Aya's bookshelf: all en-US Mon, 07 Apr 2025 21:09:01 -0700 60 Aya's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)]]> 35068705
When Rin aced the Keju—the Empire-wide test to find the most talented youth to learn at the Academies—it was a shock to everyone: to the test officials, who couldn’t believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating; to Rin’s guardians, who believed they’d finally be able to marry her off and further their criminal enterprise; and to Rin herself, who realized she was finally free of the servitude and despair that had made up her daily existence. That she got into Sinegard—the most elite military school in Nikan—was even more surprising.

But surprises aren’t always good.

Because being a dark-skinned peasant girl from the south is not an easy thing at Sinegard. Targeted from the outset by rival classmates for her color, poverty, and gender, Rin discovers she possesses a lethal, unearthly power—an aptitude for the nearly-mythical art of shamanism. Exploring the depths of her gift with the help of a seemingly insane teacher and psychoactive substances, Rin learns that gods long thought dead are very much alive—and that mastering control over those powers could mean more than just surviving school.

For while the Nikara Empire is at peace, the Federation of Mugen still lurks across a narrow sea. The militarily advanced Federation occupied Nikan for decades after the First Poppy War, and only barely lost the continent in the Second. And while most of the people are complacent to go about their lives, a few are aware that a Third Poppy War is just a spark away . . .

Rin’s shamanic powers may be the only way to save her people. But as she finds out more about the god that has chosen her, the vengeful Phoenix, she fears that winning the war may cost her humanity . . . and that it may already be too late.]]> 545 R.F. Kuang 0062662597 Aya 3 ya-fiction 2.5 4.16 2018 The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Aya
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/07
date added: 2025/04/07
shelves: ya-fiction
review:
2.5
]]> <![CDATA[The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students]]> 42422452 Getting in is only half the battle. The Privileged Poor reveals how—and why—disadvantaged students struggle at elite colleges, and explains what schools can do differently if these students are to thrive.

The Ivy League looks different than it used to. College presidents and deans of admission have opened their doors—and their coffers—to support a more diverse student body. But is it enough just to admit these students? In The Privileged Poor, Anthony Jack reveals that the struggles of less privileged students continue long after they’ve arrived on campus. Admission, they quickly learn, is not the same as acceptance. This bracing and necessary book documents how university policies and cultures can exacerbate preexisting inequalities and reveals why these policies hit some students harder than others.

Despite their lofty aspirations, top colleges hedge their bets by recruiting their new diversity largely from the same old sources, admitting scores of lower-income black, Latino, and white undergraduates from elite private high schools like Exeter and Andover. These students approach campus life very differently from students who attended local, and typically troubled, public high schools and are often left to flounder on their own. Drawing on interviews with dozens of undergraduates at one of America’s most famous colleges and on his own experiences as one of the privileged poor, Jack describes the lives poor students bring with them and shows how powerfully background affects their chances of success.

If we truly want our top colleges to be engines of opportunity, university policies and campus cultures will have to change. Jack provides concrete advice to help schools reduce these hidden disadvantages—advice we cannot afford to ignore.]]> 288 Anthony Abraham Jack 0674976894 Aya 0 non-fiction-memoirs, school 4.25 2019 The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students
author: Anthony Abraham Jack
name: Aya
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at: 2025/04/04
date added: 2025/04/04
shelves: non-fiction-memoirs, school
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Crook County: Racism and Injustice in America's Largest Criminal Court]]> 28163069 Crook County breaks open the courthouse doors and enters the hallways, courtrooms, judges' chambers, and attorneys' offices to reveal a world of punishment determined by race, not offense.

After ten years and over 1,000 hours of working in and observing the largest criminal courthouse in the country, Chicago-Cook County, Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve takes readers inside to our so-called halls of justice to witness the types of everyday racial abuses that fester within the courts, often in plain sight. We watch as mostly Black and Latino defendants confront white professionals charged with classifying and deliberating their fates in the courtroom. Racial abuses and violations are encouraged and even seen as justified. Courthouse security guards cruelly mock and joke at the expense of a defendant's family members. Public defenders make choices about which defendants they will try to "save" and which they will sacrifice. Judges fall asleep on the bench. Prosecutors hang out like frat boys in the judges' chambers while the fates of defendants hang in the balance. These are just a few snapshots of the impossibly unprofessional behaviors of those tasked with the deadly serious job of facilitating justice in America.

Crook County's powerful, and at times devastating, stories reveal a legal culture steeped in racial stigma—a pernicious legal world where courtroom actors live and breathe racism while simultaneously committing themselves to a colorblind ideal. This book urges all citizens to take a closer look at the way we do justice in America and to hold our arbiters of justice accountable to a high standard of equality.]]> 272 Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve 0804790434 Aya 0 3.84 2016 Crook County: Racism and Injustice in America's Largest Criminal Court
author: Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve
name: Aya
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at: 2025/04/04
date added: 2025/04/04
shelves:
review:

]]> Red, White & Royal Blue 41150487
As President Claremont kicks off her reelection bid, Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret relationship with Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations. What is worth the sacrifice? How do you do all the good you can do? And, most importantly, how will history remember you?]]> 448 Casey McQuiston 1250316774 Aya 2 4.06 2019 Red, White & Royal Blue
author: Casey McQuiston
name: Aya
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2020/12/28
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: adult-fiction, oh-my-eyes-theyre-burning
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Making Hispanics: How Activists, Bureaucrats, and Media Constructed a New American]]> 18431667 Making Hispanics. She uses an organizational lens and traces how activists, bureaucrats, and media executives in the 1970s and '80s created a new identity category—and by doing so, permanently changed the racial and political landscape of the nation.

Some argue that these cultures are fundamentally similar and that the Spanish language is a natural basis for a unified Hispanic identity. But Mora shows very clearly that the idea of ethnic grouping was historically constructed and institutionalized in the United States. During the 1960 census, reports classified Latin American immigrants as “white,” grouping them with European Americans. Not only was this decision controversial, but also Latino activists claimed that this classification hindered their ability to portray their constituents as underrepresented minorities. Therefore, they called for a separate classification: Hispanic. Once these populations could be quantified, businesses saw opportunities and the media responded. Spanish-language television began to expand its reach to serve the now large, and newly unified, Hispanic community with news and entertainment programming. Through archival research, oral histories, and interviews, Mora reveals the broad, national-level process that led to the emergence of Hispanicity in America.]]> 256 G. Cristina Mora 022603366X Aya 0 school 3.90 2014 Making Hispanics: How Activists, Bureaucrats, and Media Constructed a New American
author: G. Cristina Mora
name: Aya
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/23
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves: school
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Trans Kids: Being Gendered in the Twenty-First Century]]> 39089478
Drawing from sociology, philosophy, psychology, and sexuality studies, sociologist Tey Meadow depicts the intricate social processes that shape gender acquisition. Where once atypical gender expression was considered a failure of gender, now it is a form of gender. Engaging and rigorously argued,? Trans Kids? underscores the centrality of ever more particular configurations of gender in both our physical and psychological lives, and the increasing embeddedness of personal identities in social institutions.]]> 314 Tey Meadow 0520275047 Aya 0 school 4.15 2018 Trans Kids: Being Gendered in the Twenty-First Century
author: Tey Meadow
name: Aya
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/05
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: school
review:

]]> Booth 58502673 Best Book of the Year
Real Simple - AARP - USA Today

From the Man Booker finalist and bestselling author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves comes an epic and intimate novel about the family behind one of the most infamous figures in American history: John Wilkes Booth.

In 1822, a secret family moves into a secret cabin some thirty miles northeast of Baltimore, to farm, to hide, and to bear ten children over the course of the next sixteen years. Junius Booth--breadwinner, celebrated Shakespearean actor, and master of the house in more ways than one--is at once a mesmerizing talent and a man of terrifying instability. One by one the children arrive, as year by year, the country draws frighteningly closer to the boiling point of secession and civil war.

As the tenor of the world shifts, the Booths emerge from their hidden lives to cement their place as one of the country's leading theatrical families. But behind the curtains of the many stages they have graced, multiple scandals, family triumphs, and criminal disasters begin to take their toll, and the solemn siblings of John Wilkes Booth are left to reckon with the truth behind the destructively specious promise of an early prophecy.

Booth is a startling portrait of a country in the throes of change and a vivid exploration of the ties that make, and break, a family.]]> 470 Karen Joy Fowler 0593331435 Aya 0 adult-fiction 3.76 2022 Booth
author: Karen Joy Fowler
name: Aya
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/31
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves: adult-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[涙雨とセレナーデ 3 [Namida Ame to Serenade 3]]]> 41819519 176 Haruka Kawachi 4065104548 Aya 0 4.27 2017 涙雨とセレナーデ 3 [Namida Ame to Serenade 3]
author: Haruka Kawachi
name: Aya
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/31
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet]]> 55145261 A deeply moving and mind-expanding collection of personal essays in the first ever work of non-fiction from #1 internationally bestselling author John Green

The Anthropocene is the current geological age, in which human activity has profoundly shaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his ground-breaking, critically acclaimed podcast, John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet - from the QWERTY keyboard and Halley's Comet to Penguins of Madagascar - on a five-star scale.

Complex and rich with detail, the Anthropocene's reviews have been praised as 'observations that double as exercises in memoiristic empathy', with over 10 million lifetime downloads. John Green's gift for storytelling shines throughout this artfully curated collection about the shared human experience; it includes beloved essays along with six all-new pieces exclusive to the book.]]> 304 John Green 0525555218 Aya 4 4.37 2021 The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet
author: John Green
name: Aya
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/08/15
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: non-fiction-memoirs, misc, books-i-own
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Story of a New Name (Neapolitan Novels, #2)]]> 17465515 My Brilliant Friend introduced readers to the unforgettable Elena and Lila, whose lifelong friendship provides the backbone for the Neapolitan Novels. The Story of a New Name is the second book in this series. With these books, which the New Yorker's James Wood described as "large, captivating, amiably peopled ... a beautiful and delicate tale of confluence and reversal," Ferrante proves herself to be one of Italy's most accomplished storytellers. She writes vividly about a specific neighborhood of Naples from the late-1950s through to the current day and about two remarkable young women who are very much the products of that place and time. Yet in doing so she has created a world in which readers will recognize themselves and has drawn a marvelously nuanced portrait of friendship.

