en-US Sat, 19 Apr 2025 11:14:59 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 53453399 An emotional, rousing novel inspired by the incredible true story of two giraffes who made headlines and won the hearts of Depression-era America.

“Few true friends have I known and two were giraffes…�

Woodrow Wilson Nickel, age 105, feels his life ebbing away. But when he learns giraffes are going extinct, he finds himself recalling the unforgettable experience he cannot take to his grave.

It’s 1938. The Great Depression lingers. Hitler is threatening Europe, and world-weary Americans long for wonder. They find it in two giraffes who miraculously survive a hurricane while crossing the Atlantic. What follows is a twelve-day road trip in a custom truck to become Southern California’s first giraffes. Behind the wheel is the young Dust Bowl rowdy Woodrow. Inspired by true events, the tale weaves real-life figures with fictional ones, including the world’s first female zoo director, a crusty old man with a past, a young female photographer with a secret, and assorted reprobates as spotty as the giraffes.

Part adventure, part historical saga, and part coming-of-age love story, West with Giraffes explores what it means to be changed by the grace of animals, the kindness of strangers, the passing of time, and a story told before it’s too late.]]> 357 Lynda Rutledge 154202174X Lee 4 4.15 2021
author: Lynda Rutledge
name: Lee
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/19
date added: 2025/04/19
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]]> 199130345 “Kingsolver is a writer who can help us understand and navigate the chaos of these times.� —Minneapolis Star Tribune

From the New York Times bestselling author of Unsheltered and Flight Behavior, a brilliant novel which enthralls, compels, and captures the heart as it evokes a young hero’s unforgettable journey to maturity.

“Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose.�

Demon Copperhead is set in the mountains of southern Appalachia. It’s the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.

Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens� anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can’t imagine leaving behind.]]> 546 Barbara Kingsolver 0063282569 Lee 4 4.43 2022
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Lee
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/04
date added: 2025/04/04
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]]> 22669001
Twelve-year-old Trevor McKinney accepts his social studies teacher’s come up with a plan to change the world. His idea is Do a good deed for three people and ask them to “pay it forward� to three others in need. He envisions a vast movement of kindness and goodwill spreading beyond his small California town and across the world. The project, however, appears to falter. Jerry, a bum who receives some allowance money from Trevor, returns to a life of dissolution. Trevor wants his pretty, hardworking mother—a woman who raised him lovingly despite struggles with alcoholism—to marry his teacher, Reuben St. Clair. Reuben is a scarred, bitter, untrusting man with a disfiguring injury from Vietnam. He seems to come alive only when in front of his class. For a time that matchmaking brings nothing but problems. Ultimately, though, unusual things start to happen. Crime rates dip across the nation, and nobody seems to know why. Then a journalist tracks down the an epidemic of random acts of kindness.

Anyone who has ever despaired of one person’s ability to effect change will rejoice in Trevor’s courage and determination to see the good in everyone.]]> 311 Catherine Ryan Hyde 1476796386 Lee 3 4.16 1999
author: Catherine Ryan Hyde
name: Lee
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1999
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/02
date added: 2025/03/02
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]]> 208951739 259 Franz Kafka Lee 0 currently-reading 3.80 1925
author: Franz Kafka
name: Lee
average rating: 3.80
book published: 1925
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/20
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 58725072 Both suspenseful and deeply moving, Carolina Moonset is an engrossing novel about family, memories both golden and terrible, and secrets too dangerous to stay hidden forever, from New York Times bestselling and Emmy Award-winning author, Matt Goldman.

Joey Green has returned to Beaufort, South Carolina, with its palmettos and shrimp boats, to look after his ailing father, who is succumbing to dementia, while his overstressed mother takes a break. Marshall Green’s short-term memory has all but evaporated, but, as if in compensation, his oldest memories are more vivid than ever. His mind keeps slipping backwards in time, retreating into long-ago yesterdays of growing up in Beaufort as a boy.

At first this seems like a blessing of sorts, with the past providing a refuge from a shrinking future, but Joey grows increasingly anxious as his father’s hallucinatory arguments with figures from his youth begin to hint at deadly secrets, scandals, and suspicions long buried and forgotten. Resurfacing from decades past are mysteries that still have the power to shatter lives—and change everything Joey thought he knew.

Especially when a new murder brings the police to his door...]]> 272 Matt Goldman 1250810140 Lee 3 4.08 2022
author: Matt Goldman
name: Lee
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/16
date added: 2024/12/16
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]]> 51831724 In this moving, suspenseful debut novel, three courageous women confront the complexities of trust, friendship, motherhood, and betrayal under the rule of a ruthless dictator and his brutal secret police. Former foreign correspondent Gina Wilkinson draws on her own experiences to take readers inside a haunting story of Iraq at the turn of the millennium and the impossible choices faced by families under a deadly regime.

At night, in Huda’s fragrant garden, a breeze sweeps in from the desert encircling Baghdad, rustling the leaves of her apricot trees and carrying warning of visitors at her gate. Huda, a secretary at the Australian embassy, lives in fear of the mukhabarat—the secret police who watch and listen for any scrap of information that can be used against America and its allies. They have ordered her to befriend Ally Wilson, the deputy ambassador’s wife. Huda has no wish to be an informant, but fears for her teenaged son, who may be forced to join a deadly militia. Nor does she know that Ally has dangerous secrets of her own.

Huda’s former friend, Rania, enjoyed a privileged upbringing as the daughter of a sheikh. Now her family’s wealth is gone, and Rania too is battling to keep her child safe and a roof over their heads. As the women’s lives intersect, their hidden pasts spill into the present. Facing possible betrayal at every turn, all three must trust in a fragile, newfound loyalty, even as they discover how much they are willing to sacrifice to protect their families.]]> 304 Gina Wilkinson 1496729358 Lee 4 3.81 2021
author: Gina Wilkinson
name: Lee
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/12
date added: 2024/12/12
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]]> 4953 A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is the moving memoir of a college senior who, in the space of five weeks, loses both of his parents to cancer and inherits his eight-year-old brother. Here is an exhilarating debut that manages to be simultaneously hilarious and wildly inventive as well as a deeply heartfelt story of the love that holds a family together.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is an instant classic that will be read for decades to come.]]> 530 Dave Eggers 0375725784 Lee 4 3.70 2000
author: Dave Eggers
name: Lee
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/06
date added: 2024/12/06
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]]> 51051366
The classic autobiographical novel by Jack Kerouac featuring "one of the most true, comic, and grizzly journeys in American literature" (Time)—now in a new edition

Originally published in 1965, this autobiographical novel covers a key year in Jack Kerouac's life—the period that led up to the publication of On the Road in September of 1957. After spending two months in the summer of 1956 as a fire lookout on Desolation Peak in the North Cascade Mountains of Washington, Kerouac's fictional self Jack Duluoz comes down from the isolated mountains to the wild excitement of the bars, jazz clubs, and parties of San Francisco, before traveling on to Mexico City, New York, Tangiers, Paris, and London. Duluoz attempts to extricate himself from the world but fails, for one must "live, travel, adventure, bless, and don't be sorry." Desolation Angels is quintessential Kerouac.]]> 409 Jack Kerouac Lee 4 3.92 1958
author: Jack Kerouac
name: Lee
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1958
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/29
date added: 2024/11/29
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]]> 7050037 373 Lisa Scottoline 0312380739 Lee 3 3.78 2009
author: Lisa Scottoline
name: Lee
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/16
date added: 2024/07/16
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]]> 342843 336 Ann Patchett 0060540753 Lee 3 3.71 1992
author: Ann Patchett
name: Lee
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1992
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/12
date added: 2024/07/12
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]]> 58041342 A new novel inspired by historical events: a story of three young women on a journey in search of family amidst the destruction of the post-Civil War South, and of a modern-day teacher who rediscovers their story and its connection to her own students' lives.

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

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

Louisiana, 1987 For first-year teacher Benedetta Silva, a subsidized job at a poor rural school seems like the ticket to canceling her hefty student debt--until she lands in a tiny, out-of-step Mississippi River town. Augustine, Louisiana, seems suspicious of new ideas and new people, and Benny can scarcely comprehend the lives of her poverty-stricken students. But amid the gnarled oaks and run-down plantation homes lies the century-old history of three young women, a long-ago journey, and a hidden book that could change everything.]]> 416 Lisa Wingate 1984819909 Lee 4 4.09 2020
author: Lisa Wingate
name: Lee
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/09
date added: 2024/07/09
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]]> 36465419

]]> 338 David M. Barnett Lee 3 4.20 2017
author: David M. Barnett
name: Lee
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/01
date added: 2024/07/07
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]]> 61813078
“I loved The Violin Conspiracy for exactly the same reasons I loved The Queen’s Gambit : a surprising, beautifully rendered underdog hero I cared about deeply and a fascinating, cutthroatĚýworld I knew nothing about—in this case, classical music.â€� —Chris Bohjalian, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Flight Attendant and Hour of the Witch

Growing up Black in rural North Carolina, Ray McMillian’s life is already mapped out. But Ray has a gift and a dream—he’s determined to become a world-class professional violinist, and nothing will stand in his way. Not his mother, who wants him to stop making such a racket; not the fact that he can’t afford a violin suitable to his talents; not even the racism inherent in the world of classical music.Ěý
Ěý
When he discovers that his beat-up, family fiddle is actually a priceless Stradivarius, all his dreams suddenlyĚýseem within reach, and together, Ray and his violin take the world by storm. But on the eve of the renowned and cutthroat Tchaikovsky Competition—the Olympics of classical music—the violin is stolen, a ransom note for five million dollars left in its place. Without it, Ray feels like he's lost a piece of himself.ĚýAs the competition approaches, Ray must not only reclaim his precious violin, but prove to himself—and the world—that no matter the outcome, there has always been a truly great musician within him.]]> 342 Brendan Slocumb 0593315421 Lee 3 4.04 2022
author: Brendan Slocumb
name: Lee
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/07
date added: 2024/07/07
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]]> 40180098 The Overstory is a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of - and paean to - the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, Richard Powers’s twelfth novel unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. There is a world alongside ours—vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe.

