Laura's bookshelf: all en-US Sat, 26 Apr 2025 20:17:43 -0700 60 Laura's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Isola 212806636 A young woman and her lover are marooned on an island in this epic saga of love, faith, and defiance from the bestselling author of Sam.

Heir to a fortune, Marguerite is destined for a life of prosperity and gentility. Then she is orphaned, and her guardian—an enigmatic and volatile man—spends her inheritance and insists she accompany him on an expedition to New France. Isolated and afraid, Marguerite befriends her guardian’s servant and the two develop an intense attraction. But when their relationship is discovered, they are brutally punished and abandoned on a small island with no hope for rescue.

Once a child of privilege who dressed in gowns and laced pearls in her hair, Marguerite finds herself at the mercy of nature. As the weather turns, blanketing the island in ice, she discovers a faith she’d never before needed.

Inspired by the real life of a sixteenth-century heroine, Isola is the timeless story of a woman fighting for survival.]]> 368 Allegra Goodman 0593730089 Laura 5 4.00 2025 Isola
author: Allegra Goodman
name: Laura
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/26
date added: 2025/04/26
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]]> The Teacher's Lie 222059584
It’s been two years since Anna Cartwright’s life fell apart. During her first school trip as a young teacher, a student went missing and was never found. Not only was her career ruined, she was also accused of having an affair with fellow teacher and prime suspect Graham. Facing questions from journalists, police and family, Anna said she didn’t know what happened. She was lying.

Now, Anna has returned to Australia. Her only hope is Land’s End Area School, an isolated concrete wasteland perched on the cliffs. The failing institution is so understaffed that it is the one place her history might remain hidden. But while the eccentric Headmistress seems welcoming, deputy-head Miss Baxter seems determined to expose her secrets.

With new lies spinning out of control, how long can Anna keep her secret hidden? And is she being haunted by her guilt or by something far more sinister?]]> Brid Cummings Laura 5 2.72 The Teacher's Lie
author: Brid Cummings
name: Laura
average rating: 2.72
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/26
date added: 2025/03/26
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]]> <![CDATA[Encyclopedia of Counseling: Master Review and Tutorial for the National Counselor Examination, State Counseling Exams, and the Counselor Preparation Comprehensive Examination]]> 35010273 760 Howard Rosenthal Laura 5 4.36 Encyclopedia of Counseling: Master Review and Tutorial for the National Counselor Examination, State Counseling Exams, and the Counselor Preparation Comprehensive Examination
author: Howard Rosenthal
name: Laura
average rating: 4.36
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/16
date added: 2025/03/16
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]]> <![CDATA[Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, #1)]]> 61431922 Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders...

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile� humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die]]> 528 Rebecca Yarros 1649374046 Laura 5 4.56 2023 Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, #1)
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: Laura
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/05
date added: 2025/03/05
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]]> The Crucible 17250
Written in 1953, The Crucible is a mirror Miller uses to reflect the anti-communist hysteria inspired by Senator Joseph McCarthy's "witch-hunts" in the United States. Within the text itself, Miller contemplates the parallels, writing, "Political opposition... is given an inhumane overlay, which then justifies the abrogation of all normally applied customs of civilized behavior. A political policy is equated with moral right, and opposition to it with diabolical malevolence."

WIth an introduction by Christopher Bigsby.
(back cover)]]> 143 Arthur Miller 0142437336 Laura 0 to-read 3.60 1953 The Crucible
author: Arthur Miller
name: Laura
average rating: 3.60
book published: 1953
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/09
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]]> The Robe 219919 528 Lloyd C. Douglas 0395957753 Laura 0 to-read 4.21 1942 The Robe
author: Lloyd C. Douglas
name: Laura
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1942
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/09
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]]> <![CDATA[A Thousand Pounds: Finding the Strength to Live and Love Under the Weight of Unbearable Loss]]> 61383885
With raw authenticity, Brianne Edwards shares her story of the loss of her son and gives readers a powerful encounter with the heart of a bereaved mother--yet this book is much more than a memoir. Masterfully combining story and research, Edwards accompanies readers through the painful wilderness of their own grief journey. Both academic and anecdotal, each chapter addresses the hard questions faced in grief, including:

how we find meaning in our sorrow
the value of leaning into the hard emotions
the wild emotions of early traumatic grief, the transitions of middle grief, and learning to carry the long-term grief that always remains
learning to forgive those who disappoint us as we grieve
the physical symptoms of grief
finding connection and companionship in our grief
wrestling with God because of our loss]]> 232 Brianne Edwards 1732763534 Laura 0 currently-reading 4.73 A Thousand Pounds: Finding the Strength to Live and Love Under the Weight of Unbearable Loss
author: Brianne Edwards
name: Laura
average rating: 4.73
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> Good Grief 21339038 66 Granger E. Westberg Laura 3 4.06 1962 Good Grief
author: Granger E. Westberg
name: Laura
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1962
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/02
date added: 2025/02/02
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]]> Between Shades of Gray 7824322
Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously—and at great risk—documenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father's prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through incredible strength, love, and hope that Lina ultimately survives. Between Shades of Gray is a novel that will steal your breath and capture your heart.]]> 344 Ruta Sepetys 0399254129 Laura 0 to-read 4.36 2011 Between Shades of Gray
author: Ruta Sepetys
name: Laura
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Fountains of Silence 43220998 A portrait of love, silence, and secrets under a Spanish dictatorship.

� Madrid, 1957 �

Under the oppressive dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, Spain is hiding a dark secret. Meanwhile, tourists and foreign businessmen flood into Spain under the welcoming promise of sunshine and wine. Among them is eighteen-year-old Daniel Matheson, the son of an oil tycoon, who arrives in Madrid with his parents hoping to connect with the country of his mother's birth through the lens of his camera. Photography—and fate—introduce him to Ana, whose family's interweaving obstacles reveal the lingering grasp of the Spanish Civil War, as well as chilling definitions of fortune and fear. Daniel's photographs leave him with uncomfortable questions amidst shadows of danger. He is backed into a corner of difficult decisions to protect those he loves. Lives and hearts collide, revealing an incredibly dark side to the sunny Spanish city.

Master storyteller Ruta Sepetys once again shines light into one of history's darkest corners in this epic, heart-wrenching novel about identity, unforgettable love, repercussions of war, and the hidden violence of silence—inspired by the true postwar struggles of Spain.

Includes vintage media reports, oral history commentary, photos, and more.]]> 495 Ruta Sepetys 0399160310 Laura 5 4.30 2019 The Fountains of Silence
author: Ruta Sepetys
name: Laura
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/02/01
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]]> <![CDATA[Our Last Days in Barcelona (The Perez Family, #5)]]> 58867862
Barcelona, 1964. Exiled from Cuba after the revolution, Isabel Perez has learned to guard her heart and protect her family at all costs. After Isabel’s sister Beatriz disappears in Barcelona, Isabel goes to Spain in search of her. Joining forces with an unlikely ally thrusts Isabel into her sister’s dangerous world of espionage, but it’s an unearthed piece of family history that transforms Isabel’s life.

Barcelona, 1936. Alicia Perez arrives in Barcelona after a difficult voyage from Cuba, her marriage in jeopardy and her young daughter Isabel in tow. Violence brews in Spain, the country on the brink of civil war, the rise of fascism threatening the world. When Cubans journey to Spain to join the International Brigades, Alicia’s past comes back to haunt her as she is unexpectedly reunited with the man who once held her heart.

Alicia and Isabel’s lives intertwine, and the past and present collide, as a mother and daughter are forced to choose between their family’s expectations and following their hearts.]]> 320 Chanel Cleeton 0593197828 Laura 0 to-read 4.07 2022 Our Last Days in Barcelona (The Perez Family, #5)
author: Chanel Cleeton
name: Laura
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/27
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Last Train to Key West (The Perez Family, #3)]]> 52777855 In 1935 three women are forever changed when one of the most powerful hurricanes in history barrels toward the Florida Keys.

For the tourists traveling on Henry Flagler's legendary Overseas Railroad, Labor Day weekend is an opportunity to forget the economic depression gripping the nation. But one person's paradise can be another's prison, and Key West-native Helen Berner yearns to escape.

After the Cuban Revolution of 1933 leaves Mirta Perez's family in a precarious position, she agrees to an arranged marriage with a notorious American. Following her wedding in Havana, Mirta arrives in the Keys on her honeymoon. While she can't deny the growing attraction to her new husband, his illicit business interests may threaten not only her relationship, but her life.

Elizabeth Preston's trip to Key West is a chance to save her once-wealthy family from their troubles after the Wall Street crash. Her quest takes her to the camps occupied by veterans of the Great War and pairs her with an unlikely ally on a treacherous hunt of his own.

Over the course of the holiday weekend, the women's paths cross unexpectedly, and the danger swirling around them is matched only by the terrifying force of the deadly storm threatening the Keys.]]> 314 Chanel Cleeton 0451490894 Laura 0 to-read 4.10 2020 The Last Train to Key West (The Perez Family, #3)
author: Chanel Cleeton
name: Laura
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/27
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]]> <![CDATA[Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep]]> 54405228 ECPA Christian Book of the Year
Christianity Today Book of the Year
Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award Finalist
IVP Readers' Choice Award

How can we trust God in the dark?

Framed around a nighttime prayer of Compline, Tish Harrison Warren, author of Liturgy of the Ordinary, explores themes of human vulnerability, suffering, and God's seeming absence. When she navigated a time of doubt and loss, the prayer was grounding for her. She writes that practices of prayer gave words to my anxiety and grief and allowed me to reencounter the doctrines of the church not as tidy little antidotes for pain, but as a light in darkness, as good news.

Where do we find comfort when we lie awake worrying or weeping in the night? This book offers a prayerful and frank approach to the difficulties in our ordinary lives at work, at home, and in a world filled with uncertainty.]]> 208 Tish Harrison Warren 0830846794 Laura 5 4.63 2021 Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep
author: Tish Harrison Warren
name: Laura
average rating: 4.63
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/18
date added: 2025/01/18
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]]> <![CDATA[No Bad Parts: Healing Trauma and Restoring Wholeness with the Internal Family Systems Model]]> 55384168 Discover an empowering new way of understanding your multifaceted mind—and healing the many parts that make you who you are.

