en-US Tue, 13 May 2025 19:56:26 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 171745015 412 Andrew M. Stauffer 100920016X Brenna 0 to-read 4.32
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]]> 49205544 Daughters of Night follows Caroline Corsham, as she seeks justice for a murdered woman whom London society would rather forget . . .

Lucia’s fingers found her own. She gazed at Caro as if from a distance. Her lips parted, her words a whisper: ‘He knows.�

London, 1782. Desperate for her politician husband to return home from France, Caroline 'Caro' Corsham is already in a state of anxiety when she finds a well-dressed woman mortally wounded in the bowers of the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. The Bow Street constables are swift to act, until they discover that the deceased woman was a highly-paid prostitute, at which point they cease to care entirely. But Caro has motives of her own for wanting to see justice done, and so sets out to solve the crime herself. Enlisting the help of thieftaker, Peregrine Child, their inquiry delves into the hidden corners of Georgian society, a world of artifice, deception and secret lives.

But with many gentlemen refusing to speak about their dealings with the dead woman, and Caro's own reputation under threat, finding the killer will be harder, and more treacherous than she can know . . .]]> 580 Laura Shepherd-Robinson 1509880828 Brenna 3 4.17 2021
author: Laura Shepherd-Robinson
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2025/05/10
date added: 2025/05/10
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]]> 215362556 This is the story of a murder, not a murderer . . .
Ìý
In Story of a Murder, bestselling author of The Five and celebrated historian Hallie Rubenhold reexamines the events leading up to the infamous Crippen murder from the perspectives of the three women at the center of it all.

When Belle Elmore’s remains were discovered in the basement of London’s 39 Hilldrop Crescent in July 1910, the larger-than-life vaudevillian performer was launched into stardom she never achieved on the stage.

Story of a Murder provides an intricately plotted, intimate look into the lives of three multifaceted women living during a time of electric progress and stifling ÌýCrippen’s first wife, Charlotte, who died under mysterious circumstances; his mistress, Ethel, who claimed ignorance of his crime even as she escaped with Crippen disguised as his son; and Belle, the woman whose life Crippen took.
Ìý
Throughout the twentieth century, the infamous Crippen murder was told in such a way as to cast doubt on Crippen's guilt and to victim-blame his wife Cora for her own murder. It also astonishingly depicted Crippen's younger mistress, Ethel, as innocent of any involvement in the killing of her love rival.
Ìý
But new evidence unearthed by Rubenhold completely subverts this famous history, unravelling assumptions about the crime and deconstructing Edwardian beliefs about women, class aspiration, and the transatlantic world, ultimately proving that Charlotte, Belle, and Ethel were so much more than the passive victims history has portrayed them as.]]> 512 Hallie Rubenhold 0593184610 Brenna 0 to-read 4.25 2025
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average rating: 4.25
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]]> 226524277 'I found it fascinating - it's an integral part of the history of Dublin that has been lost to time for too long' - Rick O'Shea

A feminist history of Europe's largest red-light district and an examination of the lives of the women who worked there.

Tucked away in Dublin's north inner city, Monto - purported to be Europe's biggest red-light district from 1860 to 1925 with up to 1600 sex workers at any one time - made headlines for wild tales of debauchery. However, what happened to the women and girls within its brothels in life and death is less clear.

This account balances the historical origins of Monto's rise and fall with an investigation into the inhumane and heartbreaking reality of the treatment of the women that worked there, while delving into the impact of class, sexual violence and British colonialism on the women's survival. West explores the stigma and violence the women and girls of Monto endured, and investigates the shocking claims surrounding their treatment by medial professionals.

Weaving together oral histories, historical records, fashion trends and family memories, this book brings the women of Monto to life within its pages as it explores how they lived, worked, loved, dressed, mourned and built a tight-knit community.]]> 288 Caroline West 1804184411 Brenna 0 to-read 3.86
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]]> 48989372
From growing up in a family of firefighters on Staten Island to commuting three hours a day to high school and “seeing the sights� (like watching a Russian woman throw a stroller off the back of a ferry), to attending Harvard while Facebook was created, Jost shares how he has navigated the world like a slightly smarter Forrest Gump.

You’ll also discover things about Jost that will surprise and confuse you, like how Jimmy Buffett saved his life, how Czech teenagers attacked him with potato salad, how an insect laid eggs inside his legs, and how he competed in a twenty-five-man match at WrestleMania (and almost won). You’ll go behind the scenes at SNL and Weekend Update (where he’s written some of the most memorable sketches and jokes of the past fifteen years). And you’ll experience the life of a touring stand-up comedian—from performing in rural college cafeterias at noon to opening for Dave Chappelle at Radio City Music Hall.

For every accomplishment (hosting the Emmys), there is a setback (hosting the Emmys). And for every absurd moment (watching paramedics give CPR to a raccoon), there is an honest, emotional one (recounting his mother’s experience on the scene of the Twin Towers� collapse on 9/11). Told with a healthy dose of self-deprecation, A Very Punchable Face reveals the brilliant mind behind some of the dumbest sketches on television, and lays bare the heart and humor of a hardworking guy—with a face you can’t help but want to punch.]]> 312 Colin Jost 1101906324 Brenna 0 to-read 4.20 2020
author: Colin Jost
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2020
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]]> 53310061 What happens when you mix 1 (accidental) murder with 2 thousand wedding guests, and then toss in a possible curse on 3 generations of an immigrant Chinese-Indonesian family?

You get 4 meddling Asian aunties coming to the rescue!

When Meddelin Chan ends up accidentally killing her blind date, her meddlesome mother calls for her even more meddlesome aunties to help get rid of the body. Unfortunately, a dead body proves to be a lot more challenging to dispose of than one might anticipate, especially when it is inadvertently shipped in a cake cooler to the over-the-top billionaire wedding Meddy, her Ma, and aunties are working at an island resort on the California coastline. It's the biggest job yet for the family wedding business�"Don't leave your big day to chance, leave it to the Chans!"—and nothing, not even an unsavory corpse, will get in the way of her auntie's perfect buttercream flowers.

But things go from inconvenient to downright torturous when Meddy's great college love—and biggest heartbreak—makes a surprise appearance amid the wedding chaos. Is it possible to escape murder charges, charm her ex back into her life, and pull off a stunning wedding all in one weekend?]]> 299 Jesse Q. Sutanto 0593336739 Brenna 0 to-read 3.67 2021
author: Jesse Q. Sutanto
name: Brenna
average rating: 3.67
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date added: 2025/04/24
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]]> 201626940 FromÌýNew York TimesÌýbestseller Maureen Callahan, a fierce, character-driven exposé of the real Kennedy Curse—the family’s generations-long legacy of misogyny, murder, and mayhem—and the women who have paid the price for our obsession with Camelot

The Kennedy name has long been synonymous with wealth, power, glamor, and—above all else—integrity. But this carefully constructed veneer hides a dark truth: the pattern of Kennedy men physically and psychologically abusing women and girls, leaving a trail of ruin and death in each generation’s wake. Through decades of scandal after scandal—from sexual assaults to reputational slander, suicides to manslaughter—the family and their defenders have kept the Kennedy brand intact.

Now, in Ask Not, bestselling author and journalist Maureen Callahan reveals the Kennedys� hidden history of violence and exploitation, laying bare their unrepentant sexism and rampant depravity while also restoring these women and girls to their rightful place at the center of the dynasty’s story: from Jacqueline Onassis and Marilyn Monroe to Carolyn Bessette, Martha Moxley, Mary Jo Kopechne, Rosemary Kennedy, and many others whose names aren’t nearly as well known but should be.

Drawing on years of explosive reportage and written in electric prose, Ask Not is a long-overdue reckoning with this fabled family and a consequential part of American history that is still very much with us. At long last Callahan redirects the spotlight to the women in the Kennedys� orbit, paying homage to those who freed themselves and giving voice to those who, through no fault of their own, could not.]]> 400 Maureen Callahan 0316276170 Brenna 4 4.04 2024
author: Maureen Callahan
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2024
rating: 4
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]]> 43231095
When journalist Maureen Callahan first heard about Israel Keyes in 2012, she was captivated by how a killer of this magnitude could go undetected by law enforcement for over a decade. And so began a project that consumed her for the next several years--uncovering the true story behind how the FBI ultimately caught Israel Keyes, and trying to understand what it means for a killer like Keyes to exist. A killer who left a path of monstrous, randomly committed crimes in his wake--many of which remain unsolved to this day.

American Predator is the ambitious culmination of years of interviews with key figures in law enforcement and in Keyes's life, and research uncovered from classified FBI files. Callahan takes us on a journey into the chilling, nightmarish mind of a relentless killer, and to the limitations of traditional law enforcement.]]> 285 Maureen Callahan 052542864X Brenna 0 to-read 4.07 2019
author: Maureen Callahan
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.07
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]]> 173754979 A brilliant reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—both harrowing and satirical—told from the enslaved Jim's point of view

When Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he runs away until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck has faked his own death to escape his violent father. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

Brimming with nuanced humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a literary icon, this brilliant and tender novel radically illuminates Jim's agency, intelligence, and compassion as never before. James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first-century American literature.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780385550369.]]> 303 Percival Everett Brenna 0 to-read 4.46 2024
author: Percival Everett
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.46
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]]> 150247395
Called in to investigate this mystery is Ana Dolabra, an investigator whose reputation for brilliance is matched only by her eccentricities.

At her side is her new assistant, Dinios Kol. Din is an engraver, magically altered to possess a perfect memory. His job is to observe and report, and act as his superior’s eyes and ears--quite literally, in this case, as among Ana’s quirks are her insistence on wearing a blindfold at all times, and her refusal to step outside the walls of her home.

Din is most perplexed by Ana’s ravenous appetite for information and her mind’s frenzied leaps—not to mention her cheerful disregard for propriety and the apparent joy she takes in scandalizing her young counterpart. Yet as the case unfolds and Ana makes one startling deduction after the next, he finds it hard to deny that she is, indeed, the Empire’s greatest detective.

As the two close in on a mastermind and uncover a scheme that threatens the safety of the Empire itself, Din realizes he’s barely begun to assemble the puzzle that is Ana Dolabra—and wonders how long he’ll be able to keep his own secrets safe from her piercing intellect.

Featuring an unforgettable Holmes-and-Watson style pairing, a gloriously labyrinthine plot, and a haunting and wholly original fantasy world, The Tainted Cup brilliantly reinvents the classic mystery tale.]]> 410 Robert Jackson Bennett 1984820702 Brenna 0 to-read 4.28 2024
author: Robert Jackson Bennett
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.28
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]]> 166515682
When former government staffer Alisha Aitken-Radburn was given a 'villain edit' on her first season of The Bachelor, she wasn't entirely surprised-after all, there are only a handful of character tropes producers can manipulate into storylines. But the backlash on social media was unexpectedly intense, and Alisha found her sense of identity completely rocked by a single 'You are a bad person'.

Determined to shake the 'villain' label, she returned to reality TV screens, and this time, she got a different edit. She was met with praise and empathy, and her portrayal led to a third and final season, where she met the man she would marry.

But along Alisha's rocky path in the reality TV spotlight, the line between truth and fiction blurred. She cared about other people's opinions more than her own, and her insatiable quest for external validation saw her outsourcing her decisions and her self-worth to everyone from anonymous forum-lurkers to journalists and politicians.

The Villain Edit charts Alisha's journey through the smoke-and-mirrors worlds of politics, reality TV and social media. Navigating the secrets, lies and hard truths that are laced through even the most fairytale of endings, it reveals how the perceptions of others can rewrite the story of who we think we are, and how important it is to know when to go off-script and take control of the narrative.]]> 288 Alisha Aitken-Radburn 1761187589 Brenna 4 3.97 2023
author: Alisha Aitken-Radburn
name: Brenna
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2023
rating: 4
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]]> 57207910
London, 1980s. Though she has a comfortable, privileged life, Eva Martínez-Green is deeply unhappy. The only child of an emotionally absent mother and a physically absent father, Eva has grown up in a cold, unloving house. But Eva is convinced that all is not as it seems. Why are there no baby pictures of her? Why do her parents avoid all questions about her early years?

