Athena's bookshelf: all en-US Wed, 09 Apr 2025 03:49:01 -0700 60 Athena's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Kairos 58877223 379 Jenny Erpenbeck 332860085X Athena 0 to-read 3.35 2021 Kairos
author: Jenny Erpenbeck
name: Athena
average rating: 3.35
book published: 2021
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]]> You Let Me In 45046574 You Let Me In delivers a stunning tale from debut author Camilla Bruce, combining the sinister domestic atmosphere of Gillian Flynn's Sharp Objects with the otherwordly thrills of Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane.

Cassandra Tipp is dead...or is she?

After all, the notorious recluse and eccentric bestselling novelist has always been prone to flights of fancy--everyone in town remembers the shocking events leading up to Cassie's infamous trial (she may have been acquitted, but the insanity defense only stretches so far).

Cassandra Tipp has left behind no body--just her massive fortune, and one final manuscript.

Then again, there are enough bodies in her past--her husband Tommy Tipp, whose mysterious disembowelment has never been solved, and a few years later, the shocking murder-suicide of her father and brother.

Cassandra Tipp will tell you a story--but it will come with a terrible price. What really happened, out there in the woods--and who has Cassie been protecting all along? Read on, if you dare...]]> 256 Camilla Bruce 1250302048 Athena 0 to-read 3.58 2020 You Let Me In
author: Camilla Bruce
name: Athena
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2020
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]]> The Nightingale 21853621 In love we find out who we want to be.
In war we find out who we are.

FRANCE, 1939

In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says good-bye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn’t believe that the Nazis will invade France…but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent. When a German captain requisitions Vianne’s home, she and her daughter must live with the enemy or lose everything. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates all around them, she is forced to make one impossible choice after another to keep her family alive.

Vianne’s sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old, searching for purpose with all the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians march into the unknown terrors of war, she meets Gaëtan, a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and she falls in love as only the young can…completely. But when he betrays her, Isabelle joins the Resistance and never looks back, risking her life time and again to save others.]]> 564 Kristin Hannah 0312577222 Athena 0 4.63 2015 The Nightingale
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Athena
average rating: 4.63
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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]]> Amma 202955293
This event becomes the defining moment in the lives of Josephina, her daughter Sithara, and her granddaughter Annie.

The effects cascade through generations as Annie sets out across the world to discover what happened to fracture her family.

Set in Sri Lanka, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia and London, Amma is a novel about how the past lives with us forever, and wherever we are.

Written in sensuous, vivid prose, Amma is a story of the rich history and unknown future of the Sri Lankan diaspora - and of one family desperately trying to find peace.]]> 280 Saraid de Silva 1739260147 Athena 0 to-read 4.32 2024 Amma
author: Saraid de Silva
name: Athena
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2024
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]]> Nesting 214175077 An extraordinary and urgent debut by a prize-winning Irish writer, Nesting introduces an unforgettable new voice in fiction.

On a bright spring afternoon in Dublin, Ciara Fay makes a split-second decision that will change everything. Grabbing an armful of clothes from the washing line, Ciara straps her two young daughters into her car and drives away. Head spinning, all she knows for certain is that home is no longer safe.

This was meant to be an escape. But with dwindling savings, no job, and her family across the sea, Ciara finds herself adrift, facing a broken housing system and the voice of her own demons. As summer passes and winter closes in, she must navigate raising her children in a hotel room, searching for a new home and dealing with her husband Ryan’s relentless campaign to get her to come back. Because leaving is one thing, but staying away is another.

What will it take for Ciara to rebuild her life? Can she ever truly break away from Ryan’s control � and what will be the cost?

Tense, beautiful, and underpinned by an unassailable love, hope and resilience, this is the story of one woman’s bid to start over.]]> 400 Roisín O’Donnell 1643755706 Athena 0 to-read 4.31 2025 Nesting
author: Roisín O’Donnell
name: Athena
average rating: 4.31
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]]> All Fours 197798168
A semifamous artist announces her plan to drive cross-country, from LA to New York. Twenty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, beds down in a nondescript motel, and immerses herself in a temporary reinvention that turns out to be the start of an entirely different journey.

Miranda July’s second novel confirms the brilliance of her unique approach to fiction. With July’s wry voice, perfect comic timing, unabashed curiosity about human intimacy, and palpable delight in pushing boundaries, All Fours tells the story of one woman’s quest for a new kind of freedom. Part absurd entertainment, part tender reinvention of the sexual, romantic, and domestic life of a forty-five-year-old female artist, All Fours transcends expectation while excavating our beliefs about life lived as a woman. Once again, July hijacks the familiar and turns it into something new and thrillingly, profoundly alive.]]> 336 Miranda July 0593190262 Athena 0 to-read 3.54 2024 All Fours
author: Miranda July
name: Athena
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Science of Yoga: Understand the Anatomy and Physiology to Perfect Your Practice]]> 44095136 Explore the physiology of 30 key yoga poses, in-depth and from every angle, and master each asana with confidence and control.

Did you know that yoga practice can help lower your blood pressure, decrease inflammation and prevent age-related brain changes?

Recent scientific research now backs up what were once anecdotal claims about the benefits of yoga to every system in the body. Science of Yoga reveals the facts, with annotated artworks that show the mechanics, the angles, how your blood flow and respiration are affected, the key muscle and joint actions working below the surface of each pose, safe alignment and much more.

With insight into variations on the poses and and a Q&A section that explores the science behind every aspect of yoga, look no further than Science of Yoga to achieve technical excellence in your practice and optimise the benefits of yoga to your body and mind.]]> 224 Ann Swanson 0241391679 Athena 0 to-read 4.45 2019 Science of Yoga: Understand the Anatomy and Physiology to Perfect Your Practice
author: Ann Swanson
name: Athena
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Key Muscles of Yoga (Paperback)--by Ray Long [2009 Edition]]]> 161607809 0 Ray Long Athena 0 to-read 4.09 The Key Muscles of Yoga (Paperback)--by Ray Long [2009 Edition]
author: Ray Long
name: Athena
average rating: 4.09
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]]> Alias Grace 72579
An up-and-coming expert in the burgeoning field of mental illness is engaged by a group of reformers and spiritualists who seek a pardon for Grace. He listens to her story while bringing her closer and closer to the day she cannot remember. What will he find in attempting to unlock her memories?

Captivating and disturbing, Alias Grace showcases best-selling, Booker Prize-winning author Margaret Atwood at the peak of her powers.]]> 468 Margaret Atwood 0385475713 Athena 0 to-read 4.08 1996 Alias Grace
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Athena
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1996
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]]> Lessons 60092581
Now, when his wife vanishes, leaving him alone with his tiny son, Roland is forced to confront the reality of his restless existence. As the radiation from Chernobyl spreads across Europe, he begins a search for answers that looks deep into his family history and will last for the rest of his life.

Haunted by lost opportunities, Roland seeks solace through every possible means—music, literature, friends, sex, politics, and, finally, love cut tragically short, then love ultimately redeemed. His journey raises important questions for us all. Can we take full charge of the course of our lives without causing damage to others? How do global events beyond our control shape our lives and our memories? And what can we really learn from the traumas of the past?

Epic, mesmerizing, and deeply humane, Lessons is a chronicle for our times—a powerful meditation on history and humanity through the prism of one man's lifetime.]]> 448 Ian McEwan 0593535200 Athena 0 3.89 2022 Lessons
author: Ian McEwan
name: Athena
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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]]> The Invention of Morel 94486 The Invention of Morel a masterpiece of plotting, comparable to The Turn of The Screw and Journey to the Center of the Earth. Set on a mysterious island, Bioy’s novella is a story of suspense and exploration, as well as a wonderfully unlikely romance, in which every detail is at once crystal clear and deeply mysterious.

Inspired by Bioy Casares’s fascination with the movie star Louise Brooks, The Invention of Morel has gone on to live a secret life of its own. Greatly admired by Julio Cortázar, Gabriel García Márquez, and Octavio Paz, the novella helped to usher in Latin American fiction’s now famous postwar boom. As the model for Alain Resnais and Alain Robbe-Grillet’s Last Year at Marienbad, it also changed the history of film.]]> 103 Adolfo Bioy Casares 1590170571 Athena 0 to-read 4.03 1940 The Invention of Morel
author: Adolfo Bioy Casares
name: Athena
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1940
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]]> Poverty, by America 61358638 Reimagining the debate on poverty, making a new and bracing argument about why it persists in America: because the rest of us benefit from it.

The United States, the richest country on earth, has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. Why? Why does this land of plenty allow one in every eight of its children to go without basic necessities, permit scores of its citizens to live and die on the streets, and authorize its corporations to pay poverty wages?

In this landmark book, acclaimed sociologist Matthew Desmond draws on history, research, and original reporting to show how affluent Americans knowingly and unknowingly keep poor people poor. Those of us who are financially secure exploit the poor, driving down their wages while forcing them to overpay for housing and access to cash and credit. We prioritize the subsidization of our wealth over the alleviation of poverty, designing a welfare state that gives the most to those who need the least. And we stockpile opportunity in exclusive communities, creating zones of concentrated riches alongside those of concentrated despair. Some lives are made small so that others may grow.

Elegantly written and fiercely argued, this compassionate book gives us new ways of thinking about a morally urgent problem. It also helps us imagine solutions. Desmond builds a startlingly original and ambitious case for ending poverty. He calls on us all to become poverty abolitionists, engaged in a politics of collective belonging to usher in a new age of shared prosperity and, at last, true freedom.]]> 304 Matthew Desmond 0593239911 Athena 0 to-read 4.27 2023 Poverty, by America
author: Matthew Desmond
name: Athena
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2023
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]]> <![CDATA[Attending: Medicine, Mindfulness, and Humanity]]> 29430776
As a third-year Harvard Medical School student doing a clinical rotation in surgery, Ronald Epstein watched an error an experienced surgeon failed to notice his patient’s kidney turning an ominous shade of blue. In that same rotation, Epstein was awestruck by another surgeon’s ability to avert an impending disaster, slowing down from autopilot to intentionality. The difference between these two doctors left a lasting impression on Epstein and set the stage for his life’s work—to identify the qualities and habits that distinguish masterful doctors from those who are merely competent. The secret, he learned, was mindfulness.

In Attending , his first book, Dr. Epstein builds on his world-renowned, innovative programs in mindful practice and uses gripping and deeply human clinical stories to give patients a language to describe what they value most in health care and to outline a road map for doctors and other health care professionals to refocus their approach to medicine. Drawing on his clinical experiences and current research, and exploring four foundations of mindfulness—Attention, Curiosity, Beginner’s Mind, and Presence—Dr. Epstein introduces a revolutionary by looking inward, health care practitioners can grow their capacity to provide high-quality care and the resilience to be there when their patients need them.

