en-US Sat, 26 Apr 2025 20:08:59 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 214986269 A bombshell bestseller in Japan, a provocative, defiant debut novel about a young woman in a care home seeking autonomy and the full possibilities of her life.

Born with a congenital muscle disorder,��Shaka spends her days in her room in a care home outside Tokyo, relying on an electric wheelchair to get around and a ventilator to breathe. But if Shaka's physical life is limited, her quick, mischievous mind has no boundaries: She takes e-learning courses on her iPad, publishes explicit fantasies on websites, and anonymously troll-tweets to see if anyone is paying attention (“If I were to live again, I’d want to be a high-class prostitute��). One day, she tweets into the void an offer of an enormous sum of money for a sperm donor. To her surprise, her new nurse accepts the dare, unleashing a series of events that will forever change Shaka's sense of herself as a woman in the world.

Hunchback has shaken Japanese literary culture with its skillful depiction of the physical body and��unrepentant humor. Winner of the prestigious Akutagawa Prize, it's a feminist story about the dignity of an individual who insists on her right to make choices for herself, no matter the consequences. Formally creative and refreshingly unsentimental, Hunchback depicts the joy, anger, and desires of a woman demanding autonomy in a world that doesn't aways grant it to people like her. Full of wit, bite, and heart, this unforgettable novel reminds us all of the full potential��of our lives, no matter the limitations we experience.]]> 112 Saou Ichikawa 0593734718 Adri 0 3.51 2023
author: Saou Ichikawa
name: Adri
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2025/04/26
date added: 2025/04/26
shelves:
review:

]]> 195790798 A palace the size of a city, ruled by giant Ladies of unknowable, eldritch origin. A land left to slow decay, drowning in the debris of generations. All this and more awaits you within The West Passage, a delightfully mysterious and intriguingly weird medieval fantasy unlike anything you've read before.

When the Guardian of the West Passage died in her bed, the women of Grey Tower fed her to the crows and went back to their chores. No successor was named as Guardian, no one took up the fallen blade; the West Passage went unguarded.

Now, snow blankets Grey in the height of summer. Rats erupt from beneath the earth, fleeing that which comes. Crops fail. Hunger looms. And none stand ready to face the Beast, stirring beneath the poisoned soil.

The fate of all who live in the palace hangs on narrow shoulders. The too-young Mother of Grey House sets out to fix the seasons. The unnamed apprentice of the deceased Grey Guardian goes to warn Black Tower. Both their paths cross the West Passage, the ancient byway of the Beast. On their journeys they will meet schoolteachers and beekeepers, miracles and monsters, and very, very big Ladies. None can say if they'll reach their destinations, but one thing is for the world is about to change.]]> 373 Jared Pechaček 1250884837 Adri 0 audiobooks, currently-reading 3.89 2024
author: Jared Pechaček
name: Adri
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/25
shelves: audiobooks, currently-reading
review:

]]> 77265030
When bioethicist and professor Ashley Shew became a self-described “hard-of-hearing chemobrained amputee with Crohn’s disease and tinnitus,�� there was no returning to “normal.�� Suddenly well-meaning people called her an “inspiration�� while grocery shopping or viewed her as a needy recipient of technological wizardry. Most disabled people don’t want what the abled assume they want—nor are they generally asked. Almost everyone will experience disability at some point in their lives, yet the abled persistently frame disability as an individual’s problem rather than a social one.

In a warm, feisty voice and vibrant prose, Shew shows how we can create better narratives and more accessible futures by drawing from the insights of the cross-disability community. To forge a more equitable world, Shew argues that we must eliminate “technoableism”—the harmful belief that technology is a “solution�� for disability; that the disabled simply await being “fixed�� by technological wizardry; that making society more accessible and equitable is somehow a lesser priority.

This badly needed introduction to disability expertise considers mobility devices, medical infrastructure, neurodivergence, and the crucial relationship between disability and race. The future, Shew points out, is surely disabled—whether through changing climate, new diseases, or even through space travel. It’s time we looked closely at how we all think about disability technologies and learn to envision disabilities not as liabilities, but as skill sets enabling all of us to navigate a challenging world.]]> 160 Ashley Shew 1324036664 Adri 4 <b>4.75 Stars</b> 4.30 2023
author: Ashley Shew
name: Adri
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/25
date added: 2025/04/25
shelves: audiobooks, nonfiction, ownvoices
review:
4.75 Stars
]]> 59435615 384 Shola von Reinhold 1478018720 Adri 0 to-read, queer-lit 4.04 2020
author: Shola von Reinhold
name: Adri
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/25
shelves: to-read, queer-lit
review:

]]> 220829405
They are holy men. But they are ambitious. And they have rivals. Over the next 72 hours, one of them will become the most powerful spiritual figure on earth. Who will it be?]]> 382 Robert Harris 1804947814 Adri 4 <b>4.5 Stars</b> 4.21 2016
author: Robert Harris
name: Adri
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/24
date added: 2025/04/24
shelves:
review:
4.5 Stars
]]> 206707553
In Daretana’s greatest mansion, a high imperial officer lies dead—killed, to all appearances, when a tree erupted from his body. Even here at the Empire’s borders, where contagions abound and the blood of the leviathans works strange magical changes, it’s a death both terrifying and impossible.

Assigned to investigate is Ana Dolabra, a detective whose reputation for brilliance is matched only by her eccentricities. Rumor has it that she wears a blindfold at all times, and that she can solve impossible cases without even stepping outside the walls of her home.

At her side is her new assistant, Dinios Kol, magically altered in ways that make him the perfect aide to Ana’s brilliance. Din is at turns scandalized, perplexed, and utterly infuriated by his new superior—but as the case unfolds and he watches Ana’s mind leap from one startling deduction to the next, he must admit that she is, indeed, the Empire’s greatest detective.

As the two close in on a mastermind and uncover a scheme that threatens the Empire itself, Din realizes he’s barely begun to assemble the puzzle that is Ana Dolabra—and wonders how long he’ll be able to keep his own secrets safe from her piercing intellect.

By an “endlessly inventive�� (Vulture) author with a “wicked sense of humor�� (NPR), The Tainted Cup mixes the charms of detective fiction with brilliant world-building to deliver a fiendishly clever mystery that’s at once instantly recognizable and thrillingly new.]]> 408 Robert Jackson Bennett 139972536X Adri 4 audiobooks, queer-lit 4.37 2024
author: Robert Jackson Bennett
name: Adri
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/23
date added: 2025/04/23
shelves: audiobooks, queer-lit
review:

]]> 217388049 The Hugo and Nebula nominated science fiction detective series continues with The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses, featuring a new mystery concerning alarming incidents of targeted, escalating academic sabotage.

When a former classmate begs Pleiti for help on behalf of her cousin―who’s up for a prestigious academic position at a rival Jovian university but has been accused of plagiarism on the eve of her defense―Pleiti agrees to travel alongside her and investigate the matter.

Even if she has to do it without Mossa, her partner in more ways than one. Even if she’s still reeling from Mossa’s sudden isolation and bewildering rejection.

Yet what appears to be a case of an attempted reputational smearing devolves into something decidedly more dangerous―and possibly deadly.]]> 256 Malka Ann Older 1250396069 Adri 4 4.10 2025
author: Malka Ann Older
name: Adri
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/19
date added: 2025/04/20
shelves: arc, latinx-authors, ownvoices, queer-lit, short-stories-and-novellas
review:

]]> 216522650 A social media influencer's empire is burned to the ground—literally. The top suspects? The five daughters who made her famous.

"Mother May I" Iverson has spent the past twenty years building a massively successful influencer empire with endearing videos featuring her five mixed-race daughters. But the girls are all grown up now, and the ramifications of having their entire childhoods commodified start to spill over into public view, especially in light of the pivotal Who killed May’s newlywed husband and then torched her mansion to cover it up?

April is a businesswoman feuding with her mother over IP; twins June and July are influencers themselves, threatening to overtake May’s spotlight; January is a theater tech who steers clear of her mother and the limelight; and the youngest…well, March has somehow completely disappeared. As the days pass post-murder, everyone has an opinion—the sisters, May, a mysterious "friend of the family," and the collective voice of the online audience watching the family’s every move—with suspicion flying every direction.

A campy and escapist exploration of race, gender, sexuality, and class, The Influencers is an evisceration of influencer culture and how alienating traditional expectations can be, ripe for the current moment when the first generation of children made famous by their parents are, now, all grown up—and looking for retribution.]]> 448 Anna-Marie McLemore 059372917X Adri 3 <b>3.5 Stars</b> 3.40
author: Anna-Marie McLemore
name: Adri
average rating: 3.40
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/12
date added: 2025/04/12
shelves: arc, audiobooks, latinx-authors, ownvoices, queer-lit
review:
3.5 Stars
]]> 216540053 Spaceships aren’t programmed to seek revenge—but for Dracula, Demeter will make an exception.

Demeter just wants to do her shuttling humans between Earth and Alpha Centauri. Unfortunately, her passengers keep dying—and not from equipment failures, as her AI medical system, Steward, would have her believe. These are paranormal murders, and they began when one nasty, ancient vampire decided to board Demeter and kill all her humans.

To keep from getting decommissioned, Demeter must join forces with her own team of A werewolf. An engineer built from the dead. A pharaoh with otherworldly powers. A vampire with a grudge. A fleet of cheerful spider drones. Together, this motley crew will face down the ultimate evil—Dracula.

The queer love child of pulp horror and ​classic ​sci-fi, Of Monsters and ​Mainframes ​is a dazzling, heartfelt odyssey that probes what it means to be one of society’s monsters—and explores the many types of friendship that make us human.]]> 407 Barbara Truelove 1964721156 Adri 4 arc, queer-lit <b>4.5 Stars</b> 4.48
author: Barbara Truelove
name: Adri
average rating: 4.48
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/09
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: arc, queer-lit
review:
4.5 Stars
]]> 199605514
Someone is trying to kill Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Esteemed aunt of Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, generous patroness of Mr. William Collins, a woman of rank who rules over the estate of Rosings Park with an unimpeachable sense of propriety—who would dare ? Lady Catherine summons her grand-nephew, Mr. Jonathan Darcy, and his investigative companion, Miss Juliet Tilney, to find out.

After a year apart, Jonathan and Juliet are thrilled to be reunited, even if the circumstances—finding whoever has thus far sabotaged Lady Catherine's carriage, shot at her, and nearly pushed her down the stairs—are less than ideal. Also less than their respective fathers, Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy and Mr. Henry Tilney, have accompanied the young detectives to Rosings, and the two men do not interact with the same felicity enjoyed by their children.

With attempts against Lady Catherine escalating, and no one among the list of prime suspects seemingly capable of committing all of the attacks, the pressure on Jonathan and Juliet mounts—even as more gentle feelings between the two of them begin to bloom. The race is now on to provoke two one from the attempted murderer before it is too late—and one, perhaps, of love.]]> 335 Claudia Gray 0593686586 Adri 4 audiobooks <b>4.5 Stars</b> 3.99 2024
author: Claudia Gray
name: Adri
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/08
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: audiobooks
review:
4.5 Stars
]]> 211934965 All systems fail. All societies crumble. All worlds end.

In the authoritarian Federation, there is a plot to assassinate and replace the President, a man who has downloaded his mind to a succession of new bodies to maintain his grip on power. Meanwhile, on the fringes of a Western Europe that has renounced human governance in favor of ostensibly more efficient, objective, and peaceful AI Prime Ministers, an experimental artificial mind is malfunctioning, threatening to set off a chain of events that may spell the end of the Western world.

As the Federation and the West both start to crumble, Lilia, the brilliant scientist whose invention may be central to bringing down the seemingly immortal President, goes on the run, trying to break out from a near-impenetrable web of Federation surveillance. Her fate is bound up with a worldwide group of others fighting against the global status quo: Palmer, the man Lilia left behind in London, desperate to solve the mystery of her disappearance; Zoya, a veteran activist imprisoned in the taiga, whose book has inspired a revolutionary movement; Nikolai, the President’s personal physician, who has been forced into more and more harrowing decisions as he navigates the Federation’s palace politics; and Nurlan, the hapless parliamentary staffer whose attempt to save his Republic goes terribly awry. And then there is Krotov, head of the Federation’s security services, whose plots, agents, and assassins are everywhere.

Following the success of his debut novel, The Mountain in the Sea, Ray Nayler launches readers into a thrilling near-future world of geopolitical espionage. A cybernetic novel of political intrigue, Where the Axe is Buried combines the story of a near-impossible revolutionary operation with a blistering indictment of the many forms of authoritarianism that suffocate human freedom.]]> 336 Ray Nayler 0374615365 Adri 4 arc, audiobooks <b>4.25 Stars</b> 4.12 2025
author: Ray Nayler
name: Adri
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/03
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: arc, audiobooks
review:
4.25 Stars
]]> 220908963 If you knew the world was ending, who would you save? And would they let you?

Sixteen-year-old Winnie Bray is a liar. As the resident psychic at an oddities shop, Winnie truly can see the future. But her customers only want reassurance, and Winnie only wants their money. Favorable fortunes are a fast track to funding her way out of Buffalo, New York for good, after all.

But all of that changes when a vision sends her stalking in the remains her family home that burned down in a fire 10 years ago. Among the ash and rubble, Winnie finds a box made of bone, untouched by flames and��whispering. At the touch of her finger, the box shows her a vision of death, chaos, and apocalypse, with her and rich kids Apollo and Cyrus Rathbun at the center.

Apollo knows their cousin is up to no good, and with the Rathbun family scattered to the wind, they know Cyrus is aiming to present himself as the new patriarch. Despite an initial attraction, Apollo is reluctant to believe Winnie. But soon it becomes clear that their family histories are intertwined, with the whispering, hungry box at the very center, and more than their lives are on the line. Together, they must discover the origins of the box and stop unforeseen forces from fulfilling the apocalyptic prophecy, or die trying.

