Jenn's bookshelf: all en-US Fri, 28 Mar 2025 20:37:46 -0700 60 Jenn's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Moby Dick 123853234
Melville began writing Moby-Dick in February 1850 and finished 18 months later, a year after he had anticipated. Melville drew on his experience as a common sailor from 1841 to 1844, including on whalers, and on wide reading in whaling literature. The white whale is modeled on a notoriously hard-to-catch albino whale Mocha Dick, and the book's ending is based on the sinking of the whaleship Essex in 1820. The detailed and realistic descriptions of whale hunting and of extracting whale oil, as well as life aboard ship among a culturally diverse crew, are mixed with exploration of class and social status, good and evil, and the existence of God. The book's literary influences include Shakespeare, Carlyle and the Bible. In addition to narrative prose, Melville uses styles and literary devices ranging from songs, poetry, and catalogs to Shakespearean stage directions, soliloquies, and asides. In August 1850, with the manuscript perhaps half finished, he met Nathaniel Hawthorne and was deeply impressed by his Mosses from an Old Manse, which he compared to Shakespeare in its cosmic ambitions. This encounter may have inspired him to revise and deepen Moby-Dick, which is dedicated to Hawthorne, "in token of my admiration for his genius".]]> 693 Herman Melville Jenn 5 4.06 1851 Moby Dick
author: Herman Melville
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1851
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/28
date added: 2025/03/28
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]]> <![CDATA[Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (The Karla Trilogy, #1)]]> 20587606 400 John Le Carré 1101528788 Jenn 0 currently-reading 4.18 1974 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (The Karla Trilogy, #1)
author: John Le Carré
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1974
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[The Scorpion and the Night Blossom (The Three Realms, #1)]]> 216016090 In a world at war with demons, one girl will face the ultimate test when she is forced to enter into an ancient, deadly competition for the chance to save her mother's soul� before she loses her forever. From the New York Times bestselling author of Song of Silver, Flame Like Night comes the beginning of a dark and opulent fantasy duology, perfect for fans of Throne of Glass.

Nine years ago, the war between the Kingdom of Night and the Kingdom of Rivers tore Àn’yīng’s family apart, leaving her mother barely alive and a baby sister to fend for. Now the mortal realm is falling into eternal night, and mó—beautiful, ravenous demons—roam the land, feasting on the flesh of humans and drinking their souls.

Àn’yīng is no longer a helpless child, though. Armed with her crescent blades and trained in the ancient art of practitioning, she has decided to enter the Immortality Trials, which are open to any mortal who can survive the journey to the immortal realm. Those who complete the Trials are granted a pill of eternal life—the one thing Àn’yīng knows can heal her dying mother. But to attain the prize, she must survive the competition.

Death is common in the Trials. Yet oddly, Àn’yīng finds that someone is helping her stay alive. A rival contestant. Powerful and handsome, Yù’chén is as secretive about his past as he is about his motives for protecting Àn’yīng.

The longer she survives the Trials, the clearer it becomes that all is not right in the immortal realm. To save her mother and herself, Àn’yīng will need to figure out whether she can truly trust the stranger she’s falling for or if he’s the most dangerous player of all . . . for herself and for all the realms.]]> 400 Amélie Wen Zhao 0593813847 Jenn 0 to-read 3.71 2025 The Scorpion and the Night Blossom (The Three Realms, #1)
author: Amélie Wen Zhao
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/17
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]]> <![CDATA[The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook]]> 191746386
On July 12th, 1776, Captain James Cook, already lionized as the greatest explorer in British history, set off on his third voyage in his ship the HMS Resolution . Two-and-a-half years later, on a beach on the island of Hawaii, Cook was killed in a conflict with native Hawaiians. How did Cook, who was unique among captains for his respect for Indigenous peoples and cultures, come to that fatal moment?

Hampton Sides� bravura account of Cook’s last journey both wrestles with Cook’s legacy and provides a thrilling narrative of the titanic efforts and continual danger that characterized exploration in the 1700s. Cook was renowned for his peerless seamanship, his humane leadership, and his dedication to science-–the famed naturalist Joseph Banks accompanied him on his first voyage, and Cook has been called one of the most important figures of the Age of Enlightenment. He was also deeply interested in the native people he encountered. In fact, his stated mission was to return a Tahitian man, Mai, who had become the toast of London, to his home islands. On previous expeditions, Cook mapped huge swaths of the Pacific, including the east coast of Australia, and initiated first European contact with numerous peoples. He treated his crew well, and endeavored to learn about the societies he encountered with curiosity and without judgment.

Yet something was different on this last voyage. Cook became mercurial, resorting to the lash to enforce discipline, and led his two vessels into danger time and again. Uncharacteristically, he ordered violent retaliation for perceived theft on the part of native peoples. This may have had something to do with his secret orders, which were to chart and claim lands before Britain’s imperial rivals could, and to discover the fabled Northwest Passage. Whatever Cook’s intentions, his scientific efforts were the sharp edge of the colonial sword, and the ultimate effects of first contact were catastrophic for Indigenous people around the world. The tensions between Cook’s overt and covert missions came to a head on the shores of Hawaii. His first landing there was harmonious, but when Cook returned after mapping the coast of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, his exploitative treatment of the Hawaiians led to the fatal encounter.

At once a ferociously-paced story of adventure on the high seas and a searching examination of the complexities and consequences of the Age of Exploration, THE WIDE WIDE SEA is a major work from one of our finest narrative nonfiction writers.]]> 408 Hampton Sides 0385544766 Jenn 0 to-read 4.47 2024 The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook
author: Hampton Sides
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/11
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]]> Cheer Up, Mr. Widdicombe 41964003 From a bright new voice in contemporary fiction comes a hilarious and sophisticated comedy of manners about a delightfully eccentric family and the absurd happenings that befall them during one frenzied summer at their home in the Pacific Northwest.

The inimitable—some might say incorrigible—Frank Widdicombe is suffering from a deep depression. Or so his wife, Carol, believes. But Carol is convinced that their new island home—Willowbrook Manor on the Puget Sound—is just the thing to cheer her husband up. And so begins a whirlwind summer as their house becomes the epicenter of multiple social dramas involving the family, their friends, and a host of new acquaintances.

The Widdicombes� son, Christopher, is mourning a heartbreak after a year abroad in Italy. Their personal assistant, Michelle, begins a romance with preppy screenwriter Bradford, who also happens to be Frank’s tennis partner. Meanwhile, a local named Marvelous Matthews is hired to create a garden at the manor—and is elated to find Gracie Sloane, bewitching self-help author, in residence as well. When this alternately bumbling and clever cast of characters comes together, Willowbrook transforms into a circus of uncovered secrets, preposterous misunderstandings, and irrepressible passions.

Written in a singularly witty and satirical style, Cheer Up, Mr. Widdicombe is perfect for fans of Maria Semple's Where'd You Go, Bernadette?, Andrew Sean Greer's Less, and Jess Walter's Beautiful Ruins. ]]> 288 Evan James 1501199633 Jenn 2 3.14 2019 Cheer Up, Mr. Widdicombe
author: Evan James
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.14
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2024/12/01
date added: 2025/01/02
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]]> The Girls Next Door 203450070
More than thirty years later, it’s more than an unbreakable friendship � it’s more like a sisterhood. It’s the girls who Jess reaches out to because she’s worried about her grandparents who’ve raised her since her mother disappeared, who Erin tells about her new business idea, who Melissa calls to say she’s desperate to escape her toxic job.

But then Chantelle messages saying she’s discovered her husband is having an affair. And everything changes.

Because then her husband is found dead� And only a few people knew about his secret.

Is it just a terrible accident? Or will someone stop at nothing to keep the girls of Larkspur Close safe and happy?]]> 274 Anita Waller 183533900X Jenn 0 3.75 2024 The Girls Next Door
author: Anita Waller
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/12
date added: 2024/12/12
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]]> <![CDATA[The Hurricane Wars (The Hurricane Wars, #1)]]> 75668288 The heart is a battlefield.

All Talasyn has ever known is the Hurricane Wars. Growing up an orphan in a nation under siege by the ruthless Night Emperor, Talasyn has found her family among the soldiers who fight for freedom. But she is hiding a deadly secret: light magic courses through her veins, a blazing power believed to have been wiped out years ago that can cut through the Night Empire's shadows.

Prince Alaric, the emperor's only son and heir, has been forged into a weapon by his father. Tasked with obliterating any threats to the Night Empire's rule with the strength of his armies and mighty Shadow magic, Alaric has never been bested. That is until he sees Talasyn burning brightly on the battlefield with the magic that killed his grandfather, turned his father into a monster, and ignited the Hurricane Wars. In a clash of light and dark, their powers merge and create a force the likes of which has never been seen.

Talasyn and Alaric both know this war can only end with them. But a greater threat is coming, and the strange new magic they can create together could be the only way to overcome it. Thrust into an uneasy alliance, they will confront the secrets at the heart of the war and find, in each other, a searing passion--one that could save their world...or destroy it.

An exquisite fantasy brimming with unforgettable characters, sizzling enemies-to-lovers romance, and richly drawn worlds, The Hurricane Wars marks the breathtaking debut of an extraordinary new writer.]]> 472 Thea Guanzon 0063277271 Jenn 0 to-read 3.65 2023 The Hurricane Wars (The Hurricane Wars, #1)
author: Thea Guanzon
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/03
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]]> The Last Thing He Told Me 56169546
As Hannah’s increasingly desperate calls to Owen go unanswered, as the FBI arrests Owen’s boss, as a U.S. marshal and federal agents arrive at her Sausalito home unannounced, Hannah quickly realizes her husband isn’t who he said he was. Bailey just may hold the key to figuring out Owen’s true identity—and why he really disappeared.]]> 316 Laura Dave 1501171364 Jenn 0 4.08 2021 The Last Thing He Told Me
author: Laura Dave
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2024/10/29
date added: 2024/10/29
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]]> The Witch Elm 56678796
A spellbinding standalone from one of the best suspense writers working today, The Witch Elm asks what we become, and what we're capable of, when we no longer know who we are.]]> 526 Tana French Jenn 0 3.84 2018 The Witch Elm
author: Tana French
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at: 2024/10/18
date added: 2024/10/18
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]]> The Chef's Secret 40539158
When Bartolomeo Scappi dies in 1577, he leaves his vast estate—properties, money, and his position—to his nephew and apprentice Giovanni. He also gives Giovanni the keys to two strongboxes and strict instructions to burn their contents. Despite Scappi’s dire warning that the information concealed in those boxes could put Giovanni’s life and others at risk, Giovanni is compelled to learn his uncle’s secrets. He undertakes the arduous task of decoding Scappi’s journals and uncovers a history of deception, betrayal, and murder—all to protect an illicit love affair.

As Giovanni pieces together the details of Scappi’s past, he must contend with two rivals who have joined forces—his brother Cesare and Scappi’s former protégé, Domenico Romoli, who will do anything to get his hands on the late chef’s recipes.

With luscious prose that captures the full scale of the sumptuous feasts for which Scappi was known, The Chef’s Secret serves up power , intrigue, and passion, bringing Renaissance Italy to life in a delectable fashion.]]> 368 Crystal King 1501196421 Jenn 0 to-read 3.78 2019 The Chef's Secret
author: Crystal King
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/26
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]]> In the Garden of Monsters 203854081 336 Crystal King 0778310574 Jenn 0 to-read 3.52 In the Garden of Monsters
author: Crystal King
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.52
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/26
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]]> Go West, Young Man 55340096 Join an epic cross-country journey on the Oregon Trail set just before the start of the Civil War. Two brave, pioneering families will head West and confront hardships and triumph, in this spellbinding saga from the legendary bestselling authors�

Missouri, 1860. Rumors of war between the North and South are spreading across the land. In rural Green County, many of the farmers are already choosing sides. But not John Zachary. His loyalties lie with his family first—and his heart is telling him to go west. Hoping to build a new life in the fertile valleys of Oregon, he convinces his best friend, Emmett Braxton, to pack up their families and join him on a wagon train across the Oregon Trail. The journey will be long and hard. The physical hardships and grueling mental challenges will bring out the best in some—and the worst in others. But with the guidance of an experienced wagon master and scout, they are determined to reach their destiny, no matter how high the cost . . .

Twenty-seven wagons. Twenty-seven different hopes and dreams. This sprawling epic novel from a master storyteller captures the beauty and danger of the American West—and the pioneer spirit of those who tamed it . . .]]> 322 William W. Johnstone 1496734505 Jenn 0 4.43 2021 Go West, Young Man
author: William W. Johnstone
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2024/09/26
date added: 2024/09/26
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]]> Conclave 40009848
Behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel, one hundred and eighteen cardinals from all over the globe will cast their votes in the world’s most secretive election.

They are holy men. But they have ambition. And they have rivals.

Over the next seventy-two hours one of them will become the most powerful spiritual figure on earth.]]> 305 Robert Harris Jenn 5 4.43 2016 Conclave
author: Robert Harris
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/16
date added: 2024/09/16
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]]> Imperium (Cicero, #1) 243601 imperium—supreme power in the state.

Of all the great figures of the Roman world, none was more fascinating or charismatic than Cicero. And Tiro—the inventor of shorthand and author of numerous books, including a celebrated biography of his master (which was lost in the Dark Ages)—was always by his side.