Is there just one “you�? We’ve been taught to believe we have a single identity, and to feel fear or shame when we can’t control the inner voices that don’t match the ideal of who we think we should be. Yet Dr. Richard Schwartz’s research now challenges this “mono-mind� theory. “All of us are born with many sub-minds—or parts,� says Dr. Schwartz. “These parts are not imaginary or symbolic. They are individuals who exist as an internal family within us—and the key to health and happiness is to honor, understand, and love every part.�

Dr. Schwartz’s Internal Family Systems (IFS) model has been transforming psychology for decades. With No Bad Parts, you’ll learn why IFS has been so effective in areas such as trauma recovery, addiction therapy, and depression treatment—and how this new understanding of consciousness has the potential to radically change our lives. Here you’ll explore:

� The IFS revolution—how honoring and communicating with our parts changes our approach to mental wellness
� Overturning the cultural, scientific, and spiritual assumptions that reinforce an outdated mono-mind model
� The ego, the inner critic, the saboteur—making these often-maligned parts into powerful allies
� Burdens—why our parts become distorted and stuck in childhood traumas and cultural beliefs
� How IFS demonstrates human goodness by revealing that there are no bad parts
� The Self—discover your wise, compassionate essence of goodness that is the source of healing and harmony
� Exercises for mapping your parts, accessing the Self, working with a challenging protector, identifying each part’s triggers, and more

IFS is a paradigm-changing model because it gives us a powerful approach for healing ourselves, our culture, and our planet. As Dr. Schwartz teaches, “Our parts can sometimes be disruptive or harmful, but once they’re unburdened, they return to their essential goodness. When we learn to love all our parts, we can learn to love all people—and that will contribute to healing the world.�

]]> 216 Richard C. Schwartz 1683646681 Laura 0 currently-reading 4.13 2021 No Bad Parts: Healing Trauma and Restoring Wholeness with the Internal Family Systems Model
author: Richard C. Schwartz
name: Laura
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/12
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[Internal Family Systems Skills Training Manual: Trauma-Informed Treatment for Anxiety, Depression, PTSD & Substance Abuse]]> 36489253
Using a non-pathologizing, accelerated approach -- rooted in neuroscience -- IFS applies inner resources and self-compassion for healing emotional wounding at its core. This new manual offers straight-forward explanations and illustrates a wide variety of applications. Easy to read and highly practical.

- Step-by-step techniques
- Annotated case examples
- Unique meditations
- Downloadable exercises, worksheets

IFS is Evidence-Based

Thirty years ago, IFS creator Richard Schwartz, PhD, listened to his clients describing the behaviors and fears of their most extreme parts. He found that the inner world of all his clients was characterized by parts who had a positive intent for the client but had taken on extreme roles in an effort to be safe. He also discovered that these extreme parts would become less disruptive and more cooperative once their concerns were addressed and they felt safer.

IFS views psychic multiplicity as the norm: we all have parts. In addition, every part has a good intention for the client, and every part has value. When clients listen to all their parts, they can heal their wounded parts.

Today, IFS, which has established a legacy of efficiency and effectiveness in treating many mental health issues, is being heralded by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk as a treatment that all clinicians should know.]]> 160 Frank Anderson 1683730879 Laura 5 4.35 Internal Family Systems Skills Training Manual: Trauma-Informed Treatment for Anxiety, Depression, PTSD & Substance Abuse
author: Frank Anderson
name: Laura
average rating: 4.35
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/12
date added: 2025/01/12
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]]> <![CDATA[Grimoires and Gingerbread (Sugar Shack Witch Mysteries #1.5)]]> 55686870 Christmas in Winterspell means ice skating, hot cocoa by the barrel, and frosted gingerbread houses.

I was almost looking forward to it.

The merriment screeches to a halt when two elves show up, claiming to have been sent by Santa himself, on a mission to track down an ancient grimoire.

A grimoire with the power of Christmas itself woven through the pages. Without it, Christmas isn’t happening, and Santa himself is in grave danger.

Could Winterspell hold the key to saving Christmas?

**Grimoires and Gingerbread is a holiday-themed novella in the Sugar Shack Witch Mysteries series by Danielle Garrett. This festive novella falls after the events in the first book, but could also be enjoyed as a standalone.**]]> 70 Danielle Garrett Laura 0 3.66 2020 Grimoires and Gingerbread (Sugar Shack Witch Mysteries #1.5)
author: Danielle Garrett
name: Laura
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/26
date added: 2024/12/26
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]]> <![CDATA[Mothers: A Tribute (Andrews and McMeel Gift Books)]]> 10579665 896 80 Armand Eisen 0836230086 Laura 0 4.00 1992 Mothers: A Tribute (Andrews and McMeel Gift Books)
author: Armand Eisen
name: Laura
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1992
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/26
date added: 2024/12/26
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]]> <![CDATA[Diamond Girl (The Country Club Murders, #6.5)]]> 38235465
For Aggie DeLucci, former assistant private investigator and current housekeeper extraordinaire, 1975 is turning out to be a banner year. There’s a new man her life, Mac. He makes her laugh, takes her dancing, and makes a helluva salami sandwich.

When Mac is accused of theft, it’s up to Aggie to clear his name. She’ll have to polish her slightly tarnished investigative kills and tame her fears (and her hair) to catch the real thief.]]> 39 Julie Mulhern 1635113636 Laura 0 4.24 2018 Diamond Girl (The Country Club Murders, #6.5)
author: Julie Mulhern
name: Laura
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/21
date added: 2024/12/21
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]]> Second Skin 52909677 Listening Length: 4 hours and 28 minutes

Stan Weir is mourning a tragic loss when he meets a mysterious nine-year-old girl, who claims to be the reincarnated spirit of his late wife. Marcy Keef is a single mother trying to make ends meet, when her daughter Erin starts describing "past life memories." Neither wants to believe Erin, but as violent secrets are revealed, the truth becomes harder to deny.

With echoes of Stephen King, Second Skin is a propulsive thriller about grief, guilt, and truths better left unknown.]]> 5 Christian White Laura 0 3.49 2020 Second Skin
author: Christian White
name: Laura
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/21
date added: 2024/12/21
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]]> One Little Mistake 59008361 From the best-selling author of The Secrets of Us and The Best of Friends comes a novella of deceit, desperation, and how one little mistake can unravel a life.

When overwhelmed stay-at-home mom Alexis finds herself at odds with her husband after she’s charged with a DUI, she is given one chance to get her family back: complete AA and admit her faults. The problem is, she’s never had a drinking problem and has no idea what caused the blackout that led to her arrest. Still, she’s committed to working through the program, if that’s what it takes to be reunited with her two young children. But when she connects with a new friend, Farrah - a confident, successful powerhouse of a woman Alexis can’t help but idolize - she’s empowered to take a closer look at her husband’s role in her downfall. What she finds shocks her to her core, quickly spiraling into something more sinister than she ever imagined.]]> Lucinda Berry Laura 5 3.41 2021 One Little Mistake
author: Lucinda Berry
name: Laura
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/19
date added: 2024/12/19
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]]> How It Ends 57533122
Marti Greenwood has just moved into a brand-new home after a bitter divorce from her husband Emery, and while she’s still not quite done with him—of course, some of her most cherished possessions are nowhere to be found once she unpacks her things—a fresh start in a beautiful LA neighborhood is exactly what she needs.

But days after her arrival, Marti is attacked in her home. She's found shaken and beaten, and her neighbors immediately call the police. She never saw the face of her attacker, so there is little to go on as detectives open an investigation—but Marti will do whatever it takes to find her assailant.

Please note: This audio contains strong language, distressing situations, and descriptions of violence that some listeners may find upsetting. Discretion is advised.]]> 3 Rachel Howzell Hall Laura 4 3.57 2021 How It Ends
author: Rachel Howzell Hall
name: Laura
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/18
date added: 2024/12/18
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]]> The Death of Ivan Ilych 18386
How, Tolstoy asks, does an unreflective man confront his one and only moment of truth?

This short novel was an artistic culmination of a profound spiritual crisis in Tolstoy's life, a nine-year period following the publication of Anna Karenina during which he wrote not a word of fiction.
A thoroughly absorbing, and, at times, terrifying glimpse into the abyss of death, it is also a strong testament to the possibility of finding spiritual salvation.]]> 86 Leo Tolstoy Laura 3 4.12 1886 The Death of Ivan Ilych
author: Leo Tolstoy
name: Laura
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1886
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/17
date added: 2024/12/17
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]]> <![CDATA[The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store]]> 65678550
Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, which served the neighborhood's quirky collection of blacks and European immigrants, helped by her husband, Moshe, a Romanian-born theater owner who integrated the town's first dance hall. When the state came looking for a deaf black child, claiming that the boy needed to be institutionalized, Chicken Hill's residents—roused by Chona's kindess and the courage of a local black worker named Nate Timblin—banded together to keep the boy safe.

As the novel unfolds, it becomes clear how much the people of Chicken Hill have to struggle to survive at the margins of white Christian America and how damaging bigotry, hypocrisy, and deceit can be to a community. When the truth is revealed about the skeleton, the boy, and the part the town’s establishment played in both, McBride shows that it is love and community—heaven and earth—that ultimately sustain us.]]> 385 James McBride 0593422945 Laura 3 3.83 2023 The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
author: James McBride
name: Laura
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/16
date added: 2024/12/16
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]]> <![CDATA[Fight Right: How Successful Couples Turn Conflict Into Connection]]> 145625059
Conflict is the top reason couples seek help—but it's also an opportunity for greater intimacy, deeper connection, and lasting love according to this essential guide from the world's leading relationship scientists and bestselling authors of The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work and Eight Dates.

