Jennifer's bookshelf: all en-US Fri, 11 Apr 2025 09:35:52 -0700 60 Jennifer's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World]]> 138505710
Not long ago, the celebrated activist and public intellectual Naomi Klein had just such an experience¨Dshe was confronted with a doppelganger whose views she found abhorrent but whose name and public persona were sufficiently similar to her own that many people got confused about who was who. Destabilized, she lost her bearings, until she began to understand the experience as one manifestation of a strangeness many of us have come to know but struggle to define: AI-generated text is blurring the line between genuine and spurious communication; New Age wellness entrepreneurs turned anti-vaxxers are scrambling familiar political allegiances of left and right; and liberal democracies are teetering on the edge of absurdist authoritarianism, even as the oceans rise. Under such conditions, reality itself seems to have become unmoored. Is there a cure for our moment of collective vertigo?

Naomi Klein is one of our most trenchant and influential social critics, an essential analyst of what branding, austerity, and climate profiteering have done to our societies and souls. Here she turns her gaze inward to our psychic landscapes, and outward to the possibilities for building hope amid intersecting economic, medical, and political crises. With the assistance of Sigmund Freud, Jordan Peele, Alfred Hitchcock, and bell hooks, among other accomplices, Klein uses wry humor and a keen sense of the ridiculous to face the strange doubles that haunt us¨Dand that have come to feel as intimate and proximate as a warped reflection in the mirror.

Combining comic memoir with chilling reportage and cobweb-clearing analysis, Klein seeks to smash that mirror and chart a path beyond despair. Doppelganger What do we neglect as we polish and perfect our digital reflections? Is it possible to dispose of our doubles and overcome the pathologies of a culture of multiplication? Can we create a politics of collective care and undertake a true reckoning with historical crimes? The result is a revelatory treatment of the way many of us think and feel now¨Dand an intellectual adventure story for our times.]]> 416 Naomi Klein 0374610320 Jennifer 0 currently-reading 4.21 2023 Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World
author: Naomi Klein
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/11
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection]]> 220341389 John Green, the #1 bestselling author of The Anthropocene Reviewed and a passionate advocate for global healthcare reform, tells a deeply human story illuminating the fight against the world¡¯s deadliest disease.

Tuberculosis has been entwined with humanity for millennia. Once romanticized as a malady of poets, today tuberculosis is a disease of poverty that walks the trails of injustice and inequity we blazed for it.

In 2019, John Green met Henry, a young tuberculosis patient at Lakka Government Hospital in Sierra Leone while traveling with Partners in Health. John became fast friends with Henry, a boy with spindly legs and a big, goofy smile. In the years since that first visit to Lakka, Green has become a vocal and dynamic advocate for increased access to treatment and wider awareness of the healthcare inequities that allow this curable, treatable infectious disease to also be the deadliest, killing 1.5 million people every year.

In Everything is Tuberculosis, John tells Henry¡¯s story, woven through with the scientific and social histories of how tuberculosis has shaped our world and how our choices will shape the future of tuberculosis.]]> 208 John Green 0525556575 Jennifer 5 history 4.55 2025 Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection
author: John Green
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/09
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: history
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Vol. 1]]> 36538793
In Taisho-era Japan, Tanjiro Kamado is a kindhearted boy who makes a living selling charcoal. But his peaceful life is shattered when a demon slaughters his entire family. His little sister Nezuko is the only survivor, but she has been transformed into a demon herself! Tanjiro sets out on a dangerous journey to find a way to return his sister to normal and destroy the demon who ruined his life.

Learning to slay?demons won¡¯t be easy, and Tanjiro barely knows where to start. The surprise appearance of another boy named Giyu, who seems to know what¡¯s going on, might provide some answers¡­but only if Tanjiro can stop Giyu from killing his sister first!]]> 192 Koyoharu Gotouge 1974700526 Jennifer 4 manga 4.39 2016 Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Vol. 1
author: Koyoharu Gotouge
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2021/04/08
date added: 2025/04/04
shelves: manga
review:
Strong first volume and very much deserves the hype from what I've read so far. Gotouge manages to tick a lot of genre boxes while creating something that feels exciting and fresh, and I already really care about the characters; I'll be reading on for sure.
]]> <![CDATA[A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan, #1)]]> 37794149
Now, Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her Station from Teixcalaan's unceasing expansion¡ªall while navigating an alien culture that is all too seductive, engaging in intrigues of her own, and hiding a deadly technological secret¡ªone that might spell the end of her Station and her way of life¡ªor rescue it from annihilation.]]> 448 Arkady Martine 1529001587 Jennifer 0 sci-fi, currently-reading 4.08 2019 A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan, #1)
author: Arkady Martine
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/27
shelves: sci-fi, currently-reading
review:

]]> Uprooted 27827627
Her people rely on the cold, ambitious wizard, known only as the Dragon, to keep the wood's powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman must be handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as being lost to the wood.

The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows - everyone knows - that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia - all the things Agnieszka isn't - and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her.

But no one can predict how or why the Dragon chooses a girl. And when he comes, it is not Kasia he will take with him.

From the author of the Temeraire series comes this hugely imaginative, engrossing and vivid fantasy novel, inspired by folk and fairy tales. It is perfect reading for fans of Robin Hobb and Trudi Canavan.]]> 435 Naomi Novik 1447294149 Jennifer 0 fantasy, currently-reading 3.91 2015 Uprooted
author: Naomi Novik
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/27
shelves: fantasy, currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk]]> 769016 Recently revised and updated with fresh insights and suggestions, How to Talk so Kids Will Listen & Listen so Kids Will Talk is full of practical, innovative ways to solve common problems and build foundations for lasting relationships.]]> 286 Adele Faber 0380811960 Jennifer 0 to-read 4.26 1980 How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk
author: Adele Faber
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1980
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Maternity Service: A Love Letter to Mothers from the Front Line of Maternity Leave]]> 214645279 The essential companion for every mother embarking on maternity leave

'In one important sense maternity leave is poorly named, as it involves no actual leave. You are constantly on, even when your offspring is having a nap. There is nothing restful about it. In another sense maternity leave is aptly named, because it¡¯s a period of leave from all you taking leave of one¡¯s mind, body, job, and relationships'

When Emma Barnett began her second maternity leave, she realized that, despite having been there before, as soon as her first leave finished the rose-tinted lenses had descended and she immediately forgot what the experience was actually like when you¡¯re in it. This collective forgetting, which leads to well-meaning comments such as ¡®enjoy every minute¡¯ and ¡®treasure this special time¡¯, is doing a disservice to women, leaving them unprepared for the more complicated reality of what it means to be on maternity service.

In this warmly reassuring, refreshingly honest book, Emma sets out to capture this reality, in real time while on her latest tour of duty . She ¾±²õ²Ô¡¯³Ù offering advice on sleep-training or weaning or helping your baby reach milestones. Instead, this book is a celebration and acknowledgement of the work of being on maternity leave, with its soaring highs and challenging lows, and its impact on how women feel about our purpose and ourselves.

'Kind, funny, smart, soothing and radical ... This book is a hot cup of tea, a steadying hand on an arm, a baton passed with care and compassion ... A true gift for mothers, and an act of service in itself. This book will change lives' LUCY JONES, author of Matrescence]]> 144 Emma Barnett 1405966629 Jennifer 3 gender-race-class-non-fiction 3.87 2025 Maternity Service: A Love Letter to Mothers from the Front Line of Maternity Leave
author: Emma Barnett
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/16
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves: gender-race-class-non-fiction
review:

]]> No Logo 647 No Logo employs journalistic savvy and personal testament to detail the insidious practices and far-reaching effects of corporate marketing¡ªand the powerful potential of a growing activist sect that will surely alter the course of the 21st century. First published before the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle, this is an infuriating, inspiring, and altogether pioneering work of cultural criticism that investigates money, marketing, and the anti-corporate movement.

As global corporations compete for the hearts and wallets of consumers who not only buy their products but willingly advertise them from head to toe¡ªwitness today's schoolbooks, superstores, sporting arenas, and brand-name synergy¡ªa new generation has begun to battle consumerism with its own best weapons. In this provocative, well-written study, a front-line report on that battle, we learn how the Nike swoosh has changed from an athletic status-symbol to a metaphor for sweatshop labor, how teenaged McDonald's workers are risking their jobs to join the Teamsters, and how "culture jammers" utilize spray paint, computer-hacking acumen, and anti-propagandist wordplay to undercut the slogans and meanings of billboard ads (as in "Joe Chemo" for "Joe Camel").

No Logo will challenge and enlighten students of sociology, economics, popular culture, international affairs, and marketing.

"This book is not another account of the power of the select group of corporate Goliaths that have gathered to form our de facto global government. Rather, it is an attempt to analyze and document the forces opposing corporate rule, and to lay out the particular set of cultural and economic conditions that made the emergence of that opposition inevitable." ¡ªNaomi Klein, from her Introduction]]> 528 Naomi Klein 0312421435 Jennifer 0 currently-reading 3.89 2000 No Logo
author: Naomi Klein
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Pablo and Splash: Frozen in Time: The hilarious kids' graphic novel series about time-travelling penguins]]> 211003909 Time-travelling penguins Pablo and Splash must rescue their friend from the Ice Age in this brilliantly funny, full-colour graphic novel for young readers.Pablo and Splash go to visit Professor O'Brain in her lab, only to find that their friend has been left behind in the Ice Age by her misbehaving time machine. The brave penguin buddies set out on a rescue mission ¨C destination 68,000 years ago! When a Neanderthal man accidentally wanders into their time machine, it's not just the professor who is stuck in the wrong time period. But luckily a scientific breakthrough for Pablo and Splash's endlessly upbeat approach to life's challenges helps save the day!The race against time ¨C several times over! ¨C makes this pacey and hilarious graphic novel irresistible. It'll be a huge hit for fans of Bunny vs Monkey, Bumble and Snug, funny animal stories and light-hearted ancient history.]]> 240 Sheena Dempsey 1547616199 Jennifer 4 4.26 Pablo and Splash: Frozen in Time: The hilarious kids' graphic novel series about time-travelling penguins
author: Sheena Dempsey
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.26
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/16
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves: childrens, comics-and-graphic-novels, read-with-tobias
review:

]]> Too Much Stuff 54828091 A rhyming story about a pair of hoarding magpies that demonstrates the danger of having too much stuff.

Based in the same forest as Emily Gravett's Tidy.

