en-US Sat, 18 Jan 2025 02:01:30 -0800 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 16054217 The #1 New York Times bestselling series finale and sequel to A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night

Bringing the magic and suspense of the All Souls Trilogy to a deeply satisfying conclusion, this highly anticipated finale went straight to #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. In The Book of Life, Diana and Matthew time-travel back from Elizabethan London to make a dramatic return to the present—facing new crises and old enemies. At Matthew’s ancestral home, Sept-Tours, they reunite with the beloved cast of characters from A Discovery of Witches—with one significant exception. But the real threat to their future has yet to be revealed, and when it is, the search for Ashmole 782 and its missing pages takes on even more urgency.]]> 561 Deborah Harkness 0670025593 AMELIA 3 4.15 2014
author: Deborah Harkness
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2019/03/22
date added: 2025/01/18
shelves: 2019-reading-challenge, adult-fiction
review:

]]> 16333
When Miss Marple comes up from the country for a holiday in London, she finds what she's looking for at Bertram's: traditional décor and impeccable service. But she senses an unmistakable atmosphere of danger behind the highly polished veneer. Not even Miss Marple can foresee the violent chain of events set in motion when an eccentric hotel guest makes his way to the airport one day late!

Librarian's note: this entry is for the novel, "At Bertram's Hotel." Collections and other Miss Marple stories are located elsewhere on Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ. The series includes 12 novels and 20 short stories. Entries for the short stories can be found by searching Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ for: "a Miss Marple Short Story."]]> 223 Agatha Christie AMELIA 5 agatha 3.72 1965
author: Agatha Christie
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1965
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/11/29
shelves: agatha
review:

]]> 39030 464 Douglas Preston 0765354950 AMELIA 4 horror 4.03 1997
author: Douglas Preston
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/11/25
shelves: horror
review:

]]> 36099188
But the girl’s dreams turn to nightmares when her village is attacked by Boko Haram, a terrorist group, in the middle of the night. Kidnapped, she is taken with other girls and women into the forest where she is forced to follow her captors� radical beliefs and watch as her best friend slowly accepts everything she’s been told. Still, the girl defends her existence. As impossible as escape may seem, her life—her future—is hers to fight for.]]> 328 Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani 0062696742 AMELIA 5 4.26 2018
author: Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/26
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, adult-fiction
review:

]]> 65214203 With over 19 million copies in print and a remarkable record of #1 New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestsellers, Bill O'Reilly's Killing series is the most popular series of narrative histories in the world.

Killing the Witches revisits one of the most frightening and inexplicable episodes in American history: the events of 1692 and 1693 in Salem Village, Massachusetts. What began as a mysterious affliction of two young girls who suffered violent fits and exhibited strange behavior soon spread to other young women. Rumors of demonic possession and witchcraft consumed Salem. Soon three women were arrested under suspicion of being witches--but as the hysteria spread, more than 200 people were accused. Thirty were found guilty, twenty were executed, and others died in jail or their lives were ruined.

What really happened in Salem? Killing the Witches tells the horrifying story of a colonial town's madness, offering the historical context of similar episodes of community mania during that time, and exploring the evidence that emerged in the Salem trials, in contemporary accounts, and in subsequent investigations. The result is a compulsively readable book about good, evil, and how fear can overwhelm fact and reason.]]> 291 Bill O'Reilly 1250283329 AMELIA 0 currently-reading 3.49 2023
author: Bill O'Reilly
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/31
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 23518909 203 Mignon F. Ballard 1622680936 AMELIA 5 3.94 1987
author: Mignon F. Ballard
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1987
rating: 5
read at: 2022/05/18
date added: 2024/08/22
shelves: favorites, 2022-reading-challenge, adult-fiction
review:
A fairly simple book ... but that does not take away from how well I believe Cry at Dusk is written. I originally picked up this book many, many years ago because I was told it was a cross between a mystery and a ghost story. I quickly fell in love with it! I found the quirkiness of the main characters especially endearing. I am a little biased because I live in the South and am familiar with southern mannerisms and the area in which the book is based, but that does not take away from the easy flow of writing and story-telling that this book holds. The characters are constantly in motion, and the story evolves at a steady and attention-holding pace. I greatly enjoyed all aspects of this book, from the beginning to the end. This book is an excellent summer or weekend read. I have read this book several times, and I expect I will again.
]]> 28959360
They inhabit New York City’s most legendary and coziest spots—the Algonquin Hotel, a whiskey distillery, Bleecker Street Records, and a host of yoga studios, bodegas, bookstores, and bike shops in between. True New Yorkers—masters of people watching—they perch on wine crates, piles of books, and a classic hotel countertop, taking in the activity around them. Depending on their mood, these cats will ignore enthusiastic admirers, offer a few delightful purrs, or occasionally even take a swipe. Some even find a mouse or two to chase.

Shop Cats of New York introduces forty of New York’s favorite felines—all who have an extraordinary story to tell. Popular cat blogger Tamar Arslanian and Instagram pet photographer Andrew Marttila capture these deeply loved and well cared for animals in their city habitat and reveal how they came to reign over their urban kingdoms.

A celebration of some of the city’s most revered citizens and a unique look at New York life, this enchanting illustrated volume is a must for every cat lover, and every Big Apple devotee.]]> 169 Tamar Arslanian 0062432036 AMELIA 5 4.42
author: Tamar Arslanian
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.42
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2018/01/23
date added: 2024/07/29
shelves: 2018-reading-challenge, animals
review:

]]> 3761750 261 Benjamin Mee 1602860483 AMELIA 0 3.49 2008
author: Benjamin Mee
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/01
shelves: currently-reading, 2024-reading-challenge, biography
review:

]]> 34065268
When best-selling horror author Sam McGarver is invited to spend Halloween night in one of the country’s most infamous haunted houses, he reluctantly agrees. At least he won’t be alone; joining him are three other masters of the macabre, writers who have helped shape modern horror. But what begins as a simple publicity stunt will become a fight for survival. The entity they have awakened will follow them, torment them, threatening to make them a part of the bloody legacy of Kill Creek.]]> 416 Scott Thomas AMELIA 0 3.73 2017
author: Scott Thomas
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/31
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, horror, currently-reading
review:

]]> 17286958 Killing Kennedy and Killing Lincoln, page-turning works of nonfiction that have changed the way we read history.

Now the anchor of The O'Reilly Factor details the events leading up to the murder of the most influential man in history: Jesus of Nazareth. Nearly two thousand years after this beloved and controversial young revolutionary was brutally killed by Roman soldiers, more than 2.2 billion human beings attempt to follow his teachings and believe he is God. Killing Jesus will take readers inside Jesus's life, recounting the seismic political and historical events that made his death inevitable - and changed the world forever.]]> 293 Bill O'Reilly 0805098542 AMELIA 0 3.93 2013
author: Bill O'Reilly
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at: 2024/03/26
date added: 2024/03/31
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, biography, history
review:

]]> 60657589
Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world's first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party--or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, and the Fair Folk.

So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, get in the middle of Emily's research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.

But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones--the most elusive of all faeries--lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she'll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all--her own heart.]]> 336 Heather Fawcett 059350013X AMELIA 0 3.98 2023
author: Heather Fawcett
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/31
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, adult-fiction, to-read
review:

]]> 53205888 Welcome to Charon's Crossing.
The tea is hot, the scones are fresh, and the dead are just passing through.

When a reaper comes to collect Wallace from his own funeral, Wallace begins to suspect he might be dead.

And when Hugo, the owner of a peculiar tea shop, promises to help him cross over, Wallace decides he’s definitely dead.

But even in death he’s not ready to abandon the life he barely lived, so when Wallace is given one week to cross over, he sets about living a lifetime in seven days.

Hilarious, haunting, and kind, Under the Whispering Door is an uplifting story about a life spent at the office and a death spent building a home.]]> 376 T.J. Klune 1250217342 AMELIA 0 to-read 4.11 2021
author: T.J. Klune
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 32610567 271 Felix Blackwell AMELIA 0 to-read 3.87 2016
author: Felix Blackwell
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 49789629 A young woman living in a rigid, puritanical society discovers dark powers within herself in this stunning, feminist fantasy debut.

In the lands of Bethel, where the Prophet’s word is law, Immanuelle Moore’s very existence is blasphemy. Her mother’s union with an outsider of a different race cast her once-proud family into disgrace, so Immanuelle does her best to worship the Father, follow Holy Protocol, and lead a life of submission, devotion, and absolute conformity, like all the other women in the settlement.

But a mishap lures her into the forbidden Darkwood surrounding Bethel, where the first prophet once chased and killed four powerful witches. Their spirits are still lurking there, and they bestow a gift on Immanuelle: the journal of her dead mother, who Immanuelle is shocked to learn once sought sanctuary in the wood.

Fascinated by the secrets in the diary, Immanuelle finds herself struggling to understand how her mother could have consorted with the witches. But when she begins to learn grim truths about the Church and its history, she realizes the true threat to Bethel is its own darkness. And she starts to understand that if Bethel is to change, it must begin with her.]]> 368 Alexis Henderson 0593099605 AMELIA 0 to-read 3.79 2020
author: Alexis Henderson
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 205263955 There’s no rest for the wicked� or the dead they’ve left behind.

It’s been four years since the Hartnett House Massacre � four years since Whitley Adams rescued her sister, Nora, from a nightmare she herself still struggles to escape.

When a documentary filmmaker expresses interest in telling their story, Whitley’s sister believes it could be the answer to all their troubles. A chance to finally confront their past, and move on with their lives once and for all.

But the past isn’t the only thing waiting at Hartnett House. More than memories roam its forgotten halls. More than shadows lurk behind its dark, unwashed windowpanes. Something sinister has awaited Whitley’s return since that fateful night four years ago, biding its time for one thing, and one thing only...

Revenge.]]> 236 Abe Moss AMELIA 0 to-read 4.02
author: Abe Moss
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.02
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 101124639
The survivors, including key witness Pamela Schumacher, will be forever changed by this night. They have all become victims. But they tell their perspectives here, they remain masters of their stories. And they hunt the perpetrator on their own - against resistance from the justice system and the police; against public opinion, which idolizes the serial killer.]]> 384 Jessica Knoll 1501153226 AMELIA 0 to-read 3.99 2023
author: Jessica Knoll
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 52777597 The #1 bestselling author of World War Z takes on the Bigfoot legend with a tale that blurs the lines between human and beast—and asks what we are capable of in the face of the unimaginable.
Ěý
As the ash and chaos from Mount Rainier’s eruption swirled and finally settled, the story of the Greenloop massacre has passed unnoticed, unexamined . . . until now.

But the journals of resident Kate Holland, recovered from the town’s bloody wreckage, capture a tale too harrowing—and too earth-shattering in its implications—to be forgotten.
Ěý
In these pages, Max Brooks brings Kate’s extraordinary account to light for the first time, faithfully reproducing her words alongside his own extensive investigations into the massacre and the legendary beasts behind it.
Ěý
Kate’s is a tale of unexpected strength and resilience, of humanity’s defiance in the face of a terrible predator’s gaze, and inevitably, of savagery and death.
Ěý
Yet it is also far more than that.
Ěý
Because if what Kate Holland saw in those days is real, then we must accept the impossible. We must accept that the creature known as Bigfoot walks among us—and that it is a beast of terrible strength and ferocity.
Ěý
Part survival narrative, part bloody horror tale, part scientific journey into the boundaries between truth and fiction, this is a Bigfoot story as only Max Brooks could chronicle it—and like none you’ve ever read before.]]> 288 Max Brooks 1984826794 AMELIA 0 4.09 2020
author: Max Brooks
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/24
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, adult-fiction, horror, abandoned-dnf
review:

]]> 43565379
The town is eerily quiet and Emma takes shelter in a diner, where she stumbles across Earl, a strange little boy in a tinfoil mask who steals her gun before begging her to help him get rid of “George.� As she is pulled deeper into Earl’s bizarre, menacing world, the horrors of Emma’s past creep closer, and she realizes she can’t run forever.