Compellingly written in Tiro's voice, Imperium is the re-creation of his vanished masterpiece, recounting in vivid detail the story of Cicero's quest for glory, competing with some of the most powerful and intimidating figures of his—or any other—age: Pompey, Caesar, Crassus, and the many other powerful Romans who changed history.

Robert Harris, the world's master of innovative historical fiction, lures us into a violent, treacherous world of Roman politics at once exotically different from and yet startlingly similar to our own—a world of Senate intrigue and electoral corruption, special prosecutors and political adventurism—to describe how one clever, compassionate, devious, vulnerable man fought to reach the top.]]> 305 Robert Harris 074326603X Jenn 0 to-read 4.12 2006 Imperium (Cicero, #1)
author: Robert Harris
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/14
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]]> Act of Oblivion 60426260 From the bestselling author of Fatherland, The Ghostwriter, Munich, and Conclave comes this spellbinding historical novel that brilliantly imagines one of the greatest manhunts in the search for two Englishmen involved in the killing of King Charles I and the implacable foe on their trail--an epic journey into the wilds of seventeeth-century New England, and a chase like no other.

'From what is it they flee?'

He took a while to reply. By the time he spoke the men had gone inside. He said quietly, "They killed the King."

1660 England. General Edward Whalley and his son-in law Colonel William Goffe board a ship bound for the New World. They are on the run, wanted for the murder of King Charles I--a brazen execution that marked the culmination of the English Civil War, in which parliamentarians successfully battled royalists for control.

But now, ten years after Charles' beheading, the royalists have returned to power. Under the provisions of the Act of Oblivion, the fifty-nine men who signed the king's death warrant and participated in his execution have been found guilty in absentia of high treason. Some of the Roundheads, including Oliver Cromwell, are already dead. Others have been captured, hung, drawn, and quartered. A few are imprisoned for life. But two have escaped to America by boat.

In London, Richard Nayler, secretary of the regicide committee of the Privy Council, is charged with bringing the traitors to justice and he will stop at nothing to find them. A substantial bounty hangs over their heads for their capture--dead or alive. . . .

Robert Harris's first historical novel set predominantly in America, Act of Oblivion is a novel with an urgent narrative, remarkable characters, and an epic true story to tell of religion, vengeance, and power--and the costs to those who wield it.]]> 458 Robert Harris Jenn 4 4.18 2022 Act of Oblivion
author: Robert Harris
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/08
date added: 2024/09/13
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]]> <![CDATA[Mary B: An Untold Story of Pride and Prejudice]]> 36505861 Pride and Prejudice casts off her prim exterior and takes center stage in this fresh retelling of the classic novel.

I will tell you the story of how I knew myself to be plain and therefore devoid of the one virtue which it behooves every woman to have.

What is to be done with Mary Bennet? She possesses neither the beauty of her eldest sister, Jane, nor the high-spirited charm of Lizzy. Even compared to her frivolous younger siblings, Kitty and Lydia, Mary knows she is lacking in the ways that matter for single, not-so-well-to-do women in nineteenth-century England who must secure their futures through the finding of a husband. As her sisters wed, one by one, Mary pictures herself growing old, a spinster with no estate to run or children to mind, dependent on the charity of others. At least she has the silent rebellion and secret pleasures of reading and writing to keep her company.

But even her fictional creations are no match for the scandal, tragedy, and romance that eventually visit Mary's own life. In Mary B, readers are transported beyond the center of the ballroom to discover that wallflowers are sometimes the most intriguing guests at the party. Beneath Mary's plain appearance and bookish demeanor simmers an inner life brimming with passion, humor, and imagination--and a voice that demands to be heard.

Set before, during, and after the events of Pride and Prejudice, Katherine J. Chen's vividly original debut novel pays homage to a beloved classic while envisioning a life that is difficult to achieve in any era: that of a truly independent woman.]]> 352 Katherine J. Chen 0399592237 Jenn 3 2.89 2018 Mary B: An Untold Story of Pride and Prejudice
author: Katherine J. Chen
name: Jenn
average rating: 2.89
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/12
date added: 2024/09/12
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]]> <![CDATA[Mother Tongue: The Surprising History of Women's Words]]> 63946906 An enlightening linguistic journey through a thousand years of feminist language--and what we can learn from the vivid vocabulary English once had for women's bodies, experiences, and sexuality

So many of the words we use to articulate the experiences women share feel awkward or alien. Medical terms are scrupulously accurate but antiseptic. Slang and obscenities have shock value, yet they perpetuate taboos. Where are the plain, honest words for the experiences that women encounter in their daily lives?

Mother Tongue is a historical investigation of feminist language and thought, from the dawn of Old English to the present day. Dr. Jenni Nuttall guides readers through the evolution of words we have used to describe female bodies, menstruation, women's sexuality, the consequences of male violence, childbirth, women's paid and unpaid work, and gender. Along the way, she challenges our modern language's ability to insightfully articulate women's shared experiences by examining the long-forgotten words once used in English for female sexual and reproductive organs. Nuttall also tells the story of words like womb and breast, whose meanings have changed over time, as well as how anatomical words such as hysteria and hysterical came to have such loaded legacies.

Inspired by today's heated debates about words like womxn and menstruators--and also by more personal conversations between her and her teenage daughter--Nuttall describes the profound transformation of the English language. In the process, she unearths some surprisingly progressive thinking that challenges our assumptions about the past--and, in some cases, puts our twenty-first-century society to shame.]]> 292 Jenni Nuttall 0593299574 Jenn 0 to-read 3.80 2023 Mother Tongue: The Surprising History of Women's Words
author: Jenni Nuttall
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/12
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]]> Eye of the Needle 92364 One enemy spy knows the secret to the Allies' greatest deception, a brilliant aristocrat and ruthless assassin -- code name: "The Needle" -- who holds the key to ultimate Nazi victory.

Only one person stands in his way: a lonely Englishwoman on an isolated island, who is beginning to love the killer who has mysteriously entered her life.

All will come to a terrifying conclusion in Ken Follett's unsurpassed and unforgettable masterwork of suspense, intrigue, and the dangerous machinations of the human heart.

]]> 368 Ken Follett 006074815X Jenn 5 4.19 1978 Eye of the Needle
author: Ken Follett
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1978
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/03
date added: 2024/09/03
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]]> Demon Copperhead 60194162 "Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose."

Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.

Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind.]]> 560 Barbara Kingsolver 0063251922 Jenn 5 4.46 2022 Demon Copperhead
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/23
date added: 2024/08/23
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]]> The Wicked Girls 11940384
Twenty-five years later, journalist Kirsty Lindsay is reporting on a series of attacks on young female tourists in a seaside town when her investigation leads her to interview funfair cleaner Amber Gordon. For Kirsty and Amber, it's the first time they've seen each other since that dark day when they were just children. But with new lives � and families � to protect, will they really be able to keep their secret hidden?]]> 378 Alex Marwood 1847445209 Jenn 3 3.44 2008 The Wicked Girls
author: Alex Marwood
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/21
date added: 2024/08/21
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]]> <![CDATA[Whisked Away (Paradise Bay, #2)]]> 44031029 He’s a rich, famous writer. He doesn’t work or play well with others. He’s under an insane deadline. And I’m stuck on a private island with him for the next two months.

I was supposed to be taking my rightful place as head chef at one of my family’s resort restaurants.

Instead, I’m stranded on our new private island getaway, where I’ll be catering to

Pierce Davenport, an infuriatingly arrogant guest with a palate that’s about as adventurous as a plain boiled potato.

His personality leaves a lot to be desired, too—imagine if the Grinch and Oscar the Grouch had a baby.

That child would end up almost as grumpy as Pierce.

So when disaster strikes and he’s forced to rely on me to type for him, we wind up spending twenty-four hours a day together.

And when I have to transcribe a sexy time scene for him…well, let’s just say things heat up like a gas burner—fast and hot.

I can’t be falling for him, can I? I hate him. Like really hate him.

Only maybe I don’t�

Whisked Away is an irresistibly romantic, delightfully funny, enemies-to-lovers tale of passion, books, and food. It stars a writer who’s as talented as he is hot, a feisty chef who won’t put up with his crap, a ferocious iguana, and one of the most hilarious grand romantic gestures of all time. It can be enjoyed as a standalone. Strawberry daiquiris not included.]]> 325 Melanie Summers 1988891205 Jenn 3 4.09 2019 Whisked Away (Paradise Bay, #2)
author: Melanie Summers
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/20
date added: 2024/08/20
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]]> <![CDATA[Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures]]> 52668915
Neither plant nor animal, it is found throughout the earth, the air and our bodies. It can be microscopic, yet also accounts for the largest organisms ever recorded, living for millennia and weighing tens of thousands of tonnes. Its ability to digest rock enabled the first life on land, it can survive unprotected in space, and thrives amidst nuclear radiation.

In this captivating adventure, Merlin Sheldrake explores the spectacular and neglected world of fungi: endlessly surprising organisms that sustain nearly all living systems. They can solve problems without a brain, stretching traditional definitions of ‘intelligence�, and can manipulate animal behaviour with devastating precision. In giving us bread, alcohol and life-saving medicines, fungi have shaped human history, and their psychedelic properties, which have influenced societies since antiquity, have recently been shown to alleviate a number of mental illnesses. The ability of fungi to digest plastic, explosives, pesticides and crude oil is being harnessed in break-through technologies, and the discovery that they connect plants in underground networks, the ‘Wood Wide Web�, is transforming the way we understand ecosystems. Yet they live their lives largely out of sight, and over ninety percent of their species remain undocumented.

Entangled Life is a mind-altering journey into this hidden kingdom of life, and shows that fungi are key to understanding the planet on which we live, and the ways we think, feel and behave. The more we learn about fungi, the less makes sense without them.]]> 352 Merlin Sheldrake 0525510311 Jenn 0 to-read 4.34 2020 Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
author: Merlin Sheldrake
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/19
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]]> The Poisonwood Bible 7244 The Poisonwood Bible is a story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it -- from garden seeds to Scripture -- is calamitously transformed on African soil. What follows is a suspenseful epic of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa.]]> 546 Barbara Kingsolver 0060786507 Jenn 0 to-read 4.10 1998 The Poisonwood Bible
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1998
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/17
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]]> Where Waters Meet 61261086 A daughter discovers the dramatic history that shaped her mother’s secret life in an emotional and immersive novel by Zhang Ling, the bestselling author of A Single Swallow.

There was rarely a time when Phoenix Yuan-Whyller’s mother, Rain, didn’t live with her. Even when Phoenix got married, Rain, who followed her from China to Toronto, came to share Phoenix’s life. Now at the age of eighty-three, Rain’s unexpected death ushers in a heartrending separation.

Struggling with the loss, Phoenix comes across her mother’s suitcase—a memory box Rain had brought from home. Inside, Phoenix finds two old photographs and a decorative bottle holding a crystalized powder. Her auntie Mei tells her these missing pieces of her mother’s early life can only be explained when they meet, and so, clutching her mother’s ashes, Phoenix boards a plane for China. What at first seems like a daughter’s quest to uncover a mother’s secrets becomes a startling journey of self-discovery.

Told across decades and continents, Zhang Ling’s exquisite novel is a tale of extraordinary courage and survival. It illuminates the resilience of humanity, the brutalities of life, the secrets we keep and those we share, and the driving forces it takes to survive.]]> 281 Zhang Ling 1662509014 Jenn 4 3.86 2023 Where Waters Meet
author: Zhang Ling
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/17
date added: 2024/08/17
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]]> Someone Else's Shoes 62971668 A story of mix-ups, mess-ups and making the most of second chances, this is the new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Jojo Moyes, author of Me Before You and The Giver of Stars.

Who are you when you are forced to walk in someone else’s shoes?

Nisha Cantor lives the globetrotting life of the seriously wealthy, until her husband announces a divorce and cuts her off. Nisha is determined to hang onto her glamorous life. But in the meantime, she must scramble to cope--she doesn’t even have the shoes she was, until a moment ago, standing in.

That’s because Sam Kemp � in the bleakest point of her life � has accidentally taken Nisha’s gym bag. But Sam hardly has time to worry about a lost gym bag--she’s struggling to keep herself and her family afloat. When she tries on Nisha’s six-inch high Christian Louboutin red crocodile shoes, the resulting jolt of confidence that makes her realize something must change—and that thing is herself.

Full of Jojo Moyes� signature humor, brilliant storytelling, and warmth, Someone Else’s Shoes is a story about how just one little thing can suddenly change everything.]]> 438 Jojo Moyes 1984879294 Jenn 4 3.88 2023 Someone Else's Shoes
author: Jojo Moyes
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/04
date added: 2024/08/04
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]]> Someone Else’s Life 60467606
Blow by blow, Annie Lin’s life crumbles. Her dance studio goes bankrupt. Her mother and beloved dog are gone the same year. Then a terrible accident leaves her young son traumatized.

It’s time for a change.

Palm trees, mai tais, peace and quiet―Annie should be at ease, safe in her new Kauai home with her husband and son. She hopes proximity to her family can provide them all with a sense of belonging and calm. But soon items from her past start turning up―her dog’s collar, a bracelet that disappeared years ago―and she has the unnerving sensation she’s being watched. Reality begins to fracture, and Annie’s panic attacks return. When, during a brewing storm, a woman appears on her doorstep looking for shelter, Annie is relieved to have the company and feels an unexplainable bond with her visitor.