Meg and Ash are a pair of magpies who are building a nest for their perfect eggs. Although they begin their nest construction using the usual mud, sticks and grass, Meg and Ash are soon convinced that their nest doesn't have enough stuff and begin to seek out more things to collect and add to an ever-growing pile. From cuckoo clocks to mops and socks, a stroller and even a car - their need for stuff doesn't seems endless. Until - crash! - the inevitable happens...]]> 32 Emily Gravett 1509857338 Jennifer 5 childrens, read-with-tobias 4.10 2020 Too Much Stuff
author: Emily Gravett
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/16
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves: childrens, read-with-tobias
review:

]]> Butter 200776812 The cult Japanese bestseller about a female gourmet cook and serial killer and the journalist intent on cracking her case, inspired by a true story.

There are two things that I can simply not tolerate: feminists and margarine.

Gourmet cook Manako Kajii sits in Tokyo Detention Center convicted of the serial murders of lonely businessmen, who she is said to have seduced with her delicious home cooking. The case has captured the nation¡¯s imagination but Kajii refuses to speak with the press, entertaining no visitors. That is, until journalist Rika Machida writes a letter asking for her recipe for beef stew and Kajii can¡¯t resist writing back.

Rika, the only woman in her news office, works late each night, rarely cooking more than ramen. As the visits unfold between her and the steely Kajii, they are closer to a masterclass in food than journalistic research. Rika hopes this gastronomic exchange will help her soften Kajii but it seems that she might be the one changing. With each meal she eats, something is awakening in her body, might she and Kaji have more in common than she once thought?

Inspired by the real case of the convicted con woman and serial killer, "The Konkatsu Killer," Asako Yuzuki¡¯s Butter is a vivid, unsettling exploration of misogyny, obsession, romance and the transgressive pleasures of food in Japan.]]> 464 Asako Yuzuki 0063236400 Jennifer 3 3.51 2017 Butter
author: Asako Yuzuki
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/16
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves:
review:

]]> Zen in the Art of Writing 25457132
The first thing a writer should be is ¨C excited

Author of the iconic FAHRENHEIT 451, THE ILLUSTRATED MAN and THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES, Ray Bradbury is one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century.

Part memoir, part masterclass, ZEN IN THE ART OF WRITING offers a vivid and exuberant insight into the craft of writing. Bradbury reveals how writers can each find their own unique path to developing their voice and style.

ZEN IN THE ART OF WRITING offers a celebration of the act of writing that will delight, impassion, and inspire.]]> 136 Ray Bradbury 0008136513 Jennifer 4 4.08 1973 Zen in the Art of Writing
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1973
rating: 4
read at: 2022/02/04
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves:
review:

]]> Emma Tupper's Diary 1195007 224 Peter Dickinson 0440400805 Jennifer 0 to-read 3.96 1971 Emma Tupper's Diary
author: Peter Dickinson
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1971
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Stag Boy 5012656 160 William Rayner 0152784004 Jennifer 0 to-read 4.24 1972 Stag Boy
author: William Rayner
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1972
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Jujutsu Kaisen, Vol. 1 44451887
In a world where demons feed on unsuspecting humans, fragments of the legendary and feared demon Ryoma Sukuna were lost and scattered about. Should any demon consume Sukuna¡¯s body parts, the power they gain could destroy the world as we know it. Fortunately, there exists a mysterious school of Jujutsu Sorcerers who exist to protect the precarious existence of the living from the undead!

Yuji Itadori is high schooler who spends his days visiting his bedridden grandfather. Although he looks like your average teenager, his immense physical strength is something to behold! Every sports club wants him to join, but Itadori would rather hang out with the school outcasts in the Occult Club. One day, the club manages to get their hands on a sealed cursed object, but little do they know the terror they¡¯ll unleash when they break the seal...?]]> 192 Gege Akutami 1974710025 Jennifer 4 manga 4.31 2018 Jujutsu Kaisen, Vol. 1
author: Gege Akutami
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2021/05/29
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: manga
review:

]]> I Love You Forever and a Day 60401770 0 Amelia Hepworth 1801040087 Jennifer 4 childrens, read-with-tobias Very sweet! 4.07 2021 I Love You Forever and a Day
author: Amelia Hepworth
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/24
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves: childrens, read-with-tobias
review:
Very sweet!
]]> <![CDATA[First Little Rhymes: Out and About]]> 212592859 0 unknown author 1839133791 Jennifer 3 childrens, read-with-tobias 2.50 First Little Rhymes: Out and About
author: unknown author
name: Jennifer
average rating: 2.50
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/24
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves: childrens, read-with-tobias
review:
I could take or leave most of these poems but there's one about a lift and one about a big city that are really lovely.
]]> Swanfolk 59333198
In the not-too-distant future, a young spy named El¨ªsabet Eva finds herself mentally unraveling following an assignment in Paris. Everything in El¨ªsabet¡¯s life in the city¡ªher friends, social engagements, and late nights¡ªrevolved around her work as a spy with the Special Unit. To regain her mental balance, El¨ªsabet finds herself taking long solitary walks near the lake.

One day, she sees two strange beasts emerging from the water¡ªa pair of seemingly mythical creatures, human woman above the waist, swan below. Curious, she follows them through tangles of thickets to a clearing . . . and into a strange new reality.

El¨ªsabet¡¯s walks become regular visits to these swan women. As she earns their trust, the creatures reveal the enigma of their secret existence and their desire to reproduce. Pulled further and further into the swanfolk¡¯s monomaniacal (and often violent) quest, El¨ªsabet finds her own mind growing increasingly untrustworthy. Ultimately, she is forced to reckon with both the consequences of her involvement with these unusual beings and her own past¡ªand face a truth she¡¯s carefully tried to evade.]]> 240 Krist¨ªn ?marsd¨®ttir 006315837X Jennifer 0 to-read 3.04 2019 Swanfolk
author: Krist¨ªn ?marsd¨®ttir
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.04
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The House on the Strand 50246
Alternate cover is available here.]]> 329 Daphne du Maurier Jennifer 3 classics-etc 3.85 1969 The House on the Strand
author: Daphne du Maurier
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1969
rating: 3
read at: 2013/08/27
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves: classics-etc
review:

]]> Agnese Baruzzi Hidden Animals 36446453 28 Agnese Baruzzi 1783707895 Jennifer 5 childrens, read-with-tobias 4.26 Agnese Baruzzi Hidden Animals
author: Agnese Baruzzi
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.26
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/11
date added: 2025/02/11
shelves: childrens, read-with-tobias
review:
This book uses shape cut-outs and illustrations to reveal camoflaged animals. The semi-circle/jellyfish is especially clever and cute!
]]> Thornhedge 61884932 There¡¯s a princess trapped in a tower. This ¾±²õ²Ô¡¯³Ù her story.

Meet Toadling. On the day of her birth, she was stolen from her family by the fairies, but she grew up safe and loved in the warm waters of faerieland. Once an adult though, the fae ask a favor of Toadling: return to the human world and offer a blessing of protection to a newborn child. Simple, right?

But nothing with fairies is ever simple.

Centuries later, a knight approaches a towering wall of brambles, where the thorns are as thick as your arm and as sharp as swords. He's heard there's a curse here that needs breaking, but it's a curse Toadling will do anything to uphold¡­]]> 116 T. Kingfisher 1250244099 Jennifer 5 fantasy 3.95 2023 Thornhedge
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/03
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: fantasy
review:

]]> <![CDATA[One Snowy Night (Percy the Park Keeper)]]> 931515 32 Nick Butterworth 0007146930 Jennifer 5 childrens, read-with-tobias 4.52 1989 One Snowy Night (Percy the Park Keeper)
author: Nick Butterworth
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.52
book published: 1989
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/02
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: childrens, read-with-tobias
review:

]]> Cake 39079874 32 Sue Hendra 1509881999 Jennifer 5 childrens, read-with-tobias 3.89 2018 Cake
author: Sue Hendra
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/02
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: childrens, read-with-tobias
review:
A cake goes to a party and gets a bad feeling... Surprisingly dark and funny!
]]> The Smeds and the Smoos 52336519 32 Julia Donaldson 1407188895 Jennifer 5 childrens, read-with-tobias 4.32 The Smeds and the Smoos
author: Julia Donaldson
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.32
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/02
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: childrens, read-with-tobias
review:

]]> <![CDATA[That's Not My Bunny: Its Tail Is Too Fluffy (Usborne Touchy Feely)]]> 739264 10 Fiona Watt 0794509576 Jennifer 3 childrens, read-with-tobias 4.05 2000 That's Not My Bunny: Its Tail Is Too Fluffy (Usborne Touchy Feely)
author: Fiona Watt
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/02
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: childrens, read-with-tobias
review:
I suppose there aren't many textures on a bunny to work with but the fluffy, fuzzy, soft and smooth pages are all quite similar. Also the bunny with shiny eyes is quite haunting.
]]> Ladyhawke 122909388 Joan D. Vinge Jennifer 0 4.00 Ladyhawke
author: Joan D. Vinge
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: fantasy, media-tie-in, currently-reading
review:

]]> Each Peach Pear Plum 833550
This board book edition is perfect for little hands. In this book "With your little eye, Take a look, And play 'I spy'". This familiar rhyme has been given the brilliant Ahlbreg treatment to which no young child can fail to respond. It's a book which will be read over and over again . . . just perfect!'

"Deceptively simple. 'Each Peach Pear Plum' is a work of genius."
- Elaine Moss]]> 34 Janet Ahlberg 067088278X Jennifer 5 childrens, read-with-tobias 4.23 1978 Each Peach Pear Plum
author: Janet Ahlberg
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1978
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/02
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: childrens, read-with-tobias
review:

]]> Funnybones 1208469 A special edition of this classic picture book to celebrate its 40th anniversary - with a glow-in-the-dark cover!

In the first ever Funnybones book, we are introduced to the wonderful humour and fun of the much-loved series.

The Funnybones books are a must for children just starting to learn to read - these funny skeletons are definitely not the scary sort!

Allan Ahlberg has published over 100 children's books and with his late wife Janet, created many award-winning children's picture books.

