Amelia's bookshelf: all en-US Sun, 23 Mar 2025 21:51:41 -0700 60 Amelia's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg On the Move: A Life 24976878 An impassioned, tender, and joyous memoir by the author of Musicophilia and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.Ěý

When Oliver Sacks was twelve years old, a perceptive schoolmaster wrote in his report: "Sacks will go far, if he does not go too far." It is now abundantly clear that Sacks has never stopped going. From its opening pages on his youthful obsession with motorcycles and speed, On the Move is infused with his restless energy. As he recounts his experiences as a young neurologist in the early 1960s, first in California, where he struggled with drug addiction and then in New York, where he discovered a long-forgotten illness in the back wards of a chronic hospital, we see how his engagement with patients comes to define his life.

With unbridled honesty and humor, Sacks shows us that the same energy that drives his physical passions--weight lifting and swimming--also drives his cerebral passions. He writes about his love affairs, both romantic and intellectual; his guilt over leaving his family to come to America; his bond with his schizophrenic brother; and the writers and scientists--Thom Gunn, A. R. Luria, W. H. Auden, Gerald M. Edelman,ĚýFrancis Crick--who influenced him. On the Move is the story of a brilliantly unconventional physician and writer--and of the man who has illuminated the many ways that the brain makes us human.]]> 416 Oliver Sacks 0385352557 Amelia 5 4.29 2015 On the Move: A Life
author: Oliver Sacks
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/03/23
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]]> <![CDATA[Insomniac City: New York, Oliver, and Me]]> 32071151 A moving celebration of what Bill Hayes calls "the evanescent, the eavesdropped, the unexpected" of life in New York City, and an intimate glimpse of his relationship with the late Oliver Sacks.

"A beautifully written once-in-a-lifetime book, about love, about life, soul, and the wonderful loving genius Oliver Sacks, and New York, and laughter and all of creation."--Anne Lamott

Bill Hayes came to New York City in 2009 with a one-way ticket and only the vaguest idea of how he would get by. But, at forty-eight years old, having spent decades in San Francisco, he craved change. Grieving over the death of his partner, he quickly discovered the profound consolations of the city's incessant rhythms, the sight of the Empire State Building against the night sky, and New Yorkers themselves, kindred souls that Hayes, a lifelong insomniac, encountered on late-night strolls with his camera.

And he unexpectedly fell in love again, with his friend and neighbor, the writer and neurologist Oliver Sacks, whose exuberance--"I don't so much fear death as I do wasting life," he tells Hayes early on--is captured in funny and touching vignettes throughout. What emerges is a portrait of Sacks at his most personal and endearing, from falling in love for the first time at age seventy-five to facing illness and death (Sacks died of cancer in August 2015). Insomniac City is both a meditation on grief and a celebration of life. Filled with Hayes's distinctive street photos of everyday New Yorkers, the book is a love song to the city and to all who have felt the particular magic and solace it offers.]]> 304 Bill Hayes 1620404958 Amelia 5 4.42 2017 Insomniac City: New York, Oliver, and Me
author: Bill Hayes
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/03/16
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]]> <![CDATA[Make Work Fair: Data-Driven Design for Real Results]]> 213122007 Harvard Kennedy School behavioral economist and author of What Works joins forces with a Harvard Kennedy School researcher to offer professionals at every level, in any kind of organization, immediate, proven, and evidence-based ways to create and sustain equity in their everyday business practices.

To make their organizations more equitable, many well-meaning individuals and companies invest their time and resources in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. But because inequity is built into the structures, processes, and environments of our workplaces, adding these programs has been ineffective and often becomes a burden passed off to the individuals they are meant to help.

In Make Work Fair, Iris Bohnet and Siri Chilazi offer data-backed, actionable solutions that build fairness into the very fabric of the workplace. Their methods—tested at many organizations, and grounded in data proven to work in the real world—help us make fairer—and simply better–decisions. Using their three-part framework, employees at all levels can execute and embed equity into their everyday practices.

Believing in equal opportunity is essential—but it isn’t enough. Offering an evidence-based blueprint, Make Work Fair shows you how to make it a reality, no matter your role, seniority, responsibilities, or where you are in the world.]]> 382 Iris Bohnet 0063374404 Amelia 0 4.00 Make Work Fair: Data-Driven Design for Real Results
author: Iris Bohnet
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2025/03/04
date added: 2025/03/04
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]]> Binti (Binti, #1) 51471497 Alternate cover editions for this ASIN can be found here & here.


Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs.

Knowledge comes at a cost, one that Binti is willing to pay, but her journey will not be easy. The world she seeks to enter has long warred with the Meduse, an alien race that has become the stuff of nightmares. Oomza University has wronged the Meduse, and Binti's stellar travel will bring her within their deadly reach.

If Binti hopes to survive the legacy of a war not of her making, she will need both the gifts of her people and the wisdom enshrined within the University, itself � but first she has to make it there, alive.

The Binti Series
Book 1: Binti
Book 2: Binti: Home
Book 3: Binti: The Night Masquerade]]> 98 Nnedi Okorafor Amelia 0 4.08 2015 Binti (Binti, #1)
author: Nnedi Okorafor
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at: 2025/03/03
date added: 2025/03/03
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]]> Swan Song (Nantucket, #4) 200497570 In the grand finale of "queen of the beach read" Elin Hilderbrand's beloved Nantucket novels, there's a new couple in town... and they instantly shake things up. Amid the extravagant parties on land and sea, there's trouble on the island, forcing Chief of Police Ed Kapanesh to postpone his retirement and changing the fabric of life on the picturesque island forever...

After thirty-five years serving as the Chief of Police on the island of Nantucket, Ed Kapenash's heart can no longer take the stress. But his plans to retire are thwarted when, with only three days left to serve, he receives a phone call. A 22-million-dollar summer home, recently purchased by the flashy new couple in town, the Richardsons, has burned to the ground. The Richardsons are far from hurt—in fact, they're out on the water, throwing a lavish party on their yacht—but when news of the fire reaches them, they discover that their personal assistant has vanished. The Chief is well-acquainted with the Richardsons, and his daughter is best friends with the now-missing girl, leaving him no choice but to postpone his retirement and take on the double case.

On a small island like Nantucket, the Richardsons shook things up from the second they stepped on to the scene, throwing luxurious parties and doing whatever they could to gain admittance to the coveted lunches at the Field & Oar Club (with increasing desperation). They instantly captured the attention of local real estate agent Fast Eddie, and the town gossip Blond Sharon, both dealing with their own personal dramas. Blond Sharon is going through a divorce, and in order to avoid becoming a cliché, she's enrolled in a creative writing class, putting her natural affinity for scandal towards a more noble purpose. To solve the case of the fire and track down his daughter's best friend, the Chief will have to string together the pieces of the lives of all of these characters and more, rallying his strength for his final act of service to the tight-knit community he knows and loves.

The last of Elin Hilderbrand's bestselling Nantucket novels, Swan Song is a propulsive medley of glittering gatherings, sun-soaked drama, wisdom and heart, featuring the return of some of her most beloved characters, including, most importantly, the beautiful and timeless island of Nantucket itself.]]> 400 Elin Hilderbrand 0316259705 Amelia 0 4.28 2024 Swan Song (Nantucket, #4)
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/17
date added: 2025/02/17
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]]> Home (Binti, #2) 43536142
And now she must return home to her people, with her friend Okwu by her side, to face her family and face her elders.

But Okwu will be the first of his race to set foot on Earth in over a hundred years, and the first ever to come in peace.

After generations of conflict can human and Meduse ever learn to truly live in harmony?]]> 168 Nnedi Okorafor Amelia 0 currently-reading 4.21 2017 Home (Binti, #2)
author: Nnedi Okorafor
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> The Family Experiment 197088124 From the acclaimed author of The One and The Marriage Act, The Family Experiment is a dark and brilliant speculative thriller about families: real and virtual.

Some families are virtually perfect�

The world's population is soaring, creating overcrowded cities and an economic crisis. And in the UK, the breaking point has arrived. A growing number of people can no longer afford to start families, let alone raise them.

But for those desperate to experience parenthood, there is an alternative. For a monthly subscription fee, clients can create a virtual child from scratch who they can access via the metaverse and a VR headset. To launch this new initiative, the company behind Virtual Children has created a reality TV show called The Substitute. It will follow ten couples as they raise a Virtual Child from birth to the age of eighteen but in a condensed nine-month time period. The prize: the right to keep their virtual child, or risk it all for the chance of a real baby�

Set in the same universe as John Marrs's bestselling novel The One and The Marriage Act, The Family Experiment is a dark and twisted thriller about the ultimate Tamagotchi—a virtual baby.]]> 465 John Marrs 036974697X Amelia 0 4.16 2024 The Family Experiment
author: John Marrs
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/04
date added: 2025/02/04
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]]> The Tale of Murasaki: A Novel 219651628 The Tale of Murasaki is an elegant and brilliantly authentic historical novel by the author of Geisha and the only Westerner ever to have become a geisha.

In the eleventh century Murasaki Shikibu wrote the world’s first novel, The Tale of Genji, the most popular work in the history of Japanese literature. In The Tale of Murasaki, Liza Dalby has created a breathtaking fictionalized narrative of the life of this timeless poet–a lonely girl who becomes such a compelling storyteller that she is invited to regale the empress with her tales. The Tale of Murasaki is the story of an enchanting time and an exotic place. Whether writing about mystical rice fields in the rainy mountains or the politics and intrigue of the royal court, Dalby breathes astonishing life into ancient Japan.]]> 450 Liza Dalby Amelia 0 currently-reading 4.00 The Tale of Murasaki: A Novel
author: Liza Dalby
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/10
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> Annie Bot 156007669
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?]]> 298 Sierra Greer 0063312719 Amelia 4 3.98 2024 Annie Bot
author: Sierra Greer
name: Amelia
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/07
date added: 2025/01/08
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]]> A Rush of Wings 53802404
This resurrected Mairead is nothing like the old one: to hide her new and monstrous nature, she turns Rowenna’s brothers and Gawen into swans and robs Rowenna of her voice. Forced to flee, Rowenna travels to the city of Inverness to find a way to break the curse. But monsters take many forms, and in Inverness Rowenna is soon caught in a web of strangers who want to use her raw magic for their own gain. If she wishes to save herself and the people she loves most, Rowenna will have to take her fate into her own hands, and unlock the power that has evaded her for so long.]]> 320 Laura E. Weymouth Amelia 3 3.75 2021 A Rush of Wings
author: Laura E. Weymouth
name: Amelia
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/25
date added: 2025/01/08
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]]> The Familiar 133938808
What begins as simple amusement for the bored nobility takes a perilous turn when Luzia garners the notice of Antonio Pérez, the disgraced secretary to Spain's king. Still reeling from the defeat of his armada, the king is desperate for any advantage in the war against England's heretic queen—and Pérez will stop at nothing to regain the king's favor.

Determined to seize this one chance to better her fortunes, Luzia plunges into a world of seers and alchemists, holy men and hucksters, where the line between magic, science, and fraud is never certain. But as her notoriety grows, so does the danger that her Jewish blood will doom her to the Inquisition's wrath. She will have to use every bit of her wit and will to survive—even if that means enlisting the help of Guillén Santángel, an embittered immortal familiar whose own secrets could prove deadly for them both.]]> 387 Leigh Bardugo Amelia 3 4.01 2024 The Familiar
author: Leigh Bardugo
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/30
date added: 2024/12/30
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]]> Funny Story 194802722 A shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.

Daphne always loved the way her fiancé, Peter, told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it... right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.

Which is how Daphne begins her new story: stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak.

Scruffy and chaotic—with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads—Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned-up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them?

But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex... right?]]> 400 Emily Henry Amelia 0 currently-reading 4.21 2024 Funny Story
author: Emily Henry
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/28
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon]]> 156552773 When Michael Lewis first met him, Sam Bankman-Fried was the world’s youngest billionaire and crypto’s Gatsby. CEOs, celebrities, and leaders of small countries all vied for his time and cash after he catapulted, practically overnight, onto the Forbes billionaire list. Who was this rumpled guy in cargo shorts and limp white socks, whose eyes twitched across Zoom meetings as he played video games on the side?
In Going Infinite Lewis sets out to answer this question, taking readers into the mind of Bankman-Fried, whose rise and fall offers an education in high-frequency trading, cryptocurrencies, philanthropy, bankruptcy, and the justice system. Both psychological portrait and financial roller-coaster ride, Going Infinite is Michael Lewis at the top of his game, tracing the mind-bending trajectory of a character who never liked the rules and was allowed to live by his own—until it all came undone.]]> 261 Michael Lewis 1324074345 Amelia 4 4.09 2023 Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon
author: Michael Lewis
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/26
date added: 2024/11/26
shelves:
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]]> A Beautiful Child 8309817
A student at Forest Park High School near Atlanta, Georgia, popular blonde-haired Sharon Marshall was at the top of her class. Serving as a Lt. Colonel in the ROTC, she earned a full scholarship to Georgia Tech University to study aerospace engineering. She was the ultimate girl next door, sweet, generous, and well-adjusted. But Sharon had disturbing secrets so shocking and unique, they took more than a decade to unravel...

