en-US Sat, 28 Dec 2024 13:40:41 -0800 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 58065033 390 Bonnie Garmus Oyinda 5 2024-reads, 2024-feb
Have you ever wondered what happens when a scientist turns a cooking show into a lesson on empowerment? Spoiler: Chaos, charm, and brilliance ensue!

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
⭐⭐⭐⭐��

You know that feeling of going into a book with high expectations and the book delivers on every one of those expectations? This book was as good as it was hyped up to be and even better! 10/10 no notes.

This book seemed to encompass so many things at once and at no point did it ever feel overwhelming. It also felt like Elizabeth, the main character, led so many lives over the course of the novel. One thing i deeply admired is that she never lost her spirit and vim even the face of endless adversity and when it felt like the world was against her.

This book was so funny, like the humor came from the most unexpected places sometimes and even when the saddest or most jarring things were happening, it didn’t feel too gloomy.

The character? A1. there were some first-class a-holes in this book, but the main characters and the people she had in her corner were so amazing and it warmed my heart. I enjoyed the level of characterization given to the dog and that added another layer of heart to the book, IMO.

Some of my favorite parts of the book were when she was on the show, and her daughter’s character. Scenes or parts that showed Elizabeth’s resilience were also another favorite. I recommend checking out the trigger warnings as well. I went in totally blind and there was a scene that completely stunned me as I did not expect that kind of scene in this book, I’ll be honest.

There’s an Apple TV show based on the book and it’s on my watch list for the year. Have you read this book or do you plan to? I urge you to, if you haven’t already.
]]> 4.23 2022
author: Bonnie Garmus
name: Oyinda
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/18
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: 2024-reads, 2024-feb
review:
Absolutely perfect omg.

Have you ever wondered what happens when a scientist turns a cooking show into a lesson on empowerment? Spoiler: Chaos, charm, and brilliance ensue!

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
⭐⭐⭐⭐��

You know that feeling of going into a book with high expectations and the book delivers on every one of those expectations? This book was as good as it was hyped up to be and even better! 10/10 no notes.

This book seemed to encompass so many things at once and at no point did it ever feel overwhelming. It also felt like Elizabeth, the main character, led so many lives over the course of the novel. One thing i deeply admired is that she never lost her spirit and vim even the face of endless adversity and when it felt like the world was against her.

This book was so funny, like the humor came from the most unexpected places sometimes and even when the saddest or most jarring things were happening, it didn’t feel too gloomy.

The character? A1. there were some first-class a-holes in this book, but the main characters and the people she had in her corner were so amazing and it warmed my heart. I enjoyed the level of characterization given to the dog and that added another layer of heart to the book, IMO.

Some of my favorite parts of the book were when she was on the show, and her daughter’s character. Scenes or parts that showed Elizabeth’s resilience were also another favorite. I recommend checking out the trigger warnings as well. I went in totally blind and there was a scene that completely stunned me as I did not expect that kind of scene in this book, I’ll be honest.

There’s an Apple TV show based on the book and it’s on my watch list for the year. Have you read this book or do you plan to? I urge you to, if you haven’t already.

]]> 176443444
Leah has been living with akinetopsia, or motion blindness, since she was a child. For the last twenty years, she hasn’t been able to see movement. As she walks around her upper Manhattan neighborhood with her white stick tapping in front, most people assume she’s blind. But the truth is Leah sees a good deal, and with her acute senses of smell and hearing, very little escapes her notice.

She has a quiet, orderly life, with little human contact beyond her longtime housekeeper, her doctor, and her elderly neighbor. That all changes when Alice moves into the apartment next door and Leah can immediately smell the anxiety wafting off her. Worse, Leah can’t help but hear Alice and a late-night visitor engage in a violent fight. Worried, she befriends her neighbor and discovers that Alice is in the middle of a messy divorce from an abusive husband.