The Ahlbergs' books are nursery bookshelf standards and have been the recipient of worldwide acclaim and awards, including the Kate Greenaway Medal.
__________

Look out for these other classics by Allan Ahlberg:

Burglar Bill; Cops and Robbers; Each Peach Pear Plum; The One and Only Two Heads; Son of a Gun; The Little Worm Book; Two Wheels Two Heads; The Baby's Catalogue; A Pair of Sinners; Happy Families; Peepo!; The Ha Ha Bonk Book; Help Your Child to Read; Ten in a Bed; Please mrs Butler; Daisy Chains; Yum Yum; Playmates; Foldaways; Woof; The Cinderella Show; The Jolly Postman; The Jolly Christmas Postman; The Jolly Pocket Postman; The Clothes Horse and Other Stories; The Mighty Slide; Starting School; Heard it in the Playground; The Bear Nobody Wanted; It was a Dark and Stormy Night; The Giant Baby; Baby Sleeps; Blue Buggy; Doll and Teddy; See the Rabbit; Please Mrs Butler; The Better Brown Stories; The Boyhood of Burglar Bill]]> 32 Janet Ahlberg 0140565817 Jennifer 5 childrens, read-with-tobias 4.26 1980 Funnybones
author: Janet Ahlberg
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1980
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/02
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: childrens, read-with-tobias
review:

]]> The Tenant of Wildfell Hall 337113 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is a powerful depiction of a woman's fight for domestic independence and creative freedom.]]> 576 Anne Bront? 0140434747 Jennifer 4 classics-etc 4.00 1848 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
author: Anne Bront?
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1848
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/02
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: classics-etc
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Mending Directory: 50 Modern Stitch Patterns for Visible Repairs]]> 58360248
Repair your well-loved clothes beautifully:

-Over 50 modern stitch patterns in a variety of styles, from geometric grid-based designs to looser nature-inspired patterns
-Make stylish repairs with sashiko mending designs that are visible and trendy
-Save money and practice sustainable fashion instead of buying new again and again
-Iron-on templates for applying to fabric patches are included and reusable
-For any skill level, with mending patterns organized from beginner to expert
-Step-by-step diagrams to show you how to recreate each look, as well as stunning photography of every completed project

Transform your favorite pieces from worn-out to wow!

Do you want to make your favorite clothes meaningful and give them new life? Are you intrigued by alternating stars and zigzag stripes? If so, join super-mender Erin Eggenburg as she shows you how to work over 50 fabulous stitch patterns for visible mending.

An inspiring guide to eco-conscious, sustainable fashion, The Mending Directory offers 50 modern stitch patterns and sashiko visible mending designs to inspire you to repair your clothes in stylish and trendy ways without having to consume more clothing.

This 144-page collection of hand-stitched and darned patterns is organized by skill level from beginner to expert, and each includes step-by-step instructions and a gorgeous photograph of the finished pattern. With designs ranging from geometric grids¡ªincluding diamonds, zigzags, and chevrons¡ªto those in a looser, nature-inspired style such as dandelion clocks, rainbows, and windmills, this is the perfect source of inspiration and instruction for every mending project.

Perfect for both beginners and those with sewing experience, this guide will help you save money, build your sewing and stitching skills, and make stunning fashion statements! The 50 patterns feature a variety of styles for all kinds of wearables. From squares, triangles, and diagonals to flowers, raindrops, stars, hearts, and more, The Mending Directory has something for everyone and every item in need of TLC! Also included are reusable iron-on transfer templates for applying to fabric patches.

Kick fast fashion to the curb and discover beautiful ways to repair and renew your favorite clothes, with The Mending Directory!]]> 144 Erin Eggenburg 1947163825 Jennifer 3 art-books 4.10 2021 The Mending Directory: 50 Modern Stitch Patterns for Visible Repairs
author: Erin Eggenburg
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves: art-books
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Arabilious: Anthology of Arab Futurism]]> 216493736 Arabilious would like to make you discover nine short stories written by authors coming from Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria. The recurring themes of the stories include the effects of new technologies on Arab society, deeply rooted in community life and far from Western individualism, as well as anxiety about the devastation produced by climate emergency or nostalgia for a past which, although difficult and troubled, it is still able to ensure cultural roots and identity to the characters.
The stories included in Arabilious are therefore full of melancholy, social tensions derived from political conflicts, and the need to distance themselves from the categories and clich¨¦s formulated by the West. All these themes mix with the rich literary tradition of the Arab peoples and their past as colonized communities to propose nine futuristic scenarios, alternatives to the existing reality.

Table of contents
0.0 Introduction by Cristina Jurado
1. Pan-humanism Hope and Pragmatics by Sara Saab and Jess Barber (Lebanon and USA)
2. The Standard of Ur by Hassan Abdulrazzak (Iraq)
3. The Bahrein Underground Bazar by Nadia Afifi (Bahrain)
4. A Day in the Life of Anmar 20X1 by Abdulla Moaswes (Palestine)
5. Cinammon Flavour Gum by Maria Dadouch (Siria)
6. To New Jerusalem by Farah Kader (Palestine-USA)
7. Exhibit K by Nadia Afifi (Bahrain)
8. A Jaha in the Metaverse by Fadi Zaghmout (Jordan)
9. Master of Mediterranean by Emad El-Din Aysha (Egypt)
10 Arabic SF ¨C The Hope for a Better Future and Past by Emad El-Din Aysha]]> 217 Fadi Zaghmout 8832077981 Jennifer 4 sci-fi, short-stories 4.60 Arabilious: Anthology of Arab Futurism
author: Fadi Zaghmout
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.60
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves: sci-fi, short-stories
review:

]]> Never Touch A Dragon 38722668 12 Rosie Greening 1786922673 Jennifer 5 childrens, read-with-tobias 4.19 2018 Never Touch A Dragon
author: Rosie Greening
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves: childrens, read-with-tobias
review:
A favourite in our household! The rhyming pattern is very satisfying, and my baby belly laughs when I read it really fast. He loves the rubbery textures. It ends a bit abruptly so it's less of a "story" and more like a toy but we love it.
]]> <![CDATA[Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes]]> 3124179 nothing is sweeter than tiny baby fingers and chubby baby toes. . . . And here, from two of the most gifted picture-book creators of our time, is a celebration of baby fingers, baby toes, and the joy they¡ªand the babies they belong to¡ªbring to everyone, everywhere, all over the world!

This is a gorgeously simple picture book for very young children, and once you finish the rhythmic, rhyming text, all you¡¯ll want to do is go back to the beginning . . . and read it again! The luminous watercolor illustrations of these roly-poly little ones from a variety of backgrounds are adorable, quirky, and true to life, right down to the wrinkles, dimples, and pudges in their completely squishable arms, legs, and tummies.]]> 40 Mem Fox 015206057X Jennifer 3 childrens, read-with-tobias 4.24 2008 Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes
author: Mem Fox
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves: childrens, read-with-tobias
review:
I genuinely think this was written with the best of intentions as a message about inclusivity but it misses the mark by focusing on every baby having ten little fingers and ten little toes. I don't think you have to be particularly switched on to point out that not every baby does!
]]> Stick Man 4307698 With his Stick Lady Love
and their stick children three ...

"a cracker of a book"
- Financial Times

"You'll read this book again and again"
- Daily Mail]]> 32 Julia Donaldson 1407106171 Jennifer 2 childrens, read-with-tobias 4.27 2008 Stick Man
author: Julia Donaldson
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2008
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/30
date added: 2025/01/30
shelves: childrens, read-with-tobias
review:
One of my least favourites from this author/illustrator pair. I also find the scarf/laugh rhyme really annoying - in my Northern accent these words sound nothing like each other and it totally disrupts my sick rhythmic flow!
]]> The Art of Repair 57175052
In The Art of Repair, Molly explores the humble origins of repair and how the act of mending a cherished item carefully by hand offers not just a practical solution but nourishment for the soul. Using her own beautiful illustrations, she guides us through the basics of the craft - from piecing and patching to the ancient Japanese art of Sashiko.

This book will stay with you long after you put down your needle and thread. It offers an antidote to our increasingly disposable lifestyle, encouraging us to reconnect not just with the everyday objects in our environment but also with ourselves.]]> 144 Molly Martin 178072442X Jennifer 4 art-books 4.23 The Art of Repair
author: Molly Martin
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.23
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/26
date added: 2025/01/26
shelves: art-books
review:

]]> <![CDATA[ÔáËͤΥեê©`¥ì¥ó 3 [S¨­s¨­ no Frieren 3]]]> 56384091

ÓÂÕßÒ»ÐФˤ¤¤¿Ä§·¨Ê¹¤¤?¥Õ¥ê©`¥ì¥ó¡£

ħÍõ¾ü¤Î²Ðµ³¤Ç´óħ×å¤Ç¤â¤¢¤ë

Æß±ÀÏÍ?¶Ïͷ̨¤Î¥¢¥¦¥é¤ÈÐnÍ»¡£

¤½¤ÎÖФǡ¢¥Õ¥ê©`¥ì¥ó¤ÎÊ·Œg¤¬Ã÷¤«¤µ¤ì¤Æ¤¤¤­¤Þ¤¹¡£

ÓƾäÎʱ¤ÎÖФǡ¢±ËÅ®¤¬±§¤¤¤¿¸ÐÇé¤È¤Ï¨D¨D

ÎïÓï¤Ï¡¢ÏÖÔڤȹýÈ¥¤¬½»´í¤·¤Æ¤¤¤¯¡£

Ó¢ÐÛ¤¿¤Á¤Î¡°ÕæŒg¡±¤ò·Ä¤°ºóÈÕÌ·¥Õ¥¡¥ó¥¿¥¸©`!±Õ±Õ> 200 Kanehito Yamada 4098502852 Jennifer 4 manga 4.51 2020 ÔáËͤΥեê©`¥ì¥ó 3 [S¨­s¨­ no Frieren 3]
author: Kanehito Yamada
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/25
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves: manga
review:

]]> Selected Poems 661161 Hugh MacDiarmid 1857546075 Jennifer 4 poetry 3.81 1934 Selected Poems
author: Hugh MacDiarmid
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1934
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/23
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves: poetry
review:

]]> Her Birth 18051581 80 Rebecca Goss 1847772382 Jennifer 0 poetry, to-read 4.47 2013 Her Birth
author: Rebecca Goss
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/19
shelves: poetry, to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door]]> 207567816 From the author of The Magician's Daughter comes The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door, a mythic, magical tale full of secret scholarship, faerie curses, and the deadliest spells of all¡ªthe ones that friends cast on each other.

All they needed to break the world was a door, and someone to open it.

Camford, 1920. Gilded and glittering, England's secret magical academy is no place for Clover, a commoner with neither connections nor magical blood. She tells herself she has fought her way there only to find a cure for her brother Matthew, one of the few survivors of a faerie attack on the battlefields of WWI which left the doors to faerie country sealed, the study of its magic banned, and its victims cursed.