The commodification of health care has shifted doctors� focus away from the healing of patients to the bottom line. Clinician burnout is at an all-time high. Attending is the antidote. With compassion and intelligence, Epstein offers a crucial, timely book that shows us how we can restore humanity to medicine, guides us toward a better overall quality of care, and reminds us of what matters most.]]> 304 Ronald Epstein 1501121715 Athena 0 to-read 3.96 Attending: Medicine, Mindfulness, and Humanity
author: Ronald Epstein
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]]> <![CDATA[The Silence of the Girls (Women of Troy, #1)]]> 37969723
When Agamemnon, the brutal political leader of the Greek forces, demands Briseis for himself, she finds herself caught between the two most powerful of the Greeks. Achilles refuses to fight in protest, and the Greeks begin to lose ground to their Trojan opponents. Keenly observant and coolly unflinching about the daily horrors of war, Briseis finds herself in an unprecedented position, able to observe the two men driving the Greek army in what will become their final confrontation, deciding the fate not only of Briseis's people but also of the ancient world at large.

Briseis is just one among thousands of women living behind the scenes in this war—the slaves and prostitutes, the nurses, the women who lay out the dead—all of them erased by history. With breathtaking historical detail and luminous prose, Pat Barker brings the teeming world of the Greek camp to vivid life. She offers nuanced, complex portraits of characters and stories familiar from mythology, which, seen from Briseis's perspective, are rife with newfound revelations. Barker's latest builds on her decades-long study of war and its impact on individual lives—and it is nothing short of magnificent.]]> 325 Pat Barker Athena 0 to-read 3.88 2018 The Silence of the Girls (Women of Troy, #1)
author: Pat Barker
name: Athena
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/25
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]]> <![CDATA[Becoming Bulletproof: Protect Yourself, Read People, Influence Situations, and Live Fearlessly]]> 49531236 Former Secret Service agent and star of ’s Spy Games Evy Poumpouras shares lessons learned from protecting presidents, as well insights and skills from the oldest and most elite security force in the world to help you prepare for stressful situations, instantly read people, influence how you are perceived, and live a more fearless life.

Becoming Bulletproof means transforming yourself into a stronger, more confident, and more powerful person. Evy Poumpouras—former Secret Service agent to three presidents and one of only five women to receive the Medal of Valor—demonstrates how we can overcome our everyday fears, have difficult conversations, know who to trust and who might not have our best interests at heart, influence situations, and prepare for the unexpected. When you have become bulletproof, you are your best, most courageous, and most powerful version of you. Poumpouras shows us that ultimately true strength is found in the mind, not the body.

Courage involves facing our fears, but it is also about resilience, grit, and having a built-in BS detector and knowing how to use it. In Becoming Bulletproof, Poumpouras demonstrates how to heighten our natural instincts to employ all these qualities and move from fear to fearlessness.]]> 320 Evy Poumpouras 1982103752 Athena 0 to-read 4.11 2020 Becoming Bulletproof: Protect Yourself, Read People, Influence Situations, and Live Fearlessly
author: Evy Poumpouras
name: Athena
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Brain that Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science]]> 570172 427 Norman Doidge 067003830X Athena 0 to-read 4.18 2007 The Brain that Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science
author: Norman Doidge
name: Athena
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/23
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]]> So Thrilled For You 214868013 A terrible heatwave. A very tense baby shower. It will all end in tears...

Nicki, Lauren, Charlotte and Steffi have been friends since university. Now in their thirties, life is pulling them in different directions - but when Charlotte organises the baby shower of hell for pregnant Nicki, the girls are reunited.

Under a sweltering hot summer day, tensions rise - and by the end of the evening, nothing will ever be the same. Someone started a fire at the house - and everyone's a suspect... Is it Steffi, happily child-free but feeling judged by her friends? Is it Charlotte, desperate to conceive and jealous of those who have? Is it Lauren, who is finding motherhood far, far worse than she imagined? Or is it Nicki herself, who never wanted a baby shower anyway?

In the aftermath, the police put together the facts - but the truth will shock everyone. Even you.

BIG LITTLE LIES meets REALLY GOOD, ACTUALLY in the incredible new novel from Holly Bourne - it's the book you'll want to read three times, then give to every woman in your life.]]> 423 Holly Bourne 1529301645 Athena 0 to-read 4.01 2025 So Thrilled For You
author: Holly Bourne
name: Athena
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2025
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]]> <![CDATA[Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead]]> 51648276
A deeply satisfying thriller cum fairy tale, Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead is a provocative exploration of the murky borderland between sanity and madness, justice and tradition, autonomy and fate. Whom do we deem sane? it asks. Who is worthy of a voice?

Duration: 11 hours 39 minutes.]]> 274 Olga Tokarczuk Athena 0 3.93 2009 Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
author: Olga Tokarczuk
name: Athena
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/21
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]]> Boulder 49236083
La protagonista d'aquesta novel·la és una dona atreta per la solitud com per un imant. Es guanya la vida en un buc, la situació perfecta: una cabina, l'oceà, moltes hores per encara el buit i algún port per conèixer dones. Fins que una la reté, se l'emporta entre les quatre parets d'una casa i l'embarca en la gestació assistida d'una criatura. ¿Què en farà, la maternitat, de l'amant coneguda en un bar?

Working as a cook on a merchant ship, a woman comes to know and love Samsa, a woman who gives her the nickname “Boulder.� When Samsa gets a job in Reykjavik and the couple decides to move there together, Samsa decides that she wants to have a child. She is already 40 and can’t bear to let the opportunity pass her by. Boulder is less enthused, but doesn’t know how to say no―and so finds herself dragged along on a journey that feels as thankless as it is alien.

With motherhood changing Samsa into a stranger, Boulder must decide where her priorities lie, and whether her yearning for freedom can truly trump her yearning for love.

Once again, Eva Baltasar demonstrates her preeminence as a chronicler of queer voices navigating a hostile world―and in prose as brittle and beautiful as an ancient saga.]]> 128 Eva Baltasar 8439736967 Athena 0 3.89 2020 Boulder
author: Eva Baltasar
name: Athena
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2020
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]]> The Four Winds 53138081 Texas, 1934. Millions are out of work and a drought has broken the Great Plains. Farmers are fighting to keep their land and their livelihoods as the crops are failing, the water is drying up, and dust threatens to bury them all. One of the darkest periods of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl era, has arrived with a vengeance.

In this uncertain and dangerous time, Elsa Martinelli—like so many of her neighbors—must make an agonizing choice: fight for the land she loves or go west, to California, in search of a better life. The Four Winds is an indelible portrait of America and the American Dream, as seen through the eyes of one indomitable woman whose courage and sacrifice will come to define a generation.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Nightingale and The Great Alone comes an epic novel of love and heroism and hope, set against the backdrop of one of America’s most defining eras—the Great Depression.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781250178602]]> 464 Kristin Hannah 1250178606 Athena 4 4.27 2021 The Four Winds
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Athena
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/21
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves: books-i-own-but-haven-t-yet-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng]]> 218185743
These days nobody can reach Cora: not her aunt, who wants her to prepare for the Hungry Ghost Festival; not her weird colleagues; and especially not the slack-jawed shadow lurking around her door frame. After all, it can't be real—can it? After a series of unexplained killings in Chinatown, Cora believes someone might be targeting East Asian women, and something might be targeting Cora herself.]]> 304 Kylie Lee Baker 0778368459 Athena 0 to-read 4.29 2025 Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng
author: Kylie Lee Baker
name: Athena
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/20
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]]> <![CDATA[Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World]]> 40672036
In this timely and enlightening book, the bestselling author of Deep Work introduces a philosophy for technology use that has already improved countless lives.

Digital minimalists are all around us. They're the calm, happy people who can hold long conversations without furtive glances at their phones. They can get lost in a good book, a woodworking project, or a leisurely morning run. They can have fun with friends and family without the obsessive urge to document the experience. They stay informed about the news of the day, but don't feel overwhelmed by it. They don't experience "fear of missing out" because they already know which activities provide them meaning and satisfaction.

Now, Newport gives us a name for this quiet movement, and makes a persuasive case for its urgency in our tech-saturated world. Common sense tips, like turning off notifications, or occasional rituals like observing a digital sabbath, don't go far enough in helping us take back control of our technological lives, and attempts to unplug completely are complicated by the demands of family, friends and work. What we need instead is a thoughtful method to decide what tools to use, for what purposes, and under what conditions.

Drawing on a diverse array of real-life examples, from Amish farmers to harried parents to Silicon Valley programmers, Newport identifies the common practices of digital minimalists and the ideas that underpin them. He shows how digital minimalists are rethinking their relationship to social media, rediscovering the pleasures of the offline world, and reconnecting with their inner selves through regular periods of solitude. He then shares strategies for integrating these practices into your life, starting with a thirty-day "digital declutter" process that has already helped thousands feel less overwhelmed and more in control.

Technology is intrinsically neither good nor bad. The key is using it to support your goals and values, rather than letting it use you. This book shows the way.]]> 302 Cal Newport 052553654X Athena 0 to-read 4.06 2019 Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World
author: Cal Newport
name: Athena
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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]]> The Book of Guilt 217524895
Their nightmares are recorded in The Book of Dreams.
Their lessons are taken from The Book of Knowledge.
And their sins are reported in The Book of Guilt.

All the boys want is to be sent to the Big House in Margate, where they imagine a life of sun, sea and fairground rides. But, as the government looks to shut down the Sycamore Homes, the triplets begin to question everything they have been told.

Gradually surrendering its dark secrets, The Book of Guilt is a profoundly unnerving exploration of belonging in a world where some lives are valued less than others.]]> Catherine Chidgey 1399823639 Athena 0 to-read 4.71 The Book of Guilt
author: Catherine Chidgey
name: Athena
average rating: 4.71
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]]> The Book of Longings 52698452 “I am Ana. I was the wife of Jesus.�

Raised in a wealthy family in Sepphoris with ties to the ruler of Galilee, Ana is rebellious and ambitious, a relentless seeker with a brilliant, curious mind and a daring spirit. She yearns for a pursuit worthy of her life, but finds no outlet for her considerable talents. Defying the expectations placed on women, she engages in furtive scholarly pursuits and writes secret narratives about neglected and silenced women. When she meets the eighteen-year-old Jesus, each is drawn to and enriched by the other’s spiritual and philosophical ideas. He becomes a floodgate for her intellect, but also the awakener of her heart.

Their marriage unfolds with love and conflict, humor and pathos in Nazareth, where Ana makes a home with Jesus, his brothers, James and Simon, and their mother, Mary. Here, Ana’s pent-up longings intensify amid the turbulent resistance to the Roman occupation of Israel, partially led by her charismatic adopted brother, Judas. She is sustained by her indomitable aunt Yaltha, who is searching for her long-lost daughter, as well as by other women, including her friend Tabitha, who is sold into slavery after she was raped, and Phasaelis, the shrewd wife of Herod Antipas. Ana’s impetuous streak occasionally invites danger. When one such foray forces her to flee Nazareth for her safety shortly before Jesus’s public ministry begins, she makes her way with Yaltha to Alexandria, where she eventually finds refuge and purpose in unexpected surroundings.

Grounded in meticulous historical research and written with a reverential approach to Jesus’s life that focuses on his humanity, The Book of Longings is an inspiring account of one woman’s bold struggle to realize the passion and potential inside her, while living in a time, place, and culture devised to silence her.]]> 416 Sue Monk Kidd 052542976X Athena 0 4.21 2020 The Book of Longings
author: Sue Monk Kidd
name: Athena
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Love in Colour: Mythical Tales from Around the World, Retold]]> 51102251
A young businesswoman attempts a great leap in her company, and an even greater one in her love life.