In The Story of a New Name, Lila has recently married and made her entrée into the family business; Elena, meanwhile, continues her studies and her exploration of the world beyond the neighborhood that she so often finds stifling. Love, jealousy, family, freedom, commitment, and above all friendship: these are signs under which both women live out this phase in their stories. Marriage appears to have imprisoned Lila, and the pressure to excel is at times too much for Elena. Yet the two young women share a complex and evolving bond that is central to their emotional lives and is a source of strength in the face of life's challenges. In these Neapolitan Novels, Elena Ferrante, the acclaimed author of The Days of Abandonment, gives readers a poignant and universal story about friendship and belonging.]]> 471 Elena Ferrante Aya 0 to-read 4.47 2012 The Story of a New Name (Neapolitan Novels, #2)
author: Elena Ferrante
name: Aya
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[My Brilliant Friend (Neapolitan Novels, #1)]]> 35036409 My Brilliant Friend is a rich, intense and generous-hearted story about two friends, Elena and Lila. Ferrante’s inimitable style lends itself perfectly to a meticulous portrait of these two women that is also the story of a nation and a touching meditation on the nature of friendship. Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighbourhood, a city and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her two protagonists.]]> 331 Elena Ferrante Aya 4 adult-fiction What is brilliance? 4.08 2011 My Brilliant Friend (Neapolitan Novels, #1)
author: Elena Ferrante
name: Aya
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/25
date added: 2024/12/25
shelves: adult-fiction
review:
What is brilliance?
]]> Polio: An American Story 335598
Oshinsky offers an insightful look at the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, which was founded in the 1930s by FDR and Basil O'Connor, it revolutionized fundraising and the perception of disease in America. Oshinsky also shows how the polio experience revolutionized the way in which the government licensed and tested new drugs before allowing them on the market, and the way in which the legal system dealt with manufacturers' liability for unsafe products. Finally, and perhaps most tellingly, Oshinsky reveals that polio was never the raging epidemic portrayed by the media, but in truth a relatively uncommon disease. But in baby-booming America--increasingly suburban, family-oriented, and hygiene-obsessed--the specter of polio, like the specter of the atomic bomb, soon became a cloud of terror over daily life.

Both a gripping scientific suspense story and a provocative social and cultural history, Polio opens a fresh window onto postwar America.
]]> 352 David M. Oshinsky 0195307143 Aya 3 non-fiction-memoirs 4.03 2005 Polio: An American Story
author: David M. Oshinsky
name: Aya
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/19
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: non-fiction-memoirs
review:
why is the last like idk 50 pages just notes
]]> When My Name Was Keoko 613218 199 Linda Sue Park 0440419441 Aya 0 classics, books-i-own korean american lit final 4.15 2002 When My Name Was Keoko
author: Linda Sue Park
name: Aya
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/14
date added: 2024/12/13
shelves: classics, books-i-own
review:
korean american lit final
]]> Brother's Keeper 52130749 Can two children escape North Korea on their own?

North Korea. December, 1950.

Twelve-year-old Sora and her family live under an iron set of rules: No travel without a permit. No criticism of the government. No absences from Communist meetings. Wear red. Hang pictures of the Great Leader. Don't trust your neighbors. Don't speak your mind. You are being watched.

But war is coming, war between North and South Korea, between the Soviets and the Americans. War causes chaos--and war is the perfect time to escape. The plan is simple: Sora and her family will walk hundreds of miles to the South Korean city of Busan from their tiny mountain village. They just need to avoid napalm, frostbite, border guards, and enemy soldiers.

But they can't. And when an incendiary bombing changes everything, Sora and her little brother Young will have to get to Busan on their own. Can a twelve-year-old girl and her eight-year-old brother survive three hundred miles of war zone in winter?]]> 314 Julie Lee 0823444945 Aya 0 school 4.33 2020 Brother's Keeper
author: Julie Lee
name: Aya
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/10
date added: 2024/12/10
shelves: school
review:
korean american lit final paper
]]> Mischievous Meg 6067004 139 Astrid Lindgren 0670478067 Aya 0 classics, misc, books-i-own cute 3.78 1960 Mischievous Meg
author: Astrid Lindgren
name: Aya
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1960
rating: 0
read at: 2022/11/19
date added: 2024/11/28
shelves: classics, misc, books-i-own
review:
cute
]]> The Surrendered 1538911
With his three critically acclaimed novels, Chang-rae Lee has established himself as one of the most talented writers of contemporary literary fiction. Now, with The Surrendered, Lee has created a book that amplifies everything we've seen in his previous works, and reads like nothing else. It is a brilliant, haunting, heartbreaking story about how love and war inalterably change the lives of those they touch.

June Han was only a girl when the Korean War left her orphaned; Hector Brennan was a young GI who fled the petty tragedies of his small town to serve his country. When the war ended, their lives collided at a Korean orphanage where they vied for the attentions of Sylvie Tanner, the beautiful yet deeply damaged missionary wife whose elusive love seemed to transform everything. Thirty years later and on the other side of the world, June and Hector are reunited in a plot that will force them to come to terms with the mysterious secrets of their past, and the shocking acts of love and violence that bind them together.

As Lee unfurls the stunning story of June, Hector, and Sylvie, he weaves a profound meditation on the nature of heroism and sacrifice, the power of love, and the possibilities for mercy, salvation, and surrendering oneself to another. Combining the complex themes of identity and belonging of Native Speaker and A Gesture Life with the broad range, energy, and pure storytelling gifts of Aloft, Chang-rae Lee has delivered his most ambitious, exciting, and unforgettable work yet. It is a mesmerizing novel, elegantly suspenseful and deeply affecting.]]> 480 Chang-rae Lee 1594489769 Aya 0 to-read 3.65 2009 The Surrendered
author: Chang-rae Lee
name: Aya
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass, #3)]]> 20613470 565 Sarah J. Maas 1619630656 Aya 0 books-i-own, ya-fiction rotting 4.47 2014 Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass, #3)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Aya
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at: 2024/11/17
date added: 2024/11/18
shelves: books-i-own, ya-fiction
review:
rotting
]]> <![CDATA[The Rise of the Hotel Dumort (The Bane Chronicles, #5)]]> 17334064
The immortal Magnus Bane is making the most of his time in the Roaring Twenties: He's settled into New York society and is thriving among the fashionable jazz set. And there is nowhere better to see and be seen than the glamorous Hotel Dumort, a glittering new addition to the Manhattan landscape. But a different type of glamour may be at play...]]> 61 Cassandra Clare 144249560X Aya 2 ya-fiction 3.79 The Rise of the Hotel Dumort (The Bane Chronicles, #5)
author: Cassandra Clare
name: Aya
average rating: 3.79
book published:
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2024/11/09
shelves: ya-fiction
review:

]]> Pachinko 34051011
Richly told and profoundly moving, Pachinko is a story of love, sacrifice, ambition, and loyalty. From bustling street markets to the halls of Japan's finest universities to the pachinko parlors of the criminal underworld, Lee's complex and passionate characters—strong, stubborn women, devoted sisters and sons, fathers shaken by moral crisis—survive and thrive against the indifferent arc of history.]]> 496 Min Jin Lee Aya 2 adult-fiction IY's head is so far up min jin lee's ass ]]> 4.35 2017 Pachinko
author: Min Jin Lee
name: Aya
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2017
rating: 2
read at: 2024/09/30
date added: 2024/09/30
shelves: adult-fiction
review:
mid
IY's head is so far up min jin lee's ass
]]> <![CDATA[涙雨とセレナーデ 2 [Namida Ame to Serenade 2]]]> 41819508 168 Haruka Kawachi 4063930491 Aya 3 misc 4.16 2016 涙雨とセレナーデ 2 [Namida Ame to Serenade 2]
author: Haruka Kawachi
name: Aya
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/19
date added: 2024/09/19
shelves: misc
review:
i have physics pset due tmrwwww why am i doing this to myself
]]> <![CDATA[涙雨とセレナーデ 1 [Namida Ame to Serenade 1]]]> 41819495 168 Haruka Kawachi 4063773280 Aya 3 misc live laugh love shojo manga 3.95 2015 涙雨とセレナーデ 1 [Namida Ame to Serenade 1]
author: Haruka Kawachi
name: Aya
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/19
date added: 2024/09/19
shelves: misc
review:
live laugh love shojo manga
]]> <![CDATA[Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books]]> 7603 Every Thursday morning for two years in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a bold and inspired teacher named Azar Nafisi secretly gathered seven of her most committed female students to read forbidden Western classics. As Islamic morality squads staged arbitrary raids in Tehran, fundamentalists seized hold of the universities, and a blind censor stifled artistic expression, the girls in Azar Nafisi's living room risked removing their veils and immersed themselves in the worlds of Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, and Vladimir Nabokov. In this extraordinary memoir, their stories become intertwined with the ones they are reading. Reading Lolita in Tehran is a remarkable exploration of resilience in the face of tyranny and a celebration of the liberating power of literature.

]]> 356 Azar Nafisi 081297106X Aya 3 non-fiction-memoirs 3.5 3.64 2003 Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
author: Azar Nafisi
name: Aya
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2003
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/20
date added: 2024/08/20
shelves: non-fiction-memoirs
review:
3.5
]]> <![CDATA[Komi Can’t Communicate, Vol. 1]]> 46029443 Timid Tadano is a total wallflower, and that’s just the way he likes it. But all that changes when he finds himself alone in a classroom on the first day of high school with the legendary Komi. He quickly realizes she isn’t aloof—she’s just super awkward. Now he’s made it his mission to help her on her quest to make 100 friends!

]]> 192 Tomohito Oda 1974712125 Aya 0 misc 4.14 2016 Komi Can’t Communicate, Vol. 1
author: Tomohito Oda
name: Aya
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at: 2024/08/17
date added: 2024/08/17
shelves: misc
review:

]]> Tokyo These Days, Volume 1 176443480
After 30 years as a manga editor, Kazuo Shiozawa suddenly quits. Although he feels early retirement is the only way to atone for his failures as an editor, the manga world isn’t done with him.