A New York Times Bestseller.]]> 502 Richard Powers 039335668X Lee 5 4.10 2018
author: Richard Powers
name: Lee
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/04
date added: 2024/07/04
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]]> 366403 255 Emily Brontë 1569602093 Lee 0 abandoned 3.65 1847
author: Emily Brontë
name: Lee
average rating: 3.65
book published: 1847
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/04
shelves: abandoned
review:

]]> 55098975 Instant New York Times Bestseller

From the internationally bestselling author of What She Left Behind comes a gripping and powerful tale of upheaval—a heartbreaking saga of resilience and hope perfect for fans of Beatriz Williams and Kristin Hannah—set in Philadelphia during the 1918 Spanish Flu outbreak—the deadly pandemic that went on to infect one-third of the world’s population�

“Readers will not be able to help making comparisons to the COVID-19 pandemic, and how little has changed since 1918. Wiseman has written a touching tale of loss, survival, and perseverance with some light fantastical elements. Highly recommended.�
�Booklist

“An immersive historical tale with chilling twists and turns. Beautifully told and richly imagined.�
—Stephanie Dray, New York Times bestselling author of America’s First Daughter

In the fall of 1918, thirteen-year-old German immigrant Pia Lange longs to be far from Philadelphia’s overcrowded slums and the anti-immigrant sentiment that compelled her father to enlist in the U.S. Army. But as her city celebrates the end of war, an even more urgent threat arrives: the Spanish flu. Funeral crepe and quarantine signs appear on doors as victims drop dead in the streets and desperate survivors wear white masks to ward off illness. When food runs out in the cramped tenement she calls home, Pia must venture alone into the quarantined city in search of supplies, leaving her baby brothers behind.

Bernice Groves has become lost in grief and bitterness since her baby died from the Spanish flu. Watching Pia leave her brothers alone, Bernice makes a shocking, life-altering decision. It becomes her sinister mission to tear families apart when they’re at their most vulnerable, planning to transform the city’s orphans and immigrant children into what she feels are “true Americans.�

Waking in a makeshift hospital days after collapsing in the street, Pia is frantic to return home. Instead, she is taken to St. Vincent’s Orphan Asylum � the first step in a long and arduous journey. As Bernice plots to keep the truth hidden at any cost in the months and years that follow, Pia must confront her own shame and fear, risking everything to see justice � and love � triumph at last. Powerful, harrowing, and ultimately exultant, The Orphan Collector is a story of love, resilience, and the lengths we will go to protect those who need us most.

“Wiseman’s writing is superb, and her descriptions of life during the Spanish Flu epidemic are chilling. Well-researched and impossible to put down, this is an emotional tug-of-war played out brilliantly on the pages and in readers� hearts.�
�The Historical Novels Review, EDITOR’S CHOICE

“Wiseman’s depiction of the horrifying spread of the Spanish flu is eerily reminiscent of the present day and resonates with realistic depictions of suffering, particularly among the poorer immigrant population.�
�Publishers Weekly (Boxed Review)

“Reading the novel in the time of COVID-19 adds an even greater resonance, and horror, to the description of the fatal spread of that 1918 flu.�
�Kirkus Review

“An emotional roller coaster…I felt Pia’s strength, courage, guilt, and grief come through the pages clear as day.�
—The Seattle Book Review]]> 378 Ellen Marie Wiseman Lee 4 4.27 2020
author: Ellen Marie Wiseman
name: Lee
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2021/08/15
date added: 2024/06/24
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]]> 49985946
Effia and Esi are born into different villages in eighteenth-century Ghana. Effia is married off to an Englishman and lives in comfort in the palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle. Unbeknownst to Effia, her sister, Esi, is imprisoned beneath her in the castle’s dungeons, sold with thousands of others into the Gold Coast’s booming slave trade, and shipped off to America, where her children and grandchildren will be raised in slavery. One thread of Homegoing follows Effia’s descendants through centuries of warfare in Ghana, as the Fante and Asante nations wrestle with the slave trade and British colonization. The other thread follows Esi and her children into America. From the plantations of the South to the Civil War and the Great Migration, from the coal mines of Pratt City, Alabama, to the jazz clubs and dope houses of twentieth-century Harlem, right up through the present day, Homegoing makes history visceral, and captures, with singular and stunning immediacy, how the memory of captivity came to be inscribed in the soul of a nation.
--penguinrandomhouse.com]]> 313 Yaa Gyasi 1101947144 Lee 4 4.51 2016
author: Yaa Gyasi
name: Lee
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/21
date added: 2024/05/21
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]]> 51036155
Roya, a dreamy, idealistic teenager living amid the political upheaval of 1953 Tehran, finds a literary oasis in kindly Mr. Fakhri’s neighborhood stationery shop, stocked with books and pens and bottles of jewel-colored ink.

Then Mr. Fakhri, with a keen instinct for a budding romance, introduces Roya to his other favorite customer—handsome Bahman, who has a burning passion for justice and a love for Rumi’s poetry—and she loses her heart at once. Their romance blossoms, and the little stationery shop remains their favorite place in all of Tehran.

A few short months later, on the eve of their marriage, Roya agrees to meet Bahman at the town square when violence erupts—a result of the coup d’etat that forever changes their country’s future. In the chaos, Bahman never shows. For weeks, Roya tries desperately to contact him, but her efforts are fruitless. With a sorrowful heart, she moves on—to college in California, to another man, to a life in New England—until, more than sixty years later, an accident of fate leads her back to Bahman and offers her a chance to ask him the questions that have haunted her for more than half a century: Why did you leave? Where did you go? How is it that you were able to forget me?]]> 308 Marjan Kamali 147118918X Lee 4 4.19 2019
author: Marjan Kamali
name: Lee
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2021/08/09
date added: 2024/05/21
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]]> 60704837 -CHAD LUTZKE, author of Slow Burn on Riverside and Of Foster Homes and Flies

In this speculative coming-of-age tale, Holden Caulfield gets a makeover and settles down in the Eighties. He doesn't know it yet, but he has a date with the dark side...

The year is 1987. Before the end of the Cold War, before O.J. and the L.A. riots and the World Wide Web. Hair is big, excess is in, and Weston Mercer is slowly losing his mind.

First, it's all so familiar. Evenings spent at the local oyster bar, followed by late nights in the pines, watching his cousin jam with his infamous band, Olympus. Days spent in a haze of drugs and classic TV and miso soup. And something else--a miserable sort of existence shrouded from purpose beyond the implacable pall of depression.

Then he meets a stranger who reveals things, dark things. Things Wes wishes he never would have heard. In the shadow of these darker truths, nothing can ever be the same...



Love. Addiction. Music. Death. Sex. Obsession. Madness.



w a y w a r d s u n s.]]> 212 Hamelin Bird Lee 4 4.53
author: Hamelin Bird
name: Lee
average rating: 4.53
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/14
date added: 2024/05/14
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]]> 20483102
Youthful, ambitious Peter Schoeffer is on the verge of professional success as a scribe in Paris when his foster father, wealthy merchant and bookseller Johann Fust, summons him home to corrupt, feud-plagued Mainz to meet “a most amazing man.�

Johann Gutenberg, a driven and caustic inventor, has devised a revolutionary—and to some, blasphemous—method of bookmaking: a machine he calls a printing press. Fust is financing Gutenberg’s workshop and he orders Peter, his adopted son, to become Gutenberg’s apprentice. Resentful at having to abandon a prestigious career as a scribe, Peter begins his education in the “darkest art.�

As his skill grows, so, too, does his admiration for Gutenberg and his dedication to their daring venture: copies of the Holy Bible. But mechanical difficulties and the crushing power of the Catholic Church threaten their work. As outside forces align against them, Peter finds himself torn between two father figures: the generous Fust, who saved him from poverty after his mother died; and the brilliant, mercurial Gutenberg, who inspires Peter to achieve his own mastery.

Caught between the genius and the merchant, the old ways and the new, Peter and the men he admires must work together to prevail against overwhelming obstacles—a battle that will change history . . . and irrevocably transform them.]]> 406 Alix Christie 0062336010 Lee 3 3.41 2014
author: Alix Christie
name: Lee
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/12
date added: 2024/05/12
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]]> 43521657
Then she finds a strange book. A book that carries the scent of other worlds, and tells a tale of secret doors, of love, adventure and danger. Each page turn reveals impossible truths about the world and January discovers a story increasingly entwined with her own.]]> 374 Alix E. Harrow 0316421995 Lee 0 abandoned 3.99 2019
author: Alix E. Harrow
name: Lee
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/27
shelves: abandoned
review:

]]> 80616 The Thin Man is a murder mystery that doubles as a sophisticated comedy of manners.]]> 201 Dashiell Hammett 0679722637 Lee 0 3.92 1934
author: Dashiell Hammett
name: Lee
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1934
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/27
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]]> 25036704 Alternate version of this book.

One of the dozen books written by Jack Kerouac in the early and mid-1950s, Maggie Cassidy was not published until 1959, after the appearance of On the Road had made its author famous overnight. Long out of print, this touching novel of adolescent love in a New England mill town, with its straight-forward narrative structure, is one of Kerouac's most accessible works. It is a remarkable, bittersweet evocation of the awkwardness and the joy of growing up in America.]]> 202 Jack Kerouac Lee 3 3.68 1959
author: Jack Kerouac
name: Lee
average rating: 3.68
book published: 1959
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/24
date added: 2024/02/24
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]]> 20613627
In 1508, despite strong advice to the contrary, the powerful Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo Buonarroti to paint the ceiling of the newly restored Sistine Chapel in Rome. Despite having completed his masterful statue David four years earlier, he had little experience as a painter, even less working in the delicate medium of fresco, and none with challenging curved surfaces such as the Sistine ceiling's vaults. The temperamental Michelangelo was himself He stormed away from Rome, incurring Julius's wrath, before he was eventually persuaded to begin.

Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling recounts the fascinating story of the four extraordinary years he spent laboring over the twelve thousand square feet of the vast ceiling, while war and the power politics and personal rivalries that abounded in Rome swirled around him. A panorama of illustrious figures intersected during this time-the brilliant young painter Raphael, with whom Michelangelo formed a rivalry; the fiery preacher Girolamo Savonarola and the great Dutch scholar Desiderius Erasmus; a youthful Martin Luther, who made his only trip to Rome at this time and was disgusted by the corruption all around him.

Ross King blends these figures into a magnificent tapestry of day-to-day life on the ingenious Sistine scaffolding and outside in the upheaval of early-sixteenth-century Italy, while also offering uncommon insight into the connection between art and history.]]> 384 Ross King 1620408406 Lee 4 abandoned 4.01 2002
author: Ross King
name: Lee
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/02/05
shelves: abandoned
review:

]]> 23129923 " I wonder", said Hermes, "what it would be like if animals had human intelligence."
" I'll wager a year's servitude, answered Apollo, that animals � any animal you like � would be even more unhappy than humans are, if they were given human intelligence."