A powerful Ghanaian spokeswoman is forced to decide whether she should uphold her family’s politics or be true to her heart.

In her debut collection, internationally acclaimed writer Bolu Babalola retells the most beautiful love stories from history and mythology with incredible new detail and vivacity. Focusing on the magical folktales of West Africa, Babalola also reimagines Greek myths, ancient legends from the Middle East, and stories from long-erased places.

With an eye towards decolonizing tropes inherent in our favorite tales of love, Babalola has created captivating stories that traverse across perspectives, continents, and genres.]]> 304 Bolu Babalola 1472268865 Athena 0 3.93 2020 Love in Colour: Mythical Tales from Around the World, Retold
author: Bolu Babalola
name: Athena
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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]]> Ghost Empire 28933769 In 2014, Richard Fidler and his son Joe made a journey to Istanbul. Fired by Richard's passion for the rich history of the dazzling Byzantine Empire - centred around the legendary Constantinople - we are swept into some of the most extraordinary tales in history. The clash of civilizations, the fall of empires, the rise of Christianity, revenge, lust, murder. Turbulent stories from the past are brought vividly to life at the same time as a father navigates the unfolding changes in his relationship with his son.

GHOST EMPIRE is a revelation: a beautifully written ode to a lost civilization, and a warmly observed father-son adventure far from home.]]> 492 Richard Fidler 073333525X Athena 0 4.21 2016 Ghost Empire
author: Richard Fidler
name: Athena
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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review:

]]> The Book of Night Women 4682558 The Book of Night Women is a sweeping, startling novel, a true tour de force of both voice and storytelling. It is the story of Lilith, born into slavery on a Jamaican sugar plantation at the end of the eighteenth century. Even at her birth, the slave women around her recognize a dark power that they and she will come to both revere and fear.

The Night Women, as they call themselves, have long been plotting a slave revolt, and as Lilith comes of age and reveals the extent of her power, they see her as the key to their plans. But when she begins to understand her own feelings and desires and identity, Lilith starts to push at the edges of what is imaginable for the life of a slave woman in Jamaica, and risks becoming the conspiracy's weak link.

Lilith's story overflows with high drama and heartbreak, and life on the plantation is rife with dangerous secrets, unspoken jealousies, inhuman violence, and very human emotion between slave and master, between slave and overseer, and among the slaves themselves. Lilith finds herself at the heart of it all. And all of it told in one of the boldest literary voices to grace the page recently--and the secret of that voice is one of the book's most intriguing mysteries.]]> 417 Marlon James 1594488576 Athena 0 4.36 2009 The Book of Night Women
author: Marlon James
name: Athena
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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]]> The Snow Child 33597976 423 Eowyn Ivey Athena 0 to-read 4.10 2012 The Snow Child
author: Eowyn Ivey
name: Athena
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/08
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]]> <![CDATA[The Bear and the Nightingale (The Winternight Trilogy, #1)]]> 25489134
After Vasilisa's mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisa's new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows.

And indeed, crops begin to fail, evil creatures of the forest creep nearer, and misfortune stalks the village. All the while, Vasilisa's stepmother grows ever harsher in her determination to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for either marriage or confinement in a convent.

As danger circles, Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves and call on dangerous gifts she has long concealed—this, in order to protect her family from a threat that seems to have stepped from her nurse's most frightening tales.

The Bear and the Nightingale is a magical debut novel from a gifted and gorgeous voice. It spins an irresistible spell as it announces the arrival of a singular talent.]]> 319 Katherine Arden 1101885939 Athena 0 to-read 4.07 2017 The Bear and the Nightingale (The Winternight Trilogy, #1)
author: Katherine Arden
name: Athena
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Creative Act: A Way of Being]]> 60965426 From the legendary music producer, a master at helping people connect with the wellsprings of their creativity, comes a beautifully crafted book many years in the making that offers that same deep wisdom to all of us.

"A gorgeous and inspiring work of art on creation, creativity, the work of the artist. It will gladden the hearts of writers and artists everywhere, and get them working again with a new sense of meaning and direction. A stunning accomplishment." --Anne Lamott

"I set out to write a book about what to do to make a great work of art. Instead, it revealed itself to be a book on how to be." --Rick Rubin

Many famed music producers are known for a particular sound that has its day. Rick Rubin is known for something else: creating a space where artists of all different genres and traditions can home in on who they really are and what they really offer. He has made a practice of helping people transcend their self-imposed expectations in order to reconnect with a state of innocence from which the surprising becomes inevitable. Over the years, as he has thought deeply about where creativity comes from and where it doesn't, he has learned that being an artist isn't about your specific output, it's about your relationship to the world. Creativity has a place in everyone's life, and everyone can make that place larger. In fact, there are few more important responsibilities.

The Creative Act is a beautiful and generous course of study that illuminates the path of the artist as a road we all can follow. It distills the wisdom gleaned from a lifetime's work into a luminous reading experience that puts the power to create moments--and lifetimes--of exhilaration and transcendence within closer reach for all of us.]]> 406 Rick Rubin 0593652886 Athena 0 to-read 4.01 2023 The Creative Act: A Way of Being
author: Rick Rubin
name: Athena
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2023
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]]> Happy Place 61718053
They broke up six months ago. And still haven’t told their best friends.

Which is how they find themselves sharing the largest bedroom at the Maine cottage that has been their friend group’s yearly getaway for the last decade. Their annual respite from the world, where for one vibrant, blue week they leave behind their daily lives; have copious amounts of cheese, wine, and seafood; and soak up the salty coastal air with the people who understand them most.

Only this year, Harriet and Wyn are lying through their teeth while trying not to notice how desperately they still want each other. Because the cottage is for sale and this is the last week they’ll all have together in this place. They can’t stand to break their friends� hearts, and so they’ll play their parts. Harriet will be the driven surgical resident who never starts a fight, and Wyn will be the laid-back charmer who never lets the cracks show. It’s a flawless plan (if you look at it from a great distance and through a pair of sunscreen-smeared sunglasses). After years of being in love, how hard can it be to fake it for one week� in front of those who know you best?

A couple who broke up months ago make a pact to pretend to still be together for their annual weeklong vacation with their best friends in this glittering and wise new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.]]> 400 Emily Henry 0593441273 Athena 0 3.95 2023 Happy Place
author: Emily Henry
name: Athena
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> Our Evenings 209891406 From the internationally acclaimed winner of the Booker Prize, a piercing novel that envisions modern England through the lens of one man’s acutely observed and often unnerving experience, as he struggles with class and race, art and sexuality, love and violence.

Did I have a grievance? Most of us, without looking far, could find something that had harmed us, and oppressed us, and unfairly held us back. I tried not to dwell on it, thought it healthier not to, though I’d lived my short life so far in a chaos of privilege and prejudice.

Dave Win, the son of a British dressmaker and a Burmese man he’s never met, is thirteen years old when he gets a scholarship to a top boarding school. With the doors of elite English society cracked open for him, heady new possibilities lie before Dave, even as he is exposed to the envy and viciousness of his wealthy classmates, above all that of Giles Hadlow, whose worldly parents sponsored the scholarship and who find in Dave someone they can more easily nurture than their brutish son.

Our Evenings follows Dave from the 1960s on—through the possibilities that remained open for him, and others that proved to be illusory: as a working-class brown child in a decidedly white institution; a young man discovering queer culture and experiencing his first, formative love affairs; a talented but often overlooked actor, on the road with an experimental theater company; and an older Londoner whose late-in-life marriage fills his days with an unexpected sense of happiness and security.

Moving in and out of Dave’s orbit are the Hadlows. Estranged from his parents, who remain close to Dave, Giles directs his privilege into a career as a powerful right-wing politician, whose reactionary vision for England pokes perilous holes in Dave’s stability. And as the novel accelerates towards the present day, the two men’s lives and values will finally collide in a cruel shock of violence.

This is “one of our most gifted writers� (The Boston Globe) sweeping readers from our past to our present through the beauty, pain, and joy of one deeply observed life.]]> 496 Alan Hollinghurst 0593243064 Athena 0 to-read 3.93 2024 Our Evenings
author: Alan Hollinghurst
name: Athena
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2024
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]]> <![CDATA[Fast Like a Girl: A Woman's Guide to Using the Healing Power of Fasting to Burn Fat, Boost Energy, and Balance Hormones]]> 61369435 Includes a 30-Day fasting reset that uses the power of your cycle—even if you no longer have one!

A go-to fasting manual created specifically to address women’s needs based on their hormones and menstrual cycle by Dr. Mindy Pelz, a well-known expert on women and fasting, whose fast-growing YouTube channel has become the destination for women who want to learn about fasting.

Are you among the many women who feel unheard and unseen by their doctors and health professionals? Have you become exhausted by the promise of quick-fix diets that only leave you disappointed? Well in Fast Like a Girl, Dr. Mindy helps you to take back control of your health by using the quickest path back to better health—fasting.

While most fasting advice has been a one-size-fits-all approach that leaves women with more questions than answers, in this book Dr. Mindy shares the proven strategies, specific protocols to use if you are trying to overcome a condition, fasting hacks, and tools that she has used to help hundreds of thousands of women thrive with their fasting lifestyles.

Dr. Mindy will teach you:

· the rights steps on how to go from eating all day to intermittent fasting (13-15 hours)

· how to safely fast longer if you choose to do so (15-72 hours)

· how to time fasting according to your menstrual cycle (although if you don’t have a cycle, she has you covered)

· the best foods to break your fast to achieve better metabolic health

This book also includes more than 50 recipes based on the two food plans—ketobiotic and hormone feasting—she created to best support women’s hormones. And, it has recipes specifically created to break a fast such as her Coconut Cacao Chia Pudding.

Inspired by the thousands of women she has worked with who have reclaimed their health with fasting, Dr. Mindy wrote this book because, “once a woman knows how to build a fasting lifestyle around her cycle, she becomes unstoppable.”]]> 336 Mindy Pelz 1401969925 Athena 0 currently-reading 4.22 Fast Like a Girl: A Woman's Guide to Using the Healing Power of Fasting to Burn Fat, Boost Energy, and Balance Hormones
author: Mindy Pelz
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average rating: 4.22
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]]> The Feast of the Goat 53969 ]]> 475 Mario Vargas Llosa 0571207766 Athena 0 to-read 4.27 2000 The Feast of the Goat
author: Mario Vargas Llosa
name: Athena
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2000
rating: 0
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]]> Daphnis and Chloe 1016881 128 Longus Athena 0 3.82 150 Daphnis and Chloe
author: Longus
name: Athena
average rating: 3.82
book published: 150
rating: 0
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]]> Angels Before Man 62877213
In an eternal paradise, the most beautiful angel, Lucifer, struggles with shame, identity, and timidity, with little more than the desire to worship his creator.

It isn't until the strongest angel, Michael, comes into his life that Lucifer learns to love himself. Along the way, their friendship begins to bloom into something else. Maybe the first romance in the history of everything.

