en-US Sun, 06 Apr 2025 07:34:31 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 38474
Stunning for its emotional intensity and haunting sensuality, this book depicts men and women, blacks and whites, stripped of their masks of gender and race by love and hatred at the most elemental and sublime.]]> 448 James Baldwin 0141186372 Maria 0 to-read 4.32 1962
author: James Baldwin
name: Maria
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1962
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60811826 Deep underground, forty women live imprisoned in a cage. Watched over by guards, the women have no memory of how they got there, no notion of time, and only a vague recollection of their lives before.


As the burn of electric light merges day into night and numberless years pass, a young girl—the fortieth prisoner—sits alone and outcast in the corner. Soon she will show herself to be the key to the others' escape and survival in the strange world that awaits them above ground.


Jacqueline Harpman was born in Etterbeek, Belgium, in 1929, and fled to Casablanca with her family during WWII. Informed by her background as a psychoanalyst and her youth in exile, I Who Have Never Known Men is a haunting, heartbreaking post-apocalyptic novel of female friendship and intimacy, and the lengths people will go to maintain their humanity in the face of devastation. Back in print for the first time since 1997, Harpman’s modern classic is an important addition to the growing canon of feminist speculative literature.]]> 184 Jacqueline Harpman 1945492600 Maria 0 to-read 4.12 1995
author: Jacqueline Harpman
name: Maria
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1995
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 48564330 A stunning, lyrical novel set in the rolling foothills of the Appalachians in which a young girl discovers stark truths that will haunt her for the rest of her life.

"A girl comes of age against the knife."

So begins the story of Betty Carpenter. Born in a bathtub in 1954 to a Cherokee father and white mother, Betty is the sixth of eight siblings. The world they inhabit is one of poverty and violence--both from outside the family, and also, devastatingly, from within. The lush landscape, rich with birdsong, wild fruit, and blazing stars, becomes a kind of refuge for Betty, but when her family's darkest secrets are brought to light, she has no choice but to reckon with the brutal history hiding in the hills, as well as the heart-wrenching cruelties and incredible characters she encounters in her rural town of Breathed, Ohio.

But despite the hardship she faces, Betty is resilient. Her curiosity about the natural world, her fierce love for her sisters, and her father's brilliant stories are kindling for the fire of her own imagination, and in the face of all she bears witness to, Betty discovers an escape: she begins to write. She recounts the horrors of her family's past and present with pen and paper and buries them deep in the dirt--moments that has stung her so deeply, she could not tell them, until now.

Inspired by the life of her own mother, Tiffany McDaniel sets out to free the past by telling this heartbreaking yet magical story--a remarkable novel that establishes her as one of the freshest and most important voices in American fiction.]]> 480 Tiffany McDaniel 052565707X Maria 0 to-read 4.41 2020
author: Tiffany McDaniel
name: Maria
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61324696
We would not be born out of sweetness, we were born out of rage, we felt it in our bones.

In Falls Landing, Florida—a place built of theme parks, swampy lakes, and scorched bougainvillea flowers—something sinister lurks in the deep. A gang of thirteen-year-old girls obsessively orbit around the local preacher's daughter, Sammy. She is mesmerizing, older, and in love with Eddie. But suddenly, Sammy goes missing. Where is she? Watching from a distance, they edge ever closer to discovering a dark secret about their fame-hungry town and the cruel cost of a ticket out. What they see will continue to haunt them for the rest of their lives.

Through a darkly beautiful and brutally compelling lens, Dizz Tate captures the violence, horrors, and manic joys of girlhood. Brutes is a novel about the seemingly unbreakable bonds in the "we" of young friendship, and the moment it is broken forever.]]> 304 Dizz Tate 1646221672 Maria 0 to-read 3.16 2023
author: Dizz Tate
name: Maria
average rating: 3.16
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 7144 671 Fyodor Dostoevsky Maria 0 currently-reading 4.26 1866
author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Maria
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1866
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 25852828 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER � A stunning “portrait of the enduring grace of friendship� (NPR) about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. A masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century.

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST � MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST � WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE �

A Little Life follows four college classmates—broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition—as they move to New York in search of fame and fortune. While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepen over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma. A hymn to brotherly bonds and a masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century, Hanya Yanagihara’s stunning novel is about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves.]]> 816 Hanya Yanagihara 0804172706 Maria 4 4.36 2015
author: Hanya Yanagihara
name: Maria
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2021/03/28
date added: 2024/08/16
shelves:
review:

]]> 8705597 Holmes and Dr. Watson remain history's greatest detective team, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's portrayals of male comradeship, the thrills of the chase, and the misty precincts of Victorian London remains unmatched in detective literature.]]> 208 Arthur Conan Doyle 0486477835 Maria 3 4.06 1893
author: Arthur Conan Doyle
name: Maria
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1893
rating: 3
read at: 2022/04/02
date added: 2024/07/14
shelves:
review:

]]> 53799686
Viewing an apartment normally doesn’t turn into a life-or-death situation, but this particular open house becomes just that when a failed bank robber bursts in and takes everyone in the apartment hostage. As the pressure mounts, the eight strangers begin slowly opening up to one another and reveal long-hidden truths.

First is Zara, a wealthy bank director who has been too busy to care about anyone else until tragedy changed her life. Now, she’s obsessed with visiting open houses to see how ordinary people live—and, perhaps, to set an old wrong to right. Then there’s Roger and Anna-Lena, an Ikea-addicted retired couple who are on a never-ending hunt for fixer-uppers to hide the fact that they don’t know how to fix their own failing marriage. Julia and Ro are a young lesbian couple and soon-to-be parents who are nervous about their chances for a successful life together since they can’t agree on anything. And there’s Estelle, an eighty-year-old woman who has lived long enough to be unimpressed by a masked bank robber waving a gun in her face. And despite the story she tells them all, Estelle hasn’t really come to the apartment to view it for her daughter, and her husband really isn’t outside parking the car.

As police surround the premises and television channels broadcast the hostage situation live, the tension mounts and even deeper secrets are slowly revealed. Before long, the robber must decide which is the more terrifying prospect: going out to face the police, or staying in the apartment with this group of impossible people.

Rich with Fredrik Backman’s “pitch-perfect dialogue and an unparalleled understanding of human nature� (Shelf Awareness), Anxious People’s whimsical plot serves up unforgettable insights into the human condition and a gentle reminder to be compassionate to all the anxious people we encounter every day.]]> 336 Fredrik Backman 1982121602 Maria 5 4.12 2019
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Maria
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/14
date added: 2024/07/13
shelves:
review:

]]> 73936042
From one of the finest writers working today, Keegan's new story asks if a lack of generosity might ruin what could be between men and women.]]> 47 Claire Keegan 0571382010 Maria 4 3.97 2023
author: Claire Keegan
name: Maria
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/10
date added: 2024/07/10
shelves:
review:

]]> 181133 317 page edition

First, there were ten—a curious assortment of strangers summoned as weekend guests to a little private island off the coast of Devon. Their host, an eccentric millionaire unknown to all of them, is nowhere to be found. All that the guests have in common is a wicked past they're unwilling to reveal—and a secret that will seal their fate. For each has been marked for murder. A famous nursery rhyme is framed and hung in every room of the mansion:

"Ten little boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there were nine. Nine little boys sat up very late; One overslept himself and then there were eight. Eight little boys traveling in Devon; One said he'd stay there then there were seven. Seven little boys chopping up sticks; One chopped himself in half and then there were six. Six little boys playing with a hive; A bumblebee stung one and then there were five. Five little boys going in for law; One got in Chancery and then there were four. Four little boys going out to sea; A red herring swallowed one and then there were three. Three little boys walking in the zoo; A big bear hugged one and then there were two. Two little boys sitting in the sun; One got frizzled up and then there was one. One little boy left all alone; He went out and hanged himself and then there were none."

When they realize that murders are occurring as described in the rhyme, terror mounts. One by one they fall prey. Before the weekend is out, there will be none. Who has choreographed this dastardly scheme? And who will be left to tell the tale? Only the dead are above suspicion.]]> 250 Agatha Christie Maria 0 4.31 1939
author: Agatha Christie
name: Maria
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1939
rating: 0
read at: 2020/04/13
date added: 2024/07/01
shelves:
review:

]]> 46041199 A fierce international bestseller that launched Korea’s new feminist movement, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 follows one woman’s psychic deterioration in the face of rigid misogyny.

Truly, flawlessly, completely, she became that person.

In a small, tidy apartment on the outskirts of the frenzied metropolis of Seoul lives Kim Jiyoung. A thirtysomething-year-old “millennial everywoman,� she has recently left her white-collar desk job—in order to care for her newborn daughter full-time—as so many Korean women are expected to do. But she quickly begins to exhibit strange symptoms that alarm her husband, parents, and in-laws: Jiyoung impersonates the voices of other women—alive and even dead, both known and unknown to her. As she plunges deeper into this psychosis, her discomfited husband sends her to a male psychiatrist.

