Kiersten's bookshelf: all en-US Tue, 29 Apr 2025 07:54:02 -0700 60 Kiersten's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Remarkably Bright Creatures 58733693 Remarkably Bright Creatures, an exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope, tracing a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus.

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

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

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

Shelby Van Pelt's debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.]]> 368 Shelby Van Pelt 0063204150 Kiersten 4 4.35 2022 Remarkably Bright Creatures
author: Shelby Van Pelt
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/29
date added: 2025/04/29
shelves:
review:
This was a beautifully-written book. Its general vibe is a bit sad as it features a set of untethered broken people figuring out how to lead good lives. There are themes of loss running heavy here (death, aging, lost things, clinging to the lost past), so if you're depressed and need an uplifting read, I'd go for something different. I will say that it has a satisfying ending as all the loose threads find attachment with other characters in good ways, but it's also a story about letting go and moving forward. The octopus doesn't feature terribly prominently in the book, although his chapters are the most fun to read. He definitely has a fabulous personality.
]]> <![CDATA[Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism]]> 223436601 An explosive memoir charting one woman’s career at the heart of one of the most influential companies on the planet, Careless People gives you a front-row seat to Facebook, the decisions that have shaped world events in recent decades, and the people who made them.

From trips on private jets and encounters with world leaders to shocking accounts of misogyny and double standards behind the scenes, this searing memoir exposes both the personal and the political fallout when unfettered power and a rotten company culture take hold. In a gripping and often absurd narrative where a few people carelessly hold the world in their hands, this eye-opening memoir reveals what really goes on among the global elite.

Sarah Wynn-Williams tells the wrenching but fun story of Facebook, mapping its rise from stumbling encounters with juntas to Mark Zuckerberg’s reaction when he learned of Facebook’s role in Trump’s election. She experiences the challenges and humiliations of working motherhood within a pressure cooker of a workplace, all while Sheryl Sandberg urges her and others to “lean in.�

Careless People is a deeply personal account of why and how things have gone so horribly wrong in the past decade—told in a sharp, candid, and utterly disarming voice. A deep, unflinching look at the role that social media has assumed in our lives, Careless People reveals the truth about the leaders of Facebook: how the more power they grasp, the less responsible they become and the consequences this has for all of us.]]> 400 Sarah Wynn-Williams 1250391237 Kiersten 0 currently-reading 4.30 2025 Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism
author: Sarah Wynn-Williams
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/28
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Just for the Summer (Part of Your World, #3)]]> 195820807
Emma hadn't planned that her next assignment as a traveling nurse would be in Minnesota, but she and her best friend agree that dating Justin is too good of an opportunity to pass up, especially when they get to rent an adorable cottage on a private island on Lake Minnetonka.

It's supposed to be a quick fling, just for the summer. But when Emma's toxic mother shows up and Justin has to assume guardianship of his three siblings, they're suddenly navigating a lot more than they expected--including catching real feelings for each other. What if this time Fate has actually brought the perfect pair together?]]> 432 Abby Jimenez 1538704439 Kiersten 5 4.35 2024 Just for the Summer (Part of Your World, #3)
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/23
date added: 2025/04/28
shelves:
review:
SO glad that I read this series in order. This third book really follows on the heels of book one and has some of the same themes. Like the first one, the protagonists have incompatible lives and don't see a way forward. We also revisit toxic people, boundaries, and self care. This book touches on foster care and childhood abandonment trauma. You will fall in love with quirky Justin, who has a wonderful sense of humor and really makes you laugh the whole way through. I am a big fan of Jimenez. Her characters are super real and you're going to see some familiar faces! She provides a solid romance novel with all the Hollywood ending fireworks but doesn't skimp on the deep messages. You're walking away with a fresh perspective on healthy relationships and having fun during the journey. My husband is reading them now and laughing out loud. Big thumbs up.
]]> All the Colors of the Dark 203019740 From the New York Times bestselling author of We Begin at the End comes a soaring thriller and an epic love story that spans decades.

1975 is a time of change in America. The Vietnam War is ending. Mohammed Ali is fighting Joe Frazier. And in the small town of Monta Clare, Missouri, girls are disappearing.

When the daughter of a wealthy family is targeted, the most unlikely hero emerges—Patch, a local boy with one eye, who saves the girl, and, in doing so, leaves heartache in his wake.

Patch and those who love him soon discover that the line between triumph and tragedy has never been finer. And that their search for answers will lead them to truths that could mean losing one another.

A missing person mystery, a serial killer thriller, a love story, a unique twist on each, Chris Whitaker has written a novel about what lurks in the shadows of obsession, and the blinding light of hope.]]> 608 Chris Whitaker 0593798872 Kiersten 0 to-read 4.23 2024 All the Colors of the Dark
author: Chris Whitaker
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Sirens 210411871 A story of sisters separated by hundreds of years but bound together in more ways than they can imagine

2019: Lucy awakens in her ex-lover’s room in the middle of the night with her hands around his throat. Horrified, she flees to her sister’s house on the coast of New South Wales hoping Jess can help explain the vivid dreams that preceded the attack—but her sister is missing. As Lucy waits for her return, she starts to unearth strange rumours about Jess’s town—tales of numerous missing men, spread over decades. A baby abandoned in a sea-swept cave. Whispers of women’s voices on the waves. All the while, her dreams start to feel closer than ever.

1800: Mary and Eliza are torn from their loving home in Ireland and forced onto a convict ship heading for Australia. As the boat takes them farther and farther away from all they know, they begin to notice unexplainable changes in their bodies.

A breathtaking tale of female resilience, The Sirens is an extraordinary novel that captures the sheer power of sisterhood and the indefinable magic of the sea.]]> 337 Emilia Hart 1250280826 Kiersten 0 to-read 3.81 2025 The Sirens
author: Emilia Hart
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> James 173754979 A brilliant reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—both harrowing and satirical—told from the enslaved Jim's point of view

When Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he runs away until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck has faked his own death to escape his violent father. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

Brimming with nuanced humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a literary icon, this brilliant and tender novel radically illuminates Jim's agency, intelligence, and compassion as never before. James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first-century American literature.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780385550369.]]> 303 Percival Everett Kiersten 0 to-read 4.46 2024 James
author: Percival Everett
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Broken Country 214151202 “The farmer is dead. He is dead, and all anyone wants to know is who killed him.�

Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident.

As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel’s life, tensions around the village rise and dangerous secrets and jealousies from the past resurface, this time with deadly consequences. Beth is forced to make a choice between the woman she once was, and the woman she has become.

A sweeping love story with the pace and twists of a thriller, Broken Country is a novel of simmering passion, impossible choices, and explosive consequences that toggles between the past and present to explore the far-reaching legacy of first love.]]> 320 Clare Leslie Hall 166807818X Kiersten 0 to-read 4.41 2025 Broken Country
author: Clare Leslie Hall
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Say You'll Remember Me (Say You'll Remember Me, #1)]]> 216437557 disastrously close. A gorgeous veterinarian giving Greek god vibes—all while cuddling a tiny kitten? Immediately yes. That is until Xavier opens his mouth and proves that even sculpted gods can say the absolute wrong thing. Like, really wrong. Of course, there’s nothing Samantha loves more than proving an asshole wrong�

. . . unless, of course, he can admit he made a mistake. But after one incredible and seemingly endless date—possibly the best in living history—Samantha is forced to admit the truth, that her family is in crisis and any kind of relationship would be impossible. Samantha begs Xavier to forget her. To remember their night together as a perfect moment, as crushing as that may be.

Only no amount of distance or time is nearly enough to forget that something between them. And the only thing better than one single perfect memory is to make a life—and even a love—worth remembering.]]> 416 Abby Jimenez 0349442827 Kiersten 0 to-read 4.13 2025 Say You'll Remember Me (Say You'll Remember Me, #1)
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Seven Year Slip 62926938 An overworked book publicist with a perfectly planned future hits a snag when she falls in love with her temporary roommate…only to discover he lives seven years in the past, in this witty and wise new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Dead Romantics.

Sometimes, the worst day of your life happens, and you have to figure out how to live after it.

So Clementine forms a plan to keep her heart safe: work hard, find someone decent to love, and try to remember to chase the moon. The last one is silly and obviously metaphorical, but her aunt always told her that you needed at least one big dream to keep going. And for the last year, that plan has gone off without a hitch. Mostly. The love part is hard because she doesn’t want to get too close to anyone—she isn’t sure her heart can take it.

And then she finds a strange man standing in the kitchen of her late aunt’s apartment. A man with kind eyes and a Southern drawl and a taste for lemon pies. The kind of man that, before it all, she would’ve fallen head-over-heels for. And she might again.

Except, he exists in the past. Seven years ago, to be exact. And she, quite literally, lives seven years in his future.

Her aunt always said the apartment was a pinch in time, a place where moments blended together like watercolors. And Clementine knows that if she lets her heart fall, she’ll be doomed.

After all, love is never a matter of time—but a matter of timing.]]> 336 Ashley Poston Kiersten 5 4.17 2023 The Seven Year Slip
author: Ashley Poston
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/18
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves:
review:
Magical and charming! Loved it from beginning to the very last page. Lovable characters, humorous dialogue, perfect NYC settings. The writing style is very similar to Abby Jimenez, but with some added time travel which is very well done. (Sometimes time travel books get complicated and messy, but this one has clearly defined limits.) Themes explored include loss, change, and letting go, but also personal growth, being honest with yourself, chasing happiness, and valuing the pleasures of life over societal/family expectations. Two thumbs up. Loved this book. Note to author - Ashley, look up "bombastic." I don't think it means what you think it means.
]]> <![CDATA[Yours Truly (Part of Your World, #2)]]> 61918816 A novel of terrible first impressions, hilarious second chances, and the joy in finding your perfect match.

Dr. Briana Ortiz’s life is seriously flatlining. Her divorce is just about finalized, her brother’s running out of time to find a kidney donor, and that promotion she wants? Oh, that’s probably going to the new man-doctor who’s already registering eighty-friggin�-seven on Briana’s “pain in my ass� scale. But just when all systems are set to hate, Dr. Jacob Maddox completely flips the game . . . by sending Briana a letter.

And it’s a really good letter. Like the kind that proves that Jacob isn’t actually Satan. Worse, he might be this fantastically funny and subversively likeable guy who’s terrible at first impressions. Because suddenly he and Bri are exchanging letters, sharing lunch dates in her “sob closet,â€� and discussing the merits of freakishly tiny horses. But when Jacob decides to give Briana the best gift imaginable—a kidney for her brother—she wonders just how she can resist this quietly sexy new doctor . . . especially when he calls in a favor she ł¦˛ą˛Ô’t refuse.]]> 416 Abby Jimenez 1538704390 Kiersten 5 4.29 2023 Yours Truly (Part of Your World, #2)
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/06
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves:
review:
Just as fun as 'Part of your World.' Jimenez follows Alexis's best friend, Bri, through her current situation (newly divorced and a sick brother to care for). This novel focuses on themes of trust, especially as it pertains to introverts, anxiety, depression, and getting through traumatic events (and starting over fresh on the other side without all the baggage). If you're like me, you'll be frustrated over misunderstandings (WHY won't they just TALK!) but you'll enjoy the humor and the dialogue. The escape catch phrases are the shining jewel of this book (Not on my watch!) This read is pure fun, a great vacation read, and about 5 gallons of glitter. It will stick with you and shine on long after you've finished.
]]> <![CDATA[Part of Your World (Part of Your World, #1)]]> 58684524
While her ultra-wealthy parents want her to carry on the family legacy of world-renowned surgeons, Alexis doesn’t need glory or fame. She’s fine with being a “mere� ER doctor. And every minute she spends with Daniel and the tight-knit town where he lives, she’s discovering just what’s really important. Yet letting their relationship become anything more than a short-term fling would mean turning her back on her family and giving up the opportunity to help thousands of people.

Bringing Daniel into her world is impossible, and yet she ł¦˛ą˛Ô’t just give up the joy she’s found with him either. With so many differences between them, how can Alexis possibly choose between her world and his?

The New York Times bestselling author of Life's Too Short delivers a refreshingly modern fairy tale perfect for fans of Casey McQuiston and Emily Henry.]]> 389 Abby Jimenez 1538704374 Kiersten 5 4.26 2022 Part of Your World (Part of Your World, #1)
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/31
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves:
review:
What a wonderful read from beginning to end. You have all the best elements of a good story: detestable antagonists, heartwarming sidekicks, thorny problems, and hilarious dialogue. The big theme of this novel is putting your own happiness before other's expectations for you. If you're a people pleaser, THIS book will speak to you. It's about empowerment and being brave. Speaking up for what you want. It's also about socio-economic class and how different people have different knowledge bases.
]]> I’m Glad My Mom Died 59366244
Jennette McCurdy was six years old when she had her first acting audition. Her mother’s dream was for her only daughter to become a star, and Jennette would do anything to make her mother happy. So she went along with what Mom called “calorie restriction,� eating little and weighing herself five times a day. She endured extensive at-home makeovers while Mom chided, “Your eyelashes are invisible, okay? You think Dakota Fanning doesn’t tint hers?� She was even showered by Mom until age sixteen while sharing her diaries, email, and all her income.

In I’m Glad My Mom Died , Jennette recounts all this in unflinching detail—just as she chronicles what happens when the dream finally comes true. Cast in a new Nickelodeon series called iCarly , she is thrust into fame. Though Mom is ecstatic, emailing fan club moderators and getting on a first-name basis with the paparazzi (“Hi Gale!�), Jennette is riddled with anxiety, shame, and self-loathing, which manifest into eating disorders, addiction, and a series of unhealthy relationships. These issues only get worse when, soon after taking the lead in the iCarly spinoff Sam & Cat alongside Ariana Grande, her mother dies of cancer. Finally, after discovering therapy and quitting acting, Jennette embarks on recovery and decides for the first time in her life what she really wants.

Told with refreshing candor and dark humor, I’m Glad My Mom Died is an inspiring story of resilience, independence, and the joy of shampooing your own hair.]]> 304 Jennette McCurdy 1982185821 Kiersten 4 4.42 2022 I’m Glad My Mom Died
author: Jennette McCurdy
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/24
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
This poor woman, whew! The memoir reads a bit like "The Glass Castle" but I have to say that it was interesting to get a peek into the world of studios and acting. Trigger warning for anyone struggling with eating disorders. Overall, I'd say the book was really about abusive relationships, attachment, codependence, narcissism, living through your children, and the value of therapy. And also, making peace with the fact that your life purpose and your true self might disappoint other people, and other people just have to suck it up because everyone has to make their own choices about their one wild and precious life. You really get a sense of McCurdy's struggle with pleasing her mother and being true to herself.
]]> The Wedding People 198902277 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781250899576.

A propulsive and uncommonly wise novel about one unexpected wedding guest and the surprising people who help her start anew.

It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She's immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamed of coming for years—she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe's plan—which makes it that much more surprising when the two women ł¦˛ą˛Ô’t stop confiding in each other.

In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined—and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.]]> 384 Alison Espach Kiersten 5 4.11 2024 The Wedding People
author: Alison Espach
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/20
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves:
review:
Wow! This is a book club book...LOTS to discuss. Phoebe is our protagonist, and SPOILER ALERT for those of you in dark places who need an uplifting read...the beginning of this is going to be hard for you but don't let that deter you because this is probably exactly what you need right now. This book is about raw honesty (with others, with ourselves) and the pivot. If you don't know what the pivot is, let me explain: You had all these plans and a vision and your whole future just melted down in front of you suddenly. The job you were promised and moved to a new town for gets hit by a hurricane, for example. You pivot to go down a different path and suddenly what looked like a total disaster actually winds up being even better than what you had planned. This is about embracing this wild ride and letting go a bit. About being brave enough to pivot. About listening to your inner voice, seeing the bigger picture, and not freaking out.
]]> We All Live Here 213243915 The #1 New York Times bestselling author, whose books so many love, brings us a fresh, contemporary story of a woman and her unruly blended family

Lila Kennedy has a lot on her plate. A broken marriage, two wayward daughters, a house that is falling apart, and an elderly stepfather who seems to have quietly moved in. Her career is in freefall and her love life is... complicated. So when her real dad—a man she has barely seen since he ran off to Hollywood thirty-five years ago—suddenly appears on her doorstep, it feels like the final straw. But it turns out even the family you thought you could never forgive might have something to teach about love, and what it actually means to be family.]]> 450 Jojo Moyes 1984879324 Kiersten 5 3.87 2025 We All Live Here
author: Jojo Moyes
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/11
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves:
review:
Different authors do particular things well: Emily Henry makes me laugh with her witty dialogue, JK Rowling creates settings so real you feel like you're there, and Jojo Moyes's superpower is making you feel exactly what her characters are feeling. There is a point in this novel in which Lila, our protagonist, figures out that she has done something kind of shitty and feels terrible about it, and feels bad about herself, and I walked around all day feeling unsettled and upset. I don't know how Moyes accomplishes this, but I suspect it's all the internal dialogue and the bracing honesty that flows from the pages about very real scenarios. I know some people love the historical fiction that Moyes has written, but honestly, this type of novel is her forte. I feel like this is the book that "Sandwich" wanted to be, but this is raw and real, painful and messy but also uplifting and celebratory. At the book signing event I attended, Moyes said she wishes she could be more like Gene...the wild actor stepfather. I kind of get that. There are so many great themes in this book including forgiving yourself and others, doing the "pivot" when things are falling apart, reframing perspectives, bullying, grudges, finding joy, owning an air of confidence (even if you aren't feeling it) and being brave enough to try new things at any age. (From the book: Are you a Mercedes convertible top-down sort of person or a practical car driver?) You'll love all the characters--they are all brilliant. This is probably the perfect book club read.
]]> Confess 22609310
For once, Auburn takes a chance and puts her heart in control, only to discover that Owen is hiding a huge secret. The magnitude of his past threatens to destroy everything Auburn loves most, and the only way to get her life back on track is to cut Owen out of it—but can she do it?]]> 306 Colleen Hoover 1476791457 Kiersten 5 4.14 2015 Confess
author: Colleen Hoover
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2019/10/02
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves:
review:
A wonderfully woven tale that keeps you guessing to the end. Hoover explores themes of enabling, guilt, jealousy, manipulation, and loyalty. Holding back judgment amidst jaw dropping confessions gives the story a compassionate, human feel. The first person narrative is intimate and works for both protagonists as the chapters switch off.
]]> The Paradise Problem 199797582
Three years later, Anna is a starving artist living paycheck to paycheck while West is a Stanford professor. He may be one of four heirs to the Weston Foods conglomerate, but he has little interest in working for the heartless corporation his family built from the ground up. He is interested, however, in his one-hundred-million-dollar inheritance. There’s just one catch.