And so it begins: a bet between the gods Hermes and Apollo leads them to grant human consciousness and language to a group of dogs overnighting at a Toronto vet­erinary clinic. Suddenly capable of more complex thought, the pack is torn between those who resist the new ways of thinking, preferring the old 'dog' ways, and those who embrace the change.

The gods watch from above as the dogs venture into their newly unfamiliar world, as they become divided among themselves, as each struggles with new thoughts and feelings. Wily Benjy moves from home to home, Prince becomes a poet, and Majnoun forges a relationship with a kind couple that stops even the Fates in their tracks.

André Alexis's contemporary take on the apologue offers an utterly compelling and affecting look at the beauty and perils of human consciousness. By turns meditative and devastating, charming and strange, Fifteen Dogs shows you can teach an old genre new tricks.]]> 171 André Alexis 1552453057 Lee 3 3.79 2015
author: André Alexis
name: Lee
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2023/11/16
date added: 2023/11/16
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]]> 60899786 Omgivet af mørke fandt han mod. Omgivet af krig fandt han kærlighed. Omgivet af tragedie fandt han håb.

Nuri er biavler, og hans kone, Afra, er kunstner. Om morgenen står Nuri tidligt op for at høre bønnekaldet, før han kører ud til sine bistader på landet. I weekenderne sælger Afra sine farvestrålende landskabsmalerier på basarens marked. De lever et enkelt liv med familie og venner i den smukke syriske by Aleppo � indtil det utænkelige sker. Da alt, hvad de elsker, bliver ødelagt af krigen, ved Nuri med sig selv, at de må forlade Aleppo. Men flugten fra Syrien bliver ikke let: Afra har mistet synet, og Nuri må føre dem begge igennem både en stor sorg og en farefuld rejse gennem Tyrkiet og Grækenland mod en usikker fremtid i Storbritannien. Nuri holder ud, fordi han ved, at hans fætter Mustafa venter på dem. Han har startet en bigård i Yorkshire og lærer nu andre flygtninge at holde bier. På rejsen gennem en sønderrevet verden må Nuri og Afra ikke kun konfrontere smerten ved deres eget ubeskrivelige tab, men også farer, som ville overvælde selv den modigste. Frem for alt må de foretage den svære rejse tilbage til hinanden, ad en vej, der engang var så velkendt, men som er blevet fremmed gennem den sorg, det er at miste et holdepunkt i tilværelsen.
En rørende, inderlig og smukt skrevet bog for vor tid: en roman, der minder os om, at selv den mest fredelige og almindelige tilværelse kan blive vendt helt på hovedet på måder, man ikke kan forestille sig, og som samtidig rykker en rejse i fjerne lande helt tæt på.]]> 327 Christy Lefteri Lee 4 3.96 2019
author: Christy Lefteri
name: Lee
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/30
date added: 2023/09/30
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]]> 936840 Kazantzakis (2/18/1883�10/26/57) was born in & lived in Greece most of his life. His most famous novels include Zorba the Greek ('46, Βίος και Πολιτεία του Αλέξη Ζο�μπά); The Greek Passion ('48, UK title Christ Recrucified, Ο Χ�ι�τός Ξανα�ταυ�ώνεται); Captain Michalis ('50, UK title Freedom & Death, in Greek Καπετάν Μιχάλης); The Last Temptation of Christ ('51, Ο Τελευταίος Πει�α�μός) & St Francis ('56, UK title God's Pauper: St Francis of Assisi, Ο Φτωχούλης του �εού). Report to Greco ('61, Αναφο�ά �τον Γκ�έκο), containing autobiographical & fictional elements, summed up his philosophy as the "Cretan Glance."]]> 379 Kazantzakis 0671212478 Lee 5 4.24 1956
author: Kazantzakis
name: Lee
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1956
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/22
date added: 2023/09/22
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]]> 350540 The searing, post-apocalyptic novel about a father and son’s fight to survive.

A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don’t know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other.

The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, “each the other’s world entire,� are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation.]]> 287 Cormac McCarthy 0307387895 Lee 3 3.99 2006
author: Cormac McCarthy
name: Lee
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/11
date added: 2023/07/11
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]]> 5210 The Good Earth she presents a graphic view of a China when the last emperor reigned and the vast political and social upheavals of the twentieth century were but distant rumblings for the ordinary people. This moving, classic story of the honest farmer Wang Lung and his selfless wife O-lan is must reading for those who would fully appreciate the sweeping changes that have occurred in the lives of the Chinese people during this century.

Nobel Prize winner Pearl S. Buck traces the whole cycle of life: its terrors, its passions, its ambitions and rewards. Her brilliant novel—beloved by millions of readers—is a universal tale of the destiny of man.]]> 357 Pearl S. Buck 0743272935 Lee 4 3.99 1931
author: Pearl S. Buck
name: Lee
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1931
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/08
date added: 2023/07/08
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]]> 62589168 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780593358351.

We can’t choose what we inherit. But can we choose who we become?

In present-day California, Eleanor Bennett’s death leaves behind a puzzling inheritance for her two children, Byron and Benny: a black cake, made from a family recipe with a long history, and a voice recording. In her message, Eleanor shares a tumultuous story about a headstrong young swimmer who escapes her island home under suspicion of murder. The heartbreaking tale Eleanor unfolds, the secrets she still holds back, and the mystery of a long-lost child challenge everything the siblings thought they knew about their lineage and themselves.

Can Byron and Benny reclaim their once-close relationship, piece together Eleanor’s true history, and fulfill her final request to “share the black cake when the time is right�? Will their mother’s revelations bring them back together or leave them feeling more lost than ever?

Charmaine Wilkerson’s debut novel is a story of how the inheritance of betrayals, secrets, memories, and even names can shape relationships and history. Deeply evocative and beautifully written, Black Cake is an extraordinary journey through the life of a family changed forever by the choices of its matriarch.]]> 416 Charmaine Wilkerson Lee 2 4.11 2022
author: Charmaine Wilkerson
name: Lee
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2023/02/26
date added: 2023/07/04
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]]> 631227 272 Holger Kersten 1852305509 Lee 3 3.77 1984
author: Holger Kersten
name: Lee
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1984
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2023/07/02
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]]> 148465
Through the eyes of Cormac O'Connor -- granted immortality as long as he never leaves the island of Manhattan -- we watch New York grow from a tiny settlement on the tip of an untamed wilderness to the thriving metropolis of today. And through Cormac's remarkable adventures in both love and war, we come to know the city's buried secrets -- the way it has been shaped by greed, race, and waves of immigration, by the unleashing of enormous human energies, and, above all, by hope.]]> 613 Pete Hamill 0316735698 Lee 5 3.95 2002
author: Pete Hamill
name: Lee
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2002
rating: 5
read at: 2020/02/24
date added: 2023/07/02
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]]> 53105992 Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2020 by O, the Oprah Magazine, Good Morning America/ABC-TV, Good Housekeeping, Bustle, TIME, Marie Claire and The Millions

An extraordinary story set in the first century about a woman who finds her voice and her destiny, from the celebrated number one New York Times bestselling author of The Secret Life of Bees and The Invention of Wings

In her mesmerizing fourth work of fiction, Sue Monk Kidd takes an audacious approach to history and brings her acclaimed narrative gifts to imagine the story of a young woman named Ana. Raised in a wealthy family with ties to the ruler of Galilee, she is rebellious and ambitious, with a brilliant mind and a daring spirit. She engages in furtive scholarly pursuits and writes narratives about neglected and silenced women. Ana is expected to marry an older widower, a prospect that horrifies her. An encounter with eighteen-year-old Jesus changes everything.

Their marriage evolves with love and conflict, humor and pathos in Nazareth, where Ana makes a home with Jesus, his brothers, and their mother, Mary. Ana's pent-up longings intensify amid the turbulent resistance to Rome's occupation of Israel, partially led by her brother, Judas. She is sustained by her fearless aunt Yaltha, who harbors a compelling secret. When Ana commits a brazen act that puts her in peril, she flees to Alexandria, where startling revelations and greater dangers unfold, and she finds refuge in unexpected surroundings. Ana determines her fate during a stunning convergence of events considered among the most impactful in human history.

Grounded in meticulous research and written with a reverential approach to Jesus's life that focuses on his humanity, The Book of Longings is an inspiring, unforgettable account of one woman's bold struggle to realize the passion and potential inside her, while living in a time, place and culture devised to silence her. It is a triumph of storytelling both timely and timeless, from a masterful writer at the height of her powers.]]> 576 Sue Monk Kidd 0593285964 Lee 4 4.11 2020
author: Sue Monk Kidd
name: Lee
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2020/06/11
date added: 2023/07/02
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]]> 40180023

But as the twenty-first century begins and her children and grandchildren—consumed with immortality in their own ways, from the frontiers of digital currency to genetic engineering—develop new technologies that could change her fate and theirs, Rachel knows she must find a way out.


Gripping, hilarious, and profoundly moving, Eternal Life celebrates the bonds between generations, the power of faith, the purpose of death, and the reasons for being alive.]]> 256 Dara Horn 0393356566 Lee 3 3.74 2018
author: Dara Horn
name: Lee
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2023/03/11
date added: 2023/07/02
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]]> 13635243 340 Cher Fischer 1618220071 Lee 2 3.59 2012
author: Cher Fischer
name: Lee
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2012
rating: 2
read at: 2012/04/06
date added: 2023/07/02
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]]> 25898723
Michelangelo is a virtual unknown when he returns to Florence and wins the commission to carve what will become one of the most famous sculptures of all time: David. Even though his impoverished family shuns him for being an artist, he is desperate to support them. Living at the foot of his misshapen block of marble, Michelangelo struggles until the stone finally begins to speak. Working against an impossible deadline, he begins his feverish carving.

Meanwhile, Leonardo’s life is falling apart: he loses the hoped-for David commission; he can’t seem to finish any project; he is obsessed with his ungainly flying machine; he almost dies in war; his engineering designs disastrously fail; and he is haunted by a woman he has seen in the market—a merchant’s wife, whom he is finally commissioned to paint. Her name is Lisa, and she becomes his muse.

Leonardo despises Michelangelo for his youth and lack of sophistication. Michelangelo both loathes and worships Leonardo’s genius.

Oil and Marble is the story of their nearly forgotten rivalry. Storey brings early 16th-century Florence alive, and has entered with extraordinary empathy into the minds and souls of two Renaissance masters. The book is an art history thriller.
]]> 362 Stephanie Storey 1628726393 Lee 0 3.95 2016
author: Stephanie Storey
name: Lee
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at: 2023/05/25
date added: 2023/07/02
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]]> 54304173 “Sharply comic, a treasure of a book.� �The London Times
“Thoroughly engrossing, though-provoking fantasy.� �School Library Journal (starred review)

A special 50th anniversary edition of the Newbery Award–winning classic by notable children’s author Robert C. O’Brien about a brave mouse who makes unexpected new friends!