When her parents� relationship crumbles, Eva begins looking for a different, better life: a proper family, a perfect mother, and, importantly, real love. Her desire to find where she belongs leads Eva on a journey spanning years and continents � and, along the way, she meets women who challenge her idea of what a mother should be, and who will change her life forever…]]> 400 Joanna Glen Brenna 0 to-read 4.37 2021
author: Joanna Glen
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.37
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date added: 2025/04/15
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]]> 17349222 State ofÌýWonder, Run,ÌýandÌýBel Canto,Ìýexamines her deepest commitments â€� to writing, family, friends, dogs, books, and her husband â€� creating a resonant portrait of a life inÌýThis Is the Story of a Happy Marriage.

This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage takes us into the very real world of Ann Patchett’s life. Stretching from her childhood to the present day, from a disastrous early marriage to a later happy one, it covers a multitude of topics, including relationships with family and friends, and charts the hard work and joy of writing, and the unexpected thrill of opening a bookstore.

As she shares stories of the people, places, ideals, and art to which she has remained indelibly committed, Ann Patchett brings into focus the large experiences and small moments that have shaped her as a daughter, wife, and writer.]]> 308 Ann Patchett 0062236679 Brenna 0 to-read 4.00 2013
author: Ann Patchett
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2013
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]]> 54953932
When Molly is diagnosed as terminal with Stage IV Metastatic Breast Cancer at age 42, she realizes for the first time that "life is short" is more than some stupid cliché. With this new ticking-clock hanging over her head Molly make a decision . . . to start living HER LIFE. She leaves her husband and goes on a quest, searching for life's answers via a sexual journey of exploration. She juggles dozens of online suitors and brings kinks and fetishes into the real world, all while dealing with the ups and downs of her cancer treatment. Ìý

But then something happens.Ìý As Molly lays in her hospital bed fighting through the last months of her existence, she decides she isn't finished yet.Ìý She still has things to say.Ìý Molly digs deep wanting answers to her lifelong questions. She pulls out her laptop and finishes the story she’d been waiting her whole life to write.

With a sense of dark humor, and a bright spirit that will leave you breathless, Molly leaves no stone unturned. From her days of enduring childhood trauma to navigating her relationships, through the lens of never feeling good enough to her final days of forgiveness where she finds enlightenment and the answer she had been looking for all along.

In Screw Cancer Becoming Whole, Molly Kochan takes us on a profound journey into the life of a truly amazing woman who left us all too soon. It's a deeper dive and a perfect companion to the Dying for Sex podcast. Her courageous memoir is a must-read testament for anyone who has ever felt life should be something more, something special, something alive. This is Molly's love letter to life. ♥♥♥♥♥]]> 142 Molly Kochan Brenna 0 to-read 4.52
author: Molly Kochan
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.52
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]]> 214084095 'A book for the modern woman, laced with unflinching, glorious honesty.' Zara McDonald and Michelle Andrews, co-founders of Shameless Media

'A funny, real interrogation of Australia's body image problem, and a call to arms to dismantle diet culture.' Chantelle Otten, author and sexologist

'A feminist manifesto, a younger millennial gospel, with unparalleled candour and self awareness. I inhaled this book - it's going to be big.' Jessie Stephens



'I have always known that to be hot is to be powerful. For most of my life, I just took it as the way things are, a fact not worth interrogating since it's so obviously true.'

Up until her twenty-fifth birthday, the number one priority in Lucinda Price's life was to look good. She nipped, tucked, cut, plucked, shaved, tanned, crunched, squatted and starved. Then, she broke down.

All I Ever Wanted Was To Be Hot is a funny, provocative retrospective on the last thirty years of Western beauty standards. From the Pussycat Dolls to Victoria's Secret, The Girls of the Playboy Mansion to Lara Bingle, the media of the 2000s was littered with high profile examples of hotness as the highest form of social currency. Is it any wonder a girl growing up in that era might believe "good looks" were as integral to womanhood as having a pulse?

With her offbeat humour and incisive cultural commentary, Lucinda tells the unfiltered story of a young woman overcoming an eating disorder, illuminating our enduring obsession with appearance by holding a mirror up to herself, and in turn, all of us.

A hilarious, insightful deep dive into self image, desirability, pop-culture and power. A sparkling debut by one of Australia's most beloved creators and comedians, Lucinda Price aka Froomes.

'Brilliant, funny and brutally honest, this is a must-read for anyone trying to navigate through this incredibly complex, image-obsessed age.' Myf Warhurst

'If Tina Fey and David Sedaris had a child, it would be a book� this book.' Ryan Shelton



'My book of the year. Whip-smart. Hilarious. Honest ... Lucinda is a genius who captures and melds the deeply serious and deeply funny in a way few writers can.' Hannah Ferguson]]> 261 Lucinda Price 0648619176 Brenna 0 to-read 4.11
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]]> 207293869 A riveting and inspiring true story of two families linked by one heart—written by a bestselling author and palliative care doctor. The first of our organs to form and the last to die, the heart is both a simple pump and the symbol of what makes us human; as long as it continues to beat, there is hope. In The Story of a Heart, Dr. Rachel Clarke interweaves the history of medical innovations behind transplant surgery with the story of two children—one of whom desperately needs a new heart.

One summer day, nine-year-old Keira Ball was in a terrible car accident and suffered catastrophic brain injuries. As the rest of her body began to shut down, her heart continued to beat. In an act of extraordinary generosity, Keira’s parents and siblings immediately agreed that she would have wanted to be an organ donor.

Meanwhile nine-year-old Max Johnson had been in a hospital for nearly a year, valiantly fighting the virus that was causing his young heart to fail. When Max’s parents received the call they had been hoping for, they knew it came at a terrible cost to another family—in what Clarke calls “the brutal arithmetic of transplant surgery.�

The act of Keira’s heart resuming its rhythm inside Max’s body was a medical miracle. But this was only part of the story. While waiting on the transplant list, Max had become the hopeful face of a campaign to change the UK’s laws around organ donation. Following his successful surgery, Keira’s mother saw the little boy beaming on the front page of the newspaper and knew it was the same boy whose parents had recently sent her an anonymous letter overflowing with gratitude for her daughter’s heart. The two mothers began to exchange messages and eventually decided to meet. This is the unforgettable story of how one family’s grief transformed into a lifesaving gift. Clarke relates the urgent journey of Keira’s heart and explores the history of the remarkable surgery that made it possible, stretching back over a century and involving the knowledge and dedication not just of surgeons but of countless nurses and technicians, immunologists and paramedics. The Story of a Heart is a testament to compassion for the dying, the many ways we honor our loved ones, and the tenacity of love.]]> 256 Rachel Clarke 1668045435 Brenna 0 to-read 4.55 2024
author: Rachel Clarke
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.55
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]]> 58709510 The Butchering Art, presents the compelling, true story of a visionary surgeon who rebuilt the faces of the First World War’s injured heroes, and in the process ushered in the modern era of plastic surgery.

From the moment the first machine gun rang out over the Western Front, one thing was clear: humankind’s military technology had wildly surpassed its medical capabilities. Bodies were battered, gouged, hacked, and gassed. The First World War claimed millions of lives and left millions more wounded and disfigured. In the midst of this brutality, however, there were also those who strove to alleviate suffering. The Facemaker tells the extraordinary story of such an individual: the pioneering plastic surgeon Harold Gillies, who dedicated himself to reconstructing the burned and broken faces of the injured soldiers under his care.

Gillies, a Cambridge-educated New Zealander, became interested in the nascent field of plastic surgery after encountering the human wreckage on the front. Returning to Britain, he established one of the world’s first hospitals dedicated entirely to facial reconstruction. There, Gillies assembled a unique group of practitioners whose task was to rebuild what had been torn apart, to re-create what had been destroyed. At a time when losing a limb made a soldier a hero, but losing a face made him a monster to a society largely intolerant of disfigurement, Gillies restored not just the faces of the wounded but also their spirits.

The Facemaker places Gillies’s ingenious surgical innovations alongside the dramatic stories of soldiers whose lives were wrecked and repaired. The result is a vivid account of how medicine can be an art, and of what courage and imagination can accomplish in the presence of relentless horror.]]> 315 Lindsey Fitzharris 0241389372 Brenna 4 4.27 2022
author: Lindsey Fitzharris
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/08
date added: 2025/04/08
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]]> 220341389 John Green, the #1 bestselling author of The Anthropocene Reviewed and a passionate advocate for global healthcare reform, tells a deeply human story illuminating the fight against the world’s deadliest disease.

Tuberculosis has been entwined with humanity for millennia. Once romanticized as a malady of poets, today tuberculosis is a disease of poverty that walks the trails of injustice and inequity we blazed for it.

In 2019, John Green met Henry, a young tuberculosis patient at Lakka Government Hospital in Sierra Leone while traveling with Partners in Health. John became fast friends with Henry, a boy with spindly legs and a big, goofy smile. In the years since that first visit to Lakka, Green has become a vocal and dynamic advocate for increased access to treatment and wider awareness of the healthcare inequities that allow this curable, treatable infectious disease to also be the deadliest, killing 1.5 million people every year.

In Everything is Tuberculosis, John tells Henry’s story, woven through with the scientific and social histories of how tuberculosis has shaped our world and how our choices will shape the future of tuberculosis.]]> 208 John Green 0525556575 Brenna 0 to-read 4.49 2025
author: John Green
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.49
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]]> 50188782 336 Erika Engelhaupt 1426220979 Brenna 0 to-read 4.08 2021
author: Erika Engelhaupt
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2021
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date added: 2025/04/05
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]]> 203164357 The stage is set. Marooned overnight by a snowstorm in a grand country house are a cast of characters and a setting that even Agatha Christie might recognize � a vicar, an Army major, a Dowager, a sleuth and his sidekick - except that the sleuth is Jackson Brodie, and the ‘sidekick� is DC Reggie Chase.

The crumbling house - Burton Makepeace and its chatelaine the Dowager Lady Milton - suffered the loss of their last remaining painting of any value, a Turner, some years ago. The housekeeper, Sophie, who disappeared the same night, is suspected of stealing it.

Jackson, a reluctant hostage to the snowstorm, has been investigating the theft of another The Woman with a Weasel, a portrait, taken from the house of an elderly widow, on the morning she died. The suspect this time is the widow’s carer, Melanie. Is this a coincidence or is there a connection? And what secrets does The Woman with a Weasel hold? The puzzle is Jackson’s to solve. And let’s not forget that a convicted murderer is on the run on the moors around Burton Makepeace.

All the while, in a bid to make money, Burton Makepeace is determined to keep hosting a shambolic Murder Mystery that acts as a backdrop while the real drama is being played out in the house.

A brilliantly plotted, supremely entertaining, and utterly compulsive tour de force from a great writer at the height of her powers.]]> 320 Kate Atkinson 0385547994 Brenna 3 3.69 2024
author: Kate Atkinson
name: Brenna
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/03
date added: 2025/04/03
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]]> 230843277 Iphigenia’s true story lies beneath the songs of the bards and the whispers of Muses

As Greek warriors prepare for the Trojan War, Mycenaean princess Iphigenia is forced to endure the demands of angry gods and desperate kings. Separated from her mother and sister and exiled to an oppressive foreign land, she is bound by sacred duty to perform grim rituals that stain her hands and haunt her dreams.

Finally, after fourteen long years, she discovers an opportunity to escape and must decide if her longed-for home and stolen life are still worth fighting for.

This is a tale of survival, identity, and the eternal quest for belonging.