This is the horrifying true story of a mysterious young woman caught in the violent web of the murderous fugitive she called her father—and a heartrending testament to the profound courage and perseverance of one woman trapped in the grip of extreme evil]]> 304 Matt Birkbeck 144062366X Amelia 0 currently-reading 4.26 2004 A Beautiful Child
author: Matt Birkbeck
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/02
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> Sociopath 177059532
Patric Gagne realized she made others uncomfortable before she even started kindergarten. Something about her caused people to react in a way she didn’t understand. She suspected it was because she didn’t feel things the way other kids did. Emotions like fear, guilt, and empathy eluded her. For the most part, she felt nothing. And she didn’t like the way that “nothing� felt.

She did her best to pretend she was like everyone else, but the constant pressure to conform to a society that she knew rejected anyone like her was unbearable. So Patric stole. She lied. She was occasionally violent. She became an expert lock-picker and home-invader. All with the goal of replacing the nothingness with…something.

In college, Patric finally confirmed what she’d long suspected. She was a sociopath. But even though it was the very first personality disorder identified—well over 200 years ago—sociopathy has been neglected by mental health professionals for decades. She was told there was no treatment, no hope for a normal life. She found herself haunted by sociopaths in pop culture, madmen, villains, and monsters. Her future looked grim.

But when Patric reconnects with an old flame, she gets a glimpse of a future beyond her diagnosis. If she’s capable of love, it must mean that she isn’t a monster. With the help of her sweetheart (and some curious characters she meets along the way) she embarks on a mission to prove that the millions of Americans who share her diagnosis aren’t all monsters either.]]> 365 Patric Gagne Amelia 5 3.98 2024 Sociopath
author: Patric Gagne
name: Amelia
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/29
date added: 2024/10/29
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]]> <![CDATA[Comfort Me with Apples and Tender at the Bone: Two Culinary Treasures]]> 18780057 TENDER AT THE BONE Growing Up at the Table Ěý “An absolute delight to read . . . How lucky we are that [Reichl] had the courage to follow her appetite.”—Newsday Ěý At an early age, Ruth Reichl discovered that “food could be a way of making sense of the world.â€� Beginning with her mother, the notorious food-poisoner known as the Queen of Mold, Reichl introduces us to the fascinating characters who shaped her world and tastes, from the gourmand Monsieur du Croix, who served Reichl her first foie gras, to those at her table in Berkeley who championed the organic food revolution in the 1970s. Spiced with Reichl’s infectious humor and sprinkled with her favorite recipes, Tender at the Bone is a witty and compelling chronicle of a culinary sensualist’s coming-of-age. Ěý COMFORT ME WITH APPLES More Adventures at the Table Ěý “Reichl writes with gusto, and her story has all the ingredients of a modern fairy hard work, weird food, and endless curiosity.”—The New Yorker Ěý Comfort Me with Apples picks up Reichl’s story in 1978, when she puts down her chef ’s toque and embarks on a career as a restaurant critic. Her pursuit of good food and good company leads her to New York and China, France and Los Angeles, and her stories of cooking and dining with world-famous chefs range from the madcap to the sublime. Through it all, Reichl makes each and every course a hilarious and instructive occasion for novices and experts alike, told in a style so honest and warm that readers will feel they are enjoying a conversation over a meal with a friend.Praise for Tender at the Bone Ěý “While all good food writers are humorous . . . few are so riotously, effortlessly entertaining as Ruth Reichl.â€�—The New York Times Book Review Ěý “A poignant, yet hilarious, collection of stories about people [Reichl] has known and loved, and who, knowingly or unknowingly, steered her on the path to fulfill her destiny as one of the world’s leading food writers.â€�—Chicago Sun-Times Ěý Praise for Comfort Me with Apples Ěý “Magnificent . . . an extended, lilting song about lovesickness and the restorative succor of good food. [] Aâ€�—Entertainment Weekly Ěý “Compelling . . . The book’s charm emerges from Reichl’s writing, her observations and her amazing ability to capture people in a few memorable sentences. . . . You just have to read it.]]> 748 Ruth Reichl 0812985486 Amelia 4 4.25 2013 Comfort Me with Apples and Tender at the Bone: Two Culinary Treasures
author: Ruth Reichl
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2020/10/20
date added: 2024/09/23
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Grape, Olive, Pig: Deep Travels Through Spain's Food Culture]]> 29242437
Gourmand World Cookbook Award Culinary Travel

Amazon Best Book of November (2016): Cookbooks, Food and Wine

Financial Times Best Books of 2017: Food and Travel

"Goulding is pioneering a new type of writing about food. His last book, Rice, Noodle, Fish, took an immersive approach to Japan that combined travel, social observation and food lore. His new book on Spain offers little cooking advice but an inquisitive foodie intellectual's experience." (Financial Times)

Crafted in the same “refreshing� (AP), “inspirational� (Publishers Weekly) and “impeccably observed� (Eater.com) style that drove Rice, Noodle, Fish, Roads & Kingdoms again presents a book that will change the way readers eat and travel abroad. The second in their series of unexpected and delightful gastro-tourism books, Grape, Olive, Pig is a deeply personal exploration of a country where eating and living are inextricably linked. As Anthony Bourdain “Any reasonable, sentient person who looks to Spain, comes to Spain, eats in Spain, drinks in Spain, they’re gonna fall in love. Otherwise, there’s something deeply wrong with you.�

Matt Goulding introduces you to the sprawling culinary and geographical landscape of his adoptive home, and offers an intimate portrait of this multifaceted country, its remarkable people, and its complex history. Fall in love with Barcelona’s tiny tapas bars and modernist culinary temples. Explore the movable feast of small plates and late nights in Madrid. Join the three-thousand-year-old hunt for Bluefin tuna off the coast of Cadiz, then continue your seafood journey north to meet three sisters who risk their lives foraging the gooseneck barnacle, one of Spain’s most treasured ingredients. Delight in some of the world’s most innovative and avant-garde edible creations in San Sebastian, and then wash them down with cider from neighboring Asturias. Sample the world’s finest acorn-fed ham in Salamanca, share in the traditions of cave-dwelling shepherds in the mountains beyond Granada, and debate what constitutes truly authentic paella in Valencia.

Grape, Olive, Pig reveals hidden gems and enduring delicacies from across this extraordinary country, contextualizing each meal with the stories behind the food in a cultural narrative complemented by stunning color photography. Whether you’ve visited Spain or have only dreamed of bellying up to its tapas bars, Grape, Olive, Pig will wake your imagination, rouse your hunger, and capture your heart.]]> 367 Matt Goulding 0062394142 Amelia 4 4.17 2016 Grape, Olive, Pig: Deep Travels Through Spain's Food Culture
author: Matt Goulding
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2019/01/08
date added: 2024/09/23
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]]> <![CDATA[All You Need to Know About the Music Business]]> 27221172 545 Donald S. Passman 150110490X Amelia 4 4.41 2013 All You Need to Know About the Music Business
author: Donald S. Passman
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2018/07/04
date added: 2024/09/21
shelves:
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]]> Together We Rot 58712247 A teen girl looking for the truth about her missing mother forms a reluctant alliance with her former best friend...in exchange for hiding him from his cult-leading family.

Wil Greene’s mom has been missing for over a year, and the police are ready to call the case closed—they claim she skipped town and you can’t find a woman who wants to disappear. But she knows her mom wouldn’t just leave…and she knows the family of her former best friend, Elwood Clarke, has something to do with it.

Elwood has been counting down the days until his 18th birthday—in dread. It marks leaving school and joining his pastor father in dedicating his life to their congregation, the Garden of Adam. But when he comes home after one night of after a final goodbye with his friends, already self-flagellating for the sins of drinking and disobeying his father, he discovers his path is not as virtuous as he thought. He’s not his father’s successor, but his sacrifice. For the woods he’s grown up with are thirsty, and must be paid in blood.

Now on the run from a family that wants him dead, he turns to the only one who will believe him: Wil. Together, they form a reluctant partnership; she’ll help him hide if he helps her find evidence that his family killed her mother. But in the end they dig up more secrets than they bargained for, unraveling decades of dark cult dealings in their town, led by the Clarke family.

And there’s a reason they need Elwood’s blood for their satanic rituals. Something inhuman is growing inside of him. Everywhere he goes, the plants come alive and the forest calls to him, and Wil isn’t sure if she can save the boy she can’t help but love.]]> 272 Skyla Arndt 0593526287 Amelia 4 3.77 2023 Together We Rot
author: Skyla Arndt
name: Amelia
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/28
date added: 2024/09/20
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]]> The Rainmaker 50401084
By the time Rudy gets to court, a heavyweight corporate defense team is there to meet him. And suddenly he's in over his head, plunged into a nightmare of lies and legal maneuverings. A case that started small is exploding into a thunderous million-dollar war of nerves, skill and outright violence--a fight that could cost one young lawyer his life, or turn him into the biggest rainmaker in the land....]]> 611 John Grisham Amelia 0 currently-reading 4.57 1995 The Rainmaker
author: John Grisham
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.57
book published: 1995
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/15
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Forum: The Secret Advantage of Successful Leaders]]> 24680583 166 Mo Fathelbab Amelia 0 currently-reading 4.67 2008 Forum: The Secret Advantage of Successful Leaders
author: Mo Fathelbab
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.67
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/02
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Salt and Fury (Thalassic, #1) 123966195
In a brutal dystopian water world, where survival depends on skill and smarts, Bird Howsley is a beautiful disaster. A drunken sailor, a sharp-tongued back-talker, and a magnet for chaos, Bird is one bad decision away from watching her life go completely under water.

Her only lifeline? Level-headed sailing teacher, Sargo Paz. Sargo is a second-generation immigrant striving to prove himself in a city where no one looks like him, and despite Bird's salty demeanor, he seems determined not to give up on her.

But when a cryptic message from her dead brother sets Bird on a quest to find answers about her past, one reckless act puts her and Sargo in the crosshairs of a dangerous underground organization hell-bent on their demise.

Forced to flee their hometown, they embark on a treacherous voyage across the Salt - where perilous seas and close quarters stir up emotions neither of them expected, and they discover that the organization they're running from holds darker secrets than they ever imagined...]]> 375 Liz Shipton Amelia 0 currently-reading 3.87 2023 Salt and Fury (Thalassic, #1)
author: Liz Shipton
name: Amelia
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/02
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter, #5)]]> 2
Harry has had enough. He is beginning to think he must do something, anything, to change his situation, when the summer holidays come to an end in a very dramatic fashion. What Harry is about to discover in his new year at Hogwarts will turn his world upside down...]]> 912 J.K. Rowling Amelia 4 4.50 2003 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter, #5)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/08/31
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It]]> 45166937 204 April Dunford 1999023013 Amelia 0 currently-reading 4.26 Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It
author: April Dunford
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.26
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/16
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]]> The Complete Fiction 30829086 The Complete Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft collects the author's novel, four novellas, and fifty-three short stories. Written between the years 1917 and 1935, this collection features Lovecraft's trademark fantastical creatures and supernatural thrills, as well as many horrific and cautionary science-fiction themes, that have influenced some of today's writers and filmmakers, including Stephen King, Alan Moore, F. Paul Wilson, Guillermo del Toro, and Neil Gaiman. Included in this volume are The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, "The Call of Cthulhu," "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath," "At the Mountains of Madness," "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," "The Color Out of Space," "The Dunwich Horror," and many more hair-raising tales.]]> 1342 H.P. Lovecraft 6050470324 Amelia 4 4.28 The Complete Fiction
author: H.P. Lovecraft
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.28
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2016/12/09
date added: 2024/08/07
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]]> <![CDATA[Remember Who You Are: 15 Harvard Professors Tell Life Stories That Inspire the Heart and Mind]]> 25424831 131 Daisy Wademan 1633690369 Amelia 3 3.86 2004 Remember Who You Are: 15 Harvard Professors Tell Life Stories That Inspire the Heart and Mind
author: Daisy Wademan
name: Amelia
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 2016/05/28
date added: 2024/08/06
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]]> Five Total Strangers 49169365 A hitched ride home in a snow storm turns sinister when one of the passengers is plotting for the ride to end in disaster.

When Mira flies home to spend Christmas with her mother in Pittsburgh, a record-breaking blizzard results in a cancelled layover. Desperate to get to her grief-ridden mother in the wake of a family death, Mira hitches a ride with a group of friendly college kids who were on her initial flight.

As the drive progresses and weather conditions become more treacherous, Mira realizes that the four other passengers she's stuck in the car with don't actually know one another.