As the night progresses, Annie realizes the woman is no stranger. Their lives are inextricably intertwined―and Annie might just lose everything.]]> 297 Lyn Liao Butler 1662501099 Jenn 0 to-read 3.45 2023 Someone Else’s Life
author: Lyn Liao Butler
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/04
shelves: to-read
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]]> Orca: The Whale Called Killer 44765586
When Erich Hoyt's Orca: The Whale Called Killer was first published in 1981, little was known about Orcinus orca. The largest member of the dolphin family was then considered too dangerous to approach in the wild. That all changed when Erich Hoyt and his colleagues spent seven summers in the 1970s following these intelligent, playful creatures in the waters off northern Vancouver Island. Working alongside other researchers keen to understand the life history of the killer whale, Hoyt's group helped to dispel the negative mythology about orcas while uncovering the intimate details of their social behavior.

This revised fifth edition includes Hoyt's original account, plus exciting new chapters that bring readers up to date on the revolution in public awareness and orca research that has taken place. Hoyt's youthful adventures turned into his life's work. Now a world-renowned expert on whales and dolphins, he shares orca wisdom along with stories gleaned from decades of additional field study in the Russian Far East as well as return trips to Canada's West Coast to visit with the descendants of the killer whales he encountered 45 years ago.]]> 320 Erich Hoyt 0228102294 Jenn 0 to-read 4.32 1981 Orca: The Whale Called Killer
author: Erich Hoyt
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1981
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/23
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Creatures of the Deep: In Search of the Sea's Monsters and the World They Live In]]> 21563912
"More than a picture book ... Hoyt's elegant writing provides both the historical background for deep-sea exploration and an ecological perspective on life in the ocean's depths." -- American Scientist

"A magnificent bestiary ... and a reminder of how little we actually know about the seas surrounding us." -- Popular Science

Winner, Outstanding Nonfiction Book of the Year -- American Society of Journalists and Authors, Inc., New York

In this updated and expanded edition of Creatures of the Deep, award-winning nature and science writer Erich Hoyt gives readers a glimpse of the amazing variety of creatures found in the deepest parts of the ocean. Weaving together details from the latest scientific research about sharks, giant squid, dragonfish, huge tube worms, clams and tiny microbes of the deep-sea vents, Hoyt embarks on a magical journey roaming across the abyssal plains and descending into deep-sea trenches more than 20,000 feet down.

Hoyt unravels the complex predator-prey relationships, from "killer" copepods to battles between giant squid and sperm whales, presenting compelling portraits of animals that are superbly adapted denizens of a dark high-pressure world. There are life forms, independent of sunlight and photosynthesis, which flourish around the hot, sulfurous deep-sea vents in the magnificent rift valley of the mid-ocean ridge, the world's longest mountain range. Surviving in conditions that appear to be close to the very soup of primordial Earth, these microbes have become the basis for the latest research into Earth's origins. Fully illustrated with fantastic underwater imagery.]]> 288 Erich Hoyt 1770852816 Jenn 0 to-read 4.27 2001 Creatures of the Deep: In Search of the Sea's Monsters and the World They Live In
author: Erich Hoyt
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Presumed Innocent (Kindle County Legal Thriller, #1)]]> 425029 Presumed Innocent brings to life our worst nightmare: that of an ordinary citizen facing conviction for the most terrible of all crimes. It's the stunning portrayal of one man's all-too-human, all-consuming fatal attraction for a passionate woman who is not his wife, and the story of how his obsession puts everything he loves and values on trial—including his own life. It's a book that lays bare a shocking world of betrayal and murder, as well as the hidden depths of the human heart. And it will hold you and haunt you ... long after you have reached its shattering conclusion.]]> 421 Scott Turow 0446350982 Jenn 5 4.10 1987 Presumed Innocent (Kindle County Legal Thriller, #1)
author: Scott Turow
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1987
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/22
date added: 2024/07/22
shelves:
review:

]]> For Twice In My Life 61237042 A second try at love becomes more than one woman bargained for in this delightfully funny and romantic new novel from the author of The Rehearsals.Can one little lie lead to a big second chance? Layla's chaotic life transformed when she met Ian Barnett. Ambitious, committed, and thoughtful, Ian has been everything she'd dreamed of, and she knows he'd say the same of her. So when he breaks up with her out of the blue, Layla is stunned. What went wrong? But then, Layla gets a call from the local hospital. Ian's had a biking accident. He's okay, but he needs someone--his someone--to get him home safely. As it becomes clear Ian doesn't remember he ended things, it also becomes clear that the accident has given him a new outlook on life . . . and Layla a second chance to get things right. That is, until Ian's younger brother comes to town. Matt is restless, unpredictable, and threatens to upset the careful balance Layla and Ian have rebuilt. As things get more complicated both at home and at work, Layla realizes she might lose her chance at real love--and real happiness--if she doesn't come clean about the stories she's been telling: to Ian, to Matt, to her family, and most importantly, to herself.]]> 320 Annette Christie 0316451037 Jenn 4 3.17 For Twice In My Life
author: Annette Christie
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.17
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/20
date added: 2024/07/20
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]]> City of Orange 58862873
City of Orange is a novel that is both harrowing and heartfelt, charged with a speculative energy but grounded in intimate character study. It is a novel about coming to grips with the worst that has befallen us and finding our way home again.

This imaginative and affecting new novel is beloved, bestselling, and award-winning author David Yoon at his finest: thought-provoking and heart-piercing, by turns funny and challenging, and at all times deeply human.]]> 352 David Yoon 0593422163 Jenn 0 to-read 3.35 2022 City of Orange
author: David Yoon
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.35
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/17
shelves: to-read
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]]> Super Fake Love Song 51256637 From the bestselling author of Frankly in Love comes a contemporary YA rom-com where a case of mistaken identity kicks off a string of (fake) events that just may lead to (real) love.

When Sunny Dae—self-proclaimed total nerd—meets Cirrus Soh, he can’t believe how cool and confident she is. So when Cirrus mistakes Sunny’s older brother Gray’s bedroom—with its electric guitars and rock posters—for Sunny’s own, he sort of, kind of, accidentally winds up telling her he’s the front man of a rock band.

Before he knows it, Sunny is knee-deep in the lie: He ropes his best friends into his scheme, begging them to form a fake band with him, and starts wearing Gray’s rock-and-roll castoffs. But no way can he trick this amazing girl into thinking he’s cool, right? Just when Sunny is about to come clean, Cirrus asks to see them play sometime. Gulp.

Now there’s only one thing to do: Fake it till you make it.

Sunny goes all in on the lie, and pretty soon, the strangest things start happening. People are noticing him in the hallways, and he’s going to football games and parties for the first time. He’s feeling more confident in every aspect of his life, and especially with Cirrus, who’s started to become not just his dream girl but also the real deal. Sunny is falling in love. He’s having fun. He’s even becoming a rocker, for real.

But it’s only a matter of time before Sunny’s house of cards starts tumbling down. As his lies begin to catch up with him, Sunny Dae is forced to wonder whether it was all worth it—and if it’s possible to ever truly change.]]> 368 David Yoon 1984812238 Jenn 0 to-read 3.54 2020 Super Fake Love Song
author: David Yoon
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/17
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]]> Version Zero 43276213 From the brilliant mind of New York Times best-selling author David Yoon comes a lightning-fast and scorchingly observant thriller about how we can save ourselves from the very real perils of a virtual world.

Max, a data whiz at the social media company Wren, has gotten a firsthand glimpse of the dark side of big tech. When he questions what his company does with the data they collect, he's fired... then black-balled across Silicon Valley. With time on his hands and revenge on his mind, Max and his longtime friend (and secretly the love of his life), Akiko, decide to get even by rebooting the internet. After all, in order to fix things, sometimes you have to break them.

But when Max and Akiko join forces with a reclusive tech baron, they learn that breaking things can have unintended—and catastrophic—consequences.]]> 368 David Yoon 0593190351 Jenn 0 to-read 3.32 2021 Version Zero
author: David Yoon
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.32
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/17
shelves: to-read
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]]> Milkman 42378358 In an unnamed city, middle sister stands out for the wrong reasons. She reads while walking, for one. And she has been taking French night classes downtown. So when a local paramilitary known as the milkman begins pursuing her, she suddenly becomes “interesting,� the last thing she ever wanted to be. Despite middle sister’s attempts to avoid him—and to keep her mother from finding out about her maybe-boyfriend—rumors spread and the threat of violence lingers. Milkman is a story of the way inaction can have enormous repercussions, in a time when the wrong flag, wrong religion, or even a sunset can be subversive. Told with ferocious energy and sly, wicked humor, Milkman establishes Anna Burns as one of the most consequential voices of our day.

]]> 352 Anna Burns 164445100X Jenn 1
The unnamed narrator is a trope I’m really tired of, and the unnamed every character with the idiotic numbering of the siblings is beyond irritating.

The entire book was a slog and painful to read. At about 65% it finally caught my interest and then quickly returned right to its rambling, repetitive, completely awful self.]]> 3.64 2018 Milkman
author: Anna Burns
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2018
rating: 1
read at: 2022/06/17
date added: 2024/07/17
shelves:
review:
One of the worst books I have ever read. Complete nonsense and nothing funny at all. I gave it one star because that’s the minimum, and really it deserves no stars.

The unnamed narrator is a trope I’m really tired of, and the unnamed every character with the idiotic numbering of the siblings is beyond irritating.

The entire book was a slog and painful to read. At about 65% it finally caught my interest and then quickly returned right to its rambling, repetitive, completely awful self.
]]> Moonglow 26795307 The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Michael Chabon traveled to his mother’s home in Oakland, California, to visit his terminally ill grandfather. Tongue loosened by powerful painkillers, memory stirred by the imminence of death, Chabon’s grandfather shared recollections and told stories the younger man had never heard before, uncovering bits and pieces of a history long buried and forgotten. That dreamlike week of revelations forms the basis for the novel Moonglow, the latest feat of legerdemain from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon.

Moonglow unfolds as the deathbed confession of a man the narrator refers to only as “my grandfather.� It is a tale of madness, of war and adventure, of sex and marriage and desire, of existential doubt and model rocketry, of the shining aspirations and demonic underpinnings of American technological accomplishment at midcentury, and, above all, of the destructive impact—and the creative power—of keeping secrets and telling lies. It is a portrait of the difficult but passionate love between the narrator’s grandfather and his grandmother, an enigmatic woman broken by her experience growing up in war-torn France. It is also a tour de force of speculative autobiography in which Chabon devises and reveals a secret history of his own imagination.

From the Jewish slums of prewar South Philadelphia to the invasion of Germany, from a Florida retirement village to the penal utopia of New York’s Wallkill prison, from the heyday of the space program to the twilight of the “American Century,� the novel revisits an entire era through a single life and collapses a lifetime into a single week. A lie that tells the truth, a work of fictional nonfiction, an autobiography wrapped in a novel disguised as a memoir, Moonglow is Chabon at his most moving and inventive.]]> 430 Michael Chabon 0062225553 Jenn 2 3.77 2016 Moonglow
author: Michael Chabon
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2016
rating: 2
read at: 2019/11/24
date added: 2024/07/17
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]]> <![CDATA[The Rosie Project (Don Tillman, #1)]]> 16181775
Don Tillman, professor of genetics, has never been on a second date. He is a man who can count all his friends on the fingers of one hand, whose lifelong difficulty with social rituals has convinced him that he is simply not wired for romance. So when an acquaintance informs him that he would make a “wonderful� husband, his first reaction is shock. Yet he must concede to the statistical probability that there is someone for everyone, and he embarks upon The Wife Project. In the orderly, evidence-based manner with which he approaches all things, Don sets out to find the perfect partner. She will be punctual and logical—most definitely not a barmaid, a smoker, a drinker, or a late-arriver.

Yet Rosie Jarman is all these things. She is also beguiling, fiery, intelligent—and on a quest of her own. She is looking for her biological father, a search that a certain DNA expert might be able to help her with. Don's Wife Project takes a back burner to the Father Project and an unlikely relationship blooms, forcing the scientifically minded geneticist to confront the spontaneous whirlwind that is Rosie—and the realization that love is not always what looks good on paper.

The Rosie Project is a moving and hilarious novel for anyone who has ever tenaciously gone after life or love in the face of overwhelming challenges.]]> 292 Graeme Simsion 1476729085 Jenn 2 4.00 2013 The Rosie Project (Don Tillman, #1)
author: Graeme Simsion
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2013
rating: 2
read at: 2023/04/11
date added: 2024/07/17
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]]> The Gimmicks 45730150 355 Chris McCormick 0062908561 Jenn 4 3.98 2020 The Gimmicks
author: Chris McCormick
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/06
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves:
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]]> Remarkably Bright Creatures 58733693 Remarkably Bright Creatures, an exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope, tracing a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus.

After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she's been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors--until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late.

Shelby Van Pelt's debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.]]> 368 Shelby Van Pelt 0063204150 Jenn 0 to-read 4.35 2022 Remarkably Bright Creatures
author: Shelby Van Pelt
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/17
shelves: to-read
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]]> Home Before Dark 50833559 What was it like? Living in that house.