Tinfoil Butterfly is a seductively scary, chilling exploration of evil—how it sneaks in under your skin, flaring up when you least expect it, how it throttles you and won't let go. The beauty of Rachel Eve Moulton's ferocious, harrowing, and surprisingly moving debut is that it teaches us that love can do that, too.]]> 264 Rachel Eve Moulton 0374538301 AMELIA 0 to-read 3.30 2019
author: Rachel Eve Moulton
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.30
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61030527 From the macabre mind of Bram Stoker Award nominated author Craig DiLouie, Episode Thirteen is a heart pounding novel of horror and psychological suspense that takes a ghost hunting reality TV crew into a world they could never have imagined possible. A beautiful Russian doll of a story... Episode Thirteen hooks you, creeps you out, and then it overwhelms you. It's House of Leaves meets Haunting of Hill House, in all the best possible ways. -- Peter Clines, NYT bestselling author of The Broken Room


Fade to Black is the newest hit ghost hunting reality TV show. Led by husband and wife team Matt and Claire Kirklin, it delivers weekly hauntings investigated by a dedicated team of ghost hunting experts. Episode Thirteen takes them to every ghost hunter's holy grail: the Paranormal Research Foundation. This brooding, derelict mansion holds secrets and clues about bizarre experiments that took place there in the 1970s. It's also famously haunted, and the team hopes their scientific techniques and high tech gear will prove it. But as the house begins to reveal itself to them, proof of an afterlife might not be everything Matt dreamed of. A story told in broken pieces, in tapes, journals, and correspondence, this is the story of Episode Thirteen -- and how everything went terribly, horribly wrong.


An epistolary descent into a living nightmare . . . well-written and genuinely unsettling. Fans of paranormal documentaries, ghost-hunting shows, and found-footage horror will lose their minds over this one. - Kealan Patrick Burke, Bram Stoker Award winning author of Kin]]> 433 Craig DiLouie 0316443107 AMELIA 0 to-read 3.46 2023
author: Craig DiLouie
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 31216749
Nearly every year the river flooded and turned our dirt streets into creeks full of fish, snakes, and trash from towns upriver. Some years the Missouri took the whole bottom, rushing into our house so we had to get out fast with whatever we could carry. When the water went back down, we scraped mud off walls, scrubbed with strong bleach, and moved back in.

Mama did that year after year. She learned to deal with floods. But the snake pushed her over the edge. She didn't want to live in a house where snakes could come and go as they pleased. Daddy said we couldn't afford to live anywhere else. We owned the old house on River Street and some years the water didn't get in it at all.

It wasn't an argument, or even a discussion. Daddy made the decision.
Mama lived with it - and a whole lot more.

Snakes in the Kitchen is an early childhood memoir of growing up poor in the early 1950's, in Mokane Missouri. It's a story of one woman's efforts, against all odds, to pull her children out of the mud and into a house with indoor plumbing.

Mama never gave any thought to Women's Rights, but she knew she didn't have any. She didn't know anything about women's liberation, but she knew a man had always been in control of her life. Her father forced to quit school to take a job when she was thirteen. He refused to let her see the man she loved and pushed her into marrying a man she hardly knew.

She didn't know anything about equal pay for women, she just wanted a job so she could feed her children and keep a roof over their heads.

She was trapped in a loveless marriage with a husband was who harsh and openly unfaithful.
Divorce was a disgrace to her family and friends, but she faced the disapproval and held her head high as she built a new life for herself and her children.

Snakes in the Kitchen includes many award winning biographical stories published here for the first time. The title chapter, Snakes in the Kitchen, won the top Midwest Writer's Workshop non-fiction award in 2013. The second chapter, The Day Grandma called the Doctor, took the same award in 2015. The author was recorded telling Mama and the New TV and the video was used as part of a Smithsonian sponsored exhibit. Other chapters won the Storyteller Magazine Award and the Lt. Fred Guidry Search for Excellence Award.]]> 124 Carolyn Paul Branch AMELIA 4 2024-reading-challenge 4.56
author: Carolyn Paul Branch
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.56
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/20
date added: 2024/01/20
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge
review:

]]> 57187250
Houseplants are a great way to decorate, ease stress, and stay connected with nature when you’re indoors. If you’re looking to grow your collection and need some advice, Houseplants for Beginners has all the information you’ll need to successfully care for your plants and help them thrive.

Learn how to shop for and repot houseplants, choose the best place in your home for them, and address a variety of challenges like pests and diseases. With 120 common houseplant profiles grouped from low maintenance to high maintenance, you can familiarize yourself with individual plant needs and choose the best ones for your lifestyle.

The perks of houseplants—Explore a brief history of houseplants and the benefits of bringing nature inside, including relieving stress and inviting more creativity and happiness into your life.Plant wisdom—Find key insights to set you up for success as you begin your houseplant adventure, from propagation techniques to safety suggestions.Troubleshooting tips—Get straightforward advice for solving seemingly difficult houseplant problems.

Fill your home with flourishing houseplants with help from this essential guide for beginners.]]> 192 Rebecca De La Paz 1647398517 AMELIA 5 2023-reading-challenge 4.30
author: Rebecca De La Paz
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.30
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/21
date added: 2024/01/20
shelves: 2023-reading-challenge
review:

]]> 195945937 Hell of a Book.

For best friends with vastly different fortunes, what’s left to hash out other than a forced confession at gunpoint? All that the destitute, sickly, and grieving Will demands is that monstrously successful Barry admit to draining all the luck right out of him. Like blood. As the standoff escalates, the truth is not the only thing ready to come out.

Jason Mott’s 'Best of Luck' is part of Creature Feature, a collection of devilishly creepy stories that tingle the spine and twist the mind. They can be read or listened to in one petrifying sitting.]]> 29 Jason Mott 1662516711 AMELIA 2 3.74 2023
author: Jason Mott
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2024/01/02
date added: 2024/01/20
shelves: short-stories, horror, 2024-reading-challenge
review:

]]> 195945795
Willy and Marianne’s farmhouse in Maine has acres of meadow and fresh air, and a lonesome bridle path in the forest along which Willy daydreams and ambles. When he’s loaned a decrepit old baby stroller to cart his groceries home, the rickety squeak of the wheels comforts him. So do the sweet coos of a baby Willy knows can’t be real. Can it? In this twisted thicket, wishes come true—with a price.

Joe Hill’s The Pram is part of Creature Feature, a collection of devilishly creepy stories that tingle the spine and twist the mind. They can be read or listened to in one petrifying sitting.]]> 58 Joe Hill 1662516894 AMELIA 3 3.74 2023
author: Joe Hill
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/02
date added: 2024/01/20
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, horror, short-stories
review:

]]> 195945776 The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires. Marcus grew up believing his father killed his mother—then blamed it on the boogeyman under the bed. Always leave the lights on, his father warned, or the boogeyman will get you. Marcus still heeds the superstition, especially when he invites his new girlfriend over.

Is Marcus haunted by a creature or has he just inherited his father’s murderous delusions? The night will tell.

Grady Hendrix’s 'Ankle Snatcher' is part of Creature Feature, a collection of devilishly creepy stories that tingle the spine and twist the mind. They can be read or listened to in one petrifying sitting.]]> 29 Grady Hendrix 166251705X AMELIA 1 who!

I still don’t know who the ankle snatcher is. I am left confused and disgruntled. I don’t think Hendrix is for me.]]> 3.71 2023
author: Grady Hendrix
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2023
rating: 1
read at: 2024/01/03
date added: 2024/01/20
shelves: short-stories, horror, 2024-reading-challenge
review:
who!

I still don’t know who the ankle snatcher is. I am left confused and disgruntled. I don’t think Hendrix is for me.
]]> 195945770 The Cabin at the End of the World and The Beast You Are.

Journalist Heidi Cohen is in Cape Cod investigating the sources of recurring toxic algae blooms along the coast. A local named Jimmy has his own theory for her. Every year the fetid growth gets worse—but it’s been going on longer than anyone knows. Decades ago, something happened to Jimmy that he’s never forgotten. Is Heidi ready for the real story?

Paul Tremblay’s 'In Bloom' is part of Creature Feature, a collection of devilishly creepy stories that tingle the spine and twist the mind. They can be read or listened to in one petrifying sitting.]]> 35 Paul Tremblay 1662516908 AMELIA 1 3.05 2023
author: Paul Tremblay
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.05
book published: 2023
rating: 1
read at: 2024/01/06
date added: 2024/01/20
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, horror, short-stories
review:
It would have been better as a comic.
]]> 16059219
It’s also been six months of waiting for Alex’s parents to return from Iowa. Alex and Darla decide they can wait no longer and must retrace their journey into Iowa to find and bring back Alex’s parents to the tenuous safety of Illinois. But the landscape they cross is even more perilous than before, with life-and-death battles for food and power between the remaining communities.

When the unthinkable happens, Alex must find new reserves of strength and determination to survive.]]> 582 Mike Mullin AMELIA 4 4.03 2012
author: Mike Mullin
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/19
date added: 2024/01/20
shelves: apocalyptic, adult-fiction, 2024-reading-challenge
review:

]]> 126918693 Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez reveals her experience as the U.S. born daughter of immigrants and what happened when, at fifteen, her parents were forced back to Mexico in this galvanizing yet tender memoir.

Born to Mexican immigrants south of the Rillito River in Tucson, Arizona, Elizabeth had the world at her fingertips as she entered her freshman year of high school as the number one student. But suddenly, Elizabeth's own country took away the most important right a child has: a right to have a family.

As her parents� visas expired, they were forced to return to Mexico, leaving Elizabeth responsible for her younger brother, as well as her education. Determined to break the cycle of being “a statistic,� she knew that even though her parents couldn’t stay, there was no way she could let go of the opportunities the U.S. could provide.

Armed with only her passport and sheer teenage determination, Elizabeth became what her school would eventually describe as an unaccompanied, homeless youth, one of thousands of underage victims affected by family separation due to broken immigration laws. For fans of Educated by Tara Westover and The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande, My Side of the River explores separation, generational trauma, and the toll of the American dream. It’s also, at its core, a love story between a brother and a sister who, no matter the cost, is determined to make the pursuit of his own dreams easier than it was for her.]]> 272 Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez 1250277957 AMELIA 0 to-read 3.75 2024
author: Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 199798522
It’s the summer before senior year for best friends Tolly Driver and Amber Dennison. They’re not in the marching band, they’re not in the FFA � they don’t really count. Amber’s the only Native student in town, and Tolly’s only on the radar due to his father’s recent death.

This is all about to change.

Bodies are going to be dropping fast in this small West Texas town. For a few unbearably hot days that will resonate through the decades and even get made into a TV movie, Tolly and Amber will be famous. Notorious even. Finally, everyone will know their names.

This is Stephen Graham Jones x-raying the slasher genre, interrogating its motivations over the shoulder and in the voice of the killer itself � from a town he did some growing up in, in a year he was also seventeen.