From the author of I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast is Me comes a speculative thriller about the ties that bind us to places and people, perfect for fans of Andrew Joseph White and Tochi Onyebuchi.]]> 416 Jamison Shea 1250381738 Adri 0 to-read, horror, queer-lit 3.50
author: Jamison Shea
name: Adri
average rating: 3.50
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: to-read, horror, queer-lit
review:

]]> 36679274
Kel is an orphan, stolen from the life he knew to become the Sword Catcher—the body double of a royal heir, Prince Conor Aurelian. He has been raised alongside the prince, trained in every aspect of combat and statecraft. He and Conor are as close as brothers, but Kel knows that his destiny is to die for Conor. No other future is possible.

Lin Caster is one of the Ashkar, a small community whose members still possess magical abilities. By law, they must live behind walls within the city, but Lin, a physician, ventures out to tend to the sick and dying of Castellane. Despite her skills, she cannot heal her best friend without access to forbidden knowledge.

After a failed assassination attempt brings Lin and Kel together, they are drawn into the web of the mysterious Ragpicker King, the criminal ruler of Castellane’s underworld. He offers them each what they want most; but as they descend into his world of intrigue and shadow, they discover a conspiracy of corruption that reaches from the darkest gutters of Castellane to the highest tower of its palaces.

As long-kept secrets begin to unravel, they must ask themselves: Is knowledge worth the price of betrayal? Can forbidden love bring down a kingdom? And will their discoveries plunge their nation into war—and the world into chaos?]]> 624 Cassandra Clare 0525619992 Adri 4 audiobooks 3.79 2023
author: Cassandra Clare
name: Adri
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/30
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves: audiobooks
review:

]]> 149072897
Festering masses of worms and flies have taken root in dark corners across Appalachia. In exchange for unwavering loyalty and fresh corpses, these hives offer a few struggling humans salvation. A fresh start. It’s an offer that none refuse.

Crane is grateful. Among his hive’s followers, Crane has found a chance to transition, to never speak again, to live a life that won’t destroy him. He even met Levi: a handsome ex-Marine and brutal killer who treats him like a real man, mostly. But when Levi gets Crane pregnant—and the hive demands the child’s birth, no matter the cost—Crane’s desperation to make it stop will drive the community that saved him into a devastating spiral that can only end in blood.

You Weren’t Meant to Be Human is a deeply personal horror; a visceral statement about the lives of marginalized people in a hostile world, echoing the works of Stephen Graham Jones and Eric LaRocca.]]> Andrew Joseph White Adri 0 4.74 2025
author: Andrew Joseph White
name: Adri
average rating: 4.74
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves: to-read, horror, ownvoices, queer-lit
review:

]]> 214537820 “Each poem is as raw as it is beautiful.�� —Alex Gino, author of ALA Stonewall Award-winning novel Melissa

A middle grade novel in verse about a young trans girl who uses a computer game to process an ADHD diagnosis, isolation, and her relationship to gender for fans of Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff.

J—’s life is consumed by the roller coaster video game Coaster Boss, and by the power she exerts over the pixelated theme park attendees. Her life outside the game, however, is less controllable.

Me.
I’m such a big space. I break the universe, a glitch.

She's navigating ADHD, the loneliness of middle school, and an overwhelming crush on a girl named Junie. J�� is convinced that Junie sees her as who she really is, a person who isn’t “bad�� just because she doesn't stay quiet and sit still in class. As a person who is realizing that the name she's been given doesn’t really fit her. And that maybe boy doesn’t either.

Glitch Girl! follows J�� from fifth to seventh grade, from the beginning to the end of her obsession with Coaster Boss, and to the start of a new friendship. When J�� meets Sam, a nonbinary classmate, she begins to realize that it's okay to not fit into neat, pixelated boxes.]]> 448 Rainie Oet 0593696514 Adri 4 <b>4.5 Stars</b> 3.87 2025
author: Rainie Oet
name: Adri
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/28
date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: audiobooks, childrens-middle-grade, ownvoices, poetry, queer-lit
review:
4.5 Stars
]]> 154488278
In this semi-autobiographical collection of poems, Renée Watson writes
about her experience growing up as a young Black girl at the intersections of race, class, and gender.

Using a variety of poetic forms, from haiku to free verse, Watson shares recollections of her childhood in Portland, tender odes to the Black women in her life, and urgent calls for Black girls to step into their power.

Black Girl You Are Atlas encourages young readers to embrace their future with a strong sense of sisterhood and celebration. With full-color art by celebrated fine artist Ekua Holmes throughout, this collection offers guidance and is a gift for anyone who reads it.]]> 96 Renée Watson 0593461703 Adri 5 4.58
author: Renée Watson
name: Adri
average rating: 4.58
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/27
date added: 2025/03/27
shelves:
review:

]]> 214537773 From the acclaimed author of Chef's Kiss, a groundbreaking trans Regency romance that's both delightfully witty and refreshingly iconoclastic.

The notoriously eccentric Lord Christopher Eden is a “man of unusual make�� and even more unusual habits: he prefers to live as far from the prying eyes and ears of the ton as possible, and would rather have the comfortable company of his childhood cook and his aged butler, Plinkton, than the swarm of servants and hangers-on befitting a man of his station.

But Christopher's pleasant, if occasionally lonely life is upended when he receives word from his lawyers that, according to his late father’s will, he must find a wife by the end of the Season if he intends to keep his family's fortune and the Eden's End estate. Christopher cannot imagine a worse fate: as he isn't attracted to women, his chances of making a wife happy are slim. Furthermore, if his quest to marry has any hope of succeeding, he must move to London posthaste and acquire some more suitable staff.

Enter James Harding, Christopher's new, distractingly handsome—if rigidly traditional—valet. After a rocky start, the two strike up a fragile friendship amid the throes of the London Season . . . a friendship that threatens to shatter under the looming shadow of Christopher’s impending nuptials—and the secrets both men are keeping.

With its heady combination of dry wit, slow-burn romance, and a nuanced, complex portrait of trans identity and relationships that’s as relevant now as it was during the Regency era, A Gentleman's Gentleman stands to transform the historical romance genre as we know it.]]> 336 T.J. Alexander 0593686209 Adri 4 <b>4.5 Stars</b> 4.11 2025
author: T.J. Alexander
name: Adri
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/25
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: audiobooks, ownvoices, queer-lit, romance
review:
4.5 Stars
]]> 58275991
Aubrey and Joel are like two tomato vines that grew along the same crooked fence: weird, yet the same kind of weird. But lately, even their shared weirdness seems weird. Then Joel disappears. Vanishes.�� Poof . The whole town is looking for him, and Aubrey was the last person to see Joel. Aubrey can’t say much, but since lies of omission are still lies, here’s what they know for sure:�� Aubrey doesn’t know where Joel is, but they might know how to find him. As Aubrey, their friend Mari, and sister Teagan search along the river, Aubrey has to fess up to who they really are, all the things they never said, and the word that bully Rudy Thomas used that set all this into motion.��]]> 336 Lin Thompson 0316276723 Adri 4 ownvoices <b>4.5 Stars</b> 4.13 2022
author: Lin Thompson
name: Adri
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/24
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: ownvoices
review:
4.5 Stars
]]> 216848487
It’s a tale from the past, with a message for today. A stunningly poignant, devastating, and ultimately beautiful tour-de-force - Simon James Green

At just nineteen, Stephen has already survived a year at the front. Now he is returning to the trenches to lead a platoon, despite his wounds. Broken-hearted from the loss of his first love, Stephen wonders what he's fighting for. Then he meets Private Danny McCormick, a smart, talented young recruit. From their first meeting, there's something undeniable between them �� something forbidden by both society and the army. Determined to protect Danny, Stephen must face down the prejudices and ignorance of his superiors as well as the onslaught of German shells and sniper fire.
As the summer of 1916 ticks down to one big push on the Somme, can Stephen and Danny stay together �� and will their love save them �� or condemn them?]]> 282 William Hussey Adri 0 to-read, queer-lit 4.21 2025
author: William Hussey
name: Adri
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: to-read, queer-lit
review:

]]> 214565614 A chilling historical horror novel set in the American west in 1912 following a Lutheran priest who transcribes the life of a vampire who haunts the fields of the Blackfeet reservation looking for justice.

A diary, written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered within a wall. What it unveils is a slow massacre, a chain of events that go back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow. Told in transcribed interviews by a Blackfeet named Good Stab, who shares the narrative of his peculiar life over a series of confessional visits. This is an American Indian revenge story written by one of the new masters of horror, Stephen Graham Jones.]]> 448 Stephen Graham Jones 1668075083 Adri 4 <b>4.5 Stars</b> 4.23 2025
author: Stephen Graham Jones
name: Adri
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/21
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves: arc, audiobooks, horror, ownvoices
review:
4.5 Stars
]]> 228932040 This Barnes & Noble Exclusive Edition includes sprayed edges, printed flaps, and a unique cover.

The long-awaited new novel from the author of global sensation Tender Is the Flesh: a thrilling work of literary horror about a woman cloistered in a secretive, violent religious order, while outside the world has fallen into chaos.

From her cell in a mysterious convent, a woman writes the story of her life in whatever she can find—discarded ink, dirt, and even her own blood. A lower member of the Sacred Sisterhood, deemed an unworthy, she dreams of ascending to the ranks of the Enlightened at the center of the convent and of pleasing the foreboding Superior Sister. Outside, the world is plagued by catastrophe—cities are submerged underwater, electricity and the internet are nonexistent, and bands of survivors fight and forage in a cruel, barren landscape. Inside, the narrator is controlled, punished, but safe.

But when a stranger makes her way past the convent walls, joining the ranks of the unworthy, she forces the narrator to consider her long-buried past—and what she may be overlooking about the Enlightened. As the two women grow closer, the narrator is increasingly haunted by questions about her own past, the environmental future, and her present life inside the convent. How did she get to the Sacred Sisterhood? Why can’t she remember her life before? And what really happens when a woman is chosen as one of the Enlightened?

A searing, dystopian tale about climate crisis, ideological extremism, and the tidal pull of our most violent, exploitative instincts, this is another unforgettable novel from a master of feminist horror.]]> 192 Agustina Bazterrica 1668099756 Adri 4 3.78 2023
author: Agustina Bazterrica
name: Adri
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/18
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves: arc, audiobooks, horror, latinx-authors, ownvoices
review:

]]> 55869981 Working at the local processing plant, Marcos is in the business of slaughtering humans—though no one calls them that anymore.

His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tries not to think too hard about how he makes a living. After all, it happened so quickly. First, it was reported that an infectious virus has made all animal meat poisonous to humans. Then governments initiated the “Transition.�� Now, eating human meat—“special meat”—is legal. Marcos tries to stick to numbers, consignments, processing.

Then one day he’s given a gift: a live specimen of the finest quality. Though he’s aware that any form of personal contact is forbidden on pain of death, little by little he starts to treat her like a human being. And soon, he becomes tortured by what has been lost—and what might still be saved.]]> 221 Agustina Bazterrica 1782276203 Adri 4 3.71 2017
author: Agustina Bazterrica
name: Adri
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/21
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves: horror, latinx-authors, ownvoices, short-stories-and-novellas
review:

]]> 220297138
Eric Fisher, a Black recruit finishing up his training, has always felt strange in his own skin. Now that he’s finally a mecha pilot, ready to join the fight against the monstrous Imago, he gets to be in a body that feels more right. But this new sense of self and gender must be navigated while uncovering revelations about the machineries of flesh and steel he’s now a part of.]]> T.T. Madden Adri 5 4.50 2025
author: T.T. Madden
name: Adri
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/11
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: indie-pubbed, ownvoices, queer-lit, short-stories-and-novellas, favorites
review:

]]> 214151404 When a teen has an unexpected vision about a future murder, he must juggle newfound interest from the supernatural community with trying to prevent the murder from happening in this new romantic fantasy from New York Times bestselling author F.T. Lukens.

Tired of being known as the artsy oddball, fifteen-year-old Cam Reynolds hopes to fly under the radar when he changes high schools as a sophomore. It shouldn’t be too hard, considering he’s a human going to school with kids who have super-cool paranormal powers, like his best friend and witch, Al, and longtime werewolf crush, Miguel.

Then Cam has a psychic glimpse of the future in front of most of the student body, seeing a gruesomely murdered teen girl from the point of view of the killer. When Cam comes to, he knows two things: someone he goes to school with is a future murderer and his life is about to change. No longer a mere human but a clairvoyant, one of the rarest of supernatural beings, Cam finds himself at the center of attention for the first time.

As the most powerful supernatural factions in the city court Cam and his gift, he’ll have to work with his friends, both old and new, to figure out who he can trust. Because the clock is ticking, and Cam and his friends must identify the girl in the vision, find her potential killer, and prevent the murder from happening. Or the next murder Cam sees might be his own.]]> 368 F.T. Lukens 1665950943 Adri 4 <b>4.5 Stars</b> 4.24 2025
author: F.T. Lukens
name: Adri
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/11
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: arc, ownvoices, queer-lit, favorites
review:
4.5 Stars
]]> 215748674 A classmates-to-friends-to-lovers romance that's equal parts raunchy, heartfelt, queer, and Mexican-American, centered on college football (the REAL football)!

Gabriel Piña knows who he is: a college goalkeeper, a future Liga MX or MLS star, and definitely straight. He’s starting his freshman year with a lot of eyes on him and even more potential, but he’s got this. Nothing will have him straying off the path to greatness.

