en-US Mon, 31 Mar 2025 09:57:29 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 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 Jay 0 currently-reading 3.90 2009
author: Hilary Mantel
name: Jay
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 50520939
Enter the latest round of six: Libby Rhodes and Nico de Varona, unwilling halves of an unfathomable whole, who exert uncanny control over every element of physicality. Reina Mori, a naturalist, who can intuit the language of life itself. Parisa Kamali, a telepath who can traverse the depths of the subconscious, navigating worlds inside the human mind. Callum Nova, an empath easily mistaken for a manipulative illusionist, who can influence the intimate workings of a person’s inner self. Finally, there is Tristan Caine, who can see through illusions to a new structure of reality—an ability so rare that neither he nor his peers can fully grasp its implications.

When the candidates are recruited by the mysterious Atlas Blakely, they are told they will have one year to qualify for initiation, during which time they will be permitted preliminary access to the Society’s archives and judged based on their contributions to various subjects of impossibility: time and space, luck and thought, life and death. Five, they are told, will be initiated. One will be eliminated. The six potential initiates will fight to survive the next year of their lives, and if they can prove themselves to be the best among their rivals, most of them will.

Most of them.]]> 376 Olivie Blake Jay 5 3.56 2020
author: Olivie Blake
name: Jay
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/28
date added: 2025/03/28
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review:
Beautiful writing and an interesting world building concept. All the "twists" still felt in line with the overall story, not just gotchas. Loved it
]]> 214152057 When a beloved actress is cast in a feminist adaptation of a Fitzgerald classic, she finds herself the victim in a deadly game of revenge in which everyone, on screen and off, is playing a part.

Lila Crayne is America’s sweetheart: she’s generous and kind, gorgeous and magnetic. She and her fiancĂ©, visionary filmmaker Kurt Royall, have settled into a stunning new West Village apartment and are set to begin filming their feminist adaptation of Fitzgerald’s Tender Is the Night.

To prepare for the leading role, Lila begins working with charming and accomplished therapist Jonah Gabriel to dig into the trauma of her past. Soon, Lila’s impeccably manicured life begins to unravel on the therapy couch—and Jonah is just the man to pick up the pieces. But everyone has a secret, and no one is quite who they seem.

A twisty, thought-provoking novel of construction and deconstruction in conversation with the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald and told through the lens of the film industry, Sweet Fury is an incisive and bold critique of America’s deep-rooted misogyny. With this novel, Bischoff examines the narratives we tell ourselves, and what happens when we co-opt others into those stories; and she probes the blurred lines between victim and perpetrator and the true meaning of justice.]]> 288 Sash Bischoff 1668043254 Jay 0 to-read 3.42
author: Sash Bischoff
name: Jay
average rating: 3.42
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: to-read
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]]> 35721123 How to Write an Autobiographical Novel is the author’s manifesto on the entangling of life, literature, and politics, and how the lessons learned from a life spent reading and writing fiction have changed him. In these essays, he grows from student to teacher, reader to writer, and reckons with his identities as a son, a gay man, a Korean American, an artist, an activist, a lover, and a friend. He examines some of the most formative experiences of his life and the nation’s history, including his father’s death, the AIDS crisis, 9/11, the jobs that supported his writing—Tarot-reading, bookselling, cater-waiting for William F. Buckley—the writing of his first novel, Edinburgh, and the election of Donald Trump.]]> 277 Alexander Chee 1328764524 Jay 5 4.40 2018
author: Alexander Chee
name: Jay
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/27
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves:
review:
I only cried five times, it's fine
]]> 62984592
It is the year 1814 and life for a young lady of good breeding has many difficulties. There are balls to attend, fashions to follow, marriages to consider and, of course, the tiny complication of existing in a world swarming with fairy spirits, interfering deities, and actual straight-up sorcerers.

Miss Maelys Mitchelmore finds her entry into high society hindered by an irritating curse. It begins innocuously enough with her dress slowly unmaking itself over the course of an evening at a high-profile ball, a scandal she narrowly manages to escape.

However, as the curse progresses to more fatal proportions, Miss Mitchelmore must seek out aid, even if it means mixing with undesirable company. And there are few less desirable than Lady Georgianna Landrake—a brooding, alluring young woman sardonically nicknamed “the Duke of Annadale”—who may or may not have murdered her own father and brothers to inherit their fortune. If one is to believe the gossip, she might be some kind of malign enchantress. Then again, a malign enchantress might be exactly what Miss Mitchelmore needs.

With the Duke’s help, Miss Mitchelmore delves into a world of angry gods and vindictive magic, keen to unmask the perpetrator of these otherworldly attacks. But Miss Mitchelmore’s reputation is not the only thing at risk in spending time with her new ally. For the rumoured witch has her own secrets that may prove dangerous to Miss Mitchelmore’s heart—not to mention her life.]]> 416 Alexis Hall 0593497562 Jay 3 3.39 2023
author: Alexis Hall
name: Jay
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/18
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves:
review:
It's fun and has a great concept, but weirdly paced
]]> 8377150
Trei is instantly sky-mad, and desperate to be a kajurai himself.Ìę The only one who fully understands his passion is Araene, his newfound cousin.Ìę Prickly, sarcastic, and gifted, Araene has a secret of her own . . . a dream a girl cannot attain.

Trei and Araene quickly become conspirators as they pursue their individual paths.Ìę But neither suspects that their lives will be deeply entwined, and that the fate of the Floating Islands will lie in their hands.

Filled with rich language, and told in alternating voices, The Floating Islands is an all-encompassing young adult fantasy read.]]> 400 Rachel Neumeier 0375847057 Jay 0 to-read 3.80 2011
author: Rachel Neumeier
name: Jay
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 67957
The planet of Windhaven was not originally a home to humans, but it became one following the crash of a colony starship. It is a world of small islands, harsh weather, and monster-infested seas. Communication among the scattered settlements was virtually impossible until the discovery that, thanks to light gravity and a dense atmosphere, humans were able to fly with the aid of metal wings made of bits of the cannibalized spaceship.

Many generations later, among the scattered islands that make up the water world of Windhaven, no one holds more prestige than the silver-winged flyers, who bring news, gossip, songs, and stories. They are romantic figures crossing treacherous oceans, braving shifting winds and sudden storms that could easily dash them from the sky to instant death. They are also members of an increasingly elite caste, for the wings—always in limited quantity—are growing gradually rarer as their bearers perish.

With such elitism comes arrogance and a rigid adherence to hidebound tradition. And for the flyers, allowing just anyone to join their cadre is an idea that borders on heresy. Wings are meant only for the offspring of flyers—now the new nobility of Windhaven. Except that sometimes life is not quite so neat.

Maris of Amberly, a fisherman's daughter, was raised by a flyer and wants nothing more than to soar on the currents high above Windhaven. By tradition, however, the wings must go to her stepbrother, Coll, the flyer's legitimate son. But Coll wants only to be a singer, traveling the world by sea. So Maris challenges tradition, demanding that flyers be chosen on the basis of merit rather than inheritance. And when she wins that bitter battle, she discovers that her troubles are only beginning.

For not all flyers are willing to accept the world's new structure, and as Maris battles to teach those who yearn to fly, she finds herself likewise fighting to preserve the integrity of a society she so longed to join—not to mention the very fabric that holds her culture together.]]> 400 George R.R. Martin 0553577905 Jay 0 to-read 3.65 1975
author: George R.R. Martin
name: Jay
average rating: 3.65
book published: 1975
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/11
shelves: to-read
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]]> 61150759
Once upon a time, a man who believed in fairy tales married a beautiful, mysterious woman named Indigo Maxwell-Casteñada. He was a scholar of myths. She was heiress to a fortune. They exchanged gifts and stories and believed they would live happily ever after—and in exchange for her love, Indigo extracted a promise: that her bridegroom would never pry into her past.

But when Indigo learns that her estranged aunt is dying and the couple is forced to return to her childhood home, the House of Dreams, the bridegroom will soon find himself unable to resist. For within the crumbling manor’s extravagant rooms and musty halls, there lurks the shadow of another girl: Azure, Indigo’s dearest childhood friend who suddenly disappeared. As the house slowly reveals his wife’s secrets, the bridegroom will be forced to choose between reality and fantasy, even if doing so threatens to destroy their marriage . . . or their lives.

Combining the lush, haunting atmosphere of Mexican Gothic with the dreamy enchantment of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, The Last Tale of the Flower Bride is a spellbinding and darkly romantic page-turner about love and lies, secrets and betrayal, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive.]]> 289 Roshani Chokshi Jay 4 3.68 2023
author: Roshani Chokshi
name: Jay
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/10
date added: 2025/02/10
shelves:
review:
Absolutely obsessed with this writing style.
]]> 199495033
Father Ilya Pavlovich Sokolovis a lonely priest and pariah of his small town. Tasked with killing an injured monster in the woods, Ilya is certain of his death. Instead, he heals the monster’s injury and lifts its curse, revealing a handsome, memory-less man.

Cocksure Danya is a man lost in an unfamiliar world. He struggles to recall his past life, flashes returning as he and Ilya grow closer. Soon, his appearance begins to change once more, but not into a beast � instead, Danya grows into something just like the Sun that Ilya has worshiped all his life.

With complicated pasts between them, the two must work together to deal with the corruption of Ilya's own church, as well as their blooming feelings for one another.]]> 322 Ian Haramaki Jay 0 to-read 3.60 2023
author: Ian Haramaki
name: Jay
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 136407187
Izra Dziove, visionary advisor to the Rezwyn Emperor, is trying to hold the turbulent Rezwyn court together while being plagued by dreams of his fated man. But when Izra’s adversaries launch an attack on the diplomatic party from Usleth, he is forced to take action to protect them and prevent a war.

Forced to trust one another, both men must put aside their differences to save the future of both their nations, while also contending with the growing attraction between them� all while trying to understand their mysterious connection and the forces guiding their shared destiny.

Can their fated love change the destiny of nations?
]]> 346 Seth Haddon 1956422064 Jay 4 4.00 2023
author: Seth Haddon
name: Jay
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/30
date added: 2025/01/30
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]]> 203578770 Author of sales sensation If We Were Villains returns with a story about a ragtag group of night shift workers who meet in the local cemetery to unearth the secrets lurking in an open grave.

Every night, in the college’s ancient cemetery, five people cross paths as they work the late shift: a bartender, a rideshare driver, a hotel receptionist, the steward of the derelict church that looms over them, and the editor-in-chief of the college paper, always in search of a story.

One dark October evening in the defunct churchyard, they find a hole that wasn’t there before. A fresh, open grave where no grave should be. But who dug it, and for whom?

Before they go their separate ways, the gravedigger returns. As they trail him through the night, they realize he may be the key to a string of strange happenings around town that have made headlines for the last few weeks—and that they may be closer to the mystery than they thought.

Atmospheric and eerie, with the ensemble cast her fans love and a delightfully familiar academic backdrop, Graveyard Shift is a modern Gothic tale in If We Were Villains author M. L. Rio’s inimitable style.]]> 144 M.L. Rio 1250356792 Jay 5 3.19 2024
author: M.L. Rio
name: Jay
average rating: 3.19
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/26
date added: 2025/01/26
shelves:
review:
a moody puzzle that is exactly as long as it needed to be
]]> 18770398
For McGrath, another death connected to this seemingly cursed family dynasty seems more than just a coincidence. Though much has been written about Cordova's dark and unsettling films, very little is known about the man himself.

Driven by revenge, curiosity, and a need for the truth, McGrath, with the aid of two strangers, is drawn deeper and deeper into Cordova's eerie, hypnotic world. The last time he got close to exposing the director, McGrath lost his marriage and his career. This time he might lose even more.]]> 640 Marisha Pessl 0812979788 Jay 5 favorites 3.78 2013
author: Marisha Pessl
name: Jay
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/16
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: favorites
review:
A book that will keep haunting you long after you think you're done with it. I highly recommend it.
]]> 127306440
Retired soldier Alex Easton returns in a horrifying new adventure.

