Kara's bookshelf: all en-US Wed, 16 Apr 2025 17:13:44 -0700 60 Kara's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Two Rogues Make a Right (Seducing the Sedgwicks, #3)]]> 42117309
Martin doesn＊t much care where he is or even how he got there. He＊s much more concerned that the man he＊s loved his entire life is currently waiting on him hand and foot, feeding him soup and making him tea. Martin knows he＊s a lost cause, one he doesn＊t want Will to waste his life on.

As a lifetime of love transforms into a tender passion both men always desired but neither expected, can they envision a life free from the restrictions of the past, a life with each other?]]> 304 Cat Sebastian 0062820648 Kara 5 3.98 2020 Two Rogues Make a Right (Seducing the Sedgwicks, #3)
author: Cat Sebastian
name: Kara
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/16
date added: 2025/04/16
shelves:
review:

]]> Yr Dead 195450005
Told in lyric fragments that span both lifetimes and geography, Yr Dead is a queer, Jewish, diasporic coming of age story that questions how our historical memory shapes our political and emotional present. Visceral, propulsive, and at turns fluorescently beautiful and fluorescently tragic, Yr Dead is the electric debut novel from award-winning writer Sam Sax, one of our most dynamic and imaginative writers.]]> 281 Sam Sax 1952119995 Kara 0 currently-reading 3.90 2024 Yr Dead
author: Sam Sax
name: Kara
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/16
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Gay Girl Prayers 183910792 72 Emily R. Austin 1771316225 Kara 0 to-read 3.87 Gay Girl Prayers
author: Emily R. Austin
name: Kara
average rating: 3.87
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Red Doc> 15797355
To live past the end of your myth is a perilous thing.]]> 171 Anne Carson 0307960587 Kara 0 to-read 4.09 2013 Red Doc>
author: Anne Carson
name: Kara
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Beyond the Gender Binary 51794301 Beyond the Gender Binary, spoken word poet Alok Vaid-Menon challenges the world to see gender not in black and white, but in full color. Taking from their own experiences as a gender-nonconforming artist, they show us that gender is a malleable and creative form of expression. The only limit is your imagination.]]> 64 Alok Vaid-Menon 0593094654 Kara 4 library, nonfiction, rainbow 4.48 2020 Beyond the Gender Binary
author: Alok Vaid-Menon
name: Kara
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/14
date added: 2025/04/14
shelves: library, nonfiction, rainbow
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Food Forest Handbook: Design and Manage a Home-Scale Perennial Polyculture Garden]]> 27070582 The Food Forest Handbook is a practical manual for the design and management of a home-scale perennial polyculture garden. Simple, straightforward instructions guide the reader
Getting started - site assessment and planning Tending the forest garden - maintaining soil health, succession planning, , mulching, pruning and more The fruits of your labor - crop profiles, harvest, storage, nutrition and recipes.

This timely book makes the concept of food forests accessible to everyone. Focusing on the potential of perennial polyculture to enhance local food systems, The Food Forest Handbook shows the reader how to mix and match plants in unique combinations to establish bountiful landscapes and create genuine self-reliance in years to come.
Darrell Frey is the owner and manager of Three Sisters Farm, a five-acre permaculture farm, solar greenhouse and market garden located in Western Pennsylvania. He has been permaculture teacher for thirty years, and is the author of Bioshelter Market A Permaculture Farm .
Michelle Czolba is co-owner of Pittsburgh Permaculture and co-founded the Hazelwood Food Forest. She has extensive experience in the design and maintenance of perennial polyculture.]]> 256 Darrell Frey 0865718121 Kara 3 earth, garden, library 3.74 2016 The Food Forest Handbook: Design and Manage a Home-Scale Perennial Polyculture Garden
author: Darrell Frey
name: Kara
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/14
date added: 2025/04/14
shelves: earth, garden, library
review:

]]> Imaginary Borders 51794291 Pocket Change Collective was born out of a need for space. Space to think. Space to connect. Space to be yourself. And this is your invitation to join us.

In this personal, moving essay, environmental activist and hip-hop artist Xiuhtezcatl Martinez uses his art and his activism to show that climate change is a human issue that can't be ignored.

Pocket Change Collective is a series of small books with big ideas from today's leading activists and artists. In this installment, Earth Guardians Youth Director and hip-hop artist Xiuhtezcatl Martinez shows us how his music feeds his environmental activism and vice versa. Martinez visualizes a future that allows us to direct our anger, fear, and passion toward creating change. Because, at the end of the day, we all have a part to play.]]> 64 Xiuhtezcatl Martinez 0593094131 Kara 0 to-read 4.01 2020 Imaginary Borders
author: Xiuhtezcatl Martinez
name: Kara
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> This Is What I Know About Art 51794337 Pocket Change Collective was born out of a need for space. Space to think. Space to connect. Space to be yourself. And this is your invitation to join us.

In this powerful and hopeful account, arts writer, curator, and activist Kimberly Drew reminds us that the art world has space not just for the elite, but for everyone.

Pocket Change Collective is a series of small books with big ideas from today's leading activists and artists. In this installment, arts writer and co-editor of Black Futures Kimberly Drew shows us that art and protest are inextricably linked. Drawing on her personal experience through art toward activism, Drew challenges us to create space for the change that we want to see in the world. Because there really is so much more space than we think.]]> 64 Kimberly Drew 0593095189 Kara 0 to-read 4.14 2020 This Is What I Know About Art
author: Kimberly Drew
name: Kara
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Food-Related Stories 57282232 Pocket Change Collective was born out of a need for space. Space to think. Space to connect. Space to be yourself. And this is your invitation to join us.

In this moving, personal account, chef and activist Gaby Melian shares her journey with food and how creating a relationship with food -- however simple or complicated -- is a form of activism in its own right.

Food rescued me so many other times -- not only because I sold food to survive. I cook to entertain; I cook to be liked; I cook to be loved. In this installment, chef and activist Gaby Melian shares her personal journey with food -- from growing up in Argentina to her time as a Jersey City street vendor and later, as Bon Appetit's test kitchen manager. Powerful and full of heart, here, Melian explores how we can develop a relationship with food that's healthy, sustainable, and thoughtful.]]> 64 Gaby Melian 0593223497 Kara 0 to-read 3.63 2022 Food-Related Stories
author: Gaby Melian
name: Kara
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Yellowface 62047984
So what if June edits Athena＊s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song〞complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? This piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller. That is what June believes, and The New York Times bestseller list agrees.

But June cannot escape Athena＊s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens her stolen success. As she races to protect her secret she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.]]> 319 R.F. Kuang 000853277X Kara 0 currently-reading 3.69 2023 Yellowface
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Kara
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/14
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Space Struck 43176861 Space Struck explores the wonders and cruelties occurring within the realms of nature, science, and religion, with the acuity of a sage, the deftness of a hunter, and a hilarious sensibility for the absurd. The universe is seen as an endless arrow ※. . . and it asks only one question: How dare you?§

The poems are physically and psychologically tied to the animal world, replete with ivory-billed woodpeckers, pelicans, and constellations-as-organisms. They are also devastatingly human, well anchored in emotion and self-awareness, like art framed in a glass that also holds one＊s reflection. Silky and gruesome, the poems of Space Struck pulse like starlight.]]> 72 Paige Lewis 1946448443 Kara 5 4.06 2019 Space Struck
author: Paige Lewis
name: Kara
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/13
date added: 2025/04/13
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Game Misconduct (Penalty Box, #1)]]> 63118082 Two bitter rivals go head-to-head in this age-gap, enemies-to-lovers hockey romance.

Michael Sato is used to fighting.

An undersized defenseman, Mike had to be tough, clawing his way up from the minors by taking down one ferocious player at a time.?No way is he going to lose his spot on the league roster, especially not by giving in to his attraction to a hot, infuriating rival.

Daniel Garcia is used to fighting, too.

Enforcer Danny is the biggest, meanest player on the ice. A target for anyone trying to make a name for themselves, he doesn＊t show weakness, nor is he going to risk his last seasons for a sexy rookie who nearly knocked him on his ass.

When their intense physical connection explodes outside of the rink, Mike and Danny learn they just might be able to build something real, but only if they can let down their guard〞and their fists〞long enough.

CONTENT WARNING: Game Misconduct contains descriptions of alcohol and drug use disorders, alcohol and drug usage, depression, under-negotiated kink, and discussion of a past sexual assault.]]> Ari Baran 0369742052 Kara 4 3.80 2023 Game Misconduct (Penalty Box, #1)
author: Ari Baran
name: Kara
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/12
date added: 2025/04/12
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Wild Robot Escapes (The Wild Robot, #2)]]> 34219841 279 Peter Brown 0316382043 Kara 0 to-read 4.36 2018 The Wild Robot Escapes (The Wild Robot, #2)
author: Peter Brown
name: Kara
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Bird Suit 182092692
Twenty years on, the peaches are ripening again, the tourists have returned, and Georgia is looking for trouble with any ill-tempered man she can find. When that man turns out to be Arlo Bloom〞her mother＊s ex and the new priest in town〞she finds herself drawn into a complicated matrix of friendship, grief, faith, sex, and love with Arlo, his wife, Felicity, and their son, Isaiah. Vivid, uncanny, and as likely cursed as touched by grace, Bird Suit is a brutal, generous story as sticky and lush as a Port Peter peach.]]> 272 Sydney Hegele 1778430422 Kara 5 4.39 Bird Suit
author: Sydney Hegele
name: Kara
average rating: 4.39
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/08
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves:
review:
Sunk myself into this one expecting kind of a quirky fun fairytale and ended up feeling super sad and uncomfortable for most of it. Themes of grief and generational trauma with difficult characters in a fanciful Ontario summer tourist town. Im rating this 5 stars but would be hesitant to recommend it
]]> When Women Were Dragons 58783802 A rollicking feminist tale set in 1950s America where thousands of women have spontaneously transformed into dragons, exploding notions of a woman＊s place in the world and expanding minds about accepting others for who they really are.

The first adult novel by the Newbery award-winning author of The Girl Who Drank the Moon.

Alex Green is a young girl in a world much like ours, except for its most seminal event: the Mass Dragoning of 1955, when hundreds of thousands of ordinary wives and mothers sprouted wings, scales, and talons; left a trail of fiery destruction in their path; and took to the skies. Was it their choice? What will become of those left behind? Why did Alex＊s beloved aunt Marla transform but her mother did not? Alex doesn＊t know. It＊s taboo to speak of.

Forced into silence, Alex nevertheless must face the consequences of this astonishing event: a mother more protective than ever; an absentee father; the upsetting insistence that her aunt never even existed; and watching her beloved cousin Bea become dangerously obsessed with the forbidden.

In this timely and timeless speculative novel, award-winning author Kelly Barnhill boldly explores rage, memory, and the tyranny of forced limitations. When Women Were Dragons exposes a world that wants to keep women small〞their lives and their prospects〞and examines what happens when they rise en masse and take up the space they deserve.]]> 367 Kelly Barnhill 0385548222 Kara 0 currently-reading 3.79 2022 When Women Were Dragons
author: Kelly Barnhill
name: Kara
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Don't Sleep with the Dead 211004130 Don't Sleep with the Dead, a standalone companion novella to The Chosen and the Beautiful, her acclaimed reimagining of The Great Gatsby.

Nick Carraway求paper soldier and novelist求has found a life and a living watching the mad magical spectacle of New York high society in the late thirties. He's good at watching, and he's even better at pretending: pretending to be straight, pretending to be human, pretending he's forgotten the events of that summer in 1922.