On his last day as an editor, Shiozawa takes a train he’s ridden hundreds of times before to impart some last advice to a manga creator whose work he used to edit. Some time after, he is drawn to return to a bookshop at the request of a junior editor who wants Shiozawa’s help dealing with an incorrigible manga creator who refuses to work with any editor but him. For this manga editor, Tokyo these days is full of memory and is cocooned in the inescapable bonds between manga creators, their editors, art, and life itself.]]> 216 Taiyo Matsumoto 1974738809 Aya 0 to-read 3.95 2021 Tokyo These Days, Volume 1
author: Taiyo Matsumoto
name: Aya
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Ulysses 338798
According to Declan Kiberd, "Before Joyce, no writer of fiction had so foregrounded the process of thinking". Ulysses chronicles the peripatetic appointments and encounters of Leopold Bloom in Dublin in the course of an ordinary day, 16 June 1904. Ulysses is the Latinised name of Odysseus, the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey, and the novel establishes a series of parallels between the poem and the novel, with structural correspondences between the characters and experiences of Bloom and Odysseus, Molly Bloom and Penelope, and Stephen Dedalus and Telemachus, in addition to events and themes of the early 20th-century context of modernism, Dublin, and Ireland's relationship to Britain.

The novel is highly allusive and also imitates the styles of different periods of English literature. Since its publication, the book has attracted controversy and scrutiny, ranging from an obscenity trial in the United States in 1921 to protracted textual "Joyce Wars." The novel's stream-of-consciousness technique, careful structuring, and experimental prose—replete with puns, parodies, and allusions—as well as its rich characterisation and broad humour have led it to be regarded as one of the greatest literary works in history; Joyce fans worldwide now celebrate 16 June as Bloomsday.']]> 783 James Joyce Aya 0 3.72 1922 Ulysses
author: James Joyce
name: Aya
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1922
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/04
shelves: adult-fiction, classics, to-read
review:

]]> Bride of the Sea 54112568 divorce is whispering in his ear. Soon, their marriage will end, and Muneer will return to Saudi Arabia, while Saeedah remains in Cleveland with their daughter, Hanadi. Consumed by a growing fear of losing her daughter, Saeedah disappears with the little girl, leaving Muneer to desperately search for his daughter for years. The repercussions of the abduction ripple outward, not only changing the lives of Hanadi and her parents, but also their interwoven family and friends—those who must choose sides and hide their own deeply guarded secrets.

And when Hanadi comes of age, she finds herself at the center of this conflict, torn between the world she grew up in and a family across the ocean. How can she exist between parents, between countries?

Eman Quotah’s Bride of the Sea is a spellbinding debut of colliding cultures, immigration, religion, and family; an intimate portrait of loss and healing; and, ultimately, a testament to the ways we find ourselves inside love, distance, and heartbreak.]]> 320 Eman Quotah 1951142454 Aya 4 adult-fiction 3.54 2021 Bride of the Sea
author: Eman Quotah
name: Aya
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/01
date added: 2024/08/01
shelves: adult-fiction
review:

]]> The Gate 13536841 ??????
This moving and deceptively simple story, a melancholy tale shot through with glimmers of joy, beauty, and gentle wit, is an understated masterpiece by one of Japan’s greatest writers. At the end of his life, Natsume Sōseki declared The Gate, originally published in 1910, to be his favorite among all his novels. This new translation captures the oblique grace of the original while correcting numerous errors and omissions that marred the first English version.]]> 256 Natsume Sōseki 1590175875 Aya 0 no plot just vibes 4.08 1910 The Gate
author: Natsume Sōseki
name: Aya
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1910
rating: 0
read at: 2024/07/30
date added: 2024/07/30
shelves: books-i-own, adult-fiction, classics
review:
no plot just vibes
]]> <![CDATA[Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers]]> 42844721
But if Jake Skeets’s collection is an unflinching portrait of the actual west, it is also a fierce reclamation of a living place―full of beauty as well as brutality, whose shadows are equally capable of protecting encounters between boys learning to become, and to love, men. Its landscapes are ravaged, but they are also startlingly lush with cacti, yarrow, larkspur, sagebrush. And even their scars are made newly tender when mapped onto the lover’s body: A spine becomes a railroad. “Veins burst oil, elk black.” And “becoming a man / means knowing how to become charcoal.”

Selected by Kathy Fagan as a winner of the 2018 National Poetry Series, Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers is a debut collection of poems by a dazzling geologist of queer eros.]]> 96 Jake Skeets 1571315209 Aya 0 poetry 4.24 2019 Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers
author: Jake Skeets
name: Aya
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at: 2024/07/20
date added: 2024/07/20
shelves: poetry
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Invasive Aliens: The Plants and Animals From Over There That Are Over Here]]> 52088543 Sunday Times Book of the Year
A Telegraph Best Science Book of the Year
A Waterstones Best Nature Book of the Year
A unique history of plant and animal invaders of the British isles spanning thousands of years of arrivals and escapes, as well as defences mounted and a look to the future.


As Brits we pride ourselves as stoic defenders, boasting a record of resistance dating back to 1066.


Yet, even a cursory examination of the natural world reveals that while interlopers of the human variety may have been kept at bay, our islands have been invaded, conquered and settled by an endless succession of animals, plants, fungi and other alien lifeforms that apparently belong elsewhere. Indeed it’s often hard to work out what actually is native, and what is foreign.


From early settlement of our islands, through the Roman and mediaeval period, to the age of exploration and globalisation, today’s complement of alien species tells a story about our past.]]> 336 Dan Eatherley 0008262780 Aya 2 finally freed! 3.79 2019 Invasive Aliens: The Plants and Animals From Over There That Are Over Here
author: Dan Eatherley
name: Aya
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2024/07/14
date added: 2024/07/14
shelves: books-i-own, non-fiction-memoirs
review:
finally freed!
]]> Breasts and Eggs 55767455
Breasts and Eggs paints a portrait of contemporary womanhood in Japan and recounts the intimate journeys of three women as they confront oppressive mores and their own uncertainties on the road to finding peace and futures they can truly call their own.

It tells the story of three women: the thirty-year-old Natsu, her older sister, Makiko, and Makiko’s daughter, Midoriko. Makiko has traveled to Tokyo in search of an affordable breast enhancement procedure. She is accompanied by Midoriko, who has recently grown silent, finding herself unable to voice the vague yet overwhelming pressures associated with growing up. Her silence proves a catalyst for each woman to confront her fears and frustrations.

On another hot summer’s day ten years later, Natsu, on a journey back to her native city, struggles with her own indeterminate identity as she confronts anxieties about growing old alone and childless.]]> 448 Mieko Kawakami 160945670X Aya 4 books-i-own, adult-fiction 4.5 3.94 2019 Breasts and Eggs
author: Mieko Kawakami
name: Aya
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/13
date added: 2024/07/13
shelves: books-i-own, adult-fiction
review:
4.5
]]> The Summer Book 2263969 The Summer Book Tove Jansson distills the essence of the summer—its sunlight and storms—into twenty-two crystalline vignettes. This brief novel tells the story of Sophia, a six-year-old girl awakening to existence, and Sophia’s grandmother, nearing the end of hers, as they spend the summer on a tiny unspoiled island in the Gulf of Finland. The grandmother is unsentimental and wise, if a little cranky; Sophia is impetuous and volatile, but she tends to her grandmother with the care of a new parent. Together they amble over coastline and forest in easy companionship, build boats from bark, create a miniature Venice, write a fanciful study of local bugs. They discuss things that matter to young and old alike: life, death, the nature of God and of love. “On an island,” thinks the grandmother, “everything is complete.” In The Summer Book, Jansson creates her own complete world, full of the varied joys and sorrows of life.

Tove Jansson, whose Moomintroll comic strip and books brought her international acclaim, lived for much of her life on an island like the one described in The Summer Book, and the work can be enjoyed as her closely observed journal of the sounds, sights, and feel of a summer spent in intimate contact with the natural world.?

The Summer Book is translated from the Swedish by Thomas Teal.]]> 170 Tove Jansson 159017268X Aya 4 classics, misc 4.5 4.10 1972 The Summer Book
author: Tove Jansson
name: Aya
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1972
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/15
date added: 2024/06/15
shelves: classics, misc
review:
4.5
]]> Intermezzo 208931300 An exquisitely moving story about grief, love, and family—but especially love—from the global phenomenon Sally Rooney.

Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common.

Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties—successful, competent, and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women—his enduring first love, Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke.

Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined.

For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude—a period of desire, despair, and possibility; a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.]]> 454 Sally Rooney 0374602638 Aya 0 to-read 3.88 2024 Intermezzo
author: Sally Rooney
name: Aya
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Time Is a Mother 58582927 On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, Vuong contends with personal loss, the meaning of family, and the cost of being the product of an American war in America. At once vivid, brave, and propulsive, Vuong's poems circle fragmented lives to find both restoration as well as the epicenter of the break.

The author of the critically acclaimed poetry collection Night Sky With Exit Wounds, winner of the 2016 Whiting Award, the 2017 T.S. Eliot Prize, and a 2019 MacArthur fellow, Vuong writes directly to our humanity without losing sight of the current moment. These poems represent a more innovative and daring experimentation with language and form, illuminating how the themes we perennially live in and question are truly inexhaustible. Bold and prescient, and a testament to tenderness in the face of violence, Time Is a Mother is a return and a forging forth all at once.
]]> 114 Ocean Vuong 0593300238 Aya 0 poetry 3.94 2022 Time Is a Mother
author: Ocean Vuong
name: Aya
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2024/06/14
date added: 2024/06/14
shelves: poetry
review:
amazon history of a former nail salon worker
]]> Natural Beauty 61420120 Sly, surprising, and razor-sharp, Natural Beauty follows a young musician into an elite, beauty-obsessed world where perfection comes at a staggering cost.

Our narrator produces a sound from the piano no one else at the Conservatory can. She employs a technique she learned from her parents—also talented musicians—who fled China in the wake of the Cultural Revolution. But when an accident leaves her parents debilitated, she abandons her future for a job at a high-end beauty and wellness store in New York City.

Holistik is known for its remarkable products and procedures—from remoras that suck out cheap Botox to eyelash extensions made of spider silk—and her new job affords her entry into a world of privilege and a long-awaited sense of belonging. She becomes transfixed by Helen, the niece of Holistik’s charismatic owner, and the two strike up a friendship that hazily veers into more. All the while, our narrator is plied with products that slim her thighs, smooth her skin, and lighten her hair. But beneath these creams and tinctures lies something sinister.

