en-US Mon, 16 Dec 2024 14:27:26 -0800 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 51648276
A deeply satisfying thriller cum fairy tale, Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead is a provocative exploration of the murky borderland between sanity and madness, justice and tradition, autonomy and fate. Whom do we deem sane? it asks. Who is worthy of a voice?

Duration: 11 hours 39 minutes.]]> 274 Olga Tokarczuk Eleni 5 3.93 2009
author: Olga Tokarczuk
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/16
date added: 2024/12/16
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]]> 219165205
A kindergarten teacher’s escape to Far North Queensland turns deadly when her ex tracks her down just as Australia’s largest-ever cyclone smashes onto shore. A thrilling, suspenseful tale of vulnerability and strength.

In the dripping heat of a rainforest town in Far North Queensland, Georgia Wright has finally exhaled. Her new life, nannying for a dysfunctional but endearing family, is the perfect escape from her bleak past. Until the text messages start. Georgia won’t go back to him. Not this time. Not ever. But staying means putting this family at risk. As a storm brews within her conscience, a deadly cyclone builds offshore � a foreshadowing of a betrayal as cruel as the oppressive wet season. Now Georgia’s new-found family bonds are unravelling as she faces her vengeful ex and the fury of Cyclone Yasi.

If you liked Paula Hawkins' "The Girl on the Train", Jane Harper's "The Dry" or Nancy Price's "Sleeping with the Enemy", you'll enjoy this domestic suspense set in the tropics of Far North Queensland.]]> 396 Cienna Collins 0995414084 Eleni 5 4.44
author: Cienna Collins
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.44
book published:
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/10/22
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]]> 171793386
From the #1 internationally bestselling author of The Murder Rule comes an emotional novel of suspense about two families at war.

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

WHAT HAPPENED TO NINA?

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

HOW FAR WILL HIS FAMILY GO TO KEEP HIM SAFE?

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

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

Nina’s family is under siege, but they never lose sight of the only thing that really matters—finding their daughter. Out-gunned by Simon’s wealthy, powerful family, Nina’s parents recognize that if playing by the rules won’t get them anywhere, it’s time to break them.]]> 328 Dervla McTiernan Eleni 5 4.05 2024
author: Dervla McTiernan
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/08/11
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]]> 167816 480 Appian 0140445099 Eleni 0 to-read 4.02 165
author: Appian
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.02
book published: 165
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 59973599
Women Without Mercy
Ingrid gave up her career to support her husband. Now he's having an affair.
Birgitta is avoiding the doctor. No one can see the bruises her husband leaves.
Victoria left Russia to marry a man she met online. But he is nothing like she imagined. Maybe the only way out is to commit three perfect murders...

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

To avoid disappointment, please note that these two novellas have been previously published separately]]> 240 Camilla Läckberg 0008354464 Eleni 5 3.82 2021
author: Camilla Läckberg
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/01/28
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]]> 241823
In "Women Who Run With the Wolves," Dr Estes unfolds rich intercultural myths, fairytales and stories, many from her own family, in order to help women reconnect with the fierce, healthy, visionary attributes of this instinctual nature. Through the stories and commentaries in this remarkable book, we retrieve, examine, love, and understand the Wild Woman, and hold her against our deep psyches as one who is both magic and medicine. Dr Estes has created a new lexicon for describing the female psyche. Fertile and life-giving, it is a psychology of women in the truest sense, a knowing of the soul.]]> 537 Clarissa Pinkola Estés 0345409876 Eleni 5 4.12 1992
author: Clarissa Pinkola Estés
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1992
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/11/29
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]]> 54251492
Colombia’s Pacific coast, where everyday life entails warding off the brutal forces of nature. In this constant struggle, nothing is taken for granted. Damaris lives with her fisherman husband in a shack on a bluff overlooking the sea. Childless and at that age “when women dry up,� as her uncle puts it, she is eager to adopt an orphaned puppy. But this act may bring more than just affection into her home. The Bitch is written in a prose as terse as the villagers, with storms―both meteorological and emotional―lurking around each corner. Beauty and dread live side by side in this poignant exploration of the many meanings of motherhood and love.]]> 128 Pilar Quintana 1642860603 Eleni 4 3.72 2017
author: Pilar Quintana
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/09/11
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review:
Extremely well written but the ending left me wishing I hadn’t read it
]]> 42519313
Madison’s twin stepkids are moving in with her family and she wants Lillian to be their caretaker. However, there’s a catch: the twins spontaneously combust when they get agitated, flames igniting from their skin in a startling but beautiful way. Lillian is convinced Madison is pulling her leg, but it’s the truth.

Thinking of her dead-end life at home, the life that has consistently disappointed her, Lillian figures she has nothing to lose. Over the course of one humid, demanding summer, Lillian and the twins learn to trust each other—and stay cool—while also staying out of the way of Madison’s buttoned-up politician husband. Surprised by her own ingenuity yet unused to the intense feelings of protectiveness she feels for them, Lillian ultimately begins to accept that she needs these strange children as much as they need her—urgently and fiercely. Couldn’t this be the start of the amazing life she’d always hoped for?]]> 288 Kevin Wilson 0062913484 Eleni 5 3.95 2019
author: Kevin Wilson
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/09/11
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]]> 28452843 When 25-year-old Bella Michaels is brutally murdered in the small town of Strathdee, the community is stunned and a media storm descends.

Unwillingly thrust into the eye of that storm is Bella's beloved older sister, Chris, a barmaid at the local pub, whose apparent easygoing nature conceals hard-won wisdom and the kind of street-smarts only experience can bring.

As Chris is plunged into despair and searches for answers, reasons, explanation - anything - that could make even the smallest sense of Bella's death, her ex-husband, friends and neighbours do their best to support her. But as the days tick by with no arrest, Chris's suspicion of those around her grows.]]> 343 Emily Maguire 174353857X Eleni 5 3.53 2016
author: Emily Maguire
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/08/18
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]]> 35967101 A brilliantly original high concept murder mystery from a fantastic new talent: Gosford Park meets Inception, by way of Agatha Christie and Black Mirror.

'Somebody's going to be murdered at the ball tonight. It won't appear to be a murder and so the murderer won't be caught. Rectify that injustice and I'll show you the way out.'

It is meant to be a celebration but it ends in tragedy. As fireworks explode overhead, Evelyn Hardcastle, the young and beautiful daughter of the house, is killed.

But Evelyn will not die just once. Until Aiden � one of the guests summoned to Blackheath for the party � can solve her murder, the day will repeat itself, over and over again. Every time ending with the fateful pistol shot.

The only way to break this cycle is to identify the killer. But each time the day begins again, Aiden wakes in the body of a different guest. And someone is determined to prevent him ever escaping Blackheath...

Also titled as The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle.]]> 505 Stuart Turton Eleni 0 3.87 2018
author: Stuart Turton
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/04/21
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]]> 58214328 A searing memoir of reckoning and healing by acclaimed journalist Stephanie Foo, investigating the little-understood science behind complex PTSD and how it has shaped her life.

"Every cell in my body is filled with the code of generations of trauma, of death, of birth, of migration, of history that I cannot understand. . . . I want to have words for what my bones know."

By age thirty, Stephanie Foo was successful on paper: She had her dream job as an award-winning radio producer at This American Life and a loving boyfriend. But behind her office door, she was having panic attacks and sobbing at her desk every morning. After years of questioning what was wrong with herself, she was diagnosed with complex PTSD—a condition that occurs when trauma happens continuously, over the course of years.

Both of Foo's parents abandoned her when she was a teenager, after years of physical and verbal abuse and neglect. She thought she'd moved on, but her new diagnosis illuminated the way her past continued to threaten her health, relationships, and career. She found limited resources to help her, so Foo set out to heal herself, and to map her experiences onto the scarce literature about C-PTSD.

In this deeply personal and thoroughly researched account, Foo interviews scientists and psychologists and tries a variety of innovative therapies. She returns to her hometown of San Jose, California, to investigate the effects of immigrant trauma on the community, and she uncovers family secrets in the country of her birth, Malaysia, to learn how trauma can be inherited through generations. Ultimately, she discovers that you don't move on from trauma—but you can learn to move with it.

Powerful, enlightening, and hopeful, What My Bones Know is a brave narrative that reckons with the hold of the past over the present, the mind over the body—and examines one woman's ability to reclaim agency from her trauma.]]> 352 Stephanie Foo 0593238109 Eleni 0 currently-reading 4.50 2022
author: Stephanie Foo
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/09
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> 52476830 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

A tense, page-turning psychological drama about the making and breaking of a family–and a woman whose experience of motherhood is nothing at all what she hoped for–and everything she feared.

Blythe Connor is determined that she will be the warm, comforting mother to her new baby Violet that she herself never had.

But in the thick of motherhood’s exhausting early days, Blythe becomes convinced that something is wrong with her daughter–she doesn’t behave like most children do.

Or is it all in Blythe’s head? Her husband, Fox, says she’s imagining things. The more Fox dismisses her fears, the more Blythe begins to question her own sanity, and the more we begin to question what Blythe is telling us about her life as well.

Then their son Sam is born–and with him, Blythe has the blissful connection she’d always imagined with her child. Even Violet seems to love her little brother. But when life as they know it is changed in an instant, the devastating fall-out forces Blythe to face the truth.

The Push is a tour de force you will read in a sitting, an utterly immersive novel that will challenge everything you think you know about motherhood, about what we owe our children, and what it feels like when women are not believed.]]> 307 Ashley Audrain 1984881663 Eleni 0 to-read 4.03 2021
author: Ashley Audrain
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60533565
With its gold rush history long in the past, Stone Town has definitely seen better days. And it’s now in the headlines for all the wrong reasons . . .

When three teenagers stumble upon a body in dense bushland one rainy Friday night, Senior Sergeant Mark Ariti’s hopes for a quiet posting in his old home town are shattered. The victim is Aidan Sleeth, a local property developer, whose controversial plans to buy up Stone Town land means few are surprised he ended up dead.

However his gruesome murder is overshadowed by the mystery consuming the entire nation: the disappearance of Detective Sergeant Natalie Whitsted.

