en-US Tue, 29 Apr 2025 04:46:30 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 23278767 342 Anne Rice Andrea 0 3.71 1976
author: Anne Rice
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1976
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/29
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]]> 229274791 33 U.V .Ray Andrea 0 currently-reading 0.0
author: U.V .Ray
name: Andrea
average rating: 0.0
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/28
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 680150 219 Nina Antonia 1844499847 Andrea 0 3.92 1998
author: Nina Antonia
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/28
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review:

]]> 49486 257 Nina Antonia 1901447154 Andrea 0 3.99 2000
author: Nina Antonia
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/28
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review:

]]> 2231095 190 Nina Antonia 0946719721 Andrea 4 4.45 2005
author: Nina Antonia
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/28
date added: 2025/04/28
shelves:
review:
This may be my favorite of Nina Antonia’s books. She goes back and forth recounting Brett Smiley’s life and her own—they were both really interesting.
]]> 152154053 Two top women gladiators fight for their freedom within a depraved private prison system not so far-removed from America’s own in this explosive, hotly-anticipated debut novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Friday Black

She felt their eyes, all those executioners��

Loretta Thurwar and Hamara “Hurricane Staxxx�� Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly-popular, highly-controversial, profit-raising program in America’s increasingly dominant private prison industry. It’s the return of the gladiators and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom.

In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death-matches for packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. As she prepares to leave her fellow Links, she considers how she might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games, but CAPE’s corporate owners will stop at nothing to protect their status quo and the obstacles they lay in Thurwar’s path have devastating consequences.

Moving from the Links in the field to the protestors to the CAPE employees and beyond, Chain-Gang All-Stars is a kaleidoscopic, excoriating look at the American prison system’s unholy alliance of systemic racism, unchecked capitalism, and mass incarceration, and a clear-eyed reckoning with what freedom in this country really means from a “new and necessary American voice�� (Tommy Orange, The New York Times Book Review).

13 hours, 39 minutes]]> 14 Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah Andrea 0 currently-reading, audiobook 3.99 2023
author: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/27
shelves: currently-reading, audiobook
review:

]]> 229970955
In A Kid from Marlboro Road, past and present intermingle as family stories are told and retold. The narrative careens between the prior generation’s colorful sojourns in the Bronx and Hell’s Kitchen and the softer world of Gibson, the town on Long Island where they live now. There are scenes in the Rockaways, at Belmont racetrack, and in Montauk. Edward Burns’s buoyant first novel is a bildungsroman, yet out of one boy’s story a collective warmth emerges, a certain kind of American tale, raucous and joyous.

With eight pages of photographs of the family members and historical locations that inspired characters and scenes in the novel.

“Burns �� [weaves] together a series of bittersweet, personal, and wryly humorous episodes into a portrait of the titular kid who grew up on Marlboro Road and must have been the most perceptive person there. �� Endearing and insightful.”—Kirkus Reviews

This audiobook includes a supplemental PDF.

PLEASE When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.]]> Edward Burns Andrea 4 audiobook 3.50
author: Edward Burns
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.50
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/27
date added: 2025/04/27
shelves: audiobook
review:
Audiobook read by the author. This book worked very well as an audiobook. Tells the story of a young Irish-American boy in the summer before he turns thirteen.
]]> 223062818
In this intimate and open account—nothing like any rock-and-roll memoir you’ve ever read—Alex Van Halen shares his personal story of family, friendship, music and brotherly love in a remarkable tribute to his beloved brother and band mate.

Told with acclaimed New Yorker writer Ariel Levy Brothers is seventy-year-old drummer Alex Van Halen’s love letter to his younger brother, Edward, (Maybe “Ed,�� but never “Eddie��), written while still mourning his untimely death.

In his rough yet sweet voice, Alex recounts the brothers�� childhood, first in the Netherlands and then in working class Pasadena, California, with an itinerant musician father and a very proper Indonesian-born mother—the kind of mom who admonished her boys to “always wear a suit�� no matter how famous they became—a woman who was both proud and practical, nonchalant about taking a doggie bag from a star-studded dinner. He also shares tales of musical politics, infighting, and plenty of bad-boy behavior. But mostly his is a story of brotherhood, music, and enduring love.

"I was with him from day one,�� Alex writes. “We shared the experience of coming to this country and figuring out how to fit in. We shared a record player, an 800 square foot house, a mom and dad, and a work ethic. Later, we shared the back of a tour bus, alcoholism, the experience of becoming successful, of becoming fathers and uncles, and of spending more hours in the studio than I’ve spent doing anything else in this life. We shared a depth of understanding that most people can only hope to achieve in a lifetime."

There has never been an accurate account of them or the band, and Alex wants to set the record straight on Edward’s life and death.

6 hrs. 9 min.]]> 7 Alex Van Halen Andrea 5 audiobook 4.00 2024
author: Alex Van Halen
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/25
date added: 2025/04/25
shelves: audiobook
review:
This audiobook was read by the author and the result was stellar. It was poignant as all hell.
]]> 225642083 After forty years, John Irving returns to the world of his bestselling classic novel and Academy Award–winning film, The Cider House Rules, revisiting the orphanage in St. Cloud’s, Maine, where Dr. Wilbur Larch takes in Esther—a Viennese-born Jew whose life is shaped by anti-Semitism.

Esther Nacht is born in Vienna in 1905. Her father dies on board the ship to Portland, Maine; her mother is murdered by anti-Semites in Portland. Dr. Larch knows it won’t be easy to find a Jewish family to adopt Esther; in fact, he won’t find any family who’ll adopt her.

When Esther is fourteen, soon to be a ward of the state, Dr. Larch meets the Winslows, a philanthropic New England family with a history of providing foster care for unadopted orphans. The Winslows aren’t Jewish, but they despise anti-Semitism. Esther’s gratitude for the Winslows is unending; even as she retraces her roots back to Vienna, she never stops loving and protecting the Winslows. In the final chapter, set in Jerusalem in 1981, Esther Nacht is seventy-six.

John Irving’s sixteenth novel is a testament to his enduring ability to weave complex characters and intricate narratives that challenge and captivate. Queen Esther is not just a story of survival but a profound exploration of identity, belonging, and the enduring impact of history on our personal lives showcasing why Irving remains one of the world’s most beloved, provocative, and entertaining authors—a storyteller of our time and for all time.]]> 432 John Irving 1501189441 Andrea 0 to-read 0.0 2025
author: John Irving
name: Andrea
average rating: 0.0
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/25
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]]> 228379263 Set over the course of one day, a heart-racing debut about a woman facing the unimaginable, determined to find safety.

Last night, you and I were safe. Last night, in another universe, your father and I stood fighting in the kitchen.

Annie is nine months pregnant and shopping for a crib at IKEA when a massive earthquake hits Portland, Oregon. With no way to reach her husband, no phone or money, and a city left in chaos, there’s nothing to do but walk.

Making her way across the wreckage of Portland, Annie experiences human desperation and strangers offering help, a riot at a grocery store, and an unlikely friendship with a young mother. As she walks, Annie reflects on her struggling marriage, her disappointing career, and her anxiety about having a baby. If she can just make it home, she’s determined to change her life.

A propulsive debut, Tilt is a primal scream of a novel about the disappointments and desires we all carry, and what each of us will do for the people we love.]]> Emma Pattee Andrea 3 audiobook 3.57 2025
author: Emma Pattee
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/22
date added: 2025/04/22
shelves: audiobook
review:
Living in Portland this story about the big earthquake hitting the city scared the shit out of me. I found the main character to be somewhat unlikeable and unsympathetic, even though she was pregnant and in dire straits. My favorite aspect of the book was following along the Portland route along with Annie—it was easy to imagine her journey as I could picture the locations mentioned. I hope to God the events detailed in this book never come true.
]]> 218131035 From “one of our most thrilling and singular innovators on the page�� (Laura Van Den Berg), a tightly wound, consuming tale for readers of Claire Keegan and Ian McEwan, about a 1950s American housewife who decides to get into the pool in her family’s apartment complex one morning and won’t come out.

It is an unseasonably warm Sunday in November 1957. Katheen, a college tennis champion turned Delaware housewife, decides not to join her flagrantly handsome life insurance salesman husband, Virgil, or their two young boys, at church. Instead, she takes a dip in the kidney-shaped swimming pool of their apartment complex. And then she won’t come out.

A consuming, single-sitting read set over the course of eight hours, The Most breaches the shimmering surface of a seemingly idyllic mid-century marriage, immersing us in the unspoken truth beneath. As Sputnik 2 orbits the earth carrying Laika, the doomed Soviet dog, Kathleen and Virgil hurtle towards each other until they arrive at a reckoning that will either shatter their marriage, or transform it, at last, into something real.]]> 4 Jessica Anthony 1668641429 Andrea 3 audiobook 3.19 2024
author: Jessica Anthony
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.19
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/19
date added: 2025/04/19
shelves: audiobook
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]]> 123001950
A young poet tells the inspiring story of his��migration from El Salvador to the United States at the age of nine in this��“gripping memoir�� (NPR) of bravery, hope, and finding family. ��

Finalist for the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction �� One of the New York Public Library’s Ten Best Books of the Year

Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence and the PEN/Open Book Award

�� I read Solito with my heart in my throat and did not burst into tears until the last sentence. What a person, what a writer, what a book. �� —Emma Straub

“A riveting tale of perseverance and the lengths humans will go to help each other in times of struggle.”—Dave Eggers

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE The New York Times Book Review, NPR, The Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Vulture, She Reads, Kirkus Reviews

Trip. My parents started using that word about a year ago—“one day, you’ll take a trip to be with us. Like an adventure.�� ��

Javier Zamora’s adventure is a��three-thousand-mile journey from his small town in El Salvador, through Guatemala and Mexico, and across��the U.S. border.��He will leave behind��his beloved aunt and grandparents��to reunite with a mother who left four years ago and a father he barely remembers. Traveling alone��amid��a group of strangers and a “coyote�� hired to lead them to safety, Javier��expects his��trip��to��last two short weeks.
��
At nine years old, all Javier can imagine is rushing into his parents�� arms, snuggling in bed between them, and living under the same roof again. He cannot foresee the perilous boat trips, relentless desert treks, pointed guns, arrests and deceptions that await him; nor can he know that those two weeks will expand into two life-altering months alongside fellow migrants who will come to encircle him like an unexpected family.
��
A memoir as gripping as it is moving, Solito provides��an immediate and intimate account��not only��of a treacherous and near-impossible journey, but also��of��the miraculous kindness and love delivered at the most unexpected moments. Solito is Javier��Zamora’s��story, but it’s also the story of millions of others who had no choice but to leave home.]]> 416 Javier Zamora 0593498089 Andrea 0 currently-reading 4.46 2022
author: Javier Zamora
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> 1894892
Contents:

The echo of neighborly bones by Daniel Woodrell
Sales call by Susan Woodring
Help me find my spaceman lover by Robert Olen Butler
Willows / The swan by Rodney Jones
The river that was my father / Poem in the ninth month by Beth Ann Fennelly
Fat lighter by George Singleton
Sautéing the platygast by Dean Paschal
Pig helmet & the wall of life by Pinckney Benedict
The drinking gourd by Katie Estill
Swans by Benjamin Percy
The Bear Bryant funeral train by Brad Vice
Night by Jacinda Townsend
Dog song by Ann Pancake
The era of great numbers by Lee K. Abbott
Decirculating the monkey by Chris Offutt
Corpse bird by Ron Rash
Mother by Andrew Hudgins
The widow Sunday by Kathy Conner
Smonk gets out alive by Tom Franklin
Witches, all by Laura Benedict
The paperhanger by William Gay
Silver man / Dinner date by Joy Beshears Hay
Crazy ladies by Greg Johnson
Cactus Vic and his marvelous magical elephant / The best chicken in Arkansas by Jon Tribble
Birdfists by Julianna Baggott
The bingo master by Joyce Carol Oates
The truth and all its ugly by Kyle Minor
Contributors biographies & notes]]> 380 Laura Benedict 0979304970 Andrea 3 4.32 2007
author: Laura Benedict
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/18
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves:
review:
This book has some of my favorite authors as contributors but I found the collection a little uneven overall. My favorite story was the final one by Kyle Minor.
]]> 38612232 370 Caresse Crosby Andrea 4
I bought this book because I read BLACK SUN which was mainly about Harry Crosby. I wanted to get Caresse’s take on things and this book did not disappoint]]> 4.00 1968
author: Caresse Crosby
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1968
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/18
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves:
review:
Caresse Crosby led a fascinating life, interacting with numerous famous authors and artists. I loved reading about how she and her husband got their start in publishing and all their experiences in their extensive travels.

