Collects:
—The Yellow Wallpaper
—Three Thanksgivings
—The Cottagette
—T³Ü°ù²Ô±ð»å
—Making a Change
—If I Were a Man
—Mr. Peebles' Heart]]>
129 Charlotte Perkins Gilman 0486298574 Em 4 4.05 1892 The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories
author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman
name: Em
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1892
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Around the World in Eighty Days]]> 54479 252 Jules Verne 014044906X Em 4 classics, historical 3.95 1872 Around the World in Eighty Days
author: Jules Verne
name: Em
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1872
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: classics, historical
review:

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Mansfield Park 45032 488 Jane Austen Em 4 classics 3.86 1814 Mansfield Park
author: Jane Austen
name: Em
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1814
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: classics
review:

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Quartet in Autumn 227002 186 Barbara Pym 0330326481 Em 0 to-read 3.90 1978 Quartet in Autumn
author: Barbara Pym
name: Em
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1978
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: to-read
review:

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Heresy (Giordano Bruno, #1) 6611809
Giordano Bruno was a monk, poet, scientist, and magician on the run from the Roman Inquisition on charges of heresy for his belief that the Earth orbits the sun and that the universe is infinite. This alone could have got him burned at the stake, but he was also a student of occult philosophies and magic.

In S.J. Parris's gripping novel, Bruno's pursuit of this rare knowledge brings him to London, where he is unexpectedly recruited by Queen Elizabeth I and is sent undercover to Oxford University on the pretext of a royal visitation. Officially Bruno is to take part in a debate on the Copernican theory of the universe; unofficially, he is to find out whatever he can about a Catholic plot to overthrow the queen.

His mission is dramatically thrown off course by a series of grisly murders and a spirited and beautiful young woman. As Bruno begins to discover a pattern in these killings, he realizes that no one at Oxford is who he seems to be. Bruno must attempt to outwit a killer who appears obsessed with the boundary between truth and heresy.

Like The Dante Club and The Alienist, this clever, sophisticated, exceptionally enjoyable novel is written with the unstoppable narrative propulsion and stylistic flair of the very best historical thrillers.]]>
435 S.J. Parris 0385531281 Em 4 2018, historical, mystery 3.74 2010 Heresy (Giordano Bruno, #1)
author: S.J. Parris
name: Em
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2018/12/08
date added: 2023/12/25
shelves: 2018, historical, mystery
review:

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

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Year of Wonders 6586144
Through Anna's eyes we follow the story of the fateful year of 1666, as she and her fellow villagers confront the spread of disease and superstition.

As death reaches into every household and villagers turn from prayers to murderous witch-hunting, Anna must find the strength to confront the disintegration of her community and the lure of illicit love.

As she struggles to survive and grow, a year of catastrophe becomes instead annus mirabilis, a "year of wonders."

Inspired by the true story of Eyam, a village in the rugged hill country of England, Year of Wonders is a richly detailed evocation of a singular moment in history. ]]>
323 Geraldine Brooks Em 5 2019, historical 4.18 2001 Year of Wonders
author: Geraldine Brooks
name: Em
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at: 2019/03/07
date added: 2023/10/22
shelves: 2019, historical
review:
I knew I was going to love this book from page 1 - the style, the characters, the sense of place and time. A fantastic read in my opinion.
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<![CDATA[Five Go to Mystery Moor (The Famous Five, #13)]]> 17483


Cover illustration: Richard Jones]]>
248 Enid Blyton 0340796278 Em 4 4.01 1954 Five Go to Mystery Moor (The Famous Five, #13)
author: Enid Blyton
name: Em
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1954
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/07/27
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[The Glass of Time (The Meaning of Night, #2)]]> 3419681
In the autumn of 1876, nineteen-year-old orphan Esperanza Gorst arrives at the great country house of Evenwood in Northamptonshire. There she will serve as the new lady's maid to the former Emily Carteret, now Lady Tansor. But Esperanza is no ordinary servant. She has been sent by her guardian, the mysterious Madame de l'Orme, to uncover the secrets that her new mistress has sought to conceal - and to set right a past injustice in which her own life is intertwined.

Unable to escape the reverberations of past misdeeds, Lady Tansor finds herself desperate to keep Esperanza from learning dark, dangerous truths.

As well as a page-turning period mystery, The Glass of Time is a beautifully written and vividly imagined study of seduction, betrayal, and friendship between two powerful women bound together by the past.]]>
586 Michael Cox 0393067734 Em 0 to-read 4.00 2008 The Glass of Time (The Meaning of Night, #2)
author: Michael Cox
name: Em
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/26
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Bon Appetit!: Travels With Knife, Fork & Corkscrew Through France]]> 39903637 240 Peter Mayle Em 4 3.77 2001 Bon Appetit!: Travels With Knife, Fork & Corkscrew Through France
author: Peter Mayle
name: Em
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 2018/07/07
date added: 2022/12/03
shelves: 2018, food-diet, non-fiction, travel
review:
Affable and conversational in tone, I found this book entertaining and I'm glad I liberated it from my parent's spare bedroom bookshelf. It does tick a few boxes for me, being that it covers travel and food, two of my favourite things to read about!
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Splitting 619848 246 Fay Weldon 0871136368 Em 4 contemporary 3.29 1995 Splitting
author: Fay Weldon
name: Em
average rating: 3.29
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2022/11/17
shelves: contemporary
review:

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<![CDATA[Hands-On Pain Relief - Turn your hands into painkillers. 20 years worth of doctors experience transformed into your hands (Dr. Altabet Health)]]> 19369101 34 Cory Altabet Em 2 2012, health, self-help 3.20 2008 Hands-On Pain Relief - Turn your hands into painkillers. 20 years worth of doctors experience transformed into your hands (Dr. Altabet Health)
author: Cory Altabet
name: Em
average rating: 3.20
book published: 2008
rating: 2
read at: 2012/10/25
date added: 2022/08/29
shelves: 2012, health, self-help
review:
OK, found the instructions a bit difficult to comprehend to be honest. I was reading it late last night, so could be me!
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<![CDATA[Emily Dickinson Everyman's Poetry]]> 483433 12 full-color illustrations.]]> 98 Emily Dickinson 0460878956 Em 4 2016, poetry 3.95 1993 Emily Dickinson Everyman's Poetry
author: Emily Dickinson
name: Em
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1993
rating: 4
read at: 2016/08/23
date added: 2022/04/03
shelves: 2016, poetry
review:

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<![CDATA[Roar: Thirty Women, Thirty Stories]]> 36612327 Have you ever stood at a crossroads, undecided
Have you ever had a moment when you wanted to roar?

From much-loved, international bestseller Cecelia Ahern come stories for all of us: the women who befriend us, the women who encourage us, the women who make us brave. From The Woman Who Slowly Disappeared to The Woman Who Returned and Exchanged her Husband, discover thirty touching, often hilarious, stories and meet thirty very different women. Each discovers her strength; each realizes she holds the power to make a change.

Witty, tender, surprising, these keenly observed tales speak to us all, and capture the moment when we all want to roar.]]>
337 Cecelia Ahern 0008283508 Em 4 2019, short-stories 3.51 2018 Roar: Thirty Women, Thirty Stories
author: Cecelia Ahern
name: Em
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2019/05/15
date added: 2021/06/13
shelves: 2019, short-stories
review:
A collection of short stories with a feminist theme runing throughout. I've enjoyed Cecelia Ahern books previously and thought I knew what to expect but this book surprised me with the direction it took - in a good way! I dipped in and out of these short stories over a number of months which worked well, I wouldn't have liked to have read them all in close succession as I think they would lose their impact.
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Anna Karenina 151
«Nos capítulos iniciais de Anna Karénina, somos conduzidos, uma e outra vez, a um sentido de analogia musical. Há efeitos de contraponto e harmonia no desenvolvimento das principais tramas do “prelúdio Oblonski� (o acidente na estação ferroviária, a zombadora discussão sobre o divórcio entre Vronski e a baronesa Chilton, o deslumbramento do fogo vermelho diante dos olhos de Anna). O método de Tolstoi é polifónico; mas as harmonias principais desen- volvem-se com uma tremenda força e amplitude. As técnicas musicais e linguísticas não podem comparar-se de um modo exato. Mas como poderíamos elucidar de outro modo o sentimento de que as novelas de Tolstoi surgem de um princípio interior de ordem e vitalidade, enquanto as dos escritores menos importantes parecem alinhavadas?»

«Anna Karénina morre no mundo do romance; mas cada vez que lemos o livro ela ressuscita, e mesmo depois de o termos acabado adquire outra vida na nossa recordação. Em cada personagem literária existe algo da Fénix imortal. Através das vidas perduráveis das suas personagens, a própria existência de Tolstoi teve a sua eternidade.» [George Steiner, Tolstoi ou Dostoievski]]]>
838 Leo Tolstoy 0143035002 Em 4 classics, historical 4.11 1878 Anna Karenina
author: Leo Tolstoy
name: Em
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1878
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2020/11/29
shelves: classics, historical
review:

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<![CDATA[This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor]]> 35510008 Scribbled in secret after endless days, sleepless nights and missed weekends, Adam Kay's This is Going to Hurt provides a no-holds-barred account of his time on the NHS front line. Hilarious, horrifying and heartbreaking, this diary is everything you wanted to know � and more than a few things you didn't � about life on and off the hospital ward.

As seen on ITV's Zoe Ball Book Club

This edition includes extra diary entries and a new afterword by the author.

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285 Adam Kay Em 4 4.40 2017 This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor
author: Adam Kay
name: Em
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2018/02/12
date added: 2020/11/22
shelves: 2018, humour-wit, biography-memoir
review:
An engaging read, lots of occasions that made me laugh out loud and a few that made me squirm - some people put some weird stuff in some weird places! That said, the author also makes a valid point about the conditions our junior doctors work under, the sacrifice of time and relationships, the inadequate pay and the general trauma of a job where you're responsible for life and death decisions on a daily basis.
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<![CDATA[The Mirror & the Light (Thomas Cromwell, #3)]]> 29564789 The long-awaited sequel to Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, the stunning conclusion to Hilary Mantel’s Man Booker Prize-winning Wolf Hall trilogy.

‘If you cannot speak truth at a beheading, when can you speak it?�

England, May 1536. Anne Boleyn is dead, decapitated in the space of a heartbeat by a hired French executioner. As her remains are bundled into oblivion, Thomas Cromwell breakfasts with the victors. The blacksmith’s son from Putney emerges from the spring’s bloodbath to continue his climb to power and wealth, while his formidable master, Henry VIII, settles to short-lived happiness with his third queen, Jane Seymour.

Cromwell is a man with only his wits to rely on; he has no great family to back him, no private army. Despite rebellion at home, traitors plotting abroad and the threat of invasion testing Henry’s regime to breaking point, Cromwell’s robust imagination sees a new country in the mirror of the future. But can a nation, or a person, shed the past like a skin? Do the dead continually unbury themselves? What will you do, the Spanish ambassador asks Cromwell, when the king turns on you, as sooner or later he turns on everyone close to him?