Then one night, Leah wakes up to someone in her apartment. She blacks out and in the morning is left wondering if she dreamt the episode. And yet the scent of the intruder follows her everywhere. And when she hears Alice through the wall pleading for her help, Leah makes a decision that will test her courage, her strength, and ultimately her sanity.]]> 258 Armando Lucas Correa 1982197501 Oyinda 3 2024-reads, 2024-feb 3.13 2024
author: Armando Lucas Correa
name: Oyinda
average rating: 3.13
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/17
date added: 2024/08/17
shelves: 2024-reads, 2024-feb
review:

]]> 53344030
Nick and Charlie are very much in love. They've finally said those three little words, and Charlie has almost persuaded his mum to let him sleep over at Nick's house ... But with Nick going off to university next year, is everything about to change?

By Alice Oseman, winner of the YA Book Prize, Heartstopper encompasses all the small moments of Nick and Charlie's lives that together make up something larger, which speaks to all of us.

Contains discussions around mental health and eating disorders, and sexual references.]]> 336 Alice Oseman 1444957651 Oyinda 4 2024-reads, 2024-feb 4.47 2023
author: Alice Oseman
name: Oyinda
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/21
date added: 2024/08/17
shelves: 2024-reads, 2024-feb
review:

]]> 61271775 From the New York Times bestselling author of Front Desk comes a “involving, realistic�� (Booklist, starred review) middle grade novel about a young girl who leaves China to live with her parents and sister, after five years apart, and learns about family, friendship, and the power of being finally seen.

My sister got to grow up with my parents. Me? I grew up with postcards from my parents.

When ten-year-old Lina Gao steps off the plane in Los Angeles, it’s her first time in America and the first time seeing her parents and her little sister in five years! She’s been waiting for this moment every day while she lived with her grandmother in Beijing, getting teased by kids at school who called her “left behind girl.�� Finally, her parents are ready for her to join their fabulous life in America! Except, it’s not exactly like in the postcards:

1. School’s a lot harder than she thought. When she mispronounces some words in English on the first day, she decides she simply won’t talk. Ever again.
2. Her chatty little sister has no problem with English. And seems to do everything better than Lina, including knowing exactly the way to her parents�� hearts.
3. They live in an apartment, not a house like in Mom’s letters, and they owe a lot of back rent from the pandemic. And Mom’s plan to pay it back sounds more like a hobby than a moneymaker.

As she reckons with her hurt, Lina tries to keep a lid on her feelings, both at home and at school. When her teacher starts facing challenges for her latest book selection, a book that deeply resonates with Lina, it will take all of Lina’s courage and resilience to get over her fear and choose a future where she’s finally seen.]]> Kelly Yang 1797150456 Oyinda 5 2024-reads, 2024-feb 4.43 2023
author: Kelly Yang
name: Oyinda
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/29
date added: 2024/08/17
shelves: 2024-reads, 2024-feb
review:

]]> 60399492 A remote back-to-basics mountaintop retreat in the French Alps turns deadly as an Oxford fellow finds herself in the crosshairs of her late husband’s dangerous secrets.

The Chalet des Anglais should be the ideal locale for recently-widowed Oxford don Emily to begin cutting through the fog of her grief. With no electricity, running water, or access by car, the rustic chalet nestled at the foot of the verdant, snow-topped Alps should afford Emily both time and space to heal. Joining her will be a collection of friends from the university, as well as other fellows, graduates, and undergraduates.

Something feels off, though—heightening Emily’s existing grief-induced anxiety. Before even making it to the airport, she’s unnerved by a break-in at her home. Once at the chalet, tension amongst the guests is palpable. Her friends and colleagues are behaving oddly, and competition for a newly opened position has introduced a streak of meanness into the otherwise relaxing getaway. As hostilities grow, Emily begins to wonder if the chalet’s dark history has cast a shadow over the retreat. In the salon, a curious grandfather clock looms, the only piece of furniture to survive a deadly blaze a century ago. As its discordant bell begins to invade everyone’s dreams, someone very real has been searching through Emily’s things and attempting to hack into her computer.

When a student disappears, Emily realizes that she’d better separate friend from foe, and real from imagined—or the next disappearance may be her own.]]> 384 Lexie Elliott 0593098722 Oyinda 3 2024-reads, 2024-feb 3.35 2023
author: Lexie Elliott
name: Oyinda
average rating: 3.35
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/24
date added: 2024/08/17
shelves: 2024-reads, 2024-feb
review:
Not sure how I feel about this one but it was good enough to not be a total waste of my time. Ensemble cast and it took me a while to learn who was who and what their relationships to each other was like. I like the dip into the supernatural with the clock, even though it was a book centred on academics and scientists.
]]> 134221653 In this fresh reimagining of Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel, Jane Eyre and Bertha Mason must save each other from the horrifying machinations of Mr. Rochester.