But this God is a jealous one, and maybe paradise is not paradise.]]> 398 Rafael Nicolás Athena 0 to-read 4.13 2022 Angels Before Man
author: Rafael Nicolás
name: Athena
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2022
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]]> <![CDATA[Ultra-Processed People: The Science Behind Food That Isn't Food]]> 62586003 A manifesto to change how you eat and how you think about the human body.

It’s not you, it’s the food.

We have entered a new age of eating. For the first time in human history, most of our calories come from an entirely novel set of substances called Ultra-Processed Food. There’s a long, formal scientific definition, but it can be boiled down to this: if it’s wrapped in plastic and has at least one ingredient that you wouldn’t find in your kitchen, it’s UPF.

These products are specifically engineered to behave as addictive substances, driving excess consumption. They are now linked to the leading cause of early death globally and the number one cause of environmental destruction. Yet almost all our staple foods are ultra-processed. UPF is our food culture and for many people it is the only available and affordable food.

In this book, Chris van Tulleken, father, scientist, doctor, and award-winning BBC broadcaster, marshals the latest evidence to show how governments, scientists, and doctors have allowed transnational food companies to create a pandemic of diet-related disease. The solutions don’t lie in willpower, personal responsibility, or exercise. You’ll find no diet plan in this book―but join Chris as he undertakes a powerful self-experiment that made headlines around the world: under the supervision of colleagues at University College London he spent a month eating a diet of 80 percent UPF, typical for many children and adults in the United States. While his body became the subject of scientific scrutiny, he spoke to the world’s leading experts from academia, agriculture, and―most important―the food industry itself. But more than teaching him about the experience of the food, the diet switched off Chris’s own addiction to UPF.

In a fast-paced and eye-opening narrative he explores the origins, science, and economics of UPF to reveal its catastrophic impact on our bodies and the planet. And he proposes real solutions for doctors, for policy makers, and for all of us who have to eat. A book that won’t only upend the way you shop and eat, Ultra-Processed People will open your eyes to the need for action on a global scale.]]> 384 Chris van Tulleken 1324036729 Athena 0 to-read 4.41 2023 Ultra-Processed People: The Science Behind Food That Isn't Food
author: Chris van Tulleken
name: Athena
average rating: 4.41
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]]> <![CDATA[Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century]]> 51456746
From Harriet McBryde Johnson’s account of her debate with Peter Singer over her own personhood to original pieces by authors like Keah Brown and Haben Girma; from blog posts, manifestos, and eulogies to Congressional testimonies, and beyond: this anthology gives a glimpse into the rich complexity of the disabled experience, highlighting the passions, talents, and everyday lives of this community. It invites readers to question their own understandings. It celebrates and documents disability culture in the now. It looks to the future and the past with hope and love.]]> 309 Alice Wong 1984899422 Athena 0 to-read 4.46 2020 Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century
author: Alice Wong
name: Athena
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2020
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]]> Martyr! 139400713 Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! is a paean to how we spend our lives seeking meaning—in faith, art, ourselves, others—in which a newly sober, orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, guided by the voices of artists, poets, and kings, embarks on a search that leads him to a terminally ill painter living out her final days in the Brooklyn Museum.

Cyrus Shams is a young man grappling with an inheritance of violence and loss: his mother’s plane was shot down over the skies of Tehran in a senseless accident; and his father’s life in America was circumscribed by his work killing chickens at a factory farm in the Midwest. Cyrus is a drunk, an addict, and a poet, whose obsession with martyrs leads him to examine the mysteries of his past—toward an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields dressed as the Angel of death to inspire and comfort the dying, and toward his mother, through a painting discovered in a Brooklyn art gallery that suggests she may not have been who or what she seemed.

Electrifying, funny, wholly original, and profound, Martyr! heralds the arrival of a blazing and essential new voice in contemporary fiction.]]> 331 Kaveh Akbar 0593537610 Athena 0 to-read 4.23 2024 Martyr!
author: Kaveh Akbar
name: Athena
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2024
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]]> Heritage Aesthetics 63023577
In these daring and sonorous poems, Anaxagorou conducts a researched unpacking of two countries whose dividing lines of a colonial past are still visible and felt.

Uniquely engaged with the complexities of Cyprus and the diasporic experience, these poems map both an island's public history alongside a person's private reckoning. They offer a ferocious and uncompromising look towards the damaging historical structures that have led to now.

Fearless, intensely honest and hopeful, Heritage Aesthetics merges Anthony's gift for performance and his brilliant experimentation with form to create a vivid insistence to communicate a self in the world.]]> 104 Anthony Anaxagorou 1915051002 Athena 0 to-read 4.10 2022 Heritage Aesthetics
author: Anthony Anaxagorou
name: Athena
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2022
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]]> The Book of Witching 205064706 A mother must fight for her daughter’s life in this fierce and haunting tale of witchcraft and revenge from the author of A Haunting in the Arctic.

Clem gets a call that is every mother’s worst nightmare. Her nineteen-year-old daughter Erin is unconscious in the hospital after a hiking trip with her friends on the remote Orkney Islands that met a horrifying end, leaving her boyfriend dead and her best friend missing. When Erin wakes, she doesn’t recognize her mother. And she doesn’t answer to her name, but insists she is someone named Nyx.

Clem travels the site of her daughter’s accident, determined to find out what happened to her. The answer may lie in a dark secret in the history of the Orkneys: a woman wrongly accused of witchcraft and murder four centuries ago. Clem begins to wonder if Erin’s strange behavior is a symptom of a broken mind, or the effects of an ancient curse?]]> 365 C.J. Cooke 059381696X Athena 4 3.74 2024 The Book of Witching
author: C.J. Cooke
name: Athena
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/15
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]]> Praiseworthy 123263848 736 Alexis Wright 1922725323 Athena 0 to-read 3.76 2023 Praiseworthy
author: Alexis Wright
name: Athena
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/11
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]]> My Dark Vanessa 44890081
2000. Bright, ambitious, and yearning for adulthood, fifteen-year-old Vanessa Wye becomes entangled in an affair with Jacob Strane, her magnetic and guileful forty-two-year-old English teacher.

2017. Amid the rising wave of allegations against powerful men, a reckoning is coming due. Strane has been accused of sexual abuse by a former student, who reaches out to Vanessa, and now Vanessa suddenly finds herself facing an impossible choice: remain silent, firm in the belief that her teenage self willingly engaged in this relationship, or redefine herself and the events of her past. But how can Vanessa reject her first love, the man who fundamentally transformed her and has been a persistent presence in her life? Is it possible that the man she loved as a teenager—and who professed to worship only her—may be far different from what she has always believed?

Alternating between Vanessa’s present and her past, My Dark Vanessa juxtaposes memory and trauma with the breathless excitement of a teenage girl discovering the power her own body can wield. Thought-provoking and impossible to put down, this is a masterful portrayal of troubled adolescence and its repercussions that raises vital questions about agency, consent, complicity, and victimhood. Written with the haunting intimacy of The Girls and the creeping intensity of Room, My Dark Vanessa is an era-defining novel that brilliantly captures and reflects the shifting cultural mores transforming our relationships and society itself.]]> 373 Kate Elizabeth Russell 006294150X Athena 4 4.09 2020 My Dark Vanessa
author: Kate Elizabeth Russell
name: Athena
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2020
rating: 4
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]]> Honor 15811554 An honor killing shatters and transforms the lives of Turkish immigrants in 1970s London

Internationally bestselling Turkish author Elif Shafak’s new novel is a dramatic tale of families, love, and misunderstandings that follows the destinies of twin sisters born in a Kurdish village. While Jamila stays to become a midwife, Pembe follows her Turkish husband, Adem, to London, where they hope to make new lives for themselves and their children.

In London, they face a choice: stay loyal to the old traditions or try their best to fit in. After Adem abandons his family, Iskender, the eldest son, must step in and become the one who will not let any shame come to the family name. And when Pembe begins a chaste affair with a man named Elias, Iskender will discover that you could love someone with all your heart and yet be ready to hurt them.

Just published to great acclaim in England, Honor is a powerful, gripping exploration of guilt and innocence, loyalty and betrayal, and the trials of the immigrant, as well as the love and heartbreak that too often tear families apart.]]> 352 Elif Shafak 0670784834 Athena 0 to-read 4.19 2011 Honor
author: Elif Shafak
name: Athena
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/03
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]]> Difficult Loves 9811 300 Italo Calvino 0156260557 Athena 0 to-read 3.98 1958 Difficult Loves
author: Italo Calvino
name: Athena
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1958
rating: 0
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]]> White Oleander 32234 White Oleander tells the unforgettable story of Ingrid, a brilliant poet imprisoned for murder, and her daughter, Astrid, whose odyssey through a series of Los Angeles foster homes--each its own universe, with its own laws, its own dangers, its own hard lessons to be learned--becomes a redeeming and surprising journey of self-discovery.]]> 446 Janet Fitch 0316182540 Athena 0 4.00 1999 White Oleander
author: Janet Fitch
name: Athena
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1999
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/22
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]]> <![CDATA[Build Your House Around My Body]]> 55656269 A century of Vietnam's history and folklore comes to life in this "brilliant, sweeping epic that swaps spirits and sheds time like snakeskin" (Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and Survivor Song).

Two young women go missing decades apart. Both are fearless, both are lost. And both will have their revenge.

1986 The teenage daughter of a wealthy Vietnamese family loses her way in an abandoned rubber plantation while fleeing her angry father and is forever changed.

2011 A young, unhappy Vietnamese American woman disappears from her new home in Saigon without a trace.

The fates of these two women are inescapably linked, bound together by past generations, by ghosts and ancestors, by the history of possessed bodies and possessed lands. Alongside them, we meet a young boy who is sent to a boarding school for the éپ children of French expatriates, just before Vietnam declares its independence from colonial rule; two Frenchmen who are trying to start a business with the Vietnam War on the horizon; and the employees of the Saigon Spirit Eradication Co., who find themselves investigating strange occurrences in a farmhouse on the edge of a forest. Each new character and timeline brings us one step closer to understanding what binds them all.

Part puzzle, part revenge tale, part ghost story, this book takes us from colonial mansions to ramshackle zoos, from sweaty nightclubs to the jostling seats of motorbikes, from ex-pat flats to sizzling back-alley street carts. Spanning more than fifty years of Vietnamese history and barreling toward an unforgettable conclusion, this is a time-traveling, heart-pounding, border-crossing fever dream of a novel that will haunt you long after the last page.]]> 400 Violet Kupersmith 0812993322 Athena 0 3.81 2021 Build Your House Around My Body
author: Violet Kupersmith
name: Athena
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/22
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]]> <![CDATA[The Earth Transformed: An Untold History]]> 61965394 A revolutionary new history that reveals how climate change has dramatically shaped the development—and demise—of civilizations across time

Global warming is one of the greatest dangers mankind faces today. Even as temperatures increase, sea levels rise, and natural disasters escalate, our current environmental crisis feels difficult to predict and understand. But climate change and its effects on us are not new. In a bold narrative that spans centuries and continents, Peter Frankopan argues that nature has always played a fundamental role in the writing of history. From the fall of the Moche civilization in South America that came about because of the cyclical pressures of El Niño to volcanic eruptions in Iceland that affected Egypt and helped bring the Ottoman empire to its knees, climate change and its influences have always been with us.

