en-US Wed, 26 Mar 2025 06:28:57 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 212249382 An experimental and artistic portrait recounting, describing, and creating meaning from the year that followed a friendship confronted by unrequited love

This story begins where most end. When Tree Abraham, who identifies as queer and asexual, falls in love with her housemate who does not reciprocate the feeling. Instead of breaking up, they keep going. elseship deftly and courageously recounts the starts and stops of a transitioning relationship from housemates and friends into an undefined elseship.Ěý

But this is not a book that plays both sides. Having recorded the experience in real time, Abraham combines personal entries with illustrations, photos, and thought-maps all organized within eight Ancient Greek categories of love. elseship is not only Abraham’s side of the story, which is written with reverence, searching honesty, and integral curiosity, it’s also the manifestation of the absence of an unrequited "To endure our complexity I had to actively solder facets of us into a meaningful narrative. That year I needed this story, I still do."

Abraham’s prose matches the serious play of Rebecca Solnit’s A Field Guide to Getting Lost, with the illuminating and reframing capacities of Angela Chen’s Ace. It is not afraid of reference, collaboration, memory, or associative thought, often allowing language itself to dictate the direction of meaning. Through the eight Ancient Greek categories of love, Abraham deconstructs the heteronormative—canon which sees only platonic or romantic—by detailing the beauty in mania, the eros in pain, eventually giving way to a new language, to describe the love of elses.Ěý

elseship is a travelog exploring terrifying, lonely, uncharted territories of the heart, and a glimpse into a mind mapping pathways that probe the edges of an eroding boundary of romantic love. It is a deeply specific yet universal story of modern love that will accompany and enlighten anyone who’s been in any kind of complicated “ship� at any time.]]> 288 Tree Abraham 1593767854 Laura 0 currently-reading 4.00 2025
author: Tree Abraham
name: Laura
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/26
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]]> 2767793
Who is the Hero of Ages?

To end the Final Empire and restore freedom, Vin killed the Lord Ruler. But as a result, the Deepness—the lethal form of the ubiquitous mists—is back, along with increasingly heavy ashfalls and ever more powerful earthquakes. Humanity appears to be doomed.

Having escaped death at the climax of The Well of Ascension only by becoming a Mistborn himself, Emperor Elend Venture hopes to find clues left behind by the Lord Ruler that will allow him to save the world. Vin is consumed with guilt at having been tricked into releasing the mystic force known as Ruin from the Well. Ruin wants to end the world, and its near omniscience and ability to warp reality make stopping it seem impossible. Vin can't even discuss it with Elend lest Ruin learn their plans!]]> 572 Brandon Sanderson 0765316897 Laura 0 4.54 2008
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Laura
average rating: 4.54
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/26
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]]> 68429
The impossible has been accomplished. The Lord Ruler—the man who claimed to be god incarnate and brutally ruled the world for a thousand years—has been vanquished. But Kelsier, the hero who masterminded that triumph, is dead too, and now the awesome task of building a new world has been left to his young protégé, Vin, the former street urchin who is now the most powerful Mistborn in the land, and to the idealistic young nobleman she loves.

As Kelsier's protégé and slayer of the Lord Ruler she is now venerated by a budding new religion, a distinction that makes her intensely uncomfortable. Even more worrying, the mists have begun behaving strangely since the Lord Ruler died, and seem to harbor a strange vaporous entity that haunts her.

Stopping assassins may keep Vin's Mistborn skills sharp, but it's the least of her problems. Luthadel, the largest city of the former empire, doesn't run itself, and Vin and the other members of Kelsier's crew, who lead the revolution, must learn a whole new set of practical and political skills to help. It certainly won't get easier with three armies - one of them composed of ferocious giants - now vying to conquer the city, and no sign of the Lord Ruler's hidden cache of atium, the rarest and most powerful allomantic metal.

As the siege of Luthadel tightens, an ancient legend seems to offer a glimmer of hope. But even if it really exists, no one knows where to find the Well of Ascension or what manner of power it bestows.]]> 590 Brandon Sanderson 0765316889 Laura 0 4.38 2007
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Laura
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/26
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]]> 7235533 From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings, book one of The Stormlight Archive begins an incredible new saga of epic proportion.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Speak again the ancient oaths:

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

and return to men the Shards they once bore.

The Knights Radiant must stand again.]]> 1007 Brandon Sanderson 0765326353 Laura 0 currently-reading 4.66 2010
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Laura
average rating: 4.66
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> 212656734 Gossip, scandal and murder collide on the express train to London. Did the journalist fall from the first-class carriage, or was she pushed?

Cleo’s holiday with her family to the seaside resort town of Brighton is everything she hoped it would be…until she receives a blackmail note. The blackmailer demands Cleo help her or a story revealing Cleo’s investigating will appear in the newspaper. With her uncle warning her to keep her detecting activities private, Cleo agrees to meet the blackmailer when they return to London. But when the woman is seen getting on the train but not off, Cleo grows concerned.

She enlists the help of the hotel staff to search for the body along the railway line. Finding it confirms her suspicions and leads her to discover that her blackmailer was a gossip columnist. What scandal had the victim uncovered that led to her death? And which fellow passenger had a secret worth killing for?

With Harry Armitage’s assistance, Cleo attempts to track down the murderer. Meanwhile, pressure is mounting on the hotel staff to host a society wedding that will be featured in the social pages for all the right reasons.]]> 270 C.J. Archer 1922554960 Laura 0 4.12 2024
author: C.J. Archer
name: Laura
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/26
date added: 2025/03/26
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]]> 200353126
Cleo is hired by the housekeeper at a Mayfair residence after the police rule the sudden death of the butler was the result of natural causes. Not convinced by the verdict, she wants Cleo to prove foul play was involved. Considering he was acting mysteriously around some of the guests, and they were equally mysterious when they saw him, murder is a possibility.

When the investigation leads Cleo to another decades-old murder and the sudden disappearance of the primary suspect, she’s even more determined to uncover the truth. But the rich and powerful don’t like airing their dirty laundry, and her efforts are thwarted at every turn. Enlisting Harry Armitage to assist her, Cleo matches wits with her suspects in an effort to discover the secrets they’re trying desperately to hide.]]> 284 C.J. Archer 1922554863 Laura 0 4.06 2024
author: C.J. Archer
name: Laura
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/07/28
date added: 2025/03/26
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]]> 209439446
Now Violet must journey beyond the failing Aretian wards to seek allies from unfamiliar lands to stand with Navarre. The trip will test every bit of her wit, luck, and strength, but she will do anything to save what she loves—her dragons, her family, her home, and him.

Even if it means keeping a secret so big, it could destroy everything. They need an army. They need power. They need magic. And they need the one thing only Violet can find—the truth. But a storm is coming...and not everyone can survive its wrath.]]> 527 Rebecca Yarros 1649374186 Laura 0 4.18 2025
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: Laura
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/03
date added: 2025/03/26
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]]> 90202302 “The first year is when some of us lose our lives. The second year is when the rest of us lose our humanity.� —Xaden Riorson

Everyone expected Violet Sorrengail to die during her first year at Basgiath War College—Violet included. But Threshing was only the first impossible test meant to weed out the weak-willed, the unworthy, and the unlucky.

Now the real training begins, and Violet’s already wondering how she’ll get through. It’s not just that it’s grueling and maliciously brutal, or even that it’s designed to stretch the riders� capacity for pain beyond endurance. It’s the new vice commandant, who’s made it his personal mission to teach Violet exactly how powerless she is–unless she betrays the man she loves.

Although Violet’s body might be weaker and frailer than everyone else’s, she still has her wits—and a will of iron. And leadership is forgetting the most important lesson Basgiath has taught her: Dragon riders make their own rules.

But a determination to survive won’t be enough this year.

Because Violet knows the real secret hidden for centuries at Basgiath War College—and nothing, not even dragon fire, may be enough to save them in the end.]]> 623 Rebecca Yarros 1649374178 Laura 0 4.33 2023
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: Laura
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2025/01/18
date added: 2025/03/26
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]]> 159116833
The Bobiverse is a different place in the aftermath of the Starfleet War, and the days of the Bobs gathering in one big happy moot are far behind. There’s anti-Bob sentiment on multiple planets, the Skippies playing with an AI time bomb, and multiple Bobs just wanting to get away from it all.

But it all pales compared to what Icarus and Daedalus discover on their 26,000-year journey to the center of the galaxy. Sure, it could settle the Fermi Paradox for good (and what Bob doesn’t want to solve a mystery of the universe?). But it also reveals a threat to the galaxy greater than anything the Bobs could have imagined.

Just another average day in the Bobiverse.]]> 413 Dennis E. Taylor Laura 0 4.26 2024
author: Dennis E. Taylor
name: Laura
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/04
date added: 2025/03/26
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]]> 65211701 Am I making it worse? I think I'm making it worse.

Everyone's favorite lethal SecUnit is back.

Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation has sent rescue ships to a newly-colonized planet in peril, as well as additional SecUnits. But if there’s an ethical corporation out there, Murderbot has yet to find it, and if Barish-Estranza can’t have the planet, they’re sure as hell not leaving without something. If that something just happens to be an entire colony of humans, well, a free workforce is a decent runner-up prize.

But there’s something wrong with Murderbot; it isn’t running within normal operational parameters. ART’s crew and the humans from Preservation are doing everything they can to protect the colonists, but with Barish-Estranza’s SecUnit-heavy persuasion teams, they’re going to have to hope Murderbot figures out what’s wrong with itself, and fast.

Yeah, this plan is... not going to work.]]> 245 Martha Wells 1250826977 Laura 0 4.19 2023
author: Martha Wells
name: Laura
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2025/01/26
date added: 2025/03/26
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]]> 33998348 333 Ariel Lawhon 0385541694 Laura 0 to-read 3.72 2018
author: Ariel Lawhon
name: Laura
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/09
shelves: to-read
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]]> 68428 What if the whole world were a dead, blasted wasteland?

Mistborn
For a thousand years the ash fell and no flowers bloomed. For a thousand years the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years the Lord Ruler, the "Sliver of Infinity," reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Then, when hope was so long lost that not even its memory remained, a terribly scarred, heart-broken half-Skaa rediscovered it in the depths of the Lord Ruler's most hellish prison. Kelsier "snapped" and found in himself the powers of a Mistborn. A brilliant thief and natural leader, he turned his talents to the ultimate caper, with the Lord Ruler himself as the mark.

Kelsier recruited the underworld's elite, the smartest and most trustworthy allomancers, each of whom shares one of his many powers, and all of whom relish a high-stakes challenge. Then Kelsier reveals his ultimate dream, not just the greatest heist in history, but the downfall of the divine despot.

But even with the best criminal crew ever assembled, Kel's plan looks more like the ultimate long shot, until luck brings a ragged girl named Vin into his life. Like him, she's a half-Skaa orphan, but she's lived a much harsher life. Vin has learned to expect betrayal from everyone she meets. She will have to learn trust if Kel is to help her master powers of which she never dreamed.

Brandon Sanderson, fantasy's newest master tale-spinner and author of the acclaimed debut Elantris, dares to turn a genre on its head by asking a simple question: What if the prophesied hero failed to defeat the Dark Lord? The answer will be found in the Mistborn Trilogy, a saga of surprises that begins with the book in your hands. Fantasy will never be the same again.]]> 541 Brandon Sanderson Laura 0 4.48 2006
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Laura
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/07
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]]> 59366244
Jennette McCurdy was six years old when she had her first acting audition. Her mother’s dream was for her only daughter to become a star, and Jennette would do anything to make her mother happy. So she went along with what Mom called “calorie restriction,� eating little and weighing herself five times a day. She endured extensive at-home makeovers while Mom chided, “Your eyelashes are invisible, okay? You think Dakota Fanning doesn’t tint hers?� She was even showered by Mom until age sixteen while sharing her diaries, email, and all her income.

In I’m Glad My Mom Died , Jennette recounts all this in unflinching detail—just as she chronicles what happens when the dream finally comes true. Cast in a new Nickelodeon series called iCarly , she is thrust into fame. Though Mom is ecstatic, emailing fan club moderators and getting on a first-name basis with the paparazzi (“Hi Gale!�), Jennette is riddled with anxiety, shame, and self-loathing, which manifest into eating disorders, addiction, and a series of unhealthy relationships. These issues only get worse when, soon after taking the lead in the iCarly spinoff Sam & Cat alongside Ariana Grande, her mother dies of cancer. Finally, after discovering therapy and quitting acting, Jennette embarks on recovery and decides for the first time in her life what she really wants.