In a chilling, eerily truncated third-person voice, Jiyoung’s entire life is recounted to the psychiatrist—a narrative infused with disparate elements of frustration, perseverance, and submission. Born in 1982 and given the most common name for Korean baby girls, Jiyoung quickly becomes the unfavored sister to her princeling little brother. Always, her behavior is policed by the male figures around her—from the elementary school teachers who enforce strict uniforms for girls, to the coworkers who install a hidden camera in the women’s restroom and post their photos online. In her father’s eyes, it is Jiyoung’s fault that men harass her late at night; in her husband’s eyes, it is Jiyoung’s duty to forsake her career to take care of him and their child—to put them first.

Jiyoung’s painfully common life is juxtaposed against a backdrop of an advancing Korea, as it abandons “family planning� birth control policies and passes new legislation against gender discrimination. But can her doctor flawlessly, completely cure her, or even discover what truly ails her?

Rendered in minimalist yet lacerating prose, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 sits at the center of our global #MeToo movement and announces the arrival of writer of international significance]]> 163 Cho Nam-Joo 1631496700 Maria 3 4.17 2016
author: Cho Nam-Joo
name: Maria
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/05
date added: 2024/05/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 57693262 For readers of Modern Lovers and Conversations with Friends, an addictive, humorous, and poignant debut novel about the shock waves caused by one couple's impulsive marriage.

Twenty-four-year-old British painter Cleo has escaped from England to New York and is still finding her place in the sleepless city when, a few months before her student visa ends, she meets Frank. Twenty years older and a self-made success, Frank's life is full of all the excesses Cleo's lacks. He offers her the chance to be happy, the freedom to paint, and the opportunity to apply for a Green Card. But their impulsive marriage irreversibly changes both their lives, and the lives of those close to them, in ways they never could've predicted.

Each compulsively readable chapter explores the lives of Cleo, Frank, and an unforgettable cast of their closest friends and family as they grow up and grow older. Whether it's Cleo's best friend struggling to embrace his gender queerness in the wake of Cleo's marriage, or Frank's financially dependent sister arranging sugar daddy dates to support herself after being cut off, or Cleo and Frank themselves as they discover the trials of marriage and mental illness, each character is as absorbing, and painfully relatable, as the last.

As hilarious as it is heartbreaking, entertaining as it is deeply moving, Cleopatra and Frankenstein marks the entry of a brilliant and bold new talent.]]> 384 Coco Mellors 1635576814 Maria 2 3.70 2022
author: Coco Mellors
name: Maria
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2024/04/30
date added: 2024/04/30
shelves:
review:

]]> 53285047 We were just these innocent girls in the night trying to make something beautiful. We nearly died. We very nearly did, didn't we?

Samantha Heather Mackey couldn't be more of an outsider in her small, highly selective MFA program at New England's Warren University. A scholarship student who prefers the company of her dark imagination to that of most people, she is utterly repelled by the rest of her fiction writing cohort--a clique of unbearably twee rich girls who call each other Bunny, and seem to move and speak as one.

But everything changes when Samantha receives an invitation to the Bunnies' fabled Smut Salon, and finds herself inexplicably drawn to their front door--ditching her only friend, Ava, in the process. As Samantha plunges deeper and deeper into the Bunnies' sinister yet saccharine world, beginning to take part in the ritualistic off-campus Workshop where they conjure their monstrous creations, the edges of reality begin to blur. Soon, her friendships with Ava and the Bunnies will be brought into deadly collision.

The spellbinding new novel from one of our most fearless chroniclers of the female experience, Bunny is a down-the-rabbit-hole tale of loneliness and belonging, friendship and desire, and the fantastic and terrible power of the imagination.

Named a Best Book of 2019 by TIME, Vogue, Electric Literature, and The New York Public Library]]> 305 Mona Awad 0525559752 Maria 3 3.43 2019
author: Mona Awad
name: Maria
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/13
date added: 2024/04/13
shelves:
review:

]]> 492459 Antarctica, have been acclaimed by The Observer to be "among the finest contemporary stories written recently in English."

In "Antarctica," a married woman travels out of town to see what it's like to sleep with a man other than her husband. "Love in the Tall Grass" takes Cordelia down a coastal road on the last day of the twentieth century to keep a date with her lover that has been nine years in the waiting. "Stay Close to the Water's Edge" tells of a young Harvard student who is pitilessly humiliated by his homophobic stepfather on his birthday. Keegan's writing has a clear vision of unaffected truths and boldly explores a world where dreams, memory, and chance have crippling consequences for those involved. The stories are often dark and enveloped in a palpable atmosphere, and the reader feels that something "big" is going on in each of these carefully sculpted tales.

The award-winning Antarctica, a Los Angeles Times Best Book of 2001, and recipient of the prestigious Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the William Trevor Prize, and the Martin Healy Award, is a haunting debut.]]> 224 Claire Keegan 0802139019 Maria 3 3.86 1999
author: Claire Keegan
name: Maria
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1999
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/12
date added: 2024/03/12
shelves:
review:

]]> 40864002 ASIN B08H831J18 moved to the more recent edition

Centuries before, robots of Panga gained self-awareness, laid down their tools, wandered, en masse into the wilderness, never to be seen again. They faded into myth and urban legend.

Now the life of the tea monk who tells this story is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of "what do people need?" is answered. But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how. They will need to ask it a lot. Chambers' series asks: in a world where people have what they want, does having more matter?]]> 151 Becky Chambers Maria 4 4.25 2021
author: Becky Chambers
name: Maria
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/09
date added: 2024/03/09
shelves:
review:

]]> 55410610
But at night, Panenka suffers crippling headaches that he calls his Iron Mask. Faced with losing everything, he meets Esther, a woman who has come to live in the town to escape her own disappointments. Together, they find resonance in each other’s experiences and learn new ways to let love into their broken lives.]]> 164 Ronan Hession 1910422673 Maria 4 3.98 2021
author: Ronan Hession
name: Maria
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/07
date added: 2024/03/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 60701439
One day, Greta recognizes Big Swiss’s voice in town and they quickly become enmeshed. While Big Swiss is unaware Greta has eavesdropped on her most intimate exchanges, Greta has never been more herself with anyone. Her attraction to Big Swiss overrides her guilt, and she’ll do anything to sustain the relationship…]]> 336 Jen Beagin 1982153083 Maria 3 3.69 2023
author: Jen Beagin
name: Maria
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/05
date added: 2024/03/06
shelves:
review:

]]> 58536037 A young, mixed-race vampire must find a way to balance her deep-seated desire to live amongst humans with her incessant hunger in this stunning debut novel from a writer-to-watch.

Lydia is hungry. She's always wanted to try Japanese food. Sashimi, ramen, onigiri with sour plum stuffed inside - the food her Japanese father liked to eat. And then there is bubble tea and iced-coffee, ice cream and cake, and foraged herbs and plants, and the vegetables grown by the other young artists at the London studio space she is secretly squatting in. But, Lydia can't eat any of these things. Her body doesn't work like those of other people. The only thing she can digest is blood, and it turns out that sourcing fresh pigs' blood in London--where she is living away from her vampire mother for the first time - is much more difficult than she'd anticipated.

Then there are the humans--the other artists at the studio space, the people at the gallery she interns at, the strange men that follow her after dark, and Ben, a boyish, goofy-grinned artist she is developing feelings for. Lydia knows that they are her natural prey, but she can't bring herself to feed on them. In her windowless studio, where she paints and studies the work of other artists, binge-watches Buffy the Vampire Slayer and videos of people eating food on YouTube and Instagram, Lydia considers her place in the world. She has many of the things humans wish for--perpetual youth, near-invulnerability, immortality--but, she is miserable; she is lonely; and she is hungry--always hungry.

As Lydia develops as a woman and an artist, she will learn that she must reconcile the conflicts within her--between her demon and human sides, her mixed ethnic heritage, and her relationship with food, and, in turn, humans if she is to find a way to exist in the world. Before any of this, however, she must eat.]]> 240 Claire Kohda 0063140888 Maria 3 3.46 2022
author: Claire Kohda
name: Maria
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/29
date added: 2024/02/29
shelves:
review:

]]> 13378570 48 Albert Uderzo 9603214426 Maria 0 3.24 2005
author: Albert Uderzo
name: Maria
average rating: 3.24
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at: 2024/02/28
date added: 2024/02/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 1772910 82 Fyodor Dostoevsky Maria 5 4.16 1848
author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Maria
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1848
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/28
date added: 2024/02/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 125485818
Oppenheimer centers on the life of the "father of the atomic bomb." Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, the film stars Cillian Murphy as the man who led the effort, in the midst of a world war, to unleash the power of the atom.

Christopher Nolan has fashioned a story of discovery bathed in the light of a thousand suns  � but one that is darkened by government surveillance and the travesty of a trial to which Oppenheimer was subjected. 

