Gemma's bookshelf: all en-US Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:15:20 -0800 60 Gemma's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg The Bluest Eye 11337 The Bluest Eye is Toni Morrison's first novel, a book heralded for its richness of language and boldness of vision. Set in the author's girlhood hometown of Lorain, Ohio, it tells the story of black, eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove. Pecola prays for her eyes to turn blue so that she will be as beautiful and beloved as all the blond, blue-eyed children in America. In the autumn of 1941, the year the marigolds in the Breedloves' garden do not bloom. Pecola's life does change—in painful, devastating ways.

With its vivid evocation of the fear and loneliness at the heart of a child's yearning, and the tragedy of its fulfillment. The Bluest Eye remains one of Toni Morrison's most powerful, unforgettable novels- and a significant work of American fiction.]]> 216 Toni Morrison Gemma 0 to-read 4.13 1970 The Bluest Eye
author: Toni Morrison
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1970
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/21
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]]> <![CDATA[A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #2)]]> 50659468
Feyre has undergone more trials than one human woman can carry in her heart. Though she's now been granted the powers and lifespan of the High Fae, she is haunted by her time Under the Mountain and the terrible deeds she performed to save the lives of Tamlin and his people.

As her marriage to Tamlin approaches, Feyre's hollowness and nightmares consume her. She finds herself split into two different one who upholds her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court, and one who lives out her life in the Spring Court with Tamlin. While Feyre navigates a dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms. She might just be the key to stopping it, but only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future-and the future of a world in turmoil.

Bestselling author Sarah J. Maas's masterful storytelling brings this second book in her dazzling, sexy, action-packed series to new heights.]]> 626 Sarah J. Maas 1635575583 Gemma 3 4.65 2016 A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #2)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.65
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/20
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves:
review:

]]> The Lost Apothecary 53288434 A female apothecary secretly dispenses poisons to liberate women from the men who have wronged them - setting three lives across centuries on a dangerous collision course.

Rule #1: The poison must never be used to harm another woman.
Rule #2: The names of the murderer and her victim must be recorded in the apothecary’s register.

One cold February evening in 1791, at the back of a dark London alley in a hidden apothecary shop, Nella awaits her newest customer. Once a respected healer, Nella now uses her knowledge for a darker purpose - selling well-disguised poisons to desperate women who would kill to be free of the men in their lives. But when her new patron turns out to be a precocious twelve-year-old named Eliza Fanning, an unexpected friendship sets in motion a string of events that jeopardizes Nella’s world and threatens to expose the many women whose names are written in her register.

In present-day London, aspiring historian Caroline Parcewell spends her tenth wedding anniversary alone, reeling from the discovery of her husband’s infidelity. When she finds an old apothecary vial near the river Thames, she can’t resist investigating, only to realize she’s found a link to the unsolved “apothecary murders� that haunted London over two centuries ago. As she deepens her search, Caroline’s life collides with Nella’s and Eliza’s in a stunning twist of fate - and not everyone will survive.]]> 301 Sarah Penner 0778311015 Gemma 0 to-read 3.72 2021 The Lost Apothecary
author: Sarah Penner
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/06
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]]> Remarkably Bright Creatures 58733693 Remarkably Bright Creatures, an exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope, tracing a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus.

After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she's been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors--until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late.

Shelby Van Pelt's debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.]]> 368 Shelby Van Pelt 0063204150 Gemma 4 4.35 2022 Remarkably Bright Creatures
author: Shelby Van Pelt
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/02/17
date added: 2025/01/05
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]]> The Map of Salt and Stars 36373417
Novecientos años atrás, Rawiya, otra joven de dieciséis años, emprende también un viaje en busca de fortuna que la lleva a través del mundo junto a un cartógrafo decidido a crear un mapamundi.]]> 360 Zeyn Joukhadar 1501169033 Gemma 5 3.90 2018 The Map of Salt and Stars
author: Zeyn Joukhadar
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/14
date added: 2025/01/05
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A beautiful story that had me in tears at various points throughout. One of those books where there is that tension and suspense and I feel I can’t read fast enough to find out what’s next.
]]> <![CDATA[The Collected Regrets of Clover]]> 61214136
From the day she watched her kindergarten teacher drop dead during a dramatic telling of Peter Rabbit , Clover Brooks has felt a stronger connection with the dying than she has with the living. After the beloved grandfather who raised her dies alone while she is traveling, Clover becomes a death doula in New York City, dedicating her life to ushering people peacefully through their end-of-life process.

Clover spends so much time with the dying that she has no life of her own, until the final wishes of a feisty old woman send Clover on a road trip to uncover a forgotten love story—and perhaps, her own happy ending. As she finds herself struggling to navigate the uncharted roads of romance and friendship, Clover is forced to examine what she really wants, and whether she’ll have the courage to go after it.

Probing, clever, and hopeful, The Collected Regrets of Clover is perfect for readers of The Midnight Library and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine as it turns the normally taboo subject of death into a reason to celebrate life.]]> 320 Mikki Brammer 1250284392 Gemma 5 4.14 2023 The Collected Regrets of Clover
author: Mikki Brammer
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/20
date added: 2025/01/05
shelves:
review:
Belated review but I cried in the first quarter of this book (on a plane, air travel tends to make me emotional) but I knew then that I was going to love the entire experience. Fantastic read.
]]> <![CDATA[A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1)]]> 50659467
At least, he’s not a beast all the time.

As she adapts to her new home, her feelings for the faerie, Tamlin, transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But something is not right in the faerie lands. An ancient, wicked shadow is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it, or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.

From bestselling author Sarah J. Maas comes a seductive, breathtaking book that blends romance, adventure, and faerie lore into an unforgettable read.]]> 419 Sarah J. Maas 1635575567 Gemma 3 I couldn’t decide whether the author had a furry, non-con, or just a BDSM kink but it also wasn’t as smutty as I’d heard.
Heavy twilight influences.
A few issues with the writing that I feel got missed in editing.
I’ll still read the rest, I’m intrigued about where else the Treaty/human-fae war story will go.]]> 4.16 2015 A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/05
date added: 2025/01/05
shelves:
review:
This book was� fine. I liked the main plot element of the curse, I did wonder if that would be the main feature through all 5 books.
I couldn’t decide whether the author had a furry, non-con, or just a BDSM kink but it also wasn’t as smutty as I’d heard.
Heavy twilight influences.
A few issues with the writing that I feel got missed in editing.
I’ll still read the rest, I’m intrigued about where else the Treaty/human-fae war story will go.
]]> Homeseeking 211025407 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780593712993.

An epic and intimate tale of one couple across sixty years as world events pull them together and apart, illuminating the Chinese diaspora and exploring what it means to find home far from your homeland.

A single choice can define an entire life.

Haiwen is buying bananas at a 99 Ranch Market in Los Angeles when he looks up and sees Suchi, his Suchi, for the first time in sixty years. To recently widowed Haiwen it feels like a second chance, but Suchi has only survived by refusing to look back.

Suchi was seven when she first met Haiwen in their Shanghai neighborhood, drawn by the sound of his violin. Their childhood friendship blossomed into soul-deep love, but when Haiwen secretly enlisted in the Nationalist army in 1947 to save his brother from the draft, she was left with just his violin and a note: Forgive me.

Homeseeking follows the separated lovers through six decades of tumultuous Chinese history as war, famine, and opportunity take them separately to the song halls of Hong Kong, the military encampments of Taiwan, the bustling streets of New York, and sunny California, telling Haiwen’s story from the present to the past while tracing Suchi’s from her childhood to the present, meeting in the crucible of their lives. Throughout, Haiwen holds his memories close while Suchi forces herself to look only forward, neither losing sight of the home they hold in their hearts.

At once epic and intimate, Homeseeking is a story of family, sacrifice, and loyalty, and of the power of love to endure beyond distance, beyond time.]]> 512 Karissa Chen Gemma 0 to-read 4.26 2025 Homeseeking
author: Karissa Chen
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/05
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]]> <![CDATA[A Suitable Boy (A Bridge of Leaves, #1)]]> 50365 A Suitable Boy takes us into the richly imagined world of four large extended families and spins a compulsively readable tale of their lives and loves. A sweeping panoramic portrait of a complex, multiethnic society in flux, A Suitable Boy remains the story of ordinary people caught up in a web of love and ambition, humor and sadness, prejudice and reconciliation, the most delicate social etiquette and the most appalling violence.]]> 1474 Vikram Seth 0060786523 Gemma 0 currently-reading 4.11 1993 A Suitable Boy (A Bridge of Leaves, #1)
author: Vikram Seth
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1993
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/05
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> There Are 3 Women & 4 Men 204967663
That is precisely the reason why he is the most famous art curator of the 20th century and why the Fontaine Museum of Art has more success than any other museum has ever seen. That is, of course, until he shuts it down.

When Laurent’s wife, Marie, is found dead during an exhibition opening at the museum in 1967, the police are quick to determine suicide. Laurent is quick to determine otherwise.

He promptly closes his historic building and halts his highly coveted life in the arts to dedicate the next ten years to one thing: finding the person who killed Marie.

In 1977, exactly ten years after the tragedy, Laurent invites who he found to be the six most likely suspects back into his museum, breaking his silence for the first time in a decade. With the event disguised as a “Grand Reopening,� the guests arrive, and Laurent reveals the truth: none of these misfortunate people will be leaving his palace until justice is served.

But, Laurent Fontaine has an obsession. Is this truly justice, or is there spectacle hidden in revenge? Is this truly an investigation, or is this emperor of art putting on one last performance? How far can Laurent morally push his grand finale?]]> 418 Jaden Payne Gemma 0 to-read 3.64 There Are 3 Women & 4 Men
author: Jaden Payne
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.64
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/21
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]]> The Great Alone 34912895 Unpredictable. Unforgiving. Untamed.
For a family in crisis, the ultimate test of survival.

Ernt Allbright, a former POW, comes home from the Vietnam war a changed and volatile man. When he loses yet another job, he makes an impulsive decision: he will move his family north, to Alaska, where they will live off the grid in America’s last true frontier.

Thirteen-year-old Leni, a girl coming of age in a tumultuous time, caught in the riptide of her parents� passionate, stormy relationship, dares to hope that a new land will lead to a better future for her family. She is desperate for a place to belong. Her mother, Cora, will do anything and go anywhere for the man she loves, even if it means following him into the unknown.

At first, Alaska seems to be the answer to their prayers. In a wild, remote corner of the state, they find a fiercely independent community of strong men and even stronger women. The long, sunlit days and the generosity of the locals make up for the Allbrights� lack of preparation and dwindling resources.

But as winter approaches and darkness descends on Alaska, Ernt’s fragile mental state deteriorates and the family begins to fracture. Soon the perils outside pale in comparison to threats from within. In their small cabin, covered in snow, blanketed in eighteen hours of night, Leni and her mother learn the terrible truth: they are on their own. In the wild, there is no one to save them but themselves.

In this unforgettable portrait of human frailty and resilience, Kristin Hannah reveals the indomitable character of the modern American pioneer and the spirit of a vanishing Alaska―a place of incomparable beauty and danger. The Great Alone is a daring, beautiful, stay-up-all-night story about love and loss, the fight for survival, and the wildness that lives in both man and nature.]]> 435 Kristin Hannah Gemma 0 to-read 4.44 2018 The Great Alone
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The White Tiger 1768603
Balram Halwai is a complicated man. Servant. Philosopher. Entrepreneur. Murderer. Over the course of seven nights, by the scattered light of a preposterous chandelier, Balram tells us the terrible and transfixing story of how he came to be a success in life—having nothing but his own wits to help him along.

Born in the dark heart of India, Balram gets a break when he is hired as a driver for his village's wealthiest man, two house Pomeranians (Puddles and Cuddles), and the rich man's (very unlucky) son. From behind the wheel of their Honda City car, Balram's new world is a revelation. While his peers flip through the pages of Murder Weekly ("Love -- Rape -- Revenge!"), barter for girls, drink liquor (Thunderbolt), and perpetuate the Great Rooster Coop of Indian society, Balram watches his employers bribe foreign ministers for tax breaks, barter for girls, drink liquor (single-malt whiskey), and play their own role in the Rooster Coop. Balram learns how to siphon gas, deal with corrupt mechanics, and refill and resell Johnnie Walker Black Label bottles (all but one). He also finds a way out of the Coop that no one else inside it can perceive.

Balram's eyes penetrate India as few outsiders can: the cockroaches and the call centers; the prostitutes and the worshippers; the ancient and Internet cultures; the water buffalo and, trapped in so many kinds of cages that escape is (almost) impossible, the white tiger. And with a charisma as undeniable as it is unexpected, Balram teaches us that religion doesn't create virtue, and money doesn't solve every problem -- but decency can still be found in a corrupt world, and you can get what you want out of life if you eavesdrop on the right conversations.