The kills will be poignant, the jokes will hurt, and the violence will be endearing. Everything’s turned around for Tolly, for Amber � for all of Lamesa, Texas.

Be happy you weren’t there.

Be happy you’re only reading about it.]]> 373 Stephen Graham Jones 1668022249 AMELIA 0 to-read 3.54 2024
author: Stephen Graham Jones
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 201244026 From legendary storyteller and master of short fiction Stephen King comes an extraordinary new collection of twelve short stories, many never-before-published, and some of his best EVER.

“You like it darker? Fine, so do I,� writes Stephen King in the afterword to this magnificent new collection of twelve stories that delve into the darker part of life—both metaphorical and literal. King has, for half a century, been a master of the form, and these stories, about fate, mortality, luck, and the folds in reality where anything can happen, are as rich and riveting as his novels, both weighty in theme and a huge pleasure to read. King writes to feel “the exhilaration of leaving ordinary day-to-day life behind,� and in You Like It Darker, readers will feel that exhilaration too, again and again.

“Two Talented Bastids� explores the long-hidden secret of how the eponymous gentlemen got their skills. In “Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream,� a brief and unprecedented psychic flash upends dozens of lives, Danny’s most catastrophically. In “Rattlesnakes,� a sequel to Cujo, a grieving widower travels to Florida for respite and instead receives an unexpected inheritance—with major strings attached. In “The Dreamers,� a taciturn Vietnam vet answers a job ad and learns that there are some corners of the universe best left unexplored. “The Answer Man� asks if prescience is good luck or bad and reminds us that a life marked by unbearable tragedy can still be meaningful.

King’s ability to surprise, amaze, and bring us both terror and solace remains unsurpassed. Each of these stories holds its own thrills, joys, and mysteries; each feels iconic. You like it darker? You got it.]]> 512 Stephen King 1668060582 AMELIA 0 to-read 4.23 2024
author: Stephen King
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/20
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]]> 192724951 A man lunges in front of a car. An elderly woman silently drowns herself. A corpse sits up in its coffin and speaks. On this reservation, not all is what it seems, in this new spine-chilling mythological horror from the author of Sisters of the Lost Nation.

All Noemi Broussard wanted was a fresh start. With a new boyfriend who actually treats her right and a plan to move from the reservation she grew up on—just like her beloved Uncle Louie before her—things are finally looking up for Noemi. Until the news of her boyfriend’s apparent suicide brings her world crumbling down.

But the facts about Roddy’s death just don’t add up, and Noemi isn’t the only one who suspects that something menacing might be lurking within their tribal lands.

After over a decade away, Uncle Louie has returned to the reservation, bringing with him a past full of secrets, horror, and what might be the key to determining Roddy’s true cause of death. Together, Noemi and Louie set out to find answers…but as they get closer to the truth, Noemi begins to wonder whether it might be best for some secrets to remain buried.]]> 370 Nick Medina 0593546881 AMELIA 0 to-read 3.58 2024
author: Nick Medina
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/20
shelves: to-read
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]]> 44778083
Hunt Athalar is a notorious Fallen angel, now enslaved to the Archangels he once attempted to overthrow. His brutal skills and incredible strength have been set to one purpose-to assassinate his boss's enemies, no questions asked. But with a demon wreaking havoc in the city, he's offered an irresistible deal: help Bryce find the murderer, and his freedom will be within reach.

As Bryce and Hunt dig deep into Crescent City's underbelly, they discover a dark power that threatens everything and everyone they hold dear, and they find, in each other, a blazing passion-one that could set them both free, if they'd only let it.

With unforgettable characters, sizzling romance, and page-turning suspense, this richly inventive new fantasy series by #1 New York Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas delves into the heartache of loss, the price of freedom-and the power of love.]]> 803 Sarah J. Maas 1635574048 AMELIA 0 to-read 4.43 2020
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/20
shelves: to-read
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]]> 49089632
There are some differences. This America has been shaped dramatically by the magic, monsters, knowledge, and legends of its peoples, those Indigenous and those not. Some of these forces are charmingly everyday, like the ability to make an orb of light appear or travel across the world through rings of fungi. But other forces are less charming and should never see the light of day.

Elatsoe lives in this slightly stranger America. She can raise the ghosts of dead animals, a skill passed down through generations of her Lipan Apache family. Her beloved cousin has just been murdered in a town that wants no prying eyes. But she is going to do more than pry. The picture-perfect facade of Willowbee masks gruesome secrets, and she will rely on her wits, skills, and friends to tear off the mask and protect her family.]]> 362 Darcie Little Badger 1646140052 AMELIA 0 to-read 3.98 2020
author: Darcie Little Badger
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 200982368 Faeries Never Lie, the next young adult collection in the Untold Legends series edited by Zoraida CĂłrdova and Natalie C. Parker, is filled with fourteen short stories to revel in, that center faeries of varying genders and cultures!

There’s something to be said for starting your first day in faerie boarding school, for chasing a faerie through Chang’an during the Tang Dynasty, for searching for the missing part of your throuple who may have run away with a faerie prince, for descending into madness after spending countless nights plagued by the same faerie dream—and much more.

Fly into this revelry filled with tricksters, lovers, monsters, and the like, in this exciting collection for those who love faeries and those who are experiencing them for the first time!

Edited by Zoraida CĂłrdova and Natalie C. Parker, Faeries Never Lie features short stories from beloved authors Nafiza Azad, Holly Black, Dhonielle Clayton, Christine Day, Chloe Gong, Tessa Gratton, Kwame Mbalia, Ryan La Sala, L.L. McKinney, Anna-Marie McLemore, Kaitlyn Sage Patterson, Rory Power.]]> 336 Zoraida CĂłrdova 1250823846 AMELIA 0 to-read 3.72 2024
author: Zoraida CĂłrdova
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> 63005182 14 Young Adult short stories from bestselling and award-winning authors make a splash in Mermaids Never Drown - the second collection in the Untold Legends series edited by Zoraida CĂłrdova and Natalie C. Parker - exploring mermaids like we've never seen them before!

A Vietnamese mermaid caught between two worlds. A siren who falls for Poseidon's son. A boy secretly pining for the merboy who saved him years ago. A storm that brings humans and mermaids together. Generations of family secrets and pain.

Find all these stories and more in this gripping new collection that will reel you in from the very first page! Welcome to an ocean of hurt, fear, confusion, rage, hope, humor, discovery, and love in its many forms.

Edited by Zoraida CĂłrdova and Natalie C. Parker, Mermaids Never Drown features beloved authors like Darcie Little Badger, Kalynn Bayron, Preeti Chhibber, Rebecca Coffindaffer, Julie C. Dao, Maggie Tokuda-Hall, Adriana Herrera, June Hur, Katherine Locke, Kerri Maniscalco, Julie Murphy, Gretchen Schreiber, and Julian Winters.]]> 320 Zoraida CĂłrdova 1250823811 AMELIA 0 to-read 3.68 2023
author: Zoraida CĂłrdova
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61300301 Eleven diverse vampire stories from YA's leading voices, including V.E. Schwab's "First Kill," soon to be a major Netflix adaptation!

In this delicious new collection, you’ll find stories about lurking vampires of social media, rebellious vampires hungry for more than just blood, eager vampires coming out―and going out for their first kill―and other bold, breathtaking, dangerous, dreamy, eerie, iconic, powerful creatures of the night.

Welcome to the evolution of the vampire―and a revolution on the page.

Vampires Never Get Old includes stories by authors both bestselling and acclaimed, including Samira Ahmed, Dhonielle Clayton, Zoraida Córdova and Natalie C. Parker, Tessa Gratton, Heidi Heilig, Julie Murphy, Mark Oshiro, Rebecca Roanhorse, Laura Ruby, Victoria “V. E.� Schwab, and Kayla Whaley.]]> 293 Zoraida Córdova 1789096952 AMELIA 0 to-read 3.42 2020
author: Zoraida CĂłrdova
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/19
shelves: to-read
review:

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

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

Hauntingly beautiful, hypnotic, and bewitching, A History of Wild Places is a story about fairy tales, our fear of the dark, and losing yourself within the wilderness of your mind.]]> 354 Shea Ernshaw 1982164808 AMELIA 0 to-read 3.92 2021
author: Shea Ernshaw
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> 50196744
Now she reclaims her identity to tell her story of trauma, transcendence, and the power of words. It was the perfect case, in many ways–there were eyewitnesses, Turner ran away, physical evidence was immediately secured. But her struggles with isolation and shame during the aftermath and the trial reveal the oppression victims face in even the best-case scenarios. Her story illuminates a culture biased to protect perpetrators, indicts a criminal justice system designed to fail the most vulnerable, and, ultimately, shines with the courage required to move through suffering and live a full and beautiful life.

Know My Name will forever transform the way we think about sexual assault, challenging our beliefs about what is acceptable and speaking truth to the tumultuous reality of healing. It also introduces readers to an extraordinary writer, one whose words have already changed our world. Entwining pain, resilience, and humor, this memoir will stand as a modern classic.]]> 384 Chanel Miller 0735223718 AMELIA 0 to-read 4.69 2019
author: Chanel Miller
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.69
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/18
shelves: to-read
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]]> 42519313
Madison’s twin stepkids are moving in with her family and she wants Lillian to be their caretaker. However, there’s a catch: the twins spontaneously combust when they get agitated, flames igniting from their skin in a startling but beautiful way. Lillian is convinced Madison is pulling her leg, but it’s the truth.

Thinking of her dead-end life at home, the life that has consistently disappointed her, Lillian figures she has nothing to lose. Over the course of one humid, demanding summer, Lillian and the twins learn to trust each other—and stay cool—while also staying out of the way of Madison’s buttoned-up politician husband. Surprised by her own ingenuity yet unused to the intense feelings of protectiveness she feels for them, Lillian ultimately begins to accept that she needs these strange children as much as they need her—urgently and fiercely. Couldn’t this be the start of the amazing life she’d always hoped for?]]> 288 Kevin Wilson 0062913484 AMELIA 0 to-read 3.95 2019
author: Kevin Wilson
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/17
shelves: to-read
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]]> 49867430
ĚýAs a temp, she’s just a cog in the machine. But when she finally gets a promising assignment, everything goes very wrong, and an encounter with the so-called “heroâ€� leaves her badly injured.Ěý And, to her horror, compared to the other bodies strewn about, she’s the lucky one.

So, of course, then she gets laid off.

With no money and no mobility, with only her anger and internet research acumen, she discovers her suffering at the hands of a hero is far from unique. When people start listening to the story that her data tells, she realizes she might not be as powerless as she thinks.

Because the key to everything is data: knowing how to collate it, how to manipulate it, and how to weaponize it. By tallying up the human cost these caped forces of nature wreak upon the world, she discovers that the line between good and evil is mostly marketing.Ěý And with social media and viral videos, she can control that appearance.

It’s not too long before she’s employed once more, this time by one of the worst villains on earth. As she becomes an increasingly valuable lieutenant, she might just save the world.

A sharp, witty, modern debut, Hench explores the individual cost of justice through a fascinating mix of Millennial office politics, heroism measured through data science, body horror, and a profound misunderstanding of quantum mechanics.Ěý]]> 403 Natalie Zina Walschots 0062978578 AMELIA 0 to-read 3.98 2020
author: Natalie Zina Walschots
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 37510662
We don’t get visitors. Not out here. We never have.