How we fight predicts the future of our relationships. Most of us blunder into conflict without knowing what we are really fighting about and then quickly become overwhelmed by physiological responses we can’t control and emotions we don’t anticipate. The truth is the happiest and most successful couples fight—all the time. Conflict is human, and necessary.

Through decades of research, Drs. John and Julie Gottman, founders of the world-famous Love Lab, have identified the five common mistakes we make when we are at odds. In Fight Right , we learn the five secrets that help us to get back on track and harness conflict to build stronger, healthier relationships. With kindness, clarity, and a deep understanding of the struggles couples are going through, the Gottmans show us that we each have a unique conflict culture, borne of how we were raised and how we experienced past relationships, and they take us through all the possible combinations, from Avoiders, to Validators, to Volatiles, and how they can best work together.

Fight Right is an essential resource that will help couples escape the win-or-lose mentality in favor of a collaborative calming down, staying connected, and really understanding, so that our fights can bring us closer.]]> 352 Julie Schwartz Gottman 0593579658 Laura 5 4.54 2024 Fight Right: How Successful Couples Turn Conflict Into Connection
author: Julie Schwartz Gottman
name: Laura
average rating: 4.54
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/15
date added: 2024/12/15
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Excellent book, but all of the Gottman books are!
]]> Unholy Night 12954783 New York Times bestselling Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, comes UNHOLY NIGHT, the next evolution in dark historical revisionism.

They're an iconic part of history's most celebrated birth. But what do we really know about the Three Kings of the Nativity, besides the fact that they followed a star to Bethlehem bearing strange gifts? The Bible has little to say about this enigmatic trio. But leave it to Seth Grahame-Smith, the brilliant and twisted mind behind Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to take a little mystery, bend a little history, and weave an epic tale.

In Grahame-Smith's telling, the so-called "Three Wise Men" are infamous thieves, led by the dark, murderous Balthazar. After a daring escape from Herod's prison, they stumble upon the famous manger and its newborn king. The last thing Balthazar needs is to be slowed down by young Joseph, Mary and their infant. But when Herod's men begin to slaughter the first born in Judea, he has no choice but to help them escape to Egypt.

It's the beginning of an adventure that will see them fight the last magical creatures of the Old Testament; cross paths with biblical figures like Pontius Pilate and John the Baptist; and finally deliver them to Egypt. It may just be the greatest story never told.]]> 270 Seth Grahame-Smith Laura 5 3.84 2012 Unholy Night
author: Seth Grahame-Smith
name: Laura
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/01
date added: 2024/12/01
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]]> The Paying Guests 20821087
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. Little do the Wrays know just how profoundly their new tenants will alter the course of Frances’s life—or, as passions mount and frustration gathers, how far-reaching, and how devastating, the disturbances will be.]]> 564 Sarah Waters 1594633118 Laura 0 currently-reading 3.42 2014 The Paying Guests
author: Sarah Waters
name: Laura
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/16
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[Attachment-Informed Grief Therapy: The Clinician’s Guide to Foundations and Applications (Series in Death, Dying, and Bereavement)]]> 29921473 228 Phyllis S. Kosminsky Laura 0 to-read 4.23 Attachment-Informed Grief Therapy: The Clinician’s Guide to Foundations and Applications (Series in Death, Dying, and Bereavement)
author: Phyllis S. Kosminsky
name: Laura
average rating: 4.23
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rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Resilience: Powerful Practices for Bouncing Back from Disappointment, Difficulty, and Even Disaster]]> 41460384 304 Linda Graham Laura 0 to-read 4.00 Resilience: Powerful Practices for Bouncing Back from Disappointment, Difficulty, and Even Disaster
author: Linda Graham
name: Laura
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/16
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]]> <![CDATA[PolyvagalĚýExercises for Safety and Connection: 50 Client-Centered Practices]]> 45894143
These exercises offer readily understandable explanations of the ways the autonomic nervous system directs daily living. They use the principles of polyvagal theory to guide clients to safely connect to their autonomic responses and navigate daily experiences in new ways. The exercises are designed to be introduced over time in a variety of clinical sessions with accompanying exercises appropriate for use by clients between sessions to enhance the therapeutic change process.

Essential reading for any therapist who wants to take their polyvagal knowledge to the next level and is looking for easy ways to deliver polyvagal solutions with their clients.]]> 360 Deb Dana 0393713857 Laura 0 to-read 4.32 2020 PolyvagalĚýExercises for Safety and Connection: 50 Client-Centered Practices
author: Deb Dana
name: Laura
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/16
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Mystics and Misfits: Meeting God Through St. Francis and Other Unlikely Saints]]> 39700674 With untested ideals and a thirst for adventure, Christiana Peterson and her family moved to an intentional Christian farming community in the rural Midwest. It sounded like a simple and faithful way to follow Jesus, not to mention a great place to raise kids. In Mystics and Misfits, Peterson discovers that community life is never really simple and that she needs resources beyond her own to weather the anxiety and exhaustion of trying to save a dying farm and a floundering congregation. She turns to Christian mystics like Francis of Assisi, Simone Weil, and Dorothy Day to find sustenance for the everyday struggles and unique hardships of community life. With a contemplative’s spirit and poet’s eye, Peterson leads readers into an encounter with the God of the wild mystics and the weird misfits.

]]> 265 Christiana N. Peterson 151380166X Laura 0 to-read 4.20 Mystics and Misfits: Meeting God Through St. Francis and Other Unlikely Saints
author: Christiana N. Peterson
name: Laura
average rating: 4.20
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/16
shelves: to-read
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]]> Trace of Doubt 203142557 Samantha Weinberg Laura 0 to-read 3.39 Trace of Doubt
author: Samantha Weinberg
name: Laura
average rating: 3.39
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Holy Bible: NIV, New International Version]]> 20013762 1281 Anonymous 0310440890 Laura 5 4.73 Holy Bible: NIV, New International Version
author: Anonymous
name: Laura
average rating: 4.73
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/10
date added: 2024/11/10
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]]> <![CDATA[Finding Joy in the Empty Nest: Discover Purpose and Passion in the Next Phase of Life]]> 58429179 192 Jim Burns 0310362628 Laura 4 3.80 Finding Joy in the Empty Nest: Discover Purpose and Passion in the Next Phase of Life
author: Jim Burns
name: Laura
average rating: 3.80
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/09
date added: 2024/11/09
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]]> If We Were Villains 30319086
As one of seven young actors studying Shakespeare at an elite arts college, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingenue, extra. But when the casting changes, and the secondary characters usurp the stars, the plays spill dangerously over into life, and one of them is found dead. The rest face their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, and themselves, that they are blameless.]]> 354 M.L. Rio 125009528X Laura 0 to-read 4.11 2017 If We Were Villains
author: M.L. Rio
name: Laura
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/06
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[When Christmas Comes (Cameron Winter #1)]]> 57008404 244 Andrew Klavan 1613162405 Laura 0 to-read 3.71 2021 When Christmas Comes (Cameron Winter #1)
author: Andrew Klavan
name: Laura
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/06
shelves: to-read
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]]> Go as a River 63922274 A sweeping, heart-stopping epic of a young woman's journey to becoming, set against the harsh beauty of mid-century Colorado

On a cool autumn day in 1948, Victoria Nash delivers late-season peaches from her family's farm set amid the wild beauty of Colorado. As she heads into her village, a disheveled stranger stops to ask her the way. How she chooses to answer will unknowingly alter the course of both their young lives.

So begins the mesmerizing story of split-second choices and courageous acts that propel Victoria away from the only home she has ever known and towards a reckoning with loss, hope and her own untapped strength.

Gathering all the pieces of her small and extraordinary existence, spinning through the eddies of desire, heartbreak and betrayal, she will arrive at a single rocky decision that will change her life forever.

Go as a River is a heart-wrenching coming-of-age story and a drama of enthralling power. Combining unforgettable characters and a breathtaking natural setting, it is a sweeping story of survival and becoming, of the deepest mysteries of love, truth and fate.]]> 320 Shelley Read 1954118236 Laura 5 4.20 2023 Go as a River
author: Shelley Read
name: Laura
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/03
date added: 2024/11/03
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]]> The Secret Life of Sunflowers 61613291 A gripping, inspiring novel based on the true story of Johanna Bonger, Vincent van Gogh's sister-in-law.

When Hollywood auctioneer Emsley Wilson finds her famous grandmother's diary while cleaning out her New York brownstone, the pages are full of surprises. The first surprise is, the diary isn't her grandmother's. It belongs to Johanna Bonger, Vincent van Gogh's sister-in-law.

Johanna inherited Vincent van Gogh's paintings. They were all she had, and they weren't worth anything. She was a 28 year old widow with a baby in the 1800s, without any means of supporting herself, living in Paris where she barely spoke the language. Yet she managed to introduce Vincent's legacy to the world.

The inspiration couldn't come at a better time for Emsley. With her business failing, an unexpected love turning up in her life, and family secrets unraveling, can she find answers in the past?]]> 356 Marta Molnar 1940627486 Laura 5 4.10 The Secret Life of Sunflowers
author: Marta Molnar
name: Laura
average rating: 4.10
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/19
date added: 2024/10/19
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]]> <![CDATA[A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them]]> 61423989
The Roaring Twenties--the Jazz Age--has been characterized as a time of Gatsby frivolity. But it was also the height of the uniquely American hate group, the Ku Klux Klan. Their domain was not the old Confederacy, but the Heartland and the West. They hated Blacks, Jews, Catholics and immigrants in equal measure, and took radical steps to keep these people from the American promise. And the man who set in motion their takeover of great swaths of America was a charismatic charlatan named D.C. Stephenson.

Stephenson was a magnetic presence whose life story changed with every telling. Within two years of his arrival in Indiana, he’d become the Grand Dragon of the state and the architect of the strategy that brought the group out of the shadows � their message endorsed from the pulpits of local churches, spread at family picnics and town celebrations. Judges, prosecutors, ministers, governors and senators across the country all proudly proclaimed their membership. But at the peak of his influence, it was a seemingly powerless woman � Madge Oberholtzer � who would reveal his secret cruelties, and whose deathbed testimony finally brought the Klan to their knees.