I bought this book because I read BLACK SUN which was mainly about Harry Crosby. I wanted to get Caresse’s take on things and this book did not disappoint
]]> 227967735
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 an old friend returns, Eloise desperately clings to remain in 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.]]> Marie Still Andrea 3 audiobook 3.80 2024
author: Marie Still
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/17
date added: 2025/04/17
shelves: audiobook
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]]> 214565598 From multiple award-winning author Daryl Gregory comes a madcap adventure following two friends on a cross-country bus tour through the mind-boggling glitches in their simulated world as they grapple with love, family, secrets, and the very nature of reality in a simulation.

JP and Dulin have been the best of friends for decades. When JP finds out his cancer has aggressively returned, Dulin decides it’s the perfect time for one last a week-long bus tour of North America’s Impossibles, the physics-defying glitches and geographic miracles that started cropping up seven years earlier—right after the Announcement that revealed our world to be merely a digital simulacrum. The outing, courtesy of Canterbury Trails Tours, promises the trip of a (not completely real) lifetime in a (not completely deluxe) coach.

Their fellow passengers are 21st-century pilgrims, each of them on the tour for their own reasons. There’s a nun hunting for an absent God, a pregnant influencer determined to make her child too famous to be deleted, a crew of horny octogenarians living each day like it’s their last, and a professor on the run from leather-clad sociopaths who take The Matrix as scripture. Each stop on this trip is stranger than the last—a Tunnel outside of time, a zero gravity Geyser, the compound of motivational-speaking avatar—with everyone barreling toward the tour’s iconic final stop Ghost City, where unbeknownst to our travelers the answer to who is running the simulation may await.

When We Were Real is a tour-de-force and exploration of what really matters, even in an artificial world.]]> 464 Daryl Gregory 1668060043 Andrea 0 currently-reading 4.15 2025
author: Daryl Gregory
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/15
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 41463743
Acting on a tip, Raylan and his new partner, deputy marshal Bobby Torres arrest Jose Rindo, a destructive and violent criminal. Rindo is also being pursued by the FBI who arrive shortly after he is in custody. Raylan bumps heads with a beautiful FBI agent named Nora Sanchez, who wants Rindo for the murder of a one of their own.

When Rindo, escapes from the county jail and is arrested in Ohio, Raylan and FBI Special Agent Sanchez drive south to pick up the fugitive and bring him back to stand trial. Later, when Rindo escapes again, Raylan and Nora―still at odds―are reunited and follow the elusive fugitive's trail across Arizona to El Centro, California and into Mexico where they have no jurisdiction or authority. How are they going to bring Rindo, a Mexican citizen, across the border without anyone knowing?

Raylan Goes to Detroit is an exciting continuation of one of Elmore Leonard’s greatest heroes, an edge-of-your-seat, page-turner in the spirit of Elmore’s classic Raylan books.]]> 247 Peter Leonard 1947856219 Andrea 4 3.72 2018
author: Peter Leonard
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/15
date added: 2025/04/15
shelves:
review:
I was worried this book would be bad since it’s written by the son but I was pleasantly surprised. It has a good villain and fits well into the Raylan Givens series.
]]> 2785278 Wuthering Heights is a wild, passionate story of the intense and almost demonic love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, a foundling adopted by Catherine’s father. After Mr Earnshaw’s death, Heathcliff is bullied and humiliated by Catherine’s brother Hindley, and wrongly believing that his love for Catherine is not reciprocated, leaves Wuthering Heights. Returning years later as a wealthy and polished man, he proceeds to exact a terrible revenge for his former miseries.

The action of the story is chaotic and unremittingly violent, but the accomplished handling of a complex structure, the evocative descriptions of the lonely moorland setting and the poetic grandeur of vision combine to make this unique novel a masterpiece of English literature.
]]> 344 Emily Brontë 0143105434 Andrea 0 3.98 1847
author: Emily Brontë
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1847
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/14
shelves:
review:

]]> 228480734 and her occasional lover–her star author–who suddenly wants to define the relationship.

As Lila come to terms with both past and present, suppressed family secrets emerge, culminating in a shocking act of violence. Lila has no choice but to finally address her family’s inherited custom of keeping everything under the surface.

Perfect for fans of Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane and All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews, The Magnificent Ruins is an unforgettable novel about the millennial immigrant experience and the desire for belonging.]]> Nayantara Roy Andrea 3 audiobook 3.67 2024
author: Nayantara Roy
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/12
date added: 2025/04/12
shelves: audiobook
review:

]]> 217445396 The Off-Season: An Anthology of Coastal New Weird features twenty-five brand-new stories of disquieting and disturbing "New Weird" horror set in landscapes and communities on the edge of the sea. These unsettling stories de-familiarize the ordinary, evoke dread in the daylight, and haunt like half-remembered nightmares. They are tales of mysticism, psychedelia, outsiders, obsessions, collapsed boundaries, weird sea life, and the total abandonment of reason. Welcome to your stay behind the curtain. Please check your sanity at the door.]]> 330 Marissa Van Uden 1958598240 Andrea 0 to-read 4.00 2024
author: Marissa Van Uden
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 1981143 107 Kent Klich 0893813702 Andrea 3 4.00 1989
author: Kent Klich
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1989
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/11
date added: 2025/04/11
shelves:
review:
The story of drug addicted sex worker Beth is sad and tragic. I thought the photographs in the book weren’t anything special but Beth truly came to life in the included text.
]]> 217245586 From New York Times bestselling author Domenica Ruta comes a heartfelt, hilarious novel about a single mom reimagining what the perfect family looks like—welcome to “the mommune.��

While her whole life crumbles around her, Sandy is stalking her ex's Instagram. Specifically, she is scrolling through his follower list, desperately trying to find the other woman she suspects he has a child with.

After a series of disastrous romantic choices, Sandy makes her greatest mistake yet when she gets��unexpectedly pregnant in her mid-30s by a dating-app flop. Sandy tries to maintain something like a normal life with her daughter’s dad,��a wannabe rock star,��and his icy, codependent��mother.��But finding out that her��baby has a half-sibling she doesn’t know anything about is a bridge too far. Sandy has to talk to this woman.

Enter Stephanie, the other mother. Sandy is prepared to hate her but when the��two women meet, they are shocked to learn how much they have in common beyond the deadbeat father their children share. Now Sandy needs to figure out what her and Rosie’s family looks like with all these new additions. Could life in a mommune be the answer to her prayers,��or just a new brand of chaos? In��this winning story of family both chosen and created, Sandy is about to discover that when nothing goes as planned, the best things become possible.]]> 304 Domenica Ruta 059373405X Andrea 0 to-read 3.73
author: Domenica Ruta
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.73
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 193745665 This powerful and moving novel from the New York Times bestselling author of A Long Petal of the Sea weaves together past and present, tracing the ripple effects of war and immigration on one child in Europe in 1938 and another in the United States in 2019.

Vienna, 1938. Samuel Adler was six years old when his father disappeared during Kristallnacht—the night their family lost everything. Samuel’s mother secured a spot for him on the last Kindertransport train out of Nazi-occupied Austria to the United Kingdom, which he boarded alone, carrying nothing but a change of clothes and his violin.

Arizona, 2019. Eight decades later, Anita Diaz, a blind seven-year-old girl, and her mother board another train, fleeing looming danger in El Salvador and seeking refuge in the United States. However, their arrival coincides with the new family separation policy, and Anita finds herself alone at a camp in Nogales. She escapes through her trips to Azabahar, a magical world of the imagination she created with her sister back home.

Anita’s case is assigned to Selena Duran, a young social worker who enlists the help of a promising lawyer from one of San Francisco’s top law firms. Together they discover that Anita has another family member in the United States: Leticia Cordero, who is employed at the home of now eighty-six-year-old Samuel Adler, linking these two lives.

Spanning time and place, The Wind Knows My Name is both a testament to the sacrifices that parents make and a love letter to the children who survive the most unfathomable dangers—and never stop dreaming.]]> 8 Isabel Allende Andrea 4 audiobook 3.80 2023
author: Isabel Allende
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/04
date added: 2025/04/04
shelves: audiobook
review:
Isabel Allende dives into America’s immigration crisis in this novel. What was a bleak situation when this book was written is today far worse.
]]> 806934
It’s been months since the suicide of Darby Crash, L.A. punk rock icon and lead singer of the Germs. He checked out on the same day John Lennon was shot: December 8, 1980. But for Rockets Redglare, it feels like yesterday. Darby was the hot-as-sun center of Rockets’s world. Part ringleader, part god, and all charismatic manipulator, Darby was as close to family as a hustler and street kid like Rockets might ever get.

Now, as Rockets amps up for another night looking for tricks and scrounging a meal, Sex Pistols and X lyrics on repeat in his head, he knows he’s come to a turning point–the scene is changing, and nothing’s as easy as it was when Darby brought him into the fold.

From the underground clubs to the back of the giant “H�� in the Hollywood sign, Rockets and his crew of friends spend the night burning bridges, building new ones, tripping and talking and searching for answers. As the dark gives way to early morning, the punks and the cops engage in their ritual standoff–and Rockets faces the ultimate choice: Should he stay or should he go?]]> 368 Kief Hillsbery 0812973097 Andrea 3
I like books about the early LA punk rock scene so this was suited to my taste in that way. Lots of familiar names and places. I guess the author was actually born here in Portland but spent time in LA during the era he wrote about.]]> 3.87 2005
author: Kief Hillsbery
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/03
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves:
review:
I never fully adjusted to the vernacular used in this book—it threw me off. I found that my eyes just slid over the words and I had to really concentrate while reading. I liked the story, I even liked the style of writing—it was just difficult for me.

I like books about the early LA punk rock scene so this was suited to my taste in that way. Lots of familiar names and places. I guess the author was actually born here in Portland but spent time in LA during the era he wrote about.
]]> 20753922 90 J'aime Rubio 1481075047 Andrea 3 3.00 2012
author: J'aime Rubio
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/01
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves:
review:
2.5 stars. Some good historical info included in this book but it was uneven overall.
]]> 228730460
Appetite For Dysfunction is the first time Vicky candidly speaks out about the life she lived on the front lines, deep in the heartless world of the music business. Hamilton brings to this book her unbiased observations and shrewd glimpses about who these rock stars and executives are at the core of their beings, and about herself, as well. She expresses her gratitude for her historic past and her accomplishments, as well as her own shortcomings along the way. She shares her victories, her mistakes, the horror stories, and her dark comedic approach to “making it�� in the entertainment business. Even while getting her heart broken on many occasions, leading to some cataclysmic breakdowns, Vicky battles to hang on to her integrity. Painfully taking the highroad, as she loses her job at Capitol Records, while facing eviction and a phone that suddenly stopped ringing, Vicky holds her head high, humbly reinvents herself, and literally, goes on with the show.

