Manda's bookshelf: all en-US Sat, 26 Apr 2025 08:39:46 -0700 60 Manda's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 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 Manda 5 4.35 2022 Remarkably Bright Creatures
author: Shelby Van Pelt
name: Manda
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/27
date added: 2025/04/26
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]]> Carrie Soto Is Back 60435878 Carrie Soto is fierce, and her determination to win at any cost has not made her popular.

By the time Carrie retires from tennis, she is the best player the world has ever seen. She has shattered every record and claimed twenty Slam titles. And if you ask her, she is entitled to every one. She sacrificed nearly everything to become the best, with her father as her coach.

But six years after her retirement, Carrie finds herself sitting in the stands of the 1994 US Open, watching her record be taken from her by a brutal, stunning, British player named Nicki Chan.

At thirty-seven years old, Carrie makes the monumental decision to come out of retirement and be coached by her father for one last year in an attempt to reclaim her record. Even if the sports media says that they never liked the 'Battle-Axe' anyway. Even if her body doesn't move as fast as it did. And even if it means swallowing her pride to train with a man she once almost opened her heart to: Bowe Huntley. Like her, he has something to prove before he gives up the game forever.

In spite of it all: Carrie Soto is back, for one epic final season. In this riveting and unforgettable novel, Taylor Jenkins Reid tells a story about the cost of greatness and a legendary athlete attempting a comeback.]]> 384 Taylor Jenkins Reid 0593158687 Manda 5 4.19 2022 Carrie Soto Is Back
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Manda
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/26
date added: 2025/04/25
shelves:
review:

]]> Maggie Smith 25511242 368 Michael Coveney 1250081483 Manda 4 2.94 2015 Maggie Smith
author: Michael Coveney
name: Manda
average rating: 2.94
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/25
date added: 2025/04/25
shelves:
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]]> Psychopaths Anonymous 58321161 When AA meetings make her want to drink more, alcoholic murderess Maeve sets up a group for psychopaths � The dark, unpredictable, electrifyingly original new thriller from critically acclaimed author Will Carver.
–ēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēē�

Maeve has everything. A high-powered job, a beautiful home, a string of uncomplicated one-night encounters. She’s also an addict:A functioning alcoholic with a dependence on sex and an insatiable appetite for killing men.

When she can’t find a support group to share her obsession, she creates her own. And Psychopaths Anonymous is born.Friends of Maeve.

Now in a serious relationship, Maeve wants to keep the group a secret.But not everyone in the group adheres to the rules, and when a reckless member raises suspicions with the police, Maeve’s drinking spirals out of control.

She needs to stop killing. She needs to close the group.

But Maeve can’t seem to quit the things that are bad for her, including her new man�

A scathing, violent and darkly funny book about love, connection, obsessions and sex � and the aspects of human nature we’d prefer to hide –�Psychopaths Anonymousis also an electrifyingly original, unpredictable thriller that challenges virtually everything.
]]> 276 Will Carver 1913193756 Manda 4 3.67 Psychopaths Anonymous
author: Will Carver
name: Manda
average rating: 3.67
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/21
date added: 2025/04/20
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]]> <![CDATA[Hinton Hollow Death Trip (Detective Sergeant Pace, #3)]]> 50660520
It's a small story. A small town with small lives that you would never have heard about if none of this had happened. Hinton Hollow. Population 5,120. Little Henry Wallace was eight years old and one hundred miles from home before anyone talked to him. His mother placed him on a train with a label around his neck, asking for him to be kept safe for a week, kept away from Hinton Hollow. Because something was coming. Narrated by Evil itself, Hinton Hollow Death Trip recounts five days in the history of this small rural town, when darkness paid a visit and infected its residents. A visit that made them act in unnatural ways. Prodding at their insecurities. Nudging at their secrets and desires. Coaxing out the malevolence suppressed within them. Showing their true selves.

Making them cheat.
Making them steal.
Making them kill.

Detective Sergeant Pace had returned to his childhood home. To escape the things he had done in the city. To go back to something simple. But he was not alone. Evil had a plan.]]> 400 Will Carver 1913193314 Manda 4 4.00 2020 Hinton Hollow Death Trip (Detective Sergeant Pace, #3)
author: Will Carver
name: Manda
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/19
date added: 2025/04/20
shelves:
review:

]]> Waiting for Godot 17716 109 Samuel Beckett Manda 4 3.85 1952 Waiting for Godot
author: Samuel Beckett
name: Manda
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1952
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/18
date added: 2025/04/18
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]]> Berserker! 123669877 Berserker! is the one-of-a-kind, fascinating memoir from an icon of British comedy, Adrian Edmondson.

Berserk : out of control with anger or excitement; wild or frenzied.

Berserkers : an elite Norse fighting corp who, apparently off their tits on hallucinogenic drugs, fought with a particular fury and senseless abandon still present in many Scandinavian heavy metal groups.

Ade Edmondson smashed onto the comedy circuit in the 1980s, stormed The Comedy Store and, alongside Rik Mayall, brought anarchy to stage and screen. How did a child brought up in a strict Methodist household—and who spent his formative years incarcerated in repressive boarding schools—end up joining the revolution? Well, he is part Norse. Could it be his berserker heritage?

With wisdom, nostalgia and uniquely observed humour, Ade traces his journey through life and starting out on the alternative scene, getting arrested in Soho, creating his outrageously violent characters and learning more about his curious (possibly Scandinavian) heritage. With star-studded anecdotes and set to a soundtrack of pop hits which transport the reader through time, it’s a memoir like no other.]]> 406 Adrian Edmondson 1035014297 Manda 4 4.29 2023 Berserker!
author: Adrian Edmondson
name: Manda
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/18
date added: 2025/04/17
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]]> <![CDATA[Death Of A Hollow Man (Chief Inspector Barnaby, #2)]]> 454571 296 Caroline Graham 1933397268 Manda 4 3.77 1989 Death Of A Hollow Man (Chief Inspector Barnaby, #2)
author: Caroline Graham
name: Manda
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1989
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/17
date added: 2025/04/16
shelves:
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]]> Misdirected 222207397
Hattie tries to look on the positive side of all situations, but four seasons of brutal press, overly invested fans, and a cutthroat industry that’s never quite felt like the right fit would give even Pollyanna an edge of cynicism. And high on the ‘con� list when it comes to her current and unintended career is having to share a set and some horrendously early starts with Anthony Rafe. Leicester Square villain. A-lister. Absolute prat.

In the new season’s scripts, it appears that her previously sane, rational character is about to lose her mind and begin an unexpected and unsettlingly graphic affair with the series villain. Forced into close—very close and very…intimate—proximity with the man everyone loves to hate, Hattie’s horror is matched only by Anthony’s drawling disdain. But when very real chemistry sparks during their scripted love scenes, Hattie begins to think the industry’s legendarily heartless Bad Guy might just have a pulse after all. And Anthony, for his part, is caught off-guard by the way his heart races when he’s around his aggravating onscreen lover.

As reality starts to imitate art a little too close for comfort, the world’s most unlikely couple might just have more in common than they thought…]]> Lucy Parker Manda 4 3.49 2025 Misdirected
author: Lucy Parker
name: Manda
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/15
date added: 2025/04/15
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]]> The Party Crasher 57996835 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Love Your Life comes a humorous and heartwarming novel about family, set against the backdrop of the most fabulous party you've ever snuck into.

It's been over two years since Effie's beloved parents got divorced, destroying the image of the happy, loving childhood she thought she had. Since then, she's become estranged from her father and embarked on a feud with his hot (and much younger) girlfriend, Krista. And now, more earth-shattering news: Greenoaks, the rambling Victorian country house Effie called home her whole life, has been sold.

When Krista decides to throw a grand "house cooling" party, Effie is originally left off the guest list--and then receives a last-minute "anti-invitation" (maybe it's because she called Krista a gold-digger, but Krista totally deserved it, and it was mostly a joke anyway). Effie declines, but then remembers a beloved childhood treasure is still hidden in the house. Her only chance to retrieve it is to break into Greenoaks while everyone is busy celebrating. As Effie sneaks around the house, hiding under tables and peeping through trapdoors, she realizes the secrets Greenoaks holds aren't just in the dusty passageways and hidden attics she grew up exploring. Watching how her sister, brother, and dad behave when they think no one is looking, Effie overhears conversations, makes discoveries, and begins to see her family in a new light. Then she runs into Joe--the love of her life, who long ago broke her heart, and who's still as handsome and funny as ever--and even more truths emerge.

But will Effie act on these revelations? Will she stay hidden or step out into the party and take her place with her family? And truthfully, what did she really come back to Greenoaks for? Over the course of one blowout party, Effie realizes that she must be honest with herself and confront her past before she'll ever be able to face her future.]]> 349 Sophie Kinsella 0593449177 Manda 4 3.69 2021 The Party Crasher
author: Sophie Kinsella
name: Manda
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/13
date added: 2025/04/12
shelves:
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]]> Sweet Revenge (Revenge, #1-2) 59973599
Women Without Mercy
Ingrid gave up her career to support her husband. Now he's having an affair.
Birgitta is avoiding the doctor. No one can see the bruises her husband leaves.
Victoria left Russia to marry a man she met online. But he is nothing like she imagined. Maybe the only way out is to commit three perfect murders...

Truth or Dare
Best friends Liv, Martina, Max and Anton are spending New Year's Eve together.
But each of them is keeping a terrible secret. When a game of truth or dare takes a dark turn, the shocking truth emerges. Not everyone will live to see the chime of midnight...

To avoid disappointment, please note that these two novellas have been previously published separately]]> 240 Camilla Läckberg 0008354464 Manda 4 3.82 2021 Sweet Revenge (Revenge, #1-2)
author: Camilla Läckberg
name: Manda
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/12
date added: 2025/04/12
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]]> Marble Hall Murders 217432789 Murder links past and present once again in this mind-boggling metafictional mystery fromAnthony Horowitz—another tribute to the golden age of Agatha Christie featuring detective Atticus Pund and editor Susan Ryland, stars of the New York Times bestsellers Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders.

Editor Susan Ryeland has left her Greek island, her hotel, and her Greek boyfriend Andreas in search of a new life back in England.

Freelancing for Causton Books, she’s working on the manuscript of a novel, Pund’s Last Case, by a young author named Eliot Crace, a continuation of the popular Alan Conway series. Susan is surprised to learn that Eliot is the grandson of legendary children’s author Marian Crace, who died some fifteen years ago—murdered, Elliot insists, by poison.

As Susan begins to read the manuscript’s opening chapters, the skeptical editor is relieved to find that Pund’s Last Case is actually very good. Set in the South of France, it revolves around the mysterious death of Lady Margaret Chalfont, who, though mortally ill, is poisoned—perhaps by a member of her own family. But who did it? And why?

The deeper Susan reads, the more it becomes clear that the clues leading to the truth of Marian Crace’s death are hidden within this Atticus Pund mystery.

While Eliot’s accusation becomes more plausible, his behavior grows increasingly erratic.. Then he is suddenly killed in a hit-and-run accident, and Susan finds herself under police scrutiny as a suspect in his killing.

Three mysterious deaths. Multiple motives and possible murderers. If Susan doesn’t solve the mystery of Pund’s Last Case, she may well be the next victim.]]> 592 Anthony Horowitz 0063305704 Manda 5 4.36 2025 Marble Hall Murders
author: Anthony Horowitz
name: Manda
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/12
date added: 2025/04/11
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]]> A Deadly Affair 57698624 From the Queen of Mystery—this all-new collection of stories about love gone horribly wrong will get your heart racing.

Love can propel us to our greatest heights . . . and darkest depths. In this new collection of Agatha Christie short stories, witness the dark side of love—crimes of passion, games of the heart, and deadly affairs. This pulse-pounding compendium features beloved detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, master of charades Parker Pyne, the enigmatic Harley Quin, and the adventurous Tommy and Tuppence, all on the ready to solve a tantalizing mystery.