Jane has no interest in a husband. Eager to make her own way in the world, she accepts the governess position at Thornfield Hall. Though her new employer, Edward Rochester, has a charming air—not to mention a handsome face—Jane discovers that his smile can sharpen in an instant. Plagued by Edward’s mercurial mood and the strange wails that echo through the corridors, she grows suspicious of the secrets hidden within Thornfield Hall—unaware of the true horrors lurking above her very head.

On the topmost floor, Bertha is trapped in more ways than one. After her whirlwind marriage to Edward turned into a nightmare, he locked her away as revenge for withholding her inheritance. Now his patience grows thin in the face of Bertha’s resilience and Jane’s persistent questions, and both young women are in more danger than they realize. When their only chance at safety—and perhaps something more—is in each other’s arms, can they find and keep one another safe before Edward’s dark machinations close in around them?]]> 352 L.L. McKinney 0062986260 Oyinda 4 2024-reads, 2024-feb 3.77 2024
author: L.L. McKinney
name: Oyinda
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/25
date added: 2024/08/17
shelves: 2024-reads, 2024-feb
review:

]]> 56648607 Traditional media is over. The internet reigns. And in the attention economy, influencers are royalty. But who are they �� and how do you become one?

Break the Internet takes a deep dive into the influencer industry, tracing its evolution from blogging and legacy social media such as Tumblr to today’s world in which YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok dominate. Surveying the new media landscape that the rise of online celebrity has created, it is an insider account of a trend which is set to dominate our future �� the economy of influence will be valued at $15bn globally by 2022.

Olivia Yallop enrols in an influencer bootcamp, goes undercover at fan meetups, and shadows online celebrities to understand how digital personas are built, uncovering what it is really like to live a branded life and trade in a ‘social stock market��. From mumfluencers and activists to governments and investors, everyone wants to build their online influence. But how do you stay authentic in a system designed to commodify identity? Break the Internet examines both the dangers and the transformative potential of digital culture.]]> 288 Olivia Yallop 1913348334 Oyinda 3 2024-reads, 2024-feb Interesting. 3.71
author: Olivia Yallop
name: Oyinda
average rating: 3.71
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/25
date added: 2024/08/17
shelves: 2024-reads, 2024-feb
review:
Interesting.
]]> 58587864
Emma Averell loves her life—her high-powered legal career, her two beautiful children, and her wonderful stay-at-home husband—but it wasn’t always so perfect. When she was just five years old, Emma and her older sister went into foster care because of a horrific incident with their mother. Her sister can remember a time when their mother was loving and “normal,�� but Emma can only remember her as one thing—a monster. And that monster emerged right around their mother’s fortieth birthday, the same age Emma is approaching now.

Emma desperately wants to keep her successful life separate from her past, so she has always hidden her childhood trauma. But then she’s unable to sleep, and now losing time during the day, also one of the first symptoms her mother showed. Is the madness in her blood, just as her mother predicted? Could she end up hurting her family in her foggy, frenetic state? Or is she truly beginning to lose her mind?]]> 336 Sarah Pinborough Oyinda 3 2024-reads, 2024-feb 3.65 2022
author: Sarah Pinborough
name: Oyinda
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/26
date added: 2024/08/17
shelves: 2024-reads, 2024-feb
review:
It was going so well but the ending was so jarring.
]]> 124254703 An unprecedented guide for any woman with ADHD looking to celebrate her unique brilliance and to embark on a journey of self-discovery.

ADHD is one of the most common neurological disor­ders in the United States—yet a staggering 75 percent of girls and women remain undiagnosed. Due to the gen­der gap in medical research, which does not account for symptoms manifesting differently in women—leading to increased problems with anxiety, depression, work­ing memory, sleep, energy, and concentration—many ADHD women are left to navigate a society that fails to understand their struggles and gifts. But what if every woman had the resources and support to uncover the hidden wonders of her neurodivergent brain?