In Iain Reid’s second haunting, philosophical puzzle of a novel, set in the near-future, Junior and Henrietta live a comfortable, solitary life on their farm, far from the city lights, but in close quarters with each other. One day, a stranger from the city arrives with alarming Junior has been randomly selected to travel far away from the farm...very far away. The most unusual part? Arrangements have already been made so that when he leaves, Henrietta won't have a chance to miss him, because she won't be left alone—not even for a moment. Henrietta will have company. Familiar company.

Told in Reid’s sharp and evocative style, Foe examines the nature of domestic relationships, self-determination, and what it means to be (or not to be) a person. An eerily entrancing page-turner, it churns with unease and suspense from the first words to its shocking finale.]]> 261 Iain Reid 150112742X AMELIA 0 to-read 3.70 2018
author: Iain Reid
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 17327053
A group of close friends gathers at a secluded cabin in the wintry mountains of Colorado for a final holiday hurrah. Instead, it may be their last stand. First a massive blizzard leaves them marooned. Then the more chilling realization: something is lurking in the woods, watching them, waiting...

Now a weekend of family, friends, and fun has turned into a test of love and loyalty in the face of inhuman horrors. The only hope for those huddled inside is to fight—tooth and nail, bullet and blade—for their lives. Otherwise, they'll end up like the monsters' other victims: bright pools of blood on glittering snow, screams lost in the vast mountains.]]> 283 Ania Ahlborn 1611099676 AMELIA 0 to-read 3.60 2013
author: Ania Ahlborn
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 59088433
At the dawn of their adolescence, on the eve of the summer solstice, four young girls--Helena, Leonie, Niamh and Elle--took the oath to join Her Majesty's Royal Coven, established by Queen Elizabeth I as a covert government department. Now, decades later, the witch community is still reeling from a civil war and Helena is now the reigning High Priestess of the organization. Yet Helena is the only one of her friend group still enmeshed in the stale bureaucracy of HMRC. Elle is trying to pretend she's a normal housewife, and Niamh has become a country vet, using her powers to heal sick animals. In what Helena perceives as the deepest betrayal, Leonie has defected to start her own more inclusive and intersectional coven, Diaspora. And now Helena has a bigger problem. A young warlock of extraordinary capabilities has been captured by authorities and seems to threaten the very existence of HMRC. With conflicting beliefs over the best course of action, the four friends must decide where their loyalties lie: with preserving tradition, or doing what is right.

Juno Dawson explores gender and the corrupting nature of power in a delightful and provocative story of magic and matriarchy, friendship and feminism. Dealing with all the aspects of contemporary womanhood, as well as being phenomenally powerful witches, Niamh, Helena, Leonie and Elle may have grown apart but they will always be bound by the sisterhood of the coven.]]> 448 Juno Dawson 014313714X AMELIA 0 to-read 3.79 2022
author: Juno Dawson
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 62926981
In 1919, Kitty Weekes, pretty, resourceful, and on the run, falsifies her background to obtain a nursing position at Portis House, a remote hospital for soldiers left shell-shocked by the horrors of the Great War. Hiding the shame of their mental instability in what was once a magnificent private estate, the patients suffer from nervous attacks and tormenting dreams. But something more is going on at Portis House—its plaster is crumbling, its plumbing makes eerie noises, and strange breaths of cold waft through the empty rooms. It’s known that the former occupants left abruptly, but where did they go? And why do the patients all seem to share the same nightmare, one so horrific that they dare not speak of it?

Kitty finds a dangerous ally in Jack Yates, an inmate who may be a war hero, a madman� or maybe both. But even as Kitty and Jack create a secret, intimate alliance to uncover the truth, disturbing revelations suggest the presence of powerful spectral forces. And when a medical catastrophe leaves them even more isolated, they must battle the menace on their own, caught in the heart of a mystery that could destroy them both.]]> 384 Simone St. James 0593550188 AMELIA 0 to-read 3.68 2014
author: Simone St. James
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 65213543 When an injury throws a young, battle-hungry orc off her chosen path, she may find that what we need isn't always what we seek.

In Bookshops & Bonedust, a prequel to Legends & Lattes, author Travis Baldree takes us on a journey of high fantasy, first loves, and second-hand books.

Viv's career with the notorious mercenary company Rackam's Ravens isn't going as planned.

Wounded during the hunt for a powerful necromancer, she's packed off against her will to recuperate in the sleepy beach town of Murk—so far from the action that she worries she'll never be able to return to it.

What's a thwarted soldier of fortune to do?

Spending her hours at a beleaguered bookshop in the company of its foul-mouthed proprietor is the last thing Viv would have predicted, but it may be both exactly what she needs and the seed of changes she couldn't possibly imagine.

Still, adventure isn't all that far away. A suspicious traveler in gray, a gnome with a chip on her shoulder, a summer fling, and an improbable number of skeletons prove Murk to be more eventful than Viv could have ever expected.]]> 336 Travis Baldree 1250886104 AMELIA 0 to-read 4.13 2023
author: Travis Baldree
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 63077620 On a creepy island where everyone has a strange obsession with the year 1994, a newcomer arrives, hoping to learn the truth about her son's death--but finds herself pulled deeper and deeper into the bizarrely insular community and their complicated rules...

Clifford Island. When Willow Stone finds these words written on the floor of her deceased son's bedroom, she's perplexed. She's never heard of it before, but soon learns it's a tiny island off of Wisconsin's Door County peninsula, 200 miles from Willow's home. Why would her son write this on his floor? Determined to find answers, Willow sets out for the island.

After a few days on Clifford, Willow realizes: this place is not normal. Everyone seems to be stuck in a particular day in 1994: they wear outdated clothing, avoid modern technology, and, perhaps most mystifyingly, watch the OJ Simpson car chase every evening. When she asks questions, people are evasive, but she learns one thing: close your curtains at night.

High schooler Lily Becker has lived on Clifford her entire life, and she is sick of the island's twisted mythology and adhering to the rules. She's been to the mainland, and everyone is normal there, so why is Clifford so weird? Lily is determined to prove that the islanders' beliefs are a sham. But are they?

Five weeks after Willow arrives on the island, she disappears. Willow's brother Harper comes to Clifford searching for his sister, and when he learns the truth--that this island is far more sinister than anyone could have imagined--he is determined to blow the whole thing open.

If he can get out alive...]]> 439 Jimmy Juliano 059347192X AMELIA 0 to-read 3.68 2023
author: Jimmy Juliano
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 62919847 A gripping, page-turning novel set in Jim Crow Florida that follows Robert Stephens Jr. as he’s sent to a segregated reform school that is a chamber of terrors where he sees the horrors of racism and injustice, for the living, and the dead.

Gracetown, Florida
June 1950

Twelve-year-old Robbie Stephens, Jr., is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, a reformatory, for kicking the son of the largest landowner in town in defense of his older sister, Gloria. So begins Robbie’s journey further into the terrors of the Jim Crow South and the very real horror of the school they call The Reformatory.

Robbie has a talent for seeing ghosts, or haints. But what was once a comfort to him after the loss of his mother has become a window to the truth of what happens at the reformatory. Boys forced to work to remediate their so-called crimes have gone missing, but the haints Robbie sees hint at worse things. Through his friends Redbone and Blue, Robbie is learning not just the rules but how to survive. Meanwhile, Gloria is rallying every family member and connection in Florida to find a way to get Robbie out before it’s too late.

The Reformatory is a haunting work of historical fiction written as only American Book Award–winning author Tananarive Due could, by piecing together the life of the relative her family never spoke of and bringing his tragedy and those of so many others at the infamous Dozier School for Boys to the light in this riveting novel.]]> 576 Tananarive Due 1982188340 AMELIA 0 to-read 4.44 2023
author: Tananarive Due
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 35356382
In 2016, Eddie is fully grown, and thinks he's put his past behind him. But then he gets a letter in the mail, containing a single chalk stick figure. When it turns out that his friends got the same message, they think it could be a prank . . . until one of them turns up dead.

That's when Eddie realizes that saving himself means finally figuring out what really happened all those years ago.]]> 280 C.J. Tudor 1524760986 AMELIA 0 to-read 3.68 2018
author: C.J. Tudor
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 58795610 83 Patrick Roche AMELIA 0 4.27
author: Patrick Roche
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.27
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/15
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, to-read
review:

]]> 195945941 Whisper Network and Cutting Teeth.

The Strauss family is on knife’s edge. Sam is a resentful stay-at-home dad. Rachel feels the restlessness in her blood returning. Their children are getting out of hand. And a recent mudslide has forced the wolves out of the woods to look for food. As dusk falls and tensions rise, the family must come together to survive the night—from the threats outside and those within.

Chandler Baker’s 'Big Bad' is part of Creature Feature, a collection of devilishly creepy stories that tingle the spine and twist the mind. They can be read or listened to in one petrifying sitting.]]> 59 Chandler Baker 1662514891 AMELIA 4 3.75 2023
author: Chandler Baker
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/15
date added: 2024/01/15
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, adult-fiction, horror
review:

]]> 8160563 199 Lee McGraw 0345251032 AMELIA 0 to-read 3.88 1976
author: Lee McGraw
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1976
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 64417627 Authors Preston & Child return in the latest installment of the bestselling series featuring renowned archaeologist Nora Kelly and FBI Agent Corrie Swanson, where a fateful trip to New Mexico uncovers a case that may prove impossible to solve.

In 2008, nine mountaineers failed to return from a winter backpacking trip in the New Mexico mountains. At their last campsite, searchers found a bizarre scene: something had appeared at the door of their tent so terrifying that it impelled them to slash their way out and flee barefoot to certain death in a blizzard. Despite a diligent search, only six bodies were found, two violently crushed and inexplicably missing body parts. The case, given the code name “Dead Mountain� by the FBI, was never solved.

Now, two more bodies from the lost expedition are unexpectedly discovered in a cave, one a grisly suicide. Young FBI Agent Corrie Swanson teams up with archaeologist Nora Kelly to investigate what really happened on that fateful trip fifteen years ago—and to find the ninth victim. But their search awakens a long-slumbering evil, which pursues Corrie and Nora with a vengeance, determined to prevent the final missing corpse from ever coming to light.]]> 368 Douglas Preston 1538736837 AMELIA 5
This gets five stars from me! �️�️�️�️�️
Full of intrigue, mystery, relationships � this book touches on it all and will be a great read for anyone giving it their attention. ]]> 4.55 2023
author: Douglas Preston
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/14
date added: 2024/01/14
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, adult-fiction
review:
As always, Preston & Child delivered. The fourth book in the series for Nora Kelly, she and FBI Agent friend, Corrie Swanson, team up again to solve an old mystery that has a national impact. With a new mentor for Corrie and Nora’s brother, Skip, under arrest, this novel has many stories woven within. Easy to follow, it’s hard to put down.

This gets five stars from me! �️�️�️�️�️
Full of intrigue, mystery, relationships � this book touches on it all and will be a great read for anyone giving it their attention.
]]> 58874675 From Ryan La Sala, the wildly popular author of Reverie, comes a twisted and tantalizing horror novel set amidst the bucolic splendor of a secluded summer retreat.

Mars has always been the lesser twin, the shadow to his sister Caroline's radiance. But when Caroline dies under horrific circumstances, Mars is propelled to learn all he can about his once-inseparable sister who'd grown tragically distant.

Mars's genderfluidity means he's often excluded from the traditions -- and expectations -- of his politically-connected family. This includes attendance at the prestigious Aspen Conservancy Summer Academy where his sister poured so much of her time. But with his grief still fresh, he insists on attending in her place.