On the eve of the second World War, however, Nick learns that someone's been watching him pretend and that memory goes both ways. When he sees a familiar face at a club one night, it quickly becomes clear that dead or not, damned or not, Jay Gatsby isn't done with him.

In all paper there is memory, and Nick's ghost has come home.]]> 112 Nghi Vo 125036261X Kara 0 to-read 3.75 2025 Don't Sleep with the Dead
author: Nghi Vo
name: Kara
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Shots You Take 210202493 A sweet and sexy hockey romance about two ex-teammates and former best friends with benefits who are about to discover whether you can ever really have a second chance, from the USA TODAY bestselling author of Heated Rivalry and The Long Game.

After moving back to his hometown ten years ago, Riley Tuck thought he had left his major league hockey career〞and his broken heart〞far behind. But when an unexpected tragedy strikes, it brings ex-teammate and former best friend with benefits Adam Sheppard back into his life.

Coming to the small town of Avery River, Nova Scotia, might have been a mistake. Adam＊s not sure he＊ll ever win back Riley＊s trust after the way they left things〞and the attention he＊s getting as a huge hockey star isn＊t exactly helping. Yet the chemistry that crackles between them is undeniable, even now.

As Adam helps Riley navigate his grief, long-buried feelings start to resurface. But they＊ll have to square off with their complicated past if they＊re going to have a real shot at a new beginning.]]> 336 Rachel Reid 1335015329 Kara 4 4.08 2025 The Shots You Take
author: Rachel Reid
name: Kara
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/08
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves:
review:
This was sweet, and I love that it was set in Nova Scotia. Nice shout out to the chowder recipe in the Out of Old Nova Scotia Kitchens cookbook
]]> The Psychology of Money 51181015 224 Morgan Housel 085719769X Kara 0 to-read 4.50 2020 The Psychology of Money
author: Morgan Housel
name: Kara
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Collected Poems: 1974每2004 26530344 Rita Dove's Collected Poems 1974-2004 showcases the wide-ranging diversity that earned her a Pulitzer Prize, the position of U.S. poet laureate, a National Humanities Medal, and a National Medal of Art. Gathering thirty years and seven books, this volume compiles Dove's fresh reflections on adolescence in The Yellow House on the Corner and her irreverent musings in Museum . She sets the moving love story of Thomas and Beulah against the backdrop of war, industrialization, and the civil right struggles. The multifaceted gems of Grace Notes , the exquisite reinvention of Greek myth in the sonnets of Mother Love , the troubling rapids of recent history in On the Bus with Rosa Parks , and the homage to America's kaleidoscopic cultural heritage in American Smooth all celebrate Dove's mastery of narrative context with lyrical finesse. With the "precise, singing lines" for which the Washington Post praised her, Dove "has created fresh configurations of the traditional and the experimental" ( Poetry magazine).]]> 448 Rita Dove 0393285944 Kara 0 to-read 4.26 2016 Collected Poems: 1974每2004
author: Rita Dove
name: Kara
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Knight and the Butcherbird]]> 224970641
In this gritty, haunting tale about doing whatever it takes for love, a small-town storyteller resolves to keep the local monster〞and her own secrets〞safe from a legendary knight.

Nestled deep in the steep hills, valleys, and surrounding woodlands lies Iron Hollow, a rural community beset by demons. Such horrors are common in the outlands, where most folks die young, if they don＊t turn into monsters first. But what＊s causing these transformations?

No one has the answer, not even the town＊s oral historian, seventeen-year-old Shrike. And when a legendary knight is summoned to hunt down the latest beast to haunt their woods, Shrike has more reason than most to be concerned. Because that demon was her wife. And while Shrike is certain that May still recognizes her〞that May is still human, somewhere beneath it all〞she can＊t prove it.

Determined to keep May safe, Shrike stalks the knight and his demon-hunting hawk through the recesses of the forest. But as they creep through toxic creeks and overgrown kudzu, Shrike realizes the knight has a secret of his own. And he＊ll do anything to protect it.]]> 36 Alix E. Harrow 1662527233 Kara 0 to-read 4.05 2025 The Knight and the Butcherbird
author: Alix E. Harrow
name: Kara
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Seaweeds: Edible, Available, and Sustainable]]> 16128761 Book by Mouritsen, Ole G. 304 Ole G. Mouritsen 022604436X Kara 4 4.20 2013 Seaweeds: Edible, Available, and Sustainable
author: Ole G. Mouritsen
name: Kara
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/01
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves:
review:
This was a really excellent book on seaweed. Everything you could want to know from how to find it, identify it, grow it, find it, eat it, use it, and then also a section with recipes. I wish it had more pictures of the actual seaweed instead of drawings. Excellent resource
]]> <![CDATA[The Perfectionist's Guide to Losing Control: A Path to Peace and Power]]> 60880794 From psychotherapist Katherine Morgan Schafler, an invitation to every ※recovering perfectionist§ to challenge the way they look at perfectionism, and the way they look at themselves.

We＊ve been looking at perfectionism all wrong. As psychotherapist and former on-site therapist at Google Katherine Morgan Schafler argues in The Perfectionist's Guide to Losing Control, you don＊t have to stop being a perfectionist to be healthy. For women who are sick of being given the generic advice to ※find balance§, a new approach has arrived.

Which of the five types of perfectionist are you? Classic, intense, Parisian, messy, or procrastinator? As you identify your unique perfectionist profile, you'll learn how to manage each form of perfectionism to work for you, not against you. Beyond managing it, you'll learn how to embrace and even enjoy your perfectionism. Yes, enjoy!

Full of stories and brimming with humor, empathy, and depth, this book is a love letter to the ambitious, high achieving, full-of-life clients who filled the author＊s private practice, and who changed her life. It＊s a clarion call for all women to dare to want more without feeling greedy or ungrateful. Ultimately, this book will show you how to make the single greatest trade you＊ll ever make in your life, which is to exchange superficial control for real power.]]> 325 Katherine Morgan Schafler 059332952X Kara 4 4.16 2023 The Perfectionist's Guide to Losing Control: A Path to Peace and Power
author: Katherine Morgan Schafler
name: Kara
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/01
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves:
review:
Definitely got something out of this book
]]> Yes, Daddy 53968472 A propulsive, scorching modern gothic, Yes, Daddy follows an ambitious young man who is lured by an older, successful playwright into a dizzying world of wealth and an idyllic Hamptons home where things take a nightmarish turn.

Jonah Keller moved to New York City with dreams of becoming a successful playwright, but, for the time being, lives in a rundown sublet in Bushwick, working extra hours at a restaurant only to barely make rent. When he stumbles upon a photo of Richard Shriver〞the glamorous Pulitzer Prize每winning playwright and quite possibly the stepping stone to the fame he craves〞Jonah orchestrates their meeting. The two begin a hungry, passionate affair.

When summer arrives, Richard invites his young lover for a spell at his sprawling estate in the Hamptons. A tall iron fence surrounds the idyllic compound where Richard and a few of his close artist friends entertain, have lavish dinners, and〞Jonah can＊t help but notice〞employ a waitstaff of young, attractive gay men, many of whom sport ugly bruises. Soon, Jonah is cast out of Richard＊s good graces and a sinister underlay begins to emerge. As a series of transgressions lead inexorably to a violent climax, Jonah hurtles toward a decisive revenge that will shape the rest of his life.

Riveting, unpredictable, and compulsively readable, Yes, Daddy?is an exploration of class, power dynamics, and the nuances of victimhood and complicity. It burns with weight and clarity〞and offers hope that stories may hold the key to our healing.]]> 282 Jonathan Parks-Ramage 0358447712 Kara 0 to-read 3.57 2021 Yes, Daddy
author: Jonathan Parks-Ramage
name: Kara
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Burn Our Bodies Down 52748041 From the author of the New York Times bestseller Wilder Girls comes a new twisty thriller about a girl whose past has always been a mystery〞until she decides to return to her mother＊s hometown . . . where history has a tendency to repeat itself.

Ever since Margot was born, it＊s been just her and her mother. No answers to Margot＊s questions about what came before. No history to hold on to. No relative to speak of. Just the two of them, stuck in their run-down apartment, struggling to get along.

But that＊s not enough for Margot. She wants family. She wants a past. And she just found the key she needs to get it: A photograph, pointing her to a town called Phalene. Pointing her home. Only, when Margot gets there, it＊s not what she bargained for.

Margot＊s mother left for a reason. But was it to hide her past? Or was it to protect Margot from what＊s still there?

The only thing Margot knows for sure is there＊s poison in their family tree, and their roots are dug so deeply into Phalene that now that she＊s there, she might never escape.]]> 352 Rory Power 0525645640 Kara 0 to-read 3.50 2020 Burn Our Bodies Down
author: Rory Power
name: Kara
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Unmasked by the Marquess (Regency Imposters, #1)]]> 35270780
Robert Selby is determined to see his sister make an advantageous match. But he has two the Selbys have no connections or money and Robert is really a housemaid named Charity Church. She＊s enjoyed every minute of her masquerade over the past six years, but she knows her pretense is nearing an end. Charity needs to see her beloved friend married well and then Robert Selby will disappear＃forever.

?

May not be who you think＃

Alistair, Marquess of Pembroke, has spent years repairing the estate ruined by his wastrel father, and nothing is more important than protecting his fortune and name. He shouldn＊t be so beguiled by the charming young man who shows up on his doorstep asking for favors. And he certainly shouldn＊t be thinking of all the disreputable things he＊d like to do to the impertinent scamp.

?

But is who you need＃

When Charity＊s true nature is revealed, Alistair knows he can＊t marry a scandalous woman in breeches, and Charity isn＊t about to lace herself into a corset and play a respectable miss. Can these stubborn souls learn to sacrifice what they＊ve always wanted for a love that is more than they could have imagined?]]> 0 Cat Sebastian Kara 5 3.88 2018 Unmasked by the Marquess (Regency Imposters, #1)
author: Cat Sebastian
name: Kara
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/25
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves:
review:
My favourite cat Sebastian yet
]]> <![CDATA[A Delicate Deception (Regency Imposters, #3)]]> 39735911
The very last place Sydney wished to be was in the shadow of the ruins of Pelham Hall, the inherited property that stole everything from him. But as he awaits his old friend, the Duke of Hereford, he finds himself increasingly captivated by the maddeningly lovely and exceptionally odd Amelia. He quickly finds that keeping his ownership of Pelham Hall a secret is as impossible as keeping himself from falling in love with her.

But when the Duke of Hereford arrives, Sydney＊s ruse is revealed and what started out as a delicate deception has become a love too powerful to ignore. Will they let a lifetime of hurt come between them or can these two lost souls find love and peace in each other?]]> 384 Cat Sebastian 0062820672 Kara 0 to-read 3.84 2019 A Delicate Deception (Regency Imposters, #3)
author: Cat Sebastian
name: Kara
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)]]> 51901147
The odds are against him. He's been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined -- every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute... and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.]]> 541 Suzanne Collins Kara 0 to-read 3.99 2020 The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Kara
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games, #0.5)]]> 214331246 When you＊ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?

As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.

Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves.