Soon, they're not just dealing with heavy snowfall and ice-slick roads, but the fact that somebody will stop at nothing to ensure their trip ends in a deadly disaster.]]> 302 Natalie D. Richards 1492657212 Amelia 0 3.27 2020 Five Total Strangers
author: Natalie D. Richards
name: Amelia
average rating: 3.27
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/22
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]]> My Name Is Barbra 105269213
Barbra Streisand is by any account a living legend, a woman who in a career spanning six decades has excelled in every area of entertainment. She is among the handful of EGOT winners (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony) and has one of the greatest and most recognizable voices in popular music. She has been nominated for a Grammy 46 times, and with Yentl she became the first woman to write, produce, direct, and star in a major motion picture. In My Name Is Barbra, she tells her own story about her life and extraordinary career, from growing up in Brooklyn to her first star-making appearances in New York nightclubs to her breakout performance in Funny Girl (musical and film) to the long string of successes in every medium in the years that followed. The book is, like Barbra herself, frank, funny, opinionated, and charming. She recounts her early struggles to become an actress, eventually turning to singing to earn a living;the recording of some of her acclaimed albums; the years of effort involved in making Yentl; her direction of The Prince of Tides; her friendships with figures ranging from Marlon Brando to Madeleine Albright; her political advocacy; and the fulfillment she’s found in her marriage to James Brolin.

No entertainer’s memoir has been more anticipated than Barbra Streisand’s, and this engrossing and delightful book will be eagerly welcomed by her millions of fans.]]> 989 Barbra Streisand 0698405250 Amelia 0 currently-reading 4.38 2023 My Name Is Barbra
author: Barbra Streisand
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/15
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]]> Camino Island 41310871 This is an updated cover of this Kindle edition. *

A gang of thieves stage a daring heist from a vault deep below Princeton University’s Firestone Library. Their loot is priceless, impossible to resist.

Bruce Cable owns a popular bookstore in the sleepy resort town of Santa Rosa on Camino Island in Florida. He makes his real money, though, as a prominent dealer in rare books. Very few people know that he occasionally dabbles in unsavory ventures.

Mercer Mann is a young novelist with a severe case of writer’s block who has recently been laid off from her teaching position. She is approached by an elegant, mysterious woman working for an even more mysterious company. A generous monetary offer convinces Mercer to go undercover and infiltrate Cable’s circle of literary friends, to get close to the ringleader, to discover his secrets.

But soon Mercer learns far too much, and there’s trouble in paradise—as only John Grisham can deliver it.]]> 306 John Grisham 0385543050 Amelia 0 4.20 2017 Camino Island
author: John Grisham
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at: 2024/07/08
date added: 2024/07/08
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]]> <![CDATA[Bridgerton Collection, Volume 1 (Bridgertons #1-3)]]> 53565978
An enchanting collection containing the first three novels in New York Times bestselling author Julia Quinn’s beloved Bridgerton series set in Regency England�The Duke and I, The Viscount Who Loved Me, and An Offer from a Gentleman—now a series created by Shondaland for Netflix


The Duke and I
When Daphne Bridgerton and Simon Basset, Duke of Hastings, agree to a fake courtship, they think they’ve found the perfect solution to their problems. Romantically associated with one of London’s most desirable catches, Daphne’s prospects among the ton will soar. For avowed bachelor Simon, an attachment to Daphne will deter would-be brides and their ambitious mamas. Their plan works like a charm—at first. But amid the glittering, gossipy, cut-throat world of London’s elite, there is only one certainty: love ignores every rule. . .

The Viscount Who Loved Me
London's most elusive bachelor, Anthony Bridgerton is determined to wed. But one obstacle stands in his way—his intended's older sister, Kate Sheffield, who is driving Anthony mad with her determination to stop the betrothal. Kate is quite sure that reformed rakes do not make the best husbands, and Anthony Bridgerton is the most wicked rogue of them all. She’s determined to protect her sister—even as she fears she may not be able to resist the reprehensible and oh so desirable rake herself . . .


An Offer from a Gentleman
Sophie Beckett never dreamed she'd be able to sneak into Lady Bridgerton's famed masquerade ball—or that she would be spinning in the arms of her "Prince Charming"—the debonair and devastatingly handsome Benedict Bridgerton. But when the clock strikes midnight, Sophie’s enchanting evening ends. Since that night Benedict has been able to think of nothing but the bewitching young woman, and he’s sworn to find and wed his mystery miss. Yet will another unexpectedly steal his heart—and his chance for a fairy tale love?]]> 1053 Julia Quinn 0063045117 Amelia 0 currently-reading 4.29 2000 Bridgerton Collection, Volume 1 (Bridgertons #1-3)
author: Julia Quinn
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/07
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]]> The True Love Experiment 62625433 Sparks fly when a romance novelist and a documentary filmmaker join forces to craft the perfect Hollywood love story and take both of their careers to the next level—but only if they can keep the chemistry between them from taking the whole thing off script.

Felicity “Fizzy� Chen is lost. Sure, she’s got an incredible career as a beloved romance novelist with a slew of bestsellers under her belt, but when she’s asked to give a commencement address, it hits her: she hasn’t been practicing what she’s preached.

Fizzy hasn’t ever really been in love. Lust? Definitely. But that swoon-worthy, can’t-stop-thinking-about-him, all-encompassing feeling? Nope. Nothing. What happens when the optimism she’s spent her career encouraging in readers starts to feel like a lie?

Connor Prince, documentary filmmaker and single father, loves his work in large part because it allows him to live near his daughter. But when his profit-minded boss orders him to create a reality TV show, putting his job on the line, Connor is out of his element. Desperate to find his romantic lead, a chance run-in with an exasperated Fizzy offers Connor the perfect solution. What if he could show the queen of romance herself falling head-over-heels for all the world to see? Fizzy gives him a hard pass—unless he agrees to her list of demands. When he says yes, and production on The True Love Experiment begins, Connor wonders if that perfect match will ever be in the cue cards for him, too.

The True Love Experiment is the book fans have been waiting for ever since Fizzy’s debut in The Soulmate Equation. But when the lights come on and all eyes are on her, it turns out the happily ever after Fizzy had all but given up on might lie just behind the camera.]]> 413 Christina Lauren Amelia 0 currently-reading 4.23 2023 The True Love Experiment
author: Christina Lauren
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/07
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]]> The Wandering Earth 56525263
It can be terrifying to contemplate the end of our world and stories that describe such destruction can be disturbing. At the same time however, they can leave us feeling not only entertained, but exhilarated and inspired. Maybe, they can even give us a chance to renew our love of life. Most stories found in the “The Wandering Earth� collection take us to a sci-fi vision of Earth's end. But here, there are no Hollywood aliens, descending from the depths of space to blow up our cities. In these futures, the dangers humanity faces are much stranger and whimsical than that. The unexpected calamities that befall his richly detailed worlds are only eclipsed by humanity's epic, but always plausible, attempts to escape destruction.

In all this peril and doom, Liu Cixin always feels for humanity. His stories are full of a deep love for all of Earth's peoples. But even this love does not escape reflection and even ridicule when viewed through his unrelenting cosmic lens. No matter how dearly one loves the Earth, humanity and all its cultures, there is no avoiding the cold, hard truth that they mean absolutely nothing when viewed against the vastness of the universe. But even an infinite universe could not change the simple fact that we are worthy of love, that we need love. It is this twist that lies at the very heart of the stories in this collection.

Table of Contents

1 The Wandering Earth
2 Mountain
3 Of Ants and Dinosaurs
4 Sun of China
5 The Wages of Humanity
6 Curse 5.0
7 The Micro-Age
8 Devourer
9 Taking Care of Gods
10 With Her Eyes
11 The Longest Fall]]> 439 Liu Cixin Amelia 0 currently-reading 4.25 2000 The Wandering Earth
author: Liu Cixin
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2000
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/25
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]]> <![CDATA[Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #1)]]> 51603444 What would you change if you could travel back in time?

 Down a small alleyway in the heart of Tokyo, there’s an underground café that’s been serving carefully brewed coffee for over a hundred years. Local legend says that this shop offers its customers something else besides coffee—the chance to travel back in time.

The rules, however, are far from simple: you must sit in one particular seat, and you can’t venture outside the café, nor can you change the present. And, most important, you only have the time it takes to drink a hot cup of coffee—or risk getting stuck forever.

Over the course of one summer, four customers visit the café in the hopes of traveling to another time: a heartbroken lover looking for closure, a nurse with a mysterious letter from her husband, a waitress hoping to say one last goodbye and a mother whose child she may never get the chance to know.

Heartwarming, wistful and delightfully quirky, Before the Coffee Gets Cold explores the intersecting lives of four women who come together in one extraordinary café, where the service may not be quick, but the opportunities are endless.]]> 227 Toshikazu Kawaguchi 1488077215 Amelia 3 3.80 2015 Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #1)
author: Toshikazu Kawaguchi
name: Amelia
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/15
date added: 2024/06/15
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]]> <![CDATA[Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things]]> 157066095 #1 New York Times bestseller

"This brilliant book will shatter your assumptions about what it takes to improve and succeed. I wish I could go back in time and gift it to my younger self. It would've helped me find a more joyful path to progress."
-Serena Williams, 23-time Grand Slam singles tennis champion

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again illuminates how we can elevate ourselves and others to unexpected heights.

We live in a world that’s obsessed with talent. We celebrate gifted students in school, natural athletes in sports, and child prodigies in music. But admiring people who start out with innate advantages leads us to overlook the distances we ourselves can travel. We can all improve at improving. And when opportunity doesn’t knock, there are ways to build a door.

Hidden Potential offers a new framework for raising aspirations and exceeding expectations. Adam Grant weaves together groundbreaking evidence, surprising insights, and vivid story­telling that takes us from the classroom to the boardroom, the playground to the Olympics, and underground to outer space. He shows that progress depends less on how hard you work than how well you learn. Growth is not about the genius you possess � it’s about the character you develop. Grant explores how to build the charac­ter skills and motivational structures to realize our own potential, and how to design systems that create opportunities for those who have been underrated and overlooked.

This book reveals how anyone can rise to achieve greater things. The true measure of your potential is not the height of the peak you’ve reached, but how far you’ve climbed to get there.]]> 302 Adam M. Grant Amelia 0 currently-reading 4.39 2023 Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things
author: Adam M. Grant
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/31
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]]> The Night Circus 181864669 Two starcrossed magicians engage in a deadly game of cunning in The Night Circus, the spellbinding bestseller that has captured the world's imagination.

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des RĂŞves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway: a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them both, this is a game in which only one can be left standing. Despite the high stakes, Celia and Marco soon tumble headfirst into love, setting off a domino effect of dangerous consequences, and leaving the lives of everyone, from the performers to the patrons, hanging in the balance.]]> 401 Erin Morgenstern 0385534639 Amelia 3 3.97 2011 The Night Circus
author: Erin Morgenstern
name: Amelia
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/20
date added: 2024/05/20
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]]> <![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:
-ĚýMake time for new habits (even when life gets crazy);
-ĚýOvercome 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 Amelia 5 4.34 2018 Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
author: James Clear
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/10
date added: 2024/05/10
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]]> <![CDATA[Three Minutes for a Dog: My Life in an Iron Lung]]> 53512994 155 Paul R. Alexander 1525525336 Amelia 5 4.09 Three Minutes for a Dog: My Life in an Iron Lung
author: Paul R. Alexander
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.09
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/17
date added: 2024/03/17
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]]> <![CDATA[Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear]]> 168933311 Jinger Vuolo, the sixth child in the famous Duggar family of TLC's 19 Kids and Counting and Counting On, recounts how she began to question the unhealthy ideology of her youth and learned to embrace true freedom in Christ.

When Jinger Duggar Vuolo was growing up, she was convinced that obeying the rules was the key to success and God's favor. She zealously promoted the Basic Life Principles of Bill Gothard,

- fastidiously obeying the modesty guidelines (no shorts or jeans, only dresses),
- eagerly submitting to the umbrella of authority (any disobedience of parents would place her outside God's protection),
-Ěýpromoting the relationship standard of courtship, and
- avoiding any music with a worldly beat, among others.

Jinger, along with three of her sisters, wrote a New York Times bestseller about their religious convictions. She believed this level of commitment would guarantee God's blessing, even though in private she felt constant fear that she wasn't measuring up to the high standards demanded of her.

In Becoming Free Indeed, Jinger shares how in her early twenties, a new family member—a brother-in-law who didn't grow up in the same tight-knit conservative circle as Jinger—caused her to examine her beliefs. He was committed to the Bible, but he didn't believe many of the things Jinger had always assumed were true. His influence, along with the help of a pastor named Jeremy Vuolo, caused Jinger to see that her life was built on rules, not God's Word.

Jinger committed to studying the Bible—truly understanding it—for the first time. What resulted was an earth-shaking realization: much of what she'd always believed about God, obedience to His Word, and personal holiness wasn't in-line with what the Bible teaches.