What Mars finds is a bucolic fairytale not meant for him. Folksy charm and sun-drenched festivities camouflage old-fashioned gender roles and a toxic preparatory rigor. Mars seeks out his sister's old friends: a group of girls dubbed the Honeys, named for the beehives they maintain behind their cabin. They are beautiful and terrifying -- and Mars is certain they're connected to Caroline's death.

But the longer he stays at Aspen, the more the sweet mountain breezes give way to hints of decay. Mars’s memories begin to falter, bleached beneath the relentless summer sun. Something is hunting him in broad daylight, toying with his mind. If Mars can't find it soon, it will eat him alive.]]> 344 Ryan La Sala 133874531X AMELIA 0 to-read 3.79 2022
author: Ryan La Sala
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 35533431 A suspense novel from the award-winning author of The Haunting of Maddy Clare...

Vermont, 1950. There's a place for the girls whom no one wants--the troublemakers, the illegitimate, the too smart for their own good. It's called Idlewild Hall. And in the small town where it's located, there are rumors that the boarding school is haunted. Four roommates bond over their whispered fears, their budding friendship blossoming--until one of them mysteriously disappears.Ěý.Ěý. .

Vermont, 2014. As much as she's tried, journalist Fiona Sheridan cannot stop revisiting the events surrounding her older sister's death. Twenty years ago, her body was found lying in the overgrown fields near the ruins of Idlewild Hall. And though her sister's boyfriend was tried and convicted of murder, Fiona can't shake the suspicion that something was never right about the case.

When Fiona discovers that Idlewild Hall is being restored by an anonymous benefactor, she decides to write a story about it. But a shocking discovery during the renovations will link the loss of her sister to secrets that were meant to stay hidden in the past--and a voice that won't be silenced.Ěý.Ěý. .]]> 336 Simone St. James AMELIA 0 4.06 2018
author: Simone St. James
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/12
shelves: to-read, adult-fiction, 2024-reading-challenge
review:

]]> 55922299
One year later, a writer moves into a cottage on the edge of the woods that border the same estate. Known locally as the Dark Place, the dense forest is the writer’s favorite area for long walks and it’s on one such walk that she stumbles upon a mysterious note that simply reads, “DIG HERE.�

Could this be a clue towards what has happened to the missing young couple? And what exactly is buried in this haunted ground?]]> 416 Lisa Jewell 1982137363 AMELIA 0 4.05 2021
author: Lisa Jewell
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/12
shelves: to-read, 2024-reading-challenge, adult-fiction, horror, thriller
review:

]]> 52128631
The Alexa unit in her son’s bedroom starts to cry, and a little girl’s voice comes out of it asking for help.

At first Kelly is unnerved by the presence of the voice. After ruling out all the other likely possibilities, she begins to put the pieces together, and suspects the girl is a ghost. Unwilling to be uprooted from another home, she decides to find out what the child wants. Maybe she can help.

Kelly isn’t the only one interested in the voice. Detective Rob Porter is investigating the disappearance of a child named Marilee. As the two cross paths, Porter is taken aback when Kelly’s ghost mentions Marilee’s name. In fact, the ghost says “Marilee’s with me.�

Whether that means the child is a ghost as well is a question Rob and Kelly hope to answer.]]> 302 Pamela McCord AMELIA 0 4.22 2020
author: Pamela McCord
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/12
shelves: to-read, 2024-reading-challenge, adult-fiction, paranormal-ghostie
review:

]]> 55782435
Long ago, Maddie was a little girl making dolls in her bedroom when she saw something she shouldn’t have—and is trying to remember that lost trauma by making haunting sculptures.

Long ago, something sinister, something hungry, walked in the tunnels and the mountains and the coal mines of their hometown in rural Pennsylvania.

Now, Nate and Maddie Graves are married, and they have moved back to their hometown with their son, Oliver.

And now what happened long ago is happening again . . . and it is happening to Oliver. He meets a strange boy who becomes his best friend, a boy with secrets of his own and a taste for dark magic.

This dark magic puts them at the heart of a battle of good versus evil and a fight for the soul of the family—and perhaps for all of the world. But the Graves family has a secret weapon in this battle: their love for one another.]]> 530 Chuck Wendig 0399182136 AMELIA 0 3.70 2021
author: Chuck Wendig
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/12
shelves: to-read, 2024-reading-challenge, adult-fiction, horror
review:

]]> 56269181 A Mem-Noir: Inspired by True Events

From Brent Spiner, who played the beloved Lieutenant Commander Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation, comes this hilarious autobiographical novel, a personal look at the slightly askew relationship between a celebrity and his fans. If the Coen brothers were to make a Star Trek movie about the complexity of fan obsession and sci-fi, this dark comedy might be the result.

In 1991, just as Star Trek: The Next Generation has rocketed the cast to global fame, the young and impressionable Brent Spiner receives a mysterious package and a series of disturbing letters, sending him on a terrifying and bizarre journey. Paramount Security, the LAPD, and even the FBI were eventually involved in ending the danger that has his life and career hanging in the balance.

Fan Fiction is a zany love letter to a world in which we all participate, the phenomenon of "Fandom."]]> 256 Brent Spiner 1250274362 AMELIA 0 3.48 2021
author: Brent Spiner
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/12
shelves: to-read, 2024-reading-challenge, biography
review:

]]> 23848559
In Furiously Happy, a humor memoir tinged with just enough tragedy and pathos to make it worthwhile, Jenny Lawson examines her own experience with severe depression and a host of other conditions, and explains how it has led her to live life to the fullest:

"I've often thought that people with severe depression have developed such a well for experiencing extreme emotion that they might be able to experience extreme joy in a way that �normal people' also might never understand. And that's what Furiously Happy is all about."

Jenny’s readings are standing room only, with fans lining up to have Jenny sign their bottles of Xanax or Prozac as often as they are to have her sign their books. Furiously Happy appeals to Jenny's core fan base but also transcends it. There are so many people out there struggling with depression and mental illness, either themselves or someone in their family—and in Furiously Happy they will find a member of their tribe offering up an uplifting message (via a taxidermied roadkill raccoon). Let's Pretend This Never Happened ostensibly was about embracing your own weirdness, but deep down it was about family. Furiously Happy is about depression and mental illness, but deep down it's about joy—and who doesn't want a bit more of that?]]> 329 Jenny Lawson 1250077001 AMELIA 0 3.88 2015
author: Jenny Lawson
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/12
shelves: to-read, 2024-reading-challenge
review:

]]> 23357071 342 Alex Bell 1847154530 AMELIA 0 4.23 2014
author: Alex Bell
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/12
shelves: to-read, horror, 2024-reading-challenge, adult-fiction
review:

]]> 825282 Jaws look like a pet goldfish..." �USA Weekend

Straight from the cutting edge of science and the logs of ancient mariners comes an immense horror—a creature that rises up from the well of an ocean gone mad with an insatiable hunger and an endless lust to kill. One man leads a harrowing struggle to defeat the beast amid a threatened Bermuda paradise. His name is Whip Darling, a down-and-out sea dog who doesn't know where he'll get his next meal—or whether it will get him first.]]> 319 Peter Benchley 0449220893 AMELIA 0 3.65 1991
author: Peter Benchley
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.65
book published: 1991
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/12
shelves: to-read, horror, 2024-reading-challenge, adult-fiction
review:

]]> 28251249
Taking readers deep into a labyrinth of dark neurosis, We Have Always Lived in the Castle is perhaps the crowning achievement of Shirley Jackson’s brilliant career: a deliciously unsettling novel about a perverse, isolated, and possibly murderous family and the dramatic struggle that ensues when an unexpected visitor interrupts their unusual way of life.]]> 146 Shirley Jackson 0143129546 AMELIA 0 4.05 1962
author: Shirley Jackson
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1962
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/12
shelves: to-read, 2024-reading-challenge, adult-fiction, classics
review:

]]> 140296611
Power.

God. Catherine Cross is the most successful female televangelist in the country. Her congregation in the western suburbs of Orlando one of the wealthiest. She's comfortable and charismatic in front of a camera, but when her youngest daughter goes missing not even she is ready for the media firestorm that follows.

With her mother more concerned about the family's public image than bringing her daughter home, it's up to Emily, the oldest child and black sheep of their christian family, to try to discover the truth.

But when a strange series of deaths on an orange farm outside of town seems to be connected to her missing sister, the case is turned on its head, and Emily must face the shocking family secrets it took to build her mother's empire.]]> 324 J.M. Cannon AMELIA 0 4.20 2023
author: J.M. Cannon
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/12
shelves: to-read, 2024-reading-challenge, adult-fiction
review:

]]> 64623481 A woman is determined to stay in her dream home even after it becomes a haunted nightmare in this compulsively readable, twisty, and layered debut novel.

When Margaret and her husband Hal bought the large Victorian house on Hawthorn Street—for sale at a surprisingly reasonable price—they couldn’t believe they finally had a home of their own. Then they discovered the hauntings. Every September, the walls drip blood. The ghosts of former inhabitants appear, and all of them are terrified of something that lurks in the basement. Most people would flee.

Margaret is not most people.

Margaret is staying. It’s her house. But after four years Hal can’t take it anymore, and he leaves abruptly. Now, he’s not returning calls, and their daughter Katherine—who knows nothing about the hauntings—arrives, intent on looking for her missing father. To make things worse, September has just begun, and with every attempt Margaret and Katherine make at finding Hal, the hauntings grow more harrowing, because there are some secrets the house needs to keep.]]> 352 Carissa Orlando 0593548612 AMELIA 0 3.87 2023
author: Carissa Orlando
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/12
shelves: to-read, 2024-reading-challenge, adult-fiction, horror
review:

]]> 60784373
For decades afterward, the friends have kept a secret worth killing for. But now Olivia wants to tell, and Naomi sets out to find out what really happened in the woods―no matter how dangerous the truth turns out to be.]]> 336 Kate Alice Marshall 1250859883 AMELIA 0 3.93 2023
author: Kate Alice Marshall
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/12
shelves: to-read, 2024-reading-challenge, adult-fiction, thriller
review:

]]> 61111298 Her search begins with an ending....

The master of the Providence plantation in Barbados gathers his slaves and announces the king has decreed an end to slavery. As of the following day, the Emancipation Act of 1834 will come into effect. The cries of joy fall silent when he announces that they are no longer his slaves; they are now his apprentices. No one can leave. They must work for him for another six years. Freedom is just another name for the life they have always lived. So Rachel runs.

Away from Providence, she begins a desperate search to find her children--the five who survived birth and were sold. Are any of them still alive? Rachel has to know. The grueling, dangerous journey takes her from Barbados then, by river, deep into the forest of British Guiana and finally across the sea to Trinidad. She is driven on by the certainty that a mother cannot be truly free without knowing what has become of her children, even if the answer is more than she can bear. These are the stories of Mary Grace, Micah, Thomas Augustus, Cherry Jane and Mercy. But above all this is the story of Rachel and the extraordinary lengths to which a mother will go to find her children...and her freedom.]]> 322 Eleanor Shearer 0593548043 AMELIA 0 3.96 2023
author: Eleanor Shearer
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/12
shelves: to-read, 2024-reading-challenge, adult-fiction, historical-fiction
review:

]]> 150038747 The Chalk Man.