Frankopan explains how the Vikings emerged thanks to catastrophic crop failure, why the roots of regime change in Eleventh-Century Baghdad lay in the collapse of cotton prices resulting from unusual climate patterns, and why the western expansion of the frontiers in North America was directly affected by solar flare activity in the eighteenth century. Again and again, Frankopan shows that when past empires have failed to act sustainably, they have been met with catastrophe. Blending brilliant historical writing and cutting-edge scientific research, Climate will radically reframe the way we look at the world and our future.]]> 736 Peter Frankopan 0525659161 Athena 0 to-read 3.87 2023 The Earth Transformed: An Untold History
author: Peter Frankopan
name: Athena
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2023
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]]> The Night Guest 127306444
Iðunn is in yet another doctor's office. She knows her constant fatigue is a sign that something's not right, but practitioners dismiss her symptoms and blood tests haven't revealed any cause.

When she talks to friends and family about it, the refrain is the same � have you tried eating better? exercising more? establishing a nighttime routine? She tries to follow their advice, buying everything from vitamins to sleeping pills to a step-counting watch. Nothing helps.

Until one night Iðunn falls asleep with the watch on, and wakes up to find she’s walked over 40,000 steps in the night . . .

What is happening when she’s asleep? Why is she waking up with increasingly disturbing injuries? And why won’t anyone believe her?]]> 197 Hildur Knútsdóttir 1250322049 Athena 0 3.30 2021 The Night Guest
author: Hildur Knútsdóttir
name: Athena
average rating: 3.30
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/20
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]]> <![CDATA[Witches, Midwives and Nurses: A History of Women Healers]]> 24453 48 Barbara Ehrenreich 0912670134 Athena 0 to-read 4.03 1972 Witches, Midwives and Nurses: A History of Women Healers
author: Barbara Ehrenreich
name: Athena
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1972
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/19
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]]> The Remains of the Day 28921 Librarian's note: See alternate cover edition of ISBN 0571225381 here.

In the summer of 1956, Stevens, a long-serving butler at Darlington Hall, decides to take a motoring trip through the West Country. The six-day excursion becomes a journey into the past of Stevens and England, a past that takes in fascism, two world wars, and an unrealised love between the butler and his housekeeper.]]> 258 Kazuo Ishiguro Athena 4 4.14 1989 The Remains of the Day
author: Kazuo Ishiguro
name: Athena
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1989
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/18
date added: 2024/12/18
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]]> The King's Witches 199660628 The King’s Witches by Kate Foster is a gripping and beautiful historical novel, giving an unforgettable voice to the women at the heart of the real-life witch trials in sixteenth-century Scotland.

Women whisper secrets to each other; it is how we survive.

1589. Princess Anne of Denmark is betrothed to King James VI of Scotland � a royal union designed to forever unite the two countries. But first, she must pass the trial period: one year of marriage in which she must prove herself worthy of being Scotland's new Queen. If the King and the Scottish royal court in Edinburgh find her wanting, she faces permanent exile to a convent. Determined to fulfil her duties to King and country, Anne resolves to be the perfect royal bride. Until she meets Lord Henry.

By her side is Kirsten Sorenson, her loyal and pious lady's maid. But whilst tending to Anne's every need, she has her own secret motives for the royal marriage to be a success . . .

Meanwhile, in North Berwick, a young housemaid by the name of Jura is dreaming of a new life. She practises the healing charms taught to her by her mother, and when she realises she is no longer safe under her master’s roof, she escapes to Edinburgh. But it isn't long before she finds herself caught up in the witchcraft mania that has gripped not just the capital but the new queen . . .

Will Anne, Kirsten and Jura be able to save each other and, in doing so, save themselves?]]> 304 Kate Foster 1529091802 Athena 0 to-read 4.13 2024 The King's Witches
author: Kate Foster
name: Athena
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2024
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]]> Autobiography of a Yogi 639864
Autobiography of a Yogi is at once a beautifully written account of an exceptional life and a profound introduction to the ancient science of Yoga and its time-honored tradition of meditation. The author clearly explains the subtle but definite laws behind both the ordinary events of everyday life and the extraordinary events commonly termed miracles. His absorbing life story thus becomes the background for a penetrating and unforgettable look at the ultimate mysteries of human existence.

Considered a modern spiritual classic, the book has been translated into more than twenty languages and is widely used as a text and reference work in colleges and universities. A perennial bestseller since it was first published sixty years ago, Autobiography of a Yogi has found its way into the hearts of millions of readers around the world.]]> 503 Paramahansa Yogananda 0876120834 Athena 0 4.22 1946 Autobiography of a Yogi
author: Paramahansa Yogananda
name: Athena
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1946
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/01
date added: 2024/12/01
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]]> Mansfield Park 45032 488 Jane Austen Athena 0 to-read 3.86 1814 Mansfield Park
author: Jane Austen
name: Athena
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1814
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/27
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]]> <![CDATA[Premka: White Bird in a Golden Cage: My Life with Yogi Bhajan]]> 50646785 206 Pamela Dyson Athena 0 to-read 4.05 Premka: White Bird in a Golden Cage: My Life with Yogi Bhajan
author: Pamela Dyson
name: Athena
average rating: 4.05
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/14
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Public Library and Other Stories]]> 25902919
Per què són tan poderosos els llibres?

I què diu de nosaltres la desaparició de les biblioteques públiques arreu del món?



Aquestes històries tracten sobre què fem amb els llibres i què fan els llibres amb nosaltres: com ens acompanyen en el viatge; com ens impacten, ens canvien, ens desafien, desterren el temps. Les biblioteques públiques són llocs d'alegria, llibertat, comunitat i descoberta. Amb enginy, diversió i fascinació per la llengua i el poder de les paraules, Smith ens recorda que hem d’estar atents al món que fem.]]> 219 Ali Smith 0241237467 Athena 0 to-read 3.54 2015 Public Library and Other Stories
author: Ali Smith
name: Athena
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams]]> 34466963 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781501144318.

Neuroscientist and sleep expert Matthew Walker provides a revolutionary exploration of sleep, examining how it affects every aspect of our physical and mental well-being. Charting the most cutting-edge scientific breakthroughs, and marshalling his decades of research and clinical practice, Walker explains how we can harness sleep to improve learning, mood and energy levels, regulate hormones, prevent cancer, Alzheimer's and diabetes, slow the effects of aging, and increase longevity. He also provides actionable steps towards getting a better night's sleep every night.]]> 368 Matthew Walker Athena 0 4.37 2017 Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams
author: Matthew Walker
name: Athena
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at: 2024/10/20
date added: 2024/10/20
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review:

]]> Lysistrata 1591 Lysistrata a bawdy comedy without peer in the history of theatre.]]> 132 Aristophanes 0872206033 Athena 0 to-read 3.87 -423 Lysistrata
author: Aristophanes
name: Athena
average rating: 3.87
book published: -423
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/25
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]]> Women Who Run With the Wolves 241823
In "Women Who Run With the Wolves," Dr Estes unfolds rich intercultural myths, fairytales and stories, many from her own family, in order to help women reconnect with the fierce, healthy, visionary attributes of this instinctual nature. Through the stories and commentaries in this remarkable book, we retrieve, examine, love, and understand the Wild Woman, and hold her against our deep psyches as one who is both magic and medicine. Dr Estes has created a new lexicon for describing the female psyche. Fertile and life-giving, it is a psychology of women in the truest sense, a knowing of the soul.]]> 537 Clarissa Pinkola Estés 0345409876 Athena 0 4.12 1992 Women Who Run With the Wolves
author: Clarissa Pinkola Estés
name: Athena
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1992
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/17
shelves: to-read, books-i-own-but-haven-t-yet-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[What Was She Thinking? [Notes on a Scandal]]]> 13258 258 Zoë Heller 0312421990 Athena 5 3.72 2003 What Was She Thinking? [Notes on a Scandal]
author: Zoë Heller
name: Athena
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/10
date added: 2024/09/10
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Regrettably, I am About to Cause Trouble]]> 63946988 370 Amie McNee 0645190535 Athena 0 to-read 3.90 2022 Regrettably, I am About to Cause Trouble
author: Amie McNee
name: Athena
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Spellshop 199269577 The Spellshop is Sarah Beth Durst’s romantasy debut–a lush cottagecore tale full of stolen spellbooks, unexpected friendships, sweet jams, and even sweeter love.

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

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

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

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

Like a Hallmark rom-com full of mythical creatures and fueled by cinnamon rolls and magic, The Spellshop will heal your heart and feed your soul.]]> 384 Sarah Beth Durst Athena 0 to-read 4.05 2024 The Spellshop
author: Sarah Beth Durst
name: Athena
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/10
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]]> Stone Yard Devotional 168632462 A deeply moving novel about forgiveness, grief, and what it means to be 'good', from the award-winning author of The Natural Way of Things and The Weekend.

A woman abandons her city life and marriage to return to the place of her childhood, holing up in a small religious community hidden away on the stark plains of the Monaro. She does not believe in God, doesn't know what prayer is, and finds herself living this strange, reclusive life almost by accident.

As she gradually adjusts to the rhythms of monastic life, she finds herself turning again and again to thoughts of her mother, whose early death she can't forget. Disquiet interrupts this secluded life with three visitations. First comes a terrible mouse plague, each day signaling a new battle against the rising infestation. Second is the return of the skeletal remains of a sister who left the community decades before to minister to deprived women in Thailand - then disappeared, presumed murdered. Finally, a troubling visitor to the monastery pulls the narrator further back into her past.

With each of these disturbing arrivals, the woman faces some deep questions. Can a person be truly good? What is forgiveness? Is loss of hope a moral failure? And can the business of grief ever really be finished? A meditative and deeply moving novel from one of Australia's most acclaimed and best loved writers.

"Wood joins the ranks of writers such as Nora Ephron, Penelope Lively and Elizabeth Strout." THE GUARDIAN UK]]> 320 Charlotte Wood Athena 0 to-read 3.73 2023 Stone Yard Devotional
author: Charlotte Wood
name: Athena
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/08
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]]> The Safekeep 199798201
A house is a precious thing...

It is 1961 and the rural Dutch province of Overijssel is quiet. Bomb craters have been filled, buildings reconstructed, and the war is truly over. Living alone in her late mother’s country home, Isabel knows her life is as it should be—led by routine and discipline. But all is upended when her brother Louis brings his graceless new girlfriend Eva, leaving her at Isabel’s doorstep as a guest, to stay for the season.

Eva is Isabel’s antithesis: she sleeps late, walks loudly through the house, and touches things she shouldn’t. In response, Isabel develops a fury-fueled obsession, and when things start disappearing around the house—a spoon, a knife, a bowl—Isabel’s suspicions begin to spiral. In the sweltering peak of summer, Isabel’s paranoia gives way to infatuation—leading to a discovery that unravels all Isabel has ever known. The war might not be well and truly over after all, and neither Eva—nor the house in which they live—are what they seem.