With The Mirror and the Light, Hilary Mantel brings to a triumphant close the trilogy she began with Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. She traces the final years of Thomas Cromwell, the boy from nowhere who climbs to the heights of power, offering a defining portrait of predator and prey, of a ferocious contest between present and past, between royal will and a common man’s vision: of a modern nation making itself through conflict, passion and courage.]]>
879 Hilary Mantel Em 5 2020, british, historical 4.54 2020 The Mirror & the Light (Thomas Cromwell, #3)
author: Hilary Mantel
name: Em
average rating: 4.54
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2020/10/03
date added: 2020/10/03
shelves: 2020, british, historical
review:

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The L-Shaped Room 24079520 The Guardian

Pregnant by accident, kicked out of home by her father, 27-year-old Jane Graham goes to ground in the sort of place she feels she deserves - a bug-ridden boarding-house attic in Fulham. She thinks she wants to hide from the world, but finds out that even at the bottom of the heap, friends and love can still be found, and self-respect is still worth fighting for.]]>
329 Lynne Reid Banks Em 0 to-read 4.42 1960 The L-Shaped Room
author: Lynne Reid Banks
name: Em
average rating: 4.42
book published: 1960
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/09/27
shelves: to-read
review:

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Delirium (Delirium, #1) 11614718 There is an alternate cover edition for this ISBN13 here.

In an alternate United States, love has been declared a dangerous disease, and the government forces everyone who reaches eighteen to have a procedure called the Cure. Living with her aunt, uncle, and cousins in Portland, Maine, Lena Haloway is very much looking forward to being cured and living a safe, predictable life. She watched love destroy her mother and isn't about to make the same mistake.

But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena meets enigmatic Alex, a boy from the "Wilds" who lives under the government's radar. What will happen if they do the unthinkable and fall in love?]]>
441 Lauren Oliver 0061726834 Em 0 to-read 3.94 2011 Delirium (Delirium, #1)
author: Lauren Oliver
name: Em
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/09/16
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man]]> 54114950
Mary Trump spent much of her childhood in her grandparents� large, imposing house in the heart of Queens, where Donald and his four siblings grew up. She describes a nightmare of traumas, destructive relationships, and a tragic combination of neglect and abuse. She explains how specific events and general family patterns created the damaged man who currently occupies the Oval Office, including the strange and harmful relationship between Fred Trump and his two oldest sons, Fred Jr. and Donald.

A first-hand witness to countless holiday meals and family interactions, Mary brings an incisive wit and unexpected humor to sometimes grim, often confounding family events. She recounts in unsparing detail everything from her uncle Donald’s place in the family spotlight and Ivana’s penchant for re-gifting to her grandmother’s frequent injuries and illnesses and the appalling way Donald, Fred Trump’s favorite son, dismissed and derided him when he began to succumb to Alzheimer’s.

Numerous pundits, armchair psychologists, and journalists have sought to parse Donald J. Trump’s lethal flaws. Mary L. Trump has the education, insight, and intimate familiarity needed to reveal what makes Donald, and the rest of her clan, tick. She alone can recount this fascinating, unnerving saga, not just because of her insider’s perspective but also because she is the only Trump willing to tell the truth about one of the world’s most powerful and dysfunctional families.]]>
236 Mary L. Trump 1982141484 Em 0 to-read 3.87 2020 Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man
author: Mary L. Trump
name: Em
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/09/14
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Lethal White (Cormoran Strike, #4)]]> 40775744 “I seen a kid killed…He strangled it, up by the horse.�

When Billy, a troubled young man, comes to private eye Cormoran Strike’s office to ask for his help investigating a crime he thinks he witnessed as a child, Strike is left deeply unsettled. While Billy is obviously mentally distressed, and cannot remember many concrete details, there is something sincere about him and his story. But before Strike can question him further, Billy bolts from his office in a panic.

Trying to get to the bottom of Billy’s story, Strike and Robin Ellacott—once his assistant, now a partner in the agency—set off on a twisting trail that leads them through the backstreets of London, into a secretive inner sanctum within Parliament, and to a beautiful but sinister manor house deep in the countryside.

And during this labyrinthine investigation, Strike’s own life is far from straightforward: his newfound fame as a private eye means he can no longer operate behind the scenes as he once did. Plus, his relationship with his former assistant is more fraught than it ever has been—Robin is now invaluable to Strike in the business, but their personal relationship is much, much trickier than that.]]>
657 Robert Galbraith 0751572845 Em 4 2020, crime-detective 4.47 2018 Lethal White (Cormoran Strike, #4)
author: Robert Galbraith
name: Em
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2020/09/13
date added: 2020/09/13
shelves: 2020, crime-detective
review:

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The Tattooist of Auschwitz 36582334 I tattooed a number on her arm. She tattooed her name on my heart.

In 1942, Lale Sokolov arrived in Auschwitz-Birkenau. He was given the job of tattooing the prisoners marked for survival - scratching numbers into his fellow victims' arms in indelible ink to create what would become one of the most potent symbols of the Holocaust.
Waiting in line to be tattooed, terrified and shaking, was a young girl. For Lale - a dandy, a jack-the-lad, a bit of a chancer - it was love at first sight. And he was determined not only to survive himself, but to ensure this woman, Gita, did, too.
So begins one of the most life-affirming, courageous, unforgettable and human stories of the the love story of the tattooist of Auschwitz.]]>
293 Heather Morris 1785763660 Em 0 currently-reading 4.50 2018 The Tattooist of Auschwitz
author: Heather Morris
name: Em
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/09/12
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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<![CDATA[Feel Better In 5: Your Daily Plan to Feel Great for Life]]> 51020316 'One of the most influential doctors in the country' Chris Evans
_______

It only takes 5 minutes to start changing your life. For good.

Feel Better in 5 is the first daily 5-minute plan that is easy to maintain, easy-to-follow and requires only the smallest amount of willpower.

Top tips include:

· A strength workout that you can do anywhere
· Gut-boosting snacks you can eat on the go
· Yoga moves to relax and stay supple
· Breathing exercises to calm the mind

Drawing on Dr Rangan Chatterjee's twenty years of experience and real-life case studies from his GP practice, Feel Better in 5 is your daily plan for a happier, healthier you at no extra cost.]]>
288 Rangan Chatterjee Em 4 4.06 2019 Feel Better In 5: Your Daily Plan to Feel Great for Life
author: Rangan Chatterjee
name: Em
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2020/08/26
date added: 2020/08/26
shelves: 2020, food-diet, health, life-style, self-help
review:

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<![CDATA[You Can Be Thin: The Ultimate Programme to End Dieting...Forever]]> 36583688 PLEASE NOTE: LINK FOR THE FREE HYPNOSIS DOWNLOAD CAN BE FOUND ON THE COPYRIGHT PAGE, OPPOSITE THE CONTENTS PAGE

The Ultimate Programme to End Dieting...Forever

Marisa Peer introduces her revolutionary method of reprogramming the brain to alter feelings and associations related to food, to enable everybody to have a healthy relationship with it and, as a result, have a healthy body at a sustained ideal weight.

With its refreshing and empowering style, YOU CAN BE THIN works on many levels by using techniques including fun and powerfully affecting exercises, subtle repetition and straightforward questionnaires to break negative patterns and banish cravings. An effortless process, the reader's progress through the book is a hypnotherapy treatment in itself. Addressing habitual eaters, emotional eaters, addicted and ignorant eaters, the cure, which is not to be found anywhere else, lies in the process of reading the book.

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179 Peer. Marisa Em 3 2019, food-diet 4.43 2008 You Can Be Thin: The Ultimate Programme to End Dieting...Forever
author: Peer. Marisa
name: Em
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2019/07/25
date added: 2020/08/19
shelves: 2019, food-diet
review:
I read this as part of my ongoing interest in food and nutrition (and I think it might have been attractively priced on Kindle). I found the book readible, I'm not sure about the validity of some assertions made and whist it does present a way of eating which undoubtedly supports maintaining a healthy weight, it makes food a functional thing, for me it's lacking the pleasure and enjoyment of it.
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<![CDATA[The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)]]> 50794839 Ambition will fuel him.
Competition will drive him.
But power has its price.

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

The odds are against him. He’s been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined—every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute . . . and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.]]>
528 Suzanne Collins 1338635174 Em 0 3.88 2020 The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Em
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/08/18
shelves: currently-reading, 2020, dystopian, fantasy, young-adult
review:

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Reasons to Stay Alive 25003119 Matt Haig’s accessible and life-affirming memoir of his struggle with depression, and how his triumph over the illness taught him to live.

“Destined to become a modern classic.� �Entertainment Weekly

Like nearly one in five people, Matt Haig suffers from depression. Reasons to Stay Alive is Matt’s inspiring account of how, minute by minute and day by day, he overcame the disease with the help of reading, writing, and the love of his parents and his girlfriend (and now-wife), Andrea. And eventually, he learned to appreciate life all the more for it.

Everyone’s lives are touched by mental illness: if we do not suffer from it ourselves, then we have a friend or loved one who does. Matt’s frankness about his experiences is both inspiring to those who feel daunted by depression and illuminating to those who are mystified by it. Above all, his humor and encouragement never let us lose sight of hope. Speaking as his present self to his former self in the depths of depression, Matt is adamant that the oldest cliché is the truest—there is light at the end of the tunnel. He teaches us to celebrate the small joys and moments of peace that life brings, and reminds us that there are always reasons to stay alive.]]>
286 Matt Haig Em 5 4.16 2015 Reasons to Stay Alive
author: Matt Haig
name: Em
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2020/08/03
date added: 2020/08/03
shelves: 2018, psychology, biography-memoir, 2020
review:
Highly recommended. As a friend and family member to people who are or have been ill with depression, anxiety and OCD and working as I do, with young people who are increasingly suffering with these conditions, I feel it's important for me to understand more. As it is often the case that people aren't open about these things, it is wonderful that writers like Matt Haig can talk honestly about their experiences, if only so others can also start conversations and so that those of us who are supporting others, can understand better and behave in a more constructive, helpful way.
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Girl, Woman, Other 41081373
Girl, Woman, Other follows the lives and struggles of twelve very different characters. Mostly women, black and British, they tell the stories of their families, friends and lovers, across the country and through the years.