Natalie had been investigating the celebrity wife of crime boss Tony ‘The Hook� Scopelliti when she vanished. What did she uncover? Has it cost her her life? And why are the two Homicide detectives, sent from the city to run the Sleeth case, so obsessed with Natalie’s fate?

But following a late-night call from his former boss, Mark is sure of one thing: he’s now in the middle of a deadly game . . .]]> 409 Margaret Hickey 0143777270 Eleni 0 to-read 3.96 2022
author: Margaret Hickey
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/26
shelves: to-read
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]]> 59574234 De nieuwe stand-alone van bestsellerauteur Helen Fields, bekend van de DI Callanach serie. Privédetective Sadie moet de moord op Adriana oplossen. Maar wat als zij niet de laatste was die stierf?

Het gezin Clark is net verhuisd naar het afgelegen Isle of Mull, een eiland voor de kust van Schotland. Dan raakt de zeventienjarige Adriana vermist. Haar ouders zijn radeloos � de lokale bevolking ziet hen als indringers en de politie is onverschillig � en wenden zich tot privédetective Sadie Levesque om hun dochter te vinden.
Sadie is ontzettend goed in haar werk.
Wanneer ze het lichaam van Adriana in een grot vindt, met een kroon van zeewier, beseft ze dat de zaak veel groter is dan ze in eerste instantie dacht. Ze duikt in de geheimen van de eiland, maar komt daardoor ook zelf dichter bij het gevaar. Want wat als Adriana niet de laatste was die stierf?]]> 400 Helen Sarah Fields 0008379378 Eleni 0 to-read 3.92 2022
author: Helen Sarah Fields
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 6198 166 J.M. Coetzee 014026566X Eleni 0 to-read 3.81 1997
author: J.M. Coetzee
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 59201222 She's protected them from the truth. Can she save them from her past?

Sarah Calhoun is a regular Sydney soccer mum, but she's keeping terrifying secrets from everyone she loves . . . and her past is about to catch up with her.

When two men from Northern Ireland hunt her down, she's forced to return to Belfast to testify at a murder trial. Caught in the crossfire of an obsessive policeman, driven by a disturbing past, and a brutal IRA executioner, Sarah faces an impossible choice: lie and allow a killer to run free, or tell the truth and place her children in the line of fire.

With her family and innocent people at risk, Sarah must find the courage to fight for the truth. But righting the wrongs of the past just might cost her everything . . .

This taut, plot-fuelled thriller will keep you on the edge of your seat to its gripping finale.

'Show me a soldier who would fight harder than a mother to save her son.'

]]> 368 Rae Cairns 1460714814 Eleni 0 to-read 3.74 2022
author: Rae Cairns
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 49078674 What if you found out that your family isn't yours at all? How far would you go to protect them? A gripping new psychological thriller from the bestselling author of The Girl Before. . . .

Pete Riley answers the door one morning and lets in a parent's worst nightmare. On his doorstep is Miles Lambert, a stranger who breaks the devastating news that Pete's son, Theo, isn't actually his son--he is the Lamberts', switched at birth by an understaffed hospital while their real son was sent home with Miles and his wife, Lucy. For Pete, his partner Maddie, and the little boy they've been raising for the past two years, life will never be the same again.

The two families, reeling from the shock, take comfort in shared good intentions, eagerly entwining their very different lives in the hope of becoming one unconventional modern family. But a plan to sue the hospital triggers an official investigation that unearths some disturbing questions about the night their children were switched. How much can they trust the other parents--or even each other? What secrets are hidden behind the Lamberts' glossy front door? Stretched to the breaking point, Pete and Maddie discover they will each stop at nothing to keep their family safe.

They are done playing nice.]]> 416 J.P. Delaney 1984821342 Eleni 0 currently-reading 3.99 2020
author: J.P. Delaney
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/26
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 61557489
Desperate to keep his family together, Tiddo plans a holiday to Iceland, travelling the tourist circuit in a rented campervan. On their trip, they pick up a hitchhiker named Svein, who is tall and handsome, and covered in tattoos of ancient runes. When Svein offers to guide them off the beaten track, Tiddo is conflicted. Does Svein pose a threat or offer salvation?

This psychological thriller unfolds like a fever dream amid the breathtaking beauty of Iceland, but the environment turns out to be as unforgiving as each decision Tiddo makes. Taut and compelling, The Hitchhiker is the story of a man who goes to great lengths to save what he has already lost.]]> 0 Gerwin van der Werf 1922459283 Eleni 4 2.94
author: Gerwin van der Werf
name: Eleni
average rating: 2.94
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/26
date added: 2023/01/26
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]]> 42927050 The perfect life. The perfect love.

Abbie awakens in a daze with no memory of who she is or how she landed in this unsettling condition. The man by her side claims to be her husband. He's a titan of the tech world, the founder of one of Silicon Valley's most innovative start-ups. He tells Abbie that she is a gifted artist, an avid surfer, a loving mother to their young son, and the perfect wife. He says she had a terrible accident five years ago and that, through a huge technological breakthrough, she has been brought back from the abyss.

She is a miracle of science.

But as Abbie pieces together memories of her marriage, she begins questioning her husband's motives--and his version of events. Can she trust him when he says he wants them to be together forever? And what really happened to Abbie half a decade ago?

Beware the man who calls you . . .]]> 413 J.P. Delaney 1524796743 Eleni 5 3.64 2019
author: J.P. Delaney
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2022/12/31
date added: 2023/01/22
shelves:
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]]> 29981261
In this garden grow luscious flowers, shady trees…and a collection of precious “butterflies�—young women who have been kidnapped and intricately tattooed to resemble their namesakes. Overseeing it all is the Gardener, a brutal, twisted man obsessed with capturing and preserving his lovely specimens.

When the garden is discovered, a survivor is brought in for questioning. FBI agents Victor Hanoverian and Brandon Eddison are tasked with piecing together one of the most stomach-churning cases of their careers. But the girl, known only as Maya, proves to be a puzzle herself.

As her story twists and turns, slowly shedding light on life in the Butterfly Garden, Maya reveals old grudges, new saviors, and horrific tales of a man who’d go to any length to hold beauty captive. But the more she shares, the more the agents have to wonder what she’s still hiding...]]> 288 Dot Hutchison 1503989712 Eleni 4 4.10 2016
author: Dot Hutchison
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/13
date added: 2023/01/13
shelves:
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]]> 57151249 Daniel is handsome, passionate and is part of the kind of large, chaotically loving family Sarah longed for as an only child.

When Daniel introduces her to a charismatic young couple, rabbi Menachem Lev and his wife, Chani, despite herself, Sarah is drawn in by the vibrant community at the beachside synagogue. By the time the couple move to the Jamison Valley, where Menachem and Chani have established a community of believers, Sarah can't imagine life without the joy, purpose and love she's discovered.

Four years on, youthful passion has given way to something darker. The community will celebrate its first wedding, between the beautiful convert, Avital, and a much older divorcee, but no one seems to be able to give a clear explanation of where Rebecca, his wife, has gone. In the lead up to the wedding a series of terrifying truths emerges that rock Sarah's world and cause her to question everything - her faith, her marriage, and her future.]]> 364 Lisa Emanuel 064874891X Eleni 4
That’s how good the writing and pace is. I was endlessly irritated by the protagonists who refuses to save herself or see the reality around her and yet, I could not stop reading. ]]> 3.93 2021
author: Lisa Emanuel
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2022/12/31
date added: 2022/12/31
shelves:
review:
Beautifully written and compelling. But the protagonist annoyed me all the way through. Especially at the end!!!

That’s how good the writing and pace is. I was endlessly irritated by the protagonists who refuses to save herself or see the reality around her and yet, I could not stop reading.
]]> 58724748
Two years ago, Liv was living with her best friend, dating a new man, and thriving as a successful writer for a trendy magazine. Now, she’s lost and disoriented in a New York City that looks nothing like what she remembers. Catching a glimpse of the local news, she’s horrified to see reports of a crime scene where the victim’s blood has been used to scrawl a message across a window, the same message that’s inked on her hands. What did she do last night? And why does she remember nothing from the past two years? Liv finds herself on the run for a crime she doesn’t remember committing as she tries to piece together the fragments of her life. But there’s someone who does know exactly what she did, and they’ll do anything to make her forget―permanently.

In the vein of SJ Watson’s Before I Go to Sleep and Christopher Nolan’s cult classic Memento, Megan Goldin’s Stay Awake is an electrifying novel that plays with memory and murder.]]> 340 Megan Goldin 1250280664 Eleni 4 3.80 2022
author: Megan Goldin
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2022/12/31
date added: 2022/12/31
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]]> 42769189
When Charlie sees a man who is the spitting image of her husband Oliver on a dating app, her heart stops. Her first desperate instinct is to tell herself she must be mistaken � after all, she only caught a glimpse from a distance as her friends were laughingly swiping through the men on offer. But no matter how much she tries to push her fears aside, she can’t because she took that photo. On their honeymoon. She just can’t let it go.

Suddenly other signs of betrayal begin to add up and so Charlie does the only thing she can think of to defend her position � she signs up to the app to catch Oliver in the act.

But Charlie soon discovers that infidelity is the least of her problems. Nothing is as it seems and nobody is who she thinks they are ...]]> 336 Pip Drysdale 1925685853 Eleni 3 3.60 2019
author: Pip Drysdale
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2022/12/13
date added: 2022/12/13
shelves:
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]]> 28016509
Please make a list of every possession you consider essential to your life.

The request seems odd, even intrusive - and for the two women who answer, the consequences are devastating.

Emma

Reeling from a traumatic break-in, Emma wants a new place to live. But none of the apartments she sees are affordable or feel safe. Until One Folgate Street. The house is an architectural masterpiece: a minimalist design of pale stone, plate glass, and soaring ceilings. But there are rules. The enigmatic architect who designed the house retains full control: no books, no throw pillows, no photos or clutter or personal effects of any kind. The space is intended to transform its occupant - and it does.

