Vivienne's bookshelf: all en-US Sun, 13 Apr 2025 06:21:30 -0700 60 Vivienne's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[A Crack in the Rock (The Edge of the Sword, #1)]]> 54405520 A determined young woman carves a place for herself in her country's history and in the heart of its future king, but risks breaking her own.

Born the daughter of goatherds in the Granite Mountains of Berush, Sashia longs for greater challenge and adventure. Her active mind constantly gets her into trouble. Unable to stand by while others suffer, Sashia intervenes, often with unintended results. When an itinerant healer and his wife discover Sashia and offer her an apprenticeship, she jumps at the chance to sate her curiosity of the natural world and change her future.

Heir to the throne of Berush, Cyrus is strong, decisive, and a born leader. He longs for a wife who will share his vision for the country—a wife of his choosing, not his father's. Sashia catches his eye, but even a handsome prince finds capturing her heart a challenge.

Life is uncertain, and Sashia soon finds she cannot control every outcome. Used to relying on logic and her own resourcefulness, no amount of training can prepare her for the choices that lie ahead. She struggles to shape her destiny in a patriarchal society where polygamy is legal and women are subject to their fathers or a spouse.

As Berush is threatened by enemies from without and within, Sashia's creativity, stubbornness, and tenacity place her in a perfect position to both save lives and affect the course of the entire country. The consequences of her decisions will reverberate for generations. Slight of frame, but fierce in heart, Sashia will need every ounce of strength she possesses to live her dreams and win a future of love and happiness.]]> 380 Amber Gabriel Vivienne 0 currently-reading 4.60 A Crack in the Rock (The Edge of the Sword, #1)
author: Amber Gabriel
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.60
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date added: 2025/04/13
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]]> Black Hellebore 24924372 School is pure torture for 17-year old Lia, as she is a victim of incessant mobbing.As the daily attacks on her become increasingly more cruel and violent, she seeks relief in the more notorious nightclubs in town... Here she can be someone entirely different: someone strong and free.At "Exit", she runs into Orlando, a vampire. At first, she is nothing but another plaything for this creature of the night, but everything changes as he finds he cannot drink her blood. To him, she is as poisonous as the sap of the black hellebore.
]]> 439 Maya Shepherd 1633394697 Vivienne 0 0.0 2012 Black Hellebore
author: Maya Shepherd
name: Vivienne
average rating: 0.0
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at: 2025/04/12
date added: 2025/04/12
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]]> Jip: His Story 880225 192 Katherine Paterson 014240411X Vivienne 0 to-read 3.74 1996 Jip: His Story
author: Katherine Paterson
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1996
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/10
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]]> Azarinth Healer 45728081 A story I've started writing now quite a while ago. Transported to another world, pretty standard fantasy setting with my amateur attempt to make it a bit dark but funny. There are Litrpg elements here but I do hope it's not too heavy and annoying. The fights should be interesting and aren't just numbers vs numbers. Contrary to the title the protagonist will be quite an offensive fighter.
Ilea Spears is your average sarcastic kick-boxing fast food worker and soon to be student. She will be transported to another world rather conventionally and will be confronted with survival in the wild. There's magic, monsters and some numbers.
Give it a shot and let me know what you think. I'm a beginner at writing and my experience is incredibly lacking. If you find yourself hating it early on, do convey your anger in a detailed comment or review :) I want to get better but without any feedback it's simply quite difficult.
Thank you for reading.
Quick update June 2019: Many complaints regarding the formatting, specifically spacing in conversations and of course the usage of the present tense in the first 36 chapters have been addressed. I'm of course learning by the day but compared to how it was before it should be an improvement at least.
Chapters usually 2.5 - 3k words
Cover art by Kevin Catalan]]> 7000 Rhaegar Vivienne 0 to-read 4.34 2022 Azarinth Healer
author: Rhaegar
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/06
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]]> Ravished 367689
There was no doubt about it. What Miss Harriet Pomeroy needed was a man. Someone powerful and clever who could help her rout the unscrupulous thieves who were using her beloved caves to hide their loot. But when Harriet summoned Gideon Westbrook, Viscount St. Justin, to her aid, she could not know that she was summoning the devil himself. . . .

Dubbed the Beast of Blackthorne Hall for his scarred face and lecherous past, Gideon was strong and fierce and notoriously menacing. Yet Harriet could not find it in her heart to fear him. For in his tawny gaze she sensed a savage pain she longed to soothe . . . and a searing passion she yearned to answer. Now, caught up in the Beast’s clutches, Harriet must find a way to win his heart–and evade the deadly trap of a scheming villain who would see them parted for all time.

RAVISHED is a retelling of the classic tale, Beauty and the Beast.]]> 385 Amanda Quick 0553588699 Vivienne 0 3.99 1992 Ravished
author: Amanda Quick
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1992
rating: 0
read at: 2025/04/06
date added: 2025/04/06
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]]> The Academy 216626479 When high school dropout Ashur Yonan receives an unexpected invitation to join a shadowy organization known as the Academy, he is plunged into an ancient conspiracy that threatens the entire world.

Ashur Yonan is going nowhere an eighteen-year-old college dropout living with a mom who doesn’t understand him, mourning the death of his father five years earlier and working a dead-end food service job. The only good thing he has going for him is his girlfriend Kiki, but she’s leaving soon for college on the East Coast. It’s getting harder for Ashur to believe he still has the potential to make something great out of his life.

But after meeting with a mysterious stranger at his father’s gravesite, strange things begin to happen. A representative from a shadowy organization known as the Academy comes to Ashur with an offer to join their latest recruiting class. Wary, but out of options, Ashur accepts—and enters a world of incredible new technology, cutthroat competition, and secrets that slowly begin to reveal themselves as he navigates his place at the Academy.

As Ashur pushes to learn more about the Academy, he also begins to uncover secrets about his own past, including a family history that traces back to the fall of the Shah during the Iranian Revolution, and a host of strange circumstances surrounding his father’s death. Will he be able to learn the truth in time to save himself…and the world?]]> 384 Patrick Bet-David Vivienne 3 3.75 The Academy
author: Patrick Bet-David
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.75
book published:
rating: 3
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]]> <![CDATA[Identity Unknown (Kay Scarpetta, #28)]]> 204593543
And this victim is sending Scarpetta a message�

Summoned to an unnerving, abandoned theme park to retrieve a body, Dr Kay Scarpetta is devastated to learn that the victim is a man she once loved. While teaching in Rome during the early days of her career, Scarpetta had an intense love affair with Sal Giordano that led to a lifelong friendship.

The murder scene is bizarre, with a crop circle of petals around the body, and Giordano’s skin is strangely red. Scarpetta’s niece Lucy believes he was dropped from an unidentified flying craft. Scarpetta knows an autopsy can reveal the dead’s secrets, but she is shocked to find her friend seems to have deliberately left her a clue.

As the investigators are torn between suspicions of otherworldly forces, and of Giordano himself, Scarpetta detects an explanation closer to home that, in her mind, is far more evil . . .]]> 400 Patricia Cornwell 1538770385 Vivienne 0 3.81 2024 Identity Unknown (Kay Scarpetta, #28)
author: Patricia Cornwell
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Peculiar Treasures (Katie Weldon, #1)]]> 1434318
Katie Weldon catches more than just the bouquet at the wedding of her best friend, Christy Miller. She also snags a job offer that launches her into an adventure she never imagined.

Katie eagerly accepts the job as resident assistant at Rancho Corona University, only to find herself in a community of conflict. She thought this was where God wanted her, but how can God use her—and love her—when everything is falling apart? Especially when it comes to her boyfriend, Rick.

Katie turns to the women in her life for solace, including Christy. In the safety of their love and encouragement she finally allows herself to spill her heart about her relationship with Rick. But even their advice can’t postpone the decision Katie must face, a decision that will define who she is and the woman she’s becoming.

Peculiar Treasures is the first book in the Katie Weldon Series.]]> 301 Robin Jones Gunn 031027656X Vivienne 0 to-read 4.35 2008 Peculiar Treasures (Katie Weldon, #1)
author: Robin Jones Gunn
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/01
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]]> Forever, Interrupted 16130531 Have you ever heard of supernovas? They shine brighter than anything else in the sky and then fade out really quickly, a short burst of extraordinary energy. I like to think you and Ben were like that . . . in that short time, you had more passion than some people have in a lifetime.

Elsie Porter is an average twentysomething and yet what happens to her is anything but ordinary. On a rainy New Year's Day, she heads out to pick up a pizza for one. She isn't expecting to see anyone else in the shop, much less the adorable and charming Ben Ross. Their chemistry is instant and electric. Ben cannot even wait twenty-four hours before asking to see her again. Within weeks, the two are head over heels in love. By May, they've eloped.

Only nine days later, Ben is out riding his bike when he is hit by a truck and killed on impact. Elsie hears the sirens outside her apartment, but by the time she gets downstairs, he has already been whisked off to the emergency room. At the hospital, she must face Susan, the mother-in-law she has never met and who doesn't even know Elsie exists.

Interweaving Elsie and Ben's charmed romance with Elsie and Susan's healing process, Forever, Interrupted will remind you that there's more than one way to find a happy ending.]]> 352 Taylor Jenkins Reid Vivienne 0 to-read 3.63 2013 Forever, Interrupted
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/31
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]]> <![CDATA[Who Moved My Soap?: The CEO's Guide to Surviving Prison: The Bernie Madoff Edition]]> 403495
While many books are offered for the CEO who aims to survive the cutthroat competition of the corporate jungle, not a single one offers to help those same CEOs when the law catches up with them. That is, until now.

This book offers valuable advice for those executives who have cooked the books, and now find themselves paying the price. Borowitz covers all aspects of prison life, from exit strategies (prison-break tips) to ways of keeping the business acumen sharp (how to make the Warden your most valuable employee) to prison cell feng shui and even self-defense (how to use this book as a deadly weapon). Convicted corporate executives should look at this time spent in prison as an opportunity, rather than a disadvantage. New business contacts can be established, new management strategies tested-time can even be spent working on the golf game so it says sharp for ten, twenty, however many years.
Direct from Bernie Madoff's cellmate, Who Moved My Soap? The CEO's Guide to Surviving in Prison is loaded with helpful tips,
Don't forget, Who Moved My Soap? will be both small enough to fit in the pocket of your prison uniform, but also thick enough to hollow out and hide cigarettes in!

Who Moved My Soap? is a must read for any white collar criminal. CEOs headed to the Big House will now have something to read to help them pass the time. It's also a must read for those of us who were fleeced by them.]]> 96 Andy Borowitz 0743251423 Vivienne 0 to-read 3.12 2003 Who Moved My Soap?: The CEO's Guide to Surviving Prison: The Bernie Madoff Edition
author: Andy Borowitz
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.12
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/31
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]]> <![CDATA[Attack from Within: How Disinformation Is Sabotaging America]]> 150065063
MSNBC's legal expert breaks down the ways disinformation has become a tool to drive voters to extremes, disempower our legal structures, and consolidate power in the hands of the few.

"One of the most acute observers of our time shares . . . a compelling work about a challenge that—left unexamined and left unchecked—could undermine our democracy." —Eric H. Holder Jr, 82nd Attorney General of the United States

American society is more polarized than ever before. We are strategically being pushed apart by disinformation—the deliberate spreading of lies disguised as truth—and it comes at us from all opportunists on the far right, Russian misinformed social media influencers, among others. It's endangering our democracy and causing havoc in our electoral system, schools, hospitals, workplaces, and in our Capitol. Advances in technology including rapid developments in artificial intelligence threaten to make the problems even worse by amplifying false claims and manufacturing credibility.

In Attack from Within , legal scholar and analyst Barbara McQuade, shows us how to identify the ways disinformation is seeping into all facets of our society and how we can fight against it. The book


Disinformation is designed to evoke a strong emotional response to push us toward more extreme views, unable to find common ground with others. The false claims that led to the breathtaking attack on our Capitol in 2020 may have been only a dress rehearsal. Attack from Within shows us how to prevent it from happening again, thus preserving our country’s hard-won democracy.]]> 384 Barbara McQuade 164421363X Vivienne 0 to-read 4.11 2024 Attack from Within: How Disinformation Is Sabotaging America
author: Barbara McQuade
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2024
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]]> Aisha (R.A.): Beyond Six 228742864 107 Abu Rafaan Vivienne 0 to-read 4.20 Aisha (R.A.): Beyond Six
author: Abu Rafaan
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.20
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]]> <![CDATA[The Strange Proposal (Wainwright Duology, #2)]]> 574048
Now many forces threaten to pull Mary Elizabeth and John apart: distance, social standing, finances, a lost lava letter, belief in God, and a wealthy man who is determined that nothing--and no one--will stop him from claiming Mary Elizabeth as his own . . .]]> 320 Grace Livingston Hill 0842359443 Vivienne 0 to-read 4.07 1935 The Strange Proposal (Wainwright Duology, #2)
author: Grace Livingston Hill
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1935
rating: 0
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]]> Love Marriage 2524055 In this globe-scattered Sri Lankan family, we speak of only two kinds of marriage. The first is the arranged marriage. The second is the love marriage. In reality, there is a whole spectrum in between, but most of us spend years running away from the first toward the second.