Enter certified ADHD coach and podcast host Tracy Otsuka. Armed with her experience coaching thou­sands of women, cutting-edge medical research, and personal insights from her own diagnosis, she presents a revelatory guide tailored specifically for girls and women with ADHD. In it, Otsuka offers an entirely new set of tools, systems, and strategies to access a world of boundless productivity, focus, and confidence.

With her signature wit and levity—in entertaining chapters designed for ADHD readers—Otsuka explores the unique challenges that ADHD women face and illuminates the extraordinary qualities that set them overflowing creativity, laser-focused attention, deep empathy, and fearless entrepreneurial spirit. Even without an official diagnosis, readers will be equipped with the tools to conquer any to-do list and to tap into their true purpose, personally or professionally.

By dismantling the long-standing stereotypes and misinformation surrounding women with ADHD, Otsuka offers a beacon of hope for any woman looking to transform her symptoms into strengths. Comprehensive, lively, and long overdue, ADHD for Smart Ass Women is the key to unlocking unparalleled potential and to understanding your truly magnifi­cent and brilliant brain.

Are you ready to discover your superpower?]]> 274 Tracy Otsuka 0063307065 Oyinda 5 2024-reads, 2024-feb 4.10 2023
author: Tracy Otsuka
name: Oyinda
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/29
date added: 2024/08/17
shelves: 2024-reads, 2024-feb
review:

]]> 55421402 But did she ever really exist?

Mia Eliot has travelled from London to LA for pilot season. This is her big chance to make it as an actor in Hollywood, and she is ready to do whatever it takes. At an audition she meets Emily, and what starts as a simple favour takes a dark turn when Emily goes missing and Mia is the last person to see her.

Then a woman turns up, claiming to be Emily, but she is nothing like Mia remembers. Why would someone pretend to be Emily? Starting to question her own sanity, she goes on a desperate and dangerous search for answers, knowing something is very, very wrong.

In an industry where everything is about creating illusions, how do you know what is real? And how much would you risk to find out?]]> 320 Catherine Steadman 0593158032 Oyinda 3 2024-reads, 2024-feb 3.60 2021
author: Catherine Steadman
name: Oyinda
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/18
date added: 2024/08/17
shelves: 2024-reads, 2024-feb
review:

]]> 126919284
But to everyone’s surprise, Cam wants little to do with the house or the money—and even less to do with the surviving McTavishes. Instead, he rejects his inheritance, settling into a normal life as an English teacher in Colorado and marrying Jules, a woman just as eager to escape her own messy past.

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

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

But Ruby’s plans were always more complicated than they appeared. As Ashby House tightens its grip on Jules and Camden, questions about the infamous heiress come to light. Was there any truth to the persistent rumors following her disappearance as a girl? What really happened to those four husbands, who all died under mysterious circumstances? And why did she adopt Cam in the first place? Soon, Jules and Cam realize that an inheritance can entail far more than what’s written in a will—and that the bonds of family stretch far beyond the grave.]]> 294 Rachel Hawkins 1250280036 Oyinda 4 2024-reads, 2024-feb 3.80 2024
author: Rachel Hawkins
name: Oyinda
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/27
date added: 2024/08/17
shelves: 2024-reads, 2024-feb
review:

]]> 65213641 Ten teen influencers come to a remote island to star in a reality show, but when one of them winds up dead, they realize that this time, the price of being “cancelled�� could be their lives.

A reality show on a remote Caribbean island. Ten teen influencers. One dead body.

Welcome to “In Real Life,�� the hot new reality show that forces social media’s reigning kings and queens to unplug for three weeks and “go live�� without any filters. IRL is supposed to be the opportunity of a lifetime, watched closely by legions of loyal followers. But for these rising stars--including Elody, an Instagram model with an impulsive streak; Kira, a child star turned fitness influencer; Logan, a disgraced TikTok celeb with a secret; and Max, a YouTuber famous for exposés on his fellow creators—it’s about to turn into a nightmare.

When the production crew fails to show up and one of their own meets a violent end, these nine little influencers find themselves stranded with a dead body and no way to reach the outside world. When they start receiving messages from a mysterious Sponsor threatening to expose their darkest secrets, they realize that they’ve been lured into a deadly game…and one of them might be pulling the strings.