A FEVER IN THE HEARTLAND marries a propulsive drama to a powerful and page-turning reckoning with one of the darkest threads in American history.]]> 432 Timothy Egan 0735225265 Laura 5 4.33 2023 A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them
author: Timothy Egan
name: Laura
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/15
date added: 2024/10/15
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]]> Bellman & Black 17571907
Years later, when a stranger mysteriously enters William’s life, his fortunes begin to turn—and the terrible and unforeseen consequences of his past indiscretion take root. In a desperate bid to save the only precious thing he has left, he enters into a rather strange bargain, with an even stranger partner. Together, they found a decidedly macabre business.

And Bellman & Black is born.]]> 328 Diane Setterfield 147671195X Laura 5 3.13 2013 Bellman & Black
author: Diane Setterfield
name: Laura
average rating: 3.13
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/29
date added: 2024/09/29
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]]> <![CDATA[Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers]]> 56769575
For two thousand years, cadavers—some willingly, some unwittingly—have been involved in science’s boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. They’ve tested France’s first guillotines, ridden the NASA Space Shuttle, been crucified in a Parisian laboratory to test the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, and helped solve the mystery of TWA Flight 800. For every new surgical procedure, from heart transplants to gender confirmation surgery, cadavers have helped make history in their quiet way. Stiff investigates the strange lives of our bodies postmortem and answers the question: What should we do after we die?]]> 320 Mary Roach 0393881725 Laura 4 4.13 2003 Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
author: Mary Roach
name: Laura
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/26
date added: 2024/09/26
shelves:
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]]> Remarkably Bright Creatures 58733693 Remarkably Bright Creatures, an exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope, tracing a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus.

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

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

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

Shelby Van Pelt's debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.]]> 368 Shelby Van Pelt 0063204150 Laura 5 4.35 2022 Remarkably Bright Creatures
author: Shelby Van Pelt
name: Laura
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/25
date added: 2024/09/25
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]]> The House at Riverton 1278752 The House at Riverton is a gorgeous debut novel set in England between the wars. Perfect for fans of "Downton Abbey," it's the story of an aristocratic family, a house, a mysterious death, and a way of life that vanished forever, told in flashback by a woman who witnessed it all.

The novel is full of secrets - some revealed, others hidden forever, reminiscent of the romantic suspense of Daphne du Maurier. It's also a meditation on memory and the devastation of war and a beautifully rendered window into a fascinating time in history.]]> 599 Kate Morton 0330448447 Laura 4 3.95 2006 The House at Riverton
author: Kate Morton
name: Laura
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/23
date added: 2024/09/23
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]]> The Once and Future Witches 49504061
But when the Eastwood sisters--James Juniper, Agnes Amaranth, and Beatrice Belladonna--join the suffragists of New Salem, they begin to pursue the forgotten words and ways that might turn the women's movement into the witch's movement. Stalked by shadows and sickness, hunted by forces who will not suffer a witch to vote-and perhaps not even to live-the sisters will need to delve into the oldest magics, draw new alliances, and heal the bond between them if they want to survive.

There's no such thing as witches. But there will be.]]> 517 Alix E. Harrow 0316422045 Laura 4 4.01 2020 The Once and Future Witches
author: Alix E. Harrow
name: Laura
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/20
date added: 2024/09/20
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]]> <![CDATA[The Collected Regrets of Clover]]> 61214136
From the day she watched her kindergarten teacher drop dead during a dramatic telling of Peter Rabbit , Clover Brooks has felt a stronger connection with the dying than she has with the living. After the beloved grandfather who raised her dies alone while she is traveling, Clover becomes a death doula in New York City, dedicating her life to ushering people peacefully through their end-of-life process.

Clover spends so much time with the dying that she has no life of her own, until the final wishes of a feisty old woman send Clover on a road trip to uncover a forgotten love story—and perhaps, her own happy ending. As she finds herself struggling to navigate the uncharted roads of romance and friendship, Clover is forced to examine what she really wants, and whether she’ll have the courage to go after it.

Probing, clever, and hopeful, The Collected Regrets of Clover is perfect for readers of The Midnight Library and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine as it turns the normally taboo subject of death into a reason to celebrate life.]]> 320 Mikki Brammer 1250284392 Laura 5 4.14 2023 The Collected Regrets of Clover
author: Mikki Brammer
name: Laura
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/17
date added: 2024/09/17
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]]> Firekeeper’s Daughter 52346471
After Daunis witnesses a shocking murder that thrusts her into a criminal investigation, she agrees to go undercover. But the deceptions—and deaths—keep piling up and soon the threat strikes too close to home. How far will she go to protect her community if it means tearing apart the only world she’s ever known?]]> 496 Angeline Boulley Laura 5 4.32 2021 Firekeeper’s Daughter
author: Angeline Boulley
name: Laura
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/14
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves:
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]]> Something About a Mermaid 1293994 27 Carolyn Polese 0525395903 Laura 0 to-read 3.83 1978 Something About a Mermaid
author: Carolyn Polese
name: Laura
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1978
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Mermaid and Me 51284987 From Instagram sensation and New York Times bestselling author-artist Soosh comes a heartwarming celebration of friendship between a mermaid and a human girl.

A young girl has always loved Mermaids. Every day she wishes she could be friends with one. And on one magical day, her wish comes true.

Nestled on the beach, a place between their two worlds, these unlikely friends discover imaginative ways to go on many adventures. But will one stormy night drive them apart?

From the New York Times bestselling author and illustrator of Dad By My Side comes a gorgeously depicted story bursting with whimsy and imagination that celebrates the power of friendship.

]]> 40 Soosh 0316426628 Laura 5 3.94 Mermaid and Me
author: Soosh
name: Laura
average rating: 3.94
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/30
date added: 2024/08/30
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]]> The Stationery Shop 42201995
Then Mr. Fakhri, with a keen instinct for a budding romance, introduces Roya to his other favorite customer—handsome Bahman, who has a burning passion for justice and a love for Rumi’s poetry—and she loses her heart at once. Their romance blossoms, and the little stationery shop remains their favorite place in all of Tehran.

A few short months later, on the eve of their marriage, Roya agrees to meet Bahman at the town square when violence erupts—a result of the coup d’etat that forever changes their country’s future. In the chaos, Bahman never shows. For weeks, Roya tries desperately to contact him, but her efforts are fruitless. With a sorrowful heart, she moves on—to college in California, to another man, to a life in New England—until, more than sixty years later, an accident of fate leads her back to Bahman and offers her a chance to ask him the questions that have haunted her for more than half a century: Why did you leave? Where did you go? How is it that you were able to forget me?

A poignant, heartfelt new novel by the award-nominated author of Together Tea—extolled by the Wall Street Journal as a “moving tale of lost love� and by Shelf Awareness as “a powerful, heartbreaking story”—explores loss, reconciliation, and the quirks of fate.]]> 312 Marjan Kamali 1982107480 Laura 0 to-read 4.22 2019 The Stationery Shop
author: Marjan Kamali
name: Laura
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/04
shelves: to-read
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]]> Trust 58210933 An unparalleled novel about money, power, intimacy, and perception

Even through the roar and effervescence of the 1920s, everyone in New York has heard of Benjamin and Helen Rask. He is a legendary Wall Street tycoon; she is the daughter of eccentric aristocrats. Together, they have risen to the very top of a world of seemingly boundless wealth—all as a decade of excess and speculation draws to an end. But at what cost have they acquired their immense fortune? This is the mystery at the center of Bonds, a successful 1937 novel that all of New York seems to have read. Yet there are other versions of this tale of privilege and deceit.

Hernan Diaz's TRUST elegantly puts these competing narratives into conversation with one another—and in tension with the perspective of one woman bent on disentangling fact from fiction. The result is a novel that spans over a century and becomes more exhilarating with each new revelation.

At once an immersive story and a brilliant literary puzzle, TRUST engages the reader in a quest for the truth while confronting the deceptions that often live at the heart of personal relationships, the reality-warping force of capital, and the ease with which power can manipulate facts.]]> 402 Hernan Diaz 0593420314 Laura 0 to-read 3.77 2022 Trust
author: Hernan Diaz
name: Laura
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/04
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[By the Shores of Silver Lake (Little House, #5)]]> 8248 385 Laura Ingalls Wilder 0060885416 Laura 5 4.18 1939 By the Shores of Silver Lake (Little House, #5)
author: Laura Ingalls Wilder
name: Laura
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1939
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/04
date added: 2024/08/04
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Little House on the Prairie (Little House, #3)]]> 77767
Pa Ingalls decides to sell the little log house, and the family sets out for Indian country! They travel from Wisconsin to Kansas, and there, finally, Pa builds their little house on the prairie. Sometimes farm life is difficult, even dangerous, but Laura and her family are kept busy and are happy with the promise of their new life on the prairie.

LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE is the second book in the Laura Years series.
--back cover]]> 335 Laura Ingalls Wilder Laura 5 4.21 1935 Little House on the Prairie (Little House, #3)
author: Laura Ingalls Wilder
name: Laura
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1935
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/02
date added: 2024/08/02
shelves:
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]]> The Changeling 31147267
Thus begins Apollo’s odyssey through a world he only thought he understood, to find a wife and child who are nothing like he’d imagined. His quest, which begins when he meets a mysterious stranger who claims to have information about Emma’s whereabouts, takes him to a forgotten island, a graveyard full of secrets, a forest where immigrant legends still live, and finally back to a place he thought he had lost forever.