After their terrifying ordeal at the Usher manor, Alex Easton feels as if they just survived another war. All they crave is rest, routine, and sunshine, but instead, as a favor to Angus and Miss Potter, they find themself heading to their family hunting lodge, deep in the cold, damp forests of their home country, Gallacia.

In theory, one can find relaxation in even the coldest and dampest of Gallacian autumns, but when Easton arrives, they find the caretaker dead, the lodge in disarray, and the grounds troubled by a strange, uncanny silence. The villagers whisper that a breath-stealing monster from folklore has taken up residence in Easton’s home. Easton knows better than to put too much stock in local superstitions, but they can tell that something is not quite right in their home. . . or in their dreams.]]> 151 T. Kingfisher 1250830850 Jay 4 3.78 2024
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Jay
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves:
review:
Another great quick read from this series!
]]> 207573359 From debut author Maiga Doocy comes the charming tale of an impulsive sorcerer and his curmudgeonly rival as they venture deep into a magical forest in search of a counterspell that can break the curse between them—only to discover that magic might not be the only thing pulling them together.Ìę

Leovander Loveage is a master of small magics. He can summon butterflies with a song or turn someone’s hair pink by snapping his fingers. Though such minor charms don’t earn him much respect, anything more elaborate always blows up in his face, and so Leo vowed long ago never to use powerful magic again.

That is, until a mishap with a forbidden spell binds Leo to obey the commands of his longtime rival, Sebastian Grimm. Grimm is Leo’s complete opposite—respected, exceptionally talented, and absolutely insufferable. The only thing they can agree on is that revealing the curse between them would mean the end of their respective magical careers. They need a counterspell, and fast.

Chasing rumors of a powerful sorcerer with a knack for undoing curses, Leo and Grimm enter the Unquiet Wood, a forest infested with murderous monsters and dangerous outlaws alike. To break the curse, they will have to uncover the true depths of Leo’s magic, set aside their long-standing rivalry, and—much to their horror—work together.

Even as an odd spark of attraction flares between them.]]> 391 Maiga Doocy 031657676X Jay 0 to-read 4.39 2024
author: Maiga Doocy
name: Jay
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 32566448
Mostly written in the Channel Islands, Los Angeles, Texas, and Serenbe Develpoment in the Chattahoochee Hills of Georgia, these poems are feisty and capture the human experience of being horny and beautiful at the same time. There is a yearning in these poems, a fire set bright that burns hotter than ever.

"Our love is a lake full of lightning."]]> 90 Derrick C. Brown 1945649054 Jay 0 to-read 3.92
author: Derrick C. Brown
name: Jay
average rating: 3.92
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 50031244
Over the last decade, there has been an international explosion of research on mindfulness and self-compassion. Contemplative practices are being integrated with science and psychology. Researchers are sharing information on the power of inner-directed compassion and its beneficial effects on mental well-being, growth, motivation, relationships, and physical health.

Join expert Laurie Cameron to discover tools—including meditations, exercises, journaling, and in-the-moment practices—that will help you evoke mindfulness and self-compassion in your everyday life, in a way that it becomes your natural response—your new set of habits. As you adopt these practices, you’ll start to see a shift in how you work with stressful life events, as well as how you connect with the shared human experience of loss, challenge, disappointment, failure, and setbacks.]]> Laurie J. Cameron Jay 0 3.14
author: Laurie J. Cameron
name: Jay
average rating: 3.14
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/22
date added: 2024/12/22
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]]> 25956208
This collection of poems delves into the core of relationships and their symbiosis with the outside world.]]> 74 Peter Barnfather Jay 0 4.50 2015
author: Peter Barnfather
name: Jay
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/22
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves:
review:

]]> 30649436 416 Angela Carter 0349008469 Jay 0 to-read 3.57 1986
author: Angela Carter
name: Jay
average rating: 3.57
book published: 1986
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 43575115 From the New York Times bestselling author of The Night Circus, a timeless love story set in a secret underground world—a place of pirates, painters, lovers, liars, and ships that sail upon a starless sea.

Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a graduate student in Vermont when he discovers a mysterious book hidden in the stacks. As he turns the pages, entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, key collectors, and nameless acolytes, he reads something strange: a story from his own childhood. Bewildered by this inexplicable book and desperate to make sense of how his own life came to be recorded, Zachary uncovers a series of clues—a bee, a key, and a sword—that lead him to a masquerade party in New York, to a secret club, and through a doorway to an ancient library hidden far below the surface of the earth. What Zachary finds in this curious place is more than just a buried home for books and their guardians—it is a place of lost cities and seas, lovers who pass notes under doors and across time, and of stories whispered by the dead. Zachary learns of those who have sacrificed much to protect this realm, relinquishing their sight and their tongues to preserve this archive, and also of those who are intent on its destruction. Together with Mirabel, a fierce, pink-haired protector of the place, and Dorian, a handsome, barefoot man with shifting alliances, Zachary travels the twisting tunnels, darkened stairwells, crowded ballrooms, and sweetly soaked shores of this magical world, discovering his purpose—in both the mysterious book and in his own life.]]> 498 Erin Morgenstern 038554121X Jay 5 favorites
I loved every single character in this book. The only thing is I'm not sure how I feel about the ending. That might take another read in a few months to settle on.]]> 3.82 2019
author: Erin Morgenstern
name: Jay
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/21
date added: 2024/12/21
shelves: favorites
review:
It doesn't seem possible that there is another book more lush with magic and layers of story than Morgenstern's previous novel. Yet here it is.

I loved every single character in this book. The only thing is I'm not sure how I feel about the ending. That might take another read in a few months to settle on.
]]> 962821 The story of Medraut - strong, skilled, daring, and never to be king...

Medraut is the eldest son of Artos, high king of Britain; and, but for an accident of birth, would-be heir to the throne. Instead, his younger half-brother, Lleu, is chosen to be prince of Britain. Lleu is fragile, often ill, unskilled in weaponry and statesmanship, and childishly afraid of the dark. Even Lleu's twin sister, Goewin, seems more suited to rule the kingdom.

Medraut cannot bear to be commanded and contradicted by this weakling brother who he feels has usurped his birthright and his father's favor. Torn and bitter, haunted by jealousy, self-doubt, and thwarted ambition, he joins Morgause, the high king's treacherous sister, in a plot to force Artos to forfeit his power and kingdom in exchange for Lleu's life. But this plot soon proves to be much more - a battlefield on which Medraut is forced to decide, for good or evil, where his own allegiance truly lies...]]> 216 Elizabeth Wein 0142500143 Jay 0 to-read 3.81 1993
author: Elizabeth Wein
name: Jay
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1993
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 51824384
Jacob Wayne is in control. Always. The bed and breakfast owner’s on a mission to dominate the hospitality industry—and he expects nothing less than perfection. So when a purple-haired tornado of a woman turns up out of the blue to interview for his open chef position, he tells her the brutal truth: not a chance in hell. Then she hits him with her car—supposedly by accident. Yeah, right.

Now his arm is broken, his B&B is understaffed, and the dangerously unpredictable Eve is fluttering around, trying to help. Before long, she’s infiltrated his work, his kitchen—and his spare bedroom. Jacob hates everything about it. Or rather, he should. Sunny, chaotic Eve is his natural-born nemesis, but the longer these two enemies spend in close quarters, the more their animosity turns into something else. Like Eve, the heat between them is impossible to ignore—and it’s melting Jacob’s frosty exterior.]]> 400 Talia Hibbert 0062941283 Jay 0 to-read 4.07 2021
author: Talia Hibbert
name: Jay
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 37173847
But unbeknownst to her, Sancia’s been sent to steal an artifact of unimaginable power, an object that could revolutionize the magical technology known as scriving. The Merchant Houses who control this magic--the art of using coded commands to imbue everyday objects with sentience--have already used it to transform Tevanne into a vast, remorseless capitalist machine. But if they can unlock the artifact’s secrets, they will rewrite the world itself to suit their aims.

Now someone in those Houses wants Sancia dead, and the artifact for themselves. And in the city of Tevanne, there’s nobody with the power to stop them.

To have a chance at surviving—and at stopping the deadly transformation that’s under way—Sancia will have to marshal unlikely allies, learn to harness the artifact’s power for herself, and undergo her own transformation, one that will turn her into something she could never have imagined.]]> 501 Robert Jackson Bennett 1524760374 Jay 3 4.16 2018
author: Robert Jackson Bennett
name: Jay
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/06
date added: 2024/12/06
shelves:
review:
An incredible world concept, but the pacing was pretty rough. Really slow to start, and tbh probably doesn't need to be a trilogy. I know there's an element of needing to remind readers how things work as the story progresses but at a certain point you need to trust readers to follow along.
]]> 65213595 A grim and gothic new tale from author Alix E. Harrow about a small town haunted by secrets that can't stay buried and the sinister house that sits at the crossroads of it all.

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

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

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

If Opal wants a home, she’ll have to fight for it.]]> 320 Alix E. Harrow 1250799058 Jay 4 3.77 2023
author: Alix E. Harrow
name: Jay
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/20
date added: 2024/11/20
shelves:
review:

]]> 53285047 We were just these innocent girls in the night trying to make something beautiful. We nearly died. We very nearly did, didn't we?

Samantha Heather Mackey couldn't be more of an outsider in her small, highly selective MFA program at New England's Warren University. A scholarship student who prefers the company of her dark imagination to that of most people, she is utterly repelled by the rest of her fiction writing cohort--a clique of unbearably twee rich girls who call each other Bunny, and seem to move and speak as one.

But everything changes when Samantha receives an invitation to the Bunnies' fabled Smut Salon, and finds herself inexplicably drawn to their front door--ditching her only friend, Ava, in the process. As Samantha plunges deeper and deeper into the Bunnies' sinister yet saccharine world, beginning to take part in the ritualistic off-campus Workshop where they conjure their monstrous creations, the edges of reality begin to blur. Soon, her friendships with Ava and the Bunnies will be brought into deadly collision.

The spellbinding new novel from one of our most fearless chroniclers of the female experience, Bunny is a down-the-rabbit-hole tale of loneliness and belonging, friendship and desire, and the fantastic and terrible power of the imagination.

Named a Best Book of 2019 by TIME, Vogue, Electric Literature, and The New York Public Library]]> 305 Mona Awad 0525559752 Jay 4 3.43 2019
author: Mona Awad
name: Jay
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/12
date added: 2024/11/12
shelves:
review:
I'm not sure I'll ever decide what was real and what wasn't in this book. Except for the workshops. I feel like I've sat in on those exact conversations.
]]> 133286777 From the New York Times bestselling author of Ninth House, Hell Bent, and creator of the Grishaverse series comes a highly anticipated historical fantasy set during the Spanish Golden Age

In a shabby house, on a shabby street, in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to get through her days of endless toil as a scullion. But when her scheming mistress discovers the lump of a servant cowering in the kitchen is actually hiding a talent for little miracles, she demands Luzia use those gifts to better the family's social position.

What begins as simple amusement for the bored nobility takes a perilous turn when Luzia garners the notice of Antonio PĂ©rez, the disgraced secretary to Spain's king. Still reeling from the defeat of his armada, the king is desperate for any advantage in the war against England's heretic queen—and PĂ©rez will stop at nothing to regain the king's favor.

