en-US Mon, 31 Mar 2025 22:52:50 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 58117126
The two eventually fled into the night under a hail of bullets and unwittingly became eyewitnesses to one of the greatest race tragedies in American history.

Spurred by word that a young Black man was about to be lynched for stepping on a white woman’s foot, a three-day riot erupted that saw the death of hundreds of Black Oklahomans and the destruction of the Greenwood district, a prosperous, primarily Black area known nationally as Black Wall Street. The murdered were buried in mass graves, thousands were left homeless, and millions of dollars worth of Black-owned property was burned to the ground. The incident, which was hidden from history for decades, is now recognized as one of the worst episodes of racial violence in the United States.

The Nation Must Awake , published for a wide audience for the first time, is Parrish’s first-person account, along with the recollections of dozens of others, compiled immediately following the tragedy under the name Events of the Tulsa Race Disaster . With meticulous attention to detail that transports readers to those fateful days, Parrish documents the magnitude of the loss of human life and property at the hands of white vigilantes. The testimonies shine light on Black residents�� bravery and the horror of seeing their neighbors gunned down and their community lost to flames.

Parrish hoped that her book would “open the eyes of the thinking people to the impending danger of letting such conditions exist and in the ‘Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.�� �� Although the story is a hundred years old, elements of its racial injustices are still being replayed in the streets of America today. Includes an afterword by Anneliese M. Bruner, Parrish’s great-granddaughter, and an introduction by the late historian John Hope Franklin and Scott Ellsworth, author of The Ground An American City and Its Search for Justice .]]> 152 Mary E. Jones Parrish 159534943X Sharon 5 history, non-fiction 4.47 2021
author: Mary E. Jones Parrish
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/01
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves: history, non-fiction
review:
I recently went to Tulsa to take a tour of Greenwood by a descendant of a survivor. It was very powerful. We went through a museum and I purchased this book in that museum. This book told many first-hand accounts of the massacre. I felt sad, and angry at humanity. I am white, but that doesn't make me any less angry at people who can be so cruel to other people. I am also angry that we didn't learn about this in history class. Most people I have talked to knew nothing of the Tulsa massacre. I highly recommend this book.
]]> 201956223
Amusan proclaims "the biggest fear of white supremacists is Black political independence and domination." He makes a connection with the historic roadblocks for Black voters as the present day efforts to suppress the Black vote. His conclusions based on his research support a deliberate campaign to destroy Black Wall Street and the Greenwood community, the financial threat it posed, and the threat of successful participation of Black citizens in the political process. America's Black Wall Street: The Untold Story of Broken Treaties, Black Resistance, Political Fear, and Sacred Ground is a must read for those seeking a thorough understanding of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and the destruction of Black Wall Street.]]> 136 Engunwale Amusan Sharon 5
]]> 4.40
author: Engunwale Amusan
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.40
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/27
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: books-that-inspired-me, crime, history, non-fiction
review:
Following a very powerful tour of Greenwood by Chief Egunwale Amusan, I purchased his book. I have to admit that I knew very little about the Tulsa Massacre before going to Tulsa. I learned a lot on the tour and even more by reading Chief's book. He shares the untold story of Greenwood and the people who lived and died there. It is a sad story, but it also tells of the resilience of the people there. I highly recommend this book, and if you are ever in Tulsa, go take his tour!


]]> 55809793 From Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb, the bestselling authors of Meet Me in Monaco, comes a coming-of-age novel set in pre-WWII Europe, perfect for fans of Jennifer Robson, Beatriz Williams, and Kate Quinn.����



Three cities, two sisters, one chance to correct the past . . .

New York, 1937: When estranged sisters Clara and Madeleine Sommers learn their grandmother is dying, they agree to fulfill her last wish: to travel across Europe—together. They are to deliver three letters, in which Violet will say goodbye to those she hasn’t seen since traveling to Europe forty years earlier; a journey inspired by famed reporter, Nellie Bly.

Clara, ever-dutiful, sees the trip as an inconvenient detour before her wedding to millionaire Charles Hancock, but it’s also a chance to embrace her love of art. Budding journalist Madeleine relishes the opportunity to develop her ambitions to report on the growing threat of Hitler’s Nazi party and Mussolini’s control in Italy.

Constantly at odds with each other as they explore the luxurious Queen Mary, the Orient Express, and the sights of Paris and�� Venice,, Clara and Madeleine wonder if they can fulfil Violet’s wish, until a shocking truth about their family brings them closer together. But as they reach Vienna to deliver the final letter, old grudges threaten their reconciliation again. As political tensions rise, and Europe feels increasingly volatile, the pair are glad to head home on the Hindenburg, where fate will play its hand in the final stage of their journey.]]> 384 Hazel Gaynor 0062965247 Sharon 4
I liked that the journey seemed to bridge some gaps, end some relationships and start some other relationships. I liked the interaction between the characters. I liked that it meandered around some events from history.

The book was definitely a sisterhood book, but at times, the women did accept help from some of the men in the book. I did wonder why there needed to be a homosexual couple in the book, I guess just to go with the times we are in. It felt thrown in as a last minute decision.

Overall, I liked the book. ]]> 3.95 2021
author: Hazel Gaynor
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/06
date added: 2025/03/06
shelves:
review:
Set in pre-WWII days, two estranged sisters embark on a journey for their grandmother to deliver three letters to people of her past to relay her last goodbyes. It was an interesting journey that paralleled the journey their grandmother and her sister had had years ago.

I liked that the journey seemed to bridge some gaps, end some relationships and start some other relationships. I liked the interaction between the characters. I liked that it meandered around some events from history.

The book was definitely a sisterhood book, but at times, the women did accept help from some of the men in the book. I did wonder why there needed to be a homosexual couple in the book, I guess just to go with the times we are in. It felt thrown in as a last minute decision.

Overall, I liked the book.
]]> 55338975 Big Little Lies set in World War II era Greenwich Village! An irresistible, suspenseful novel about four women who marry into an elegant, prosperous Italian family, and then must take charge of the family’s business when their husbands are forced to leave them during the war.

Meet the Godmothers: Filomena is a clever and resourceful war refugee with a childhood secret, who comes to America to wed Mario, the family's favored son. Amie, a beautiful and dreamy French girl from upstate New York, escapes an abusive husband after falling in love with Johnny, the oldest of the brothers. Lucy, a tough-as-nails Irish nurse, ran away from a strict girls' home and marries Frankie, the sensuous middle son. And the glamorous Petrina, the family’s only daughter, graduates with honors from Barnard College despite a past trauma that nearly caused a family scandal.

All four women become godmothers to one another’s children, finding hope and shelter in this prosperous family and their sumptuous Greenwich Village home, and enjoying New York life with its fine dining, opulent department stores and sophisticated nightclubs.

But the women’s secret pasts lead to unforeseen consequences and betrayals that threaten to unravel all their carefully laid plans. And when their husbands are forced to leave them during the second World War, the Godmothers must unexpectedly contend with notorious gangsters like Frank Costello and Lucky Luciano who run the streets of New York City.

Refusing to merely imitate the world of men, the four Godmothers learn to put aside their differences and grudges so that they can work together to protect their loved ones, and to find their own unique paths to success, love, forgiveness, and the futures they’ve always dreamed of.]]> 416 Camille Aubray 0062983695 Sharon 5
I lost the book while on vacation when I only had about 4 chapters left. I was devastated thinking I would have to wait until I got home to find another copy to read the end, however, I found the book and was relieved to be able to read the end.

I loved it!]]> 3.95 2021
author: Camille Aubray
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/24
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves: drama, fiction, historical-fiction
review:
This book immediately drew me in and I was very interested in what would happen to each of the women, how they would adjust to life in a mafia family. The first part of the book was my favorite, building the characters and making me want to know more. I thought the book was very interesting.

I lost the book while on vacation when I only had about 4 chapters left. I was devastated thinking I would have to wait until I got home to find another copy to read the end, however, I found the book and was relieved to be able to read the end.

I loved it!
]]> 56240727
Driven from their home, Mildred and her family become refugees along with a sad, slow-moving caravan of other families who have suffered the same fate. Cleverly disguised by her mother, Mildred avoids being taken to a work camp until one morning when authorities arrive unexpectedly. Her father has already been seized by Russian soldiers, and now, she is taken from her mother and brother.

In meticulous detail, Mildred recounts her treacherous journey and the roller coaster of raw emotions she experiences—fear, regret, loneliness, humility, perseverance, and defiance. Mildred’s odyssey of making her way home and finding her family in a war-torn countryside takes many riveting twists and turns. The discovery of a secret, hidden document offers hope for a brighter future.

From harrowing to heartwarming, this memoir provides a unique perspective of a Gentile girl’s road to resilience and her fortitude against all odds to forge a life filled with love and laughter.

Surviving Hitler, Evading Stalin is a remarkable testimony to the strength of the unconquerable human spirit and an endearing account of God’s faithfulness in the midst of faithless circumstances.]]> 294 MILDRED SCHINDLER JANZEN 1620064049 Sharon 5 memoir, war 4.61
author: MILDRED SCHINDLER JANZEN
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.61
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/23
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves: memoir, war
review:
Mildred Schindler Janzen helps us to understand what it's like to be living a normal life when the world around changes due to war and political changes. Her and her mother and brother were able to survive the craziness and cruelty and were able to escape to start a new life. Her story was inspiring and I loved it, partly because she and her family came to my state...Kansas. I highly recommend this book.
]]> 23848491
In 1875, Owen Thomas, a poor Welsh coal miner, falls in love with a beautiful London actress, Jessica Lavery. He builds her a cottage in his village, and enchants her with the promise of the holidays they'll share after they marry. According to his special Thomas family tradition, the Christmas tree must always be outside, where it can look up to God. Owen carves her an angel to go on top of their tree, with lavender eyes like hers, a token more meaningful to her than any engagement ring. When Jessica breaks off their romance, Owen, broken-hearted, wraps the angel in his mother's shawl and brings her to America. There, she looks down over five generations, witnessing peace and war, triumphs and tragedies, reminding all who see her that Christmas is the time when families and sweethearts can come together, laughter and goodwill can lighten even the heaviest burden, and magic fills the earth. This is a story of faith and love. And of the miracle that brought the angel home again.]]> 192 Jane Maas 1250075386 Sharon 5 christmas, fiction 4.02 2013
author: Jane Maas
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/24
date added: 2024/12/24
shelves: christmas, fiction
review:
What an adorable little Christmas book! I loved the ending!!! I highly recommend this book for holiday reading!
]]> 1033522 256 Gene Stone 0671780859 Sharon 5
This story was so sad. I wanted to pick up that little girl and hug her myself! This was a very tough read for me, but I felt it is an important topic about sexual abuse and therapy. It makes me quite sad for children who endure this kind of experience, and it makes me wonder why it happens. Children are so vulnerable, and our minds are so fragile. There should be tougher laws and consequences for offenders! Those that would hurt the most vulnerable in our society should receive the toughest of consequences!]]> 3.55 1994
author: Gene Stone
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.55
book published: 1994
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/17
date added: 2024/12/17
shelves: crime, mental-illness, non-fiction
review:
This true life tale happened in Wichita, Kansas about the same time as BTK was terrorizing the city. Ruth Finley was being terrorized by someone who became known as the Poet, leaving her threatening poems, following her, leaving feces and urine on her front porch and even stabbing her in the back. During an extensive police investigation, it is revealed that the Poet is Ruth Finley herself. After six years of therapy, she learns that she has a dissociative disorder caused by torturous sexual abuse when she was three years old.

This story was so sad. I wanted to pick up that little girl and hug her myself! This was a very tough read for me, but I felt it is an important topic about sexual abuse and therapy. It makes me quite sad for children who endure this kind of experience, and it makes me wonder why it happens. Children are so vulnerable, and our minds are so fragile. There should be tougher laws and consequences for offenders! Those that would hurt the most vulnerable in our society should receive the toughest of consequences!
]]> 29883629 340 Ruth Ware 1501132954 Sharon 4 fiction, mystery-thriller
Once the story was about half-way through, I got really into it and couldn't put the book down so I gave it 4 stars. I ended up really liking the story. ]]> 3.69 2016
author: Ruth Ware
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/12
date added: 2024/12/12
shelves: fiction, mystery-thriller
review:
Laura "Lo" was sent to write travel articles on a brand new luxury ship. It was the chance of a lifetime. However, Lo spent every opportunity getting drunk. She was not professional because she wasn't prepared, didn't know what was going on, didn't spend time talking to others on the ship that she was supposed to be getting to know. She never wrote any articles. She was not a very likable character at the beginning of the book. I did find her character got better in the last half of the book. I just wish she could have been a stronger character all through the book. And, this is the second book of Ruth Ware's that had a character with a weird nickname. I think it is an attempt to make the character be endearing to the reader, but it is not cute to me.

Once the story was about half-way through, I got really into it and couldn't put the book down so I gave it 4 stars. I ended up really liking the story.
]]> 48613300 SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE RELEASING OCTOBER 9, 2020 ��DIRECTED BY AND STARRING��KENNETH BRANAGH

Following the success of Murder on the Orient Express,��Kenneth Branagh returns to direct and star in this adaptation of the classic Hercule Poirot mystery for the big screen, also starring Gal Gadot.

Beloved detective Hercule Poirot embarks on a journey to Egypt in one of Agatha Christie’s most famous mysteries,��Death on the Nile.

The tranquility of a cruise along the Nile was shattered by the discovery that Linnet Ridgeway had been shot through the head. She was young, stylish, and beautiful. A girl who had everything . . . until she lost her life.

Hercule Poirot recalled an earlier outburst by a fellow passenger: "I'd like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger." Yet in this exotic setting nothing is ever quite what it seems.]]> 334 Agatha Christie 0062857568 Sharon 2 fiction, mystery-thriller 4.07 1937
author: Agatha Christie
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1937
rating: 2
read at: 2024/12/03
date added: 2024/12/03
shelves: fiction, mystery-thriller
review:
I had always heard how good Agatha Christie books were, and I looked forward to reading this book. It was a hard read for me. There were so many characters, and none of the characters were very endearing. It took forever to get to the point and I was ready for it to be done.
]]> 36373481
Soon, Hal finds herself at the funeral of the deceased…where it dawns on her that there is something very, very wrong about this strange situation and the inheritance at the centre of it.]]> 368 Ruth Ware 1501156217 Sharon 5 mystery-thriller, fiction 3.79 2018
author: Ruth Ware
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/09
date added: 2024/11/09
shelves: mystery-thriller, fiction
review:
Ruth Ware weaves an excellent mystery-thriller!!! I couldn't put this book down! I love her writing style or telling the story from one person's perspective. There were interesting twists and turns in the story and left me wondering. I highly recommend this book.
]]> 56510874 234 Sharon 0 4.84
author: Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.84
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2024/11/09
date added: 2024/11/09
shelves: biography, books-that-inspired-me, christian-non-fiction, non-fiction
review:
This was a really good book. I got it when I went to see Sr. Mary Wilhelmina on a church trip.
]]> 214152223 A propulsive and moving memoir about a brother’s decades-long investigation into the circumstances surrounding his sister’s tragic death—and his own journey to forgiveness and closure

In September 1974 Jim Thomson learned that his younger sister, Eileen, had taken her own life. Only twenty-seven years old, she was a bright, bubbly secretary, married to her high school sweetheart, Vic, now a cop in San Bernardino, California. But when Jim returned to the family home for the funeral he learned that Eileen had been depressed that summer, her storybook marriage racked by infidelity and guilt. One turbulent afternoon she found herself in an empty room with a gun in her hand.