The White Tiger recalls The Death of Vishnu and Bangkok 8 in ambition, scope, and narrative genius, with a mischief and personality all its own. Amoral, irreverent, deeply endearing, and utterly contemporary, this novel is an international publishing sensation —and a startling, provocative debut.]]> 276 Aravind Adiga 1416562591 Gemma 2 3.76 2008 The White Tiger
author: Aravind Adiga
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2008
rating: 2
read at: 2024/05/20
date added: 2024/05/20
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]]> Small Things Like These 58662236
Already an international bestseller, Small Things Like These is a deeply affecting story of hope, quiet heroism, and empathy from one of our most critically lauded and iconic writers.]]> 128 Claire Keegan 0802158749 Gemma 0 to-read 4.14 2021 Small Things Like These
author: Claire Keegan
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Brightest Light of Sunshine (The Brightest Light, #1)]]> 195925887
Determined to walk away from a traumatic past, 22-year-old Grace Allen feels ready to take the next step in her healing journey—dipping a toe into the dating pool. Although she should probably start by making a friend or two, right?

Samuel ‘Cal� Callaghan isn’t who she had envisioned as her first male friend in� well, forever. With an intimidating build, tattoos everywhere, eight years her senior, and a little sister under his care, the last thing she expected was to warm up to him so easily. As their friendship evolves, Grace can’t help but wonder if Cal is exactly who she’s been looking for all this time.

Cal can’t afford to lose sight of his priorities—making sure his tattoo parlor thrives and taking care of his little sister. Especially the latter. He wants to make sure 4-year-old Maddie has a healthy and happy childhood despite their mother going off the rails and her father’s blatant neglect. There’s certainly no room for love in his life right now. But when a sweet blonde with a veiled past breaks down his walls, he finds it difficult to stick to his guns.

CONTENT NOTES: This book contains themes of sexual assault (there are no explicit scenes depicting sexual assault), profanity, alcoholism, and explicit sexual content. Recommended for 18+.]]> 442 Lisina Coney 8409463083 Gemma 0 to-read 4.04 2023 The Brightest Light of Sunshine (The Brightest Light, #1)
author: Lisina Coney
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Whalebone Theatre 59900661
With her step-parents blithely distracted by their endless party guests, Cristabel and her siblings, Flossie and Digby, scratch together an education from the plays they read in their freezing attic, drunken conversations eavesdropped through oak-panelled doors, and the esoteric lessons of Maudie their maid.

But as the children grow to adulthood and war approaches, jolting their lives on to very different tracks, it becomes clear that the roles they are expected to play are no longer those they want. As they find themselves drawn into the conflict, they must each find a way to write their own story...

This is the story of an old English manor house by the sea, with crumbling chimneys, draping ivy and a library full of dusty hardbacks. It's the story of the three children who grow up there, and the adventures they create for themselves while the grown-ups entertain endless party guests: the worlds they imagine from books they aren't supposed to read, and the lessons they learn from eavesdropping through oak-panelled doors.

This is the story of a whale that washes up on a beach, whose bones are claimed by a twelve-year-old girl with big ambitions and an even bigger imagination. An unwanted orphan who grows into an unmarriageable young woman, chafing under the confines of her traditional upbringing and fiercely determined to do things differently.]]> 558 Joanna Quinn 0593321707 Gemma 0 to-read 3.98 2022 The Whalebone Theatre
author: Joanna Quinn
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/07
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]]> <![CDATA[Ties That Bind, Ties That Break]]> 962767
As a result, however, the family of her intended husband breaks their marriage agreement. And as she enters adolescence, Ailin finds that her family is no longer willing to support her. Chinese society leaves few options for a single woman of good family, but with a bold conviction and an indomitable spirit, Ailin is determined to forge her own destiny. Her story is a tribute to all those women whose courage created new options for the generations who came after them.]]> 154 Lensey Namioka 0440415993 Gemma 4 3.86 1999 Ties That Bind, Ties That Break
author: Lensey Namioka
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/03/07
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review:

]]> Dust Child 60831918 From the internationally bestselling author of The Mountains Sing, a suspenseful and moving saga about family secrets, hidden trauma, and the overriding power of forgiveness, set during the war and in present-day Việt Nam.

In 1969, sisters Trang and Quỳnh, desperate to help their parents pay off debts, leave their rural village and become “bar girls� in Sài Gòn, drinking, flirting (and more) with American GIs in return for money. As the war moves closer to the city, the once-innocent Trang gets swept up in an irresistible romance with a young and charming American helicopter pilot, Dan. Decades later, Dan returns to Việt Nam with his wife, Linda, hoping to find a way to heal from his PTSD and, unbeknownst to her, reckon with secrets from his past.

At the same time, Phong—the son of a Black American soldier and a Vietnamese woman—embarks on a search to find both his parents and a way out of Việt Nam. Abandoned in front of an orphanage, Phong grew up being called “the dust of life,” “Black American imperialist,� and “child of the enemy,� and he dreams of a better life for himself and his family in the U.S.

Past and present converge as these characters come together to confront decisions made during a time of war—decisions that force them to look deep within and find common ground across race, generation, culture, and language. Suspenseful, poetic, and perfect for readers of Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko or Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing, Dust Child tells an unforgettable and immersive story of how those who inherited tragedy can redefine their destinies through love, hard-earned wisdom, compassion, courage, and joy.]]> 352 Nguyễn Phan Qu� Mai 1643752758 Gemma 5 4.24 2023 Dust Child
author: Nguyễn Phan Qu� Mai
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/22
date added: 2024/02/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet]]> 3367956 290 Jamie Ford 0345505336 Gemma 0 to-read 4.03 2009 Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
author: Jamie Ford
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/14
shelves: to-read
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]]> Poor Things 72355 Poor Things is a postmodern revision of Frankenstein that replaces the traditional monster with Bella Baxter - a beautiful young erotomaniac brought back to life with the brain of an infant. Godwin Baxter's scientific ambition to create the perfect companion is realized when he finds the drowned body of Bella, but his dream is thwarted by Dr. Archibald McCandless's jealous love for Baxter's creation.

The hilarious tale of love and scandal that ensues would be "the whole story" in the hands of a lesser author (which in fact it is, for this account is actually written by Dr. McCandless). For Gray, though, this is only half the story, after which Bella (a.k.a. Victoria McCandless) has her own say in the matter. Satirizing the classic Victorian novel, Poor Things is a hilarious political allegory and a thought-provoking duel between the desires of men and the independence of women, from one of Scotland's most accomplished authors.]]> 318 Alasdair Gray 0747562288 Gemma 0 to-read 3.93 1992 Poor Things
author: Alasdair Gray
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1992
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Evil Eye 59381516 A Woman Is No Man returns with a striking exploration of the expectations of Palestinian-American women, the meaning of a fulfilling life, and the ways our unresolved pasts affect our presents.

Raised in a conservative and emotionally volatile Palestinian family in Brooklyn, Yara thought she would finally feel free when she married a charming entrepreneur who took her to the suburbs. She’s gotten to follow her dreams, completing an undergraduate degree in Art and landing a good job at the local college. As a traditional wife, she also raises their two school-aged daughters, takes care of the house, and has dinner ready when her husband gets home. With her family balanced with her professional ambitions, Yara knows that her life is infinitely more rewarding than her own mother’s. So why doesn’t it feel like enough?

After her dream of chaperoning a student trip to Europe evaporates and she responds to a colleague’s racist provocation, Yara is put on probation at work and must attend mandatory counseling to keep her position. Her mother blames a family curse for the trouble she’s facing, and while Yara doesn’t really believe in old superstitions, she still finds herself growing increasingly uneasy with her mother’s warning and the possibility of falling victim to the same mistakes.

Shaken to the core by these indictments of her life, Yara finds her carefully constructed world beginning to implode. To save herself, Yara must reckon with the reality that the difficulties of the childhood she thought she left behind have very real—and damaging—implications not just on her own future but that of her daughters.]]> 352 Etaf Rum 0062987909 Gemma 4 3.93 2023 Evil Eye
author: Etaf Rum
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/08
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves:
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]]> The City of Stardust 145624782
For centuries, generations of Everlys have seen their brightest and best disappear, taken as punishment for a crime no one remembers, for a purpose no one understands. Their tormentor, a woman named Penelope, never ages, never grows sick � and never forgives a debt.

Violet Everly was a child when her mother left on a stormy night, determined to break the curse. When Marianne never returns, Penelope issues an ultimatum: Violet has ten years to find her mother, or she will take her place. Violet is the last of the Everly line, the last to suffer. Unless she can break it first.

To do so, she must descend into a seductive magical underworld of power-hungry scholars, fickle gods and monsters bent on revenge. She must also contend with Penelope’s quiet assistant, Aleksander, who she knows cannot be trusted � and yet whose knowledge of a world beyond her own is too valuable to avoid.

Tied to a very literal deadline, Violet will travel the edges of the world to find Marianne and the key to the city of stardust, where the Everly story began.]]> 352 Georgia Summers 0316561487 Gemma 0 to-read 3.28 2024 The City of Stardust
author: Georgia Summers
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.28
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Kingdoms 54680112 A time twisting alternative history that asks whether it's worth changing the past to save the future, even if it costs you everyone you've ever loved.

Joe Tournier has a bad case of amnesia. His first memory is of stepping off a train in the nineteenth-century French colony of England. The only clue Joe has about his identity is a century-old postcard of a Scottish lighthouse that arrives in London the same month he does. Written in illegal English—instead of French—the postcard is signed only with the letter “M,� but Joe is certain whoever wrote it knows him far better than he currently knows himself, and he's determined to find the writer. The search for M, though, will drive Joe from French-ruled London to rebel-owned Scotland and finally onto the battle ships of a lost empire's Royal Navy. In the process, Joe will remake history, and himself.]]> 448 Natasha Pulley 1635576083 Gemma 0 to-read 4.01 2021 The Kingdoms
author: Natasha Pulley
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Half Life of Valery K 58532153 From the author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street and The Kingdoms, an epic Cold War novel set in a mysterious town in Soviet Russia.

In 1963, in a Siberian gulag, former nuclear specialist Valery Kolkhanov has mastered what it takes to survive: the right connections to the guards for access to food and cigarettes, the right pair of warm boots to avoid frostbite, and the right attitude toward the small pleasures of life so he won’t go insane. But on one ordinary day, all that changes: Valery’s university mentor steps in and sweeps Valery from the frozen prison camp to a mysterious unnamed town that houses a set of nuclear reactors and is surrounded by a forest so damaged it looks like the trees have rusted from within.

In City 40, Valery is Dr. Kolkhanov once more, and he’s expected to serve out his prison term studying the effect of radiation on local animals. But as Valery begins his work, he is struck by the questions his research raises: why is there so much radiation in this area? What, exactly, is being hidden from the thousands who live in the town? And if he keeps looking for answers, will he live to serve out his sentence?

Based on real events in a surreal Soviet city, and told with bestselling author Natasha Pulley’s inimitable style, The Half Life of Valery K is a sweeping new adventure for readers of Stuart Turton and Sarah Gailey.]]> 375 Natasha Pulley 1635573270 Gemma 0 to-read 4.16 2022 The Half Life of Valery K
author: Natasha Pulley
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/05
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]]> <![CDATA[The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)]]> 51901147
The odds are against him. He's been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined -- every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute... and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.]]> 541 Suzanne Collins Gemma 0 to-read 3.99 2020 The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/01
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]]> The Last Love Note 123087802 You may never stop loving the one you lost. But you can still find love again.

Kate is a bit of a mess. Two years after losing her young husband Cameron, she’s grieving, solo parenting, working like mad at her university fundraising job, always dropping the ball—and yet clinging to her sense of humor.

Lurching from one comedic crisis to the next, she also navigates an overbearing mom and a Tinder-obsessed best friend who's determined to matchmake Kate with her hot new neighbor.

When an in-flight problem leaves Kate and her boss, Hugh, stranded for a weekend on the east coast of Australia, she finally has a chance, away from her son, to really process her grief and see what’s right in front of her. Can she let go of the love of her life and risk her heart a second time?

When it becomes clear that Hugh is hiding a secret, Kate turns to the trail of scribbled notes she once used to hold her life together. The first note captured her heart. Will the last note set it free?

The Last Love Note will make listeners laugh, cry, and renew their faith in the resilience of the human heart—and in love itself.]]> 384 Emma Grey 1958506281 Gemma 0 to-read 4.04 2023 The Last Love Note
author: Emma Grey
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> All the Lonely People 51642969 He just needs to realise it.

In weekly phone calls to his daughter in Australia, widower Hubert Bird paints a picture of the perfect retirement, packed with fun, friendship and fulfilment.

But Hubert Bird is lying.

The truth is day after day drags by without him seeing a single soul.