In “The Face of Helen,� a night at the Royal Opera could reach a deadly crescendo for a woman caught in a dicey love triangle; “Finessing the King� delivers a curious ad in the personals that could mask sinister intentions; who’s in danger of getting stung in “Wasp’s Nest� depends on rounding up suspects and solving a murder—before it even happens; and more tales that make for essential reading that Christie fans old and new will simply love to death.]]> 263 Agatha Christie 0063142341 Manda 4 3.79 2022 A Deadly Affair
author: Agatha Christie
name: Manda
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/10
date added: 2025/04/10
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]]> <![CDATA[The Killings at Badger's Drift (Chief Inspector Barnaby, #1)]]> 256936 261 Caroline Graham 1933397047 Manda 5 3.91 1987 The Killings at Badger's Drift (Chief Inspector Barnaby, #1)
author: Caroline Graham
name: Manda
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1987
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/10
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves:
review:

]]> The Small Things 57557072
Inspired by a true story, a groundbreaking robot helps friendship blossom in this poignant and uplifting novella from bestseller Lisa Thompson.]]> 104 Lisa Thompson 1781129649 Manda 3 3.98 The Small Things
author: Lisa Thompson
name: Manda
average rating: 3.98
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/09
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves:
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]]> The Agathas (The Agathas #1) 58985554
Enter Iris Adams, Alice's tutor. Iris has her own reasons for wanting to disappear, though unlike Alice, she doesn't have the money or the means. That could be changed by the hefty reward Brooke's grandmother is offering to anyone who can share information about her granddaughter's whereabouts. The police are convinced Steve is the culprit, but Alice isn't so sure, and with Iris on her side, she just might be able to prove her theory.

In order to get the reward and prove Steve's innocence, they need to figure out who killed Brooke Donovan. And luckily Alice has exactly what they need--the complete works of Agatha Christie. If there's anyone that can teach the girls how to solve a mystery it's the master herself. But the town of Castle Cove holds many secrets, and Alice and Iris have no idea how much danger they're about to walk into.]]> 405 Kathleen Glasgow 0593431111 Manda 3 3.91 2022 The Agathas (The Agathas #1)
author: Kathleen Glasgow
name: Manda
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/09
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Nothing Important Happened Today (Detective Sergeant Pace, #2)]]> 52391814 When strangers take part in a series of group suicides, everything suggests that a cult is to blame. How do you stop a cult when nobody knows they are a member?

Nine suicides
One Cult
No leader

Nine people arrive one night on Chelsea Bridge. They’ve never met. But at the same time, they run, and leap to their deaths. Each of them received a letter in the post that morning, a pre-written suicide note, and a page containing only four words: Nothing important happened today.

That is how they knew they had been chosen to become a part of the People Of Choice: A mysterious suicide cult whose members have no knowledge of one another.

Thirty-two people on that train witness the event. Two of them will be next. By the morning, People Of Choice are appearing around the globe; it becomes a movement. A social media page that has lain dormant for four years suddenly has thousands of followers. The police are under pressure to find a link between the cult members, to locate a leader that does not seem to exist.

How do you stop a cult when nobody knows they are a member?

A shocking, mesmerisingly original and pitch-black thriller, Nothing Important Happened Today confirms Will Carver as one of the most extraordinary, exciting authors in crime fiction.

]]> 300 Will Carver 1912374846 Manda 4 3.57 2019 Nothing Important Happened Today (Detective Sergeant Pace, #2)
author: Will Carver
name: Manda
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/08
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Good Samaritans (Detective Sergeant Pace, #1)]]> 40574569 One crossed wire, three dead bodies and six bottles of bleach

Seth Beauman can’t sleep. He stays up late, calling strangers from his phonebook, hoping to make a connection, while his wife, Maeve, sleeps upstairs. A crossed wire finds a suicidal Hadley Serf on the phone to Seth, thinking she is talking to The Samaritans.
But a seemingly harmless, late-night hobby turns into something more for Seth and for Hadley, and soon their late-night talks are turning into day-time meet-ups. And then this dysfunctional love story turns into something altogether darker, when Seth brings Hadley home�
And someone is watching�
Dark, sexy, dangerous and wildly readable, Good Samaritans marks the scorching return of one of crime fiction’s most exceptional voices.


]]> 318 Will Carver 1912374382 Manda 4 3.86 2018 Good Samaritans (Detective Sergeant Pace, #1)
author: Will Carver
name: Manda
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/07
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves:
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]]> Really Good, Actually 60877616 A hilarious and painfully relatable debut novel about one woman’s messy search for joy and meaning in the wake of an unexpected breakup, from comedian, essayist, and award-winning screenwriter Monica Heisey

Maggie is fine. She’s doing really good, actually. Sure, she’s broke, her graduate thesis on something obscure is going nowhere, and her marriage only lasted 608 days, but at the ripe old age of twenty-nine, Maggie is determined to embrace her new life as a Surprisingly Young Divorcée�.

Now she has time to take up nine hobbies, eat hamburgers at 4 am, and “get back out there� sex-wise. With the support of her tough-loving academic advisor, Merris; her newly divorced friend, Amy; and her group chat (naturally), Maggie barrels through her first year of single life, intermittently dating, occasionally waking up on the floor and asking herself tough questions along the way.

Laugh-out-loud funny and filled with sharp observations, Really Good, Actually is a tender and bittersweet comedy that lays bare the uncertainties of modern love, friendship, and our search for that thing we like to call “happiness�. This is a remarkable debut from an unforgettable new voice in fiction.]]> 370 Monica Heisey 0063235412 Manda 4 3.14 2023 Really Good, Actually
author: Monica Heisey
name: Manda
average rating: 3.14
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/06
date added: 2025/04/06
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]]> Tell No One 39786095 Kindle edition.

For Dr. David Beck, the loss was shattering. And every day for the past eight years, he has relived the horror of what happened. The gleaming lake. The pale moonlight. The piercing screams. The night his wife was taken. The last night he saw her alive.

Everyone tells him it's time to move on, to forget the past once and for all. But for David Beck, there can be no closure. A message has appeared on his computer, a phrase only he and his dead wife know. Suddenly Beck is taunted with the impossible -- that somewhere, somehow, Elizabeth is alive.

Beck has been warned to tell no one. And he doesn't. Instead, he runs from the people he trusts the most, plunging headlong into a search for the shadowy figure whose messages hold out a desperate hope.

But already Beck is being hunted down. He's headed straight into the heart of a dark and deadly secret -- and someone intends to stop him before he gets there.]]> 396 Harlan Coben Manda 3 4.25 2001 Tell No One
author: Harlan Coben
name: Manda
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at: 2023/08/03
date added: 2025/04/05
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]]> <![CDATA[How to Seal Your Own Fate (Castle Knoll Files, #2)]]> 216970887
Present day: Annie Adams is just settling into life in Castle Knoll when local fortune teller Peony Lane crosses her path and shares a cryptic message. When Peony Lane is found dead only hours later inside the locked Gravesdown Estate, Annie quickly realizes that someone is out to make her look guilty while silencing Peony at the same time. Annie has no choice but to delve into the dark secrets of Castle Knoll in order to find out just what Peony Lane was trying to warn her about, before the new life she’s just begun to build comes crashing down around her.

1967: A year has passed since her friend Emily disappeared, and teenage Frances Adams finds herself caught between two men. Ford Gravesdown is one of the only remaining members of a family known for its wealth and dubious uses of power. Archie Foyle is a local who can’t hold down a job and lives above the village pub. But when Frances teams up with Archie to investigate the car crash that claimed the lives of Ford’s family, it quickly becomes clear that this was no accident—hints of cover-ups, lies, and betrayals abound. The question is, just how far does the blackness creep through the heart of Castle Knoll? When Frances uncovers secrets kept by both Ford and Archie, she starts to wonder: What exactly has she gotten herself into?]]> 320 Kristen Perrin 059347404X Manda 4 3.94 2025 How to Seal Your Own Fate (Castle Knoll Files, #2)
author: Kristen Perrin
name: Manda
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/06
date added: 2025/04/05
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]]> <![CDATA[How to Solve Your Own Murder (Castle Knoll Files, #1)]]> 181350367 For fans of Knives Out and The Thursday Murder Club, an enormously fun mystery about a woman who spends her entire life trying to prevent her foretold murder only to be proven right sixty years later, when she is found dead in her sprawling country estate.... Now it's up to her great-niece to catch the killer.

It’s 1965 and teenage Frances Adams is at an English country fair with her two best friends. But Frances’s night takes a hairpin turn when a fortune-teller makes a bone-chilling prediction: One day, Frances will be murdered. Frances spends a lifetime trying to solve a crime that hasn’t happened yet, compiling dirt on every person who crosses her path in an effort to prevent her own demise. For decades, no one takes Frances seriously, until nearly sixty years later, when Frances is found murdered, like she always said she would be.

In the present day, Annie Adams has been summoned to a meeting at the sprawling country estate of her wealthy and reclusive great-aunt Frances. But by the time Annie arrives in the quaint English village of Castle Knoll, Frances is already dead. Annie is determined to catch the killer, but thanks to Frances’s lifelong habit of digging up secrets and lies, it seems every endearing and eccentric villager might just have a motive for her murder. Can Annie safely unravel the dark mystery at the heart of Castle Knoll, or will dredging up the past throw her into the path of a killer?

As Annie gets closer to the truth, and closer to the danger, she starts to fear she might inherit her aunt’s fate instead of her fortune.]]> 358 Kristen Perrin 0593474015 Manda 5 3.76 2024 How to Solve Your Own Murder (Castle Knoll Files, #1)
author: Kristen Perrin
name: Manda
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/05
date added: 2025/04/05
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]]> Don't Look Back 229353039
It’s been seven years since she fled to the edge of the world and reinvented herself, but her spontaneous act of mercy has brought her into the public eye. Which means that, despite all of Myer’s best efforts to outrun her brutal past and disappear, he will be able to find her at last...

A chilling, high-octane thriller from the bestselling author of Tell Me Lies and Trapdoor.]]> J.P. Pomare Manda 2 2.83 Don't Look Back
author: J.P. Pomare
name: Manda
average rating: 2.83
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/31
date added: 2025/04/03
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]]> Wings (Bromeliad Trilogy, #3) 34519 224 Terry Pratchett 0060094958 Manda 5 3.99 1990 Wings (Bromeliad Trilogy, #3)
author: Terry Pratchett
name: Manda
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1990
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/03
date added: 2025/04/03
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]]> <![CDATA[Diggers (Bromeliad Trilogy, #2)]]> 989030
Soon strange things start to happen. Like the tops of puddles growing hard and cold, and the water coming down from the sky in frozen bits. Then humans appear and they REALLY mess everything up. The quarry is to be re-opened, and the nomes must fight to defend their new home. But how long will they be able to keep the humans at bay - even with the help of the monster Jekub?

.]]> 173 Terry Pratchett 0552525863 Manda 5 3.89 1990 Diggers (Bromeliad Trilogy, #2)
author: Terry Pratchett
name: Manda
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1990
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/03
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Truckers (Bromeliad Trilogy, #1)]]> 34542
Under the floorboards of the Store is a world of four-inch-tall nomes that humans never see. It is commonly known among these nomes that Arnold Bros. created the Store for them to live in, and he declared: "Everything Under One Roof." Therefore there can be no such thing as Outside. It just makes sense.