A piercing, darkly funny debut, Natural Beauty explores questions of consumerism, self-worth, race, and identity—and leaves readers with a shocking and unsettling truth.]]> 272 Ling Ling Huang 0593472926 Aya 0 to-read, adult-fiction 3.79 2023 Natural Beauty
author: Ling Ling Huang
name: Aya
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/27
shelves: to-read, adult-fiction
review:

]]> The Iliad 77265004 848 Homer 1324001801 Aya 0 to-read, classics 4.09 -800 The Iliad
author: Homer
name: Aya
average rating: 4.09
book published: -800
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/27
shelves: to-read, classics
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #1)]]> 44421460 What would you change if you could go back in time?

In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café which has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time.

In Before the Coffee Gets Cold, we meet four visitors, each of whom is hoping to make use of the café’s time-travelling offer, in order to: confront the man who left them, receive a letter from their husband whose memory has been taken by early onset Alzheimer's, to see their sister one last time, and to meet the daughter they never got the chance to know.

But the journey into the past does not come without risks: customers must sit in a particular seat, they cannot leave the café, and finally, they must return to the present before the coffee gets cold . . .

Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s beautiful, moving story explores the age-old question: what would you change if you could travel back in time? More importantly, who would you want to meet, maybe for one last time?]]> 213 Toshikazu Kawaguchi 1529029589 Aya 0 adult-fiction, books-i-own trip 2 japan 3.67 2015 Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #1)
author: Toshikazu Kawaguchi
name: Aya
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at: 2024/01/11
date added: 2024/01/11
shelves: adult-fiction, books-i-own
review:
trip 2 japan
]]> Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography 126151
Mark Mathabane was weaned on devastating poverty and schooled in the cruel streets of South Africa's most desperate ghetto, where bloody gang wars and midnight police raids were his rites of passage. Like every other child born in the hopelessness of apartheid, he learned to measure his life in days, not years. Yet Mark Mathabane, armed only with the courage of his family and a hard-won education, raised himself up from the squalor and humiliation to win a scholarship to an American university.

This extraordinary memoir of life under apartheid is a triumph of the human spirit over hatred and unspeakable degradation. For Mark Mathabane did what no physically and psychologically battered "Kaffir" from the rat-infested alleys of Alexandra was supposed to do -- he escaped to tell about it.]]> 354 Mark Mathabane 0684848287 Aya 4 4.17 1986 Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography
author: Mark Mathabane
name: Aya
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1986
rating: 4
read at: 2020/09/01
date added: 2024/01/09
shelves: books-i-own, non-fiction-memoirs, school
review:

]]> The Book Jumper 29102939
Amy's grandmother, Lady Mairead, insists that Amy must read while she resides at Lennox House—but not in the usual way. It turns out that Amy is a book jumper, able to leap into a story and interact with the world inside. As thrilling as Amy's new power is, it also brings danger: someone is stealing from the books she visits, and that person may be after her life. Teaming up with fellow book jumper Will, Amy vows to get to the bottom of the thefts—at whatever cost.]]> 371 Mechthild Gl?ser 1250086663 Aya 3 ya-fiction, books-i-own 3.72 2015 The Book Jumper
author: Mechthild Gl?ser
name: Aya
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2017/07/10
date added: 2024/01/09
shelves: ya-fiction, books-i-own
review:

]]> Cruel Beauty 15839984
With no choice but to fulfill her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she's ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.

But Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle—a shifting maze of magical rooms—enthralls her.

As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex's secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Even if she could bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him? With time running out, Nyx must decide what is more important: the future of her kingdom, or the man she was never supposed to love.]]> 346 Rosamund Hodge 0062224735 Aya 4 ya-fiction 3.65 2014 Cruel Beauty
author: Rosamund Hodge
name: Aya
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2017/07/06
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: ya-fiction
review:

]]> All the Crooked Saints 30025336 From bestselling author Maggie Stiefvater, a gripping tale of darkness, miracles, and family. Saints. Miracles. Family. Romance. Death. Redemption.

Here is a thing everyone wants: A miracle.

Here is a thing everyone fears: What it takes to get one.

Any visitor to Bicho Raro, Colorado is likely to find a landscape of dark saints, forbidden love, scientific dreams, miracle-mad owls, estranged affections, one or two orphans, and a sky full of watchful desert stars.

At the heart of this place you will find the Soria family, who all have the ability to perform unusual miracles. And at the heart of this family are three cousins longing to change its future: Beatriz, the girl without feelings, who wants only to be free to examine her thoughts; Daniel, the Saint of Bicho Raro, who performs miracles for everyone but himself; and Joaquin, who spends his nights running a renegade radio station under the name Diablo Diablo.

They are all looking for a miracle. But the miracles of Bicho Raro are never quite what you expect.]]> 313 Maggie Stiefvater 0545930804 Aya 3 ya-fiction 3.82 2017 All the Crooked Saints
author: Maggie Stiefvater
name: Aya
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2018/01/03
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: ya-fiction
review:

]]> I Kissed Alice 43300915 For fans of Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda and Fangirl, I Kissed Alice is a romantic comedy about enemies, lovers, and everything in between.

Rhodes and Iliana couldn't be more different, but that's not why they hate each other.

Hyper-gifted artist Rhodes has always excelled at Alabama’s Conservatory of the Arts despite a secret bout of creator's block, while transfer student Iliana tries to outshine everyone with her intense, competitive work ethic. Since only one of them can get the coveted Capstone scholarship, the competition between them is fierce.

They both escape the pressure on a fanfic site where they are unknowingly collaborating on a graphic novel. And despite being worst enemies in real life, their anonymous online identities I-Kissed-Alice and Curious-in-Cheshire are starting to like each other...a lot. When the truth comes out, will they destroy each other's future?

An Imprint Book ]]> 320 Anna Birch Aya 4 ya-fiction 3.23 2020 I Kissed Alice
author: Anna Birch
name: Aya
average rating: 3.23
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2021/01/05
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: ya-fiction
review:

]]> Eliza and Her Monsters 31931941 Her story is a phenomenon. Her life is a disaster.

In the real world, Eliza Mirk is shy, weird, and friendless. Online, she’s LadyConstellation, the anonymous creator of the wildly popular webcomic Monstrous Sea. Eliza can’t imagine enjoying the real world as much as she loves the online one, and she has no desire to try.

Then Wallace Warland, Monstrous Sea’s biggest fanfiction writer, transfers to her school. Wallace thinks Eliza is just another fan, and as he draws her out of her shell, she begins to wonder if a life offline might be worthwhile.

But when Eliza’s secret is accidentally shared with the world, everything she’s built—her story, her relationship with Wallace, and even her sanity—begins to fall apart.]]> 385 Francesca Zappia 0062290134 Aya 4 ya-fiction 4.14 2017 Eliza and Her Monsters
author: Francesca Zappia
name: Aya
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2021/01/31
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: ya-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1)]]> 32075671 An alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780062498533 can be found here.

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, this is a powerful and gripping YA novel about one girl's struggle for justice.]]> 454 Angie Thomas 0062498533 Aya 4 ya-fiction, books-i-own 4.46 2017 The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1)
author: Angie Thomas
name: Aya
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: ya-fiction, books-i-own
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Hollow City (Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children, #2)]]> 12396528 September 3, 1940. Ten peculiar children flee an army of deadly monsters. And only one person can help them — but she’s trapped in the body of a bird.

The extraordinary journey that began in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children continues as Jacob Portman and his newfound friends journey to London, the peculiar capital of the world. There, they hope to find a cure for their beloved headmistress, Miss Peregrine. But in this war-torn city, hideous surprises lurk around every corner. And before Jacob can deliver the peculiar children to safety, he must make an important decision about his love for Emma Bloom.

Hollow City draws readers into a richly imagined world of telepathy and time loops, of sideshows and shapeshifters. Like its predecessor, this second novel in the Peculiar Children series blends thrilling fantasy with never-before-published vintage photography to create a one-of-a-kind reading experience.]]> 399 Ransom Riggs 1594746125 Aya 4 ya-fiction 4.00 2014 Hollow City (Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children, #2)
author: Ransom Riggs
name: Aya
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2017/08/10
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: ya-fiction
review:

]]> Circe 35959740
Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts, and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.

But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from or with the mortals she has come to love.]]> 393 Madeline Miller 0316556343 Aya 2 adult-fiction 4.22 2018 Circe
author: Madeline Miller
name: Aya
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2018
rating: 2
read at: 2021/04/23
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: adult-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Priory of the Orange Tree (The Roots of Chaos, #1)]]> 40275288
The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction – but assassins are getting closer to her door.

Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.

Across the dark sea, Tané has trained to be a dragonrider since she was a child, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel.

Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.]]> 845 Samantha Shannon 1408883457 Aya 5 favorites, adult-fiction 4.18 2019 The Priory of the Orange Tree (The Roots of Chaos, #1)
author: Samantha Shannon
name: Aya
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2020/12/06
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: favorites, adult-fiction
review:

]]> Carrie 16054805
To be invited to Prom Night by Tommy Ross is a dream come true for Carrie — the first step towards social acceptance by her high school colleagues. Until an unexpected cruelty turns her gift into a weapon of terror and destruction that no one will ever forget.]]> 304 Stephen King 0345805879 Aya 2 3.87 1974 Carrie
author: Stephen King
name: Aya
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1974
rating: 2
read at: 2021/02/22
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: adult-fiction, oh-my-eyes-theyre-burning
review:

]]> The Tell-Tale Heart 899492 A man confronts himself and an unknown listener with his desire to murder an old man.

In this classic psychological thriller, the reader will find many more questions than answers. Even though this is one of Poe's shortest stories, nevertheless it has become one of his most highest regarded works. It is a profound and, at times, ambiguous investigation of the paranoia that may lie within the depths of one man's mind...]]> 31 Edgar Allan Poe 0871917726 Aya 5 classics, school 4.27 1843 The Tell-Tale Heart
author: Edgar Allan Poe
name: Aya
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1843
rating: 5
read at: 2018/09/01
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: classics, school
review:

]]> Eleanor & Park 15745753 "So did Jerry Lee Lewis," Eleanor answers.
"I'm not kidding," he says.
"You should be," she says, "we're 16."
"What about Romeo and Juliet?"
"Shallow, confused, then dead."
"I love you," Park says.
"Wherefore art thou," Eleanor answers.
"I'm not kidding," he says.
"You should be."