Jane

After a personal tragedy, Jane needs a fresh start. When she finds One Folgate Street, she is instantly drawn to the space - and to its aloof but seductive creator. Moving in, Jane soon learns about the untimely death of the home's previous tenant, a woman similar to Jane in age and appearance. As Jane tries to untangle truth from lies, she unwittingly follows the same patterns, makes the same choices, crosses paths with the same people, and experiences the same terror as the girl before.]]> 341 J.P. Delaney 0425285049 Eleni 4 3.67 2017
author: J.P. Delaney
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2022/12/13
date added: 2022/12/13
shelves:
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]]> 54633172 The Promise , winner of the 2021 Booker Prize, charts the crash and burn of a white South African family, living on a farm outside Pretoria. The Swarts are gathering for Ma's funeral. The younger generation, Anton and Amor, detest everything the family stand for -- not least the failed promise to the Black woman who has worked for them her whole life. After years of service, Salome was promised her own house, her own land... yet somehow, as each decade passes, that promise remains unfulfilled.

The narrator's eye shifts and blinks: moving fluidly between characters, flying into their dreams; deliciously lethal in its observation. And as the country moves from old deep divisions to its new so-called fairer society, the lost promise of more than just one family hovers behind the novel's title.

In this story of a diminished family, sharp and tender emotional truths hit home. Confident, deft and quietly powerful, The Promise is literary fiction at its finest.]]> 293 Damon Galgut 1784744069 Eleni 0 3.81 2021
author: Damon Galgut
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2022/12/13
date added: 2022/12/13
shelves:
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]]> 9219901
Portia de Rossi weighed only 82 pounds when she collapsed on the set of the Hollywood film in which she was playing her first leading role. This should have been the culmination of all her years of hard work—first as a child model in Australia, then as a cast member of one of the hottest shows on American television. On the outside she was thin and blond, glamorous and successful. On the inside, she was literally dying.

In this searing, unflinchingly honest book, Portia de Rossi captures the complex emotional truth of what it is like when food, weight, and body image take priority over every other human impulse or action. She recounts the elaborate rituals around eating that came to dominate hours of every day, from keeping her daily calorie intake below 300 to eating precisely measured amounts of food out of specific bowls and only with certain utensils. When this wasn’t enough, she resorted to purging and compulsive physical exercise, driving her body and spirit to the breaking point.

Even as she rose to fame as a cast member of the hit television shows Ally McBeal and Arrested Development, Portia alternately starved herself and binged, all the while terrified that the truth of her sexuality would be exposed in the tabloids. She reveals the heartache and fear that accompany a life lived in the closet, a sense of isolation that was only magnified by her unrelenting desire to be ever thinner. With the storytelling skills of a great novelist and the eye for detail of a poet, Portia makes transparent as never before the behaviors and emotions of someone living with an eating disorder.

From her lowest point, Portia began the painful climb back to a life of health and honesty, falling in love with and eventually marrying Ellen DeGeneres, and emerging as an outspoken and articulate advocate for gay rights and women’s health issues.

In this remarkable and beautifully written work, Portia shines a bright light on a dark subject. A crucial book for all those who might sometimes feel at war with themselves or their bodies, Unbearable Lightness is a story that inspires hope and nourishes the spirit.]]> 320 Portia de Rossi 1439177805 Eleni 5 3.82 2010
author: Portia de Rossi
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2010
rating: 5
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date added: 2022/12/05
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]]> 36588482
When Aisling Conroy's boyfriend Jack is found in the freezing black waters of the river Corrib, the police tell her it was suicide. A surgical resident, she throws herself into study and work, trying to forget - until Jack's sister Maude shows up. Maude suspects foul play, and she is determined to prove it.

DI Cormac Reilly is the detective assigned with the re-investigation of an 'accidental' overdose twenty years ago - of Jack and Maude's drug- and alcohol-addled mother. Cormac is under increasing pressure to charge Maude for murder when his colleague Danny uncovers a piece of evidence that will change everything...

This unsettling crime debut draws us deep into the dark heart of Ireland and asks who will protect you when the authorities can't - or won't. Perfect for fans of Tana French and Jane Casey.]]> 380 Dervla McTiernan 0143133128 Eleni 4 3.90 2018
author: Dervla McTiernan
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at:
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]]> 51482614
In the titular story, a cat-shaped oven tells a depressed woman she doesn’t have to be sorry anymore. A Yourtopia Bespoke Terraria employee becomes paranoid about the mounting coincidences in her life. Four girls gather to celebrate their underwear in ‘Happy Smiling Underwear Girls Party�, a hilarious take-down of saccharine advertisements.

With her trademark wit and slicing social commentary, Elizabeth Tan’s short stories are as funny as they are insightful. This collection cements her role as one of Australia’s most inventive writers.]]> 320 Elizabeth Tan 1922267198 Eleni 4 3.83 2020
author: Elizabeth Tan
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2020
rating: 4
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]]> 57409438 For fans of the compulsive psychological suspense of Ruth Ware and Tana French, a mother daughter story—one running from a horrible truth, and the other fighting to reveal it—that twists and turns in shocking ways, from the internationally bestselling author of The Scholar and The Ruin.

First Rule: Make them like you.

Second Rule: Make them need you.

Third Rule: Make them pay.

They think I’m a young, idealistic law student, that I’m passionate about reforming a corrupt and brutal system.

They think I’m working hard to impress them.

They think I’m here to save an innocent man on death row.

They're wrong. I’m going to bury him.]]> 295 Dervla McTiernan 0063042207 Eleni 4 3.61 2022
author: Dervla McTiernan
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2022/11/26
date added: 2022/11/26
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]]> 36399240 New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Before, an actress plays both sides of a murder investigation.

A struggling actor, a Brit in America without a green card, Claire needs work and money to survive. Then she gets both. But nothing like she expected.

Claire agrees to become a decoy for a firm of divorce lawyers. Hired to entrap straying husbands, she must catch them on tape with their seductive propositions. The rules? Never hit on the mark directly. Make it clear you’re available, but he has to proposition you, not the other way around. The firm is after evidence, not coercion. The innocent have nothing to hide.

Then the game changes.

When the wife of one of Claire’s targets is violently murdered, the cops are sure the husband is to blame. Desperate to catch him before he kills again, they enlist Claire to lure him into a confession.

Claire can do this. She’s brilliant at assuming a voice and an identity. For a woman who’s mastered the art of manipulation, how difficult could it be to tempt a killer into a trap? But who is the decoy . . . and who is the prey?]]> 370 J.P. Delaney Eleni 5 3.68 2018
author: J.P. Delaney
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2018
rating: 5
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date added: 2022/11/25
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]]> 36742671
In The Shepherd's Hut, Winton crafts the story of Jaxie Clackton, a brutalized rural youth who flees from the scene of his father's violent death and strikes out for the vast wilds of Western Australia. All he carries with him is a rifle and a waterjug. All he wants is peace and freedom. But surviving in the harsh saltlands alone is a savage business. And once he discovers he's not alone out there, all Jaxie's plans go awry. He meets a fellow exile, the ruined priest Fintan MacGillis, a man he's never certain he can trust, but on whom his life will soon depend.

The Shepherd's Hut is a thrilling tale of unlikely friendship and yearning, at once brutal and lyrical, from one of our finest storytellers.]]> 267 Tim Winton 0143786113 Eleni 5 4.01 2018
author: Tim Winton
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2018
rating: 5
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date added: 2022/11/23
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]]> 61748332
Where do mental illness stories begin?

Anna’s always had too many feelings. Or not enough feelings � she’s never been quite sure. Debilitating panic. Extraordinary melancholy. Paranoia. Ambivalence. Fear. Despair.

From anxious child to terrified parent, mental illness has been a constant. A harsh critic in the big moments � teenage pregnancy, divorce, a dream career, falling in love � and a companion in the small ones � getting to the supermarket, feeding all her cats, remembering which child is which.

But between therapists� rooms and emergency departments, there’s been a feeling even harder to explain � optimism.

In this sharp-eyed and illuminating memoir, award-winning writer Anna Spargo-Ryan pieces together the relationships between time, mental illness, and our brain as the keeper of our stories. Against the backdrop of her own experience, she interrogates reality, how it can be fractured, and why it’s so hard to put it back together.

Powerfully honest, tender and often funny, A Kind of Magic blends meticulous research with vivid snapshots of the stuff that breaks us, and the magic of finding ourselves again.

PRAISE for A Kind of Magic

'The magic in this necessary and beautiful book is how deftly Spargo-Ryan shines her light on life's dark materials to offer comfort and inspiration to the rest of us. A must read.' � Sarah Krasnostein, author of The Trauma Cleaner and The Believer

'Anna Spargo-Ryan writes with the kind of searing insight and beauty that both shatters your soul and also pieces it back together. I hope she never stops.' � Clementine Ford, author of Fight Like A Girl and How We Love

'With humour, generosity and courage, Anna Spargo-Ryan narrates an experience that is so often impossible to put into words. By taking us inside therapy sessions, hospital wards, and cars, rooms and self-talk that act as entrapment, we are given an opportunity to learn, to empathise and to love. A Kind of Magic should be read by anyone wanting to understand mental illness, and for anyone with mental illness wanting to be understood.' � Kylie Maslen, author of Show Me Where It Hurts]]> 338 Anna Spargo-Ryan 1761150731 Eleni 5 4.23
author: Anna Spargo-Ryan
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.23
book published:
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]]> 57359691 The riveting, unforgettable story of a girl whose indomitable spirit is tested by homelessness, poverty, and racism in an unequal America—from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Andrea Elliott of The New York Times

Invisible Child follows eight dramatic years in the life of Dasani Coates, a child with an imagination as soaring as the skyscrapers near her Brooklyn homeless shelter. Born at the turn of a new century, Dasani is named for the bottled water that comes to symbolize Brooklyn’s gentrification and the shared aspirations of a divided city. As Dasani grows up, moving with her tight-knit family from shelter to shelter, this story goes back to trace the passage of Dasani’s ancestors from slavery to the Great Migration north. By the time Dasani comes of age, New York City’s homeless crisis is exploding as the chasm deepens between rich and poor.