Told with refreshing candor and dark humor, I’m Glad My Mom Died is an inspiring story of resilience, independence, and the joy of shampooing your own hair.]]> 304 Jennette McCurdy 1982185821 Laura 4 4.42 2022
author: Jennette McCurdy
name: Laura
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2022/12/10
date added: 2023/06/04
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]]> 40909452 In this breathtaking novel, rich in history and adventure, #1 New York Times bestselling author Diana Gabaldon continues the story of Claire Randall and Jamie Fraser that started with the now-classic novel Outlander and continued in Dragonfly in Amber and Voyager. Once again spanning continents and centuries, Gabaldon has created a work of sheer brilliance.

What if you knew someone you loved was going to die? What if you thought you could save them? How much would you risk to try?

Claire Randall has gone to find Jamie Fraser, the man she loved more than life, and has left half her heart behind with their daughter, Brianna. Claire gave up Jamie to save Brianna, and now Bree has sent her mother back to the Scottish warrior who was willing to give his life to save them both. But a chilling discovery in the pages of history suggests that Jamie and Claire's story doesn't have a happy ending.

Brianna dares a terrifying leap into the unknown in search of her mother and the father she has never met, risking her own future to try to change history . . . and to save their lives. But as Brianna plunges into an uncharted wilderness, a heartbreaking encounter may strand her forever in the past . . . or root her in the place she should be, where her heart and soul belong.]]> 928 Diana Gabaldon 0525618732 Laura 4 4.35 1996
author: Diana Gabaldon
name: Laura
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at: 2023/02/03
date added: 2023/02/03
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]]> 7507944 Akata Witch transports the reader to a magical place where nothing is quite as it seems. Born in New York, but living in Aba, Nigeria, twelve-year old Sunny is understandably a little lost. She is albino and thus, incredibly sensitive to the sun. All Sunny wants to do is be able to play football and get through another day of school without being bullied. But once she befriends Orlu and Chichi, Sunny is plunged in to the world of the Leopard People, where your worst defect becomes your greatest asset. Together, Sunny, Orlu, Chichi and Sasha form the youngest ever Oha Coven. Their mission is to track down Black Hat Otokoto, the man responsible for kidnapping and maiming children. Will Sunny be able to overcome the killer with powers stronger than her own, or will the future she saw in the flames become reality?]]> 349 Nnedi Okorafor 0670011967 Laura 4 liked-it 4.02 2011
author: Nnedi Okorafor
name: Laura
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2020/07/13
date added: 2023/02/02
shelves: liked-it
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]]> 18293427
A. J. Fikry’s life is not at all what he expected it to be. His wife has died, his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history, and now his prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen. Slowly but surely, he is isolating himself from all the people of Alice Island—from Lambiase, the well-intentioned police officer who’s always felt kindly toward Fikry; from Ismay, his sister-in-law who is hell-bent on saving him from his dreary self; from Amelia, the lovely and idealistic (if eccentric) Knightley Press sales rep who keeps on taking the ferry over to Alice Island, refusing to be deterred by A.J.’s bad attitude. Even the books in his store have stopped holding pleasure for him. These days, A.J. can only see them as a sign of a world that is changing too rapidly.

And then a mysterious package appears at the bookstore. It’s a small package, but large in weight. It’s that unexpected arrival that gives A. J. Fikry the opportunity to make his life over, the ability to see everything anew. It doesn’t take long for the locals to notice the change overcoming A.J.; or for that determined sales rep, Amelia, to see her curmudgeonly client in a new light; or for the wisdom of all those books to become again the lifeblood of A.J.’s world; or for everything to twist again into a version of his life that he didn’t see coming. As surprising as it is moving, The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry is an unforgettable tale of transformation and second chances, an irresistible affirmation of why we read, and why we love.]]> 260 Gabrielle Zevin 1616203218 Laura 4 4.00 2014
author: Gabrielle Zevin
name: Laura
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2022/12/18
date added: 2023/01/21
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]]> 54493401
Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone.

Or does he?]]> 476 Andy Weir 0593135202 Laura 5 4.49 2021
author: Andy Weir
name: Laura
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/04
date added: 2023/01/04
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]]> 60148895 #1 New York Times bestselling author John Grisham is the acknowledged master of the legal thriller. In his first collection of novellas, law is a common thread, but America’s favorite storyteller has several surprises in store.

“Homecoming� takes us back to Ford County, the fictional setting of many of John Grisham’s unforgettable stories. Jake Brigance is back, but he’s not in the courtroom. He’s called upon to help an old friend, Mack Stafford, a former lawyer in Clanton, who three years earlier became a local legend when he stole money from his clients, divorced his wife, filed for bankruptcy, and left his family in the middle of the night, never to be heard from again—until now. Now Mack is back, and he’s leaning on his old pals, Jake and Harry Rex, to help him return. His homecoming does not go as planned.

In “Strawberry Moon,� we meet Cody Wallace, a young death row inmate only three hours away from execution. His lawyers can’t save him, the courts slam the door, and the governor says no to a last-minute request for clemency. As the clock winds down, Cody has one final request.

The “Sparring Partners� are the Malloy brothers, Kirk and Rusty, two successful young lawyers who inherited a once prosperous firm when its founder, their father, was sent to prison. Kirk and Rusty loathe each other, and speak to each other only when necessary. As the firm disintegrates, the resulting fiasco falls into the lap of Diantha Bradshaw, the only person the partners trust. Can she save the Malloys, or does she take a stand for the first time in her career and try to save herself?

By turns suspenseful, hilarious, powerful, and moving, these are three of the greatest stories John Grisham has ever told.]]> 320 John Grisham 0385549326 Laura 0 dnf 3.62 2022
author: John Grisham
name: Laura
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/12/26
shelves: dnf
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]]> 60890019
When a notorious cad is bludgeoned to death with a candlestick in the library at the most important ball of the London social season, Cleo finds herself in the prime position to solve the crime. After all, she stumbled across the body soon after the victim’s demise and is a witness to the evening’s events.

But when a footman is arrested with a stolen painting in his possession, she finds her services are not required. Yet several things don’t add up, and the lead detective is convinced the man he was forced to arrest isn’t guilty.

With the aid of Harry Armitage and her friends from the Mayfair Hotel, Cleo sets out to uncover the truth. They’re soon neck-deep in the scandalous secrets the victim unearthed about members of society. Secrets that could ruin marriages, reputations and futures if exposed.

But which secret is worth killing for? And which suspect is hiding the most explosive secret of all?]]> 325 C.J. Archer 1922554286 Laura 4 4.13 2022
author: C.J. Archer
name: Laura
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2022/12/20
date added: 2022/12/20
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]]> 59487466
With the social season just around the corner, the women in Cleo’s family are having new outfits made by the most sought-after designer in the city. Madame Poitiers is bold, self-absorbed and not French, despite her claims.

When Cleo stumbles on her dead body in the salon, she is in a unique position to gather clues and speak to witnesses. But she doesn’t expect to find Harry Armitage’s business card in Madame’s possession. What is the alluring private detective’s connection to the victim? And why is he avoiding Cleo?

As she peeks behind the veil of lies, Cleo uncovers the secrets Madame Poitiers tried to hide. But which secret led to her murder? And which one of the suspects turned the fashion icon into a fashion victim?]]> 248 C.J. Archer 1922554146 Laura 4 4.14 2022
author: C.J. Archer
name: Laura
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2022/11/30
date added: 2022/11/30
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]]> 55600878
Evie Thomas doesn't believe in love anymore. Especially after the strangest thing occurs one otherwise ordinary afternoon: She witnesses a couple kiss and is overcome with a vision of how their romance began . . . and how it will end. After all, even the greatest love stories end with a broken heart, eventually.

As Evie tries to understand why this is happening, she finds herself at La Brea Dance Studio, learning to waltz, fox-trot, and tango with a boy named X. X is everything that Evie is not: adventurous, passionate, daring. His philosophy is to say yes to everything--including entering a ballroom dance competition with a girl he's only just met.

Falling for X is definitely not what Evie had in mind. If her visions of heartbreak have taught her anything, it's that no one escapes love unscathed. But as she and X dance around and toward each other, Evie is forced to question all she thought she knew about life and love. In the end, is love worth the risk?]]> 304 Nicola Yoon Laura 0 3.96 2021
author: Nicola Yoon
name: Laura
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2022/11/23
date added: 2022/11/23
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]]> 832487 196 Robert Goldsborough 0553051237 Laura 3 3.79 1986
author: Robert Goldsborough
name: Laura
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1986
rating: 3
read at: 2022/11/19
date added: 2022/11/19
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]]> 9969571 Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

IN THE YEAR 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade's devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines, puzzles that are based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them.

But when Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's going to survive, he'll have to win—and confront the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.]]> 480 Ernest Cline 030788743X Laura 0 dnf 4.21 2011
author: Ernest Cline
name: Laura
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/11/18
shelves: dnf
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]]> 58025590
When Harry Armitage passes an investigation to Cleo involving adultery, they both think it will end in divorce. But when the client’s wife is found stabbed in her drawing room, it becomes clear that marital problems are only part of the story. Reluctantly joining forces, Cleo and Harry realize the wrong person was targeted, but the police think they have their killer and refuse to look elsewhere.

Taking on the investigation themselves, they peel back the lies and expose the sordid details of a marriage in tatters, and see firsthand how gossip and politics fuel the machinations of high society.

Meanwhile, at the Mayfair Hotel, expansion plans are on the menu, causing tensions to heat up in the kitchen between the chef and Cleo’s uncle. To make matters worse, Cleo’s family notices her spending less time at the hotel and more time investigating � and some members don’t like it.]]> 246 C.J. Archer 1922554065 Laura 4 4.06 2021
author: C.J. Archer
name: Laura
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2022/11/14
date added: 2022/11/14
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]]> 25845273
C.S. Lewis� The Great Divorce is a classic Christian allegorical tale about a bus ride from hell to heaven. An extraordinary meditation upon good and evil, grace and judgment, Lewis’s revolutionary idea in the The Great Divorce is that the gates of Hell are locked from the inside. Using his extraordinary descriptive powers, Lewis� The Great Divorce will change the way we think about good and evil.]]> 146 C.S. Lewis Laura 0 4.39 1946
author: C.S. Lewis
name: Laura
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1946
rating: 0
read at: 2022/11/11
date added: 2022/11/11
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review:

]]> 55878491
When a hotel guest’s mistress is found dead in the stalls of the Piccadilly Playhouse, a verdict of suicide is given. Convinced his lover didn’t kill herself, Lord Rumford wants the truth uncovered. Against his better judgement, he hires Cleo Fox to find the murderer. Cleo needs to solve this case if she wants to make a living from being a private detective.

But she quickly learns that the truth is buried beneath years of secrets; secrets that powerful people want desperately to keep. With the help of her friends from the Mayfair Hotel, Cleo exposes the bitter rivalry and jealousy of London’s West End.

But can she find the killer before the final curtain closes on the Playhouse?]]> 254 C.J. Archer 1922554073 Laura 4 3.98 2021
author: C.J. Archer
name: Laura
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2022/11/08
date added: 2022/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 57421836
On the cusp of the Second World War, four women went to Oxford to begin their studies: a fiercely brilliant Catholic convert; a daughter of privilege longing to escape her stifling upbringing; an ardent Communist and aspiring novelist with a list of would-be lovers as long as her arm; and a quiet, messy lover of newts and mice who would become a great public intellectual of our time. They became lifelong friends. At the time, only a handful of women had ever made lives in philosophy. But when Oxford's men were drafted in the war, everything changed.

As Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley, and Iris Murdoch labored to make a place for themselves in a male-dominated world, as they made friendships and families, and as they drifted toward and away from each other, they never stopped insisting that some lives are better than others. They argued that courage and discernment and justice--and love--are the heart of a good life.

This book presents the first sustained engagement with these women's contributions: with the critique and the alternative they framed. Drawing on a cluster of recently opened archives and extensive correspondence and interviews with those who knew them best, Benjamin Lipscomb traces the lives and ideas of four friends who gave us a better way to think about ethics, and ourselves.]]> 326 Benjamin J.B. Lipscomb 0197541070 Laura 5 4.21 2022
author: Benjamin J.B. Lipscomb
name: Laura
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2022/10/27
date added: 2022/10/29
shelves:
review:

]]> 60471573 Time) is back with a masterful collection that explores ideas of power, ethics, and justice, and cuts to the very heart of what it means to live in community with our fellow humans. With his trademark prose--wickedly funny, unsentimental, and perfectly tuned--Saunders continues to challenge and surprise: here is a collection of prismatic, deeply resonant stories that encompass joy and despair, oppression and revolution, bizarre fantasy and brutal reality.

Love Letter is a tender missive from grandfather to grandson, in the midst of a dystopian political situation in the not-too-distant future, that reminds us of our obligations to our ideals, ourselves, and each other. Ghoul is set in a Hell-themed section of an underground amusement park in Colorado, and follows the exploits of a lonely, morally complex character named Brian, who comes to question everything he takes for granted about his "reality." In Mother's Day, two women who loved the same man come to an existential reckoning in the middle of a hailstorm. And in Elliott Spencer, our eighty-nine-year-old protagonist finds himself brainwashed--his memory "scraped"--a victim of a scheme in which poor, vulnerable people are reprogrammed and deployed as political protesters.