Maggie Holt is used to such questions. Twenty-five years ago, she and her parents, Ewan and Jess, moved into Baneberry Hall, a rambling Victorian estate in the Vermont woods. They spent three weeks there before fleeing in the dead of night, an ordeal Ewan later recounted in a nonfiction book called House of Horrors. His tale of ghostly happenings and encounters with malevolent spirits became a worldwide phenomenon, rivaling The Amityville Horror in popularity—and skepticism.

Today, Maggie is a restorer of old homes and too young to remember any of the events mentioned in her father’s book. But she also doesn’t believe a word of it. Ghosts, after all, don’t exist. When Maggie inherits Baneberry Hall after her father’s death, she returns to renovate the place to prepare it for sale. But her homecoming is anything but warm. People from the past, chronicled in House of Horrors, lurk in the shadows. And locals aren’t thrilled that their small town has been made infamous thanks to Maggie’s father. Even more unnerving is Baneberry Hall itself—a place filled with relics from another era that hint at a history of dark deeds. As Maggie experiences strange occurrences straight out of her father’s book, she starts to believe that what he wrote was more fact than fiction.

In the latest thriller from New York Times bestseller Riley Sager, a woman returns to the house made famous by her father’s bestselling horror memoir. Is the place really haunted by evil forces, as her father claimed? Or are there more earthbound—and dangerous—secrets hidden within its walls?]]> 389 Riley Sager 1524745170 Jenn 0 to-read 4.05 2020 Home Before Dark
author: Riley Sager
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/17
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Bullet Swallower 123847255 A dazzling magical realism western in the vein of Cormac McCarthy meets Gabriel García Márquez, The Bullet Swallower follows a Mexican bandido as he sets off for Texas to save his family, only to encounter a mysterious figure who has come, finally, to collect a cosmic debt generations in the making.

In 1895, Antonio Sonoro is the latest in a long line of ruthless men. He’s good with his gun and is drawn to trouble but he’s also out of money and out of options. A drought has ravaged the town of Dorado, Mexico, where he lives with his wife and children, and so when he hears about a train laden with gold and other treasures, he sets off for Houston to rob it—with his younger brother Hugo in tow. But when the heist goes awry and Hugo is killed by the Texas Rangers, Antonio finds himself launched into a quest for revenge that endangers not only his life and his family, but his eternal soul.

In 1964, Jaime Sonoro is Mexico’s most renowned actor and singer. But his comfortable life is disrupted when he discovers a book that purports to tell the entire history of his family beginning with Cain and Abel. In its ancient pages, Jaime learns about the multitude of horrific crimes committed by his ancestors. And when the same mysterious figure from Antonio’s timeline shows up in Mexico City, Jaime realizes that he may be the one who has to pay for his ancestors� crimes, unless he can discover the true story of his grandfather Antonio, the legendary bandido El Tragabalas, The Bullet Swallower.

A family saga that’s epic in scope and magical in its blood, and based loosely on the author’s own great-grandfather, The Bullet Swallower tackles border politics, intergenerational trauma, and the legacies of racism and colonialism in a lush setting and stunning prose that asks who pays for the sins of our ancestors, and whether it is possible to be better than our forebears.]]> 272 Elizabeth Gonzalez James 1668009323 Jenn 0 to-read 3.75 2024 The Bullet Swallower
author: Elizabeth Gonzalez James
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/17
shelves: to-read
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]]> Winter Counts 48678117 A groundbreaking thriller about a vigilante on a Native American reservation who embarks on a dangerous mission to track down the source of a heroin influx.

Virgil Wounded Horse is the local enforcer on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. When justice is denied by the American legal system or the tribal council, Virgil is hired to deliver his own punishment, the kind that’s hard to forget. But when heroin makes its way into the reservation and finds Virgil’s nephew, his vigilantism suddenly becomes personal. He enlists the help of his ex-girlfriend and sets out to learn where the drugs are coming from, and how to make them stop.

They follow a lead to Denver and find that drug cartels are rapidly expanding and forming new and terrifying alliances. And back on the reservation, a new tribal council initiative raises uncomfortable questions about money and power. As Virgil starts to link the pieces together, he must face his own demons and reclaim his Native identity. He realizes that being a Native American in the twenty-first century comes at an incredible cost.]]> 325 David Heska Wanbli Weiden 0062968947 Jenn 0 to-read 3.81 2020 Winter Counts
author: David Heska Wanbli Weiden
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/17
shelves: to-read
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]]> On the Savage Side 61153745 Six women--mothers, daughters, sisters--gone missing. When the first is found floating dead in the river, it reveals the disturbing truth of a small Ohio town. Inspired by the unsolved murders of the Chillicothe Six, this harrowing and haunting novel tells the story of two sisters, both of whom could be the next victims, from the internationally-bestselling author of Betty.

Arcade and Daffodil are twin sisters born one minute apart. With their fiery red hair and thirst for an escape, they forge an unbreakable bond nurtured by both their grandmother's stories and their imaginations. Together, they create a world where a patch of grass reveals an archaeologist's dig, the smoke emerging from the local paper mill becomes the dust rising from wild horses galloping on the ground, and an abandoned 1950s convertible transforms into a time machine that can take them anywhere.

But the two sisters can't escape the generational chaos that grips their family. Growing up in the shadow of the town, the sisters cling tight to one another. As an adult, Arcade wrestles with these memories of her life, just as a local woman is discovered drowned in the river. Soon, more bodies are found. While her friends disappear around her, Arcade is forced to reckon with the past while the killer circles ever closer. Arcade's promise to keep herself and her sister safe becomes increasingly desperate while the powerful riptide of the savage side becomes more difficult to resist.

Drawing from the true story of women killed in her native Ohio, acclaimed novelist and poet Tiffany McDaniel has written a powerful literary testament and fearless elegy for missing women everywhere.]]> 464 Tiffany McDaniel 0593320700 Jenn 0 to-read 3.98 2023 On the Savage Side
author: Tiffany McDaniel
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/17
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Heiress 126919284
But to everyone’s surprise, Cam wants little to do with the house or the money—and even less to do with the surviving McTavishes. Instead, he rejects his inheritance, settling into a normal life as an English teacher in Colorado and marrying Jules, a woman just as eager to escape her own messy past.

Ten years later, Camden is a McTavish in name only, but a summons in the wake of his uncle’s death brings him and Jules back into the family fold at Ashby House. Its views are just as stunning as ever, its rooms just as elegant, but coming home reminds Cam why he was so quick to leave in the first place.

Jules, however, has other ideas, and the more she learns about Cam’s estranged family—and the twisted secrets they keep—the more determined she is for her husband to claim everything Ruby once intended for him to have.

But Ruby’s plans were always more complicated than they appeared. As Ashby House tightens its grip on Jules and Camden, questions about the infamous heiress come to light. Was there any truth to the persistent rumors following her disappearance as a girl? What really happened to those four husbands, who all died under mysterious circumstances? And why did she adopt Cam in the first place? Soon, Jules and Cam realize that an inheritance can entail far more than what’s written in a will—and that the bonds of family stretch far beyond the grave.]]> 294 Rachel Hawkins 1250280036 Jenn 0 to-read 3.80 2024 The Heiress
author: Rachel Hawkins
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/17
shelves: to-read
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]]> Mad Honey 59912428 A soul-stirring novel about what we choose to keep from our past, and what we choose to leave behind.

Olivia McAfee knows what it feels like to start over. Her picture-perfect life—living in Boston, married to a brilliant cardiothoracic surgeon, raising a beautiful son, Asher—was upended when her husband revealed a darker side. She never imagined she would end up back in her sleepy New Hampshire hometown, living in the house she grew up in, and taking over her father's beekeeping business.

Lily Campanello is familiar with do-overs, too. When she and her mom relocate to Adams, New Hampshire, for her final year of high school, they both hope it will be a fresh start.

And for just a short while, these new beginnings are exactly what Olivia and Lily need. Their paths cross when Asher falls for the new girl in school, and Lily can’t help but fall for him, too. With Ash, she feels happy for the first time. Yet at times, she wonders if she can she trust him completely . . .

Then one day, Olivia receives a phone call: Lily is dead, and Asher is being questioned by the police. Olivia is adamant that her son is innocent. But she would be lying if she didn’t acknowledge the flashes of his father’s temper in him, and as the case against him unfolds, she realizes he’s hidden more than he’s shared with her.

Mad Honey is a riveting novel of suspense, an unforgettable love story, and a moving and powerful exploration of the secrets we keep and the risks we take in order to become ourselves.]]> 464 Jodi Picoult 1984818384 Jenn 0 to-read 4.05 2022 Mad Honey
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/17
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Five-Star Weekend (Sommer in Nantucket, #1)]]> 62873996
Hollis Shaw’s life seems picture-perfect. She’s the creator of the popular food blog Hungry with Hollis and is married to Matthew, a dreamy heart surgeon. But after she and Matthew get into a heated argument one snowy morning, he leaves for the airport and is killed in a car accident. The cracks in Hollis’s perfect life—her strained marriage and her complicated relationship with her daughter, Caroline—grow deeper.

So when Hollis hears about something called a “Five-Star Weekend”—one woman organizes a trip for her best friend from each phase of her life: her teenage years, her twenties, her thirties, and midlife—she decides to host her own Five-Star Weekend on Nantucket. But the weekend doesn’t turn out to be a joyful Hallmark movie.

The husband of Hollis’s childhood friend Tatum arranges for Hollis’s first love, Jack Finigan, to spend time with them, stirring up old feelings. Meanwhile, Tatum is forced to play nice with abrasive and elitist Dru-Ann, Hollis’s best friend from UNC Chapel Hill. Dru-Ann’s career as a prominent Chicago sports agent is on the line after her comments about a client’s mental health issues are misconstrued online. Brooke, Hollis’s friend from their thirties, has just discovered that her husband is having an inappropriate relationship with a woman at work. Again! And then there’s Gigi, a stranger to everyone (including Hollis) who reached out to Hollis through her blog. Gigi embodies an unusual grace and, as it hap- pens, has many secrets.

The Five-Star Weekend is a surprising and captivating story about friendship, love, and self-discovery set on Nantucket. It will be a weekend like no other.]]> 384 Elin Hilderbrand 0316258776 Jenn 0 to-read 3.95 2023 The Five-Star Weekend (Sommer in Nantucket, #1)
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Berry Pickers 123036004 A four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a tragic mystery that haunts the survivors, unravels a community, and remains unsolved for nearly fifty years.

July 1962. A Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family’s youngest child, vanishes. She is last seen by her six-year-old brother, Joe, sitting on a favorite rock at the edge of a berry field. Joe will remain distraught by his sister’s disappearance for years to come.

In Maine, a young girl named Norma grows up as the only child of an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant, her mother frustratingly overprotective. Norma is often troubled by recurring dreams and visions that seem more like memories than imagination. As she grows older, Norma slowly comes to realize there is something her parents aren’t telling her. Unwilling to abandon her intuition, she will spend decades trying to uncover this family secret.

For readers of The Vanishing Half and Woman of Light, this showstopping debut by a vibrant new voice in fiction is a riveting novel about the search for truth, the shadow of trauma, and the persistence of love across time.]]> 307 Amanda Peters 1646221958 Jenn 0 to-read 4.04 2023 The Berry Pickers
author: Amanda Peters
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/17
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]]> Horse 59109077 A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American history: from these strands, a Pulitzer Prize winner braids a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, and injustice across American history

Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. When the nation erupts in civil war, an itinerant young artist who has made his name on paintings of the racehorse takes up arms for the Union. On a perilous night, he reunites with the stallion and his groom, very far from the glamor of any racetrack.

New York City, 1954. Martha Jackson, a gallery owner celebrated for taking risks on edgy contemporary painters, becomes obsessed with a nineteenth-century equestrian oil painting of mysterious provenance.

Washington, DC, 2019. Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian, find themselves unexpectedly connected through their shared interest in the horse--one studying the stallion's bones for clues to his power and endurance, the other uncovering the lost history of the unsung Black horsemen who were critical to his racing success.

Based on the remarkable true story of the record-breaking thoroughbred Lexington, Horse is a novel of art and science, love and obsession, and our unfinished reckoning with racism.]]> 401 Geraldine Brooks 0399562966 Jenn 0 to-read 4.17 2022 Horse
author: Geraldine Brooks
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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]]> Cloud Cuckoo Land 56783258 When everything is lost, it’s our stories that survive.

How do we weather the end of things? Cloud Cuckoo Land brings together an unforgettable cast of dreamers and outsiders from past, present and future to offer a vision of survival against all odds.

Constantinople, 1453:
An orphaned seamstress and a cursed boy with a love for animals risk everything on opposite sides of a city wall to protect the people they love.

Idaho, 2020:
An impoverished, idealistic kid seeks revenge on a world that’s crumbling around him. Can he go through with it when a gentle old man stands between him and his plans?

Unknown, Sometime in the Future:
With her tiny community in peril, Konstance is the last hope for the human race. To find a way forward, she must look to the oldest stories of all for guidance.

Bound together by a single ancient text, these tales interweave to form a tapestry of solace and resilience and a celebration of storytelling itself. Like its predecessor All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr’s new novel is a tale of hope and of profound human connection.]]> 626 Anthony Doerr 1982168439 Jenn 0 to-read 4.24 2021 Cloud Cuckoo Land
author: Anthony Doerr
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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]]> Hate Mail 195427537 Naomi and Luca have been pen-pals since fifth-grade. Well, more like bitter rivals caught in an epic battle of insults and verbal jousting...