That is, until his philosophy classmate Vale volunteers to tutor him. Vale, the same guy who Gabi, in a moment of history repeating itself, might’ve kissed very briefly—and only once—just to help him out at a party. Vale, the smart, supportive, compassionate new friend with beautiful brown eyes and a smile that keeps Gabi, for completely inexplicable reasons, constantly in a daydream.

As a friendship blooms and the two spend more and more time together, Gabi finally begins to recognize something about himself: maybe he’s not as straight as he thought he was. But a larger and darker realization lingers. Someone like Gabi—a brown, Mexican futbolista with dreams of playing for El Tri—can’t also be bisexual. He’s seen the way his teammates and community react to queerness in their sport. It would be the exact type of straying off path that destroys his future.

Or, maybe Gabi could be brave enough to embrace all those parts of himself and forge his own path, one that includes a boyfriend and the beautiful game.

A sports romance for those who keep rewatching Bend It Like Beckham and rereading Red, White & Royal Blue and the incredible collection of queer soc—football romances out there, Futbolista follows the first semester of one guy's freshman year of college, navigating who he is, who he’s allowed to be, and who he wants to be.]]> 400 Jonny Garza Villa 1646145097 Adri 5 4.51
author: Jonny Garza Villa
name: Adri
average rating: 4.51
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/09
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: arc, queer-lit, ownvoices, latinx-authors, favorites
review:

]]> 133938336
Sharkita “Kita�� Hayes is always waiting.
Waiting for her mama to mess up.
Waiting for social services to be called again.
Waiting for her and her siblings to be separated.
Waiting for her worst fear to come true.

But Mama promises things are different now. She's got a good job, she's stopped drinking, stopped going out every night-it's almost enough to make Kita believe her this time. But even as Kita's life is going good, she can't shake the feeling that everything could go up in flames at any moment. When her assistant principal and trusted dance coach starts asking questions about her home life, Kita is more determined than ever to keep up appearances and make sure her family stays together-even if it means falling apart herself.

As the threat of her family being separated again circles like a shark in the water, the pressure starts to get to Kita. But could it be that Kita's worst fear is actually the best thing that could happen to her family . . . and to her?]]> 304 Sherri Winston 1547608501 Adri 4 4.38 2024
author: Sherri Winston
name: Adri
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/06
date added: 2025/03/06
shelves: audiobooks, childrens-middle-grade, ownvoices
review:

]]> 177186086
Scales is the best at what she does. She is an enforcer who keeps the peace in Ashtown; a rough, climate-ravaged desert town. But that fragile peace is fractured when a woman is mangled and killed within Ash's borders, right in front of Scales's eyes. Even more incomprehensible is that there was seemingly no murderer.

When more mutilated bodies start to turn up, both in Ashtown and in the wealthier, walled-off Wiley City, Scales is tasked with finding the cause—and putting an end to it. She teams up with a frustratingly by-the-books partner and a brusque-but-brilliant scientist in order to uncover the truth, delving into both worlds to track down the invisible killer. But what they find points to something bigger��and more corrupt than they could've ever foreseen—and it could spell doom for the entire world.]]> 373 Micaiah Johnson 0593497503 Adri 4 <b>4.5 Stars</b> 4.02 2024
author: Micaiah Johnson
name: Adri
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/05
date added: 2025/03/06
shelves: audiobooks, library, ownvoices, queer-lit, favorites
review:
4.5 Stars
]]> 211004176 Follow the river Liss to the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, and meet two sisters who cannot be separated, even in death.

“Oh what is stronger than a death? Two sisters singing with one breath.��

In the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, dwells the mysterious Hawthorn family.

There, they tend and harvest the enchanted willows and honour an ancient compact to sing to them in thanks for their magic. None more devotedly than the family’s latest daughters, Esther and Ysabel, who cherish each other as much as they cherish the ancient trees.

But when Esther rejects a forceful suitor in favor of a lover from the land of Faerie, not only the sisters�� bond but also their lives will be at risk…]]> 133 Amal El-Mohtar 1250341086 Adri 5 4.19 2025
author: Amal El-Mohtar
name: Adri
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/03
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves: arc, short-stories-and-novellas, favorites
review:

]]> 203579108
Eliot Stein has traveled the globe in search of remarkable people who are preserving some of our rarest cultural rites. In Custodians of Wonder: Ancient Customs, Profound Traditions, and the Last People Keeping Them Alive, Stein introduces readers to a man saving the secret ingredient in Japan's 700-year-old original soy sauce recipe. In Italy, he learns how to make the world's rarest pasta from one of the only women alive who knows how to make it. And in India, he discovers a family rumored to make a mysterious metal mirror believed to reveal your truest self. From shadowing Scandinavia's last night watchman to meeting a 27th-generation West African griot to seeking out Cuba's last official cigar factory “readers�� more than a century after they spearheaded the fight for Cuban independence, Stein uncovers an almost lost world.

Climbing through Peru’s southern highlands, he encounters the last Inca bridge master who rebuilds a grass-woven bridge from the fabled Inca Road System. He befriends a British beekeeper who maintains a touching custom of "telling the bees" important news of the day and crunches through a German forest to find the official mailman of the only tree in the world with its own address �� to which countless people all over the world have written in hopes of finding love. These are just some of the last people on Earth still in touch with quickly vanishing rites. Let Eliot Stein introduce you to all of them.]]> 336 Eliot Stein 1250281091 Adri 0 to-read, nonfiction 4.22 2024
author: Eliot Stein
name: Adri
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves: to-read, nonfiction
review:

]]> 221736683 From one of the most original and dazzling voices in speculative fiction comes an intergalactic tale of conspiracy, war and the fall of empires.

My name is Mawukana na-Vdnaze, and I am a very poor copy of myself.

In telling my story, there are certain things I should perhaps lie about. I should make myself a hero. Pretend I was not used by strangers and gods, did not leave people behind.

Here is one out there in deep-space, in the pilot's chair, I died. And then, I was reborn. I became something not quite human, something that could speak to the infinite dark. And I vowed to become the scourge of the world that wronged me.

This is the story of the supernova event that burned planets and felled civilizations. This is also the story of the many lives I've lived since I died for the first time.

Are you listening?

Discover this thrilling and breathtakingly imaginative space opera from the multi-award-winning Claire North, perfect for fans of Ann Leckie, Adrian Tchaikovsky and Arkady Martine.]]> Claire North 0356526178 Adri 0 to-read 5.00 2025
author: Claire North
name: Adri
average rating: 5.00
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 70917084
On a hot August day in Paris, just over a century ago, a desperate guard burst into the office of the director of the Louvre and shouted, La Joconde, c’est partie !��The Mona Lisa, she’s gone!

No one knew who was behind the heist. Was it an international gang of thieves? Was it an art-hungry American millionaire? Was it the young Spanish painter Pablo Picasso, who was about to remake the very art of painting?

Travel back to an extraordinary period of revolutionary turn-of-the-century Paris. Walk its backstreets. Meet the infamous thieves—and detectives—of the era. And then slip back further in time and follow Leonardo da Vinci, painter of the Mona Lisa , through his dazzling, wondrously weird life. Discover the secret at the heart of the Mona Lisa —the most famous painting in the world should never have existed at all.

Here is a middle-grade nonfiction, with black-and-white illustrations by Brett Helquist throughout, written at the pace of a thriller, shot through with stories of crime and celebrity, genius and beauty.]]> 288 Nicholas Day 0593643844 Adri 0 4.09 2023
author: Nicholas Day
name: Adri
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: childrens-middle-grade, nonfiction, to-read
review:

]]> 198563691 Why don’t our schools work? Eve L. Ewing tackles this question from a new angle: What if they’re actually doing what they were built to do? She argues that instead of being the great equalizer, America’s classrooms were designed to do the opposite: to maintain the nation’s inequalities. It’s a task at which they excel.

If all children could just get an education, the logic goes, they would have the same opportunities later in life. But this historical tour de force makes it clear that the opposite is true: The U.S. school system has played an instrumental role in creating and upholding racial hierarchies, preparing children to expect unequal treatment throughout their lives.

In Original Sins, Ewing demonstrates that our schools were designed to propagate the idea of white intellectual superiority, to “civilize�� Native students and to prepare Black students for menial labor. Education was not an afterthought for the Founding Fathers; it was envisioned by Thomas Jefferson as an institution that would fortify the country’s racial hierarchy. Ewing argues that these dynamics persist in a curriculum that continues to minimize the horrors of American history. The most insidious aspects of this system fall below the radar in the forms of standardized testing, academic tracking, disciplinary policies, and uneven access to resources.

By demonstrating that it’s in the DNA of American schools to serve as an effective and underacknowledged mechanism maintaining inequality in this country today, Ewing makes the case that we need a profound reevaluation of what schools are supposed to do, and for whom. This book will change the way people understand the place we send our children for eight hours a day.]]> 400 Eve L. Ewing 0593243706 Adri 5 4.61 2025
author: Eve L. Ewing
name: Adri
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/25
date added: 2025/02/25
shelves: nonfiction, audiobooks, ownvoices, favorites
review:

]]> 197536826 386 Claire Kann 0593336658 Adri 3 3.28 2024
author: Claire Kann
name: Adri
average rating: 3.28
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/17
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves: audiobooks, horror, ownvoices, queer-lit, romance
review:

]]> 180725527
As a former loner from a working-class background, Blake lacks Ella’s pedigree and confidence. Luckily, she finds courage at the bottom of a liquor bottle. When she drinks, she’s bold, funny, and unstoppable—and the Serenas love it. But as pledging intensifies, so does Blake’s drinking, until it’s seeping into every corner of her life. Ella assures Blake that she’s fine; partying hard is what it takes to make the cut.

But success has never felt so much like drowning. With her future hanging in the balance and her past dragging her down, Blake must decide how far she’s willing to go to achieve her glittering dreams of success—and how much of herself she’s willing to lose in the process.]]> 336 Jas Hammonds 1250816599 Adri 4 ownvoices, queer-lit <b>4.25 Stars</b> 4.04 2024
author: Jas Hammonds
name: Adri
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/24
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves: ownvoices, queer-lit
review:
4.25 Stars
]]> 212199595 Wielding a magic that allows him to pop off limbs, con artist Phyllis steals body parts and his partner Lucent ransoms them. Everyone who knows about Phyllis’s magic is afraid of him—except for Lucent. But his partner’s love comes with one condition: Phyllis must keep stealing. But when a mark can’t afford ransom for his missing nose, Phyllis loses his resolve. The man claims his sister, Adeline, was taken, and without her money he can’t pay until she’s found.

Intrigued, Phyllis investigates Adeline’s disappearance, but she is not the only missing girl in their seedy city. To gain answers from the nobility, Phyllis masquerades as a duke—Lord Phillip of Rabbiton—and begins to fall in love with both stories of Adeline and the man he’s becoming to try and find her. Soon, he’s not sure he ever wants to return to Lucent and their life of crime together.

When he finally finds Adeline with another missing girl, it turns out they’re not dead—but undead.

To win Adeline’s heart and break from his toxic past, Phillip will have to scheme to keep his title and master his evolving magic.]]> 352 Elias Cold Adri 0 to-read 4.04
author: Elias Cold
name: Adri
average rating: 4.04
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 199532020
That clock can’t be right.

When Elise wakes up the morning after her birthday celebration, she’s surprised to find herself in her bedroom. Last she can remember, she had fallen asleep next to her best friends at her slumber party in her basement, and it was October. But now she’s alone, and her phone says it’s April 8. Elise doesn’t understand. How could she have woken up six months later?

No one else is acting like anything strange has happened, yet Elise can't remember the last half year. To make matters worse, her friends refuse to talk to her and Elise doesn't know why. She also has no idea how she got signed up for photography club, or why her former best friend, Cora, is talking to her again.

Is it a memory problem? Could it be magic? Every day that passes takes Elise further from the world she knew. Thankfully, Elise has Cora to lean on in this new reality, and the two come together to investigate why Elise woke up in the future—and more important, how to get her back to her past and away from this nightmare.

New York Times bestselling author Janae Marks delivers a stunningly crafted and twisty mystery about the tests of friendships that examines what matters most when everything can change in a split second.]]> 256 Janae Marks 0063212366 Adri 4 <b>4.5 Stars</b> 3.94 2024
author: Janae Marks
name: Adri
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/20
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves: childrens-middle-grade, ownvoices, favorites
review:
4.5 Stars
]]> 62706032 This Barnes & Noble Exclusive Edition will have an altered colored cover and a Q&A with N.K. Jemisin.

Three-time Hugo Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author N.K. Jemisin crafts "a glorious fantasy" (Neil Gaiman) �� a story of culture, identity, magic, and myths in contemporary New York City, in the final book of the Great Cities Duology.


Every great city has a soul. A human avatar that embodies their city's heart and wields its magic. New York? She's got six.