But when Clover catches the eye of golden boy Alden Lennox-Fontaine and his friends, doors that were previously closed to her are flung wide open, and she soon finds herself enmeshed in the seductive world of the country's magical aristocrats. The summer she spends in Alden¡¯s orbit leaves a fateful mark: months of joyous friendship and mutual study come crashing down when experiments go awry, and old secrets are unearthed.

Years later, when the faerie seals break, Clover knows it¡¯s because of what they did. And she knows that she must seek the help of people she once called friends¡ªand now doesn¡¯t quite know what to call¡ªif there¡¯s any hope of saving the world as they know it.]]> 464 H.G. Parry 0316383902 Jennifer 0 to-read, fantasy 4.17 2024 The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door
author: H.G. Parry
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/19
shelves: to-read, fantasy
review:

]]> The Transgender Issue 59224944
Trans people in Britain today have become a culture war 'issue'. Despite making up less than 1% of the country's population, they are the subjects of a toxic and increasingly polarised 'debate', which generates reliable controversy for newspapers and talk shows. This media frenzy conceals a simple fact: that we are having the wrong conversation, a conversation in which trans people themselves are reduced to a talking point and denied a meaningful voice.

In this powerful new book, Shon Faye reclaims the idea of the 'transgender issue' to uncover the reality of what it means to be trans in a transphobic society. In doing so, she provides a compelling, wide-ranging analysis of trans lives from youth to old age, exploring work, family, housing, healthcare, the prison system, and trans participation in the LGBTQ+ and feminist communities, in contemporary Britain and beyond.

The Transgender Issue is a landmark work that signals the beginning of a new, healthier conversation about trans life. It is a manifesto for change, and a call for justice and solidarity between all marginalised people and minorities. Trans liberation, as Faye sees it, goes to the root of what our society is and what it could be; it offers the possibility of a more just, free and joyful world for all of us.]]> Shon Faye 0241529263 Jennifer 0 to-read 4.48 2021 The Transgender Issue
author: Shon Faye
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Hallowed Hunt (World of the Five Gods, #3)]]> 61887 423 Lois McMaster Bujold 0060574747 Jennifer 5 fantasy 3.83 2005 The Hallowed Hunt (World of the Five Gods, #3)
author: Lois McMaster Bujold
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/14
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: fantasy
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear (Wayward Children, #10)]]> 57185878 Giant turtles, impossible ships, and tidal rivers ridden by a Drowned girl in search of a family in the latest in the bestselling Hugo and Nebula Award-Winning Wayward Children series from Seanan McGuire.

Nadya had three mothers: the one who bore her, the country that poisoned her, and the one who adopted her.

Nadya never considered herself less than whole, not until her adoptive parents fitted her with a prosthetic arm against her will, seeking to replace the one she'd been missing from birth.

It was cumbersome; it was uncomfortable; it was wrong.

It wasn't her.

Frustrated and unable to express why, Nadya began to wander, until the day she fell through a door into Belyyreka, the Land Beneath the Lake--and found herself in a world of water, filled with child-eating amphibians, majestic giant turtles, and impossible ships that sailed as happily beneath the surface as on top. In Belyyreka, she found herself understood for who she was: a Drowned Girl, who had made her way to her real home, accepted by the river and its people.

But even in Belyyreka, there are dangers, and trials, and Nadya would soon find herself fighting to keep hold of everything she had come to treasure.]]> 160 Seanan McGuire Jennifer 0 to-read 4.04 2025 Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear (Wayward Children, #10)
author: Seanan McGuire
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Motherthing 60097451 A darkly funny domestic horror novel about a woman who must take drastic measures to save her husband and herself from the vengeful ghost of her mother-in-law.

When Ralph and Abby Lamb move in with Ralph¡¯s mother, Laura, Abby hopes it¡¯s just what she and her mother-in-law need to finally connect. After a traumatic childhood, Abby is desperate for a mother figure, especially now that she and Ralph are trying to become parents themselves. Abby just has so much love to give¡ªto Ralph, to Laura, and to Mrs. Bondy, her favorite resident at the long-term care home where she works. But Laura ¾±²õ²Ô¡¯³Ù interested in bonding with her daughter-in-law. She¡¯s venomous and cruel, especially to Abby, and life with her is hellish.

When Laura takes her own life, her ghost haunts Abby and Ralph in very different ways: Ralph is plunged into depression, and Abby is terrorized by a force intent on destroying everything she loves. To make matters worse, Mrs. Bondy¡¯s daughter is threatening to move Mrs. Bondy from the home, leaving Abby totally alone. With everything on the line, Abby comes up with a chilling plan that will allow her to keep Mrs. Bondy, rescue Ralph from his tortured mind, and break Laura's hold on the family for good. All it requires is a little ingenuity, a lot of determination, and a unique recipe for chicken ¨¤ la king¡­]]> 288 Ainslie Hogarth 0593467027 Jennifer 3 horror 3.65 2022 Motherthing
author: Ainslie Hogarth
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/04
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: horror
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Half-Arse Human: How to live better without burning out]]> 213938823

Me either.


I am a half-arser. A shave-one-legger. A rinse-the-plates-and-tell-myself-any-residual-dirt-will-improve-my-immune-system-er. And yet, I still want to live better, improve my relationships, build a career, enjoy hobbies, have ethics, and live a full, passionate, varied life.


And it's possible. This book will teach you to harness the power of half-arsedness to improve the things you actually care about improving, without expending more than you have to give. It's not going to turn you into a superhuman, but it will help you feel more human.]]> 300 Leena Norms 1399820311 Jennifer 5 self-help 4.07 2024 Half-Arse Human: How to live better without burning out
author: Leena Norms
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/22
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves: self-help
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read [and Your Children Will Be Glad That You Did]]]> 42348818 This book is about how we have relationships with our children, what gets in the way of a good connection and what can enhance it


The most influential relationships are between parents and children. Yet for so many families, these relationships go can wrong and it may be difficult to get back on track.

In The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read (and Your Children Will Be Glad that You Did), renowned psychotherapist Philippa Perry shows how strong and loving bonds are made with your children and how such attachments give a better chance of good mental health, in childhood and beyond.

She'll help you to:
- Understand how your own upbringing may be impacting upon your parenting style
- Contain, express, accept and validate your own and your child's feelings
- Understand that all behaviour is communication
- Break negative cycles and patterns
- Accept that you will make mistakes and what to do about them

Almost every parent loves their children, but by following the refreshing, sage and sane advice and steps in this book you will also find yourselves liking one another too.

]]> 240 Philippa Perry Jennifer 3 self-help 4.10 2019 The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read [and Your Children Will Be Glad That You Did]
author: Philippa Perry
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/22
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves: self-help
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Colette Decides to Die, Vol. 1]]> 207298708 408 Alto Yukimura 1974747271 Jennifer 5 manga 4.21 Colette Decides to Die, Vol. 1
author: Alto Yukimura
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.21
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/21
date added: 2024/12/21
shelves: manga
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How to Keep House While Drowning]]> 60139504 How to Keep House While Drowning will introduce you to six life-changing principles that will revolutionize the way you approach home care¡ªwithout endless to-do lists. Presented in 31 daily thoughts, this compassionate guide will help you begin to get free of the shame and anxiety you feel over home care.

Inside you will learn:
¡¤ How to shift your perspective of care tasks from moral to functional;
¡¤ How to stop negative self-talk and shame around care tasks;
¡¤ How to give yourself permission to rest, even when things aren¡¯t finished;
¡¤ How to motivate yourself to care for your space.]]> 151 K.C. Davis 166800285X Jennifer 0 to-read 4.22 2022 How to Keep House While Drowning
author: K.C. Davis
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Prophet Song 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 ¨C or who ¨C 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 Jennifer 0 to-read 4.03 2023 Prophet Song
author: Paul Lynch
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Bible: A Very Short Introduction]]> 784153 by different communities and cultures and attempts to explain why it has generated such a rich variety of uses and interpretations. It explores how the Bible was written, the development of the canon, the role of Biblical criticism, the appropriation of the Bible in high and popular culture, and its
use for political ends.

About the Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds
of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.]]> 176 John Riches 0192853430 Jennifer 2 lit-crit 3.24 2000 The Bible: A Very Short Introduction
author: John Riches
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.24
book published: 2000
rating: 2
read at: 2024/12/13
date added: 2024/12/13
shelves: lit-crit
review:

]]> The Bewitching 220458657 Three women in three different eras encounter danger and witchcraft in this eerie multigenerational horror saga from the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic.

¡°Back then, when I was a young woman, there were still witches¡±: That was how Nana Alba always began the stories she told her great-granddaughter Minerva¡ªstories that have stayed with Minerva all her life. Perhaps that¡¯s why Minerva has become a graduate student focused on the history of horror literature and is researching the life of Beatrice Tremblay, an obscure author of macabre tales.

In the course of assembling her thesis, Minerva uncovers information that reveals that Tremblay¡¯s most famous novel, The Vanishing, was inspired by a true story: Decades earlier, during the Great Depression, Tremblay attended the same university where Minerva is now studying and became obsessed with her beautiful and otherworldly roommate, who then disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

As Minerva descends ever deeper into Tremblay¡¯s manuscript, she begins to sense that the malign force that stalked Tremblay and the missing girl might still walk the halls of the campus. These disturbing events also echo the stories Nana Alba told about her girlhood in 1900s Mexico, where she had a terrifying encounter with a witch.

Minerva suspects that the same shadow that darkened the lives of her great-grandmother and Beatrice Tremblay is now threatening her own in 1990s Massachusetts. An academic career can be a punishing pursuit, but it might turn outright deadly when witchcraft is involved.]]> 368 Silvia Moreno-Garcia 0593874323 Jennifer 0 to-read 4.37 2025 The Bewitching
author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[In the Name of the Mermaid Princess, Vol. 1]]> 176443842
Princess Mio is betrothed to Prince Chika. However, they¡¯ve never met, and he doesn¡¯t know her secret¡ªshe¡¯s a mermaid! When her tutor, Yuri, takes her out of the castle to meet her subjects, Mio sees the world through new eyes. But Yuri has a secret too¡­ And when Mio tells her father, the king, she wants to live life openly as a mermaid, he punishes her. How can she stay true to herself?

Plus, a bonus story about a royal subject with... wings?!]]> 184 Yoshino Fumikawa 1974742733 Jennifer 4 manga 4.02 2021 In the Name of the Mermaid Princess, Vol. 1
author: Yoshino Fumikawa
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/11
date added: 2024/12/11
shelves: manga
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Stranger Times (Stranger Times, #1)]]> 53181090 There are dark forces at work in our world (and in Manchester in particular), so thank God The Stranger Times is on hand to report them...