Now with a renewed faith of personal conviction, Becoming Free Indeed shares what it was like living under the tenants of Bill Gothard, the Biblical truth that changed her perspective, and how she disentangled her faith with her belief in Jesus intact.]]> 238 Jinger Duggar Vuolo Amelia 3 3.71 2023 Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear
author: Jinger Duggar Vuolo
name: Amelia
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/14
date added: 2024/03/14
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]]> Counting the Cost 167770288
Jill and Derick knew a normal life wasn’t possible for them. As a star on the popular TLC reality show 19 Kids and Counting, Jill grew up in front of viewers who were fascinated by her family’s way of life. She was the responsible, second daughter of Jim Bob and Michelle’s nineteen kids; always with a baby on her hip and happy to wear the modest ankle-length dresses with throat-high necklines. She didn’t protest the strict model of patriarchy that her family followed, which declares that men are superior, that women are expected to be wives and mothers and are discouraged from attaining a higher education, and that parental authority over their children continues well into adulthood, even once they are married.

But as Jill got older, married Derick, and they embarked on their own lives, the red flags became too obvious to ignore. For as long as they could, Jill and Derick tried to be obedient family members � they weren’t willing to rock the boat. But now they’re raising a family of their own, and they’re done with the secrets. Thanks to time, tears, therapy, and blessings from God, they have the strength to share their journey. Theirs is a remarkable story of the power of the truth and is a moving example of how to find healing through honesty.]]> 287 Jill Duggar Amelia 4 4.01 2023 Counting the Cost
author: Jill Duggar
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/10
date added: 2024/03/14
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]]> <![CDATA[The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession]]> 58929334 One of the most remarkable true-crime narratives of the twenty-first the story of the world’s most prolific art thief, Stéphane Breitwieser.

In this spellbinding portrait of obsession and flawed genius, the best-selling author of The Stranger in the Woods brings us into Breitwieser’s strange world—unlike most thieves, he never stole for money, keeping all his treasures in a single room where he could admire them.

For centuries, works of art have been stolen in countless ways from all over the world, but no one has been quite as successful at it as the master thief Stéphane Breitwieser. Carrying out more than two hundred heists over nearly eight years—in museums and cathedrals all over Europe—Breitwieser, along with his girlfriend who worked as his lookout, stole more than three hundred objects, until it all fell apart in spectacular fashion.

In The Art Thief, Michael Finkel brings us into Breitwieser’s strange and fascinating world. Unlike most thieves, Breitwieser never stole for money. Instead, he displayed all his treasures in a pair of secret rooms where he could admire them to his heart’s content. Possessed of a remarkable athleticism and an innate ability to circumvent practically any security system, Breitwieser managed to pull off a breathtaking number of audacious thefts. Yet these strange talents bred a growing disregard for risk and an addict’s need to score, leading Breitwieser to ignore his girlfriend’s pleas to stop—until one final act of hubris brought everything crashing down.

This is a riveting story of art, crime, love, and an insatiable hunger to possess beauty at any cost.]]> 384 Michael Finkel 0525657339 Amelia 4 4.12 2023 The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession
author: Michael Finkel
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/03
date added: 2024/03/14
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]]> <![CDATA[Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boys, and the New Realities of Girl World]]> 31177653
“There’s a clique in my daughter’s grade that’s making her life miserable. She doesn’t want to go to school anymore. Her own supposed friends are turning on her, and she’s too afraid to do anything. What can I do?�

Welcome to the wonderful world of your daughter’s adolescence. A world in which she comes to school one day to find that her friends have suddenly decided that she no longer belongs. Or she’s teased mercilessly for wearing the wrong outfit or having the wrong friend. Or branded with a reputation she can’t shake. Or pressured into conforming so she won’t be kicked out of the group. For better or worse, your daughter’s friendships are the key to enduring adolescence—as well as the biggest threat to her well-being.

In her groundbreaking book, Queen Bees and Wannabes, Empower cofounder Rosalind Wiseman takes you inside the secret world of girls� friendships. Wiseman has spent more than a decade listening to thousands of girls talk about the powerful role cliques play in shaping what they wear and say, how they respond to boys, and how they feel about themselves. In this candid, insightful book, she dissects each role in the clique: Queen Bees, Wannabes, Messengers, Bankers, Targets, Torn Bystanders, and more. She discusses girls� power plays, from birthday invitations to cafeteria seating arrangements and illicit parties. She takes readers into “Girl World� to analyze teasing, gossip, and reputations; beauty and fashion; alcohol and drugs; boys and sex; and more, and how cliques play a role in every situation.

Each chapter includes “Check Your Baggage� sections to help you identify how your own background and biases affect how you see your daughter. “What You Can Do to Help� sections offer extensive sample scripts, bulleted lists, and other easy-to-use advice to get you inside your daughter’s world and help you
help her.

It’s not just about helping your daughter make it alive out of junior high. This book will help you understand how your daughter’s relationship with friends and cliques sets the stage for other intimate relationships as she grows and guides her when she has tougher choices to make about intimacy, drinking and drugs, and other hazards. With its revealing look into the secret world of teenage girls and cliques, enlivened with the voices of dozens of girls and a much-needed sense of humor, Queen Bees and Wannabes will equip you with all the tools you need to build the right foundation to help your daughter make smarter choices and empower her during this baffling, tumultuous time of life.]]> 444 Rosalind Wiseman 1101903066 Amelia 0 currently-reading 3.89 2002 Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boys, and the New Realities of Girl World
author: Rosalind Wiseman
name: Amelia
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/01
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Pageboy: A Memoir 61332132 The Oscar-nominated star who captivated the world with his performance in Juno finally shares his truth.

"Can I kiss you?" It was two months before the world premiere of Juno, and Elliot Page was in his first ever queer bar. The hot summer air hung heavy around him as he looked at her. And then it happened. In front of everyone. A previously unfathomable experience. Here he was on the precipice of discovering himself as a queer person, as a trans person. Getting closer to his desires, his dreams, himself, without the repression he'd carried for so long. But for Elliot, two steps forward had always come with one step back.

With Juno's massive success, Elliot became one of the world's most beloved actors. His dreams were coming true, but the pressure to perform suffocated him. He was forced to play the part of the glossy young starlet, a role that made his skin crawl, on and off set. The career that had been an escape out of his reality and into a world of imagination was suddenly a nightmare.

As he navigated criticism and abuse from some of the most powerful people in Hollywood, a past that snapped at his heels, and a society dead set on forcing him into a binary, Elliot often stayed silent, unsure of what to do, until enough was enough. Full of behind the scenes details and intimate interrogations on sex, love, trauma, and Hollywood, Pageboy is the story of a life pushed to the brink. But at its core, this beautifully written, winding journey of what it means to untangle ourselves from the expectations of others is an ode to stepping into who we truly are with defiance, strength, and joy.]]> 265 Elliot Page 1529902037 Amelia 0 currently-reading 3.88 2023 Pageboy: A Memoir
author: Elliot Page
name: Amelia
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/02/19
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]]> <![CDATA[How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told]]> 74891920 Harrison Scott Key, winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor, tells the shocking, “shot through with sharp humor� (The Washington Post), spiritually profound story of his journey through hell and back when infidelity threatens his marriage.

One gorgeous autumn day, Harrison discovers that his wife—the sweet, funny, loving mother of their three daughters, a woman “who’s spent just about every Sunday of her life in a church”—is having an affair with a family friend. This revelation propels the hysterical, heartbreaking events in How to Stay Married, casting our narrator onto “the factory floor of hell,� where his wife was now in love with a man who “wears cargo shorts, on purpose.� What will he do? Kick her out? Set fire to all her panties in the yard? Beat this man to death with a gardening implement? Ask God for help in winning her back?

Armed only with a sense of humor and a hunger for the truth, Harrison embarks on a hellish journey into his past, seeking answers to the riddles of faith and forgiveness. Through an absurd series of escalating confessions and betrayals, Harrison reckons with his failure to love his wife in the ways she needed most, resolves to fight for his family, and in a climax almost too ridiculous to be believed, finally learns that love is no joke. “A fiercely memorable account of marital devotion against all odds� (Publishers Weekly, starred review), How to Stay Married is a comic romp unlike any in contemporary literature, a wild ride through the hellscape of marriage and the mysteries of mercy.]]> 317 Harrison Scott Key 1668015668 Amelia 5 4.13 2023 How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told
author: Harrison Scott Key
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/17
date added: 2024/02/17
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]]> Holly (Holly Gibney #3) 83638977
“Sometimes the universe throws you a rope.� —BILL HODGES

Stephen King’s Holly marks the triumphant return of beloved King character Holly Gibney. Readers have witnessed Holly’s gradual transformation from a shy (but also brave and ethical) recluse in Mr. Mercedes to Bill Hodges’s partner in Finders Keepers to a full-fledged, smart, and occasionally tough private detective in The Outsider. In King’s new novel, Holly is on her own, and up against a pair of unimaginably depraved and brilliantly disguised adversaries.

When Penny Dahl calls the Finders Keepers detective agency hoping for help locating her missing daughter, Holly is reluctant to accept the case. Her partner, Pete, has Covid. Her (very complicated) mother has just died. And Holly is meant to be on leave. But something in Penny Dahl’s desperate voice makes it impossible for Holly to turn her down.

Mere blocks from where Bonnie Dahl disappeared live Professors Rodney and Emily Harris. They are the picture of bourgeois respectability: married octogenarians, devoted to each other, and semi-retired lifelong academics. But they are harboring an unholy secret in the basement of their well-kept, book-lined home, one that may be related to Bonnie’s disappearance. And it will prove nearly impossible to discover what they are up to: they are savvy, they are patient, and they are ruthless.

Holly must summon all her formidable talents to outthink and outmaneuver the shockingly twisted professors in this chilling new masterwork from Stephen King.

“I could never let Holly Gibney go. She was supposed to be a walk-on character in Mr. Mercedes and she just kind of stole the book and stole my heart. Holly is all her.� —STEPHEN KING]]> 464 Stephen King Amelia 0 4.32 2023 Holly (Holly Gibney #3)
author: Stephen King
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/02/08
date added: 2024/02/08
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]]> <![CDATA[Death on the Nile (Hercule Poirot, #18)]]> 54110717 Beloved detective Hercule Poirot embarks on a journey to EgyptĚýin one of Agatha Christie’s most famous mysteries.

The tranquility of a luxury cruise along the Nile was shattered by the discovery that Linnet Ridgeway had been shot through the head. She was young, stylish, and beautiful. A girl who had everything . . . until she lost her life.

Hercule Poirot recalled an earlier outburst by a fellow passenger: “I’d like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger.� Yet under the searing heat of the Egyptian sun, nothing is ever quite what it seems.

A sweeping mystery of love, jealousy, and betrayal,ĚýDeath on the NileĚýis one of Christie’s most legendary and timeless works.

]]> 343 Agatha Christie Amelia 0 currently-reading 4.26 1937 Death on the Nile (Hercule Poirot, #18)
author: Agatha Christie
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1937
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/02
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> The Love Hypothesis 59336483 An alternative cover edition for this ASIN can be found here.

As a third-year Ph.D. candidate, Olive Smith doesn't believe in lasting romantic relationships--but her best friend does, and that's what got her into this situation. Convincing Anh that Olive is dating and well on her way to a happily ever after was always going to take more than hand-wavy Jedi mind tricks: Scientists require proof. So, like any self-respecting biologist, Olive panics and kisses the first man she sees.

That man is none other than Adam Carlsen, a young hotshot professor--and well-known ass. Which is why Olive is positively floored when Stanford's reigning lab tyrant agrees to keep her charade a secret and be her fake boyfriend. But when a big science conference goes haywire, putting Olive's career on the Bunsen burner, Adam surprises her again with his unyielding support and even more unyielding...six-pack abs.

Suddenly their little experiment feels dangerously close to combustion. And Olive discovers that the only thing more complicated than a hypothesis on love is putting her own heart under the microscope.]]> 383 Ali Hazelwood Amelia 0 4.21 2021 The Love Hypothesis
author: Ali Hazelwood
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2024/01/13
date added: 2024/01/13
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]]> Defiant (Skyward, #4) 123024906 The final book in an epic series about a girl who will travel beyond the stars to save the world she loves from destruction.

Spensa made it out of the Nowhere, but what she saw in the space between the stars has changed her forever. She came face to face with the Delvers, and finally got answers to the questions she’s had about her own strange Cytonic gifts.

The Superiority didn’t stop in it’s fight for galactic dominance while she was gone, though. Spensa’s team, Skyward Flight, was able to hold Winzik off, and even collect allies to help with the cause, but it’s only a matter of time until humanity–and the rest of the galaxy–falls.

Defeating them will require all the knowledge Spensa gathered while in the Nowhere. But being Cytonic is more complicated than she ever could have imagined. Now, Spensa must ask herself: how far is she willing to go for victory, if it means losing herself–and her friends–in the process.