But all is not well in the city that never sleeps. Though Brooklyn, Manny, Bronca, Venezia, Padmini, and Neek have temporarily managed to stop the Woman in White from invading—and destroying the entire universe in the process—the mysterious capital "E" Enemy has more subtle powers at her disposal. A new candidate for mayor wielding the populist rhetoric of gentrification, xenophobia, and "law and order" may have what it takes to change the very nature of New York itself and take it down from the inside. In order to defeat him, and the Enemy who holds his purse strings, the avatars will have to join together with the other Great Cities of the world in order to bring her down for good and protect their world from complete destruction]]> 360 N.K. Jemisin 0316521159 Adri 4 audiobooks 4.17 2022
author: N.K. Jemisin
name: Adri
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/19
date added: 2025/02/19
shelves: audiobooks
review:

]]> 61884948 IN DARKNESS, A SONG CAN LEAD THE WAY. BEWARE WHICH ONE YOU LISTEN TO. Abeni's Song by award-winning author P. Djèlí Clark is the enchanting beginning of an epic West African and African Diaspora-inspired fantasy adventure for middle-grade readers about a reluctant apprentice to magic and the stolen villagers she sets out to save.“Lush and magical.�� —KWAME MBALIA �� “A���ٴDzԾ����󾱲Բ�.�� —MARK OSHIRO �� "Abeni's story will sweep you away." —AMANDA FOODY On the day of the Harvest Festival, the old woman who lives in the forest appears in Abeni's village with a terrible message: You ignored my warnings. It’s too late to run. They are coming.Warriors with burning blades storm the village. A man with a cursed flute plays an impossibly alluring song. And everyone Abeni has ever known and loved is captured and marched toward far-off ghost ships set for even more distant lands. But not Abeni. Abeni is magically whisked away by the old woman. In the forest, Abeni begins her unwanted magical apprenticeship, her journey to escape the witch, and her impossible mission to bring her people home.Abeni’s Song is the beginning of a timeless, enchanting fantasy adventure about a reluctant apprentice, a team of spirit kids, and the village they set out to save.]]> 326 P. Djèlí Clark 1250825822 Adri 4 3.93 2023
author: P. Djèlí Clark
name: Adri
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/16
date added: 2025/02/16
shelves: arc, childrens-middle-grade, ownvoices
review:

]]> 210835673 Meg Smitherman Adri 4 <b>4.5 Stars</b> 3.94 2024
author: Meg Smitherman
name: Adri
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves:
review:
4.5 Stars
]]> 62919847 A gripping, page-turning novel set in Jim Crow Florida that follows Robert Stephens Jr. as he’s sent to a segregated reform school that is a chamber of terrors where he sees the horrors of racism and injustice, for the living, and the dead.

Gracetown, Florida
June 1950

Twelve-year-old Robbie Stephens, Jr., is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, a reformatory, for kicking the son of the largest landowner in town in defense of his older sister, Gloria. So begins Robbie’s journey further into the terrors of the Jim Crow South and the very real horror of the school they call The Reformatory.

Robbie has a talent for seeing ghosts, or haints. But what was once a comfort to him after the loss of his mother has become a window to the truth of what happens at the reformatory. Boys forced to work to remediate their so-called crimes have gone missing, but the haints Robbie sees hint at worse things. Through his friends Redbone and Blue, Robbie is learning not just the rules but how to survive. Meanwhile, Gloria is rallying every family member and connection in Florida to find a way to get Robbie out before it’s too late.

The Reformatory is a haunting work of historical fiction written as only American Book Award–winning author Tananarive Due could, by piecing together the life of the relative her family never spoke of and bringing his tragedy and those of so many others at the infamous Dozier School for Boys to the light in this riveting novel.]]> 576 Tananarive Due 1982188340 Adri 4 <b>4.5 Stars</b> 4.44 2023
author: Tananarive Due
name: Adri
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/13
date added: 2025/02/13
shelves:
review:
4.5 Stars
]]> 135984308
While at camp, Rand also realizes the true price of his gift: everything he grows withers and dies, leaving the soil empty of all living matter. Horrified, he throws himself into ever more self-destructive trials, buckling under the pressure of so many secrets. In order to survive, he must confront the terrifying possibility that his gift is actually a curse, upending everything he believes about nature, love, and himself.]]> 264 B. Pladek 0299343944 Adri 0 to-read, queer-lit 4.05
author: B. Pladek
name: Adri
average rating: 4.05
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/11
shelves: to-read, queer-lit
review:

]]> 75293505
“The dystopian future portrayed in some science-fiction movies is already upon��us. Kashmir Hill’s fascinating book brings home the scary implications of this new reality.”—John Carreyrou, author of Bad Blood

Longlisted for the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year Award

New York Times tech reporter Kashmir Hill was skeptical when she got a tip about a mysterious app called Clearview AI that claimed it could, with 99 percent accuracy, identify anyone based on just one snapshot of their face. The app could supposedly scan a��face��and, in just seconds, surface every detail of a person’s online their name, social media profiles, friends and family members, home address, and photos that they might not have even known existed. If it was everything it claimed to be, it would be the ultimate surveillance tool, and it would open the door to everything from stalking to totalitarian state control. Could it be true?

In this riveting account, Hill tracks the improbable rise of Clearview AI, helmed by Hoan Ton-That, an Australian computer engineer, and Richard Schwartz, a former Rudy Giuliani advisor, and its astounding collection of billions of faces from the internet. The company was boosted by a cast of controversial characters, including conservative provocateur Charles C. Johnson and billionaire Donald Trump backer Peter Thiel—who all seemed eager to release this society-altering technology on the public.��Google and Facebook decided that a tool to identify strangers was too radical to release, but Clearview forged ahead, sharing the app with private investors, pitching it to businesses, and��offering it to thousands of law enforcement agencies around the��world.
 �Ă�Ă�Ă�Ă���
Facial recognition technology has been quietly growing more powerful for decades. This technology has already been used in wrongful arrests in the United States. Unregulated, it could expand the reach of policing, as it has in China and Russia, to a terrifying, dystopian level.
 �Ă�Ă�Ă���
Your Face Belongs to Us is a gripping true story about the rise of a technological superpower and an urgent warning that, in the absence of vigilance and government regulation, Clearview AI is one of many new technologies that challenge what Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once called “the right to be let alone.”]]> 352 Kashmir Hill 0593448561 Adri 0 nonfiction, to-read 4.13 2023
author: Kashmir Hill
name: Adri
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/10
shelves: nonfiction, to-read
review:

]]> 212806677 An R&B singer and a corporate executive find love that hits the right notes in this romance by Kristina Forest, USA Today bestselling author of The Partner Plot.

Iris Greene used to be a woman with a plan. But all of that changed after she met the love of her life at twenty-four, got pregnant and married…and then became a widow and a single mother all within the span of a year and a half. Now, after years of hustling, Iris is the director of partnerships at a beauty company and raising spunky six-year-old Calla by herself. Despite her busy life, she still can’t help but feel lonely. She just needs to catch her breath—and one night, at her sister’s wedding, when she steps outside to do just that, she sees a certain singer who takes her breath away. . . .

By all accounts, pop R&B singer Angel Harrison has it made. He’s a successful musician and has just scored a brand ambassador deal with an emerging beauty company. But he’s still not fulfilled; he’s not producing songs he’s passionate about, and there’s a gaping hole in his love life. When he visits the Save Face Beauty office to kickstart his campaign, he’s delighted to see Iris, his stylist’s sister—the beautiful woman he’s secretly had a crush on for years.

Despite their obvious attraction to each other, they must stay professional throughout the campaign tour—which doesn’t quite pan out. But when it becomes clear their lives aren’t in sync, can they fall back in step to the same rhythm and beat?]]> 400 Kristina Forest 0593817109 Adri 4 arc, ownvoices, romance 4.00 2025
author: Kristina Forest
name: Adri
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/10
date added: 2025/02/10
shelves: arc, ownvoices, romance
review:

]]> 195177497 This cozy debut science fiction novel tells a story of misfits, rebels, found family—and a mystery that spans the stars.

Welcome to the Grand Abeona Hotel: home of the finest food, the sweetest service, and the very best views the galaxy has to offer. All year round it moves from planet to planet, system to system, pampering guests across the furthest reaches of the milky way. The last word in sub-orbital luxury—and an absolute magnet for intrigue. Intrigues such as: Why are there love poems in the lobby inbox? How many Imperial spies are currently on board? What is the true purpose of the Problem Solver's conference? And perhaps most pertinently��who is driving the ship?

Each guest has a secret, every member of staff a universe unto themselves. At the center of these interweaving lives and interlocking mysteries stands Carl, one time stowaway, longtime manager, devoted caretaker to the hotel. It's the love of his life and the only place he's ever called home. But as forces beyond Carl's comprehension converge on the Abeona, he has to face one final question: when is it time to let go?]]> 324 Grace Curtis 075641931X Adri 0 to-read, queer-lit 3.65 2024
author: Grace Curtis
name: Adri
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/10
shelves: to-read, queer-lit
review:

]]> 34762552
In Algorithms of Oppression, Safiya Umoja Noble challenges the idea that search engines like Google offer an equal playing field for all forms of ideas, identities, and activities. Data discrimination is a real social problem; Noble argues that the combination of private interests in promoting certain sites, along with the monopoly status of a relatively small number of Internet search engines, leads to a biased set of search algorithms that privilege whiteness and discriminate against people of color, specifically women of color.

Through an analysis of textual and media searches as well as extensive research on paid online advertising, Noble exposes a culture of racism and sexism in the way discoverability is created online. As search engines and their related companies grow in importance - operating as a source for email, a major vehicle for primary and secondary school learning, and beyond - understanding and reversing these disquieting trends and discriminatory practices is of utmost importance.

An original, surprising and, at times, disturbing account of bias on the internet, Algorithms of Oppression contributes to our understanding of how racism is created, maintained, and disseminated in the 21st century.]]> 248 Safiya Umoja Noble 1479837245 Adri 5 3.89 2018
author: Safiya Umoja Noble
name: Adri
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/06
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves: audiobooks, nonfiction, ownvoices
review:

]]> 61085285 Religious eroticism and queer emancipation meet in a claustrophobic monster-romance about divinity, sexuality, and freedom.

When Diego López is guilted by his mother into taking a low-key construction job in New Mexico, he doesn’t expect to be the only helping hand at Catedral de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe. But the church is abandoned, decrepit, and off the beaten path, and the only other person for miles is its handsome caretaker, Ariel Azevedo.

Together, Diego and Ariel refurbish the old church, sharing stories of their heritage, experiences, and desires. But as the long days turn into longer nights, Diego begins to see past Ariel’s human mirage and finds himself falling into lust—and maybe something else—with one of God’s first creations.]]> 92 Freydís Moon Adri 0 indie-pubbed 3.80 2022
author: Freydís Moon
name: Adri
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2022/06/19
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: indie-pubbed
review:

]]> 61415467
The moment Kye steps foot into their childhood home, they know something is wrong. That night, they come face to face with the shadowy presence driving them mad: the handsome demon duke, Eli, who offers them an irresistible deal. In exchange for their soul, Eli will give them pain, pleasure, and power.

Kye set a path for themself—live fast, die young—and Eli seems like the perfect exit route. With nothing to lose, they agree.

But after an impromptu visit from a local ICE agent, Kye forms an unlikely friendship with their mother’s bookkeeper and stumbles into an insidious mystery surrounding their family’s homegrown alebrije business. Met with ghosts, displaced employees, and a garage filled with unfinished artwork, Kye can’t help but wonder. . . What was their mother hiding? And why is a rogue officer interested in Lovato Alebrijes?

Kye is possessed, unkempt, and chasing death, but as stubborn as they are, they’re the only person left alive who can resurrect the family business and carry the Lovato legacy, and their only ally is the demon possessing them.]]> 242 Freydís Moon 1087975824 Adri 0 indie-pubbed 3.94 2022
author: Freydís Moon
name: Adri
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2022/07/27
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: indie-pubbed
review:

]]> 129519067 A vicious romance imbued with magic, thievery, and necromancy��

When Tehlor Nilsen stumbles upon an abandoned corpse hidden in her friend’s empty house, she can’t ignore the energy lingering around the broken albeit familiar body. Entranced by the promise of ritualistic power, she seizes her chance to secure a vorðr. Miraculously, Hel, the goddess of death, grants Tehlor an audience.

But Lincoln Stone has no interest in becoming a magical sentry and raising him from the dead comes with violent consequences.

When a mysterious neo-church arrives in Gideon, Tehlor catches wind of a rare relic. Despite Lincoln's troubling enthusiasm for demonology, she strikes a deal with her unruly vorðr, hoping to mend their strained relationship��

Work together. Steal the Breath of Judas. Control the dead.

As the magically bound pair infiltrate Haven and their heist becomes a hunt, Tehlor isn't sure if she's the predator or prey…]]> 172 Freydís Moon Adri 0 indie-pubbed 3.93 2023
author: Freydís Moon
name: Adri
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2023/08/13
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: indie-pubbed
review:

]]> 213243938 A poignant novel in verse where, after a life-changing accident, one girl finds her way back to her life’s passion. From the Newbery Honor Award-winning author of Iveliz Explains It All.

All these months of staring at the wall?
All these months of feeling weak?
It’s ending��
I’m going back to fencing.
And then it’ll be
like nothing ever happened.

No one knows hard work and dedication like Valentina Camacho. And Vale’s thing is��fencing. She’s the top athlete at her fencing gym. Or she was . . . until the accident.

After months away, Vale is finally cleared to fence again, but it’s much harder than before. Her body doesn’t move the way it used to, and worst of all is the new number Myrka. When she sweeps Vale aside with her perfect form and easy smile, Vale just can’t accept that. But the harder Vale fights to catch up, the more she realizes her injury isn’t the only thing holding her back. If she can’t leave her accident in the past, then what does she have to look forward to?

In this moving novel from the Newbery Honor-winning author of Iveliz Explains It All, one girl finds her way back to her life’s passion and discovers that the sum of a person's achievements doesn’t amount to the whole of them.]]> 272 Andrea Beatriz Arango 0593810929 Adri 5 4.16 2025
author: Andrea Beatriz Arango
name: Adri
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves: childrens-middle-grade, audiobooks, arc, ownvoices, latinx-authors, queer-lit, favorites
review:

]]> 60382741 A sweeping tale of empire and betrayal set among the stars, perfect for readers of Ann Leckie and Arkady Martine,��The Stars Undying is a queer, spectacular space opera debut inspired by the rise and fall of ancient Rome and Egypt—and the lives and loves of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar.

Princess Altagracia has lost everything. After a bloody civil war, her twin sister has claimed both the crown of their planet, Szayet, and the Pearl of its prophecy: a computer that contains the immortal soul of Szayet’s god.