In his introduction to the screenplay, Kai Bird, co-author of American Prometheus , praises Nolan’s skill in taking an extremely complex life story and miraculously turning it into "visual art that is faithful both to the history and the man."]]> 220 Christopher Nolan 0571381316 Maria 5 4.75
author: Christopher Nolan
name: Maria
average rating: 4.75
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/27
date added: 2024/02/27
shelves:
review:

]]> 72355 Poor Things is a postmodern revision of Frankenstein that replaces the traditional monster with Bella Baxter - a beautiful young erotomaniac brought back to life with the brain of an infant. Godwin Baxter's scientific ambition to create the perfect companion is realized when he finds the drowned body of Bella, but his dream is thwarted by Dr. Archibald McCandless's jealous love for Baxter's creation.

The hilarious tale of love and scandal that ensues would be "the whole story" in the hands of a lesser author (which in fact it is, for this account is actually written by Dr. McCandless). For Gray, though, this is only half the story, after which Bella (a.k.a. Victoria McCandless) has her own say in the matter. Satirizing the classic Victorian novel, Poor Things is a hilarious political allegory and a thought-provoking duel between the desires of men and the independence of women, from one of Scotland's most accomplished authors.]]> 318 Alasdair Gray 0747562288 Maria 3 3.92 1992
author: Alasdair Gray
name: Maria
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1992
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/27
date added: 2024/02/27
shelves:
review:

]]> 80571
J. Robert Oppenheimer is one of the iconic figures of the twentieth century, a brilliant physicist who led the effort to build the atomic bomb for his country in a time of war and who later found himself confronting the moral consequences of scientific progress.

When he proposed international controls over atomic materials, opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb, and criticized plans for a nuclear war, his ideas were anathema to powerful advocates of a massive nuclear buildup during the anti-Communist hysteria of the early 1950s. They declared that Oppenheimer could not be trusted with America’s nuclear secrets.

In this magisterial biography twenty-five years in the making, which won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for biography, the authors capture Oppenheimer’s life and times, from his early career to his central role in the Cold War.]]> 721 Kai Bird Maria 5 4.27 2005
author: Kai Bird
name: Maria
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/19
date added: 2024/02/19
shelves:
review:
I don't think I will ever read another biography the same way again after reading this... My expectations have gone up the roof. Easiest 5 stars of the year.
]]> 51483080 This is an alternative cover edition for ISBN 9780007527557. Other editions can be found here and here.

The tranquillity of a cruise along the Nile is shattered by the discovery that Linnet Ridgeway has been shot through the head. She was young, stylish and beautiful, a girl who had everything - until she lost her life. Hercule Poirot recalls an earlier outburst by a fellow passenger: 'I'd like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger.' Yet in this exotic setting, nothing is ever quite what it seems...]]> 384 Agatha Christie Maria 3 4.16 1937
author: Agatha Christie
name: Maria
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1937
rating: 3
read at: 2021/06/06
date added: 2024/02/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 67762 ł§˛ą±ô´ÇłľĂ© was translated into English by Lord Alfred Douglas, inspired some of Aubrey Beardsley's finest illustrations (long available in a Dover edition), and served as the text (in abridged form) for Strauss' renowned opera of the same name. The play's haunting poetic imagery, biblical cadences, and febrile atmosphere have earned it a reputation as a masterpiece of the Aesthetic movement of fin de siècle England. The present volume reprints the complete text of the first English edition (1894), including „A Note on ł§˛ą±ô´ÇłľĂ©â€� by Robert Ross. It will be welcomed by students and lovers of literature and drama, and any admirer of the incomparable Oscar Wilde.

Languages: French, English]]> 64 Oscar Wilde 0486421279 Maria 4 3.69 1891
author: Oscar Wilde
name: Maria
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1891
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/31
date added: 2024/01/31
shelves:
review:

]]> 75582270
Not fully understanding her own reasons for going back to the place where she once lived and raised a family, and that she had been determined to forget forever, both anticipated encounters and unanticipated revelations show her that sometimes life is neither fate nor chance: perhaps her return is nothing more than a little luck…]]> 211 Claudia Piñeiro 1913867552 Maria 4 4.31 2015
author: Claudia Piñeiro
name: Maria
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/30
date added: 2024/01/30
shelves:
review:

]]> 158875813
On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find the GNSB on her step. Two officers from Ireland’s newly formed secret police are here to interrogate her husband, a trade unionist.

Ireland is falling apart. The country is in the grip of a government turning towards tyranny and Eilish can only watch helplessly as the world she knew disappears. When first her husband and then her eldest son vanish, Eilish finds herself caught within the nightmare logic of a collapsing society.

How far will she go to save her family? And what � or who � is she willing to leave behind?

Exhilarating, terrifying and propulsive, Prophet Song is a work of breathtaking originality, offering a devastating vision of a country at war and a deeply human portrait of a mother’s fight to hold her family together.]]> 259 Paul Lynch Maria 3 4.03 2023
author: Paul Lynch
name: Maria
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/26
date added: 2024/01/26
shelves:
review:

]]> 127020
Set in Ireland just after World War II, The Ginger Man is J. P. Donleavy's wildly funny, picaresque classic novel of the misadventures of Sebastian Dangerfield, a young American ne'er-do-well studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Dangerfield's appetite for women, liquor, and general roguishness is insatiable--and he satisfies it with endless charm.]]> 347 J.P. Donleavy 0802137954 Maria 3 3.65 1955
author: J.P. Donleavy
name: Maria
average rating: 3.65
book published: 1955
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/21
date added: 2024/01/21
shelves:
review:

]]> 61089551 What did we want? To begin with, we wanted what half the population had got by just being born.

It’s 1895. Amid laundry and bruises, Rina Pierangeli Faccio gives birth to the child of the man who raped her � the man she has been forced to marry. Unbroken, she determines to change her name and, alongside it, her life.

1902. Romaine Brooks sails for Capri. She has barely enough money for the ferry, nothing for lunch; her paintbrushes are bald and clotted. But she is sure she can sell a painting � and is fervent in her belief that the island is detached from all fates she has previously suffered.

In 1923, Virginia Woolf writes: I want to make life fuller � and fuller.

Told in a series of cascading vignettes, featuring a multitude of voices, After Sappho reimagines the lives of a brilliant group of feminists, sapphists, artists and writers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century as they battle for liberation, justice and control over their own lives.

Sarah Bernhardt, Colette, Eileen Gray, Lina Poletti: these are just a few of the women (some famous, others hitherto unsung) sharing the pages of a novel as fierce as it is luminous. Lush and poetic, furious and funny, After Sappho celebrates the women and trailblazers of the past � and offers hope for our present, and our futures.]]> 272 Selby Wynn Schwartz 1324092319 Maria 3 3.46 2022
author: Selby Wynn Schwartz
name: Maria
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/29
date added: 2024/01/01
shelves:
review:

]]> 44295320 Faber Stories, a landmark series of individual volumes, presents masters of the short story form at work in a range of genres and styles.

You try every trick in the book to keep her. You write her letters. You drive her to work. You quote Neruda ... You try it all, but one day she will simply sit up in bed and say, No more.

In Yunior, a Dominican-American writer and Harvard professor, Junot D�az has created an irresistibly erratic protagonist, who sweeps you up in the poetic energy of his speech as he rehearses a broad repertoire of bad behaviour.

Originally the climactic tale in the chain-linked This is How You Lose Her, 'The Cheater's Guide to Love' is a superb standalone song of decadence and experience.

Bringing together past, present and future in our ninetieth year, Faber Stories is a celebratory compendium of collectable work.]]> 56 Junot DĂ­az 0571355994 Maria 3 3.72 2012
author: Junot DĂ­az
name: Maria
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/31
date added: 2024/01/01
shelves:
review:

]]> 41713581 Faber Stories, a landmark series of individual volumes, presents masters of the short story form at work in a range of genres and styles.

The evening is fine. In the sky a few early stars are shining of their own accord. She watches the dog licking the bowl clean. This dog will break her daughter's heart, she's sure of it.

Claire Keegan's mesmeric story takes us into the heart of the Wicklow countryside, and of the farming family of Victor Deegan, with his 'three teenagers, the milking and the mortgage'.

When Deegan finds a gun dog and gives it as a present to his only daughter, his wife is filled with foreboding at this seeming act of kindness. As the seasons pass, long-buried family secrets threaten to emerge.

Bringing together past, present and future in our ninetieth year, Faber Stories is a celebratory compendium of collectable work.]]> 68 Claire Keegan 0571351859 Maria 4 4.05
author: Claire Keegan
name: Maria
average rating: 4.05
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/24
date added: 2023/12/24
shelves:
review:

]]> 5246
Ethan Frome works his unproductive farm and struggles to maintain a bearable existence with his difficult, suspicious and hypochondriac wife, Zeena. But when Zeena's vivacious cousin enters their household as a hired girl, Ethan finds himself obsessed with her and with the possibilities for happiness she comes to represent.

In one of American fiction's finest and most intense narratives, Edith Wharton moves this ill-starred trio toward their tragic destinies. Different in both tone and theme from Wharton's other works, Ethan Frome has become perhaps her most enduring and most widely read book.]]> 99 Edith Wharton Maria 4 3.42 1911
author: Edith Wharton
name: Maria
average rating: 3.42
book published: 1911
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/23
date added: 2023/12/23
shelves:
review:

]]> 6798263 Suppose I were to begin by saying that I had fallen in love with a color...