Mysterious, sophisticated, sensual, and infused with intrigue, atmosphere, and sex, The Safekeep is a brilliantly plotted and provocative debut novel you won’t soon forget.]]> 272 Yael van der Wouden 1668034344 Athena 0 to-read 4.05 2024 The Safekeep
author: Yael van der Wouden
name: Athena
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/08
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]]> The Majesties 46221974
Gwendolyn and Estella have always been as close as sisters can be. Growing up in a wealthy, eminent, and sometimes deceitful family, they’ve relied on each other for support and confidence. But now Gwendolyn is lying in a coma, the sole survivor of Estella’s poisoning of their whole clan.

As Gwendolyn struggles to regain consciousness, she desperately retraces her memories, trying to uncover the moment that led to this shocking and brutal act. Was it their aunt’s mysterious death at sea? Estella’s unhappy marriage to a dangerously brutish man? Or were the shifting loyalties and unspoken resentments at the heart of their opulent world too much to bear? Can Gwendolyn, at last, confront the carefully buried mysteries in their family’s past and the truth about who she and her sister really are?

Traveling from the luxurious world of the rich and powerful in Indonesia to the most spectacular shows at Paris Fashion Week, from the sunny coasts of California to the melting pot of Melbourne’s university scene, The Majesties is a haunting and deeply evocative novel about the dark secrets that can build a family empire—and also bring it crashing down.]]> 257 Tiffany Tsao 1982115505 Athena 0 to-read 3.25 2018 The Majesties
author: Tiffany Tsao
name: Athena
average rating: 3.25
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/01
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]]> The Lover 275 117 Marguerite Duras Athena 0 to-read 3.79 1984 The Lover
author: Marguerite Duras
name: Athena
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1984
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/01
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review:

]]> Pet 86546624
Set in New Zealand in 1984 and 2014, and probing themes of racism and misogyny, Pet is an elegant and chilling psychological thriller by the bestselling author of The Wish Child, Remote Sympathy and The Axeman’s Carnival.]]> 352 Catherine Chidgey 1776920740 Athena 0 to-read 3.99 2023 Pet
author: Catherine Chidgey
name: Athena
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/01
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]]> Time Is a Mother 58582927 On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, Vuong contends with personal loss, the meaning of family, and the cost of being the product of an American war in America. At once vivid, brave, and propulsive, Vuong's poems circle fragmented lives to find both restoration as well as the epicenter of the break.

The author of the critically acclaimed poetry collection Night Sky With Exit Wounds, winner of the 2016 Whiting Award, the 2017 T.S. Eliot Prize, and a 2019 MacArthur fellow, Vuong writes directly to our humanity without losing sight of the current moment. These poems represent a more innovative and daring experimentation with language and form, illuminating how the themes we perennially live in and question are truly inexhaustible. Bold and prescient, and a testament to tenderness in the face of violence, Time Is a Mother is a return and a forging forth all at once.
]]> 114 Ocean Vuong 0593300238 Athena 0 3.94 2022 Time Is a Mother
author: Ocean Vuong
name: Athena
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2024/08/21
date added: 2024/08/21
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]]> Lie With Me 40539136 The award-winning, bestselling French novel by Philippe Besson about an affair between two teenage boys in 1984 France, translated with subtle beauty and haunting lyricism by the iconic and internationally acclaimed actress/writer Molly Ringwald.

We drive at high speed along back roads, through woods, vineyards, and oat fields. The bike smells like gasoline and makes a lot of noise, and sometimes I’m frightened when the wheels slip on the gravel on the dirt road, but the only thing that matters is that I’m holding on to him, that I’m holding on to him outside.

Just outside a hotel in Bordeaux, Philippe chances upon a young man who bears a striking resemblance to his first love. What follows is a look back at the relationship he’s never forgotten, a hidden affair with a gorgeous boy named Thomas during their last year of high school. Without ever acknowledging they know each other in the halls, they steal time to meet in secret, carrying on a passionate, world-altering affair.

Dazzlingly rendered in English by Ringwald in her first-ever translation, Besson’s powerfully moving coming-of-age story captures the eroticism and tenderness of first love—and the heartbreaking passage of time.]]> 149 Philippe Besson 1501197878 Athena 5 4.25 2017 Lie With Me
author: Philippe Besson
name: Athena
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/17
date added: 2024/08/17
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]]> The Magician 150555 Maugham’s enchanting tale of secrets and fatal attraction The Magician is one of Somerset Maugham’s most complex and perceptive novels. Running through it is the theme of evil, deftly woven into a story as memorable for its action as for its astonishingly vivid set of characters. In fin de siecle Paris, Arthur and Margaret are engaged to be married. Everyone approves and everyone seems to be enjoying themselves—until the menacing and repulsive Oliver Haddo appears.

]]> 240 W. Somerset Maugham 0143104896 Athena 0 to-read 3.60 1908 The Magician
author: W. Somerset Maugham
name: Athena
average rating: 3.60
book published: 1908
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/30
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Jason and the Golden Fleece (The Argonautica)]]> 764332 The Argonautica is the dramatic story of Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece and his relations with the dangerous princess Medea. The only surviving Greek epic to bridge the gap between Homer and late antiquity, this epic poem is the crowning literary achievement of the Ptolemaic court at Alexandria, written by Appolonius of Rhodes in the third century BC. Appollonius explores many of the fundamental aspects of life in a highly original way: love, deceit, heroism, human ignorance of the divine, and the limits of science, and offers a gripping and sometimes disturbing tale in the process. This major new prose translation combines readability with accuracy and an attention to detail that will appeal to general readers and classicists alike.]]> 175 Apollonius of Rhodes 0192835831 Athena 0 to-read 3.85 -250 Jason and the Golden Fleece (The Argonautica)
author: Apollonius of Rhodes
name: Athena
average rating: 3.85
book published: -250
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/30
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]]> Η μεγάλη χίμαιρα 4619263 322 M. Karagatsis Athena 0 to-read 4.39 1953 Η μεγάλη χίμαιρα
author: M. Karagatsis
name: Athena
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1953
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/29
shelves: to-read
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]]> Private Rites 199313102 From the bestselling author of Our Wives Under the Sea, a haunting novel of three sisters navigating queer love and faith at the end of the world.

There’s no way to bury a body in earth which is flooded
It is a fact consigned to history along with almost everything else

It’s been raining for a long time now, for so long that the lands have reshaped themselves. Old places have been lost. Arcane rituals and religions have crept back into practice.

Sisters Isla, Irene and Agnes have not spoken in some time when their estranged father dies. A famous architect revered for making the new world navigable, he had long cut himself off from public life. They find themselves uncertain of how to grieve his passing when everything around them seems to be ending anyway.

As the sisters come together to clear the grand glass house that is the pinnacle of his legacy, they begin to sense that the magnetic influence of their father lives on through it. Something sinister seems to be unfolding, something related to their mother’s long-ago disappearance and the strangers who have always been unusually interested in their lives. Soon, it becomes clear that the sisters have been chosen for a very particular purpose, one with shattering implications for their family and their imperilled world.]]> 327 Julia Armfield Athena 0 to-read 3.86 2024 Private Rites
author: Julia Armfield
name: Athena
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/28
shelves: to-read
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]]> Idol, Burning 60470072 The novel that lit the Japanese publishing world on fire: From a breathtaking up-and-coming writer, a twenty-first century Catcher in the Rye that brilliantly explores toxic fandom, social media, and alienated adolescence.

Akari is a high school junior obsessed with "oshi" Masaki Ueno, a member of the popular J-Pop group Maza Maza. She writes a blog devoted to him, and spends hours addictively scrolling for information about him and his life. Desperate to analyze and understand him, Akari hopes to eventually see the world through his eyes. It is a devotion that borders on the religious: Masaki is her savior, her backbone, someone she believes she cannot survive without--even though she's never actually met him.

When rumors surface that her idol assaulted a female fan, social media explodes. Akari immediately begins sifting through everything she can find about the scandal, and shares every detail to her blog--including Masaki's denials and pleas to his fans--drawing numerous readers eager for her updates.

But the organized, knowledgeable persona Akari presents online is totally different from the socially awkward, unfocused teenager she is in real life. As Masaki's situation spirals, his troubles threaten to tear apart her life too. Instead of finding a way to break free to save herself, Akari becomes even more fanatical about Masaki, still believing her idol is the only person who understands her.

A blistering novel of fame, disconnection, obsession, and disillusion by a young writer not much older than the novel's heroine, Idol, Burning shines a white-hot spotlight on fandom and "stan" culture, the money-making schemes of the pop idol industry, the seductive power of social media, and the powerful emotional void that opens when an idol falls from grace, only to become a real--and very flawed--person.]]> 144 Rin Usami 0063213281 Athena 0 3.20 2020 Idol, Burning
author: Rin Usami
name: Athena
average rating: 3.20
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2024/07/26
date added: 2024/07/26
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]]> <![CDATA[The Body: A Guide for Occupants]]> 43582376 A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson achieved the seemingly impossible by making the science of our world both understandable and entertaining to millions of people around the globe.

Now he turns his attention inwards to explore the human body, how it functions and its remarkable ability to heal itself. Full of extraordinary facts and astonishing stories, The Body: A Guide for Occupants is a brilliant, often very funny attempt to understand the miracle of our physical and neurological make up.

A wonderful successor to A Short History of Nearly Everything, this book will have you marvelling at the form you occupy, and celebrating the genius of your existence, time and time again.]]> 450 Bill Bryson 0385539304 Athena 0 to-read 4.30 2019 The Body: A Guide for Occupants
author: Bill Bryson
name: Athena
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/25
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World]]> 41795733
Plenty of experts argue that anyone who wants to develop a skill, play an instrument, or lead their field should start early, focus intensely, and rack up as many hours of deliberate practice as possible. If you dabble or delay, you'll never catch up to the people who got a head start. But a closer look at research on the world's top performers, from professional athletes to Nobel laureates, shows that early specialization is the exception, not the rule.

David Epstein examined the world's most successful athletes, artists, musicians, inventors, forecasters and scientists. He discovered that in most fields--especially those that are complex and unpredictable--generalists, not specialists, are primed to excel. Generalists often find their path late, and they juggle many interests rather than focusing on one. They're also more creative, more agile, and able to make connections their more specialized peers can't see.

Provocative, rigorous, and engrossing, Range makes a compelling case for actively cultivating inefficiency. Failing a test is the best way to learn. Frequent quitters end up with the most fulfilling careers. The most impactful inventors cross domains rather than deepening their knowledge in a single area. As experts silo themselves further while computers master more of the skills once reserved for highly focused humans, people who think broadly and embrace diverse experiences and perspectives will increasingly thrive.]]> 339 David Epstein 0735214484 Athena 0 to-read 4.12 2019 Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
author: David Epstein
name: Athena
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/25
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Joy of Movement: How exercise helps us find happiness, hope, connection, and courage]]> 44780556 The bestselling author of The Willpower Instinct introduces a surprising science-based book that doesn't tell us why we should exercise but instead shows us how to fall in love with movement.

Exercise is health-enhancing and life-extending, yet many of us feel it's a chore. But, as Kelly McGonigal reveals, it doesn't have to be. Movement can and should be a source of joy.