When Haymitch＊s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He＊s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who＊s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he＊s been set up to fail. But there＊s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.]]> 382 Suzanne Collins 1546171460 Kara 0 to-read 4.65 2025 Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games, #0.5)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Kara
average rating: 4.65
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Misadventures with Sierra Simone: A Collection]]> 51608357
Misadventures with a Professor

Zandy Lynch is headed to the English countryside for a summer internship under some crotchety professor, but Professor Oliver Graeme isn＊t crotchety at all. He may be cold and reserved by day, but he＊s wildly passionate at night. It＊s not long before Zandy finds herself falling for both versions of him. But summer only lasts so long, and Zandy＊s plane ticket home signals the end of Oliver＊s fiery mentorship〞unless they decide class should remain in session forever.

Misadventures with a Curvy Girl

For the first time in her life, Ireland Mills is happy with her body. No more fad diets and no more low self-esteem. When Ireland gets stranded on a Kansas dirt road, she＊s taken in by Caleb Carpenter and Ben Weber, two hunky country boys who are impossible to resist. After a night of passion, Caleb and Ben burn to make her theirs forever. But can they convince Ireland they love her, curves and all?

Misadventures in Blue

Senior detective Cat Day has one hard and fast rule about no cops. But when young rookie Jace Sutton shows up to work the same burglary investigation, she＊s struck with desire she hasn＊t felt in years, and it only takes one hot, dirty night for her to realize she wants more. As Jace embraces the danger of his duty, Cat questions if he＊ll be as reckless with her heart as he is with his life.]]> 438 Sierra Simone 1642632058 Kara 4 hoopla, romancey These folks are crazy 4.36 Misadventures with Sierra Simone: A Collection
author: Sierra Simone
name: Kara
average rating: 4.36
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/05
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: hoopla, romancey
review:
These folks are crazy
]]> Annie Bot 156023123
She＊s learning, too.

Doug says he loves that Annie＊s artificial intelligence makes her seem more like a real woman, but the more human Annie becomes, the less perfectly she behaves. As Annie's relationship with Doug grows more intricate and difficult, she starts to wonder whether Doug truly desires what he says he does. In such an impossible paradox, what does Annie owe herself?]]> 231 Sierra Greer 0063312697 Kara 4 3.81 2024 Annie Bot
author: Sierra Greer
name: Kara
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves:
review:

]]> The Moth Keeper 61356477 Being a Moth Keeper is a huge responsibility and a great honor, but what happens when the new Moth Keeper decides to take a break from the moon and see the sun for the first time? A middle-grade fantasy graphic novel about passion, duty, and found family.

Anya is finally a Moth Keeper, the protector of the lunar moths that allow the Night-Lily flower to bloom once a year. Her village needs the flower to continue thriving and Anya is excited to prove her worth and show her thanks to her friends with her actions, but what happens when being a Moth Keeper isn't exactly what Anya thought it would be?

The nights are cold in the desert and the lunar moths live far from the village. Anya finds herself isolated and lonely. Despite Anya's dedication, she wonders what it would be like to live in the sun. Her thoughts turn into an obsession, and when Anya takes a chance to stay up during the day to feel the sun's warmth, her village and the lunar moths are left to deal with the consequences.

K. O'Neill brings to life a beautifully illustrated fantasy world about responsibility to yourself and your community. The Moth Keeper is filled with magic, hope, and friendship.]]> 257 K. O'Neill 059318226X Kara 0 to-read 4.05 2023 The Moth Keeper
author: K. O'Neill
name: Kara
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Song for You & I 214269388 Being a ranger means adventure, action, and protecting the weak. But who protects the ranger when they lose their way? From the bestselling author of The Moth Keeper and the Tea Dragon Society comes a must read MG graphic novel for fans of soft sweeping fantasy romances.

Rowan knows exactly what they to be a ranger, protecting their village alongside their trusted flying horse Kes. But when Rowan's eagerness to show off their worth gets Kes injured, Rowan is suddenly unsure if they're capable of being the protector they've always dreamed of becoming.?

With Kes needing to heal, Rowan is assigned a slow and winding expedition across the outlying lands. Paired with a lackadasical sheep hearder Leone, Rowan only finds frustration as they seem to fail even the simplest tasks. But Leone's own struggles, and endless support brings a new possibility to Rowan. Could their unlikely friendship be something more? And if it is, will Rowan be able to leave Leone behind to pursue being a ranger once Kes is healed?]]> 240 K. O'Neill 0593182308 Kara 0 to-read 4.38 2025 A Song for You & I
author: K. O'Neill
name: Kara
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve: Self-Help Exercises for Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, and Autism]]> 26109012 239 Stanley D. Rosenberg 1623170257 Kara 3 3.68 2017 Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve: Self-Help Exercises for Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, and Autism
author: Stanley D. Rosenberg
name: Kara
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/11
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves:
review:
Well, I'm gonna be honest and say I had very little idea about what this guy was talking about 75% of the time. Maybe I'm not the target audience for this book but there's not many books about the vagus nerve and therapy so I was a bit disappointed. Maybe I'll come back and read it again in a few years and things will click more
]]> <![CDATA[ADHD is Awesome: A Guide to (Mostly) Thriving with ADHD]]> 180352087 Hi, friend! Welcome to the ADHD club.

You're here because, like me, you've been diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder〞which, by the way, just might be the worst name for a condition ever〞and you're trying to figure out how to make your life a little more manageable. Or because, like my wife, Kim, you love, teach, or work with someone who has ADHD, and you're trying to figure out how to best support them.

The world isn't built for ADHDers, and navigating it can wear us down. But we'll let you in on a little secret: having ADHD doesn't have to be a burden. It can actually be a superpower that propels you to creative heights and allows you to achieve more than you ever thought possible.

We want to give you a new perspective on ADHD, whether it's your own brain or a friend or family member's that you're trying to understand. We hope you come away with strategies you can employ to make things a little easier. (We also hope you laugh out loud, at least once or twice.)

Most of all, we want you to silence that voice that whispers that you're broken or a mess or a failure. None of that is true. You have ADHD〞and that makes you awesome.

〞Penn Holderness]]> 292 Penn Holderness 1400338611 Kara 4 4.21 2024 ADHD is Awesome: A Guide to (Mostly) Thriving with ADHD
author: Penn Holderness
name: Kara
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/11
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves:
review:
This was pretty great! A good resource to start out with, especially for maybe teens
]]> Greta & Valdin 176443453
It＊s been a year since his ex-boyfriend dumped him and moved from Auckland to Buenos Aires, and Valdin is doing fine. He has a good flat with his sister Greta, a good career where his colleagues only occasionally remind him that he is the sole M芋ori person in the office, and a good friend who he only sleeps with when he＊s sad. But when work sends him to Argentina and he＊s thrown back in his former lover＊s orbit, Valdin is forced to confront the feelings he＊s been trying to ignore〞and the future he wants.

Greta is not letting her painfully unrequited crush (or her possibly pointless master＊s thesis, or her pathetic academic salary...) get her down. She would love to focus on the charming fellow grad student she meets at a party and her friendships with a circle of similarly floundering twenty-somethings, but her chaotic family life won＊t stop her mother is keeping secrets, her nephew is having a gay crisis, and her brother has suddenly flown to South America without a word.

Sharp, hilarious, and with an undeniable emotional momentum that builds to an exuberant conclusion, Greta & Valdin careens us through the siblings＊ misadventures and the messy dramas of their sprawling, eccentric Maaori-Russian-Catalonian family. An acclaimed bestseller in New Zealand, Greta & Valdin is fresh, joyful, and alive with the possibility of love in its many mystifying forms.]]> 352 Rebecca K. Reilly 1668028042 Kara 5
It also made me miss New Zealand so much]]> 3.90 2021 Greta & Valdin
author: Rebecca K. Reilly
name: Kara
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/10
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves:
review:
This wasn't perfect, but I love it so much anyway. It was funny and charming and unique and I loved Greta and Valdin. Every day this week I was excited to come home from work and make a cup of tea and see what these crazy kids were getting up to and that's worth 5 stars to me

It also made me miss New Zealand so much
]]> <![CDATA[Tsukemono: Decoding the Art and Science of Japanese Pickling]]> 59013907
This book goes well beyond explaining the secrets of making crisp tsukemono. The authors discuss the cultural history and traditions associated with these pickled foods; provide recipes and outline techniques for preparing them at home with local ingredients; describe the healthful benefits and basic nutritional value to be found in the various types of pickles; and show how easy it is to serve them on a daily basis to stimulate the appetite or as condiments to accompany vegetable, fish, and meat dishes. The goal is to encourage the readers of this book to join us in a small culinary adventure that will allow us to expand and diversify our consumption of plant-based foods, which are so vital to our overall well-being. And along the way, there may be a few surprises.]]> 248 Ole G. Mouritsen 3030578623 Kara 0 to-read 4.33 Tsukemono: Decoding the Art and Science of Japanese Pickling
author: Ole G. Mouritsen
name: Kara
average rating: 4.33
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Umami: Unlocking the Secrets of the Fifth Taste]]> 18807775
Combining culinary history with recent research into the chemistry, preparation, nutrition, and culture of food, Mouritsen and Styrb?k encapsulate what we know to date about the concept of umami, from ancient times to today. Umami can be found in soup stocks, meat dishes, air-dried ham, shellfish, aged cheeses, mushrooms, and ripe tomatoes, and it can enhance other taste substances to produce a transformative gustatory experience. Researchers have also discovered which substances in foodstuffs bring out umami, a breakthrough that allows any casual cook to prepare delicious and more nutritious meals with less fat, salt, and sugar. The implications of harnessing umami are both sensuous and social, enabling us to become more intimate with the subtleties of human taste while making better food choices for ourselves and our families.

This volume, the product of an ongoing collaboration between a chef and a scientist, won the Danish national Mad+Medier-Prisen (Food and Media Award) in the category of academic food communication.]]> 288 Ole G. Mouritsen 023116890X Kara 0 to-read 3.88 2014 Umami: Unlocking the Secrets of the Fifth Taste
author: Ole G. Mouritsen
name: Kara
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Mouthfeel: How Texture Makes Taste (Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History)]]> 30151814
Collaborating in the laboratory and the kitchen, Ole G. Mouritsen and Klavs Styrb?k investigate the multiple ways in which food texture influences taste. Combining scientific analysis with creative intuition and a sophisticated knowledge of food preparation, they write a one-of-a-kind book for food lovers and food science scholars. By mapping the mechanics of mouthfeel, Mouritsen and Styrb?k advance a greater awareness of its link to our culinary preferences. Gaining insight into the textural properties of raw vegetables, puffed rice, bouillon, or ice cream can help us make healthier and more sustainable food choices. Through mouthfeel, we can recreate the physical feelings of foods we love with other ingredients or learn to latch onto smarter food options. Mastering texture also leads to more adventurous gastronomic experiments in the kitchen, allowing us to reach even greater heights of taste sensation.]]> 376 Ole G. Mouritsen 0231180764 Kara 0 to-read 4.06 Mouthfeel: How Texture Makes Taste (Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History)
author: Ole G. Mouritsen
name: Kara
average rating: 4.06
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Formac Field Guide: Birds of Nova Scotia]]> 14371713
This book offers detailed listings on 200 of the top species found all around the province, at the seashore, in the Cape Breton Highlands, in city parks and around the thousands of pristine lakes in the province.