A lyrical, philosophical, and often explicit exploration of personal suffering and the limitations of vision and love, as refracted through the color blue. With Bluets, Maggie Nelson has entered the pantheon of brilliant lyric essayists.]]> 112 Maggie Nelson 1933517409 Maria 3 4.09 2009
author: Maggie Nelson
name: Maria
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/22
date added: 2023/12/22
shelves:
review:

]]> 43159250 A Good Man Is Hard to Find is Flannery O'Connor's most famous and most discussed story. O'Connor herself singled it out by making it the title piece of her first collection and the story she most often chose for readings or talks to students. It is an unforgettable tale, both riveting and comic, of the confrontation of a family with violence and sudden death. More than anything else O'Connor ever wrote, this story mixes the comedy, violence, and religious concerns that characterize her fiction.]]> 23 Flannery O'Connor 0571354696 Maria 0 3.33 1949
author: Flannery O'Connor
name: Maria
average rating: 3.33
book published: 1949
rating: 0
read at: 2023/12/21
date added: 2023/12/21
shelves:
review:

]]> 1162506 This edition contains substantial excerpts from the original four-act version which was never produced, as well as the full text of the final three-act version, selections from Wilde's correspondence, and commentary by George Bernard Shaw, Max Beerbohm, St. John Hankin, and James Agate. “It is exquisitely trivial, a delicate bubble of fancy and it has its philosophy; that we should treat all trivial things of life seriously, and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality.� –Oscar Wilde]]> 160 Oscar Wilde 0380012774 Maria 5 4.19 1895
author: Oscar Wilde
name: Maria
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1895
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/21
date added: 2023/12/21
shelves:
review:

]]> 42614095
Lips the colour of blood, the sun an unprecedented orange, train wheels that sound like 'guilt, and guilt, and guilt': these are just some of the things Mary Ventura begins to notice on her journey to the ninth kingdom.

'But what is the ninth kingdom?' she asks a kind-seeming lady in her carriage. 'It is the kingdom of the frozen will,' comes the reply. 'There is no going back.'

Sylvia Plath's strange, dark tale of independence over infanticide, written not long after she herself left home, grapples with mortality in motion.

Bringing together past, present and future in our ninetieth year, Faber Stories is a celebratory compendium of collectable work.]]> 40 Sylvia Plath 0571351735 Maria 0 3.97 2019
author: Sylvia Plath
name: Maria
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at: 2023/12/20
date added: 2023/12/20
shelves:
review:

]]> 34234631 My love for him felt so total and so annihilating that it was often impossible for me to see him clearly at all.

Years ago, Sukie moved in with Nathan because her mother was dead and her father was difficult, and she had nowhere else to go. Now they are on the brink of the inevitable.

Sally Rooney is one of the most acclaimed young talents of recent years. With her minute attention to the power dynamics in everyday speech, she builds up sexual tension and throws a deceptively low-key glance at love and death.]]> 33 Sally Rooney 0571351956 Maria 0 3.76 2016
author: Sally Rooney
name: Maria
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at: 2023/12/19
date added: 2023/12/19
shelves:
review:

]]> 53780642 A workplace novel of the 22nd century

The near-distant future. Millions of kilometres from Earth.

The crew of the Six-Thousand ship consists of those who were born, and those who were created. Those who will die, and those who will not. When the ship takes on a number of strange objects from the planet New Discovery, the crew is perplexed to find itself becoming deeply attached to them, and human and humanoid employees alike find themselves longing for the same things: warmth and intimacy. Loved ones who have passed. Our shared, far-away Earth, which now only persists in memory.

Gradually, the crew members come to see themselves in a new light, and each employee is compelled to ask themselves whether their work can carry on as before � and what it means to be truly alive.

Structured as a series of witness statements compiled by a workplace commission, Ravn’s crackling prose is as chilling as it is moving, as exhilarating as it is foreboding. Wracked by all kinds of longing, The Employees probes into what it means to be human, emotionally and ontologically, while simultaneously delivering an overdue critique of a life governed by work and the logic of productivity.]]> 136 Olga Ravn Maria 3 3.69 2018
author: Olga Ravn
name: Maria
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/19
date added: 2023/12/19
shelves:
review:

]]> 50269327
Now Natsuki is grown. She lives a quiet life with her asexual husband, surviving as best she can by pretending to be normal. But the demands of Natsuki's family are increasing, her friends wonder why she's still not pregnant, and dark shadows from Natsuki's childhood are pursuing her. Fleeing the suburbs for the mountains of her childhood, Natsuki prepares herself with a reunion with Yuu. Will he still remember their promise? And will he help her keep it?]]> 247 Sayaka Murata 1783785675 Maria 5 3.59 2018
author: Sayaka Murata
name: Maria
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/18
date added: 2023/12/18
shelves:
review:

]]> 32758901 "As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure."

In a corporate-dominated space-faring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. For their own safety, exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids. But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.

On a distant planet, a team of scientists is conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied �droid--a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.� Scornful of humans, Murderbot wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is, but when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and Murderbot to get to the truth.]]> 144 Martha Wells Maria 4 4.11 2017
author: Martha Wells
name: Maria
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/17
date added: 2023/12/17
shelves:
review:

]]> 44081573 Finna is a rambunctious, touching story that blends all the horrors the multiverse has to offer with the everyday awfulness of low-wage work. It explores queer relationships and queer feelings, capitalism and accountability, labor and love, all with a bouncing sense of humor and a commitment to the strange.

When an elderly customer at a big box furniture store slips through a portal to another dimension, it’s up to two minimum-wage employees to track her across the multiverse and protect their company’s bottom line. Multi-dimensional swashbuckling would be hard enough, but those two unfortunate souls broke up a week ago.

To find the missing granny, Ava and Jules will brave carnivorous furniture, swarms of identical furniture spokespeople, and the deep resentment simmering between them. Can friendship blossom from the ashes of their relationship? In infinite dimensions, all things are possible.]]> 103 Nino Cipri 1250245729 Maria 3 3.64 2020
author: Nino Cipri
name: Maria
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/17
date added: 2023/12/17
shelves:
review:

]]> 56179382
It's just that he's away so much. So often. He works so hard. She misses him. And he misses her. He says he does, so it must be true. He is the perfect husband and everything is perfect.

But sometimes Sophia wonders about things. Strange things. Dark things. The look on her husband's face when he comes back from a long business trip. The questions he will not answer. The locked basement she is never allowed to enter. And whenever she asks the neighbors, they can't quite meet her gaze...

But everything is perfect. Isn't it?]]> 103 Catherynne M. Valente 1250816211 Maria 3 3.58 2021
author: Catherynne M. Valente
name: Maria
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/15
date added: 2023/12/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 31373633 A little book with a big heart!

From the New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, and Britt-Marie Was Here comes an exquisitely moving portrait of an elderly man’s struggle to hold on to his most precious memories, and his family’s efforts to care for him even as they must find a way to let go.

With all the same charm of his bestselling full-length novels, here Fredrik Backman once again reveals his unrivaled understanding of human nature and deep compassion for people in difficult circumstances. This is a tiny gem with a message you’ll treasure for a lifetime.]]> 97 Fredrik Backman 1501160575 Maria 4 4.34 2015
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Maria
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/14
date added: 2023/12/14
shelves:
review:

]]> 60301701 94 Naben Ruthnum 1988964385 Maria 3 3.31 2022
author: Naben Ruthnum
name: Maria
average rating: 3.31
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/14
date added: 2023/12/14
shelves:
review:

]]> 13456414
In this haunting existential novella, author, philosopher, and ecologist Steven L. Peck explores a subversive vision of eternity, taking the reader on a journey through the afterlife of a world where everything everyone believed in turns out to be wrong.]]> 110 Steven L. Peck 098374842X Maria 4 4.17 2011
author: Steven L. Peck
name: Maria
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/13
date added: 2023/12/13
shelves:
review:

]]> 60435878 Carrie Soto is fierce, and her determination to win at any cost has not made her popular.

By the time Carrie retires from tennis, she is the best player the world has ever seen. She has shattered every record and claimed twenty Slam titles. And if you ask her, she is entitled to every one. She sacrificed nearly everything to become the best, with her father as her coach.

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

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

In spite of it all: Carrie Soto is back, for one epic final season. In this riveting and unforgettable novel, Taylor Jenkins Reid tells a story about the cost of greatness and a legendary athlete attempting a comeback.]]> 384 Taylor Jenkins Reid 0593158687 Maria 4 4.19 2022
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Maria
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/01
date added: 2023/12/01
shelves:
review:

]]> 890 “I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that's why.�

They are an unlikely pair: George is "small and quick and dark of face"; Lennie, a man of tremendous size, has the mind of a young child. Yet they have formed a "family," clinging together in the face of loneliness and alienation. Laborers in California's dusty vegetable fields, they hustle work when they can, living a hand-to-mouth existence. But George and Lennie have a plan: to own an acre of land and a shack they can call their own.