In the shadows of this new Gilded Age, Dasani must lead her seven siblings through a thicket of problems: hunger, parental drug addiction, violence, housing instability, segregated schools, and the constant monitoring of the child-protection system. When, at age thirteen, Dasani enrolls at a boarding school in Pennsylvania, her loyalties are tested like never before. As she learns to “code switch� between the culture she left behind and the norms of her new town, Dasani starts to feel like a stranger in both places. Ultimately, she faces an impossible question: What if leaving poverty means abandoning the family you love?

By turns heartbreaking and revelatory, provocative and inspiring, Invisible Child tells an astonishing story about the power of resilience, the importance of family, and the cost of inequality. Based on nearly a decade of reporting, this book vividly illuminates some of the most critical issues in contemporary America through the life of one remarkable girl.]]> 602 Andrea Elliott 0812986946 Eleni 5 4.71 2021
author: Andrea Elliott
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.71
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2022/10/11
date added: 2022/10/11
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]]> 54120408
In Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro looks at our rapidly changing modern world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator to explore a fundamental question: what does it mean to love?]]> 340 Kazuo Ishiguro 059331817X Eleni 2 3.71 2021
author: Kazuo Ishiguro
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2021
rating: 2
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]]> 56331126
When she arrived in New York on her 18th birthday carrying nothing but $600 cash and a stolen camera, Alice Lee was looking for a fresh start. Now, just one month later, she is the city's latest Jane Doe, an unidentified murder victim.

Ruby Jones is also trying to start over; she travelled halfway around the world only to find herself lonelier than ever. Until she finds Alice's body by the Hudson River.

From this first, devastating encounter, the two women form an unbreakable bond. Alice is sure that Ruby is the key to solving the mystery of her life - and death. And Ruby - struggling to forget what she saw that morning - finds herself unable to let Alice go. Not until she is given the ending she deserves.

Before You Knew My Name doesn't ask whodunnit. Instead, this powerful, hopeful novel asks: Who was she? And what did she leave behind? The answers might surprise you.]]> 336 Jacqueline Bublitz 075158164X Eleni 4 3.85 2021
author: Jacqueline Bublitz
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2022/09/11
date added: 2022/09/11
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]]> 55439152 Propelling the reader back and forth between the 1940s, 1960s and 1980s, The Silent Listener is an unforgettable literary suspense novel set in the dark, gothic heart of rural Australia.

Deep red scars. Cold dark secrets . . .

In the cold, wet summer of 1960, 11-year-old Joy Henderson lives in constant fear of her father. She tries to make him happy but, as he keeps reminding her, she is nothing but a filthy sinner destined for Hell . . .Yet, decades later, she returns to the family’s farm to nurse him on his death bed. To her surprise, her ‘perfect� sister Ruth is also there, whispering dark words, urging revenge.

Then the day after their father finally confesses to a despicable crime, Joy finds him dead - with a belt pulled tight around his neck . . .

For Senior Constable Alex Shepherd, investigating George’s murder revives memories of an unsolved case still haunting him since that strange summer of 1960: the disappearance of nine-year-old Wendy Boscombe.

As seemingly impossible facts surface about the Hendersons � from the past and the present � Shepherd suspects that Joy is pulling him into an intricate web of lies and that Wendy’s disappearance is the key to the bizarre truth.]]> 480 Lyn Yeowart 1760895733 Eleni 5 3.99 2021
author: Lyn Yeowart
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2021
rating: 5
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date added: 2022/08/20
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]]> 55711611
What drives someone to commit an act of terrible violence? Drawing from her thirty years� experience in working with people who have committed serious offenses, Dr. Gwen Adshead provides fresh and surprising insights into violence and the mind. Through a collaboration with coauthor Eileen Horne, Dr. Adshead brings her extraordinary career to life in a series of unflinching portraits.

Alongside doctor and patient, we discover what human cruelty, ranging from serial homicide to stalking, arson or sexual offending, means to perpetrators, experiencing first-hand how minds can change when the people some might label as “evil� are able to take responsibility for their life stories and get to know their own minds. With outcomes ranging from hope to despair, from denial to recovery, these men and women are revealed in all their complexity and shared humanity.]]> 320 Gwen Adshead 1982134798 Eleni 4 4.34 2021
author: Gwen Adshead
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2022/08/16
date added: 2022/08/16
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]]> 61929530
Something is siphoning his magick, and he doesn’t know where to turn. Can he have faith in Eve after her sudden reappearance? Or should he side with Sheriff Stevens, whose help comes with secrets the lawman isn’t prepared to reveal?

When Josh is faced with enemies—both old and new—he has a choice to make: fight the one who threatens to take everything from him, or put his trust in an enemy who promises to cast a ritual that will give everything back.]]> 278 K.M. Allan 0648773043 Eleni 0 to-read 4.77
author: K.M. Allan
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.77
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rating: 0
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date added: 2022/08/16
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]]> 2106193 9780670029457

Maddy yearns for her life to be mystifying, to be as magical as a fairy story. And then one day, on the beach, she meets the strangest young man she has ever seen.

The Ghost's Child is an enchanting fable about the worth of life, and the power of love.]]> 179 Sonya Hartnett Eleni 0 3.93 2007
author: Sonya Hartnett
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at: 2022/08/06
date added: 2022/08/06
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]]> 51963266
Clare Bowditch has always had a knack for telling stories. Through her music and performing, this beloved Australian artist has touched hundreds of thousands of lives. But what of the stories she used to tell herself? That 'real life' only begins once you're thin or beautiful, that good things only happen to other people.

YOUR OWN KIND OF GIRL reveals a childhood punctuated by grief, anxiety and compulsion, and tells how these forces shaped Clare's life for better and for worse. This is a heartbreaking, wise and at times playful memoir. Clare's own story told raw and as it happened. A reminder that even on the darkest of nights, victory is closer than it seems.

With startling candour, Clare lays bare her truth in the hope that doing so will inspire anyone who's ever done battle with their inner critic. This is the work of a woman who has found her true power - and wants to pass it on. Happiness, we discover, is only possible when we take charge of the stories we tell ourselves.]]> 324 Clare Bowditch 1760528951 Eleni 0 4.10 2019
author: Clare Bowditch
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at: 2022/08/06
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]]> 15790842
On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in a variety of ways, while the young century marches on towards its second cataclysmic world war.

Does Ursula's apparently infinite number of lives give her the power to save the world from its inevitable destiny? And if she can - will she?]]> 544 Kate Atkinson 0316176486 Eleni 0 3.76 2013
author: Kate Atkinson
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at: 2022/08/06
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]]> 57851325
July 2014, a lonely road at twilight outside Croppa Creek, New South 80-year-old farmer Ian Turnbull takes out a .22 and shoots environmental officer Glen Turner in the back.

On one side, a farmer hoping to secure his family’s wealth on the richest agricultural soil in the country. On the other, his the government man trying to apply environmental laws.

The brutal killing of Glen Turner splits open the story of our place on this land. Is our time on this soil a tale of tragedy or triumph � are we reaping what we’ve sown? Do we owe protection to the land, or does it owe us a living? And what happens when, in pursuit of an inheritance for his family, a man creates terrible consequences?

Kate Holden brings her discerning eye to a gripping tale of law, land and entitlement. It is the story of Australia.]]> 479 Kate Holden 1743821670 Eleni 0 4.09
author: Kate Holden
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.09
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]]> 61115176 Winner of the inaugural Allen & Unwin Crime Prize.

'So you believed the alleged rapists over the alleged victim?' Jane's voice took on an indignant pitch. 'Girls lie sometimes.' I nodded. 'And rapists lie all the time.'

When Senior Detective Antigone Pollard moves to the coastal town of Deception Bay, she is still in shock and grief. Back in Melbourne, one of her cases had gone catastrophically wrong, and to escape the guilt and the haunting memories, she'd requested a transfer to the quiet town she'd grown up in.

But there are some things you can't run from. A month into her new life, she is targeted by a would-be rapist at the pub, and realises why there have been no convictions following a spate of similar sexual attacks in the surrounding district. The male witnesses in the pub back her attacker and even her boss doesn't believe her.

Hers is the first reported case in Deception Bay, but soon there are more. As Antigone searches for answers, she encounters a wall of silence in the town built of secrets and denial and fear. The women of Deception Bay are scared and the law is not on their side. The nightmare has followed her home.

Chilling, timely and gripping, The Unbelieved takes us behind the headlines to a small-town world that is all too real - and introduces us to a brilliant new voice in crime fiction.]]> 379 Vikki Petraitis 1761064797 Eleni 0 to-read 4.26 2022
author: Vikki Petraitis
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/08/01
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]]> 55882832 One day, a boy in a nice silver car gives sixteen-year-old Karuna a ride. So Karuna returns the favour.

Eventually, Karuna can’t ignore the reality: she is pregnant. Incensed, her mother, already over-protective, confines her to their fourteenth-storey housing-commission flat for one hundred days, to protect her from the outside world � and make sure she can’t get into any more trouble. Stuck inside for endless hours, Karuna battles her mother and herself for a sense of power in her own life, as a new life forms and grows within her.

One Hundred Days is a fractured fairytale exploring the fault lines between love and control. At times tense and claustrophobic, it also brims with humour, warmth and character. It is a magnificent new work from one of Australia’s most celebrated writers.]]> 256 Alice Pung 1760641839 Eleni 5 3.94 2021
author: Alice Pung
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2022/08/01
date added: 2022/08/01
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]]> 58636417
A remote island on the Western Australian coast wasn’t exactly the plan, but they’re not going to let that hold them back.

Leonardo, geeky, asthmatic, shy and prone to anxiety, has landed with them. He’s terrified—he’s definitely not part of this cool gang. Super high-achiever Kaiya is trying to forget her frustration with her drug-addicted sister as well as dealing with pressure from the popular girls to lose her virginity. Mason, footy jock with the physique to match, is coming to terms with his secret desire for his best mate, Jared. And Jared wants a week off from his relationship with Val so he can have sex with as many girls as possible.