Until, that is, he receives some good news - good news that in one way turns out to be the worst news ever, news that will force him out again, into a world he has long since turned his back on.

Now Hubert faces a seemingly impossible task: to make his real life resemble his fake life before the truth comes out.
Along the way Hubert stumbles across a second chance at love, renews a cherished friendship and finds himself roped into an audacious community scheme that seeks to end loneliness once and for all . . .

Life is certainly beginning to happen to Hubert Bird. But with the origin of his earlier isolation always lurking in the shadows will he ever get to live the life he's pretended to have for so long?]]> 430 Mike Gayle 1473687403 Gemma 0 to-read 4.17 2020 All the Lonely People
author: Mike Gayle
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/12/15
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]]> The Bee Sting 62039166 From the author of Skippy Dies comes Paul Murray's The Bee Sting, an irresistibly funny, wise, and thought-provoking tour de force about family, fortune, and the struggle to be a good person when the world is falling apart.

The Barnes family is in trouble. Dickie’s once-lucrative car business is going under―but rather than face the music, he’s spending his days in the woods, building an apocalypse-proof bunker with a renegade handyman. His wife Imelda is selling off her jewelry on eBay, while their teenage daughter Cass, formerly top of her class, seems determined to binge-drink her way through her final exams. And twelve-year-old PJ is putting the final touches to his grand plan to run away from home.

Where did it all go wrong? A patch of ice on the tarmac, a casual favor to a charming stranger, a bee caught beneath a bridal veil―can a single moment of bad luck change the direction of a life? And if the story has already been written―is there still time to find a happy ending?]]> 645 Paul Murray 0374600309 Gemma 0 to-read 3.92 2023 The Bee Sting
author: Paul Murray
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> The Celebrants 62049729
It’s been a minute—or five years—since Jordan Vargas last saw his college friends, and twenty-eight years since their graduation when their adult lives officially began. Now Jordan, Jordy, Naomi, Craig, and Marielle find themselves at the brink of a new decade, with all the responsibilities of adulthood, yet no closer to having their lives figured out. Though not for a lack of trying. Over the years they’ve reunited in Big Sur to honor a decades-old pact to throw each other living “funerals,� celebrations to remind themselves that life is worth living—that their lives mean something, to one another if not to themselves.

But this reunion is different. They’re not gathered as they were to bolster Marielle as her marriage crumbled, to lift Naomi after her parents died, or to intervene when Craig pleaded guilty to art fraud. This time, Jordan is sitting on a secret that will upend their pact.

A deeply honest tribute to the growing pains of selfhood and the people who keep us going, coupled with Steven Rowley’s signature humor and heart, The Celebrants is a moving tale about the false invincibility of youth and the beautiful ways in which friendshiphelps uscelebrate our lives, even amid the deepest challenges of living.]]> 320 Steven Rowley 0593540425 Gemma 0 to-read 3.59 2023 The Celebrants
author: Steven Rowley
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> Maame 60784605 Shortlisted for the TikTok Book Awards in the Book of the Year, 2023 and the ŷ Debut and Fiction Book of the Year, 2023.

It’s fair to say that Maddie’s life in London is far from rewarding. With a mother who spends most of her time in Ghana (yet still somehow manages to be overbearing), Maddie is the primary caretaker for her father, who suffers from advanced stage Parkinson’s. At work, her boss is a nightmare and Maddie is tired of always being the only Black person in every meeting.

When her mum returns from her latest trip to Ghana, Maddie leaps at the chance to get out of the family home and finally start living. A self-acknowledged late bloomer, she’s ready to experience some important “firsts�: She finds a flat share, says yes to after-work drinks, pushes for more recognition in her career, and throws herself into the bewildering world of internet dating. But it's not long before tragedy strikes, forcing Maddie to face the true nature of her unconventional family, and the perils—and rewards—of putting her life on the line.

Smart, funny, and deeply affecting, Jessica George's Maame deals with the themes of our time with humor and poignancy: from familial duty and racism, to female pleasure, the complexity of love, and the life-saving power of friendship. Most important, it explores what it feels like to be torn between two homes and cultures―and it celebrates finally being able to find where you belong.]]> 320 Jessica George Gemma 0 to-read 4.03 2023 Maame
author: Jessica George
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> Hello Beautiful 61771675
But then darkness from William’s past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia’s carefully orchestrated plans for their future, but the sisters� unshakeable devotion to one another. The result is a catastrophic family rift that changes their lives for generations. Will the loyalty that once rooted them be strong enough to draw them back together when it matters most?]]> 416 Ann Napolitano Gemma 0 to-read 4.14 2023 Hello Beautiful
author: Ann Napolitano
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> Banyan Moon 62800971
Back in Florida, Huơng is simultaneously mourning her mother and resenting her for having the relationship with Ann that she never did. Then Ann and Huơng learn that Minh has left them both the Banyan House, the crumbling old manor that was Ann’s childhood home, in all its strange, Gothic glory. Under the same roof for the first time in years, mother and daughter must face the simmering questions of their past and their uncertain futures, while trying to rebuild their relationship without the one person who’s always held them together.

Running parallel to this is Minh’s story, as she goes from a lovestruck teenager living in the shadow of the Vietnam War to a determined young mother immigrating to America in search of a better life for her children. And when Ann makes a shocking discovery in the Banyan House’s attic, long-buried secrets come to light as it becomes clear how decisions Minh made in her youth affected the rest of her life—and beyond.

Spanning decades and continents, from 1960s Vietnam to the wild swamplands of the Florida coast, Banyan Moon is a stunning and deeply moving story of mothers and daughters, the things we inherit, and the lives we choose to make out of that inheritance.]]> 336 Thao Thai 0063267101 Gemma 0 to-read 3.86 2023 Banyan Moon
author: Thao Thai
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> River Sing Me Home 61111298 Her search begins with an ending....

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

Away from Providence, she begins a desperate search to find her children--the five who survived birth and were sold. Are any of them still alive? Rachel has to know. The grueling, dangerous journey takes her from Barbados then, by river, deep into the forest of British Guiana and finally across the sea to Trinidad. She is driven on by the certainty that a mother cannot be truly free without knowing what has become of her children, even if the answer is more than she can bear. These are the stories of Mary Grace, Micah, Thomas Augustus, Cherry Jane and Mercy. But above all this is the story of Rachel and the extraordinary lengths to which a mother will go to find her children...and her freedom.]]> 322 Eleanor Shearer 0593548043 Gemma 0 to-read 3.97 2023 River Sing Me Home
author: Eleanor Shearer
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2023
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]]> The Keeper of Hidden Books 62054146 A heartwarming story about the power of books to bring us together, inspired by the true story of the underground library in WWII Warsaw, by the New York Times bestselling author of The Last Bookshop in London.

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

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

But the closer Warsaw creeps toward liberation, the more dangerous life becomes for the women and their families—and escape may not be possible for everyone. As the destruction rages around them, Zofia must fight to save her friend and preserve her culture and community using the only weapon they have left—literature.]]> 416 Madeline Martin 1335455027 Gemma 0 to-read 4.07 2023 The Keeper of Hidden Books
author: Madeline Martin
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2023
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]]> <![CDATA[The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store]]> 65678550
Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, which served the neighborhood's quirky collection of blacks and European immigrants, helped by her husband, Moshe, a Romanian-born theater owner who integrated the town's first dance hall. When the state came looking for a deaf black child, claiming that the boy needed to be institutionalized, Chicken Hill's residents—roused by Chona's kindess and the courage of a local black worker named Nate Timblin—banded together to keep the boy safe.

As the novel unfolds, it becomes clear how much the people of Chicken Hill have to struggle to survive at the margins of white Christian America and how damaging bigotry, hypocrisy, and deceit can be to a community. When the truth is revealed about the skeleton, the boy, and the part the town’s establishment played in both, McBride shows that it is love and community—heaven and earth—that ultimately sustain us.]]> 385 James McBride 0593422945 Gemma 0 to-read 3.84 2023 The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
author: James McBride
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> Lady Tan’s Circle of Women 62919732
An immersive historical novel inspired by the true story of a woman physician in 15th-century China.

According to Confucius, “an educated woman is a worthless woman,� but Tan Yunxian—born into an elite family, yet haunted by death, separations, and loneliness—is being raised by her grandparents to be of use. Her grandmother is one of only a handful of female doctors in China, and she teaches Yunxian the pillars of Chinese medicine, the Four Examinations—looking, listening, touching, and asking—something a man can never do with a female patient.

From a young age, Yunxian learns about women’s illnesses, many of which relate to childbearing, alongside a young midwife-in-training, Meiling. The two girls find fast friendship and a mutual purpose—despite the prohibition that a doctor should never touch blood while a midwife comes in frequent contact with it—and they vow to be forever friends, sharing in each other’s joys and struggles. No mud, no lotus , they tell from adversity beauty can bloom.

But when Yunxian is sent into an arranged marriage, her mother-in-law forbids her from seeing Meiling and from helping the women and girls in the household. Yunxian is to act like a proper wife—embroider bound-foot slippers, recite poetry, give birth to sons, and stay forever within the walls of the family compound, the Garden of Fragrant Delights.

How might a woman like Yunxian break free of these traditions and lead a life of such importance that many of her remedies are still used five centuries later? How might the power of friendship support or complicate these efforts? A captivating story of women helping each other, Lady Tan’s Circle of Women is a triumphant reimagining of the life of one person who was remarkable in the Ming dynasty and would be considered remarkable today.]]> 352 Lisa See 1982117087 Gemma 0 to-read 4.31 2023 Lady Tan’s Circle of Women
author: Lisa See
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.31
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]]> The Covenant of Water 180357146 From the New York Times-bestselling author of Cutting for Stone comes a stunning and magisterial epic of love, faith, and medicine, set in Kerala, South India, following three generations of a family seeking the answers to a strange secret

Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala's Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time. From this unforgettable new beginning, the young girl—and future matriarch, Big Ammachi—will witness unthinkable changes over the span of her extraordinary life, full of joy and triumph as well as hardship and loss, her faith and love the only constants.

A shimmering evocation of a bygone India and of the passage of time itself, The Covenant of Water is a hymn to progress in medicine and to human understanding, and a humbling testament to the hardships undergone by past generations for the sake of those alive today. Imbued with humor, deep emotion, and the essence of life, it is one of the most masterful literary novels published in recent years.]]> 724 Abraham Verghese 0802162177 Gemma 0 to-read 4.34 2023 The Covenant of Water
author: Abraham Verghese
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2023
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]]> Weyward 60654349 I am a Weyward, and wild inside.

2019: Under cover of darkness, Kate flees London for ramshackle Weyward Cottage, inherited from a great aunt she barely remembers. With its tumbling ivy and overgrown garden, the cottage is worlds away from the abusive partner who tormented Kate. But she begins to suspect that her great aunt had a secret. One that lurks in the bones of the cottage, hidden ever since the witch-hunts of the 17th century.

1619: Altha is awaiting trial for the murder of a local farmer who was stampeded to death by his herd. As a girl, Altha’s mother taught her their magic, a kind not rooted in spell casting but in a deep knowledge of the natural world. But unusual women have always been deemed dangerous, and as the evidence for witchcraft is set out against Altha, she knows it will take all of her powers to maintain her freedom.

1942: As World War II rages, Violet is trapped in her family's grand, crumbling estate. Straitjacketed by societal convention, she longs for the robust education her brother receives––and for her mother, long deceased, who was rumored to have gone mad before her death. The only traces Violet has of her are a locket bearing the initial W and the word weyward scratched into the baseboard of her bedroom.

Weaving together the stories of three extraordinary women across five centuries, Emilia Hart's Weyward is an enthralling novel of female resilience and the transformative power of the natural world.]]> 329 Emilia Hart 125028080X Gemma 0 to-read 4.03 2023 Weyward
author: Emilia Hart
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow]]> 58784475 In this exhilarating novel, two friends—often in love, but never lovers—come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.

On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn't heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won't protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.

Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.]]> 401 Gabrielle Zevin 0735243344 Gemma 0 to-read 4.12 2022 Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
author: Gabrielle Zevin
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2022
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]]> Circe 35959740
Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts, and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.

But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from or with the mortals she has come to love.]]> 393 Madeline Miller 0316556343 Gemma 0 to-read 4.22 2018 Circe
author: Madeline Miller
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/12/04
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]]> The Wishing Game 62926992
Lucy Hart knows better than anyone what it’s like to grow up without parents who loved her. In a childhood marked by neglect and loneliness, Lucy found her solace in books, namely the Clock Island series by Jack Masterson. Now a twenty-six-year-old teacher’s aide, she is able to share her love of reading with bright, young students, especially seven-year-old Christopher Lamb, who was left orphaned after the tragic death of his parents. Lucy would give anything to adopt Christopher, but even the idea of becoming a family seems like an impossible dream without proper funds and stability.