Determined to seize this one chance to better her fortunes, Luzia plunges into a world of seers and alchemists, holy men and hucksters, where the line between magic, science, and fraud is never certain. But as her notoriety grows, so does the danger that her Jewish blood will doom her to the Inquisition's wrath. She will have to use every bit of her wit and will to survive—even if that means enlisting the help of GuillĂ©n Santangel, an embittered immortal familiar whose own secrets could prove deadly for them both.]]> 387 Leigh Bardugo 125088425X Jay 5 3.74 2024
author: Leigh Bardugo
name: Jay
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/05
date added: 2024/11/05
shelves:
review:
What a ride. World-building has always been Bardugo's gift, and this book is another showcase of that. I sincerely wasn't sure how this was going to end the ENTIRE time.
]]> 60784372 480 Jacqueline Holland 1250856760 Jay 5 3.77 2023
author: Jacqueline Holland
name: Jay
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/24
date added: 2024/10/24
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]]> 23841432 89 Ocean Vuong Jay 0 to-read 4.20 2016
author: Ocean Vuong
name: Jay
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/16
shelves: to-read
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]]> 89724 Shirley Jackson’s beloved gothic tale of a peculiar girl named Merricat and her family’s dark secret

Taking readers deep into a labyrinth of dark neurosis, We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a deliciously unsettling novel about a perverse, isolated, and possibly murderous family and the struggle that ensues when a cousin arrives at their estate. This edition features a new introduction by Jonathan Lethem.]]> 152 Shirley Jackson 0143039970 Jay 4 3.93 1962
author: Shirley Jackson
name: Jay
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1962
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/09
date added: 2024/10/09
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]]> 60899726 Now with their nation threatened by enemies both within and outside the kingdom, Balen must fight hidden traitors and unnatural assassins, while also contending with the biting wit and dangerous charm of young King Zavrius. To save themselves and their nation they will have to put aside their past and reforge that trust they lost so long ago.]]> 380 Seth Haddon 1956422013 Jay 5 3.54 2022
author: Seth Haddon
name: Jay
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/08
date added: 2024/10/08
shelves:
review:
I mean this in the best of ways; this was like reading fanfiction of D&D characters. I loved it. The characters are complex and the relationships feel earned. I'm curious to learn more about the lore/magic here and am looking forward to diving into the next book!
]]> 75302266 Angharad—Emrys Myrddin’s epic about a mortal girl who falls in love with the Fairy King, then destroys him—is the only thing keeping her afloat. So when Myrddin’s family announces a contest to redesign the late author’s estate, Effy feels certain it’s her destiny.

But musty, decrepit Hiraeth Manor is an impossible task, and its residents are far from welcoming. Including Preston HĂ©loury, a stodgy young literature scholar determined to expose Myrddin as a fraud. As the two rivals piece together clues about Myrddin’s legacy, dark forces, both mortal and magical, conspire against them—and the truth may bring them both to ruin.]]> 378 Ava Reid 0063211505 Jay 4 3.73 2023
author: Ava Reid
name: Jay
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/06
date added: 2024/10/06
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]]> 45733829 There is no consent under capitalism

Docile is a science fiction parable about love and sex, wealth and debt, abuse and power, a challenging tour de force that at turns seduces and startles.

To be a Docile is to be kept, body and soul, for the uses of the owner of your contract. To be a Docile is to forget, to disappear, to hide inside your body from the horrors of your service. To be a Docile is to sell yourself to pay your parents' debts and buy your children's future.

Elisha Wilder’s family has been ruined by debt, handed down to them from previous generations. His mother never recovered from the Dociline she took during her term as a Docile, so when Elisha decides to try and erase the family’s debt himself, he swears he will never take the drug that took his mother from him. Too bad his contract has been purchased by Alexander Bishop III, whose ultra-rich family is the brains (and money) behind Dociline and the entire Office of Debt Resolution. When Elisha refuses Dociline, Alex refuses to believe that his family’s crowning achievement could have any negative side effects—and is determined to turn Elisha into the perfect Docile without it.]]> 480 K.M. Szpara 1250216141 Jay 0 3.56 2020
author: K.M. Szpara
name: Jay
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2023/07/16
date added: 2024/10/02
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]]> 54369251
But Mona’s life is turned upside down when she finds a dead body on the bakery floor. An assassin is stalking the streets of Mona’s city, preying on magic folk, and it appears that Mona is his next target. And in an embattled city suddenly bereft of wizards, the assassin may be the least of Mona’s worries
]]> 306 T. Kingfisher 1614505241 Jay 0 to-read 4.03 2020
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Jay
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/22
shelves: to-read
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]]> 199269577 The Spellshop is Sarah Beth Durst’s romantasy debut–a lush cottagecore tale full of stolen spellbooks, unexpected friendships, sweet jams, and even sweeter love.

Kiela has always had trouble dealing with people. Thankfully, as a librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she and her assistant, Caz—a magically sentient spider plant—have spent the last decade sequestered among the empire’s most precious spellbooks, preserving their magic for the city’s elite.

When a revolution begins and the library goes up in flames, she and Caz flee with all the spellbooks they can carry and head to a remote island Kiela never thought she’d see again: her childhood home. Taking refuge there, Kiela discovers, much to her dismay, a nosy—and very handsome—neighbor who can’t take a hint and keeps showing up day after day to make sure she’s fed and to help fix up her new home.

In need of income, Kiela identifies something that even the bakery in town doesn’t have: jam. With the help of an old recipe book her parents left her and a bit of illegal magic, her cottage garden is soon covered in ripe berries.

But magic can do more than make life a little sweeter, so Kiela risks the consequences of using unsanctioned spells and opens the island’s first-ever and much needed secret spellshop.

Like a Hallmark rom-com full of mythical creatures and fueled by cinnamon rolls and magic, The Spellshop will heal your heart and feed your soul.]]> 384 Sarah Beth Durst Jay 0 to-read 4.05 2024
author: Sarah Beth Durst
name: Jay
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/22
shelves: to-read
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]]> 28174589 “This book sparkles with wit and at the same time comes across as so transparent and genuine—Awad knows how to talk about the raw struggles of female friendships, sex, contact, humanness, and her voice is a wry celebration of all of this at once.â€� —Aimee Bender, author of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
Ìę
“Hilarious and cutting . . . Mona Awad has a gift for turning the everyday strange and luminous, for finding bright sparks of humor in the deepest dark. She is a strikingly original and strikingly talented new voice.â€� —Laura van den Berg, author of Find Me and The Isle of Youth
Ìę
Growing up in the suburban hell of Misery Saga (a.k.a. Mississauga), Lizzie has never liked the way she looks—even though her best friend Mel says she’s the pretty one. She starts dating guys online, but she’s afraid to send pictures, even when her skinny friend China does her makeup: she knows no one would want her if they could really see her. So she starts to lose. With punishing drive, she counts almonds consumed, miles logged, pounds dropped. She fights her way into coveted dresses.ÌęShe grows up and gets thin, navigating double-edged validation from her mother, her friends, her husband, her reflection in the mirror. But no matter how much she loses, will she ever see herself as anything other than a fat girl?
Ìę
In her brilliant, hilarious, and at times shocking debut, Mona Awad simultaneously skewers the body image-obsessed culture that tells women they have no value outside their physical appearance, and delivers a tender and moving depiction of a lovably difficult young woman whose life is hijacked by her struggle to conform. As caustically funny as it is heartbreaking, 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl introduces a vital new voice in fiction.]]> 224 Mona Awad 0698408934 Jay 0 to-read 3.09 2016
author: Mona Awad
name: Jay
average rating: 3.09
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/21
shelves: to-read
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]]> 201750794
They aren’t the heroes of legend, like Lancelot or Gawain. They’re the oddballs of the Round Tables, from the edges of the stories, like Sir Palomides, the Saracen Knight and Sir Dagonet, Arthur’s fool, who was knighted as a joke. They’re joined by Nimue, who was Merlin’s apprentice until she turned on him and buried him under a hill. Together this ragtag fellowship will set out to rebuild Camelot in a world that has lost its balance.

But Arthur’s death has revealed Britain’s fault lines. God has abandoned it, and the fairies and monsters and old gods are returning, led by Arthur’s half-sister Morgan le Fay. Kingdoms are turning on each other, warlords are laying siege to Camelot, and rival factions are forming around the disgraced Lancelot and the fallen Queen Guinevere. It is up to Collum and his companions to reclaim Excalibur, solve the mysteries of this ruined world and make it whole again. But before they can restore Camelot they’ll have to learn the truth of why the lonely, brilliant King Arthur fell and lay to rest the ghosts of his troubled family and of Britain’s dark past.]]> 673 Lev Grossman 0735224048 Jay 5 3.94 2024
author: Lev Grossman
name: Jay
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/19
date added: 2024/09/19
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]]> 176443312
Camp counselor Cory Ansel, eighteen and aimless, afraid to face her high-strung single mother in New York, is no longer sure where home is when the father of one of her campers offers an alternative. The CEO of a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company, Rolo Picazo is middle-aged, divorced, magnetic. He is also intoxicated by Cory. When Rolo proffers a childcare job (and an NDA), Cory quiets an internal warning and allows herself to be ferried to his private island. Plied with luxury and opiates manufactured by his company, she continues to tell herself she’s in charge. Her mother, Emer, head of a teetering agricultural NGO, senses otherwise. With her daughter seemingly vanished, Emer crosses land and sea to heed a cry for help she alone is convinced she hears.

Alternating between the two women’s perspectives, Rachel Lyon’s Fruit of the Dead incorporates its mythic inspiration with a light touch and devastating precision. The result is a tale that explores love, control, obliteration, and America’s own late capitalist mythos. Lyon’s reinvention of Persephone and Demeter’s story makes for a haunting and ecstatic novel that vibrates with lush abandon. Readers will not soon forget it.]]> 320 Rachel Lyon 1668020858 Jay 0 3.50 2024
author: Rachel Lyon
name: Jay
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/08/11
date added: 2024/09/02
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]]> 39325105 Harrow the Ninth, the sequel to Gideon the Ninth, turns a galaxy inside out as one necromancer struggles to survive the wreckage of herself aboard the Emperor's haunted space station.

She answered the Emperor's call.

She arrived with her arts, her wits, and her only friend.

In victory, her world has turned to ash.

After rocking the cosmos with her deathly debut, Tamsyn Muir continues the story of the penumbral Ninth House in Harrow the Ninth, a mind-twisting puzzle box of mystery, murder, magic, and mayhem. Nothing is as it seems in the halls of the Emperor, and the fate of the galaxy rests on one woman's shoulders.

Harrowhark Nonagesimus, last necromancer of the Ninth House, has been drafted by her Emperor to fight an unwinnable war. Side-by-side with a detested rival, Harrow must perfect her skills and become an angel of undeath � but her health is failing, her sword makes her nauseous, and even her mind is threatening to betray her.

Sealed in the gothic gloom of the Emperor's Mithraeum with three unfriendly teachers, hunted by the mad ghost of a murdered planet, Harrow must confront two unwelcome questions: is somebody trying to kill her? And if they succeeded, would the universe be better off?]]> 512 Tamsyn Muir 1250313228 Jay 4 4.30 2020
author: Tamsyn Muir
name: Jay
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/29
date added: 2024/06/29
shelves:
review:
A funny and atmospheric story, if a little confusing. I've heard the physical book is a little easier to follow.
]]> 201053011
Apparently, someone didn’t get the message.

For weeks, solitary fae of Atlanta have been disappearing with no word, no sign of foul play, and no explanations. When a half-human fairy bartender, discovers a body of a djinn in the Chattahoochee, she realizes something or someone is killing fae, and they’re using her bar as the hunting ground. Siobhan wants to keep her patrons safe, but her only real magical ability is tasting the unique flavor profile of other fairies' magic, not much help when tracking down a killer. But as more fae are killed, SIobhan is willing to do whatever it takes to keep the Greenwood Knoll a sanctuary for all who need it.

When a foreign Fairy Queen arrives, demanding answers about one of her missing subjects, Siobhan finds herself at the center of a growing storm of suspicion. There's something bigger at play in Atlanta, and with or without magic, Siobhan needs answers. Now. To find them, she’ll have to navigate the politics of a hostile Fairy Court and figure out why every clue seems to lead back to the Greenwood Knoll, before she or her found family fall victim to either the killer or a Fairy Queen’s idea of justice.

Summer’s Blood is the first installment in the Iron and Earth series, a new urban fantasy series from Sara Bond, Author of Gravity’s Heir.]]> 329 Sara T. Bond Jay 5 4.89
author: Sara T. Bond
name: Jay
average rating: 4.89
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/25
date added: 2024/06/25
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]]> 58724626 From the award-winning author of The Twisted Ones comes a gripping and atmospheric retelling of Edgar Allan Poe's classic "The Fall of the House of Usher."