While the powerlessness of the laboring class is a recurring theme in Steinbeck's work of the late 1930s, he narrowed his focus when composing Of Mice and Men, creating an intimate portrait of two men facing a world marked by petty tyranny, misunderstanding, jealousy, and callousness. But though the scope is narrow, the theme is universal: a friendship and a shared dream that makes an individual's existence meaningful.

A unique perspective on life's hardships, this story has achieved the status of timeless classic due to its remarkable success as a novel, a Broadway play, and three acclaimed films.]]> 107 John Steinbeck 0142000671 Maria 2 3.88 1937
author: John Steinbeck
name: Maria
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1937
rating: 2
read at: 2023/11/29
date added: 2023/11/29
shelves:
review:

]]> 40539136 The award-winning, bestselling French novel by Philippe Besson about an affair between two teenage boys in 1984 France, translated with subtle beauty and haunting lyricism by the iconic and internationally acclaimed actress/writer Molly Ringwald.

We drive at high speed along back roads, through woods, vineyards, and oat fields. The bike smells like gasoline and makes a lot of noise, and sometimes I’m frightened when the wheels slip on the gravel on the dirt road, but the only thing that matters is that I’m holding on to him, that I’m holding on to him outside.

Just outside a hotel in Bordeaux, Philippe chances upon a young man who bears a striking resemblance to his first love. What follows is a look back at the relationship he’s never forgotten, a hidden affair with a gorgeous boy named Thomas during their last year of high school. Without ever acknowledging they know each other in the halls, they steal time to meet in secret, carrying on a passionate, world-altering affair.

Dazzlingly rendered in English by Ringwald in her first-ever translation, Besson’s powerfully moving coming-of-age story captures the eroticism and tenderness of first love—and the heartbreaking passage of time.]]> 149 Philippe Besson 1501197878 Maria 4 4.25 2017
author: Philippe Besson
name: Maria
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/27
date added: 2023/11/27
shelves:
review:

]]> 59357120
So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? This piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller. That is what June believes, and The New York Times bestseller list agrees.

But June cannot escape Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens her stolen success. As she races to protect her secret she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.]]> 329 R.F. Kuang Maria 3 3.84 2023
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Maria
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2023/11/26
date added: 2023/11/26
shelves:
review:

]]> 54294206 Solitaire.

I used to think that difficult was better than boring, but I know better now�

I’m not going to think about the past few months, about Charlie and me, and all of the sad. I’m going to block it all out. Just for today.

"Happy Christmas, " I say.

The festive season isn't always happy for Tori and her brother Charlie. And this year's going to be harder than most.]]> 102 Alice Oseman 0008412936 Maria 0 4.08 2015
author: Alice Oseman
name: Maria
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at: 2021/12/10
date added: 2023/11/12
shelves:
review:

]]> 15047
In her unique and mesmerizing voice, Winterson blends reality with fantasy, dream, and imagination to weave a hypnotic tale with stunning effects.]]> 160 Jeanette Winterson 0802135226 Maria 4 4.14 1987
author: Jeanette Winterson
name: Maria
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1987
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/08
date added: 2023/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 57538700
With each chapter released as a podcast episode, The Magnus Archive is structured as a series of statements recorded or written and then recorded for internal research use within The Magnus Institute. At the beginning of each statement, the statement-taker (mainly Jon, the head archivist) provides a brief description of the statement and the name of the statement-maker. Those who give or record statements in the Magnus Institute tend to lapse into a trance-like state not unlike reliving the event.

The fifth and final season, and concluding chapter to the horror series.]]> 289 Jonathan Sims Maria 4 4.70
author: Jonathan Sims
name: Maria
average rating: 4.70
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/06
date added: 2023/11/06
shelves:
review:

]]> 141421 254 Simone de Beauvoir Maria 4 4.01 1967
author: Simone de Beauvoir
name: Maria
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1967
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/02
date added: 2023/11/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 49977811 Set in early 1980s Poland against the violent decline of communism, a tender and passionate story of first love between two young men who eventually find themselves on opposite sides of the political divide—a stunningly poetic and heartrending literary debut for fans of Andre Aciman, Garth Greenwell, and Alan Hollinghurst.

When university student Ludwik meets Janusz at a summer agricultural camp, he is fascinated yet wary of this handsome, carefree stranger. But a chance meeting by the river soon becomes an intense, exhilarating, and all-consuming affair. After their camp duties are fulfilled, the pair spend a dreamlike few weeks camping in the countryside, bonding over an illicit copy of James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room. Inhabiting a beautiful natural world removed from society and its constraints, Ludwik and Janusz fall deeply in love. But in their repressive communist and Catholic society, the passion they share is utterly unthinkable.

Once they return to Warsaw, the charismatic Janusz quickly rises in the political ranks of the party and is rewarded with a highly-coveted position in the ministry. Ludwik is drawn toward impulsive acts of protest, unable to ignore rising food prices and the stark economic disparity around them. Their secret love and personal and political differences slowly begin to tear them apart as both men struggle to survive in a regime on the brink of collapse.

Shifting from the intoxication of first love to the quiet melancholy of growing up and growing apart, Swimming in the Dark is a potent blend of romance, post-war politics, intrigue, and history. Lyrical and sensual, immersive and intense, Tomasz Jedrowski has crafted an indelible and thought-provoking literary debut that explores freedom and love in all its incarnations.]]> 191 Tomasz Jedrowski 006289000X Maria 3 4.25 2020
author: Tomasz Jedrowski
name: Maria
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2023/10/28
date added: 2023/10/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 56802275 A unique tale that interweaves crime fiction with intimate tales of morality and search for individual freedom.

After Rita is found dead in the bell tower of the church she used to attend, the official investigation into the incident is quickly closed. Her sickly mother is the only person still determined to find the culprit. Chronicling a difficult journey across the suburbs of the city, an old debt and a revealing conversation, Elena Knows unravels the secrets of its characters and the hidden facets of authoritarianism and hypocrisy in our society.]]> 143 Claudia Piñeiro Maria 5 4.09 2007
author: Claudia Piñeiro
name: Maria
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 2023/10/20
date added: 2023/10/20
shelves:
review:

]]> 89724 Shirley Jackson’s beloved gothic tale of a peculiar girl named Merricat and her family’s dark secret

Taking readers deep into a labyrinth of dark neurosis, We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a deliciously unsettling novel about a perverse, isolated, and possibly murderous family and the struggle that ensues when a cousin arrives at their estate. This edition features a new introduction by Jonathan Lethem.]]> 152 Shirley Jackson 0143039970 Maria 4 3.93 1962
author: Shirley Jackson
name: Maria
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1962
rating: 4
read at: 2023/10/19
date added: 2023/10/19
shelves:
review:

]]> 25334576
In this moment of despair they are visited by Crow - antagonist, trickster, healer, babysitter. This self-described sentimental bird is attracted to the grieving family and threatens to stay until they no longer need him. As weeks turn to months and physical pain of loss gives way to memories, this little unit of three begin to heal.

In this extraordinary debut - part novella, part polyphonic fable, part essay on grief, Max Porter's compassion and bravura style combine to dazzling effect. Full of unexpected humour and profound emotional truth, Grief is the Thing with Feathers marks the arrival of a thrilling new talent.]]> 114 Max Porter 0571323766 Maria 5 3.85 2015
author: Max Porter
name: Maria
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2023/10/17
date added: 2023/10/17
shelves:
review:

]]> 2165 Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

This short novel, already a modern classic, is the superbly told, tragic story of a Cuban fisherman in the Gulf Stream and the giant Marlin he kills and loses—specifically referred to in the citation accompanying the author's Nobel Prize for literature in 1954.]]> 96 Ernest Hemingway 0684830493 Maria 4 3.81 1952
author: Ernest Hemingway
name: Maria
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1952
rating: 4
read at: 2023/10/11
date added: 2023/10/11
shelves:
review:

]]> 8143909
Winner of the Davy Byrnes Memorial Prize, Foster is now published in a revised and expanded version. Beautiful, sad and eerie, it is a story of astonishing emotional depth, showcasing Claire Keegan's great accomplishment and talent.]]> 89 Claire Keegan 0571255655 Maria 5 4.32 2010
author: Claire Keegan
name: Maria
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2023/10/10
date added: 2023/10/10
shelves:
review:

]]> 58662236
Already an international bestseller, Small Things Like These is a deeply affecting story of hope, quiet heroism, and empathy from one of our most critically lauded and iconic writers.]]> 128 Claire Keegan 0802158749 Maria 4 4.14 2021
author: Claire Keegan
name: Maria
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/10/09
date added: 2023/10/09
shelves:
review:

]]> 60400779 209 Baek Se-hee 152665086X Maria 2 3.25 2018
author: Baek Se-hee
name: Maria
average rating: 3.25
book published: 2018
rating: 2
read at: 2023/09/05
date added: 2023/09/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 22738563 We Should All Be Feminists, a personal, eloquently-argued essay—adapted from her much-viewed TEDx talk of the same name—by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the award-winning author of Americanah and Half of a Yellow Sun.