Nearly three decades later Jim started to write a book about Eileen, hoping to fill in the blanks of her tragic story. What demons had she been battling? Why had she kept so many secrets? Increasingly frustrated by how little he knew, Jim hired a private investigator to help him track down Eileen’s friends and the police reports from her case, a years-long quest that would ultimately reveal a web of anger and deception far more complicated than he had ever imagined—and force him to reconsider everything he thought he knew about his sister, Vic, and himself.]]> 304 James Whitfield Thomson 1668062860 Sharon 0 to-read 3.76
author: James Whitfield Thomson
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.76
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 214152007 From the internationally bestselling author of the “extraordinary�� (Fredrik Backman) novel Stolen comes a harrowing story—inspired by true events—of five Indigenous children forced to attend a government-run boarding school in 1950s Sweden, revealing the emotional scars they carry thirty years later.

In the 1950s near the Arctic Circle, seven-year-olds Jon-Ante, Else-Maj, Nilsa, Marge, and Anne-Risten are taken from their families. As children of Sámi reindeer herders, the Swedish state has mandated they attend a “nomad school�� where they are forbidden to speak their native language. As the children visit home only sporadically, their parents know little about the abuse they face, much of it at the hands of the housemother, Rita. Those who dare to speak up are silenced.

Thirty years later, the five children have chosen different paths to cope with the past. Else-Maj holds strong in her Sámi identity but has turned to religion for comfort, while Anne-Risten now goes by Anne to hide her heritage from friends. Nilsa herds reindeer like his father but harbors a lot of anger, and Jon-Ante struggles with traumatic memories from the school. Then there’s Marge, who is about to adopt a daughter from Colombia, but can’t help questioning if it’s right to take a child from her homeland.

Then suddenly, housemother Rita reappears. Now an old, frail woman claiming to have God on her side, she acts like nothing ever happened. But the five former students have neither forgotten nor forgiven her. As the narrative shifts between each of their perspectives, the novel If you had the chance to punish the person who hurt you as a child, would you?

Based on the author’s family story, Punished is a searing novel about loss, memory, cultural erasure, and community that vibrates with righteous rage over one nation’s greatest betrayals of its native people.]]> 448 Ann-Helén Laestadius 1668045516 Sharon 0 to-read 4.05 2023
author: Ann-Helén Laestadius
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 209364636
For most families that have suffered the unsolved murder of a loved one, a successful cold case investigation can finally bring closure to their tragedy and, ideally, bring the perpetrator to justice. But in 2013, when LaPorte, Indiana, police detectives arrested Jason Tibbs for the murder of sixteen-year-old Rayna Rison twenty years before, they sent an innocent man to prison and they also removed a cloud over the victim’s brother-in-law, Ray McCarty. McCarty had previously been indicted for killing her and, three years before that, impregnating her at the age of twelve. Today, Tibbs sits in an Indiana prison serving a forty-year sentence for killing Rayna Rison. His conviction in 2014 was partly due to failures in his defense and evidence that the judge would not permit in the trial. But the fact that charges were dropped against McCarty and then filed against Tibbs speaks to the remarkable influence of politics on the criminal justice system in northwestern Indiana. It also shows how easy it can be to concoct a capital case against an innocent man and how the touted triumphs of the justice system can sometimes go horribly wrong. Submerged tells the full story of the Rayna Rison case for the first time in meticulous detail. Drawing on countless interviews and a deep examination of the legal record, Hillel Levin tells the tragic story of a girl tortured by her family and failed by the justice system and proves Tibbs’s innocence so that some justice in this story might still emerge.]]> 502 Hillel Levin 1613165749 Sharon 0 to-read 4.05 2024
author: Hillel Levin
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 49731704 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780307279286.

Patrick Radden Keefe writes an intricate narrative about a notorious killing in Northern Ireland and its devastating repercussions.

In December 1972, Jean McConville, a thirty-eight-year-old mother of ten, was dragged from her Belfast home by masked intruders, her children clinging to her legs. They never saw her again. Her abduction was one of the most notorious episodes of the vicious conflict known as The Troubles. Everyone in the neighborhood knew the I.R.A. was responsible. But in a climate of fear and paranoia, no one would speak of it. In 2003, five years after an accord brought an uneasy peace to Northern Ireland, a set of human bones was discovered on a beach. McConville's children knew it was their mother when they were told a blue safety pin was attached to the dress--with so many kids, she had always kept it handy for diapers or ripped clothes.

Patrick Radden Keefe's mesmerizing book on the bitter conflict in Northern Ireland and its aftermath uses the McConville case as a starting point for the tale of a society wracked by a violent guerrilla war, a war whose consequences have never been reckoned with. The brutal violence seared not only people like the McConville children, but also I.R.A. members embittered by a peace that fell far short of the goal of a united Ireland, and left them wondering whether the killings they committed were not justified acts of war, but simple murders.]]> 542 Patrick Radden Keefe Sharon 0 to-read 4.52 2018
author: Patrick Radden Keefe
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 216969560
The accompanying text covers ways to deepen your journaling experience. It discusses the rich history of travelogues and travel journals, as well as ways to use your journal to improve your writing and storytelling skills. There is also some discussion of how to share your journal, through blog entries or other media.

This journal will guide you through designing your travel bucket list, and help you find a style and intention for your journal. It will also help you develop your observation skills and use sensory writing to create more vivid journal entries.]]> 206 Amber Royer 1952854229 Sharon 0 to-read 5.00
author: Amber Royer
name: Sharon
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 205576967 Sometimes, when you look into your past, your past looks back at you��

It’s been over a decade since renowned author Beckett Ryan set foot in her bleak childhood hometown on the southern coast of England. When her estranged parents die within a week of each other, she reluctantly returns to bury them, only to find herself as reviled in the community as they were revered.

Of course, the locals didn’t really know her parents. Nobody did.

Then a warm welcome emerges from the sea of cold Leanne. Beckett’s best friend when they were younger, and now a super-fan. Only�� Beckett is pretty sure she’s never met her before in her life.

But as Beckett battles increasing hostility from the locals and the terrifying return of long-buried childhood memories, Leanne is just what she a safe harbour from the storm�� Isn’t she?]]> 320 Kit Duffield 1662521537 Sharon 0 to-read 3.83
author: Kit Duffield
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.83
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 212950658 For fans of stranger than truth stories, Sandy Schnakenburg is uncovering rattling and unprecedented revelations in this powerful memoir of love, secrets, and survival.

When Lee Metoyer is hired to be the new housekeeper, she has no idea that she’s about to become the anchor to a family in an abusive patriarch's home, setting a mystery in motion that will take decades to uncover. At the age of seventy-two, Lee falls ill and on her deathbed asks Sandy to write her story. The only problem is, Sandy doesn’t know the story.

Embarking on a quest to honor Lee’s final wishes, Sandy takes an emotional and thrilling journey, unveiling shocking truths not only about her beloved housekeeper but also her own upbringing. As she digs further, she learns that Lee came to her family’s sprawling estate in Barrington, IL, harboring a secret past. For decades, she’s been in hiding. But Lee is not the only one with secrets; Sandy’s quest forces her to grapple with her own family history as well, and to finally confront the effects of the psychological abuse she suffered as a child.

Both a chilling and exciting personal tale of love and survival, The Housekeeper’s Secret is a gripping saga that illuminates the resilience of the human spirit.]]> 290 Sandra Schnakenburg 1647427614 Sharon 0 to-read 4.28 2024
author: Sandra Schnakenburg
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61796681 The story of how Victoria’s Secret skyrocketed from a tiny chain of boutiques to a retail phenomenon with more than $8 billion in annual sales at its peak—all while defining an impossible beauty standard for generations of American women—before the brand’s tight grip on the industry finally slipped

Victoria’s Secret is one of the most influential and polarizing brands to ever infiltrate the psyche of the American consumer. Almost right at its start in the late 1970s, the company developed a cult following for its glamorous catalogs. Back then, shoppers had few alternatives to the stodgy department stores that sold most of the nation’s intimate apparel. By 1982, the founders of Victoria’s Secret avoided bankruptcy by selling to Les Wexner, the fast-fashion pioneer behind the Limited, whose empire of mall brands would go on to dominate American retail for forty years.

Wexner turned Victoria’s Secret into a multibillion-dollar business, and the brand’s cultural influence soared thanks to its airbrushed advertisements and annual televised fashion show, which drew millions of viewers each year. Its supermodel spokeswomen, the sweet but sultry Angels, personified a new American beauty standard.

But as our definition of beauty expanded, Victoria’s Secret failed to evolve and reached a crisis point. Meanwhile, Wexner became increasingly known for his complicated relationship with sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, his former financial adviser and confidant.

Selling Sexy expertly draws from sources within Victoria’s Secret and across the industry to examine the unprecedented rise of one of the most innovative brands in retail history—a brand that today, under new ownership, is desperately trying to seduce shoppers again.]]> 320 Lauren Sherman 1250850967 Sharon 0 to-read 3.71 2024
author: Lauren Sherman
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 58724796
From the East End of London to the Eastern seaboard of the United States, from Spitalfields to Scottish castles, from Bletchley Park to Buchenwald, and from the Vatican to Palestine, Natalie Livingstone follows the extraordinary lives of the Rothschild women from the dawn of the nineteenth century to the early years of the twenty-first.

As Jews in a Christian society and women in a deeply patriarchal family, they were outsiders. Excluded from the family bank, they forged their own distinct dynasty of daughters and nieces, mothers and aunts. They became influential hostesses and talented diplomats, choreographing electoral campaigns, advising prime ministers, advocating for social reform, and trading on the stock exchange. Misfits and conformists, conservatives and idealists, performers and introverts, they mixed with everyone from Queen Victoria to Chaim Weizmann, Rossini to Isaiah Berlin, and the Duke of Wellington to Alec Guinness, as well as with amphetamine-dealers, suffragists and avant-garde artists. Rothschild women helped bring down ghetto walls in early nineteenth-century Frankfurt, inspired some of the most remarkable cultural movements of the Victorian period, and in the mid-twentieth century burst into America, where they patronized Thelonious Monk and drag-raced through Manhattan with Miles Davis.

Absorbing and compulsive, The Women of Rothschild gives voice to the complicated, privileged, and gifted women whose vision and tenacity shaped history.]]> 480 Natalie Livingstone 1250280192 Sharon 0 to-read 3.73 2022
author: Natalie Livingstone
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 205967557 In Victorian England, a young woman inherits her father’s curiosity shop and all its ghostly secrets in a bewitching novel by the author of Salt & Broom.

It’s 1851 in old York. Lizzy Grimm struggles to save her late father’s charmingly creepy yet floundering antique shop, Grimm Curiosities. Then, during a particularly snowy December in this most haunted city in England, things turn…curiouser.

Lizzy meets Antony Carlisle, whose sister suffers from the same perplexing affliction as Lizzy’s mother—both stricken silent and unresponsive after speaking with ghosts. Working closely together to fathom what power has transformed their loved ones and why, Lizzy and Antony discover an important her father’s treasured set of rare books on ancient folktales, enchantments, and yuletide myths. Books that a persistent collector is awfully keen to purchase. Books Lizzy can’t bear to sell.

Every bewitching passage and illustration opens a doorway to something ancient and dangerously inviting. Keys to a mystery Lizzy and Antony are compelled to solve—even if doing so means unleashing one of this bright holiday’s darkest myths.]]> 297 Sharon Lynn Fisher 1662515707 Sharon 0 to-read 4.20 2024
author: Sharon Lynn Fisher
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/28
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]]> 199529242
Los Alamos, 1943. The US Army has gathered scientists to create the world’s first nuclear weapon. Their families, abruptly moved to the secret desert base with no explanation, have simple orders: Stand by. Make do. Above all, don’t ask questions.

Christine, forced to abandon her art restoration business in New York for her husband’s career, struggles to reinvent herself and cope with his increasing aloofness.

Gertie, the inquisitive teenage daughter of a German Jewish refugee physicist enlists Christine to help her unravel hidden truths and deal with parents haunted by their past.

Gertie’s father, Kurt, anguished by what the Nazis have done to his family and bent on defeating them, carries burdens he longs to share but cannot confide in his wife—leading him to find comfort elsewhere.

And Jimmy, a young army technician, falls for Gertie but is unsure if even her deep affection can overcome his agonizing self-doubts.

Will so much secrecy save them or destroy them?]]> 357 Galina Vromen Sharon 0 to-read 4.04 2024
author: Galina Vromen
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/28
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]]> 209604967 In this sweepingly emotional story about what it takes to build the life you want, an heiress, her escort, and a young orphan must stick together during the tumultuous beginnings of World War II.

When Laura Powell and Henry Salter travel to Paris in 1938, neither considers the other very good company. Laura is a shallow, spoiled heir to a fortune, and Henry an opportunistic bore—or so they think. But as her father’s protégé, Henry is tasked with accompanying Laura for her safety, even as she continues to scorn him.

Orphaned stowaway David forces the pair to see eye to eye. They can ignore their growing feelings, but they can’t deny the boy’s need for protection. Yet even with this tentative truce, their problems are far from over.

The threat of war continues to grow until the Nazis occupy Paris. But Laura and Henry have opportunities they’re not willing to lose, and a home with David means more than safety outside France.

Before danger overtakes them, they’ll have to decide if the life they’re building can withstand what’s coming…and whether they have the strength to fight for it.]]> 327 James Tucker 1662520166 Sharon 0 to-read 4.30
author: James Tucker
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.30
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 209073216 304 Emma Cook 1335430482 Sharon 0 to-read 2.90 2024
author: Emma Cook
name: Sharon
average rating: 2.90
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 210580238 No one was supposed to know. I've always been so careful. My Darlings, how did we get here?

Evil lurks behind the perfectly manicured lawns, ornate iron gates, and long winding driveways of affluent DC–but not for long.

Stay-at-home mom Eloise Williams is PTO president and a respected local philanthropist who sits on the boards of many distinguished charities. In addition to being a doting wife and mother, she is also a serial killer.

But Eloise isn’t the only lady of society playing a part. As the hidden lives of Eloise's inner circle are exposed, the body count rises. When the stalker becomes prey, Eloise desperately clings to control.

Money and power can only buy influence and safety for so long. Eventually, the curtains lift, exposing the chilling reality hiding in plain sight.]]> 336 Marie Still 1998076407 Sharon 0 to-read 3.65 2024
author: Marie Still
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/28
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]]> 216269104 �ճ����New York Times��bestselling author of��The Dressmakers of Auschwitz��tells the stories of four��Jewish��girls��during the Holocaust, strangers whose lives were unknowingly linked by everyday garments, revealing how the ordinary can connect us in extraordinary ways.