Whether observing spectacular hawks in the wild or seabirds over the ocean, listening for warblers in the forest or spotting the first spring birds at the feeder, this guide is designed to allow for quick and easy identification. Original full-colour illustrations by Jeffrey Domm show prominent features that birdwatching enthusiasts can use to identify a species. Text and graphic keys give helpful tips for observing, including:


habitat preference
egg identification (for in-province breeding species)
months the bird can be seen in the area
preferred bird feeder types
The guide also includes a handy visual index, grouped by bird size and distinctive coloration, to help novice birdwatchers easily identify an unknown species. The birding hotspot section (with accompanying map) shows 46 locations across the province where good birdwatching is assured.

Previously titled The New Formac Pocketguide to Nova Scotia Birds, this book is both a handy reference for beginners and a useful local guide for practised birders.]]> 224 Jeffrey C. Domm 1459500490 Kara 0 to-read 4.33 2005 Formac Field Guide: Birds of Nova Scotia
author: Jeffrey C. Domm
name: Kara
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[East Coast Trees & Shrubs: A visual guide to 50+ species in Atlantic Canada]]> 58825542
Features:
+ Highly realistic illustrations
+ Details and identifiers for featured species
+ Locations and natural history of heritage trees
+Provincial maps showing the best parks and hiking trails for exploring old growth forests and experiencing the biodiversity of Canada's East Coast.]]> 128 Jeffrey C. Domm 1459506626 Kara 5 4.78 East Coast Trees & Shrubs: A visual guide to 50+ species in Atlantic Canada
author: Jeffrey C. Domm
name: Kara
average rating: 4.78
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/08
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves: earth, favorites, garden, garden-and-house, nonfiction, science
review:
OK GUYS. This is the best tree book. I've gotten my hands on a few books about trees and this is the first one where I easily identified every tree around me confidently, like the cool dude I am. It has photorealistic illustrations of the bark, leaf, needles and the shape of the crown. The icons are very helpful, and it explains what the tree looks like when young vs mature, the colour changes it goes through, any smell or taste and pictures of any nuts, acorns or cones they have. Excellent book for quickly identifying trees on the east coast!
]]> Good Boy (WAGs #1) 210205698
"We're way more than friends, Jessie."

"詁梭硃域梗〞"

"But no worries. I'll just sit tight until you figure that out."

Hosting her brother's wedding for an MVP guest list is the challenge of Jess Canning's life. Already the family screw-up, she can't afford to fail at this, too. Especially after the colossal mistake she made with the best man during a weak moment last spring. Nobody〞absolutely nobody〞can find out about that, and there will not be a repeat. Absolutely not. No matter how devastatingly sexy his smile, he's a giant manchild who's never been serious in his life. And if Jess wants to prove herself to her family, serious is what she has to get.

For Blake Riley, this wedding is a gift from fate itself. The girl he has his eye on is the maid of honor, and he's the best man? Let the games begin. So what if Jess is giving him a little〞fine, a lot〞of resistance? He just needs to convince the stubborn blonde that he's really a good boy with a bad rap. Beneath the flirty jokes and goofy smile, he's got layers〞even if Jess doesn't want to see them.

Luckily, every professional hockey player knows that you've got to make an effort if you want to score.?

And Jess is just the girl he wants to win.]]> 320 Elle Kennedy 1464227357 Kara 1 3.63 2017 Good Boy (WAGs #1)
author: Elle Kennedy
name: Kara
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2017
rating: 1
read at: 2025/02/24
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves:
review:
Elle Kennedy and Sarina Bowen, do you hate me? Like me, personally? Because this felt personal. Listen, I finished this book but I'm not happy about it. Did you two have like a bet on whether you could write a romance using the least sexy words possible? "Your VA JAY JAY is mine" ok fine, I dislike you, but fine-- but BOOBALICIOUS. I cannot abide. Also was Hozier a tertiary character here because he's mentioned 16 times... I don't know.. where do I go from here. Who am I now, that I have spent hours in this book. What is the point of anything.
]]> Glass, Irony and God 150250 Glass, Irony and God. This collection includes: "The Glass Essay," a powerful poem about the end of a love affair, told in the context of Carson's reading of the Bront? sisters; "Book of Isaiah," a poem evoking the deeply primitive feel of ancient Judaism; and "The Fall of Rome," about her trip to "find" Rome and her struggle to overcome feelings of a terrible alienation there.]]> 142 Anne Carson 0811213021 Kara 0 to-read 4.33 1995 Glass, Irony and God
author: Anne Carson
name: Kara
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1995
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Perfectionist's Guide to Losing Control: A Path to Peace and Power]]> 74700695 Selected for USA Today's Best Books of 2023

Selected as Editor's Pick in Amazon's Best Books of 2023

From psychotherapist Katherine Morgan Schafler, an invitation to every ※recovering perfectionist§ to challenge the way they look at perfectionism, and the way they look at themselves.

We＊ve been looking at perfectionism all wrong. As psychotherapist and former on-site therapist at Google Katherine Morgan Schafler argues in The Perfectionist's Guide to Losing Control, you don＊t have to stop being a perfectionist to be healthy. For women who are sick of being given the generic advice to ※find balance,§ a new approach has arrived.

Which of the five types of perfectionist are you? Classic, intense, Parisian, messy, or procrastinator? As you identify your unique perfectionist profile, you'll learn how to manage each form of perfectionism to work for you, not against you. Beyond managing it, you'll learn how to embrace and even enjoy your perfectionism.?Yes, enjoy!

Full of stories and brimming with humor, empathy, and depth, this book is a love letter to the ambitious, high achieving, full-of-life clients who filled the author＊s private practice, and who changed her life. It＊s a clarion call for all women to dare to want more without feeling greedy or ungrateful. Ultimately, this book will show you how to make the single greatest trade you＊ll ever make in your life, which is to exchange superficial control for real power.]]> 352 Katherine Morgan Schafler 0593329538 Kara 0 to-read 4.16 2023 The Perfectionist's Guide to Losing Control: A Path to Peace and Power
author: Katherine Morgan Schafler
name: Kara
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Atmosphere 228482274 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six comes an epic new novel set against the backdrop of the 1980s Space Shuttle program about the extraordinary lengths we go to live and love beyond our limits.

Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA＊s Space Shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space.

Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston＊s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond and scientist John Griffin, who are kind and easy-going even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warm-hearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane.

As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe.

Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, everything changes in an instant.

Fast-paced, thrilling, and emotional, Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her best: transporting readers to iconic times and places, with complex protagonists, telling a passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love, this time among the stars.]]> 352 Taylor Jenkins Reid 0385695829 Kara 0 to-read 4.50 2025 Atmosphere
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Kara
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Summerhouse, Later: Stories 238379 Summerhouse, Later heralds the arrival of one of Germanys most arresting new literary talents.

A restless man hopes to find permanence in the purchase of a summerhouse outside Berlin. A young girl, trapped in a paralyzing web of family stories and secrets, finally manages to break free. A granddaughter struggles to lay her grandmother's ghosts to rest. A successful and simplistic artist becomes inexplicably obsessed with an elusive and strangely sinister young girl.

Against the backdrop of contemporary Berlin, possibly Europe's most vibrant and exhilarating city, Hermann's characters are as kaleidoscopic and extraordinary as their metropolis, united mostly in a furious and dogged pursuit of the elusive specter of "living in the moment." They're people who, in one way or another, constantly challenge the madness of the modern world and whose dreams of transcending the ordinary for that "narrow strip of sky over the rooftops" are deeply felt and perfectly rendered.]]> 224 Judith Hermann 0060006870 Kara 0 to-read 3.75 1998 Summerhouse, Later: Stories
author: Judith Hermann
name: Kara
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Mrs. Caliban 34377087 128 Rachel Ingalls 0811226697 Kara 0 to-read 3.77 1982 Mrs. Caliban
author: Rachel Ingalls
name: Kara
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1982
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Ulysses (The Gabler Edition) by James Joyce(1986-05-12)]]> 165922718 0 James Joyce Kara 0 2025-reading-goals 4.15 1922 Ulysses (The Gabler Edition) by James Joyce(1986-05-12)
author: James Joyce
name: Kara
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1922
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/02
shelves: 2025-reading-goals
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Will of the Many (Hierarchy, #1)]]> 58416952 At the elite Catenan Academy, a young fugitive uncovers layered mysteries and world-changing secrets in this new fantasy series by internationally bestselling author of The Licanius Trilogy, James Islington.

AUDI. VIDE. TACE.

The Catenan Republic 每 the Hierarchy 每 may rule the world now, but they do not know everything.

I tell them my name is Vis Telimus. I tell them I was orphaned after a tragic accident three years ago, and that good fortune alone has led to my acceptance into their most prestigious school. I tell them that once I graduate, I will gladly join the rest of civilised society in allowing my strength, my drive and my focus 每 what they call Will 每 to be leeched away and added to the power of those above me, as millions already do. As all must eventually do.

I tell them that I belong, and they believe me.

But the truth is that I have been sent to the Academy to find answers. To solve a murder. To search for an ancient weapon. To uncover secrets that may tear the Republic apart.

And that I will never, ever cede my Will to the empire that executed my family.

To survive, though, I will still have to rise through the Academy＊s ranks. I will have to smile, and make friends, and pretend to be one of them and win. Because if I cannot, then those who want to control me, who know my real name, will no longer have any use for me.

And if the Hierarchy finds out who I truly am, they will kill me.]]> 639 James Islington 1982141190 Kara 0 to-read 4.61 2023 The Will of the Many (Hierarchy, #1)
author: James Islington
name: Kara
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Whispers 63222079
The Loverlys sit by the hospital bed of their young son who is in a coma after falling from his bedroom window in the middle of the night; his mother, Whitney, will not speak to anyone. Back home, their friends and neighbors are left in shock, each confronting their own role in the events that led up to what happened that terrible night: the warm, altruistic Parks who are the Loverlys' best friends; the young, ambitious Goldsmiths who are struggling to start a family of their own; and the quiet, elderly Portuguese couple who care for their adult son with a developmental disability, and who pass the long days on the front porch, watching their neighbors go about their busy lives.

The story spins out over the course of one week, in the alternating voices of the women in each family as they are forced to face the secrets within the walls of their own homes, and the uncomfortable truths that connect them all to one another. Set against the heartwrenching drama of what will happen to Xavier, who hangs between death and life, or a life changed forever, THE WHISPERS is a novel about what happens when we put our needs ahead of our children's. Exploring the quiet sacrifices of motherhood, the intuitions that we silence, the complexities of our closest friendships, and the danger of envy, this is a novel about the reverberations of life's most difficult decisions.]]> 336 Ashley Audrain 1984881698 Kara 0 to-read 3.78 2023 The Whispers
author: Ashley Audrain
name: Kara
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Becoming a Matriarch: A Memoir]]> 123666414
Helen Knott＊s bestselling debut memoir, In My Own Moccasins , wowed reviewers, award juries, and readers alike with its profoundly honest and moving account of addiction, intergenerational trauma, resilience, and survival. Now, with her highly anticipated second book, Knott exceeds the highest of expectations with a chronicle of grief, love, and legacy. Having lost both her mom and grandmother in just over six months, forced to navigate the fine lines between matriarchy, martyrdom, and codependency, Knott realizes she must let go, not just of them, but of who she thought she was.
? ? Woven into the pages are themes of mourning, sobriety through loss, and generational dreaming. Becoming a Matriarch is charted with poetic insights, sass, humour, and heart, taking the reader over the rivers and mountains of Dane Zaa territory in Northeastern British Columbia, along the cobbled streets of Antigua, Guatemala, and straight to the heart of what matriarchy truly means. This is a journey through pain, on the way to becoming.