A weekly newspaper dedicated to the weird and the wonderful (but mostly the weird), it is the go-to publication for the unexplained and inexplicable. At least that's their pitch. The reality is less auspicious. Their editor is a drunken, foul-tempered, and foul-mouthed husk of a man who thinks little of the publication he edits. His staff are a ragtag group of misfits. And as for the assistant editor... well, that job is a revolving door--and it has just revolved to reveal Hannah Willis, who's got problems of her own.

When tragedy strikes in Hannah's first week on the job, The Stranger Times is forced to do some serious investigating. What they discover leads to a shocking realisation: some of the stories they'd previously dismissed as nonsense are in fact terrifyingly real. Soon they come face-to-face with darker forces than they could ever have imagined.]]> 432 C.K. McDonnell 1787633365 Jennifer 4 fantasy 4.11 2021 The Stranger Times (Stranger Times, #1)
author: C.K. McDonnell
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/11
date added: 2024/12/11
shelves: fantasy
review:

]]> <![CDATA[ÔáËͤΥեê©`¥ì¥ó 2 [S¨­s¨­ no Frieren 2]]]> 55923434

³¤Éú¤­¤Ê¥¨¥ë¥Õ¤Îħ·¨Ê¹¤¤?¥Õ¥ê©`¥ì¥ó¡£

µÜ×Ó¤Îħ·¨Ê¹¤¤?¥Õ¥§¥ë¥ó¤Èši¤àÂäÎÄ¿µÄµØ¤Ï¡¢

ÔÙ¤ÓħÍõ³Ç¡£ÓÂÕߤ¿¤Á¤Î»ê¤¬Ãߤë¤È¤µ¤ì¤ëµØ¡£

¤³¤ÎÂäϡ¢ÓÂÕߤ¿¤Á¤È¤ÎðꓤÎ×ãÛE¤òÞ{¤ë¤³¤È¤Ç¤â¤¢¤ê¤Þ¤¹¡£

µÀÖС¢‘éÊ¿¤ÎµÜ×Ó?¥·¥å¥¿¥ë¥¯¤È¤Î³ö»á¤¤¤â¨D¨D

ÎïÓï¤Ï¡¢×·Òä¤È¹²¤ËФ¿¤Ê¾ÖÃæ¤Ø¤È½ø¤à¡£

Ó¢ÐÛ¤¿¤Á¤Î¡°ÏµÆס±¤ò·Ä¤°ºóÈÕÌ·¥Õ¥¡¥ó¥¿¥¸©`£¡±Õ±Õ> 200 Kanehito Yamada 4098501813 Jennifer 3 manga 4.48 2020 ÔáËͤΥեê©`¥ì¥ó 2 [S¨­s¨­ no Frieren 2]
author: Kanehito Yamada
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/10
date added: 2024/12/10
shelves: manga
review:

]]> Winter Garden 6668467 394 Kristin Hannah 0312364121 Jennifer 3 other-fiction 4.21 2010 Winter Garden
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/10
date added: 2024/12/10
shelves: other-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Vol. 1]]> 57147096
Decades after their victory, the funeral of one her friends confronts Frieren with her own near immortality. Frieren sets out to fulfill the last wishes of her comrades and finds herself beginning a new adventure¡­]]> 188 Kanehito Yamada 1974725766 Jennifer 3 manga 4.42 2020 Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Vol. 1
author: Kanehito Yamada
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/09
date added: 2024/12/09
shelves: manga
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Ladies of Mandrigyn (Sun Wolf and Starhawk, No. 1)]]> 1022658 311 Barbara Hambly 0345309197 Jennifer 0 to-read 3.96 1984 The Ladies of Mandrigyn (Sun Wolf and Starhawk, No. 1)
author: Barbara Hambly
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1984
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Fall of the Kings (Riverside, #3)]]> 20002
The Fall of the Kings

Generations ago the last king fell, taking with him the final truths about a race of wizards who ruled at his side. But the blood of the kings runs deep in the land and its people, waiting for the coming together of two unusual men. Theron Campion, a young nobleman of royal lineage, is heir to an ancient house and a modern scandal. Tormented by his twin duties to his family and his own bright spirit, he seeks solace in the University. There he meets Basil St. Cloud, a brilliant and charismatic teacher ruled by a passion for knowledge--and a passion for the ancient kings. Of course, everyone now knows that the wizards were charlatans and the kings their dupes and puppets. Only Basil is not convinced--nor is he convinced that the city has seen its last king...

From the Trade Paperback edition]]> 510 Ellen Kushner 0553585940 Jennifer 0 to-read 3.66 2002 The Fall of the Kings (Riverside, #3)
author: Ellen Kushner
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Privilege of the Sword (Riverside, #2)]]> 821583
Welcome to Riverside, where the aristocratic and the ambitious battle for power and prestige in the city¡¯s labyrinth of streets and ballrooms, theatres and brothels, boudoirs and salons. Into this alluring and alarming world walks a bright young woman ready to take it on and make her fortune. A well-bred country girl, Katherine knows all the rules of conventional society. Her biggest mistake is thinking they apply.

Katherine¡¯s host and uncle, Alec Campion, the capricious and decadent Mad Duke Tremontaine, is in charge here¡ªand to him, rules are made to be broken. When he decides it would be far more amusing for his niece to learn swordplay than to follow the usual path to ballroom and husband, her world changes forever. And there¡¯s no going back. Blade in hand, it¡¯s up to Katherine to find her own way through a maze of secrets and betrayals, nobles and scoundrels¡ªand to gain the power, respect, and self-discovery that come to those who master. . . .

¡°Unholy fun, and wholly fun . . . an elegant riposte, dazzlingly executed.¡±¡ªGregory Maguire, New York Times bestselling author of Wicked]]> 378 Ellen Kushner 0553382683 Jennifer 0 to-read 3.92 2006 The Privilege of the Sword (Riverside, #2)
author: Ellen Kushner
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The God Eaters 613268 448 Jesse Hajicek 1847288650 Jennifer 0 to-read 4.11 2006 The God Eaters
author: Jesse Hajicek
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Magic's Pawn (The Last Herald-Mage, #1)]]> 28759
Though Vanyel has been born with near-legendary abilities to work both Herald and Mage magic, he wants no part of such things. Nor does he seek a warrior's path, wishing instead to become a Bard. Yet such talent as his if left untrained may prove a menace not only to Vanyel but to others as well. So he is sent to be fostered with his aunt, Savil, one of the famed Herald-Mages of Valdemar.

But, strong-willed and self-centered, Vanyel is a challenge which even Savil can not master alone. For soon he will become the focus of frightening forces, lending his raw magic to a spell that unleashes terrifying wyr-hunters on the land. And by the time Savil seeks the assistance of a Shin'a'in Adept, Vanyel's wild talent may have already grown beyond anyone's ability to contain, placing Vanyel, Savil, and Valdemar itself in desperate peril...]]> 349 Mercedes Lackey 0886773520 Jennifer 0 to-read 4.20 1989 Magic's Pawn (The Last Herald-Mage, #1)
author: Mercedes Lackey
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1989
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Fire and Hemlock 367158
One is normal: school, home, friends. The other, stranger memories begin nine years ago, when she was ten and gate-crashed an odd funeral in the mansion near her grandmother's house. Polly's just beginning to recall the sometimes marvelous, sometimes frightening adventures she embarked on with Tom Lynn after that. And then she did something terrible, and everything changed.

But what did she do? Why can't she remember? Polly must uncover the secret, or her true love ¡ª and perhaps Polly herself ¡ª will be lost.]]> 420 Diana Wynne Jones 0060298855 Jennifer 0 to-read 3.94 1985 Fire and Hemlock
author: Diana Wynne Jones
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1985
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Woodland Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland]]> 51561611 184 Lisa Schneidau 0750990112 Jennifer 5 classics-etc, short-stories 3.87 2020 Woodland Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland
author: Lisa Schneidau
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/27
date added: 2024/11/27
shelves: classics-etc, short-stories
review:

]]> <![CDATA[River Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland]]> 60181356 Traditional folk tales, including history, folklore and nature observations about the rivers, streams and lakes of Britain and Ireland

Rivers and streams sculpt the landscape. They give us water and food, trade and transport, yet they have a life-force all of their own. Rivers have connected communities throughout history, from mountain to estuary and to the wide sea beyond.

This is a collection of traditional folk tales from the wild rivers, lakes, and streams of Britain and Ireland. Lisa Schneidau retells old stories of danger and transformation, river goddesses, ghosts and mysterious creatures that dwell in islands' watery arteries. Follow the flow of rivers from source to sea and be enchanted by these stories.

Here is history and nature told through folk tale.]]> 191 Lisa Schneidau 0750997222 Jennifer 0 to-read 3.94 2022 River Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland
author: Lisa Schneidau
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Horror: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)]]> 55398275 Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring

Four o'clock in the morning, and the lights are on and still there's no way we're going to sleep, not after the film we just saw. The book we just read. Fear is one of the most primal human emotions, and one of the hardest to reason with and dispel. So why do we scare ourselves? It seems almost mad that we would frighten ourselves for fun, and yet there are thousands of books, films, games, and other forms of entertainment designed to do exactly that.

As Darryl Jones shows, the horror genre is huge. Ranging from vampires, ghosts, and werewolves to mad scientists, Satanists, and deranged serial killers, the cathartic release of scaring ourselves has made its appearance in everything from Shakespearean tragedies to internet memes. Exploring the key tropes of the genre, including its monsters, its psychological chills, and its love affair with the macabre, this Very Short Introduction discusses why horror stories disturb us, and how society responds to literary and film representations of the gruesome and taboo. Should the enjoyment of horror be regarded with suspicion? Are there different levels of the horrific, and should we distinguish between the commonly reviled carnage of contemporary torture porn and the culturally acceptable bloodbaths of ancient Greek tragedies?

Analysing the way in which horror manifests multiple personalities, and has been used throughout history to articulate the fears and taboos of the current generation, Darryl Jones considers the continuing evolution of the genre today. As horror is mass marketed to mainstream society in the form of romantic vampires and blockbuster hits, it also continues to maintain its former shadowy presence on the edges of respectability, as banned films and violent internet phenomena push us to question both our own preconceptions and the terrifying capacity of human nature.

ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

First published in hardback as Sleeping with the Lights On.
]]> 176 Darryl Jones 0198755562 Jennifer 4 horror, lit-crit, sff-studies 3.97 2021 Horror: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
author: Darryl Jones
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/26
date added: 2024/11/26
shelves: horror, lit-crit, sff-studies
review:

]]> <![CDATA[High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out]]> 55711592
That¡¯s what ¡°high conflict¡± does. It¡¯s the invisible hand of our time. And it¡¯s different from the useful friction of healthy conflict. That¡¯s good conflict, and it¡¯s a necessary force that pushes us to be better people.