Together, these nine subversive, profound, and essential stories coalesce into a case for viewing the world with the same generosity and clear-eyed attention as Saunders does, even in the most absurd of circumstances.]]> 256 George Saunders 0525509593 Laura 0 to-read 3.99 2022
author: George Saunders
name: Laura
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/10/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 13414676
Mary Anne Schwalbe is waiting for her chemotherapy treatments when Will casually asks her what she's reading. The conversation they have grows into tradition: soon they are reading the same books so they can have something to talk about in the hospital waiting room. The ones they choose range from classic to popular, from fantastic to spiritual, and we hear their passion for reading and their love for each other in their intimate and searching discussions.

A profoundly moving testament to the power of love between a child and parent, and the power of reading in our lives.]]> 336 Will Schwalbe 0307594033 Laura 3
As for the actual book, it was a meandering yet also somewhat repetitive memoir that alluded to deep things but only occasionally /went/ deep. I think someone who knows or knew these people in real life would really have appreciated having a lens into Will’s family, but as a reader it was a chore for me to care. So that’s not a great recommendation for a memoir. It took a long time to figure out specifics about Will and his brother and sister and father—careers, kids, personalities. I honestly had no idea what his father was like until 95% of the way through the book. If you’re writing a memoir about accompanying your mother on her journey with cancer, it would make sense to include some details about your father earlier on so we have a deeper understanding of your family. It felt like so much was glossed over, even though the themes of this book should have lent themselves to thoughtful reflection.

My predominant emotion when nearing the end was relief. Sadness, sure, as Mary Anne sounded like an amazing human and reading about anyone’s last days is bound to be hard. But this one was a slog, even for a book lover like me. 3 stars.]]> 3.80 2012
author: Will Schwalbe
name: Laura
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2022/10/10
date added: 2022/10/10
shelves:
review:
It took me nearly two months to read this book, although it probably would’ve been one if my library hold hadn’t expired in the middle. I did not love it. There were passages and ideas that resonated with me and I did find myself wishing I could know Will’s mother. It’s hard to know how much my “meh� feelings are related to the audiobook narration, which distinguished Will’s voice from his mother Mary Anne’s using a poncey, definitive tone for every single thing she said. It made her sound entitled and petulant, which was not in line with Will’s characterization of her at all.

As for the actual book, it was a meandering yet also somewhat repetitive memoir that alluded to deep things but only occasionally /went/ deep. I think someone who knows or knew these people in real life would really have appreciated having a lens into Will’s family, but as a reader it was a chore for me to care. So that’s not a great recommendation for a memoir. It took a long time to figure out specifics about Will and his brother and sister and father—careers, kids, personalities. I honestly had no idea what his father was like until 95% of the way through the book. If you’re writing a memoir about accompanying your mother on her journey with cancer, it would make sense to include some details about your father earlier on so we have a deeper understanding of your family. It felt like so much was glossed over, even though the themes of this book should have lent themselves to thoughtful reflection.

My predominant emotion when nearing the end was relief. Sadness, sure, as Mary Anne sounded like an amazing human and reading about anyone’s last days is bound to be hard. But this one was a slog, even for a book lover like me. 3 stars.
]]> 384597 Arcadia takes us back and forth between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, ranging over the nature of truth and time, the difference between the Classical and the Romantic temperament, and the disruptive influence of sex on our orbits in life. Focusing on the mysteries--romantic, scientific, literary--that engage the minds and hearts of characters whose passions and lives intersect across scientific planes and centuries, it is "Stoppard's richest, most ravishing comedy to date, a play of wit, intellect, language, brio and... emotion. It's like a dream of levitation: you're instantaneously aloft, soaring, banking, doing loop-the-loops and then, when you think you're about to plummet to earth, swooping to a gentle touchdown of not easily described sweetness and sorrow... Exhilarating" (Vincent Canby, The New York Times).]]> 144 Tom Stoppard 0571169341 Laura 5 loved-it, top-ten-books 4.13 1993
author: Tom Stoppard
name: Laura
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1993
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/10/09
shelves: loved-it, top-ten-books
review:

]]> 36449535
The Ruhar hit us on Columbus Day. There we were, innocently drifting along the cosmos on our little blue marble, like the native Americans in 1492. Over the horizon come ships of a technologically advanced, aggressive culture, and BAM! There go the good old days, when humans only got killed by each other. So, Columbus Day. It fits.Ěý

When the morning sky twinkled again, this time with Kristang starships jumping in to hammer the Ruhar, we thought we were saved. The UN Expeditionary Force hitched a ride on Kristang ships to fight the Ruhar, wherever our new allies thought we could be useful. So, I went from fighting with the US Army in Nigeria, to fighting in space. It was lies, all of it. We shouldn't even be fighting the Ruhar, they aren't our enemy, our allies are.Ěý

I'd better start at the beginning....]]> 299 Craig Alanson 1520126247 Laura 5 liked-it 4.25 2016
author: Craig Alanson
name: Laura
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2022/06/27
date added: 2022/10/09
shelves: liked-it
review:

]]> 153795
When Kel is chosen by the legendary Lord Raoul to be his squire, the conservatives of the realm hardly think she’s up to the job. Kel earns respect and admiration among the men, as well as the affection of a fellow squire.

“This feminist fantasy is a delightful read.”—KLIATT]]> 400 Tamora Pierce Laura 5 loved-it 4.29 2001
author: Tamora Pierce
name: Laura
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at: 2017/06/12
date added: 2022/10/09
shelves: loved-it
review:

]]> 11710373 And while Claire is terrified that one of her husbands may be about to murder the other, in the 20th century her descendants face even more desperate turns of events. Her daughter Brianna is trying to protect her son from a vicious criminal with murder on his mind, while her husband Roger has disappeared into the past . . .]]> 842 Diana Gabaldon 0385344430 Laura 5 top-ten-books, loved-it 4.51 2014
author: Diana Gabaldon
name: Laura
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2021/11/22
date added: 2022/10/09
shelves: top-ten-books, loved-it
review:
This must be among my favorites in the Outlander series. I enjoyed most of the plot lines in this book, which can’t be said for all of them, and I especially liked reading from Lord John and William’s perspectives. After the agony of book 7’s ending, I really appreciated the happy ending here. I could see myself re-reading this one down the line.
]]> 361459 NATIONAL BESTSELLER � A deeply powerful memoir about bipolar illness that has both transformed and saved lives—with a new preface by the author.

Dr. Jamison is one of the foremost authorities on manic-depressive (bipolar) illness; she has also experienced it firsthand. For even while she was pursuing her career in academic medicine, Jamison found herself succumbing to the same exhilarating highs and catastrophic depressions that afflicted many of her patients, as her disorder launched her into ruinous spending sprees, episodes of violence, and an attempted suicide.

Here Jamison examines bipolar illness from the dual perspectives of the healer and the healed, revealing both its terrors and the cruel allure that at times prompted her to resist taking medication.]]> 240 Kay Redfield Jamison 0679763309 Laura 5 top-ten-books, loved-it 4.06 1995
author: Kay Redfield Jamison
name: Laura
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1995
rating: 5
read at: 2020/04/29
date added: 2022/10/09
shelves: top-ten-books, loved-it
review:
One of my all-time favorite pieces of nonfiction, and the memoir I’ve re-read most often.
]]> 55559887 A budding dark sorceress determined not to use her formidable powers uncovers yet more secrets about the workings of her world in the stunning sequel to A Deadly Education, the start of Naomi Novik’s groundbreaking crossover series.

At the Scholomance, El, Orion, and the other students are faced with their final year—and the looming specter of graduation, a deadly ritual that leaves few students alive in its wake. El is determined that her chosen group will survive, but it is a prospect that is looking harder by the day as the savagery of the school ramps up. Until El realizes that sometimes winning the game means throwing out all the rules . . .]]> 388 Naomi Novik 0593128869 Laura 5 top-ten-books, loved-it
If I had one criticism of both books in the series so far, it’s that they can be a bit pedantic and preachy. “Show, don’t tell� is not a rule that is followed here. Sometimes it’s enough to jar you a little bit because of the length of internal monologues. However, it wasn’t annoying enough to me to knock the book down a star. I can’t tell you how long it’s been since I’ve finished a book and immediately wanted to read it again.

It’s hard to know we have to wait at least another year to find out what happens next (because yes, this book contains the typical terrible cliffhanger). I refuse to be held accountable for how many more times I will probably listen to the first two audiobooks between now and then.]]> 4.21 2021
author: Naomi Novik
name: Laura
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/11
date added: 2022/10/09
shelves: top-ten-books, loved-it
review:
I LOVED this book so much that I listened to it twice in the first few weeks after its release. Galadriel is a revelation as a heroine. I enjoy her snarky, sharp personality (as brought to life by Anisha Dadia in the audiobook) as much as anyone I’ve read about in years. This book, like the previous one, comes to life with a strange combination of realism and fantastical elements. How do I put into words what makes the story so delightful? Is it details like descriptions of hilariously cliche “side manifestations� that accompany the main character’s great magical workings, most of which were intended for use by an evil sorceress instead of a noble one? (Whirling smoke, eerie light, etc.) Is it the way we, like the heroine, come to understand how the Scholomance operates, only to realize we were totally wrong? Is it the handful of romances that develop in spite of characters� better judgment, which tells them that just staying alive is the most important thing?

If I had one criticism of both books in the series so far, it’s that they can be a bit pedantic and preachy. “Show, don’t tell� is not a rule that is followed here. Sometimes it’s enough to jar you a little bit because of the length of internal monologues. However, it wasn’t annoying enough to me to knock the book down a star. I can’t tell you how long it’s been since I’ve finished a book and immediately wanted to read it again.

It’s hard to know we have to wait at least another year to find out what happens next (because yes, this book contains the typical terrible cliffhanger). I refuse to be held accountable for how many more times I will probably listen to the first two audiobooks between now and then.
]]> 40595446 The never-before-told story of one woman's heroism that changed the course of the Second World War

In 1942, the Gestapo sent out an urgent transmission: "She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies. We must find and destroy her."

This spy was Virginia Hall, a young American woman--rejected from the foreign service because of her gender and her prosthetic leg--who talked her way into the spy organization deemed Churchill's "ministry of ungentlemanly warfare," and, before the United States had even entered the war, became the first woman to deploy to occupied France.

Virginia Hall was one of the greatest spies in American history, yet her story remains untold. Just as she did in Clementine, Sonia Purnell uncovers the captivating story of a powerful, influential, yet shockingly overlooked heroine of the Second World War. At a time when sending female secret agents into enemy territory was still strictly forbidden, Virginia Hall came to be known as the "Madonna of the Resistance," coordinating a network of spies to blow up bridges, report on German troop movements, arrange equipment drops for Resistance agents, and recruit and train guerilla fighters. Even as her face covered WANTED posters throughout Europe, Virginia refused order after order to evacuate. She finally escaped with her life in a grueling hike over the Pyrenees into Spain, her cover blown, and her associates all imprisoned or executed. But, adamant that she had "more lives to save," she dove back in as soon as she could, organizing forces to sabotage enemy lines and back up Allied forces landing on Normandy beaches. Told with Purnell's signature insight and novelistic flare, A Woman of No Importance is the breathtaking story of how one woman's fierce persistence helped win the war.]]> 352 Sonia Purnell 073522529X Laura 5 4.08 2019
author: Sonia Purnell
name: Laura
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2020/02/19
date added: 2022/10/09
shelves: loved-it, top-ten-books, read-to-learn
review:

]]> 6969 The newest edition is here. Another alternate cover can be found here.

Emma Woodhouse is one of Austen's most captivating and vivid characters. Beautiful, spoilt, vain and irrepressibly witty, Emma organizes the lives of the inhabitants of her sleepy little village and plays matchmaker with devastating effect.]]> 474 Jane Austen 0141439580 Laura 5 loved-it 4.05 1815
author: Jane Austen
name: Laura
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1815
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/10/09
shelves: loved-it
review:

]]> 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 Laura 5
I am in awe of Chanel and I hope everyone reads this book, especially those who tended to blame her for being attacked because she was drunk. This...may well be my favorite book of 2019.]]> 4.69 2019
author: Chanel Miller
name: Laura
average rating: 4.69
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2019/10/18
date added: 2022/10/09
shelves: loved-it, read-to-learn, top-ten-books
review:
Incredible. Beautifully written, emotionally moving but grounded in everyday moments and accessible metaphors. It took me weeks to finish because I would become so upset and cry sometimes. That is exactly what should happen when reading a book like this.