So when the interstellar Empire of Ceiao turns its conquering eye toward Szayet, Gracia sees an opportunity. To regain her planet, Gracia places herself in the hands of the empire and its dangerous commander, Matheus Ceirran.

But winning over Matheus, to say nothing of his mercurial and compelling captain Anita, is no easy feat. And in trying to secure her planet’s sovereignty and future, Gracia will find herself torn between Matheus’s ambitions, Anita’s unpredictable desires, and the demands of the Pearl that whispers in her ear.

For Szayet’s sake and her own, she will need to become more than a princess with a silver tongue. She will have to become a queen as history has never seen before.]]> 518 Emery Robin 0316391395 Adri 0 to-read 3.44 2022
author: Emery Robin
name: Adri
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 56268907
There is one other person in the house—a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.]]> 245 Susanna Clarke 1635577802 Adri 4 favorites <b>4.5 Stars</b> 4.25 2020
author: Susanna Clarke
name: Adri
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/28
date added: 2025/01/30
shelves: favorites
review:
4.5 Stars
]]> 36373421
Through interviews with experts in neuroscience, sociology, and critical race theory, he constructs a deft and thoughtful examination of the role of men in contemporary society. Amateur is a graceful and uncompromising look at gender by a fearless, fiercely honest writer.

Runtime: 3 hours and 38 minutes]]> 205 Thomas Page McBee 1501168746 Adri 5 4.24 2018
author: Thomas Page McBee
name: Adri
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/30
date added: 2025/01/30
shelves: queer-lit, nonfiction, favorites
review:

]]> 53481719 New York Times bestselling author of The Night Circus, a timeless love story set in a secret underground world--a place of pirates, painters, lovers, liars, and ships that sail upon a starless sea.

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

What Zachary finds in this curious place is more than just a buried home for books and their guardians--it is a place of lost cities and seas, lovers who pass notes under doors and across time, and of stories whispered by the dead. Zachary learns of those who have sacrificed much to protect this realm, relinquishing their sight and their tongues to preserve this archive, and also of those who are intent on its destruction. Together with Mirabel, a fierce, pink-haired protector of the place, and Dorian, a handsome, barefoot man with shifting alliances, Zachary travels the twisting tunnels, darkened stairwells, crowded ballrooms, and sweetly soaked shores of this magical world, discovering his purpose--in both the mysterious book and in his own life.]]> 574 Erin Morgenstern 110197138X Adri 2 audiobooks <b>2.5 Stars</b> 4.03 2019
author: Erin Morgenstern
name: Adri
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/29
date added: 2025/01/29
shelves: audiobooks
review:
2.5 Stars
]]> 199534697 A surprising and beautiful meditation on the color blue—and its fascinating role in Black history and culture—from National Book Award winner Imani Perry

Throughout history, the concept of Blackness has been remarkably intertwined with another color: blue. In daily life, it is evoked in countless ways. Blue skies and blue water offer hope for that which lies beyond the current conditions. But blue is also the color of deep melancholy and heartache, echoing Louis Armstrong’s question, “What did I do to be so Black and blue?�� In this book, celebrated author Imani Perry uses the world’s favorite color as a springboard for a riveting emotional, cultural, and spiritual journey—an examination of race and Blackness that transcends politics or ideology.

Perry traces both blue and Blackness from their earliest roots to their many embodiments of contemporary culture, drawing deeply from her own life as well as art and history: The dyed indigo cloths of West Africa that were traded for human life in the 16th century. The mixture of awe and aversion in the old-fashioned characterization of dark-skinned people as “Blue Black.�� The fundamentally American art form of blues music, sitting at the crossroads of pain and pleasure. The blue flowers Perry plants to honor a loved one gone too soon.

Poignant, spellbinding, and utterly original, Black in Blues is a brilliant new work that could only have come from the mind of one of our greatest writers and thinkers. Attuned to the harrowing and the sublime aspects of the human experience, it is every bit as vivid, rich, and striking as blue itself.]]> 256 Imani Perry 0062977393 Adri 0 4.34 2025
author: Imani Perry
name: Adri
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/28
shelves: nonfiction, ownvoices, to-read
review:

]]> 197448742 400 Taylor Tracy 0063326817 Adri 0 4.39 2024
author: Taylor Tracy
name: Adri
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves: to-read, childrens-middle-grade, ownvoices, queer-lit
review:

]]> 10862575
This new edition of Sailor Moon will feature:

- An entirely new, incredibly accurate translation!
- Japanese-style, right-to-left reading!
- New cover art never before seen in the U.S.!
- The original Japanese character names!
- Detailed translation notes!

This version of Sailor Moon will be completely true to original. Join us as Sailor Moon returns to the U.S. for the first time in years!]]> 240 Naoko Takeuchi 1935429744 Adri 3 manga 4.29 2003
author: Naoko Takeuchi
name: Adri
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2003
rating: 3
read at: 2014/09/06
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves: manga
review:

]]> 22341 crumpling noises
coming from inside
the walls.

She is sure there are
wolves living in
the walls
of her house.

But, as everybody says, if the wolves come out of the walls, it's all over.]]> 56 Neil Gaiman 0380810956 Adri 0 4.03 2003
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Adri
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at: 2015/11/12
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves: childrens-middle-grade, audiobooks, required-reading
review:

]]> 17758805
Featuring: Professor Steg (a time-travelling dinosaur), some green globby things, the Queen of the Pirates, the famed jewel that is the Eye of Splod, some wumpires, and a perfectly normal but very important carton of milk.]]> 160 Neil Gaiman 1408841762 Adri 0 childrens-middle-grade 4.16 2013
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Adri
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at: 2013/11/16
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves: childrens-middle-grade
review:

]]> 223923121
For generations, Anchor’s Mercy has welcomed visitors from all over the world to revel in the island’s pristine beauty and queer culture. But something is wrong. Very wrong. And Ollie Veltman is going to have to figure it out if he wants to stop his island, and everyone upon it, from drowning within a supernatural, radiant plague rising from the waves.

Take a deep breath...

Told as a kaleidoscopic drama between past and present, narration and interview, text and pictures, The Dead of Summer is a story within a scavenger hunt for truths so dangerous they will make your skin crawl and your lungs ache for air. Get ready to scream!]]> Ryan La Sala Adri 0 5.00
author: Ryan La Sala
name: Adri
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves: to-read, horror, ownvoices, queer-lit
review:

]]> 219838837 From the author of��There Is a Rio Grande in Heaven, a piercing debut novel following two families in alternative timelines of the Salvadoran civil war—a stunning exploration of the mechanisms of fate, the gravity of the past, and the endurance of love.

“An important voice in U.S. fiction. Ruben Reyes Jr. is a wonder.�� —��Héctor Tobar

Cambridge, 2018.��Ana and Luis’s relationship is on the rocks, despite their many similarities, including their mothers who both fled El Salvador during the war. In her search for answers, and against her best judgement, Ana uses The Defractor, an experimental device that allows users to peek into alternate versions of their lives. What she sees leads her and Luis on a quest through Havana and San Salvador to uncover the family histories they are desperate to know, eager to learn if what might have been could fix what is.

Havana, 1978. The Salvadoran war is brewing, and Neto, a young revolutionary with a knack for forging government papers, meets Rafael at a meeting for the People's Revolutionary Army. The two form an intense and forbidden love, shedding their fake names and revealing themselves to each other inside the covert world of their activism. When their work separates them, they begin to exchange weekly letters, but soon, as the devastating war rages on, forces beyond their control threaten to pull them apart forever.

Ruben Reyes Jr.’s debut novel is an epic, genre-bending journey through inverted worlds—one where war ends with a peace treaty, and one where it ends with a decisive victory by the Salvadoran government. What unfolds is a stunning story of displacement and belonging, of loss and love. It’s both a daring imagining of what might have been and a powerful reckoning of our past.]]> 288 Ruben Reyes Jr. 0063336316 Adri 0 4.21 2025
author: Ruben Reyes Jr.
name: Adri
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves: to-read, latinx-authors, ownvoices
review:

]]> 214152131 An imaginative retelling of the triumphs and sorrows of one of the most controversial and misunderstood women in Mexico’s history and mythology, perfect for fans of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Gods of Jade and Shadow and Zoraida Córdova’s The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina.

A real-life historical figure, the woman known as Malinalli, Malintzin, La Malinche, Doña Marina, and Malinalxochitl was the Nahua interpreter who helped Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés communicate with the native people of Mexico. When indigenous leaders observed her marching into their cities, they believed she was a goddess—blessed with the divine power to interpret the Spaniards�� intentions for their land. Later, historians and pop culture would deem her a traitor—the “Indian�� girl who helped sell Mexico’s future to an invader.

In this riveting, fantastical retelling, Malinalli is all of those things and more, but at heart, she’s a young girl, kidnapped into slavery by age twelve, and fighting to survive the devastation wrought by both the Spanish and Moctezuma’s greed and cruelty. Blessed with magical powers, and supported by a close-knit circle of priestesses, Mali vows to help defend her people’s legacy. In vivid, compelling prose, debut author Veronica Chapa spins an epic tale of magic, sisterhood, survival, and Mexican resilience. This is the first novel to reimagine and reinterpret Malinalli’s story with the empathy, humanity, and awe she’s always deserved.]]> 384 Veronica Chapa 1668009013 Adri 3 3.54 2025
author: Veronica Chapa
name: Adri
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/21
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves: latinx-authors, ownvoices, arc
review:

]]> 199798006
As a young, queer couple who flip houses, Charlie and Eve can’t believe the killer deal they’ve just gotten on an old house in a picturesque neighborhood. As they’re working in the house one day, there’s a knock on the door. A man stands there with his family, claiming to have lived there years before and asking if it would be alright if he showed his kids around. People pleaser to a fault, Eve lets them in.

As soon as the strangers enter their home, inexplicable things start happening, including the family’s youngest child going missing and a ghostly presence materializing in the basement. Even more weird, the family can’t seem to take the hint that their visit should be over. And when Charlie suddenly vanishes, Eve slowly loses her grip on reality. Something is terribly wrong with the house and with the visiting family—or is Eve just imagining things?

This unputdownable and spine-tingling novel “is like quicksand: the further you delve into its pages, the more immobilized you become by a spiral of terror. We Used to Live Here will haunt you even after you have finished it�� (Agustina Bazterrica, author of Tender Is the Flesh).]]> 312 Marcus Kliewer 1982198788 Adri 4 library, queer-lit 3.66 2024
author: Marcus Kliewer
name: Adri
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/19
date added: 2025/01/19
shelves: library, queer-lit
review:

]]> 3720247 104 Coleen Degnan-Veness 1405865156 Adri 5 favorites, classics 3.82 1910
author: Coleen Degnan-Veness
name: Adri
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1910
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/01/19
shelves: favorites, classics
review:

]]> 33230809
'Frances had been picturing her lodgers in purely mercenary terms - as something like two great waddling shillings. But this, she thought, was what it really meant to have paying guests: this odd, unintimate proximity, this rather peeled-back moment, where the only thing between herself and a naked Mrs Barber was a few feet of kitchen and a thin scullery door. An image sprang into her head: that round flesh, crimsoning in the heat.'

It is 1922, and London is tense. Ex-servicemen are disillusioned, the out-of-work and the hungry are demanding change. And in South London, in a genteel Camberwell villa, a large silent house now bereft of brothers, husband and even servants, life is about to be transformed, as impoverished widow Mrs Wray and her spinster daughter, Frances, are obliged to take in lodgers.

For with the arrival of Lilian and Leonard Barber, a modern young couple of the 'clerk class', the routines of the house will be shaken up in unexpected ways. And as passions mount and frustration gathers, no one can foresee just how far-reaching, and how devastating, the disturbances will be.

This is vintage Sarah Waters: beautifully described with excruciating tension, real tenderness, believable characters, and surprises. It is above all a wonderful, compelling story.]]> 576 Sarah Waters 0349004595 Adri 4 audiobooks, queer-lit 3.38 2014
author: Sarah Waters
name: Adri
average rating: 3.38
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/17
date added: 2025/01/17
shelves: audiobooks, queer-lit
review:

]]> 218695937 A novel about one woman’s fight for freedom, set in a near future where even dreams are under surveillance.

Sara has just landed at LAX, returning home from a conference abroad, when agents from the Risk Assessment Administration pull her aside and inform her that she will soon commit a crime. Using data from her dreams, the RAA’s algorithm has determined that she is at imminent risk of harming the person she loves most: her husband. For his safety, she must be kept under observation for twenty-one days.

The agents transfer Sara to a retention center, where she is held with other dreamers, all of them women trying to prove their innocence from different crimes. With every deviation from the strict and ever-shifting rules of the facility, their stay is extended. Months pass and Sara seems no closer to release. Then one day, a new resident arrives, disrupting the order of the facility and leading Sara on a collision course with the very companies that have deprived her of her freedom.

Eerie, urgent, and ceaselessly clear-eyed, The Dream Hotel artfully explores the seductive nature of technology, which puts us in shackles even as it makes our lives easier. Lalami asks how much of ourselves must remain private if we are to remain free, and whether even the most invasive forms of surveillance can ever capture who we really are.]]> 336 Laila Lalami 0593317602 Adri 5 arc, ownvoices, favorites 3.65 2025
author: Laila Lalami
name: Adri
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/15
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: arc, ownvoices, favorites
review:

]]> 26030734
When robot Roz opens her eyes for the first time, she discovers that she is all alone on a remote, wild island. She has no idea how she got there or what her purpose is—but she knows she needs to survive. After battling a violent storm and escaping a vicious bear attack, she realizes that her only hope for survival is to adapt to her surroundings and learn from the island's unwelcoming animal inhabitants.