That is, until the day a group of nomes arrives on a truck, claiming to be from Outside, talking about Day and Night and Snow and other crazy legends. And they soon uncover devastating news: The Store is about to be demolished. It's up to Masklin, one of the Outside nomes, to devise a daring escape plan that will forever change the nomes' vision of the world....]]> 288 Terry Pratchett 0060094966 Manda 5 3.86 1989 Truckers (Bromeliad Trilogy, #1)
author: Terry Pratchett
name: Manda
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1989
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/02
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves:
review:

]]> Final Girls 32796253
Now, Quincy is doing well—maybe even great, thanks to her Xanax prescription. She has a caring almost-fiancé, Jeff; a popular baking blog; a beautiful apartment; and a therapeutic presence in Coop, the police officer who saved her life all those years ago. Her memory won’t even allow her to recall the events of that night; the past is in the past.

That is, until Lisa, the first Final Girl, is found dead in her bathtub, wrists slit, and Sam, the second, appears on Quincy's doorstep. Blowing through Quincy's life like a whirlwind, Sam seems intent on making Quincy relive the past, with increasingly dire consequences, all of which makes Quincy question why Sam is really seeking her out. And when new details about Lisa's death come to light, Quincy's life becomes a race against time as she tries to unravel Sam's truths from her lies, evade the police and hungry reporters, and, most crucially, remember what really happened at Pine Cottage, before what was started ten years ago is finished.]]> 352 Riley Sager 1101985364 Manda 5 3.81 2017 Final Girls
author: Riley Sager
name: Manda
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/02
date added: 2025/04/01
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]]> Say No More 222434242 Listening time: 5 hours and 47 minutes

Who is Audrey Hoedemaker? It's a question her sister Maureen has heard more times than she can count, and she doesn't know what the short answer would be. Little sister, troubled teen, backpacker, musical theatre coach, con artist, childcare worker. Murderer.

A tragic, traumatic childhood casts a long shadow on the Hoedemaker sisters. Maureen has worked hard to move beyond the violence of the past and build a good, honest life for herself. Audrey, however, just can't seem to do the same, careening from one state of chaos to another.

Maureen loves her sister, but when Audrey's criminal past catches up to them both, she will have to make some difficult decisions about the limits of family loyalty - and just how far sisters are willing to go to protect each other...]]> 6 Caroline Overington Manda 2 3.60 2024 Say No More
author: Caroline Overington
name: Manda
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/31
date added: 2025/03/31
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Twist endings tend to fall into one of several classic categories. The only trope I despise more than this one is "it was all a dream", and this cliche of a twist is a very close second.
]]> A Lifetime of Impossible Days 43379420 Australian Women's Weekly GREAT READ for August'Prepare to immerse yourself in wonder, childish delight and dark, dark trauma in this unique novel from a new and important Australian literary voice' Australian Women's Weekly‘Every so often a book comes along that reaffirms the glory and beauty of life. Tabitha Bird has gifted us this wonder� Cass MoriartyMeet Willa Waters, aged 8 . . . 33 . . . and 93.On one impossible day in 1965, eight-year-old Willa receives a mysterious box containing a jar of water and the ‘One plant in the backyard.� So she does - and somehow creates an extraordinary time slip that allows her to visit her future selves.On one impossible day in 1990, Willa is 33 and a mother-of-two when her childhood self magically appears in her backyard. But she’s also a woman haunted by memories of her dark past � and is on the brink of a decision that will have tragic repercussions . . .On one impossible day in 2050, Willa is a silver-haired, gumboot-loving 93-year-old whose memory is fading fast. Yet she knows there’s something she has to remember, a warning she must give her past selves about a terrible event in 1990. If only she could recall what it was.Can the three Willas come together, to heal their past and save their future, before it’s too late?'A magical tale of healing . . . it's sure to cast a spell over readers' Mindfood magazine'A wonderful debut . . . An uplifting story about the power of forgiveness, the ability to heal and the magical idea of being able to travel back in time to fix a broken future.' Good Reading Magazine'A courageous and magical debut novel that reminds us that while we can’t change events from our past, we do have the power to change the story we tell ourselves about them.' Sally Piper]]> 438 Tabitha Bird 1760144398 Manda 4 4.04 2019 A Lifetime of Impossible Days
author: Tabitha Bird
name: Manda
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/30
date added: 2025/03/30
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]]> One Split Second 52693912
When a car carrying five teenagers home from a party crashes into a brick wall, the consequences are devastating - not just for the young people directly involved, but also for their families, their friends and the wider community.

No one escapes unscathed, but some are more deeply scarred than others and one of the group will not survive. In their grief and confusion, those left behind question who was to blame for the accident, and what price they will pay.

A haunting and emotionally affecting novel of love and loyalty, grief and forgiveness.]]> 304 Caroline Bond 1838951075 Manda 5 3.97 2020 One Split Second
author: Caroline Bond
name: Manda
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/29
date added: 2025/03/29
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]]> <![CDATA[Of a Boy by Sonya Hartnett (2003-11-24)]]> 131224970 Entwining a tale of missing children with the story of a lonely little boy, Sonya Hartnett captures the tenderness and dread of childhood in a work of exceptional storytelling.The year is 1977, and Adrian is nine. He lives with his gran and his uncle Rory. His best friend is Clinton Tull. Adrian loves to draw, and he wants a dog. He’s afraid of quicksand, shopping centers, and self-combustion. But as closely as he watches his suburban world, there is much he cannot understand. He does not, for instance, know why three neighborhood children might set out to buy ice cream one summer’s day and never be seen again. . . .In this suburb that is no longer safe and innocent, in a broken family of self-absorbed souls, Sonya Hartnett sets the story of a lone little boy - unwanted, unloved, and intensely curious - a story as achingly beautiful as it is shattering. As her quiet tale ominously unfolds, we are reminded of how fragile are the threads that hold us secure - and how brave, how precious, is the heart of each child who soldiers on.]]> 0 Sonya Hartnett Manda 5 3.85 2000 Of a Boy by Sonya Hartnett (2003-11-24)
author: Sonya Hartnett
name: Manda
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/28
date added: 2025/03/28
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]]> The Hush 58292921 A multigenerational, female-led thriller, and a terrifying conspiracy that goes right to the heart of the British Government.

Six months ago, in an English hospital, a healthy baby wouldn’t take a breath at birth. Since then there have been more tragedies, and now the country is in turmoil. The government is clamping down on people’s freedoms. The prime minister has passed new laws granting authorities sweeping powers to monitor all citizens. And young pregnant women have started going missing.

As a midwife, Emma is determined to be there for those who need her. But when her seventeen-year-old daughter Lainey finds herself in trouble, this dangerous new world becomes very real, and both women face impossible choices. The one person who might help is Emma’s estranged mother Geraldine, but reaching out to her will put them all in jeopardy �

The Hush is a new breed of near-future thriller, an unflinching look at a society close to tipping point and a story for our times, highlighting the power of female friendship through a dynamic group of women determined to triumph against the odds.]]> 359 Sara Foster 1460760379 Manda 5 4.19 2021 The Hush
author: Sara Foster
name: Manda
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/27
date added: 2025/03/27
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]]> Luckiest Girl Alive 22609317
As a teenager at the prestigious Bradley School, Ani FaNelli endured a shocking, public humiliation that left her desperate to reinvent herself. Now, with a glamorous job, expensive wardrobe, and handsome blue blood fiancé, she’s this close to living the perfect life she’s worked so hard to achieve.

But Ani has a secret.

There’s something else buried in her past that still haunts her, something private and painful that threatens to bubble to the surface and destroy everything.

With a singular voice and twists you won’t see coming, Luckiest Girl Alive explores the unbearable pressure that so many women feel to “have it all� and introduces a heroine whose sharp edges and cutthroat ambition have been protecting a scandalous truth, and a heart that's bigger than it first appears.

The question remains: will breaking her silence destroy all that she has worked for—or, will it at long last, set Ani free?]]> 338 Jessica Knoll 1476789630 Manda 3 3.50 2015 Luckiest Girl Alive
author: Jessica Knoll
name: Manda
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/26
date added: 2025/03/26
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]]> As You Like It 42607 As You Like It with delight. Its characters are brilliant conversationalists, including the princesses Rosalind and Celia and their Fool, Touchstone. Soon after Rosalind and Orlando meet and fall in love, the princesses and Touchstone go into exile in the Forest of Arden, where they find new conversational partners. Duke Frederick, younger brother to Duke Senior, has overthrown his brother and forced him to live homeless in the forest with his courtiers, including the cynical Jaques. Orlando, whose older brother Oliver plotted his death, has fled there, too.

Recent scholars have also grounded the play in the issues of its time. These include primogeniture, passing property from a father to his oldest son. As You Like It depicts intense conflict between brothers, exposing the human suffering that primogeniture entails. Another perspective concerns cross-dressing. Most of Orlando’s courtship of Rosalind takes place while Rosalind is disguised as a man, “Ganymede.� At her urging, Orlando pretends that Ganymede is his beloved Rosalind. But as the epilogue reveals, the sixteenth-century actor playing Rosalind was male, following the practice of the time. In other words, a boy played a girl playing a boy pretending to be a girl.]]> 263 William Shakespeare 074348486X Manda 5 3.81 1599 As You Like It
author: William Shakespeare
name: Manda
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1599
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/24
date added: 2025/03/24
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]]> <![CDATA[The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society]]> 2728527
“Treat yourself to this book, please - I can’t recommend it highly enough.� (Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love)

“I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers.�

January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb....

As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends - and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island - boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all. Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society’s members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever.

Written with warmth and humor as a series of letters, this novel is a celebration of the written word in all its guises and of finding connection in the most surprising ways.

Praise for The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society

“A jewel... Poignant and keenly observed, Guernsey is a small masterpiece about love, war, and the immeasurable sustenance to be found in good books and good friends.� (People)

“A book-lover’s delight, an implicit and sometimes explicit paean to all things literary.� (Chicago Sun-Times)

“A sparkling epistolary novel radiating wit, lightly worn erudition and written with great assurance and aplomb.� (The Sunday Times [London])

“Cooked perfectly à point: subtle and elegant in flavour, yet emotionally satisfying to the finish.� (The Times [London])]]> 277 Mary Ann Shaffer 0385340990 Manda 3 4.13 2008 The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
author: Mary Ann Shaffer
name: Manda
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/22
date added: 2025/03/22
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]]> Unraveling Oliver 32920306 I expected more of a reaction the first time I hit her.

Oliver Ryan, handsome, charismatic, and successful, has long been married to his devoted wife, Alice. Together they write and illustrate award-winning children’s books; their life together one of enviable privilege and ease—until, one evening after a delightful dinner, Oliver delivers a blow to Alice that renders her unconscious, and subsequently beats her into a coma.

In the aftermath of such an unthinkable event, as Alice hovers between life and death, the couple’s friends, neighbours, and acquaintances try to understand what could have driven Oliver to commit such a horrific act. As his story unfolds, layers are peeled away to reveal a life of shame, envy, deception, and masterful manipulation.]]> 320 Liz Nugent 1501167758 Manda 5 3.71 2014 Unraveling Oliver
author: Liz Nugent
name: Manda
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/20
date added: 2025/03/20
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]]> The House Across the Lake 58909880 The New York Times best-selling author of Final Girls and Survive the Night is back with his most unexpected thriller yet.

Casey Fletcher, a recently widowed actress trying to escape a streak of bad press, has retreated to the peace and quiet of her family’s lake house in Vermont. Armed with a pair of binoculars and several bottles of liquor, she passes the time watching Tom and Katherine Royce, the glamorous couple who live in the house across the lake. They make for good viewing—a tech innovator, Tom is rich; and a former model, Katherine is gorgeous.

One day on the lake, Casey saves Katherine from drowning, and the two strike up a budding friendship. But the more they get to know each other—and the longer Casey watches—it becomes clear that Katherine and Tom’s marriage is not as perfect and placid as it appears. When Katherine suddenly vanishes, Casey becomes consumed with finding out what happened to her. In the process, she uncovers eerie, darker truths that turn a tale of voyeurism and suspicion into a story of guilt, obsession and how looks can be very deceiving.