I am in awe of Chanel and I hope everyone reads this book, especially those who tended to blame her for being attacked because she was drunk. This...may well be my favorite book of 2019.
]]> 40961621 King Leopold's Ghost is the haunting account of a megalomaniac of monstrous proportions, a man as cunning, charming, and cruel as any of the great Shakespearean villains. It is also the deeply moving portrait of those who fought Leopold: a brave handful of missionaries, travelers, and young idealists who went to Africa for work or adventure and unexpectedly found themselves witnesses to a holocaust. Adam Hochschild brings this largely untold story alive with the wit and skill of a Barbara Tuchman. Like her, he knows that history often provides a far richer cast of characters than any novelist could invent. Chief among them is Edmund Morel, a young British shipping agent who went on to lead the international crusade against Leopold. Another hero of this tale, the Irish patriot Roger Casement, ended his life on a London gallows. Two courageous black Americans, George Washington Williams and William Sheppard, risked much to bring evidence of the Congo atrocities to the outside world. Sailing into the middle of the story was a young Congo River steamboat officer named Joseph Conrad. And looming above them all, the duplicitous billionaire King Leopold II. With great power and compassion, King Leopold's Ghost will brand the tragedy of the Congo--too long forgotten--onto the conscience of the West]]> 442 Adam Hochschild Laura 5 read-to-learn
Vastly informative and at times difficult to read owing to the horrific nature of the content, King Leopold’s Ghost lays out the origins of colonialism in the Congo, the rubber terror, and the changes that were (or weren’t) made when the Belgian king was finally forced to sell “his� territory. The intricacies of Leopold’s schemes to discover, dominate, and extract labor from central Africa probably should not have surprised me, but they did.

I don’t know much African history, but if every book about its nations and territories were written like this one, I would read them all. This was a well-researched piece of nonfiction with a full cast of characters. It took me about two months to read (I read about 1/4 of it and listened to the remaining 3/4 on Audible) because I had to take it in doses. Some of the atrocities described are too awful for words. It is utterly remarkable and very sad to me that I had never heard of the terror inflicted on the Congo in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries before a friend recommended this. The Western world condemns Hitler, and rightly so—but Leopold was just as bad.]]> 4.16 1998
author: Adam Hochschild
name: Laura
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at: 2020/12/30
date added: 2022/10/09
shelves: read-to-learn
review:
Probably one of the best books I read this year.

Vastly informative and at times difficult to read owing to the horrific nature of the content, King Leopold’s Ghost lays out the origins of colonialism in the Congo, the rubber terror, and the changes that were (or weren’t) made when the Belgian king was finally forced to sell “his� territory. The intricacies of Leopold’s schemes to discover, dominate, and extract labor from central Africa probably should not have surprised me, but they did.

I don’t know much African history, but if every book about its nations and territories were written like this one, I would read them all. This was a well-researched piece of nonfiction with a full cast of characters. It took me about two months to read (I read about 1/4 of it and listened to the remaining 3/4 on Audible) because I had to take it in doses. Some of the atrocities described are too awful for words. It is utterly remarkable and very sad to me that I had never heard of the terror inflicted on the Congo in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries before a friend recommended this. The Western world condemns Hitler, and rightly so—but Leopold was just as bad.
]]> 12417679 202 James H. Cone 1570759375 Laura 4 read-to-learn 4.49 2011
author: James H. Cone
name: Laura
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2020/12/31
date added: 2022/10/09
shelves: read-to-learn
review:

]]> 34066798 The mega-bestseller with more than 2 million readers—Now a Paramount+ with Showtime series starring Ewan McGregor as Count Alexander Rostov

From the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway and Rules of Civility, a beautifully transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel

In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery.

Brimming with humor, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the count’s endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose.]]> 462 Amor Towles Laura 4 liked-it 4.28 2016
author: Amor Towles
name: Laura
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2020/04/21
date added: 2022/10/09
shelves: liked-it
review:

]]> 55858638 New York Times bestselling trilogy that began with A Deadly Education and The Last Graduate.

The one thing you never talk about while you're in the Scholomance is what you'll do when you get out. Not even the richest enclaver would tempt fate that way. But it's all we dream about, the hideously slim chance we'll survive to make it out the gates and improbably find ourselves with a life ahead of us, a life outside the Scholomance halls.

And now the impossible dream has come true. I'm out, we're all out--and I didn't even have to turn into a monstrous dark witch to make it happen. So much for my great-grandmother's prophecy of doom and destruction. I didn't kill enclavers, I saved them. Me, and Orion, and our allies. Our graduation plan worked to perfection: we saved everyone and made the world safe for all wizards and brought peace and harmony to all the enclaves of the world.

Ha, only joking! Actually it's gone all wrong. Someone else has picked up the project of destroying enclaves in my stead, and probably everyone we saved is about to get killed in the brewing enclave war on the horizon. And the first thing I've got to do now, having miraculously got out of the Scholomance, is turn straight around and find a way back in.]]> 407 Naomi Novik 0593158369 Laura 5 4.08 2022
author: Naomi Novik
name: Laura
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/14
date added: 2022/10/01
shelves:
review:
Yes, a full 5 stars for this one. Naomi Novik peels back each layer of this world’s onion so deftly that we think we have finally FIGURED OUT the reasoning behind this or that occurrence, just to realize that may be true, but there is something else even more complex (and possibly horrifying) also going on. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a schema of magic as convincing as the one offered here. If you’ve read other fantasy books and found yourself asking where power comes from, and why some people have more of it or different types of it than others, and you are frustrated that it all seems random, read the Scholomance books. You’ll find the logic you crave and also so many delightful characters. You may not agree with all of their choices, but you will laugh and cry and seethe and shriek with them.
]]> 4325 There is an alternate cover edition for this ISBN13 here.

Wake up, Caitlin

Ever since she started going out with Rogerson Biscoe, Caitlin seems to have fallen into a semiconscious dreamland where nothing is quite real. Rogerson is different from anyone Caitlin has ever known. He's magnetic. He's compelling. He's dangerous. Being with him makes Caitlin forget about everything else—her missing sister, her withdrawn mother, her lackluster life. But what happens when being with Rogerson becomes a larger problem than being without him?]]> 260 Sarah Dessen 0142401757 Laura 4 loved-it 3.91 2000
author: Sarah Dessen
name: Laura
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 2017/12/03
date added: 2022/09/29
shelves: loved-it
review:
I’ve re-read Dreamland more than any other Sarah Dessen book. It’s one of the few I still own. I loved it when I was a teenager and I still do. The younger, rule-following, people-pleasing me found it strangely freeing to imagine being Caitlin, a girl whose family relationships are falling to pieces, whose schoolwork isn’t getting done because she’s more interested in her new boyfriend, and who is discovering that drugs helpfully prevent her from feeling at all. Caitlin’s slow slide into wreckage is believable and even intriguing. Certain scenes are just so well written, like the part where Caitlin’s parents realize their daughter is in an abusive relationship. The book ends on a hopeful note but really plumbs the depths to get there.
]]> 44890112 New York Times bestselling author Nathan W. Pyle comes an adorable and profound universe in pink, blue, green, and purple. Based on the phenomenally popular Instagram of the same name, Strange Planet covers a full life cycle of the planet’s inhabitants, including milestones such as:

The Emergence Day
Being Gains a Sibling
The Being Family Attains a Beast
The Formal Education of a Being
Celebration of Special Days
Being Begins a Vocation
The Beings at Home
Health Status of a Being
The Hobbies of a Being
The Extended Family of the Being
The Being Reflects on Life While Watching the Planet Rotate

With dozens of never-before-seen illustrations in addition to old favorites, this book offers a sweet and hilarious look at a distant world not so unlike our own.]]> 144 Nathan W. Pyle 0062970704 Laura 5 4.32 2019
author: Nathan W. Pyle
name: Laura
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/09/29
shelves:
review:

]]> 929
In "Memoirs of a Geisha," we enter a world where appearances are paramount; where a girl's virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder; where women are trained to beguile the most powerful men; and where love is scorned as illusion. It is a unique and triumphant work of fiction - at once romantic, erotic, suspenseful - and completely unforgettable.]]> 503 Arthur Golden 1400096898 Laura 5 loved-it 4.31 1997
author: Arthur Golden
name: Laura
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/09/29
shelves: loved-it
review:

]]> 40401975 Monsters, manners, and magic combine in this exciting final volume in the Heartstone Trilogy--an exhilarating blend of epic fantasy and Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice--in which a fearless healer and her dragon-riding husband must stop a reawakened evil from destroying their world.

It starts with the inconceivable: Wydrick, sworn enemy of the Daireds, is back from the dead, possessed by a ghast that grants him immortality and inhuman strength. From the isolated northern mountains, Aliza, Alastair, and Akarra chase him into the dangerous Old Wilds, realizing too late that he's led them into a blizzard. Before he vanishes, Wydrick utters a warning: A terrible, ancient evil has awoken, hungry for blood, and is headed their way.

The danger is closer than they know. The Tekari--sworn enemies of humans--are openly roaming the kingdom and are headed towards the capital, Edonarle. Then unexpected news arrives: riding like a dark dragon on the winds from the south, an ambassador from the Silent King of Els, has left the shores of the distant desert kingdom for the first time in centuries.

Unknown enemy? Or unexpected ally? Plunged into a dangerous world of royal intrigue and ancient grudges, Aliza and Alastair soon realize it will take more than steel and dragonfire to save their kingdom. For the silence of Els hides a secret that could shake House Daired to its foundations, and the time has come to settle accounts.

Silence, it seems, is about to be broken.]]> 352 Elle Katharine White 0062747991 Laura 3 3.72 2019
author: Elle Katharine White
name: Laura
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2020/01/27
date added: 2022/09/27
shelves:
review:

]]> 53129487 A story about a girl who is alienated by her friends . . . for believing in aliens.

Sometimes middle school can make you feel like you're totally alone in the universe...but what if we aren't alone at all?

Mallory Moss knows how the world works. After meeting the cool girl, Reagan, she finally has a best friend, and Reagan makes Mallory feel like she belongs, like she can fit in this infinite universe, as long as she follows Reagan’s simple rules: wear the right clothes, control your image, know your place.

But when Jennifer Chan moves into the house across the street, those rules don’t feel quite so simple anymore. Because Jennifer is different. She doesn’t seem to care about the laws of middle school, or the laws of the universe. She’s willing to embrace the strange, the unknown� the extraterrestrial. She believes in aliens—and what’s more, she thinks she can find them.

Then Jennifer goes missing. The adults say she ran away…but where is she going? And why? Using clues in Jennifer’s journals about alien encounters, Mallory attempts to find her. But the closer she gets, the more Mallory has to confront why Jennifer might have run � and face the truth within herself.]]> 277 Tae Keller Laura 0 to-read 4.14 2022
author: Tae Keller
name: Laura
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/09/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 54595827 It was the most fashionable place to stay in London, until murder made a reservation. Solve the puzzle in this new cozy historical mystery from USA Today bestselling author of the Glass and Steele series. December 1899. After the death of her beloved grandmother, Cleopatra Fox moves into the luxury hotel owned by her estranged uncle in the hopes of putting hardship and loneliness behind her. But the poisoning of a guest on Christmas Eve throws her new life, and the hotel, into chaos.Cleo quickly realizes no one can be trusted, not Scotland Yard and especially not the hotel’s charming assistant manager. With the New Year’s Eve ball approaching fast and the hotel’s reputation hanging by a thread, Cleo must find the killer before the ball, and the hotel itself, are ruined. But catching a murderer proves just as difficult as navigating the hotel’s hierarchy and the peculiarities of her family.Can Cleo find the killer before the new century begins? Or will someone get away with murder?]]> 395 C.J. Archer Laura 3 3.87 2020
author: C.J. Archer
name: Laura
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2022/09/24
date added: 2022/09/24
shelves:
review:
A fun, straightforward murder mystery that generally manages to avoid being simplistic. I enjoyed the main characters and may read the next one!
]]> 59756995 Listening Length: 32 hours and 42 minutes

The latest installment in the highly acclaimed, internationally bestselling Strike series finds Cormoran and Robin ensnared in another winding, wicked case.

When frantic, dishevelled Edie Ledwell appears in the office begging to speak to her, private detective Robin Ellacott doesn't know quite what to make of the situation. The co-creator of a popular cartoon, The Ink Black Heart, Edie is being persecuted by a mysterious online figure who goes by the pseudonym of Anomie. Edie is desperate to uncover Anomie's true identity.

Robin decides that the agency can't help with this - and thinks nothing more of it until a few days later, when she reads the shocking news that Edie has been tasered and then murdered in Highgate Cemetery, the location of The Ink Black Heart.

Robin and her business partner Cormoran Strike become drawn into the quest to uncover Anomie's true identity. But with a complex web of online aliases, business interests and family conflicts to navigate, Strike and Robin find themselves embroiled in a case that stretches their powers of deduction to the limits - and which threatens them in new and horrifying ways . . .