Appetite For Dysfunction is a self-exploratory journey through Vicky’s life. A small-town girl who risks everything by dropping out of art school, leaving behind the safety of loved ones and small town values, and making her way to Hollywood. When Vicky arrived, she landed a job as a mere record store clerk, to then miraculously find herself deep in the trenches of an unscrupulous, male dominated, music entertainment business, and blossomed into Hollywood’s most controversial A&R woman and band manager.]]> Vicky L. Hamilton Andrea 3 audiobook 3.00
author: Vicky L. Hamilton
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.00
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/01
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: audiobook
review:

]]> 113514 Contributors include Mikita Brottman, Jack Sargeant, Nikolas Schreck, Stephen Barber and Jeremy Reed.

]]> 192 Namida King 1840680903 Andrea 4 3.08 2003
author: Namida King
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.08
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/30
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars. Book consists of essays by different authors detailing famous suicides. I found the essays informative and relatively well done—there was only one that I didn’t like.
]]> 57378791
Painstakingly researched and illustrated, Schechter and Powell's true-crime graphic novel takes the Gein story out of the realms of exploitation and gives the reader a fact-based dramatization of these tragic, psychotic and heartbreaking events. Because, in this case, the truth needs no embellishment to be horrifying.]]> 224 Harold Schechter 1949889041 Andrea 4 Well done and very creepy. 4.23 2021
author: Harold Schechter
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/29
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves:
review:
Well done and very creepy.
]]> 228477286
In this reexamination of the escape and its aftermath, the Anglin brothers' nephew presents compelling evidence that his uncles did, in fact, survive, and eventually made their way to Brazil, where they married and had children. Using official, government documents showing how mobster Mickey Cohen may have been involved in the escape, some revealing letters from fellow inmate Whitey Bulger, and recorded testimony from the person who facilitated their escape to Brazil, the authors make a strong case for the Anglin brothers' survival.

In addition, a 1975 photograph of the brothers in Brazil has overcome all challenges to its authenticity by skeptics. This book provides a plausible outcome to one of America's enduring mysteries.]]> Ken Widner Andrea 4 audiobook 3.50
author: Ken Widner
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.50
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/26
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: audiobook
review:
3.5 stars. A semi-convincing story that the escapees survived. Interesting. Didn’t care so much for the ending of the book where the authors detailed their difficulties in getting their story told.
]]> 220239062
Twice a month the women of the Wheel meet. New members bring cash to add to a pool and then gift to one lucky member. It’s all about giving back. Lifting each other up—as women should, as they must.

When Harper is invited, with the promise of an end to her financial burdens, the sisters inadvertently unleash a darkness lurking within the group. If they’re not careful it might just get them killed.]]> 368 Megan Abbott 0593084969 Andrea 0 to-read 3.85 2025
author: Megan Abbott
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 775513 378 Mark Paytress 0711992932 Andrea 4 4.00 2003
author: Mark Paytress
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves:
review:

]]> 57624298 Listening Length = 9 hours and 15 minutes

The New York Times bestselling author of Pandora's Jar and Stone Blind returns with a powerful retelling of Oedipus and Antigone from the perspectives of the women the myths overlooked.

When you have grown up as I have, there is no security in not knowing things, in avoiding the ugliest truths because they can't be faced . . . Because that is what happened the last time, and that is why my siblings and I have grown up in a cursed house, children of cursed parents . . .

Jocasta is just fifteen when she is told that she must marry the King of Thebes, an old man she has never met. Her life has never been her own, and nor will it be, unless she outlives her strange, absent husband.

Ismene is the same age when she is attacked in the palace she calls home. Since the day of her parents' tragic deaths a decade earlier, she has always longed to feel safe with the family she still has. But with a single act of violence, all that is about to change.

With the turn of these two events, a tragedy is set in motion. But not as we’ve known it.]]> Natalie Haynes Andrea 4 audiobook 3.5 stars. 3.81 2017
author: Natalie Haynes
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/21
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves: audiobook
review:
3.5 stars.
]]> 228538673 123 Lisa Carver Andrea 4 4.60
author: Lisa Carver
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.60
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/20
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves:
review:
Lover of Leaving is Lisa Carver exposing herself in a very intimate way. I always love reading her work and this was no exception.
]]> 57933338 The epic story of Violeta del Valle, a woman whose life spans one hundred years and bears witness to the greatest upheavals of the twentieth century.

Violeta comes into the world on a stormy day in 1920, the first girl in a family of five boisterous sons. From the start, her life will be marked by extraordinary events, for the ripples of the Great War are still being felt, even as the Spanish flu arrives on the shores of her South American homeland almost at the moment of her birth.

Through her father's prescience, the family will come through that crisis unscathed, only to face a new one as the Great Depression transforms the genteel city life she has known. Her family loses all and is forced to retreat to a wild and beautiful but remote part of the country. There, she will come of age, and her first suitor will come calling. . . .

She tells her story in the form of a letter to someone she loves above all others, recounting devastating heartbreak and passionate affairs, times of both poverty and wealth, terrible loss and immense joy. Her life will be shaped by some of the most important events of history: the fight for women's rights, the rise and fall of tyrants, and, ultimately, not one but two pandemics.

Told through the eyes of a woman whose unforgettable passion, determination, and sense of humor will carry her through a lifetime of upheaval, Isabel Allende once more brings us an epic that is both fiercely inspiring and deeply emotional.]]> 322 Isabel Allende 0593496205 Andrea 5 3.97 2022
author: Isabel Allende
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/18
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves:
review:
It’s been too long since I’ve read an Isabel Allende book—it’s always a pleasure to immerse myself in her characters.
]]> 228713890
Narrado a través de las anotaciones dispersas del diario en el que la protagonista lleva el registro de las ceremonias y de sus descubrimientos; toma forma este libro de la noche. Sus páginas se ocultan en recovecos secretos; acaso sin esperanza de liberación; apenas para que alguien sepa de ellas cuando ya no estén.]]> 5 Agustina Bazterrica 1797190199 Andrea 4 audiobook 3.26 2023
author: Agustina Bazterrica
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.26
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/17
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: audiobook
review:
3.5 stars. Chilling but not as good as Tender Is the Flesh.
]]> 223452877 86 Tony O'Neill Andrea 5 4.00
author: Tony O'Neill
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/15
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves:
review:
A new Tony O’Neill book is a cause to rejoice. No one details the trials of the modern day junkie like O’Neill and I loved every word of these sordid stories.
]]> 215991437
This chilling, sizzling, and addictive thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Vi Keeland follows a New York psychiatrist’s dark descent into dangerous obsession.

This isn’t a love story.

It’s a story about obsession.

After experiencing a terrible loss, New York City psychiatrist Meredith McCall feels painfully adrift. When she crosses paths with a man with whom she has a tragic connection, she follows him, sparking an unhealthy obsession with Gabriel Wright. How is he doing so well while her life is in shambles?

But when Gabriel walks into her office as a patient, seemingly unaware of who she is, she knows it crosses all ethical and moral bounds to treat him. Yet, Meredith can’t bring herself to turn him away and becomes further entangled. With her life and career continuing to unravel, it appears that things could not get any worse…until they do.]]> Vi Keeland Andrea 3 audiobook 3.71 2024
author: Vi Keeland
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/14
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: audiobook
review:

]]> 199213701
A semifamous artist announces her plan to drive cross-country, from LA to New York. Twenty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, beds down in a nondescript motel, and immerses herself in a temporary reinvention that turns out to be the start of an entirely different journey.

Miranda July’s second novel confirms the brilliance of her unique approach to fiction. With July’s wry voice, perfect comic timing, unabashed curiosity about human intimacy, and palpable delight in pushing boundaries, All Fours tells the story of one woman’s quest for a new kind of freedom. Part absurd entertainment, part tender reinvention of the sexual, romantic, and domestic life of a forty-five-year-old female artist, All Fours transcends expectation while excavating our beliefs about life lived as a woman. Once again, July hijacks the familiar and turns it into something new and thrillingly, profoundly alive.]]> Miranda July Andrea 3 audiobook 3.37 2024
author: Miranda July
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/10
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: audiobook
review:

]]> 216970872 The frank and revealing memoir of a writer who draws from her own creativity to heal.

"I believe our bodies are carriers of experience," Lidia Yuknavitch writes in her provocative memoir Reading the Waves. "I mean to ask if there is a way to read my own past differently, using what I have learned from how stories repeat and reverberate and release us from the tyranny of our mistakes, our traumas, and our confusions."

Drawing on her background -- her father's abuse, her complicated dynamic with her disabled mother, the death of her child, her sexual relationships with men and women -- and her creative life as an author and teacher, Yuknavitch has come to understand that by using the power of literature and storytelling to reframe her memories, she can loosen the bonds that have enslaved her emotional growth. Armed with this insight, she allows herself to look with the eye of an artist at the wounds she suffered and come to understand the transformational power this has to restore her soul.��

By turns candid and lyrical, stoic and forgiving, blunt and evocative, Reading the Waves reframes memory to��show how crucial this process�� can be to gaining a deeper understanding of ourselves.]]> 224 Lidia Yuknavitch 0593713052 Andrea 4 4.42 2025
author: Lidia Yuknavitch
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/09
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves:
review:
A very intimate and inspiring book.
]]> 150334011 0 Kiana Davenport 1501201751 Andrea 4 audiobook 4.50 2012
author: Kiana Davenport
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/30
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves: audiobook
review:
I love Kiana Davenport’s writing so this audiobook was a pleasure to listen to. Great narration and interesting stories.
]]> 221550253 From one of our most accomplished storytellers, an extraordinary and arresting novel about a women’s asylum in the nineteenth century, and a terrifying doctor who wants to change the world

In this harrowing story based on authentic historical documents, we follow the career of Dr. Silas Weir, “Father of Gyno-Psychiatry,�� as he ascends from professional anonymity to national renown. Humiliated by a procedure gone terribly wrong, Weir is forced to take a position at the New Jersey Asylum for Female Lunatics, where he reigns. There, he is allowed to continue his practice, unchecked for decades, making a name for himself by focusing on women who have been neglected by the state—women he subjects to the most grotesque modes of experimentation. As he begins to establish himself as a pioneer of nineteenth-century surgery, Weir’s ambition is fueled by his obsessive fascination with a young Irish indentured servant named Brigit, who becomes not only Weir’s primary experimental subject, but also the agent of his destruction.

Narrated by Silas Weir’s eldest son, who has repudiated his father’s brutal legacy, Butcher is a unique blend of fiction and fact, a nightmare voyage through the darkest regions of the American psyche conjoined, in its startling conclusion, with unexpected romance. Once again, Joyce Carol Oates has written a spellbinding novel confirming her position as one of our celebrated American visionaries of the imagination.]]> Joyce Carol Oates Andrea 4 audiobook 3.14 2024
author: Joyce Carol Oates
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.14
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/06
date added: 2025/03/06
shelves: audiobook
review:
3.5 stars. Good narration for this horrific audiobook.
]]> 207991370 What Strange Paradiseand Mohsin Hamid's Exit West, a searing exploration of the global migration crisis that moves from Nigeria to Libya to Italy, from an exciting new literary voice.

Able God works for low pay at a four-star hotel where he must flash his "toothpaste-white smile" for wealthy guests. When not tending to the hotel's overprivileged clientele, he muses over self-help books and draws life lessons from the game of chess.