This captivating retelling of a classic fairy tale imaginatively explores parental obsession, spousal love, and the secrets that make strangers out of the people we love the most. It’s a thrilling and emotionally devastating journey through the gruesome legacies that threaten to devour us and the homely, messy magic that saves us, if we’re lucky.]]> 431 Victor LaValle 0812995945 Laura 4 3.75 2017 The Changeling
author: Victor LaValle
name: Laura
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/31
date added: 2024/07/31
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]]> Evensong 77112 432 Gail Godwin 0345434773 Laura 3 3.76 1999 Evensong
author: Gail Godwin
name: Laura
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1999
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/28
date added: 2024/07/28
shelves:
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]]> The Invisible Hour 62919793
One June day when Mia Jacob can no longer see a way to survive, the power of words saves her. The Scarlet Letter was written almost two hundred years earlier, but it seems to tell the story of Mia’s mother, Ivy, and their life inside the Community—an oppressive cult in western Massachusetts where contact with the outside world is forbidden. But how could this be? How could Nathaniel Hawthorne have so perfectly captured the pain and loss that Mia carries inside her?

Through a journey of heartbreak, love, and time, Mia must abandon the rules she was raised with at the Community. As she does, she realizes that reading can transport you to other worlds or bring them to you, and that readers and writers affect one another in mysterious ways. She learns that time is more fluid than she can imagine, and that love is stronger than any chains that bind you.

As a girl Mia fell in love with a book. Now as a young woman she falls in love with a brilliant writer as she makes her way back in time. But what if Nathaniel Hawthorne never wrote The Scarlet Letter ? And what if Mia Jacob never found it on the day she planned to die?

From “the reigning queen of magical realism� (Kristin Hannah, New York Times bestselling author), this is the story of one woman’s dream. For a little while it came true.]]> 272 Alice Hoffman 1982175370 Laura 4 3.54 2023 The Invisible Hour
author: Alice Hoffman
name: Laura
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/23
date added: 2024/07/23
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]]> <![CDATA[The Regeneration of Stella Yin]]> 63903862
Shortlisted for Uncharted Magazine's Horror/Thriller Short Story competition and Commended in the Bath Novella-in-Flash Award.

The Regeneration of Stella Yin is an imaginative and bold tour de force…This highly innovative novella-in-flash invites the reader on an enigmatic journey of love, loss, and artificial intelligence. Loesch’s expertly breadcrumbed trail feels akin to glimpsing movement under dark water. In turns both haunting and humorous, the high level of craft makes this ambitious novella immensely re-readable and thoroughly unforgettable.
� Sara Hills, author of The Evolution of Birds

Loesch’s mastery of craft is apparent from the first sinister page, as the reader is compelled forward in an urgent rush to unravel the secrets of these oh-so-human characters. Only after a surprising turn does the reader realize the gorgeous prose has been cleverly engineered at the syllabic level, where every word—every punctuation mark and letter—is a finely honed clue. This is a thinking-person’s story, a story of transcendence, of survival, of the singularity, told with breathtaking precision and grace.
� Myna Chang, award-winning author and host of Electric Sheep SF

Kristen Loesch is unafraid to stray from traditional structures and forms. Loesch employs the use of purposeful repetition and offers sharp, striking truths about Chinese culture, expectations, self-identity, self-image—but at the heart of it all, the inability to escape grief. There is a lulling cadence to the writing that carries readers forth with great speed…This is a book that takes fractured parts and makes them whole.
� Ai Jiang, author of Linghun

Speculative, experimental and extraordinary, The Regeneration of Stella Yin is a hugely enjoyable sci-fi-psychological-thriller-murder-mystery enigma of a novella-in-flash…Loesch’s astonishing prose never fails to reel us in: sometimes rhythmic and intensely lyrical, sometimes shockingly visceral, though always playful. But are we playing along or being played with?
� Michelle Christophorou, author of Kipris]]> 104 Kristen Loesch Laura 0 to-read 4.38 The Regeneration of Stella Yin
author: Kristen Loesch
name: Laura
average rating: 4.38
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/22
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Last Russian Doll 61261034 A novel about betrayal, revenge, and redemption that follows three generations of Russian women, from the 1917 revolution to the last days of the Soviet Union, and the enduring love story at the center.

In a faraway kingdom, in a long-ago land...

...a young girl lived happily in Moscow with her family: a sister, a father, and an eccentric mother who liked to tell fairy tales and collect porcelain dolls.

One summer night, everything changed, and all that remained of that family were the girl and her mother.

Now, a decade later and studying at Oxford University, Rosie has an English name, a loving fiancé, and a promising future, but all she wants is to understand--and bury--the past. After her mother dies, Rosie returns to Russia, armed with little more than her mother’s strange folklore--and a single key.

What she uncovers is a devastating family history that spans the 1917 Revolution, the siege of Leningrad, Stalin’s purges, and beyond.

At the heart of this saga stands a young noblewoman, Tonya, as pretty as a porcelain doll, whose actions—and love for an idealistic man—will set off a sweeping story that reverberates across the century....]]> 406 Kristen Loesch Laura 5 3.72 2022 The Last Russian Doll
author: Kristen Loesch
name: Laura
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/21
date added: 2024/07/21
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Little House in the Big Woods (Little House, #1)]]> 8337
Little House in the Big Woods takes place in 1871 and introduces us to four-year-old Laura, who lives in a log cabin on the edge of the Big Woods of Wisconsin. She shares the cabin with her Pa, her Ma, her sisters Mary and Carrie, and their lovable dog, Jack.

Pioneer life isn’t easy for the Ingalls family, since they must grow or catch all their own food as they get ready for the cold winter. But they make the best of every tough situation. They celebrate Christmas with homemade toys and treats, do their spring planting, bring in the harvest in the fall, and make their first trip into town. And every night, safe and warm in their little house, the sound of Pa’s fiddle lulls Laura and her sisters into sleep.

The nine books in the timeless Little House series tell the story of Laura’s real childhood as an American pioneer, and are cherished by readers of all generations. They offer a unique glimpse into life on the American frontier, and tell the heartwarming, unforgettable story of a loving family.]]> 224 Laura Ingalls Wilder 0060885378 Laura 5 4.21 1932 Little House in the Big Woods (Little House, #1)
author: Laura Ingalls Wilder
name: Laura
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1932
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/13
date added: 2024/07/13
shelves:
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]]> The Woman on the Ledge 63912773 A woman falls to her death from a London bank's twenty-fifth-floor roof terrace.

You're arrested for her murder.

You tell the police that you only met the victim the previous night at your office party. She was threatening to jump from the roof, but you talked her down.

You've got nothing to do with this tragedy.
You're clearly being framed.

So why do the police keep picking holes in your story?
And why doesn't your lawyer seem to believe you?

It soon becomes obvious that you're keeping secrets.

But who are you trying to protect? And why?

Get ready for one of the most gripping psychological thrillers of the year, perfect for fans of Gillian McAllister, Lisa Jewell and Paula Hawkins.]]> 416 Ruth Mancini 1529909805 Laura 4 3.90 2024 The Woman on the Ledge
author: Ruth Mancini
name: Laura
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/07
date added: 2024/07/07
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[On the Banks of Plum Creek (Little House, #4)]]> 7882 384 Laura Ingalls Wilder 0060885408 Laura 5 4.22 1937 On the Banks of Plum Creek (Little House, #4)
author: Laura Ingalls Wilder
name: Laura
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1937
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/04
date added: 2024/07/04
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Millbank; Or Roger Irving's Ward]]> 2715186 404 Mary Jane Holmes 0548408637 Laura 0 to-read 3.68 1871 Millbank; Or Roger Irving's Ward
author: Mary Jane Holmes
name: Laura
average rating: 3.68
book published: 1871
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Anatomy: A Love Story (The Anatomy Duology, #1)]]> 57917042 Edinburgh, 1817. Hazel Sinnett is a lady who wants to be a surgeon more than she wants to marry.

Jack Currer is a resurrection man who’s just trying to survive in a city where it’s too easy to die.

When the two of them have a chance encounter outside the Edinburgh Anatomist’s Society, Hazel thinks nothing of it at first. But after she gets kicked out of renowned surgeon Dr. Beecham’s lectures for being the wrong gender, she realizes that her new acquaintance might be more helpful than she first thought. Because Hazel has made a deal with Dr. Beecham: if she can pass the medical examination on her own, the university will allow her to enroll. Without official lessons, though, Hazel will need more than just her books � she’ll need bodies to study, corpses to dissect.

Lucky that she’s made the acquaintance of someone who digs them up for a living, then.

But Jack has his own problems: strange men have been seen skulking around cemeteries, his friends are disappearing off the streets. Hazel and Jack work together to uncover the secrets buried not just in unmarked graves, but in the very heart of Edinburgh society.

A gothic tale full of mystery and romance about a willful female surgeon, a resurrection man who sells bodies for a living, and the buried secrets they must uncover together.]]> 338 Dana Schwartz Laura 5 3.81 2022 Anatomy: A Love Story (The Anatomy Duology, #1)
author: Dana Schwartz
name: Laura
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/15
date added: 2024/06/15
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings]]> 1211497 Ěý
“John O’Donohue is a man of the soul.”â€� TimesĚý (London)
Ěý
To Bless the Space Between Us Ěýis a compelling blend of elegant, poetic language and spiritual insight to offer readers comfort and encouragement on their journeys through life. John O’Donohue, Irish teacher and poet, looks at life’s thresholds—getting married, having children, starting a new job—and offers invaluable guidelines for making the transition from a known, familiar world into a new, unmapped territory.
Ěý
Most profoundly, however, O’Donohue explains “blessings� as a way of life, a lens through which the whole world is transformed. He awakens readers to timeless truths and shows the power they have to answer contemporary dilemmas and ease us through periods of change.]]> 240 John O'Donohue 0385522274 Laura 5 4.40 2008 To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings
author: John O'Donohue
name: Laura
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/11
date added: 2024/06/11
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]]> <![CDATA[Blessings for the Long Night: Poems and Meditations to Help You through Depression]]> 58495650 199 Jessica Kantrowitz 150648039X Laura 4 4.43 Blessings for the Long Night: Poems and Meditations to Help You through Depression
author: Jessica Kantrowitz
name: Laura
average rating: 4.43
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/11
date added: 2024/06/11
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]]> <![CDATA[If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O (Ballad, #1)]]> 905565 Although she was once famous, Peggy has no fondness for the old times. Those days are best left forgotten for Spencer Arrowood, too. But sometimes the past can't rest, and those who try to forget it are doomed to relive it....]]> 263 Sharyn McCrumb 0345369068 Laura 0 to-read 3.94 1990 If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O (Ballad, #1)
author: Sharyn McCrumb
name: Laura
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1990
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/23
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter (Ballad, #2)]]> 135106 381 Sharyn McCrumb 0451403703 Laura 0 to-read 3.97 1992 The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter (Ballad, #2)
author: Sharyn McCrumb
name: Laura
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1992
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/23
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[She Walks These Hills (Ballad, #3)]]> 178142 448 Sharyn McCrumb 0451184726 Laura 0 to-read 4.09 1994 She Walks These Hills (Ballad, #3)
author: Sharyn McCrumb
name: Laura
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1994
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Saints of Swallow Hill 57973844 It takes courage to save yourself...