With his trademark blend of sharp characters, psychological suspense, and gasp-worthy surprises, Riley Sager’s The House Across the Lake unveils more than one twist that will shock readers until the very last page.]]> 369 Riley Sager Manda 4 3.57 2022 The House Across the Lake
author: Riley Sager
name: Manda
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/19
date added: 2025/03/19
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]]> All the Other Mothers Hate Me 214537763 "The missing boy is 10-year-old Alfie Risby, and to be perfectly honest with you, he's a little shit."

Florence Grimes, age thirty-one, always takes the easy way out. Single, broke and unfulfilled after the humiliating end to her girl-band career, she has only one reason to get out of bed each day: her ten-year-old son Dylan. But then Alfie Risby, her son’s bully and the heir to a vast frozen-food empire, mysteriously vanishes during a class trip, and Dylan becomes the prime suspect.

Florence, for once, is faced with a task she can’t quit: She’s got to find Alfie and clear her son’s name or risk losing Dylan forever—never mind that she has no useful skills (let alone investigative ones) and that all the other school moms hate her. Oh, and she has a reason to suspect Dylan might not be as innocent as she’d like to believe.]]> 384 Sarah Harman 0593851463 Manda 4 3.57 2025 All the Other Mothers Hate Me
author: Sarah Harman
name: Manda
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/19
date added: 2025/03/18
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]]> Cher: The Memoir, Part 1 214363953
After more than seventy years of fighting to live her life on her own terms, Cher finally reveals her true story in intimate detail, in a two-part memoir.

Her remarkable career is unique and unparalleled. The only woman to top Billboard charts in seven consecutive decades, she is the winner of an Academy Award, an Emmy, a Grammy, and a Cannes Film Festival Award, and an inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame who has been lauded by the Kennedy Center.

She is a lifelong activist and philanthropist.

As a dyslexic child who dreamed of becoming famous, Cher was raised in often-chaotic circumstances, surrounded by singers, actors, and a mother who inspired her in spite of their difficult relationship.

With her trademark honesty and humor, Cher: The Memoir traces how this diamond in the rough succeeded with no plan and little confidence to become the trailblazing superstar the world has been unable to ignore for more than half a century.

Cher: The Memoir, Part One follows her extraordinary beginnings through childhood to meeting and marrying Sonny Bono—and reveals the highly complicated relationship that made them world-famous, but eventually drove them apart.

Cher: The Memoir reveals the daughter, the sister, the wife, the lover, the mother, and the superstar.

It is a life too immense for only one book.]]> 432 Cher 0008355371 Manda 5 4.23 2024 Cher: The Memoir, Part 1
author: Cher
name: Manda
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/16
date added: 2025/03/15
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]]> James 173754979 A brilliant reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—both harrowing and satirical—told from the enslaved Jim's point of view

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

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

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780385550369.]]> 303 Percival Everett Manda 5 4.46 2024 James
author: Percival Everett
name: Manda
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/14
date added: 2025/03/14
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]]> Her Fearful Symmetry 6202342
When Elspeth Noblin dies of cancer, she leaves her London apartment to her twin nieces, Julia and Valentina. These two American girls never met their English aunt, only knew that their mother, too, was a twin, and Elspeth her sister. Julia and Valentina are semi-normal American teenagers--with seemingly little interest in college, finding jobs, or anything outside their cozy home in the suburbs of Chicago, and with an abnormally intense attachment to one another.

The girls move to Elspeth's flat, which borders Highgate Cemetery in London. They come to know the building's other residents. There is Martin, a brilliant and charming crossword puzzle setter suffering from crippling Obsessive Compulsive Disorder; Marjike, Martin's devoted but trapped wife; and Robert, Elspeth's elusive lover, a scholar of the cemetery. As the girls become embroiled in the fraying lives of their aunt's neighbors, they also discover that much is still alive in Highgate, including--perhaps--their aunt, who can't seem to leave her old apartment and life behind.

Niffenegger weaves a captivating story in Her Fearful Symmetry about love and identity, about secrets and sisterhood, and about the tenacity of life--even after death.]]> 406 Audrey Niffenegger 0224085611 Manda 2 3.27 2009 Her Fearful Symmetry
author: Audrey Niffenegger
name: Manda
average rating: 3.27
book published: 2009
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/15
date added: 2025/03/14
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]]> The Only Woman in the Room 39971465
But she kept a secret more shocking than her heritage or her marriage: she was a scientist. And she had an idea that might help the country fight the Nazis and revolutionize modern communication...if anyone would listen to her.

A novel based on the true story of the glamour icon and scientist whose groundbreaking invention revolutionized modern communication.]]> 312 Marie Benedict 1492666866 Manda 3 3.75 2019 The Only Woman in the Room
author: Marie Benedict
name: Manda
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/13
date added: 2025/03/13
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]]> Calypso 38348476
If you've ever laughed your way through David Sedaris's cheerfully misanthropic stories, you might think you know what you're getting with Calypso. You'd be wrong.

When he buys a beach house on the Carolina coast, Sedaris envisions long, relaxing vacations spent playing board games and lounging in the sun with those he loves most. And life at the Sea Section, as he names the vacation home, is exactly as idyllic as he imagined, except for one tiny, vexing realization: it's impossible to take a vacation from yourself.

With Calypso, Sedaris sets his formidable powers of observation toward middle age and mortality. Make no mistake: these stories are very, very funny--it's a book that can make you laugh 'til you snort, the way only family can. Sedaris's powers of observation have never been sharper, and his ability to shock readers into laughter unparalleled. But much of the comedy here is born out of that vertiginous moment when your own body betrays you and you realize that the story of your life is made up of more past than future.

This is beach reading for people who detest beaches, required reading for those who loathe small talk and love a good tumor joke. Calypso is simultaneously Sedaris's darkest and warmest book yet--and it just might be his very best.]]> 272 David Sedaris 0316392359 Manda 5 4.11 2018 Calypso
author: David Sedaris
name: Manda
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/12
date added: 2025/03/12
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]]> <![CDATA[Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years]]> 44286431 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
In this follow-up to her critically acclaimed memoir, Home, Julie Andrews shares reflections on her astonishing career, including such classics as Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music, and Victor/Victoria.

In Home, the number one New York Times international bestseller, Julie Andrews recounted her difficult childhood and her emergence as an acclaimed singer and performer on the stage.
With this second memoir, Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years, Andrews picks up the story with her arrival in Hollywood and her phenomenal rise to fame in her earliest films--Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music. Andrews describes her years in the film industry -- from the incredible highs to the challenging lows. Not only does she discuss her work in now-classic films and her collaborations with giants of cinema and television, she also unveils her personal story of adjusting to a new and often daunting world, dealing with the demands of unimaginable success, being a new mother, the end of her first marriage, embracing two stepchildren, adopting two more children, and falling in love with the brilliant and mercurial Blake Edwards. The pair worked together in numerous films, including Victor/Victoria, the gender-bending comedy that garnered multiple Oscar nominations.

Cowritten with her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton, and told with Andrews's trademark charm and candor, Home Work takes us on a rare and intimate journey into an extraordinary life that is funny, heartrending, and inspiring.]]> 340 Julie Andrews Edwards 0306845989 Manda 5 3.84 2019 Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years
author: Julie Andrews Edwards
name: Manda
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/12
date added: 2025/03/11
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]]> <![CDATA[Home: A Memoir of My Early Years]]> 2511690 Mary Poppins, Julie Andrews has played a series of memorable roles that have endeared her to generations. But she has never told the story of her life before fame. Until now.

In Home: A Memoir of My Early Years, Julie takes her readers on a warm, moving, and often humorous journey from a difficult upbringing in war-torn Britain to the brink of international stardom in America. Her memoir begins in 1935, when Julie was born to an aspiring vaudevillian mother and a teacher father, and takes readers to 1962, when Walt Disney himself saw her on Broadway and cast her as the world's most famous nanny.

Along the way, she weathered the London Blitz of World War II; her parents' painful divorce; her mother's turbulent second marriage to Canadian tenor Ted Andrews, and a childhood spent on radio, in music halls, and giving concert performances all over England. Julie's professional career began at the age of twelve, and in 1948 she became the youngest solo performer ever to participate in a Royal Command Performance before the Queen. When only eighteen, she left home for the United States to make her Broadway debut in The Boy Friend, and thus began her meteoric rise to stardom.

Home is filled with numerous anecdotes, including stories of performing in My Fair Lady with Rex Harrison on Broadway and in the West End, and in Camelot with Richard Burton on Broadway; her first marriage to famed set and costume designer Tony Walton, culminating with the birth of their daughter, Emma; and the call from Hollywood and what lay beyond.

Julie Andrews' career has flourished over seven decades. From her legendary Broadway performances, to her roles in such iconic films as The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Hawaii, 10, and The Princess Diaries, to her award-winning television appearances, multiple album releases, concert tours, international humanitarian work, best-selling children's books, and championship of literacy, Julie's influence spans generations. Today, she lives with her husband of thirty-eight years, the acclaimed writer/director Blake Edwards; they have five children and seven grandchildren.

]]> 339 Julie Andrews Edwards 0786865652 Manda 5 3.94 2008 Home: A Memoir of My Early Years
author: Julie Andrews Edwards
name: Manda
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/10
date added: 2025/03/10
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]]> Upgrade 59838811 You are the next step in human evolution.

At first, Logan Ramsay isn’t sure if anything’s different. He just feels a little . . . sharper. Better able to concentrate. Better at multitasking. Reading a bit faster, memorizing better, needing less sleep.

But before long, he can’t deny it: Something’s happening to his brain. To his body. He’s starting to see the world, and those around him—even those he loves most—in whole new ways.

The truth is, Logan’s genome has been hacked. And there’s a reason he’s been targeted for this upgrade. A reason that goes back decades to the darkest part of his past, and a horrific family legacy.

Worse still, what’s happening to him is just the first step in a much larger plan, one that will inflict the same changes on humanity at large—at a terrifying cost.

Because of his new abilities, Logan’s the one person in the world capable of stopping what’s been set in motion. But to have a chance at winning this war, he’ll have to become something other than himself. Maybe even something other than human.

And even as he’s fighting, he can’t help wondering: what if humanity’s only hope for a future really does lie in engineering our own evolution?

Intimate in scale yet epic in scope, Upgrade is an intricately plotted, lightning-fast tale that charts one man’s thrilling transformation, even as it asks us to ponder the limits of our humanity—and our boundless potential.]]> 352 Blake Crouch 0593157532 Manda 4 3.77 2022 Upgrade
author: Blake Crouch
name: Manda
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/08
date added: 2025/03/08
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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 Manda 3 3.99 2020 The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Manda
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/07
date added: 2025/03/06
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]]> <![CDATA[Anne of Green Gables (Anne of Green Gables, #1)]]> 8127 Anne of Green Gables is also a wonderful portrait of a time, a place, a family� and, most of all, love.

WITH AN AFTERWORD BY JENNIFER LEE CARELL]]> 320 L.M. Montgomery 0451528824 Manda 5 4.30 1908 Anne of Green Gables (Anne of Green Gables, #1)
author: L.M. Montgomery
name: Manda
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1908
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/05
date added: 2025/03/04
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]]> Cloud Cuckoo Land 56783258 When everything is lost, it’s our stories that survive.

How do we weather the end of things? Cloud Cuckoo Land brings together an unforgettable cast of dreamers and outsiders from past, present and future to offer a vision of survival against all odds.

Constantinople, 1453:
An orphaned seamstress and a cursed boy with a love for animals risk everything on opposite sides of a city wall to protect the people they love.

Idaho, 2020:
An impoverished, idealistic kid seeks revenge on a world that’s crumbling around him. Can he go through with it when a gentle old man stands between him and his plans?