Due to an antiquated clause in his grandfather’s will, Liam won’t see a penny until he’s been happily married for five years. Just when Liam thinks he’s in the home stretch, pressure mounts from his family to see this mysterious spouse, and he has no choice but to turn to the one person he’s afraid to introduce to his one-percenter parents � his unpolished, not-so-ex-wife.

But in the presence of his family, Liam’s fears quickly shift from whether the feisty, foul-mouthed, paint-splattered Anna can play the part to whether the toxic world of wealth will corrupt someone as pure of heart as his surprisingly grounded and loyal wife. Liam will have to ask himself if the price tag on his flimsy cover story is worth losing true love that sprouted from a lie.]]> 352 Christina Lauren 1668017725 Kiersten 5 4.07 2024 The Paradise Problem
author: Christina Lauren
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/01
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves:
review:
Christina and Lauren are the absolute best at turning up the volume on any story. The villains are deliciously hateable and always get what's coming to them. The main characters are hilarious and fun and loveable. The dialogue is entirely enjoyable. The Paradise Problem presents us with a perfect Cinderella story: He has money but lacks a loving family, she has the opposite in a way. But also it's a story that puts money in its place and shines a big old spotlight on toxic families and what it means to have someone's back. The perfect beach read, a page-turner, and entirely satisfying--what's not to love?
]]> The Frozen River 112975658 A gripping historical mystery inspired by the life and diary of Martha Ballard, a renowned 18th-century midwife who defied the legal system and wrote herself into American history.

Maine, 1789: When the Kennebec River freezes, entombing a man in the ice, Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body and determine cause of death. As a midwife and healer, she is privy to much of what goes on behind closed doors in Hallowell. Her diary is a record of every birth and death, crime and debacle that unfolds in the close-knit community. Months earlier, Martha documented the details of an alleged rape committed by two of the town’s most respected gentlemen—one of whom has now been found dead in the ice. But when a local physician undermines her conclusion, declaring the death to be an accident, Martha is forced to investigate the shocking murder on her own.

Over the course of one winter, as the trial nears, and whispers and prejudices mount, Martha doggedly pursues the truth. Her diary soon lands at the center of the scandal, implicating those she loves, and compelling Martha to decide where her own loyalties lie.

Clever, layered, and subversive, Ariel Lawhon’s newest offering introduces an unsung heroine who refused to accept anything less than justice at a time when women were considered best seen and not heard. The Frozen River is a thrilling, tense, and tender story about a remarkable woman who left an unparalleled legacy yet remains nearly forgotten to this day.]]> 432 Ariel Lawhon 0385546874 Kiersten 5 4.37 2023 The Frozen River
author: Ariel Lawhon
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/22
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves:
review:
Wow! Loved this. The prose is gorgeous. Set in colonial days, this "mystery" has a Little House on the Prairie feel to it but highlights strong feminist women, characters that you'll love, and non-stop action. Our protagonist is a midwife and much of the story is about the births she is called to. It doesn't feel like your classic mystery as the story really doesn't turn its spotlight on that plotline. It's more about how everyone relates to each other in the wake of this horrid man's death and who the true villains are. It blurs lines between the good guys and the bad guys. It leads you to make friends with the fact that reality doesn't always come with the splashy happy ending, but content endings that will sit well enough with you.
]]> <![CDATA[What If YOU Are the Answer?: And 26 Other Questions That Just Might Change Your Life]]> 216926754 Life isn’t always easy. We get tripped up, knocked down, and start to question ourselves. But as #1 New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hollis learned, sometimes it’s not answers you need � what helps most are questions. And the best questions can change everything.

Good questions make us think, teach us about ourselves, and if we’re honest in our replies, they can reveal the answers we’ve been searching for. In What If YOU Are the Answer?, Rachel Hollis shares the transformative questions that have helped her heal, grow, and thrive, even when life throws its hardest punches.

With her signature blend of vulnerability, tell-it-like-it-is humor, and hard-won wisdom, Rachel challenges and encourages you to:

� Confront your deepest fears: “What are you afraid to admit?�
� Change your circumstances: “Would you sign up for this again?
� Lean into success: “What’s working in your life?"
� Take responsibility for your own growth: “What if YOU are the problem?�

Throughout this dynamic book, as hilarious as it is wise, Rachel’s questions � and above all, her raw and all-too-real stories � will give you the clarity, courage, and inspiration to embrace your full potential and become the person you were meant to be.

This isn’t just a book � it’s a journey of self-care and self-discovery that will help you find the resilience, motivation, and confidence to live your best life, or at least feel a whole helluva lot better while you try.]]> 240 Rachel Hollis Kiersten 5 3.94 2025 What If YOU Are the Answer?: And 26 Other Questions That Just Might Change Your Life
author: Rachel Hollis
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/17
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves:
review:
Rachel's newest is every bit as inspiring as her other books. Every short chapter gives you so much to consider and discuss with your favorite thoughtful people. In fact, I'd just read one chapter every couple of days. Fully give it time to marinate. Life is too short to live it without intention. Sometimes I think we get stuck on autopilot and forget to take stock of what we want and how to live vibrantly. I will be reading this one again and heartily recommend it to everyone who is lacking clarity on where they are sailing their ship. And because it's Rachel, she's got you laughing along the way. A thoroughly enjoyable read.
]]> Pretty Girls 25574782
Now another girl has disappeared, with chilling echoes of the past. And it seems that she might not be the only one.

Claire is convinced Julia's disappearance is linked.

But when she begins to learn the truth about her sister, she is confronted with a shocking discovery, and nothing will ever be the same...]]> 432 Karin Slaughter 0062430874 Kiersten 0 to-read 3.99 2015 Pretty Girls
author: Karin Slaughter
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Mr. Mercedes (Bill Hodges Trilogy, #1)]]> 18775247
Months later, an ex-cop named Bill Hodges, still haunted by the unsolved crime, contemplates suicide. When he gets a crazed letter from "the perk," claiming credit for the murders, Hodges wakes up from his depressed and vacant retirement, fearing another even more diabolical attack and hell-bent on preventing it.

Brady Hartfield lives with his alcoholic mother in the house where he was born. He loved the feel of death under the wheels of the Mercedes, and he wants that rush again. Only Bill Hodges, with a couple of eccentric and mismatched allies, can apprehend the killer before he strikes again. And they have no time to lose, because Brady's next mission, if it succeeds, will kill or maim thousands.

Mr. Mercedes is a war between good and evil from the master of suspense whose insight into the mind of this obsessed, insane killer is chilling and unforgettable.
--front flap]]> 437 Stephen King 1476754454 Kiersten 0 to-read 4.01 2014 Mr. Mercedes (Bill Hodges Trilogy, #1)
author: Stephen King
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Razorblade Tears 54860585 A Black father. A white father. Two murdered sons. A quest for vengeance.

Ike Randolph has been out of jail for fifteen years, with not so much as a speeding ticket in all that time. But a Black man with cops at the door knows to be afraid.

The last thing he expects to hear is that his son Isiah has been murdered, along with Isiah’s white husband, Derek. Ike had never fully accepted his son but is devastated by his loss.

Derek’s father Buddy Lee was almost as ashamed of Derek for being gay as Derek was ashamed his father was a criminal. Buddy Lee still has contacts in the underworld, though, and he wants to know who killed his boy.

Ike and Buddy Lee, two ex-cons with little else in common other than a criminal past and a love for their dead sons, band together in their desperate desire for revenge. In their quest to do better for their sons in death than they did in life, hardened men Ike and Buddy Lee will confront their own prejudices about their sons and each other, as they rain down vengeance upon those who hurt their boys.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781250252708]]> 336 S.A. Cosby Kiersten 0 to-read 4.08 2021 Razorblade Tears
author: S.A. Cosby
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1)]]> 50659467
At least, he’s not a beast all the time.

As she adapts to her new home, her feelings for the faerie, Tamlin, transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But something is not right in the faerie lands. An ancient, wicked shadow is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it, or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.

From bestselling author Sarah J. Maas comes a seductive, breathtaking book that blends romance, adventure, and faerie lore into an unforgettable read.]]> 419 Sarah J. Maas 1635575567 Kiersten 2 4.16 2015 A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2015
rating: 2
read at: 2025/02/13
date added: 2025/02/13
shelves:
review:
I had to see what all the fuss was about, but it's just not my jam. It started out well. Maas does a lovely job connecting you to Feyre as she struggles to take care of her family. The rest of the story had me wondering why Feyre was such an overconfident idiot. Lots of Beauty and the Beast themes run through this with some evil Narnia Ice Queen stuff and then some Hunger Game stuff at the end. I will say that the ending was conclusive enough for me to say that I'm done here and won't read the next ones, but at least I can say that I've given it a chance. There were a few fun moments along the way, but I just couldn't connect with this protagonist and her unrealistic luck.
]]> Look Closer 123018679 479 David Ellis 0425280861 Kiersten 4 4.27 2022 Look Closer
author: David Ellis
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/07
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves:
review:
First, I have to say that this was a well-written mystery. Fans of spy novels with clever, calculated agents will appreciate it. There are a lot of twists and turns. The thing I wrestled with is not having a clearly defined protagonist for most of the book. We aren't sure how we feel until the end and the end gives us some things to think about regarding right and wrong, human behavior, privacy rights, home wreckers. Trigger warning that suicide is one of the themes. I give it points for novelty as I haven't read a book that was quite like this one as it keeps you off balance. But I really need a strong protagonist to cheer for and there are lies and red herrings that prevent you from liking ANYONE while you're reading, except maybe Jane. I will say that Simon and Vicky are interesting characters.
]]> The God of the Woods 199700434 When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide.

Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances.

Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet, The God of the Woods is a story of inheritance and second chances, the tensions between a family and a community, and a history that will not let any of them go.]]> 478 Liz Moore 0593418913 Kiersten 4 4.09 2024 The God of the Woods
author: Liz Moore
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/28
date added: 2025/01/28
shelves:
review:
This is a well-written mystery set back in the 70's mostly that throws a bunch of red herrings at you along the way. It is NOT a quick beach read that keeps you turning the pages. You get invested slowly and then you won't put it down for the last 200 pages. Themes include alcoholism, wealth, self-interest, small towns, class--the haves and have nots, independence, ethics, and self-reliance (this last being the main theme of the book, I'd say). Unlike a lot of beach read mysteries, this one will make a thoughtful discussion for your book club.
]]> A Winter in New York 101673373
When Iris decides to move to New York to restart her life, she realizes she underestimated how big the Big Apple really is—all the nostalgic movies set in New York she’d watched with her mom while eating their special secret-recipe gelato didn’t quite do it justice. 

But Bobby, Iris’s best friend, isn’t about to let her hide away. He drags her to a famous autumn street fair in Little Italy, and as they walk through the food stalls, a little family-run gelateria catches her eye—could it be the same shop that’s in an old photo of her mother’s?

Curious, Iris returns the next day and meets the handsome Gio, who tells her that the shop is in danger of closing. His uncle, sole keeper of their family’s gelato recipe, is in a coma, so they ł¦˛ą˛Ô’t make more. When Iris samples the last remaining batch, she realizes that their gelato and her gelato are one and the same. But how can she tell them she knows their secret recipe when she’s not sure why Gio’s uncle gave it to her mother in the first place?

Iris offers her services as a chef to help them re-create the flavor and finds herself falling for Gio and his family. But when Gio’s uncle finally wakes up, all of the secrets Iris has been keeping threaten to ruin the new life—and new love—she’s been building all winter long.]]> 384 Josie Silver 0593724933 Kiersten 3 3.64 2023 A Winter in New York
author: Josie Silver
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/14
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves:
review:
Fun romance. Not as much of NYC in it as I had hoped, other than Katz's. This is one of those stories that is frustrating--if they would just OPENLY TALK to each other! UGH! And I felt like Silver had to sell the plot problem a bit...is the protagonist really at fault? Would these characters really have an issue with her actions in trying to connect with her mother? Is the asshole ex really that big a deal? Can people really taste tiny differences in vanilla gelato? But it's a decent story with themes of family, grief & mourning, honesty, and tradition. Nice holiday read.
]]> Society of Lies 202102003 How far would you go to belong?

Maya has returned to Princeton for her college reunion - it's been a decade since she graduated, and this visit is special because she will also be attending the graduation of her little sister, Naomi.

But what should have been a dream weekend becomes Maya's worst nightmare when she receives the news that Naomi is dead. The police are calling it an accident, but Maya suspects that there is more to the story than they are letting on.

As Maya pieces together what happened in the months leading up to her sister's death, she begins to realise how much Naomi hid from her. Despite Maya's warnings, Naomi had joined Sterling Club, the most exclusive social club on campus - the same one Maya belonged to. And if she had to guess, Naomi was likely tapped for the secret society within it.

Maya knows that her sister isn't the first person in the society to turn up dead. Now every clue is leading Maya back to the past . . . and to the secret she's been keeping all these years.]]> 384 Lauren Ling Brown 059372335X Kiersten 0 to-read 3.48 2024 Society of Lies
author: Lauren Ling Brown
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> By Any Other Name 203337138 From the New York Times bestselling co-author of Mad Honey comes an “inspiring� (Elle) novel about two women, centuries apart—one of whom is the real author of Shakespeare’s plays—who are both forced to hide behind another name.

Young playwright Melina Green has just written a new work inspired by the life of her Elizabethan ancestor Emilia Bassano. But seeing it performed is unlikely, in a theater world where the playing field isn’t level for women. As Melina wonders if she dares risk failure again, her best friend takes the decision out of her hands and submits the play to a festival under a male pseudonym.

In 1581, young Emilia Bassano is a ward of English aristocrats. Her lessons on languages, history, and writing have endowed her with a sharp wit and a gift for storytelling, but like most women of her day, she is allowed no voice of her own. Forced to become a mistress to the Lord Chamberlain, who oversees all theatre productions in England, Emilia sees firsthand how the words of playwrights can move an audience. She begins to form a plan to secretly bring a play of her own to the stage—by paying an actor named William Shakespeare to front her work.

Told in intertwining timelines, By Any Other Name, a sweeping tale of ambition, courage, and desire centers two women who are determined to create something beautiful despite the prejudices they face. Should a writer do whatever it takes to see her story live on . . . no matter the cost? This remarkable novel, rooted in primary historical sources, ensures the name Emilia Bassano will no longer be forgotten.]]> 528 Jodi Picoult 0593497228 Kiersten 4 4.12 2024 By Any Other Name
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves:
review:
Picoult never disappoints. She does thorough research and weaves a plot together in the most impactful way possible. The two-story format really makes it feel like you're reading two different books at once and going back and forth between them. Both stories are compelling. In the age of Trump and "your body my choice," this work couldn't be more timely and critically important to showcase women's rights over time.
]]> <![CDATA[The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet]]> 55145261 A deeply moving and mind-expanding collection of personal essays in the first ever work of non-fiction from #1 internationally bestselling author John Green

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

Complex and rich with detail, the Anthropocene's reviews have been praised as 'observations that double as exercises in memoiristic empathy', with over 10 million lifetime downloads. John Green's gift for storytelling shines throughout this artfully curated collection about the shared human experience; it includes beloved essays along with six all-new pieces exclusive to the book.]]> 304 John Green 0525555218 Kiersten 4 4.37 2021 The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet
author: John Green
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/08/05
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves:
review:
Green ponders a variety of topics with a deliberate thoughtfulness that forces the reader to slow down and consider along with him. I learned a few things. I have a deeper appreciation for who Green is. It has been a lovely way to start the day as you would with a sermon or an affirmation. A thoughtful bit about something each morning.
]]> <![CDATA[Now or Never (Stephanie Plum, #31)]]> 207299449
While Stephanie stalls for time, she buries herself in her work as a bounty hunter, tracking down an unusually varied assortment of fugitives from justice. There’s Eugene Fleck, a seemingly sweet online influencer who might also be YouTube star Robin Hoodie, masked hero to the homeless, who hijacks delivery trucks and distributes their contents to the needy. She’s also on the trail of Bruno Jug, a wealthy and connected man in the wholesale produce business who is rumored to traffic young girls alongside lettuce and tomatoes. Most terrifying of all is Zoran—a laundromat manager by day and self-proclaimed vampire by night with a taste for the blood of pretty girls. When he shows up on Stephanie’s doorstep, it’s not for the meatloaf dinner.