The Death and Life of Iphigenia will captivate fans of historical fiction and myth, as J. Susanne Wilson brings to light the inner strength and enduring courage of a woman who refuses to be forgotten.]]> 356 J. Susanne Wilson Brenna 0 to-read 4.00
author: J. Susanne Wilson
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.00
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date added: 2025/04/02
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]]> 62039165
Orphaned from infancy, Catherine de� Medici endured a tumultuous childhood. Married to the French king, she was widowed by forty, only to become the power behind the French throne during a period of intense civil strife. In 1546, Catherine gave birth to a daughter, Elisabeth de Valois, who would become Queen of Spain. Two years later, Catherine welcomed to her nursery the beguiling young Mary Queen of Scots, who would later become her daughter-in-law.

Together, Catherine, Elisabeth, and Mary lived through the sea changes that transformed sixteenth-century Europe, a time of expanding empires, religious discord, and populist revolt, as concepts of nationhood began to emerge and ideas of sovereignty inched closer to absolutism. They would learn that to rule as a queen was to wage a constant war against the deeply entrenched misogyny of their time.

Following the intertwined stories of the three women from girlhood through young adulthood, Leah Redmond Chang's Young Queens paints a picture of a world in which a woman could wield power at the highest level yet remain at the mercy of the state, her body serving as the currency of empire and dynasty, sacrificed to the will of husband, family, kingdom.]]> 416 Leah Redmond Chang 0374294488 Brenna 0 to-read 4.15 2023
author: Leah Redmond Chang
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/30
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]]> 127938747 From a visionary Mexican author, a hallucinatory, revelatory, colonial revenge story that reimagines the fall of Tenochtitlan.

One morning in 1519, conquistador Hernán Cortés entered the city of Tenochtitlan � today's Mexico City. Later that day, he would meet the emperor Moctezuma in a collision of two worlds, two empires, two languages, two possible futures.

Cortés was accompanied by his nine captains, his troops, and his two translators: Friar Aguilar, a taciturn, former slave, and Malinalli, a strategic, former princess. Greeted at a ceremonial welcome meal by the steely princess Atotoxli, sister and wife of Moctezuma, the Spanish nearly bungle their entrance to the city. As they await their meeting with Moctezuma � who is at a political, spiritual, and physical crossroads, and relies on hallucinogens to get himself through the day and in quest for any kind of answer from the gods � the Spanish are ensconced in the labyrinthine palace. Soon, one of Cortés’s captains, Jazmín Caldera, overwhelmed by the grandeur of the city, begins to question the ease with which they were welcomed into the city, and wonders at the risks of getting out alive, much less conquering the empire.

You Dreamed of Empires brings to life Tenochtitlan at its height, and reimagines its destiny. The incomparably original Alvaro Enrigue sets afire the moment of conquest and turns it into a moment of revolution, a restitutive, fantastical counter-attack, in a novel so electric and so unique that it feels like a dream.]]> 220 �lvaro Enrigue 059354479X Brenna 0 to-read 3.75 2022
author: �lvaro Enrigue
name: Brenna
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/28
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]]> 214537759 “Where are you, Mom?� So began Amy’s quest to solve a mystery trapped in the deep recesses of her own memory—a journey that would take her into the burgeoning field of psychedelic therapy, to the limits of the judicial system, and ultimately, home to the Texas panhandle, where her story began.

In her search for the truth, to understand and begin to recover from buried childhood trauma, Griffin interrogates the pursuit of perfectionism, control, and maintaining appearances that drives so many women, asking, when, in our path from girlhood to womanhood, did we learn to look outside ourselves for validation? What kind of freedom is possible if we accept the whole story and embrace who we really are? With hope, heart, and relentless honesty, she points a way forward for all of us, revealing the power of radical truth-telling to deepen our connections—with others and ourselves.]]> 288 Amy Griffin 0593731204 Brenna 0 to-read 4.17 2025
author: Amy Griffin
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/27
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]]> 1740908 Strawberry Fields.

The bestselling author of A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian is back with an "effervescent comedy" (The New Yorker)

The follow up to her hugely popular first novel presents a Canterbury Tales inspired picaresque that is also a biting satire of economic exploitation. When a ragtag international crew of migrant workers is forced to flee the strawberry fields they have been working in, they set off across England looking for employment. Displaying the same sense of compassion, social outrage, and gift for hilarity that she showed in A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, Marina Lewycka chronicles their bumpy road trip with a tender affection for her downtrodden characters and their search for a taste of the good life.]]> 310 Marina Lewycka 1905490321 Brenna 0 to-read 3.54 2007
author: Marina Lewycka
name: Brenna
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/27
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]]> 25692940 The Girl with the Dogs is a poignantly beautiful novella about what's really precious in life, from Miles Franklin Award-winning Anna Funder, author of All That I Am.

Amid the debris of their friends' marriages, Tess and Dan have hit the middle years relatively unscathed. But Tess senses she's at a hinge moment, poised between the life she thought she wanted and the one she long ago decided against. The demands of her Sydney family seem unrelenting: an uneasy teenage daughter, a father who has just been placed in care, the impending sale of her childhood home. Sent to London for a conference, she's unable to resist the pull of that relinquished life. What, she wonders, would it be like now? And might it have suited her better after all?

Deceptively concise, moving, elegant, The Girl with the Dogs was published online in 2014 under the title of Everything Precious.]]> 80 Anna Funder 0143573500 Brenna 0 to-read 3.52 2015
author: Anna Funder
name: Brenna
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/26
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]]> 98652084 A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum comes a wildly entertaining new history of Rome that uses the lives of 21 extraordinary women to upend our understanding of the ancient world.

The history of Rome has long been narrow and one-sided, essentially a history of "The Doing of Important Things," and as far as Roman historians have been concerned, women don't make that history. From Romulus through "the political stab-fest of the late Republic," and then on to all the emperors, Roman historians may deign to give you a wife or a mother to show how bad things become when women get out of control, but history is more than that.

Emma Southon's A Rome of One's Own is the best kind of correction. This is a retelling of the history of Rome with all the things Roman history writers relegate to the background, or designate as domestic, feminine, or worthless. This is a history of women who caused outrage, led armies in rebellion, wrote poetry; who lived independently or under the thumb of emperors. Told with humor and verve as well as a deep scholarly background, A Rome of One's Own highlights women overlooked and misunderstood, and through them offers a fascinating and groundbreaking chronicle of the ancient world.]]> 416 Emma Southon 1419760181 Brenna 0 to-read 4.15 2023
author: Emma Southon
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/19
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]]> 210451633 An invaluable reassessment of what we think we know about the daily lives of women in medieval Europe. ÌýPoet, Mystic, Widow, Wife charts the life and times of four medieval women—Marie de France, a poet; Julian of Norwich, a mystic and anchoress; Christine de Pizan, a widow and court writer; and Margery Kempe, a no-good wife—who all bucked convention and forged their own path. Largely forgotten by modern readers, these women have an astonishing amount to teach us about love, marriage, motherhood, friendship, and earning a living. Ìý Through these four writers, Hetta Howes engagingly reveals how everyday women lived, survived, and thrived in medieval times. Who did they marry and why? Were they expected to have children? Did they ever have extramarital affairs? Could they earn money and become self-sufficient? How did they make friends? Could they be leaders? What did they think about death—and what about life and their place in it? While in many ways the Middle Ages was a terrible time to be a woman, there were areas of life that were surprisingly progressive. Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife paints a vibrant portrait of these women, their world, and the ways they speak to us today.]]> 256 Hetta Howes 0520396588 Brenna 0 to-read 4.02 2024
author: Hetta Howes
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2024
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date added: 2025/03/19
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]]> 43107933
Jackson Brodie has relocated to a quiet seaside village, in the occasional company of his recalcitrant teenage son and an aging Labrador, both at the discretion of his ex-partner Julia. It’s picturesque, but there’s something darker lurking behind the scenes.

Jackson’s current job, gathering proof of an unfaithful husband for his suspicious wife, is fairly standard-issue, but a chance encounter with a desperate man on a crumbling cliff leads him into a sinister network—and back across the path of his old friend Reggie. Old secrets and new lies intersect in this breathtaking novel by one of the most dazzling and surprising writers at work today.]]> 352 Kate Atkinson Brenna 5 3.90 2019
author: Kate Atkinson
name: Brenna
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/13
date added: 2025/03/13
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]]> 59564386
If you’re feeling lonely or if you’ve ever felt unseen, if you’re emboldened by solitude or secretly longing for it: Welcome to The Lonely Stories. This cathartic collection of personal essays illuminates what the experience of being alone is like for all of us. Some of these stories are heartbreaking, such as Jesmyn Ward’s reckoning with the loss of her husband, Imani Perry’s confrontation with chronic illness, and Dina Nayeri’s reflection on immigrating to a foreign country. Others are witty, such as Lev Grossman’s rueful tale of heading to the woods alone or Anthony Doerr’s struggles with internet addiction. Still others celebrate solitude and the kind of clarity it can bring about, such as Claire Dederer’s journey toward sobriety and Lidia Yuknavitch’s sensual look at women and desire. Thoughtful and ultimately affirming, The Lonely Stories explores emotions that so often go undiscussed, and lets us all know that we’re not alone.]]> 252 Natalie Eve Garrett 194822660X Brenna 0 to-read 3.66 2022
author: Natalie Eve Garrett
name: Brenna
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/12
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]]> 212806636 A young woman and her lover are marooned on an island in this epic saga of love, faith, and defiance from the bestselling author of Sam.

Heir to a fortune, Marguerite is destined for a life of prosperity and gentility. Then she is orphaned, and her guardian—an enigmatic and volatile man—spends her inheritance and insists she accompany him on an expedition to New France. Isolated and afraid, Marguerite befriends her guardian’s servant and the two develop an intense attraction. But when their relationship is discovered, they are brutally punished and abandoned on a small island with no hope for rescue.

Once a child of privilege who dressed in gowns and laced pearls in her hair, Marguerite finds herself at the mercy of nature. As the weather turns, blanketing the island in ice, she discovers a faith she’d never before needed.

Inspired by the real life of a sixteenth-century heroine, Isola is the timeless story of a woman fighting for survival.]]> 368 Allegra Goodman 0593730089 Brenna 0 to-read 3.99 2025
author: Allegra Goodman
name: Brenna
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2025
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]]> 214151202 “The farmer is dead. He is dead, and all anyone wants to know is who killed him.�

Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident.

As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel’s life, tensions around the village rise and dangerous secrets and jealousies from the past resurface, this time with deadly consequences. Beth is forced to make a choice between the woman she once was, and the woman she has become.

A sweeping love story with the pace and twists of a thriller, Broken Country is a novel of simmering passion, impossible choices, and explosive consequences that toggles between the past and present to explore the far-reaching legacy of first love.]]> 320 Clare Leslie Hall 166807818X Brenna 0 to-read 4.39 2025
author: Clare Leslie Hall
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/10
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]]> 40121959 Miracle Creek is a powerhouse debut about how far we'll go to protect our families, and our deepest secrets.

In rural Miracle Creek, Virginia, Young and Pak Yoo run an experimental medical treatment device known as the Miracle Submarine. A pressurized oxygen chamber that patients enter for therapeutic “dives,� it's also a repository of hopes and dreams: the dream of a mom that her child can be like other kids; the dream of a young doctor desperate to cure his infertility and save his marriage; the dream of the Yoos themselves, Korean immigrants who have come to the United States so their teenage daughter can have a better life.

When the oxygen chamber mysteriously explodes, killing two people, all these dreams shatter with it, and the ensuing murder trial uncovers imaginable secrets and lies. In Miracle Creek, Angie Kim takes a classic form—courtroom drama—and draws on her own experience as an immigrant, a lawyer, and the mother of a real-life "submarine" patient to turn it into something wholly original, unputdownable . . . real. This is a spellbinding novel by an exciting new voice.]]> 355 Angie Kim 0374156026 Brenna 0 to-read 3.86 2019
author: Angie Kim
name: Brenna
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/09
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]]> 10822858
But she isn’t dead � yet.

