Donna's bookshelf: all en-US Wed, 09 Apr 2025 18:21:57 -0700 60 Donna's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Black Cake 57926137 We can’t choose what we inherit. But can we choose who we become?

In present-day California, Eleanor Bennett’s death leaves behind a puzzling inheritance for her two children, Byron and Benny: a black cake, made from a family recipe with a long history, and a voice recording. In her message, Eleanor shares a tumultuous story about a headstrong young swimmer who escapes her island home under suspicion of murder. The heartbreaking tale Eleanor unfolds, the secrets she still holds back, and the mystery of a long-lost child challenge everything the siblings thought they knew about their lineage and themselves.

Can Byron and Benny reclaim their once-close relationship, piece together Eleanor’s true history, and fulfill her final request to “share the black cake when the time is right�? Will their mother’s revelations bring them back together or leave them feeling more lost than ever?

Charmaine Wilkerson’s debut novel is a story of how the inheritance of betrayals, secrets, memories, and even names can shape relationships and history. Deeply evocative and beautifully written, Black Cake is an extraordinary journey through the life of a family changed forever by the choices of its matriarch.]]>
385 Charmaine Wilkerson Donna 0 currently-reading 4.06 2022 Black Cake
author: Charmaine Wilkerson
name: Donna
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]>
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 Donna 5 4.02 2025 Isola
author: Allegra Goodman
name: Donna
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/09
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Oligarch's Daughter 212995906 From the New York Times bestselling author of House on Fire, a breakneck thriller that marries the dynastic opulence of Succession with the tense and disorienting spy craft of The Americans.

Paul Brightman is a man on the run, living under an assumed name in a small New England town with a million-dollar bounty on his head. When his security is breached, Paul is forced to flee into the New Hampshire wilderness to evade Russian operatives who can seemingly predict his every move.

Six years ago, Paul was a rising star on Wall Street who fell in love with a beautiful photographer named Tatyana—unaware that her father was a Russian oligarch and the object of considerable interest from several US intelligence agencies. Now, to save his own life, Paul must unravel a decades-old conspiracy that extends to the highest reaches of the government.

Rivaling the classic spy novels of the Cold War, The Oligarch’s Daughter is a breakneck thriller built for the frightening world we live in now.]]>
447 Joseph Finder 0063396025 Donna 0 currently-reading 4.17 2025 The Oligarch's Daughter
author: Joseph Finder
name: Donna
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]>
Bitter Passage 208549080 A nineteenth-century Arctic expedition descends into a chilling nightmare in a gripping and epic historical novel of discovery, rescue, deliverance, and survival by any means.

In May 1845, Sir John Franklin, commander of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, departed England to seek a navigable route across the top of the Americas. He and his 128 men never returned.

Four years later, Royal Navy Lieutenant Frederick Robinson and Assistant Surgeon Edward Adams are determined to find the men missing in the Arctic. While they are united in purpose, they are divided in ambition. The pious and idealistic Adams strives to save his boyhood hero. Robinson hungers for promotion through the Admiralty ranks. Weathering a relationship as volatile as the icy, barren land upon which they trek, Robinson and Adams lead a team of seamen in search of the lost expedition. What awaits them is a struggle against not only the elements but each other as loneliness, starvation, and maddening isolation prove more chilling than the deadliest Arctic blast.

A harrowing novel set against the background of true events, Bitter Passage explores two men’s driving need for redemption and the lengths to which a desperate soul will go to survive.]]>
297 Colin Mills 166252059X Donna 0 to-read 3.99 2025 Bitter Passage
author: Colin Mills
name: Donna
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Wind and Truth (The Stormlight Archive, #5)]]> 203578847 The long-awaited explosive climax to the first arc of the #1 New York Times bestselling Stormlight Archive―the iconic epic fantasy masterpiece that has sold more than 10 million copies, from acclaimed bestselling author Brandon Sanderson.

Dalinar Kholin challenged the evil god Odium to a contest of champions with the future of Roshar on the line. The Knights Radiant have only ten days to prepare―and the sudden ascension of the crafty and ruthless Taravangian to take Odium’s place has thrown everything into disarray.

Desperate fighting continues simultaneously worldwide―Adolin in Azimir, Sigzil and Venli at the Shattered Plains, and Jasnah at Thaylen City. The former assassin, Szeth, must cleanse his homeland of Shinovar from the dark influence of the Unmade. He is accompanied by Kaladin, who faces a new battle helping Szeth fight his own demons . . . and who must do the same for the insane Herald of the Almighty, Ishar.

At the same time, Shallan, Renarin, and Rlain work to unravel the mystery behind the Unmade Ba-Ado-Mishram and her involvement in the enslavement of the singer race and in the ancient Knights Radiants killing their spren. And Dalinar and Navani seek an edge against Odium’s champion that can be found only in the Spiritual Realm, where memory and possibility combine in chaos. The fate of the entire Cosmere hangs in the balance.]]>
1344 Brandon Sanderson 1250319188 Donna 5 4.36 2024 Wind and Truth (The Stormlight Archive, #5)
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Donna
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/30
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Death Speech (A Connor Sloane Thriller, #2)]]> 57924469 USA Today bestselling author: It's election season in DC and Connor Sloane is on the hunt for an assassin who has their crosshairs on the President of the United States. If he can’t identify and stop the assassin, the president’s next speech may very well be his last.

-----

"If it's actionable, we act." That's the motto of the clandestine government organization that Connor Sloane works for, and he's called into action when an assassin attempts to remove several of Europe's political leaders.

Things take an unexpected turn when the president's brother, a nuclear weapons expert, is reported missing somewhere in central Africa.

Connor's attention is split between two continents when intelligence comes in indicating that the attacks in Europe were only a practice run for the real target, the President of the United States.

In the meantime, it’s re-election season in the US and the DC political machine is keeping the president unaware of the danger he’s in. Connor scrambles to identify the assassin, who may be closer to the president than anyone knows.

If he can’t identify and stop the assassin, the president’s next speech may very well be his last.

]]>
218 M.A. Rothman Donna 0 4.26 The Death Speech (A Connor Sloane Thriller, #2)
author: M.A. Rothman
name: Donna
average rating: 4.26
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2025/03/24
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:

]]>
We Do Not Part 205673168 Han Kang’s most revelatory book since The Vegetarian, We Do Not Part tells the story of a friendship between two women while powerfully reckoning with a hidden chapter of Korean history.

One winter morning, Kyungha receives an urgent message from her friend Inseon to visit her at a hospital in Seoul. Inseon has injured herself in an accident, and she begs Kyungha to return to Jeju Island, where she lives, to save her beloved pet—a white bird called Ama.

A snowstorm hits the island when Kyungha arrives. She must reach Inseon’s house at all costs, but the icy wind and squalls slow her down as night begins to fall. She wonders if she will arrive in time to save the animal—or even survive the terrible cold that envelops her with every step. Lost in a world of snow, she doesn't yet suspect the vertiginous plunge into the darkness that awaits her at her friend's house.

Blurring the boundaries between dream and reality, We Do Not Part powerfully illuminates a forgotten chapter in Korean history, buried for decades—bringing to light the lost voices of the past to save them from oblivion. Both a hymn to an enduring friendship and an argument for remembering,it is the story of profound love in the face of unspeakable violence—and a celebration of life, however fragile it might be.]]>
272 Han Kang 0593595475 Donna 4 3.95 2021 We Do Not Part
author: Han Kang
name: Donna
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/19
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Dark Mirror (The Bone Season #5)]]> 215118709
Paige Mahoney is outside the Republic of Scion for the first time in more than a decade-but she has no idea how she got to the free world. Half a year has been wiped from her memory.

Her journey back to the revolution soon takes her to Venice, where the Domino Programme has uncovered evidence of a secret Scion plan. Before Paige can return to London, she must help the network unravel the sinister Operation Ventriloquist, which threatens to bring Europe to its knees in weeks.

And it soon becomes clear that the one person who could recover her memories-Arcturus Mesarthim-might also hold the key to thwarting Scion, allowing the revolution to strike an unprecedented blow . . .
]]>
564 Samantha Shannon 1639734848 Donna 0 currently-reading 4.55 2025 The Dark Mirror (The Bone Season #5)
author: Samantha Shannon
name: Donna
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]>
The God of the Woods 199698485 When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide

Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.]]>
490 Liz Moore Donna 4 4.16 2024 The God of the Woods
author: Liz Moore
name: Donna
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/28
date added: 2025/02/28
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Navigator's Children (Last King of Osten Ard #4)]]> 61770506 754 Tad Williams 0756418569 Donna 5 4.71 2024 The Navigator's Children (Last King of Osten Ard #4)
author: Tad Williams
name: Donna
average rating: 4.71
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/20
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Capture or Kill (Mitch Rapp, #23)]]> 207595657 Mitch Rapp faces an Iranian foe bent on destabilizing the Middle East in the newest thriller from Vince Flynn’s #1 New York Times bestselling series, now written by Don Bentley.

April 2011: On a remote mountaintop overlooking the remains of the Iranian nuclear weapons program, Azad Ashani witnesses a Quds Force demonstration of a capability meant to upend America’s war in the Middle East. Ashani, director of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security and Irene Kennedy’s former back channel to the Iranian government, recognizes the demonstration’s true significance, and the nation-ending conflict it will provoke. Alone, Ashani stands no chance of preventing this rush to madness.

But with the help of one man, he just might.

In Washington, DC, CIA director Irene Kennedy briefs the president that the operational window to kill or capture Osama bin Laden at his recently discovered compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan is rapidly closing. But before he’ll authorize a commando raid on Pakistani soil, the president demands irrefutable proof of bin Laden’s presence.

Proof he trusts just one man to provide.

Preventing a looming war in the Middle East while delivering justice for the nearly 3,000 Americans killed on 9/11 would be a big ask for anyone.

Mitch Rapp isn’t just anyone.]]>
459 Don Bentley 1668045869 Donna 0 4.38 2024 Capture or Kill (Mitch Rapp, #23)
author: Don Bentley
name: Donna
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/24
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Cuckoo's Calling (Cormoran Strike, #1)]]> 16160797 456 Robert Galbraith 0316206849 Donna 0 to-read 3.88 2013 The Cuckoo's Calling (Cormoran Strike, #1)
author: Robert Galbraith
name: Donna
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Oath of Loyalty (Mitch Rapp, #21)]]> 60241525
With President Anthony Cook convinced that Mitch Rapp poses a mortal threat to him, CIA Director Irene Kennedy is forced to construct a truce between the two men. The terms are simple: Rapp agrees to leave the country and stay in plain sight for as long as Cook controls the White House. In exchange, the administration agrees not to make any moves against him.

This fragile détente holds until Cook’s power-hungry security adviser convinces him that Rapp has no intention of honoring their agreement. In an effort to put him on the defensive, they leak the true identity of his partner, Claudia Gould. As Rapp races to neutralize the enemies organizing against her, he discovers that a new generation of assassins is on her trail. A killer known to intelligence agencies only as Legion.

The shadowy group has created a business model based on double-blind secrecy. Neither the killer nor the client knows the other’s identity. Because of this, Legion can’t be called off nor can they afford to fail. No matter how long it takes - weeks, months, years - they won’t stand down until their target is dead. Faced with the seemingly impossible task of finding and stopping Legion, Rapp and his people must close ranks against a world that has turned on them.]]>
384 Kyle Mills Donna 0 4.49 2022 Oath of Loyalty (Mitch Rapp, #21)
author: Kyle Mills
name: Donna
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2025/01/17
date added: 2025/01/17
shelves:
review:

]]>
I Was Anastasia 33998348 333 Ariel Lawhon 0385541694 Donna 0 to-read 3.72 2018 I Was Anastasia
author: Ariel Lawhon
name: Donna
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Embers of War (Embers of War, #1)]]> 30748899
But, stripped of her weaponry and emptied of her officers, she struggles in the new role she’s chosen for herself. When a ship goes missing in a disputed system, Trouble Dog and her new crew of misfits and loners, captained by Sal Konstanz, an ex-captain of a medical frigate who once fought against Trouble Dog, are assigned to investigate and save whoever they can.

Meanwhile, light years away, intelligence officer Ashton Childe is tasked with locating and saving the poet, Ona Sudak, who was aboard the missing ship, whatever the cost. In order to do this, he must reach out to the only person he considers a friend, even if he’s not sure she can be trusted. What Childe doesn’t know is that Sudak is not the person she appears to be.