With timely assists from her stalwart supporters Lula, Connie, and Grandma Mazur, Stephanie uses every trick in the book to reel in these men. But only she can decide what to do about the two men she actually loves. She ł¦˛ą˛Ô’t hold Ranger and Morelli at bay for long, and she’s keeping a secret from them that is the biggest bombshell of all. Now or never, she’s got to make the decision of a lifetime.]]> 320 Janet Evanovich 1668003139 Kiersten 5 4.04 2024 Now or Never (Stephanie Plum, #31)
author: Janet Evanovich
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/24
date added: 2024/12/24
shelves:
review:
As fun as it ever is with a couple of significant arc progresses. Stephanie tries out a new look and changes her food consumption, there is a super dog, a vampire, and a new fun character that you can't help but love (Herbert). We get a better look at Stark Street. It's the joy we needed at the end of 2024.
]]> <![CDATA[The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Caused an Epidemic of Mental Illness]]> 171681821
A must-read for all parents: the generation-defining investigation into the collapse of youth mental health in the era of smartphones, social media, and big tech—and a plan for a healthier, freer childhood.

“With tenacity and candor, Haidt lays out the consequences that have come with allowing kids to drift further into the virtual world . . . While also offering suggestions and solutions that could help protect a new generation of kids.� —Shannon Carlin, ,i>TIME, 100 Must-Read Books of 2024

After more than a decade of stability or improvement, the mental health of adolescents plunged in the early 2010s. Rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide rose sharply, more than doubling on many measures. Why?

In The Anxious Generation, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt lays out the facts about the epidemic of teen mental illness that hit many countries at the same time. He then investigates the nature of childhood, including why children need play and independent exploration to mature into competent, thriving adults. Haidt shows how the “play-based childhood� began to decline in the 1980s, and how it was finally wiped out by the arrival of the “phone-based childhood� in the early 2010s. He presents more than a dozen mechanisms by which this “great rewiring of childhood� has interfered with children’s social and neurological development, covering everything from sleep deprivation to attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, social comparison, and perfectionism. He explains why social media damages girls more than boys and why boys have been withdrawing from the real world into the virtual world, with disastrous consequences for themselves, their families, and their societies.

Most important, Haidt issues a clear call to action. He diagnoses the “collective action problems� that trap us, and then proposes four simple rules that might set us free. He describes steps that parents, teachers, schools, tech companies, and governments can take to end the epidemic of mental illness and restore a more humane childhood.

Haidt has spent his career speaking truth backed by data in the most difficult landscapes—communities polarized by politics and religion, campuses battling culture wars, and now the public health emergency faced by Gen Z. We cannot afford to ignore his findings about protecting our children—and ourselves—from the psychological damage of a phone-based life.]]> 400 Jonathan Haidt 0593655036 Kiersten 5 4.36 2024 The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Caused an Epidemic of Mental Illness
author: Jonathan Haidt
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/02
date added: 2024/12/02
shelves:
review:
Wow. Always a fan of Haidt's work, this one hits close to home and really makes me wonder whether we can course correct. I think Waldorf schools have known all along that new technology isn't great for kids, but at the moment they look like they were onto something in a big way. It seems like there is a need for play groups for "kids" in their 20s too. We are living in strange times.
]]> <![CDATA[The Great Hippopotamus Hotel (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, #25)]]> 205436029 In this latest installment of Alexander McCall Smith’s beloved No. 1 Ladies� Detective Agency, Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi take on an intriguing new case and uncover surprising truths

In the rolling hills just outside Gaborone, surrounded by a grove of acacia trees, lies The Great Hippopotamus Hotel. With spacious rooms overlooking the Botswanan countryside and a fine and loyal staff, the hotel has served as a refuge to weary travelers for many years. But a sudden string of misfortunes threatens to ruin the hotel’s reputation. Food poisoning befalls an unlucky diner, laundry mysteriously disappears from the drying line, and a scorpion stings one of the guests. Mishap after mishap, until it seems these incidents are more than simple coincidences—something foul is afoot.

Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi are on the case to find out who could be responsible for these unfortunate events. The answer at first seems clear, especially when they find out Violet Sephotho is involved. But as they dig deeper, they realize that the solution is not as simple as it initially seems. Meanwhile, one of Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni’s most important clients has asked him to source a sports car, putting him in a ticklish position as the man’s wife seems to be unaware of the purchase and the client is taking great pains to keep it that way. Nevertheless, with a healthy dose of good humor and kindness, Mma Ramotswe and her associates must help restore the reputation of the hotel and prove that even the most difficult situations can be remedied with honesty and compassion.]]> 240 Alexander McCall Smith 0593701763 Kiersten 4 3.98 2024 The Great Hippopotamus Hotel (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, #25)
author: Alexander McCall Smith
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/20
date added: 2024/11/20
shelves:
review:
As always, a thoughtful little read that slows life down a bit. There was a moment that McCall Smith couldn't resist asking whether people were inclined to select well qualified leaders for their countries. Makutsi gets a starring role in this installment, which was nice. We are taken back into the magic world of talking shoes again. There are themes of forgiveness and understanding in both major stories--one regarding a midlife crisis and the other regarding addiction. And also reserving judgement about who the bad guys are. Very nicely done.
]]> Ink Blood Sister Scribe 62854842 In this spellbinding debut novel, two estranged half-sisters tasked with guarding their family's library of magical books must work together to unravel a deadly secret at the heart of their collection--a tale of familial loyalty and betrayal, and the pursuit of magic and power.

For generations, the Kalotay family has guarded a collection of ancient and rare books. Books that let a person walk through walls or manipulate the elements--books of magic that half-sisters Joanna and Esther have been raised to revere and protect.

All magic comes with a price, though, and for years the sisters have been separated. Esther has fled to a remote base in Antarctica to escape the fate that killed her own mother, and Joanna's isolated herself in their family home in Vermont, devoting her life to the study of these cherished volumes. But after their father dies suddenly while reading a book Joanna has never seen before, the sisters must reunite to preserve their family legacy. In the process, they'll uncover a world of magic far bigger and more dangerous than they ever imagined, and all the secrets their parents kept hidden; secrets that span centuries, continents, and even other libraries . . .]]> 416 Emma Törzs 0063253461 Kiersten 4 3.98 2023 Ink Blood Sister Scribe
author: Emma Törzs
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/11
date added: 2024/11/11
shelves:
review:
This was a lovely novel filled with magic but also it's a romance, a mystery, a quest! In fact, it doesn't really fit into a fantasy genre IMHO. I am generally not a fan of books that begin with separate characters in different places because you have such a long introduction getting to know the setting and people, but as with the other books that use these machines, the people entwine their plotlines as the book goes on and using this writing technique was fairly necessary to begin the story. The prose is beautiful--Torzs is an amazing writer. The book really comes to life and feels real, despite the magic happening in the pages. She does a good job helping you feel the magic. And for those of you who really need it--this one has a very satisfying conclusion, though I would not mind seeing the story continue and there is lots of room for an interesting future with these characters to be sure (if you're listening Emma).
]]> <![CDATA[The Last House on Needless Street]]> 59808152
Named one of the Best Horror Books of All Time ( Esquire and Cosmopolitan ) � Winner of the British Fantasy Award for Best Horror Novel � An Indie Next Pick � A LibraryReads Top 10 Pick � A Library Journal Editors' Pick

Catriona Ward's The Last House on Needless Street is a shocking and immersive read perfect for fans of Gone Girl and The Haunting of Hill House .

In a boarded-up house on a dead-end street at the edge of the wild Washington woods lives a family of three.

A young girl who isn’t allowed outside, not after last time.
A man who drinks alone in front of his TV, trying to ignore the gaps in his memory.
And a house cat who loves napping and reading the Bible.

An unspeakable secret binds them together, but when a new neighbor moves in next door, what is buried out among the birch trees may come back to haunt them all.

"Brilliant....[a] deeply frightening deconstruction of the illusion of the self." � The New York Times]]> 368 Catriona Ward 125081264X Kiersten 4 4.01 2021 The Last House on Needless Street
author: Catriona Ward
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/26
date added: 2024/10/26
shelves:
review:
Okay friends, this was well done but not exactly my cup of tea. I won't give you spoilers, but I was hoping for a horror read like the Shining--creepy and spooky. This is different. Unhinged, deliberately confusing, good twists in the plot, but the mood is sad and the atmosphere is "food gone bad" so like, open festering wounds, dirty, living in squalor. It has a good resolution ending and I think it's important literary work. I just didn't enjoy being in this mindset and I don't think there was enough edge-of-your seat tension to call it a thriller. Even in the peak tension scene. The read doesn't drag anywhere...you'll keep turning the pages. I'd say it was more of a depressing mystery than a spooky thriller. But I can't give it a bad rating. Ward does an amazing job at highlighting a topic that doesn't get much coverage, so it would be a good book for discussion.
]]> The Rom-Commers 195790586 She’s rewriting his love story. But can she rewrite her own?

Emma Wheeler desperately longs to be a screenwriter. She’s spent her life studying, obsessing over, and writing romantic comedies―good ones! That win contests! But she’s also been the sole caretaker for her kind-hearted dad, who needs full-time care. Now, when she gets a chance to re-write a script for famous screenwriter Charlie Yates―The Charlie Yates! Her personal writing god!―it’s a break too big to pass up.

Emma’s younger sister steps in for caretaking duties, and Emma moves to L.A. for six weeks for the writing gig of a lifetime. But what is it they say? Don’t meet your heroes? Charlie Yates doesn’t want to write with anyone―much less “a failed, nobody screenwriter.� Worse, the romantic comedy he’s written is so terrible it might actually bring on the apocalypse. Plus! He doesn’t even care about the script―it’s just a means to get a different one green-lit. Oh, and he thinks love is an emotional Ponzi scheme.

But Emma’s not going down without a fight. She will stand up for herself, and for rom-coms, and for love itself. She will convince him that love stories matter―even if she has to kiss him senseless to do it. But . . . what if that kiss is accidentally amazing? What if real life turns out to be so much . . . more real than fiction? What if the love story they’re writing breaks all Emma’s rules―and comes true?]]> 336 Katherine Center 1250283809 Kiersten 5 4.06 2024 The Rom-Commers
author: Katherine Center
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/13
date added: 2024/10/13
shelves:
review:
Good fun from beginning to end and can we talk about the posh physicality of this hardback? The pink dye on the paper's edge? The quality of the paper and the weight of the book!? This is a pretty thing on the shelf, y'all. But it's the uplifting vibe that I keep coming back to Katherine Center books for--at the end of the day, the theme is that we are all human, doing our best, wrestling with life's messy stuff and if we persist, good things will come. The protagonists in this book have had their share of crappy life stuff and somehow they come together to make magic happen in this synergistic journey of working through the yips and letting yourself pursue dreams and trust others. If you haven't read Center's books yet, treat yourself to this one.
]]> <![CDATA[The Housemaid's Secret (The Housemaid, #2)]]> 62848145 As he continues showing me their incredible penthouse apartment, I have a terrible feeling about the woman behind closed doors. But I can't risk losing this job � not if I want to keep my darkest secret safe . . .

It's hard to find an employer who doesn't ask too many questions about my past. So I thank my lucky stars that the Garricks miraculously give me a job, cleaning their stunning penthouse with views across the city and preparing fancy meals in their shiny kitchen. I can work here for a while, stay quiet until I get what I want. It's almost perfect. But I still haven't met Mrs Garrick, or seen inside the guest bedroom. I'm sure I hear her crying. I notice spots of blood around the neck of her white nightgowns when I'm doing laundry. And one day I can't help but knock on the door. When it gently swings open, what I see inside changes everything...

That's when I make a promise. After all, I've done this before. I can protect Mrs. Garrick while keeping my own secrets locked up safe. Douglas Garrick has done wrong. He is going to pay. It's simply a question of how far I'm willing to go...]]> 318 Freida McFadden 1837901317 Kiersten 5 4.21 2023 The Housemaid's Secret (The Housemaid, #2)
author: Freida McFadden
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/28
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves:
review:
I didn't think McFadden could top the first Housemaid novel, but man, this one was crazy good! Twists and turns all the way to the end. WHEW! Pretty much devoured this whole book on one plane ride. Millie is the best.
]]> Happiness Falls 75495002 When a father goes missing, his family's desperate search leads them to question everything they know about him and one another--both a riveting page-turner and a deeply moving portrait of a family in crisis from the award-winning author of Miracle Creek.

"We didn't call the police right away." Those are the first words of this extraordinary novel about a biracial Korean-American family in Virginia whose lives are upended when their beloved father and husband goes missing.

Mia, the irreverent, hyperanalytical twenty-year-old daughter, has an explanation for everything--which is why she isn't initially concerned when her father and younger brother Eugene don't return from a walk in a nearby park. They must have lost their phone. Or stopped for an errand somewhere. But by the time Mia's brother runs through the front door bloody and alone, it becomes clear that the father in this tight-knit family is missing and the only witness is Eugene, who has the rare genetic condition Angelman syndrome and cannot speak.

What follows is both a ticking-clock investigation into the whereabouts of a father and an emotionally rich portrait of a family whose most personal secrets just may be at the heart of his disappearance. Full of shocking twists and fascinating questions of love, language, race, and human connection, Happiness Falls is a mystery, a family drama, and a novel of profound philosophical inquiry. With all the powerful storytelling she brought to her award-winning debut Miracle Creek, Angie Kim turns the missing person story into something wholly original, creating an indelible tale of a family who must go to remarkable lengths to truly understand one another.]]> 387 Angie Kim 0593448200 Kiersten 4 3.72 2023 Happiness Falls
author: Angie Kim
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/25
date added: 2024/09/26
shelves:
review:
This mystery is unique in that it offers up some philosophical/sociological ideas to ponder. What is happiness? How can we maximize it? How important is it? The story itself talks about other books with uncertain endings and Kim gifts us with some uncertainty at the end of this one. She focuses on neurodiverse people who are nonverbal (and discusses the semantics of the term nonverbal as well as the semantics of other terms that are misnomers, like "committed" suicide). She does a great job of illustrating the frustrations and the closeness of families who have a member who is different in some way. So I guess as far as mystery novels go, it's a good book. As far as thoughtful, interesting stories that you want to talk about with your friends go, it's a great book.
]]> <![CDATA[Life in the Fasting Lane: The Essential Guide to Making Intermittent Fasting Simple, Sustainable, and Enjoyable]]> 50923402 Take the guesswork (and fear) out of fasting with real-life and expert advice about the number-one diet trend.

Over the last decade, intermittent fasting—restricting calorie intake for a proscribed number of hours for a set number of days—has become increasingly popular. While some in the medical community initially dismissed the idea as a dangerous fad, in recent years researchers have validated the safety of fasting for weight loss, and found compelling evidence that it offers wide-ranging health benefits, including lowering blood pressure; reducing risk factors for diabetes, cancer, and other diseases; promoting longevity; and increasing cognitive function.

However, many people aren’t sure how to incorporate fasting into their daily routine. What are best practices? Do you need to fast every day? What do you eat on non-fasting days? How can you fast when your family doesn’t? What if you’re a person who gets hungry after not eating for a few hours?

In this essential guide, Dr. Jason Fung, Megan Ramos, and Eve Mayer address common questions and offer practical advice for integrating beneficial periods of food restriction into daily life. They set three initial goals: Start Your Fasting Engine, Find Your Fasting Lane, and Win the Race. Each goal is broken down into ten manageable steps that can be taken at your individual pace. Love breakfast? Then it may take a little while to get used to not eating it. Already skip it? Jump ahead to restricting lunch. Fung, Ramos, and Mayer know every person’s physiological and psychological response to food restriction is different, and they’re here to help you find the tools and strategies that will work best for your life.

Combining Mayer and Ramos� years of personal experience with Dr. Fung’s clinical experience and scientific rigor, Life in the Fasting Lane is a unique, accessible, and life-changing guide to developing a sustainable and beneficial fasting routine.

]]> 256 Jason Fung 0062969463 Kiersten 4
Merged review:

I was hoping for something a little more scientific, but this was definitely a fun read. Eve Mayer has written the majority of the book. She is a good writer and talks about her personal journey including all the pitfalls she encountered. I think people who really wrestle with obesity and other major health issues will benefit most from her narrative. I'm coming from a different place, so her narrative doesn't resonate as much with me. The first half of the book was more illuminating in terms of how men and women are different, how the world's eating has changed, when autophagy kicks in, etc.]]> 3.88 Life in the Fasting Lane: The Essential Guide to Making Intermittent Fasting Simple, Sustainable, and Enjoyable
author: Jason Fung
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.88
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2020/04/13
date added: 2024/09/18
shelves:
review:
I was hoping for something a little more scientific, but this was definitely a fun read. Eve Mayer has written the majority of the book. She is a good writer and talks about her personal journey including all the pitfalls she encountered. I think people who really wrestle with obesity and other major health issues will benefit most from her narrative. I'm coming from a different place, so her narrative doesn't resonate as much with me. The first half of the book was more illuminating in terms of how men and women are different, how the world's eating has changed, when autophagy kicks in, etc.

Merged review:

I was hoping for something a little more scientific, but this was definitely a fun read. Eve Mayer has written the majority of the book. She is a good writer and talks about her personal journey including all the pitfalls she encountered. I think people who really wrestle with obesity and other major health issues will benefit most from her narrative. I'm coming from a different place, so her narrative doesn't resonate as much with me. The first half of the book was more illuminating in terms of how men and women are different, how the world's eating has changed, when autophagy kicks in, etc.
]]> Mad Honey 59912428 A soul-stirring novel about what we choose to keep from our past, and what we choose to leave behind.