Joyfully polyphonic and vibrantly contemporary, this is a gloriously new kind of history, a novel of our times: celebratory, ever-dynamic and utterly irresistible.]]>
453 Bernardine Evaristo 0241364906 Em 5 2020, award-winners 4.27 2019 Girl, Woman, Other
author: Bernardine Evaristo
name: Em
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2020/06/12
date added: 2020/06/12
shelves: 2020, award-winners
review:

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<![CDATA[The Gender Games: The Problem with Men and Women, from Someone Who Has Been Both]]> 34298222 'It's a boy!' or 'It's a girl!' are the first words almost all of us hear when we enter the world. Before our names, before we have likes and dislikes - before we, or anyone else, has any idea who we are. And two years ago, as Juno Dawson went to tell her mother she was (and actually, always had been) a woman, she started to realise just how wrong we've been getting it.

Gender isn't just screwing over trans people, it's messing with everyone. From little girls who think they can't be doctors to teenagers who come to expect street harassment. From exclusionist feminists to 'alt-right' young men. From men who can't cry to the women who think they shouldn't. As her body gets in line with her mind, Juno tells not only her own story, but the story of everyone who is shaped by society's expectations of gender - and what we can do about it.

Featuring insights from well-known gender, feminist and trans activists including Rebecca Root, Laura Bates, Gemma Cairney, Anthony Anaxagorou, Hannah Witton, Alaska Thunderfuck and many more, The Gender Games is a frank, witty and powerful manifesto for a world in which everyone can truly be themselves.

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368 Juno Dawson 1473648580 Em 4 2020, biography-memoir, lgbtq 4.09 2017 The Gender Games: The Problem with Men and Women, from Someone Who Has Been Both
author: Juno Dawson
name: Em
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2020/06/11
date added: 2020/06/11
shelves: 2020, biography-memoir, lgbtq
review:

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<![CDATA[Get Fit! (52 Brilliant Little Ideas)]]> 13366723 128 Steve Shipside Em 0 2.81 2007 Get Fit! (52 Brilliant Little Ideas)
author: Steve Shipside
name: Em
average rating: 2.81
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/06/09
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[The GI Walking Diet: Lose 10lbs and Look 10 Years Younger in 6 Weeks]]> 21206306 The six week programme designed to revolutionise your health. A diet, recipes and walking plan especially designed with the over 40s in mind to increase your levels of health and combat age-related problems, by the UK’s leading name in health and fitness, Joanna Hall.

After a year researching the over 40s market, leading name in the fitness industry Joanna Hall has designed a diet and fitness programme that builds health and weight loss in simple steps. Old habits die hard, but here she shows you how to make new, healthy habits stick, slowly but surely. Her mantra is: small steps make big changes.

� Take her 10,000 steps a day walking challenge
� Discover why a pedometer will revolutionise your fitness
� Learn tips on how to combat osteoporosis, high blood pressure, arthritis, menopausal symptoms and overweight with food and exercise plans

So take the challenge � and stop kidding yourself if you think that pottering in the garden with a pair of secateurs or taking the dog for a 10 minute walk is making you fit!

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305 Joanna Hall Em 0 3.50 2008 The GI Walking Diet: Lose 10lbs and Look 10 Years Younger in 6 Weeks
author: Joanna Hall
name: Em
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/06/09
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Focus on LinkedIn: Create a Personal Brand on LinkedIn to Make More Money, Generate Leads and Find Employment (Business Professional Series Book 7)]]> 29498285
A poorly written LinkedIn profile turns away business, scares off employers, and loses you money. However, by taking the time to write and organize your LinkedIn profile so that it communicates your message and your unique personal brand, you will increase your income, find lucrative jobs and get quality leads on a day-to-day basis.

Senior Branding Specialist, Richard Lowe Jr, presents all of the steps you need to take to create your personal brand, define your message, and create a LinkedIn profile that promotes you to the right people.

Use the simple tips in this book to learn how to create a killer profile that pulls pre-qualified customers, employers and leads directly to you. You will master the techniques to deliver your message, as well as each of the day-to-day tasks that turn LinkedIn into a lead-generating money machine.

Focus On LinkedIn will help you:

� Get people to engage with you
� Get the right people viewing your profile
� Define a personal brand which attracts clients and employers
� Improve your search rankings so you appear at the top of the list
� Immediately impress your visitors with your photo, background image and headline
� Build your network quickly and easily
� Take advantage of LinkedIn’s built-in publishing platform to build your reputation
� Showcase your skills and expertise
� Optimize the order and structure of your profile
� Use every single section within your profile to promote yourself and your brand
� Understand LinkedIn etiquette and avoid making mistakes that turn off customers and leads
� Include keywords and phrases to make your profile get noticed
� Define your personal brand, write a great profile, and become an influencer among your peers.]]>
139 Richard G. Lowe Jr. 1943517207 Em 0 3.68 Focus on LinkedIn: Create a Personal Brand on LinkedIn to Make More Money, Generate Leads and Find Employment (Business Professional Series Book 7)
author: Richard G. Lowe Jr.
name: Em
average rating: 3.68
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/06/09
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Excel 2013 in easy steps: in manageable chunks]]> 23903812 594 Michael Price Em 0 3.00 2013 Excel 2013 in easy steps: in manageable chunks
author: Michael Price
name: Em
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/06/09
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[The Definitive Personal Assistant & Secretarial Handbook: A Best Practice Guide for All Secretaries, PAs, Office Managers and Executive Assistants]]> 19360399 264 Sue France Em 0 3.83 2009 The Definitive Personal Assistant & Secretarial Handbook: A Best Practice Guide for All Secretaries, PAs, Office Managers and Executive Assistants
author: Sue France
name: Em
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/06/09
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Life, the Universe and Everything (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #3)]]> 8694
“Wild satire . . . The feckless protagonist, Arthur Dent, is reminiscent of Vonnegut heroes.â€â€� Chicago Tribune

The unhappy inhabitants of planet Krikkit are sick of looking at the night sky above their heads—so they plan to destroy it. The universe, that is. Now only five individuals stand between the killer robots of Krikkit and their goal of total annihilation.

They are Arthur Dent, a mild-mannered space and time traveler who tries to learn how to fly by throwing himself at the ground and missing; Ford Prefect, his best friend, who decides to go insane to see if he likes it; Slartibartfast, the indomitable vice president of the Campaign for Real Time, who travels in a ship powered by irrational behavior; Zaphod Beeblebrox, the two-headed, three-armed ex-president of the galaxy; and Trillian, the sexy space cadet who is torn between a persistent Thunder God and a very depressed Beeblebrox.

How will it all end? Will it end? Only this stalwart crew knows as they try to avert “universal� Armageddon and save life as we know it—and don’t know it!

“Adams is one of those rare an author who, one senses, has as much fun writing as one has reading.â€â€� Arizona Daily Star]]>
224 Douglas Adams 0345418905 Em 3 4.20 1982 Life, the Universe and Everything (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #3)
author: Douglas Adams
name: Em
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1982
rating: 3
read at: 2020/06/06
date added: 2020/06/06
shelves: fantasy, 2020, humour-wit, sci-fi
review:

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Carol 25622850
Based on a true story plucked from Highsmith's own life, Carol tells the riveting drama of Therese Belivet, a stage designer trapped in a department-store day job, whose routine is forever shattered by a gorgeous epiphany—the appearance of Carol Aird, a customer who comes in to buy her daughter a Christmas toy. Therese begins to gravitate toward the alluring suburban housewife, who is trapped in a marriage as stultifying as Therese's job. They fall in love and set out across the United States, ensnared by society's confines and the imminent disapproval of others, yet propelled by their infatuation. Carol is a brilliantly written story that may surprise Highsmith fans and will delight those discovering her work.

This authorized edition includes an afterword by Patricia Highsmith. Previously titled The Price of Salt.]]>
304 Claire Morgan 0393352684 Em 4 2017, romantic, lgbtq 4.02 1952 Carol
author: Claire Morgan
name: Em
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1952
rating: 4
read at: 2017/03/01
date added: 2020/06/05
shelves: 2017, romantic, lgbtq
review:

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<![CDATA[Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come: An Introvert's Year of Living Dangerously]]> 41577600 An introvert spends a year trying to live like an extrovert with hilarious results and advice for readers along the way.

What would happen if a shy introvert lived like a gregarious extrovert for one year? If she knowingly and willingly put herself in perilous social situations that she’d normally avoid at all costs? Writer Jessica Pan intends to find out. With the help of various extrovert mentors, Pan sets up a series of personal challenges (talk to strangers, perform stand-up comedy, host a dinner party, travel alone, make friends on the road, and much worse) to explore whether living like an extrovert can teach her lessons that might improve the quality of her life. Chronicling the author’s hilarious and painful year of misadventures, this book explores what happens when one introvert fights her natural tendencies, takes the plunge, and tries (and sometimes fails) to be a little bit braver.]]>
368 Jessica Pan 0857526154 Em 4 3.86 2019 Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come: An Introvert's Year of Living Dangerously
author: Jessica Pan
name: Em
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2020/05/19
date added: 2020/05/19
shelves: 2020, biography-memoir, psychology
review:

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Hamnet 43890641 Hamnet is a luminous portrait of a marriage, at its heart the loss of a beloved child.

Warwickshire in the 1580s. Agnes is a woman as feared as she is sought after for her unusual gifts. She settles with her husband in Henley street, Stratford, and has three children: a daughter, Susanna, and then twins, Hamnet and Judith. The boy, Hamnet, dies in 1596, aged eleven. Four years or so later, the husband writes a play called Hamlet.

Award-winning author Maggie O'Farrell's new novel breathes full-blooded life into the story of a loss usually consigned to literary footnotes, and provides an unforgettable vindication of Agnes, a woman intriguingly absent from history.

A New York Times Notable Book (2020), Best Book of 2020: Guardian, Financial Times, Literary Hub, and NPR.]]>
372 Maggie O'Farrell 1472223799 Em 0 to-read 4.16 2020 Hamnet
author: Maggie O'Farrell
name: Em
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/05/16
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[The Rules of Contagion: Why Things Spread - and Why They Stop]]> 52949562 From ideas and infections to financial crises and "fake news," why the science of outbreaks is the science of modern life


These days, whenever anything spreads, whether it's a YouTube fad or a political rumor, we say it went viral. But how does virality actually work? In The Rules of Contagion, epidemiologist Adam Kucharski explores topics including gun violence, online manipulation, and, of course, outbreaks of disease to show how much we get wrong about contagion, and how astonishing the real science is.


Why did the president retweet a Mussolini quote as his own? Why do financial bubbles take off so quickly? And why are disinformation campaigns so effective? By uncovering the crucial factors driving outbreaks, we can see how things really spread -- and what we can do about it.