The daughter of Sri Lankan immigrants who left their collapsing country and married in America, Yalini finds herself caught between the traditions of her ancestors and the lure of her own modern world. But when she is summoned to Toronto to help care for her dying uncle, Kumaran, a former member of the militant Tamil Tigers, Yalini is forced to see that violence is not a relic of the Sri Lankan past, but very much a part of her Western present.

While Kumaran’s loved ones gather around him to say goodbye, Yalini traces her family’s roots—and the conflicts facing them as ethnic Tamils—through a series of marriages. Now, as Kumaran’s death and his daughter’s politically motivated nuptials edge closer, Yalini must decide where she stands.

Lyrical and innovative, V. V. Ganeshananthan’s novel brilliantly unfolds how generations of struggle both form and fractures families.]]> 302 V.V. Ganeshananthan 1400066697 Vivienne 0 to-read 3.52 2008 Love Marriage
author: V.V. Ganeshananthan
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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]]> Brotherless Night 60324341 In this searing novel, a courageous young woman tries to protect her dream of becoming a doctor as civil war devastates Sri Lanka.

Jaffna, 1981. Sixteen-year-old Sashi wants to become a doctor. But over the next decade, a vicious civil war tears through her home, and her dream spins off course as she sees her four beloved brothers and their friend K swept up in the mounting violence. Desperate to act, Sashi accepts K's invitation to work as a medic at the field hospital for the militant Tamil Tigers, who, following years of state discrimination and violence, are fighting for a separate homeland for Sri Lanka's Tamil minority. But after the Tigers murder one of her teachers and Indian peacekeepers arrive only to commit further atrocities, Sashi begins to question where she stands. When one of her medical school professors, a Tamil feminist and dissident, invites her to join a secret project documenting human rights violations, she embarks on a dangerous path that will change her forever.

Set during the early years of Sri Lanka's three-decade civil war, Brotherless Night is a heartrending portrait of one woman's moral journey and a testament to both the enduring impact of war and the bonds of home.]]> 348 V.V. Ganeshananthan 0812997158 Vivienne 0 to-read 4.45 2023 Brotherless Night
author: V.V. Ganeshananthan
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father's Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success]]> 208930976 From the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters behind the 2018 bombshell New York Times exposé of then-President Trump’s finances, an explosive investigation into the history of Donald Trump’s wealth, revealing how one of the country’s biggest business failures lied his way into the White House

Soon after announcing his first campaign for the U.S. presidency, Donald J. Trump told a national television audience that life “has not been easy for me. It has not been easy for me.� Building on a narrative he had been telling for decades, he spun a hardscrabble fable of how he parlayed a small loan from his father into a multi-billion-dollar business and real estate empire. This feat, he argued, made him singularly qualified to lead the country—except none of it was true. Born to a rich father who made him the beneficiary of his own highly lucrative investments, Trump received the equivalent of more than $500 million today via means that required no business expertise.

For decades he squandered his fortunes on money-losing businesses only to be saved yet again by financial serendipity. He tacked his name on every building while taking out huge loans he’d never repay. He obsessed over appearances while ignoring threats to the bottom line and mounting costly lawsuits against city officials. He tarnished the value of his name by allowing anyone with a big enough check to use it, and he cheated the television producer who not only rescued him from bankruptcy but also cast him as a business savant—the public image that carried Trump to the White House.

Drawing on more than twenty years� worth of Trump’s confidential tax information—including the tax returns Trump tried to conceal—alongside business records and interviews with Trump insiders, New York Times investigative reporters Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig track Trump's financial rise and fall—and rise and fall again.]]> 528 Russ Buettner 0593298640 Vivienne 0 to-read 4.39 2024 Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father's Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success
author: Russ Buettner
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/25
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]]> <![CDATA[All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way]]> 213940624 With revealing, never-before-told stories, Fred C. Trump III, nephew of President Donald Trump, breaks his decades-long silence in this honest memoir and sheds new light on the family name.

For the record, Fred Trump never asked for any of this. The divisive politics. The endless headlines. A hijacked last name. The heat-seeking uncle, rising from real-estate scion to gossip-column fixture to The Apprentice host to President of the United States. Fred just wanted a happy life and a satisfying career—but a fight for his son’s health and safety forced him onto center stage, and now, at a crucial point in American history, he is stepping forward again.

In All in the Family, Donald Trump's nephew delves into his journey to become a “different kind of Trump,� detailing his passionate battle to protect his wife and children from forces inside and outside the family. From the Trump house to the White House, Fred comes to terms with his own complex legacy and faces some demons head-on. It’s a story of power, love, money, cruelty, and the unshakable bonds of family, played out in a glaring media spotlight.]]> 351 Fred C. Trump Vivienne 0 to-read 3.68 All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way
author: Fred C. Trump
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.68
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]]> <![CDATA[Who Could Ever Love You: A Family Memoir]]> 208840797 New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestseller!
A New York Times Nonfiction Book to Read this Fall
A People magazine Best Book of September
The Week Five Riveting Books to Take You Through September

Mary Trump grew up in a family divided by its patriarch’s relentless drive for money and power. The daughter of Freddy Trump, son of wealthy real-estate developer Fred Trump, and Linda Clapp, a flight attendant from a working-class family, Mary lived in the shadow of Freddy’s humiliation at the hands of his father.

Fred Trump embodied the ethos of the zero-sum game, and among his five children there could only be one winner. That was supposed to be Freddy, his namesake, but Fred found him wanting—too sensitive, too kind, too interested in pursuits beyond the realm of the real-estate empire he was meant to inherit. In Donald, Fred found a kindred spirit, a “killer,� who would stop at nothing to get his way. Even after Freddy’s short-lived career as a professional pilot for TWA came to an end, he never stopped trying to gain his father’s approval.

In Who Could Ever Love You, Mary Trump brings readers inside the twisted family whose patriarch ignored, froze out, and eventually destroyed his own. Freddy Trump’s descent into alcoholism and illness, along with Linda’s suffering after their divorce, left Mary dangerously vulnerable as a young girl. Inadequately and only conditionally loved, there were no adults in her life except for the father she loved but lost before she could know him; and a mother abandoned by her ex-husband’s rich and powerful family who demanded her loyalty but left her with nothing.

With searching insight, poignant detail, and unsparing prose, Mary Trump reveals the cold, selfish cruelty that has come to define the Trump family thanks in large part to her uncle, whose malignant ambition has riven America and threatens the world.]]> 288 Mary L. Trump 1250278473 Vivienne 0 to-read 3.72 2024 Who Could Ever Love You: A Family Memoir
author: Mary L. Trump
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Torture: Does It Make Us Safer? Is It Ever Ok?: A Human Rights Perspective]]> 256496 218 Kenneth Roth 1595580573 Vivienne 0 to-read 3.80 2005 Torture: Does It Make Us Safer? Is It Ever Ok?: A Human Rights Perspective
author: Kenneth Roth
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/23
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]]> <![CDATA[Righting Wrongs: Three Decades on the Front Lines Battling Abusive Governments]]> 208894900 From the long-time head of Human Rights Watch, the fascinating and inspiring story of taking on the biggest villains and toughest autocrats around the world.In three decades under the leadership of Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch grew to a staff of more than 500, conducting investigations in 100 countries to uncover abuses—and pressuring offending governments to stop them. Roth has grappled with the worst of humanity, taken on the biggest villains of our time, and persuaded leaders from around the globe to stand up to their repressive counterparts.The son of a Jew who fled Nazi Germany just before the war began, Roth grew up knowing full well how inhumane governments could be. He has traveled the world to meet cruelty and injustice on its home he arrived in Rwanda shortly after the Genocide; scrutinized the impact of Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait; investigated and condemned Israel’s mistreatment of Palestinians. He directed efforts to curtail the Chinese government’s persecution of Uyghur Muslims, to bring Myanmar’s officials to justice after the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims, to halt Russian war crimes in Ukraine, even to reign in the U.S. government. Roth’s many innovations and strategies included the deployment of a concept as old as mankind—the powerful tool of “shaming”—and here he illustrates its surprising effectiveness against evildoers.This is a story of wins, losses, and ongoing battles in the ceaseless fight to rend the moral arc from the hands of injustice and bend it toward good.]]> 448 Kenneth Roth 0593801326 Vivienne 0 to-read 4.22 Righting Wrongs: Three Decades on the Front Lines Battling Abusive Governments
author: Kenneth Roth
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.22
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]]> The Covenant of Water 180357146 From the New York Times-bestselling author of Cutting for Stone comes a stunning and magisterial epic of love, faith, and medicine, set in Kerala, South India, following three generations of a family seeking the answers to a strange secret

Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala's Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time. From this unforgettable new beginning, the young girl—and future matriarch, Big Ammachi—will witness unthinkable changes over the span of her extraordinary life, full of joy and triumph as well as hardship and loss, her faith and love the only constants.

A shimmering evocation of a bygone India and of the passage of time itself, The Covenant of Water is a hymn to progress in medicine and to human understanding, and a humbling testament to the hardships undergone by past generations for the sake of those alive today. Imbued with humor, deep emotion, and the essence of life, it is one of the most masterful literary novels published in recent years.]]> 715 Abraham Verghese 0802162177 Vivienne 0 to-read 4.34 2023 The Covenant of Water
author: Abraham Verghese
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[A Biography of the Prophet of Islam (2 Vols)]]> 50661094 936 Mahdi Rizqullah Ahmad 9690919199 Vivienne 0 to-read 4.50 A Biography of the Prophet of Islam (2 Vols)
author: Mahdi Rizqullah Ahmad
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.50
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]]> <![CDATA[A Biography of The Prophet of Islam , In the Light of the Original Sources An Analytical Study (Volume 2)]]> 2323054 936 Mahdi Rizqullah Ahmad 9960969037 Vivienne 0 to-read 4.26 1992 A Biography of The Prophet of Islam , In the Light of the Original Sources An Analytical Study (Volume 2)
author: Mahdi Rizqullah Ahmad
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1992
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/23
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]]> <![CDATA[Call the Midwife: A True Story of the East End in the 1950s]]> 1197423 340 Jennifer Worth 0297853147 Vivienne 0 to-read 4.24 2002 Call the Midwife: A True Story of the East End in the 1950s
author: Jennifer Worth
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2002
rating: 0
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]]> A Baghdad Cookery Book 1155068 127 Muhammad b.al-Husan 1903018420 Vivienne 0 to-read 4.12 2005 A Baghdad Cookery Book
author: Muhammad b.al-Husan
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/12
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]]> <![CDATA[The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, #1)]]> 7061 235 Alexander McCall Smith 1400034779 Vivienne 0 to-read 3.81 1998 The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, #1)
author: Alexander McCall Smith
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1998
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/12
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]]> <![CDATA[One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This]]> 213870084 From award-winning novelist and journalist Omar El Akkad comes a powerful reckoning with what it means to live in the heart of an Empire which doesn’t consider you fully human.

On Oct 25th, after just three weeks of the bombardment of Gaza, Omar El Akkad put out a tweet: “One day, when it’s safe, when there’s no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it’s too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.� This tweet was viewed over 10 million times.

One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This chronicles the deep fracture which has occurred for Black, brown, indigenous Americans, as well as the upcoming generation, many of whom had clung to a thread of faith in western ideals, in the idea that their countries, or the countries of their adoption, actually attempted to live up to the values they espouse.

This book is a reckoning with what it means to live in the west, and what it means to live in a world run by a small group of countries—America, the UK, France and Germany.� It will be The Fire Next Time for a generation that understands we’re undergoing a shift in the so-called ‘rules-based order,� a generation that understands the west can no longer be trusted to police and guide the world, or its own cities and campuses. It draws on intimate details of Omar’s own story as an emigrant who grew up believing in the western project, who was catapulted into journalism by the rupture of 9/11.