Through writing, reflecting, and dreaming I found my way to the real lessons.
I found permission to become whoever I needed to be.
I found permission to live a life and not just endure it.
I found permission to belong deeply to myself.
I found permission to lay to rest the sorrow of the women before me and to cultivate joy for us in its place.]]> 214 Helen Knott 0385697783 Kara 0 to-read 4.28 2023 Becoming a Matriarch: A Memoir
author: Helen Knott
name: Kara
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The First Bad Man 21412400 No One Belongs Here More Than You, a spectacular debut novel that is so heartbreaking, so dirty, so tender, so funny--so Miranda July--readers will be blown away.

Here is Cheryl, a tightly-wound, vulnerable woman who lives alone, with a perpetual lump in her throat. She is haunted by a baby boy she met when she was six, who sometimes recurs as other people's babies. Cheryl is also obsessed with Phillip, a philandering board member at the women's self-defense non-profit where she works. She believes they've been making love for many lifetimes, though they have yet to consummate in this one.

When Cheryl's bosses ask if their twenty-one-year-old daughter Clee can move into her house for a little while, Cheryl's eccentrically-ordered world explodes. And yet it is Clee--the selfish, cruel blond bombshell--who bullies Cheryl into reality and, unexpectedly, provides her the love of a lifetime.

Tender, gripping, slyly hilarious, infused with raging sexual fantasies and fierce maternal love, Miranda July's first novel confirms her as a spectacularly original, iconic and important voice today, and a writer for all time. The First Bad Man is dazzling, disorienting, and unforgettable.]]> 288 Miranda July 1439172560 Kara 0 to-read 3.67 2015 The First Bad Man
author: Miranda July
name: Kara
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Gallows Pole 31325980
An England divided. From his remote moorland home, David Hartley assembles a gang of weavers and land-workers to embark upon a criminal enterprise that will capsize the economy and become the biggest fraud in British history.

They are the Cragg Vale Coiners and their business is ＆clipping＊ 每 the forging of coins, a treasonous offence punishable by death.

A charismatic leader, Hartley cares for the poor and uses violence and intimidation against his opponents. He is also prone to self-delusion and strange visions of mythical creatures.

When excise officer William Deighton vows to bring down the Coiners and one of their own becomes turncoat, Hartley＊s empire begins to crumble. With the industrial age set to change the face of England forever, the fate of his empire is under threat.

Forensically assembled from historical accounts and legal documents, The Gallows Pole is a true story of resistance that combines poetry, landscape, crime and historical fiction, whose themes continue to resonate. Here is a rarely-told alternative history of the North.]]> 371 Benjamin Myers Kara 0 to-read 4.10 2017 The Gallows Pole
author: Benjamin Myers
name: Kara
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Haar 60840449
Muriel McAuley has lived in the Scottish fishing village of Witchaven all her life. She was born there, and she intends to die there.

But when an overseas property developer threatens to evict the residents from their homes and raze Witchaven to the ground in the name of progress, all seems lost＃ until the day a mysterious fog bank creeps inland.

The Haar.

To some it brings redemption＃ to others, it brings only madness and death. What macabre secrets lie within＃ The Haar.

Romantic and deranged, The Haar is a gore-soaked folk horror fairy tale from David Sodergren, author of The Forgotten Island and Maggie＊s Grave.]]> 206 David Sodergren Kara 0 currently-reading 4.09 2022 The Haar
author: David Sodergren
name: Kara
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> We Could Be Rats 214152402 A moving story about two very different sisters, and a love letter to childhood, growing up, and the power of imagination〞from the bestselling author of Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead and Interesting Facts About Space.

Sigrid hates working at the Dollar Pal but having always resisted the idea of growing up into the trappings of adulthood, she did not graduate high school, preferring to roam the streets of her small town with her best friend Greta, the only person in the world who ever understood her. Her older sister Margit is baffled and frustrated by Sigrid＊s inability to conform to the expectations of polite society.

But Sigrid＊s detachment veils a deeper turmoil and sensitivity. She＊s haunted by the pains of her past〞from pretending her parents were swamp monsters when they shook the floorboards with their violent arguments to grappling with losing Greta＊s friendship to the opioid epidemic ravaging their town. As Margit sets out to understand Sigrid and the secrets she has hidden, both sisters, in their own time and way, discover that reigniting their shared childhood imagination is the only way forward.

What unfolds is an unforgettable story of two sisters finding their way back to each other, and a celebration of that transcendent, unshakable bond.]]> 256 Emily R. Austin 1668058146 Kara 0 to-read 4.08 2025 We Could Be Rats
author: Emily R. Austin
name: Kara
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Swan: Poems and Prose Poems 7961474 ?
As the Los Angeles Times noted, innumerable readers go to Oliver＊s poetry ※for solace, regeneration and inspiration.§ Few poets express the immense complexities of human experience as skillfully, or capture so memorably the smallest nuances. Speaking, for example, of stones, she writes, ※the little ones you can / hold in your hands, their heartbeats / so secret, so hidden it may take years / before, finally, you hear them.§ It is no wonder Oliver ranks, according to the Weekly Standard, ※among the finest poets the English language has ever produced.§?]]> 96 Mary Oliver 0807068993 Kara 0 to-read 4.27 2010 Swan: Poems and Prose Poems
author: Mary Oliver
name: Kara
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse]]> 43708884
Here, you will find them together in this book of Charlie's most-loved drawings, adventuring into the Wild and exploring the thoughts and feelings that unite us all.]]> 128 Charlie Mackesy 1529105102 Kara 5 ?? 4.56 2019 The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse
author: Charlie Mackesy
name: Kara
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/24
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves:
review:
??
]]> Ararat 76542 The Wild Iris in 1993. The author of eight books of poetry and one collection of essays, Proofs and Theories: Essays on Poetry, she has received the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry, the William Carlos Williams Award, and the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for Nonfiction. She was named the next U.S. poet laureate in August 2003. Her most recent book is The Seven Ages. Louise Gl邦ck teaches at Williams College and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.]]> 68 Louise Gl邦ck 088001248X Kara 0 to-read 4.12 1992 Ararat
author: Louise Gl邦ck
name: Kara
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1992
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Wild Iris 76546 Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

From Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Louise Gl邦ck, a stunningly beautiful collection of poems that encompasses the natural, human, and spiritual realms

Bound together by the universal themes of time and mortality and with clarity and sureness of craft, Louise Gl邦ck's poetry questions, explores, and finally celebrates the ordeal of being alive.]]> 65 Louise Gl邦ck 0880013346 Kara 0 to-read 4.22 1992 The Wild Iris
author: Louise Gl邦ck
name: Kara
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1992
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Winter Recipes from the Collective]]> 56269266 The 2020 Nobel Prize winner Louise Gl邦ck's thirteenth book is among her most haunting. Here as in the Wild Iris there is a chorus, but the speakers are entirely human, simultaneously spectral and ancient.

Winter Recipes from the Collective is chamber music, an invitation into that privileged realm small enough for the individual instrument to make itself heard, dolente, its line sustained, carried, and then taken up by the next instrument, spirited, animoso, while at the same time being large enough to contain a whole lifetime, the inconceivable gifts and losses of old age, the little princesses rattling in the back of a car, an abandoned passport, the ingredients of an invigorating winter sandwich, a sister's death, the joyful presence of the sun, its brightness measured by the darkness it casts.

"Some of you will know what I mean," the poet says, by which she means, some of you will follow me. Hers is the sustaining presence, the voice containing all our lifetimes, "all the worlds, each more beautiful than the last." This magnificent book couldn't have been written by anyone else, nor could it have been written by the poet at any other time in her life.]]> 46 Louise Gl邦ck 037460410X Kara 5 4.01 2021 Winter Recipes from the Collective
author: Louise Gl邦ck
name: Kara
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/21
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones]]> 40121378 Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving〞every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.

If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Here, you'll get a proven system that can take you to new heights.

Clear is known for his ability to distill complex topics into simple behaviors that can be easily applied to daily life and work. Here, he draws on the most proven ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to create an easy-to-understand guide for making good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible. Along the way, readers will be inspired and entertained with true stories from Olympic gold medalists, award-winning artists, business leaders, life-saving physicians, and star comedians who have used the science of small habits to master their craft and vault to the top of their field.

Learn how to:
-?Make time for new habits (even when life gets crazy);
-?Overcome a lack of motivation and willpower;
- Design your environment to make success easier;
- Get back on track when you fall off course;
...and much more.

Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits--whether you are a team looking to win a championship, an organization hoping to redefine an industry, or simply an individual who wishes to quit smoking, lose weight, reduce stress, or achieve any other goal.]]> 319 James Clear Kara 4 4.34 2018 Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
author: James Clear
name: Kara
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/20
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves:
review:

]]> The Bluest Eye 11337 The Bluest Eye is Toni Morrison's first novel, a book heralded for its richness of language and boldness of vision. Set in the author's girlhood hometown of Lorain, Ohio, it tells the story of black, eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove. Pecola prays for her eyes to turn blue so that she will be as beautiful and beloved as all the blond, blue-eyed children in America. In the autumn of 1941, the year the marigolds in the Breedloves' garden do not bloom. Pecola's life does change〞in painful, devastating ways.

With its vivid evocation of the fear and loneliness at the heart of a child's yearning, and the tragedy of its fulfillment. The Bluest Eye remains one of Toni Morrison's most powerful, unforgettable novels- and a significant work of American fiction.]]> 216 Toni Morrison Kara 0 to-read 4.13 1970 The Bluest Eye
author: Toni Morrison
name: Kara
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1970
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Lights Out (Into Darkness, #1)]]> 201017011 ※I don＊t need another kink.§

That thought pops into my head whenever I pull up my favorite social media app, but alas, every time I scroll, I learn something new about myself, and another one is born. And yes, I know I＊m responsible for what the algorithm shows me, but I＊m trying to ignore that fact.

Lately, my feed has been dominated by masked men. I＊ve favorited videos with them dressed in full cosplay, decked out in futuristic military apparel, and wrapped up like ghouls.

But more than anything else, my FYP is filled with shirtless men wearing ghost masks. Bonus points if they＊re heavily tattooed, wielding a knife, or covered in fake blood. At night, I dream about being chased by them, of them catching me and doing deliciously dark things to my more than willing body.

I never could have guessed that by sending one drunken text, those dreams would become my new reality.

Lights Out is a fast-paced dark romance with a morally grey male lead. Some themes and scenes may be disturbing to readers. Please check the TWs at the beginning of the book. ]]> 338 Navessa Allen Kara 4 4.17 2024 Lights Out (Into Darkness, #1)
author: Navessa Allen
name: Kara
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/15
date added: 2025/02/16
shelves:
review:
Some things about this were 5 stars, other things were negative 100 stars. Listened to the audiobook for this one and I'm glad I did, the narrators made me laugh a few times. Pretty fun!
]]> Dogsbody 18932 The Dog Star, Sirius, is tried for murder by his heavenly peers and found guilty. His sentence: to be reborn on Earth as a dog until such time as he carries out the seemingly impossible mission imposed on him.

In his Earth guise, Sirius, renamed Leo, truly lives a dog's life. Although he is the pet of a girl who loves him, both child and dog are mistreated by the family with whom they live. But the worldly obstacles Leo faces are minor when compared with his chilling encounters with the Dark Powers that are set against him. His quest seems hopeless until at last Sol, Moon, and Earth itself come to his aid.