Jock Heidenstein, Anita Lasker, Chana Zumerkorn, and Regina Feldman all faced the Holocaust in different ways. While they did not know each other—in fact had never met—each��had��a red sweater that would play a major part in their lives. In this absorbing and deeply moving account, award-winning��clothes��historian Lucy Adlington documents their stories, knitting together the experiences that fragmented their families and their lives.

Adlington immortalizes these��young women��whose resilience, skills, strength, and kindness accompanied them through the darkest events in human history. A powerful reminder of the suffering they endured and a celebration of courage,��love,��and tenacity, this moving and original work illuminates moments long lost to history, now pieced back together by a simple garment.

Four Red Sweaters��is illustrated with more than two dozen black-and-white images throughout.]]> 336 Lucy Adlington 0063375133 Sharon 0 to-read 4.02
author: Lucy Adlington
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.02
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/28
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]]> 210137600
With the current crisis of loneliness and lack of friendships in today's culture, this 90-day devotional offers both lived perspective and attainable promise for how to find community and friends.

Compiled by beloved author, Kristen Strong, who offers her two decades of experience as a constantly relocating military spouse and one decade as a settled civilian to address head on the rising pain point facing women today in startling an acute loneliness and isolation due to a lack of friends.

Praying Through Loneliness��is a compilation of stories from many women in all stages of life written to let you know that you

Not alone in your sadness, frustration, or sense of rejectionNot alone when you feel jealous of other women's friendshipsNot alone in the pain of a friendship breakupNot alone when you want to give up trying to connect againNot alone in your need to know that the Lord sees you in your loneliness, has a purpose for you during it, and won't abandon you as you walk through it��

Praying Through Loneliness��doesn't skip over the sadness and hardship loneliness brings. It doesn't offer trite advice or give spiritual formulas to shortcut the slow work of friendship. Instead, it offers an empathetic and hopeful accompaniment in the dark night you are walking through.

Each daily devotional

Scripture verseVulnerable story where questions and regret are seen through the eyes of Jesus who is always walking beside youHopeful messageMeaningful prayer references for encouragement��

Spend the next 90 days with come-alongside friends and the God who has said from the beginning that it is not good for us to be alone; let them lift your burden of loneliness.]]> 224 Kristen Strong 1400343836 Sharon 0 to-read 4.39
author: Kristen Strong
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.39
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/28
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]]> 217388159 Two pairs of siblings, devotees of Jane Austen, find their lives transformed by a visit to England and Sir Francis Austen, her last surviving brother and keeper of a long-suppressed, secret legacy.

In Boston, 1865, Charlotte and Henrietta Stevenson, daughters of a Massachusetts Supreme Court Justice, have accomplished as much as women are allowed in those days. Chafing against those restrictions and inspired by the works of Jane Austen, they start a secret correspondence with Sir Francis Austen, her last surviving brother, now in his nineties. He sends them an original letter from his sister and invites them to come visit him in England.

In Philadelphia, Nicholas & Haslett Nelson—bachelor brothers, veterans of the recent Civil War, and rare book dealers—are also in correspondence with Sir Francis Austen, who lures them, too, to England, with the promise of a never-before-seen, rare Austen artifact to be evaluated.

The Stevenson sisters sneak away without a chaperone to sail to England. On their ship are the Nelson brothers, writer Louisa May Alcott, Sara-Beth Gleason—wealthy daughter of a Pennsylvania state senator with her eye on the Nelsons—and, a would-be last-minute chaperone to the Stevenson sisters, Justice Thomas Nash.

It's a voyage and trip that will dramatically change each of their lives in ways that are unforeseen, with the transformative spirit of the love of literature and that of Jane Austen herself.]]> 320 Natalie Jenner 1250349591 Sharon 0 to-read 3.99
author: Natalie Jenner
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.99
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 214175039 An eye-opening, atmospheric novel set in the South and Midwest during the time of Jim Crow that reveals a��little-known part of American pre-civil rights history of��Black intrigue and power.

In the South, justice is swift and absolute.��

Jordan Sable, a prosperous undertaker turned political boss, has controlled the Black vote in St. Louis for decades. Sara, his equally formidable wife, runs the renowned��funeral establishment that put the Sable name on the map. Agile and pragmatic, she is known for the careful, deliberate way in which she powders, dresses, and embalms the community's dead.��Together, in a true partnership built on trust, mutual respect, and a shared vision for a better future, they have pushed through several obstacles in order to create a legacy for their children through a business that serves as a source of unity and stability for their friends and neighbors.

When tragedy bursts their carefully constructed empire of dignity and safety, the family rallies around an unconventional solution. But at what cost?��

Set in the Midwest in the 1940s, The Sable Cloak is a rarely seen portrait of an upper middle class, African American family in the pre-Civil Rights era. Brimming with multifaceted characters who weave their way through love, heartbreak, and the fight for autonomy, this intricate, deeply personal novel inspired by the author's own family history delves into legacy and the stories we tell ourselves, and celebrates a��largely self-sustaining, culturally rich Missouri community that most Americans may not be aware of.��]]> 320 Gail Milissa Grant 1538742004 Sharon 0 to-read 3.95 2025
author: Gail Milissa Grant
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 207644049
The little red left mitten and the little red right mitten enjoy their life as a pair, keeping Little One’s hands warm and toasty. But one day Little One loses the right mitten—and it’s off on an adventure through the forest! Passed among various woodland creatures, the little right mitten soon becomes tattered—yet it remains cherished, always, by those who find it. Meanwhile, the left mitten can’t help but worry about its old pal, even after a new right mitten is knitted. Will these dear friends ever see each other again?]]> 40 Kirin Hayashi 1662516762 Sharon 0 to-read 4.06
author: Kirin Hayashi
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.06
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 213243949 A new Anne Tyler novel destined to be an instant classic: a socially awkward mother of the bride navigates the days before and after her daughter's wedding.

Gail Baines is having a bad day. To start, she loses her job—or quits, depending on whom you ask. Tomorrow her daughter, Debbie, is getting married, and she hasn’t even been invited to the spa day organized by the mother of the groom. Then, Gail’s ex-husband, Max, arrives unannounced on her doorstep, carrying a cat, without a place to stay, and without even a suit.

But the true crisis lands when Debbie shares with her parents a secret she has just learned about her husband to be. It will not only throw the wedding into question but also stir up Gail and Max’s past.

Told with deep sensitivity and a tart sense of humor, full of the joys and heartbreaks of love and marriage and family life,��Three Days in June��is a triumph, and gives us the perennially bestselling, Pulitzer Prize–winning writer at the height of her powers

]]> 165 Anne Tyler 0593803485 Sharon 0 to-read 3.61 2025
author: Anne Tyler
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 214152254 Fixer Upper meets Gone Girl in this suspenseful and witty domestic thriller set in the world of home renovation TV—featuring a woman who becomes public enemy #1 after a horrifying discovery prompts her to flee her celebrity husband with their twin babies.

Dawn Decker is an American everywoman and the salt to her husband Wyatt’s sweet, media-friendly charm on their Tennessee-based home renovation reality TV show, The Perfect Home. While Dawn bristles at the trappings of their D-list celebrity status, Wyatt hungers for greater fame. The couple also faces infertility issues stemming from Wyatt’s low sperm count. He secretly orders experimental fertility drugs, and they conceive, but his personality takes a dark turn—he becomes moody, withdrawn, and even cruel.

When Dawn discovers his horrifying plot to manufacture a tragedy in order to skyrocket their celebrity status, she takes their infant twins and goes on the run. Wyatt appears on national television to turn the public against her, painting Dawn as an unstable kidnapper suffering from postpartum psychosis. His charm is so compelling that even Dawn’s closest friends doubt her. She will have to dig deep into the past—both hers and Wyatt’s—to find allies, protect her children, and beat this beloved all-American celebrity at his own game.

Told in dual perspectives from both husband and wife, this smart, captivating, and twisty thriller is a fun, addictive read from the very first page.]]> 320 Daniel Kenitz 1668063875 Sharon 0 to-read 3.55 2025
author: Daniel Kenitz
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 212378273
London, 1953. Louise is still adjusting to her postwar role as a housewife when she discovers a necklace in a box at a secondhand shop. The box is marked with the name of a department store in Paris, and she is certain she has seen the necklace before when she worked with the Red Cross in Nazi-occupied Europe —and that it holds the key to the mysterious death of her friend Franny during the war.

Following the trail of clues to Paris, Louise seeks help from her former boss Ian, with whom she shares a romantic history. The necklace leads them to discover the dark history of Lévitan—a once-glamorous department store that served as a Nazi prison, and Helaine, a woman who was imprisoned there, torn apart from her husband when the Germans invaded France.

Louise races to find the connection between the necklace, the department store and Franny’s death. But nothing is as it seems, and there are forces determined to keep the truth buried forever. Inspired by the true story of Lévitan, Last Twilight in Paris is both a gripping mystery and an unforgettable story about sacrifice, resistance and the power of love to transcend in even the darkest hours.]]> 336 Pam Jenoff 0778307980 Sharon 0 to-read 3.95 2025
author: Pam Jenoff
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 123185413 368 Eoin Colfer 1250321948 Sharon 0 to-read 3.94 2023
author: Eoin Colfer
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 214268979 From the New York Times��bestselling author of We Were the Lucky Ones, an unforgettable story of hardship and hope, courage and resilience, that follows one young woman’s journey through war-torn Italy

1940, Emilia Romagna. Lili and Esti have been best friends since meeting at the University of Ferrara; when Esti’s son Theo is born, they become as close as sisters. There is a war being fought across borders, and in Italy, Mussolini’s Racial Laws have deemed Lili and Esti descendants of an ‘inferior�� Jewish race, but life somehow goes on—until Germany invades northern Italy, and the friends find themselves in occupied territory

Esti, older and fiercely self-assured, convinces Lili to flee first to a villa in the countryside to help hide a group of young war orphans, then to a convent in Florence, where they pose as nuns and forge false identification papers for the Underground. When disaster strikes at the convent, a critically wounded Esti asks Lili to take a much bigger step: To go on the run with Theo. Protect him while Esti can’t.

Terrified to travel on her own, Lili sets out on an epic journey south toward Allied territory, through Nazi-occupied villages and bombed-out cities, doing everything she can to keep Theo safe.

A remarkable tale of friendship, motherhood, and survival,One Good Thing is a tender reminder that love for another person, even amidst darkness and uncertainty, can be reason to keep going.]]> 432 Georgia Hunter 1984880934 Sharon 0 to-read 4.28 2025
author: Georgia Hunter
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 200982339
In 1940s Germany, Sophie is excited to discover a message waiting for her in the Bridegroom's Oak from a mysterious suitor. Meanwhile, her best friend, Hanna, is sending messages too—but not to find love. As World War II unfolds in their small town of Kleinwald, the oak may hold the key to resistance against the Nazis.

In 1980s West Germany, American teen transplant Jenny feels suffocated by her strict parents and is struggling to fit in. Until she finds herself falling for Lena, a punk-rock girl hell-bent on tearing down the wall separating West Germany from East Germany, and meeting Frau Hermann, a kind old lady with secrets of her own.

In Spring 2020, New York City, best friends Miles and Chloe are slogging through the last few months of senior year when an unexpected package from Chloe’s grandmother leads them to investigate a cold case about two unidentified teenagers who went missing under the Bridegroom’s Oak eighty years ago.

Age Range: 12-18]]> 480 Libba Bray 0374388946 Sharon 0 to-read 4.19 2025
author: Libba Bray
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 197156017 If you knew then what you know now, would you make the same choices? Imagine having a second chance with the one you never forgot.

From the author of the global breakout bestseller The Last Love Note comes the story of a young woman struggling to piece her life back together in the wake of a tragic accident, and the man who gives up everything to help her.

When Evie Hudson wakes in an unfamiliar hospital room, she thinks she’s fresh out of a teenage party with her best friend, Bree. Except, Bree isn’t around anymore and high school was years ago. Evie had just survived the crash that killed her husband, Oliver—whom she can't remember either. After suffering a traumatic loss of memory, she’s left to connect the dots. But how?

Drew, a promising photographer whose chance encounter with Evie unravels the elusive details of her marriage and her husband’s death. As Drew watches Evie stitch the story of her life together, secrets emerge that might shatter both of their worlds.

This tangled second-chance romance leads Evie to question every decision she ever made. This time around, she’s seeing all the things she missed–and the life she gets to choose...again.]]> 416 Emma Grey 195850646X Sharon 0 to-read 4.00 2024
author: Emma Grey
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 122750148
Celebrate the hope of Christmas as you witness how God has written the promise of Immanuel, “God with us,�� into human history! Awaiting the Manger journeys with you through the Advent season, illuminating how God used the lives of ordinary people to foreshadow Christ’s coming during the centuries and even millennia before his birth.

Through daily readings, you’ll dive into Old Testament stories brought to life with vibrant cultural and historical insights. You’ll explore each account first through the perspective of those who lived it, and then by uncovering how it fits into the sweeping arc of our redemption. Each reading is followed by a devotional prompt, including a Awaiting the Manger will enrich your experience of Advent and your understanding of the Old Testament as you rejoice in the tenderness and compassion God has shown his people from the very beginning.]]> 176 Ocieanna Fleiss 0736987789 Sharon 0 to-read 4.29
author: Ocieanna Fleiss
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.29
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 211399773 A vacation in the Hamptons goes terribly wrong for three friends with a complicated history.

It was meant to be a harmless prank.

Growing up, May Hanover was a good girl, always. Well-behaved, top of her class, a compulsive rule-follower. Raised by a first-generation Chinese single mother with high expectations, May didn’t have room to slip up, let alone fail. Her friends didn’t call her the Little Sheriff for nothing.

But even good girls have secrets. And regrets. When it comes to her friendship with Lauren and Kelsey, she's had her fair share of both. Their bond—forged when May was just twelve years old—has withstood a tragic accident, individual scandals, heartbreak and loss. Now the three friends have reunited for the first time in years for a few days of sun and fun in the Hamptons. But a chance encounter with a pair of strangers leads to a drunken prank that goes horribly awry.��

When she finds herself at the center of an urgent police investigation, May begins to wonder whether Lauren and Kelsey are keeping secrets from her, testing the limits of her loyalty to lifelong friends.

What had they gone and done?

The Note is a page-turner of the highest order��from one of our greatest contemporary suspense writers.]]> 287 Alafair Burke 0593537084 Sharon 0 to-read 3.35 2025
author: Alafair Burke
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.35
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 214151565 A read-in-one-night suspense thriller narrated by a compulsive liar whose little white lies allow her to enter into the life and comfort of a wealthy married couple who are harboring much darker secrets themselves. For the millions of us still chasing those gone girls, this is perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell, Lucy Foley, and Laura Dave.

Sloane Caraway is a liar.