Unknown, Sometime in the Future:
With her tiny community in peril, Konstance is the last hope for the human race. To find a way forward, she must look to the oldest stories of all for guidance.

Bound together by a single ancient text, these tales interweave to form a tapestry of solace and resilience and a celebration of storytelling itself. Like its predecessor All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr’s new novel is a tale of hope and of profound human connection.]]> 626 Anthony Doerr 1982168439 Manda 2 4.24 2021 Cloud Cuckoo Land
author: Anthony Doerr
name: Manda
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2021
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/04
date added: 2025/03/04
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]]> Paris: The Memoir 61812425 Behind Paris Hilton's meteoric rise from Upper West Side club kid to household name lies her self-proclaimed "superpower" of ADHD and a hidden history that traumatized and defined her. Shocking, funny, and surprisingly profound, Paris is the deeply personal memoir of the ultimate It Girl and a stunning inside view of a pop culture phenomenon.

Until, in a revealing documentary, Paris Hilton disclosed that her childhood was shattered by two years of strip searches, isolation, beatings, restraint, and brainwashing within the now infamous "troubled teen industry," Paris Hilton was simply the billionaire heiress America had watched grow up on television, on the internet, and in tabloids. But there was always more to Paris Hilton than met the eye. Yes, she is the media personality, DJ, entrepreneur, model, singer, actress, and icon beloved all over the globe. And yet...

Paris is the story people have always wanted Paris Hilton to tell--the story of who she really is. In this revealing and thought-provoking book, Hilton will separate the creation from the creator, the brand from the ambassador, and show the woman who grew up with incredible privilege but was also trapped in a world of unreasonable expectation at a moment when young women were humiliated for sport in a gossip economy on steroids. Paris recounts her perilous journey through pre-#METOO sexual politics with grace, generosity, and plenty of fun, rising above a series of heart-wrenching challenges to find healing, lasting love, and a life of meaning and purpose.

The parallel story arcs in Hilton's braided narrative come to full bloom as a watershed portrait of the Aughts, challenging each of us to question our role in her story and her role in ours. The result is an intimate and unexpected memoir about persona and personification, the price of being young and disobedient, and the complexity of manifesting your dreams after watching part of yourself disappear.]]> 336 Paris Hilton 0063224623 Manda 5 4.21 2023 Paris: The Memoir
author: Paris Hilton
name: Manda
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/28
date added: 2025/02/28
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]]> <![CDATA[Playing Under the Piano: From Downton to Darkest Peru]]> 60824917
A moving, laugh-out-loud memoir from one of today’s best-loved British actors, whose credits include Downton Abbey , Notting Hill , and Paddington .

From getting his big break as Third Shepherd in the school nativity play, to mistaking a Hollywood star for a real estate agent, Hugh Bonneville creates a brilliantly vivid picture of a career on stage and screen. What is it like working with Judi Dench and Julia Roberts, or playing Robert De Niro’s right leg, or not being Gary Oldman, twice? A wickedly funny storyteller, Bonneville also writes with poignancy about his father’s dementia and of his mother, whose life in the secret service emerged only after her death.
Whether telling stories of working with divas, Dames, or a bear with a penchant for marmalade, this account of his life as an actor is richly entertaining.]]> 384 Hugh Bonneville 1635423422 Manda 4 3.85 2022 Playing Under the Piano: From Downton to Darkest Peru
author: Hugh Bonneville
name: Manda
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/27
date added: 2025/02/27
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]]> Martyr! 139400713 A newly sober, orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, guided by the voices of artists, poets, and kings, embarks on a remarkable search for a family secret that leads him to a terminally ill painter living out her final days in the Brooklyn Museum. Electrifying, funny, and wholly original, Martyr! heralds the arrival of an essential new voice in contemporary fiction.

Cyrus Shams is a young man grappling with an inheritance of violence and loss: his mother’s plane was shot down over the skies of the Persian Gulf in a senseless accident; and his father’s life in America was circumscribed by his work killing chickens at a factory farm in the Midwest. Cyrus is a drunk, an addict, and a poet, whose obsession with martyrs leads him to examine the mysteries of his past—toward an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields dressed as the angel of death to inspire and comfort the dying, and toward his mother, through a painting discovered in a Brooklyn art gallery that suggests she may not have been who or what she seemed.

Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! is a paean to how we spend our lives seeking meaning—in faith, art, ourselves, others.]]> 331 Kaveh Akbar 0593537610 Manda 3 4.22 2024 Martyr!
author: Kaveh Akbar
name: Manda
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/26
date added: 2025/02/25
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]]> Every Last Suspect 203536923 Who killed Harriet?

Complicated, driven, loving; manipulative, irresistible, monstrous � whether you love her or hate her, Harriet is impossible to say no to. But someone has finally snapped and as Harriet lies dying, she is determined to figure out who has killed her.

Was it her devoted husband? Or was it her best friend and sometimes lover?

Or Karen, a fellow school mum and seemingly the woman who has it all � until the night Harriet persuaded her into playing Two Truths and a Lie?

Teenage bullies, complicated friendships, and games (both on and off the playground) combine with envy, obsession and revenge to create a twisty tale of drama and suspense that you won’t be able to put down.]]> 365 Nicola Moriarty 1405952008 Manda 3 3.80 2024 Every Last Suspect
author: Nicola Moriarty
name: Manda
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/25
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Jackdaw (The World of A Charm of Magpies)]]> 34861586 If you stop running, you fall.

Jonah Pastern is a magician, a liar, a windwalker, a professional thief…and for six months, he was the love of police constable Ben Spenser’s life. His betrayal left Ben jailed, ruined, alone, and looking for revenge.

Ben is determined to make Jonah pay. But he can’t seem to forget what they once shared, and Jonah refuses to let him. Soon Ben is entangled in Jonah’s chaotic existence all over again, and they’re running together—from the police, the justiciary, and some dangerous people with a lethal grudge against them.

Threatened on all sides by betrayals, secrets, and the laws of the land, the policeman and the thief must find a way to live and love before the past catches up with them...

A Charm of Magpies linked story, set after Flight of Magpies. Previously published by Samhain.]]> 222 K.J. Charles 0995799059 Manda 4 4.25 2015 Jackdaw (The World of A Charm of Magpies)
author: K.J. Charles
name: Manda
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/23
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Feast of Stephen (A Charm of Magpies, #3.5)]]> 23942369
Stephen and Crane have finally got away on their long-awaited Christmas break, along with Crane’s henchman Merrick and Jenny Saint. A promised gift is made, and a request unexpectedly and magically fulfilled�

This story comes after Flight of Magpies and is not a standalone read. Download now in any format from Smashwords.
__________
Word count: 6,280]]> 16 K.J. Charles 1311771964 Manda 5 4.07 2014 Feast of Stephen (A Charm of Magpies, #3.5)
author: K.J. Charles
name: Manda
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/18
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Flight of Magpies (A Charm of Magpies, #3)]]> 34715224 Danger in the air. Lovers on the brink.

With the justiciary understaffed, a series of horrifying occult murders to be investigated, and a young student flying off the rails, magical law enforcer Stephen Day is under increasing stress. And the strain is starting to show in his relationship with his aristocratic lover, Lord Crane.

Crane chafes at the restrictions of England’s laws, and there’s a worrying development in the blood-and-sex bond he shares with Stephen. A development that makes a sensible man question if they should be together at all.

Then a devastating loss brings the people he most loves into bitter conflict. Old enemies, new enemies, and unexpected enemies are painting Stephen and Crane into a corner, and the pressure threatens to tear them apart...

Book 3 of the Charm of Magpies series. Previously published by Samhain.]]> 239 K.J. Charles 0995799040 Manda 5 4.22 2014 Flight of Magpies (A Charm of Magpies, #3)
author: K.J. Charles
name: Manda
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/18
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[A Case of Spirits (A Charm of Magpies, #2.5)]]> 21843050 None so blind�

As torrential rains wash away the stench of a London heat wave, another kind of wave is sweeping through the city streets. A rash of ghost sightings, followed quickly by madness—and horrifying, eye-melting blindness.

The outbreak hits close to home when Lord Crane’s manservant, Merrick, becomes the newest victim. Desperate to find the cause of the malady, Crane and his magician lover, Stephen Day, are in a race against time—to put an end to the magical assault and put to rest the painful memories resurrected by ghosts of the past.


Warning: Magical horror, strong language, and strange brews disguised as strong drink.]]> 32 K.J. Charles 1619222817 Manda 5 4.00 2015 A Case of Spirits (A Charm of Magpies, #2.5)
author: K.J. Charles
name: Manda
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/18
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Case of Possession (A Charm of Magpies, #2)]]> 34715201 Magic in the blood. Danger in the streets.

Lord Crane has never had a lover quite as elusive as Stephen Day. He knows Stephen’s job as justiciar requires secrecy, but the magician is doing his disappearing act more than seems reasonable—especially since Crane will soon return to his home in China. When a blackmailer threatens to expose their illicit relationship, there's only one thing stopping Crane from leaving the country he loathes: Stephen.

Stephen has problems of his own. As he investigates a plague of giant rats sweeping London, his sudden increase in power, boosted by his blood-and-sex bond with Crane, is rousing suspicion that he’s turned warlock. With all eyes on him, the threat of exposure grows. Stephen could lose his friends, his job and his liberty over his relationship with Crane. He’s not sure if he can take that risk much longer. Crane isn’t sure if he can ask him to.

The rats are closing in, and something has to give�

Book 2 of the Charm of Magpies series. Previously published by Samhain.]]> 211 K.J. Charles Manda 5 4.09 2014 A Case of Possession (A Charm of Magpies, #2)
author: K.J. Charles
name: Manda
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/18
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Interlude with Tattoos (A Charm of Magpies, #1.5)]]> 19167960 14 K.J. Charles 1310371806 Manda 5 4.13 2013 Interlude with Tattoos (A Charm of Magpies, #1.5)
author: K.J. Charles
name: Manda
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/17
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[The Magpie Lord (A Charm of Magpies, #1)]]> 34715150 A lord in danger. A magician in turmoil. A snowball in hell.

Exiled to China for twenty years, Lucien Vaudrey never planned to return to England. But with the mysterious deaths of his father and brother, it seems the new Lord Crane has inherited an earldom. He’s also inherited his family’s enemies. He needs magical assistance, fast. He doesn't expect it to turn up angry.

Magician Stephen Day has good reason to hate Crane’s family. Unfortunately, it’s his job to deal with supernatural threats. Besides, the earl is unlike any aristocrat he’s ever met, with the tattoos, the attitude... and the way Crane seems determined to get him into bed. That’s definitely unusual.

Soon Stephen is falling hard for the worst possible man, at the worst possible time. But Crane’s dangerous appeal isn't the only thing rendering Stephen powerless. Evil pervades the house, a web of plots is closing round Crane, and if Stephen can’t find a way through it—they’re both going to die.

Book 1 of the Charm of Magpies series. Previously published by Samhain.]]> 271 K.J. Charles 0995799024 Manda 5 3.96 2013 The Magpie Lord (A Charm of Magpies, #1)
author: K.J. Charles
name: Manda
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/17
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Scythe & Sparrow (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #3)]]> 127616032 Discover the serial killer romance series everyone is talking about!From the no.1 New York Times bestselling author of the genre-breaking international TikTok sensation Butcher & Blackbird and Leather & Lark comes the final book in the Ruinous Love Trilogy - a friends-with-benefits dark romantic comedy.

Murder.

Mayhem.

And spice.

Doctor Fionn Kane is running from a broken heart, one he hopes to mend in small-town Nebraska, far away from his almost-fiance and his derailed surgical career. It's a simpler head down, hard work, and absolutely no romantic relationships. He wants none of the circus he left behind in Boston.

But then the real circus finds him.