Quickly, what appears to be a straightforward rescue mission turns into something far more dangerous, as Trouble Dog, Konstanz and Childe, find themselves at the centre of a potential new conflict that could engulf not just mankind but the entire galaxy.

If she is to survive and save her crew, Trouble Dog is going to have to remember how to fight.]]>
411 Gareth L. Powell 1785655183 Donna 4 3.78 2018 Embers of War (Embers of War, #1)
author: Gareth L. Powell
name: Donna
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/28
date added: 2024/11/28
shelves:
review:

]]>
Service Model 195790861 To fix the world they first must break it further.

Humanity is a dying breed, utterly reliant on artificial labor and service. When a domesticated robot gets a nasty little idea downloaded into their core programming, they murder their owner. The robot then discovers they can also do something else they never did before: run away. After fleeing the household, they enter a wider world they never knew existed, where the age-old hierarchy of humans at the top is disintegrating, and a robot ecosystem devoted to human wellbeing is finding a new purpose.]]>
376 Adrian Tchaikovsky 1250290287 Donna 5 3.99 2024 Service Model
author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
name: Donna
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/19
date added: 2024/11/19
shelves:
review:
I really enjoyed all the author’s previous books that I had read and had read quite a lot of them, so I automatically bought this one without really reading what it was about. I absolutely loved this! It is funny and engrossing while at the same time, it is frightening especially with the explosion of AI and automation currently underway not to mention the increasing climate issues and inequality. I hope it isn’t prophetic and/or that we have an Uncharles and The Wonk out there to do the right things!! The narration is perfect! Bravo on every level!! Wish I could give it more stars!!
]]>
Tourist Season 13064 404 Carl Hiaasen 0446695718 Donna 0 to-read 3.90 1986 Tourist Season
author: Carl Hiaasen
name: Donna
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1986
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
New York 2140 29570143
The waters rose, submerging New York City.

But the residents adapted and it remained the bustling, vibrant metropolis it had always been. Though changed forever.

Every street became a canal. Every skyscraper an island.

Through the eyes of the varied inhabitants of one building, Kim Stanley Robinson shows us how one of our great cities will change with the rising tides.

And how we too will change.]]>
624 Kim Stanley Robinson 031626234X Donna 0 currently-reading 3.57 2017 New York 2140
author: Kim Stanley Robinson
name: Donna
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/14
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Lasher (Lives of the Mayfair Witches, #2)]]> 9793216 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER •ĚýFrom the beloved author of the Vampire Chronicles, the second installation of her spellbinding Mayfair Chronicles—the inspiration for the hit television series!Ěý“[Anne] Rice’s descriptive writing is so opulent it almost begs to be read by candlelight.”—The Washington Post Book WorldĚýIn seventeenth-century Scotland, the first “witch,â€� Suzanne of the Mayfair, conjured up the spirit she named Lasher—a creation that spelled her own destruction and torments each of her descendants. Now, the beautiful Rowan Mayfair, queen of the coven, must flee from this darkly brutal yet irresistible demon.The magic of the Mayfairs THE WITCHING HOUR â€� LASHER •ĚýTALTOS]]> 642 Anne Rice Donna 5 4.15 1993 Lasher (Lives of the Mayfair Witches, #2)
author: Anne Rice
name: Donna
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1993
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/14
date added: 2024/11/14
shelves:
review:

]]>
Dragonseye (Pern, #13) 177927 join Weyrleaders, Holders, and Craftmasters in the creation of the legendary Star Stones and the teaching ballads of Pern!

It's been two-hundred years since the deadly Thread fell like rain upon Pern, devouring everything in its path. No one alive remembers that first horrific onslaught and no one believes in its return--except for the dragonriders. For two centuries they have been practicing and training, passing down from generation to generation the formidable Threadfighting techniques.

Now the ominous signs are the violent winter storms and volcanic eruptions that are said to herald the approach of the Red Star and its lethal spawn. But one stubborn Lord Holder, Chalkin of Bitra, refuses to believe--and that disbelief could spell disaster. So as the dragonriders desperately train to face a terrifying enemy, they and the other Lord Holders must find a way to deal with Chalkin--before history repeats itself and unleashes its virulence on all of Pern. . . .]]>
353 Anne McCaffrey 0517287773 Donna 5 4.03 1996 Dragonseye (Pern, #13)
author: Anne McCaffrey
name: Donna
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1996
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/14
date added: 2024/11/14
shelves:
review:

]]>
Wild Cards (Wild Cards, #1) 39944975
Back in print after a decade, expanded with new original material, this is the first volume of George R. R. Martin's Wild cards shared-world series

There is a secret history of the world—a history in which an alien virus struck the Earth in the aftermath of World War II, endowing a handful of survivors with extraordinary powers. Some were called Aces—those with superhuman mental and physical abilities. Others were termed Jokers—cursed with bizarre mental or physical disabilities. Some turned their talents to the service of humanity. Others used their powers for evil. Wild Cards is their story.

Originally published in 1987, Wild Cards I includes powerful tales by Roger Zelazny, Walter Jon Williams, Howard Waldrop, Lewis Shiner, and George R. R. Martin himself. And this new, expanded edition contains further original tales set at the beginning of the Wild Cards universe, by eminent new writers like Hugo–winner David Levine, noted screenwriter and novelist Michael Cassutt, and New York Times bestseller Carrie Vaughn.

Now in development for TV!
Rights to develop Wild Cards for TV have been acquired by Universal Cable Productions, the team that brought you The Magicians and Mr. Robot, with the co-editor of Wild Cards, Melinda Snodgrass as executive producer.


The Wild Cards Universe
The Original Triad
#1 Wild Cards
#2 Aces High
#3 Jokers Wild

The Puppetman Quartet
#4: Aces Abroad
#5: Down and Dirty
#6: Ace in the Hole
#7: Dead Man’s Hand

The Rox Triad
#8: One-Eyed Jacks
#9: Jokertown Shuffle
#10: Dealer’s Choice

#11: Double Solitaire
#12: Turn of the Cards

The Card Sharks Triad
#13: Card Sharks
#14: Marked Cards
#15: Black Trump

#16: Deuces Down
#17: Death Draws Five

The Committee Triad
#18: Inside Straight
#19: Busted Flush
#20: Suicide Kings

The Fort Freak Triad
#21: Fort Freak
#22: Lowball
#23: High Stakes

The American Triad
#24: Mississippi Roll
#25: Low Chicago
#26: Texas Hold 'Em


At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]>
575 George R.R. Martin Donna 0 to-read 3.64 1986 Wild Cards (Wild Cards, #1)
author: George R.R. Martin
name: Donna
average rating: 3.64
book published: 1986
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Hell Divers (Hell Divers, #1) 28464896
When one of the remaining airships is damaged in an electrical storm, a Hell Diver team is deployed to a hostile zone called Hades. But there’s something down there far worse than the mutated creatures discovered on dives in the past—something that threatens the fragile future of humanity.]]>
Nicholas Sansbury Smith 1504713958 Donna 4 3.83 2016 Hell Divers (Hell Divers, #1)
author: Nicholas Sansbury Smith
name: Donna
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/15
date added: 2024/11/14
shelves:
review:

]]>
Dragonsteel Prime 210300755 737 Brandon Sanderson Donna 5 3.77 2001 Dragonsteel Prime
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Donna
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/12
date added: 2024/11/11
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[She Walks These Hills (Ballad #3)]]> 26211982 452 Sharyn McCrumb Donna 5 4.56 1994 She Walks These Hills (Ballad #3)
author: Sharyn McCrumb
name: Donna
average rating: 4.56
book published: 1994
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/07
date added: 2024/11/07
shelves:
review:

]]>
Playground 205478762 The Overstory at the height of his skills. Twelve-year-old Evie Beaulieu sinks to the bottom of a swimming pool in Montreal strapped to one of the world’s first aqualungs. Ina Aroita grows up on naval bases across the Pacific with art as her only home. Two polar opposites at an elite Chicago high school bond over a three-thousand-year-old board game; Rafi Young will get lost in literature, while Todd Keane’s work will lead to a startling AI breakthrough.

They meet on the history-scarred island of Makatea in French Polynesia, whose deposits of phosphorus once helped to feed the world. Now the tiny atoll has been chosen for humanity’s next adventure: a plan to send floating, autonomous cities out onto the open sea. But first, the island’s residents must vote to greenlight the project or turn the seasteaders away.

Set in the world’s largest ocean, this awe-filled book explores that last wild place we have yet to colonize in a still-unfolding oceanic game, and interweaves beautiful writing, rich characterization, profound themes of technology and the environment, and a deep exploration of our shared humanity in a way only Richard Powers can.]]>
381 Richard Powers 1324086033 Donna 5 4.16 2024 Playground
author: Richard Powers
name: Donna
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/02
date added: 2024/11/02
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Pandora's Star (Commonwealth Saga #1)]]> 45252 Second Chance, is dispatched to learn what has occurred and whether it represents a threat. In command is Wilson Kime, a five-time rejuvenated ex-NASA pilot whose glory days are centuries behind him.

Opposed to the mission are the Guardians of Selfhood, a cult that believes the human race is being manipulated by an alien entity they call the Starflyer. Bradley Johansson, leader of the Guardians, warns of sabotage, fearing the Starflyer means to use the starship's mission for its own ends.

Pursued by a Commonwealth special agent convinced the Guardians are crazy but dangerous, Johansson flees. But the danger is not averted. Aboard the Second Chance, Kime wonders if his crew has been infiltrated. Soon enough, he will have other worries. A thousand light-years away, something truly incredible is waiting: a deadly discovery whose unleashing will threaten to destroy the Commonwealth... and humanity itself. Could it be that Johansson was right?]]>
768 Peter F. Hamilton 0345461622 Donna 5 4.24 2004 Pandora's Star (Commonwealth Saga #1)
author: Peter F. Hamilton
name: Donna
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/18
date added: 2024/10/18
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Angel of Vengeance (Pendergast, #22)]]> 201763310 Preston & Child continue their #1 bestselling series featuring FBI Special Agent Pendergast and Constance Greene, as they take a final stand against New York’s deadliest serial killer: Pendergast’s own ancestor…and Constance’s greatest enemy. Ěý

A desperate bargain is broken�

Constance Greene confronts Manhattan’s most dangerous serial killer, Enoch Leng, bartering for her sister's life � but she is betrayed and turned away empty-handed, incandescent with rage.

A clever trap is set�

Unknown to Leng, Pendergast’s brother, Diogenes, appears unexpectedly, offering to help � for mysterious reasons of his own. Disguised as a cleric, Diogenes establishes himself in New York's notorious Five Points slum, manipulating events like a chess master, watching Leng’s every move…and awaiting his own chance to strike.

A vengeful angel will not be deterred�

Meanwhile, as Pendergast focuses on saving the unstable Constance in her fanatical quest for vengeance, she strikes out on her own: to rescue her beloved siblings from a tragic fate and take savage retribution on Leng. But Leng is one step ahead and has a surprise for them all…]]>
416 Douglas Preston Donna 0 to-read 4.52 2024 Angel of Vengeance (Pendergast, #22)
author: Douglas Preston
name: Donna
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Fools on the Hill: The Hooligans, Saboteurs, Conspiracy Theorists, and Dunces Who Burned Down the House]]> 203245171 From inside the chamber, bestselling author Dana Milbank exposes the petty, inchoate, and dysfunctional state of the Republican House—a confederacy of dunces racing to the bottom, without shame and certainly without the ability to get anything done.ĚýĚý

On January 3rd, 2023, a slim Republican majority took control of the House of Representatives, and the dysfunction began immediately, when they needed fifteen ballots to elect Kevin McCarthy as Speaker—the longest since the eve of the Civil War. They would then dump McCarthy and spend a month in the wilderness searching for a replacement, only to threaten the understudy with the same fate.ĚýThis is more of a circus than a from Majorie Taylor Greene to George Santos to Jim Jordan, this crowd could find conspiracies everywhere, in space aliens, in the “warâ€� on gas stoves, and in Hunter Biden’s artwork. They would turn Americans against each other, attacking immigrants, members of the LBGTQ community, and even the US military, and they would hijack every bill imaginable with far-right fantasies and crazy ideas. And, yet, they would achieve practically nothing; rather than enact legislation, they would consistently fall into fratricide and petty squabbles, doing everything but the fundamental work required of paying bills, keeping the government running, and protecting national security.