Darkly humorous, propulsive, and atmospheric, The Keeper of Lost Causes introduces American readers to the mega-bestselling series fast becoming an international sensation.]]> 400 Jussi Adler-Olsen 0525952489 Brenna 0 to-read 3.98 2007
author: Jussi Adler-Olsen
name: Brenna
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/05
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]]> 59364173
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.]]> 320 Jennette McCurdy Brenna 4 4.45 2022
author: Jennette McCurdy
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/01
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]]> 76706470 576 Sarah J. Maas Brenna 4 4.44 2014
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2014
rating: 4
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date added: 2025/03/04
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]]> 76707900 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

Everyone Celaena Sardothien loves has been taken from her. But she’s at last returned to the empire—for vengeance, to rescue her once-glorious kingdom, and to confront the shadows of her past�

She has embraced her identity as Aelin Galathynius, Queen of Terrasen. But before she can reclaim her throne, she must fight.

She will fight for her cousin, a warrior prepared to die for her. She will fight for her friend, a young man trapped in an unspeakable prison. And she will fight for her people, enslaved to a brutal king and awaiting their lost queen’s triumphant return.

The fourth volume in the New York Times bestselling series continues Celaena’s epic journey and builds to a passionate, agonizing crescendo that might just shatter her world.]]> 648 Sarah J. Maas 1639731008 Brenna 4 4.64 2015
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.64
book published: 2015
rating: 4
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]]> 76705490 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

"A line that should never be crossed is about to be breached.

It puts this entire castle in jeopardy—and the life of your friend."

From the throne of glass rules a king with a fist of iron and a soul as black as pitch. Assassin Celaena Sardothien won a brutal contest to become his Champion. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown. She hides her secret vigilantly; she knows that the man she serves is bent on evil.

Keeping up the deadly charade becomes increasingly difficult when Celaena realizes she is not the only one seeking justice. As she tries to untangle the mysteries buried deep within the glass castle, her closest relationships suffer. It seems no one is above questioning her allegiances—not the Crown Prince Dorian; not Chaol, the Captain of the Guard; not even her best friend, Nehemia, a foreign princess with a rebel heart.

Then one terrible night, the secrets they have all been keeping lead to an unspeakable tragedy. As Celaena's world shatters, she will be forced to give up the very thing most precious to her and decide once and for all where her true loyalties lie... and whom she is ultimately willing to fight for.]]> 420 Sarah J. Maas 1639730966 Brenna 3 4.34 2013
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2013
rating: 3
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]]> 76713323 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

The long path to the throne has only just begun for Aelin Galathynius as war looms on the horizon. Loyalties have been broken and bought, friends have been lost and gained, and those who possess magic find themselves at odds with those who don't.

With her heart sworn to the warrior-prince by her side, and her fealty pledged to the people she is determined to save, Aelin will delve into the depths of her power to protect those she loves. But as monsters emerge from the horrors of the past, and dark forces become poised to claim her world, the only chance for salvation will lie in a desperate quest that may mark the end of everything Aelin holds dear.

In this breathtaking fifth installment of the New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass series, Aelin will have to choose what—and who—to sacrifice if she's to keep the world of Erilea from breaking apart.]]> 693 Sarah J. Maas 1639731024 Brenna 4 4.65 2016
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.65
book published: 2016
rating: 4
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]]> 76714487 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

Chaol Westfall and Nesryn Faliq have arrived in the shining city of Antica to forge an alliance with the Khagan of the Southern Continent, whose vast armies are Erilea's last hope. But they have also come to Antica for another purpose: to seek healing at the famed Torre Cesme for the wounds Chaol received in Rifthold.

After enduring unspeakable horrors as a child, Yrene Towers has no desire to help the young lord from Adarlan, let alone heal him. Yet she has sworn an oath to assist those in need—and will honor it. But Lord Westfall carries shadows from his own past, and Yrene soon comes to realize they could engulf them both.

In this sweeping parallel novel to the New York Times bestselling Empire of Storms, Chaol, Nesryn, and Yrene will have to draw on every scrap of their resilience if they wish to save their friends. But while they become entangled in the political webs of the khaganate, deep in the shadows of mighty mountains where warriors soar on legendary ruks, long-awaited answers slumber. Answers that might offer their world a chance at survival—or doom them all . . .]]> 663 Sarah J. Maas 1639731040 Brenna 4 4.26 2017
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2017
rating: 4
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]]> 76715522 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

Aelin Galathynius has vowed to save her people � but at a tremendous cost. Locked within an iron coffin by the Queen of the Fae, Aelin must draw upon her fiery will as she endures months of torture. The knowledge that yielding to Maeve will doom those she loves keeps her from breaking, but her resolve is unraveling with each passing day�

With Aelin captured, friends and allies are scattered to different fates. Some bonds will grow even deeper, while others will be severed forever. As destinies weave together at last, all must fight if Erilea is to have any hope of salvation.

Years in the making, Sarah J. Maas's New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass series draws to an explosive conclusion as Aelin fights to save herself―and the promise of a better world.]]> 984 Sarah J. Maas 1639731067 Brenna 4 4.74 2018
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.74
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/03
date added: 2025/03/04
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]]> 213870083 A funny, fiercely intelligent, and moving collection exploring marriage, friendship, fame, and artistic ambition—including a story that revisits the main character from Curtis Sittenfeld’s iconic novel Prep—from the New York Times bestselling author of Eligible and Romantic Comedy

In her second story collection, Sittenfeld shows why she’s as beloved for her short fiction as she is for her novels. In these dazzling stories, she conjures up characters so real that they seem like old friends, laying bare the moments when their long held beliefs are overturned.

In “The Patron Saints of Middle Age,� a woman visits two friends she hasn’t seen since her divorce. In “A for Alone,� a married artist embarks on a creative project intended to disprove the so-called Mike Pence Rule, which suggests that women and men can’t spend time alone together without lusting after each other. And in “Lost but Not Forgotten,� Sittenfeld gives readers of her novel Prep a window into the world of her beloved character Lee Fiora, decades later, when Lee attends an alumni reunion at her boarding school.

Hilarious, thought-provoking, and full of tenderness for her characters, Sittenfeld’s stories peel back layer after layer of our inner lives, keeping us riveted to the page with her utterly distinctive voice.]]> 320 Curtis Sittenfeld 0593446739 Brenna 0 to-read 3.91 2025
author: Curtis Sittenfeld
name: Brenna
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/26
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]]> 45300567
Mariana Andros is a brilliant but troubled group therapist who becomes fixated on The Maidens when one member, a friend of Mariana’s niece Zoe, is found murdered in Cambridge.

Mariana, who was once herself a student at the university, quickly suspects that behind the idyllic beauty of the spires and turrets, and beneath the ancient traditions, lies something sinister. And she becomes convinced that, despite his alibi, Edward Fosca is guilty of the murder. But why would the professor target one of his students? And why does he keep returning to the rites of Persephone, the maiden, and her journey to the underworld?

When another body is found, Mariana’s obsession with proving Fosca’s guilt spirals out of control, threatening to destroy her credibility as well as her closest relationships. But Mariana is determined to stop this killer, even if it costs her everything—including her own life.]]> 337 Alex Michaelides 1250304458 Brenna 0 to-read 3.61 2021
author: Alex Michaelides
name: Brenna
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/13
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]]> 46158747
Some of these women may have turned to the “dark arts� in order to divine the future or obtain healing potions, but the purpose of the accusations was purely political. Despite their status, these women were vulnerable because of their sex, as the men around them moved them like pawns for political gains.

In Royal Witches, Gemma Hollman explores the lives and the cases of these so-called witches, placing them in the historical context of fifteenth-century England, a setting rife with political upheaval and war. In a time when the line between science and magic was blurred, these trials offer a tantalizing insight into how malicious magic would be used and would later cause such mass hysteria in centuries to come.]]> 320 Gemma Hollman 1643133322 Brenna 0 to-read 3.75 2019
author: Gemma Hollman
name: Brenna
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/10
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]]> 61272037 The riveting story of two women whose divergent personalities and positions impacted the court of Edward III, one ofÌýmedieval England's greatest kings.

There were two women in Edward III's Philippa of Hainault, his wife of forty yearsÌýand bearer of twelve children, and his mistress, Alice Perrers, the twenty-year-old who took the king's fancy as his ageing wife grew sick. After Philippa's death Alice began to dominate court, amassing a fortune and persuading the elderly Edward to promote her friends and punish her enemies.

InÌýThe Queen and the Mistress, Gemma Hollman brings the story of these two women to life and contrasts the "perfect" medieval queen—the pious, unpolitical, steady Philippa—with the impertinent youth—the wily, charismatic, manipulative Alice. One died a royal, adored, while the full force of the English court united against Alice, wresting both money and power from her and leaving her with nothing but a mission to try to reclaim all that was lost.

Both women had wealth and power but used vitally different methods to dispense it.ÌýÌýInÌýThe Queen and the Mistress,ÌýHollman brings to the fore their differences and similarities in a unique look at women and power in the Middle Ages.]]> 246 Gemma Hollman 1639363602 Brenna 0 to-read 4.02
author: Gemma Hollman
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.02
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]]> 59927713
Daughters of the North reframes this turbulent period in history by focusing on Jean, who became Countess of Sutherland. Follow her from the intrigues of Mary’s court to the blood feuds and clan battles of the Far North of Scotland, from her place as the daughter of the ‘King of the North� to her disastrous union with the infamous Earl of Bothwell � and her lasting legacy to the Earldom of Sutherland.]]> 528 Jennifer Morag Henderson 1913207757 Brenna 0 to-read 4.17 2022
author: Jennifer Morag Henderson
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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]]> 85246848
Every queen had ladies-in-waiting. Her confidantes and chaperones, they are the forgotten agents of the Tudor court. Ever present and yet hidden behind the scenes, these women held the secrets and the hearts of some of the Tudor period's most powerful men and women. Experts at survival, negotiating the competing demands of their families and their queen, the ladies-in-waiting of Henry VIII's wives were far more than decorative 'extras': they were serious political players who changed the course of history, and four of them became queen themselves. The Waiting Game is the first to tell their story.]]> 293 Nicola Clark 1474622232 Brenna 0 to-read 3.98 2024
author: Nicola Clark
name: Brenna
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/09
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]]> 198493694
One of history’s most iconic figures, Cleopatra is rightly remembered as a clever and charismatic ruler. But few today realize that she was the last in a long line of Egyptian queens who bore that name.  �
  �
In The Cleopatras , historian Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones tells the dramatic story of these seven incomparable women, vividly recapturing the lost world of Hellenistic Egypt and tracing the kingdom’s final centuries before its fall to Rome. The Cleopatras were Greek-speaking descendants of Ptolemy, the general who conquered Egypt alongside Alexander the Great. They were closely related as mothers, daughters, sisters, half-sisters, and nieces. Each wielded absolute power, easily overshadowing their husbands or sons, and all proved to be shrewd and capable leaders. Styling themselves as goddess-queens, the Cleopatras ruled through the canny deployment of arcane rituals, opulent spectacles, and unparalleled wealth. They navigated political turmoil and court intrigues, led armies into battle and commanded fleets of ships, and ruthlessly dispatched their dynastic rivals.   �
  �
The Cleopatras is a fascinating and richly textured biography of seven extraordinary women, restoring these queens to their deserved place among history’s greatest rulers.   Ìý]]> 384 Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones 1541602927 Brenna 0 to-read 3.97 2024
author: Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
name: Brenna
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/09
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]]> 216119498 What if everyone in your family was given a DNA test at would there be any surprise results? For two women the answers are shocking, and dangerous. Perfect for readers of Liane Moriarty and Sally Hepworth.