With humor and levity, here Adichie offers readers a unique definition of feminism for the twenty-first century—one rooted in inclusion and awareness. She shines a light not only on blatant discrimination, but also the more insidious, institutional behaviors that marginalize women around the world, in order to help readers of all walks of life better understand the often masked realities of sexual politics. Throughout, she draws extensively on her own experiences—in the U.S., in her native Nigeria, and abroad—offering an artfully nuanced explanation of why the gender divide is harmful for women and men, alike.

Argued in the same observant, witty and clever prose that has made Adichie a bestselling novelist, here is one remarkable author’s exploration of what it means to be a woman today—and an of-the-moment rallying cry for why we should all be feminists.]]> 65 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Maria 5 4.42 2012
author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
name: Maria
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/05
date added: 2023/09/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 50266871
Despite their mutually beneficial pact, they start developing real feelings for each other. But relationships are complicated, and some people will do anything to stop two Bengali girls from achieving happily ever after.]]> 352 Adiba Jaigirdar Maria 4 4.08 2021
author: Adiba Jaigirdar
name: Maria
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/02
date added: 2023/09/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 57007967 A lush, sweeping queer historical romance from the bestselling author of Boyfriend Material—perfect for fans of Netflix’s Bridgerton, Evie Dunmore, and Manda Collins!

When Viola Carroll was presumed dead at Waterloo she took the opportunity to live, at last, as herself. But freedom does not come without a price, and Viola paid for hers with the loss of her wealth, her title, and her closest companion, Justin de Vere, the Duke of Gracewood.

Only when their families reconnect, years after the war, does Viola learn how deep that loss truly was. Shattered without her, Gracewood has retreated so far into grief that Viola barely recognises her old friend in the lonely, brooding man he has become.

As Viola strives to bring Gracewood back to himself, fresh desires give new names to old feelings. Feelings that would have been impossible once and may be impossible still, but which Viola cannot deny. Even if they cost her everything, all over again.]]> 460 Alexis Hall 1538753758 Maria 3 4.05 2022
author: Alexis Hall
name: Maria
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/08/30
date added: 2023/08/30
shelves:
review:

]]> 51931067 From Stonewall and Lambda Award-winning author Kacen Callender comes a revelatory YA novel about a transgender teen grappling with identity and self-discovery while falling in love for the first time.

Felix Love has never been in love—and, yes, he’s painfully aware of the irony. He desperately wants to know what it’s like and why it seems so easy for everyone but him to find someone. What’s worse is that, even though he is proud of his identity, Felix also secretly fears that he’s one marginalization too many—Black, queer, and transgender—to ever get his own happily-ever-after.

When an anonymous student begins sending him transphobic messages—after publicly posting Felix’s deadname alongside images of him before he transitioned—Felix comes up with a plan for revenge. What he didn’t count on: his catfish scenario landing him in a quasi–love triangle....

But as he navigates his complicated feelings, Felix begins a journey of questioning and self-discovery that helps redefine his most important relationship: how he feels about himself.

Felix Ever After is an honest and layered story about identity, falling in love, and recognizing the love you deserve.]]> 368 Kacen Callender 0062820257 Maria 3 4.21 2020
author: Kacen Callender
name: Maria
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2021/09/30
date added: 2023/08/24
shelves:
review:

]]> 58690308 One summer. Two rivals. A plot twist they didn't see coming....

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

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

If Nora knows she’s not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he’s nobody’s hero, but as they are thrown together again and again—in a series of coincidences no editor worth their salt would allow—what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they’ve written about themselves.]]> 377 Emily Henry 0593334833 Maria 3 4.09 2022
author: Emily Henry
name: Maria
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/08/21
date added: 2023/08/21
shelves:
review:

]]> 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 Maria 4
“Can it be that I have not lived as one ought?" suddenly came into his head. "But how not so, when I've done everything as it should be done?�

incredible book, i wanna read more tolstoy. if his talent is so vast in only 83 pages, i can't imagine what he can accomplish in more.

4.4 stars]]> 4.12 1886
author: Leo Tolstoy
name: Maria
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1886
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/15
date added: 2023/07/17
shelves:
review:
what if death takes so long to come that you wonder about your life? what if death is punishing? what if it's clarifying? what if death is the only tool to recognise that your life has been a sham? that you haven't felt any actual joy since you were a kid? that you've hated everyone around you and them you as well? that even in the worst part of your life, you can find hope in a good natured servant? that the slow decay of your body resembles the slowness your life started to fall apart.

“Can it be that I have not lived as one ought?" suddenly came into his head. "But how not so, when I've done everything as it should be done?�

incredible book, i wanna read more tolstoy. if his talent is so vast in only 83 pages, i can't imagine what he can accomplish in more.

4.4 stars
]]> 49552 The Stranger has long been considered a classic of twentieth-century literature. Le Monde ranks it as number one on its "100 Books of the Century" list. Through this story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on a sundrenched Algerian beach, Camus explores what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd."]]> 123 Albert Camus Maria 5 4.04 1942
author: Albert Camus
name: Maria
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1942
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/15
date added: 2023/07/15
shelves:
review:
the stranger is so relatable because I too would kill someone with a revolver because of the heatwave
]]> 50825882 A revelatory, uplifting, and gorgeously illustrated meditation on dedication, hard work, and the power of perseverance from the beloved, New York Times bestselling, and two-time National Book Award–winning Jesmyn Ward.

For Tulane University’s 2018 commencement, Jesmyn Ward delivered a stirring speech about the value of hard work and the importance of respect for oneself and others. Speaking about the challenges she and her family overcame, Ward inspired everyone in the audience with her meditation on tenacity in the face of hardship. Now, in book form, Ward’s moving words will inspire readers as they prepare for the next chapter in their lives, whether, like Ward, they are the first in their families to graduate from college or are preceded by generations, or whether they are embarking on a different kind of journey later in life.

Beautifully illustrated in full color by Gina Triplett, this gorgeous and profound book will charm a generation of students—and their parents. Ward’s inimitable voice shines through as she shares her experience as a Southern black woman and addresses the themes of grit, adversity, and the importance of family bonds. Navigate Your Stars is a perfect gift for anyone in need of inspiration from the author of Salvage the Bones, Men We Reaped, and Sing, Unburied, Sing.]]> 64 Jesmyn Ward 1982131322 Maria 0 4.17 2020
author: Jesmyn Ward
name: Maria
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2023/07/14
date added: 2023/07/14
shelves:
review:

]]> 26883514
Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is illustrated throughout by Sir John Gilbert, and includes an introduction by Dr Robert Mighall.

When the youngest daughter refuses to take part in this charade, she is banished, leaving the king dependent on her manipulative and untrustworthy sisters. In the scheming and recriminations that follow, not only does the king's own sanity crumble, but the stability of the realm itself is also threatened.]]> 208 William Shakespeare 1909621927 Maria 3 4.00 1605
author: William Shakespeare
name: Maria
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1605
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/14
date added: 2023/07/14
shelves:
review:

]]> 32927264 A quixotic and funny tale about first love � from the Akutagawa Prize-winning author.

Ms Ice Sandwich seems to lack social graces, but our young narrator is totally smitten with her. He is in awe of her aloofness, her skill at slipping sandwiches into bags, and, most electric of all, her ice-blue eyelids. Every day he is drawn to the supermarket just to watch her in action. But life has a way of interfering � there is his mother, forever distracted, who can tell the fortunes of women; his grandmother, silently dying, who listens to his heart; and his classmate, Tutti, no stranger to pain, who shares her private thrilling world with him.

Tender, warm, yet unsentimental, Ms Ice Sandwich is a story about new starts, parents who have departed, and the importance of saying goodbye.]]> 92 Mieko Kawakami 1782273301 Maria 3 3.76 2013
author: Mieko Kawakami
name: Maria
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/14
date added: 2023/07/14
shelves:
review:

]]> 58949799
Encompassing both the flowering of queer poetry over the past few decades and the poets who came before and broke new ground, 100 Queer Poems presents an electrifying range of writing from the twentieth century to the present day.

Questioning and redefining what we mean by a 'queer' poem, you'll find inside classics by Elizabeth Bishop, Langston Hughes, Wilfred Owen, Charlotte Mew and June Jordan, central contemporary figures such as Mark Doty, Jericho Brown, Carol Ann Duffy, Kei Miller, Kae Tempest, Natalie Diaz and Ocean Vuong, alongside thrilling new voices including Chen Chen, Richard Scott, Harry Josephine Giles, Verity Spott and Jay Bernard.