Dana Milbank spent a year reporting from the Capitol and what he witnessed was beyond imagination. It would prove to be the most insane and incompetent Congressional session in living memory. Fools On the Hill is the first book to pull back the veil, and expose all the shenanigans, chaos, and tomfoolery that defines the modern GOP.Ěý It is simultaneously horrifying and laugh-out-loud funny—yet, sadly, all true.
Ěý]]>
366 Dana Milbank 031657094X Donna 5 4.23 Fools on the Hill: The Hooligans, Saboteurs, Conspiracy Theorists, and Dunces Who Burned Down the House
author: Dana Milbank
name: Donna
average rating: 4.23
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/13
date added: 2024/10/12
shelves:
review:

]]>
Alien Clay 199851460
On the distant world of Kiln lie the ruins of an alien civilization. It’s the greatest discovery in humanity’s spacefaring history � yet who were its builders and where did they go?

Professor Arton Daghdev had always wanted to study alien life up close. Then his wishes become a reality in the worst way. His political activism sees him exiled from Earth to Kiln’s extrasolar labour camp. There, he’s condemned to work under an alien sky until he dies.

Kiln boasts a ravenous, chaotic ecosystem like nothing seen on Earth. The monstrous alien life interacts in surprising, sometimes shocking ways with the human body, so Arton will risk death on a daily basis. However, the camp’s oppressive regime might just kill him first. If Arton can somehow escape both fates, the world of Kiln holds a wondrous, terrible secret. It will redefine life and intelligence as he knows it, and might just set him free . . .]]>
416 Adrian Tchaikovsky 0316578983 Donna 0 currently-reading 4.23 2024 Alien Clay
author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
name: Donna
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/29
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]>
The Night Circus 9361589
But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.]]>
506 Erin Morgenstern Donna 4 4.00 2011 The Night Circus
author: Erin Morgenstern
name: Donna
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/29
date added: 2024/09/29
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Magicians (The Magicians, #1)]]> 6101718
Quentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. A senior in high school, he’s still secretly preoccupied with a series of fantasy novels he read as a child, set in a magical land called Fillory. Imagine his surprise when he finds himself unexpectedly admitted to a very secret, very exclusive college of magic in upstate New York, where he receives a thorough and rigorous education in the craft of modern sorcery.

He also discovers all the other things people learn in college: friendship, love, sex, booze, and boredom. Something is missing, though. Magic doesn’t bring Quentin the happiness and adventure he dreamed it would. After graduation he and his friends make a stunning discovery: Fillory is real. But the land of Quentin’s fantasies turns out to be much darker and more dangerous than he could have imagined. His childhood dream becomes a nightmare with a shocking truth at its heart.

At once psychologically piercing and magnificently absorbing, The Magicians boldly moves into uncharted literary territory, imagining magic as practiced by real people, with their capricious desires and volatile emotions. Lev Grossman creates an utterly original world in which good and evil aren’t black and white, love and sex aren’t simple or innocent, and power comes at a terrible price.]]>
402 Lev Grossman 0670020559 Donna 0 to-read 3.53 2009 The Magicians (The Magicians, #1)
author: Lev Grossman
name: Donna
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Peripheral (Jackpot #1) 24611819
Wilf Netherton lives in London, seventy-some years later, on the far side of decades of slow-motion apocalypse. Things are pretty good now, for the haves, and there aren’t many have-nots left. Wilf, a high-powered publicist and celebrity-minder, fancies himself a romantic misfit, in a society where reaching into the past is just another hobby.Ěý

Burton’s been moonlighting online, secretly working security in some game prototype, a virtual world that looks vaguely like London, but a lot weirder. He’s got Flynne taking over shifts, promised her the game’s not a shooter. Still, the crime she witnesses there is plenty bad.

Flynne and Wilf are about to meet one another. Her world will be altered utterly, irrevocably, and Wilf’s, for all its decadence and power, will learn that some of these third-world types from the past can be badass.]]>
485 William Gibson 0425276236 Donna 2 3.77 2014 The Peripheral (Jackpot #1)
author: William Gibson
name: Donna
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2014
rating: 2
read at: 2024/09/21
date added: 2024/09/21
shelves:
review:
I finished it. And I’m so glad to be done. Will never read another. It was a chore!
]]>
Here One Moment 208516656 If you knew your future, would you try to fight fate?

Aside from a delay, there will be no problems. The flight will be smooth, it will land safely. Everyone who gets on the plane will get off. But almost all of them will be forever changed.

Because on this ordinary, short, domestic flight, something extraordinary happens. People learn how and when they are going to die. For some, their death is far in the future—age 103!—and they laugh. But for six passengers, their predicted deaths are not far away at all.

How do they know this? There were ostensibly more interesting people on the flight (the bride and groom, the jittery, possibly famous woman, the giant Hemsworth-esque guy who looks like an off-duty superhero, the frazzled, gorgeous flight attendant) but none would become as famous as “The Death Lady.�

Not a single passenger or crew member will later recall noticing her board the plane. She wasn’t exceptionally old or young, rude or polite. She wasn’t drunk or nervous or pregnant. Her appearance and demeanor were unremarkable. But what she did on that flight was truly remarkable.

A few months later, one passenger dies exactly as she predicted. Then two more passengers die, again, as she said they would. Soon no one is thinking this is simply an entertaining story at a cocktail party.

If you were told you only had a certain amount of time left to live, would you do things differently? Would you try to dodge your destiny?

Liane Moriarty’s Here One Moment is a brilliantly constructed tale that looks at free will and destiny, grief and love, and the endless struggle to maintain certainty and control in an uncertain world. A modern-day Jane Austen who humorously skewers social mores while spinning a web of mystery, Moriarty asks profound questions in her newest I-can’t-wait-to-find-out-what-happens novel.]]>
512 Liane Moriarty 0593798600 Donna 0 to-read 3.99 2024 Here One Moment
author: Liane Moriarty
name: Donna
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Middlemarch 24612058 Ěý
A triumph of realist fiction, George Eliot’s A Study of Provincial Life explores a fictional nineteenth-century Midlands town in the midst of sweeping change. The proposed Reform Bill, the new railroads, and scientific advances are threatening upheaval on every front. Against this backdrop, the quiet drama of ordinary lives is played out by the novel’s complexly portrayed characters—until the arrival of two outsiders further disrupts the town’s equilibrium. Every bit as powerful and perceptive in our time as it was in the Victorian era, Middlemarch Ěýdisplays George Eliot’s clear-eyed yet humane understanding of characters caught up in the mysterious unfolding of self-knowledge.Ěý

In this elegant Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition, Rebecca Mead introduces the novel that shaped her life and reflects on its joys and its timeless relevance.

For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500Ěýtitles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust theĚýseries to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-dateĚýtranslations by award-winning translators.]]>
786 George Eliot 0143107720 Donna 0 to-read 4.33 1872 Middlemarch
author: George Eliot
name: Donna
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1872
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Cage of Souls 40803025
Bearing witness to the desperate struggle for existence between life old and new, is Stefan Advani, rebel, outlaw, prisoner, survivor. This is his testament, an account of the journey that took him into the blazing desolation of the western deserts; that transported him east down the river and imprisoned him in verdant hell of the jungle's darkest heart; that led him deep into the labyrinths and caverns of the underworld. He will treat with monsters, madman, mutants. The question is, which one of them will inherit this Earth?]]>
602 Adrian Tchaikovsky Donna 4 3.98 2019 Cage of Souls
author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
name: Donna
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/13
date added: 2024/09/13
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Weaver's Lament (Symphony of Ages, #9)]]> 26108695 Acclaimed author Elizabeth Haydon returns with a heartbreaking tale of love and valor in The Weaver’s Lament, the ninth and final installment of her USA Today bestselling Symphony of Ages series that began with Rhapsody.
For a thousand years, the lands ruled by the Cymrian Alliance have been at peace. When the brutal death of a dear friend catapults the kingdom to the brink of civil war, Rhapsody finds herself in an impossible forced to choose between her beloved husband, Ashe, and her two oldest friends, Grunthor and Achmed. Choosing her husband will mean the death of thousands of innocents. Siding against him will cost Rhapsody the other half of her soul, both in this life and the next.

In The Weaver's Lament, the lines between the past and future are irrevocably blurred, and the strength of true love is tested in unthinkable ways. Bestselling author Elizabeth Haydon has delivered a spectacular conclusion to the Symphony of Ages.
"A full-scale tale of warfare and political intrigue that high-fantasy fans will enjoy. Fans of the series will be satisfied, and newcomers will find themselves welcome." �Booklist on The Hollow Queen

]]>
352 Elizabeth Haydon 1429949228 Donna 0 to-read 3.96 2016 The Weaver's Lament (Symphony of Ages, #9)
author: Elizabeth Haydon
name: Donna
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The High King of Montival (Emberverse, #7)]]> 8848270 “S. M. Stirling provides another fabulous postapocalyptic thriller to his Change saga.â€� â€� Alternative WorldsRudi Mackenzie traveled to Nantucket, where he found and took up the Sword of the Lady and, with it, his destiny. His return journey to the area known as Montival, in the Pacific Northwest, is a treacherous one since he and his companions must cross three thousand miles, making both allies and adversaries along the way. ĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚý When he reaches his destination, he will face the legions of the Prophet. To achieve victory, Rudi must assemble a coalition of those who were his enemies just months before, then forge them into an army that will rescue his homeland and tear the heart out of the Church Universal and Triumphant once and for all. ĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚý Only then will Rudi be able to come to terms with how the Sword has changed him—as well as the world—and assume his place as Artos, High King of Montival…]]> 528 S.M. Stirling 1101460067 Donna 4 3.94 2010 The High King of Montival (Emberverse, #7)
author: S.M. Stirling
name: Donna
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/09/12
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Life Impossible 198281740
“What looks like magic is simply a part of life we don’t understand yet…�

When retired math teacher Grace Winters is left a run-down house on a Mediterranean island by a long-lost friend, curiosity gets the better of her. She arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook and no plan.

Among the rugged hills and golden beaches of the island, Grace searches for answers about her friend’s life, and how it ended. What she uncovers is stranger than she could have dreamed. But to dive into this impossible truth, Grace must first come to terms with her past.

Filled with wonder and wild adventure, this is a story of hope and the life-changing power of a new beginning.]]>
324 Matt Haig 0593489276 Donna 4 3.45 2024 The Life Impossible
author: Matt Haig
name: Donna
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/08
date added: 2024/09/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
Nuclear War: A Scenario 186490031 In only one scenario could the world as we know it end in a matter of that is nuclear war. And one of the triggers for that war would be a nuclear missile inbound towards the United States.Every generation, a journalist has looked deep into the heart of the nuclear military the technologies, the safeguards, the plans, and the risks. These projects are vital to how we understand the world we really live where one nuclear missile begets one in return; where the choreography of the world’s end requires massive decisions made on seconds-notice, with information that is only as good as the intelligence we have.Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear A Scenario explores this ticking clock scenario, based on dozens of new interviews with military and civilian experts who have built the weapons; created the response plans; and been responsible for those decisions should they need to have been made. Nuclear A Scenario is unlike any other book in its depth and urgency.]]> 400 Annie Jacobsen 0593476107 Donna 3 4.55 2024 Nuclear War: A Scenario
author: Annie Jacobsen
name: Donna
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/06
date added: 2024/09/06
shelves:
review:

]]>
Reliquary (Pendergast, #2) 18938240 419 Douglas Preston Donna 0 4.23 1997 Reliquary (Pendergast, #2)
author: Douglas Preston
name: Donna
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at: 2022/01/03
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves:
review:

]]>
Abaddon's Gate (Expanse, #3) 18663149 New York Times bestselling Expanse series.
For generations, the solar system -- Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt -- was humanity's great frontier. Until now. The alien artifact working through its program under the clouds of Venus has appeared in Uranus's orbit, where it has built a massive gate that leads to a starless dark.

Jim Holden and the crew of the Rocinante are part of a vast flotilla of scientific and military ships going out to examine the artifact. But behind the scenes, a complex plot is unfolding, with the destruction of Holden at its core. As the emissaries of the human race try to find whether the gate is an opportunity or a threat, the greatest danger is the one they brought with them.]]>
547 James S.A. Corey 0316235423 Donna 5 4.41 2013 Abaddon's Gate (Expanse, #3)
author: James S.A. Corey
name: Donna
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/26
date added: 2024/08/26
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Mercy of Gods (The Captive's War #1)]]> 202110188
Caught up in academic intrigue and affairs of the heart, Dafyd Alkhor is pleased just to be an assistant to a brilliant scientist and his celebrated research team. ĚýThen the Carryx ships descend, decimating the human population and taking the best and brightest of Anjiin society away to serve on the Carryx homeworld, and Dafyd is swept along with them. They are dropped in the middle of a struggle they barely understand, set in a competition against the other captive species with extinction as the price of failure.