Set over one school year in 1986, Eleanor & Park is the story of two star-crossed misfits—smart enough to know first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.]]> 328 Rainbow Rowell 1250012570 Aya 1 ya-fiction 3.92 2012 Eleanor & Park
author: Rainbow Rowell
name: Aya
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2012
rating: 1
read at: 2017/02/10
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: ya-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #2)]]> 17927395
Nor has Feyre forgotten her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court. As Feyre navigates its dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms—and she might be key to stopping it. But only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future—and the future of a world cleaved in two.

With more than a million copies sold of her beloved Throne of Glass series, Sarah J. Maas's masterful storytelling brings this second book in her seductive and action-packed series to new heights.]]> 626 Sarah J. Maas Aya 1 4.60 2016 A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #2)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Aya
average rating: 4.60
book published: 2016
rating: 1
read at: 2017/07/05
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: ya-fiction, oh-my-eyes-theyre-burning
review:

]]> Beowulf 52357 259 Unknown 0393320979 Aya 2 classics, school 3.46 1000 Beowulf
author: Unknown
name: Aya
average rating: 3.46
book published: 1000
rating: 2
read at: 2019/12/01
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: classics, school
review:

]]> A Thousand Ships 53487148 This is the women’s war, just as much as it is the men’s. They have waited long enough for their turn . . .

This was never the story of one woman, or two. It was the story of them all . . .

In the middle of the night, a woman wakes to find her beloved city engulfed in flames. Ten seemingly endless years of conflict between the Greeks and the Trojans are over. Troy has fallen.

From the Trojan women whose fates now lie in the hands of the Greeks, to the Amazon princess who fought Achilles on their behalf, to Penelope awaiting the return of Odysseus, to the three goddesses whose feud started it all, these are the stories of the women whose lives, loves, and rivalries were forever altered by this long and tragic war.

A woman’s epic, powerfully imbued with new life, A Thousand Ships puts the women, girls and goddesses at the center of the Western world’s great tale ever told.]]> 368 Natalie Haynes 0063065398 Aya 3 adult-fiction 4.05 2019 A Thousand Ships
author: Natalie Haynes
name: Aya
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2021/04/17
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: adult-fiction
review:

]]> The Elite (The Selection, #2) 16248068
America is desperate for more time. But the rest of the Elite know exactly what they want—and America's chance to choose is about to slip away.]]> 336 Kiera Cass 0062059963 Aya 1 3.94 2013 The Elite (The Selection, #2)
author: Kiera Cass
name: Aya
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2013
rating: 1
read at: 2016/09/01
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: ya-fiction, oh-my-eyes-theyre-burning
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Last Ever After (The School for Good and Evil, #3)]]> 18004320
As A World Without Princes closed, the end was written and former best friends Sophie and Agatha went their separate ways. Agatha was whisked back to Gavaldon with Tedros and Sophie stayed behind with the beautiful young School Master.

But as they settle into their new lives, their story begs to be re-written, and this time, theirs isn’t the only one. With the girls apart, Evil has taken over and the villains of the past have come back to change their tales and turn the world of Good and Evil upside down.

Readers around the world are eagerly awaiting the third book in The School for Good and Evil series, The Last Ever After. This extraordinary new journey delivers more action, adventure, laughter, romance and fairy tale twists and turns than you could ever dream of!]]> 655 Soman Chainani 0062104950 Aya 3 misc 4.24 2015 The Last Ever After (The School for Good and Evil, #3)
author: Soman Chainani
name: Aya
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: misc
review:

]]> <![CDATA[City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1)]]> 256683
This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It's also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know...]]> 485 Cassandra Clare 1416914285 Aya 1 ya-fiction 4.08 2007 City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1)
author: Cassandra Clare
name: Aya
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2007
rating: 1
read at: 2016/11/16
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: ya-fiction
review:

]]> We Were Liars 16143347 A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.

We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from New York Times bestselling author, National Book Award finalist, and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart.

Read it.

And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.]]> 242 E. Lockhart 0385741278 Aya 4 ya-fiction 3.66 2014 We Were Liars
author: E. Lockhart
name: Aya
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: ya-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Penderwicks at Last (The Penderwicks #5)]]> 36644148
Nine years, five older siblings, a few beloved dogs, and an endless array of adventures--these are the things that have shaped Lydia's journey since readers first met her in The Penderwicks in Spring.

Now it's summertime, and eleven-year-old Lydia is dancing at the bus stop, waiting for big sister Batty to get home from college.

This is a very important dance and a very important wait because the two youngest sisters are about to arrive home to find out that the Penderwicks will all be returning to Arundel this summer, the place where it all began. And better still is the occasion: a good old-fashioned, homemade-by-Penderwicks wedding.

Bursting with heart and brimming with charm, this is a joyful, hilarious ode to the family we love best. And oh my MOPS--Meeting of Penderwick Siblings--does Jeanne Birdsall's The Penderwicks at Last crescendo to one perfect Penderwick finale.]]> 256 Jeanne Birdsall 0385755678 Aya 4 misc 4.14 2018 The Penderwicks at Last (The Penderwicks #5)
author: Jeanne Birdsall
name: Aya
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: misc
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1)]]> 23437156 Alternate cover of ISBN 9781627792127

Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’t pull it off alone...

A convict with a thirst for revenge

A sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager

A runaway with a privileged past

A spy known as the Wraith

A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums

A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes

Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz’s crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction—if they don’t kill each other first.]]> 480 Leigh Bardugo 1627792120 Aya 4 ya-fiction 4.47 2015 Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1)
author: Leigh Bardugo
name: Aya
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2021/05/09
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: ya-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Strange the Dreamer (Strange the Dreamer, #1)]]> 28449207 The dream chooses the dreamer, not the other way around—and Lazlo Strange, war orphan and junior librarian, has always feared that his dream chose poorly. Since he was five years old he’s been obsessed with the mythic lost city of Weep, but it would take someone bolder than he to cross half the world in search of it. Then a stunning opportunity presents itself, in the person of a hero called the Godslayer and a band of legendary warriors, and he has to seize his chance or lose his dream forever.

What happened in Weep two hundred years ago to cut it off from the rest of the world? What exactly did the Godslayer slay that went by the name of god? And what is the mysterious problem he now seeks help in solving?

The answers await in Weep, but so do more mysteries—including the blue-skinned goddess who appears in Lazlo’s dreams. How did he dream her before he knew she existed? And if all the gods are dead, why does she seem so real?

Welcome to Weep.]]> 532 Laini Taylor 0316341681 Aya 4 ya-fiction 4.27 2017 Strange the Dreamer (Strange the Dreamer, #1)
author: Laini Taylor
name: Aya
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: ya-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The School for Good and Evil (The School for Good and Evil, #1)]]> 16248113 The first kidnappings happened two hundred years before. Some years it was two boys taken, some years two girls, sometimes one of each. But if at first the choices seemed random, soon the pattern became clear. One was always beautiful and good, the child every parent wanted as their own. The other was homely and odd, an outcast from birth. An opposing pair, plucked from youth and spirited away.

This year, best friends Sophie and Agatha are about to discover where all the lost children go: the fabled School for Good & Evil, where ordinary boys and girls are trained to be fairy tale heroes and villains. As the most beautiful girl in Gavaldon, Sophie has dreamed of being kidnapped into an enchanted world her whole life. With her pink dresses, glass slippers, and devotion to good deeds, she knows she’ll earn top marks at the School for Good and graduate a storybook princess. Meanwhile Agatha, with her shapeless black frocks, wicked pet cat, and dislike of nearly everyone, seems a natural fit for the School for Evil.

But when the two girls are swept into the Endless Woods, they find their fortunes reversed—Sophie’s dumped in the School for Evil to take Uglification, Death Curses, and Henchmen Training, while Agatha finds herself in the School For Good, thrust amongst handsome princes and fair maidens for classes in Princess Etiquette and Animal Communication.. But what if the mistake is actually the first clue to discovering who Sophie and Agatha really are…?

The School for Good & Evil is an epic journey into a dazzling new world, where the only way out of a fairy tale is to live through one.]]> 488 Soman Chainani 0062104896 Aya 3 misc 4.00 2013 The School for Good and Evil (The School for Good and Evil, #1)
author: Soman Chainani
name: Aya
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2015/05/17
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: misc
review:

]]> <![CDATA[My Plain Jane (The Lady Janies, #2)]]> 36301023
Or does she?

Prepare for an adventure of Gothic proportions, in which all is not as it seems, a certain gentleman is hiding more than skeletons in his closets, and one orphan Jane Eyre, aspiring author Charlotte Bront?, and supernatural investigator Alexander Blackwood are about to be drawn together on the most epic ghost hunt this side of Wuthering Heights.]]> 447 Cynthia Hand 006265277X Aya 3 ya-fiction 3.76 2018 My Plain Jane (The Lady Janies, #2)
author: Cynthia Hand
name: Aya
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2019/10/12
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: ya-fiction
review:

]]> Again, But Better 41147279
Her life has been dorm, dining hall, class, repeat. Time's a ticking, and she needs a change—there's nothing like moving to a new country to really mix things up. Shane signs up for a semester abroad in London. She's going to right all her college mistakes: make friends, pursue boys, and find adventure!

Easier said than done. She is soon faced with the complicated realities of living outside her bubble, and when self-doubt sneaks in, her new life starts to fall apart.

Shane comes to find that, with the right amount of courage and determination one can conquer anything. Throw in some fate and a touch of magic—the possibilities are endless.]]> 373 Christine Riccio 125029925X Aya 1 3.62 2019 Again, But Better
author: Christine Riccio
name: Aya
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2019
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: ya-fiction, oh-my-eyes-theyre-burning
review:

]]> 1984 40961427 Nineteen Eighty-Four is a rare work that grows more haunting as its futuristic purgatory becomes more real. Published in 1949, the book offers political satirist George Orwell's nightmarish vision of a totalitarian, bureaucratic world and one poor stiff's attempt to find individuality. The brilliance of the novel is Orwell's prescience of modern life—the ubiquity of television, the distortion of the language—and his ability to construct such a thorough version of hell. Required reading for students since it was published, it ranks among the most terrifying novels ever written.]]> 298 George Orwell Aya 2 classics, books-i-own 4.24 1949 1984
author: George Orwell
name: Aya
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1949
rating: 2
read at: 2020/11/22
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: classics, books-i-own
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Heartstopper: Volume One (Heartstopper, #1)]]> 50160417 Boy meets boy. Boys become friends. Boys fall in love. A sweet and charming coming-of-age story that explores friendship, love, and coming out.