But what starts as a hilarious chain of hate filled letters, slowly develops into a friendship spanning coasts and years. That is until one day, years later, when the letters suddenly stop.

It’s been two years since Naomi last heard from Luca. Two years since the letter that changed everything.

But when a new envelope turns up out of the blue at her desk at the local news station, Naomi is determined not to let Luca have the final word.]]> 385 Donna Marchetti Jenn 5 3.90 2024 Hate Mail
author: Donna Marchetti
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/17
date added: 2024/06/17
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]]> <![CDATA[The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements]]> 7247854
The periodic table is a crowning scientific achievement, but it's also a treasure trove of adventure, betrayal, and obsession. These fascinating tales follow every element on the table as they play out their parts in human history, finance, mythology, conflict, the arts, medicine, and in the lives of the (frequently) mad scientists who discovered them. "The Disappearing Spoon" masterfully fuses science with the classic lore of invention, investigation, discovery, and alchemy, from the big bang through the end of time.


* Though solid at room temperature, gallium is a moldable metal that melts at 84 degrees Fahrenheit. A classic science prank is to mold gallium spoons, serve them with tea, and watch guests recoil as their utensils disappear.]]> 394 Sam Kean 0316051640 Jenn 0 to-read 3.92 2010 The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements
author: Sam Kean
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/15
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]]> The Lion Women of Tehran 199798217 A heartfelt novel of friendship, betrayal, and redemption set against three transformative decades in Tehran, Iran.

In 1950s Tehran, seven-year-old Ellie lives in grand comfort until the untimely death of her father, forcing Ellie and her mother to move to a tiny home downtown. Lonely and bearing the brunt of her mother’s endless grievances, Ellie dreams of a friend to alleviate her isolation.

Luckily, on the first day of school, she meets Homa, a kind, passionate girl with a brave and irrepressible spirit. Together, the two girls play games, learn to cook in the stone kitchen of Homa’s warm home, wander through the colorful stalls of the Grand Bazaar, and share their ambitions for becoming “lion women.�

But their happiness is disrupted when Ellie and her mother are afforded the opportunity to return to their previous bourgeois life. Now a popular student at the best girls� high school in Iran, Ellie’s memories of Homa begin to fade. Years later, however, her sudden reappearance in Ellie’s privileged world alters the course of both of their lives.

Together, the two young women come of age and pursue their own goals for meaningful futures. But as the political turmoil in Iran builds to a breaking point, one earth-shattering betrayal will have enormous consequences.]]> 327 Marjan Kamali 1668036584 Jenn 0 to-read 4.48 2024 The Lion Women of Tehran
author: Marjan Kamali
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> Just Some Stupid Love Story 195791408 A debut about a rom-com screenwriter who doesn't believe in love and a divorce attorney who does, forced together at their high school reunion fifteen years after their breakup

Molly Marks writes Hollywood rom-coms for a living—which is how she knows “romance� is a racket. The one and only time she was naive enough to fall in love was with her high school boyfriend, Seth—who she ghosted on the eve of graduation and hasn’t seen in fifteen years.

Seth Rubinstein believes in love, the grand, fated kind, despite his job as, well…one of Chicago’s most successful divorce attorneys. Over the last decade, he’s sought “the one� in countless bad dates and rushed relationships. He knows his soulmate is out there. But so far, no one can compare to Molly Marks, the first girl who broke his heart.

When Molly’s friends drag her to Florida for their fifteenth high school reunion, it is poetic justice that she’s forced to sit with Seth. Too many martinis and a drunken hookup later, they decide to make a bet: whoever can predict the fate of five couples before the next reunion must declare that the other is right about true love. The catch? The fifth couple is the two of them.

Molly assures Seth they are a tale of timeless heartbreak. Seth promises she’ll end up hopelessly in love with him. She thinks he’s delusional. He has five years to prove her wrong.

Wickedly funny, sexy, and brimming with laughs and heart like the best romantic comedies, Just Some Stupid Love Story is for everyone who believes in soulmates—even if they would never admit it.]]> 336 Katelyn Doyle 1250328098 Jenn 0 to-read 3.61 2024 Just Some Stupid Love Story
author: Katelyn Doyle
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Immortal Destiny (The Judas Chronicles #3)]]> 27025880 202 Aiden James 1512166510 Jenn 4 3.85 2012 Immortal Destiny (The Judas Chronicles #3)
author: Aiden James
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/15
date added: 2024/06/15
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]]> One Italian Summer 58438583
But as soon as she steps foot on the Amalfi Coast, Katy begins to feel her mother’s spirit. Buoyed by the stunning waters, beautiful cliffsides, delightful residents, and, of course, delectable food, Katy feels herself coming back to life.

And then Carol appears—in the flesh, healthy, sun-tanned, and thirty years old. Katy doesn’t understand what is happening, or how—all she can focus on is that she has somehow, impossibly, gotten her mother back. Over the course of one Italian summer, Katy gets to know Carol, not as her mother, but as the young woman before her. She is not exactly who Katy imagined she might be, however, and soon Katy must reconcile the mother who knew everything with the young woman who does not yet have a clue.]]> 255 Rebecca Serle 1982166797 Jenn 2 3.56 2022 One Italian Summer
author: Rebecca Serle
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2024/06/09
date added: 2024/06/09
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]]> Counterfeit 59314709 The Reese's Book Club hardcover edition can be found here.

For fans of Hustlers and How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, the story of two Asian American women who band together to grow a counterfeit handbag scheme into a global enterprise--an incisive and glittering blend of fashion, crime, and friendship from the author of Bury What We Cannot Take and Soy Sauce for Beginners.

Money can't buy happiness... but it can buy a decent fake.

Ava Wong has always played it safe. As a strait-laced, rule-abiding Chinese American lawyer with a successful surgeon as a husband, a young son, and a beautiful home--she's built the perfect life. But beneath this façade, Ava's world is crumbling: her marriage is falling apart, her expensive law degree hasn't been used in years, and her toddler's tantrums are pushing her to the breaking point.

Enter Winnie Fang, Ava's enigmatic college roommate from Mainland China, who abruptly dropped out under mysterious circumstances. Now, twenty years later, Winnie is looking to reconnect with her old friend. But the shy, awkward girl Ava once knew has been replaced with a confident woman of the world, dripping in luxury goods, including a coveted Birkin in classic orange. The secret to her success? Winnie has developed an ingenious counterfeit scheme that involves importing near-exact replicas of luxury handbags and now she needs someone with a U.S. passport to help manage her business--someone who'd never be suspected of wrongdoing, someone like Ava. But when their spectacular success is threatened and Winnie vanishes once again, Ava is left to face the consequences.

Swift, surprising, and sharply comic, Counterfeit is a stylish and feminist caper with a strong point of view and an axe to grind. Peering behind the curtain of the upscale designer storefronts and the Chinese factories where luxury goods are produced, Kirstin Chen interrogates the myth of the model minority through two unforgettable women determined to demand more from life.]]> 288 Kirstin Chen Jenn 4 3.43 2022 Counterfeit
author: Kirstin Chen
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/08
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]]> <![CDATA[Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.]]> 8412663 Alexander Hamilton: here is the essential, endlessly engrossing biography of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.—the Jekyll-and-Hyde of American capitalism. In the course of his nearly 98 years, Rockefeller was known as both a rapacious robber baron, whose Standard Oil Company rode roughshod over an industry, and a philanthropist who donated money lavishly to universities and medical centers. He was the terror of his competitors, the bogeyman of reformers, the delight of caricaturists—and an utter enigma.

Drawing on unprecedented access to Rockefeller’s private papers, Chernow reconstructs his subjects� troubled origins (his father was a swindler and a bigamist) and his single-minded pursuit of wealth. But he also uncovers the profound religiosity that drove him “to give all I could�; his devotion to his father; and the wry sense of humor that made him the country’s most colorful codger. Titan is a magnificent biography—balanced, revelatory, elegantly written.]]> 834 Ron Chernow Jenn 5 4.41 1998 Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
author: Ron Chernow
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.41
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/07
date added: 2024/06/07
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]]> Goodbye, Vitamin 27746288 Goodbye, Vitamin is the wry, beautifully observed story of a woman at a crossroads, as Ruth and her friends attempt to shore up her father's career; she and her mother obsess over the ambiguous health benefits - in the absence of a cure - of dried jellyfish supplements and vitamin pills; and they all try to forge a new relationship with the brilliant, childlike, irascible man her father has become.]]> 208 Rachel Khong 1250109167 Jenn 0 to-read 3.72 2017 Goodbye, Vitamin
author: Rachel Khong
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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]]> The Leavers 30753987
With his mother gone, eleven-year-old Deming is left with no one to care for him. He is eventually adopted by two white college professors who move him from the Bronx to a small town upstate. They rename him Daniel Wilkinson in their efforts to make him over into their version of an “all-American boy.� But far away from all he’s ever known, Daniel struggles to reconcile his new life with his mother’s disappearance and the memories of the family and community he left behind.

Set in New York and China, The Leavers is a vivid and moving examination of borders and belonging. It’s the story of how one boy comes into his own when everything he’s loved has been taken away--and how a mother learns to live with the mistakes of her past.

This powerful debut is the winner of the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for fiction, awarded by Barbara Kingsolver for a novel that addresses issues of social justice.]]> 396 Lisa Ko 1616206888 Jenn 0 to-read 3.85 2017 The Leavers
author: Lisa Ko
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[She Who Became the Sun (The Radiant Emperor, #1)]]> 48727813 Two-time British Fantasy Award Winner
Astounding Award Winner
Lambda Literary Award Finalist
Hugo Award Finalist
Locus Award Finalist
Otherwise Award Finalist

"Magnificent in every way."—Samantha Shannon, author of The Priory of the Orange Tree

"A dazzling new world of fate, war, love and betrayal."—Zen Cho, author of Black Water Sister

She Who Became the Sun reimagines the rise to power of the Ming Dynasty’s founding emperor.

To possess the Mandate of Heaven, the female monk Zhu will do anything

“I refuse to be nothing…�

In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness�

In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected.

When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother's identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate.

After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu takes the chance to claim another future her brother's abandoned greatness.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 416 Shelley Parker-Chan 1250621798 Jenn 0 to-read 3.87 2021 She Who Became the Sun (The Radiant Emperor, #1)
author: Shelley Parker-Chan
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2021
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]]> The Leftover Woman 78296909 An evocative family drama and a riveting mystery about the ferocious pull of motherhood for two very different women--from the New York Times bestselling author of Searching for Sylvie Lee and Girl in Translation.

Jasmine Yang arrives in New York City from her rural Chinese village without money or family support, fleeing a controlling husband, on a desperate search for the daughter who was taken from her at birth--another female casualty of China's controversial One Child Policy. But with her husband on her trail, the clock is ticking, and she's forced to make increasingly desperate decisions if she ever hopes to be reunited with her daughter.

Meanwhile, publishing executive Rebecca Whitney seems to have it all: a prestigious family name and the wealth that comes with it, a high-powered career, a beautiful home, a handsome husband, and an adopted Chinese daughter she adores. She's even hired a Chinese nanny to help her balance the demands of being a working wife and mother. But when an industry scandal threatens to jeopardize not only Rebecca's job but her marriage, this perfect world begins to crumble and her role in her own family is called into question.

The Leftover Woman finds these two unforgettable women on a shocking collision course. Twisting and suspenseful and surprisingly poignant, it's a profound exploration of identity and belonging, motherhood and family. It is a story of two women in a divided city--separated by severe economic and cultural differences yet bound by a deep emotional connection to a child.]]> 288 Jean Kwok 0063031469 Jenn 0 to-read 3.72 2023 The Leftover Woman
author: Jean Kwok
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2023
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]]> <![CDATA[The Grace of Kings (The Dandelion Dynasty, #1)]]> 18952341 640 Ken Liu 1481424270 Jenn 0 to-read 3.77 2015 The Grace of Kings (The Dandelion Dynasty, #1)
author: Ken Liu
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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]]> The Swimmers 58214333 From the award winning author of The Buddha in the Attic and When the Emperor Was Divine, a tour de force of economy, precision, and emotional power about what happens to a group of obsessed recreational swimmers when a crack appears at the bottom of their local pool.

The swimmers are unknown to each other except through their private routines (slow lane, fast lane), and the solace each takes in their morning or afternoon laps. But when a crack appears at the bottom of the pool, they are cast out into an unforgiving world without comfort or relief.

One of these swimmers is Alice, who is slowly losing her memory. For Alice, the pool was a final stand against the darkness of her encroaching dementia. Without the fellowship of other swimmers and the routine of her daily laps she is plunged into dislocation and chaos, swept into memories of her childhood and the Japanese internment camp in which she spent the war. Narrated by Alice's daughter, who witnesses her stark and devastating decline, The Swimmers is a searing, intimate story of mothers and daughters, and the sorrows of implacable loss, written in spellbinding, incantatory prose.