Harmless lies, mostly, to make her self-proclaimed sad, little life a bit more interesting.

So when Sloane sees a young girl in tears at a park one afternoon, she can't help herself—she tells the girl's (very attractive) dad she's a nurse and helps him pull a bee stinger from the girl's foot.

With this lie, and chance encounter, Sloane becomes the nanny for the wealthy, and privileged Jay and Violet Lockhart. The perfect New York couple, with a brownstone, a daughter in private school, and summers on Block Island.

But maybe Sloane isn't the only one lying, and all that's picture-perfect harbors a much more dangerous truth. To say anything more is to spoil the most exciting, twisty, and bitingly smart suspense novel to come out in years.

The thing about lies is that they add up, form their own truth and a twisted prison of a world. And in Count My Lies, Sophie Stava spins a breakneck, unputdownable thriller about the secrets we keep, and the terrifying dangers that lurk just under the images we spend so much time trying to maintain.

Careful what you lie for.]]> 336 Sophie Stava 1668079348 Sharon 0 to-read 3.73 2025
author: Sophie Stava
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 209194429 In this gripping, high-stakes novel of World War II, the bestselling author of Before the Storm draws on real events to tell the story of one woman’s daring role in the Dutch resistance as part of a most unusual taskforce.May 1940:��In the months since the war in Europe began, nineteen-year-old Aafke Cruyssen and her family have tried to carry on as normal—running their modest grocery store in Eindhoven, hoping that Germany will leave Holland alone as it did during the Great War. But this time, Holland will not be spared. The invasion comes, swift and merciless, and Dutch forces are easily overpowered. In Eindhoven, a valuable transport and trade hub, Nazi soldiers swagger through the streets. Aafke’s one glimpse of humanity comes from a young German corporal who intervenes when a gang of looters tries to rob her family’s shop. Aafke joins the Dutch resistance and is drawn into a relationship with its charismatic leader. Wanting more than the menial missions assigned to women, she and her friends create a taskforce of their own—a “dating club�� where women target Nazis, luring them to their arrest or death. Discovery by the Gestapo will mean torture and execution. Just as dangerous is the reappearance of the soldier who once helped her family. Otto Berg is now an influential Nazi commando, intrigued by Aafke’s fragile courage. As the conflict deepens, so does Aafke’s quandary. The tides of war continue to bring her and Otto into each other’s circles. And beyond the battles that make history are countless sacrifices and unthinkable choices she must make for the sake of the resistance, and to save her own life and those she loves.]]> 368 James D. Shipman 1496747763 Sharon 0 to-read 3.70
author: James D. Shipman
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.70
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 18125006 160 Michelle Arnosky Sherburne 1626190380 Sharon 5 history, non-fiction 3.45 2013
author: Michelle Arnosky Sherburne
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/12
date added: 2024/10/21
shelves: history, non-fiction
review:
This was a very good book about the Underground Railroad in Vermont. It details how the people of Vermont felt about slavery, some pro and some con. It gave a lot of details about people who were directly involved in helping people make it to freedom. I thought this book was very interesting. I bought the book while on a trip in Vermont, so it was interesting to see some of the places mentioned in the book.
]]> 204880158
A month later, Lisa Marie was dead, and the world would never know her story in her own words, never know the passionate, joyful, caring, and complicated woman that Riley loved and grieved.

Riley got the tapes that her mother had recorded for the book, laid in her bed, and listened as Lisa Marie told story after story about smashing golf carts together in the yards of Graceland, about the unconditional love she felt from her father, about being upstairs, just the two of them. About getting dragged screaming out of the bathroom as she ran towards his body on the floor. About living in Los Angeles with her mother, getting sent to school after school, always kicked out, always in trouble. About her singular, lifelong relationship with Danny Keough, about being married to Michael Jackson, what they shared in common. About motherhood. About deep addiction. About ever-present grief. Riley knew she had to fulfill her mother’s wish to reveal these memories, incandescent and painful, to the world.

To make her mother known.

This extraordinary book is written in both Lisa Marie’s and Riley’s voices, a mother and daughter communicating—from this world to the one beyond—as they try to heal each other. Profoundly moving and deeply revealing, From Here to the Great Unknown is a book like no other—the last words of the only child of an American icon.]]> 284 Lisa Marie Presley 0593733894 Sharon 5
The story details the lives of Elvis and Priscilla, the childhood of Lisa Marie, her sadness at the loss of her father, her addiction, her adult life, her marriages, including the one to Michael Jackson. It also tells of the terrible sadness at the time of her son's death.

I thought the book was very interesting, very revealing and very sad. Money truly does not buy happiness. But, in the midst of some of Lisa Marie's hardest moments, she seems to have moments of sheer joy. I wish Riley only the very best for her and her family.]]> 4.39 2024
author: Lisa Marie Presley
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/15
date added: 2024/10/21
shelves: biography, memoir, non-fiction
review:
This was a very quick read for me as I was drawn in from the first word until the last one. This is mostly told from Lisa Marie Presley's own words, taken from audio tapes she had made prior to her death, but many details were filled in my Lisa Marie's daughter, Riley Keough.

The story details the lives of Elvis and Priscilla, the childhood of Lisa Marie, her sadness at the loss of her father, her addiction, her adult life, her marriages, including the one to Michael Jackson. It also tells of the terrible sadness at the time of her son's death.

I thought the book was very interesting, very revealing and very sad. Money truly does not buy happiness. But, in the midst of some of Lisa Marie's hardest moments, she seems to have moments of sheer joy. I wish Riley only the very best for her and her family.
]]> 59088364 From the bestselling author of The German Heiress, Anika Scott, comes a gripping new historical novel filled with secrets, lies, and betrayals, following two spy sisters in the years after WWII, perfect for fans of Kate Quinn and Pam Jenoff.

Sisters Vera and Marya were brought up as good Soviets: obedient despite hardships of poverty and tragedy, committed to communist ideals, and loyal to Stalin. Several years after fighting on the Eastern front, both women find themselves deep in the mire of conflicts shaping a new world order in 1947 Berlin. When Marya, an interpreter, gets entangled in Vera’s cryptic web of deceit and betrayal, she must make desperate choices to survive—and protect those she loves.

Nine years later, Marya is a prisoner in a Siberian work camp when Vera, a doyenne of the KGB, has cause to reopen her case file and investigate the facts behind her sister's conviction all those years ago in Berlin. As Vera retraces the steps that brought them both to that pivotal moment in 1947, she unravels unexpected truths and discoveries that call into question the very history the Soviets were working hard to cover up.

Epic and intimate, layered and complex, The Soviet Sisters is a gripping story of spies, blackmail, and double, triple bluff. With her dexterous plotting and talent for teasing out moral ambiguity, Anika Scott expertly portrays a story about love, conflicting world views, and loyalty and betrayal between sisters.]]> 368 Anika Scott 0063141027 Sharon 4
I gave this book four stars because I was interested enough to finish the book. In fact, the end went so much faster than the beginning because I just had to know how it ended. But, I was often confused because their versions didn't match. I was frustrated at times wondering why Vera didn't seem to know certain things. I thought maybe someone had impersonated her.

I think the story was a good one, well researched and very interesting. I just didn't always follow it. ]]> 3.79 2022
author: Anika Scott
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/13
date added: 2024/09/13
shelves: fiction, drama, historical-fiction, love, war
review:
A story of two Soviet sisters during the Cold War who are intelligence officers. But, who do they work for, are they spies against Russia? Who is telling the truth?

I gave this book four stars because I was interested enough to finish the book. In fact, the end went so much faster than the beginning because I just had to know how it ended. But, I was often confused because their versions didn't match. I was frustrated at times wondering why Vera didn't seem to know certain things. I thought maybe someone had impersonated her.

I think the story was a good one, well researched and very interesting. I just didn't always follow it.
]]> 18605132 320 Sharon Cranford 1937952428 Sharon 5 history, non-fiction 4.00 2013
author: Sharon Cranford
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/21
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: history, non-fiction
review:
This was an amazing book written by two people who discovered they were related with common ancestors. Using word of mouth stories from their family members and diligent research, they were able to piece together the story of both of their families to where it was linked to a slave and the son of a slave owner. I found their story to be heartfelt and sincere. What a great thing to have found each other, and in my own county. I commend them for telling a very important story! I'm sure there are similar stories all across this country, and it is so good to hear these stories that bring out truth and promote healing.
]]> 58842755 400 Shelly Sanders 0063226669 Sharon 5 fiction, holocaust, war 4.21 2022
author: Shelly Sanders
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/23
date added: 2024/07/23
shelves: fiction, holocaust, war
review:
Heartbreaking story based on the facts of the author's own family. It is unimaginable to me that people could be so cruel. Shelly Sanders, you made the story come to life and it made me sad so many times. It made me wonder how people were able to go on after the war, on boths sides. How could the people who lost so much endure the memories? And, how could the people who did atrocious crimes against humanity, or even those who did nothing to help...how could they live as though nothing had happened? I was so moved by this family's story. Thank you for your willingness to share it with us.
]]> 60489907 Perfect for fans of Kate Quinn, Kristin Harmel, and Pam Jenoff, this new historical fiction novel from an acclaimed author is based on true WWII stories of life in the Warsaw Ghetto during the Occupation and the women who served the Allies as agents and spies. Casting light into one of the darkest periods of World War II, this powerful book tells of two Jewish sisters�� one imprisoned in Poland and the other who joins the Special Operations Executive in a daring attempt to free her family from the Nazis.

It’s not just a thousand miles that separates Hanna Majewski from her younger sister, Stefa. There is another gulf—between the traditional Jewish ways that Hanna chose to leave behind in Warsaw, and her new, independent life in London. But as autumn of 1940 draws near, Germany begins a savage aerial bombing campaign in England, killing and displacing tens of thousands. Hanna, who narrowly escapes death, is recruited as a spy in an undercover operation that sends her back to her war-torn homeland.

In Hanna’s absence, her parents, sister, and brother have been driven from their comfortable apartment into the Warsaw Ghetto. Sealed off from the rest of the city, the Ghetto becomes a prison for nearly half a million Jews, struggling to survive amid starvation, disease, and the constant threat of deportation to Treblinka. Once a pretty and level-headed teenager, Stefa is now committed to the Jewish resistance. Together, she, Hanna, and Janka, a family friend living on the Aryan side of the city, form a trio called The War Girls. Against overwhelming odds and through heartbreak they will fight to rescue their loved ones, finding courage through sisterhood to keep hope alive . . .]]> 448 V.S. Alexander 1496734793 Sharon 5
I think one of the measures of a good book is that it really makes you think, and this book has definitely done that for me!

I highly recommend this book.]]> 3.97 2022
author: V.S. Alexander
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/22
date added: 2024/06/22
shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, holocaust, war
review:
Oh, this book was so touching, so emotional that I found myself thinking about it throughout the day when I was doing other things. How can people be so cruel to each other? What makes a person rise out of that to be a true hero? I followed the three women's stories, wondering what it would have been like to be a part of all that. I wondered how people went on with their lives after the war was over? How did people who were on different sides come back together and get over it or forgive? It even makes me wonder how they are now, in modern times.

I think one of the measures of a good book is that it really makes you think, and this book has definitely done that for me!

I highly recommend this book.
]]> 207677126
The daughter of formerly enslaved parents, Mary McLeod Bethune refuses to back down as white supremacists attempt to thwart her work. She marches on as an activist and an educator, and as her reputation grows she becomes a celebrity, revered by titans of business and recognized by U.S. Presidents. Eleanor Roosevelt herself is awestruck and eager to make her acquaintance. Initially drawn together because of their shared belief in women’s rights and the power of education, Mary and Eleanor become fast friends confiding their secrets, hopes and dreams—and holding each other’s hands through tragedy and triumph.
��
When Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected president, the two women begin to collaborate more closely, particularly as Eleanor moves toward her own agenda separate from FDR, a consequence of the devastating discovery of her husband’s secret love affair. Eleanor becomes a controversial First Lady for her outspokenness, particularly on��civil rights. And when she receives threats because of her strong ties to Mary, it only fuels the women’s desire to fight together for justice and equality.
��
This��is the story of two different, yet equally formidable, passionate, and committed women, and the way in which��their singular friendship��helped form the foundation for the modern civil rights movement.]]> 389 Marie Benedict 0593440293 Sharon 0 to-read 3.92 2023
author: Marie Benedict
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 207299448
Though the authorities rule Liam's death accidental, Nora and her estranged brother, Sam, believe otherwise. As they form an uneasy alliance to unpack the mystery, they start putting together the pieces of their father’s past and uncover a family secret that changes everything.

With Laura Dave’s “signature blend of pulse-pounding suspense�� (PEOPLE) and “trademark emotional heft�� (The New York Post), The Night We Lost Him is a “propulsive�� (Oprah Daily) must-read, with a heartbreaking final twist you’ll never see coming.]]> 298 Laura Dave 1668002930 Sharon 0 to-read 3.56 2024
author: Laura Dave
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 62334530
A few days later, Alix and Josie bump into each other again, this time outside Alix’s children’s school. Josie has been listening to Alix’s podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for her series. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life.

Josie’s life appears to be strange and complicated, and although Alix finds her unsettling, she can’t quite resist the temptation to keep making the podcast. Slowly she starts to realise that Josie has been hiding some very dark secrets, and before she knows it, Josie has inveigled her way into Alix’s life—and into her home.

But, as quickly as she arrived, Josie disappears. Only then does Alix discover that Josie has left a terrible and terrifying legacy in her wake, and that Alix has become the subject of her own true crime podcast, with her life and her family’s lives under mortal threat.

Who is Josie Fair? And what has she done?]]> 390 Lisa Jewell 1982179007 Sharon 0 to-read 4.08 2023
author: Lisa Jewell
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 199223201 Two women—separated by decades and continents, and united by a mysterious family heirloom—discover second chances at love in this sweeping novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Summer Wives.

New England, 2022. Three years ago, single mother Mallory Dunne received the telephone call every parent dreads—her ten-year-old son, Sam, had been airlifted from summer camp with acute poisoning from a toxic death cap mushroom, leaving him fighting for his life. Now, searching for the donor kidney that will give her son a chance for a normal life, Mallory’s forced to confront two harrowing secrets from her past: her mother’s adoption from an infamous Irish orphanage in 1952, and her own all-consuming summer romance fourteen years earlier with her childhood best friend, Monk Adams�� one of the world’s most beloved singer-songwriters—a fairy tale cut short by a devastating betrayal.

Cairo, 1951. After suffering tragedy beyond comprehension in the war, Hungarian refugee Hannah Ainsworth has forged a respectable new life for herself—marriage to a wealthy British diplomat with a coveted posting in glamorous Cairo. But a fateful encounter with the enigmatic manager of a hotel bristling with spies leads to a passionate affair that will reawaken Hannah’s longing for everything she once lost. As revolution simmers in the Egyptian streets, a pregnant Hannah finds herself snared in a game of intrigue between two men . . . and an act of sacrifice that will echo down the generations.