But be careful what you wish for. . . .

Just when Lucy is about to give up, Jack Masterson announces he’s finally written a new book. Even better, he’s holding a contest at his home on the real Clock Island, and Lucy is one of the four lucky contestants chosen to compete to win the one and only copy.

For Lucy, the chance of winning the most sought-after book in the world means everything to her and Christopher. But first she must contend with ruthless book collectors, wily opponents, and the distractingly handsome (and grumpy) Hugo Reese, the illustrator of the Clock Island books. Meanwhile, Jack “the Mastermind� Masterson is plotting the ultimate twist ending that could change all their lives forever.

. . . You might just get it.]]> 304 Meg Shaffer 0593598830 Gemma 0 to-read 4.02 2023 The Wishing Game
author: Meg Shaffer
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2023
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]]> Reincarnation Blues 33571217 A magically inspiring tale of a man who is reincarnated through many lifetimes so that he can be with his one true love: Death herself.

What if you could live forever—but without your one true love? Reincarnation Blues is the story of a man who has been reincarnated nearly 10,000 times, in search of the secret to immortality so that he can be with his beloved, the incarnation of Death. Neil Gaiman meets Kurt Vonnegut in this darkly whimsical, hilariously profound, and wildly imaginative comedy of the secrets of life and love. Transporting us from ancient India to outer space to Renaissance Italy to the present day, is a journey through time, space, and the human heart.]]> 374 Michael Poore 0399178481 Gemma 0 to-read 3.86 2017 Reincarnation Blues
author: Michael Poore
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2017
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]]> Midnight at the Electric 32075663 Divided by time. Ignited by a spark.

Kansas, 2065. Adri has secured a slot as a Colonist—one of the lucky few handpicked to live on Mars. But weeks before launch, she discovers the journal of a girl who lived in her house over a hundred years ago, and is immediately drawn into the mystery surrounding her fate. While Adri knows she must focus on the mission ahead, she becomes captivated by a life that’s been lost in time…and how it might be inextricably tied to her own.

Oklahoma, 1934. Amidst the fear and uncertainty of the Dust Bowl, Catherine fantasizes about her family’s farmhand, and longs for the immortality promised by a professor at a traveling show called the Electric. But as her family’s situation becomes more dire—and the suffocating dust threatens her sister’s life—Catherine must find the courage to sacrifice everything she loves in order to save the one person she loves most.

England, 1919. In the recovery following the First World War, Lenore struggles with her grief for her brother, a fallen British soldier, and plans to sail to America in pursuit of a childhood friend. But even if she makes it that far, will her friend be the person she remembers, and the one who can bring her back to herself?

While their stories spans thousands of miles and multiple generations, Lenore, Catherine, and Adri’s fates are entwined.]]> 259 Jodi Lynn Anderson 0062393545 Gemma 0 to-read 3.91 2017 Midnight at the Electric
author: Jodi Lynn Anderson
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2017
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]]> The Help 4667024
Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women, mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends, view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't.


Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here]]> 464 Kathryn Stockett 0399155341 Gemma 0 to-read 4.46 2009 The Help
author: Kathryn Stockett
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2009
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]]> <![CDATA[The Love Wager (Mr. Wrong Number, #2)]]> 60487511
After agreeing they are absolutely not interested in each other, Jack and Hallie realize they’re each other’s perfect wing-person in their searches for The One. They text each other about their dates, often scheduling them at the same restaurant so that if things don’t go well, the two of them can get tacos afterward.

Spoiler: they get a lot of tacos together.

Discouraged by the lack of prospects, Jack and Hallie make a wager to see who can find true love first, but when they agree to be fake dates for a weekend wedding, all bets are off. As they pretend to be a couple, lines become blurred and they both struggle to remember why the other was a bad idea to begin with.]]> 315 Lynn Painter 0593437292 Gemma 0 to-read 3.86 2023 The Love Wager (Mr. Wrong Number, #2)
author: Lynn Painter
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> Peach Blossom Spring 61108464 A "beautifully rendered" novel aboutwar, migration, and the power of telling our stories,Peach Blossom Spring follows three generations of a Chinese familyon their search for a place to call home (Georgia Hunter, New York Times bestselling author).

"Within every misfortune there is a blessing and within every blessing, the seeds of misfortune, and so it goes, until the end of time."

It is 1938 in China and, as a young wife, Meilin’s future is bright. But with the Japanese army approaching, Meilin and her four year old son, Renshu, are forced to flee their home. Relying on little but their wits and a beautifully illustrated hand scroll, filled with ancient fables that offer solace and wisdom, they must travel through a ravaged country, seeking refuge.

Years later, Renshu has settled in America as Henry Dao. Though his daughter is desperate to understand her heritage, he refuses to talk about his childhood. How can he keep his family safe in this new land when the weight of his history threatens to drag them down? Yet how can Lily learn who she is if she can never know her family’s story?

Spanning continents and generations, Peach Blossom Spring is a bold and moving look at the history of modern China, told through the story of one family. It’s about the power of our past, the hope for a better future, and the haunting question: What would it mean to finally be home?

A BOOK OF THE MONTH CLUB PICK

"Left me pondering how the stories we choose to pass down have the power not only to define us, but to buoy us.� —Georgia Hunter, author of We Were the Lucky Ones

"I absolutely adored this novel . . . During moments of deep sadness and loss, there is also beauty.� —Christy Lefteri, author of The Beekeeper of Aleppo

"Inspired by her father’s real-life experiences, Melissa Fu has gifted us with a timely, moving, and universal novel.”―Nguyễn Phan Qu� Mai, author of The Mountains Sing

“Expansive, atmospheric, and affecting. Peach Blossom Spring shows just how much the human heart can hold.� —Susie Yang, author of White Ivy

ձ> 400 Melissa Fu 0316286877 Gemma 0 to-read 4.13 2022 Peach Blossom Spring
author: Melissa Fu
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Book of Delights: Essays 38746152 The Book of Delights is a genre-defying book of essays—some as short as a paragraph; some as long as five pages—that record the small joys that occurred in one year, from birthday to birthday, and that we often overlook in our busy lives. His is a meditation on delight that takes a clear-eyed view of the complexities, even the terrors, in his life, including living in America as a black man; the ecological and psychic violence of our consumer culture; the loss of those he loves. Among Gay’s funny, poetic, philosophical delights: the way Botan Rice Candy wrappers melt in your mouth, the volunteer crossing guard with a pronounced tremor whom he imagines as a kind of boat-woman escorting pedestrians across the River Styx, a friend’s unabashed use of air quotes, pickup basketball games, the silent nod of acknowledgment between black people. And more than any other subject, Gay celebrates the beauty of the natural world—his garden, the flowers in the sidewalk, the birds, the bees, the mushrooms, the trees.

This is not a book of how-to or inspiration, though it could be read that way. Fans of Roxane Gay, Maggie Nelson, and Kiese Laymon will revel in Gay’s voice, and his insights. The Book of Delights is about our connection to the world, to each other, and the rewards that come from a life closely observed. Gay’s pieces serve as a powerful and necessary reminder that we can, and should, stake out a space in our lives for delight.

Preface
1. My Birthday, Kinda
2. Inefficiency
3. Flower in the Curb
4. Blowing It Off
5. Hole in the Head
6. Remission Still
7. Praying Mantis
8. The Negreeting
9. The High-Five from Strangers, Etc
10. Writing by Hand
11. Transplanting
12. Nicknames
13. But, Maybe ..
14. "Joy Is Such a Human Madness
15. House Party
16. Hummingbird
17. Just a Dream
18. "That's Some Bambi Shit" ..
19. The Irrepressible: The Gratitudes
20. Tap Tap
21. Coffee without the Saucer
22. Lily on the Pants
23. Sharing a Bag 24. Umbrella in the Café
25. Beast Mode
26. Airplane Rituals
27. Weirdly Untitled
28. Pecans
29. The Do-Over
30. Infinity
31. Ghost
32. Nota Bene
33. "Love Me in a Special Way"
34. "Stay," by Lisa Loeb
35. Stacking Delights
36. Donny Hathaway on Pandora
37. "To Spread the Sweetness of Love"
38. Baby, Baby, Baby
39. "REPENT OR BURN"
40. Giving My Body to the Cause
41. Among the Rewards of My Sloth . .
42. Not Grumpy Cat
43. Some Stupid Shit
44. Not Only . .
45. Microgentrification: WE BUY GOLD
46. Reading Palms
47. The Sanctity of Trains
48. Bird Feeding
49. Kombucha in a Mid-century Glass
50. Hickories
51. Annoyed No More
52. Toto
53. Church Poets
54. Public Lying Down
55. Babies. Seriously
56. "My Life, My Life, My Life, My Life in the Sunshine
57. Incorporation
58. Botan Rice Candy
59. Understory
60. "Joy Is Such a Human Madness": The Duff Between Us
61. "It's Just the Day I'm Having" ..
62. The Purple Cornets of Spring
63. The Volunteer
64. Fishing an Eyelash: Two or Three Cents on the Virtues of the Poetry Reading
65. Found Things
66. Found Things (2)
67. Cuplicking
68. Bobblehead
69. The Jenky 70. The Crow's Ablutions
71. Flowers in the Hands of Statues
72. An Abundance of Public Toilets
73. The Wave of Unfamiliars
74. Not for Nothing
75. Bindweed ... Delight?
76. Dickhead
77. Ambiguous Signage Sometimes
78. Heart to Heart
79. Caution: Bees on Bridge
80. Tomato on Board
81. Purple-Handed
82. Name: Kayte Young; Phone Number: 555-867-5309
83. Still Processing
84. Fireflies
85. My Scythe Jack
86. Pawpaw Grove
87. Loitering
88. Touched
89. Scat
90. Get Thee to the Nutrient Cycle!
91. Pulling Carrots
92. Filling the Frame
93. Reckless Air Quotes 94. Judith Irene Gay, Aged Seventy-six Today!
95. Rothko Backboard
96. The Marfa Lights
97. The Carport
98. My Garden (Book):
99. Black Bumblebees!
100. Grown
101. Coco-baby
102. My Birthday]]> 274 Ross Gay 1616207922 Gemma 2 did-not-finish 4.15 2019 The Book of Delights: Essays
author: Ross Gay
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2023/09/29
date added: 2023/09/29
shelves: did-not-finish
review:
DNF - the writing style just wasn’t for me. Enjoyed the snippets reflecting on how people relate to and communicate with others. But it was becoming a chore to read so I haven’t the drive to keep going.
]]> <![CDATA[Ariadne Unraveled: A Mythic Retelling]]> 57981212
The stranger is Dionysus, the new god of wine, who empowers women and breaks the rules of the old gods. He came to Crete seeking vengeance against Artemis. He never expected to fall in love.

Furious that Dionysus would dare meddle with her high priestess, Artemis threatens to kill Ariadne if Dionysus doesn’t abandon her. Heartbroken, the new god leaves Crete, vowing to become better than the Olympians.

From the bloody labyrinth and the shadows of Hades to the halls of Olympus, Dionysus must find a way to defy Artemis and unite with his true love. Forced to betray her people, Ariadne discovers her own power to choose between the goddess she pledged herself to and the god she loves.]]> 345 Zenobia Neil Gemma 0 to-read 3.79 2021 Ariadne Unraveled: A Mythic Retelling
author: Zenobia Neil
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Stars Are Fire 32324273 256 Anita Shreve Gemma 0 to-read 3.83 2017 The Stars Are Fire
author: Anita Shreve
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Oscar and Lucinda 316496
Oscar is a young English clergyman who has broken with his past and developed a disturbing talent for gambling. A country girl of singular ambition, Lucinda moves to Sydney, driven by dreams of self-reliance and the building of an industrial Utopia. Together this unlikely pair create and are created by the spectacle of mid-nineteenth century Australia.

Peter Carey's visionary brilliance, and his capacity to delight and surprise, propel this story to its stunning conclusion.]]> 515 Peter Carey 0702229784 Gemma 0 to-read 3.75 1988 Oscar and Lucinda
author: Peter Carey
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1988
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Question of Red 30290554 In this sweeping saga of love, loss, revolution, and the resilience of the human spirit, Amba must find the courage to forge her own path.

Amba was named after a tragic figure in Indonesian mythology, and she spends her lifetime trying to invent a story she can call her own. When she meets two suitors who fit perfectly into her namesake’s myth, Amba cannot help but feel that fate is teasing her. Salwa, respectful to a fault, pledges to honor and protect Amba, no matter what. Bhisma, a sophisticated, European-trained doctor, offers her sensual pleasures and a world of ideas. But military coups and religious disputes make 1960s Indonesia a place of uncertainty, and the chaos strengthens Amba’s pursuit of freedom. The more Amba does to claim her own story, the better she understands her inextricable bonds to history, myth, and love.