Olivia McAfee knows what it feels like to start over. Her picture-perfect life—living in Boston, married to a brilliant cardiothoracic surgeon, raising a beautiful son, Asher—was upended when her husband revealed a darker side. She never imagined she would end up back in her sleepy New Hampshire hometown, living in the house she grew up in, and taking over her father's beekeeping business.

Lily Campanello is familiar with do-overs, too. When she and her mom relocate to Adams, New Hampshire, for her final year of high school, they both hope it will be a fresh start.

And for just a short while, these new beginnings are exactly what Olivia and Lily need. Their paths cross when Asher falls for the new girl in school, and Lily ł¦˛ą˛Ô’t help but fall for him, too. With Ash, she feels happy for the first time. Yet at times, she wonders if she can she trust him completely . . .

Then one day, Olivia receives a phone call: Lily is dead, and Asher is being questioned by the police. Olivia is adamant that her son is innocent. But she would be lying if she didn’t acknowledge the flashes of his father’s temper in him, and as the case against him unfolds, she realizes he’s hidden more than he’s shared with her.

Mad Honey is a riveting novel of suspense, an unforgettable love story, and a moving and powerful exploration of the secrets we keep and the risks we take in order to become ourselves.]]> 464 Jodi Picoult 1984818384 Kiersten 5 4.05 2022 Mad Honey
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/16
date added: 2024/09/16
shelves:
review:
A compelling novel about authentically being yourself. Picoult does such an amazing job with research and kudos to her for co-authoring this one with Boylan who brings so much to the table. I feel like this is such important reading for everyone as our world moves forward in new, accepting ways. As always, Picoult gets you thinking, often in new ways about a variety of topics and explores every single angle. Mad Honey is rich with metaphor, using bees as a backdrop. There are themes of male toxicity and domestic abuse interwoven with self-identity, trust and betrayal, and what you would do to stand up for your child.
]]> <![CDATA[Forward: Notes on the Future of Our Democracy]]> 57282235 A lively and bold blueprint for moving beyond the “era of institutional failure" by transforming our outmoded political and economic systems to be resilient to twenty-first-century problems, from the popular entrepreneur, bestselling author, and political truth-teller

“A vitally important book.”—Mark Cuban

Despite being written off by the media, Andrew Yang’s shoestring 2020 presidential campaign—powered by his proposal for a universal basic income of $1,000 a month for all Americans—jolted the political establishment, growing into a massive, diverse movement.

Now, in Forward, Yang reveals that UBI and the threat of job automation are only the beginning, diagnosing how a series of cascading problems within our antiquated systems keeps us stuck in the past—imperiling our democracy at every level. With America’s stagnant institutions failing to keep pace with technological change, we grow more polarized as tech platforms supplant our will while feasting on our data. Yang introduces us to the various “priests of the decline� of America, including politicians whose incentives have become divorced from the people they supposedly serve.

The machinery of American democracy is failing, Yang argues, and we need bold new ideas to rewire it for twenty-first-century problems. Inspired by his experience running for office and as an entrepreneur, and by ideas drawn from leading thinkers, Yang offers a series of solutions, including data rights, ranked-choice voting, and fact-based governance empowered by modern technology, writing that “there is no cavalry”—it’s up to us. This is a powerful and urgent warning that we must step back from the brink and plot a new way forward for our democracy.]]> 368 Andrew Yang 0593238656 Kiersten 4 4.11 2021 Forward: Notes on the Future of Our Democracy
author: Andrew Yang
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/10
date added: 2024/09/10
shelves:
review:
A must-read for everyone, no matter what party you identify with. I learned so much about our government and how it works (doesn't work?) as well as the process that political candidates go through. We desperately need change in the way our country works and only educated, brave, and inspired people like Andrew Yang can elucidate how to get there and nudge us in the right direction. I don't agree with everything he puts forth here, but it's interesting to see his reasoning behind his goals. Yes, we need some sort of UBI...maybe not as big as he imagines. Yes, we need universal healthcare, ranked-choice voting, term limits, election reform, tax reform. I'm not a fan of bringing back earmarks. Certainly, I am in favor of a functional government. Forward.
]]> Listen for the Lie 127279000 What if you thought you murdered your best friend? And if everyone else thought so too? And what if the truth doesn't matter?

Lucy and Savvy were the golden girls of their small Texas town: pretty, smart, and enviable. Lucy married a dream guy with a big ring and an even bigger new home. Savvy was the social butterfly loved by all and, if you believe the rumors, especially popular with the men in town. But after Lucy is found wandering the streets, covered in her best friend Savvy’s blood, everyone thinks she is a murderer.

It’s been years since that horrible night, a night Lucy ł¦˛ą˛Ô’t remember anything about, and she has since moved to LA and started a new life. But now the phenomenally huge hit true crime podcast Listen for the Lie and its too-good looking host, Ben Owens, have decided to investigate Savvy’s murder for the show’s second season. Lucy is forced to return to the place she vowed never to set foot in again to solve her friend’s murder, even if she is the one who did it.

The truth is out there, if we just listen.]]> 352 Amy Tintera 1250880319 Kiersten 5 4.07 2024 Listen for the Lie
author: Amy Tintera
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/27
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves:
review:
This was super fun. It's not entirely suspense/mystery. It's kind of humorous and romance, too. But the mystery keep you hooked and the podcast throws you red herrings while you're turning the pages. You'll love the dry wit of the protagonist, Lucy, and her grandmother is a fantastic character. Themes of the book include domestic abuse, amnesia, gaslighting, alcoholism, friendship, cheating, secrets, and the book really explores the concept of how well do you know yourself? Your family? What is a person capable of? Really well written. A pleasure to read beginning to end.
]]> <![CDATA[The Five-Star Weekend (Sommer in Nantucket, #1)]]> 62873996
Hollis Shaw’s life seems picture-perfect. She’s the creator of the popular food blog Hungry with Hollis and is married to Matthew, a dreamy heart surgeon. But after she and Matthew get into a heated argument one snowy morning, he leaves for the airport and is killed in a car accident. The cracks in Hollis’s perfect life—her strained marriage and her complicated relationship with her daughter, Caroline—grow deeper.

So when Hollis hears about something called a “Five-Star Weekend”—one woman organizes a trip for her best friend from each phase of her life: her teenage years, her twenties, her thirties, and midlife—she decides to host her own Five-Star Weekend on Nantucket. But the weekend doesn’t turn out to be a joyful Hallmark movie.

The husband of Hollis’s childhood friend Tatum arranges for Hollis’s first love, Jack Finigan, to spend time with them, stirring up old feelings. Meanwhile, Tatum is forced to play nice with abrasive and elitist Dru-Ann, Hollis’s best friend from UNC Chapel Hill. Dru-Ann’s career as a prominent Chicago sports agent is on the line after her comments about a client’s mental health issues are misconstrued online. Brooke, Hollis’s friend from their thirties, has just discovered that her husband is having an inappropriate relationship with a woman at work. Again! And then there’s Gigi, a stranger to everyone (including Hollis) who reached out to Hollis through her blog. Gigi embodies an unusual grace and, as it hap- pens, has many secrets.

The Five-Star Weekend is a surprising and captivating story about friendship, love, and self-discovery set on Nantucket. It will be a weekend like no other.]]> 384 Elin Hilderbrand 0316258776 Kiersten 0 to-read 3.95 2023 The Five-Star Weekend (Sommer in Nantucket, #1)
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> There There 43076988 292 Tommy Orange 0525436146 Kiersten 4 4.05 2018 There There
author: Tommy Orange
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2022/06/14
date added: 2024/08/16
shelves:
review:

]]> Sandwich 200028726 From the beloved author of We All Want Impossible Things, a moving, hilarious story of a family summer vacation full of secrets, lunch, and learning to let go.

For the past two decades, Rocky has looked forward to her family’s yearly escape to Cape Cod. Their humble beach-town rental has been the site of sweet memories, sunny days, great meals, and messes of all kinds: emotional, marital, and—thanks to the cottage’s ancient plumbing—septic too.

This year’s vacation, with Rocky sandwiched between her half-grown kids and fully aging parents, promises to be just as delightful as summers past—except, perhaps, for Rocky’s hormonal bouts of rage and melancholy. (Hello, menopause!) Her body is changing—her life is, too. And then a chain of events sends Rocky into the past, reliving both the tenderness and sorrow of a handful of long-ago summers.

It's one precious week: everything is in balance; everything is in flux. And when Rocky comes face to face with her family’s history and future, she is forced to accept that she can no longer hide her secrets from the people she loves.]]> 240 Catherine Newman 0063345161 Kiersten 4 3.55 2024 Sandwich
author: Catherine Newman
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/15
date added: 2024/08/15
shelves:
review:
This read was a little slower than her other book, We All Want Impossible Things. But it's such a deep dive into the pain and joy of motherhood in the stage of life where your kids are newly grown up and your parents are old. There are themes of miscarriage and abortion, so if you're wrestling with any of that, this may not be for you. As always, Newman writes with the quick-paced voice of someone young with all the jargon of a young person and a hilarious, dry wit. It takes some getting used to, unless you ARE a young person, in which case, you will probably not be able to relate to all the heavy mom stuff in the book including menopause. But there are such lovely moments in the book. Deep stuff about love and wonder. A daffodil sprouting with perfect shades of the brightest yellow from a bowl full of brown dirt. Is it magic? Maybe it is.
]]> Pineapple Street 61246258
Shot through with the indulgent pleasures of life among New York’s one-percenters, Pineapple Street is an addictive, escapist novel that sparkles with wit. Full of recognizable, lovable—if fallible—characters, it’s about the peculiar unknowability of someone else’s family, the miles between the haves and have-nots, and the insanity of first love—all wrapped in a deliciously funny, sharply observed debut of family, love, and class.]]> 304 Jenny Jackson 059349069X Kiersten 4 3.49 2023 Pineapple Street
author: Jenny Jackson
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/04
date added: 2024/08/04
shelves:
review:
This was a lovely little story about family and class that felt SO REAL. The story just had this authenticity about it and it felt like a little slice of life--you come in at one point and leave at another. It's not a page turner but I think it couldn't be. It doesn't feel like you're being manipulated to turn the pages...you're just following along these lives with flawed, but genuinely good characters with their own anxieties and situations. Things end with a feeling of resolution. Nice to get a feel for this area of New York too. You'll see a bit of yourself in the various characters. Very enjoyable read.
]]> The Death of Mrs. Westaway 36373481
Soon, Hal finds herself at the funeral of the deceased…where it dawns on her that there is something very, very wrong about this strange situation and the inheritance at the centre of it.]]> 368 Ruth Ware 1501156217 Kiersten 2 3.79 2018 The Death of Mrs. Westaway
author: Ruth Ware
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2018
rating: 2
read at: 2024/07/15
date added: 2024/07/15
shelves:
review:
I have read almost all of Ruth Ware's books now. This one was MUCH slower paced than her others. You keep waiting for the story to progress and it feels like everything rushes along in the last 30 pages. There are things that still don't make a lot of sense to me, like the photograph or Harriet's mother's choice of profession. Or Mrs. Warren's attitude. Doesn't feel super believable. Anyway, still an enjoyable read. Just be warned that it doesn't measure up to her other books in my humble opinion.
]]> <![CDATA[The Housemaid (The Housemaid, #1)]]> 61991328 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781538742570.

Every day I clean the Winchesters� beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor.

I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband.

I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon finds out� and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late.

But I reassure myself: the Winchesters don’t know who I really am.

They don’t know what I’m capable of…]]> 329 Freida McFadden Kiersten 5 4.27 2022 The Housemaid (The Housemaid, #1)
author: Freida McFadden
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/01
date added: 2024/07/01
shelves:
review:
Holy cow, this was amazing fun. Couldn't put it down. Really fun twist and karma served up in big, satisfying heaps at the end. Super creepy weird stuff at the end that leaves me with some questions. Good discussion topics regarding problems for incarcerated folks being able to get work, good guys stepping in, workplace harassment, mental illness, and more. Certainly the power structures that keep women down are central to this book.
]]> <![CDATA[The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches]]> 60018635 A warm and uplifting novel about an isolated witch whose opportunity to embrace a quirky new family--and a new love--changes the course of her life.

As one of the few witches in Britain, Mika Moon knows she has to hide her magic, keep her head down, and stay away from other witches so their powers don't mingle and draw attention. And as an orphan who lost her parents at a young age and was raised by strangers, she's used to being alone and she follows the rules...with one exception: an online account, where she posts videos pretending to be a witch. She thinks no one will take it seriously.

But someone does. An unexpected message arrives, begging her to travel to the remote and mysterious Nowhere House to teach three young witches how to control their magic. It breaks all of the rules, but Mika goes anyway, and is immediately tangled up in the lives and secrets of not only her three charges, but also an absent archaeologist, a retired actor, two long-suffering caretakers, and...Jamie. The handsome and prickly librarian of Nowhere House would do anything to protect the children, and as far as he's concerned, a stranger like Mika is a threat. An irritatingly appealing threat.

As Mika begins to find her place at Nowhere House, the thought of belonging somewhere begins to feel like a real possibility. But magic isn't the only danger in the world, and when a threat comes knocking at their door, Mika will need to decide whether to risk everything to protect a found family she didn't know she was looking for....
]]> 318 Sangu Mandanna 059343935X Kiersten 5 4.04 2022 The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches
author: Sangu Mandanna
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/23
date added: 2024/06/23
shelves:
review:
A lovely, cozy story...part romance, partly a novel about family, belonging, being your true self, and trust. My favorite sentences: Niceness is all about what we do when other people are looking. Kindness, on the other hand, runs deep. Kindness is what happens when no one's looking.
]]> One Perfect Couple 199798953 Harkening to Agatha Christie’s classic And Then There Were None, this high-tension and ingenious thriller follows five couples trapped on a storm-swept island as a killer stalks among them.

Lyla is in a bit of a rut. Her post-doctoral research has fizzled out, she’s pretty sure they won’t extend her contract, and things with her boyfriend, Nico, an aspiring actor, aren’t going great. When the opportunity arises for Nico to join the cast of a new reality TV show, The Perfect Couple, she decides to try out with him. A whirlwind audition process later, Lyla find herself whisked off to a tropical paradise with Nico, boating through the Indian Ocean towards Ever After Island, where the two of them will compete against four other couples—Bayer and Angel, Dan and Santana, Joel and Romi, and Conor and Zana—in order to win a cash prize.

But not long after they arrive on the deserted island, things start to go wrong. After the first challenge leaves everyone rattled and angry, an overnight storm takes matters from bad to worse. Cut off from the mainland by miles of ocean, deprived of their phones, and unable to contact the crew that brought them there, the group must band together for survival. As tensions run high and fresh water runs low, Lyla finds that this game show is all too real—and the stakes are life or death.

A fast-paced, spellbinding thriller rife with intrigue and characters that feel so true to life, this novel proves yet again that Ruth Ware is the queen of psychological suspense.]]> 385 Ruth Ware 1668025590 Kiersten 5 3.60 2024 One Perfect Couple
author: Ruth Ware
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/12
date added: 2024/06/12
shelves:
review:
Whew! This one is heavy. A survivor story in more than one way as it addresses not only a castaway scenario but also themes of domestic violence and abuse. Absolutely the page turner that you expect from Ruth Ware. Have a glass of water by your side as you read it for when you get thirsty. : )
]]> In a Dark, Dark Wood 27834600
Sometimes the only thing to fear…is yourself.

When reclusive writer Leonora is invited to the English countryside for a weekend away, she reluctantly agrees to make the trip. But as the first night falls, revelations unfold among friends old and new, an unnerving memory shatters Leonora’s reserve, and a haunting realization creeps in: the party is not alone in the woods.]]> 352 Ruth Ware 1501112333 Kiersten 5 3.76 2015 In a Dark, Dark Wood
author: Ruth Ware
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/12
date added: 2024/06/12
shelves:
review:
Ware does such a great job with character personalities. Nina is a sharp and sassy sort that plays nicely with the other various characters in the book. You know something isn't quite right from the onset of this novel because Nora can't figure out why she is invited to this hen do. As Ware isn't an American author, you really feel the tension around guns in general, which is interesting. Lots of red herrings in this mystery/thriller. The interplay between the present and the past story unfolding is well done. There are themes of controlling "mean girl" personalities and those who feel like they must comply and please them.
]]> 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 Kiersten 5 4.21 2024 Funny Story
author: Emily Henry
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/03
date added: 2024/06/03
shelves:
review:
Fabulous. Everything you would want in a romance...lots of karma playing out, exes you love to hate, new friends, and of course Henry writes dialogue with such wit that you never know when you're going to laugh out loud. There are some good themes running through this book worthy of discussion, like being present for the small moments for people you love, expectations, how people show they care, different perspectives, letting your guard down, and taking accountability for your own mistakes. I love how the protagonist, Daphne, delineates the difference between owning your own life (friends, home, career) versus sharing a partner's life but none of it really belongs to you. Anyway, a perfect book from the first page to the last. Maybe her best book yet.
]]> First Lie Wins 164444179 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780593492918.

Evie Porter has everything a nice Southern girl could want: a doting boyfriend, a house with a white picket fence, a tight group of friends. The only catch: Evie Porter doesn’t exist.

The identity comes first: Evie Porter. Once she’s given a name and location by her mysterious boss, Mr. Smith, she learns everything there is to know about the town and the people in it. Then the mark: Ryan Sumner. The last piece of the puzzle is the job.