Families lie. DNA doesn't.

Isobel Ashworth breezes through life, blissfully accustomed to the privilege which comes with her family name. But that changes when she arrives in the exclusive town of Hartwell. Sent there by her father to complete a controversial property development - and prove herself a serious player in the succession plan - her perfect life is unravelling. Isobel's fiance is telling lies, the project is a disaster and the locals hate her; could her father be setting her up to fail?

Buzzing with the promise of a big story, journalist Meg Hunter arrives in Hartwell to expose the Ashworth family dealings, and transform her faltering career. As she follows the trail of corruption, she uncovers clues about her mother's mysterious past.

When the next-gen Ashworths each receive an anonymous Christmas gift of a DNA testing kit, Isobel questions everything she knows about her family. Isobel is drawn to Meg and her pursuit of the truth ... but someone out there will stop at nothing to hide the secrets of both families.



'The Inheritance is a smart debut tackling the seductive issues of wealth, succession and family secrets. Taut, propulsive and with enticing Succession-meets-Jane Harper vibes, this novel is perfect for suburban noir superfans. I whizzed through it.' - Ali Lowe, author of The School Run

'Secrets, power and corruption - The Inheritance is an intriguing mystery and family drama.' -Vanessa McCausland, author of The Last Illusion of Paige White

'Books about families are my catnip and The Inheritance didn't disappoint. Take one establishment family with the money to hide anything then throw in a DNA test that never lies and sit back and enjoy the ride that Kate Horan takes you on. A fabulous debut!' - Fiona Lowe, author of The Accident

'The Inheritance is an incredibly strong debut from Kate Horan, full of all the things I love in a novel - family secrets, small-town intrigue and rich people behaving badly. I ripped through it faster than you can say the words 'DNA test'.' - Cassie Hamer, author of The Truth About Faking It

'A gripping story about wealth, entitlement, corruption and, most of all, family. Kate Horan's debut novel is sophisticated and un-put-down-able.' - B.M. Carroll, author of One of Us is Missing]]> 361 Kate Horan 1038940338 Brenna 0 to-read 3.98
author: Kate Horan
name: Brenna
average rating: 3.98
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/08
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]]> 76703559 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

In a land without magic, where the king rules with an iron hand, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She comes not to kill the king, but to win her freedom. If she defeats twenty-three killers, thieves, and warriors in a competition, she is released from prison to serve as the king's champion. Her name is Celaena Sardothien.

The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her. But something evil dwells in the castle of glass—and it's there to kill. When her competitors start dying one by one, Celaena's fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival, and a desperate quest to root out the evil before it destroys her world.]]> 406 Sarah J. Maas 163973094X Brenna 2 Maybe the writing, plot, editing etc will improve, I assume it does given there’s so many books in the series. Undecided whether I’ll attempt the second book. ]]> 4.18 2012
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2012
rating: 2
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/02/01
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I found this really difficult to finish. The writing is fucking awful. I felt this way about A court of thorns and roses but even that wasn’t as disastrous.
Maybe the writing, plot, editing etc will improve, I assume it does given there’s so many books in the series. Undecided whether I’ll attempt the second book.
]]> 4806 Longitude is the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest. The "longitude problem" was the thorniest dilemma of the eighteenth century. Lacking the ability to measure longitude, sailors throughout the great ages of exploration had been literally lost at sea.

At the heart of Dava Sobel's fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation and horology stands the figure of John Harrison, self-taught Yorkshire clockmaker, and his forty-year obsession with building the perfect timekeeper. Battling against the establishment, Harrison stood alone in pursuit of his solution and the £20,000 reward offered by Parliament.]]> 184 Dava Sobel 0802714625 Brenna 0 3.97 1995
author: Dava Sobel
name: Brenna
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1995
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/28
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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 Brenna 3 4.17 2025
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2025
rating: 3
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date added: 2025/01/28
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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 Brenna 5 4.33 2023
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/28
date added: 2025/01/28
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]]> 61431922 Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders...

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile� humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die]]> 517 Rebecca Yarros 1649374046 Brenna 5 4.56 2023
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/28
date added: 2025/01/28
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The writing is solid but not spectacular with incredibly predictable tropes and I ate up every damn second of it, neglecting my child in the process. 5 stars for which I hate myself.
]]> 218724247 'James comes alive in full flamboyance � Russell expertly weaves the bedchamber gossip into the tapestry of a tumultuous reign' SUNDAY TIMES

'Brings the backbiting and power struggles of the Jacobean court to life with wit and vigour' OBSERVER

‘A warts and all story told with compassion� PHILIPPA GREGORY

_______________________________

‘Elizabeth was king,

Then James was queen.� � English author (1603)

James Stuart, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland did not always love wisely, but he never failed to do so boldly.

He fell in love three times � with a Scottish lord, a knight and George Villiers, ‘the handsomest man in the whole world�. He was infatuated three more times � with a Highland earl, a Welsh lord and an English spy.

We know so much about the six wives of Henry VIII, why not the six loves of James I?

This groundbreaking new book puts James � genius, liar, spendthrift, idealist, witch-hunter � and the men he loved at the centre of one of the most dramatic stories in British royal history.

Beginning with the brutal and mysterious murder of his father in 1567, James’s life encompassed kidnapping, witchcraft trials, torture, his mother’s beheading, poison, political radicalism, religious fundamentalism, a queen’s alleged abortion, passionate sex, strong love, stronger hate, espionage, brothels, and a decade-long love affair that ended in assassination.

It is unquestionably one of the most gripping stories in British history, retold in Gareth Russell’s Queen James with scholarship, biographical insight and wit.

________________________________

'Books like this don't come along very often. Told with Gareth Russell's characteristic verve and exquisite eye for detail, it is a story so compelling and surprising that it feels as if it has been hiding in plain sight for 400 years. A stunning achievement and a must for history fans everywhere' TRACY BORMAN]]> 484 Gareth Russell 0008660875 Brenna 0 to-read 4.44
author: Gareth Russell
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.44
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]]> 214493977 Did you love Madeline Miller’s Circe? Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls? Jennifer Saint's Elektra? Natalie Haynes� A Thousand Ships?

But did you ever wonder who the real women behind the myths of the Trojan War were?

Now award-winning classicist and historian Emily Hauser takes readers on an epic journey to uncover the astonishing true story of the real women behind ancient Greece’s greatest legends � and the real heroes of those ancient epics, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.

Because, contrary to perceptions built up over three millennia, ancient history is not all about men � and it's not only men's stories that deserve to be told . . .

In Mythica Emily Hauser tells, for the first time, the extraordinary stories of the real women behind some of the western world’s greatest legends. Following in their footsteps, digging into the history behind Homer’s epic poems, piecing together evidence from the original texts, recent astonishing archaeological finds and the latest DNA studies, she reveals who these women � queens, mothers, warriors, slaves � were, how they lived, and how history has (or has not � until now) remembered them.

A riveting new history of the Bronze Age Aegean and a journey through Homer’s epics charted entirely by women � from Helen of Troy, Briseis, Cassandra and Aphrodite to Circe, Athena, Hera, Calypso and Penelope � Mythica is a ground-breaking reassessment of the reality behind the often-mythologized women of Greece’s greatest epics, and of the ancient world itself as we learn ever more about it.]]> 496 Emily Hauser 1529912660 Brenna 0 to-read 4.55 2025
author: Emily Hauser
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/17
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]]> 54370023 An alternative cover edition for this ASIN can be found here.
A day like any other for security chief Tracy Waterhouse, until she makes a shocking impulse purchase. That one moment of madness is all it takes for Tracy's humdrum world to be turned upside down, the tedium of everyday life replaced by fear and danger at every turn.

Witnesses to Tracy's outrageous exchange in the Merrion Centre in Leeds are Tilly, an elderly actress teetering on the brink of her own disaster, and Jackson Brodie, who has returned to his home county in search of someone else's roots. All three characters learn that the past is never history and that no good deed goes unpunished.

The fourth Jackson Brodie novel: literary crime from the prizewinning number-one bestselling author of Big Sky and Transcription.]]> 488 Kate Atkinson Brenna 4 4.27 2010
author: Kate Atkinson
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/13
date added: 2025/01/13
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]]> 58085548 here.

On a hot summer day, Joanna Mason's family slowly wanders home along a country lane. A moment later, Joanna's life is changed forever.
On a dark night thirty years later, ex-detective Jackson Brodie finds himself on a train that is both crowded and late. Lost in his thoughts, he suddenly hears a shocking sound.
At the end of a long day, 16-year-old Reggie is looking forward to watching a little TV. Then a terrifying noise shatters her peaceful evening. Luckily, Reggie makes it a point to be prepared for an emergency.
These three lives come together in unexpected and deeply thrilling ways in the latest novel from Kate Atkinson, the critically acclaimed author who Harlan Coben calls "an absolute must-read."]]> 466 Kate Atkinson 0552772453 Brenna 5 3.90 2008
author: Kate Atkinson
name: Brenna
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/05
date added: 2025/01/05
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]]> 50556927 Behind the Scenes at the Museum, which captured the Whitbread First Novel Award. She followed that success with four other books, the last of which was Case Histories, her first foray into the mystery-suspense-detective genre. In that book she introduced detective Jackson Brodie, who reopened three cold cases and ended up a millionaire. A great deal happened in-between.

In One Good Turn Jackson returns, following his girlfriend, Julia the actress, to the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh. He manages to fall into all kinds of trouble, starting with witnessing a brutal attack by "Honda Man" on another man stuck in a traffic jam. Is this road rage or something truly sinister? Another witness is Martin Canning, better known as Alex Blake, the writer. Martin is a shy, withdrawn, timid sort who, in a moment of unlikely action, flings a satchel at the attacker and spins him around, away from his victim. Gloria Hatter, wife of Graham, a millionaire property developer who is about to have all his secrets uncovered, is standing in a nearby queue with a friend when the attack takes place. There is nastiness afoot, and everyone is involved. Nothing is coincidental.

Through a labyrinthine plot which is hard to follow because the points of view are constantly changing, the real story is played out, complete with Russians, false and mistaken identities, dead bodies, betrayals, and all manner of violent encounters. Jackson gets pulled in to the investigation by Louise Monroe, a police detective and mother of an errant 14-year-old. There might be yet another novel to follow which will take up the connection those two forge in this book. Or, Jackson might just go back to France and feed apples to the local livestock.]]> 544 Kate Atkinson 0552772445 Brenna 4 3.88 2006
author: Kate Atkinson
name: Brenna
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/02
date added: 2025/01/02
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]]> 22929602
What Belongs to You is a stunning debut novel of desire and its consequences. With lyric intensity and startling eroticism, Garth Greenwell has created an indelible story about the ways in which our pasts and cultures, our scars and shames can shape who we are and determine how we love.

Listening length: 6 hours, 11 minutes]]> 195 Garth Greenwell 0374288224 Brenna 0 to-read 3.79 2016
author: Garth Greenwell
name: Brenna
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/31
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]]> 205363938 A medical crisis brings one man close to death—and to love, art, and beauty—in a profound and luminous novel by award-winning author Garth Greenwell.

A poet's life is turned inside out by a sudden, wrenching pain. The pain brings him to his knees, and eventually to the ICU. Confined to bed, plunged into the dysfunctional American healthcare system, he struggles to understand what is happening to his body, as someone who has lived for many years in his mind.