Revised edition: This edition of The Question of Red includes editorial revisions.

]]> 478 Laksmi Pamuntjak 1503991423 Gemma 0 to-read 3.56 2012 The Question of Red
author: Laksmi Pamuntjak
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Homegoing 27071490 An alternate cover edition can be found here.

A novel of breathtaking sweep and emotional power that traces three hundred years in Ghana and along the way also becomes a truly great American novel. Extraordinary for its exquisite language, its implacable sorrow, its soaring beauty, and for its monumental portrait of the forces that shape families and nations, Homegoing heralds the arrival of a major new voice in contemporary fiction.

Two half-sisters, Effia and Esi, are born into different villages in eighteenth-century Ghana. Effia is married off to an Englishman and lives in comfort in the palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle. Unbeknownst to Effia, her sister, Esi, is imprisoned beneath her in the castle's dungeons, sold with thousands of others into the Gold Coast's booming slave trade, and shipped off to America, where her children and grandchildren will be raised in slavery. One thread of Homegoing follows Effia's descendants through centuries of warfare in Ghana, as the Fante and Asante nations wrestle with the slave trade and British colonization. The other thread follows Esi and her children into America. From the plantations of the South to the Civil War and the Great Migration, from the coal mines of Pratt City, Alabama, to the jazz clubs and dope houses of twentieth-century Harlem, right up through the present day, Homegoing makes history visceral, and captures, with singular and stunning immediacy, how the memory of captivity came to be inscribed in the soul of a nation.

Generation after generation, Yaa Gyasi's magisterial first novel sets the fate of the individual against the obliterating movements of time, delivering unforgettable characters whose lives were shaped by historical forces beyond their control. Homegoing is a tremendous reading experience, not to be missed, by an astonishingly gifted young writer.]]> 305 Yaa Gyasi Gemma 5 4.48 2016 Homegoing
author: Yaa Gyasi
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/16
date added: 2023/09/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[With the End in Mind: Dying, Death, and Wisdom in an Age of Denial]]> 35099051
Weaving the details of her own experiences as a caregiver through stories of her patients, their families, and their distinctive lives, Dr. Mannix discusses the universal, but deeply personal, process of dying. With meditations on life, death, and the space between them, With the End in Mind describes the possibility of meeting death gently, with forethought and preparation, and shows the unexpected beauty, dignity, and profound humanity of life coming to an end.]]> 352 Kathryn Mannix 0316504483 Gemma 0 to-read 4.54 2017 With the End in Mind: Dying, Death, and Wisdom in an Age of Denial
author: Kathryn Mannix
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.54
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Fortunate Woman: A Country Doctor’s Story]]> 63217709
Polly Morland was clearing her late mother’s house when she found a battered paperback fallen behind the family bookshelf. Opening it, she was astonished to see an old photograph of the remote, wooded valley in which she lives. The book was A Fortunate Man, John Berger’s classic account of a country doctor working in the same valley more than half a century earlier. This chance discovery led Morland to the remarkable doctor who serves that valley community today, a woman whose own medical vocation was inspired by reading the very same book as a teenager.

A Fortunate Woman tells her compelling, true story, and how the tale of the old doctor has threaded through her own life in magical ways. Working within a community she loves, she is a rarity in contemporary medicine: a modern doctor who knows her patients inside out, the lives of this ancient, wild place entwined with her own.

Revisiting Berger’s story after half a century of seismic change, both in our society and in the ways in which medicine is practised, A Fortunate Woman sheds light on what it means to be a doctor in today’s complex and challenging world. Interweaving the doctor’s story with those of her patients, reflecting on the relationship between landscape and community, and upon the wider role of medicine in society, a unique portrait of a twenty-first century family doctor emerges.

Illustrated throughout with photographs by Richard Baker.]]> 0 Richard Baker 1761263579 Gemma 0 to-read 4.29 2022 A Fortunate Woman: A Country Doctor’s Story
author: Richard Baker
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow]]> 57390604
Now Salama volunteers at a hospital in Homs, helping the wounded who flood through the doors daily. Secretly, though, she is desperate to find a way out of her beloved country before her sister-in-law, Layla, gives birth. So desperate, that she has manifested a physical embodiment of her fear in the form of her imagined companion, Khawf, who haunts her every move in an effort to keep her safe.

But even with Khawf pressing her to leave, Salama is torn between her loyalty to her country and her conviction to survive. Salama must contend with bullets and bombs, military assaults, and her shifting sense of morality before she might finally breathe free. And when she crosses paths with the boy she was supposed to meet one fateful day, she starts to doubt her resolve in leaving home at all.

Soon, Salama must learn to see the events around her for what they truly are—not a war, but a revolution—and decide how she, too, will cry for Syria’s freedom.]]> 417 Zoulfa Katouh 0316351377 Gemma 0 to-read 4.48 2022 As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow
author: Zoulfa Katouh
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Half a World Away 40604197 Strangers living worlds apart.
Strangers with nothing in common.

But it wasn’t always that way�

Kerry Hayes is single mum, living on a tough south London estate. She provides for her son by cleaning houses she could never afford. Taken into care as a child, Kerry cannot forget her past.

Noah Martineau is a successful barrister with a beautiful wife, daughter and home in fashionable Primrose Hill. Adopted as a young child, Noah never looks back.

When Kerry contacts Noah, the sibling she lost on the day they were torn apart as children, she sets in motion a chain of events that will change both of their lives forever.

By turns funny and moving, Half a World Away is a story that will stay with you long after you read its final page.]]> 389 Mike Gayle Gemma 0 to-read 4.13 2019 Half a World Away
author: Mike Gayle
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Demon Copperhead 60194162 "Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose."

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

Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind.]]> 560 Barbara Kingsolver 0063251922 Gemma 4 4.46 2022 Demon Copperhead
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/24
date added: 2023/06/25
shelves:
review:
A really interesting but really grim read about growing up in poverty in Virginia in the 90s-ish. A good companion to the documentary “Dopesick� I’m told.
]]> Call the Canaries Home 62589532 Three estranged sisters reconnect in their Louisiana hometown to face an unresolved past in a heartfelt novel about family, grief, secrets, and forgiveness.

Savannah was four years old when her twin sister, Georgia, went missing from their small Louisiana town, fracturing their family. Twenty-eight years later, Savannah convinces her estranged older sisters, Rayanne and Sue Ellen, to honor the pact they made as children and retrieve the time capsule they buried in their old backyard. But coming home means confronting old ghosts…and their stubborn grandmother, Meemaw.

Sifting through the artifacts, they come across a photograph taken on the day Georgia disappeared and spot a familiar woman lingering in the background. While Sue Ellen and Rayanne want to move on with their lives, Savannah is determined to find the woman—and perhaps a clue to the past.

When old tensions, rivalries, and memories resurface, the sisters must reconsider what they thought they knew about that fateful day, about each other, and about themselves. On their search to uncover what happened to Georgia, each of them will discover what Meemaw has known all along: family is everything.]]> 299 Laura Barrow 166251025X Gemma 0 to-read 4.02 2023 Call the Canaries Home
author: Laura Barrow
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Ten Thousand Doors of January]]> 43521657
Then she finds a strange book. A book that carries the scent of other worlds, and tells a tale of secret doors, of love, adventure and danger. Each page turn reveals impossible truths about the world and January discovers a story increasingly entwined with her own.]]> 374 Alix E. Harrow 0316421995 Gemma 4 3.99 2019 The Ten Thousand Doors of January
author: Alix E. Harrow
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2023/04/30
date added: 2023/04/30
shelves:
review:
Slow starter but worth it in the end.
]]> The Undertaker's Assistant 42832910 An enthralling novel of historical fiction for fans of Lisa Wingate and Ellen Marie Wiseman, The Undertaker's Assistant is a powerful story of human resilience set during Reconstruction-era New Orleans that features an extraordinary and unforgettable heroine at its heart.

"The dead can't hurt you. Only the living can." Effie Jones, a former slave who escaped to the Union side as a child, knows the truth of her words. Taken in by an army surgeon and his wife during the War, she learned to read and write, to tolerate the sight of blood and broken bodies--and to forget what is too painful to bear. Now a young freedwoman, she has returned south to New Orleans and earns her living as an embalmer, her steady hand and skillful incisions compensating for her white employer's shortcomings.

Tall and serious, Effie keeps her distance from the other girls in her boarding house, holding tight to the satisfaction she finds in her work. But despite her reticence, two encounters--with a charismatic state legislator named Samson Greene, and a beautiful young Creole, Adeline--introduce her to new worlds of protests and activism, of soirees and social ambition. Effie decides to seek out the past she has blocked from her memory and try to trace her kin. As her hopes are tested by betrayal, and New Orleans grapples with violence and growing racial turmoil, Effie faces loss and heartache, but also a chance to finally find her place . . .]]> 336 Amanda Skenandore 1496713680 Gemma 0 to-read 3.72 2019 The Undertaker's Assistant
author: Amanda Skenandore
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/04/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Philosophy for Life: And Other Dangerous Situations]]> 13629522 292 Jules Evans 1846043204 Gemma 0 to-read 4.07 2012 Philosophy for Life: And Other Dangerous Situations
author: Jules Evans
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/04/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Little Life 22822858
Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride.Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever.]]> 720 Hanya Yanagihara 0385539258 Gemma 0 to-read 4.28 2015 A Little Life
author: Hanya Yanagihara
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/04/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Neighbor Favor (The Greene Sisters, #1)]]> 61111295 In this heart-fluttering romance by Kristina Forest, a shy bookworm enlists her charming neighbor to help her score a date, not knowing he's the obscure author she's been corresponding with.

Shy, bookish, and admittedly awkward, Lily Greene has always felt inadequate compared to the rest of her accomplished family, who strive for Black excellence. She dreams of becoming an editor of children's books but has been frustratingly stuck in the nonfiction division for years without a promotion in sight. Lily finds escapism in her correspondences with her favorite fantasy author, and what begins as two lonely people connecting over e-mail turns into a tentative friendship and possibly something else Lily won't let herself entertain--until he ghosts her.

Months later, still crushed but determined to take charge of her life, Lily seeks a date to her sister's wedding. And the perfect person to help her is Nick Brown, her charming, attractive new neighbor, whom she feels drawn to for unexplainable reasons. Little does she know that Nick is an author--her favorite fantasy author.

Nick, who has his reasons for using a pen name and for pushing people away, soon realizes that the beautiful, quiet woman from down the hall is the same Lily he fell in love with over e-mail months ago. Unwilling to complicate things even more between them, he agrees to set her up with someone else, though this simple favor between two neighbors is anything but--not when he can't get her off his mind.]]> 403 Kristina Forest 0593546431 Gemma 0 to-read 3.80 2023 The Neighbor Favor (The Greene Sisters, #1)
author: Kristina Forest
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Victory City 61111246
In the fourteenth century of the Common Era, in the South of what we now call India, nine-year-old Pampa Kampana, orphaned by war, starts hearing the voice of a goddess. Inspired, and imbued with powerful magic, she vows to ensure that no more women suffer her beloved mother's unconscionable fate. Aided by miracles and a gift for prophecy, she creates a mighty city; her whispered words galvanize its people to grow and change. Her poetry maps the rise and fall of its empire. And the prophetess herself--beloved, feared, timeless--watches as the world changes across the centuries and her body, frozen in the beauty of youth for decades upon decades, fades along with her city's glory. Half a millennium later, her writing is discovered, deep in the ancient earth.

The thirteenth novel from the incomparable Salman Rushdie, Victory City is an epic tale with a message for us all: our power is fleeting, but our stories last forever.]]> 336 Salman Rushdie 0593243390 Gemma 0 to-read 3.71 2023 Victory City
author: Salman Rushdie
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Never Fall for Your Fiancée (The Merriwell Sisters, #1)]]> 56268954 The first in a new historical rom-com series, a handsome earl hires a fake fiancée to keep his matchmaking mother at bay, but hilarity ensues when love threatens to complicate everything.

The last thing Hugh Standish, Earl of Fareham, ever wants is a wife. Unfortunately for him, his mother is determined to find him one, even from across the other side of the ocean. So, Hugh invents a fake fiancée to keep his mother’s matchmaking ways at bay. But when Hugh learns his interfering mother is on a ship bound for England, he realizes his complicated, convoluted but convenient ruse is about to implode. Until he collides with a beautiful woman, who might just be the miracle he needs.

Minerva Merriwell has had to struggle to support herself and her two younger sisters ever since their feckless father abandoned them. Work as a woodcut engraver is few and far between, and the Merriwell sisters are nearly penniless. So, when Hugh asks Minerva to pose as his fiancée while his mother is visiting, she knows that while the scheme sounds ludicrous, the offer is too good to pass up.