Evie isn’t privy to Mr. Smith’s real identity, but she knows this job isn’t like the others. Ryan has gotten under her skin, and she’s starting to envision a different sort of life for herself. But Evie ł¦˛ą˛Ô’t make any mistakes—especially after what happened last time.

Evie Porter must stay one step ahead of her past while making sure there’s still a future in front of her. The stakes couldn’t be higher—but then, Evie has always liked a challenge. . . .]]> 340 Ashley Elston Kiersten 5 3.97 2024 First Lie Wins
author: Ashley Elston
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/27
date added: 2024/05/27
shelves:
review:
Wow! This book is amazing. I wasn't sure whether I was going to like it at the start, but as you realize what's going on, you get fully wrapped up in this story that just keeps throwing twists and turns at you right up until the very end. It's clever. It feels fresh and novel with elements of James Bond-type spy gadgets, deceptions, secret identities, and mysteries. Evie Porter is a fantastic protagonist that you'll enjoy cheering on. It looks like this book is already slated for the big screen and it's going to be a fun watch if they do it well.
]]> Nightwatching 150246179 The Fallon Spring Reads Book Club Pick

A mother is forced to the breaking point when her life and the lives of her children are threatened by an intruder

Home alone with her young children during a blizzard, a mother tucks her son back into bed in the middle of the night. She hears a noise—old houses are always making some kind of noise. But this sound is disturbingly familiar: it’s the tread of footsteps, unusually heavy and slow, coming up the stairs.

She sees the figure of a man appear down the hallway, shrouded in the shadows. Terrified, she quietly wakes her children and hustles them into the oldest part of the house, a tiny, secret room concealed behind a wall. There they hide as the man searches for them, trying to tempt the children out with promises and scare the mother into surrender.

In the suffocating darkness, the mother struggles to remain calm, to plan. Should she search for a weapon or attempt escape? But then she catches another glimpse of him. That face. That voice. And at once she knows her situation is even more dire than she’d feared, because she knows exactly who he is—and what he wants.]]> 368 Tracy Sierra 0593654765 Kiersten 5 3.79 2024 Nightwatching
author: Tracy Sierra
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/20
date added: 2024/05/20
shelves:
review:
Wow! Could NOT put this book down. A thriller at the beginning and a mystery towards the end. Sierra does an amazing job of making you feel the terror of having a monster in the house after you and your kids. There were some very familiar themes of how far a mother is willing to go to protect her children, women's instincts and gut reactions, women as caregivers, old-school paternalistic father-in-laws, and how the law doesn't always protect as it should. For a debut novel, Sierra nailed it. Can't wait to see what she does next. Will be hard to follow this masterpiece.
]]> Then She Was Gone 38532131 She was fifteen, her mother's golden girl. She had her whole life ahead of her. And then, in the blink of an eye, Ellie was gone.

NOW
It’s been ten years since Ellie disappeared, but Laurel has never given up hope of finding her daughter.

And then one day a charming and charismatic stranger called Floyd walks into a café and sweeps Laurel off her feet.

Before too long she’s staying the night at this house and being introduced to his nine year old daughter.

Poppy is precocious and pretty - and meeting her completely takes Laurel's breath away.

Because Poppy is the spitting image of Ellie when she was that age. And now all those unanswered questions that have haunted Laurel come flooding back.

What happened to Ellie? Where did she go?

Who still has secrets to hide?]]> 384 Lisa Jewell 1501154656 Kiersten 4 4.11 2017 Then She Was Gone
author: Lisa Jewell
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2021/07/04
date added: 2024/05/11
shelves:
review:
This was super fun. Lots of good surprises. You'll have a bit of empathy for the antagonist and empathy for some of the other "prickly" characters, which makes the book less of a two-dimensional read. The golden girl characters were a little too golden--but maybe as humans we tend to idolize and magnify how lovely our heroes are. What I really loved about this book is that Jewell pulls you right in from page one. You don't have to "get into it." Her voice and the narrative are easy to make friends with and then you can't put the book down until you're done. This is the first book of hers I've read and I'm thinking that it's very likely that I'll have to read her others. Great vacation read.
]]> <![CDATA[In the Woods (Dublin Murder Squad, #1)]]> 2459785
Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. But when a 12-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and Detective Cassie Maddox (his partner and closest friend) find themselves investigating a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery. Now, with only snippets of long-buried memories to guide him, Ryan has the chance to uncover both the mystery of the case before him and that of his own shadowy past.

A gorgeously written novel that marks the debut of an astonishing new voice in psychological suspense.]]> 448 Tana French Kiersten 0 to-read 3.82 2007 In the Woods (Dublin Murder Squad, #1)
author: Tana French
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/10
shelves: to-read
review:

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

But June cannot escape Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens her stolen success. As she races to protect her secret she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.]]> 319 R.F. Kuang 000853277X Kiersten 0 to-read 3.69 2023 Yellowface
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> So Close (Blacklist, #1) 61840222 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Crossfire® saga comes the beginning of a twisty tale of obsession and rage, as a trinity of women protect what they covet at any cost.

You ł¦˛ą˛Ô’t believe all of them, but can you trust any of them?

Widower Kane Black is still ruinously married to his late wife, Lily. Grief has hollowed him� until he sees a woman with his wife’s inimitable beauty on the streets of Manhattan. He whisks her up to his towering penthouse, protectively under guard, nestling her in dark opulence where Lily’s memory is a possessive beguiling force.

Aliyah, Kane’s mother, deals in science. There are too many questions, too few answers, and too much at stake. “Lily� has dangerous control over Kane and there can be only one queen on the throne.

Amy, Kane’s sister-in-law, has been bloodied by deceit and betrayal, and she’s devolving into murderous rage. She’s paid too high a price and now intends to claim what she’s owed.

Three women, linked by buried secrets, circle the man who unquestioningly accepts the return of his beloved long-dead wife. Kane is happier than he’s ever been, and he’ll do anything to stay that way.

Propulsive and sly, So Close is a lushly gothic novel of domestic suspense with the emotional intensity, scorching sensuality, and complex exploration of female trauma that are the hallmarks of multimillion-copy international bestseller Sylvia Day.]]> Sylvia Day Kiersten 2 3.34 2023 So Close (Blacklist, #1)
author: Sylvia Day
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.34
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2024/05/10
date added: 2024/05/10
shelves:
review:
I really loved the Crossfire series and it's nice that Gideon and Eva feature in this series, but the plot felt chaotic and messy for most of the book. You don't know where the characters stand or who to cheer for. I'm not a personal fan of first person point of view with different characters perspectives in different chapters, so I had to keep reminding myself who we were following with each chapter. And just as a warning to those who haven't read it yet--Day has set this one up with an ending that isn't meant to conclude, though it isn't a cliffhanger either. There is plenty of spice though, so if that's what you're interested in, she doesn't disappoint.
]]> <![CDATA[No Worries: How to live a stress-free financial life]]> 138505970
This is not about millions of tiny decisions that drain the joy from life, like skipping daily coffee to save a few bucks. And it’s not simply about having more money.

The secret lies in adopting the right attitude to money and getting a small number of big things right.

In his unique style, drawing on decades of expertise, finance expert Jared Dillian tells the truths about essential personal finance topics and helps you to see things as you never have before.

Jared

- how the right kind of abundance mindset works wonders
- how to purge the urge to splurge (without making life a drag)
- the most effective ways to use credit cards that no one tells you about
- the smart ways to buy big-ticket items, from houses to cars
- what’s gone wrong with student loans and how to use them sensibly
- how to ace investing with the set-and-forget Awesome Portfolio.

No matter where you’re at, Jared can help you get your finances in better shape than 99% of other people � so that you can get on with your life as your wealth builds.

Do that and you’ll have no financial stress, and no worries.]]> 240 Jared Dillian 1804090409 Kiersten 5 3.85 No Worries: How to live a stress-free financial life
author: Jared Dillian
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.85
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/04
date added: 2024/05/04
shelves:
review:
Great book that gives sound advice on investing and spending money. There are quality explanations about investment choices and what makes the most sense. We will be giving copies to our kids. I love the middle path goal with spending between cheap folks and high rollers. The only audience that won't appreciate Dillian's attitude on "you can always hustle and make more money" are the folks who truly don't have the circumstances to do better. The single mom who has preschool kids to care for, illiterate folks, people who are disabled or are carers for aging parents or special needs kids. This book isn't for those people really. Those people don't have time to read or money to buy books, so I guess they won't read it anyway. But I did bristle a bit thinking of some people I know who are truly struggling to make ends meet and have to live a life of austerity because they truly cannot earn more money. Earning more money isn't always an option sadly.
]]> The Turn of the Key 42080142
What she doesn’t know is that she’s stepping into a nightmare—one that will end with a child dead and herself in prison awaiting trial for murder.

Writing to her lawyer from prison, she struggles to explain the unravelling events that led to her incarceration. It wasn’t just the constant surveillance from the cameras installed around the house, or the malfunctioning technology that woke the household with booming music, or turned the lights off at the worst possible time. It wasn’t just the girls, who turned out to be a far cry from the immaculately behaved model children she met at her interview. It wasn’t even the way she was left alone for weeks at a time, with no adults around apart from the enigmatic handyman, Jack Grant.

It was everything.

She knows she’s made mistakes. She admits that she lied to obtain the post, and that her behavior toward the children wasn’t always ideal. She’s not innocent, by any means. But, she maintains, she’s not guilty—at least not of murder. Which means someone else is.

Full of spellbinding menace and told in Ruth Ware’s signature suspenseful style, The Turn of the Key is an unputdownable thriller from the Agatha Christie of our time.]]> 337 Ruth Ware 1501188771 Kiersten 5 3.91 2019 The Turn of the Key
author: Ruth Ware
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/24
date added: 2024/04/24
shelves:
review:
I love a good haunted house story and while this one is more mystery than haunted, it's a really fun read that keeps you guessing until the very last page. In fact, I would have liked a more conclusive ending that fills you in on the protagonist's future.
]]> We All Want Impossible Things 60410002 Who knows you better than your best friend? Who knows your secrets, your fears, your desires, your strange imperfect self? Edi and Ash have been best friends for over forty years. Since childhood they have seen each other through life's milestones: stealing vodka from their parents, the Madonna phase, REM concerts, unexpected wakes, marriages, infertility, children. As Ash notes, 'Edi's memory is like the back-up hard drive for mine.'

So when Edi is diagnosed with terminal cancer, Ash's world reshapes around the rhythms of Edi's care, from chipped ice and watermelon cubes to music therapy; from snack smuggling to impromptu excursions into the frozen winter night. Because life is about squeezing the joy out of every moment, about building a powerhouse of memories, about learning when to hold on, and when to let go.
]]> 224 Catherine Newman 0063230895 Kiersten 4 3.95 2022 We All Want Impossible Things
author: Catherine Newman
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/12
date added: 2024/04/12
shelves:
review:
Get ready for ALL the feels...the laughing, the crying, the love. Newman expertly weaves the hilarity of quirky dialogues (think Jenny Lawson or Janet Evanovich) with a backdrop of hospice, which results in this wonderful juxtaposition that amplifies both the joy and the sadness of life. You'll appreciate the messiness of life, expressions of profound love, the fatigue of the end-of-life vigils, the chaos of survival mode--for those who have been there, you'll fully feel the confusing situations like "should I let a hospice patient have unhealthy things?" The close family relationships are lovely. A beautiful book about life and love.
]]> <![CDATA[The Summer Tree (The Fionavar Tapestry #1)]]> 247872 383 Guy Gavriel Kay 0451451384 Kiersten 3 3.95 1984 The Summer Tree (The Fionavar Tapestry #1)
author: Guy Gavriel Kay
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1984
rating: 3
read at: 2019/09/29
date added: 2024/04/09
shelves:
review:
This was well written, but I think Fantasy just really isn't my genre. I don't seem to have the patience for all the backstories. That said, I did think it was clever how they integrated modern society with the fantasy realm.
]]> A Flicker in the Dark 59808291
Now twenty years later, Chloe is a psychologist in Baton Rouge and getting ready for her wedding. While she finally has a fragile grasp on the happiness she’s worked so hard to achieve, she sometimes feels as out of control of her own life as the troubled teens who are her patients. So when a local teenage girl goes missing, and then another, that terrifying summer comes crashing back. Is she paranoid, seeing parallels from her past that aren't actually there, or for the second time in her life, is Chloe about to unmask a killer?

From debut author Stacy Willingham comes a masterfully done, lyrical thriller, certain to be the launch of an amazing career. A Flicker in the Dark is eerily compelling to the very last page.]]> 384 Stacy Willingham 1250803845 Kiersten 4 3.99 2022 A Flicker in the Dark
author: Stacy Willingham
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/07
date added: 2024/04/07
shelves:
review:
A great thriller mystery. The ending didn't go for the splashy happily ever after but had a satisfying feel to it. Themes of darkness in every character are highlighted, including our protagonist, Chloe. Power and control is a strong theme too. Definitely a page turner and a fun read.
]]> One Hundred Years of Solitude 7597 One Hundred Years of Solitude remains a dazzling and original achievement by the masterful Gabriel Garcia Marquez, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

One Hundred Years of Solitude tells the story of the rise and fall, birth and death of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendiá family. Inventive, amusing, magnetic, sad and alive with unforgettable men and women—brimming with truth, compassion, and a lyrical magic that strikes the soul—this novel is a masterpiece in the art of fiction.]]> 429 Gabriel García Márquez Kiersten 2 4.08 1967 One Hundred Years of Solitude
author: Gabriel García Márquez
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1967
rating: 2
read at: 2024/04/06
date added: 2024/04/06
shelves:
review:
I know that people love this book. I'm not a fan of magical realism or books epic in scope, so this isn't my cup of tea. I can't imagine that readers connect with or get attached to any of the characters. They all have similar names so it's hard to keep them straight--even with the help of the family tree at the beginning of the book. The voice of the story is more like a fable in which the author tells you what happens moment by moment in a detached way, so you're not really living the story as much as being filled in on stuff, much in the way my young nephews relay stories to me. I found a lot of religious metaphors in the book, two of which mirroring the great flood and ascension. Certainly themes of religion versus atheism thread through the book. Literature enthusiasts seem to enjoy celebrating the theme of subjective experience and differing perspectives that this novel conveys. Soooo yeah. If you're a fan of death, war, incest, and suffering, this might be your book.
]]> The It Girl 59345249
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.

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.

]]> 423 Ruth Ware 1982155264 Kiersten 5 3.81 2022 The It Girl
author: Ruth Ware
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/03
date added: 2024/04/04
shelves:
review:
Ware is a master in her genre. This book will keep you guessing until the end. The Oxford setting is fun to experience and you really feel the anxiety of the protagonist. It's a page turner, as all of Ware's books are, though this has more of a feel of a proper mystery than an action thriller (with plenty of that at the end too).
]]> <![CDATA[Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity]]> 61153739 #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER � A groundbreaking manifesto on living better and longer that challenges the conventional medical thinking on aging and reveals a new approach to preventing chronic disease and extending long-term health, from a visionary physician and leading longevity expert

Wouldn’t you like to live longer? And better? In this operating manual for longevity, Dr. Peter Attia draws on the latest science to deliver innovative nutritional interventions, techniques for optimizing exercise and sleep, and tools for addressing emotional and mental health.

For all its successes, mainstream medicine has failed to make much progress against the diseases of aging that kill most people: heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and type 2 diabetes. Too often, it intervenes with treatments too late to help, prolonging lifespan at the expense of healthspan, or quality of life. Dr. Attia believes we must replace this outdated framework with a personalized, proactive strategy for longevity, one where we take action now, rather than waiting.

This is not “biohacking,� it’s science: a well-founded strategic and tactical approach to extending lifespan while also improving our physical, cognitive, and emotional health. Dr. Attia’s aim is less to tell you what to do and more to help you learn how to think about long-term health, in order to create the best plan for you as an individual. In Outlive, readers will discover:

� Why the cholesterol test at your annual physical doesn’t tell you enough about your actual risk of dying from a heart attack.
� That you may already suffer from an extremely common yet underdiagnosed liver condition that could be a precursor to the chronic diseases of aging.
� Why exercise is the most potent pro-longevity “drug”—and how to begin training for the “Centenarian Decathlon.�
� Why you should forget about diets, and focus instead on nutritional biochemistry, using technology and data to personalize your eating pattern.
� Why striving for physical health and longevity, but ignoring emotional health, could be the ultimate curse of all.