As Roz slowly befriends the animals, the island starts to feel like home—until, one day, the robot's mysterious past comes back to haunt her.

From bestselling and award-winning author and illustrator Peter Brown comes a heartwarming and action-packed novel about what happens when nature and technology collide.]]> 282 Peter Brown 0316381993 Adri 4 4.19 2016
author: Peter Brown
name: Adri
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/12
date added: 2025/01/12
shelves: audiobooks, childrens-middle-grade
review:

]]> 212924035 In this Latinx adult romance��debut from��National Book Award Finalist��Sonora Reyes, two friends enter into a marriage of convenience to save one from deportation—but everything changes when they unexpectedly fall in love.

Alejandro (Han for short) has never been in love. He purposefully keeps his heart at arm’s length from anyone who might want it, which he lets his family and friends think is due to commitment-phobia paired with a heavy dose of emotional constipation. Now, though, he's coming to learn that it might have more to do with his fear of looking too deeply inward, whether that be his sexuality (he's straight, right?), or the looming anxiety about being undocumented in an increasingly hostile environment.

On the other hand, Han’s roommate and best friend, Kenny, is stuck in a soul-sucking relationship with a woman who wants nothing more than for Kenny to ditch Han and marry her. Kenny can't stand being alone, and has always been afraid of being punished for making the wrong choice, so his girlfriend happily makes most of his decisions for him. But when she forces his hand and makes him choose between their relationship and his best friend, he finally knows without a doubt who the correct choice is.

But things aren’t as easy as they should be with Kenny's ex out of the picture. When Han loses the job that had promised to sponsor his work visa, it leaves the two of them anxious as ever. In order to give his best friend a chance at security (and ok, maybe to make his ex a little jealous), Kenny asks Han to marry him. But neither of them are prepared for the very real feelings pretending to be madly in love stirs up.]]> 384 Sonora Reyes 153876668X Adri 3 3.84 2025
author: Sonora Reyes
name: Adri
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/09
date added: 2025/01/09
shelves: arc, latinx-authors, ownvoices, queer-lit, romance
review:

]]> 211399784 To the world, they were a scandal. To each other, an obsession.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER �� An epic love story set in the sparkling, savage sphere of elite figure skating, starring a woman determined to carve her own path on and off the ice

“P������ Wuthering Heights and part Daisy Jones & The Six, this novel is as brilliantly choreographed as a gold medal performance and will keep you guessing until its last page.”—Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of By Any Other Name

She might not have a famous name, funding, or her family’s support, but Katarina Shaw has always known that she was destined to become an Olympic skater. When she meets Heath Rocha, a lonely kid stuck in the foster care system, their instant connection makes them a formidable duo on the ice. Clinging to skating—and each other—to escape their turbulent lives, Kat and Heath go from childhood sweethearts to champion ice dancers, captivating the world with their scorching chemistry, rebellious style, and roller-coaster relationship.

Until a shocking incident at the Olympic Games brings their partnership to a sudden end.

As the ten-year anniversary of their final skate approaches, an unauthorized documentary reignites the public obsession with Shaw and Rocha, claiming to uncover the “real story�� through interviews with their closest friends and fiercest rivals. Kat wants nothing to do with the documentary, but she can’t stand the thought of someone else defining her legacy. So, after a decade of silence, she’s telling her story: from the childhood tragedies that created her all-consuming bond with Heath to the clash of desires that tore them apart. Sensational rumors have haunted their every step for years, but the truth may be even more shocking than the headlines.]]> 448 Layne Fargo 0593732049 Adri 4 arc, audiobooks 4.17 2025
author: Layne Fargo
name: Adri
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/09
date added: 2025/01/09
shelves: arc, audiobooks
review:

]]> 214151728 With unprecedented access and unsparing analysis, this is the definitive investigation into Spotify, weaving interviews with incisive cultural criticism, and illuminating how streaming has reshaped music for listeners and artists alike.

Flush with testimony from over a hundred industry insiders, former Spotify employees, and musicians, Mood Machine takes us into the inner workings of the highly consolidated modern music business and how it has become personalized, playlisted, autoplayed, and algorithmic.

With an expert’s eye, music journalist Liz Pelly reveals how Spotify’s two-sided marketplace—the listeners who pay with their dollars and data, and the musicians who provide the material powering it all—has changed music media forever. She also explores how musicians and listeners are coming together to fight this era of musical individualism and advocate for artists�� futures.

Amazon Unbound and Weapons of Math Destruction for the music industry, Mood Machine is a timely and unputdownable exploration of a company that has become synonymous with music.]]> 288 Liz Pelly 1668083507 Adri 0 nonfiction, to-read 3.95 2025
author: Liz Pelly
name: Adri
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: nonfiction, to-read
review:

]]> 54785525 William di Canzio's Alec, inspired by Maurice, E. M. Forster's secret novel of a happy same-sex love affair, tells the story of Alec Scudder, the gamekeeper Maurice Hall falls in love with in Forster's classic, published only after the author's death.

Di Canzio follows their story past the end of Maurice to the front lines of battle in World War I and beyond. Forster, who tried to write an epilogue about the future of his characters, was stymied by the radical change that the Great War brought to their world. With the hindsight of a century, di Canzio imagines a future for them and a past for Alec--a young villager possessed of remarkable passion and self-knowledge.

Alec continues Forster's project of telling stories that are part of "a great unrecorded history." Di Canzio's debut novel is a love story of epic proportions, at once classic and boldly new.]]> 340 William di Canzio 0374102600 Adri 0 to-read, queer-lit 4.13 2021
author: William di Canzio
name: Adri
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/06
shelves: to-read, queer-lit
review:

]]> 154462576 New York Times bestselling author of The Bear and the Nightingale

January 1918. Laura Iven was a revered field nurse until she was wounded and discharged from the medical corps, leaving behind a brother still fighting in Flanders. Now home in Halifax, Canada, she receives word of Freddie’s death in combat, along with his personal effects—but something doesn’t make sense. Determined to uncover the truth, Laura returns to Belgium as a volunteer at a private hospital. Soon after arriving, she hears whispers about haunted trenches, and a strange hotelier whose wine gives soldiers the gift of oblivion. Could Freddie have escaped the battlefield, only to fall prey to something—or someone—else?

November 1917. Freddie Iven awakens after an explosion to find himself trapped in an overturned pillbox with a wounded enemy soldier, a German by the name of Hans Winter. Against all odds, the two men form an alliance and succeed in clawing their way out. Unable to bear the thought of returning to the killing fields, especially on opposite sides, they take refuge with a mysterious man who seems to have the power to make the hellscape of the trenches disappear.

As shells rain down on Flanders, and ghosts move among those yet living, Laura’s and Freddie’s deepest traumas are reawakened. Now they must decide whether their world is worth salvaging—or better left behind entirely.]]> 325 Katherine Arden 0593128257 Adri 5 3.96 2024
author: Katherine Arden
name: Adri
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/06
date added: 2025/01/06
shelves: audiobooks, library, queer-lit, favorites
review:

]]> 213847219 HAMMAJANG | adjective. Definition: In a disorderly or chaotic state; messed up. Chiefly in predicative use, esp. in all hammajang. Etymology: A borrowing from Hawaiian Pidgin. Source: Oxford English Dictionary.

Edie is done with crime. Eight years behind bars changes a person - costs them too much time with too many of the people who need them most.

And it's all Angel's fault. She sold Edie out in what should have been the greatest moment of their lives. Instead, Edie was shipped off to the icy prison planet spinning far below the soaring skybridges and neon catacombs of Kepler space station - of home - to spend the best part of a decade alone.

But then a chance for early parole appears out of nowhere and Edie steps into the pallid sunlight to find none other than Angel waiting - and she has an offer.

One last job. One last deal. One last target. The trillionaire tech god they failed to bring down last time. There's just one thing Edie needs to do - trust Angel again - which also happens to be the last thing Edie wants to do. What could possibly go all hammajang about this plan?

Ocean's 8 meets Blade Runner in this trail-blazing debut science fiction novel and swashbuckling love letter to Hawai'i about being forced to find a new home and striving to build a better one - unmissable for fans of Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir and Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo.]]> 368 Makana Yamamoto 0063430827 Adri 4 arc, ownvoices, queer-lit <b>4.25 Stars</b> 3.63 2024
author: Makana Yamamoto
name: Adri
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/05
date added: 2025/01/05
shelves: arc, ownvoices, queer-lit
review:
4.25 Stars
]]> 214438316
Romance is the last thing on Charlie’s mind.

On his first day at Valentine Academy for Boys, Charlie’s carefully crafted plan to hide his identity as the school’s only trans student is set in motion. Only to be immediately destroyed. Charlie has been assigned the worst roommate in the world (possibly the universe): Jasper Grimes, the boy who broke Charlie’s heart the year before he transitioned.

Except, Jasper doesn’t recognize Charlie.

Who knows how long until Jasper realizes the truth? Charlie has one shot at freedom and a dorm room all to himself, but only if he helps Jasper write love letters on behalf of their fellow students first. No problem. Charlie can help Jasper with some silly letters.

Long nights spent discussing deep romantic feelings with Jasper? Surely, no unintended consequences will arise…]]> 320 Page Powars 1250347653 Adri 0 to-read 3.95 2025
author: Page Powars
name: Adri
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 211809097 A candid, horrific, and deeply touching new collection of poems about life in Gaza by an award-winning Palestinian poet.Barely thirty years old, Mosab Abu Toha was already a well-known poet when the current siege of Gaza began. After the Israeli army bombed and destroyed his house, pulverizing a library he had painstakingly built for community use, he and his family fled for their safety. Not for the first time in their lives.����Somehow, amid the chaos, Abu Toha kept writing poems. These are those poems. Uncannily clear, direct, and beautifully tuned, they form one of the most astonishing works of art wrested from wartime. Here are directives for what to do in an air raid; here are lyrics about the poet’s wife, singing to his children to distract them. Huddled in the dark, Toha remembers his grandfather’s oranges, his daughter’s joy in eating them.��Moving between glimpses of life in relative peacetime and absurdist poems about surviving in a barely livable occupation, Forest of Noise invites a wide audience into an experience that defies the imagination—even as it is watched live. Abu��Toha's poems introduce readers to his extended family, some of them no longer with us. This is an urgent, extraordinary, and arrestingly whimsical book. Searing and beautiful, it brings us indelible art in a time of terrible suffering.]]> 96 Mosab Abu Toha 0593803973 Adri 5 ownvoices, poetry 4.73 2024
author: Mosab Abu Toha
name: Adri
average rating: 4.73
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/31
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves: ownvoices, poetry
review:

]]> 205481950 A boisterous collection of surreal, darkly humorous short stories that will delight fans of George Saunders and Alice Munro


From John Elizabeth Stintzi, the mind that created the daringly bizarre novel My Volcano, comes an electrifying collection of strange and dark tales.


In the surreal, often precarious realities of Bad Houses, a doctor discovers a double-edged cure for the Ebola virus, a college student loses a different body part each time they return home for the summer, Midas's hairdresser strives to keep his secrets, and a young girl develops a fascination with the trolls who harvest her father's pumpkin patch. At once humorous and horrifying, these stories will inevitably take residence in your mind.


Present throughout Bad Houses is a deep and abiding sense of humanity sprinkled with a dash of alienation, guilt, and instability. Filtered through a fabulist lens, these stories contemplate the struggles of modern existence. Each character lives their own haunted life, trying to navigate the path from bad houses to good homes.


Featuring Stintzi's own expressive ink illustrations, Bad Houses is a book that feels like it was penned by a trans Alice Munro mixed with a bubblier Franz Kafka. Enter if you dare.


This publication meets the EPUB Accessibility requirements and it also meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG-AA). It is screen-reader friendly and is accessible to persons with disabilities. This book is defined with accessible structural markup. This book contains various accessibility features such as alternative text for images, table of contents, page-list, landmark, reading order and semantic structure.]]> 264 John Elizabeth Stintzi 1551529610 Adri 0 3.92
author: John Elizabeth Stintzi
name: Adri
average rating: 3.92
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves: to-read, queer-lit, indie-pubbed, short-stories-and-novellas
review:

]]> 217005303 A searing novel of love and betrayal as a young boy comes of age in the heart of England, from an exquisite new voice.

In a small village in England, in the shadow of an ancient abbey nestled between rivers, a young boy is growing up. Daniel is highly intelligent but little understood by his family, and so a secret passion burns inside him—for love, for certainty, and for recognition. His father is a man of grand gestures but few practical skills, and his beautiful mother is attentive but compromised by her own unhappiness and fading ideals.����

When Daniel’s father loses his job as the headmaster of the local school, the family is pulled beneath the undertow of his whims, stumbling into a rural life for which they are ill-prepared. The arrival of Philip, a new boy at school, whom Daniel worships with a confused intensity, is his sole solace. Before long, both boys fall under the spell of a charismatic art teacher, setting Daniel on a perilous course that could lead to the betrayal of all he loves. ��

Tender, brutal, and enthralling, The Boyhood of Cain is a remarkable portrait of a young boy caught between mother and father, between self and desire, and between obedience and freedom. It evokes the passions and private wounds of youth and plumbs the turning points in our lives that make us who we are.]]> 208 Michael Amherst 0593718526 Adri 0 to-read 3.42 2025
author: Michael Amherst
name: Adri
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 139400713 A newly sober, orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, guided by the voices of artists, poets, and kings, embarks on a remarkable search for a family secret that leads him to a terminally ill painter living out her final days in the Brooklyn Museum. Electrifying, funny, and wholly original, Martyr! heralds the arrival of an essential new voice in contemporary fiction.