Timeless and bittersweet, Husbands & Lovers takes readers on an unforgettable journey of heartbreak and redemption, from the revolutionary fires of midcentury Egypt to the moneyed beaches of contemporary New England. Acclaimed author Beatriz Williams has written a poignant and beautifully voiced novel of deeply human characters entangled by morally complex issues—of privilege, class, and the female experience—inside worlds brought shimmeringly to life.]]> 384 Beatriz Williams 0593724224 Sharon 0 to-read 4.08 2024
author: Beatriz Williams
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 56621068 212 Joyce A. Miller 1735496308 Sharon 5 4.50 2020
author: Joyce A. Miller
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/04/02
shelves: to-read, biography, fiction, historical-fiction
review:
This was a very interesting book! Joe Harris led quite a life, as told by a grandniece. I thought Miller did a great job of telling his story!
]]> 33296289
This mesmerizing first novel follows a glamorous family as they prepare to leave the seeming paradise of Brazil for Canada in the wake to the mysterious disappearance -- and presumed drowning -- of their eldest daughter a year earlier. As the novel moves back and forth between the members of the Maurer family, we are taken into the heart of a family whose beauty and charm belie a more troubling reality.

We meet the family's brilliant and charismatic father, whose bipolar extremes are becoming increasingly disturbing; his long-suffering wife, who once had a brief affair that proves to have shattering consequences for the family she swore to protect; their two remaining daughters, both on the brink of understanding the darker currents that run in their once-proud family; and the lost daughter herself, a beautiful young woman undone by her own grand delusions.

Taking readers from the golden beaches of Rio to the poverty of its fishing villages, from the glamour of the legendary Copacabana Club to the austerity of a remote convent, this revelatory novel takes us into the soul of a family already living in the shadow of loss and now poised to leave behind everything they've ever known, if only they could make peace with the past.]]> 352 Sarah Faber 0316394963 Sharon 3
I seriously thought about not finishing this book at several points, but I'm glad I finished it. It took me about 120 pages to get into it. The characters often seemed so self-absorbed and lost. But, as the story went on, it drew me in so that I wanted to know what happened next.

It has a few unnecessary uses of the f word and a few other words. They were thrown in there, but not too frequent.

This wasn't my favorite book, but it wasn't the worst either. Interesting enough to keep reading.

]]> 3.20 2017
author: Sarah Faber
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.20
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/26
date added: 2024/03/26
shelves: drama, fiction, once-upon-a-book-club, mental-illness, mystery-thriller
review:
A family struggles with one member having mental illness, each member fragmented in different ways. A daughter vanishes, leaving mystery and grief behind her.

I seriously thought about not finishing this book at several points, but I'm glad I finished it. It took me about 120 pages to get into it. The characters often seemed so self-absorbed and lost. But, as the story went on, it drew me in so that I wanted to know what happened next.

It has a few unnecessary uses of the f word and a few other words. They were thrown in there, but not too frequent.

This wasn't my favorite book, but it wasn't the worst either. Interesting enough to keep reading.


]]> 30256224 New York Times bestselling author of the smash bestseller Orphan Train, a stunning and atmospheric novel of friendship, passion, and art, inspired by Andrew Wyeth’s mysterious and iconic painting Christina’s World.

"Later he told me that he’d been afraid to show me the painting. He thought I wouldn’t like the way he portrayed me: dragging myself across the field, fingers clutching dirt, my legs twisted behind. The arid moonscape of wheatgrass and timothy. That dilapidated house in the distance, looming up like a secret that won’t stay hidden."

To Christina Olson, the entire world was her family’s remote farm in the small coastal town of Cushing, Maine. Born in the home her family had lived in for generations, and increasingly incapacitated by illness, Christina seemed destined for a small life. Instead, for more than twenty years, she was host and inspiration for the artist Andrew Wyeth, and became the subject of one of the best known American paintings of the twentieth century.

As she did in her beloved smash bestseller Orphan Train, Christina Baker Kline interweaves fact and fiction in a powerful novel that illuminates a little-known part of America’s history. Bringing into focus the flesh-and-blood woman behind the portrait, she vividly imagines the life of a woman with a complicated relationship to her family and her past, and a special bond with one of our greatest modern artists.

Told in evocative and lucid prose, A Piece of the World is a story about the burdens and blessings of family history, and how artist and muse can come together to forge a new and timeless legacy.]]> 309 Christina Baker Kline 0062356267 Sharon 5
Christina Olson, depicted in an Andrew Wyeth painting called Christina's World, was a fascinating person. Kline's depiction of her brought her to life. I found myself cheering for her and crying for her as she went through the experiences of her life. I really wanted things to work out for her and I could relate to her on several levels.

I loved this book and highly recommend it to others!]]> 3.87 2017
author: Christina Baker Kline
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/17
date added: 2024/03/17
shelves: once-upon-a-book-club, fiction, historical-fiction
review:
After reading The Orphan, I was interested in reading another book by Christina Baker Kline. I was not disappointed! I found that it was hard for me to put this book down.

Christina Olson, depicted in an Andrew Wyeth painting called Christina's World, was a fascinating person. Kline's depiction of her brought her to life. I found myself cheering for her and crying for her as she went through the experiences of her life. I really wanted things to work out for her and I could relate to her on several levels.

I loved this book and highly recommend it to others!
]]> 185723993 Based on the true story of two World War II heroines who risked everything to save Jewish children from the Gestapo by hiding them throughout Belgium.

Belgium, 1942

Young schoolteacher Andrée Geulen secretly defies the Nazis in Belgium, who are forcing Jews to wear a yellow Star of David. Andrée is not Jewish, but she feels a maternal connection to her students, who are living in constant fear, and decides to take action. No child should have to suffer under such persecution. But what can one woman do against an entire army?

Ida Sterno is a Jewish woman who works with the Committee for the Defense of Jews in Belgium, a clandestine resistance group tasked with hiding children from the Gestapo. She wants to recruit Andrée because her Aryan appearance can provide crucial security measures for their efforts. Andrée agrees to join and begins work immediately by adopting a code name: Claude Fournier.

Together, Andrée and Ida, and their undercover operatives, work around the clock to move Jewish children from their families and smuggle them to safety through the secret channels established by the resistance. As each child is hidden, Andrée commits to memory their true name and history. Someday, she vows, she will help reunite as many of these families as she can.

But with the Gestapo closing in and the traitorous Fat Jacques who has turned from ally to enemy and is threatening to identify and expose any Jew he meets, Andrée and Ida must work even harder against increasingly impossible odds to save as many children as possible and keep them safely hidden—even if it might cost them their own lives.]]> 304 Rebecca Connolly 1639932348 Sharon 0 to-read 4.17
author: Rebecca Connolly
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.17
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 125524822
Millions of people became part of Michael Oher’s story when they watched a version of him on the big screen; read his memoir, I Beat the Odds ; or cheered him on from the stands. After speaking to so many of them over the years, Oher knows that more than anything, people want to believe great things can happen, even when the situation looks bleak. His story of overcoming the toughest of odds serves as their hope.
Oher’s life has had a lot of unexpected a college degree; four beautiful, healthy children and a happy marriage; drafted in the first round; a Super Bowl victory; and a second chance to play in the “big game.�� He’s also run up against quite a few poverty, hunger, homelessness, struggles in school, bullying, job loss, brain injury, anxiety, and depression. What he knows now is that your wall can be your opportunity. In When Your Back’s Against the Wall , he offers encouragement and shows readers how to get back up—again, and again, and again.]]> 224 Michael Oher 0593330927 Sharon 5 3.75
author: Michael Oher
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.75
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/11
date added: 2024/03/11
shelves: biography, books-that-inspired-me, non-fiction
review:
Part biography, part self-help, Michael Oher shares his insight on what it takes to rise out of poverty. I was inspired by his advice that would not only help young people, but these truths are true for all of us. He has an amazing attitude, which I am sure is what got him to where he is today. Thanks, Michael, for your willingness to share your life and advice with us.
]]> 36260431 Sweetbitter meets The Nightingale in this page-turning novel about a woman who returns to her family’s ancestral vineyard in Burgundy and unexpectedly uncovers a lost diary, an unknown relative, and a secret her family has been keeping since World War II

To become one of only a few hundred certified wine experts in the world, Kate must pass the notoriously difficult Master of Wine Examination. She’s failed twice before; her third attempt will be her last. Suddenly finding herself without a job and with the test a few months away, she travels to Burgundy, to spend the fall at the vineyard estate that has belonged to her family for generations. There she can bolster her shaky knowledge of Burgundian vintages and reconnect with her cousin Nico and his wife Heather, who now oversee the grapes�� day-to-day management. The one person Kate hopes to avoid is Jean-Luc, a neighbor vintner and her first love.

At the vineyard house, Kate is eager to help her cousins clean out the enormous basement that is filled with generations of discarded and forgotten belongings. Deep inside the cellar, behind a large armoire, she discovers a hidden room containing a cot, some Resistance pamphlets, and an enormous cache of valuable wine. Piqued by the secret space, Kate begins to dig into her family’s history—a search that takes her back to the dark days of the Second World War and introduces her to a relative she never knew existed, a great half-aunt who was teenager during the Nazi occupation.

As she learns more about her family, the line between Resistance and Collaboration blurs, driving Kate to find the answers to two crucial questions: Who, exactly, did her family aid during the difficult years of the war? And what happened to six valuable bottles of wine that seem to be missing from the cellar’s collection?]]> 374 Ann Mah 0062823310 Sharon 5
This story touches on those feelings from modern day people trying to understand the actions of their ancestors. History isn't always pretty, but facing it, admitting it, and correcting our own actions, will make it better for the future.

I loved this book and highly recommend it to others.]]> 3.99 2018
author: Ann Mah
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/04
date added: 2024/03/04
shelves: fiction, drama, historical-fiction, love, romance, war
review:
The Lost Vintage is a book written in two time periods: modern day and the WW II era. I found myself drawn in to both stories. I really liked the WW II story being told in the form of a diary. There were so many atrocities that happened during the war and immediately after that are described in the book. I am always fascinated by the fact that real people committed such atrocities and then, after the war, how did they face their family and friends? How did the victims come back and face the people of their communities who were so indifferent, or worse, were so cruel to them?

This story touches on those feelings from modern day people trying to understand the actions of their ancestors. History isn't always pretty, but facing it, admitting it, and correcting our own actions, will make it better for the future.

I loved this book and highly recommend it to others.
]]> 193388249
Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. The family of an Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, became a prime target. One of her relatives was shot. Another was poisoned. And this was just the beginning, as more and more Osage were dying under mysterious circumstances, and many of those who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered.

As the death toll rose, the newly created FBI took up the case, and the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to try to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including a Native American agent who infiltrated the region, and together with the Osage began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.]]> 338 David Grann 0593470834 Sharon 4 history, non-fiction
The author, David Grann, will be coming to speak in Hutchinson, Kansas, soon. I wanted to read the book prior to his visit, and I even got to watch the movie on Apple TV. I look forward to hearing more about this topic from the author.

]]> 4.12 2017
author: David Grann
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/04
date added: 2024/03/04
shelves: history, non-fiction
review:
It still shocks me how low people can be so cruel when it comes to money. I live in Kansas, and I had never heard of these events that happened just one state away from me. Why has this not been taught in schools?

The author, David Grann, will be coming to speak in Hutchinson, Kansas, soon. I wanted to read the book prior to his visit, and I even got to watch the movie on Apple TV. I look forward to hearing more about this topic from the author.


]]> 194985431
Kristine S. Ervin was just eight years old when her mother, Kathy Sue Engle, was abducted from an Oklahoma mall parking lot and violently murdered in an oil field. First, there was grief. Then the desire to what happened to her, what she felt in her last terrible moments, and all she was before these acts of violence defined her life.

In her mother’s absence, Ervin tries to reconstruct a woman she can never fully grasp—from her own memory, from letters she uncovers, and the stories of other family members. As more information about her mother's death comes to light, Ervin’s drive to know her mother only intensifies, winding its way into her own fraught adolescence. In the process of both, she reckons with contradictions of what a woman is allowed to be—a self beyond the roles of wife, mother, daughter, victim—what a “true�� victim is supposed to look like, and, finally, how complicated and elusive justice can be.

Told fearlessly and poetically, Rabbit Heart weaves together themes of power, gender, and justice into a manifesto of grief and our stories do not need to be simple to be true, and there is power in the telling.]]> 304 Kristine S. Ervin 164009637X Sharon 0 to-read 3.99 2024
author: Kristine S. Ervin
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 200634629
In 1850, Fredericka Mandelbaum traveled to New York in steerage and worked as a peddler on the streets of Lower Manhattan. By the 1870s she was a widow with four children, a fixture of high society, and an admired philanthropist. What had enabled a woman on the margins of American life to ascend from tenement poverty to immense wealth?

In the intervening years, “Marm�� Mandelbaum, as she was known, had become the country’s most notorious “fence”—a receiver of stolen goods—and a successful criminal mastermind. By the mid-1880s as much as $10 million worth of purloined luxury goods (the equivalent of nearly $300 million in today’s money) had passed through her modest haberdashery shop on the Lower East Side. Called “the nucleus and center of the whole organization of crime in New York City�� by the New York Times , she planned, financed, and profited from robberies of cash, gold, diamonds, and silk throughout the city and across the United States.

But Fredericka Mandelbaum wasn’t just a successful She was a business visionary—one of the first entrepreneurs in America to systemize the formerly scattershot enterprise of property crime. Handpicking a cadre of New York's foremost bank robbers, housebreakers, and shoplifters, and neatly bribing anyone who stood in her way, she handled logistics and organized supply chains—turning theft into a viable, scalable business .

The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum paints a vivid image of Gilded Age New York—a city teeming with delightful rogues, capitalist power brokers, and Tammany Hall bigwigs, all of whom straddled the line between underworld enterprise and the realm of “legitimate�� commerce. Combining deep historical research with the narrative flair for which she is celebrated, Margalit Fox tells the unforgettable story of a once-famous, now-forgotten heroine, a tale that exemplifies the cherished rags-to-riches narrative of Victorian America while simultaneously upending it altogether.]]> 301 Margalit Fox 0593243854 Sharon 0 to-read 3.42 2024
author: Margalit Fox
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 199550833 292 John Grisham 0385545991 Sharon 0 to-read 3.92 2024
author: John Grisham
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 195790904 Anna Downes's extraordinary next thriller Red River Road follows a woman desperate to discover what happened to her sister on a solo road trip through the Australian outback.

Katy Sweeney is looking for her sister. A year earlier, just three weeks into a solo vanlife trip, her free-spirited younger sister, Phoebe, vanished without a trace on the remote, achingly beautiful coastal highway in Western Australia. With no witnesses, no leads, and no DNA evidence, the case has gone cold. But Katy refuses to give up on her.

Using Phoebe’s social media accounts as a map, Katy retraces her sister’s steps, searching for any clues the police may have missed. Was Phoebe being followed? Who had she met along the way, and how dangerous were they?