Aging and longevity are far more malleable than we think; our fate is not set in stone. With the right roadmap, you can plot a different path for your life, one that lets you outlive your genes to make each decade better than the one before.]]> 496 Peter Attia 0593236599 Kiersten 5 4.33 2023 Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity
author: Peter Attia
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/22
date added: 2024/03/22
shelves:
review:
Wow! I want to buy a copy for everyone. Attia covers all the bases in this book and completely changes how we look at health as a society. He advocates for a change in our current medical system, from putting out fires with mild success to stopping cardiovascular disease, alzheimers, cancer, and diabetes BEFORE they begin (which makes so much sense!) He covers sleep (SO CRITICAL) to nutrition (not as critical...just stop with all the process sugar folks!) to exercise (which sort is important and impactful--especially with regards to aging and losing muscle mass and thus balance). After you think the book is over and are ready for a conclusive chapter, the last chapter comes out of nowhere and really hits you as possibly the most important chapter of the book. It's about emotional health (which is related to mental health but distinctly different). I will say that the beginning of the book gets bogged down in some chemistry, so feel free to skip over some stuff in the heart, cancer, and alzheimer's chapters unless you have a vested interest in learning the nitty gritty there. But keep reading because the exercise, sleep, nutrition, and emotional health chapters are enlightening. Awesome awesome book. Speaks to the future of health and medicine.
]]> <![CDATA[Collective Breath: Advancing Capitalism Through Sustainability to Achieve Greater Prosperity in the 21st Century]]> 203269186 Jack Wonders Kiersten 3 The last third of the book is where it gets interesting. Wonders suggests that true capitalism involves consumer choice and the ability to walk away from a transaction, whereas profit is built into a number of services that we can't live without, like healthcare. He compares them to the supportive services of companies in the form of human resources or marketing. So those businesses should be run as non-profits. Doing this will remove some complicated unethical practices that solely benefit the shareholders and mostly throw the consumer under the bus. Wonders suggests that banks, like psychiatrists, have their customer's best interests at heart and owe them the personal service to shepherd them towards good financial well being. Removing the profits from these necessary services allows the consumers to put their money towards true capitalist purchases, which will benefit everyone and speed up the velocity of money.
Wonders looks at sustainability in a wide scope, not just looking at the depletion of fish or the accumulation of plastic waste, but deeming our financial systems as unsustainable. Our rich get richer and our poor get poorer. He even redefines our view of money, which has been historically negative--probably tapping into our Puritan roots seeing "mammon" as evil, and encourages us to celebrate it as the Lifeblood of Humanity.
While he suggests that this is a global effort, many of the problems and examples are United States problems. I figured he would suggest that we elect leaders who support some of these changes, but as you'll see at the end of the book, he suggests a separate structure which does start to sound a little like a cult, haha. In general, I think it's interesting to consider what ideas people have for combatting poverty and making our planet better. It's worth a read.]]> 4.00 Collective Breath: Advancing Capitalism Through Sustainability to Achieve Greater Prosperity in the 21st Century
author: Jack Wonders
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/21
date added: 2024/02/21
shelves:
review:
There are some interesting ideas in this book, and I appreciate anything that can give me a different perspective. The author chose to write it in fragmented prose, which was meant to be conversational but I personally found it to be stilted and it caused me to have to back up a number of times which was annoying. The courier font was also an interesting choice. I felt like the first two thirds of the book was a bit tedious as it set forth groundwork for the coming ideas. There are a plethora of Invented Terms (112 to be exact) which I felt were mostly unnecessary unless you're trying to start a cult. Most of the terms could have been expressed as general ideas without a need to crown them as textbook terms.
The last third of the book is where it gets interesting. Wonders suggests that true capitalism involves consumer choice and the ability to walk away from a transaction, whereas profit is built into a number of services that we can't live without, like healthcare. He compares them to the supportive services of companies in the form of human resources or marketing. So those businesses should be run as non-profits. Doing this will remove some complicated unethical practices that solely benefit the shareholders and mostly throw the consumer under the bus. Wonders suggests that banks, like psychiatrists, have their customer's best interests at heart and owe them the personal service to shepherd them towards good financial well being. Removing the profits from these necessary services allows the consumers to put their money towards true capitalist purchases, which will benefit everyone and speed up the velocity of money.
Wonders looks at sustainability in a wide scope, not just looking at the depletion of fish or the accumulation of plastic waste, but deeming our financial systems as unsustainable. Our rich get richer and our poor get poorer. He even redefines our view of money, which has been historically negative--probably tapping into our Puritan roots seeing "mammon" as evil, and encourages us to celebrate it as the Lifeblood of Humanity.
While he suggests that this is a global effort, many of the problems and examples are United States problems. I figured he would suggest that we elect leaders who support some of these changes, but as you'll see at the end of the book, he suggests a separate structure which does start to sound a little like a cult, haha. In general, I think it's interesting to consider what ideas people have for combatting poverty and making our planet better. It's worth a read.
]]> <![CDATA[Firefly Lane (Firefly Lane, #1)]]> 1472878 New York Times bestselling author of On Mystic Lake comes a powerful novel of love, loss, and the magic of friendship. . . .

In the turbulent summer of 1974, Kate Mularkey has accepted her place at the bottom of the eighth-grade social food chain. Then, to her amazement, the “coolest girl in the world� moves in across the street and wants to be her friend. Tully Hart seems to have it all---beauty, brains, ambition. On the surface they are as opposite as two people can be: Kate, doomed to be forever uncool, with a loving family who mortifies her at every turn. Tully, steeped in glamour and mystery, but with a secret that is destroying her. They make a pact to be best friends forever; by summer’s end they’ve become TullyandKate. Inseparable.

So begins Kristin Hannah’s magnificent new novel. Spanning more than three decades and playing out across the ever-changing face of the Pacific Northwest, Firefly Lane is the poignant, powerful story of two women and the friendship that becomes the bulkhead of their lives.

From the beginning, Tully is desperate to prove her worth to the world. Abandoned by her mother at an early age, she longs to be loved unconditionally. In the glittering, big-hair era of the eighties, she looks to men to fill the void in her soul. But in the buttoned-down nineties, it is television news that captivates her. She will follow her own blind ambition to New York and around the globe, finding fame and success . . . and loneliness. 

Kate knows early on that her life will be nothing special. Throughout college, she pretends to be driven by a need for success, but all she really wants is to fall in love and have children and live an ordinary life. In her own quiet way, Kate is as driven as Tully. What she doesn’t know is how being a wife and mother will change her . . . how she’ll lose sight of who she once was, and what she once wanted. And how much she’ll envy her famous best friend. . . .

For thirty years, Tully and Kate buoy each other through life, weathering the storms of friendship---jealousy, anger, hurt, resentment. They think they’ve survived it all until a single act of betrayal tears them apart . . . and puts their courage and friendship to the ultimate test.

Firefly Lane is for anyone who ever drank Boone’s Farm apple wine while listening to Abba or Fleetwood Mac. More than a coming-of-age novel, it’s the story of a generation of women who were both blessed and cursed by choices. It’s about promises and secrets and betrayals. And ultimately, about the one person who really, truly knows you---and knows what has the power to hurt you . . . and heal you. Firefly Lane is a story you’ll never forget . . . one you’ll want to pass on to your best friend.]]> 479 Kristin Hannah 0312364083 Kiersten 4 4.16 2008 Firefly Lane (Firefly Lane, #1)
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/06
date added: 2024/02/06
shelves:
review:
This book was epic in scope and it felt like a long period of time had passed. Hannah tackles the career woman v. stay-at-home mom choice with this book, but also it's about friendship, jealousy, motherhood, and mistakes. It has a "Beaches" movie feel to it and mirrors that story in a lot of ways from what I remember. It's a slow book rather than a page turner. You really get to know the characters.
]]> The Book of Cold Cases 58371432
Oregon, 2017. Shea Collins is a receptionist, but by night, she runs a true crime website, the Book of Cold Cases--a passion fueled by the attempted abduction she escaped as a child. When she meets Beth by chance, Shea asks her for an interview. To Shea's surprise, Beth says yes.

They meet regularly at Beth's mansion, though Shea is never comfortable there. Items move when she's not looking, and she could swear she's seen a girl outside the window. The allure of learning the truth about the case from the smart, charming Beth is too much to resist, but even as they grow closer, Shea senses something isn't right. Is she making friends with a manipulative murderer, or are there other dangers lurking in the darkness of the Greer house?

A true crime blogger gets more than she bargained for while interviewing the woman acquitted of two cold case slayings in this chilling new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Sun Down Motel.]]> 344 Simone St. James 0440000211 Kiersten 4 3.76 2022 The Book of Cold Cases
author: Simone St. James
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/01
date added: 2024/02/01
shelves:
review:
St. James is one of the few authors who gives you properly haunted houses, which is good fun and wonderfully creepy. This is really more of a murder mystery than a ghost story though. To be honest, the haunted house was more of a backdrop to the mystery and the protagonist's reaction to it was entirely not believable, which is disappointing. She just seemed to go along with it. At first, you feel like she is questioning what she really saw, but as the book continues, she just seems to go, "Oh okay...spirits live in this house and do stuff." That just doesn't seem realistic to me. Regardless, it was still a good read. Don't expect any red herrings or plot twists. You are pretty much led through the case in chronological fashion.
]]> Romantic Comedy 62628727 A comedy writer thinks she’s sworn off love, until a dreamily handsome pop star flips the script on all her assumptions. Romantic Comedy is a hilarious, observant and deeply tender novel from New York Times–bestselling author Curtis Sittenfeld.

Sally Milz is a sketch writer for "The Night Owls," the late-night live comedy show that airs each Saturday. With a couple of heartbreaks under her belt, she’s long abandoned the search for love, settling instead for the occasional hook-up, career success, and a close relationship with her stepfather to round out a satisfying life.

But when Sally’s friend and fellow writer Danny Horst begins dating Annabel, a glamorous actor who guest-hosted the show, he joins the not-so-exclusive group of talented but average-looking and even dorky men at the show—and in society at large—who’ve gotten romantically involved with incredibly beautiful and accomplished women. Sally channels her annoyance into a sketch called the "Danny Horst Rule," poking fun at this phenomenon while underscoring how unlikely it is that the reverse would ever happen for a woman.

Enter Noah Brewster, a pop music sensation with a reputation for dating models, who signed on as both host and musical guest for this week’s show. Dazzled by his charms, Sally hits it off with Noah instantly, and as they collaborate on one sketch after another, she begins to wonder whether there might actually be sparks flying. But this isn’t a romantic comedy; it’s real life. And in real life, someone like him would never date someone like her...right?

With her keen observations and trademark ability to bring complex women to life on the page, Sittenfeld explores the neurosis-inducing and heart-fluttering wonder of love, while slyly dissecting the social rituals of romance and gender relations in the modern age.]]> 309 Curtis Sittenfeld 0399590943 Kiersten 5 3.60 2023 Romantic Comedy
author: Curtis Sittenfeld
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/23
date added: 2024/01/23
shelves:
review:
This was a fun read. Sittenfeld has fun with the dialogue. Chapter two is the most fun to read. I enjoyed the view into the world of Saturday Night Live sorts of shows in chapter one. Themes of celebrity life and personal struggles of insecurity weave through the book. It's interesting to revisit pandemic times. I like the fact that the protagonists are older and don't have kids. I think it's important to showcase a variety of lives and Sittenfeld does a wonderful job with that through side characters as well.
]]> The Gargoyle 6403116 A New York Times Bestseller


The Gargoyle: the mesmerizing story of one man's descent into personal hell and his quest for salvation.

On a dark road in the middle of the night, a car plunges into a ravine. The driver survives the crash, but his injuries confine him to a hospital burn unit. There the mysterious Marianne Engel, a sculptress of grotesques, enters his life. She insists they were lovers in medieval Germany, when he was a mercenary and she was a scribe in the monastery of Engelthal. As she spins the story of their past lives together, the man's disbelief falters; soon, even the impossible can no longer be dismissed.]]> 518 Andrew Davidson 0307388670 Kiersten 4 3.94 2008 The Gargoyle
author: Andrew Davidson
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2020/12/14
date added: 2024/01/16
shelves:
review:
Wow! This was really unique. It has the candid voice of a male narrator--nothing held back on the sex and drugs (like Tom Robbins a bit). The story takes you from a vivid reality into a bit of a magical realm, interlaced with four or five vignette stories (which you will revisit at the end of the book). I think fans of Patrick Rothfuss will enjoy this tale as it has a similar feel to it. Much of the book is told as a flashback. Much of it is a medieval setting. It's hard to categorize this book. It bridges some gap between fiction and fantasy. One category I saw was "myth and legend" which feels about right. It will definitely keep you turning the pages. The ending left me wanting something a bit splashier. I was hoping that we'd learn the name of the protagonist at least.
]]> All the Dangerous Things 60784636
Except for the occasional catnap or small blackout where she loses track of time, she hasn’t slept in a year.

Isabelle's entire existence now revolves around finding him, but she knows she ł¦˛ą˛Ô’t go on this way forever. In hopes of jarring loose a new witness or buried clue, she agrees to be interviewed by a true-crime podcaster—but his interest in Isabelle's past makes her nervous. His incessant questioning paired with her severe insomnia has brought up uncomfortable memories from her own childhood, making Isabelle start to doubt her recollection of the night of Mason’s disappearance, as well as second-guess who she can trust... including herself. But she is determined to figure out the truth no matter where it leads.]]> 326 Stacy Willingham 1250803853 Kiersten 5 4.04 2023 All the Dangerous Things
author: Stacy Willingham
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/11
date added: 2024/01/11
shelves:
review:
LOTS of great twists and turns in this book, right up to the end. I love the author's note as it really speaks to the feminist themes in the book...the heavy weight of motherhood, how women can be controlled by men, how women are constantly judging themselves. You might have mixed feelings about the ending. It's conclusive and satisfying, but a bit of an ethical dilemma for me. Willingham delivers lush descriptions in parts of the book that really make you appreciate her writing. Gorgeous prose. Will definitely be reading her other books.
]]> <![CDATA[The Telomere Effect: A Revolutionary Approach to Living Younger, Healthier, Longer]]> 34458942 The New York Times bestselling book coauthored by the Nobel Prize winner who discovered telomerase and telomeres' role in the aging process and the health psychologist who has done original research into how specific lifestyle and psychological habits can protect telomeres, slowing disease and improving life.
Have you wondered why some sixty-year-olds look and feel like forty-year-olds and why some forty-year-olds look and feel like sixty-year-olds? While many factors contribute to aging and illness, Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn discovered a biological indicator called telomerase, the enzyme that replenishes telomeres, which protect our genetic heritage. Dr. Blackburn and Dr. Elissa Epel's research shows that the length and health of one's telomeres are a biological underpinning of the long-hypothesized mind-body connection. They and other scientists have found that changes we can make to our daily habits can protect our telomeres and increase our health spans (the number of years we remain healthy, active, and disease-free).THE TELOMERE EFFECT reveals how Blackburn and Epel's findings, together with research from colleagues around the world, cumulatively show that sleep quality, exercise, aspects of diet, and even certain chemicals profoundly affect our telomeres, and that chronic stress, negative thoughts, strained relationships, and even the wrong neighborhoods can eat away at them. Drawing from this scientific body of knowledge, they share lists of foods and suggest amounts and types of exercise that are healthy for our telomeres, mind tricks you can use to protect yourself from stress, and information about how to protect your children against developing shorter telomeres, from pregnancy through adolescence. And they describe how we can improve our health spans at the community level, with neighborhoods characterized by trust, green spaces, and safe streets. THE TELOMERE EFFECT will make you reassess how you live your life on a day-to-day basis. It is the first book to explain how we age at a cellular level and how we can make simple changes to keep our chromosomes and cells healthy, allowing us to stay disease-free longer and live more vital and meaningful lives.
]]> 348 Elizabeth Blackburn 1455587966 Kiersten 4 3.76 2017 The Telomere Effect: A Revolutionary Approach to Living Younger, Healthier, Longer
author: Elizabeth Blackburn
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/04
date added: 2024/01/04
shelves:
review:
There was a lot of crazy information in this book. Who knew that "stress will kill you" was so true? It seems that most of the people doing good things to maintain long telomeres are doing a LOT of the things that preserve telomeres, and conversely, the folks who are stressed also have poor diets, little exercise, bad nights of sleep, chemical exposure, and so on. Yes, much of that is connected to poverty, which is unfortunate. Certainly it sheds light on how to improve everyone's lives.
]]> <![CDATA[The Woman in Cabin 10 (Lo Blacklock, #1)]]> 28187230 341 Ruth Ware 1501132938 Kiersten 5 3.73 2016 The Woman in Cabin 10 (Lo Blacklock, #1)
author: Ruth Ware
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/23
date added: 2023/12/24
shelves:
review:
Like every other mystery/thriller I've read by Ware, you can't put this one down. The beginning keeps you guessing about the wellbeing of your protagonist, Lo, and the first half of the book has you just trying to figure out what is really going on. The end has a lovely twist and a heart-pounding "who can you trust" section. And she springs another fabulous twist at the very end. Clearly, I'm going to have to read all her books now.
]]> <![CDATA[Dirty Thirty (Stephanie Plum, #30)]]> 101144259
With her boyfriend Morelli away in Miami on police business, Stephanie is taking care of Bob, Morelli’s giant orange dog who will devour anything, from Stephanie’s stray donuts to the upholstery in her car. Morelli’s absence also means the inscrutable, irresistible security expert Ranger is front and center in Stephanie’s life when things inevitably go sideways. And he seems determined to stay there.

To complicate matters, her best friend Lula is convinced she is being stalked by a mythological demon hell-bent on relieving her of her wardrobe. An overnight stakeout with Stephanie’s mother and Grandma Mazur reveals three generations of women with nerves of steel and driving skills worthy of NASCAR champions.

As the body count rises and witnesses start to disappear, it won’t be easy for Stephanie to keep herself clean when everyone else is playing dirty. It’s a good thing Stephanie isn’t afraid of getting a little dirty, too.]]> 336 Janet Evanovich 1668003090 Kiersten 5 4.01 2023 Dirty Thirty (Stephanie Plum, #30)
author: Janet Evanovich
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/06
date added: 2023/12/06
shelves:
review:
All the fun you expect from a Stephanie Plum book. This installment is big on humor and is satisfying in terms of Stephanie's success with the FTAs. We get a teaser that something big might be on the horizon. Is it possible that Evanovich is going to wrap up the series soon? I guess we will find out.
]]> This Time Tomorrow 59089704 What if you could take a vacation to your past?

With her celebrated humor, insight, and heart, beloved New York Times bestseller Emma Straub offers her own twist on traditional time travel tropes, and a different kind of love story.