High conflict, by contrast, is what happens when discord distills into a good-versus-evil kind of feud, the kind with an us and a them . In this state, the normal rules of engagement no longer apply. The brain behaves differently. We feel increasingly certain of our own superiority and, at the same time, more and more mystified by the other side.

New York Times bestselling author and award-winning journalist Amanda Ripley investigates how good people get captured by high conflict¡ªand how they break free.

Our journey begins in California, where a world-renowned conflict expert struggles to extract himself from a political feud. Then we meet a Chicago gang leader who dedicates his life to a vendetta¡ªonly to find himself working beside the man who killed his childhood idol. Next, we travel to Colombia, to find out whether thousands of people can be nudged out of high conflict at scale. Finally, we return to America to see what happens when a group of liberal Manhattan Jews and conservative Michigan corrections officers choose to stay in each other¡¯s homes in order to understand one another better.

All these people, in dramatically different situations, were drawn into high conflict by similar forces, including conflict entrepreneurs, humiliation, and false binaries. But ultimately, all of them found ways to transform high conflict into something good, something that made them better people. They rehumanized and recatego?rized their opponents, and they revived curiosity and wonder, even as they continued to fight for what they knew was right.

People do escape high conflict. Individuals¡ªeven entire communities¡ªcan short-circuit the feedback loops of outrage and blame, if they want to. This is a mind-opening new way to think about conflict that will transform how we move through the world.]]> 368 Amanda Ripley 1982128569 Jennifer 0 to-read 4.26 2021 High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out
author: Amanda Ripley
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Cat¡¯s Cradle 135479 Told with deadpan humour and bitter irony, Kurt Vonnegut's cult tale of global destruction preys on our deepest fears of witnessing Armageddon and, worse still, surviving it ...

Dr Felix Hoenikker, one of the founding 'fathers' of the atomic bomb, has left a deadly legacy to the world. For he's the inventor of 'ice-nine', a lethal chemical capable of freezing the entire planet. The search for its whereabouts leads to Hoenikker's three ecentric children, to a crazed dictator in the Caribbean, to madness. Felix Hoenikker's Death Wish comes true when his last, fatal gift to humankind brings about the end, that for all of us, is nigh...]]> 306 Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Jennifer 4 sci-fi 4.17 1963 Cat¡¯s Cradle
author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1963
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/23
date added: 2024/11/23
shelves: sci-fi
review:

]]> The Wood at Midwinter 206101583 'A church is a sort of wood. A wood is a sort of church. They're the same thing really.'

Nineteen-year-old Merowdis Scott is an unusual girl. She can talk to animals and trees¡ªand she is only ever happy when she is walking in the woods.

One snowy afternoon, out with her dogs and Apple the pig, Merowdis encounters a blackbird and a fox. As darkness falls, a strange figure enters in their midst¡ªand the path of her life is changed forever.

From the internationally bestselling and prize-winning author of Piranesi and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, an enchanting, beautifully illustrated short story set in the Strange universe. Featuring an introduction by Susanna Clarke and gorgeous illustrations from Victoria Sawdon truly worthy of the magic of this story, this is a mesmerising, must-have addition to any fantasy reader's bookshelf.]]> 64 Susanna Clarke 1639734481 Jennifer 4 fantasy, short-stories 3.47 2024 The Wood at Midwinter
author: Susanna Clarke
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/22
date added: 2024/11/22
shelves: fantasy, short-stories
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Great When (The Long London Quintet, #1)]]> 206101580 From the New York Times bestselling author and legendary storyteller Alan Moore, the first book in an enthralling new fantasy series about murder, magic, and madness in post-WWII London.

Dennis Knuckleyard is a hapless eighteen-year-old who works and lives in a second-hand bookstore. One day, his boss and landlady, Coffin Ada, sends him to retrieve some rare books, one of which, Dennis discovers, should not exist. A London Walk by Rev. Thomas Hampole is a fictitious book that appears in a real novel by another author. Yet A London Walk is physically there in his hands, nonetheless.

Coffin Ada tells Dennis the book comes from the other London, the Great When, a version of the city that is beyond time. In the Great When, epochs blend and realities and unrealities blur, while concepts such as Crime and Poetry are incarnated as wondrous and terrible beings. But, Coffin Ada tells Dennis, if he does not return the book to this other London, he will be killed.

So begins Dennis' adventure in Long London. Delving deep into the city's occult underbelly and tarrying with an eccentric cast of sorcerers, gangsters, and murderers, Dennis finds himself at the center of an explosive series of events that may endanger both Londons.

Mystical, hilarious, and magnificently imagined, The Great When is an unforgettable introduction to the consciousness-altering world of Long London.]]> 315 Alan Moore 1635578841 Jennifer 0 currently-reading, fantasy 3.58 2024 The Great When (The Long London Quintet, #1)
author: Alan Moore
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/19
shelves: currently-reading, fantasy
review:

]]> Beowulf 61135113 Beowulf by the author of The Mere Wife.

Nearly twenty years after Seamus Heaney¡¯s translation of Beowulf ¡ª and fifty years after the translation that continues to torment high-school students around the world ¡ª there is a radical new verse translation of the epic poem by Maria Dahvana Headley, which brings to light elements never before translated into English.

A man seeks to prove himself as a hero. A monster seeks silence in his territory. A warrior seeks to avenge her murdered son. A dragon ends it all. These familiar components of the epic poem are seen with a novelist¡¯s eye toward gender, genre, and history. Beowulf has always been a tale of entitlement and encroachment ¡ª of powerful men seeking to become more powerful and one woman seeking justice for her child ¡ª but this version brings new context to an old story. While crafting her contemporary adaptation, Headley unearthed significant shifts lost over centuries of translation; her Beowulf is one for the twenty-first century.]]> 176 Unknown 1925713881 Jennifer 5 poetry 3.79 1000 Beowulf
author: Unknown
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1000
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/12
date added: 2024/11/12
shelves: poetry
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Science Fiction: A Very Short Introduction]]> 11233199 147 David Seed 0199557454 Jennifer 4 lit-crit, sci-fi 3.30 2011 Science Fiction: A Very Short Introduction
author: David Seed
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.30
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/12
date added: 2024/11/12
shelves: lit-crit, sci-fi
review:

]]> The Ancient Celts 256525 360 Barry Cunliffe 0140254226 Jennifer 3 history 3.94 2018 The Ancient Celts
author: Barry Cunliffe
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/07
date added: 2024/11/07
shelves: history
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Tolkien, Race and Cultural History: From Fairies to Hobbits]]> 4628834 256 Dimitra Fimi 0230219519 Jennifer 4 sff-studies 4.17 2008 Tolkien, Race and Cultural History: From Fairies to Hobbits
author: Dimitra Fimi
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/29
date added: 2024/10/29
shelves: sff-studies
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Thinking Queerly: Medievalism, Wizardry, and Neurodiversity in Young Adult Texts (Premodern Transgressive Literatures Book 1)]]> 57066290 Thinking Queerly traces the wizard from medieval Arthurian literature to contemporary YA adaptations. By exploring the link between Merlin and Harry Potter, or Morgan le Fay and Sabrina, readers will see how the wizard offers spaces of hope and transformation for young readers. In particular, this book examines how wizards think differently, and how this difference can resonate with both LGBTQ and neurodivergent readers, who've been told they don't fit in.]]> 243 Jes Battis 1501515357 Jennifer 5 sff-studies 4.56 Thinking Queerly: Medievalism, Wizardry, and Neurodiversity in Young Adult Texts (Premodern Transgressive Literatures Book 1)
author: Jes Battis
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.56
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/29
date added: 2024/10/29
shelves: sff-studies
review:

]]> The Saint of Bright Doors 61884985
Fetter was raised to kill, honed as a knife to cut down his sainted father. This gave him plenty to talk about in therapy.

He walked among invisible devils and anti-gods that mock the mortal form. He learned a lethal catechism, lost his shadow, and gained a habit for secrecy. After a blood-soaked childhood, Fetter escaped his rural hometown for the big city, and fell into a broader world where divine destinies are a dime a dozen.

Everything in Luriat is more than it seems. Group therapy is recruitment for a revolutionary cadre. Junk email hints at the arrival of a god. Every door is laden with potential, and once closed may never open again. The city is scattered with Bright Doors, looming portals through which a cold wind blows. In this unknowable metropolis, Fetter will discover what kind of man he is, and his discovery will rewrite the world.]]> 356 Vajra Chandrasekera 1250847389 Jennifer 4 fantasy 3.64 2023 The Saint of Bright Doors
author: Vajra Chandrasekera
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/29
date added: 2024/10/29
shelves: fantasy
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Ritual Lighting: Laureate Poems]]> 23075718 48 Carol Ann Duffy 1447274504 Jennifer 3 poetry 3.43 2014 Ritual Lighting: Laureate Poems
author: Carol Ann Duffy
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/22
date added: 2024/10/22
shelves: poetry
review:

]]> Conjurors: Poems 217555439 The speckled water rippled into minnows,Of worms and turf smelt all the fish pale morning,Earth pushed up its smell of worms through grass and wet,Through sodden leaf, mushroom and winking frog.I, on the bank, lived quick as breathing frog,Its lungs and mine puffed out September's thinMorning, sallow and silver, fish-filled, the sky in a river.
Wherever I go in the guilty years there stillGoes my innocence with me [...]
William Empson celebrated her. 'Wonder at nature, wonder at all experience, is her note, and she gets a great deal of variety into it; also she has a beautiful ear, and a supply of unforced humour.'
The editor of PN Review said, 'It's hard to imagine the middle of the twentieth century now without Julian Orde.' Carcanet's recovery of her work ¨C thanks to the patient archaelogy of James Keery and V. Beatson ¨C proves that the past, even the relatively recent past, is at least as rich in resource and surprise as the present.]]> 180 Julian Orde 1800174551 Jennifer 5 poetry 5.00 Conjurors: Poems
author: Julian Orde
name: Jennifer
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/22
date added: 2024/10/22
shelves: poetry
review:

]]> Complete Guide to Sewing 34226 Guide to sewing 528 Virginia Colton 0895770261 Jennifer 5 art-books 4.37 1976 Complete Guide to Sewing
author: Virginia Colton
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1976
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/22
date added: 2024/10/22
shelves: art-books
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sew It Yourself with DIY Daisy: 20 Pattern-Free Projects (and Infinite Variations) To Make Your Dream Wardrobe]]> 60383091
Daisy's designs use simple shapes to create playful, classic and comfortable pieces that can be styled for all occasions, whether that's a picnic date or a WFH day. The book features 10 small accessory projects and 10 more advanced clothing projects, each with a fun variation (but with potential for endless customization). There's no standard sizing ¨C just your own body measurements ¨C and no zips or buttons required! They also encourage intentional sewing practices, with projects that produce minimal waste and can even be made with leftover fabric scraps.