Mrs. Frisby, a widowed mouse with four small children, is faced with a terrible problem. She must move her family to their summer quarters immediately, or face almost certain death. But her youngest son, Timothy, lies ill with pneumonia and must not be moved.

Fortunately, she encounters the rats of NIMH, an extraordinary breed of highly intelligent creatures, who come up with a brilliant solution to her dilemma. And Mrs. Frisby in turn renders them a great service.]]> 240 Robert C. O'Brien 1534455736 Lee 4 4.43 1971
author: Robert C. O'Brien
name: Lee
average rating: 4.43
book published: 1971
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/01
date added: 2023/07/01
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]]> 42402467
The second story, which is as modern as the first is ancient, and which elevates the book to a tragic plane, concerns the clash of cultures and the destruction of Okonkwo's world through the arrival of aggressive, proselytizing European missionaries. These twin dramas are perfectly harmonized, and they are modulated by an awareness capable of encompassing at once the life of nature, human history, and the mysterious compulsions of the soul. THINGS FALL APART is the most illuminating and permanent monument we have to the modern African experience as seen from within.]]> 212 Chinua Achebe Lee 4 3.83 1958
author: Chinua Achebe
name: Lee
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1958
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/30
date added: 2023/06/30
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]]> 11828537 Same ISBN as this.

Cat’s Cradle is Kurt Vonnegut’s satirical commentary on modern man and his madness. An apocalyptic tale of this planet’s ultimate fate, it features a midget as the protagonist, a complete, original theology created by a calypso singer, and a vision of the future that is at once blackly fatalistic and hilariously funny. A book that left an indelible mark on an entire generation of readers, Cat’s Cradle is one of the twentieth century’s most important works—and Vonnegut at his very best]]> 287 Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Lee 4 4.01 1963
author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
name: Lee
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1963
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/28
date added: 2023/06/28
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]]> 6976 An alternate cover edition exists here.

Sue Monk Kidd's phenomenal debut, The Secret Life of Bees, became a runaway bestseller that is still on the New York Times bestseller list more than two years after its paperback publication. Now, in her luminous new novel, Kidd has woven a transcendent tale that will thrill her legion of fans. Telling the story of Jessie Sullivan -- a love story between a woman and a monk, a woman and her husband, and ultimately a woman and her own soul -- Kidd charts a journey of awakening and self-discovery illuminated with a brilliance that only a writer of her ability could conjure.]]> 368 Sue Monk Kidd 0143036696 Lee 1 3.19 2004
author: Sue Monk Kidd
name: Lee
average rating: 3.19
book published: 2004
rating: 1
read at: 2023/06/23
date added: 2023/06/23
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]]> 22716193
First published in 1946, Zorba the Greek , is, on one hand, the story of a Greek working man named Zorba, a passionate lover of life, the unnamed narrator who he accompanies to Crete to work in a lignite mine, and the men and women of the town where they settle. On the other hand it is the story of God and man, The Devil and the Saints; the struggle of men to find their souls and purpose in life and it is about love, courage and faith.

Zorba has been acclaimed as one of the truly memorable creations of literature—a character created on a huge scale in the tradition of Falstaff and Sancho Panza. His years have not dimmed the gusto and amazement with which he responds to all life offers him, whether he is working in the mine, confronting mad monks in a mountain monastery, embellishing the tales of his life or making love to avoid sin. Zorba’s life is rich with all the joys and sorrows that living brings and his example awakens in the narrator an understanding of the true meaning of humanity. This is one of the greatest life-affirming novels of our time.

Part of the modern literary canon, Zorba the Greek , has achieved widespread international acclaim and recognition. This new edition translated, directly from Kazantzakis’s Greek original, is a more faithful rendition of his original language, ideas, and story, and presents Zorba as the author meant him to be.]]> 368 Nikos Kazantzakis 1476782814 Lee 5 3.75 1946
author: Nikos Kazantzakis
name: Lee
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1946
rating: 5
read at: 2023/05/18
date added: 2023/05/18
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]]> 622340
In the tradition of Carter Beats the Devil and The Alienist—a historical page-turner and the debut of a spectacular young talent.

It is 1920s Philadelphia, a time when the feverish popular obsession with the paranormal is confronted by the inevitable ascendance of the scientific method. With everyone from Houdini to Arthur Conan Doyle weighing in on the existence of parapsychological phenomena, the media is as fixated on the sensational debate as scientists and would-be psychics. Indeed, in 1922, Scientific American offers five thousand dollars for evidence of "conclusive psychic manifestations."

Inspired by this real-life event, Inamorata follows Martin Finch, a twenty-three-year-old Harvard graduate student and member of Scientific American's investigative committee, on the case of a lifetime—an attempt to determine whether Mina Crawley, a beautiful Philadelphia socialite, is able to contact the spirit realm. In the tiny upstairs room of the Crawleys' elegant Rittenhouse Square townhouse, Finch is prepared to debunk a fraud. But instead the man of science breaks the cardinal rule of psychic investigation: Never fall in love with the medium...]]> 324 Joseph Gangemi 0143034596 Lee 3 3.52 2004
author: Joseph Gangemi
name: Lee
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 2023/04/10
date added: 2023/04/10
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]]> 53479022 A deeply personal novel about race, pop culture, immigration, assimilation, and escaping the roles we are forced to play.

Willis Wu doesn’t perceive himself as the protagonist in his own life: he’s merely Generic Asian Man. Sometimes he gets to be Background Oriental Making a Weird Face or even Disgraced Son, but always he is relegated to a prop. Yet every day, he leaves his tiny room in a Chinatown SRO and enters the Golden Palace restaurant, where Black and White, a procedural cop show, is in perpetual production. He’s a bit player here, too, but he dreams of being Kung Fu Guy—the most respected role that anyone who looks like him can attain. Or is it?

After stumbling into the spotlight, Willis finds himself launched into a wider world than he’s ever known, discovering not only the secret history of Chinatown, but the buried legacy of his own family. Infinitely inventive and deeply personal, exploring the themes of pop culture, assimilation, and immigration�Interior Chinatown is Charles Yu’s most moving, daring, and masterful novel yet.]]> 266 Charles Yu 0307948471 Lee 4 4.03 2020
author: Charles Yu
name: Lee
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/29
date added: 2023/03/29
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]]> 58733693 Remarkably Bright Creatures, an exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope, tracing a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus.

After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she's been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors--until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late.

Shelby Van Pelt's debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.]]> 368 Shelby Van Pelt 0063204150 Lee 3 4.35 2022
author: Shelby Van Pelt
name: Lee
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2022/08/25
date added: 2023/03/28
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]]> 35019865
"Heartly God?" dives into this question. If they do happen, can we recognize them, or have we all become too bitter, too cynical, or too tired to notice? Can we believe in miracles if science and technology fail to explain events that are indisputable?

Follow Nico as he struggles through life's challenges, both mundane and miraculous. Consider if you possess the ability to recognize the wondrous, as it unfolds around you, every day.]]> 236 Wil 3 0998089982 Lee 3 4.25
author: Wil 3
name: Lee
average rating: 4.25
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2022/06/30
date added: 2023/03/28
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]]> 54789601 'Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices... Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?'

A dazzling novel about all the choices that go into a life well lived, from the internationally bestselling author of Reasons to Stay Alive and How To Stop Time.

Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?

In The Midnight Library, Matt Haig's enchanting novel, Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.]]> 288 Matt Haig 1786892723 Lee 3 3.97 2020
author: Matt Haig
name: Lee
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2022/03/17
date added: 2023/03/28
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]]> 61102619
But what Edward discovers about the vase has Dora questioning everything she has believed about her life, her family, and the world as she knows it. As Dora uncovers the truth, she comes to understand that some doors are locked and some mysteries are buried for a reason, while others are closer to the surface than they appear.

Steeped in mystery and rich in imagination, an exhilarating historical novel set in Georgian London where the discovery of a mysterious ancient Greek vase sets in motion conspiracies, revelations, and romance.]]> 408 Susan Stokes-Chapman 0063280027 Lee 4 3.60 2022
author: Susan Stokes-Chapman
name: Lee
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/03
date added: 2023/03/03
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]]> 25739148 Ěý
Madeleine Altimari is a smart-mouthed, rebellious nine-year-old who also happens to be an aspiring jazz singer. Still mourning the recent death of her mother, and caring for her grief-stricken father, she doesn’t realize that on the eve of Christmas Eve she is about to have the most extraordinary day—and night—of her life. After bravely facing down mean-spirited classmates and rejection at school, Madeleine doggedly searches for Philadelphia's legendary jazz club The Cat's Pajamas, where she’s determined to make her on-stage debut. On the same day, her fifth grade teacher Sarina Greene, who’s just moved back to Philly after a divorce, is nervously looking forward to a dinner party that will reunite her with an old high school crush, afraid to hope that sparks might fly again. And across town at The Cat's Pajamas, club owner Lorca discovers that his beloved haunt may have to close forever, unless someone can find a way to quickly raise the $30,000 that would save it.
Ěý
Together, Madeleine, Sarina, and Lorca will discover life’s endless possibilities over the course of one magical night. A vivacious, charming and moving debut, 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas will capture your heart and have you laughing out loud.]]> 288 Marie-Helene Bertino 0804140251 Lee 3 3.44 2014
author: Marie-Helene Bertino
name: Lee
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2023/02/20
date added: 2023/02/20
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]]> 18901575 One Hundred Years of Solitude remains a dazzling and original achievement by the masterful Gabriel Garcia Marquez, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

One Hundred Years of Solitude tells the story of the rise and fall, birth and death of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendiá family. Inventive, amusing, magnetic, sad and alive with unforgettable men and women—brimming with truth, compassion, and a lyrical magic that strikes the soul—this novel is a masterpiece in the art of fiction.]]> 417 Gabriel García Márquez 0060883286 Lee 0 abandoned 4.08 1967
author: Gabriel García Márquez
name: Lee
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1967
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/16
shelves: abandoned
review:

]]> 592657 278 James Dickey 038531387X Lee 5 3.88 1970
author: James Dickey
name: Lee
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1970
rating: 5
read at: 1982/01/01
date added: 2022/11/10
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]]> 53481719 New York Times bestselling author of The Night Circus, a timeless love story set in a secret underground world--a place of pirates, painters, lovers, liars, and ships that sail upon a starless sea.

Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a graduate student in Vermont when he discovers a mysterious book hidden in the stacks. As he turns the pages, entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, key collectors, and nameless acolytes, he reads something strange: a story from his own childhood. Bewildered by this inexplicable book and desperate to make sense of how his own life came to be recorded, Zachary uncovers a series of clues--a bee, a key, and a sword--that lead him to a masquerade party in New York, to a secret club, and through a doorway to an ancient library hidden far below the surface of the earth.

What Zachary finds in this curious place is more than just a buried home for books and their guardians--it is a place of lost cities and seas, lovers who pass notes under doors and across time, and of stories whispered by the dead. Zachary learns of those who have sacrificed much to protect this realm, relinquishing their sight and their tongues to preserve this archive, and also of those who are intent on its destruction. Together with Mirabel, a fierce, pink-haired protector of the place, and Dorian, a handsome, barefoot man with shifting alliances, Zachary travels the twisting tunnels, darkened stairwells, crowded ballrooms, and sweetly soaked shores of this magical world, discovering his purpose--in both the mysterious book and in his own life.]]> 574 Erin Morgenstern 110197138X Lee 5 4.03 2019
author: Erin Morgenstern
name: Lee
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2022/08/20
date added: 2022/08/20
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]]> 50693494
As a full moon rises over Melbourne, Australia, a young woman gets ready for a party. And what appears to be an ordinary night out is--through the prism of her singular perspective--extraordinary. As the evening unfolds, each encounter she has reveals the vast discrepancies between what she is thinking and feeling, and what she is able to say. And there's so much she'd like to say. So when she meets a man and a genuine connection occurs, it's nothing short of a miracle. However, it isn't until she invites him home that we come to appreciate the humanity beneath the labels we cling to, and we can grasp the pleasure of what it means to be alive.

The debut novel from the inimitable Madeleine Ryan, A Room Called Earth is a humorous and heartwarming adventure inside the mind of a bright and dynamic woman. This hyper-saturated celebration of love and acceptance, from a neurodiverse writer, is a testament to moving through life without fear, and to opening ourselves up to a new way of relating to one another.]]> 290 Madeleine Ryan 0143135457 Lee 4 3.67 2020
author: Madeleine Ryan
name: Lee
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2022/06/13
date added: 2022/06/13
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]]> 40883302 If you knew the date of your death, how would you live your life?

It's 1969 in New York City's Lower East Side, and word has spread of the arrival of a mystical woman, a traveling psychic who claims to be able to tell anyone the day they will die. The Gold children—four adolescents on the cusp of self-awareness—sneak out to hear their fortunes.

The prophecies inform their next five decades. Golden-boy Simon escapes to the West Coast, searching for love in '80s San Francisco; dreamy Klara becomes a Las Vegas magician, obsessed with blurring reality and fantasy; eldest son Daniel seeks security as an army doctor post-9/11; and bookish Varya throws herself into longevity research, where she tests the boundary between science and immortality.

A sweeping novel of remarkable ambition and depth, The Immortalists probes the line between destiny and choice, reality and illusion, this world and the next. It is a deeply moving testament to the power of story, the nature of belief, and the unrelenting pull of familial bonds.]]> 352 Chloe Benjamin 0525538828 Lee 2 3.79 2018
author: Chloe Benjamin
name: Lee
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2018
rating: 2
read at: 2022/05/30
date added: 2022/05/30
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]]> 35259724
However, the world of great power and privilege conceals troubling secrets, and soon Jende and Neni notice cracks in their employers� façades.

When the financial world is rocked by the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the Jongas are desperate to keep Jende’s job—even as their marriage threatens to fall apart. As all four lives are dramatically upended, Jende and Neni are forced to make an impossible choice.]]> 400 Imbolo Mbue 0525509712 Lee 3 3.92 2016
author: Imbolo Mbue
name: Lee
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2022/02/28
date added: 2022/03/01
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]]> 9722855 112 Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 1607963027 Lee 4 4.37 1943
author: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
name: Lee
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1943
rating: 4
read at: 2022/02/27
date added: 2022/02/27
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]]> 53138197
From 19th-century cigar factories to present-day detention centers, from Cuba to Mexico, Gabriela Garcia's Of Women and Salt is a kaleidoscopic portrait of betrayals—personal and political, self-inflicted and those done by others—that have shaped the lives of these extraordinary women. A haunting meditation on the choices of mothers, the legacy of the memories they carry, and the tenacity of women who choose to tell their stories despite those who wish to silence them, this is more than a diaspora story; it is a story of America’s most tangled, honest, human roots.]]> 207 Gabriela Garcia 1250776686 Lee 4 3.68 2021
author: Gabriela Garcia
name: Lee
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2022/02/26
date added: 2022/02/26
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]]> 50891061 ** Library Journal's Editor's Pick! **

The Story of One Man’s Enormous Will to Triumph over the Unjust System that Enslaved Him during the Seminal Years of the American Republic

Philadelphia 1793. Hercules, President George Washington’s chef, is a fixture on the Philadelphia scene. He is famous for both his culinary prowess and for ruling his kitchen like a commanding general. He has his run of the city and earns twice the salary of an average American workingman. He wears beautiful clothes and attends the theater.

But while valued by the Washingtons for his prowess in the kitchen and rewarded far over and above even white servants, Hercules is enslaved in a city where most black Americans are free. Even while he masterfully manages his kitchen and the lives of those in and around it, Hercules harbors secrets-- including the fact that he is learning to read and that he is involved in a dangerous affair with Thelma, a mixed-race woman, who, passing as white, works as a companion to the daughter of one of Philadelphia's most prestigious families. Eventually Hercules� carefully crafted intrigues fall apart and he finds himself trapped by his circumstance and the will of George Washington.

Based on actual historical events and people, The General's Cook, will thrill fans of The Hamilton Affair, as they follow Hercules' precarious and terrifying bid for freedom.]]> 408 Ramin Ganeshram 1950691977 Lee 4 4.20 2018
author: Ramin Ganeshram
name: Lee
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2022/02/05
date added: 2022/02/05
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]]> 52357 259 Unknown 0393320979 Lee 4 3.46 1000
author: Unknown
name: Lee
average rating: 3.46
book published: 1000
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2022/01/26
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]]> 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 Lee 3 4.35 2017
author: Min Jin Lee
name: Lee
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2019/09/06
date added: 2022/01/26
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]]> 57651481 81 Rick A. Mischka 1791622380 Lee 4 4.00
author: Rick A. Mischka
name: Lee
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2021/04/06
date added: 2022/01/26
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]]> 17336849
After numbing pain for the past five years with boys, alcohol, and all-around apathy, she finds herself on a Greyhound bus to nowhere Montana the summer after she graduates high school. Her mom agreed to front the bill to Rowen’s dream art school only if Rowen proves she can work hard and stay out of trouble at Willow Springs Ranch. Cooking breakfast at the crack of dawn for a couple dozen ranch hands and mucking out horse stalls are the last things in the world Rowen wants to spend her summer doing.

Until Jesse Walker saunters into her life wearing a pair of painted-on jeans, a cowboy hat, and a grin that makes something in her chest she’d thought was frozen go boom-boom. Jesse’s like no one else, and certainly nothing like her. He’s the bright and shiny to her dark and jaded.

Rowen knows there’s no happily-ever-after for the golden boy and the rebel girl—happily-right-now is a stretch—so she tries to forget and ignore the boy who makes her feel things she’s not sure she’s ready to feel. But the more she pushes him away, the closer he seems to get. The more she convinces herself she doesn’t care, the harder she falls.

When her dark secrets refuse to stay locked behind the walls she’s kept up for years, Rowen realizes it’s not just everyone else she needs to be honest with. It’s herself.]]> 353 Nicole Williams 1484148037 Lee 2 4.10 2013
author: Nicole Williams
name: Lee
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2013
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2022/01/26
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]]> 56377192 June Jones emerges from her shell to fight for her beloved local library, and through the efforts and support of an eclectic group of library patrons, she discovers life-changing friendships along the way.

Lonely librarian June Jones has never left the sleepy English village where she grew up. Shy and reclusive, the thirty-year-old would rather spend her time buried in books than venture out into the world. But when her library is threatened with closure, June is forced to emerge from behind the shelves to save the heart of her community and the place that holds the dearest memories of her mother.

Joining a band of eccentric yet dedicated locals in a campaign to keep the library, June opens herself up to other people for the first time since her mother died. It just so happens that her old school friend Alex Chen is back in town and willing to lend a helping hand. The kindhearted lawyer's feelings for her are obvious to everyone but June, who won't believe that anyone could ever care for her in that way.

To save the place and the books that mean so much to her, June must finally make some changes to her life. For once, she's determined not to go down without a fight. And maybe, in fighting for her cherished library, June can save herself, too.]]> 336 Freya Sampson 0593201388 Lee 2 3.70 2021
author: Freya Sampson
name: Lee
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2021
rating: 2
read at: 2021/09/28
date added: 2021/09/28
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]]> 45013993 Librarian's Note: an alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here.

Set during the waning days of the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic in 1960, this extraordinary novel tells the story the Mirabal sisters, three young wives and mothers who are assassinated after visiting their jailed husbands.

From the author of How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents comes this tale of courage and sisterhood set in the Dominican Republic during the rise of the Trujillo dictatorship. A skillful blend of fact and fiction, In the Time of the Butterflies is inspired by the true story of the three Mirabal sisters who, in 1960, were murdered for their part in an underground plot to overthrow the government. Alvarez breathes life into these historical figures--known as "las mariposas," or "the butterflies," in the underground--as she imagines their teenage years, their gradual involvement with the revolution, and their terror as their dissentience is uncovered.

Alvarez's controlled writing perfectly captures the mounting tension as "the butterflies" near their horrific end. The novel begins with the recollections of Dede, the fourth and surviving sister, who fears abandoning her routines and her husband to join the movement. Alvarez also offers the perspectives of the other sisters: brave and outspoken Minerva, the family's political ringleader; pious Patria, who forsakes her faith to join her sisters after witnessing the atrocities of the tyranny; and the baby sister, sensitive Maria Teresa, who, in a series of diaries, chronicles her allegiance to Minerva and the physical and spiritual anguish of prison life.