Only Dafyd and a handful of his companions see past the Darwinian contest to the deeper game that they must play to learning to understand â€� and manipulate â€� the Carryx themselves. With a noble but suicidal human rebellion on one hand and strange and murderous enemies on the other, the team pays a terrible price to become the trusted servants of their new rulers. Dafyd Alkhor is a simple man swept up in events that are beyond his control and more vast than his imagination. ĚýHe will become the champion of humanity and its betrayer, the most hated man in history and the guardian of his people. This is where his story begins.]]>
423 James S.A. Corey 0316525553 Donna 5 4.38 2024 The Mercy of Gods (The Captive's War #1)
author: James S.A. Corey
name: Donna
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/15
date added: 2024/08/15
shelves:
review:

]]>
Westport (Nora Carleton) 199481241
A red canoe sits abandoned on Seymour Rock, right where the Saugatuck River hits the Long Island Sound. The elegantly dressed corpse of a woman lies inside�.

It’s been two years since Nora Carleton left the job she loved at the US Attorney’s Office to become lead counsel at Saugatuck Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund. The career change also meant a change of scenery, relocating her to Westport, Connecticut, fifty miles north of New York City. But it was worth it to get her daughter, Sophie, away from the city. Plus, she likes the people she works with. Especially Helen, who recruited Nora because of her skills as an investigator.

Helen is certain that someone inside of Saugatuck is using the company’s secrets for their own advantage, undercutting Saugatuck’s investments and putting the company’s reputation at risk. So when Helen is brutally murdered, Nora suspects she may have gotten too close to an employee with something to hide. What Nora doesn’t anticipate is that she is about to become the prime suspect in the investigation into Helen’s death.

Nora calls in her old colleagues from the US Attorney’s Office, Mafia investigator Benny Dugan and attorney Carmen Garcia. To clear Nora’s name, Benny and Carmen hunt for the evidence that Helen must have found before she died, damning enough to push her killer into action. Instead, they find that Helen carried secrets on every member of the firm and all of them had motive enough to murder. And as Benny sets out to interrogate the team at Saugatuck, Nora examines her history with the company to determine who set her up to take the fall.

A suspenseful and intriguing tale of high finance and murder, Westport is the thrilling follow-up to Central Park West, continuing the saga of Nora Carleton and her investigative team. It further establishes author James Comey as “a bold new talent in the mystery genre� (Harlan Coben).]]>
358 James Comey 1613165250 Donna 5 4.30 2024 Westport (Nora Carleton)
author: James Comey
name: Donna
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/10
date added: 2024/08/10
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[To Green Angel Tower, Part 1 (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, #3)]]> 8148687 To Green Angel Tower is the momentous tour-de-force finale of a ground-breaking series. Replete with war, deception, adventure, sorcery, and romance, To Green Angel Tower brings to a stunning and surprising conclusion Tad Williams' monumental tale of a magical conflict which fractures the very fabric of time and space, turning both humans and Sithi against those of their own blood.

As the evil minions of the undead Sithi Storm King prepare for the kingdom-shattering culmination of their dark sorceries and King Elias is drawn ever deeper into their nightmarish, spell-spun world, the loyal allies of Prince Josua desperately struggle to rally their forces at The Stone of Farewell. And with time running out, the remaining members of the now-devastated League of the Scroll have also gathered there to unravel mysteries from the forgotten past. For if the League can reclaim these age-old secrets of magic long-buried beneath the dusts of time, they may be able to reveal to Josua and his army the only means of striking down the unslayable foe.

But whether or not the League is successful in its quest, the call of battle will lead the valiant followers of Josua Lackhand across storm tossed seas brimming with bloodthirsty kilpa...through forests swarming with those both mind- and soul-lost... through ancient caverns built by legendary Dwarrows...to the haunted halls of Asu'a itself—the Sithi's greatest stronghold!]]>
816 Tad Williams Donna 5 4.32 1993 To Green Angel Tower, Part 1 (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, #3)
author: Tad Williams
name: Donna
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1993
rating: 5
read at: 2017/04/20
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Divergent Series: Complete Collection]]> 18769279 All three books in the #1ĚýNew York TimesĚýbestselling Divergent trilogy are available together for the first time! Perfect for gift givers, collectors, and fans new to the series, the collection includes Divergent, Insurgent, and Allegiant, as well as bonus content: a 48-page guide to the series, including Faction Manifestos, a Faction Quiz and Results, a Q&A with Veronica Roth, playlists, discussion questions, series inspirations, and much more!

Divergent: One choice can transform you. Veronica Roth's #1ĚýNew York TimesĚýbestselling debut is a gripping dystopian tale of electrifying choices, powerful consequences, unexpected romance, and a deeply flawed "perfect society."

Insurgent: One choice can destroy you. Veronica Roth's second #1ĚýNew York TimesĚýbestseller continues the dystopian thrill ride. As war surges in the factions all around her, Tris attempts to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.

Allegiant: The explosive conclusion to Veronica Roth's #1ĚýNew York TimesĚýbestselling Divergent trilogy reveals the secrets of the dystopian world that has captivated millions of readers.

]]>
871 Veronica Roth Donna 3 4.21 The Divergent Series: Complete Collection
author: Veronica Roth
name: Donna
average rating: 4.21
book published:
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:

]]>
Caliban's War (Expanse, #2) 18142735
In the vast wilderness of space, James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante have been keeping the peace for the Outer Planets Alliance. When they agree to help a scientist search war-torn Ganymede for a missing child, the future of humanity rests on whether a single ship can prevent an alien invasion that may have already begun . . .]]>
583 James S.A. Corey Donna 5 4.50 2012 Caliban's War (Expanse, #2)
author: James S.A. Corey
name: Donna
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/04
date added: 2024/08/04
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse, #1)]]> 38213061 From a New York Times bestselling and Hugo award-winning author comes a modern masterwork of science fiction, introducing a captain, his crew, and a detective as they unravel a horrifying solar system wide conspiracy that begins with a single missing girl.Ěý Humanity has colonized the solar system—Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond—but the stars are still out of our reach.

Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, the Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for—and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why.

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

Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries, and secretive corporations—and the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe.]]>
577 James S.A. Corey Donna 5 4.48 2011 Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse, #1)
author: James S.A. Corey
name: Donna
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/27
date added: 2024/07/27
shelves:
review:

]]>
You Shouldn't Be Here 200035241 Two strangers search for the truth behind bizarre occurrences no one else dares to discuss—only to discover that they’re connected by secrets that could destroy them both. A thrilling and twisty novel by the acclaimed author of the Mindy’s Book Studio pick I’ll Stop the World.

When sixteen-year-old Angie Stewart starts hearing a mysterious voice in her house, she’s thrilled at the possibility of a ghost. Finally, something interesting is happening in her boring hometown of East Henderson, Pennsylvania. But why is she the only one who can hear it? And what does it want from her?

Meanwhile, first-year teacher Madelyn Zhao just got the keys to her new home, which is located close to her job, within walking distance of a dog park—and, most importantly, in the town where her cousin went missing several years ago. No one in East Henderson wants to talk about what happened, but Madelyn is determined to find answers.

As the two strangers search for clues, their investigations begin to point toward the same dark place. But by the time they realize that the truth could be deadly, it’s too late to turn back. And someone out there will stop at nothing to make sure their secrets stay buried.]]>
381 Lauren Thoman 166251770X Donna 4 3.71 2024 You Shouldn't Be Here
author: Lauren Thoman
name: Donna
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/19
date added: 2024/07/19
shelves:
review:

]]>
Central Park West 95586476
When a years-long case against a powerful mobster finally cracks and an unimpeachable witness takes the stand, federal prosecutor Nora Carleton is looking forward to putting the defendant away for good. The mobster, though, has other plans. As the witness’s testimony concludes, a note is passed to the prosecution offering up information into the assassination of a disgraced former New York governor, murdered in his penthouse apartment just days before. It’s enough to blow the case wide open, and to send Nora into a high-stakes investigation of conspiracy, corruption, and danger.

Drawing from the author’s decades in federal law enforcement, including his years in Manhattan as a mob prosecutor and later the chief federal prosecutor, Central Park West is a fast-paced legal thriller with an intriguing plot enriched by real-life details and experiences. That unique perspective gives the novel much of its allure, but it’s the unforgettable characters, shocking twists, and courtroom scenes as authentic as they are dramatic that will leave readers looking forward to more from this bold new talent in the genre.]]>
335 James Comey 1613164041 Donna 4 4.16 2023 Central Park West
author: James Comey
name: Donna
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/09
date added: 2024/07/09
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[On Call: A Doctor's Journey in Public Service]]> 207689829 The memoir by the doctor who became a beacon of hope for millions through the COVID pandemic, and whose six-decade career in high-level public service put him in the room with seven presidents

Anthony Fauci is arguably the most famous � and most revered � doctor in the world today. His role guiding America sanely and calmly through Covid (and through the torrents of Trump) earned him the trust of millions during one of the most terrifying periods in modern American history, but this was only the most recent of the global epidemics in which Dr. Fauci played a major role. His crucial role in identifying HIV and bringing AIDS into sympathetic public view and his leadership in navigating the Ebola, SARS, West Nile, and anthrax crises make him truly an American hero.

His memoir reaches back to his boyhood in Brooklyn, New York, and carries through decades of caring for critically ill patients, navigating the whirlpools of Washington politics, and behind-the-scenes advising and negotiating with seven presidents on key issues from global AIDS relief to infectious diseaseĚýpreparedness at home. On Call will be an inspiration for readers who admire and are grateful to him and for those who want to emulate him in public service. He is the embodiment of “speaking truth to power,â€� with dignity and results.]]>
464 Anthony Fauci 0593657470 Donna 5 4.47 2024 On Call: A Doctor's Journey in Public Service
author: Anthony Fauci
name: Donna
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/08
date added: 2024/07/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Theft of Swords (The Riyria Revelations, #1-2)]]> 10790290
Can a self-serving thief and an idealistic swordsman survive long enough to unravel the first part of an ancient mystery that has toppled kings and destroyed empires?

And so begins the first tale of treachery and adventure, sword fighting and magic, myth and legend.

When author Michael J. Sullivan self-published the first books of his Riyria Revelations, they rapidly became ebook bestsellers. Now, Orbit is pleased to present the complete series for the first time in bookstores everywhere.]]>
691 Michael J. Sullivan 0316187747 Donna 3 4.23 2011 Theft of Swords (The Riyria Revelations, #1-2)
author: Michael J. Sullivan
name: Donna
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/04
date added: 2024/07/04
shelves:
review:

]]>
North Woods 71872930
When a pair of young lovers abscond from a Puritan colony, little do they know that their humble cabin in the woods will become home to an extraordinary succession of inhabitants . An English soldier, destined for glory, abandons the battlefields of the New World to devote himself to apples. A pair of spinster twins survive war and famine, only to succumb to envy and desire.ĚýA crime reporter unearths a mass grave, but finds the ancient trees refuse to give up their secrets. A lovelorn painter, a conman, a stalking panther, a lusty beetle; as each one confronts the mysteries of the north woods, they come to realize that the dark, raucous, beautiful past is very much alive.

Traversing cycles of history, nature, and even literature, North Woods shows the myriad, magical ways in which we’re connected to our environment and to one another, across time, language and space. Written along with the seasons and divided into the twelve months of the year, it is an unforgettable novel about secrets and fates that asks the timeless how do we live on, even after we’re gone?]]>
372 Daniel Mason 0593597036 Donna 4 4.12 2023 North Woods
author: Daniel Mason
name: Donna
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/01
date added: 2024/07/01
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1)]]> 50659467
At least, he’s not a beast all the time.

As she adapts to her new home, her feelings for the faerie, Tamlin, transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But something is not right in the faerie lands. An ancient, wicked shadow is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it, or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.