On the eve of her 40th birthday, Alice's life isn't terrible. She likes her job, even if it isn't exactly the one she expected. She's happy with her apartment, her romantic status, her independence, and she adores her lifelong best friend. But her father is ailing, and it feels to her as if something is missing. When she wakes up the next morning she finds herself back in 1996, reliving her 16th birthday. But it isn't just her adolescent body that shocks her, or seeing her high school crush, it's her dad: the vital, charming, 40-something version of her father with whom she is reunited. Now armed with a new perspective on her own life and his, some past events take on new meaning. Is there anything that she would change if she could?]]> 310 Emma Straub 052553900X Kiersten 4 3.78 2022 This Time Tomorrow
author: Emma Straub
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/01
date added: 2023/12/01
shelves:
review:
This is a great book club book. It's deep. Especially for folks in their 40s. It explores perspective as it differs between teens and middle age adults in small ways and big ways. There are themes of socio-economic status and how that relates to happiness and values. It takes a look at the mid-life crisis and whether mid-life is a time to be resigned to your choices or a time to grow and take on new things, and how both can be true. It's also a book about letting go and making peace with how things are just meant to go. I really did NOT know how this book was going to end. It's an interesting story. You don't even know what you WANT to happen really. Brilliantly done. Very unique.
]]> <![CDATA[From a Far and Lovely Country (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, #24)]]> 123280220
“An escape from life’s woes as well as a suggestion for how to make the whole deal more palatable—fragility, fruit cake, and all.� —The Boston Globe

This latest installment of the beloved No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series finds Botswana's premier detective agency as busy as ever, with no shortage of sensitve situations requiring Mma Ramotswe's keen eye and discerning input. Through it all, Mma Ramotswe will demonstrate that there are solutions to all manner of difficulties, there to be discovered as long as one is led by kindness, grace, and logic, and can rely on the wise counsel of close friends and loved ones. Sometimes, she reminds us, the best solutions to life's problems can be found with a bit of good humor, generosity of spirit, and a steaming cup of red bush tea.]]> 256 Alexander McCall Smith 0593316991 Kiersten 3 4.07 2023 From a Far and Lovely Country (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, #24)
author: Alexander McCall Smith
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2023/11/20
date added: 2023/11/20
shelves:
review:
Usually this series gives me something to reflect on, but this book felt a bit lacking in that department. I also felt like the mysteries were somewhat unresolved at the end. Not the satisfying end that I was hoping for. Ah well.
]]> <![CDATA[The Running Grave (Cormoran Strike, #7)]]> 139399948 In the seventh installment in the Strike series, Cormoran and Robin must rescue a man ensnared in the trap of a dangerous cult.

Private Detective Cormoran Strike is contacted by a worried father whose son, Will, has gone to join a religious cult in the depths of the Norfolk countryside.

The Universal Humanitarian Church is, on the surface, a peaceable organization that campaigns for a better world. Yet Strike discovers that beneath the surface there are deeply sinister undertones, and unexplained deaths.

In order to try to rescue Will, Strike's business partner, Robin Ellacott, decides to infiltrate the cult, and she travels to Norfolk to live incognito among its members. But in doing so, she is unprepared for the dangers that await her there or for the toll it will take on her. . .

Utterly pulse-pounding, The Running Grave moves Strike's and Robin's story forward in this epic, unforgettable seventh installment of the series.]]> 960 Robert Galbraith 0316572101 Kiersten 5 4.56 2023 The Running Grave (Cormoran Strike, #7)
author: Robert Galbraith
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/11/17
date added: 2023/11/19
shelves:
review:
I look forward to each Cormoran Strike book as each one is such a treat. It's rare that I have a book that I can't put down because I'm so immersed in the story and attached to the characters that I need to keep reading. It's not like a classic thriller page-turner in that sense, although I was definitely on the edge of my seat for Robin in this one. I think Galbraith is just so good at expertly creating worlds that you fall so deeply into that you forget you're reading a book. This book looks at brainwashing and cults with regard to orchestrated manipulations. In a larger sense, it addresses how families lose members to all sorts of things besides cults and the helplessness that they feel in those situations. Themes of boundaries and toxic behaviors run through the plot. There are some surprises. Someone dies. You learn more about Pat. I can't wait for the next one!
]]> When Women Were Dragons 58783802 A rollicking feminist tale set in 1950s America where thousands of women have spontaneously transformed into dragons, exploding notions of a woman’s place in the world and expanding minds about accepting others for who they really are.

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

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

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

In this timely and timeless speculative novel, award-winning author Kelly Barnhill boldly explores rage, memory, and the tyranny of forced limitations. When Women Were Dragons exposes a world that wants to keep women small—their lives and their prospects—and examines what happens when they rise en masse and take up the space they deserve.]]> 367 Kelly Barnhill 0385548222 Kiersten 4 3.79 2022 When Women Were Dragons
author: Kelly Barnhill
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/01
date added: 2023/11/01
shelves:
review:
There is so much metaphor laced into the knots of this book that you could discuss it for days. Themes of independence, bravery, being true to yourself, embracing the feminine divine, puberty, loyalty, and sacrifice are all front and center. The novel wrestles with keeping loved ones close and safe versus letting them grow and change. It addresses the loss we feel when our kids grow up and set out on their own adventures, or when our sisters or partners need to leave us to seek their own joyful path. It talks about fear and war and control. It explores how everything is tied together, lashed in ever-changing ways, knots coming undone and how we retie them in different ways--knots to secure things and keep them safe. It explores the burden of motherhood and being a wife. It faces issues of equality and justice present in the world today. Very deep. A well-told story. More of a thoughtful read than a page turner.
]]> Ask Again, Yes 42201996
Ask Again, Yes is a moving novel about two families, the bond between their children, a tragedy that reverberates over four decades, the daily intimacies of marriage, and the power of forgiveness.]]> 388 Mary Beth Keane 1982106980 Kiersten 3 3.92 2019 Ask Again, Yes
author: Mary Beth Keane
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2023/10/15
date added: 2023/10/15
shelves:
review:
Well written but a bit heavier of a read than I typically go for. Themes of mental heath, alcoholism, and broken families run through the book. The overarching message addresses acceptance and forgiveness, moving forward, and finding happiness in the every day things. Weirdly, it feels like the story is set back in the 50s, but it's set in the 90s. Like the mother doesn't have a phone at the end of the story in modern times.
]]> <![CDATA[Those Bastards: 69 essays on life, creativity, & meaning]]> 123859911
This sparkling collection of essays sets out to answer these questions and more.

With empathy, curiosity, and candor, Jared Dillian dives headlong into the central questions of existence with eyes wide open, observing life in a way that only he can.

Alternately funny and sad, Those Bastards takes you on an emotional roller coaster, drawing heavily on Dillian’s experience with debilitating mental illness and his professional failures, and overflowing with sharp critiques on music and culture. He moves effortlessly from topic to topic, in one essay riffing on how to use Twitter with honesty and integrity, and in another, describing his experience at the World Trade Center on 9/11.

Those Bastards is a literary sensation, filled with insights on what it means to be human, struggling in a world of uncertainty.]]> 355 Jared Dillian Kiersten 5 4.34 Those Bastards: 69 essays on life, creativity, & meaning
author: Jared Dillian
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.34
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2023/10/04
date added: 2023/10/04
shelves:
review:
This was a great read. Dillian is an out-of-the-box thinker. You may not always agree with him but he has interesting perspectives on life and I have to say that reading this book changed me. You can read each short chapter daily, like a little sermon, or you might just sit and plow through the book. You never know what he's going to address next. And you can't begin to guess what he is going to say about it. He is a really interesting person who is fully invested in living and experiencing life. I love that. I can't wait to see his future work, in visual art maybe?
]]> Someone Else's Shoes 62971668 A story of mix-ups, mess-ups and making the most of second chances, this is the new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Jojo Moyes, author of Me Before You and The Giver of Stars.

Who are you when you are forced to walk in someone else’s shoes?

Nisha Cantor lives the globetrotting life of the seriously wealthy, until her husband announces a divorce and cuts her off. Nisha is determined to hang onto her glamorous life. But in the meantime, she must scramble to cope--she doesn’t even have the shoes she was, until a moment ago, standing in.

That’s because Sam Kemp � in the bleakest point of her life � has accidentally taken Nisha’s gym bag. But Sam hardly has time to worry about a lost gym bag--she’s struggling to keep herself and her family afloat. When she tries on Nisha’s six-inch high Christian Louboutin red crocodile shoes, the resulting jolt of confidence that makes her realize something must change—and that thing is herself.

Full of Jojo Moyes� signature humor, brilliant storytelling, and warmth, Someone Else’s Shoes is a story about how just one little thing can suddenly change everything.]]> 438 Jojo Moyes 1984879294 Kiersten 5 3.88 2023 Someone Else's Shoes
author: Jojo Moyes
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/19
date added: 2023/09/19
shelves:
review:
This was wonderful from beginning to end. Unpredictable. Fabulous characters. A unique tale in which the lower and middle class is embraced, friendship is treasured, and the sisterhood is strong. You have two protagonists with Nisha and Sam and alternate between them until their stories come together. And if you love splashy happy endings, you're in for a real treat.
]]> Local Woman Missing 54737068 People don’t just disappear without a trace....

Shelby Tebow is the first to go missing. Not long after, Meredith Dickey and her six-year-old daughter, Delilah, vanish just blocks away from where Shelby was last seen, striking fear into their once-peaceful community. Are these incidents connected? After an elusive search that yields more questions than answers, the case eventually goes cold.

Now, 11 years later, Delilah shockingly returns. Everyone wants to know what happened to her, but no one is prepared for what they’ll find....

In this smart and chilling thriller, master of suspense and New York Times best-selling author Mary Kubica takes domestic secrets to a whole new level, showing that some people will stop at nothing to keep the truth buried.]]> 356 Mary Kubica 0778389448 Kiersten 4 ]]> 4.12 2021 Local Woman Missing
author: Mary Kubica
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/05
date added: 2023/09/05
shelves:
review:
Whew! This was a tense read the whole way through with unexpected twists that you'll never see coming. Kubica does an amazing job bringing the characters and situations to life. It's heartbreaking and sad and uncomfortable and a bit gruesome. And you're dragged through all of it with every page. If you're looking for a book that you can't put down, this is it. But it's not one of those uplifting, cozy mysteries like The Maid.

]]> Hello Stranger 185492240 Love isn’t blind, it’s just a little blurry.

Sadie Montgomery never saw what was coming . . . Literally! One minute she’s celebrating the biggest achievement of her life—placing as a finalist in the North American Portrait Society competition—the next, she’s lying in a hospital bed diagnosed with a “probably temporary� condition known as face blindness. She can see, but every face she looks at is now a jumbled puzzle of disconnected features. Imagine trying to read a book upside down and in another language. This is Sadie’s new reality with every face she sees.

But, as she struggles to cope, hang on to her artistic dream, work through major family issues, and take care of her beloved dog, Peanut, she falls into—love? Lust? A temporary obsession to distract from the real problems in her life?—with not one man but two very different ones. The timing couldn’t be worse.

If only her life were a little more in focus, Sadie might be able to find her way. But perceiving anything clearly right now seems impossible. Even though there are things we can only find when we aren’t looking. And there are people who show up when we least expect them. And there are always, always other ways of seeing.]]> Katherine Center Kiersten 5 4.12 2023 Hello Stranger
author: Katherine Center
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/08/27
date added: 2023/08/27
shelves:
review:
Delicious from beginning to end. I've said it before...Katherine Center is my absolute favorite author of all time and Katherine-if you're reading this--this is your best book yet! The toxic family issues along with a truly evil stepsister create all the elements of a classic Cinderella story with fun twists along the way, a good dose of satisfying revenge karma, and of COURSE it wouldn't be a Katherine Center story if this book didn't recognize the humanity of all the characters including evil stepsister and take it in an uplifting direction filled with forgiveness and kindness. I found the concept of face blindness fascinating and actually wonder if I might slightly suffer from it as I have lots of problems recognizing people. Anyhoo, it made a great platform for this story and kept me guessing as you can't quite trust your protagonist, Sadie. ALSO, y'all, do NOT skip reading the Author's Note at the back. It was insightful and lovely. This book is seriously awesome.
]]> Home Before Dark 56187473

Twenty-five years ago, Maggie Holt and her parents moved into Baneberry Hall, a rambling Victorian estate in the Vermont woods. Three weeks later they fled in the dead of night, an ordeal her father recounted in a memoir called House of Horrors. His story of supernatural happenings and malevolent spirits became a worldwide phenomenon, rivaling The Amityville Horror in popularity--and skepticism.

Maggie was too young to remember any of the horrific events that supposedly took place, and as an adult she doesn't believe a word of her father's claims. Ghosts, after all, don't exist. When she inherits Baneberry Hall after his death and returns to renovate the place and sell it, her homecoming is anything but warm. The locals aren't thrilled that their small town has been made infamous, and human characters with starring roles in House of Horrors are waiting in the shadows.

Even more unnerving is Baneberry Hall itself--a place where unsettling whispers of the past lurk around every corner. And as Maggie starts to experience strange occurrences ripped from the pages of her father's book, the truth she uncovers about the house's dark history will challenge everything she believes.]]> 416 Riley Sager 1524745197 Kiersten 5 4.13 2020 Home Before Dark
author: Riley Sager
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2023/08/14
date added: 2023/08/14
shelves:
review:
Lovely spooky scary page-turner read. Ghost stories are the best and this one is good fun. This is a ghost story within a ghost story, actually, as every chapter has an excerpt from the protagonist's father's account of the haunted house. I may have to read all of Sager's other books now.
]]> Happy Place 61718053
They broke up six months ago. And still haven’t told their best friends.

Which is how they find themselves sharing the largest bedroom at the Maine cottage that has been their friend group’s yearly getaway for the last decade. Their annual respite from the world, where for one vibrant, blue week they leave behind their daily lives; have copious amounts of cheese, wine, and seafood; and soak up the salty coastal air with the people who understand them most.

Only this year, Harriet and Wyn are lying through their teeth while trying not to notice how desperately they still want each other. Because the cottage is for sale and this is the last week they’ll all have together in this place. They ł¦˛ą˛Ô’t stand to break their friendsâ€� hearts, and so they’ll play their parts. Harriet will be the driven surgical resident who never starts a fight, and Wyn will be the laid-back charmer who never lets the cracks show. It’s a flawless plan (if you look at it from a great distance and through a pair of sunscreen-smeared sunglasses). After years of being in love, how hard can it be to fake it for one weekâ€� in front of those who know you best?

A couple who broke up months ago make a pact to pretend to still be together for their annual weeklong vacation with their best friends in this glittering and wise new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.]]> 400 Emily Henry 0593441273 Kiersten 3 3.95 2023 Happy Place
author: Emily Henry
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2023/08/09
date added: 2023/08/09
shelves:
review:
Henry always delivers a good story and hilarious dialogue. This novel is a bit frustrating in that you don't really know what's happened until you get to the end of the story. The past is shuffled in between present chapters so that you can see the story a little more clearly as the book goes on, but without knowing the past, it's hard to make sense of the present story. It's still a good read, but I like her other books better.
]]> Crying in H Mart 75668238
In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humour and heart, she tells of growing up the only Asian-American kid at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother’s particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother’s tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food. As she grew up, moving to the east coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, performing gigs with her fledgling band � and meeting the man who would become her husband � her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live.

It was her mother’s diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer, when Michelle was twenty-five, that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her.

Vivacious, lyrical and honest, Michelle Zauner’s voice is as radiantly alive on the page as it is onstage. Rich with intimate anecdotes that will resonate widely, Crying in H Mart is a book to cherish, share, and reread.]]> 239 Michelle Zauner 1984898957 Kiersten 4 4.20 2021 Crying in H Mart
author: Michelle Zauner
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/17
date added: 2023/07/17
shelves:
review:
While this isn't a page-turner, it's compelling. Zauner does such a lovely job capturing all the complicated facets of her relationship with her mother while telling her own growing-up journey. As someone who lost my mother to cancer, I feel all her varied emotions through the process. And this is also a book about identity--how one defines herself through peers, race, food, self-reflection, and through the lens of her parents and relatives. Wonderfully done. Memorable. It has depth.
]]> Zero Days 62919765 Ruth Ware returns with this adrenaline-fueled thriller about a woman in a race against time to clear her name and find her husband’s murderer.

Hired by companies to break into buildings and hack security systems, Jack and her husband, Gabe, are the best penetration specialists in the business. But after a routine assignment goes horribly wrong, Jack arrives home to find her husband dead. To add to her horror, the police are closing in on their suspect—her.

Suddenly on the run and quickly running out of options, Jack must decide who she can trust as she circles closer to the real killer.]]> 356 Ruth Ware 1982155299 Kiersten 5 3.59 2023 Zero Days
author: Ruth Ware
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/09
date added: 2023/07/09
shelves:
review:
Literally could NOT put this down. Ware presents her take on "The Fugitive" with this gripping story that will keep you turning pages until the end. Perfect vacation reading.
]]> <![CDATA[Hornet's Nest (Andy Brazil, #1)]]> 1624993 377 Patricia Cornwell 0399142282 Kiersten 3 3.14 1997 Hornet's Nest (Andy Brazil, #1)
author: Patricia Cornwell
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.14
book published: 1997
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/03
date added: 2023/07/04
shelves:
review:
This was an enjoyable read, but it didn't feel cohesive. Cornwell essentially tells you who the killer is 3/4 of the way in, we never really learn whether the news article helped nab the killer and how, there were a lot of random interesting things thrown in like the glue guy and bus guy that weren't really part of the big mystery, and the big mystery didn't get much attention through the book. The characters were good, though Brazil does something out of character at the end that wasn't believable. And there is this whole weird supernatural thing with the cat, which we never come back to. But it was entertaining enough for a long plane ride.
]]> Apples Never Fall 56143578 #1 New York Times Bestseller
A Peacock Original TV Series–Streaming Soon

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Liane Moriarty comes a novel that looks at marriage, siblings, and how the people we love the most can hurt us the deepest

The Delaney family love one another dearly—it’s just that sometimes they want to murder each other . . .