A gripping, fiendishly clever mystery, The Ink Black Heart is a true tour-de-force.]]> 1391 Robert Galbraith Laura 0 4.09 2022
author: Robert Galbraith
name: Laura
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2022/09/15
date added: 2022/09/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 56803179 In every person's story, there is something to hide...

The ornate reading room at the Boston Public Library is quiet, until the tranquility is shattered by a woman's terrified scream. Security guards take charge immediately, instructing everyone inside to stay put until the threat is identified and contained. While they wait for the all-clear, four strangers, who'd happened to sit at the same table, pass the time in conversation and friendships are struck. Each has his or her own reasons for being in the reading room that morning—it just happens that one is a murderer.

Award-winning author Sulari Gentill delivers a sharply thrilling read with The Woman in the Library, an unexpectedly twisty literary adventure that examines the complicated nature of friendship and shows us that words can be the most treacherous weapons of all.]]> 292 Sulari Gentill Laura 0 to-read 3.46 2022
author: Sulari Gentill
name: Laura
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/09/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 15753740
Sage Singer is a baker. She works through the night, preparing the day’s breads and pastries, trying to escape a reality of loneliness, bad memories, and the shadow of her mother’s death. When Josef Weber, an elderly man in Sage’s grief support group, begins stopping by the bakery, they strike up an unlikely friendship. Despite their differences, they see in each other the hidden scars that others can’t, and they become companions.

Everything changes on the day that Josef confesses a long-buried and shameful secret—one that nobody else in town would ever suspect—and asks Sage for an extraordinary favor. If she says yes, she faces not only moral repercussions, but potentially legal ones as well. With her own identity suddenly challenged, and the integrity of the closest friend she’s ever had clouded, Sage begins to question the assumptions and expectations she’s made about her life and her family. When does a moral choice become a moral imperative? And where does one draw the line between punishment and justice, forgiveness and mercy?

In this searingly honest novel, Jodi Picoult gracefully explores the lengths we will go in order to protect our families and to keep the past from dictating the future]]> 461 Jodi Picoult 1439102767 Laura 4 liked-it 4.28 2013
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Laura
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2022/06/22
date added: 2022/08/30
shelves: liked-it
review:

]]> 30342581 277 Craig Alanson Laura 3 4.25 2016
author: Craig Alanson
name: Laura
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2022/07/22
date added: 2022/08/30
shelves:
review:
Meh. A fun, frivolous audiobook without staying power. Would not have made it to the end without someone acting it out, but I did laugh along and enjoy the plot as I was driving to and from work. 2.5 stars.
]]> 2069427 Garrett G. Fagan 156585327X Laura 0 currently-reading 4.23 1999
author: Garrett G. Fagan
name: Laura
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/07/24
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 43868109 The highly anticipated portrait of three generations of the Sackler family, by the prize-winning, bestselling author of Say Nothing.

The Sackler name adorns the walls of many storied institutions: Harvard, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oxford, the Louvre. They are one of the richest families in the world, known for their lavish donations to the arts and sciences. The source of the family fortune was vague, however, until it emerged that the Sacklers were responsible for making and marketing OxyContin, a blockbuster painkiller that was a catalyst for the opioid crisis.

Empire of Pain is a masterpiece of narrative reporting and writing, exhaustively documented and ferociously compelling.]]> 535 Patrick Radden Keefe 0385545681 Laura 5 read-to-learn 4.54 2021
author: Patrick Radden Keefe
name: Laura
average rating: 4.54
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2022/04/07
date added: 2022/07/21
shelves: read-to-learn
review:

]]> 58690308 One summer. Two rivals. A plot twist they didn't see coming....

Nora Stephens� life is books—she’s read them all—and she is not that type of heroine. Not the plucky one, not the laidback dream girl, and especially not the sweetheart. In fact, the only people Nora is a heroine for are her clients, for whom she lands enormous deals as a cutthroat literary agent, and her beloved little sister Libby.

Which is why she agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August when Libby begs her for a sisters� trip away—with visions of a small-town transformation for Nora, who she’s convinced needs to become the heroine in her own story. But instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor from back in the city. It would be a meet-cute if not for the fact that they’ve met many times and it’s never been cute.

If Nora knows she’s not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he’s nobody’s hero, but as they are thrown together again and again—in a series of coincidences no editor worth their salt would allow—what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they’ve written about themselves.]]> 377 Emily Henry 0593334833 Laura 5 loved-it
This is the strongest of Emily Henry’s current novels, the others being Beach Read and People We Meet On Vacation. The characters are believable, their flaws are real, and the romance at the center of the story is a nice break from the “opposites attract� trope. As someone fascinated by book publishing and the editing process, I also loved the industry-related details sprinkled throughout. And there are some wonderful one-liners in this novel that made me think.

Did I see some of the “twists� in this story coming? Sure, but that didn’t make the payoffs less satisfying. I’d recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a light but emotionally intelligent romance and who isn’t bothered by a bit of bad language and explicit content.]]> 4.09 2022
author: Emily Henry
name: Laura
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2022/07/18
date added: 2022/07/21
shelves: loved-it
review:
I burned through this book just about as fast as any I’ve read…until I got 10% away from the end, when I began dithering because I didn’t want it to be over. One of the characters in Book Lovers confesses that there are final chapters in favorite books that he’s never read because he always wants to leave open the possibility of more. I can’t say I have that kind of self-control but I certainly understand the impulse to make a good story last.

This is the strongest of Emily Henry’s current novels, the others being Beach Read and People We Meet On Vacation. The characters are believable, their flaws are real, and the romance at the center of the story is a nice break from the “opposites attract� trope. As someone fascinated by book publishing and the editing process, I also loved the industry-related details sprinkled throughout. And there are some wonderful one-liners in this novel that made me think.

Did I see some of the “twists� in this story coming? Sure, but that didn’t make the payoffs less satisfying. I’d recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a light but emotionally intelligent romance and who isn’t bothered by a bit of bad language and explicit content.
]]> 54985743 Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.

Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.

Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since.

Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.

Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?]]> 400 Emily Henry 1984806750 Laura 4 3.85 2021
author: Emily Henry
name: Laura
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2022/07/10
date added: 2022/07/10
shelves:
review:

]]> 4865
Since its release in 1936, How to Win Friends and Influence People has sold more than 30 million copies. Dale Carnegie's first book is a timeless bestseller, packed with rock-solid advice that has carried thousands of now famous people up the ladder of success in their business and personal lives.

As relevant as ever before, Dale Carnegie's principles endure, and will help you achieve your maximum potential in the complex and competitive modern age.

Learn the six ways to make people like you, the twelve ways to win people to your way of thinking, and the nine ways to change people without arousing resentment.]]> 288 Dale Carnegie Laura 0 to-read 4.22 1936
author: Dale Carnegie
name: Laura
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1936
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/07/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 147843
The Riders are an elite messenger corps using both horses and magic; the message is a terrible warning. Bad things from bad places are invading this fantasyland, their presence being only part of a devious, sorcery-aided human struggle for the throne. Karigan's wild ride is beset by a variety of enemies, but aided by her own developing talents plus certain strange allies.

These include the tormented ghost of the dead Green Rider himself--still pierced by and trying to resist the chief villain's black arrows that ensnare the soul. Delivering the message to a suspicious court is only half Karigan's job: can it be interpreted in time?]]> 471 Kristen Britain 0886778581 Laura 5 top-ten-books, loved-it 4.08 1998
author: Kristen Britain
name: Laura
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at: 2021/10/17
date added: 2022/07/06
shelves: top-ten-books, loved-it
review:

]]> 31173 Villette, Charlotte Brontë reached the height of her artistic power. First published in 1853, Villette is Brontë's most accomplished and deeply felt work, eclipsing even Jane Eyre in critical acclaim. Her narrator, the autobiographical Lucy Snowe, flees England and a tragic past to become an instructor in a French boarding school in the town of Villette. There she unexpectedly confronts her feelings of love and longing as she witnesses the fitful romance between Dr. John, a handsome young Englishman, and Ginerva Fanshawe, a beautiful coquette. The first pain brings others, and with them comes the heartache Lucy has tried so long to escape. Yet in spite of adversity and disappointment, Lucy Snowe survives to recount the unstinting vision of a turbulent life's journey - a journey that is one of the most insightful fictional studies of a woman's consciousness in English literature.]]> 573 Charlotte Brontë Laura 5 loved-it 3.78 1853
author: Charlotte Brontë
name: Laura
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1853
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/07/06
shelves: loved-it
review:

]]> 186074
The intimate narrative of his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, his years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-ridden city, his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a legendary school of magic, and his life as a fugitive after the murder of a king form a gripping coming-of-age story unrivaled in recent literature.

A high-action story written with a poet's hand, The Name of the Wind is a masterpiece that will transport readers into the body and mind of a wizard.]]> 662 Patrick Rothfuss 075640407X Laura 5 loved-it 4.52 2007
author: Patrick Rothfuss
name: Laura
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 2018/04/02
date added: 2022/07/06
shelves: loved-it
review:

]]> 40538681
Chernobyl has become lodged in the collective nightmares of the world: shorthand for the spectral horrors of radiation poisoning, for a dangerous technology slipping its leash, for ecological fragility, and for what can happen when a dishonest and careless state endangers not only its own citizens, but all of humanity. It is a story that has long remained in dispute, clouded from the beginning in secrecy, propaganda, and misinformation.

Midnight In Chernobyl is an indelible portrait of history's worst nuclear disaster, of human resilience and ingenuity and the lessons learned when mankind seeks to bend the natural world to his will - lessons which, in the face of climate change and other threats - remain not just vital but necessary.

Now, Higginbotham brings us closer to the truth behind this colossal tragedy.]]> 538 Adam Higginbotham 1501134612 Laura 4 read-to-learn 4.35 2019
author: Adam Higginbotham
name: Laura
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2021/02/13
date added: 2022/07/06
shelves: read-to-learn
review:

]]> 2199 Winner of the Lincoln Prize

Acclaimed historian Doris Kearns Goodwin illuminates Lincoln's political genius in this highly original work, as the one-term congressman and prairie lawyer rises from obscurity to prevail over three gifted rivals of national reputation to become president.

On May 18, 1860, William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates, and Abraham Lincoln waited in their hometowns for the results from the Republican National Convention in Chicago. When Lincoln emerged as the victor, his rivals were dismayed and angry.

Throughout the turbulent 1850s, each had energetically sought the presidency as the conflict over slavery was leading inexorably to secession and civil war. That Lincoln succeeded, Goodwin demonstrates, was the result of a character that had been forged by experiences that raised him above his more privileged and accomplished rivals. He won because he possessed an extraordinary ability to put himself in the place of other men, to experience what they were feeling, to understand their motives and desires.

It was this capacity that enabled Lincoln as president to bring his disgruntled opponents together, create the most unusual cabinet in history, and marshal their talents to the task of preserving the Union and winning the war.

We view the long, horrifying struggle from the vantage of the White House as Lincoln copes with incompetent generals, hostile congressmen, and his raucous cabinet. He overcomes these obstacles by winning the respect of his former competitors, and in the case of Seward, finds a loyal and crucial friend to see him through.

This brilliant multiple biography is centered on Lincoln's mastery of men and how it shaped the most significant presidency in the nation's history.]]> 916 Doris Kearns Goodwin Laura 5 read-to-learn, loved-it 4.27 2005
author: Doris Kearns Goodwin
name: Laura
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at: 2018/03/05
date added: 2022/07/06
shelves: read-to-learn, loved-it
review:

]]> 49041 There is an alternate cover edition for ISBN13 9780316160193 here.

I knew we were both in mortal danger. Still, in that instant, I felt well. Whole. I could feel my heart racing in my chest, the blood pulsing hot and fast through my veins again. My lungs filled deep with the sweet scent that came off his skin. It was like there had never been any hole in my chest. I was perfect - not healed, but as if there had never been a wound in the first place.

I FELT LIKE I WAS TRAPPED IN ONE OF THOSE TERRIFYING NIGHTMARES, the one where you have to run, run till your lungs burst, but you can't make your body move fast enough.... But this was no dream, and, unlike the nightmare, I wasn't running for my life; I was racing to save something infinitely more precious. My own life meant little to me today.

FOR BELLA SWAN THERE IS ONE THING more important than life itself: Edward Cullen. But being in love with a vampire is even more dangerous than Bella could ever have imagined. Edward has already rescued Bella from the clutches of one evil vampire, but now, as their daring relationship threatens all that is near and dear to them, they realize their troubles may be just beginning....

LEGIONS OF READERS ENTRANCED BY THE New York Times bestseller Twilight are hungry for the continuing story of star-crossed lovers Bell and Edward. In New Moon, Stephanie Meyer delivers another irresistible combination of romance and suspense with a supernatural spin. passionate, riveting, and full of surprising twists and turns, this vampire love saga is well on its way to literary immortality.]]> 563 Stephenie Meyer 0316160199 Laura 0 dnf 3.61 2006
author: Stephenie Meyer
name: Laura
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/07/06
shelves: dnf
review:

]]> 29056083
It was always difficult being Harry Potter, and it isn't much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband, and a father of three school-age children.