But Able's ordinary life is upended when an early morning room service order leads him to interfere with Akudo, a sex worker involved with a powerful but dangerous hotel guest. Suddenly caught in a web of violence, guilt, and fear, Able must run to save himself--a journey that leads him into the desert with a group of drug-addled migrants, headed by a charismatic religious leader calling himself Ben Ten. The travelers' dream of reaching Europe and a new life in a better place is shattered when they fall prey to human traffickers, suffer starvation, and find themselves on the precipice of death, fighting for their lives and their freedom.

As Able God moves into the treacherous unknown, his consciousness becomes focused on survival and the foundations of his beliefs--his ideas about betterment and salvation--are forever altered. Suspenseful, incisive, and illuminating, The Road to the Salt Sea is a story of family, fate, religion, survival, the failures of the Nigerian class system, and what often happens to those who seek their fortunes elsewhere.]]> 1 Samuel Kolawole Andrea 4 audiobook 4.00 2024
author: Samuel Kolawole
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/28
date added: 2025/02/28
shelves: audiobook
review:

]]> 17574852 64 Mikhail Bulgakov 0811221687 Andrea 0 to-read 3.86 1926
author: Mikhail Bulgakov
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1926
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 58733606
From two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author Colson Whitehead, a gloriously entertaining novel of heists, shakedowns, and rip-offs set in Harlem in the 1960s.

"Ray Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked..."

To his customers and neighbors on 125th street, Carney is an upstanding salesman of reasonably priced furniture, making a decent life for himself and his family. He and his wife Elizabeth are expecting their second child, and if her parents on Striver's Row don't approve of him or their cramped apartment across from the subway tracks, it's still home.

Few people know he descends from a line of uptown hoods and crooks, and that his façade of normalcy has more than a few cracks in it. Cracks that are getting bigger all the time.

Cash is tight, especially with all those installment-plan sofas, so if his cousin Freddie occasionally drops off the odd ring or necklace, Ray doesn't ask where it comes from. He knows a discreet jeweler downtown who doesn't ask
questions, either.

Then Freddie falls in with a crew who plan to rob the Hotel Theresa - the "Waldorf of Harlem" - and volunteers Ray's services as the fence. The heist doesn't go as planned; they rarely do. Now Ray has a new clientele, one made up of shady cops, vicious local gangsters, two-bit pornographers, and other assorted Harlem lowlifes.

Thus begins the internal tussle between Ray the striver and Ray the crook. As Ray navigates this double life, he begins to see who actually pulls the strings in Harlem. Can Ray avoid getting killed, save his cousin, and grab his share of the big score, all while maintaining his reputation as the go-to source for all your quality home furniture needs?

'Harlem Shuffle's' ingenious story plays out in a beautifully recreated New York City of the early 1960s. It's a family saga masquerading as a crime novel, a hilarious morality play, a social novel about race and power, and ultimately a love letter to Harlem.

But mostly, it's a joy to listen to, another dazzling novel from the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning Colson Whitehead.]]> 11 Colson Whitehead 0593455568 Andrea 4 audiobook 3.57 2021
author: Colson Whitehead
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/24
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves: audiobook
review:
3.5 stars. Reminded me a little of Walter Mosley’s detective fiction.
]]> 224004794 176 Layne Staley Andrea 0 to-read 0.0
author: Layne Staley
name: Andrea
average rating: 0.0
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 6560822
Based on the true story of Matt Bondurant’s grandfather and two granduncles, The Wettest County in the World is a gripping and gritty tale of bootlegging, brotherhood, and murder.

The Bondurant Boys were a notorious gang of roughnecks and moonshiners who ran liquor through Franklin County, Virginia, during Prohibition and in the years after. Howard, the eldest brother, is an ox of a man besieged by the horrors he witnessed in the Great War; Forrest, the middle brother, is fierce, mythically indestructible, and the consummate businessman; and Jack, the youngest, has a taste for luxury and a dream to get out of Franklin. Driven and haunted, these men forge a business, fall in love, and struggle to stay afloat as they watch their family die, their father's business fail, and the world they know crumble beneath the Depression and drought.

White mule, white lightning, firewater, popskull, wild cat, stump whiskey, or rotgut—whatever you called it, Franklin County was awash in moonshine in the 1920s. When Sherwood Anderson, the journalist and author of Winesburg, Ohio, was covering a story there, he christened it the “wettest county in the world.�� In the twilight of his career, Anderson finds himself driving along dusty red roads trying to find the Bondurant brothers, piece together the clues linking them to “The Great Franklin County Moonshine Conspiracy,�� and break open the silence that shrouds Franklin County.

In vivid, muscular prose, Matt Bondurant brings these men—their dark deeds, their long silences, their deep desires—to life. His understanding of the passion, violence, and desperation at the center of this world is both heartbreaking and magnificent.]]> 312 Matt Bondurant 1416561404 Andrea 4 3.97 2008
author: Matt Bondurant
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/23
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves:
review:

]]> 205223928 In this stunning debut novel, four generations of complex Black women contend with motherhood and daughterhood, generational trauma and the deeply ingrained tensions and wounds that divide them as they redefine happiness and healing for themselves.

Erudite Evelyn, her cynical daughter Charlotte, and Charlotte's optimistic daughter Corinna see the world very differently. Though they love each other deeply, it's no wonder that their personalities often clash. But their conflicts go deeper than run-of-the-mill disagreements. Here, there is deep, dark resentment for past and present hurt.

When Corinna gives birth to her own daughter, Camille, the beautiful, intelligent little girl offers this trio of mothers something they all need: hope, joy, and an opportunity to reconcile. They decide to work together to raise their collective daughter with the tenderness and empathy they missed in their own relationships. Yet despite their best intentions, they cannot agree on what that means.

After Camille eventually leaves her mother and grandmother in rural Tennessee for a more cosmopolitan life in Washington, DC with her great-grandmother, it's unclear whether this complex and self-contained girl will thrive or be overwhelmed by the fears and dreams of three generations she carries. As she grows into a gutsy young woman, Camille must decide for herself what happiness will look like.

In masterful, elegant prose, debut novelist Sarai Johnson has created a rich and moving portrait of Black women's lives today.]]> 1 Sarai Johnson Andrea 4 audiobook 4.23 2024
author: Sarai Johnson
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/19
date added: 2025/02/19
shelves: audiobook
review:

]]> 460964 192 Harry Crews 0689707150 Andrea 4 3.5 stars. 3.98 1976
author: Harry Crews
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1976
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/19
date added: 2025/02/19
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars.
]]> 396061 Born in Louisiana to a family legacy of great courage and greater wildness, Jerry Lee was torn throughout his life between a demanding Pentecostal God and the Devil of alcohol, drugs, and the boogie-woogie piano. At fourteen he began performing publicly, and at twenty-two he recorded "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On", which propelled him to stardom. But almost immediately, news of his marriage to his thirteen-year-old cousin nearly destroyed his career. Over the next twenty years, Jerry Lee would rise again as a country star, and lose it all to his addictions to alcohol, drugs, and his own fame. Hellfire is an audacious, artful look directly into the soul of a rock 'n' roll legend.]]> 276 Nick Tosches 0802135668 Andrea 4 4.24 1982
author: Nick Tosches
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1982
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/16
date added: 2025/02/16
shelves:
review:

]]> 212924044 In the latest from “mystery master�� Walter Mosley, a family member’s terminal illness leads P.I. Joe King Oliver to the investigation of his tracking down his long-lost father, and meanwhile, a new case pits King’s professional responsibility against his own moral code. (TheWashington Post)
��
Praise for the novels of Walter
��
“A master of the genre…Mosley’s writing is so rich, and his characters are not like anyone else’s, anywhere. It’s noir with a social conscience, noir with its thinking cap on�� revelatory.�� �� Tracy Clark, Washington Post
��
"Skitters across the spectrum between orthodox and radical like a polygraph needle wired to a nervy accomplice. . . deliciously gritty noir."��Daniel Nieh , New York Times Book Review
��
“The evocative prose and astute observations about human nature, race relations and family bonds that have distinguished Mosley's writing for some 30 years."��Paula Woods , Los Angeles Times
��
“As knotty as the plot can get, the book is consistently lifted by the intelligence of its characters…Mosley is in top form as a social Absolute poverty, muses his protagonist, is being ‘the experience of being slowly murdered by a state of being.�� Mosley's reportorial eye is equally sharp in making details count…”�� Kirkus Reviews
��
“a modern master of the noir form, ... Mosley knows exactly how to craft a mystery that keeps you at the edge of your seat all the while forcing you to reckon with sinister forces at the heart of American society." �� Dwyer Murphy , CrimeReads
��
“Mosley is a master of craft and narrative, and through his incredibly vibrant and diverse body of work, our literary heritage has truly been enriched.”��National Book Foundation
��
"Few mystery writers can examine issues of race—how it divides and binds people—as clearly and unflinchingly as Walter Mosley."��Oline Cogdill, Associated Press ]]> 336 Walter Mosley 0316573264 Andrea 4 audiobook 3.97
author: Walter Mosley
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.97
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/13
date added: 2025/02/13
shelves: audiobook
review:

]]> 226183408
Martin Wade lived hard in his youth, but unlike many of his former bandmates and roadie friends, he didn’t die young. Instead he hit the recovery path, cleaned up his life, and became a private investigator in a dying city in upstate New York.

When his heavily tattooed and scarred assistant Valerie sets up an appointment with a young woman who needs help keeping her biological father away from her, none of the three realize that the father is Martin’s old bandmate, still using, and on a destructive path that will soon be headed straight for Martin’s clean life. As Martin struggles, Valerie becomes increasingly obsessed with their new client’s life.]]> Libby Cudmore Andrea 3 audiobook 3.25
author: Libby Cudmore
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.25
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/09
date added: 2025/02/09
shelves: audiobook
review:

]]> 223273765 Praise for Oblivion Angels and Sheldon Lee Compton

“Oblivion Angels is a multi-generational micro-saga of family dynamics, alcoholism, and all the impossible dichotomies of eastern Kentucky life. Compton’s characters are so flawed and familiar that you can’t help but love them. This novel replicates perfectly how it feels to grieve, to thirst, and to parent a child through the tangled time warp of addiction. A deeply thoughtful story written with tender respect for its subjects and setting.��
–Leah Hampton, author of F*ckface and Other Stories

“Sheldon Lee Compton's beautifully written Oblivion Angels is a remarkable achievement, one of the most honest and heartbreaking novels I have ever read.��
–Donald Ray Pollock, author of The Devil All the Time and The Heavenly Table

“Tracking its compelling cast of characters across several Kentucky counties and four decades, Oblivion Angels is a hard-driving, huge-hearted dynamo of a book. In razor-sharp prose, Compton captures the complex nature of family and the resilient power of human connection. Certain writers make you want to read, and others make you want to write. Sheldon Lee Compton does both.��
–Ryan Ridge, author of Hunters & Gamblers and New Bad News

“Oblivion Angels is a stark but intimate depiction of how family dynamics are intertwined with addiction. Excessive alcohol, meth, and pain pills are easily acquired in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky, and they make their way through every generation of the Reed Family. Sheldon Lee Compton brings this family to life in a fast-paced story that illuminates a bleak world of violence and heartache.��
–Denton Loving, author of Tamp

“Compton has proven once again why he is the writer’s writer of Appalachian noir.��
–Wes Browne, author of They All Fall the Same

Cowboy Jamboree Press
good grit lit.]]> 193 Sheldon Lee Compton Andrea 0 to-read 5.00
author: Sheldon Lee Compton
name: Andrea
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 23602559
Here is the newly discovered novel by Iceberg Slim, the creator and undisputed master of African-American "street literature," a man who profoundly influenced hip hop and rap culture and probably has sold more books than any other black American author of the twentieth century (not that he saw the royalties from those sales). In many ways Iceberg Slim's most mature fictional work,�� Shetani's Sister ��relates, in taut, evocative vernacular torn straight from the street corner, the deadly duel between two complex Sergeant Russell Rucker, an LAPD vice detective attempting to clean up street prostitution and police corruption, and Shetani (Swahili for Satan), a veteran master pimp who controls his stable of whores with violence and daily doses of heroin.]]> 256 Iceberg Slim 1101872594 Andrea 4 4.06 2015
author: Iceberg Slim
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/07
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 211720703 The New York Times bestselling multitalented artist delivers an electrifying novel��The Accomplice—that combines the imaginative page-turning suspense of S. A. Cosby’s books with the high-tension thrills of the Netflix blockbuster series Money Heist.