This is a searching, sweeping novel set at the furthest edges of human experience, where the forces that give life value—art, memory, poetry, music, care—are thrown into sharp relief. Time expands and contracts. Sudden intimacies bloom. Small Rain surges beyond the hospital to encompass a radiant vision of human life: our shared vulnerability, the limits and possibilities of sympathy, the ideal of art and the fragile dream of America. Above all, this is a love story of the most unexpected kind.]]> 306 Garth Greenwell 0374279543 Brenna 0 to-read 4.05 2024
author: Garth Greenwell
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/31
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]]> 214273049

She’s a passionate Western Bulldogs fan (with an imperfect grasp of the rules) who loves the epic theatre of AFL football. But her devotion to the under-16s offers her something else. This is her chance to connect with her youngest grandchild, to be close to him before he rushes headlong into manhood. To witness his triumphs and defeats, to fear for his safety in battle, to gasp and to cheer for his team as it fights for a place in the finals.


With her sharp eye, her generous wit and her warm humour, Garner documents this pivotal moment, both as part of the story and as silent witness. The Season is an unexpected and exuberant a celebration of the nobility, grace and grit of team spirit, a reflection on the nature of masculinity, and a tribute to the game’s power to thrill us.]]> 0 Helen Garner 1922791814 Brenna 0 to-read 4.12 2024
author: Helen Garner
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
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]]> 16243 1 A little girl disappears in the night.
2 A beautiful young office worker falls to a maniac's attack.
3 A new mother is overwhelmed by demands from her baby and husband - until a fit of rage creates a grisly, bloody escape.
Result : Startling connections and discoveries emerge. . . .]]> 389 Kate Atkinson 0316010707 Brenna 5 3.79 2004
author: Kate Atkinson
name: Brenna
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/27
date added: 2024/12/27
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]]> 40916679
Pretty and popular high school senior Andie Bell was murdered by her boyfriend, Sal Singh, who then killed himself. It was all anyone could talk about. And five years later, Pip sees how the tragedy still haunts her town.

But she can't shake the feeling that there was more to what happened that day. She knew Sal when she was a child, and he was always so kind to her. How could he possibly have been a killer?

Now a senior herself, Pip decides to reexamine the closed case for her final project, at first just to cast doubt on the original investigation. But soon she discovers a trail of dark secrets that might actually prove Sal innocent . . . and the line between past and present begins to blur. Someone in Fairview doesn't want Pip digging around for answers, and now her own life might be in danger.]]> 433 Holly Jackson 1405293187 Brenna 4 4.29 2019
author: Holly Jackson
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/25
date added: 2024/12/25
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]]> 176443093
Patric Gagne realized she made others uncomfortable before she started kindergarten. Something about her caused people to react in a way she didn’t understand. She suspected it was because she didn’t feel things the way other kids did. Emotions like fear, guilt, and empathy eluded her. For the most part, she felt nothing. And she didn’t like the way that “nothing� felt.

She did her best to pretend she was like everyone else, but the constant pressure to conform to a society she knew rejected anyone like her was unbearable. So Patric stole. She lied. She was occasionally violent. She became an expert lock-picker and home-invader. All with the goal of replacing the nothingness with...something.

In college, Patric finally confirmed what she’d long suspected. She was a sociopath. But even though it was the very first personality disorder identified—well over 200 years ago—sociopathy had been neglected by mental health professionals for decades. She was told there was no treatment, no hope for a normal life. She found herself haunted by sociopaths in pop culture, madmen and evil villains who are considered monsters. Her future looked grim.

But when Patric reconnects with an old flame, she gets a glimpse of a future beyond her diagnosis. If she’s capable of love, it must mean that she isn’t a monster. With the help of her sweetheart (and some curious characters she meets along the way) she embarks on a mission to prove that the millions of Americans who share her diagnosis aren’t all monsters either.

This is the inspiring story of her journey to change her fate and how she managed to build a life full of love and hope.]]> 368 Patric Gagne 166800318X Brenna 4 3.74 2024
author: Patric Gagne
name: Brenna
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/21
date added: 2024/12/21
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]]> 8171378
Wilkerson tells this interwoven story through the lives of three unforgettable protagonists: Ida Mae Gladney, a sharecropper’s wife, who in 1937 fled Mississippi for Chicago; sharp and quick-tempered George Starling, who in 1945 fled Florida for Harlem, and Robert Foster, a surgeon who left Louisiana in 1953 in hopes of making it in California.

Wilkerson brilliantly captures their first treacherous cross-country journeys by car and train and their new lives in colonies in the New World. The Warmth of Other Suns is a bold, remarkable, and riveting work, a superb account of an “unrecognized immigration� within our own land. Through the breadth of its narrative, the beauty of the writing, the depth of its research, and the fullness of the people and lives portrayed herein, this book is a modern classic.]]> 622 Isabel Wilkerson 0679444327 Brenna 5 4.45 2010
author: Isabel Wilkerson
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/15
date added: 2024/12/15
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]]> 60784588 New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong’s Rockton Novels had one of the most unique towns in crime fiction. Murder at Haven's Rock is a spinoff, a fresh start... with a few new dangers that threaten everything before it even begins.

Haven’s Rock, Yukon. Population: 0

Deep in the Yukon wilderness, a town is being built. A place for people to disappear, a fresh start from a life on the run. Haven’s Rock isn’t the first town of this kind, something detective Casey Duncan and her husband, Sheriff Eric Dalton, know first hand. They met in the original town of Rockton. But greed and deception led the couple to financing a new refuge for those in need. This time around, they get to decide which applicants are approved for residency.

There’s only one rule in Haven’s Rock: stay out of the forest. When two of the town's construction crew members break it and go missing, Casey and Eric are called in ahead of schedule to track them down. When a body is discovered, well hidden with evidence of foul play, Casey and Eric must find out what happened to the dead woman, and locate the still missing man. The woman stumbled upon something she wasn’t supposed to see, and the longer Casey and Eric don’t know what happened, the more danger everyone is in.]]> 340 Kelley Armstrong 1250865417 Brenna 1 3.99 2023
author: Kelley Armstrong
name: Brenna
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2023
rating: 1
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date added: 2024/12/15
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]]> 171793386
From the #1 internationally bestselling author of The Murder Rule comes an emotional novel of suspense about two families at war.

Nina and Simon are the perfect couple. Young, fun and deeply in love. Until they leave for a weekend at his family’s cabin in Vermont, and only Simon comes home.

WHAT HAPPENED TO NINA?

Nobody knows. Simon’s explanation about what happened in their last hours together doesn’t add up. Nina’s parents push the police for answers, and Simon’s parents rush to protect him. They hire expensive lawyers and a PR firm that quickly ramps up a vicious, nothing-is-off-limits media campaign.

HOW FAR WILL HIS FAMILY GO TO KEEP HIM SAFE?

Soon, facts are lost in a swirl of accusation and counter-accusation. Everyone chooses a side, and the story goes viral, fueled by armchair investigators and wild conspiracy theories and illustrated with pretty pictures taken from Nina’s social media accounts. Journalists descend on their small Vermont town, followed by a few obsessive "fans."

HOW FAR WILL HER FAMILY GO TO GET TO THE TRUTH?

Nina’s family is under siege, but they never lose sight of the only thing that really matters—finding their daughter. Out-gunned by Simon’s wealthy, powerful family, Nina’s parents recognize that if playing by the rules won’t get them anywhere, it’s time to break them.]]> 328 Dervla McTiernan Brenna 5 4.05 2024
author: Dervla McTiernan
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/15
date added: 2024/12/15
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]]> 199347538 Somewhere Beyond the Sea is the hugely anticipated sequel to TJ Klune’s The House in the Cerulean Sea, one of the best-loved and best-selling fantasy novels of the past decade. Featuring gorgeous orange sprayed edges!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Somewhere Beyond the Sea is a story of resistance, lovingly told, about the daunting experience of fighting for the life you want to live and doing the work to keep it.]]> 416 T.J. Klune 125088120X Brenna 3 4.16 2024
author: T.J. Klune
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/13
date added: 2024/12/13
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]]> 3077
The women at the center of The Enchanted April are alike only in their dissatisfaction with their everyday lives. They find each other—and the castle of their dreams—through a classified ad in a London newspaper one rainy February afternoon. The ladies expect a pleasant holiday, but they don’t anticipate that the month they spend in Portofino will reintroduce them to their true natures and reacquaint them with joy. Now, if the same transformation can be worked on their husbands and lovers, the enchantment will be complete.

The Enchanted April was a best-seller in both England and the United States, where it was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection, and set off a craze for tourism to Portofino. More recently, the novel has been the inspiration for a major film and a Broadway play.]]> 232 Elizabeth von Arnim Brenna 0 to-read 3.90 1922
author: Elizabeth von Arnim
name: Brenna
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1922
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> 139399948 In the seventh installment in the Strike series, Cormoran and Robin must rescue a man ensnared in the trap of a dangerous cult.

Private Detective Cormoran Strike is contacted by a worried father whose son, Will, has gone to join a religious cult in the depths of the Norfolk countryside.

The Universal Humanitarian Church is, on the surface, a peaceable organization that campaigns for a better world. Yet Strike discovers that beneath the surface there are deeply sinister undertones, and unexplained deaths.

In order to try to rescue Will, Strike's business partner, Robin Ellacott, decides to infiltrate the cult, and she travels to Norfolk to live incognito among its members. But in doing so, she is unprepared for the dangers that await her there or for the toll it will take on her. . .

Utterly pulse-pounding, The Running Grave moves Strike's and Robin's story forward in this epic, unforgettable seventh installment of the series.]]> 960 Robert Galbraith 0316572101 Brenna 5 4.56 2023
author: Robert Galbraith
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2023
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/12/03
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]]> 199531795
Eleanor has always wanted to do everything "right," including falling in love—but she’s never met a boy she was interested in. She’d much rather spend time with her best friend, George, and beloved cousin Charlotte. However, when a new suitor comes to town, she finds her closest friendships threatened, forcing her to rethink what "right" means and confront feelings she never knew she had.

Inspired by Jane Austen and queer history, I Shall Never Fall in Love shines a light on what it means to be true to yourself and rewrites the rules for what makes a happily ever after.]]> 288 Hari Conner 035868238X Brenna 0 to-read 4.28 2024
author: Hari Conner
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> 60144955
When frantic, disheveled 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 . . .]]> 1391 Robert Galbraith 0316473537 Brenna 5 4.07 2022
author: Robert Galbraith
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/11/16
shelves:
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]]> 51807232
Strike has never tackled a cold case before, let alone one forty years old. But despite the slim chance of success, he is intrigued and takes it on; adding to the long list of cases that he and his partner in the agency, Robin Ellacott, are currently working on. And Robin herself is also juggling a messy divorce and unwanted male attention, as well as battling her own feelings about Strike.

As Strike and Robin investigate Margot's disappearance, they come up against a fiendishly complex case with leads that include tarot cards, a psychopathic serial killer and witnesses who cannot all be trusted. And they learn that even cases decades old can prove to be deadly . . .]]> 944 Robert Galbraith 0751579939 Brenna 5 4.32 2020
author: Robert Galbraith
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/03
date added: 2024/11/03
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]]> 36204075 SHE PLANNED HER OWN FUNERAL. BUT DID SHE ARRANGE HER OWN MURDER?

New York Times bestselling author of Magpie Murders and Moriarty, Anthony Horowitz has yet again brilliantly reinvented the classic crime novel, this time writing a fictional version of himself as the Watson to a modern-day Holmes.

One bright spring morning in London, Diana Cowper � the wealthy mother of a famous actor - enters a funeral parlor. She is there to plan her own service.

Six hours later she is found dead, strangled with a curtain cord in her own home.

Enter disgraced police detective Daniel Hawthorne, a brilliant, eccentric investigator who’s as quick with an insult as he is to crack a case. Hawthorne needs a ghost writer to document his life; a Watson to his Holmes. He chooses Anthony Horowitz.

Drawn in against his will, Horowitz soon finds himself a the center of a story he cannot control. Hawthorne is brusque, temperamental and annoying but even so his latest case with its many twists and turns proves irresistible. The writer and the detective form an unusual partnership. At the same time, it soon becomes clear that Hawthorne is hiding some dark secrets of his own.