Whether you are an author seeking an audience, a defender of truth, or simply someone interested in human social behavior, The Rules of Contagion is an essential guide to modern life.]]>
352 Adam Kucharski Em 4 3.83 2020 The Rules of Contagion: Why Things Spread - and Why They Stop
author: Adam Kucharski
name: Em
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2020/05/15
date added: 2020/05/15
shelves: 2020, factual, non-fiction, science
review:

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How to be Champion 34514547
If you've ever worn glasses at the age of six, worn an off-the-shoulder gown with no confidence, been contacted by an old school bully, lived in your childhood bedroom in your thirties, been gloriously dumped in a Frankie and Benny's, cried so much you felt great, been for a romantic walk with a dog, worn leggings two days in a row even though they smelt of wee from a distance, then this is Your Book. If you haven't done those things but wish you had, This Is Your Book. If you just want to laugh on a train/sofa/toilet or under your desk at work, This Is Your Book.]]>
304 Sarah Millican 1409174301 Em 4 4.11 2017 How to be Champion
author: Sarah Millican
name: Em
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2020/05/10
date added: 2020/05/10
shelves: 2020, biography-memoir, humour-wit
review:

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<![CDATA[The Days of Anna Madrigal (Tales of the City, #9)]]> 18090035 Suspenseful, comic, and touching, the ninth and final novel in Armistead Maupin's bestselling Tales of the City series follows one of modern literature's most unforgettable and enduring characters—Anna Madrigal, the legendary transgender landlady of 28 Barbary Lane—on a road trip that will take her deep in her past.

Now a fragile ninety-two years old and committed to the notion of "leaving like a lady," Anna Madrigal has seemingly found peace in the bosom of her "logical family" in San Francisco: her devoted young caretaker, Jake Greenleaf; her former tenant Brian Hawkins; Brian's daughter Shawna; and Michael Tolliver and Mary Ann Singleton, who have known and loved Anna for nearly four decades.

Some members of Anna's family are bound for the otherworldly landscape of Burning Man, the art festival in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada where sixty thousand revelers build a temporary city (Michael calls it "a Fellini carnival on Mars") designed to last only one week. Anna herself has another Nevada destination in mind: a lonely stretch of road outside of Winnemucca where the sixteen-year-old boy she used to be ran away from the whorehouse he then called home. With Brian and his beat-up RV, she journeys into the dusty, troubled heart of her Depression-era childhood, where she begins to unearth a lifetime of secrets and dreams, and to attend to unfinished business she has long avoided.]]>
270 Armistead Maupin 0062196243 Em 4 2020, american, lgbtq 4.06 2014 The Days of Anna Madrigal (Tales of the City, #9)
author: Armistead Maupin
name: Em
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2020/04/21
date added: 2020/04/21
shelves: 2020, american, lgbtq
review:

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The War on Women 31422889 The War on Women brings to life the inconceivable and dangerous life Sue led, it tells the story of Mary Merritt who was imprisoned in a baby laundry in Dublin, and of Monica, who was trafficked and forced into the sex trade in Bosnia. She gives voice to Maimouna, the woman responsible for taking over her mother’s role as the village female circumciser in The Gambia and provides a platform for the 11-year-old Manemma, who was married off in Jaipur at the age of six. From the gender pay gap in Britain to forced marriage in Kashmir and from rape as a weapon of war to honour killings, Sue has examined humankind’s history and takes us on a journey to analyse the state of women’s lives today. Most importantly she acts as a mouthpiece for the brave ones; the ones who challenge wrongdoing; the ones who show courage no matter how afraid they are; the ones who are combatting violence across the globe; the ones who are fighting back.
Sue sadly died in 2015, shortly after writing this book, today she is widely recognised as one of the most acclaimed television journalists of her generation. This book is the small tribute to the full and incredible life she lived and through it these women’s voices are still being heard.]]>
308 Sue Lloyd-Roberts 1471153916 Em 0 to-read 4.74 2016 The War on Women
author: Sue Lloyd-Roberts
name: Em
average rating: 4.74
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/04/14
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde]]> 51495 112 Robert Louis Stevenson 0670888710 Em 3 2018, classics, horror
The girls commented “I don’t get it, is he dead or not?� and “Which man is in this chapter - is it the same one?� I also bought the Snap Revision notes for them, it has oh so helpful chapter summaries. ]]>
3.71 1886 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
author: Robert Louis Stevenson
name: Em
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1886
rating: 3
read at: 2018/11/06
date added: 2020/04/12
shelves: 2018, classics, horror
review:
Another GCSE text that I’ve read along with my daughters. It’s a classic and interesting book but difficult in that it jumps around in time and perspective, quite confusing if you’re unfamiliar with the story.

The girls commented “I don’t get it, is he dead or not?� and “Which man is in this chapter - is it the same one?� I also bought the Snap Revision notes for them, it has oh so helpful chapter summaries.
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<![CDATA[So You've Been Publicly Shamed]]> 22571552 290 Jon Ronson 1594487138 Em 4 2020, non-fiction, psychology 3.91 2015 So You've Been Publicly Shamed
author: Jon Ronson
name: Em
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2020/04/09
date added: 2020/04/09
shelves: 2020, non-fiction, psychology
review:

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<![CDATA[Mary Ann in Autumn (Tales of the City, #8)]]> 7978315
Twenty years have passed since Mary Ann Singleton left her husband and child in San Francisco to pursue her dream of a television career in New York. Now a pair of personal calamities has driven her back to the city of her youth and into the arms of her oldest friend, Michael "Mouse" Tolliver, a gardener happily ensconced with his much-younger husband.

Mary Ann finds temporary refuge in the couple's backyard cottage, where, at the unnerving age of fifty-seven, she licks her wounds and takes stock of her mistakes. Soon, with the help of Facebook and a few old friends, she begins to reengage with life, only to confront fresh terrors when her checkered past comes back to haunt her in a way she could never have imagined.

After the intimate first-person narrative of Maupin's last novel, Michael Tolliver Lives, Mary Ann in Autumn marks the author's return to the multicharacter plotlines and darkly comic themes of his earlier work. Among those caught in Mary Ann's orbit are her estranged daughter, Shawna, a popular sex blogger; Jake Greenleaf, Michael's transgendered gardening assistant; socialite DeDe Halcyon-Wilson; and the indefatigable Anna Madrigal, Mary Ann's former landlady at 28 Barbary Lane.

More than three decades in the making, Armistead Maupin's legendary Tales of the City series rolls into a new age, still sassy, irreverent, and curious, and still exploring the boundaries of the human experience with insight, compassion, and mordant wit.]]>
304 Armistead Maupin 0061470880 Em 4 2020, american, lgbtq 4.02 2010 Mary Ann in Autumn (Tales of the City, #8)
author: Armistead Maupin
name: Em
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2020/04/09
date added: 2020/04/09
shelves: 2020, american, lgbtq
review:

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Voss 411496
Set in nineteenth-century Australia, Voss is the story of the secret passion between an explorer and a naïve young woman. Although they have met only on a few occasions, Voss and Laura are joined by overwhelming, obsessive feelings for each other. Voss sets out to cross the continent, and as hardships, mutiny and betrayal whittle away his power to endure and to lead, his attachment to Laura gradually increases. Laura, waiting in Sydney, moves through the months of separation as if they were a dream and Voss the only reality.]]>
448 Patrick White 0099324717 Em 0 to-read 3.77 1957 Voss
author: Patrick White
name: Em
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1957
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/04/09
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[The Long War (The Long Earth, #2)]]> 17167572 The Long Earth, mankind has spread across the new worlds opened up by Stepping. Where Joshua and Lobsang once pioneered, now fleets of airships link the stepwise Americas with trade and culture. Mankind is shaping the Long Earth - but in turn the Long Earth is shaping mankind... A new 'America', called Valhalla, is emerging more than a million steps from Datum Earth, with core American values restated in the plentiful environment of the Long Earth - and Valhalla is growing restless under the control of the Datum government...

Meanwhile the Long Earth is suffused by the song of the trolls, graceful hive-mind humanoids. But the trolls are beginning to react to humanity's thoughtless exploitation... Joshua, now a married man, is summoned by Lobsang to deal with a gathering multiple crisis that threatens to plunge the Long Earth into a war unlike any mankind has waged before.]]>
419 Terry Pratchett 006206777X Em 3 2020, fantasy, sci-fi 3.62 2013 The Long War (The Long Earth, #2)
author: Terry Pratchett
name: Em
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2020/04/03
date added: 2020/04/03
shelves: 2020, fantasy, sci-fi
review:

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<![CDATA[More Tales of the City (Tales of the City, #2)]]> 16256 Tales of the City rolls recklessly along as Michael Tolliver pursues his favourite gynaecologist, Mona Ramsey uncovers her roots in a desert whorehouse, and Mary Ann Singleton finds love at sea with the amnesiac of her dreams.]]> 288 Armistead Maupin 055299877X Em 4 contemporary, lgbtq 4.22 1980 More Tales of the City (Tales of the City, #2)
author: Armistead Maupin
name: Em
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1980
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2020/04/03
shelves: contemporary, lgbtq
review:

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<![CDATA[Tales of the City (Tales of the City #1)]]> 16255 371 Armistead Maupin 0552998761 Em 4 contemporary, lgbtq 4.02 1978 Tales of the City (Tales of the City #1)
author: Armistead Maupin
name: Em
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1978
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2020/04/03
shelves: contemporary, lgbtq
review:

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<![CDATA[Babycakes (Tales of the City, #4)]]> 16265 Tales of the City books with love and laughter are at it again, as an ordinary house-husband and his ambitious wife discover there's more to making a baby than meets the eye. Unexpected help arrives in the form of a British monarch, a grieving gay neighbour, and an international ring of mail-order brides. Armistead Maupin has written a comedy of manners for our times.]]> 320 Armistead Maupin 0552998796 Em 4 contemporary, lgbtq 4.08 1984 Babycakes (Tales of the City, #4)
author: Armistead Maupin
name: Em
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1984
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2020/04/03
shelves: contemporary, lgbtq
review:

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<![CDATA[Days Without End (Days Without End, #1)]]> 30212107
Moving from the plains of Wyoming to Tennessee, Sebastian Barry’s latest work is a masterpiece of atmosphere and language. An intensely poignant story of two men and the makeshift family they create with a young Sioux girl, Winona, Days Without End is a fresh and haunting portrait of the most fateful years in American history and is a novel never to be forgotten.]]>
259 Sebastian Barry 0525427368 Em 5 2017, lgbtq 3.93 2016 Days Without End (Days Without End, #1)
author: Sebastian Barry
name: Em
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2017/09/29
date added: 2020/04/03
shelves: 2017, lgbtq
review:
The beautiful language in this books just gives me goose bumps - I could read Sebastian Barry forever.
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Written on the Body 15054 Written on the Body is a secret code only visible in certain lights: the accumulation of a lifetime gather there. In places the palimpsest is so heavily worked that the letters feel like braille. I like to keep my body rolled away from prying eyes, never unfold too much, tell the whole story. I didn't know that Louise would have reading hands. She has translated me into her own book.]]> 190 Jeanette Winterson 0679744479 Em 5
I found it a pleasure to re-read this brief, poetic novel which is captivating and thought provoking in equal measure.]]>
4.11 1992 Written on the Body
author: Jeanette Winterson
name: Em
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1992
rating: 5
read at: 2019/10/23
date added: 2020/04/03
shelves: contemporary, 2012, 2019, romantic, lgbtq
review:
This is my second time of reading Written on the Body. I first read it as a student and I remember I was transfixed by it for the duration of a long train trip, suffice to say I fell in love with the book.