Dogsbody is a tense, exciting, sciencefiction fantasy, a thriller, and a touching dog story all in one.

]]> 272 Diana Wynne Jones 0064410382 Kara 0 to-read 4.09 1975 Dogsbody
author: Diana Wynne Jones
name: Kara
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1975
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Caught Up (Into Darkness, #2) 217562358
I wanted this woman, and I was a man who always got what he wanted.

Nico 'Junior' Trocci knows Lauren Marchetti is off limits. She is sweetness and laughter, whereas Junior exists in a world of violence and depravity. Men like him don't get to have women like her. It's why he pushed her away back in high school and has kept his distance ever since.

But when Junior looks Lauren up online, he discovers the shy, bookish girl he remembers is gone. In her place is a strikingly beautiful woman whose social media is filled with scantily clad pictures of herself and a connection to a nearby play club. Junior's innocent curiosity quickly turns into a dark obsession. But watching Lauren from a distance isn't enough; he needs to make her his.

He's ruthless; a walking red flag. Good thing red is my favorite color.

Lauren is intrigued by the mystery man who keeps showing up at her club, who tempts her white-hot desires. But as their flirty online messages stir up a deeper form of connection, Lauren worries she's developing real feelings for this brooding stranger. As their combined desire ratchets up to a breaking point, who will seduce who? And will they survive the fall?

Caught Up is a fast-paced dark romance with a morally grey male lead. Some themes and scenes may be disturbing to readers. Please check the content warning at the beginning of the book.

]]> Navessa Allen 1529442443 Kara 0 to-read 4.24 2025 Caught Up (Into Darkness, #2)
author: Navessa Allen
name: Kara
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Clytemnestra 61361681 For fans of Madeline Miller's Circe, a stunning debut following Clytemnestra, the most notorious villainess of the ancient world and the events that forged her into the legendary queen.

As for queens, they are either hated or forgotten. She already knows which option suits her best...

You were born to a king, but you marry a tyrant. You stand by helplessly as he sacrifices your child to placate the gods. You watch him wage war on a foreign shore, and you comfort yourself with violent thoughts of your own. Because this was not the first offence against you. This was not the life you ever deserved. And this will not be your undoing. Slowly, you plot.

But when your husband returns in triumph, you become a woman with a choice.

Acceptance or vengeance, infamy follows both. So, you bide your time and force the gods' hands in the game of retribution. For you understood something long ago that the others never did.

If power isn't given to you, you have to take it for yourself.

A blazing novel set in the world of Ancient Greece for fans of Jennifer Saint and Natalie Haynes, this is a thrilling tale of power and prophecies, of hatred, love, and of an unforgettable Queen who fiercely dealt out death to those who wronged her.]]> 435 Costanza Casati 1728268230 Kara 0 to-read 4.22 2023 Clytemnestra
author: Costanza Casati
name: Kara
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Raising Hare: A Memoir 214269337 A moving and fascinating meditation on freedom, trust, loss, and our relationship with the natural world, explored through the story of one woman＊s unlikely friendship with a wild hare.

Imagine you could hold a baby hare and bottle-feed it. Imagine that it lived under your roof and lolloped around your bedroom at night, drumming on the duvet cover when it wanted your attention. Imagine that, over two years later, it still ran in from the fields when you called it and slept in your house for hours on end and gave birth to leverets in your study. For political advisor and speechwriter Chloe Dalton, who spent lockdown deep in the English countryside, far away from her usual busy London life, this became her unexpected reality.

In February 2021, Dalton stumbles upon a newborn hare〞a leveret〞that had been chased by a dog. Fearing for its life, she brings it home, only to discover how impossible it is to rear a wild hare, most of whom perish in captivity from either shock or starvation. Through trial and error, she learns to feed and care for the leveret with every intention of returning it to the wilderness. Instead, it becomes her constant companion, wandering the fields and woods at night and returning to Dalton＊s house by day. Though Dalton feared that the hare would be preyed upon by foxes, stoats, feral cats, raptors, and even people, she never tried to restrict it to the house. Each time the hare leaves, Chloe knows she may never see it again. Yet she also understands that to confine it would be its own kind of death.

Raising Hare chronicles their journey together, while also taking a deep dive into the lives and nature of hares, and the way they have been viewed historically in art, literature, and folklore. We witness first-hand the joy at this extraordinary relationship between human and animal, which serves as a reminder that the best things, and most beautiful experiences, arise when we least expect them.]]> 285 Chloe Dalton 0593701844 Kara 0 to-read 4.43 2025 Raising Hare: A Memoir
author: Chloe Dalton
name: Kara
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> We, the Drowned 7988467 We, the Drowned is the story of the port town of Marstal, whose inhabitants sailed the world＊s oceans aboard freight ships for centuries. Spanning over a hundred years, from the mid-nineteenth century to the end of the Second World War 每 from the barren rocks of Newfoundland to the lush plantations of Samoa, from the roughest bars in Tasmania to the frozen coasts of northern Russia 每 We, the Drowned is a magnificent tale of love, war, and adventure, of the men who go to sea and the women they leave behind.

Ships are wrecked and blown up in wars, they are places of terror and violence, yet they continue to lure each generation of Marstallers. Among them are Laurids Madsen, who vanishes in the South Pacific; his son Albert, who searches the globe for his father; Knud Erik and his widowed mother, Klara, who takes on the town and the seas. There are cannibals here, shrunken heads, prophetic dreams, forbidden passions, cowards, heroes, devastating tragedies, and miraculous survivals 每 everything that a town like Marstal has actually lived. We, the Drowned is a novel destined to take its place among the greatest seafaring literature.]]> 678 Carsten Jensen 0151013772 Kara 0 to-read 4.23 2006 We, the Drowned
author: Carsten Jensen
name: Kara
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Henry Henry 182108722 Henry Henry is a queer reimagining of Shakespeare's Henriad, transposing the legend of Henry V's wayward youth into 21st-century Britain in the years leading up to the Brexit referendum.

Henry Henry follows Hal Lancaster〞22, gay, Catholic〞as he spends his first years out of Oxford floating between internships, drinking with his actor friends, struggling through awkward hook-ups, and occasionally going to confession to be absolved of his sins.

When a grouse shooting accident-〞funny in retrospect〞makes a romance out of Hal's rivalry with fumblingly leftist family friend Harry Percy, Hal finds that he wants, for the first time, to be himself. But his father Henry is an Englishman: he will not let his son escape tradition. To save himself, Hal must reckon not only with grief and shame but with the wounds of his family's past.]]> 336 Allen Bratton 196188402X Kara 0 currently-reading 3.60 2024 Henry Henry
author: Allen Bratton
name: Kara
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Dream Count 219521090 A publishing event ten years in the making〞a searing, exquisite new novel by the best-selling and award-winning author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists〞the story of four women and their loves, longings, and desires.

Chiamaka is a Nigerian travel writer living in America. Alone in the midst of the pandemic, she recalls her past lovers and grapples with her choices and regrets. Zikora, her best friend, is a lawyer who has been successful at everything until 〞 betrayed and brokenhearted 〞 she must turn to the person she thought she needed least. Omelogor, Chiamaka＊s bold, outspoken cousin, is a financial powerhouse in Nigeria who begins to question how well she knows herself. And Kadiatou, Chiamaka＊s housekeeper, is proudly raising her daughter in America 每 but faces an unthinkable hardship that threatens all she has worked to achieve.

In Dream Count, Adichie trains her fierce eye on these women in a sparkling, transcendent novel that takes up the very nature of love itself. Is true happiness ever attainable or is it just a fleeting state? And how honest must we be with ourselves in order to love, and to be loved? A trenchant reflection on the choices we make and those made for us, on daughters and mothers, on our interconnected world, Dream Count pulses with emotional urgency and poignant, unflinching observations on the human heart, in language that soars with beauty and power. It confirms Adichie＊s status as one of the most exciting and dynamic writers on the literary landscape.]]> 416 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 059380273X Kara 0 to-read 3.96 2025 Dream Count
author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
name: Kara
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Malibu Rising 55404546 Four famous siblings throw an epic party to celebrate the end of the summer. But over the course of twenty-four hours, their lives will change forever.

Malibu: August, 1983. It＊s the day of Nina Riva＊s annual end-of-summer party, and anticipation is at a fever pitch. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: Nina, the talented surfer and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other a renowned photographer; and their adored baby sister, Kit. Together, the siblings are a source of fascination in Malibu and the world over〞especially as the offspring of the legendary singer, Mick Riva.

The only person not looking forward to the party of the year is Nina herself, who never wanted to be the center of attention, and who has also just been very publicly abandoned by her pro tennis player husband. Oh, and maybe Hud〞because it is long past time to confess something to the brother from whom he＊s been inseparable since birth.

Jay, on the other hand, is counting the minutes until nightfall, when the girl he can＊t stop thinking about promised she＊ll be there.

And Kit has a couple secrets of her own〞including a guest she invited without consulting anyone.

By midnight the party will be completely out of control. By morning, the Riva mansion will have gone up in flames. But before that first spark in the early hours before dawn, the alcohol will flow, the music will play, and the loves and secrets that shaped this family＊s generations will all come bubbling to the surface.

Malibu Rising is a story about one unforgettable night in the life of a family: the night they each have to choose what they will keep from the people who made them... and what they will leave behind.]]> 369 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1524798657 Kara 0 currently-reading 4.02 2021 Malibu Rising
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Kara
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine]]> 35900387 No one＊s ever told Eleanor that life should be better than fine.

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

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

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

The only way to survive is to open your heart. ]]> 390 Gail Honeyman 0008172145 Kara 4 4.17 2017 Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
author: Gail Honeyman
name: Kara
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/03
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves:
review:

]]> Thrown Off the Ice 43233514 311 Taylor Fitzpatrick 046355566X Kara 2 4.40 2018 Thrown Off the Ice
author: Taylor Fitzpatrick
name: Kara
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2018
rating: 2
read at: 2025/02/02
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Heartstopper: Volume Five (Heartstopper, #5)]]> 53344030
Nick and Charlie are very much in love. They've finally said those three little words, and Charlie has almost persuaded his mum to let him sleep over at Nick's house ... But with Nick going off to university next year, is everything about to change?

By Alice Oseman, winner of the YA Book Prize, Heartstopper encompasses all the small moments of Nick and Charlie's lives that together make up something larger, which speaks to all of us.

Contains discussions around mental health and eating disorders, and sexual references.]]> 336 Alice Oseman 1444957651 Kara 4 4.47 2023 Heartstopper: Volume Five (Heartstopper, #5)
author: Alice Oseman
name: Kara
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/02
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Ars Goetia: Book I of the Lemegeton]]> 39319228 106 Unknown 1985370948 Kara 0 to-read 3.76 Ars Goetia: Book I of the Lemegeton
author: Unknown
name: Kara
average rating: 3.76
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Honey Witch 196726166 The Honey Witch of Innisfree can never find true love. That is her curse to bear. But when a young woman who doesn＊t believe in magic arrives on her island, sparks fly in this deliciously sweet debut novel of magic, hope, and love overcoming all.
?
Twenty-one-year-old Marigold Claude has always preferred the company of the spirits of the meadow to any of the suitors who＊ve tried to woo her. So when her grandmother whisks her away to the family cottage on the tiny Isle of Innisfree with an offer to train her as the next Honey Witch, she accepts immediately. But her newfound magic and independence come with a price: No one can fall in love with the Honey Witch.
?
When Lottie Burke, a notoriously grumpy skeptic who doesn＊t believe in magic, shows up on her doorstep, Marigold can＊t resist the challenge to prove to her that magic is real. But soon, Marigold begins to care for Lottie in ways she never expected. And when darker magic awakens and threatens to destroy her home, she must fight for much more than her new home〞at the risk of losing her magic and her heart.]]> 368 Sydney J. Shields 0316568864 Kara 0 to-read 3.57 2024 The Honey Witch
author: Sydney J. Shields
name: Kara
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> It's So Cold 222407983 13 Metwai Nagle Kara 5 5.00 It's So Cold
author: Metwai Nagle
name: Kara
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/14
date added: 2025/01/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[188 Words for Rain: A Delightfully Damp Tour of the British Isles, Led by Natural Forces]]> 211202819 Mizzle. Dreich. Raining knives and forks. A real mugga-fisty. A spot of plother...