Curated by two widely acclaimed poets, Andrew McMillan and Mary Jean Chan, 100 Queer Poems moves from childhood and adolescence to forging new homes and relationships with our chosen families, from urban life to the natural world, from explorations of the past to how we find and create our future selves. It deserves a place on the shelf of every reader keen to discover and rediscover how queer poets speak to one another across the generations.]]> 175 Mary Jean Chan 1529115329 Maria 3 3.82 2022
author: Mary Jean Chan
name: Maria
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/13
date added: 2023/07/13
shelves:
review:

]]> 35838277 354 Andrea Lawlor 0986086991 Maria 4 3.88 2017
author: Andrea Lawlor
name: Maria
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/11
date added: 2023/07/11
shelves:
review:

]]> 7624 182 William Golding 0140283331 Maria 1 3.70 1954
author: William Golding
name: Maria
average rating: 3.70
book published: 1954
rating: 1
read at: 2023/06/29
date added: 2023/06/30
shelves:
review:

]]> 26883549
Designed to appeal to the book lover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautifully bound gift editions of much loved classic titles. Bound in real cloth, printed on high quality paper, and featuring ribbon markers and gilt edges, Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.]]> 200 J.M. Barrie 1909621633 Maria 4 4.04 1911
author: J.M. Barrie
name: Maria
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1911
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/03
date added: 2023/06/03
shelves:
review:

]]> 57894080
My name is Tori Spring. I like to sleep and I like to blog. Last year � before all that stuff with Charlie and before I had to face the harsh realities of A-Levels and university applications and the fact that one day I really will have to start talking to people � I had friends. Things were very different, I guess, but that’s all over now.

Now there’s Solitaire. And Michael Holden.

I don’t know what Solitaire are trying to do, and I don’t care about Michael Holden.
I really don’t.

This incredible debut novel by outstanding young author Alice Oseman is perfect for fans of John Green, Rainbow Rowell and all unflinchingly honest writers.]]> 392 Alice Oseman Maria 0 3.84 2014
author: Alice Oseman
name: Maria
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at: 2021/12/10
date added: 2023/04/06
shelves:
review:

]]> 5907 Written for J.R.R. Tolkien’s own children, The Hobbit met with instant critical acclaim when it was first published in 1937. Now recognized as a timeless classic, this introduction to the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, the wizard Gandalf, Gollum, and the spectacular world of Middle-earth recounts of the adventures of a reluctant hero, a powerful and dangerous ring, and the cruel dragon Smaug the Magnificent. The text in this 372-page paperback edition is based on that first published in Great Britain by Collins Modern Classics (1998), and includes a note on the text by Douglas A. Anderson (2001).]]> 366 J.R.R. Tolkien Maria 4 4.29 1937
author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: Maria
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1937
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/03
date added: 2023/03/03
shelves:
review:

]]> 55276648 An unforgettable and heartwarming debut about how a chance encounter with a list of library books helps forge an unlikely friendship between two very different people in a London suburb.

Widower Mukesh lives a quiet life in the London Borough of Ealing after losing his beloved wife. He shops every Wednesday, goes to Temple, and worries about his granddaughter, Priya, who hides in her room reading while he spends his evenings watching nature documentaries.

Aleisha is a bright but anxious teenager working at the local library for the summer when she discovers a crumpled-up piece of paper in the back of To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s a list of novels that she’s never heard of before. Intrigued, and a little bored with her slow job at the checkout desk, she impulsively decides to read every book on the list, one after the other. As each story gives up its magic, the books transport Aleisha from the painful realities she’s facing at home.

When Mukesh arrives at the library, desperate to forge a connection with his bookworm granddaughter, Aleisha passes along the reading list� hoping that it will be a lifeline for him too. Slowly, the shared books create a connection between two lonely souls, as fiction helps them escape their grief and everyday troubles and find joy again. ]]> 368 Sara Nisha Adams 0063025280 Maria 4 4.02 2021
author: Sara Nisha Adams
name: Maria
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/01
date added: 2023/02/20
shelves:
review:

]]> 92625 Some inhabitants of a peaceful kingdom cannot tolerate the act of cruelty that underlies its happiness.

The story 'Omelas" was first published in 'New Dimensions 3' (1973), a hard-cover science fiction anthology edited by Robert Silverberg, in October 1973, and the following year it won the prestigious Hugo Award for best short story.

The work was subsequently printed in Le Guin's short story collection 'The Wind's Twelve Quarters' (1975).

Ursula K Le Guin (1929�2018) was an American writer who published twenty-two novels, eleven volumes of short stories, four collections of essays, twelve books for children, six volumes of poetry & four of translation, and has received many awards: Hugo, Nebula, National Book Award, PEN-Malamud, and more. She was known for her treatment of gender ('The Left Hand of Darkness' (1969), 'The Matter of Seggri' (1994)), political systems ('The Telling' (2000), 'The Dispossessed' (1974)) and difference/otherness in any other form.]]> 32 Ursula K. Le Guin 0886825016 Maria 4 4.38 1973
author: Ursula K. Le Guin
name: Maria
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1973
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/16
date added: 2023/01/21
shelves:
review:

]]> 15718070 German Franz Kafka Maria 5 3.86 1917
author: Franz Kafka
name: Maria
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1917
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/21
date added: 2023/01/21
shelves:
review:

]]> 44421460 What would you change if you could go back in time?

In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café which has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time.

In Before the Coffee Gets Cold, we meet four visitors, each of whom is hoping to make use of the café’s time-travelling offer, in order to: confront the man who left them, receive a letter from their husband whose memory has been taken by early onset Alzheimer's, to see their sister one last time, and to meet the daughter they never got the chance to know.

But the journey into the past does not come without risks: customers must sit in a particular seat, they cannot leave the café, and finally, they must return to the present before the coffee gets cold . . .

Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s beautiful, moving story explores the age-old question: what would you change if you could travel back in time? More importantly, who would you want to meet, maybe for one last time?]]> 213 Toshikazu Kawaguchi 1529029589 Maria 3 3.67 2015
author: Toshikazu Kawaguchi
name: Maria
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2023/01/13
date added: 2023/01/13
shelves:
review:

]]> 57945316 From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a historical fantasy epic that grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British Empire

Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.

1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel. The tower and its students are the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver-working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as the arcane craft serves the Empire's quest for colonization.

For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide . . .

Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?]]> 544 R.F. Kuang 0063021420 Maria 5 4.17 2022
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Maria
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2022/12/29
date added: 2022/12/29
shelves:
review:

]]> 57538680
With each chapter released as a podcast episode, The Magnus Archive is structured as a series of statements recorded or written and then recorded for internal research use within The Magnus Institute. At the beginning of each statement, the statement-taker (mainly Jon, the head archivist) provides a brief description of the statement and the name of the statement-maker. Those who give or record statements in the Magnus Institute tend to lapse into a trance-like state not unlike reliving the event.

The fourth season of this award winning horror audio-drama series.]]> 409 Jonathan Sims Maria 4 4.79
author: Jonathan Sims
name: Maria
average rating: 4.79
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2022/12/24
date added: 2022/12/24
shelves:
review:

]]> 44279110
Our narrator should be happy, shouldn’t she? She’s young, thin, pretty, a recent Columbia graduate, works an easy job at a hip art gallery, lives in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan paid for, like the rest of her needs, by her inheritance. But there is a dark and vacuous hole in her heart, and it isn’t just the loss of her parents, or the way her Wall Street boyfriend treats her, or her sadomasochistic relationship with her best friend, Reva. It’s the year 2000 in a city aglitter with wealth and possibility; what could be so terribly wrong?

My Year of Rest and Relaxation is a powerful answer to that question. Through the story of a year spent under the influence of a truly mad combination of drugs designed to heal our heroine from her alienation from this world, Moshfegh shows us how reasonable, even necessary, alienation can be. Both tender and blackly funny, merciless and compassionate, it is a showcase for the gifts of one of our major writers working at the height of her powers.]]> 289 Ottessa Moshfegh 0525522131 Maria 2 3.62 2018
author: Ottessa Moshfegh
name: Maria
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2018
rating: 2
read at: 2022/11/27
date added: 2022/11/27
shelves:
review:

]]> 18306730 720 Herman Melville 0141199601 Maria 4 3.73 1851
author: Herman Melville
name: Maria
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1851
rating: 4
read at: 2022/11/26
date added: 2022/11/26
shelves:
review:

]]> 48037
But as Carmilla becomes increasingly strange and volatile, prone to eerie nocturnal wanderings, Laura finds herself tormented by nightmares and growing weaker by the day� Pre-dating Dracula by twenty-six years, Carmilla is the original vampire story, steeped in sexual tension and gothic romance.]]> 108 J. Sheridan Le Fanu 0809510839 Maria 3 3.88 1872
author: J. Sheridan Le Fanu
name: Maria
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1872
rating: 3
read at: 2022/11/23
date added: 2022/11/23
shelves:
review:

]]> 59694078
By the winner of the YA Book Prize, Heartstopper is about love, friendship, loyalty and mental illness. It encompasses all the small stories of Nick and Charlie's lives that together make up something larger, which speaks to all of us.