Once Minerva and her sisters arrive at Hugh's estate, of course, nothing goes according to his meticulous plan. As hilarity and miscommunication ensue, while everyone tries to keep their tangled stories straight, Hugh and Minerva’s fake engagement starts to turn into a real romance. But can they trust each other, when their relationship started with a lie?

]]> 359 Virginia Heath 1250787769 Gemma 0 to-read 3.53 2021 Never Fall for Your Fiancée (The Merriwell Sisters, #1)
author: Virginia Heath
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter]]> 59235597

1886, BANNIN BAY, AUSTRALIA.

The Brightwell family has sailed from England to make their new home in Western Australia. Ten-year-old Eliza knows little of what awaits them on these shores beyond shining pearls and shells like soup plates � the things her father has promised will make their fortune.

~~~


Ten years later and Charles Brightwell, now the bay’s most prolific pearler, goes missing from his ship while out at sea. Whispers from the townsfolk suggest mutiny and murder, but headstrong Eliza, convinced there is more to the story, refuses to believe her father is dead.


It falls to her to ask the questions no one else dares consider. But in a town teeming with corruption, prejudice and blackmail, Eliza soon learns that the truth can cost more than pearls, and she must decide just how much she is willing to pay � and how far she is willing to go � to find it . . .]]> 304 Lizzie Pook 1529072840 Gemma 5 3.81 2022 Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter
author: Lizzie Pook
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/02/19
date added: 2023/02/19
shelves:
review:

]]> The Switch 45134200 Eileen is sick of being 79.
Leena's tired of life in her twenties.
Maybe it's time they swapped places...

When overachiever Leena Cotton is ordered to take a two-month sabbatical after blowing a big presentation at work, she escapes to her grandmother Eileen's house for some overdue rest. Eileen is newly single and about to turn eighty. She'd like a second chance at love, but her tiny Yorkshire village doesn't offer many eligible gentlemen.

Once Leena learns of Eileen's romantic predicament, she proposes a a two-month swap. Eileen can live in London and look for love. Meanwhile Leena will look after everything in rural Yorkshire. But with gossiping neighbours and difficult family dynamics to navigate up north, and trendy London flatmates and online dating to contend with in the city, stepping into one another's shoes proves more difficult than either of them expected.

Leena learns that a long-distance relationship isn't as romantic as she hoped it would be, and then there is the annoyingly perfect � and distractingly handsome � school teacher, who keeps showing up to outdo her efforts to impress the local villagers. Back in London, Eileen is a huge hit with her new neighbours, but is her perfect match nearer home than she first thought?]]> 336 Beth O'Leary 1787475018 Gemma 3 3.95 2020 The Switch
author: Beth O'Leary
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2023/02/15
date added: 2023/02/17
shelves:
review:
Not as entertaining as The Flatshare, maybe a bit formulaic (like so many good romances are to be fair), but enjoyable and a lovely little concept
]]> The Forgiving Kind 42176788 In this masterful new novel, set in 1950s North Carolina, the acclaimed author of The Road to Bittersweet and The Education of Dixie Dupree brings to life an unforgettable young heroine and a moving story of family love tested to its limits.

For twelve-year-old Martha “Sonny� Creech, there is no place more beautiful than her family’s cotton farm. She, her two brothers, and her parents work hard on their land—hoeing, planting, picking—but only Sonny loves the rich, dark earth the way her father does. When a tragic accident claims his life, her stricken family struggles to fend off ruin—until their rich, reclusive neighbor offers to help finance that year’s cotton crop.

Sonny is dismayed when her mama accepts Frank Fowler’s offer; even more so when Sonny’s best friend, Daniel, points out that the man has ulterior motives. Sonny has a talent for divining water—an ability she shared with her father and earns her the hated nickname “water witch� in school. But uncanny as that skill may be, it won’t be enough to offset Mr. Fowler’s disturbing influence in her world. Even her bond with Daniel begins to collapse under the weight of Mr. Fowler’s bigoted taunts. Though she tries to bury her misgivings for the sake of her mama’s happiness, Sonny doesn’t need a willow branch to divine that a reckoning is coming, bringing with it heartache, violence—and perhaps, a fitting and surprising measure of justice.]]> 352 Donna Everhart 1496717007 Gemma 0 to-read 4.07 2019 The Forgiving Kind
author: Donna Everhart
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Lake Pavilion 57319789
India 1935: Amelia Collins, a missionary’s daughter, left destitute by the death of her parents, leaves their home in the Himalayan foothills to find work in Darjeeling. There she meets District Officer Reginald Holden, a powerful older man, who spirits her away from poverty and prejudice to start a new life as his wife in Ganpur.

Amelia soon forms a bond with Reginald’s young son, Arthur, and resumes missionary work in the villages around Ganpur. There, she discovers a pavilion on a lake where the wives of maharajahs once bathed, now abandoned and cloaked in mystery.

�

When the Indian independence movement flares in Ganpur and Reginald struggles to contain it, Amelia's world begins to fall apart as she uncovers the shattering truths he has been keeping from her.

Decades later, when Kate Hamilton inherits a rambling country house from her great aunt Amelia, she returns to the village in Buckinghamshire that she left as a teenager in 1944. Sorting through long-hidden papers, she begins to unearth Amelia’s secrets from her years in British India.



But Kate is harbouring a secret of her own � a devastating betrayal from that last summer of the war. She has lived in the shadow of that day ever since, but Kate is convinced that unlocking the truth about Amelia’s Indian past will hold the key to her own future…]]> 350 Ann Bennett Gemma 0 to-read 4.28 The Lake Pavilion
author: Ann Bennett
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.28
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Birds of California 59028605
Unlike Fiona, Sam Fox, who played her older brother on the popular television show Birds of California, loves the perks that come with being a successful Hollywood actor: fame, women, parties, money. When his current show gets cancelled and his agent starts to avoid his calls, the desperate actor enthusiastically signs on for a Birds of California revival. But to make it happen, he needs Fiona St. James.

Against her better judgment, Fiona agrees to have lunch with Sam. What happens next takes them both by surprise. Sam is enthralled by Fiona's take-no-prisoners attitude, and Fiona discovers a lovable goofball behind Sam's close-up-ready face. Long drives to the beach, late nights at dive bars... theirs is the kind of kitschy romance Hollywood sells. But just like in the rom-coms Fiona despises, there's a twist that threatens her new love. Sam doesn't know the full story behind her breakdown. What happens when she reveals the truth?

Sparks fly and things get real in this sharply sexy and whip-smart romantic comedy set against the backdrop of a post #metoo Hollywood from New York Times bestselling author Katie Cotugno--page-turning escapist fun in the spirit of Beach Read, The Kiss Quotient, and Red, White and Royal Blue.]]> 288 Katie Cotugno 0063159147 Gemma 0 to-read 3.43 2022 Birds of California
author: Katie Cotugno
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Taste: My Life Through Food 55360284
Before Stanley Tucci became a household name with The Devil Wears Prada, The Hunger Games, and the perfect Negroni, he grew up in an Italian American family that spent every night around the table. He shared the magic of those meals with us in The Tucci Cookbook and The Tucci Table, and now he takes us beyond the recipes and into the stories behind them.

Taste is a reflection on the intersection of food and life, filled with anecdotes about growing up in Westchester, New York, preparing for and filming the foodie films Big Night and Julie & Julia, falling in love over dinner, and teaming up with his wife to create conversation-starting meals for their children. Each morsel of this gastronomic journey through good times and bad, five-star meals and burnt dishes, is as heartfelt and delicious as the last.

Written with Stanley's signature wry humour and nostalgia, Taste is a heartwarming read that will be irresistible for anyone who knows the power of a home-cooked meal.]]> 291 Stanley Tucci 1982168013 Gemma 4 4.19 2021 Taste: My Life Through Food
author: Stanley Tucci
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/10
date added: 2023/02/17
shelves:
review:

]]> The Road Trip 56293873 Two exes reach a new level of awkward when forced to take a road trip together in this endearing and humorous novel by the author of the international bestseller The Flatshare.

What if the end of the road is just the beginning?

Four years ago, Dylan and Addie fell in love under the Provence sun. Wealthy Oxford student Dylan was staying at his friend Cherry's enormous French villa; wild child Addie was spending her summer as the on-site caretaker. Two years ago, their relationship officially ended. They haven't spoken since.

Today, Dylan's and Addie's lives collide again. It's the day before Cherry's wedding, and Addie and Dylan crash cars at the start of the journey there. The car Dylan was driving is wrecked, and the wedding is in rural Scotland--he'll never get there on time by public transport.

So, along with Dylan's best friend, Addie's sister, and a random guy on Facebook who needed a ride, they squeeze into a space-challenged Mini and set off across Britain. Cramped into the same space, Dylan and Addie are forced to confront the choices they made that tore them apart--and ask themselves whether that final decision was the right one after all.]]> 400 Beth O'Leary 0593335023 Gemma 0 to-read 3.51 2021 The Road Trip
author: Beth O'Leary
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Matchmaker's Gift 59807961 From Lynda Cohen Loigman, the bestselling author of The Two-Family House and The Wartime Sisters, comes a heartwarming story of two extraordinary women from two different eras who defy expectations to utilize their unique gift of seeing soulmates in the most unexpected places in The Matchmaker's Gift.

Is finding true love a calling or a curse?

Even as a child in 1910, Sara Glikman knows her gift: she is a maker of matches and a seeker of soulmates. But among the pushcart-crowded streets of New York’s Lower East Side, Sara’s vocation is dominated by devout older men—men who see a talented female matchmaker as a dangerous threat to their traditions and livelihood. After making matches in secret for more than a decade, Sara must fight to take her rightful place among her peers, and to demand the recognition she deserves.

Two generations later, Sara’s granddaughter, Abby, is a successful Manhattan divorce attorney, representing the city’s wealthiest clients. When her beloved Grandma Sara dies, Abby inherits her collection of handwritten journals recording the details of Sara’s matches. But among the faded volumes, Abby finds more questions than answers. Why did Abby’s grandmother leave this library to her and what did she hope Abby would discover within its pages? Why does the work Abby once found so compelling suddenly feel inconsequential and flawed? Is Abby willing to sacrifice the career she’s worked so hard for in order to keep her grandmother’s mysterious promise to a stranger? And is there really such a thing as love at first sight?]]> 320 Lynda Cohen Loigman 1250278090 Gemma 5 4.10 2022 The Matchmaker's Gift
author: Lynda Cohen Loigman
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/02/15
date added: 2023/02/15
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking, #1)]]> 20758104 528 Patrick Ness 0763676187 Gemma 2 did-not-finish 4.02 2008 The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking, #1)
author: Patrick Ness
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2008
rating: 2
read at: 2023/01/24
date added: 2023/01/24
shelves: did-not-finish
review:
Intrigued by the concept but simply didn’t enjoy it enough to see it through. DNF. (Sorry Alexandra)
]]> The Book of Two Ways 50265329
Dawn, miraculously, survives the crash, but so do all the doubts that have suddenly been raised. She has led a good life. Back in Boston, there is her husband, Brian, her beloved daughter, and her work as a death doula, where she helps ease the transition between life and death for patients in hospice.

But somewhere in Egypt is Wyatt Armstrong, who works as an archaeologist unearthing ancient burial sites, a job she once studied for, but was forced to abandon when life suddenly intervened. And now, when it seems that fate is offering her second chances, she is not as sure of the choice she once made.

After the crash landing, the airline ensures the survivors are seen by a doctor, then offers transportation wherever they want to go. The obvious option for Dawn is to continue down the path she is on and go home to her family. The other is to return to the archaeological site she left years before, reconnect with Wyatt and their unresolved history, and maybe even complete her research on The Book of Two Ways--the first known map of the afterlife.

As the story unfolds, Dawn's two possible futures unspool side by side, as do the secrets and doubts long buried beside them. Dawn must confront the questions she's never truly asked: What does a life well-lived look like? When we leave this earth, what do we leave behind? Do we make choices...or do our choices make us? And who would you be, if you hadn't turned out to be the person you are right now?]]> 416 Jodi Picoult 198481835X Gemma 4 3.61 2020 The Book of Two Ways
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/15
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves:
review:

]]> Notes on an Execution 57773248
Ansel Packer is scheduled to die in twelve hours. He knows what he’s done, and now awaits execution, the same chilling fate he forced on those girls, years ago. But Ansel doesn’t want to die; he wants to be celebrated, understood. He hoped it wouldn’t end like this, not for him.

Through a kaleidoscope of women—a mother, a sister, a homicide detective—we learn the story of Ansel’s life. We meet his mother, Lavender, a seventeen-year-old girl pushed to desperation; Hazel, twin sister to Ansel’s wife, inseparable since birth, forced to watch helplessly as her sister’s relationship threatens to devour them all; and finally, Saffy, the homicide detective hot on his trail, who has devoted herself to bringing bad men to justice but struggles to see her own life clearly. As the clock ticks down, these three women sift through the choices that culminate in tragedy, exploring the rippling fissures that such destruction inevitably leaves in its wake.