We Brits love talking about the weather. So much so that our islands have hundreds of words and phrases for rain, some self-explanatory and others that really leave us scratching our heads. From a light smirr in Aberdeen to a "it's raining knives and forks!" in the Brecon Beacons, each type of rain tells a story about the people and places it falls on.

In this delightfully damp tour of the British Isles, writer and puddle-splasher Alan Connor digs deep into the meaning and quirky histories of over one hundred words for precipitation. He gets caught in a plash in Northumberland, crashes a fox's wedding in Devon and ponders the phenomenon of Brits-who-picnic-in-the-car, in this charming and witty celebration of our very British obsession.]]> 188 Alan Connor 1473533643 Kara 0 to-read 4.05 188 Words for Rain: A Delightfully Damp Tour of the British Isles, Led by Natural Forces
author: Alan Connor
name: Kara
average rating: 4.05
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Sunburn 75715117 Selected as an Evening Standard 'one to watch in 2023'

It's the early 1990s, and in the Irish village of Crossmore, Lucy feels out of place. Despite her fierce friendships, she's always felt this way, and the conventional path of marriage and motherhood doesn't appeal to her at all. Not even with handsome and doting Martin, her closest childhood friend.

Lucy begins to make sense of herself during a long hot summer, when a spark with her school friend Susannah escalates to an all-consuming infatuation, and, very quickly, to a desperate and devastating love.

Fearful of rejection from her small and conservative community, Lucy begins living a double life, hiding the most honest parts of herself in stolen moments with Susannah.

But with the end of school and the opportunity to leave Crossmore looming, Lucy must choose between two places, two people and two futures, each as terrifying as the other. But only one can offer her real happiness.

Sunburn is an astute and tender portrayal of first love, adolescent anxiety and the realities of growing up in a small town where tradition holds people tightly in its grasp.]]> 288 Chloe Michelle Howarth 0857308416 Kara 5 4.33 2023 Sunburn
author: Chloe Michelle Howarth
name: Kara
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/24
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Like You've Nothing Left to Prove (Breakaway, #2)]]> 122760468
At eighteen, figure skater Elijah Rodriguez has already had his Olympic dreams crushed by an accident that left him with a seizure disorder and an existential crisis. Now a popular vlogger and freshmen in college, Eli is trying to figure out what his new future will look like. Which is a little difficult because, oh yeah, he＊s dating Alexander Price.

Eli and Alex are happy. It＊s sort of a new state of being for both of them. But Eli is out, Alex isn＊t, and their very visible ※friendship§ is already raising eyebrows. They have a plan: Alex will make their relationship public at the end of the season, hopefully with a Stanley Cup in tow. But what happens when that plan is derailed by an overzealous fan who outs them〞right before the Hell Hounds＊ playoff run?]]> 0 E.L. Massey 1648906303 Kara 4 4.35 2023 Like You've Nothing Left to Prove (Breakaway, #2)
author: E.L. Massey
name: Kara
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/23
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves:
review:
Again, very wholesome. Dragged in spots but the characters were so cute I didn't mind
]]> Sharks in the Rivers 7846664
The speaker in Sharks in the Rivers finds herself multiply dislocated: from her childhood in California, from her family＊s roots in Mexico, from a dying parent, from her prior self. The world is always in motion〞both toward and away from us〞and it is also full of risk: from sharks unexpectedly lurking beneath estuarial rivers to the dangers of New York City, where, as Lim車n reminds us, even rats can find themselves trapped by the garbage cans they＊ve crawled into. In such a world, how should one proceed?

Throughout these poems, Lim車n suggests that we must cleave to the world as it ※keep[s] opening before us,§ for, if we pay attention, we can be one with its complex, ephemeral, and beautiful strangeness. Loss is perpetual, and each person＊s mouth ※is the same / mouth as everyone＊s, all trying to say the same thing.§ For Lim車n, it＊s the saying〞individual and collective〞that transforms each of us into ※a wound overcome by wonder,§ that allows ※the wind itself§ to be our ※own wild whisper.§]]> 96 Ada Limon 1571314385 Kara 0 to-read 3.95 2010 Sharks in the Rivers
author: Ada Limon
name: Kara
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Hurting Kind: Poems 59571658 An astonishing collection about interconnectedness〞between the human and nonhuman, ancestors and ourselves〞from National Book Critics Circle Award winner and National Book Award finalist Ada Lim車n.

※I have always been too sensitive, a weeper / from a long line of weepers,§ writes Lim車n. ※I am the hurting kind.§ What does it mean to be the hurting kind? To be sensitive not only to the world＊s pain and joys, but to the meanings that bend in the scrim between the natural world and the human world? To divine the relationships between us all? To perceive ourselves in other beings〞and to know that those beings are resolutely their own, that they ※do not / care to be seen as symbols§?

With Lim車n＊s remarkable ability to trace thought, The Hurting Kind explores those questions〞incorporating others＊ stories and ways of knowing, making surprising turns, and always reaching a place of startling insight. These poems slip through the seasons, teeming with horses and kingfishers and the gleaming eyes of fish. And they honor parents, stepparents, and grandparents: the sacrifices made, the separate lives lived, the tendernesses extended to a hurting child; the abundance, in retrospect, of having two families.

Along the way, we glimpse loss. There are flashes of the pandemic, ghosts whose presence manifests in unexpected memories and the mysterious behavior of pets left behind. But The Hurting Kind is filled, above all, with connection and the delight of being in the world. ※Slippery and waddle thieving my tomatoes still / green in the morning＊s shade,§ writes Lim車n of a groundhog in her garden, ※she is doing what she can to survive.§]]> 100 Ada Limon 1639550496 Kara 0 to-read 4.34 2022 The Hurting Kind: Poems
author: Ada Limon
name: Kara
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Carrying 38402135 From National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist Ada Lim車n comes The Carrying〞her most powerful collection yet.

Vulnerable, tender, acute, these are serious poems, brave poems, exploring with honesty the ambiguous moment between the rapture of youth and the grace of acceptance. A daughter tends to aging parents. A woman struggles with infertility〞※What if, instead of carrying / a child, I am supposed to carry grief?§〞and a body seized by pain and vertigo as well as ecstasy. A nation convulses: ※Every song of this country / has an unsung third stanza, something brutal.§ And still Lim車n shows us, as ever, the persistence of hunger, love, and joy, the dizzying fullness of our too-short lives. ※Fine then, / I＊ll take it,§ she writes. ※I＊ll take it all.§

In Bright Dead Things, Lim車n showed us a heart ※giant with power, heavy with blood§〞※the huge beating genius machine / that thinks, no, it knows, / it＊s going to come in first.§ In her follow-up collection, that heart is on full display〞even as The Carrying continues further and deeper into the bloodstream, following the hard-won truth of what it means to live in an imperfect world.]]> 120 Ada Limon 1571315128 Kara 5 4.39 2018 The Carrying
author: Ada Limon
name: Kara
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/22
date added: 2025/01/22
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Heartstopper: Volume Four (Heartstopper, #4)]]> 56060300 Boy meets boy. Boys become friends. Boys fall in love. The bestselling LGBTQ+ graphic novel about life, love, and everything that happens in between: this is the fourth volume of HEARTSTOPPER, for fans of The Art of Being Normal, Holly Bourne and Love, Simon.

Charlie didn't think Nick could ever like him back, but now they're officially boyfriends. Charlie's beginning to feel ready to say those three little words: I love you.

Nick's been feeling the same, but he's got a lot on his mind - not least coming out to his dad, and the fact that Charlie might have an eating disorder.

As summer turns to autumn and a new school year begins, Charlie and Nick are about to learn a lot about what love means.

Heartstopper is about love, friendship, loyalty and mental illness. It encompasses all the small stories of Nick and Charlie's lives that together make up something larger, which speaks to all of us.

This is the fourth volume of Heartstopper, which has now been optioned for television by See-Saw Films.]]> 384 Alice Oseman 1338617567 Kara 5 4.57 2021 Heartstopper: Volume Four (Heartstopper, #4)
author: Alice Oseman
name: Kara
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/20
date added: 2025/01/20
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Heartstopper: Volume Three (Heartstopper, #3)]]> 43449920
Meanwhile Tao and Elle will face their feelings for each other, Tara and Darcy share more about their relationship origin story, and the teachers supervising the trip seem＃ rather close＃?]]> 384 Alice Oseman Kara 5 4.55 2020 Heartstopper: Volume Three (Heartstopper, #3)
author: Alice Oseman
name: Kara
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/20
date added: 2025/01/20
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Heartstopper: Volume Two (Heartstopper, #2)]]> 43307358
But love works in surprising ways, and Nick is discovering all kinds of things about his friends, his family ... and himself.]]> 320 Alice Oseman 1444951408 Kara 5 Eeeee 4.52 2019 Heartstopper: Volume Two (Heartstopper, #2)
author: Alice Oseman
name: Kara
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/19
date added: 2025/01/19
shelves:
review:
Eeeee
]]> <![CDATA[Heartstopper: Volume One (Heartstopper, #1)]]> 40495957
Charlie Spring is in Year 10 at Truham Grammar School for Boys. The past year hasn't been too great, but at least he's not being bullied anymore. Nick Nelson is in Year 11 and on the school rugby team. He's heard a little about Charlie - the kid who was outed last year and bullied for a few months - but he's never had the opportunity to talk to him.

They quickly become friends, and soon Charlie is falling hard for Nick, even though he doesn't think he has a chance. But love works in surprising ways, and sometimes good things are waiting just around the corner...]]> 288 Alice Oseman 152722533X Kara 5 Ahhhhh so cute 4.43 2018 Heartstopper: Volume One (Heartstopper, #1)
author: Alice Oseman
name: Kara
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/19
date added: 2025/01/19
shelves:
review:
Ahhhhh so cute
]]> The End of Loneliness 35456277
A kaleidoscopic family saga told through the fractured lives of the three Moreau siblings alongside a faltering, recovering love story, The End of Loneliness is a stunning meditation on the power of our memories, of what can be lost and what can never be let go. With inimitable compassion and luminous, affecting prose, Benedict Wells contends with what it means to find a way through life, while never giving up hope you will find someone to go with you.]]> 274 Benedict Wells Kara 0 to-read 4.18 2016 The End of Loneliness
author: Benedict Wells
name: Kara
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Piglet 127282554 A New York Times Book Review Editors＊ Choice
A Belletrist Book Club Pick

An elegant, razor-sharp debut about women's ambitions and appetites〞and the truth about having it all

Outside of a childhood nickname she can＊t shake, Piglet＊s rather pleased with how her life＊s turned out. An up-and-coming cookbook editor at a London publishing house, she＊s got lovely, loyal friends and a handsome fianc谷, Kit, whose rarefied family she actually, most of the time, likes, despite their upper-class eccentricities. One of the many, many things Kit loves about Piglet is the delicious, unfathomably elaborate meals she＊s always cooking.