Motorcycle performer Rose Evans has spent a decade on the road with the Silveria Circus, and it suits her just fine, especially when she has the urge to indulge in a little murder when she's not in the spotlight. But when a kill goes awry and she ends up with an injured leg, Rose finds herself stuck in Nebraska, at the home of the adorably nerdy town doctor.

The problem is, not every broken heart can be sewn back together.

. . . And the longer you stay in one place, the more likely your ghosts are to catch up.

***


Friends with benefits
Small town romance
Fish out of water
Forced proximity
Hurt/care
Touch her and die]]> 416 Brynne Weaver Manda 4 4.10 2025 Scythe & Sparrow (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #3)
author: Brynne Weaver
name: Manda
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/16
date added: 2025/02/16
shelves:
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]]> The Radleys 7989160 341 Matt Haig 1847678602 Manda 3 3.57 2010 The Radleys
author: Matt Haig
name: Manda
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/15
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3)]]> 7260188 My name is Katniss Everdeen.
Why am I not dead?
I should be dead.

Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss's family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding.

It is by design that Katniss was rescued from the arena in the cruel and haunting Quarter Quell, and it is by design that she has long been part of the revolution without knowing it. District 13 has come out of the shadows and is plotting to overthrow the Capitol. Everyone, it seems, has had a hand in the carefully laid plans—except Katniss.

The success of the rebellion hinges on Katniss's willingness to be a pawn, to accept responsibility for countless lives, and to change the course of the future of Panem. To do this, she must put aside her feelings of anger and distrust. She must become the rebels' Mockingjay—no matter what the personal cost.]]> 390 Suzanne Collins 0439023513 Manda 5 4.10 2010 Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Manda
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/14
date added: 2025/02/13
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2)]]> 6148028 Sparks are igniting.
Flames are spreading.
And the Capitol wants revenge.

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and her longtime friend, Gale. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol—a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create.

Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest that she's afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she's not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol's cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can't prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying.

In Catching Fire, the second novel of the Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins continues the story of Katniss Everdeen, testing her more than ever before . . . and surprising readers at every turn.]]> 391 Suzanne Collins 0439023491 Manda 5 4.34 2009 Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Manda
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/12
date added: 2025/02/12
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]]> <![CDATA[The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)]]> 2767052
Winning means fame and fortune. Losing means certain death. The Hunger Games have begun. . . .

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before-and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.]]> 374 Suzanne Collins Manda 5 4.34 2008 The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Manda
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/11
date added: 2025/02/11
shelves:
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]]> Bossypants 9418327
She has seen both these dreams come true.

At last, Tina Fey's story can be told. From her youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live; from her passionately halfhearted pursuit of physical beauty to her life as a mother eating things off the floor; from her one-sided college romance to her nearly fatal honeymoon—from the beginning of this paragraph to this final sentence.

Tina Fey reveals all, and proves what we've all suspected: you're no one until someone calls you bossy.]]> 283 Tina Fey Manda 3 3.97 2011 Bossypants
author: Tina Fey
name: Manda
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/10
date added: 2025/02/10
shelves:
review:

]]> The Woman in Me 63133205 The Woman in Me is a brave and astonishingly moving story about freedom, fame, motherhood, survival, faith, and hope.

In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court. The impact of sharing her voice—her truth—was undeniable, and it changed the course of her life and the lives of countless others. The Woman in Me reveals for the first time her incredible journey—and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history.

Written with remarkable candor and humor, Spears’s groundbreaking book illuminates the enduring power of music and love—and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms, at last.]]> 288 Britney Spears 1668009048 Manda 4 3.83 2023 The Woman in Me
author: Britney Spears
name: Manda
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/10
date added: 2025/02/09
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Dear Reader: The Comfort and Joy of Books]]> 48562591
'Reading has saved my life, again and again, and has held my hand through every difficult time'

For as long as she can remember, Cathy Rentzenbrink has lost and found herself in stories. Growing up she was rarely seen without her nose in a book and read in secret long after lights out. When tragedy struck, books kept her afloat. Eventually they lit the way to a new path, first as a bookseller and then as a writer. No matter what the future holds, reading will always help.

Dear Reader is a moving, funny and joyous exploration of how books can change the course of your life, packed with recommendations from one reader to another.]]> 230 Cathy Rentzenbrink 1509891528 Manda 3 4.19 2020 Dear Reader: The Comfort and Joy of Books
author: Cathy Rentzenbrink
name: Manda
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/09
date added: 2025/02/08
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]]> Never: The Autobiography 208027313
Balancing nostalgia, fresh perspectives and introspection, Never begins with family and unconventional upbringings; journeys through the tumultuous and glamorous world of pop; and takes pause for self-reflection. Rick goes beyond the blinding lights of the stage � giving an intimate look at the man behind the hits � and is a portrait of truth, artistic evolution and the astounding power of contentment.]]> 299 Rick Astley 1035049422 Manda 5 4.33 2024 Never: The Autobiography
author: Rick Astley
name: Manda
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/09
date added: 2025/02/08
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[You Called an Ambulance for What?]]> 149108565
Between the obligatory stories of objects lodged in body cavities and grown men who can't look after themselves when their wives are away, Tim finds that the promised life-saving moments are far outweighed by the trivial, frustrating and bizarre ambulance callouts. He and his colleagues battle fatigue, abuse and burnout - treated with coffee, occasional moments of heroism, and a healthy dose of dark humour.

Told with cutting wit, pathos and disarming insight, You Called an Ambulance for What? is a comedic behind-the-sirens look at the challenges, absurdities and shocking reality of life as an Australian intensive care paramedic.]]> 258 Tim Booth Manda 4 3.93 You Called an Ambulance for What?
author: Tim Booth
name: Manda
average rating: 3.93
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/08
date added: 2025/02/07
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]]> <![CDATA[This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor]]> 35510008 Scribbled in secret after endless days, sleepless nights and missed weekends, Adam Kay's This is Going to Hurt provides a no-holds-barred account of his time on the NHS front line. Hilarious, horrifying and heartbreaking, this diary is everything you wanted to know � and more than a few things you didn't � about life on and off the hospital ward.

As seen on ITV's Zoe Ball Book Club

This edition includes extra diary entries and a new afterword by the author.

]]> 285 Adam Kay Manda 5 4.40 2017 This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor
author: Adam Kay
name: Manda
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/07
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Tales of Beedle the Bard (Hogwarts Library, #3)]]> 3950967
Additional notes for each story penned by Professor Albus Dumbledore will be enjoyed by Muggles and wizards alike, as the Professor muses on the morals illuminated by the tales, and reveals snippets of information about life at Hogwarts.

A uniquely magical volume, with illustrations by the author, J. K. Rowling, that will be treasured for years to come.]]> 105 J.K. Rowling 0747599874 Manda 3 4.03 2008 The Tales of Beedle the Bard (Hogwarts Library, #3)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Manda
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/06
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves:
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]]> Circe 41045102
In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. Circe is a strange child - not powerful and terrible, like her father, nor gorgeous and mercenary like her mother. Scorned and rejected, Circe grows up in the shadows, at home in neither the world of gods or mortals. But Circe has a dark power of her own: witchcraft. When her gift threatens the gods, she is banished to the island of Aiaia where she hones her occult craft, casting spells, gathering strange herbs and taming wild beasts. Yet a woman who stands alone will never be left in peace for long - and among her island's guests is an unexpected visitor: the mortal Odysseus, for whom Circe will risk everything.

So Circe sets forth her tale, a vivid, mesmerizing epic of family rivalry, love and loss - the defiant, inextinguishable song of woman burning hot and bright through the darkness of a man's world.]]> 337 Madeline Miller 1408890046 Manda 4 4.16 2018 Circe
author: Madeline Miller
name: Manda
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/06
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves:
review:

]]> Wrong Place Wrong Time 59947696
It is midnight on the morning of Halloween, and Jen anxiously waits up for her 18-year-old son, Todd, to return home. But worries about his broken curfew transform into something much more dangerous when Todd finally emerges from the darkness. As Jen watches through the window, she sees her funny, seemingly happy teenage son stab a total stranger.

She doesn’t know who the victim is, or why Todd has committed such a devastating act of violence. All she knows is that her life, and Todd’s, have been shattered.

After her son is taken into custody, Jen falls asleep in despair. But when she wakes up� it is yesterday. The murder has not happened yet—and there may be a chance to stop it. Each morning, when Jen wakes, she is further back in the past, first weeks, then years, before the murder. And Jen realizes that somewhere in the past lies the trigger for Todd’s terrible crime…and it is her mission to find it, and prevent it from taking place.]]> 416 Gillian McAllister 0063252341 Manda 4 3.95 2022 Wrong Place Wrong Time
author: Gillian McAllister
name: Manda
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/04
date added: 2025/02/04
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]]> Here Goes Nothing 59093000
A wildly inventive, savagely funny and topical novel about love, mortality and the afterlife, by the Booker-shortlisted author of A Fraction of the Whole .

Angus is a reformed ne'er-do-well looking forward to the birth of his first child when he's murdered by a man who is in love with his pregnant wife Gracie. Having never believed in God, heaven or hell, Angus finds himself in the afterlife - a place that provides more questions than answers. As a worldwide pandemic finally reaches the shores of Australia, the afterlife starts to get very crowded and Angus finds a way to reconnect with his wife Gracie and maybe even seek revenge on his murderer...

Here Goes Nothing is a novel of exhilarating originality and scope about birth, death and everything in between and after by ‘a writer of prodigious talent� (Peter Carey) that contains a vision of the afterlife that rivals Dante’s Divine Comedy and George Saunders' Lincoln in the Bardo, and the emmy-nominated The Good Place .]]> 384 Steve Toltz 1612199712 Manda 4 3.60 2022 Here Goes Nothing
author: Steve Toltz
name: Manda
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/03
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret (Ernest Cunningham, #3)]]> 206005312
My name’s Ernest Cunningham. I used to be a fan of reading Golden Age murder mysteries, until I found myself with a haphazard career getting stuck in the middle of real-life ones. I’d hoped, this Christmas, that any self-respecting murderer would kick their feet up and take it easy over the holidays. I was wrong.

So here I am, backstage at the show of world-famous magician Rylan Blaze, whose benefactor has just been murdered. My suspects are all professional tricksters: masters of the art of misdirection.

THE MAGICIAN

THE ASSISTANT

THE EXECUTIVE

THE HYPNOTIST

THE IDENTICAL TWIN

THE COUNSELLOR

THE TECH

My clues are even more abstract: A suspect covered in blood, without a memory of how it got there. A murder committed without setting foot inside the room where it happens. And an advent calendar. Because, you know, it’s Christmas.

If I can see through the illusions, I know I can solve it.

After all, a good murder is just like a magic trick, isn’t it?]]> 175 Benjamin Stevenson 0063412861 Manda 5 3.70 2024 Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret (Ernest Cunningham, #3)
author: Benjamin Stevenson
name: Manda
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/31
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect (Ernest Cunningham, #2)]]> 167006698
The program is a who’s who of crime writing royalty:

the debut writer (me!)

the forensic science writer

the blockbuster writer

the legal thriller writer

the literary writer

the psychological suspense writer

But when one of us is murdered, the remaining authors quickly turn into five detectives. Together, we should know how to solve a crime.

Of course, we should also know how to commit one.

How can you find a killer when all the suspects know how to get away with murder?]]> 320 Benjamin Stevenson 006327907X Manda 5 3.82 2023 Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect (Ernest Cunningham, #2)
author: Benjamin Stevenson
name: Manda
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/27
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves:
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]]> Dying of Politeness: A Memoir 61422460
At three years old, Geena announced she was going to be in movies. Now, with a slew of iconic roles and awards under her belt, she has surpassed her childhood dream, but her journey has been one of fits and starts, with a pothole or two along the way.