In The Accomplice, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson and award-winning mystery writer Aaron Philip Clark introduce readers to New York-born and Texas-bred Nia Adams, who always dreamt of becoming a Texas Ranger. She knows the dangers of the job, and as the first Black female ranger, she knows the politics, but she’s never encountered a criminal like Desmond Bell. A Vietnam vet turned thief, Desmond steals more than money; he steals the secrets of the rich and powerful and blackmails them for millions. When Desmond steals from the Duchamps, the wealthiest family in the country, Nia’s investigation into the robbery threatens to expose him and the criminal enterprise he works for. As the bodies pile up, Nia digs deeper for the truth, putting her life and]]> 1 50 Cent Andrea 4 audiobook 3.5 stars. 3.47
author: 50 Cent
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.47
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/06
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves: audiobook
review:
3.5 stars.
]]> 222419255
It’s the winter of 1975, and Duane Minor, back home in Portland, Oregon, after a tour in Vietnam, is struggling to quell his anger and keep his drinking in check, keep his young marriage intact, and keep the nightmares away. Things get even more complicated when his thirteen-year-old niece, Julia, is sent across the country to live with Duane and his wife Heidi. But slowly, carefully, guided by Heidi’s love and patience, the three of them are building a family.

Then Minor crosses the wrong man: John Varley, a criminal with a bloody history and a trail of bodies behind him. Varley, who sleeps during the day beneath loose drifts of earth and grows teeth in the light of the moon. In an act of brutal retaliation, Varley kills Heidi, leaving Minor broken with guilt and Julia filled with rage. The two of them are left united by only one thing: the desire for vengeance.

As their quest brings them into the dark orbit of immortal, undead children, silver bullet casters, and the bevy of broken men drawn to Varley’s ferocity, Minor and Julia follow his path of destruction from the gritty alleyways of 1970s Portland to the desolate highways of the Northwest and the snow-lashed plains of North Dakota—only to have Varley turn his vicious power back on them. Who will prevail, who will survive, and what remains of our humanity when our thirst for revenge trumps everything else?]]> 320 Keith Rosson 0593733401 Andrea 0 to-read 4.60
author: Keith Rosson
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.60
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 35756826
Long before the Grammy nominations, sold-out performances at Carnegie Hall, and Hollywood friends and lovers, Ryan Adams fronted a Raleigh, North Carolina, outfit called Whiskeytown. Lumped into the burgeoning alt-country movement, the band soon landed a major label deal and recorded an instant Strangers Almanac . That's when tour manager Thomas O'Keefe met the young musician.

For the next three years, Thomas was at Ryan's on the tour bus, in the hotels, backstage at the venues. Whiskeytown built a reputation for being, as the Detroit Free Press put it, "half band, half soap opera," and Thomas discovered that young Ryan was equal parts songwriting prodigy and drunken buffoon. Ninety percent of the time, Thomas could talk Ryan into doing the right thing. Five percent of the time, he could cover up whatever idiotic thing Ryan had done. But the final five percent? Whiskeytown was screwed.

Twenty-plus years later, accounts of Ryan's legendary antics are still passed around in music circles. But only three people on the planet witnessed every Whiskeytown show from the release of Strangers Almanac to the band's eventual Ryan, fiddle player Caitlin Cary, and Thomas O'Keefe.]]> 280 Thomas O'Keefe 1510724931 Andrea 4
This book makes Ryan sound like a very talented but temperamental asshole. It was fun to read about his exploits though.]]> 3.77
author: Thomas O'Keefe
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.77
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/03
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars. I was a big fan of Whiskeytown and Ryan Adams until Ryan was accused of sexually harassing several women. I still listen to his old music, I just haven’t bought any of his new stuff that’s come out since the allegations surfaced.

This book makes Ryan sound like a very talented but temperamental asshole. It was fun to read about his exploits though.
]]> 212431555
A deviously twisty novel of psychological suspense about secrets, neighbors, a need to belong, and murder by the award-winning author of The Maid’s Diary.

Socially awkward Chloe Cooper divides her time between dog walking, bartending, caring for her ailing mother, and at a safe distance, watching people and inventing the stories of their lives. Like Chloe’s new neighbors: glamorous influencer Jemma Spengler and Jemma’s husband, Adam, a renowned surgeon. They’re attractive, wealthy, and in a house of open windows, so exposed.

A move to the Pacific Northwest is supposed to be a fresh start for Jemma and Adam. It’s a renewed commitment to a marriage fractured by secrets. A chance to work through the tragic losses in their past. For Jemma, however, this new beginning also comes with an unnerving sensation that she’s being watched.

Then, on a fog-shrouded beach early in the morning, Chloe witnesses the murder of a swimmer. Her suspicions aroused, she suddenly sees her neighbors in a sinister new light. But as a detective and her partner close in, nothing is quite as it seems. Because the Spenglers are not the only ones with secrets. And Chloe isn’t the only one who’s been watching.]]> 10 Loreth Anne White Andrea 3 audiobook 3.93 2024
author: Loreth Anne White
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/02
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: audiobook
review:

]]> 128802696 0 Joan Baez Andrea 4 4.00 1989
author: Joan Baez
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1989
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves:
review:

]]> 210552643
A loving mother. A notorious murderer. They both have reasons to hide their secrets in a novel of escalating shock and suspense by New York Times bestselling author A. R. Torre.

Perla Wultz lives with her husband, Grant, and their precious daughter, Sophie, in a gated Pasadena community. Affluent, sociable, and accomplished, Perla plays the part of loving wife and mother to perfection. It seems an ideal life, if not for a decades-old crime that has become Perla’s dark and consuming secret obsession.

Twenty-three years ago, Leewood Folcrum confessed to murdering two young girls during a birthday party. Though he’s been condemned to a life sentence, his crime is not forgotten. Not by Perla, nor by an inquisitive doctoral student interviewing Folcrum for his dissertation. He’s getting the killer to open up—about his motives, his confession, and the truth of what really happened on that horrible night.

As the past and the present entwine, the deceptions behind the infamous murder begin to surface. But who’s deceiving who now? And why? And as an ingeniously twisted plan is set in motion, who will be the next to die?]]> A.R. Torre Andrea 4 audiobook 4.01 2024
author: A.R. Torre
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/28
date added: 2025/01/28
shelves: audiobook
review:

]]> 130375769 0 E.J. Bellocq Andrea 4 4.00 1970
author: E.J. Bellocq
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1970
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/28
date added: 2025/01/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 40491424
Upcoming genre stars like Alison Gaylin team up with crime fiction legends such as Reed Farrel Coleman, along with Cate Holahan, Gabino Iglesias, Ross E. Lockhart, Tony McMillen, and many of the most exciting new names in crime and horror fiction, who teach us that a perfect day is often anything but, that the power of positive drinking is a destructive force rarely contained, and that knock-down-drag-out drag queens are probably way tougher than you.

Dedicated to the memory and works of Jonathan Ashley.]]> 318 David James Keaton 1948235498 Andrea 4 4.08 2018
author: David James Keaton
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/26
date added: 2025/01/26
shelves:
review:

]]> 83958 Beautifully printed in tritone, this remarkable collection of photographs captures the texture of circus life outside of the ring - exhausting, humorous, poignant, and often bizarre - as well as the affection and devotion that the performers have for each other and their animals.
Indian Circus is documentary photography at its finest. The photographs are not only compelling portraits of the performers, but also eloquent and poetic narratives about life in the Indian circus.]]> 107 Mary Ellen Mark 081180531X Andrea 5 4.45 1993
author: Mary Ellen Mark
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.45
book published: 1993
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/25
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves:
review:

]]> 223205061 A young, aspiring writer desperate for a break…and the legendary Andy Warhol superstar who gave him the story of a lifetime.


By the mid-1980s, Holly Woodlawn, once lauded by George Cukor for her performance in the 1970 Warhol production and Paul Morrissey directed��Trash, was washed up. Over. Kaput. She was living in a squalid Hollywood apartment with her dog and bottles of Chardonnay. A chance meeting with starry-eyed corn-fed Missouri-born Jeff Copeland, who moved to Hollywood with dreams of ‘making it�� as a television writer, changed the course of BOTH of their lives forever.


Love You Madly, Holly Woodlawn��is a story of how an unlikely friendship with a young gay writer and an, ahem, mature trans actress and performer created the bestselling autobiography of 1991,��A Low Life in High Heels. This book about writing a book is a celebration of chutzpa and love as Holly, the embodiment of Auntie Mame, introduces Jeff to the glamorous (and sometimes larcenous) world of a Warhol Superstar. In turn, Jeff uses his writing (and typing) talent to give Holly the second chance at fame she craved.


In turns hilarious and heartwarming,��Love You Madly, Holly Woodlawn��is a portrait of the real Holly who loved deeply, laughed loudly, and left mayhem in her wake. Foreword by queer icon and author, Simon Doonan.]]> 296 Jeff Copeland 1627311696 Andrea 0 to-read 4.67
author: Jeff Copeland
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.67
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 222420668 72 Larry Clark 1913288757 Andrea 4 4.00
author: Larry Clark
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/23
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves:
review:

]]> 58202774 Winner of the American Book Award, Across a Hundred Mountains is a “timely and riveting�� (People) novel about a young girl who leaves her small town in Mexico to find her father, who left his family to work in America—a story of migration, loss, and discovery.

After a tragedy separates her from her mother, Juana García leaves in search of her father, who left them two years earlier. Out of money and in need of someone to help her across the border, Juana meets Adelina Vasquez, a young woman who left her family in California to follow her lover to Mexico. Finding themselves—in a Tijuana jail—in desperate circumstances, they offer each other much needed material and spiritual support and ultimately become linked forever in the most unexpected of ways.

In Across a Hundred Mountains, Reyna Grande puts a human face on the controversial issue of immigration, helping readers to better understand “the desperation of illegal immigrants and the families they leave behind�� (Entertainment Weekly) in pursuit of a better life.]]> Reyna Grande 1797129813 Andrea 3 audiobook 3.73 2006
author: Reyna Grande
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/23
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves: audiobook
review:

]]> 211200375 412 Michael Brodie 1936611236 Andrea 5 4.38
author: Michael Brodie
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.38
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/22
date added: 2025/01/22
shelves:
review:
This book is huge for a photography book and it covers a lot of territory. There are some portraits of the type Brodie is known for but there are also a lot of industrial shots. The overall effect is intense in the extreme.
]]> 205307210 Horse Girl Fever is a hilariously weird collection, part autofiction, part outlandish daydream, that celebrates the horse girl within all of us.