'The queer graphic novel we wished we had at high school.' Gay Times

Contents:
� Introduction
� Profile Pages: Alice, Nick, and Charlie
� Heartstopper Moment: Pride
� The Art of Heartstopper
� Profile Pages: Tara, Darcy, Elle, and Tao
� Heartstopper Moment: Summer
� Quiz: Are You More Nick . . . or More Charlie?
� Mini-comic: The Teachers
� Profile Pages: Harry, Ben, Nellie, Henry, and Aled
� Heartstopper Moment: Halloween
� The World of Heartstopper
� Mini-comic: Moments
� Profile Pages: Tori, Sahar, Mr. Farouk, and Mr. Ajayi
� Heartstopper Moment: Winter
� Family Tree: The Springs
� Family Tree: The Nelsons
� How to Draw Heartstopper
� Mini-comic: Girlfriends
� Heartstopper Moment: Alternate Universes
� Author's Note]]> 154 Alice Oseman 1444968394 Maria 5 4.39 2022
author: Alice Oseman
name: Maria
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2022/11/19
date added: 2022/11/19
shelves:
review:

]]> 49090884
His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tries not to think too hard about how he makes a living. After all, it happened so quickly. First, it was reported that an infectious virus has made all animal meat poisonous to humans. Then governments initiated the “Transition.� Now, eating human meat—“special meat”—is legal. Marcos tries to stick to numbers, consignments, processing.

Then one day he’s given a a live specimen of the finest quality. Though he’s aware that any form of personal contact is forbidden on pain of death, little by little he starts to treat her like a human being. And soon, he becomes tortured by what has been lost—and what might still be saved.]]> 209 Agustina Bazterrica 1982150920 Maria 3 3.76 2017
author: Agustina Bazterrica
name: Maria
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2022/11/17
date added: 2022/11/17
shelves:
review:

]]> 286957
In a private journal, the woman records her growing obsession with the “horrid� wallpaper. Its strange pattern mutates in the moonlight, revealing what appears to be a human figure in the design. With nothing else to occupy her mind, the woman resolves to unlock the mystery of the wallpaper. Her quest, however, leads not to the truth, but into the darkest depths of madness.

A condemnation of the patriarchy, The Yellow Wallpaper explores with terrifying economy the oppression, grave misunderstanding, and willful dismissal of women in late nineteenth-century society.

First published in January 1892 in The New England Magazine.

Excerpt:
Out of another I get a lovely view of the bay and a little private wharf belonging to the estate. There is a beautiful shaded lane that runs down there from the house. I always fancy I see people walking in these numerous paths and arbors, but John has cautioned me not to give way to fancy in the least. He says that with my imaginative power and habit of story-making a nervous weakness like mine is sure to lead to all manner of excited fancies, and that I ought to use my will and good sense to check the tendency. So I try.]]> 62 Charlotte Perkins Gilman 1558611584 Maria 5 4.11 1892
author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman
name: Maria
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1892
rating: 5
read at: 2022/11/17
date added: 2022/11/17
shelves:
review:

]]> 9786023 Dracula probes deeply into human identity, sanity, and the dark corners of Victorian sexuality and desire. When Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to help Count Dracula purchase a London house, he makes horrifying discoveries about his client. Soon afterward, disturbing incidents unfold in England—an unmanned ship is wrecked at Whitby, strange puncture marks appear on a young woman's neck, and a lunatic asylum inmate raves about the imminent arrival of his "Master"—culminating in a battle of wits between the sinister Count and a determined group of adversaries.

This edition is part of the Penguin Classics Clothbound series designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith.]]> 454 Bram Stoker 0141196882 Maria 5 3.97 1897
author: Bram Stoker
name: Maria
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1897
rating: 5
read at: 2022/11/09
date added: 2022/11/09
shelves:
review:

]]> 58236753
A whirlpool of darkness churns at the heart of a macabre ballet between two lonely young women in an internet chat room in the early 2000s—a darkness that threatens to forever transform them once they finally succumb to their most horrific desires.

What have you done today to deserve your eyes?]]> 114 Eric LaRocca 1951658124 Maria 3 3.08 2021
author: Eric LaRocca
name: Maria
average rating: 3.08
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2022/10/18
date added: 2022/10/18
shelves:
review:

]]> 6514 294 Sylvia Plath 0571268862 Maria 2 4.05 1963
author: Sylvia Plath
name: Maria
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1963
rating: 2
read at: 2022/10/17
date added: 2022/10/17
shelves:
review:

]]> 53840982
With each chapter released as a podcast episode, The Magnus Archive is structured as a series of statements recorded or written and then recorded for internal research use within The Magnus Institute. At the beginning of each statement, the statement-taker (mainly Jon, the head archivist) provides a brief description of the statement and the name of the statement-maker. Those who give or record statements in the Magnus Institute tend to lapse into a trance-like state not unlike reliving the event.

The third season of the acclaimed and highly popular horror series.]]> Jonathan Sims Maria 4 4.82
author: Jonathan Sims
name: Maria
average rating: 4.82
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2022/10/15
date added: 2022/10/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 17690 The Trial is the terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about which he can get no information. Whether read as an existential tale, a parable, or a prophecy of the excesses of modern bureaucracy wedded to the madness of totalitarianism, The Trial has resonated with chilling truth for generations of readers.]]> 255 Franz Kafka Maria 4 4.00 1925
author: Franz Kafka
name: Maria
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1925
rating: 4
read at: 2022/10/14
date added: 2022/10/14
shelves:
review:

]]> 485894 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 0553213695 / 9780553213690

"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. He was laying on his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his domelike brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes."

With it's startling, bizarre, yet surprisingly funny first opening, Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetle-like insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. A harrowing—though absurdly comic—meditation on human feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and isolation, The Metamorphosis has taken its place as one of the most widely read and influential works of twentieth-century fiction. As W.H. Auden wrote, "Kafka is important to us because his predicament is the predicament of modern man."]]> 201 Franz Kafka 0553213695 Maria 4 3.90 1915
author: Franz Kafka
name: Maria
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1915
rating: 4
read at: 2022/10/02
date added: 2022/10/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 17184 192 H.G. Wells 0451528522 Maria 2 3.63 1897
author: H.G. Wells
name: Maria
average rating: 3.63
book published: 1897
rating: 2
read at: 2022/09/30
date added: 2022/09/30
shelves:
review:

]]> 13747794 260 Oscar Wilde 0674066316 Maria 5 4.32 1890
author: Oscar Wilde
name: Maria
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1890
rating: 5
read at: 2022/09/29
date added: 2022/09/29
shelves:
review:

]]> 12996 319 William Shakespeare Maria 4 3.89 1603
author: William Shakespeare
name: Maria
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1603
rating: 4
read at: 2022/09/21
date added: 2022/09/21
shelves:
review:

]]> 82346 The Two Gentlemen of Verona is more intelligible if we think of them as boys, leaving home for the first time. One has a crush on a girl, Julia, though he hasn’t yet told her.

Sent to court to learn to be “perfect gentlemen,� Valentine and Proteus are derailed by their attraction to Sylvia, the ruler’s daughter. Valentine’s mental denseness does not deter Sylvia from returning his love, but he is caught, and banished, when he tries to elope with her. Proteus’s desire for Sylvia wipes out his former love, leading him into despicable acts that win scorn from Sylvia and wound Julia, who has pursued him disguised as a boy.

When Sylvia follows Valentine into banishment, Proteus follows Sylvia, and Julia follows Proteus, the stage is set for a disturbing ending. But the stage is also set for the “gentlemen� to take small steps toward maturity.

The authoritative edition of The Two Gentlemen of Verona from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers, includes:

-Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play
-Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play
-Scene-by-scene plot summaries
-A key to the play’s famous lines and phrases
-An introduction to reading Shakespeare’s language
-An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play
-Fresh images from the Folger Shakespeare Library’s vast holdings of rare books
-An annotated guide to further reading

Essay by Jeffrey Masten

The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is home to the world’s largest collection of Shakespeare’s printed works, and a magnet for Shakespeare scholars from around the globe. In addition to exhibitions open to the public throughout the year, the Folger offers a full calendar of performances and programs. For more information, visit Folger.edu.]]> 245 William Shakespeare 0671722956 Maria 2 3.40 1594
author: William Shakespeare
name: Maria
average rating: 3.40
book published: 1594
rating: 2
read at: 2022/09/21
date added: 2022/09/21
shelves:
review:

]]> 474073 New York Times bestselling and Newbery Medal-winning author Neil Gaiman’s modern classic, Coraline—also an Academy Award-nominated film

"Coraline discovered the door a little while after they moved into the house...."

When Coraline steps through a door to find another house strangely similar to her own (only better), things seem marvelous.

But there's another mother there, and another father, and they want her to stay and be their little girl. They want to change her and never let her go.

Coraline will have to fight with all her wit and courage if she is to save herself and return to her ordinary life.

Neil Gaiman's Coraline is a can't-miss classic that enthralls readers age 8 to 12 but also adults who enjoy a perfect smart spooky read.]]> 162 Neil Gaiman 0380977788 Maria 3 4.05 2002
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Maria
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2002
rating: 3
read at: 2022/09/11
date added: 2022/09/11
shelves:
review:

]]>