In the dense pine forests of North Carolina, turpentiners labor, hacking into tree trunks to draw out the sticky sap that gives the Tar Heel State its nickname, and hauling the resin to stills to be refined. Among them is Rae Lynn Cobb and her husband, Warren, who run a small turpentine farm together.

Though the work is hard and often dangerous, Rae Lynn, who spent her childhood in an orphanage, is thankful for it—and for her kind if careless husband. When Warren falls victim to his own negligence, Rae Lynn undertakes a desperate act of mercy. To keep herself from jail, she disguises herself as a man named "Ray" and heads to the only place she can think of that might offer anonymity—a turpentine camp in Georgia named Swallow Hill.

Swallow Hill is no easy haven. The camp is isolated and squalid, and commissary owner Otis Riddle takes out his frustrations on his browbeaten wife, Cornelia. Although Rae Lynn works tirelessly, she becomes a target for Crow, the ever-watchful woods rider who checks each laborer’s tally. Delwood Reese, who’s come to Swallow Hill hoping for his own redemption, offers “Ray� a small measure of protection, and is determined to improve their conditions. As Rae Lynn forges a deeper friendship with both Del and Cornelia, she begins to envision a path out of the camp. But she will have to come to terms with her past, with all its pain and beauty, before she can open herself to a new life and seize the chance to begin again.]]> 372 Donna Everhart 1496733320 Laura 5 3.88 2022 The Saints of Swallow Hill
author: Donna Everhart
name: Laura
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/19
date added: 2024/05/19
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]]> <![CDATA[Night Bloomers: 12 Principles for Thriving in Adversity]]> 52644631
When we are plunged into the dark and difficult times in life, one of three things can happen next: the darkness can destroy us; it can leave us relatively unchanged; or it can help to transform us. In this hope-inspiring guide, clinical psychologist, Michelle Pearce, PhD, provides practical tools and wisdom for transforming and thriving in adversity and loss.

Just as some flowers require the dark to bloom, there are some people who do their best growing and becoming during dark and challenging times. In "Night Bloomers," Pearce teaches us how to adopt the perspective of a Night Bloomer and to use the soil of adversity to grow something beautiful in our lives.

With a compassionate voice, Pearce shares her clinical expertise, her own journey through the dark, and inspiring stories of other Night Bloomers to help individuals learn how to heal and transform their lives not in spite of their difficult times, but because of them.

Drawing upon the research on post-traumatic growth, we are given a dozen practical approaches for transforming loss, pain, and suffering into positive growth and transformation. Each chapter explains an empirically based principle for handling adversity, followed by insightful writing prompts designed to help us experience the principle personally.

"Night Bloomers" guides us through the dark times in life, making them a fertile place to grow and become in ways we couldn’t have done so in the light.

If you or someone you love is ready to bloom in the dark, this book is for you.]]> 224 Michelle Pearce 0486842371 Laura 5 4.35 Night Bloomers: 12 Principles for Thriving in Adversity
author: Michelle Pearce
name: Laura
average rating: 4.35
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/03
date added: 2024/05/03
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]]> <![CDATA[Recovering from Emotionally Immature Parents: Practical Tools to Establish Boundaries & Reclaim Your Emotional Autonomy]]> 40890214 In this important sequel to Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents, author Lindsay Gibson offers powerful tools to help you step back and protect yourself at the first sign of an emotional takeover, make sure your emotions and needs are respected, and break free from the coercive control of emotionally immature parents.

Growing up with emotionally immature (EI) parents can leave you feeling lonely and neglected. You may have trouble setting limits and expressing your feelings. And you may even be more susceptible to other emotionally immature people as you establish adult relationships. In addition, as your parents become older, they may still treat your emotions with mockery and contempt, be dismissive and discounting of your reality, and try to control and diminish your sense of emotional autonomy and freedom of thought. In short, EIs can be self-absorbed, inconsistent, and contradictory. So, how can you recover from their toxic behavior?

Drawing on the success of her popular self-help book, Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents, author Lindsay Gibson offers yet another essential resource. With this follow-up guide, you’ll learn practical skills to help you recognize the signs of an EI, protect yourself against an emotional takeover, reconnect with your own emotions and needs, and gain emotional autonomy in all your relationships. This is a how-to book, with doable exercises and active tips and suggestions for what to say and do to increase emotional autonomy and self-awareness.

If you’re ready to stop putting your own needs last, clear the clutter of self-doubt, and move beyond the fear of judgment and punishment that’s been instilled in you by emotionally immature parents, this book will help you find the freedom to finally live your life your way.]]> 224 Lindsay C. Gibson 1684032520 Laura 4 4.38 2019 Recovering from Emotionally Immature Parents: Practical Tools to Establish Boundaries & Reclaim Your Emotional Autonomy
author: Lindsay C. Gibson
name: Laura
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/28
date added: 2024/04/28
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]]> Weyward 60654349 I am a Weyward, and wild inside.

2019: Under cover of darkness, Kate flees London for ramshackle Weyward Cottage, inherited from a great aunt she barely remembers. With its tumbling ivy and overgrown garden, the cottage is worlds away from the abusive partner who tormented Kate. But she begins to suspect that her great aunt had a secret. One that lurks in the bones of the cottage, hidden ever since the witch-hunts of the 17th century.

1619: Altha is awaiting trial for the murder of a local farmer who was stampeded to death by his herd. As a girl, Altha’s mother taught her their magic, a kind not rooted in spell casting but in a deep knowledge of the natural world. But unusual women have always been deemed dangerous, and as the evidence for witchcraft is set out against Altha, she knows it will take all of her powers to maintain her freedom.

1942: As World War II rages, Violet is trapped in her family's grand, crumbling estate. Straitjacketed by societal convention, she longs for the robust education her brother receives––and for her mother, long deceased, who was rumored to have gone mad before her death. The only traces Violet has of her are a locket bearing the initial W and the word weyward scratched into the baseboard of her bedroom.

Weaving together the stories of three extraordinary women across five centuries, Emilia Hart's Weyward is an enthralling novel of female resilience and the transformative power of the natural world.]]> 329 Emilia Hart 125028080X Laura 5 4.03 2023 Weyward
author: Emilia Hart
name: Laura
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/13
date added: 2024/04/13
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]]> Unsettled 125392124 363 Patricia Reis 1736795481 Laura 5 3.90 Unsettled
author: Patricia Reis
name: Laura
average rating: 3.90
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/04
date added: 2024/04/04
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]]> Lone Women 60460704
Adelaide Henry carries an enormous steamer trunk with her wherever she goes. It’s locked at all times. Because when the trunk opens, people around Adelaide start to disappear.

The year is 1915, and Adelaide is in trouble. Her secret sin killed her parents, forcing her to flee California in a hellfire rush and make her way to Montana as a homesteader. Dragging the trunk with her at every stop, she will become one of the “lone women� taking advantage of the government’s offer of free land for those who can tame it—except that Adelaide isn’t alone. And the secret she’s tried so desperately to lock away might be the only thing that will help her survive the harsh territory.

Crafted by a modern master of magical suspense, Lone Women blends shimmering prose, an unforgettable cast of adventurers who find horror and sisterhood in a brutal landscape, and a portrait of early-twentieth-century America like you’ve never seen. And at its heart is the gripping story of a woman desperate to bury her past—or redeem it.]]> 275 Victor LaValle 052551208X Laura 5 3.68 2023 Lone Women
author: Victor LaValle
name: Laura
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/30
date added: 2024/03/30
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]]> <![CDATA[The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)]]> 51901147
The odds are against him. He's been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined -- every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute... and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.]]> 541 Suzanne Collins Laura 5 3.99 2020 The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Laura
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/26
date added: 2024/03/26
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]]> The Outsider 36124936
An eleven-year-old boy’s violated corpse is found in a town park. Eyewitnesses and fingerprints point unmistakably to one of Flint City’s most popular citizens. He is Terry Maitland, Little League coach, English teacher, husband, and father of two girls. Detective Ralph Anderson, whose son Maitland once coached, orders a quick and very public arrest. Maitland has an alibi, but Anderson and the district attorney soon add DNA evidence to go with the fingerprints and witnesses. Their case seems ironclad.

As the investigation expands and horrifying answers begin to emerge, King’s propulsive story kicks into high gear, generating strong tension and almost unbearable suspense. Terry Maitland seems like a nice guy, but is he wearing another face? When the answer comes, it will shock you as only Stephen King can.]]> 561 Stephen King 1501180983 Laura 4 3.98 2018 The Outsider
author: Stephen King
name: Laura
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/16
date added: 2024/03/16
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]]> <![CDATA[The Life We Bury (Joe Talbert, #1; Detective Max Rupert, #1)]]> 20758175
As Joe writes about Carl's life, especially Carl's valor in Vietnam, he cannot reconcile the heroism of the soldier with the despicable acts of the convict. Joe, along with his skeptical female neighbor, throws himself into uncovering the truth, but he is hamstrung in his efforts by having to deal with his dangerously dysfunctional mother, the guilt of leaving his autistic brother vulnerable, and a haunting childhood memory. Thread by thread, Joe unravels the tapestry of Carl’s conviction. But as he and Lila dig deeper into the circumstances of the crime, the stakes grow higher. Will Joe discover the truth before it’s too late to escape the fallout?]]> 304 Allen Eskens 1616149981 Laura 5 4.06 2014 The Life We Bury (Joe Talbert, #1; Detective Max Rupert, #1)
author: Allen Eskens
name: Laura
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/23
date added: 2024/01/23
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]]> <![CDATA[Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change]]> 17011611 482 William R. Miller 1283632268 Laura 5 4.43 1991 Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change
author: William R. Miller
name: Laura
average rating: 4.43
book published: 1991
rating: 5
read at: 2019/07/19
date added: 2024/01/21
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]]> None of This Is True 62334530
A few days later, Alix and Josie bump into each other again, this time outside Alix’s children’s school. Josie has been listening to Alix’s podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for her series. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life.