I found it a pleasure to re-read this brief, poetic novel which is captivating and thought provoking in equal measure.
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Quarantine 92557 Whitbread Novel of the Year and a Booker Prize finalist.

Two thousand years ago four travellers enter the Judean desert to fast and pray for their lost souls. In the blistering heat and barren rocks they encounter the evil merchant Musa � madman, sadist, rapist, even a Satan � who holds them in his tyrannical power. Yet there is also another, a faint figure in the distance, fasting for forty days, a Galilean who they say has the power to work miracles... Here, trapped in the wilderness, their terrifying battle for survival begins...]]>
242 Jim Crace 0312199511 Em 4 3.70 1997 Quarantine
author: Jim Crace
name: Em
average rating: 3.70
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at: 2020/04/02
date added: 2020/04/02
shelves: 2020, historical, award-winners
review:

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<![CDATA[Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men]]> 41104077
Celebrated feminist advocate Caroline Criado Perez investigates the shocking root cause of gender inequality and research in Invisible Women�, diving into women’s lives at home, the workplace, the public square, the doctor’s office, and more. Built on hundreds of studies in the US, the UK, and around the world, and written with energy, wit, and sparkling intelligence, this is a groundbreaking, unforgettable exposé that will change the way you look at the world.]]>
448 Caroline Criado Pérez 1419729071 Em 5 4.35 2019 Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men
author: Caroline Criado Pérez
name: Em
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2020/03/30
date added: 2020/03/30
shelves: 2020, award-winners, factual, non-fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[The Thief (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #16)]]> 35829237
Fate, however, has other plans for them.

When Assail falls into a coma and lingers on the verge of death, his cousins seek out Sola and beg her to give him a reason to live. The last thing she wants is a return to her past, but how can she leave him to die?

As a lethal new enemy of the vampires shows its face, and the Brotherhood needs Assail back on his feet, Sola finds herself not only a target, but a mission-critical force in a war she doesn’t understand. And when Assail’s truth comes out, will she run from the horror... or follow her heart into the arms of the male who loves her more than life itself?]]>
463 J.R. Ward Em 4 2020, fantasy, romantic 4.47 2018 The Thief (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #16)
author: J.R. Ward
name: Em
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2020/03/22
date added: 2020/03/22
shelves: 2020, fantasy, romantic
review:

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<![CDATA[The Testaments (The Handmaid's Tale, #2)]]> 42975172 The Handmaid's Tale, readers had no way of telling what lay ahead for her--freedom, prison or death.

With The Testaments, the wait is over.

Margaret Atwood's sequel picks up the story more than fifteen years after Offred stepped into the unknown, with the explosive testaments of three female narrators from Gilead.

In this brilliant sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, acclaimed author Margaret Atwood answers the questions that have tantalized readers for decades.

"Dear Readers: Everything you've ever asked me about Gilead and its inner workings is the inspiration for this book. Well, almost everything! The other inspiration is the world we've been living in." --Margaret Atwood

An alternate cover edition of ISBN 978-0385543781 can be found here.]]>
422 Margaret Atwood Em 5 4.16 2019 The Testaments (The Handmaid's Tale, #2)
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Em
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2020/03/12
date added: 2020/03/12
shelves: 2020, award-winners, dystopian
review:

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Florence & Giles 7343071 272 John Harding 0007315031 Em 4 2020, gothic, horror 3.74 2010 Florence & Giles
author: John Harding
name: Em
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2020/03/12
date added: 2020/03/12
shelves: 2020, gothic, horror
review:

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The Way I Cook... 37487282 256 Lisa Faulkner Em 2 2020, cookery 2.43 2013 The Way I Cook...
author: Lisa Faulkner
name: Em
average rating: 2.43
book published: 2013
rating: 2
read at: 2020/01/01
date added: 2020/03/04
shelves: 2020, cookery
review:

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<![CDATA[If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things]]> 15727551
On a street in a town in the North of England, ordinary people are going through the motions of their everyday existence - street cricket, barbecues, painting windows... A young man is in love with a neighbour who does not even know his name. An old couple make their way up to the nearby bus stop. But then a terrible event shatters the quiet of the early summer evening. That this remarkable and horrific event is only poignant to those who saw it, not even meriting a mention on the local news, means that those who witness it will be altered for ever.

Jon McGregor's first novel brilliantly evokes the histories and lives of the people in the street to build up an unforgettable human panorama. Breathtakingly original, humane and moving, IF NOBODY SPEAKS OF REMARKABLE THINGS is an astonishing debut.

'The work of a burning new talent ... Jon MacGregor writes like a lyrical angel' Daily Mail]]>
269 Jon McGregor 1408834421 Em 5 3.92 2002 If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things
author: Jon McGregor
name: Em
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2002
rating: 5
read at: 2020/03/03
date added: 2020/03/03
shelves: 2020, award-winners, contemporary
review:

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True Grit 10035073 True Grit, his most famous novel, was first published in 1968, and became the basis for the movie starring John Wayne. True Grit tells the story of Mattie Ross, who is just fourteen years of age when a coward going by the name of Tom Chaney shoots her father down in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and robs him of his life, his horse, and $150 in cash. Mattie leaves home to avenge her father's blood. With the one-eyed Rooster Cogburn, the meanest available U.S. Marshal, by her side, Mattie pursues the homicide into Indian Territory.

True Grit is eccentric, cool, straight, and unflinching, like Mattie herself. From a writer of true status, this is an American classic through and through.

Alternate cover of ISBN 9781590204597.]]>
235 Charles Portis Em 4 2014, western, american 4.15 1968 True Grit
author: Charles Portis
name: Em
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1968
rating: 4
read at: 2014/09/23
date added: 2020/02/29
shelves: 2014, western, american
review:

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<![CDATA[January and the Season's Over: Life in the Football League]]> 5680820 128 Steve Phelps 095438847X Em 5 biography-memoir, sport 5.00 2007 January and the Season's Over: Life in the Football League
author: Steve Phelps
name: Em
average rating: 5.00
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/02/29
shelves: biography-memoir, sport
review:

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The House of the Spirits 9328
The House of the Spirits is an enthralling saga that spans decades and lives, twining the personal and the political into an epic novel of love, magic, and fate.]]>
448 Isabel Allende 0553383809 Em 5 magic-realism, latin-america 4.26 1982 The House of the Spirits
author: Isabel Allende
name: Em
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1982
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/02/29
shelves: magic-realism, latin-america
review:

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<![CDATA[The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #1)]]> 9529 520 Carlos Ruiz Zafón Em 5
I thought that it was beautifully written, the kind of the writing that I am happy to meander through absorbing the language, the story and getting to know the characters. ]]>
4.19 2001 The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #1)
author: Carlos Ruiz Zafón
name: Em
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at: 2011/10/06
date added: 2020/02/29
shelves: 2011, magic-realism, thriller, mystery, european
review:
The Shadow of the Wind is pretty much all I could hope for in a book - for one it's a book about books! I loved the way it crosses the genres being part historical fiction, part mystery thriller and romance.

I thought that it was beautifully written, the kind of the writing that I am happy to meander through absorbing the language, the story and getting to know the characters.
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Kitchen 50144 Kitchen, the dazzling English-language debut that is still her best-loved book, is an enchantingly original and deeply affecting book about mothers, love, tragedy, and the power of the kitchen and home in the lives of a pair of free-spirited young women in contemporary Japan. Mikage, the heroine of Kitchen, is an orphan raised by her grandmother, who has passed away. Grieving, she is taken in by her friend Yoichi and his mother (who was once his father), Eriko. As the three of them form an improvised family that soon weathers its own tragic losses, Yoshimoto spins a lovely, evocative tale that recalls early Marguerite Duras. Kitchen and its companion story, "Moonlight Shadow," are elegant tales whose seeming simplicity is the ruse of a writer whose voice echoes in the mind and the soul.]]> 160 Banana Yoshimoto 0802142443 Em 4 magic-realism, asia 3.91 1988 Kitchen
author: Banana Yoshimoto
name: Em
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1988
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2020/02/29
shelves: magic-realism, asia
review:

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Daughter of Fortune 16527
As we follow her spirited heroine on a perilous journey north in the hold of a ship to the rough-and-tumble world of San Francisco and northern California, we enter a world whose newly arrived inhabitants are driven mad by gold fever. A society of single men and prostitutes among whom Eliza moves--with the help of her good friend and savior, the Chinese doctor Tao Chien--California opens the door to a new life of freedom and independence for the young Chilean. Her search for the elusive Joaquín gradually turns into another kind of journey that transforms her over time, and what began as a search for love ends up as the conquest of personal freedom.]]>
432 Isabel Allende 0061120251 Em 4 3.93 1998 Daughter of Fortune
author: Isabel Allende
name: Em
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2020/02/29
shelves: magic-realism, historical, latin-america
review:

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One Hundred Years of Solitude 320 417 Gabriel García Márquez Em 4 4.10 1967 One Hundred Years of Solitude
author: Gabriel García Márquez
name: Em
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1967
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2020/02/29
shelves: classics, magic-realism, latin-america
review:

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Of Love and Shadows 16532
Profoundly moving and ultimately uplifting, Of Love and Shadows is a tale of romance, bravery, and tragedy, set against the indelible backdrop of a country ruled with an iron fist—and peopled with those who dare to challenge it.]]>
304 Isabel Allende 0553383833 Em 4 4.03 1984 Of Love and Shadows
author: Isabel Allende
name: Em
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1984
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2020/02/29
shelves: historical, magic-realism, latin-america
review:

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<![CDATA[City of the Beasts (Eagle and Jaguar, #1)]]> 3304
But there are many secrets hidden in the unexplored wilderness, as Alex and his new friend Nadia soon discover. Drawing on the strength of their spirit guides, both young people are led on a thrilling and unforgettable journey to the ultimate discovery. . . .]]>
408 Isabel Allende 0060535032 Em 4 3.79 2002 City of the Beasts (Eagle and Jaguar, #1)
author: Isabel Allende
name: Em
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2020/02/29
shelves: magic-realism, young-adult, latin-america
review:

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The Infinite Plan 16556 384 Isabel Allende 0060924985 Em 5 magic-realism, latin-america 3.76 1992 The Infinite Plan
author: Isabel Allende
name: Em
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1992
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/02/29
shelves: magic-realism, latin-america
review:

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<![CDATA[Forest of the Pygmies (Eagle and Jaguar, #3)]]> 16526 304 Isabel Allende 0060761989 Em 4 3.85 2004 Forest of the Pygmies (Eagle and Jaguar, #3)
author: Isabel Allende
name: Em
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2020/02/29
shelves: magic-realism, young-adult, latin-america
review:

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Portrait in Sepia 85987 A sequel to Daughter of Fortune, New York Times bestselling author, Isabel Allende, continues her magic with this spellbinding family saga set against war and economic hardship.