From bestselling author Sarah J. Maas comes a seductive, breathtaking book that blends romance, adventure, and faerie lore into an unforgettable read.]]>
419 Sarah J. Maas 1635575567 Donna 3 4.16 2015 A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Donna
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/28
date added: 2024/06/28
shelves:
review:

]]>
Eruption 199372731
“The book is a classic summer beach read...Eruption will revive the art of speed-reading...told with a singular voice that is a compelling amalgam of the two writers.”—USA Today

“Eruption is an epic thriller…fast-paced and deeply considered…a cinematic story rooted in science and infused with plenty of heart, tackling big themes like love and loss.�
–Tľ±łľ±đ

The master of the techno-blockbuster joins forces with the master of the modern thriller to create the most anticipated mega bestseller in years.

Michael Crichton, creator of Jurassic Park, ER, Twister, and Westworld, had a passion project he’d been pursuing for years, ahead of his untimely passing in 2008. Knowing how special it was, his wife, Sherri Crichton, held back his notes and the partial manuscript until she found the right author to complete it: James Patterson, the world’s most popular storyteller.

“Red-hot storytelling... The action scenes will make readers� eyes pop as the tension continues to build." –Kirkus, starred review

“Explosive…the summer’s ultimate literary mashup.� —Washington Post

"Takes readers on a thrilling journey." —BBC

"Beachbag-ready." —Boston Globe

“A seismic publishing event…all the elements of a summer blockbuster…it’s a thrill and the pages practically turn themselves.� —Associated Press

“Eruption is this summer’s literary version of a blockbuster action movie.� –Los Angeles Times

"Breakneck and plausible." —Publishers Weekly]]>
423 James Patterson 0316565083 Donna 4 3.79 2024 Eruption
author: James Patterson
name: Donna
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/23
date added: 2024/06/27
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers, #1)]]> 26042767 Follow a motley crew on an exciting journey through space—and one adventurous young explorer who discovers the meaning of family in the far reaches of the universe—in this light-hearted debut space opera from a rising sci-fi star.

Rosemary Harper doesn’t expect much when she joins the crew of the aging Wayfarer. While the patched-up ship has seen better days, it offers her a bed, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and most importantly, some distance from her past. An introspective young woman who learned early to keep to herself, she’s never met anyone remotely like the ship’s diverse crew, including Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, chatty engineers Kizzy and Jenks who keep the ship running, and Ashby, their noble captain.

Life aboard the Wayfarer is chaotic and crazy—exactly what Rosemary wants. It’s also about to get extremely dangerous when the crew is offered the job of a lifetime. Tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet is definitely lucrative and will keep them comfortable for years. But risking her life wasn’t part of the plan. In the far reaches of deep space, the tiny Wayfarer crew will confront a host of unexpected mishaps and thrilling adventures that force them to depend on each other. To survive, Rosemary’s got to learn how to rely on this assortment of oddballs—an experience that teaches her about love and trust, and that having a family isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the universe.

]]>
423 Becky Chambers Donna 5 4.26 2014 The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers, #1)
author: Becky Chambers
name: Donna
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/19
date added: 2024/06/19
shelves:
review:

]]>
Dragonslayer (Convergence #2) 157346360 449 Craig Alanson Donna 4 4.28 2023 Dragonslayer (Convergence #2)
author: Craig Alanson
name: Donna
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/15
date added: 2024/06/15
shelves:
review:

]]>
Convergence (Convergence #1) 61189261 I’m a wizard. The world’s only wizard, as far as I know. I don’t have a wand or a sword, and I don’t ride a dragon. I carry a Glock 9MM, and drive around in a beat-up RV, with a talking dog.
Yeah. The talking dog was a surprise to me too. Duke is inhabited by the spirit of a 3,000-year-old wizard from Babylon, and he’s a good dog, but he is still a dog, and that’s a problem. Like, he still thinks squirrels are his mortal enemy. And that I don’t feed him enough. How did the spirit of an ancient wizard reach across time?
I don’t know.
The truth is, I’m not much of a wizard, because there’s not much magic in the world for me to work with.
But there used to be magic.
And magic is coming back, as our world converges with the Nether.
Unless I can stop it.]]>
565 Craig Alanson Donna 4 4.18 2022 Convergence (Convergence #1)
author: Craig Alanson
name: Donna
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/30
date added: 2024/05/30
shelves:
review:

]]>
Deep River 36395451 Three Finnish siblings head for the logging fields of nineteenth-century America in the New York Times–bestselling author’s “commanding historical epic� (Washington Post).Born into a farm family, the three Koski siblings—Ilmari, Matti, and Aino—are raised to maintain their grit and resiliency in the face of hardship. This lesson in sisu takes on special meaning when their father is arrested by imperial Russian authorities, never to be seen again. Lured by the prospects of the Homestead Act, Ilmari and Matti set sail for America, while young Aino, feeling betrayed and adrift after her Marxist cell is exposed, follows soon after.The brothers establish themselves among a logging community in southern Washington, not far from the Columbia River. In this New World, they each find themselves—Ilmari as the family’s spiritual rock; Matti as a fearless logger and entrepreneur; and Aino as a fiercely independent woman and union activist who is willing to make any sacrifice for the cause that sustains her.Layered with fascinating historical detail, this novel bears witness to the stump-ridden fields that the loggers—and the first waves of modernity—leave behind. At its heart, Deep River explores the place of the individual, and of the immigrant, in an America still in the process of defining its own identity.]]> 820 Karl Marlantes 0802146198 Donna 4 4.22 2019 Deep River
author: Karl Marlantes
name: Donna
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/20
date added: 2024/05/20
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Winter Orphans 59816588 A poignant and ultimately triumphant novel based on the incredible true story of children who braved the formidable danger of guarded, wintry mountain passes in France to escape the Nazis, from the acclaimed author of Courage, My Love.

In a remote corner of France, Jewish refugee Ella Rosenthal has finally reached safety. It has been three years since she and her little sister, Hanni, left their parents to flee Nazi Germany, and they have been pursued and adrift in the chaos of war ever since. Now they shelter among one hundred other young refugees in a derelict castle overseen by the Swiss Red Cross.

Swiss volunteers Rösli Näf and Anne-Marie Piguet uphold a common mission: to protect children in peril. Rösli, a stubborn and resourceful nurse, directs the colony of Château de la Hille, and has created a thriving community against all odds. Anne-Marie, raised by Swiss foresters, becomes both caretaker and friend to the children, and she vows to do whatever is necessary to keep them safe.

However, when Germany invades southern France, safeguarding Jewish refugees becomes impossible. Château de la Hille faces unrelenting danger, and Rösli and Anne-Marie realize that the only way to protect the eldest of their charges is to smuggle them out of France. Relying on Rösli's fierce will and Anne-Marie's knowledge of secret mountain paths, they plot escape routes through vast Nazi-occupied territory to the distant border. Amid staggering risk, Ella and Hanni embark on a journey that, if successful, could change the course of their lives and grant them a future.]]>
336 Kristin Beck 0593101596 Donna 4 4.50 2022 The Winter Orphans
author: Kristin Beck
name: Donna
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/05
date added: 2024/05/05
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive, #4)]]> 17250966 The eagerly awaited sequel to the #1 New York Times bestselling Oathbringer, from epic fantasy author Brandon Sanderson

After forming a coalition of human resistance against the enemy invasion, Dalinar Kholin and his Knights Radiant have spent a year fighting a protracted, brutal war. Neither side has gained an advantage, and the threat of a betrayal by Dalinar's crafty ally Taravangian looms over every strategic move.

Now, as new technological discoveries by Navani Kholin's scholars begin to change the face of the war, the enemy prepares a bold and dangerous operation. The arms race that follows will challenge the very core of the Radiant ideals, and potentially reveal the secrets of the ancient tower that was once the heart of their strength.

At the same time that Kaladin Stormblessed must come to grips with his changing role within the Knights Radiant, his Windrunners face their own problem: As more and more deadly enemy Fused awaken to wage war, no more honorspren are willing to bond with humans to increase the number of Radiants. Adolin and Shallan must lead the coalition’s envoy to the honorspren stronghold of Lasting Integrity and either convince the spren to join the cause against the evil god Odium, or personally face the storm of failure.]]>
1231 Brandon Sanderson Donna 5 4.66 2020 Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive, #4)
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Donna
average rating: 4.66
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/23
date added: 2024/04/23
shelves:
review:

]]>
Relic 36960178 The last known human searches the galaxy for companionship in a brilliant standalone novel from the legendary author of the Pip & Flinx series.

Once Homo sapiens reigned supreme, spreading from star system to star system in an empire that encountered no alien life and thus knew no enemy . . . save itself. As had happened many times before, the basest, most primal human instincts rose up, only this time armed with the advanced scientific knowledge to create a genetically engineered smart virus that quickly wiped out humanity to the last man.

That man is Ruslan, the sole known surviving human being in the universe. Rescued from the charnel house of his home planet by the Myssari--an intelligent alien race--Ruslan spends his days as something of a cross between a research subject and a zoo attraction. Though the Myssari are determined to resurrect the human race, using Ruslan's genetic material, all he wants for himself and his species is oblivion. But then the Myssari make Ruslan an extraordinary offer: In exchange for his cooperation, they will do everything in their considerable power to find the lost home world of his species--an all-but-mythical place called Earth--and, perhaps, another living human.

Thus begins an epic journey of adventure, danger, heartbreak, and hope, as Ruslan sets out in search of a place that may no longer exist--drawn by the slimmest yet most enduring hope.

Advance praise for Relic

"Relic is a thrilling and thoughtful epic. With Alan Dean Foster's trademark invention in both the psychology and physiology of his aliens, he also enriches the narrative with their complex cultures. The plot spans galaxies!"--Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Greg Bear

"The stunning plot of Foster's stand-alone novel will intrigue readers for not only the 'last man in the universe' trope but also the well-developed alien species. A true first contact novel on many different levels."--Library Journal

"Foster's sympathetic novel successfully surveys human frailty, the tendency not to learn from history, and an enduring capacity for adaptation and emotional attachment." --Publishers Weekly ]]>
320 Alan Dean Foster 1101967633 Donna 4 3.60 2018 Relic
author: Alan Dean Foster
name: Donna
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/16
date added: 2024/04/15
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries, #2)]]> 36223860 alternate cover for ISBN 9781250186928

It has a dark past � one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it to christen itself “Murderbot." But it has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more.

Teaming up with a Research Transport vessel named ART (you don’t want to know what the “A� stands for), Murderbot heads to the mining facility where it went rogue.

What it discovers will forever change the way it thinks.]]>
158 Martha Wells Donna 4 4.23 2018 Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries, #2)
author: Martha Wells
name: Donna
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/03
date added: 2024/03/03
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)]]> 32758901 "As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure."

In a corporate-dominated space-faring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. For their own safety, exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids. But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.

On a distant planet, a team of scientists is conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied â€droid--a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.â€� Scornful of humans, Murderbot wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is, but when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and Murderbot to get to the truth.]]>
144 Martha Wells Donna 4 4.11 2017 All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)
author: Martha Wells
name: Donna
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/02
date added: 2024/03/02
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Oathbringer (The Stormlight Archive, #3)]]> 34039808 ASIN B01NAWAH85 moved to the more recent edition

In Oathbringer humanity faces a new Desolation with the return of the Voidbringers, a foe with numbers as great as their thirst for vengeance.

Dalinar Kholin’s Alethi armies won a fleeting victory at a terrible cost: The enemy Parshendi summoned the violent Everstorm, which now sweeps the world with destruction, and in its passing awakens the once peaceful and subservient parshmen to the horror of their millennia-long enslavement by humans. While on a desperate flight to warn his family of the threat, Kaladin Stormblessed must come to grips with the fact that the newly kindled anger of the parshmen may be wholly justified.

Nestled in the mountains high above the storms, in the tower city of Urithiru, Shallan Davar investigates the wonders of the ancient stronghold of the Knights Radiant and unearths dark secrets lurking in its depths. And Dalinar realizes that his holy mission to unite his homeland of Alethkar was too narrow in scope. Unless all the nations of Roshar can put aside Dalinar’s blood-soaked past and stand together—and unless Dalinar himself can confront that past—even the restoration of the Knights Radiant will not prevent the end of civilization.