But the party takes a dangerous turn when Val is drugged and a man is later found dead on the beach. Blame, fear, mistrust, coverups, power plays and dark secrets tear the group apart and expose the deadly tensions beneath the surface. And each teen is forced to confront demons that will lead them either to devastating tragedy or transformative triumph.

Whoever survives the week will never be the same again.

The Brink is a raw, powerful novel that pulls no punches in its authentic exploration of masculinity, sexuality, mental health, drug and alcohol use, relationships and sex. Holden Sheppard takes the teenage experience to the next level.]]> 352 Holden Sheppard 1922458643 Eleni 5 4.01
author: Holden Sheppard
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.01
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]]> 657371
This New York Times bestselling memoir of a young man’s addiction to methamphetamine tells a raw, harrowing, and ultimately hopeful tale of the road from relapse to recovery.

Nic Sheff was drunk for the first time at age eleven. In the years that followed, he would regularly smoke pot, do cocaine and Ecstasy, and develop addictions to crystal meth and heroin. Even so, he felt like he would always be able to quit and put his life together whenever he needed to. It took a violent relapse one summer in California to convince him otherwise. In a voice that is raw and honest, Nic spares no detail in telling us the compelling, heartbreaking, and true story of his relapse and the road to recovery. As we watch Nic plunge into the mental and physical depths of drug addiction, he paints a picture for us of a person at odds with his past, with his family, with his substances, and with himself. It's a harrowing portrait—but not one without hope.]]> 336 Nic Sheff 1416913629 Eleni 3 3.98 2008
author: Nic Sheff
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2008
rating: 3
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]]> 52741293 Shuggie Bain is the unforgettable story of young Hugh "Shuggie" Bain, a sweet and lonely boy who spends his 1980s childhood in run-down public housing in Glasgow, Scotland. Thatcher's policies have put husbands and sons out of work, and the city's notorious drugs epidemic is waiting in the wings.

Shuggie's mother Agnes walks a wayward path: she is Shuggie's guiding light but a burden for him and his siblings. She dreams of a house with its own front door while she flicks through the pages of the Freemans catalogue, ordering a little happiness on credit, anything to brighten up her grey life. Married to a philandering taxi-driver husband, Agnes keeps her pride by looking good--her beehive, make-up, and pearly-white false teeth offer a glamourous image of a Glaswegian Elizabeth Taylor. But under the surface, Agnes finds increasing solace in drink, and she drains away the lion's share of each week's benefits--all the family has to live on--on cans of extra-strong lager hidden in handbags and poured into tea mugs.

Agnes's older children find their own ways to get a safe distance from their mother, abandoning Shuggie to care for her as she swings between alcoholic binges and sobriety. Shuggie is meanwhile struggling to somehow become the normal boy he desperately longs to be, but everyone has realized that he is "no right," a boy with a secret that all but him can see. Agnes is supportive of her son, but her addiction has the power to eclipse everyone close to her--even her beloved Shuggie.

A heartbreaking story of addiction, sexuality, and love, Shuggie Bain is an epic portrayal of a working-class family that is rarely seen in fiction. Recalling the work of Edouard Louis, Alan Hollinghurst, Frank McCourt, and Hanya Yanagihara, it is a blistering debut by a brilliant novelist who has a powerful and important story to tell.]]> 430 Douglas Stuart 0802148042 Eleni 5 4.29 2020
author: Douglas Stuart
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2022/07/23
date added: 2022/07/23
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]]> 36373648 338 Rachel Kushner 1476756554 Eleni 5 3.41 2018
author: Rachel Kushner
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2022/07/23
date added: 2022/07/23
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]]> 54709869
There, in a rundown shack by the ocean, she obsesses over building a labyrinth. To create it—to navigate the path through her quandary—Erica will need the help of strangers. And that will require her to trust, and to reckon with her past.

The Labyrinth is a story of guilt and denial, of the fraught relationship between parents and children. It is also an examination of how art can be ruthlessly destructive, and restorative. Mesmerising yet disquieting, it shows Amanda Lohrey to be at the peak of her powers.]]> 256 Amanda Lohrey 1922330108 Eleni 5 3.77 2020
author: Amanda Lohrey
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2022/07/23
date added: 2022/07/23
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]]> 41841167
Anton has been looking out for her. She was safe with him. But then Steve came along.

He had something over Anton. Must have. But he had a flat they could crash in. And gear in his pocket. And she can't stop thinking about it. A good hit makes everything all right.

But the flat smells weird.
There's a lock on Steve's bedroom door.
And the guy is intense.


The problem is, sometimes you just don't know you are in too deep, until you are drowning.]]> 272 Mark Brandi 0733641121 Eleni 5 3.79 2019
author: Mark Brandi
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2022/07/20
date added: 2022/07/20
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]]> 36347888
Mike Hayes fought his way out of a brutal childhood and into a quiet, if lonely life, before he met Verity Metcalf. V taught him about love, and in return, Mike has dedicated his life to making her happy. He’s found the perfect home, the perfect job, he’s sculpted himself into the physical ideal V has always wanted. He knows they’ll be blissfully happy together.

It doesn’t matter that she hasn’t been returning his emails or phone calls.
It doesn’t matter that she says she’s marrying Angus.

It’s all just part of the secret game they used to play. If Mike watches V closely, he’ll see the signs. If he keeps track of her every move he’ll know just when to come to her rescue�

A spellbinding, darkly twisted novel about desire and obsession, and the complicated lines between truth and perception, Our Kind of Cruelty introduces Araminta Hall, a chilling new voice in psychological suspense.]]> 275 Araminta Hall 0374228191 Eleni 5 3.37 2018
author: Araminta Hall
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2018
rating: 5
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]]> 52218375 In West Adams, a rapidly changing part of South Los Angeles, they’re referred to as “these women.� These women on the corner … These women in the club � These women who won’t stop asking questions � These women who got what they deserved �

Ivy Pochoda creates a kaleidoscope of loss, power, and hope featuring five very different women whose lives are steeped in danger and anguish. They’re connected by one man and his deadly obsession, though not all of them know that yet. There’s Dorian, still adrift after her daughter’s murder remains unsolved; Julianna, a young dancer nicknamed Jujubee, who lives hard and fast, resisting anyone trying to slow her down; Essie, a brilliant vice cop who sees a crime pattern emerging where no one else does; Marella, a daring performance artist whose work has long pushed boundaries but now puts her in peril; and Anneke, a quiet woman who has turned a willfully blind eye to those around her for far too long. The careful existence they have built for themselves starts to crumble when two murders rock their neighborhood.]]> 352 Ivy Pochoda 0062656384 Eleni 5
This book was incredible from the first page. It unravelled the ‘who� and ‘why� through character and a strong sense of theme. Minority women are often used and thrown away by crime fiction writers, assumed to be unimportant victims, easily killed. This book did something very different with them. Highly recommended!
]]> 3.76 2020
author: Ivy Pochoda
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2022/06/26
date added: 2022/06/26
shelves:
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Beautiful, literature crime/mystery.

This book was incredible from the first page. It unravelled the ‘who� and ‘why� through character and a strong sense of theme. Minority women are often used and thrown away by crime fiction writers, assumed to be unimportant victims, easily killed. This book did something very different with them. Highly recommended!

]]> 57650420 'A magnificent and devastating work of art. There is a raging anger here, and a deep sorrow, but at the core Haydar gives us truths about love. This is one of the most important books I've ever read.' Bri Lee

'I am from a family of strong women.'

Amani Haydar suffered the unimaginable when she lost her mother in a brutal act of domestic violence perpetrated by her father. Five months pregnant at the time, her own perception of how she wanted to mother (and how she had been mothered) was shaped by this devastating murder.

After her mother's death, Amani began reassessing everything she knew of her parents' relationship. They had been unhappy for so long - should she have known that it would end like this? A lawyer by profession, she also saw the holes in the justice system for addressing and combating emotional abuse and coercive control.

Amani also had to reckon with the weight of familial and cultural context. Her parents were brought together in an arranged marriage, her mother thirteen years her father's junior. Her grandmother was brutally killed in the 2006 war in Lebanon, adding complex layers of intergenerational trauma.

Writing with grace and beauty, Amani has drawn from this a story of female resilience and the role of motherhood in the home and in the world. In The Mother Wound, she uses her own strength to help other survivors find their voices.]]> 356 Amani Haydar 1760987018 Eleni 5 4.48
author: Amani Haydar
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.48
book published:
rating: 5
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Beautifully written and unforgettable
]]> 5886881
Since then, she has been drifting. But when she is contacted by a group who are convinced of Ben's innocence, Libby starts to ask questions she never dared to before. Was the voice she heard her brother's? Ben was a misfit in their small town, but was he capable of murder? Are there secrets to uncover at the family farm or is Libby deluding herself because she wants her brother back?

She begins to realise that everyone in her family had something to hide that day... especially Ben. Now, twenty-four years later, the truth is going to be even harder to find.

Who did massacre the Day family?]]> 424 Gillian Flynn 0307341569 Eleni 5 3.95 2009
author: Gillian Flynn
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/06/15
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]]> 61085005 Haunting of Hill House meets found-footage horror in this edge-of-your-seat thriller that explores the power of family ties and the trauma that lurks there.

When Sophia Galich was twelve, she starred in her older sister Layla's amateur horror movie Vermillion, which recorded raw footage of her very real reactions to scenes her sister concocted in their old Californian house on the coast--Cashore House.

In the years after the film's release, Sophia's relationship with her sister became more strained, while her memories of the now-infamous house fueled her nightmares. Vermillion amassed an army of fanatical fans who speculated about the film's hidden messages, and it was rumored that Layla made a pact with the devil--her soul in exchange for fame and arcane knowledge. Sophia dismissed this as gossip...until Layla disappeared.

Now, Sophia must study the trail of clues Layla has left behind, returning to the very place where it all began. As she gets closer and closer to Cashore House's haunted heart, she must once again confront the ghosts of her childhood. But the house won't reveal its secrets without a fight.]]> Katya de Becerra Eleni 0 to-read 4.24 2023
author: Katya de Becerra
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/05/20
shelves: to-read
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]]> 11378689 213 Allayne L. Webster 1862918201 Eleni 5 3.44 2011
author: Allayne L. Webster
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/02/28
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]]> 59451228
After Taylor Kennedy makes a fatal Facebook error and is dumped by his best friend, he’s befriended by his eccentric next-door neighbour. Cravat-wearing, Chupa Chup addicted aspiring pornographer Chip drives a funeral hearse and talks to dead people. And he wants Taylor to help him create a body-positive Instagram account, Hotties of the Northern Burbs.