But when Kit confesses a horrible betrayal two weeks before they＊re set to be married, Piglet finds herself suddenly＃hungry. The couple decides to move forward with the wedding as planned, but as it nears and Piglet balances family expectations, pressure at work, and her quest to make the perfect cake, she finds herself increasingly unsettled, behaving in ways even she can＊t explain. Torn between a life she＊s always wanted and the ravenousness that comes with not getting what she knows she deserves, Piglet is, by the day of her wedding, undone, but also ready to look beyond the lies we sometimes tell ourselves to get by.

A stylish, uncommonly clever novel about the things we want and the things we think we want, Piglet is both an examination of women＊s often complicated relationship with food and a celebration of the messes life sometimes makes for us.]]> 320 Lottie Hazell 125028984X Kara 0 to-read 3.40 2024 Piglet
author: Lottie Hazell
name: Kara
average rating: 3.40
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Trainspotting: A Screenplay (Based on the Novel by Irvine Welsh)]]> 23951 123 John Hodge 0786882212 Kara 5 4.39 Trainspotting: A Screenplay (Based on the Novel by Irvine Welsh)
author: John Hodge
name: Kara
average rating: 4.39
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/01/17
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The City of Brass (The Daevabad Trilogy, #1)]]> 32718027
But when Nahri accidentally summons an equally sly, darkly mysterious djinn warrior to her side during one of her cons, she＊s forced to accept that the magical world she thought only existed in childhood stories is real. For the warrior tells her a new tale: across hot, windswept sands teeming with creatures of fire, and rivers where the mythical marid sleep; past ruins of once-magnificent human metropolises, and mountains where the circling hawks are not what they seem, lies Daevabad, the legendary city of brass, a city to which Nahri is irrevocably bound.

In that city, behind gilded brass walls laced with enchantments, behind the six gates of the six djinn tribes, old resentments are simmering. And when Nahri decides to enter this world, she learns that true power is fierce and brutal. That magic cannot shield her from the dangerous web of court politics. That even the cleverest of schemes can have deadly consequences.

After all, there is a reason they say be careful what you wish for...]]> 532 S.A. Chakraborty 0062678108 Kara 0 to-read 4.12 2017 The City of Brass (The Daevabad Trilogy, #1)
author: S.A. Chakraborty
name: Kara
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Willows 1335601
"The Willows" is one of Algernon Blackwood's best known short stories. American horror author H.P. Lovecraft considered it to be the finest supernatural tale in English literature. "The Willows" is an example of early modern horror and is connected within the literary tradition of weird fiction.]]> 105 Algernon Blackwood 1587156520 Kara 0 to-read 4.09 1907 The Willows
author: Algernon Blackwood
name: Kara
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1907
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Serpent and the Wings of Night (Crowns of Nyaxia, #1)]]> 60714999 Human or vampire, the rules of survival are the same: never trust, never yield, and always 每 always 每 guard your heart.

The adopted human daughter of the Nightborn vampire king, Oraya carved her place in a world designed to kill her. Her only chance to become something more than prey is entering the Kejari: a legendary tournament held by the goddess of death herself.

But winning won＊t be easy amongst the most vicious warriors from all three vampire houses. To survive, Oraya is forced to make an alliance with a mysterious rival.

Everything about Raihn is dangerous. He is a ruthless vampire, an efficient killer, an enemy to her father＊s crown＃ and her greatest competition. Yet, what terrifies Oraya most of all is that she finds herself oddly drawn to him.

But there＊s no room for compassion in the Kejari. War for the House of Night brews, shattering everything that Oraya thought she knew about her home. And Raihn may understand her more than anyone 每 but their blossoming attraction could be her downfall, in a kingdom where nothing is more deadly than love.

The Serpent and the Wings of Night is the first book in a new series of heart-wrenching romance, dark magic, and bloodthirsty intrigue, perfect for fans of From Blood and Ash and A Court of Thorns and Roses.]]> 504 Carissa Broadbent Kara 0 to-read 4.30 2022 The Serpent and the Wings of Night (Crowns of Nyaxia, #1)
author: Carissa Broadbent
name: Kara
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Pig: Poems 101145323 From the brilliantly talented National Poetry Series and James Laughlin Award winner comes a third collection of poems that uses the humble pig as a lens to explore the body, faith, desire, and power.

This imaginative and singular poetry collection interrogates the broadest ideas surrounding the humble pig〞farm animal, men/masculinity, police and state violence, desire, queerness, global food systems, religion/Judaism and law〞to reimagine various chaotic histories of the body, faith, ecology, desire, hygiene, and power.

Sam Sax draws on autobiography and history to create poems that explore topics ranging from drag queens and Miss Piggy to pig farming and hog lagoons. Collectively, these poems, borne of Sax＊s obsession, offer a varied picture of what it means to be a human being. Delivered in a variety of forms, infused with humor, grace, sadness, and anger, Pig is a wholly unique collection from a virtuosic and original poet.]]> 112 Sam Sax 166801999X Kara 5 4.25 2023 Pig: Poems
author: Sam Sax
name: Kara
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/16
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves:
review:
I hope pigs do inherit the world
]]> <![CDATA[Dungeon Crawler Carl (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #1)]]> 56791389 Alternate cover edition of ASIN B08BKGYQXW


The apocalypse will be televised!

A man. His ex-girlfriend's cat. A sadistic game show unlike anything in the universe: a dungeon crawl where survival depends on killing your prey in the most entertaining way possible.

In a flash, every human-erected construction on Earth〞from Buckingham Palace to the tiniest of sheds〞collapses in a heap, sinking into the ground.

The buildings and all the people inside have all been atomized and transformed into the dungeon: an 18-level labyrinth filled with traps, monsters, and loot. A dungeon so enormous, it circles the entire globe.

Only a few dare venture inside. But once you're in, you can't get out. And what's worse, each level has a time limit. You have but days to find a staircase to the next level down, or it's game over. In this game, it's not about your strength or your dexterity. It's about your followers, your views. Your clout. It's about building an audience and killing those goblins with style.

You can't just survive here. You gotta survive big.

You gotta fight with vigor, with excitement. You gotta make them stand up and cheer. And if you do have that "it" factor, you may just find yourself with a following. That's the only way to truly survive in this game〞with the help of the loot boxes dropped upon you by the generous benefactors watching from across the galaxy.

They call it Dungeon Crawler World. But for Carl, it's anything but a game.]]> 446 Matt Dinniman Kara 0 to-read 4.49 2020 Dungeon Crawler Carl (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #1)
author: Matt Dinniman
name: Kara
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays]]> 139375 ?
Within these pages you will find hawks, hummingbirds, and herons; kingfishers, catbirds, and crows; swans, swallows and, of course, the snowy owl, among a dozen others-including ten poems that have never before been collected. She adds two beautifully crafted essays, ※Owls,§ selected for the Best American Essays series, and ※Bird,§ a new essay that will surely take its place among the classics of the genre.

In the words of the poet Stanley Kunitz, ※Mary Oliver's poetry is fine and deep; it reads like a blessing. Her special gift is to connect us with our sources in the natural world, its beauties and terrors and mysteries and consolations.§

For anyone who values poetry and essays, for anyone who cares about birds, Owls and Other Fantasies will be a treasured gift; for those who love both, it will be essential reading.]]> 88 Mary Oliver 0807068756 Kara 0 to-read 4.43 2003 Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays
author: Mary Oliver
name: Kara
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Tell Me 463000 90 Kim Addonizio 1880238918 Kara 4 4.20 2000 Tell Me
author: Kim Addonizio
name: Kara
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/15
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves:
review:

]]> The Flesh Inherent 215518140
Jamie, recent mysterious visitor in town, is a man on the run, all too eager to escape his current form no matter the cost. Sidney, local drunk, would rather face a hole in the ground than the things he＊s done. As the two men venture into the desert canyons in search of their better selves, they soon discover that what hides there is much more terrible〞and eager to lure them in.]]> 118 Perry Meester 1963801016 Kara 0 to-read 4.32 The Flesh Inherent
author: Perry Meester
name: Kara
average rating: 4.32
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood]]> 62365904 An expos谷 of patterns of harassment and bias in Hollywood, the grassroots reforms under way, and the labor and activist revolutions that recent scandals have ignited

It is never just One Bad Man.

Abuse and exploitation of workers is baked into the very foundations of the entertainment industry. To break the cycle and make change that sticks, it's important to stop looking at headline-making stories as individual events. Instead, one must look closely at the bigger picture, to see how abusers are created, fed, rewarded, allowed to persist, and, with the right tools, how they can be excised.

In Burn It Down, veteran reporter Maureen Ryan does just that. She draws on decades of experience to connect the dots and illuminate the deeper forces sustaining Hollywood's corrosive culture. Fresh reporting sheds light on problematic situations at companies like Lucasfilm and shows like Saturday Night Live, The Goldbergs, Lost, Sleepy Hollow, Curb Your Enthusiasm , and more. Interviews with actors and famous creatives like Evan Rachel Wood, Harold Perrineau, Damon Lindelof, and Orlando Jones abound. Ryan dismantles, one by one, the myths that the entertainment industry promotes about itself, which have allowed abusers to thrive and the industry to avoid accountability--myths about Hollywood as a meritocracy, what it takes to be creative, the value of human dignity, and more.

Weaving together insights from industry insiders, historical context, and pop-culture analysis, Burn It Down paints a groundbreaking and urgently necessary portrait of what's gone wrong in the entertainment world--and of how we can fix it.]]> 348 Maureen Ryan 0063269279 Kara 0 to-read 3.86 2023 Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood
author: Maureen Ryan
name: Kara
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Dream Boy 220754 In his electrifying novel, adolescent gay love, violence, and the spirituality of old-time religion are combined through the alchemy of Grimsley's vision into a powerfully suspenseful story of escape and redemption.

]]> 195 Jim Grimsley 0684829924 Kara 5 3.92 1995 Dream Boy
author: Jim Grimsley
name: Kara
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1995
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/12
date added: 2025/01/12
shelves:
review:
Can already tell I'm gonna read this again in a few months
]]> <![CDATA[A Taste of Gold and Iron (Mahisti Dynasty, #1)]]> 58724599 The Goblin Emperor meets "Magnificent Century" in Alexandra Rowland's A Taste of Gold and Iron, where a queer central romance unfolds in a fantasy world reminiscent of the Ottoman Empire.

Kadou, the shy prince of Arasht, finds himself at odds with one of the most powerful ambassadors at court〞the body-father of the queen's new child〞in an altercation which results in his humiliation.

To prove his loyalty to the queen, his sister, Kadou takes responsibility for the investigation of a break-in at one of their guilds, with the help of his newly appointed bodyguard, the coldly handsome Evemer, who seems to tolerate him at best. In Arasht, where princes can touch-taste precious metals with their fingers and myth runs side by side with history, counterfeiting is heresy, and the conspiracy they discover could cripple the kingdom＊s financial standing and bring about its ruin.]]> 512 Alexandra Rowland 1250800382 Kara 0 to-read 4.03 2022 A Taste of Gold and Iron (Mahisti Dynasty, #1)
author: Alexandra Rowland
name: Kara
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>