]]>
1220 Brandon Sanderson Donna 5 4.68 2017 Oathbringer (The Stormlight Archive, #3)
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Donna
average rating: 4.68
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/25
date added: 2024/02/25
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Oryx and Crake (MaddAddam, #1)]]> 40605829 Oryx and Crake is at once an unforgettable love story and a compelling vision of the future. Snowman, known as Jimmy before mankind was overwhelmed by a plague, is struggling to survive in a world where he may be the last human, and mourning the loss of his best friend, Crake, and the beautiful and elusive Oryx whom they both loved. In search of answers, Snowman embarks on a journey–with the help of the green-eyed Children of Crake–through the lush wilderness that was so recently a great city, until powerful corporations took mankind on an uncontrolled genetic engineering ride. Margaret Atwood projects us into a near future that is both all too familiar and beyond our imagining.]]> 400 Margaret Atwood Donna 1 3.99 2003 Oryx and Crake (MaddAddam, #1)
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Donna
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2003
rating: 1
read at: 2024/02/19
date added: 2024/02/19
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive, #2)]]> 20150777 ASIN B00DA6YEKS moved to the more recent edition

Brandon Sanderson's The Stormlight Archive sequence began in 2010 with the New York Times bestseller The Way of Kings. Now, the eagerly anticipated Words of Radiance continues the epic story and answers many of your questions.

Six years ago, the Assassin in White, a hireling of the inscrutable Parshendi, assassinated the Alethi king on the very night a treaty between men and Parshendi was being celebrated. So began the Vengeance Pact among the highprinces of Alethkar and the War of Reckoning against the Parshendi.

Now the Assassin is active again, murdering rulers all over the world of Roshar, using his baffling powers to thwart every bodyguard and elude all pursuers. Among his prime targets is Highprince Dalinar, widely considered the power behind the Alethi throne. His leading role in the war would seem reason enough, but the Assassin's master has much deeper motives.

Expected by his enemies to die the miserable death of a military slave, Kaladin survived to be given command of the royal bodyguards, a controversial first for a low-status "darkeyes." Now he must protect the king and Dalinar from every common peril as well as the distinctly uncommon threat of the Assassin, all while secretly struggling to master remarkable new powers that are somehow linked to his honorspren, Syl.

Brilliant but troubled Shallan strives along a parallel path. Despite being broken in ways she refuses to acknowledge, she bears a terrible burden: to somehow prevent the return of the legendary Voidbringers and the civilization-ending Desolation that will follow. The secrets she needs can be found at the Shattered Plains, but just arriving there proves more difficult than she could have imagined.

Meanwhile, at the heart of the Shattered Plains, the Parshendi are making an epochal decision. Hard pressed by years of Alethi attacks, their numbers ever shrinking, they are convinced by their war leader, Eshonai, to risk everything on a desperate gamble with the very supernatural forces they once fled. The possible consequences for Parshendi and humans alike, indeed, for Roshar itself, are as dangerous as they are incalculable.

The doors of the Stormlight Archive first opened to us with The Way of Kings. Read that book � now available in all formats � and then Words of Radiance, and you can be part of the adventure every dazzling step of the way.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]>
1088 Brandon Sanderson Donna 5 4.77 2014 Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive, #2)
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Donna
average rating: 4.77
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/01
date added: 2024/02/01
shelves:
review:

]]>
Cassiel's Servant 62645882
Returning to the realm of Terre d’Ange which captured an entire generation of fantasy readers, New York Times bestselling author Jacqueline Carey brings us a hero’s journey for a new era.

In Kushiel’s Dart , a daring young courtesan uncovered a plot to destroy her beloved homeland. But hers is only half the tale. Now see the other half of the heart that lived it.

Cassiel’s Servant is a retelling of cult favorite Kushiel’s Dar t from the point of view of Joscelin, Cassiline warrior-priest and protector of Phèdre nó Delaunay. He’s sworn to celibacy and the blade as surely as she’s pledged to pleasure, but the gods they serve have bound them together. When both are betrayed, they must rely on each other to survive.

From his earliest training to captivity amongst their enemies, his journey with Phèdre to avert the conquest of Terre D’Ange shatters body and mind� and brings him an impossible love that he will do anything to keep.

Even if it means breaking all vows and losing his soul.

“Decadent and dark, Cassiel’s Servant reveals the secrets of the mysterious Cassiline brotherhood. In this gorgeously realized novel, Carey returns to the world of Terre d’Ange and offers us a new and dazzling perspective on a character we thought we knew.”—Nghi Vo, author of The Chosen and the Beautiful and Siren Queen

Kushiel's Legacy
#1 Kushiel's Dart
#2 Kushiel's Chosen
#3 Kushiel's Avatar

Standalones
Miranda and Caliban
Starless

The Sundering
#1 Banewreaker
#2 Godslayer

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]>
520 Jacqueline Carey 1250208351 Donna 4 4.48 2023 Cassiel's Servant
author: Jacqueline Carey
name: Donna
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/29
date added: 2024/01/29
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)]]> 51901147
The odds are against him. He's been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined -- every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute... and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.]]>
541 Suzanne Collins Donna 1 3.99 2020 The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Donna
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2020
rating: 1
read at: 2024/01/09
date added: 2024/01/14
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Doors of Eden 48643567
When government physicist Kay Amal Khan is attacked, the security services investigate. This leads MI5’s Julian Sabreur deep into terrifying new territory, where he clashes with mysterious agents of an unknown power ­who may or may not be human. And Julian’s only clue is some grainy footage ­� showing a woman who supposedly died on Bodmin Moor.

Khan’s extradimensional research was purely theoretical, until she found cracks between our world and countless others. Parallel Earths where monsters live. These cracks are getting wider every day, so who knows what might creep through? Or what will happen when those walls finally come crashing down...]]>
609 Adrian Tchaikovsky Donna 0 3.76 2020 The Doors of Eden
author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
name: Donna
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2023/11/28
date added: 2023/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Standing My Ground: A Capitol Police Officer's Fight for Accountability and Good Trouble After January 6th]]> 64000401 Ěý
Walking the halls of democracy as a Capitol Police officer, Harry Dunn was a man slowly experiencing an awakening. It sparked after the election of our first Black president. It grew as his belief in the bravery and honor of law enforcement was shaken by Ferguson and countless other cases of police brutality towards the Black community. It continued to burn brighter as he watched members of Congress, many of whom he had befriended, lose their way to partisanship, as political extremism intensified. And it exploded into a blaze when he fought side by side with his fellow officers on January 6th, when democracy and their lives were threatened.

Standing My Ground provides a crucial, definitive firsthand account of what happened on that day our country was shocked to its core. But it will also share the story of a man who refused to stay quiet when he learned that some of the men and women he had risked his life protecting, who knew him by name, would deny the horrors they faced. That’s when he chose to speak up and to seek out what his hero John Lewis once termed “good trouble.� Dunn’s ongoing story as a witness willing to meaningfully engage with the media, lawmakers, and the public provides a backdrop for examining the political and racial divide in this country—one that we must overcome in order to demand accountability and preserve our precious democracy.]]>
256 Harry Dunn 0306831139 Donna 5 4.22 Standing My Ground: A Capitol Police Officer's Fight for Accountability and Good Trouble After January 6th
author: Harry Dunn
name: Donna
average rating: 4.22
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]>
Long Chills and Case Dough 203356485 67 Brandon Sanderson Donna 0 3.45 2023 Long Chills and Case Dough
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Donna
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive, #1)]]> 9188338 From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings, Book One of the Stormlight Archive begins an incredible new saga of epic proportion.

Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter.

It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars were fought for them, and won by them.

One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear to protect his little brother, has been reduced to slavery. In a war that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe, he struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendable.

Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Like his brother, the late king, he is fascinated by an ancient text called The Way of Kings. Troubled by over-powering visions of ancient times and the Knights Radiant, he has begun to doubt his own sanity.

Across the ocean, an untried young woman named Shallan seeks to train under an eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar's niece, Jasnah. Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan's motives are less than pure. As she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war.

The result of over ten years of planning, writing, and world-building, The Way of Kings is but the opening movement of the Stormlight Archive, a bold masterpiece in the making.

Speak again the ancient oaths:

Life before death.
Strength before weakness.
Journey before Destination.

and return to men the Shards they once bore.

The Knights Radiant must stand again.]]>
1005 Brandon Sanderson Donna 5 favorites 4.66 2010 The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive, #1)
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Donna
average rating: 4.66
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/30
date added: 2023/12/30
shelves: favorites
review:

]]>
Birnam Wood 63853404
A landslide has closed the Korowai Pass on New Zealand’s South Island, cutting off the town of Thorndike and leaving a sizable farm abandoned. The disaster presents an opportunity for Birnam Wood, an undeclared, unregulated, sometimes-criminal, sometimes-philanthropic guerrilla gardening collective that plants crops wherever no one will notice. For years, the group has struggled to break even. To occupy the farm at Thorndike would mean a shot at solvency at last.

But the enigmatic American billionaire Robert Lemoine also has an interest in the he has snatched it up to build his end-times bunker, or so he tells Birnam’s founder, Mira, when he catches her on the property. He’s intrigued by Mira, and by Birnam Wood; although they’re poles apart politically, it seems Lemoine and the group might have enemies in common. But can Birnam trust him? And, as their ideals and ideologies are tested, can they trust one another?

A gripping psychological thriller from the Booker Prize–winning author of The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton’s Birnam Wood is Shakespearean in its drama, Austenian in its wit, and, like both influences, fascinated by what makes us who we are. A brilliantly constructed study of intentions, actions, and consequences, it is a mesmerizing, unflinching consideration of the human impulse to ensure our own survival.]]>
426 Eleanor Catton 0374718016 Donna 4 3.83 2023 Birnam Wood
author: Eleanor Catton
name: Donna
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/18
date added: 2023/12/18
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning]]> 134156069 Read by Liz Cheney with 50+ audio source material clips included, Oath and Honor is a gripping first-hand account from inside the halls of Congress as Donald Trump and his enablers betrayed the American people and the Constitution—leading to the violent attack on our Capitol on January 6th, 2021—by the House Republican leader who dared to stand up to it.

In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump and many around him, including certain other elected Republican officials, intentionally breached their oath to the Constitution: they ignored the rulings of dozens of courts, plotted to overturn a lawful election, and provoked a violent attack on our Capitol.

Liz Cheney, one of the few Republican officials to take a stand against these efforts, witnessed the attack first-hand, and then helped lead the Congressional Select Committee investigation into how it happened. In Oath and Honor, she tells the story of this perilous moment in our history, those who helped Trump spread the stolen election lie, those whose actions preserved our constitutional framework, and the risks we still face.]]>
381 Liz Cheney 031657208X Donna 5 4.58 2023 Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning
author: Liz Cheney
name: Donna
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/13
date added: 2023/12/13
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism]]> 112975131
For millions of conservative Christians, America is their kingdom—a land set apart, a nation uniquely blessed, a people in special covenant with God. This love of country, however, has given way to right-wing nationalist fervor, a reckless blood-and-soil idolatry thatĚýtrivializes the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Alberta retraces the arc of the modern evangelical movement, placing political and cultural inflection points in the context of church teachings and traditions, explaining how Donald Trump's presidency and the COVID-19 pandemic only accelerated historical trends that long pointed toward disaster. Reporting from half-empty sanctuaries and standing-room-only convention halls across the country, the author documents a growing fracture inside American Christianity and journeys with readers through this strange new environment in which loving your enemies is "woke" and owning the libs is the answer to WWJD.

Accessing the highest echelons of the American evangelical movement, Alberta investigates the ways in which conservative Christians have pursued, exercised, and often abused power in the name of securing this earthly kingdom. He highlights the battles evangelicals are fighting—and the weapons of their warfare—to demonstrate the disconnect from Contra the dictates of the New Testament, today's believers are struggling mightily against flesh and blood, eyes fixed on the here and now, desperate for a power that is frivolous and fleeting. Lingering at the intersection of real cultural displacement and perceived religious persecution, Alberta portrays a rapidly secularizing America that has come to distrust the evangelical church, and weaves together present-day narratives of individual pastors and their churches as they confront the twin challenges of lost status and diminished standing.

Sifting through the wreckage—pastors broken, congregations battered, believers losing their religion because of sex scandals and political schemes—Alberta If the American evangelical movement has ceased to glorify God, what is its purpose?]]>
506 Tim Alberta 006322688X Donna 5 4.42 2023 The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism
author: Tim Alberta
name: Donna
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/11
date added: 2023/12/11
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[A Memory of Light (Wheel of Time, #14)]]> 16031812
In the Field of Merrilor the rulers of the nations gather to join behind Rand al’Thor, or to stop him from his plan to break the seals on the Dark One’s prison � which may be a sign of his madness, or the last hope of humankind. Egwene, the Amyrlin Seat, leans toward the former.

In Andor, the Trollocs seize Caemlyn.