"Absolutely delightful. Sweet, romantic, kind. Beautifully paced. I loved this book." -- Rainbow Rowell, author of Carry On
Shy and softhearted Charlie Spring sits next to rugby player Nick Nelson in class one morning. A warm and intimate friendship follows, and that soon develops into something more for Charlie, who doesn't think he has a chance.

But Nick is struggling with feelings of his own, and as the two grow closer and take on the ups and downs of high school, they come to understand the surprising and delightful ways in which love works.
]]> 288 Alice Oseman 1338617443 Aya 5 ya-fiction, favorites 4.47 2018 Heartstopper: Volume One (Heartstopper, #1)
author: Alice Oseman
name: Aya
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2021/02/18
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: ya-fiction, favorites
review:

]]> Turtles All the Way Down 35504431
Aza Holmes never intended to pursue the disappearance of fugitive billionaire Russell Pickett, but there’s a hundred-thousand-dollar reward at stake and her Best and Most Fearless Friend, Daisy, is eager to investigate. So together, they navigate the short distance and broad divides that separate them from Pickett’s son Davis.

Aza is trying. She is trying to be a good daughter, a good friend, a good student, and maybe even a good detective, while also living within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts.]]> 290 John Green 0525555366 Aya 4 ya-fiction 3.88 2017 Turtles All the Way Down
author: John Green
name: Aya
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2017/11/09
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: ya-fiction
review:

]]> Radio Silence 25322449
What if everything you set yourself up to be was wrong?

Frances has been a study machine with one goal. Nothing will stand in her way; not friends, not a guilty secret – not even the person she is on the inside. Then Frances meets Aled, and for the first time she's unafraid to be herself.

So when the fragile trust between them is broken, Frances is caught between who she was and who she longs to be. Now Frances knows that she has to confront her past. To confess why Carys disappeared…

Frances is going to need every bit of courage she has.

Engaging with themes of identity, diversity and the freedom to choose, Radio Silence is a tour de force by the most exciting writer of her generation.]]> 496 Alice Oseman Aya 5 ya-fiction 4.18 2016 Radio Silence
author: Alice Oseman
name: Aya
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2020/08/18
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: ya-fiction
review:

]]> A Streetcar Named Desire 12220 Death of a Salesman and The Crucible), and Williams’ essay “The World I Live In.”

It is a very short list of 20th-century American plays that continue to have the same power and impact as when they first appeared—57 years after its Broadway premiere, Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire is one of those plays. The story famously recounts how the faded and promiscuous Blanche DuBois is pushed over the edge by her sexy and brutal brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski. Streetcar launched the careers of Marlon Brando, Jessica Tandy, Kim Hunter, and Karl Malden, and solidified the position of Tennessee Williams as one of the most important young playwrights of his generation, as well as that of Elia Kazan as the greatest American stage director of the ’40s and ’50s.]]> 107 Tennessee Williams 0822210894 Aya 3 classics, plays, school school 3.98 1947 A Streetcar Named Desire
author: Tennessee Williams
name: Aya
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1947
rating: 3
read at: 2020/12/01
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: classics, plays, school
review:
school
]]> Pride and Prejudice 3059982 477 Jane Austen Aya 4 classics, books-i-own 4.54 1813 Pride and Prejudice
author: Jane Austen
name: Aya
average rating: 4.54
book published: 1813
rating: 4
read at: 2020/08/15
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: classics, books-i-own
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Evolution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #2)]]> 13643567 “Can we become other than what we are?”

Mara Dyer once believed she could run from her past.
She can’t.

She used to think her problems were all in her head.
They aren’t.

She couldn’t imagine that after everything she’s been through, the boy she loves would still be keeping secrets.
She’s wrong.

In this gripping sequel to The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, the truth evolves and choices prove deadly.

What will become of Mara Dyer next?]]> 545 Michelle Hodkin 1442421819 Aya 4 ya-fiction 4.20 2012 The Evolution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #2)
author: Michelle Hodkin
name: Aya
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2017/10/31
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: ya-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[P.S. I Still Love You (To All the Boys I've Loved Before, #2)]]> 20698530 Lara Jean didn’t expect to really fall for Peter.

They were just pretending. Until they weren’t. And now Lara Jean has to learn what it's like to be in a real relationship and not just a make-believe one.

But when another boy from her past returns to her life, Lara Jean’s feelings for him suddenly return too. Can a girl be in love with two boys at once?

In this charming and heartfelt sequel to the New York Times bestseller To All the Boys I've Loved Before, Lara Jean is about to find out that falling in love is the easy part.]]> 337 Jenny Han 144242673X Aya 3 ya-fiction 4.01 2015 P.S. I Still Love You (To All the Boys I've Loved Before, #2)
author: Jenny Han
name: Aya
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2017/09/10
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: ya-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (The Carls, #1)]]> 38186611 In his much-anticipated debut novel, Hank Green--cocreator of Crash Course, Vlogbrothers, and SciShow--spins a sweeping, cinematic tale about a young woman who becomes an overnight celebrity before realizing she's part of something bigger, and stranger, than anyone could have possibly imagined.

The Carls just appeared. Coming home from work at three a.m., twenty-three-year-old April May stumbles across a giant sculpture. Delighted by its appearance and craftsmanship--like a ten-foot-tall Transformer wearing a suit of samurai armor--April and her friend Andy make a video with it, which Andy uploads to YouTube. The next day April wakes up to a viral video and a new life. News quickly spreads that there are Carls in dozens of cities around the world--everywhere from Beijing to Buenos Aires--and April, as their first documentarian, finds herself at the center of an intense international media spotlight.

Now April has to deal with the pressure on her relationships, her identity, and her safety that this new position brings, all while being on the front lines of the quest to find out not just what the Carls are, but what they want from us.

Compulsively entertaining and powerfully relevant, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing grapples with big themes, including how the social internet is changing fame, rhetoric, and radicalization; how our culture deals with fear and uncertainty; and how vilification and adoration spring from the same dehumanization that follows a life in the public eye.]]> 343 Hank Green 1524743445 Aya 5 books-i-own, adult-fiction 3.92 2018 An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (The Carls, #1)
author: Hank Green
name: Aya
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2018/11/06
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: books-i-own, adult-fiction
review:

]]> Educated 35133922
Her father forbade hospitals, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at home with herbalism. The family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education and no one to intervene when one of Tara's older brothers became violent.

Then, lacking any formal education, Tara began to educate herself. She taught herself enough mathematics and grammar to be admitted to Brigham Young University, where she studied history, learning for the first time about important world events like the Holocaust and the civil rights movement. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge. Only then would she wonder if she'd traveled too far, if there was still a way home.

Educated is an account of the struggle for self-invention. It is a tale of fierce family loyalty and of the grief that comes with severing the closest of ties. With the acute insight that distinguishes all great writers, Westover has crafted a universal coming-of-age story that gets to the heart of what an education is and what it offers: the perspective to see one's life through new eyes and the will to change it.]]> 352 Tara Westover 0399590501 Aya 5 4.46 2018 Educated
author: Tara Westover
name: Aya
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2019/10/15
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: non-fiction-memoirs, favorites
review:

]]> Leap Day 363850 208 Wendy Mass 0316058289 Aya 4 misc 3.78 2004 Leap Day
author: Wendy Mass
name: Aya
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2018/01/30
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: misc
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch]]> 40536331 The classic collaboration from the internationally bestselling authors Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, soon to be an original series starring Michael Sheen and David Tennant.

According to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (the world's only completely accurate book of prophecies, written in 1655, before she exploded), the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. Just before dinner.
So the armies of Good and Evil are amassing, Atlantis is rising, frogs are falling, tempers are flaring. Everything appears to be going according to Divine Plan. Except a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon—both of whom have lived amongst Earth's mortals since The Beginning and have grown rather fond of the lifestyle—are not actually looking forward to the coming Rapture.

And someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist . . .]]> 384 Terry Pratchett 0062697250 Aya 0 adult-fiction 4.11 1990 Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
author: Terry Pratchett
name: Aya
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1990
rating: 0
read at: 2021/08/13
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: adult-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Court of Frost and Starlight (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #3.5)]]> 31076583 229 Sarah J. Maas 168119631X Aya 1 3.77 2019 A Court of Frost and Starlight (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #3.5)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Aya
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2019
rating: 1
read at: 2018/07/14
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: ya-fiction, oh-my-eyes-theyre-burning
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sapphire Blue (Precious Stone Trilogy, #2)]]> 12637458
Gwen’s life has been a rollercoaster since she discovered she was the Ruby, the final member of the secret time-traveling Circle of Twelve. In between searching through history for the other time-travelers and asking for a bit of their blood (gross!), she’s been trying to figure out what all the mysteries and prophecies surrounding the Circle really mean.
?
At least Gwen has plenty of help. Her best friend Lesley follows every lead diligently on the Internet. James the ghost teaches Gwen how to fit in at an eighteenth century party. And Xemerius, the gargoyle demon who has been following Gwen since he caught her kissing Gideon in a church, offers advice on everything. Oh, yes. And of course there is Gideon, the Diamond. One minute he’s very warm indeed; the next he’s freezing cold. Gwen’s not sure what’s going on there, but she’s pretty much destined to find out.
]]> 354 Kerstin Gier 1250034167 Aya 3 ya-fiction 4.07 2010 Sapphire Blue (Precious Stone Trilogy, #2)
author: Kerstin Gier
name: Aya
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: ya-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles, #1)]]> 11235712
She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.]]> 390 Marissa Meyer 0312641893 Aya 2 ya-fiction 4.14 2012 Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles, #1)
author: Marissa Meyer
name: Aya
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2012
rating: 2
read at: 2016/12/22
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: ya-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Court of Wings and Ruin (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #3)]]> 23766634
She has left the Night Court - and her High Lord - and is playing a deadly game of deceit. In the Spring Court, Tamlin is making deals with the invading king threatening to bring Prythian to its knees, and Feyre is determined to uncover his plans. But to do so she must weave a web of lies, and one slip may spell doom not only for Feyre, but for her world as well.

As mighty armies grapple for power, Feyre must decide who to trust amongst the dazzling and lethal High Lords - and hunt for allies in unexpected places.

BUT WHILE WAR RAGES, IT IS HER HEART THAT WILL FACE THE GREATEST BATTLE.