In the Time of the Butterflies is an American Library Association Notable Book and a 1995 National Book Critics Circle Award nominee.]]> 337 Julia Alvarez 1565129768 Lee 4 4.14 1994
author: Julia Alvarez
name: Lee
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1994
rating: 4
read at: 2021/09/21
date added: 2021/09/21
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]]> 54337294
In the darkness and intensity of this tiny ward, over three days, these women change each other's lives in unexpected ways. They lose patients to this baffling pandemic, but they also shepherd new life into a fearful world. With tireless tenderness and humanity, carers and mothers alike somehow do their impossible work.]]> 291 Emma Donoghue 1529046165 Lee 3 4.01 2020
author: Emma Donoghue
name: Lee
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2021/08/27
date added: 2021/08/27
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]]> 54563619 Oxford English Dictionary. This is the story of the girl who stole it.

Esme is born into a world of words. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, she spends her childhood in the �Scriptorium�, a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of dedicated lexicographers are collecting words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day a slip of paper containing the word �bondmaid� flutters to the floor. Esme rescues the slip and stashes it in an old wooden case that belongs to her friend, Lizzie, a young servant in the big house. Esme begins to collect other words from the Scriptorium that are misplaced, discarded or have been neglected by the dictionary men. They help her make sense of the world.

Over time, Esme realises that some words are considered more important than others, and that words and meanings relating to women’s experiences often go unrecorded. While she dedicates her life to the Oxford English Dictionary, secretly, she begins to collect words for another dictionary: The Dictionary of Lost Words.

Set when the women’s suffrage movement was at its height and the Great War loomed, The Dictionary of Lost Words reveals a lost narrative, hidden between the lines of a history written by men. It’s a delightful, lyrical and deeply thought-provoking celebration of words, and the power of language to shape the world and our experience of it.]]> 423 Pip Williams 1922400270 Lee 4 4.15 2020
author: Pip Williams
name: Lee
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2021/06/24
date added: 2021/06/24
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]]> 55946849
Esolen also provides a critical Introduction and endnotes, plus appendices containing Dante’s most important sources—from Virgil to Saint Thomas Aquinas and other Catholic theologians—that deftly illuminate the religious universe the poet inhabited.]]> 108 Dante Alighieri Lee 5 3.80 1320
author: Dante Alighieri
name: Lee
average rating: 3.80
book published: 1320
rating: 5
read at: 2021/02/13
date added: 2021/06/19
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]]> 13330943
But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway - a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love - a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.]]> 516 Erin Morgenstern 0307744434 Lee 4 4.05 2011
author: Erin Morgenstern
name: Lee
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2021/06/17
date added: 2021/06/17
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]]> 36796951
Red Mountain in eastern Washington is home to a community of eccentrics. Otis Till, the area's visionary winemaker, has been known to howl at the moon--fully nude. Single mother Margot Pierce moved across the country to build an inn, but so far all she does is binge on gelato, the Hallmark Channel, and fantasies of murdering her ex. High school senior Emilia Forester, daughter of celebrity parents, is struggling to build her own life outside of their shadow. And Brooks Baker is a man haunted by his past spent living on the streets as an orphan. Somehow, everyone lives together harmoniously, their lives intertwined like the vines in Red Mountain's beautiful and renowned vineyards.

But in a place where everyone knows each other, secrets are like poison...and right now Otis, Margot, Emilia, and Brooks all have something to hide. When their secrets come to light, will their small mountain be stronger for it--or will lives be torn apart?

Heartfelt and wonderfully descriptive, Red Mountain is the story of four complicated people living in a beautiful landscape unlike anywhere else. Told from multiple perspectives and rich with vivid descriptions of wine life, this novel will transport you from the first page to the last. Fans of Pat Conroy, Nelson Demille, Liane Moriarty will feel right at home. Look out for the sequel, Red Mountain Rising, coming soon!]]> 326 Boo Walker 0991301889 Lee 3 4.03 2016
author: Boo Walker
name: Lee
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2021/02/19
date added: 2021/02/19
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]]> 52509011 The perfect holiday read and just in time for the major feature film, a timeless new edition of one of the most beloved novels of all time.

Little Women is recognized as one of the best-loved classic children's stories, transcending the boundaries of time and age, making it as popular with adults as it is with young readers. The beloved story of the March girls is a classic American feminist novel, reflecting the tension between cultural obligation and artistic and personal freedom. But which of the four March sisters to love best? For every reader must have their favorite. Independent, tomboyish Jo; delicate, loving Beth; pretty, kind Meg; or precocious and artistic Amy, the baby of the family? The charming story of these four "little women" and their wise and patient mother Marmee enduring hardships and enjoying adventures in Civil War New England was an instant success when first published in 1868 and has been adored for generations.]]> 480 Louisa May Alcott 0143135562 Lee 0 abandoned 4.11 1868
author: Louisa May Alcott
name: Lee
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1868
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/02/17
shelves: abandoned
review:

]]> 420275 48 Guy de Maupassant 1568461933 Lee 5 3.86 1884
author: Guy de Maupassant
name: Lee
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1884
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/11/29
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]]> 48638587 444 William Kent Krueger 1476749302 Lee 4 4.41 2019
author: William Kent Krueger
name: Lee
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2020/06/16
date added: 2020/11/28
shelves:
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]]> 17785883
Snow in August is the story of that unlikely friendship -- and of how the neighborhood reacts to it. For Michael, the rabbi opens a window to ancient learning and lore that rival anything in Captain Marvel. For the rabbi, Michael illuminates the everyday mysteries of America, including the strange language of baseball. But like their hero Jackie Robinson, neither can entirely escape from the swirling prejudices of the time. Terrorized by a local gang of anti-Semitic Irish toughs, Michael and the rabbi are caught in an escalating spiral of hate for which there's only one way out -- a miracle....

Deeply affecting and wonderfully evocative of old New York, Snow in August is a brilliant fable for our time and all time -- and another triumphfor Pete Hamill.]]> 384 Pete Hamill 0316242829 Lee 5 4.15 1997
author: Pete Hamill
name: Lee
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at: 2020/05/01
date added: 2020/10/30
shelves:
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This book for me was fairytale meets a Catholic Irish American kid in Brooklyn. Michael Devlin is learning Yiddish from (and teaching English and baseball to) a Rabbi from Prague when Jackie Robinson was coming up. What a stunning story about truth, faith, humanity, and miracles. I loved it.
]]> 51795178 For readers of Tommy Orange, Yaa Gyasi, and Jhumpa Lahiri, an electrifying debut novel about three unforgettable characters who seek to rise--to the middle class, to political power, to fame in the movies--and find their lives entangled in the wake of a catastrophe in contemporary India.

Jivan is a Muslim girl from the slums, determined to move up in life, who is accused of executing a terrorist attack on a train because of a careless comment on Facebook. PT Sir is an opportunistic gym teacher who hitches his aspirations to a right-wing political party, and finds that his own ascent becomes linked to Jivan's fall. Lovely--an irresistible outcast whose exuberant voice and dreams of glory fill the novel with warmth and hope and humor--has the alibi that can set Jivan free, but it will cost her everything she holds dear.

Taut, symphonic, propulsive, and riveting from its opening lines, A Burning has the force of an epic while being so masterfully compressed it can be read in a single sitting. Majumdar writes with dazzling assurance at a breakneck pace on complex themes that read here as the components of a thriller: class, fate, corruption, justice, and what it feels like to face profound obstacles and yet nurture big dreams in a country spinning toward extremism. An extraordinary debut.]]> 448 Megha Majumdar 0593214765 Lee 1 3.77 2020
author: Megha Majumdar
name: Lee
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2020
rating: 1
read at: 2020/10/29
date added: 2020/10/30
shelves:
review:
I had expected more of this book with all the hype. I typically enjoy novels written from a multi-person, multi-story point of view; in this case, I found the stories of the characters disjointed. I did not find the overlap particularly compelling or the stories not well told. I appreciate the subject matter as it pertains to corruption, discrimination, and divide across classes, and do believe it is something worth writing about; this book did not do the subject matter justice. I did not develop a connection to any of the characters and was not invested in any of their stories. Missing was the grit of India or emotion with regard to the characters' stories. I would not recommend this book. If you are interested in books that depict Indian life and culture there are far better- Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Untouchable, and Cracking India come to mind.
]]> 49195168 Ěý
CarolSue and her sister, Louisa, are best friends, but haven’t had much in common since CarolSue married Charlie, moved to Atlanta, and swapped shoes covered with Indiana farm dust for pedicures and afternoon bridge. Louisa, meanwhile, loves her farm and animals as deeply as she’d loved Harold, her late husband of forty years.
Ěý
Charlie’s sudden death leaves CarolSue so adrift that she surrenders to Louisa’s plan for her to move back home. But canning vegetables and feeding chickens are alien to CarolSue, and she resolves to return to Atlanta—until Louisa’s son, Reverend Gary, arrives with an abandoned infant and a dubious story. He begs the women to look after the baby while he locates the mother—a young immigrant who fears deportation.
Ěý
Keeping his own secrets, Gary enlists the aid of the sheriff, Gus, in the search. But CarolSue’s bond with the baby is undeniable, and she forms an unconventional secret plan of her own. How many mistakes can be redeemed?
Ěý
Praise for the novels of Lynne Hugo
Ěý
“Sparkling prose, wry humor, and timely, relevant themes abound.�
� Donna Everhart, USA Today bestselling author of The Moonshiner's Daughter
Ěý
â€� A tender hymn of Ěý hope and rebirth that stays with you long after the last page.â€�
—Kim Michele Richardson, author ofĚý The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
Ěý
“I lost hours of sleep as I raced to finish this extraordinary novel.�
� Randy Susan Meyers, bestselling author of Waisted
Ěý
“Delivered with humor and heart.�
� Terri-Lynne DeFino, author of The Bar Harbor Retirement Home for Famous Writers (And Their Muses)]]> 320 Lynne Hugo 1496725670 Lee 4 3.79
author: Lynne Hugo
name: Lee
average rating: 3.79
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2020/09/24
date added: 2020/09/24
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]]> 45294613
Edward's story captures the attention of the nation, but he struggles to find a place for himself in a world without his family. He continues to feel that a piece of him has been left in the sky, forever tied to the plane and all of his fellow passengers. But then he makes an unexpected discovery--one that will lead him to the answers of some of life's most profound questions: When you've lost everything, how do find yourself? How do you discover your purpose? What does it mean not just to survive, but to truly live?

An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.]]> 340 Ann Napolitano 198485478X Lee 4 4.03 2020
author: Ann Napolitano
name: Lee
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2020/09/20
date added: 2020/09/20
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]]> 40537101
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 the mortals she has come to love.