In the wolf dream, Perrin Aybara battles Slayer.

Approaching Ebou Dar, Mat Cauthon plans to visit his wife Tuon, now Fortuona, Empress of the Seanchan.

All humanity is in peril � and the outcome will be decided in Shayol Ghul itself. The Wheel is turning, and the Age is coming to its end. The Last Battle will determine the fate of the world . . .

For twenty years The Wheel of Time has enthralled more than forty million readers in over thirty-two languages. A MEMORY OF LIGHT brings this majestic fantasy creation to its richly satisfying conclusion.

Working from notes and partials left by Robert Jordan when he died in 2007, and consulting with Jordan’s widow, who edited all of Jordan’s books, established fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson has recreated the vision Jordan left behind.]]>
1025 Robert Jordan Donna 5 favorites 4.67 2013 A Memory of Light (Wheel of Time, #14)
author: Robert Jordan
name: Donna
average rating: 4.67
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/02
date added: 2023/12/02
shelves: favorites
review:

]]>
Holly (Holly Gibney #3) 83638977
“Sometimes the universe throws you a rope.� —BILL HODGES

Stephen King’s Holly marks the triumphant return of beloved King character Holly Gibney. Readers have witnessed Holly’s gradual transformation from a shy (but also brave and ethical) recluse in Mr. Mercedes to Bill Hodges’s partner in Finders Keepers to a full-fledged, smart, and occasionally tough private detective in The Outsider. In King’s new novel, Holly is on her own, and up against a pair of unimaginably depraved and brilliantly disguised adversaries.

When Penny Dahl calls the Finders Keepers detective agency hoping for help locating her missing daughter, Holly is reluctant to accept the case. Her partner, Pete, has Covid. Her (very complicated) mother has just died. And Holly is meant to be on leave. But something in Penny Dahl’s desperate voice makes it impossible for Holly to turn her down.

Mere blocks from where Bonnie Dahl disappeared live Professors Rodney and Emily Harris. They are the picture of bourgeois respectability: married octogenarians, devoted to each other, and semi-retired lifelong academics. But they are harboring an unholy secret in the basement of their well-kept, book-lined home, one that may be related to Bonnie’s disappearance. And it will prove nearly impossible to discover what they are up to: they are savvy, they are patient, and they are ruthless.

Holly must summon all her formidable talents to outthink and outmaneuver the shockingly twisted professors in this chilling new masterwork from Stephen King.

“I could never let Holly Gibney go. She was supposed to be a walk-on character in Mr. Mercedes and she just kind of stole the book and stole my heart. Holly is all her.� —STEPHEN KING]]>
464 Stephen King Donna 5 4.32 2023 Holly (Holly Gibney #3)
author: Stephen King
name: Donna
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/10/05
date added: 2023/11/30
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Light Bringer (Red Rising Saga, #6)]]> 61755286 Darrow returns as Pierce Brown’s New York Times bestselling Red Rising series continues in the thrilling sequel to Dark Age.

�The measure of a man is not the fear he sows in his enemies. It is the hope he gives his friends.”—Virginia au Augustus

The Reaper is a legend, more myth than the savior of worlds, the leader of the Rising, the breaker of chains.

But the Reaper is also Darrow, born of the red soil of a husband, a father, a friend.

The worlds once needed the Reaper. But now they need Darrow. Because after the dark age will come a new of light, of victory, of hope.]]>
800 Pierce Brown 0425285987 Donna 4 4.80 2023 Light Bringer (Red Rising Saga, #6)
author: Pierce Brown
name: Donna
average rating: 4.80
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/17
date added: 2023/11/17
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Round Here and Over Yonder: A Front Porch Travel Guide by Two Progressive Hillbillies (Yes, that’s a thing.)]]> 63354502 256 Trae Crowder 1404117547 Donna 5 4.19 Round Here and Over Yonder: A Front Porch Travel Guide by Two Progressive Hillbillies (Yes, that’s a thing.)
author: Trae Crowder
name: Donna
average rating: 4.19
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2023/10/23
date added: 2023/10/23
shelves:
review:
I love these guys. I cannot believe how much they feel like part of my family and/or a part of my own mind/heart. Sounds corny I know, but Corey sounds like the voice in my head and he pronounces things the way I try not to every day. And he voices my liberal thoughts on his skews videos all the time! Anyway, I left East Tennessee at the age of 5 in 1967 for the DC suburbs of Virginia, so my accent was made fun of for years and made me a shy and embarrassed kid. Mostly I’ve hidden it but I massively mispronounce at least a few words daily, much to my husband’s enjoyment in correcting me. I am at heart a southern liberal and history buff whose bucket list includes Great Britain and quite a few of the other places the fellas writing this book visited, but at this point I doubt I’ll ever be able to go (financially or with these bad knees) but listening to their experiences, I kinda feel like I went with them! So much of what they wrote sounds exactly like what I imagine I would have thought and said! Loved this book!
]]>
<![CDATA[Towers of Midnight (The Wheel of Time, #13)]]> 10371118
The sun has begun to set upon the Third Age.

Perrin Aybara is now hunted by specters from his past: Whitecloaks, a slayer of wolves, and the responsibilities of leadership. All the while, an unseen foe is slowly pulling a noose tight around his neck. To prevail, he must seek answers in Tel'aran'rhiod and find a way--at long last--to master the wolf within him or lose himself to it forever.

Meanwhile, Matrim Cauthon prepares for the most difficult challenge of his life. The creatures beyond the stone gateways--the Aelfinn and the Eelfinn--have confused him, taunted him, and left him hanged, his memory stuffed with bits and pieces of other men's lives. He had hoped that his last confrontation with them would be the end of it, but the Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills. The time is coming when he will again have to dance with the Snakes and the Foxes, playing a game that cannot be won. The Tower of Ghenjei awaits, and its secrets will reveal the fate of a friend long lost.

Dovie'andi se tovya sagain. It's time to toss the dice.]]>
865 Robert Jordan Donna 5 favorites 4.61 2010 Towers of Midnight (The Wheel of Time, #13)
author: Robert Jordan
name: Donna
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2023/10/17
date added: 2023/10/17
shelves: favorites
review:

]]>
Enough 139988291 Cassidy Hutchinson’s desk was mere steps from the most controversial president in recent American history. Now, she provides a riveting account of her extraordinary experiences as an idealistic young woman thrust into the middle of a national crisis, where she risked everything to tell the truth about some of the most powerful people in Washington.

Ever since a childhood visit to Washington, DC, Cassidy Hutchinson aspired to serve her country in government. Raised in a working-class family with a military background, she was the first in her immediate family to graduate from college. Despite having no ties to Washington, Hutchinson landed a vital position at the center of the Trump White House.

Her life took a dramatic turn on January 6, 2021, when, at twenty-four, she found herself in one of the most extraordinary and unprecedented calamities in modern political history.

Hutchinson was faced with a choice between loyalty to the Trump administration or loyalty to the country by revealing what she saw and heard in the attempt to overthrow a democratic election. She bravely came forward to become the pivotal witness in the House January 6 investigations, as her testimony transfixed and stunned the nation. In her memoir, Hutchinson reveals the struggle between the pressures she confronted to toe the party line and the demands of the oath she swore to defend American democracy.

Enough reaches far beyond the typical insider political account. It’s the saga of a woman whose fierce determination helped her overcome childhood challenges to get her dream job, only to face a crisis of conscience that more senior White House aides tried to evade and, in the process, find her voice and herself. This is a portrait of how the courage of one person can change the course of history.]]>
379 Cassidy Hutchinson 1668028301 Donna 0 4.31 2023 Enough
author: Cassidy Hutchinson
name: Donna
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2023/10/14
date added: 2023/10/14
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Sunlit Man 60531420 From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson―creator of The Stormlight Archive, the Mistborn Saga, and countless bestselling works of science fiction and fantasy―comes this standalone novel showing a rare glimpse of a future Cosmere universe.

Running. Putting distance between himself and the relentless Night Brigade has been Nomad’s strategy for years. Staying one or two steps ahead of his pursuers by skipping through the Cosmere from one world to the next.

But now, his powers too depleted to escape, Nomad finds himself trapped on Canticle, a planet that will kill anyone who doesn’t keep moving. Fleeing the fires of a sunrise that melts the very stones, he is instantly caught up in the struggle between a heartless tyrant and the brave rebels who defy him.

Failure means a quick death, incinerated by the sun� or a lifetime as a mindless slave. Tormented by the consequences of his past, Nomad must fight not only for his survival―but also for his very soul.]]>
447 Brandon Sanderson 1938570391 Donna 4 4.28 2023 The Sunlit Man
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Donna
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/10/08
date added: 2023/10/07
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Gathering Storm (The Wheel of Time, #12)]]> 8411648
Tarmon Gai'don, the Last Battle, looms. And mankind is not ready.

The final volume of the Wheel of Time, A Memory of Light, was partially written by Robert Jordan before his untimely passing in 2007. Brandon Sanderson, New York Times bestselling author of the Mistborn books, and now Stormlight Archive, among others, was chosen by Jordan's editor--his wife, Harriet McDougal--to complete the final volume, later expanded to three books.

In this epic novel, Robert Jordan's international bestselling series begins its dramatic conclusion. Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn, struggles to unite a fractured network of kingdoms and alliances in preparation for the Last Battle. As he attempts to halt the Seanchan encroachment northward--wishing he could form at least a temporary truce with the invaders--his allies watch in terror the shadow that seems to be growing within the heart of the Dragon Reborn himself.

Egwene al'Vere, the Amyrlin Seat of the rebel Aes Sedai, is a captive of the White Tower and subject to the whims of their tyrannical leader. As days tick toward the Seanchan attack she knows is imminent, Egwene works to hold together the disparate factions of Aes Sedai while providing leadership in the face of increasing uncertainty and despair. Her fight will prove the mettle of the Aes Sedai, and her conflict will decide the future of the White Tower--and possibly the world itself.]]>
861 Robert Jordan Donna 5 favorites 4.61 2009 The Gathering Storm (The Wheel of Time, #12)
author: Robert Jordan
name: Donna
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2023/10/01
date added: 2023/10/01
shelves: favorites
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[What the Storm Means: Prologue to The Gathering Storm]]> 6980873 64 Robert Jordan 1429952555 Donna 5 4.35 2009 What the Storm Means: Prologue to The Gathering Storm
author: Robert Jordan
name: Donna
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/19
date added: 2023/09/19
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Knife of Dreams (The Wheel of Time, #11)]]> 8260859
Unbeknownst to Rand, Perrin has made his own truce with the Seanchan. It is a deal made with the Dark One, in his eyes, but he will do whatever is needed to rescue his wife, Faile, and destroy the Shaido who captured her. Among the Shaido, Faile works to free herself while hiding a secret that might give her her freedom or cause her destruction. And at a town called Malden, the Two Rivers longbow will be matched against Shaido spears.

Fleeing Ebou Dar through Seanchan-controlled Altara with the kidnapped Daughter of the Nine Moons, Mat attempts to court the woman to whom he is half-married, knowing that she will complete that ceremony eventually. But Tuon coolly leads him on a merry chase as he learns that even a gift can have deep significance among the Seanchan Blood and what he thinks he knows of women is not enough to save him.

In Caemlyn, Elayne fights to gain the Lion Throne while trying to avert what seems a certain civil war should she win the crown...

In the White Tower, Egwene struggles to undermine the sisters loyal to Elaida from within...]]>
886 Robert Jordan Donna 5 4.40 2005 Knife of Dreams (The Wheel of Time, #11)
author: Robert Jordan
name: Donna
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/18
date added: 2023/09/18
shelves:
review:

]]>
American War 44230162
Sarat Chestnut, born in Louisiana, is only six when the Second American Civil War breaks out in 2074. But even she knows that oil is outlawed, that Louisiana is half underwater, and that unmanned drones fill the sky. When her father is killed and her family is forced into Camp Patience for displaced persons, she begins to grow up shaped by her particular time and place. But not everyone at Camp Patience is who they claim to be. Eventually Sarat is befriended by a mysterious functionary, under whose influence she is turned into a deadly instrument of war. The decisions that she makes will have tremendous consequences not just for Sarat but for her family and her country, rippling through generations of strangers and kin alike.]]>
332 Omar El Akkad Donna 4 4.07 2017 American War
author: Omar El Akkad
name: Donna
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/08
date added: 2023/09/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Buried Giant 22522805
The Buried Giant begins as a couple set off across a troubled land of mist and rain in the hope of finding a son they have not seen in years.