And then Katy’s path collides with that of Beth, who is on the run from her own dark past. Katy realizes that Beth might be her best—and only—chance of finding the truth, and the two women form an uneasy alliance to find out what really happened to Phoebe in this wild, beautiful, and perilous place.

Anna Downes takes us on a twist-filled journey into the dark side of solo female travel, in this gripping novel that explores what drives us to keep searching for those we have lost, the family bonds that can make or break us, and the deception of memory.]]> 369 Anna Downes 1250868017 Sharon 0 to-read 3.74 2024
author: Anna Downes
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 199798460
It’s been twenty years since Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s sister vanished when they were teenagers, and ever since she’s been searching: for signs, for closure, for other missing girls. But happy endings are rare in Chelsey’s line of work.

Then a glimmer: local teenager Ellie Black, who disappeared without a trace two years earlier, has been found alive in the woods of Washington State.

But something is not right with Ellie. She won’t say where she’s been, or who she’s protecting, and it’s up to Chelsey to find the answers. She needs to get to the bottom of what happened to Ellie: for herself, and for the memory of her sister, but mostly for the next girl who could be taken—and who, unlike Ellie, might never return.

The debut thriller from New York Times bestselling author Emiko Jean, The Return of Ellie Black is both a feminist tour de force about the embers of hope that burn in the aftermath of tragedy and a twisty page-turner that will shock and surprise you right up until the final page.]]> 299 Emiko Jean 1668023938 Sharon 0 to-read 3.97 2024
author: Emiko Jean
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 196018873 In the latest thrilling entry in the bestselling Under Suspicion series by Queen of Suspense Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke, television producer Laurie Moran investigates the unsolved murder of a beloved couple celebrating the college graduations of their successful twin sons.

The two identical brothers seemed perfect in every way—handsome, intelligent, popular—until a shocking summer night when one brother killed his parents in cold blood while the other brother had an iron-clad alibi. But which twin was where during the murders? And is it possible the two of them planned the perfect crime together?

Years later, the twins are long estranged, each of them claiming to be convinced that the other is responsible for the death of their parents. Married now with children of their own, they may finally be ready to clear one name at the expense of the other and turn to Laurie Moran and her team to reinvestigate their parents�� murder. But as the Under Suspicion crew gets closer to the truth, the danger that was assumed to be left in the past finds its way into the present.

Featuring chilling suspense, a cast of characters whom loyal readers have come to love, and a final jaw-dropping twist, It Had to Be You is not to be missed.]]> 255 Mary Higgins Clark 1982132574 Sharon 0 to-read 3.95 2024
author: Mary Higgins Clark
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> 180351905 288 Nancy French 0310367441 Sharon 0 to-read 4.37 2024
author: Nancy French
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> 123286446
“Lisa Grunwald is a national treasure.��. . .��An essential American story from a master craftsman.”—Adriana Trigiani, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Left Undone

I had never questioned a miracle, witnessed a gunfight, or seen a dead body. . . . I had thought I knew exactly what I wanted and what I didn't. Before the summer was over, all that and much more would change.
��
Annabel Hayes—born, baptized, and orphaned in the sleepy conservative town of Dayton, Tennessee—is thrilled to find herself falling quickly and deeply in love with George Craig, a sophisticated attorney newly arrived from Knoxville. But before the end of their first year of marriage, their lives are beset by losses. The strain on their relationship is only intensified when John T. Scopes is arrested for teaching Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution at the local high school.

Foreshadowing today’s culture wars, the trial against Scopes is a spectacle unlike any the country has seen. William Jennings Bryan—a revered Southern politician—joins the prosecution, pitting himself and his faith against the renowned defense attorney Clarence Darrow. Journalists descend in a frenzy, thrusting the town and its citizens into the national spotlight. And when George joins the team defending Scopes, Annabel begins to question both her beliefs and her vows.

As the ongoing trial divides neighbor against neighbor, it also divides the Craigs in unexpected ways. But in the midst of these conflicts—one waged in an open courtroom, the other behind closed doors—Annabel will discover that the path to her own evolution begins with the courage to think for herself.]]> 320 Lisa Grunwald 0593596153 Sharon 0 to-read 3.82 2024
author: Lisa Grunwald
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/04
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]]> 201924482
As a child in Beijing in the 1970s, Lai lives with her family in a lively, working-class neighborhood near the heart of the city. Thoughtful yet unassuming, she spends her days with her friends beyond the attention of her Her father is a reclusive figure who lingers in the background, while her mother, an aging beauty and fervent patriot, is quick-tempered and preoccupied with neighborhood gossip. Only Lai's grandmother, a formidable and colorful maverick, seems to really see Lai and believe that she can blossom beyond their circumstances.

But Lai is quickly awakened to the harsh realities of the Chinese state. A childish prank results in a terrifying altercation with police that haunts her for years; she also learns that her father, like many others, was broken during the Cultural Revolution. As she enters adolescence, Lai meets a mysterious and wise bookseller who introduces her to great works-Hemingway, Camus, and Orwell, among others-that open her heart to the emotional power of literature and her mind to thrillingly different perspectives. Along the way, she experiences the ebbs and flows of friendship, the agony of grief, and the first steps and missteps in love.

A gifted student, Lai wins a scholarship to study at the prestigious Peking University where she soon falls in with a theatrical band of individualists and misfits dedicated to becoming their authentic selves, despite the Communist Party's insistence on conformity-and a new world opens before her. When student resistance hardens under the increasingly restrictive policies of the state, the group gets swept up in the fervor, determined to be heard, joining the masses of demonstrators and dreamers who display remarkable courage and loyalty in the face of danger. As 1989 unfolds, the spirit of change is in the air��

Drawn from her own life, Lai Wen's novel is mesmerizing and haunting-a universal yet intimate story of youth and self-discovery that plays out against the backdrop of a watershed historic event. Tiananmen Square captures the hope and idealism of a new generation and the lasting price they were willing to pay in the name of freedom.]]> 528 Lai Wen 1954118392 Sharon 0 to-read 3.97 2024
author: Lai Wen
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> 112973530 Based on an incredible true story that took place in the midst of World War II, on May 14, 1945, A Grand Pause follows two American airmen, Ensign John Morris and his gunner Cletis Phegley, after they are stranded on a raft in the middle of the Japanese islands, surrounded by a cutthroat enemy. What follows is a daring rescue mission by the Randolph and her war-weary crew, as they struggle against enemies both physical and psychological to bring their brethren home safely. A story almost lost to time comes alive in this book about honor, duty, and the toll of war on human life.
About the Author
Gary Santos has worked in aviation for over thirty years. A lifelong New Yorker, he currently resides on the South Shore of Long Island. He has extensively studied the history of the ship his father, Eugene Santos, was stationed on during WWII, the USS Randolph, and collects WWII memorabilia.]]> 314 Gary Santos Sharon 0 to-read 4.67 2023
author: Gary Santos
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.67
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> 198563674 A sweeping novel inspired by the untold history of women pioneers who fought to protect children caught in the storm of land barons hungry for power and oil wealth.

Oklahoma, 1909. Eleven-year-old Olive Augusta Radley knows that her stepfather doesn’t have good intentions toward the two Choctaw girls boarded in their home as wards. When the older girl disappears, Ollie flees to the woods, taking six-year-old Nessa with her. Together they begin a perilous journey to the rugged Winding Stair Mountains, the notorious territory of outlaws, treasure hunters, and desperate men. Along the way, Ollie and Nessa form an unlikely band with others like themselves, struggling to stay one step ahead of those who seek to exploit them . . . or worse.

Oklahoma, 1990. Law Enforcement Ranger Valerie Boren O’dell arrives at Horsethief Trail National Park seeking a quiet place to balance a career and single parenthood. But no sooner has Valerie reported for duty than she’s faced with local controversy over the park’s opening, a teenage hiker gone missing from one of the trails, and the long-hidden burial site of three children deep in a cave. Val’s quest to uncover the truth wins an ally among the neighboring Choctaw Tribal Police but soon collides with old secrets and the tragic and deadly history of the land itself.

In this emotional and enveloping novel, Lisa Wingate traces the story of children abandoned by the law and the battle to see justice done. Amid times of deep conflict over who owns the land and its riches, Ollie and Val traverse the wild and beautiful terrain, each leaving behind one life in search of another.]]> 368 Lisa Wingate 0593726502 Sharon 0 to-read 3.81 2024
author: Lisa Wingate
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> 181037562
December 1903: While Wilbur and Orville Wright’s flying machine is quite literally taking off in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina with its historic fifty-seven second flight, their sister Katharine is back home in Dayton, Ohio, running the bicycle shop, teaching Latin, and looking after the family. A Latin teacher and suffragette, Katharine is fiercely independent, intellectual, and the only Wright sibling to finish college. But at twenty-nine, she’s frustrated by the gender inequality in academia and is for a new challenge. She never suspects it will be sleuthing��

Returning home to Dayton, Wilbur and Orville accept an invitation to a friend’s party. Nervous about leaving their as-yet-unpatented flyer plans unattended, Wilbur decides to bring them to the festivities . . . where they are stolen right out from under his nose. As always, it’s Katharine’s job to problem solve—and in this case, crime-solve.

As she sets out to uncover the thief among their circle of friends, Katharine soon gets more than she bargained She finds her number one suspect dead with a letter opener lodged in his chest. It seems the patent is the least of her brothers�� worries. They have a far more earthbound concern—prison. Now Katharine will have to keep her feet on the ground and put all her skills to work to make sure Wilbur and Orville are free to fly another day.]]> 288 Amanda Flower 1496747666 Sharon 0 to-read 3.84 2024
author: Amanda Flower
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/04
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]]> 181037580 Set during the Golden Age of Pirates and the shadowy aftermath of the Salem witch trials, this vivid literary debut is inspired by the captivating true story of real-life pirate Samuel Bellamy, combining high seas adventure, star-crossed longing, surprisingly timely questions about social justice and freedom, and the emotionally satisfying tale of one strong-willed young woman determined to choose her own path.

1715, Eastham, Massachusetts: As the daughter of a wealthy family, Maria Brown has a secure future mapped out for her, yet it is not the future she wants. Young, headstrong, and restless, Maria has no desire to marry the aging, mean-spirited John Hallett, regardless of his fortune and her parents�� wishes. As for what Maria does want—only one person has ever even asked her that question.

Samuel Bellamy, an orphaned sailor searching for work, meets Maria by chance, enthralling her with talk of far-flung places and blasphemous ideals. But neither is free from the social order into which they were born. When Sam is banished from Maria’s parents�� home after asking for her hand, he vows to return a wealthy man, and Maria promises to keep the faith until then.

Sam is drawn into piracy and discovers a brotherhood more equal and fulfilling than any on land, despite its dangers. Beguiled by the chance to both fight for justice and make a fortune to bring home to Maria, Sam is torn between duty to his crew and his desire to return. Separated by more than just the ocean, time slips by as Sam and Maria cling to their love for each other. Maria is determined to stay strong in her conviction in Sam, but as rumors swirl and her position in Eastham turns perilous, Maria is forced into an impossible decision.

Now, on a journey no less treacherous and eventful than Sam’s, Maria draws on every shred of her courage and resilience not merely to survive, but to honor her own yearning for freedom . . .]]> 368 Rachel Rueckert 1496747534 Sharon 0 to-read 3.76 2024
author: Rachel Rueckert
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/04
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]]> 206331168
Molly smells like honeysuckle vines in the summer sun, has a plethora of peculiar sayings that Hal calls, Mollyisms, and is often the only bright spot in the bubble that he’s found himself trapped inside of. But it is inside this bubble, between the layers of her forgetting, between the glimpses of the abusive alcoholic who raised him, that Hal might finally be able to heal his childhood wounds.]]> 255 Sharon Marie Brasher 0983712956 Sharon 0 to-read 4.50
author: Sharon Marie Brasher
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/04
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]]> 197525638 384 Harry Dolan 0802162827 Sharon 0 to-read 3.40 2024
author: Harry Dolan
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.40
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/04
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]]> 199461391 ��
“Gripping . . . a masterly piece of writing.”�� The New York Times

“A wonderful, well-written novel that crackles with suspense.”—Stephen King

One afternoon in November 1975, ten-year-old Miranda Larkin comes home from school to find her house eerily quiet. Her mother is missing. Nothing else is out of place. There is no sign of struggle. Her mom’s pocketbook remains in the front hall, in its usual spot.
��
So begins a mystery that will span a lifetime. What happened to Jane Larkin?
��
Investigators suspect Jane’s husband. A criminal defense attorney, Dan Larkin would surely be an expert in outfoxing the police.
��
But no evidence is found linking him to a crime, and the case fades from the public’s memory, a simmering, unresolved riddle. Jane’s three children—Alex, Jeff, and Miranda—are left to be raised by the man who may have murdered their mother.
��
Two decades later, the remains of Jane Larkin are found. The investigation is awakened. The children, now grown, are forced to choose sides. With their father or against him? Guilty or innocent? And what happens if they are wrong?
��
A tale about family—family secrets and vengeance, but also family love�� All That Is Mine I Carry With Me masterfully grapples with a primal When does loyalty reach its limit?]]> 352 William Landay 0345531868 Sharon 0 to-read 3.91 2023
author: William Landay
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/04
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]]> 201310018 A sweet poem about being an introvert in a big loud world.

Inspired by a quote from the late, great children's book author Margaret Wise Brown, this poem honors and celebrates the beauty of being your authentic self. Soothing rhymes and soft illustrations convey the peace of being alone with your thoughts.

This is a gentle introduction to the concept of being an introvert, as well as an invitation for child and grown-up readers alike to observe and imagine their inner world and the world around them. What can you hear when you stay quiet as mud?]]> 32 Jane Yolen 1433841533 Sharon 0 to-read 3.98 2024
author: Jane Yolen
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/04
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]]> 195791735 The definitive biography of the most successful female broadcaster of all time—Barbara Walters—a woman whose personal demons fueled an ambition that broke all the rules and finally gave women a permanent place on the air, written by bestselling author Susan Page.

Barbara Walters was a force from the time TV was exploding on the American scene in the 1960s to its waning dominance in a new world of competition from streaming services and social media half a century later. She was not just a groundbreaker for women (Oprah announced when she was seventeen that she wanted to be Barbara Walters), but also expanded the big TV interview and then dominated the genre. By the end of her career, she had interviewed more of the famous and infamous, from presidents to movie stars to criminals to despots, than any other journalist in history. Then at sixty-seven, past the age many female broadcasters found themselves involuntarily retired, she pioneered a new form of talk TV called The View. She is on the short list of those who have left the biggest imprints on television news and on our culture, male or female. So, who was the woman behind the legacy?

In The Rulebreaker , Susan Page conducts 150 interviews and extensive archival research to discover that Walters was driven to keep herself and her family afloat after her mercurial and famous impresario father attempted suicide. But she never lost the fear of an impending catastrophe, which is what led her to ask for things no woman had ever asked for before, to ignore the rules of misogynistic culture, to outcompete her most ferocious competitors, and to protect her complicated marriages and love life from scrutiny.