From cult author of The Red-Headed Pilgrim, Kevin Maloney delivers a vision of the world that is hysterical, terrifying, and true. A cuckolded husband finds a new identity as a ghost. A homeowner has a nervous breakdown while building a pergola. An angst-ridden teenager finds his spiritual equal in the mosh pit of an Alice in Chains concert.��

In fourteen brutally funny stories, Horse Girl Fever plunges the reader into a world of misfits—inept drug smugglers, tattooed office workers, and philosophical strip club bouncers—who fumble toward the light but often end up flailing. Maloney’s writing conjures a dazzling spectrum of pain, joy, and humanity, peeking into the darkest corners of reality while high on Whippets.]]> 146 Kevin Maloney 1960988360 Andrea 5 3.92 2025
author: Kevin Maloney
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/21
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves:
review:
I so looked forward to this book and it didn’t let me down. I love Kevin Maloney’s writing and these quirky stories were a pleasure to read.
]]> 214881978 Plagued by death on his conscience, Happy Doll has committed himself to a simple, spiritual life; that is, until a tragic and brutal murder forces his hand and sets him back on the bloody path of retribution and justice.

After narrowly escaping with his life at the hands of a murderous Hollywood pimp, detective Happy Doll, bullet-ridden but healing, has landed on a remote Mexican beach. In a humble shack and with his dog for company, Doll settles into a peaceful idyll of Buddhist study. But then trouble, as it always does, comes to paradise.�� Doll is the witness to a murder for which he is framed, and now, with an expired passport and the Mexican authorities on his tail, he must sneak across the border back to L.A. by any means necessary, with the goal of bringing the true murderer to justice.

But it's not just trouble that expels Doll from paradise!�� His dark past reaches for him, like a hand from the grave, old enemies want him dead, including the Jalisco Cartel, and Doll, a reluctant instrument of mayhem, yearns to end this cycle of violence and tip the karmic scales in his favor. But how can he do this without getting blood on his hands?

Karma Doll marks the third installment in a madcap, bloody, and impossibly fun series, bringing us back in the good company of Happy a beloved, introverted anti-hero who has taken more hits to the head than a linebacker, yet still always manages to come out on top.]]> 240 Jonathan Ames 0316576123 Andrea 4 audiobook 4.34
author: Jonathan Ames
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.34
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/21
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves: audiobook
review:

]]> 30688143 From the startlingly talented (New York Times) author of Everything Matters! the compelling story of a man who takes everything far too literally, and his adventures as the star of a reality TV show

"Nobody writing today walks the knife edge of cynicism and sentiment more bravely, intelligently and confidently than Ron Currie. By turns hilarious and heartfelt, The One-Eyed Man is a revelation, a wonder." --Richard Russo

Ron Currie s three previous works of fiction have dazzled readers and critics alike with their originality, audacity, and psychological insight. A writer of unique vision and huge imagination, Currie excels at creating complex, troubled, yet endearing characters, and his work has won comparison to everyone from Kurt Vonnegut to George Saunders.

K., the intriguing narrator of Currie s new novel, joins the ranks of other great American literary creations who show us something new about ourselves. Like Jack Gladney from White Noise, K. is possessed of a hyper-articulate exasperation with the world, and like Ignatius J. Reilly in A Confederacy of Dunces, he is a doomed truth teller whom everyone misunderstands. After his wife Sarah dies, K. loses his metaphorical capacity, becoming so wedded to the notion of clarity that he infuriates everyone, friends and strangers alike. When he intervenes in an armed robbery, K. finds himself both an inadvertent hero and the star of a new reality television program.

Together with Claire, a grocery store clerk with a sharp tongue and a yen for celebrity, he travels the country, ruffling feathers and gaining fame at the intersection of American politics and entertainment. But soon, through a conflagration of biblical proportions, he discovers that the world will fight viciously to preserve its delusions about itself.

K. s quixotic effort to fully understand the world he lives in makes for a singular and engaging novel, one which further establishes Ron Currie s position as one of today s rising stars in fiction.]]> 321 Ron Currie Jr. 0670025356 Andrea 4 3.65 2017
author: Ron Currie Jr.
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/19
date added: 2025/01/19
shelves:
review:

]]> 204133720
Alternating between present-day Brooklyn and Kentucky as it enters the 1960s, the story unfolds as Julia races to find Who was the woman in the photograph? Why was she on the bridge? And what happened to the baby? Each detail is more propulsive than the last as Julia unravels the mystery surrounding the Fairchilds of Gray Station and discovers a story more staggering than anything she could have imagined.]]> 0 Nathan Gower Andrea 4 audiobook 3.5 stars. 4.25 2024
author: Nathan Gower
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/18
date added: 2025/01/18
shelves: audiobook
review:
3.5 stars.
]]> 56165949
Make sure the wall you're against is solid enough to keep the monsters out.]]> 313 R.S. Merritt Andrea 3 audiobook 4.43 2020
author: R.S. Merritt
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/04
date added: 2025/01/17
shelves: audiobook
review:

]]> 146582045 398 Terry James Graham Andrea 3 3.00
author: Terry James Graham
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.00
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/17
date added: 2025/01/17
shelves:
review:
I’d been wanting to read this book for ages but couldn’t find a copy until the second edition was released. Terry Graham’s snarky tone wore on me at times but it was cool to read an insider’s take on the early LA punk scene and Gun Club.
]]> 208449589
I did not make hardcover versions of the individual novellas. I wanted the first hardcover to be a special edition that included the complete series. I broke the books up, so I figured it was my prerogative to reunite them. If you're reading this, you are holding one of the original print on demand copies of the entire Down and Out in Seattle and Tacoma Series. This book may have wound up obscure or infamous. Whether history lauded my work or dismissed it, the copy you now hold was certainly produced in limited quantities. Enjoy.]]> 340 Christopher J. Stockwell 1963805895 Andrea 4 4.00
author: Christopher J. Stockwell
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/16
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves:
review:
I got a little confused by all the back and forth in time but I enjoyed reading about Jack’s sad journey through mental illness, substance abuse, and homelessness.
]]> 16395913
In Leonard's first original e-book, U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (featured in Pronto and Riding the Rap) returns to the Eastern Kentucky coal-mining country of his youth. When Boyd Crowder, a mail-order-ordained minister who doesn't believe in paying his income taxes, decides to blow up the IRS building in Cincinnati, Givens is asked by the local marshal to intervene.

This sets up an inevitable confrontation between two men on opposite sides of the law who still have a lingering respect for each other. Throw into the mix Boyd's sister-in-law, Ava, who carries a torch for Raylan along with a deer rifle, and you've got a funny, adrenaline-charged novella only Leonard could have written.]]> 240 Elmore Leonard 5551096602 Andrea 4 audiobook 3.95 2001
author: Elmore Leonard
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/20
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: audiobook
review:

]]> 219240071
For the first time, uncover the untold story of an extraordinary artistic journey that shaped the greatest creative era in popular music history. Featuring in-depth musical and cultural analysis from legendary artists, critics, and thought leaders, including Barack and Michelle Obama, Questlove, Smokey Robinson, Janelle Monae, George Clinton, and many more, Audible's new, authorized Original invites audiences on an intimate and sweeping journey deeply infused with star-studded contributors�� unique experiences and impassioned fandom. Hosted by New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning culture critic Wesley Morris, The Wonder of Stevie revisits Wonder's iconic creative evolution, his transformative spiritual path, and the profound inspiration he drew from both the beauty and pain of the Black American experience—driving his eventual emergence as his generation’s most unflinching and uplifting artistic voice. With each episode dedicated to a particular album, listeners can follow Stevie Wonder’s classic period chronologically or jump to a favorite record or time period of interest.

Set to more than 40 of Wonder’s legendary tunes, the series culminates in a final moving episode exclusive to Audible that finds Stevie Wonder in a profound and enlightening conversation with former president Barack Obama. The Wonder of Stevie is the definitive celebration and examination of a towering icon at the absolute height of his creative powers. Sit back and "luxuriate" in his genius, as Morris puts it. It's time to discover the wonder of Stevie—once and for all.]]> 6 Wesley Morris Andrea 4 audiobook 4.32
author: Wesley Morris
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.32
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/11
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: audiobook
review:
I adore Stevie Wonder but I did not really care for the narrator of this audiobook. It was a pleasure to listen to Barack and Michelle Obama talk about Stevie and what he meant to them. Best part of the audiobook was at the end when the narrator, Barack, and Stevie had a discussion.
]]> 62366771 From New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Megan Abbott, an eerie and prescient novel about a family outing that takes a terrifying turn.

Honey, I just want you to have everything you ever wanted. That’s what Jacy’s mom always told her.

And Jacy felt like she finally did. Newly married and with a baby on the way, Jacy and her new husband Jed embark on their first road trip together to visit his father, Doctor Ash, in Michigan’s far-flung Upper Peninsula. The moment they arrive in the cozy cottage in the lush woods, Jacy feels bathed in love by the warm and hospitable Doctor Ash, if less so by his house manager, the enigmatic Mrs. Brandt.

But their Edenic first days take a turn when Jacy has a health scare. Swiftly, vacation activities are scrapped, and all eyes are on Jacy’s condition. At the same time, whispers about Jed’s long-dead mother and complicated family history seem eerily to be impeding upon the present. As the days pass, Jacy begins to feel trapped in the cottage, her every move surveilled, her body under the looking glass. But are her fears founded or is it paranoia, or cabin fever, or—as is suggested to her—a stubborn refusal to take necessary precautions? The dense woods surrounding the cottage are full of dangers, but are the greater ones inside?]]> 320 Megan Abbott 0593084934 Andrea 0 3.22 2023
author: Megan Abbott
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.22
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/09
shelves:
review:

]]> 220267535
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK Born to an American myth and raised in the wilds of Graceland, Lisa Marie Presley tells her whole story for the first time in this raw, riveting, one-of-a-kind memoir faithfully completed by her daughter, Riley Keough.

In 2022, Lisa Marie Presley asked her daughter to help finally finish her long-gestating memoir.

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 now grieved.

Riley got the tapes that her mother had recorded for the book, lay 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 toward 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 had 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.]]> 6 Lisa Marie Presley Andrea 4 audiobook 4.31 2024
author: Lisa Marie Presley
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/09
date added: 2025/01/09
shelves: audiobook
review:

]]> 199249360 In her most imaginative novel yet, #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jewell (None of This Is True) launches the Marvel Crime series of thriller books for adults with an original story starring the private detective Jessica Jones.

Meet Jessica Jones: Retired super hero, private investigator, loner. She tried her best to be a shiny spandex crimefighter, but that life only led to unspeakable trauma. Now she avoids that world altogether and works on surviving day-to-day in Hell’s Kitchen, New York.

The morning a distraught mother comes into her office, Jessica would prefer to nurse her hangover and try to forget last night’s poor choices. But something about Amber Randall’s story strikes a chord with her. Amber is adamant that something happened to her teenage twins while they were visiting their father in the UK. The twins don’t act like themselves, and they now have flawless skin, have lost their distinctive tics and habits, and keep talking about a girl named Belle. Amber insists her children have been replaced by something horrible, something “perfect.��

Traveling to a small village in the British countryside, Jessica meets the mysterious Belle, who lives a curiously isolated life in an old farmhouse with a strange woman who claims to be her guardian. Can this unworldly teenager really be responsible for the Randall twins�� new personas? Why does the strange little village of Barton Wallop seem to harbor dark energies and mysteries in its tight-knit community?

A mother’s intuition is never wrong. And Jessica knows that nothing in life is perfect—not these kids, not her on-again, off-again relationship with Luke Cage, and certainly not Jessica herself. But even as she tries to buy into the idea that better days are ahead, Jessica Jones has seen all too clearly that behind every promise of perfection trails a dark, dangerous shadow.

Breaking the Dark, the first book in the brand-new Marvel Crime series, introduces fans to a grittier, street-level side of the Marvel Universe, and will continue with original novels featuring fan-favorite characters like Luke Cage, written by S.A. Cosby, and Daredevil, written by Alex Segura.]]> Lisa Jewell Andrea 3 audiobook 3.82 2024
author: Lisa Jewell
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/06
date added: 2025/01/06
shelves: audiobook
review:

]]> 56029087
A GAME OF THRONES

Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance. In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom’s protective Wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens.

Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; and a determined woman undertakes the most treacherous of journeys. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.
--back cover]]> 694 George R.R. Martin Andrea 4 4.53 1996
author: George R.R. Martin
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.53
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/04
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars. I just watched the whole series a few months ago. I liked it so I decided to check out the books but I found that the show stuck to the book and therefore the book had little to offer that the show didn’t cover. So I was a little bored sometimes. It’s definitely a good story but I don’t know if I’ll read any of the other books in the series.
]]> 209533181 In a frozen tundra, a sin-eater fights for redemption and absolution as monstrous creatures ravage a community already struggling to survive.

Sebastian Pana is a sin-eater, a shaman-like figure who can absolve the dead of their transgressions before they move on to the afterlife. But when a tear in the fabric of reality allows hideous beasts to invade the small arctic town he calls home, Sebastian must wage battle with them the only way he knows by unleashing the power of sin itself.

Thus, the stage is set for an epic confrontation between the forces of good and evil, in which a mother monster strives to save the dying land around her—and a young Inuit boy, haunted by Sebastian’s fate, risks everything to forge a new way forward for the desperate vestiges of humanity.

As an obliterating darkness descends from the frozen mountains, this profoundly redemptive tale will build toward a climactic showdown in which nature and the supernatural collide with the eternal quest for healing and forgiveness.

From an author who has been compared to Lovecraft, Bradbury, and Gaiman, Incarnate is a masterpiece of contemporary arctic horror—a dark, unsettling story told in a maximalist voice inflected with powerful notes of hope and grace.]]> 264 Richard Thomas 1039453201 Andrea 4 audiobook 3.69 2024
author: Richard Thomas
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: audiobook
review:
3.5 stars. Exceptional sensory writing. This was not my favorite Richard Thomas and I’m not sure audio was the best format but I was entertained.
]]> 57925153 An authoritative, illuminating, and deeply humane history of addiction--a phenomenon that remains baffling and deeply misunderstood despite having touched countless lives--by an addiction psychiatrist striving to understand his own family and himself

Even after a decades-long opioid overdose crisis, intense controversy still rages over the fundamental nature of addiction and the best way to treat it. With uncommon empathy and erudition, Carl Erik Fisher draws on his own experience as a clinician, researcher, and alcoholic in recovery as he traces the history of a phenomenon that, centuries on, we hardly appear closer to understanding--let alone addressing effectively.

As a psychiatrist-in-training fresh from medical school, Fisher was soon face-to-face with his own addiction crisis, one that nearly cost him everything. Desperate to make sense of the condition that had plagued his family for generations, he turned to the history of addiction, learning that the current quagmire is only the latest iteration of a centuries-old story: humans have struggled to define, treat, and control addictive behavior for most of recorded history, including well before the advent of modern science and medicine.

A rich, sweeping history that probes not only medicine and science but also literature, religion, philosophy, and sociology, The Urge illuminates the extent to which the story of addiction has persistently reflected broader questions of what it means to be human and care for one another. Fisher introduces us to the people who have endeavored to address this complex condition through the ages: physicians and politicians, activists and artists, researchers and writers, and of course the legions of people who have struggled with their own addictions. He also examines the treatments and strategies that have produced hope and relief for many people with addiction, himself included. Only by reckoning with our history of addiction, he argues--our successes and our failures--can we light the way forward for those whose lives remain threatened by its hold.

The Urge is at once an eye-opening history of ideas, a riveting personal story of addiction and recovery, and a clinician's urgent call for a more expansive, nuanced, and compassionate view of one of society's most intractable challenges.]]> 400 Carl Erik Fisher 073523700X Andrea 4 4.02 2022
author: Carl Erik Fisher
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves:
review:
I learned a lot from this book. It was refreshing that the author was positive about medication assisted therapies and alternative recovery options. Definitely recommended for anyone who has an interest.
]]> 25507760
In essays that take wide-ranging forms—making this an ideal volume for creative nonfiction classes—contributors write about families left behind, hard-earned educations, selves transformed, identities chosen, and risks taken. They consider the courage required for the inheritances they carry.

Toughness and generosity alike characterize works by Dorothy Allison, bell hooks, Silas House, and others. These writers travel far away from the boundaries of a traditional Appalachia, and then circle back—always—to the mountains that made each of them the distinctive thinking and feeling people they ultimately became. The essays in Walk Till the Dogs Get Mean are an individual and collective act of courage.

[Taken from official website]]]> 288 Adrian Blevins Andrea 3 4.24 2015
author: Adrian Blevins
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves:
review:
Some of my favorite authors have essays in this book but it didn’t wow me overall.
]]> 214537790 From��Pulitzer finalist, MacArthur Fellowship recipient, and bestselling��author of Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove. A gripping Dust Bowl epic about five characters whose fates become entangled after a storm ravages their small Nebraskan town

The Antidote opens on Black Sunday, as a historic dust storm ravages the fictional town of Uz, Nebraska. But Uz is already collapsing—not just under the weight of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl drought, but beneath its own violent histories. The Antidote follows a "Prairie Witch," whose body serves as a bank vault for peoples�� memories and secrets; a Polish wheat farmer who learns how quickly a hoarded blessing can become a curse; his orphan niece, a basketball star and witch’s apprentice in furious flight from her grief; a voluble scarecrow; and a New Deal photographer whose time-traveling camera threatens to reveal both the town’s secrets and its fate.

Russell's novel is above all a reckoning with a nation’s forgetting—enacting the settler amnesia and willful omissions passed down from generation to generation, and unearthing not only horrors but shimmering possibilities. The Antidote echoes with urgent warnings for our own climate emergency, challenging readers with a vision of what might have been—and what still could be.]]> 432 Karen Russell 059380225X Andrea 0 to-read 4.02 2025
author: Karen Russell
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 218671850 A reclusive journalist is suddenly thrown into a wild, suspenseful journey to rescue his kidnapped grandchildren.

A few weeks after the 2016 election, at Thanksgiving with his daughter and her belligerent new husband, Rhys Kinnick finally snapped. After an escalating fight about politics, he hauled off and punched the jerk. Immediately horrified by what he'd done, by the state of the world around him, and by his own spiraling mental health, Rhys chucked his smartphone out the car window and fled for a remote cabin in the woods of the Pacific Northwest.

Seven years later, when his grandchildren show up on his doorstep, Rhys barely recognizes them. Their mother has disappeared, and they need a safer place to stay than with their father, who has taken up with a Christian Nationalist militia. So what if Rhys’s cabin has no electricity or indoor plumbing, and the raccoons help themselves to the monthly grocery haul? He'll do whatever he needs to for these sweet kids.

But when the militia members show up and kidnap the children, Rhys realizes he'll have to re-enter the broken world. With the help of a bipolar retired detective and his caustic ex-girlfriend, Rhys reluctantly heads off on a madcap journey through the rubble of the life he left behind.]]> 272 Jess Walter 0062868144 Andrea 0 to-read 4.19 2025
author: Jess Walter
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 179109031 Discover the full story of the sorceress Medea, one of the most reviled and maligned women of Greek antiquity, in this propulsive and evocative debut in the tradition of Circe, Elektra, and Stone Blind.

Among the women of Greek mythology, the witch Medea may be the most despised. Known for the brutal act of killing her own children to exact vengeance on her deceitful husband, the Argonauts leader Jason, Medea has carved out a singularly infamous niche in our histories.

But what if that isn’t the full story?

The daughter of a sea nymph and the granddaughter of a Titan, Medea is a paradox. She is at once rendered compelling by virtue of the divinity that flows through her bloodline and made powerless by the fact of her being a woman. As a child, she intuitively submerges herself in witchcraft and sorcery, but soon finds it may not be a match for the prophecies that hang over her entire family like a shroud.

As Medea comes into her own as a woman and a witch, she also faces the arrival of the hero Jason, preordained by the gods to be not only her husband, but also her lifeline to escape her isolated existence. Medea travels the treacherous seas with the Argonauts, battles demons she had never conceived of, and falls in love with the man who may ultimately be her downfall.

In this propulsive, beautifully written debut, readers will finally hear Medea’s side of the story through a fresh and feminist lens.]]> Eilish Quin 179717178X Andrea 3 audiobook 3.48 2024
author: Eilish Quin
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/28
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: audiobook
review:
2.5 stars. I really disliked the narration of this audiobook and it prevented me from really getting into the story. The overall takeaway was mediocre at best.
]]> 222959659 10 Iris Berry Andrea 5 5.00
author: Iris Berry
name: Andrea
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/24
date added: 2024/12/24
shelves:
review:

]]> 217953015 From Moon Unit Zappa, the daughter of musical visionary Frank Zappa, comes a memoir of growing up in her unconventional household in 1970s Los Angeles, coming of age in the Hollywood Hills in the 1980s as the “Valley Girl,�� gaining momentum as an accidental VJ on a new network called MTV, and finding herself after losing her father, then her mother, and the testing of her most important relationships.

How can you navigate life as the “normal�� child of an extraordinary creative? What is it like to live in a hothouse of individuality that on one hand fosters freedom of expression, and on the other tamps down the basic desires of a child for boundaries and affection? Should you call your parents Frank and Gail from birth?

For Moon Unit Zappa, processing a life so punctuated by the whims of genius, the tastes of popular culture, the calculus of celebrity, and the nature of love, was at times eviscerating, at times illuminating—but mostly deeply confusing. Yes, this is a book about growing up in the shadow of Frank Zappa. Moon and her family were a source of constant curiosity, for their unique names and for their father’s reputation as a musical savant and fierce protector of the First Amendment, even though he was never a commercial success.

Searching for her own path, first as her father’s inadvertent musical collaborator and public sidekick with their surprise mega radio hit, then as an actress, an artist, a spiritual person, a wife and mother, Moon Unit calculates ever-changing equations of fame, family, death and ultimately legacy when dealt the shocking news that Gail’s will established an unequal distribution among the remaining, tight-knit Zappas, catalyzing a quest for meaning and redemption.

With love, humor, and humility, Earth to Moon reminds us that every family is faced with problems that are unique to their particular makeup, but the journey to growing into yourself with grace is as universal as it gets.]]> 10 Moon Unit Zappa Andrea 4 audiobook 4.42 2024
author: Moon Unit Zappa
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/23
date added: 2024/12/23
shelves: audiobook
review:
Honest and evocative memoir of a unique life.
]]> 61085943 Come Closer and the Claire DeWitt series.

A mysterious book that promises unlimited power and unrivaled sexual pleasure. A down-on-her-luck book dealer hoping for the sale of a lifetime. And a twist so shocking, no one will come out unscathed.

After a tragedy too painful to bear, former novelist Lily Albrecht has resigned herself to a dull, sexless life as a rare book dealer. Until she gets a lead on a book that just might turn everything around. The Book of the Most Precious Substance is a 17th century manual on sex magic, rumored to be the most powerful occult book ever written—if it really exists at all. And some of the wealthiest people in the world are willing to pay Lily a fortune to find it—if she can. Her search for the book takes her from New York to New Orleans to Munich to Paris, searching the dark corners of power where the world’s wealthiest people use black magic to fulfill their desires. Will Lily fulfill her own desires, and join them? Or will she lose it all searching for a ghost? The Book of the Most Precious Substance is an addictive erotic thriller about the lengths we’ll go to get what we need—and what we want.]]> 10 Sara Gran Andrea 5 audiobook 3.53 2022
author: Sara Gran
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/18
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: audiobook
review:
4.5 stars. Incredibly well done audiobook. Captivating story. Sara Gran is the shit.
]]> 58022524
Jamie Fraser and Claire Randall were torn apart by the Jacobite Rising in 1743, and it took them twenty years to find each other again. Now the American Revolution threatens to do the same.