Josie’s life appears to be strange and complicated, and although Alix finds her unsettling, she can’t quite resist the temptation to keep making the podcast. Slowly she starts to realise that Josie has been hiding some very dark secrets, and before she knows it, Josie has inveigled her way into Alix’s life—and into her home.

But, as quickly as she arrived, Josie disappears. Only then does Alix discover that Josie has left a terrible and terrifying legacy in her wake, and that Alix has become the subject of her own true crime podcast, with her life and her family’s lives under mortal threat.

Who is Josie Fair? And what has she done?]]> 390 Lisa Jewell 1982179007 Laura 5 4.08 2023 None of This Is True
author: Lisa Jewell
name: Laura
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/18
date added: 2024/01/18
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]]> Beyond That, the Sea 60784759 A sweeping, tenderhearted love story, Beyond That, the Sea by Laura Spence-Ash tells the story of two families living through World War II on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean, and the shy, irresistible young woman who will call them both her own.

As German bombs fall over London in 1940, working-class parents Millie and Reginald Thompson make an impossible choice: they decide to send their eleven-year-old daughter, Beatrix, to America. There, she’ll live with another family for the duration of the war, where they hope she’ll stay safe.

Scared and angry, feeling lonely and displaced, Bea arrives in Boston to meet the Gregorys. Mr. and Mrs. G, and their sons William and Gerald, fold Bea seamlessly into their world. She becomes part of this lively family, learning their ways and their stories, adjusting to their affluent lifestyle. Bea grows close to both boys, one older and one younger, and fills in the gap between them. Before long, before she even realizes it, life with the Gregorys feels more natural to her than the quiet, spare life with her own parents back in England.

As Bea comes into herself and relaxes into her new life—summers on the coast in Maine, new friends clamoring to hear about life across the sea—the girl she had been begins to fade away, until, abruptly, she is called home to London when the war ends.

Desperate as she is not to leave this life behind, Bea dutifully retraces her trip across the Atlantic back to her new, old world. As she returns to post-war London, the memory of her American family stays with her, never fully letting her go, and always pulling on her heart as she tries to move on and pursue love and a life of her own.

As we follow Bea over time, navigating between her two worlds, Beyond That, the Sea emerges as a beautifully written, absorbing novel, full of grace and heartache, forgiveness and understanding, loss and love.]]> 351 Laura Spence-Ash 1250854377 Laura 5 4.12 2023 Beyond That, the Sea
author: Laura Spence-Ash
name: Laura
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/14
date added: 2024/01/14
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]]> Voroshilovgrad 26196168 Newsweek

A city-dwelling executive heads home to take over his brother's gas station after his mysterious disappearance, but all he finds at home are mysteries and ghosts. The bleak industrial landscape of now-war-torn eastern Ukraine sets the stage for Voroshilovgrad, the Soviet era name of the Ukranian city of Luhansk,Ěýmixing magical realism and exhilarating road novel in poetic, powerful, and expressive prose.

Serhiy Zhadan, one of the keyĚýfigureheads in contemporary Ukrainian literature and the mostĚýfamous poet in the country,Ěýhas become the voice of Ukraine's "Euro-Maidan" movement. He lives in Kharkiv, Ukraine.
]]> 445 Serhiy Zhadan 1941920306 Laura 3 3.73 2010 Voroshilovgrad
author: Serhiy Zhadan
name: Laura
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/11
date added: 2024/01/11
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]]> Lucy by the Sea (Amgash #4) 60657583
Rich with empathy and emotion, Lucy by the Sea vividly captures the fear and struggles that come with isolation, as well as the hope, peace, and possibilities that those long, quiet days can inspire. At the heart of this story are the deep human connections that unite us even when we're apart--the pain of a beloved daughter's suffering, the emptiness that comes from the death of a loved one, the promise of a new friendship, and the comfort of an old, enduring love.]]> 291 Elizabeth Strout 0593446062 Laura 5 3.80 2022 Lucy by the Sea (Amgash #4)
author: Elizabeth Strout
name: Laura
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/08
date added: 2024/01/08
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]]> The Wind Knows My Name 62583516 This powerful and moving novel from the New York Times bestselling author of A Long Petal of the Sea weaves together past and present, tracing the ripple effects of war and immigration on one child in Europe in 1938 and another in the United States in 2019.

Vienna, 1938. Samuel Adler was six years old when his father disappeared during Kristallnacht—the night their family lost everything. Samuel’s mother secured a spot for him on the last Kindertransport train out of Nazi-occupied Austria to the United Kingdom, which he boarded alone, carrying nothing but a change of clothes and his violin.

Arizona, 2019. Eight decades later, Anita Diaz, a blind seven-year-old girl, and her mother board another train, fleeing looming danger in El Salvador and seeking refuge in the United States. However, their arrival coincides with the new family separation policy, and Anita finds herself alone at a camp in Nogales. She escapes through her trips to Azabahar, a magical world of the imagination she created with her sister back home.

Anita’s case is assigned to Selena Duran, a young social worker who enlists the help of a promising lawyer from one of San Francisco’s top law firms. Together they discover that Anita has another family member in the United States: Leticia Cordero, who is employed at the home of now eighty-six-year-old Samuel Adler, linking these two lives.

Spanning time and place, The Wind Knows My Name is both a testament to the sacrifices that parents make and a love letter to the children who survive the most unfathomable dangers—and never stop dreaming.]]> 260 Isabel Allende 0593598105 Laura 4 3.93 2023 The Wind Knows My Name
author: Isabel Allende
name: Laura
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/07
date added: 2024/01/07
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]]> <![CDATA[Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing]]> 59641216
So begins the riveting story of acclaimed actor Matthew Perry, taking us along on his journey from childhood ambition to fame to addiction and recovery in the aftermath of a life-threatening health scare. Before the frequent hospital visits and stints in rehab, there was five-year-old Matthew, who traveled from Montreal to Los Angeles, shuffling between his separated parents; fourteen-year-old Matthew, who was a nationally ranked tennis star in Canada; twenty-four-year-old Matthew, who nabbed a coveted role as a lead cast member on the talked-about pilot then called Friends Like Us. . . and so much more.

In an extraordinary story that only he could tell—and in the heartfelt, hilarious, and warmly familiar way only he could tell it—Matthew Perry lays bare the fractured family that raised him (and also left him to his own devices), the desire for recognition that drove him to fame, and the void inside him that could not be filled even by his greatest dreams coming true. But he also details the peace he’s found in sobriety and how he feels about the ubiquity of Friends, sharing stories about his castmates and other stars he met along the way. Frank, self-aware, and with his trademark humor, Perry vividly depicts his lifelong battle with addiction and what fueled it despite seemingly having it all.

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing is an unforgettable memoir that is both intimate and eye-opening—as well as a hand extended to anyone struggling with sobriety. Unflinchingly honest, moving, and uproariously funny, this is the book fans have been waiting for.]]> 250 Matthew Perry 1250866448 Laura 5 3.89 2022 Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing
author: Matthew Perry
name: Laura
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/07
date added: 2024/01/07
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]]> My Work 88564034
'My work' is a novel about the unique and fundamental experience of motherhood: it mixes fiction, essays, poetry, memoir, and letters to explore the thorny, twisted ties between pregnancy, maternity, capitalism, work, art, individuality, and literature.]]> 416 Olga Ravn 0811234711 Laura 0 to-read 4.02 2020 My Work
author: Olga Ravn
name: Laura
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/04
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Covenant of Water 180357146 From the New York Times-bestselling author of Cutting for Stone comes a stunning and magisterial epic of love, faith, and medicine, set in Kerala, South India, following three generations of a family seeking the answers to a strange secret

Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala's Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time. From this unforgettable new beginning, the young girl—and future matriarch, Big Ammachi—will witness unthinkable changes over the span of her extraordinary life, full of joy and triumph as well as hardship and loss, her faith and love the only constants.

A shimmering evocation of a bygone India and of the passage of time itself, The Covenant of Water is a hymn to progress in medicine and to human understanding, and a humbling testament to the hardships undergone by past generations for the sake of those alive today. Imbued with humor, deep emotion, and the essence of life, it is one of the most masterful literary novels published in recent years.]]> 715 Abraham Verghese 0802162177 Laura 5 4.34 2023 The Covenant of Water
author: Abraham Verghese
name: Laura
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/25
date added: 2023/12/25
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]]> How I Met My Monster 44313613 I Need My Monster and Hey, That’s MY Monster! will keep young readersĚýentertained.]]> 32 Amanda Noll 194727709X Laura 4 4.16 2019 How I Met My Monster
author: Amanda Noll
name: Laura
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/22
date added: 2023/12/22
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]]> Where Did Snowmen Come From 75583521 Marion Delnack Laura 4 4.00 Where Did Snowmen Come From
author: Marion Delnack
name: Laura
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/22
date added: 2023/12/22
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]]> My Dog Is Kinda Rude 175748085 34 Azure Moyna 1734746025 Laura 4 3.25 My Dog Is Kinda Rude
author: Azure Moyna
name: Laura
average rating: 3.25
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/22
date added: 2023/12/22
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]]> The Bird with a Broken Wing 107120190 Will she ever be able to fly again?
An encouraging rhyming story for young children.