This book is his heartsick breakup letter with the west. It is a breakup we are watching all over the U.S., on college campuses, on city streets, and the consequences of this rupture will be felt by all of us. His book is for all the people who want something better than what the west has served up. This is the book for our time.]]> 208 Omar El Akkad 0593804147 Vivienne 0 to-read 4.68 2025 One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
author: Omar El Akkad
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.68
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/07
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]]> The Secret Pearl 124830
To the woman known simply as Fleur, the well-dressed gentleman with the mesmerizing eyes is an unlikely savior. And when she takes the stranger to her bed, she never expects to see him again. But then Fleur accepts a position as governess to a young girl…and is stunned to discover that her midnight lover is a powerful nobleman. As two wary hearts ignite—and the threat of scandal hovers over them—one question remains: will she be mistress or wife?]]> 401 Mary Balogh 0440242975 Vivienne 0 3.88 1991 The Secret Pearl
author: Mary Balogh
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1991
rating: 0
read at: 2025/03/01
date added: 2025/03/01
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]]> <![CDATA[The World After Gaza: A Short History]]> 217453544 From one of our foremost public intellectuals, an essential reckoning with the war in Gaza that reframes our understanding of the ongoing conflict, its historical roots, and the fractured global response

The postwar global order was in many ways shaped in response to the Holocaust. That eventbecame the benchmark for atrocity, and, in the Western imagination, the paradigmatic genocide. Its memory orients so much of our thinking, and crucially, forms the basic justification for Israel’s right first to establish itself and then to defend itself. But in many parts of the world, ravaged by other conflicts and experiences of mass slaughter, the Holocaust’s singularity is not always taken for granted, even when its hideous atrocity is. Outside of the West, Pankaj Mishra argues, the dominant story of the twentieth century is that of decolonization.

The World After Gaza takes the current war, and the polarized reaction to it, as the starting point for a broad reevaluation of two competing narratives of the last the Global North’s triumphant account of victory over totalitarianism and the spread of liberal capitalism, and the Global South’s hopeful vision of racial equality and freedom from colonial rule. At a moment when the world’s balance of power is shifting, and the Global North no longer commands ultimate authority, it is critically important that we understand how and why the two halves of the world are failing to talk to each other.

As old touchstones and landmarks crumble, only a new history with a sharply different emphasis can reorient us to the world and worldviews now emerging into the light. In this concise, powerful, and pointed treatise, Mishra reckons with the fundamental questions posed by our present crisis � about whether some lives matter more than others, how identity is constructed, and what the role of the nation-state ought to be. The World After Gaza is an indispensable moral guide to our past, present, and future.]]> 300 Pankaj Mishra Vivienne 0 to-read 4.02 2025 The World After Gaza: A Short History
author: Pankaj Mishra
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/21
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]]> <![CDATA[Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance]]> 27213329
Why do some people succeed and others fail? Sharing new insights from her landmark research on grit, Angela Duckworth explains why talent is hardly a guarantor of success. Rather, other factors can be even more crucial such as identifying our passions and following through on our commitments.

Drawing on her own powerful story as the daughter of a scientist who frequently bemoaned her lack of smarts, Duckworth describes her winding path through teaching, business consulting, and neuroscience, which led to the hypothesis that what really drives success is not genius, but a special blend of passion and long-term perseverance. As a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Duckworth created her own character lab and set out to test her theory.

Here, she takes readers into the field to visit teachers working in some of the toughest schools, cadets struggling through their first days at West Point, and young finalists in the National Spelling Bee. She also mines fascinating insights from history and shows what can be gleaned from modern experiments in peak performance. Finally, she shares what she's learned from interviewing dozens of high achievers; from JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon to the cartoon editor of The New Yorker to Seattle Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll.

Winningly personal, insightful, and even life-changing, Grit is a book about what goes through your head when you fall down, and how that not talent or luck makes all the difference.]]> 277 Angela Duckworth 1443442313 Vivienne 0 to-read 4.07 2016 Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
author: Angela Duckworth
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/15
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]]> <![CDATA[The Snow Queen (With Original Illustrations)]]> 21039182 100 Hans Christian Andersen 0615934013 Vivienne 0 to-read 3.83 1844 The Snow Queen (With Original Illustrations)
author: Hans Christian Andersen
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1844
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/09
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]]> <![CDATA[The Fifteen: Murder, Retribution, and the Forgotten Story of Nazi POWs in America]]> 214986259 The revelatory true story of the long-forgotten POW camps for German soldiers erected in hundreds of small U.S. towns during World War II, and the secret Nazi killings that ensnared fifteen brave American POWs in a high-stakes showdown.

After the U.S. entered World War II, the American government placed nearly 400,000 German prisoners of war into hundreds of hastily built camps in the United States. Today, traces of those camps—which once dotted the landscape from Maine to California—have all but vanished.

All but forgotten, too, is the grisly series of killings that took place at those camps—Nazi power games playing out in America’s backyard.

Protected by the Geneva Convention, German POWs in the U.S. were well-fed and housed, with most even working jobs, including on American farms. Some were impressed by America’s vast land and bounty—a few would even marry farmers� daughters. Ardent Nazis in the camps, however, took a dim view of fellow Germans who befriended their captors.

Soon, the killings began. In camp after camp, Nazis attacked fellow German prisoners. Fifteen were sentenced to death for murder by secret U.S. military tribunals. In response, German authorities condemned fifteen American POWs to the same fate. Nazi Germany proposed an audacious fifteen German lives for fifteen American lives.

Drawing on extensive research, journalist and historian William Geroux shines a spotlight on the surprising saga of German POWs in America, a forgotten story of murder and high-stakes diplomacy, and the fifteen American lives that hung in the balance, including a fearless P-51 Mustang fighter pilot, two American intelligence agents, and a hot-tempered lieutenant colonel nicknamed “King Kong.�

Propulsive and vividly rendered, The Fifteen reminds us that what happens to soldiers after they exit the battlefield can be just as harrowing as what they experience on it.]]> 400 William Geroux 0593594258 Vivienne 0 to-read 3.97 2025 The Fifteen: Murder, Retribution, and the Forgotten Story of Nazi POWs in America
author: William Geroux
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.97
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]]> <![CDATA[The Young Unicorns (Austin Family Chronicles, #3)]]> 219408 " You called me?"


They swung around...]]> 288 Madeleine L'Engle 0440999197 Vivienne 3 I vaguely remembered this story and had to resort to Reddit to discover the book’s title:

70s or 80s novel: teenagers discover a 'genie' who uses a 'wand' to stimulate teenagers' brains to give them a drug like 'high'. The teenagers and other characters later discover that the 'genie' is an ordinary man dressed up like a genie. There is no magic wand; it's actually a laser instrument that stimulates the teenagers' brains and gets them addicted so they keep coming back for more and try to bring their friends.]]> 3.78 1968 The Young Unicorns (Austin Family Chronicles, #3)
author: Madeleine L'Engle
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1968
rating: 3
read at: 1982/11/30
date added: 2025/01/29
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What an unusual title for a book that doesn’t seem to have much in common with the actual story. I guess it’s my misfortune that this is the only book by this author that I have read.
I vaguely remembered this story and had to resort to Reddit to discover the book’s title:

70s or 80s novel: teenagers discover a 'genie' who uses a 'wand' to stimulate teenagers' brains to give them a drug like 'high'. The teenagers and other characters later discover that the 'genie' is an ordinary man dressed up like a genie. There is no magic wand; it's actually a laser instrument that stimulates the teenagers' brains and gets them addicted so they keep coming back for more and try to bring their friends.
]]> <![CDATA[Call of the Herald (The Dawning of Power, #1)]]> 9457372
"...kind of like a cross between The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter...I honestly could not stop reading this book. I completed it in two days, it was that good." Cheryl's Book Nook - March 2009 review of The Dawning of Power trilogy

"...a bit like Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Terry Brooks' Shannara series, and Paolini's Eragon saga rolled into one." Melissa's Bookshelf April, 2009 review of The Dawning of Power trilogy

"I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I would recommend this book for all ages."
Linda Weaver Clarke, author of the new mystery series "The Adventures of John and Julia Evans."


Product Description

Book One of The Dawning of Power trilogy. Echoes of the ancients' power are distant memories, tattered and faded by the passage of eons, but that is about to change. A new dawn has arrived. Latent abilities, harbored in mankind's deepest fibers, wait to be unleashed. Ancient evils awaken, and old fears ignite the fires of war.]]> 243 Brian Rathbone Vivienne 0 to-read 3.65 2008 Call of the Herald (The Dawning of Power, #1)
author: Brian Rathbone
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/24
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]]> <![CDATA[The Forbidden (The Ancestors Saga, #1)]]> 57367264 The unforgettable story of one woman’s perilous journey to save, The Forbidden.

Rebaa’s adopted tribe lies slaughtered behind her. Rebaa’s lover, Juran, lays down his life for hers and now she must use all of her cunning and extraordinary powers to survive the inhospitable wilderness alone, ensuring that Juran’s sacrifice was not in vain.

But Rebaa’s battle for survival has only just begun ...

Hunted by savage predators and more terrifying still, the nightmarish Eldrax, a murderous chieftain who will stop at nothing to possess Rebaa’s mysterious powers for his own, her very existence becomes a life or death chase in the pursuit and quest to reach the one place that surely offers salvation and a safe haven she can call home.

But what haven could possibly exist for one who bears ... The Forbidden?

Will Rebaa find her salvation, or will crushing loss, hardship and the burden of carrying The Forbidden, first destroy her from the inside out?

]]> 289 Lori Holmes Vivienne 0 4.30 2020 The Forbidden (The Ancestors Saga, #1)
author: Lori Holmes
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2025/01/14
date added: 2025/01/24
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]]> <![CDATA[The Empty Wagon: Zionism's journey from identity crisis to identity theft]]> 40581231 1393 Yaakov Shapiro 1642555541 Vivienne 0 to-read 3.67 The Empty Wagon: Zionism's journey from identity crisis to identity theft
author: Yaakov Shapiro
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.67
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date added: 2025/01/20
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]]> <![CDATA[The Zionist Ideology (The Tauber Institute Series for the Study of European Jewry)]]> 1519380 528 Gideon Shimoni 0874518334 Vivienne 0 to-read 4.17 1995 The Zionist Ideology (The Tauber Institute Series for the Study of European Jewry)
author: Gideon Shimoni
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1995
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/20
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]]> Empires of Sand 351169
As civilizations collide around two men, a battle for survival, for love, and for a destiny written in a desert's shifting sands.

The year is 1870. Paris is under siege, and two boys, best friends and cousins, are swept from their life of privilege. A brutal killing forces Michel deVries � called Moussa � to flee to his mother's homeland in North Africa. A family disgrace forces Paul deVries to seek redemption in the French military.

Ten years will pass before they come face-to-face again. Now Moussa has become a desert warrior and a beautiful woman's forbidden lover, while Paul leads an ill-fated French force into the Sahara. Against a breathtaking landscape of blazing sands and ancient mysteries, these two men face a struggle that will shatter lives across two continents � and force them to choose between separate dreams and shared blood....]]> 784 David Ball 0440236681 Vivienne 0 to-read 4.02 2011 Empires of Sand
author: David Ball
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/13
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]]> <![CDATA[The Traitor's Daughter: Captured by Nazis, Pursued by the KGB, My Mother's Odyssey to Freedom from Her Secret Past]]> 204927354 The masterful narration of a daughter's decades-long quest to understand her extraordinary mother, whowas born in Lenin's Soviet Union, served as a combat soldier in the Red Army, and endured three years of Nazi captivity—but never revealed her darkest secrets.

As a child, Roxana Spicer would sometimes wake to the sound of the Red Army choir. She would tip-toe downstairs to find her mother, cigarette in one hand and Black Russian in the other, singing along. Roxana would keep her company, and wonder....

Everyone in their village knew Agnes Spicer was Russian, that she had been a captive of the Nazis. And that was all they knew, because Agnes kept her secrets how she managed to escape Germany, what the tattoo on her arm meant, even her real name.

Discovering the truth about her beloved, charismatic, volatile mother became Roxana'sobsession. Throughout her career as a journalist and documentarian, between investigations across Canada and around the world, she always went home to ask her mother more questions, often while filming.