Through her trademark blend of science and storytelling, McGonigal draws on insights from neuroscience, psychology, anthropology, and evolutionary biology, as well as memoirs, ethnographies, and philosophers. She shows how movement is intertwined with some of the most basic human joys, including self-expression, social connection, and mastery--and why it is a powerful antidote to the modern epidemics of depression, anxiety, and loneliness.

McGonigal tells the stories of people who have found fulfillment and belonging through running, walking, dancing, swimming, weightlifting, and more, with examples that span the globe, from Tanzania, where one of the last hunter-gatherer tribes on the planet live, to a dance class at Juilliard for people with Parkinson's disease, to the streets of London, where volunteers combine fitness and community service, to races in the remote wilderness, where athletes push the limits of what a human can endure. Along the way, McGonigal paints a portrait of human nature that highlights our capacity for hope, cooperation, and self-transcendence.

The result is a revolutionary narrative that goes beyond familiar arguments in favor of exercise, to illustrate why movement is integral to both our happiness and our humanity. Readers will learn what they can do in their own lives and communities to harness the power of movement to create happiness, meaning, and connection.]]> 272 Kelly McGonigal 0525534105 Athena 0 to-read 3.85 2019 The Joy of Movement: How exercise helps us find happiness, hope, connection, and courage
author: Kelly McGonigal
name: Athena
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/25
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance]]> 905
“Groundbreaking . . . the best guide to getting out of your own way . . . Its profound advice applies to many other parts of life.”—Bill Gates, GatesNotes (“Five of My All-Time Favorite Books�)

This phenomenally successful guide to mastering the game from the inside out has become a touchstone for hundreds of thousands of people. Billie Jean King has called the book her tennis bible; Al Gore has used it to focus his campaign staff; and Itzhak Perlman has recommended it to young violinists. Based on W. Timothy Gallwey’s profound realization that the key to success doesn’t lie in holding the racket just right, or positioning the feet perfectly, but rather in keeping the mind uncluttered, this transformative book gives you the tools to unlock the potential that you’ve possessed all along.

“The Inner Game� is the one played within the mind of the player, against the hurdles of self-doubt, nervousness, and lapses in concentration. Gallwey shows us how to overcome these obstacles by trusting the intuitive wisdom of our bodies and achieving a state of “relaxed concentration.� With chapters devoted to trusting the self and changing habits, it is no surprise then, that Gallwey’s method has had an impact far beyond the confines of the tennis court.

Whether you want to play music, write a novel, get ahead at work, or simply unwind after a stressful day, Gallwey shows you how to tap into your utmost potential. No matter your goals, The Inner Game of Tennis gives you the definitive framework for long-term success.]]> 134 W. Timothy Gallwey 0679778314 Athena 0 to-read 4.15 1974 The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance
author: W. Timothy Gallwey
name: Athena
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1974
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/25
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]]> Demon Copperhead 60317128 Demon Copperhead is set in the mountains of southern Appalachia. It's 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.]]> 550 Barbara Kingsolver Athena 4 4.58 2022 Demon Copperhead
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Athena
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/23
date added: 2024/07/23
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[I May Be Wrong: And Other Wisdoms From Life as a Forest Monk]]> 60222414 Let me tell you what this book is not. It's not about religion. It's not about telling you how to live your life. It's not about taking on a new set of beliefs. Plain and simple, it's about how to relate to your own thoughts and emotions in a way that makes your life more enjoyable, more free, brighter, clearer and wiser.

We like to think we understand what's happening around us; that we can determine the path our life takes. But often, things don't go that way - in fact, they rarely do.

What helps us respond to life as it unfolds? To live freely, stay humble and find comfort in difficult times?

In the Swedish sensation I May Be Wrong, former forest monk Björn Natthiko Lindeblad shares his advice on how to face the uncertainty and doubt that is a natural part of life. We don't choose our thoughts. We don't control the shape they take, or what pops into our minds. We can only choose whether or not to believe them.

Infusing the everyday with heart, grace and gentle humour, this is a book to help us all navigate the realities of modern life.]]> 257 Björn Natthiko Lindeblad 1526644800 Athena 0 to-read 4.45 2020 I May Be Wrong: And Other Wisdoms From Life as a Forest Monk
author: Björn Natthiko Lindeblad
name: Athena
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/22
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company]]> 44525305 A grand vision defined: The CEO of The Walt Disney Company shares the ideas and values he has used to reinvent one of the most beloved companies in the world, and inspire the people who bring the magic to life.

In 2005, Robert Iger became CEO of The Walt Disney Company during a difficult time. Morale had deteriorated, competition was more intense, and technology was changing faster than at any time in the company's history. "I knew there was nothing to be gained from arguing over the past," Iger writes. "The only thing that mattered was the future, and I believed I had a clear idea of the direction Disney needed to go." It came down to three clear ideas: 1) Create the highest quality content Disney could produce. 2) Embrace and adopt technology instead of fighting it. And 3) Think bigger--think global--and turn Disney into a stronger brand in international markets.

Twelve years later, Disney is the largest, most respected media company in the world counting Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and 21st Century Fox among its properties. Its value is nearly five times what it was when Iger took over, and Iger is recognized as one of the most innovative and successful CEOs of our time.

Now, he's sharing the lessons he's learned while running Disney and leading its 200,000 employees--taking big risks in the face of historic disruption; learning to inspire the people who work for you; leading with fairness and communicating principles clearly. This book is about the relentless curiosity that has driven Iger for forty-five years, since the day he started as a studio supervisor at ABC. It's also about thoughtfulness and respect, and a decency-over-dollars approach that has become the bedrock of every project and partnership Iger pursues, from a deep friendship with Steve Jobs in his final years to an abiding love of the evolving Star Wars myth.

"Over the past fourteen years, I think I've learned so much about what real leadership is," Iger writes. "But I couldn't have articulated all of this until I lived it. You can't fake it--and that's one of the key lessons in this book."

Librarian Note: This is an Advance Reader Copy issued with ISBN 9780399592096. That ISBN has been moved to the final published copy, found here]]> 272 Robert Iger Athena 0 to-read 4.37 2019 The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company
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average rating: 4.37
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]]> Betty Blue 207402 352 Philippe Djian 0349101108 Athena 0 to-read 4.10 1951 Betty Blue
author: Philippe Djian
name: Athena
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1951
rating: 0
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]]> Steppenwolf 16631 Steppenwolf is a poetical self-portrait of a man who felt himself to be half-human and half-wolf. This Faust-like and magical story is evidence of Hesse's searching philosophy and extraordinary sense of humanity as he tells of the humanization of a middle-aged misanthrope. Yet his novel can also be seen as a plea for rigorous self-examination and an indictment of the intellectual hypocrisy of the period. As Hesse himself remarked, "Of all my books Steppenwolf is the one that was more often and more violently misunderstood than any of the others".]]> 256 Hermann Hesse 0140282580 Athena 0 to-read 4.15 1927 Steppenwolf
author: Hermann Hesse
name: Athena
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1927
rating: 0
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]]> Madonna in a Fur Coat 27793819 The bestselling Turkish classic of love and longing in a changing world, available in English for the first time.



'It is, perhaps, easier to dismiss a man whose face gives no indication of an inner life. And what a pity that is: a dash of curiosity is all it takes to stumble upon treasures we never expected.'

A shy young man leaves his home in rural Turkey to learn a trade in 1920s Berlin. The city's crowded streets, thriving arts scene, passionate politics and seedy cabarets provide the backdrop for a chance meeting with a woman, which will haunt him for the rest of his life. Emotionally powerful, intensely atmospheric and touchingly profound, Madonna in a Fur Coat is an unforgettable novel about new beginnings and the unfathomable nature of the human soul.



'Passionate but clear . . . Ali's success [is in ] his ability to describe the emergence of a feeling, seemingly straightforward from the outside but swinging back and forth between opposite extremes at its core, revealing the tensions that accompanies such rise and fall.' Atilla Özkirimli, writer and literary historian]]> 168 Sabahattin Ali 014198127X Athena 0 to-read 4.19 1943 Madonna in a Fur Coat
author: Sabahattin Ali
name: Athena
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1943
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]]> The Magic Mountain 88077
The Magic Mountain is a monumental work of erudition and irony, sexual tension and intellectual ferment, a book that pulses with life in the midst of death.]]> 706 Thomas Mann Athena 0 to-read 4.12 1924 The Magic Mountain
author: Thomas Mann
name: Athena
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1924
rating: 0
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]]> Red Crosses 57067056 Sasha Filipenko traces the arc of Russian history from Stalin's terror to the present day, in a novel full of heart and humanity.

One struggles not to forget, while the other would like nothing better. Tatiana Alexeyevna is an old woman, over ninety, rich in lived experience, and suffering from Alzheimer's. Every day, she loses a few more of her irreplaceable memories. Alexander is a young man whose life has been brutally torn in two.

Tatiana tells her young neighbor her life story, a story that encompasses the entire Russian 20th century with all its horrors and hard-won humanity.

Little by little, the old woman and the young man forge an unlikely friendship and make a pact against forgetting.


]]> 194 Sasha Filipenko 1609456947 Athena 0 to-read 4.06 2017 Red Crosses
author: Sasha Filipenko
name: Athena
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2017
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]]> The Gray House 32703696 The Gray House is an astounding tale of how what others understand as liabilities can be leveraged into strengths.

Bound to wheelchairs and dependent on prosthetic limbs, the physically disabled students living in the House are overlooked by the Outsides. Not that it matters to anyone living in the House, a hulking old structure that its residents know is alive. From the corridors and crawl spaces to the classrooms and dorms, the House is full of tribes, tinctures, scared teachers, and laws—all seen and understood through a prismatic array of teenagers� eyes.

But student deaths and mounting pressure from the Outsides put the time-defying order of the House in danger. As the tribe leaders struggle to maintain power, they defer to the awesome power of the House, attempting to make it through days and nights that pass in ways that clocks and watches cannot record.]]> 736 Mariam Petrosyan 1503997812 Athena 0 to-read 3.84 2009 The Gray House
author: Mariam Petrosyan
name: Athena
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2009
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]]> <![CDATA[The High 5 Habit: Take Control of Your Life with One Simple Habit]]> 58505300
In her global phenomenon The 5 Second Rule, Mel Robbins taught millions of people around the world the five second secret to motivation. Now she's back with another simple, proven tool you can use to take control of your life: The High 5 Habit.

Don't let the title fool you. This isn't a book about high fiving everyone else in your life. You're already doing that. Cheering for your favorite teams. Celebrating your friends. Supporting the people you love as they go after what they want in life.

Imagine if you gave that same love and encouragement to yourself. Or even better, you made it a daily habit.

You'd be unstoppable.

In this book, Mel teaches you how to start high fiving the most important person in your life, the one who is staring back at you in the mirror: YOURSELF.

If you struggle with self-doubt (and who doesn't?) ...
If you're tired of that nagging critic in your head (could somebody evict them already?) ...
If you're wildly successful but all you focus on is what's going wrong (you're not alone) ...
If you're sick of watching everybody else get ahead while you sit on the couch with your dog (don't bring your dog into this) ...