But mild-mannered prison escapee Jackson Rollock has other plans for them. Soon after he leaps Taylor’s backyard fence, they’re liberating Jackson’s beloved, mouthy grandmother from her nursing home and hitting the road to fulfil her dying wish. And sardonic, black-clad stranger Chloe, who has her own reasons for getting out of town, hitches a ride.

They’ll break the rules, bare their souls ... and make a shitload of questionable jokes, while inadvertently exploring sexuality, consent, the dark side of social media, mental health and friendship.

Frank, fearless and taboo-breaking, That Thing I Did is a rollicking road trip with a serious side.]]> Allayne L. Webster Eleni 5 4.11 2022
author: Allayne L. Webster
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/02/28
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]]> 60320370 295 Hayley Lawrence 1760976458 Eleni 5 4.16
author: Hayley Lawrence
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.16
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/02/28
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]]> 11785 181 Joyce Carol Oates 0452275008 Eleni 5 3.35 1995
author: Joyce Carol Oates
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.35
book published: 1995
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/02/28
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]]> 54981009
As Hannah’s increasingly desperate calls to Owen go unanswered, as the FBI arrests Owen’s boss, as a U.S. marshal and federal agents arrive at her Sausalito home unannounced, Hannah quickly realizes her husband isn’t who he said he was. Bailey just may hold the key to figuring out Owen’s true identity—and why he really disappeared.]]> 307 Laura Dave 1501171348 Eleni 0 to-read 3.78 2021
author: Laura Dave
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/01/16
shelves: to-read
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]]> 55271524 352 Abigail Dean Eleni 4 3.54 2021
author: Abigail Dean
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2021/09/17
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]]> 58604262
Now permanently disfigured, Scarlett has become a smudge in her perfect world. She can see only one acceptable solution: to escape the modern world for Matilda Mountain, which is desolate, isolated, forlorn. Perfect.

But mountains are not always as lonely as they appear. And unexpected friendships can be found in the wilderness. Friendships that challenge her ideas about perfection and her place in the world.

Can Scarlett break free from the confines of her beauty-obsessed culture to discover who she is beyond the layers of her skin?]]> 288 Hayley Lawrence 176097644X Eleni 5 4.11
author: Hayley Lawrence
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.11
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2021/09/11
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]]> 40097951
Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.

Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him....

The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller of a woman’s act of violence against her husband—and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive.]]> 336 Alex Michaelides 1250301696 Eleni 5 4.17 2019
author: Alex Michaelides
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2021/08/08
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]]> 35068432
"You’ll be silent forever, and I’ll be gone in the dark."

For more than ten years, a mysterious and violent predator committed fifty sexual assaults in Northern California before moving south, where he perpetrated ten sadistic murders. Then he disappeared, eluding capture by multiple police forces and some of the best detectives in the area.

Three decades later, Michelle McNamara, a true crime journalist who created the popular website TrueCrimeDiary.com, was determined to find the violent psychopath she called "the Golden State Killer." Michelle pored over police reports, interviewed victims, and embedded herself in the online communities that were as obsessed with the case as she was.

At the time of the crimes, the Golden State Killer was between the ages of eighteen and thirty, Caucasian, and athletic—capable of vaulting tall fences. He always wore a mask. After choosing a victim—he favored suburban couples—he often entered their home when no one was there, studying family pictures, mastering the layout. He attacked while they slept, using a flashlight to awaken and blind them. Though they could not recognize him, his victims recalled his voice: a guttural whisper through clenched teeth, abrupt and threatening.

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark—the masterpiece McNamara was writing at the time of her sudden death—offers an atmospheric snapshot of a moment in American history and a chilling account of a criminal mastermind and the wreckage he left behind. It is also a portrait of a woman’s obsession and her unflagging pursuit of the truth. Framed by an introduction by Gillian Flynn and an afterword by her husband, Patton Oswalt, the book was completed by Michelle’s lead researcher and a close colleague. Utterly original and compelling, it is destined to become a true crime classic—and may at last unmask the Golden State Killer.]]> 352 Michelle McNamara 0062319809 Eleni 4 4.12 2018
author: Michelle McNamara
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2021/03/14
date added: 2021/03/14
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]]> 39090206 Sharp Objects and Room, a seventeen-year-old girl struggles to remember the role she played on the night her life changed forever.

For the past two weeks, seventeen-year-old Kate Bennet has lived against her will in an isolated cabin in a remote beach town -- brought there by a mysterious man named Jim. Part captor, part benefactor, Jim calls her Evie and tells her he's hiding her to protect her. That she did something terrible one night back home in Melbourne -- something so unspeakable that he had no choice but to take her away. The trouble is, Kate can't remember the night in question.

The fragments of Kate's shattered memories of her old life seem happy: good friends, a big house in the suburbs, a devoted boyfriend. Jim says he'll help her fill in the blanks -- but his story isn't adding up. And as she tries to reconcile the girl she thought she'd been with the devastating consequences Jim claims she's responsible for, Kate will unearth secrets about herself and those closest to her that could change everything.

A riveting debut novel that fearlessly plumbs the darkest recesses of the mind, Call Me Evie explores the fragility of memory and the potential in all of us to hide the truth, even from ourselves.]]> 368 J.P. Pomare 0525538151 Eleni 5 3.60 2018
author: J.P. Pomare
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2021/03/14
date added: 2021/03/14
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]]> 126584 Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs, and the man who ushered in a new age in behavorial science and criminal profiling. Recently retired after twenty-five years of service, John Douglas can finally tell his unique and compelling story.]]> 397 John E. Douglas 0671528904 Eleni 5 4.08 1995
author: John E. Douglas
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1995
rating: 5
read at: 2021/03/14
date added: 2021/03/14
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]]> 45046527
Lydia lives in Acapulco. She has a son, Luca, the love of her life, and a wonderful husband who is a journalist. And while cracks are beginning to show in Acapulco because of the cartels, Lydia’s life is, by and large, fairly comfortable. But after her husband’s tell-all profile of the newest drug lord is published, none of their lives will ever be the same.

Forced to flee, Lydia and Luca find themselves joining the countless people trying to reach the United States. Lydia soon sees that everyone is running from something. But what exactly are they running to?]]> 459 Jeanine Cummins Eleni 4 4.32 2020
author: Jeanine Cummins
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2021/02/05
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]]> 27219718 263 Lucy Dawson 1782396225 Eleni 4 3.46 2015
author: Lucy Dawson
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2021/01/26
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]]> 52768989
But suddenly Ben can’t be tracked. And Mim is questioned, made to surrender her passport and threatened with the unthinkable � her two children being taken into care at the notorious BestLife.

Cornered, Mim risks everything to go on the run to find her husband � and a part of herself, long gone, that is brave enough to tackle the journey ahead.

From the stark backroads of the Australian outback to a terrifying sea voyage, Mim is forced to shuck off who she was � mother, daughter, wife, sister � and become the woman she needs to be to save her family and herself.]]> 336 Kate Mildenhall 1760854476 Eleni 4 3.41 2020
author: Kate Mildenhall
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2021/01/26
date added: 2021/01/26
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]]> 35900387 No one’s ever told Eleanor that life should be better than fine.

Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy.

But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen on the sidewalk, the three become the kinds of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living. And it is Raymond’s big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one.

Soon to be a major motion picture produced by Reese Witherspoon, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is the smart, warm, and uplifting story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes. . .

The only way to survive is to open your heart. ]]> 390 Gail Honeyman 0008172145 Eleni 5 4.17 2017
author: Gail Honeyman
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2021/01/07
date added: 2021/01/07
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]]> 10357575 The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo.

A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 —“Q is for ‘question mark.� A world that bears a question.� Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled.

As Aomame’s and Tengo’s narratives converge over the course of this single year, we learn of the profound and tangled connections that bind them ever closer: a beautiful, dyslexic teenage girl with a unique vision; a mysterious religious cult that instigated a shoot-out with the metropolitan police; a reclusive, wealthy dowager who runs a shelter for abused women; a hideously ugly private investigator; a mild-mannered yet ruthlessly efficient bodyguard; and a peculiarly insistent television-fee collector.

A love story, a mystery, a fantasy, a novel of self-discovery, a dystopia to rival George Orwell’s � 1Q84 is Haruki Murakami’s most ambitious undertaking yet: an instant best seller in his native Japan, and a tremendous feat of imagination from one of our most revered contemporary writers.]]> 944 Haruki Murakami 0307593312 Eleni 4 3.94 2009
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2021/01/07
date added: 2021/01/07
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]]> 18774964
Meet Ove. He's a curmudgeon, the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him the bitter neighbor from hell, but must Ove be bitter just because he doesn't walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time?

Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove's mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents' association to their very foundations.]]> 337 Fredrik Backman 1476738017 Eleni 0 to-read 4.35 2012
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/12/30
shelves: to-read
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]]> 50993145
In her introduction Kate Grenville tells, tongue firmly in cheek, of discovering a long-hidden box containing that memoir. What follows is a playful dance of possibilities between the real and the invented.

Grenville's Elizabeth Macarthur is a passionate woman managing her complicated life-marriage to a ruthless bully, the impulses of her own heart, the search for power in a society that gave her none-with spirit, cunning and sly wit.

Her memoir reveals the dark underbelly of the polite world of Jane Austen. It explodes the stereotype of the women of the past- devoted and docile, accepting of their narrow choices. That was their public face-here's what one of them really thought.

At the heart of this book is one of the most toxic issues of our times- the seductive appeal of false stories. Beneath the surface of Elizabeth Macarthur's life and the violent colonial world she navigated are secrets and lies with the dangerous power to shape reality.