While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son, Albus, must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.

Based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany, a new play by Jack Thorne, "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" is the complete and official playscript of the original, award-winning West End production. This updated edition includes the final dialogue and stage directions, a conversation piece between director John Tiffany and playwright Jack Thorne, the Potter family tree, and a timeline of events in the wizarding world leading up to "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child."]]> 343 J.K. Rowling 0540027340 Laura 2 wouldn-t-read-again 3.42 2016
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Laura
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2016
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2022/07/06
shelves: wouldn-t-read-again
review:

]]> 136251
In this final, seventh installment of the Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling unveils in spectacular fashion the answers to the many questions that have been so eagerly awaited.]]> 759 J.K. Rowling Laura 5 loved-it, top-ten-books 4.61 2007
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Laura
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 2019/11/07
date added: 2022/07/06
shelves: loved-it, top-ten-books
review:

]]> 21060 Battle on and off the field, with sword and fan, with might and manners...

It begins in a cold and shabby tower room, where young Countess Meliara swears to her dying father that she and her brother will defend their people from the growing greed of the king. That promise leads them into a war for which they are ill prepared, a war that threatens the homes and lives of the very people they are trying to protect.

But war is simple compared to what follows, when the bloody fighting is done and a fragile peace is at hand. Although she wants to turn her back on politics and the crown, Meliara is summoned to the royal palace. There, she soon discovers, friends and enemies look alike, and intrigue fills the dance halls and the drawing rooms. If she is to survive, Meliara must learn a whole new way of fighting--with wit and words and secret alliances. In war, at least, she knew whom she could trust. Now she can trust no one.

The Firebird edition of Crown Duel combines the hardcover editions of Crown Duel and Court Duel-and features a never-before-published story by Sherwood Smith!]]> 471 Sherwood Smith 0142301515 Laura 5 loved-it, top-ten-books 4.19 2002
author: Sherwood Smith
name: Laura
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2002
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/07/06
shelves: loved-it, top-ten-books
review:

]]> 35133922
Her father forbade hospitals, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at home with herbalism. The family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education and no one to intervene when one of Tara's older brothers became violent.

Then, lacking any formal education, Tara began to educate herself. She taught herself enough mathematics and grammar to be admitted to Brigham Young University, where she studied history, learning for the first time about important world events like the Holocaust and the civil rights movement. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge. Only then would she wonder if she'd traveled too far, if there was still a way home.

Educated is an account of the struggle for self-invention. It is a tale of fierce family loyalty and of the grief that comes with severing the closest of ties. With the acute insight that distinguishes all great writers, Westover has crafted a universal coming-of-age story that gets to the heart of what an education is and what it offers: the perspective to see one's life through new eyes and the will to change it.]]> 352 Tara Westover 0399590501 Laura 5 4.46 2018
author: Tara Westover
name: Laura
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2018/05/18
date added: 2022/07/06
shelves: loved-it, read-to-learn, top-ten-books
review:
Completely riveting. I listened to this as an an audiobook and I’d frequently find myself lingering in the car several minutes after arriving at my destination, mouth open, stunned or frustrated or enthralled on Tara’s behalf. Highly recommended.
]]> 42366217
Journalist Billy Jensen spent fifteen years investigating unsolved murders, fighting for the families of victims. Every story he wrote had one thing in common―they didn't have an ending. The killer was still out there.

But after the sudden death of a friend, crime writer and author of I'll Be Gone in the Dark, Michelle McNamara, Billy became fed up. Following a dark night, he came up with a plan. A plan to investigate past the point when the cops had given up. A plan to solve the murders himself.

You'll ride shotgun as Billy identifies the Halloween Mask Murderer, finds a missing girl in the California Redwoods, and investigates the only other murder in New York City on 9/11. You'll hear intimate details of the hunts for two of the most terrifying serial killers in history: his friend Michelle McNamara's pursuit of the Golden State Killer and his own quest to find the murderer of the Allenstown Four. And Billy gives you the tools―and the rules―to help solve murders yourself.

Gripping, complex, unforgettable, Chase Darkness with Me is an examination of the evil forces that walk among us, illustrating a novel way to catch those killers, and a true-crime narrative unlike any you've read before.]]> 336 Billy Jensen 1492685852 Laura 3 wouldn-t-read-again 4.06 2019
author: Billy Jensen
name: Laura
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2019/05/19
date added: 2022/07/06
shelves: wouldn-t-read-again
review:
This was a good book, but years later I am still disturbed by details I learned while reading it. Be careful if you’re sensitive. Otherwise, enjoy.
]]> 22544764 “Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.�

Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.

Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood.

The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows�everyone knows—that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her.

But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.]]> 438 Naomi Novik 0804179034 Laura 5 liked-it 4.02 2015
author: Naomi Novik
name: Laura
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2018/11/18
date added: 2022/07/06
shelves: liked-it
review:

]]> 7869 Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here

Who is Jason Bourne? Is he an assassin, a terrorist, a thief? Why has he got four million dollars in a Swiss bank account? Why has someone tried to murder him?...

Jason Bourne does not know the answer to any of these questions. Suffering from amnesia, he does not even know that he is Jason Bourne. What manner of man is he? What are his secrets? Who has he killed?]]> 566 Robert Ludlum 0752864327 Laura 2 wouldn-t-read-again 4.06 1980
author: Robert Ludlum
name: Laura
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1980
rating: 2
read at: 2017/12/31
date added: 2022/07/06
shelves: wouldn-t-read-again
review:
As many other reviews say, the movie is almost entirely different from the book. I listened to the audiobook version of the story and I’ll be honest—I was ready for the story to wrap up about seven hours before it did (the book is around 20 hours). Ludlum’s writing style includes a lot of repetitive phrases that make up Bourne’s interior monologue, and it got tiring. The book had me in suspense but it was difficult to be very excited about the fact by the end, since Bourne’s whole experience was so harrowing.
]]> 52867387 A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.

Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast.

They’re polar opposites.

In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they’re living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer’s block.

Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She’ll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he’ll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no-one will fall in love. Really.]]> 400 Emily Henry 1984806734 Laura 4 liked-it 3.99 2020
author: Emily Henry
name: Laura
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2020/05/29
date added: 2022/07/06
shelves: liked-it
review:

]]> 18746776 The long-awaited sequel to the genre-breaking Akata Witch by multiple award-winner Nnedi Okorafor!

A year ago, Sunny Nwazue, an American-born girl Nigerian girl, was inducted into the secret Leopard Society. As she began to develop her magical powers, Sunny learned that she had been chosen to lead a dangerous mission to avert an apocalypse, brought about by the terrifying masquerade, Ekwensu. Now, stronger, feistier, and a bit older, Sunny is studying with her mentor Sugar Cream and struggling to unlock the secrets in her strange Nsibidi book.

Eventually, Sunny knows she must confront her destiny. With the support of her Leopard Society friends, Orlu, Chichi, and Sasha, and of her spirit face, Anyanwu, she will travel through worlds both visible and invisible to the mysteries town of Osisi, where she will fight a climactic battle to save humanity.

Much-honored Nnedi Okorafor, winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy awards, merges today’s Nigeria with a unique world she creates. Akata Warrior blends mythology, fantasy, history and magic into a compelling tale that will keep readers spellbound.]]> 496 Nnedi Okorafor 1101598980 Laura 4 loved-it 4.23 2017
author: Nnedi Okorafor
name: Laura
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2020/09/01
date added: 2022/07/06
shelves: loved-it
review:

]]> 25735012 Cormoran Strike is back, with his assistant Robin Ellacott, in a mystery based around soldiers returning from war.

When a mysterious package is delivered to Robin Ellacott, she is horrified to discover that it contains a woman’s severed leg.

Her boss, private detective Cormoran Strike, is less surprised but no less alarmed. There are four people from his past who he thinks could be responsible � and Strike knows that any one of them is capable of sustained and unspeakable brutality.

With the police focusing on the one suspect Strike is increasingly sure is not the perpetrator, he and Robin take matters into their own hands, and delve into the dark and twisted worlds of the other three men. But as more horrendous acts occur, time is running out for the two of them�

Career of Evil is the third in the series featuring private detective Cormoran Strike and his assistant Robin Ellacott. A mystery and also a story of a man and a woman at a crossroads in their personal and professional lives.]]> 512 Robert Galbraith 0316349933 Laura 4 4.18 2015
author: Robert Galbraith
name: Laura
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2018/08/25
date added: 2022/07/06
shelves:
review:
Pedophiles, grisly murders, splintered relationships—if you can’t stomach these things (and I’ll admit to cringing and wrinkling my nose throughout the reading of this book), this is not the novel for you. A deftly crafted, engrossing story that builds to a satisfying conclusion with the sort of twists J.K. Rowling so reliably delivers.
]]> 5139
Andrea Sachs, a small-town girl fresh out of college, lands the job “a million girls would die for.� Hired as the assistant to Miranda Priestly, the high-profile, fabulously successful editor of Runway magazine, Andrea finds herself in an office that shouts Prada! Armani! Versace! at every turn, a world populated by impossibly thin, heart-wrenchingly stylish women and beautiful men clad in fine-ribbed turtlenecks and tight leather pants that show off their lifelong dedication to the gym. With breathtaking ease, Miranda can turn each and every one of these hip sophisticates into a scared, whimpering child.

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA gives a rich and hilarious new meaning to complaints about “The Boss from Hell.� Narrated in Andrea’s smart, refreshingly disarming voice, it traces a deep, dark, devilish view of life at the top only hinted at in gossip columns and over Cosmopolitans at the trendiest cocktail parties. From sending the latest, not-yet-in-stores Harry Potter to Miranda’s children in Paris by private jet, to locating an unnamed antique store where Miranda had at some point admired a vintage dresser, to serving lattes to Miranda at precisely the piping hot temperature she prefers, Andrea is sorely tested each and every day—and often late into the night with orders barked over the phone. She puts up with it all by keeping her eyes on the prize: a recommendation from Miranda that will get Andrea a top job at any magazine of her choosing. As things escalate from the merely unacceptable to the downright outrageous, however, Andrea begins to realize that the job a million girls would die for may just kill her. And even if she survives, she has to decide whether or not the job is worth the price of her soul.]]> 384 Lauren Weisberger 0307275558 Laura 2 wouldn-t-read-again 3.82 2003
author: Lauren Weisberger
name: Laura
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2003
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2022/07/06
shelves: wouldn-t-read-again
review:

]]> 35068830
American Ella Durran has had the same plan for her life since she was thirteen: Study at Oxford. At 24, she’s finally made it to England on a Rhodes Scholarship when she’s offered an unbelievable position in a rising political star’s presidential campaign. With the promise that she’ll work remotely and return to DC at the end of her Oxford year, she’s free to enjoy her Once in a Lifetime Experience. That is until a smart-mouthed local who is too quick with his tongue and his car ruins her shirt and her first day.

When Ella discovers that her English literature course will be taught by none other than that same local, Jamie Davenport, she thinks for the first time that Oxford might not be all she’s envisioned. But a late-night drink reveals a connection she wasn’t anticipating finding and what begins as a casual fling soon develops into something much more when Ella learns Jamie has a life-changing secret.

Immediately, Ella is faced with a seemingly impossible decision: turn her back on the man she’s falling in love with to follow her political dreams or be there for him during a trial neither are truly prepared for. As the end of her year in Oxford rapidly approaches, Ella must decide if the dreams she’s always wanted are the same ones she’s now yearning for.]]> 352 Julia Whelan 0062740652 Laura 2 wouldn-t-read-again
Not the point, I know. Because this novel is a romance girded by (lovely) poetry with an Oxonian veneer laid over the top. It can elicit emotion, but it has little of lasting value. Also, the “let’s jump into bed� type of romance doesn’t do anything for me. That said, once I got past the halfway point, it was a page-turner (meaning I wandered the house with my earbuds in so my husband didn’t make snide remarks).

Should you steer clear? Not necessarily. There are worse novels out there, and I did care about the characters despite the cliches. I think the author’s pretty good at writing dialogue. Overall, though, I doubt I’ll read her next novel.]]> 3.85 2018
author: Julia Whelan
name: Laura
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2018
rating: 2
read at: 2018/08/04
date added: 2022/07/06
shelves: wouldn-t-read-again
review:
Ooh boy. At various points My Oxford Year caused me to laugh, roll my eyes, cry into a half-dozen tissues, snort, grin, and yell at the steering wheel (I experienced it as an audiobook). I briefly studied literature and history at Oxford and it was one of the best summers of my life, so the title grabbed me. The first two chapters nearly caused me to jump ship. The main character is beautiful to everyone and good at everything except (predictably) emotions. She has landed a powerhouse consulting job that mainly happens offscreen and does not appear to cause her any stress or require anything other than answering her phone. Also, newsflash: Oxford is hard. I only did a summer term but a friend of mine (an extremely smart friend) did a year of undergrad there and got the hardest-earned, lowest grades of her college career. Are we truly expected to believe that Miss Perfect can take hours-long strolls through town whenever she wants? And it’s a nitpick, but what about not being able to remove books from the Bodleian’s reading rooms? Ella never once uses her time to research.