...Mel dedicates this book to you.

Using her signature science-backed wisdom, deeply personal stories, and the real-life results thatThe High 5 Habitis creating in people's lives around the world (and you'll meet a lot of them throughout this book), Mel will teach you how to make believing in yourself a habit so that you operate with the confidence that your goals and dreams demand.

The High 5 Habit is a simple yet profound tool that changes your attitude, your mindset, and your behavior. So be prepared to laugh and learn as you take steps to immediately boost your confidence, happiness, and results.

It's time to give yourself the high fives, celebration, and support you deserve.]]> 257 Mel Robbins 1401962122 Athena 0 to-read 4.21 2021 The High 5 Habit: Take Control of Your Life with One Simple Habit
author: Mel Robbins
name: Athena
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond]]> 53137911 The world's leading expert on near-death experiences reveals his journey toward rethinking the nature of death, life, and the continuity of consciousness.

Cases of remarkable experiences on the threshold of death have been reported since ancient times, and are described today by 10% of people whose hearts stop. The medical world has generally ignored these “near-death experiences,� dismissing them as “tricks of the brain� or wishful thinking. But after his patients started describing events that he could not just sweep under the rug, Dr. Bruce Greyson began to investigate.

As a physician without a religious belief system, he approached near-death experiences from a scientific perspective. In After, he shares the transformative lessons he has learned over four decades of research. Our culture has tended to view dying as the end of our consciousness, the end of our existence—a dreaded prospect that for many people evokes fear and anxiety.

But Dr. Greyson shows how scientific revelations about the dying process can support an alternative theory. Dying could be the threshold between one form of consciousness and another, not an ending but a transition. This new perspective on the nature of death can transform the fear of dying that pervades our culture into a healthy view of it as one more milestone in the course of our lives. After challenges us to open our minds to these experiences and to what they can teach us, and in so doing, expand our understanding of consciousness and of what it means to be human.]]> 272 Bruce Greyson 1250263034 Athena 0 to-read 4.14 2021 After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond
author: Bruce Greyson
name: Athena
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2021
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]]> <![CDATA[Grow Green: Tips and Advice for Gardening with Intention]]> 54503958
Grow Green is a practical guide and tackles a topic close to Jen Chillingsworth's heart � growing sustainably. Packed with easy tips and advice, this little book reveals how to adjust your outdoor space and create a wildlife haven, while reducing your impact on the environment as you grow your own cut flowers, fruit and veg. Drawing on her wealth of knowledge, Jen will hold your hand as she takes you through all the gardening essentials, teaching you how to get started � no matter how small or big your space might be.

From making your own fertilizer with leftovers, planting in pots, reducing energy consumption and conserving water, to dealing with pests and diseases, Jen removes the stress and simply shows you how to garden green. Whether you are a first-time gardener or have seasoned green fingers � discover how to get the most out of your space with Grow Green by gardening with intention.

Live simply. Grow Green.]]> 160 Jen Chillingsworth 1787135721 Athena 0 to-read 4.08 Grow Green: Tips and Advice for Gardening with Intention
author: Jen Chillingsworth
name: Athena
average rating: 4.08
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]]> <![CDATA[Too Much and Not the Mood: Essays]]> 29875846 An entirely original portrait of a young writer shutting out the din in order to find her own voice

On April 11, 1931, Virginia Woolf ended her entry in A Writer’s Diary with the words “too much and not the mood.� She was describing how tired she was of correcting her own writing, of the “cramming in and the cutting out� to please other readers, wondering if she had anything at all that was truly worth saying.

The character of that sentiment, the attitude of it, inspired Durga Chew-Bose to write and collect her own work. The result is a lyrical and piercingly insightful collection of essays, letters (to her grandmother, to the basketball star Michael Jordan, to Death), and her own brand of essay-meets-prose poetry about identity and culture. Inspired by Maggie Nelson’s Bluets, Lydia Davis’s short prose, and Vivian Gornick’s exploration of interior life, Chew-Bose captures the inner restlessness that keeps her always on the brink of creative expression.

Too Much and Not the Mood is a beautiful and surprising exploration of what it means to be a first-generation, creative young woman working today.]]> 221 Durga Chew-Bose 0374535957 Athena 0 to-read 4.04 2017 Too Much and Not the Mood: Essays
author: Durga Chew-Bose
name: Athena
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2017
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]]> <![CDATA[Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency]]> 50755102 “One of the finest writers of the new non-fiction� (Harper’s Bazaar) explores the role of art in the tumultuous twenty-first century.

In the age of Trump and Brexit, every crisis is instantly overridden by the next. The turbulent political weather of the twenty-first century generates anxiety and makes it difficult to know how to react. Olivia Laing makes a brilliant, inspiring case for why art matters more than ever, as a force of both resistance and repair. Art, she argues, changes how we see the world. It gives us X-ray vision. It reveals inequalities and offers fertile new ways of living.

Funny Weather brings together a career’s worth of Laing’s writing about art and culture, and their role in our political and emotional lives. She profiles Jean-Michel Basquiat and Georgia O’Keeffe, interviews Hilary Mantel and Ali Smith, writes love letters to David Bowie and Wolfgang Tillmans, and explores loneliness and technology, women and alcohol, sex and the body. With characteristic originality and compassion, Funny Weather celebrates art as an antidote to a terrifying political moment.]]> 272 Olivia Laing 132400570X Athena 0 to-read 4.01 2020 Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency
author: Olivia Laing
name: Athena
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2020
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]]> Hot Milk 26883528 Plunge into this hypnotic tale of female sexuality and power

Two women arrive in a village on the Spanish coast. Rose is suffering from a strange illness and her doctors are mystified. Her daughter Sofia has brought her here to find a cure with the infamous and controversial Dr Gomez - a man of questionable methods and motives. Intoxicated by thick heat and the seductive people who move through it, both women begin to see their lives clearly for the first time in years.

Through the opposing figures of mother and daughter, Deborah Levy explores the strange and monstrous nature of womanhood. Dreamlike and utterly compulsive, Hot Milk is a delirious fairy tale of feminine potency, a story both modern and timeless.]]> 218 Deborah Levy 1620406691 Athena 0 to-read 3.49 2015 Hot Milk
author: Deborah Levy
name: Athena
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2015
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]]> <![CDATA[Bad News: Last Journalists in a Dictatorship]]> 25387353 The author of the acclaimed Stringer: A Reporter’s Journey in the Congo now moves on to Rwanda for a gripping look at a country caught still in political and social unrest, years after the genocide that shocked the world.

Bad News is the story of Anjan Sundaram's time running a journalist's training program out of Kigali, the capital city of one of Africa's most densely populated countries, Rwanda. President Kagame’s regime, which seized power after the genocide that ravaged its population in 1994, is often held up as a beacon for progress and modernity in Central Africa and is the recipient of billions of dollars each year in aid from Western governments and international organizations. Lurking underneath this shining vision of a modern, orderly state, however, is the powerful climate of fear springing from the government's brutal treatment of any voice of dissent. "You can't look and write," a policeman ominously tells Sundaram, as he takes notes at a political rally. In Rwanda, the testimony of the individual—the evidence of one's own experience—is crushed by the pensée unique: the single way of thinking and speaking, proscribed by those in power.

A vivid portrait of a country at an extraordinary and dangerous place in its history, Bad News is a brilliant and urgent parable on freedom of expression, and what happens when that power is seized.]]> 192 Anjan Sundaram 0385539568 Athena 0 to-read 3.90 2016 Bad News: Last Journalists in a Dictatorship
author: Anjan Sundaram
name: Athena
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2016
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]]> Silent Spring 27333
The book appeared in September 1962 and the outcry that followed its publication forced the banning of DDT and spurred revolutionary changes in the laws affecting our air, land, and water. Carson’s book was instrumental in launching the environmental movement.]]> 378 Rachel Carson 0618249060 Athena 0 to-read 4.04 1962 Silent Spring
author: Rachel Carson
name: Athena
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1962
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]]> <![CDATA[10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World]]> 43706466 An intensely powerful new novel from the best-selling author of The Bastard of Istanbul and Honour

'In the first minute following her death, Tequila Leila's consciousness began to ebb, slowly and steadily, like a tide receding from the shore. Her brain cells, having run out of blood, were now completely deprived of oxygen. But they did not shut down. Not right away...'

For Leila, each minute after her death brings a sensuous memory: the taste of spiced goat stew, sacrificed by her father to celebrate the long-awaited birth of a son; the sight of bubbling vats of lemon and sugar which the women use to wax their legs while the men attend mosque; the scent of cardamom coffee that Leila shares with a handsome student in the brothel where she works. Each memory, too, recalls the friends she made at each key moment in her life - friends who are now desperately trying to find her. . .]]> 312 Elif Shafak 0241293863 Athena 4 4.09 2019 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World
author: Elif Shafak
name: Athena
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/07
date added: 2024/07/07
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]]> Elektra 58725016
Clytemnestra
The sister of Helen, wife of Agamemnon - her hopes of averting the curse are dashed when her sister is taken to Troy by the feckless Paris. Her husband raises a great army against them, and determines to win, whatever the cost.

Cassandra
Princess of Troy, and cursed by Apollo to see the future but never to be believed when she speaks of it. She is powerless in her knowledge that the city will fall.

Elektra
The youngest daughter of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon, Elektra is horrified by the bloodletting of her kin. But, can she escape the curse, or is her own destiny also bound by violence?]]> 291 Jennifer Saint 125077361X Athena 0 to-read 3.65 2022 Elektra
author: Jennifer Saint
name: Athena
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2022
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]]> Happy All the Time 164408 Happy All the Time follows four sane, intelligent, and good-intentioned people who manage to find love in spite of themselves.]]> 224 Laurie Colwin 0060955325 Athena 0 to-read 3.86 1978 Happy All the Time
author: Laurie Colwin
name: Athena
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1978
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism]]> 1237300 The Shock Doctrine retells the story of the most dominant ideology of our time, Milton Friedman's free market economic revolution. In contrast to the popular myth of this movement's peaceful global victory, Klein shows how it has exploited moments of shock and extreme violence in order to implement its economic policies in so many parts of the world from Latin America and Eastern Europe to South Africa, Russia, and Iraq. At the core of disaster capitalism is the use of cataclysmic events to advance radical privatization combined with the privatization of the disaster response itself. By capitalizing on crises, created by nature or war, Klein argues that the disaster capitalism complex now exists as a booming new economy, and is the violent culmination of a radical economic project that has been incubating for fifty years.]]> 558 Naomi Klein 0805079831 Athena 0 4.27 2007 The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
author: Naomi Klein
name: Athena
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2007
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]]> Beloved (Beloved Trilogy, #1) 6149 Staring unflinchingly into the abyss of slavery, this spellbinding novel transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby.

Sethe, its protagonist, was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe's new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved. Filled with bitter poetry and suspense as taut as a rope, Beloved is a towering achievement by Nobel Prize laureate Toni Morrison.]]> 325 Toni Morrison Athena 0 3.96 1987 Beloved (Beloved Trilogy, #1)
author: Toni Morrison
name: Athena
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1987
rating: 0
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]]>