With unforgettably vivid characters, mesmerizing language and page-turning suspense, Circe is a triumph of storytelling, an intoxicating epic of family rivalry, palace intrigue, love and loss, as well as a celebration of indomitable female strength in a man's world.]]> 393 Madeline Miller 0316556327 Lee 3 4.25 2018
author: Madeline Miller
name: Lee
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2020/09/12
date added: 2020/09/15
shelves:
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]]> 2450945
It is 1934, and New York City is in the icy grip of the Great Depression. With enormous compassion, Dr. James Delaney tends to his hurt, sick, and poor neighbors, who include gangsters, day laborers, prostitutes, and housewives. If they can't pay, he treats them anyway.

But in his own life, Delaney is emotionally numb, haunted by the slaughters of the Great War. His only daughter has left for Mexico, and his wife Molly vanished months before, leaving him to wonder if she is alive or dead. Then, on a snowy New Year's Day, the doctor returns home to find his three-year-old grandson on his doorstep, left by his mother in Delaney's care. Coping with this unexpected arrival, Delaney hires Rose, a tough, decent Sicilian woman with a secret in her past. Slowly, as Rose and the boy begin to care for the good doctor, the numbness in Delaney begins to melt.]]> 368 Pete Hamill 0316007994 Lee 5 3.81 2007
author: Pete Hamill
name: Lee
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 2020/07/02
date added: 2020/09/10
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]]> 35101283 The bestselling author of Yellow Crocus returns with a haunting and tender story of three women returning to the plantation they once called home.

Oberlin, Ohio, 1868. Lisbeth Johnson was born into privilege in the antebellum South. Jordan Freedman was born a slave to Mattie, Lisbeth’s beloved nurse. The women have an unlikely bond deeper than friendship. Three years after the Civil War, Lisbeth and Mattie are tending their homes and families while Jordan, an aspiring suffragette, teaches at an integrated school.

When Lisbeth discovers that her father is dying, she’s summoned back to the Virginia plantation where she grew up. There she must face the Confederate family she betrayed by marrying an abolitionist. Jordan and Mattie return to Fair Oaks, too, to save the family they left behind, who still toil in oppression. For Lisbeth, it’s a time for reconciliation. For Jordan and Mattie, it’s time for liberation.

As the Johnsons and Freedmans confront the injustice that binds them, as well as the bitterness and violence that seethes at its heart, the women must find the courage to free their families—and themselves—from the past.]]> 284 Laila Ibrahim 1542045568 Lee 4 3.97 2017
author: Laila Ibrahim
name: Lee
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2020/07/10
date added: 2020/07/10
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]]> 1236229 Harry Whitney is dying. He has Alzheimer's disease, and he knows his "good" time is dwindling. So he compiles a book of poems for his favorite granddaughter, Emily, hoping that his words of hard-won wisdom will heal the old wounds that are tearing his family apart. But Harry's poems contain much more than meets the eye -- clues and riddles that lead to an extraordinary cache of letters and a promise of hidden gold. As Emily and her family uncover Harry's secrets one by one, they learn unforgettable lessons about romance, forgiveness and hope that might hold them all together.]]> 224 Camron Wright 0743444477 Lee 3 3.97 2001
author: Camron Wright
name: Lee
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at: 2020/07/02
date added: 2020/07/02
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]]> 6837103
Eventually, Lavinia is accepted into the world of the big house, where the master is absent and the mistress battles opium addiction. Lavinia finds herself perilously straddling two very different worlds. When she is forced to make a choice, loyalties are brought into question, dangerous truths are laid bare, and lives are put at risk.]]> 369 Kathleen Grissom 1439153663 Lee 4 4.21 2010
author: Kathleen Grissom
name: Lee
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2020/07/02
date added: 2020/07/02
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]]> 9646992 The World's Bestselling Mystery!

"Ten . . ."
Ten strangers are lured to an isolated island mansion off the Devon coast by a mysterious "U. N. Owen."

"Nine . . ."
At dinner a recorded message accuses each of them in turn of having a guilty secret, and by the end of the night one of the guests is dead.

"Eight . . ."
Stranded by a violent storm, and haunted by a nursery rhyme counting down one by one . . . as one by one . . . they begin to die.

"Seven . . ."
Which among them is the killer and will any of them survive?

An alternate cover edition can be found here.]]> 247 Agatha Christie Lee 1 4.23 1939
author: Agatha Christie
name: Lee
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1939
rating: 1
read at: 2020/06/18
date added: 2020/06/26
shelves:
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I read this as a dear friend suggested it for our book club. I will preface this review by saying I am not a mystery reader, it's just not my "thing". Had it not been that I was reading at this friend's suggestion I would have put this aside and not finished very early in the book. The original title of this book aside, I found it to be similar to reading one of those cheesy murder mysteries you can order for a home party (at best) or a detailed account of someone else's game of Clue (at worst). I found the writing very stilted as if written for an elementary school-age audience: "he said..., then she said.., he said...". I don't really see it as all that "clever" of a story and I found the ending disappointing. This was my introduction to Agatha Christie, and I am glad to say I have read it but this will be my last. It depresses me that this caliber of authorship is what we have to point to as the best selling author of all time. I do see how this could be taken and adapted by Hollywood into something a little more engaging, in fact, it reads a bit like a script. I understand this needs to be read in the context of the time it was written, but it's still just, well, bad.
]]> 29254 416 Ram Dass 0517543052 Lee 5 4.30 1971
author: Ram Dass
name: Lee
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1971
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/06/19
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]]> 40664757
But Kya is not what they say. Abandoned at age ten, she has survived on her own in the marsh that she calls home. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life lessons from the land, learning from the false signals of fireflies the real way of this world. But while she could have lived in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world--until the unthinkable happens.

A novel about a young woman determined to make her way in the wilds of North Carolina, and the two men that will break her isolation open.]]> 486 Delia Owens Lee 3 4.39 2018
author: Delia Owens
name: Lee
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2019/06/06
date added: 2020/06/14
shelves:
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]]> 31931915
Ěý

Only twenty-two, Emma learned to bake at the side of a master, Ezra Kuchen, the village baker since before she was born. Apprenticed to Ezra at thirteen, Emma watched with shame and anger as her kind mentor was forced to wear the six-pointed yellow star on his clothing. She was likewise powerless to help when they pulled Ezra from his shop at gunpoint, the first of many villagers stolen away and never seen again.

Ěý

But in the years that her sleepy coastal village has suffered under the enemy, Emma has silently, stealthily fought back. Each day, she receives an extra ration of flour to bake a dozen baguettes for the occupying troops. And each day, she mixes that precious flour with ground straw to create enough dough for two extra loaves—contraband bread she shares with the hungry villagers. Under the cold, watchful eyes of armed soldiers, she builds a clandestine network of barter and trade that she and the villagers use to thwart their occupiers.

Ěý

But her gift to the village is more than these few crusty loaves. Emma gives the people a taste of hope—the faith that one day the Allies will arrive to save them.]]> 320 Stephen P. Kiernan 1443438898 Lee 3 3.91 2017
author: Stephen P. Kiernan
name: Lee
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2020/06/06
date added: 2020/06/06
shelves:
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]]> 13414650
Ivan Ilyich is a middle-aged man who has spent his life focused on his career as a bureaucrat and emotionally detached from his wife and children. After an accident he finds himself on the brink of an untimely death, which he sees as a terrible injustice. Face to face with his mortality, Ivan begins to question everything he has believed about the meaning of life. The Death of Ivan Ilyich is a masterpiece of psychological realism and philosophical profundity that has inspired generations of readers.]]> 53 Leo Tolstoy 0307951332 Lee 5 4.15 1886
author: Leo Tolstoy
name: Lee
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1886
rating: 5
read at: 2020/06/05
date added: 2020/06/05
shelves:
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]]> 29044 559 Donna Tartt 1400031702 Lee 5 4.17 1992
author: Donna Tartt
name: Lee
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1992
rating: 5
read at: 2020/06/04
date added: 2020/06/04
shelves:
review:

]]> 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 Lee 2 4.05 2017
author: Celeste Ng
name: Lee
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2017
rating: 2
read at: 2019/07/08
date added: 2020/05/21
shelves:
review:

]]> 39971465
But she kept a secret more shocking than her heritage or her marriage: she was a scientist. And she had an idea that might help the country fight the Nazis and revolutionize modern communication...if anyone would listen to her.

A novel based on the true story of the glamour icon and scientist whose groundbreaking invention revolutionized modern communication.]]> 312 Marie Benedict 1492666866 Lee 2 3.75 2019
author: Marie Benedict
name: Lee
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2019/09/13
date added: 2020/05/21
shelves:
review:

]]> 40216800 2 CHILDREN FOR SALE

The scrawled sign, peddling young siblings on a farmhouse porch, captures the desperation sweeping the country in 1931. It’s an era of breadlines, bank runs, and impossible choices.

For struggling reporter Ellis Reed, the gut-wrenching scene evokes memories of his family’s dark past. He snaps a photograph of the children, not meant for publication. But when the image leads to his big break, the consequences are devastating in ways he never imagined.

Haunted by secrets of her own, secretary Lillian Palmer sees more in the picture than a good story and is soon drawn into the fray. Together, the two set out to right a wrongdoing and mend a fractured family, at the risk of everything they value.

Inspired by an actual newspaper photo that stunned readers across the nation, this touching novel explores the tale within the frame and behind the lens—a journey of ambition, love, and the far-reaching effects of our actions.]]> 344 Kristina McMorris 1492663999 Lee 2 3.83 2018
author: Kristina McMorris
name: Lee
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2018
rating: 2
read at: 2020/01/07
date added: 2020/05/14
shelves:
review:

]]> 18693875 Gandhi

Bakha is a proud and attractive young man, yet none the less he is an Untouchable - an outcast in India's caste system. It is a system that is even now only slowly changing and was then as cruel and debilitating as that of apartheid. Into this vivid re-creation of one day in the life of Bakha, sweeper and toilet-cleaner, Anand pours a vitality, fire and richness of detail that earn his place as one of the twentieth century's most important Indian writers.

'One of the most eloquent and imaginative works to deal with this difficult and emotive subject' Martin Seymour-Smith

'It recalled to me very vividly the occasions I have walked 'the wrong way' in an Indian city, and it is a way down which no novelist has yet taken me' E. M. Forster]]> 144 Mulk Raj Anand 0141393602 Lee 4 3.58 1935
author: Mulk Raj Anand
name: Lee
average rating: 3.58
book published: 1935
rating: 4
read at: 2020/05/14
date added: 2020/05/14
shelves:
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]]> 43355189 A National Bestseller!