THE THRILLING THIRD BOOK IN #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING FANTASY SERIES FROM SARAH J. MAAS.]]> 705 Sarah J. Maas 1408857901 Aya 1 4.41 2017 A Court of Wings and Ruin (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #3)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Aya
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2017
rating: 1
read at: 2017/06/01
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: ya-fiction, oh-my-eyes-theyre-burning
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men]]> 41104077
Celebrated feminist advocate Caroline Criado Perez investigates the shocking root cause of gender inequality and research in Invisible Women?, diving into women’s lives at home, the workplace, the public square, the doctor’s office, and more. Built on hundreds of studies in the US, the UK, and around the world, and written with energy, wit, and sparkling intelligence, this is a groundbreaking, unforgettable exposé that will change the way you look at the world.]]> 448 Caroline Criado Pérez 1419729071 Aya 5 4.35 2019 Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men
author: Caroline Criado Pérez
name: Aya
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2021/04/10
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: non-fiction-memoirs, favorites
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue]]> 50623864
Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.

But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.]]> 448 Victoria E. Schwab 0765387565 Aya 0 adult-fiction, books-i-own 4.16 2020 The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
author: Victoria E. Schwab
name: Aya
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2021/04/29
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: adult-fiction, books-i-own
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Kissing the Coronavirus (Kissing the Coronavirus #1)]]> 54594933
Dr. Alexa Ashingtonford is a part of a crack team of scientists tasked with finding the cure to the devastating Coronavirus. Little did she know she would end up falling in love with it, in this steamy viral-erotica.

Kissing the Coronavirus is a steamy tale about forbidden love and dark desires come to life.]]> 16 M.J. Edwards Aya 1 2.31 2020 Kissing the Coronavirus (Kissing the Coronavirus #1)
author: M.J. Edwards
name: Aya
average rating: 2.31
book published: 2020
rating: 1
read at: 2021/02/11
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: adult-fiction, oh-my-eyes-theyre-burning
review:

]]> The Last Summer of Ada Bloom 46195207

When Ada discovers an abandoned well beneath a rusting windmill, she is drawn to its darkness and danger. And when she witnesses a shocking and confusing event, the well’s foreboding looms large in her mind—a driving force, pushing the family to the brink of tragedy. For each family member, it’s a summer of searching—in books and trees, at parties, in relationships new and old—for the answer to one of life’s most difficult questions: how to grow up?


The Last Summer of Ada Bloom is an honest and tender accounting of what it means to come of age as a teen, or as an adult. With a keen eye for summer’s languor and danger, and a sharp ear for the wonder, doubt, and longing in each of her characters’ voices, Martine Murray has written a beguiling story about the fragility of family relationships, about the secrets we keep, the power they hold to shape our lives, and about the power of love to somehow hold it all together.]]> 280 Martine Murray 1947793616 Aya 4 books-i-own, adult-fiction 3.40 2018 The Last Summer of Ada Bloom
author: Martine Murray
name: Aya
average rating: 3.40
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2020/12/09
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: books-i-own, adult-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Geekerella (Once Upon a Con, #1)]]> 30724132 Cinderella goes to the con in this fandom-fueled twist on the classic fairy tale.

Part romance, part love letter to nerd culture, and all totally adorbs, Geekerella is a fairy tale for anyone who believes in the magic of fandom. Geek girl Elle Wittimer lives and breathes Starfield, the classic sci-fi series she grew up watching with her late father. So when she sees a cosplay contest for a new Starfield movie, she has to enter. The prize? An invitation to the ExcelsiCon Cosplay Ball, and a meet-and-greet with the actor slated to play Federation Prince Carmindor in the reboot. With savings from her gig at the Magic Pumpkin food truck (and her dad’s old costume), Elle’s determined to win…unless her stepsisters get there first.

Teen actor Darien Freeman used to live for cons—before he was famous. Now they’re nothing but autographs and awkward meet-and-greets. Playing Carmindor is all he’s ever wanted, but the Starfield fandom has written him off as just another dumb heartthrob. As ExcelsiCon draws near, Darien feels more and more like a fake—until he meets a girl who shows him otherwise.]]> 320 Ashley Poston 1594749477 Aya 4 ya-fiction 3.88 2017 Geekerella (Once Upon a Con, #1)
author: Ashley Poston
name: Aya
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2021/01/29
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: ya-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho]]> 209833
Of the nine books of lyrics the ancient Greek poet Sappho is said to have composed, only one poem has survived complete. The rest are fragments. In this miraculous new translation, acclaimed poet and classicist Anne Carson presents all of Sappho’s fragments, in Greek and in English, as if on the ragged scraps of papyrus that preserve them, inviting a thrill of discovery and conjecture that can be described only as electric—or, to use Sappho’s words, as “thin fire ... racing under skin.”?

"Carson is in many ways [Sappho's] ideal translator.... Her command of language is hones to a perfect edge and her approach to the text, respectful yet imaginative, results in verse that lets Sappho shine forth." —Los Angeles Times]]> 416 Sappho 0375724516 Aya 5 classics, favorites, poetry 4.46 -550 If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho
author: Sappho
name: Aya
average rating: 4.46
book published: -550
rating: 5
read at: 2021/03/15
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: classics, favorites, poetry
review:

]]> Normal People 41057294
A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years in college, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. Then, as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other.

Sally Rooney brings her brilliant psychological acuity and perfectly spare prose to a story that explores the subtleties of class, the electricity of first love, and the complex entanglements of family and friendship.]]> 273 Sally Rooney 1984822179 Aya 5 adult-fiction, favorites 3.81 2018 Normal People
author: Sally Rooney
name: Aya
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2021/02/16
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: adult-fiction, favorites
review:

]]> Men Explain Things to Me 23129764
She ends on a serious note--because the ultimate problem is the silencing of women who have something to say, including those saying things like, "He's trying to kill me!"

This updated edition of the book feature that now-classic essay as well as Solnit's recent essay on the remarkable feminist conversation that arose in the wake of the 2014 Isla Vista killings.]]> 159 Rebecca Solnit 1608464660 Aya 5 non-fiction-memoirs my favorites were In Praise of the Threat: What Marriage Equality Really Means, Woolf's Darkness: Embracing the Inexplicable, Cassandra Among the Creeps, and #YesAllWomen: Feminists Rewrite the Story.]]> 4.00 2014 Men Explain Things to Me
author: Rebecca Solnit
name: Aya
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2021/03/31
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: non-fiction-memoirs
review:
4.5/5
my favorites were In Praise of the Threat: What Marriage Equality Really Means, Woolf's Darkness: Embracing the Inexplicable, Cassandra Among the Creeps, and #YesAllWomen: Feminists Rewrite the Story.
]]> <![CDATA[This Is How You Lose the Time War]]> 41093489 Two time-traveling agents from warring futures, working their way through the past, begin to exchange letters—and fall in love in this thrilling and romantic book from award-winning authors Amal-El Mohtar and Max Gladstone.

Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandant finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading.

Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, grows into something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future.

Except the discovery of their bond would mean death for each of them. There’s still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win that war. That’s how war works. Right?

Cowritten by two beloved and award-winning sci-fi writers, This Is How You Lose the Time War is an epic love story spanning time and space.]]> 198 Amal El-Mohtar 1534431004 Aya 4 ya-fiction 4.25/5<br /> 3.82 2019 This Is How You Lose the Time War
author: Amal El-Mohtar
name: Aya
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2021/03/27
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: ya-fiction
review:
4.25/5

]]> The Penelopiad 39837245 199 Margaret Atwood 1786892480 Aya 5 3.75 2005 The Penelopiad
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Aya
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at: 2021/03/25
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: adult-fiction, books-i-own, favorites, poetry
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows, #2)]]> 22299763
Kaz Brekker and his crew of deadly outcasts have just pulled off a heist so daring even they didn't think they'd survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they're right back to fighting for their lives.

Double-crossed and badly weakened, the crew is low on resources, allies, and hope. As powerful forces from around the world descend on Ketterdam to root out the secrets of the dangerous drug known as jurda parem, old rivals and new enemies emerge to challenge Kaz's cunning and test the team's fragile loyalties.

A war will be waged on the city's dark and twisting streets - a battle for revenge and redemption that will decide the fate of the Grisha world.]]> 561 Leigh Bardugo Aya 4 ya-fiction 4.58 2016 Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows, #2)
author: Leigh Bardugo
name: Aya
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2021/05/10
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: ya-fiction
review:

]]> Frankenstein 603259 Also see: Alternate Cover Editions for this ISBN [ACE]
ACE #1

"I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life and stir with an uneasy, half-vital motion." A summer evening's ghost stories, lonely insomnia in a moonlit Alpine room, and a runaway imagination - fired by philosophical discussion with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley about science, galvanism, and the origins of life - conspired to produce for Mary Shelley this haunting night specter. By morning it had become the germ of her Romantic masterpiece, Frankenstein.

Written in 1816, when she was only nineteen. Mary Shelley's novel of "The Modern Prometheus" chillingly dramatized the dangerous potential of life begotten upon a laboratory table. A frightening creation myth for our own time, Frankenstein remains one of the greatest horror stories ever written and is an undisputed classic of its kind.]]> 216 Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley 0553212478 Aya 3 books-i-own, classics 3.77 1818 Frankenstein
author: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
name: Aya
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1818
rating: 3
read at: 2021/03/31
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: books-i-own, classics
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About Colleges]]> 13543153 The landmark college guide that introduces forty of the best colleges you've never heard of—now completely revised and updated