A Room Made of Leaves is the internationally acclaimed author Kate Grenville's first novel in almost a decade. It is historical fiction turned inside out, a stunning sleight of hand that gives the past the piercing immediacy of the present.]]> 352 Kate Grenville 1922330027 Eleni 0 to-read 3.74 2020
author: Kate Grenville
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/12/20
shelves: to-read
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]]> 53952835
At the other end of the same bridge, an old man, Vic, smokes his last cigarette.

The two see each other across the void. A fateful connection is made, and an unlikely friendship blooms. Slowly, we learn what led Sam and Vic to the bridge that night. Bonded by their suffering, each privately commits to the impossible task of saving the other.

Honeybee is a heart-breaking, life-affirming novel that throws us headlong into a world of petty thefts, extortion plots, botched bank robberies, daring dog rescues and one spectacular drag show.

At the heart of Honeybee is Sam: a solitary, resilient young person battling to navigate the world as their true self; ensnared by a loyalty to a troubled mother, scarred by the volatility of a domineering step-father, and confounded by the kindness of new alliances.

Honeybee is a tender, profoundly moving novel brimming with vivid characters and luminous words. It's about two lives forever changed by a chance encounter -- one offering hope, the other redemption. It's about when to persevere, and when to be merciful, as Sam learns when to let go, and when to hold on.]]> 421 Craig Silvey 1760877220 Eleni 5 4.38 2020
author: Craig Silvey
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2020
rating: 5
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date added: 2020/12/18
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]]> 36809135
But Kya is not what they say. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life's lessons from the land, learning the real ways of the world from the dishonest signals of fireflies. But while she has the skills to live in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world—until the unthinkable happens.

In Where the Crawdads Sing, Owens juxtaposes an exquisite ode to the natural world against a profound coming of age story and haunting mystery. Thought-provoking, wise, and deeply moving, Owens’s debut novel reminds us that we are forever shaped by the child within us, while also subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.

The story asks how isolation influences the behavior of a young woman, who like all of us, has the genetic propensity to belong to a group. The clues to the mystery are brushed into the lush habitat and natural histories of its wild creatures.]]> 384 Delia Owens 0735219117 Eleni 5 4.35 2018
author: Delia Owens
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2018
rating: 5
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date added: 2020/12/18
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]]> 48945760 A powerful, epic novel of four friends as they grapple with desire, youth, death, and faith in a sweeping story by the international bestselling author of The Solitude of Prime Numbers

Every summer Teresa follows her father to his childhood home in Puglia, down in the heel of Italy, a land of relentless, shimmering heat, centuries-old olive groves and taciturn, proud people. There Teresa spends long afternoons enveloped in a sun-struck stupor, reading her grandmother's paperbacks.

Everything changes the summer she meets the three boys who live on the farm next door: Nicola, Tommaso and Bern - the man Teresa will love for the rest of her life. Raised like brothers on a farm that feels to Teresa almost suspended in time, the three boys share a complex, intimate and seemingly unassailable bond.

But no bond is unbreakable and no summer truly endless, as Teresa soon discovers.

Because there is resentment underneath the surface of that strange brotherhood, a twisted kind of love that protects a dark secret. And when Bern - the enigmatic, restless gravitational centre of the group - commits a brutal act of revenge, not even a final pilgrimage to the edge of the world will be enough to bring back those perfect, golden hours in the shadow of the olive trees.

An unforgettable story of enduring love, the bonds between men, and the all-too-human search for meaning, Heaven and Earth is Paolo Giordano at his best: an author capable of unveiling the depths of the human soul and who has now given us the old-fashioned pleasure of a big, sprawling novel in which to lose oneself.]]> 416 Paolo Giordano 1984877313 Eleni 0 to-read 3.55
author: Paolo Giordano
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.55
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/12/05
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]]> 48814237 Cardinal George Pell is behind bars. In August 2019, his appeal failed. Australia’s most senior Catholic, the man once in charge of the Vatican’s finances, remains in prison for sexually assaulting children.

In The Prince, David Marr investigates Pell’s career and his ultimate fall. Marr reveals a cleric at ease with power and aggressive in asserting the prerogatives of the Vatican. He charts Pell’s response � as a man, a priest, an archbishop and a prince of the church � to the scandal that has engulfed the Catholic world: the sexual abuse of children.

This is the story of a cleric torn by the contest between his church and its victims, and slow to realise that the Catholic Church cannot, in the end, escape secular scrutiny. Behind it all was Pell’s own terrible secret, which was uncovered and judged in a trial that convulsed the nation.

The Prince is a portrait of hypocrisy and ambition, set against a backdrop of terrible suffering and an ancient institution in turmoil.]]> 240 David Marr 1760641731 Eleni 5 4.27 2013
author: David Marr
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2013
rating: 5
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date added: 2020/11/22
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I can’t say I enjoyed this. But it’s a powerful piece of writing and simply infuriating.
]]> 43197935
Invisible Boys is a raw, confronting YA novel, tackling homosexuality, masculinity, anger and suicide with a nuanced and unique perspective. Set in regional Western Australia, the novel follows three sixteen-year-old boys in the throes of coming to terms with their homosexuality in a town where it is invisible � and so are they. Invisible Boys depicts the complexities and trauma of rural gay identity with painful honesty, devastating consequence and, ultimately, hope.]]> 344 Holden Sheppard 1925815560 Eleni 5 A brilliant read. 4.39 2019
author: Holden Sheppard
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/11/06
shelves:
review:
A brilliant read.
]]> 41880602
But Toby's new life � liver specialist by day, kids every other weekend, rabid somewhat anonymous sex at night � is interrupted when his ex-wife suddenly disappears. Either on a vision quest or a nervous breakdown, Toby doesn't know � she won't answer his texts or calls.

Is Toby's ex just angry, like always? Is she punishing him, yet again, for not being the bread winner she was? As he desperately searches for her while juggling his job and parenting their two unraveling children, Toby is forced to reckon with the real reasons his marriage fell apart, and to ask if the story he has been telling himself all this time is true.]]> 373 Taffy Brodesser-Akner 0525510877 Eleni 0 to-read 3.61 2019
author: Taffy Brodesser-Akner
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/10/09
shelves: to-read
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]]> 1053463

]]> 280 Kate Grenville 1841959952 Eleni 0 to-read 3.69 1984
author: Kate Grenville
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1984
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/09/28
shelves: to-read
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]]> 38594019 Winner of the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, The Nowhere Child is screenwriter Christian White’s internationally bestselling debut thriller of psychological suspense about a woman uncovering devastating secrets about her family—and her very identity�

Kimberly Leamy is a photography teacher in Melbourne, Australia. Twenty-six years earlier, Sammy Went, a two-year old girl vanished from her home in Manson, Kentucky. An American accountant who contacts Kim is convinced she was that child, kidnapped just after her birthday. She cannot believe the woman who raised her, a loving social worker who died of cancer four years ago, crossed international lines to steal a toddler.

On April 3rd, 1990, Jack and Molly Went’s daughter Sammy disappeared from the inside their Kentucky home. Already estranged since the girl’s birth, the couple drifted further apart as time passed. Jack did his best to raise and protect his other daughter and son while Molly found solace in her faith. The Church of the Light Within, a Pentecostal fundamentalist group who handle poisonous snakes as part of their worship, provided that faith. Without Sammy, the Wents eventually fell apart.

Now, with proof that she and Sammy are in fact the same person, Kim travels to America to reunite with a family she never knew she had. And to solve the mystery of her abduction—a mystery that will take her deep into the dark heart of religious fanaticism where she must fight for her life against those determined to save her soul…]]> 374 Christian White 1925584526 Eleni 5 3.96 2018
author: Christian White
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2018
rating: 5
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date added: 2020/09/26
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]]> 51960928 The novel behind the hit TV series The Clearing released globally on Disney+ and Hulu.

Amy has only ever known what life is like in the Clearing. She knows what's expected of her. She knows what to do to please her elders, and how to make sure life in the community remains happy and calm. That is, until a new young girl joins the group. She isn't fitting in; she doesn't want to stay. What happens next will turn life as Amy knows it on its head.

Freya has gone to great lengths to feel like a 'normal person'. In fact, if you saw her go about her day with her young son, you'd think she was an everyday mum. That is, until a young girl goes missing and someone from her past, someone she hasn't seen for a very long time, arrives in town.

As Amy and Freya's story intertwines the secrets of the past bubble up to the surface. This rural Aussie town's dark underbelly is about to be exposed and lives will be destroyed.]]> 326 J.P. Pomare 1869713397 Eleni 0 to-read 4.06 2019
author: J.P. Pomare
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/09/26
shelves: to-read
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]]> 37853107
‘Graceful, revealing, pitch perfect. Cole is an author who pays sharp attention to the world around her.� Australian on 'Deeper Water' ]]> 288 Jessie Cole 1925603504 Eleni 0 to-read 4.30
author: Jessie Cole
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.30
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/09/04
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]]> 50358134 A psychological thriller about two teenagers teaming up with the FBI to track down juvenile serial killers.

In 1982, two teenagers—serial killer survivor Emma Lewis and US Marshal candidate Travis Bell—are recruited by the FBI to interview convicted juvenile killers and provide insight and advice on cold cases. From the start, Emma and Travis develop a quick friendship, gaining information from juvenile murderers that even the FBI can't crack. But when the team is called in to give advice on an active case—a serial killer who exclusively hunts teenagers—things begin to unravel. Working against the clock, they must turn to one of the country's most notorious incarcerated murderers for help: teenage sociopath Simon Gutmunsson. Despite Travis's objections, Emma becomes the conduit between Simon and the FBI team. But while Simon seems to be giving them the information they need to save lives, he's an expert manipulator playing a very long game...and he has his sights set on Emma.]]> 400 Ellie Marney 0316497835 Eleni 5 3.93 2020
author: Ellie Marney
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2020
rating: 5
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date added: 2020/09/04
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]]> 43724806 The latest pulsating thriller in the Caleb Zelic series

After a lifetime of bad decisions PI Caleb Zelic is finally making good ones. He's in therapy, his business is recovering and his relationship with his estranged wife Kat is on the mend.