Aurora del Valle suffers a brutal trauma that erases from her mind all recollection of the first five years of her life. Raised by her ambitious grandmother, the regal and commanding Paulina del Valle, she grows up in a privileged environment, free of the limitations that circumscribe the lives of women at that time, but tormented by horrible nightmares. When she is forced to recognize her betrayal at the hands of the man she loves, and to cope with the resulting solitude, she decides to explore the mystery of her past.

Portrait in Sepia is an extraordinary achievement: richly detailed, epic in scope, intimate in its probing of human character, and thrilling in the way it illuminates the complexity of family ties.

Ìý±Õ±Õ>
304 Isabel Allende 0060898488 Em 5 magic-realism, latin-america 4.00 2000 Portrait in Sepia
author: Isabel Allende
name: Em
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/02/29
shelves: magic-realism, latin-america
review:

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1Q84 (1Q84 #1-3) 15797663
A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 —“Q is for ‘question mark.� A world that bears a question.� Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled.

As Aomame’s and Tengo’s narratives converge over the course of this single year, we learn of the profound and tangled connections that bind them ever closer: a beautiful, dyslexic teenage girl with a unique vision; a mysterious religious cult that instigated a shoot-out with the metropolitan police; a reclusive, wealthy dowager who runs a shelter for abused women; a hideously ugly private investigator; a mild-mannered yet ruthlessly efficient bodyguard; and a peculiarly insistent television-fee collector.

A love story, a mystery, a fantasy, a novel of self-discovery, a dystopia to rival George Orwell’s�1Q84 is Haruki Murakami’s most ambitious undertaking yet: an instant best seller in his native Japan, and a tremendous feat of imagination from one of our most revered contemporary writers.]]>
1157 Haruki Murakami 0307476464 Em 4 magic-realism, 2016, asia 3.94 2009 1Q84 (1Q84 #1-3)
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Em
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2016/01/20
date added: 2020/02/29
shelves: magic-realism, 2016, asia
review:

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Like Water for Chocolate 6952
The number one bestseller in Mexico and America for almost two years, and subsequently a bestseller around the world, Like Water For Chocolate is a romantic, poignant tale, touched with moments of magic, graphic earthiness, bittersweet wit - and recipes.

A sumptuous feast of a novel, it relates the bizarre history of the all-female De La Garza family. Tita, the youngest daughter of the house, has been forbidden to marry, condemned by Mexican tradition to look after her mother until she dies. But Tita falls in love with Pedro, and he is seduced by the magical food she cooks. In desperation, Pedro marries her sister Rosaura so that he can stay close to her, so that Tita and Pedro are forced to circle each other in unconsummated passion. Only a freakish chain of tragedies, bad luck and fate finally reunite them against all the odds.]]>
222 Laura Esquivel Em 4 3.96 1989 Like Water for Chocolate
author: Laura Esquivel
name: Em
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1989
rating: 4
read at: 2017/01/09
date added: 2020/02/29
shelves: 2017, magic-realism, latin-america
review:
I'm something of a magical realism fan so I was always going to appreciate this book - a pleasure to read. Very descriptive about food, it's preparation and taste along side what I found to be a captivating story.
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No and Me 7468067 246 Delphine de Vigan 0747599645 Em 3 2019, young-adult, european 3.67 2007 No and Me
author: Delphine de Vigan
name: Em
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 2019/01/16
date added: 2020/02/29
shelves: 2019, young-adult, european
review:
I liked the narrator, a young person who is academically precocious but socially awkward. I felt immediately engaged with her family situation, her mother depressed following bereavement and her father desperately trying to hold things together. I also liked the themes which the author broached: mental health, family, homelessness. I think this would be a thought provoking book for young people.
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Thérèse Raquin 110871 Therese Raquin is a clinically observed, sinister tale of adultery and murder among the lower classes in nineteenth-century Parisian society.

Set in the claustrophobic atmosphere of a dingy haberdasher's shop in the passage du Pont-Neuf in Paris, this powerful novel tells how the heroine and her lover, Laurent, kill her husband, Camille, but are subsequently haunted by visions of the dead man, and prevented from enjoying the fruits of their crime.

Zola's shocking tale dispassionately dissects the motivations of his characters--mere "human beasts", who kill in order to satisfy their lust--and stands as a key manifesto of the French Naturalist movement, of which the author was the founding father. Published in 1867, this is Zola's most important work before the Rougon-Macquart series and introduces many of the themes that can be traced through the later novel cycle.]]>
201 Émile Zola 0140449442 Em 4 2014, classics, european
For me, Therese remains somewhat sympathetic despite some fairly major lapses in judgement. Trapped and stifled, bored half to death in an arranged marriage to her sickly, whining cousin. I could feel her life force draining away... Conspiring in her husbands murder seems like escape but in the end it's a downward spiral and she's more trapped than ever.

I thought the description of place was great, the characters too were interesting, if not especially likeable. ]]>
3.73 1867 Thérèse Raquin
author: Émile Zola
name: Em
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1867
rating: 4
read at: 2014/03/24
date added: 2020/02/29
shelves: 2014, classics, european
review:
Not many laughs, there is a claustrophobic and forbidding atmosphere which grows deeper and darker with each passing page.

For me, Therese remains somewhat sympathetic despite some fairly major lapses in judgement. Trapped and stifled, bored half to death in an arranged marriage to her sickly, whining cousin. I could feel her life force draining away... Conspiring in her husbands murder seems like escape but in the end it's a downward spiral and she's more trapped than ever.

I thought the description of place was great, the characters too were interesting, if not especially likeable.
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Miss Chopsticks 194714
The Li sisters don’t have much education, but one thing has been drummed into them: their mother is a failure because she hasn’t managed to produce a son, and they themselves only merit a number as a name. Women, their father tells them, are like chopsticks: utilitarian and easily broken. Men, on the other hand, are the strong rafters that hold up the roof of a house.

Yet when circumstances lead the sisters to seek work in distant Nanjing, the shocking new urban environment opens their eyes. While Three contributes to the success of a small restaurant, Five and Six learn new talents at a health spa and a bookshop/tearoom. And when the money they earn starts arriving back at the village, their father is forced to recognize that daughters are not so dispensable after all.

As the Li sisters discover Nanjing, so do we: its past, its customs and culture, and its future as a place where people can change their lives.]]>
257 Xinran 0701180420 Em 4 2011, asia
The book touches on several themes including the standing of women in China, the perceptions of "city" and "country" people and their differences, the interaction between Chinese and foreign visitors and their divergent interpretation of each others history, literature and politics. To some extent I felt I was learning and gaining understanding along with the sisters!

I felt the style of the book to be unique and unlike anything else I've read, even other books about China and I plan to explore further books by this writer. ]]>
3.74 2007 Miss Chopsticks
author: Xinran
name: Em
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2011/07/21
date added: 2020/02/29
shelves: 2011, asia
review:
"Miss Chopsticks" tells the tale of three sisters who move from their rural home to the city of Nanjing in search of work. Xinran spins a tale with the feel of a fable or fairytale which gives a light touch and adds frequent humour but still conveys alot about the Chinese culture, lifestyle and politics.

The book touches on several themes including the standing of women in China, the perceptions of "city" and "country" people and their differences, the interaction between Chinese and foreign visitors and their divergent interpretation of each others history, literature and politics. To some extent I felt I was learning and gaining understanding along with the sisters!

I felt the style of the book to be unique and unlike anything else I've read, even other books about China and I plan to explore further books by this writer.
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The God of Small Things 9777
Armed only with the invincible innocence of children, they fashion a childhood for themselves in the shade of the wreck that is their family—their lonely, lovely mother, Ammu (who loves by night the man her children love by day), their blind grandmother, Mammachi (who plays Handel on her violin), their beloved uncle Chacko (Rhodes scholar, pickle baron, radical Marxist, bottom-pincher), their enemy, Baby Kochamma (ex-nun and incumbent grandaunt), and the ghost of an imperial entomologist's moth (with unusually dense dorsal tufts).

When their English cousin, Sophie Mol, and her mother, Margaret Kochamma, arrive on a Christmas visit, Esthappen and Rahel learn that Things Can Change in a Day. That lives can twist into new, ugly shapes, even cease forever, beside their river "graygreen." With fish in it. With the sky and trees in it. And at night, the broken yellow moon in it.

The brilliantly plotted story uncoils with an agonizing sense of foreboding and inevitability. Yet nothing prepares you for what lies at the heart of it.

The God of Small Things takes on the Big Themes—Love. Madness. Hope. Infinite Joy. Here is a writer who dares to break the rules. To dislocate received rhythms and create the language she requires, a language that is at once classical and unprecedented. Arundhati Roy has given us a book that is anchored to anguish, but fueled by wit and magic.]]>
321 Arundhati Roy 0679457313 Em 4 india, award-winners 3.97 1997 The God of Small Things
author: Arundhati Roy
name: Em
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at: 2009/12/01
date added: 2020/02/29
shelves: india, award-winners
review:
This is certainly an excellent book but it is also one that required alot of concentration from me - I didn't find it to be a novel I could pick up and put down, it needed some focus. I found that The God of Small Things provided moments of laugh aloud comedy and also bought be to tears on several occasions. The story is one that stays with you long after you finish reading it.
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The English Patient 11713 320 Michael Ondaatje 0771068719 Em 4 3.88 1992 The English Patient
author: Michael Ondaatje
name: Em
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1992
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2020/02/29
shelves: classics, historical, award-winners
review:

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The Famished Road 101094
In the decade since it won the Booker Prize, Ben Okri's Famished Road has become a classic. Like Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children or Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, it combines brilliant narrative technique with a fresh vision to create an essential work of world literature.