So get out that sewing machine (or borrow one from you granny) ¨C Sew It Yourself with DIY Daisy is all you need to get started on discovering (or rediscovering) sewing and creating something one-of-a-kind. Just sewing is self-care, and you make the rules!]]> 208 Daisy Braid 1743798202 Jennifer 3 art-books 4.05 Sew It Yourself with DIY Daisy: 20 Pattern-Free Projects (and Infinite Variations) To Make Your Dream Wardrobe
author: Daisy Braid
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.05
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/22
date added: 2024/10/22
shelves: art-books
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Baby Development Everything You Need to Know]]> 14326698 192 Claire Halsey 1409383040 Jennifer 5 3.89 2012 Baby Development Everything You Need to Know
author: Claire Halsey
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/22
date added: 2024/10/22
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Everest Disaster]]> 11233289 319 Jon Krakauer 1447200187 Jennifer 5 favs, biography-and-memoirs 4.43 1997 Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Everest Disaster
author: Jon Krakauer
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.43
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at: 2019/06/05
date added: 2024/10/16
shelves: favs, biography-and-memoirs
review:
I had no idea how many ways a mountain can kill you, thanks for the nightmares Jon.
]]> <![CDATA[Clone Your Clothes: Pattern-Making and Sewing Techniques to Recreate Your Best-Loved Clothes]]> 195898238
Discover how to create a wardrobe full of your favourite items that you know will fit perfectly and can be remade again and again in various fabrics simply by using a combination of techniques including tracing and measuring to create your own dress patterns.

To get a truly accurate pattern the best way is to take the garment apart but that would destroy the original piece ¨C this instructional guide to pattern making explains a number of techniques you can use that enable you to remake without having to ruin first.

These include the Direct Measurement technique which works well for simple shapes without too much shaping or detail. Another method covered is Over Draping which is useful for complicated designs like a waterfall frill or a ruched panel, where measuring or tracing would be impossible, and the third method is the Tracing method which is a quick and easy technique suitable for lots of different styles of clothing.

Author Claire-Louise Hardie has drawn on her years of experience of working in costume departments in film and television, to create this comprehensive guide to cloning your clothes.

All of the cloning methods are explained in the Cloning School section of the book with step-by-step instructions and photography so you can follow along. Each technique is illustrated using an example garment so you can see how it works in practice.

The second part of the book, the Design School, shows you how to apply these techniques and skills to specific garments. There is a pair of trousers, a simple dress, a gathered skirt, a shirt and a camisole top. Learn which methods to use for different types of clothing and when to use a combination of different methods to get the best results.

In addition to the step-by-steps there is advice about choosing fabrics and which tools to use for the best results. Claire-Louise also provides ideas for adapting the designs to make new pieces for your wardrobe based on patterns created from your favourite pieces.]]> 128 Claire-Louise Hardie 1446312755 Jennifer 0 to-read 4.46 2024 Clone Your Clothes: Pattern-Making and Sewing Techniques to Recreate Your Best-Loved Clothes
author: Claire-Louise Hardie
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Steaming Through Wolsztyn: the trains, the characters, and five thousand miles on Polish footplates with The Wolsztyn Experience]]> 217983366 Jeff Nicholls 1915067448 Jennifer 5 biography-and-memoirs 5.00 Steaming Through Wolsztyn: the trains, the characters, and five thousand miles on Polish footplates with The Wolsztyn Experience
author: Jeff Nicholls
name: Jennifer
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/13
date added: 2024/10/13
shelves: biography-and-memoirs
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Baby-led Weaning Cookbook: 130 Delicious Recipes for the Whole Family to Enjoy]]> 7783905 192 Gill Rapley 0091935288 Jennifer 3 4.03 2010 The Baby-led Weaning Cookbook: 130 Delicious Recipes for the Whole Family to Enjoy
author: Gill Rapley
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/13
date added: 2024/10/13
shelves:
review:

]]> The Unmapping 216539720 Intimate and spellbinding, The Unmapping is a character-driven, literary speculative exploration of a city¡¯s descent into chaos and confusion, perfect for fans of Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel and Exit West by Mohsin Hamid.?

4 a.m., New York City. A silent disaster.?

There is no flash of light, no crumbling, no quaking. Each person in New York wakes up on an unfamiliar block when the buildings all switch locations overnight. The power grid has snapped, thousands of residents are missing, and the Empire State Building is on Coney Island¡ªfor now. The next night, it happens again.?

Esme Green and Arjun Varma work for the City of New York¡¯s Emergency Management team and are tasked with disaster response for the Unmapping. As Esme tries to wade through the bureaucratic nightmare of an endlessly shuffling city, she¡¯s distracted by the ongoing search for her missing fianc¨¦. Meanwhile, Arjun focuses on the ground-level rescue of disoriented New Yorkers, hoping to become the hero the city needs.??


While scientists scramble to find a solution¡ªor at least a means to cope¡ªand mysterious ¡°red cloak¡± cults crop up in the disaster¡¯s wake, New York begins to reckon with a new reality no one recognizes. For Esme and Arjun, the fight to hold the city together will mean tackling questions about themselves that they were too afraid to ask¡ªand facing answers they never expected. With themes of climate change, political unrest, and life in a state of emergency, The Unmapping is a timely and captivating debut.?]]> 408 Denise S. Robbins Jennifer 0 sci-fi, to-read 3.55 2025 The Unmapping
author: Denise S. Robbins
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: sci-fi, to-read
review:

]]> The Normal Heart 60418078 THE NORMAL HEART is the explosive drama about our most terrifying and troubling medical crisis today: the AIDS epidemic. It tells the story of very private lives caught up in the heartrendering ordeal of suffering and doom - an ordeal that was largely ignored for reasons of politics and majority morality.

Filled with power, anger, and intelligence, Larry Kramer's riveting play dramatizes what actualy happened from the time of the disease's discovery to the present, and points a moral j'accuse in many directions. His passionate indictment of government, the media, and the public for refusing to deal with a national plague is electrifying theater - a play that finally breaks through the conspiracy of silence with a shout of stunning impact. As Douglas Watt summed it up in his review for the New York Daily News,THE NORMAL HEART is "an angry, unremitting and gripping piece of political theater. You are bound to come away moved."

]]> 148 Larry Kramer 1788504879 Jennifer 5 plays 4.43 1985 The Normal Heart
author: Larry Kramer
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.43
book published: 1985
rating: 5
read at: 2022/06/21
date added: 2024/09/24
shelves: plays
review:

]]> Frankenstein in Baghdad 30780005 The New York Times), Frankenstein in Baghdad captures with white-knuckle horror and black humor the surreal reality of contemporary Iraq.]]> 281 Ahmed Saadawi 0143128795 Jennifer 3 sci-fi 3.65 2013 Frankenstein in Baghdad
author: Ahmed Saadawi
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/18
date added: 2024/09/18
shelves: sci-fi
review:

]]> <![CDATA[So Far So Good: Final Poems: 2014-2018]]> 38371210 Salon

"She never loses touch with her reverence for the immense what is." --Margaret Atwood

"There is no writer with an imagination as forceful and delicate as Le Guin's." --Grace Paley

Legendary author Ursula K. Le Guin was lauded by millions for her ground- breaking science fiction novels, but she began as a poet, and wrote across genres for her entire career. In this clarifying and sublime collection--completed shortly before her death in 2018--Le Guin is unflinching in the face of mor- tality, and full of wonder for the mysteries beyond. Redolent of the lush natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest, with rich sounds playfully echoing myth and nursery rhyme, Le Guin bookends a long, daring, and prolific career.

From "How it Seems to Me"

In the vast abyss before time, self is not, and soul commingles
with mist, and rock, and light. In time, soul brings the misty self to be.
Then slow time hardens self to stone while ever lightening the soul,
till soul can loose its hold of self . . .

Ursula K. Le Guin is the author of over sixty novels, short fiction works, translations, and volumes of poetry, including the acclaimed novels The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed. Her books continue to sell millions of copies worldwide. Le Guin died in 2018 in her home in Portland, Oregon.]]> 100 Ursula K. Le Guin 1556595387 Jennifer 0 to-read 4.18 2018 So Far So Good: Final Poems: 2014-2018
author: Ursula K. Le Guin
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Stories about Stories: Fantasy and the Remaking of Myth]]> 18118187 Stories about Stories examines fantasy as an arena in which different ways of understanding myth compete and new relationships with myth are worked out. The book offers a comprehensive history of the modern fantastic as well as an argument about its nature and importance. Specific chapters cover the origins of fantasy in the Romantic search for localized myths, fantasy versions of the Modernist turn toward the primitive, the post-Tolkienian exploration of world mythologies, post-colonial reactions to the exploitation of indigenous sacred narratives by Western writers, fantasies based in Christian belief alongside fundamentalist attempts to stamp out the form, and the emergence of ever-more sophisticated structures such as metafiction through which to explore mythic constructions of reality.]]> 256 Brian Attebery 0199316074 Jennifer 0 to-read 4.13 2013 Stories about Stories: Fantasy and the Remaking of Myth
author: Brian Attebery
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Sea and Medieval English Literature]]> 4991420 218 Sebastian I. Sobecki 1843841371 Jennifer 0 to-read 3.88 2007 The Sea and Medieval English Literature
author: Sebastian I. Sobecki
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA["There Would Always Be a Fairy-Tale": Essays on Tolkien's Middle-Earth]]> 33868206
From the pen of eminent Tolkien scholar Verlyn Flieger, the individual essays in this collection were written over a span of twenty years, each written to fit the parameters of a conference, an anthology, or both. They are revised slightly from their original versions to eliminate repetition and bring them up to date. Grouped loosely by theme, they present an unpatterned mosaic, depicting topics from myth to truth, from social manners to moral behavior, from textual history to the microparticles of Middle-earth.