But soon Caleb is drawn into the tangled life of his troubled ex partner Frankie, which leads to a confrontation with the cops. And when Frankie's niece is kidnapped, she and Caleb must work together to save the child's life. But can Caleb trust her after her past betrayals?]]> 352 Emma Viskic Eleni 5 3.94 2019
author: Emma Viskic
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/09/04
shelves:
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]]> 25460514
This gripping, original and fast-paced crime thriller is set between a big city and a small coastal town, Resurrection Bay, where Caleb is forced to confront painful memories. Caleb is a memorable protagonist who refuses to let his deafness limit his opportunities, or his participation in the investigation. But does his persistence border on stubbornness? And at what cost? As he delves deeper into the investigation Caleb uncovers unwelcome truths about his murdered friend � and himself.]]> 272 Emma Viskic 1760068764 Eleni 5 3.69 2015
author: Emma Viskic
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/09/04
shelves:
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]]> 1736739
At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town of Crosby, Maine, and in the world at large, but she doesn’t always recognize the changes in those around her: a lounge musician haunted by a past romance; a former student who has lost the will to live; Olive’s own adult child, who feels tyrannized by her irrational sensitivities; and her husband, Henry, who finds his loyalty to his marriage both a blessing and a curse.

As the townspeople grapple with their problems, mild and dire, Olive is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her life � sometimes painfully, but always with ruthless honesty.]]> 270 Elizabeth Strout Eleni 0 to-read 3.85 2008
author: Elizabeth Strout
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/08/29
shelves: to-read
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]]> 48908816
London, 1702. When her husband is lost at sea, Mary Burton Gulliver, midwife and herbalist, is forced to rebuild her life without him. But three years later when Lemuel Gulliver is brought home, fevered and communicating only in riddles, her ordered world is turned upside down.

In a climate of desperate poverty and violence, Mary is caught in a crossfire of suspicion and fear driven by her husband’s outlandish claims, and it is up to her to navigate a passage to safety for herself and her daughter, and the vulnerable women in her care.

When a fellow sailor, a dangerous man with nothing to lose, appears to hold sway over her husband, Mary’s world descends deeper into chaos, and she must set out on her own journey to discover the truth of Gulliver’s travels . . . and the landscape of her own heart.]]> 416 Lauren Chater 1925596389 Eleni 0 to-read 3.66 2020
author: Lauren Chater
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/08/29
shelves: to-read
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]]> 53326837
But that was before Joey Milano.

Before that awful party.
Now the only thing Ruby’s sure of is that she’ll never ever trust anyone again.
When the opportunity of a lifetime comes knocking, and a boy from her past reaches out, Ruby’s not fooled. Some things are broken beyond repair.

Or are they?]]> 352 Hayley Lawrence 1760894893 Eleni 5 3.82 2020
author: Hayley Lawrence
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/08/29
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review:
Five stars! That’s how excited I am to read this one. I need it in my hands now!! RTC
]]> 32187419 A sharply intelligent novel about two college students and the strange, unexpected connection they forge with a married couple.

Frances is twenty-one years old, cool-headed, and darkly observant. A college student and aspiring writer, she devotes herself to a life of the mind--and to the beautiful and endlessly self-possessed Bobbi, her best friend and comrade-in-arms. Lovers at school, the two young women now perform spoken-word poetry together in Dublin, where a journalist named Melissa spots their potential. Drawn into Melissa's orbit, Frances is reluctantly impressed by the older woman's sophisticated home and tall, handsome husband. Private property, Frances believes, is a cultural evil--and Nick, a bored actor who never quite lived up to his potential, looks like patriarchy made flesh. But however amusing their flirtation seems at first, it gives way to a strange intimacy neither of them expect. As Frances tries to keep her life in check, her relationships increasingly resist her control: with Nick, with her difficult and unhappy father, and finally even with Bobbi. Desperate to reconcile herself to the desires and vulnerabilities of her body, Frances's intellectual certainties begin to yield to something new: a painful and disorienting way of living from moment to moment.

Written with gem-like precision and probing intelligence, Conversations With Friends is wonderfully alive to the pleasures and dangers of youth."]]> 304 Sally Rooney 0451499077 Eleni 5 3.74 2017
author: Sally Rooney
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2020/07/20
date added: 2020/07/20
shelves:
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]]> 18143977
In a mining town in Germany, Werner Pfennig, an orphan, grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find that brings them news and stories from places they have never seen or imagined. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments and is enlisted to use his talent to track down the resistance. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another.

From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, the stunningly beautiful instant New York Times bestseller about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.

An alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here]]> 544 Anthony Doerr 1476746583 Eleni 0 to-read 4.31 2014
author: Anthony Doerr
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/07/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 9717 The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera tells the story of a young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing and one of his mistresses and her humbly faithful lover. This magnificent novel juxtaposes geographically distant places, brilliant and playful reflections, and a variety of styles, to take its place as perhaps the major achievement of one of the world’s truly great writers.]]> 314 Milan Kundera 0571224385 Eleni 0 to-read 4.12 1984
author: Milan Kundera
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1984
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/07/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 48917267
Evoking the rich, unfolding tapestry of Australian life in the late nineteenth century, Stone Sky Gold Mountain is a heartbreaking and universal story about the exiled and displaced, about those who encounter discrimination yet yearn for acceptance.]]> 264 Mirandi Riwoe 0702262730 Eleni 5 3.76 2020
author: Mirandi Riwoe
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/07/05
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review:

]]> 52336969
When ten-year-old cousins Maddy and Brianna are arrested for a terrible crime, Maddy’s mother Juliet cannot believe it. How could her bright, joyful daughter be capable of such a thing?

As the small village community recoils in horror, the pressure of the tragedy blows Juliet and her sister’s lives apart. And things get even worse when their daughters retreat into a self-imposed silence. Can anyone reach Maddy and discover the truth before her fate is sealed?

Juliet is crushed. Nothing will ever be the same for her darling girl. But she knows that to find out what really happened that day, she and her sister must unlock the secrets of their own terrible past, a past they swore never to speak about again …]]> 302 K.L. Slater 178681773X Eleni 3 3.94 2019
author: K.L. Slater
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2020/06/28
date added: 2020/06/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 48945757 fast, Della had Suki. Suki is Della's own wolf -- her protector. But who has been protecting Suki? Della might get told off for swearing at school, but she has always known how to keep quiet where it counts. Then Suki tries to kill herself, and Della's world turns so far upside down, it feels like it's shaking her by the ankles. Maybe she's been quiet about the wrong things. Maybe it's time to be loud.

In this powerful novel that explodes the stigma around child sexual abuse and leavens an intense tale with compassion and humor, Kimberly Brubaker Bradley tells a story about two sisters, linked by love and trauma, who must find their own voices before they can find their way back to each other.]]> 272 Kimberly Brubaker Bradley 1984815687 Eleni 5 4.64 2020
author: Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.64
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2020/06/17
date added: 2020/06/17
shelves:
review:
We need more books like this. Unflinching, funny and important, Fighting Words is for all the forgotten kids, the ones who don’t fit in, the ones who are hurt. An exceptionally written story that takes you to dark places but where you never feel unsafe, a story to make you laugh and cry and wish for a better world. I could not put it down.
]]> 30109213
She has nothing left to live for� until she finds her husband’s handgun hidden in their house.

Why did Ryan need a gun? What did he know about their daughter’s death?

Desperate for the truth, Paige begins to unearth her husband’s secrets.

But she has no idea who she is up against, or that her life isn’t hers to gamble � she belongs to me.

From the bestselling author of Anything for Her, Jack Jordan's My Girl is the new chilling thriller that you won't want to miss.]]> 240 Jack Jordan 9781532815 Eleni 0 3.66 2016
author: Jack Jordan
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at: 2020/06/11
date added: 2020/06/11
shelves:
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]]> 43413011
In the early 1700s, Sarah, accused of being a witch, flees for her life.

In the aftermath of the Second World War, Ruth navigates a new house, a new husband and the strange waters of the local community.

Six decades later, the house stands empty. Viv, mourning the death of her father, catalogues Ruth’s belongings and discovers her place in the past � and perhaps a way forward.

Each woman’s choices are circumscribed, in ways big and small, by the men in their lives. But in sisterhood there is the hope of survival and new life. Intricately crafted and compulsively readable, The Bass Rock burns bright with anger and love.]]> 362 Evie Wyld 191121439X Eleni 4 3.70 2020
author: Evie Wyld
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2020/06/03
date added: 2020/06/03
shelves:
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]]> 52137751
When one foolish night of passion leads to an unexpected pregnancy and a loveless marriage, Mary’s reluctant husband Liam escapes to the trenches. With her overbearing mother attempting to control her every decision, Mary flees to Melbourne determined to build a life for herself and her child. There, she forms an unlikely friendship with Protestant army reject Tom Robbins.

But as a shattering betrayal is revealed, Mary must make an impossible choice. Does she embrace the path fate has set for her, or follow the one she longs to take?

From the harshness of a pit village in Scotland to the upheaval of wartime Australia, No Small Shame tells the moving story of love and duty, loyalty and betrayal, and confronting the past before you can seek a future.]]> 400 Christine Bell 1920727906 Eleni 0 to-read 3.93 2020
author: Christine Bell
name: Eleni
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/05/14
shelves: to-read
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]]> 41081373
Girl, Woman, Other follows the lives and struggles of twelve very different characters. Mostly women, black and British, they tell the stories of their families, friends and lovers, across the country and through the years.

Joyfully polyphonic and vibrantly contemporary, this is a gloriously new kind of history, a novel of our times: celebratory, ever-dynamic and utterly irresistible.]]> 453 Bernardine Evaristo 0241364906 Eleni 5 4.27 2019
author: Bernardine Evaristo
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2020/05/12
date added: 2020/05/12
shelves:
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]]> 12262741 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here

At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State � and she would do it alone.

Told with suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild powerfully captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.]]> 336 Cheryl Strayed 0307592731 Eleni 5 4.06 2012
author: Cheryl Strayed
name: Eleni
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2020/05/12
date added: 2020/05/12
shelves:
review:

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