With the body count rising and cameras tracking their every move, the creators must figure out who is trying to get them canceled—like, literally—before their #1 follower strikes again.]]> 352 Olivia Worley 1250881382 Oyinda 3 2024-reads, 2024-feb 3.53 2023
author: Olivia Worley
name: Oyinda
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/01
date added: 2024/08/17
shelves: 2024-reads, 2024-feb
review:
This was really just okay.it was really entertaining but the reveal let me down.
]]> 57693472
Coming home is hard enough for Vera, and to make things worse, she and her mother aren’t alone. A parasitic artist has moved into the guest house out back, and is slowly stripping Vera’s childhood for spare parts. He insists that he isn’t the one leaving notes around the house in her father’s handwriting�� but who else could it possibly be?

There are secrets yet undiscovered in the foundations of the notorious Crowder House. Vera must face them, and find out for herself just how deep the rot goes.]]> 344 Sarah Gailey 1250174724 Oyinda 3 2024-reads, 2024-feb 3.32 2022
author: Sarah Gailey
name: Oyinda
average rating: 3.32
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/07
date added: 2024/08/17
shelves: 2024-reads, 2024-feb
review:
This was really weird but also really interesting.
]]> 134221476 ANNA O WILL WAKE UP THE WORLD

What if your nightmares weren’t really nightmares at all?

We spend an average of 33 years of our lives asleep. But what really happens, and what are we capable of, when we sleep?

Anna Ogilvy was a budding twenty-five-year-old writer with a bright future. Then, one night, she stabbed two people to death with no apparent motive—and hasn’t woken up since. Dubbed “Sleeping Beauty�� by the tabloids, Anna’s condition is a rare psychosomatic disorder known to neurologists as “resignation syndrome.��

Dr. Benedict Prince is a forensic psychologist and an expert in the field of sleep-related homicides. His methods are the last hope of solving the infamous “Anna O’”case and waking Anna up so she can stand trial. But he must be careful treating such a high-profile suspect—he’s got career secrets and a complicated personal life of his own.

As Anna shows the first signs of stirring, Benedict must determine what really happened and whether Anna should be held responsible for her crimes.

Only Anna knows the truth about that night, but only Benedict knows how to discover it. And they’re both in danger from what they find out.

Joining the ranks of Gillian Flynn, A. J. Finn, and Alex Michaelides, Matthew Blake delivers the thriller of the year: a dark, twisty, and shocking mystery about a young woman who commits a double murder while sleepwalking, and then never opens her eyes again.]]> 421 Matthew Blake 0063314150 Oyinda 4 2024-reads, 2024-feb Super twisty. 3.36 2024
author: Matthew Blake
name: Oyinda
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/03
date added: 2024/08/17
shelves: 2024-reads, 2024-feb
review:
Super twisty.
]]> 40613322 He rules it.

Her dresses are too tight, her heels too tall. She laughs too loudly, eats without decorum, and mixes up most sayings in the book. Little do most know it’s just a sparkly disguise, there to hide one panic attack at a time.

Nobody can crack Gianna’s facade . . . no one anyway, until he comes along.

Most see a paragon of morality; a special agent upholding the law. In the New York underworld, others know him as a hustler, a killer, his nature as cold as the heart of ice in his chest. Christian Allister has always followed the life plan he’d envisioned in his youth, beneath the harsh lights of a frigid, damp cell. With a proclivity for order and the number three, he’s never been tempted to veer off course. But perhaps one should never say never . . .

One winter night and their lives intertwine. She hates him—his stone-cold demeanor, his arrogance and too-perceptive eye—but over the years, even as their games consist of insulting each other’s looks and intelligence, she begins to live to play with him.

Nowhere in Christian’s plans had he ever prepared for Gianna. She’s chaos embodied, not his type, and married, but none of that can stop his eyes from following her wherever she goes.

All along, she doesn’t even know that she’s his—his frustration, his fascination.