When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, they race to the ancestral home of the Ushers in the remote countryside of Ruravia.

What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife, surrounding a dark, pulsing lake. Madeline sleepwalks and speaks in strange voices at night, and her brother Roderick is consumed with a mysterious malady of the nerves.

Aided by a redoubtable British mycologist and a baffled American doctor, Alex must unravel the secret of the House of Usher before it consumes them all.]]> 165 T. Kingfisher 1250830753 Jay 5 3.86 2022
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Jay
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/25
date added: 2024/06/25
shelves:
review:

]]> 200987323 In this wildly funny and heartwarming office comedy, an admin worker accidentally gains access to her colleaguesâ€� private emails and DMs and decides to use this intel to save her job—a laugh-till-you-cry debut novel you’ll be eager to share with your entire list of contacts, perfect for fans of Anxious People and Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine.

As far as Jolene is concerned, her interactions with her colleagues should start and end with her official duties as an admin for Supershops, Inc. Unfortunately, her irritating, incompetent coworkers don’t seem to understand the importance of boundaries. Her secret to survival? She vents her grievances in petty email postscripts, then changes the text colour to white so no one can see. That is, until one of her secret messages is exposed. Her punishment: sensitivity training (led by the suspiciously friendly HR guy, Cliff) and rigorous email restrictions.

When an IT mix-up grants her access to her entire department’s private emails and DMs, Jolene knows she should report it, but who could resist reading what their coworkers are really saying? And when she discovers layoffs are coming, she realizes this might just be the key to saving her job. The plan is simple: gain her boss’s favour, convince HR she’s Supershops material and beat out the competition.

But as Jolene is drawn further into her coworker’s private worlds and secrets, her carefully constructed walls begin to crumble—especially around Cliff, who she definitely cannot have feelings for. Soon she will need to decide if she’s ready to leave the comfort of her cubicle, even if it means coming clean to her colleagues.

Crackling with laugh-out-loud dialogue and relatable observations, I Hope This Finds You Well is a fresh and surprisingly tender comedy about loneliness and love beyond our computer screens. This sparkling debut novel will open your heart to the everyday eccentricities of work culture and the undeniable human connection that comes with it.]]> 338 Natalie Sue 0063320363 Jay 0 to-read 3.75 2024
author: Natalie Sue
name: Jay
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/25
shelves: to-read
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]]> 58438562 Perfect for fans of Samantha Irby and Trick Mirror, a funny, whip-smart collection of personal essays exploring the intersection of queerness, relationships, pop culture, the internet, and identity, introducing one of the most undeniably original new voices today

Jill Gutowitz’s life—for better and worse—has always been on a collision course with pop culture. There’s the time the FBI showed up at her door because of something she tweeted about Game of Thrones. The pop songs that have been the soundtrack to the worst moments of her life. And of course, the pivotal day when Orange Is the New Black hit the airwaves and broke down the door to Jill’s own sexuality. In these honest examinations of identity, desire, and self-worth, Jill explores perhaps the most monumental cultural shift of our lifetimes: the mainstreaming of lesbian culture. Dusting off her own personal traumas and artifacts of her not-so-distant youth she examines how pop culture acts as a fun house mirror reflecting and refracting our values—always teaching, distracting, disappointing, and revealing us.

Girls Can Kiss Now is a fresh and intoxicating blend of personal stories, sharp observations, and laugh-out-loud humor. This timely collection of essays helps us make sense of our collective pop-culture past even as it points the way toward a joyous, uproarious, near—and very queer—future.]]> 227 Jill Gutowitz 1982158506 Jay 0 to-read 3.79 2022
author: Jill Gutowitz
name: Jay
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/06
shelves: to-read
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]]> 43521657
Then she finds a strange book. A book that carries the scent of other worlds, and tells a tale of secret doors, of love, adventure and danger. Each page turn reveals impossible truths about the world and January discovers a story increasingly entwined with her own.]]> 374 Alix E. Harrow 0316421995 Jay 0 to-read 3.99 2019
author: Alix E. Harrow
name: Jay
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/28
shelves: to-read
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]]> 30324
Then Vivian falls in love with a human, a meat-boy. Aiden is kind and gentle, a welcome relief from the squabbling pack. He’s fascinated by magic, and Vivian longs to reveal herself to him. Surely he would understand her and delight in the wonder of her dual nature, not fear her as an ordinary human would.

Vivian’s divided loyalties are strained further when a brutal murder threatens to expose the pack. Moving between two worlds, she does not seem to belong in either. What is she really—human or beast? Which tastes sweeter—blood or chocolate?]]> 288 Annette Curtis Klause 0440226686 Jay 0 to-read 3.81 1990
author: Annette Curtis Klause
name: Jay
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1990
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/25
shelves: to-read
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]]> 27245999
From these documents spills the chronicle of a race of people at once more than human yet kin to beasts, ruled by instincts and desires blood-deep and ages-old. The tale features a rough wanderer in seventeenth-century Mughal India who finds himself irrevocably drawn to a defiant woman—and destined to be torn asunder by two clashing worlds. With every passing chapter of beauty and brutality, Alok’s interest in the stranger grows and evolves into something darker and more urgent.]]> 306 Indra Das 110196751X Jay 0 to-read 3.74 2016
author: Indra Das
name: Jay
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/25
shelves: to-read
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]]> 26156471 A spellbinding and darkly humorous coming-of-age story about an unusual boy whose family lives on the fringes of society and struggles to survive in a hostile world that shuns and fears them.

He was born an outsider, like the rest of his family. Poor yet resilient, he lives in the shadows with his Aunt Libby and Uncle Darren, folk who stubbornly make their way in a society that does not understand or want them. They are mongrels, mixedblood, neither this nor that. The boy at the center of Mongrels must decide if he belongs on the road with his aunt and uncle, or if he fits with the people on the other side of the tracks.

For ten years, he and his family have lived a life of late-night exits and close calls—always on the move across the South to stay one step ahead of the law. But the time is drawing near when Darren and Libby will know if their nephew is like them or not. And the close calls they’ve been running from for so long are catching up fast, now. Everything is about to change.

A compelling and fascinating journey, Mongrels alternates between past and present to create an unforgettable portrait of a boy trying to understand his family and his place in a complex and unforgiving world. A smart and innovative story—funny, bloody, raw, and real—told in a rhythmic voice full of heart, Mongrels is a deeply moving, sometimes grisly novel that illuminates the challenges and tender joys of a life beyond the ordinary in a bold and imaginative new way.]]> 302 Stephen Graham Jones 0062412698 Jay 0 to-read 3.90 2016
author: Stephen Graham Jones
name: Jay
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/25
shelves: to-read
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]]> 43261166
On a hot July night on Cape Cod when Adrienne was fourteen, her mother, Malabar, woke her at midnight with five simple words that would set the course of both of their lives for years to come: Ben Souther just kissed me.Ìę
Ìę
Adrienne instantly became her mother’s confidante and helpmate, blossoming in the sudden light of her attention, and from then on, Malabar came to rely on her daughter to help orchestrate what would become an epic affair with her husband’s closest friend. The affair would have calamitous consequences for everyone involved, impacting Adrienne’s life in profound ways, driving her into a precarious marriage of her own, and then into a deep depression. Only years later will she find the strength to embrace her life—and her mother—on her own terms. Ìę

Wild GameÌęis a brilliant, timeless memoir about how the people close to us can break our hearts simply because they have access to them, andÌęthe lies we tell in order to justify the choices we make.ÌęIt’s a remarkable story of resilience, a reminder that we need not be the parents our parents were to us.]]> 256 Adrienne Brodeur 1328519031 Jay 5 3.93 2019
author: Adrienne Brodeur
name: Jay
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/25
date added: 2024/03/25
shelves:
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]]> 22055262
Kell was raised in Arnes—Red London—and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see.

Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they'll never see. It's a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand.

After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.

Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they'll first need to stay alive.]]> 400 Victoria E. Schwab 0765376458 Jay 5 4.04 2015
author: Victoria E. Schwab
name: Jay
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/25
date added: 2024/02/25
shelves:
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]]> 34507 240 Terry Pratchett 0060855908 Jay 4 4.06 1987
author: Terry Pratchett
name: Jay
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1987
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/10
date added: 2024/01/10
shelves:
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]]> 43352954 Burn before reading. Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, grows into something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future.

Except the discovery of their bond would mean death for each of them. There's still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win that war.]]> 209 Amal El-Mohtar Jay 5 3.87 2019
author: Amal El-Mohtar
name: Jay
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/28
date added: 2023/12/28
shelves:
review:
Exceptional. It's a short read and beautiful.
]]> 54823479 To save a fae kingdom, a trans witch must face his traumatic past and the royal fiancé he left behind. This debut YA fantasy will leave you spellbound.

Wyatt would give anything to forget where he came from—but a kingdom demands its king.

In Asalin, fae rule and witches like Wyatt Croft
don’t. Wyatt’s betrothal to his best friend, fae prince Emyr North, was supposed to change that. But when Wyatt lost control of his magic one devastating night, he fled to the human world.

Now a coldly distant Emyr has hunted him down. Despite transgender Wyatt’s newfound identity and troubling past, Emyr has no intention of dissolving their engagement. In fact, he claims they must marry now or risk losing the throne. Jaded, Wyatt strikes a deal with the enemy, hoping to escape Asalin forever. But as he gets to know Emyr, Wyatt realizes the boy he once loved may still exist. And as the witches face worsening conditions, he must decide once and for all what’s more important—his people or his freedom.]]> 421 H.E. Edgmon 1335212795 Jay 0 3.88 2021
author: H.E. Edgmon
name: Jay
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2023/12/11
date added: 2023/12/11
shelves:
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]]> 153482 Cassandra speaks to us in a pressing monologue whose inner focal points are patriarchy and war. In the four accompanying pieces, which take the form of travel reports, journal entries, and a letter, Wolf describes the novel's genesis. Incisive and intelligent, the entire volume represents an urgent call to examine the past in order to insure a future.
]]> 320 Christa Wolf 0374519048 Jay 0 to-read 3.92 1983
author: Christa Wolf
name: Jay
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1983
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60461939 From the creator behind @DeuxMoi, the popular - and infamous - celebrity gossip Instagram account, comes a fun, charming debut novel that's a perfect combination of Devil Wears Prada, Gossip Girl, and Smile and Look Pretty. Anon Pls. is for those looking for a fun escape and anyone who wonders, "What's it really like to be DeuxMoi?"

When Cricket Lopez, assistant to one of the most notorious celebrity stylists, revamps her old style Instagram account and turns it into a celebrity gossip blog on a drunken whim, she never thinks it will become anything. It's just a way to blow off steam after a terrible, terrible day at work where her nightmarish boss screams at her and blames her for some 18-year-old influencer's screw-up. But when the account grows overnight and, even wilder, when she starts getting gossip from fans - juicy gossip - she has to face facts: her Instagram is now famous. She is now famous.

Though no one knows that she is behind the account, its newfound success is affecting her real life. Her boss wonders why she's disappearing on the job, her friends are increasingly irritated by her dedication to the account, and she has celebrities, investors, and journalists approaching her with bright-eyed interest. Plus, there's a steamy new love interest who she meets through her online persona--except she has no idea if she can truly trust his motives. But as the account grows and becomes more and more famous, she has to wonder: is it - the fame, the insider access, the escape from real life - really worth losing everything she has?]]> 288 DeuxMoi 0063257807 Jay 3 3.35 2022
author: DeuxMoi
name: Jay
average rating: 3.35
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/11/04
date added: 2023/11/04
shelves:
review:
This was def a fun read, if maybe not the most well written. I get that label dropping is prolly part of her vibe but really it didn't add much to the book and got kind of distracting eventually.
]]> 49928905
Even the Wild Man of Greenhollow can’t ignore a summons from his mother, when that mother is the indomitable Adela Silver, practical folklorist. Henry Silver does not relish what he’ll find in the grimy seaside town of Rothport, where once the ancient wood extended before it was drowned beneath the sea—a missing girl, a monster on the loose, or, worst of all, Tobias Finch, who loves him.]]> 176 Emily Tesh 125075660X Jay 5 3.94 2020
author: Emily Tesh
name: Jay
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2023/10/17
date added: 2023/10/17
shelves:
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]]> 43459657
When Greenhollow Hall acquires a handsome, intensely curious new owner in Henry Silver, everything changes. Old secrets better left buried are dug up, and Tobias is forced to reckon with his troubled past—both the green magic of the woods, and the dark things that rest in its heart.]]> 112 Emily Tesh 1250229790 Jay 4 3.98 2019
author: Emily Tesh
name: Jay
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2023/10/07
date added: 2023/10/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 85682793 Samara Breger's A Long Time Dead is a lush, Victorian romance, drenched in blood and drama, about the lengths two women will go to secure a love that cannot die.