The final book in the Skyward series will free humanity, or see it fall forever.]]> 414 Brandon Sanderson Amelia 0 currently-reading 4.51 2023 Defiant (Skyward, #4)
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/12
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> Cytonic (Skyward, #3) 58167188 375 Brandon Sanderson 0399555870 Amelia 0 4.29 2021 Cytonic (Skyward, #3)
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2024/01/04
date added: 2024/01/04
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]]> <![CDATA[The Secret Knowledge of Water : There are Two Easy Ways to Die in the Desert: Thirst and Drowning]]> 6358192 Naturalist Craig Childs's "utterly memorable and fantastic" study of the desert's dangerous beauty is based on years of adventures in the deserts of the American West (Washington Post).ĚýLike the highest mountain peaks, deserts are environments that can be inhospitable even to the most seasoned explorers. Craig Childs, who has spent years in the deserts of the American West as an adventurer, a river guide, and a field instructor in natural history, has developed a keen appreciation for these forbidding their beauty, their wonder, and especially their paradoxes. His extraordinary treks through arid lands in search of water are an astonishing revelation of the natural world at its most extreme.Ěý"Utterly memorable and fantastic...Certainly no reader will ever see the desert in the same way again."Ěý—Suzannah Lessard,ĚýWashington Post]]> 285 Craig Childs Amelia 0 currently-reading 4.36 2000 The Secret Knowledge of Water : There are Two Easy Ways to Die in the Desert: Thirst and Drowning
author: Craig Childs
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2000
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/01
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]]> <![CDATA[Shiny Broken Pieces (Tiny Pretty Things, #2)]]> 27617333
June is starting to finally see herself as a prima ballerina. However, getting what she wants might cost her everything—including the only boy she’s ever loved. Legacy dancer Bette is determined to clear her name after she was suspended and accused of hurting her rival, Gigi. Even if she returns, though, will she ever regain the spotlight she craves? And Gigi is not going to let Bette—or the other dancers who bullied her—go unpunished. But as revenge consumes her, Gigi may be the one who pays the price.

After years of grueling auditions, torn ribbons, and broken hearts, it all comes down to this last dance. Who will make the cut? And who will lose her dream forever?]]> 384 Sona Charaipotra 0062342444 Amelia 0 currently-reading 3.95 2016 Shiny Broken Pieces (Tiny Pretty Things, #2)
author: Sona Charaipotra
name: Amelia
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/10
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[Tiny Pretty Things (Tiny Pretty Things, #1)]]> 18710209
Black Swan meets Pretty Little Liars in this soapy, drama-packed novel featuring diverse characters who will do anything to be the prima at their elite ballet school.

From the New York Times-bestselling author of The Belles, Dhonielle Clayton, and the author of the highly anticipated Symptoms of a Heartbreak, Sona Charaipotra.

Gigi, Bette, and June, three top students at an exclusive Manhattan ballet school, have seen their fair share of drama. Free-spirited new girl Gigi just wants to dance—but the very act might kill her. Privileged New Yorker Bette's desire to escape the shadow of her ballet-star sister brings out a dangerous edge in her. And perfectionist June needs to land a lead role this year or her controlling mother will put an end to her dancing dreams forever.

When every dancer is both friend and foe, the girls will sacrifice, manipulate, and backstab to be the best of the best.

Don’t miss the gossip, lies, and scandal that continues in Tiny Pretty Things� gripping sequel, Shiny Broken Pieces!]]> 448 Sona Charaipotra Amelia 0 currently-reading 3.67 2015 Tiny Pretty Things (Tiny Pretty Things, #1)
author: Sona Charaipotra
name: Amelia
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/12/09
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo]]> 45416596 From the New York Times bestselling author of Daisy Jones & the Six—an entrancing and “wildly addictive journey of a reclusive Hollywood starlet� (PopSugar) as she reflects on her relentless rise to the top and the risks she took, the loves she lost, and the long-held secrets the public could never imagine.

Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now?

Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.

Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the �80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn’s story near its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways.

“Heartbreaking, yet beautiful� (Jamie Blynn, Us Weekly), The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is “Tinseltown drama at its finest� (Redbook): a mesmerizing journey through the splendor of old Hollywood into the harsh realities of the present day as two women struggle with what it means—and what it costs—to face the truth.]]> 434 Taylor Jenkins Reid Amelia 0 4.46 2017 The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at: 2023/12/02
date added: 2023/12/02
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]]> <![CDATA[Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive]]> 40139531 "A single mother's personal, unflinching look at America's class divide (Barack Obama)," this New York Times bestselling memoir is the inspiration for the Netflix limited series, hailed by Rolling Stone as "a great one."Ěý Ěý At 28, Stephanie Land's dreams of attending a university and becoming a writer quickly dissolved when a summer fling turned into an unplanned pregnancy. Before long, she found herself a single mother, scraping by as a housekeeper to make ends meet.Maid is an emotionally raw, masterful account of Stephanie's years spent in service to upper middle class America as a "nameless ghost" who quietly shared in her clients' triumphs, tragedies, and deepest secrets. Driven to carve out a better life for her family, she cleaned by day and took online classes by night, writing relentlessly as she worked toward earning a college degree. She wrote of the true stories that weren't being of living on food stamps and WIC coupons, of government programs that barely provided housing, of aloof government employees who shamed her for receiving what little assistance she did. Above all else, she wrote about pursuing the myth of the American Dream from the poverty line, all the while slashing through deep-rooted stigmas of the working poor.Maid is Stephanie's story, but it's not hers alone. It is an inspiring testament to the courage, determination, and ultimate strength of the human spirit."A single mother's personal, unflinching look at America's class divide, a description of the tightrope many families walk just to get by, and a reminder of the dignity of all work."Ěý-PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, Obama's Summer Reading List]]> 272 Stephanie Land 0316505102 Amelia 0 4.11 2019 Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive
author: Stephanie Land
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at: 2023/11/22
date added: 2023/11/22
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]]> Elon Musk 125277346 From the author of Steve Jobs and other bestselling biographies, this is the astonishingly intimate story of the most fascinating and controversial innovator of our era—a rule-breaking visionary who helped to lead the world into the era of electric vehicles, private space exploration, and artificial intelligence. Oh, and took over Twitter.

When Elon Musk was a kid in South Africa, he was regularly beaten by bullies. One day a group pushed him down some concrete steps and kicked him until his face was a swollen ball of flesh. He was in the hospital for a week. But the physical scars were minor compared to the emotional ones inflicted by his father, an engineer, rogue, and charismatic fantasist.

His father’s impact on his psyche would linger. He developed into a tough yet vulnerable man-child, prone to abrupt Jekyll-and-Hyde mood swings, with an exceedingly high tolerance for risk, a craving for drama, an epic sense of mission, and a maniacal intensity that was callous and at times destructive.

At the beginning of 2022—after a year marked by SpaceX launching thirty-one rockets into orbit, Tesla selling a million cars, and him becoming the richest man on earth—Musk spoke ruefully about his compulsion to stir up dramas. “I need to shift my mindset away from being in crisis mode, which it has been for about fourteen years now, or arguably most of my life,� he said.

It was a wistful comment, not a New Year’s resolution. Even as he said it, he was secretly buying up shares of Twitter, the world’s ultimate playground. Over the years, whenever he was in a dark place, his mind went back to being bullied on the playground. Now he had the chance to own the playground.

For two years, Isaacson shadowed Musk, attended his meetings, walked his factories with him, and spent hours interviewing him, his family, friends, coworkers, and adversaries. The result is the revealing inside story, filled with amazing tales of triumphs and turmoil, that addresses the are the demons that drive Musk also what it takes to drive innovation and progress?]]> 670 Walter Isaacson Amelia 0 4.63 2023 Elon Musk
author: Walter Isaacson
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.63
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2023/11/22
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]]> American Prometheus 8131063
THE INSPIRATION FOR THE UPCOMING MAJOR MOTION PICTURE OPPENHEIMER

In this magisterial, acclaimed biography twenty-five years in the making, Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin capture Oppenheimer’s life and times, from his early career to his central role in the Cold War. This is biography and history at its finest, riveting and deeply informative.

“A masterful account of Oppenheimer’s rise and fall, set in the context of the turbulent decades of America’s own transformation. It is a tour de force.� � Los Angeles Times Book Review

“A work of voluminous scholarship and lucid insight, unifying its multifaceted portrait with a keen grasp of Oppenheimer’s essential nature.... It succeeds in deeply fathoming his most damaging, self-contradictory behavior.� � The New York Times]]> 754 Kai Bird Amelia 0 currently-reading 4.58 2005 American Prometheus
author: Kai Bird
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/11/13
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]]> Daisy Jones & The Six 55710121 A gripping novel about the whirlwind rise of an iconic 1970s rock group and their beautiful lead singer, revealing the mystery behind their infamous break up.

Everyone knows Daisy Jones & The Six, but nobody knows the real reason why they split at the absolute height of their popularity...until now.

Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go-Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it's the rock and roll she loves most. By the time she's twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.

Another band getting noticed is The Six, led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she's pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.

Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.

The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the seventies. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a talented writer who takes her work to a new level with Daisy Jones & The Six, brilliantly capturing a place and time in an utterly distinctive voice.]]> 355 Taylor Jenkins Reid Amelia 5 4.24 2019 Daisy Jones & The Six
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2023/11/04
date added: 2023/11/04
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]]> Ulysses 51271732 0 James Joyce 917637694X Amelia 0 0.0 1922 Ulysses
author: James Joyce
name: Amelia
average rating: 0.0
book published: 1922
rating: 0
read at: 2023/10/27
date added: 2023/10/27
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]]> Love Warrior 29215173 The Newest Oprah Book Club 2016 Selection

The highly anticipated new memoir by bestselling author Glennon Doyle Melton tells the story of her journey of self-discovery after the implosion of her marriage.

Just when Glennon Doyle Melton was beginning to feel she had it all figured out―three happy children, a doting spouse, and a writing career so successful that her first book catapulted to the top of the New York Times bestseller list―her husband revealed his infidelity and she was forced to realize that nothing was as it seemed. A recovering alcoholic and bulimic, Glennon found that rock bottom was a familiar place. In the midst of crisis, she knew to hold on to what she discovered in recovery: that her deepest pain has always held within it an invitation to a richer life.

Love WarriorĚýis the story of one marriage, but it is also the story of the healing that is possible for any of us when we refuse to settle for good enough and begin to face pain and love head-on. This astonishing memoir reveals how our ideals of masculinity and femininity can make it impossible for a man and a woman to truly know one another—and it captures the beauty that unfolds when one couple commits to unlearning everything they've been taught so that they can finally, after thirteen years of marriage, commit to living true—true to themselves and to each other.

Love WarriorĚýis a gorgeous and inspiring account of how we are born to be warriors: strong, powerful, and brave; able to confront the pain and claim the love that exists for us all. This chronicle of a beautiful, brutal journey speaks to anyone who yearns for deeper, truer relationships and a more abundant, authentic life.

]]> 192 Glennon Doyle 1250075742 Amelia 0 currently-reading 4.20 2016 Love Warrior
author: Glennon Doyle
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/10/18
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> Finding Me 58750893
This is my story, from a crumbling apartment in Central Falls, Rhode Island, to the stage in New York City, and beyond. This is the path I took to finding my purpose but also my voice in a world that didn’t always see me.

As I wrote Finding Me, my eyes were open to the truth of how our stories are often not given close examination. We are forced to reinvent them to fit into a crazy, competitive, judgmental world. So I wrote this for anyone running through life untethered, desperate and clawing their way through murky memories, trying to get to some form of self-love. For anyone who needs reminding that a life worth living can only be born from radical honesty and the courage to shed facades and be . . . you.

Finding Me is a deep reflection, a promise, and a love letter of sorts to self. My hope is that my story will inspire you to light up your own life with creative expression and rediscover who you were before the world put a label on you.]]> 289 Viola Davis Amelia 0 currently-reading 4.54 2022 Finding Me
author: Viola Davis
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.54
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/01
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> Demon Copperhead 60317128 Demon Copperhead is set in the mountains of southern Appalachia. It's the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.

Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind.]]> 550 Barbara Kingsolver Amelia 0 currently-reading 4.58 2022 Demon Copperhead
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/10/01
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]]> <![CDATA[Annihilation (Southern Reach, #1)]]> 20410192 Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization.

The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; all the members of the second expedition committed suicide; the third expedition died in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another; the members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within months of their return, all had died of aggressive cancer.

This is the twelfth expedition.

Their group is made up of four an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain and collect specimens; to record all their observations, scientific and otherwise, of their surroundings and of one another; and, above all, to avoid being contaminated by Area X itself.

They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers � they discover a massive topographic anomaly and life forms that surpass understanding � but it’s the surprises that came across the border with them, and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another, that change everything.]]> 210 Jeff VanderMeer 0374710775 Amelia 2 3.81 2014 Annihilation (Southern Reach, #1)
author: Jeff VanderMeer
name: Amelia
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2014
rating: 2
read at: 2023/09/03
date added: 2023/09/10
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]]> <![CDATA[Yumi and the Nightmare Painter]]> 68320227 #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson brings us a gripping story set in the Cosmere universe told by Hoid, where two people from incredibly different worlds must compromise and work together to save their worlds from ruin.

Yumi comes from a land of gardens, meditation, and spirits, while Painter lives in a world of darkness, technology, and nightmares. When their lives suddenly become intertwined in strange ways, can they put aside their differences and work together to uncover the mysteries of their situation and save each other’s communities from certain disaster?]]> 461 Brandon Sanderson 1938570405 Amelia 0 currently-reading 4.57 2023 Yumi and the Nightmare Painter
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/09/10
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> The Ickabog 54633204
But even in this happy kingdom, a monster lurks. Legend tells of a fearsome creature living far to the north in the Marshlands... the Ickabog. Some say it breathes fire, spits poison, and roars through the mist as it carries off wayward sheep and children alike. Some say it's just a myth...