"The perfect pick-me-up on a hot summer day."
--Washington Post

"[A] charmer of a tale. . . Warm, witty and--like any good craft beer--complex, the saga delivers a subtly feminist and wholly life-affirming message."
--People Magazine

A novel of family, Midwestern values, hard work, fate and the secrets of making a world-class beer, from the bestselling author of Kitchens of the Great Midwest

Two sisters, one farm. A family is split when their father leaves their shared inheritance entirely to Helen, his younger daughter. Despite baking award-winning pies at the local nursing home, her older sister, Edith, struggles to make what most people would call a living. So she can't help wondering what her life would have been like with even a portion of the farm money her sister kept for herself.

With the proceeds from the farm, Helen builds one of the most successful light breweries in the country, and makes their company motto ubiquitous: "Drink lots. It's Blotz." Where Edith has a heart as big as Minnesota, Helen's is as rigid as a steel keg. Yet one day, Helen will find she needs some help herself, and she could find a potential savior close to home. . . if it's not too late.

Meanwhile, Edith's granddaughter, Diana, grows up knowing that the real world requires a tougher constitution than her grandmother possesses. She earns a shot at learning the IPA business from the ground up--will that change their fortunes forever, and perhaps reunite her splintered family?

Here we meet a cast of lovable, funny, quintessentially American characters eager to make their mark in a world that's often stacked against them. In this deeply affecting family saga, resolution can take generations, but when it finally comes, we're surprised, moved, and delighted.]]> 496 J. Ryan Stradal 1524778427 Lee 2 3.95 2019
author: J. Ryan Stradal
name: Lee
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2020/05/10
date added: 2020/05/10
shelves:
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]]> 40238 298 Bapsi Sidhwa 1571310487 Lee 3 3.87 1988
author: Bapsi Sidhwa
name: Lee
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1988
rating: 3
read at: 2020/05/09
date added: 2020/05/09
shelves:
review:
A good history lesson, however I think this book misses the opportunity be great. Too many characters, the story often disjointed, the reader is left to try to piece this together. I’d suggest reading with access to reference material- historical, language, etc. as the writing seems to assume all are immersed in and understand the culture and languages of India (Pakistan). I’m glad I read it, yet i would have to think there are better written stories about this part of history that are more clearly laid out for the reader. I am glad to know more about this part of history I was not knowledgeable about.
]]> 42431386 Other People's Houses and The Garden of Small Beginnings delivers a quirky and charming novel chronicling the life of confirmed introvert Nina Hill as she does her best to fly under everyone's radar.

Meet Nina Hill: A young woman supremely confident in her own...shell.

The only child of a single mother, Nina has her life just as she wants it: a job in a bookstore, a kick-butt trivia team, a world-class planner and a cat named Phil. If she sometimes suspects there might be more to life than reading, she just shrugs and picks up a new book.

When the father Nina never knew existed suddenly dies, leaving behind innumerable sisters, brothers, nieces, and nephews, Nina is horrified. They all live close by! They're all--or mostly all--excited to meet her! She'll have to Speak. To. Strangers. It's a disaster! And as if that wasn't enough, Tom, her trivia nemesis, has turned out to be cute, funny, and deeply interested in getting to know her. Doesn't he realize what a terrible idea that is?

Nina considers her options.
1. Completely change her name and appearance. (Too drastic, plus she likes her hair.)
2. Flee to a deserted island. (Hard pass, see: coffee).
3. Hide in a corner of her apartment and rock back and forth. (Already doing it.)

It's time for Nina to come out of her comfortable shell, but she isn't convinced real life could ever live up to fiction. It's going to take a brand-new family, a persistent suitor, and the combined effects of ice cream and trivia to make her turn her own fresh page.]]> 333 Abbi Waxman 0451491874 Lee 3 3.83 2019
author: Abbi Waxman
name: Lee
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2020/04/24
date added: 2020/04/24
shelves:
review:

]]> 746966
Everybody loves Mother Paula's pancakes. Everybody, that is, except the colony of cute but endangered owls that live on the building site of the new restaurant. Can the awkward new kid and his feral friend prank the pancake people out of town? Or is the owls' fate cemented in pancake batter?

Welcome to Carl Hiaasen's Florida—where the creatures are wild and the people are wilder!]]> 295 Carl Hiaasen 0375821813 Lee 3 3.84 2002
author: Carl Hiaasen
name: Lee
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2002
rating: 3
read at: 2020/04/20
date added: 2020/04/20
shelves:
review:

]]> 22948207 All you need is Ove.

At first sight, Ove is almost certainly the grumpiest man you will ever meet, a curmudgeon with staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People think him bitter, and he thinks himself surrounded by idiots.

Ove's well-ordered, solitary world gets a shake-up one November morning with the appearance of new neighbors, a chatty young couple and their two boisterous daughters, who announce their arrival by accidentally flattening Ove’s mailbox with their U-Haul. What follows is a heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unlikely friendships, and a community's unexpected reassessment of the one person they thought they had all figured out.

A word-of-mouth bestseller that has caused a sensation across Europe, Fredrik Backman's irresistible novel about the angry old man next door is an uplifting exploration of the unreliability of first impressions and a gentle reminder that life is sweeter when it is shared with other people.

Ove is all you need.]]> 337 Fredrik Backman 1476738025 Lee 3 4.39 2012
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Lee
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2020/03/14
date added: 2020/03/14
shelves:
review:

]]> 18505784 The Pearl that Broke Its Shell is a searing tale of powerlessness, fate, and the freedom to control one's own fate that combines the cultural flavor and emotional resonance of the works of Khaled Hosseini, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Lisa See.

In Kabul, 2007, with a drug-addicted father and no brothers, Rahima and her sisters can only sporadically attend school, and can rarely leave the house. Their only hope lies in the ancient custom of bacha posh, which allows young Rahima to dress and be treated as a boy until she is of marriageable age. As a son, she can attend school, go to the market, and chaperone her older sisters.

But Rahima is not the first in her family to adopt this unusual custom. A century earlier, her great-aunt, Shekiba, left orphaned by an epidemic, saved herself and built a new life the same way.

Crisscrossing in time, The Pearl the Broke Its Shell interweaves the tales of these two women separated by a century who share similar destinies. But what will happen once Rahima is of marriageable age? Will Shekiba always live as a man? And if Rahima cannot adapt to life as a bride, how will she survive?]]> 452 Nadia Hashimi 0062244752 Lee 4 4.15 2014
author: Nadia Hashimi
name: Lee
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2020/03/09
date added: 2020/03/09
shelves:
review:

]]> 40914165 An alternate cover edition for ISBN 978-1492671527 can be found here.

In 1936, tucked deep into the woods of Troublesome Creek, KY, lives blue-skinned 19-year-old Cussy Carter, the last living female of the rare Blue People ancestry.

The lonely young Appalachian woman joins the historical Pack Horse Library Project of Kentucky and becomes a librarian, riding across slippery creek beds and up treacherous mountains on her faithful mule to deliver books and other reading material to the impoverished hill people of Eastern Kentucky.

Along her dangerous route, Cussy, known to the mountain folk as Bluet, confronts those suspicious of her damselfly-blue skin and the government's new book program. She befriends hardscrabble and complex fellow Kentuckians, and is fiercely determined to bring comfort and joy, instill literacy, and give to those who have nothing, a bookly respite, a fleeting retreat to faraway lands.]]> 309 Kim Michele Richardson Lee 2 4.17 2019
author: Kim Michele Richardson
name: Lee
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2020/02/27
date added: 2020/02/27
shelves:
review:

]]> 24111210 Alternate cover edition for 9781616204518

A. J. Fikry's life is not at all what he expected it to be. He lives alone, his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history, and now his prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen. But when a mysterious package appears at the bookstore, its unexpected arrival gives Fikry the chance to make his life over -- and see everything anew.]]> 258 Gabrielle Zevin Lee 4 4.08 2014
author: Gabrielle Zevin
name: Lee
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2020/01/21
date added: 2020/01/21
shelves:
review:

]]> 42972014
In Secondhand, Adam Minter delves into the vast, multibillion-dollar industry that resells used stuff around the world. He follows the trail of unwanted objects from the closets, garages, and storage units of Middle America to huge used-goods markets in Canada, Mexico, Japan, Ghana, India, Malaysia, and beyond. Secondhand takes us through the often painful and heartbreaking process of cleaning out a lifetime’s worth of possessions and shows that used stuff still has a place in a world that values the new and shiny--it entertains us, makes fortunes, fulfills needs, and transforms the way we live and work.]]> 300 Adam Minter 1635570107 Lee 4 3.91 2019
author: Adam Minter
name: Lee
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2020/01/20
date added: 2020/01/20
shelves:
review:

]]> 35955187 The Rules of Civility and The Boston Girl, a compelling and thought-provoking novel set in postwar New York City, about two women—one Jewish, one a WASP—and the wholly unexpected consequences of their meeting

One rainy morning in June, two years after the end of World War II, a minor traffic accident brings together Eleanor Moskowitz and Patricia Bellamy. Their encounter seems fated: Eleanor, a teacher and recent Vassar graduate, needs a job. Patricia’s difficult thirteen-year-old daughter Margaux, recovering from polio, needs a private tutor.

Though she feels out of place in the Bellamys� rarefied and elegant Park Avenue milieu, Eleanor forms an instant bond with Margaux. Soon the idealistic young woman is filling the bright young girl’s mind with Shakespeare and Latin. Though her mother, a hat maker with a little shop on Second Avenue, disapproves, Eleanor takes pride in her work, even if she must use the name “Moss� to enter the Bellamys� restricted doorman building each morning, and feels that Patricia’s husband, Wynn, may have a problem with her being Jewish.

Invited to keep Margaux company at the Bellamys� country home in a small town in Connecticut, Eleanor meets Patricia’s unreliable, bohemian brother, Tom, recently returned from Europe. The spark between Eleanor and Tom is instant and intense. Flushed with new romance and increasingly attached to her young pupil, Eleanor begins to feel more comfortable with Patricia and much of the world she inhabits. As the summer wears on, the two women’s friendship grows—until one hot summer evening, a line is crossed, and both Eleanor and Patricia will have to make important decisions—choices that will reverberate through their lives.

Gripping and vividly told, Not Our Kind illuminates the lives of two women on the cusp of change—and asks how much our pasts can and should define our futures.]]> 352 Kitty Zeldis 0062844253 Lee 3 3.76 2018
author: Kitty Zeldis
name: Lee
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2019/12/30
date added: 2019/12/30
shelves:
review:

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