Roxana also took every chance to visit the few places that she did know played a role in her mother's Bad Salzuflen, Germany, home to POW slave labourers during the war; notorious concentration camps; and Russia. Under Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and the early years of Putin, she was able to find people, places, and documents that are now—perhaps forever—lost again.

The Traitor's Daughter is intimate and exhaustively researched, vividly conversational, and shot through with Agnes Spicer's irrepressible, fiery personality. It is a true labour of love as well as a triumph of blending personal biography with sweeping history.]]> 462 Roxana Spicer 0735246548 Vivienne 0 currently-reading 4.09 The Traitor's Daughter: Captured by Nazis, Pursued by the KGB, My Mother's Odyssey to Freedom from Her Secret Past
author: Roxana Spicer
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.09
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date added: 2025/01/03
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]]> <![CDATA[A Mage From Shale (Devon Coal, #1)]]> 211241695 256 Michael Gnizak Vivienne 0 to-read 4.41 A Mage From Shale (Devon Coal, #1)
author: Michael Gnizak
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.41
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date added: 2024/12/26
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]]> Burn Book: A Tech Love Story 195791688 From award-winning journalist Kara Swisher comes a witty, scathing, but fair accounting of the tech industry and its founders who wanted to change the world but broke it instead.

Part memoir, part history, Burn Book is a necessary chronicle of tech’s most powerful players. This is the inside story we’ve all been waiting for about modern Silicon Valley and the biggest boom in wealth creation in the history of the world.

When tech titans crowed that they would “move fast and break things,� Kara Swisher was moving faster and breaking news. While covering the explosion of the digital sector in the early 1990s, she developed a long track record of digging up and reporting the facts about this new world order. Her consistent scoops drove one CEO to accuse her of “listening in the heating ducts� and prompted Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg to once observe: “It is a constant joke in the Valley when people write memos for them to say, ‘I hope Kara never sees this.’�

While still in college, Swisher got her start at The Washington Post, where she became one of the few people in journalism interested in covering the nascent Internet. She went on to work for The Wall Street Journal, joining with Walt Mossberg to start the groundbreaking D: All Things Digital conference, as well as pioneering tech news sites.

Swisher has interviewed everyone who matters in tech over three decades, right when they presided over an explosion of world-changing innovation that has both helped and hurt our world. Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Sheryl Sandberg, Bob Iger, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Meg Whitman, Peter Thiel, Sam Altman, and Mark Zuckerberg are just a few whom Swisher made sweat—figuratively and, in Zuckerberg’s case, literally.

Despite the damage she chronicles, Swisher remains optimistic about tech’s potential to help solve problems and not just create them. She calls upon the industry to make better, more thoughtful choices, even as a new set of powerful AI tools are poised to change the world yet again. At its heart, this book is a love story to, for, and about tech from someone who knows it better than anyone.]]> 320 Kara Swisher 1982163895 Vivienne 3 3.88 2024 Burn Book: A Tech Love Story
author: Kara Swisher
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/05
date added: 2024/12/18
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]]> Head Cases (PAR Unit, #1) 211867349 Head Cases follows an enigmatic group of FBI agents as they hunt down a murderer seeking his own justice in this electrifying—and commercial—series debut.

FBI Agent Gardner Camden is an analytical genius with an affinity for puzzles. He also has a blind spot on the human side of investigations, a blindness that sometimes even includes people in his own life, like his beloved seven-year-old daughter Camila. Gardner and his squad of brilliant yet quirky agents make up the Patterns and Recognition (PAR) unit, the FBI’s hidden edge, brought in for cases that no one else can solve.

When DNA links a murder victim to a serial killer long presumed dead, the team springs into action. A second victim establishes a pattern, and the murderer begins leaving a trail of clues and riddles especially for Gardner. And while the PAR team is usually relegated to working cold cases from behind a desk, the investigation puts them on the road and into the public eye, following in the footsteps of a killer.

Along with Gardner, PAR consists of a mathematician, a weapons expert, a computer analyst, and their leader, a career agent. Each of them must use every skill they have to solve the riddle of the killer’s identity. But with the perpetrator somehow learning more and more about the team at PAR, can they protect themselves and their families…before it’s too late?

With an enigmatic case that will keep readers on the edge of their seats and a thoroughly engaging ensemble cast, John McMahon’s Head Cases is a triumph.]]> 352 John McMahon 1250348307 Vivienne 0 to-read 4.23 2025 Head Cases (PAR Unit, #1)
author: John McMahon
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/18
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]]> <![CDATA[Old Wine, Broken Bottle: Ari Shavit's Promised Land]]> 21243593
Were he not already inured to the logrolling that passes for informed opinion on this topic, Norman Finkelstein might have been surprised, astonished even. That’s because, as he reveals with typical precision, My Promised Land is riddled with omission, distortion, falsehood, and sheer nonsense.
In brief chapters that analyze Shavit’s defense of Zionism and Israel’s Jewish identity, its nuclear arsenal and its refusal to negotiate peace, Finkelstein shows how highly selective criticism and sanctimonious handwringing are deployed to create a paean to modern Israel more sophisticated than the traditional our-country-right-or-wrong. In this way, Shavit hopes to win back an American Jewish community increasingly alienated from a place it once regarded as home. However, because the myths he recycles have been so comprehensively shattered, this project is unlikely to succeed.

Like his landmark debunking of Joan Peters’s From Time Immemorial, Finkelstein’s clinical dissection of My Promised Land will be welcomed by those who prefer truth to propaganda, and who yearn for a resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict based on justice, rather than arguments framed by anguish and schmaltz.]]> 100 Norman G. Finkelstein Vivienne 0 to-read 3.89 2014 Old Wine, Broken Bottle: Ari Shavit's Promised Land
author: Norman G. Finkelstein
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/09
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]]> <![CDATA[Night's Master (Tales from the Flat Earth #1)]]> 882258 208 Tanith Lee 0886771315 Vivienne 0 to-read 4.09 1978 Night's Master (Tales from the Flat Earth #1)
author: Tanith Lee
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1978
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/08
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Society Without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment]]> 4286013 "Silver" Winner of the 2008 Foreword Magazine Book of the Year Award, Religion Category.

Before he began his recent travels, it seemed to Phil Zuckerman as if humans all over the globe were "getting religion"—praising deities, performing holy rites, and soberly defending the world from sin. But most residents of Denmark and Sweden, he found, don't worship any god at all, don't pray, and don't give much credence to religious dogma of any kind. Instead of being bastions of sin and corruption, however, as the Christian Right has suggested a godless society would be, these countries are filled with residents who score at the very top of the "happiness index" and enjoy their healthy societies, which boast some of the lowest rates of violent crime in the world (along with some of the lowest levels of corruption), excellent educational systems, strong economies, well-supported arts, free health care, egalitarian social policies, outstanding bike paths, and great beer.

Zuckerman formally interviewed nearly 150 Danes and Swedes of all ages and educational backgrounds over the course of fourteen months. He was particularly interested in the worldviews of people who live their lives without religious orientation. How do they think about and cope with death? Are they worried about an afterlife? What he found is that nearly all of his interviewees live their lives without much fear of the Grim Reaper or worries about the hereafter. This led him to wonder how and why it is that certain societies are non-religious in a world that seems to be marked by increasing religiosity. Drawing on prominent sociological theories and his own extensive research, Zuckerman ventures some interesting answers.

This fascinating approach directly counters the claims of outspoken, conservative American Christians who argue that a society without God would be hell on earth. It is crucial, Zuckerman believes, for Americans to know that "society without God is not only possible, but it can be quite civil and pleasant."]]> 227 Phil Zuckerman 0814797148 Vivienne 0 to-read 3.95 2008 Society Without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment
author: Phil Zuckerman
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/08
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]]> Finding Sophie 209448516
Her parents, Harry and Zara, are distraught; for the last seventeen years, they've done everything for their beloved only daughter and now she's gone.

The police have no leads, and Harry and Zara are growing increasingly frantic, although they are both dealing with it in very different ways. Increasingly obsessed with their highly suspicious neighbour who won't open the door or answer any questions, they are both coming to the same conclusion. If they want answers, they're going to have to take the matter into their own hands.

But just how far are they both prepared to go for the love of their daughter?]]> Imran Mahmood 1526647591 Vivienne 0 to-read 3.82 Finding Sophie
author: Imran Mahmood
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.82
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/08
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]]> <![CDATA[Somewhere Toward Freedom: Sherman's March and the Story of America's Largest Emancipation]]> 214152277 A groundbreaking account of Sherman’s March to the Sea—the critical Civil War campaign that destroyed the Confederacy—told for the first time from the perspective of the tens of thousands of enslaved people who fled to the Union lines and transformed Sherman’s march into the biggest liberation event in American history.

In the fall of 1864, Gen. William T. Sherman led his army through Atlanta, Georgia, burning buildings of military significance—and ultimately most of the city—along the way. From Atlanta, they marched across the state to the most important city at the time: Savannah.

Mired in the deep of the South with no reliable supply lines, Sherman’s army had to live off the land and the provisions on the plantations they seized along the way. As the army marched to the east, plantation owners fled, but even before they did so, slaves self-emancipated to Union lines. By the time the army seized Savannah in December, as many as 20,000 enslaved people had attached themselves to Sherman’s army. They endured hardships, marching as much as twenty miles a day—often without food or shelter from the winter weather—and at times Union commanders discouraged and even prevented the self-emancipated from staying with the army. Racism was not confined to the Confederacy.

In Somewhere Toward Freedom, historian Bennett Parten brilliantly reframes this seminal episode in Civil War history. He not only helps us understand how Sherman’s March impacted the war, and what it meant to the enslaved, but also reveals how it laid the foundation for the fledging efforts of Reconstruction. When the war ended, Sherman and various government and private aid agencies seized plantation lands—particularly in the sea islands off the Georgia and South Carolina coasts—in order to resettle the newly emancipated. They were fed, housed, and in some instances, taught to read and write. This first real effort at Reconstruction was short-lived, however. As federal troops withdrew to the north, Confederate sympathizers and Southern landowners eventually brought about the downfall of this program.

Sherman’s march has remained controversial to this day. But as Parten reveals, it played a significant role in ending the Civil War, due in no small part to the efforts of the tens of thousands of enslaved people who became a part of it. In Somewhere Toward Freedom, this critical moment in American history has finally been given the attention it deserves.]]> 272 Bennett Parten 1668034689 Vivienne 0 to-read 4.15 2025 Somewhere Toward Freedom: Sherman's March and the Story of America's Largest Emancipation
author: Bennett Parten
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.15
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]]> <![CDATA[Pearls in the Deep: How the Quran Solves the Problem of Evil and Suffering: Discover the Profound Wisdom Behind Life's Greatest Challenges]]> 220779468 If God exists, why do bad things happen?
If you have ever asked these questions, you are not alone. The same questions have been asked in all its permutations for all of human history.

The Qur’an, the final revelation from God to mankind, transforms this problem in a revolutionary way.

" Pearls in the Deep, " will take you on an eye-opening journey to find pearls within the difficulties and tragedies of existence. This book offers a comprehensive examination of evil, tragedy, calamities, and difficulties, by taking inspiration from the Qur’an, film, literature, and the rich Islamic tradition, and particularly the thought of Said Nursi.

Through captivating character studies from works like " The Last Airbender", Shakespeare, and the films of Akira Kurosawa, you'll explore profound concepts in Islamic theology in a relatable, jargon-free manner. With its compelling arguments and practical examples, this book will strengthen your faith and deepen your conviction that our world is fundamentally good and that evil serves a greater purpose.

By the end of " Pearls in the Deep, " you'll not only understand why difficulties exist but also gain an intermediate understanding of key Islamic theological concepts. The problem of evil will vanish, replaced by a renewed perspective on the goodness of the world and its Creator.

Praise for the

“This book is a fitting complement to chapter four of my own work, “Islam Answers Atheism.�
SHAYKH ASRAR RASHID, Birmingham, UK

“A beautiful cultural translation of the subtle insights offered by Imam Said Nursi.�
DR. MUSTAFA TUNA, Duke University

“Naz transforms a thorny question into a fountain of iman-fortifying insights and wisdoms.�
DR. SHADEE ELMASRY, Safina Society

Keywords: Quran, problem of evil, suffering, Islamic theology, Said Nursi, Avatar The Last Airbender, Akira Kurosawa, faith, wisdom, purpose, existence, God, Creator, Iman, Shaykh Asrar Rashid, Dr. Mustafa Tuna, Dr. Shadee Elmasry]]> 198 Naz Hassan Vivienne 0 to-read 5.00 Pearls in the Deep: How the Quran Solves the Problem of Evil and Suffering: Discover the Profound Wisdom Behind Life's Greatest Challenges
author: Naz Hassan
name: Vivienne
average rating: 5.00
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date added: 2024/12/03
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]]> The Forgotten Book 34499244
Emma is used to things going her way. Her father is headmaster of her prestigious boarding school, her friends take her advice as gospel, and she's convinced that a relationship with her long-time crush is on the horizon.