The most commanding and unforgettable work yet from a modern master.
]]> 176 Julie Otsuka 0593321332 Jenn 0 to-read 3.65 2022 The Swimmers
author: Julie Otsuka
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2022
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]]> Disorientation 58350424 A Taiwanese American woman’s coming-of-consciousness ignites eye-opening revelations and chaos on a college campus in this outrageously hilarious and startlingly tender debut novel.

Twenty-nine-year-old PhD student Ingrid Yang is desperate to finish her dissertation on the late canonical poet Xiao-Wen Chou and never read about “Chinese-y� things again. But after years of grueling research, all she has to show for her efforts are junk food addiction and stomach pain. When she accidentally stumbles upon a curious note in the Chou archives one afternoon, she convinces herself it’s her ticket out of academic hell.

But Ingrid’s in much deeper than she thinks. Her clumsy exploits to unravel the note’s message lead to an explosive discovery, upending not only her sheltered life within academia but her entire world beyond it. With her trusty friend Eunice Kim by her side and her rival Vivian Vo hot on her tail, together they set off a roller coaster of mishaps and misadventures, from book burnings and OTC drug hallucinations, to hot-button protests and Yellow Peril 2.0 propaganda.

In the aftermath, nothing looks the same to Ingrid—including her gentle and doting fiancé, Stephen Greene. When he embarks on a book tour with the super kawaii Japanese author he’s translated, doubts and insecurities creep in for the first time� As the events Ingrid instigated keep spiraling, she’ll have to confront her sticky relationship to white men and white institutions—and, most of all, herself.

For readers of Paul Beatty’s The Sellout and Charles Yu’s Interior Chinatown, this uproarious and bighearted satire is a blistering send-up of privilege and power in America, and a profound reckoning of individual complicity and unspoken rage. In this electrifying debut novel from a provocative new voice, Elaine Hsieh Chou asks who gets to tell our stories—and how the story changes when we finally tell it ourselves.]]> 403 Elaine Hsieh Chou 0593298357 Jenn 0 to-read 3.84 2022 Disorientation
author: Elaine Hsieh Chou
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2022
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]]> Interior Chinatown 44436221 A deeply personal novel about race, pop culture, immigration, assimilation, and escaping the roles we are forced to play.

Willis Wu doesn’t perceive himself as the protagonist in his own life: he’s merely Generic Asian Man. Sometimes he gets to be Background Oriental Making a Weird Face or even Disgraced Son, but always he is relegated to a prop. Yet every day, he leaves his tiny room in a Chinatown SRO and enters the Golden Palace restaurant, where Black and White, a procedural cop show, is in perpetual production. He’s a bit player here, too, but he dreams of being Kung Fu Guy—the most respected role that anyone who looks like him can attain. Or is it?

After stumbling into the spotlight, Willis finds himself launched into a wider world than he’s ever known, discovering not only the secret history of Chinatown, but the buried legacy of his own family. Infinitely inventive and deeply personal, exploring the themes of pop culture, assimilation, and immigration�Interior Chinatown is Charles Yu’s most moving, daring, and masterful novel yet.]]> 288 Charles Yu Jenn 0 to-read 3.95 2020 Interior Chinatown
author: Charles Yu
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2020
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]]> The House of Doors 65215270
The year is 1921. Lesley Hamlyn and her husband, Robert, a lawyer and war veteran, are living at Cassowary House on the Straits Settlement of Penang. When “Willie� Somerset Maugham, a famed writer and old friend of Robert's, arrives for an extended visit with his secretary Gerald, the pair threatens a rift that could alter more lives than one.

Maugham, one of the great novelists of his day, is beleaguered: Having long hidden his homosexuality, his unhappy and expensive marriage of convenience becomes unbearable after he loses his savings-and the freedom to travel with Gerald. His career deflating, his health failing, Maugham arrives at Cassowary House in desperate need of a subject for his next book. Lesley, too, is enduring a marriage more duplicitous than it first appears. Maugham suspects an affair, and, learning of Lesley's past connection to the Chinese revolutionary, Dr. Sun Yat Sen, decides to probe deeper. But as their friendship grows and Lesley confides in him about life in the Straits, Maugham discovers a far more surprising tale than he imagined, one that involves not only war and scandal but the trial of an Englishwoman charged with murder. It is, to Maugham, a story worthy of fiction.

A mesmerizingly beautiful novel based on real events, The House of Doors traces the fault lines of race, gender, sexuality, and power under empire, and dives deep into the complicated nature of love and friendship in its shadow.]]> 306 Tan Twan Eng 1639731938 Jenn 0 to-read 3.98 2023 The House of Doors
author: Tan Twan Eng
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> The Covenant of Water 180357146 From the New York Times-bestselling author of Cutting for Stone comes a stunning and magisterial epic of love, faith, and medicine, set in Kerala, South India, following three generations of a family seeking the answers to a strange secret

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

A shimmering evocation of a bygone India and of the passage of time itself, The Covenant of Water is a hymn to progress in medicine and to human understanding, and a humbling testament to the hardships undergone by past generations for the sake of those alive today. Imbued with humor, deep emotion, and the essence of life, it is one of the most masterful literary novels published in recent years.]]> 715 Abraham Verghese 0802162177 Jenn 0 to-read 4.34 2023 The Covenant of Water
author: Abraham Verghese
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu]]> 55643292
Battered, heartbroken, and yet defiant, Ming partners with a blind clairvoyant known only as the prophet. Together the two set out to rescue his wife and to exact revenge on the men who destroyed Ming, aided by a troupe of magic-show performers, some with supernatural powers, whom they meet on the journey. Ming blazes his way across the West, settling old scores with a single-minded devotion that culminates in an explosive and unexpected finale.

Written with the violent ardor of Cormac McCarthy and the otherworldly inventiveness of Ted Chiang, The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu is at once a thriller, a romance, and a story of one man’s quest for redemption in the face of a distinctly American brutality.]]> 275 Tom Lin 0316542156 Jenn 0 to-read 3.66 2021 The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu
author: Tom Lin
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[How Much of These Hills Is Gold]]> 45895362
Ba dies in the night; Ma is already gone. Newly orphaned children of immigrants, Lucy and Sam are suddenly alone in a land that refutes their existence. Fleeing the threats of their western mining town, they set off to bury their father in the only way that will set them free from their past. Along the way, they encounter giant buffalo bones, tiger paw prints, and the specters of a ravaged landscape as well as family secrets, sibling rivalry, and glimpses of a different kind of future.

Both epic and intimate, blending Chinese symbolism and re-imagined history with fiercely original language and storytelling, How Much of These Hills Is Gold is a haunting adventure story, an unforgettable sibling story, and the announcement of a stunning new voice in literature. On a broad level, it explores race in an expanding country and the question of where immigrants are allowed to belong. But page by page, it's about the memories that bind and divide families, and the yearning for home.]]> 288 C Pam Zhang 0525537201 Jenn 0 to-read 3.77 2020 How Much of These Hills Is Gold
author: C Pam Zhang
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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]]> The Backyard Bird Chronicles 194803881
Tracking the natural beauty that surrounds us, The Backyard Bird Chronicles maps the passage of time through daily entries, thoughtful questions, and beautiful original sketches. With boundless charm and wit, author Amy Tan charts her foray into birding and the natural wonders of the world.

In 2016, Amy Tan grew overwhelmed by the state of the Hatred and misinformation became a daily presence on social media, and the country felt more divisive than ever. In search of peace, Tan turned toward the natural world just beyond her window and, specifically, the birds visiting her yard. But what began as an attempt to find solace turned into something far greater—an opportunity to savor quiet moments during a volatile time, connect to nature in a meaningful way, and imagine the intricate lives of the birds she admired.]]> 291 Amy Tan 0593536134 Jenn 0 to-read 4.06 2024 The Backyard Bird Chronicles
author: Amy Tan
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues]]> 61327450 An account of how the major transformations in history—from the rise of Homo sapiens to the birth of capitalism—have been shaped not by humans but by germs

According to the accepted narrative of progress, humans have thrived thanks to their brains and brawn, collectively bending the arc of history. But in this revelatory book, Professor Jonathan Kennedy argues that the myth of human exceptionalism overstates the role that we play in social and political change. Instead, it is the humble microbe that wins wars and topples empires.

Drawing on the latest research in fields ranging from genetics and anthropology to archaeology and economics, Pathogenesis takes us through sixty thousand years of history, exploring eight major outbreaks of infectious disease that have made the modern world. Bacteria and viruses were protagonists in the demise of the Neanderthals, the growth of Islam, the transition from feudalism to capitalism, the devastation wrought by European colonialism, and the evolution of the United States from an imperial backwater to a global superpower. Even Christianity rose to prominence in the wake of a series of deadly pandemics that swept through the Roman Empire in the second and third centuries: Caring for the sick turned what was a tiny sect into one of the world’s major religions.

By placing disease at the center of his wide-ranging history of humankind, Kennedy challenges some of the most fundamental assumptions about our collective past—and urges us to view this moment as another disease-driven inflection point that will change the course of history. Provocative and brimming with insight, Pathogenesis transforms our understanding of the human story.]]> 304 Jonathan Kennedy 0593240472 Jenn 0 to-read 3.92 2023 Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues
author: Jonathan Kennedy
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> Silk: A World History 181110043 304 Aarathi Prasad 0063160250 Jenn 0 to-read 3.63 Silk: A World History
author: Aarathi Prasad
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.63
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rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks]]> 127305908
The Viking warship of King Cnut the Great. Henry VIII's the Mary Rose. Captain John Franklin's doomed HMS Terror. The SS Gairsoppa, destroyed by a Nazi U-boat in the Atlantic during World War II.

Since we first set sail on the open sea, ships and their wrecks have been an inevitable part of human history. Archaeologists have made spectacular discoveries excavating these sunken ships, their protective underwater cocoon keeping evidence of past civilizations preserved. Now, for the first time, world renowned maritime archeologist David Gibbins ties together the stories of some of the most significant shipwrecks in time to form a single overarching narrative of world history.

A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks is not just the story of those ships, the people who sailed on them, and the cargo and treasure they carried, but also the story of the spread of people, religion, and ideas around the world; it is a story of colonialism, migration, and the indominable human spirit that continues today. From the glittering Bronze Age, to the world of Caesar's Rome, through the era of the Vikings, to the exploration of the Arctic, Gibbins uses shipwrecks to tell all.

Drawing on decades of experience excavating shipwrecks around the world, Gibbins reveals the riches beneath the waves and shows us how the treasures found there can be a porthole to the past that tell a new story about the world and its underwater secrets.]]> 289 David Gibbins 1250325374 Jenn 0 to-read 3.35 2024 A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks
author: David Gibbins
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.35
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> The Paradise Problem 199797582
Three years later, Anna is a starving artist living paycheck to paycheck while West is a Stanford professor. He may be one of four heirs to the Weston Foods conglomerate, but he has little interest in working for the heartless corporation his family built from the ground up. He is interested, however, in his one-hundred-million-dollar inheritance. There’s just one catch.

Due to an antiquated clause in his grandfather’s will, Liam won’t see a penny until he’s been happily married for five years. Just when Liam thinks he’s in the home stretch, pressure mounts from his family to see this mysterious spouse, and he has no choice but to turn to the one person he’s afraid to introduce to his one-percenter parents � his unpolished, not-so-ex-wife.

But in the presence of his family, Liam’s fears quickly shift from whether the feisty, foul-mouthed, paint-splattered Anna can play the part to whether the toxic world of wealth will corrupt someone as pure of heart as his surprisingly grounded and loyal wife. Liam will have to ask himself if the price tag on his flimsy cover story is worth losing true love that sprouted from a lie.]]> 352 Christina Lauren 1668017725 Jenn 0 to-read 4.07 2024 The Paradise Problem
author: Christina Lauren
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> How to End a Love Story 63247365
“Emotional, relatable and binge-worthy." –Tessa Bailey

“I’ll read anything she writes. An absolute star." –Emily Henry

“I was hooked on the very first page. Don't miss this one!" � Carley Fortune

Two writers with a complicated history end up working on the same TV show. Can they write themselves a new ending? A sexy and emotional enemies-to-lovers romance guaranteed to pull on your heartstrings and give you a book hangover from brilliant new voice Yulin Kuang

Helen Zhang hasn’t seen Grant Shepard once in the thirteen years since the tragic accident that bound their lives together forever.

Now a bestselling author, Helen pours everything into her career. She’s even scored a coveted spot in the writers� room of the TV adaptation of her popular young adult novels, and if she can hide her imposter syndrome and overcome her writer’s block, surely the rest of her life will fall into place too. LA is the fresh start she needs. After all, no one knows her there. Except�

Grant has done everything in his power to move on from the past, including building a life across the country. And while the panic attacks have never quite gone away, he’s well liked around town as a screenwriter. He knows he shouldn’t have taken the job on Helen’s show, but it will open doors to developing his own projects that he just can’t pass up.

Grant’s exactly as Helen remembers him—charming, funny, popular, and lovable in ways that she’s never been. And Helen’s exactly as Grant remembers too—brilliant, beautiful, closed off. But working together is messy, and electrifying, and Helen’s parents, who have never forgiven Grant, have no idea he’s in the picture at all.