Sometimes savage, often intensely moving, Kazuo Ishiguro's first novel in nearly a decade is about lost memories, love, revenge, and war.

Included on TIME Magazine's "THE 100 BEST FANTASY BOOKS OF ALL TIME"]]>
317 Kazuo Ishiguro 030727103X Donna 4 3.56 2015 The Buried Giant
author: Kazuo Ishiguro
name: Donna
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/04
date added: 2023/09/04
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Three-Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #1)]]> 20518872 472 Liu Cixin Donna 4 4.08 2006 The Three-Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #1)
author: Liu Cixin
name: Donna
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/31
date added: 2023/08/31
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Crossroads of Twilight (The Wheel of Time, #10)]]> 8260811
Fleeing from Ebou Dar with the kidnapped Daughter of the Nine Moons, whom he is fated to marry, Mat Cauthon learns that he can neither keep her nor let her go, not in safety for either of them, for both the Shadow and the might of the Seanchan Empire are in deadly pursuit.

Perrin Aybara seeks to free his wife, Faile, a captive of the Shaido, but his only hope may be an alliance with the enemy. Can he remain true to his friend Rand and to himself? For his love of Faile, Perrin is willing to sell his soul.

At Tar Valon, Egwene al'Vere, the young Amyrlin of the rebel Aes Sedai, lays siege to the heart of Aes Sedai power, but she must win quickly, with as little bloodshed as possible, for unless the Aes Sedai are reunited, only the male Asha'man will remain to defend the world against the Dark One, and nothing can hold the Asha'man themselves back from total power except the Aes Sedai and a unified White Tower.

In Andor, Elayne Trakland fights for the Lion Throne that is hers by right, but enemies and Darkfriends surround her, plotting her destruction. If she fails, Andor may fall to the Shadow, and the Dragon Reborn with it.

Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn himself, has cleansed the Dark One's taint from the male half of the True Source, and everything has changed. Yet nothing has, for only men who can channel believe that saidin is clean again, and a man who can channel is still hated and feared-even one prophesied to save the world. Now, Rand must gamble again, with himself at stake, and he cannot be sure which of his allies are really enemies.]]>
627 Robert Jordan Donna 5 4.00 2003 Crossroads of Twilight (The Wheel of Time, #10)
author: Robert Jordan
name: Donna
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at: 2023/08/29
date added: 2023/08/29
shelves:
review:

]]>
Ball Lightning 32076670 A new standalone military SF adventure from the bestselling and award-winning author of The Three-Body Problem.

When Chen’s parents are incinerated before his eyes by a blast of ball lightning, he devotes his life to cracking the secret of mysterious natural phenomena. His search takes him to stormy mountaintops, an experimental military weapons lab, and an old Soviet science station. The more he learns, the more he comes to realize that ball lightning is just the tip of an entirely new frontier in particle physics. Although Chen’s quest provides a purpose for his lonely life, his reasons for chasing his elusive quarry come into conflict with soldiers and scientists who have motives of their own: a beautiful army major with an obsession with dangerous weaponry, and a physicist who has no place for ethical considerations in his single-minded pursuit of knowledge.

Ball Lightning, by award-winning Chinese science fiction author Cixin Liu, is a fast-paced story of what happens when the beauty of scientific inquiry runs up against a push to harness new discoveries with no consideration of their possible consequences.

The original Chinese version was published in 2004. In 2018 the English version, translated by Joel Martinsen, was published in the US by Tor Books.]]>
384 Liu Cixin 0765394073 Donna 3 3.76 2004 Ball Lightning
author: Liu Cixin
name: Donna
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 2023/08/27
date added: 2023/08/27
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Lords of Uncreation (The Final Architecture #3)]]> 62909156 The Arthur C. Clarke award-winning author of Children of Time brings us the third and finalĚýnovel in an extraordinary space opera trilogy about humanity on the brink of extinction, and how one man's discovery will save or destroy us all.


Copy tk


The Final Architecture
Shards of Earth
Eyes of the Void
Lords of UncreationĚý
]]>
592 Adrian Tchaikovsky 0316705950 Donna 4 4.50 2023 Lords of Uncreation (The Final Architecture #3)
author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
name: Donna
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/03
date added: 2023/08/03
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Witchwood Crown (The Last King of Osten Ard, #1)]]> 31185918 New York Times-bestselling Tad Williams� ground-breaking epic fantasy saga of Osten Ard begins an exciting new cycle! � Volume One of The Last King of Osten Ard

The Dragonbone Chair, the first volume of Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, was published in hardcover in October, 1988, launching the series that was to become one of the seminal works of modern epic fantasy. Many of today’s top-selling fantasy authors, from Patrick Rothfuss to George R. R. Martin to Christopher Paolini credit Tad with being the inspiration for their own series.

Now, twenty-four years after the conclusion of Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, Tad returns to his beloved universe and characters with The Witchwood Crown, the first novel in the long-awaited sequel trilogy, The Last King of Osten Ard.

Thirty years have passed since the events of the earlier novels, and the world has reached a critical turning point once again. The realm is threatened by divisive forces, even as old allies are lost, and others are lured down darker paths. Perhaps most terrifying of all, the Norns—the long-vanquished elvish foe—are stirring once again, preparing to reclaim the mortal-ruled lands that once were theirs....]]>
733 Tad Williams 069819148X Donna 5 4.17 2017 The Witchwood Crown (The Last King of Osten Ard, #1)
author: Tad Williams
name: Donna
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2017/08/20
date added: 2023/07/29
shelves:
review:

]]>
JUSTICE 123413862
A powerful shadow group with ties to WWII and the Nuremberg trials is moving closer to an operation that will bring the nation to its knees and change the balance of power in the world. The mission will move like a dark cloud over the earth and in its eclipse will come dramatic changes.

It's in the aftermath of the parade when O’Brien makes a decision that will push him into a global spotlight. As the clandestine group moves to carry out their plan, they’ll have to find a way to stop O'Brien. He knows that the most abused drug in the world is absolute power. Sean O’Brien’s effort to stop them has nothing to do with revenge.

It has everything to do with justice.]]>
497 Tom Lowe Donna 0 4.60 2023 JUSTICE
author: Tom Lowe
name: Donna
average rating: 4.60
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2023/07/05
date added: 2023/07/05
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Yumi and the Nightmare Painter]]> 60531416 #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson brings us a gripping story set in the Cosmere universe told by Hoid, where two people from incredibly different worlds must compromise and work together to save their worlds from ruin.

Yumi comes from a land of gardens, meditation, and spirits, while Painter lives in a world of darkness, technology, and nightmares. When their lives suddenly become intertwined in strange ways, can they put aside their differences and work together to uncover the mysteries of their situation and save each other’s communities from certain disaster?]]>
480 Brandon Sanderson 1938570375 Donna 5 4.46 2023 Yumi and the Nightmare Painter
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Donna
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/04
date added: 2023/07/04
shelves:
review:
This book started out very oddly, but as always, Sanderson hooked me within a chapter or two, and I loved it. I actually listened to the audio version and the narrators (Michael Kramer and Kate Reading) are terrific as always. Funny, I’m sitting here in my “Hoid for President� t-shirt from my Kickstarter swag box a few months back and I adore Hoid’s storytelling. Michael Kramer IS Hoid in my mind after listening to the last several books. (My favorite T by the way, soft and fun�.goofy 61 year old lady that I am
]]>
Quantum Radio 64415236
But what he's found is far more dangerous than he ever imagined.

Dr. Tyson Klein is a quantum physicist who has dedicated his entire life to his research. At CERN, he analyses data generated by the Large Hadron Collider, the world's biggest and most powerful particle accelerator. Now, Ty believes he's found a pattern in its output. It looks like an organised data stream, being broadcast over what he calls a quantum radio.

Could it be a signal from another universe? A message sent from the future? Or something else entirely?

As Ty peels back the layers of his discovery, he learns that what he's found isn't what he thought it was. The encoded message is far more profound. It may alter our understanding of human existence and the universe.

But Ty is not the only one looking for it. Someone has been following his research for a long time. And they'll do anything to prevent him from unravelling what is being broadcast by the quantum radio...

Because the first one to discover the truth may well control the future.]]>
562 A.G. Riddle Donna 3 4.10 2023 Quantum Radio
author: A.G. Riddle
name: Donna
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/02
date added: 2023/07/02
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow]]> 77262337 An alternative cover edition for this ASIN can be found here.

In this exhilarating novel by the best-selling author of The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry two friends--often in love, but never lovers--come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.

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

Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.]]>
418 Gabrielle Zevin Donna 4 4.22 2022 Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
author: Gabrielle Zevin
name: Donna
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/12
date added: 2023/06/12
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Winter's Heart (The Wheel of Time, #9)]]> 8504276
Rand is on the run with Min, and in Cairhein, Cadsuane is trying to figure out where he is headed. Rand's destination is, in fact, one she has never considered.

Mazrim Taim, leader of the Black Tower, is revealed to be a liar. But what is he up to?

Faile, with the Aiel Maidens, Bain and Chiad, and her companions, Queen Alliandre and Morgase, is prisoner of Savanna's sept.

Perrin is desperately searching for Faile. With Elyas Machera, Berelain, the Prophet and a very mixed "army" of disparate forces, he is moving through country rife with bandits and roving Seanchan. The Forsaken are ever more present, and united, and the man called Slayer stalks Tel'aran'rhiod and the wolfdream.

In Ebou Dar, the Seanchan princess known as Daughter of the Nine Moons arrives--and Mat, who had been recuperating in the Tarasin Palace, is introduced to her. Will the marriage that has been foretold come about?]]>
705 Robert Jordan Donna 5 4.28 1994 Winter's Heart (The Wheel of Time, #9)
author: Robert Jordan
name: Donna
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1994
rating: 5
read at: 2023/06/04
date added: 2023/06/04
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Ferryman 61920791 New York Times bestselling author of The Passage comes a riveting standalone novel about a group of survivors on a hidden island utopia--where the truth isn't what it seems.

Founded by a mysterious genius, the archipelago of Prospera lies hidden from the horrors of a deteriorating outside world. In this island paradise, Prospera's lucky citizens enjoy long, fulfilling lives until the monitors embedded in their forearms, meant to measure their physical health and psychological well-being, fall below 10 percent. Then they retire themselves, embarking on a ferry ride to the island known as the Nursery, where their failing bodies are renewed, their memories are wiped clean, and they are readied to restart life afresh.

Proctor Bennett, of the Department of Social Contracts, has a satisfying career as a ferryman, gently shepherding people through the retirement process--and, when necessary, enforcing it. But all is not well with Proctor. For one thing, he's been dreaming--which is supposed to be impossible in Prospera. For another, his monitor percentage has begun to drop alarmingly fast. And then comes the day he is summoned to retire his own father, who gives him a disturbing and cryptic message before being wrestled onto the ferry.

Meanwhile, something is stirring. The Support Staff, ordinary men and women who provide the labor to keep Prospera running, have begun to question their place in the social order. Unrest is building, and there are rumors spreading of a resistance group--known as "Arrivalists"--who may be fomenting revolution.

Soon Proctor finds himself questioning everything he once believed, entangled with a much bigger cause than he realized--and on a desperate mission to uncover the truth.]]>
560 Justin Cronin 0525619488 Donna 4 4.10 2023 The Ferryman
author: Justin Cronin
name: Donna
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/05/24
date added: 2023/05/24
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Republic of Thieves (Gentleman Bastard, #3)]]> 2890090
Magi political elections are imminent, and the factions are in need of a pawn. If Locke agrees to play the role, sorcery will be used to purge the venom from his body - though the process will be so excruciating he may well wish for death. Locke is opposed, but two factors cause his will to crumble: Jean's imploring - and the Bondsmage's mention of a woman from Locke's past: Sabetha. She is the love of his life, his equal in skill and wit, and now, his greatest rival.

Locke was smitten with Sabetha from his first glimpse of her as a young fellow orphan and thief-in-training. But after a tumultuous courtship, Sabetha broke away. Now they will reunite in yet another clash of wills. For faced with his one and only match in both love and trickery, Locke must choose whether to fight Sabetha - or to woo her. It is a decision on which both their lives may depend.

]]>
650 Scott Lynch 0553804693 Donna 4 4.21 2013 The Republic of Thieves (Gentleman Bastard, #3)
author: Scott Lynch
name: Donna
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2023/05/14
date added: 2023/05/14
shelves:
review:

]]>