As it turns out, Emma hasn't seen anything yet. When she finds an old book in an abandoned library, things really start going Emma's way: anything she writes in the book comes true.

But the power of the book is not without consequences, and Emma soon realizes that she isn't the only one who knows about it. Someone is determined to take it from her—and they'll stop at nothing to succeed.

A new boy in school—the arrogant, aloof, and irritatingly handsome Darcy de Winter—becomes Emma's unlikely ally as secrets are revealed and danger creeps ever closer.]]> 368 Mechthild Gläser 1250146798 Vivienne 0 to-read 3.72 2017 The Forgotten Book
author: Mechthild Gläser
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Simple Seerah: The Story of Prophet Muhammad - Part One]]> 58945050
The Arabic word ‘Seerah� is the term used by many Muslims around the world when referring to the life of the last and final messenger of God, Muhammad (peace be upon him.) He lived an incredible life, filled with challenges and adventures, battles, miracles and so much more!

If someone didn’t tell you that everything inside this book was a true story, you’d think it was all made up. That’s how incredible The Seerah is.

The beautiful thing about the life of Muhammad (PBUH) is that it’s filled with many lessons that we can apply to our own lives today. As you listen through this book, you’ll reflect on your own life and how you can improve it and improve yourself.
We hope you enjoy this book and make The Simple Seerah a companion for the rest of your life.

5 hours and 56 minutes]]> 142 Asim Khan 173990950X Vivienne 0 to-read 4.79 The Simple Seerah: The Story of Prophet Muhammad - Part One
author: Asim Khan
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.79
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> شرف #2 21841332 335 Elif Shafak Vivienne 0 to-read 4.06 شرف #2
author: Elif Shafak
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.06
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/26
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]]> البنت التي لا تحب اسمها 44667823
ذات يوم، تعثر الفتاة فى المكتبة على مجسم للكرة الأرضية، فتتعرف من خلاله على صديقين غريبى الأطوار، من القارة الثامنة، والقارة الثامنة هذه تستورد الخيال، وتصدر الحكايات، لكنها تصاب بالجفاف بسبب تراجع القراءة، وقلة الخيال، فتتبنى ساردونيا وصديقاتها إنقاذ الخيال والقارة الثامنة.

أليف شافاك: روائية وناشطة تركية صدر لها عن دار الآداب:
قواعد العشق الأربعون، لقيطة إسطنبول، شرف، قصر الحلوى، الفتى المتيم والمعلم، حليب أسود، بنات حواء الثلاث.]]> 159 Elif Shafak Vivienne 0 to-read 3.42 2014 البنت التي لا تحب اسمها
author: Elif Shafak
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> There Are Rivers in the Sky 202468422 From the Booker Prize finalist author of The Island of Missing Trees, an enchanting new tale about three characters living along two rivers, all under the shadow of one of the greatest epic poems of all time.

In the ancient city of Nineveh, on the bank of the River Tigris, King Ashurbanipal of Mesopotamia, erudite but ruthless, built a great library that would crumble with the end of his reign. From its ruins, however, emerged a poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh, that would infuse the existence of two rivers and bind together three lives.

In 1840 London, Arthur is born beside the stinking, sewage-filled River Thames. With an abusive, alcoholic father and a mentally ill mother, Arthur’s only chance of escaping destitution is his brilliant memory. When his gift earns him a spot as an apprentice at a leading publisher, Arthur’s world opens up far beyond the slums, and one book in particular catches his interest: Nineveh and Its Remains.

In 2014 Turkey, Narin, a ten-year-old Yazidi girl, is diagnosed with a rare disorder that will soon cause her to go deaf. Before that happens, her grandmother is determined to baptize her in a sacred Iraqi temple. But with the rising presence of ISIS and the destruction of the family’s ancestral lands along the Tigris, Narin is running out of time.

In 2018 London, the newly divorced Zaleekah, a hydrologist, moves into a houseboat on the Thames to escape her husband. Orphaned and raised by her wealthy uncle, Zaleekah had made the decision to take her own life in one month, until a curious book about her homeland changes everything.

A dazzling feat of storytelling, There Are Rivers in the Sky entwines these outsiders with a single drop of water, a drop which remanifests across the centuries. Both a source of life and harbinger of death, rivers—the Tigris and the Thames—transcend history, transcend fate: “Water remembers. It is humans who forget.�]]> 464 Elif Shafak 0593801717 Vivienne 0 to-read 4.39 2024 There Are Rivers in the Sky
author: Elif Shafak
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/26
shelves: to-read
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]]> Three Daughters of Eve 36429751
The photograph takes Peri back to Oxford University, as an eighteen year old sent abroad for the first time. To her dazzling, rebellious Professor and his life-changing course on God. To her home with her two best friends, Shirin and Mona, and their arguments about Islam and femininity. And finally, to the scandal that tore them all apart.]]> 384 Elif Shafak 1632869977 Vivienne 0 to-read 3.86 2016 Three Daughters of Eve
author: Elif Shafak
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Thinking, Fast and Slow 11468377 Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. Kahneman exposes the extraordinary capabilities—and also the faults and biases—of fast thinking, and reveals the pervasive influence of intuitive impressions on our thoughts and behavior. The impact of loss aversion and overconfidence on corporate strategies, the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, the challenges of properly framing risks at work and at home, the profound effect of cognitive biases on everything from playing the stock market to planning the next vacation—each of these can be understood only by knowing how the two systems work together to shape our judgments and decisions.

Engaging the reader in a lively conversation about how we think, Kahneman reveals where we can and cannot trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking. He offers practical and enlightening insights into how choices are made in both our business and our personal lives—and how we can use different techniques to guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble. Thinking, Fast and Slow will transform the way you think about thinking.]]> 499 Daniel Kahneman 0374275637 Vivienne 0 to-read 4.17 2011 Thinking, Fast and Slow
author: Daniel Kahneman
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Late Great Me 172408 256 Sandra Scoppettone 0553259105 Vivienne 0 4.06 1976 The Late Great Me
author: Sandra Scoppettone
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1976
rating: 0
read at: 1983/04/15
date added: 2024/11/25
shelves:
review:
As soon as I saw the cover I remembered I read this a long time ago as a cautionary tale and also as a curious Muslim teenager into getting a peek into a world that was/is completely alien to me. Another reason for reading this book was that a very good friend of mine had started drinking on the sly while we walked to school together; she filled up a soft drink can from her parents� liquor cabinet and even offered me some several times which I declined citing my religion which she found hilarious. I thought I was the only one who knew but eventually another mutual friend told me that others had also noticed her intoxicated state including teachers. While I was reading this book it sparked a lot of interesting conversations with my non-Muslim friends and classmates and even a teacher or two. Now as a grownup I wonder whether they thought I had a drinking problem myself and probably didn’t believe me when I told them that nobody in my family or our social circle drank at all. Fun times!
]]> The Sword And The Scimitar 715689 688 David Ball 0099457954 Vivienne 0 to-read 4.40 2003 The Sword And The Scimitar
author: David Ball
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Grounding of Group 6 1133212
It was strange that their leader and advisor, Nat Rittenhouse, was so young. And why had he been so careful to cover their tracks? It wasn't until the next morning that Marigold, Ludi, Sara, Coke, and Sully learned the impossible truth:

Nat had been hired by the Coldbrook Country School to make sure Group 6 never came out of the woods alive. And their own parents were paying the bill.]]> 282 Julian F. Thompson 0380833867 Vivienne 0 3.87 1983 The Grounding of Group 6
author: Julian F. Thompson
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1983
rating: 0
read at: 1984/12/19
date added: 2024/11/19
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Brothers in Arms (Dragonlance: Raistlin Chronicles, #2)]]> 29160
In the fiery siege of the ciy of Hope's End the young mage Raistlin must leave behind his ideals to save himself and his brother. Yet as Raistlin and Caramon train as mercenaries, far away another soul is forged in the heat of battle. Another path is chosen, and a future dragon highlord begins her rise to power.

She is Kitiara Uth Matar, the twins' half sister.

Brothers in Arms is the much-anticipated squel to The Soulforge , the 1998 best-selling Dragonlance novel.]]> 476 Margaret Weis 0786914297 Vivienne 5 4.07 1999 Brothers in Arms (Dragonlance: Raistlin Chronicles, #2)
author: Margaret Weis
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1999
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/10
date added: 2024/11/19
shelves:
review:
I’ve read this book several times and I’ve realised it’s one of my favorite stories in the Dragonlance universe. It’s brilliant in filling in and hinting the story of the future terrible wars that are coming. I read it after the canon trilogies but maybe reading it before those books would have been ok too. I really like how we find out what Kitiara was up to during that ‘five year� gap. This must have been written after the second generation books as it briefly refers to her tryst with Sturm and her subsequent pregnancy and childbirth. As a woman, I find it a bit disheartening and sad that she just left her child behind and is concentrating on getting ahead in this world and that too on the side of evil.
]]> I Left You Behind 209284441
Injustice, the importance of education and a love of literature are recurring themes in the more autobiographical stories. At the age of thirteen in Pakistan “the girl� is forced to learn to read the Quran, without understanding its verses until adulthood. During a school year spent in Texas, she witnesses the ugly realities of American racism and segregation. At university in Pakistan, she visits a teenaged royal bride who is forced to observe purdah, to whom she later sends samples of classical English fiction, in the hope of inspiring her, and being a comfort and an inspiration. Years later, she visits her former philosophy professor at Oxford, with whom she shares her decision to become a writer.

These are stories of dislocation, relocation, and longing, evoking the physical and mental isolation made so tangible during the Covid pandemic. Rich in dialogue and description, the seventeen stories are Persian carpets, interwoven with numerous threads to produce a vivid tapestry of lives lived.

“[A] deep dive into what divides us, what unites us.�
—Margaret Atwood, via X/Twitter

� I Left You Behind offers a profound exploration of what it means to exist, to be alive, and, ultimately, to move on.�
�Dawn-Images

“These are stories of lives lived to the fullest by women who share Nazneen Sheikh’s considerable passion and intelligence. I Left You Behind is a glorious literary feast.�
—Linda Leith, author of The Girl from Dream City

Praise for Tea and Pomegranates:

Tea and Pomegranates, Nazneen Sheikh weaves past and present into a fascinating memoir. Her loom is the history of Kashmiri Mughal cuisine, her silks are the exotic, mouth-watering dishes of a privileged childhood. I wanted to run to the kitchen to try her recipes, but I couldn’t put the book down.�
—James Chatto, author of The Greek for Love

“Nazneen Sheikh is a most sophisticated and enchanting storyteller. In Tea and Pomegranates, she gives readers a privileged seat at the continuous feast of a loving family in a lost corner of the old world.�
—Byron Ayanoglu, author of Crete on the Half Shell

“[G]reat storytelling, with a finely drawn cast of characters worthy of anyone’s attention.�
—Brian Fawcett, Books in Canada]]> 264 Nazneen Sheikh 1774151804 Vivienne 0 to-read 4.33 I Left You Behind
author: Nazneen Sheikh
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.33
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Unveiling Tyranny: The Genocide in Gaza & False Zionist Narratives on Palestine]]> 203566846 147 Hamza Andreas Tzortzis Vivienne 0 to-read 4.50 Unveiling Tyranny: The Genocide in Gaza & False Zionist Narratives on Palestine
author: Hamza Andreas Tzortzis
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Rivers of London (Rivers of London, #1)]]> 9317452 392 Ben Aaronovitch 0575097566 Vivienne 0 to-read 3.83 2011 Rivers of London (Rivers of London, #1)
author: Ben Aaronovitch
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Lamentations: how narcissistic leaders torment church and family (The Hidden Series)]]> 216007168 207 Michael Ben Zehabe Vivienne 0 to-read 5.00 Lamentations: how narcissistic leaders torment church and family (The Hidden Series)
author: Michael Ben Zehabe
name: Vivienne
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/13
shelves: to-read
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]]> Isola 212806636 A young woman and her lover are marooned on an island in this epic saga of love, faith, and defiance from the bestselling author of Sam.