When secrets come to light, they must reckon with the fact that theirs was never meant to be any kind of love story. And yet� the key to making peace with their past—and themselves—might just lie in holding on to each other in the present.]]> 384 Yulin Kuang Jenn 0 to-read 3.61 2024 How to End a Love Story
author: Yulin Kuang
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect (Ernest Cunningham, #2)]]> 167006698
The program is a who’s who of crime writing royalty:

the debut writer (me!)

the forensic science writer

the blockbuster writer

the legal thriller writer

the literary writer

the psychological suspense writer

But when one of us is murdered, the remaining authors quickly turn into five detectives. Together, we should know how to solve a crime.

Of course, we should also know how to commit one.

How can you find a killer when all the suspects know how to get away with murder?]]> 320 Benjamin Stevenson 006327907X Jenn 0 to-read 3.82 2023 Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect (Ernest Cunningham, #2)
author: Benjamin Stevenson
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> Lies and Weddings 197144545 A forbidden affair erupts dramatically amid a decadent Hawaiian wedding in this hilarious, sophisticated, and thrillingly plotted story of love, money, murder, sex—and the lies we tell about them all.

Rufus Leung Gresham, future Earl of Greshambury and son of a former Hong Kong supermodel, has a problem: his family fortune, the legendary Gresham Trust, has been depleted by decades of profligate spending. While magazine covers and Instagram stories display impeccably designed manors and shiny new yachts, the secret reality holds nothing more than a gargantuan mountain of debt. The only solution, put forth by Rufus’s scheming mother, is for Rufus to seduce a woman with money, thereby securing the family's precarious financial future.

Should he marry Solène de Courcy, a French hotel heiress with honey-blond tresses and a royal bloodline? Should he pursue Martha Dung, the tattooed venture capital genius who passes out billions like lollipops? Or should he follow his heart, betray his family, squander his legacy, and finally confess his love to the literal girl next door, the humble daughter of a doctor, Eden Tong?

When the Gresham family descends on the Big Island of Hawaii to host a veritable who's who of sultans, barons, and oligarchs for the wedding of the decade, Rufus must merely flex his famous abs to bewitch the heiress of his choice. But instead a hot mic exposes a secret tryst, a volcanic eruption burns through the nuptials, and the Gresham family's plans—and their reputation—go up in flames.

Can the once-great earldom rise from the ashes? Or will a secret tragedy, hidden for two decades, reveal a shocking twist? Spanning the black sand beaches of Hawaii, the red city of Marrakech, the Los Angeles bachelor pad of a billionaire playboy, and the inner sanctum of England’s oldest family estate, Lies and Weddings reveals an enthralling family saga that is as scandalous and satirical as it is full of heart.]]> 437 Kevin Kwan 0385546297 Jenn 0 to-read 3.69 2024 Lies and Weddings
author: Kevin Kwan
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Sympathizer (The Sympathizer, #1)]]> 23168277
The Sympathizer is the story of this captain: a man brought up by an absent French father and a poor Vietnamese mother, a man who went to university in America, but returned to Vietnam to fight for the Communist cause. A gripping spy novel, an astute exploration of extreme politics, and a moving love story, The Sympathizer explores a life between two worlds and examines the legacy of the Vietnam War in literature, film, and the wars we fight today.]]> 371 Viet Thanh Nguyen 0802123457 Jenn 0 to-read 4.00 2015 The Sympathizer (The Sympathizer, #1)
author: Viet Thanh Nguyen
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Flavia de Luce, #1)]]> 40605285 386 Alan Bradley 0440338468 Jenn 0 to-read 3.86 2009 The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Flavia de Luce, #1)
author: Alan Bradley
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/05/29
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]]> <![CDATA[Hot Pursuit (To Catch A Thief, #1)]]> 54230191 Don't miss this laugh-out-loud, enemies-to-lovers romance that's How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days meets White Collar with a dash of The Thomas Crown Affair thrown in!

All Jolene Carter has ever wanted is to own a bakery of her own. There’s only one problem. Her father, Robert Carter, is a world-renowned art thief and she’s, well, sort of his protégé. But he’s promised her that this next job in New York will be their last, and she won’t let anyone get in the way of her dreams... especially not the distractingly delicious FBI agent hot on her tail.

Agent Nate Parker has been on the Robert Carter case for years, and if the rumors of the aging criminal’s retirement are true, this might be his last chance to nail him. With the legacy of his late father in the back of his mind, the stakes are more personal than anyone realizes. He won’t let anything stand in the way of justice...especially not the red-headed vixen who keeps giving him the slip.

He’s a cop who’d never bend. She’s a con who’ll never break. But all’s fair in love and larceny...

**To Catch a Thief is a romantic comedy series that's one part humorous and one part heartfelt, with a dash of adventure, a hint of criminal activity, and a whole heap of fun! Each book is a standalone romance with a HEA.]]> 362 Kay Marie Jenn 3 3.68 2018 Hot Pursuit (To Catch A Thief, #1)
author: Kay Marie
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/29
date added: 2024/05/29
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]]> Shōgun (The Asian Saga, #1) 122565929 The classic epic novel of feudal Japan that captured the heart of a culture and the imagination of the world, by the #1 New York Times bestselling author and unparalleled master of historical fiction, James Clavell

After Englishman John Blackthorne is lost at sea, he awakens in a place few Europeans know of and even fewer have seen—Nippon. Thrust into the closed society that is seventeenth-century Japan, a land where the line between life and death is razor-thin, Blackthorne must negotiate not only a foreign people, with unknown customs and language, but also his own definitions of morality, truth, and freedom. As internal political strife and a clash of cultures lead to seemingly inevitable conflict, Blackthorne’s loyalty and strength of character are tested by both passion and loss, and he is torn between two worlds that will each be forever changed.

Powerful and engrossing, capturing both the rich pageantry and stark realities of life in feudal Japan, Shōgun is a critically acclaimed powerhouse of a book. Heart-stopping, edge-of-your-seat action melds seamlessly with intricate historical detail and raw human emotion. Endlessly compelling, this sweeping saga captivated the world to become not only one of the best-selling novels of all time but also one of the highest-rated television miniseries, as well as inspiring a nationwide surge of interest in the culture of Japan. Shakespearean in both scope and depth, Shōgun is, as the New York Times put it, “…not only something you read—you live it.� Provocative, absorbing, and endlessly fascinating, there is only Shōgun.]]> 1140 James Clavell 198253754X Jenn 5 4.63 1975 Shōgun (The Asian Saga, #1)
author: James Clavell
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.63
book published: 1975
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/28
date added: 2024/05/27
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]]> What the Wind Knows 40407141 In an unforgettable love story, a woman’s impossible journey through the ages could change everything�

Anne Gallagher grew up enchanted by her grandfather’s stories of Ireland. Heartbroken at his death, she travels to his childhood home to spread his ashes. There, overcome with memories of the man she adored and consumed by a history she never knew, she is pulled into another time.

The Ireland of 1921, teetering on the edge of war, is a dangerous place in which to awaken. But there Anne finds herself, hurt, disoriented, and under the care of Dr. Thomas Smith, guardian to a young boy who is oddly familiar. Mistaken for the boy’s long-missing mother, Anne adopts her identity, convinced the woman’s disappearance is connected to her own.

As tensions rise, Thomas joins the struggle for Ireland’s independence and Anne is drawn into the conflict beside him. Caught between history and her heart, she must decide whether she’s willing to let go of the life she knew for a love she never thought she’d find. But in the end, is the choice actually hers to make?]]> 418 Amy Harmon 1503959600 Jenn 4 4.37 2019 What the Wind Knows
author: Amy Harmon
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/27
date added: 2024/05/27
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]]> The Debutante Divorcee 97632 250 Plum Sykes 1401360238 Jenn 0 to-read 3.51 2006 The Debutante Divorcee
author: Plum Sykes
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/05/20
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]]> Wives Like Us 61896550
If you think the English countryside is all green wellies, muddy Land Rovers, and grey-haired ladies in tweed, then you’ve never visited The Bottoms.

Welcome to the rose-strewn county of Oxfordshire, and the tony Cotswold villages of Little Bottom, Middle Bottom, Great Bottom, and Monkton Bottom, recently annexed by a glittering new breed of female: the Country Princess.

Following a ghastly row about a missing suite of diamonds, Tata Hawkins has flounced out of Monkton Bottom Manor with her daughter, Minty, and Executive Butler Ian Palmer in tow, decamping to The Old Coach House to teach her husband, Bryan, a lesson.

But things don’t go to plan. Bryan disappears to Venice with a bikini designer; Selby Fairfax, the glamorous American divorcée who has inherited the beautiful estate next door—Great Bottom Park—is refusing Tata’s overtures at friendship; Tata’s two best friends, Sophie Thompson and Fernanda Ovington-Williams, are distracted by their own problems; worst of all, Ian has nowhere to store his collection of vintage Gucci loafers.

Will Tata ever return to the comforts of the Manor? Will Sophie’s husband start appreciating her? Will Fernanda ever find a replacement Manny for her friendless son, Luca? Will Selby believe in love again? With the help of a pig farmer-ess moonlighting as a Personal Assistant, a male model moonlighting as a stable hand, a London barrister moonlighting as a gentleman farmer, and a hypochondriac American tech mogul lying in a hospital bed, is there any hope that Ian can restore harmony to The Bottoms?]]> 368 Plum Sykes 0062429086 Jenn 0 to-read 3.43 2024 Wives Like Us
author: Plum Sykes
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/05/20
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]]> <![CDATA[The Honeymooner (Paradise Bay, #1)]]> 40606975 He’s tall, dark, and built. The kind of man whose abs have abs. And I only want one thing from him—to forget the last twenty-four hours. Forever.

It was supposed to be the best day of my life. The sun was shining. The church was packed. I was dressed in white and ready to marry my steady-as-a-rock fiancé.

There was just one big, fat problem—he didn’t show up.

So I did the only thing a girl can do under the circumstances—escape to the Caribbean for our honeymoon.

Alone.

Enter Harrison Banks.

Somehow he brings out a side of me I didn’t know existed—a carefree adrenaline junkie. After a few days together, Harrison’s got me wondering if the life I always wanted was meant for some other girl.

I should go back to my safe, comfortable life, right?

That would be the sensible thing to do.

I can’t risk everything to live out some tropical fantasy with a guy I’ve just met, even if he is the only man who’s ever made me feel truly alive�

The Honeymooner is a laugh-out-loud, opposites attract romance about a heroine who’s used to staying inside her comfort zone and a hero who knows exactly how hard to push. It’ll have you laughing, swooning, and sipping fruity blender drinks.]]> 268 Melanie Summers Jenn 3 3.92 2018 The Honeymooner (Paradise Bay, #1)
author: Melanie Summers
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/17
date added: 2024/05/17
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]]> <![CDATA[The Housemaid (The Housemaid, #1)]]> 60556912
Every day I clean the Winchesters� beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor.

I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband.

I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon finds out� and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late.

But I reassure myself: the Winchesters don’t know who I really am.

They don’t know what I’m capable of�

An unbelievably twisty read that will have you glued to the pages late into the night. Anyone who loves The Woman in the Window, The Wife Between Us and The Girl on the Train won’t be able to put this down!]]> 329 Freida McFadden 1803144378 Jenn 4 4.31 2022 The Housemaid (The Housemaid, #1)
author: Freida McFadden
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/11
date added: 2024/05/13
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]]> The Bee Sting 62039166 From the author of Skippy Dies comes Paul Murray's The Bee Sting, an irresistibly funny, wise, and thought-provoking tour de force about family, fortune, and the struggle to be a good person when the world is falling apart.

The Barnes family is in trouble. Dickie’s once-lucrative car business is going under―but rather than face the music, he’s spending his days in the woods, building an apocalypse-proof bunker with a renegade handyman. His wife Imelda is selling off her jewelry on eBay, while their teenage daughter Cass, formerly top of her class, seems determined to binge-drink her way through her final exams. And twelve-year-old PJ is putting the final touches to his grand plan to run away from home.

Where did it all go wrong? A patch of ice on the tarmac, a casual favor to a charming stranger, a bee caught beneath a bridal veil―can a single moment of bad luck change the direction of a life? And if the story has already been written―is there still time to find a happy ending?]]> 645 Paul Murray 0374600309 Jenn 0 to-read 3.92 2023 The Bee Sting
author: Paul Murray
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/05/11
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]]> Sunbringer (Fallen Gods, #2) 124941442 Godkiller in this thrilling sequel to the #1 internationally bestselling fantasy debut, where Kissen and her companions must navigate lands of gods and demons to unravel a dark truth at the heart of their world.

Professional godkiller Kissen and her companions—young noble Inara and knight Elogast—return in a winding adventure in a world overflowing with magic, beauty, and danger.]]> 370 Hannah Kaner 0008521514 Jenn 0 to-read 3.88 2024 Sunbringer (Fallen Gods, #2)
author: Hannah Kaner
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/05/11
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]]> Godkiller (Fallen Gods, #1) 61244268
Joined by a disillusioned knight on a secret quest, they must travel to the ruined city of Blenraden, where the last of the wild gods reside, to each beg a favour.

Pursued by demons, and in the midst of burgeoning civil war, they will all face a reckoning � something is rotting at the heart of their world, and only they can be the ones to stop it.]]> 304 Hannah Kaner 0008521468 Jenn 4 3.85 2023 Godkiller (Fallen Gods, #1)
author: Hannah Kaner
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/11
date added: 2024/05/11
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]]> A Girl Called Samson 58769584 From New York Times bestselling author Amy Harmon comes the saga of a young woman who dares to chart her own destiny in life and love during the American Revolutionary War.