The narrator, Azaro, is an abiku, a spirit child, who in the Yoruba tradition of Nigeria exists between life and death. The life he foresees for himself and the tale he tells is full of sadness and tragedy, but inexplicably he is born with a smile on his face. Nearly called back to the land of the dead, he is resurrected. But in their efforts to save their child, Azaro's loving parents are made destitute.]]>
512 Ben Okri 0385425139 Em 3 award-winners 3.76 1991 The Famished Road
author: Ben Okri
name: Em
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1991
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2020/02/29
shelves: award-winners
review:

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<![CDATA[Sacred Hunger (Sacred Hunger #1)]]> 239592 Sacred Hunger is a stunning and engrossing exploration of power, domination, and greed. Filled with the "sacred hunger" to expand its empire and its profits, England entered full into the slave trade and spread the trade throughout its colonies. In this Booker Prize-winning work, Barry Unsworth follows the failing fortunes of William Kemp, a merchant pinning his last chance to a slave ship; his son who needs a fortune because he is in love with an upper-class woman; and his nephew who sails on the ship as its doctor because he has lost all he has loved. The voyage meets its demise when disease spreads among the slaves and the captain's drastic response provokes a mutiny. Joining together, the sailors and the slaves set up a secret, utopian society in the wilderness of Florida, only to await the vengeance of the single-minded, young Kemp.]]> 630 Barry Unsworth 0393311147 Em 3 historical, award-winners 4.11 1992 Sacred Hunger (Sacred Hunger #1)
author: Barry Unsworth
name: Em
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1992
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2020/02/29
shelves: historical, award-winners
review:

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Last Orders 5068 Last Orders is Graham Swift's most poignant exploration of the complexity and courage of ordinary lives.]]> 296 Graham Swift 0330489674 Em 4 contemporary, award-winners 3.69 1996 Last Orders
author: Graham Swift
name: Em
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2020/02/29
shelves: contemporary, award-winners
review:

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The White Tiger 1768603
Balram Halwai is a complicated man. Servant. Philosopher. Entrepreneur. Murderer. Over the course of seven nights, by the scattered light of a preposterous chandelier, Balram tells us the terrible and transfixing story of how he came to be a success in life—having nothing but his own wits to help him along.

Born in the dark heart of India, Balram gets a break when he is hired as a driver for his village's wealthiest man, two house Pomeranians (Puddles and Cuddles), and the rich man's (very unlucky) son. From behind the wheel of their Honda City car, Balram's new world is a revelation. While his peers flip through the pages of Murder Weekly ("Love -- Rape -- Revenge!"), barter for girls, drink liquor (Thunderbolt), and perpetuate the Great Rooster Coop of Indian society, Balram watches his employers bribe foreign ministers for tax breaks, barter for girls, drink liquor (single-malt whiskey), and play their own role in the Rooster Coop. Balram learns how to siphon gas, deal with corrupt mechanics, and refill and resell Johnnie Walker Black Label bottles (all but one). He also finds a way out of the Coop that no one else inside it can perceive.

Balram's eyes penetrate India as few outsiders can: the cockroaches and the call centers; the prostitutes and the worshippers; the ancient and Internet cultures; the water buffalo and, trapped in so many kinds of cages that escape is (almost) impossible, the white tiger. And with a charisma as undeniable as it is unexpected, Balram teaches us that religion doesn't create virtue, and money doesn't solve every problem -- but decency can still be found in a corrupt world, and you can get what you want out of life if you eavesdrop on the right conversations.

The White Tiger recalls The Death of Vishnu and Bangkok 8 in ambition, scope, and narrative genius, with a mischief and personality all its own. Amoral, irreverent, deeply endearing, and utterly contemporary, this novel is an international publishing sensation —and a startling, provocative debut.]]>
276 Aravind Adiga 1416562591 Em 4 2012, india, award-winners
For me the book seemed to be one of many contrasts and comparisons - it manages to be funny and serious, it captures the poverty, injustice and corruption of the old India (the darkness) and the money, injustice and corruption of the new India (the light.) The huge social and economic changes, the opportunities that accompanies them but also, the cost of it.

A very interesting book and as the how and why of a startling revelation is gradually bought to light - it keeps you reading.

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3.76 2008 The White Tiger
author: Aravind Adiga
name: Em
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2012/04/07
date added: 2020/02/29
shelves: 2012, india, award-winners
review:
An unusually structured book which is in essence one very long letter, written over several days in seven sections from a sympathetic psychopath and entrepreneur from India's darkness to the Chinese premier.

For me the book seemed to be one of many contrasts and comparisons - it manages to be funny and serious, it captures the poverty, injustice and corruption of the old India (the darkness) and the money, injustice and corruption of the new India (the light.) The huge social and economic changes, the opportunities that accompanies them but also, the cost of it.

A very interesting book and as the how and why of a startling revelation is gradually bought to light - it keeps you reading.


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<![CDATA[Wolf Hall (Thomas Cromwell, #1)]]> 6101138 This is an alternative cover edition for ISBN 9780007230181

England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe opposes him. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell: a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people, and implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph?]]>
653 Hilary Mantel Em 5
Thomas Cromwell, as imagined by Hilary Mantel is a striking, highly inteligent, astute and realisic character, self made he rises through the echelons of society. I loved her interpretation of Cromwell, even if he did suposedly have the face of a "murderer" (I looked up his portrait, he wasn't pretty!)

The other inhabitants of the Tudor Court were of course all present and correct - Henry VII naturally, Catherine of Aragon, Anne (and Mary) Boleyn, Wolsley, Thomas More and Jane Seymour among many others - each of them springing from the page to my minds eye fully formed and lifelike. More than this, it was the way Hilary Mantel brought to life the many extended members of Cromwells household - family, apprentices, servants, waifs and strays. These characters are well depicted, giving warmth and humanity to a person more often vilified by history.

The book commences on a brutal note, it doesn't pull it's punches in the slightest and rather sets the tone of the times, what follows includes physical hardship, plagues, fear, persecution, torture and horrendous and painful capital punishments. However, it ends on a high, with Cromwell at his peak of influence - this secretly pleased me as knowing a little history I thought I knew where this book was going but am actually glad it didn't!]]>
3.90 2009 Wolf Hall (Thomas Cromwell, #1)
author: Hilary Mantel
name: Em
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2010/06/14
date added: 2020/02/29
shelves: 2010, historical, award-winners
review:
Set in the Tudor Court from the time of Henry VIII's separation from Catherine, the reformation of the church and his marriage to Anne Boleyn. An intriguing, facinating period of history and although a relatively short number of years a mammoth sized book, full of detail.

Thomas Cromwell, as imagined by Hilary Mantel is a striking, highly inteligent, astute and realisic character, self made he rises through the echelons of society. I loved her interpretation of Cromwell, even if he did suposedly have the face of a "murderer" (I looked up his portrait, he wasn't pretty!)

The other inhabitants of the Tudor Court were of course all present and correct - Henry VII naturally, Catherine of Aragon, Anne (and Mary) Boleyn, Wolsley, Thomas More and Jane Seymour among many others - each of them springing from the page to my minds eye fully formed and lifelike. More than this, it was the way Hilary Mantel brought to life the many extended members of Cromwells household - family, apprentices, servants, waifs and strays. These characters are well depicted, giving warmth and humanity to a person more often vilified by history.

The book commences on a brutal note, it doesn't pull it's punches in the slightest and rather sets the tone of the times, what follows includes physical hardship, plagues, fear, persecution, torture and horrendous and painful capital punishments. However, it ends on a high, with Cromwell at his peak of influence - this secretly pleased me as knowing a little history I thought I knew where this book was going but am actually glad it didn't!
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The Remains of the Day 28921 Librarian's note: See alternate cover edition of ISBN 0571225381 here.

In the summer of 1956, Stevens, a long-serving butler at Darlington Hall, decides to take a motoring trip through the West Country. The six-day excursion becomes a journey into the past of Stevens and England, a past that takes in fascism, two world wars, and an unrealised love between the butler and his housekeeper.]]>
258 Kazuo Ishiguro Em 5 Never Let Me Go, I was impressed with Nocturnes and it seems The Remains of the Day is no disappointment either! Yet, each book is totally different in style, story and setting, I can't identify a single trait I admire except to say that in their way each book has transported me to an alternative place and time and created a mood which remains with me, even when not reading them.

Set post war, written in the first person by the controlled, professional and loyal Mr Stevens - butler to a supposed Nazi symapthiser - Lord Darlington and latterly to a rich, American (who else now has the money to afford these grand houses?) Mr Stevens is someone who values his profession and dignity above all else, including his own happiness - he dedicates his life to the people whom he serves. For me, the character was fully formed, realistic and believable.

He sets off on a motoring tour of the South West, taking in the sights and reflecting upon his life and relationship with a former houskeeper he worked with some years back. Whilst meloncholy in tone there were scenes full of inadvertant humour, such as being given the task of delivering the facts of life or of being mistakenly taken for being an aristocrat himself. The style is understated with so much implied, suggested, just bubbling under the surface and in it's quiet, understated way the book made my heart ache for missed opportunties, for feeling the right thing but being unable to express it, for a life that is really only half lived.

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4.14 1989 The Remains of the Day
author: Kazuo Ishiguro
name: Em
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1989
rating: 5
read at: 2012/05/15
date added: 2020/02/29
shelves: 2012, historical, favourites, award-winners
review:
I am becoming a firm fan of Kazuo Ishiguro - I read and adored Never Let Me Go, I was impressed with Nocturnes and it seems The Remains of the Day is no disappointment either! Yet, each book is totally different in style, story and setting, I can't identify a single trait I admire except to say that in their way each book has transported me to an alternative place and time and created a mood which remains with me, even when not reading them.

Set post war, written in the first person by the controlled, professional and loyal Mr Stevens - butler to a supposed Nazi symapthiser - Lord Darlington and latterly to a rich, American (who else now has the money to afford these grand houses?) Mr Stevens is someone who values his profession and dignity above all else, including his own happiness - he dedicates his life to the people whom he serves. For me, the character was fully formed, realistic and believable.

He sets off on a motoring tour of the South West, taking in the sights and reflecting upon his life and relationship with a former houskeeper he worked with some years back. Whilst meloncholy in tone there were scenes full of inadvertant humour, such as being given the task of delivering the facts of life or of being mistakenly taken for being an aristocrat himself. The style is understated with so much implied, suggested, just bubbling under the surface and in it's quiet, understated way the book made my heart ache for missed opportunties, for feeling the right thing but being unable to express it, for a life that is really only half lived.


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Disgrace 6192 220 J.M. Coetzee 0143036378 Em 5 2010, africa, award-winners 3.86 1999 Disgrace
author: J.M. Coetzee
name: Em
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1999
rating: 5
read at: 2010/05/31
date added: 2020/02/29
shelves: 2010, africa, award-winners
review:

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The Sense of an Ending 12280827 154 Julian Barnes 0099564971 Em 5 2012, british, award-winners
Essentially it's a monologue - the book is narrated by Anthony Webster - now aged about 60 he now recalls his school days, his school friends, an earlier relationship which ended badly and his life since. He is a mild, inoffensive, easy going gentleman who seems curiously detached. "Peaceable" is how he described himself.

An unexpected bequeath unearths previously surpressed memories and he sets about re-examining events of the past. It is intriguing to see how he has continually edited and re-writen his own history and how memories can (and probably do) differ greatly from what actually transpired.

I thought the book was compelling and the themes it expored to be quite fascinating.]]>
3.75 2011 The Sense of an Ending
author: Julian Barnes
name: Em
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2012/03/10
date added: 2020/02/29
shelves: 2012, british, award-winners
review:
A Sense of an Ending is a short, speedy, intense book which I found compulsive to read.