In this hilarious memoir, Geena regales us with tales of a career playing everything from an amnesiac assassin to the parent of a rodent in Stuart Little; a soap star in her underwear to a housewife turned road warrior in Thelma & Louise; a baseball phenomenon in A League of Their Own to the first female President of the United States in Commander in Chief, and more. She is frank about her eccentric childhood; her many relationships, including her spontaneous Las Vegas wedding to Jeff Goldblum; her archery exploits which led her to the Olympic trials; and how she became a tireless advocate for women and girls, founding her own institute which engages film and TV creators to better represent women and actors from diverse backgrounds.

Dying of Politeness is a touching account of one woman’s journey to fight for herself, and ultimately fighting for women all around the globe.]]> Geena Davis Manda 5 4.01 2022 Dying of Politeness: A Memoir
author: Geena Davis
name: Manda
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/26
date added: 2025/01/25
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]]> The Inmate 61149872 1) Treat all prisoners with respect.
2) Never reveal any personal information.
3) Never EVER become too friendly with the inmates.

But none of the staff at the prison knows Brooke has already broken the rules. Nobody knows about her intimate connection to Shane Nelson, one of the penitentiary's most notorious and dangerous inmates. And they certainly don't know that Shane was Brooke's high school sweetheart―the star quarterback who is now spending the rest of his life in prison for a series of grisly murders. Or that Brooke's testimony was what put him there.

But Shane knows. And he will never forget.]]> 388 Freida McFadden Manda 1 4.03 2022 The Inmate
author: Freida McFadden
name: Manda
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2022
rating: 1
read at: 2025/01/24
date added: 2025/01/25
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]]> The Frozen River 112975658 A gripping historical mystery inspired by the life and diary of Martha Ballard, a renowned 18th-century midwife who defied the legal system and wrote herself into American history.

Maine, 1789: When the Kennebec River freezes, entombing a man in the ice, Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body and determine cause of death. As a midwife and healer, she is privy to much of what goes on behind closed doors in Hallowell. Her diary is a record of every birth and death, crime and debacle that unfolds in the close-knit community. Months earlier, Martha documented the details of an alleged rape committed by two of the town’s most respected gentlemen—one of whom has now been found dead in the ice. But when a local physician undermines her conclusion, declaring the death to be an accident, Martha is forced to investigate the shocking murder on her own.

Over the course of one winter, as the trial nears, and whispers and prejudices mount, Martha doggedly pursues the truth. Her diary soon lands at the center of the scandal, implicating those she loves, and compelling Martha to decide where her own loyalties lie.

Clever, layered, and subversive, Ariel Lawhon’s newest offering introduces an unsung heroine who refused to accept anything less than justice at a time when women were considered best seen and not heard. The Frozen River is a thrilling, tense, and tender story about a remarkable woman who left an unparalleled legacy yet remains nearly forgotten to this day.]]> 432 Ariel Lawhon 0385546874 Manda 5 4.37 2023 The Frozen River
author: Ariel Lawhon
name: Manda
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/24
date added: 2025/01/23
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]]> Run 10595576 A rash of bizarre murders swept the country�
Senseless. Brutal. Seemingly unconnected.
A cop walked into a nursing home and unloaded his weapons on elderly and staff alike.
A mass of school shootings.
Prison riots of unprecedented brutality.
Mind-boggling acts of violence in every state.

4 D A Y S A G O
The murders increased ten-fold�

3 D A Y S A G O
The President addressed the nation and begged for calm and peace�

2 D A Y S A G O
The killers began to mobilize�

Y E S T E R D A Y
All the power went out�

T O N I G H T
They’re reading the names of those to be killed on the Emergency Broadcast System. You are listening over the battery-powered radio on your kitchen table, and they’ve just read yours.

Your name is Jack Colclough. You have a wife, a daughter, and a young son. You live in Albuquerque, New Mexico. People are coming to your house to kill you and your family. You don’t know why, but you don’t have time to think about that any more.

You only have time to�.

R U N

This 80,000-word novel also contains a bonus interview with Blake, and excerpts from his other work.]]> 331 Blake Crouch Manda 4 3.79 2011 Run
author: Blake Crouch
name: Manda
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/22
date added: 2025/01/21
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]]> <![CDATA[The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse]]> 43708884
Here, you will find them together in this book of Charlie's most-loved drawings, adventuring into the Wild and exploring the thoughts and feelings that unite us all.]]> 128 Charlie Mackesy 1529105102 Manda 1 4.56 2019 The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse
author: Charlie Mackesy
name: Manda
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2019
rating: 1
read at: 2025/01/21
date added: 2025/01/20
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]]> <![CDATA[The Irregulars (Becoming Sherlock #2)]]> 223056300 Sarah J. Naughton Manda 4 3.91 2024 The Irregulars (Becoming Sherlock #2)
author: Sarah J. Naughton
name: Manda
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/21
date added: 2025/01/20
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]]> The Red Circle 209769985
We are 40 years into the future, and London is a city in decay. John Watson has returned from medical service in the war in Afghanistan and lives by himself in a run-down part of ​town. On his way home from work, he stumbles upon a beaten man in the street � unconscious and completely naked. His chances of survival are minimal.

The same evening, a passenger plane crashes in Richmond Park. There are several hundred victims, and Watson and the mysterious man are left to their own devices.

When the man wakes up the following day, he has no memory of who he is or where he came from but reveals excellent detection skills. This is the start of a mystery that unravels rapidly with one burning question at its core.

Can he solve the mystery of himself?

The Red Circle, the first instalment in the upcoming trilogy Becoming Sherlock by international bestseller Anthony Horowitz (known for Midsomer murders, Foyle’s war, Alex Rider, and Hawthorne) and Sarah J. Naughton. Story development by Søren Vestergaard.]]> Anthony Horowitz Manda 5 3.90 2023 The Red Circle
author: Anthony Horowitz
name: Manda
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/18
date added: 2025/01/18
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]]> <![CDATA[Jurassic Park (Jurassic Park, #1)]]> 40604658
Until something goes wrong. . . .

In Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton taps all his mesmerizing talent and scientific brilliance to create his most electrifying technothriller.]]> 450 Michael Crichton 0307763056 Manda 3 4.38 1990 Jurassic Park (Jurassic Park, #1)
author: Michael Crichton
name: Manda
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1990
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/17
date added: 2025/01/16
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]]> Daisy Darker 59808050 The New York Times bestselling Queen of Twists returns…with a family reunion that leads to murder.

After years of avoiding each other, Daisy Darker’s entire family is assembling for Nana’s 80th birthday party in Nana’s crumbling gothic house on a tiny tidal island. Finally back together one last time, when the tide comes in, they will be cut off from the rest of the world for eight hours.

The family arrives, each of them harboring secrets. Then at the stroke of midnight, as a storm rages, Nana is found dead. And an hour later, the next family member follows�

Trapped on an island where someone is killing them one by one, the Darkers must reckon with their present mystery as well as their past secrets, before the tide comes in and all is revealed.

With a wicked wink to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, Daisy Darker’s unforgettable twists will leave readers reeling.]]> 352 Alice Feeney 1250843936 Manda 4 3.75 2022 Daisy Darker
author: Alice Feeney
name: Manda
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/15
date added: 2025/01/15
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]]> The Book of Doors 156480764
In New York City, bookseller Cassie Andrews is living an unassuming life when she is given a gift by a favourite customer. It's a book - an unusual book, full of strange writing and mysterious drawings. And at the very front there is a handwritten message to Cassie, telling her that this is the Book of Doors, and that any door is every door .

What Cassie is about to discover is that the Book of Doors is a special book that bestows an extraordinary powers on whoever possesses it, and soon she and her best friend Izzy are exploring all that the Book of Doors can do, swept away from their quiet lives by the possibilities of travelling to anywhere they want.

But the Book of Doors is not the only magical book in the world. There are other books that can do wondrous and dreadful things when wielded by dangerous and ruthless individuals - individuals who crave what Cassie now possesses.

Suddenly Cassie and Izzy are confronted by violence and danger, and the only person who can help them is, it seems, Drummond Fox. He is a man fleeing his own demons - a man with his own secret library of magical books that he has hidden away in the shadows for safekeeping. Because there is a nameless evil out there that is hunting them all . . .

Because some doors should never be opened.]]> 408 Gareth Brown 1787637247 Manda 5 4.04 2024 The Book of Doors
author: Gareth Brown
name: Manda
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/14
date added: 2025/01/14
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]]> Hideaway (Devil's Night, #2) 29082755 DEVIL'S NIGHT is returning! Hiding places, chases, and all the games are back...

BANKS

Buried in the shadows of the city, there’s a hotel called The Pope. Ailing, empty, and dark—it sits abandoned and surrounded by a forgotten mystery.

But you think it’s true, don’t you, Kai Mori? The story about the hidden twelfth floor. The mystery of the dark guest who never checked in and never checks out. You think I can help you find that secret hideaway and get to him, don’t you?

You and your friends can try to scare me. You can try to push me. Because even though I struggle to hide everything I feel when you look at me—and have ever since I was a girl—I think maybe what you seek is so much closer than you’ll ever realize.

I will never betray him.

So sit tight.

On Devil’s Night, the hunt will be coming to you.

KAI

You have no idea what I seek, Little One. You don’t know what I had to become to survive three years in prison for a crime I would gladly commit again.

No one can know what I’ve turned into.

I want that hotel, I want to find him, and I want this over.

I want my life back.

But the more I’m around you, the more I realize this new me is exactly who I was meant to be.

So come on, kid. Don’t chicken out. My house is on the hill. So many ways in, and good luck finding your way out.

I’ve seen your hideaway. Time to see mine.

*Hideaway is a romantic suspense suitable for ages 18+. While the romance is a stand-alone, the plot is a continuation of events that began in CORRUPT (Devil's Night, #1). It is strongly recommended that you have read Corrupt prior to reading this.]]> 466 Penelope Douglas Manda 4 3.98 2017 Hideaway (Devil's Night, #2)
author: Penelope Douglas
name: Manda
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/13
date added: 2025/01/12
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]]> <![CDATA[Welcome to Night Vale (Welcome to Night Vale, #1)]]> 23129410 Welcome to Night Vale podcast comes an imaginative mystery of appearances and disappearances that is also a poignant look at the ways in which we all struggle to find ourselves...no matter where we live.

Located in a nameless desert somewhere in the great American Southwest, Night Vale is a small town where ghosts, angels, aliens, and government conspiracies are all commonplace parts of everyday life. It is here that the lives of two women, with two mysteries, will converge.

Nineteen-year-old Night Vale pawn shop owner Jackie Fierro is given a paper marked "King City" by a mysterious man in a tan jacket holding a deer skin suitcase. Everything about him and his paper unsettles her, especially the fact that she can't seem to get the paper to leave her hand, and that no one who meets this man can remember anything about him. Jackie is determined to uncover the mystery of King City and the man in the tan jacket before she herself unravels.

Night Vale PTA treasurer Diane Crayton's son, Josh, is moody and also a shape shifter. And lately Diane's started to see her son's father everywhere she goes, looking the same as the day he left years earlier, when they were both teenagers. Josh, looking different every time Diane sees him, shows a stronger and stronger interest in his estranged father, leading to a disaster Diane can see coming, even as she is helpless to prevent it.

Diane's search to reconnect with her son and Jackie's search for her former routine life collide as they find themselves coming back to two words: "King City". It is King City that holds the key to both of their mysteries, and their futures...if they can ever find it.]]> 401 Joseph Fink 0062351427 Manda 3 3.84 2015 Welcome to Night Vale (Welcome to Night Vale, #1)
author: Joseph Fink
name: Manda
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/12
date added: 2025/01/11
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]]> Corrupt (Devil's Night, #1) 58124274 Erika

I was told that dreams were our heart’s desires. My nightmares, however, became my obsession.