Cyrus Shams is a young man grappling with an inheritance of violence and loss: his mother’s plane was shot down over the skies of the Persian Gulf in a senseless accident; and his father’s life in America was circumscribed by his work killing chickens at a factory farm in the Midwest. Cyrus is a drunk, an addict, and a poet, whose obsession with martyrs leads him to examine the mysteries of his past—toward an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields dressed as the angel of death to inspire and comfort the dying, and toward his mother, through a painting discovered in a Brooklyn art gallery that suggests she may not have been who or what she seemed.

Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! is a paean to how we spend our lives seeking meaning—in faith, art, ourselves, others.]]> 331 Kaveh Akbar 0593537610 Adri 5 4.22 2024
author: Kaveh Akbar
name: Adri
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/29
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves: audiobooks, ownvoices, queer-lit, favorites
review:

]]> 214152087 A noblewoman in the scandalous French court finds herself under the dangerous and watchful eye of the Parisian royalty when she falls in love with the handsome king who is betrothed to her former lover in this bisexual The Three Musketeers by way of Bridgerton and F.T. Lukens.

Paris, 1572. Seventeen-year-old Jacqueline “Jac�� d’Argenson-Aunis is lady-in-waiting to her best friend and former lover, the French Princess Marguerite “Margot�� de Valois, but she dreams of more. If Jac plays her cards right, one day, she’ll become a full member of the Societas Solis, a secret society of spies—just like her uncle and guardian, Viscount Gabriel d’Argenson-Aunis.

But it’s hard to think about her own ambitions while France is on the brink of war, and the only thing that might save the country is an alliance—a marriage between the Catholic Princess Margot and Henry, the awful son of the Huguenot queen. Who would be the perfect person to play matchmaker? Jac, of course.

Jac resents lying to her best friend almost as much as she resents the brazen and arrogant King Henry, but it’s her one chance to prove to the Societas Solis that she belongs among their ranks before her uncle can marry her off or worse. The more time Jac spends in the French Court’s clandestine corners, though, the more she starts to wonder if Henry is…not as terrible as she once believed. And the Societas Solis may not be what they seem.

Politics. Spies. Chaos in the French court. Perhaps even witchcraft? Everything’s more dangerous when love is involved.]]> 464 Erin Cotter 1665960809 Adri 4 arc, ownvoices, queer-lit <b>4.5 Stars</b> 3.71 2025
author: Erin Cotter
name: Adri
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/29
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves: arc, ownvoices, queer-lit
review:
4.5 Stars
]]> 211004018 From the New York Times bestselling author of Red Rabbit comes a supernatural horror where ghosts and ghouls are the least of a witch’s problems in historical New England.

Something wicked is going on in the village of Ascension. A mother wasting away from cancer is suddenly up and about. A boy trampled by a milk cart walks away from the accident. A hanged man can still speak, broken neck and all.

The dead are not dying.

When Rabbit and Sadie Grace accompany their friend Rose to Ascension to help take care of her ailing cousin, they immediately notice that their new house, Bethany Hall, is occupied by dozens of ghosts. And something is waiting for them in the attic.

The villagers of Ascension are unwelcoming and wary of their weird visitors. As the three women attempt to find out what’s happening in the town, they must be careful not to be found out. But a much larger―and more dangerous―force is galloping straight for them…]]> 352 Alex Grecian 1250874718 Adri 0 horror, to-read 3.96 2025
author: Alex Grecian
name: Adri
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: horror, to-read
review:

]]> 61336848 It's the golden rule of pretending to be someone's girlfriend: don't fall for their sister.

After a year from hell, Haf is ready to blow off steam at a Christmas party: a kind stranger, a few too many drinks and suddenly she's kissing Christopher under the mistletoe - in front of his ex-girlfriend.

The next day the news is out that they're apparently a couple, madly in love and coming to Oxlea to spend the festive season with Christopher's family. But Haf doesn't have better holiday plans and to save her new friend from embarrassment, she agrees to pretend to be Christopher's girlfriend for Christmas.

It has the makings of a hilarious anecdote they'll be telling for years. Until Haf meets Christopher's sister: the mysterious, magnetic and utterly irresistible Kit. Maybe love was waiting for Haf in this quiet little town all along . . .]]> 354 Lizzie Huxley-Jones Adri 0 to-read, queer-lit, romance 3.99 2022
author: Lizzie Huxley-Jones
name: Adri
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: to-read, queer-lit, romance
review:

]]> 130222513
It's 25 days until Christmas . . .

And 10-year-old Harper gets a surprise when Mum announces she's bringing her new boyfriend Nick home for the holidays!

Nick s eems nice enough. But why do strange Christmassy things happen whenever he's around? Like snow falling only in the family's garden? Or a reindeer suddenly appearing on the roof?!

Harper's convinced that Nick must be Father Christmas! And if her mum and older brother won't believe her, she'll just have to find a way to prove it herself . . .

A Festive Countdown Story in 25 Chapters]]> 226 L.D. Lapinski 1510112685 Adri 5 childrens-middle-grade 4.31 2023
author: L.D. Lapinski
name: Adri
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/25
date added: 2024/12/25
shelves: childrens-middle-grade
review:

]]> 58416952 At the elite Catenan Academy, a young fugitive uncovers layered mysteries and world-changing secrets in this new fantasy series by internationally bestselling author of The Licanius Trilogy, James Islington.

AUDI. VIDE. TACE.

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

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

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

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

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

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

And if the Hierarchy finds out who I truly am, they will kill me.]]> 639 James Islington 1982141190 Adri 4 audiobooks 4.60 2023
author: James Islington
name: Adri
average rating: 4.60
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/24
date added: 2024/12/24
shelves: audiobooks
review:

]]> 199373500 An extraordinary debut novel in which the transforming love and friendship between two young men during one unforgettable teenage summer in rural New England haunts them into adulthood

It took three car crashes to kill Jake.

Theron David Alden is there for the first two: the summer they meet in rural New Hampshire, when he’s fifteen and anxious, and Jake’s seventeen and a natural; then six years later in New York City, those too-short, ecstatic, painful nights that change both their lives forever—the end of the dream and the longing for the dream and the dream itself, all at once.

Theron is not there for the third crash.

And yet, their story contains so much joy and the glorious, stupid simplicity of a boyhood joke; the devastation of insecurity; the way a great song can distill a universe; the limits of what we can know about each other; the mysterious, porous, ungraspable fault line between yourself and the person you love better than yourself; the beautiful, toxic elixir of need and hope and want.]]> 320 August Thompson 0593656563 Adri 0 to-read, queer-lit 4.02 2024
author: August Thompson
name: Adri
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/24
shelves: to-read, queer-lit
review:

]]> 53317468 An engrossing, incantatory novel about the legacy of historical crimes by the author of Space Invaders

It is 1984 in Chile, in the middle of the Pinochet dictatorship. A member of the secret police walks into the office of a dissident magazine and finds a reporter, who records his testimony. The narrator of Nona Fernández’s mesmerizing and terrifying novel The Twilight Zone is a child when she first sees this man’s face on the magazine’s cover with the words “I Tortured People.�� His complicity in the worst crimes of the regime and his commitment to speaking about them haunt the narrator into her adulthood and career as a writer and documentarian. Like a secret service agent from the future, through extraordinary feats of the imagination, Fernández follows the “man who tortured people�� to places that archives can’t reach, into the sinister twilight zone of history where morning routines, a game of chess, Yuri Gagarin, and the eponymous TV show of the novel’s title coexist with the brutal yet commonplace machinations of the regime.

How do crimes vanish in plain sight? How does one resist a repressive regime? And who gets to shape the truths we live by and take for granted? The Twilight Zone pulls us into the dark portals of the past, reminding us that the work of the writer in the face of historical erasure is to imagine so deeply that these absences can be, for a time, spectacularly illuminated.]]> 232 Nona Fernández 164445047X Adri 0 4.07 2016
author: Nona Fernández
name: Adri
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/23
shelves: to-read, latinx-authors, ownvoices
review:

]]> 49247242 In America, demons wear white hoods.

In 1915, The Birth of a Nation cast a spell across America, swelling the Klan's ranks and drinking deep from the darkest thoughts of white folk. All across the nation they ride, spreading fear and violence among the vulnerable. They plan to bring Hell to Earth. But even Ku Kluxes can die.

Standing in their way is Maryse Boudreaux and her fellow resistance fighters, a foul-mouthed sharpshooter and a Harlem Hellfighter. Armed with blade, bullet, and bomb, they hunt their hunters and send the Klan's demons straight to Hell. But something awful's brewing in Macon, and the war on Hell is about to heat up.

Can Maryse stop the Klan before it ends the world?]]> 185 P. Djèlí Clark 1250767024 Adri 5 3.96 2020
author: P. Djèlí Clark
name: Adri
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/22
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves: audiobooks, horror, library, ownvoices, short-stories-and-novellas, favorites
review:

]]> 111673641 A trans boy searches for a future―and a romance―in which he can live and love openly as himself in this heartrending young-adult reimagining of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, part of the Remixed Classics series.

London, 1812 . Oliver Bennet feels trapped—not just by the endless corsets, petticoats, and skirts he's forced to wear on a daily basis, but also by society's expectations. The world, and the vast majority of his family and friends, think Oliver is a girl named Elizabeth. He is therefore expected to mingle at balls wearing a pretty dress, entertain suitors regardless of his interest in them, and ultimately become someone's wife.

But Oliver can't bear the thought of such a fate. He finds solace in the few times he can sneak out of his family's home and explore the city rightfully dressed as a young gentleman. It's during one such excursion when Oliver becomes acquainted with Darcy, a sulky young man who had been rude to "Elizabeth" at a recent social function. But in the comfort of being out of the public eye, Oliver comes to find that Darcy is actually a sweet, intelligent boy with a warm heart, not to mention attractive.

As Oliver spends more time as his true self, often with Darcy, part of him dares to hope that his dream of love and life as a man can be possible. But suitors are growing bolder―and even threatening―and his mother is growing more desperate to see him settled into an engagement. Oliver will have to choose: settle for safety, security, and a life of pretending to be something he's not, or risk it all for a slim chance at freedom, love, and a life that can be truly his own.]]> 304 Gabe Cole Novoa 1250869803 Adri 3 <b>3.5 Stars</b> 3.96 2024
author: Gabe Cole Novoa
name: Adri
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/20
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves: audiobooks, ownvoices, queer-lit, romance, latinx-authors
review:
3.5 Stars
]]> 195791305
“What would you do, given another universe, a do-over?��

Since humanity discovered the existence of pocket worlds, academics have embarked on exploratory missions as agents for the Institute for the Scientific and Humanistic Study of Portal Worlds to study this new technology and harness the potential of a seemingly limitless horizon.

Archeologist Raquel and her biologist wife Marlena once dreamed the pocket worlds held the key to solving the universe’s mysteries. Now, forty years in the future, Raquel is a disgraced ex-agent, pocket worlds are controlled by corporations squeezing every penny out of all colonizable space and time, and Marlena now lives in a pocket universe Raquel wears around her neck in which time passes faster than on Earth, and no longer speaks to her.

Standing in the ruins of her dream and her calling, Raquel seizes one last chance to redeem herself, to her wife and her own failed ideals and confront what it means to save something―or someone―from time.]]> 208 Brenda Peynado 1250854318 Adri 4 <b>4.5 Stars</b> 3.54 2024
author: Brenda Peynado
name: Adri
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/21
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves: favorites, latinx-authors, short-stories-and-novellas
review:
4.5 Stars
]]> 204254235 The Shape of Water meets Mexican Gothic in this sapphic monster romance novella wrapped in gothic fantasy trappings

The old keeper of the keys is dead, and the creature who ate her is the volatile Lady of the Capricious House⁠―Anatema, an enormous humanoid spider with a taste for laudanum and human brides.

Dália, the old keeper’s protégée, must take up her duties, locking and unlocking the little drawers in which Anatema keeps her memories. And if she can unravel the crime that led to her predecessor's death, Dália might just be able to survive long enough to grow into her new role.

But there’s a gaping hole in Dália’s plan that she refuses to see: Anatema cannot resist a beautiful woman, and she eventually devours every single bride that crosses her path.]]> 112 Hache Pueyo 1250910536 Adri 3 3.97 2022
author: Hache Pueyo
name: Adri
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/20
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves: arc, latinx-authors, ownvoices, queer-lit, short-stories-and-novellas, horror
review:

]]> 61484875 In this graphic novel by Emily Carroll, a young woman marries a kind dentist only to discover a dark mystery surrounding his former wife’s death.

After many lonely years, Abby’s just gotten married. She met her new husband―a recently widowed dentist―when he arrived in town with his young daughter seeking a new start. Although it’s strange living in the shadow of her predecessor, Abby does her best to be a good wife and mother. But the more she learns about her new husband’s first wife, the more things don’t add up, and Abby starts to wonder...was Sheila’s death really by natural causes?

As Abby sinks deeper into confusion, Sheila’s memory seems to become a force all its own, ensnaring Abby in a mystery that leaves her obsessed, fascinated, and desperately in love for the first time in her life.]]> 256 Emily Carroll 125025552X Adri 4 <b>4.5 Stars</b> 4.06 2023
author: Emily Carroll
name: Adri
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/19
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves: comics-and-graphic-novels, ownvoices, queer-lit, horror
review:
4.5 Stars
]]> 199795387 Award-winning writer Kevin Barry’s first novel set in America, a savagely funny and achingly romantic tale of young lovers on the lam in 1890s Montana.