It is 1779 and Claire and Jamie are at last reunited with their daughter, Brianna, her husband, Roger, and their children on Fraser’s Ridge. Having the family together is a dream the Frasers had thought impossible.

Yet even in the North Carolina backcountry, the effects of war are being felt. Tensions in the Colonies are great and local feelings run hot enough to boil Hell’s tea-kettle. Jamie knows loyalties among his tenants are split and it won’t be long until the war is on his doorstep.

Brianna and Roger have their own worry: that the dangers that provoked their escape from the twentieth century might catch up to them. Sometimes they question whether risking the perils of the 1700s—among them disease, starvation, and an impending war—was indeed the safer choice for their family.

Not so far away, young William Ransom is still coming to terms with the discovery of his true father’s identity—and thus his own—and Lord John Grey has reconciliations to make, and dangers to meet . . . on his son’s behalf, and his own.

Meanwhile, the Revolutionary War creeps ever closer to Fraser’s Ridge. And with the family finally together, Jamie and Claire have more at stake than ever before.]]> 50 Diana Gabaldon Andrea 4 audiobook 4.22 2021
author: Diana Gabaldon
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/14
date added: 2024/12/14
shelves: audiobook
review:

]]> 28818747
From the memoir's introduction by American Hardcore 's Steven "Harley Flanagan is not like you or me. Most of us grew up in relative safety and security. Harley came up like a feral animal, fending for himself in the '70s Lower East Side jungle of crime, drugs, abuse and poverty. By age 10 he was a downtown star at Max's Kansas City and CBGB, drumming in his aunt's punk band The Stimulators, and socializing with Blondie's Debbie Harry and Cleveland's Dead Boys. Everyone thought it was so cute, but it wasn't."

Currently a black belt and an instructor for the famed Renzo Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy in New York, Harley was never making friends with important figures like Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead, defending himself in street battles, and finding media play and court battles after former band members betrayed their one-time friend and bandmate.

Of his much anticipated memoir, famed author and celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain "Don't even pretend to talk about New York... if you don't read this." "This book is the punch in the face you want and need."]]> 448 Harley Flanagan 1627310339 Andrea 3 3.83 2016
author: Harley Flanagan
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/13
date added: 2024/12/13
shelves:
review:

]]> 136543358 0 Augustus Hill Andrea 4 3.5 stars. 4.00 2003
author: Augustus Hill
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/12
date added: 2024/12/12
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars.
]]> 215362022 When a drug kingpin discovers his numbers are down in the upper northeast, he sends a malevolent force, known only as "The Man," to investigate. At the same time, Babs's youngest daughter, Sis, has gone missing, which doesn't seem like a coincidence. In twenty-four hours Sis will be found dead, and the whole town will seek shelter from Babs’s wrath.]]> 368 Ron Currie Jr. 0593851668 Andrea 0 to-read 4.01
author: Ron Currie Jr.
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.01
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 198826517 Saint the Terrifying is Book One of the Saint a three-novel epic structured like an Icelandic Viking saga—except this Viking just so happens to live in the 21st century and play in a punk band. The 1000-page project will release as paperback originals over the course of consecutive seasons; and true to the Viking tradition, hits its crescendo at the gates of hell.]]> 290 Joshua Mohr 1961884135 Andrea 5 4.33 2024
author: Joshua Mohr
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/28
date added: 2024/11/28
shelves:
review:
Joshua Mohr really outdid himself with this one. Full of punk rock whimsy and violence. Looking forward to the other books to come.
]]> 903860
Bottom Feeders is the compelling story of how a pair of irreverent brothers, the sons of an Okie cardshark, made pornography one more option in the mainstream consumer marketplace. It is also the story of how their moral disintegration ended in the violent death of Artie at the hands of his brother.

Award-winning author John Hubner set out to discover what kind of forces might drive a man to kill his brother. But his examination of the Mitchell story becomes much more than that. Long before mild-mannered Jim burst into Artie's house with his rifle blazing, the Mitchell Brothers had made a name for themselves as counterculture heroes who owned San Francisco's landmark O'Farrell Theatre. Riding the free-love tide of sexual libertarianism, the brothers went from distribution of topless still photos to sexually explicit films and live sex shows that forced authorities to anchor legal rulings in the shifting sands of community standards. Along the way they produced Green Door (which became a mainstream blockbuster), fought seminal court battles, launched the career of famed "Ivory Snow Girl" Marilyn Chambers, were a focal point for underground celebrities like Hunter S. Thompson, and became known as the Peck's Bad Boys of San Francisco, who responded to harassment from the mayor by putting her office number on the theater marquee. But whether you're in the vanguard or the rearguard, porn is a dirty business. Hubner discovers that the morally twisted world of porn often attracts psychologically unstab]]> 412 John Hubner 038542261X Andrea 4 4.40 1993
author: John Hubner
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.40
book published: 1993
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/26
date added: 2024/11/26
shelves:
review:
This was my third Mitchell brothers book and I think it was the best of the lot.
]]> 257844 366 Victoria Mary Clarke 0330490087 Andrea 4 3.87 2001
author: Victoria Mary Clarke
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/24
date added: 2024/11/24
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars. This book consists of transcriptions of interviews done by MacGowan’s wife, Victoria Mary Clarke. It truly gave a sense of who Shane MacGowan was. He was an interesting and intelligent man and was, by no means, politically correct.
]]> 93245 240 Barry Hannah 0802135323 Andrea 3 4.05 1996
author: Barry Hannah
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1996
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/21
date added: 2024/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> 30188357 John Le Carré Andrea 3 audiobook 3.75 1961
author: John Le Carré
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1961
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/19
date added: 2024/11/19
shelves: audiobook
review:

]]> 214175247 An unforgettable portrait of an extraordinary life—one forged through a poverty-stricken childhood in “slummy, one-horse towns��; obsessive desire; bursts of comedy; and indispensable friendships, reflecting on the way art, music, and a deep connection to nature helped her on a singular journey��to become a beloved, Grammy-nominated artist.

Neko Case has long been revered as one of music’s most influential artists, whose authenticity, lyrical storytelling, and sly wit have endeared her to a legion of critics, musicians, and lifelong fans.��In��The Harder I Fight, the More I Love You,��Case��brings her trademark��candor and��precision��to a memoir that traces her evolution from an invisible��girl “raised by two dogs and a space heater�� in rural Washington state to��her improbable emergence as an internationally-acclaimed talent. In luminous, sharp-edged prose, Case��shows readers what it’s like to be left alone for hours and hours as a child, to take refuge in the woods around her home, and to channel the��monotony and loneliness and joy that comes from music, camaraderie, and shared experience into art.

The Harder I Fight, the More I Love You��is a rebellious meditation on identity and corruption, and a manifesto on how to make space for ourselves in this world, despite the obstacles we face.


��]]> 288 Neko Case 1538710501 Andrea 0 to-read 4.07 2025
author: Neko Case
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 221429810
Via this Substack volume 1 of the book is available (from the 10th December 2024) for the biography No Treble magazined described as 'long awaited.' In three instalments the first volume of two about Pfaff's life (taking the reader up to her joining Hole) is available for monthly subscribers, who already get to hear on there unheard songs by Pfaff, excerpts from her journal recordings, as well as unseen photos from her time at the heart of the alt-rock music scene.

Kristen Pfaff was one of the musicians behind Hole’s ‘Live Through This��- one of Rolling Stones Top 100 Albums Of All Time. Her death from a heroin overdose at 27 happened six weeks after Kurt Cobain’s demise, overshadowing any appraisal of her. But Pfaff was a classically trained musician in the cult band Janitor Joe, a counsellor and a successful activist who has since built a cult following though there is no major work about her to date. To address this, for the first time, this book reclaims Kristen Pfaff’s voice. It allows her to speak using her own words, and to finally take the spotlight.

‘Mankowski’s brilliant retelling of the extraordinary life of Kristen Pfaff- one of the most important players in the Seattle / Sub Pop scene- is a timely reminder that sometimes the heroes don’t always win and the truth is out there if you look hard enough.�� Jane Savidge, of Savidge and Best (PR for Pulp, Suede) and author of 33 1/3 book ‘Pulp’s This Is Hardcore.

'This book ultimately places Kristen back in the deserved centre of the narrative.�� John Robb, best-selling pop culture author (Punk Rock- An Oral History and ’The Art Of Darkness�� - The History of Goth) and first person to interview Nirvana.

“I Know How to Live', the powerful and insightful Substack where chapters about Kristen, pictures and recordings of her talking (in her private journal recordings) are shared. If you love reading, the chapters are beautifully crafted, making it truly immersive to dive into such a well-written exploration shaped by the perspective of her family, particularly her brother. Incredible, poignant work that resonated deeply with me. I found myself waiting excitedly for the next instalment!�� Sophia Hadef, The French Reader.

‘Written by Mankowski with the help of Kristen's brother Jason Pfaff, this enthralling read documents one of the most talented female performers on the '90s alternative rock scene��. The YEAR Grunge BROKE website.

‘Any writing is only as important as how it affects others. This book has done that for me…I feel like you put into words the way I feel about Kristen. Also, beautifully written and I love the way you bring yourself into the story.�� Mike Huber, Kristen Pfaff’s former partner.

‘You do a great job reconstructing a complex and at times contradictory life. Your narrative helped me fill in gaps in my own memory. I think overall it’s really compelling. You capture her spirit out of the many fragments of memories, events, relationships, achievements, and other traces she left behind.�� Robert Slammon, Kristen Pfaff’s former boyfriend.

‘Guy Mankowski’s crisp, empathic writing is a vivid fast-track back to the burgeoning 90’s alternative scene. With Mankowski’s exciting use of diary tapes he shows the musician and writer as brilliant, edgy, highly influential and ahead of her time. This is the first time so much information on Pfaff has been collected in one place to round out not just an essential character in the 1990s alternative scene, but as a leading counter-culture figure, and the focal point for an era.�� Julia Gordon-Bramer, author of ‘The Occult Sylvia Plath��.

Subscriber reviews-

"This is important work, and appreciate you sharing it with the world honoring Kristen’s life and the amazing artist she is. " Whitney.

"At long last, the chance to read I Know How To Live: The Life of Kristen Pfaff has consumed me with a deeply embedded curiosity and yearning. The story of Kristen Pfaff's journey, both personally and musically, had gone far too long remaining unexplored and enshrouded in mystery. Thanks to Guy Mankowski and Jason Pfaff, Kristen herself, will no longer remain beholden to an enigmatic veil." Christia.

"You are telling a beautiful soul’s story and your empathy for her is evident. Because of your work, she will still get to inspire people in this evolving world as she was always meant to. " Katy Marie.

"I want to support your work because it’s important for me to know more about Kristen Pfaff. And I understand that the research that was made for the book is a lot of work and I really respect that.�� Fallon.

"Guy is an amazing author, and I will forever be grateful to him for publishing Kristen's story." Chris.]]> Guy Mankowski Andrea 0 to-read 4.67
author: Guy Mankowski
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.67
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 13621850
So when Dickie and Coover Crowe, dope-dealing brothers known for sampling their own supply, decide to branch out into the body business, it’s up to U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens to stop them. But by the time Raylan finds out who’s making the cuts, he’s lying naked in a bathtub, with Layla the cool transplant nurse about to go for his kidneys.

Dark and droll, Raylan is pure Elmore Leonard—a page-turner filled with sparkling dialogue and sly suspense that are the hallmarks of this modern master.]]> Elmore Leonard 0062125664 Andrea 4 audiobook 3.60 2012
author: Elmore Leonard
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/17
date added: 2024/11/17
shelves: audiobook
review:

]]>