Together these essays present a complete picture of a man as complicated as the books that bear his name¡ªan independent and unorthodox thinker who was both a believer and a doubter able to maintain conflicting ideas in tension, a teller of tales both romantic and bitter, hopeful and pessimistic, in equal parts tragic and comedic. A man whose work does not seek for right or wrong answers so much as a way to accommodate both; a man of antitheses.]]> 304 Verlyn Flieger 160635308X Jennifer 0 to-read 3.94 2017 "There Would Always Be a Fairy-Tale": Essays on Tolkien's Middle-Earth
author: Verlyn Flieger
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Truth of the Divine (Noumena, #2)]]> 56269171
Truth of the Divine is the latest alternate-history first-contact novel in the Noumena series from the instant New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times bestselling author Lindsay Ellis.

The human race is at a crossroads; we know that we are not alone, but details about the alien presence on Earth are still being withheld from the public. As the political climate grows more unstable, the world is forced to consider the ramifications of granting human rights to nonhuman persons. How do you define ¡°person¡± in the first place?

Cora Sabino not only serves as the full-time communication intermediary between the alien entity Ampersand and his government chaperones but also shares a mysterious bond with him that is both painful and intimate in ways neither of them could have anticipated. Despite this, Ampersand is still keen on keeping secrets, even from Cora, which backfires on them both when investigative journalist Kaveh Mazandarani, a close colleague of Cora¡¯s unscrupulous estranged father, witnesses far more of Ampersand¡¯s machinations than anyone was meant to see.

Since Cora has no choice but to trust Kaveh, the two must work together to prove to a fearful world that intelligent, conscious beings should be considered persons, no matter how horrifying, powerful, or malicious they may seem. Making this case is hard enough when the public doesn¡¯t know what it¡¯s dealing with¨Dand it will only become harder when a mysterious flash illuminates the sky, marking the arrival of an agent of chaos that will light an already-unstable world on fire.

With a voice completely her own, Lindsay Ellis deepens her realistic exploration of the reality of a planet faced with the presence of extraterrestrial intelligence, probing the essential questions of humanity and decency, and the boundaries of the human mind.

While asking the question of what constitutes a ¡°person,¡± Ellis also examines what makes a monster.]]> 496 Lindsay Ellis 1250274540 Jennifer 3 3.86 2021 Truth of the Divine (Noumena, #2)
author: Lindsay Ellis
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/14
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves:
review:

]]> Untamed Shore 75665917 In this dark coming-of-age noir, a "Patricia Highsmith-like tale of grifts and con artists" (Crime Time), a young woman becomes embroiled in a web of lies and deceit--with potentially deadly consequences--from the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic and Velvet Was the Night

"Untamed Shore is a fever dream of a thriller, a coming-of-age tale set amidst disturbing and dangerous circumstances."--Book Page

Baja California, 1979: Viridiana spends her days under the harsh sun, watching the fishermen pulling in their nets and the dead sharks piled beside the seashore. Her head is filled with dreams of romance, travel and of a future beyond this drab town where her only option is to marry and have children.

When a wealthy American writer arrives with his wife and brother-in-law, Viridiana jumps at the offer of a job as his assistant, and she's soon entangled in the glamorous foreigners' lives. They offer excitement, and perhaps an escape from her humdrum life. When one of them dies, eager to protect her new friends, Viridiana lies--but soon enough, someone's asking questions. It's not long before Viridiana has some of her own questions about the identities of her new acquaintances.

Sharks may be dangerous, but there are worse predators nearby, ready to devour a na?ve young woman unwittingly entangled in a web of deceit.]]> 308 Silvia Moreno-Garcia 0593600525 Jennifer 4 other-fiction 3.69 2020 Untamed Shore
author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/13
date added: 2024/09/13
shelves: other-fiction
review:

]]> Please Report Your Bug Here 60741772 ¡°An unexpected, inventive, heartfelt riff on the workplace novel¡ªstartup realism with a multiverse twist.¡± ¡ªAnna Wiener, author of Uncanny Valley

Introducing Josh Riedel's adrenaline-packed debut novel about a dating app employee who discovers a glitch that transports him to other worlds

Once you sign an NDA it's good for life. Meaning legally, I shouldn't tell you this story. But I have to.

A college grad with the six-figure debt to prove it, Ethan Block views San Francisco as the place to be. Yet his job at hot new dating app DateDate is a far cry from what he envisioned. Instead of making the world a better place, he reviews flagged photo queues, overworked and stressed out. But that's about to change.

Reeling from a breakup, Ethan decides to view his algorithmically matched soulmate on DateDate. He overrides the system and clicks on the profile. Then, he disappears. One minute, he¡¯s in a windowless office, and the next, he¡¯s in a field of endless grass, gasping for air. When Ethan snaps back to DateDate HQ, he¡¯s convinced a coding issue caused the blip. Except for anyone to believe him, he¡¯ll need evidence. As Ethan embarks on a wild goose chase, moving from dingy startup think tanks to Silicon Valley¡¯s dominant tech conglomerate, it becomes clear that there¡¯s more to DateDate than meets the eye. With the stakes rising, and a new world at risk, Ethan must choose who¡ªand what¡ªhe believes in.

Adventurous and hypertimely, Please Report Your Bug Here is an inventive millennial coming-of-age story, a dark exploration of the corruption now synonymous with Big Tech, and, above all, a testament to the power of human connection in our digital era.]]> 288 Josh Riedel 1250813794 Jennifer 4 sci-fi 2.94 2023 Please Report Your Bug Here
author: Josh Riedel
name: Jennifer
average rating: 2.94
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/11
date added: 2024/09/11
shelves: sci-fi
review:

]]> The Hacienda 57840571 Mexican Gothic meets Rebecca in this debut supernatural suspense novel, set in the aftermath of the Mexican War of Independence, about a remote house, a sinister haunting, and the woman pulled into their clutches...

In the overthrow of the Mexican government, Beatriz¡¯s father is executed and her home destroyed. When handsome Don Rodolfo Sol¨®rzano proposes, Beatriz ignores the rumors surrounding his first wife¡¯s sudden demise, choosing instead to seize the security his estate in the countryside provides. She will have her own home again, no matter the cost.

But Hacienda San Isidro is not the sanctuary she imagined.

When Rodolfo returns to work in the capital, visions and voices invade Beatriz¡¯s sleep. The weight of invisible eyes follows her every move. Rodolfo¡¯s sister, Juana, scoffs at Beatriz¡¯s fears¡ªbut why does she refuse to enter the house at night? Why does the cook burn copal incense at the edge of the kitchen and mark its doorway with strange symbols? What really happened to the first Do?a Sol¨®rzano?

Beatriz only knows two things for certain: Something is wrong with the hacienda. And no one there will help her.

Desperate for help, she clings to the young priest, Padre Andr¨¦s, as an ally. No ordinary priest, Andr¨¦s will have to rely on his skills as a witch to fight off the malevolent presence haunting the hacienda and protect the woman for whom he feels a powerful, forbidden attraction. But even he might not be enough to battle the darkness.

Far from a refuge, San Isidro may be Beatriz¡¯s doom.]]> 352 Isabel Ca?as Jennifer 4 horror 3.83 2022 The Hacienda
author: Isabel Ca?as
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/11
date added: 2024/09/11
shelves: horror
review:

]]> The Bog Wife 205673392 In this atmospheric Appalachian gothic, the Haddesley siblings of West Virginia must unearth long-buried secrets to carve out a future when the supernatural bargain entwining their fate with their ancestral land is suddenly ruptured

Since time immemorial, the Haddesley family has tended the cranberry bog. In exchange, the bog sustains them. The staunch seasons of their lives are governed by a strict covenant that is renewed each generation with the ritual sacrifice of their patriarch, and in return, the bog produces a ¡°bog-wife.¡± Brought to life from vegetation, this woman is meant to carry on the family line. But when the bog fails¡ªor refuses¡ªto honor the bargain, the Haddesleys, a group of discordant siblings still grieving the mother who mysteriously disappeared years earlier, face an unknown future.

Middle child Wenna, summoned back to the dilapidated family manor just as her marriage is collapsing, believes the Haddesleys must abandon their patrimony. Her siblings are not so easily persuaded. Eldest daughter Eda, de facto head of the household, seeks to salvage the compact by desecrating it. Younger son Percy retreats into the wilderness in a dangerous bid to summon his own bog-wife. And as youngest daughter Nora takes desperate measures to keep her warring siblings together, fledgling patriarch Charlie uncovers a disturbing secret that casts doubt over everything the family has ever believed about itself.

Brimming with aching loss and the universal struggle between honoring family commitments and the drive to strike out on one¡¯s own, The Bog Wife is a haunting invocation of the arcane power of the habits and habitats that bound us.]]> 336 Kay Chronister 1640096620 Jennifer 0 to-read 3.59 2024 The Bog Wife
author: Kay Chronister
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Girl 42481157
In Girl, Rebecca Goss considers the emotional and physical connections women make to the world around them. The poems interrogate and celebrate female identity and experience, and the dynamics of family and friendship. From a woman struck by lightning to a baby who understands shadows, Goss navigates the real and the imagined with equal flair. At the heart of the collection is a distinctive, sensual series of poems responding to the work of the artist Alison the result is a fearless exploration of the female body and female desire.]]> 80 Rebecca Goss 1784107239 Jennifer 4 poetry 4.11 2019 Girl
author: Rebecca Goss
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/28
date added: 2024/08/28
shelves: poetry
review:

]]> All The Young Men 52580373 304 Ruth Coker Burks 0802157246 Jennifer 0 to-read 4.47 2020 All The Young Men
author: Ruth Coker Burks
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Sarah Canary 21249985 319 Karen Joy Fowler 0575131373 Jennifer 0 to-read 3.38 1991 Sarah Canary
author: Karen Joy Fowler
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.38
book published: 1991
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The House on the Borderland 220937
Soon his more earthly home is no less terrible than his bizarre vision, as swine-like creatures boil from a cavern beneath the ground and besiege it. But a still greater horror will face the recluse - more inexorable, merciless and awful than any creature that can be fought or killed.

A classic of the first water - H. P. Lovecraft]]> 152 William Hope Hodgson 1426438281 Jennifer 3 horror 3.64 1908 The House on the Borderland
author: William Hope Hodgson
name: Jennifer
average rating: 3.64
book published: 1908
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/24
date added: 2024/08/24
shelves: horror
review:

]]> Victorian Color Picture Books 1182875 Hardback book. 184 Jonathan Cott 0877543984 Jennifer 4 art-books 4.19 Victorian Color Picture Books
author: Jonathan Cott
name: Jennifer
average rating: 4.19
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/23
date added: 2024/08/23
shelves: art-books
review:

]]>