Choosing the right college has never been more important—or more difficult. For the latest edition of this classic college guide, Hilary Masell Oswald conducted her own tours of top schools and in-depth interviews, building on Loren Pope's original to create a totally updated, more expansive work. Organized by geographic region, every profile includes a wealth of vital information, including admissions standards, distinguishing facts about the curriculum, extracurricular activities, and what faculty say about their jobs. Masell Oswald also offers a new chapter on how students with learning disabilities can find schools that fit their needs. For every prospective college student searching for more than football and frat parties, Colleges That Change Lives will prove indispensable.
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Fully revised and updated by education journalist Hilary Oswald, Colleges That Change Lives remains the definite guide for high school students (and their parents) who are looking for more in their college education than football, frat parties, and giant lectures. Building on the foundation of landmark author Loren Pope, Oswald spent more than a year visiting 40 colleges, speaking with students, faculty, and alumni to create these vivid and concise portraits.?
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Featuring a new introduction, a new Required Reading section, and a new chapter on learning disabilities, the book is organized into five geographic regions (Northeast, South, Midwest, Southwest, Northwest) to make for easy browsing, and urban, suburban, and rural campuses are all featured. There’s also an alphabetical index of colleges. Each profile includes admissions standards as well as relevant statistics to make your decision easier, including where the school ranks in post-graduate grants and fellowships, what percentage of students go on to graduate school or further education, distinguishing facts about the curriculum, percentage of professors who have terminal degrees in their field, even what activities are available to students and what they’re likely to do on weekends.
?
From the look and feel of the campus, quality of dining hall food and extracurriculars to the percentage of students who study abroad, average SAT scores, and educational philosophy, Oswald anticipates the questions you’ll have and provides the answers (and if you want to know more, there’s a section with contact information for every profiled school). You might not heard of many of these schools, but after reading Colleges That Change Lives you’ll be dying to visit yourself.
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With more than 150,000 copies sold and 24 printings, Colleges That Change Lives remains the definite college guide book for discerning students. Whether you’ve got straight A's and have always known you’ll go on to higher education or you’ve got a mediocre transcript but suddenly find yourself interested in college, this is the book for you. ?]]> 340 Loren Pope 0143122304 Aya 2 4.23 2000 Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About Colleges
author: Loren Pope
name: Aya
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2000
rating: 2
read at: 2021/02/06
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: books-i-own, non-fiction-memoirs, oh-my-eyes-theyre-burning
review:

]]> Hot Dog Girl 35843729
* She's landed a job at Magic Castle Playland . . . as a giant dancing hot dog.
* Her crush, the dreamy Diving Pirate Nick, already has a girlfriend, who is literally the Princess of the park. But Lou's never liked anyone, guy or otherwise, this much before, and now she wants a chance at her own happily ever after.
* Her best friend, Seeley, the carousel operator, who's always been up for anything, suddenly isn't when it comes to Lou's quest to set her up with the perfect girl or Lou's scheme to get close to Nick.
* And it turns out that this will be their last summer at Magic Castle Playland--ever--unless she can find a way to stop it from closing.

Jennifer Dugan's sparkling debut coming-of-age queer romance stars a princess, a pirate, a hot dog, and a carousel operator who find love--and themselves--in unexpected people and unforgettable places.]]> 320 Jennifer Dugan 0525516263 Aya 2 ya-fiction 3.47 2019 Hot Dog Girl
author: Jennifer Dugan
name: Aya
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2021/02/05
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: ya-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Wind Singer (Wind on Fire, #1)]]> 295169 The first in a trilogy, The Wind Singer is a mesmerizing and remarkably realized fantasy novel full of adventure, suspense, humor and warmth.

In the city of Aramanth, the mantra is, "Better today than yesterday. Better tomorrow than today." Harder work means the citizens of Aramanth can keep moving forward to improved life stations--from Gray tenements and Orange apartments, upwards to glorious mansions of White. Only some families, like the Haths, believe more in ideas and dreams than in endless toil and ratings. When Kestrel Hath decides she is through with the Aramanth work ethic, she is joined in her small rebellion by her twin brother Bowman and their friend Mumpo. Together, they set the orderly city on its ear by escaping Aramanth's walls for an adventure that takes them from city sewers to desert sandstorms. Guided by an archaic map, they know that if they can find the voice of the Wind Singer, an ancient and mysterious instrument that stands in the center of Aramanth, they can save their people from their dreamless existence. But the voice is guarded by the dreaded Morah and its legion of perfect killing machines, the Zars. Are three ragtag kids any match for an army of darkness?]]> 486 William Nicholson 0786814179 Aya 5 favorites, books-i-own, misc 3.88 2000 The Wind Singer (Wind on Fire, #1)
author: William Nicholson
name: Aya
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at: 2021/07/09
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: favorites, books-i-own, misc
review:

]]> Macbeth 8852
This shocking tragedy - a violent caution to those seeking power for its own sake - is, to this day, one of Shakespeare’s most popular and influential masterpieces.]]> 249 William Shakespeare 0743477103 Aya 4 3.90 1623 Macbeth
author: William Shakespeare
name: Aya
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1623
rating: 4
read at: 2017/06/01
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: classics, poetry, books-i-own, plays, school
review:

]]> <![CDATA[I Was Born for This (I Was Born for This, #1)]]> 34325090
Jimmy Kaga-Ricci owes everything to The Ark too. He’s their frontman – and playing in a band is all he’s ever dreamed of doing. It’s just a shame that recently everything in his life seems to have turned into a bit of a nightmare.

Because that’s the problem with dreaming – eventually, inevitably, real life arrives with a wake-up call. And when Angel and Jimmy are unexpectedly thrust together, they will discover just how strange and surprising facing up to reality can be.]]> 396 Alice Oseman 0008244103 Aya 4 ya-fiction 4.02 2018 I Was Born for This (I Was Born for This, #1)
author: Alice Oseman
name: Aya
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2021/02/19
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: ya-fiction
review:

]]> Spinning 33163388 Spinning, captures what it's like to come of age, come out, and come to terms with leaving behind everything you used to know.

It was the same every morning. Wake up, grab the ice skates, and head to the rink while the world was still dark.

Weekends were spent in glitter and tights at competitions. Perform. Smile. And do it again.

She was good. She won. And she hated it.

For ten years, figure skating was Tillie Walden's life. She woke before dawn for morning lessons, went straight to group practice after school, and spent weekends competing at ice rinks across the state. It was a central piece of her identity, her safe haven from the stress of school, bullies, and family. But over time, as she switched schools, got into art, and fell in love with her first girlfriend, she began to question how the close-minded world of figure skating fit in with the rest of her life, and whether all the work was worth it given the reality: that she, and her friends on the figure skating team, were nowhere close to Olympic hopefuls. It all led to one question: What was the point? The more Tillie thought about it, the more Tillie realized she'd outgrown her passion--and she finally needed to find her own voice.]]> 400 Tillie Walden 1626727724 Aya 5 favorites, books-i-own 3.90 2017 Spinning
author: Tillie Walden
name: Aya
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2021/04/25
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: favorites, books-i-own
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Womentality: Thirteen Empowering Stories by Everyday Women Who Said Goodbye to the Workplace and Hello to Their Lives]]> 45725941
Womentality: Thirteen Empowering Stories by Everyday Women Who Said Goodbye to the Workplace and Hello to Their Lives is a collection of powerful, personal essays from enterprising women around the world who came to the same realization: work shouldn’t have to be painful and demeaning. Armed with an internet connection and plenty of creativity and ingenuity, they prove that it is possible to redefine the nine-to-five work paradigm and create a flourishing career that is flexible and fulfilling outside the corporate structure.

The thirteen women—from diverse countries such as Nigeria, Venezuela, Poland, Palestine, and the Philippines—approach independent work in different ways, but are all motivated by the same impulses—to escape the drudgery of office life, to have control of their time, and to enjoy the freedom of working for themselves. Importantly, many discover that—outside of the office—it is possible to triumph over global pay disparities that favor men.

Womentality is not a book about people who do not work—on the contrary, these women work hard and their stories illustrate how they overcame challenges to achieve their goals—whether they sought freedom to travel, to spend more time with the family, escape demeaning office politics, or simply to control their career.

The essays in Womentality prove that a life of independence is not reserved for elite, American workers. It is possible for anyone. As the women who contributed to Womentality can attest: escaping the nine-to-five life isn’t easy—it takes guts and persistence—but it’s absolutely worthwhile.]]> 220 Erin Wildermuth 1941110843 Aya 1 3.66 2019 Womentality: Thirteen Empowering Stories by Everyday Women Who Said Goodbye to the Workplace and Hello to Their Lives
author: Erin Wildermuth
name: Aya
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2019
rating: 1
read at: 2021/01/02
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: non-fiction-memoirs, books-i-own
review:

]]> My Sister’s Keeper 10917 New York Times best-selling author Jodi Picoult is widely acclaimed for her keen insights into the hearts and minds of real people. Now she tells the emotionally riveting story of a family torn apart by conflicting needs and a passionate love that triumphs over human weakness.

Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age 13 she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate—a life and a role that she has never challenged ... until now. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister—and so Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable, a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves.

My Sister's Keeper examines what it means to be a good parent, a good sister, a good person. Is it morally correct to do whatever it takes to save a child's life, even if that means infringing upon the rights of another? Is it worth trying to discover who you really are if that quest makes you like yourself less? Should you follow your own heart or let others lead you? Once again, in My Sister's Keeper, Jodi Picoult tackles a controversial real-life subject with grace, wisdom, and sensitivity.]]> 423 Jodi Picoult 0743454537 Aya 2 adult-fiction 4.10 2004 My Sister’s Keeper
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Aya
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2004
rating: 2
read at: 2023/10/20
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: adult-fiction
review:
staying up till 12:30 to read this book was a choice, and the wrong one at that.
]]> We Are Not Free 49934666 “All around me, my friends are talking, joking, laughing. Outside is the camp, the barbed wire, the guard towers, the city, the country that hates us.

We are not free.
But we are not alone.”?

We Are Not Free, is the collective account of a tight-knit group of young Nisei, second-generation Japanese American citizens, whose lives are irrevocably changed by the mass U.S. incarcerations of World War II.

Fourteen teens who have grown up together in Japantown, San Francisco.
Fourteen teens who form a community and a family, as interconnected as they are conflicted.
Fourteen teens whose lives are turned upside down when over 100,000 people of Japanese ancestry are removed from their homes and forced into desolate incarceration camps.
In a world that seems determined to hate them, these young Nisei must rally together as racism and injustice threaten to pull them apart.]]> 384 Traci Chee 035813143X Aya 2 4.30 2020 We Are Not Free
author: Traci Chee
name: Aya
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2021/05/17
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: oh-my-eyes-theyre-burning, ya-fiction
review:

]]> Little Fires Everywhere 34273236
In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is meticulously planned – from the layout of the winding roads, to the colours of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.

Enter Mia Warren – an enigmatic artist and single mother – who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenage daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than just tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother–daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past, and a disregard for the rules that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.

When old family friends attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town – and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at an unexpected and devastating cost . . .]]> 338 Celeste Ng 0735224293 Aya 4 adult-fiction, books-i-own 4.05 2017 Little Fires Everywhere
author: Celeste Ng
name: Aya
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2022/07/20
date added: 2024/01/08
shelves: adult-fiction, books-i-own
review:

]]>