Blending breathtaking suspense with astonishing empathy, Notes on an Execution presents a chilling portrait of womanhood as it simultaneously unravels the familiar narrative of the American serial killer, interrogating our system of justice and our cultural obsession with crime stories, asking readers to consider the false promise of looking for meaning in the psyches of violent men.]]> 306 Danya Kukafka 0063052733 Gemma 0 to-read 4.05 2022 Notes on an Execution
author: Danya Kukafka
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Twice Shy 54660653 Can you find real love when you've always got your head in the clouds?

Maybell Parish has always been a dreamer and a hopeless romantic. But living in her own world has long been preferable to dealing with the disappointments of real life. So when Maybell inherits a charming house in the Smokies from her Great-Aunt Violet, she seizes the opportunity to make a fresh start.

Yet when she arrives, it seems her troubles have only just begun. Not only is the house falling apart around her, but she isn't the only inheritor: she has to share everything with Wesley Koehler, the groundskeeper who's as grouchy as he is gorgeous—and it turns out he has very different vision for the property's future.

Convincing the taciturn Wesley to stop avoiding her and compromise is a task more formidable than the other dying wishes Great-Aunt Violet left behind. But when Maybell uncovers something unexpectedly sweet beneath Wesley's scowls, and as the two slowly begin to let their guard down, they might learn that sometimes the smallest steps outside one's comfort zone can lead to the greatest rewards.]]> 302 Sarah Hogle 0593085531 Gemma 0 to-read 3.65 2021 Twice Shy
author: Sarah Hogle
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/09/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> I Could Do That! 39298303
Most missionary books leave us feeling that health professionals who work overseas in developing countries are spiritual superheroes, a different breed. In short, "I couldn't do that!"

These 15 short accounts turn that right around. They include:
-newly qualified newly weds
-an 88 year old who could serve abroad
-nurses working in Africa and Asia
-an OT in South America and a dentist doing development
-a woman who moved cross-culturally within India
-a refugee camp paediatrician
-early retired GPs majoring on medical education

One story at least must make you say: "I could do that!"]]> 79 Andrew Fergusson 0906747392 Gemma 2
Truly amazing testimonies from people all across the healthcare profession, in clinical, educational, and administrative work.

One or two less enjoyable stories, mostly my impression of the individual author, but you can't like everybody !]]> 2.00 I Could Do That!
author: Andrew Fergusson
name: Gemma
average rating: 2.00
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2018/03/26
date added: 2022/08/30
shelves:
review:
A few motivating stories from doctors who remind me that missing out now doesn't mean ruling out missionary work in the long run.

Truly amazing testimonies from people all across the healthcare profession, in clinical, educational, and administrative work.

One or two less enjoyable stories, mostly my impression of the individual author, but you can't like everybody !
]]> <![CDATA[Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End]]> 25848382
Here, Atul Gawande outlines a story that crosses the globe, as he explores the modern experience of mortality - what it's like to get old and die, how medicine has changed this and how it hasn't, where our ideas about death have gone wrong.

The systems that we have put in place to manage our mortality are manifestly failing; but, as Gawande reveals, it doesn't have to be this way. The ultimate goal, after all, is not a good death, but a good life - all the way to the very end.

--back cover]]> 282 Atul Gawande 1846685826 Gemma 2 4.46 2014 Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End
author: Atul Gawande
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2014
rating: 2
read at: 2016/04/05
date added: 2022/08/30
shelves:
review:

]]> Lenz 287510 Lenz, Georg Büchner’s visionary exploration of an 18th century playwright’s descent into madness, grew in part out of Alsatian pastor Johann Oberlin’s journal, which is translated here in its entirety for the first time. Lenz is a dispassionate account on the nervous system of a schizophrenic, perhaps the first third-person text ever written from the “inside� of insanity. At his death at the age of 23 in 1837, Georg Büchner also left behind Leonce and Lena, Woyzeck, and Danton’s Death—psychologically and politically acute plays well ahead of their time.

Richard Sieburth’s translations include Hölderlin’s Hymns and Fragments, Walter Benjamin’s Moscow Diary, Gérard de Nerval’s Selected Writings and Henri Michaux’s Emergences/Resurgences. His English edition of the Nerval writings won the 2000 PEN Book-of-the-Month-Club Translation Prize.]]> 200 Georg Büchner 0974968021 Gemma 2 3.65 1835 Lenz
author: Georg Büchner
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.65
book published: 1835
rating: 2
read at: 2017/04/27
date added: 2022/08/30
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Ministry of Utmost Happiness]]> 34114024 The Ministry of Utmost Happiness takes us on an intimate journey of many years across the Indian subcontinent, from the cramped neighborhoods of Old Delhi and the roads of the new city, to the mountains and valleys of Kashmir and beyond, where war is peace and peace is war.

The engine of Roy's story is a hijra (India's third gender) named Anjum, and the story begins with her unrolling a threadbare Persian carpet in a city graveyard she calls home. Anjum's charisma draws a vibrant assemblage of outcasts to join her--other hijras, Kashmiri freedom fighters, activists, orphans, low-caste Hindus and Muslims, and a host of animals. Anjum's home is a place where the formerly unwanted embrace each other's true selves.

We encounter the odd, unforgettable Tilo and the men who loved her, including Musa, sweetheart and ex-sweetheart, lover and ex-lover. Their fates are as entwined as their arms used to be and always will be. We meet Tilo’s landlord, a former suitor, now an intelligence officer posted to Kabul, and then we meet the two Miss Jebeens. The first is a child born in Srinagar and buried in its overcrowded Martyrs� Graveyard. The second is found at midnight, abandoned on a concrete sidewalk in the heart of New Delhi.

As this ravishing, deeply humane novel braids these lives together, it reinvents what a novel can do and can be. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness demonstrates on every page Arundhati Roy’s storytelling gifts.]]> 465 Arundhati Roy 1524733164 Gemma 3 3.57 2017 The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
author: Arundhati Roy
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2018/09/09
date added: 2022/08/30
shelves:
review:

]]> Lud-in-the-Mist 40534006
Nathaniel Chanticleer is a somewhat dreamy, slightly melancholy man, not one for making waves, who is deliberately ignoring a vital part of his own past; a secret he refuses even to acknowledge. But with the disappearance of his own daughter, and a long-overdue desire to protect his young son, he realises that something is changing in Lud � and something must be done.

Lud-in-the-Mist is a true classic, an adult fairy tale exploring the need to embrace what we fear and to come to terms with 'the shadows' � those sweet and dark impulses that our public selves ignore or repress.]]> 264 Hope Mirrlees 1473225566 Gemma 3 3.86 1926 Lud-in-the-Mist
author: Hope Mirrlees
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1926
rating: 3
read at: 2019/11/18
date added: 2022/08/30
shelves:
review:
Ornate fairytale world, beautifully described, fascinating tale. Could probably do with a re-read and a good think about it but it was still very enjoyable.
]]> Little Fires Everywhere 35061545
Enter Mia Warren - an enigmatic artist and single mother - who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenaged daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past and a disregard for the status quo that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.

When old family friends of the Richardsons attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town - and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs.

Little Fires Everywhere explores the weight of secrets, the nature of art and identity, and the ferocious pull of motherhood - and the danger of believing that following the rules can avert disaster.

Named a Best Book of the Year by: People, The Washington Post, Bustle, Esquire, Southern Living, The Daily Beast, GQ, Entertainment Weekly, NPR, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Audible, ŷ, Library Reads, Book of the Month, Paste, Kirkus Reviews, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and many more ...

Perfect for book clubs! Visit celesteng. com for discussion guides and more.]]> 354 Celeste Ng Gemma 4 4.13 2017 Little Fires Everywhere
author: Celeste Ng
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2018/10/08
date added: 2022/08/30
shelves:
review:

]]> The Underground Railroad 31930883
Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Matters do not go as planned Cora kills a young white boy who tries to capture her. Though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted.

In Whitehead's ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor engineers and conductors operate a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora and Caesar s first stop is South Carolina, in a city that initially seems like a haven. But the city s placid surface masks an insidious scheme designed for its black denizens. And even worse: Ridgeway, the relentless slave catcher, is close on their heels. Forced to flee again, Cora embarks on a harrowing flight, state by state, seeking true freedom.]]> 367 Colson Whitehead Gemma 4
The descriptions of the trials the characters are subject to are sickening, and that's exactly the emotion this story should invoke.

The main character's voice was enjoyable to read, well written, and I hated having to leave her behind for chapters.]]> 4.01 2016 The Underground Railroad
author: Colson Whitehead
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2018/05/15
date added: 2022/08/30
shelves:
review:
A somewhat fanciful take on the journey North made by slaves in the US, and one I loved precisely for that reason (I definitely imagined a literal train when I learned about it at school).

The descriptions of the trials the characters are subject to are sickening, and that's exactly the emotion this story should invoke.

The main character's voice was enjoyable to read, well written, and I hated having to leave her behind for chapters.
]]> <![CDATA[The Miniaturist (The Miniaturist, #1)]]> 24424963 ISBN has been moved to a newer edition. Another edition can be found here

On an autumn day in 1686, eighteen-year-old Nella Oortman arrives at a grand house in Amsterdam to begin her new life as the wife of wealthy merchant Johannes Brandt. Though curiously distant, he presents her with an extraordinary wedding gift; a cabinet-sized replica of their home. It is to be furnished by an elusive miniaturist, whose tiny creations ring eerily true.

As Nella uncovers the secrets of her new household, she realises the escalating dangers they face. The miniaturist seems to hold their fate in her hands - but does she plan to save or destroy them?]]> 424 Jessie Burton Gemma 4 3.60 2014 The Miniaturist (The Miniaturist, #1)
author: Jessie Burton
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2016/12/21
date added: 2022/08/30
shelves:
review:

]]> The sense of an Elephant 26231879 242 Marco Missiroli 1447241940 Gemma 3 3.06 2012 The sense of an Elephant
author: Marco Missiroli
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.06
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2016/05/16
date added: 2022/08/30
shelves:
review:

]]> East of the Sun 3548256 Kaiser-i-Hind is en route to Bombay. In Cabin D38, Viva Hollowat, an inexperienced chaperone, is worried she's made a terrible mistake. Her advert in The Lady has resulted in three unsettling charges to be escorted to India.

Rose, a beautiful, dangerously naive English girl, is about to be married to the cavalry officer she has met only a handful of times.

Victoria, the bridesmaid, is determined to lose her virginity on the journey before finding a husband of her own in India. And overshadowing all three of them, the malevolent presence of Guy Glover, a strange and disturbed schoolboy.

Three potential Memsahibs with a myriad of reasons for leaving England, but the cargo of hopes and secrets they carry has done little to prepare them for what lies ahead.

From the parties of the wealthy Bombay socialites to the poverty of the orphans on Tamarind Street, East of the Sun is everything a historical novel should be: alive with glorious detail, fascinating characters and masterful storytelling.]]> 458 Julia Gregson 1409102513 Gemma 3 3.62 2007 East of the Sun
author: Julia Gregson
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 2016/04/14
date added: 2022/08/30
shelves:
review:

]]> The Midnight Library 52578297
When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change.

The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren't always what she imagined they'd be, and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger.

Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?]]> 288 Matt Haig 0525559477 Gemma 3
It’s not a subtle book, and some of the writing seemed lazy to me (info dumps in the form of conversations characters really wouldn’t need to have with one another; a phrase repeated once - enough to stand out but not enough to be a purposeful motif, probably something the author thought “oh, that’s clever�).

I wonder if it would’ve been more suited to being a dark-comedy miniseries instead of a book.

BUT - it’s a nice allegory that I think resonates with a lot of people “in the current climate� and I enjoyed the latter half more than I thought I would.
]]> 3.96 2020 The Midnight Library
author: Matt Haig
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2021/02/13
date added: 2022/08/30
shelves:
review:
3.5*

It’s not a subtle book, and some of the writing seemed lazy to me (info dumps in the form of conversations characters really wouldn’t need to have with one another; a phrase repeated once - enough to stand out but not enough to be a purposeful motif, probably something the author thought “oh, that’s clever�).

I wonder if it would’ve been more suited to being a dark-comedy miniseries instead of a book.

BUT - it’s a nice allegory that I think resonates with a lot of people “in the current climate� and I enjoyed the latter half more than I thought I would.

]]> Anxious People 49127718 A poignant, charming novel about a crime that never took place, a would-be bank robber who disappears into thin air, and eight extremely anxious strangers who find they have more in common than they ever imagined