His maddest obsession.]]> 333 Danielle Lori Oyinda 3 2024-reads, 2024-feb 4.22 2019
author: Danielle Lori
name: Oyinda
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/10
date added: 2024/08/17
shelves: 2024-reads, 2024-feb
review:
This took some time to get into but once I did it picked up and it was really fun. I didn’t like how closed off the MMC was though. It was also really dark lol.
]]> 200033957
This Valentine’s Day, Daisy Murray has her heart set on binge-watching rom-coms. Instead, an earthquake traps her inside a bakery with its impossibly rude and insufferably handsome owner and head baker. They already have a history: she’s always smiled, he’s always scowled. Where better to finally get to know each other than amid the disaster? Then again, they have no choice. Besides, it could have its sweet, undeniable, and unpredictable perks.

Jasmine Guillory’s Drop, Cover, and Hold On is part of The Improbable Meet-Cute, irresistibly romantic stories about finding love when and where you least expect it. They can be read or listened to in one sitting. Let’s make a date of it.]]> 40 Jasmine Guillory 1662519834 Oyinda 3 2024-reads, 2024-feb Cute. 2.93 2024
author: Jasmine Guillory
name: Oyinda
average rating: 2.93
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/10
date added: 2024/08/17
shelves: 2024-reads, 2024-feb
review:
Cute.
]]> 176443159
Among the women of Greek mythology, the witch Medea may be the most despised. Known for the brutal act of killing her own children to exact vengeance on her deceitful husband, the Argonauts leader Jason, Medea has carved out a singularly infamous niche in our histories.

But what if that isn’t the full story?

The daughter of a sea nymph and the granddaughter of a Titan, Medea is a paradox. She is at once rendered compelling by virtue of the divinity that flows through her bloodline and made powerless by the fact of her being a woman. As a child, she intuitively submerges herself in witchcraft and sorcery, but soon finds it may not be a match for the prophecies that hang over her entire family like a shroud.

As Medea comes into her own as a woman and a witch, she also faces the arrival of the hero Jason, preordained by the gods to be not only her husband, but also her lifeline to escape her isolated existence. Medea travels the treacherous seas with the Argonauts, battles demons she had never conceived of, and falls in love with the man who may ultimately be her downfall.

In this propulsive, beautifully written debut, readers will finally hear Medea’s side of the story through a fresh and feminist lens.]]> 304 Eilish Quin 1668020769 Oyinda 4 2024-reads, 2024-feb 3.81 2024
author: Eilish Quin
name: Oyinda
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/22
date added: 2024/08/17
shelves: 2024-reads, 2024-feb
review:
Ohhh this was SO good! So so good!
]]> 124932739 I Hope This Doesn't Find You is Never Have I Ever meets To All the Boys if Lara Jean wrote hate emails instead of love letters.

Sadie Wen is perfect on paper: school captain, valedictorian, and a "pleasure to have in class." It’s not easy, but she has a trick to keep her model-student smile plastered on her face at all times: she channels all her frustrations into her email drafts. She'd never send them of course -- she'd rather die than hurt anyone's feelings -- but it's a relief to let loose on her power-hungry English teacher or a freeloading classmate taking credit for Sadie's work.

All her most vehemently worded emails are directed at her infuriating cocaptain, Julius Gong, whose arrogance and competitive streak have irked Sadie since they were kids. "You're attention starved and self-obsessed and unbearably vain . . . I really hope your comb breaks and you run out of whatever expensive hair products you've been using to make your hair appear deceptively soft..."

Sadie doesn't have to hold back in her emails, because nobody will ever read them... that is, until they're accidentally sent out.

Overnight, Sadie’s carefully crafted, conflict-free life is turned upside down. It's her worst nightmare -- now everyone at school knows what she really thinks of them, and they're not afraid to tell her what they really think of her either. But amidst the chaos, there's one person growing to appreciate the "real" Sadie -- Julius, the only boy she's sworn to hate...]]> 320 Ann Liang 1338827154 Oyinda 5 2024-reads, 2024-feb AMAZING! 4.17 2024
author: Ann Liang
name: Oyinda
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/24
date added: 2024/08/17
shelves: 2024-reads, 2024-feb
review:
AMAZING!
]]> 58275735 The national bestselling author of A Thousand Ships returns with a fascinating, eye-opening take on the remarkable women at the heart of classical stories Greek mythology from Helen of Troy to Pandora and the Amazons to Medea.