And when that myth takes on a life of its own, casting a shadow over the kingdom, two children � best friends Bert and Daisy � embark on a great adventure to untangle the truth and find out where the real monster lies, bringing hope and happiness to Cornucopia once more.

Features full color illustrations by children from across the United States and Canada.]]> 304 J.K. Rowling Amelia 0 4.10 2020 The Ickabog
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2023/08/27
date added: 2023/08/27
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]]> Wildflower 25991287 Actress Drew Barrymore shares funny, insightful, and profound stories from her past and present—told from the place of happiness she's achieved today—in this heart-stirring New York Times bestseller that InStyle called “deeply thoughtful and fun.â€� Ěý WildflowerĚýis a portrait of Drew's life in stories as she looks back on the adventures, challenges, and incredible experiences she’s had throughout her life. It includes tales of living in her first apartment as a teenager (and how laundry may have saved her life), getting stuck under a gas station overhang on a cross-country road trip, saying good-bye to her father in a way only he could have understood, and many more journeys and lessons that have led her to the successful, happy, and healthy place she is today.]]> 222 Drew Barrymore 1101983809 Amelia 0 currently-reading 3.82 2015 Wildflower
author: Drew Barrymore
name: Amelia
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/26
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World]]> 61195216 Winner of the National Jewish Book Award · New York Times Bestseller

"A brilliant and heart-wrenching book, with universal and timely lessons about the power of informationâ€�and misinformation. Is it possible to stop mass murder by telling the truth?"Ěý—Ě�Yuval Noah Harari, bestselling author ofĚý A Brief History of HumankindĚýandĚýHomo A Brief History of Tomorrow

A complex hero.ĚýA forgotten story.ĚýThe first witness to reveal the full truth of the Holocaust . . .

Award-winning journalist and bestselling novelist Jonathan Freedland tells the astonishing true story of Rudolf Vrba, the man who broke out of Auschwitz to warn the world of a truth too few were willing to hear.

In April 1944, Rudolf Vrba became one of the very first Jews to escape from Auschwitz and make his way to freedom—among only a tiny handful who ever pulled off that near-impossible feat. He did it to reveal the truth of the death camp to the world—and to warn the last Jews of Europe what fate awaited them. Against all odds, Vrba and his fellow escapee, Fred Wetzler, climbed mountains, crossed rivers, and narrowly missed German bullets until they had smuggled out the first full account of Auschwitz the world had ever seen—a forensically detailed report that eventually reached Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and the Pope.

And yet too few heeded the warning that Vrba had risked everything to deliver. Though Vrba helped save two hundred thousand Jewish lives, he never stopped believing it could have been so many more.

This is the story of a brilliant yet troubled man—a gifted “escape artist� who, even as a teenager, understood that the difference between truth and lies can be the difference between life and death. Rudolf Vrba deserves to take his place alongside Anne Frank, Oskar Schindler, and Primo Levi as one of the handful of individuals whose stories define our understanding of the Holocaust.]]> 400 Jonathan Freedland 006311237X Amelia 5 4.43 2022 The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World
author: Jonathan Freedland
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/08/24
date added: 2023/08/24
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]]> The Second Mrs. Astor 56574778 Perfect for fans of Jennifer Chiaverini and Marie Benedict, this riveting novel takes you inside the scandalous courtship and catastrophic honeymoon aboard the Titanic of the most famous couple of their time—John Jacob Astor and Madeleine Force. Told in rich detail, this novel of sweeping historical fiction will stay with readers long after turning the last page.

Madeleine Talmage Force is just seventeen when she attracts the attention of John Jacob “Jack� Astor. Madeleine is beautiful, intelligent, and solidly upper-class, but the Astors are in a league apart. Jack’s mother was the Mrs. Astor, American royalty and New York’s most formidable socialite. Jack is dashing and industrious—a hero of the Spanish-American war, an inventor, and a canny businessman. Despite their twenty-nine-year age difference, and the scandal of Jack’s recent divorce, Madeleine falls headlong into love—and becomes the press’s favorite target.

On their extended honeymoon in Egypt, the newlyweds finally find a measure of peace from photographers and journalists. Madeleine feels truly alive for the first time—and is happily pregnant. The couple plans to return home in the spring of 1912, aboard an opulent new ocean liner. When the ship hits an iceberg close to midnight on April 14th, there is no immediate panic. The swift, state-of-the-art RMS Titanic seems unsinkable. As Jack helps Madeleine into a lifeboat, he assures her that he’ll see her soon in New York�

Four months later, at the Astors� Fifth Avenue mansion, a widowed Madeleine gives birth to their son. In the wake of the disaster, the press has elevated her to the status of virtuous, tragic heroine. But Madeleine’s most important decision still lies ahead: whether to accept the role assigned to her, or carve out her own remarkable path…]]> 317 Shana Abe 1496732057 Amelia 0 currently-reading 4.17 2021 The Second Mrs. Astor
author: Shana Abe
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/23
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> Verity 59218704 Whose truth is the lie?ĚýStay up all night readingĚýthe sensational psychological thriller that has readers obsessed, from the #1ĚýNew York TimesĚýbestselling author of Too Late andĚýIt Ends With Us.#1 New York TimesĚýBestsellerĚý·ĚýUSA TodayĚýBestsellerĚý·ĚýGlobe and MailĚýBestsellerĚý·ĚýPublishers WeeklyĚýBestsellerĚýLowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish.ĚýLowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity's notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn't expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity's recollection of the night her family was forever altered.ĚýLowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents could devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen's feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife's words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue loving her.]]> 333 Colleen Hoover Amelia 4 4.38 2018 Verity
author: Colleen Hoover
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/09
date added: 2023/08/20
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]]> <![CDATA[Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber]]> 44599442
Hailed as the definitive book on Uber and Silicon Valley, Super Pumped is an epic story of ambition and deception, obscene wealth, and bad behavior that explores how blistering technological and financial innovation culminated in one of the most catastrophic twelve-month periods in American corporate history.

Backed by billions in venture capital dollars and led by a brash and ambitious founder, Uber promised to revolutionize the way we move people and goods through the world. What followed would become a corporate cautionary tale about the perils of startup culture and a vivid example of how blind worship of startup founders can go wildly wrong.]]> 410 Mike Isaac 0393652254 Amelia 4 4.26 2019 Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber
author: Mike Isaac
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/20
date added: 2023/08/20
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]]> <![CDATA[House Atreides (Prelude to Dune, #1)]]> 6623589 Book One of the Epic Prelude to the Classic Novel Dune--A Major Motion Picture

Step into the universe of Frank Herbert's Dune, one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time.

Before Paul Atreides became Muad’Dib, the dynamic leader who unified the wild Fremen on the desert planet known as Dune . . . Before the evil Baron Harkonnen overthrew House Atreides and sent Paul and his mother, Jessica, fleeing into the deadly wasteland of sand . . . Before the secrets of the spice and the sandworms were discovered . . . There was another story . . .
The tale of young Leto Atreides learning to become a ruler in the shadow of his great father. The tale of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, ruthless tyrant who becomes a pawn of Bene Gesserit breeding schemes. The tale of Pardot Kynes, ambitious planetologist dispatched to the sands of Arrakis to understand the origins of the spice melange, the most valuable substance in the known universe. And the tale of Crown Prince Shaddam Corrino, whose lust for power leads him to plot the assassination of his own father and to create a plan that will replace the spice and disrupt the Imperium forever . .

House Atreides begins the epic worldwide bestselling trilogy that tells of the generation before Dune and sows the seeds of great heroes, vile enemies, and terrible tyrants.
Look for the entire Prelude to Dune series. HOUSE ATREIDES HOUSE HARKONNEN HOUSE CORRINO]]> Brian Herbert Amelia 5 4.20 1999 House Atreides (Prelude to Dune, #1)
author: Brian Herbert
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1999
rating: 5
read at: 2023/08/20
date added: 2023/08/20
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]]> House of Hollow 54614914 A dark, twisty modern fairytale where three sisters discover they are not exactly all that they seem and evil things really do go bump in the night.

Iris Hollow and her two older sisters are unquestionably strange. Ever since they disappeared on a suburban street in Scotland as children only to return a month a later with no memory of what happened to them, odd, eerie occurrences seem to follow in their wake. And they're changing. First, their dark hair turned white. Then, their blue eyes slowly turned black. They have insatiable appetites yet never gain weight. People find them disturbingly intoxicating, unbearably beautiful, and inexplicably dangerous.

But now, ten years later, seventeen-year-old Iris Hollow is doing all she can to fit in and graduate high school on time--something her two famously glamourous globe-trotting older sisters, Grey and Vivi, never managed to do. But when Grey goes missing without a trace, leaving behind bizarre clues as to what might have happened, Iris and Vivi are left to trace her last few days. They aren't the only ones looking for her though. As they brush against the supernatural they realize that the story they've been told about their past is unraveling and the world that returned them seemingly unharmed ten years ago, might just be calling them home.]]> 302 Krystal Sutherland Amelia 4 4.05 2021 House of Hollow
author: Krystal Sutherland
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/20
date added: 2023/08/20
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]]> <![CDATA[The Great CEO Within: The Tactical Guide to Company Building]]> 48928140 240 Matt Mochary Amelia 5 4.38 The Great CEO Within: The Tactical Guide to Company Building
author: Matt Mochary
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.38
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2023/08/20
date added: 2023/08/20
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]]> Where the Crawdads Sing 61204210
But Kya is not what they say. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life's lessons from the land, learning the real ways of the world from the dishonest signals of fireflies. But while she has the skills to live in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world–until the unthinkable happens.

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

The story asks how isolation influences the behavior of a young woman, who like all of us, has the genetic propensity to belong to a group. The clues to the mystery are brushed into the lush habitat and natural histories of its wild creatures.]]> 379 Delia Owens Amelia 3 4.60 2018 Where the Crawdads Sing
author: Delia Owens
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.60
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2023/08/20
date added: 2023/08/20
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]]> The It Girl 59361848 The #1 New York Times bestselling author of One by One returns with an unputdownable mystery following a woman on the search for answers a decade after her friend’s murder.

April Coutts-Cliveden was the first person Hannah Jones met at Oxford.

Vivacious, bright, occasionally vicious, and the ultimate It girl, she quickly pulled Hannah into her dazzling orbit. Together, they developed a group of devoted and inseparable friends—Will, Hugh, Ryan, and Emily—during their first term. By the end of the second, April was dead.

Now, a decade later, Hannah and Will are expecting their first child, and the man convicted of killing April, former Oxford porter John Neville, has died in prison. Relieved to have finally put the past behind her, Hannah’s world is rocked when a young journalist comes knocking and presents new evidence that Neville may have been innocent. As Hannah reconnects with old friends and delves deeper into the mystery of April’s death, she realizes that the friends she thought she knew all have something to hide…including a murder.]]> 432 Ruth Ware 1982155280 Amelia 3 4.02 2022 The It Girl
author: Ruth Ware
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/08/20
date added: 2023/08/20
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]]> <![CDATA[Winter in Paradise (Paradise #1)]]> 38472072 Spend the coldest days of winter on a Caribbean beach with New York Times Bestselling author Elin Hilderbrand.

Join New York Times Bestselling author Elin Hilderbrand on the stunning beaches of St. John's for the beginning of her thrilling new winter series-The Paradise. Winter Paradise, the first book in the Paradise series, has everything that readers have come to know and love about an Elin Hilderbrand novel, plus a healthy dose of intrigue. Irene Steele's idyllic life-house, husband, family-is shattered when she is woken up by a late-night phone call. Her beloved husband has been found dead, but before Irene can process this tragic news, she must confront the perplexing details of her husband's death. He was found on St. John's island, a tropical paradise far removed from their suburban life. Leaving the cold winter behind, Irene flies down to the beautiful Caribbean beaches of St. John's only to make another shocking discovery: her husband had a secret second family. As Irene investigates the mysterious circumstances of her husband's death, she is plunged into a web of intrigue and deceit belied by the pristine white sand beaches of St. John's. This exciting first book in the Paradise series will transport readers to a new beach locale-another world that Elin knows as well as her beloved Nantucket-and have them longing for winter]]> 321 Elin Hilderbrand Amelia 4 4.28 2018 Winter in Paradise (Paradise #1)
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/20
date added: 2023/08/20
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]]> <![CDATA[The Perfect Couple (Nantucket, #3)]]> 36364463
But it's going to be memorable for all the wrong reasons after tragedy strikes: a body is discovered in Nantucket Harbor just hours before the ceremony-and everyone in the wedding party is suddenly a suspect. As Chief of Police Ed Kapenash interviews the bride, the groom, the groom's famous mystery-novelist mother, and even a member of his own family, he discovers that every wedding is a minefield-and no couple is perfect. Featuring beloved characters from The Castaways, Beautiful Day, and A Summer Affair, The Perfect Couple proves once again that Elin Hilderbrand is the queen of the summer beach read.]]> 481 Elin Hilderbrand Amelia 4 4.10 2018 The Perfect Couple (Nantucket, #3)
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/20
date added: 2023/08/20
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]]> <![CDATA[Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed]]> 40203647 From a psychotherapist, and national advice columnist comes a thought-provoking new book that takes us behind the scenes of a therapist's world -- where her patients are looking for answers (and so is she).