Somewhere foggy, 1837 . . .

Poppy had always loved the night, which is why it wasn’t too much of a bother to wake one evening in an unfamiliar home far from London, weak and confused and plagued with a terrible thirst for blood, to learn that she could no longer step out into the day. And while vampirism presented several disadvantages, it more than made up for those in its benefits: immortality, a body that could run at speed for hours without tiring, the thrill of becoming a predator, the thing that pulls rabbits from bushes and tears through their fur and flesh with the sharp point of a white fang.

And, of course, Roisin. The mysterious woman who has lived for centuries, who held Poppy through her painful transformation, and who, for some reason, is now teaching her how to adjust to her new, endless life. A tight, lonely, buttoned-up woman, with kindness and care, pressed up behind her teeth. The time they spend together is as transformative to Poppy as the changes in her body, and soon, she finds herself hopelessly, overwhelmingly attached. But Roisin has secrets of her own, and can’t make any promises; not when vengeance must be served.

Soon, their little world explodes. Together and apart, they encounter scores of vampires, shifty pirates, conniving opera singers, ancient nobles, glamorous French women, and a found family that throws a very particular sort of party. But overhead, threat looms—one woman who is capable of destroying everything Poppy and Roisin hold dear.]]> 412 Samara Breger 1612942652 Jay 0 to-read 3.73 2023
author: Samara Breger
name: Jay
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 56898223
Called "Pastoral," this reclusive community was founded in the 1970s by like-minded people searching for a simpler way of life. By all accounts, the commune shouldn’t exist anymore and soon after Travis stumbles upon itâ€� he disappears. Just like Maggie St. James.

Years later, Theo, a lifelong member of Pastoral, discovers Travis’s abandoned truck beyond the border of the community. No one is allowed in or out, not when there’s a risk of bringing a diseaseâ€�rot—into Pastoral. Unraveling the mystery of what happened reveals secrets that Theo, his wife, Calla, and her sister, Bee, keep from one another. Secrets that prove their perfect, isolated world isn’t as safe as they believed—and that darkness takes many forms.

Hauntingly beautiful, hypnotic, and bewitching, A History of Wild Places is a story about fairy tales, our fear of the dark, and losing yourself within the wilderness of your mind.]]> 354 Shea Ernshaw 1982164808 Jay 5 3.92 2021
author: Shea Ernshaw
name: Jay
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/27
date added: 2023/09/27
shelves:
review:

]]> 57693406
What Tom doesn't tell Jamie is that the animals his team cares for are not here on Earth. Not our Earth, at least. In an alternate dimension, massive dinosaur-like creatures named Kaiju roam a warm and human-free world. They're the universe's largest and most dangerous panda and they're in trouble.

It's not just the Kaiju Preservation Society that's found its way to the alternate world. Others have, too--and their carelessness could cause millions back on our Earth to die.]]> 264 John Scalzi 0765389126 Jay 5 3.93 2022
author: John Scalzi
name: Jay
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/21
date added: 2023/09/21
shelves:
review:

]]> 59357120
So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? This piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller. That is what June believes, and The New York Times bestseller list agrees.

But June cannot escape Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens her stolen success. As she races to protect her secret she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.]]> 329 R.F. Kuang Jay 0 to-read 3.84 2023
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Jay
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 58146427
Kayleigh needs money. That’s why she takes a job as a content moderator for a social media platform whose name she isn’t allowed to mention. Her job: reviewing offensive videos and pictures, rants and conspiracy theories, and deciding which need to be removed. It’s grueling work. Kayleigh and her colleagues spend all day watching horrors and hate on their screens, evaluating them with the platform’s ever-changing terms of service while a supervisor sits behind them, timing and scoring their assessments. Yet Kayleigh finds a group of friends, even a new love—and, somehow, the job starts to feel okay.

But when her colleagues begin to break down; when Sigrid, her new girlfriend, grows increasingly distant and fragile; when her friends start espousing the very conspiracy theories they’re meant to be evaluating; Kayleigh begins to wonder if the job may be too much for them. She’s still totally fine, though—or is she?]]> 136 Hanna Bervoets 0358622360 Jay 0 to-read 2.85 2021
author: Hanna Bervoets
name: Jay
average rating: 2.85
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 25781157 A warm, funny and acutely perceptive debut novel about four adult siblings and the fate of the shared inheritance that has shaped their choices and their lives.

Every family has its problems. But even among the most troubled, the Plumb family stands out as spectacularly dysfunctional. Years of simmering tensions finally reach a breaking point on an unseasonably cold afternoon in New York City as Melody, Beatrice, and Jack Plumb gather to confront their charismatic and reckless older brother, Leo, freshly released from rehab. Months earlier, an inebriated Leo got behind the wheel of a car with a nineteen-year-old waitress as his passenger. The ensuing accident has endangered the Plumbsâ€� joint trust fund, “The Nest,â€� which they are months away from finally receiving. Meant by their deceased father to be a modest mid-life supplement, the Plumb siblings have watched The Nest’s value soar along with the stock market and have been counting on the money to solve a number of self-inflicted problems.

Melody, a wife and mother in an upscale suburb, has an unwieldy mortgage and looming college tuition for her twin teenage daughters. Jack, an antiques dealer, has secretly borrowed against the beach cottage he shares with his husband, Walker, to keep his store open. And Bea, a once-promising short-story writer, just can’t seem to finish her overdue novel. Can Leo rescue his siblings and, by extension, the people they love? Or will everyone need to reimagine the future they’ve envisioned? Brought together as never before, Leo, Melody, Jack, and Beatrice must grapple with old resentments, present-day truths, and the significant emotional and financial toll of the accident, as well as finally acknowledge the choices they have made in their own lives.

This is a story about the power of family, the possibilities of friendship, the ways we depend upon one another and the ways we let one another down. In this tender, entertaining, and deftly written debut, Sweeney brings a remarkable cast of characters to life to illuminate what money does to relationships, what happens to our ambitions over the course of time, and the fraught yet unbreakable ties we share with those we love.]]> 353 Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney 0062414216 Jay 4 3.37 2016
author: Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
name: Jay
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/19
date added: 2023/08/21
shelves:
review:

]]> 63103712
Eli Reese grew up as the nerdy outcast in school, but he got rich designing apps. Now he's successful by any standards. But he's never had the same luck in finding a real community or people who understand him. Over the years, he's never forgotten his first crush, so when he spots her at a café, he takes it as a sign. Except then he gets sucked into the Iris-verse and somehow ends up renting one of her B&B rooms. As the days pass, Eli grows enchanted by the misfit boarders staying in the house...and even more so by Iris. Could Eli have finally found a person and a place to call "home"?]]> 368 Ann Aguirre 1728262496 Jay 0 to-read 3.34 2023
author: Ann Aguirre
name: Jay
average rating: 3.34
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/15
shelves: to-read
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]]> 62695377 In a world where the children of the gods inherit their powers, a descendant of the Greek Fates must solve a series of impossible murders to save her sisters, her soulmate, and her city.

Descendants of the Fates are always born in threes: one to weave, one to draw, and one to cut the threads that connect people to the things they love and to life itself. The Ora sisters are no exception. Io, the youngest, uses her Fate-born abilities as a private investigator in the half-sunken city of Alante.

But her latest job leads her to a horrific discovery: somebody is abducting women, maiming their life-threads, and setting the resulting wraiths loose in the city to kill. To find the culprit, she must work alongside Edei Rhuna, the right hand of the infamous Mob Queen—and the boy with whom she shares a rare fate-thread linking them as soul mates before they’ve even met.

But the investigation turns personal when Io's estranged oldest sister turns up on the arm of her best suspect. Amid unveiled secrets from her past and her growing feelings for Edei, Io must follow clues through the city’s darkest corners and unearth a conspiracy that involves some of the city’s most powerful players—before destruction comes to her own doorstep.]]> 352 Kika Hatzopoulou 0593528719 Jay 0 to-read 3.92 2023
author: Kika Hatzopoulou
name: Jay
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 127823335 A swoon-worthy debut queer Victorian romance in which two debutantes distract themselves from having to seek husbands by setting up their widowed parents, and instead find their perfect match in each other—the lesbian Bridgerton/Parent Trap you never knew you needed!

Gwen has a brilliant beyond brilliant idea.

It’s 1857, and anxious debutante Beth has just one season to snag a wealthy husband, or she and her mother will be out on the street. But playing the blushing ingenue makes Beth’s skin crawl and she’d rather be anywhere but here.

Gwen, on the other hand, is on her fourth season and counting, with absolutely no intention of finding a husband, possibly ever. She figures she has plenty of security as the only daughter of a rakish earl, from whom she’s gotten all her flair, fun, and less-than-proper party games.

“Let’s get them together,â€� she says.

It doesn’t take long for Gwen to hatch her latest scheme: rather than surrender Beth to courtship, they should set up Gwen’s father and Beth’s newly widowed mother. Let them get married instead.

“It’ll be easyâ€� she says.

There’s just
one, teeny, tiny problem. Their parents kind of seem to hate each other.

But no worries. Beth and Gwen are more than up to the challenge of a little twenty-year-old heartbreak. How hard can parent-trapping widowed ex-lovers be?

Of course, just as their plan begins to unfold, a handsome, wealthy viscount starts calling on Beth, offering up the perfect, secure marriage.

Beth’s not mature enough for thisâ€�

Now Gwen must face the prospect of sharing Beth with someone else, forever. And Beth must reckon with the fact that she’s caught feelings, hard, and they’re definitely not for her potential fiancĂ©.

That’s the trouble with matchmaking: sometimes you accidentally fall in love with your best friend in the process.]]> 368 Emma R. Alban 006331200X Jay 0 to-read 3.77 2024
author: Emma R. Alban
name: Jay
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 40617092
When Alice Hale leaves a career in publicity to become a writer and follows her husband to the New York suburbs, she is unaccustomed to filling her days alone in a big, empty house. But when she finds a vintage cookbook buried in a box in the old home’s basement, she becomes captivated by the cookbook’s previous ownerâ€�1950s housewife Nellie Murdoch. As Alice cooks her way through the past, she realizes that within the cookbook’s pages Nellie left clues about her life–including a mysterious series of unsent letters penned to her mother.

Soon Alice learns that while baked Alaska and meatloaf five ways may seem harmless, Nellie’s secrets may have been anything but. When Alice uncovers a more sinister–even dangerous–side to Nellie’s marriage, and has become increasingly dissatisfied with the mounting pressures in her own relationship, she begins to take control of her life and protect herself with a few secrets of her own.]]> 336 Karma Brown 1524744948 Jay 5 3.64 2019
author: Karma Brown
name: Jay
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/26
date added: 2023/07/26
shelves:
review:
Well, I really liked one of the endings. The other main character's ending left a pit in my stomach tbh
]]> 61316938 I'm A Fan, a single speaker uses the story of their experience in a seemingly unequal, unfaithful relationship as a prism through which to examine the complicated hold we each have on one another. With a clear and unforgiving eye, the narrator unpicks the behaviour of all involved, herself included, and makes startling connections between the power struggles at the heart of human relationships and those of the wider world, in turn offering a devastating critique of access, social media, patriarchal hetero-normative relationships, and our cultural obsession with status and how that status is conveyed.