A masterful and tricky mystery that springs many surprises, The Word is Murder is Anthony Horowitz at his very best.]]> 400 Anthony Horowitz 0062676784 Brenna 0 to-read 3.89 2017
author: Anthony Horowitz
name: Brenna
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/17
shelves: to-read
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]]> 42283287
Trying to get to the bottom of Billy's story, Strike and Robin Ellacott � once his assistant, now a partner in the agency � set off on a twisting trail that leads them through the backstreets of London, into a secretive inner sanctum within Parliament, and to a beautiful but sinister manor house deep in the countryside.

And during this labyrinthine investigation, Strike's own life is far from straightforward: his newfound fame as a private eye means he can no longer operate behind the scenes as he once did. Plus, his relationship with his former assistant is more fraught than it ever has been � Robin is now invaluable to Strike in the business, but their personal relationship is much, much trickier than that.

The most epic Robert Galbraith novel yet, Lethal White is both a gripping mystery and a page-turning next instalment in the ongoing story of Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott.]]> 650 Robert Galbraith 0316422770 Brenna 5 4.22 2018
author: Robert Galbraith
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/10/16
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Brilliant and good GOD I want Strike to punch Matthew.
]]> 18214414 Private investigator Cormoran Strike returns in a new mystery from Robert Galbraith, author of the #1 international bestseller The Cuckoo's Calling.

When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, Mrs. Quine just thinks her husband has gone off by himself for a few days—as he has done before—and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home.

But as Strike investigates, it becomes clear that there is more to Quine's disappearance than his wife realizes. The novelist has just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knows. If the novel were to be published, it would ruin lives—meaning that there are a lot of people who might want him silenced.

When Quine is found brutally murdered under bizarre circumstances, it becomes a race against time to understand the motivation of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any Strike has encountered before...]]> 464 Robert Galbraith 0316206873 Brenna 4 4.02 2014
author: Robert Galbraith
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/25
date added: 2024/09/25
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]]> 23992474
Francesca Borri is one of them. But she does not leave. She is thirty years old. For months she covers the battle of Aleppo as a freelance reporter. And she quickly realizes that to report a war is to hide with dozens of women and children, even a baby, born there, in a grave, 'a piece of soil under the ground that is as expensive as three houses' or to scavenge for anything to burn for some warmth, 'a broken slipper, the plastic hand of a toy' or to mistake bloody figments of skull for rubble. To report a war is also to meet with officials more worried about the stain of snow on their Clarks than the people they are supposed to help. It is to explain what is happening in Aleppo to journalists who have only been there once, on vacation, and bought a carpet. It is risking one's life because of the jealousy of a fellow reporter. And it is also about dreaming of driving at night with the windows open, about remembering impossible little things, the particular light on that day in that café at the beach when you were a kid, the eyes of people you love, all the minuscule simple joys that can be lost in a moment.ÌýÌý

Syrian Dust is a raw and powerful account of the Syrian war that throws the reader right in the middle of it, without any shelter.


From the Trade Paperback edition.]]> 192 Francesca Borri 160980662X Brenna 0 to-read 4.32 2014
author: Francesca Borri
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61153739 #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER � A groundbreaking manifesto on living better and longer that challenges the conventional medical thinking on aging and reveals a new approach to preventing chronic disease and extending long-term health, from a visionary physician and leading longevity expert

Wouldn’t you like to live longer? And better? In this operating manual for longevity, Dr. Peter Attia draws on the latest science to deliver innovative nutritional interventions, techniques for optimizing exercise and sleep, and tools for addressing emotional and mental health.

For all its successes, mainstream medicine has failed to make much progress against the diseases of aging that kill most people: heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and type 2 diabetes. Too often, it intervenes with treatments too late to help, prolonging lifespan at the expense of healthspan, or quality of life. Dr. Attia believes we must replace this outdated framework with a personalized, proactive strategy for longevity, one where we take action now, rather than waiting.

This is not “biohacking,� it’s science: a well-founded strategic and tactical approach to extending lifespan while also improving our physical, cognitive, and emotional health. Dr. Attia’s aim is less to tell you what to do and more to help you learn how to think about long-term health, in order to create the best plan for you as an individual. In Outlive, readers will discover:

� Why the cholesterol test at your annual physical doesn’t tell you enough about your actual risk of dying from a heart attack.
� That you may already suffer from an extremely common yet underdiagnosed liver condition that could be a precursor to the chronic diseases of aging.
� Why exercise is the most potent pro-longevity “drug�—and how to begin training for the “Centenarian Decathlon.�
� Why you should forget about diets, and focus instead on nutritional biochemistry, using technology and data to personalize your eating pattern.
� Why striving for physical health and longevity, but ignoring emotional health, could be the ultimate curse of all.

Aging and longevity are far more malleable than we think; our fate is not set in stone. With the right roadmap, you can plot a different path for your life, one that lets you outlive your genes to make each decade better than the one before.]]> 496 Peter Attia 0593236599 Brenna 0 to-read 4.33 2023
author: Peter Attia
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/23
shelves: to-read
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]]> 22394062
Sarah is devastated and from that day on her life is defined by a series of meaningless, self-abasing sexual encounters, hoping with each man that she will experience the same delicious feelings she had with Mr Carr.

Seven years later Daniel Carr walks back into Sarah's life and she is drawn once again into the destructive relationship. Is Sarah strong enough to "tame the beast"?

First published by Brandl & Schlesinger in 2004, now re-released in Picador, this dazzling debut from one of Australia's most gifted young writers is destined to become a cult classic.


]]> 317 Emily Maguire 1466826975 Brenna 3 Woah. This book is intense. And awful. Which isn't so much to do with the writing which is hard to examine when you're being battered by the imagery in this book.
The first third feels momentous, smothering in its anger... but eventually I just felt emotionally exhausted and used up and hated everyone. That could be the point.
Definitely going to read her other stuff having loved her contributions to various anthologies ]]> 3.11 2004
author: Emily Maguire
name: Brenna
average rating: 3.11
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 2016/12/04
date added: 2024/09/21
shelves:
review:
3.5.
Woah. This book is intense. And awful. Which isn't so much to do with the writing which is hard to examine when you're being battered by the imagery in this book.
The first third feels momentous, smothering in its anger... but eventually I just felt emotionally exhausted and used up and hated everyone. That could be the point.
Definitely going to read her other stuff having loved her contributions to various anthologies
]]> 40922065 In the spirit of Tiny Beautiful Things and How to Be a Woman comes a collection of new, unpublished letters and advice by Heather Havrilesky, the author of the popular advice column Ask Polly featured on New York magazine's blog, The Cut.

Is there ever a right time to cheat on your spouse? How do you rein in an overbearing mother? Will you ever stop dating half-hearted assholes? Should you put off having a baby for your career? When is it time to get your shit together and start making your art? (Hint: right now). Heather Havrilesky is here to guide you through the "what ifs" and "I don't knows" of modern life with the signature wisdom and tough love her readers have come to expect.

How to Be a Person in the World is a collection of never-before-published material, along with a few fan favorites from the archives. Whether she's responding to cheaters or loners, lovers or haters, the depressed or the down-and-out, Havrilesky writes with equal parts grace, humor, and compassion to remind you that even in your darkest moments you're not alone.]]> 274 Heather Havrilesky Brenna 0 to-read 3.98 2016
author: Heather Havrilesky
name: Brenna
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 56512309 561 Robert Galbraith Brenna 5 4.06 2013
author: Robert Galbraith
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/16
date added: 2024/09/16
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]]> 127278133 An utterly original celebration of that which binds humanity across battle lines and history.

On the island of Sicily amid the Peloponnesian War, the Syracusans have figured out what to do with the surviving Athenians who had the gall to invade their city: they’ve herded the sorry prisoners of war into a rock quarry and left them to rot. Looking for a way to pass the time, Lampo and Gelon, two unemployed potters with a soft spot for poetry and drink, head down into the quarry to feed the Athenians if, and only if, they can manage a few choice lines from their great playwright Euripides. Before long, the two mates hatch a plan to direct a full-blown production of Medea. After all, you can hate the people but love their art. But as opening night approaches, what started as a lark quickly sets in motion a series of extraordinary events, and our wayward heroes begin to realize that staging a play can be as dangerous as fighting a war, with all sorts of risks to life, limb, and friendship.

Told in a contemporary Irish voice and as riotously funny as it is deeply moving, Glorious Exploits is an unforgettable ode to the power of art in a time of war, brotherhood in a time of enmity, and human will throughout the ages.]]> 304 Ferdia Lennon 1250893690 Brenna 0 to-read 4.15 2024
author: Ferdia Lennon
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/10
shelves: to-read
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]]> 57694667
When the battered body of a female jogger is found beneath the cliffs of an idyllic coastal community, these perfect neighbors suddenly don’t seem so perfect�

Lily Bradley is a respected psychotherapist married to a distinguished professor. They live in a dream house with their two children in close-knit Story Cove. Lily lives a well-ordered life. Or so it seems. As a therapist, she knows everyone keeps things hidden. Even her.

Then sensual and free-spirited Arwen Harper rolls into town in her hand-painted VW van, her sixteen-year-old son riding shotgun. Overnight, Story Cove’s secrets are no longer safe. Because Arwen might know her new neighbors better than they know themselves.

Now someone is dead, and it looks like murder. Brutal and personal. The death invites the shrewd eye of Detective Rue Duval. Rue’s job is to expose secrets. But she’s also an expert at keeping them.

As the lives of three women become inexorably entwined, one thing is clear: when it comes to survival, ordinary people can do the most terrible things.]]> 383 Loreth Anne White Brenna 0 4.27 2022
author: Loreth Anne White
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/07
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]]> 51576557
The first part of the book is written from the perspective of Psyche's older sister Orual, as an accusation against the gods. The story is set in the fictive kingdom of Glome, a primitive city-state whose people have occasional contact with civilized Hellenistic Greece. In the second part of the book, the narrator undergoes a change of mindset and understands that her initial accusation was tainted by her own failings and shortcomings, and that the gods are lovingly present in humans' lives.]]> 225 C.S. Lewis Brenna 0 to-read 4.34 1956
author: C.S. Lewis
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1956
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/04
shelves: to-read
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]]> 63185079 "One of those singular books that pulls readers into a completely immersive world with a dazzling story and characters so deftly drawn that you can't help but ache for them."-New York Times bestselling author Lisa Maxwell

I know the stories they will tell. I've heard the echoes of their songs--songs that will outlive us all. But this song is not theirs. It is mine.

Behind the timeless tale you know is the captivating story you never heard: a sweeping epic in which Troy's strong, yet misunderstood women take center stage in the most famous war in history.

Andromache is cast as the doting wife of Prince Hector, yet her Amazon warrior name means "battler of men." The only one with the cunning to outwit the invading Greeks, she must gather a band of outcasts and become the military commander she was born to be before the life she and Hector have built is reduced to ashes. Rhea is a war refugee and a horse whisperer who finally earns a place and sense of belonging in Hector's stables. To save her new home, she must become an unlikely spy and face down a forbidden love that will test all her loyalties. Helen is blamed by all for starting the Trojan War, but no one knows her real story. To escape her tormentor and foil a plot to undermine Hector, Helen must risk everything by revealing her true face to the one who despises her most.

Set in the wider landscape of the late Bronze Age collapse, this realistic and immersive Troy is a perilous battleground for warriors and politicians alike, not a playground where the fate of men and women make sport for gods and goddesses. It's a harrowing novel of palace intrigue, the transcendent bond of female friendship, and the everyday bravery of invisible heroes in times of war.