Essentially it's a monologue - the book is narrated by Anthony Webster - now aged about 60 he now recalls his school days, his school friends, an earlier relationship which ended badly and his life since. He is a mild, inoffensive, easy going gentleman who seems curiously detached. "Peaceable" is how he described himself.

An unexpected bequeath unearths previously surpressed memories and he sets about re-examining events of the past. It is intriguing to see how he has continually edited and re-writen his own history and how memories can (and probably do) differ greatly from what actually transpired.

I thought the book was compelling and the themes it expored to be quite fascinating.
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Moon Tiger 130028 208 Penelope Lively 0802135331 Em 5
In brief, these are the reflections of an elderly woman who is dying in hospital - her life was extraordinary - a fearsome, independent and intelligent woman, ahead of her time.

We follow her through childhood in England to Egypt during World War II, drifting and dreamlike with an ever changing chronology and often the same episode viewed from the perspective and narrated in the words of different people.

Evoking every emotion in turn - humour, sadness, disgust, elation, hope, despair. A book that stays with you long after being read.]]>
3.88 1987 Moon Tiger
author: Penelope Lively
name: Em
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1987
rating: 5
read at: 2013/06/07
date added: 2020/02/29
shelves: 2013, historical, favourites, award-winners
review:
I'm sold - this was entirely captivating. A charity shop find which I won't be returning for re-sale, I'm keeping this one!

In brief, these are the reflections of an elderly woman who is dying in hospital - her life was extraordinary - a fearsome, independent and intelligent woman, ahead of her time.

We follow her through childhood in England to Egypt during World War II, drifting and dreamlike with an ever changing chronology and often the same episode viewed from the perspective and narrated in the words of different people.

Evoking every emotion in turn - humour, sadness, disgust, elation, hope, despair. A book that stays with you long after being read.
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<![CDATA[Bring Up the Bodies (Thomas Cromwell, #2)]]> 13507212 9780805090031)

Though he battled for years to marry her, Henry VIII has become disenchanted with the audacious Anne Boleyn. She has failed to give him a son, and her sharp intelligence and strong will have alienated his old friends and the noble families of England.

When the discarded Katherine, Henry's first wife, dies in exile from the court, Anne stands starkly exposed, the focus of gossip and malice, setting in motion a dramatic trial of the queen and her suitors for adultery and treason.

At a word from Henry, Thomas Cromwell is ready to bring her down. Over a few terrifying weeks, Anne is ensnared in a web of conspiracy, while the demure Jane Seymour stands waiting her turn for the poisoned wedding ring. But Anne and her powerful family will not yield without a ferocious struggle. To defeat the Boleyns, Cromwell must ally himself with his enemies. What price will he pay for Annie's head?]]>
412 Hilary Mantel Em 5
I loved Wolf Hall, was delighted to be read onward with Bring Up the Bodies and am looking forward to the third and final!

I found the book convincing, the building oppression of living under (let's face it) a head-case of a King and this fascinating, in depth personification of Thomas Cromwell. To me, he seems so realistic - an impressive, intelligent, scheming, social climber of a man who looks after his own - this is no thumb nail sketch.

You can probably tell, I'm a fan!]]>
4.26 2012 Bring Up the Bodies (Thomas Cromwell, #2)
author: Hilary Mantel
name: Em
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2012/11/29
date added: 2020/02/29
shelves: 2012, historical, award-winners
review:
Hilary Mantel doesn't need my praise to add to the generally wonderful reviews and awards etc but as a reader, the reviewers and the judges don't always reflect what I actually want to sit down and read in my precious spare time. Not so here, I think this book is wonderful!

I loved Wolf Hall, was delighted to be read onward with Bring Up the Bodies and am looking forward to the third and final!

I found the book convincing, the building oppression of living under (let's face it) a head-case of a King and this fascinating, in depth personification of Thomas Cromwell. To me, he seems so realistic - an impressive, intelligent, scheming, social climber of a man who looks after his own - this is no thumb nail sketch.

You can probably tell, I'm a fan!
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Hotel du Lac 251665
But instead of peace and rest, Edith finds herself sequestered at the hotel with an assortment of love's casualties and exiles. She also attracts the attention of a worldly man determined to release her unused capacity for mischief and pleasure. Beautifully observed, witheringly funny, Hotel du Lac is Brookner at her most stylish and potently subversive.]]>
184 Anita Brookner 0679759328 Em 5 2015, award-winners
Edith's a fascinating character - a successful writer, lonely, financially independent but accepts the control and influence of others - well, to an extent but then rears up to jilt her fiancé or begin an affair with a married man. She encapsulates still waters run deep! So does this book - I appreciate its quiet and thoughtful style.

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3.59 1984 Hotel du Lac
author: Anita Brookner
name: Em
average rating: 3.59
book published: 1984
rating: 5
read at: 2015/07/23
date added: 2020/02/29
shelves: 2015, award-winners
review:
Why did I love this book? It's subtle, that's for sure. It takes place at the titular Hotel du Lac and in the mind of Edith Hope - her thoughts and feelings predominate.

Edith's a fascinating character - a successful writer, lonely, financially independent but accepts the control and influence of others - well, to an extent but then rears up to jilt her fiancé or begin an affair with a married man. She encapsulates still waters run deep! So does this book - I appreciate its quiet and thoughtful style.


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Bel Canto 5826 318 Ann Patchett Em 0 2018, award-winners 3.93 2001 Bel Canto
author: Ann Patchett
name: Em
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at: 2018/02/28
date added: 2020/02/29
shelves: 2018, award-winners
review:

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The Song of Achilles 11250317
Profoundly moving and breathtakingly original, this rendering of the epic Trojan War is a dazzling feat of the imagination, a devastating love story, and an almighty battle between gods and kings, peace and glory, immortal fame and the human heart.]]>
352 Madeline Miller 1408816032 Em 5
A fantastic depiction of Ancient Greece which is beautifully expressed, I felt immediately immersed into the world created by Madeline Miller.

I don't demand realism in my books which is fortunate as Gods, Heros and mortals exist side by side however, I do expect emotional realism and I thought The Song of Achilles had this in spades.

I simply loved Patroclus as narrator and the romantic bias of the story which centres upon the Trojan War (and the part of Achilles with in it.)

A new favourite.]]>
4.38 2011 The Song of Achilles
author: Madeline Miller
name: Em
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2013/05/31
date added: 2020/02/29
shelves: 2013, historical, favourites, award-winners
review:
I'd read books like this all year long, if I could!

A fantastic depiction of Ancient Greece which is beautifully expressed, I felt immediately immersed into the world created by Madeline Miller.

I don't demand realism in my books which is fortunate as Gods, Heros and mortals exist side by side however, I do expect emotional realism and I thought The Song of Achilles had this in spades.

I simply loved Patroclus as narrator and the romantic bias of the story which centres upon the Trojan War (and the part of Achilles with in it.)

A new favourite.
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<![CDATA[The Handmaid’s Tale (The Handmaid's Tale, #1)]]> 38447
Funny, unexpected, horrifying, and altogether convincing, The Handmaid's Tale is at once scathing satire, dire warning, and tour de force.]]>
311 Margaret Atwood 038549081X Em 5 4.15 1985 The Handmaid’s Tale (The Handmaid's Tale, #1)
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Em
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1985
rating: 5
read at: 2020/02/27
date added: 2020/02/27
shelves: futuristic, favourites, 2020, dystopian, award-winners
review:

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<![CDATA[The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry]]> 12391521
The Psychopath Test is a fascinating journey through the minds of madness. Jon Ronson's exploration of a potential hoax being played on the world's top neurologists takes him, unexpectedly, into the heart of the madness industry. An influential psychologist who is convinced that many important CEOs and politicians are, in fact, psychopaths teaches Ronson how to spot these high-flying individuals by looking out for little telltale verbal and nonverbal clues. And so Ronson, armed with his new psychopath-spotting abilities, enters the corridors of power. He spends time with a death-squad leader institutionalized for mortgage fraud in Coxsackie, New York; a legendary CEO whose psychopathy has been speculated about in the press; and a patient in an asylum for the criminally insane who insists he's sane and certainly not a psychopath.

Ronson not only solves the mystery of the hoax but also discovers, disturbingly, that sometimes the personalities at the helm of the madness industry are, with their drives and obsessions, as mad in their own way as those they study. And that relatively ordinary people are, more and more, defined by their maddest edges.]]>
275 Jon Ronson 1594485755 Em 4 2020, non-fiction, psychology 3.97 2011 The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry
author: Jon Ronson
name: Em
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2020/02/26
date added: 2020/02/26
shelves: 2020, non-fiction, psychology
review:

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Envy (Fallen Angels, #3) 18930877
As the son of a serial killer, homicide detective Thomas 'Veck' DelVecchio, Jr, grew up in the shadow of evil. Now, on the knife-edge between civic duty and blind retribution, he atones for the sins of his father - while fighting his inner demons.

Assigned to monitor Veck is Internal Affairs officer Sophia Reilly, whose interest in him is both professional and arousingly personal. And Veck and Sophia have another link: Jim Heron, a mysterious stranger with too many answers... to questions that are deadly. When Veck and Sophia are drawn into the ultimate battle between good and evil, their fallen angel saviour is the only thing that stands between them and eternal damnation.]]>
475 J.R. Ward 0748126422 Em 4 2020, fantasy, romantic 4.37 2011 Envy (Fallen Angels, #3)
author: J.R. Ward
name: Em
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2020/02/22
date added: 2020/02/22
shelves: 2020, fantasy, romantic
review:

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The Architect's Apprentice 22571629 From the acclaimed author of The Bastard of Istanbul, a colorful, magical tale set during the height of the Ottoman Empire

In her latest novel, Elif Shafak spins an epic tale spanning nearly a century in the life of the Ottoman Empire. In 1540, twelve-year-old Jahan arrives in Istanbul. As an animal tamer in the sultan’s menagerie, he looks after the exceptionally smart elephant Chota and befriends (and falls for) the sultan’s beautiful daughter, Princess Mihrimah. A palace education leads Jahan to Mimar Sinan, the empire’s chief architect, who takes Jahan under his wing as they construct (with Chota’s help) some of the most magnificent buildings in history. Yet even as they build Sinan’s triumphant masterpieces—the incredible Suleymaniye and Selimiye mosques—dangerous undercurrents begin to emerge, with jealousy erupting among Sinan’s four apprentices.

A memorable story of artistic freedom, creativity, and the clash between science and fundamentalism, Shafak’s intricate novel brims with vibrant characters, intriguing adventure, and the lavish backdrop of the Ottoman court, where love and loyalty are no match for raw power.]]>
424 Elif Shafak 052542797X Em 0 to-read 4.00 2013 The Architect's Apprentice
author: Elif Shafak
name: Em
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/02/22
shelves: to-read
review:

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