In a small Alaska town, a boy is found with his throat ripped out and all the blood drained from his body. The inhabitants of Deadhart haven’t seen a killing like this in twenty-five years. But they know who’s responsible: a member of the Colony, an ostracized community of vampyrs living in an old mine settlement deep in the woods.

Detective Barbara Atkins, a specialist in vampyr killings, is called in to officially determine if this is a Colony killing—and authorize a cull. Old suspicions die hard in a town like Deadhart, but Barbara isn’t so sure. Determined to find the truth, she enlists the help of a former Deadhart sheriff, Jenson Tucker, whose investigation into the previous murder almost cost him his life. Since then, Tucker has become a recluse. But he knows the Colony better than almost anyone.

As the pair delve into the town’s history, they uncover secrets darker than they could have imagined. And then another body is found. While the snow thickens and the nights grow longer, a killer stalks Deadhart, and two disparate communities circle each other for blood. Time is running out for Atkins and Tucker to find the truth: Are they hunting a bloodthirsty monster . . . or a twisted psychopath? And which is more dangerous?]]> 352 C.J. Tudor AMELIA 0 3.95 2024
author: C.J. Tudor
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/12
shelves: to-read, 2024-reading-challenge, adult-fiction
review:

]]> 199347538 Somewhere Beyond the Sea is the hugely anticipated sequel to TJ Klune’s The House in the Cerulean Sea, one of the best-loved and best-selling fantasy novels of the past decade. Featuring gorgeous orange sprayed edges!

A magical house. A secret past. A summons that could change everything.

Arthur Parnassus lives a good life built on the ashes of a bad one.

He’s the master of a strange orphanage on a distant and peculiar island, and he hopes to soon be the adoptive father to the six dangerous and magical children who live there.

Arthur works hard and loves with his whole heart so none of the children ever feel the neglect and pain that he once felt as an orphan on that very same island so long ago. He is not alone: joining him is the love of his life, Linus Baker, a former caseworker in the Department In Charge of Magical Youth. And there’s the island’s sprite, Zoe Chapelwhite, and her girlfriend, Mayor Helen Webb. Together, they will do anything to protect the children.

But when Arthur is summoned to make a public statement about his dark past, he finds himself at the helm of a fight for the future that his family, and all magical people, deserve.

And when a new magical child hopes to join them on their island home—one who finds power in calling himself monster, a name that Arthur worked so hard to protect his children from—Arthur knows they’re at a breaking point: their family will either grow stronger than ever or fall apart.

Welcome back to Marsyas Island. This is Arthur’s story.

Somewhere Beyond the Sea is a story of resistance, lovingly told, about the daunting experience of fighting for the life you want to live and doing the work to keep it.]]> 416 T.J. Klune 125088120X AMELIA 0 4.17 2024
author: T.J. Klune
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/12
shelves: to-read, 2024-reading-challenge, adult-fiction
review:

]]> 3153910
Through Denny, Enzo has gained tremendous insight into the human condition, and he sees that life, like racing, isn't simply about going fast. On the eve of his death, Enzo takes stock of his life, recalling all that he and his family have been through.

A heart-wrenching but deeply funny and ultimately uplifting story of family, love, loyalty, and hope, The Art of Racing in the Rain is a beautifully crafted and captivating look at the wonders and absurdities of human life ... as only a dog could tell it.]]> 336 Garth Stein 1554681723 AMELIA 0 4.22 2008
author: Garth Stein
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/11
shelves: to-read, 2024-reading-challenge, animals
review:

]]> 22034
Almost fifty years ago, a classic was born. A searing portrayal of the Mafia underworld, The Godfather introduced readers to the first family of American crime fiction, the Corleones, and their powerful legacy of tradition, blood, and honor. The seduction of power, the pitfalls of greed, and the allegiance to family—these are the themes that have resonated with millions of readers around the world and made The Godfather the definitive novel of the violent subculture that, steeped in intrigue and controversy, remains indelibly etched in our collective consciousness.]]> 448 Mario Puzo AMELIA 0 4.39 1969
author: Mario Puzo
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1969
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/11
shelves: to-read, 2024-reading-challenge, adult-fiction, classics
review:

]]> 29557181 From its earliest days, Charleston was a vital port of call and center of trade, which left it vulnerable to seafaring criminals.

The Golden Age of Piracy, encompassing roughly the first quarter of the eighteenth century, produced some of the most outrageous characters in maritime history. The daring exploits of these infamous plunderers made thievery widespread along Charleston's waterfront, but determined citizens would meet the pirate threat head-on. From the "Gentleman Pirate," Stede Bonnet, to Edward "Blackbeard" Teach and famed pirate hunter and statesman William Rhett, the waters surrounding the Holy City have a history as rocky and wild as the high seas. Join author and tour guide Christopher Byrd Downey as he tells the tales of Charleston during piracy's greatest reign.]]> 166 Christopher Byrd Downey 1614239134 AMELIA 0 4.13
author: Christopher Byrd Downey
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.13
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/11
shelves: to-read, 2024-reading-challenge, history
review:

]]> 196614815 A young couple find themselves haunted by a string of gruesome murders committed along an old deserted road in this terrifying new novel.

July 1995. April and Eddie have taken a wrong turn. They’re looking for the small resort town where they plan to spend their honeymoon. When they spot what appears to be a lone hitchhiker along the deserted road, they stop to help. But not long after the hitchhiker gets into their car, they see the blood seeping from her jacket and a truck barreling down Atticus Line after them.

When the hitchhiker dies at the local hospital, April and Eddie find themselves in the crosshairs of the Coldlake Falls police. Unexplained murders have been happening along Atticus Line for years and the cops finally have two witnesses who easily become their only suspects. As April and Eddie start to dig into the history of the town and that horrible stretch of road to clear their names, they soon learn that there is something supernatural at work, something that could not only tear the town and its dark secrets apart, but take April and Eddie down with it all.]]> 341 Simone St. James 0593200381 AMELIA 0 3.67 2024
author: Simone St. James
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/11
shelves: to-read, 2024-reading-challenge, adult-fiction, paranormal-ghostie
review:

]]> 318431
Since his triumphant release in 1990 from more than a quarter-century of imprisonment, Mandela has been at the center of the most compelling and inspiring political drama in the world. As president of the African National Congress and head of South Africa's anti-apartheid movement, he was instrumental in moving the nation toward multiracial government and majority rule. He is revered everywhere as a vital force in the fight for human rights and racial equality.

The foster son of a Thembu chief, Mandela was raised in the traditional, tribal culture of his ancestors, but at an early age learned the modern, inescapable reality of what came to be called apartheid, one of the most powerful and effective systems of oppression ever conceived. In classically elegant and engrossing prose, he tells of his early years as an impoverished student and law clerk in a Jewish firm in Johannesburg, of his slow political awakening, and of his pivotal role in the rebirth of a stagnant ANC and the formation of its Youth League in the 1950s.

He describes the struggle to reconcile his political activity with his devotion to his family, the anguished breakup of his first marriage, and the painful separations from his children. He brings vividly to life the escalating political warfare in the fifties between the ANC and the government, culminating in his dramatic escapades as an underground leader and the notorious Rivonia Trial of 1964, at which he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Herecounts the surprisingly eventful twenty-seven years in prison and the complex, delicate negotiations that led both to his freedom and to the beginning of the end of apartheid. Finally he provides the ultimate inside account.]]> 656 Nelson Mandela 0316548189 AMELIA 0 4.34 1994
author: Nelson Mandela
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1994
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/11
shelves: to-read, 2024-reading-challenge, biography
review:

]]> 16790 Neil Gaiman, magic is no mere illusion... and anything is possible. In this, Gaiman's first book of short stories, his imagination and supreme artistry transform a mundane world into a place of terrible wonders -- a place where an old woman can purchase the Holy Grail at a thrift store, where assassins advertise their services in the Yellow Pages under "Pest Control," and where a frightened young boy must barter for his life with a mean-spirited troll living beneath a bridge by the railroad tracks. Explore a new reality -- obscured by smoke and darkness, yet brilliantly tangible -- in this extraordinary collection of short works by a master prestidigitator. It will dazzle your senses, touch your heart, and haunt your dreams.]]> 365 Neil Gaiman 0380789027 AMELIA 0 4.03 1998
author: Neil Gaiman
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/11
shelves: to-read, 2024-reading-challenge, adult-fiction
review:

]]> 168642
As Truman Capote reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, he generates both mesmerizing suspense and astonishing empathy. In Cold Blood is a work that transcends its moment, yielding poignant insights into the nature of American violence.]]> 343 Truman Capote 0679745580 AMELIA 0 4.08 1966
author: Truman Capote
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1966
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/11
shelves: to-read, 2024-reading-challenge, true-crime
review:

]]> 35995489
Sam believed it was God who sent Ernie Cantwell, the only African American kid in his class, to be the friend he so desperately needed. And that it was God’s idea for Mickie Kennedy to storm into Our Lady of Mercy like a tornado, uprooting every rule Sam had been taught about boys and girls.

Forty years later, Sam, a small-town eye doctor, is no longer certain anything was by design—especially not the tragedy that caused him to turn his back on his friends, his hometown, and the life he’d always known. Running from the pain, eyes closed, served little purpose. Now, as he looks back on his life, Sam embarks on a journey that will take him halfway around the world. This time, his eyes are wide open—bringing into clear view what changed him, defined him, and made him so afraid, until he can finally see what truly matters.]]> 448 Robert Dugoni 1503949001 AMELIA 0 4.37 2018
author: Robert Dugoni
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/11
shelves: to-read, 2024-reading-challenge, adult-fiction
review:

]]> 2041064 336 Wiley Sword 0312367414 AMELIA 0 3.28 2007
author: Wiley Sword
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.28
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/11
shelves: to-read, 2024-reading-challenge
review:

]]> 195945925 Bird Box. The dense Michigan forest. Haunting wails. The clip-clop of demon hooves on a bridge to nowhere. It’s more than a tall tale to Brenda Jennings, whose sister disappeared in those woods one fateful night. Three years later, on a solo stakeout in the dark, Brenda goes in after her. She’s desperate for answers, and terrified to find what lies waiting on the other side of that bridge.

Josh Malerman’s 'It Waits in the Woods' is part of Creature Feature, a collection of devilishly creepy stories that tingle the spine and twist the mind. They can be read or listened to in one petrifying sitting.]]> 52 Josh Malerman 1662518315 AMELIA 2 Meh. 3.69 2023
author: Josh Malerman
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2024/01/08
date added: 2024/01/09
shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, horror, short-stories
review:
Meh.
]]> 21863415 Immaculee Ilibagiza grew up in a country she loved, surrounded by a family she cherished. But in 1994 her idyllic world was ripped apart as Rwanda descended into a bloody genocide. Immaculee’s family was brutally murdered during a killing spree that lasted three months and claimed the lives of nearly a million Rwandans.Incredibly, Immaculee survived the slaughter. For 91 days, she and seven other women huddled silently together in the cramped bathroom of a local pastor while hundreds of machete-wielding killers hunted for them. It was during those endless hours of unspeakable terror that Immaculee discovered the power of prayer, eventually shedding her fear of death and forging a profound and lasting relationship with God.She emerged from her bathroom hideout having discovered the meaning of truly unconditional love—a love so strong she was able seek out and forgive her family’s killers. The triumphant story of this remarkable young woman’s journey through the darkness of genocide will inspire anyone whose life has been touched by fear, suffering, and loss.]]> 242 Immaculée Ilibagiza AMELIA 5
Her prose makes her story easy to read by flow, while at the same time being difficult by content when the reader realizes what she and her family suffered during the Rwandan Holocaust.