If your mother was missing, would you tell the police? Even if the most obvious suspect was your father?

This is the dilemma facing the four grown Delaney siblings.

The Delaneys are fixtures in their community. The parents, Stan and Joy, are the envy of all of their friends. They’re killers on the tennis court, and off it their chemistry is palpable. But after fifty years of marriage, they’ve finally sold their famed tennis academy and are ready to start what should be the golden years of their lives. So why are Stan and Joy so miserable?

The four Delaney children—Amy, Logan, Troy, and Brooke—were tennis stars in their own right, yet as their father will tell you, none of them had what it took to go all the way. But that’s okay, now that they’re all successful grown-ups and there is the wonderful possibility of grandchildren on the horizon.

One night a stranger named Savannah knocks on Stan and Joy’s door, bleeding after a fight with her boyfriend. The Delaneys are more than happy to give her the small kindness she sorely needs. If only that was all she wanted.

Later, when Joy goes missing, and Savannah is nowhere to be found, the police question the one person who remains: Stan. But for someone who claims to be innocent, he, like many spouses, seems to have a lot to hide. Two of the Delaney children think their father is innocent, two are not so sure—but as the two sides square off against each other in perhaps their biggest match ever, all of the Delaneys will start to reexamine their shared family history in a very new light.]]> 467 Liane Moriarty 1250220254 Kiersten 5 3.69 2021 Apples Never Fall
author: Liane Moriarty
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2023/06/16
date added: 2023/06/16
shelves:
review:
Moriarty never disappoints. She is such a master of plot twists and deep characters. This novel has themes of living through your children, domestic balance, the scars of childhood abuse, domestic violence, toxic people, sibling rivalry and sibling relationships. I like how Covid featured at the end. This is a serious page turner, but it's what we expect from Moriarty.
]]> Camp Zero 61273342 In a near-future northern settlement, a handful of climate change survivors find their fates intertwined in this mesmerizing and transportive novel in the vein of Station Eleven and The Power.

In the far north of Canada sits Camp Zero, an American building project hiding many secrets.

Desperate to help her climate-displaced Korean immigrant mother, Rose agrees to travel to Camp Zero and spy on its architect in exchange for housing. She arrives at the same time as another newcomer, a college professor named Grant who is determined to flee his wealthy family’s dark legacy. Gradually, they realize that there is more to the architect than previously thought, and a disturbing mystery lurks beneath the surface of the camp. At the same time, rumors abound of an elite group of women soldiers living and working at a nearby Cold War-era climate research station. What are they doing there? And who is leading them?

An electrifying page-turner where nothing is as it seems, Camp Zero cleverly explores how the intersection of gender, class, and migration will impact who and what will survive in a warming world.]]> 304 Michelle Min Sterling 1668007568 Kiersten 3 3.18 2023 Camp Zero
author: Michelle Min Sterling
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.18
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2023/06/07
date added: 2023/06/07
shelves:
review:
This was a pleasant read for 80% of the book and the last 20% had some novel twists and was exciting. I was expecting more thrills in general. The ending isn't fully conclusive which makes me wonder if Sterling left this open to become a series or if she was trying to make a point about how we never know where life is going to take us.
]]> <![CDATA[Ze French Do It Better (Langue anglaise)]]> 45870167 With tongue-in-cheek humor, this savvy guide takes us on a tour de France rich in history, anecdotes, and crème-de-la-crème addresses. The authors introduce us to seven French "tribes" and divulge their most enviable Gallic secrets, from what to take to dinner and why you should never arrive on time, to why written correspondence � from the thank you note to the sexy text � is everything.
Covering wardrobe essentials and personal style advice, cult houseware products and infallible recipes, life-enhancing customs and faux pas to avoid, this indispensable guide filled with insider scoops unlocks � at last � the secrets for celebrating la vie en rose.]]> 231 Frédérique Veysset 2841102505 Kiersten 3 3.25 Ze French Do It Better (Langue anglaise)
author: Frédérique Veysset
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.25
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2020/01/21
date added: 2023/06/03
shelves:
review:
I was hoping that this would be more of a narrative-style book on French lifestyles, but it's kind of a cross between a travel guide and product history. It takes seven different types of personalities and showcases what these sorts of people enjoy, from fashion to food. You'll learn about iconic French brands and their histories. I'm curious to visit some of the places in the guide. If you're dying to know who has the best Madelines or who created the iconic bistro chairs, it's all in there. Keep your phone handy because you'll want to see pictures of things as you read.
]]> <![CDATA[Wolf Hall (Thomas Cromwell, #1)]]> 7826803 604 Hilary Mantel 0312429983 Kiersten 2 3.97 2009 Wolf Hall (Thomas Cromwell, #1)
author: Hilary Mantel
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2009
rating: 2
read at: 2023/04/28
date added: 2023/04/28
shelves:
review:
This book might be appreciated by those who are familiar with the history and the time period, but for most people, this is a bit of a slog. First, everyone is named Thomas and the author seems to enjoy referring to the same person as their first name, last name, or title randomly in the same paragraph, so you never know who is talking. Add to that the fact that there are two different Marys, two Janes, two Alices, two Annes. You spend most of the book trying to figure out who she's referring to. Any time she launches into a paragraph and just says "he," it's Cromwell. I think this must be a good story, but it's so mired in random events and conversations that don't really move the plot. Mind you, this is just the first in the series, so I suspect the plot continues but hardly anything has happened yet in these six hundred pages. The prose is actually nice when you aren't frustrated and confused and have a moment to appreciate it. Skip it and watch a documentary.
]]> Lessons in Chemistry 58065033 390 Bonnie Garmus Kiersten 5 4.23 2022 Lessons in Chemistry
author: Bonnie Garmus
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/04/16
date added: 2023/04/16
shelves:
review:
Just wonderful. Full of twists and turns from beginning to end, but also, filled with perspective on women's rights and the ridiculous stuff women have put up with in historically recent times. Elizabeth Zott types are still showing up for women today, encouraging women to enforce boundaries, go after their dreams, and speak up. People like Rachel Hollis and Glennon Doyle are inspiring today's women--telling them that their dreams matter. At some future point, Garmus's book will seem entirely fantastic--completely unbelievable, but sadly, we aren't there yet, and older women will absolutely be able to relate to the world that Zott inhabits.
]]> Book Lovers 58690308 One summer. Two rivals. A plot twist they didn't see coming....

Nora Stephens� life is books—she’s read them all—and she is not that type of heroine. Not the plucky one, not the laidback dream girl, and especially not the sweetheart. In fact, the only people Nora is a heroine for are her clients, for whom she lands enormous deals as a cutthroat literary agent, and her beloved little sister Libby.

Which is why she agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August when Libby begs her for a sisters� trip away—with visions of a small-town transformation for Nora, who she’s convinced needs to become the heroine in her own story. But instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor from back in the city. It would be a meet-cute if not for the fact that they’ve met many times and it’s never been cute.

If Nora knows she’s not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he’s nobody’s hero, but as they are thrown together again and again—in a series of coincidences no editor worth their salt would allow—what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they’ve written about themselves.]]> 377 Emily Henry 0593334833 Kiersten 5 4.09 2022 Book Lovers
author: Emily Henry
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/04/02
date added: 2023/04/02
shelves:
review:
I have loved every Emily Henry book she's written, but this one takes the cake. Full disclosure-I'm pretty sure I'm the protagonist in so many ways. Organized, always have a plan, makes sure everyone is taken care of, a bit of a workaholic, perhaps a bit overly ambitious at times. But oh, this book! It really looks at unfulfilled dreams, priorities, emotional baggage, caregiving, and daring to go for what you want. It takes a closer look at the prickly people. It unpacks the misunderstood. It looks at how different people can be. In When Harry Met Sally, when Sally cries, "Joe didn't want to marry ME. What's wrong with ME? I'm difficult" you get the gist of what Henry is going for here, because yes, Sally is difficult but Harry appreciates everything about her down to the tiny lines between her eyebrows. Brilliant story. Definitely going on my FAVORITE books shelf.
]]> Truly Madly Guilty 27831371 The electrifying new novel from the international bestselling author, Liane Moriarty

Despite their differences, Erika and Clementine have been best friends since they were children. So when Erika needs help, Clementine should be the obvious person to turn to. Or so you'd think.

For Clementine, as a mother of a two desperately trying to practise for the audition of a lifetime, the last thing she needs is Erika asking for something, again.

But the barbecue should be the perfect way to forget their problems for a while. Especially when their hosts, Vid and Tiffany, are only too happy to distract them.

Which is how it all spirals out of control...

]]> 517 Liane Moriarty 1250069815 Kiersten 5 3.59 2016 Truly Madly Guilty
author: Liane Moriarty
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/03/20
shelves:
review:
Truly Madly Guilty didn't get the hype that I expected upon release, so I had to wonder if it would stand up to her other books. It does. Moriarty is a master storyteller. You can count on a number of surprises as the story develops. Moreover, her books are always worthy of a good discussion. This book covers hoarding, PTSD and traumatic events, foundations of good marriages, and what I call "charity friendships" in which one person befriends someone who really needs a friend out of kindness. Blame and regret are really at the heart of this story. Like her other books, this one is a page-turner.
]]> <![CDATA[Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow]]> 58784475 In this exhilarating novel, two friends—often in love, but never lovers—come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.

On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn't heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won't protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.

Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.]]> 401 Gabrielle Zevin 0735243344 Kiersten 5 4.12 2022 Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
author: Gabrielle Zevin
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/03/16
date added: 2023/03/16
shelves:
review:
What a beautiful book. Zevin cleverly looks at life through the lens of videogames and presents thoughtful perspectives. And while videogames are the backdrop for the story, it really is about friendship and meaningful life work. It's about the choices we make and how we choose to deal with what life hands us. She considers the choices we make when we don't ask enough questions. She considers the choices we make when we are young and naive and more open to surprises. There are themes of forgiveness, perspective, acceptance, mental health, switching gears, and gratitude. You'll enjoy seeing all the clever things that Zevin incorporated into the book to mirror the video games. Don't expect a tidy Hollywood story with a splashy fireworks ending. This is a beautiful presentation of messy reality and it embraces all the tough stuff along the way.
]]> The Guest List 52656911
The bride � The plus one � The best man � The wedding planner � The bridesmaid � The body

On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star. The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It’s a wedding for a magazine, or for a celebrity: the designer dress, the remote location, the luxe party favors, the boutique whiskey. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed.

But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human. As the champagne is popped and the festivities begin, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. The groomsmen begin the drinking game from their school days. The bridesmaid not-so-accidentally ruins her dress. The bride’s oldest (male) friend gives an uncomfortably caring toast.

And then someone turns up dead. Who didn’t wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?]]> 319 Lucy Foley Kiersten 5 3.82 2020 The Guest List
author: Lucy Foley
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/03/14
shelves:
review:
This murder mystery was crafted in a totally novel way. Despite the fact that the book is laid out as a flashback, the story really feels like the victim dies at the end of the book rather than the beginning. Part of this feeling might be due to the fact that we don't know WHO was killed until the end, so it plays out as a double mystery. Various first-person perspectives are shuffled together to craft the pieces of the story with its many secrets revealed with interesting twists and turns. It took me a while to get into the beginning, but halfway through I couldn't put it down.
]]> The Maid (Molly the Maid, #1) 55196813
Since Gran died a few months ago, twenty-five-year-old Molly has been navigating life's complexities all by herself. No matter—she throws herself with gusto into her work as a hotel maid. Her unique character, along with her obsessive love of cleaning and proper etiquette, make her an ideal fit for the job. She delights in donning her crisp uniform each morning, stocking her cart with miniature soaps and bottles, and returning guest rooms at the Regency Grand Hotel to a state of perfection.

But Molly's orderly life is upended the day she enters the suite of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find it in a state of disarray and Mr. Black himself dead in his bed. Before she knows what's happening, Molly's unusual demeanor has the police targeting her as their lead suspect. She quickly finds herself caught in a web of deception, one she has no idea how to untangle. Fortunately for Molly, friends she never knew she had unite with her in a search for clues to what really happened to Mr. Black—but will they be able to find the real killer before it's too late?

A Clue-like, locked-room mystery and a heartwarming journey of the spirit, The Maid explores what it means to be the same as everyone else and yet entirely different—and reveals that all mysteries can be solved through connection to the human heart.]]> 304 Nita Prose 0593356152 Kiersten 5 3.71 2022 The Maid (Molly the Maid, #1)
author: Nita Prose
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/02/04
date added: 2023/02/04
shelves:
review:
Wow! Charming, dramatic irony on every page, good themes about how the truth is subjective and sometimes you have to help sway proper justice. Also good discussion for autistic personalities (taking things literally, not reading social cues). Not entirely believable in terms of what the law pursued, but hey, we will go with it. A quick, fun read. Uplifting.
]]> The Paris Apartment 58468990 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.]]> 360 Lucy Foley 0063003058 Kiersten 5 3.63 2022 The Paris Apartment
author: Lucy Foley
name: Kiersten
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/18
date added: 2023/01/18
shelves:
review:
Like the Guest List, this setting feels dark. Jess, the main character, is clever and personable. Foley keeps you guessing all the way to the end with twists along the way, and manages a satisfying ending as well. A brilliant page-turner. Good fun when you need a gripping distraction from life.
]]> <![CDATA[Come as You Are: The Surprising New Science that Will Transform Your Sex Life]]> 22609341
Researchers have spent the last decade trying to develop a “pink pill� for women to function like Viagra does for men. So where is it? Well, for reasons this book makes crystal clear, that pill will never exist—but as a result of the research that’s gone into it, scientists in the last few years have learned more about how women’s sexuality works than we ever thought possible, and Come as You Are explains it all.

The first lesson in this essential, transformative book by Dr. Emily Nagoski is that every woman has her own unique sexuality, like a fingerprint, and that women vary more than men in our anatomy, our sexual response mechanisms, and the way our bodies respond to the sexual world. So we never need to judge ourselves based on others� experiences. Because women vary, and that’s normal.

Second lesson: sex happens in a context. And all the complications of everyday life influence the context surrounding a woman’s arousal, desire, and orgasm.

Cutting-edge research across multiple disciplines tells us that the most important factor for women in creating and sustaining a fulfilling sex life, is not what you do in bed or how you do it, but how you feel about it. Which means that stress, mood, trust, and body image are not peripheral factors in a woman’s sexual wellbeing; they are central to it. Once you understand these factors, and how to influence them, you can create for yourself better sex and more profound pleasure than you ever thought possible.

And Emily Nagoski can prove it.]]> 400 Emily Nagoski 1476762090 Kiersten 3 4.28 2015 Come as You Are: The Surprising New Science that Will Transform Your Sex Life
author: Emily Nagoski
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2023/01/13
date added: 2023/01/13
shelves:
review:
This book has valuable information that will be helpful to anyone wanting to understand more about their sexuality. Mostly, Nagoski impresses upon us that we are all normal but society has fed us lies about the way things are SUPPOSED to work. She explains how our sexual desire rests on a huge variety of things, making it a bit of a challenge to figure out what's PREVENTING the desire as well as what can help it along. She encourages us to let stress play out to its conclusion, rather than ignoring it. She encourages us to notice without judgment. Some non-fiction books are written in a way that you just keep turning the pages. There are some good narratives in this book that illustrate situations and how people worked through them, and there are some good metaphors that help you understand concepts, but most of the book will require you to stay alert to absorb what she is explaining.
]]> <![CDATA[The Shadow of the Gods (The Bloodsworn Saga, #1)]]> 55277083 This is the age of storm and murder.

After the old gods warred and drove themselves to extinction, the cataclysm of their fall shattered the land of Vigrio.

Now, power-hungry jarls carve out petty kingdoms, and monsters stalk the shadow-haunted woods and mountains. A world where the bones of the dead gods still hold great power, promising fame and fortune for those brave - or desperate - enough to seek them out.

As whispers of war echo over the plains and across the fjords, fate follows the footsteps of three people: a huntress searching for her missing son, a jarl's daughter who has rejected privilege in pursuit of battle fame, and a thrall who has cast off his chains and now fights alongside the famed mercenaries known as the Bloodsworn.

All three will shape the fate of the world, as it once more teeters on the edge of chaos.]]> 495 John Gwynne 0316539880 Kiersten 3 4.24 2021 The Shadow of the Gods (The Bloodsworn Saga, #1)
author: John Gwynne
name: Kiersten
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2023/01/11
date added: 2023/01/11
shelves:
review:
Some trilogies have a bit of resolution at the end of each book. THIS ONE DOES NOT. In fact, I'm going to say that this installment was a 480-page introduction to a story with the plot problem peaking at the end. Because there are three separate stories that you have to keep track of, I highly recommend you take plot and character notes. If you're into fighting and battle scenes, you're going to love this book. The Viking backdrop is cool. The empowered females are refreshing. There is some humor along the way with charming characters and clever dialogue. Gwynne does a lovely job on descriptive imagery along the way. I gave it three stars because I think most fans of this genre will enjoy it, but it's not my cup of tea (I am reading it with a student).
]]>