Heir to a fortune, Marguerite is destined for a life of prosperity and gentility. Then she is orphaned, and her guardian—an enigmatic and volatile man—spends her inheritance and insists she accompany him on an expedition to New France. Isolated and afraid, Marguerite befriends her guardian’s servant and the two develop an intense attraction. But when their relationship is discovered, they are brutally punished and abandoned on a small island with no hope for rescue.

Once a child of privilege who dressed in gowns and laced pearls in her hair, Marguerite finds herself at the mercy of nature. As the weather turns, blanketing the island in ice, she discovers a faith she’d never before needed.

Inspired by the real life of a sixteenth-century heroine, Isola is the timeless story of a woman fighting for survival.]]> 368 Allegra Goodman 0593730089 Vivienne 0 to-read 4.00 2025 Isola
author: Allegra Goodman
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Lori 26058027 0 Gloria Goldreich 0440948169 Vivienne 3 I’ve spent much time looking for it and I couldn’t remember the title at all.
I finally found it by posting on Reddit:
‘Looking for a novel from the 70s or early 80s about a young American Jewish high school girl whose parents discover she has started smoking pot. They send her to Israel to discover and take pride in her Jewish roots. She wants to stay in Israel but decides to come back to the States and flushes her leftover drugs down the toilet.
The cover had an orange grove on it with a young woman, probably the protagonist, and a young man.�

Sadly the ŷ doesn’t show any cover yet. I may have found the book faster if ŷ had a cover.

I read this at a very young age possibly in elementary school from my school library.]]> 4.00 1979 Lori
author: Gloria Goldreich
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1979
rating: 3
read at: 1981/05/25
date added: 2024/11/13
shelves:
review:
Is this the author’s least popular book?
I’ve spent much time looking for it and I couldn’t remember the title at all.
I finally found it by posting on Reddit:
‘Looking for a novel from the 70s or early 80s about a young American Jewish high school girl whose parents discover she has started smoking pot. They send her to Israel to discover and take pride in her Jewish roots. She wants to stay in Israel but decides to come back to the States and flushes her leftover drugs down the toilet.
The cover had an orange grove on it with a young woman, probably the protagonist, and a young man.�

Sadly the ŷ doesn’t show any cover yet. I may have found the book faster if ŷ had a cover.

I read this at a very young age possibly in elementary school from my school library.
]]> <![CDATA[Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators]]> 51022071
All the while, Farrow and his producer faced a degree of resistance that could not be explained - until now. And a trail of clues revealed corruption and cover-ups from Hollywood, to Washington, and beyond.

This is the untold story of the exotic tactics of surveillance and intimidation deployed by wealthy and connected men to threaten journalists, evade accountability and silence victims of abuse - and it's the story of the women who risked everything to expose the truth and spark a global movement.

Both a spy thriller and a meticulous work of investigative journalism, Catch and Kill breaks devastating new stories about the rampant abuse of power - and sheds far-reaching light on investigations that shook the culture.

In a dramatic account of violence and espionage, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Ronan Farrow exposes serial abusers and a cabal of powerful interests hell-bent on covering up the truth, at any cost.]]> 608 Ronan Farrow 0316454133 Vivienne 0 to-read 4.33 2019 Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators
author: Ronan Farrow
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Mirage (Mirage, #1) 33134842
But when adventure comes for Amani, it is not what she she is kidnapped by the regime and taken in secret to the royal palace, where she discovers that she is nearly identical to the cruel half-Vathek Princess Maram. The princess is so hated by her conquered people that she requires a body double, someone to appear in public as Maram, ready to die in her place.

As Amani is forced into her new role, she can’t help but enjoy the palace’s beauty—and her time with the princess� fiancé, Idris. But the glitter of the royal court belies a world of violence and fear. If Amani ever wishes to see her family again, she must play the princess to perfection...because one wrong move could lead to her death.]]> 313 Somaiya Daud 1250126444 Vivienne 3 [spoilers removed]]]> 3.85 2018 Mirage (Mirage, #1)
author: Somaiya Daud
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2022/05/27
date added: 2024/11/08
shelves:
review:
I read this slowly savoring it or should i say slowly feeling the pain and hurt of the protagonist. It is sad to say but oppression is a terrible terrible thing and if anybody has experienced it; they will know what it feels like.
[spoilers removed]
]]> <![CDATA[The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Very Short Introduction]]> 17070375
Providing a clear and fair exploration of the main issues, Bunton explores not only the historical basis of the conflict, but also looks at how and why partition has been so difficult and how efforts to restore peace continue today.

About the

Oxford's Very Short Introductions series offers concise and original introductions to a wide range of subjects--from Islam to Sociology, Politics to Classics, Literary Theory to History, and Archaeology to the Bible. Not simply a textbook of definitions, each volume in this series provides trenchant and provocative--yet always balanced and complete--discussions of the central issues in a given discipline or field. Every Very Short Introduction gives a readable evolution of the subject in question, demonstrating how the subject has developed and how it has influenced society. Eventually, the series will encompass every major academic discipline, offering all students an accessible and abundant reference library. Whatever the area of study that one deems important or appealing, whatever the topic that fascinates the general reader, the Very Short Introductions series has a handy and affordable guide that will likely prove indispensable.]]> 160 Martin Bunton 0199603936 Vivienne 0 to-read 3.99 2013 The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Very Short Introduction
author: Martin Bunton
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Lotus 57359837
To the rest of the world, he was the little boy who went missing on the Fourth of July. But to Sydney Neville, he was everything. Her heart hasn't been the same since her best friend disappeared, but she's learned to build her life around that missing piece.

Twenty-two years later, the last thing Sydney expects is for Oliver Lynch to return. Having been captive underground for decades, he's unfamiliar with the strange new world that awaits him―but he's alive. He's here. And no matter how he's changed, he and Sydney both still feel the connection that runs between them.

But as their reborn friendship begins to feel like something more, Sydney and Oliver realize there are still jagged, painful truths creating space between them. The walls Sydney's built don't want to come down, and as Oliver hunts for his missing memories and lost time, he realizes his nightmare is not yet over.

With nothing as it seems, is there space for love to bloom in this dark place?]]> 344 Jennifer Hartmann Vivienne 3 My favourite quote:
“I see that I’ve interrupted something riveting,� she snickers, ignoring my eye roll. “Anyway, I was informed that you shoveled my driveway this past week and I’ve come to issue my thanks.�
“Oh…� I’m taken aback by the offering of gratitude, considering I didn’t realize she even knew, and well, it’s Lorna Gibson (I referred to her as Mrs. Kravitz above).
“You’re welcome.�
“Oliver told me, in case you were wondering. His good morals and manners seem to be rubbing off on you.� She adds as an afterthought, “Praise the Lord.� A huff.
“Well, it’s not a problem. I ran out of sinning to do that day and got bored. I mean, there’s only a limited number of unprotected sex acts and satanic rituals a girl can partake in before she needs to switch it up, you know?�
“Ever the comedian,� Lorna says snidely, eyes still gliding over me with distaste. She’s about to step away when she pauses, an unfamiliar look washing over her. Clearing her throat, she reaches into the front pocket of her blouse and pulls out a handful of photographs. “One more thing. I found these at the bottom of my jewelry box and thought you might have more use for them. Edgar enjoyed taking photos of you kids on his old film camera� Looking at these Polaroids brought back some very special memories.�
Those Polaroids set in motion a series of events that moves the plot along and ties up all the mysteries.]]> 4.15 2021 Lotus
author: Jennifer Hartmann
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2023/10/05
date added: 2024/11/07
shelves:
review:
The story starts with childhood friends enduring a tragedy and I’m glad they had a happy ending. That is the biggest redeeming quality of this book. I’ve realized I’m not a big fan of romance and I started finding the story most boring at the slow pace of the main characters� love story so I skimmed through those very fast. I was almost tempted to throw this book into my DNF pile but I’m glad I persevered because around the 80% mark the story started moving at a very fast pace. I found the cameos by ‘Mrs Kravitz� quite amusing too. And she helped save the day.
My favourite quote:
“I see that I’ve interrupted something riveting,� she snickers, ignoring my eye roll. “Anyway, I was informed that you shoveled my driveway this past week and I’ve come to issue my thanks.�
“Oh…� I’m taken aback by the offering of gratitude, considering I didn’t realize she even knew, and well, it’s Lorna Gibson (I referred to her as Mrs. Kravitz above).
“You’re welcome.�
“Oliver told me, in case you were wondering. His good morals and manners seem to be rubbing off on you.� She adds as an afterthought, “Praise the Lord.� A huff.
“Well, it’s not a problem. I ran out of sinning to do that day and got bored. I mean, there’s only a limited number of unprotected sex acts and satanic rituals a girl can partake in before she needs to switch it up, you know?�
“Ever the comedian,� Lorna says snidely, eyes still gliding over me with distaste. She’s about to step away when she pauses, an unfamiliar look washing over her. Clearing her throat, she reaches into the front pocket of her blouse and pulls out a handful of photographs. “One more thing. I found these at the bottom of my jewelry box and thought you might have more use for them. Edgar enjoyed taking photos of you kids on his old film camera� Looking at these Polaroids brought back some very special memories.�
Those Polaroids set in motion a series of events that moves the plot along and ties up all the mysteries.
]]> Between the World and Me 25489625 “This is your country, this is your world, this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it.�

In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,� a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?

Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.]]> 152 Ta-Nehisi Coates Vivienne 0 to-read 4.40 2015 Between the World and Me
author: Ta-Nehisi Coates
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A History of a Pedophile's Wife: Memoir of a Canadian Teacher and Writer]]> 20735536 317 Eleanor Cowan 1483514943 Vivienne 5 It was very interesting to me to read about how this Roman Catholic family lived, how their beliefs led to some disfunction in the family, how difficult it can be to apply some religious views in a practical way in real life.
It must have felt like the greatest betrayal when she discovered the truth about her husband and admitted it to herself and got out of her marriage. It’s enough to make anybody ask themselves: are there no good people around? can I trust anybody at all?
People doing bad things and using religion as a cover is horrible.]]> 4.60 2013 A History of a Pedophile's Wife: Memoir of a Canadian Teacher and Writer
author: Eleanor Cowan
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.60
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/11
date added: 2024/11/07
shelves:
review:
This is a difficult read which is obvious from the title of the book. It starts from the author’s childhood; I think it is very brave of her to share her personal life story. There is a lot of detail that must have been horrendously difficult for her to share. There is usually a tacit agreement of what happens in a family stays in the family.
It was very interesting to me to read about how this Roman Catholic family lived, how their beliefs led to some disfunction in the family, how difficult it can be to apply some religious views in a practical way in real life.
It must have felt like the greatest betrayal when she discovered the truth about her husband and admitted it to herself and got out of her marriage. It’s enough to make anybody ask themselves: are there no good people around? can I trust anybody at all?
People doing bad things and using religion as a cover is horrible.
]]> <![CDATA[Bargaining for the Barrister (Matchmaking Mamas, #1)]]> 59207512 When Paul catches wind of the matchmaking organization his mother and her friends are establishing, he pities the fellow who will be caught in their scheme—until he realizes he is to be their first victim. Horrified, Paul determines to thwart his mother’s plans by whatever means necessary. After meeting his intended, however, his increasing desire to be near her threatens to disrupt his convictions. Louisa is everything he could want in a wife, and when an unexpected adventure sets in motion the very plan he had determined to halt, he almost wishes his mother’s plot could succeed. But Paul harbors a secret and a past that make it impossible for him to give Louisa the life she deserves.]]> 240 Anneka R. Walker 1524421499 Vivienne 0 to-read 3.99 2022 Bargaining for the Barrister (Matchmaking Mamas, #1)
author: Anneka R. Walker
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/07
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]]> The Thief and the Noble 60059164 "LeCheminant’s progressive aristocratic protagonists are refreshing and appealing as they discover love along the way in their quest to help those wronged by their fellow nobles. Fans of earnest, chaste romance and characters who defy societal norms will be well pleased." -Publishers Weekly

"A delightful retelling of the Robin Hood tale, “The Thief and the Noble� takes the lighter aspects of the original and gives them a dreamy lift." -InD'Tale Magazine

As the daughter of a marquess, Lady Marian Russell is poised to impress in her first London Season. She is young, beautiful, and wealthy—but catching an eligible husband is the last thing on her mind. Marian is disillusioned with how the upper class lives while the poor of London suffer, and she is determined to right this imbalance. When she comes face-to-face with a mysterious man who steals from arrogant aristocrats and redistributes the spoils to the poor, Marian recognizes a motivation that mirrors her own. She is determined to discover the true identity of the unscrupulous hero and offer her assistance.