One day, Lori Gottlieb is a therapist who helps patients in her Los Angeles practice. The next, a crisis causes her world to come crashing down. Enter Wendell, the quirky but seasoned therapist in whose office she suddenly lands. With his balding head, cardigan, and khakis, he seems to have come straight from Therapist Central Casting. Yet he will turn out to be anything but.

As Gottlieb explores the inner chambers of her patients' lives -- a self-absorbed Hollywood producer, a young newlywed diagnosed with a terminal illness, a senior citizen threatening to end her life on her birthday if nothing gets better, and a twenty-something who can't stop hooking up with the wrong guys -- she finds that the questions they are struggling with are the very ones she is now bringing to Wendell.

With startling wisdom and humor, Gottlieb invites us into her world as both clinician and patient, examining the truths and fictions we tell ourselves and others as we teeter on the tightrope between love and desire, meaning and mortality, guilt and redemption, terror and courage, hope and change.

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone is revolutionary in its candor, offering a deeply personal yet universal tour of our hearts and minds and providing the rarest of gifts: a boldly revealing portrait of what it means to be human, and a disarmingly funny and illuminating account of our own mysterious lives and our power to transform them.]]> 413 Lori Gottlieb Amelia 5 4.41 2019 Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed
author: Lori Gottlieb
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2023/08/07
date added: 2023/08/20
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]]> Piranesi 52702097
There is one other person in the house—a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.]]> 246 Susanna Clarke Amelia 4 4.25 2020 Piranesi
author: Susanna Clarke
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/07
date added: 2023/08/20
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]]> Our Missing Hearts 60197169 352 Celeste Ng 0593492552 Amelia 4 4.07 2022 Our Missing Hearts
author: Celeste Ng
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/12
date added: 2023/08/20
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]]> Carrie Soto Is Back 60437824 In this powerful novel about the cost of greatness, a legendary athlete attempts a comeback when the world considers her past her prime—from the New York Times bestselling author of Malibu Rising.

Carrie Soto is fierce, and her determination to win at any cost has not made her popular. But by the time she retires from tennis, she is the best player the world has ever seen. She has shattered every record and claimed twenty Grand Slam titles. And if you ask Carrie, she is entitled to every one. She sacrificed nearly everything to become the best, with her father, Javier, as her coach. A former champion himself, Javier has trained her since the age of two.

But six years after her retirement, Carrie finds herself sitting in the stands of the 1994 US Open, watching her record be taken from her by a brutal, stunning player named Nicki Chan.

At thirty-seven years old, Carrie makes the monumental decision to come out of retirement and be coached by her father for one last year in an attempt to reclaim her record. Even if the sports media says that they never liked “the Battle-Axe� anyway. Even if her body doesn’t move as fast as it did. And even if it means swallowing her pride to train with a man she once almost opened her heart to: Bowe Huntley. Like her, he has something to prove before he gives up the game forever.

In spite of it all, Carrie Soto is back, for one epic final season. In this riveting and unforgettable novel, Taylor Jenkins Reid tells her most vulnerable, emotional story yet.]]> 371 Taylor Jenkins Reid 0593158695 Amelia 5 4.28 2022 Carrie Soto Is Back
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/08/20
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]]> The School for Good Mothers 58256450 In this taut and explosive debut novel, one lapse in judgement lands a young mother in a government reform program where custody of her child hangs in the balance.

Frida Liu is struggling. She doesn’t have a career worthy of her Chinese immigrant parents� sacrifices. She can’t persuade her husband, Gust, to give up his wellness-obsessed younger mistress. Only with Harriet, their cherubic daughter, does Frida finally attain the perfection expected of her. Harriet may be all she has, but she is just enough.

Until Frida has a very bad day.

The state has its eyes on mothers like Frida. The ones who check their phones, letting their children get injured on the playground; who let their children walk home alone. Because of one moment of poor judgment, a host of government officials will now determine if Frida is a candidate for a Big Brother-like institution that measures the success or failure of a mother’s devotion.

Faced with the possibility of losing Harriet, Frida must prove that a bad mother can be redeemed. That she can learn to be good.

A searing page-turner that is also a transgressive novel of ideas about the perils of “perfect� upper-middle class parenting; the violence enacted upon women by both the state and, at times, one another; the systems that separate families; and the boundlessness of love, The School for Good Mothers introduces, in Frida, an everywoman for the ages. Using dark wit to explore the pains and joys of the deepest ties that bind us, Chan has written a modern literary classic.]]> 328 Jessamine Chan 1982156147 Amelia 4 3.61 2022 The School for Good Mothers
author: Jessamine Chan
name: Amelia
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/20
date added: 2023/08/20
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]]> Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell 53108625 Alternate cover edition can be found here

The international bestseller, reissued with a striking new illustrated cover. Part of The Bloomsbury Phantastic series - three books tracing the tradition of fantasy from Edgar Allan Poe to Neil Gaiman and Susanna Clarke. Susanna Clarke’s novel is an epic tale of nineteenth-century England and the two magicians who emerge to change its history.

In the year 1806, in the midst of the Napoleonic Wars, most people believe magic to have long since disappeared from England -- until the reclusive Mr Norrell reveals his powers and becomes a celebrity overnight. Another practising magician emerges: the young and daring Jonathan Strange. He becomes Norrell’s pupil and the two join forces in the war against France. But Strange is increasingly drawn to the wildest, most perilous forms of magic and soon he risks sacrificing not only his partnership with Norrell, but everything else he holds dear.]]> 865 Susanna Clarke Amelia 0 currently-reading 4.06 2004 Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
author: Susanna Clarke
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/14
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[Murder Your Employer (The McMasters Guide to Homicide, #1)]]> 62897365 From Edgar Award–winning novelist, playwright, and story-songwriter Rupert Holmes comes a diabolical thriller with a killer concept: The McMasters Conservatory for the Applied Arts, dedicated to the art of murder where students study how best to “delete� their most deserving victim.

Who hasn’t wondered for a split second what the world would be like if a person who is the object of your affliction ceased to exist? But then you’ve probably never heard of The McMasters Conservatory, dedicated to the consummate execution of the homicidal arts. To gain admission, a student must have an ethical reason for erasing someone who deeply deserves a fate no worse (nor better) than death. The campus of this “Poison Ivy League� college—its location unknown to even those who study there—is where you might find yourself the practice target of a classmate…and where one’s mandatory graduation thesis is getting away with the perfect murder of someone whose death will make the world a much better place to live.

Prepare for an education you’ll never forget. Murder Your Employer will gain you admission into a wholly original world, cocooned within the most entertaining book about well-intentioned would-be murderers you’ll ever read.]]> 399 Rupert Holmes Amelia 0 4.00 2023 Murder Your Employer (The McMasters Guide to Homicide, #1)
author: Rupert Holmes
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2023/08/05
date added: 2023/08/05
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]]> <![CDATA[Blitzscaling: The Lightning-Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies]]> 39037161 LinkedIn co-founder, legendary investor and author of the NYT Bestseller The Start-up of You reveals the secret to starting and scaling massively valuable companies.

For most of the world, the terms "Silicon Valley" and "startup" are synonymous. Indeed, Silicon Valley is home to a disproportionate number of companies that have grown from garage startups into global giants.
But what is the secret to these startups' extraordinary success? Contrary to the popular narrative, it's not their superhuman founders or savvy venture capitalists. Rather, it's that they have learned how to Blitzscale.
Blitzscaling is a specific set of practices for igniting and managing dizzying growth; an accelerated path to the stage in a startup's life-cycle where the most value is created. It prioritizes speed over efficiency in an environment of uncertainty, and allows a company to go from "startup" to "scaleup" at a furious pace that captures the market.
Drawing on their experiences scaling startups into billion-dollar businesses, Hoffman and Yeh offer a framework for blitzscaling that can be replicated in any region or industry. Readers will learn how to design business models that support lightning-fast growth, navigate necessary shifts in strategy at each level of scale, and weather the management challenges that arise as their company grows.]]> 318 Reid Hoffman 1524761427 Amelia 0 currently-reading 4.11 2018 Blitzscaling: The Lightning-Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies
author: Reid Hoffman
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/01
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[A Deepness in the Sky (Zones of Thought, #2)]]> 8291176 A Fire Upon The Deep, this is the story of Pham Nuwen, a small cog in the interstellar trading fleet of the Queng Ho. The Queng Ho and the Emergents are orbiting the dormant planet Arachna, which is about to wake up to technology, but the Emergents' plans are sinister.]]> 555 Vernor Vinge Amelia 4 4.44 1999 A Deepness in the Sky (Zones of Thought, #2)
author: Vernor Vinge
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.44
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at: 2015/09/05
date added: 2023/08/01
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]]> The Identicals 32674134 Identical twin sisters who couldn't look more alike...or live more differently.

Harper Frost is laid-back, easygoing. She doesn't care what anyone thinks of her. She likes a beer and a shot and wouldn't be caught dead wearing anything fashionable. She's inherited her father's rundown house on Martha's Vineyard, but she can't hold down a job, and her latest romantic disaster has the entire island talking.

Two beautiful islands only eleven miles apart.

Tabitha Frost is dignified, refined. She prefers a fine wine and has inherited the impeccable taste of her mother, the iconic fashion designer Eleanor Roxie-Frost. She's also inherited her mother's questionable parenting skills--Tabitha's teenage daughter, Ainsley, is in full rebellion mode--and a flailing fashion boutique on Nantucket in desperate need of a cash infusion.

One unforgettable summer that will change their lives forever.

After more than a decade apart, Harper and Tabitha switch islands--and lives--to save what's left of their splintered family. But the twins quickly discover that the secrets, lies, and gossip they thought they'd outrun can travel between islands just as easily as they can. Will Harper and Tabitha be able to bury the hatchet and end their sibling rivalry once and for all? Before the last beach picnic of the season, there will be enough old resentments, new loves, and cases of mistaken identity to make this the most talked-about summer that Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket have experienced in ages.

]]> 433 Elin Hilderbrand 0316375209 Amelia 0 4.15 2017 The Identicals
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at: 2023/07/11
date added: 2023/07/11
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]]> The Rumor 35556878
And rumor has it...

...that Madeline, a novelist, is battling writer's block, with a deadline looming, bills piling up, and blank pages driving her to desperation--and a desperately bad decision;

...that Grace, hard at work to transform her backyard into a garden paradise, has been collaborating a bit more closely that necessary with her ruggedly handsome landscape architect;

...that Grace's husband, successful island real estate developer "Fast Eddie" Pancik, has embarked on quite an unusual side project;

...that the storybook romance between Madeline's son, Brick, and Grace's daughter Allegra is on the rocks, heading for disaster.

As the gossip escalates, and they face the possible loss of the happy lives they've worked so hard to create, Grace and Madeline try mightily to set the record straight--but the truth might be even worse than rumor has it.
]]> 367 Elin Hilderbrand Amelia 0 4.00 2015 The Rumor
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at: 2023/07/10
date added: 2023/07/10
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]]> The Hotel Nantucket 60114458 “The queen of beach readsâ€� (New York Magazine) and #1ĚýNew York TimesĚýbestselling author delivers an immensely satisfying page-turner in this tale about a summer of scandal at a storied Nantucket hotel.

Fresh off a bad breakup with a longtime boyfriend, Nantucket sweetheart Lizbet Keaton is desperately seeking a second act. When she’s named the new general manager of the Hotel Nantucket, a once Gilded Age gem turned abandoned eyesore, she hopes that her local expertise and charismatic staff can win the favor of their new London billionaire owner, Xavier Darling, as well as that of Shelly Carpenter, the wildly popular Instagram tastemaker who can help put them back on the map. And while the Hotel Nantucket appears to be a blissful paradise, complete with a celebrity chef-run restaurant and an idyllic wellness center, there’s a lot of drama behind closed doors. The staff (and guests) have complicated pasts, and the hotel can’t seem to overcome the bad reputation it earned in 1922 when a tragic fire killed nineteen-year-old chambermaid Grace Hadley. With Grace gleefully haunting the halls, a staff harboring all kinds of secrets, and Lizbet’s own romantic uncertainty, is the Hotel Nantucket destined for success or doom? Ěý

Filled with the emotional depth and multiple points of view that characterize Hilderbrand’s novels (The Blue Bistro, Golden Girl) as well as an added dash of Roaring Twenties history, The Hotel Nantucket offers something for everyone in this compelling summer drama.Ěý]]> 417 Elin Hilderbrand 031625908X Amelia 0 4.21 2022 The Hotel Nantucket
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2023/07/09
date added: 2023/07/09
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]]> The Paris Apartment 58529537 From the New York Times bestselling author of The Guest List comes a new locked room mystery, set in a Paris apartment building in which every resident has something to hide�

Jess needs a fresh start. She’s broke and alone, and she’s just left her job under less than ideal circumstances. Her half-brother Ben didn’t sound thrilled when she asked if she could crash with him for a bit, but he didn’t say no, and surely everything will look better from Paris. Only when she shows up � to find a very nice apartment, could Ben really have afforded this? � he’s not there.