In this incredible debut, Sheena Patel announces herself as a vital new voice in literature, capable of rendering a range of emotions and visceral experiences on the page. Sex, violence, politics, tenderness, humour—Patel handles them all with both originality and dexterity of voice.]]> 218 Sheena Patel Jay 0 to-read 3.45 2022
author: Sheena Patel
name: Jay
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 54468020
Told entirely through clever and captivating Slack messages, this irresistible, relatable satire of both virtual work and contemporary life is The Office for a new world.

Gerald, a mid-level employee of a New York–based public relations firm has been uploaded into the company’s internal Slack channels—at least his consciousness has. His colleagues assume it’s an elaborate gag to exploit the new work-from home policy, but now that Gerald’s productivity is through the roof, his bosses are only too happy to let him work from . . . wherever he says he is.

Faced with the looming abyss of a disembodied life online, Gerald enlists his co-worker Pradeep to help him escape, and to find out what happened to his body. But the longer Gerald stays in the void, the more alluring and absurd his reality becomes.

Meanwhile, Gerald’s colleagues have PR catastrophes of their own to handle in the real world. Their biggest client, a high-end dog food company, is in the midst of recalling a bad batch of food that’s allegedly poisoning Pomeranians nationwide. And their CEO suspects someone is sabotaging his office furniture. And if Gerald gets to work from home all the time, why can’t everyone? Is true love possible between two people, when one is just a line of text in an app? And what in the hell does the :dusty-stick: emoji mean?

In a time when office paranoia and politics have followed us home, Calvin Kasulke is here to capture the surprising, absurd, and fully-relatable factors attacking our collective sanity
and give us hope that we can still find a human connection.]]> 256 Calvin Kasulke Jay 5 A fun, wild read. 3.63 2021
author: Calvin Kasulke
name: Jay
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2023/05/20
date added: 2023/07/17
shelves:
review:
A fun, wild read.
]]> 52459864
When 18-year-old Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, it's to assassinate the ace male pilot responsible for her sister's death. But she gets her vengeance in a way nobody expected—she kills him through the psychic link between pilots and emerges from the cockpit unscathed. She is labeled an Iron Widow, a much-feared and much-silenced kind of female pilot who can sacrifice boys to power up Chrysalises instead.â€�

To tame her unnerving yet invaluable mental strength, she is paired up with Li Shimin, the strongest and most controversial male pilot in Huaxiaâ€�. But now that Zetian has had a taste of power, she will not cower so easily. She will miss no opportunity to leverage their combined might and infamy to survive attempt after attempt on her life, until she can figure out exactly why the pilot system works in its misogynist way—and stop more girls from being sacrificed.]]> 394 Xiran Jay Zhao 0735269939 Jay 5
And to the complaints about the "feminism" in the book being violent, I think you missed the point. This is a story about fighting against the expectation fit into what is palatable. The author refers to the main character as a villain. There are plenty of stories where the SFC leads by softness and peace, but this book isn't that and never presented itself that way.]]> 4.03 2021
author: Xiran Jay Zhao
name: Jay
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/03
date added: 2023/07/03
shelves:
review:
This book was exactly what I wanted and more. If you are craving incredible mecha war world building with a side of gender feelings, this is the book for you.

And to the complaints about the "feminism" in the book being violent, I think you missed the point. This is a story about fighting against the expectation fit into what is palatable. The author refers to the main character as a villain. There are plenty of stories where the SFC leads by softness and peace, but this book isn't that and never presented itself that way.
]]> 44564172
Greer Kadetsky is a shy college freshman when she meets the woman she hopes will change her life. Faith Frank, dazzlingly persuasive and elegant at sixty-three, has been a central pillar of the women’s movement for decades, a figure who inspires others to influence the world. Upon hearing Faith speak for the first time, Greer—madly in love with her boyfriend, Cory, but still full of longing for an ambition that she can’t quite place—feels her inner world light up. And then, astonishingly, Faith invites Greer to make something out of that sense of purpose, leading Greer down the most exciting path of her life as it winds toward and away from her meant-to-be love story with Cory and the future she’d always imagined.

Charming and wise, knowing and witty, Meg Wolitzer delivers a novel about power and influence, ego and loyalty, womanhood and ambition. At its heart, The Female Persuasion is about the flame we all believe is flickering inside of us, waiting to be seen and fanned by the right person at the right time. It’s a story about the people who guide and the people who follow (and how those roles evolve over time), and the desire within all of us to be pulled into the light.]]> 480 Meg Wolitzer 0399573232 Jay 4 3.50 2018
author: Meg Wolitzer
name: Jay
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/09
date added: 2023/06/09
shelves:
review:

]]> 111673641 A trans boy searches for a future―and a romance―in which he can live and love openly as himself in this heartrending young-adult reimagining of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, part of the Remixed Classics series.

London, 1812 . Oliver Bennet feels trapped—not just by the endless corsets, petticoats, and skirts he's forced to wear on a daily basis, but also by society's expectations. The world, and the vast majority of his family and friends, think Oliver is a girl named Elizabeth. He is therefore expected to mingle at balls wearing a pretty dress, entertain suitors regardless of his interest in them, and ultimately become someone's wife.

But Oliver can't bear the thought of such a fate. He finds solace in the few times he can sneak out of his family's home and explore the city rightfully dressed as a young gentleman. It's during one such excursion when Oliver becomes acquainted with Darcy, a sulky young man who had been rude to "Elizabeth" at a recent social function. But in the comfort of being out of the public eye, Oliver comes to find that Darcy is actually a sweet, intelligent boy with a warm heart, not to mention attractive.

As Oliver spends more time as his true self, often with Darcy, part of him dares to hope that his dream of love and life as a man can be possible. But suitors are growing bolder―and even threatening―and his mother is growing more desperate to see him settled into an engagement. Oliver will have to choose: settle for safety, security, and a life of pretending to be something he's not, or risk it all for a slim chance at freedom, love, and a life that can be truly his own.]]> 304 Gabe Cole Novoa 1250869803 Jay 0 to-read 3.96 2024
author: Gabe Cole Novoa
name: Jay
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60652997 Wealth. Power. Murder. Magic. Alex Stern is back and the Ivy League is going straight to hell.

Find a gateway to the underworld. Steal a soul out of hell. A simple plan, except people who make this particular journey rarely come back. But Galaxy “Alexâ€� Stern is determined to break Darlington out of purgatory―even if it costs her a future at Lethe and at Yale.

Forbidden from attempting a rescue, Alex and Dawes can’t call on the Ninth House for help, so they assemble a team of dubious allies to save the gentleman of Lethe. Together, they will have to navigate a maze of arcane texts and bizarre artifacts to uncover the societiesâ€� most closely guarded secrets, and break every rule doing it. But when faculty members begin to die off, Alex knows these aren’t just accidents. Something deadly is at work in New Haven, and if she is going to survive, she’ll have to reckon with the monsters of her past and a darkness built into the university’s very walls.

Thick with history and packed with Bardugo’s signature twists, Hell Bent brings to life an intricate world full of magic, violence, and all too real monsters.]]> 481 Leigh Bardugo 1250313104 Jay 5 4.09 2023
author: Leigh Bardugo
name: Jay
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/05/09
date added: 2023/05/09
shelves:
review:
LOVED this follow up to Ninth House. Seemed like there was a better balance of fun and drama in this one and I'm so looking forward to the next book.
]]> 58772763 A call to action and a narrative that runs counter to every racist stereotype that thwarts the lives of men of color today.

My Seven Black Fathers is a memoir like few others--both the story of Yemi, a boy with an African name who feels awkward and alone as he is shunted from school to school, and a powerful consideration of the role of race, masculinity, education, and family in the lives of Black boys in the United States today. Inspired by Will Jawando's experience as a civil rights and education policy attorney, as well as by his involvement in My Brother's Keeper, President Barack Obama's hugely effective mentorship program for young men of color, this book explores the bonds that developed between the author and the host of father figures who formed him: Mr. Williams, the math teacher who taught him how to tie his first tie; Joseph, the stepfather who altered his understanding of family; Jay Fletcher, the openly gay colleague of his mother's who introduced him to the theater; Mr. Holmes, the high school chorus director who taught him to use his voice and saw him through a crushing disappointment; and Deen Sanwoola, who helped him bridge the gap between his American upbringing and his Nigerian heritage--eventually leading to a reconciliation with his biological father.



Written out of a deep appreciation of the Black male experience, My Seven Black Fathers is an essential and affirmative new take on the meaning of race and family in America.]]> 240 Will Jawando 0374604878 Jay 5 4.31 2022
author: Will Jawando
name: Jay
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/04/07
date added: 2023/04/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 9969571 Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

IN THE YEAR 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade's devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines, puzzles that are based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them.

But when Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's going to survive, he'll have to win—and confront the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.]]> 480 Ernest Cline 030788743X Jay 5 4.21 2011
author: Ernest Cline
name: Jay
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2023/04/01
date added: 2023/04/01
shelves:
review:
Rarely do books live up to the hype when they have this much attention on them, but this book really did. It was such a fun adventure that still held the political commentary of any scifi with its salt. Having Wil Wheaton read the audio book was an especially good treat given the theme of the book.
]]> 59251247 New York City, 1922. Nicolás Caraveo, a 17-year-old transgender boy from Minnesota, has no interest in the city’s glamor. Going to New York is all about establishing himself as a young professional, which could set up his future—and his life as a man—and benefit his family.

Nick rents a small house in West Egg from his 18-year-old cousin, Daisy Fabrega, who lives in fashionable East Egg near her wealthy fiancĂ©, Tom—and Nick is shocked to find that his cousin now goes by Daisy Fay, has erased all signs of her Latina heritage, and now passes seamlessly as white.

Nick’s neighbor in West Egg is a mysterious young man named Jay Gatsby, whose castle-like mansion is the stage for parties so extravagant that they both dazzle and terrify Nick. At one of these parties, Nick learns that the spectacle is all for the benefit of impressing a girl from Jay’s past—Daisy. And he learns something else: Jay is also transgender.

As Nick is pulled deeper into the glittery culture of decadence, he spends more time with Jay, aiming to help his new friend reconnect with his lost love. But Nick's feelings grow more complicated when he finds himself falling hard for Jay's openness, idealism, and unfounded faith in the American Dream.

Listening Length: 8 hours and 33 minutes]]> 336 Anna-Marie McLemore 1250774934 Jay 0 to-read 4.07 2022
author: Anna-Marie McLemore
name: Jay
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 32564956 200 Becky Bond 1603587276 Jay 3 3.79 2016
author: Becky Bond
name: Jay
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2023/03/17
date added: 2023/03/17
shelves:
review:
I can see why many people recommend this bookand I'm glad for more context, but I'm not sure it's anything special
]]> 19161852
Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze -- the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization's bedrock for a thousand years -- collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman's vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries.

Now Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, dying land. Without sunlight, clean water, or arable land, and with limited stockpiles of supplies, there will be war all across the Stillness: a battle royale of nations not for power or territory, but simply for the basic resources necessary to get through the long dark night. Essun does not care if the world falls apart around her. She'll break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter.]]> 468 N.K. Jemisin Jay 0 to-read 4.29 2015
author: N.K. Jemisin
name: Jay
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 42036538
The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman.

Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead bullshit.

Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. She packs up her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and prepares to launch her daring escape. But her childhood nemesis won't set her free without a service.

Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and bone witch extraordinaire, has been summoned into action. The Emperor has invited the heirs to each of his loyal Houses to a deadly trial of wits and skill. If Harrowhark succeeds she will become an immortal, all-powerful servant of the Resurrection, but no necromancer can ascend without their cavalier. Without Gideon's sword, Harrow will fail, and the Ninth House will die.