His name is Michael Crist.

My boyfriend’s older brother is like that scary movie that you peek through your hand to watch. He is handsome, strong, and completely terrifying. The star of his college’s basketball team and now gone pro, he’s more concerned with the dirt on his shoe than me.

But I noticed him.

I saw him. I heard him. The things that he did, and the deeds that he hid…For years, I bit my nails, unable to look away.

Now, I’ve graduated high school and moved on to college, but I haven’t stopped watching Michael. He’s bad, and the dirt I’ve seen isn’t content to stay in my head anymore.

Because he’s finally noticed me.

Michael

Her name is Erika Fane, but everyone calls her Rika.

My brother’s girlfriend grew up hanging around my house and is always at our dinner table. She looks down when I enter a room and stills when I am close. I can always feel the fear rolling off of her, and while I haven’t had her body, I know that I have her mind. That’s all I really want anyway.

Until my brother leaves for the military, and I find Rika alone at college.

In my city.

Unprotected.

The opportunity is too good to be true as well as the timing. Because you see, three years ago she put a few of my high school friends in prison, and now they’re out.

We’ve waited. We’ve been patient. And now every last one of her nightmares will come true.


***Corrupt can be read as a stand-alone. No cliffhanger.]]> 516 Penelope Douglas 1518783872 Manda 4 3.69 2015 Corrupt (Devil's Night, #1)
author: Penelope Douglas
name: Manda
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/12
date added: 2025/01/11
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]]> Razzmatazz 58842684 Repeat New York Times bestselling author Christopher Moore returns to the mean streets of San Francisco in this outrageous follow-up to his madcap novel Noir.

San Francisco, 1947. Bartender Sammy "Two Toes" Tiffin and the rest of the Cookie's Coffee Irregulars--a ragtag bunch of working mugs last seen in Noir--are on the hustle: they're trying to open a driving school; shanghai an abusive Swedish stevedore; get Mable, the local madam, and her girls to a Christmas party at the State Hospital without alerting the overzealous head of the S.F.P.D. vice squad; all while Sammy's girlfriend, Stilton (a.k.a. the Cheese), and her "Wendy the Welder" gal pals are using their wartime shipbuilding skills on a secret project that might be attracting the attention of some government Men in Black. And, oh yeah, someone is murdering the city's drag kings and club owner Jimmy Vasco is sure she's next on the list and wants Sammy to find the killer.

Meanwhile, Eddie "Moo Shoes" Shu has been summoned by his Uncle Ho to help save his opium den from Squid Kid Tang, a vicious gangster who is determined to retrieve a priceless relic: an ancient statue of the powerful Rain Dragon that Ho stole from one of the fighting tongs forty years earlier. And if Eddie blows it, he just might call down the wrath of that powerful magical creature on all of Fog City.

Strap yourselves in for a bit of the old razzmatazz, ladies and gentlemen. It's Christopher Moore time.]]> 390 Christopher Moore 0062434128 Manda 5 4.00 2022 Razzmatazz
author: Christopher Moore
name: Manda
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/09
date added: 2025/01/08
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]]> Noir 35301333
It’s not every afternoon that an enigmatic, comely blonde named Stilton (like the cheese) walks into the scruffy gin joint where Sammy "Two Toes" Tiffin tends bar. It’s love at first sight, but before Sammy can make his move, an Air Force general named Remy arrives with some urgent business. ’Cause when you need something done, Sammy is the guy to go to; he’s got the connections on the street.

Meanwhile, a suspicious flying object has been spotted up the Pacific coast near Mount Rainier, followed by a mysterious plane crash in a distant patch of desert in New Mexico that goes by the name Roswell. But that's nothing compared to the real weirdness happening on the streets of the City by the Bay.

Before long, Sammy and the Cheese are making time and having a gas. But when one of Sammy’s schemes goes south and the lady vanishes, Sammy must contend with his own dark secrets as he follows a tortuous trail from Chinatown to Telegraph Hill to a hidden forest enclave in a desperate search to find his girl.

Think Raymond Chandler meets "Men in Black" with more than a dash of the Looney Tunes All Stars. It's all very, very "Noir."]]> 339 Christopher Moore 0062433970 Manda 5 3.74 2018 Noir
author: Christopher Moore
name: Manda
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/08
date added: 2025/01/07
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]]> The Locked Door 57795665
While eleven-year-old Nora Davis was up in her bedroom doing homework, she had no idea her father was killing women in the basement.

Until the day the police arrived at their front door.

Decades later, Nora’s father is spending his life behind bars, and Nora is a successful surgeon with a quiet, solitary existence. Nobody knows her father was a notorious serial killer. And she intends to keep it that way.

Then Nora discovers one of her young female patients has been murdered. In the same unique and horrific manner that her father used to kill his victims.

Somebody knows who Nora is. Somebody wants her to take the fall for this unthinkable crime. But she’s not a killer like her father. The police can’t pin anything on her.

As long as they don’t look in her basement.]]> 313 Freida McFadden Manda 5 4.00 2021 The Locked Door
author: Freida McFadden
name: Manda
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/06
date added: 2025/01/06
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]]> A Streetcar Named Desire 12220 Death of a Salesman and The Crucible), and Williams� essay “The World I Live In.�

It is a very short list of 20th-century American plays that continue to have the same power and impact as when they first appeared�57 years after its Broadway premiere, Tennessee Williams� A Streetcar Named Desire is one of those plays. The story famously recounts how the faded and promiscuous Blanche DuBois is pushed over the edge by her sexy and brutal brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski. Streetcar launched the careers of Marlon Brando, Jessica Tandy, Kim Hunter, and Karl Malden, and solidified the position of Tennessee Williams as one of the most important young playwrights of his generation, as well as that of Elia Kazan as the greatest American stage director of the �40s and �50s.]]> 107 Tennessee Williams 0822210894 Manda 4 3.98 1947 A Streetcar Named Desire
author: Tennessee Williams
name: Manda
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1947
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/06
date added: 2025/01/05
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]]> <![CDATA[Apprentice to the Villain (Assistant to the Villain, #2)]]> 203147386
Evie Sage has never been happier to be the assistant to The Villain. Who would have thought that working for an outrageously handsome (shhh, bad for his brand) evil overlord would be so rewarding? Still, the business of being bad is demanding, the forces of good are annoyingly persistent, and said forbidding boss is somewhat…er, out-of-evil-office.

But Rennedawn is in grave trouble, and all signs―Kingsley’s included―point to catastrophe. Something peculiar is happening with the kingdom’s magic, and it’s made The Villain’s manor vulnerable to their enemies...including their nemesis, the king.

Now it’s time for Evie to face her greatest challenge: protecting The Villain’s lair, all of his nefarious works, and maybe (provided no one finds out) the entire kingdom. No pressure, Evie.

It’s time to step out of her comfort zone and learn new skills. Like treason. Dagger work. Conspiring with the enemy. It’s all so…so…delightfully fun.

But what happens when the assistant to The Villain is ready to become his apprentice?]]> 368 Hannah Nicole Maehrer 1649377177 Manda 4 4.07 2024 Apprentice to the Villain (Assistant to the Villain, #2)
author: Hannah Nicole Maehrer
name: Manda
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/06
date added: 2025/01/05
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]]> <![CDATA[Assistant to the Villain (Assistant to the Villain, #1)]]> 123257687
ASSISTANT WANTED: Notorious, high-ranking villain seeks loyal, levelheaded assistant for unspecified office duties, supporting staff for random mayhem and terror, and other Dark Things In General. Discretion a must. Excellent benefits.

With ailing family to support, Evie Sage's employment status isn't just important, it's vital. So when a mishap with Rennedawn’s most infamous Villain results in a job offer―naturally, she says yes. No job is perfect, of course, but even less so when you develop a teeny crush on your terrifying, temperamental, and undeniably hot boss. Don’t find evil so attractive, Evie.

But just when she’s getting used to severed heads suspended from the ceiling and the odd squish of an errant eyeball beneath her heel, Evie suspects this dungeon has a huge rat…and not just the literal kind. Because something rotten is growing in the kingdom of Rennedawn, and someone wants to take the Villain―and his entire nefarious empire―out.

Now Evie must not only resist drooling over her boss but also figure out exactly who is sabotaging his work…and ensure he makes them pay.

After all, a good job is hard to find.]]> 342 Hannah Nicole Maehrer 1649375808 Manda 4 3.88 2023 Assistant to the Villain (Assistant to the Villain, #1)
author: Hannah Nicole Maehrer
name: Manda
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/05
date added: 2025/01/04
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]]> Mogworld 7923163
On his side, he's got a few shambling corpses, an inept thief, and a powerful death wish. But he's up against tough odds: angry mobs of adventurers, a body falling apart at the seams - and a team of programmers racing a deadline to hammer out the last few bugs in their AI.]]> 413 Yahtzee Croshaw 1595825290 Manda 3 3.88 2010 Mogworld
author: Yahtzee Croshaw
name: Manda
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/04
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves:
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]]> The Passage (The Passage, #1) 6690798 THIRTY-TWO MINUTES FOR ONE WORLD TO DIE, ANOTHER TO BE BORN.

First, the unthinkable: a security breach at a secret U.S. government facility unleashes the monstrous product of a chilling military experiment. Then, the unspeakable: a night of chaos and carnage gives way to sunrise on a nation, and ultimately a world, forever altered. All that remains for the stunned survivors is the long fight ahead and a future ruled by fear—of darkness, of death, of a fate far worse.

As civilization swiftly crumbles into a primal landscape of predators and prey, two people flee in search of sanctuary. FBI agent Brad Wolgast is a good man haunted by what he's done in the line of duty. Six-year-old orphan Amy Harper Bellafonte is a refugee from the doomed scientific project that has triggered apocalypse. Wolgast is determined to protect her from the horror set loose by her captors, but for Amy, escaping the bloody fallout is only the beginning of a much longer odyssey—spanning miles and decades—toward the time and place where she must finish what should never have begun.

With The Passage, award-winning author Justin Cronin has written both a relentlessly suspenseful adventure and an epic chronicle of human endurance in the face of unprecedented catastrophe and unimaginable danger. Its inventive storytelling, masterly prose, and depth of human insight mark it as a crucial and transcendent work of modern fiction.]]> 784 Justin Cronin 0345504968 Manda 3 4.04 2010 The Passage (The Passage, #1)
author: Justin Cronin
name: Manda
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves:
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]]> Good Girls Don’t Die 122658643
Allie is supposed to be on a fun weekend trip―but then her friend's boyfriend unexpectedly invites the group to a remote cabin in the woods. The cabin looks recently assembled and there are no animals or other life anywhere in the forest. Nothing about the place seems right. Then, in the middle of the night, someone bangs on the cabin door�

Maggie, along with twelve other women, wakes up in a shipping container with the number three stamped on the back of her T-shirt. If she wants to see her daughter Paige again, Maggie must complete The Maze―a deadly high-stakes obstacle course.

Three women. Three stories. Only one way out...]]> 320 Christina Henry Manda 3 3.43 2023 Good Girls Don’t Die
author: Christina Henry
name: Manda
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/03
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (Dirk Gently, #1)]]> 365
Apparently not much; until Dirk Gently, self-styled private investigator, sets out to prove the fundamental interconnectedness of all things by solving a mysterious murder, assisting a mysterious professor, unravelling a mysterious mystery, and eating a lot of pizza � not to mention saving the entire human race from extinction along the way (at no extra charge).

To find out more, read this book (better still, buy it, then read it) � or contact Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. ‘A thumping good detective-ghost-horror-whodunnit-time travel-romantic-musical-comedy epic.� The author]]> 306 Douglas Adams Manda 3 3.98 1987 Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (Dirk Gently, #1)
author: Douglas Adams
name: Manda
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1987
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/10
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves:
review:

]]>