In 1760, Deborah Samson is born to Puritan parents in Plympton, Massachusetts. When her father abandons the family and her mother is unable to support them, Deborah is bound out as an indentured servant. From that moment on, she yearns for a life of liberation and adventure.

Twenty years later, as the American colonies begin to buckle in their battle for independence, Deborah, impassioned by the cause, disguises herself as a soldier and enlists in the Continental Army. Her impressive height and lanky build make her transformation a convincing one, and it isn’t long before she finds herself confronting the horrors of war head-on.

But as Deborah fights for her country’s freedom, she must contend with the secret of who she is—and, ultimately, a surprising love she can’t deny.]]> 405 Amy Harmon 1542039738 Jenn 4 4.48 2023 A Girl Called Samson
author: Amy Harmon
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/03
date added: 2024/05/03
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]]> <![CDATA[The Bird and the Sword (The Bird and the Sword Chronicles, #1)]]> 29008738 Swallow, Daughter, pull them in, those words that sit upon your lips. Lock them deep inside your soul, hide them ‘til they’ve time to grow. Close your mouth upon the power, curse not, cure not, ‘til the hour. You won’t speak and you won’t tell, you won’t call on heav’n or hell. You will learn and you will thrive. Silence, Daughter. Stay alive.

The day my mother was killed, she told my father I wouldn’t speak again, and she told him if I died, he would die too. Then she predicted the king would trade his soul and lose his son to the sky.

My father has a claim to the throne, and he is waiting in the shadows for all of my mother’s words to come to pass. He wants desperately to be king, and I just want to be free.

But freedom will require escape, and I’m a prisoner of my mother’s curse and my father’s greed. I can’t speak or make a sound, and I can’t wield a sword or beguile a king. In a land purged of enchantment, love might be the only magic left, and who could ever love . . . a bird?]]> 328 Amy Harmon 1533134138 Jenn 0 to-read 4.13 2016 The Bird and the Sword (The Bird and the Sword Chronicles, #1)
author: Amy Harmon
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/04/20
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]]> Good Night, Irene 63023640 In the tradition of The Nightingale and Transcription, an exhilarating World War II epic that chronicles an extraordinary young woman's heroic frontline service in the Red Cross

In 1943, Irene Woodward abandons an abusive fiancé in New York to enlist with the Red Cross and head to Europe. She makes fast friends in training with Dorothy Dunford, a towering Midwesterner with a ferocious wit. Together they are part of an elite group of women, nicknamed Donut Dollies, who command military buses called Clubmobiles at the front line, providing camaraderie and a taste of home that may be the only solace before troops head into battle.

After D-Day, these two intrepid friends join the Allied soldiers streaming into France. Their time in Europe will see them embroiled in danger, from the Battle of the Bulge to the liberation of Buchenwald. Through her friendship with Dorothy, and a love affair with a gallant American fighter pilot named Hans, Irene learns to trust again. Her most fervent hope, which becomes more precarious by the day, is for all three of them to survive the war intact.

Taking as inspiration his mother's own Red Cross service, Luis Alberto Urrea has delivered an overlooked story of women's heroism in World War II. With its affecting and uplifting portrait of friendship and valor in harrowing circumstances, Good Night, Irene powerfully demonstrates yet again that Urrea's "gifts as a storyteller are prodigious" (NPR).]]> 407 Luis Alberto Urrea 0316265853 Jenn 0 to-read 4.03 2023 Good Night, Irene
author: Luis Alberto Urrea
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/04/20
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]]> The Cage 58106374 Only One of Them Gets Out Alive

On a cold, misty Sunday night, two women are alone in the offices of fashion conglomerate Claudine de Martineau International. One is the company's human resources director. Impeccably dressed and perfectly coiffed, she sits at her desk and stares somberly out the window. Down the hall, her colleague, one of the company's lawyers, is buried under a pile of paperwork, frantically rushing to finish.

Leaving at the same time, the two women, each preoccupied by her own thoughts, enter the elevator that will take them down from the 30th floor.

When they arrive at the lobby, one of the women is dead. Was it murder or suicide?

An incredibly original novel that turns the office thriller on its head, The Cage is a wild ride that begins with a bang and picks up speed as it races to its dramatic end.]]> 352 Bonnie Kistler 0063089173 Jenn 4 3.95 2022 The Cage
author: Bonnie Kistler
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/12
date added: 2024/04/19
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]]> Camino Island 41310871 This is an updated cover of this Kindle edition. *

A gang of thieves stage a daring heist from a vault deep below Princeton University’s Firestone Library. Their loot is priceless, impossible to resist.

Bruce Cable owns a popular bookstore in the sleepy resort town of Santa Rosa on Camino Island in Florida. He makes his real money, though, as a prominent dealer in rare books. Very few people know that he occasionally dabbles in unsavory ventures.

Mercer Mann is a young novelist with a severe case of writer’s block who has recently been laid off from her teaching position. She is approached by an elegant, mysterious woman working for an even more mysterious company. A generous monetary offer convinces Mercer to go undercover and infiltrate Cable’s circle of literary friends, to get close to the ringleader, to discover his secrets.

But soon Mercer learns far too much, and there’s trouble in paradise—as only John Grisham can deliver it.]]> 306 John Grisham 0385543050 Jenn 4 4.21 2017 Camino Island
author: John Grisham
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/03
date added: 2024/04/19
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Royal Wedding (Crown Jewels Romance, #2)]]> 198717668 When most girls get engaged, they face a disapproving mother-in-law. In my case, it’s a disapproving nation. How can we possibly get married when the entire kingdom is trying to break us up?

No one—and I mean no one—wants me (a former anti-royal blogger) to marry Prince Arthur.

The anti-royals haven’t forgiven me for abandoning ship and swimming over to the prince’s yacht, and the royal watchers won’t ever forget all the horrible things I said about their beloved monarchs.

The king, (a.k.a. my nasty future father-in-law) is going to throw every obstacle in my way, including a beautiful, poised, and highly accomplished doctor who also happens to be in love with my fiancé.

But I’m determined to make this work and keep my fledgling career as a reporter intact. Arthur’s the most wonderful man I’ve ever known (the sexiest, too), and we will get our happily ever after.

I hope.

To be honest, I’m terrified that Arthur is questioning whether it’s even worth all this trouble. And I’m starting to wonder the same thing�

The Royal Wedding is a heartwarming and hilarious romance featuring a bride with more haters than Justin Bieber, a prince who just might crack under the pressure, and the world’s most embarrassing bridal shower. It’ll have you laughing, cringing, and cheering. ]]> 262 Melanie Summers Jenn 3 3.79 2017 The Royal Wedding (Crown Jewels Romance, #2)
author: Melanie Summers
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/19
date added: 2024/04/19
shelves:
review:

]]> The Man of My Dreams 19003106 From the Sunday Times bestselling author of RODHAM, AMERICAN WIFE, YOU THINK IT, I'LL SAY IT and HELP YOURSELF'A rigorous and wily stylist. She packs her pages with clever observations without appearing to be trying' NEW YORK TIMES'Grave, good-humoured, deeply engaging' GUARDIAN____________Hannah is a confused fourteen-year-old. In the magazines she reads, celebrities plan elaborate weddings; in Hannah's own life, her parents' marriage is crumbling. Over the next decade and a half, love throws her some complicated questions. At what point can you no longer blame your adult failures on your messed up childhood? Is settling for someone who's not your soulmate an act of maturity or an admission of defeat? And if you move to another state for a guy who might not love you back, are you being plucky - or just pathetic?_______Readers love THE MAN OF MY love everything Curtis Sittenfeld writes and this was no exception. Excellent''Very realistic portrayal of an emotionally abusive atmosphere. Insightful, thoughtful''Curtis Sittenfeld is a magnificent writer. Fantastic']]> 347 Curtis Sittenfeld Jenn 0 to-read 3.86 2006 The Man of My Dreams
author: Curtis Sittenfeld
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Portrait of an Unknown Woman (Gabriel Allon, #22)]]> 59609728 #1 New York Times bestselling author Daniel Silva delivers another stunning thriller in his latest action-packed tale of high stakes international intrigue.

Internationally bestselling author Daniel Silva has entertained readers with twenty-one thoughtful and gripping spy novels featuring the "much-loved Gabriel Allon" (Booklist) and ingenious plots that have taken him around the globe and back--from the United States to Europe, Russia to the Middle East.

Now, this master novelist who "tells his story with zest, wit and superb timing, and engineers enough surprises to startle even the most attentive reader" (Wall Street Journal) continues his remarkable success with this latest blockbuster. A powerhouse novel showcasing the outstanding narrative skills, brilliant imagination, and deep knowledge of emerging global threats that are the hallmarks of his "expertly crafted" (Bob Woodward) works, Silva's latest is a must read for both his multitudes of loyal fans and growing legions of converts.]]> 496 Daniel Silva 0062834924 Jenn 4 4.25 2022 Portrait of an Unknown Woman (Gabriel Allon, #22)
author: Daniel Silva
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/10
date added: 2024/02/10
shelves:
review:

]]> Hello Beautiful 61771675
But then darkness from William’s past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia’s carefully orchestrated plans for their future, but the sisters� unshakeable devotion to one another. The result is a catastrophic family rift that changes their lives for generations. Will the loyalty that once rooted them be strong enough to draw them back together when it matters most?]]> 416 Ann Napolitano Jenn 4 4.14 2023 Hello Beautiful
author: Ann Napolitano
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/27
date added: 2024/01/27
shelves:
review:

]]> The Soulmate Equation 58438593
But then Jess hears about GeneticAlly, a buzzy new DNA-based matchmaking company that’s predicted to change dating forever. Finding a soulmate through DNA? The reliability of numbers: This Jess understands.

At least she thought she did, until her test shows an unheard-of 98 percent compatibility with another subject in the database: GeneticAlly’s founder, Dr. River Peña. This is one number she can’t wrap her head around, because she already knows Dr. Peña. The stuck-up, stubborn man is without a doubt not her soulmate. But GeneticAlly has a proposition: Get to know him and we’ll pay you. Jess—who is barely making ends meet—is in no position to turn it down, despite her skepticism about the project and her dislike for River. As the pair are dragged from one event to the next as the “Diamond� pairing that could launch GeneticAlly’s valuation sky-high, Jess begins to realize that there might be more to the scientist—and the science behind a soulmate—than she thought.

The Soulmate Equation proves that the delicate balance between fate and choice can never be calculated.]]> 360 Christina Lauren 1982171111 Jenn 0 to-read 3.96 2021 The Soulmate Equation
author: Christina Lauren
name: Jenn
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The True Love Experiment 62361081 Sparks fly when a romance novelist and a documentary filmmaker join forces to craft the perfect Hollywood love story and take both of their careers to the next level—but only if they can keep the chemistry between them from taking the whole thing off script.

Felicity “Fizzy� Chen is lost. Sure, she’s got an incredible career as a beloved romance novelist with a slew of bestsellers under her belt, but when she’s asked to give a commencement address, it hits her: she hasn’t been practicing what she’s preached.

Fizzy hasn’t ever really been in love. Lust? Definitely. But that swoon-worthy, can’t-stop-thinking-about-him, all-encompassing feeling? Nope. Nothing. What happens when the optimism she’s spent her career encouraging in readers starts to feel like a lie?

Connor Prince, documentary filmmaker and single father, loves his work in large part because it allows him to live near his daughter. But when his profit-minded boss orders him to create a reality TV show, putting his job on the line, Connor is out of his element. Desperate to find his romantic lead, a chance run-in with an exasperated Fizzy offers Connor the perfect solution. What if he could show the queen of romance herself falling head-over-heels for all the world to see? Fizzy gives him a hard pass—unless he agrees to her list of demands. When he says yes, and production on The True Love Experiment begins, Connor wonders if that perfect match will ever be in the cue cards for him, too.

The True Love Experiment is the book fans have been waiting for ever since Fizzy’s debut in The Soulmate Equation. But when the lights come on and all eyes are on her, it turns out the happily ever after Fizzy had all but given up on might lie just behind the camera.]]> 409 Christina Lauren 1982173432 Jenn 0 to-read 4.06 2023 The True Love Experiment
author: Christina Lauren
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Wolves of Winter 198532521
For the Dogs, the war has only just begun. Caught up in the siege of Calais, in the midst of a brutal eleven-month blockade of a small port on the French coast, the band of brothers known as the Essex Dogs are no longer blindly walking into the unknown. But the men still have more questions than answers about what faces them - and why.

What are they really fighting for? And why does the king care so much about taking such a small French town?

Soon, their journey will reveal who really wants this war to last for a hundred years. And as the battle rages, they hear the first, faint, chesty rattle of a natural disaster that is sweeping towards the Dogs and their world . . .

Spanning the siege city built outside Calais' walls, to the pirate ships patrolling the harbour, and into the dark corners of oligarchs' houses, where the deals that shape—and end—lives are made, this captivating and brutal story brings the 1300s effortlessly to life.]]> 448 Dan Jones 0593653793 Jenn 0 to-read 4.04 2023 Wolves of Winter
author: Dan Jones
name: Jenn
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/20
shelves: to-read
review:

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