Of course, some things are better left dead.]]> 448 Tamsyn Muir 1250313198 Jay 4 4.19 2019
author: Tamsyn Muir
name: Jay
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/05
date added: 2023/03/05
shelves:
review:
Unlike any other book I've read. This was a blast. I'm definitely going to have to read the rest because that CAN'T be where it ends
]]> 62296322
Xander

Big City is supposedly the place where dreams come true. As someone just trying to live my life, I can tell you, it’s more like a recurring nightmare where dreams get c*ckblocked at every turn.

Especially if you’re a supervillain like me.

The irony is that I have zero powers, despite coming from purebred villain stock, but try telling that to Big City’s beloved hero, Captain Masculine.

This himbo is ruining my research, and if his firepower doesn’t kill me, the sight of him in Lycra surely will. Luckily—or unluckily, in my opinion—my bestie just signed me up for the Bangers dating app and found my perfect match.

If this isn’t the start of my villain arc, I don’t know what is.

Butch

It’s hard feeling like I have to wear a mask every day—that the only value I bring to the table is the sparkling image others have created for me.

Such is the life of being Captain Masculine, Big City’s greatest superhero. This is the existence I was destined for, and I will gladly defend this city against every threat to its people.

Except Doctor Antihero.

I’ve seen countless villains come and go, but something about Antihero intrigues me more than the usual hero-villain encounters should.

It’s because of him that I impulsively signed up for a dating app, hoping a meaningless fling with a local normie will help get my head back in the game. The truth is, what I really want is someone who sees me—the man behind the mask.

But that’s a luxury no superhero can afford.

---

Not All Himbos Wear Capes is an MM romance between a superhero and a villain. Our men find other men in tight supersuits incredibly attractive. Sometimes, they keep these supersuits on while engaging in explicit extracurricular activities with each other (and sometimes they even use bad words!).

This is not your kid’s superhero book. This is Sin City and The Boys having a love child with extra spicy Spideypool and is meant for 18+ adults who can handle such things.

The Villainous Things series contains standalone books (each with HEAs) that feature interconnected characters and an overarching plot.

---

*FULL LIST OF Content & TWs can be found in the front of the book and at c-rochelle[dot]com*


CONTENT & TROPES:
� MM romance
� Dual POV
� Superheroes/villains
� Grumpy/sunshine
� Star-crossed lovers + fated mates
� Lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers (yup)
� Hurt/comfort + found family
� D/s dynamic that's more bedroom than lifestyle
� MM romance (in case you missed that part)
� Plus suspenseful plot + save-the-world epicness for pizazz

POTENTIAL TRIGGERS:
� Sweary dialogue
� Naughty irreverent humor
� Extremely morally gray characters with moments of psychotic ideation
� Extra spicy extracurricular activities (see inside book and c-rochelle[dot]com for specifics)
‱ÌęMinor gore in villain lair and during hero/villain battle scenes
� Controlling + neglectful parents with some physical (superpowered) abuse
� Lack of autonomy + indentured servitude
� Restraints (not the fun kind)
� Detailed descriptions of humans� negative effects on coastal wildlife (specifically with pollution and including a seagull autopsy with details of the contents of its stomach)]]> 420 C. Rochelle Jay 0 to-read 4.24 2022
author: C. Rochelle
name: Jay
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61282578
Before there were Instagram likes, Twitter hashtags, or TikTok trends, there were bloggers who seemed to have the passion and authenticity that traditional media lacked. The Influencer Industry tells the story of how early digital creators scrambling for work amid the Great Recession gave rise to the multibillion-dollar industry that has fundamentally reshaped culture, the flow of information, and the way we relate to ourselves and each other.

Drawing on dozens of in-depth interviews with leading social media influencers, brand executives, marketers, talent managers, trend forecasters, and others, Emily Hund shows how early industry participants focused on creating and monetizing digital personal brands as a means of exerting control over their professional destinies in a time of acute economic uncertainty. Over time, their activities coalesced into an industry whose impact has reached far beyond the dreams of its progenitors―and beyond their control. Hund illustrates how the methods they developed for creating, monetizing, and marketing social media content have permeated our lives and untangles the unforeseen cultural and economic costs.

The Influencer Industry reveals how, in an increasingly fractured and profit-driven communications environment, the people we think of as “realâ€� are merely those who have learned to exploit the industry’s ever-shifting constructions of authenticity.]]> 232 Emily Hund 0691231028 Jay 0 to-read 3.58
author: Emily Hund
name: Jay
average rating: 3.58
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/02
shelves: to-read
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]]> 20404555 The final adventure in the New York Times bestselling Temeraire series that started with the beloved His Majesty’s Dragon which has won fans of Napoleonic-era military history, Anne McCaffrey’s Pern novels, and Patrick O’Brian’s seafaring adventures.

The deadly campaign in Russia has cost both Napoleon and those allied against him. Napoleon has been denied his victory
but at a terrible price. Lawrence and the dragon Temeraire pursue the fleeing French army back west, but are demoralized when Napoleon makes it back to Paris unscathed. Worse, they soon learn that the French have stolen Termeraire and Iskierka’s egg. Now, it is do or die, as our heroes not only need to save Temeraire’s offspring but also to stop Napoleon for good!]]> 380 Naomi Novik 0345522923 Jay 5 4.11 2016
author: Naomi Novik
name: Jay
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2023/02/13
date added: 2023/02/13
shelves:
review:

]]> 55077652 Catherynne M. Valente, the bestselling and award-winning creator of Space Opera and The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland returns with The Past is Red, the enchanting, dark, funny, angry story of a girl who made two terrible mistakes: she told the truth and she dared to love the world.

The future is blue. Endless blue...except for a few small places that float across the hot, drowned world left behind by long-gone fossil fuel-guzzlers. One of those patches is a magical place called Garbagetown.

Tetley Abednego is the most beloved girl in Garbagetown, but she's the only one who knows it. She's the only one who knows a lot of things: that Garbagetown is the most wonderful place in the world, that it's full of hope, that you can love someone and 66% hate them all at the same time.

But Earth is a terrible mess, hope is a fragile thing, and a lot of people are very angry with her. Then Tetley discovers a new friend, a terrible secret, and more to her world than she ever expected.]]> 151 Catherynne M. Valente 1250301130 Jay 0 to-read 4.09 2021
author: Catherynne M. Valente
name: Jay
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 40603587
But not everything monstrous-looking is evil and not everything fair is good... and in every fairy tale there is a grain of truth.

Librarian's Note: Alternate cover edition of ASIN B0010SIPT4]]> 400 Andrzej Sapkowski Jay 5 4.12 1993
author: Andrzej Sapkowski
name: Jay
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1993
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/23
date added: 2023/01/23
shelves:
review:
I'm so glad I decided to give these books a try. Definitely have more context for the show now
]]> 68310983 🎧Listening Length = 10 hrs and 2 mins

Tony, Grammy, and Emmy Award winner Cynthia Erivo narrates Tomi Adeyemi’s long-awaited conclusion to the #1 NYT Legacy of Orïsha series. Featuring gorgeous spray-painted and stenciled edges, dazzling metallic foil designs on the jacket and case, and an exclusive endpaper map that reveals new unexplored territories, Tomi Adeyemi’s #1 New York Times-bestselling Legacy of Orïsha series comes to an earth-shaking conclusion.

New allies rise.
The Blood Moon nears.
ZĂ©lie faces her final enemy.
The king who hunts her heart.

When Zelie seized the royal palace that fateful night, she thought her battles had come to an end. The monarchy had finally fallen. The maji had risen again. ZĂ©lie never expected to find herself locked in a cage and trapped on a foreign ship. Now warriors with iron skulls traffic her and her people across the seas, far from their homeland.

Then everything changes when ZĂ©lie meets King Baldyr, her true captor, the ruler of the Skulls, and the man who has ravaged entire civilizations to find her. Baldyr’s quest to harness ZĂ©lie’s strength sends ZĂ©lie, Amari, and Tzain searching for allies in unknown lands.

But as Baldyr closes in, catastrophe charges OrĂŻsha’s shores. It will take everything ZĂ©lie has to face her final enemy and save her people before the Skulls annihilate them for good.

The Complete Legacy of OrĂŻsha Series:

Children of Blood and Bone (Book 1)
Children of Virtue and Vengeance (Book 2)
Children of Anguish and Anarchy (Book 3)]]> 358 Tomi Adeyemi 1432872575 Jay 0 to-read 3.36 2024
author: Tomi Adeyemi
name: Jay
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 7815
From one of America's iconic writers, a stunning book of electric honesty and passion. Joan Didion explores an intensely personal yet universal experience: a portrait of a marriage–and a life, in good times and bad–that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband or wife or child.

Several days before Christmas 2003, John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion saw their only daughter, Quintana, fall ill with what seemed at first flu, then pneumonia, then complete septic shock. She was put into an induced coma and placed on life support. Days later–the night before New Year's Eve–the Dunnes were just sitting down to dinner after visiting the hospital when John Gregory Dunne suffered a massive and fatal coronary. In a second, this close, symbiotic partnership of forty years was over. Four weeks later, their daughter pulled through. Two months after that, arriving at LAX, she collapsed and underwent six hours of brain surgery at UCLA Medical Center to relieve a massive hematoma.

This powerful book is Didion's attempt to make sense of the "weeks and then months that cut loose any fixed idea I ever had about death, about illness . . . about marriage and children and memory . . . about the shallowness of sanity, about life itself."]]> 227 Joan Didion 1400078431 Jay 4 3.94 2005
author: Joan Didion
name: Jay
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/12
date added: 2023/01/12
shelves:
review:

]]> 58784475 In this exhilarating novel, two friends—often in love, but never lovers—come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.

On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn't heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won't protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.

Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.]]> 401 Gabrielle Zevin 0735243344 Jay 0 to-read 4.12 2022
author: Gabrielle Zevin
name: Jay
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 16156292
For to the west, another, wider conflagration looms. Napoleon has turned on his former ally, the emperor Alexander of Russia, and is even now leading the largest army the world has ever seen to add that country to his list of conquests. It is there, outside the gates of Moscow, that a reunited Laurence and Temeraire—along with some unexpected allies and old friends—will face their ultimate challenge...and learn whether or not there are stronger ties than memory.]]> 432 Naomi Novik 0345522893 Jay 5 3.96 2013
author: Naomi Novik
name: Jay
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/06
date added: 2023/01/06
shelves:
review:

]]> 51582376 The Secret Lives of Church Ladies explores the raw and tender places where Black women and girls dare to follow their desires and pursue a momentary reprieve from being good. The nine stories in this collection feature four generations of characters grappling with who they want to be in the world, caught as they are between the church’s double standards and their own needs and passions.

There is fourteen-year-old Jael, who has a crush on the preacher’s wife. At forty-two, Lyra realizes that her discomfort with her own body stands between her and a new love. As Y2K looms, Caroletta’s “same time next yearâ€� arrangement with her childhood best friend is tenuous. A serial mistress lays down the ground rules for her married lovers. In the dark shadows of a hospice parking lot, grieving strangers find comfort in each other.

With their secret longings, new love, and forbidden affairs, these church ladies are as seductive as they want to be, as vulnerable as they need to be, as unfaithful and unrepentant as they care to be, and as free as they deserve to be.]]> 217 Deesha Philyaw 1949199738 Jay 0 to-read 4.16 2020
author: Deesha Philyaw
name: Jay
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 29751398 The Power the world is a recognizable place: There's a rich Nigerian boy who lounges around the family pool; a foster kid whose religious parents hide their true nature; an ambitious American politician; and a tough London girl from a tricky family. But then a vital new force takes root and flourishes, causing their lives to converge with devastating effect. Teenage girls now have immense physical power: They can cause agonizing pain and even death. With this small twist of nature, the world drastically resets.]]> 341 Naomi Alderman 0670919985 Jay 5 3.75 2016
author: Naomi Alderman
name: Jay
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2022/12/26
date added: 2023/01/01
shelves:
review:
This book is an uncomfortable read at times, but Thad is largely the point. The incredible yet subtle worldbuilding Alderman crafts in this book is my favorite part.
]]> 36739372 172 Ty Matejowsky 0739139886 Jay 0 to-read 4.00
author: Ty Matejowsky
name: Jay
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/12/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60557831 Ìę
Waffle House has long been touted as an icon of the American South. The restaurant’s consistent foregrounding as a resonant symbol of regional character proves relevant for understanding much about the people, events, and foodways shaping the sociopolitical contours of today’s Bible Belt. Whether approached as a comedic punchline on the Internet, television, and other popular media or elevated as a genuine touchstone of messy American modernity, Waffle House, its employees, and everyday clientele do much to transcend such one-dimensional characterizations, earning distinction in ways that regularly go unsung.