A journey of a poorly bird who just wants to be happy again. A gentle tale of The Bird With a Broken Wing who does what she must to make sure she is strong enough to fly back home across the ocean.]]> 27 Robert Still Laura 4 4.50 The Bird with a Broken Wing
author: Robert Still
name: Laura
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/22
date added: 2023/12/22
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]]> Bad Dad Moves 148219045 34 Jacob Eckeberger 1737180529 Laura 4 4.60 Bad Dad Moves
author: Jacob Eckeberger
name: Laura
average rating: 4.60
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/22
date added: 2023/12/22
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]]> <![CDATA[Simon Finds Himself in the Circus]]> 58499110 24 Ladena A Laine Laura 4 4.00 Simon Finds Himself in the Circus
author: Ladena A Laine
name: Laura
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/22
date added: 2023/12/22
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]]> <![CDATA[Lucy Loo: choices, choices, choices]]> 135972231
This book will take your young readers on a “choose your own adventure� story. Readers will have to make the right choices for Lucy Loo, or she will experience consequences for her choices.
This story will encourage readers to think through their choices to make the right decision.]]> 35 Raven Harp Laura 4 4.60 Lucy Loo: choices, choices, choices
author: Raven Harp
name: Laura
average rating: 4.60
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/22
date added: 2023/12/22
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]]> Goodnight Fish 200856172 20 Princeton Carter Laura 4 3.00 Goodnight Fish
author: Princeton Carter
name: Laura
average rating: 3.00
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/22
date added: 2023/12/22
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]]> Jingle Smells 59818279 32 Mark Sperring 1526636816 Laura 4 3.71 Jingle Smells
author: Mark Sperring
name: Laura
average rating: 3.71
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/22
date added: 2023/12/22
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]]> <![CDATA[Luna Loves Christmas (Luna loves... )]]> 198221483
Luna loves Christmas.

Sometimes at Mum’s, sometimes at Dad’s, she gets two trees, two dinners, two advent calendars to open . . . but this Christmas, Luna’s family are doing something different. They’re volunteering, and Luna can’t wait for them to all be together at the community Christmas dinner]]> 32 Joseph Coelho 1839131667 Laura 4 4.04 Luna Loves Christmas (Luna loves... )
author: Joseph Coelho
name: Laura
average rating: 4.04
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/22
date added: 2023/12/22
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]]> The Vaster Wilds 62952130
A servant girl escapes from a colonial settlement in the wilderness. She carries nothing with her but her wits, a few possessions, and the spark of god that burns hot within her. What she finds in this terra incognita is beyond the limits of her imagination and will bend her belief in everything that her own civilization has taught her.

Lauren Groff’s new novel is at once a thrilling adventure story and a penetrating fable about trying to find a new way of living in a world succumbing to the churn of colonialism. The Vaster Wilds is a work of raw and prophetic power that tells the story of America in miniature, through one girl at a hinge point in history, to ask how—and if—we can adapt quickly enough to save ourselves.]]> 272 Lauren Groff 0593418395 Laura 0 to-read 3.73 2016 The Vaster Wilds
author: Lauren Groff
name: Laura
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/12/09
shelves: to-read
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]]> Hang the Moon 61272702
Most folk thought Sallie Kincaid was a nobody who’d amount to nothing. Sallie had other plans.

Sallie Kincaid is the daughter of the biggest man in a small town, the charismatic Duke Kincaid. Born at the turn of the 20th century into a life of comfort and privilege, Sallie remembers little about her mother who died in a violent argument with the Duke. By the time she is just eight years old, the Duke has remarried and had a son, Eddie. While Sallie is her father’s daughter, sharp-witted and resourceful, Eddie is his mother’s son, timid and cerebral. When Sallie tries to teach young Eddie to be more like their father, her daredevil coaching leads to an accident, and Sallie is cast out.

Nine years later, she returns, determined to reclaim her place in the family. That’s a lot more complicated than Sallie expected, and she enters a world of conflict and lawlessness. Sallie confronts the secrets and scandals that hide in the shadows of the Big House, navigates the factions in the family and town, and finally comes into her own as a bold, sometimes reckless bootlegger.

You will fall in love with Sallie Kincaid, a feisty and fearless, terrified and damaged young woman who refuses to be corralled.]]> 368 Jeannette Walls 1501117297 Laura 0 to-read 3.67 2023 Hang the Moon
author: Jeannette Walls
name: Laura
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/12/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Secret Book of Flora Lea 61964751
In the war-torn London of 1939, fourteen-year-old Hazel and five-year-old Flora are evacuated to a rural village to escape the horrors of the Second World War. Living with the kind Bridie Aberdeen and her teenage son, Harry, in a charming stone cottage along the River Thames, Hazel fills their days with walks and games to distract her young sister, including one that she creates for her sister and her sister alone—a fairy tale about a magical land, a secret place they can escape to that is all their own.

But the unthinkable happens when young Flora suddenly vanishes while playing near the banks of the river. Shattered, Hazel blames herself for her sister’s disappearance, and she carries that guilt into adulthood as a private burden she feels she deserves.

Twenty years later, Hazel is in London, ready to move on from her job at a cozy rare bookstore to a career at Sotheby’s. With a charming boyfriend and her elegantly timeworn Bloomsbury flat, Hazel’s future seems determined. But her tidy life is turned upside down when she unwraps a package containing an illustrated book called Whisperwood and the River of Stars . Hazel never told a soul about the imaginary world she created just for Flora. Could this book hold the secrets to Flora’s disappearance? Could it be a sign that her beloved sister is still alive after all these years?

As Hazel embarks on a feverish quest, revisiting long-dormant relationships and bravely opening wounds from her past, her career and future hang in the balance. An astonishing twist ultimately reveals the truth in this transporting and refreshingly original novel about the bond between sisters, the complications of conflicted love, and the enduring magic of storytelling.]]> 355 Patti Callahan Henry 1668011832 Laura 0 to-read 4.03 2023 The Secret Book of Flora Lea
author: Patti Callahan Henry
name: Laura
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/12/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Did You Hear About Kitty Karr?]]> 61796683 REESE'S BOOK CLUB MAY 2023 PICK

BOOK OF THE MONTH MAY 2023 PICK

A multigenerational saga that traverses the glamour of old Hollywood and the seductive draw of modern-day showbiz

When Kitty Karr Tate, a White icon of the silver screen, dies and bequeaths her multimillion-dollar estate to the St. John sisters, three young, wealthy Black women, it prompts questions. Lots of questions.

A celebrity in her own right, Elise St. John would rather focus on sorting out Kitty’s affairs than deal with the press. But what she discovers in one of Kitty’s journals rocks her world harder than any other brewing scandal could—and between a cheating fiancé and the fallout from a controversial social media post, there are plenty.

The truth behind Kitty's ascent to stardom from her beginnings in the segregated South threatens to expose a web of unexpected family ties, debts owed, and debatable crimes that could, with one pull, unravel the all-American fabric of the St. John sisters and those closest to them.

As Elise digs deeper into Kitty's past, she must also turn the lens upon herself, confronting the gifts and burdens of her own choices and the power that the secrets of the dead hold over the living. Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? is a sprawling page-turner set against the backdrop of the Hollywood machine, an insightful and nuanced look at the inheritances of family, race, and gender—and the choices some women make to break free of them.]]> 416 Crystal Smith Paul 1250815304 Laura 0 to-read 3.70 2023 Did You Hear About Kitty Karr?
author: Crystal Smith Paul
name: Laura
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/12/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The House of Eve 61273858 From the award-winning author of Yellow Wife, a daring and redemptive novel set in 1950s Philadelphia and Washington, DC, that explores what it means to be a woman and a mother, and how much one is willing to sacrifice to achieve her greatest goal.

1950s Philadelphia: fifteen-year-old Ruby Pearsall is on track to becoming the first in her family to attend college, in spite of having a mother more interested in keeping a man than raising a daughter. But a taboo love affair threatens to pull her back down into the poverty and desperation that has been passed on to her like a birthright.

Eleanor Quarles arrives in Washington, DC, with ambition and secrets. When she meets the handsome William Pride at Howard University, they fall madly in love. But William hails from one of DC’s elite wealthy Black families, and his par­ents don’t let just anyone into their fold. Eleanor hopes that a baby will make her finally feel at home in William’s family and grant her the life she’s been searching for. But having a baby—and fitting in—is easier said than done.

With their stories colliding in the most unexpected of ways, Ruby and Eleanor will both make decisions that shape the trajectory of their lives.]]> 384 Sadeqa Johnson 1982197366 Laura 0 to-read 4.23 2023 The House of Eve
author: Sadeqa Johnson
name: Laura
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/12/09
shelves: to-read
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]]> Family Meal 123414019 From the bestselling, award-winning author of Memorial and Lot, an irresistible, intimate novel about two young men, once best friends, whose lives collide again after a loss.

Cam is living in Los Angeles and falling apart after the love of his life has died. Kai's ghost won't leave Cam alone; his spectral visits wild, tender, and unexpected. When Cam returns to his hometown of Houston, he crashes back into the orbit of his former best friend, TJ, and TJ's family bakery. TJ's not sure how to navigate this changed Cam, impenetrably cool and self-destructing, or their charged estrangement. Can they find a way past all that has been said - and left unsaid - to save each other? Could they find a way back to being okay again, or maybe for the first time?

When secrets and wounds become so insurmountable that they devour us from within, hope and sustenance and friendship can come from the most unlikely source. Spanning Los Angeles, Houston, and Osaka, Family Meal is a story about how the people who know us the longest can hurt us the most, but how they also set the standard for love. With his signature generosity and eye for food, sex, love, and the moments that make us the most human, Bryan Washington returns with a brilliant new novel.]]> 320 Bryan Washington 0593421094 Laura 0 to-read 3.51 2023 Family Meal
author: Bryan Washington
name: Laura
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/12/09
shelves: to-read
review:

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