Page breaks news on every front—from the daring things Walters did to become the woman who reinvented the TV interview to the secrets she kept until her death. This is the eye-opening account of the woman who knew she had to break all the rules so she could break all the rules about what viewers deserved to know.]]> 464 Susan Page 1982197927 Sharon 0 to-read 3.85 2024
author: Susan Page
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> 134965715 164 Dee R. Edgeworth Sharon 0 to-read 4.38
author: Dee R. Edgeworth
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.38
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/04
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]]> 173475929
Simply put, there is no one in Syria with a story like Dr. Amani Ballour. The only woman to have ever run a wartime hospital, she saved her peers from the atrocities of war while contending with the patriarchal conservatism around her.��

Growing up in Assad’s Syria,��Ballour��knew she wanted to be more than a housewife, even as her siblings were married off in their teens. As the revolution unfolded, she volunteered at a local clinic and was thrown into the deep end of emergency medicine, where she found her voice.��

Among the facets of this powerful ��Becoming a hospital director. Shielding children from a horrific sarin attack. Losing colleagues. Attempting to employ more women. Abandoning the hospital. Becoming a refugee. Moving forward.������

Amani Ballour is a game changer who, like Malala Yousafzai, will be remembered as one of history’s great heroines. Growing up in a closely confined society, she dared to dream—first of an education, then of a career—that allowed her to make her mark on the world and protect the country she loves. A passionately committed humanitarian, she is determined that others will escape the horrors she survived.]]> 256 Amani Ballour 1426222742 Sharon 0 to-read 4.53 2024
author: Amani Ballour
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.53
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/04
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]]> 198530970 Was bedeutet es, eine Schwarze Frau in Amerika zu sein?

1954, Bailey Dowery, eine Schwarze Schneiderin, ist mit der Gabe der „zweiten Sicht�� Sobald sie eine ihrer Kundinnen berührt, erfährt sie Visionen über deren Wünsche, Ängste und Zukunft. Sie arbeitet für die Frauen der lokalen Ölbarone und fertigt edle Roben und Brautkleider für die Elite der Stadt an. Trotz der Warnungen ihrer Tante, sich aus den Angelegenheiten der Weißen herauszuhalten, hilft Bailey gelegentlich, wenn Bräute sie um ihre besondere Hilfe bitten. Als Elsa Grimes, Tochter eines der reichsten Ölbarone Oklahomas, um Baileys Dienste bittet, wird diese mit einer erschreckenden Wahrheit konfrontiert. Schon bald wird ein Mann ermordet aufgefunden und Elsa als Verdächtige inhaftiert. Bailey gerät in einen Strudel aus Lügen und Geheimnissen und ihr wird klar, dass ihr Talent genauso gefährlich wie es ein Geschenk sein kann …]]> 289 Trisha R. Thomas 0063344165 Sharon 0 to-read 3.68
author: Trisha R. Thomas
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.68
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/04
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]]> 203164368 From the New York Times bestselling co-author of Mad Honey comes an “inspiring�� (Elle) novel about two women, centuries apart—one of whom is the real author of Shakespeare’s plays—who are both forced to hide behind another name.

Young playwright Melina Green has just written a new work inspired by the life of her Elizabethan ancestor Emilia Bassano. But seeing it performed is unlikely, in a theater world where the playing field isn’t level for women. As Melina wonders if she dares risk failure again, her best friend takes the decision out of her hands and submits the play to a festival under a male pseudonym.

In 1581, young Emilia Bassano is a ward of English aristocrats. Her lessons on languages, history, and writing have endowed her with a sharp wit and a gift for storytelling, but like most women of her day, she is allowed no voice of her own. Forced to become a mistress to the Lord Chamberlain, who oversees all theatre productions in England, Emilia sees firsthand how the words of playwrights can move an audience. She begins to form a plan to secretly bring a play of her own to the stage—by paying an actor named William Shakespeare to front her work.

Told in intertwining timelines, By Any Other Name, a sweeping tale of ambition, courage, and desire centers two women who are determined to create something beautiful despite the prejudices they face. Should a writer do whatever it takes to see her story live on . . . no matter the cost? This remarkable novel, rooted in primary historical sources, ensures the name Emilia Bassano will no longer be forgotten.]]> 525 Jodi Picoult 059349721X Sharon 0 to-read 4.09 2024
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/04
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review:

]]> 176443330 The new thrilling novel from Megan Miranda, the instant New York Times bestselling author of All the Missing Girls, The Last to Vanish, and The Only Survivors.

When Hazel Sharp, daughter of Mirror Lake’s longtime local detective, unexpectedly inherits her childhood home, she’s warily drawn back to the town—and people—she left behind almost a decade earlier. But Hazel’s not the only relic of the past to return: a drought has descended on the region, and as the water level in the lake drops, long-hidden secrets begin to emerge…including evidence that may help finally explain the mystery of her mother’s disappearance.]]> 368 Megan Miranda Sharon 0 to-read 3.88 2024
author: Megan Miranda
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 205126997 Amikor Tanner kíváncsiságtól hajtva az észak-karolinai kisvárosba utazik, még nem tudja, hogy az egész élete megváltozik. Az apja nyomát követve megismerkedik egy, a gyerekeit egyedül nevelő doktornővel és egy magányosan, elvonultan élő öregemberrel. Ha Tanner képes megnyitni a szívét a szeretet és a szerelem előtt, a csodálatos találkozások sora ezzel nem ér véget...]]> 368 Nicholas Sparks 0593449592 Sharon 0 to-read 4.05 2024
author: Nicholas Sparks
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/04
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]]> 49244342
Bernice Groves has become lost in grief and bitterness since her baby died from the Spanish flu. Watching Pia leave her brothers alone, Bernice makes a shocking, life-altering decision. It becomes her sinister mission to tear families apart when they’re at their most vulnerable, planning to transform the city’s orphans and immigrant children into what she feels are “true Americans.��

Waking in a makeshift hospital days after collapsing in the street, Pia is frantic to return home. Instead, she is taken to St. Vincent’s Orphan Asylum �� the first step in a long and arduous journey. As Bernice plots to keep the truth hidden at any cost in the months and years that follow, Pia must confront her own shame and fear, risking everything to see justice �� and love �� triumph at last. Powerful, harrowing, and ultimately exultant, The Orphan Collector is a story of love, resilience, and the lengths we will go to protect those who need us most.]]> 390 Ellen Marie Wiseman 1496715861 Sharon 0 to-read 4.14 2020
author: Ellen Marie Wiseman
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 178836219
Today’s culture would have us believe that abortion is simply a choice, a right, a controversial argument, and a religious and political issue of pro-life vs. pro-choice. It has become easy to think of the unborn as disposable products of conception―medical waste. But all of that changes when that “product of conception�� defies the odds and arrives into this world as a living, breathing human being.

In Abortion Survivors Break Their Silence , we hear the true stories of abortion survivors whose resilience and courage humanize this discussion of “choice�� and life emerging from the womb. They are flesh and blood people who, against all odds, survived abortion attempts and have dramatic, touching stories of their own. These stories often begin in shame and secret, but emerge to become inspiring dramas of hope, love, and forgiveness.

This book includes Abortion Survivors Break Their Silence stirs the heart, challenges readers, and humanizes the sanctity of life in concrete and transformational ways.]]> 208 Melissa Ohden Sharon 5
I commend each person who shared their story. Each story was a little different, but all shared in the same beginning of life. Each one precious in God's sight. Each one went through a process of acceptance, forgiveness and compassion toward their birth parents.

So many people talk about rights, but when will we stop to consider the rights of these human beings that are not able to speak for themselves?]]> 5.00
author: Melissa Ohden
name: Sharon
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/07
date added: 2024/02/06
shelves: christian-non-fiction, memoir, non-fiction, pro-life
review:
Abortion survivors....the little babies that were almost killed in an abortion.....grew up to tell their stories. What was it like when they found out that their mothers had tried to abort them? What were their lives like after a failed abortion?

I commend each person who shared their story. Each story was a little different, but all shared in the same beginning of life. Each one precious in God's sight. Each one went through a process of acceptance, forgiveness and compassion toward their birth parents.

So many people talk about rights, but when will we stop to consider the rights of these human beings that are not able to speak for themselves?
]]> 124779885 0 George de Mohrenschildt Sharon 5
I hope that one day all of the files will be released, and the full truth will be revealed.]]> 5.00
author: George de Mohrenschildt
name: Sharon
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/27
date added: 2024/01/28
shelves: biography, history, memoir, non-fiction
review:
George de Mohrenschildt wrote a manuscript about Lee Harvey Oswald that this author put together with the interview by the Warren Commission. I thought this book was very well put together. de Mohrenschildt was a controversial person himself. Was he CIA, full of providing support to Oswald, and then of providing misinformation to the general public? Who knows, but I thought the book was an interesting look at Oswald, a person the world knows very little about, and of his wife, Marina, who is also a mystery.

I hope that one day all of the files will be released, and the full truth will be revealed.
]]> 59641216
So begins the riveting story of acclaimed actor Matthew Perry, taking us along on his journey from childhood ambition to fame to addiction and recovery in the aftermath of a life-threatening health scare. Before the frequent hospital visits and stints in rehab, there was five-year-old Matthew, who traveled from Montreal to Los Angeles, shuffling between his separated parents; fourteen-year-old Matthew, who was a nationally ranked tennis star in Canada; twenty-four-year-old Matthew, who nabbed a coveted role as a lead cast member on the talked-about pilot then called Friends Like Us. . . and so much more.

In an extraordinary story that only he could tell—and in the heartfelt, hilarious, and warmly familiar way only he could tell it—Matthew Perry lays bare the fractured family that raised him (and also left him to his own devices), the desire for recognition that drove him to fame, and the void inside him that could not be filled even by his greatest dreams coming true. But he also details the peace he’s found in sobriety and how he feels about the ubiquity of Friends, sharing stories about his castmates and other stars he met along the way. Frank, self-aware, and with his trademark humor, Perry vividly depicts his lifelong battle with addiction and what fueled it despite seemingly having it all.

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing is an unforgettable memoir that is both intimate and eye-opening—as well as a hand extended to anyone struggling with sobriety. Unflinchingly honest, moving, and uproariously funny, this is the book fans have been waiting for.]]> 250 Matthew Perry 1250866448 Sharon 0 memoir, non-fiction
The book was written by a man about his own life. It feels like random thoughts written down. They are out of order and repetitive, but so what? I felt that his writing was raw and vulnerable and real. He tried his best to explain his addictions, his behaviors, his mistakes. I felt the whole thing was sad, especially since I know what happened to him in the end. Very sad.

I am so sorry for his family and friends who loved him. ]]> 3.89 2022
author: Matthew Perry
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2023/12/16
date added: 2023/12/16
shelves: memoir, non-fiction
review:
I can't give a rating, because it's so sad that he died since this book was printed.

The book was written by a man about his own life. It feels like random thoughts written down. They are out of order and repetitive, but so what? I felt that his writing was raw and vulnerable and real. He tried his best to explain his addictions, his behaviors, his mistakes. I felt the whole thing was sad, especially since I know what happened to him in the end. Very sad.

I am so sorry for his family and friends who loved him.
]]> 60279823 Dreamland is a love story about risking everything for a dream—and whether it’s possible to leave the past behind.

Colby Mills once felt destined for a musical career, until tragedy grounded his aspirations. Now the head of a small family farm in North Carolina, he spontaneously takes a gig playing at a bar in St. Pete’s Beach, Florida, seeking a rare break from his duties at home.

But when he meets Morgan Lee, his world is turned upside-down, making him wonder if the responsibilities he has shouldered need dictate his life forever. The daughter of affluent Chicago doctors, Morgan has graduated from a prestigious college music program with the ambition to move to Nashville and become a star. Romantically and musically, she and Colby complete each other in a way that neither has ever known.

While they are falling headlong in love, Beverly is on a heart-pounding journey of another kind. Fleeing an abusive husband with her six-year-old son, she is trying to piece together a life for them in a small town far off the beaten track. With money running out and danger seemingly around every corner, she makes a desperate decision that will rewrite everything she knows to be true.

In the course of a single unforgettable week, two young people will navigate the exhilarating heights and heartbreak of first love. Hundreds of miles away, Beverly will put her love for her young son to the test. And fate will draw all three people together in a web of life-altering connections . . . forcing each to wonder whether the dream of a better life can ever survive the weight of the past.]]> 367 Nicholas Sparks 059344955X Sharon 0 to-read 3.82 2022
author: Nicholas Sparks
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 90203406
Decades later, Kit Boyd's best friend vanishes during a ghost walk at the Barlowe Theater, and old stories of mysterious disappearances and ghoulish happenings are revived. When television ghost-hunting host and skeptic Evan Fisher engages Kit in the quest to identify the truth behind the theater's history, Kit reluctantly agrees to work with him in hopes of also finding out what happened to her friend. As the theater's curse begins to unravel Kit's own life, she sets out not only to save the historical building and her friend, but to end the pattern of evil that has marked their hometown for a century.

In this atmospheric dual-time tale, two women--separated by a century yet bound by the ghosts of the past--pursue light in the face of darkness.]]> 379 Jaime Jo Wright 0764241443 Sharon 0 to-read 4.23 2023
author: Jaime Jo Wright
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 40551618 0 Jamie Ford 1524797545 Sharon 4
Can you imagine that in 1909 a child was raffled off at the world's fair in Seattle? It is actually true that this happened. Jamie Ford based this book on that event.

In Ford's book, young Ernest was excited to go to the world's fair, until he realized he was the raffle prize that would be given away to the winner. The winner was a madame of a high-class brothel. Ernest was a tender twelve year old boy who fell in love with two of the young girls living in that house. Since the story is told from two time periods, I was drawn in to the mystery of which girl he ended up living his life with.

Fifty years later, Seattle hosts another world's fair and one of his daughters is a journalist who suspects that her father was the child that was raffled off. Ernest must decide how much of the story his children should be told and how much does the public need to know about it.

While I found the book sweet and heartfelt, it made me sad that humanity can be so disgusting on so many levels. The book was kind of slow in some spots, but maybe it was just me wanting the book to be over because of the content it was covering. I really liked the ending, and I liked the characters. ]]> 3.93 2017
author: Jamie Ford
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/29
date added: 2023/08/30
shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, love, romance
review:
This was a 2019 Advent gift of the Once Upon a Book Club subscription service. It is a signed copy.

Can you imagine that in 1909 a child was raffled off at the world's fair in Seattle? It is actually true that this happened. Jamie Ford based this book on that event.

In Ford's book, young Ernest was excited to go to the world's fair, until he realized he was the raffle prize that would be given away to the winner. The winner was a madame of a high-class brothel. Ernest was a tender twelve year old boy who fell in love with two of the young girls living in that house. Since the story is told from two time periods, I was drawn in to the mystery of which girl he ended up living his life with.

Fifty years later, Seattle hosts another world's fair and one of his daughters is a journalist who suspects that her father was the child that was raffled off. Ernest must decide how much of the story his children should be told and how much does the public need to know about it.