This is a powerful novel that kept me up all night. I became not only invested in her life and how her story would continue after the Holocaust, but I needed to know the story of how her faith would endure as well. Her connection of God with positive thinking is moving when you read her explanation for it. I highly recommend this book for anyone with a need to learn about forgiveness, or for those who want to learn how hatred and fear can tear a country and its citizens apart. ]]> 4.65 2006
author: Immaculée Ilibagiza
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.65
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 2021/02/16
date added: 2024/01/06
shelves: 2021-reading-challenge, biography, faith, history, favorites
review:
This book is amazing. Ilibigaza has written a masterpiece on the pairing of forgiveness and faith and how together they can transform a heavy heart into one full of love for God.

Her prose makes her story easy to read by flow, while at the same time being difficult by content when the reader realizes what she and her family suffered during the Rwandan Holocaust.

This is a powerful novel that kept me up all night. I became not only invested in her life and how her story would continue after the Holocaust, but I needed to know the story of how her faith would endure as well. Her connection of God with positive thinking is moving when you read her explanation for it. I highly recommend this book for anyone with a need to learn about forgiveness, or for those who want to learn how hatred and fear can tear a country and its citizens apart.
]]> 53249847 In this New York Times bestseller, Ijeoma Oluo offers a hard-hitting but user-friendly examination of race in America
Widespread reporting on aspects of white supremacy--from police brutality to the mass incarceration of African Americans--have made it impossible to ignore the issue of race. Still, it is a difficult subject to talk about. How do you tell your roommate her jokes are racist? Why did your sister-in-law take umbrage when you asked to touch her hair--and how do you make it right? How do you explain white privilege to your white, privileged friend?
In So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo guides readers of all races through subjects ranging from intersectionality and affirmative action to "model minorities" in an attempt to make the seemingly impossible possible: honest conversations about race and racism, and how they infect almost every aspect of American life.
"Oluo gives us--both white people and people of color--that language to engage in clear, constructive, and confident dialogue with each other about how to deal with racial prejudices and biases."--National Book Review
"Generous and empathetic, yet usefully blunt . . . it's for anyone who wants to be smarter and more empathetic about matters of race and engage in more productive anti-racist action."--Salon (Required Reading)
]]> 266 Ijeoma Oluo 1541619226 AMELIA 0 4.55 2018
author: Ijeoma Oluo
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/05
shelves: finish-later, to-read, 2024-reading-challenge
review:

]]> 57693172
Now 20 years later, Chloe is a psychologist in private practice in Baton Rouge and getting ready for her wedding. She finally has a fragile grasp on the happiness she’s worked so hard to get. Sometimes, though, she feels as out of control of her own life as the troubled teens who are her patients. And then a local teenage girl goes missing, and then another, and that terrifying summer comes crashing back. Is she paranoid, and seeing parallels that aren't really there, or for the second time in her life, is she about to unmask a killer?

In a debut novel that has already been optioned for a limited series by actress Emma Stone and sold to a dozen countries around the world, Stacy Willingham has created an unforgettable character in a spellbinding thriller that will appeal equally to fans of Gillian Flynn and Karin Slaughter.]]> 357 Stacy Willingham 1250803829 AMELIA 0 3.96 2022
author: Stacy Willingham
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/31
shelves: to-read, 2024-reading-challenge, adult-fiction
review:

]]> 55650158 Inspired by true events that rocked the nation, a profoundly moving novel about a Black nurse in post-segregation Alabama who blows the whistle on a terrible wrong done to her patients, from the New York Times bestselling author of Wench.

Montgomery, Alabama 1973. Fresh out of nursing school, Civil Townsend has big plans to make a difference, especially in her African American community. At the Montgomery Family Planning Clinic, she intends to help women make their own choices for their lives and bodies.

But when her first week on the job takes her down a dusty country road to a worn down one-room cabin, she’s shocked to learn that her new patients are children—just 11 and 13 years old. Neither of the Williams sisters has even kissed a boy, but they are poor and Black and for those handling the family’s welfare benefits that’s reason enough to have the girls on birth control. As Civil grapples with her role, she takes India, Erica and their family into her heart. Until one day, she arrives at the door to learn the unthinkable has happened and nothing will ever be the same for any of them.

Decades later, with her daughter grown and a long career in her wake, Dr. Civil Townsend is ready to retire, to find her peace and to leave the past behind. But there are people and stories that refuse to be forgotten.That must not be forgotten.

Because history repeats what we don’t remember.]]> 359 Dolen Perkins-Valdez 0593337697 AMELIA 0 4.36 2022
author: Dolen Perkins-Valdez
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/31
shelves: to-read, biography, 2024-reading-challenge
review:

]]> 79626
"For any child fortunate enough to have this generous book...the kings and heroes of ancient legend will remain forever matter-of-fact; the pictures interpret the text literally and are full of detail and witty observation."--The HornĚýĚýBook

"The drawings, particularly the full-page ones in this oversized volume, are excellentĚýĚýand excitingly evocative."--The NewĚýĚýYork Times

"Parents, uncles, and aunts who have been searching for a big picture book that has good reading-aloud value for the younger ones and fine read-it-yourself value on up, have it in this volume...a children's classic."--Christian Science Monitor]]> 208 Ingri d'Aulaire 0440406943 AMELIA 0 4.41 1962
author: Ingri d'Aulaire
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.41
book published: 1962
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/31
shelves: to-read, 2024-reading-challenge
review:

]]> 13623848 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780062060624.

Achilles, "the best of all the Greeks," son of the cruel sea goddess Thetis and the legendary king Peleus, is strong, swift, and beautiful, irresistible to all who meet him. Patroclus is an awkward young prince, exiled from his homeland after an act of shocking violence. Brought together by chance, they forge an inseparable bond, despite risking the gods' wrath.

They are trained by the centaur Chiron in the arts of war and medicine, but when word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, all the heroes of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause, and torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows. Little do they know that the cruel Fates will test them both as never before and demand a terrible sacrifice.]]> 408 Madeline Miller AMELIA 0 4.30 2011
author: Madeline Miller
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/31
shelves: to-read, 2024-reading-challenge, adult-fiction
review:

]]> 59149042 A high-altitude thriller that will take your breath away—Cecily Wong is on her most dangerous climb yet, miles above sea level. But the elements are nothing compared to one chilling truth: There's a killer on the mountain.

Journalist Cecily Wong is in over her head. She's come to Manaslu, the eighth-highest peak in the world, to interview internationally famous mountaineer Charles McVeigh on the last leg of a record-breaking series of summits. She's given up everything for this story—her boyfriend, her life savings, the peace she's made with her climbing failures in the past—but it's a career-making opportunity. It could finally put her life back on track.

But when one climber dies in what everyone else assumes is a freak accident, she fears their expedition is in danger. And by the time a second climber dies, it's too late to turn back. Stranded on a mountain in one of the most remote regions of the world, she'll have to battle more than the elements in a harrowing fight for survival against a killer who is picking them off one by one.]]> 343 Amy McCulloch 0593315499 AMELIA 0 3.60 2022
author: Amy McCulloch
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/31
shelves: adult-fiction, thriller, to-read, 2024-reading-challenge
review:

]]> 44013322 While visiting his mother at her secluded Waldport cabin, an English teacher is awoken in the night by screams. Something gigantic is heaving itself against the rickety front door, relentlessly pounding and scratching - and shrieking his name. The hideous creature seems to know everything about the man, and takes special interest in his wife's deteriorating health.

On the other side of the world, a bleary-eyed detective works late, desperate to avoid the recurring dream of his fiancée's murder. But when a bloodied child stumbles into the Pine Rest Police Department and collapses, the detective finds himself facing his worst nightmare.

IN THE DEVIL'S DREAMS is the story of three broken people and the boy who links them. The lives and nightmares of the characters are elegantly interwoven, and the story is revealed through multiple points of view.

"Riveting...mesmerizing...brilliantly written. An elaborate puzzle box of dark storytelling."

-Gail Michael, Author

"Felix is an up and coming writer with a fantastic imagination. One to watch for sure."

-Layton Green, bestselling author of the Dominic Grey series

"A literary juggernaut of terror...Felix shines a light into the darkest corners of your mind and forces you to look."

-T. Baxter, Voice of Fear podcast]]> 322 Felix Blackwell AMELIA 0 3.58 2014
author: Felix Blackwell
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/31
shelves: to-read, 2024-reading-challenge, horror
review:

]]> 22328544
For thirty-eight years, Bartholomew Neil has lived with his mother. When she gets sick and dies, he has no idea how to be on his own. His redheaded grief counselor, Wendy, says he needs to find his flock and leave the nest. But how does a man whose whole life has been grounded in his mom, Saturday mass, and the library learn how to fly?

Bartholomew thinks he's found a clue when he discovers a "Free Tibet" letter from Richard Gere hidden in his mother's underwear drawer. In her final days, mom called him Richard - there must be a cosmic connection. Believing that the actor is meant to help him, Bartholomew awkwardly starts his new life, writing Richard Gere a series of highly intimate letters. Jung and the Dalai Lama, philosophy and faith, alien abduction and cat telepathy, the Catholic Church and the mystery of women are all explored in his soul-baring epistles. But mostly the letters reveal one man's heartbreakingly earnest attempt to assemble a family of his own.

A struggling priest, a "Girlbrarian," her feline-loving, foul-mouthed brother, and the spirit of Richard Gere join the quest to help Bartholomew. In a rented Ford Focus, they travel to Canada to see the cat Parliament and find his biological father... and discover so much more.]]> 304 Matthew Quick 0062285610 AMELIA 0 3.69 2014
author: Matthew Quick
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/31
shelves: adult-fiction, to-read, 2024-reading-challenge
review:

]]> 61273351
To keep one another safe.
To hold one another accountable.
Or both.

Their annual meeting place, a house on the Outer Banks, has long been a refuge. But by the tenth anniversary, Cassidy Bent has worked to distance herself from the tragedy and from the other survivors. She’s changed her mobile number. She’s blocked the others� email addresses. This year, she is determined to finally break ties once and for all. But on the day of the reunion, she receives a text with an obituary attached: another survivor is gone. Now they are seven—and Cassidy finds herself hurling back toward the group, wild with grief—and suspicion.

Almost immediately, something feels off this year. Cassidy is the first to notice when Amaya, the annual organizer, slips away, overwhelmed. This wouldn’t raise alarm except for the impending storm. Suddenly, they’re facing the threat of closed roads and surging waters…again. Then Amaya stops responding to her phone. After all they’ve been through, she wouldn’t willfully make them worry. Would she?

And—as they promised long ago—each survivor will do whatever he or she can do to save one another. Won’t they?

A propulsive and chilling locked-box mystery filled with the dazzling hairpin twists that are the author’s signature, The Only Survivors is New York Times bestselling author Megan Miranda’s best novel yet.]]> 339 Megan Miranda 1668010410 AMELIA 0 3.52 2023
author: Megan Miranda
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/31
shelves: to-read, adult-fiction, 2024-reading-challenge
review:

]]> 42080142
What she doesn’t know is that she’s stepping into a nightmare—one that will end with a child dead and herself in prison awaiting trial for murder.