The women of Troy are threads spinning on a single loom. Can they reweave the tapestry of fate?]]> 528 A.D. Rhine 059347306X Brenna 0 to-read 4.10 2023
author: A.D. Rhine
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/03
shelves: to-read
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]]> 62844125
Stories are sly things…they can be hard to catch and kill.

Inanna is an impossibility, the first full Anunnaki born on Earth. Crowned the goddess of love by the twelve immortal Anunnaki who are worshipped across Sumer, she is destined for greatness.

But Inanna is born into a time of war. The Anunnaki have split into warring factions, threatening to tear the world apart. Forced into a marriage to negotiate a peace, she soon realises she has been placed in terrible danger.

Gilgamesh, a mortal human son of the Anunnaki, and notorious womaniser, finds himself captured and imprisoned by King Akka who seeks to distance himself and his people from the gods. Arrogant and selfish, Gilgamesh is given one final chance to prove himself.

Ninshubar, a powerful warrior woman, is cast out of her tribe after an act of kindness. Hunted by her own people, she escapes across the country, searching for acceptance and a new place in the world.

As their journeys push them closer together, and their fates intertwine, they come to realise that together, they may have the power to change to face of the world forever.]]> 474 Emily H. Wilson 1803364408 Brenna 0 to-read 4.01 2023
author: Emily H. Wilson
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/03
shelves: to-read
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]]> 136276903 368 Malayna Evans 1728278724 Brenna 0 to-read 3.58 2024
author: Malayna Evans
name: Brenna
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/03
shelves: to-read
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]]> 63219023
Jezebel was born into the world howling. She intends to leave it the same way.

When Jezebel learns she can’t be a king like her father simply because she’s a girl, she vows never to become someone’s decorative wife, nameless and lost to history. At fifteen she’s married off, despite her protests, to Prince Ahab of Israel. There, she does what she must to gain power and remake the dry and distant kingdom in the image of her beloved, prosperous seaside homeland of Tyre, beginning by building temples to the gods she grew up worshipping. As her initiatives usher in an era of prosperity for Israel, her new subjects love her, and her name rings through the land.

Then Elijah, the prophet of Yahweh and her former lover, begins to speak out against her. Bitter at having been abandoned by Jezebel, he lashes out, calling her a slut. Harlot. Witch. And the people, revering their prophet’s message, turn on her.

As ancient powers and faiths are pitted against each other, bloodshed descends on Israel and Jezebel faces the fall of her legacy. Determined despite the odds to make Israel a great nation, she must decide how far she’s willing to go to protect her family, her throne—her name. A stunning revision of a notorious queen’s story, Jezebel is a thrilling lyrical debut about a fierce woman who refuses to be forgotten.]]> 288 Megan Barnard 0143137670 Brenna 0 to-read 3.95 2023
author: Megan Barnard
name: Brenna
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/03
shelves: to-read
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]]> 63273108 A vivid and moving reimagining of the myth of Medusa and the sisters who loved her.

The end of the story is only the beginning�

Even before they were transformed into Gorgons, Medusa and her sisters, Stheno and Euryale, were unique among immortals. Curious about mortals and their lives, Medusa and her sisters entered the human world in search of a place to belong, yet quickly found themselves at the perilous center of a dangerous Olympian rivalry and learned—too late—that a god's love is a violent one.

Forgotten by history and diminished by poets, the other two Gorgons have never been more than horrifying hags, damned and doomed. But they were sisters first, and their journey from sea-born origins to the outskirts of the Parthenon is a journey that rests, hidden, underneath their scales.

Monsters, but not monstrous, Stheno and Euryale will step into the light for the first time to tell the story of how all three sisters lived and were changed by each other, as they struggle against the inherent conflict between sisterhood and individuality, myth and truth, vengeance and peace.]]> 354 Lauren J.A. Bear 0593547764 Brenna 0 to-read 4.18 2023
author: Lauren J.A. Bear
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/03
shelves: to-read
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]]> 203019740 From the New York Times bestselling author of We Begin at the End comes a soaring thriller and an epic love story that spans decades.

1975 is a time of change in America. The Vietnam War is ending. Mohammed Ali is fighting Joe Frazier. And in the small town of Monta Clare, Missouri, girls are disappearing.

When the daughter of a wealthy family is targeted, the most unlikely hero emerges—Patch, a local boy with one eye, who saves the girl, and, in doing so, leaves heartache in his wake.

Patch and those who love him soon discover that the line between triumph and tragedy has never been finer. And that their search for answers will lead them to truths that could mean losing one another.

A missing person mystery, a serial killer thriller, a love story, a unique twist on each, Chris Whitaker has written a novel about what lurks in the shadows of obsession, and the blinding light of hope.]]> 608 Chris Whitaker 0593798872 Brenna 0 to-read 4.23 2024
author: Chris Whitaker
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/03
shelves: to-read
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]]> 29344653
Three years later, he returns home and his murderous action has set the entire family - mother, brother, sister - on a path of intimate violence, as they enter a world of hushed commands and soundless journeys through the palace's dungeons and bedchambers. As his wife seeks his death, his daughter, Electra, is the silent observer to the family's game of innocence while his son, Orestes, is sent into bewildering, frightening exile where survival is far from certain. Out of their desolating loss, Electra and Orestes must find a way to right these wrongs of the past even if it means committing themselves to a terrible, barbarous act.

House of Names is a story of intense longing and shocking betrayal. It is a work of great beauty, and daring, from one of our finest living writers.]]> 272 Colm Tóibín 0241264936 Brenna 0 to-read 3.54 2017
author: Colm Tóibín
name: Brenna
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/03
shelves: to-read
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]]> 39866035
When Agamemnon, the brutal political leader of the Greek forces, demands Briseis for himself, she finds herself caught between the two most powerful of the Greeks. Achilles refuses to fight in protest, and the Greeks begin to lose ground to their Trojan opponents. Keenly observant and coolly unflinching about the daily horrors of war, Briseis finds herself in an unprecedented position to observe the two men driving the Greek forces in what will become their final confrontation, deciding the fate, not only of Briseis's people, but also of the ancient world at large.

Briseis is just one among thousands of women living behind the scenes in this war--the slaves and prostitutes, the nurses, the women who lay out the dead--all of them erased by history. With breathtaking historical detail and luminous prose, Pat Barker brings the teeming world of the Greek camp to vivid life. She offers nuanced, complex portraits of characters and stories familiar from mythology, which, seen from Briseis's perspective, are rife with newfound revelations. Barker's latest builds on her decades-long study of war and its impact on individual lives--and it is nothing short of magnificent.]]> 326 Pat Barker Brenna 5 4.09 2018
author: Pat Barker
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2022/11/10
date added: 2024/08/31
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]]> 59427493
Continuing the story of the captured Trojan women as they set sail for Mycenae with the victorious Greeks, this new novel centres on the fate of Cassandra -- daughter of King Priam, priestess of Apollo, and a prophet condemned never to be heeded. (When she refuses to have sex with Apollo, after he has kissed her, granting her the gift of true prophecy, he spits in her mouth to make sure she will never be believed.)

Psychologically complex and dangerously driven, Cassandra's arrival in Mycenae will set in motion a bloody train of events, drawing in King Agamemnon, his wife Clytemnestra and daughter Electra. Agamemnon's triumphant return from Troy is far from the celebration he imagined, and the fate of the Trojan women as uncertain as they had feared.]]> 320 Pat Barker 0241568269 Brenna 4 3.98 2024
author: Pat Barker
name: Brenna
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/31
date added: 2024/08/31
shelves:
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]]> 203708995 400 Griffin Dunne 0593652827 Brenna 0 to-read 4.01 2024
author: Griffin Dunne
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 52949204
In the summer of 1926, when Thelma Morgan marries Viscount Duke Furness after a whirlwind romance, she’s immersed in a gilded world of extraordinary wealth and privilege. For Thelma, the daughter of an American diplomat, her new life as a member of the British aristocracy is like a fairy tale—even more so when her husband introduces her to Edward, Prince of Wales.

In a twist of fate, her marriage to Duke leads her to fall headlong into a love affair with Edward. But happiness is fleeting, and their love is threatened when Thelma’s sister, Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt, becomes embroiled in a scandal with far-reaching implications. As Thelma sails to New York to support Gloria, she leaves Edward in the hands of her trusted friend Wallis, never imagining the consequences that will follow.

Bryn Turnbull takes readers from the raucous glamour of the Paris Ritz and the French Riviera to the quiet, private corners of St. James’s Palace in this sweeping story of love, loyalty and betrayal.]]> 384 Bryn Turnbull 0778388190 Brenna 3 3.78 2020
author: Bryn Turnbull
name: Brenna
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/23
date added: 2024/08/23
shelves:
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]]> 75024
Cotton Malone, one-time top operative for the U.S. Justice Department, is enjoying his quiet new life as an antiquarian book dealer in Copenhagen when an unexpected call to action reawakens his hair-trigger instincts–and plunges him back into the cloak-and-dagger world he thought he’d left behind.

It begins with a violent robbery attempt on Cotton’s former supervisor, Stephanie Nelle, who’s far from home on a mission that has nothing to do with national security. Armed with vital clues to a series of centuries-old puzzles scattered across Europe, she means to crack a mystery that has tantalized scholars and fortune-hunters through the ages by finding the legendary cache of wealth and forbidden knowledge thought to have been lost forever when the order of the Knights Templar was exterminated in the fourteenth century. But she’s not alone. Competing for the historic prize–and desperate for the crucial information Stephanie possesses–is Raymond de Roquefort, a shadowy zealot with an army of assassins at his command.

Welcome or not, Cotton seeks to even the odds in the perilous race. But the more he learns about the ancient conspiracy surrounding the Knights Templar, the more he realizes that even more than lives are at stake. At the end of a lethal game of conquest, rife with intrigue, treachery, and craven lust for power, lies a shattering discovery that could rock the civilized world–and, in the wrong hands, bring it to its knees.]]> 511 Steve Berry 0345476166 Brenna 2 3.84 2006
author: Steve Berry
name: Brenna
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2006
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2024/08/20
shelves:
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]]> 61266464 As for queens, they are either hated or forgotten. She already knows which option suits her best . . .

Mother. Monarch. Murderer. Magnificent.

You are born to a king, but marry a tyrant. You stand helplessly as he sacrifices your child to placate the gods. You watch him wage war on a foreign shore and comfort yourself with violent thoughts of your own.

You play the part, fooling enemies who deny you justice. Slowly, you plot.

You are Clytemnestra.

But when the husband who owns you returns in triumph, what then?

Acceptance or vengeance - infamy follows both. So you bide your time and wait, until you might force the gods' hands and take revenge. Until you rise. For you understood something that the others don't. If power isn't given to you, you have to take it for yourself.

A blazing novel set in the world of Ancient Greece and told through the eyes of its greatest heroine, this is a thrilling tale of power and prophecies, of hatred, love, and of an unforgettable Queen who fiercely dealt out death to those who wronged her.]]> 452 Costanza Casati Brenna 4 4.35 2023
author: Costanza Casati
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/18
date added: 2024/08/18
shelves:
review:

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Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances "Frankie" McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.

As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over-whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets—and becomes one of—the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost.

But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam.

The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm's way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.]]> 471 Kristin Hannah 1250178630 Brenna 0 to-read 4.58 2024
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/14
shelves: to-read
review:

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This compilation of fairy tales which includes the complete canon of over 200 tales has become a beloved set of classical stories the world over. Included in this collection are Hansel and Gretel, Briar Rose, The Fisherman and His Wife, Rapunzel, The Frog Prince, Little Red Riding Hood, Rumpelstiltskin, Tom Thumb, and many more. These stories are a delight to read and will rekindle up many childhood memories as they are reread. Presented here in this edition is the faithful translation of Margaret Hunt.]]> 688 Jacob Grimm Brenna 0 to-read 4.21 1812
author: Jacob Grimm
name: Brenna
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1812
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: to-read
review:

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