When she unmasks the bandit, however, Marian is he is none other than the elusive Lord Robin Loxley. In exchange for her silence, Robin begrudgingly agrees to train the lovely Marian in the art of thievery, quickly realizing that his heart may be stolen next. But when Robin and Marian discover a copycat thief operating in London, they are faced with a foe whose purpose is far from noble. Amid distracting suitors, becoming champions of the poor, and a growing attraction they can’t ignore, can they expose the renegade pilferer without risking themselves—and each other?]]> 268 Dana LeCheminant 1524417106 Vivienne 0 to-read 3.84 2022 The Thief and the Noble
author: Dana LeCheminant
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Of Sword and Shadow (Duchy of Athens #1)]]> 55922647
She is known by many names, none of them her own. In truth, she is an unnamed slave, nothing more than a weapon in the hands of her owner in his attempts to provoke political mayhem. When she encounters a handsome young man while on an assignment, she thinks little of him—until he attempts to take what she has stolen. But in her line of work, failure is not an option.

Gillen is intrigued by the mysterious woman who thwarts his mission. But when his path crosses hers again, his intrigue turns to gratitude as the thief he comes to call Eudocia saves his life. The two form a bond of friendship and join forces to wrest control from a group of ruthless rulers. But as their camaraderie blossoms into something more, Gillen and Eudocia must fight for love even as they wage war for a better future.

Gold Medal Winner, Christian Historical Fiction, 2021 Readers' Favorite Book Awards]]> 251 A.L. Sowards 1524413607 Vivienne 0 to-read 4.17 2021 Of Sword and Shadow (Duchy of Athens #1)
author: A.L. Sowards
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Most Requested Copycat Dishes: 101 Homemade Versions of Your Favorite Restaurant Recipes]]> 208145508 Unravel the culinary secrets behind your most-loved restaurant meals.

From fast-food classics to gourmet restaurant delights, Most Requested Copycat Dishes brings the restaurant experience directly to your home kitchen. From crave-worthy appetizers like Disneyland’s Jalapeño Cheese Stuffed Pretzels and PF Chang’s Lettuce Wraps to mouthwatering main courses like Mizithra Pasta from The Old Spaghetti Factory and Gino’s East Chicago Deep Dish Pizza. Then finish off your meal with decadent desserts like Marie Callender’s Chocolate Satin Pie or Nothing Bundt Cake’s White Chocolate Raspberry Cake.

This cookbook presents 101 tested and perfected recipes that mirror their famous cousins. With insider tips along with step-by-step photo instructions for some of the trickier recipes, Most Requested Copycat Dishes can elevate your home dining experience whether you’re a seasoned chef or a kitchen enthusiast.]]> 240 Favorite Family Recipes 1639933190 Vivienne 0 to-read 4.03 Most Requested Copycat Dishes: 101 Homemade Versions of Your Favorite Restaurant Recipes
author: Favorite Family Recipes
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.03
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]]> <![CDATA[Across the Wall: Narratives of Israeli-Palestinian History (Library of Modern Middle East Studies)]]> 8031729 440 Ilan Pappé 1848853459 Vivienne 0 to-read 4.00 2010 Across the Wall: Narratives of Israeli-Palestinian History (Library of Modern Middle East Studies)
author: Ilan Pappé
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/01
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]]> <![CDATA[Britain and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1948-51]]> 11888092 273 Ilan Pappé 0312015739 Vivienne 0 to-read 3.89 1988 Britain and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1948-51
author: Ilan Pappé
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1988
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Lobbying for Zionism on Both Sides of the Atlantic]]> 60320350
In 1896, a Jewish state was a pipe dream. Zionists mooted places as diverse as Palestine and Argentina, and most Jews in Britain and the US remained aloof from the ideologists. Today support for Israel is a sine qua non of British and American political life, and the overwhelming majority of Jews identify as Zionists. How did this happen?

Ilan Pappe unveils how a lobby changed the map of the Middle East. Zionists exerted pressure on the Congress, cracked down on dissent in the Labour Party and relentlessly smeared critics. Groups funded by the Israeli state pushed for unprecedented military aid, recognition of unlawfully occupied territories and the erasure of Palestinian rights. Lobbying for Zionism shows us how a dangerous consensus was built � and how it might be dismantled.]]> 608 Ilan Pappé 0861544021 Vivienne 0 to-read 4.55 2024 Lobbying for Zionism on Both Sides of the Atlantic
author: Ilan Pappé
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2024
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]]> <![CDATA[A Very Short History of the Israel–Palestine Conflict]]> 213877810 A short primer unravelling the Israel–Palestine conflict from the nineteenth century to today

The devastation of 7 October 2023 and the horrors that followed astounded the world. But the Israel–Palestine conflict didn’t start on 7 October. It didn’t start in 1967 either, when Israel occupied the West Bank, or in 1948 when the state of Israel was declared. It started in 1882, when the first Zionist settlers arrived in what was then Ottoman Palestine. Ilan Pappe untangles the history of two peoples, now sharing one land. Going back to the founding fathers of Zionism, Pappe expertly takes us through the twists and turns of international policy towards Israel–Palestine, Palestinian resistance to occupation, and the changes taking place in Israel itself. This is an indispensable guide to understanding the present conflict, and how we might yet still find a way out of it.]]> 160 Ilan Pappé 0861549716 Vivienne 0 to-read 4.35 2024 A Very Short History of the Israel–Palestine Conflict
author: Ilan Pappé
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2024
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]]> <![CDATA[Journey through Genocide: Stories of Survivors and the Dead]]> 35531153 Powerful accounts by genocide survivors, a journalist seeking to bear witness to their pain.


Darfuri refugee camps in Chad, Kigali in Rwanda, and the ruins of ancient villages in Turkey � all visited by genocide, all still reeling in its wake. In Journey through Genocide, Raffy Boudjikanian travels to communities that have survived genocide to understand the legacy of this most terrible of crimes against humanity.


In this era of ethnic and religious wars, mass displacements, and forced migrations, Boudjikanian looks back at three humanitarian crises. In Chad, meet families displaced by massacres in the Darfur region of neighbouring Sudan, their ordeal still raw. In Rwanda, meet a people struggling with justice and reconciliation. And in Turkey, explore what it means to still be afraid a century after the author’s own ancestors were caught in the Armenian Genocide of 1915.

Clear-eyed and compassionate, Boudjikanian breathes life into horrors that too often seem remote.]]> 192 Raffy Boudjikanian 1459740769 Vivienne 0 to-read 3.68 Journey through Genocide: Stories of Survivors and the Dead
author: Raffy Boudjikanian
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.68
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]]> The Forty Days of Musa Dagh 438323 824 Franz Werfel 0786711388 Vivienne 0 to-read 4.45 1933 The Forty Days of Musa Dagh
author: Franz Werfel
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.45
book published: 1933
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Indian Delights : A Book of Recipes by the Women's Cultural Group]]> 35108826 138 Zuleikha Maya Vivienne 5

I wish there was a digital version we could buy. Please editors, publishers, whoever owns the copyright, please please make it available internationally. ]]> 4.75 Indian Delights : A Book of Recipes by the Women's Cultural Group
author: Zuleikha Maya
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.75
book published:
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/10/30
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An excellent cookbook. It also includes anecdotes and tidbits of information about the Indian community in South Africa. My father-in-law had a copy in his library brought to him by friends from South Africa which I borrowed often.


I wish there was a digital version we could buy. Please editors, publishers, whoever owns the copyright, please please make it available internationally.
]]> <![CDATA[The Conquest of Andalusia: A historical novel describing the history of Spain and its circumstances before the Muslim conquest, the conquest itself ... (Novels of Islamic History in Translation)]]> 13740406 386 جرجي زيدان 0615499597 Vivienne 0 4.29 1903 The Conquest of Andalusia: A historical novel describing the history of Spain and its circumstances before the Muslim conquest, the conquest itself ... (Novels of Islamic History in Translation)
author: جرجي زيدان
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1903
rating: 0
read at: 2024/10/27
date added: 2024/10/27
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]]> The Message 210943364
The first of the book’s three intertwining essays is set in Dakar, Senegal. Despite being raised as a strict Afrocentrist, Coates had never set foot on the African continent until now. He roams the “steampunk� city of “old traditions and new machinery,� but everywhere he goes he feels as if he’s in two places at once: a modern city in Senegal and a mythic kingdom in his mind. Finally he travels to the slave castles off the coast and has his own reckoning with the legacy of the Afrocentric dream.

He takes readers along with him to Columbia, South Carolina, where he meets an educator whose job is threatened for teaching one of Coates’s own books. There he discovers a community of mostly white supporters who were transformed by the “racial reckoning� of 2020. But he also explores the backlash to this reckoning and the deeper myths of the community—a capital of the confederacy with statues of segregationists looming over its public squares.

And in Palestine, Coates discovers the devastating gap between the narratives we’ve accepted and the clashing reality of life on the ground. He meets with activists and dissidents, Israelis and Palestinians—the old, who remember their dispossessions on two continents, and the young, who have only known struggle and disillusionment. He travels into Jerusalem, the heart of Zionist mythology, and to the occupied territories, where he sees the reality the myth is meant to hide. It is this hidden story that draws him in and profoundly changes him—and makes the war that would soon come all the more devastating.

Written at a dramatic moment in American and global life, this work from one of the country’s most important writers is about the urgent need to untangle ourselves from the destructive nationalist myths that shape our world—and our own souls—and embrace the liberating power of even the most difficult truths.]]> 232 Ta-Nehisi Coates 0593230388 Vivienne 0 to-read 4.51 2024 The Message
author: Ta-Nehisi Coates
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/26
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]]> Holiday Tides (Wilks Beach) 218531145 Don’t get caught kissing Surfing Santa beneath the mistletoe.

When I moved back to my cozy little beach town, I wasn’t expecting to be next-door to Nick Watson—my former rival. Especially now that he’s an annoyingly attractive renovation foreman who surfs in a custom Santa-red wetsuit.

To be clear, I’m not falling for his charm. Nope. Not happening. I don’t care how many things he fixes in my crumbling cottage or how good he looks while using power tools. I’ve got a boyfriend, thank you very much, even if our relationship is more strained than a tree branch overloaded with ornaments.

But Nick seems determined to prove he’s not the same man who used to torment me. As the town goes full holiday mode—with tree lightings, Christmas parties, and a competitive karaoke contest—I start to see Nick’s softer side, making it impossible to ignore the sizzling tension between us.

With Christmas just days away, it’s time to make a choice—stick with the guy who’s wrong for me or take a chance on the one who’s been right next door all along.

Enjoy the playful banter, mistletoe kisses, and all the Christmas feels of this former rivals, small town, closed-door/kisses-only holiday novella by grabbing your copy TODAY!
Holiday Tides is a standalone novella that shares characters with the Wilks Beach novels.]]> 170 Laura Langa Vivienne 0 to-read 4.18 Holiday Tides (Wilks Beach)
author: Laura Langa
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.18
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]]> Mornings in Jenin 6692041 In the refugee camp of Jenin, Amal is born into a world of loss—of home, country, and heritage. Her Palestinian family was driven from their ancestral village by the newly formed state of Israel in 1948. As the villagers fled that day, Amal's older brother, just a baby, was stolen away by an Israeli soldier. In Jenin, the adults subsist on memories, waiting to return to the homes they love. Amal's mother has walled away her heart with grief, and her father labors all day. But in the fleeting peacefulness of dawn, he reads to his young daughter daily, and she can feel his love for her, "as big as the ocean and all its fishes." On those quiet mornings, they dream together of a brighter future.

This is Amal's story, the story of one family's struggle and survival through over sixty years of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, carrying us from Jenin to Jerusalem, to Lebanon and the anonymity of America. It is a story shaped by scars and fear, but also by the transformative intimacy of marriage and the fierce protectiveness of motherhood. It is a story of faith, forgiveness, and life-sustaining love.