The tellers of Greek myths--historically men--have routinely sidelined the female characters. When they do take a larger role, women are often portrayed as monstrous, vengeful or just plain evil--like Pandora, the woman of eternal scorn and damnation whose curiosity is tasked with causing all the world's suffering and wickedness when she opened that forbidden box. But, as Natalie Haynes reveals, in ancient Greek myths there was no box. It was a jar . . . which is far more likely to tip over.

In Pandora's Jar, the broadcaster, writer, stand-up comedian, and passionate classicist turns the tables, putting the women of the Greek myths on an equal footing with the men. With wit, humor, and savvy, Haynes revolutionizes our understanding of epic poems, stories, and plays, resurrecting them from a woman's perspective and tracing the origins of their mythic female characters. She looks at women such as Jocasta, Oedipus' mother-turned-lover-and-wife (turned Freudian sticking point), at once the cleverest person in the story and yet often unnoticed. She considers Helen of Troy, whose marriage to Paris "caused" the Trojan war--a somewhat uneven response to her decision to leave her husband for another man. She demonstrates how the vilified Medea was like an ancient Beyonce--getting her revenge on the man who hurt and betrayed her, if by extreme measures. And she turns her eye to Medusa, the original monstered woman, whose stare turned men to stone, but who wasn't always a monster, and had her hair turned to snakes as punishment for being raped.

Pandora's Jar brings nuance and care to the millennia-old myths and legends and asks the question: Why are we so quick to villainize these women in the first place--and so eager to accept the stories we've been told?]]> 308 Natalie Haynes 0063139464 Oyinda 4 2024-reads, 2024-feb Mwah no bars. 4.20 2020
author: Natalie Haynes
name: Oyinda
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/19
date added: 2024/08/17
shelves: 2024-reads, 2024-feb
review:
Mwah no bars.
]]> 55350379 An overachieving teen witch vies for a prestigious scholarship at her elite high school in this contemporary YA fantasy for fans of Never Have I Ever and Sabrina the Teen Witch!

Magically brilliant, academically perfect, chronically overcommitted...

Shay Johnson has all the makings of a successful witch. Now that she's a junior at T.K. Anderson Magical Magnet School, she's one step closer to winning the full-ride Brockton Scholarship--her ticket into the university of her dreams. Her main competition? Ana freaking Álvarez. The key to victory? Impressing Mr. B, drama teacher and head of the scholarship committee.

When Mr. B persuades Shay to star in this year's aggressively inclusive, racially diverse musical--at their not-quite-diverse school--she agrees, wearily, even though she'll have to put up with Ana playing the other lead. But with rehearsals underway, Shay realizes Ana is...not the despicable witch she'd thought. Perhaps she could even be a friend--or more. And Shay could use someone in her corner once she finds herself on the receiving end of Mr. B's unpleasant and unwanted attention. When Shay learns she's not the first witch to experience his inappropriate behavior, she must decide if she'll come forward. But how can she speak out when the scholarship--and her future--are on the line?

An unforgettable debut, How to Succeed in Witchcraft conjures up searing social commentary, delightfully awkward high school theater, and magical proclamations of love.]]> 400 Aislinn Brophy 0593354532 Oyinda 4 2024-reads, 2024-feb SO GOOD OMG! 4.05 2022
author: Aislinn Brophy
name: Oyinda
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/28
date added: 2024/08/17
shelves: 2024-reads, 2024-feb
review:
SO GOOD OMG!
]]> 61675933
Thankfully she has the other outcasts of the summer program, Team Misfit Toys, and even her twin sister Pauline. Together they ace obstacle courses, plan vigils for missing women in the community, and make sure summer doesn’t feel so lost after all.

But when she attends a meeting at a local university, Perry learns about the “Warrior Girl��, an ancestor whose bones and knife are stored in the museum archives, and everything changes. Perry has to return Warrior Girl to her tribe. Determined to help, she learns all she can about NAGPRA, the federal law that allows tribes to request the return of ancestral remains and sacred items. The university has been using legal loopholes to hold onto Warrior Girl and twelve other Anishinaabe ancestors�� remains, and Perry and the Misfits won’t let it go on any longer.