While I found the book sweet and heartfelt, it made me sad that humanity can be so disgusting on so many levels. The book was kind of slow in some spots, but maybe it was just me wanting the book to be over because of the content it was covering. I really liked the ending, and I liked the characters.
]]> 46125018
With time running out, Amara must convince others--and herself--that despite all evidence to the contrary, the boy lives. And she will do everything in her power to bring him home.

A fresh voice in suspense, Tom Threadgill will have you questioning everything as you fly through the pages of this enthralling story.]]> 400 Tom Threadgill 0800736508 Sharon 3 mystery-thriller, fiction 4.13 2020
author: Tom Threadgill
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/29
date added: 2023/07/29
shelves: mystery-thriller, fiction
review:
The story was interesting enough to keep reading because I wanted to see what happened in the end, but it had a number of things about it that prevent me from giving a higher rating. I liked some of the characters, but some of the banter drove me crazy. I got tired of the paperclips being thrown back and forth and thought that was overdone. I thought the story drug on a little in places. I thought they came to a kind of crazy motive and only looked into that one theory, instead of thinking of human trafficking or other theories. The end was very good and exciting. I would probably read other books by Tom Threadgill.
]]> 63063901 Inspired by one of America's most notorious couples, Bonnie and Clyde, Jennifer L. Wright delivers a riveting tale set during the public enemy era of the Great Depression.

Beatrice Carraway has dreams. Although she's aged out of the childhood pageant circuit, she's intent on carrying her talents all the way to the big screen--if only she can escape the poverty of West Dallas first. But as the Great Depression drags the working class further and further under, Beatrice struggles just to keep herself, her mother, and her younger sister afloat. After a string of failed auditions, she feels defeated.

And then in walks Jack Turner. Though Beatrice is determined to pull herself up by her bootstraps, Jack has decided on a different path out of the gutters. It isn't long before Beatrice is swept into an exciting and glamorous life of crime beside the man she loves. Keeping one step ahead of the law, she sees her dreams of fame come true when her name and picture are plastered in newspapers across the country. Yet as their infamy grows, the distance between them widens. While Jack begins seeking bigger payouts and publicity, Beatrice starts to long for a safe, quiet life and something deeper to fill the emptiness in her soul. But when the danger of Jack's schemes ratchets up, Beatrice fears her dreams--and her future--will end up going down in a hail of bullets.]]> 384 Jennifer L. Wright 1496477588 Sharon 0 to-read 3.98 2023
author: Jennifer L. Wright
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 55654711 A spine-tingling novel of revenge, betrayal, and sisterhood from the internationally celebrated author of The Golden Cage.

She's had to fight for it every step of the way, but Faye finally has the life she believes she deserves: she is rich, the business she built has become a global brand, and she has carefully hidden away her small family in Italy, where Jack, her ex-husband, can no longer harm them. She even has the wherewithal to occasionally turn a business trip to Rome into a steamy tryst. But when several major investors--women Faye had trusted implicitly--suddenly sell off their shares in the company, and the police officer who helped search for her daughter discovers the dark secret of Faye's childhood, and she learns that Jack is no longer locked behind bars, Faye has no choice but to return to Stockholm. Not only does she have to fight again to keep her family safe, but now, at long last, she is forced to face the truth about her past. In this bold, mesmerizing story of seduction, deceit, and female power, a woman's secret cannot stay buried forever.]]> 320 Camilla Läckberg 0525657991 Sharon 0 to-read 3.51 2020
author: Camilla Läckberg
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 83667937 A phenomenal novel of resilience and survival from bestselling author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Heather Morris.

In the midst of World War II, an English musician, Norah Chambers, places her eight-year-old daughter Sally on a ship leaving Singapore, desperate to keep her safe from the Japanese army as they move down through the Pacific. Norah remains to care for her husband and elderly parents, knowing she may never see her child again.

Sister Nesta James, a Welsh Australian nurse, has enlisted to tend to Allied troops. But as Singapore falls to the Japanese she joins the terrified cargo of people, including the heartbroken Norah, crammed aboard the Vyner Brooke merchant ship. Only two days later, they are bombarded from the air off the coast of Indonesia, and in a matter of hours, the Vyner Brooke lies broken on the seabed.

After surviving a brutal 24 hours in the sea, Nesta and Norah reach the beaches of a remote island, only to be captured by the Japanese and held in one of their notorious POW camps. The camps are places of starvation and brutality, where disease runs rampant. Sisters in arms, Norah and Nesta fight side by side every day, helping whoever they can, and discovering in themselves and each other extraordinary reserves of courage, resourcefulness and determination.

Sisters under the Rising Sun is a story of women in war: a novel of sisterhood, bravery and friendship in the darkest of circumstances, from the multimillion-copy bestselling author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Cilka's Journey and Three Sisters.]]> 400 Heather Morris 1250320550 Sharon 0 to-read 3.82 2023
author: Heather Morris
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60784315 The Nightingale and The Great Alone comes a powerful American epic about love and heroism and hope, set during the Great Depression, a time when the country was in crisis and at war with itself, when millions were out of work and even the land seemed to have turned against them.

�� My land tells its story if you listen. The story of our family .��

Texas, 1921. A time of abundance. The Great War is over, the bounty of the land is plentiful, and America is on the brink of a new and optimistic era. But for Elsa Wolcott, deemed too old to marry in a time when marriage is a woman’s only option, the future seems bleak. Until the night she meets Rafe Martinelli and decides to change the direction of her life. With her reputation in ruin, there is only one respectable choice: marriage to a man she barely knows.

By 1934, the world has changed; millions are out of work and drought has devastated the Great Plains. Farmers are fighting to keep their land and their livelihoods as crops fail and water dries up and the earth cracks open. Dust storms roll relentlessly across the plains. Everything on the Martinelli farm is dying, including Elsa’s tenuous marriage; each day is a desperate battle against nature and a fight to keep her children alive.

In this uncertain and perilous time, Elsa—like so many of her neighbors—must make an agonizing choice: fight for the land she loves or leave it behind and go west, to California, in search of a better life for her family.

The Four Winds is a rich, sweeping novel that stunningly brings to life the Great Depression and the people who lived through it—the harsh realities that divided us as a nation and the enduring battle between the haves and the have-nots. A testament to hope, resilience, and the strength of the human spirit to survive adversity, The Four Winds is an indelible portrait of America and the American dream, as seen through the eyes of one indomitable woman whose courage and sacrifice will come to define a generation.]]> 480 Kristin Hannah 1250178614 Sharon 5 drama, historical-fiction
I especially loved Elsa's transformation in the book, the courage it took to survive during these times and the love she had for her children.

I highly recommend this book!]]> 4.36 2021
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/11
date added: 2023/07/11
shelves: drama, historical-fiction
review:
My parents were born at the beginning of the Dust Bowl in Kansas. I remember the stories my Grandma used to tell me about how dust rained down so bad inside the house that she put a cloth over my mother's baby carriage to keep the dust out of her lungs. So, I found this book to be very interesting to learn more about how people lived during this period of time.

I especially loved Elsa's transformation in the book, the courage it took to survive during these times and the love she had for her children.

I highly recommend this book!
]]> 63024287
The daughter of formerly enslaved parents, Mary McLeod Bethune refuses to back down as white supremacists attempt to thwart her work. She marches on as an activist and an educator, and as her reputation grows she becomes a celebrity, revered by titans of business and recognized by U.S. Presidents. Eleanor Roosevelt herself is awestruck and eager to make her acquaintance. Initially drawn together because of their shared belief in women’s rights and the power of education, Mary and Eleanor become fast friends confiding their secrets, hopes and dreams—and holding each other’s hands through tragedy and triumph.
��
When Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected president, the two women begin to collaborate more closely, particularly as Eleanor moves toward her own agenda separate from FDR, a consequence of the devastating discovery of her husband’s secret love affair. Eleanor becomes a controversial First Lady for her outspokenness, particularly on��civil rights. And when she receives threats because of her strong ties to Mary, it only fuels the women’s desire to fight together for justice and equality.
��
This��is the story of two different, yet equally formidable, passionate, and committed women, and the way in which��their singular friendship��helped form the foundation for the modern civil rights movement.]]> 389 Marie Benedict 0593440285 Sharon 0 to-read 3.96 2023
author: Marie Benedict
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 29562590 In this psychological suspense novel, a woman suffering from memory loss begins to wonder just how much she can trust the people who claim to love her.

Marine biologist Kyra Winthrop remembers nothing about the diving accident that left her with a complex form of memory loss. With only brief flashes of the last few years of her life, her world has narrowed to a few neighbors on the island where she lives with her devoted husband.

But when Kyra begins having visions—or are they memories?—of a rocky marriage, broken promises, and cryptic relationships with the island residents she believes to be her friends, she can’t help but wonder if her new life is all a carefully constructed lie.

As Kyra races to uncover her past, it soon becomes clear that the truth is a terrifying nightmare.]]> 295 A.J. Banner 1501152114 Sharon 5
]]> 3.55 2016
author: A.J. Banner
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2023/06/23
date added: 2023/06/23
shelves:
review:
Suspense, twists and turns...I thought this was a really good read, and it was a short book which was even better. I read it while door dashing!


]]> 56269187 A promise to stay together.
An unbreakable bond.
A fierce will to survive.

From international bestselling author Heather Morris comes the breathtaking conclusion to The Tattooist of Auschwitz trilogy.

When they are girls, Cibi, Magda and Livia make a promise to their father - that they will stay together, no matter what.

Years later, at just 15 years old, Livia is ordered to Auschwitz by the Nazis. Cibi, only 19 herself, remembers their promise and follows Livia, determined to protect her sister, or die with her.

In their hometown in Slovakia, 17-year-old Magda hides, desperate to evade the barbaric Nazi forces. But it is not long before she is captured and condemned to Auschwitz.

In the horror of the death camp, these three beautiful sisters are reunited. Though traumatised by their experiences, they are together.

They make another promise: that they will live. Their fight for survival takes them from the hell of Auschwitz, to a death march across war-torn Europe and eventually home to Slovakia, now under iron Communist rule. Determined to begin again, they embark on a voyage of renewal, to the new Jewish homeland, Israel.

Rich in vivid detail, and beautifully told, Three Sisters will break your heart, but leave you amazed and uplifted by the courage and fierce love of three sisters, whose promise to each other kept them alive. Two of the sisters are in Israel today, surrounded by family and friends. They have chosen Heather Morris to reimagine their story in her astonishing new novel, Three Sisters.]]> 416 Heather Morris 1250276896 Sharon 5 4.34 2021
author: Heather Morris
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/06/16
shelves: to-read, biography, drama, fiction, historical-fiction, holocaust, war
review:
This story of the three sisters ~ Cibi, Magda and Livi ~ is one of survival, horror, abuse, hardship, promises, and grief. These young women were trying to find a way to survive in a concentration camp (and beyond). I thought the story revealed a lot about how hard it was for people that were hiding outside the camps, and how hard it was to stay "invisible" inside the camps. It told of some connections that were made with some of the guards. It told of the death marches and how hard it was to survive after the war was over. It revealed how hard it was for survivors to try to return home when their homes had been taken over by other people. It showed the hatred and anti-semitism that continued to exist after the war. It showed their bravery at starting new lives. I thought their struggles were brought to life in every phase of the story. I am thankful these sisters were willing to share their story and am thankful Heather Morris was able to bring it to us. Blessings to the families of these three sisters.
]]> 43706721 A woman’s idyllic life becomes a deceptive hall of mirrors in a thriller of exquisitely constructed psychological suspense by A. J. Banner, bestselling author of The Good Neighbor.

Elise Watters seems to have it all—a blissful marriage, a gorgeous Victorian home surrounded by lush gardens, and a dream job running her late mother’s herbal boutique.

But on the eve of her first wedding anniversary, Elise makes a shocking discovery that turns her life upside down and casts doubt on everything she thought she knew—about her marriage, her friends, and even herself. As she treads into dangerous territory, Elise is forced to wonder: Is her whole future at stake? Or is paranoia getting the best of her?

If she is to believe what she sees, Elise has every reason to fear for her life…]]> 199 A.J. Banner 1542042887 Sharon 5 3.39 2019
author: A.J. Banner
name: Sharon
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2023/06/04
date added: 2023/06/04
shelves: drama, fiction, love, mystery-thriller, romance
review:
This was a crazy ride! Lots of twists and turns. I was immediately drawn into the story and was surprised several times by the turn of events. I highly recommend this book!
]]> 53025903 A new novel inspired by historical events: a story of three young women on a journey in search of family amidst the destruction of the post-Civil War South, and of a modern-day teacher who rediscovers their story and its connection to her own students' lives.

Lisa Wingate brings to life stories from actual "Lost Friends" advertisements that appeared in Southern newspapers after the Civil War, as freed slaves desperately searched for loved ones who had been sold off.

Louisiana, 1875 In the tumultuous aftermath of Reconstruction, three young women set off as unwilling companions on a perilous quest: Lavinia, the pampered heir to a now-destitute plantation; Juneau Jane, her illegitimate free-born Creole half-sister; and Hannie, Lavinia's former slave. Each carries private wounds and powerful secrets as they head for Texas, following dangerous roads rife with ruthless vigilantes and soldiers still fighting a war lost a decade before. For Lavinia and Juneau Jane, the journey is one of inheritance and financial desperation, but for Hannie, torn from her mother and eight siblings before slavery's end, the pilgrimage westward reignites an agonizing question: Could her long-lost family still be out there? Beyond the swamps lie the seemingly limitless frontiers of Texas and, improbably, hope.

Louisiana, 1987 For first-year teacher Benedetta Silva, a subsidized job at a poor rural school seems like the ticket to canceling her hefty student debt--until she lands in a tiny, out-of-step Mississippi River town. Augustine, Louisiana, seems suspicious of new ideas and new people, and Benny can scarcely comprehend the lives of her poverty-stricken students. But amid the gnarled oaks and run-down plantation homes lies the century-old history of three young women, a long-ago journey, and a hidden book that could change everything.]]> 388 Lisa Wingate 1984819887 Sharon 3
I did think it kind of dragged sometimes, and for me it was a little hard to follow a few times. I enjoyed the story lines and the ending.]]> 4.11 2020
author: Lisa Wingate
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2023/06/02
shelves: fiction, drama, historical-fiction
review:
The story line was very interesting, told from a person from the past and a person from the present. I found it very interesting how the characters and events of the past shaped the current events and personalities of the present.

I did think it kind of dragged sometimes, and for me it was a little hard to follow a few times. I enjoyed the story lines and the ending.
]]> 817389 18 Alice Bullock 0913270806 Sharon 5 4.14 1978
author: Alice Bullock
name: Sharon
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1978
rating: 5
read at: 2023/06/01
date added: 2023/06/01
shelves: christian-non-fiction, history, non-fiction
review:
Nice little book about the miracle of the staircase in the little chapel in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I went that last year and bought this book in the gift shop. It is a good story of how the staircase was built.
]]>