Writing to her lawyer from prison, she struggles to explain the unravelling events that led to her incarceration. It wasn’t just the constant surveillance from the cameras installed around the house, or the malfunctioning technology that woke the household with booming music, or turned the lights off at the worst possible time. It wasn’t just the girls, who turned out to be a far cry from the immaculately behaved model children she met at her interview. It wasn’t even the way she was left alone for weeks at a time, with no adults around apart from the enigmatic handyman, Jack Grant.

It was everything.

She knows she’s made mistakes. She admits that she lied to obtain the post, and that her behavior toward the children wasn’t always ideal. She’s not innocent, by any means. But, she maintains, she’s not guilty—at least not of murder. Which means someone else is.

Full of spellbinding menace and told in Ruth Ware’s signature suspenseful style, The Turn of the Key is an unputdownable thriller from the Agatha Christie of our time.]]> 337 Ruth Ware 1501188771 AMELIA 0 3.91 2019
author: Ruth Ware
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/31
shelves: to-read, adult-fiction, horror, 2024-reading-challenge
review:

]]> 41539
Two years later, Angela is moving past her grief and is finally ready to revisit the rural house she loved so much as a child. But back in Sacajawea, she discovers she hasn't been the only one to suffer a shocking loss. Since she left, there have been more senseless tragedies, and Angela wonders whether they are related somehow. Could the events be linked to a terrifying entity her grandmother battled in 1929? Did her teenage son, Corey, reawaken something that should have been left sleeping?

With the help of Myles Fisher, her high school boyfriend, and clues from beyond the grave, Angela races to solve a deadly puzzle that has followed her family for generations. She must summon her own hidden gifts to face the timeless adversary stalking her in her grandmother's house--and in the Washington woods.]]> 597 Tananarive Due 0743296168 AMELIA 0 3.98 2003
author: Tananarive Due
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/31
shelves: to-read, adult-fiction, horror, 2024-reading-challenge
review:

]]> 60194162 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780063251922.

"Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose."

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

Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind.]]> 560 Barbara Kingsolver AMELIA 0 4.46 2022
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/31
shelves: to-read, 2024-reading-challenge, adult-fiction
review:

]]> 62054146 A heartwarming story about the power of books to bring us together, inspired by the true story of the underground library in WWII Warsaw, by the New York Times bestselling author of The Last Bookshop in London.

All her life, Zofia has found comfort in two things during times of hardship: books and her best friend, Janina. But no one could have imagined the horrors of the Nazi occupation in Warsaw. As the bombs rain down and Hitler’s forces loot and destroy the city, Zofia finds that now books are also in need of saving.

With the death count rising and persecution intensifying, Zofia jumps to action to save her friend and salvage whatever books she can from the wreckage, hiding them away, and even starting a clandestine book club. She and her dearest friend never surrender their love of reading, even when Janina is forced into the newly formed ghetto.

But the closer Warsaw creeps toward liberation, the more dangerous life becomes for the women and their families—and escape may not be possible for everyone. As the destruction rages around them, Zofia must fight to save her friend and preserve her culture and community using the only weapon they have left—literature.]]> 416 Madeline Martin 1335455027 AMELIA 0 4.07 2023
author: Madeline Martin
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/31
shelves: to-read, 2024-reading-challenge, historical-fiction
review:

]]> 61884832 A Black sheriff. A serial killer. A small town ready to combust.

Titus Crown is the first Black sheriff in the history of Charon County, Virginia. In recent decades, Charon has had only two murders. After years of working as an FBI agent, Titus knows better than anyone that while his hometown might seem like a land of moonshine, cornbread, and honeysuckle, secrets always fester under the surface.

Then a year to the day after Titus’s election, a school teacher is killed by a former student and the student is fatally shot by Titus’s deputies. Those festering secrets are now out in the open and ready to tear the town apart.

As Titus investigates the shootings, he unearths terrible crimes and a serial killer who has been hiding in plain sight, haunting the dirt lanes and woodland clearings of Charon. With the killer’s possible connections to a local church and the town’s harrowing history weighing on him, Titus projects confidence about closing the case while concealing a painful secret from his own past. At the same time, he also has to contend with a far-right group that wants to hold a parade in celebration of the town’s Confederate history.

Powerful and unforgettable, All the Sinners Bleed confirms S. A. Cosby as “one of the most muscular, distinctive, grab-you-by-both-ears voices in American crime fiction� (The Washington Post).]]> 338 S.A. Cosby 1250831911 AMELIA 0 4.18 2023
author: S.A. Cosby
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/31
shelves: to-read, 2024-reading-challenge, adult-fiction
review:

]]> 60784636
Except for the occasional catnap or small blackout where she loses track of time, she hasn’t slept in a year.

Isabelle's entire existence now revolves around finding him, but she knows she can’t go on this way forever. In hopes of jarring loose a new witness or buried clue, she agrees to be interviewed by a true-crime podcaster—but his interest in Isabelle's past makes her nervous. His incessant questioning paired with her severe insomnia has brought up uncomfortable memories from her own childhood, making Isabelle start to doubt her recollection of the night of Mason’s disappearance, as well as second-guess who she can trust... including herself. But she is determined to figure out the truth no matter where it leads.]]> 326 Stacy Willingham 1250803853 AMELIA 0 4.04 2023
author: Stacy Willingham
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/31
shelves: to-read, 2024-reading-challenge
review:

]]> 64000414 Ěý
As a park ranger with the National Park Service's law enforcement team, Andrea Lankford led search and rescue missions in some of the most beautiful (and dangerous) landscapes across America, fromĚýYosemite to the Grand Canyon. But though she had the support of the agency, Andrea grew frustrated with the service's bureaucratic idiosyncrasies, and left the force after twelve years. Two decades later, however, she stumbles across a mystery that pulls her right back where she left - three young men have vanished from the Pacific Crest Trail, the 2,650-mile trek made famous by Cheryl Strayed's Wild , and no one has been able to find them. It’s bugging the hell out of her.
Ěý
Andrea’s concern soon leads her to a wild environment unlike any she’s ever ventured into - missing person Facebook groups. Andrea launches an investigation, joining forces with an eclectic team of amateurs who are determined to solve the cases: a mother of the missing, a retired pharmacy manager, and a mapmaker who monitors terrorist activity for the government. Together, they track the activities of kidnappers and murderers, investigate a cult, rescue a psychic in peril, cross paths with an unconventional scientist, and reunite an international fugitive with his family. Searching for the missing is a brutal psychological and physical test with the highest stakes, but eventually their hardships begin to bear strange fruits—ones that lead them to places and people they never saw coming.]]> 352 Andrea Lankford 0306831953 AMELIA 0 3.70 2023
author: Andrea Lankford
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/31
shelves: to-read, 2024-reading-challenge, history
review:

]]> 58397711 FromĚýNew York TimesĚýbestsellers Preston and Child, archaeologist Nora Kelly and FBI Agent Corrie Swanson are tasked with the mysterious deaths of two people found at a site where a UFO allegedly crashed decades before. Lucas Tappan, a wealthy and eccentric billionaire and founder of Icarus Space Systems, approaches the Santa Fe Archaeological Institute with an outlandish proposal—to finance a careful, scientific excavation of the Roswell Incident site, where a UFO is alleged to have crashed in 1947. A skeptical Nora Kelly, to her great annoyance, is tasked with the job.Ěý Nora's excavation immediately uncovers two murder victims buried at the site, faces and hands obliterated with acid to erase their identities. Special Agent Corrie Swanson is assigned to the case. As Nora’s excavation proceeds, uncovering things both bizarre and seemingly inexplicable, Corrie’s homicide investigation throws open a Pandora's box of espionage and violence, uncovering bloody traces of a powerful forceĚýthat will stop at nothing to protect its secrets—and that threatens to engulf them all in an unimaginable fate.]]> 368 Douglas Preston 153873673X AMELIA 4 4.31 2022
author: Douglas Preston
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/31
date added: 2023/12/31
shelves: adult-fiction, thriller, 2023-reading-challenge
review:

]]> 61423989
The Roaring Twenties--the Jazz Age--has been characterized as a time of Gatsby frivolity. But it was also the height of the uniquely American hate group, the Ku Klux Klan. Their domain was not the old Confederacy, but the Heartland and the West. They hated Blacks, Jews, Catholics and immigrants in equal measure, and took radical steps to keep these people from the American promise. And the man who set in motion their takeover of great swaths of America was a charismatic charlatan named D.C. Stephenson.

Stephenson was a magnetic presence whose life story changed with every telling. Within two years of his arrival in Indiana, he’d become the Grand Dragon of the state and the architect of the strategy that brought the group out of the shadows � their message endorsed from the pulpits of local churches, spread at family picnics and town celebrations. Judges, prosecutors, ministers, governors and senators across the country all proudly proclaimed their membership. But at the peak of his influence, it was a seemingly powerless woman � Madge Oberholtzer � who would reveal his secret cruelties, and whose deathbed testimony finally brought the Klan to their knees.

A FEVER IN THE HEARTLAND marries a propulsive drama to a powerful and page-turning reckoning with one of the darkest threads in American history.]]> 432 Timothy Egan 0735225265 AMELIA 0 to-read 4.33 2023
author: Timothy Egan
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61885029
Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan.

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

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

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

In a dog-eat-dog world...be a cat.]]> 264 John Scalzi 0765389223 AMELIA 0 to-read 4.09 2023
author: John Scalzi
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 181037386 278 Michael Trouche AMELIA 0 to-read 3.00
author: Michael Trouche
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60784411
When he comes across the strange ad for the Masson House in Degener, Texas, Eric thinks they may have finally caught a lucky break. The Masson property, notorious for being one of the most haunted places in Texas, needs a caretaker of sorts. The owner is looking for proof of paranormal activity. All they need to do is stay in the house and keep a detailed record of everything that happens there. Provided the house’s horrors don’t drive them all mad, like the caretakers before them.

The job calls to Eric, not just because there’s a huge payout if they can make it through, but because he wants to explore the secrets of the spite house. If it is indeed haunted, maybe it’ll help him understand the uncanny power that clings to his family, driving them from town to town, making them afraid to stop running. A terrifying Gothic thriller about grief and death and the depths of a father’s love, Johnny Compton’s The Spite House is a stunning debut by a horror master in the making.]]> 261 Johnny Compton 1250841410 AMELIA 0 3.50 2023
author: Johnny Compton
name: AMELIA
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/03
shelves: adult-fiction, horror, paranormal-ghostie, to-read
review:

]]> 150038752 Unruly: A History of England's Kings and Queens - a thoughtful, funny exploration of the founding fathers and mothers of England, and subsequently Britain.

Think you know your kings and queens? Think again.

In Unruly, David Mitchell explores how England's monarchs, while acting as feared rulers firmly guiding their subjects' destinies, were in reality a bunch of lucky sods who were mostly as silly and weird in real life as they appear today in their portraits.

Taking us right back to King Arthur (he didn't exist), David tells the founding story of post-Roman England right up to the reign of Elizabeth I (she dies). It's a tale of narcissists, inadequate self-control, excessive beheadings, middle-management insurrection, uncivil wars, and at least one total Cnut, as the population evolved from having their crops nicked by the thug with the largest armed gang to bowing and paying taxes to a divinely anointed king.

How this happened, who it happened to and why it matters in modern Britain are all questions David answers with brilliance, wit and the full erudition of a man who once studied history - and won't let it off the hook for the mess it's made.

A funny book about a serious subject, Unruly is for anyone who has ever wondered how we got here - and who is to blame.]]> 431 David Mitchell 1405953179 AMELIA 0 to-read 4.13 2023
author: David Mitchell
name: AMELIA
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>