Mornings in Jenin is haunting and heart-wrenching, a novel of vital contemporary importance. Lending human voices to the headlines, it forces us to take a fresh look at one of the defining political conflicts of our lifetimes.]]> 331 Susan Abulhawa 1608190463 Vivienne 0 to-read 4.49 2006 Mornings in Jenin
author: Susan Abulhawa
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2006
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]]> <![CDATA[‫جح� الضاحك المضحك� (Arabic Edition)]]> 37791108 Information not available 144 عباس محمود العقاد Vivienne 0 to-read 3.30 1956 ‫جحا الضاحك المضحك‬ (Arabic Edition)
author: عباس محمود العقاد
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.30
book published: 1956
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/26
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]]> Like Mother, Like Mother 203164564
Detroit, 1960. Lila Pereira is two years old when her angry, abusive father has her mother committed to an asylum. Lila never sees her mother again. Three decades later, having mustered everything she has—brains, charm, talent, blond hair—Lila rises to the pinnacle of American media as the powerful, brilliant executive editor of The Washington Globe. Lila unapologetically prioritizes her career, leaving the rearing of her daughters to her generous husband, Joe. He doesn’t mind—until he does.

But Grace, their youngest daughter, feels abandoned. She wishes her mother would attend PTA meetings, not White House correspondents� dinners. As she grows up, she cannot shake her resentment. She wants out from under Lila’s shadow, yet the more she resists, the more Lila seems to shape her life. Grace becomes a successful reporter, even publishing a bestselling book about her mother. In the process of writing it, she realizes how little she knows about her own family. Did Lila’s mother, Grace’s grandmother, die in that asylum? Is refusal to look back the only way to create a future? How can you ever be yourself, Grace wonders, if you don’t know where you came from?

Spanning generations, and populated by complex, unforgettable characters, Like Mother, Like Mother is an exhilarating, portrait of family, marriage, ambition, power, the stories we inherit, and the lies we tell to become the people we believe we’re meant to be.]]> 336 Susan Rieger 0525512497 Vivienne 0 to-read 3.76 2024 Like Mother, Like Mother
author: Susan Rieger
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2024
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date added: 2024/10/22
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]]> <![CDATA[Drop Out And Get Schooled: The Case for Thinking Twice About College]]> 34114539

The purpose of this book is to start an important dialogue about college education. I will make the case for why I believe 70% of college students should drop out. The concept of giving our trust to the educational system without accountability has not worked. I believe it’s time to ask serious


- Why do we go to college in the first place?


- Who should go to college and who shouldn’t?


- Can I succeed and do great things without college?


- Why do tuition and textbooks cost as much as they do?


- Have colleges simply become a big business (with tax-free status)?


- Are the subjects taught in college sufficient for life or do we need an upgrade?


Let me clarify something, this is NOT a book that declares that higher education is a terrible thing. Many professions require it, but I believe education can and does take place in many forms. As a college dropout and an autodidact, I’ve read over 1,200 books in the last 15 years and believe there are many paths we can take to get educated and do great things.


Fair You may have passionate feelings about the points in this book. Regardless of how strong you feel one way or another, my desired outcome is to start a broad dialogue so we can process the issues � together.


Ready?


Written by Patrick Bet-David with Thomas Ellsworth]]> 131 Patrick Bet-David 0997441046 Vivienne 0 to-read 3.92 2017 Drop Out And Get Schooled: The Case for Thinking Twice About College
author: Patrick Bet-David
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2017
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date added: 2024/10/20
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]]> Every House is Haunted 61426510
In this brilliant debut collection, Ian Rogers explores the border-places between our world and the dark reaches of the supernatural. A mysterious double murder draws the attention of an insurance company with a special interest in the paranormal. A honeymoon cabin with an unspeakable appetite finally meets its match. A suburban home is transformed into the hunting ground for a new breed of spider. A nightmarish jazz club at the crossroads of reality plays host to those who can break a deal with the devil...for a price. With remarkable deftness, Rogers draws together the deadly and the disturbing in twenty-two showcase stories that will guide you through terrain at once familiar and startlingly fresh.]]> 328 Ian Rogers 1587678454 Vivienne 0 to-read 3.58 2012 Every House is Haunted
author: Ian Rogers
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2012
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date added: 2024/10/18
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]]> The Dissonance 200555190 A Cosmology of Monsters comes an epic contemporary fantasy: a story of dark magic, terrible mistakes, and second chances.

"You can never go home again," the saying goes—but Hal, Athena, and Erin have to. In high school, the three were students of the eccentric Professor Marsh, trained in a secret system of magic known as the Dissonance, which is built around harnessing negative emotions: alienation, anger, pain. Then, twenty years ago, something happened that shattered their coven, scattering them across the country, stuck in mundane lives, alone.

But now, terrifying signs and portents (not to mention a pointed Facebook invite) have summoned them back to Clegg, Texas. There, their paths will collide with that of Owen, a closeted teenager from Alabama whose aborted cemetery seance with his crush summoned something far worse: a murderous entity whose desperate, driving purpose includes kidnapping Owen to serve as its Renfield. As Owen tries to outwit his new master, and Hal, Athena, and Erin reckon with how the choices they made as teens might connect to the apocalyptic event unfurling over the Lone Star State, shocking alliances form, old and new romances brew, and three unsuccessful adults and one frightened teen are all that stand between reality and oblivion.

From one of the boldest, most brilliant voices in modern fantastical horror, The Dissonance is a thrilling and beautifully written story of magic and monsters, forgiveness and friendship.]]> 475 Shaun Hamill 0593317254 Vivienne 0 to-read 3.80 2024 The Dissonance
author: Shaun Hamill
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2024
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]]> The Baby 210678087
The day I was told I’d never be able to have a child, my world came crashing down. My husband says he still loves me but I lie awake at night, wishing we could have a family.

One morning, my husband’s side of the bed is cold and empty. I hear a noise and head downstairs.

In the middle of the rug in my living room is a wooden drawer. Swaddled inside, with perfect rosy cheeks and beautiful round blue eyes, a baby gazes up at me.

I shiver. It’s all I’ve ever wanted, but this baby is not mine�

An absolutely addictive page-turner with heart-pounding twists from beginning to end. Fans ofThe Woman in the Window,Freida McFadden and Lisa Jewellwon’t be able toput this jaw-dropping psychological thriller down!]]> 310 A.J. McDine 1835250122 Vivienne 0 to-read 3.92 The Baby
author: A.J. McDine
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.92
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rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/12
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]]> <![CDATA[Legends and Lipstick: My Scandalous Stories of Hollywood's Golden Era]]> 34446017
Her life is one of stunning extremes. The author tells her whole story of what it was like to have love affairs with the likes of Paul Newman, Errol Flynn, Tommy Smothers, Rod Taylor, Vince Edwards, and Hugh O’Brian, plus exciting friendships with the Rat Pack, Judy Garland, Bobby Kennedy, Jay Sebring, Elizabeth Taylor, John Wayne, and Marilyn Monroe (to name only a few!).]]> 247 Nancy Bacon Vivienne 0 3.44 Legends and Lipstick: My Scandalous Stories of Hollywood's Golden Era
author: Nancy Bacon
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.44
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2024/10/10
date added: 2024/10/10
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]]> <![CDATA[Kingmaker, Kingbreaker: The Omnibus Edition (Kingmaker, Kingbreaker #1-2)]]> 13074864
Despite his humble roots, Asher has grand dreams. And they call him to Dorana, home of princes, beggars, and the warrior mages who have protected the kingdom for generations.

Little does Asher know, however, that his arrival in the city is being closely watched. . .

Kingmaker, Kingbreaker, one of the most popular adventure fantasy series in recent years, is compiled into one volume for the first time. Included in this omnibus edition are: The Innocent Mage and The Awakened Mage.]]> 912 Karen Miller 0316201278 Vivienne 0 to-read 4.03 2012 Kingmaker, Kingbreaker: The Omnibus Edition (Kingmaker, Kingbreaker #1-2)
author: Karen Miller
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/09
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]]> <![CDATA[My Life as a Sister Wife: What You Don't Know Can Hurt You]]> 42793948
How was she lured into such a lifestyle? What was day to day life like in the polygamous community? What eventually drove Miller to seek a new way of life?

My Life As a Sister What You Don't Know Can Hurt You is the gripping, true-life story of Miller's life, beginning with her traumatic childhood and ending with her eventual freedom from a polygamous cult in Utah.]]> 223 Karen Miller 0999859781 Vivienne 0 to-read 3.47 My Life as a Sister Wife: What You Don't Know Can Hurt You
author: Karen Miller
name: Vivienne
average rating: 3.47
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]]> Starter Villain 61885029
Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan.

Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie.

But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they're coming after Charlie. His uncle might have been a stand-up, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing: rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital.

It's up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league of supervillains. But with unionized dolphins, hyperintelligent talking spy cats, and a terrifying henchperson at his side, going bad is starting to look pretty good.

In a dog-eat-dog world...be a cat.]]> 264 John Scalzi 0765389223 Vivienne 0 to-read 4.09 2023 Starter Villain
author: John Scalzi
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> The Vanishing Half 51791252
Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person's decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.]]> 343 Brit Bennett 0525536299 Vivienne 0 to-read 4.11 2020 The Vanishing Half
author: Brit Bennett
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/09
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]]> Light from Uncommon Stars 56179360
Shizuka Satomi made a deal with the to escape damnation, she must entice seven other violin prodigies to trade their souls for success. She has already delivered six. When Katrina Nguyen, a young transgender runaway, catches Shizuka's ear with her wild talent, Shizuka can almost feel the curse lifting. She's found her final candidate. But in a donut shop off a bustling highway in the San Gabriel Valley, Shizuka meets Lan Tran, retired starship captain, interstellar refugee, and mother of four. Shizuka doesn't have time for crushes or coffee dates, what with her very soul on the line, but Lan's kind smile and eyes like stars might just redefine a soul's worth. And maybe something as small as a warm donut is powerful enough to break a curse as vast as the California coastline. As the lives of these three women become entangled by chance and fate, a story of magic, identity, curses, and hope begins, and a family worth crossing the universe for is found.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 372 Ryka Aoki 1250789060 Vivienne 0 to-read 4.03 2021 Light from Uncommon Stars
author: Ryka Aoki
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/09
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]]> Reminders of Him 58346977
The only person who hasn’t closed the door on her completely is Ledger Ward, a local bar owner and one of the few remaining links to Kenna’s daughter. But if anyone were to discover how Ledger is slowly becoming an important part of Kenna’s life, both would risklosing the trust of everyone important to them.

The two form a connection despite thepressure surrounding them, but as their romance grows, so does the risk. Kenna must find a way to absolve the mistakes of her past in order to build a future out of hope and healing.

A troubled young mother yearns for a shot at redemption in this heartbreaking yet hopeful story from #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover.]]> 320 Colleen Hoover Vivienne 0 to-read 4.36 2022 Reminders of Him
author: Colleen Hoover
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Sand Sea 53445772 "An astounding epic novel of J.R.R. Tolkien proportions!"
� Steven Pressfield, Bestselling author of Gates of Fire and The War of Art

Raiders of the Lost Ark playing A Game of Thrones

The Sand Sea takes place on an alternative Earth roiled by war and conquest that mirrors our own Gilded Age. The treasure that ignites greed and folly in this parallel world is not petroleum, but beserite—a mineral of immeasurable value.

Captivated by an ancient prophecy and the call of adventure, inexperienced nobleman and scholar Peter Harmon (think of a young Winston Churchill-like naif) joins an expedition to stake his nation’s claim to a global empire.

Harmon’s destination is a vast and inhospitable desert halfway around the world, dominated by the iron-fisted Grand Vizer Jemojeen Jongdar. A tyrant on a mission to secure the ancient and supernatural Staff of the Ram, the Lion, and the Serpent, Jongdar knows the truth that others can only imagine: The one who controls the staff will possess the power to rule the world.

Before he can seize his destiny, Jongdar must find and destroy the one person capable of thwarting his ambition, the rightful heir to the Sand Sea realm, an innocent woman named Selena Savanar.

Can the brave and indomitable Selena accept her true destiny and rally her people in the eye of a gathering storm? To do so will require her to outwit the man who burned her father alive and left her an orphan and beggar a lifetime ago. Or will Peter Harmon and the cadre of opportunists he rides with conquer the divided empire?

With the mythic structure of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy in a world as rich and real as George R.R. Martin’s Westeros, The Sand Sea is an immersive experience made to order for epic fantasy fans and anyone who enjoys grand-scale historical fiction.]]> 1043 Michael McClellan 1645010228 Vivienne 0 to-read 4.22 2020 The Sand Sea
author: Michael McClellan
name: Vivienne
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/09
shelves: to-read
review:

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