Not the point, I know. Because this novel is a romance girded by (lovely) poetry with an Oxonian veneer laid over the top. It can elicit emotion, but it has little of lasting value. Also, the “let’s jump into bed� type of romance doesn’t do anything for me. That said, once I got past the halfway point, it was a page-turner (meaning I wandered the house with my earbuds in so my husband didn’t make snide remarks).

Should you steer clear? Not necessarily. There are worse novels out there, and I did care about the characters despite the cliches. I think the author’s pretty good at writing dialogue. Overall, though, I doubt I’ll read her next novel.
]]> 22918050
But a princess's life is never entirely her own, and Eadlyn can't escape her very own Selection—no matter how fervently she protests.

Eadlyn doesn't expect her story to end in romance. But as the competition begins, one entry may just capture Eadlyn's heart, showing her all the possibilities that lie in front of her . . . and proving that finding her own happily ever after isn't as impossible as she's always thought.]]> 342 Kiera Cass Laura 2 wouldn-t-read-again 3.64 2015
author: Kiera Cass
name: Laura
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2015
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2022/07/06
shelves: wouldn-t-read-again
review:

]]> 115587
Delta Force. They are the U.S. Army's most elite top-secret strike force. They dominate the modern battlefield, but you won't hear about their heroics on CNN. No headlines can reveal their top-secret missions, and no book has ever taken readers inside—until now. Here, a founding member of Delta Force takes us behind the veil of secrecy and into the action-to reveal the never-before-told story of 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-D (Delta Force).

He is a master of espionage, trained to take on hijackers, terrorists, hostage takers, and enemy armies. He can deploy by parachute or arrive by commercial aircraft. Survive alone in hostile cities. Speak foreign languages fluently. Strike at enemy targets with stunning swiftness and extraordinary teamwork. He is the ultimate modern the Delta Force Operator.

In this dramatic behind-the-scenes chronicle, Eric Haney, one of the founding members of Delta Force, takes us inside this legendary counterterrorist unit. Here, for the first time, are details of the grueling selection process—designed to break the strongest of men—that singles out the best of the the Delta Force Operator.

With heart-stopping immediacy, Haney tells what it's really like to enter a hostage-held airplane. And from his days in Beirut, Haney tells an unforgettable tale of bodyguards and bombs, of a day-to-day life of madness and beauty, and of how he and a teammate are called on to kill two gunmen targeting U.S. Marines at the Beirut airport. As part of the team sent to rescue American hostages in Tehran, Haney offers a first-person description of that failed mission that is a chilling, compelling account of a bold maneuver undone by chance—and a few fatal mistakes.

From fighting guerrilla warfare in Honduras to rescuing missionaries in Sudan and leading the way onto the island of Grenada, Eric Haney captures the daring and discipline that distinguish the men of Delta Force. Inside Delta Force brings honor to these singular men while it puts us in the middle of action that is sudden, frightening, and nonstop around the world.]]> 324 Eric L. Haney 0385339364 Laura 4 read-to-learn 4.16 2002
author: Eric L. Haney
name: Laura
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at: 2018/02/01
date added: 2022/07/06
shelves: read-to-learn
review:

]]> 9275658
From very different worlds, June and Day have no reason to cross paths—until the day June's brother, Metias, is murdered and Day becomes the prime suspect. Caught in the ultimate game of cat and mouse, Day is in a race for his family's survival, while June seeks to avenge Metias's death. But in a shocking turn of events, the two uncover the truth of what has really brought them together, and the sinister lengths their country will go to keep its secrets.

Alternate Cover edition for ISBN 9780399256752
]]> 305 Marie Lu Laura 3 liked-it 4.16 2011
author: Marie Lu
name: Laura
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2022/07/06
shelves: liked-it
review:

]]> 10194157 Alternative Cover Edition #1

Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha . . . and the secrets of her heart.]]> 358 Leigh Bardugo 1250048117 Laura 5 loved-it 3.93 2012
author: Leigh Bardugo
name: Laura
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2013/05/30
date added: 2022/07/06
shelves: loved-it
review:

]]> 41952955 The New York Times bestselling true account of John Chapman, Medal of Honor recipient and Special Ops Combat Controller, and his heroic one-man stand during the Afghan War, as he sacrificed his life to save the lives of twenty-three comrades-in-arms.


In the predawn hours of March 4, 2002, just below the 10,469-foot peak of a mountain in eastern Afghanistan, a fierce battle raged. Outnumbered by Al Qaeda fighters, Air Force Combat Controller John Chapman and a handful of Navy SEALs struggled to take the summit in a desperate bid to find a lost teammate.


Chapman, leading the charge, was gravely wounded in the initial assault. Believing he was dead, his SEAL leader ordered a retreat. Chapman regained consciousness alone, with the enemy closing in on three sides.


John Chapman's subsequent display of incredible valor -- first saving the lives of his SEAL teammates and then, knowing he was mortally wounded, single-handedly engaging two dozen hardened fighters to save the lives of an incoming rescue squad -- posthumously earned him the Medal of Honor. Chapman is the first airman in nearly fifty years to be given the distinction reserved for America's greatest heroes.



Alone at Dawn is also a behind-the-scenes look at the Air Force Combat Controllers: the world's deadliest and most versatile special operations force, whose members must not only exceed the qualifications of Navy SEAL and Army Delta Force teams but also act with sharp decisiveness and deft precision -- even in the face of life-threatening danger.


Drawing from firsthand accounts, classified documents, dramatic video footage, and extensive interviews with leaders and survivors of the operation, Alone at Dawn is the story of an extraordinary man's brave last stand and the brotherhood that forged him.]]> 321 Dan Schilling 1538729652 Laura 4 read-to-learn 4.26 2019
author: Dan Schilling
name: Laura
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2022/06/07
date added: 2022/07/06
shelves: read-to-learn
review:

]]> 53624358 Something is rotten in the heart of Winterkeep...

Four years after Bitterblue left off, a new land has been discovered to the east: Torla; and the closest nation to Monsea is Winterkeep. Winterkeep is a land of miracles, a democratic republic run by people who like each other, where people speak to telepathic sea creatures, adopt telepathic foxes as pets, and fly across the sky in ships attached to balloons.

But when Bitterblue’s envoys to Winterkeep drown under suspicious circumstances, she and Giddon and her half sister, Hava, set off to discover the truth–putting both Bitterblue’s life and Giddon’s heart to the test when Bitterbue is kidnapped. Giddon believes she has drowned, leaving him and Hava to solve the mystery of what’s wrong in Winterkeep.

Lovisa Cavenda is the teenage daughter of a powerful Scholar and Industrialist (the opposing governing parties) with a fire inside her that is always hungry, always just nearly about to make something happen. She is the key to everything, but only if she can figure out what’s going on before anyone else, and only if she’s willing to transcend the person she’s been all her life.]]> 528 Kristin Cashore 0803741502 Laura 4 liked-it
I agree with some of the more critical reviews here: there is a lot of sex and some is quite problematic. The main character from Winterkeep’s capitol is a strange mixture of mature and immature (although I guess we all are at 16). The political system is discussed but not well-developed. This is not a political intrigue fantasy, though, so that’s okay by me. I’ll tell you what I appreciated: more Bitterblue, more Giddon, a fun new world with some weird laws and customs, telepathic animals, and a few ambiguous characters. I was unable to stop reading multiple nights in a row, which is rare for me these days! I personally connected with the characters quite easily; your mileage may vary. Escapism with a few deeper themes. Lighter than a dystopian novel but heavier than most middle-grade books. I would personally recommend this to someone in their 20s over a teenager.]]> 3.98 2021
author: Kristin Cashore
name: Laura
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2022/05/14
date added: 2022/07/06
shelves: liked-it
review:
I lost a lot of sleep while reading this book. It was worth it.

I agree with some of the more critical reviews here: there is a lot of sex and some is quite problematic. The main character from Winterkeep’s capitol is a strange mixture of mature and immature (although I guess we all are at 16). The political system is discussed but not well-developed. This is not a political intrigue fantasy, though, so that’s okay by me. I’ll tell you what I appreciated: more Bitterblue, more Giddon, a fun new world with some weird laws and customs, telepathic animals, and a few ambiguous characters. I was unable to stop reading multiple nights in a row, which is rare for me these days! I personally connected with the characters quite easily; your mileage may vary. Escapism with a few deeper themes. Lighter than a dystopian novel but heavier than most middle-grade books. I would personally recommend this to someone in their 20s over a teenager.
]]> 32109569 Alternate Cover Edition can be found here.

Bob Johansson has just sold his software company and is looking forward to a life of leisure. There are places to go, books to read, and movies to watch. So it's a little unfair when he gets himself killed crossing the street.

Bob wakes up a century later to find that corpsicles have been declared to be without rights, and he is now the property of the state. He has been uploaded into computer hardware and is slated to be the controlling AI in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets. The stakes are high: no less than the first claim to entire worlds. If he declines the honor, he'll be switched off, and they'll try again with someone else. If he accepts, he becomes a prime target. There are at least three other countries trying to get their own probes launched first, and they play dirty.

The safest place for Bob is in space, heading away from Earth at top speed. Or so he thinks. Because the universe is full of nasties, and trespassers make them mad - very mad.]]> 383 Dennis E. Taylor Laura 4 loved-it 4.29 2016
author: Dennis E. Taylor
name: Laura
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2022/02/17
date added: 2022/07/06
shelves: loved-it
review:

]]> 32980226
Michele Rigby Assad was one of those people.

As a CIA agent, Michele soon found that working undercover was an all-encompassing job. The threats were real. The mission was a perilous one. Trained as a counterterrorism expert, Michele spent over a decade in the agency--a woman leading some of the most highly skilled operatives on the planet, secretly serving in some the most treacherous areas of the Middle East. But deep inside, Michele wondered: Could she really do this job? Was she in the right place at the right time, or had she misunderstood what she thought was God's calling on her life? Did she have what it would take to survive?

The answer came when Michele faced a life-or-death choice--one that had secretly been the plan for her all along.

In Breaking Cover, Michele has at last been cleared to drop cover and tell her story: one of incredible struggle; of thwarted plans and expectations; and most of all, of discovering a faith greater than all her fears.]]> 272 Michele Rigby Assad 1496419596 Laura 4 liked-it 3.76 2018
author: Michele Rigby Assad
name: Laura
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2022/06/21
date added: 2022/07/06
shelves: liked-it
review:

]]> 14069
Now China has discovered that its rare gift, intended for Napoleon, has fallen into British hands–and an angry Chinese delegation vows to reclaim the remarkable beast. But Laurence refuses to cooperate. Facing the gallows for his defiance, Laurence has no choice but to accompany Temeraire back to the Far East–a long voyage fraught with peril, intrigue, and the untold terrors of the deep. Yet once the pair reaches the court of the Chinese emperor, even more shocking discoveries and darker dangers await.]]> 398 Naomi Novik 0345481291 Laura 3 wouldn-t-read-again 3.89 2006
author: Naomi Novik
name: Laura
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2022/06/28
date added: 2022/07/06
shelves: wouldn-t-read-again
review:
This book dragged more than the first, which I found extremely entertaining. I ended up leaving Throne of Jade in my “beach bag� for about 1.5 months as a backup book. However, when I finally started reading again, I sped through 100 pages in 24 hours. So it can’t be that bad, right? All the same, it took me so long to get through Throne that I think I’ll take a break before moving on to Black Powder War.
]]> 15814872
No Easy Day puts readers alongside Owen and the other handpicked members of the twenty-four-man team as they train for the biggest mission of their lives. The blow-by-blow narrative of the assault, beginning with the helicopter crash that could have ended Owen's life straight through to the radio call confirming Bin Laden’s death, is an essential piece of modern history.

In No Easy Day, Owen also takes readers onto the field of battle in America's ongoing War on Terror and details the selection and training process for one of the most elite units in the military. Owen's story draws on his youth in Alaska and describes the SEALs' quest to challenge themselves at the highest levels of physical and mental endurance. With boots-on-the-ground detail, Owen describes numerous previously unreported missions that illustrate the life and work of a SEAL and the evolution of the team after the events of September 11. In telling the true story of the SEALs whose talents, skills, experiences, and exceptional sacrifices led to one of the greatest victories in the War on Terror, Mark Owen honors the men who risk everything for our country, and he leaves readers with a deep understanding of the warriors who keep America safe.]]> 316 Mark Owen 0525953728 Laura 3 read-to-learn 4.00 2012
author: Mark Owen
name: Laura
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2022/05/10
date added: 2022/07/06
shelves: read-to-learn
review:

]]> 60097414
When it comes to our finances, we’re told to follow the same script as our white work hard, make money, save, and invest. Yet despite putting in twice the effort, you end up making less and are routinely passed up for career opportunities. Here’s the financial freedom is within your reach, but playing by corporate America’s rules will only take you halfway there. To win, you must eventually walk away—and take up an entirely different model of wealth accumulation.