The longer Ben stays missing, the more Jess starts to dig into her brother’s situation, and the more questions she has. Ben’s neighbors are an eclectic bunch, and not particularly friendly. Jess may have come to Paris to escape her past, but it’s starting to look like it’s Ben’s future that’s in question.

The socialite � The nice guy � The alcoholic � The girl on the verge � The concierge

Everyone’s a neighbor. Everyone’s a suspect. And everyone knows something they’re not telling.]]> 363 Lucy Foley Amelia 0 3.82 2022 The Paris Apartment
author: Lucy Foley
name: Amelia
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2023/07/04
date added: 2023/07/04
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]]> Will 58381965
Will Smith's transformation from a fearful child in a tense West Philadelphia home to one of the biggest rap stars of his era and then one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood history, with a string of box office successes that will likely never be broken, is an epic tale of inner transformation and outer triumph, and Will tells it astonishingly well. But it's only half the story.

Will Smith thought, with good reason, that he had won at life: not only was his own success unparalleled, his whole family was at the pinnacle of the entertainment world. Only they didn't see it that way: they felt more like star performers in his circus, a seven-days-a-week job they hadn't signed up for. It turned out Will Smith's education wasn't nearly over.

This memoir is the product of a profound journey of self-knowledge, a reckoning with all that your will can get you and all that it can leave behind. Written with the help of Mark Manson, author of the multi-million-copy bestseller The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, Will is the story of how one exceptional man mastered his own emotions, written in a way that can help everyone else do the same. Few of us will know the pressure of performing on the world's biggest stages for the highest of stakes, but we can all understand that the fuel that works for one stage of our journey might have to be changed if we want to make it all the way home. The combination of genuine wisdom of universal value and a life story that is preposterously entertaining, even astonishing, puts Will the book, like its author, in a category by itself.]]> 432 Will Smith 1984877933 Amelia 5 4.44 2021 Will
author: Will Smith
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2023/06/27
date added: 2023/06/27
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]]> <![CDATA[The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry]]> 35906603
A. J. Fikry’s life is not at all what he expected it to be. His wife has died, his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history, and now his prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen. Slowly but surely, he is isolating himself from all the people of Alice Island—from Lambiase, the well-intentioned police officer who’s always felt kindly toward Fikry; from Ismay, his sister-in-law who is hell-bent on saving him from his dreary self; from Amelia, the lovely and idealistic (if eccentric) Knightley Press sales rep who keeps on taking the ferry over to Alice Island, refusing to be deterred by A.J.’s bad attitude. Even the books in his store have stopped holding pleasure for him. These days, A.J. can only see them as a sign of a world that is changing too rapidly.

And then a mysterious package appears at the bookstore. It’s a small package, but large in weight. It’s that unexpected arrival that gives A. J. Fikry the opportunity to make his life over, the ability to see everything anew. It doesn’t take long for the locals to notice the change overcoming A.J.; or for that determined sales rep, Amelia, to see her curmudgeonly client in a new light; or for the wisdom of all those books to become again the lifeblood of A.J.’s world; or for everything to twist again into a version of his life that he didn’t see coming. As surprising as it is moving, The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry is an unforgettable tale of transformation and second chances, an irresistible affirmation of why we read, and why we love.]]> 290 Gabrielle Zevin Amelia 0 4.24 2014 The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
author: Gabrielle Zevin
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at: 2023/06/25
date added: 2023/06/25
shelves:
review:

]]> The House Across the Lake 58981709
One day on the lake, Casey saves Katherine from drowning, and the two strike up a budding friendship. But the more they get to know each other—and the longer Casey watches—it becomes clear that Katherine and Tom’s marriage isn’t as perfect as it appears. When Katherine suddenly vanishes, Casey immediately suspects Tom of foul play. What she doesn’t realize is that there’s more to the story than meets the eye—and that shocking secrets can lurk beneath the most placid of surfaces.

Packed with sharp characters, psychological suspense, and gasp-worthy plot twists, Riley Sager’s The House Across the Lake is the ultimate escapist read . . . no lake house required.]]> 363 Riley Sager 0593183207 Amelia 0 3.71 2022 The House Across the Lake
author: Riley Sager
name: Amelia
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2023/06/24
date added: 2023/06/24
shelves:
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]]> The Remains of the Day 274186 here.

The Remains of the Day is a profoundly compelling portrait of the perfect English butler and of his fading, insular world postwar England. At the end of his three decades of service at Darlington Hall, Stevens embarks on a country drive, during which he looks back over his career to reassure himself that he has served humanity by serving “a great gentleman.� But lurking in his memory are doubts about the true nature of Lord Darlington’s “greatness� and graver doubts about his own faith in the man he served.]]> 245 Kazuo Ishiguro 0679731725 Amelia 0 to-read 4.17 1989 The Remains of the Day
author: Kazuo Ishiguro
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1989
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/05/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood (One World Essentials)]]> 31948742 The compelling, inspiring, and comically sublime story of a young man’s coming-of-age, set during the twilight of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed
Ěý
Trevor Noah is one of the comedy world’s brightest new voices, a light-footed but sharp-minded observer of the absurdities of politics, race, and identity, sharing jokes and insights drawn from the wealth of experience acquired in his relatively young life. As host of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, he provides viewers in America and around the globe with their nightly dose of biting satire, but here Noah turns his focus inward, giving readers a deeply personal, heartfelt, and humorous look at the world that shaped him.
Ěý
Noah was born a crime, the son of a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother, at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents� indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the first years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, take him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.
Ěý
A collection of eighteen personal essays, Born a Crime tells the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. Born a Crime is equally the story of that young man’s fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother—a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that ultimately threatens her own life.
Ěý
Whether subsisting on caterpillars for dinner during hard times, being thrown from a moving car during an attempted kidnapping, or just trying to survive the life-and-death pitfalls of dating in high school, Noah illuminates his curious world with an incisive wit and an unflinching honesty. His stories weave together to form a moving and searingly funny portrait of a lovable delinquent making his way through a damaged world in a dangerous time, armed with only a keen sense of humor and a mother’s unconventional, unconditional love.]]> 264 Trevor Noah Amelia 4 4.59 2016 Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood (One World Essentials)
author: Trevor Noah
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.59
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2023/04/26
date added: 2023/04/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Amp It Up: Leading for Hypergrowth by Raising Expectations, Increasing Urgency, and Elevating Intensity]]> 60127847 Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly Bestseller

The secret to leading growth is your mindset

Snowflake CEO Frank Slootman is one of the tech world's most accomplished executives in enterprise growth, having led Snowflake to the largest software IPO ever after leading ServiceNow and Data Domain to exponential growth and the public market before that. In Amp It Up: Leading for Hypergrowth by Raising Expectations, Increasing Urgency, and Elevating Intensity, he shares his leadership approach for the first time.

Amp It Up delivers an authoritative look at what it takes to transform an organization for maximum growth and scale. Slootman shows that most leaders have significant room to improve their organization's performance without making expensive changes to their talent, structure, or fundamental business model—and they don’t need to bring in an army of consultants to do it. What they do need is to align people around what matters and execute with urgency and intensity every day.

Leading for unprecedented growth means declaring war on mediocrity, breaking the status quo, and making conflicted choices daily, all with a relentless focus on the mission. Amp It Up provides the first principles to guide that change, and the tactical advice for organizing a company around them.

Perfect for executives, entrepreneurs, founders, managers, and leaders of all kinds, Amp It Up is a must-read resource for anyone who seeks to unleash the growth potential of a company and scale it to heights they never thought possible.]]> 187 Frank Slootman 1119836417 Amelia 0 currently-reading 4.29 2022 Amp It Up: Leading for Hypergrowth by Raising Expectations, Increasing Urgency, and Elevating Intensity
author: Frank Slootman
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/04/16
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Under the Whispering Door 53588713 Welcome to Charon's Crossing.
The tea is hot, the scones are fresh, and the dead are just passing through.

When a reaper comes to collect Wallace from his own funeral, Wallace begins to suspect he might be dead.

And when Hugo, the owner of a peculiar tea shop, promises to help him cross over, Wallace decides he’s definitely dead.

But even in death he’s not ready to abandon the life he barely lived, so when Wallace is given one week to cross over, he sets about living a lifetime in seven days.

Hilarious, haunting, and kind, Under the Whispering Door is an uplifting story about a life spent at the office and a death spent building a home.]]> 390 T.J. Klune Amelia 0 4.21 2021 Under the Whispering Door
author: T.J. Klune
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2023/04/13
date added: 2023/04/13
shelves:
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]]> How High We Go in the Dark 58161113
Among those adjusting to this new normal are an aspiring comedian, employed by a theme park designed for terminally ill children, who falls in love with a mother trying desperately to keep her son alive; a scientist who, having failed to save his own son from the plague, gets a second chance at fatherhood when one of his test subjects-a pig-develops human speech; a man who, after recovering from his own coma, plans a block party for his neighbours who have also woken up to find that they alone have survived their families; and a widowed painter and her teenaged granddaughter who must set off on cosmic quest to locate a new home planet.

From funerary skyscrapers to hotels for the dead, How High We Go in the Dark follows a cast of intricately linked characters spanning hundreds of years as humanity endeavours to restore the delicate balance of the world. This is a story of unshakable hope that crosses literary lines to give us a world rebuilding itself through an endless capacity for love, resilience and reinvention. Wonderful and disquieting, dreamlike and all too possible.]]> 290 Sequoia Nagamatsu Amelia 0 currently-reading 3.93 2022 How High We Go in the Dark
author: Sequoia Nagamatsu
name: Amelia
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/04/11
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life, in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies]]> 34113939 490 Geoffrey West 1101621508 Amelia 0 currently-reading 4.29 2017 Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life, in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies
author: Geoffrey West
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/30
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Secret Keeper of Jaipur (The Jaipur Trilogy, #2)]]> 56162498 New York Times bestselling author Alka Joshi’s intriguing new novel, henna artist Lakshmi arranges for her protégé, Malik, to intern at the Jaipur Palace in this tale rich in character, atmosphere, and lavish storytelling.

It’s the spring of 1969, and Lakshmi, now married to Dr. Jay Kumar, directs the Healing Garden in Shimla. Malik has finished his private school education. At twenty, he has just met a young woman named Nimmi when he leaves to apprentice at the Facilities Office of the Jaipur Royal Palace. Their latest project: a state-of-the-art cinema.

Malik soon finds that not much has changed as he navigates the Pink City of his childhood. Power and money still move seamlessly among the wealthy class, and favors flow from Jaipur’s Royal Palace, but only if certain secrets remain buried. When the cinema’s balcony tragically collapses on opening night, blame is placed where it is convenient. But Malik suspects something far darker and sets out to uncover the truth. As a former street child, he always knew to keep his own counsel; it’s a lesson that will serve him as he untangles a web of lies.]]> 365 Alka Joshi Amelia 0 currently-reading 4.36 2021 The Secret Keeper of Jaipur (The Jaipur Trilogy, #2)
author: Alka Joshi
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/27
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> The Midnight Library 53568397
In The Midnight Library, Matt Haig's enchanting blockbuster novel, Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.]]> 289 Matt Haig 0525559485 Amelia 2 4.16 2020 The Midnight Library
author: Matt Haig
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2023/02/27
date added: 2023/02/27
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Henna Artist (The Jaipur Trilogy, #1)]]> 53007917 Vivid and compelling in its portrait of one woman’s struggle for fulfillment in a society pivoting between the traditional and the modern, The Henna Artist opens a door into a world that is at once lush and fascinating, stark and cruel.

Escaping from an abusive marriage, seventeen-year-old Lakshmi makes her way alone to the vibrant 1950s pink city of Jaipur. There she becomes the most highly requested henna artist—and confidante—to the wealthy women of the upper class. But trusted with the secrets of the wealthy, she can never reveal her own�

Known for her original designs and sage advice, Lakshmi must tread carefully to avoid the jealous gossips who could ruin her reputation and her livelihood. As she pursues her dream of an independent life, she is startled one day when she is confronted by her husband, who has tracked her down these many years later with a high-spirited young girl in tow—a sister Lakshmi never knew she had. Suddenly the caution that she has carefully cultivated as protection is threatened. Still she perseveres, applying her talents and lifting up those that surround her as she does.]]> 368 Alka Joshi 1488055440 Amelia 4 4.38 2020 The Henna Artist (The Jaipur Trilogy, #1)
author: Alka Joshi
name: Amelia
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2023/02/25
date added: 2023/02/25
shelves:
review:

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