Using all of their skills and resources, the Misfits realize a heist is the only way to bring back the stolen artifacts and remains for good. But there is more to this repatriation than meets the eye as more women disappear and Pauline’s perfectionism takes a turn for the worse. As secrets and mysteries unfurl, Perry and the Misfits must fight to find a way to make things right �� for the ancestors and for their community.]]> 396 Angeline Boulley 1250766583 Oyinda 4 2024-reads, 2024-feb 4.31 2023
author: Angeline Boulley
name: Oyinda
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/15
date added: 2024/08/17
shelves: 2024-reads, 2024-feb
review:
This was alright and had really heavy themes.
]]> 65213595 A grim and gothic new tale from author Alix E. Harrow about a small town haunted by secrets that can't stay buried and the sinister house that sits at the crossroads of it all.

Eden, Kentucky, is just another dying, bad-luck town, known only for the legend of E. Starling, the reclusive nineteenth-century author and illustrator who wrote The Underland--and disappeared. Before she vanished, Starling House appeared. But everyone agrees that it’s best to let the uncanny house―and its last lonely heir, Arthur Starling―go to rot.

Opal knows better than to mess with haunted houses or brooding men, but an unexpected job offer might be a chance to get her brother out of Eden. Too quickly, though, Starling House starts to feel dangerously like something she’s never had: a home.

As sinister forces converge on Starling House, Opal and Arthur are going to have to make a dire choice to dig up the buried secrets of the past and confront their own fears, or let Eden be taken over by literal nightmares.

If Opal wants a home, she’ll have to fight for it.]]> 320 Alix E. Harrow 1250799058 Oyinda 3 2024-reads, 2024-feb 3.77 2023
author: Alix E. Harrow
name: Oyinda
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/20
date added: 2024/08/17
shelves: 2024-reads, 2024-feb
review:

]]> 127422280
Paris, 1941. Journalist Elodie Mitchell has found bohemian Paris a huge culture shock compared to her hometown of Chicago �� but she loves the new-found freedom she's felt walking its streets. That is until the threat of Nazi occupation starts to loom larger by the day.

After a mysterious man invites her to a Josephine Baker show, Elodie is perplexed but dazzled by the decadence of the performance. But when Elodie is mistaken for Josephine and whisked backstage, she realises that the star's glamorous shows have been hiding a darker, far more important movement than anyone could have possibly imagined.

As Elodie gets embroiled in a whisper network of spies working to resist the occupation of France, she is given an assignment to go undercover as Josephine's cousin. Her mission? To gather crucial information that will protect not only the country she now calls home, but all the people within it who she has grown to love so dearly �� and getting caught is not an option.

A heart-breaking wartime epic of love, bravery, survival and one woman’s stand against prejudice in all its forms.]]> 432 Embassie Susberry 0008591520 Oyinda 4 2024-reads, 2024-feb I really enjoyed this one. 4.08 2024
author: Embassie Susberry
name: Oyinda
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/17
date added: 2024/08/17
shelves: 2024-reads, 2024-feb
review:
I really enjoyed this one.
]]> 61062499
When her friend’s grandfather offered her a job at his parfumerie, she quickly discovered she had a talent—she could find the perfect fragrance for any customer who walked in the door. Now, ten years later, she’s working for a master perfumer, helping to design completely new fragrances for clients and building her career one scent at a time. She only wishes Pierre could understand her need to work. She feels his frustration, but she can’t give up this thing that drives her.

Tasked with her first major project, Radha travels to India, where she enlists the help of her sister, Lakshmi, and the courtesans of Agra—women who use the power of fragrance to seduce, tease and entice. She’s on the cusp of a breakthrough when she finds out the son she never told her husband about is heading to Paris to find her—upending her carefully managed world and threatening to destroy a vulnerable marriage.

The final chapter in Alka Joshi’s New York Times bestselling Jaipur trilogy takes readers to 1970s Paris, where Radha’s budding career as a perfumer must compete with the demands of her family and the secrets of her past.]]> 368 Alka Joshi 0778386147 Oyinda 4 2024-reads, 2024-feb 4.08 2023
author: Alka Joshi
name: Oyinda
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/28
date added: 2024/08/17
shelves: 2024-reads, 2024-feb
review:

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