October 1891. A hard winter approaches across the Rocky Mountains. The city of Butte, Montana is rich on copper mines and rampant with vice and debauchery among a hard-living crowd of immigrant Irish workers. Here we find Tom Rourke, a young poet and ballad-maker of the town, but also a doper, a drinker, and a fearsome degenerate. Just as he feels his life is heading nowhere fast, Polly Gillespie arrives in town as the new bride of the extremely devout mine captain Long Anthony Harrington. A thunderbolt love affair takes spark between Tom and Polly and they strike out west on a stolen horse, moving through the badlands of Montana and Idaho, and briefly an idyll of wild romance perfects itself. But a posse of deranged Cornish gunmen are soon in hot pursuit and closing in fast. With everything to lose and the safety and anonymity of San Francisco still a distant speck on their horizon, the choices they make will haunt them for the rest of their lives.

In this love story for the ages—lyrical, profane and propulsive—Kevin Barry has once again demonstrated himself to be a master stylist, an unrivalled humourist, and a true poet of the human heart.]]> 256 Kevin Barry 0385550596 Adri 0 to-read 3.79 2024
author: Kevin Barry
name: Adri
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 211003713 Sometimes fake dating your ex can turn into a second chance.

When Denzel “Denz�� Carter’s workaholic father and CEO of 24 Carter Gold unexpectedly announces his retirement, the competition is on for who will become his successor. To convince his judgmental family members that Denz is capable of commitment he impulsively lies about being in a serious relationship. Problem is the last serious relationship he was in hung him high and dry after leaving the continent.

Now Denz needs to find a fake boyfriend to bring to family functions and seal the deal on the CEO position. To do so he enlists the help of his best friend and roommate, Jamie. Someone his family already accepts in their inner circle. But when his BFF is a no-show, Denz is forced to turn to the last person he wants to be in a pretend (or any) relationship Braylon, the man who broke his heart.

Braylon’s sudden reappearance in Denz’s life turns everything upside down. But apparently, he needs Denz’s connections to the mayor to win his own promotion and Denz is currently up a creek without a paddle. So, they strike a deal. It’s all business, but between the funny texts and the confusing kisses soon enough Denz is struggling to separate business from the affairs of his heart.

In Julian Winters's I think They Love You, sometimes fake dating your way to success can mean finding the second chance at love you've needed all along.]]> 336 Julian Winters 1250326249 Adri 4 <b>4.5 Stars</b> 3.95 2025
author: Julian Winters
name: Adri
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/19
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: arc, ownvoices, queer-lit, romance
review:
4.5 Stars
]]> 219147513 New York Times-bestselling author Aiden Thomas returns to the beloved world of Cemetery Boys in Espiritu, this time following Julian, who is dealing with newfound powers, a new relationship with Yadriel, and the return of demons he had hoped were gone forever!

Julian used to be a ghost and now he can’t stop seeing them.

Ever since being sacrificed as part of a forbidden ritual, Julian has been able to see and communicate with the spirits of passed brujx. And that would be okay, if it allowed him to be part of his new boyfriend's community. But Julian’s also seeing other things: shadows in the corner of his eyes, glowing eyes in the dark, and “dark spots�� on people �� gaping, black gashes that are somehow wrong. He did ask his new magical boyfriend about it, but Yadriel has never heard of anything like it either, and he’s so busy with his new Brujx responsibilities, trying to figure out where all the new malingos are coming from, that Julian hates for his problems to ruin what little time together they have.

Then, a strange new brujx shows up. Ángel, as a nonbinary brujx, can heal the living and release the dead, but more than that, they can also see the same dark spots as Julian. Despite Yadriel’s reservations, Julian eagerly accepts their help. But, Ángel’s ruthless methods feel wrong to Julian, who wants to move away from hurting others.

With the shadows growing darker, and the discovery of a gaping dark spot on his friend Luca, Julian has to decide who he wants to put his trust in, and just how far he’s willing to go to save what is his.]]> 368 Aiden Thomas 1250894948 Adri 0 4.69 2026
author: Aiden Thomas
name: Adri
average rating: 4.69
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: to-read, latinx-authors, ownvoices, queer-lit
review:

]]> 217112034 From bestselling and award-winning author Kacen Callendar comes a thrilling, dark academia YA about murder, blackmail, and the one person determined to discover the truth, no matter the cost

What happened to Arianna Reynolds?��
��
Ari’s death was ruled an accident, but for her best friend Milo, it’s shrouded in mystery. Why was she in the woods on the night of the fire? Had she been alone? Figuring out what happened the night Ari died is the only reason Milo returns to Yates Academy, even knowing he’ll be in constant danger. . .
��
Liam is the King of Yates, a role he keeps hold of through his family’s old money—and the threat of violence. So when he begins receiving ominous letters from another student accusing him of murdering Ari, the suspect list is long. Desperate to prove his innocence before the accusation ruins his reign, Liam enlists Milo’s help to find the blackmailer. But the more Milo helps Liam, the more he becomes certain that Liam has something to hide.
��
As Milo comes closer to the truth, he uncovers secrets that��everyone��wants to keep buried . . . Featuring a cast of queer characters of color, We Are Villains��is an electrifying mystery that will keep readers guessing.]]> 288 Kacen Callender 1419756893 Adri 0 to-read, ownvoices, queer-lit 3.37
author: Kacen Callender
name: Adri
average rating: 3.37
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: to-read, ownvoices, queer-lit
review:

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Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.

Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.

And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.]]> 304 Silvia Moreno-Garcia Adri 4 4.5 Stars

CWs: Mild body horror related to rashes, mushrooms, bees, and pustules; instances of physical assault, sexual assault, and attempted rape; instances of gaslighting and manipulation, both physical and emotional; some descriptions of childbirth; incurred notions of racial supremacy; sexism; allusions to the abuse and murder of indigenous peoples; allusions to cannibalism, infanticide, and incest; as well as graphic violence.]]> 3.76 2020
author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
name: Adri
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2020/09/30
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: latinx-authors, ownvoices, favorites, horror
review:
4.5 Stars

CWs: Mild body horror related to rashes, mushrooms, bees, and pustules; instances of physical assault, sexual assault, and attempted rape; instances of gaslighting and manipulation, both physical and emotional; some descriptions of childbirth; incurred notions of racial supremacy; sexism; allusions to the abuse and murder of indigenous peoples; allusions to cannibalism, infanticide, and incest; as well as graphic violence.
]]> 221228051 Bestselling and award-winning author Mason Deaver’s adult romance debut follows a journalist in a dead-end job who agrees to teach his disastrous blind date how to be a better boyfriend. Readers will delight in this sweet and steamy queer romance with trans representation!

Eli Francis is stuck. Stuck in an assistant position at��the online magazine Vent��when he should be a writer. Stuck with a boss who dangles a promotion but would rather he just fetch the coffee. Stuck working alongside the ex who has had no trouble moving up at work…or moving on.

When Eli’s roommates push him to date so he can get over his ex once and for all, they set him up with Peter Park. Tall, handsome, and unbelievably awkward. The date is a complete disaster, and further proof to Eli that love isn’t for him. But when his boss overhears Eli recounting the catastrophic night, he suggests teaching Peter to be a better boyfriend through a series of simulated dates so he can write an article about it.

But Eli has other ideas…Eli plays along, pretending to write the article, while secretly interviewing Peter about growing up queer in the South and coming-of-age dating wise in adulthood. Eli hopes writing this sort of piece will��finally get him the promotion he deserves. And in exchange, he will teach Peter how to be a better boyfriend.

But the more time Eli spends with Peter, the closer they become, and the lines between what’s real and what’s fake begin to blur. Before long Eli is forced to face his greatest fears to become the writer he wants to be and secure the love he’s always needed.��]]> 384 Mason Deaver 0063394308 Adri 5 arc, favorites 4.13 2025
author: Mason Deaver
name: Adri
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/17
date added: 2024/12/17
shelves: arc, favorites
review:

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A house is a precious thing...

It is 1961 and the rural Dutch province of Overijssel is quiet. Bomb craters have been filled, buildings reconstructed, and the war is truly over. Living alone in her late mother’s country home, Isabel knows her life is as it should be—led by routine and discipline. But all is upended when her brother Louis brings his graceless new girlfriend Eva, leaving her at Isabel’s doorstep as a guest, to stay for the season.

Eva is Isabel’s antithesis: she sleeps late, walks loudly through the house, and touches things she shouldn’t. In response, Isabel develops a fury-fueled obsession, and when things start disappearing around the house—a spoon, a knife, a bowl—Isabel’s suspicions begin to spiral. In the sweltering peak of summer, Isabel’s paranoia gives way to infatuation—leading to a discovery that unravels all Isabel has ever known. The war might not be well and truly over after all, and neither Eva—nor the house in which they live—are what they seem.

Mysterious, sophisticated, sensual, and infused with intrigue, atmosphere, and sex, The Safekeep is a brilliantly plotted and provocative debut novel you won’t soon forget.]]> 272 Yael van der Wouden 1668034344 Adri 4 queer-lit, library <b>4.5 Stars</b> 4.05 2024
author: Yael van der Wouden
name: Adri
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/16
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves: queer-lit, library
review:
4.5 Stars
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Eleanor has always wanted to do everything "right," including falling in love—but she’s never met a boy she was interested in. She’d much rather spend time with her best friend, George, and beloved cousin Charlotte. However, when a new suitor comes to town, she finds her closest friendships threatened, forcing her to rethink what "right" means and confront feelings she never knew she had.

Inspired by Jane Austen and queer history, I Shall Never Fall in Love shines a light on what it means to be true to yourself and rewrites the rules for what makes a happily ever after.]]> 288 Hari Conner 035868238X Adri 4 <b>4.5 Stars</b> 4.29 2024
author: Hari Conner
name: Adri
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/15
date added: 2024/12/15
shelves: comics-and-graphic-novels, queer-lit
review:
4.5 Stars
]]> 211491120 A Memory Called Empire meets Miss Marple in this cozy, spaceborne mystery, helmed by a no-nonsense formidable auntie of a detective.

Welcome to the HMS Fairweather, Her Majesty’s most luxurious interstellar passenger liner! Room and board are included, new bodies are graciously provided upon request, and should you desire a rest between lifetimes, your mind shall be most carefully preserved in glass in the Library, shielded from every danger.

Near the topmost deck of an interstellar generation ship, Dorothy Gentleman wakes up in a body that isn’t hers—just as someone else is found murdered. As one of the ship’s detectives, Dorothy usually delights in unraveling the schemes on board the Fairweather, but when she finds that someone is not only killing bodies but purposefully deleting minds from the Library, she realizes something even more sinister is afoot.

Dorothy suspects her misfortune is partly the fault of her feckless nephew Ruthie who, despite his brilliance as a programmer, leaves chaos in his cheerful wake. Or perhaps the sultry yarn store proprietor—and ex-girlfriend of the body Dorothy is currently inhabiting—knows more than she’s letting on. Whatever it is, Dorothy intends to solve this case. Because someone has done the impossible and found a way to make murder on the Fairweather a very permanent state indeed. A mastermind may be at work—and if so, they’ve had three hundred years to perfect their schemes…]]> 112 Olivia Waite 1250342252 Adri 4 <b>4.5 Stars</b> 3.90 2025
author: Olivia Waite
name: Adri
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/15
date added: 2024/12/15
shelves: arc, queer-lit, short-stories-and-novellas
review:
4.5 Stars
]]> 60290692 A fledgling vampire and a headstrong vampire huntress must work together--against their better judgment—to rid the world of monsters in this irresistible romantic fantasy.

Carolina Fuentes has always wanted to join her family in hunting down the bloodthirsty monsters that plague her pueblo. But these days, her father wants her out of town with a husband of his choosing. That’s not happening. Carolina plans to show everyone that she’d make a better vampire slayer than wife. But when she runs into a sediento that is not only handsome but kind, she questions everything.

Lalo Villalobos doesn’t act on impulses. As the eldest of two, his duties were to carry on the family business, marry, and have children. But then he is turned into a sediento and must flee the city, taking lives as he goes north, where he believes the first vampire was made. Surely, the pueblo there will have the answers to reverse this curse or end sedientos altogether. Another unexpected turn? Lalo runs right into a beautiful young woman who’d gladly stake him.

Fortunately, mostly for him, they share a common enemy. They can stop these evil beasts. Together. And if along the way, Lalo and Fernanda discover what it is to truly live and love, then they’ll have won anyway.]]> 432 Angela Montoya 0593643372 Adri 4 3.85 2024
author: Angela Montoya
name: Adri
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/14
date added: 2024/12/14
shelves: latinx-authors, ownvoices, arc
review:

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When Rowan Jacobsen first heard of a chocolate bar made entirely from wild Bolivian cacao, he was skeptical. The waxy mass-market chocolate of his childhood had left him indifferent to it, and most experts believed wild cacao had disappeared from the rainforest centuries ago. But one dazzling bite of Cru Sauvage was all it took. Chasing chocolate down the supply chain and back through history, Jacobsen travels the rainforests of the Amazon and Central America to find the chocolate makers, activists, and indigenous leaders who are bucking the system that long ago abandoned wild and heirloom cacao in favor of high-yield, low-flavor varietals preferred by Big Chocolate.

What he found was a cacao renaissance. As his guides pulled the last vestiges of ancient cacao back from the edge of extinction, they'd forged an alternative system in the process-one that is bringing prosperity back to local economies, returning fertility to the land, and protecting it from the rampages of cattle farming. All the while, a new generation of bean-to-bar chocolate makers are racing to get their
hands on these rare varietals and produce extraordinary chocolate displaying a diversity of flavors no one had thought possible. Full of vivid characters, vibrant landscapes, and surprising history, Wild Chocolate promises to be as rich, complex, and addictive as good chocolate itself.]]> 288 Rowan Jacobsen 1639733574 Adri 0 nonfiction, to-read 4.30
author: Rowan Jacobsen
name: Adri
average rating: 4.30
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/14
shelves: nonfiction, to-read
review:

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