Smothered and Waffle House and the Southern Imaginary is the first book to socioculturally assess the chain within the field of contemporary food studies. In this groundbreaking work, Ty Matejowsky argues that Waffle House’s often beleaguered public persona is informed by various complexities and contradictions. Critically unpacking the iconic eatery from a less reductive perspective offers readers a more realistic and nuanced portrait of Waffle House, shedding light on how it both reflects and influences a prevailing southern imaginary—an amorphous and sometimes conflicting collection of images, ideas, attitudes, practices, linguistic accents, histories, and fantasies that frames understandings about a vibrant if also paradoxical geographic region.

Matejowsky discusses Waffle House’s roots in established southern foodways and traces the chain’s development from a lunch-counter restaurant that emerged across the South. He also considers Waffle House’s place in American and southern popular culture, highlighting its myriad depictions in music, television, film, fiction, stand-up comedy, and sports. Altogether, Matejowsky deftly and persuasively demonstrates how Waffle House serves as a microcosm of today’s South with all the accolades and criticisms this distinction entails.
Ìę]]> 232 Ty Matejowsky 0817321446 Jay 0 to-read 3.05 2022
author: Ty Matejowsky
name: Jay
average rating: 3.05
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/12/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 34146688
This highly-anticipated debut boldly confronts addiction and courses the strenuous path of recovery, beginning in the wilds of the mind. Poems confront craving, control, the constant battle of alcoholism and sobriety, and the questioning of the self and its instincts within the context of this never-ending fight.

â€ÀáČÔ Calling a Wolf a Wolf, Kaveh Akbar exquisitely and tenaciously braids astonishment and atonement into a singular lyric voice. The desolation of alcoholism widens into hard-won insight: ‘the body is a mosque borrowed from Heaven.â€� Doubt and fear spiral into grace and beauty. Akbar’s mind, like his language, is perpetually in motion. His imagery—wounded and resplendent—is masterful and his syntax ensnares and releases music that’s both delicate and muscular. Kaveh Akbar has crafted one of the best debuts in recent memory. In his hands, awe and redemption hinge into unforgettable and gorgeous poems.â€� —Eduardo C. Corral]]> 100 Kaveh Akbar 1938584678 Jay 5 4.35 2017
author: Kaveh Akbar
name: Jay
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2022/12/12
date added: 2022/12/12
shelves:
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]]> 41150487
As President Claremont kicks off her reelection bid, Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret relationship with Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations. What is worth the sacrifice? How do you do all the good you can do? And, most importantly, how will history remember you?]]> 448 Casey McQuiston 1250316774 Jay 5
1st read: Unequivocally the cutest book I've read this year.]]> 4.06 2019
author: Casey McQuiston
name: Jay
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2022/12/10
date added: 2022/12/10
shelves:
review:
2nd read: Even better the second way through, because of where I'm in life. Because where our country is fighting to stay now.

1st read: Unequivocally the cutest book I've read this year.
]]> 51187948
On Winston Churchill's first day as prime minister, Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next twelve months, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons. It was up to Churchill to hold the country together and persuade President Franklin Roosevelt that Britain was a worthy ally-and willing to fight to the end.

In The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson shows, in cinematic detail, how Churchill taught the British people "the art of being fearless." It is a story of political brinkmanship, but it's also an intimate domestic drama set against the backdrop of Churchill's prime-ministerial country home, Chequers; his wartime retreat, Ditchley, where he and his entourage go when the moon is brightest and the bombing threat is highest; and of course 10 Downing Street in London.

Drawing on diaries, original archival documents, and once-secret intelligence reports-some released only recently-Larson provides a new lens on London's darkest year through the day-to-day experience of Churchill and his wife, Clementine; their youngest daughter, Mary, who chafes against her parents' wartime protectiveness; their son, Randolph, and his beautiful, unhappy wife, Pamela; Pamela's illicit lover, a dashing American emissary; and the cadre of close advisers who comprised Churchill's "Secret Circle," including his lovestruck private secretary, John Colville; newspaper baron Lord Beaverbrook; and the Rasputin-like Frederick Lindemann.

The Splendid and the Vile takes readers out of today's political dysfunction and back to a time of true leadership, when-in the face of unrelenting horror-Churchill's eloquence, courage, and perseverance bound a country, and a family, together."--]]> 546 Erik Larson 038534872X Jay 0 to-read 4.30 2020
author: Erik Larson
name: Jay
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/12/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 57693171
Despite their alluring public lives, behind closed doors things are far less rosy. Sure, Olga can orchestrate the love stories of the 1%, but she can't seem to find her own...until she meets Matteo, who forces her to confront the effects of long-held family secrets...

Twenty-seven years ago, their mother, Blanca, a Young Lord-turned-radical, abandoned her children to advance a militant political cause, leaving them to be raised by their grandmother. Now, with the winds of hurricane season, Blanca has come barreling back into their lives.

Set against the backdrop of New York City in the months surrounding the most devastating hurricane in Puerto Rico's history, Olga Dies Dreaming is a story that examines political corruption, familial strife and the very notion of the American dream--all while asking what it really means to weather a storm.]]> 369 XĂłchitl GonzĂĄlez 1250786177 Jay 0 to-read 3.95 2022
author: XĂłchitl GonzĂĄlez
name: Jay
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 43169851
In this holly jolly Audible Original, New York Times bestselling author and New Yorker columnist John Seabrook uncovers the mysteries of the holiday music machine, exploring how these hits were made and why they’ve dominated the soundwaves each and every winter. From the mid-century reign of songwriter Johnny Marks ("Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer") to the manufactured musical nostalgia of modern holiday hits like "All I Want for Christmas Is You," Seabrook, alongside a cast of singers, songwriters, and producers, reveals the untold stories behind the songs that have us rockinâ€� around the Christmas tree year after year.]]> John Seabrook Jay 4 3.56
author: John Seabrook
name: Jay
average rating: 3.56
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2022/11/23
date added: 2022/11/23
shelves:
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]]> 49744485
In January 2019, culture writer Anne Helen Petersen set the Internet on fire with her viral BuzzFeed essay diagnosing "millennial burnout"—a chronic state of stress and exhaustion that’s become a "base temperature" for young people today. Now, she continues this generation-defining conversation in a brand-new format, interviewing millennials around the country about their own deeply personal experiences with burnout and the culture that creates it. Listeners will hear about how this issue has affected Petersen’s own life as well as the lives of five very different subjects: Kevin, a musician and Marine veteran; Kate, a first-generation college graduate working to repay her formidable student debt; Haley and Evette, young writers at different career stages in the digital media industry; and John, a pastor and co-founder of a new Baptist church in North Carolina.

The conversations that comprise The Burnout Generation cover everything from debt to social media to the blurred boundaries between our professional and personal lives. In this illuminating and intimate audio project, listeners learn how and why this generation has been conditioned to "optimize" every aspect of our lives (Meal prep for the week! Find a side hustle! But practice self-care! And answer emails in bed!), and most importantly, how the consequences of this phenomenon play out in day-to-day life.

©2019 Anne Helen Petersen (P)2019 Audible Originals, LLC.]]> Anne Helen Petersen Jay 5 3.18 2019
author: Anne Helen Petersen
name: Jay
average rating: 3.18
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2022/11/22
date added: 2022/11/22
shelves:
review:

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

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

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

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

After an ominous visit to the opulent Lim mansion, Li Lan finds herself haunted not only by her ghostly would-be suitor, but also by her desire for the Lims' handsome new heir, Tian Bai. Night after night, she is drawn into the shadowy parallel world of the Chinese afterlife, with its ghost cities, paper funeral offerings, vengeful spirits, and monstrous bureaucracy—including the mysterious Er Lang, a charming but unpredictable guardian spirit. Li Lan must uncover the Lim family's darkest secrets—and the truth about her own family—before she is trapped in this ghostly world forever.]]> 368 Yangsze Choo 0062227327 Jay 3 3.79 2013
author: Yangsze Choo
name: Jay
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2022/11/21
date added: 2022/11/21
shelves:
review:
This was entertaining but it also sort of felt like grown up Spirited Away fix-it fic.
]]> 31373240
Niall and MĂłr escaped their homeland for a new start, and lost themselves in what they found.

Declan has grown up as the responsible son, the responsible brother--only to find there is no way for him to keep his family safe.

Ronan has always lived on the edge between dreams and waking... but now that edge is gone, and he is falling.

Matthew has been the happy child, the brightest beam. But rebellion beckons, because it all feels like an illusion now.

This world was not made for such a family--a family with the power to make a world and break it. If they cannot save each other or themselves, we are all doomed.]]> 336 Maggie Stiefvater 1338188410 Jay 5 4.28 2022
author: Maggie Stiefvater
name: Jay
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2022/11/02
date added: 2022/11/02
shelves:
review:
This one had me invested in the series again. It's a great ending.
]]> 31373233
Ronan Lynch isn't planning to wait and find out. Backed by his mentor, Bryde, he is ready to do what needs to be done to save the dreamers and the dreamed . . . even if it takes him far from his family and the boy he loves.

Jordan Hennessy knows she will not survive if the dreaming fails. So she plunges into a dark underworld in order to find an object that may sustain her.

Carmen Farooq-Lane is afraid of the dreamers -- which is why she's agreed to hunt them down. The closer she gets, though, the more complicated her feelings become. Will the dreamers destroy the world . . . or will the world be destroyed trying to eliminate the dreamers?

In the remarkable second book of The Dreamer Trilogy, Maggie Stiefvater pushes her characters to their limits -- and shows what happens when they start to break.]]> 340 Maggie Stiefvater 1338188364 Jay 5
Need the next book NOW]]> 4.13 2021
author: Maggie Stiefvater
name: Jay
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2022/10/26
date added: 2022/10/26
shelves:
review:
That ending is gonna give me an ulcer but I loved it

Need the next book NOW
]]> 55858638 New York Times bestselling trilogy that began with A Deadly Education and The Last Graduate.

The one thing you never talk about while you're in the Scholomance is what you'll do when you get out. Not even the richest enclaver would tempt fate that way. But it's all we dream about, the hideously slim chance we'll survive to make it out the gates and improbably find ourselves with a life ahead of us, a life outside the Scholomance halls.

And now the impossible dream has come true. I'm out, we're all out--and I didn't even have to turn into a monstrous dark witch to make it happen. So much for my great-grandmother's prophecy of doom and destruction. I didn't kill enclavers, I saved them. Me, and Orion, and our allies. Our graduation plan worked to perfection: we saved everyone and made the world safe for all wizards and brought peace and harmony to all the enclaves of the world.

Ha, only joking! Actually it's gone all wrong. Someone else has picked up the project of destroying enclaves in my stead, and probably everyone we saved is about to get killed in the brewing enclave war on the horizon. And the first thing I've got to do now, having miraculously got out of the Scholomance, is turn straight around and find a way back in.]]> 407 Naomi Novik 0593158369 Jay 5 4.08 2022
author: Naomi Novik
name: Jay
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2022/10/10
date added: 2022/10/10
shelves:
review:
An excellent end to an excellent series. These books are unlike any I've ever read and yet satisfy things I wish so many other series had done.
]]> 8855321
Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, the Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for—and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why.

Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to the Scopuli and rebel sympathizer Holden, he realizes that this girl may be the key to everything.

Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries, and secretive corporations—and the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe.]]> 592 James S.A. Corey 1841499889 Jay 0 to-read 4.30 2011
author: James S.A. Corey
name: Jay
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/10/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>