Looking at real estate isn't usually a life-or-death situation, but an apartment open house becomes just that when a failed bank robber bursts in and takes a group of strangers hostage. The captives include a recently retired couple who relentlessly hunt down fixer-uppers to avoid the painful truth that they can't fix up their own marriage. There's a wealthy banker who has been too busy making money to care about anyone else and a young couple who are about to have their first child but can't seem to agree on anything, from where they want to live to how they met in the first place. Add to the mix an eighty-seven-year-old woman who has lived long enough not to be afraid of someone waving a gun in her face, a flustered but still-ready-to-make-a-deal real estate agent, and a mystery man who has locked himself in the apartment's only bathroom, and you've got the worst group of hostages in the world.

Each of them carries a lifetime of grievances, hurts, secrets, and passions that are ready to boil over. None of them is entirely who they appear to be. And all of them—the bank robber included—desperately crave some sort of rescue. As the authorities and the media surround the premises, these reluctant allies will reveal surprising truths about themselves and set in a motion a chain of events so unexpected that even they can hardly explain what happens next.

Humorous, compassionate, and wise, Anxious People is an ingeniously constructed story about the enduring power of friendship, forgiveness, and hope—the things that save us, even in the most anxious of times.

Includes short story - The Last Round of Golf]]> 336 Fredrik Backman 198216963X Gemma 3 4.17 2019 Anxious People
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2021/05/31
date added: 2022/08/30
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Flatshare (The Flatshare, #1)]]> 57431943 Tiffy and Leon share a flat
Tiffy and Leon share a bed
Tiffy and Leon have never met�

Tiffy Moore needs a cheap flat, and fast. Leon Twomey works nights and needs cash. Their friends think they’re crazy, but it’s the perfect solution: Leon occupies the one-bed flat while Tiffy’s at work in the day, and she has the run of the place the rest of the time.

But with obsessive ex-boyfriends, demanding clients at work, wrongly imprisoned brothers and, of course, the fact that they still haven’t met yet, they’re about to discover that if you want the perfect home you need to throw the rulebook out the window…]]> Beth O'Leary Gemma 3 3.95 2019 The Flatshare (The Flatshare, #1)
author: Beth O'Leary
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2021/07/24
date added: 2022/08/30
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett]]> 25546710
So Hawthorn comes up with her own theory for Lizzie's disappearance. A theory way too absurd to take seriously...at first. The more Hawthorn talks, the more she believes. And what better way to collect evidence than to immerse herself in Lizzie's life? Like getting a job at the diner where Lizzie worked and hanging out with Lizzie's boyfriend. After all, it's not as if he killed her-or did he?

Told with a unique voice that is both hilarious and heart-wrenching, Hawthorn's quest for proof may uncover the greatest truth is within herself.
"]]> 387 Chelsea Sedoti 1492636088 Gemma 3 3.07 2017 The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett
author: Chelsea Sedoti
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.07
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2022/08/30
date added: 2022/08/30
shelves:
review:

]]> The Year I Stopped to Notice 60181752


January: A man walking along Caledonian Road falls over onto the huge roll of bubble wrap he is hugging, perhaps for just this sort of situation.



Inspired by her popular Twitter account, The Year I Stopped to Notice collects together Miranda Keeling’s observations of the magic, humour, strangeness and beauty in ordinary life. Through the changing seasons, on city streets and on buses, in parks and cafes, Miranda notices things: moments between friends, the interactions of strangers, children delighting in the world around them, the quiet melancholy of lost items on the pavement.



Accompanied by stunning watercolour illustrations from Luci Power, Miranda’s poetic vignettes take us on journeys of discovery and share with us the joy of stopping to notice.



September: On a sweltering, packed rush-hour train, my arm suddenly feels lovely and cool, and I look down to see a shopping bag held by the woman beside me � full of just-bought cartons of milk.]]> 192 Miranda Keeling 1785787969 Gemma 0 to-read 4.17 2022 The Year I Stopped to Notice
author: Miranda Keeling
name: Gemma
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/08/30
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]]> <![CDATA[Me and Earl and the Dying Girl]]> 12700353
Until Greg's mother forces him to rekindle his childhood friendship with Rachel.

Rachel has been diagnosed with leukemia—cue extreme adolescent awkwardness—but a parental mandate has been issued and must be obeyed. When Rachel stops treatment, Greg and Earl decide the thing to do is to make a film for her, which turns into the Worst Film Ever Made and becomes a turning point in each of their lives.

And all at once Greg must abandon invisibility and stand in the spotlight.]]> 295 Jesse Andrews 1419701762 Gemma 3 3.53 2012 Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
author: Jesse Andrews
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2022/08/29
date added: 2022/08/29
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review:

]]> The Last Garden in England 54304262
Present day: Emma Lovett, who has dedicated her career to breathing new life into long-neglected gardens, has just been given the opportunity of a lifetime: to restore the gardens of the famed Highbury House estate, designed in 1907 by her hero Venetia Smith. But as Emma dives deeper into the gardens� past, she begins to uncover secrets that have long lain hidden.

1907: A talented artist with a growing reputation for her ambitious work, Venetia Smith has carved out a niche for herself as a garden designer to industrialists, solicitors, and bankers looking to show off their wealth with sumptuous country houses. When she is hired to design the gardens of Highbury House, she is determined to make them a triumph, but the gardens—and the people she meets—promise to change her life forever.

1944: When land girl Beth Pedley arrives at a farm on the outskirts of the village of Highbury, all she wants is to find a place she can call home. Cook Stella Adderton, on the other hand, is desperate to leave Highbury House to pursue her own dreams. And widow Diana Symonds, the mistress of the grand house, is anxiously trying to cling to her pre-war life now that her home has been requisitioned and transformed into a convalescent hospital for wounded soldiers. But when war threatens Highbury House’s treasured gardens, these three very different women are drawn together by a secret that will last for decades.

In this sweeping novel reminiscent of Kate Morton’s The Lake House and Kristin Harmel’s The Room on Rue Amélie, Julia Kelly explores the unexpected connections that cross time and the special places that bring people together forever.]]> 368 Julia Kelly Gemma 0 to-read 3.90 2021 The Last Garden in England
author: Julia Kelly
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/08/29
shelves: to-read
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]]> Olive 52928287
Independent.
Adrift.
Anxious.
Loyal.
Kind.
Knows her own mind.

OLIVE is many things, and it’s ok that she’s still figuring it all out, navigating her world without a compass. But life comes with expectations, there are choices to be made, boxes to tick and � sometimes � stereotypes to fulfil. And when her best friends� lives start to branch away towards marriage and motherhood, leaving the path they’ve always followed together, Olive starts to question her choices � because life according to Olive looks a little bit different.

Moving, memorable and a mirror for every woman at a crossroads, OLIVE has a little bit of all of us. Told with great warmth and nostalgia, this is a modern tale about the obstacle course of adulthood, milestone decisions and the ‘taboo� about choosing not to have children.]]> 410 Emma Gannon 0008382727 Gemma 0 to-read 3.65 2020 Olive
author: Emma Gannon
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/08/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Diary of a Bookseller (The Diary of a Bookseller, #1)]]> 38731087
In these wry and hilarious diaries, Shaun provides an inside look at the trials and tribulations of life in the book trade, from struggles with eccentric customers to wrangles with his own staff, who include the ski-suit-wearing, bin-foraging Nicky. He takes us with him on buying trips to old estates and auction houses, recommends books (both lost classics and new discoveries), introduces us to the thrill of the unexpected find, and evokes the rhythms and charms of small-town life, always with a sharp and sympathetic eye.]]> 310 Shaun Bythell 1781258635 Gemma 4 3.75 2017 The Diary of a Bookseller (The Diary of a Bookseller, #1)
author: Shaun Bythell
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2022/08/28
date added: 2022/08/29
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]]> <![CDATA[Romancing Mister Bridgerton (Bridgertons, #4)]]> 110384
Colin Bridgerton is tired of being thought nothing but an empty-headed charmer, tired of everyone's preoccupation with the notorious gossip columnist Lady Whistledown, who can't seem to publish an edition without mentioning him in the first paragraph. But when Colin returns to London from a trip abroad he discovers nothing in his life is quite the same - especially Penelope Featherington! The girl haunting his dreams. But when he discovers that Penelope has secrets of her own, this elusive bachelor must decide...is she his biggest threat - or his promise of a happy ending?]]> 370 Julia Quinn 0380820846 Gemma 3 3.86 2002 Romancing Mister Bridgerton (Bridgertons, #4)
author: Julia Quinn
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2002
rating: 3
read at: 2022/05/08
date added: 2022/07/11
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[To Sir Phillip, With Love (Bridgertons, #5)]]> 110386
Eloise Bridgerton couldn't marry a man she had never met! But then she started thinking... and wondering... and before she knew it, she was in a hired carriage in the middle of the night, on her way to meet the man she hoped might be her perfect match. Except... he wasn't. Her perfect husband wouldn't be so moody and ill-mannered. And he certainly should have mentioned that he had two young - and decidedly unruly - children, as much in need of a mother as Phillip is in need of a wife.

an alternate cover edition can be found here]]> 372 Julia Quinn 0380820854 Gemma 5 3.65 2003 To Sir Phillip, With Love (Bridgertons, #5)
author: Julia Quinn
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at: 2022/05/13
date added: 2022/07/11
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[On the Way to the Wedding (Bridgertons, #8)]]> 110388 A funny thing happened...

Unlike most men of his acquaintance, Gregory Bridgerton believes in true love. And he is convinced that when he finds the woman of his dreams, he will know in an instant that she is the one. And that is exactly what happened. Except...

She wasn't the one. In fact, the ravishing Miss Hermione Watson is in love with another. But her best friend, the ever-practical Lady Lucinda Abernathy, wants to save Hermione from a disastrous alliance, so she offers to help Gregory win her over. But in the process, Lucy falls in love. With Gregory! Except...

Lucy is engaged. And her uncle is not inclined to let her back out of the betrothal, even once Gregory comes to his senses and realizes that it is Lucy, with her sharp wit and sunny smile, who makes his heart sing. And now, on the way to the wedding, Gregory must risk everything to ensure that when it comes time to kiss the bride, he is the only man standing at the altar...]]> 371 Julia Quinn 0060531258 Gemma 4 3.79 2006 On the Way to the Wedding (Bridgertons, #8)
author: Julia Quinn
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2022/07/08
date added: 2022/07/11
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[It's in His Kiss (Bridgertons, #7)]]> 110393
MEET OUR HERO...

Gareth St. Clair is in a bind. His father, who detests him, is determined to beggar the St. Clair estates and ruin his inheritance. Gareth's sole bequest is an old family diary, which may or may not contain the secrets of his past... and the key to his future. The problem is—it's written in Italian, of which Gareth speaks not a word.

MEET OUR HEROINE...

All the ton agreed: there was no one quite like Hyacinth Bridgerton. She's fiendishly smart, devilishly outspoken, and according to Gareth, probably best in small doses. But there's something about her—something charming and vexing—that grabs him and won't quite let go...

MEET POOR MR. MOZART...

Or don't. But rest assured, he's spinning in his grave when Gareth and Hyacinth cross paths at the annual—and annually discordant—Smythe-Smith musicale. To Hyacinth, Gareth's every word seems a dare, and she offers to translate his diary, even though her Italian is slightly less than perfect. But as they delve into the mysterious text, they discover that the answers they seek lie not in the diary, but in each other... and that there is nothing as simple—or as complicated—as a single, perfect kiss.]]> 384 Julia Quinn 006053124X Gemma 5 3.94 2005 It's in His Kiss (Bridgertons, #7)
author: Julia Quinn
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at: 2022/06/30
date added: 2022/07/11
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[When He Was Wicked (Bridgertons, #6)]]> 110396 Everything was so much simpler... when he was wicked.

In every life there is a turning point. A moment so tremendous, so sharp and breathtaking, that one knows one's life will never be the same. For Michael Stirling, London's most infamous rake, that moment came the first time he laid eyes on Francesca Bridgerton.

After a lifetime of chasing women, of smiling slyly as they chased him, of allowing himself to be caught but never permitting his heart to become engaged, he took one look at Francesca Bridgerton and fell so fast and hard into love it was a wonder he managed to remain standing. Unfortunately for Michael, however, Francesca's surname was to remain Bridgerton for only a mere thirty-six hours longer—the occasion of their meeting was, lamentably, a supper celebrating her imminent wedding to his cousin.

But that was then... Now Michael is the earl and Francesca is free, but still she thinks of him as nothing other than her dear friend and confidant. Michael dares not speak to her of his love... until one dangerous night, when she steps innocently into his arms, and passion proves stronger than even the most wicked of secrets...]]> 368 Julia Quinn 0060531231 Gemma 3 3.96 2004 When He Was Wicked (Bridgertons, #6)
author: Julia Quinn
name: Gemma
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 2022/05/21
date added: 2022/07/11
shelves:
review:

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