Cashing Out is your roadmap to financial freedom despite the broken system. You don’t have to sacrifice your time and mental health to maximize income. Instead, financial experts Julien and Kiersten Saunders show how to design a life that allows you to enjoy the little things now while setting yourself up for future financial security. Drawing from their journey paying off $200,000 of debt in five years, quitting their high-stress corporate jobs, and retaking control of their finances, this book will teach
� Why the mantra and glitz of “Black Excellence� is an unsustainable motivation for wealth building
� How to prioritize the right goals at each stage of your career so you can quit in 15 years or less
� How to talk about money with your loved ones without coming to blows
� Practical strategies to bring more money in without robbing you of time and energy you don’t have

It’s time to stop being a cog in the machine that leaves you under-appreciated and underpaid. Cashing Out shows you how to open the door to a new kind of prosperity.]]> 272 Julien Saunders 0593329554 Laura 0 to-read 4.18
author: Julien Saunders
name: Laura
average rating: 4.18
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/06/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 28876 356 Naomi Novik 0345481283 Laura 4 4.06 2006
author: Naomi Novik
name: Laura
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2022/01/11
date added: 2022/06/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 29749085 Daughter of immortals.

Princess Diana longs to prove herself to her legendary warrior sisters. But when the opportunity finally comes, she throws away her chance at glory and breaks Amazon law—risking exile—to save a mortal. Diana will soon learn that she has rescued no ordinary girl, and that with this single brave act, she may have doomed the world.

Daughter of death.

Alia Keralis just wanted to escape her overprotective brother with a semester at sea. She doesn’t know she is being hunted by people who think her very existence could spark a world war. When a bomb detonates aboard her ship, Alia is rescued by a mysterious girl of extraordinary strength and forced to confront a horrible truth: Alia is a Warbringer—a direct descendant of the infamous Helen of Troy, fated to bring about an age of bloodshed and misery.

Together.

Two girls will face an army of enemies—mortal and divine—determined to either destroy or possess the Warbringer. Tested beyond the bounds of their abilities, Diana and Alia must find a way to unleash hidden strengths and forge an unlikely alliance. Because if they have any hope of saving both their worlds, they will have to stand side by side against the tide of war.]]> 369 Leigh Bardugo 0399549730 Laura 3 4.00 2017
author: Leigh Bardugo
name: Laura
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2022/01/12
date added: 2022/06/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 42950440 Listening Length: 16 hours and 57 minutes

Civil war looms in the Bobiverse in this brand-new, epic-length adventure by best seller Dennis E. Taylor.

More than a hundred years ago, Bender set out for the stars and was never heard from again. There has been no trace of him despite numerous searches by his clone-mates. Now Bob is determined to organize an expedition to learn Bender’s fate—whatever the cost.

But nothing is ever simple in the Bobiverse. Bob’s descendants are out to the 24th generation now, and replicative drift has produced individuals who can barely be considered Bobs anymore. Some of them oppose Bob’s plan; others have plans of their own. The out-of-control moots are the least of the Bobiverse’s problems.

Undaunted, Bob and his allies follow Bender’s trail. But what they discover out in deep space is so unexpected and so complex that it could either save the universe—or pose an existential threat the likes of which the Bobiverse has never faced.]]> 17 Dennis E. Taylor Laura 3 4.26 2020
author: Dennis E. Taylor
name: Laura
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2022/05/04
date added: 2022/06/27
shelves:
review:

]]> 33395557
Bob and his copies have been spreading out from Earth for 40 years now, looking for habitable planets. But that's the only part of the plan that's still in one piece. A system-wide war has killed off 99.9 percent of the human race; nuclear winter is slowly making the Earth uninhabitable; a radical group wants to finish the job on the remnants of humanity; the Brazilian space probes are still out there, still trying to blow up the competition; and the Bobs have discovered a spacefaring species that sees all other life as food.

Bob left Earth anticipating a life of exploration and blissful solitude. Instead he's become a sky god to a primitive native species, the only hope for getting humanity to a new home, and possibly the only thing that can prevent every living thing in the local sphere from ending up as dinner.]]> 311 Dennis E. Taylor Laura 4 liked-it 4.37 2017
author: Dennis E. Taylor
name: Laura
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2022/03/02
date added: 2022/06/27
shelves: liked-it
review:

]]> 57841497
Now, those hard lessons and abilities are put to the test in a quest so dangerous and fantastical, it would be madness to go…but deadly not to. With the help of her friends, Sunny embarks on a mission to find a precious object hidden deep in a magical realm. Defeating the guardians of the prize will take more from Sunny than she has to give, and triumph will mean she will be forever changed.]]> 404 Nnedi Okorafor 0451480589 Laura 0 to-read 4.16 2022
author: Nnedi Okorafor
name: Laura
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/06/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 57812401
Told in the intimate voices of unique and endearing characters of all ages, these tales explore desire and heartache, loss and discovery, moments of jolting violence and the inexorable tug toward love at all costs. A bookseller's unspoken love for his employee rises to the surface, a neglected teenage boy finds much-needed nurturing from an unlikely pair of college students hired to housesit, a girl's loss of innocence at the hands of her employer's son becomes a catalyst for strength and confidence, and a proud nonagenarian rages helplessly in his granddaughter's hospital room. Romantic, hopeful, brutally raw, and unsparingly honest, some even slipping into the surreal, these stories are, above all, about King's enduring subject of love.]]> 240 Lily King 0802158765 Laura 0 wouldn-t-read-again, dnf 3.70 2021
author: Lily King
name: Laura
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/06/01
shelves: wouldn-t-read-again, dnf
review:
Well, that got really dark really quickly. I got this audiobook from the library to tide me over between Audible credits and I’m going to just return it. The first of five stories was interesting and then suddenly the main character is being sexually assaulted and I just don’t feel like I need any more heavy books right now. DNF
]]> 7244 The Poisonwood Bible is a story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it -- from garden seeds to Scripture -- is calamitously transformed on African soil. What follows is a suspenseful epic of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa.]]> 546 Barbara Kingsolver 0060786507 Laura 0 to-read 4.10 1998
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Laura
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/05/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 56625098
By 2019, Maggie is a renowned travel photographer. She splits her time between running a successful gallery in New York and photographing remote locations around the world. But this year she is unexpectedly grounded over Christmas, struggling to come to terms with a sobering medical diagnosis. Increasingly dependent on a young assistant, she finds herself becoming close to him.

As they count down the last days of the season together, she begins to tell him the story of another Christmas, decades earlier—and the love that set her on a course she never could have imagined.]]> 387 Nicholas Sparks 1538728621 Laura 4 4.25 2021
author: Nicholas Sparks
name: Laura
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2022/05/18
date added: 2022/05/18
shelves:
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]]> 17899948 Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again...

The novel begins in Monte Carlo, where our heroine is swept off her feet by the dashing widower Maxim de Winter and his sudden proposal of marriage. Orphaned and working as a lady's maid, she can barely believe her luck. It is only when they arrive at his massive country estate that she realizes how large a shadow his late wife will cast over their lives--presenting her with a lingering evil that threatens to destroy their marriage from beyond the grave.

First published in 1938, this classic gothic novel is such a compelling read that it won the Anthony Award for Best Novel of the Century.]]> 449 Daphne du Maurier 0316323705 Laura 0 to-read 4.28 1938
author: Daphne du Maurier
name: Laura
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1938
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/30
shelves: to-read
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]]> 50
Brian had been distraught over his parents' impending divorce and the secret he carries about his mother, but now he is truly desolate and alone. Exhausted, terrified, and hungry, Brian struggles to find food and make a shelter for himself. He has no special knowledge of the woods, and he must find a new kind of awareness and patience as he meets each day's challenges. Is the water safe to drink? Are the berries he finds poisonous?

Slowly, Brian learns to turn adversity to his advantage--an invading porcupine unexpectedly shows him how to make fire, a devastating tornado shows him how to retrieve supplies from the submerged airplane. Most of all, Brian leaves behind the self-pity he has felt about his predicament as he summons the courage to stay alive.

A story of survival and of transformation, this riveting book has sparked many a reader's interest in venturing into the wild.]]> 208 Gary Paulsen 0689840926 Laura 0 to-read 3.77 1987
author: Gary Paulsen
name: Laura
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1987
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/26
shelves: to-read
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]]> 69392
He's a boy called Jew. Gypsy. Stopthief. Filthy son of Abraham.

He's a boy who lives in the streets of Warsaw. He's a boy who steals food for himself, and the other orphans. He's a boy who believes in bread, and mothers, and angels.

He's a boy who wants to be a Nazi, with tall, shiny jackboots of his own-until the day that suddenly makes him change his mind.

And when the trains come to empty the Jews from the ghetto of the damned, he's a boy who realizes it's safest of all to be nobody.

Newbery Medalist Jerry Spinelli takes us to one of the most devastating settings imaginable-Nazi-occupied Warsaw during World War II-and tells a tale of heartbreak, hope, and survival through the bright eyes of a young Holocaust orphan.]]> 208 Jerry Spinelli 0440420059 Laura 0 to-read 4.01 2003
author: Jerry Spinelli
name: Laura
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/26
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]]> 56668328 An exploration of how technology and best intentions collide in the heat of war

´ˇĚýNew York Times Book Review Editorsâ€� Choice

In The Bomber Mafia, Malcolm Gladwell weaves together the stories of a Dutch genius and his homemade computer, a band of brothers in central Alabama, a British psychopath, and pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard to examine one of the greatest moral challenges in modern American history.
Ěý
Most military thinkers in the years leading up to World War II saw the airplane as an afterthought. But a small band of idealistic strategists, the “Bomber Mafia,â€� asked: What if precision bombing could cripple the enemy and make war far less lethal? Ěý
Ěý
In contrast, the bombing of Tokyo on the deadliest night of the war was the brainchild of General Curtis LeMay, whose brutal pragmatism and scorched-earth tactics in Japan cost thousands of civilian lives, but may have spared even more by averting a planned US invasion. In The Bomber Mafia, Gladwell asks, “Was it worth it?�
Ěý
Things might have gone differently had LeMay’s predecessor, General Haywood Hansell, remained in charge. Hansell believed in precision bombing, but when he and Curtis LeMay squared off for a leadership handover in the jungles of Guam, LeMay emerged victorious, leading to the darkest night of World War II. The Bomber Mafia is a riveting tale of persistence, innovation, and the incalculable wages of war.]]> 256 Malcolm Gladwell 0316296619 Laura 4 liked-it 3.98 2021
author: Malcolm Gladwell
name: Laura
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2022/02/04
date added: 2022/03/30
shelves: liked-it
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]]> 40792344 Mere Christianity is C.S. Lewis's forceful and accessible doctrine of Christian belief. First heard as informal radio broadcasts and then published as three separate books � The Case for Christianity, Christian Behavior, and Beyond Personality � Mere Christianity brings together what Lewis saw as the fundamental truths of the religion.

Rejecting the boundaries that divide Christianity's many denominations, C.S. Lewis finds a common ground on which all those who have Christian faith can stand together, proving that "at the centre of each there is something, or a Someone, who against all divergences of belief, all differences of temperament, all memories of mutual persecution, speaks the same voice."]]> 98 C.S. Lewis Laura 0 read-to-learn 4.43 1952
author: C.S. Lewis
name: Laura
average rating: 4.43
book published: 1952
rating: 0
read at: 2022/03/06
date added: 2022/03/30
shelves: read-to-learn
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]]> 35506021
They've created enough colonies so humanity shouldn't go extinct. But political squabbles have a bad habit of dying hard, and the Brazilian probes are still trying to take out the competition. And the Bobs have picked a fight with an older, more powerful species with a large appetite and a short temper.

Still stinging from getting their collective butts kicked in their first encounter with the Others, the Bobs now face the prospect of a decisive final battle to defend Earth and its colonies. But the Bobs are less disciplined than a herd of cats, and some of the younger copies are more concerned with their own local problems than defeating the Others.

Yet salvation may come from an unlikely source. A couple of eighth-generation Bobs have found something out in deep space. All it will take to save the Earth and perhaps all of humanity is for them to get it to Sol - unless the Others arrive first.]]> 336 Dennis E. Taylor Laura 4 liked-it 4.41 2017
author: Dennis E. Taylor
name: Laura
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2022/03/30
date added: 2022/03/30
shelves: liked-it
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